"L. Ron Hubbard. Messiah or Madman ?" By Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard Junior, a.k.a. Ronald DeWolf

3. L. Ron and the Beast

Science fiction editor and author Sam Moscowitz tells of the occa-
sion when Hubbard spoke before the Eastern Science Fiction Associ-
ation in Newark, New Jersey in 1947:

Hubbard spoke...I don't recall his exact words; but, in effect, he
told us that writing science fiction for about a penny a word was no way
to make a living. If you really want to make a million, he said, the
quickest way is to start your own religion.

It sure worked for him. Being the commodore of one's own private
navy is not exactly the normal, run-of-the-mill hobby of aging science
fiction writers.
Decent, often intelligent but somewhat naive people, whose
dreams for a better world sometimes blinded them, were the income
producers for this new religion.
Hubbard found such people useful. Having good intentions them-
selves, they assumed he had the same.
Thousands paid the outrageous prices for the Scientology courses
and auditing. To give an idea of how much people are willing to pay in
today's money, here is an example of a price charged for auditing
taken from a recent official magazine from one of Hubbard's top or-
ganizations: Twelve and a half hour sections of a type of auditing
called "Lists 10, 11, and 12" are priced at $13,000.00 per section. In
other words, this auditing costs over $1000.00 per hour! And one
must buy a minimum of 25 hours!
One organization, the Flag Land Base - which became the senior
organization when the ships were sold in 197-was recently (late1985) reputedly taking in up to two million dollars a week, and
averaging a million. "Flag," operated on 10 percent of its income,
with the remainder going to accounts controlled by "upper manage-
ment."
According to accounts by Hubbard's former personal aides,
money - tens of millions originating from Europe for Flag services
were channelled into Hubbard's personal accounts.
And according to the findings of a Federal Court judge, the ships
were owned by a Panamanian corporation called Operation Transport
Corp. (OTC), a "for profit corporation." Some 82 percent of the
shares were owned by L. Ron Hubbard and his wife Mary Sue.
"Non-profit" Scientology organizations around the world were told
by the OTC that they owed untold millions for consulting services
and training of their executives. They attempted to pay these "bills"
as best they could, coming up with as much as 90 percent of their
weekly gross income in payments to OTC.
This was quite a setup. The Panamanian corporation was in a posi-
tion of having multi-millions in payments "owed" to it, while the
"non-profit" churches could never fully pay these bills, which just
kept mounting. They therefore had absolutely no profits to show the
IRS. On the contrary, they were awash in paper "debts" to OTC.
Hubbard had a lot going for him. He had a formula that enabled
him to run his own church for huge profits accruing to him. He could
write "scriptures" with a guaranteed market, getting for example
$20,000.00 for one "Technical Bulletin."
He had money rolling in from his special book publishing and dis-
tribution system, a system which netted him much more than mere
royalties.
And by 1977 he had an international intelligence operation of pro-
portions comparable to that of some fairly sizeable countries. This
kept him informed of the most intimate details of any and all organiza-
tions, governments and individuals who might try to spoil his game.

****

It is very easy for a person exposed to this information to jump to
the conclusion that all he was interested in was making lots of monthly.
Not so. Hubbard wanted much more than just money; he intended to
have personal power on a scale that only a few in history have ever
credibly aspired to.
In pursuit of this objective he was a man obsessed, generating an
energy that was, at times, seemingly superhuman.



 MAGIC

  One definition of magic is, "Total commitment to get, to achieve,
to win - with such totality that one's life itself becomes the ritual of
that commitment." (It has been noted that, when that commitment
"is malevolent, the magic is black.")
  For Hubbard, morality was a straitjacket worn by fools. Morality
was utilized only when it aided him in reaching his objective. (He
gave lip service to all sorts of noble humanitarian sentiments, but he
also visibly, especially from the mid-sixties on, gave vent to base
motives expressed in vindictive policies and writings.)
  His WILL was the supreme consideration.
  This philosophy has been described as "the ends justify the
means." This vaguely says it all, but it describes neither the intensity
nor the total commitment which appears to have driven him.
  His life was indeed a ritual of total commitment to the achievement
of power. Power concentrated exclusively under his control.
  Hubbard may have had this drive for power - this obsession - all
his life. But the point at which it burst into a raging passion was, ac-
cording to Ron Jr. sometime in his teens when Ron Hubbard and his
mother visited the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. From
that time on he was, more and more, able to support his obsession
with a detailed, well-developed philosophy.
  His mother was at the Library tracing back her family's genealogy,
while he was poking around trying to find something that interested
him. He did.
  It was a tiny volume called The Book of the Law. According to its
writer, Aleister Crowley, The Book was "dictated" to him in Cairo,
between noon and one P.M., on three successive days: April 8th, 9th,
and 10th, in the year 1904.
  The "author" called himself Aiwas, and claimed to be "a messenger
from the forces ruling this Earth at present." Aiwas, a spirit "pos-
sessing fantastic knowledge and powers," delivered the alleged dicta-
tion telepathically. This was Crowley's Bible, and perhaps the most
important book in the life of L. Ron Hubbard.
  The Book proclaims "The Law of Thelema."* This law consists of a
"simple code of conduct":

"DO WHAT THOU WILT."

Of *The Book* Crowley, towards the end of his life, wrote:
*Thelema is the Greek for "will."

    ...it is a sublime synthesis of all science and all ethics. It is 1,y
  virtue of this Book that Man may attain a degree of freedom hitherto
  never suspected to be possible, a spiritual development altogether be-
  yond anything hitherto known.

  Crowley's writings are impressively prolific. In his Magick in
Theory and Practice he states:

  THE WHOLE AND SOLE OBJECT OF ALL TRUE MAGICKAL THAININ
IS TO BECOME FREE FROM EVERY KIND OF LIMITATION.

  (Crowley added a "k" to the word magic to differentiate his subject
from that which had attracted "weaklings" and "dilettantes.")
  Adopting the same stated purpose for Scientology, as Crowley had
for his Magick, Hubbard says, in a 1952 taped Scientology lecture:

OUR WHOLE ACTIVITY TENDS TO MAKE AN INDIVIDUAL COMPLETELY
INDEPENDENT OF ANY LIMITATION....Old Aleister Crowley had
some interesting things to say about this. He wrote the Book of the
Law.

  In the same lecture series, Hubbard also states:

    The magical cults of the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th centuries in
  the Middle East were fascinating. The only modern work that has any-
  thing to do with them is a trifle wild in spots, but is a fascinating work
  in itself, and that's the work of Aleister Crowley - the late Aleister
  Crowley - my very good friend....He signs himself "the Beast,"
  mark of the Beast 666....

  Hubbard only mentioned the Crowley connection to his followers
during the loose-lipped days of the Philadelphia Doctorate Course
lectures in December of 1952. To my knowledge he never said a word
about it to anyone, other than his eldest son, after that time

****

  Francois Rabelais (c. 1495 - 1553) is not mentioned in The Book, but
the "Law of Thelema" actually derives from a book penned by him.
  Rabelais, a priest and graduate of the Sorbonne Seminary, in Paris,
wrote a book called Gargantua. It was written in the style of a farcical
adult fairy tale, since it contained ideas that were greatly at variance


to those of the Catholic Church of his day, ideas that could well have
been officially labelled heresy (with the resulting death penalty) had
they been seriously presented.
  Rabelais tells of "how the Thelemites were governed, and of their
manner of living":

    All their life was not spent in laws, statutes or rules, but according to
  their own free will and pleasure. They rose out of their beds when they
  thought good: They did eat, drink, lael, sleep when they had a mind
  to it and were disposed for it. Nollc did awake them, nolle did over to
  constrain them to eat, drink, nor any other thing; for so had Gargantuan
  established it. In all their rule, and strictest tie of their order, there
  was but this one clause to be observed.

DO WHAT THOU WILT.

    Because men that are free, well born, well bred, and conver-
  sant in honest companies have naturally an instinct and spur
  that prompteth them unto virtuous actions, and withdraws them
  from vice, which is called honor...(Emphasis added)

  So wrote Rabelais.
  Of course there is room for abuse of this injunction. What if "the
instinct and spur that prompteth to virtuous actions" is lacking? What
if one decides that one's "proper course" involves enslaving or over-
whelming others? What if the application of one's "will" results in the
denial of another's freedom? Such action would, by definition, be
"black. "
  When viewing the Commodore's ship Apollo, the law to be ad-
hered to was more like, "Do What Ron Wilt," the officers and crew
being subjected to the strictest of rigors, while Ron did as he pleased.
His will was supreme.
  Robert Heinlein, a one-time friend of' Hubbard's, suggested this
well in a recent novel. He referred to his followers as "L. Ronners"
and "Hubbardites." Some ex-Scientologists use the term "Ron-
droids." The stable dictum for his followers is his written or spoken
intention: "Do WHAT HON SAYS."

****

  Crowley's The Book of the Law adds a new and fiery twist to the
Law of Thelema as described by Rabelais.
  In the words of The Book":


    We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their
  misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of Kings: stamp down
  the wretched and the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law
  and the joy of the world.
    ...I am of the snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight, and stir the
  hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange
  drugs...They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self
  ...Be strong oh maIl! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture...
    ...the kings of the earth shall be kings forever: the slaves shall
  serve.
    Them that seek to entrap thee, to over throw the.e, them attack
  without pity or quarter; and destroy them utterly.
    I am unique and conucror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be
  they damned and dead! Amen.
    Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console
  not: I hate the consoled and the consoler!

  (According to Ron Jr., his father never sincerely felt remorse or
sympathy.)
  Did the young L. Ron Hubbard take special quote, when he read:

    ...in these runes ords and letters of The Book] are mysteries
  that no Beast [Crowley] shall devine [understand]. Let him not seek to
  try: But one coth after him...who shall discover the key to it all?
  (Emphasis and bracketed words added)

  According to Ron Jr. his father considered himself to be the one
"who came after"; that he was Crowley's successor; that he had taken
on the mantle of the "Great Beast. " He told him that Scientology ac-
tually began on December the 1st, 1947. This was the day Aleister
Crowley died.*

****

  Who was the "Great Beast" Who was Aleister rYasthe''C,reatBe Crowley?
  "THE WICKEDEST MAN IN THE WORLD..." was how the contem-
porary press described him. Raised by parents who belonged to a fun-
damentalist Christian sect, and who believed that everyone outside of
their particular group would be damned eternally in hell fire, he was

*Many people interpret The Book of the Lnlu and Crowley's overall
work in many ways. Here I am only attempting to illustrate what
appears to have been Hubbard's interpretation of The Book.



forbidden to read any book other the Bible until about the age of
twelve. And read it he did.
  In his teens he decided that he was none other than THE BEAST of
Revelations, and proclaimed himself as such. A shocking declaration,
especially in the Victorian Age.
  But Crowley was also an accomplished poet, chess master, painter,
master mountaineer and explorer. He also claimed to have mastered
Buddhism, Taoism, Yoga, and, most of all, magick.
  Yet he was also a regular user of cocaine, opium, peyote, and hash-
ish.
  At the age of forty-five he proclaimed himself a saint of the Gnostic
Church, becoming a "god" in his own temple, by which time he was
infamous in a number of countries, banned from some and forced to
leave others.
  His reputation for wild sex and drug orgies, which he combined
with the religious rites of his self-instituted order, was a major factor
in his difficulties with various governments.
  He established "The Abbey of Do What Thou Wilt" on the island of
Cefalu, Sicily, where he lived with a collection of mistresses, per-
forming sexual, narcotic, and occult experiments.
  It is perhaps co-incidental that Hubbard, in the late fifties, set up
his headquarters at Saint Hill Manor in England, less than half an
hour's drive from what had been Aleister Crowley's house in
Tunbridge Wells. (The house is now owned and occupied by the lead
drummer of Led Zeppelin's band - another reputed admirer of
Crowley. Certainly Crowley seems to have been popular with the
Beatles, who presented his image among a group of"people we like"
on their "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.)

 MAGICK AND DRUGS

  Was Hubbard's WILL reinforced by the Magick, in which drugs
played a major part2
  Could it be that Scientology's founder - publicly vehemently anti-
drug since the mid-1960s, and having written extensively since that
time on the harmful effects of drug use - was himself a heavy drug
user Was Ron Jr. telling the truth when he said that his father began
using drugs beginning in his teens, and continued at least until he
(Ron Jr.) left the organization in December, 1959?
  Comparing the harmful effects of alcohol with various drugs,


Hubbard wrote in the revered "first book" Dianetics, the Modern
Science of Mental Health):

    Opium is less harmful [than alcohol], marijuana is not only less phys-
  ically harmful but also better in the action of keeping a neurotic
  producing phenobarbital does not dull the senses nearly as much and
  produces less after effect...

    While few of his followers seem to be aware of the fact, in the same
  book he recommends the use of Benzedrine in certain cases to over-
  come the "reactive mind."
    Amusingly enough, he states in a policy letter, "Keeping
  Scientology Working": "We will not speculate here on...how I
  came to rise above the bank."'

  Ron JR.:

I need not speculate, I know!

    I remember in 1952 in Philadelphia, while he, was taking a needle in
  the arm, containing cocaine. He grinned at me, winked wryly and said,
  "Shades of Sherlock Holmes"!
    Dad gave a lot of his lectures on cocaine or stimulants of one kind or
  another. He could really get brilliant on the stuff.

  Hubbard's friend and "magick partner" of the late forties was a
chemist named Jack Parsons. Parsons was the head of Crowley's Or-
ganization, the "Ordo Templi Orientis" in California. He scribed this
verse which was printed in the February 21st, 1943 issue of the
Oriflumuze, Journal of the O.T.O.:

    I hight Don Quixote, I live on peyote, Marijuana,
    morphine and cocaine,
    I never know sadness, but only a madness,
    That burns in the heart and the brain.
    I see. each charwoman, ecstatic, illhurnan, angelic, demonic, divine.
    Each wagon a dragon, each beer mug a flagon
    That brims with ambrosial wine.

  Hubbard mentions Jack Parsons in the "Professional Auditor's Bul-
letin" of 15 April 1957:

*"Bank" = "reactive mind." It is similar to the "unconscious mind" that so
fascinated Freud.


    Now I have been very fortunate in my life to know (llite a few real
  genillsc.s-fellows that really wrote their name tilly large in the world
  of literature and science....One chap by the way, who gave us solid
  fuel rockets and assist take-off for airplanes too heavily loaded on air-
  craft carriers, and all the rest of this rocketry parlorulna, and who
  formed Aerojet in California and so on. The late Jack Parsons...

  According to Ron Jr. his father used drugs and self-hypnosis in or-
der to beef up his WILL:

    For years he used ev(tn in the thirties-sound scribers. I think you
  would call it that....The original dictaphones, and IBM had one tot,
  ..., And he would read these what he called the "Affirmations"
  into, the dictaphone. This is when they were non-erasable. You know,
  the old Edison with the wax cylinder.
    He would write 'these up, or he'd take quotes from the Book of the
  Law, and other places; then he'd take whatever he had in the way of
  drugs and play 'em back. Usually he used headphones.

  Hardly anyone believed Ron Jr. when he told this story; but the
"Affirmations," in their original hand-written version, were brought
into evidence in open court in Los Angeles in mid-1984, and are part
of the court record.
  One of these "Amrmations" is: "All men shall be my slaves! All
women shall succumb to my charms! All mankind shall grovel at my
feet and not know why!"
  Ron Jr. states in a sworn affidavit:

    I have personal knowledge that my father regularly used illegal
  drugs including amphetamines, barbiturates and hallucinogens. He
  regularly used cocaine, peyote, and mescaline.*

  According to statements made by attorney Michael Flynn,
Hubbard, until at least February of 1980, filled out fraudulent "doc-
tor's" prescriptions for a large array of medical drugs for himself.
  And while the Church has sued attorney Michael Flynn more than
a dozen times based on various accusations including libel (all of
which suits have been dismissed to date), they have never mentioned

*Hubbard recommends as a "good book" Aldous Huxley's Doors of Perception in his
"Operational Bulletin no. 17" of Feb '56. This work of Huxley's deals with his
experiences while experimenting with mescaline.


Flynn's allegations regarding Hubbard's "illegal self-medication" in
any of these suits.
  Other statements to the effect of massive self-medication are by
Gerry Armstrong (who was a witness to Hubbard's diary and other
documents), Sara Northrup Hubbard, and John McMaster, all of.
whom I interviewed.
  Sara Hubbard explained that Hubbard was "self-medicated," but
that during the five years they were married, she knew of no in-
stances when he used "street drugs."
  Armstrong, told me, among other things, of a letter from Hubbard
to his third wife Mary Sue when Hubbard was in Las Palmas during
1967 at the inception of the Sea Org. This letter is now in the custody
of the court. In it Hubbard tells his wife: "I'm drinking lots of rum
and popping pinks and greys."h
  John McMasters told me that on the flagship Apollo in the late six-
ties, he witnessed Hubbard's drug supply. "It was the largest drug
chest I had ever seen. He had everything!"
  It was shown in the Armstrong trial in Los Angeles in 1984 that
Hubbard even had blank prescription slips from the U.S. Navy, one of
which had a prescription for phenobarbital (a barbiturate and hyp-
notic) written in Hubbard's handwriting.
  Also, in the Armstrong trial where the "Affirmations" were intro-
duced, a letter by Hubbard to his first wife was revealed, the last sen-
tence of which declared: "I do love you, even if I used to be an opium
addict. "

****

  If Hubbard was indeed a "druggie," his followers are not. While
many Scientologists appear to be nicotine and caffeine addicts, that is
as far as it goes.
  Scientologists do not use drugs. And there is even a Scientology
anti-drug program-Narconon7 - originally established by an inmate
of Arizona State Prison named William Benitez. It has been quite suc-
cessful at times in getting people off drugs.

*I'm told that "uppers and downers" are sometimes referred to as "pinks and
greys."


  In this context, Ron Jr.'s statement that his father "was not a
Scientologist," as startling as it may seem to some, begins to make
some sense:

    He was not a Scientologist, and even said so publicly on several oc-
  casions, but people would just slide over it.
    For example, the wise and humanitarian sentiments expressed in his
  writings and lectures had nothing to (to with him or how he conducted
  his affairs. His private life was the antithesis of what he wanted his
  public image to be. He hardly ever took his own advice.

  It is possible, however, that Hubbard did follow the advice he gave
during a Philadelphia Doctorate Course lecture in December of
1952,** when he said:

    You should be able to drink as much as you want, abuse the body in
  any way you want.

  In the same lecture series Hubbard said:

    Just because I did something like Scientology people think I'm sup-
  posed to he perfectly controlled, and a perfect gentleman. That's a
  non-sequitur.

  Hubbard had a habit of describing himself while pretending to be
describing another. This, perhaps, was the case in the following dis-
sertation excerpted from one of his taped lectures. If so, it is re-
vealing:

    Looking down the line at the spirit of men of great and murderous
  deeds...and you'll find out they're strange boys; very strange boys.
  They just never, never kind of nailed down in there right place, and did
  just exactly the right things. You look in vain for the old school tie.

*Of course, from the mid-sixties onward what may have been the "real Hubbard"
began to show up, to some extent, in such things as the "Fair Game Law" and
sadistic "ethics." But such vindictive or destructive sentiments were kept very
"low profile."
**"My father was high during most of these lectures," claims Ron Jr. "and he
was, on occasion, very frank, revealing his true feelings." Not spotting this
material in time to edit it out before it became widely circulated was a major
blunder by
the Church.


56

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    There was a great old fellow in China named Wang the Innovator.
  And Wang the Innovator practically turned China upside down and
  right side up again, and upside down, and left it that way. Rut he or-
  ganized a lot of systems...he laid down the laws that are going to be
  this way and that way. He laid them all down very nicely and he had
  them all patterned out very beautifully. But he himself didn't kind of
  follow this. He was a wild man. Nobody could ride up along side of
  him. He had more women than he could count.

  It is of particular interest to note that he equates men of great
deeds with men of murderous deeds: "...men of great and murder-
ous deeds..."


4. "Mankind's Only Hope"

    "Your next endless trillions of years and the whole agonized future
  of every man, woman, and child on this planet depend on what you do
  here and now, with and in Scientology."
- L. RON HUBBARD

  The following story, which occurred during the first year of the
Apollo's voyage, is one of adventure and exploited idealism. This is a
brief glimpse of the story of Hana (Eltringham) Whitfield, a young
woman who had worked with Hubbard closely and loyally for many
years.
  Her story is representative of thousands of others, during the his-
tory of Scientology. She became a zealot for Hubbard's cause: a stoic
true believer. Long-time friendships, and even deep love, were dis-
carded when these conflicted with Command Intention..

****

  In Rhodesia in the late fifties, Hana (tall, with f:dir skin, dark hair
and soft features) was in her late teens when she read one of` her
mother's books by Madame Blavatsky. The author, somewhere in its
pages, prophesied that in 1950 a fair-complexioned man in the West
would begin a movement that would lead the planet to enlighten-
ment.
  This story appealed greatly to Hana's sense of romance. She
dreamed of playing a part in making a world where peace and happi-
ness was a reality. And where awareness of spiritual phenomena was
the rule rather than the exception.
  When she came across Scientology in March of 1965, she felt that


she had discovered the man of whom Madame Blavatsky had spoken.
After studying to become an auditor in Johannesburg, she decided
she would give this man her full devotion, and travelled to England to
attend the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, which was then con-
ducted personally by Hubbard.
  She was very impressed by Hubbard when she first saw him. He
appeared serene, confident, beneficent, and very, very wise.
  For many months she studied under him and his wife Mary Sue;
she spent long days immersed in his teachings.
  She drilled, for example, the exact series of questions that consti-
tuted certain "processes," while facing a large plastic doll.
  The doll served as a substitute for an actual person being there to
receive the questions. The questions used were considered very pow-
erful and, if directed at a live person, would stir up subconscious
emotions and "forces" or "charge" that could cause considerable dis-
comfort, unless "audited" expertly.
  She aimed her questions right at the center of the doll's head. Each
word was clearly enunciated, and delivered with just the right
amount of intention.
  Hana was assisted by a "coach" who would answer for the doll and
assist her through the drill. In this case it was a "problems process. "
  She would soon be running this process on a real "preclear," having
first enquired as to the people, past and present, in the person's life.
She would be looking for "charged terminals," i.e., people the person
was upset about (or had "charge" on); the idea being to free up the
person from any worry, fixation, or compulsive "figure-figure" on any
person or thing.
  Based on the reaction of the preclear, and the E-meter, she would
select the most "charged" terminal and run the process on it.
  While drilling the process, fruits instead of real people are used,
however.

    Hana: "Invent a problem that is of comparable magnitude to an ap-
 ple."
   Coach: "Ah....having a banana on my desk."
   Hana: "Good. How could that be a problem to you?"
   Coach: "It might be too ripe and attracting a lot of fruit flies."
   Hana: "O.K. Can you conceive of yourself figuring on that?"
   Coach: "Mmmm....yes."
   Hana: "Fine. Invent a problem that is of comparable magnitude to
  an apple....



  The same question is asked over and over, usually until the
preclear has a "cognition" or realization regarding the area of address.
  Hana was fascinated by the hundreds of processes and impressed
by their effectiveness.
  Listening to Ron's lectures, and reading his many books, was
stimulating. Ron had a great sense of humour and he answered com-
plex questions on life and human behaviour in a clear, easy-to-
understand manner. She also appreciated the obligatory constant ref-
erence to dictionaries, to ensure she understood the exact meanings
of the words used.
  After graduating from the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, Hana
joined staff: Then in August of 1967 she was on a mission to assist the
Los Angeles Organization when she received a special confidential in-
vitation, on behalf of Hubbard, inviting her to join the newly formed
Sea Project.

  HANA ELTRINGHAM :

    I joined the ship in Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands in the Atlantic
  Ocean off the coast of North Africa.
    The Avon River was already there up on these stilts, being reno-
  vated.
    LRH had a villa on the island about six or seven miles from the har-
  bor and he would come to the ship every afternoon and stay, some-
  times until quite late, supervising the refit and talking to the crew.
    There was a side to him that, around, this time, I was just becoming
  aware of: the furious screaming - just an amazing outrage that would
  pour out of him at something that was going wrong.
    There was one time when he came walking down from outside
  through the great big wooden fence that blocked off the beach from the
  street. It was quite a stretch of beach, maybe a 340 yard stretch
  down to the water. And the ship was up on this great big wooden trellis
  work.
    Even as he was halfway down the beach, I was standing with my
  clipboard up, because I was the Master at Arms at the time, and I was
  responsible for making sure everything was going right. And I'd be in
  absolute fear by the time he was due to come on board, in case he
  found something that I had missed.
    So I was there and I was watching him, and halfway down that beach
  he knew something was wrong, and I could see his face start to contort
  and get red.
    And I'd start to go, "Oh my God! What have I missed now!"


    He started bellowing. His face got this cherry red; all screwed up,
  and he was just bellowing at the top of his lungs.
    He was screaming and shouting at full volume. You could hear that
  voice everywhere.
    And he came marching down towards the gangplank. Still scream-
  ing and now pointing up to the side of the ship where the Spanish
  workmen were painting the white paint over the red anti-rust coat.
  The top coat was being applied over the entire hull of the ship, from
  the deck all the way down to the bottom of the ship.
    He was screaming and gesticulating and pointing up at us. I didn't
  know what was wrong. I mean the painters had been doing it most of
  the afternoon before he appeared on the scene. And when I looked
  down at the side of the ship I could see nothing wrong.
    By this time people were stopping their work and looking; fearful,
  wondering what all this was about - even the workmen.
    Then, through his screaming, I heard him say, "Look at the paint!
  Look at the paint!"
    I put my head over the side of the ship and looked along the hull at
  the paint. And then I saw it! It looked like the paint was growing hun-
  dreds and hundreds of hairs! The white coat of paint was actually furry.
    I later discovered that the rollers the workmen were using were of
  an inferior quality. As they were rolling, some fibers were coming off
  the rollers and sticking to the paint, making the ship look like it was
  growing hair.
    Halfway down the beach he knew something was wrong. Now I
  have never forgotten that, and I have never gotten over the fact that
  from that distance - 25 or 30 yards away, he could see what was going
  on.
    At times he could be extremely perceptive - astonishingly she
  could also be totally irrational: quite out of it and crazy.
    The negatives and abuses that seem so outrageous to me now, were
  then less than dim shadows. It was just justified away....
    In these early days of the Sea Project I felt emotions that you only
  find in fiction. It was one of those things: here we are braving the seas
  with this amazing man, you know. It had a kind of mystique that you
  just don't get in everyday life - the romance and adventure - it was all
  unbelievably exciting!

  John O'Keefe, another dedicated Sea Org member, and Hana
Eltringham were deeply in love and had been so for some time.
  As she tells it:

    The whole thing just built up so much more through all this adven-
  ture. We were very close.



  Hubbard sent John O'Keefe off to pick up the Avon River (soon to
be renamed the Athena), and to captain her to an appointed destina-
tion.

  HANA :

    Now LRH said that John's orders were to leave Gibraltar and sail
  due East and join us in Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia.
    John swore that those orders were not what he received from LRH.
  John said that his orders were to sail northeast and to join the ship up
  in Monaco.
    So John took the ship out of Gibraltar and sailed northeast. Aboard
  the Avon River, with John there was only a skeleton crew: a dozen to
  15 or so, at most.
    They all noticed the huge black clouds on the horizon uld a storm
  building as they were approaching the Balearic islands.
    None of the crew, however (having never before been in the Medi-
  terranean), would have been aware that this area, North of the Balearic
  islands, is a storm center in the Med. That's where a lot of the hurri-
  canes in this area are actually born.
    They rode straight into a hurricane. It was one of the worst this area
  had had for some 15 years. There were something like 17 ships lost.
    And this little tub called the Avon River sailed slap bang into it.
  They were caught in that storm for about three days. They were barely
  making headway.
    There were forty-foot waves and this little ship just staggering up
  through all this. They couldn't see through the screaming of the wind
  and all the foam and spray that was being thrown by the wind across the
  tops of the waves.
    There is nothing you can see when you are out there in that kind of'
  storm. I mean you are blind. All you know is that the ship is going up
  the next wave and you know its going down into the trough and you've
  got to keep the ship headed right into the waves, otherwise it will turn
  over.
    Now, throughout that, at one point the hydraulic steering on the
  bridge broke! (meaning essentially that the power steering broke). The
  wheel on the bridge was connected with lines down into the motors
  and the pumps and those lines were filled with oil so that they could
  maneuver the rudder. And those were the lines that broke.
    There was steering oil all over the place; on the bridge and else-
  where.
    So they had to connect up the emergency steering in the aft in order
  to keep the ship headed into the waves. They had some people back aft
  steering and some on the bridge, connected by walkie-talkies.
    The crew didn't sleep for two and a half` to three days. They couldn't

  eat. There was no way they could cook in the galley with this motion
  going on. People were being sick all over the place.
    It is absolutely a wonder that that ship came through that!
    Now, John saw, at one point, that they must have been getting
  somehow close to Ibiza. He happened to see that they were close to an
  island on the radar. They would come up the crest of a wave and he
  could "see" the island by a brief blip on the radar. He would "see" the
  blip of it on the radar and as they went down into the trough they
  would of course not be able to see anything.
    Rut John was very very clever. He managed somehow to get the
  ship out. He said the waves had lengthened in distance so they must
  have been getting out towards the edge of the storm. And he managed
  to get the ship close enough between the waves to the islands so that,
  at one strategic point, they were able to veer sharply to starboard and
  get into the lee of the land, before the next wave hit.
    So some two to three days after the Apollo got down to Cagliari we
  got the message from John that he was in Ibiza and that the ship was
  safe:
    "We're all OK, managed to get to port safely, the ship is safe, the
  crew are safe, we have lost two lifeboats and external refrigerator, the
  windows up on the bridge are badly damaged, one of the antennas is
  damaged."
    He had, I think, sent a wire to Monaco to ask if the Apollo was there
  and received a reply that she had sailed to Cagliari, so he sent his
  message there to the Port Captain's office.
    LRH got the message and went berserk!
    The ship was not supposed to be anywhere near Ibiza, according to
  LRH, it was supposed to be on its way directly to Cagliari.
    He sent a communication back, and a few other communications en-
  sued and then John had orders to sail for Cagliari.
    About a day and a half later they arrived in Cagliari. And by this
  time the Old Man* had postmortemed the situation sufficiently to
  arrive at his own conclusions.
    By the time John arrived with the ship in Cagliari, I had already
  heard LRH say that John must have been on drugs when he left the
  ship in Ibiza to go to Gibraltar because he "had consistently
  misduplicated the orders."

  I asked Hana how she felt about the idea that Hubbard, not John
O'Keefe, may have been the one on drugs. She answered, "Now in
retrospect, I think that's a very good possibility."

*At this time Hubbard still allowed the affectionate title "Old Man" to be
used.

"*Mankind's Only Hope*"

****

HANA :

The Avon River "limped" into Cagliari. It looked filthy. It looked
like it had been through a storm.
LRH had messengers running backwards and forwards between the
two ships.
In Cagliari LRH demoted John from captain to third engineer and
put somebody else in charge of the ship. When she arrived in the mid-
dle of the day or in the early afternoon, messenger runs were going
back and forth between LRH and John, getting whatever LRH wanted
to know.
The Avon River's new captain was given orders to sail immediately
to Valencia, Spain.
LRH was' unwilling to accept somebody's suggestion that they at
least be allowed to rest overnight. He said, "No, they don't deserve it.
That ship is in disgrace. They are all equally responsible." And he or-
dered them to turn right around and go straight back.
Those people were exhausted and you could see it. They had come
through a major hurricane, sailed all the way to Cagliari. Just arrived,
they barely had time to take on a few provisions and fuel up and here
come the orders to sail again, for some three days, to Valencia!
I barely had time to see John. I was very shook up about the whole
deal and about how he looked. Those black rings under his eyes
haunted me. He'd lost weight - it looked like some 10 to 15 pounds.
They all looked that way.
And then the next day we on the Apollo ended our cycles in Cagliari
and sailed for Valencia.
By the time we got there the Avon River was already in Valencia.
That was when LRH convened a Committee of Evidence on John.
Without my being aware of it he appointed me as the chairman.
He was aware that we were lovers and when the messenger. brought
him the printed page announcing the Committee of Evidence I was
standing next to him.
He turned around with this half smile on his face and he said,
"Poetic justice, isn't it!"
And I took a look at the Committee announcement and saw my
name on it as the chairman. It had all the charges there against John:
"Dereliction of duty, non-compliance with orders," etc., one after the
other...every charge in the book.
It grabbed me in the gut. I was to sit in judgment on the man I
loved.
I would no more have thought of questioning LRH...I didn't
dream of questioning him! He had a way about him. He would get mad

and he'd be furious, and he'd vent that fury in all directions. And as
that phase passed - it would take half an hour to an hour - and as he
started to get "answers" (either his own answers or answers that were
brought to him by messengers or whatever) he would come out of that
anger and get into this enthusiastic vengefulness.
He would be smiling and, by God, he would be out to get someone.
He would be so proud of himself for having gotten as far with this thing
as he had gotten. And then, gradually over the next day or so, he
would calm down.

I knew I had to find John guilty. Absolutely!
There was no way out, even though he had not taken drugs as LRH
had accused him.
So since LRH said it was so, it was true! Also, since this was already
in the bill of particulars of the Committee of Evidence, put there by
Ron, it didn't even occur to any of us to question it.
LRH was the guy who had the answers to save Mankind. John was
merely the man I loved. I looked at it from the standpoint of "the
greatest good for the greatest number." That's how I looked.at it, even
though I cared for him deeply.
We wrote up our findings saying, "guilty," even though he said he
wasn't guilty.
Deep down I knew it was very unfair because 1 knew the worth of
the man. I knew that John had pulled off something pretty damned
fantastic. My God, with 17 ships that went down in one of the worst
hurricanes that they'd had in the area for 15 years. And the little Avon
River had come through it with a little amateur crew on board!
And the captain, the person directing the others in this emergency,
and saving the ship, was a guy on drugs?
Can you imagine if those people had all been lost! And since they
were so untrained, what the hell was LRH even doing sending them
out to sea?
We found John guilty and upheld his assignment to a condition of'
treason.
I now firmly believe that I was selected as chairman of the
committee because LRH wanted me to break up with John. This fact
completely escaped me at that time.
John claimed he had received verbal orders from LRH to sail past
Itiza to Monaco.
LRH said that, in effect, this was all a delusion of John's. After all,
"He was on drugs."
So John finally left the Sea Org.
There were moments where I wondered if I had made the right de-

cision, to let John go and not go with him, but they were so brief, even
though coming from the heart. Because the greater glory of the Sea
Org and the greater mission that we were on just swept those little
doubts away so quickly - so quickly.
Almost anything was excusable as far as we were concerned, be-
cause of what we had to achieve. The mission that we were on was so
huge that a bit of violence here, a bit of injustice here and a
"crucifiction" or two there, was taken for granted.
The breakup of our relationship was taken for granted. These things
had to happen - because we had to move so fast, so rapidly, over such a
great distance that you might have to bend or break someone and
something in order to get there. Above all, we had to get there! Any-
thing else was swept away to make room for that greater purpose. This
was the over-riding consideration.

****

Bob Ross, who introduced Dianetics into Israel in 1951, was per-
haps very much on the mark when, after reading this account, he
stated: "It reminds me of S.S. Nazi training where boys are given two
dogs to train and live with for a year; at which point they ate ordered
to kill their dogs."

5. The Liability Cruise and Other Adventures

Throughout the 1950's Hubbard talked a great deal about the
"spirit of play," the importance of having a "light heart," of how pun-
ishment did not work. He spoke of how groups were composed of in-
dividuals, and of the importance of individual freedom. Scientologists
to this day read these words and sigh at the wisdom of it all. At the
same time they nod their heads agreeably over sentiments by
Hubbard - originated mainly from the mid - sixties on - which reflect
the opposite viewpoint. Making one's peace with blatant contradic-
tions in the writings of one's beloved Founder is just one small aspect
of what it takes to be a happy, well-adjusted Scientologist.
Hubbard Communications office Bulletin of 7 February 1965,
"Keeping Scientology Working":

If they're going to quit let them quit fast. If they're enrolled, they're
aboard, they're here on the same terms as the rest of us - win or die in
the attempt. Never let them be half minded about being
Scientologists. The finest organizations in history have been tough,
dedicated organizations. Not one namby-pamby bunch of panty-waist
dilettantes have ever made any thing. It's a tough universe. The social
veneer makes it seem mild. But only the tigers survive - and even they
have a hard time.
This is a deadly serious activity. And if we miss getting out of the
trap now, we may never again have another chance.
When Miss Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering

doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare and she'll win and we'll
all win. Humor her and we all die a little.

Also in a serious vein, Hubbard claimed to have isolated the enemy
of Scientology in 1967. The enemy, he declared, consisted of one
small group that had "hammered at Scientology since 1950." He
claimed to have isolated a "dozen men at the top," and the organiza-
tion they used, and all its connections around the world. "They're as
red as paint," he said. "Psychiatry" and "mental health" was chosen as
a vehicle to undermine the West! And we stood in their way."

****

In the months that followed the departure of her lover, John
O'Keefe, Hana found herself becoming a favorite of Hubbard's, who
promoted her to high positions of responsibility. And she was falling
even more under his spell.

HANA ELTRINGHAM :

We were en route from La Ghoulette (the outer Tunis harbor) back
to Valencia, Spain, having ended the "Mission Into Time" project.
R [as Hubbard was sometimes called, mainly for "security reasons"]
called me into his office and told me I was henceforth the Captain. Joe
Van Staden would be vacating that position, as he was being sent on a
mission.
I said "O.K." or something, left the office...and freaked!
This lifetime I had not had any sea experience, even with small
boats. And my sole experience was on the Avon River (Athena about
five months, with none of that in a command position.
I must have sat down at my desk in the 'tween decks, as the next
thing I recall is H beckoning me from the door leading into his office.
R had his E-meter in his hand and with the other hand gave me the
two cans and told me to hold them.
With no preamble he set up the meter, the two of us standing in the
doorway leading from the 'tween decks into his office.
"When were you last a Captain" he asked me.
I gave him one experience (from a past life) and he acknowledged
me.
He asked me to go earlier and find another similar incident. I did so.
I got a pretty major incident and related it to him, while he was nod-
ding his head enthusiastically and encouraging me on and on.

That must have been what he was looking for, I guess....
"Are you a Loyal Officer?"* he then asked me.
That question threw me. I exhilarated on it, and at the same time I
felt confused.
R let that go and just sent me on my way.
About fifteen minutes later he came out of his cabin to where I was
on the deck.
He peered closely at me - into my eyes.
I smiled at him and told him that all was O.K.
"That last question really indicated," I told him, "although I really
haven't put all the pieces of the puzzle together."
He patted me on the back really affectionately.
"That's my girl!" he said, beaming. "You'll be finding out more
about that quite soon."
At that,.he turned and walked back into his office

THE LIABILITY CRUISE

Valencia, on the south coast of Spain, 1968.

ELENA LORREL :

While we were off on the "Mission Into Time" project, the Apollo
was left in Port in Valencia, Spain. Among the officers, who included
Mary Sue [Hubbard's wife there were none who knew enough naviga-
tion to move the ship.
Even the person who was the captain at the time didn't know how to
move it, so it had been moored at a single berth for about two months.
One day the Port Captain's office asked them to move it.
So the captain, in order to cover his ass, went ashore and exploded
at the Port Captain. He pulled a real Krushchev type incident, almost
like beating his shoe on the table, and they ended up getting kicked
out. And we "lost Spain"** as a result of that.
This entire mess caused us to have to end our "Mission Into Time"
early. We were in the middle of some digs in Carthage and we were
not able to complete them as a result of this situation. So we went
storming back to Valencia, to salvage the Apollo's crew!

*Not having done the level of Operating Thetan III yet, Hana would not have
been
aware of what Hubbard was talking about. The full significance of Hubbard's
question will become apparent to the reader in Chapter 13 of the second part of
this book, entitled "The Wall of Fire."
**Hubbard "wanted a country," a place where he was safe and could "pull all the
strings." "Taking" a single country was to be the first step to "taking" the
planet; thus the talk of "losing" countries.

Once we got back, the Old Man [Hubbard] had all of us from the
Athena put in charge of moving the Apollo. (We had by that time been
out to sea for three months and had lived in the hardest of weather.
The heavy storm season in the Mediterranean, during which we had
been at sea constantly, between treasure digs, had made us seasoned
sailors.)
Just before we moved it, we were moored right next to the Apollo
and the Old Man had this incredible shouting match with Mary Sue in
his office. You could hear through the wall like it was cardboard.
He really blooped her through the universe saying that he had
never really wanted her and the kids to be there, and she should just
pack up, take the kids and ship out!
It went on and on: She had let him down by not moving the ship,
letting this big port flap happen.
He was just screaming at her at the top of his lungs.
And she begged him to allow her to stay.
Then after a time, responding to her pleas, he said, "Well what are
you going to do about this ship of fools?"
She proposed that she be allowed to prove herself.
So we moved the ship out to anchor and the Commodore took away
their flag. They only had a gray rag that was flown at half mast and they
went on what was called the liability cruise.

****

They were gone for two and a half months and they had a very rigor-
ous schedule. We, the Athena crew (it was the flagship at the time be-
cause the Commodore was on it) stayed in port for part of this time.
The Apollo was on this cruise with the stated reason to train its
crew, with Mary Sue as the captain.
You can imagine some 120 crew all having to do their able-bodied-
seaman training, and all sorts of other nautical courses and ethics con-
ditions, in order for the ship to be upgraded from liability.
They had to be radarmen, conning officers, and so on.
So it took them two and a half months, and it was during that period
that they violated a couple of major international conventions and re-
ally got us messed up in a couple of countries.
First of all, they were sent off on the liability cruise with no flag. So
they couldn't go into any port. They had no flag to fly (and you can't go
into port without flying a flag to identify yourself). Secondly, the fact
that they had a female captain in Spanish waters pretty much identified
them with Soviet or iron curtain country ships.
They were sent off with charts that were old and not up-dated and
they did not know the military zones they started cruising in. And they
started cruising in top secret military zones that were categorically for-
bidden, such as where there were nuclear submarines training.
They went aground a couple of times, and it was just a comedy of
errors.
So they were finally stopped at gun point and the ship was taken
over and the Spanish navy came aboard and arrested them under cover
of machine guns. They interviewed Mary Sue and couldn't believe that
it wasn't a spy ship.
They were released from arrest but it was after that that the rumors
started about the "spy ship," and it became compared with the Ameri-
can spy ship Pueblo.
Reports went up to the ministry of the interior and they thought we
were connected to the CIA or KGB, and the Apollo was banned from
Spain.

****

All three vessels (Apollo, Athena and yacht Diana) had joined up in
Corfu, Greece, during the last months of 1968.
The ships were berthed in Corfu when people were first being
tossed into the harbor. The Old Man was just really rabid and yelling
and screaming a lot.

For some time throwing violators of Hubbard's rules over the side
of the ship ("overboarding" them) became a Sea Org tradition. Usu-
ally they were thrown off the 'tween (second) deck, but there were a
couple of occasions when they went off the promenade deck (some 25
feet above the water).
There were rules written by Hubbard in a "Flag Order" which
listed orders of severity of overboarding, such as: from which deck,
should the person be blindfolded, and should his hands or feet be
tied.
Every morning a solemn ceremony was performed at dawn, when
offenders of the previous day were listed by the Master at Arms.
Then the order was picked up by two of the MAA's assistants and
was heaved out over the sea.
There was "tech" written by Hubbard at the time giving the theory
behind this kind of discipline. He wrote about how the reactive mind
(subconscious mind) actually exerts a "force" against an individual
which propels him towards wrongdoing. It is therefore necessary, he
asserted, to apply an even greater force on the individual towards
"right doing.
Within a system of due process, that is essentially how penal systems could be said to work.

Due process was not usually available,
however, as the following example illustrates.
  Homer Shomer, a businessman who was aboard the Apollo told
me :

    I remember being on the bridge of the flagship. A 19-year old-girl
  named Marrianne Wicher was the radar plotter. We were on a watch.
    LRH came up on the bridge and looked in the radar screen and saw
  two ships that he considered fairly close. They were about five miles
  away. And he just really ripped into her.
    He called her the foulest names and instantly assigned her to the
  Rehabilitation Project Force:*
    "You mother fuckin' cock suckin' cunt! You're endangering the ship!
  You're assigned to the RPF!" and he kicked her off the bridge.

****

  While the early Sea Org adventures were occurring, my wife and I
were working long hours at Saint Hill in England. We were studying
and auditing for barely enough money to live on. We had signed con-
tracts for two and a half years, in exchange for cut rates on courses and
auditing.
  Furnace Woods, which surrounded our little rented cottage, was
very beautiful in the spring and we went for walks on the rare occa-
sion when we had a little time off.
  We heard occasional stories of life at sea on the Apollo and Athena.
We were told there was some fairly severe discipline. But generally
we knew little of what was going on. Had I known about the children
in the chain locker, for example, I would have been extremely upset
and confused. After all I planned to have a family, and I dreamed of
applying Hubbard's "tech" on raising children to my own kids.
  I had read most of Hubbard's writings on "how to live with chil-
dren" such as:

    You want to raise your child in such a way that you don't have to
  control him, so that he will be in full possession of himself at all times.
  Upon that depends his good behavior, his health, his sanity.
    Children are not dogs. They can't be trained as dogs are trained.
  They are not controllable items. They are, and let's not overlook the
  point, men and women. A child is not a special species of animal dis-

*Essentially a Scientology slave labor force.


  tinct from Man. A child is a man or a woman who has not attained full
  growth.
    How would you like to be pulled and hauled and ordered about and
  restrained from doing whatever you wanted to do? You'd resent it. The
  only reason a child "doesn't" resent it is because he's small. You'd half
  murder somebody who treated you, an adult, with the orders, contra-
  diction and disrespect given the average child. The child doesn't strike
  back because he isn't big enough. He gets your floor muddy, inter-
  rupts your nap, destroys the peace of your home instead. If he had
  equality with you in the matter of rights, he'd not ask this "revenge."
  This "revenge" is standard child behavior....
    The sweetness and love of a child is preserved only so long as he can
  exert his own self-determinism. You interrupt that and, to a degree,
  you interrupt his life.
    There ale only two reasons why a child's right to decide for himself
  has to be interrupted - the fragility and danger of his environment and
  you, for you work out on him the things that were done to you, regard-
  less of what you think....

  The idea of some discipline was not repugnant to me. After all,
rather some discipline for the sailors on a ship, than that they all
should lose their lives when the badly run ship sinks.
  But wanton punishment2 That wouldn't have made any sense.
After all, it was Hubbard who wrote:

    Blackmail and punishment are keynotes of all dark opera-
  tions...punishment doesn't cure anything....Man is basically good
  and is damaged by punishment....Harsh discipline may produce in-
  stant compliance but it smothers initiative.

  These sentiments very much applied in counseling (auditing). I au-
dited someone with the datum in mind that the force and punishment
and trauma experienced by this person was part of what was wrong
with him, and needed to be gradiently faced up to, so he or she be-
came free from the negative effects of these things.
  The other side of this was the "overt" side. The person also needed
to gradiently confront the force, punishment and trauma he had
inflicted on others, as these things were a major source of his current
problems and irresponsibilities.
  As I saw it, the idea in auditing, was to increase one's ability to con-
front and communicate, to become more alive, more oneself. For me
auditing was a wonderfully effective way of unhypnotizing people.
  There was an "Auditor's Code," of which the two most important


*The Liability Cruise*



points were: "Do not evaluate for the preclear" (this meant that in no
way should the auditor tell the "preclear" what he should or should
not think), and "Do not invalidate or correct the preclears data."
  Also very important was the rule: "Always remain in good two-way
communication with the preclear during the session." This denotes

always letting the preclear know what procedure is being run, always
being alert to anything he wishes to say and being willing to hear it
fully and with interest, and acknowledging that one has heard what he
has said and that one has understood it.
  Following these rules appeared to work for me in the most amazing
way. Mary and I quickly gained a reputation as very effective audi-
tors. We became highly sought after, and we were very proud indeed
of the constant flood of praise and stories of changed lives. The affec-
tion showered upon us by those we had helped was a source of enor-
mous gratification.
  Auditing was very much the essence of civilized communication.
For me, and many others at the time, this was what Scientology was
all about.
  One of the most publicized of all of Hubbard's writings' is a piece
called "What is Greatness":

    ...The hardest task one can have is to continue to love one's fel-
  lows despite all reasons he should not.
    And the true sign of sanity and greatness is to so continue.
    For the one who can achieve this, there is abundant hope....
    True greatness merely refuses to change in the face of bad actions
  against one - and a truly great person loves his fellows because he un-
  derstands them....
    When cruelty in the name of discipline dominates a race, that race
  has been taught to hate. And that race is doomed.
    The real lesson is to learn to love.

  It would have been inconceivable that L. Ron Hubbard, who had
"discovered" all this wisdom, would himself act in complete violation
of it.
  Possibly there were those around him - people he had not yet
detected - who were violating these truths; but he himself? The
thought just did not occur.
  It would be some time before I'd realize that the civilized commu-
nication and counseling I so valued served mainly as the "bait on the
hook. "


6. Wogs vs. Operating Thetans

"We're in this for blood." - L. RON HUBBARD

  In the fall of 1974 the Apollo sailed to Lisbon in Portugal, following
its most recent sojourn in Tenerife and other Canary islands. (These
islands, located off the southern coast of Morocco in the East Atlantic,
had taken turn playing host to the Apollo throughout most of 1974.)
  In Portugal she was allowed access to Lisbon's harbor. Here, prior
to their leaving, the crew were witnesses to the leftist coup (dubbed
"the flower revolution" by the press). They could see the tanks rolling
in the streets.
  There was a quiet tension among the crew as the ship steamed
away from Lisbon, heading for the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Having been repeatedly expelled from ports throughout the Mediter-
ranean and the Eastern Atlantic, along with observing the hostilities
in Lisbon, had given them an odd feeling of being cut adrift.
  They entered the harbor of Funchal, Madeira, and were granted
berthing rights by the harbor authorities. The feeling of relief was pal-
pable.
  As was their custom, the crew unloaded their motorcycles and
parked them on the dock alongside the Apollo. Hubbard had always
been a motorcycle buff. At this point in time he owned two, his favor-
ite being a big American-made Harley-Davidson.
  Captain Bill Robertson, a man with a personality perhaps every bit
as colorful as Hubbard's, and whose loyalty to him bordered on the
fanatical, saw to it that Hubbard's personally ensured that his
machines were well cared for. They were taken off the ship first, and


*Wogs vs. Operating Thetans*


given the best location on the dock. Kept in top running condition,
they were washed and polished daily.
  Following Hubbard's lead, Captain Bill owned his own motorbike,
and so did many others of the higher ranking crew members. Mary
Sue Hubbard owned a small car.
  None of the crew had much in the way of personal possessions, and
those who owned a motorcycle generally showered the same atten-
tion on their machine as a doting parent would on an only child.
  Besides the pride of possession, the bikes gave their owners a pre-
cious taste of independence from the disciplines and confines of the
ship. They could go riding off for an hour or so a day. And on their day
off, once every two weeks, they could actually forget that the ship ex-
isted for an entire 12 hours! (This day off was conditional on their hav-
ing their "statistics up," meaning that they had produced adequately,
according to rigorous and sometimes ridiculous standards which re-
quired that every week's production be better than the previous. If
this was not so they forfeited their "holiday.")
  At Funchal, the routine of unloading the bikes was adhered to in
the same manner as at previous ports, and the buying of supplies and
the unloading of trash went on with the normal, high energy, hustle
and bustle.
  Buyers were sent into the township to get fresh produce at the
lowest possible prices, and the Apollo began its refueling procedure.
There were hundreds of locals crowding around the wharf - an
unusually large number.
  "Hey Americanos!" Portuguese abuses. Something exploded on
the main deck. There was the sound of glass shattering, a melee at the
head of the gangplank, and the quartermaster was screaming for help.
  Cobblestones (ripped from the pavement of the wharf) and bottles
were landing on the deck. "There's someone injured on the poop
deck!" yelled the bosun, "Get some guys up there to help."
 "There are soldiers over there, why the hell don't they fucking give
us a hand?" muttered a ship's officer.
  Louise Botika (not real name), who was in charge of taking care of
the Commodore's safety, says:

    I was awakened by someone yelling that the ship was being at-
  tacked. I ran up to his room and he was in a cocky mood. He first of all
  gave orders that the crew were to mimic everything the crowd was
  yelling.




    They followed his instruction to no avail. Then, in an attempt to
  drive back the crowd, the sea hoses (those used to pump sea water)
  were pulled to the front line in order to spray them.

  There was inadequate pressure, and the result was only to infuriate
the crowd even further.
  Kima Douglas' jaw had been broken. Another girl was sobbing
from pain and being blinded by the blood flowing into her eyes from a
head injury.
  Louise continues:

    LRH grabbed a bullhorn and ran out onto the deck, yelling
  "Communista! Communista!" Just why I'll never know. It certainly
  didn't work.
    Then he ran back in and grabbed a camera with a flash and began
  photographing the mob. This did have some value later.

  "Dammit, they're dumping the bikes into the bloody ocean!" some-
one yelled. "There's not a thing we can do about it. We'd get bloody
killed down there. Oh shit! there goes the Commodore's bike. Jesus,
I just don't believe this!"
  There were a couple of attempts to loosen the ship from her moor-
ings by the mob. The crew of the Apollo fought with bravado, disguis-
ing their fear which bordered on terror at times Some even went
down the gangplank in a foolhardy attempt to fight off the attackers
who were loosening the ropes.

  MIKE GOLDSTEIN :

    I was Captain Bill's yeoman when the thing happened. Initially I
  was put in charge of putting together and arming a bunch of guys with
  steel pipes and grouped them at the gangplank to repel any boarders.
  They never managed to make a real attempt at boarding, however, so
  we were never tested.
    The crowd was yelling "CIA! CIA! CIA!" It's really funny when
  you come to think about it, here we were with our clever shore story,
  that we were Operation Transport Corporation, managing businesses
  around the world. The idea was never to tell them that we were
  Scientologists because it might bring on an attack. So they didn't know
  we were Scientologists - something we could have proved. They sure
  knew that we weren't business management, however. That they were
  certain of!


*Wogs vs. Operating Thetans*

    So they decided we were CIA and here we were being stoned. We
  were in the wrong place at the wrong time, with the wrong shore story.
    Pat Broeker had this whole idea, during the height of the attack,
  that he was going to pull a dirty dozen caper. He had some idea of
  jumping off the side of the ship and sailing a nearby barge ashore and
  doing some stunt that would save the ship. It never came off.
    It's funny that he's the guy who is now the king of Scientology. He
  had the nickname "007."
    He loved spy capers and his favorite movie was The Dirty Dozen.
  He would sit for hours telling his juniors the entire movie from begin-
  ning to end.

  Louise continues her story :

    The riot lasted a couple of hours and we were finally able to get the
  militia to move in and help us, partly by offering to give them what
  they thought was the film from LRH's camera which had the exposures
  of the riot on it. Madeira is one of Portugal's prime tourist spots and
  they didn't want the bad publicity. So LRH made a great gesture of
  exposing the film to the light in front of them. In fact he had previously
  taken out the roll containing the shots of the rioters and replaced it
  with another.
    The militia had virtually cleared the wharf and everything had
  calmed down, when the Commodore suddenly yelled "Duck!" and ev-
  eryone jumped for cover.
    There was no apparent threat to anyone at the time. "That guy can't
  be trusted with that gun!" he said, without indicating who he meant.

  This apparently paranoid reaction contrasted sharply with his prior
reckless behavior of exposing himself to possible blows by rocks and
bottles as he strutted on the open deck shouting into a bullhorn and
taking photographs.
  The ship was taken out into the harbor a way, where she dropped
anchor.
  The next day divers were sent down who dredged up some motor-
cycles and Mary Sue Hubbard's little mini-car. Meanwhile other
crew members took on supplies while the militia were still there to
protect them.

****

  James Hare, an auditor on the Apollo, had managed to get away
from the ship for a time to ride his bike into the township for a visit to
a bar.

  He was a little bit drunk as he rode back towards the ship. As he
approached the wharf he saw the riot in progress and sensed that his
life was in extreme danger. Realizing that he would be recognized as
  "one of them," he swung his bike inland and sped away.
   Four locals spotted him, jumped on motorcycles and followed in
hot pursuit. The chase lasted for several minutes until Hare took a
bend too fast. "My bike ate it, and I ate it," he says. "The lights went
out."
  Four days later the lights came back on. He was in a hotel. There
was dried blood all over his pillow and "a fair sized hole" in the back
of his head. He was relieved to see his guitar (James is a highly re-
garded Aamenco musician). It was in good shape and had apparently
been thrown clear when he and his bike had hit the pavement.
  Someone had taken mercy on him, delivering him to the hotel and
taking money from his pocket to pay for his keep.
  His bike was totaled, he discovered, but he caught a taxi to the
wharf only to discover the ship was no longer there.
  He returned to the States and his only subsequent contact with
Scientology was when he was visited by Scientology agents warning
him to shut up about his experiences. One of the experiences they
had in mind was his being party to a rescue of Quentin Hubbard
(Hubbard's oldest son by his third wife Mary Sue) from a hillside in
Madeira. He was unconscious from an overdose of drugs when they
found him. According to James Hare, it was an apparent attempt-
ed suicide.
  (Hubbard's response to Quentin's behavior was to have him thrown
into the Rehabilitation Project Force. See Chapter 8, "Crucifying the
Evil Out. ")
  Quentin was a gentle caring young man in his late teens, who told
his close friend Cathy Cariatakis repeatedly, "I don't want to be a
Hubbard!" He wanted go off somewhere and become an airline pilot.
Instead, he was being trained and apprenticed as a Case Supervisor.

  The ship had left Funchal for an offshore location to drop anchor
and prepare for a long voyage.
  It was ostensibly due to head for Buenos Aires. (Actually, under
cover of darkness the blacked-out ship changed direction towards the
southern part of North America.)
 After the ship left Portugal, the liaison office in Lisbon was raided
by the local police, but Scientology agents there had shredded and
burned all evidence of their activities.


*Wogs vs. Operating Thetans*



  The events of that day became known among the crew members as
the "rock concert."

****

  WHY WAS THE APOLLO TURNED AWAY FROM ALMOST
ALL MEDITERRANEAN AND EASTERN ATLANTIC PORTS
AND THEN ATTACKED IN MADEIRA, PORTUGAL?
  The official Scientology story was that there was an international
conspiracy by the World Federation of Mental Health being orches-
trated against the ship throughout the area using such agencies as the
CIA, British Intelligence, Interpol and British consulates.
  There is, however, a consistent viewpoint expressed by the ex-Sea
Org members interviewed for this book. They share a conviction that
the ship's troubles had something to do with how Hubbard and the
crew conducted themselves.

  ELENA LORREL :

    There are some missing chapters in the story of this period that are
  completely unknown even to many veteran Sea Org members. These
  missing chapters have enabled lots of myths to develop. They have to
  do with what the ships were really doing as opposed to what we pro-
  claimed to Scientologists we were doing.
    What we were doing was James Bond stuff in all these different
  countries.
    Some of the missions that we undertook were real intelligence mis-
  sions: to the U.N., and to the World Federation of Mental Health, for
  example, as well as to almost every government of the countries we
  visited.
    We were infiltrating these groups....I mean we were finding the
  people trying to assassinate a king; we were trying to settle between
  one tribe fighting another tribe; trying to covertly back one political
  candidate versus another. All kinds of political manipulations like
  you'd never imagine were going on, and it was all being pulled off by a
  very few people.
    Most Sea Org members were robotic, rigidly following Scientology
  think. Put under pressure and duress, they would just blab every-
  thing So there was only a very small group of us that had to do it all
  over a period of 10 or 12 years. We'd been out on scenes where we had
  to break into presidential palace grounds, con our way past guards, and
  so on.
    What really caused the Rock Festival was typical of what got us in
  trouble in most ports:


    The fact is that we just didn't add up !
    The Apollo would arrive in their quiet harbor and suddenly there
  were 47 motorcycles and three different bands playing! Here we were
  at the same time, supposedly, a business management operation...
  Also a shore unit was set up in their town by us that was working on a
  project we had contracted with the Lisbon government (in an attempt
  by us to gain influence).
    I think the people in Madeira may also have thought we were spying
  on them (the locals) for the government in Lisbon.
    Another reason for our troubles was that we wouldn't observe cus-
  toms and regulations because we were so damned arrogant.
    LRH was creating the problem, more than not. He was getting so
  excited. Cathy Cariatakis or I would go into some country and ally it
  and he would be so excited. He was like a child with this whole new
  playground. He just couldn't contain himself. He would want to get
  into everything.
    What LRH wanted to do would almost invariably involve some vio-
  lation of an agreement we had made.

INFILTRATING "THE ENEMY"

Elena continues :

    LRH sent off a "SMERSH" mission to Switzerland. We were caught
  red-handed by the Swiss Minister of Health and received a summons
  to a meeting with him and the Attorney General, surrounded by secu-
  rity police.
    We were just caught, hung tied and quartered, until I somehow
  managed to convince the minister that I truly was a member of the
  World Federation of Mental Health. I told him that what we were try-
  ing to do really was the result of an internal squabble within that organ-
  ization.
    He finally bought this line, dropped the idea that we were impos-
  tors, and asked the law enforcement guys to leave.
    We had been trying to incorporate as the World Federation of Men-
  tal Health. The WFMH had never been incorporated in Switzerland.
  It was incorporated and started in the U.S. Margaret Mead and Brock
  Chisholm and some of the old-time shrinks were some of the founding
  members.
    We were going to incorporate in Switzerland and were planning,
  thereafter, to sabotage the entire mental health movement.
    In order to register in Switzerland, they had to have been incorpora-
  ted first. We discovered they had registered with no prior incorpora-


*Wogs us. Operating Thetans*


  tion, making them illegitimate. So we seized on this situation and de-
  cided to incorporate in their place.

    We wanted to get member mental health groups all over the world
  to join us. We were planning to achieve that by bad mouthing the ex-
  isting heads of the WFMH. One of our key weapons was the fact that
  we had discovered that the heads of the WFMH were creaming and
  skimming a lot of money off the top. We had documents to prove this.
    We had gotten these documents from two missions prior to mine,
  sent to Switzerland to ransack a couple of offices and loot the files.
  Among the files they brought back to the ship were documents which
  revealed the tracking of money which came in. It showed how it had
  been skimmed off the top by some of these WFMH executives.
    So we went to incorporate and they said, "You can't do that. There is
  already a corporation of that name." And we said, "No, you'd better
  check your records, and you'll find they aren't incorporated." And they
  said, "Well they're registered here," and we said, "Well they're not
  incorporated." And they said, "Well, they are in Delaware." And we
  said, "Yes but they're only registered there, they're not incorporated
  there."
    So when it came down to the wire (that they weren't properly incor-
  porated), the Swiss authorities turned it over to the Ministry of Health.
  This was because, while they knew we were right, they didn't want to
  stab the WFMH in the back.
    So the referred it to the Minister of Health for a ruling.
    While we were waiting for the decision, we prepared a letter-head
  with WFMH markings on it. We established an office and put up large
  posters and plastered the Federation of Mental Health name all over
  it. We got the program going. We sent mailings out to all the major
  drug companies around the world, saying that we really were in favor
  of euthanasia (in this case "mercy" killing on a broad scale, a euphe-
  mism for ridding society of"undesirables") and that we wanted endow-
  ments from them to push it through in the United Nations.
    We figured that if the drug companies were sleazy enough to back it
  they would send us money, and if they were pretty cool they would
  realize that the WFMH were evil SOBs because they were pushing
  euthanasia.
    Either way we came out O.K. We would either make the WFMH
  look like a bunch of sleazebags, or we would end up with a good
  amount of money for operating capital.

  This project was one of several forerunners of the later "Operation
Snow White" conducted by Scientology against agencies in the U.S.
and England.


82


A GREEK TRAGEDY

  ELENA :

    ...In 1968, in Corfu, Greece, LRH moved onto the Royal Scots-
  man (soon to be named Apollo), making that the flagship.
    The ship was in fact getting on very well with the military junta.
  Cathy Cariatakis, whose native language is Greek, had helped forge
  friendly relations with the head Colonel of the junta. This relationship
  was so warm that one of the junta attended the naming service of the
  Apollo, Athena and Diana.
    Things went along splendidly and LRH was having an absolutely
  marvelous time dreaming up ideas for creating a base there on the is-
  land of Corfu. There were plans to establish a Saint Hill Organization
  and an Advanced Organization to be called the University of Philoso-
  phy.
    Then LRH had the idea to write an article on Democracy, Greece
  being the originator of Western Democracy.
    He was very proud of the piece and ordered Cathy Cariatakis to
  have it translated and published in the major Greek newspapers. She
  did so.

  There are many versions as to why things went sour with the Greek
government and resulted in Hubbard, the ship and its crew, being
ordered to leave. One version, which seems the most credible, was
that the military junta (depending for its very survival upon keeping
the sentiments for a return to democracy at bay) did not appreciate
the ideas expressed in Hubbard's article.'
  Being ordered out of Greece in March of 1969, was the second
formal expulsion, eventually leading up to the "rock concert" in Ma-
deira.

PLOTS TO KILL THE KING OF MOROCCO

  ELENA :

    The next major country we lost was Morocco....
    The ship's having been kicked out of Corfu, Greece was the last
  straw for the Old Man. He had already been kicked out of Hull in

*It would appear that Hubbard also, in fact, had little appreciation for the
idea of democracy. He had written in 1965:
  "And I don't see that popular measures, self-abnegation and democracy have
done
anything for Man but push him further into the mud...democracy has given us
inflation and income tax."


England, and when they tried to pull into Gibraltar they were denied
entry there, and then later there was the Royal Scotsman mess in
Spain.
  So the Old man decided for us to disconnect from land and go out
and float for as long as our emergency stores would last and just get our
scene together. And we did that for about two months off the coast of
Morocco.
  It was during this "disconnection cruise" that LRH had a heart at-
tack on the bridge....
  On this cruise we did a lot of ship's work and eventually we were
forced to call into the port of Safi, there in Morocco, to get emergency
stores.
  Richard Wrigley was the ship's PH man and he went ashore in Safi
and met the Pasha (the Mayor) of Safi. The Pasha invited him back and
he brought me along as his escort. And I made great friends with the
Pasha and his wife.
  LRH and MSH had bought a Villa on a beautiful estate in Morocco
near Tangiers. During that following year they lived there relatively
peacefully, while the ship sailed mainly in the East Atlantic between
the ports of Morocco and Portugal and Spain, passing through such
ports as Lisbon, Tangiers, Madeira and the ports of the Canary Islands.
  In 1972, they were still living in the villa while the ship was in
drydock in Lisbon for repairs.
  Sometime after they had established themselves in the villa, LRH
received a written proposal from Richard Wrigley. He suggested that
he be given approval to find some way to get an audience with King
Hassan II and win him over, so that LRH and his crew would have a
safe haven in Morocco without further fear of expulsion.
  It was an offer LRH couldn't refuse, and Richard and Liz
Gablehouse were sent off to carry the day. Specifically, they were to
make contacts within the palace of Hassan II, preferably with the king
himself.
  In reply to his proposal LRH had written not only his approval, but
also a note stating that Richard would have "unlimited backing" (any
amount of money) and the missionaire of his choice to join him.
  Liz and Richard spent a lot of time around bars and meeting people,
and did make friends with a French girl named Bidea who had married
into the royal family.
  Despite this connection, nothing developed until Richard was with-
drawn from that project to go hob-nob with Black African diplomats on
the Ivory Coast, (undoubtedly another country to win over).
  Bidea at that point confided in Liz that she had been uncooperative
because she didn't trust Richard.
  From that time onwards progress began to be made. Liz was intro-


  duced to the king's top people and later invited for dinner by a palace
  representative.
    LRH was very excited and said, "Bidea is the key to Morocco," and
  we formed the Rabat office and recruited Bidea and her husband to
  work for it.
    Subsequently at a party, Colonel Allam, (who was a personal friend
  of Bidea's) began to become very friendly with me and another mis-
  sionaire from the Apollo. Bidea told us not to pursue anything with
  him because he was military.
    This overture by Colonel Allam was reported to LRH, who was
  keeping very close tabs on the project. He directed that they pursue
  the Allam connection.
    Liz protested that this would be violating the guidelines about med-
  dling with the military, but to no avail. LRH was very excited about
  the turn of events and would hear of nothing but compliance with his
  orders.
    Colonel Allam was encouraged to invite a few crew members to a
  party. At that party he told them about General Oufkir, who was a Ber-
  ber. He said that the King kept Oufkir close to him because this was
  useful in keeping peace between the Berbers and the Arabs. (The King
  is an Arab, while a large proportion of the population is Berber. The
  Berbers are a group of non-Arab tribes who have their own native lan-
  guage.)
    A later party by Colonel Allam was also attended by Liz and an es-
  cort from the ship.
    Ceneral Oufkir had come back from America and arrived for the
  party accompanied by this dumb blonde who had worked in the consu-
  late's office in New York. They couriered a baby horse for the king's
  son, which had been given them by the U.S. government.
    Calhoun (my escort) and I played dumb American tourists and this
  blonde spilled the beans after she had had a few drinks. The beans
  were that General Oufkir had been at Port Holibert, which I knew was
  a CIA training center because I had lived near there when I was in my
  teens, and that he had been there secretly seeing the CIA. This was
  kept secret from the king.
    Basically, I decided that Oufkir must have been taken over by the
  CIA to operate for them.
    Next Liz and some of the crew were personal guests for the war
  games, an annual display of all the latest weaponry attended by the
  chiefs of staff and heads of government.
    During the performance a jet plane swooped down and collapsed
  some of the tents.
    The whole object, it turned out, was to kill the king.
    The generals, who had been seated near the Scientologists, were in-


  terviewed on TV at gunpoint, where they admitted to conspiracy
  against the king. They were then shot and killed right there in front of
  the cameras.
    Later LRH sent Peter Warren and Amos Jessup to Rabat to see if
  they could get a proposed security checking* project approved that
  would aid the loyalists in finding out who were the leaders of those
  plotting against him.
    This was intended by LRH to be a back-up for the king.
    LRH decided to use this security checking project as a way to get
  close to the king - because, of course, by now the king feared for his
  life and would presumably be grateful for the help with security.
    The proposal was to security check all the officers in the Moroccan
  Army to find out who was involved in the coup.
    Amos Jessup and Peter Warren were actually able to approach Gen-
  eral Oufkir (the king's friend and most trusted adviser and head of the
  military) with a project designed by LRH to train the military officers
  to use the E-meter to security check. Oufkir said, "Very interesting.
  I'll get back with you."
    The King flew off to safe ground (France) while his loyal staff
  claimed to be organizing a clean-up operation to root out the remaining
  rebel conspirators.

  Meanwhile the sec checking project did get approved by the officer
below the general.
  A team from Hubbard's headquarters were sent to train the se-
lected members of the military on the techniques of Security
checking on the E-meter.

****

  The King was flying back from France a week or two after the sec
checking project started.
  As the return flight from his visit to Paris was descending to begin
the approach to Rabat airport, three American-made F-5 Freedom
Fighters of the Moroccan Air Force came out to meet Hassan's
Boeing 727. Suddenly, the aerial escort opened fire on the royal
plane. After two passes they had damaged the cockpit, cut hydraulic
lines, smashed instruments and blown out the rear door.
  Hassan ran to the cockpit and held the pilot at gun-point while he
called the attacking pilots on the airliner's radio and, disguising his
voice, told them he was the flight engineer. "Ce Majest est mort.
Cesez la fusillade!" (The king is dead," he said. "Cease fire." He also

*Essentially interrogation done on an E-meter.



told them that the airliner's hyo pilots were dead.) The plane landed
safely.
  Shortly before the crippled plane had landed, General Oufkir had
been summoned to the telephone at the airport control tower. What
was said over the phone was not revealed. But shortly after the king,
with three of his four children, had sped away to his summer palace in
a small black Renault-16, a Moroccan Airforce jet made four passes at
the field, shooting up cars, scattering the honor guard, killing eight
people and wounding 47. The king got away unscathed.
  The next morning it was announced that, eight hours after the at-
tack on the king's plane, Oufkir had shot himself in the head at the
king's palace. The word from the palace was that Oufkir was the mas-
termind behind the coup. The king's plane was to have been shot
down over water, thus appearing to be an accident.
  The phone call from the tower made by Oufkir was presumably to
order the jets to strafe the king on the ground, after he had realized
that he had not been killed in the air.
  Subsequent to these events Hubbard pushed the sec checking pro-
ject even more heavily. Now, surely, the Moroccan government
would realize the high necessity to utilize any and all methods to root
out the remaining plotters against the King.
  The students in the course were taught to sec check each other and
the work sheets were turned over to the supervisor of the course.
One day, among these worksheets, evidence turned up that the very
people who had approved the security checking were involved with
the coup attempt.

 ELENA LORREL :

    It's a puzzle as to why they had approved the sec checking project,
  except to say that they feared that someone loyal to the king might be
  approached by us, and decide sec checking was a good idea. It would
  then have been out of his [Oufkir's] hands.
    At least this way it was under his control. But I don't think he really
  expected anything to come of it. He didn't expect the real dirt to be
  dug up. Boy was he wrong!
    Well, needless to say, the sec checking was terminated, and we
  were given twelve hours to vacate Morocco.
    All the people who connected to General Oufkir were later put on a
  boat that was sunk, as a result of the fact they "somehow" were in the
  area during the seven day war between Israel and Egypt. They all
  died, including Colonel Allam, whom we had gotten to know so well.

7. Fear in the Master's Eye

  One of the maxims which Hubbard often cited in one form or an-
other, and which he actually lived by, was: "Knowledge is power."
He saw in this maxim, however, something quite different from what
is seen by most people.
  Collecting data about groups and individuals was one of his most
cherished passions. He worked incessantly to find out the secrets of
his followers and enemies alike. He built up detailed dossiers on
them. This was one of his key techniques for maintaining power.
  In order to gain first-rate intelligence information, he not only uti-
lized the full theory he had gained from what courses in naval intelli-
gence he attended during the early part of the Second World War,
but also implemented much from readings of Nazi spymasters. He
also developed creative techniques of his own. All this constituted
what he called "intel tech" and was part and parcel of his constant
efforts to gain and maintain power.
  An example of this tech:
  "When you move off a point of power," he wrote in 1967, "pay all
your obligations on the nail, empower your friends completely and
move off with your pockets full of artillery, potential blackmail on eu-
ery erstwhile rival [emphasis added], unlimited funds in your private
account and the addresses of experienced assassins and go live in
Bulgravia and bribe the police."
  While he absolutely denied anyone the right to have any secrets
from him, any person who discovered too much about the real L. Ron
Hubbard was on his or her way out!

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE RON JR.:

    Dad's business was his business. Very few even got a hint of his
  steel-lined, soundproof, compartmented mind.
    Occasionally there would seem to be a threat to this state of affairs.
  Someone would probe. Someone would appear to have the ability to
  break through this fortress of secrecy. Dad would at such times go on
  full alert, mobilizing all his resources to ensure he preserved the status
  quo ....

   Hubbard organized a secret service over the years and mobilized it
  effectively. This was his answer to investigations by various
  establishments - the American Medical Association in the 1950s, the
  Food and Drug Administration, and the Australian Government in
  the mid- and early sixties, the British Government beginning in 1967,
  and Interpol and the French and U.S. governments during the 1970s
  (along with an assortment of Mediterranean and North African Gov-
  ernments).

****

  In 1971 the French initiated legal action against Hubbard and his
Paris organization for fraud and customs violations. He was advised
by one of his agents that he was in danger of being extradited to
France.
  In December of 1972, he flew from northern Africa to New York
with a bodyguard and a "medical officer. " Besides his legal problems,
he was also having health problems.
  The three moved into an apartment in Queens, New York. Hub-
bard disguised himself with a wig whenever venturing outside. Dur-
ing this time he conceived the project to retrieve confidential infor-
mation from the U.S. government. He wanted desperately to know
what the government had in their files on him and Scientology.
  He called this project "Operation Snow White" (the seizing of
confidential government files containing "false" reports in the U.S.
Government's files on Hubbard, Scientology and Scientology's per-
ceived enemies).
  Hubbard's claim was that Scientology's troubles stemmed from lies
being distributed to agencies all over the world by the World Federa-
tion of Mental Health. The WFMH had "been isolated" by the intel-
ligence arm of Hubbard's church as being Scientology's prime enemy
on the planet.


*Fear in the Master's Eye*

 89

  This operation (see Chapter 13) was destined to have a profound
effect on his life, his family and the Scientology movement.

****

  Having achieved some success in alleviating his physical travails,
using the nutritional writings of Adelle Davis along with some innova-
tions of his own, Hubbard returned to the Apollo after almost a year's
stay in the Big Apple.
  His concerns regarding extradition had been quieted, and he looked
forward to the smell of the ocean, the feel of the warm tropical sun and
balmy breezes of the Canary Islands.
  Back in the Canary Islands in early 1974, Hubbard was confronted
with a skyrocketing price of oil. As a result, the price of operating the
Apollo also soared.
  He decided to offset the extra expense by opening up the ship for
visits from wealthy Scientologists. They were to receive auditing
aboard, paying rates much higher than those charged ashore.
  Among those drawn by this offer, were some of the more successful
Scientology "franchise holders."
  I was by this time one of those franchise holders, and the events
that followed constitute only a small drama when compared with
Hubbard's undercover battles with governments. However, it illus-
trates the fact that Hubbard was concerned with even the smallest
potential threat to his fortress of secrecy.
  The story also introduces a major source of Hubbard's income and
flow of new converts (the "franchise" program). Being separated from
the tightly cloistered environment of the Sea Org and being exposed
to regular public, these franchise holders were, however, a source of
irritation as well as funds and people for Hubbard.
  Hubbard, since the beginnings of Scientology, had granted fran-
chise rights to various people, enabling them to set up shop as a fran-
chise of the Church of Scientology. The franchise holder would pay
10 percent of the franchise's income to the Church.
  In return for this "tithe," the franchise holder was promised finan-
cial independence, and freedom from interference in the form of
heavy disciplinary actions By the Church. Scientology franchises were
a sort of religious non-profit McDonald's, where the franchise holder
and his staff were able to pursue their ideals while having the oppor-
tunity to reach a middle-class standard of living, as opposed to the
abject poverty and virtual slavery of most Sea Org members.

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  This system was a hangover from days when Hubbard had not en-
joyed the financial clout which he now wielded; days when he wasn't
able to get away with being militaristic and dictatorial.
  The franchise program had borne fruit for him, being the vehicle
that supplied him with over 90 percent of the new converts (or "cus-
tomers" as he sometimes called them).
  Franchises brought in "raw meat" (people new to Scientology), and
delivered basic courses and lower-level auditing to them. They then
sent these people on to official Scientology organizations for the
higher and much more costly services.
  Franchises also sold Hubbard's books. He had written many
science-fiction stories, adventure stories, and numerous magazine ar-
ticles under various pen names, prior to the advent of Scientology.
Since the enormous success of his first book on the mind, Dianetics,
the Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950, he had written over 20
books on the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology. He set up his own
publishing company to produce these books and constantly exhorted
all Scientologists to sell, sell, sell them. Churches and franchises set
aside large numbers of staff, and healthy advertising budgets, for this
purpose. All orgs and franchises were ordered to maintain large
stocks of all titles.
  In 1970 I was twenty-eight and, with my wife Mary, had taken out
a franchise in Riverside, California. By late 1974, the franchise was
booming.
  Having missed a few key chances to meet with Ron, since entering
Scientology in 1961, and having read the promotion enticing me to
come to the Apollo, I decided my time had finally come - to meet the
Old Mall face-to-face.
  The location of the Apollo had been kept secret from the time she
had left England back in 1967; thus, while leaving on my pilgrimage
to the sacred ship, I had little idea where I was headed. I was given
the name of an agent who would meet me in New York and put me on
a plane.
  In New York I was found by the agent, and was told that my next
destination would be Lisbon, where another Church representative
would meet me. This rendezvous also occurred and, after a short trip
through the streets of Lisbon, I was taken to an apartment where I
was greeted by the agent's wife. I did a double-take when I saw three
telex machines clattering away. "These machines receive and send
messages to and from the ship," the agent explained. "This location,
and these machines are to be kept strictly confidential."

  I showered, ate some particularly sweet-sauced shrimp, and then
continued my journey via Madrid, to the Island of Tenerife, one of
the Canary Islands owned by Spain, off the Northwest coast of Africa.
  There, I climbed into a taxi and requested, "Apollo, por favor."
  The driver's face lit up in recognition and, 20 minutes later (at 3:00
in the morning) I was dropped off on the opposite side of the island.
  The ship was a hive of activity. On deck, Israeli singer Tsura and a
band were practicing. Her husky voice and foreign-language song
were spellbinding. The waters of the harbor provided perfect acous-
tics.
  After a routine check for any contagious disease, I was cleared for
boarding.
  Cabin space on the Apollo was at a premium. Only the highest
ranking officers, and now the high paying visitors, were assigned
shared cabins. I would be sharing one with an officer. "Great news!"
exclaimed a young steward, who had introduced himself as "the
host." "An officer, who says he knows you, Barry Watson, happens to
have the bunk above him vacated by a fellow officer, who has just
been sent on mission. He'll let you use that bunk. You'll love this
cabin. It's really luxurious!"
  It turned out to be a tiny, two-bunk cabin which, admittedly, did
have a beautifully varnished door. I pushed my way through the nar-
row doorway, squeezing my luggage under the bottom bunk, and
slurped some bad-tasting water from a tap atop the tiny sink. "Per-
haps that sink could have other uses?" I wondered, having searched
in vain for facilities one takes for granted in the U.S. I climbed into
the narrow, upper bunk, carefully, so as not to bang my head.
  Sleep was quick to come, bordering on coma. It had been a long
and tiring trip.
  The following day, the standard briefing was delivered to me by a
public relations officer - a very pretty, smartly uniformed woman, in
her early twenties. The sounds of seagulls fighting for food blended
with the balmy breezes and workaday sounds and sights of Tenerife's
busy harbor as she invited me to come sit on the promenade deck and
began the briefing:
  "You never mention the word 'Scientology' when you're off the
ship," she explained. "You tell anyone who asks that you are an exec-
utive who has come for training on how to improve your business.
Now, just as general information, should it come up, the Apollo is a
Panamanian-registered vessel and she is owned by Operation Trans-
port Corporation. Operation Transport Corporation consults large


corporations all over the world by telex and correspondence, and
sometimes executives fly in to receive briefings and training. This is
our shore story.
  "The British consulates have been especially bad in telling all sorts
of terrible lies to the locals wherever we go. In Corfu, Greece, for
instance, they told the locals that we had poisoned their water wells.
So, it's important that we have an acceptable story as to who we are
and what we are doing...."
  As she continued her canned speech, my attention was drawn to a
barrel-chested man with red hair, dressed in a freshly laundered,
fashionable, tropical outfit. He had walked onto the deck and was
conversing, in an easy, friendly manner with a teenage girl. As I
looked over towards them, both Hubbard and the girl smiled and
  "Is this the first time you've ever met Ron?" asked the PR girl.
  "Yes," I answered. "I've been close a few times and I've met Mary
Sue on a few occasions, and I did a course at Saint Hill with the older
children, Quentin and Diane."
  "Ron is really very impressive, isn't he?" she said. "He has tremen-
dous presence. I sure wish I could be as thoroughly in present time,
the way he is. He is really there, isn't he?"
  Ron had passed the presence test in my mind. Very impressive in-
deed!
  "Boy, what I'11 be able to tell my group when I get home!" I en-
thused.
  The course hours were liberal, and I had plenty of time to explore the
island and enjoy long conversations with another franchise holder, a
friend of mine, J.C. Hughes.
  I was talking to J.C. on the poop deck when Hubbard, surrounded
by an entourage of messengers, walked up and struck up a conversa-
tion. "I'm having a hell of a time getting that drummer of mine to get
the rhythm the way I want it," he said, referring to the drummer of
the "Apollo All Stars." He was on his way to an all-night recording
session in the island's township.
  As J.C. and Hubbard kidded each other and exchanged anecdotes,
I noticed that Ron was nursing his right arm. The arm was in a sling
inside his coat, while the sleeve hung loose. But other than this,
everything I saw and heard harmonized with the preconceived image
of my hero. This was obviously one of the high points of my life, and I
took it all in with great zest.


*Fear in the Masters Eye*

93

  It was explained to me later that Hubbard had come off his motor-
cycle at high speed and had broken his arm. There seemed to be no
good reason to disbelieve this, although I found myself ill at ease that
Hubbard could be vulnerable enough to have an accident. To my
mind, that kind of travail was generally reserved for lesser beings.
  During the days that followed, I busied myself with the course I
was taking, and it wasn't until a couple of days before I was due to
leave the ship that I saw him again.
  Before dinner, I had noticed that Hubbard's Ford Cortina rental
car was being meticulously prepared on the dock. I decided to forego
the meal in the hope of catching one last glimpse of The Founder be-
fore returning to the States. I placed myself on a section of the deck
where he would have to pass by.
  There was only myself and one of Mary Sue Hubbard's aides on the
deck when Hubbard descended the stairs, alone, towards us. He
passed the aide who bade him, "Good evening, sir." He nodded,
without saying anything, and proceeded to walk in my direction.
  Hubbard studiously avoided looking at me and there was a distinct
air of tension. As he came up to me and began to pass, I ventured a
"Good evening, sir." I felt I could say this with some sense of secu-
rity, since the other guy just got away with it. Hubbard didn't answer,
but instead looked at me, for a brief instant, with an unmistakable
mixture of fear and antagonism in his eyes. He then sped up his pace
so that he virtually scuttled off.
  I felt stunned, and had considerable difficulty sleeping that night as
I kept asking myself: "What did that look in his eyes mean? How
come he was frightened of me?"
  Interviewed at great length the following day, with the tin can elec-
trodes of the E-Meter clutched in my hands, I was asked: "What were
your intentions in coming to the ship? How do you feel about L. Ron
Hubbard? Why have you taken photographs? Do you have any evil
intentions towards L. Ron Hubbard? Mary Sue Hubbard? Any Scien-
tologist in good standing? Are you a member of the FBI? The CIA?
The KGB?", and many more questions in a similar vein.
  I was then escorted to another interview with a security guard, who
demanded my camera and removed the film. I was told I would be
given my camera back (minus the film), along with my passport, just
prior to leaving the ship, when returning to the States.
  It wasn't until four years later that I came across a note written in
Hubbard's hand, over his distinctive signature that read:


  "Re. Bent Corydon: Check this guy out thoroughly! I am informed
that he has been a reporter."
  It was dated coincident with my visit to the Apollo.
  I had been a reporter for an 18-month period, working for a weekly
newspaper in Auckland, New Zealand, where one of my most notable
stories was about a pig who had escaped and was running through a
grocery store. I was a teenager during that time. I was now 32.
Hubbard had apparently been alerted to my background by the intel-
ligence section of his "Guardian office."
  I told no one, except for my wife and my auditor, about this last
meeting with Hubbard. But it left a deep impression, along with the
same, haunting, unanswered question:
  What had that look in Ron's eyes meant?
  The answer to that question took years to appear.
  At the time, I dared not consider the idea that perhaps Hubbard
had something to hide.
  My mood was sober as I flew back to California. "Why," I asked
myself, "do I feel that I have been put under a microscope? Why this
foreboding of danger? The feeling that from now on my life is some-
how going to be fundamentally meddled with?" I tried hard to shrug
off these thoughts and take a nap. Failing to sleep, I tried to read. The
thoughts and feelings kept coming back.
  It was a few months after I returned to the States that the "Rock
Concert" occurred and the Apollo sailed across the Atlantic.


8. Crucifying the Evil Out!

THE INCEPTION OF THE REHABILITATION PROJECT FORCE

    "Offenders against us get ill because they can never truly justify it.
  It is mercy to put a padlock on such a person's activities. Every word
  he says or writes against us, every plot he enters into, alike push him
  further and further down....
    "It's a relief to a bad case to be punished...Axe him - but rehabili-
  tate him too." - L. RON HUBBARD

  It was not until early 1974 that blatant breaking of another person's
will - "break 'em down, build 'em back up" - became full blown and
implemented as official dogma: The Rehabilitation Project Force.
  The RPF was essentially a slave labor prison project, where in-
mates ate scraps from the table after other crew had finished, and
where they were not allowed to speak to any non-RPFers unless spo-
ken to. Even then they were only to briefly answer, while addressing
their betters always as "sir." RPFers were dressed in blue overalls
and had to run wherever they went. (I shouldn't be describing this in
the past tense. The RPF continues to this day, very much a part of the
Church of Scientology.)
  At its inception in 1974, the RPF, aboard the Apollo, was located in
lower hold number 1. "Meals" - consisting of plate scrapings - would
be lowered in a large bucket down into the hold. The RPFers were
not permitted any eating utensils and had to scoop this "food" by
hand.
E

  While the flagship was at sea, escape, of course, was impossible.
  According to Scientology "think," putting someone on the RPF is
actually a benevolent act. RPFers are considered to be, for all practi-
cal purposes, insane, loaded with "evil purposes" which have caused
them to commit many harmful actions (overts). This, in turn, caused
them to have many secrets (withholds).
  The RPF is their last shot at "redemption."

****

  Some who have been on the RPF, but have since managed to leave
Scientology, tell of fabricating "overts," which they then wrote up in
long lists. This was to appease the "ethics" officer, and prove that they
were, indeed, becoming rehabilitated, since it was firmly believed
that they must have lots of overts.
  A common reason for putting someone on the RPF was the decision
to leave.
  According to Hubbard:

    People leave because of their own overts and withholds..
    The only reason anyone has ever left Scientology is because people
  failed to find out about them.

  This became one of the basic doctrines, firmly believed by Scien-
tology staff and crew. That there might be some other factor such as
"choice" or "preference" was overlooked. (After all, it would be
pretty ridiculous to claim the Jews were escaping Nazi Germany be-
cause of their offenses against Hitler, and there's no doubt that Hub-
bard was aware of that.)

****

  Laurel Sullivan testified in 1985 at the Cristofferson trial, and was
questioned about the RPF:

    I had several discussions. L. Ron Hubbard was increasingly upset
  with some of the personnel that were on the ship and he thought that
  their actions were deliberately against him...and he was frustrated.
  Also, he had suffered an accident. had got in a motorcycle accident,
  so he was recovering and in some pain, and he was increasingly upset
  with his own household staff, saying they had not cared for him and so
  on. And he said this kind of thing was manifest amongst the staff and
  the crew and that they had evil or unworthy intentions towards him or
  Scientology...


    There was a period of probably a week where discussions went on on
  this in his office, and he said he wanted certain people segregated....
  And he asked that these people be detected. And so I had one of my
  staff, Barry Watson and a few other part-time staff members in the PR
  bureau, go over various lists of people. Some of the lists were made up
  of people's reads in their PC folders where they had had certain meter
  reads during their private counselling sessions.
    Q: You would look at PC folders on auditing?
    A: Yes. There was what was called the "Rock slam read," which was
  an agitated movement of the needle, indicating discomfort or bad or
  evil intention - that's how it's supposed to be - against the subject be-
  ing discussed, which would be weeded out of their folders. And these
  names were put on lists.

  Hubbard had decided that this particular movement of the needle
of the E-meter was proof of psychosis. (Oddly enough "rock slams"
were found liberally scattered throughout his own auditing folders
when, in 1972, while he was very ill, a review of all his past auditing
was done. Enraged, he had the folders confiscated. The person in
charge of the project was declared a "Suppressive Person.*' See Part
II, Chapter 14.)

****

  John Ausley, one of Hubbard's top executives for 10 years, who left
in 1978, says this on the origins of the RPF:

    Hubbard went out one morning in the Portuguese island of Madeira
  in early '74, shortly after his return from New York. He had sort of a
  rowdy physical side to him that he liked to bring out from time to time.
    It was sort of like, "I'm old but I'm still zesty!"
    I don't remember which bike it was. It was either his Harley
  Electroglyde or his Triumph 750. But cobblestone streets don't offer a
  lot of traction, and there's a lot of bump.
    He went out one morning and decided to challenge the universe. A
  zesty 63-year-old biker: Mr. Harley Bad Ass!
    Anyway, when you start going around corners on cobblestones you
  better start paying real attention to what your bike can and cannot do.
    Now you add a lot of zest - or what they used to call lunacy - on top
  of that. And add some morning dew so that it's all super slippery. And
  crank your bike up to about seventy or eighty and start cookin' through
  turns.
    And just challenge the Whole Universe to take you out.
    And the Universe goes, "Crunch!!! Got ya!"


    And he had strawberries all over his body. He went down at seventy
  or eighty! It didn't have to break him up. It just skinned his ass alive!
    When you do that you're gonna be a hurtin' little puppy. You got
  skin your knee trips as big as pancakes all over your body, and bone
  chips.
    Well, he wouldn't get off international lines when he was in that
  shape. He still wanted to run the group, day to day.
    That was when he invented the RPF.
    While he was healin' up he was being Jimbo bad ass: "I can run the
  group and be unbalanced, defile the group, but still be momentarily
  brilliant while I'm in pain."
    He began to really go out of his way to scream at people at the top of
  his lungs for ten or fifteen minutes.
    He used to blow up at his wife. He would scream at her in front of
  his little nubile messengers. I mean that's seriously rude.
    There are two old boys I know who hunt. And they hunt bear and
  wild boar back in the swamps. One of em's named Eugene and one's
  named Booger. And Booger said, "That's something you'd sic your
  dogs on."

  In a technical bulletin dated 1 November 1974, Hubbard wrote of
what was to be expected of "Rock Slammers" who were "finished
products" or "successful completions" of the RPF:

    A handled RSer [rockslammer] can be expected to eventually wind
  up in the same category as a cleared cannibal. His experiential track is
  too educated in evil and too uneducated in anything else. So even
  when cleaned up will need lots of living.

  The degree of degradation experienced by someone on the RPF is
difficult to describe. To Scientologists, Hubbard is the ultimate au-
thority on affairs of the mind and spirit, and he tells RPFers that they
are sub-human, incredibly degraded, evil, and wretched beyond be-
lief.
  It was the ultimate evaluation; the ultimate invalidation.

  GERRY ARMSTRONG :

    There is no way to really describe the RPF experience, the hope-
  lessness, the humiliation, the horror. It seemed to go on forever, the
  days all identical, no time to oneself, the same blue boiler suits like




  prison garb, day after day, the same questions in the same endless se-
  curity checks.
    Hubbard's purpose in creating the RPF, and running it as a prison
  with assignees considered criminals, was the breaking of people's wills,
  the total subjugation of anyone he considered exhibited "counter in-
  tention" to his goals.
    He achieved his purpose with me so well that I thanked him for the
  opportunity of doing the RPF, much like prisoners of war, who are
  broken emotionally and spiritually, through deprivation and mind con-
  trol techniques, thank their captors.

  Graduates of the RPF routinely wrote (and to this day write) "Suc-
cess Stories," where they thank Hubbard for "giving them their san-
ity." That "sanity" being the "product" of having successfully com-
pleted the RPF - very much a "gift" from L. Ron Hubbard.
  Los Angeles Church President Ken Hoden is a graduate of the
RPF. When questioned on the subject by the L.A. Weekly, he re-
sponded, "I was RPFed for nine months in 1982....I liked the
RPF."
  "Who wants to scrub floors and cart trash for a year?" responded
one former Church staffer after hearing of Hoden's comments. "The
idea is to make you think twice before doing or saying anything that
church officials will RPF you for."

****

  Hubbard had begun the Rehabilitation Project Force shortly be-
fore I had arrived on the Flagship in mid-1974. I saw crew members
in dark boiler suits working on separate decks and eating food in small
groups at irregular times.
  They looked to me like they were in some state of shock, and when
once I spoke to one of them he seemed not to know how to react. He
apparently wondered what a "paying public" was doing talking to an
RPFer? He had the look of a pursued animal. The pain in his eyes
told of very long hours, heavy work, bad food, and emotional trauma.
  I felt odd about the RPF. It nagged at me. What in hell was going
on?
  At the time I put such thoughts into the background for the same
reason I had ignored the previous abuses I had come across in
Scientology: People were obviously excited about the dreams that


100

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

Hubbard had outlined, and there were such good feelings that usu-
ally blossomed during and following auditing sessions; a warm glow;
hope and positive expectation of a better world.
  I still believed that the survival of the human race, a sane planet,
and the glorious freedom of"Operating Thetan," were possible "only
through Scientology"!
  And a fellow can do a lot of selective forgetting and "unlooking"
when he believes that such things are at stake.

9

The Brainwashing Manual

  In my opinion psychiatry has been guilty of abusive practices - for
example, brain mutilation and pre-frontal lobotomy, and also electro-
convulsive shock "therapy."
  In the Soviet Union, where human rights are for all practical pur-
poses nonexistent - or, more exactly, existent to the extent they serve
the well-being of the State - opportunity for psychiatric abuse is vir-
tually unlimited.
  It's well known that the policy "disagree with the State and you're
mentally ill" is often used to quiet dissidents.
  The Church of Scientology has an identical policy. To be a critic of
the Church or its Founder is to be insane. Simple as that.
  To be unswervingly delighted with every word that L. Ron Hub-
bard ever uttered or wrote, and to be pleased as can be with the ac-
tions and policies of the Church hierarchy-well, this means you
must be quite sane indeed!

  ELENA LORRELL :

    The Church of Scientology is truly a fulfillment of Orwell's 1984.
  That it has gained such support among Americans is testimony to the
  unawareness of so many who don't want to hear about the accounts of
  Soviet dissidents such as Soltzhenitzin and others.
    Life in the Sea Organization is parallel to living behind the iron cur-
  tain. The types of censorship that are imposed on Sea Org members,
  the selective truth, the priorities and the emphasis on "the group
  above all" under the guise of"the greatest good for the greatest num-
  ber" so closely parallel Communism.

101


102

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    In 1976 I was ordered to go to Paris to receive an honor on behalf of
  LRH as a writer.
    At the same place there was a showing of some paintings by a Soviet
  dissident, who had recently come over to the West. I had a series of
  meetings with him and some other dissidents. That was the first time I
  realized the degree to which I was intellectually dissaffected with the
  Sea Org, yet for various reasons I stayed on for some time.
    I began to understand this man's life and why he was exiled to
  Siberia. It all sounded so similar to LRH's Rehabilitation Project
  Force. And I really realized the degree to which my lifestyle was paral-
  lel to what theirs had been in Russia.

  After hearing Elena's story, I began searching through Hubbard's
writings and other Church (and Church-sponsored)publications with
the purpose of gaining a greater understanding of what he was really
doing on the flagship (and, to a slightly lesser extent, in his land based
organizations).
  I came across a little known but very revealing text: "The
Brainwashing Manual."
  A little research brought to light that it had first appeared in 1955.
The propaganda line on it (originating from Hubbard) was that it was
found on the doorstep. Some concerned somebody had "slipped it
under the door of a Scientology org."
  It consisted, according to the manual's foreword, of a transcribed lec-
ture by the dreaded Beria, head of Stalin's Secret Police, given to stu-
dents of psychopolitics at Leningrad University around 1950. Thereaf-
ter it was used as a textbook on how to wage psychological warfare on
Western democracies. This psychological assault was to be followed by
an eventual takeover of the West. This takeover would be achieved by
first taking over the psychiatric professions, and the psychiatric and
mental health organizations. Supposedly, this step was already well un-
der way.
  The message was that psychiatry is solely a commie operation.
  Hubbard had long wanted control of the field of"mental health,"
and anything he could do to spoil the image of a competitor (in this
case psychiatry) was a worthwhile action. (The manual was later actu-
ally being distributed by such groups as the John Birch Society - who
believed wrongly that it was indeed a transcribed lecture by Beria.)

 Ron Jr.:

    Dad wrote every word of it. Barbara Bryan and my wife typed the
  manuscript off his dictation. And then we took it up to New York and


*The Brainwashing Manual*

103

  tried to get them to do a program on it with Charles Collingwood at
  CBS. Dad also tried to sell it to the FBI.
    Years later they snuck it into the Library of Congress, and some - i'
  body else came by and said, "Oh lookee, it was found in the Library of
  Congress!" which is a lot of baloney.

  Of course, in the book Hubbard plugs Dianetics by having "Beria"
mention Dianetics as a key target of "Russian psychopolitics."
"Beria" calls Dianetics a threat to "his" program of implementing
"Russian" psychopolitical brainwashing techniques to undermine the
West.

  HUBBARD/"BERIA":

    The psychopolitical operative should also spare no expense in smash-
  ing out of existence, by whatever means, any actual healing group, such
  as that of acupuncture in China, such as Christian Science and Dianetics
  in the United States; such as Catholicism in Italy and Spain; and the prac-
  tical psychology groups of England.

  RON JR.:

    If you want to see how LRH really worked things org-wise, espe-
  cially from the mid-sixties on, you just have to read the brainwashing
  manual.

  John Sanborne, who had been the editor of Hubbard's books since  i
the early fifties, was there in 1955 at the manual's inception:


    I suggested it. Just kidding around on his front porch. Slygo Avenue
  in Silver Springs, Maryland. Talking about how are we going to get
  these psychiatrists. I said, "What we need to do is take over their sub-
  ject. What we need to put out is a manual of psych-military something
  or other...as coming from the communists and then put a lot of psy-
  chiatry in it."
    And we're sitting there, with our chairs tipped back on the front
  porch, tipped against the house, with our feet up on the railing, and all
  of a sudden he came down on his chair and he grabs me.
    And I thought, "I've had it!"
    And he said, "That's it!"
    Then he disappeared into the little front room which was sort of a
  bedroom and study, and you could hear him in there dictating this  i
  book.

  The brainwashing techniques revealed in the manual reflect a start-
ling similarity with the control mechanisms so apparent on the flag-


104

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

ship and in Scientology orgs. However, having been out of print for
well over twenty years, its existence is unknown to most Scien-
tologists.
  From Brian Ambry's critique on Scientology:

    While "white Scientology" (techniques and data which have the po-
  tential to assist an individual to become more independent and self-
  determined) is promoted by the Church as the Entirety of the subject,
  there is also a dark side to Scientology. A dark side which makes indi-
  viduals permanently dependent upon the Church, and, instead of self-
  determined, "Ron-determined...."
    The marriage of potentially liberating methodologies with enslaving
  ones, the mixing of truth with lies, and love with hate: that is the
  strange story of L. Ron Hubbard and his Church.*
    Hubbard was a "user." He used freedom He used goodness. Help-
  ing others feel better, understand mqre, communicate better - this
  was all fine, so long as he considered that it increased his power.
    He helped others so as to own them; to create gratitude and trust
  and give himself authority or "altitude." He set up people to be ma-
  nipulated by first assisting them to feel better to have "wins" and so
  forth.

    There are those who insist that all "gains" and "wins" in Scientology
  are delusory - that all the counseling is brainwashing. That's nonsense.
  The trap is much more sophisticated than that.
    He was a man of many methods.

****

  The following material, written by Hubbard, was presented as from
a speech by the murderous Beria.
  All bracketed words in the following quotes have been inserted by
me as an illustration of how the techniques described can be applied
exactly to what was occurring aboard the ship under Hubbard's com-
mand, and emulated in his many organizations.
  From the Brainwashing Manual (Hubbard/"Beria"):

    The populace [Scientologists] must be brought into the belief that
  every individual within it who rebels in any way, shape, or form
  against efforts or activities to enslave [Scientologize] the whole, must
  be considered to be a deranged person whose eccentricities are neu-
  rotic or insane....

*For a more detailed look at this bizarre state of affairs, see Chapters 12,
Part I, "Souls Turned Inside Out," and Chapter 10, Part II, "Clay in the
Master's
Hands."
*The Brainwashing Manual*

105

  Labelling any dissident "psychotic" is commonplace in Scientol-
ogy This is mandated by Hubbard's written policies. For instance in
his Introduction to Scientology Ethics, written in 1966, Hubbard
states under the category of "suppressive acts" (i.e., "high crimes"
against Scientology):

    DISAVOWAL, SPLINTERING, DIVERGENCE
    1. Public disavowal of Scientology or Scientologists in good standing
  with Scientology Organizations.
    2. Announcing departure from Scientology ...
    3. Seeking to resign or leave courses or sessions and refusing to re-
  turn despite normal ebrts ...
    8. Dependency on mental or philosophic procedures other than
  Scientology ...

  To commit any of the above (or dozens of other similar) "high
crimes" is to be, per Scientology "ethics," a"suppressive person,
and to officially be announced in a"declare" as such. To a Scientolo-
gist any one "declared S.P." is immediately and unquestioningly con-
sidered insane.
  Of these "suppressive persons" Hubbard wrote in the book Science
of Survival: "Such people should be taken from society as rapidly as
possible and uniformly institutionalized...."

  HUBBARD/"BERIA":

    Entirely by bringing about public conviction that the sanity of a per- j
  son is in question, it is possible to discount and eradicate all the goals
  and activities of that person.
    It is important to know that the entire subject of loyalty is thus as
  easily handled as it is. One of the first and foremost missions of the
  psychopolitician ["Ethics" Officer, Church of Scientology] is to make
  an attack upon communism [Scientology] and insanity synonymous.

  On a radio show in Portland, Oregon, I was described in 1985 by
Los Angeles Church of Scientology president Ken Hoden as "a lone
psychotic screaming into the wind"*

*My wife and I and my closest associates were initially declared suppressive persons,
or "S.P.s" (psychotic) in late 1982 after we announced our departure from the Church
of Scientology. Some 600 others, mostly experienced, long-time Scientologists,
had also been declared "insane" by the Church during the previous 18 months or so.


106

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  HUBBARD/"BERIA" :

    No laymen [Scientologists] would dare adventure to place judgment
  upon the state of sanity of an individual whom the psychiatrist [Church
  of Scientology] has already declared insane [S.P.].
    Should any whisper, or pamphlets, against psychopolitical activities
  [Scientology] be published, it should be laughed into scorn, branded
  an immediate hoax, and its perpetrator or publisher should be, at the
  first opportunity, branded as insane....

  (See Paulette Cooper story in Chapter 13. After she wrote an anti-
Scientology book Hubbard's Guardian's Office initiated a near suc-
cessful frame-up to have her institutionalized.)
  The idea that anyone who doesn't see eye to eye with Hubbard is
insane goes back, really, to the very earliest days of Dianetics and
Scientology. However, it wasn't made official written policy and the
"standard ethics action" until one day in 1965.
  John Sanborn, recalls the first "S.P. Declare":

    Hubbard had Marilyn Routsong, who was the World Wide Ethics
  Officer at St. Hill Manor, deliver the first Suppressive Person Declare.
  He had written this system up and now he was going to use it.
    Hubbard said declare so and so. And she put out the order. Boy, in
  those days being declared was like a death sentence. [It still is consid-
  ered so for those still inside Scientology.*]
    He said, "As soon as you give him the order come back." And when
  she did he said, "How did he act? What did he say? Did he say any-
  thing?" And so forth. He was thrilled like a kid to see how his new
  dictatorial system was going to work!

  THE "BRAINWASHING MANUAL":

    Particularly in Capitalistic countries, an insane person has no rights
  under law. No person who is insane may hold property. No person
  who is insane may testify. Thus we have an excellent road along which
  we can travel toward our certain goal and destiny.

  Wrote Hubbard in the book Science of Survival:

    In any event, any person from 2.0 down on the tone scale should not

*Scientologists believe that their survival as spiritual beings is totally
dependent upon remaining in good graces with the Church.


*The Brainwashing Manual*

107

  have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind....(Em-
  phasis added)

  (The Tone Scale is a scale of emotional states. See Part II, Chapter
2: those chronically below "2.0" are regarded as insane.)
  According to Hubbard a person's reaction to Scientology is a direct
indicator of where they are on the "Tone Scale" - a negative reaction
indicating LOU'.
  If this were the "Scientology Planet," so yearned for by the rank
and file of the movement, all critics of Hubbard and his Church
would, by this standard, be without rights of any kind.
  Perhaps, if we were not exterminated, the Church, in its benevo-
lence, might offer us a chance to make a "reality adjustment" in some
rehabilitation camp.

  HUBBARD/"BERIA" :

    It is not enough for the State [Sea Org/Scientology] to have goals.
    These goals, once put forward, depend for their completion upon
  the loyalty and obedience of the workers [Sea Org crew and staff mem-
  bers]. These engaged for the most part in hard labors, have little time
  for idle speculation, which is good."
    ...Hypnosis is induced by acute fear. They discovered it could also
  be induced by shock of an emotional nature, and also by extreme priva-
  tion, as well as by blows...."
    Belief is engendered by a certain amount of fear and terror from an
  authoritative level, and this will be followed by obedience.
    The body is less able to resist a stimulus if it has insufficient food and
  is weary....Refusal to let them sleep over many days, denying them
  adequate food, then brings about an optimum state for the receipt of a
  stimulus.
    Degradation and conquest are companions.
    By lowering the endurance of a person...and by constant degra-
  dation and defamation, it is possible to induce, thus, a state of shock
  which will receive adequately any command given.
    Any organization which has the spirit and courage to display inhu-
  manity, savageness, brutality, and uncompromising lack of humanity,
  will be obeyed. Such a use of force is, itself, the essential ingredient of
  greatness....
    As an example of this, we find an individual refusing to obey and
  being struck. His refusal to obey is now less vociferous. He is struck
  again and his resistance is lessened once more. He is hammered and
  pounded again and again until, at length, his only thought is direct and


108

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  implicit obedience to that person from whom the force has emanated.
  This is a proven principle....For it is to our benefit that an individual
  who is struck again and again from a certain source will, at length, hyp-
  notically believe anything he is told by the source of the blows....
  Only when a person has been beaten, punished, and mercilessly ham-
  mered can hypnotism on him be guaranteed in its effectiveness.
    The psychopolitical dupe [ideal Scientologist] is a well-trained indi-
  vidual who serves in complete obedience to the psychopolitical opera-
  tive [L. Ron Hubbard or the Church hierarchy]....
    The cleverness of our attack in the field of psychopolitics [the human
  mind and spirit] is adequate to avoid the understanding of the layman
  and the usual stupid official [Scientologist and Scientology staff mem-
  ber], and by operating entirely under the banner of authority, with the
  oft-repeated statement that the principles of psychotherapy [the ever-
  present next mysterious upper level of auditing] are too devious for
  common understanding an entire revolution can be affected [the crea-
  tion of obedient converts]....
    In rearranging loyalties we must have command of their values. In
  the animal the first loyalty is to himself. This is destroyed by demon-
  strating errors in him....The second loyalty is to his family unit....
  This is destroyed...by lessening the value of marriage, by making an
  easiness of divorce and by raising the children whenever possible by
  the State. The next loyalty is to his friends and local environment. This
  is destroyed by lowering his trust and bringing about reportings upon
  him allegedly by his fellows or the town or village authorities.* The
  next is to the State [the Church of Scientology] and this, for the pur-
  poses of Communism** [Scientology] is the only loyalty [sic] which
  should exist...

  In Scientology Organizations "Parent time" is a short period of an
hour or so per day for the parents to visit with their children, of their
"statistics are up." Children are otherwise watched as a group by full-
time sitters. The child-care conditions in the past have been de-
scribed as scandalous.

*To not report a fellow Scientologist who is seen violating one of Hubbard's
numerous rules is a major crime.
  This policy gives a strong incentive to report even on close friends and
family. Stories of husbands or wives "writing their partners up" regarding.
intimate conversations are not uncommon. (Laurell Sullivan, Hubbard's personal
public relations officer who left in 1980, burst into tears in court upon
recounting such an incident.)
**Please keep in mind that I am not implying that the Church of Scientology is
a communist operation. The IRS case against the Church would appear to indicate
that it has been a "capitalistic" money making operation, while at the same time
utilizing practices with which any late 1960s fanatical Chinese Head Guard would feel
quite at home.


*The Brainwashing Manual*

109

  Marriages among staff in Scientology, especially in the Sea Org,
have a very high incidence of failure. Strong sexual and family loyal-
ties, such as that developing between Hana Eltringham and John
O'Keefe, were routinely undermined, in one way or another.

  HUBBARD/"BERIA" :

    The field of the mind must be sufficiently dominated by the psycho-
  political operative [Scientology], so that wherever tenets of the mind
  are taught they will be hypnotically received.

  From "Hubbard Communications office Policy" Letter of 14 Janu-
ary 1969 :

    Thus in the case of Scientology Orgs one should attack with the end
  in view of taking over the whole field of mental health.

  Could it be that Hubbard wanted to become the authority on the
mind and spirit so that whole populations would hypnotically follow
what he said?
  Certainly for the membership, he is the final authority; speaking
from on high; his infallibility never doubted.
  According to Ron Jr., his father "believed he would achieve enor-
mous personal power from taking over the field of mental health."

  HUBBARD/"BERIA" :

    The tenets of rugged individualism, personal determinism, self-will,
  imagination, and personal creativeness are alike in the masses antipa-
  thetic to the good of the Greater State [the Church of Scientology].
  These willful and unaligned are no more than illnesses which will bring
  about disaffection, disunity, and at length the collapse of the group to
  which the individual is attached.
    The constitution of man lends itself easily and thoroughly to certain
  and positive regulation from without of all of its functions, including
  those of thinkingness [sic],* obedience, and loyalty, and these things
  must be controlled if the greater State [Church of Scientology] is to
  ensue.
    The end thoroughly justifies the means.

*Hubbard often added "ness" to the ends of verbs, transforming them to nouns.
For example: "beingness," "doingness," "havingness," "eatingness," "sexingness,"
etc.


110

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

THE LANGUAGE OF SCIENTOLOGY

  Some of the nomenclature of Scientology is innovative and, in a
positive sense, useful. In fact, probably the best method for someone
to get an overview understanding of the subject is to scan through a
Scientology Dictionary. There is also, however, a negative side.
Much of the nomenclature is "loaded language."
  Says Robert J. Lifton in Thought Reform and the Psychology of
Totalism:

    The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the
  thought-terminating cliche. The most far-reaching and complex of hu-
  man problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-
  sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These be-
  come the start and finish of any ideological analysis. In thought reform,
  for instance, the phrase "bourgeois mentality" is used to encompass
  and critically dismiss ordinarily troublesome concerns like the quest
  for individual expression, the exploration of alternative ideas, and the
  search of perspective and balance...[loaded language is] the "lan-
  guage of non-thought."

  By using loaded language such as "the open-minded case" as a term
of abuse, and "other practices" as a term of utmost scorn, Hubbard
shut off (for his followers) all competitive ideas and practices in the
fields of the mind and spirit.
  In one of the numerous examples of this in Scientology, Hubbard
declared "middle-class mentality" suppressive, period!
  Lifton continues:

    Also involved is an underlying assumption that language - like all
  other human products - can be owned and operated by the movement
  ...the effect of the language...can be summed up in one word:
  constriction. The individual is, so to speak, linguistically deprived; and
  since language is so central to all human experience his capacities for
  thinking and feeling are immensely narrowed.

****

There have been a lot of studies done in medical journals on what
were the breaking points of Korean prisoners of war.
  During the Sea Org era, especially, Hubbard was able to test each
crew member for breaking points. He honed this to where he had it
down to a fine art.


*The Brainwashing Manual*

111

  I have come to the conclusion that L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. was used
as one of Hubbard's guinea pigs to test this premise of blows and obe-
dience; that many of the lessons Hubbard learned from his experi-
ments on his son were further implemented on the ship.
  Ron Jr. was, in essence, a life-long "prisoner of war"; a prisoner of
Hubbard and his organization's machinations. Hubbard trained his
troops to find a person's breaking point, in order to bend him or her
to his will. He had done this with his own son, early and continu-
ously.
  While Ron Jr. was not physically struck by his father, his weak-
nesses were exploited.
  When he virtually fled the organization in 1959, according to his
account, he was hounded. Although he was out of the organization,
his father retained the ability to manipulate him, even into changing
his name.
  It is obvious to anyone who knows Ron Jr. that he spent his whole
life attempting to escape from the mental "prison" that his father had
created for him.
  The pressures of being a "number one son" of the "Savior of
Mankind," were perhaps reflected in what appears to have been the
suicide - by an overdose of drugs - of Quentin, Hubbard's oldest son
by Mary Sue (Ron Jr.'s half brother). Quentin's body was found in a
car near McCurran Airport in Las Vegas in early 1977. He went into a
coma and died in a hospital after 14 days. He was 22 years of age.
  Some 18 months prior to that time, my wife-while taking a
Scientology course in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1975 - observed
Quentin running away from his father, who was coming down on an
elevator. She describes his reaction upon discovering that Hubbard
was on the elevator: "He paled dramatically and exclaimed, 'Oh shit,
it's Dad, I've got to get out of here!'" He sprinted up several flights of
stairs.
  He had previously confided in her that he desperately needed help
regarding his problems with his father. She says his emotion was
"terror. "
  She observed him again in early 1977, in Florida at the "Flag Land
Base," not long before his death, looking devastated, having again
been placed in a "lowered ethics condition."
  It does not appear to have been a wonderful gift of fate to have
been born the oldest son of L. Ron Hubbard.


10

The Sea Org Goes Ashore

  The "rock concert" and the numerous UNWELCOME mats had left
Hubbard frustrated with the Eastern Atlantic. So on October 10,
1974, he steamed towards the Americas.
  Elena Lorrel tells the story of the final stages of the crossing of the
Atlantic :

    The night we were coming in to America (South Carolina) from Ma-
  deira, somebody picked up the frantic call from Jane, [Jane Kember-
  head of the Guardian's Office] on the pier saying, "Don't come in,
  there are 140 IRS agents waiting on the dock."
    So we took off for the Bahamas.
    We berthed at several ports during what was to be almost a year's
  cruise around the Caribbean. The intention had been to land in
  America, but since those plans had been foiled, we had to make the
  best of a difficult situation.
    In late 1974, in the Caribbean, LRH went ashore and we went to a
  movie with him. It was a real landmark because it was one of the first
  times he had been ashore for well over a year.
    He would get reports from his intelligence people that it was unsafe
  to go places. He didn't like to hear that, and, when he did, he could get
  really nasty to be around ....
    Cathy Cariataki and I knew that the only way to get him in a good
  humour was to get him off the ship. So we mocked up these dumb
  photo shoots. And he went ashore and he loved it. He wanted more
  and more and more.
    Well, after the Dominican Republic (where we had done a lot of
  photo shooting) we went to Jamaica. He told me he wanted to shoot
  stuff to do with the buccaneers. So I had to go off and do research on


*The Sea Org Goes Ashore*

113

Henry Morgan the pirate. And one of the pictures that are peddled, of
LRH sitting in the open Pontiac with the messengers, is the one we
shot at the fort there in Jamaica.
  Well, I tell you, I almost got knifed trying to get that
wouldn't go anywhere unless he had a convertible.
  I had to go into the ghetto section and play footsie with Kingfish,
who was the local head of the organized crime there. The only convert-
ible on the island was also the fanciest car on the island. It also hap-
pened to be his car!
  None of the taxi drivers would take me there. They told me that this
guy would kill me for sport. That's how motivated I was. I "made it go
right" just so I wouldn't get in horrible trouble with the Old Man.
  And I don.t know how I kept from getting knifed but we came back
with the big red convertible.
  Anyway we did a ghetto photo shoot where, I swear to God: he was
sitting up snapping pictures of these destitute children; and there were
hungry angry people with broken bottles and knives coming at us.
  He'd yell at Liz Gablehouse, "You're the PR, handle them." And he
wouldn't even bat an eye, he'd just keep shooting and expect her to
handle these huge guys who were coming at us, trying to knife us.
  There we were in a convertible, in all our glory, sitting on top of this
thing like it was a parade. And there were three or four messengers
sitting there in their little white tooty fruit outfits handing him equip-
ment back and forth lenses and camera backs - and Liz was the PR,
and he'd yell at her to handle this guy who'd be there running along
the side of the car with a rusty machette trying to whack at us. All she
could try to do is say things to them in Spanish or their local lingo, of
which she'd learned a few words, in order to try and buy us a few sec-
onds while I got Cathy to speed up the car.
  After that there were more photo shoots and he was going to publish
this whole journal. Then Cathy and I sat down and reviewed our situa-
tion and said, "God we're really on a roll. The man hasn't been in a
sour mood in two weeks and he's constantly asking, "What's the next
thing planned ashore?" So now we were at sea headed to Curacao and
decided that we would have to mock up as many shoots and get him off
the ship.
  And the people on international management lines realized what a
successful action this was because he was being kind to them and the
orders of the day were real cheerful and he was not meddling with
them and so on.
  Then we went to this synagogue where, for some reason known only
to the Devil, he was just being a spoiled brat. He so alienated the or-
thodox Rabbi there that he tried to throw LRH out of the sanctuary
surrounding the synagogue. Here was LRH cursing the Rabbi and


114

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  using God's name in vain to such an extent that the Rabbi was holding
  his ears and just screaming!
    We placated the poor man after LRH left.
    The photographs he took there really were spectacular, however.
  He got some extraordinary shots and we put together a brochure that
  they still use at that synagogue to this day, as a souvenir.

****

  The pleasure Hubbard was deriving from these photo shoots did
not prevent him from having another heart attack. Since he refused to
go to a hospital, X-ray equipment and other medical gear had to be
located and brought aboard.
  Finally the condition got very serious and Kima Douglas, who was
medical officer at the time, with the assistance of others took him, off
the ship, driving him to a hospital on the island of Curacao where he
received treatment.
  For three months following his treatment, Hubbard stayed at a
Cabana-type bungalow, which is part of the Hilton Hotel there, re-
covering.
  As he began to regain mobility and strength, more photo shoot mis-
sions were undertaken on the island. As it had been in the Mediterra-
nean, however, so it was to be in the Caribbean: the ship was being
expelled from the various ports where it sought refuge. Finally the
decision was made to attempt to relocate on the mainland.
  Homer Shomer, a successful businessman attracted to the lofty
stated ideals of the Sea Org, says:

    The actual moving to Florida was the best kept secret that I knew of.
  One of the last places we were in was Curacao and we were there for a
  number of months. The shore story was that we were refitting the for-
  ward lower hold for berthing. We'd actually spent 20 to 25 thousand
  dollars getting it refitted and painting it and chipping it, and welding
  the air shafts. And we really had no intention of ever using it!

  In October of 1975, the ship sailed to Freeport in the Bahamas and
the crew was divided into three groups: The management group was
flown to New York City, where they established a management unit
called RONY (Relay office New York). It was located on the fifth floor
of the N.Y. org. A second group went to Miami, and a third to
Washington, D.C. The remaining crew travelled by bus from wher-
ever they landed to Daytona. Here they gathered in a motel on the
beach.

*The Sea Org Goes Ashore*

115

  Hubbard flew in from the Bahamas to Miami airport with three
aides. One carried a million dollars in cash. They all carried passports
giving false names.
  He took up residence in another hotel on the beach, next door to
the one his crew were occupying. Mary Sue Hubbard and her entou-
rage arrived a short while later.
  Wrote Tonja Burden:

    The boat was sold sometime in October 1975. Approximately 500 peo-
  ple moved to Daytona Beach. We rented several hotels in Daytona.
    After several months we moved to the hotel in Clearwater. At first,
  LRH called it the United Churches. I heard LRH scheme this cover. He
  said it would be called United Churches, although no other churches
  were involved.
    At Fort Harrison, I remained LRH's personal messenger. I observed
  LRH control the operation of Scientology throughout the various "orgs"
  worldwide from Fort Harrison. I coded and decoded messages to, and di-
  rectly from, Hubbard. He used approximately 15 codes at this time to
  conceal his operations, programs and policies, which he disseminated
  worldwide. I personally delivered messages concerning Operation Snow
  White, and Operation Freakout, Operation Goldmine, and other Scien-
  tology secret and illegal operations to frame people, steal, infiltrate pri-
  vate and government offices, and break into buildings. At this time I was
  only 15 years old and did what I was told, and although I knew the names
  of the operations I did not know the exact nature of those operations. I
  also filed these operations in Hubbard's personal filing cabinets.

  "Operation Goldmine" was a local Clearwater operation. She de-
scribes it as a "conspiracy to use Scientology funds to, in effect, take
over the city of Clearwater."

TONJA :

    All telex communications were processed through his messengers.
  Telexes were sent to all Guardian offices Worldwide. One telex from
  LRH questioned Mayor Cazares' background. He discovered this in-
  formation through a private investigator.

   In just one of the operations conducted against the mayor, the
Guardian's office faked a hit-and-run accident implicating Cazares.
Then they leaked the incident to his political opponents.
  Following this "hit and run accident" a church memo gleefully
crowed: "I should think the mayor's political days are at an end." The


116

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

operation did in fact cause considerable havoc for the mayor, but was
eventually resolved as part of a subsequent F.B.I. investigation.

****

  About this same time, Hubbard was being fitted for several suits of
clothes when the tailor, who happened to be a science fiction fan, rec-
ognized him and asked him if he was in fact the L. Ron Hubbard. He
fessed up. The man was ecstatic and very proud to have shaken his
hand.
  The tailor then went back to Tarpon Springs and told everyone he
knew about his exciting afternoon.
  This story was soon picked up by the St. Petersburg Times, and
staff reporter Betty Orsini discovered that Hubbard was indeed living
in Dunedin. She blew the Scientology cover and exposed the fact that
they were the real group behind the "United Churches" purchase of
the Fort Harrison and various other buildings in Clearwater.
  The deception was not appreciated by Mayor Cazares, who initi-
ated hearings regarding the Church's activities.
  Hubbard took off in the middle of the night. Jim Dincali and Mike
Douglas accompanied him on a trip to Washington, D.C., by car.
They took out an apartment and occupied it for the next five or six
months.

****

  Being located on land, as opposed to the ship, posed certain prob-
lems. Actions had to be taken to maintain the kind of control over the
crew that a ship's environment had previously provided.
  The Rehabilitation Project Force was reinstated with some novel
adaptations to the new environment. One such adaptation was the
"RPF's RPF."
  This was for those who would not "comply" or do the RPF.
  Those on the RPF's RPF in Fort Harrison in Clearwater report be-
ing locked in the lower boiler rooms to live among the piping, to have
to clean the filthiest areas of the property, and to being guarded
against "blowing" (trying to escape).
  According to eyewitness reports, the RPF's RPF in the lower boiler
rooms was a nightmare. Dimly lit, with hot steam pipes running every-
where, the subject slept on the floor on a blanket. The boilers ran day
and night, clanking and rumbling.
  After a few days, one looked like an animal, depraved and de-
graded. Soot, dirt, grease and grime were everywhere. Inmates were


*The Sea Org Goes Ashore*

117

instilled with a deep fear of violating a senior's orders. These staff
were programmed to be machine-like producers whose function is
not to think, only to comply...to carry out orders.
  Tonja Burden wrote:

    At the Fort Harrison, security guards were stationed outside to pre-
  vent people from "blowing." To "blow" meant to leave Scientology.
  People were not allowed to just leave Scientology. Approximately 30
  or 40 people tried to escape. These people were caught and placed in
  the RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force). The RPF was a Scientology
  "concentration camp," where people who were "security threats" were
  kept under guard. The RPF at Fort Harrison was in a storage area.
    LRH declared the people suppressive persons if they escaped from
  Scientology. He sent telexes to the Guardian's office listing the SPs. I
  have seen the names of people declared by LRH. I continued to de-
  code and code messages from Hubbard to the Guardian's office seven
  days a week until August of 1977.
    In August of 1977, I refused to perform a certain order and was sent
  to the galley, where I performed menial labor until I broke apart emo-
  tionally and was sent to the RPF on direct orders of Hubbard.
    Finally, in November 1977, I decided I had to escape. At approxi-
  mately 4:30 A.M., I stole the keys from a guard who was sleeping at the
  door to the storage area where we slept. I crawled through an air duct
  on my stomach, where I observed the telephone in the lobby. I saw no
  one, ran to the telephone, and called my father and told him about my
  situation. He told me he would send my uncle to come and get me and
  take me to Fort Lauderdale. I convinced the officers in the RPF that
  my uncle was a VIP for the Miami Dolphins (which was not true), and
  that if they refused his request to visit, that might cause bad public
  relations. Finally, with my uncle's assistance, I escaped and flew back
  to Vegas.
    Approximately two weeks after I returned to Vegas, two of Hub-
  bard's agents came to my house and told me that Hubbard wanted to
  see me. I told them that I would never return. They then asked if I
  would go for a cup of coffee with them, which after a short while I
  agreed to do. I got into the car in the front seat and sat between the
  two agents. After driving a few minutes, I noticed we were driving to
  the highway, and I asked where we were going. They told me I was
  being taken to Los Angeles to see Hubbard.
    In Los Angeles, I was locked in a room and forced to undergo a "se-
  curity check" on the E-meter. I was very scared and crying, and told
  them that I had a family reunion to go to during the holidays. I told
  them I had relatives in the police department in Las Vegas, and that I
  would come back after the holidays. I convinced them to release me,


118

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  and I returned home by bus. For weeks after I returned home, they
  constantly called me to find out when I'd return. I said never!

****

  Tonja tells of how she got involved with Hubbard and of the events
leading up to her sentence to the RPF:

    I was in Scientology from the age of 13 to age of 18 and was paid
  between $2.50 a week and $17.50 a week. I received no education, and
  in fact phony classrooms were set up in Florida to demonstrate to edu-
  cational officials that education was taking place. I have been sent a bill
  for the amount of $58,000.00 for auditing given me while I was working
  for them.
    I [had] signed my billion-year contract on or about March 3, 1973.
    My parents joined the "American Saint Hill Organization" while I
  was placed in the "Cadet Organization."
    The Cadet Organization consisted of two three story buildings that
  housed approximately 400 children. It was designed to teach children
  about Scientology.
    I was assigned to care, clean and feed the children, since I and an-
  other girl my age were the oldest there.
    The living conditions were squalid. Glass from broken windows lay
  strewn over the floors and, in some places where children played, live
  electrical wires were exposed.
    We received little food. On several occasions spoiled milk with mag-
  gots were served to the children. (The maggots were removed by hand
  before the milk was served.) In addition to caring for the children, I
  cleaned the toilets daily.
    I wrote to L. Ron Hubbard explaining the conditions. Nothing im-
  proved.
    The children were not allowed to live with their parents. Scientol-
  ogy permitted one visit every other week, and only for 45 minutes dur-
  ing mealtimes.
    One day after about three months, a man arrived at the Cadet Or-
  ganization from the flagship Apollo. He spoke of the "Source," L. Ron
  Hubbard. He told us that Ron needed "messengers" to work for him
  aboard his ship.

  After much security checking, Tonja was eventually placed on a
plane which took her to the island of Madiera, off the coast of
Portugal.

    Once aboard, I was assigned a "buddy" and given two days to learn


*The Sea Org Goes Ashore*

119

  about the ship. I was given a berth in the women's dorm and placed in
  the EPF (The Estates Project Force).
    I was told the EPF was going to transform me into an "able bodied
  seaman.
    In the EPF, my day began at six A.M., I scrubbed clothes from six
  A.M. until noon without breakfast or any breaks. The clothes were
  scrubbed by hand in a bucket, and I was directed to rinse each article
  in 13 separate buckets. Then I hung the clothes on the deck to dry.
    After a half-hour lunch, I was assigned to clean six cabins. These had
  to meet white-glove inspection. This meant a white glove or Q-tip was
  used to check corners and shelves of each cabin for dust. If the cabins
  were not cleaned to white-glove perfection, I had to run a lap around
  the boat before recleaning the rooms (the equivalent of 1/5 of a mile).
  My day ended about midnight.
    On rainy days I ironed the clothes dry. This required ironing during
  the evening hours and into the morning hours. On many occasions I
  ironed through the night and finished at six A.M. I then started washing
  the next morning's clothing. On occasion, I worked three or four days
  without sleep. I sometimes fell asleep at the ironing board with a hot
  iron in my hand. My senior, "Doreen" Gillam, "caught" me sleeping
  and yanked my head off the board. She ordered me to run laps and
  assigned me a condition of "Doubt." A condition of "Doubt" required
  15 hours of"amends" work. This additional work had to be performed
  during my sleep or meal time.
    Until I completed my amends work I was ordered not to communi-
  cate with anyone. I ate lunch alone. I finally spoke up, telling them I
  had enough. I was sent to the Commanding Messenger, and she as-
  signed me one month in the galley, washing pots and pans. I washed
  pots and pans for a month and went back into the EPF. EPF was like
  prison. I had to say "sir" to everyone and was generally allowed 15
  minutes for meals. They would not let me out of the EPF until I
  proved myself. I was totally brainwashed to receive and take orders. I
  was paid $2.90 a week for this work.
    While in the EPF, I never heard from my parents. No phone calls or
  letters. Aboard the ship, I received a telex from Peter Albert who was
  the Continental Justice Chief at FOLO at the Flag Liaison office. The
  telex informed me that my father had been declared an SP. They said
  he was a "plant"; a spy within Scientology. I began crying and asked to
  leave, telling them I could convince my father to return to Scientology.
  I was not allowed to leave. I then explained that I wanted to leave and
  reunite with my mom and dad but this was not permitted. Instead I
  was told to disconnect from my parents because they were SPs. This
  meant no more communication with them.
    Tony Armstrong, the Commanding officer, assigned me a condition


120

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  of Doubt and ordered me back to the EPF. So I returned to the six
  A.M. to midnight schedule again, occasionally working 24 hours a day.
    Approximately one month after this, I was put on training routines.
    During the training routines, myself and others practiced carrying
  messages to LRH. We had to listen to a message, repeat it in the same
  tone, and practice salutes.
    "Ghosting" was on-the-job training where I learned how to serve
  LRH. I followed another messenger around and observed her carry his
  hat, light his cigarettes, carry his ashtray, and prepare his toiletries. I
  eventually performed those duties.
    As his servant, I would sit outside his room and help him out of bed
  when he called "messenger." I responded by assisting him out of bed,
  lighting his cigarette, running his shower, preparing his toiletries and
  helping him dress.
    After that I ran to his office to check it, hoping it would pass white-
  glove inspection. He frequently exploded if he found dust or dirt or
  smelled soap in his clothes.

****

  Gerald Armstrong and Tonja were both "insignificant" people as far
as Hubbard was concerned. But they were to play very significant
roles in his life.
  Gerry Armstrong joined Scientology in 1969 in British Columbia,
Canada, and in 1971 joined the Sea Organization.
  He met up with the Apollo in Tangiers, Morocco, a week after he
joined the Sea Org. In late 1974 he became the ship's intelligence
officer, a position he held until he left the Apollo.
  When the crew moved to Daytona Beach he worked there in the
intelligence unit of the Guardian's office.
  At the end of May of 1976 he was sent to Culver City, California, to
set up a communications office for Hubbard.
  In Culver City he got into an argument with Mary Sue Hubbard's
communicator (secretary) after which Hubbard deemed him a "secu-
rity risk" and had him removed from the property and locked up and
guarded for three weeks in the Scientology intelligence office in Los
Angeles.
  Gerry Armstrong wrote in a legal affidavit:

    After that, he ordered me and my wife Terri back to Florida, to the
  Clearwater base.
    There a telex from him awaited us ordering us to the RPF. I spent a
  total of 17 months on the RPF and was put in charge of it for some 12
  months. Tonja Burden was also assigned there.


*The Sea Org Goes Ashore*

121

    An RPF assignment was an unbelievably traumatic experience.
  When it happened to me - and I was a grown man - I was so devas-
  tated that I went into shock that lasted several days, during which time
  I could eat hardly anything....I was in such heavy grief, my body
  convulsed uncontrollably....
    Shortly after "graduating" I was transferred to the Commodore's
  Messenger Organization unit in Los Angeles.
    There I was ordered to retrieve Tonja from her parent's home in Las
  Vegas after she escaped from the RPF in Clearwater....
    On December 14, 1977, my wife and I went to get Tonja back.
    She was shocked that we had tracked her down so quickly and she
  was terrified by us. Terri had been her senior for some years in the
  CMO, and I bad been her senior in the RPF, and we both intimidated
  her.
    She said over and over that she did not want to go back. Tears
  welled up in her eyes. But Terri and I would not be swayed from our
  purpose. We talked to her mother and father, and intimidated them
  with veiled threats of what might happen, how it would be better for
  all if Tonja came back. We also insisted that Tonja coming back and
  "routing out properly" was the most ethical thing to do.
    The truth was that our purpose was to get Tonja back, have her sec-
  checked and get her to sign waivers, releases and promissory notes, so
  she would be rendered harmless to Hubbard and the organization.
  Tonja was, in fact, considered a significant threat because she had
  worked so closely with Hubbard and potentially knew a great deal
  about his control of the organization and G.O. intelligence operations.
    After several hours, and still against her will, Tonja succumbed to
  our tactics, and we drove with her to Los Angeles. There we turned
  her over to the Los Angeles RPF where she would be sec checked and
  made to sign the required documents.
    What I did to Tonja, coercing her back to Los Angeles to subject her
  to sec checks and forcing her to sign documents and signing myself a
  false statement against her, was cruel and shameful and only shows the
  desensitization I had gone through.
    Tonja was herself brutalized by Hubbard and his organization, yet I
  perceived her as a "suppressive person" and "fair game," [and so] any
  act against her, any trick, anything to destroy her, [was] inaudible.

****

  To the reader of Tonja's story and of the horrors of the RPF, it
might seem inconceivable that there was a luxury hotel being ser-
viced by the RPF and crew of the Flag Land Base.
  The occupants of the hotel, mostly well-to-do Scientologists, saw
little of the RPFers, and were usually completely unaware of the de-


122

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

grading conditions to which the staff and their children were being
subjected.
  The "public pcs" would fly in from Los Angeles, Zurich, Frankfurt
or Mexico City. They would pay the huge fees, play backgammon,
swim, sunbathe, listen to tapes by Hubbard, and be given special PR
briefings by a smartly uniformed host or attractive PR girls.
  Diners in the Hour Glass Restaurant, which is part of the Fort
Harrison Hotel, were, and are to this day, served by waiters with
black suits, bow ties, and crisp white shirts. The talk would usually
drift to the great wins each was having in his auditing.
  The Fort Harrison "Land Base" was a roaring success as the
"Mecca for Technical Perfection."
  Celebrities and well-to-do Scientologists (and those who sold houses,
blew their life savings or inheritance, or who borrowed the necessary
dollars) began arriving in large numbers.


11

"I Let Him Undress Me Without Resisting"

  In 1975, while Hubbard was staying in Washington, D.C., another
location was found for him in California and he moved there. It was
known as ASTRA, and was located in Culver City, California, which is
part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area near the Airport.
  This location of Hubbard's was part of a three-part telex network
designed to disguise the fact that Hubbard was very much in commu-
nication with the Church.
  It was during this time that he possibly made visits to the seventh
floor of the Fifield Manor in Los Angeles, also called the "Chateau
Elise." This building was constructed in accordance with the architec-
tural style preferred by French royalty when building castles for their
stays in the country. It was in its day a favorite hotel of many of Holly-
wood's great personalities.
  The seventh floor was cordoned off and secured as private premises
to which only L. Ron Hubbard and his wife had access.

  According to a sworn affidavit the following events occurred during
this period.
  Heidi Forrester (not her real name) joined The Church of Scientol-
ogy in July of 1974, just after having completed her senior year of
college. She had read a science fiction book by L. Ron Hubbard, and
had become curious about a book called Dianetics, the Modern Sci-
ence of Mental Health advertised in the back of the book. She wrote
for the book and received it shortly afterwards.

123


124

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  Fascinated by the claims made by Hubbard about enhancing crea-
tive and perceptive talents, she responded positively to a call by a Sea
Org recruiter who mentioned he had received the card she had sent
in for more information.
  As she tells it:

    The next day, July 16, 1974, I went to the Columbus Airport and
  caught a flight to L.A. I arrived at seven r.M. I took a taxi to the Hilton
  Hotel and waited in the lobby. Ron Noe, the recruiter, arrived shortly
  thereafter. Dressed in a non-formal Sea Org uniform, he appeared to
  me to be extremely organized and high powered.
    We got into his car and drove to ASHO (American Saint Hill Organi-
  zation) on West Temple Street.
    Upon arrival, Ron Noe showed me to his desk and I noticed that on
  every desk was an identical color photograph of Hubbard taken on the
  bridge of a ship. There were also enormous posters on all the walls of
  Hubbard in full, formal Sea Org uniform and enormous Sea Org sym-
  bols painted in gold on many of the walls. The symbol of the Sea Org is
  a star surrounded by a laurel wreath. In the years ahead I would be
  given enormous power as a representative of that symbol, and in the
  end all the power would be taken away from me without explanation.
    At his desk, Ron Noe handed me a Sea Org contract. I had no
  trouble with the one million year bit, as most new recruits did, since I
  had already read that Scientologists believed in past lives. I signed it.
  It was witnessed by Ron Noe and Gerry Larson [not his real name]. I
  swore in while Ron Noe stood and saluted me, and I saluted him.
    He read a twenty-item covenant which I repeated after him. The
  items consisted of promises all Sea Org members make to the group. I
  was basically to adhere to all orders given by Hubbard. I was to apply
  the technology strictly according to his standards.
    After the swearing in I was taken to the center of the room:
    "Now hear this: Heidi Forrester has just become a Sea Org mem-
  ber!"
    In seconds the entire lobby was jammed with people in uniform,
  cheering clapping, yelling - it was pandemonium!
    The ovation lasted a full ten minutes.
    I was escorted to the registrar, a girl named Dawn Praeger, and
  signed a check for all the money I had, which was $lj500.00.
    I was taken to the Hollywood Inn that night by Ron Noe. It was a
  large red brick building located in the middle of Hollywood. It was not
  in good shape. I was put into a room with f`our other Sea Org members,
  none of whom I had met before.
    After four hours' sleep I had to go back to ASHO. I was told by Ron
  Noe that I would be going to the ship that night, the Excalibur, a fairly


"*I Let Him Undress Me*"

125

large vessel in my estimation, though much smaller than the Apollo I
was told. It was used for training Sea Org members in the basics of
seamanship.
  I spent some time on the ship and over the next year became fairly
highly trained and audited (at my own expense). Word spread that I
was on a fairly high auditing level. This fact, it appears, resulted in my
being chosen for some very horrible experiences:
  I was ruped on orders that had "come down lines"...by a person
who fits the description of Hubbard....
  It became apparent to me that as a Sea Org member at ASHO, there
was a very strong law concerning relationships. Sea Org members did
not have any sexual contact with public students or preclears. At
ASHO anyway, this law was observed rigidly among the staff. An inter-
pretation of the S.O.'s feeling about sex with public persons was that
the S.O. was "above" such activities. We were so "elite," that sex with
the public would "spoil" our control over the public. However, there
was no law preventing S.O. members from having sexual contact with
other S.O. members. In fact, this was expected if one had been with
the S.O. for an appreciable length of time. Marriages in the S.O. were
common....
  I could never understand the amount and frequency of "swapping
partners" in the S.O. This went on constantly.
  One week two staff would be married (in a Scientology marriage cer-
emony) and then the woman would become pregnant. A few weeks
later she would marry another Sea Org member, have the baby and
then marry another S.O. member and so on. When a couple married
they would obtain a marriage certificate from city hall, but it meant
nothing. It was all done as part of a "shore story" to keep legal prob-
lems relating to marriage from reaching the S.O.
  If a couple wanted to divorce, they just broke up. There were never
formal divorces in the S.O., they didn't have to get permission from
anyone to end their relationship. There was never much property to
divide between them anyway.
  The offspring of these "marriages" went to Pumpkin School, Apple
School, and the Cadet Org to be indoctrinated with Hubbard's tech-
niques so they didn't become problems to the Organization.
  I observed all this during my first year in the S.O. It bothered me.
Here were all the staff, supposedly ethical people, who were all-
knowing about humanity, busting up relationships all the time.
  I independently decided that I would have no sexual contact with
anyone in the S.O. I totally suppressed my own sexuality. and decided
I would not play that game.

****


126

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    In late 1975, I was told to report to the Hubbard Communications
  office. The senior officer there at the time, informed me that I was to
  report to the Fifield Manor and go to the seventh floor. She gave me
  no other information. I did this without knowing why I was going.
    At the Manor, I was directed to the elevator and went to the seventh
  floor. The entire floor was elaborately furnished to the point of suffoca-
  tion. An S.O. member appeared and showed me to a door that was
  partly open.
    I went into a very large living room with heavy curtains, pile carpet,
  overstuffed chairs and clean to the point of obsession.
    Sitting on one of the chairs, drinking what looked like sherry, was a
  heavy-set older man. He had reddish grey hair, slightly long in the
  back. He was wearing a white shirt, black pants, black tie, and black
  shoes, highly polished.
    He didn't say a word and slowly got up, motioned me to allow him
  into the next room.
    I didn't know if it was Hubbard, and wondered if I was to have ei-
  ther an auditing session or an interview. I followed him.
    I found myself in a lavish bedroom. This still didn't worry me as
  sometimes interviews and sessions were held in bedrooms at the Hol-
  Iywood Inn for staff.
    There was small table set up with an E-meter on it and again I
  thought about a session.
    Without a word he suddenly began to undress me.
    I was repelled by him.
    I did not want to sleep with him. Yet, I felt really chilled and cold to
  the bone at that moment.
    I acutely sensed real fear and danger in the room. In an instant I
  realized the calculated power coming from this person. If I resisted I
  knew that my punishment would be extreme.
    His eyes were so blank, no emotion, no interaction, nothing was
  there.
    I made the decision to not resist no matter what happened. I real-
  ized it would be a bad mistake for me to do so. He seemed to be com-
  pletely divorced from reality. He was so strange that I realized that if I
  provoked him he could be extremely dangerous.
    I let him undress me without resisting.
    I was totally unprepared for what happened next.
    He lay on top of me.
    As far as I can tell he had no erection. However, using his hand in
  some way he managed to get his penis inside me.
   Then for the next hour he did absolutely nothing at all. I mean noth-
  ing!
   After the first twenty-five minutes I became about as frightened as I


"*I Let Him Undress Me*"

127

  have ever been in my life. I felt as if in some perverse way he was tell-
  ing me that he hated me as a female. I then began to feel that my mind
  was being ripped away from me by force.
    That was the worst of all. I really felt he "coveted" an aspect of my
  personality and he wanted it. This was weird, total control on a level I
  could not fathom at that time. I had no idea what was happening.*
    After half an hour I really thought I was going crazy. I couldn't move
  my body from underneath him, and I could feel he still had no erec-
  tion.
    He wouldn't look at me, but instead kept his head averted to the
  side and just gazed into space.
    I had to discipline myself to keep from screaming because I felt I
  was having a nervous breakdown.
    Then I got the terrible thought that he was dead. He was hardly
  breathing. Then I thought he would kill me too. My thoughts became
  very morbid.
    After an hour he got up and walked out.
    I just lay there for ten minutes. Then mechanically I got dressed.
  Instantly after that I began crying hysterically. I cried and cried and
  cried.
    I wasn't afraid of becoming pregnant. I was so afraid of whatever had
  been going on in this man's head.
    Finally when I couldn't cry anymore, I went downstairs and took a
  bus back to ASHO. [American St. Hill Organization]
    I didn't say a word to anyone.

****

    Months went by after this. I got my period on schedule which made
  me feel a little gratified at least.
    One night I was working late. Gerry Larson, who was now the dep-
  uty C.O., came into my area and asked if I wanted a ride back to the
  Inn. This seemed a little strange as he was a senior officer, OT7, Native
  State, class 7 auditor; but I accepted.
    On the way in the car he asked me if I had ever fallen in love sexu-
  ally in the S.O. I said "No."
    "I think that's true," he said, "because you are much too powerful
  theta-wise to be controlled."
    When we got to the Inn we went up in the elevator together and as I
  was about to get off at my floor he said he needed to talk to me.
    I said "O. K." as he was an officer and I thought a friend. Also he was
  married....
    We went to the eighth floor of the Inn into a little bedroom. He sat

*This sounds like a form of "spiritual vampirism," a kind of "Black Sex-Magic."


128

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  on the bed and started talking about eight being the symbol for infinity
  and the highest level of OTness.
    I thought that was interesting, but couldn't figure out why he was
  telling me this.
    "Ron works in eight-year cycles," he said. "You were born in the
  eighth month of the year (August). Orders had come down lines that
  you are to conceive a child." he said.
    This really shocked me.
    "I can't tell you who sent the order," he said. "Your abilities are
  such that the Sea Org needs you to have a baby."
    Without another word he pulled me up, hurriedly undressed me
  and threw me on the bed.
    Again I felt the same feeling that I mustn't fight him.
    He got undressed and for the next hour the exact same performance
  that had happened to me at the Manor was repeated....
    Afterwards I felt ripped apart mentally. As he was getting undressed
  I couldn't stand it anymore. I was in tears again. I said:
    "Sir, I can't understand what you are doing to me."'
    He looked at me and said:
    "Heidi, you haven't seen the OT materials for OT7 yet, but you
  know what you are. You are an invisible spirit operating your body.
  You and I actually live in a totally different universe, far away from this
  one. This Earth, this galaxy, our bodies are just pictures we are mock-
  ing up to play and have a game. Sex for a thetan is nothing. It's the
  postulates and control of mind and body that is the prize.
    "If I postulate you will have a baby from the viewpoint of my home
  universe, then you will. You are under my command coming from far
  away. I can make your body do what I want."
    Then he left.
    I was so mixed up. I had been trained to believe everything he said,
  yet I couldn't believe he had just told me what he had.
    I felt really defenseless. I cried all night.
    A month later I got my period. A month after that my senior called
  me into his room.
    "Go to ethics!" he said.
    The "ethics officer" assigned me a condition of treason because I had
  disobeyed command intention and was not pregnant.
    I had to do amends for this "crime."
    After this I never had any other sexual relations in the Sea Org up to
  the point where I left. It was made apparent that I was a failure in this
  area.

  Heidi did her amends. She was put on a special program. She was
to eat by herself. The diet consisted of coffee for breakfast, liquid pro-


"*I Let Him Undress Me*"

129

tein for lunch, and one piece of fruit for dinner. (She was at the same
time put on a running program - three hours a day). This was all she
got to eat for several months before finally leaving the Sea Org in
1978, yet she was an officer in uniform - granted more privileges than
most.
  Events that led her to finally leave the Sea Org were described by
her as follows (the setting being the Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los An-
geles shortly after the Scientologists had moved into it in 1978):

    ..the ASHO Ethics officer came up to me. He said there was no
  door on the room where all the OT folders were and that I would have
  to guard the door for four hours. Silently I followed him to the very
  bowels of Cedars, the morgue where the folders were. I felt as if I was
  now dreaming. I couldn't believe what was happening. I wasn't even
  an OT, yet I had to guard all the OT folders.
    Let me describe the morgue. It had not been cleaned out. There
  was the scale for weighing the bodies, the huge stone tables where the
  autopsies were done. Drains for blood, etc. There were no lights. I was
  left to sit on a milk crate in the dark, with racks and racks of OT folders
  all around me.
    The floor was covered with trash and there was no fresh air. It
  smelled of death, really stank of death and chemicals and dissection.
    For the first hour I just sat. Then I realized that it was very cold
  down here. So I walked back and forth for the second hour. My mind
  was blank.
    I knew I could look at all the folders but I didn't care. I couldn't have
  cared less what was in them.
    Suddenly, during the third hour I was aware of shadows in the corri-
  dor beyond me; they were people.
    Slowly I realized that an entire group of people lived and worked
  down here. I was so tired it took me a long time to realize who they
  were.
    Then it hit me. The Cedars RPF. They lived and worked down here
  in this stinkhole; this was their org.
    Then I really found out what had happened to them. Filthy, tired,
  skeletons appeared before me and started begging to see the OT fold-
  ers.
    I thought I had looked bad, but I looked beautiful compared to
  them.
    They crowded around me, pushing and shoving, then the mood
  turned ugly. They started hitting each other to get into the room be-
  hind me.
    I realized then what had happened. They had been totally broken.


130

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  They were animals, not humans. I saw four of my friends...fighting
  to get by me. They were punching each other in the face, pulling hair,
  kicking. And way down in this cellar no one could hear them, no one
  cared.
    Someone suddenly hit me hard. I realized they were turning their
  anger on me; they would beat me up to get to the folders. I guess in
  periods of deep stress we all go a little insane. Survival of the fittest.
    From somewhere inside my brain, strength came....
    "Friends," I said, "believe me, I am your friend. By some strange
  fate I am not with you on the RPF. But believe me if you don't get out
  of here right now, I know you will be punished. Go now before it is too
  late."
    And they ran away into the dark.
    When I sat down I was trembling all over. Because the real intent of
  my message had been for them to get out of the hospital. Leave Ce-
  dars. But I don't think any of them got the message.

****

    My last week in the Sea Org    a dream. One night I was told
  to go to the basement and stuff letters. I did this in a little room with no
  ventilation and moisture dripping down the walls.
    There was never anyone around. I was left alone most of the time at
  night now. That was their mistake. It gave me time to think.
    This night I started stuffing my 2,000 letters. The old innocent days
  of the Sea Org seemed very far away. The idealistic little girl who had
  come here in '74 with dreams of new-found powers and increased un-
  derstanding had died....
    Far above me the org hummed with activity. Every day someone
  else like me, gullible and hungry for answers, was being drawn into
  Scientology. Every day someone joined the Sea Org looking for secu-
  rity within the group, not knowing the total control of their personality
  they were handing over. Every day someone was sent to the RPF.
  These were my thoughts as I stood there.
    Suddenly I flung the letters down. I needed to walk. Underneath
  the nine buildings were long tunnels that connected each building.
  Great steam pipes ran along the sides of the tunnels. It was like being
  in the engine room of a ship. The public didn't even know these tun-
  nels existed.
    I walked for miles, thinking.
    I knew now that I was going to die: My body was completely emaci-
  ated, my mind had developed frightening blank periods when I could
  remember nothing at all. I had very few emotions I could feel any
  more. Things were breaking down.


"*I Let Him Undress Me*"

131

    I walked through tunnels I had never been in. Then I heard it.
  Inhuman screaming and ranting It was coming from my right.
    There were four doors and someone was pounding on one of them. I
  ran over and tried to open the door. It was locked. I yelled, "Are you
  all right?" I got more screams. Suddenly someone touched my shoul-
  der.
    I turned and looked at a man in clean overalls. "Hello," he said. "I'm
  the Ethics officer for the RPF."
    "What are you doing to her?" I said.
    "Oh, she's just blowing off some charge. When someone flips out on
  the RPF, we lock them up for a couple of hours. They calm down after
  a while." He smiled.
    I was stunned. "You lock them up in here?"
    "Sure, you know the tech. The tech always works."*
    I looked at him. Totally triumphant, with Scientology tech on his
  side. I felt sick to my stomach; the corridor started spinning around
  me. So this was it. The final answer. Cold, calculated, step by step
  progression to stamp out anyone who questioned, rebelled, criticized,
  disliked Scientology. Break them, all of us. You don't agree, you make
  a mistake, you are a staff member and you flip out. No mercy - just
  Scientology tech. Pure Ron Hubbard, turned insane.
    He was still looking at me.
    "Sure," I said "maybe she'll drop her body and pick up a new one.
  She'll get regged again and come back for another try. Death doesn't
  exist, does it? Suffering doesn't exist either. Only the tech sent from
 another galaxy."
    "Wow," he said. "What OT level are you?"
    "None you'd want to know about," I said. I turned and left him
 standing by the locked door.

*In 1974 Hubbard formulated "tech" dealing with incarceration of "psychotics."


12

Souls Turned Inside Out

   Quoting from Brian Ambry's critique on Scientology, The Bridge to
Total Freedom:
  "Few of today's membership have met L. Ron Hubbard. To the
rank and file he is a huge photograph to be applauded, cheered, and
saluted; a god made of ink, paper, and magnetic tape.
  "They are the denizens of L. Ron Hubbard's official monogrammed
universe, who day by day, year by year, strive to be the epitome of
perfect mono-mindedness; content, indeed exulted to exist in an in-
tellectual flatland, where Ron is Rightness, is Source, is Truth, is The
Way.
  "A place where ministers dress in military uniforms and scream
profanities. A place where so much as thinking a critical thought
about RON, or doubting the wisdom of the church hierarchy, is an
`ethics' offense.
  "Where a dear and close friend may, at the flick of an `ethics order,'
become an evil being never to be communicated with again.
  "A place of ultimate revisionist history - where forgetting those
pieces of the past which conflict with today's official reality, is a key to
survival.
  "A `good Scientologist' is a well-adapted cell living with enforced
harmony in the body of his beloved (and feared) Church.
  "He exists under conditions resembling a kind of `spiritual marshal
law.' Restrictions on thought and communication are justified, as the
Church of RON works against time to free Mankind, and ultimately
the universe, from the forces of evil.
  "A `good Scientologist' has little or no mind of his own, having


*Souls Turned Inside Out*

133

abandoned his own vastly inferior collection of ideas, information,
and conclusions for the encyclopoedic MIND that manifests as the
books, bulletins, policy letters, and taped lectures of L. Ron Hub-
bard.
  "He knows that RON has `wrapped up' the subjects of philosophy,
education, organizational administration, logic, ethics, and spiritual
development; it's all been figured out. Thus there is no need to look
any further.
  "People who continue to experiment and originate in these areas,
after knowing about Scientology, are called squirrels. A `good Scien-
tologist' believes that squirrels are evil beings [suppressive persons]
and does everything he can to stop them.*
  "He knows that any doubts he may have about the rightness of Ron
or his Church are caused by his own scandalous mis-deeds of this or
an earlier lifetime. He learns to police his thoughts, which are always
accessible to the Church authorities via the E-meter.
  "A `good Scientologist' does not question Church authority, for to
be a citizen of the `World of the Totally Free' is to obey.
  "And even though he is completely subservient to the organization,
he regards himself as the elite of Mankind, viewing non-Scientolo-
gists as inferior beings:'raw meat,''wogs' and `homo sap.'
  "How does one become a `good Scientologist' or, as I prefer to call
it, a RONDROID?
  "Usually it starts out innocently enough....
  "The overriding message of the early Scientology writings and lec-
tures is that Scientology's mission is to bring about increased awareness
and ability. `All I am trying to get you to do is look,' said Hubbard. `The
solution to any unwanted condition is to view it thoroughly.'
  "The message is simple: Truth frees.
  "`Scientology is knowledge,' he said. `That's all Scientology is. The
word SCIENTOLOGY means KNOWLEDGE. That's all it means.
SCIO means KNOWING IN THE FULLEST SENSE OF THE
WORD...But this is the same word as DHARMA, which means
KNOWLEDGE, TAO, which means THE WAY TO KNOWLEDGE
BUDDHISM, which means THE WAY TO KNOWLEDGE.'
  "In his writings he stresses that communication is the key to knowl-
edge and, thus, is the essence of Scientology: `When in doubt com-

*A common sight in Scientology organizations are posters that exclaim "Stamp
out Squirrels" and "Wanted Squirrels Dead or Alive!"


134

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

municate; more communication not less is the answer'; and, `Commu-
nication, and the simplicity of communication alone will take man
from the bottom to the top...'
  "To someone newly involved in Scientology this may seem a very
enlightened message indeed. If he then reads a few of the `basic
books,' he will, among other things, come across some innovative
rewordings of certain Eastern and various Western and Middle East-
ern magical and mystical doctrines and practices, and rewordings of
the writings of the founder of General Semantics, Count Alfred
Korzybski.*
  "If he reads Dianetics he may be impressed by a reworking of abre-
action therapy*' and - again, and mostly - General Semantics.
  "(Whatever Hubbard's character flaws, however unbecoming his
actual motives were, and regardless of the monstrosity his Church has
become, he did act as a clearing house and relay point for beneficial
information originated by others - which of course he claimed to have
originated himself. But also he did, himself, originate or develop pos-
itive material in the fields of psychotherapy, parapsychology, and `hu-
man potential; material that needs to be sorted out from his nega-
tives, falsehoods, tricks, science fiction, and hyperbole.)
  "Being unfamiliar with Korzybski's work, and in most cases know-
ing little of Eastern disciplines or the Western and Middle Eastern
mystical and magical tradition, a new student of Scientology may be-
gin to view with awe the man who is proclaimed the sole SOURCE of
ALL this fascinating material.

AUDITING

  "If you've ever sat down with someone and let him tell you his
problems - get it off his chest - to a point where he felt better and,
perhaps, even realized something about the situation which resulted
in improved ability or willingess to deal with it, then you've been an
`auditor.'
  "Auditing basically means `to listen.' It can also involve assisting an-

*Probably better known than Korzybski is former California Senator S.I.
Hayakawa, who initially gained public attention while a Dean at San
Francisco State during the student uprisings during the sixties.
Hayakawa, a student of Korzybski, has written a number of books on
the subject. General semantics and Korzybski's brief biography are
covered later in Part II, Chapters 2 and 10.
**Abreaction is essentially the process of bringing to the surface, or becoming
conscious of, that which had been buried or "unconscious." See Chapter 2, Part II.


*Souls Turned Inside Out*

135

other to look at the external environment of the world at large, and
the internal environment of his thoughts and feelings, so as to im-
prove his communication with these things, in the direction of greater
mastery and freedom.
  "According to Scientology theory there are in the mind a great
many outdated `answers.' A person goes through life largely unaware
of these old `answers' while, unconsciously, being the effect of them.
These `answers' or `solutions' might be described as `old program-
ming' operating not unlike hypnotic commands, imposing upon the
individual undesired conditions, including pressures, fears, obses-
sions, and psychosomatic ills.
  "In most Scientology auditing one is asked a question and invited to
look for these outmoded, undesirable `answers.' The idea being to
bring to the surface and analytically examine already existing `an-
swers,' consisting of fixed, and uninspected, decisions, agreements,
or computations.
  "This is done, usually, until there is a new realization regarding the
particular area being addressed at that time.
  "In auditing an individual may find himself recalling incidents from
early childhood long forgotten, putting past upsets into a new per-
spective and laughing about them, feeling brighter and lighter and
more himself. In short, he may be very impressed with his newly dis-
covered space-age religion.
  "While this is happening he will be receiving approval, validation,
and acceptance by the membership.
  "Inevitably he'll read about Scientology's aim of `a world without
crime, insanity, or war...where Man is free to rise to greater
heights.' He'll be told that Scientology makes available, for the first
time, unimaginable spiritual power, and that the Church is the only
route to immortality. It is explained to him that he is on `The Bridge
to Total Freedom.'
  "He will also come to understand that without Scientology a being
is doomed to what amounts to eternal damnation.
  "He will, somewhere in the course of these events, make a LEAP
OF FAITH: `If what I experienced (in auditing or by reading books)
was good then it all must be good...'THIS MUST BE THE
BRIDGE TO TOTAL FREEDOM!' (Of course there are those whose
conversion is based mainly on the fear of, the threat of, Scientology's
Hell.)
  "Once the `leap of faith' is made the person goes from being inter-
ested in Scientology to being IN Scientology."


136

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    A quote from Language in Thought and Action, by S.I. Hayakawa,
  describes part of this phenomenon well:

VERBAL HYPNOTISM
    First, it should be pointed out again that fine sounding speeches,
  long words, and the general AIR of saying something important are af-
  fective in result, regardless of what is being said. Often when we are
  hearing or reading impressively worded sermons, speeches, political
  addresses, essays, or "fine writing," we stop being critical altogether,
  and simply allow ourselves to feel as excited, sad, joyous, or angry as
  the author wishes us to feel. Like snakes under the in influence of a snake
  charmer's flute, we are swayed by the musical phrases of the verbal
  hypnotist. If the author is a man to be trusted, there is no reason why
  we should not enjoy ourselves in this way now and then. But to listen
  or read like this all the time is a debilitating habit

  Brian Ambry continues:

 "THE HIDDEN BRIDGE"
  "Even pampered celebrities and wealthy "paying public," while
being spared the crude methods designed to degrade and dominate -
such as the Rehabilitation Project Force - are yet subject to the more
subtle `Hidden Bridge.'
  "Most Scientology auditing is aimed at and does, if applied cor-
rectly, remove stale `programming.' This is undesirable unconscious
programming. The idea, it would seem, is to free the person to do his
own Programming, to be the boss of his own mind.
  "What isn't realized is that, while the old programs are being de-
leted, a new Rondroid Program is being inserted. This is a gradual
affair. One agrees, then agrees to a little bit more, then a little more,
and so on.
  "(Fortunately this `program' doesn't permanently `take' on every-
one, and that is one reason why there are former Scientologists. But it
often requires many years to realize what is going on, and so snap out
of it. Of course, many never do snap out of it.)
  "For example:
  "Joe realizes through auditing that he has been in his father's `va-
lence' (identity) all these years. Now he is free of it and can be him-
self. What a relief! He had unconsciously adopted his father's man-
nerisms, habits, prejudices, and general outlook on life. And since his
dad happened to be an anti-semitic hypochondriac who never knew


*Souls Turned Inside Out*137



what to do with his hands and was certain that all women were no
good, it's hard to argue that freeing himself of these traits is somehow
bad.
  "What Joe doesn't realize is that the Church of Scientology has a
new `valence,' a new identity, new habits, prejudices, and outlook
waiting for him. And they are those which, for all practical purposes,
will be adopted by him just as unwittingly as were his father's charac-
teristics.
  "So he gradually loses his old enforcements and inhibitions, only to
have them gradually replaced by a collection of official Church of Sci-
entology enforcements and inhibitions.
  "He was told, initially, that he could become the master of his own
universe; but as it ends up, he finds himself swallowed up by the uni-
verse of the Church of Scientology. Typically, and this is the great
tragedy, by the time the process is complete, he doesn't know the
difference.
  "This is the other Bridge, the Hidden Bridge, the hypnotic Bridge.
The one that sneaks up on you bit by bit. It is the Bridge leading to
Total Agreement and Total Compliance." Ambry concludes.

SOULS TURNED INSIDE OUT

  While auditing is presented as the only road to total freedom for
the individual, having "withholds" from an auditor or Church officials
is presented as the primary barrier on that road.
  Withholds are, broadly, anything one is not willing to tell someone
else. The practice of withholding during auditing is seen as anti-
communication and thus a barrier to "case gain."
  Confiding one's withholds to a close friend or other trusted individ-
ual, such as a counselor, rabbi, minister, priest, or even the local bar-
tender, is a time-honored tradition in society at large.
  There's a flip side to this coin, however:
  The disclosure of withholds under duress, to further the aims of un-
scrupulous individuals, can be very damaging indeed.
  In his book Thought Reform and The Psychology of Totalism Dr.
Robert J. Lifton describes how the Communist Chinese used certain
psychological tactics to establish their control over populations and
prisoners.
  Three key methods were described, a: "Milieu Control" (which are
environmental mechanisms for control similar to those so graphically


138

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

described in the "Brainwashing Manual," Chapter 8), b: "Mandatory
Confession" (dealt with in this chapter) and, c: "Loaded Language"
(which was Hubbard's specialty - also covered in the "Brainwashing
Manual" chapter).
  Withholds extracted under physical torture is an extreme example of
damaging "confessional techniques.
  A less dramatic example of this is confessions elicited under threat of
physical pain or other harm, i.e., coercion or blackmail. The threat can
be direct or very subtle.
  Hubbard preferred the subtle kind of coercion, but would get openly
rough at times. One example of the subtle kind: he wrote that a person
who has withholds cannot achieve the state of clear. A Scientologist
hearing this - with "clear" being the prerequisite to the god-like state of
Operating Thetan - realizes he must tell all, whether it's anybody's
business or not.
  Beginning in the early sixties Hubbard put great emphasis on
"pulling withholds" (getting a person to tell all).
   Getting off one's withholds became an obsession among Scientolo-
gists. "He/she's got overts and withholds," is still the most common ac-
cusation heard.
  While actual auditing relies for its benefits on the human communica-
tion skills and the caring of individual auditors, Hubbard was not averse
to advising coercion if things got sticky.
  In a 1965 bulletin, Hubbard says of the "unchanging preclear":

    We've cracked them for years and years now but not by being patty-
  cake or "slap my wrist."
    Takes an AUDITOR, not a lady finger.
    Mister, you've been wasting my time for three sessions. You have
  withholds. Give!...Mister, you refuse once more to answer my
  question and you're in for it. I've checked this meter...you've got
  withholds. Give!...Mister, that's it. I am asking.. for a Comm Ev
  on you...

  A "Comm Ev" (Committee of Evidence) is a Scientology "Court"
which was originally presented as a fact-finding body in the tradition
of British and American jurisprudence. In fact it became perverted
into being mostly a rubber stamp for arbitrary executive decisions to
kick staff off their posts or to declare Scientologists "Suppressive" and
expel them. These committees are greatly feared.
  Hubbard goes on to say:


*Souls Turned Inside Out*139



    If skill couldn't do it, demand may. If demand couldn't
  Comm Ev sure will.

  (An extreme in the area of forced confession is the "gang bang
security check," where as many as five angry and accusative individuals
interrogate someone who is attached to an E-meter.)
  Hubbard knew exactly what he was doing by enforcing confessions.
  He firmly believed that confession which is not absolutely voli-
tional is damaging to an individual; that when a person's ability to
hold back communication, selectivity at his own choice, is impaired,
his IQ is lowered.
  He understood that, when a person is coerced into confession, his
ability to maintain his own viewpoint is weakened. Consequently he
gradiently loses his sense of individual identity.
  Yet, while being fully aware of this, he created an organization ded-
icated to enforcing full disclosure of all withholds; withholds to which
he and his closest intelligence agents had full access.
  (Kima Douglass, Hubbard's closest assistant for five years during
the seventies, told of how Hubbard would often angrily order pre-
clear folders of those he suspected were against him to be culled for
overts and withholds, to be used against them.)
  The fact that Hubbard was aware that coercion to "get withholds
off" is damaging to people is revealed in a bulletin, dated 15 January,
1958. Here he asserts that the selective "ability to withhold" is a posi-
tive ability.
  He wrote:

    Now the first question the minister would ask would be, "Think of
  something you could withhold from _______ (person)." Now one of the
  discoveries that led to that question is that divulgence and confession
  had nothing to do with raising anybody's IQ or improving his case.
  [Emphasis added] It wasn't the fact that he confessed it or divulged it
  but the fact that he erased it [that gave the benefit].

  "Erasure" is a word used by Hubbard to denote the complete erad-
ication of the negative influences (or "charge"*) of some traumatic
event. This is achieved by viewing that event exactly and by having
the person re-live it over and over in his mind, until he sees the event
"as-is" and recognizes how and why the event had badly influenced
his thinking and behavior.

*The harmful energy or force accumulated in the reactive (subconscious) mind.


140

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    So what he is saying here in 1958 is that it is the fact that the person
 confronts for himself exactly what happened that is of benefit to him,
 not the fact that he confesses.
    He goes on to say,

    It is the ability to withhold communication which advances IQ and
  makes a person feel better, not the ability to divulge it. We;e been
  told all our lives that all we had to do was go to somebody and confess.
  If we were to confess to our mothers and fathers that we did those
  dirty, nasty little things we would feel much better. It isn't true. You
  probably only felt better to the end of getting your pants spanked. This
  is an enforced communication...It interrupted your self-determi-
  nism on the subject of your communication.

  He clearly expresses the idea that one should be able to withhold
communications and actions responsibly, at one's own choosing. On
the other hand, at one's own choosing, one should also be free to com-
municate freely the full truth of something.
  This advice echoes his earlier dictum, "Do not give or receive com-
munication unless you yourself desire it."
  Yet only two years after saying all this, he went on a campaign of
"security checking" everyone in sight. It became a crime of some
magnitude to not divulge all one's withholds to an auditor. Very much
enforced communication.
  Security checking involved using the E-meter as a police tool to
check whether staff, students or pre-clears were "security risks."
Such questions were asked as: "Have you ever accepted money for
sex? Have you ever been unfaithful to your spouse? Have you ever
stolen anything? Have you ever had anything to do with pornogra-
phy? Have you ever been a drug addict? Have you ever been in-
volved in an abortion? Have you ever had intercourse under the
influence of drugs? Have you ever done anything you are afraid the
police may find out? Have you ever done anything your mother
would be ashamed to find out?" and many more such questions.
  Oh, yes, he knew what he was doing! The purpose was to intimi-
date people, and discourage any critical examination of himself, his
writings and organization.
  Extensive micro-fiche files of withholds (in this case, past disrepu-
table deeds) of Scientologists all over the world were kept at Saint
Hill Manor in England.
  It is probably true, as Hubbard said, that when a person feels he
cannot withhold from a certain person, his IQ lowers with regard to


*Souls Turned Inside Out*

141

that person. That, perhaps, explains why so many of his follo
seem so unbelievably dense on the subjects of Scientology and L. Ron
Hubbard.

THOUGHT CONTROL

  A Scientologist is heavily indoctrinated into the idea that if he finds
himself being critical of Hubbard or the Church or its executives,
then the very fact of his being critical is proof positive of the fact that
he himself is harboring undisclosed dirty deeds.
  This is a highly effective tool to "introvert them like a bullet," as
Hubbard phrased it. In other words, a person notices, for instance,
something actually wrong with Hubbard and he immediately has his
attention boomeranged right back at himself. So instead of pursuing
his examination of Hubbard he finds himself introverting into him-
self, and often paying (400 dollars an hour or more) to have his with-
holds pulled!
  Meanwhile Hubbard's errors and crimes are safe and sound, his
image of infallibility intact.

THOUGHT CRIME

  In George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother watched people's facial fea-
tures by means of closed circuit TV cameras and, if anyone didn't
seem genuinely pleased with the propaganda announcements being
made, actions were taken to brainwash them. The lack of appropriate
expressions betrayed "thought crime."
  In Scientology the probe for dissension goes deeper: Hubbard and
his agents are able to probe the actual thoughts of their followers - via
the E-meter - during confessionals. "Souls turned inside out," he
told Ron Jr. in Philadelphia in 1952. He meant it.
  It is noteworthy that when somebody can look into your thoughts,
giving you no option for privacy of consideration and opinion, some
devastating things occur. This is especially so if you are (or consider
that you are) dependent upon the approval of that somebody or group
for your continued well-being and very survival as a spiritual being.:
  It is one of the inalienable rights that one be free to think whatever
one wishes. It is also one's right to choose for oneself what is true for
oneself. Also, while there are exceptions (the IRS for instance, has its
own ideas on this), it is generally left up to the individual in a free
society to select what he or she decides to communicate to others.


142

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  When one loses these rights, the only remaining defense becomes
to actually change one's thoughts to conform with the acceptable
"think" of the individual or group which has violated the sovereign
territory of one's mind. One gets into the habit of thinking "right"
thoughts and self censoring "wrong" thoughts.
  When some group, with the power to harm an individual, has full
access to his thoughts, overriding his power of choice, that individual
no longer has the option of rejecting any of the actions, mores, or con-
siderations of the group.
  In Scientology one can no longer have a critical thought about
Hubbard. For example: "Have you had a critical thought about L.
Ron Hubbard?" is a question commonly used in security checking.
  If a Scientologist persists in having any critical thoughts about
Hubbard, he will be penalized. As a consequence he learns to think
only good thoughts about Hubbard and his Church; to never think
critical thoughts about him or his Church and to censor out or "write
up" (report to Church policing authorities) any criticisms he hears.
  This inability to select the thoughts one chooses without fear of re-
taliation causes a person to become stupid on a given subject, there
no longer being any option of safe objective analysis, based on a de-
tached personal appraisal of the facts involved.
  This situation is similar to that existing in other dictatorships which
have large spy systems and use torture and duress to get people to
confess their own and other's "crimes." In these countries it is also
imposed on people that they should squeal, even on their family and
friends. And, like other dictatorships, the "custom" of writing re-
ports, even on one's own spouse or parents, has long been enshrined
in Scientology policy.
  In contrast, it is one of the fundamentals of the legal systems of civ-
ilized societies that thoughts, by themselves, cannot be held against
an individual. A person is sovereign in his own mind. One has the
right to think freely and no civilized court has jurisdiction to interfere
with that right.
  It is only when thoughts are translated into actions (or when they
are communicated in the form of witnessed or documented plans to
commit criminal actions, as in conspiracy), that legal penalties are re-
sorted to.
  Investigation into alleged crimes must be conducted within a cer-
tain set of guidelines according to the Bill of Rights in the U. S., which
proscribes "unreasonable searches and seizures.'' In other words, the


*Souls Turned Inside Out*


rights of the individual are carefully balanced against the rights of so-
ciety for protection against any individual's crimes against it. Evi-
dence from lie detectors is inadmissible in court in most cases, and
police have to gather their evidence within a severe set of guidelines.
  These principles are blatantly violated by the Scientology "confes-
sional," as practiced by Hubbard's Church.
  In the Church's confessional an individual's mind is opened up with
the aid of the E-meter and with false representations that his revela-
tions will be kept strictly confidential. (To be fair, the auditors usually
believe that it is confidential and are usually oblivious to the fact that
their written notes may be perused by the intelligence arm of the
Church.)

****

  The kind of thought control described in this chapter is greatly aided
by the fact that the E-meter does appear to expose to the practitioner
those things which the person holding the cans (electrodes) finds
difficulty facing up to. The needle of the device does appear to react
when the mind's eye scans near those things. And as this occurs a com-
petent auditor gently prompts "that," "there," "that": coaxing the sub-
merged mental picture or idea into full view in one's mind. The same
E-meter needle reaction will continue until the person fully faces up to
whatever he is repressing.
  It is very impressive to most people, when they first get auditing,
that the auditor can apparently discover what they are thinking. They
find it sheer magic that they can dredge up considerations that they
have had in the distant past, but have long since forgotten.
  Most who have experienced auditing will tell you that the meter
assisted them in the process of bringing to light, and discarding, old
false and fixed ideas which had been affecting their lives negatively.
  The meter, they will say, helped them bring these ideas to the sur-
face, thus allowing re-inspection of them, enabling them to realign
their thinking in a more optimum fashion. There was, they will claim,
an increase in self-confidence and newfound abilities.
  The E-meter is a tool, as are the actions of basic auditing. They can
be used as tools to help others. This is the positive side.
  Or they can be used as bait, to lure another into a trap.
  And, violating the essence of what auditing' was proclaimed to be

*Auditing is also known as "processing" as one "runs processes," that is, asks
questions, applies a procedure.


144

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

all about, these tools can be used, in an authoritarian environment, as
weapons to harm, intimidate, and subjugate.
  All this was well known to Hubbard. And he used or abused these
things as he saw fit, choosing to use "black" or "white" Scientology
entirely at his discretion as to whether or not either aided his objec-
tives.
  "Black Scientology," whether used on individual Scientologists or
an outside "enemy," is to be kept hidden. "White Scientology" is to
be promoted like crazy.
  This principle is similar to Hubbard's more openly stated policy
about keeping intelligence and PH separated.
  "PR is overt," he wrote. "Intelligence is covert.
  "Threat and mystery are a lot of the power of intelligence. Publicity
blows it."
  Hopefully with this book, the "threat and mystery" of black Scien-
tology will be blown.

****

  Shortly after Ron Jr. left the organization in late 1959 "because of
his overts and withholds," his father made an appeal to all Scientolo-
gists in an official technical bulletin. He urged them all to assist in a
new project designed to bring about a "greater group" than has ever
before existed.
  All Scientologists were to....
  "1. Get off your own overts and withholds, and
  "2. Urge other people to get off theirs."
  He asks that each make "a full list of present lifetime overts and
withholds...signed and sent to HCOWW [Hubbard Communica-
tions office World Wide]."
  He continues reassuringly:

    That these files exist in my personal possession should make it effec-
  tively impossible for anyone to try to use this information. (Emphasis
  added)

  (Ron Jr. was spilling the beans all over the place and Hubbard, it
seems, had to know what others knew about his dark secrets. But that
was only a small part of it....)
  Some time after Hubbard set up the Guardian office in the mid-
sixties, the practice of keeping extensive dossiers on people, includ-
ing records of withholds from their pre-clear folders, was expanded.


*Souls Turned Inside Out*

145

  On December 15, 1969, Mary Sue Hubbard put this practice into
official - albeit secret - policy, addressed to "all Deputy Guardians
for Intelligence." The "Guardian Order" sanctioning this practice was
numbered GO 121669 MSH, and dealt with "Internal Security."
  It contained a "Major Target" as follows:

    To use any and all means to detect an infiltration, double agent or
  disaffected staff member, Scientologist or relatives of Scientologists,
  and by any and all means to render null any potential harm or harm
  such have rendered or might render to Scientology and Scientologists.

  Under the heading "Vital Targets" it states:

    To establish intelligence files on all such persons found to be infiltra-
  tors, double agents, and dissaffected staff members, Scientologists and
  relatives of ScientologiSts.

  Under the heading "Operating Targets":

    To make full use of all files of the organization to affect your major
  target. These include personnel files, Ethics files, Dead files, central
  files, training files, processing files (emphasis added), and requests for
  refunds.
    To assemble full data by investigation of each person located for pos-
  sible use in case of attack or for use in preventing any attack and to
  keep files of such.

  There is a note in the text of this order which advises that those
following the order "be effective and imaginative in your collection of
data and in your actions to nullify any attack or threat of attack."
  Mary Sue also notes that the program is a "continuing one regard-
ing which projects will be issued from time to time."
  This order was followed, over the years, to the letter.

****

  L. Ron Hubbard had some major problems with government and
various mental health groups and other private institutions during the
late sixties, especially in the U.K.
  Apparently his inclination was, at that time, to "pull their with-
holds," to find out what they knew but weren't telling.
  During the latter part of the 1960s he had achieved some success


146

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

with Guardian's office intelligence agent infiltration of some of these
organizations.
  With these wins fresh in his mind, he wrote up his "Snow White"
program in 1973, while living secretly in Queens, New York. This
program was designed to handle certain U.S. Government Depart-
ments and Interpol (perceived at the time as the biggest thorns in his
side), once and for all.
  The title "Snow White" signified the concept that these agencies
would be snow-white clean of all withholds once Scientology intelli-
gence was done pulling them.

13

Snow Whitemand the Scientology 11
(or Hubbard's Watergate)

  The first I heard of it, there was a shrill call from a friend who was
on staff in Los Angeles. It was July 8, 1977.
  A raid by some 134 FBI agents, armed with sledge hammers and
crowbars, had been launched early that morning on the Sunset Bou-
levard "complex" in Los Angeles (formerly Cedars of Lebanon Hospi-
tal). Other raids were conducted simultaneously at the Manor (Cha-
teau Elise) nearby, and at the Washington, D.C., organization.
  They had carted away thousand of boxes of confidential materials,
"including pre-clear folders," I was told.
  We were called that night into the Fifield Manor (Chateau Elise)
for a special briefing by the PR people, Heber Jentzsch and Vaughn
Young The mood was feverish when we arrived despite Heber
Jentzsch's inevitable jokes equating the FBI with the Nazis.
  The FBI's search warrant was going to be challenged in court and
those seized documents would never be made public. They would see
to that.
  The press quickly responded to the raids, and were generally sym-
pathetic to the Scientologists.
  Columnist James J. Kilpatric blasted the FBI, calling the agents
"klutzes": "What troubles me is the sheer crushing power that our Gov-
ernment can bring to bear when it chooses. Even if the Scientologist
prevail in the end, they will have been put to stunning legal expenses.

147


148

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

Their normal operations will have been disrupted for months. And all
for what? Is the FBI's purpose prosecution or persecution?"
  I couldn't understand why the FBI would raid a church. This was es-
pecially so later, when it was explained to us by Church representatives
that all that the Church could in any way be held guilty of would be steal-
ing Xerox paper from certain government offices.
  I never doubted the sincerity of Scientology's intentions behind the
outpouring of anti-FBI literature, much of which was legitimately criti-
cal of abuses within that organization, which subsequently poured out
of the Church Guardian's office.
  This was just another example of the abuses by this FBI gestapo
organization against a church.
  It took me a few years to get a fuller story of the events and person-
alities that had culminated in this raid, a watershed event in the his-
tory of Hubbard's adventures.
  It took me even longer to learn that when the news hit, Hubbard
was holed up in La Quinta, near Palm Springs, along with Mary Sue
Hubbard and the top brass of his secret service elite of the Guardian's
office.
  Operation Snow White had backfired.
  What did Operation Snow White consist of, and why had it gone so
wrong?
  Interestingly enough I first learned some of the key facts from read-
ing a book by Omar Garrison, commissioned by the Guardian's
office.
  This book glorified the adventures of the "intrepid" G.O. "freedom
fighters," despite the fact that it essentially admitted the illegal na-
ture of the acts concerned.
  This was after all a Church which had been subjected to extreme
government attack and dirty tricks. The book was in fact titled Playing
Dirty.
  Wrote Garrison about operation Snow White:

    It was a super-secret operation that would be unimaginable to most
  people.
    A government official remarked in awe that it would have done
  credit to the intelligence service of a major country.

  Hubbard's G.O. agents had pulled off an amazingly successful cam-
paign of infiltration of numerous government and private agencies.


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*149



Besides accessing and copying voluminous government files about
Hubbard and his church, they had also placed disinformation into
various files. (Oddly enough, among the files stolen were those on
then California governor Edmond Brown Jr., Los Angeles mayor
Tom Bradley, singer Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and others.)
  It was not till 1980 that I actually read the account of Michael
Meisner, a key player in Operation Snow White.
  I read a document prepared by the FBI. This was a thick legally
worded account of events that had led to the raid. The information
had obviously been compiled mainly from the testimony of Michael
Meisner.
  By that time Mary Sue Hubbard, and other top Guardian office
officials, had stipulated that the information in it was true.
  This stipulation was part of a guilty plea, which ended the trial pro-
cedure, a procedure which could have embroiled Hubbard in the le-
gal maelstrom. Protecting him was the prime consideration, even if it
meant certain jail for the others.
  Years later when Hubbard was asked in writing, by a Rocky Moun-
tain High reporter, what his part had been in the Snow White Affair,
he replied:

    I learned about it like everyone else, after the fact and could only
  shake my head in dismay. I was never involved in any of the incidents
  to which you refer and even governments and courts recognize the fact
  and actually my name has never come up in connection with it beyond
  the passing mention that I founded the Church.

  Quite the contrary. The FBI had in fact labelled Hubbard an
"Unindicted Co-conspirator."

****

  Project Snow White began to be implemented in early 1974 when
Jane Kember, Mary Sue Hubbard's immediate junior, titled "Guard-
ian for Life," issued a written order (Guardian Order 1361) declaring
full-scale war on the IRS in the United States.
  The overt "weapons" in the war were to be litigation in the courts
and a public relations campaign.
  The covert "weapons" were to be the penetration of the IRS Intelli-
gence Division, the IRS Special Services Staff, and the Chief Coun-
cil's office, by "covert G.O. operatives" (Scientology spies).


150

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  The targets of all this spy activity by the Scientologists were, ini-
tially, the IRS offices in Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and also
London, England.

MIKE MEISNER'S STORY

  Mike Meisner was a 20-year-old student at the University of Illinois
at Urbana in November of 1970 when he was introduced to Scientol-
ogy by a friend.
  During the next two months, he took several courses at the Urbana
Church of Scientology franchise. In January the following year, he left
the University to become a full-time course supervisor at the fran-
chise.
  In May he was sent to the Church of Scientology in St. Louis where
for the next eight months he was trained to become an auditor. After
returning to the franchise and continuing his duties as a supervisor for
a time, he assumed the position of Executive Director of the fran-
chise.
  In mid-May of 1973 he was recruited for the Guardian's office and
moved to Washington, D.C., with his wife Patricia, who also joined
the G.O.
  He was taught that the intelligence bureau, which he was now a
part of, deals with safeguarding the environment within which Scien-
tology exists, by removing and rendering harmless all those perceived
to be enemies of Scientology. (In other words, implementation of the
Fair Game Law had been entrusted to this group.)
  This was accomplished, he was taught, by infiltration, theft of docu-
ments and covert operation.
  Wrote Gerry Armstrong:

    B1 [the intelligence Bureau] was created by L. Ron Hubbard who
  patterned it after the intelligence system developed by Nazi spymaster
  Reinhart Ghelen.

  Following weeks of training in G.O. procedures and policies in
D.C., Meisner was sent to Los Angeles for intensive on-the-job train-
ing in the "Intelligence" Bureau there.
  He was taught that strict adherence to the chain of command
within the organization was of paramount importance.
  He was taught how to place agents in organizations targeted for


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*

151

infiltration, how to steal documents, and other overt and covert intel-
ligence gathering techniques.
  In November of 1973 he returned to D.C. as head of intelligence,
where his duties included obtaining personal information about and
"handling" Scientologists who were dissident or disaffected.
  In January of 1974, Mike Meisner was promoted by Jane Kember
(Guardian World Wide) to head Bureau 1 in Washington, D.C., mak-
ing him responsible for all intelligence operations in the area.
  On November 21, Jane Kember wrote a letter to Henning Heldt
headed: "Re Interpol Washington." In it, she informed him that the
Guardian's Office had "some documents illegally obtained, that indi-
cate Interpol Washington was in touch with Interpol Paris, London.
..." (Emphasis added by the FBI) She added: "We know that Wash-
ington, D.C., has police files on LRH...and Interpol Washington
has a file on LRH as well."
  Hubbard had apparently become convinced that Interpol was be-
ing used to disseminate negative materials about him to various coun-
tries, resulting in the difficulties the ship and various Scientology Or-
ganizations were running into.
  Later in the letter Jane Kember directed, "It is important that we
get cracking and obtain these files and I leave you to work out how."
  In late summer of 1974 Meisner was instructed to recruit a covert
operative to infiltrate the IRS in D.C. Gerald Wolfe was selected. He
eventually got a job at the IRS as a clerk-typist. He was code named
"Silver. "
  While he was settling into this job, other agents were infiltrating
IRS offices in Los Angeles and London.
  All documents relating to Hubbard, Scientology, etc., were or-
dered to be photocopied.
  Mike Meisner met with his superior, Don Alvarazo, who showed
Mike the bugging devise he had brought with him from L.A.
  The same day Mike and another G.O. operative entered the main
IRS building seeking to find out where a meeting was to be held a few
days later. They subsequently placed the bugging device in a wall
socket of the targeted room.
  Don Alvarazo and two other agents waited in a car nearby and over-
heard and taped the "big pow wow about what to do about us."
  Duke Snider (Meisner's superior) wrote a letter shortly afterwards
saying "We must be careful with this transcript [of the meeting] as
even in the distant future in the hands of the enemy the repercussions


152

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

would be great. There are new laws on this federally, and a strong
post-Watergate judicial climate."
  Meanwhile Gerry Wolfe, as a plant in the IRS, was not an instant
success. He let his superiors know that he was unable to obtain the
documents he had been ordered to find and copy.
  So Mike Meisner and his co-agent, Mitchell Herman, entered
Gerry's workplace to demonstrate that it was possible to get the docu-
ments. They went to the seventh floor of the building and took a Sci-
entology file from the filing cabinet there. It was taken from the
building photocopied and returned the next day without detection.
  Following that "achievement" there were many others.
  By December 4, 1974, Wolfe had sent off two shipments of docu-
ments to G.O. headquarters in England, each about "ten inches
thick. "
  Gerry Wolfe continued searching the files of various offices on his
own while Mike Meisner oversaw the operation and organized the
Xeroxed materials mailing to his superiors.
  During the first five months of 1975 alone, the documents located
by Gerry Wolfe and photocopied totalled some ten feet in height.
  After it was discovered that many of the files they were looking for
were in the offices of Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Dodell, plans
were made to gain entry there also.
  It was deemed necessary that Meisner also obtain an IRS I.D. card
such as the one Wolfe had obtained as part of his job.
  In order to obtain one, Meisner and Wolfe entered the main IRS
building after hours, using Wolfe's legitimate I. D. Then, using one of
the tools of the burglary trade, they forced open the door to the room
where the I.D. equipment was located. Using a flashlight, Wolfe
picked up four blank I.D. cards (two each) and typed in fictitious
names. They then took turns photographing each other's images onto
the cards. Badge numbers were taken from a log they found in the
room near the equipment.
  Subsequently, five other Scientologists followed their example,
making similar counterfeit cards.
  On May 25, 1975, Mary Sue wrote a letter to Jane Kember. It
states:

    Our overall strategy with the IRS shall be as follows: 1. To use any
  method at our disposal to win the battle and gain our non-profit status.
  ...(Emphasis added)


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*

153

  Hundreds of Scientology agents were placed in a variety of govern-
ment and private organizations during this period.

****

  It was well known to the Scientologist C.O. hierarchy that what
they were doing constituted breaking and entering and was therefore
a felony. It was also known that to use the government equipment
and paper constituted theft, and was a felony. A letter from a legal
researcher to top executives in the G.O., which was later found dur-
ing the FBI raid, spelled out the law on these matters. Meisner and
Wolfe regularly briefed their seniors on their activities.

AN ORDER TO PROTECT HUBBARD AT ALL COSTS
LEADS TO COMPLICATIONS

  Events leading up to these complications were as follows:
  On April 4, 1976, a Scientology case, in which the Church was
suing for documents regarding the Church withheld from them by
the government, was in progress. An apparently insignificant discus-
sion occurred between the judge and the government attorney.
  This exchange was destined to create major consequences....
  The judge asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Dodell if he had
considered taking Hubbard's deposition (i.e., had he demanded Hub-
bard be present to testify)?
  "It is an interesting thought Judge Hart...." responded Dodell.
  "Why don't you take his deposition?" asked Judge Hart.
  "I will certainly relay that suggestion..." responded Dodell.
  Alarm bells were set off by this exchange. Hubbard's safety was
paramount, and he would have been notified immediately of the dan-
ger. Hubbard would then have immediately alerted his G.O. execu-
tives to handle "terminatedly" any threat to him!
  (This panic reaction was, I believe, most likely what eventually led
to the FBI's uncovering of Operation "Snow White.")
  In response to this brief colloquy in court, a project was precipi-
tated by G.O. executives: a complete investigation was to he done re-
garding Judge Hart, and Dodell's office toas to he penetrated to moni-
tor his intentions regarding deposing Hubbard.
  So Mike and Gerry entered the U.S. Courthouse in Washington,
D.C., at around four P.M. and went to the third floor to locate


154

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

Dodell's office. It was located in a highly secured area. Finding the
door locked they unsuccessfully tried to break in.
  A few days later Gerry phoned Mike from Dodell's office. "Dodell's
secretary left her keys on her desk!" he enthused. He had used them
to get into Dodell's office.
  They met and then located a locksmith where they got duplicates of
some of the keys.
  At about seven P.M. on May 21, Mike and Gerry returned to the
Courthouse.
  They entered in the usual manner with Mike using his "John M.
Forster" I.D. "We're going to the library section to do legal re-
search," they told the security guard.
  Apparently approval was given and they were issued an elevator
key and proceeded to the third floor where they signed the library
log using the fake names on their I.D. cards.
  At the first opportunity they left the library and went to Dodell's
office where they gained entry using one of their keys. They copied
all the documents they found.
  A week later, Mike and Gerry again went to the Courthouse and
went through the same procedure to gain entry.
  This time, however, they entered the library through the back door
without signing in.
  They used their duplicated key and this time collected more docu-
ments relating to Scientology and also some relating to the FDA and
D.C. police Department, and photocopied them nearby the office on
government equipment.
  As they were returning through the library to Dodell's office with
originals, they were stopped by the librarian.
  "Did you sign in?" he enquired.
  When they said "No," he had them do so.
  "You are not to return to this library unless you have specific au-
thorization from the regular librarian," they were told.
  Then they returned the originals to Dodell's office and left the
building.
  A few days later, the night librarian Charles Johnson and a Security
Guard got around to notifying the United States Attorney's office that
two individuals who had in their possession IRS I. D. cards had been
seen using the photocopying machines in the U.S. Attorney's office
on the previous Friday evening.


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*

155

  Both Johnson and the guard were instructed to immediately con-
tact the FBI if the two returned to the Courthouse.
  Meanwhile another G.O. project was begun called "Project: Target
Dodell." Its purpose was stated to be to "render Dodell harmless."
Hubbard wanted any threat to him stopped.
  So, in line with this project, Mike Meisner was directed to return
to Dodell's office to steal personal files in order to devise and formu-
late a court operation to remove him as Assistant United States At-
torney for the District of Columbia.
  So, in furtherance of that operation, Mike and Gerry again went to
the Courthouse on June 11, 1976.
  Entering at about seven P.M., Meisner signed in and they pro-
ceeded to the library and showed the night librarian the written per-
mission which they had earlier received from the head librarian.
  When they went to Dodell's office there were cleaning ladies doing
their chores there, so they returned to the library and acted like re-
searchers while they waited for the cleaning crew to vacate.
  Meanwhile the night librarian contacted the FBI.
  Two FBI agents arrived while the two were still waiting in the li-
brary. They demanded to see their I.D. cards
  Mike presented his card and told them that he had since resigned
from the IRS.
  While one FBI agent continued to question the two, the other
went off to contact a U.S. Attorney.
  "We're here to do legal research," Meisner told Agent Hansen.
"We used the photocopying equipment to photocopy legal books and
cases."
  He gave her, as his home address, an address a few doors away
from his actual residence.
  After fifteen minutes of questioning Mike Meisner asked, "Are we
under arrest?"
  No, they were not under arrest, was the response.
  "Ok, let's go!" he said to Gerry.
  Agent Hodges saw them leaving, and called to them.
  "Agent Hansen told us we could go," Mike replied.
  After leaving the Courthouse they walked a couple of blocks to
make sure that they were not being followed, then caught a cab to
Martin's Tavern Restaurant. From a nearby public phone they called
their superior in L.A. and told him the details of their misadventure.


156

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  After another couple of calls, Mike was told to leave the next morn-
ing on a flight to Los Angeles.
THE COVER-UP

  On the plane Mike wrote up a detailed report of the previous day's
Courthouse incident.
  When he arrived in Los Angeles, his report was turned over to
Henning Heldt (Jane's junior and head of the G.O. in the U.S.), and a
full description of all the events was, shortly thereafter, sent to Mary
Sue Hubbard.
  The crisis was analyzed and a tentative plan was adopted to contain
or stop the investigation. A shore story was devised for Gerry Wolfe
should he be arrested. Another story was worked out for Mike. One
which would support Gerry's.
  The highest priority, recognized by all parties, was to prevent the
FBI from making the connection between the two and the Church of
Scientology.
  It was argued that if Wolfe allowed himself to be arrested, and gave
the proper cover story, then the investigation could, be contained.
Then following Wolfe's plea of guilty, Meisner would surrender, give
the same story as Wolfe and also enter a guilty plea. This plan had a
good chance, he proposed, of terminating all FBI investigation with
little or no connection to Scientology being made.
  Heldt approved this plan.
  A cover story was devised: the whole thing was "a prank that had
gone sour."

****

  Gerry Wolfe, who by now had also arrived in Los Angeles, was
drilled on the story and assigned an attorney to aid him through his
arrest.
  On June 30, 1976 Gerry Wolfe was arrested in the main IRS build-
ing by FBI agent Christine Hansen. He was charged with the use and
possession of a forged official pass of the United States. He was re-
leased on his own recognizance, pending a preliminary hearing.
  In a letter dated July 1, Mary Sue wrote:

    He: Mike and the FSM" [FSM = Field Staff Member: Gerry Wolfe]
    From an investigative point of view it was really too easy for the op-


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*1

57

  position. All they had to do was to trace back the common entry [sic]
  points of the log back for both Mike and the FSM [Wolfe] until they
  arrived at the point where the FSM used his correct I.D. card.

  She urged that she be kept informed as to what happened to Wolfe.
  In response to that request, she received two letters. In one she
was told that the prosecutor had been informed that Gerry's I.D. was
all a lark gone sour, and that Wolfe had been instructed not to go any-
where near the Church of Scientology; the writer felt it was still possi-
ble that there would be a minimal punishment for Wolfe and no con-
nection made to the Church.
  When the case came up for preliminary hearing, a U.S. Magistrate
found that probable cause existed and ordered the case "bound over
the action to the Grand Jury." A few days later a warrant for the arrest
of Michael Meisner was issued for use of a forged official pass.
  Mary Sue responded to the discovery that the FBI was onto
Meisner:

    Wonder how they got onto him?
    On getting him abroad, unless you have good ID for him different
  from his own, it might be dangerous. He would better be "lost" in
  some large city where it would be difficult [sic] to find him.
    What a shame.

  Meisner was moved to a series of different motels.
  Meanwhile there was a lot of communication going back and forth
to and from Mary Sue regarding how best to proceed.
  In late September, FBI Agent Hansen requested the Church of
Scientology to provide her with examples of Meisner$ handwriting.
Meisner was told that it had been decided that false examples would
be given.

THE FRUSTRATIONS OF MICHAEL MEISNER

  A few weeks later Meisner expressed concern for his wife and par-
ents and complained that he was being kept almost totally unin-
formed of G.O. actions in the ongoing cover-up.
  He was assured that he would be kept informed in the future and
that Mary Sue Hubbard was concerned about the situation; anything
he wanted to express to her would be sent directly to her.
  He wrote a letter to Mary Sue in which he said:


158

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    In my opinion, no matter what story we use, the longer we wait to
  implement it, the less believable it will be and the more...the gov-
  ernment will be inclined to believe that the Church is behind it.

  Meisner was audited three times a week after this, but despite this,
towards mid-March, he began to become upset at the lengthy delays.
By late March he wrote Henning Heldt demanding that he take a
more active role because the delays were "becoming intolerable."
  By April 27 (almost six months after he first hid out), Mike was
again upset about the slowness of events and Weigand was notified
that Meisner now intended to "leave for either Canada or D.C. Satur-
day."
  The next day Mike's auditor Jim Fiducia and two G.O. executives
visited him to persuade him against leaving for Canada or D.C. on his
own. Mike, however, was adamant that he would leave unless the
Wolfe situation was handled promptly.

"HERB" GETS ROUGHED UP

  Heldt informed Mary Sue of the situation with "Herb" (Meisner)
and that he was ordering the Information Bureau to "arrange to re-
strain Herb and prevent him from leaving, and to guard him so that
he does not do so."
  When Meisner was told that from that day on he would be placed
under guard, he hotly responded that there was no way he would ac-
cept any guards. He also complained bitterly that the whole situation
had been mishandled by the G.O. and that this fact had resulted in
his becoming a fugitive.
  The guards were placed there anyway.
  He was next visited by a top G.O. executive who warned:

    You will no longer be permitted to make demands and threats on
  the Church. You are to become a decent, co-operative, contributing
  part of the venture and nothing else will be tolerated!

  He and the guard searched Meisner's apartment and removed any
evidence that might have connected Meisner to the Church. The meet-
ing concluded, according to a report, "with the guards in charge. "
  At six r.M. on May 1, three Info Bureau Agents and two body-


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*

159

guards visited Meisner and told him he was to be moved to another
apartment. He refused, and threatened to cause a commotion if
forced to do so.
  The two guards handcuffed him behind his back, gagged him and
dragged him out of the building.
  Outside they forced him onto the back floor of a waiting car. Dur-
ing the trip in the car one of the guards used his feet to hold him
down.
  At the new apartment, still in Los Angeles, three guards remained
to secure him. He was prevented from leaving for the next three
weeks. During this time he determined that it was best to co-operate
with his captors, and he corresponded with Heldt to ask his help in
having the guards removed. He also accepted auditing.
  On May 13, Wolfe entered a plea of guilty to a one-count indict-
ment charging him with the wrongful use of a Government seal.
  Mike was informed of this and by the third week of May, partly due
to his co-operation, his watch was relaxed and his guards began to
take him out of the apartment, for short periods.
  It was at that time that he was shown a written G.O. program: It
had been decided that Meisner could not surrender to the FBI until
the IRS had granted the Church of Scientology of California its re-
quest for tax-exempt status. This contradicted previous assurances
made to him, and so alienated him further from the Church. He
didn't complain, however.
  By the end of May he was guarded by just one person.
  One day when he was out with his guard he escaped by jumping
into a taxi. He went to the bus station and caught a bus to Las Vegas.
He knew of a motel there that even he could afford. He needed time
to think about his predicament. He was still committed to Scientology
and didn't want to leave the organization precipitately.
  After a night in Las Vegas, he called Los Angeles and asked to
speak to Heldt. Heldt pleaded with him to return to L.A. and the
G.O.
  He initially refused but agreed to meet with Info Agent Douglas
the next day in Las Vegas. He was eventually persuaded to return to
L.A. to speak with Henning Heldt, and they met at Canter's Restau-
rant. Heldt assured him that both L. Ron Hubbard and Mary Sue
were working on his case and would do everything to help him.
 "You will have to continue to be under guard" he was told. But he
should consider the guards his friends not his enemies. He agreed to


160

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

remain in the G.O.; but later described the situation as an "armed
truce."

THE SENTENCING AND PERJURY OF "SILVER"

  Almost exactly a year to the day after their fateful confrontation
with the FBI in the Courthouse library, on June 10, Wolfe ("Silver")
was sentenced to a term of probation and was required to perform
one hundred hours of community service.
  This was a major victory for the Scientologists.
  The relief was to be brief, however: Immediately following his
sentencing Wolfe was served with a subpoena to appear that same
afternoon before the U.S. Grand Jury which had been investigating
the entries into the U.S. Courthouse.
  It was one P.M. and the Grand Jury was attempting to identify the
person or persons who had caused and conspired to perpetrate the
violations. They wanted the real reasons why Mike and Gerry had
penetrated the security system on June 11, 1976.
  A Grand Jury member asked the question:

    When did you first come to know that the D.C. Bar Association had
  a library on the third floor of this building2
    A: I don't remember the exact date.
    Q: Why did you want to come to the library?
    A: To study.
    Q: To study what?
    A: To learn to do legal research.
    A: Why did you want to learn to do legal research?
    A: Well, I was planning on going back to Minneapolis to complete or
  further my studies in music and I thought that in addition to clerical
  skills that I had that if I could learn to do legal research that I could
  perhaps get a better paying, more interesting job to help pay for my
  school.
    Q: How did you propose to learn to do legal research in the I).C.
  Bar library?
    A: Someone was going to teach me.
    Q: Who was that someone
    A: John Foster.
    A: You only knew him by John Foster?
    A: Right.

  There were other questions, and all of Wolfe's perjured answers
forwarded the shore story that had been pre-arranged.


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*

161

****

  After his appearance before the Grand Jury, Gerry went straight to
the Church of Scientology where he was debriefed by G.O. officials.
  Excerptions of that debriefing entitled "Silver Hearing and Grand
Jury," went, according to the routing marked at the top left-hand cor-
ner of the document, at least as high as Mary Sue Hubbard.
  On June 13, Meisner was visited by Heldt who had him read a
handwritten letter from Mary Sue. In the letter she warned him that
if he escaped again he would be on his own.

MIKE ON HIS OWN

  The fact is that by this time Mike had decided that if the watch over
him were ever relaxed he would immediately leave the Guardian
office, surrender to federal authorities, and co-operate in the ongoing
investigation.
  He was feigning co-operation in the hope that the guards might be
removed.
  This tactic worked. By the evening, after the agent left with the
positive report about Mike's state of mind, he was no longer guarded
at night.
  The following Monday at six A.M. he took a few clothes and left the
apartment, took a couple of different buses to elude any potential tail
the G.O. might have placed on him, got off the bus randomly and
placed a call to United States Attorney Gary Stark in Washington,
D.C., and told him that he was ready to surrender.
  He was told to stay where he was and wait for the FBI agents to
arrive.
  After his surrender, he was sent to Washington, D.C., to meet
Stark. He agreed to plead guilty to a conspiracy charge which carried
a five-year prison penalty, without any condition except that he co-
operate with the Grand Jury investigation. He was placed in the pro-
tective custody of the Marshal Service.
  Meanwhile Heldt was informed: "Herbert was found missing to-
day. "A note had been found from him stating that he would call in a
week and that he was not going anywhere he could be located, and
that there was no further purpose in discussing his motivations.
  It was speculated that he was hiding, probably somewhere in Los
Angeles, doing legal research regarding possible defenses in his case.
All documents that could connect him with Scientology were re-
moved from his apartment and fingerprints were carefully wiped out.


162

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  Mary Sue was alerted.
  All libraries in Los Angeles were ordered to be checked to find if
Mike was in any of them, and all incriminating documents in the
Guardian's office were placed in the "Red Box."*
  The G.O. received a letter on June 29th from "Herb" postmarked
San Francisco:

    I know you don't understand what's going on, but I still need time to
  myself. I'm making enough money to get by on so there's no problems.
    I'11 be in touch in a couple of weeks. Herb.

  Unknown to them, the letter had been prepared by the FBI, to
allay G.O. suspicions while they readied their raids on Washington
and Los Angeles G.O. headquarters.
  Mary Sue did sense something wrong, however. She wrote to
Heldt:

    I frankly wld [would] not waste Bur1 [intelligence] resources looking
  for him but wld instead utilize resources to figure out a way to defuse
  him shld [should] he turn traitor.

  On July 4th a warrant was signed by Judge Henry Kennedy. It al-
lowed the FBI to conduct a search of the Church buildings in D.C.
Another warrant was issued in Los Angeles.
  So at six A. M. on the morning of July 8, 1957, FBI agents arrived at
the Scientology G.O. establishment to conduct what was, according
to Omar Garrison's book, the largest such raid ever in U.S. history.
Another raid was conducted, almost simultaneously, in D.C.
  Mike Meisner qualified for the Witness protection program.

*"Red Box", is explained in a document (seized during the FBI raid of the
Church, precipitated by Meisner's testimony).
This document orders:
  "All the Red Box material from your areas must be centrally located together
in a removable container (ideally a briefcase), locked and marked."
  Appended to that document is the "Red Box Data Information Sheet." This sheet
answers the question, "What is Red Box Data?":
  "a) Proof that a Scnist [Scientologist] is involved in criminal activities.
  b) Anything illegal that implicates MSH, LRH.
  c) Large amount of non-FOI docs [Non Freedom of Information Documents ille-
gally obtained].
  d) Operations against any government group or persons.
  e) All operations that contain illegal activities.
  f) Evidence of incriminating activities.
  g) Names and details of confidential financial accounts."


*Snow White and the Scientology 11*



****

  While they fought it off in the courts for almost five years, the fate
of the 11 was sealed. They were headed for jail.
  This scene, exposed by Michael Meisner, would also have enor-
mous ramifications in Hubbard's life.
  His moves to protect himself from becoming embroiled in criminal
proceedings were destined to open up a Pandora's box of new prob-
lems for him.


 14

Freaking out Paulette

  Among the materials that the FBI seized from the Church of Scien-
tology was a sheet of paper headed "P.C. Freakout." It detailed a pro-
gram to have Paulette Cooper, a New York journalist who had written
a book entitled The Scandal of Scientology, incarcerated in prison or a
mental institution.
  Her book included an interview with L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., and re-
vealed Hubbard's connection to "Black Magic" and Aleister Crowley.
This was the first time these subjects had been broached in a book.
Hubbard determined - evidence indicates - to stop the book and to
intimidate other writers and publishers.
  Paulette Cooper had, prior to the raid, been facing charges by the
FBI that she was guilty of felonies. She had been framed by Hub-
bard's Guardian's office. The documents, seized by the FBI, finally
proved this conclusively.
  In regard to the government infiltrations of the previous chapter,
Hubbard's agents might be seen by some to have been a Scientology
David taking a sling shot to a government Goliath; but in this project
they could be seen as a Goliath gleefully crushing a David underfoot:
A sadistic bully.
  Paulette Cooper testified `about these events in 1981, to a hearing
on Scientology by the City Council in Clearwater:

    My basic interest is as a writer; I like investigative things....
    I went in and took their weekend course.
    During the time, I wandered away from the group where they were
  teaching the particular, well, TRs, as they call them, and I came upon a
  list of people, who - I don't remember for sure if it was a Fair Game

164


*Freaking Out Paulette*

165

  order, but I think it was because these people were being declared en-
  emies of mankind.
    I remember one woman's name was on there.and it declared her an
  enemy of mankind for pushing five men down a flight of stairs. And
  how could she do that? It just didn't ring true.
    And I decided to contact some of these people when I came home.
  And I think I took about five names, the five top people, and every one
  of them had an unlisted number, disconnected phone.
    Well this was in 1968, and the people Scientology was attracting
  were twenty-two, twenty-three years old.
    And just by chance, a whole group of people are not going to have
  five unlisted numbers unless there's a reason for people to unlist their
  number.
    So, it began to bother me that, you know, was this so-called respect-
  able Church perhaps harassing people? And in that one weekend, I
  had noted that they had lied about certain things, and I wondered
  about a church lying to people. And I decided to look in the library and
  see if I could get any information, any book. And I discovered that all
  the stories had been clipped out of every single magazine pertaining to
  Scientology and I wondered whether this Church was, perhaps, possi-
  bly stealing things.
    Well, I spent the next couple of years doing research into Scientol-
  ogy.
    And my first article came out in December of 1969. That's also the
  month that I received my first death threat.
    And then a number of mysterious events occurred, both then `
  during the time within the next year and a half until my book came (ana
    I was followed on several occasions; we found a phone tap on ,ut.
  phone; I was being multiply sued already at that time. Oh, people kept
  calling me and trying to take me out, and it seemed like people wept
  trying to get to me.
    And this went on for four unpleasant years, including four lawsuits,
  one of which was for somebody else's book. And when that happened,
  I got really annoyed. And I became the first person to sue them for
  harassment.
    It was actually shocking to them because Hubbard had written that
  an enemy of - that no one would ever sue, that they had too much to
  hide and that people were criminals (whoever attacked the Church),
  and, therefore, we were going to just wither away and die....
    Well, about October of 1972, they started a big campaign to finally
  silence me or attempt to stop me. That month I received the second of
  what was ultimately to be five anonymous, absolutely disgusting smear
  letters about me. This particular one called me a part-time prosti-
  tute ....


166

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    During this same period of time, there were a large number of at-
  tempts to get into my apartment, which was on the ground floor of the
  building that I lived in at the time; it was not well guarded, and I was
  quite concerned. I received a tremendous number of really disgusting
  calls, and I remember one day counting eleven calls....
    I finally decided that I was going to move to a higher security apart-
  ment, even though I really could not afford to do so at the time. I
  moved on December 15th. The person who took over the apartment
  was my second cousin. We bore a physical resemblance because we're
  about the same age and she was very petite, and we both had short
  brown hair at the time.
    And a series of mysterious circumstances occurred. The important
  thing was that she opened up the door to someone who had flowers and
  rang my bell. And I was no longer living there, although my name was
  still on the door.
    When Joy opened the door to get these flowers, he unwrapped the
  flowers and there was a gun in it.
    And he took out the gun and he put it at Joy's temple and he cocked
  the gun, and we don't know whether it misfired, whether it was empty
  and it was a scare technique, what happened, but somehow, the gun
  did not go off.
    And he started choking her, and she was able to break away and she
  started to scream. And the person ran away.
    And so she called a detective and he said, "It's a very wild attack
  because there doesn't seem to be any motive for it." There was no at-
  tempted rape, there was no attempted robbery, and why should some-
  body just suddenly try to kill her....
    About a week or two later at my apartment, I received a visit from
  the FBI. And they informed me that the public relations person from
  Scientology had claimed that she had received a couple of bomb
  threats and asked - and had named me as somebody likely to send
  bomb threats.
    I didn't take the whole thing very seriously, and the FBI asked me if
  I would mind being fingerprinted. And I said that I would not, and I
  was fingerprinted.
    [Later] I was called for a grand jury....I didn't think this was any-
  thing very serious and did not bother to retain a lawyer, had very little
  money because I had used all my money to move to this more expen-
  sive, higher-security apartment.
    And when I got there, they told me that I was the target of an inves-
  tigation into the bomb threats. And I went and had to hire a lawyer,
  and every lawyer wanted - the least we could get was five-thousand
  dollar retainer, which, in those years, was like paying ten thousand
  dollars, you know, today. And to suddenly have to pay this sum of
  money and find out that you're in serious trouble....


*Freaking Out Paulette*

167

    Finally, I went before the grand jury, and I tried to answer every
  question as truthfully as 1 could....
    They kept asking me again and again, "Did you ever see this letter?
  Did you ever touch it? Do you know who might have? And I said, inci-
  dentally, "Yes," that I suspect they might have confrontations in the
  press.
    And they asked me to step outside the room. And when I came
  knew I was in very serious trouble, and they asked me what my social
  security number was, whether I was on drugs, and did I realize what I
  had said so far. And again, they asked me the same series of questions.
    And they said, "Well, Miss Cooper, if you've never touched this let-
  ter before, could you tell us how your fingerprints got on it?"
    I felt like a grand piano had just hit me on the head. I - I fainted
  sitting up; the whole room just turned upside down and I didn't know
  what to do. And then, of course, the lawyers wanted more money.
    And on May - let's see, May 19th, 1973 - I was indicted on the
  three counts of sending bomb threats through the mail; two counts
  were for two letters. One was for perjury for saying before the grand
  jury that I hadn't done it and that I thought this public relations person
  might have done it. On May 29th, ten days later, I was arrested and
  arraigned.
    The next eight months were a terrible, terrible nightmare in my life
  that I still feel sometimes that I suffer from to this day. I had fifteen
  years in jail over my head and fifteen thousand dollars in fines. I was
  petrified about going to jail, more so, perhaps, because of my small
  frame and the fact that I heard that women's federal prisons were
  rough places.
    I risked having my career totally destroyed because - and I had
  been successful. And as a freelance writer, what editor is ever going to
  give an assignment to someone who's been indicted or convicted for
  sending bomb threats to someone they opposed?
   I was very concerned about the indictment and the trial coming out
  in the newspapers. The public does not know the difference between
  indict and convict, and they think that if you're on trial for something,
  you must have done it or where there's smoke there's fire. I was left
  with the terrible public humiliation that every person I ever knew in
  New York would read the details of the trial and these accusations.
    I was most concerned about my parents, who had adopted me when
  I was six years old, and how humiliating it would be for them and their
  friends to have to explain and to go through a trial like this.
    During this period of time, I went through a terrible, terrible de-
  pression and a number of my friends, which I can't blame them for, did
  not stick by me. I was depressing to be with. I had been seeing a man
  for five years and had intended to marry him, and he left as a result of
  my depression.


168

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    I was released on my own recognizance.
    I went through a period of very, very acute anxiety....I couldn't
  sleep till about four in the morning and I'd wake up about six with my
  stomach just in my throat and worrying about what the next day would
  bring and what was going to happen at the hearing. And this went on
  for eight months, and I was just totally exhausted, sleeping two to four
  hours a day....
    All the money I had had gone to the lawyers, and I went into debt to
  try to continue to pay for them. The - in the end, just the main lawyers
  cost nineteen thousand dollars....
    I developed, for the first time in my life, acute agoraphobia; I
  couldn't leave the house. I think that this really started with this at-
  tempted murder that I felt had been intended for me....
    And meanwhile, during this period of time, there was a friend, a
  new friend, who I met under somewhat mysterious circumstances, but
  he was very, very helpful. And I obtained an apartment for him in my
  building, and he did some of the food shopping that I could not get out
  and do. And his name was Jerry Levin....
    The worst period of time was approximately two weeks before the
  trial. My lawyers informed me that, with a federal case, it was a
  ninety-five percent chance of conviction. They gave me the good news
  that, for the trial, they wanted my parents to be seated in the front row
  and watch the entire proceedings. And I kept saying, "You can't do
  that to them. It's going to be awful enough for them to read it in the
  paper."...
    They felt that one circumstance that might get me acquitted was the
  mutually close relationship with my parents.
    On top of that, going through some Scientology material I had ob-
  tained, there was the name of Jerry Levin. Now, I felt horribly be-
  trayed, but at the same time I simply did not want to believe it. I was
  very naive, and his name was a very common name, especially in a city
  like New York.
    Meanwhile, we had tried every single move possible to get the trial
  stopped. And - but I was in a very very nervous state and it was impos-
  sible for me to be tested correctly. And we went to some doctors who
  said that they felt the only thing that might work would be...sodium
  pentathol or "truth serum "
    So, the problem was we couldn't find a doctor who would give me a
  sodium pentothal test because, by this time, I weighed eighty-three
  pounds; I had started at about ninety-eight. And it became very, very
  dangerous to go and put somebody under, as if for an operation, and do
  that.
    And I just said I didn't care if the...sodium pentathol killed me
  because, if I had to stand trial for what I didn't do and humiliate every-


*Freaking Out Paulette*

169

  one and go through this humiliation, that I would just as soon be dead
  anyway.
    And we finally did find a doctor two weeks before trial who gave me
  a sodium pentathol test. I was unconscious for seven hours.
    I don't know what was said during that [time].
    I do know that, when I came to, my mother was standing there and I
  said, "What happened? What did I say?"
    And she just said, "It's O.K. It's a11 over. There won't be a trial."
    The government wanted to save face because they don't like to ad-
  mit that they've made a mistake. So, they said that they...would
  postpone the trial, but they would not actually drop the charges at that
  time.
    The government did not drop the charges and, for two years after all
  this, I still had to worry on a daily basis whether one day there was
  going to be a trial and all of these things that I was afraid of, the prison
  and so on, was going to happen.

  Paulette Cooper goes on to tell about the harassment she received
over the next couple of years. She began to receive copies of a letter
she had sent out in her late teens and a copy of psychiatrist's report
(that had been stolen from her psychiatrist's office by a Mr. Dardano,
while he was an agent for the G.O. He also testified at the Clearwater
hearings, having left Scientology by that time).
  By 1975, the charges had been dropped.
  In the summer of 1977, the FBI raided the Scientology organiza-
tions, based on Michael Meisner's testimony.
  Paulette continues:

    On October 12, 1977, the FBI called me. Now, remember, this was
  a five-year period that I had never been able to prove my innocence;
  the government considered me a criminal. I had a, quote, record, end
  quote.
    And the FBI called out of the blue and said, "We have just received
  evidence that you were innocent of those original charges."
    I put down the phone and cried..

****

  Paulette Cooper learned from the FBI that the Scientologists had
broken into her New York lawyer's office.
  She finally saw the seized documents at the end of 1979, when a
judge ruled 23,000 of them available to the public. Among them were
two that made it absolutely clear that she had been criminally framed.


170THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  One document was found that indicated that there had been some
consideration of using the mafia against her, but they decided instead
to frame her "so that Scientology would not look bad."
  Another document proved that Jerry Levin, the fellow who had
been "helping" her during her worst months, had been "calling a di-
ary into Scientology.
  This included reports as to how close she was to suicide: "She can't
sleep again...she's talking suicide. Wouldn't this be great for Scien-
tology!"

15

"I Resigned in 1966" - Hubbard,
From Secret Desert Command Post

  Perhaps it could be described as locking the stable door after the
horse has bolted, but since there was probably a real threat of a subse-
quent FBI raid at La Quinta (a high-class area near Palm Springs),
that description might not be fair.
  Besides later being the location for the production of"educational"
or instructional Scientology films, there was, initially, at La Quinta a
major project to shred, "vet" (cut out signatures with a razor blade)
and burn all documents that could in any way tie Hubbard, his wife
Mary Sue, or Jane Kember to the Guardian's office activities, and
Hubbard to control of the Church.
  "Hubbard had resigned in 19GFi," was the "shore story" that had
now taken on tremendous importance in the wake of the FBI raids.
He was now said to be just a writer in seclusion, who sometimes
consulted top Church officials. All evidence to the contrary had to be
eliminated.
  "If it isn't written it isn't true" was his commandment, and it was
followed exactly over the years. So all his orders were in written
form, as were all communications of importance between his execu-
tives and staff around the world. A great deal of this demonstrated his
total dictatorial control of his Churches and the Guardian's office.

171


172

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  There was a lot of paper to destroy.

"LAND BASES" IN THE DESERT

  In early 1977, there were some 400 people in La Quinta, posing as
the "friends of Norton Karno."
  Much of the following dialogue describing that era is edited from a
taped briefing by John Zegel, who is the step-father of Mark Yeager, a
member of the current top "elite" rulers of the Church. John Zegel
and Mark's mother resigned from the Church four years ago. Mark
disconnected from them, calling them "Squirrels" and "Suppres-
sives." His mother had proudly given him permission to"join Ron" in
1973, when he was twelve years of age.
  John Zegel was in a position of knowing many of Mark's friends,
who left the Sea Org concurrently with John's resigning. They related
these events to him. His taped briefings became a sort of under-
ground "news media" among ex-Scientologists in 1983-1984:

    On the 15th of July, 1977, a week after the FBI raids, having spent a
  week conferring with Mary Sue about the matter, Hubbard made a de-
  cision to leave La Quinta. With him he took Dede Reisdorf, Claire
  Rousseau and Pat Broeker.
    They left in a station wagon named "Beauty," in the middle of the
  night with their lights off. Once they were an adequate distance away
  they turned their lights on and made their way to Sparks, Nevada.
    Hubbard was ill during the trip. He was having stomach trouble and
  this is not a happy time for anybody.
    Pat Broeker and Claire Rousseau, under assumed names, went out
  and set up an apartment.
    The cover story was that Pat and Claire were a young married cou-
  ple, Hubbard was their elderly uncle and Dede was their cousin.
    This "family" was almost completely incommunicado for nearly six
  months. Hubbard was spending time working on his health. He took
  long walks every morning and worked on the script of Revolt in the
  Stars, which he envisioned would be made into a major film. It would
  deal with a "catastrophic interplanetary incident that occurred 75 mil-
  lion years ago."
    After they had been in Sparks for a short time, cash was becoming a
  problem, so Pat Broeker contacted Annie, his soon-to-be wife, in
  Clearwater.


"*I Resigned in 1966*"

173

    They arranged for one million dollars in cash to be taken from the
  Church by Annie. Subsequently, she met Pat in the L.A. Airport
  where they exchanged suitcases. Each had a matching suitcase, and
  were disguised in some fashion.
    The money arrived at Sparks, but they were still uncertain that the
  money had been sufficiently laundered. So they took the hundred dol-
  lar bills, which was how the bulk of the money arrived, to the various
  casinos and broke the money down as it was needed.
    They remained in Sparks until the last day of December 1977. They
  then headed back to the Rifle hacienda in La Quinta.
    Since the filming was now to begin, more property was needed.
    Two large ranches were located in Indio, California. One was 140
  acres of grapefruit and date palms called "Silver," and another 10-acre
  plot of grapefruit and date palm, with a hacienda called "Monroe."
    The film crew would eventually live at Monroe, and in the middle of
  Silver's grapefruit orchards, a huge barn was built, which was actually
  a film studio.
    In September of 1978 Hubbard had another major incident with his
  health. It is unclear as to whether he had a heart attack or a stroke, but
  it is known that David Mayo, who at that time was senior case supervi-
  sor Flag was summoned from Flag to La Quinta to audit him.
    Dr. Gene Denk was in attendance when Hubbard arrived. He pro-
  nounced him "very seriously ill" with vital signs very, very low. He
  said that Hubbard's heart was arrhythmic, and he prepared the neces-
  sary facilities for revitalizing the heart.
    Hubbard eventually recovered, but remained on heavy medication
  thereafter, especially blood-thinning drugs.

  John Ausley tells of some of the events of the period:

    Hubbard would suddenly, overnight, turn someone of his choosing
  into Dracula, when in fact they had been an instrumental force in
  building the entire group. How do you do this? You insult them to the
  core. And what it engenders is fear in the others.
    "No matter how big you are, I can wipe you out just like that!"
    There was this California surfer type. He was a Class Twelve. And
  he was the type of Scientologist who always wanted to work it out with
  two-way comm. (He wanted to discuss any disputes in order to resolve
  them.)
    He was like one of the inner sanctum. And he was quite a good
  counselor. Hubbard had this rule that you weren't supposed to mess
  with the locals sexually, or "public on lines" (customers).
    Anyway, this guy had decided to get laid. And there was some girl


174THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  he was getting along with. And this was not so esoteric. This girl was in
  the Sea Org. It wasn't as though he was messing around with a public
  person or local. She was a tech groupie: she wanted to go to bed with a
  Class Twelve.
    So he sleeps with her. Then Hubbard writes this issue and says he's
  been messing around with public. And makes him the garbage col-
  lector. It's like Hubbard sat down and figured out what would be the
  most degrading thing he could possibly do to this guy to defile him in
  front of his peers.
    So he collected garbage for a week or two, and he'd occasionally go,
  rather meekly, "I don't think this is right..."
    Hubbard had decided to degrade him. He just kind of went for him!
  He had to prove to everyone that he would sacrifice a Class Twelve for
  no reason.

****

  An interesting description of the La Quinta era was one covered in
the Riverside Press Enterprise by reporter Dick Lyneis:

    A Las Vegas woman, who spent a secretive six months in the River-
  side County desert in 1978 helping Scientology founder L. Ron Hub-
  bard make movies, said she worked as "slave labor" while Hubbard
  lived like a king.
    Mrs. Adell Hartwell said Hubbard had his own home which was sur-
  rounded by an electric fence and protected by guards. "He had his
  own valet," she said, "and was always in the company of his `messen-
  gers' who were teenage girls and he had a motor home, a boat, two
  Cadillacs, and a Jeep and two girls who drove him everyplace."
    Mrs. Hartwell, on the other hand, said she often worked long
  stretches without eating and - along with her husband, Ernest - lived
  in a "shack" which they said they had to share with a variety of desert
  vermin. She said they didn't get the promised Scientology counseling
  and were forced to work 12-hour days, with one day off every two
  weeks....
    Mrs. Hartwell was there from May until October of 1978, while her
  husband spent only two months there. The entire group, which au-
  thorities think arrived early in 197f), was gone by last March ['79].
    Movie making was the principal activity. Location shooting was
  done in nearby cities, and Hubbard, who Mrs. Hartwell said was the
  "producer, writer, director and everything" for the movies, used his
  Scientology followers as actors, musicians, costume persons, set work-
  ers, and other movie jobs.
    An amateur dance team, the Hartwells had been promised that once
  they got to the production area, which they were told would be in


"*I Resigned in 1966*"

175

    Florida, they would be trained to act, and their dance talents would be
  used.
    Instead she ended up sewing costumes and her husband worked on
  movie soundtracks.
    Mrs. Hartwell described Hubbard as being about six feet two inches,
  and 275 pounds. She said he "dressed very sloppily. He always had one
  suspender, a cowboy hat, and had a bandana around his neck. He cussed
  and swore all the time. He used the filthiest language I ever heard in my
  life."
    "No one could call him by his name, Ron," she said, "because that
  was a breach of security. Everyone always referred to him as The
    Boss." She said members of the group were instructed to notify a Sci-
  entology attorney in Encino if anyone approached the property and
  asked questions about their identity and affiliation.
    Mr. Harhyell said Hubbard got the maximum out of the group, "by
  controlling everyone by fear and threats of discipline."
    Discipline, the Hartwells said, took strange forms.
    "He (Hubbard) got mad at a messenger once," Mrs. Harhyell said,
  "because she overspent some money on an errand, so they took away
  everyone's supply of toilet paper for 10 days."
    Hubbard, who is 69, was looked upon as god-like by the persons
  there, said Mrs. Hartwell, who admitted he had a "strong influence"
  on her.
    "One day he touched me," she said, "and I could just feel a force
  there that was hard to describe."
    "His messengers," she said, "were there to cater to Hubbard's every
  need. The girls would stick cigarettes in his mouth and light them.
  They had to catch his cigarette ashes. If a drop of sweat was on his fore-
  head, they had to wipe it off. Every word he said had to be written
  down by the girls. You can't believe anything if it's not written down.
  Whenever he appeared people would clap. If it was four in the morn-
  ing and nobody could see straight, people would clap."
    The sense of worship that persons within the Sea Org feel for
  Hubbard, Mrs. Hartwell said, is "almost fanatical."
    "The feeling among most people there," she said, "was that when
  Ron Hubbard goes (dies), we are going to go with him."
    In March of 1979, with Hubbard still staying at La Quinta, a "secu-
  rity flap" occurred.

Eddy WALTERS :

    One of the major points that put him into deep hiding was when
  Ernest Hartwell and I went to La Quinta to see him and he panicked.

  Ernest Hartwell had left La Quinta and returned to Las Vegas


176

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

where he talked to Eddy Walters, who was a counselor at the org
there. He described the conditions at La Quinta and his observations
and opinions of Hubbard. Eddy was a G.O. staff member who was as
hard and dedicated as most of those chosen for intelligence work. But
Hartwell's story, since it was messing with his illusions about the
founder himself, was disturbing.
  He wrote up a report of his interview with Hartwell and was almost
immediately confronted with a visit from Artie Maren, a very senior
G.O. official who had come all the way from Los Angeles to "handle"
him.
  Eddy, who was inclined not to believe Hartwell, now couldn't un-
derstand why the fuss. If what Hartwell was saying was indeed the
ravings of a crazy man, what was the big deal?
  Artie was obviously in a huge sweat about this report and begged
Eddy not to talk about it or pursue it further.
  All this made Eddy very curious and, during a subsequent conver-
sation with Hartwell, he decided that he and Hartwell should go out
and face the Old Man. "Right up to the point where I went out to La
Quinta I still believed in him. I still believed that he'd somehow
straighten it out. That's why I went out there," Eddy told me.
  When they arrived, they were "confronted with armed guards and
the paranoia was intense."
  "What he did, instead of confront me, was to run," says Eddy.
  Eddy couldn't figure out why Hubbard should run from him. "I'd
expected that he'd stand up to me. I'd been living in Las Vegas and
my motivating idea was that this man, who had so much to give the
world, was headed in a certain direction. Now I was faced with the
dilemma: if that was the case, why would he run from me?"
  Eddy Walters was expelled and declared suppressive and the mim-
eographed issue, making it official, was already being handed out by
the time he and Ernest Hartwell had made the five-hour return trip
to Las Vegas.
  Hubbard fled to a small community about 2O miles south of River-
side called Lake Elsinore. There he and his assistants lived in a motor
home for approximately a month.
  The next location Hubbard lived in was a place called "X." "X" was
an apartment block in a small town called Hemet. Hemet is the town
closest to Gilman Hot Springs. Two apartments were taken there,
one in which Hubbard lived, and one for the messengers and the
other people who accompanied him.


 "*I Resigned in 1966*"

177

  In October of 1978, another facility had been purchased. It was
known as Gilman Hot Springs and included that resort and a motel
known as the Massacre Canyon Inn, about 20 miles west of Palm
Springs. Gilman Hot Springs included a 27-hole golf course and a va-
riety of other facilities.
  The total purchase price for the properties was 2.7 million dollars
and the Church paid for them in cash. Hubbard had huge offices that
were renovated and constructed for him at Gilman. He also had a
house that was renovated for his use, called "Bonnie View." How-
ever, neither of these was ever put to use.

 ****

Dick Lyneis wrote in the Press Enterprise:

    Church of Scientology activity in Riverside County may be more ex-
  tensive than its officials acknowledge.
    Besides its Riverside Mission, the controversial church until early
  this year maintained a secret mission near Indio where its elusive
  founder, L. Ron Hubbard, led a group engaged in making church
  training and indoctrination movies.
    Additionally, there are strong indications that a group now occu-
  pying the former Gilman Hot Springs resort, near San Jacinto, may be
  a Scientology project.
    Although spokesmen for an individual who says he owns the old re-
  sort, and officials of the Church of Scientology deny they are con-
  nected, there are significant links between the desert mission and the
  Gilman Hot Springs activities.
    Rev. Heber Jentzsch, of Los Angeles, a Scientology spokesman, said
  he "has no information" that his Church has any involvement with
  Gilman Hot Springs.
    Persons at both locations have been linked to Scientology....
    Why the group insisted on so much secrecy, while shooting Hub-
  bard's movies, could not be determined. But the Church has a record
  of cloaking much of its activity, including property ownership. In addi-
  tion, church members, court documents filed recently in Washington
  reveal, go to great lengths to keep authorities from finding Hubbard
  because they fear he is being sought by law enforcement authori-
  ties.
    Security was so tight at the desert location the Hartwells said they
  didn't know where they were going until they got there. And when
  they arrived in the desert, they were instructed to tell friends and


178

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  members of their family they were in Florida for advanced Scientology
  training....
    While the Hartwells were in the desert, they were not allowed to
  make telephone calls or to send mail directly. If they had permission to
  make telephone calls, they were instructed to tell the other party they
  were calling from Clearwater, Florida. If someone called them in
  Clearwater, the person answering took the name and telephone num-
  ber of the caller, and forwarded the message to the Hartwells for a re-
  turn call ....
    Early this year spokesmen for the trust said the new occupants of the
  property were members of something they called the "Scottish High-
  land Quietude Club." At various times the spokesman said owners of
  the trust were "wealthy Eastern investors" or wealthy investors from
  the Palm Springs area....
    Riverside County sheriffs authorities became suspicious about the
  occupants of the two ranches at La Quinta when they learned the
  group was filming movies. A department source said it was feared
  someone was making pornography movies, but the properties were va-
  cated before an official investigation could begin.
    Captain Reid said his investigators have been trying to learn the
  identity of the Gilman resort owner because of inquiries made to the
  department by residents of the area. "We heard rumors like organized
  crime was taking it over," he said. "and we felt we had to look into
  these rumors."

  A raid by the Riverside Sheriffs office on the Riverside Mission in
July of 1979 and the above article's appearance in the Press Enter-
prise did nothing to make Hubbard's hiding place in Hemet more se-
cure. Along with this unwelcome publicity there were increasing IRS
legal and investigative activities into Hubbard's financial affairs.
  All this, combined with Tonja Burden's going to see the FBI and
anti-Scientology attorney Michael Flynn (Tonja could tie Hubbard
into G.O. activities), had to have had quite an effect on Hubbard.
  Hubbard's response to these events was "Operation Bulldozer
Leak," the biggest of a series of shredding and vetting operations to hide
his control of the Church. This was conducted mainly at Gilman Hot
Springs, which was the administrative control center of Scientology In-
ternational.
  By February or March of 1980, Hubbard took off from Hemet with
Pat and Annie Broeker, traveling to San Louis Obisbo, some four
hours drive up the coast of California. Here he lived secretly in a his
Bluebird motor home until his death on the 24th of January 1986.


"*I Resigned in 1966*"

179

  Since the raids by the FBI, all attempts to cover up the full story
seem to have created further problems.
  During his reign at his desert hideout, first in La Quinta and on
through his stay at the Hemet apartment block, he had initiated some
major changes.
  In November of 1976 he had issued an LRH Directive stating that
prices around the world had not been raised for over a decade and
that they needed to "catch up with inflation," so they would begin be-
ing raised at a rate of 10 percent a month until they were "caught up
with inflation."
  This reAected his panic reaction to the FBI raids.
  The only real priority, communicated by his actions, appeared now
to be his personal safety. Money became even more important.
  Lawyers and private investigators, for both defense and attack pur-
poses, are expensive.


16

The Saviour Lives Just Down the Road!

  Until the first press about Hubbard's presence in La Quinta ap-
peared in early 1980, I was unaware that Hubbard was living just
down the road, some 25 minutes by car from my home. By that time
my life was in a shambles, my family kept alive by a mortgage on our
house.
  My troubles had begun after "Source" moved into Riverside county.
...In late 1977 the FBI raids had just happened. These raids - the re-
sult of illegal acts inspired by Hubbard - made it apparent he'd
committed a major blunder, and left his ego bruised. So subsequent to
the raids he was thrashing around trying to find scapegoats. Anyone and
any pretext would do, so long as attention shifted from him. Franchise
holders were seen to fit the bill.
  The fact that he was living so close by put me high on the list of
targets for attack. Most other major franchise holders in California
(and subsequently the U.S. and Europe) were later subjected to simi-
lar treatment.

****

  When we arrived in the U.S. eight years previously in late 1969,
my wife was seven months pregnant with our first child. We were
both Class VIII auditors, the highest class of auditor in Scientology at
the time, and we had been hired to work for a franchise in Tustin,

180


*The Saviour Just Down the Road*

181

California, near Disneyland. Except for our house back in New
Zealand, which we had mortgaged in order to fly to England in 1967,
we were poverty stricken. Two and a half years in England on Scien-
tology staff pay does that to people.
  Despite the poverty and some disillusioning experiences with high
Church officials, we were - at the time - still full of enthusiasm for
Hubbard and "his tech." This was partly because he and "the tech"
had been so well presented by the words and example of Hubbard's
key representative: John McMaster.
  McMaster was the most prominent person (other than Hubbard, of
course) in Scientology while we were in England (1967-1969). His
work at Saint Hill Manor in England probably contributed more to
the financial success of Scientology - during the mid- to late sixties -
than any other individual.
  When we arrived there the place was a hum of enthusiastic activ-
ity. Lectures by John McMaster were given in the chapel to overflow-
ing crowds of enthusiastic students.
  McMaster's talks were evidence to me that he had attained and ex-
perienced something paranormal, existential, or whatever words peo-
ple use in a vain attempt to convey whatever is considered a true "re-
ligious experience."
  John's glow of affection, and his other spiritual qualities, seemed
evidence of the achievability of the most cherished dreams of Scien-
tologists. The fact that he was Hubbard's representative and "the
world's first real Clear" gave credence to Hubbard's many written
claims. John's talks and "presence" reminded each listener of their
own brushes with this "reality of our true godlike nature."
  Besides the realm of individual spiritual abilities and the like,
McMaster spoke of world peace, of creating a new civilization based
on love and understanding.
  He told me in a recent interview:

    I was so excited about the function of auditing and its potential for
  assisting individuals to become more able and aware, that I was willing
  to overlook Hubbard's faults, as they gradually became known to me.
  That was up to a point of course, the final point being my realization
  that his intentions were entirely self serving I saw that he was in it for
  money and personal power, and his actual intentions were not as
  stated.
    The basic function of auditing is a wonderful thing, but Hubbard


182

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  perverted it. The idea of counseling has been around for an awfully
  long lime. What is the Socratic method but a form of auditing?*
    He asked me if I would go and promote the subject, and I did. I
  didn't know at the time what he really intended to do with it.
    He got the technology to a point where he had a sort of assembly
  line as he called it. And he told me he was putting all these "square ball
  bearings" on the beginning of the assembly line, and then turning
  them into "round ball bearings" at the other end. That was his idea of
  "standard tech."
    But there is magic in auditing. Good magic.
    The important thing is not that the magic was abused - that needs to
  be pointed out - but that the magic should be brought to life....
    For a period of time, Hubbard trusted me implicitly with the tech-
  nology and so on, and relied on me for the information because, al-
  though he did a lot of talking, he couldn't audit
    He could not audit.
    He had to resort to a sort of black magic hypnosis. This was to try
  and convince the person that he was making gains. Then, of course,
  after about three weeks the person collapsed. And this was explained
  by Hubbard as being because there was a suppressive person around
  the corner, causing him to lose his "gains "
    He couldn't audit, so he had to use somebody for auditing research.
  At this point in time, I was the one he used.
   I would give him the information and then he would write the bulle-
  tins. He couldn't tell me what to do, because he didn't know himself. I
  had to do all the difficult cases; to go and review them, and this is
  where we found out so many things.
    I had a wonderful sort of learning ground, if you like. This was partly
  because I had to learn to leave behind in Saint Hill Manor all the ne-
  gative things he said about the people who I had to go out and handle.
  I had hundreds of students and pre-clears, and I had to be absolutely
  free from his ideas when I closed the door of that manor.

  It was the "good magic" which my wife and I had observed and ex-
perienced, and the example of John and a few others that motivated
us as we crossed the Atlantic in late 1969.
  Upon our arrival in the U.S. we worked in Raymond Kemp's
Orange County franchise for a year, during which we managed to ac-
cumulate enough money to buy a house and put a down payment on a

*Perhaps with this in mind, Hubbard had once referred to Socrates as a
insisting that he had merely "squirreled Buddhism." Of course Hubbard claimed
to be Buddha.


*The Saviour Just Down the Road*183



car. We then commuted to nearby Riverside to set up our own fran-
chise.
  It wasn't easy. We spent the next three years struggling to stay
alive. We finally sold the Tustin house and the one in New Zealand.
We invested all the money into the franchise, and began to do quite
well. Then we searched for new quarters and eventually came up
with a 40,000-square-foot brick building (originally built in 1909 as a
YMCA) and we moved there during the latter part of 1974.
  It is still amazing to me how much we were able to achieve. It was
accomplished as a result of a combination of our youthful idealism,
hard work, and service; along with slogans, and hard sell, and the im-
age of a god on a far-off yacht researching "the upper bands of OT." I
had been to the Apollo by this time, and some of the Sea Org zealous-
ness had rubbed off on me.
  Franchises were extremely permissive in their operation when
compared to the totalitarian Sea Org (and were tolerated by Hubbard
as a necessary "PR" activity for attracting "wogs" into Scientology).
  Franchises delivered the "lower" part of"the grade chart." These
"lower grades" more resemble a form of psycho-therapy, as con-
trasted to much of what is called the "upper levels," which some have
referred to as "bad science fiction."
  The lower grades deal with resolving unwanted habits, fears, inhi-
bitions and psychosomatic ills, and - generally - are aimed at helping
a person straighten out his everyday life. Even some of Scientology's
severest critics (such as attorney Michael Flynn) admit that these
lower levels can be beneficial when they are done without the per-
verting control mechanisms of the Church of Scientology.
  By late 1977 we had over a hundred staff and we were doing some
400 hours of auditing a week. We were sending lots of people to the
Flag land base, where we ended up spending almost half a million
dollars on "staff enhancement" by mid-1978.
  I pushed hard for statistics, while remaining aloof from the day-to-
day hustling to make it all happen.
  We were the number-one single franchise in the world at this time.
That crown was held tenuously, with Martin Samuels's Sacramento
franchise neck and neck. It was a friendly rivalry.
  We had, at Riverside by late 1977, accumulated some $840,000.00
in reserves projected to cover our future highly idealistic expansion
plans. But, as was the case in most Scientology orgs and franchises,
we had also put a lot of staff and public into debt.


184

 THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  While not approaching the severity of"discipline" that was occur-
ring on the flagship, we nevertheless pushed the staff intensely, with
a similar message of self-abnegation for the greater cause. The group's
achievements was a collective source of enormous pride. We cer-
tainly had no doubts that we were helping mankind.
  It was around this time, unbeknownst to me, that Hubbard had
moved into Riverside County. I began to feel the heat.

****

  It was difficult for me to understand the hysteria that was being
generated, since I had no idea that Hubbard was endangered by the
evidence uncovered by the FBI during their raids. Nor did I know
that he was fearful of the potential testimony of a pretty young
teenager (Tonja Burden).
  Hubbard had become increasingly obsessed with the idea that the
franchises were a threat to him. This belief began to override in im-
portance even the enormous resources in people and dollars that they
were generating. His paranoia probably stemmed from the fact that
he couldn't control the franchises entirely: they were separate corpo-
rations, legally autonomous.
  While this separation had been designed to protect him from legal
liability (generated by the fact that franchises directly contacted suit-
happy "raw" public), it also meant that the franchise holders had con-
siderable independence of choice as to what to do with their own fol-
lowers and financial resources. Those resources, he now feared, could
be targeted at him. While it had never occurred to me that the fran-
chise's bank accounts enabled me to afford lawyers and so to sue
Hubbard, it obviously had occurred to him.

****

  John Woodruff was one of the "guns" Diana Hubbard used to
"shoot down" Mike Davidson, who had been the head of the franchise
network for ten years. Davidson, a well-educated and intelligent
Englishman, had demonstrated a sense of fair play, protecting us well
from what I now know to have been Hubbard's crazed Management.
On the other hand Hubbard's daughter Diana was renowned among
franchise holders for mindlessly sticking to her own narrow interpre-
tation of "Daddy's orders."
  Now Woodruff was assigned to "investigate" me. In an early con-
versation with me he stressed that he was a company man who would


*The Saviour Just Down the Road*

185

ruthlessly follow orders. He had dark, dead, unfeeling eyes: blank
disks.
  He was very much into "finding dirt" on me, so as to discredit me
in the eyes of my staff and "public." Hubbard had already decided to
take my franchise, but they wanted to do so with a minimum of up-
heaval among the Riverside staff and "public."
  In mid May of 1978, I got a call from an aide telling me that Diana
wanted me to come to Florida to tell her about how I kept my statis-
tics so high.
  When I arrived at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Florida I was greeted
by hugs and kisses from Diana Hubbard's aide Nancy Foster, and a
pleasant smile and greeting from Diana (a beautiful woman in her
twenties, with thick red hair cascading to well below her waist). I was
escorted to the fourth floor and entered a room where another aide
was seated with a severe-faced G.O. agent.
  I sensed danger.
  I was handed resignation papers. They wanted me to resign from
the board of directors of my franchise, and also from its bank ac-
counts. I wanted to know why.
  "It is merely a temporary state of affairs to ensure that you are loyal
and, given that you do the retraining steps and auditing that has been
decided on, you will be put back on the board in two months," I was
told.
  They continued to assure me that I would get a full fair hearing,
and that I was not in any danger as long as I did their program. If I did
not cooperate they would know I was an S.P. and the appropriate
penalties would be applied. Under this pressure, I signed.
  There was no hearing and, after the three worst months of`my life,
I finally completed all the exhaustive requirements and asked to be
reinstated in my franchise per the agreement. I was subsequently
ushered into a meeting with Woodruff and one of Diana's aides.
  "You cheated on all your courses!" lied Woodruff, obviously getting
a sadistic pleasure out of my apparent pain. "You are an S.P. and you
will never run another franchise."
  Upon returning to my home in Riverside, I wrote up petitions; but
by now I knew that Mary Sue had approved the move against me and
I began to believe that Hubbard was inaccessible.

****

  During the previous five years I had experienced what it was like to


186

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

be a cult leader, to be Hubbard's agent. There was a seductive aspect
to this which was very powerful indeed! As Hubbard's representative
I had begun to be seen, in the eyes of his followers at Riverside, as
similarly superhuman.
  It snuck up on me by easy gradients. Anyone who has succumbed
to Hattery or ego-stroking has experienced the same thing, if possibly
on a smaller scale.
  It is somehow hard to realize that there is something seriously
amiss when one is the beneficiary of this kind of adoration.
  The power I was able to wield created a persona that was not me. I
knew it even then, but could not - and probably did not want to -
shake it off. It was like booze to an alcoholic.
  Up until this removal in 1978, I had experienced a modicum of the
same disease that had consumed Hubbard. Yet because of the subse-
quent period of absence from the madness of Hubbard and his agents,
leaving me to quietly contemplate at home, I had been cured. Well, not
quite completely - some powerful symptoms lingered still....
  In spite of everything, I still saw Scientology as the way to a better
world. It had been a major part of my life for seventeen years, and in
some ways I was still a zealot.
  In October of 197Y I had for the second time been to England
unsuccessfully appealing for the return of my franchise. There was a
knock on the door of my house. I answered and the man flashed a
badge. It was Sheriff Jensen and he wanted to know if I was Bent
Corydon.
  These guys were "the enemy," was the message that had been in-
stilled in me by Hubbard over the years. Their presence was all "part
of a plot to destroy Scientology." So I shut the door in his face and
went straight to the phone to report the incident to the G.O. The
agent I spoke with praised me for the way I had handled things.
  I began to get very concerned because I had a series of reports and
documents that I had been gathering, which were part of my attempt
to have myself vindicated. I felt these documents were what the sher-
in may have been looking for. After all they showed actions which
might be illegal on the part of Church officials who had been discipli-
ning me. So a few days later, I took them downtown to Xerox them,
planning to send the copies off to Mary Sue Hubbard and hide the
others at my brother's place.
  Returning home, I drove down my driveway, which is restricted on
both sides by a low brick wall. Once one has entered, there is no ra-
tional place to go except to back up onto the road.


*The Saviour Just Down the Road*

187

  Halfway down the driveway I looked up and noticed Sheriff Jensen
and two plainclothes officers. It flashed in my mind that they must
have had me under surveillance, in order to get the documents which
were now lying on the seat beside me. I could be in the position of
blowing it for the Church!
  So I slapped the gears of my little Ford Capri into reverse and
headed back up the driveway.
  Jensen yelled and as he ran for his car, another officer jumped back
into his and roared down the road to effectively block my exit.
  As I went back down the driveway, Jensen ran right in front of me
yelling. I was oblivious to what was being said; my only concern being
how to get away and protect the documents. He jumped onto the
flower-bed and pulled his gun. Apparently my car was aiming in his
direction as I went down the driveway giving him legal rights to shoot
me.
  "Stop or I'11 blow your fucking brains out!" He had a gun some 18
inches away from my head, but his warning meant nothing. I was ob-
sessed with finding a way to escape, and kept telling myself I couldn't
let them have the documents.
  I decided to try backing over the flower bed. So, slamming the car
into reverse and revving up the engine, I sped backwards and hit the
small mound causing the car to leave the ground and land at the bot-
tom of the hillock.
  In the rear view mirror I could see three officers with guns drawn
and pointed at the back of my head. However, they didn't fire as I
roared across the lawn and onto the street.
  Escaping, I stored the papers at my brother's house.
  I then called the Guardian's office, and they provided me with a
lawyer who went with me to the Riverside jail, where I spent one of'
the worst nights of my life. There was a later investigation into the
inhumane conditions in the Riverside County jail, which did not sur-
prise me.
  My brother finally bailed me out and we walked outside into a clear
sunny California day.
  There were two charges of assault with a deadly weapon on a police
officer, plus seven counts of conspiracy and grand theft in connection
with loan applications made by public and staff at my franchise. These
loans were for services taken there. The Sheriffs officers had not
been at my house to get my documents, they had been there to arrest
me on what amounted to an invalid warrant regarding the loan fraud
charges. Had I not resisted I would have had no problem.


188

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  It turned out that the original visit to my house, where I refused to
identify myself, was an attempt to get me to turn State's evidence. It
appears that the Sheriffs office believed that the Gilman Hot Springs
property had been bought by the Mafia. After all the name "Scottish
Highland Quietude Club," and the two-and-a-half-million cash pur-
chase, were somewhat unusual. They did want a pretext to raid the
place, as Hubbard had feared. Since they had no pretext to do so,
they were looking for another way of gaining some leads. Loan fraud
charges were seen to fit the bill.
  In late 1979 (a year after I had been removed from the franchise),
the Sheriffs office had raided the Riverside Mission of the Church of
Scientology Their charges had to do with loan applications and their
key witness was Riverside staff member Todd Carter. They had
hoped to add me as another witness against the Church. Failing to get
my co-operation and, regardless of the fact that they had not the
slightest evidence, they added me to the indictments.
  Sheriff Jensen later confided in me that they were really not inter-
ested in the staff at Riverside, but wanted to get some leads that went
higher up.

****

  There is considerable evidence that I was to be the meat Hubbard
wanted thrown to the dogs, in order to prevent the investigation from
going higher (to Gilman, near where Hubbard was living, and where
there were plenty of real shenanigans).
  My lawyer at the time was convinced that this was the case. She
called me one morning on the phone, screaming, "What the fuck is
going on!" (She is very much a lady and it would take something out-
rageous to cause her to use that kind of language.)
  It turned out that Terry Colvin of the Press Enterprise had called
her and asked if her client Bent Corydon was going to change his plea
to guilty. He had been paid a visit by Church president Heber
Jentzsch, he told my attorney. Jentzsch had told him that I was guilty
of all the charges against me and that the Church would co-operate
with the D.A. and the press to put me away.
  Despite all this, the original charges of Conspiracy and Grand
Theft were dismissed in preliminary hearing. The Judge berated
the deputy D.A. for having no case.


*The Saviour Just Down the Road*

189

  Prior to my removal from the franchise in 197tl, I had been assured
by my attorney that all was legal with the loan applications. I had not
known of the extent of the loan application "fluffing."
  "Fluffing" means to exaggerate figures such as income and leave
out or lessen debts owed, in order to qualify for a loan (a practice
which I'm told is common in the U.S.). In the Riverside situation,
loan officers were telling our sales people ("registrars") which figures
were needed for loan approval. They did this knowing fully that the
information would be used to falsify a specific application. Since our
people had gained an excellent reputation for loan repayment, the
loan agents were anxious to make loans and collect their commissions.
The judge decided that, since the banks had not relied on the false
information, there had been no fraud.
  But I had pushed hard for statistics. An activity, which is amoral at
best.
  However, no laws had been broken.
  So, while I was cleared of the conspiracy and loan fraud charges, I
did have a problem with the my outrageous cult inspired behavior in
my driveway. I ended up pleading no contest to one misdemeanor
charge of assault with a deadly weapon. I got a thousand-dollar fine
and two years' probation, which was reduced later to one year. My
record was then expunged.
  Though it may seem hard to believe, I gained something positive
from all this. During the legal proceedings I read a lot of law, giving
me a greater understanding of what Hubbard had contemptuously
labelled "wog justice." This was a major factor in my being able to
free myself from Hubbard's manipulations.
  I got to be good friends with Sheriff Jensen (he jokingly calls me
"Killer Bent"). I appreciate the fact that he didn't shoot me that day.
 My attorney had told me that, had these events occurred in Los
Angeles County, I would have had a nice neat hole through my fore-
head. So I asked Jensen why he hadn't shot me. I get curious about
things like that.
  He said, "Because of the look in your eyes."
  I asked, "What did you see in my eyes?" I needed to know.
  He said, "You were scared shitless!"
  Thank God for the look in my eyes!


 17

Hubbard Derails a Reform Movement

  During my legal battles over the loan situation and driveway of-
fense, I followed the news as Mary Sue Hubbard and the other ten
raised large amounts of funds for their legal defense against the fed-
eral indictments resulting from the FBI raids of 1977. When later
Mary Sue's defense was seen to be futile, and the legal heat was be-
coming directed increasingly at Hubbard himself, Hubbard ordered a
"palace coup" by his "kids" (his youthful messengers) and the Execu-
tive Director International Bill Franks against Mary Sue Hubbard
and other top G.O. executives.
  David Miscavage "handled" Mary Sue Hubbard and Bill Franks
was assigned to "handle" the head of the Guardian's office, Jane
Kember.
  With the entire old G.O. top hierarchy headed for jail, Hubbard
ordered his messengers to set up a "Watchdog Committee."
  In early 1981 Hubbard also created a new post of Executive Di-
rector International. This was announced to be a resumption of the
post''vacated by L. Ron Hubbard in 1966." The new appointment to
Executive Director International was Bill Franks. By appointing him
to these posts Hubbard had ostensibly made him "Ecclesiastical
Head" of the entire Church. He was said to be the equivalent of the
Pope in the Catholic Church.
  It was presented to Franks that he would be assuming all of
Hubbard's administrative functions. However, Bill told me years
later, after leaving the Church, that he had since concluded that

191


192

 THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

Hubbard set him up in order to help him rid himself of Mary Sue and
Jane Kember (making them scapegoats for the break-ins).
  To pull this off was tricky for Hubbard, since there was the possibil-
ity of triggering an emotional reaction from the two women. They
were capable of exposing his part in the Snow White operation. Mary
Sue and Jane, knowing Bill was their enemy, but not knowing Hub-
bard was behind their ouster, would be prone to blame him rather
than Hubbard.
  I knew Bill Franks well. He had helped me out of scrapes in the
past and we had a common dislike for the Guardian's office top exec-
utives. I met him by chance on the street in Los Angeles shortly after
the coup against Mary Sue and Jane Kember.
  "How are your attempts to get your franchise back going?" he
asked. (It had been over three years since I had been defrauded of my
position at the Riverside Mission.)
  "I have essentially given up trying, since I keep winning appeals
just to have the findings cancelled," I told him.
  On his advice, I subsequently called someone in England and got a
Board of Review; I was called there to appear.
  By November of 1981 I was informed that the findings were posi-
tive. But I still did not have the details, when Bill Franks called a
"Mission Holders' Conference" in Florida.

****

  The Florida mission holders' meetings might have turned out to be
a turning point for Scientology, had Hubbard been able to consider
actual reform along the lines of the proposals of Bill Franks and the
mission holders. That was, of course, not to be....
  Hubbard had never been considered to be the villain by mission
holders. We mostly assigned that role to Jane Kember and her dep-
uty, Herbie Parkhouse. These were the real bad guys, and they were
gone. So now there appeared to be some hope for the first time in
four years.
  Even Raymond Kemp, a veteran mission holder who had been
suing the Church for return of property coerced from him, was in-
vited. Including such an "enemy" at an official meeting was unprece-
dented. He and his wife Pamela brought with them documents seized
by the FBI during their raids. Among these were a special Training
Routine called "TR L." The "L" was for "Lie." It was a secret training
routine for G.O. personnel, to drill them in the art of lying!


*Hubbard Derails Reform*

93

  The Kemps were in fact the first to speak. Theirs were highly emo-
tional speeches which were followed by others by myself, Martin
Samuels, Dean Stokes and Allan Walters.
  We told our stories. I, for one, was pretty choked up. The crowd of
over a hundred were supportive and our speeches were punctuated
by applause. We were at last among friends. We could say anything;
they understood. It was safe.
  Many others took turns telling their stories and a revival time at-
mosphere pervaded the room.
  Then the subject turned to Bill Franks. He was absent. A "manage-
ment representative" (Jens Bogvard) was brought on stage and ex-
plained that Bill had been guilty of promiscuity and was being hand-
led "over the rainbow" (Gilman Hot Springs, near my franchise).
  So we became painfully aware that (despite his proclaimed Pope-
like status) Bill was answerable to somebody. Who?
  "The Watchdog Committee," was the answer.
  "Who are they?" someone asked, voicing the question that was in
all our minds. Nobody understood what these alphabet people were:
"WDC," "CMO." Bill was one of the few people who knew and (un-
beknownst to us) Hubbard had directly ordered him not to reveal
their identities.
  The next question for Jens was about how they had discovered
about Bill's "promiscuity."
  Jens, who is a genuinely likable fellow, answered candidly: "His
phone was tapped."
  Someone in the audience exclaimed that tapping telephones was a
felony in Florida. Since this tapping had obviously occurred after
Jane Kember and the others had been kicked out, this put a whole
new complexion on things: Others besides the jailed top G.O. execu-
tives were apparently involved in violating the law.
  It was decided to adjourn until a representative of the "Commo-
dore's Messenger Org" could get to Flag to face our questions, and
when Bill could also be there to give his views.
  Some ten days later the meetings resumed.
  Bill Franks was back, as was Annie Tasket, a representative for the
Commodore's Messenger Org (C. M.O.) and a member of the Watch-
dog Committee.
  In response to questions she explained (as Bill entered and sat near
her on the podium) that Bill had not been locked up-imprisoned -
while he was "over the rainbow." She could not see Bill's face and


194

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

kept chirping out the official line. The rest of us saw his face go taut
and redden.
  "Don't lie to my friends!" he finally blurted out and he told us what
had happened while Annie looked crushed.
  Bill Franks explained under oath in 1985:

    I thought I was doing what Ron wanted me to do. No way did he
  want a bunch of little kids directing criminal actions to continue within
  the Church. So for me, I didn't even have a second thought about
  that....
    I called them [the Watchdog Committee members] up and said,
  "Look, the game's up. You have to come down. If you are giving or-
  ders, you are going to have to be accountable for them."

  Bill's action, and our support of it, so it turned out, was considered
high treason so far as Hubbard was concerned. There was no turning
back.

BILL FRANKS :

    It [the management of Scientology] was totally out of control....
  And that's what I tried to change. [It was] not only myself, but...
  other people in that room really caring about the corruption in the
  Church and wanting to change it. And that's what was considered to be
  so offensive to the CMO, that we should try to change the corruption
  in the Church.

  The incredible thing is that the Watchdog Committee eventually
turned up.
  Meanwhile, outside of the meeting hall while we all waited for the
WDC, negotiations were going on between myself and my wife and
the people who had been running my mission during the three years I
had been gone.
  Amazingly, during these meetings things resolved. My franchise
(including the building) was returned to me and another mission was
established North of Los Angeles for those leaving. The cream of the
staff were taken along with $50,000.00, while I and those remaining
assumed the financial liabilities.
  Given the actual situation, this was hardly justice; but even some
restitution was probably unique in the history of Scientology. No one
else that I know of has ever had all they worked for Shanghaied by
Hubbard and his mob and recovered any substantial part. I believe


[4 pages of plates; 23 photos]

 1. L. Ron Hubbard on his grandfather's ranch in Nebraska around 1916.
 2. As a boy scout.
 3. Ron the Aviator.
 4. In his twenties, possibly in New York's Greenwich Villiage.
 5. An early episode of looking for gold.
 6. In Puerto Rico.
 7. As a Scientology executive in the early fifties.
 8. In his office at Saint Hill Manor in the early 1960s.
 9. Ron the Biker: sporting a new Motorcycle at Saint Hill.
10. "Making breakthroughs" in horticulture.
11. On the Grounds at Saint Hill.
12. The Commodore fondling his "Kools" on board the flagship *Apollo*,
    during the early 1970s.
13. Hubbard at typewriter in a hideaway apartment in Queens, New York,
    in 1973.
14. Grooms Gerry Armstrong (left forground) and Pat Broker (right
    forground) with brides (c. 1975). Hubbard (at the head of the table
    with package) is as ever accompanied by a group of messengers (in
    this instance, dresses for the occasion).
15. With brides.
16. Messengers dressed as bridesmaids. Pat Broker's future bride,
    Anne, is in the right foreground. She and Pat are now the new
    leaders of Hubbard's Church.
17. In disguise, doing photography in Queens, 1973.
18. Ron the Movie Director. Taking during the late 1970s near Hemet,
    California.
19. Ron the Gambler. The most recent photograph, taken around 1979 in
    the Riverside County desert.
20. Aleister Crowley, self-proclaimed "Beast 666."
21. The most displayed of Hubbard's official photos.
22. "Crowley's Cross" as depicted on his Tarot Cards.
23. The Scientology cross, displayed in all Churches and worn around
    the neck of their ministers.

[end of plates]

*Hubbard Derails Reform*

195

that this could occur only because of a vacuum of power and the re-
sulting confusion at the top of the Scientology hierarchy. This was the
situation surrounding the uprooting of Mary Sue and the G.O.'s top
brass while the "kids" took over.

****

  Finally David Miscavage and Norman Starkey and another six or
seven executives arrived. Miscavage, the top Commodore's Messen-
ger, was twenty-one years old. It was the first time most of us had
heard of or seen him or most of the others. Yet here were our leaders.
  They lined up across the stage. They looked tense. The mood of the
room blackened.
  Dean Stokes, who was M.C. at the time, saw that the chemistry
was all wrong. A confrontation between these "libertarian" mission
holders and this uptight authoritarian group was going to mean
trouble. He announced that the Watchdog Committee would be in-
vited to discussions with Bill Franks, and a few others. He explained
that, once things had been resolved in a more closed session, the rest
of us could join in the dialogue. They filed out.
  The next day an announcement was made that all was fine and that
Bill Franks would be left in charge. Bill, for his turn, spoke in glowing
terms of Miscavage, and so we all believed that truth and justice had
prevailed. I didn't realize then that it was all a charade, but Bill had
certainly begun to suspect it. If I had known that, I would have won-
dered why Bill was going along. He answered that recently.

  BILL FRANKS:

    Messengers are considered to be emissaries of Hubbard. This is axi-
  omatic within the Church. These people are given incredible amounts
  of power based on that. And so there is no way I'm going to hold an
  emissary of Hubbard, in the frame of mind I was in at the time, up to
  public ridicule ....
I was trying to relax the man [Miscavage].

  What was actually happening at the time of the mission holders
meeting was that Bill had been "put in charge" as an additional facade
for Hubbard. Bill was supposed to have "instinctively" understood that
he was merely to be window dressing. Hubbard was still in control while
operating through new additional facades, consisting of the mysterious
WDC and Franks. These fronts were designed to protect Hubbard from


196

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

the same criminal prosecution that had already consumed his previous
facade, consisting of his wife and her G. O. clique.
  Hubbard had not counted on Bill Franks and the mission holders'
backlash reaction against what we considered "G.O. type abuses."
  Franks naively believed that Hubbard had genuinely stepped down,
leaving him with the top spot. Bill's reform efforts were constantly
getting derailed by these "kids," however (secretly implementing
Hubbard's intent), so he feared they would go on to commit crimes simi-
lar to the G.O. bunch.
  His problem was that these "kids" were, to him, still "Commo-
dore's Messengers" who were, in that role, to be treated as one would
treat Hubbard himself. But now, some of them were also Watchdog
Committee members. Bill was, he believed, senior to WDC mem-
bers in his capacity as "Ecclesiastical Head of the Church." So, he
was left with a dilemma: he never really knew if and when the "kids"
spoke for Hubbard as "messengers." So he never knew if and when
they were functioning in the role of his juniors or his seniors.

****

  We mission holders had made our bid to reform the Church in con-
cert with its titular head, and lost. We were to pay the price for hav-
ing challenged Hubbard's top agents and (without our knowledge)
Hubbard himself.
  I learned much later that, following this, messages were shuttled
between Hubbard and Miscavage regarding the mission holders'
meetings. Pat Broeker, who represented Hubbard and carried his
written messages, met secretly with Miscavage and David Mayo in a
restaurant which was located just a mile from my mission.
  Hubbard was livid! He wrote that the mission holders had been
infiltrated by government agents in an attempt to take over Scientol-
ogy.
  So Bill Frank's fate was sealed. Hubbard targeted the mission hold-
ers, myself included, for a greatly accelerated program of takeover.
  It was only days after the mission holders meetings in Florida that
the "Religious Technology Corporation" was officially created. Mis-
sions were now "Junior Corporations" to RTC, whose assets would be
directly under Hubbard's control.
  RTC articles contained, unbeknownst to us, a clause which man-
dated that all junior corporations to RTC would be subject to arbi-
trary dissolution on orders of RTC executives, and, upon such disso-
lution, all assets would go to RTC (Hubbard).


*Hubbard Derails Reform*



****

  Within two weeks of the mission holder's meetings, and Misca-
vage's assurances to us that Bill would remain in power, twelve uni-
formed agents of the RTC stormed Bill's office and removed him on
direct orders from Hubbard.
  Other heads began to roll (unbeknownst to me on Hubbard's or-
ders). I was stunned. Nothing had really changed. It may even have
been worse since the old G.O. guard was deposed. Hubbard's part
was kept secret, but for the first time it began to eat at me at some
level of my consciousness that Hubbard must be involved somehow.
  There was hardly a day when at least one of these expulsions didn't
arrive in the mail. The top executives and personalities of Scientol-
ogy, some 600 people who had given the most important youthful
years of their lives to work ridiculous hours for the cause, were now
officially declared to be evil psychotic beings.


18

 Hubbard's "Billion Dollar Caper"

  To understand this caper, some background information on
Hubbard's methods of raising personal income is necessary.
  In 1969 Hubbard wrote a PR article entitled "What Your Fees
Buy," in which he stated:

    Even today I draw less than an org staff member, and they draw
  very little...
    None of the researches of Dianetics and Scientology were ever paid
  for out of organizational fees. With my typewriter I paid for the re-
  search myself. Occasionally orgs were supposed to but they never
  did ...
So the fees you pay for your services do not go to me....

  He went on to explain that it "takes a lot of money to deliver Scien-
tology services" and that it also takes an "enormous amount of money
to fight the vested mental health interests," who use "their press con-
trol" and "government stooges" in an attempt to prevent Scientology
from messing up their plans "for a 1984 World."
  Pure PR; another shore story.
  What did Scientologists' fees buy ?
  Howard E. Shomer, who worked for "Author Services Interna-
tional" (which serviced Hubbard's personal assets and income, and
which was in fact the senior management of Scientology at the time)
till early 1983, signed checks made out to Hubbard weekly. They
were in the million-dollar range each week during the last six months

198


*Hubbard's "Billion Dollar Caper*"

199

before he left. At that level, Hubbard would have been receiving 52
million dollars a year in salary!
  Bill Franks, while Executive Director International, kept discov-
ering new foreign accounts the entire time he was on post. He does
not know how many there were that he never discovered.

  BILL FRANKS:

    The problem was how were we going to get the money for Hub-
  bard? He was not supposed to take in the money personally. So sepa-
  rate corporations were set up. This is RRF, Religious Research Foun-
  dation. We used to call it Ralph. That was a code name.
    Money would be put into Ralph, that would be accounts [in] Liech-
  tenstein. This is a Liberian Corporation. And he would draw from it.
  So in other words all of this money actually made its way over to Ralph.
  [It went] through these various people and various organizations, and
  from Ralph, then it went right to Hubbard.

  In addition to all the above disguised flow lines of money to
Hubbard, Franks received an order to pay money to him directly. Ac-
cording to Franks, the idea was formulated to bill the Church. The
first was a billing of 85 million dollars for the use of the Mark VI
E-meter, which Hubbard claimed to have developed. In other words,
he was going to be presenting bills to the Church, and the Church
was going to pay him.
  Says Franks:

    We had the hundred fifty million in Sea Org reserves. The problem
  was how were we going to get the money out to Hubbard.
    In a good week, [the income of the Church of Scientology was] two
  million dollars a week....
    Scientology was able to generate such huge sums of money because
  of single-mindedness towards the goal of getting money to Hubbard. It
  was total single-mindedness. It was big-league sales, totally indoctri-
  nated by the organization to get every last dime.

  Laurel Sullivan (who served as Hubbard's personal PR) states:

   In November of '73...he said to find out which publics or catego-
  ries of people he derived his income from and then prioritize them ac-
  cording to the attention I should spend on these publics. (Emphasis
  added)

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

    As his public relations person, I was to stay briefed on all of his activ-
  ities, all of the things that he was involved in [photography, promo-
  tional materials, management and technical writings], and his general
  production...so that appropriate billings could be done....
    Installments [payments to him for "backbillings"]...were substan-
  tial. [One billing prior to 1980] for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars
  was for research expenses spent apparently by him during the time he
  spent in New York, which was almost one year. At least that's what the
  trip was defined as ["research"].
    That [was] the trip to New York where he was hiding out. The Snow
  White project dame out of that. [The project that brought on the FBI
  raid and for which his wife took the rap.]

  According to an affidavit by Gerry Armstrong, a conversation was.
held about September 28, 1980, in the Cedars complex, Los Angeles.
  Laurel Sullivan, a top Church legal executive and an American
Church attorney were the key people present.
  The following exchange occurred:

    Legal executive: "The only reason it's worked so long...is because
  everyone has effectively been bound by the authority of LRH and has
  ignored corporate lines. (Emphasis added)
    "...CSC [Church of Scientology of California] has rendered much
  service to many foreign Scientologists and RRF has got the money.
  ...It obviously is the classic case (loud laugh) of inurement, if not
  fraud." (Emphasis added)
    (Several laughs)
    LS: "Well put."
    Speaker Unidentified: "It's all privileged."
    Another speaker: "The tape recorder is going here, Charles."

  THE SCIENTOLOGY MISSIONS INTERNATIONAL CAPER

    ..."MONEY! REPEAT MONEY! REPEAT MONEY! REPEAT
  MONEY!" - L. RON HUBBARD (Stressing in a transcribed confidential
  taped briefing the enormous income to be made from the Scientology
  Missions International caper)

  Some 20 months prior to the Florida mission holders' meetings, in
early 19tl0, Hubbard had announced to a select few aides a new ca-
per.
  It was to begin with selling mission "starter packs" to well-to-do


*Hubbard's "Billion Dollar Caper*"

201

Scientologists. Each pack would consist of"at least ten thousand dol-
lars' worth of Hubbard's books," along with a charter for a"parish."
All of this was to cost the "investor" around 35 thousand dollars per
parish. Some existing mission holders were also required to buy two
or three or more such purchases just to maintain what they had al-
ready been operating for many years.
  Scientology Missions International was, per Hubbard's instruc-
tions, to be set up separately from the old existing"Mission (fran-
chise) Office World Wide" network, of which (as of December 1981) I
was again a member. Then at some opportune point in time, when
the SMI network was in full swing those in the old Mission Office
World Wide network were to be "persuaded" to "move over" into
SMI (and pay the fees necessary). SMI was a network that would, in
contrast to the old MOWW, be totally dominated by Hubbard in the
same way as were his "official" organizations (Churches).
  Said Franks:

    I first heard of it in a taped briefing from him. He presented it as a
  billion dollar caper....I eventually became the person responsible
  for establishing SMI.

  SMI was financially tied in with the Liberian Corporation, called
Religious Research Foundation (RRF, "Ralph").
  Regarding getting the old-time mission holders to give up their au-
tonomy as part of the MOWW network, Hubbard had said:

    "It is a very simple operation. You simply move them over. You
  don't make it a penalty for them to move over, you make it an advan-
  tage....This is a matter of selling. And those who don't move over,
  you simply start applying rules and regulations to. You lean on them.
  And they'll move over...." (Emphasis added.)

****

  This SMI "caper" was in full swing when, just before New Year's
day 1982, I walked back into my franchise after three and a half years'
enforced absence. The Riverside mission was still a Mission Office
World Wide (MOWW) franchise.
  The legal officer lost no time getting the new "contract" sent to me
to end that situation. I then called for a briefing with him and two
other mission holders.
  The contract he showed us gave them the power to do whatever


202

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they wanted. Now the tricks and deception were built in "legally,"
with cleverly worded, disguised phrases.
  And I knew that if I didn't sign, my fate would be the same, only
with a little extra trouble for the intel boys, who would concoct a great
"fair game" project. I nevertheless put off signing.
  Then the heat came: the loaded "suggestions" and innuendoes. I re-
membered these all too well from 1978, when I was tricked into
signing over my mission and its bank accounts.
  This heat to sign the new "contract" was not my imagination: one
mission holder actually continued to refuse to sign, and his expulsion
stated this refusal to sign as the number one reason he was expelled.
Finally around late September, I signed.

****

  It was October when we were all invited to come to a Mission
Holders' Conference in San Francisco. which was to be attended by
the top brass of the Commodore's Messenger Org.
  Having signed these "contracts", we were now subject to the
whims of these powerful "kids."...

19

The Saviour's Revenge

  Hubbard's attempt to use trade-secret and industrial espionage
laws to enforce "church doctrine" is probably unique in the annals of
religious and legal history. Deploying "Finance Police" operating un-
der an "International Finance Dictator" to enforce the sending of
"customers" from "franchises" to the higher Church also has a bizarre
ring to it: something out of Hubbard's pulp fiction.
  The invitation to the Mission Holders' Conference created an air of
mystery. So much brass in attendance had to mean some momentous
announcement and changes.
  There were a bunch of us who arrived about the same time at San
Francisco International Airport and there were lots of hugs and greet-
ings. The October air was crisp despite the sunshine as we stepped
through the automatic doors to get the bus into the city.
  Dean and Melanie Stokes from Texas sat with me on the bus and
Dean expressed his conviction that he would lose his mission again. I
disagreed and tried to be positive.
  There were preliminary events, but the meeting did not finally
happen till Sunday night at eight P.M. Between the initial Friday
evening meeting and Sunday night people steadily arrived and the
tension grew.
  Most of these mission holders had, like my wife and me, invested
their houses and ten to 30 years of their lives into their "franchises,"
based on Hubbard's representations in his policies that they would be
"theirs. " Even if they were to be run non-profit, at least one could
draw a salary and expenses and live decently.
  We had mostly a middle-class standard of living and families to sup-
port, and these kids who now seemingly ruled Scientology, who had

203


204

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

never known what having to get an education for their children and
pay a mortgage and insurance was like, made us nervous. My wife
had just given birth to our second child, a boy. Thus, for us, this
problem was particularly intense.
  Discipline was to be kept light in missions, Hubbard had written.
The very worst that could happen would be that we would lose our
rights to call ourselves a Scientology mission. But these policies gave
no one any great comfort now. Experience had demonstrated to us
that policy was made to be broken where management was con-
cerned. Any one of these kids could wipe us out on a whim.
  We finally were ordered to take the elevators to the fourth floor and
the room there began to fill up from the back. It was indicative of the
mood that the front rows were empty while the back rows were jam-
packed as the brass lined up on the stage.
  There were uniformed Sea Org members around the edges and at
the entrances to the room continually firing flash cameras at us, ap-
parently to take our pictures. Later we discovered it was an attempt
to intimidate and hypnotize.
  Norman Starkey, with his thick guttural South African accent, be-
gan to yell at the people in the back of the room to come up to the
front rows.
  No one moved.
  His shrill tone and the general atmosphere had everyone in an odd
state. How should one react? This was outrageous. But to say any-
thing or take action could be dangerous.
  He then yelled at someone. No one was quite sure who. The tone
was the same as that used by an angry master when disciplining his
dog:
  "YOU! COME UP TO THE FRONT ROW!"
  The target of Starkey's wrath turned out to be Gary Smith, who had
a franchise in Hayward, near San Francisco. Gary lived in Blackhawk,
a community of multi-million-dollar houses. He had financed a classy
mission because he and his wife believed in Scientology but, unlike
most of the rest of us, did not need it for his livelihood. He had come
to the meeting with his wife Suzy and their three-year-old blond
daughter Carrie.
 "Yes YOU in the red shirt. You know who I mean!" yelled Starkey
at Gary, who was by this time looking around him to see who this guy
might be yelling at.
  Finally, realizing that he was the only one with a red shirt on, he


*The Saviour's Revenge*

205

replied, "Thank you, but I have my wife and daughter here and we're
quite comfortable."
  Starkey was stung by this public questioning of his ultimate author-
ity:
  "You have to the count of three, and if you don't move by then
you're going to be expelled and declared suppressive!" he yelled.
  "One! two!"-Gary did not move - "THREE! Get him!"
  Uniformed guards ran towards him from several places in the
room, and as they got near him Gary stood up and said firmly, "Don't
touch!"
  Gary Smith is no lightweight. He worked out regularly with weights
and had a good record in college football as a quarterback.
  He took his daughter's hand and they and his wife walked deliber -
ately towards the door at which stood several guards. No one touched
him.
  When he had left the room it was announced that he and his wife
were suppressive persons and would be declared such. They would
no longer be running the Hayward franchise which they had financed
and built up. Their franchise subsequently disbanded.
  Then Kingsley Wimbush, an Australian who was currently running
the most productive mission, was expelled. The privilege of expelling
him was assumed by Miscavage himself. He announced that Kingsley
was a suppressive in tones that betrayed his absolute pleasure.
  Kingsley and his wife (good friends of mine: sincere and well-inten-
tioned people) visibly froze as Starkey pointed at him and abused him as
a "Squirrel. "* He was ordered to leave the room and did so, leaving his
wife sitting in shock with an empty seat next to her. It took her a couple
of minutes to collect her wits, at which time she also stood up and walked
towards the door.
  "Declare her as well!' exclaimed Miscavage.
  Dean Stokes had been right. He was about to lose his mission
again. He was next.
  His wife Melanie and I had worked very hard to get it back for him,
as he had done for me after I had lost mine in 1978. For Dean, his
franchise had meant his whole life for some ten years, now he took all
this in stride. It was almost a relief for him, it seemed to me, as I
watched his demeanor. The never knowing "if" and "when" had been
driving him crazy.

*One who alters Scientology technology.


206

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

  With these instant expulsions out of the way, Miscavage strutted.
He had delivered Hubbard's retaliation for our "mutiny" 10 months
previously in Florida! The Saviour's revenge was sweet.
  There was more to come.
  Larry Heller, a Church attorney, was introduced by Miscavage and
dutifully lectured us on copyrights and trademarks. The underlying
message was that we might have been bold enough to assert our
views in Florida, but now that we had signed the new SMI "contract"
we would be thrown in jail if we didn't respect the kids' authority and
toe Hubbard's line.
  Heller's suit and tie contrasted with the dark naval uniforms, with
lanyards and captain's hats with scrambled eggs, the others were
wearing.

  HELLER :

    Most of you are probably familiar with what a trademark is but per-
  haps, for our purposes, a small explanation might be in order.
    A trademark is a symbol which is held out to the public representing
  to that public a certain quality of product or service which, when the
  public buys under that trademark, it's assured of getting.
    To give you a very simple example. Some of you might have had a
  glass or a bottle of Coca-Cola with your lunch today. Hypothetically,
  one or two of you might be in Hong Kong tomorrow and have a bottle
  of Coca-Cola with your lunch as well. That Coke is going to taste ex-
  actly the same tomorrow when you get to Hong Kong as the bottle of
  Coke that you opened up today. As long as it has that Coca-Cola sym-
  bol on it, comes in that very distinctive bottle, that means that you're
  going to get a certain mixture of ingredients, a certain effervescence.
    Scientology, as all of you know, also has trademarks....Those
  trademarks, just like the Coca-Cola trademarks, represents a symbol
  which assures the public of a certain quality of Service which they are
  going to receive if they purchase something or receive services under
  that trademark.

  He talked about how those trademarks had been owned by L. Ron
Hubbard, but had been "donated" to the Religious Technology Cor-
poration who sub-licensed them to the Church of Scientology and
SMI.
  Then he got closer to home: what did all this have to do with us?

    RTC has a right to send a "mission" directly to the individual mis-
  sion holders to determine whether the trademarks are being properly


*The Saviour's Revenge*

207

  used by you. This mission may review your books, your records, and
  interview your personnel....
    If there is a determination by RTC that Scientology services being
  given by any of you under "Scientology" trademarks are not on Source,
  then RTC...has the right to immediately suspend any utilization by
  individual missions of those trademarks. The word "immediate" is the
  key word here. There need not be, at this point, a hearing in order for
  there to be a suspension. RTC will order that you no longer use the
  trademark and you must stop or be subject to civil penalties and ulti-
  mately criminal prosecution....You will then be fined or thrown in
  jail.

  From advice I later got from other attorneys, these assertions, to
say the least, stretched the facts regarding this issue so as to make
them appear much more alarming: and generalized than they actually
were.
  There is certainly a question here as to whether the courts have any
business monitoring religious doctrines and rituals.
  It appeared to me, even at the time, that they were trying to have
it both ways. They wanted full protection by the government as a
business. Yet they demanded no interference from the government
with their "religious" practices and doctrines. And, in fact, the U.S.
courts were being called upon to ensure that these "religious doc-
trines" were not deviated from: hardly separation of Church and
State !
  Next - Commander Steve Marlowe, Inspector General from the
Religious Technology Corporation :

    The fact of the matter is you have a new breed of management in the
  Church. They're tough, they're ruthless, and they are on Source!" he
  announced.
    Holding onto upper level students and pre-clears when they should
  be moving up the bridge, which is exactly what we're here for, are
  over. They [the actions of mission holders of denying them "custom-
  ers"] are violations of long-standing policy.
    They [the mission holders' actions of holding onto "org customers"]
  enter into such criminal or civil charges as conversion, theft, not to
  mention Industrial Espionage and Sabotage which will get you two
  years in the pokey.

  I sat through all this while the cameras kept flashing at us, thinking
this is so bizarre. I knew most of the mission holders in the room, and
I knew how they detested what was happening, yet we all clapped at


208

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

the right places. The guards were watching for anyone with disagree-
ment showing on their faces.
  Ray Mithoff, the new chief Case Supervisor was really being a
zealot :

    The future can either be bright or very bad. I know for me it's going
  to be very bright and for someone who's out there squirreling and try-
  ing to get other people's attention off of Scientology and onto some-
  thing, just to fatten their own pocket or whatever, that person's future
  is black.
    You hear Mr. Starkey mention a bit of how black it is. It is really
  black. It is so black I can't even describe it right now. I can't even find
  words to describe how black that person's future is. In fact it is almost
  as black as the future of an FBI agent. I mean it is really black. The
  depth of that blackness and the length of time that that person will be
  in oblivion is just immeasurable....

  In the same vein, Norman Starkey said of a defector:

    He will never, never, I promise you, for any lifetime, get any au-
  diting or ever get a chance to get out of this trap....That means dy-
  ing and dying and dying again; forever, for eternity ....

  Then Wendall Reynolds, was introduced as the International Fi-
nance Dictator! He said :

    Now right now you guys are Counter Intention on my lines [mean-
  ing we were getting in the way of what he was trying to do], maybe one
  exception in this room, but I doubt it, because you guys are sitting on
  public [I assumed he didn't mean it literally - but meant holding onto
  their customers], you're ripping off the orgs, you're doing all manner of
  crazy things....
    Now some of these guys you see standing around here are Interna -
  tional Finance Police and their job is to go out and find this stuff and if
  you guys are guilty of it, you've just had it! So, are we talking the same
  language here now...
    Now this convention is costing the Church money. You're all going
  to sign 5 percent minimum Corrected Gross Income (income after
  overheads are paid) to this DMSMH Campaign.

  This meant that we were to pay 5 percent of our mission's income
to a IIli advertising campaign for Hubbard's book, Dianetics, The
Modern Science of Mental Health. The book was published by a for


*The Saviour's Revenge*

209

profit corporation and the royalties went to Hubbard, yet our non-
profit franchises were supposed to carry part of the costs. It sounded
illegal to me.
  When, later that morning (the meeting ran on till 2.30 A.M.) I was
told to sign the contract for 5 percent, I told the Finance Policeman
that I wanted to put a proviso on the form stating that it was signed on
the proviso that it was legal. He told me, "Sign!" When I still hesi-
tated he said, with a sarcastic grin, that I could ask Wendall Reynolds
the Finance Dictator about it. I signed knowing that any other action
was dangerous in this charged atmosphere.

THE FINANCE DICTATOR :

    You're going to get Dianetics and Scientology as a household word.
...
    And if you look at it Battlefield Earth [a science fiction book by
  Hubbard] has been released on the same pattern as the early 1950s,
  when LRH was a popular writer, with DMSMH released right on the
  heels of it and that put it right on the best-seller list!
    And right now Battlefield Earth is selling out and selling out and
  selling out again. So we got a tremendous popularity thing going and
  you guys are getting a gift at 5 percent of CGI [Corrected Gross In-
  come]. It's a total gift.
    So if I hear one person in this room who's not coughing up 5 per-
  cent....as a minimum you've got an investigation coming your way,
  because you got other crimes in your mission.
    Questions on that ? ....

  We were pulled out one at a time to have mug shots taken by a
uniformed photographer.
  It was then announced by Captain Lesevre, in a heavy French ac-
cent, that teams of finance police would be coming to our missions
and that we were going to be paying for them. The price would be
$15'000.00 a day.
  We were all finally told we could leave on the proviso that we
wrote a letter to Ron thanking him for the event and acknowledging
him for his contributions to us and mankind.
  Guards blocked the door until we were given clearance.

****

  Homer Shomer told me recently about Miscavage and company's


210

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

excitement as they returned to Author Services (on Sunset Boulevard
in Hollywood) where Homer worked at the time:

    When they came back from the meeting they were laughing and
  joking about how they had really "socked it to those bastards." The
  look on Kingsley Wimbush's face when he was expelled was a source of
  great amusement - very funny! And there was much backslapping and
  mutual congratulations. Norm Starkey was quite a hero for his expul-
  sion of Gary Smith. They called a special sta meeting to brag.

  It was also only recently that I learned that Hubbard was the prime
mover behind the actions of his messengers at the San Francisco
meeting.
  Homer Shomer told me that he saw a note from Hubbard which
told these guys:

    Congratulations on your handling of these franchise holders. As far
  as I'm concerned you can get rid of all of them. We don't need them!

  I believe that this revenge for the Florida "mutiny" was Hubbard's
last major move as a manager of the Church as such, a move that pre-
cipitated a major schism.
  Following this, according to an ex-aide, he became preoccupied
with preparing for his death and with preserving the myths he had
created about himself: He became obsessed with recovering his bio-
graphical and other personal documents turned over to a courtroom
in nearby Los Angeles (Chapters 21 and 23).


20

Thousands Break from Hubbard's Church

  Not only had the mission holders been hit. Some 18 of the top mes-
sengers and executives immediately under Hubbard had been purged,
accused of "working for the enemy." Among these were some of the
highest "tech trained" people, including David Mayo, who had for over
a decade been what is essentially the Archbishop of"Standard Technol-
ogy," the Case Supervisor International.
  It was Mayo who had been called to the dying Hubbard's side when
he had become the victim of a stroke or heart attack in 1978 and had
assisted him back to health and participated in the development of
the "Nots tech."*
  Also included among the 18 who were purged were the two execu-
tives who had headed the mission network, John Axel and Roger
Barnes. They had been imprisoned at Gilman Hot Springs, with
guards outside the doors of their locked rooms, and along with the
others were then transferred to a separate property, some 15 wiles
away in a secluded area in the San Jacinto foothills.
  Here they could not "contaminate the other crew." Their story
over the next six months or so included watching David Miscavage
and Steve Marlowe regularly spit in the faces of some of the inmates
there. In one instance John Axel (top franchise executive) was re-
ported to have been told to take off his glasses by Miscavage, and
then punched in the face.

*The secret OT levels that bring in the greatest amount of money to
Scientology. These are covered in Part II. Chapter 13.

211


212

THE ADVENTURES OF THE COMMODORE

****

  After my return to the mission, I received constant calls for one
thing or another, always accompanied by threats. One particular inci-
dent symbolized the ridiculousness of the situation: We were ordered
to sell 1000 copies of Hubbard's recently released science-fiction book
Battlefield Earth "before Thursday" or I would be kicked out as mis-
sion holder.
  I was at home shaving when the phone rang. The receptionist at
the mission informed me that there were three uniformed Sea Org
people there, saying they were Finance Police.
  Wallis Hooker was the leader of the group. He was wearing offi-
cer's regalia, and the appropriate severe "no-nonsense" expression.
He briefed me on the seriousness of the situation. We had been hold-
ing on to clears and not sending them off to the orgs!
  They were there to see that all "clears" (50 percent of our "public")
were sent immediately, and that an astronomical quota of staff and
"customers" were sent to Flag (in Florida) in less than two days, paid

in full. We were to be billed for this pillage, to pay immediately at the
end of each day, 15 thousand dollars a day. (By this time we had just
$30,000 left, which was far below outstanding bills.)
  The first day came to a close without our having met the impossible
targets they had set.
  "Get me a check for 15 Gs!" demanded Wallis.
  I told him I needed to speak to his superior because what he was
demanding was illegal. It was forcing me to do something that was not
only counter to the interests of the corporation of which I was in
charge, but would bring about its bankruptcy.
  Wallis was terrified of questioning the orders he had received, de-
spite the fact that I could tell he secretly sympathized with my plight.
He kept mumbling about being sentenced to the Rehabilitation Pro-
ject Force.
  Yet I was able to get him to call a person he addressed as "Matisse."
In what was genuinely an act of courage for the man, he presented my
argument to him.
  Then he went suddenly silent, and as he listened to the reply, I
watched him blanche and almost pass out, muttering an occasional,
"Yes, sir! Of course, sir! I'm sorry, Sir! Right away, sir!'
  When he dropped the receiver, he had taken on a new resolve. He
took a deep breath and started in on me in the manner that Matisse
had obviously pounded into him.
  There was to be "no more bullshit!" I was to sign the check or be


*Thousands Break from Hubbard's Church*

213

expelled. I had five minutes, and he had ten to get back with Matisse
and report that he had the check, signed by me for 15 Gs, in his hand.
I signed and he called.
  We were down to 15 thousand dollars in the bank and no prospects
of further income to cover immediate urgent bills.
  I called all over, everyone I knew who had not yet been kicked out.
There weren't many. It quickly became clear that the orders anima-
ting poor Wallis came from "very high up" - which was code for
Hubbard himself.
  Then I received a call from Matisse, and in a strong German accent
he yelled, "You will sign another check for 15 Gs tonight. If you do
not have the check signed in 15 minutes you will be going to jail for a
very long time!"
  There was no doubt that he meant that I would be framed in the
same manner as they had framed Paulette Cooper - something I was
aware of by this time. I had no doubt they could pull that off. Any
heroic stance of not signing would be futile, I decided, because who-
ever they put in after me would be happy to sign. Then the place
wouldn't have a chance.
  I signed, and was informed that I was to get a plane to Santa Clara
in Northern California and report to Matisse for a security check.
  On the way up I schemed how I would pull off lying on the sec
check. The truth would obviously get me expelled and I would have
no chance to figure out how to salvage my mission.
  I would lie while clearly facing the truth in my own mind. For in-
stance, if they asked me if I was communicating to any suppressive
people (most my friends were "suppressive" by now and I always ac-
cepted their calls) I would say "no" while picturing in my mind talk-
ing to them.
  The basic theory is that the meter reacts to those things that one
resists confronting. Thus I would confront freely the truthful answer
while verbally lying.
  If I told the truth to these tyrants I would obviously be declared,
and the mission would collapse as a working installation and all my
dreams and those of my friends at the mission would be smashed.
  For four hours the next afternoon, Matisse and an American Sea Org
officer, whose name escapes me, interrogated me on the E-meter. I lied
as much as necessary, and got away with it! They tried every trick to
catch me out, but the meter constantly verified that what I was telling
them was the "truth."
  They were puzzled, and as I left, Matisse t