Scientology’s obsession with secrecy is in its DNA, and it results in absurdities

Obsession with secrets and secrecy is an integral aspect to the bizarre world of Scientology. It seems to me that it stems from some kind of megalomanic paranoia of the founder of that cult, Lafayette Hubbard, and of his successor, David Miscavige.

There are numerous examples. For many years, the location of the international headquarters was known to relatively few Scientologists in the world. The first time I went there, I rode in a van for about an hour, got dropped off in an out-of-the-way parking lot, and then got picked up by another van that drove the rest of the way to the “Int Base.” And that was after having to endure hours of security checking, part of an elaborate screening system to keep undesirable people from knowing where that place was. These days, thanks to the Internet, it is easy to find out where Gilman Hot Springs is, and that this is the location of units that used to make up the top management of Scientology. I don’t think international Scientology is still managed from that location these days. I wonder if the fact that the secret is out has anything to do with that.

Ever since Hubbard had to leave England and decided to start the Sea Project, relatively few people knew where he was. The same is now true of Miscavige. Messages between key executives, plans, strategies, projects, the activities of private investigators, finances, legal actions, and many other things are all on a strict need-to-know basis.

The fixation on confidentiality extends to the theory and techniques involved in most of the auditing and training levels on the “Bridge to Total Freedom.” (Boy howdy, that’s a misnomer!) These subjects include all of the so-called “OT Levels,” “Power Processing,” and the original “Clearing Course.” Only people with the appropriate clearance are allowed to learn about them. Getting the clearance includes receiving and passing lengthy security checking (interrogation while connected to a kind of lie detector), having a good ethics record, having reached the right “case level,” having contributed sufficiently to the “church,” and having atoned for any past transgressions.

Hubbard wrote quite a bit about the necessity of keeping the materials associated with these levels under lock and key (his words) and to carefully limit who has access to them. He said bad actors might misuse information to the detriment of others. He also said that a person who learned about such things before they were mentally prepared could get sick or severely mess up their mind. That seems to be an attempt to scare people off. But I wonder if the real reason had to do with maintaining a monopoly for monetary gain. Methinks yes. Plus, it is an effective carrot to keep people paying money to gain more and more magical knowledge.

Belying this reasoning is the fact that for years now, it has been relatively easy for anyone to read all about this super-secret information on the internet. No one has been harmed by doing so. I have never heard of someone getting pneumonia from reading about the “Wall of Fire.”

Anyway, I’ll give an example that illustrates the extremes to which the powers that be will go to to keep these secret materials out of the wrong hands. In 1991, I happened to have been sent on a “Sea Org Mission.” At that time, all of the “bulletins” that describe auditing at the levels of “New OT V” and “New OT VII” had been revised. These levels are also known as “NOTs” (“New Era Dianetics for Operating Thetans”) and “Solo NOTs.” Supposedly, if you believe the PR, the information in those materials was being corrected and gotten more “on-Source.” That wasn’t actually true. The main people working on that revision, Sue Koon and Rat Mithoff, and of course ultimately approved by Miscavige, added all kinds of instructions and auditing steps to those bulletins. The auditor’s actions in delivering NOTs to someone changed considerably. Those “corrections” were quite an undertaking. The name at the bottom of all those bulletins was L. Ron Hubbard, making it appear that he had written, or at least approved, those issues. However, clearly, he had been dead for something like five years.

Once all those materials had made it through the rigorous approval process, they had to be printed in the characteristic red ink on white paper and placed in fancy binders. The people working on that part similarly had to have appropriate clearances. The binders themselves had to be designed and approved by Miscavige.

Next came the “release.” An elaborate plan had to be drawn up, approved, and put into action. This is where I got involved. Part of my mission was to get all these binders securely locked up on the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. My tasks also included briefing the crew, getting all the auditors and case supervisors trained on the new materials, overseeing the auditing done based on the new materials, and getting the old materials destroyed in a way that ensured confidentiality.

It is mind-boggling how paranoid scientologists are about keeping people from reading any of their secret stuff and the extreme lengths to which they will go. They refer to the binders with the bulletins in them as packs. Each pack had an electrical connection hard-wired to it. The packs were stored in special filing cabinets that had numerous jacks that mated with the plugs on wires from the binders. Each cabinet was connected to an elaborate security system that would loudly go off if protocol weren’t followed.

In the Sand Castle building at the Flag Land Base, there is a course room where people were trained to audit themselves on Solo NOTs. The door to that room had an electronic lock that could only be entered with a key card. The windows to that room had some kind of high-tech windows that turned opaque when it got dark outside. This was to prevent someone from sneaking up to see or maybe photograph through the window. Pages in an open course pack lying on a desk might be visible. Inside the course room was a separate room where the filing cabinets stood. A student would sign out a pack and then have something like 60 seconds to get to their chair and plug the pack into a jack on the desk. If that didn’t happen, alarms would sound and security personnel in another room in the building would be alerted. The whole time the student was reading the materials, their pack was connected electrically by a wire to the desk. At the end of the study period, the procedure was reversed to get the binder back into its filing cabinet.

Oh, I almost forgot, the “paper” in the packs was a super-strong plastic that could not be torn out. A special printing process was used to get the words onto the sheets. The binder rings were extra strong and could not be opened.

All those new materials had to be shipped from the Int Base in California to Clearwater. A couple of sea org members, who were authorized to see read the confidential information and had a high enough case level, went on their own mission for this purpose. They traveled with the boxes that held the packs. Ideally those boxes would never have been out of their sight. I imagine, though I’m not sure, that arrangements were made so that they could directly observe the loading and unloading of the boxes into and out of the luggage compartment on the plane. Then they flew on the plane as passengers. After landing they guarded the boxes as they were transported from the Tampa airport to the Flag Land Base in a dedicated van. There was an official handoff to me once the boxes were delivered into the appropriate areas.

The strangest part was destroying the old confidential materials that were already at Flag. These were also in packs in filing cabinets, albeit ordinary ones. The idea was that these outdated materials were “non-standard” and none of them could remain. One option would be to shred all those pieces of paper. That would have been a herculean task. There were, as I recall, about 100 packs, each a half to one inch thick. They all had to be gathered up, being sure no nooks or crannies were missed. There were several areas in that complex where packs were kept. Then they all had to be put into boxes and securely taped up.

The plan, that someone had somehow come up with, was to burn those boxes. But they had to be burned in such a way that only ash remained. You couldn’t just place the boxes in a vacant lot or something and light them on fire. So, what to do? Well, the city of Clearwater has a huge power generation plant. It burnt trash and garbage in very large furnaces that got to very high temperatures. The energy from all that heat was then converted into electricity.

Trucks drove into an immense staging area and unloaded their trash onto the floor. Then humongous cranes scooped up piles of the stuff and dropped them into hoppers that fed into the furnaces. There was continuous activity. It was quite an operation to behold.

The operators of that facility offered a service whereby companies or organizations could dispose of large amounts of confidential material. That is what the “church” had decided to do with all this NOTs stuff. I went with a driver in a van to that place with all the boxes in the back. We carried the boxes up to a higher level where there was a platform. From there was a doorway opening onto a conveyor belt. We watched as some workers loaded the boxes onto the belt and watched them travel towards the furnace. The only problem was that I couldn’t see the boxes actually go into the fire. That would have been impossible. But I requested the nearest possible access point and watched as long as I could. Still, I felt a little guilty. What if some evil people wanting to take down scientology were secretly at a point down the way who took those boxes off the belt? Or could there be a mechanical failure resulting in a box falling into an accessible area? Like I said, all that confidentiality involved a lot of paranoia. I wonder what those workers thought of me. They were pleasant and accommodating. But there I was marching around in my Class A uniform. That means I was dressed in something like a naval dress uniform — dark blue, and because I was an officer, a gold lanyard, gold buttons, gold stripes on the sleeves, and little campaign ribbons above the left-side pocket. Usually, a missionaire was required to be dressed in that way. Looking back, it was incredibly silly and frankly embarrassing. But I was inured to such situations and pretty oblivious to effects I was creating.

Think of the expense that scientology went to just to keep the wrong people from reading those arcane and inane writings. The special paper, the special binders, the special filing cabinets, the special printing process, the special and highly customized security system, and many other details large and small.

But I’m sure those efforts paid for themselves before too long. All the people in the world who had received NOTs auditing in the past were called in to get corrective auditing. This was the typical pattern. That part of the “technology” had been corrected and brought into a form that aligned with Hubbard’s actual intentions. Some bad people in earlier years had messed it up. So to get the full benefit of that type of auditing, one had to basically re-do that level. It was required, having been ordered by the case supervisor. That meant that a whole lot of people had to pay for more intensives. In this case it was usually at least two intensives, or 25 hours of auditing. That would be something like $15k a pop. Maybe more or a bit less, I don’t remember exactly.

But, really, what the hell?

— Bruce Hines

 
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Technology Cocktail

“Whereas the pc may only have been in Scientology 3 days, before Scientology there were other types of “sessions” such as psychoanalysis. And before that, in Rome and Greece, dream therapy in which one was “visited by a God”. And before that—well, the chain can have a very far back basic. One does not of course suggest ever what the earlier incident may be. There is no telling what the pc may confuse with a session.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1969

 
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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 as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.

 
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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane [39] Fredrick Brennan [40] Clarissa Adams [41] Louise Shekter [42] John Sweeney [43] Tory Christman [44] Kate Bornstein [45] Christian Stolte [46] Mark Bunker [47] Jon Atack [48] Luke Y. Thompson [49] Mark Ebner [50] Bruce Hines [51] Spanky Taylor and Karen Pressley [51] Geoff and Robbie Levin [52] Sands Hall [53] Jonny Jacobsen [54] Sandy Holeman [55] Mark Bunker [56] Trish and Liz Conley [57] Trish Conley [58] Alex Barnes-Ross [59] Alex Barnes-Ross [60] Alex Barnes-Ross [61] Alex Barnes-Ross [62] Alex Barnes-Ross [63] Alex Barnes-Ross [64] Tory Christman [65] Tammy Synovec [66] Dennis Erlich [67] Alex Barnes-Ross [68] Valerie Ross [69] Kat in Austin [70] Mark Bunker [71] Phil Jones

 
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Source Code

“Suzette Hubbard is assigned to the post of Quartermasters Mate Div IV Ship and her pay resumed when she takes post. She did this post well but was both overloaded by added duties and given no assistance on major work actions. She has in the past done several posts well but overload and overwhelm has driven her off them. She is to learn coastal and celestial navigation in part time study so as to be able to train personnel in them. There are too few reliable navigators aboard.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 11, 1970

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“WELCOME ABOARD: Three new arrivals, Evelyn Webster-Parsons who is our WW Representative, Paul Preston who is Deputy Ops for US Area, and Janice Tidman, returning to the ship, are welcomed aboard. …MORALE: I am getting a steady flow of reports of increased morale. I think we can have a happy ship.” — The Commodore, April 11, 1970

Overheard in the FreeZone

“Revealing overts in advance is done to protect against the withhold/missed withhold kickback mechanism plus the double whammy basic/basic-basic is standard practice. In Reverse Scientology the 5 illogics are referred to as the 5 Magics which as we know when misapplied with destructive intent are the anatomy of insanity. The entire set of phenomena and reverse Scientology audits out as an implant GPM case mechanism, including the double whammy which concerning the actual virus and the 5G immune sytem suppressor is something to be cognizant of.”

 
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Past is Prologue

1999: Cinescape reports that casting has begun on the upcoming movie Battlefield Earth, based on a book by L. Ron Hubbard. “Reports that Saving Private Ryan standout Barry Pepper has signed on to John Travolta’s upcoming sci-fi epic Battlefield Earth are premature. The Insider followed up on the buzz only to hear from Pepper’s management that the actor has simply read for the part — he’s not signed. Whether he will end up starring in the movie’s the lead role of Jonnie Goodboy Tyler remains still up in the air.”

 
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Random Howdy

“Ingo Swann was a Scientologist at one time and also a superstar of the make-believe magical circus. He was confirmed as being a ‘genuine psychic’ by Professors Dumb & Dumber (Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff), the same suckers who were conned by Uri Geller.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Found guilty on two counts on May 31, remanded to custody. Sentenced to 30 years to life on Sep 7.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing May 17, 2024.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Some defamation claims were removed by Judge Hammock. Leah seeking to amend her complaint.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs allowed interlocutory appeal to Eleventh Circuit.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: motion to file new complaint, hearing on May 29.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration, hearing on April 16.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.

 
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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] L. Ron Hubbard 2.0 starting new Scientology offshoot and says he’s getting out of jail soon
[TWO years ago] Scientology’s saddest celebrity, Eddie Deezen, arrested again
[THREE years ago] Scientology social media: Never a better time for learning to shatter suppression!
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s desperate response to pandemic is to let us see just how creepy it really is
[FIVE years ago] Pageant official: Miss New Yorks are clueless about Scientology and we’re OK with that
[SIX years ago] A new academic book takes apart Scientology and pop culture, and the apologists hate it
[SEVEN years ago] Federal judge to Scientology: I’m taking over the arbitration, and it’s jail if you interfere
[EIGHT years ago] Spying, intimidation, and ruin: Two lives caught up in Scientology’s notorious ‘Fair Game’
[NINE years ago] Garcias ask for reconsideration on judge’s error: ‘We never agreed that Scientology is a religion’
[TEN years ago] VERDICT: Scientology’s Quebec rehab facility violated human rights of David Love and 2 others
[ELEVEN years ago] Dianetics: Your Life Was Ruined Before Birth by Your Parents and Their Dumb Culture

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 11, 2024 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, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2022), 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

 

Tony Ortega at Rolling Stone