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From 1967 to 1975, L. Ron Hubbard presided over the Sea Org, a paramilitary group modeled after the US Navy.
Having been ejected from the United Kingdom, L. Ron Hubbard created the "sea project", taking many of his Scientology followers with him to sea. Wandering from port to port, this period saw his organization—renamed the Sea Org— turned into a paramilitary organization with harsh living conditions and brutal punishments including throwing people overboard and creating the Rehabilitation Project Force, a 'work prison'. Hubbard invented a new level of Scientology, OT III: the Wall of Fire, the space-opera story about Xenu and the Galactic Confederation who populated earth 75 million years ago.
In 1973 Hubbard launched Operation Snow White, a conspiracy which infiltrated US government agencies including the Department of Justice and the IRS, to purge records unfavorable to Scientology or Hubbard. In 1975, Hubbard suffered a heart attack, prompting his return to the United States.
When Hubbard established the Sea Org he publicly declared that he had relinquished his management responsibilities. According to Miller, this was not true. He received daily telex messages from Scientology organizations around the world reporting their statistics and income. The Church of Scientology sent him $15,000 (equivalent to $137,066in 2023) a week and millions of dollars were transferred to his bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. [1] Couriers arrived regularly, conveying luxury food for Hubbard and his family [2] or cash that had been smuggled from England to avoid currency export restrictions. [3]
After Hubbard created the Sea Org "fleet" in early 1967 in the Canary Islands [4] [5] it began an eight-year voyage, sailing from port to port in the Mediterranean Sea and eastern North Atlantic. The fleet traveled as far as Corfu in the eastern Mediterranean and Dakar and the Azores in the Atlantic, but rarely stayed anywhere for longer than six weeks. Ken Urquhart, Hubbard's personal assistant at the time, later recalled Hubbard claimed "many people were after him" and if he were unable to continue his work, "there would be social and economic chaos, if not a nuclear holocaust". [6]
At the same time, Hubbard was still developing Scientology's doctrines. A Scientology biography states that "free of organizational duties and aided by the first Sea Org members, L. Ron Hubbard now had the time and facilities to confirm in the physical universe some of the events and places he had encountered in his journeys down the track of time." [7]
Hubbard wrote OT III in late 1966 and early 1967 in North Africa while on his way to Las Palmas to join the Enchanter, the first vessel of his private Scientology fleet (the "Sea Org"). [8] [9] In a letter of the time to his wife Mary Sue, [10] : 58–59, 332–333 Hubbard said that, in order to assist his research, he was drinking alcohol and taking stimulants and depressants. [11] His assistant at the time, Virginia Downsborough, recalled she had to wean him off the diet of drugs to which he had become accustomed. [12]
In 1967, Hubbard announced the release of OT3, the "Wall of Fire", revealing the secrets of an immense disaster that had occurred "on this planet, and on the other seventy-five planets which form this Confederacy, seventy-five million years ago". [13] Scientologists were required to undertake the first two OT levels before learning how Xenu, the leader of the Galactic Confederacy, had shipped billions of people to Earth and blown them up with hydrogen bombs, following which their traumatized spirits were stuck together at "implant stations", brainwashed with false memories and eventually became contained within human beings. [14] The discovery of OT3 was said to have taken a major physical toll on Hubbard, who announced that he had broken a knee, an arm, and his back during the course of his research. [15] A year later, in 1968, he unveiled OT levels 4 to 6 and began delivering OT training courses to Scientologists aboard the Royal Scotman. [16]
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Scientologists around the world were presented with a glamorous picture of life in the Sea Org and many applied to join Hubbard aboard the fleet. [16] What they found was rather different from the image. Most of those joining had no nautical experience at all. [16] Mechanical difficulties and blunders by the crews led to a series of embarrassing incidents and near-disasters. Following one incident in which the rudder of the Royal Scotman was damaged during a storm, Hubbard ordered the ship's entire crew to be reduced to a "condition of liability" and wear gray rags tied to their arms. [17] The ship itself was treated the same way, with dirty tarpaulins tied around its funnel to symbolize its lower status. According to those aboard, conditions were appalling; the crew was worked to the point of exhaustion, given meager rations and forbidden to wash or change their clothes for several weeks. [18] Hubbard maintained a harsh disciplinary regime aboard the fleet, punishing mistakes by confining people in the Royal Scotman's bilge tanks without toilet facilities and with food provided in buckets. [19] At other times erring crew members were thrown overboard with Hubbard looking on and, occasionally, filming. [20] David Mayo, a Sea Org member at the time, later recalled trying to avoid negative thoughts about Hubbard, as routine security checking asked "Have you ever had any unkind thoughts about LRH?" and "you could get into very serious trouble if you had. So you tried hard not to." [21] One member of the Sea Org recalled Hubbard punishing a little boy by confining him to the ship's chain locker. [22]
On two separate occasions, orders to use R2-45 (killing them with a .45 pistol) on specific individuals were published in a prominent Scientology magazine. On March 6, 1968, Hubbard issued an internal memo titled "Racket Exposed", in which he denounced twelve people as "Enemies of mankind, the planet and all life", and ordered that "Any Sea Org member contacting any of them is to use Auditing Process R2-45." [23] The memo was subsequently reproduced, with another name added, in the Church of Scientology's internal journal, The Auditor. [24] Another four people were named in a second R2-45 order published in The Auditor later in 1968. [25] Stephen A. Kent of the University of Alberta characterises such orders as demonstrations of "the manifestation of Hubbard's malignant narcissism and, more specifically, his narcissistic rage." [26] [27] The Santa Rosa News-Herald reported in 1982 that "attorneys have uncovered evidence to suggest that between 1975 and 1977, during the FBI's investigation of the cult, meetings of Scientology executives were held in which there were discussions relative to 'auditing' high-level FBI members with auditing process R2-45." [28]
Hubbard taught that the problems of this period were due to "vicious, covert international attacks" by the United States government, "all of which were proven false and baseless, which were to last 27 years and finally culminated in the Government being sued for 750 million dollars for conspiracy." [29] Behind the attacks, stated Hubbard, lay a vast conspiracy of "psychiatric front groups" secretly controlling governments: "Every single lie, false charge and attack on Scientology has been traced directly to this group's members. They have sought at great expense for nineteen years to crush and eradicate any new development in the field of the mind. They are actively preventing any effectiveness in this field." [30]
From about 1970, Hubbard was attended aboard ship by the children of Sea Org members, organized as the Commodore's Messenger Organization (CMO). They were mainly young girls dressed in hot pants and halter tops, who were responsible for running errands for Hubbard such as lighting his cigarettes, dressing him or relaying his verbal commands to other members of the crew. [31] [32] In addition to his wife Mary Sue, he was accompanied by all four of his children by her, though not his first son Nibs, who had defected from Scientology in late 1959. [33] The younger Hubbards were all members of the Sea Org and shared its rigors.
Along the way, Hubbard sought to establish a safe haven in "a friendly little country where Scientology would be allowed to prosper", as Miller puts it. [34] The fleet stayed at Corfu for several months in 1968–1969. Hubbard renamed the ships after Greek gods—the Royal Scotman was rechristened Apollo—and he praised the recently established military dictatorship. [3] The Sea Org was represented as "Professor Hubbard's Philosophy School" in a telegram to the Greek government. [35] In March 1969, however, Hubbard and his ships were ordered to leave. [36]
The practice of prominently displaying the cross in Scientology centers was instituted in 1969 following hostile press coverage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, when Scientology's status as a legitimate religion was being questioned. In response, Hubbard ordered that, "Any staff who are trained at any level as auditors (but not in AOs) are to be clothed in the traditioned ministerial black suit, black vest white collar silver cross for ordinary org wear." [37]
In October 1969, The Sunday Times published an exposé by Australian journalist Alex Mitchell detailing Hubbard's occult experiences with Parsons and Aleister Crowley's teachings. [38] [39] The Church responded with a statement, claiming without evidence Hubbard was sent in by the US Government to "break up Black Magic in America" and succeeded. [40] [41]
In mid-1972, Hubbard again tried to find a safe haven, this time in Morocco, establishing contacts with the country's secret police and training senior policemen and intelligence agents in techniques for detecting subversives. [42] The program ended in failure when it became caught up in internal Moroccan politics, and Hubbard left the country hastily in December 1972. [43]
In 1972, French prosecutors charged Hubbard and the French Church of Scientology with fraud and customs violations. At risk of being extradited to France, [10] : 94 Hubbard left the Sea Org fleet temporarily at the end of 1972, living incognito in Queens, New York. [44] Hubbard's health deteriorated significantly during this period. A chain-smoker, he also suffered from bursitis and excessive weight, and had a prominent growth on his forehead. [45] Hubbard returned to his flagship in September 1973 when the threat of extradition had abated. [46]
Hubbard suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident on the island of Tenerife in December 1973. In 1974, Hubbard established the Rehabilitation Project Force. [47] Quentin Hubbard reportedly found it difficult to adjust and attempted suicide in mid-1974. [48] Also in 1974, L. Ron Hubbard confessed to two top executives, Bill Franks and David Mayo, that "People do not [leave Scientology] because of [their unconfessed sins], they leave because [they stop liking Scientology or stop believing it in]". [49] Hubbard warned "If any of this information ever became public, I would lose all control of the orgs and eventually Scientology as a whole." [50]
Throughout this period, Hubbard was heavily involved in directing the activities of the Guardian's Office (GO), the legal bureau/intelligence agency that he had established in 1966. He believed that Scientology was being attacked by an international Nazi conspiracy, which he termed the "Tenyaka Memorial", through a network of drug companies, banks and psychiatrists in a bid to take over the world. [51] In 1973, he instigated the "Snow White Program" and directed the GO to remove negative reports about Scientology from government files and track down their sources. [52] The GO was ordered to "get all false and secret files on Scientology, LRH ... that cannot be obtained legally, by all possible lines of approach ... i.e., job penetration, janitor penetration, suitable guises utilizing covers." His involvement in the GO's operations was concealed through the use of codenames. The GO carried out covert campaigns on his behalf such as Operation Bulldozer Leak, intended "to effectively spread the rumor that will lead Government, media, and individual SPs to conclude that LRH has no control of the C of S and no legal liability for Church activity". He was kept informed of GO operations, such as the theft of medical records from a hospital, harassment of psychiatrists and infiltrations of organizations that had been critical of Scientology at various times, such as the Better Business Bureau, the American Medical Association, and American Psychiatric Association. [53]
Members of the GO infiltrated and burglarized numerous government organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service. [54]
Paulette Cooper, a freelance journalist and author, had begun researching Scientology in 1968 and wrote a critical article on the church for the British magazine Queen (now Harper's Bazaar ) in 1969. [55] The church promptly sued for libel, adding Queen to the dozens of British publications that it had already sued. [56] [57] Undeterred, Cooper expanded her article into a full-length book, The Scandal of Scientology: A chilling examination of the nature, beliefs and practices of the "now religion”; it was published by Tower Publications, Inc. of New York in the summer of 1971. The Church of Scientology filed at least 19 lawsuits against Cooper throughout the 1970s and 1980s, which Cooper considered part of "a typical Scientology dirty-tricks campaign" and which Cooper's attorney Michael Flynn said was motivated by L. Ron Hubbard's declaration that the purpose of a lawsuit was to "harass and discourage". [58] [59] Cooper discontinued her legal actions against Scientology in 1985 after receiving an out-of-court settlement. [60]
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established organizations to promote and practice Dianetics techniques. Hubbard created Scientology in 1952 after losing the intellectual rights to his literature on Dianetics in bankruptcy. He would lead the Church of Scientology – variously described as a cult, a new religious movement, or a business – until his death in 1986.
Xenu, also called Xemu, is a figure in the Church of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology", a sacred and esoteric teaching. According to the "Technology", Xenu was the extraterrestrial ruler of a "Galactic Confederacy" who brought billions of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.
Free Zone, Freezone, and Independent Scientology are umbrella terms for the groups, organizations, and individuals who practice Scientology beliefs and practices independently of the Church of Scientology (COS). Such practitioners range from those who closely adhere to the original teachings of Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard, to those who have adapted practices far from COS beliefs and practices.
The Sea Organization or Sea Org is the senior-most status of staff within the Church of Scientology network of corporations, but is not itself incorporated. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Sea Org was started as L. Ron Hubbard's private navy, and adopted naval uniforms and ranks. Today, all Scientology management organizations are exclusively staffed with Sea Org members. The Sea Org maintains strict codes for its members, beginning with a billion-year pledge of service to Scientology upon initiation. David Miscavige, the leader of Scientology, is the highest-ranking Sea Org officer with the rank of captain. The higher rank of commodore is permanently reserved for the reincarnation of the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. Some ex-members and scholars have described the Sea Org as a totalitarian organization marked by intensive surveillance and lack of freedom.
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.
In Scientology, Operating Thetan (OT) is a state of complete spiritual freedom in which one is a "willing and knowing cause over life, thought, matter, energy, space and time". The Church of Scientology offers eight "levels" of OT, each level costing thousands of US dollars. Each OT level is confidential and is not revealed to anyone beforehand. In summary, the objective of these levels is to remove "body thetans" which are "confused, disembodied souls from other planets who have attached themselves to us".
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.
The Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, is the Church of Scientology's program for members of its Sea Organization who have allegedly violated expectations or policies. This may include members who are deemed to have hidden evil intentions towards Scientology, members who are unproductive in their work or who produce poor-quality work.
Geoffrey Quentin McCaully Hubbard, was the son of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and his third wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. He died at the age of 22 in an apparent suicide.
The Commodore's Messenger Organization (CMO) is a management unit within the Sea Org, the unincorporated paramilitary wing of the Church of Scientology. CMO oversees the various other Church of Scientology organizations.
Have You Lived Before This Life? is a Scientology book about past lives by L. Ron Hubbard published in 1958 by the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International. The book is considered part of Scientology's canon.
Scientology: A History of Man is a book by L. Ron Hubbard, first published in 1952 under the title What to Audit by the Scientific Press of Phoenix. According to the author, it provides "a coldblooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years." It has gone through many editions since its first publication and is a key text of the Church of Scientology. The book has been ridiculed by critics of Scientology for its unusual writing style and pseudoscientific claims; it has been described as "a slim pretense at scientific method ... blended with a strange amalgam of psychotherapy, mysticism and pure science fiction; mainly the latter."
The Bridge to Total Freedom, also known as the Classification, Gradation and Awareness Chart, is Scientology's primary action plan and road map to guide a person through the sequential steps to attain Scientology's concept of spiritual freedom. Displayed in every Scientology organization as an enormous poster using red ink, the comprehensive chart contains almost every service available within Scientology. Each step on the Bridge has a monetary cost.
The military career of L. Ron Hubbard saw the future founder of Scientology serving in the United States Armed Forces as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve and, between 1941 and 1950, the Navy Reserve. He saw active service between 1941 and 1945, during World War II, as a naval lieutenant and later as a lieutenant. After the war he was mustered out of active service and resigned his commission in 1950.
The training routines (TR) are training exercises or drills used in the Church of Scientology as well as affiliated programs Narconon, Criminon, WISE, and Applied Scholastics. The church describes them as a way of learning to communicate effectively and to control situations. Some critics and former Scientologists claim the training routines have a strong hypnotic effect, causing hallucinations and an out-of-body experience known in Scientology as "exteriorization".
The Training Routines that are part of early Scientology indoctrination have been compared to acting exercises: students are taught to "duplicate," or mirror, a partner's actions; project their "intention," or thoughts, onto inanimate objects; experiment with vocal tones, the most dominant being a commanding bark known as "tone 40"; and deepen their ability to "be in their bodies" without reacting to outside stimuli.
Scientology is in part derived from, and shares elements with, a number of esoteric or occult systems. The extent of the influence of specific occult belief systems on Scientology is a subject of debate amongst scholars.
From 1953 to 1967, L. Ron Hubbard was the official leader of the Church of Scientology.
Any staff who are trained at any level as auditors (but not in AOs) are to be clothed in the traditioned ministerial black suit, black vest white collar silver cross for ordinary org wear.