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L Ron Hubbard's abuses and violence

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
I started a thread to document the current abuses and crimes of David Miscavige and the current "Church" of scientology as these are continuing to this day and Karen #1 has done a wonderful job posting information on that.

However it started with Hubbard, and no matter the argument that he is long gone, the truth is that he is the source of the policies that are still followed and will continue to be until the whole truth is known. His attitudes, cruelty, and actions are responsible for the current and past dreadful abuses throughout scientology history and I want to bring together all the personal accounts of those who knew or were affected by them.

There is no question about the need to make Miscavige accountable for his crimes, the danger lies in thinking he alone is responsible and that suddenly all would be ok if he is removed when the original policy and attitudes remain.

I'll add to this thread tomorrow when I have time to research, meantime here are two videos from Hana Whitfield with her personal experience of Hubbard and how he treated staff.



(Background info first, stories start appox 7:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wGwsbwqNb8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys_X42lMoNw&feature=related
 

Demented LRH

Patron Meritorious
I read somewhere that Hubabrd threw a Sea Org member overboard, that person's name was Joos. Being a good swimmer, Joos survived the fall.
 

Markus

Silver Meritorious Patron
I started a thread to document the current abuses and crimes of David Miscavige and the current "Church" of scientology as these are continuing to this day and Karen #1 has done a wonderful job posting information on that.

However it started with Hubbard, and no matter the argument that he is long gone, the truth is that he is the source of the policies that are still followed and will continue to be until the whole truth is known. His attitudes, cruelty, and actions are responsible for the current and past dreadful abuses throughout scientology history and I want to bring together all the personal accounts of those who knew or were affected by them.

There is no question about the need to make Miscavige accountable for his crimes, the danger lies in thinking he alone is responsible and that suddenly all would be ok if he is removed when the original policy and attitudes remain.

I'll add to this thread tomorrow when I have time to research, meantime here are two videos from Hana Whitfield with her personal experience of Hubbard and how he treated staff.



(Background info first, stories start appox 7:00)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wGwsbwqNb8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys_X42lMoNw&feature=related

Thank you for starting this thread FTS :thumbsup:

I met Hana at a symposium about Scientology in 2010 in Hamburg. She is a wonderful handsome and honest person. The interview which you posted above was recorded after the symposium. Here is her speech from the symposium which in my opinion is even more powerful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qd00GtwXcYQ


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmF9Tpqqw_U


Love
Markus
 

Markus

Silver Meritorious Patron
It were the insane ideas and writings of Mr. Hubbard which caused the horror story of my family in and in contact with the Church of Scientology. The following quotation is from my thread "My family in Scientology: child neglect, fraud, slave work, trafficking, imprisonment, medical malpractice, espionage within the family, taking away human rights." :

"I will dedicate this to you Mama because you had to watch helpless when this criminal organization robbed your son Uwe 16 years young in 1979 and convinced him to join the Sea Org by telling him countless lies, because your beloved eldest son disappeared into a black hole then, because they told you a thousand lies about the circumstances of his life, because you had to watch powerless when you finally found out in 2002 that he was suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, because they did not give you a chance to help him with proper medicine. It broke your heart one last time in your life so inconceivable hard to watch Uwe how he perished in the RPF with his illness without being able to help him.
You died in March 2004 - 18 months after you were informed about Uwes bad condition and his illness. The fact that Uwe was suffering since 1988 was hidden from you. I had to travel to California in 2010 in order to get hold of Uwes medical files to find out that fact. So they lied to you until the last days of your much too short life.
The written orders of L. Ron Hubbard caused these insane brainwashed people at the international headquarters of the Church of Scientology near Hemet and in Los Angeles to lie and hide the facts from you. Hubbard created these orders with the obvious intention to enslave his followers and he found a mean and criminal way to even hack their souls with brainwashing methods."



You will find the whole story here: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...ect-fraud-slave-work-trafficking-imprisonment

Love
Markus
 

uniquemand

Unbeliever
While Hubbard can be blamed for what he wrote and did, the people who executed his orders and continue to do so, today, are just as responsible for the abuses and fraud that continue in Hubbard's and Scientology's name.

Their efforts to move responsibility to Hubbard, or Miscavige, or anyone else are a refusal to look at their own responsibility, at their own interpretations and actions as compared to their own moral compass. Instead, they compare their actions to policy and "group mores". This is the same sort of thing that led Nazis to commit despicable acts and then blame them on their superior's orders, or on Hitler. It's the same issue that got exposed in the Stanford Prison Experiments. It happens in Basic Training (Army or other service branches, too), where people cease being responsible for their own actions, and instead snap to the orders of others without consulting their own sense of right and wrong.

The major difference between a Scientologist who follows orders rather than following their conscience and a Nazi is the title they give themselves.
 

Veda

Sponsor
The first interview on the below video is of Hana Eltringham:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhULw6qarW4

In a post on ESMB, Alan Walter, Mission holder and student on the original Class VIII course, remembered an incident on the ship involving Julia Salmon. It's at the bottom.

John McMaster, from a 1985 interview:

"He [Hubbard] got the technology to the point where he had a sort of assembly line as he called it. And he told me how 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'."

The following is provided for any lurkers, who might be wondering where the cruelty in Scientology originated:

First, an excerpt from Russell Miller's interview of David Mayo, Class XII, from August 1986.

This excerpt concerns events from the late 1960s:

"He [Hubbard] could be capable of incredible cruelty. On the ship there was an old man on the Royal Scotman who he made push a peanut round the decks with his nose. He had to get down on his hands and knees, he had to go round the deck, quite a long distance in a race with one or two others also in trouble. The first one back got let off and the last one got a double penalty.

"It was really tough on this old guy, Charlie Reisdorf. The surface of the deck was very rough wood, prone to splinter, so after pushing peanuts with their noses, they all had raw, bleeding noses, leaving a trail of blood behind them. I not only saw it but the entire crew of the ship was mustered - a mandatory attendance - we were required to watch this punishment, to make an example of it for the rest of us. Reisdorf was in his late 50s probably. His two daughters were messengers, they were 11 or 12 at time and his wife was there also.

"It was hard to say which was worse to watch: this old guy with a bleeding nose or his wife and kids sobbing and crying at being forced to watch this. Hubbard was standing there calling the shots, yelling, 'Faster, Faster!'. It was indignity, degradation and breaking a person's will, and making people watch. It was disgusting...

"They used to have people locked in the chain locker, including small children. It was very dangerous because if the anchor started to slip and started running out, it would probably turn a body into a pulp in no time at all...

"He [LRH] had a birthday party on March 13, 1968; there was a woman who he ordered locked in the chain locker. During the party he had brought her out. She was filthy, covered with dirt and rust, and had not been allowed to wash or change clothes - she had been in there for a week... he brought her out to the party. He said he was giving her a reprieve and permitting her to come to the party, as if that was a nice gesture. She wasn't allowed to change. She was brought to the party and had to stay, and later was returned [to the chain locker]... it was flaunting her degradation...

"Why did people stand by?...

"From time to time, Hubbard would cancel such activities like the chain locker, and blame it on someone else... He would start such pronouncements with, 'It has just come to my attention...'

"The length of time for children would vary, but no one was less than a day...

"Reisdorf [peanut pushing] affair - if someone tried to do something, it would have made it worse. Hubbard said that maritime law prevailed... He said that under maritime law, he had total power over everyone on the vessel..."


And one brief excerpt concerning events from the late 1970s:

"He told me he was obsessed with an insatiable lust for power and money. He said it very emphatically. He thought it wasn't possible to get enough. He didn't say it as if it was a fault, just his frustration that he couldn't get enough."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_w-YWwC1lI

And this from Alan Walter, from a 2007 post:

"...there was one stuck picture that would not go away. Behind it was at that time an unthinkable thought.

"Ron had Julia Salmon thrown overboard... Julia was... terribly overweight, and could not swim.

"The people who threw her overboard struggled to get her over the side; she was terrified; she kept crying out "I cannot swim!" On her way down she hit the side of the ship - I could hear her screams - it was obvious she was injured and drowning.

"The people on the deck all stood around too afraid to do anything. Fearing to originate any action less the become the target of LRHs displeasure.

"I ran and jumped over the side and rescued her. I then pulled her over to the ladder that led up to the ground level of the dock........it was about 20 feet straight up. She could not climb the steps. I had my shoulders under her butt pushing her up..... no one still had come to help.......but at the top of that ladder stood LRH filming us.....such evil.......


"Anyway after an immense struggle with Julia's help I was able to push her up to the top of the ladder....finally some help arrived.

"Over the years the unthinkable thought pushed forward more and more....it was 'that I observe that LRH was demonic at that time'. I did not want to know that, did not want to believe that.......that was too incredible to be believed - even for me - I did the usual make nothing of myself....'you're seeing things' 'what do you know' 'you've got overts' - much easier to blame self than confront what is..."


Perhaps the worst abuse by Hubbard, and Hubbard's Scientology, was psychological abuse, especially when inflicted "gradiently" and mixed with "wins" that (the person believes) will ensure his, and Mankind's, survival and well being for the next endless trillions. This abuse was preceded by DECEPTION, and deception, while not abuse, in and of itself, is an essential ingredient in the Scientology "mix."

To keep a person glued to Scientology it's necessary to maintain the proper ratio of - to put it simply - "positives and negatives." Currently, Scientology's dictator Miscavige is not doing so, having added too much lacquer to the lacquer&solvent mixture to produce an effective glue.
 

Veda

Sponsor
Nazis

Hitler

Nazi

Huh? This thread is mainly a description of doctrine and events, not about how we should all come up to present time and be responsible, etc. We already are in present time and already are responsible. Thanks anyway.
 

Captain Koolaid

Patron Meritorious
Hubbard could be so cruel because he didn't regard other people as human beings. They were tools to be used and exploited for his personal gain. Hubbard was a narcicist and a sociopath, and a sadistic motherfucker as well. Those people have no compassion, no guilt and no remorse. As I said in an earlier post: If people like Hubbard gain real power, it always ends in war, terror and genocide.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
From Dart Smohen

Hubbard didn't like it when you shone.
The one thing Hubbard could not stand was if someone displayed abilities or was successful to a point where they "dimmed his own light"

In about 1966, Beth Fordyce submitted a report on her use of "Book of Case Remedies". This was highly acclaimed, Hubbard awarded her a Doctorate of Scientology and there was a front page spread all about her in the Auditor issue. Beth worked at a E.US org and her fame grew as she was acknowledged far and wide.

Hubbard was clearly upset by all this praise for her and set about undermining her and destroying her reputation. Within a couple of years she was a declared SP.

John MacMaster, the first Clear, was hailed everywhere he went. He enthralled and inspired audiences all over the world. He was a huge Scientology celebrity. Hubbard saw him as a threat to his own "aura" and set about destroying him. He was, of course, declared SP.

Most of the Sea Project crew in 1967 were far more able and spiritually aware than Hubbard was, especially as he was handicapped by the wide array of druge he was taking. His answer was to disband the Sea Project.

Later on, people such as Alan Walter, Carl Barney, Dean Stokes and others had set up multiple missions that brought in the bulk of Scientology's income. At one time, over one third of all the public at St Hill came from Alan's centres. Once ASHO was set up, it was the same there.

What happened? They were systematically got rid of and their missions stolen from them. They are no longer a part of that group.

What about the first 1,000 clears? How many of them are still in the cult? Probably no more than a small handfull. Again, if they became too bright and successful they got chopped, one way or the other. Those left in the cult are probably "low wattage" anyway.

Bill Robertson was the finest missionaire we had. He had presence and charisma. He had a position and spoke with authority. We know what happened to him.

Otto Roos was a top auditor and exec for many years. He did a study of Hubbard's folders and compiled a list of "Rock Slams". He was screamed at, abused and thrown off the ship.

In later years he became a successful businessman, He ruefully said one day that if he had called them "Special Reads", he might still be in the cult (Boy, does fate have a way of saving your ass)

I have seen MANY good, decent and successful people be broken down by the cult regimes.

There seems to be an underlaying equation; If we cannot have anything, then why should you.

This was a mindset that Hubbard engineered in place. Do not let anyone rise above the dross. That way only he can he adored and venerated.

It was amusing to think back to scenes in the Registrar's office where a couple of execs and the reg, who didn't have two pennies between them to scratch their arses with, hypocritically hectoring some poor schmuck because he would not sell his house, give his money to the cult and join staff.

There are many, many others who have been destroyed by Hubbard and his goons. Perhaps you might know of some and tell their story too. http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?4104-Hubbard-didn-t-like-it-when-you-shone.

Alan Walter

In '63 he started going more and more to the negative or darkside.

As time wore on you could observe him "flipping" from one side or the other and ranging from the most powerful top identity opposing powerful opterms to the bottom type drug/alcohol addicted identities opposing victim type identities.

I was too naive in those days to fully observe this........but I did observe some of it.

When he was just being himself - he was incredible, brilliant, huge, warm, fun, joyful and incredibly adventurous. Alas that was rare.

The whole thing was very confusing.....apparently I tended to put him in the power identities......but that too was a trap - as soon as you walked way he would "flip" and begin to unmock you.

Very complex - the best and worse of man.

Brilliant and brilliantly stupid!

Alan http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?4104-Hubbard-didn-t-like-it-when-you-shone.


Hubbard's attitude to the crew had begun to change. He became more controlling. heavier ethics punishments, more degrading work for them to do, a ban on casual relationships (it never stopped it happening), a more driven targeting for all the orgs and an increase in our own undercover programs.

The telex traffic between MSH and Jane Kember, Guardian, was obviously being monitored. A series of disinformation telexes used to be transmitted back and forth. In the title numbering sequence, if the letter "X" appeared, then it was a spoof message designed to mislead those monitoring our traffic. Missions were sent out with clear criminal intent. The justification was always that it was for the greatest good of the greatest number and that we were dealing with SP groups, so our cause was just. One of these missions was to break into the WHO Headquarters in Switzerland and copy any documents pertaining to Scn. I will not name the missionaires. (See thread; Crimes we have committed). All of this behaviour was a preamble to the subsequent Operation Snow White episodes.

Hubbard became more and more vicious with the staff, there were people put in the chain locker, people sent up the mast for hours, heavy liability conditions, comev's and a sadistic approach to punishment. Hubbard used to record the overboard ceremonies on his cine camera which was set up on a tripod on the aft A deck. His face became contorted with glee as people went over the side.

His behaviour was becoming more and more polarised. One minute he would be all charm and smiles and instantly switch into fury and hatred.

Yet at night time we could sit and talk for hours. He was very perceptive and could tell if you were not being totally open with him. Then he would smile and punish you hard. It was during these talks that Hubbard opened up about his long term plans. He wanted to return to the USA. That was where the Scn boom was taking place. http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?5750-CORFU&p=90933&viewfull=1#post90933
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
From A Piece of Blue Sky by Jon Atack


In 1968, Hubbard's Ethics was put into action with the chain-locker punishment. A chain-locker is "a dark hole where the anchor chains are stored; cold, wet and rats," to quote one ex-Sea Org officer. The lockers are below the steering in the bowels of the ship. A tiny manhole gives access, and they are unlit. When a crew member was in a low enough Ethics Condition, he or she would be put in a chainlocker for up to two weeks.

John McMaster says a small child, perhaps five years old, was once consigned to a chain-locker. He says she was a deaf mute, and that Hubbard had assigned her an Ethics condition for which the formula is "Find out who you really are." She was not to leave the chain locker until she completed the formula by writing her name. McMaster says Hubbard came to him late one night in some distress, and asked him to let the child out. He did, cursing Hubbard the while. Another witness claims that a three-year-old was once put in the locker.

Another Ethics Condition had the miscreant put into "old rusty tanks, way below the ship, with filthy bilge water, no air, and hardly sitting height... for anything from twenty-four hours to a week... getting their oxygen via tubes, and with Masters-at-Arms [Ethics Officers] checking outside to hear if the hammering continued. Food was occasionally given in buckets," according to a former Sea Org executive.


The miscreants were kept awake, often for days on end. They ate from the communal food bucket with their blistered and filthy hands. They chipped away at the rust unceasingly. As another witness has tactfully put it, "there were no bathroom facilities." While these "penances" were being doled out, the first "overboard" occurred. The ships were docked in Melilla, Morocco, in May 1968. One of the ship's executives was ashore and noticed that the hawsers holding the Scotman and the Avon River were crossed. He undid a hawser, and found himself grappling with the full mass of an unrestrained ship as it drifted away from the dock.

Mary Sue Hubbard ordered that the officer be hurled from the deck. There was a tremendous crash as he hit the water. Ships have a "rubbing strake" beneath the waterline to keep other ships at bay in a collision. The overboarded officer had hit the steel rubbing strake! The crew peered anxiously over the side waiting for the corpse to float to the surface.

The bedraggled officer was surprised when he walked up the gangplank and found the crew still craning over the far side of the ship. Fortunately for Mrs. Hubbard's conscience, and the failing public repute of Scientology, the officer concerned was not only a good swimmer, but also expert at Judo. Most fortunate of all, he had seen the rubbing strake, and the explosive crash was caused when he thrust himself away as he fell. For a short time, overboarding was abandoned.

It is difficult to comprehend the stoicism with which some Scientologists suffered the Ethics Conditions. It is remarkable even to many ex-Scientologists. It is even more remarkable that most Scientologists have probably never heard of the chain-locker, bilge tank or overboarding punishments. Scientologists were used to Hubbard's auditing techniques, where they did not question the reasoning behind a set of commands, but simply answered or carried them out. Many spent their time trying to keep out of trouble, or, when trouble unavoidably came, getting out of the Ethics Condition quickly by whatever means they could.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs4-2.htm
 
Last edited:

Petey C

Silver Meritorious Patron
Good thread, FTS. And while I agree that there are thousands of SO and other staff who have committed acts of wrongdoing coldly and cruelly, there's no doubt that the source of all of these was Hubbard and the way he was able, through his Teck, to free people's barbarian impulses. Having been one myself, I still occasionally go hot with shame at some of the things I did to others.

We don't need any more tyrants in this world, the non-Scn ones we have are bad enough.
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
A Piece of Blue Sky
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs4-3.htm

overboar.jpg


In September, Hubbard announced the new Class VIII Auditor Course, in the Auditor magazine. The announcement was accompanied by a center spread of Hubbard's photographs. There is a shot of an Ethics Officer, carrying a heavy wooden baton, wearing dark glasses and full uniform, and scowling at a student who is smiling back, apprehensively. The caption reads: "No one can fool a Sea Org Ethics Officer. He knows who's ethics bait." Another shot shows a Sea Org member suspended in mid-air by two Ethics Officers, one wearing a broad grin. He is about to be thrown over the rail, into the sea. The caption reads: "Students are thrown overboard for gross out tech and bequeathed to the deep!" "Out tech" is a Hubbardism for "misapplication of Scientology auditing procedures." The editor of Auditor 41 thought the photos were a Hubbard joke. Hubbard was deadly serious. 14

Every Scientology Org was ordered to send two Auditors to be trained as "Class VIIIs." As "VIIIs" their auditing would be "flubless." The course would take three weeks, so previous Ethics procedures were of little use - they took too long to administer. Rather than languishing in the chain-locker for a week, or doing three days without sleep on "amends projects," students were to be subject to "instant Ethics," or overboarding. There is no doubt that Hubbard ordered this (one ex-Sea Org officer says Hubbard even took out his home movie camera and filmed it once or twice). 15

Scientologists who joined after 1970 are often unaware that overboarding took place. Most who have heard of it, and those who were subjected to it, dismiss it as a passing phase; unpleasant, but no longer significant. People who experienced it often shrug it off, and even insist that it was "research." It can take persistence to extract an admission of the reality of overboarding. Students and crew were lined up on deck in the early hours every morning. They waited to hear whether they were on the day's list of miscreants. Those who knew they were would remove their shoes, jackets and wristwatches in anticipation. The drop was between fifteen and forty feet, depending upon which deck was used. Sometimes people were blindfolded first, and either their feet or hands loosely tied. Non-swimmers were tied to a rope. Being hurled such a distance, blindfolded and restrained, into cold sea water, must have been terrifying. Worst of all was the fear that you would hit the side of the ship as you fell, your flesh ripped open by the barnacles. Overboarding was a very traumatic experience. 16

The course lectures too seem to have been a traumatic experience for many. Hubbard lectured from a spotlit dais, surrounded by the female Commodore's Staff Aides in flowing white gowns. The lectures were peppered with the old easygoing manner, but punctuated with tablebanging and bouts of yelling. Later, some of Hubbard's tantrums were edited from the tapes of the lectures. The lectures were "confidential," and only fully indoctrinated Scientologists could attend.

Students wore green boiler-suits, and, after a certain point on the course, added a short noose of rope around their necks as a mark of honor. They had little time for sleep, and were inevitably extremely cautious in their auditing. If they made a mistake, it was "instant Ethics," and they were heaved over the side. 17

Hubbard published the purpose of the Class VIII course: "It's up to the Auditor to become UNCOMPROMISINGLY STANDARD . . . an uncompromising zealot for Standard Tech." Sea Org "Missions" were dispatched from Corfu to all corners of the world to bully Org staffs into higher production. Hubbard pronounced that such "Missions" had "unlimited Ethics powers." 18

Alex Mitchell of the London Sunday Times reported that a woman with two children had run screaming from the ship, only to be rounded up and returned by her fellow Scientologists. The journalist also said that eight-year-old children were being overboarded:


Discipline . . . is severe. Members of the crew can be officers one day and swabbing the decks the next. Status is conferred by Boy Scout-like decoration; a white neck tie is for students, brown for petty officers, yellow for officers, and blue for Hubbard's personal staff .... Recently the crew decided to paint the water tanks. Unwilling to give the job to local contractors the Scientologists did it themselves - only to find that when they next used their taps the water was polluted with paint. 19

Kenneth Urquhart joined the ship at Corfu. From Hubbard's butler he had risen to become a senior executive at Saint Hill. He had resolutely avoided joining the Sea Org, but was finally cajoled into travelling to Corfu. He was amazed at the change in Hubbard. At Saint Hill he had seen him every day. Although Hubbard occasionally lost his temper, Urquhart had only once seen him quivering with rage. Now screaming fits were a regular feature. OT 3 and the Sea Org had transformed Hubbard.

Hubbard was interviewed by the Daily Mail, aboard the Royal Scotman, in Bizerte, Tunisia: "He chain-smoked menthol cigarettes, fidgeted nervously .... He taped the conversation .... Outside Scientologists, some in uniform and some young children, stood rigidly to attention .... Hubbard's mood ranged from the boastful - 'You'd be fascinated how many friends of mine there are in the British Government' to the menacing: 'I get intelligence reports from England. You'd be surprised at the dirty washing I have got.' " 10

Hubbard insisted he was no longer connected with Scientology, and told the reporter that everything in the Daily Mail's Scientology file was forged. He knew because he had seen it, through his "spies." Hubbard also gave a rare interview to British television, again looking nervous, and contradicted himself both on the number of his marriages, and whether or not he had a Swiss bank account. Despite his supposed discoveries about communication and public relations, Hubbard fell far short of winning over the press. 11
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
Good thread, FTS. And while I agree that there are thousands of SO and other staff who have committed acts of wrongdoing coldly and cruelly, there's no doubt that the source of all of these was Hubbard and the way he was able, through his Teck, to free people's barbarian impulses. Having been one myself, I still occasionally go hot with shame at some of the things I did to others.

We don't need any more tyrants in this world, the non-Scn ones we have are bad enough.

It's just that when reading of Miscavige's abuses, dreadful as they are, I wonder how many people know that Hubbard did it all before? More and more people are leaving and may not have found some of these accounts, hence this thread. :)
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs4-5.htm

Two Sea Org members accompanied Hubbard to New York. The three stayed in hiding for nine months. Hubbard was in poor health. Photographs taken at the time show an overweight, dishevelled man with a large growth on his forehead. Despite his supposed resignation from management in 1966, Hubbard had continued to control the affairs of his Church, usually on a daily basis. Now he had only a single telex machine. His prolific Scientological output ground almost to a halt. What little he wrote shows a preoccupation with his poor physical condition. In July, he published an exhaustive summary of approaches to ill health. He also initiated the "Snow White Program," directing his Guardian's Office to remove negative reports about Scientology from government files, and track down their source. He was convinced of the conspiracy against him, and had no qualms about breaking the law to achieve the "greatest good for the greatest number," meaning the greatest good for L. Ron Hubbard. 7

Hubbard rejoined the Apollo at Lisbon in September 1973. He had complained about the dust aboard the flagship, so the crew spent three months crawling through the ventilation shafts of the ship cleaning them with toothbrushes, while the Apollo sailed between Portuguese and Spanish ports. 10

In November, the Apollo was in Tenerife. Hubbard went for a joyride into the hills on one of his motorbikes. The bike skidded on a hairpin bend, hurling the Commodore onto the gravel. He was badly hurt, but somehow managed to walk back to the ship. He refused a doctor, and his medical orderly, Jim Dincalci, was surprised at his demands for painkillers. Hubbard turned on him, and said "You're trying to kill me." Kima Douglas took Dincalci's place. She thinks Hubbard had broken an arm and three ribs, but could not get close enough to find out. With Hubbard strapped into his chair, the Apollo put to sea, encountering a Force 5 gale. The Commodore screamed in agony, and the screaming did not stop for six weeks. 11

In Douglas' words: "He was revolting to be with - a sick, crotchety, pissed-off old man, extremely antagonistic to everything and everyone. His wife was often in tears and he'd scream at her at the top of his lungs, 'Get out of here!' Nothing was right. He'd throw his food across the room with his good arm; I'd often see plates splat against the bulkhead .... He absolutely refused to see another doctor. He said they were all fools and would only make him worse. The truth was that he was terrified of doctors and that's why everyone had to be put through such hell

Life in the Sea Org was already fairly gruelling, but the Rehabilitation Project Force went several steps further. Gerry Armstrong, who spent over two years on the RPF, has given this description:

It was essentially a prison to which crew who were considered nonproducers, security risks, or just wanted to leave the Sea Org, were assigned. Hubbard's RPF policies established the conditions. RPF members were segregated and not allowed to communicate to anyone else. They had their own spaces and were not allowed in normal crew areas of the ship. They ate after normal crew had eaten, and only whatever was left over from the crew meal. Their berthing was the worst on board, in a roach-infested, filthy and unventilated cargo hold. They wore black boilersuits, even in the hottest weather. They were required to run everywhere. Discipline was harsh and bizarre, with running laps of the ship assigned for the slightest infraction like failing to address a senior with "Sir." Work was hard and the schedule rigid with seven hours sleep time from lights out to lights on, short meal breaks, no liberties and no free time...

When one young woman ordered into the RPF took the assignment too lightly, Hubbard created the RPF's RPF and assigned her to it, an even more degrading experience, cut off even from the RPF, kept under guard, forced to clean the ship's bilges, and allowed even less sleep. 12

Others verify Armstrong's account. The RPF rapidly swelled to include anyone who had incurred Hubbard's disfavor. Soon about 150 people, almost a third of the Apollo's complement, were being rehabilitated. This careful imitation of techniques long-used by the military to obtain unquestioning obedience and immediate compliance to orders, or more simply to break men's spirits, was all part of a ritual of humiliation for the Sea Org member.

The story of Messenger Tonja Burden is compelling. Her parents were enthusiastic Scientologists, and encouraged their daughter to join the Sea Org in March 1973, when she was only thirteen. A few months later, she was separated from them and sent to the Apollo. In September, her parents left the Sea Organization, and Scientology. Tonja remained in the custody of the Sea Org. Legally she was beyond their reach, on a Panamanian vessel far from U.S. waters. She was told that her father had been declared Suppressive. Nonetheless, she wanted to go home, and tried to persuade her seniors that she could convince her parents to rejoin Scientology. She says she was told to Disconnect, which "meant no more communication with my parents. They told me that my parents would not make it in the world, but that I would make it in the world."

She was assigned to "Training Routines" to teach her the duties of a Commodore's Messenger:

During the Training Routines, myself and two 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. Eventually, I 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 the office to check it, hoping it passed "white-glove" inspection [if their was the slightest mark on a white glove run over a surface, the whole area would have to be recleaned]. He frequently exploded if he found dust or din or smelled soap in his clothes. That is why we used 13 buckets to rinse ....

While on the Apollo, I observed numerous punishments meted out for many minor infractions or mistakes made in connection with Hubbard's very strict and bizarre policies. On a number of occasions, I saw people placed in the "chain lockers" of the boat on direct orders of Hubbard. These lockers were small, smelly holes, covered by grates, where the chain for the anchor was stored. I saw one boy held in there for thirty nights, crying and begging to be released. He was only allowed out to clean the bilges where the sewer and refuse of the ship collected. I believe his "crimes" were taking or using a musical instrument, I believe a flute, of someone else [sic] without permission.
 
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Free to shine

Shiny & Free
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs6-1.htm

The Commodore would explode into furious tantrums. According to Adell, "I actually saw him take his hat off one day and stomp on it and cry like a baby. I have seen him just take his arm... and throw it wild and hit girls in the face .... One girl would follow him with a chair. If he sat down, that chair had to be right where he was going to sit. One girl missed by a few inches; he fell off of it, and she was put in the RPF."

The crew was kept under intense and constant pressure. Even Hubbard's cook would work from six in the morning to ten at night simply to prepare three meals to the Commodore's satisfaction. Hubbard frequently complained that the crew was overspending. At one time they had to use pages from phone directories for toilet paper, because of the supposed extravagance. Conditions were dreadful even for the crew who were in "good standing," but for those on the Rehabilitation Project Force conditions were well nigh impossible. RPFers kept their few clothes in boxes, and slept on mattresses thrown out in the open through the few daylight hours allotted to them.

Adell's teenage daughter was put on the RPF, and Adell was traumatized when she was not even allowed to talk to her: "I would see her dragging her mattress from one shade tree to another. I said, 'Why are you doing this?' And she was ill and she couldn't be in with the others, and so she was hunting shade . . . it's 117 degrees."

A good summation: The Founder
 

Veda

Sponsor
A hodgepodge of quotes, roughly in chronological order:

From L. Ron Hubbard's 'Excalibur' letter of 1938:

"Living is a pretty grim joke, but a joke just the same. The entire function of man is to survive. Not for 'what' but just to survive... I turned the thing up [the 'dynamic principle of existence: Survive!'], so it's up to me to survive in a big way.

"Personal immortality is only to be gained through the printed word, barred note, or painted canvas or hard granite [or stainless steel]. Foolishly perhaps, but determined none the less, have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form ...

"It's a pretty big job. In a hundred years Roosevelt will have been forgotten - which gives some idea of the magnitude of my attempt...

"I can make Napoleon look like a punk."

From Hubbard's 'Affirmations' of 1946:

"You are just and kind. [but] You are merciless to any who cross your rule...

"You can be merciless when your will is crossed and have the right to be merciless.

"Your writing has a deep hypnotic effect on people and they are always pleased with what you write...

"Your psychology is advanced and true and wonderful. It hypnotizes people. It predicts their emotions, for you are their ruler..."

In October 1950, Dr. J.A. Winter, who had written the 'Introduction' to 'Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health', resigned in protest from the Hubbard Dianetic Foundation. He described the ideals presented by Hubbard as "lip service."

In March of 1951, John Campbell, publisher of 'Astounding Science Fiction', also resigned in protest against the "cult" of Dianetics.

Meanwhile, Hubbard was busy writing letters to the FBI describing many of his former Dianetic associates as communists and communist sympathizers.

Hubbard's letters to the FBI would continue for years. In 1955, he wrote that he had received a lucrative secret offer from the KGB to travel to Russia and work for the Russians but had turned it down. Finally, the notation, "Appears mental," was affixed to the file containing his many letters.

Six months earlier, Hubbard had written 'The Manual on Dissemination of Material' which instructed Scientologists to "NEVER PERMIT" (capitalization in original) Scientology to be "talked about contemptuously before a group," and to use the legal system and law suits to harass and, if possible, "ruin utterly."

A few months before that, Hubbard implemented what he called his "religion angle" and made Scientology a "Church." Around the same time Hubbard wrote the faux 'Creed of the Church'.

Four years earlier, Hubbard had written, in 'Science of Survival', of how those low on the "tone scale" (placement on the "scale" being easily determined by the person's reaction to Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology), should be, if they cannot be handled into thinking favorably of Dianetics, etc., "disposed of quietly and without sorrow." This was the early version of "handle or disconnect" from "SPs" that later became formal practice.

Here are some observations from some who knew L. Ron Hubbard. Excerpted from the book 'Messiah or Madman?', from interviews done in 1985/1986, regarding Hubbard's "charm":

From Sara Northrup, 2nd wife of L. Ron Hubbard, describing the early 1950s:

"He was capable of being extremely charming. He would turn on the charm in front of someone, and when he or she left, he'd go into a vitriolic tirade about the person he had just been charming to death."

From old timer Jack Horner describing the 1950s:

"He could emanate pure affinity, just engulf you in it. Of course, he wasn't sincere, but it was sure convincing to a lot of people. He had that ability: people would go into see him with a disagreement, and then they'd completely forget what the hell it was."

From L. Ron Hubbard Jr., of the 1950s:

"I've seen people charge into his office mad as hornets and come out a minute later pleased as punch."

From John McMaster, the "world's first real clear," re, the early 1960s:

"Hubbard used affinity to manipulate people..."

In 1951, Polly, Hubbard's first wife, wrote this letter to Hubbard's 2nd wife, Sara (From court records):

"Sara-

"If I can help in any way, I'd like to - You must get Alexis [Hubbard's daughter by Sara] in your custody - Ron is not normal. I had hoped that you could straighten him out. Your charges probably sound fantastic to the average person - but I've been through it - the beatings, threats on my life, all the sadistic traits you charge - twelve years of it. I haven't asked for anything, but with all the money rolling in from 'Dianetics' I had hoped to get enough for plastic surgery for Kay's [Ron Jr.'s younger sister] birthmark - Please believe I do want you to get Alexis."


And from the 12 February 1967 Policy Letter 'Admin Know-How, the Responsibility of Leaders' -a.k.a. The Bolivar Policy Letter - on the topic of how a subordinate should relate to his "power":

"[The power asks] 'What are those dead bodies doing at the door'. And if you [the subordinate] are clever, you never let it be known HE [the power] killed them - that weakens you and also hurts the power source. 'Well, boss about all those dead bodies, nobody at all will suppose you did it. [I]She[/I] over there, those pink legs sticking out, didn't like me'. 'Well', he'll say if he really is a power, 'Why are you bothering me with it if it's done and you did it. Where's my blue ink?...

"...always push power in the direction of anyone on whose power you depend. It may be more money for the power, or more ease, or a snarling defense of the power to the critic, or even the dull thud of one of his enemies in the dark, or the glorious blaze of a whole enemy camp as a birthday surprise..."

And from 1969:

"I can make Captain Bligh look like a Sunday School teacher.", 'Discipline, SPs, and Admin'.

And there's much more.
 

Ogsonofgroo

Crusader
Awesome job compiling this Freets! and putting things in a nice, understandable, package.

I find it a bit diffiCULT to comprhend why so many, especially the ex's who are 'Freezoneers', keep insisting that its the current management that is all messed up, nothing could be further from the truth.
Assured that its still a pile of donkey-droppings, but it began with the old windbag himself, demented, greedy, bloated, drug-fueled, crazy person.

I really like that some of the ex's are putting these posts together in loosly on-topic bundles, good on yu all and don't stop!

:cheers: & :heartflower:
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
From Bare Faced Messiah
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/atack/bs9-1.htm

Beset by traitors and incompetents, Hubbard felt obliged to introduce new punishments for erring Sea Org personnel. Depending on his whim, offenders were either confined in the dark in the chain locker and given food in a bucket, or assigned to chip paint in the bilge tanks for twenty-four or forty-eight hours without a break. A third variation presented itself when Otto Roos, a young Dutchman, dropped one of the bow-lines while the Royal Scotman was being moved along the dock. Purple with rage, Hubbard ordered Roos to be thrown overboard.

No one questioned the Commodore's orders. Two crew members promptly grabbed the Dutchman and threw him over the side. There was an enormous splash when he hit the water, a moment of horror when it seemed that he had disappeared and nervous speculation that he might have hit the rubbing strake as he fell. But Roos was a good swimmer and when he climbed back up the gangplank, dripping wet, he was surprised to find the crew still craning anxiously over the rails on the other side of the ship.

'It was not really possible to question what was going on,' explained David Mayo, a New Zealander and a long-time member of the Sea Org, 'because you were never sure who you could really trust. To question anything Hubbard did or said was an offense and you never knew if you would be reported. Most of the crew were afraid that if they expressed any disagreement with what was going on they would be kicked out of Scientology. That was something absolutely untenable to most people, something you never wanted to consider. That was much more terrifying than anything that might happen to you in the Sea Org.

'We tried not to think too hard about his behaviour. It was not rational much of the time, but to even consider such a thing was a discreditable thought and you couldn't allow yourself to have a discreditable thought. One of the questions in a sec-check was, "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.'[5]
 

Free to shine

Shiny & Free
Another account of overboarding from Bare Faced Messiah
http://www.xenu.net/archive/books/bfm/bfm17.htm

Next morning, at the regular muster on the aft well deck, two names were called out. As the students stepped forward, Sea Org officers grabbed them by their arms and legs and threw them over the side of the ship while the rest of the group looked on in amazement and horror. Hubbard, Mary Sue and their sixteen-year-old daughter Diana, all in uniform, watched the ceremony from the promenade deck. The two 'overboards' swam round the ship, climbed stone steps on to the quayside and squelched back up the ship's gangplank, gasping for breath. At the top, they were required to salute and ask for permission to return on board.

'Overboarding' was thereafter a daily ritual. The names of those who were to be thrown overboard were posted on the orders of the day and when the master-at-arms walked through the ship at six o'clock every morning banging on cabin doors and shouting 'Muster on the well deck, muster on the well deck!' everyone knew what was going to happen. 'Anyone to be thrown overboard would be called to the front,' said Ken Urquhart, 'and the chaplain would make some incantation about water washing away sins and then they would be picked up and tossed over. People accepted it because we all had a tremendous belief that what Ron was doing would benefit the world. He was our leader and knew best.'[9]

'I thought it was terrible, inhumane and barbaric,' said Hana Eltringham. 'Some of the people on the course were middle-aged women. Julia Salmon, the continental head of the LA org, was fifty-five years old and in poor health and she was thrown overboard. She hit the water sobbing and screaming. LRH enjoyed it, without a doubt. Sometimes I heard him making jokes about it. Those were the moments when I came closest to asking myself what I was doing there. But I always justified it by telling myself that he must know what he was doing and that it was all for the greater good.'
 

Gadfly

Crusader
Just to make it clear.

Hubbard is the SOURCE of the ideas that Scientololgy, the Sea Org and the organization are "based upon". They are based on these closely and exactly, just as Hubbard intended. He is fully responsible for the creation and all resultant activities of that which HE set into motion.

And, any person who accepts the ideas, think with them, runs with them, and "applies" them are aso fully responsible for what they do with those ideas NOW.

Without Hubbard there would not be the ideas nor the organization that various idiots could participate with and contribute to. He is fully responsible for it. Without him there would be NOTHING in terms of Scientology. All of these mindless followers would have instead found some other "absolutist", simplistic, tightly boxed-in, and fanatical system to attach themselves to.

Without the true-believing followers who devotedly and avidly accept and follow his statements, orders, plans, ideas and "command intention", there would also be no Scientology. These people are also fully responsible.

It isn't one or the other. Hubbard and the followers are EACH fully responsible for perpetrating the scam.

Miscavige is actually just another "follower", who in his unique case also "wears the hat" as the dictator of Scientology, just as did Hubbard.

Hubbard and the followers are two sides of the same coin. Without the other, the whole thing would/could not exist.

It is incorrect to try to portray one or the other as "the sole cause" or the "primary cause" of the bullshit known as Scientology.
 
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