Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (70 page)

Most of Hubbard’s thousands of followers regarded him as
more brilliant than Einstein, more enlightened than Buddha, and quite as capable
of miracles as Christ. Perhaps there was a more sinister motive underlying
Hubbard’s actions. Some Taoists believe that human beings can achieve
immortality by becoming the focus of worship; some Roman Emperors had a similar
belief. The deification of Hubbard seems to be taking place in the Scientology
Church throughout the world. Maybe he thought he was gathering up all of his
devotees’ shed body-thetans so that he could use them for magical purposes? (To
quote from his secret Affirmations again: “elemental spirits are my slaves”
²³
).
Given his fertile, and often juvenile, imagination, and an awareness of his
duplicity, it is hard to decide what Ron Hubbard really did believe.

Hubbard was a fabulist and a mesmerist, a spinner of tales,
and of spells. A charismatic figure who compelled the devotion of those around
him, despite his cruelties and eccentricities. Many who worked with him say he
was “compassionate.”
²⁴
On the
Apollo
he was seen working
remarkable hours on Preclear folders.
²⁵
He spent thousands of hours
lecturing and writing about Scientology.

He also masterminded, organized and directed a series of
crimes on an international scale, and escaped punishment completely. Unless his
belief in karma – carefully repackaged in Scientology – turns out to be true.

1.
   
Rocky Mountain News
, 20 February 1983

2.
   
(PDC), tape 16, 5 December 1952, transcript p.145.

3.
   
Science Good Bad and Bogus.

4.
   
HCOPL “Keeping Scientology Working”, 7 February 1965 - Technical
Bulletins, vol.6, p.4.

5.
   
Hubbard, “The Aims of Scientology”,
Scientology the Fundamentals of
Thought
, p.115.

6.
   
see 4.

7.
   
HCOB “The Anti-Social Personality, the Anti-Scientologist”, 27 September
1966 - Technical Bulletins, vol.6, p.177.

8.
   
Since publication of
A Piece of Blue Sky
, Bridge Publications has
issued a new set of Technical Bulletins running to 18 volumes (5 of which are
indices).

9.
   
Author’s interviews with Armstrong (who had charge of Hubbard’s personal
library) and John Sanborn (Hubbard’s publications director); see also
Dincalci’s Debrief. In the early 90s, the late, marvelous Professor Johannes
Aagard, scribbled the titles of the books on display in Hubbard’s office at St
Hill, noting that they were either pulp fiction or Crowley magick titles. He
pointed this out, to the alarm of the tour guide. The shelves were bare at a
later visit.

10.
 
Hubbard
lecture, “Study: Evaluation of Information”, 11 August 1964, transcript page
59.

11.
 
“Ron
the Writer”, issue 1.

12.
 
Freud,
Two Short Accounts of Psychoanalysis.

13.
 
Author’s
interview with John Sanborn.

14.
 
Science
of Survival
, vol.2, p.228.

15.
 
See
Sargant
Battle for the Mind
.

16.
 
“Adherents
to all forms of ideology can be made to agree that ‘benign monarchy’ is an
excellent form of government”, HCOB “Politics” 17 March 1969, Technical
Bulletins, vol.6, p.317.

17.
 
Hubbard,
“What’s Wrong with this Universe?”, Advance!, issue 44, pp.4ff.

18.
 
HCOB
“Alter-is and Degraded Beings”, 22 March 1967 (also issued as an HCOPL, 25
January 1981, issue V).

19.
 
see
7

20.
 
HCOB
“Robotism”, 10 May 1972, Technical Bulletins, vol.12, p.127.

21.
 
HCOB
“Confidential - Resistive Cases Former Therapy”, 23 September 1968.

22.
 
HCOB
“Pain and Sex” 26 August 1982.

23.
 
Read
in, CSC v. Armstrong, vol.13, pp.2056-7.

24.
 
“Many”
is an exaggeration on the author’s part - Neville Chamberlin and Hana Whitfield
used this expression of Hubbard.

25.
 
He
also took long holidays and spent long periods idle.

Chapter Forty-One

“But in an open Society, such as ours,
people can believe what they want to and band together and promulgate their
beliefs. If people believe that the earth is flat there is nothing to stop them
believing so, saying so and joining together to persuade others.”

—Mr.
Justice Latey
¹

Hubbard cast his net wide. Scientology has attracted people
from most social and intellectual backgrounds, from laborers to lawyers, and
from plumbers to university professors. Frederick L. Schuman, professor of
political science at Williams College, was an enthusiastic convert, and
publicly defended Dianetics in 1950, though he soon changed his tack and
distanced himself. There were psychologists working in the original
Foundations; in fact, the New York Foundation was started by psychologist Nancy
Rodenburg. Fritz Perls, founder of Gestalt therapy, defended Hubbard’s early
work
²
(though insisting that it needed scientific validation), and
briefly received Dianetic counseling.

British Member of Parliament William Hamling, and former Lieutenant-Governor
of Western Nigeria, Sir Chandos Hoskyns-Abrahall, have already been mentioned.
Two Danish MPs were Scientologists, at one time. Several NASA scientists have
belonged to the organization. Dr. J.L. Simmons, who lectured in sociology at
the Universities of Illinois and California, wrote an appendix to Roy Wallis’s
Road
to Total Freedom
sharply criticizing both the author’s approach and his
conclusions. At the time, Simmons was a convinced Scientologist; since leaving
Scientology he probably regrets aspects of his statement. Research physicist,
and former Stanford professor, Harold Puthoff, was also a member of the Church.
Puthoff, who holds several patents for laser developments, is best known for
his books on parapsychology co-written with Russell Targ. Ingo Swann, who was
the subject in some of Puthoff and Targs’ parapsychology experiments, was a
member of the Church for some years. His novel
Star Fire
was a
best-seller. Another Scientologist also achieved best-seller status with a
novel about reincarnation.

A group of Oxford graduates were long-term members. A number
of medical doctors, dentists and lawyers have been involved. Over the years
Scientology has also boasted the adherence of several celebrities. Virtuoso
jazz pianist Chick Corea, a member since 1968, is an OT, as is Stanley Clarke,
the highly influential jazz bass player. Clarke has left the organization, but
Corea remains in the fold. Eminent saxophonist, Lee Konitz and award-winning
trumpeter and composer, Mark Isham, were also members. The Incredible String
Band were Scientologists, and distributed Scientology literature at their gigs,
but have long since departed the movement. Actors John Travolta and Karen Black
are both Church members. Priscilla Presley has been involved for many years,
and Elvis’ daughter Lisa Marie is a Sea Org member. Tom Cruise is perhaps the
most outspoken follower. Van Morrison was associated with Scientology for a
short while, in the early 1980s. Leonard Cohen had a brief involvement. The novelist
William Burroughs went Clear in the 1960s, but later satirized the movement in
several novels. Scientology has also attracted many millionaires, and several
multi-millionaires.

Most cults have a single selling feature, and so tend to
appeal to a specific public. Scientology claims to be all things to all people,
a psychotherapy, a religion, twentieth century Buddhism, an educational system,
a drug rehabilitation therapy, a human rights and social reform movement, or a
set of business management techniques. It is spiritual, mental or material
according to the mind-set of the person being approached. Scientology front
groups appeal to different publics. Scientologists are drilled to quickly
isolate an individual’s concerns and tailor an approach which encourages
interest.

 The most contentious of these self-made characterizations
is that of religion. Whether Scientology is a “religion” is a matter of
definition. Because of the very broad nature of the definition of religion in
the United States, it has been established that Scientology is a religion in
the legal sense. However, in the United States religious status does not
automatically give an organization tax-exemption, which Scientology long failed
to achieve. Conversely, when tax exemption was achieved, that did not mean it
was a ‘religion’. In Australia, Scientology is also recognized as a religion,
though the court there added “Regardless of whether the members of the
applicant [the Church of Scientology] are gullible or misled or whether the
practices of Scientology are harmful or objectionable.” English law differs,
and accords with the dictionaries: a religion is committed to acts of worship.
Scientology has none, but claims to be a religion in the same sense as
Buddhism, without a deity or deities, and consequently without worship. Lord
Denning set a precedent in England, by agreeing that Scientology could indeed
be compared to Buddhism, which, because it has no act of worship, is not
legally a religion, but a philosophy or way of life.

Scientologists are willing to see their practice as psychotherapy
or as a religion, but few would acknowledge that it is a belief system. They
are convinced that it is a science, based upon Hubbard’s intense research. This
is simply untrue. In 36 years, Hubbard failed to produce a single piece of work
which meets acceptable scientific criteria.

The techniques of Scientology are loosely embedded in a
sometimes tortuous philosophy. At the core of this is a relatively simple
cosmology which starts with the first three “Factors of Scientology.”
³
These give Hubbard’s explanation of the origin of life:

1.
   
Before the
beginning was a Cause and the entire purpose of the Cause was the creation of
effect.

2.
   
In the beginning
and forever is the decision and the decision is TO BE.

3.
   
The first action
of beingness is to assume a viewpoint.

From this viewpoint the universe is perceived. The first
“Axiom” of Scientology is “Life is basically a static,”
⁴
which has
“no mass, no motion, no wavelength, no location in space or in time. It has the
ability to postulate and to perceive.”

The Life Static is most usually called a Thetan. The Thetan
is immortal and does not owe its origin to God. It is perpetually individual.
⁵
After the beginning, Thetans generated “points to view,” or “dimension points”
which caused space to come into existence. Thetans agreed that other Thetans’
dimension points existed, and that agreement brought about Reality. Reality,
indeed the entire universe, is an “agreed upon apparency,” and all matter,
energy, space and time (MEST) exists because Thetans agree it exists. But for
continued existence there has to be a lie (“alter-is-ness”) in the fabric of
these aspects of Reality, for if anything is seen exactly as it is (“as-ised”)
it will cease to exist.
⁶
Reality, to the Scientologist, is a
communal daydream.

Thetans are all-knowing beings, and became bored because
there were no surprises. Hubbard asserted that the single most important desire
in all beings is to have a “game.” To have a “game” it was necessary to “not
know” certain things, so certain perceptions were negated (“not-is-ed”). More
and more perception and knowledge had to be abandoned as time passed, and some
Thetans started the “game” of creating traps for other Thetans. Believing it
possible to harm others, Thetans learned contrition, and punished themselves
for their own “harmful” acts. An ongoing part of this self-imposed punishment
is dwindling perception.

One universe ended and another began, and there have been
many universes, each more solid and entrapping than the last. An essential part
of the game was the “conquest” of matter, energy, space and time by the life
force, Theta. In each universe Thetans have become more enmeshed into matter,
energy, space and time (MEST), to the point where many have identified themselves
totally with it, and consider themselves nothing but MEST. Thetans are by now
in a hypnoid state, having forgotten their quadrillions of years of existence
and their original godly power, barely capable of even leaving their bodies at
will.

Thetans nevertheless have the power of “postulate.” Whatever
they intend comes into being. Negative decisions and opinions, or “bad postulates,”
generate a negative destiny. For quadrillenia, thetans have been “implanting”
one another with hypnotic suggestions, and clustering other thetans together
(turning most into “body thetans”). Scientology seeks to undo
“other-determinism,” and return the Thetan to “self-determinism,” and
eventually to “pan-determinism” where he acts for the good of all.

Most of these ideas can be found elsewhere. “Before the
beginning was a Cause” is highly reminiscent of the central premise of the Tao
Te Ching. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna teaches Arjuna that he is immortal and
imperishable, that life is a game, and that in truth no harm can be done to
others, as they too are immortal and imperishable. The comparable word for
“thetan” is “atman.” The doctrine of reincarnation is common to several major
religions. That we reap as we have sown, or karma-vipaka, even more so. The
emphasis upon the development of Intention, or the ability to Postulate, in
Scientology comes straight from Crowley’s “Thelma” or Will, upon which most
magical systems concentrate.