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Chapter 15:
Is Scientology Political?
Scientology and Scientologists are
not revolutionaries. They are evolutionaries. They do not stand for
overthrow. They are for the improvement of what we have. Scientology is
not political.
-- L. Ron Hubbard {1}
Hubbard outlined a
program for Scientology expansion in the mid-1950's, and while it
pertained specifically to South Africa, much of it seems relevant to
their policies elsewhere. Their goal then, Hubbard wrote, was 1) to get
Scientology known 2) to get Scientology established in schools 3) to
have Scientology established in the universities 4) to have it
established in industries 5) to have Scientology in the mines 6) and
finally, to get Scientology "into the government and government
department and services."{2}
As for some of these goals, examples were cited earlier of the methods
Scientologists used to get known and to get their methods taught in
schools. The Australian Inquiry found that the Scientologists had
explored the possibility of promoting Scientology in various government
departments. They said that they "considered the Education Department to
be a good procurement area" and made some effort to "infiltrate it," but
with no real success.{3}
The Scientologists also tried to "take over" the British National
Association of Mental Health. (To be discussed later) Hubbard seems to
be especially interested in getting into this field. He was once
planning to start an auditing program for retarded children -- a text
for The Society for the Mentally Retarded Children which he said was a
program "we are now piloting in the U.S." There is also some evidence
that Hubbard wanted to get his auditing methods into prisons, because he
said he was planning to write a book called The Criminal Mind for a
"clearing course for prisons."{4}
Scientology has also approached business organizations to get their
methods taught there, and has had some success in this field. In fact,
they have gone into a number of business deals themselves.{5} There is a
lot of private enterprise among Scientologists, some related to
Scientology. For example, two Scientologists started a School of Stage
Confidence using Scientology techniques,{6} and two other Scientologists
put out a record called "Free" under a Scientology label, dedicated to
L. Ron Hubbard.{7}
In East Grinstead, Scientology owns a number of houses and stores.{8}
The Scientologists also tried to buy Lundy Island in England,{9} which
is inaccessible for large portions of the year, "as a retreat for people
with nervous disorders," one paper quoted the Scientologists as
saying.{10} (According to another British paper, they were planning to
buy it as a refuge for foreign students to beat the Government ban on
their coming into the country.{11})
Scientologists once also sold a pill called "Dianezene" which Hubbard
said would prevent and treat harmful effects caused by exposure to
radioactivity. Twenty-one thousand of these tablets were seized on
October 1, 1965, for being misbranded, adulterated, and containing less
than the declared amount of stated ingredients.{12}
According to the London Sunday Dispatch, Hubbard allegedly sold stock at
about $65 a share in 1959 to a company that didn't exist.{13} Hubbard
apologized afterward, explaining that certain legal formalities he
thought were completed were not. He returned all the money, and
allegedly said, "It's lucky the police did not become involved,
otherwise something most unpleasant might have happened."
Scientologists attempt to expand into various fields (schools, prisons,
mental health, businesses, and as shall be seen, politics) because they
believe they have a method that can and will save this world, and they
altruistically feel they must get as many people as possible to join
them or the world will be doomed. The Scientologists are actively trying
to increase their number.{14}
In one of their recent advertising brochures, they wrote that if every
person who took the course would bring in two other people, etc., "this
planet would be clear in eighteen months."{15} Hubbard must also be very
pleased with the potentialities inherent in the moon landing, since he
wrote in Scientology Expansion, "I don't think Scientology will be
contained very long on this planet -- expansion will be that swift."{16}
Another reason that Scientologists are trying to get into so many
different areas may be found in their recently revised "Code of a
Scientologist." This code not only states that their goal is to increase
their number in the world, but also their strength.{17} Early in
Hubbard's career, he claimed that Dianeticians, because of their higher
I.Q.s, would form an aristocracy, and that this elite corps would
subjugate the rest.
One sees with some sadness that
more than three-quarters of the world's population will become subject
to the remaining [one-quarter Dianeticians] as a natural consequence and
about which we can do exactly nothing.{18}
"But even if they
do want to take over," said one former Scientologist, "they can't become
dangerous unless they become political and then somebody gives them a
government or an army."
While the Scientologists may not see themselves as a political force
yet, they do consider themselves to be as important as the major
political forces today. A 1968 mailing from a Scientology Org said that
Hubbard would compare the 1968 accomplishments of the United States, the
United Kingdom and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics with the
achievements of Scientology.{19} Hubbard has also hinted that the
Russians might like to see him on their side.
In 1964, the Saturday Evening Post reported that Hubbard had stated that
he had been approached for the secrets of Scientology by Castro's
government. And the Russians, who didn't mind stealing My Fair Lady,
etc., were supposed to have offered him $200,000 for Scientology. (When
he supposedly turned them down, he claims his apartment was "blasted
open" and his "basic manuscript disappeared.")
At other times, Hubbard has also said that the Russians offered him
Pavlov's laboratories in 1938 and "large sums" to complete his work
under their auspices. He repeated his charge that they had stolen part
of his manuscript in 1942 and the rest of it in 1950, and connected this
to his refusal of the Russian's 1938 offer. This 1938 manuscript, by the
way, was called Excalibur{20} and Hubbard claims that the first four of
fifteen people who read it went insane.{21}
Hubbard's interest in politics is not just verbal. In 1962 Hubbard wrote
a letter to President Kennedy offering the services of Scientology and
promising that "Scientology is very easy for the government to put into
effect."{22} The letter begins by stating that it is as important as the
letter sent to the White House on the subject of the atom bomb, signed
by Professor Albert Einstein.
To show Kennedy how important he was, and how effective Scientology is,
he told him that Scientology had "coached the British Olympic Team with
the result that not one team member blew up in the events." (Hubbard's
Italics) (He did not tell Kennedy that in an early issue of Ability, he
had said that only two members of the British pentathlon team had
received "Scientology ... processing."{23}) Hubbard also told Kennedy
how the Russians had offered him Pavlov's laboratories, had been
stealing his secrets, etc., and concluded with "I feel sure that there
exists a growing library on Scientology in Russia."
He then told Kennedy not what the country could do for Scientology, but
what Scientology could do for the country. "The government only need
turn over to us anyone it desires to condition to space flight or anyone
whose I.Q. it desires to have raised and we will take it from there,"
Hubbard offered. (At the cost of $6,250 per pilot, although this was not
spelled out.) Hubbard added that Scientology "could decide the space
race or the next war in the hands of America" and generously concluded,
"This is a duty letter ... I do not wish to seem the cause of denying my
own government this technology."
Hubbard has also been accused of getting entangled with politics while
he was in Rhodesia,{24} and, in fact, may have been barred from that
country a few years ago.{25} The Daily Mail in England reported that
this occurred because the Rhodesian authorities believed he was using
the political situation in that country to expand Scientology. At first
no one complained: Hubbard had invested nearly $80,000 in Rhodesia; he
bought a house for a reputed $40,000 and a hotel to "show his confidence
in the country and its government" -- although they were worthwhile
investments for him, too, because Scientology was said to have taken in
$25,000 in a city of only 45,000 whites.
But the Daily Mail reported that Hubbard allegedly alienated people by
constantly praising Ian Smith, expressing his sympathy for the cause of
the white Rhodesians, and exploiting racial prejudices (allegedly by
saying that the Africans wouldn't qualify for membership in Scientology
because their I.Q. was too low). Such statements, had they ever been
widely circulated, would not have made Hubbard popular among
Scientologists in America, since Hubbard's constant emphasis of
"freedom" and "equality" has recruited a number of American Negroes to
the organization.
Scientologists may also have tried to get Scientology into the South
African government -- but in much less subtle ways. The Rand Daily Mail
reported on June 12, 1969, that one witness told the board of the South
African Inquiry that Mr. Parkhouse, Scientology's chief executive there,
planned to arm and organize 5,000 Africans to seize control of South
Africa. Below is the quote from the newspaper.{26}
"Mr. Parkhouse asked me to process
him on the E-meter" he [the witness] said.
"He had just returned from a trip
to Mr. Hubbard's headquarters at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead,
England. While processing him I discovered he had a terrific problem.
"Eventually he told me he was
worried because he had been made responsible for organizing and arming
5,000 Africans to seize control of South Africa. I talked him out of it
and he eventually stopped worrying about his instructions."
The witness also
told the commission that he did not know what became of Hubbard's plans
or of Mr. Parkhouse.
In Communication
magazine, Hubbard outlined ways that Scientology could get into
government.
Locate its leaders. Get a paid
post as a secretary or officer of the staff of the leaders of that race.
And by any means, audit them into ability and handle their affairs to
bring cooperation....
A nation or a state runs on the
ability of its department heads, its governors, or any other leaders. It
is easy to get posts in such areas.... Don't bother to get elected. Get
a job on the secretarial staff or the bodyguard, use any talent one has
to get a place close in, go to work on the environment and make it
function better.
The cue in all this is don't seek
the cooperation of groups. Don't ask for permission. Just enter them and
start functioning to make the group win through effectiveness and
sanity. {27}
The Australian
Inquiry related the story of a boy who took Hubbard's instructions quite
seriously:
One preclear who had affiliations
with the Australian Labor Party saw ... [Hubbard's] Zone Plan as "a very
able plan for infiltration and subversion of the key institutions of the
country," the intention of the plan being "to create by those subversive
means a Scientology government" and he was so enthusiastic about the
possibilities which Scientology offered for political domination that he
concocted a plan to scientologize the Australian Labor Party.{28}
His plan to
scientologize the Australian Labor party concluded as follows: "With
Australia led by a government employing Scientology principles we should
soon have a civilization which can extend influence overseas." He
submitted the plan to Hubbard, and supposedly gained his approval.
Later, the boy ran into some difficulties with the Labor party and
changed his affiliations.
Scientologists are obviously political and have tried to get into
government positions. Do they also have an interest in getting into the
army to realize their ambitions? Who knows? It is interesting to note,
however, that in a story Hubbard published in Astounding Science Fiction
magazine when he was in his twenties, he had one of the characters say,
"Now you see, if you run the army you are bigger than the army and it
won't try to get you."{29}
_______________
Notes:
{1} 1st quote [48]
{2} South African goals [30]
{3} getting into schools in Australia [261]
{4} retarded child and prison program [78]
{5} Scientology tried to get into businesses [255]
{6} (27) Scientology school [212]
{7} (28) Scientology record [248a]
{8} (6) Scientology owns houses in East Grinstead & banned others [15]
{9} (7) try to buy Lundy [234]
{10} (8) for nervous disorders [218]
{11} (9) for beating ban [190]
{12} (10) Dianezene [255]
{13} (11) selling stock [208]
{14} (12) increasing number [115]
{15} (13) everyone clear in 18 months [116]
{16} (14) Scientology on this planet [17]
{17} (15) increasing strength [115]
{18} (16) forming elite corps, quote on subjugation [109]
{19} (17) Scientology and political powers [141a]
{20} (30) Excalibur [264]
{21} (18) offer of Pavlov's laboratories; manuscript stolen; etc [29]
{22} (19) Kennedy Letter [29]
{23} (20) 2 members of British team have Scientology [37]
{24} (21) Rhodesian situation [175]
{25} (22) Hubbard barred from Rhodesia [248, 222]
{26} (23) South African seizing control and quote from paper [247]
{27} (24) how to get into politics [52]
{28} (25) boy who tried [261]
{29} (26) Hubbard story in ASF magazine [106]
Extraneous citation notes:
{30} (29) UN [122]
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