And Unauthorized Uses of Scientology: Werner Erhard and Est, Ken Dyers and Kenja, and Harvey Jackins and Re-Evaluation Counselling
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chapter 21 “Squirrels” and Unauthorized Uses of Scientology: Werner Erhard and est, Ken Dyers and Kenja, and Harvey Jackins and Re-Evaluation Counselling Carole M. Cusack1 Introduction The Church of Scientology (CoS), following the example of its founder L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986) has been notorious for the extent to which it has striven to keep teachings (particularly the controversial Operating Thetan [ot] Levels) secret, and for the virulence of the reprisals it has visited upon those who have taken the “Tech” and used it for purposes other than those Hubbard mandated, or in a context outside CoS (Urban 2006). Yet since 1954 when the Church of Scientology was founded, there have been a number of notable individuals who were briefly Scientologists, or associated with CoS in some way, then broke away to form their own groups, whether religious, spiritual or secular. Within CoS such people are called “squirrels”, a term coined by Hubbard. This chapter examines three alleged “squirrels” and the movements they founded: Werner Erhard (b. John Paul “Jack” Rosenberg, 1935), the founder of Erhard Seminars Training (est), now Landmark Education; Ken Dyers (1922–2007), co-founder (with Jan Hamilton) of Kenja; and Harvey Jackins (1916–1999), the founder of Re-evaluation Counselling (rc, also called Co-Counselling). Both Erhard and Dyers insisted their movements were not religious, yet they have nevertheless been accused of leading “cults” and of sharing many behaviours that are deemed characteristic of abusive charismatic leaders of nrms (Lockwood 2011). Harvey Jackins’ adaptation of Dianetics led to a different application of Scientology “Tech”, which was also seemingly non-religious. For several decades rc hov- ered on the fringes of respectable psychology (Heron 1973; Peavy 1979). Yet the reputation of Jackins too, has been tainted by stereotypical nrm/“cult” leader behaviours, including sexual predation on women and young girls within rc. 1 I am grateful to Venetia Robertson, who has been my research assistant for several projects involving Scientology, and to Renee Lockwood, my former doctoral student, whose work on Werner Erhard, est, and Landmark Education has influenced my ideas concerning these movements. Thanks are also due to Don Barrett, whose patience with my research projects, the majority of which he (as an Enlightenment rationalist) finds either risible or repellent, is commendable. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi �0.��63/978900433054�_0�3 <UN> 486 Cusack It is concluded that the biography and career of L. Ron Hubbard, in addition to the teachings he developed, had a significant influence on all three “squirrels”, and that to a large extent each man replicated lrh and CoS in his own teach- ings and career as a “leader” of a specific movement. L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology Lafayette Ronald (L. Ron) Hubbard (1911–1986), author of Dianetics: The Mod- ern Science of Mental Health (1950), founded the Church of Scientology (CoS) in 1954. Hubbard, a successful “pulp” fiction writer and World War ii naval veteran, argued that the cause of human lack of fulfilment and suffering was explained, and could be cured, by Dianetics (a term he coined from the Greek dia, “through” and nous, “mind”). According to Hubbard, Dianetics, a mixture of psychological and religious ideas, was a “science of the mind” (Hubbard 1986 [1950]: 7). He posited that the human mind was twofold, the analytical mind which is “accurate, rational, and logical”, and the reactive mind, which “is the repository of a variety of memory traces, or what Hubbard calls en- grams” (Urban 2006: 365). Hubbard developed the process of auditing, where the auditor (in a role reminiscent of a psychoanalyst) questions the subject (the “pre-Clear” in CoS language) until the subject reaches “basic-basic” (the original painful event directly after conception is identified), after which iden- tification the engrams can be erased. Hubbard claimed the state of Clear in- volved “a variety of intellectual and physical benefits” enabling the Clear to experience “the world in a radically new way” (Urban 2006: 365). Dianetics was a bestseller, and auditing became a craze in early 1950s America. The psycholo- gist Erich Fromm, an early critic of Hubbard, argued that the audience for Di- anetics were “readers who look for prefabricated happiness and miracle cures” (Fromm 1950: 7). Fromm also noted Hubbard’s imbrication with two specifi- cally “modern” trends; the survival instincts reflect his interest in biology, and the inner orientation of the auditing process reflects his interest in psychology and psychoanalysis, both popular in the mid-twentieth century West. Hugh Urban interprets the message of Dianetics, that all illnesses and problems can be cured via auditing, as resonating with Western post-war anxieties: “Dianet- ics offers new hope amidst a society struggling in the aftermath of World War ii and its devastation, a hope that human beings could turn their powers to self-betterment rather than self-annihilation” (Urban 2006: 367). The earliest dissemination of Dianetics by Hubbard was in Astounding Sci- ence Fiction, an influential magazine edited by John W. Campbell (1910–1971), in the March 1950 issue. Campbell believed that parapsychological abilities <UN>.