How Scientology’s ardent followers prove their loyalty with blind (or near-sighted) obedience

 
Yacht Apollo, mid 1971. Seated uncomfortably on the edge of the red leather armchair across from L. Ron Hubbard’s desk reserved for his visitors during one-on-one conferences, I am fumbling miserably as LRH is quizzing me about the meaning of the word “resources.” While he is training me along with the rest of his Aides to conduct evaluations of failing organizations, with a view to improving their statistics via a tailor-made program, one important step of the process is to identify what resources are available to help improve the local situation.

He’s asking me to use the word in sentences. Trouble is, the word only brings to mind the phrase “natural resources,” which somehow stuck from my school geography lessons in resource-rich Quebec. What he wants to hear about are things like: capable staff members, money available, an active field of Scientologists, whatever the org might have going for itself. After a couple tries, exasperated, he finally lets out: “Will you get off this natural resources kick!”

I must be looking pretty befuddled by this time. Then he squints, as he often does when he’s figuring something out, and he says pointedly: “Where are your glasses?” Oops. Busted. “In my office” I say sheepishly. “Go get them,” he says imperiously, so I run to my cubicle down the hall, then I come back to my quizzing chair, glasses on my nose as always, and the meeting comes to a smoother conclusion.

While this interaction seems so trivial, there is an iceberg of unsaid facts and feelings lying underneath, which is probably why the memory has stayed with me so sharply.

It all has to do with the loaded subject of eyesight in Scientology.

On June 20, 1971, LRH issued an important technical bulletin titled “The Supreme Test of a C/S.” (A C/S is a Case Supervisor who oversees the processing sessions being done on a preclear — a “pc” — by an auditor.) In it, LRH stated:

…perception reduces in ratio to overts. Accept that fact as it’s true. If you run O/W on an auditor regarding the pc he is to audit, the auditor will give a perfect session to that pc. Why? He can confront because he can see.

He followed that shortly thereafter with HCOB “Dianetics, Beginning a PC on”…

Lack of perception (sight, hearing, etc.) comes from overts and improves when Flow 2 is done on any of the above or any R3R.

(Definitions: ”Overts,” short for “overt acts,” are transgressions against the group mores, basically the Scientologese equivalent of sins. An overt that is not disclosed becomes a “withhold,” hence “O/W.” “Flow 2” means addressing not what was done to oneself but what one did to others – overts, using the “Routine 3 Revised” R3R Dianetic process. For example, addressing not the pain one feels but the pain one inflicted on others.)

Although directed to technical personnel and loaded with technical jargon, these sweeping statements actually applied to every single Scientologist, the categorical message in plain English being: “If you have poor eyesight, it’s because of your overts.” So who would want to be wearing glasses after that? Might as well walk around with a sticker declaring “Sinner” stuck to your nose. Soft contact lenses, a recent invention, were not known to me and in any case would not have been available. So I had decided to try to live without my glasses as a bold experiment. I had been in Scientology for well over a year now, and I had received Dianetics auditing which addressed my myopia. So, what if my eyesight had improved, I reasoned?

 
It had not, as I quickly discovered, bumbling around the halls and stairways on the ship, feeling disoriented and yes, rather stupid. So after this debacle of a conference with LRH, I promptly resumed wearing my glasses, overts be damned. Certainly, LRH knew in our meeting the reason why I was suddenly without my glasses, and I knew that he knew. It was terribly awkward, but I was just grateful that he didn’t bring it up. I also recall that I was not the only one on board who tried to ditch the glasses for a time, but my memory is too fuzzy on this for me to name names.

The truth is, I started wearing glasses as a child, and I wear them to this day. No amount of auditing all the way up to OT III changed that fact. Yet the prospect of improving my eyesight was in fact a big part of what drew me to investigate Dianetics in the first place. While in Denmark on a summer student trip, in that fateful 1969 year, I met a young American actor, who had come across Dianetics and raved about it. He said that a large percent of illnesses were due to mental aberrations, and that Dianetics could handle these, and that it could even improve poor eyesight. I was immediately attracted to that prospect, because when I pondered my catalogue of ills, pains and disabilities, I concluded that I was a rather healthy and happy human being in no particular need of improvement, save for this one glaring deficiency. My new friend brought me over to visit the Athena Sea Org station ship in northern Denmark, where my life would take the sharp U-turn into the Sea Org I would come to bitterly regret.

Auspicious timing is in large part what caused me to stick around on the Athena long enough to get well and truly hooked. Dianetics had been around since 1950, but in mid-1969 it was back in vogue. In May of that year LRH had re-packaged it into a relatively easy series of bulletins named “Hubbard Standard Dianetics Course” or HSDC. One didn’t even need to crack open the rather obtuse tome, Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health. In fact I didn’t actually read that book from cover to cover until 1976. As soon as I arrived on board, I was placed on full time study on the HSDC, which was for a time the practice for all new recruits, and a good one it was, as the studies peaked my interest. One had to study the printed materials, then do “Training Routines” (communication drills) and e-metering drills, then one had to repeat the whole process, for the course had a “three times through” requirement. One would then practice as the auditor on a fellow student before graduating.

I never got to that practice auditing part before I was transferred to the flag ship Apollo, a month later. But I did read in the technical bulletins tantalizing little gems such as these, in HCO Bulletin of 24 April 1969 “Dianetic Use”:

Tiredness, unwanted sensations, bizarre pains and aches, bad hearing or sight also routinely respond to Dianetic processing….Withered limbs, skin blotches and rashes and even blindness and deafness have all responded to Dianetics.

On the Apollo, I was not able to complete my HSDC course as other training priorities took precedence. But I did receive my first Dianetic auditing. One started by making, in session with the auditor, a list of “AESPs”: attitudes, emotions, sensations and pains, which would then be addressed with Dianetic processes. I don’t recall that a whole lot came up, but I did have an item on poor eyesight which I wanted to handle. I also don’t recall the outcome of those sessions, but suffice it to say that by the time I attested to Dianetics Completion, my glasses remained firmly planted on my nose, as evidenced by photos of me taken in these years. Later I attested to the state of Natural Clear. Still no change in eyesight. Then came OT III. I attested with contact lenses conveniently concealing my myopia.

As an aside, Rod Keller has compiled for the Bunker a fun gallery of Scientologists attesting to completion of various processes, including OT levels, with glasses on.

In the 1980s, LRH developed the “False Purpose Rundown” or FPRD, which intensively addressed past overts and the evil purposes behind them, on the whole time track of past lives. This auditing became a mainstay of the RPF and auditing in general, and I received a fair bit of it, and still the glasses stayed on. I can confidently say that whatever gains I may or may not have had in my decades as an active Scientologist, improved eyesight was never one of them.

Yes, this is contrary to repeated assertions by Hubbard dating all the way back to the original Dianetics book published in 1950, assertions still proclaimed as fact in these 1971 bulletins quoted above. On page 11 of Dianetics, we find these sweeping statements:

Glasses are seen on noses everywhere around, even on children. The majority of these spectacles are perched on the face in an effort to correct a condition which the body itself is fighting to uncorrect again. Eyesight, when the stage of glasses is entered (not because of glasses), is deteriorating on the psycho-somatic principle. And this observation is about as irresponsible as a statement that when apples fall out of trees they usually obey gravity. One of the incidental things which happen to a clear is that his eyesight, if it had been bad as an aberree, generally improves markedly, and with some slight attention will recover optimum perception in time.

In the 1950s LRH continued to make this type of absolutist statement. In the Dianetics Auditors Bulletin volume 2 number 7 of January 1952, transcribed from an audio tape of an auditing session held in LRH’s Wichita home, LRH addresses eyesight in his preclear and has the following to say:

If you have hit the real cause of having to wear glasses dead center, the change is instantaneous. If you are merely unburdening the problems of the preclear, his eyesight will get better gradually, up to a point. At that point any further improvement is dependent upon hitting the central computations on glasses. This obtains by running regret, blame, sympathy, etc.

LRH then has this exchange with the preclear (Emphasis ours):

LRH: Will you be audited when you get home?
Preclear: Yes.
LRH: And will you have a copy of this tape?
Preclear: Yes.
LRH: Make certain your auditor listens to it before running you. You are only three or four hours from taking your glasses off for keeps.

Did LRH believe the claims he was making? Perry Chapdelaine was a staff member at the short-lived Wichita Foundation in 1951-52. He had this to say in an interview with Russell Miller, quoted in his book Bare-Faced Messiah: (page 196)

The problem for many people involved in Dianetics was that they accepted every word Hubbard said as literal truth, rather than a framework around which you could do things. I remember at a lecture one night he told people if they did this or that they would no longer need to wear glasses and that they would be able to throw them away forever. He pointed to a big bowl at the bottom of the steps leading up to the rostrum and at the end of the lecture people were throwing their glasses into this bowl. Don Purcell was one of them. Hubbard thought it was a great joke. He told me about it afterwards, making a snide remark about Purcell and describing how he took off his glasses, threw them into the bowl and groped his way out of the lecture hall. Hubbard was laughing that people would do something like that just because of what he said. Of course, it didn’t work. Like everyone else, Purcell had a new pair of glasses in a couple days.

In May 1957, LRH devoted an entire Professional Auditor’s Bulletin, number 111, titled “Eyesight and Glasses,” to this subject. It makes for interesting reading. It involves gold disks that the thetan (the spirit) holds in front of his physical eyeballs to perceive the world.

It seems I was in good company when it comes to people in Hubbard’s immediate entourage having misgivings about wearing glasses in his presence. Even his own son Nibs (L. Ron Hubbard Jr., later Ron DeWolf) who worked alongside Ron between 1952 and 1959, had this to say in his unpublished 1972 essay posted in the Underground Bunker:

I had poor eyesight and I had to wear my glasses all the time, which I still do. Through Dianetic auditing they tried to get me to remove my glasses, but when I did so, I got migraine headaches. So despite Dianetics, I had to continue to wear my glasses secretly to keep from upsetting my father. He didn’t want others to see that Dianetics and Scientology hadn’t improved my eyesight as he had claimed it could for everyone else. I didn’t wear them in public until after I left Scientology.

And fast forward to the 70’s, Yvonne Gillham Jentzsch had a similar problem, according to her daughter Janis’ book Commodore’s Messenger Book 2 (p 496):

Mum’s eyesight was not very good. … She had some pinhole perforated screened glasses designed to improve her eyesight. Because LRH said one had bad eyesight due to overts and how auditing improves eyesight, she did not want people to know her eyesight was poor, which would reflect poorly on Scientology and Hubbard.

There is a remarkable consistency in these reports and they illustrate an important mechanism in Scientology. It goes like this. You are very invested in Scientology, either by virtue of having contributed much time and money to advancing to its higher levels of ability, or by virtue of having devoted your life to it through a staff contract or a Sea Org commitment. You believe that Scientology works and you must continue believing it to validate your choices. You then believe that your eyesight should improve under Scientology processing, because the tech says so, and the tech also says that it always works when correctly applied. Those statements are self-referential. Therefore if your eyesight does not improve, you are the one at fault. LRH has provided a convenient explanation. Your own overts, your past misdeeds, are causing your inability to see well. Other wordings for this deficiency are: poor perception, poor confront. The responsibility for your predicament then, has conveniently shifted from Hubbard and his tech to you, the preclear or pre-OT. You will be reluctant however to state publicly within the Scientology community that you have failed to achieve a desired result, because that would reflect poorly on you, and worse it would reflect poorly on Scientology and Hubbard, and that would be considered an ethics offense. You are truly in a “prison of belief,” as Lawrence Wright put it, caught in a web of false assumptions and conclusions about yourself and the world, and all the while subject to intense group pressure to maintain the con.

Could it be that the mechanism illustrated by this graphic example of a common human deficiency, poor eyesight, might apply across the boards in Scientology, whether your disability is a cognitive problem such as dyslexia, a mental issue such as depression, a chronic illness such as asthma or worse, even cancer?

Worse, could it be that the same mechanism applies not only in the case of deficiencies, but also of failures to achieve promised or advertised super-human abilities? Sobering thought.

For my part, I was in grade school when my teacher noticed I couldn’t read the blackboard from the front row. The day I put on my first pair of glasses was a glorious epiphany. I lived right on the south shore of the half mile-wide Saint-Lawrence river, and suddenly I could make out all the details of the ships and installations of the Port of Montreal across the river. The oldest girl of six kids, as a child I took refuge from my chaotic family life in books. I often read at night hiding under the covers with a flashlight, the beginnings of a lifelong book addiction. When I got caught on occasion, my mother would say “You’ll tear your eyes out reading in the dark like that.”

Thankfully, the myth that reading in low light can damage the eyes has been thoroughly debunked by research. But my mother and L. Ron Hubbard shared one thing in common in the fifties: neither of them knew absolutely the first thing about what causes poor eyesight, despite being thoroughly opinionated about it. But at least my mother did not despise and disparage those in the professions who were trying to figure this out, nor inject pseudo-science gobbledygook into the void to substitute for lack of knowledge.

— Louise Shekter

Feb 2: Another crucial Scientology eyewitness coming forward, starting today at the Bunker
Feb 6: Shekter: How Scientology intervened in an intimate affair of the heart
Feb 17: Shekter: The proposition that threatened to upend my Scientology billion-year commitment
Feb 23: Shekter: A trial by storm for Scientology’s most dedicated still resonates today
Mar 2: Rough seas? Tough cookie, sailor. In Scientology, you upchuck at your own peril
Mar 21: Quentin Hubbard’s suicide: A Scientology-based explanation so insane it might be true
Apr 4: How Scientology’s notorious prison program, the RPF, got its birth at sea
Apr 28: How a decaying landmark became Scientology’s legendary Hollywood Celebrity Centre

 
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Source Code

“The US in a Masterpiece has officially stated it has no responsibility for its money. They can say that twice. The scoop is that genius Nixon’s Federal Reserve Board lowered bank rates in the US, causing US investment money to flee to Europe. Nazi bankers caught the ball so deftly tossed to them by their US agents and began a smash attack on the dollar. Exchange is still 3.8 francs to a dollar in Switzerland. It should be 4.3. Costing us our shirts. We don’t dare deposit and lose. Somebody in the US Federal Reserve is working very hard for his Iron Cross First Class.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 9, 1971

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“ALL CREW: Please submit to me knowledge reports on any injustices that you may know about. Injustices must be righted. Thank you.” — Lt. Cmdr. Diana Hubbard, May 9, 1969

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“I realize now what I am exhibiting with all my wins; unbelievable, incredible, so many wins in such a short time… are all happening for a specific reason. That reason is, I am exhibiting a complete and accurate alignment of my basic purpose. My basic purpose on the whole track is to communicate Ron’s discoveries. To explain what the tech does for a spirit in a way that is easy for anyone to understand.”

 
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Past is Prologue

2001: “Barb” protested in downtown Hemet, California. “We decided to stake out a busy intersection in downtown Hemet. Hundreds of people drove by and read my sign, ‘Scientology, the ‘church’ with a Body Count-www.xenu.net.’ One guy stopped, told me he was a cab driver who picked up a couple at Gold who wanted to leave. His cab was chased. He also gave someone a ride out to Happy Valley and got inside the gate, but wasn’t allowed to linger once he discharged his passenger. I gave him a Xenu flier that had an insert provided by Keith, ‘Scientology Hurts People.'”

 
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Random Howdy

“David Miscavige is a South Philly street punk: rude, lewd, and crude. He wants to be Vito Genovese but he’s John Gotti instead. All flash and bravado with no real depth or vision.”

 
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next pretrial conference May 31. Trial scheduled for August 29.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Last hearing was on January 18, referred to grand jury. Additional charges also referred to grand jury after January 5 assault while in jail.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for May 5.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court.
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Eleventh Circuit affirmed ruling granting Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Garcias considering next move.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Valerie’s motion for reconsideration denied on March 15.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Next hearing scheduled for June 29.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for December 6.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

 
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

 
Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] The Scientologist and the superstar hacker: A stock market fable for our times
[TWO years ago] Dianetics at 70: Scientology’s bible, endorsing child molestation since May 9, 1950
[THREE years ago] Death in the Timor Sea: The darkest war secret of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard
[FOUR years ago] Early witness Don Rogers on Hubbard and ‘prior lives’: ‘Nothing but a parlor hypnosis trick’
[FIVE years ago] Danny Masterson hires Michael Jackson criminal defense attorney Tom Mesereau in rape probe
[SIX years ago] 66 years ago, L. Ron Hubbard transubstantiated from pulp writer to god among men
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology answers Garcia motion: We are definitely a bona fide worldwide religion!
[EIGHT years ago] Ryan Hamilton adds Colorado in new lawsuits against Scientology’s rehab network
[NINE years ago] Lori Hodgson Defies Scientology’s “Disconnection,” Surprises Her Son in Texas

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 9, 2022 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

 

Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast