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I was a scientologist early on, (1962) before the Church went nuts. Fortunately, I got a LOT of processing from 1962 to 1967 and was at Saint Hill U.K. when the first sea org mission arrived. I managed to complete the St Hill Special Briefing Course despite the insanity that ensued. The point is, the technology can work when applied correctly. It can deliver what is promised IF you don't get fucked up by the elements in the church that have taken it over. The tech ISN'T the church.
The main problem was (for them) that the technology WORKED, and made some people pretty powerful and free... that also means free of control by the church. That is why most of the early clears and OTs and highly trained auditors are nowhere to be found or have been declared suppressive. Some of the tech I was processed on is no longer available or used (just included, sometimes in an altered fashion, as "historical"). The tech has been subtly altered... and that's what you started getting after around 1970.
I am an ex-lifetime member of the Church of Scientology, but still consider myself to be a scientologist (note the small "s"). The church is in a condition of Treason, and will remain so until it follows the route back.
I left the church officially when LRH died (although I had left the church in spirit some years previously). Ex-executive staff of a major Org. Graduated from St. Hill U.K. Special Briefing Course as H.S.S. Class VI (Hubbard Senior Scientologist - auditor level class 6 with "Blue Seal" i.e. permanent certification). O.T. 6, and Founding Scientologist certificate (heard of that one? issued in '65 or '66 I think), among others.
I have been trying to figure out when scientology changed so radically from the relatively small groups scattered around the world, doing co-audits, processing and getting processed, teaching a few classes on the basics and making people more aware, to what is out there today.
I think the rank and file scientologist of the early to mid-1960's were mainly interested in making themselves and their friends a little better, smarter, more honest and honorable, and yes... more powerful. We were all shooting for 'CLEAR', and once John McMaster made it and we met him, we all knew that it was attainable. The early O.T. levels put icing on the cake, and the sky was the limit.
Then the change occurred. We all knew that, even before we found scientology, we were to some degree different from our fellow man. I'm trying not to sound too egotistical or self aggrandizing, but the folks who were active in scientology at that time tended to be more able, have a higher native intelligence, were seeking to better themselves and their fellows, and were just more aware than most of the people on the planet.
The change was, I think, when Ron, (or someone) decided that we had to "Clear the Planet", and this became the by-word of first the Sea Org and then all scientology churches, missions, and members. The emphasis changed from "making the able more able" to clearing everyone. Perhaps Ron forgot his own dictum "A cleared cannibal is a cleared cannibal." We all make mistakes.
In order to finance this new goal for scientology, the prices of books, courses and auditing began to skyrocket, putting them out of reach of the common man we were trying to help. What this did was either push people away or fuel people wanting to join staff to get "free" auditing and training. (Boy did THEY learn there is no free lunch!).
True, there were a lot more people coming through the doors, but the only ones benefiting were the one's who would have benefited in any event... the able. Unfortunately, this mass "bring'em in, use'm and lose'm" attitude lost a lot of the very able as well, when the babies were thrown out with the bath water.
Scientology made the same mistake that the higher education system made in the United States and perhaps elsewhere. Rather than a few intelligent people interested in their education and future, the colleges and universities decided that everyone 'deserved' a college degree. After all, we wouldn't want to discriminate against the unintelligent, uninterested masses, would we? Everyone was allowed in to college, and when most of the masses the new system was designed to help flunked out, well, they had to make the courses easier so that people would stay and get their degree. The emphasis went from getting an education to getting a degree. The same has happened to scientology technology and its application in the church.
It's a god damned shame.
I would like to see the spread and use of scientology STANDARD technology to aid and enable those beings who are here to receive it, and the correction of the current Church of $cientology, or at the very least, its coming up and out from a condition of Treason. I would like to see those beings who have corrupted the original goals of scientology for purposes of their own greed, power, and other deleterious needs, handled (as we used to say) "terminatedly". The days of scientology prior to 1968-1969 were so different from today that it is almost unrecognizable. I think the first hints of violence for me was when the first SO mission arrived at Saint Hill UK, lead by Joe and Jill Van Staden (spelling?). When they arrived the first thing done was Joe walking into the main manor house, taking a knife, throwing it so that it stuck in the ceiling and stating "The Sea Org has arrived!" The SHSBC students didn't see much of the mission, but news of some things traveled fast.
Suddenly ethics took on an alarming quality. The first time it affected me was early one cold morning, it was still dark, all the students (SHSBC and the grade 0-IV students were called out to an area in front of the castle. There was a chair sitting there and several senior training staff ordered all the students to surround it.
At that time (late 1967 or early 68, and before ASHO) there were probably around 600 students present. One of the higher level (SHSBC level 4?) student auditors was called out of the crowd, ( I can't recall his name at the moment, and only knew him peripherally, but I believe he was an American), and told to stand on the chair. He was then ordered to repeat in a loud sing-song fashion things like, "I know more than the C/S's. I want to destroy my PCs. I don't know how to audit, etc. etc." This went on for about 10 minutes. He did it, had a dirty gray rag tied around his arm and he was taken away. He was, however, back on course that afternoon. Remember he was a STUDENT AUDITOR. If you don't make mistakes, you don't need to be a student.
Anyway, at the end of this, there were people sobbing among the students, and a general feeling of despair. NO ONE wanted to do the practical sections of their levels anymore, because you had to AUDIT. How insane was that? We had all sacrificed a lot to get to the St. Hill Special Briefing Course, and live for 6 months to a year in England without being able to work. We wanted to help people, we wanted to be there. On the portal over the entrance to the briefing course, it was lettered, "Through these doors walk the most valuable people on the planet!" Yeah.
Every couple of days, these ethics 'actions' were repeated with different (or sometimes the same) students, with some being thrown in the lake on the St. Hill property as well. Sometime later, I learned from a close friend who had been on the very first Class VIII course on the ship with LRH, that Ron had instituted the practice of 'overboarding' (I am assuming you know about all this, who was injured, etc.) and making the student auditors who made 'grave' mistakes chant their mistakes in front of the rest of the group. Aberration IS contagious, and I think it infected the first SO mission, and then St. Hill, and on to the orgs. Was it under LRH orders? Who knows? We were told it was.
Written by John McMaster -- Not!
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Turning Willingness to Despair
"Scientology has been taken over by a self-appointed dictator, David Miscavige, who has turned the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the Code of a Scientologist, and the Credo of a True Group Member on their heads and instituted the virtual practice of Reverse (Black) Dianetics..." 
Comments
What an VIII told me, one who was on the original course on the RSM which later became the Apollo was that the VIIIs themselves instituted overboading.
In fact another VIII who was on the ship told me that it was a expeditious means of getting one's attention and those overboarded didn't make the same error again. In other words it was rapid, effective and workable. What more do you want?
Besides such practices were discontinued on the ship at least, after the Reform Codes were instituted, later that year.
Of course there are SP's who like to continue the harsher aspects of Scientology possibly mixed with other practices, like what more accurately compares to waterboarding, not overboarding 'fair game',disconnection and SRAs (Severe Reality Adjustments).
I worked for directly the Ol'man myself in my illustrious career as a Scientologist on several projects and pilots and not once did I run into harsh ethics or anything but direct understandable directions of what he wanted done.
He also believed in giving someone a post or a job and letting them do it with very little supervision as part of Fast Flow Management. So unless you don't agree with the policy and the fact that other people are responsible for their own actions as well, then you'll be stuck in the blame Ron for everything that happened or is continuing to happen with in the Organization.
Such as what happened with the GO or what is currently happening with David Miscavige.
Myself, I prefer to think of what happened to Scientology as what happens to any true group when infiltrated and taken over by suppressive elements which is covered in "Essay on Management" an article that Ron himself suggested I read and that I suggest others read as well.
Of the injuries from overboarding, I was told by the students there on the first VIII course, that Jim Keeley suffured a broken ear drum, Ruth Lennie broke a rib or ribs, and another, whose name escapes me at the moment had a broken collar bone.
Bill Howie was the Commander at the time and is the person who carried out LRH's 'overboard' orders.
I would love anyone from that original Class VIII course to write here tell what really went on.
I prefer to accept the reality based upon real facts. I don't know why it is so hard for others to accept the darker side of LRH and the Pls and FO's he wrote which support it.
In a recent conversation with another long time former member who recently contacted me, he mentioned that he'd endured the land based version of 'overboarding'. When there wasn't a body of water around to overboard an errant member, a 15 min ice cold shower or hosing while stripped naked was often used in lieu of it. That amounted to torture by CMO, acting on orders of LRH.
Your testimony about the late 60's is so refreshing to read here because even in the late 70's when I joined as a public person, it was common knowledge that things had changed from the 60's and that the org staff and Sea Org were suffering because of it. This was before Miscavige.
The emphasis changed from "making the able more able" to "clearing everyone" and as a result, many 'old timers' left.
Remember, it was LRH who wrote "No one can be half in and half out of scientology. If they are on board then they are on board on the same terms as the rest of us ; win or die in the attempt. We would rather see you dead than incompetent!"
HCO Policy Letter of 7 February 1965: Keeping Scientology Working Series 1
He meant it and some died as a result.
Please keep writing about your experiences and those of others of the day because it's important that people get the facts. Thanks.
Just within the last few weeks I was thinking about you. My mother, Dolores Stokes, passed away in early June and when I returned from her memorial service I brought back several photo albums. Many were pictures of her time at St. Hill on the SHSBC in the mid 60's. Quite a few of the photos had you in them, along with Ron and many other characters from that era.
As for the overboarding on the VII course. I worked for a number of years with Alan Walters and his version is that Ron ordered the overboards, including throwing Alan's substantial girth into the filthy harbor water.
Usually I don't respond to stories on the various ex-Scn web sites but your insight that the nature of Scientology changed when the goal of clearing the planet was adopted mirrors my thoughts exactly. So you get a response because you're obviously as sharp now as you were 40+ years ago. And by "sharp" I mean - seeing things the way I do.
Do well, good to see your name again.
David
I don't know you, but your mother audited me on Power Auditing in the early 70's. She was an extremely cool and gracious lady. I really liked her a lot and respected her. She had such a wonderful genuine smile. I got tremendous
gains from her auditing. I am writing a book about it right now. I have got some tales to tell! Please email me at . Thanks much! I enjoyed your post here. Bob
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