Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (7 page)

The advantages of “going Clear” still loomed large for me. I
did not think of leaving Scientology, just going back to the friendlier atmosphere
of Birmingham, which I finally decided to do. My decision was accelerated by
continuing price rises.

In November 1976, the price of Scientology auditing and
training began to rocket. Until then auditing had been £6 an hour
(“co-auditing” between students was free). My Dianetics Course had cost £125.
Beginning in November 1976, the prices were to go up at the rate of 10 percent
a
month
, allegedly to improve staff pay and conditions
⁸
I did
not object to that goal, but I did object when the prices continued to go up
with each new month. The net effect was a yearly price increase of 314%. The
price rises were to continue for the next four years.

1.
   
Hubbard,
Scientology 08
, first edition, p.7.

2.
   
Hubbard Standard Dianetics Course packs A and B.

3.
   
Hubbard,
Technical Bulletins
, vol.12, first edition, p.322.

4.
   
BTB “Preclear Assessment Sheet”, 24 April 1969R, revised and reissued 8
September 1974; HCOB “Health Form, Use of - A Brief Description of Auditing”,
19 May 1969.

5.
   
BTB “Drills for Auditors - Dianetic Drills”, 9 October 1971R, revised 28
March 1974; HCOB “Drug Handling”, 15 July 1971; HCOB “Drug and Alcohol Cases
Prior Assessing”, 19 May 1969.

6.
   
HCOB “The Time-Track and Engram Running by Chains Bulletin 1”, 15 May
1963; HCOB “The Time-Track and Engram Running by Chains Bulletin 2”, 8 June
1963; BTB “Auditing CS-1 for Dianetics and Scientology”, 8 January 1971R,
revised and reissued 18 June 1974.

7.
   
Hubbard,
Scientology 08, pp.136-7.

8.
   
Hubbard, Executive Directive 284 International “The Solution to
Inflation”, 16 September 1976.

Chapter three

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must
be careful about what we pretend to be.”

—Kurt
Vonnegut, Jnr,
Mother Night

In September 1977, I started Art College, and did no more
Scientology courses for over two years. I did not question the “workability” of
Scientology, but had serious reservations about the increasingly high prices
and the incompetence of the organization. I simply could not understand how
Hubbard’s extensive research into administration had created such a bumbling
and autocratic bureaucracy which churned out inane advertising. BUY NOW! was a favorite
slogan. Although staff worked themselves to a frazzle, they seemed to achieve
very little. Then there were the little Hitlers who used their positions to
harass anyone who did not fit neatly into their picture of normality. But I was
puzzled rather than embittered.

With most Scientologists, I presumed that Hubbard was “off
the lines,” busily involved in “research.” The price increases and the failure
to attract throngs of new people had to be the fault of the caretaker
management. I waited for Hubbard’s return to management, while my girlfriend
and I ran a Scientology group one evening a week from our home.

We heard very little about the July 1977 FBI raids on the
Scientology “Guardian’s Offices” in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. I had virtually
no contact with the Guardian’s Office (“GO”). The GO was supposed to deal with
all attacks on Scientology, and to create a good public image. The GO was
established so that Scientology Orgs would not be distracted from providing
Scientology services. Public Relations and Legal were major functions of the
GO. If Scientology was sued, the GO would deal with it. Beyond that the
Guardian’s Office was meant to create socially useful programs such as Narconon
to help addicts come off drugs. The GO also campaigned against electric shock
treatment and psychiatric brain surgery, as well as for Freedom of Information
in Britain.

There was scant mention of the FBI raids in British
newspapers and the GO only commented on the subject when forced to do so by the
few reports which did emerge. After nearly two years, top Scientology officials
admitted to having taken documents from United States government offices. I was
uneasy about this, but was told government agencies had failed to release
information which should have been available via the Freedom of Information
Act. We were told nine GO staff members were being indicted for “theft of
photocopy paper.” It was argued that they had the right to the information they
had copied, but had made the mistake of using government photocopiers, thereby
stealing the paper.

I had not even heard of the raids when the new Executive
Director of the Manchester Org came to see me in 1979. He was a veteran Sea Org
member who had taken Manchester from the verge of collapse, and turned it into
a thriving Organization with 38 staff. He listened to my complaints and
reservations about the Church and, to my amazement, agreed with me totally. By
sheer force of personality he persuaded me to go back “on course.”

In 1978, Hubbard decided that people had been going “Clear”
on Dianetic auditing. The Scientology “Clearing Course,” given only by the few
senior Orgs since 1965, was no longer necessary to achieve the state of
“Clear.” Hubbard also said that some people had never had a Reactive Mind and
were “Natural Clears,” supposedly an extremely rare occurrence. The number of
Clears leapt from less than 7,000 to over 30,000 in two years [actually,
organizations were issued with blocks of numbers – there were not 30,000 practicing
Scientologists in the world, at that time] I was told I was a Natural Clear. In
fact, in order to be adjudged Clear, it was only necessary to reword one of the
Scientology dictionary definitions of “Clear” into a personal “realization.”

Now I could go almost immediately onto the mysterious
“Operating Thetan” (or OT) levels, where I would revive my dormant psychic abilities.
All I had to do was earn the money to pay for it, a process which took almost
three years.

In November 1979, I learned first-hand how relentlessly Sea
Org members work. The Manchester Org was at last moving from its crowded,
partially condemned offices into an imposing, five-story building on one of the
main streets. I was persuaded to help with its renovation. For four weeks, I
worked and slept in the empty building. I would work for 24 hours, then sleep
for eight. Because I had some experience I became the “Renovations In-Charge.”
In retrospect, the hours and the conditions were impossible. My workforce
consisted largely of tired and inexperienced staff members, who did a twelve
hour day before starting work on the building. Fortunately, a few non-staff
Scientologist carpenters, a decorator and an electrician volunteered their
help. We had to build partitions, completely rewire, put in doors, sand and
varnish floors, and decorate the whole place. It was a very large building.
Although we were not paid, there was no duress. We did the work willingly. The
whole project was undertaken at Scientology’s usual breakneck speed. A Sea Org
member had been sent to supervise the whole project. He had worked extensively
on the building of Saint Hill castle and described various short-cuts taken in
its construction. I was horrified, but often had to yield to his use of similar
shoddy methods to finish the job on time.

By September 1980, the price of Scientology services had
risen far beyond my reach. Auditing, which had been £6 an hour only four years
before, was now £100 an hour. The Dianetics Course I bought for £125 had been revised
slightly and re-named the “New Era Dianetics” (or NED)

Course, and by this time it cost £1,634. Many Scientologists
complained bitterly. In October 1980, a new list came out, and the prices had
been slashed. The cost of auditing was down to £40 an hour, and the NED Course
to £430. These prices still seemed excessive, but at least it was a step in the
right direction.

I returned to East Grinstead in May 1982, having handed over
about £2,000 for the levels up to OT 3. In March, “OT Eligibility” had been
introduced. I had to do a “Confessional” before starting the OT levels, to make
sure that I was “ethical.” Several “OTs” had apparently given the secret course
materials to newspapers in the United States and Holland.

In a Confessional, a list of questions is checked on the
E-meter. The questions are supposed to clear away any residual guilt about
earlier discreditable activities. Details of a transgression which “reads” on
the E-meter are given to the Auditor. If there is no “floating needle,” the Auditor
asks for “earlier similar” transgressions. This procedure is supposed to bring
relief to the Preclear and, especially in “OT Eligibility” Confessionals, to
root out any infiltrators or people who might later attack the organization.

I had only three and a half hours of auditing left in my
account for “OT Eligibility.” I was told I had to buy thirty-seven and a half
more auditing hours at an extra cost of about £2,400. I protested and the estimate
was reduced to 25 hours. I still refused, so, finally, my Confessionals were
started. There were a few embarrassing episodes, as my Auditor was a friend’s
wife. I had received Confessionals at Manchester a short time before and felt
the procedure was largely unnecessary. I certainly did not gain anything by it,
but I was glad that it took only the three-and-a-half hours I had on account.

At last I was allowed into the “Advanced Organization” (AO),
the Holy of Holies, prohibited to all but OTs. The AO course room was rather
scruffy, with peg-board partitions and decrepit furniture, but I did not mind.
At last I was here, among the gods.

Most of the Operating Thetan levels are “Solo-audited,”
which requires yet more training. On “Solo part 1” I had already learned how to
hold the two tin cans (electrodes) “solo,” separated by a piece of plastic, in
my left hand, while working the E-meter and keeping session notes with my
right. At Saint Hill I did “Solo Part 2”: a series of simple auditing
procedures which I “solo-audited.”

At last I was starting the OT levels! After nearly seven
years in Scientology I was going to discover the hidden secrets of myself. I
would be able to “exteriorize” from my body at will, read minds, change conditions
purely through my intention and so much more. I would perceive the truth
directly and at last be free of the need to speculate or to rely on belief. But
most of all, I would be able to help others to free themselves.

In the 1970s, the Church of Scientology became cagey about
the promised results of the OT levels. Nonetheless, references to the “End
Phenomena” of the OT levels were not hard to come by. The purported “End
Phenomenon” of OT 1 is: “Extroverts a being and brings about an awareness of
himself as a thetan in relation to others and the physical universe.”
¹

Section 1 of the OT Course was presented to me in a pink
cardboard folder. I was instructed not to read anything but the very next
“process.” I went back to my lodgings in East Grinstead, carrying the folder in
a locked bag, a compulsory precaution with all OT material). Shut away in my
auditing room, I opened the folder. The first OT 1 “process” consisted of
walking about counting people until you had a “win” (i.e. felt good). I
remember counting somewhere over 600 before deciding I must have failed to
notice the “win.” Back at my lodgings, the E-meter seemed to confirm my
suspicions.

All of the OT 1 processes are similar. I could not
understand the secrecy. No-one could hurt themselves doing this. But it was a
preparation for OT 2 and OT 3, after all.

The “End Phenomenon” of OT 2 is supposed to be the
“Rehabilitation of intention; ability to project intention.”
²
Even
the Course Supervisor admitted that the materials were confusing. OT 2 is an
extension of the “confidential” Grade 6 and the Clearing Course. Since “Dianetic”
and “Natural” Clear, few people had done these courses. I had to cross
reference to the earlier materials and watch Hubbard’s 20-year-old “Clearing
Course” films. These were very poor quality black and white and were barely
audible.

According to Hubbard, when an individual is caught up
between two opposed possibilities he becomes confused and incapable of decision
or action. Long ago, Thetans (spirits) were trapped, and “Implanted” with
contradictory suggestions while being tortured. These contradictions reduced
most Thetans to blank apathy. The Implant commands were very simple, and a
ready example is provided by Hamlet’s famous question “To be or not to be.” As
Implant commands the statement would be split into “To be” and “Not to be.”
Apparently Thetans who have been cowed into inaction in this way are more
susceptible to control, more malleable, being next to incapable of making up
their minds. Implants are the true foundation of the Reactive Mind.

The OT 2 materials consist of tens, perhaps hundreds, of
pages of such Implant commands in Hubbard’s writing, forming a wad over an inch
thick. My heart dropped at the thought of auditing my way through all of this.
It would take months.

Using the E-meter as a guide, the “Pre-OT” is supposed to
strip away the “charge” of these Implants. He is instructed to focus on particular
areas of his body, read off the next Implant command (which might be as simple
as the word “create”), to sense the shock that accompanies the Implant command,
and sometimes to “spot the light” which shone simultaneously with the shock.

OT 2 is actually a continuation of the Clearing Course.
Originally both were done ten times through. One of my friends did 600 hours of
auditing on OT 2 when it was first released in 1966. I was more fortunate. I spent
about three days on it and started to feel rotten. I had the suspicion that it
was doing precisely nothing. I began to wonder if I was really ready for OT 2.
Maybe I had skimped OT 1? Maybe I wasn’t really Clear? I did not question the
efficacy of the “Technology” itself.