The Road to Total Freedom A Sociological analysis of Scientology ROY WALLIS The Road to Total Freedom This book is a sociological study of a new quasi-religious movement, Scientology. Its author, Roy Wallis, traces the emergence of this movement as a lay psychotherapy - "Dianetics" and its development into an authoritarian sect. Drawing on formulations in the sociology of religion, he analyses the processes involved and presents a theory to account for the transformation of cult into sect. On the basis of over eighty interviews with members and former members, a typology of the motivations which led individuals to affiliate with the movements is derived, and the processes by which members become further committed to the movement are explored. The reasons which led a proportion of members to defect from the movement are also described. Scientology has been notable for the extent to which is has come into conflict with the state, medical agencies, and individuals critical of its practices. The author turns to the sociology of deviance to provide a model to account for the development of a 'moral crusade'against Scientology and to explain the way in which the movement reacted and adapted to a hostile environment. This study should find a place on courses in Religious Studies, the History of Religion, and the Sociology of Religion. It will be essential material for any attempt to understand the form and place of the new religions in advanced industrial societies. It is also likely to be appropriate material for courses on the Sociology of Social Movements. The controversial nature of the topic of this work may, however, endow it with a market appeal beyond the confines of the academic community. The Road to Total Freedom *A Sociological Analysis of Scientology* The Road to Total Freedom *A Sociological Analysis of Scientology* Roy Wallis NEW YORK COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESs 1977 Copyright c 1976 Roy Wallis All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Wallis, Roy. The Road to Total Freedom. Bibiography: p. Includes index. I. Scientology. I. Title. BP605.S2W34 1976 131'.35 76-27273 ISBN 0-231-04200-0 PREFACE There is a sence in which sociology is inevitably a subversive enterprise. The very act of refiecting on the behaviour of people and organizations entails that these activities do not bear their meaning and explanation on their face. The sociologist's pursuit of further or different knowledge after he has already been informed of the 'truth'of the matter by the individuals or organizations concerned, displays the fact that he does not accept the 'self- evident', and perhaps even that motivated by malice, he is prepared to tell some entirely different story. Hence, the sociologist poses a threat to the rhetorics and legitimations employed by social groups and a potential challenge to their definition of reality, and to the definitions of themselves which they present for public consumption. He therefore risks calling down upon himself the wrath and opprobrium of groups which he studies. Generally, the groups examined by sociologists are relatively powerless and their complaints may do little more than prick his own conscience or the consciences of his more radical colleagues. In other cases, however, the group examined may not be without power and in such instances, depending on the nature of the power and the society in which it is exercised, the sociologist may risk more severe if not necessarily more serious, consequences, I began my work on Scientology as a raw graduate student, fascinated by the relationship between beliefs, social organisation and society. While I had initially intended that Scientology be considered as one among a range of unorthodox system of belief to which I proposed to devote attention, I found myself increasingly interested by the rich body of material I was uncovenng on this multifaceted movement. I have recounted at length elsewhere (in my contribution 'The moral career of a research project'to Colin Bell and Howard Newby, editors, *Doing Sociological Research*, Allen and Unwin, London, 1976) the history of my research on Scientology. It remains, however, to summarize a few points salient to the final production of this book. As my opening remarks would suggest, the Church of Scientology was suspicious of my research. Having suffered at the hands of newspaper reporters, investigators for state and medical agencies, and government enquiries in many countries, my own work was readily placed by the leaders of the Church of Scientology into the category of hostile or critical commentary. My protestations that I had no axe to grind, and that I sought only to provide a coherent and vi PREFACE as-nearly-objecive account of Scientology as possible, were viewed with commendable scepticism by the church leadership. The Church of Scientology is not known for its willingness to take what it construes as criticism without recourse. Indeed its record of litigation must surely be without parallel in the modern world. It therefore seemed almost inevitable that my own final work would be the subject of lengthy and expensive litigation. In such a situation, the writer faces a dilemma. Does he 'tell the truth, and damn the consequences'? Or does he, in the light of the extreme severity of the British law of libel, reflect that in over a hundred thousand words of text, anyone can make a mistake? There is a powerful tension between the threat of censorship and the possibility of enormous cost in time, effort and money for a single error. But there is a further consideration. The sociologist has an *obligation* to the subjects of his research. Even if his relationship with them has sometimes approached open war, he owes them a duty not to misrepresent their activities and beliefs, the more so if they are in any respect a socially stigmatized or politically threatened collectivity. In my decision to make my manuscript available to the Church of Scientology, *both* of those considerations weighed heavily. Informing them in advance of what one intended to say had its dangers. Forewarned is, after all, forearmed for any legal battle. But the risk, in this case, paid off. It is my feeling that the church leadership appreciated the gesture, and while they remained adamant over a period of months that certain things should not be said, they were willing to compromise and to negotiate. These negotiations, covering several reams of typescript were salutory. I came to appreciate that things which had initially sounded innocuous to me could be read as pejorative or even invective. In due course, I made various modifications to the text in this light. As an example, I amended my argument that Hubbard was 'obsessed'with communism, to read that he was 'preoccupied'by it. I also deleted a comparison with the Nazi party and the Ss which seemed on reflection *unnecessarily* offensive to members of the Church of Scientology. I further incorporated into the text from various commentaries sent to me by the Church of Scientology, statements of their views on certain events on which we could not find common ground. As a final gesture to the Church I offered to include in the work, as an appendix, a commentary commissioned by the Church, on my work as a whole. This seemed to provide what they claimed had been denied them in the past, i.e. an adequate right of reply, for which reason they had been forced to seek recourse in the courts. Dr Jerry Simmons was commissioned by the Church to write this reply. His interesting paper 'On maintaining deviant belief systems', has often been cited by sociologists working in the field of unorthodox collectivities of believers.1 As a believer hmmself in this case, Dr Simmons inevitably rejects my study. 1 *Social Problems*, II, Winter (1964), pp. 250-6. vii PREFACE His main argument is that my methods are not adequate in that they do not fulfil the criteria of tradltional survey research, and that I theretore violate "the scientific method'. Dr Simmons fails to recognise that methods are tools and tools must be adapted to circumstances. The 'scientific method'is no more than an injunction to examine evidence dispassionately and critically. My study does not intend to be a piece of survey research. Dr Simmons'strictures are, therefore, at best, misplaced. There are no 'sampling errors' since there is no 'sample'. My respondents are ethnographic informants not randomly sampled survey respondents. That many of them were not practising Scientologists and were openly hostile to Scientology only tells us that my information *may* be biased and not that it *is*. As it happens, information secured from informants, whether devoted adherents or active opponents, could be checked against other informants or against documentary sources. Dr Simmons suggests that I was offered permission to interview over 4,000 believers for my study. This offer was not, I'm afraid, ever as clear to me as it was to Dr Simmons. He accuses me again of bias in sampling statements from documents rather than performing a content analysis, but again his argument is misplaced. Had I wished for an analysis of the content of the documents, I would have conducted a content analysis. But something said only once in a body of documentation may have as much influence on organizational and individual behaviour as something said a thousand times. Hence I utilized documentation as any historian would, seeking to locate influential statements and to cite statements which information from other sources had indicated were important for behaviour, rather than to analyse as a whole the content of documents which, in the case of Scientology as of many other organizations and social movements, are often written for public relations purposes. Ultimately, of course, which of us Dr Simmons or I is right on the questtion of the degree of bias in this book, is open to dispute. That is as it should be. I would be as foolish as Dr Simmons thinks me, if I believed I have said the last word on Scientology. It is right, and indeed exciting in its prospect, that debate about this movement will continue. I am hopeful that new information will continually come to light, and urge anyone with documentation on Scientology to send it to me, or to the Librarian of Stirling University, where an archive can be formed to preserve such material for future scholars. In the meantime, anyone hoping to resolve the matter can do no better than Dr Simmons suggests: begin your own investigation. Read Hubbard's *Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health* and compare it, in terms of objectivity, the 'scientific method', etc., with my book. CONTENTS Preface v Contents ix Acknowledgements xi Abbreviations xiii Introduction and Methodological Note 1 PART I THE SOCIOLOGY OF CULT AND SECT 1 *Cult and Sect: A Typology and a Theory* 11 PART II THE CULT AND ITs TRANSFORMATION 2 *The Cult Phase: Dianetics* 21 3 *Crisis and Transition* 77 PART III THE SECT: SCIENTOLOGY 4 *Theory and its Transmission* 103 5 *Social Organiation and Social Control* 127 6 *The Scientological Career: From Casual Client to Deployable Agent* 157 7 *Relations with State and Society* 190 8 *Reality Maintenance in a Deviant Belief System* 225 PART IV CONCLUSIONS *Conclusions* 245 APPENDICES I Special letter from Ron Howes 259 II HCO Ethics Order 261 III Executive Directive from L. Ron Hubbard 263 IV On Roy Wallis'Study J. L. Simmons, PhD 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY 270 INDEX 281 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In a research enterprise of this kind innumerable debts are inevitably accumulated. For the first two years of the research I was fortunate to be a student at Nuffield College, Oxford. I am grateful to the Warden and Fellows for providing me with a home, facilities, and intellectual stimulation during this period. The Social Science Research Council generously provided me with a grant which enabled me to pursue this research. The Ofrex- Drexler Foundation also kindly provided me with a small grant at a crucial stage in my work. Professor Duncan Timms, Chairman of the Department of Sociology of Stirling University, greatly assisted my work by providing me with time, research funds and secretarial assistance. Without the aid of Cyril Vosper, the study would never have begun. I am also grateful to him for many stimulating conversations and useful leads in the course of the research. Mr P. Hetherington made available to me material otherwise unavailable in Great Britain on the early days of the movement. On a research visit to America, Mr and Mrs Don Rodgers, Mr and Mrs Ross Lamoureaux, A. E. van Vogt and his late wife, Mayne, Perry Chapdelaine, Beau Kitselman, and Waldo Boyd kindly provided hospitality and much useful material. There I benefited from conversations with Paulette Cooper and Robert Kaufman. Among the interview and questionnaire respondents to all of whom I am grateful, Miss Shelia Hoad, and Miss Carmen D'Allessio provided much assistance. Mrs Nan Mclean and Dr Russell Barton provided useful information and documentation. The Editors of the *News of the World*, *Mayfair*, the *Denver Post*, and of other newspapers and magazines too numerous to mention individually, and the management of Reuters, all made freely available copies of articles otherwise unobtainable, or provided me with facilities to examine their clipping files. I have benefited from discussions with Miss Mary Appleby, OBE, formerly secretary of the National Association for Mental Health (now the Mind Associa- tion); and with Mr David Gaiman, of the Guardian's Office of the Church of Scicntology who also arranged for me to interview students and staff at Saint Hill Manor. Dr Christopher Evans and Mr C. H. Rolph kindly showed me their manuscripts prior to publication. Earlier drafts of Chapter I appeared as part of an article 'Scientology: xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS therapeutic cult to religious sect'in *Sociology*, 9, I (January 1975); and aspects of the theory were presented in 'The cult and its transformations'in *Sectarianism: Analyses of Religious and Non-Religious Sects* Roy Wallis, (Peter Owen, London, 1975). This latter work also contained an early formulation of sections of Chapter 7, under the title 'Societal reactions to Scientology: a study in the sociology of deviant religion'. For comments on earlier versions of Chapter 7, I am grateful to Professor Stanley Cohen, Dr David Downes, Dr Shelia Mitchell, and Dr Russell Dobash. The bulk of the manuscript has been read by Robert Kaufman and Richard Bland, and all of it by Professor David Martin and Dr Roderick Martin, whose comments and criticisms have been most helpful. Dr Bryan Wilson supervised my research for the doctoral thesis on which this book is based, and provided personal encouragement, sociological insight, and incisive editorial criticism. He has read many drafts of the manuscript and commented carefully and patiently upon each. I owe him a particular debt of gratitude. My wife and children have tolerated me throughout, a more difficult task than can easily be imagined. Parts of the manuscript have been typed by Pam Drysdale and Marion Govan. To them and to Grace Smith who, with my wife, performed the bulk of the secretarial tasks connected with the preparation of this work, I wish to express my thanks. Finally, I acknowledge a most profoumd debt to those who talked to me, completed my questionnaires, wrote letters, sent me information or otherwise assisted my research, but who must, for one reason or another, remain anonymous. None of those acknowledged here bear any responsibility for the final product. This book is dedicated to the memory of my late father, John C. Wallis. ABBREVIATIONS SCIENTOLOGY ABBREVIATIONS AD After Dianetics Anaten Analytical Attenuation AOLA Advanced Organization Los Angeles A-R-C Affinity, Reality and Communication BA Book Auditor BDA British Dianetic Association B. Scn. Batchelor of Scientology C.C.H. Communication, Control and Havingness Comm. Communication Dev T Developed and Unnecessary Traffic DFGB Dianetic Federation of Great Britain D of T Director of Training D Scn Doctor of Scientology E-meter Electropsychometer E/O Ethics Office *ES* L. Ron Hubbard, *Dianetics: Evolution of a Science* FSM Field Staff Member HAS Hubbard Association of Scientologists (also, Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist) HASI Hubbard Association of Scientologists International HCA Hubbard Certified Auditor HCO Hubbard Communication Office HDA Hubbard Dianetic Auditor HDRF Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation HGC Hubbard Guidance Centre HPA Hubbard Professional Auditor MEST Matter, Energy, Space and Time *MSMH* L. Ron Hubbard, *Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health* NAAP National Academy of American Psychology *OEC* L. Ron Hubbard, *Organization Executive Course* Org Organisation xiv ABBREVIATIONS OT Operating Thetan OTC Operations and Transport Corporation (OTS) (Operations and Transport Services Ltd) PTS Potential Trouble Source Q & A Question and Answer Sec Secretary Sec Check Security Check S.P. Suppressive Person Stats Statistics T.R. Training Routine WW World Wide OTHER ABBREVIATIONS *AJS* *American Journal of Sociology* AMA American Medical Association *ASR* *American Sociological Review* *BJS* *British Journal of Sociology* FDA Food and Drug Administration *JSSR* *Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion* NAMH National Association for Mental Health INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGICAL NOTE A number of notable nineteenth-century rationalists held the view that the development of mankind resembled the development of the human individual. In his early, primitive state man was childlike in his mode of thought. His power of reason suffered severe limitations. It was said to be 'prelogical'in character.1 Men believed that things once associated with each other continued to influence each other when apart; that words had the power to alter the course of nature; and that objects similar in one major respect were similar in others.2 Primitive man was said to possess a magical world-view. Magic was held to have been born of man's ignorance of natural causation and his desire to infiuence and control the dangerous and threatening natural environment in which he found himself. On some accounts primitive man gradually learned that his magical methods were inefficacious. The law-like generalizations hitherto employed were discerned not to hold in all instances. Consequently, this account runs, he began to predicate the existence of supernatural beings, hke himself except for their superhuman powers, which might be mobilized to the good or to the detriment of mankind. Where formerly he had commanded events through the incantation of a formula regarded as inevitable in its consequences (other things being equal), he now propitiated these superior beings, seekdng to cozen and cajole them into interfering in the course of nature and human society.3 By this means the great world religions were said to have been born. Although this religious world-view was to prevail for many centuries, the nineteenth-century rationalists believed that they could perceive a change overtaking the intellect of civilized western man. The prevailing view of the world was again being challenged. As religion replaced magic, so science was coming to replace religion. As Man 'came of age'in Victorian Britain, so he cast off less mature modes of thought. A cosmos inhabited by arbitrary and capricious spirits and deities was giving way to a cosmos governed by natural laws, 1 Lucien Levy-Bruhl, *Primitive Mentality* (Allen & Unwin, London, 1923). 2 James, G. Frazer, *The Golden Bough* (Macmillan, New York, 1922). 3 Ibid. 2 INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGICAL NOTE mechanical in their functioning, operating upon objects rendered visible by an advanced scientific technology. This view was enshrined in the work of Sigmund Freud. Freud maintained that religion was an infantile obsessional neurosis born of anxiety and wish fulfilment. Science marked, and provided the means to further, the maturation of man. Science broke through the illusion and infantile projection. Scientific thought was therefore not merely more mature than religious thought, it was on Freud's account, psychologically healthier.1 Although both the logic and the empirical detail of these evolutionist accounts of the development of human thought have been challenged, a variant on this view remains incorporated in much contemporary thinking on the relationship between religion and social change. The spectacular advance of science in the nineteenth century is seen as one central feature of an account of the decline in the hold that religious beliefs have on man's actions, and the declining commitment displayed to religious institutions in most western societies.2 In short, a prevalent view holds that with the development of science and its increasingly evident ability both to explain the world in which we live, and to modify that world in the direction of human desire, secularization is an inevitable concomitant of the development of industrial societies. This view has its critics, of course, and we can here neither debate the conceptual problems incorporated in the notion of secularization,3 nor the empirical case of persistent high levels of religious affiliation in the United States of America.4 What is more central to the enterprise recorded in the following chapters is the fact that despite the enormous progress of science and the evident decline in religious commitment in most western nations, new religious movements have continued to appear at an apparently undiminished rate. Indeed since the end of the Second World War there has, if anything, been an increase in both the rate of formation of such movements and the rate of growth of their membership. This phenomenon is not restricted to western industrial nations. Japan too has experienced a rapid increase in the number of new religious movements, and the size of their followings.5 The industrialization and rationalization of contemporary, technologically advanced societies appears to have 1 Sigmund Freud, *The Future of an Illusion* (Hogarth, London, 1962). 2 Brian R. Wilson, *Religion and Secular Society* (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 69), pp. 57-74 3 For discusions of these problems, see: Vernon Pratt, *Religion and Secularization* (St Martin's Press, London, 1970); David Martin, 'Secularisation'in Julius Gould, ed., *Penguin Survey of the Social Sciences 1965* (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1965); Idem, *The Religion and the Secular* (Routledge Kegan Paul, London, 1969); Idem, *The Sociology of English Religion* (SCM Press, London, 1967). 4 Wilson, op. cit., pp. 109-50. 5 H. Thomsen, *The New Religions of Japan* (Tuttle, Rutland, Vermont, 1963); H. N. McFarland, *The Rush Hour of the Gods* (Macmillan, New York, 1967); C.B. Offner and H. van Straelen, *Modern Japanese Religions* (Brill, Leiden, 1963). INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGICAL NOTE 3 produced problems for their members with which science has yet proven incompetent to cope. Rationalist and humanist intellectuals have tended to be puzzled by this flourishing of exotic new religious and quasi-religious movements in relatively secular societies. Many, viewing contemporary industrial society through sometimes unacknowledged evolutionary eyes, conceive such phenomena as 'regressive'in character. Resort to the occult and the supernatural is seen as a withdrawal from the realities of modern life, a retreat from the anonymity, the tensions, and the individualism of the modern world. For those with Marxist inclinations, the new religions are seen as a particularly bizarre form of 'false consciousness'. They have in general been regarded as peripheral to the central features of modern society. Since they are viewed as a fringe phenomenon, ephemeral, and even frivolous, they have not motivated any extensive sociological description or analysis. Published monographic studies of such movements by social scientists are rare.1 Only if they maintained clear links with the prevailing religious tradition2 or had political implications3 have these movements been regarded as sufficiently important to merit any considerable sociological attention.4 While it may be the case, however, that some new religious movements in advanced industrial societies are more or less explicitly attempts to escape from the more unattractive features of modern life: its impersonality, atomization, materialism and bureaucratization or attempts to resist it in form, other 1 Leon Festinger, Henry W. Rieken and Stanley Schachter, When Prophery Fails (Harper, New York, 1964); John Lofland, Doomsday Cult (Prenhce Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1966); Adam W. Eister, Drawing Room conversion (Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 1950); H. T. Dohrman, California Cult: the Story of Mankind Unded (Beacon, Boston, 1958); Geoffrey K. Nelson, Spiritualism and Society (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1969). Malcolm J. C. Calley, God's People (Oxford University Press, London, 1965); Richard Enroth, Edward Ericson and C. Breckinridge Peters, the Story of the Jesus People Paternoster, Exeter, 1972); Luther P. Gerlach and Virginia Hine, People, Pou er, Change (Bobbs-Merrill, New York, 1970). 3 Eric C. Lincoln, 7 the Black Muslims in America (Beacon, Boston, 1961); E. V Essien-Udom, Black Nationalism: a Search for Identity in America (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1962); James A. Dator, Soka Gakka2: Budders of the Third Civilisation (University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1969); James W. White, the Sokagakkai and Mass Society (Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1970). The new religious movements in less developed societies have been better served. In part this must be due to the concern among anthropologists and sociologists to understand the mechanisms of socia change in hitherto largely stable societies. Moreover since such societies were less secularized, religious phenomena could be seen as playmg some central part in social change and adaptation. In 'secular'industrial societies, religion and its social-scientific study have been relegated to a very inferior S Benjamin Zablockd, the Joyful Cammunity (Penguin sooks, saltimore, Maryland, : 1971); Thomas Robbins and Dick Anthony, Getting straight with Meher Baba', JSSR 2 (June 1972), pp. 122-40; Erancine J. Daner, Conversion to Krishna than reject the values which prevail within it. They are bureaucratic and rationalistic in orientation, and sometimes thoroughly materialistic. They may be relatively impersonal and individualistic rather than communally based. They sometimes seek to incorporate science, or its rhetoric, into their legitimations. Such movements, Bryan Wilson has termed 'manipulationist'1 Rather than a means of escape from the world, of attaining other-worldly salvation, or of achieving a radical transformation of the prevailing society, they offer the believer some superior, esoteric means of succeeding within the status quo. They offer knowledge and techniques to enable the individual to improve his 'lifechances'; the means of achieving the valued goals of this world. The manipu- lationist movements appear, in terms of numbers of recruits and income, to be among the more successful of the new religions in industrial societies. Within this category fall Christian Science, the Japanese movement Soka Gakkai, Transcendental Meditation, and the subject of the present work, Scientology. Scientology is a movement which straddles the boundary between psychology and religion. It offers a graded hierarchy of 'auditing' (the quasi-therapeutic practice of the movement) and training, which will ultimately release fully all the individual's inner potential. Correct application of the knowledge purveyed by the movement will, it is claimed, lead to the freeing of the individual's superhumanly powerful spiritual nature. In the progress towards this desirable state, current human limitations psychosomatic illness, psychological and physical disabilities, lack of confidence, or competence will fall away, enabling the individual to cope more successfully with his environment. Training and 'auditing'are provided primarily by the central organizations of the movement which are administered on highly bureaucratic lines. The services provided by these organizations are expensive to purchase, and have been marketed with all the more aggressive techniques of modern salesmanship. The size of Scientology's following is almost impossible to estimate, but sub- stantial groups of followers exist throughout the English-speaking world; and smaller groups in Germany, Scandinavia, and France. The movement is able to command sufficient resources to maintain a large permanent staff and a fleet of vessels known as the 'Sea Org'. Scientology has aroused widespread controversy and occasional public hostility. It has been the subject of government 1 Bryan R. Wilson, Religious Sects (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1970), pp. 14166. Consciousness: the transformation from hippie to religious ascetic, in Roy Wallis, ed., Sectarianistn: Analyses of Religious and Jon-Religious Sects (Peter Owen, London, tg75; Robert Lynn Adams and RobertJon Fox, 'Mainlining Jesus: the new trip-, Socitt 9 4 (l972), pp. So-6; Donald W. Peterson and Armand L. Mauss, 'The Cross and the Commune: an interpretation of the Jesus People', in Charles. Gloc, ed., religion investigations in a number of states and legislative sanction in others (these are discussed in Chapter 7). Scientology is of sociological interest for a number of reasons. Its recruits, as will be demonstrated in the following chapters, are not drawn from the categories of the traditionally dispossessed. They are not marginal individuals, but individuals who are members of groups and strata which are in many ways central to the character of industrial society. They are for the most part drawn from a relatively privileged, relatively comfortable, middle class. Analysis of this movement may therefore direct us to features of contemporary society which are a source of persistent alienation and anxiety, even to its most typical constituent groups. Scientology is of theoretical interest also because although the nature of its doctrine and practice differs from them radically, Scientology shares a number of characteristics with movements such as Communism, the Nazi Party, and Jehovah's Witnesses. Scientology is a source of data and further insight into the ctics and dynamics of totalitarian and sectarian movements. Moreover, in the cmlrse of its development Scientology has undergone a transformation from a loose, almost anarchic group of enthusiasts for a lay psychotherapy, Dianetics, to a tightly controlled and rigorously disciplined following for a quasi-religious movement, Scientology. It therefore provides an opportunity to explore a little understood transformation, that of a cult into a sect. The chapters which follow analyse the history, the membership, the beliefs and practices, the structure and functioning, and the changing nature of the relationship of this movement to the wider society. In chapter one, a typology of ideological collectivities is presented, and a theory of the development of cults into sects. Cults are presented as highly individualistic collectivities prone to fission and disintegration. The transformation of a cult into a sect is viewed as a strategy by means of which leaders seek to perpetuate and to enhance their status by arrogating authority in an attempt to create a stable and cohesive following. Chapter two describes and analyses the emergence of Dianetics, exploring the origins, the nature and the development of its beliefs and practices, the character of its followers, and its mode of organization. In chapter three the strains and tensions which threatened the disruption of the movement are considered, and the processes by which the movement's leaders sought to resolve these problems. Chapter four presents the beliefs and practices of the new gmosis, Scientology, on the basis of which organizational transformation was carried through. The progressive rationalization of the practise and teaching of Scientology was an important component of the process by which the leader was enabled to secure unchallenged control of the movement. In chapter five the manner in which this control was exercised through an increasingly bureaucratic administration is discussed. Chapter six analyses the motivations of recruits to Scientology, and the process through which, as individuals become increasingly committed to the tion in the pursuit of organizational ends. In chapter seven a model drawn from the sociology of deviance, the 'deviance-amplification'model, is employed to analyse the controversy and hostility in which this movement was involved during the 19605, and the nature of the movement's response. In chapter eight Scientology is viewed as a deviant version of social reality, and a number of mechanisms are described by which this reality is sustained. In the concluding chapter Scientology is located within a view of secularization and its impact on the prevailing religious climate; and a number of the major themes explored in the work are summarized. McthodolugJ The methodology of the study is eclectic. Since the aim of the research was primarily that of generating data concerning certain broad themes rather than testing a limited and defined set of hypotheses, various methods were employed in order to maximize the information available, and at the same time to provide a method of 'triangulation', whereby one data source could be checked against another. The principal source of information has been documentary. L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific writer for some years before his creation of Dianetics, and the movement has, throughout the quarter of a century of its existence, been the source of many millions of words. Much of this material was of ephemeral interest, and much that wcs produced in the early years is no longer available. Fortunately, some individuals in England and America have retained collec. tions of old documentation a dusty reminder of an earlier enthusiasm and these collections proved an invaluable source of histoncal information. Containing, as they often did, the works of schismatics and heretics, notebooks and letters, these documentary sources often fulfilled both methodological needs. Study was made of the now extensive, although by no means complete, collection of more recent material in the Bntish Museum. In the United States, legal records and supporting documents were examined. Individuals made other documents and tape-recordings available to me, as did the Church of Scientology on certain occasions. The second important source of information was from interviews. 83 individuals were interviewed, of whom 35 had become involved in the movement during its Dianetics phasel and 43 after the transition to Scientology. The remaining 5 individuals were never committed to the movement, but had I Dianeties as a form of theory and prachce is shll employed by the movement, However, I use the term throughout, unless contextuallY indicated, to refer to u thasc of the movemcnt, prior to the development of Scientology. 'Dianeticist'usually refers to tomeone who joined the movement during thu phase, or to someone who continued Interviews were principally occasions for respondents to talk freely on certain themes to which I sought to direct them. Usually, the interviews were tape-recorded unless the informant objected on the grounds that some traceable record of our conversation might fall into hostile hands; or when the surroundings made recording difficult. The interviews varied greatly in length, from three-quarters of an hour to a total of over ten hours. The yield from these procedures was inevitably uneven in the quantity and quality of usable material produced. Interview respondents were generated in a number of ways. Names of potential informants were originally supplied by a former member. These individuals in turn supplied further names, some former members, some still committed in various ways to the movement. Other interview respondents were generated as a result of a questionnaire which was circulated. This questionnaire method was relatively unfruitful m terms of conventional survey critena. Of some 150 questionnaires sent out over several months, only 46 completed schedules were returned. As well as sending questionnaires to individuals whose names were supplied by informants, questionnaire respondents also provided further names. A very dated mailing list of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists Internahonal was provided by one informant, and the names sampled. It was this which led to the lo v return-rate. The mailing list was some eight years out of date, and very few of the questiommaires sent to the sample from it were returned. Questionnaires were sent only to United Kingdom residents. A very brief period was spent in participant observation. At an early stage in the research, the author went to the movement's headquarters, Saint Hill Manor, to takc a Communications Course. Despite later claims by representatives of the movement that the author acted unethically by not revealing his sociological mterest, the author was simply responding to widespread advertising inviting members of the public to take this course and at no point made any effort to conceal his identity. After two days, he found it impossible to continue with the course without having to lie directly about his acceptance of its content, and withdrew. A number of other individuals and agencies have been contacted during the course of the research, and many sent long letters and other documents presenting aspects of their involvement with this movement. While very little published material on Scientology was available when the study was begun, at the time of writing some seventeen systematic and lengthy accounts exist, ranging from the journalistic to the apologetic, including five lengthy government inquiries or sponsored studies.l I Paulette Cooper, rhe Standal of Sntolagy (Tower, New York, 1971 ); Cynl Vosper rhc Mind Bcndas (Neville Spearman, London, 1971); George Malko, SvicnlolagJ: Ihc INTRODUCTION AND UETHODOLOGICAL NOTt Now religioa (Dell, New York, 1970); Robert Kaufman, Inside Scicntolog (Olympia, New York, 1972); Maurice Burrell, Saentolos-y: What B Is and What It Does (Lake- land, London, 1970); C. H. Rolph, BelieD6 What You Like (Andre Deutsch, London, 1973); Chriseopher Evans, Cults of Unreason (Harrap, London, 1973); David R. Dalton, rwo Disparatc Philosophes (Regency, London 1973); Omar V. Garrison, 7hehriddcnSto/yofScicntolory(ArlingtonBookz,London, 1974); HarrietWhitehead, 'Reasonably fantastic: some perspectives on Scientology, science fiction and occultism', in Irving 1. Zaretsky and Mark Leone (eds), Religious Mouements n Contemporary Amrrica (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1974); John A. Lee, Sectarian Healers aad llypnotherapy (Queen's Printer, Toronto, 970); Walter Braddeson, Scientolo!!yfor the Millions (Sherbourne, Los Angeles, 1969); Helen O'Bnen, Dianetics in Lmbo (Whitmore, Philadelphia, 1966); SirJohn G. Foster, Enquiry into thzPracticrand Efects of Srientoloy (HMSO, London, 197l ); Kevin V. Anderson, Report of the Board of Inguiry into Scientology (Government Printer, Melbourne, 1965); Sir Guy Richardson Powles and E. V. Dumbleton, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the lubbard Scientology Orzanisation in Nera Zealand (Government Printer, Wellington, New Zealand, 1969); G. P. C. Kotze, et al., Repor of the Commission of Enquiry into Scirntology for rg7z (Government Printer, Pretoria, South Africa, 1973). It should be noted that of these works, that by Burrell was withdrawn shortly after it appeared, and the publishers of the A TYPOLOGY AND A THEORY entihcahon Sects have been the focus of considerable research enterprise in the sociology of religion, and much of this endeavour has been directed to the issue of whether, or under what conditions, sects become transformed into denominations I This dominating area of concern has distracted attention from other types of ideological collectivity and other possible processes. An analogous but different procetz, to which little attention has been paid, is that of the transformation of cultz into sects. Until recently, cults have been regarded as rather trivial social phenomena, unworthy of systematic sociological attention. More important perhaps, the process of transformation of cults into sects has, on some accounts, been rendered not merely empirically unlikely, but a priori impossible. Consider, for example, Glock and Stark's def nition. Cults they argue are religious movements which draw meir inspiration from other than the primary religion of the eulture, and...are not schismatic movements in the same sense as Consider, for example, Glock and Stark's denition. Cults they argue are religious movements which draw their inspiration from other than the primary religion of the culture, and...are not schismatic movements in the same sense as sectz whore concern is with preserving a purer form of the tradihonal faith. Glock and Stark demne cult and sect in terms of the conrnt of belie Cults have theoloFcally alien beliefs, sects have more rigorous or more fundamentaluzt variants of the prevailing theology, and are schismatic in origm. On this basis there could be individual convernon from one to another, but not organizational transformation. While Glock and Stark draw an impenetrable theological boundary between cult and sect, others such as Lofland and Dohrman blur any boundary between I H. R Niebuhr, / he Social Sourccs of Denominationalism (Holt, Rinehart Winston, New York, 925); Bryan R. Wilson, 'An analysis of seet development', ASR, 24 ('959), PP 3-15- Charles r Glock and Rodney Stark, religion and Socict. in rcnsion (Rand McNally, Chicago, 1965), p. 245. them at all Lodand, in his definition of cults, describes them as 'little groups'which break off from the conventional consensus and espouse vely different views of the renl, the possible and the morall while Dohrman suggests that the concept of 'cult'will refer to that group, secular, religious, or both, that has deviated from what our American Society considers normative forms of religion, cconomics, or poLitics, and has substituted a new and often unique view of the individual, his world, and how this v orld may be attained Z Thesc forms of definition seem inadcquate from a number of points of vie-v 1 If dcviance is the idcntifying characteristic of cult belicfs as suggested by Lofiand and Dohrman, Cllristian schismatic and LtercticaL forms of bclief, such as thosc of Christian Science, the Iormons, Jehovah's 'v'itnesses, and even the Salvation rmy, become the ideologies of cults The distinction between cult and sect disappear5 t 2 If, as Glock and Stark suggest, cults are to be identlfied by their alien 'inspiration', and sects by their concern to preserve the purity of the 'traditional faith'and their schismatic origins, cults and sccts are t, pes of ideological collectivity which bear no developmental relationship to each other We cannot predica of a cult its possible transformation into a sect. More important, however, this definition ignores a crucial sociological feature, that is the social organization of the collectivities concerned The theological cntenon of classification employed by Glock and Stark provides us with no insight into the similarities in mode of organization and methods of control over adherents of such theologically diverse movements as Christian Science, Scientology,aJehovah's Witnesses, etc. Deviance, it has been suggested, is a distinguishing feature of both cult anl sect. Cult and sect are deviant in relation to the respectable, the normatively sanctioned, forms of belief prevailing at any time. Today they are deviant in comparison with prevailing indifference, agnostirism, or denominational Christian orthodoxy.S A feature which distinguishes betv een them is that, like IJohn Lofland, Doomsday Cult (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliflfs, Ne w Jeney, 1966), p. 1. 'H. T. Dohrman, CalifoMia Cult: tle Story af Mankind United (Beacon Press, Boston, 958), p. x. 'As it does in the work of some theologians for e:cample, A. A. Hoekema, i hs our Majar Cults (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 196g). : For a comparison of Christian Science and Scientology, see Roy Wallis, 'A comparative analysis of problems and processes of change in two manipulationist movements: Christian Science and Scientology'in 'rhe Contemoorary fetamorhosis of Religion? Acts of the l2th International Conference on the Sociology of Religion (The Hague, Netherlands, August, 1973, PP Jr7-Z2 5 On the Prevailing religious climate in Britain and America, see Bryan R. Wilson, Religion in Secular Soriety (Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1969); Will Herberg, Protestant-Catholic-ew (Doublcday Anchor, Ncw York, :960); Rodney Stark and the church, the sect is conceived by its adherents to be uniquely Iegitimate as a means of access to truth or salvation. The cult, like the denomination, is conceived by followers to be pluralisticallv legitimate, one of a variety of paths to the truth or salvation.l This provides us with the following typology: A ypologv of Ideological CollectiDiiiesr Respectable DeDiant Uniquely legitimate Church Sect Plutalistically legitimate Denomination Cult A theory of culi deDelopment Although not all new religious movements go through any simple undirectional sequence of stages,3 it is worth emphasizing that some do undergo transformation from one type of collectivity to another. The best known case, although less typical than was once believed, is the development of sects into denominahons. It is argued here that some new religious movements emerge as cults, and of these, some develop into sects. Colin Campbell has proposed the notion of the culhc milieu to refer to the cultural underground from which cults arise. This cultic milieu he describes as Mueh broader, deeper and historieally based [sicl than the contemporary movement known as the underground, it includes all denant belief-systems and their associated practices. Unorthodox science, alien and heretical religion, deviant medicine, all comprise elements of such an underground. In addition, it includes the collectivities, institutions, individuals and media of communication associated with these beliefs. Substantively it includes the worlds of the occult and the magical, of spiritualism and psychic phenomena, of mystiQsm and new thought, of faith I The notions of unique and pluralistic legitimacy were first employed by Roland Robertson, 7. he Sociological Interpretation of 12cligion (BlackweD, Oxford, l 970), p. I 23, in slightly different fashion. David Martin has also drawn attention to the pluralistic legibmacy of the cult and the denommnation, See the appendix, 'The denomination'in Dand Marhn, Paafsm (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1965). 'In the context of some ideological collectivities the label 'church'would be inappropnate, as indeed might some of the others. In the case of political movements, for example, what one has in mind here is the Nazi party in Germany after I gg,, or the Bolshevik party in Russia after 1922. In terms of churches, Catholicism would typically fit this category, as would the Calvinism of Calvin's Geneva. Catholicism in contemporary America, however, is clearly denominational. S The Quakers, for example, appear to have fluctuated between sectarianism and denominationalism, see Elizabeth Isiehei, 'From sect to denomination among English Quakers'in Bryan Wilson, ed., Patttns of Sectalianism (Heinemann, London, 1967), pp. 161-81. Charles Glock, American Pidy: the Naturc af Pdigiaus Commitment (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1968). healing and nature cure. This heterogeneous assortrnent of culhlral itenns can be regarded despite its apparent diversity, as constituting a single entity the entity of the cultic milieu.l This idea seems a helpful one in broadly characterizing the background from which cults emerge. Cults differentiate themselves from this background as more or less temporary associations of 'seekers'organized around some common interest, the researches or the revelations of an individual. The belief systems around which they are organized are typically broadly based syntheses of ideas and practices available within the cultic milieu and sometimes beyond, adapted, supplemented, and organized through the insights of their founders.' Cults are generally described as exhibiting a number of typical features. They are depicted as oriented towards the problems of individuals, loosely structured, tolerant, non-exclusive, they make few demands on members, possess no clear distinction between members and non-members, have a rapid turnover of membership, and are transient collectives. Their boundaries are vague and undefined, and their belief systems are said to be 'fluctuating'.3 These features of the cult can be accounted for in terms of a central characteristic of cult organization, which I shall refer to as 'epistemological individualism'.5 By epistemological individualism I mean to suggest that the cult has no clear locus of final authority beyond the individual member. Unlike the sect, the ideal typical cult lacks any source of legitimate attributions of heresy. Hence in movements such as spiritulism,S New Thought,5 and much of the flying saucer movement,7 so vague is the range of accepted teaching that 'heresy'is a concept I Colin Campbell, 'The cult, the cultic milieu and secularization' in Michael Hill ed. A Sociologcal relrbook of Rdigwn in Britain, No. 5 (SCM Press London, tg72) p. Ir2. For some of the pseudo-6cientific Culb to have developed, see Martin Gardner 17ads and allacies in the Name of Scence (Dover Publications, New York, 1957). S See Geoffrey K. Nelson, 'The concept of cult', Sociological Pcriew, 16, 3 (19ba), pp. 351-6 t, for a review of the charactenstics of the cults. 5 Davld Martin has stressed that 'The fundamental cnterion of the cult is...individualism', David Marhn, PaciJism (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1965), p. 194. However, in contrast to my own formulation, Martin regards the sect as exhibiting either 'authoritarianism or...almost total lack of authority'(Ibid, p. 185). He also employs an implicitly theological distinction. Culb are conceived to be theologically alien, while sects fall within the Chnstian tradition and are marked by the extremlsm wlth which they reject contemporary society. 5 Geoflrey K. Nelson, Spiritualism and Society (Routledge & Kegan Paul, Londo 5 Charles S. Braden, Spirits in Rebllwn: th Rise and Development of New 7houg (Southern Methodlst Univer3ity Press, Dallas, Texas, 1963); J. Stillson Judah, 7 listory and Phlosophy of the Met:physical Morements in Amerlca (Westminster Pres Philadelphia, 1967). 'H. Taylor Buckner, 'The flying saucerians: a lingering cult Ntw Society, g Se tember 1965. An exception is the Aetherius iociety, which has moved very muc closer than Buckner's groups towards sectarianism. See Roy Wrllis, 'The Aethenl without clear application, The determination of what constitutes acceptable doctrine is a matter to be decided by the individual member. Lacking any authoritative source of attributions of heresy there can be no clear boundaries between (I) cult ideology and the surrounding cultic milieu, nor, in the absence of authoritative tests of doctrine or membership, between (2) members and non-members. There are, therefore, few barriers to doctrinal adaptation and change. Since the determination of doctrine lies with the members, cults cannot command the loyalty of their membership which remains only partially committed. Commitment being slight, resources for the control of members are lacking. Members typically move between groups, and between belief systems adopting components to fit into the body of truth already gleaned. The loyalties of members are thus often shared between ideological collectivities, and this leads to tolerance. Membership changes rapidly as members move on from one group to another,l and the collectivities themselves tend to be transient as charismatic leaders emerge and attempt to control the activities of the following and this, in turn, leads to alienation; or as dissension anses due to the relatively limited basis of shared belie Since any particular cult is only one among many possible patbs to the truth or salvation, membership may decline through sheer indifference. In order to retain or bolster membership, appeal may be made to an ever wider range of interests, leading to ideological diffuseness and the reduced relevance of the cult beliefs for the individuaps salvation.2 Power lies in the hands of the consumer, and for the individual's salvation.2 Power lies in the hands of the consumer, and leaders may often be forced tD cater for consumer interests rather than directing them, or risk membership decline. Cults then, are fragile institutions. They typically face a problem of doctrina precariousness, that is, the ideological distance between the cult doctrine and the cultic milieu from which it was derived is typically slight. Ideologically the cult is, therefore, poorly differentiated from its background. A membership primarily recruited from other cultic groups is liable to be selective in its acceptance of the doctrine and disposed to create a new synthesis of the cult's teachings with other belief-systems, thus threatening the reabsorption of the cult into the cultic milieu. I Buckner suggests 'A typieal occult seeker will probably have been a Rosicrucian, a member of Mankind United, a Theosophist, and also a member of four or five smaller specific cults. The pattern of memberzhip is one of continuous movement from one idea to another Seekers stay with a cult unhl they are satisfied that they ean learn no more from it or that it has nothing further to offer, and then move on'. H. Taylor Buckner, 'The flying saucenans: an open door cult'in Marcello Truzzi, ed., Sociology and Evtryday Life (Prentice-Hall, Engiewood Cliffs, Nev-Jersey, tg68), pp. 225-6. 5Buekner, op. cit. (196$), suggests such a process occurred in the flying saucer grou,or which he observed. Society: a case study in the formation of a mystagogic congregahon, Sociatogicat Review, 22,1 (l974),pp.27-44.ReprintedinRoyWallis,ed., Seclarianism:.nalysesafltetigious and Jon-h'eigias Secls (Peter Ov en, London, l975). 111 THE SOCIOLOGY OF CULT AND SECT Cults similarly face a problem of authority, deriving from two features of cultic movements. Furst, their membership is predominantly composed of seekers who see a variety of paths to the truth or salvation and who regard it as their right to select those ideas and practices which wLI lead towards this goal. Second, cults are typically service-oriented, purveying an experience, know- ledge or technique through teachers and practitioners. Hence charisma tends to be dispersed toward5 the lower echelons. Membership (or clientele) loyalties are often centred on the local teacher or practitioner rather than on the movement as a whole. There is therefore a perennial threat of schism and secession as local teachers or practitioners assert their autonomy. Third, cults tend to face a problem of commitment. They are viewed as one among a range of paths to truth or salvation rather than a unique path. They typically dispense commodities of a limited and specific kind. The involvement of the membership tends, therefore, to be occasional, temporary and segmentary. Retaining, institutional- izing and enhancing membership commitment therefore presents a problem to cults which, if unresoved, may lead to passive and limited involvement, apathy, and declining adherence. Sectarianism as stratey In the face of these problems of organizational fragility, the possibility of developing a cohesiye sectanan collectivitv has had considerable appeal to some developing a cohesive sectarian colleetivity has had eonsiderable appeal to some eult leaders. Seets may emerge in a variety of ways, as sehismatie movements from existing denominations, as a result of interdenominational erusades, or tbrough a proeess of development from eults. The dimensions of the seet have been mueh debated.l Among those that have been advaneed, eharaeteristies, sueh as the esehatologieal nature of the seet stressed by Troeltseh, but also such eharaeter istics as aseetieism, the aehieved basis of membership, an ethieal orientation, and egalitarianism, seem in retrospect to have been features of the sect in partieular soeio-historieal eireumstanees rather than timeless, or universal dimensions of seetarianism.2 Those features advaneed as eentral to the concepl of sect which have stood the test of time, therefore, seem to centre on the right to exclusion, a self-conception as an elect or elite, totalitarianism, and hostility towards, or separation from, the state or society. The suggestion advaneed here is that these dimensions of seetarianism are I senton Johnson, 'A critical appraisal of the ehureh-sect typology', ASR, 2 (9S7), pp. 88-92; idem, 'On church and sect', ASR, 28 (1963), pp. 539-49; idem Church and sect revisited', 7SSR, m, 2 (1971), pp. 124-37; J. Milton Yinger, rhe Scienti ic Study of Relieion (Collier-Macmillan, New York, 1970); Bryan R. WiLson, Sects and: Society (Heinemann, London, 1961). I have argued this point in Roy Wallis, 'The sectarianism of 5cientology'in Michael Hill, ed., A Sociologioal reaTtook of Religion in sitain, No. 6 (5CM Press, London, 1973), pp 36-S5- related to the characteristic which underlies sect organization - 'epistemological authoritarianism Sects possess some authoritative locus for the legitimate attribution of heresy.l Sects lay a claim to possess unique and privileged access to the truth or salvation. Their committed adherents typically regard all those outside the confines of the collectivity as 'in error'. The truth must be protected from defilement or misuse and therefore extens*e control is necessary over those to whom access is permitted, and the exclusion of the unworthy. Those who remain, therefore, believe themselves to have proven their superlor status. Hostility to state or society readily follows. The state demands acceptance oEits own version of the truth in some particulars. In those areas it defines as its legitimate concern it can brook no rivals taxes must be paid, births registered, children educated, wars fought whatever the revelation. Thus state and society may threaten, and even directly confiict with, the sectarian's notion of what constitutes the truth, sometimes forcing the sect to defend its vision by isolation and withdrawal. The transition from cult to sect, therefore, involves the arrogation of authority. In order for a cohesive sectarian group to emerge from the diffuse, individualistic origins of a cult, a prior process of expropriation of authority must transpire This centra ization of authority is typically legitimized by a claim to a unique revelation which locates some source or sources of authority concerning doctrinal innovation and interpretatiOn beyond the individu member or prachtioner, usually in the person of the revelator himself. Propounding a new gnosis and centralizing authority permits the exercise of greater control over the collectivity through the elimination or underrnining of alternative loci of power and the transmutation of independent practitioners and teachers into organizational functionanes. It facilitates the establishment of clearer cognitive boundaries around the belief-system; the abandonment of elements which most closelv link it to the cultic milieu; and the introduction of new doctrinal elements which effectively distinguish it from competitors. Doctrine may be expanded to incorporate a systematic metaphysics increasing its scope beyond the mere provision of a rahonale for a specific and limited form of practice. Thus a wider and deeper commitment is encouraged. Since the new doctrine is endowed with unique salvational efficacy it provides a focus for more than segmentary and occasional involvement, and a rationale for insulating the believer, for example, by the denigration of alternative sources of ideology and involvement, and by endowing the world and competing belief-systems with formerly unsuspected danger. The emergence of a charismatic leader provides a 'Where such authority lies may not always be obvious, even to members. It may sometimes be shared between two or more loci, a situation liable to lead to conflict, and a power-struggle, as, for example, in the struggle between the prophets and thl aposfles in the Catholic Apostolic Church See Kenneth Jones, 'The Catholie Apostolie Church: a study in diflfused commitmenfl in vlichael Hill, ed., A Sociological erbook oJ Religion in liricin, No. 5 SCM Press, London, 1972), ppm37-60. 18 THr SOCIOLOGY or CHLT AD SHCT focus of loyalty of a supra-local kind. Together these factors assist in the transmutation of a clientele into a following. A successfully implemented strategy of sectarianization, therefore, provides one viable and attractive solution to the cultic problem of institutional fragility.l I Aspects of his theoretical structure have been devdoped in Roy Wallis, 'Ideologv, authority and the developnnent of cultic nnovernents', StciaI Reearch, 41, 2 (197i), DIANETICS Background to the cult The founder of Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, is reported to have been born m Igm at Tilden, Nebraska. His father was an officer in the US navy and appears to have seen ser ice in the East, on which occasions his son may have spent vacations with him. He was raised for some years by his maternal grandfather who ov ned a ranch in Montana, and spent his early teens in Washington DC, where he graduated to George Washington University. According to the testimony of the Registrar of George Washington University, Hubbard attended the summer session in 1931, and the fall and spring sessions 1931-32. He was placed on probation in September 1931 and failed to return for the fall 1932 sersion.l His early adulthood is somewhat difficult to trace. He appears to have led a mobile life, acquiring a number of skills and working in various jobs. Arnong the occupations m which he is reported to have been engaged during this period, are pilot, US Marine, radio entertainer, scriptwriter and explorer. Hubbard was also a prolific wnter of pulp magazine adventure, phantasy, and science fiction stories and novels in the same genres. Hubbard was commissioned into the navy before the outbreak of the Second World War and is reported to have spent some time in Oak Knoll, a military hospital. There he is reported and his own statements lend some credibility to this account to have interested himself particularly in the patients suffering from mental or emotional disorders to whom he talked, and to have sought out books dealing with the subject.2 Eollowing the war, Hubbard parted from his first wife and two children to go 'In the liSht of Hubbard's later claims to competence in physics it is worthy of note that in a course on dynamics sound and liSht he aehieved a grade E, in a course on electricity and masnetism a srade D, and in a course on modern physieal phenomena molecular and atomic physics he was awarded a srade F. Stenographic rranscript, Poun,ing Church of Scientology u. U.S.A, in US Court of Claims, No. 226-61, Washinstcn D Por example, in a story reported in the Withita Eagle, 24 April 1 95 r. 22 THZ CULT AND ITS TRANSFORMATION to Holly vood as a scriptwTiter. What success he may have had at this vocation is uncertain, but dunng the following three years Hubbard became a major writer for .4stounding Science Fiction, acquired an expert knowledge of the practice of hypnosis, and became briefiy involved with Jack Parsons, a follower of Aleister Crowley in Pasadena. During his period in Hollywood, Hubbard claims i got a nurse, wrapped a towe around my head and became a swami, and by 1947 achieved 'clearing'.' Probably some time during 1948 Hubbard wrote a book outlining his ideas for a new form of psychotherapy, later published in revised form as he Original / hesis, for which he was unable to find a publisher at the time. By 1 949, Hubbard was living in Bay Head, New Jersey, where he appears to have interested John W. Campbell Jr, editor of Astounding Science Fiction, in his therapeutic ideas, and indeed to have relieved him, at least temporarily, of chronic sinusitis.3 4 Gaining John W. Campbell as a disciple was indeed fortunate. Campbell was an established editor of a respected science fiction magazine with a considerable follo-ving. He was acquainted with doctors, scientists, publishers and others who could lend their support to Dianetics, Hubbard's new psychotherapy, and commanded access to an important medium of communication within and beyond the cultic milieu. Campbell succeeded in interesting a Michigan general practitioner v. ho occasionally contributed to Astounding, Dr J. A. Winter. After some correspondence with Hubbard, 'Vinter visited Hubbard's house in Bay Head, New Jersey, where the latter had a small clientele on whom he was practising and developing his techmi:ue. Winter relates: larrivedinBayHead,N.J.onOctoberr, Ig4g,andimmediatelybecameimmersed in a life of dianetics and very little else. I observed two of the patients wbom Hubbard had under treatment at this time, and spent hours each day watching him send these men 'down the time-traek'. After some observation of the reaction of I Alexander.Mitchel', 'The odd beginnings of Ron Hubbard's career', Sunday 7 imts, 5 October tg69, p. Q; eorrespondence with members and former members of the Ordo Templi Orientis; and interviews with acquaintances of Hubbard at this time. See also Chapter 4. It should be noted that the Sunday 7 imes article contained errors for which ib publuhers rendered an apology and paid an out of eourt settlement. 2 L. Ron Hubbard, 'The story of dianetics and scientology', Lectu7es on Cleaing recorded at the Londrn Congress tgs8 (Hubbard Communications Omce, London 8). 5 Martin Gardner, f.ds and sallacies in the Name of Science (Dover Publications, New York, 1957), p. o64. Much of this account of Hubbard's life is based on George Malko, Scientology: the NowRellgion(Dell,NewYork, tg70),pp.27-41,andGardner,op.cit.,modifiedinthe light of interviews wi:h early colleagues and acquaintances of Hubbard. See also Chrutopher Evans, Culs of Unreason (Harrap, London, rg73). While the account offered here is nat to Qy knowledge inaccurate, it should be noted that Malko's book has been withdrawn b, its publishers who also paid a legal settlement. others, I concluded that my learning of this technique would be enhanced by sub- mitting myself to therapy. I took my place on the couch, spending sn average of three hours a day trying to follow the directions for recalling 'impediments'. The experience was intriguing; I found that I could remember much more than I had thought I could, and I frequently experienced the discomfort which is known as 'restimulation'. While listening to ubbard 'running'one of his patients, or vhile being 'run myself, I ould find myself developing unaccountable pains in various portlons of my anatomy, or becoming extremely fatigued and somnolent. I had mghtmares of being choked, of having my genitalia cut off, and I was convinced that dlanetles as a method could produce effects.' Having experienced these effects in therapy and discovering that he could produce them in others, Winter moved to ew Jersey to work with Hubbard. There with Campbell and Hubbard he vorked on a systematic formulation of the theory and practice, modifying nomenclature. A paper giving a 'resume of the principles and methodology of dianetic therapy'was submitted by Winter to the ournal of the American sledical Association, but was rejected. A revised version including case histories supplied by Hubbard was submitted to the American ournal of Psychiatry, but again rejected.r Winter was also unsuccessful in his attempts to persuade other medical practitioners to try out the therapy. Hubbard therefore decided to write a book directed to the laity rather than the medical profession, and Campbeil commissioned an article from him on Dianetics for Astounding. This article was previewed by Campbell in his editoriais in extremely enthusiastic terms: in longer range view...the item that most interests me at the moment is an article on the most important subject conceivable. This is not a hoax artiele. It ir an article on the science of the mind, of human thought. It is not an article on psychology that isn't a science. It's not General Semantics. It is a totally new science called dianetics, and it does precisely what a scirncc of thought should do. Its power is almost unbelievable; it proves the mind not only can but does rule the body eompletely; following the sharply defined basic laws dianetics sets forth, physical ills such as uicers, asthma and arthritis can be cured, as can all other psychosomatic ills....It is, quite simply, impossible to exaggerate the importance of a true science of human thought.'I assure you of two things: you will find the article fascinating, and it is of more importance than you ean readily realise.4 And finally: Next month's issue will, I believe, cause one full-scale explosion across the country. We are carrying a sixteen thousand word article entitled 'Dianetics...An Joseph A. Winter, A Doctor s Report on Dianetics: rheory and I herapy (Julian Press, New York, 1 95 l ) p m. 2 Ibid., p. 18. 'John W. Campbell, 'In times to come', Astounding Science Fichon, 44, 4 (December '949), p. 80. 'John W. Campbell, Astounding Science Fiction 4j, 1 (March Igso), p. 4. Introduction to a New Science', by L. Ron Hubbard. It will, I believe, be the first publication of the material. It is, I assure you in full and absoiute sincerity, one of the most important articles ever published. In this article, reporting on Hubbard's own research into the engineering question of how the human mind operates, immensely important basic discoverie. are related. Among them: A technique of psychotherapy has been developed which Will cure any insanity not due to organic de;truction of the brain. A technique mhat gives a man a perfect, indelible, total memory, and perfect, errorless ability to compute hu problems. A basic answer, and a technique for curing not alleviating - uicers, arthritis, asthma, and many other nongerm diseases. A totally new conception of the truly incredible ability and power of the human mind. Evidence that insanity is contagious, and is not hrrsditaty. Thls is no wild meory. It is not mysticism. It is a coldly precise engineering description of how the human mind operates, and how to go about restoring correct operation tested and used on some two hundred and fifty cases. And it makes only one overall claim: the methods logically developed from that description worl;. The memory stimulation technique is so powerful that, within thirty minutes of entering therapy, most people will recall in full detail their own birth. I have observed it in action, and used the techniques mysebf. I leave it to your judgement: Will such an alticle be of interest to you? It is not only a fact article of the highest importance; it is the story of the ultimate adventure an exploration in the strangat of all tcrra inrognita; the human mind. No stranger adventure appeared in the Arabian Nights than Hubbard's experience, using his new techniqua, in plowing through the strange jungle of distorted thoughts within a human mind. To find, beyond that zone of madnas, a computing mechanism of ultimate and incredible emciency and perfection! To find that a fuUy ane) enormously able and altruistic personality is trapped deep in every human mind however insane or criminal it may appear on the outside !l These editorial previews attracted inquiries from individuals seeking therapy and traimng, and in April 1950, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation was established to provide the services for which a demand was appearjng. rhcory and practite of Dianetics The eagerly awaited article appeared in the May issue of Astounling.Z There John W. Campbell, 'In tima to come', eistounding Scicnct Fictwn, 45, 2 (Apnl l 950), 5 L Ron Hubbard, 'Dianetia: the evolution of a science', Astounding Scicncc /'iction, 45, 3 (May l950), pp. 45-87. Repnnted with some minor modifications as Dianetics: the Evolution of a Scicncc (Publications Organisation World Wide, 1968), hereafter referred to as ES. An earlier article on Dianetics had appeared in a publieation of the New York Explorers Club, L. Ron Hubbard, 'Terra incognita: the mind', Ihe Extorcr's ournat, 28, 1 (winteSpnng 195O), pp. 1-4, 52. This article presents Hubbard presented a model of the mind as a computer. The 'optimum'mind, Hubbard argued, would have perfect recall of all sense-impressions which had ever impinged upon it, and vastly improved mental agility beyond that of the normal brain. Since this level of optumum functioning is potentially available to every mind, Hubbard called this the 'basic personality': tho basic personalities contacted were invariably strong, hardy, and constructively good ! They were the same personalities as the patients had in a normal state minu certain mental powers, plus electronic demons and plus general unhappiness.l The basic personality was also called a 'clear'. This term was derived from the operation of a calculating machine, in which depressed numbers are released. If left unreleased, the depressed numbers will result in a systematic inaccuracy in future computations. Since the 'normal'mind fell far short of the heights postulated by Hubbard for the basic personality, he argued that like the com puter with a 'held down seven', the normal mind was operahng under the constraints of severe 'aberrations'which limited its capacities and caused mis-computation. These aberrations resulted from pain. Pain was a threat to survival (which Hubbard argues is the basic principle of existence). Therefore the mind the sane, analytical mind sought to avoid it. Evolution had provided a mechanism which made this possible. The 'Reactive Mind'had evolved as a means of protecting the sensitive computing machinery of the 'Analytical Mind'from damage in the face of threats to survival. The reachve mind thinks in identities. It is a stimulus-response mind. Its actions The reactive mmnd thmnks in idenPities. It is a stimulus.response mind. Ib action are exteriorly determined. It has no power of choice. It pnts phyrical pain datt forward during moments of physical pain in an effort to save the organism. So long as its mandates and commands are obged it withholds mhe physical pain. As soon as the organism starts to go against its commands, it indicts the pain.'In moments of pain, unconsciousness or emotional trauma, the analytical mind shuts off and the reactive mind comes into operation. The reactive mind operates on the basis of information stored in the reactive memory banks. The contenb of these reactive banks are 'engrams'and 'locks'.S An engram is a recording of the full perceptic content of a moment of pain, unconsciousness, or emotional loss. Hence, Hubbard argued that wmle it was 5, P 3- 'Ibid., p. 62. Ibid., p. 63. In part of the original Asounding article, the term 'norn'was used instead of 'engram'. Dianetics as an aid to expedition commanders with umbalanced personnel. It had little or no impact. Dianeticists and Scientologists do not in general know ot its existence, and it is of interest solely because it employs the term 'comanome'rather than the earlier term 'impediment', or the later term engram-. This lends some support to Winter's version of the derivation o Dianehc terminology, and hence to his claim that the work ot Richard Semon was unknown to Hubbard at this time. See below, page 36. 20 THE CULT AND ITS TRANSFORMATION believed by orthodox psychology that during periods of unconsciousness, nothing was perceived, he had discovered that there was no period when the organism did not perceive. Perception, however, was performed by different components of the mind the analytical mind during periods of normal consciousness, the reacDive mind duLing periods of 'analytical attentuation'('anaten'), that is what were otherwise believed to be periods of unconsciousness. At some future date should the individual enter an environment which contained any of this perceptic content, the analytical mind would begin to shut off, the reactive mind would come into operation and the individual would experience some of the pain originally contained in the engram, as a warning to leave the situation of danger. For example: Here's how an engram can be established: Mary age 2, knocked out by a dog, dog bites. Content of engram: anaten; age 2 (physical structure); smell of environment and dog; sight of dog jaws gaping and white teeth; organic sensation of pain in back of head (hit pavement); pain in posterior; dog bite in cheek; tactile of dog fur, concrete (elbows on pavement), hot dog breath; emotion; physical pain plus cndocrine response; audio of dog growl and passing car. What Mary does with the engram: she does not 'remember'the incident but somehmes plays she is a dog Jumping on people and biting them. Otherwise no reaction. Then at age ro similar circumstances, no great anaten, the engram is restimulated. After this she has headaches when dogs bark or when cars pass that sound like that car, but only responds to the engram when she is tired or harassed otherwise. The engram was first dormant data waihng just in case. Next it was keyed-in stu^f we Then at age m similar circumstances, no great anaten, the engram is reshmulated. After this she has headaches when dogs bark or when cars pass that sound iike hzt car, but only responds to the engram when she is tired or harassed otherwise. The engram was first dormant data waiting just in case. Next it was keyed-in stuff we have to watch out for. Then it was thereafter restimulated whenever any combina- tion of its perceptics appeared while Mary was in slight anaten (weary). When forry years of age she responded in exactly the same way, and still had not the slightest conscious understanding of the real reason !l If in the formation of the engram words are spoken, these words may have a later effect similar to that of a post-hypnotic suggestion. If the words art subsequently repeated, the engram is 'keyed-in'or partially restimulated, and if 'the individual is slightly anaten weary, ill, sleepy'the engram will be fully restimulated, leading him to behave in aberrated ways. The purpose of Dianetic therapy, therefore, was to gain access to and locate engrams, and 'erase'them from the reactive mind, thus eradicating their effects in the form of psychosomatic illness, emotional tension, or lowered capability, by permitting the analytical mind to operate unimpeded. Hubbard claimed to have a technique which would remove an engramic 'memory'from the reactive mind, refiling it in the memory of the analytical mind where it no longer had engramic effects.Z lxhausting the reactive mind of engrams hence has a number of highly desirable consequences. The individual becomes 'self-determined'rather than having his actions determined by his IES,pp.65-6. Ibid., p. 70. engramS. The analytical mind being a perfect computer would always supply the correct answer from the information fed in, when relieved of the engrams which lead to error.l The individual's IQwould rise dramatically. He would be free of all psychological or psychosomatic illness, his resistance to physical illness would be vastly improved, and he would be able to cure himself of other illnesses or injuries much more rapidly. His memory would vastly improve. He would, in short be a 'clear'. As Hubbard describes it: The experience of his entire life is available to the rlstr and he has all his inherent mental ability and imagination free to use it. His physical vitality and health are markedly improved and all psycho-somatic illnerses have vanished and will not return. He has greater re-istance to actual disease. And he is adaptable to and able to change his environment. He is not 'adjusted'; he is dynamic. His ethical and moral standards are high, his ability to seek and experience pleasure is great. His personality i5 heightened and he i. ereative and constructive. It i9 not yet known how mueh longevity is added to a life in the process of clearing, but in view of the automatic rebalancing of the endocrine system, the lowered incidence of accident and the improvement of general physical tone, it is most eertainly raised. As a standard of comparison, a clear is to the contemporary norm as the eontemporary norm is to a contemporary institutional case....A clear, for instance, has complete recall of everything which has ever happened to him or anything he has ever studied. He does mental computations, such as those of chess, for example, v hich a normal would do in half an hour, in ten or fifteen seconds....He is entirely self-determmned. And hus ereative imagination is high. He ean do a swift study of anything within his intelleetual capacity, which is inherent, and the study would be the equivalent to him of a year or two of training when he war 'normal'. His vigor, persistence and tenacity are very mueh higher than anyone has thought possible. The only obstacle to this desirable state was that while 'locks'- severe restimulations of engrams could be released by 'returning' the individual to the restimulating situation, releasing engrams and hence clearing the reactive mind required that the earliest engram (the 'basic-basic') be located and cleared. Then the therapy could move on to later engrams. Hubbard, claimed in his Astounding article that his 'pre-clears'patients) had first been found to have engrams resulting from birth, but even these did not turn out to be the earliest. The earliest engrams turned out to occur in the period shortly after conception 5 Hubbard's radical claim therefore was that the source of much human illness and incapacity lay in 'pre-natal'engrams. The commonest source of pre-natal engrams Hubbard claimed was attempted abortions. IES,p.76. L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: th: Modern Scenee of Mental Health (Hubbard College of Scientology, East Grinstead, 1968; first publisbed by Hermitage House, New York, 1950), pp 170-l. Thus book will be referred to hereafter as MSMH. 'n the Astauneiing article (p. 81) Hubbard states that the earliest engram he had found occurred twenty-four hours after conCepQon. In the version of this arfiele printed subsequently as ES p. 86, this had been amended to read Shortly eforr concetlon.. THE CULT AND ITS TRANSFORMATION Therapy proceeded in the following manner: The pre-clear lay on a bed or couch in a quiet room. The auditor tells hinn to look at the ceiling. The auditor says: 'When I count from one to seven your eyes will close'. The auditor counts from one to seven and Iceeps counting quietly and pleasantly until the patient close. his eyes. A tremble of the lashes will be noticed in optimum reuerie.l Hubbard insisted that this process of inducing 'Dianetic reverie'was quite different from hypnosis. To ensure against hypnotic suggeshon, however, a canceller is installed. 7:hat is, the pre-clear is told: In the future, when I utter the word Gncelled, everything which I have said to you while you are in a therapy session will be cancelled and will have no force with you. Any suggestion I hrve made to you will be without force v-hen I say the word cancelkd. o you understand?Z The pre-clear is assured he vill be aware of everything that happens. When the pre-clear has entered the state of reverie he is requested to return to childhood, to an incident involving a pleasant experience and to go through it from the beginning recounting all the perceptual detail involved in the incident. This is to give the pre-clear the idea of what is expected. If he cannot recall (or 'relive'in Hubbard's view) such an early incident, he is returned to a more recent incident. After further prelirninaries the auditor directs the pre-clear to return to 'basic-basic'. He does this by direchng the 'file-clerk'(a hypothetical entity which 'monitors' the memory banks and selects appropriate material on request by the auditor)3 to return to the incident necessary to resolve the case. Generally, the basic-basic is not located so simply, however, and other engramic material will be brought up. This has to be 'reduced', that is the pre-clear is asked to return to the begiDning of the incident and recount all the perceptual detail involved in the incident. The pre-clear is directed to recount this incident until all the emotion involved in it is discharged. MSMH, p. 159. 'MSMH, p. 200. S Ibid., p. 198. The cnteria for what counts as the reduction or erasure of an engram aro given by Hubbard as follows: 'To reduee means to take all the eharge or pain out of an incident. This means to have the pre-elear recount the incident from heginmng to end (while returned to it in revene) over and over again, piceing up all the somatics and perceptions present just as though the incident were happening at that moment. To reduce means, teehnieally, to render free of aberrative material as far as possible to mahe the case progress. 'To "erase" an engram means to recount it until it has vanished enhrely....If the engram is early, if it has no material earlier which will suspend it, that engrann will "erase'. The patient, trying to find it again for a second or sixth reeounting will suddenly find out he has no faintest idea whatwas in it. SI'vlfl, p. 287. The 'file-clerk'is then asked for 'the next incident required to resolve this case', and the process is repeated. Ideally, basic-basic would be located and erased and the pre-clear then progressively cleared of all subsequent engrams and locks. Often, however, this would not occur and it would therefore be necessary to end the session at some convenient pomt, usually after the reduction of an engram. (The modal length of a Dianetics session was generally around two hours, but when the pre-clear was 'stuck in an incident', that is, an engram, it might occasionally last several hours,) The pre-clear would be told to 'come up to present time'. The auditor might then question him as to the time, location, etc., to ensure that he was 'in present time'. He would then say 'Cancelled' and end the session. ...(work continues until the auditor has worked the patient enough for the period) ...Come to present hme. Are you in present time? (Yes) (Use canceller word). When I count from five to one and snap my fingers you will feel alert. Five, four, three, two, one. (snap) 'The thrust of the auditing activity was to get the pre-clear to return to the 'basic area', that is, the area of pre-natal experience, contact the basic-basic engram and erase it, and then move along the 'time-track'erasing later life engrams until the individual was cleared. In order to reach the basic-basic, ho-vever, it was generally believed necessary to reduce, or discharge the painful emotion from later life trauma which blocked access to it. In the course of therapy the pre-clear was often unable to contact an earlier engramic incident and would verbalize this inability with a phrase such as 'I can't go back at this point'.8 Such a phrase is an engramic command, which must be overcome by means of 'repeater'technique. This technique simply involves getting the pre-clear to repeat the phrase over and over again, similar phrases, and anything else the pre-clear might add. For example: Woman: All I get is 'Take her away'. Auditor: Go over that again. Woman: Take her away [repeated three timesl. Auditor: Go over it again. Woman: Take her away. Auditor: Go over it again Woman: No no, I won't. Auditor: Go over it again Woman: I won't I won't, I wont, I wont. Auditor: Go over it again take her away. Go over the phrase again. Take he away. Woman: Take her away [cryingl No, no. I MSMH, p. 202. : MSlqH, p. 124. u TIIE CULT AND ITS TRANSFORMATION Auditor: Go over the phrase, take her away. Woman: Take...take [cryingl, no, no. Auditor: Go over the words 'no, no'. Woman: No, no, no. Auditor: Go over it again. Woman: No. Auditor: Go over it again. Woman: [Moaning... don't...Auditor: Go over it again, go over 'don't'. Woman: [Crvingl. Auditor: Go over the word 'don't'. Woman: Don't, don't, don't, don't, [Etc.ll Repetition of such phrases, Hubbard argues 'sucks the patient back down the track and into contact with an engram wbich contains it',2 sometimes facilitating the reduction of tbat engTam, or otherwise releasing emotional charge from the reactive bank. Another important technique was that of securing a 'dash answer'. This technique was typically employed to discover where on the turte-track the pre clear was stuck, that is v-hen an engram had occmTed which had since been a major source of aberration, and to discover the nature of the incident.3 In the first case, the auditor would tell the pre-clear, 'When I eount to five...a phrase will flash into your mmnd to describe where you are on the track. One, two, three, four, five!''Late pre-natal', says the pre-clear, or 'yesterday'or whatever occurs to him.'UICUI WaS SUmi, IllamS ynen an ellgram naCt OCCUI.:.. Wllmll nac smce ueen a major source of abenation, and to discover the nature of the incident.3 Counting was later replaced by snapping the fingers, in order to discover the nature of an incident about which the pre-clear, unaided, vas not fortheoming: The auditor asks a series of questions wbich will identify the incident and receives flash answers on a yes-no basis. The auditor says, 'When I snap my fingers you will answer yes or no to me following question': 'Hospital?'(snap!), and the pre-clear answers yes or no. Such a series of quesdons and answers might run as follows: 'Accident?''Yes''X3spital?''No''Mother?''Yes' 'Outdoors?''No''Fall down?' 'This example is taken from an actual auditing situation, a recording of a public demonstration of Dianetic auditing, given by L. Ron Hubbard on 28 September 195l. For further illustrations of repeater technique in Dianetics sessions, see Walter Braddeson, Sciensoloyft the Millions (Sherbourne Press, Los Angeles,lg6g), pp, 83-5 87-9, 9l. : MSMH, p. V15. t MSMH, p. 296; L Ron Hubbard Science of Suruiuol (Hubbard Dianetic Founda tion Inc., Wicbita, Kaosas, 1951), I, pp. m4-5; 11, pp. 57-8. All references are to tb Tenth Printing, published by Hubbard College of Scientology, :ast Grinstead Sussex, 1 967 Hereafter referred to simply as Science of Surviu sl. 'hlSMH, p. 296. THE CULT PHAsr: DlArTIcs 3 'No''Cut?''Yes''Kitchen? Yes'. And tuddenly Lho pre-ciear may remember the incident or get a visio of the scene or remember or get a soric recall of what his mother said to him,, 1 'rhe backgound to the theory atld pTattite of Dianetits Dianetics was a form of abreaction therapy, with strong similarities to a variety of techniques then in use. Since Hubbard himseif has asserted the originality of the entire theory and practice and acknowledges having been induenced only in a most general way by other writers, it is difficult to be certain of the sources of his synthesis. Ideas which approximate to many aspects of the theory and practice of Dianetics were currently available m orthodox and fringe psychology, although it is not certain how much Hubbard may have derived from them, and it is clear that he added manv entirely original elements of his own. The theory that aspects of human behaviour might be explained as responses to traumatically (and, of course, other) conditioned stimuli was prominent in psychology following the work of Pavlov and Watson. Pavlov's work on the induction of 'experimental neuroses'in dogs was taken up by psychiatrists impressed by the correspondence between his ciinical descriptions of these neu- roses and the acute war neuroses they observed in evacuated soldiers.2 'Phe therapy developed to treat these neuroses was an abreaction therapy, described as follows by Sargant: A drlla wolld he adminit,red to a...labent...and as it starred to take effect, A drug would be administered to a... patient...and as it started to take effect, an endeavour would be made to make him re-live the episodes that had caused his breakdown. Sometimes the episode, or episodes, had been mentally suppressed, and the memory would have to be brought to me surface again. At other times it was fully remembered, but the strong emotions originally attached to it had since been suppressed. The marked improvement in the patients nervous condition was attri- buted to the releasing of these original emotions.'The technique of suggesting quite imaginary situations to a patient under drugs, leading to abreaction of fear or anger was found to be as equally effective in the restoration of mental health, as getting him to re-live actual traumatic experiences.4 The therapeutic role of abreaction had been systematically explored first by Breuer and Freud,s whose investigations revealed that the root of many hysterical symptoms lay in the experience of psychological trauma: Science of Surviual, H, pp 57-8. 'William Sargant, Bttlefor the Mnd (Pan Books, London, 1 959). Ibid., Pr7 Ibid., pp. 17-18. 6Joseph breuer and Sigmund Freud, Sludies in Hysteria, Vol 11 of the Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of 8igmund Freud (Hogarth Press, London, Ig I Hr CULT AND ITS TRANSb'ORMATlON Any experience which calls up distTessing affects such ai those of hight, anxiety, shame or physieal pain may operate as a trauma of this kind. The affect associated with the traumatic situation is repressed rather than discharged when the individual is unable to react due to social circumstances or because it involved something he wished to forget, or when the expenence occurred while the patient was in a 'dissociated'or 'hypnoid'state of mind, that is, when under conditions of: severely paralysing affects, such as fright, or during positively abnormal psychical states, such as the semi-hypno;ic twilight state of day-dreaming, auto-hypnoses, and so on.'The memory of the traumatic experience is either partially or completely out of normal consciousness but can be aroused 'in accordance with the law-s of association...by a new experience which sets it going owing to a similarity with the pathogenic experience'.S The aim of therapy was therefore to bring the original experience with its associated affect into consciousness, and get the patient to describe the event in detail, thereby arousing and discharging the accompanying affect: We found...that each individual hysterical symptom immediately and permanently disappeared when v e had succeeded in bringing clearly to light the memory of the event by which it v as provoked and in arousing its accompanyi affect, and when the patient had described that event in the greatest possible detail and had put the affeet into words...' Althouh Freud first employcd hvDnosis as a mn f I Although Freud first employed hyPnosis as a means of locating traumatic material and bringing it to consciousness, he shortly found that some patient could not be effectively hypnotized. This led him to the creation of a new technique for extending the pahent's memory. He would ask his patients if they recalled what occasioned the symptoms. He assured them they did know: . After this I became still more insistent; I told the patients to lie down and deliberately close their eyes in order to 'concentrate'...I then found that without any hypnosis new recollections emerged whieh went further back and which probabi related to our topic.'Should the patient still prove recalcitrant, Freud would then apply manual pressure to the patient's head, assuring him that when he did this a recollection would come to mmnd P The parallels with early Dianetic practice are quite striking. With only minor modifications in practice and terminology Dianetic theory and practice might 'Ibid.,p.6. 'Ibid., p. m. 'Ibid., p. r6. i Ibid., p. 6, emphasis omitted. Ibid., p. z68. Ibid., p. z70. .......ll A ,. I I A N I I l: b aa have been adapted from that of early Freud. That this is more than merely a possibility is suggested by John W. Campbell's letter to Dr Joseph Winter in July 1949 telling of Hubbard's discoveries, 'His approach is, actually, based on some very early work of Freud's, some work of other men, and a lot of original research'.l The process of engram formation resembles the mechanism of repression elaborated by Freud, and Hubbard's distinction between the analytical and the reactive mind loosely fits Freud's distinction of the conscious and unconscious. There are even hints in Freud's discussion of the analysis of hysteria which strongly suggest an ongin for Hubbard's notion of the 'file-clerk', for example: consequences of the manuall pressure give one a deceptive impression of there being a superior intelligenee outside the patients consciousness which keeps a large amount of psychical material arranged for particular purposes and has fixed a planned order for its return to consciousness. or yet more directly, it was as though we were ellamining a dossier that had been kept in good order. The analysis of my patient Emmy von N. contained similar files of memories..These files form a quite general feature of every analysis and their contents al-vays emerge in a chronological order...'although the order was the reverse of the actual experiential order. Hubbard's 'file-clerk'did not always deal with matters in such a systematic fashion. In one published comment, Hubbard admitted a considerable psychoana- In one published comment, Hubbard admitted a considerable psychoanalytic influence on early Dianetics: lytic influence on early Dianetics: In the earhest befjinning of Dianetics it is possible to trace a corsiderable psychoanalytic influerce. There was the matter of ransacking the past; the matter of believing with Freud mat if one could talk over his difficulties they would alleviate and there was the matter of coneentrating on early childhood. Our first improve ment on psycho-analysis itseh consisted of the abandonment of talk alone and the direct address to the incident in its own area of time as a mental image picture susceptible to erasure. But many of the things which Freud thought might exist, such as 'life in the womb', 'birth trauma', we in Dianetics and Scientology confirmed and for them provided an adequate alleviation. The discovery of the engram is entirely the property of Dianetics. Methods of its erasure are also owned entirely by Dianetics, but both of these were pointed to by early Freudian analysis and Hypnohsm.'Despite the fact that Freud had abandoned the practice, hypnotic abreactive therapy was widely developed during the 19305 and 1 g40s.r The phenomena of Cited in Winter, op. cit., p. 3. reuer and Freud, op. cit., p. 272. Ibid., p. z88. 4 L Ron Hubbard, 'A critique of psycho-analysis 3', Cerhinly, 9, 7 (1962, p. g. 5 8ee the discussion of and reference to, earlier work in Jacob H Conn, 'Hypnosyn- thesis: III Hypnotherapy of chronic war neuroses with a discussion of the value of 34 THL CULT AND ITS TRANSrORVATlON spontaneous and induced regression had also been explored under hypnosis,l and it was known that age regression could be induced by suggestion in a non- hypnotic state.3 Moreover, the phenomenon of hypnotically age-regTessed patients reporting details of intra-uterine life, on being told they were at an appropriate age, had been observed.3 In the practice of hypnosis a distinction was sometimes drawn between regTeSSion, described as a 'half-conscious dramatisation of the present understanding of that previous time', and reuiuiication, described as 'the type of time regression in which the hypnotic situation itself ceases and the subject is plunged directly into the chronological past'. The term regression was generaLly used for both kinds of phenomena, and some doubt was thrown on the status of such a process of returning to early periods of childhood, when Young in a controlled experimental study showed that a sample of controls requested to simulate the performances of three-year-olds at measured by a series of tests were able to approximate such performances more accurately than hypnotized subjects ordered to regress to their third birthday. Young felt the results of his experiment better supported an explanation in terms of which the hypnotized subjects 'v ere unwittingly playing a role, and playing it less skilfully than the controls by virtue of having voluntarily surrendered their critical attitudes during the trance...'than an explanation in terms of any actual return, or recovery of actual memories of the time in question.5 Hubbard was clearly familiar with some of this work. He was an experienced practitioner of hypnosis, and in MSMH carefully distinguished returning and reliving in Dianetics from regression and revivification in hypnosis.C Although the 'recalling'of the experience of birth and prenatal life had been 'Milton H. Erickson, 'Hypnotic treatment of acute hysterical depression: report of acaseArchiuesofNeurologyandpsychiaty46(lg4l)p.l76i Merton M. Cill,'Spontaneous regression on the induetion of hypno5i5, Bullehn of the Menninger Clinic, 12, 2 (1948), pp. 41-8. Leonard T. Maholick, The infant in the adult', Psychasomatic Medicine, t t (1949), pp. 295-337- 5J. H Masserman, Yhe dvDamics of hypnosis and brief psychotherapy' Archiues of Neurology and Psychaty, 46 (1941), ppm 76-9. 'Milton H. Enckson and Lawrence S. Kuble, Succe55ful treatment of a case of acute hysterical depression by return under hypno5i5 to a critical phase of childhood', Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 4 (1941), pp. 585 609. 5 Paul Campbell YounS, Hypnotic regremion fact or artifact?' 3aurnal of Aonormal and Social Psychology 35 (1940), pp. 273-8. 6 MSMH p. 12. The reason given for the terminological substitution is that regression had pejorahve connotahons, and 'revivificahon was something that happened under hypnosis. As Dianeties did not employ hypno5i5, reliving'was more appropriate. abreaction, regression, and revivification, 30unal of Cinical and Bxerisnenlal Hymosis (1953), pp. 29-43; Lewis R Wolberg, Hynoanaiysis (Grune & Stratton, -ew York 1945). THr CULT PHASL: DIAI'IZTICS 35 noted in hypnotized sabjects, it was little explored in the main streams of psychology. Experimental work had been conducted on the possibility of conditioning the unborn child with considerable success during late pregnancy,l but the influence of the experience of birth and pre-natal life on later psychological development was most actively explored by Otto Rank and his followers. Rank held that the origins of neurosis lay not in the Oedipus complex, but in the trauma of birth.t Phyllis Greenacre developed this theory fuTther, suggesting that events in intra-uterine life, particularly after the seventh month of pregnancy when responsiveness to sound begins to appear, might have a traumatic effect on the foetus leading to reactions akin to anxiety and influencing later psychological development.a Finally, Nandor Fodor, in a book published by the publishers of llSM only the year before Hubbard's book, also argued that pre-natal traumata were the cause of later life neuroses, and, curiously presaging Hubbard's thought, argued that...nature left the unborn child unprotected against the violence of parental intercourse in the advanced stage. of gestation, and thus exposed it to an ordeal the traumaticnatureofwhichisclearlytraceableindreamsthrough-outourlives. : and that accidents su fered by the mother may expose the unborn to physical shoct s through the protective amniotic cushion....'' The need to relive'the rcpressed memory of birth and pre-natal trauma The need to 'relive'the repressed memory of birth and pre-natal trauma stressed by Fodor,7 also appears in a book by an English healer.e There Eeman discusses pre-natal memory and the successful treatment of a number of cases of apparently organic disability by a non-hypnotic abreactive therapy based on re-living traumatic experiences. I David K. Spelt, 'The conditioning of the human foetus in ut6ro', ournal of Fxperitnenhl Psycholog, 38 (1948), pp. 338-46. 2 Otto Rank, rhe rrauma of Buth (Harcourt Brace & Co, New York, 1929). J Phyllis Greenacre, 'The predisposition to anxiety, Psychoanalyic Quarterly, m (l94l)J pp. 66-94- Nandor Fodor, rhe Search for the Beloued: a Clmlcal Investigation of the rrauma of Brth and Pre-natal (:;onditioning (Hermitage Press, New York, 1949), p. 3og For a resume of Rank, Greenacre and Fodor, see J. A. C. Brown, Freud and the PostFrradians (PenguinBooks,Harmondsworth, Ig64),pp.32-s.Thepublisherof MSMH, a member of the Bay Head cirele, assured me that Hubbard did not know of Fodor's work publisbed in that first year before the public appearance of Dianetics. This may, of course, have been the case. Hov. ever, Fodor suggests that the unborn child may have knowledge of what is going on outside the womb by means of telepathy. Hubbard takes pams to rebut the thesis of telepathically derived knowledge, wichout mentioning Fodor, MSMH, pp. 3zo-1. 'Fodor, op. Clt., p. 193. L E. Eeman, G-operatiue Healing (Erederick Muller, London, 1947). pp. 1oz-z4 The practice of securing 'flash answers', known as a eechnique of induced association also existed in the practice of hypnotherapy. Brenman and Gill refer to such a technique, which was employed if a patient was unable to answer a question in therapy, or if the answer was unenlightening: the general formula applied was: 'I will count to a certain number and when I reach thae number you will tell me the first thing that occuri to you in eonnectien with so-and-so.'l The notion of 'reverie'is referred to in the work of Baudouins but not as a state to be induced for therapeutic purposes. The notion of the 'engram'alsr need not have been sought far.a It was a commonly current term used to designate a memory trace, or an altered condition in tissue or neura structure as a result of excitation or stimulus and was employed by a number of psychologists.4 Hubbard's theories regarding the operation of the reactive mind, which 'computes in identities'may owe something to Count Alfred Korzybski, whose General Semantics located the source of many of Man's llls in misguided tendency to think in terms of identification, or to his follower Hayakawa.s How much Hubbard's theones derived from Richard Semon's work is now I Margaret srenman and Merton M. Gill, pnotherapy: a Surre of I hc Lieraturc (Internahonal Umversihes Press, New Yor, 1947), p. a4. 2 Charlrs saudouin Saggestwn and Autosuggeston (Allen Unwin, London, Igzo), 1 Margaret Brenman and Merton M. Gill, ypnothrrapy: a Surrey of t hc Literatwe (Internadonal Universities Press, New York, 1947), p. 84. Charles Baudouin, Suggestion and Autoruggcston (Allen & Unwin, London, 1920), p. 130. Wmter claims the search went no farther than Dorland's Medical Dietionary (W. B. Saunders & Co, Philadelphia, 1936). See Winter, op. cit., p. 18. Richard Semon, rhc Mn6m6 (Allen & Unwin, London, 1921); K. Koffka, Principles of Gcstait Psychalogy (Harcourt & Brace, New York, 1935); Charles K. Ogden and I. A. Iichards, 'rhe Meaning of Meaning (Kegam Paul, London, 1946); and Karl S. Lashley, 'In search of the engram', Society of xp6rim6nlal Biolog)l Symposium JVo. st - Physioi6gical Mechanisms in Animal P6haviour (Cambndge University Press, Cambridge, 950), pp. 454 82. 6 5, I. Hayakawa, 'From science-fiction to fiction-seience', I'rC, 8 (1951), p. 285; Paul Kecskemeti, 'A review of General Semantics', JVew Lead6r, 38, 17 (25 April 1955), pp. Z4-5; Alfred Korzybski, Scieru andSanity (International Non-Anitotelian Library Publishing Co, New York, 1933); Gardner, op. cit., Chapter 23 Some Dianetieists saw clear parallels: 'Korzybskd's...work is implicit in Hubbard's', '...Hubbard [is obviously an old and expert student of general semantirs...'Dianotes, 1, 5 (December 1951), p. 1 m In some of his later works, Hubbard does credit Korzybski along with Aristotle, Isaac Newton, Confucius, etc. a 'source material', e.g. the 'Foreword'to L. Ron Hubbard, Scitntolog o goaod, sm edn (Hubbard College of Scientology, East Grinstead, Susser. 1967). 'S. I. Hayakawa, Laneuagc in rhought and Action (Allen & Unwin, London, 1965). The first US edition appeared in 1949. This book is also notable in this context for its emphasis on the role of surDiuai as a motivating principle, an idea prominent in Hub- bard's writing. diffic-llt to determine. Semon's 'mnemic psychology'certainly appears to have anticipated some Hubbardian ideas. Semon proposed the existence of a mnemic property, that is, a tendency for organic tissue to be modified as a result of stimulation. This modification produced by the stimulus, Semon called an engram.l This stimulus impression could be reactivated, or in Semon's termin ology, 'ecphoriSed by the complete or partial recurrence of 'the energetic conditions which ruled at the generation of the engram'.2 Under conditions of the strongest 'ecphoric effect', the mnemiC state of exci[ation reproduces the original excitation in all its proper proportions, inclusive of time values.'Semon describeS such an engram and its ecphory from bis own expenence: We were onee standing by the Bay of Saples and saw Capri Iying before us; near by an organ-grinder played on a large barrel organ; a peculiar smell of oil reacbed usfromaneigbbouring'trattorialithesunwasbeatingpitilesslyanourbacksi and our boots in which we had been tramping for hours, pinched us. Many years after, a similar smell of oil ecpborised most vividly the optic engram of Capri, and even now this smell has invariably the same effect.t In his later intmiC Psycholog, Semon stresses the vividness of 'mnemic sensations': When associatiS ely...there is ecphorised the mnemic image of some old teaeher whose stupid grammatical contentiousness and generr l pedantry made him the chief object of our boyhood hatred thirty years ago we do not merely 'remember'this person, dead for fifteen years past, but we sec him in the flesh. Thus the wbole simultaneous stratum of the engram-complex to which he belongr in our dream, and which has 'ecphorised'him as its central figure, gains reality, appearing not as the ecphory of an old stratum but as that of a present one...We are ourselves thirty years younger; we are again going to school and having to pass our final examinations.5 This is, of course, all highly remimscent of Hubbard's theory. The engram is substantially the same in each case, and indeed in his early work Hubbard suggested that the engram was retained as a cellular recordmg.S Ecphory and restimulation are exact parallels and both are evoked through association. Hubbard goes very much further than Semon, however. Hubbard's engram is created during periods of unconsciousness, pain, or emotional losr, while Semon's is created during normal consciousness. When restimulated, it takes Richard Semon, rhe Mneme (Allen & Unwin, London, 1921). 2 Ibid..p. 145'Ibid., P149' Ibid., p. 92. t Ricbard Semon, /llnemic Psycholo y (Allen & Unwin, London, 1923), p, 221. Semon planned a further work Pahology of Mneme whicb would treat the subiect of the disappearance of engrams. However, as far as I can discover, this work was never written. For example,.SMH, p 7 n complete command of the individual, rather than being a further, albeit sometimes powerful, stimulus. There is no suggestion in Semon's work that engrams are a cause of psychosomatic illness, nor practices for the elimination of engrams. If Hubbard was influenced by Semon's work, little more was derived from this source than the notions of the engrarn and its restimulation, ideas which were available elsewhere, as I have indicated.l Unfortunately, the fact that 'engram'was not the first choice of terminology for Hubbard's pubhshed work does not altogether settle the matter. Hubbard first used the term 'impediment', then 'norn' and 'comanone'(the latter at Winter's suggestion2), and not until then was 'engram'publicly used. Hubbard may have begun with the notion of engram derived from Semon (or elsewhere) and sought an alternative terminology to distinguish his own ideas from those other conceptualizations which emploved the term. Winter is, however, emphatic that during the Bayhead penod, '...Semon's work was unknown to our group'.3 In the absence of any stronger evidence. Winter's word must be accepted. Deuelopments in theory und ,tuchce Dianetics theory and practice developed rapidly. By the end of l950 in a series of lectures in Galifornia, Hubbard introduced a distinction that formed the basis of further theoredcal change, between 'MEST'and 'theta'. MEST (Matter, Energy, Space, Time) was Hubbard's acronvm for the matenal or physical Energy, Space, Time) was Hubbard's acronym for the material or physica'universe, whmle theta stood for the universe of thought.'Hubbard also introduced the notion of the A-R-C (Amnity, Reality, Communication) triangle. This involved the idea that these three components were mutually related so that 'when reahty is low affimty and communication wil be low. When com- mumcation is high, amnity and reality will be high'.5 Moreover, Hubbard estabiished a fundamental principle of the movement's epistemology: Reality i5 that upon which we agree If I say there are twelve black cats on the rtage and you don't agree someone is insane. The prime insanity is not to agree with another's reality.' Agreement and reahty are synonymous. We agree upon romething: it becomes reahty. We don't agree. There isn't reahty.7 See Koftka, op. eit., Ogden and Richards, op. cit., and Lashley, op. cit. Winter, op. cit., p. 17-18. 'Winter, op. cit., p. 18, L. Ron Hubbard's ltotes on the Lcctur7s of L. Rotl uboard, Edited by the Stahf of the California Foundation (Hubbard Communications Omce Ltd, Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, 1962). From lectures delivered late 1950. Eirst published 195. Hubbard's predilectiols for acronyns and contractions to form new words probably dates from his naval days. i he practice is particularly prominent among U.S. milhary personnel, S ibid., p. 9. Ibid., pp 17-18. 7 Ibid., p. 57. Y he dynamic ibrinciple of ex*eice S URVI VE ! Survival, considered as the single and sole Purpose, subdivides into four dyrarnics.By symbiote is meant all entities and energies which aid survival. DYNAMIC ONE is the urge of the individual toward survival for the individual and his symbiotes. DYNAMIC TWO is the urge of the individual toward survival through procreation; it includes both the sex act and the raising of progeny, the care of children and their symbiotes. DYNAMIC THREE is the urge of the individual toward survival for the group or the group for the group and includes the symbiotes of that group. DYNAMIC FOUR is the urge of the individual toward survival for Mankind or the urge toward survival of Mankind for Mankind as well as the group for Mankind, etc., and includes the symbiotes of ankind.1 By the end of I950 these had increased to seven: Fifth Dynamic Life Sixth Dynamic MEST Seventh Dynamic Theta By August I95I a further dynamic had been added and some of the others modified DYNAMIC FIVE is the urge to survive as a life organism and ernbraces all living organisms. DYNAMIC SIX is the urge to survive as part of the physical universe and includes the survival of the physical universe. DYNAMIC FIVE is the urge to survive as a life organism and embraces all living organusms. DYNAMIC SEVEN is the urge toward survival in a spiritual sense. DYNAMIC EIGHT is the urge toward survival as a part of or ward of a Supreme Being.3 The optimum solution to any problem, Hubbard argued was the 'solution which brings the greatest benefit to the greatest number of dynamics'.4 At this point Hubbard had not developed the theory of lianetics beyond a concern with the current lifetime. However, the period in which engrams could occur had been pushed back so that 'now, they have found an aberrative sperm and ovum series. Normally, however, the earliest engram is one day after conception. '5 I MSM, pp37-83 Hubbard, Notes on the Lectres, pp. 95-6. 3 Science of Survi7)al, I, p. xi. 4 Hubbard, Notes on the I ect1lres, p. 96. 6 Ibid., p. 13I. Winter also comments on this period: 'InYestigation of the "past death" or the "last death" in less imaginative patients had only a brief popularity. It was replaced by the ''sperm-ovum sequence, which was defined as the ''recolle tionS of occurrences at the moment of a person's conception ' Winter op. cit., p. 189. A definite public commitment by Hubbard to 'past lives'did not occur unt after Hubbard's break with Don Purcell and the Wichita Foundation,l in 195 although he made reference to past lives and deaths in Science of Sunlival put lished in ugust 1951.' The concept of 'theta'was expanded to incorporate not only thought, but 'life-force, elan vital, the spirit, the soul..d3 Theta, Hubbard argued, was constantly becoming entangled wih MEST. When they came together 'forcefully'and 'intermingled "permanently"'an engram was formed.9 Theta and MEST became 'enturbulated'in the reactive mind Processing therefore involved releasing the theta held in the reactive mind as 'entheta' 'enturbulated theta) and restoring ir to the analytical mind. Science of Survwal was organized around the 'Tone Scale'. This scale purported to indicate a range of characteristics associated with the amount of 'free theta'available to the analytic mind. Locating a pre-clear in terms of ke criteria on the scale permitted the prediction of other characteristics possessed by that individual (or group). Hence, being at 1 l on the tone scale meant one was in a state of 'covert hostility'and therefore psychotic.9 Among the other features of such an individual are that he is 'incapable, capricious, irresponsible'. Point 4 o on the tone scale meant that the individual was a MEST clear, he would be 'Near accident proof. No psveho-somatic ills. Nearly immune to bacteria' and he would have a 'high courage leve'.'T he tone scale also provided the basis for political observations by Hubbard. In Science of Survival, for example, liberalism is identmed as 'higher-toned'than fascism, which is 'higher-toned'than communism.S One major innovation in technique was that of 'straight-wire' processing, or 'straight memory': 1 The history of Hubbard's relationship vrith and secession from Don Purcell and the Wchlta Eoundation is detailed below (pp. 7 7-95). Science of Survwa(, I, p. 61, Hubbard states: 'The subject of past deaths and past lives ls so fnll of tension that as early as lastJuly [Igso-Ed.l the board of trustees of the Foundation sought to pass a resolution banning the entire subject.'He would onlv eommlt humtelf to the view that some past life and past death expenences 'seem to be valid and reaH. , He also insisted these experiences should be run as normal engrams, and not mvalidated or neglected. Sclence of Survivtl, 11, p. g5. 3Ibid.,l,p.4. 'Ibid.,l,p.8. S Hubbard was wont to describe those who disagreed with him as 'I 1'In the light of the later campaign in Scientology for civil rights for the insritutionaiized mental patient, it is interesting to observe that in Saente vf Survival individuals below 2.0 on the tone scale are identified as 'psychotic'and Hubbard argues 'any person from 2.0 kmd. Science of Survioel, 1, p 131 r 'Hubbard Chart of Human Evaluation and Dianetic Procersing' supplied as a loose sheet with Science of Survival. 7 Ibid. Sciencc of Survivai, 1, p. 124. Straight memory consists of the pre-clear's staying in present time with his eyes wide open and being asked to remember certain things which have been said to him and done to him during his life time. He is not asked to return to these incidents. He is asked only to recognise their existence.l It was specifically directed at the pre-clear who 'has difficulty remembering'but seems to have been used as a tacit coaching device to instruct pre-clears who had difficulty contacting incidents in auditing. If the pre-clear says bluntly that he cannot remember tbings, it is up to the auditor to encourage and validate this pre-clear's memory. If the pre-clear says 'I can't remember names', the auditor says, 'Well, what is the name of your business associateThepre-clearsays, Oh,hisnameisJones!'Theauditorhasproventothe pre-clear that the pre-clear can remember at least one name.'Coaching the pre-clear may have had an important part in the effective running of Dianetic auditing. For example: There is a triek of reaching conception in a case...The auditor asks the pre-clear to run a moment of sexual pleasure, and then when his pre-clear, who does not have to recount this moment aloud appears to be settled into that moment, the adit r dennends )hat the pre-clecr go innmediky o concrption. The pre-clear will normally do 50,, ,s In this case, Hubbard is auditing a woman and has returned her to infancy: Woman: I'm imagining being a baby. Hubbard: All right. What do you see there. Wbat's your visio as you're Iying there being a baby? Woman: I guesS there was a crib. Hubbard: Let's take a look at it. Woman : All I can see. Just holding on to the side of the crib. Hubbard: You'reholdingon.Howyoufeellyingthereinthecrib? Woman: I'm sitting. Hubbard: You're sitting in the crib. And wbo comes into the room? Woman: [unclear, possibly a namel. Hubbard: What does he look like ? [Mother entersl Hubbard: t..l All right, now what's her voice sound like ? Woman: I don't understand it. Hubbard: What's she saying. What language? Is it a different language? Woman: Yes. Hubbard: Well wbat language is it? All rigbt, pick up the fiBt word she says, how's Ibid., II, p. 68. S Srience of Svrvivai, 11, p. 69. Ibid., 11, pp. 17g-4. (My emphasis.) THE CULT AND ITS TRANSFORIATION it sound? Go to the moment of the first word she says. How does it sound ? Woman: [Laughsl Hubbard: What is it? Woman: Maboushsa.l A further major technical change was the introduction of 'lock scanning'. Locks and engrams were held to form chains of similar kinds of incident for example, all occasions when the pre-clear suffercd a break in affinity, or an enforced agreement. It was claimed that to run each of these incidents in early Dianetic fashion would be far too lengthy a process, but that an equt lly effective and far speedier procedure was simply to get the pre-clear to 'scan'in his mind similar types of incidents from the earliest to the latest. The auditor asks the file clerk if there is a type of incident which can be scanned in the ease. The file clrrk, at a snap of the auditor's fingers, answers yes or no. The auditor requests the name of the type of incident. The file clerk gives the name of the type of incident. The auditor then tells the pre-clear to go to the earliest available moment on this chair. of locks...the auditor tells the pre-clear to scan from this earliest moment to present time through all incidents of the type named.a Scanning such chains several times, Hubbard argued, was an effective way of converting entheta into theta (that is freeing theta). Hubbard's next major work after SGe7ce of Sunitcl marked a turning point in the developrnent of the theory and practice of the movennent. While Dianctics convertmg entneta mm theta (that IS treemg theta). Hubbard's next major work after Science of Survit el marked a turning point in the development of the theory and practice of the movement. While Dianetics had hitherto maintained that engrams were a result of what had been done to the pre-clear, Advanced Procedure and As ionts presented the idea that the individual was responsible for his engrams: Evervthing which is wrong with [the pre-clearl he has selectively and particularly chosen to be wrong with him.3 'L. Ron Hubbard, Reeordjng of a public demonstration of Dianetie auditing, September tgsn For a clear caze of eoaching see the auditing session reported by Joseph Winter, reprinted in Gardner, op. cit., pp. r76-8. The following aceount of a reporter's unsuccezsful auditing session reported in a magazine also seems apposite: 'The expenment by one of the foremost practihoners in the new seience was not a success. My "engrams" were playing hard-to-get, or my pre-natal recording device was faultv. After two hours of attempting to recall the phrases heard in cbildhood or before, Schofield switched on the lights and said: "You should read The Book [MSMHl more carefully".' RolandWild,'Everymanhisownpsyehoanalyst',/ llusraed(305eptemherl950),p. 18. It is not my intention to suggest that 'eoaching'was consciously carned out by auditors rather, as many inveztigations into psychotherapy and psychological experiment show, the therapist or experimenter may give many unconscious cues as to what he wants or expectz from his patient or subjeet. r Science of Suruiuat, vol. 1 l, pp. Ir4-5. L. Ron Hubbard, Aduanced Procedure and Azioms (hereafter APA) (Central Press, Wiebita, Kansas, 1951), p. 7. Quotations are from the fourth edition, 1962, published by Hubbard Communieationz Omce Ltd, East Gnnztead, Sussex. Each individual at some time in the past chose some means of securing sympathy or 'co-operation on the part of the environment'l which seemed at the time necessary for his survival. This v as called the 'service facsimile'.a Thereafter, the individual became subject to the service facsimile, believing it essential to his continued survival. Restoring the individual's self-determinism therefore required the release of the service facsimile.a This volume also contained the 'Definitions, Logics and Axioms', a set of numbered assertions descnbed as 'logics', 'corollaries', 'axioms'and 'definitions', for example: Axiom 68 The single arbitrary in any organism is time. Axiom 69 - Physieal universe perceptions and efforts are received by an organism a force waves, convert by facsimile into thetc and are thus stored. Definition: andomity is the mis-a ignment through the internal or external efforts by other forms of life or the material universe of the efforts of an organism, and is imposed on the physical organism by counter efforts in the environment.t Hubbard's next significant book, although first issued at the Wichita Foundation made a clear commitment to immortality and employed the term scientology', providing the vehicle for his secession from the Wichita Dianeticists on the basis of a new 'science'. Social oenization end development With the publication of MSllfH and the article in Astounding, Dianetics emerged organizationally in two forms. Organized around L. Ron Hubbard was the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation [hereafter referred to as the Foundation the Elizabeth Foundation, or HDRFl, incorporated in April tgso in Elizabeth, I'ew Jersey. The Foundation had a board of directors, presided over by Hubbard Branches of the Foundation had also been established in other major Amencan cities, so that by November 1950 there were branches in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, Chicago and Honolulu. The Foundations in Elizabeth and Los Angeles were offering an 'intensive, full-time course, lasting four weeks for professional auditors',S as well as courses of therapy, while the other Foundations mainly provided therapy. The board of directors was composed of five others apart from Hubbard and his second wife Sara, including John W. Campbell, Joseph Winter, the publisher of ll,ISlH, Arthur Ceppos, and a lawyer, C. Parker Morgan. Each Foundation had a staff of professional auditors and instructors, and those in New Jersey and Los Angeles had a small research staff employing Dianeticists and trained l Ibid., p. 7. S I t is the means he uscs to exeuse his failures. e term engram was largely replaced by 'facsimile'from this point L Ron Hubbard, 'Definitions, logics and axioms, APA, p. 35. S Adverhsement in Astounding, 46, 3 (November l9sO), back cover. psychologists. The E izabeth Foundation employed some thirty people on its staflf. Numbers at the other Foundations fluctuated. While an organizational structure was emerging within the Foundations, however, 'grass-roots'organizations of a rudimentary kind had emerged spontaneously. With the appearance of Hubbard's article and book, individuals all over America and in Great Britain began practising the technique. Many began with