Picking Apart the 31 Factors: Part 3

I’ve been writing a series of articles on Thirty-One Factors for Scientologists to Consider, Marty Rathbun’s attempt to define the Independent Scientology movement, which itself is full of lies and half-truths. (Part 1, Part 2.) Let’s continue, shall we?

Six: Miscavige has persuaded those at the top of the Scientology organization that to disclose the secrets of his unconscionable acts would harm the religion and violate “the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics.” Thus, the truth of what goes on behind the façade of false PR that Miscavige creates is hidden from the vast majority of Scientologists and the general public.

Yes this is happening, and – credit where credit is due – thanks to people like Marty, we know about some of Miscavige’s “unconscionable acts.” But we also know the exact same thing is true of Marty’s hero, L. Ron Hubbard. LRH’s screaming fits, his temper tantrums, the abuse of staff that he ordered (overboaring, locking children in the ship’s chain lockers, etc.) were all supposed to be hidden from the public behind a “façade of false PR.” Like Miscavige, Hubbard was unable to hide all this from the public (thank you Paulette Cooper, Bent Corydon, L, Ron Hubbard Jr., Russel Miller, Jon Atack, and many others. You can even watch LRH lie about his marital history). And yet Hubbard apparently was able to hide this from Scientologists, even people like Marty, who still appear believe that this scheming shitbag was a kindly old man who just wanted to help mankind.

Seven: Miscavige uses confessions of Scientology managers to invalidate, castigate, and embarrass them into acquiescence and silence.

We know that the Church does this, and it brings up an interesting point: Priest-pennitent confidentiality. Scientology routinely breaks this in order to “ruin utterly” (LRH’s choice of words) apostates. Is this yet not more proof that Scientology is not a proper religion? Oops, wait a minute, Marty, better not go down that road – it might get the government looking at Scientology’s tax-exempt status, no doubt one of the Church’s biggest crimes. And if they do that, Marty, you might have to start paying taxes yourself.

Eight: Sea Org members who voice or even hint at any hesitation to carrying on with his tyranny or supporting his actions, are routinely physically beaten by Miscavige.

I refer you to chapter 17 of Bare Faced Messiah. Scroll down to the photo of a Scientologist being tossed over the side of the Apollo. The photo was a set-up and the caption (supposedly) a joke, but as it happens, it wasn’t — search the text for “thrown overboard” and “overboarding” and you’ll see that the legacy of physical abuse originated with LRH. The only difference is that Miscavige at least has the balls to do some of his own abuse. Hubbard, the cowardly fat fuck, had his goons do it for him.

(Incidentally, things like this contribute to my belief that Hubbard was a sociopath. Same thing when he let his wife go to jail while he fucked off and hid out without her – LRH seemed to put himself in situations where he could not be affected by the negative consequences of his own acts.)

Nine: Those Sea Org members who have attempted to correct Miscavige’s off-policy and out-tech actions have been subjected to belittlement, invalidation and false propaganda. They have been silenced through imprisonment and mental and physical duress.

This one is purely a matter of semantics. Anyone who is familiar with LRH’s “tech” – especially the admin tech, the bizarre set of policies by which the Church and other Scientology businesses are run – know that LRH often contradicted himself. If Hubbard changed his mind, it didn’t matter – whatever LRH wrote was “tech” and “on policy,” and any attempt to contradict or (God forbid!) correct them resulted in the same shit-storm. Miscavige does the same thing, but since he is not “source,” his actions can be considered “off policy” or “out tech.” (In truth, I think Miscavige is grasping at straws to make a non-workable way of doing things somehow work. Frankly, with Hubbard dead and no new policy, I’m amazed Miscavige has kept the whole scam going this long, and not surprised that it’s falling down all around him.)

And because of the contradictions that LRH wrote into the policy (and spoke in lectures, the content of which form part of Scientology gospel), it’s pretty easy to prove that any action is both on-policy and off-policy. (Take it from someone who frequently made use of these contradictions to get what he wanted!) Witness the “Ideal Org” strategy that is draining the Church of money. Independants say it’s off policy, Church-goers say it’s on-policy. Who is right? Well, according to LRH policy, both of them!

Ten: Miscavige’s abuse of Scientology executives and staff became so extreme and continuous, he resorted to locking all of CMO INT and Exec Strata into a building and called the prison “the Hole.” RTC, CMO/WDC, Gold, IAS, CST, OSA Int and ASI executives and staff have regularly been deposited in the Hole and subjected to Reverse Dianetics, including physical beatings and severe mental abuse for months or even years at a time.

No argument here, but there’s an important fact that Independent Scientologists never talk about, and Marty always glosses over: Who came up with the idea of an in-house prison camp? That would be L. Ron Hubbard, who established the Rehabilitation Project Force in 1974. The RPF did get worse under Miscavige, but it was LRH who originated the idea of segregating those who didn’t do what they were supposed to do and limit their freedoms, activities, and even contact with their spouses and children. Read all about the true origins of the RPF in The ABCs of the RPF.

Okay, wogs, I think that’s enough truth for now! More on Marty’s 31 Factors when I get around to it.

ML,
Caliwog

Picking Apart the 31 Factors: Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, we started looking at Marty Rathbun’s 31 Factors for Scientologists to Consider, the rickety framework upon which the Independent Scientology movement is built. There was so much bullshit in the introduction, we didn’t even make it to the first factor. Let’s continue, shall we? Here’s Marty:

One: Scientology has been taken over by a self-appointed dictator, David Miscavige, who has turned the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the Code of a Scientologist, and the Credo of a True Group Member on their heads and instituted the virtual practice of Reverse (Black) Dianetics.

Let’s not forget that Scientology was started by a self-appointed dictator, who was living out his fantasies of grandeur. Anyone who has read up on Hubbard knows how he fucked up his chance at commanding a ship. So what did he do? He got himself his own damn navy, buying ships with his parishoner’s money, and made himself the Commodore. Let’s be fair: For Hubbard, Scientology wasn’t just about making money; it was about living out the fantasies borne of his failures.

But I digress. As for the Creed, the Code and the Credo, as I said in the last blog entry, these are fancy PR jobs that are incompatible with Hubbard’s technology and intentions.

“Two: In his quest to attain power Miscavige forcibly removed no less than four Hubbard appointed executives senior to himself, and dozens of Scientologists who had created scores of huge, effective Scientology centers. Miscavige used threat of force and violence in clearing the path to control of all Scientology organizations and assumed the self-created position of Chairman of the Board. He was never assigned by Hubbard and holds a position that was not created by Hubbard.”

There is a lot of debate as to whether DM is the rightful heir to Hubbard’s throne. Aaron Saxton maintains that David Miscavige was Hubbard’s intended choice, and he explained why in this blog entry. It is true that the position of “Chairman of the Board” was never invented by Hubbard, but swapping titles is nothing new in the Church. Executives (including Hubbard himself) constantly change titles, usually to avoid legal liability.

Is Miscavige’s well-documented use of “force and violence” anything new? No, it’s part of the culture of Scientology. Hubbard may not have been much for fists (he probably didn’t have Miscavige’s small-man complex) but he was a legendary hot-head. Somewhere there’s an MP3 file of him screaming at a Messenger (one of the hot-pants-clad teenage girls he had waiting on him hand and foot) (if anyone has a link, I’d be grateful). Meanwhile, you can read these true stories of Hubbard and decide for yourself if he was any less tempermental than DM.

“Three: Since securing his position of power, the statistics of Scientology have steadily decreased in spite of Miscavige’s public proclamations to the contrary.”

That’s the problem with Scientology stats: No one really knows what is happening, although it’s clear that the Church is declining – mostly because the Internet has let the world know that Scientology is basically a UFO religion designed to milk people’s wallets. Remember, Marty still believes in Xenu… and the Introspection Rundown.

“Four: Miscavige has conducted a campaign to fortify his personal power by denigrating and depowering anyone who personally knew and worked with Hubbard. That includes, but is not limited to, the members of Hubbard’s family. The operation served to consolidate his personal power while immeasurably harming the vigor and image of Scientology.”

This is my favorite – in fact, it’s the one that inspired me to write this article – because it implies that Hubbard’s family was somehow special.

Scientology teaches that Scientology itself is more important than family, which explains the high divorce rate and the frequency of family disconnections. Hubbard was a terrible husband and a lousy father. He was a bigamist, denied the existence of one of his wives, and let the third one – the one he supposedly loved – go to jail while he went into hiding. Hubbard all but denied the existence of the children who didn’t go along with the program (a lie that Marty himself implied was true in his laughably awful Ode to L. Ron Hubbard). And let’s not forget Hubbard’s reaction when he found out that Arnie Lerma was banging his daughter.*

(* Okay, I don’t actually know if Arnie and Suzette were doing the nasty, but it’d be really cool if they were. Scientology may have infiltrated the Justice Department, but one of the guys who did the most damage to Scientology did some infiltratin’ of his own! High five! You know what I’m talkin’ about!)

“Five: Miscavige accomplished his coup by commandeering the only line of communication to Hubbard during the last five years of his life, plying Hubbard with embellished and false reports of a dangerous environment to keep him out of communication with Sea Org members and his family. The reports falsely accused Hubbard’s family and lifelong friends of selling out to the enemy and that Scientology orgs had been infiltrated by psychiatric and government interests. He prevented true reports from reaching Hubbard in order to make his actions appear necessary and on policy and to solidify his position.”

Bullshit like this really irks me. The implication is that Hubbard had no idea what was going on during the last few years of his life, and was somehow kept in isolation. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.

Hubbard went into hiding in order to avoid prosecution. He was labeled an “un-indicted co-conspirator” in the break-in that sent his wife, Mary Sue, to jail. We know that Hubbard was the micro-manager to end all micro-managers, and yet we’re supposed to believe that this uneductaed kid, Hubbard’s former cameraman, was suddenly able to isolate Hubbard from the Scientology empire he worked his whole life to build up? Come the fuck on!! Hubbard’s isolation was self-imposed, and the eyewitness accounts (let’s not forget that Marty wasn’t around) are that he was anything but isolated from Scientology.

I believe that Hubbard was still calling the shots, but he was unwilling to face the consequences of his ill-gotten gains… although he was all too willing to let his own wife face the consequences for him. What an absolute piece of shit he was.

Okay, I think that’s enough for today. I’ll continue this series if I don’t get bored with it first. (Update: I didn’t. Here’s Part 3.)

ML,
Caliwog

Picking Apart the 31 Factors: Part 1

Note: See below for original introduction.

In order to remind people of the modus operandi of the Independent movement – which is to use the negative publicity surrounding Miscavige to whitewash L. Ron Hubbard, so that true believers like Marty Rathbun (and possibly Debbie Cook) can continue to make money by selling Scientology – I wanted to take a look at one of Marty Rathbun’s first articles, 31 Factors for Scientology to Consider. Let’s pick this baby apart and look for the lies and half-truths. I won’t do the whole thing today, but that’s OK; Marty starts misleading in the first sentence.

Remember, as the South Park boys say: THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE.

“Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard discovered methodologies that can enhance self-determinism, increase freedom of choice, and bring about higher states of awareness and beingness to those who practice them.”

Oh boy. Where do we start? With the word “discovered”? Or with the claims made for Scientology? This is the same bullshit claim that the Church uses. Ask any ex-Scientologist about the freedom of choice or awareness level in Scientology.

“Hubbard developed a method of confession that includes unconditional forgiveness and results in more able, happy and peaceful beings.”

Actually, Hubbard stole a method of “confession” that results in more able, happy and peaceful beings. It’s called abreaction therapy, and it’s one of many psychotherapy methods that involves looking at past traumas to figure out why your life is hanging up. Hubbard cribbed it for Dianetics, and it works, which helps draw people into the scam.

Now, a real Scientologist would whip out its* dictionary and show me the definition of the word “develop” and use that as proof that Hubbard did not actually claim authorship. Bullshit, says I; the implication and belief is that Hubbard invented it, which he didn’t.

(* Thetans (the Scientology term for our spirits) are supposedly non-gender-specific, so perhaps we should start referring to Scientologists as “it” rather than “he” or “she.”)

“Hubbard developed an ethics system that an individual can apply to himself to improve his worth to himself and to his fellows.”

Hubbard developed an ethics system that encourages people to report on everyone they know and turn their back on anyone who dares talk bad about Scientology. That includes children, parents, and spouses. One important lesson: You cannot trust a Scientologist. Hubbard taught his customers followers that the “group” (Scientology) is more important than any one individual.

“Hubbard established a form of organizational policy that is predicated on rewarding accomplishment rather than punishing failure.”

I’ve worked extensively with this organizational policy, and the whole reward accomplishment/punish failure thing is a major fail. Hubbard’s “management by statistics” means that if your stats are up, you are left alone, but if they are down or flat, you have to change things, no matter the reason for your “downstat” condition.

In some jobs, constant improvement is possible. But in others, it’s not. Imagine a fire department: Normally, if the number of fires is down, that’s a good thing. It means fire prevention education is working and the taxpayers are saving money. In a Hubbard-run fire department, the “fires put out” stat would be down and everyone would be in trouble. The fire fighters could become arsonists, but more likely they would invent a new statistic that they could keep improving for a while, and then when that one plateaud, find a reason that statistic was the improper one, send a few people to waste their time doing useless “lower condition write-ups”, then invent a new statistic, and keep it until that one tanks, too.

That last scenario is what happens at most Hubbard Admin Tech companies, and it’s why they spend a lot of time spinning their wheels instead of building their business. Hubbard insisted that his Management Technology was the only workable management technology ever invented, and yet you won’t find a single Admin Tech company on the Fortune 500.

“Hubbard set forth many of the fundamental values of Scientology and its organizations in the Creed of the Church of Scientology, The Code of a Scientologist, and the Credo of a True Group Member.”

Oh yeah? Here are some bits from the Creed of the Church of Scientology:

“That all men of whatever race, color or creed were created with equal rights.”

But not gay people or black people.

“That all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others.”

Although doing so may be considered a Scientology crime and get your ass kicked out.

“And that no agency less than God has the power to suspend or set aside these rights, overtly or covertly.”

And if you stay in long enough and spend enough money, you’ll learn that Hubbard says that Scientologists basically are God, and therefore they do have that power. Which is why they can send you to the RPF, the in-house prison camp that Hubbard invented, and keep you there.

From the Code of a Scientologist:

“1. To keep Scientologists, the public and the press accurately informed concerning Scientology, the world of mental health and society.”

Except for the PR policies about telling an “acceptable truth,” and the lies about the psychiatry profession, outdated and untrue, that Scientologists are led to believe.

“9. To embrace the policy of equal justice for all.”

Funny that, as right now the Church is trying to tell the courts that Scientology justice takes precedence over “Wog” justice. This is a belief that Hubbard espoused in policy.

I could go on, but you get the idea. You can read The Creed of the Church of Scientology, The Code of a Scientologist, and The Credo of a True Group Member (WARNING: All Church links) and see the bullshit for yourself.

“Thirty-one factors have been discovered that threaten the continued viability of this vital subject.”

Oh dear, I’ve filled up a whole blog entry and haven’t even made it past the introduction! We’ll start delving into the factors themselves in Part 2.

ML,
Caliwog

This was the original introduction to this article. Zapped in the interest of making this a better reference piece.

The Debbie Cook situation fills me with mixed feelings. It’s hard not to feel sympathy for Ms. Cook, although let’s not forget that she pushed the scam of Scientology on many others, and apparently wants to continue to do so. The publicity surrounding her case is a very real problem for the protest movement, as it pushes the perception that the problem with Scientology is the organized Church, and that Scientology itself is just a harmless religion.

Of course, Scientology is anything but harmless (or a religion, for that matter).