I've only attended a few Scientology events and, as best I can recall, no El Ron B'day Parties. The first event I attended was in November 1970. It was billed as a "Special - just from the Flagship with LRH - Briefing."
There was a room full of non-Sea Org Public and one Apollo Flagship rep. The rep. told some stories from the ship, etc., and then explained to the audience that "Earth was a prison, populated by either criminals or geniuses."
Everyone, furtively, looked around to judge the other person in regard to which category he/she belonged. An awkward moment.
By that time, I had already done the (old) Comm Course and the H.Q.S. course, and was planning at working at a summer job to save up enough money to do the Academy levels (audit, co-audit, etc.). I was also reading Hubbard's books, my favorite being the (now out of print) 'Phoenix Lectures'.
At the intermission of this "Special Briefing from Flag," Carla Bazin (spelling?) tried to recruit me into the Sea Org. She had me fill out a Sea Org application form, up to the very last line, where I was to place my signature, agreeing to the billion year contract.
She was persistent in trying to get me to sign that line, and when I responded, with my pantie-waisted dilettante Comm-Course-graduate TRs of "Thank you," and "OK," and refused to sign, she responded with an angry, "Don't use that bullshit on me!" That left an impression, which remained in the back of my mind, an impression which I did my best to deny and ignore for quite a while.
Thinking back, that probably "inoculated" me as much as anything else around at that time, more than reading 'anti-Scientology' books (such as Robert Kaufman's 'Inside Scientology'), more than having smoked pot or having taken LSD, and LSD had not yet been made a dis-qualifier for the Sea Org.
So I stayed a "public" throughout my Scientology experience, and was happily oblivious to many of the abuses for some years. Then, realizing that there was only one me but lots of other people, I began to examine more thoroughly the effect of Scientology on others, and thus began my journey out of Scientology.
I never did thank Carla, the "Don't use that bullshit on me!" Sea Org lady, for the inoculation she unintentionally gave me on that day long ago.
As for regging at that 1970 event, I saw none. However, as I was soon to find out - once the Org realized that I had a little money and was a 'prospect' - there was definitely regging, and very aggressive, relentless, 'unreasonable' regging.
Hubbard's Hard Sell tech was going strong by 1970.
However the mental-healing (disguise) layer was much thicker and more robust then. It was easier to be a naive well-meaning dupe for Scientology in 1970 than it is in 2014.
Then, it seemed as though there was always a new OT level being released, and the mysterious 'Ls' were soon to appear, and who knew? It would be almost another decade before the 1977 FBI raids and not until 1979 that the first wave of damning evidence from that raid became available.
It was during the 1980s that so much previously hidden information re. Hubbard and Scientology became available. It still amazes me that Scientology did not fizzle and disappear by the late 1980s. It should have.
However, as Hubbard noted in his 'Bolivar' PL, once a 'juggernaut' is in place, it's hard to stop. It may not go anywhere, but it keeps going in circles and vibrating. Thirty years of intensive well disguised brainwashing doesn't just disappear overnight.
Now that Scientology has passed through its 'do' phase into its 'have' phase, with no more new OT levels to sell, and only the same tech to sell - endlessly repackaged, over and over again - and now that Scientology has tax exempt status, it has no choice but to concentrate on the basic objective in the first place, circa 1938, and that's to build monuments to Hubbard, and, of course, to get money.