Victorian Inter-Campus Edition, 1997, p18-19
According to legend, Lafayette Ronald was indeed, a sublime being indeed. By all accounts he was a genuinely strange guy. Blessed with a healthy amount of charisma and a vivid imagination. Effectively convincing people that he was, amongst other achievements: a war hero, one of the pioneers of nuclear physics, survivor of machine gun fire, secret agent, and multiple graduate of science and physics degrees. Unfortunately since his death it has become somewhat apparent that these claims are somewhat fictitious. Prior to writing Hubbard floated around post WWII California experimenting with religions. In 1946 he came across O.T.O. (Ordo Templis Orentis).
Developing a mutual fascination with male and female members. Resulting in ceremonies to 'incarnate a Babylonian'. This ritual was performed over the first three days of March by Hubbard, scientist John Parsons and a chick willing to bear the offspring. Parsons as High Priest was to impregnate the woman (who Hubbard later married bigamously) while Hubbard reported the astral occurrences. Aleister Crowley, head of the O.T.O., upon learning of the ceremony wrote to Parsons:
"you have me completely puzzled by your remarks. I thought I had a most morbid imagination, as good as any man's, but it seems I have not. I cannot form the slightest idea what you can possibly mean."
To a fellow O.T.O. member,
"apparently Parsons and Hubbard or somebody is producing a moonchild. I get fairly frantic when I contemplate the idiocy of these louts ... it seems Frater 210 [Parsons] has committed errors ... he has apparently lost all his personal independence ... given away his girl and his money ... it's the ordinary confidence trick."
And indeed it was. Parsons lost upwards of twenty thousand dollars. In 1950 Hubbard went on to write Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health which became Scientology's answer to the Bible and the basis of the organisation. Dianetics initially received positive reviews in the fifties but later led to criticism of Hubbard's 'Science Fiction Religion' yet remains on the New York Times Best Sellers List. In November 1963 in Victoria an Inquiry into Scientology was held, ending with the recommendation that Scientology be banned. A key witness from this Inquiry states, anonymity provided by request:
"The guts of the thing is that Hubbard was outsmarted. He was very unhappy about that. One of the problems was that it reverberated in England. You see if one of the Colonies said this is shit, then the Mother Country might well say 'my golly whiz, I wonder what the colonies are up to? Maybe this is shit' and bags of Americans were being sent to be trained in England at their own expense, and needless to say at some profit ... I saw a letter, and it simply said that I was 'fair game', coming from the Hubbard communications office the HCO, this was Hubbard's special network that sat alongside the public organisations. They released bulletins that listed those considered fair game. Somewhere I came across what fair game meant, basically do whatever you needed to do to ensure the downfall, demise and/or death of the named person. The equivalent of excommunication for a catholic or political dissidence for a communist. Incarceration in mental hospital, execution of said person. The authority is permitted to do whatever it needs to bring you back into the fold. I did marked it [fair game classification] on my C.V. but at some stage my car was shot at ... these are people with a particularly distorted view on their role in the world, how to make a buck. So that the idea of decency, permission, is not part of their language. The fact that what they do is sort of revolting ... but not enough to prevent them."
The Victorian Inquiry led to similar inquiries held in England and Europe. In fact, in the late sixties Scientology found itself with a leader regarded as an 'undesirable alien' in many European countries and their religion held in high suspicion by mental health boards and governments globally. However the feeling behind later inquiries that re-legitimised Scientology can best be summed up by Sir John Foster's speech to the House of Lords:
"I am wholly satisfied that the great majority of the Scientologists are wholly sincere in their beliefs, show single minded dedication to the subject, spend a great deal of money on it, and are deeply convinced that it has proved of great benefit to them. But it is only fair to make the obvious point that none of this furnishes evidence of the sincerity of the Scientology leadership, whose financial interests are the exact opposite of those of their followers."
And the little office in Russell St. that offers free personality tests (that you are guaranteed to fail)? Well, Commonwealth Attorney General Lionel Murphy granted religious status upon this organisation in the late seventies. It seems religious orders are not expected to maintain the ethical standards and accountability required of business. And you thought there were no lower standards. Fie and for shame.
To counteract increasing governmental opposition, the organisation decided to transform itself into a religious order. As the sixties progressed, so did the theory behind Scientology growing progressively loopy. Originally the loose combination of reincarnation and Auditing, an expensive form of self-help therapy, was now expanded into the extraordinary concept of the Thetan Being, the true being that you are. Wise, good, kind and immortal. So far so good. However your Thetan Body exists in a galaxy far far away, simultaneous to your human incarnation. Of course your Thetan body is resting in a coma as you fulfil your duty of saving the world through Scientology. As in most totalitarian ideologies there is little tolerance for dissenting thought or opinion and requires absolute allegiance.
To question, was proof of your shortcomings and adherence to your Reactive Minds. Equivalent to the subconscious, containing all the bullshit fed to you by society and non-scientologists (known as WOGS - I kid you not). It is this misinformation that causes unhappiness and the only solution is to Audit your way through the following conditions to reach the state of Clear: Confusion, Treason, Enemy, Doubt, Liability, Non-Existence, Danger, Emergency, Normal Operation, Affluence and finally Power. To reach a fully functioning human existence was only possible through Scientology at exponential cost. Auditing can cost up to $1,000 per session. To become fully Clear, you're looking at a cost of $100,000. At least.
According to one of his assistants, Hubbard did not consider himself a Scientologist, holding them in private contempt. Reaching high status within the organisation ensured proximity to Hubbard during his lifetime. Increasing the chance of falling victim to his growing paranoia. Limiting your future in the organisation. One of the common reactions to defecting from this institution seems to be the vitriolic book publishing your horror and unhappiness for the world to read. However those that dare criticise the hallowed words of Hubbard, a.k.a. the Source, let themselves in for massive amounts of legal and illegal harassment. Even writing books in support of the organisation have led to being classified as Fair Game.
Scientologists use tactics ranging from framing detractors, to injury. Anything is acceptable once classified as a Suppressive Person. Fair Game literally means that enemies of Scientology "may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any scientologist, without discipline of the scientologist. May be tricked, sued, lied to or destroyed" as decreed by Hubbard Policy Letter dated October 18, 1967. To appease British officials (and to circumvent the negative publicity that this statement generated) Hubbard wrote an ambiguous letter cancelling the term 'Fair Game'. The practice, however, continues.
Rebecca Anderson - Rabelais - La Trobe