[ Chapter Eleven | Table of Contents | Epilogue ]
Hubbard has written millions of words on the subject of organisation. These have been in the form of HCO Policy Letters and have laid out in minute detail the function and purpose of every post, section, department, division and organisation in the international complex of Scientology organisations.
There is a Policy Letter called "The Three Basket System", which makes it imperative that every staff member should have a "Beanstalk" of IN, PENDING and OUT baskets through which all communications are routed - there are only written communications. "If it isn't written, it isn't true." At the other extreme, there is a Policy Letter called "The Purpose of Organisation", which gives the philosophical basis upon which all Scientology organisations are structured. Rigid though the channels of communication may be, through and between Scientology organisations, Hubbard claims his Comm. System and Org. Board to be based upon ultimate truth. He has investigated the systems used by various Galactic Federations, Empires, and one thing and another, many of which have used the same political, social and governmental structure for billions of years, and has discovered the weaknesses which cause the eventual breakdown of the most complex and apparently long-lasting of these.
The Scientology organisational structure has improved upon any previously devised system. It therefore will last not for a few billion years but for eternity. It can be applied to a few individuals "trying to get the show on the road", or to a vast planetary, galactic or presumably cosmos-wide population. These are exciting times we are living in!
Hubbard theorises, or rather his "researches" lead to the only possible true and final conclusion, that a stable group consists of no more than five individuals. More than five splinter and form sub-groups of five. Therefore a section leader should have no more than four staff beneath him. This section leader is part of the next higher group in the hierarchy which again consists of four plus a leader. And so on. It may sound, and in fact works out, as the most top-heavy bureaucratic system ever devised, with the possible exception of the British Government, but Hubbard insists it works. So, in the eyes of Scientologists it does work.
The Nine Division Org. Board, currently in use in all major Scientology organisations, is divided into three major parts - HCO (Hubbard Communications Office), Org., and Public. The senior executives of these are the HCO Executive Secretary, the Org. Exec. Sec. and the Public Exec. Sec., which, together with the LRH Co-ordinator and the Guardian, form the Executive Division 9, of which Departments 25, 26 and 27 form the top levels of the Scale of Awareness - Conditions, Existence, Source. Under Department 27, Source, the LRH Co-ordinator carries out L. Ron Hubbard's express wishes and instructions as apart from the following of his broad politics, which is the duty of every staff member. Under the Guardian comes Legal, Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence functions, Public Relations and Press Officers and the Archives.
Executive Division 9, HCO Division 1 and HCO Dissemination Division 2 come under the overall direction of the HCO Exec. Sec.
HCO Division 1 "puts the Org. there". Department 1, Recognition, is the Department of Routing, Appearances and Personnel. Department 2, Communication, is the Dept. of Communications and handles incoming and outgoing mail, communication flows throughout the Org., addressing, enclosing and franking machines. Department 3, Perception, is the Dept. of Inspections and Reports - Ethics.
HCO Dissemination Division 2 handles the sales function. Department 4, Orientation, is the Dept. of Promotion and handles design and printing of advertising material, news items and features for The Auditor and other Scientology publications. Department 5, Understanding, is the Dept. of Publications and handles books, E-meters and insignia (there are many badges, car stickers, ties and scarves to show that one is a Scientologist). Department 6, Enlightenment, is the Dept. of Registration in which comes the Body Registrar (face to face, body to body), the Letter Registrars, the advanced Scheduling Registrars, typists, filing clerks, and whose purpose it is to sign people up for training and processing.
Under the direction of the Org. Exec. Sec. comes Treasury Division 3, Technical Division 4 and Qualifications Division 5.
Treasury Division 3 handles all economic and financial matters for the entire organisation. Department 7, Energy, is the Dept. of Income. Department 8, Adjustment, is the Dept. of Disbursements. Department 9, Body, is the Dept. of Records, Assets and Material. Money is equated a energy. The correct handling of its energy makes it possible for an organisation to survive and expand.
Technical Division 4 is the production division, the factory floor, and is usually the largest division. Department 10, Prediction, is the Dept. of Technical Services and handles all matters to make it possible for a student or preclear to receive his course or auditing. It schedules preclears with their auditors, arranges class- and lecture- rooms, keeps records of students and preclears, etc. Department 11, Activity, is the Dept. of Training. Department 12, Production, is the Dept. of Processing.
Qualifications Division 5 consists of Department 13, Result, Dept. of Examinations which examines graduating students and preclear release grades. Department 14, Correction, is the Dept. of Review in which errors of training or processing are corrected. Department 15, Ability, is the Dept. of Certification and Awards which gives certificates of graduation and release pins or brooches and also handles membership.
The Public Exec. Sec. has overall responsibility for Public Planning Division 6, Public Activities Division 7 and Distribution Division 8. In these divisions comes the greatest attempt at involvement with the non-Scientology public. It is very different to the functions of HCO Division 2, Dissemination, which deals with existing Scientologists in order to get them into the org. for training or processing.
Public Planning Division 6 researches and plans with regard to those areas in which Scientology will gain acceptance, increase its sphere of influence, and finally take control. For instance, Scientology considers it can handle insanity better than psychiatry. It therefore would seek to ally itself to any group which was for Civil Rights for Mental Patients and against the indiscriminate application of psycho-surgery, electro-convulsive therapy and insulin drug treatments. An incredibly irresponsible publication called Freedom has been produced and handed out free on street corners by Scientologists. Amongst a host of wild generalisations, Freedom openly accuses psychiatrists of a foul "1984"-ish plot to enslave the populace, via simple-minded politicians, through the use of psychiatric techniques. Though its wide and exaggerated conclusions are based upon a few actual instances of mistreatment of patients in mental hospitals, its effect could well be to instil fear of psychiatry into the minds of potential mental patients, thus making them more difficult to treat. This is a particularly pernicious libel at this time when a good deal of effort is going into the improvement of the treatment for mental illness. It shows that Scientology is not out for the general good but is seeking to enforce Hubbard's opinions.
The three departments in Public Planning Division 6 are Department 16, Acceptability, Dept. of Research and Reports; Department 17, Rehabilitation, Dept. of Public Rehabilitation; Department 18, Control, Dept. of Public Promotion.
Public Activities Division 7 organises public events such as lectures, free I.Q. Testing, introductory courses. It also requests, logs and distributes success stories. For instance, in Hubbard's book How to Save Your Marriage, sixty-five of the 107 pages are "Success Stories" from Scientologists about their marriages. Interestingly, at least one of these "successful" marriages is now on the rocks.
In Public Activities Division 7 are Department 19, Decision, Dept. of Facilities and Schedules and Public Events; Department 20, Participation, Dept. of Activities; and Department 21, Realisation, Dept. of Success.
Distribution Division 8 covers the range of non-organisational Scientology. This includes FSM's (Field Staff Members) who are the equivalent of commission salesmen who, when they introduce a new person who takes a Scientology Course or Processing, receive a commission of 10 per cent of total fees paid. FSM's must not be regular staff members of any Scientology organisation. Franchise Centres are miniature organisations usually run by one or two trained Scientologists and give introductory lectures and courses, sell books, issue FSM Selection Slips and give low-level processing. They often make a great deal of money. Gung-Ho Groups, introduced in 1969, are designed to unify small numbers of non-Scientologists in a common purpose, to achieve these purposes by the use of Scientology expertise in communication and public relations and to thus bring all the members round to a realisation that Scientology is the way to get things done. Gung-Ho Groups sound rather like a cross between Boy Scouts and Oxfam - the term is Second World War U.S. marines' slang for "work together" - but their true purpose is to get people into Scientology.
Distribution Division 8 also has long-range purposes with regards to humanity. "... Scientology government, civilisation, direction, supervision, or assistance ...."
The three departments of this Division comprise Dept. 22, Purpose, Dept. of Field Recruitment, Establishment and Records; Dept. 23, Propagation, Dept. of Field Training; and Dept. 24, Expansion, Dept. of Field Services.
When Hubbard first released his Org. Board to a startled world, there were seven divisions. The Public Divisions, 6, 7 and 8, were classed as the Distribution Division under the Org. Exec. Sec. The twenty-one departments of the seven-division Org. fitted neatly into the twenty-one positive levels of the Scale of Awareness. With the addition of two extra divisions (six departments), acceptability, rehabilitation, control, decision, participation, propagation and expansion were added as awareness levels. The Org. Board does not now fit so neatly the levels of the Scale of Awareness. Though it still remains as the greatest contribution to the field of organisation ever seen in the physical universe.
Beneath the Executive Secretaries come the Divisional Secretaries, Departmental Directors, Officers, In-Charges, Section Leaders and ordinary staff. Each portion of the Org. may have its own Org. Board to represent the terminals (posts) and communication channels. An Org. Board gives a stable structure, places each portion and post in a set relationship with every other and describes communication routes through the Organisation.
If a typist in Department 6 finds that a letter has been forwarded to her, in error, by the Dept. of Communication, Department 2 - since it is not from an existing Scientologist, but from someone not on the Dissemination records - she should address it to the Info Pack Mailing In-Charge as follows:
Date
Info. Pack Mailing In-Charge, Div.6, Dept.18,
Info. Pack Officer, " " " "
Director of Public Promotion, " " " "
Public Planning Secretary, Div.6,
Public Executive Secretary,
HCO Executive Secretary,
HCO Dissemination Secretary, Div.2,
Director of Registration, Div.2, Dept.6,
Letter Registrar Officer, Div.2, Dept.6,
Typists In-Charge, Div.2, Dept.6,
Typist, Div.2, Dept.6,
c.c. Info: Director of Communications, Div.1, Dept.2,
Comm. Flow Officer, " " " "
Dear Bill,
This letter was routed to me, in error.
Send this guy an info pack - sounds like he could do
with "Modern Science", so send him that groovey new
leaflet.
Love
Janet,
Typist, Div.2, Dept.6
"Janet" would make three copies of this communication. The original would be placed in her OUT basket with a large arrow indicating Typists In-Charge, Div. 2, Dept. 6. The first carbon copy would be arrowed to Director of Communications, Div. 1, Dept. 2, and also placed in her OUT basket. The other would be placed in her PENDING basket.
The Comm. Flow In-Charge, Div. 1, Dept. 2, who delivers communications to IN baskets and empties OUT baskets every thirty minutes, would take these messages to the appropriate IN baskets. When the Typist In-Charge, Div. 2, Dept. 6, has read it, she initials and dates against her post, places an arrow against the next post, Letter Registrar Officer, Div. 2, Dept. 6, and places it in her OUT basket. So the note travels its inexorable way through the Org. It could well take weeks to get to the Info. Pack Mailing In-Charge, Div. 6, Dept. 18.
If "Janet" wished to strengthen the message that the Department of Communications had boobed, she might well issue an Ethics Chit to the Comm. Flow In-Charge, Div. 1, Dept. 2. One copy would go to this staff member "through the lines", one would go to the Ethics Officer for action to be taken or to be filed in the Comm. Flow In-Charge's personal Ethics folder - after five Ethics Chits have accumulated or if the staff member is in a Condition of Emergency or lower, an Ethics Hearing is automatically convened - and one copy would be retained in her records.
It can be exceedingly tiresome to be a Divisional Secretary. Piles of memos of this type arrive in the IN basket. Each has to be read, initialled and routed with an arrow. No wonder many never arrive at their ultimate destinations.
So that a lowly staff member has some idea of which staff are in which departments, it is an imperative policy that an enormous wooden Org. Board be displayed in the reception area of every Org. This is a colourful piece of furniture. Each division has a distinct colour flash; "Janet" would have written her note on Dissemination's lilac-tinted paper; anyone in Tech. Division uses green.
The keen staff member can increase his knowledge of the organisation by learning those Policy Letters which apply to the general principles of organisation and to his own division. When he first comes on staff, he is known as a Temporary and an 0 is placed against his name on the Org. Board. When he has learned some elementary policies and passed a simple test, he becomes a Provisional Staff Member and a 1 is put on the Org. Board by the Org. Board In-Charge, HCO Div. 1, Dept. 1. To become Permanent, he learns many more Policy Letters and takes a searching examination and has a 2 placed against his name on the Org. Board.
He now is eligible for a 2½-year contract. If his stats. are satisfactory and his Ethics file is clean - anyone can clean his Ethics file by doing an Amends Project to make up for the trouble he has caused - he can enter into an agreement with the Org. for 2½ years. This benefits the staff member by giving him Power Processing to Grade VA free (price to anyone else is £432), half-price and credit on all courses and E-meters, a free Minister of the Church of Scientology of California Course (he reads Hubbard's Ceremonies of The Church, a paperback book on comparative religions, and The Gospel according to St. John), and a free Org. Exec. Course (normally £275). As a contracted staff member, he is now eligible for promotion to senior posts.
The Org. Exec. Course is a fascinating examination of ALL the policies and directives ever issued by Hubbard on any matter related to his organisations. There are thousands of items involved. Some of the earlier policies have been superseded, yet to understand evolution of the Scientology organisations, it is necessary to read all of this material. The sheer quantity of these policies is more impressive than the result. It represents an unstinting search for perfection in the construction of an organism that will survive against all odds In its application it appears top-heavy with administration as against productive staff. At the same time, Hubbard's organisational policies are so specific as to not require trained accountants to run the Treasury Division, solicitors or barristers to run the Ethics or Legal departments, or experienced administrators to occupy any senior post. If the staff member sticks to Hubbard's policy, every letter of it, he will succeed. At least, that is the theory behind it.
This represents Hubbard's greatest error in all of his immense work. He assumes there to be a final perfection in all things. He seems incapable of seeing that unpredictable events can cut across the most well-ordered systems. He says, in effect: "Stick to my policies. Don't get imaginative or clever. Do your job by the book and we'll all win through." Like Procrustes and his Bed, he cuts the feet off variables too long for his policies and stretches the ones that are too short. If his policies will not encompass all events, then the events must be adjusted to fit his policies. Though the unpredictable world often confounds the neat world as seen in Hubbard's Policy Letters, it is an incredible achievement that these have been originated. Hubbard pays little heed to the traditional management methods. Instead he has devised original systems from acute observation. Very often these are too simple but they communicate to Scientologists, they can be understood and followed. In the vast majority of jobs in Scientology Orgs., a staff member with no prior experience of business procedures can, by following Policy Letters, be successful. The gross turnover of money, the effectiveness of sales techniques, the happiness and willingness on the part of staff to work for the overall good of their Org., vastly outweighs the disadvantages of the system. Other management devices may be cleverer but Hubbard's policies work in the situation for which they are designed.
The best example of the simplicity and workability of Hubbard's system is the Hat. Every staff member when he takes a new post is given two folders by the Personnel Officer of HCO Div. 1, Dept. 1, Dept. of Routing, Appearances and Personnel. These are known as his Hat. One contains general policies; the other has Policy Letters specific to his new post and a Hat Write-Up from the previous staff member who occupied the post. The first duty of the new staff member is to read this Hat Write-Up since it gives his predecessor's hints on peculiarities about the job. When the new staff member has his Hat thoroughly on, he is aware of the relevant Policy Letters and has additional descriptive data from someone with experience of the job. "Put your own Hat on", says a senior to a junior meaning "keep to your own job and don't wear other people's Hats".
In the Ethics Codes it is a General Misdemeanour: "12. Consistent and repeated failures to wear their Hat regarding Dev-T", to create unnecessary Traffic by interfering in another's job instead of simply wearing one's own Hat. This Hat system is a very simple action but in most organisations outside of Scientology immense confusion is caused by the fact that no one knows the extent and limitations of his own job. The Hat avoids this and therefore makes for greater efficiency.
The organisational pattern of the Scientology Org. Board is applied in exactly the same way throughout all of the forty-odd Orgs. throughout the world. Obviously with a large and wealthy Org., greater precision may be applied. More of the posts may be filled. In a small Org., one staff member may hold a number of Hats.
The senior Scientology organisation, since about 1967, has been the Sea Org. The structure of Hubbard's standard land-based Orgs. has a distinctly military or naval air. His Sea Org. is directly comparable to the U.S. Navy, at least in titles and posts. In the Orgs, on terra firma, Hubbard is called the Founder. At sea, he is called the Commodore. The particular craft on which he is resident is called the Flag Ship or Flag. There are Captains, Mates, Supercargoes, Engineers, Deckhands, etc., all of whom occupy positions on Org. Boards similar to those used by ordinary Scientology Orgs.
Beyond the fact that Hubbard has always had a yen for the nautical life - he was an expert yachtsman long before the idea of Scientology entered his head and served as an officer in the U.S. Marines in the Pacific theatre during World War Two - the purpose of the Sea Org. is ostensibly "to get Ethics in on the planet". It has also been suggested that the Sea Org. is a private navy that could intimidate small local opposition - many Sea Org. staff members are trained in Karate and unarmed combat - but whether the craft are openly equipped with fire power is not known.
Even amongst Scientologists there is a deal of mystery and speculation as to details of the Sea Org. It is spoken of with reverence. It is the mecca of all Scientologists. This is where the real future of the world is being shaped. This is the pure environment where Clears can be clear and OT's can extend their true god-like powers. It is also where Hubbard lives.
The major part of the Sea Org. - the "Royal Scotman", approximately 4,000 tons and renamed in 1969 "Apollo"; "Avon River", approx. 1,000 tons and renamed "Athene"; and "The Enchantress", approx. 40 tons and a sea-going luxury yacht - chugs around the Mediterranean. Another base for the Sea Org. is on the West Coast of America. The Mediterranean fleet has been asked to leave a Spanish port and an island in the Aegean and it was rumoured that Hubbard and his Sea Org. were in league with the junta of the Greek Colonels, but this seems unlikely.
Hubbard has repeatedly professed since 1969 that he has finished his work with Scientology and is using his ships to investigate ancient civilisations. This is nonsense since he still issues Policy Letters, HCO Technical Bulletins and is still very much in control of all Scientology activities. And, unless he has made one of his remarkable breakthroughs, there cannot be many remains of ancient civilisations in the San Pedro area of the U.S. West Coast!
Scientology Ethics on the Sea Org. is really something, by all accounts. An early student of the OT Courses who took her training when the "Royal Scotman" was based off-shore from a Spanish port told me that staff and students were often assigned Conditions of Enemy or Treason and in order to get them out of the company of others, they were locked in the anchor-chain compartment or lowered into the bilges to cool off.
An early Captain of the "Royal Scotman" rammed his ship against a quay and totally wrecked a brand new £2,500 Sea Org. launch in the process. He was assigned a Condition of Treason by the Commodore, there and then evicted from the ship with nothing but the clothes he was wearing, less any badges, and was told to repay £17,000 before being allowed back into Scientology. He has not been heard of again to this day.
Probably the most idiotic event happened when the "Royal Scotman", the entire ship, earned the Commodore's displeasure. He assigned every living thing aboard a Condition of Liability. It meant the ship's mascot, a Corgi dog, went about with a dirty grey rag tied round its neck, as well as every human with a rag on his or her left arm. Incredibly the poor ship, which one must assume had not actually done anything of its own malicious free will, had a huge dirty grey tarpaulin tied round its funnel. The poor brainless thing had to sail around the Mediterranean, laughed and jeered at by all the other ships and even rowing boats, for over a week like this. How the poor simple thing applied the formula in order to get upgraded will always remain one of those sea mysteries comparable to the Marie Celeste and the Flying Dutchman.
The Sea Org. does not train anyone but its own staff. These are fabled to be the most highly proficient operators in the entire range of Scientology expertise. After a staff member has been on the Sea Org. for three months and has not had himself thrown overboard too often or otherwise put himself on the unhealthy side of the numerous Ethics Officers, he is expected to sign a 1,000,000,000 year contract. That's an American BILLION! A Billion-Year Contract. In a billion years from now, astronomers reckon the Sun will be a little cooler than now in the twentieth century. The Solar System will also be on the other side of the Milky Way and all manner of other interesting changes will have occurred. Of course, Thetans, and especially Scientology Thetans, will be struggling manfully (or is it Thetanfully) to conquer the forces of evil and destruction that are rife throughout the cosmos. Scientologists with a BILLION YEARS of experience will be of remarkable value, no doubt, even though well out of their minds when they first embarked on this unbelievable contract.
The Sea Org. make a great deal of money. Hubbard has devised the perfect money-making scheme - infallible, unlimited and the people who pay it, love it!
Ethics Missions, Efficiency Missions, Public Relations Missions and many other types of missions are sent out from the Sea Org. These, travelling by first-class jet, driving around in chauffeured limousines, staying at the Ritziest hotels, suddenly arrive at the front door of an outer Org., such as London, Saint Hill, Sydney, Paris or whichever Org. needs a bit of wisdom, and go to work to straighten the poor natives out.
The experts from the Sea Org., anything from two to six of them, are dressed in the navy blue full-dress uniform of the Sea Org. which makes them look like admirals from the Pomeranian Navy. They have an On-Policy, tight-lipped, no-nonsense, amongst everything else we are efficient approach. Whilst they are at the Org. they are in charge. They are empowered to do anything, inside or outside of policy, to get the Org. straightened out. They are like management consultants with the supreme powers of almost life and death that standard management consultants must dream of having. They stay at the Org. for as long as it takes to "get the show on the road".
The Sea Org. bills the victim org. at the rate of £250 per day per person PLUS all expenses.
Hubbard graciously explained the hefty charges (though no one would ever have the temerity to ask him to explain himself) in this wise. "If an Outer Org. is so bone-headed as to allow its stats. to fall in spite of the fact that I have given it ample policy whereby it can be totally successful all the time, and since this means that I have to concern myself with its paltry affairs by sending one of my extremely valuable missions to straighten it out, then, by all their cotton-pickin' fingers, they will pay for it and pay handsomely."
To add a piquant touch of additional lunacy, nearly every mission I ever saw at Saint Hill and London made a bloody nuisance of itself and failed to get the stats. up for more than a week or two. Nevertheless, the Orgs. paid at the rate of £250 per day per person PLUS all expenses!
At one point, Saint Hill owed £65,000 to the Sea Org.
There are various projects set up under the aegis of the Sea Org. Commander Yvonne Gillham is the Sea Org. Director of the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles, Calif. The Centre's purposes are: "1. To provide a safe environment for all artists to expand in. 2. To enable the public to enjoy, appreciate and understand the Arts. 3. To co-ordinate the able people in the Arts so that each can expand without compromising his own reality." (Commander Yvonne Gillham, The Auditor, Number 52.) Concert pianist Mario Feninger, a Class VIII auditor, pop groups - "The People", "Orange Coloured Sky" and "Sound Foundation" - Hollywood film star in the grand manner Stephen Boyd, a Clear, and most surprising of all, poet, pop-folk singer and composer Leonard Cohen. Another Celebrity Centre has been set up in New York City. Sweet but corny though the stated purposes may be, they are not altruistic. The Celebrity Centres and every other activity of Scientology are designed to get people into Scientology.
Next in seniority after the Sea Organisation come the Advanced Organisations (AO's). At Edinburgh, Scotland (AOUK); Los Angeles, California (AOLA); and Sjaeland, Denmark (AODK), the very highest levels of training and processing are administered - Class VIII Auditor, Clearing and OT Courses.
Prior to the ban on entry into the United Kingdom of British Commonwealth and alien citizens for the purpose of Scientology studies, Saint Hill Manor had been the centre for the Clearing Course. The British Labour Government's action in July 1968 - just before the House of Commons went into Summer Recess and without one item of evidence being put forward as justification - looked very like a panic move. It was as if the Right Honourable James Callaghan, the Home Secretary, had suddenly realised there were thousands of Scientologists arriving from all parts of the globe and they presented a very real threat to the peace and tranquillity of the United Kingdom. This unconstitutional action in selecting Scientologists out of all the other threats to the peace and prosperity of the U.K. that fly in and out of London Airport every day gained a great deal of valuable publicity and sympathy for Scientology.
The Right Honourable Iain Macleod wrote a stinging article in the Daily Telegraph; the Rt. Hon. Quintin Hogg, QC, became their legal advocate, and the editor of the Daily Telegraph wrote a leader regretting the final demise of democracy in the British nation after 600 years. These worthy gentlemen were careful to point out that they held no brief for the principles of the movement and were solely concerned that justice be done and be seen to be done. This self-righteous ploy was not so much inspired by a genuine concern for the U.K. constitution as the fact that these Conservatives were able to take a swing at the Labour Government.
Scientology gained the doubtful prestige of being a political issue.
Plans had been made to charter Boeing 707's to bring hordes of Scientologists from America and Australia. TWA, with a nice eye to commercial exploitation, found that Scientologists were the second largest users of their flights across the Atlantic and set up special Scientologists' Information Booths at U.S. international airports. East Grinstead businesses boomed, especially taxi services; rents for accommodation soared; the East Grinstead police force were equipped with high-speed sports cars; the Urban District Council had long meetings to try to find out what was happening to their sleepy little town, and the ordinary natives felt besieged.
Jim Callaghan finished all that. Within a few weeks of his ban, Scientology had opened an Advanced Org. in Los Angeles to serve North and South America and the Commonwealth. Shortly afterwards the AO at Edinburgh opened for U.K. residents and those aliens who managed to squeeze through the immigration controls at British air and sea ports. AODK opened a few months later to serve continental European Scientologists. The British ban probably helped the expansion of worldwide Scientology in more ways than any other single action. It did not even affect British recruitment.
At the same time as the AO's were spreading, so it became necessary to follow up with the Saint Hill Organisations, in order to complete the training and processing services. Thus there is now an American Saint Hill Organisation in modern glass and concrete luxury premises at Los Angeles; another in the business centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, and near to the SAS skyscraper; and the original Saint Hill at East Grinstead. the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course is run at these three centres to produce Class VI auditors and is regarded by Hubbard as the course which sorts the men from the boys, and, presumably, the women from the girls. The price in sterling is £275 or U.S. $775.00, which is a rate of exchange of approximately $2.804 to the £ Stg., which is original.
World Wide (WW) is the senior administration centre of international Scientology and operates from Saint Hill, East Grinstead. Here there are the nine divisions of the Org Board manned by experienced executives who receive reports from their equivalent opposite numbers in the Outer Orgs. Copies of all weekly statistics for all major posts in every Org. in the world go to make up the WW statistics. It is therefore very much in the interests of WW staff that they should get their Outer Orgs. to be successful. If, for instance, the Public Exec. Sec. of Miami, Florida, should find that by advertising Scientology books in the baseball programmes locally, the response is good, the Pub. Exec. Sec. WW (sometimes abbreviated even further to PES WW) would order all other PES's to advertise in programmes of local sports events.
If the findings of a Market Research survey conducted in Bloemfontein, South Africa suggest that people would more readily go to a free lecture on Scientology if coffee and biscuits were available, then this information will be distributed to all orgs.
The Publications Organisation World Wide is the Department 5 of HCO Dissemination Division 2 of WW. Pubs Org. as it is fondly called is a totally separate entity of WW situated in Copenhagen, Denmark. It produces books in many languages, promotional material such as bookstore display stands and leaflets and acts in much the same way as its parent Org. WW, by unifying and standardising all promotional activities.
For instance, should it be found that a particular symbol is highly effective in selling Scientology: A New Slant on Life, perfect, camera-ready artwork will be supplied from Pubs Org. to every Outer Org. so that photo-litho printing of the book symbol can occur locally. Pubs Org. charges for these services but the expense to an Outer Org. is much lower than if it had to employ its own layout and typographical artists.
Most of its money comes from the sales of books throughout the world. Some of Hubbard's titles must be amongst the most consistent best sellers. A policy which ensures this and makes a stable income for Pubs Org. is that every Outer Org. must take a hefty minimum quantity of books each year. In the summer of 1968, there were over 500,000 copies of various Scientology books in store in the basement of the Castle at Saint Hill. Maybe they are still there!
The bread and butter source of new people for Scientology comes from the Hubbard Scientology organisations which are dotted across the free world. HSO's are local organisations and provide services up to Grade IV processing, Class IV Auditor training, they sell books, run local congresses, dish out leaflets, Freedom magazine and invitations to "GET YOUR IQ TESTED FREE", and generally manage to keep Scientology alive on a grass-roots level. HSO's are the most commonly visited by Sea Org. Missions. They are ordered about mercilessly by WW. They have to run the advertising projects that Pubs Org. dishes out to them. They keep smiling though, even when their units are so low it does not even pay their fares to and from work.
Finally, there are Scientology Foundations. These operate during evenings and weekends to duplicate the services of their daytime parent organisations. Some of the staff from the daytime may work for the Foundation too. Foundations are very often more efficient than the parent orgs. since they run with a more profitable ratio of administrative to technical staff. They often are more popular with students and preclears since they are open during leisure times.
Expansion of Scientology occurs through more and more local Hubbard Scientology organisations and their Foundations opening in cities and territories throughout the world. A certain percentage of people who walk through the front door of a Scientology organisation continue to go all the way to OT VIII and Class VIII Auditor. Place enough of these front doors around the world and Scientology is guaranteed to be the biggest, wealthiest and most successful movement of its kind ever to have been seen.
It has absolutely nothing to do with whether Scientology is right or wrong.
Perhaps if the United Nations General Assembly were somehow able to ban Scientology, it might crush the movement. But it is unlikely that they would succeed. Religious movements with the dynamism of Scientology seem to flourish under adversity.
Official actions against Scientology always seem to be motivated by fear. It is an unknown element in any society. It seems so pathetic and ludicrous, yet men of judgement and integrity give it their allegiance and, by inference, take their allegiance away from the society.
There are errors in Scientology and the way it conducts its affairs but most of these can be put down to over-zealousness. It is not a criminal movement. Nor is it openly hostile to the existing order as are most Communist Parties. It is unique.
Since most news and TV commentators cannot understand what makes Scientologists tick; since government officials do not even bother to try to find out whether Scientology is hostile to them or not; since the only way to thoroughly get the "feel" of Scientology is to become a Scientologist, it is most unlikely that any official will ever be able to encompass what Scientology is, in order to do anything about it.
If the expansion of Scientology subsequent to the ban placed on it by the Victorian Government in Australia, the Food and Drug Agency's unsuccessful legal actions against it in Washington, D.C. and the British Government's ill-conceived ban on overseas students entering the U.K. is anything to go by, then Scientologists should welcome government intervention.
But most of all - they are organised.
Organised to do battle with opposition at such a ferocious level as to intimidate.
It will be interesting to see what they do about this book.
[ Chapter Eleven | Table of Contents | Epilogue ]