Because of various problems with Blogger, I've copied everything as of November 26, 2012 over to WordPress. The new location is Ask the Scientologist. I am not deleting this blog and will still accept comments and answer questions here too, but any new articles will appear at the WordPress location. I apologize if this causes any problems.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Hubbard Scale of Formulas and Procedures

(Many Scientologists would take that title seriously and expect this post to be about something called "The Hubbard Scale of Formulas and Procedures".  But it's just a joke.)

L. Ron Hubbard was compulsive about putting everything into some kind of scale.  He developed the Tone Scale, the Communication Scale, the Behavior and Physiology Scale, the Cycle of Action Scale, the Admin Scale, the Scale of Conditions, the Tone Scale of Decisions, the Scale of Whosits and Whatsits, dozens and dozens of scales, lists and codes.

And he was compulsive about creating very exact procedures for everything.  Every condition, problem, situation had an exact Hubbard-written procedure for solving it or changing it.  Thousands and thousands of procedures.

Scientology is all about Hubbard's scales and his procedures, processes and formulas.  And Scientologists are supposed to know and follow all the key Hubbard formulas and procedures.

As a Scientologist, you are not allowed to just "work things out".  You can't ignore things.  You can't think for yourself.  You are always, always, always in a specific "condition" and you are always, always, always supposed to follow Hubbard's "condition formulas" to improve your condition.  Before taking any action, Scientologists must first check these formulas to see what Hubbard said to do.

[sarcasm]That's why you see so many successful Scientologists [/sarcasm]

This is what Hubbard did.  Everything had to be plotted against some kind of scale and every situation had to be solved via one of his procedures.  He just didn't trust "humaniods" to do things the "right" (meaning Hubbard) way, so he wrote procedures to ensure everyone would do everything "correctly".

And they must be followed, even when they don't work, as is often the case.  Even when the formulas don't fit the situation.  Even when those scales don't make any sense.

Of course, public Scientologists are not strictly held to these standards.  They are expected to do all that, but the Church of Scientology doesn't have that kind of absolute control, so many Scientologists go on with their lives mostly ignoring all that stuff.

But on staff, and in the Sea Org, under David Miscavige, all these procedures, checklists, formulas, scales and whatnot must be adhered to religiously (pardon the pun).  As a result, this usually brings everything to a grinding halt.  There are factually more people "ensuring compliance" than there are people doing actual work.  There is absolutely tons of paperwork, requests for authorization, proof of compliance, formula write-ups, programs written, filled out, verified, checked, rejected, redone, and on and on.

It is micro-management gone insane.  You can't do anything in the Sea Org without a massive amount of paperwork, with all the associated time wasted in writing these things up and verifying and authorizing and rejecting.

And this is all because this is the way Hubbard said to do it. 

You can't, according to Hubbard, just go out and get something done.  That is wrong.  You have to work out what condition you are in, what formula to apply, what is your Admin Scale, what policy are you applying, what are the Hubbard-specified procedures? And this must be all analyzed (using Hubbard procedures) and written up in a program, with all the "proper" policies and procedures noted.

And then it must be authorized.

And, of course, it is never, ever authorized.  The people who are supposed to authorize your program never will.  You see, they must forward everything they authorize up to David Miscavige, who is the ultimate approval for everything, and they know that David Miscavige will hate it and he will assign everybody in that hierarchy some low condition for approving such a "horrible, f**ked up program".  So every program gets rejected and rejected and rejected.

Eventually, the program probably will get approved by the middle managers and sent up to Miscavige, who does hate it and does assign everyone some lower condition.  Then Miscavige will "write it himself," which usually means copying the original program as written, with a few insignificant changes.

And then the program must be complied with, exact step by exact step.

Now, you understand this program was written before any work was done and before anything was investigated, so the steps of the program are, invariably, completely bogus and don't fit the actual situation once real work starts.

But the program steps cannot be altered and must be complied with, no matter how ridiculous they become.  It was approved, it was "written by David Miscavige!"

So, as the situation changes, and as the changes multiply, you have the ridiculous situation where people are being forced to comply with steps that have become meaningless and forced to ignore new conditions and problems that have popped up.

You can blame Miscavige for making it so horrible, but, actually, that's what Hubbard created.  That's all strictly according to Hubbard's policy letters and his tech.

That's the inside view as to why pretty much nothing gets done in the Church of Scientology and why, if something ever does get done, it is such a mess.   Hubbard built it that way.
-

22 comments:

  1. I can see how this "works" for the ordinary run of the mill things in Scientology life. I am wondering about the activities of OSA where a certain degree of nimbleness might be required in offing the cult's enemies. Are OSA ops subject to the same degree of rigid totalitarian micro-management by David Miscavige?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Re: OSA

    Oh, yes! OSA is under the same control and restrictions as the rest of the church. Perhaps more so.

    One of the reasons that OSA often appears to respond very, very slowly is that they have to wait to get approvals or instructions from Miscavige.

    As with the rest of the Church of Scientology, their failures are directly caused by Miscavige.

    Any nimbleness in OSA or the church is the result of quick-thinking Scientologists who are breaking the rules. Inevitably, those kind of people will eventually be blamed for the failures of the church (they broke the rules) and they are sent to the RPF or declared suppressive. Miscavige has systematically stamped out any such nimbleness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just Bill,

    Any info on how the SeaOrg is treating its aging and sick members? Are there lots of them, or do people tend to leave in their 50s?

    I knew an SO 30 yr. staffer and her last years were not exactly country club stuff. You'd think Miscavige could have melted down one of his solid gold toilet seats to give this faithful servant some comfort, but, oh well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Re: Old Sea Org members.

    They are literally dumped on the streets with a few dollars. When their medical problems become too much, they are "off loaded". No retirement, no medical care, no caring. "You can't work any more? Goodbye!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Okay, here is a joke I heard from a Flag public guy c. late 1983, told to me at Flag:

    How many Scientologists does it take to change a lightbulb?

    Answer: Three--one to change the bulb and two to do the admin.

    I didn't laugh at the time as the truth of it hurt too much. I wouldn't know how many it takes to do the admin now...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Just Bill,

    Thank you for another great post. Is there any word on the CO$ New Year's Event? I'm curious to find out what "unprecedented" new release was rolled out.

    -BBSox

    ReplyDelete
  7. @BBSox

    It was a very, very expensive re-release of all of Hubbard's ACC (Advanced Clinical Course) lectures -- and (surprise!) all Scientologists are required to buy them -- and then put them on a shelf, never to be listened to.

    "Unprecedented". No. Same old "try to squeeze a few more millions from the remaining True Believers" con. That was it.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You forgot that you have to write up reports on other staff members to document their mistakes on post, query orders you get, look up policy letters so you can refute what another staff member says and after you have done all that you have to actually do the work of your post. Of course, you don't have much time to do that so you don't get a lot done and so your statistics go down and then you have to do an amends project on your off duty hours but since there really are not any off duty hours you must do then when you are supposed to be studying the policies for your post. Meanwhile you are going to be inspected or you have to do a writeup as to why you are not getting the products of your post and then... It's called taking in laundry.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I just happened onto your site and it will be probably the last time I visit it. I am a Scientologist and about a year ago I was driving a cab and I picked up an aged Sea Org member in the emergency room of Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. I recognized him as he was the course admin for many years in the sandcastle. I took him to the nicest "old folks" home in the area. When he arrived there I saw several other infirm Sea Org members waiting for him (who were also residents there) I was familiar with the different levels of nursing homes since I picked up and dropped off people at them all the time for many months and these people were at at place that charged probably at least 4 thousand a month each. So this is not true what you say about old and infirm SO members being dropped off on the stree. Your site is entheta and untruthful.

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Anonymous Scientologist

    While my site might be "entheta" by Scientology's definition, it is not untruthful.

    As for your story, I hate to doubt your good word, but it just doesn't ring true. You just happened to be driving a cab, you just happened to pick up this person, who just happened to be an old, infirm Sea Org member. You just happened to drop him off at this "nice" retirement home where other infirm Sea Org members just happened to be waiting for your fare. Undoubtedly they were all singing happy songs.

    Yeah. And what about all the stories on the Internet about all the ailing Sea Org members being "Fitness Boarded", "off-loaded" and dumped on the street with only $500 for 20, 30, 40 years of service? No Social Security, no retirement accounts, no health insurance, no money. Those are "untruthful"? No, the stories certainly will be "entheta" to you but they are true.

    Let me give you some advice. Stop covering up for the crimes and abuse of your church. Stop making up stories about how wonderful your church is and face reality. You are enabling the abuses. You should stop that because you are making it worse.

    ReplyDelete
  11. All dem happy slaves lubs dey master, and dey master treats dem slaves so well!

    Yes, that is the happy, happy story from the Sea Org!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm extremely interested in the CoS "retirement" policies, so let me post again:

    My friend was GO for 30 years, as I said, and when she went blind, she DID live in a small room with two other women, younger, who treated her well. I don't know what went down--maybe these two women (or others) on their own applied for Soc.Security for her or whatever, but when she got worse she ended up in a shabby motel-like retirement home on Franklin near the Manor. I suspect that her SS or whatever paid the monthly fees. Her friends from CoS did visit her, as did I.

    Does the SO contract include any obligations on the part of the church?

    ReplyDelete
  13. This is a huge issue, if not due to the scale of the problem then due to the sheer inhumanity of it. As a woman in my 50's, I know how daunting the approach of old age can be. But in my case, I own a home and a business and I have a family who love me. I have an established presence in society and I'm adept at surviving in it, having done so all my life.

    I cannot imagine how devastating it must be to just be dumped on the "outside" by an organizaton to which you committed your entire life. Old, infirm, penniless, no credit, no home, no friends, and betrayed by your "group."

    Great.

    This doesn't seem a little outpointy to you guys still in the church?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Many people cannot conceive of what it is like. Here you have a person, 60 or more years old, and all they know is Scientology. They have no real world experience. They have no recognizable job history. They have no savings, no credit history. Often they don't even have a driver's license. They have no friends or family outside of Scientology. It is almost impossible to imagine what it is like -- and this is what happens to Sea Org members when they are no longer able to do the labor.

    Yes, inhumanity is the correct term.

    As for contracts, there is no contract the Church of Scientology uses that obligates them to anything. The "parishioner" has all the obligations, the church, none. Even the basics: clothing, food, shelter, are not guaranteed and have been denied to S.O. members by the church. This is one inhumane "church".

    ReplyDelete
  15. My brother is a 62 year-old, 40-year SO member, now at Gold Base. My mother is updating her will and wants to know if she bequeaths money to him, will he be able to keep it for his "retirement", or will Scientology just take it? She's considering putting it in some kind of trust to keep it out of their hands. Any advice?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Re: Money

    If the church finds out your brother has "excess" money, they will try to get him to give it to the church. That's just what they do. "You have money? Give it to us!"

    But your brother could refuse and could keep it to make his life a bit better. I know people in the S.O. who have done this. That all depends on your brother. Because he's a SO member, it should be easier, because he "doesn't have to pay for any services". (I put that in quotes, because SO members never get any services anyway.)

    A trust is a good idea and should resolve this problem. However, that isn't foolproof.

    In addition, he's getting up there in age, and he has been abused and hasn't been eating well for 40 years. He has, or will soon have some significant medical problems -- which the SO will not pay for. He would need money in that case -- probably more than the trust income.

    And what if he wakes up and leaves the SO? Will the trust income be enough to get him through the transition? (If he starts having serious medical problems, he would be kicked out anyway.)

    If the trust could be written to allow for such changes in circumstance, it would be the best solution.

    Give it careful thought. Your mother has the right idea.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hello. Did LRH print up a scale of sensations and if so where can I find it? I am reading the "Games Manual" written up by Dennis Stephens and would like to have a scale of sensations to refer to. Thank you.

    BTW, I am a very happy ex-church-member :-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Re: Sensations

    What you are probably looking for is Hubbard's "52 perceptics". I'm not sure where you would find a copy of that list. It was in "Self Analysis" and in "Scientology 0-8". Try Google.

    ReplyDelete
  19. How do you choose which condition to apply and know that its true?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, dear! How do I explain this?

      Hubbard's condition formulas as pretty much bogus. While you can figure out some situations where a formula might possibly "work", in the real world, the formulas are really useless. Anyone with some smarts can figure out, if they are in trouble, how to get out of trouble. If they can't see they are in trouble or can't figure out what went wrong - Hubbard's formulas are not going to help.

      Here is how Hubbard's formulas work within Scientology. If a staff member's statistics are up they are "in Normal" or "in Affluence" or "in Power" and no one cares about formulas. If a staff member's statistics are down, they are "in Emergency, Danger, Non-Existence" and they are assigned the condition and someone expects them to "follow the formula".

      Now, as I said, in the real world, the formulas do not work. So "following the formula" means that the staff member desperately tries to figure out how to pretend they've followed the steps, no matter how useless and inapplicable they are.

      Mostly, Scientologists who are not on staff just ignore the condition formulas and do what works.

      Delete
  20. How do you know what condition you are in?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You can't. Hubbard's "Ethics conditions" are just made up crap. They are not applicable in the real world. In the real world, you will normally be doing poorly, great, struggling, smooth sailing, etc. all at the same time in different areas of your life.

      There isn't a canned formula to solve your problems. Period. Hubbard liked to pretend that he knew everything and could solve everything with his little procedures and formulas. He was so very wrong. He couldn't.

      Delete

Comments will be moderated. Have patience, I get around to it pretty quick. As a rule of thumb, I won't approve spam, off-topic, trolling or abusive stuff. The rest is usually OK. Yes, you can disagree with me.