Scientology's Turning Point

Something has happened in the Church of Scientology that is quite significant. It has taken several years, but the change is now complete.

It hasn't been acknowledged, or even mentioned within Scientology, but the change is radical and comprehensive.

It first became obvious when David Miscavige created and released his so-called "Golden Age of Tech". With this release, Miscavige completely changed L. Ron Hubbard's training methods, courses and checksheets.

One very key element of this change was Miscavige's declaration that everyone's training had been "horribly flawed", even including those trained directly by L. Ron Hubbard.

This is very important. With this release, Miscavige was saying, in no uncertain terms, that Hubbard was wrong, Hubbard had goofed, and that he, Miscavige, had fixed Hubbard's mistakes.

Lest anyone think that Hubbard thought his training might need improvement, here is what Hubbard said about his training.

With what we know now, there is no student we enroll who cannot be properly trained.

L. Ron Hubbard, Keeping Scientology Working Series 1

But what Miscavige says about Hubbard's training is quite different. It was flawed, it was wrong, it didn't work. People who had been trained using Hubbard's methods were improperly trained. And he, Miscavige, the "Savior of Scientology", fixed it.

And only a very, very few Scientologists objected. Of course, any that did object were quickly expelled. They were supporting Hubbard, and that had now become a crime in Miscavige's new Church of Scientology.

Hubbard explicitly said in Keeping Scientology Working that his technology must never be altered by anyone. His instructions, in Keeping Scientology Working, are that every Scientologist must work hard to keep the technology exactly as it was written by Hubbard.

But Scientologists, in the main, didn't do that. The vast majority of Scientologists just let Miscavige make all his changes. They even applauded.

This event was the watershed event for Scientology.

The silence of all the remaining Scientologists gave David Miscavige a blank check to do anything he wanted to with the technology, the administration, with anything in Scientology.

And, believe me, that's exactly what he's done. From that moment on, he knew then that no one would object, no matter what he did.

With Miscavige's next major alteration, his so-called "Golden Age of Knowledge", Miscavige savagely edited Ron's lectures, cutting and splicing to "fix" them. He even had a voice actor who could imitate LRH's voice fill in the words "Hubbard should have said". It was open season on Hubbard's technology.

In all his announcements and releases, Miscavige keeps promoting this concept: Hubbard's training was flawed. Hubbard's lectures were wrong. Hubbard was stupid. Hubbard needs correction -- and Miscavige is the "Savior of Scientology" who is "fixing Hubbard's terrible mistakes".

And, with each step down this road, Scientologists applaud.

Not long ago, David Miscavige issued a commandment from his office: From now on, Miscavige's orders were senior to anything written by Hubbard. No one at International Management objected. This is now the law in Scientology. Most Scientologists don't know this, but if they did, would they object? Or would they applaud?

More recently, with the release of "The Basics" Miscavige has made his message clearer than ever. With "The Basics" Miscavige made significant alterations to Hubbard's books. With these alterations, Miscavige's message is unequivocal: Hubbard was too stupid to see these "major mistakes" in his own books, year after year, reprint after reprint, revision after revision, for over thirty years.

And when Scientologists burned their old LRH-written books, and bought the "new improved" Miscavige books, they were implicitly agreeing: Ron was stupid and Miscavige, the "Savior of Scientology", had "fixed" Ron's work.

Again, most Scientologists applauded. While Scientologists today might not explicitly say the words "Hubbard was stupid and careless", they are agreeing with Miscavige, they are abandoning Hubbard's tech and embracing Miscavige's tech. Hubbard was stupid and Miscavige is smart. Hubbard was flawed and Miscavige will fix everything.

Miscavige didn't get his authority to rewrite Scientology from his accomplishments, which are truly horrible, he got his authority simply because Scientologists didn't object. Scientologists let him do it. Scientologists applauded!

Miscavige has almost no tech training. He studied at Saint Hill but did not complete the Briefing Course. Miscavige has virtually no admin training, none. Miscavige can't audit -- he was stuck on OT VII for many, many years and simply gave up. He has no qualifications for doing anything with Scientology tech. Yet, he continues to make massive changes -- and Scientologists continue to applaud.

Step by step, change by change, Miscavige is erasing Hubbard from Scientology and is creating his own version of the church.

Now, one might argue that his extensive alterations to Scientology might be justified if things got better as a result, but that is definitely not the case. After Miscavige's training "improvements", the number of auditors, and the quality of auditing, deteriorated drastically. Under Miscavige's leadership, the Church of Scientology is collapsing. Under Miscavige's technical "guidance", most Scientologists' progress has slowed, stopped, or even gone backwards while they retread, retrain, and repeat endlessly. Under Miscavige's direction, the Church of Scientology has become a dark organization, full of threats, intense pressure, grinding guilt and frequent abuses.

With their silence, their applause, their purchases, Scientologists have agreed and supported Miscavige's elimination and defamation of Hubbard and Miscavige's extensive revision of Scientology.

The turning point has been passed. Scientologists let it happen. It would be cruel to say that they now have the church they deserve -- but it would be the unfortunate truth.
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Scientology Thought Control - Part 2

As mentioned in Scientology Thought Control - Part 1, there are many ways that Scientology trains people to properly control their thoughts so that they can accept concepts and controls that, under normal circumstances, would be difficult to accept.

In that article, we saw how the concept of "entheta" allows Scientologists to reject "negative" information, even when true, and accept "positive" information without inspection.

While this is a start to good thought control, it really isn't enough.

The next part of training Scientologists to control their thoughts is embodied in L. Ron Hubbard's famous "Keeping Scientology Working" (KSW). This policy letter from Hubbard is the very first thing that every Scientologist must read and "duplicate" when they do any Scientology training.

Now, you must understand what that "and duplicate" phrase means in Scientology-speak. While the official Scientology definition is to "make a perfect copy", this isn't how it is applied when you're studying Scientology. To "duplicate" when studying Scientology means "completely agree with".

Let me explain. In Hubbard's Study Technology, the source material being studied is always assumed to be 100% correct and 100% workable. If the student doesn't understand the material or (gasp!) disagrees with the material, it is the student's fault, never the material's -- and once the student "handles their study difficulty" they will agree with the material being studied.

And the very first item on every course that a Scientologist takes is this "Keeping Scientology Working" issue.

And what does this policy letter say? In it, Hubbard modestly states that he has created an absolutely perfect and always workable technology for everything. No one helped him; everything anyone else has ever done is, from Hubbard's analysis, horrible and destructive; only Hubbard's solutions are good; if you apply Hubbard's technology and it doesn't work, it's your fault, you did something wrong; and (in my opinion the most clever assertion), it is the very evil people who disagree with Hubbard and his technology.

And all Scientologists, as the very first order of business, must completely agree with these concepts before they can get on with any other studying.

From that point on, the Scientologist's ability to control their thoughts in the proper Scientology manner is quite simple.

If Hubbard said it: It is true.

If evidence disagrees with what Hubbard said: The evidence is false.

If someone disagrees with Hubbard: They are evil.

If someone applies Hubbard's technology and nothing happens, or something bad happens: It's their fault, not Hubbard's.

If someone doesn't get wonderful results from Scientology: They are one of the Evil People.

And so on.

The "Keeping Scientology Working" policy letter has installed these fixed ideas. Once these "facts" have been installed in a Scientologist, all their perceptions, all their logic, all their conclusions must be warped around to fit into these "facts". Actual, independent thought is no longer possible.

The thought control works like this:

• "Gee, this thing Ron said just doesn't make sense!" (Thought Control: You must have a study problem, it's all your fault. Keep studying it until you agree with it.)
• "I did exactly what Ron said, but nothing happened!" (Thought Control: It's your fault, you did something wrong, go back and restudy the material.)
• "I got some processing, but I don't feel any better." (Thought Control: Be quiet! Only evil people fail to get gains from Scientology!)
• "I don't really like this part of Scientology!" (Thought Control: Shut up! Shut up! That means you're one of the Evil People! You do like it, you can't be evil!)
  

This is the real reason that "Keeping Scientology Working" is the first thing studied and why it must be agreed to before going on. From that point on, good Scientologists never criticize L. Ron Hubbard or David Miscavige or Scientology, no matter what they see, no matter what happens. To do so would mean that they are EVIL! Any failure, any disagreement, any problems in Scientology are always and only their fault.

Now, Scientologists believe that the reason "KSW" is first in every course is to ensure that Hubbard's technology remains pure and to insist that every Scientologist defend it. Well, if that were true, then why has every single bit of Hubbard's technology been altered since his death? Nothing of Hubbard's remains exactly as he left it. Nothing. No, nobody is using "KSW" to defend and protect Hubbard's technology. Obviously, that isn't its purpose.

Even after someone has left Scientology, they often retain this fixed idea that any and all failures were their fault and that they are evil. But most finally do recover their ability to see what is really there, evaluate what is really true and to know who and what is evil and why.

Hubbard never provided any proof that he was "always right". He never provided any proof that his technology was "100% workable". He never provided any evidence that "all who disagree with him are evil". None. Not ever. He just said it was so and insisted that anyone who questioned him, doubted him or disagreed with him was evil and must be punished.

If the person gets through "Keeping Scientology Working", and "duplicates" (agrees with) it, they have truly mastered their advanced thought control skills.

Now they are a full-fledged Scientologist.
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Scientologists: Why Scientology is Attacked

As a Scientologist, you are, undoubtedly aware of, and concerned about, the continuing attacks against the Church of Scientology. And very rightfully so.

In your world, Scientology is very, very good. Why would anyone attack it?

The church has presented various explanations for these protests. "People are being paid to protest", "Suppressives are spreading false information," "Big drug companies are working to destroy Scientology," and so on.

However, you have been taught that the "right Why", the "right item", the correct reason for a problem, when spotted, will resolve the problem.

And still, the protests continue.

To make matters worse, the mainstream media are reporting bad things about the Church of Scientology. There are reports of abuse within the church, and worse. It is upsetting.

And, even further, you see other problems. Your local church is struggling. There are few new people, if any. You know your own involvement in Scientology is also fraught with problems. Perhaps your case is stalled, or you've been told to repeat earlier levels, or you now find yourself "off lines" due to various problems. And the Church of Scientology is demanding more and more money from you -- to "solve" problems that persist in not getting any better no matter how much money they collect.

It seems there are many problems today, and they are not getting better.

Hubbard tells us that, if things are not resolving, then one doesn't have the correct source of the problem, right?

David Miscavige's Church of Scientology is pointing the finger of blame outward -- and nothing is getting resolved. The protests continue. The local churches continue to struggle. Scientologists continue to struggle.

Here is what L. Ron Hubbard says, in Keeping Scientology Working:

Trouble spots occur only where there are "no results." Attacks from governments or monopolies occur only where there are "no results" or "bad results."

Note that he says "only". "No results" or "bad results" are the only cause of attacks. He doesn't say "usually" or "mostly" or "often". He says "only".

He also said this, in Keeping Scientology Working:

One: Having the correct technology
...
One above has been done.

He wrote this in 1965 and emphasized it in later issues. He didn't say, "The technology is well along but needs some improvements by someone". He said "done". He also said that it should be protected from corruption -- that's what Keeping Scientology Working is all about.

25 years ago, when the churches were doing better and there were very few attacks, one can make the case that the Church of Scientology was mostly delivering what was promised. One could assume there were results and that they were "good results".

What changed?

Well, to be frank, most of Hubbard's tech has been changed. Training was completely ripped apart and redone. His books, that he prized and took so much care with, were re-written, twice. Tape lectures have been edited. Vast changes have been made to the administration of the Church of Scientology. Technical "advices" from upper management have been changing the way the tech is applied and there is word that even the Grade Chart is being completely redone, with much material being removed. Virtually nothing has escaped the touch of David Miscavige, "improving" things.

And now Miscavige's Church of Scientology has "no results" and "bad results", doesn't it? I suspect that you, personally, have experienced this. Well, that's not difficult to guess, just about every Scientologist is experiencing "no results" or "bad results", now.

The problem, according to Ron, isn't "out there", it's right there in front of you. You've watched it happen. The only cause of the attacks is "no results" and "bad results".

That's what Ron says. He also says, towards the end of Keeping Scientology Working:

So the ogre which might eat us up is not the government or the High Priests. it's our possible failure to retain and practice our technology.

Do you expect the person corrupting everything and creating the "no results" and "bad results" to admit it? No, that person is pointing the finger everywhere but straight back where it should point.

But now you know the real reason Scientology is being attacked.
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Scientologists: Scientology, Then and Now

For the purposes of this discussion, let's ignore the debate of whether Hubbard's technology "works" or not. Let's just look at what Hubbard put together, and what Miscavige did with it after Hubbard died.

All current Scientologists are supposed to believe that David Miscavige, the current leader of the Church of Scientology is continuing and enhancing the work of L. Ron Hubbard. They must trust what Miscavige has told them.

Let's see what the truth is:

• By the time Hubbard died, he had indicated, in his "Keeping Scientology Working" that his tech was complete and must not be altered. He forbade anyone altering, removing or adding to his technology. In addition, he specifically admonished his followers to never, ever reduce training to a set of rote drills.
• After Hubbard died, Miscavige completely changed all training in Scientology. He rewrote all the training materials and reduced the training to a set of rote drills.
  

• In the few years before his death, Hubbard presided over the greatest expansion the Church of Scientology had ever seen. This expansion continued, but tapered off after his death.
• David Miscavige has orchestrated the greatest decline of membership in the church's 50+ year history. Not just a decline in expansion, a drastic shrinking of the church membership. All of the expansion of Hubbard's years has been wiped out, and a lot more. And the decline continues.
  

• Hubbard created a large and complex administrative structure to oversee the Church of Scientology after he was gone. Included in this structure were many checks and balances to make sure the church management did not stray from the proper administrative path he set up. One top management group was even called the Watchdog Committee. The staff at the International Management base in Hemet was around 1,000 at that time.
  
• Miscavige has completely dismantled all of Hubbard's administrative structure. None of the people who Hubbard put in charge remain. No one who worked with Hubbard remains in any executive position. The staff at the Int. Base are around 400, but many of those have been off post for years, "doing lower conditions" -- endlessly. Anyone still within that executive structure has no power but is simply a "yes-man" to Miscavige's dictatorship.

• Hubbard wrote quite detailed instructions on how the Church of Scientology was to be run. These policies were made available to all in over a dozen large volumes. In Hubbard's directions, these policies were to be followed without question by all Churches of Scientology.
• Under Miscavige's direction, the many volumes of Hubbard policy letters are no longer in print. Miscavige has decreed that, from now on, his orders are senior to anything written by Hubbard, his orders are to be followed, he can and will order everyone to violate Hubbard's policies and his orders must be carried out.
  

• When Hubbard was in charge, any money to the church was in exchange for a book, a course, a session. Money was always given in exchange for something. Hubbard expressly forbade any "pure donations" where there was no exchange. He was adamant.
• Miscavige has introduced and heavily promoted "pure donations" from Scientologists. So much so that Scientologists who do not donate enough pure donations are considered "out ethics" and are punished. Today, the vast majority of the church's income comes from those pure donations that were forbidden by Hubbard.
  

• When Hubbard was in charge, he found that big events--at that time called congresses and held twice a year--artificially boosted church's statistics and then inevitably caused a ruinous drop in church activity. He forbade such big events. The "boom" was artificial and the crash was disastrous.
  
• Miscavige has created six yearly, big events, each one carefully designed to sell something, to artificially boost the church's statistics. When the inevitable crash in statistics occurs as a result, just as predicted by Hubbard, Miscavige blames everyone but himself for the problem that he created by violating Hubbard's directions.
  

• When Hubbard was running things, the local churches were expected to make do with what they had. If they increased the number of people on services, they would make the additional income needed to support that expansion. It was a natural evolution. If the church did not expand, it would get no outside financial help.
• Miscavige's idea of "expansion" is to demand that the local Scientologists pony up millions and millions of dollars, buy a big building, come up with millions more to renovate the building, and then give the oversized building to Miscavige. Miscavige turns around and leases this large building back to the local church for lots of money. This means the local Scientologists are paying for the new buildings twice! The local church must shoulder the increased lease and the increased burden of maintaining a huge building when they couldn't even afford to maintain the smaller quarters! This "false expansion" inevitably makes the church's struggle for survival much harder. Closing churches, long forbidden under Hubbard, has become common under Miscavige (spun as "combining resources" by Miscavige).
  

Scientologists: You are supposed to defend what Ron created from any alteration! You are supposed to ensure that someone doesn't come along and destroy all that Hubbard built and all that you believe in. That is supposed to be your job and your most solemn duty as set out in "Keeping Scientology Working".

Scientologists: If you honor L. Ron Hubbard, what are you doing allowing Miscavige to destroy all that Hubbard built?

What is your excuse? You weren't paying attention? You forgot? You believed Miscavige and forgot to look for yourself? Someone else was supposed to do that? You were afraid that David Miscavige would punish you for disagreeing with him?

Don't say you didn't notice anything! These are massive changes. The entire structure of the Church of Scientology is collapsing. You are letting it happen. LRH left you with that very specific responsibility and you failed.

What is your excuse?

Scientology: The First Lesson

To become a Scientologist, you must have one primary belief. Without it, you can never become a Scientologist. With it, you are golden.

You must believe that L. Ron Hubbard is All-Knowing, All-Seeing, Perfect and Always Right.

And they do. Completely.

You see, this is the very first lesson you learn in Scientology. At the start of each and every course you take, you must first understand and agree with Hubbard's Policy Letter "Keeping Scientology Working". In this policy letter, Hubbard modestly states that he has all the answers, that he is the only one who has these answers, that it is impossible for anyone to improve on his answers and that anyone who disagrees with all that is a very, very bad person, who must be stopped. I'm paraphrasing.

Once you've completely understood and agreed with that policy letter, you are allowed to continue on to the course material. Every course starts with this policy letter.

And the proof that Hubbard, or the Church of Scientology, or anyone gives that Hubbard was, is and will always be right is:

(absolutely nothing)

Yes, that's right, nobody has ever presented any evidence that Hubbard has these powers of always being right and knowing everything.

It is belief, in the purest sense of that word. Absolute, complete, perfect belief that "Hubbard is always right!"

This is why it is impossible to argue with a Scientologist. It goes like this:

You: The Church of Scientology has committed crimes, abuses, fraud. It lies.
Scientologist: Aha! It is proven that everyone who criticizes Scientology is guilty of horrible crimes for which they could be arrested, and they are all in the pay of a vast evil conspiracy. You are evil! I will destroy you!
You: Umm... what proof do you have of any of that?
Scientologist: Ron said it!

And there it is. How can you argue with that? That is the ultimate "proof", "Ron said it". Per that policy letter, it must be true.

To get even more weird, not only do Scientologists believe that, if Ron said it, it is true, they also believe that if Ron did not say something, it isn't true! So you get things like the Freewinds asbestos disaster. Some people are reporting that the Scientologists in charge said that since Ron never mentioned the danger of asbestos, it couldn't be harmful!

You see, Scientologists cannot do research or think about something and make up their own minds about it, they can only check with All-Knowing-Ron. If he said something, then, by golly, that's it, it's true. And outside of that, everything else is false! No thinking, no investigation, no logic, just read what Ron said and then stop. Stop investigating, stop looking, stop thinking, stop.

The really hard-core Scientologists have gotten so good at doing this that they believe they are thinking and investigating. They very carefully "think like Ron" and then "investigate" what Ron said, and then "do what Ron would do". It is very creepy.

If you're a Scientologist, then whatever Ron said must be true or you will get ... "retrained" until you can make it true for yourself. You must go through whatever convoluted, rube-goldberg, twisted type of logic to make it work out to be true. It's a skill you must develop as a Scientologist, to only see how Ron is right and be blind to anything that might show he was wrong.

Ron promised OT super powers but never, ever exhibited any such powers himself. Nor has any other Scientologist.

Ron claimed he was better at administration and organizing than any other person in the whole world, but Scientologists have to pretend, real hard, to believe the disasters he created around the world are "successful, well run organizations".

Ron spoke of a vast evil conspiracy, composed of "International Bankers", drug companies and the always-evil psychiatrists, but he never presented any evidence of its existence. He even claimed to have completely uncovered the whole evil organization, but never presented any facts at all. To this day, no one outside of Ron has ever seen any hint of such a conspiracy. But they believe.

These, and a million other claims, are accepted whole, without ever any proof, by all Scientologists. All because of that first Policy Letter on their first course. The primary belief that they learned then: Ron is always right and anyone who disagrees is not only wrong but very, very evil.
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