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Don Pearson is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Inductive Automation, [1] a supplier of web-based industrial automation software based in Folsom, California. He was formerly a management consultant and executive for the Folsom, California publishing company, e.Republic. Pearson is perhaps best known for his role in training Allstate Insurance Company managers and salesmen in the tenets of L. Ron Hubbard's 'management by statistics' during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Pearson also set up a political action committee called the Association of Citizens for Social Reform, the aim of which was to eliminate public support for mental health programs not approved of by Scientology. [2]
Together with fellow Scientologists Dennis McKenna, Pearson operates e.Republic, a media and event management enterprise primarily serving the government information technology market, including Government Technology , Governing , and Converge magazines, which McKenna founded in 1983. Another e.Republic offshoot, the Center for Digital Government, provides research and consulting to state and local governments. e.Republic relies heavily on L. Ron Hubbard's writing as part of its employee training process. [2] [3]
Before joining e.Republic, Pearson worked as a management consultant in the Sacramento area. His primary client was Allstate Insurance, for whom Pearson taught Hubbard's 'management by statistics'. The training fostered the idea that workers who had low statistics should be penalized for low productivity, or for crossing a favored employee with 'up-statistics'. Some Allstate managers took such ideas too far, resulting in charges of "management by intimidation." [2]
Pearson also pushed other Hubbard books and tapes while a consultant to Allstate. After a lengthy February, 1995 front-page story ran in The Wall Street Journal , describing training that included use of Scientology's 'Tone scale', Allstate banned and repudiated the courses. According to the article, more than 3,500 Allstate supervisors and agents participated in nearly 200 seminars conducted by Pearson's firm. Some agents who worked under managers who took the training courses eventually filed religious-discrimination and harassment charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. [4]
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established a series of organizations to promote Dianetics. In 1952, Hubbard lost the rights to Dianetics in bankruptcy proceedings, and he subsequently founded Scientology. Thereafter, Hubbard oversaw the growth of the Church of Scientology into a worldwide organization.
The Church of Scientology maintains a wide variety of beliefs and practices. The core belief holds that a human is an immortal, spiritual being (thetan) that is resident in a physical body. The thetan has had innumerable past lives, some of which, preceding the thetan's arrival on Earth, were lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Based on case studies at advanced levels, it is predicted that any Scientologist undergoing auditing will eventually come across and recount a common series of past-life events.
Since its inception in 1954, the Church of Scientology has been involved in a number of controversies, including its stance on psychiatry, Scientology's legitimacy as a religion, the Church's aggressive attitude in dealing with its perceived enemies and critics, allegations of mistreatment of members, and predatory financial practices; for example, the high cost of religious training:191 and perceived exploitative practices. When mainstream media outlets have reported alleged abuses, representatives of the church have tended to deny such allegations.
Mary Sue Hubbard was the third wife of L. Ron Hubbard, from 1952 until his death in 1986. She was a leading figure in Scientology for much of her life. The Hubbards had four children: Diana, Quentin (1954–1976), Suzette, and Arthur.
Operation Snow White was a criminal conspiracy by the Church of Scientology during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations into and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church members in more than 30 countries. It was one of the largest infiltrations of the United States government in history, with up to 5,000 covert agents. This operation also exposed the Scientology plot "Operation Freakout", because Operation Snow White was the case that initiated the U.S. government's investigation of the Church.
The term fair game is used to describe policies and practices carried out by the Church of Scientology towards people and groups it perceives as its enemies. Founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, established the policy in the 1950s, in response to criticism both from within and outside his organization. Individuals or groups who are "fair game" are judged to be a threat to the Church and, according to the policy, can be punished and harassed using any and all means possible. In 1968, Hubbard officially canceled use of the term "fair game" because of negative public relations it caused, although the Church's aggressive response to criticism continued.
Scientology and its perspectives on sexual orientation are based on the writings of L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. His statements about homosexuality have led critics to assert that Scientology promotes homophobia, though these allegations are disputed by some Scientologists.
World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) is a Church of Scientology organization headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It states that it is an "international membership organization whose members use both L. Ron Hubbard management technology and embrace the responsibilities and ethical standards of WISE membership."
Suppressive Person, often abbreviated SP, is a term used in Scientology to describe the "antisocial personalities" who, according to Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard, make up about 2.5% of the population. A statement on a Church of Scientology website describes this group as including notorious historic figures such as Adolf Hitler.
The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business. In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court. The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013. The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect. In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult. In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.
Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by the American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. Its adherents are called Scientologists. The largest exponent of Scientology is the Church of Scientology, a centralized and hierarchical organization based in Florida and California, although many practitioners exist independently of the Church, in what is called the Free Zone. Estimates put the number of Scientologists at under 40,000 worldwide.
e.Republic, Inc. is an American research and media company based in Folsom, California. It publishes Government Technology, a publication covering the role of information technology in state and local government, along with several other publications. e.Republic focuses on connecting private IT companies with government and education agencies.
Scientology in the United Kingdom is practised mainly within the Church of Scientology and its related groups which go under names including "Hubbard Academy of Personal Independence" and "Dianetics and Scientology Life Improvement Centre". The national headquarters, and former global headquarters, is Saint Hill Manor at East Grinstead, which for seven years was the home of L. Ron Hubbard, the pulp fiction author who created Scientology. In the 2021 census, there were 1,844 individuals in England and Wales who listed themselves as Scientologists in their census returns, almost half of which lived in the area around East Grinstead in West Sussex, which hosts the British Scientology Headquarters at Saint Hill Manor. This is a decline of just under a quarter since census day, 2011.
The Church of Scientology has operated in Germany since 1970. German authorities estimate that there are 4,000 active Scientologists in Germany as of 2020; the Church of Scientology gives a membership figure of around 12,000. The Church of Scientology has encountered particular antagonism from the German press and government and occupies a precarious legal, social and cultural position in Germany.
Scientology was founded in the United States by science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is now practiced in many other countries.
The Clearwater Hearings were a 1982 Clearwater, Florida commission that investigated the Church of Scientology and Project Normandy. Among the witnesses who testified were Ron DeWolf and various ex-Scientologists. The commission uncovered a number of illegal activities committed by the church, including:
The Church of Scientology has no official presence in Egypt and there are no known membership statistics available. In 2002, two members were detained by Egyptian authorities under the charges of "contempt of religion". However, some books by the founder, L. Ron Hubbard, have started to appear in several Egyptian bookstores in the late 2000s, and were even approved by Al-Azhar, the highest Sunni learning institution in the Muslim world. Egypt is listed on an official Scientology website as being a country "in which Dianetics and Scientology services are ministered". Narconon, an organization which promotes Hubbard's drug abuse treatment, has a branch in Fayoum.
The tax status of the Church of Scientology in the United States has been the subject of decades of controversy and litigation. Although the Church of Scientology was initially partially exempted by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from paying federal income tax, its two principal entities in the United States lost this exemption in 1957 and 1968. This action was taken because of concerns that church funds were being used for the private gain of its founder L. Ron Hubbard or due to an international psychiatric conspiracy against Scientology.