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Chapter 19:
The High Cost of Scientology
It's the only Church I've ever
seen with a cashier's booth.
-- a woman who quit after one session. -- Time {1}
When people first
enter this exciting world of the totally free, they rarely realize just
how expensive it is going to be. After all, the first course costs only
$15, and for that price one gets close to sixteen hours of Scientology.
What people usually don't realize is that they will never see this
$1-an-hour rate again. Later it'll be more like $25, and sometimes more.
One man who paid $1,200 in advance for a 50 hour course completed it in
20 minutes, which meant he spent about $1 a second for auditing.{2}
Scientology has two goals, and two types of courses to match: "auditing"
people or "processing"; and teaching people to audit others or
"training." The first series on the Hubbard hierarchy, auditing or
processing, consists of several courses or grades, which enable a "preclear"
to become a "clear." If each course is taken separately, it costs
approximately (the prices are always changing) $750 just to go from O-IV
grade, $500 for the next one, $1,200 for Grade V ("Power Processes"),
$775 for Grade VI, $600 for "Solo" (in which you audit yourself) and
finally $800 for the final "clear" or a total of approximately $4,625,
although package deals bring the price down a bit lower.
But that's not all, since one can also go eight levels beyond "clear"to
achieve the state of "Operating Thetan VIII" -- for only $2,850 more.{3}
An Operating Thetan, by the way, is someone who can function apart from
his body,{4} and OTs (Operating Thetans) are said to be able to lift
telephones off the hook in another room and read books while some
distance away from them.{5} The value of this accomplishment may not be
readily apparent, but one practical Scientologist claimed she could
visit her parents in Texas while her body remained in Washington,
D.C.{6} Fortunately for the travel industry, not too many Scientologists
can do this.
But processing or auditing is only half the story. Scientology also
trains its followers to audit others.To qualify for this doesn't even
require a high school education -- just another prescribed series of
Scientology courses.{7} Scientologists generally suggest people start
with this series, and, in fact, unless specifically asked, they don't
even tell them about the prices of the other group until later.
This second group starts at a modest $15 for the first course, $30 for
the next, $45 for the third, and then suddenly leaps to their more
typical rate of $1,300.{8} It generally takes at least a couple of
months to become an auditor, although Scientologists have boasted that
they can train some people to become auditors "in less than twenty
minutes."{9} Those who wish to take more courses must go to the special
Scientology academies in Los Angeles, Scotland or Saint Hill and pay
additional expenses for room, board, books, equipment and transportation
besides.{10}
In addition to the price of the courses, there are many other expenses.
A Scientologist must buy many of Hubbard's books, and often attend
special lectures or Congresses, which usually run tapes of Hubbard, or
speeches by top Scientologists. In addition, a Scientologist may take
extra auditing (at about $25 a session) or additional courses that are
outside of the prescribed levels of treatment or training.{11}
For example a number of the Orgs used to offer a special "Money
Processing Course" which was supposed to increase the Scientologist's
"money making potential."{12} (This course consisted of having the
person think of a number of ways in which he could waste money, probably
under the principle that one must find what a preclear can do and then
"better that ability.")
If a preclear complained that he couldn't afford the Scientology rates,
he was told to take this course for only $35 to help him learn how to
earn more.[*] The "Money Making Potential" course may have helped many
Scientologists but one wonders how. One man who took it said it was so
worthwhile, he "made $5,000" a few days after completing it. When he was
pressured to tell how he had done this, he finally admitted that after
the course was completed he had gone to a bank and taken the money out
on loan.{13}
If a Scientologist decides he doesn't want to spend extra money on
additional auditing or courses, he may not have a choice in the matter.
Scientologists progress at their own speed and are not permitted to
continue until the Student Examiner is satisfied that he's mastered the
previous lessons.
Thus a Scientologist can be made to take and pay for more hours than he
originally signed up for at the discretion of the leaders.{15} These
extra courses are sometimes given as punishment, and it was said in
Parliament that a Scientologist could be made to take additional courses
if he tried to leave Scientology or if he questioned the accepted
doctrines of the group.{16}
A Scientologist may also discover that Scientology is costing him more
money than his original calculations indicated because the courses
themselves may change. Hubbard often redefines the levels,{17} and while
the motivation is probably sincere, some on the way to a certain level
have discovered that they've had to sign up for a whole new series of
courses in order to reach their goal.
In addition, after a person has reached a certain level, say clear, the
HCO (Hubbard Communications Office) Board of Review can call for a
retest at its own discretion after a lapse of time.{18} Whether the
person who fails has to take any courses again, or even new ones, is not
known.
It's not surprising that a really dedicated Scientologist can easily
spend $15,000{19} in this "world of the totally free," and one wealthy
Floridian, who had complained of "nervousness" but was told he was in
good health at the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins, spent $28,000 in
Scientology.{20} But most people who join it don't have that kind of
money to spend. Many pay for their courses by leaving their jobs{21} and
going to work for Scientology in exchange for training units -- often
for a small salary besides ($40 a week for about 40 hours of work in New
York).
Those who didn't wish to break completely from their outside contacts,
were able to get credit at one time,{22} which the Church extended at
six percent interest with a twenty-five percent surcharge returned if
the note was paid on time. One person who wrote the Church and said he
couldn't pay his bill, was written back not to feel that way because
"there's nothing a thetan can't do."{23}
But they haven't always been that kind to debtors. Unpaid notes have
been turned over to collection agencies, legal action has been
threatened,{24} and debtors and their family have been harassed and
intimidated, sometimes quite cruelly as shown in the letter below. This
letter was received by a man in the mid-west whose son took $550 worth
of courses but only paid for $200 of them. The father was then billed
for the balance in a letter saying he had "agreed" to pay the other
$350. The father wrote back saying he hadn't "agreed" to any such thing,
and reported the Scientologists. On October 13, he received the
following threats and accusations from a Scientology Reverend.
Rather than let my lawyers have
all the fun, I will write to you this once and straighten you out. I
have a great urge to beggar you to your last pair of socks, but I will
curb the desire a little longer. If you had the wit of a demented
swineherd you would have read those pieces of literature I so graciously
had sent to you ... do not judge people by yourself. Not everyone is a
mass murderer like yourself. Yes, I know quite a bit about you and your
various projects during the war. And how do you sleep at night? I hope
tis ill.... I am expert at harassment, try me and find out. You are not
strong enough. You are not smart enough. You haven't the funds to go
through long lengthy court battles. We have. Bigger men than you have
done their best to stop us. They failed. So will you because you are a
blatant moron in comparison. We joust only with our peers, others --
like you -- we will simply gobble up ... one more word out of you and
I'll have you investigated. I might anyway. I have never seen one person
yet that resisted Scientology who didn't have a great deal to hide. And
you evidently won't look at free books sent to you, so you must,
perforce have a great deal to conceal.{25}
The letter
continued with more accusations of guilt on the part of the father,
along with praise of Scientology and concluded on this ominous note.
If you want to start a Donnybrook,
Buddy, wail away; to use the argot of the streets I'll just start my
people to work on you and then before long you will be broke, and out of
a job and broken in health. Then I can have my nasty little chuckle
about you and get back to work.... You won't take long to finish off. I
would estimate three weeks. Remember: I am not a mealy mouthed psalm
[sic] canting preacher. I am a minister of the Church of Scientology! I
am able to heal the sick and I do. But I have other abilities which
include a knowledge of men's minds that I will use to crush you to your
knees. You or any other wretch that stands in our way. Cause the list is
long, but their careers are very short of those that have jousted with
us.
The letter,
written on the Church of Scientology letterhead, was signed "with the
utmost sincerity possible" by the Reverend Andrew Bagley, Organizational
Secretary. There was a short P.S. appended: "Don't reply to this letter.
If I want to get in touch with you, I'll be able to find you. Anywhere."
P.S. The father paid the bill. P.P.S. His son took approximately $4,500
worth more courses in Scientology, paying for them himself the next time
from a $5,000 inheritance.{26}
Scientologists get people to pay substantial fees by promising to refund
their money if they are dissatisfied with Scientology -- and they are
quick to point out that no psychotherapist returns money if therapy
proves unsuccessful (although they are just as quick to point out that
they are not a form of therapy).{27} In fact, the Scientologists haven't
always returned the money either, and have sometimes set up certain
conditions that have made it difficult for people to collect.
The person must usually ask for his money within thirty (sometimes
ninety) days after the course is completed.{28} Some people have also
been made to take the security test before they can get a refund.{29}
Others have signed a contract that obligates them to obey their Ethics
Officer "in advice given me to facilitate my case progress and that any
failure to do so renders this contract null and void without rebate."
(The Ethics Officer can, of course, tell them not to ask for their money
back, because that would be hindering their progress, and tell them to
facilitate it by signing up for more courses instead.{30})
In one case, an Australian woman signed up for three hundred hours of
auditing, took 175, and then asked for her money back. The register
wrote her back that "the only way out is the way through," in other
words, that she would have to take all 300 hours before she could leave
Scientology and ask for her money back. This could cost her another $600
which she didn't have, so she wrote them back again. Again they wrote
her "I repeat, the only way out is the way through."
The following is a portion of her extremely pathetic reply, listing the
emotional and financial difficulties that she felt Scientology was
responsible for.
... my situation has in every way
worsened under the influence of Scientology.... I have to struggle to
even stay awake, and as a consequence, I fear to lose my job and the
little security that gives me. It takes a frightful effort not to go to
sleep.... I am slow in my work and make mistakes.... I am always
exhausted and sometimes can hardly walk along. This is the result I have
obtained from spending all my money on something that is claimed to
increase alertness and intelligence and generally benefit people....
Under these circumstances it is no
help to be told "the way out is the way through." I have no money left
for further auditing and no chance of saving any since I barely make
ends meet.{31}
When nothing
happened, she wrote directly to Hubbard, as do many Scientologists,
putting letters in special boxes in the Orgs that say "You can always
communicate with Ron."
At the commencement I had a job I
liked, which paid me fairly well, and enough money put away to feel
reasonably secure. Now I have a job I don't care for, which does not pay
so well, my money is largely gone, and instead of being reasonably
content I feel that nothing is worth doing, having periods of absolute
exhaustion, and look forward to the remaining years of my life with
complete hopelessness, as just a dreary round of work, work, work at
something I don't care for to earn enough to exist to go on working.
Hubbard referred
this letter to the Melbourne Org, where it was diagnosed as a case of
"Missed W/H."{32} She was persuaded to undergo twenty-five hours of free
processing for her "Missed withholds." Two years later she was still a
Scientologist -- and paying for it.
_______________
Notes:
[*] At one of the Scientology lectures I attended, someone asked "If the
goal of Scientology is to help the world, why is it so expensive that
very few people in the world can afford to be helped by it?" The person
was told that "nothing is expensive when your happiness is at stake,"
which, of course, did not answer the question.
Usually, the
Scientologists will refer to their free "Personal Efficiency Course" as
an example of their altruism and proof that they provide Scientology for
free for those who can't afford it. They admitted in their United States
tax case that the purpose of this course or lecture, however, was to get
people to take paying courses.
This becomes
painfully apparent in Hubbard's HCO Bulletin of September 29, 1959.
"NEVER let anyone simply walk out. Convince him he's loony if he doesn't
gain on it because that's the truth ... get the people in fast ... and
boot them through to their HAS [Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist
course].... And never let a student leave or quit.... If he walks in
that door for a free PE, that's it. He doesn't get out except into an
individual auditor's hand in the real tough cases, until he's an HAS."
This PE "course," by the way, is the first night lecture, film of
Hubbard and personality test.{14}
{1} first quote
[156]
{2} man who paid $1200 [141a]
{3} cost of auditing [126, 277]
{4} thetan function apart from body [254, 261]
{5} lifting phones; reading books [261]
{6} girl with family in Texas [256]
{7} no high school degree [255]
{8} cost of courses [277, 126]
{9} time to become auditor [255, 261, 277]
{10} go to St. Hill [277, 261]
{11} extra auditing [255]
{12} Money Processing [277, 278]
{13} man who took course and borrowed money [277]
{14} (31) PE course quote [79]
{15} (14) pay for more courses than planned [97, 255]
{16} (15) England if he tries to leave [257]
{17} (16) Hubbard changing courses [255]
{18} (17) clear can be retested [38]
{19} (18) $15,000 [139]
{20} (19) $28,000 [142]
{21} (20) leave jobs [255, 278]
{22} (21) credit [255]
{23} (22) nothing a thetan can't do [124]
{24} (23) collection agencies; legal action [255]
{25} (24) Bagley letter [123]
{26} (25) end of story [273]
{27} (26) psychiatrists don't refund [277]
{28} (27) money within 30-90 days [254, 255, 278]
{29} (28) sec test {before money is refunded} [25]
{30} (29) ethics officer [141a]
{31} (30) woman who signed up for 300 hours [261]
{32} missed W/H [10]
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