I happened to notice this statement from L. Ron Hubbard on Tony Ortega’s blog (he includes a Hubbard quote each day that Hubbard made on that day of the year in his section “Source Code”).
“We’ve had a little slowdown here recently on research the last six, seven days — I managed to get the show back on the road again — mostly due to the nonsense going on in Australia. The general situation with regard to that is they’re not in any danger or anything like that, they’re just being cross-advised and being generally upset. The government of Australia….Well, these little boys have an opposition there that are quite red and they all of a sudden decided under a fellow of the name of Galbatty to investigate Scientology on account of how bad it all was, you see? And this is the message I want to get across to you, not the state of Australia. An organization starts slipping, they stop following through standard policies, they are not on the ball here and they individuate there and they goof up someplace else. And then you all of a sudden start having trouble in their vicinity and it finally swells up to something like this inquiry you see, and that sort of thing. Just everybody has to some degree or another taken his finger off of his number and goofed up. You get the idea? In this particular case, why, they ran some jerk down there who they knew was a security risk. He couldn’t pass an E-Meter test if you’d held a gun to his head. He is just a complete bum. So they go ahead and give him high-level processing. Name is Wearne. And they give this fellow a bunch of high-level processing and restimulate two or three wrong goals on him one way or the other so he goes into a complete spin. And I think he’d been in psychiatric treatment and he went back under psychiatric treatment, and then he runs over and sees Galbatty to get Galbatty to pass legislation so as to cure his GPMs and it just all went to smoke. And it had never even occurred to anybody down in Melbourne simply to handle Wearne, refund his money and straighten him up. When they did refund his money, they didn’t even require him to sign a release. So they went and refunded his money; he went over to the court the same afternoon and filed a suit for a hundred and sixty thousand pounds. I mean, it takes genius, see? It just takes goof up after goof up.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 30, 1964
Now, this illustrates something Hubbard (and now Miscavige) specialized in.
Doing something disastrous, and when the thing blows up, blaming someone (or everyone) else for having created the situation by failing to follow his direction — even when he either did it himself or directly ordered someone else to do it.
I read this with interest as I had been astonished by Steve Cannane’s brilliant book Fair Game where he dug into the history of scientology in Australia, and particularly the Victorian Inquiry. Doug Wearne played a significant role in creating that inquiry. And it was Hubbard himself who had refused to give Wearne a refund and then sent him over the edge with a dismissive, condescending letter. Here are the pages from Steve’s book that are most relevant (I highly recommend this book):
If you compare Hubbard’s account with the documented truth (Steve’s book is impeccably sourced with an enormous number of cites to original documents — Hubbard repeatedly rambled about things made up out of whole cloth) you have a microcosm of Hubbard gaslighting. It is a tradition continued today by another master of the art form, David Miscavige.
For people who claim such enormous understanding of the human condition, almost Godlike powers as OT’s, and knowledge that makes them impervious to failure — they sure have a lot of things go wrong. Or even if you buy their explanation — that they are constantly surrounded by SP’s who are trying to do them in — how is it that they are so incapable of spotting all these evildoers? They also claim to be the masters of predicting human behavior.
Scientology is a world of toxic smoke, distorted mirrors and pervasive delusion.
Jere Lull says
Everything about scientology and its founder is a lie or based upon lies. If there were real truth in the subject, it would TRULY work as advertized and sites like this would be unnecessary. But there isn’t and they’re vital resources for those outsiders who could fall for the con.
Mick Wenlock says
Great article, Mike. Well researched and very illustrative indeed. Enjoyed.
Mike Rinder says
Thanks Mick. Good of you to drop by old friend!
Hana Whitfield says
Brilliant post! Reading Steve Cannane’s research again brought to mind how long it has taken me to rid myself of the mental obfuscation resulting from living in the presence of Hubbard’s lies, deceit, and his abysmal and deluded state of mind. The man was truly crazy yet a walking, talking crazy who had the capability to charm, chat, and respond intelligently now and then. In retrospect, though, I now see that his mind was always wandering and working on some other idea or issue when he was talking with me and listening to my responses. He had a weird way of appearing to listen yet looking off elsewhere, his eyes wandering around.
Sir Duke says
Thank you Hana for your insight! Have you ever planned on writing a book about your experience? You certainly have had a long first hand experience of interacting with « the master »
Hana Whitfield says
I have a book in progress and hope I can complete it by year’s end. It’s been a daunting ride so far, as covers my husband’s and my exit counseling (or thought reform) work, how we developed it, the years of harassment, abuse and Fair Game Scientology threw at us, and my experiences with Hubbard to show who he really was. thanks much for your interest.
Sir Duke says
Very happy to hear this! I can imagine the daunting task of data gathering, recollection, organization of such a wide experience. You have all my support from France and will count among your future readers as soon as the book is out!
Brian J Sheen says
Great blog! Reading this section of fair game was very informative. I now understand what was behind the 1965 Anderson Report. Many of the allegations made by Wearne were verified by this report. What I don’t get however, is how has Australia ignored their own investigations and conclusions? I am hopeful that the new attention Scientology is getting there may resurrect their active opposition to COS and remove the benefits they have accrued there, including laundering monies from other jurisdictions. Because of this I am in the process of sharing an in depth press release to stir this up as I promote my new book, Relentless, Rescuing My Daughter from Scientology. I am hoping that reaching into the news and social media there with my story, will help stoke the fires of anti-scientology sentiment that has been building there. Any little I can do, I feel I must for unless COS has the light shined on their evil ways, there is no hope to reach my daughter and awaken her from her hypnotic trances and free my grandson from being indoctrinated into their dehumanizing methods.
Jere Lull says
Good luck, Brian. May your efforts pay off big-time— including reuniting with your daughter.
Brian J Sheen says
Mucho gracias!
PeaceMaker says
I’ve realized that while it’s typical of narcissists to blame others, they often complain about having been surrounded by incompetents and failures while also claiming to be above average in people skills such as judging character. There’s an obvious disjunct if you really look at the facts and think it through, but such personalities are adept at muddying the waters – and at drawing in people less likely to ask hard questions and think critically.
If anyone is wondering about this in the political arena, let me just say that if you look carefully behind the scenes, you will find that some of the prominent such characters have more family money behind them than is generally known – often because they hide that, as part of the narcissistic pattern of passing themselves off as more successful than they actually are – and have really been characteristically poor managers.
Real says
Hubturd sure nattered a lot about his fellow staff members. It was almost like he was an SP, or something…
Loosing my Religion says
Real. He did worse than just nattering. He has built a system to trap his members in lies and make them real ‘pts’ (of him and later of DM).
Real says
Oh I know LMR. I worked with DM a bit. That was enough for me.
Peridot says
I, too, offer high marks to journalist Steve Cannane’s book, Fair Game. The opening sequence alone is so painful and riveting, holy cow. Though, you know as a Former-In, he is speaking (writing) truth, then it continues from there. Fine work, Steve Cannane.
chuckbeattyx75to03 says
True so true.
Hubbard’s quackery Scientology pseudo-therapy and the doubled-down quackery Hubbard style exorcism of “body-thetans” that Xenu deposited on earth 75 million years ago, is the massive elephant in the room that Hubbard’s deflection policies never mention.
Scientology at heart is the pseudo-therapy quackery called “auditing.”
And upper Scientology is a massive 5 levels of exorcism of “body-thetans” (surplus souls) deposited on earth by Xenu 75 million years ago.
Scientology is a snipe hunting organised quackery pseudo-therapy and quackery exorcism operation that deflects and attacks and misdefines itself and it’s “enemies.”
Scientology’s biggest enemy is L. Ron Hubbard, as the subject is quackery when you get down to the core of Scientology.
The exorcism of Scientology is off the table from discussion, it’ secret, they can’t even publicly acknowledge Xenu’s deposit of “body-thetans” onto earth 75 million years ago, they can’t even admit OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are the exorcism expensive steps to rid themselves of their imaginary infestations of Xenu’s “body-thetans” (surplus souls) they learn to believe infest their human bodies.
Scientology is rigged by Hubbard to attack and divert off of their Hubbard soul snipe-hunting practices.
Scientologists are left holding this huge huge bag of Hubbard’s quackery.
All meticulously methodically wrapped up in the Hubbard administrative units that counter attack deflect, make up Black PR campaigns to target their imagined “enemies” who expose the Hubbard quackery outfits nastiness.
Mike you need to be interviewed in detail about the OSA org board, the staffing over the decades, the policies and the VFPs of the various sub units of OSA and the DSA network.
The daily Legal Ruds Checklist that all DSA offices are doing doggedly daily in all smaller Scientology organisations.
I think there are possibly within the Legal Ruds Checklist grounds for prosecuting Scientology for RICO violation of obstruction of justice crimes.
Zee Moo says
David Miscavige is not in any way a ‘master’ of communication. Outside of his mOrg Openings, ,he hasn’t anything publicly in something like 40 years. Hell, his PR spokesperson, Karin Pouw hasn’t been seen publicly in uncounted years.
They’re uncounted because I don’t care when Pouw was last in public.
bixntram says
Miscavige is aggressive, ruthless, vicious, devious and self-centered. One thing he isn’t is very intelligent.
Jere Lull says
Pouw never was in “public”. At most, she published drivel somewhere where it was ineffective. The one public appearance she made gained her the title of “blinky”.
Sir Duke says
Interesting comment indeed! It seems like over the years, Scientology has grown more scared of communicating with the wog world, which makes sense since putting any Scientologist forward will result in possible questioning did Scientology. Even celebrities now all avoid mentioning Scientology. So much for the “unprecedented expansion” claims!
Balletlady says
Yesterday I travelled & Visited my parents’ & Grandmother’s grave yesterday & with BOTH Mother’s Day & Father’s Day approaching….I thought I’d post this:
TRY TO BE SOMEONE’S DASH………..
I read about a man who who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning to the end.
He noted first came her date of birth
& spoke the following date with tears
But he said what matter most of all
was the DASH between those years.
For the DASH represents all the time she spent alive on Earth…
And now only those who loved her
know what that little “line” is worth.
For it matters not how much we own
The cars, the house, the cash
What matters is how we lived & loved & how we spent our “DASH”.
So think about this long & hard
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged
If you could just slow down enough to
Consider what’s true & real, & always try
To understand the way other people feel
And be less quick to anger & show
Appreciation more & love the people in our lives like we’ve never loved before
If we treat each other with respect &
more often wear a smile
remembering that this special DASH
might only last a little while…
So when your Eulogy is being read
with you life’s actions to rehash….
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your DASH???
George M White says
very nice post
Skyler23 says
Hello Balletlady. Very lovely sentiment.
Balletlady says
Thank you George & Skyler…..this is one memorial post that brings thoughtful tears to my eyes & heart.
If we could ONLY have had the maturity & Knowledge & if we could go back & “fix things” that should have been repaired is one of life’s regrets.
Jere Lull says
Nice one, Balletlady.
Balletlady says
Thank you Jere, it’s all so true as well. We don’t know what we’ve lost until it’s gone permanently.
I am 100% ALL for “disconnecting” TOXIC PEOPLE from my life, including close family members. As hurtful & painful as it is or was, it had to be done. I can’t keep picking up the pieces & trying to patch & repair someone else’s self made errors. Sometime you just CANNOT help someone who refuses to be helped.
My best wishes to everyone! Your posts fill my day & often ease questions & doubts.
mwesten says
Isn’t the whole purpose of scientology self-recognition of cause?
Isn’t blaming others for one’s problems a sign of O/Ws?
A scientologist must surely be thinking: “What have you done, Mr. Hubbard?”
Isn’t a church that trivialises abuse, denies responsibility and blames the entirety of its failures on ex-members/SPs demonstrating institutional O/Ws?
Isn’t a religious leader who hides from public view and goes to nonsensical lengths to shield himself from subpoena, demonstrating MWH phenomena?
If the church won’t put ethics in on itself then who will?
Loosing my Religion says
MWesten. Perfectly spot on.
chuckbeattyx75to03 says
mwesten, The final pages of “Going Clear…” book reveal L. Ron Hubbard’s final bitterness and despair and treasonous attitude to all his work and “all of it” (Scientology entire project).
https://tonyortega.org/2021/05/02/in-scientology-making-it-go-right-is-everything-even-if-it-wrecks-lives/#comment-5367881367
jim rowles says
Karma will, and Darwin’s theories on survival.
Jere Lull says
MWesten:
“church”?
“ethics”?
Neither of those words have any connection to the enterprise calling itself scientology these days.
George M White says
When the Flag Land Base opened in 1976 in Clearwater, it attracted thousands of new Scientologists. Hubbard had hit on the idea that Solo Nots was the ultimate solution. I remember attending massive rallies in the auditorium with many speakers. The idea that they were getting across was very simple. If you paid $10,000 for 12 and half hours delivered by an auditor, you paid $1,000 per hour. With Solo Nots you reduced the price to literally dollars per hour. You are on the path to eternity almost for free. Thousands of us fell for the scam which lasted almost 20 years.
Richard says
Elron only made money by selling books, auditing and training. Before the Land Base came along you could look at the Grade Chart and make some projection about how much money it would cost to get to the top of the Bridge and be done with it, whatever being at the top meant.
Then along came the Land Base with new super duper and super expensive new rundowns and there went the budget which pissed me off – Lol
PeaceMaker says
Richard, you knew a particular window of time, but didn’t Hubbard keep adding to the grade chart throughout the history of Scientology?
https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/nst/2020/09/09/scientology
One of the things I find fascinating, is that it seems that almost everyone thinks that when they were in was the good old days, and that after they left it all went to hell in a handbasket – regardless of the actual timeframe. An ex member who got out some years before you may well think that when you were in, Hubbard had added a bunch of unnecessary and overpriced stuff, and the really worthwhile essentials were no longer being done right or had even been largely forgotten.
Richard says
This is from memory of forty years ago so it’s just my opinion. I don’t recall the Grade Chart changing in the 1970’s until Elron came up with Dianetic Clear, Natural Clear, the Dianetic Drug Rundown and the Purification Rundown in the late 1970’s, the latter maybe an attempt to explain away scn failures by blaming drugs. No doubt Hubbard, Mayo and others behind the scenes were continually coming up with other changes, supposedly improvements particularly on the OT levels.
The 1970’s were a busy time for scn with lots of ex hippies and other seekers giving it a try. The rotten core of the organization was always there with people getting fair gamed and abused but myself and most of the rest of the public were unaware of it.
It’s history now and the main concern is the current C of S. I think it’s worthwhile to occasionally mention that prices were not always so outrageous and that Hubbard never required donations. Old Timers would be aware of it but maybe current Scn lurkers are not. Maybe Scns willingly giving donations think that Ron would be pleased with scn expanding with pricey new buildings and doing good works.
Rip Van Winkle says
I’ve noticed this too, even in myself.
But for myself I shrug – “young, (teenager) find the answers to life, dive in with zeal with a tight group to save the world”.
It was ” better” when we got in because that’s when we got reeled in. False help and hope buoying, and let’s face it, we were all younger. Looking backwards to younger days is coloring, period.
I view my entire scn history very differently now, but the early days still have a glow, and I may not escape that.
Richard says
Around 1979 I “attested to Dianetic Clear” which put me in the Non Interference Zone which meant no further auditing, go directly to the OT levels. At the time I think you could buy the whole OT package for $3,500 which was about the price of a new mid range car back then and which would be an obstacle for me but I might have been able to nibble away at it. Within a few months after I attested Elron decided to resume the monthly price increases which meant the prices would probably double and I decided that whatever they were selling on the upper levels they could keep it and I split. Good timing and lucky for me.
George M White says
You lucked out, Richard
Jere Lull says
Funny, I was at Flag in ’78 when I attested to ‘clear’. next, I was subjected once again to the lower Grades, which I’d done completely the 1st time.
I knew nothing about the ‘non-interference zone’ Until I found these scientology-watching sites on the Internet years later. Long story short, I had a floating TA from ‘clear’ through most of the Grades, so I doubt anything validly read. Then, the CRASH, a depression so deep I worried about going Type 3, a most fearsome situation. They of course had no solution except the RPF, which was a vacation compared to my prior life’s occupations. Eventually, they gave up on me and tossed me out to fend for myself with what little I had on me at the time. I was evidently incapable of doing ANY job in the Sea Org. I wasn’t even a proper RPF inmate as they couldn’t make me an unresisting drone. I simply said, “This is ridiculous, it’s not accomplishing anything for me.”
Richard says
Jere – I went through a brief mild depression when I was about sixteen years old. Theoretically there was no reason since I was a good student, good athlete, reasonably attractive and had a good home life. Life seemed empty and without any real meaning and I went through the motions of life without any real interest in anything. It only lasted about two months and faded away and I went back to again having an interest in life. That brief experience gave me some understanding and sympathy for people who go through a deep depression and sometimes can barely get out of bed.
Richard says
The causes of depression remain under scientific investigation. Maybe it’s just just chemicals in the brain and science produces medications to counter the effects. Possibly in some cases it’s karma coming back into view for reexamination which is speculation on my part. Big subject.
Richard says
Jere – As you probably know regarding clear, there were changes on the lower grade chart in that time period after Elron announced dianetic clear and natural clear. You attested a year earlier than me and at that time there were disagreements about whether dn clear and natural clear was the same thing as “real” clear which was solo auditing the clearing course. Maybe that’s why they put you back on the grades instead of in the non interference zone. If someone had reviewed your “case” a year later they might have put you on the OT !evels. Maybe like myself you could consider that didn’t happen as lucky – Lol
Richard says
Here’s an article called “Clear” written by David Mayo in 1989 while he was still an independent scn. He explains that many scns who had done all the steps up to the OT levels were upset that people could attest to dn clear or natural and jump onto the OT levels.
http://www.ivymag.org/iv-01-02.html
Loosing my Religion says
When you get to know the true story of scn and hubbard and then compare it to what they have taught you to be the “true” story, you realize the real size of this scam. Only lies or if you are lucky few half-truths.