Critical Q&A

This week, it’s answers about cult personas, billion year Sea Org contracts, the coverup of Hubbard’s life as told to Scientologists and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) Steve Hassan talks about the cult persona, which is the obedient, conformist persona built on top of the true persona of the member individual. It is the cult persona which enables the person to commit destructive actions, toward oneself or others, in a way he or she normally would not — in the name of God, planetary salvation or whatever is indoctrinated. I’m very curious about your take on, and your own struggles with, this cult persona. How did you retake control? What happened to it after that? Did it just disappear, or can you ever still sense it? Because I assume it was a strong force in your life for a long time. I’m asking because some ex-members, such as Marty Rathbun, seem to have remained in an inner conflict/limbo between past and present selves.

(2) I’m trying to figure out the logical implications of billion-year contracts. Since Scientologists take all of that at face value, they should expect to see reincarnations joining the Sea Org. Does the Sea Org ever try to recruit people by claiming they signed a contract in a previous life? Did Hubbard try to develop a tech to locate the reincarnations of Sea Org members, the same way Vajrayana Buddhists have methods for finding the next incarnation of a tulku? Conversely, can people claim that they don’t have to sign the contract because they already did in a previous life, maybe if they uncovered “past life memories” that fit the narrative? Is there any tech or procedure for that specific situation? If that’s not the case, does it mean every single Sea Org member ends up “blowing” when they die? That would be a depressing thought, for a Scientologist.

(3) It’s well established now that L. Ron Hubbard spent the last few years of his life on the run from the FBI after Operation Snow White and became a sort of Howard Hughes figure. He was hugely paranoid, was injecting strong sedatives when he died and was drinking heavily resulting in pancreatitis that almost killed him a few months before he died of a stroke in a camper van. I’ve even read that he had a massive golf ball sized cyst on his forehead. Now I’m sure within Scientology this is not the grisly picture that is painted of Hubbard’s twilight years. So how exactly is the grim last decade of his life depicted through the air brushed, Vaseline smeared lens of Scientology? Is Operation Snow White even addressed? 

(4) I was watching a TV show recently where a CEO, or some other management equivalent, visits their business in disguise. It made me wonder, what would happen if Miscavige or Tom Cruise visited an Org in disguise and looked for services. If they were actually audited or reg’d for money, how would they react? I’ve heard before that people auditing Tom Cruise were told to finish up because he thought the session was over and they were afraid to anger him. I believe he wanted to leave without a floating needle and was irritated and told the auditor that it hadn’t happened in time (forgive me if I’ve got that totally mixed up!) Would they realise just how empty and badly run Scientology really is? Or do they know and just not care?

(5) I was hoping to get your insights on a matter I’ve often wondered about. Scientology seems to have had sales of books as a fundamental basis of its “growth strategy” since its inception. However, I’ve observed that among Hubbard’s massive literary catalog, only his dreadful science fiction seems to be available in e-book format.   For example, Amazon sells most of his science fiction in both physical and electronic formats, but only offers the actual Dianetics and Scientology books in physical form. Why have e-book offerings been so limited?  One must assume this is a conscious strategy concocted by Miscavige, but it seems paradoxical since the group’s recruitment process so prominently focuses on “read a book”. 

(6) On OT VIII you learn that most or all of the past lives you recalled in auditing weren’t even your memories. So now that they “know” that, why do they still keep auditing these on the lower levels just to tell the PC later, after hundreds of thousands of dollars, oh yeah btw those things never happened.

(7) I know you said Scientology will not completely go away any time soon but if it did completely fall apart, what would David Miscavige do to survive? He has proven he couldn’t get a job in management cause he would be physically abusive to his employees. He would be the worst manager/ director ever. 

(8) Has the Church of Scientology ever been implicated or strongly suspected to be behind the death of any individual that transgressed the church?