My introduction to Scientology in 1964 was quite incredible. At the time I was an ordinary guy age 24, rather nervous and had a good job in the printing industry. I was given an introductory course about the eight dynamics and the ARC (Affinity Reality & Communication) triangle. I was very impressed and signed up for the basic courses and then did the auditors courses up to class 4. I was so impressed that I gave up my job and joined staff and worked at the Cape Town organisation for 2 years. It was an incredible experience; the people I met and worked with were wonderful and friendly. We received lots of communication from St Hill Manor in Sussex England, the headquarters of Scientology where L Ron Hubbard was based. People from all over the world went to St Hill for more training and auditing (counseling). It was really impressive.
After I completed my contract at the Cape Town organisation I went back to my profession in the printing industry to make some money as the pay in Scientology was not good. I then heard of Hubbard’s plans to start the Sea Organization and decided to join. I contacted them and they told me to go to the new Advanced Organisation at the Reycar hotel in Alicante, Spain. I arrived there sometime in 1968 where I was introduced to hundreds of people from all over the world studying the more advanced levels of Scientology and receiving auditing on these levels. Most of the hotel was leased by Scientology and it was just fantastic, again the people were friendly and just terrific.
Hubbard was at this time somewhere in the Mediterranean sailing on his flag ship “The Royal Scotsman” later named the Apollo but everything was confidential and we did not know their whereabouts. Part of my responsibilities was to go to the post office in Alicante and send and receive telex communication from the flagship and from Hubbard in particular. On this one particular morning I received a telex from Hubbard stating that we were about to be raided by the Spanish authorities and we had to pack up and close the organisation in Spain and take all the course materials and other documents to the newly formed advanced organisation in Edinburgh Scotland. I was also informed that I had to purchase plane tickets for all the students and transfer them to Edinburgh which I did. I then packed up all the course materials, central files and other materials, hired a large car and together with a colleague drove all the materials to the advanced organisation in Edinburgh after which I returned to Alicante by plane and was then transferred the station ship “The Avon River” docked in Valencia.
I now became a crew member of the Sea Organisation station ship Avon River later named the Athena and after filling in loads of documents required by law for crew members I got to my “new” bunk around 3:00 am in the morning and was awakened at 5:45 am and told that it was my turn to stand quarter master watch and given an old pair of overalls to wear. I was given instructions of what to do and there I was, quarter master of the watch. At around 10:00 am I was approached by a pretty young girl who assigned me a lower condition for wearing dirty old overalls while on watch and was told to report to the ethics officer. The lower condition required that I spend the next 24 hours doing hard labour and was instructed to paint the bridge as punishment.
While painting and working throughout the night, thoughts went around in my head that this was not the Scientology I knew and decided I wished to leave but unfortunately I had no money so could not. But I was very upset. However I overcame that experience and we received orders to set sail for Bizerte in Tunisia. I was transferred to the engine room and had to learn the ropes while under sail. While under sail the rings of one of the pistons broke but we carried on to Bizerte and opened the engines there and started repairing them. However we were assigned a lower condition by the captain and had to spend the next 48 hours repairing the engines without sleep. While we were working to repair the engines the Flag ship arrived with Hubbard aboard and our chief engineer was recalled to the flag ship and I was appointed chief engineer. This was a steam ship and while I had some knowledge about petrol engines acquired from fixing my car, I had no knowledge about steam engines; I mean the pistons were bigger than I was. The next minute I received a visit from a messenger from Hubbard enquiring “when can I set sail”? I told her to tell LRH that I had just joined the ship and had little experience so if he would send the chief engineer back we will get the engines repaired as quick as possible and sail. No problem he sent the chief back we fixed the rings and set sail for Greece where we met up again with the flag ship. He did not assign me a condition or anything, we just got the job done.
After settling down in Greece Hubbard started the Class 8 course and received students from all over the world and it was here that I watched these terrified students being thrown overboard from the vantage point of our station ship after making mistakes on their course. I later heard that this overboard nonsense started when LRH said “he should be thrown overboard” not intending it literally but the recipient of that message took it literally and from there on it happened every morning until it was later stopped.
The storey so far is about my experience with ethics and the way it was applied. My first experience was with an illiterate idiot who knew nothing about Scientology and should never have been appointed to that post. The second experience was out of fear by our captain of what Hubbard may say or do when he heard that our engines broke down. After I explained to him that there was a ridge in the cylinder that caused the ring to break he returned the chief and we fixed it and set sail, No more problem. After those first experiences we sailed around the Med and later in the Baltic and it became a joyous experience, none of this ethics nonsense.
I was later transferred to the flag ship and worked as an auditor where people were working 16 hours per day 7 days per week like slaves never taking liberty. Hubbard commented on this saying that you must take liberty, it is unhealthy not to. It later occurred to me that those in charge that kept their juniors working without liberty were rather fanatic about scientology. When I first joined the Sea Organisation the policy was that every second afternoon you were entitled to liberty but the fanatics later put a stop to that. In 1986 I resigned from Scientology when I left the Flag Land Base in disgust.
It is now 2010 and what do I see about the Sea Organisation. I have a list of thousands of individuals and groups being declared suppressive and enemies of Scientology. Many of these people I know and worked with. They are good descent people and today have their own families and I remain friends with many of them. I see enquiries around the world of families being broken up through the disconnection policy. I hear weird stories about Miscaviage attacking people and beating them up.
The truth is Scientology was never intended to be this way. It was about people helping people to lead better lives. That was the major purpose.
What I wish to do now is refer to the policy that L Ron Hubbard wrote somewhere around 1965 or 66 entitled The Anti Social Personality and state that the ONLY reason that Scientology is in so much trouble today is that persons now in leadership positions such as David Miscaviage and Norman Starkey have personality traits referred to in that policy. That policy is attached hereunder.
The Anti Social Personality
By L Ron Hubbard
There are certain characteristics and mental attitudes which cause about 20 percent of a race to oppose violently any betterment activity or group.
Such people are known to have antisocial tendencies.
When the legal or political structure of a country becomes such as to favor such personalities in positions of trust, then all the civilizing organizations of the country become suppressed and a barbarism of criminality and economic duress ensues.
Crime and criminal acts are perpetrated by antisocial personalities. Inmates of institutions commonly trace their state back to contact with such personalities.
Thus, in the fields of government, police activities and mental health, to name a few, we see that it is important to be able to detect and isolate this personality type so as to protect society and individuals from the destructive consequences attendant upon letting such have free rein to injure others.
As they only comprise 20 percent of the population and as only 2 1/2 percent are truly dangerous, we see that with a very small amount of effort we could considerably better the state of society.
Well-known, even stellar, examples of such a personality are, of course, Napoleon and Hitler. Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Christie and other famous criminals were well-known examples of the antisocial personality. But with such a cast of characters in history we neglect the less stellar examples and do not perceive that such personalities exist in current life, very common, often undetected.
When we trace the cause of a failing business, we will inevitably discover somewhere in its ranks the antisocial personality hard at work.
In families which are breaking up, we commonly find one or the other of the persons involved to have such a personality.
Where life has become rough and is failing, a careful review of the area by a trained observer will detect one or more such personalities at work.
As there are 80 percent of us trying to get along and only 20 percent trying to prevent us, our lives would be much easier to live were we well informed as to the exact manifestations of such a personality. Thus, we could detect it and save ourselves much failure and heartbreak.
After I completed my contract at the Cape Town organisation I went back to my profession in the printing industry to make some money as the pay in Scientology was not good. I then heard of Hubbard’s plans to start the Sea Organization and decided to join. I contacted them and they told me to go to the new Advanced Organisation at the Reycar hotel in Alicante, Spain. I arrived there sometime in 1968 where I was introduced to hundreds of people from all over the world studying the more advanced levels of Scientology and receiving auditing on these levels. Most of the hotel was leased by Scientology and it was just fantastic, again the people were friendly and just terrific.
Hubbard was at this time somewhere in the Mediterranean sailing on his flag ship “The Royal Scotsman” later named the Apollo but everything was confidential and we did not know their whereabouts. Part of my responsibilities was to go to the post office in Alicante and send and receive telex communication from the flagship and from Hubbard in particular. On this one particular morning I received a telex from Hubbard stating that we were about to be raided by the Spanish authorities and we had to pack up and close the organisation in Spain and take all the course materials and other documents to the newly formed advanced organisation in Edinburgh Scotland. I was also informed that I had to purchase plane tickets for all the students and transfer them to Edinburgh which I did. I then packed up all the course materials, central files and other materials, hired a large car and together with a colleague drove all the materials to the advanced organisation in Edinburgh after which I returned to Alicante by plane and was then transferred the station ship “The Avon River” docked in Valencia.
I now became a crew member of the Sea Organisation station ship Avon River later named the Athena and after filling in loads of documents required by law for crew members I got to my “new” bunk around 3:00 am in the morning and was awakened at 5:45 am and told that it was my turn to stand quarter master watch and given an old pair of overalls to wear. I was given instructions of what to do and there I was, quarter master of the watch. At around 10:00 am I was approached by a pretty young girl who assigned me a lower condition for wearing dirty old overalls while on watch and was told to report to the ethics officer. The lower condition required that I spend the next 24 hours doing hard labour and was instructed to paint the bridge as punishment.
While painting and working throughout the night, thoughts went around in my head that this was not the Scientology I knew and decided I wished to leave but unfortunately I had no money so could not. But I was very upset. However I overcame that experience and we received orders to set sail for Bizerte in Tunisia. I was transferred to the engine room and had to learn the ropes while under sail. While under sail the rings of one of the pistons broke but we carried on to Bizerte and opened the engines there and started repairing them. However we were assigned a lower condition by the captain and had to spend the next 48 hours repairing the engines without sleep. While we were working to repair the engines the Flag ship arrived with Hubbard aboard and our chief engineer was recalled to the flag ship and I was appointed chief engineer. This was a steam ship and while I had some knowledge about petrol engines acquired from fixing my car, I had no knowledge about steam engines; I mean the pistons were bigger than I was. The next minute I received a visit from a messenger from Hubbard enquiring “when can I set sail”? I told her to tell LRH that I had just joined the ship and had little experience so if he would send the chief engineer back we will get the engines repaired as quick as possible and sail. No problem he sent the chief back we fixed the rings and set sail for Greece where we met up again with the flag ship. He did not assign me a condition or anything, we just got the job done.
After settling down in Greece Hubbard started the Class 8 course and received students from all over the world and it was here that I watched these terrified students being thrown overboard from the vantage point of our station ship after making mistakes on their course. I later heard that this overboard nonsense started when LRH said “he should be thrown overboard” not intending it literally but the recipient of that message took it literally and from there on it happened every morning until it was later stopped.
The storey so far is about my experience with ethics and the way it was applied. My first experience was with an illiterate idiot who knew nothing about Scientology and should never have been appointed to that post. The second experience was out of fear by our captain of what Hubbard may say or do when he heard that our engines broke down. After I explained to him that there was a ridge in the cylinder that caused the ring to break he returned the chief and we fixed it and set sail, No more problem. After those first experiences we sailed around the Med and later in the Baltic and it became a joyous experience, none of this ethics nonsense.
I was later transferred to the flag ship and worked as an auditor where people were working 16 hours per day 7 days per week like slaves never taking liberty. Hubbard commented on this saying that you must take liberty, it is unhealthy not to. It later occurred to me that those in charge that kept their juniors working without liberty were rather fanatic about scientology. When I first joined the Sea Organisation the policy was that every second afternoon you were entitled to liberty but the fanatics later put a stop to that. In 1986 I resigned from Scientology when I left the Flag Land Base in disgust.
It is now 2010 and what do I see about the Sea Organisation. I have a list of thousands of individuals and groups being declared suppressive and enemies of Scientology. Many of these people I know and worked with. They are good descent people and today have their own families and I remain friends with many of them. I see enquiries around the world of families being broken up through the disconnection policy. I hear weird stories about Miscaviage attacking people and beating them up.
The truth is Scientology was never intended to be this way. It was about people helping people to lead better lives. That was the major purpose.
What I wish to do now is refer to the policy that L Ron Hubbard wrote somewhere around 1965 or 66 entitled The Anti Social Personality and state that the ONLY reason that Scientology is in so much trouble today is that persons now in leadership positions such as David Miscaviage and Norman Starkey have personality traits referred to in that policy. That policy is attached hereunder.
The Anti Social Personality
By L Ron Hubbard
There are certain characteristics and mental attitudes which cause about 20 percent of a race to oppose violently any betterment activity or group.
Such people are known to have antisocial tendencies.
When the legal or political structure of a country becomes such as to favor such personalities in positions of trust, then all the civilizing organizations of the country become suppressed and a barbarism of criminality and economic duress ensues.
Crime and criminal acts are perpetrated by antisocial personalities. Inmates of institutions commonly trace their state back to contact with such personalities.
Thus, in the fields of government, police activities and mental health, to name a few, we see that it is important to be able to detect and isolate this personality type so as to protect society and individuals from the destructive consequences attendant upon letting such have free rein to injure others.
As they only comprise 20 percent of the population and as only 2 1/2 percent are truly dangerous, we see that with a very small amount of effort we could considerably better the state of society.
Well-known, even stellar, examples of such a personality are, of course, Napoleon and Hitler. Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Christie and other famous criminals were well-known examples of the antisocial personality. But with such a cast of characters in history we neglect the less stellar examples and do not perceive that such personalities exist in current life, very common, often undetected.
When we trace the cause of a failing business, we will inevitably discover somewhere in its ranks the antisocial personality hard at work.
In families which are breaking up, we commonly find one or the other of the persons involved to have such a personality.
Where life has become rough and is failing, a careful review of the area by a trained observer will detect one or more such personalities at work.
As there are 80 percent of us trying to get along and only 20 percent trying to prevent us, our lives would be much easier to live were we well informed as to the exact manifestations of such a personality. Thus, we could detect it and save ourselves much failure and heartbreak.
