THE DARK SIDE OF SCIENTOLOGY [corrected end notes]
GrahamEB
Delivered at a public meeting in the hall of the Hamburg Union Building on
March 30,1998, and broadcast uninterrupted by Phoenix Television, Hamburg,
Germany,
March 31, 1998
(German translation portions omitted)
Introduction by Ursula Caberta
Graham E. Berry:
Ladies and Gentleman, it is an honor to be invited here by Ursula Caberta, a
woman working hard and courageously for religious freedom, in a nation that has
unique memories of the terrible practices of totalitarian movements. However, I
disagree with her on one point. She said that Scientology is represented on the
light side by celebrities. I believe that they also represent the dark side of
Scientology: insecure struggling young actors and actresses being lured with
false promises of enlightenment and success.
Although it is correct that I have worked on a large number of cases, I am not
going to talk to you about those cases, I am sure that would put you all to
sleep, but I am more than happy to take questions on specific cases after I
have finished my remarks.
Although Scientology mistakenly and misleadingly calls itself a church, it is
not an organization that is about religious freedom. Most real religions freely
and enthusiastically reveal their beliefs. Scientology charges many hundreds
and thousands of deutschmarks to go up the "Bridge" to learn about their
beliefs; to go up the "Bridge" to total servitude and not freedom. And
Scientology claims a monopoly upon its so-called "scriptures." That is not
religious freedom. If it was, Martin Luther would not have freely distributed
the Bible and there would have been no reformation and no Protestant church.
Scientology fraudulently claims that it is compatible with other religions such
as Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity; that it is possible to practice other
religions and Scientology at the same time. Only after Scientology has enslaved
your mind, through those techniques L.Ron Hubbard wrote about in his "Manual on
Brainwashing", and was referring to when he stated that he could, "Brainwash
people faster than the Russians," does a Scientologist learn the truth of what
Mr. Hubbard claimed: that he had, "…been to heaven twice," that, "…there
was no man on the cross," and that, "Christ did not exist." What is also not
widely known about Mr. Hubbard is that he was a follower of one of the 20th
Century's leading practitioners of Black Magic, Alistair Crowley, truly a man
of the dark side. A man Mr. Hubbard referred to as his "very good friend." And
what is also not widely known is that the Scientology cross is based upon Mr.
Crowley's Satanic cross.
Scientology has attacked the German people and has misused misguided
celebrities, such as John Travolta and Tom Cruise, to convince the United
States government, and others, that Germany is depriving Scientologists of
their human rights. This is totally wrong. It is an example of what Scientology
itself refers to as "Crim-mind" or "the criminal mind." In Scientology,
"Crim-mind" means to accuse others of what you are guilty of yourself. It is
clear that Scientology deprives its own members of their own civil rights and
human rights. It is also clear that Scientology seeks to eliminate and
exterminate the human rights of its critics. Indeed, Mr. Hubbard wrote that
critics, who are "1.1" on his human Tone Scale, should be imprisoned and then
exterminated. He estimated that was about 2-½% of the population.
In the United States, judges have written of Scientology as being a paranoiac
organization that has assumed the paranoia of its founder Mr. Hubbard. It is
unmistakably a totalitarian organization as Ms. Caberta just told you. This
country [Germany] has dedicated itself to never forget the past lest it be
repeated. Unfortunately, those in Washington seem to have forgotten the past
and may, unfortunately, repeat it. Scientology has undertaken a massive
lobbying effort in Washington that extends from lobbyists to congressmen,
senators and even the President himself. Scientology has used its celebrities
to spearhead this lobbying effort, and that was written about, only this week,
by the St. Petersburg Times in a major article. In another major newspaper
article, the New York Times has described how Scientology used private
investigators to intimidate the head of the IRS into giving it tax-free status,
and that was after the United States Supreme Court had declared that the IRS's
position [in denying Scientology tax-free status] was correct. It is an example
of what I am about to talk about.
There has been a mountain of material written by Scientology and about
Scientology, but I believe that you can reduce Scientology to three fundamental
concepts: Power, Purge and Punish.
First, power. "Clear the planet" so that it is governed according to
Scientology teachings and principles, and to create an "ethical society"- which
to a Scientologist means to eliminate all opposition to Scientology. "A society
without crime" says Scientology, which to Scientology means a society without
critics of Scientology.
In his "Targets Defense", Mr. Hubbard wrote that Scientology should take over
the heads of government, the heads of media and the heads of business, and
secure their allegiance to Scientology, and we have seen that in Germany, and
elsewhere, with the W.I.S.E. corporations, the corporations of the World
Institute of Scientology Enterprises. Ms.Caberta can tell you more about "The
Albania Project" of Scientology, the expansion of Scientology into Eastern
Europe and even, as was reported yesterday, as far as the new Prime Minister of
the Russian Republic. A man who was running a Russian bank while taking
Scientology courses. Putting a Scientology member in charge of a Russian bank
is like putting Al Capone in charge of a bank in America! And we have seen
Scientology expanding into Eastern Europe through A.B.L.E., the Association For
Better Living, and Applied Scholastics, which is part of A.B.L.E. So through
this business arm, W.I.S.E., and through this so-called educational arm,
A.B.L.E. and Applied Scholastics, Scientology expands its power and objective
of world domination.
Scientology has even done this in Los Angeles California. In California,
surprisingly, there is a shortage of school textbooks and Scientology has
decided it can satisfy the shortage. It is trying to convince the Los Angeles
School District to buy school textbooks from Applied Scholastics. It says that
these books, which are part of Mr. Hubbard's "Study Tech", are published by a
secular organization with no direct links to the Church, and that therefore,
there is no violation of the separation of church and state. But even
Scientology itself, in its application for tax-exempt status, explains that
although Applied Scholastics is a secular corporation, it is responsible for
the dissemination of Scientology publications and teachings, and that through
the dissemination of Scientology publications, people will be recruited into
the Church, and will pay money to go up its "Bridge." That "Bridge" so many
find is to total servitude, mentally and physically.
CNN, the news corporation, decided to expose the Applied Scholastics
misrepresentation that it was not part of the church hierarchy. However, one of
CNN's legal commentators, Greta Van Susteran, is a Scientologist. She went to
work to convince CNN that they would be subjecting themselves to defamation
liability if they published this major exposé on Scientology, and Scientology
executives and investigators went to work on the senior management of CNN to
convince them that should not publish this major exposé on Scientology.
CNN teams had spent many months talking to people about Scientology. Some of
these people being former Scientologists who had never publicly spoken out
about Scientology. In doing so, they put their lives at great risk, because
Scientology would react through private investigators to disturb and destroy
their personal and business relationships. And so they were betrayed and put at
great risk when Scientology operatives managed to convince CNN to cancel this
exposé, which I have described. So even through Applied Scholastics and
A.B.L.E. in America, Scientology seeks to convince young people that they
should "clear" words and "route" into Scientology under the pretense that
Scientology has a superior education system.
But the truth is that Applied Scholastics and A.B.L.E. are one of the ten
sectors of Scientology that are represented on its "Watchdog Committee," the
committee that governs Scientology. The Watchdog Committee includes the Office
of Special Affairs of which I shall soon speak, and W.I.S.E. - the commercial
arm of the Church funneling many millions of dollars into the Church every
month.
Although Scientology claims to have eight million adherents, the same as the
Mormon Church, the real truth is that Scientology is much smaller. A friend of
mine, Mr. Vaughn Young, a former senior Scientologist, told me how they came up
with the membership figure. One day a reporter called Mr. Young who was then a
public relations representative of the Church and asked, "How many are you?"
Mr. Young plucked the figure one million out of the air, and because
Scientology must always be seen to be expanding, it has risen gradually over
the years until it is now eight million.
So where does all of the money come from, in Scientology, when the real figure
appears to only be about fifty thousand active followers at any one time? It
comes from W.I.S.E. and it comes form the sort of financial frauds that Time
Magazine described and that resulted in the case that I litigated; where there
were allegations of stock market fraud and credit card fraud, and also what
Time Magazine reported was fraud involving gold mining companies in Nevada and
the Vancouver Stock Exchange. It is in the area of commercial activity that I
expect the next Scientology litigation to take place. It has already started
with the Digital Lightwave litigation in America and it will extend into other
Scientology influenced companies such as Earthlink, the Internet Service
Provider that was founded by Scientologists.
So with reference to this first concept, "power," there is no doubt in my mind
that Scientology is a totalitarian political movement determined to "clear the
planet" of all non-Scientologists and to rule the world.
The second concept is "purge." This is the Scientology determination to remove
all critical or negative documents and information from public accessibility.
It is accurately reflected by Scientology's Operation or Project Snow White. As
a result of the Snow White Project, Scientology conducted the most extensive
known infiltration of the United States government. Scientologists broke into
and burglarized dozens of government departments in the United States. They
removed or copied the government's records regarding the activities of the
Church of Scientology. Eventually, it resulted in the two largest raids in FBI
history and the conviction of nine senior Church of Scientology executives
including Ron Hubbard's wife, Mary Sue Hubbard. Although Scientology claims
that that is past history, and that it has removed those responsible, that is
also a Scientology lie. The Guardian's Office, which was responsible for the
criminal infiltration of the United States Government, was Department 20 on the
Scientology Organization Board. All Scientology did was rename the Guardian's
Office the "Office of Special Affairs", or OSA. Many of the old Guardian's
Office personnel continue to work for Scientology and the "Hat Pack", or job
description of the President of the Church of Scientology, Heber Jentzsch,
contains many of the old Guardian's Office orders not even reprinted on OSA
letterhead. In 1991, the Scientology Intelligence Officer's job description
also included many of the old Guardian's Office orders, such as how to break
and enter buildings and engage in other criminal conduct. Former Scientologists
have also testified as to how they removed court documents and public library
books upon the orders of their Scientology superiors. They call this "culling"
- removing negative or "entheta" material from the public record and
Scientology always tries to seal court records so that the public cannot review
their contents. That was what Operation Snow White was all about in 1977, when
the Church of Scientology was raided by the FBI and that is what the Church of
Scientology is about today because Operation Snow White still continues today.
The third concept of which I spoke, "punish", is the darkest of all sides of
Scientology. It takes two forms, an internal form and an external form. First,
internal dissent.
Scientologists are not permitted to criticize their own organization and can
face terrible consequences for doing so. Scientologists are taught to spy upon
one another and to report critical comments by one another in "Knowledge
Reports" or "KRs." Husbands and wives turn each other in, as do parents and
children. "Sec Checks" or "Security Checks" are conducted with the E-Meter, a
primitive form of lie detector; a cheap device that is sometimes sold for as
much as $27,000, but that fraud is another story. The E-meter is used for
security checking; the interrogation of Scientologists, and where two
Scientologists conduct a "Security Check," it is called a "gang bang sec
check." As a result of the information learned, a Scientologist may be required
to do "Lower Conditions." "Lower Conditions" are forms of punishment; and the
worst of the "Lower Conditions" is the "Rehabilitation Project Force" or "RPF".
The "RPF" is described by former Scientologists as a "Gulag" or concentration
camp; and these concentration camps or "Gulags" exist in America today.
Only a month ago I was in Hemet, California,. I was accompanying a handful of
demonstrators who were picketing "The [Scientology] Base" and headquarters of
the "RPF." The true face of Scientology was personified. A tall wire fence
topped with barbed wire. There were cameras focused on the inside and out,
obviously to keep people in and to keep people out. There was a young man in
uniform, a Tom Cruise look-alike. It was a brown uniform with black jackboots,
a diagonal belt across his chest and guns on his belt. He was standing beside
the barbed wire fence. That is the face of Scientology and the "RPF" that
Scientology hides form the public and even its own celebrities who speak for
it.
A former Scientologist, Andre Tabayoyan, has written in court documents about
this "Base" in Hemet being "armed and dangerous;" and others have described how
they have been subjected to incarceration and human rights deprivations at that
place. For example, Vicki Aznaran, the former head of the Religious Technology
Center, was "deposed" by David Miscavige and sent to the RPF at Hemet for three
months; And for three months she spent twelve hours a day running around a
pole; one hour one way and one hour the other, and was guarded at night so she
could not escape. Escape she eventually did. This is an example of what I mean
when I say that Scientology is engaged in the denial of human rights; the
denial of human rights of its own people. So it is a cruel irony for
Scientology to accuse Germany of being engaged in the denial of Scientologists'
human rights.
Scientology is also engaged in the denial of human life. For example, an
ex-Scientologist, Mary Tabayoyan has testified as to how she and other
Scientologists were ordered to have abortions; and I have argued before a court
that that constitutes instructions to commit murder. At the very least, it
denies a woman freedom of choice with regard to abortion. And why does
Scientology do this? Because children require "Family Time" and "Family Time"
interferes with production; the production of things that produce money. Mr.
Hubbard writes in his book "The Second Dynamic" about children being expensive
and inconvenient, because Mr. Hubbard requires his most loyal adherents, his
Sea Organization members, to sign contracts to serve Scientology for one
billion years.
Children are also taught to "disconnect" from their non-Scientology parents and
to "disconnect" from people who do not agree with Scientology's objectives.
This is an issue that is becoming more frequent in divorces involving
Scientologists and ex-Scientologists. The idea that a Scientologist should not
have joint custody of a child because the Scientologist, and the religion, will
teach the child to "disconnect" from the non-Scientology parent.
Let me now turn to the punishment of people outside of Scientology.
Scientologists do this with "Fair Game." The "Fair Game" doctrine provides that
any Scientologist may use any means to destroy a non-Scientologist. It is
applied to opponents of Scientology who are called "Suppressive Persons" or
"SPs." Scientology claims that it has cancelled "Fair Game" because it was "bad
for public relations," but that is an example of what Scientology calls an
"Acceptable Truth", which is "A statement tailored to meet the needs of a
particular audience." It is a half-truth because it was not cancelled with
regard to the handling of "Suppressives," which is what it was always intended
for anyway.
"Fair Game" takes four principal forms: intelligence, investigation,
intimidation and litigation. And all these things were written about by Mr.
Hubbard and form part of Scientology's so-called sacred religious scriptures.
They are all carried out by the Office of Special Affairs, which is responsible
for eliminating external threats to Scientology.
First, intelligence; it involves the collection of information. Information
about known critics of the Church. A former head of the FBI in Los Angeles, Mr.
Ted Gunderson, has described Scientology as having an intelligence operation
rivaling that of many small nations. You might well ask why an organization,
which describes itself as a nice, peaceful church, requires a massive
intelligence operation? It is because of the second aspect of "Fair Game,"
which is "investigation."
After the FBI raids, and the seizure of so much damaging documentation by the
FBI, Scientology re-organized its intelligence gathering operations. Although
it occasionally slips up, generally it now uses private investigators hired by
church employed lawyers. The theory being that the church can hide behind what
we in America call the "attorney-client privilege," and the lawyers can hide
behind the "attorney work product privilege," to avoid giving information about
those activities, but we have documents evidencing the church lawyers hiring
private investigators, in my case, to investigate me.
There are several interesting aspects to these investigations. Scientology
employs what it calls "Black Propaganda" to disseminate lies and defamation
about its critics. Mr. Hubbard writes the more "lurid" the lies, the more
"sexual" the lies the better. These lies are put into documents Scientology
calls "Dead Agent" packs. I have the unique distinction of having two "Dead
Agent Packs" written about me. These "Dead Agent Packs" are distributed to the
friends, families, neighbours and business associates of Scientology's critics;
and the families, friends and business associates of former Scientologists who
dare to speak out about their experiences in the cult. That is one reason why
so few former Scientologists are willing to speak out and be counted, because
after many years of working long hours for $50 per week, sleeping in "Berthing"
or group housing, and receiving inadequate diets, they have finally escaped to
a life of freedom. And having got out of the organization, and having built a
home and job, they know how easily Scientology can use "Noisy Investigations",
"Black Propaganda" and "Dead Agent Packs" to destroy their new lives. Mr.
Hubbard writes about "Noisy Investigations" and how they should be conducted.
"The louder the better," he says.
"Noisy Investigations" blend into intimidation, the third aspect of "Fair
Game." Recently, we have seen intimidation taking the form of Scientologists
distributing leaflets summarizing "Dead Agent Packs" around the neighborhoods
of critics. Intimidation also involves the use of private investigators, such
as Scientology's chief private investigator Eugene Ingram, to interview
neighbours, friends and business associates of critics. These "interviews"
don't involve soliciting information. They involve asking impertinent questions
that, in effect, defame a person with lies and scandalous allegations. It is
the mere asking of a question that can cause the damage; such as asking what
the person knows about Ms. Caberta being involved in the assassination of John
Kennedy. The person will say "nothing," but is left to wonder if Ms. Caberta
was involved. It reflects what Mr. Hubbard said, "If you criticize us we will
more than even the score." And "evening the score" involves the loss of jobs,
relationships and friends and so the truth is suppressed.
The fourth element of "Fair Game" is litigation, which is where I have been
most involved. In his "Manual of Justice" Mr. Hubbard writes, "The purpose of
the lawsuit is not to win but to harass." And he also writes, "Enough
harassment of someone who is on the thin edge anyway is usually sufficient to
cause his professional demise. If possible, ruin him utterly," and he continues
by saying, "Make it rough, the rougher the better." And so the Scientology
litigation juggernaut, with armies of lawyers, conducts litigation blitzkriegs
and wars of attrition. Mr. Hubbard also writes that Scientology should sue in
America because in America, as a general rule, the loser does not pay [the
other sides expenses] as in Europe.
And the cost of Scientology litigation in America can be astronomical. In my
experience it ranges from $750,000 to $7 million to litigate a Scientology
case. The Time Magazine case reportedly cost Time $7 million and it did not
even go to trial. Scientology recently raided the homes of a group of its
critics and seized their computers. An action which resembled the "burning of
the books." One of those cases, the "Factnet" case, has already cost $3 million
dollars and it does not go to trial until next year. The Fishman-Geertz case,
which involved allegations of Scientology related financial fraud, instructions
to commit murder and instructions to commit suicide, cost nearly $2 million.
"Fair Game" is even applied to opposing lawyers in litigation and lawyers who
deal with Scientology litigation have to deal with other policies written by
Mr. Hubbard. For example, Mr. Hubbard wrote a document called "On Control and
Lying." In that document he writes, "The only way to control people is to lie
to them." Scientology has "Training Routines" or "TR's" and so there is a
"TR-L" or "Training Routine - Lying." There are also documents called "Hatting
the Witness" and "Addendum to Hatting the Witness" which teaches Scientology
witnesses how to testify according to Scientology's requirements; and a
Scientologist will be punished, perhaps with the RPF, if he testifies against
another Scientologist or against the interests of Scientology. The harassment
of lawyers who dare fight Scientology is so rough that the American Lawyer
Magazine quoted one lawyer, of many, as saying that," Life is too short to
litigate against the Church." And former Church of Scientology lawyer Joe Yanny
was quoted in the 1991 Time Magazine article as saying that, " The Church's
litigation hands are so dirty that it should be denied equity in every court of
law." Former Scientology leader Vicki Aznaran was quoted in the same article as
saying, " This is a criminal organization day in and day out."
Scientology's harassment of opposing lawyers is so bad that there are less than
a handful of lawyers in America today who will regularly take cases against the
so-called Church.
I am one of that handful of lawyers and I am grateful to Ms. Caberta for
inviting me here today to talk about it. Thank you for your patience and time.
[Question and answer session omitted]
Copyright © 1998, by Graham E. Berry.
Graham E. Berry, Esq.,
3384 McLaughlin Avenue,
Los Angeles, California 90066
United States of America
Telephone: (310) 745-3771
Telecopier: (310) 745-3772
Email: grah...@aol.com
___________________________________________________________________
1. Credit is given to Ford Greene, Esq., for conceiving the phrase "power,
purge and punish."
2. Permission is granted to republish this document, partially or completely,
provided proper credit is given the writer and speaker.
3. You will find more information concerning Graham Berry on the search engine
http://www.google.com/ [click on Groups then type in graham berry and select
Search by date] and at
http://www.lermanet.com/reference/GrahamBerry/criminalcomplaint.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/reference/GrahamBerry/lettertoAndrewCard.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/reference/GrahamBerry/senatejudiciary.doc
4. Ursula Caberta is the head of the Task Force on Scientology of the State of
Hamburg, Germany, government. The task force is part of Germany's internal
security organization called the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/c65.html
http://www.gospelcom.net/apologeticsindex/s04.html
5. You will find more information concerning Scientology at the following
websites:
http://www.xenu.net/ and http://www.lisatrust.net/ and http://www.lermanet.com/
and http://www.factnet.org/
6. Scientologists believe that the spirits of dead (space) aliens ("body
thetans"Ò) infest our bodies and that Scientology's E-Meter enabled
"counseling" or "processing" must be used to remove the spirits of these dead
space aliens that are infesting our corporeal selves. Scientology's E-Metered
"processing", or "auditing", can cost Scientologists $1,200 per one hour
"session." The Church charges prices, sometimes exceeding $27,000, for the
purchase of an E-Meter. An E-Meter is a primitive form of lie detector that L.
Ron Hubbard found in a London second-hand store in the late 1940's. An E-Meter
costs a mere few dollars to manufacture.