Title: Co$ & Totalitarianism----Prologue, Intro & History 1/4
Author: Anonymous <nobody@replay.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 04:42:34 +0200 (CEST)

Scientology & Totalitarianism
by Laura Kay Fuller

Senior Thesis,
University of California, Santa Cruz, CA,1999

Prologue

About a year ago, I came upon an article about Scientology in a local
newspaper1. The author had written on the topic of Scientologists and
their censorship of controversial literature on the internet. The word
"controversial" was applied to anything critical of the religion known
as Scientology, as well as to "secret documents" copyrighted by the
Church of Scientology that are published on the internet. It was a
standard piece of journalism- the writer offered equal sides of
opinions from Scientologists and their critics. Ultimately, the reader
was left with the idea that while Scientologists may engage in
censorship or other undesirable activities, the church is rather
harmless overall. The article presented Scientology as existing on the
"fringe" of society, that is as being secondary to the mainstream-a
silly and somewhat isolated phenomenon.

I found myself curious as to what Scientology was about and began to
ask people what they knew about this group, which seemed quite
mysterious to me. I heard many explanations that served to peak my
interest in Scientology. Some told me, "It's a religion- they have
churches and everything" or "Movie stars like Tom Cruise and John
Travolta are into it." Another said, "They hook you up to machines
that are supposed to measure your repressed memories." Someone else
said, "It's pure evil," while another told me, "I took their
psychological test once and they've been sending me tons of junk mail
ever since- for the last ten years! I hate those people."

Just what exactly was Scientology? Spurred by my own curiosity and a
fascination with what seemed to be an increasingly bizarre history and
set of practices, I began to research Scientology more extensively.
The more I found out, the more frightened I became. What I discovered
was an organization that is far from harmless, as the news article had
previously concluded, but rather one which is extremely dangerous. At
this point, I became convinced that others should be aware of what I
now consider to be a dangerous and manipulative cult. I find it
disturbing that many people do not know about the "dark side" of
Scientology; thus part of my motivation in writing is to reveal
information and analyses that are generally not available to the
public. The end result of my findings lay here in this thesis.

It is crucial to be able to see movements such as Scientology in
different perspectives than they might normally be observed or
presented. For myself, this involves looking at Scientology in terms
of the totalitarian ideological model. However, I continue to owe much
to the theories of others who have helped inform my views on this
subject. It was through reading Hannah Arendt that I eventually
incorporated her theories on totalitarianism into my thesis. Although
Arendt focused on two distinct totalitarian movements of her time,
Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia, she also stressed that there are
numerous ways in which totalitarian movements can appear in the
future2. It is indeed a mistake to assume that Arendt's examples are
somehow exact models of what totalitarianism looks like, for the
nature of totalitarianism requires itself to change and mutate in
order to proliferate in various societies. The defeat of the Nazis
does not equal the defeat of totalitarianism. As Arendt asserts, we
must be continually aware of totalitarian tendencies in our lives,
lest we not recognize totalitarian ideologies as they exist around us.
The remaining choice is far more frightening- the possibility of a
totalitarian future. In order to resist such forces, one must actively
work to stop these movements from gaining power and popularity. A
significant component of this involves presenting alternative points
of view, by which a movement like Scientology can be judged.

In a way, this paper is an answer to the suggestion that Scientology
is something to be casually observed, with the attitude "I'll do my
thing, they can do theirs," as the newspaper article had implied. As
my thesis will demonstrate, Scientology must be taken seriously,
especially if we are to look at it as demonstrating a pattern that has
surfaced before, in the form of totalitarianism. This project also
communicates what I have learned over the past year, both while
researching Scientology and working within American Studies. My work
in American Studies has particularly encouraged me to look carefully
at that which might otherwise be dismissed as insignificant. Hence,
part of the importance of critically looking at Scientology lies in
the simple act of critically looking at a movement that very much
discourages both its members and the general population from doing so.

While my reasons for choosing this topic vary, ranging from curiosity
to political convictions, they are united by my belief that there is
immense value in understanding and resisting totalitarian movements.
Even if totalitarianism should emerge in the unlikely form of a
science fiction writer named L. Ron Hubbard3, these movements deserve
careful attention and public discussion. This is not an objective
paper, nor is it a paranoid rant. It is in part a call of warning, but
it is also a means for analyzing how totalitarian ideologies function
in the world that I live in- late twentieth century American society.
In this way, the project takes on a personal importance, for as I
learn to be more aware of the social and political patterns around me,
I also gain the ability to recognize that similar patterns have
emerged before. Without this historical background, I would be unable
to see that Scientology is, in fact, a rather fascinating version of
the many ways in which totalitarianism can disguise itself.



Introduction

"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to
make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own
religion."

-L. Ron Hubbard, Reader's Digest reprint, May 1980, p.1



Accounts of L. Ron Hubbard's life vary, but the following information
consists of only verifiable facts4. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born
in 1911, the son of a struggling Nebraska businessman. Growing up, he
had a wandering existence, living with his parents or relatives in
various places throughout western America. He led a wildly romantic
youth, in which his dreams and realities often became confused.
Hubbard was a skillful and prolific young writer. As a penniless young
man in the 1930's, he began authoring "pulp" science fiction stories
for magazines. While writing for the pulps, he claimed to have made a
discovery of such philosophical and psychological importance that it
would forever change the world. From this discovery, the "science" of
Dianetics evolved, first appearing in a science fiction pulp magazine.
Dianetics is an offshoot of a method of psychotherapy concocted by
Hubbard from various sources. It is a form of regression therapy,
whereby the subject is reverted to an earlier mental or behavioral
level.

Dianetics prospered briefly, but later floundered in a sea of debts.
In 1952, Hubbard founded a far more ambitious program. He expanded
Dianetics to appear more like a religion, largely in order to enjoy
tax benefits. He called this new religion "Scientology." Scientology,
Hubbard claimed, could give one the ability to overcome all diseases
of the mind and body. Scientology was organized as a series of levels,
with the participant required to pay thousands of dollars to pass each
one. As a leader, he had profound influence over his followers. The
Church of Scientology was constantly in trouble with the government
and the authorities. As a means to escape government control, Hubbard
in 1967 started the "Sea Org," an abbreviation for "Sea Organization."
The Sea Org was an elite group of Scientologists that formed a private
navy, with Hubbard as Commodore. For years Hubbard and his entourage
of Scientologists roamed the world pursued by the FBI, the CIA, and
various outraged national governments. He tried and failed on several
accounts to take control of several countries and at least one
continent.

For nearly a decade Hubbard sailed the oceans, surrounded and served
by young women in hotpants called "messengers" who did practically
everything for him, including dressing and undressing him. The
messengers were trained like robots to relay orders in Hubbard's tone
of voice. In the mid-1970's, Hubbard directed a covert operation aimed
at infiltrating United States government offices in order to launder
their growing files on the Church of Scientology. Hubbard himself
escaped a prison sentence, but became increasingly paranoid. In 1980,
fearing arrest, he disappeared and was never seen again. He died in
hiding in 1986- under mysterious circumstances.

While this story may seem incredibly bizarre or even unbelievable, a
number of credible sources concur that this is the case5. The facts
surrounding Scientology often hold up to the "truth is stranger than
fiction" motif. On the outside, the cult may seem to be purely a
vehicle for making money. Or it may appear that Hubbard was simply
insane, and that consequentially, Scientology is also "crazy."
However, there remain many aspects of Scientology that demand further
explanation and in-depth attention. As my thesis will show, the core
beliefs of Scientology are revealed slowly to the member, increasingly
becoming what mainstream culture would deem "crazy." Yet to
Scientologists, their "religion" is the opposite of craziness: it is
complete sanity and total freedom. How does the insane become accepted
as reality? And more importantly, what ideologies are at play, which
allow this to happen?

My thesis argues that Scientology, as an ideology, is moving in a
totalitarian direction. Totalitarianism is an extreme form of control
of thought, behavior and interaction6. The desire of totalitarianism
is complete homogenization. As an ideology, it aims at eliminating
difference, so that no variations can exist. Totalitarianism is
anti-diversity- it is about the continual process of radical
purification. The idea is that everybody moves in the same direction
because there is nowhere else to go. Psychologically speaking,
everybody's will is unidirectional, marching in the same line. This
involves creating a space where there is the constant fear of being
watched or reported. Totalitarianism also necessitates the absence of
critical thought and the stifling of public discourse because this
challenges its ideological goals. Yet the word "totalitarianism" is
misleading, for it is never as entirely "total" as it would like to
be. There is always resistance and noncompliance.

Using Hannah Arendt's writings on totalitarianism as a basis, I will
focus on how different aspects of Scientology reveal similar
ideological components to totalitarianism. I will look at several
themes including the construction of history, leadership and language,
showing how each contributes to the framework of a totalitarian
ideology. The latter half of the paper discusses the role of
technology within Scientology and how this relates to Arendt's visions
of totalitarianism. Finally, I will focus on ideology itself, giving
numerous examples of how Scientology functions to build a state of
terror, while aiming for world domination.


History

"The creation of Dianetics is a milestone for Man comparable to his
discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and
arch."

-L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, 1950.


From its very beginnings, Scientology has been preoccupied with its
place in history. L. Ron Hubbard saw in Dianetics, and consequentially
in Scientology, a discovery of great, momentous importance. He
imagined that Dianetics would change everything that followed in its
course, and he conceived of it largely as a historical event. Hubbard
and fellow Scientologists often describe Dianetics as a "breakthrough"
that enables people to take the next step in a historical process. The
message overwhelms the Scientologist with the sense of a larger,
ideological meaning for his or her own life. Scientology's emphasis on
history is a fundamental part of the group's beliefs and forms the
basis for a significant portion of its ideology.

In this essay, I will show how this construction of history reveals a
similar pattern when compared to Hannah Arendt's observations on
totalitarianism, specifically regarding Nazism and Stalinism. History
has been a major factor in the identity of totalitarian movements.
What I mean by "history" is not simply a chronological record of
events, but a way of understanding and placing one's position in a
series of world events, and using that to justify actions and beliefs.
It is history as ideology, or rather history with a capital "H."7
Totalitarianism tends to stress this meaning of history because it
legitimizes the movement's aims and desires. It also provides the
member with the sense that they are involved in a dramatic course of
action, which will forever influence the world. While this appeals to
a desire for personal power, it also functions to secure the
movement's aims by introducing history as justification for
totalitarian domination. Totalitarianism's desire for power is not so
much about individual power as it is about the power of a uniform
group to spread an embodied ideology. Scientology's construction of
history shares some notable traits with Arendt's theories on the
totalitarian ideology, demonstrating a continuity in thought and
action which deserves explanation.

Arendt writes that during the Nazi regime, Heinrich Himmler8 gave a
speech in which he described the mentality of the people whom he
recruited into the SS. He said these people were not interested in
"everyday problems" but only "in ideological questions of importance
for decades and centuries, so that the man...knows he is working for a
great task which occurs but once every 2,000 years."9 L. Ron Hubbard
designed and presented Dianetics in a similar frame of mind.
Scientologists have often remarked that in the
beginning stages of the cult, they are made to feel part of a group
that is making broad strides into the future. In the elite ranks of
Scientologists, such as among the Sea Org, members even sign a
billion-year contract with the Church of Scientology. Clearly,
Scientologists view their movement as an epic undertaking. This
ideological understanding of history has tremendous appeal.
Scientologists are able to see the movement, and thus themselves, as
making history with a system which is "an evolutionary step, a tool
which is used in arriving at a higher level of knowledge."10

As Arendt states, this produced "a mentality, which, like Cecil
Rhodes11 some forty years before, thought in continents and felt in
centuries."12 This statement is particularly revealing and almost
uncanny when compared to L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. As Hubbard
writes, "The history of Dianetics would be the history of a voyage of
discovery, of an exploration into new and nearly uncharted realms,
Terra Incognita, the Human Mind, a land which lies behind your
forehead."13 It can be seen here that Hubbard's Dianetics was inspired
by imperialism- the desire to conquer spaces with ideological
justification. Hubbard himself was the imperialist force making
"discoveries" in the name of historical advancement. He was changing
history, only this time the conquered space was the "Human Mind."
Interestingly, Hubbard was a great admirer of Cecil Rhodes, even going
so far as to claim he was Rhodes reincarnated and dressing like the
British statesman.14 This is no coincidence, for both men embodied a
mentality which viewed themselves as history-makers with ideas that
would "encompass, in due course, the entire human race."15

Hubbard's identification with Rhodes indicates his association with
Rhodes' place in history. It also signifies the continuing pattern of
a vision of world domination, in terms of imperialist ideology. This
is the train of thought on which Scientology is based. In Origins of
Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt argues that totalitarianism is directly
correlated with imperialism. She writes that the totalitarian regime
could not be possible without the imperialist, expansionist mentality
of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. According to Arendt, it
was imperialism which proved to be the most influential force for
totalitarianism. In fact, Origins emphasizes Cecil Rhodes as the
symbolic imperialist, one who aimed for mass annexation, but was
limited by capitalism. Hubbard's fascination and admiration for Rhodes
proves to be a compelling parallel to Arendt's work. Thus, there
exists a historical continuity that both Hubbard and Arendt were well
aware of and which served to foster Scientology.

In her writings, Arendt emphasizes the totalitarian movement's need
for constant motion. She states that "only a movement that is
constantly kept in motion" can achieve "the permanent domination of
each single individual in each and every sphere of life."16 Motion
here is used to describe the way a group moves both physically and
ideologically. In a historical perspective, it means there is no
end-point or final goal at which the movement stops. There remains a
constant desire to continue moving through space, unimpeded. This
motion itself is the goal of totalitarianism, which Arendt describes
as being able to "organize as many people as possible within its
framework and to set and keep them in motion; a political goal that
would constitute the end of the movement simply does not exist."17 In
Scientology, the goal stated by Hubbard is to "help Mankind" achieve
"total happiness and freedom" through his techniques.18 To reach this
goal, every individual, of which "Mankind" is composed, must then take
part in Scientology. Constant motion is therefore secured by the
group's goals for world domination- and it doesn't stop at planet
earth. As Hubbard says, "there is a whole universe to be won."19

Another aspect of a totalitarian attitude toward history is the ease
with which historical forgeries are made by the organization. Arendt
states that all totalitarian regimes are guilty of "monstrous
forgeries in historiography."20 Much of these are outright lies used
for totalitarian propaganda. However, this reconstruction of history
also serves to aid the movement's ideological mission. L. Ron Hubbard
consistently lied about himself. There exists a mountain of evidence
proving that Hubbard often made-up portions of his own history or
life-story. He greatly exaggerated his accomplishments, to the point
where many would call him a megalomaniac. Hubbard denied those things
which did not fit into the picture of Scientology he wanted to
present, while celebrating those that served to foster the new
"science of the mind." The sheer amount and breadth of Hubbard's lies
are staggering.

However, Hubbard's historical fallacies were not limited to his own
life-story. Much like Hitler and Stalin before him, Hubbard felt free
to concoct entire historical fables, based on his own twisted
inclinations. In The History of Man,21 Hubbard actually went so far as
to claim his book was "a cold blooded look at your last 60 trillion
years,"22 and that it proved the theory of evolution. In a narrative
style that wavered between fantasy fiction and a pseudo-scientific
medical paper, Hubbard devoted much of the book to a re-working of
evolution. The grandiose tale began "trillions of years ago" and was
concerned with the development of the human soul. Hubbard's
evolutionary pathway started with "an atom, complete with electronic
rings," after which came a cosmic impact producing "photon
converters," the first single cell creature. Each stage of life
encountered unique experiences which continue to affect our mental and
physical state today, said Hubbard.23 Next came seaweed, jellyfish,
and the clam.24 Progressing along the Hubbard time-track, evolution
arrived at the sloth, which "had bad times falling out of trees," the
ape and the famous Piltdown Man, which was the cause of a multitude of
problems, ranging from obsessions about biting to family problems.
These could be traced back to the fact that "the Piltdown teeth were
enormous and he was quite careless as to whom and what he bit."25
Indeed, so careless was the Piltdown Man, Hubbard recorded, that he
was sometimes guilty of "eating one's wife and other somewhat
illogical activities."26 This entire cosmology was constructed to
reveal Hubbard's genius, as well as to prove the basis for
Scientology's beliefs.

While such historical forgeries exhibit a similar pattern to Arendt's
concepts of totalitarianism, there exists further evidence regarding
Scientology's totalitarian tendencies. Arendt writes that all
totalitarian movements construct history with the object of "revealing
official history as a joke, to demonstrate a sphere of secret
influences of which the visible, traceable, and known historical
reality was only the outward façade erected to fool the people."27
Scientology also exhibits this impulse. The group does this by
accusing its critics of conspiring to discredit Scientology. For
Scientologists, the secret sphere of influence that masquerades as
official (known) history is formed by those people who speak out
against the movement. Scientology wants to reveal its critics' version
of history as a scam that inhibits one from being free, which the
movement claims to be its goal. Members view the idea that Hubbard's
life-story is composed of falsehoods as a plot designed to persecute
their freedom of religion. When these historical forgeries are
revealed, members point to a secret group of people intent on keeping
"Mankind from achieving total freedom and happiness."28

The danger of such forgeries is the possibility that "gigantic lies
can eventually be established as unquestioned facts, that man may be
free to change his own past at will, and that the difference between
truth and fiction may cease to be objective."29 It is indeed
frightening to realize the degree to which history is used as an
ideological tool for totalitarianism. Nonetheless, it has happened
before, as Arendt proves by examining Nazism and Stalinism. The end
result is a consistent fabrication of reality, without which
totalitarianism cannot exist. Hubbard has been partially successful,
at least with his followers, in getting them to accept the outrageous
historical lies which abound in Scientology. For some Scientologists,
it is possible that these histories function as interpretive fables
for everyday life. For others, the monumental falsehoods have become
unquestioned truths, for to question them is certainly an obstruction
to the totalitarian mentality.


....continued.....
Copyright (c) 1999 Laura Kay Fuller