CONTENTS It was 1950, in the early, heady days of Dianetics, soon after L. Ron Hubbard opened the doors of his first organization to the clamoring crowd. Up until then, Hubbard was known only to readers of pulp fiction, but now he had an instant best-seller with a book that promised to solve every problem of the human mind, and the cash was pouring in. Hubbard found it easy to create schemes to part his new following from their money. One of the first tasks was to arrange "grades" of membership, offering supposedly greater rewards, at increasingly higher prices. Over thirty years later. an associate wryly remembered Hubbard turning to him and confiding, no doubt with a smile, "Let's sell these people a piece of blue sky." Acknowledgments Preface - by Russell Miller What Is Scientology? PART 1: INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY 1974-1983 1. My Beginnings 2. Saint Hill 3. On to OT 4. The Seeds of Dissent PART 2: BEFORE DIANETICS 1911-1949 1. Hubbard's Beginnings 2. Hubbard in the East 3. Hubbard the Explorer 4. Hubbard As Hero 5. His Miraculous Recovery 6. His Magickal Career PART 3: THE BRIDGE TO TOTAL FREEDOM 1949-1966 1. Building the Bridge 2. The Dianetic Foundations 3. Wichita 4. Knowing How to Know 5. The Religion Angle 6. The Lord of the Manor 7. The World's First Real Clear PART 4: THE SEA ORGANIZATION 1966-1976 1. Scientology at Sea 2. Heavy Ethics 3. The Empire Strikes Back 4. The Death of Susan Meister 5. Hubbard's Travels 6. The Flag Land Base PART 5: THE GUARDIAN'S OFFICE 1974-1980 1. The Guardian Unguarded 2. Infiltration 3. Operation Meisner PART 6: THE COMMODORE'S MESSENGERS 1977-1982 1. Making Movies 2. The Rise of the Messengers 3. The Young Rulers 4. The Clearwater Hearings 5. The Religious Technology Center and the International Finance Police PART 7: THE INDEPENDENTS 1982-1984 1. The Mission Holders' Conference 2. The Scientology War 3. Splintering 4. Stamp Out the Squirrels! PART 8: JUDGMENTS 1984-1990 1. Scientology at Law 2. The Child Custody Case 3. Signing the Pledge 4. Dropping the Body 5. After Hubbard PART 9: SUMMING UP 1. The Founder 2. The Scientologist 3. Fair Game, Ethics and the Scriptures Epilogue Bibliography List of Abbreviations ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My particular thanks are due to my three good friends Mitch Beedie, Lawrence Kristiansen and George Shaw. Mitch Beedie has been a constant source of encouragement, support and editorial insight throughout six years of research and writing. Lawrence Kristiansen has proved to be an invaluable resource, sharing freely his knowledge and understanding of Scientology. His meticulous research, and his painstaking editing, helped me to focus ever more closely on the subject matter. George Shaw also signed up as an unpaid (and exceptional) researcher, gave me the benefit of his considerable knowledge of Scientology, and provided fascinating perspectives on Hubbard's character and motives. This book is based upon statements made by over 150 individuals whether in interviews, correspondence, taped talks, published accounts, affidavits or sworn testimony. Those of my sources whose statements were made publicly, and those who have given permission, are named in the reference summary. I am grateful to them all and to the many people who have asked to remain anonymous, for reasons which the book should make clear. In return for access to my manuscript and my collaboration as a consultant, Russell Miller made his interview notes available to me, and for this and our friendly working relationship I am most grateful. l also wish to express my thanks to Dave Waiters and the staff of the Montana Historical Society; to Ron Neuman for access to his collection of Hubbard letters and first editions; and to Brenda Yates and Carol Kanda for ensuring that I received the 28 volumes of the transcript of the Armstrong case. Without Brenda these vital documents would not have become available in the first place. Gratitude is also due to those authors whose work made my own less daunting: the late Joseph Winter, Martin Gardner, the late Helen O'Brien, George Malko, Paulette Cooper, Cyril Vosper, Bob Kaufman, the late Christopher Evans, C.H. Rolph, John Forte and most especially Roy Wallis for The Road to Total Freedom. I am also in debt to the St. Petersburg Times and the Clearwater Sun for their excellent coverage of Scientology. I am grateful to the many friends who have revived my sometimes flagging spirits on the long road to publication. Gratitude is due especially to: Robyn, Joy, Fiona, Joyce, Marcia, Sam, Gall, Hana, Gay, John, Greg, Sarge, Marcus, Lew, Chris, Callan, Otto, my parents, my brother Andrew, and my wife, Noella. The litigious nature of the Scientologists has frightened most publishers into silence. Lyle Stuart and Steven Schragis were not intimidated, and I am extremely grateful to them. Finally, my thanks to our attorney, Mel Wulf, for his patient attention to detail; to my editor Bob Smith; and to all at Carol Publishing Group for making this book a published reality. PREFACE Several years ago, when I began making inquiries into the life and times of L. Ron Hubbard, almost the first name that was mentioned to me was that of Jon Atack. Subsequently it was a name that would crop up time and time again. Almost anyone who knew anything about Hubbard invariably suggested that I should talk to Jon Atack. Of course by then I had talked to Jon and discovered him to be one of the world's foremost unofficial archivists of the Church of Scientology. In the loft of his house in East Grinstead, he had collected literally thousands of documents, letters, pamphlets, books and pictures, all of it indexed and cross-referenced on computer. For anyone interested in the history and development of Scientology, it is a treasure trove of reliable information on a subject positively riddied with deeply unreliable information. At some time in the future, the Atack archive will be lodged with an academic institution in order that it will be forever available to future researchers. Jon was extremely generous with his time, knowledge and help while I was working on my biography of Hubbard and I am therefore delighted to write this brief preface to his own much more comprehensive and wide-ranging book. It is, in essence, a distillation of his extraordinary attic archive and thus provides the reader with a dispassionate, thoroughly documented account of how Scientology was created and nourished by a struggling science-fiction writer, how it grew into a worldwide organization and how it has managed to dominate (and damage) so many thousands of lives. Because this book recounts the stark truth about Scientology, it is certain to provoke the ferocious hostility of practicing Scientologists around the world. Anyone who dares to publicly criticize the Church of Scientology or its founder is liable to be viiifled and hounded through the courts, as I can personally testify. (Although it is a mystery to me that Scientologists continue to believe that their founder was a man with the highest regard for the truth, whereas the records consistently indicate that he was a charlatan and a congenital liar.) Jon Atack is a former member of the Church of Scientology and I have no doubt that he will be attacked as a turncoat and traitor seeking to cause damage to his former church. All I can say is that over the months and years of our association I never doubted that his motives were decent and honest; I never felt for a moment that he was spurred by malice or any unworthy desire to settle old scores. It is my firm conviction that Jon began to assemble his archive because he had become aware that he had been fed untruths for years and he simply wanted the truth to be known about the antecedents and antics of his former church and its founder. It is for this reason that he willingly cooperated with me when I was writing my book, never offering opinions or information without comprehensive documentation to back it up. Jon Atack believes that people have the right to know the truth about Scientology. That belief is the laudable genesis of this book. RUSSELL MILLER Author of Bare-Faced Messiah WHAT IS SCIENTOLOGY? "Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious... it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based upon lies and deceit and has as its real objective money and power for Mr. Hubbard, his wife and those close to him at the top. It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestioningly and to those who criticize or oppose it. It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others." - Justice LATEY, ruling in the High Court in London in 1984 "As soon as one's convictions become unshakeable, evidence ceases to be relevant - except as a means to convert the unbelievers. Factual inaccuracies... are excusable in the light of the Higher Truth." P.H. HOEBENS Scientology is among the oldest, largest, richest, and most powerful of contemporary cults. The "Church" of Scientology, first incorporated in 1953, claims to have seven million members, and reserves of a thousand million dollars. There are nearly 200 Scientology "Missions" and "Churches" spread across the globe. During the 1970's, cults became big business and big news.