Scientology

                            
“I'd like to start a religion. That's where the money is.”  L Ron Hubbard       

The Church of Scientology began in the year 1953 and is one of the world's newest religions.  In this essay I will address three questions: Who was L Ron Hubbard?  What is the doctrine of Scientology?  How does Scientology qualify as a religion?

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born on March 13, 1911 in the town of Tilden, Nebraska and died on January 24, 1986. His nickname growing up was “Flash,” but later in life he was referred to by his initials “LRH.” Since his father was an US naval officer he moved frequently and traveled extensively in Asia and the South Pacific.   

Hubbard was admitted to George Washington University in September 1930 to study Civil Engineering.  He later claimed to have followed a course of study in nuclear physics graduating with a degree in engineering. He was a very poor student and received grades of mostly “Ds” and “Fs” except for English and physical education. His official George Washington University record indicates that he flunked out in September 1931 and never earned a degree.

Growing up LRH was an avid adventurist.  He joined The Explorer's Club in 1940 and was involved in a number of adventures including an expedition to the Aleutian Islands attempting to update the Coast Guard Pilot guide to the coast lines of Alaska. He even claimed to have once roped a Kodiak bear. He was known for telling “tall tales” and was described as someone with an “incorrigible ability to float above the evidence,” a talent that would serve him well as a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy stories.

The Church of Scientology has a completely different story about just about every aspect of Hubbard's life story.  They argue that all the records that are in conflict with their version of his life are forgeries or in their words, they have been “sheep-dipped.” His military record is just another example of conflicting life histories.  According to the Church Hubbard was a war hero and suffered combat injuries including blindness and near total paralysis.

He was commissioned as a Lieutenant (junior grade)  in the US Navy on July 19, 1941.  He briefly commanded an antisubmarine ship in the coastal waters off Oregon and California where he claimed he disabled or sunk two Japanese submarines in May 1943.  A Navy investigation could not find any evidence that any submarine had been destroyed.  Hubbard was relieved of his command when he conducted unauthorized gunnery practice off the coast of Coronado Island.  According to the Navy he was “lacking the essential qualities of judgment, leadership and cooperation.”  The Church claims that he received military medals that were not even in existence during the time he served in the military.

While serving in the navy, LRH met Commander Joseph C. “Snake” Thompson a polymath and medical officer who exercised a tremendous influence over him. It was from him that he picked up the ideas that “If it's not true for you, it's not true,” and “Psychiatry is the sole cause of decline in this universe.”  Thompson also introduced Hubbard to the study of Freudian psychoanalysis and criticized the American psychoanalytic establishment for straying too far from Freud.

Some time after he left the Navy in August 1945, Hubbard moved to Pasadena and into the mansion of John Whiteside Parsons a leading rocket propulsion researcher at the California Institute of Technology and a founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  Parsons led a double life as a scientist and an avid occultist. He was a follower of the English magician Aleister Crowley.  Parsons would only rent rooms in his house to “atheists and those of a Bohemian disposition.”  Hubbard fit in easily with his fellow occultists.  Not surprisingly, Church accounts do not mention his occult experiences.   

From an early age LRH always wanted to be a writer. He spent most of the years from 1930 to 1940 writing pulp fiction. He was paid one penny per word and since he could easily produce 100,000 words a year, he earned a reasonable income.  His pulps were displayed on news stands along side of comic books.  He created fantastic adventures and larger-than-life heroes. For an example, The Ultimate Adventure was published in April 1939 and sold for twenty cents. Writers such as Dashiell Hammett and Robert Heinlein graduated from writing pot boilers to become respected authors. Hubbard chose to use his skills to write, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health which was published on May 9, 1950.  It was a runaway best seller and was on the New York Times bestseller list for twenty-eight weeks and went on to sell more than eighteen million copies. It ushered in the era of self-help books that are still popular to this day.

Dianetics is purported to be a scientific method of eliminating the harmful forces preventing people from leading healthy, spiritual, and productive lives.  The core of the principle is the idea that experiences beginning from the moment of conception are recorded in the mind.  Hubbard named these recordings engrams which he defined as “a mental image picture which is a recording of an experience containing pain, unconsciousness and a real or fancied threat to survival.”

According to Dianetics these destructive emotions can be removed by a process called “auditing.” Hubbard claimed that he used Dianetics to cure his own blindness and paralysis resulting from his alleged combat injuries sustained when a bomb exploded on the deck of the ship during combat.  The scientific community was dumbfounded by the success of the book and rejected it as nothing more than psychological folk art.  S. I. Hayakawa a distinguished linguist, psychologist, and later an US Senator said, “The art consist in concealing from the reader, for novelistic purposes the distinction between established scientific facts, almost-established scientific hypotheses, scientific conjectures, and imaginative extrapolations far beyond what has even been conjectured.” He went on to say, Hubbard “runs the risk of believing in his own creation.”

The E-meter was an integral part to the auditing process.  The first one consisted of two Campbell Soup cans with their labels removed connected by a wire carrying a low voltage current.  Hubbard claimed that by using the E-meter an auditor could locate and remove engrams.  He set up schools in major cities to train auditors and to treat anyone with any sort of unresolved issues in their life. Book sales and lecture fees brought in a steady stream of income.  In less than a year Hubbard went from poverty to great wealth and international fame.  It then proved to be just another fad and collapsed just as quickly giving him the idea to start a religion because in his words, “That's where the money is.”

On December 18, 1953, Hubbard incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science and the Church of Spiritual Engineering in Camden, New Jersey. He also established more than five-hundred Dianetics auditing centers all over the United States where acolytes could enroll in various courses to learn the secrets of Dianetics.  According to LRH one can achieve the mental state of what he called “clear” through a course of study and auditing.  In this state an individual would have complete recall of every word they ever heard going back to the moment of conception in their mother's womb. He called this level “Operating Thetan” or OT VIII.   The cost of the courses and auditing required to reach this level was close to $400,000. E-meters sell for almost $5,000 and  twelve hours of auditing costs from $5,000 to $8,000.  In spite of the fact that the church has never been willing or able to produce one “clear” person, Scientology was a great financial success making LRH and the Church extremely wealthy. By 1953 they accumulated a bank account of more than a billion dollars and a debt to the IRS of one billion dollars in back taxes that Hubbard refused to pay.

At level OT VIII church members are given Hubbard's revelation of Scientology's deepest secret which is goes as follows:  In the beginning four quadrillion (Note: a quadrillion is one billion times a thousand) years ago there existed a Garden of Eden where the Thetans (spirits) existed in a pure godlike state until there was a loud snap and a flood of light and the physical universe was created consisting of matter, energy, space, and time.  LRH called this “Incident One.”  “Incident Two” occurred seventy-five million years ago in the Galactic Confederacy which consisted of seventy-six planets and twenty-six stars.  The tyrant Xenu ruled the Confederacy having been selected by a guard called the “Loyal Officers.” Xenu and a few evil followers (mostly psychiatrists) staged false income-tax investigations to lure the population into centers where they were killed with an injection of frozen alcohol and glycol. Their frozen bodies were then packed into boxes and loaded on space planes and transported to Teegeeack (planet earth) where they were dropped into volcanoes and then blown up with hydrogen bombs.  Unfortunately their souls (Thetans) remained and floated around and attached themselves to living people because they no longer had free will.  These body Thetans blocked the path to spiritual progress of their host. 

L Ron Hubbard's life was not suggestive of anyone who was “clear” or who lived what would be considered a normal, productive, and happy life.  He was married three times.  He married his first wife Margaret Louise Grubb “Polly” in 1933 and they had two children, Ron Jr. and Katherine May.  Ron Jr. became estranged from his father and legally changed his name to Edward DeWolf in 1972.

LRH married his second wife Sara Elizabeth Northrup on 8/10/1946 without the benefit of a divorce from Polly. They had one daughter Alexis Valerie who was called the world’s first Dianetics baby but interestingly she is not mentioned in any official Church publications.  They eventually divorced after a long and bitter legal battle for custody of Alexis.

According to court documents L. Ron Hubbard tortured Sara and tried to make her kill herself because he did not want the “inconvenience” of a divorce.  He subjected her to sleep deprivation to lower her volition, and provided her with fatal doses of sleeping pills. He strangled her so hard that her hearing in one ear became permanently impaired. Hubbard also used the family car to deliberately run into Sara. He also kidnapped Alexis and used the threat of violence toward her against Sara. Finally, to evade divorce court proceedings, Hubbard fled the state of California and went into hiding so that he could not be served a subpoena.  Hubbard continued to harass her and her child long after she escaped him.

LRH met Mary Sue Whipp in 1951 when she took a Dianetics course at the Hubbard Dianetics Foundation at Wichita, Kansas. She soon began an affair with Hubbard who had just been divorced from his second wife Sara, and moved in with him within only a few weeks after arriving in Wichita. They were married in March 1952 and they had four children,  Diana, Quentin, Suzette, and Arthur.  Quentin died on November 12, 1976 at age of 22 in an apparent suicide.  Mary Sue was credited with coining the word “Scientology.” She played a leading role in the management of the Church of Scientology, rising to become the head of the Church's Guardian's Office. On August 15, 1978, Mary Sue Hubbard and eight others were indicted for masterminding a conspiracy against the US government in her capacity as head of the Church's Guardian's Office. They were found guilty on October 26, 1979. Mary Sue and two others received the heaviest penalties, a five-year prison sentence and a $10,000 fine.

In 1967 LRH, now calling himself, Commodore took to the sea with a fleet of three ships, Diana, the Athena, and the Apollo where he remained for many years.  He claimed that he was being pursued by KGB agents and wrote several letters to the FBI and CIA requesting protection.  He established the Sea Org in August 1967 as the theological arm of Scientology. Children as young as five years of age were required to sign a contract for one billion years of service.  They were worked up to one-hundred hours a week and subjected to harsh discipline and were paid very little.  Sea Org members were allowed to marry but were forced to leave Sea Org if they had children.  The Sea Org moved to a land-based location in California in 1975 although they maintained the maritime tradition complete with their uniforms.

Scientology is run more like a business or large corporation than a Church.  When LRH died on his ranch near Creston, California on January 24, 1986 there was a power struggle for the leadership and control of the church.  David Miscavige took over the top job in Scientology, as the Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center, a corporation that controls all the trademarks and copyrights of Dianetics and Scientology. 

Miscavige was only twenty-six years old when he outmaneuvered all of the other older longtime church officials.  He was able to accomplish this by isolating Hubbard at the ranch and not allowing anyone access to him but himself.  Miscavige was raised in a Catholic family and joined Scientology when he was only eleven years old. He advanced quickly through the ranks and by the age of twelve he was conducting auditing sessions.  After Mary Sue Hubbard was indicted for conspiracy against the US government, Miscavige convinced her to resign her position as head of the Guardian's Office paving the way for his eventual complete take over of the church.  In December 1993 he was able to settle the church's ten year battle with the IRS winning a tremendous victory with a ruling declaring Scientology a tax-exempt religious organization. 

Scientology is easily one of the most controversial religions in the world.  In 1967, the Australian government issued a report on them saying, “There are some features of Scientology which are so ludicrous that there may be a tendency to regard Scientology as silly and its practitioners as harmless cranks.”  But its conclusion was that, “Scientology is evil, its techniques evil, its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill.” In 2009 a court in France convicted them of defrauding recruits out of their savings.  At the same time France also classified Scientology as a dangerous cult.

The case of Lisa McPherson was just another embarrassing episode that tarnished Scientology’s reputation.  She was a OT III level scientologist who in November 1995 was involved in a minor car accident in Clearwater, FL. After the  paramedics arrived to the crash scene, she removed her clothes and started behaving erratically.  She was taken to a local hospital and kept overnight for observation. The next day fellow Scientologists removed her from the hospital and took her to the Fort Harrison Hotel (called Flag Land Base) for “rest and relaxation.”  Fort Harrison Hotel is owned by the Scientologists and is famous as the site where Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics for the song Satisfaction. She was held isolated in a room for seventeen days with little food and water until someone realized that she was dying and loaded her into a vehicle. They drove past four hospitals in favor of one located twenty miles away because it had a Scientologist on staff.  She died before they could get there. 

On November 13, 1998, State Attorney Bernie McCabe charged the Church of Scientology with practicing medicine without a license and the abuse of a disabled adult. In June 1998 the charges were dropped when the medical examiner changed the manner of death from “undetermined” to “accident.” In 2004 McPherson's relatives sued the church for wrongful death and they eventually reached a confidential settlement.

Over the years many high-ranking members have left Scientology and spoke out publicly about the abuses in the church. Mark Rathbun had been a member since 1977 and was the Inspector General of the Religious Technology Center until he left the church in 2004.  Paul Haggis, an Academy Award winning film director quit the Church over its support of California's Preposition 8 (a proposal to ban same sex marriage). It is important to remember that religious organizations are prohibited from participating in political activities.  Actress Leah Remini quit Scientology over its harsh treatment of church members at the hands of David Miscavige. She reported that she was repeatedly interrogated and forced to undergo “thought modification.”

Critics often claim that Scientology is a cult. Harsh treatment of departing members of any religious group is the hallmark of cults.  Scientology apostates are declared “suppressed persons” and remaining Church members are forbidden from having any contact with them.  This even includes family members and often spouses are forced to divorce their apostate marriage partner.  They are famous for harassing ex-Scientologists or critics with frivolous law suits.  Apostates who continue to use any part of Dianetics including auditing are called “squirrels” and are sued for patent infringement. Since the Church has a large staff of excellent lawyers, many have faced financial ruin attempting to defend their selves.

The case of Paulette Cooper is the best example of the lengths Scientologists will go in an attempt to discredit any critic.  After Cooper wrote and published The Scandal of Scientology in 1971 the Church initiated Operation Dynamite in an attempt to frame her. They sent forged bomb threats purportedly from Cooper using her typewriter and paper with her fingerprints. Further plans included bomb threats to be sent to Henry Kissinger. The Church's campaign was discovered when the FBI raided Scientology offices in 1977 and recovered documents relating to the operation. Sometime in 1977, an assassination of Paulette was possibly planned, along with another murder, but it is unknown whether or not it was attempted.  The Church finally agreed to an out-of-court settlement with Cooper in 1985.

The Church of Scientology claim that they have millions of members.  However, according to the American Religious Identification Survey who conducts a massive survey every nine years involving over 50,000 people, there are only 25,000 Scientologists in the United States.  This is a pitifully small number considering that there are over 300,000 Wiccans in the country. 

Many people seriously question whether Scientology should even be considered a religion.  Their classification as a religious group was determined by the IRS and not by philosophers or theologians.  This says more about religion than it does about Scientology.  How could there ever be a standard for determining what constitutes a religion? If claims can be made without any evidence, any imagined absurdity can be considered a religion.

My favorite is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pastafarianism started in January 2005 by twenty-four-year-old  Bobby Henderson, a Oregon State University physics graduate.  Don’t laugh, remember people dismissed Scientology and Mormonism as silly and ridiculous but that didn’t stop people from believing and supporting it.   In fact, according to the early Christian Church authority Tertullian, absurdity is nothing more than a test of faith.   In his words, “I believe because it is absurd.”

The only reason Scientology seems so absurd to most people today is it is so new compared to other religions such as Christianity which has had over two-thousand years to become familiar and acceptable without question.  But for those not raised and immersed in the doctrine of the virgin birth and the resurrection from the grave, the doctrine seems just as absurd.  And who outside the faith could believe that a wafer turns into a body of a deity when eaten or a cup of wine turns to blood when drank?

Scientology survives and flourishes in the same way diets do.  As long as people would like to lose weight easily but cannot, there will always be a new promising diet clamoring for their money.  And as long as people are frustrated with their lives, careers, or relationships, someone will come forward with the divine secret of happiness and contentment available to those who are willing to believe and spread some silver around.


Sources:

1.  Inside Scientology (2011) by Janet Reitman

2.  Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (2013) by Lawrence Wright

3.  Why People Believe Weird Things (1997) by Michael Shermer