L Ron Hubbard's abuses and violence

[Petey C]

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]

A Piece of Blue Sky
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/S...tack/bs4-3.htm

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]

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]

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/S...tack/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.

[Free to shine]

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/S...tack/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]

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":

[B]"[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]

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!

&

[Free to shine]

From Bare Faced Messiah
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/S...tack/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]

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]

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.