Ron's Underpants: a visit to Saint Hill [part 2]
Chris Owen
(In the previous part, I described Saint Hill and its environs; we had
got as far as my wait in the reception area for a guided tour. The
story continues...)
After about five minutes, a young woman (an orgette?), whom I shall
call Alison - she was rather sweet and I don't want to embarrass her
unduly - came out from a side door to greet me. Introductions, handshakes,
etcetera. After I'd filled in a questionnaire, she asked me if I'd ever
read an Hubbard books. I said yes, and reeled off a list. (Looking at
my database, I see that I have 145 catalogued, but I obviously didn't go
through the whole list at the time: I wanted a tour today!) She was
surprised, startled even, but I think it was a good thing to flag up in
advance the fact that I'd read up on the subject: it allowed me to short-
circuit many of the usual dissemination routines (yes, I know them well)
and ask questions about the points which were of the most interest to me.
We set off through the north door towards the wing housing the Hubbard
Academy of Scientology, where the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course (TM)
is taught, all 400-odd lectures included. At this point I should perhaps
do an ASCII doodle to illustrate the internal layout of the Castle. It
was a sort of reverse-Tardis, I think: it feels *smaller* on the inside
than the outside. The map is purely from memory and reproduces what I
saw, so I couldn't describe it as 100% accurate. In some cases I've
inferred the existence of rooms from doors which I saw, but didn't pass
through, so the internal layout probably lacks some accuracy. I've
labelled the chief features in the order in which I saw them.
=========================================================================
( )
E |-|-------( )
| | |
/|\ | | | ( )________( )
| | |-|-----( ) |\--------/|
| | | | 5a | | |
| | |-|----| | 10 |
| | | 5b | | |
| | | | |----------|
|4|-|----| 1 | |
| | | | | 9 |
| | | | | |
| |-|----| | |------|
| | | | | |- |
| | 6 | | /---\ _ | | 11 |
| |___|__|____(_____)______(3)___| | |
| |----| --------|
|-|--|-|----|---| 2 | |
| | | 7 | 8 | | | |
| | | | | |---| | | 12 |
| | | |-|---|---|---|---|----| |
| | | | | |
| | | | |----------|
| | | |
|--| |--|
1: The Courtyard
2: The entrance hall, with Reception
3: L. Ron Hubbard's office
4: Cloister
5: SHSBC (TM) rooms - 5a is Practical, 5b is Theory
6: HGC Auditing Room(s)
7: Hubbard Guidance Centre (HGC)
8: Possibly Qual. Didn't go further than the waiting area.
9: The Refectory (canteen)
10: The Great Hall
11: Study room of some description
12: "Sales office" (my term). Div 6?
Not marked are the outbuildings, such as the sauna, chapel, etc.
=========================================================================
I'll try to reconstruct my tour as exactly as I can. It's not quite the
same as doing it yourself - I'll come back to that later - but, and this
is particularly for the benefit of Our American Cousins, a reasonable
description should give a flavour of it.
The Castle is quite plush inside (which is where its medieval antecedants
fall down a bit - I didn't see a single rush-strewn floor or stinking
garderobe, or even a rat. Most disappointing!) The first destination
was the north wing, which my guide said had been built in 1985. A long
corridor, called the Cloister, runs almost the whole length. A curious
feature along the walls was the row of maybe a dozen or more carved lions'
heads, each one standing guard over a stone protrusion filled with sand and
a great number of cigarette butts. Either they don't get emptied very
often, or there are some very nervy students at Saint Hill...
On the south side of the Cloister is a row of doors - we went through one
to enter a small antechamber in front of two more doors. Above these
was the word "Practical". It was quite noisy (and busy) inside - there were,
at a guess, perhaps 25 people, of all ages from teens up to pensionable age.
The door was opened by a girl who appeared to be not much older than her
early teens - maybe 12 or 13. At any rate, a wide variety of people of
different ages and with both sexes well represented. One curiosity was that
I don't recall seeing any non-Caucasians, though there must have been a
couple of hundred people in the Castle building.
The people inside the Practical room were doing a variety of things. My
attention was immediately drawn to a man, a few yards from the entrance
door, who was sitting in a chair with a book in his lap, having an
impassioned debate with a wall. "What's that?", I whispered to Alison.
"He's applying LRH Study Tech," she replied; "LRH found that by giving
information to a wall you can learn how to communicate better."
(Something like that; I'm paraphrasing.) Other people were practicing the
use of the E-Meter or were performing the TRs (Training Routines).
After a couple of minutes observing the scene we left and went next door
to "Theory". Not surprisingly, this was the closest thing I saw to a
library. Students were reading manuals and course materials, with racks
on the walls holding what I presume were commonly-referenced bulletins and
papers. Like any library anywhere, the students glared at the unwelcome
intruders and we beat a quick retreat.
On the way back to the central area, we looked in at an auditing room.
Two people (a man and a woman, I think) were setting up shop for a session:
the man disentangling the E-Meter leads, with a case folder on the
desk next to him, the woman composing herself for the coming session. We
left quietly.
At the back of the north end of the Castle are some long, thin blocks
housing small auditing rooms off a surprisingly narrow corridor. Alison
took me into an empty one, to show me an E-Meter. She didn't actually
demonstrate it - I'd already seen a demonstration back in London - but I
was able to ask a few questions, in particular how dependent the meter was
upon how strongly the cans were being gripped. Very little, apparently:
varying one's grip produces a characteristic read which a trained auditor
can recognise and discount.
Thereafter we went out of the back side of the castle and down a very
muddy path to a sauna, with the word "Purification" above the doorway.
It was a small, one-storey building divided into male and female halves.
No men were in the sauna, but a couple of sweating women waved at me through
the steamed-up porthole in the door. I waved back, feeling a little silly.
Alison was thoughtful enough to show me a genuine Scientology Toilet (TM) -
not, for once, an invention of L. Ron Hubbard but created by Thomas Crapper,
Esq. Not even Hubbard had his destiny spelt out quite that clearly...
Back in the castle, we walked up the south wing (the first to be built) to
the Great Hall and Refectory. The Great Hall is a large, pillared hall with
a stage at one end. It looks and feels rather like an up-market school hall,
which probably isn't too far off the mark considering its purpose. On the
day I was there, several people were rolling up dust sheets and packing away
projection screens and lighting equipment. Alison told me that on the
previous Friday, over 3,000 people had been at the Manor to attend the
annual gathering of the International Association of Scientologists.
By this time, it was lunchtime - I could not resist the possibility of
having a Scientology Lunch (TM) at The Refectory. Before anyone asks, no,
I did not see any rice and beans. In fact, I saw no hot food at all -
instead, lots of chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and bottles of vitamins and
GUK. The service wasn't up to much either, but then again, it's a rare
canteen where the service is good.
Alison had been away preparing a video for me - a 45-minute interview with
L. Ron Hubbard which had been filmed in 1966. It was the first time I had
ever seen Hubbard as he would have appeared in the flesh and one could not
help but note his bullishness and good humour (though his body language
was distinctly nervous). Other than that, what he said was pretty much
his standard line in the mid-1960s and there were no real eyebrow-raisers
(other than his claims to have slept with Mongolian bandits and to have
been preparing a trip to Greece just before Dianetics took off, both of
which were news to me).
After the interview, Alison took me downstairs ("is this the castle
dungeon?", I asked) to "reg" me - that is, to persuade me to sign up for
a course. I explained that Tottenham Court Road's efforts to reg me had
bounced off, that I was for now interested primarily in the phenomenon of
Scientology rather than in becoming part of it, and that there was in any
case no point in my signing up for a Saint Hill course as the transport
would be too difficult. She accepted this with a good grace and handed
me a brochure detailing the various courses available, asking me to
contact them if I had any queries. This was a marked contrast to the
almost desperate insistence of the "regger" at TCR and left me with a
far better taste in my mouth - there are few things worse than a bad
salesman.
That concluded my tour of the Castle. I'll try to sum up my impressions.
The place has a curious atmosphere. It feels rather like an Oxbridge
college (even the architecture gives that vague impression) - an earnest
group of students hard at work (in this case, saving the planet, by their
own lights) but nonetheless with a genuine community spirit. The
English are an anally polite people in ordinary circumstances, but the
people at Saint Hill were polite beyond belief. A little anecdote will
serve to illustrate this. At one point on my tour, I went through a
door and held it open for a passing Scientologist. He said, "Thank
you!" (in a condition of Enthusiasm, evidently...). I was somewhat
taken aback and said "Thank you!". To which he replied: "Thank you!".
It got somewhat repetitive after that point and I was left wondering
whose social conditioning was the stronger...
As this will be of interest to people on this newsgroup, I'd better
also say something about the alleged unpleasant aspects of Saint Hill.
I saw most of the castle (as my plan indicates) and I saw nothing out
of the ordinary, unless you count the man talking to a wall - and
millions of Jews head to Jerusalem every year to do just that. I
saw one fellow in blue overalls who was shuffling around cleaning
and looking glum. He may have been in the RPF, I don't know - there
was no visible indication of his position - but I have yet to see a
cleaner who *doesn't* look glum. Neither incident was beyond
reasonable explanation.
Article Unavailable
Hud Nordin
In article <55o6o0$q...@due.unit.no> c...@romeo-klive.nvg.unit.no (Chris Owen) writes:
>Alison was thoughtful enough to show me a genuine Scientology Toilet (TM) -
>not, for once, an invention of L. Ron Hubbard but created by Thomas Crapper,
>Esq. Not even Hubbard had his destiny spelt out quite that clearly...
Question for the assembled: one-hundred years from now, what do you
think will bear the apellation "hubbard"?
--
Hud Nordin, Cybernetic Arts, Post Office Box 2066, Sunnyvale, California 94087
Rebecca Hartong
>Question for the assembled: one-hundred years from now, what do you
>think will bear the apellation "hubbard"?
Hmm... maybe "hubbard" will be used to refer to what we now call a "scam." As
in, "Jeez, some guy showed up at my door today trying to sell property on the
planet Neptune. What a hubbard! Everyone knows Neptune doesn't have any
decent building sites!"
Rebecca Hartong
************************************************************
"One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining
any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is
built upon will warrant." --John Locke
Neal Hamel
On 5 Nov 1996 20:06:24 GMT, c...@romeo-klive.nvg.unit.no (Chris Owen)
wrote:
[ major snippage ]
>
> As this will be of interest to people on this newsgroup, I'd better
>also say something about the alleged unpleasant aspects of Saint Hill.
>I saw most of the castle (as my plan indicates) and I saw nothing out
>of the ordinary, unless you count the man talking to a wall - and
>millions of Jews head to Jerusalem every year to do just that. I
>saw one fellow in blue overalls who was shuffling around cleaning
>and looking glum. He may have been in the RPF, I don't know - there
>was no visible indication of his position - but I have yet to see a
>cleaner who *doesn't* look glum. Neither incident was beyond
>reasonable explanation.
>
> Maybe there's a network of secret rooms under the castle; maybe I
>wasn't shown everything. I can only comment on what I saw, and
>what I saw was perfectly innocuous. It's hard to see how it could
>have been a Potemkin village, either: I gave them no warning of my
>arrival and it would have taken very good organisation to hide
>away any evidence of wrongdoing in the short time available.
>Furthermore, visitors were arriving at regular intervals (several
>dozen a day, judging from the guest book). In short, what I saw
>was far more normal than I had been led to believe.
>
> The alleged high security wasn't much in evidence either. I saw
>only one guard, no dogs and one camera, overlooking the car park.
>The gates were wide open and unguarded, both at the north and
>south entrances and when I left through the north gate there was
>nobody within sight. To be honest, the average supermarket would
>have more obtrusive security.
>
A very interesting and fair report.
I am reminded of a story that illustrates the cultural differences
between the UK and the US. It took place during the "crush sell" era
in the US. Circa 1971. After the first FEBCs were graduated from Flag
and sent back to their respective orgs, they started following
Hubbard's dictums on how to bring up the stats (read "money"). The
techniques boiled down to putting pressure on people to place their
money right away on "The Bridge".
The gross income statistics started shooting up. To keep the stats
going up, more and more pressure was used. Telexes came in from
Hubbard proclaiming the start of the new era with the FEBC trained
execs etc. After a fairly short amount of time, the easy money dried
up and techniques for forcing money from people were developed. One
of these techniques included luring people into a room, locking it and
not letting them go until they emptied their bank accounts. If they
didn't have checks, "counter checks" were provided. If they didn't
have money in their accounts, they were to pledge their assets; homes,
jewelry, whatever.
There were three main stars in this circus: Alex Sibursky, David
Light and Bill Franks. David Light created the term "crush sell" in
an incident where he held an older woman's hand and progressively
applied more pressure to it until she capitulated. A reliable source
told me that Sibursky, CO FOLO WUS, was seen in his office tossing a
globe of the world like a beach ball, apparently unaware of Charlie
Chaplin's memorable scene in "The Dictator".
So, someone in Saint Hill decided that they would try the locked room
technique. They lured a bunch of the people at Saint Hill into the
chapel and locked the door and announced their business. It didn't
work. People jumped through the windows and others forced the locked
door open and fled. The person who guarded the locked door ended up
with a broken arm.
"Crush sell" was abandoned as a technique in the UK.
Of course, the whole "crush sell" era eventually fell apart,
primarily because of the "counter checks". These were soon dubbed
"postulate checks". In order to keep the statistics going up, these
"postulate checks", with no money to back them, were actually
deposited. (Unlike the UK, you gotta' have money in your checking
account before the bank will honor a check.) Soon the banks were
freezing funds in accounts etc etc. The bubble burst and the
inevitable witch hunts and comm evs followed.
Love that tech!
-Neal H.
Perry Scott
Anima (an...@io.com) wrote:
: As part of an interesting travelogue, c...@romeo-klive.nvg.unit.no (Chris
: Owen) writes:
Yes, indeed. Thanks, Chris.
: Okay, I was ashamed to ask about Tardis, since it is something you assume
: everyone will know (though I suspect, like tombolla or biro, it is not a
: term Yanks ever encounter and is, in fact, one of those little warps in
: the fabric of reality that occasionally reveal unexpected differences
: between the two nations)... but what IS that stuff you are calling GUK?
Tardis: Dr Who, a low-budget UK sci-fi show about a time traveller.
Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Outwardly, it's an old-style
British police call box. It's much bigger on the inside than on the
outside. Chris says Saint Hill is much smaller on the inside than
outside.
GUK: Administered to Scientologists during the Purification RD. It
contains calcium and B vitamins. Probably some other stuff. It looks
like GUK. Also called "GUK Bomb".
Perry Scott
Co$ Escapee
Martin Poulter
In article <hudE0F...@netcom.com>, Hud Nordin <h...@netcom.com> wrote:
>
>Question for the assembled: one-hundred years from now, what do you
>think will bear the apellation "hubbard"?
It will join "kooky", "wacko" or "off his rocker" as a folk euphemism for
mental disorder, perhaps including paranoia or delusions of grandeur.
Hubbard believed he was a target for the KGB, the CIA, the fictional
organisation SMERSH(!) and for a much wider galactic conspiracy. He
clearly thought of himself as one of the great scientists and thinkers
(and leaders, and explorers...) of all time- just look at the opening of
"Dianetics", for example.
"I can't get any sense out of her at all: she's completely hubbard."
"He spent all his redundancy money on LSD tabs, which he took one after
the other. His brain's totally hubbard now, of course."
"The matter transporter is ideal for teleporting inanimate matter, but it
hasn't got the precision to accurately reconstruct a human brain, so if you
tried it you'd probably hubbard yourself."
--
MARTIN L: Postgrad., amateur crackpotologist and caffeine-free celibate bon M
POULTER : viveur studying the Philosophy of Belief at Bristol Uni., England c
Cult Concern FAQ + Pornological Disinfotainment + Celibate FAQ + My Stuff + Q
Helena Kobrin Page + Scientology Criticism: http://mail.bris.ac.uk/~plmlp/ !
Rasta Robert
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
In msg <560bif$e...@fcnews.fc.hp.com>
on 8 Nov 1996 22:17:51 GMT,
pe...@fc.hp.com (Perry Scott) wrote
in alt.religion.scientology:
>GUK: Administered to Scientologists during the Purification RD. It
>contains calcium and B vitamins. Probably some other stuff. It looks
>like GUK. Also called "GUK Bomb".
"The formula of the bomb is variable but is basically 100 mg. of
Vitamin B1, 15 gr. of calcium and 500 mg. of Vitamin C."(HCOB 27-12-65)
>Perry Scott
>Co$ Escapee
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--
Subject: Re: Make $5 from a $50,000 investment!
If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell!
Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine
In article <anima.8...@xanadu.io.com>, Anima <an...@io.com> writes>...Alison told me that on the
>>annual gathering of the International Association of Scientologists.
>
>that people come from all over for this big event, taking the train down
>from London, etc.? Or were these all locals and there were other big
>meets in the major cities?
From what I have seen of these things i.e London people bussing down
to Saint Hill it undoubtedly covered the SouthEast and almost
certainly most of England. The large presences are on the Soth Coast
in reach of Saint Hill; the northern orgs are very downstat.
>> By this time, it was lunchtime - I could not resist the possibility of
>>having a Scientology Lunch (TM) at The Refectory. Before anyone asks, no,
>>I did not see any rice and beans. In fact, I saw no hot food at all -
>>instead, lots of chocolate bars, fizzy drinks and bottles of vitamins and
>>GUK. The service wasn't up to much either, but then again, it's a rare
>>canteen where the service is good.
>
>Okay, I was ashamed to ask about Tardis, since it is something you assume
>everyone will know (though I suspect, like tombolla or biro, it is not a
>term Yanks ever encounter and is, in fact, one of those little warps in
>the fabric of reality that occasionally reveal unexpected differences
>between the two nations)
The "Tardis" is the time/space travelling machine from a 60s+70s
television SF series called "Dr. Who". Inside it has many rooms
much machinery, externally it has the small and inconspicuous
form of a blue police phone-box such as cops once used for phoning
in reports in the 60s before they had a radio network (why this
should be inconspicuous on any planet other than earth was never
explained). I had an ascii-art of it somewhere, but can't find it.
>... but what IS that stuff you are calling GUK?
>
"GUK" is clamspeak: it is a concoction fortified
with vitamins and minerals.
|~/ |~/
~~|;'^';-._.-;'^';-._.-;'^';-._.-;'^';-._.-;||';-._.-;'^';||_.-;'^'0-|~~
P | Woof Woof, Glug Glug ||____________|| 0 | P
O | Who Drowned the Judge's Dog? | . . . . . . . '----. 0 | O
O | answers on alt.religion.scientology *---|_______________ @__o0 | O
L |___&_http://www.xemu.demon.co.uk_________________________|/_______| L
/clam/faq/woofglug.html
Marina Chong
On Sat, 9 Nov 1996 19:32:06 +0000 Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine
<da...@xemu.demon.co.uk> wrote in article <lEtaWeB2...@xemu.demon.co.uk>:
[snip]
>
>The "Tardis" is the time/space travelling machine from a 60s+70s
>television SF series called "Dr. Who". Inside it has many rooms
>much machinery, externally it has the small and inconspicuous
>form of a blue police phone-box such as cops once used for phoning
>in reports in the 60s before they had a radio network (why this
>should be inconspicuous on any planet other than earth was never
>explained). I had an ascii-art of it somewhere, but can't find it.
The device which was supposed to make the TARDIS merge into its current
environment like a chameleon was permanently out of order. (The producers of the
show decided that it would be too expensive to have it change its shape for
every story).
M
--
Marina Chong SP4(*), KoX, GGBC#13, KBM#5, Joker/Degrader
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scientology is an abusive cult that responds to criticism with harassment,
barratrous lawsuits, home invasions, intimidation and conspiracy to murder.
Usenet: alt.religion.scientology
World Wide Web: http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/home.html
Marina's Manor: http://home.pacific.net.sg/~marina/index.html
IN MEMORIAM: Noah Lottick Richard Collins Albert Jaquier John Buchanan
Patrice Vic anon.penet.fi utopia.hacktic.nl
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
mar...@singnet.com.sg mar...@pacific.net.sg mar...@super.zippo.com
Martin Hunt
In article <32a22a05....@192.168.2.1>,
ste...@castlsys.demon.co.uk.no.spam.thanx (Steve A) wrote:
}
}GUK - wasn't that a hubbard term for some collection of vitamins and
}stuff. ISTR "Guk-Bombs" or something similar?
The in-depth reply the that question:
ONE-SHOT CLEAR, 1. there was a great deal of discussion in the
'50s concerning the fact that there ought to be some chemical
which one would load up into a syringe and the word one-shot
clear became current. But it is actually a sarcastic word. I can
absolutely assure you completely and 100 per cent that there is
no magic single button. (Cl. VIII No. 9) 2. the command "Be
three feet back of your head." This is the one-shot clear.
(5410CM10B) 3. by one-shot clear we meant one phrase or one
action given once or repeated, which would bring into being the
Clear as described in *Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health*, Chapter II. (Dn 55!, p. 134)
So, when Hubbard said "one-shot" clear, he meant a shot from a needle.
A "chemical" that would produce a clear. Did he mean drugs? And why
is he so sure that there is no magic single button? Plenty of fist-
hand experience, the evidence suggests.
In "Dianetics", he says that "There are some druges which assist reverie...
Benzedrine and other commercial stimulants have been used with some
success, particularly on psychotic patients. These bring the mind
enough awake to permit it to overcome engramic commands." - page 444.
Again in "Dianetics", we have him saying that "Opium is less harmful [than
alchol], marijuana is not only less physically harmful but also better
in the action of keeping a neurotic producing, phenobarbitol does not
dull the sense nearly as much and produces less aftereffect, ammonium
cloride and a host of other stimulants are more productive of results
and hardly less severe on the anatomy..." - page 446.
He certainly seems to know his stuff about drugs. He also mentions
strychnine, Benzedrine, morphine, hyoscine, chloroform, and other
drugs in "Dianetics". If he thought alcohol was so bad - I'm not
necessarily disagreeing with him - why did he drink like a fish
on board the Apollo?
From Bent Corydon's "Messiah or Madman?" we have:
"In the late sixties, there were a number of parties aboard [the
Apollo], with local dignitaries in attendance.
HANA ELTRINGHAM:
LRH would attend these, and I watched him drink glass after large
glass of rum and Coke: three-quarters rum and one-quarter Coke;
some seven or eight in an evening. Yet he never slurred a word and
never swayed or in any way acted the slightest bit inebriated."
- p. 39 in the paperback revised and updated edition, p. 33 in hardback.
Scientologists would ascribe the fact that he could drink the equivalent
of 24 drinks and not be affected to his "OT powers" as a "Big Being".
Others might ascribe it to something a little more prosaic: an intimate
knowledge with alcohol.
What about other drugs? Ibid, page 59:
"Also, in the Armstrong trial where the "Affirmations" were introduced,
a letter by Hubbard to his first wife was revealed, the last sentence
of which declared: "I do love you, even if I used to be an opium addict."
Ibid, page 58:
"Ron Jr. [LRH's eldest son] states in a sworn affidavit:
I have personal knowledge that my father regularly used illegal drugs
including amphetamines, barbiturate and hallucinogens. He regularly used
cocaine, peyote, and mescaline."
In the foot note of the same page, it is mentioned that Hubbard recommends
as a good book Aldous Huxley's "Doors of Perception" in Operational
Bulletin no. 17, Feb 1956.
***
GUK BOMB, I have found that 600 milligrams of Vitamin E
(minimum) assists Scn processing very markedly. It works by
itself but is best taken with an old time "Guk Bomb." The
formula of the bomb is variable but is basically 100 mg. of
Vitamin B1, 15 gr. of calcium and 500 mg. of Vitamin C. (HCOB
27 Dec 65)
Did the "GUK bomb" also contain benzedrine? Russell Miller in Bare-
Faced Messiah, page 173:
"One of the research projects about which Hubbard was very excited
was the aptly named `GUK' programme. `GUK' was a haphazard
cocktail of benzedrine, vitamins and glutamic acid which Hubbard
believed facilitated auditing. `I recall Ron telling a meeting
about this great breakthrough in Dianetics,' said Forrest Ackerman.
`He said he had discovered a chemical way to audit yourself
called GUK. It comprised huge quatitics of vitamins which you
took every two hours for at least twenty-four hours. If you
took enough, he said, it would release the engrams within you
without the need for a partner.
`The Foundation rented a huge complce on Rossmore near Beverly
and loads of Dianeticists were holed up there going through
the GUK programme but it didn't last too long - I think it was
a dead end.'"
Perhaps the tech dictionary definition has been "cleaned up" a bit;
it doesn't contain a mention of benzedrine in it, depsite its
mention in "Dianetics" quoted above. The original HCOB the definition
was taken from before revisions would give a clue, but perhaps
Hubbard had already cleaned things up by then (1965), and wasn't
eager to be associated with drugs any more.
This is an additional comment by ra...@xenologics.idiscover.co.uk
(Ralph Hilton), Mon Jul 1 1996 in a post to ars:
"yeah - its been changed a bit - from: "The Intensive Processing
Procedure" November 1, 1950 "Benzedrine can be administered at the
rate of 5mg per day given at the beginning of each six hour session
with the first dose of B1". It can be found in the red tech vols as
issued by the church."
***
DIANAZENE, a formula combined with vitamins and other
minerals to make the intake of nicotinic acid more effective.
Dianazene runs out radiation - or what appears to be radiation.
It also proofs a person up against radiation in some degree. It
also turns on and runs out incipient cancer. (AAR, pp. 123-24)
"Vitamins and other minerals"? I wasn't aware that vitamins *were*
minerals. Hubbard's intimate knowledge of science coming to the
fore, yet again.
Miller discusses this compound, Dianazene:
"Fortunately, however, no one needed to worry about radiation,
since Hubbard had devised a vitamin compound called 'Dianazene'
(after his first child by Mary Sue?) which provided protection:
`Dianazene runs out radiation - or what appears to be radiation.
It also proofs a person against radiation to some degree. It
also turns on and runs out incipient cancer. I have seen it run
out skin cancer. A man who didn't have much liability to skin
cancer (only had a few moles) took Dianazene. His whole jaw turned
into a raw mass of cancer. He kept on taking Dianazene and it
disappeared after a while. I was looking at a case of cancer that
might have happened.'
The doctor, writing under the pseudonym Medicus, confirmed in
his section of the book that `some very recent work by L. Ron
Hubbard and the Hubbard Scientology Organization has indicated
that a simple combination of vitamins in unusual doses can be of
value. Alleviation of the remote effects and increased tolerance
of radiation have been the apparent results...'
The Food and Drugs Administration in the United States was inclined,
after studying a copy of *All About Radition*, to disagree. FDA agents
swooped on the Distribution Center Inc, a Scientology company in
Washington, seized 21,000 Dianazene tablets and destroyed them,
alleging that they were falsely labelled as a preventative treatment
for `radiation sickness'." - page 227-228, Bare-Faced Messiah.
So, what was all the noise about the Purif? Perhaps it was, like much
of Scientology and Dianetics before it, designed by an unbalanced man
to help with his own problems.
Jon Atack mentions more about Benzedrine and other drugs:
"Campbell's resignation followed close on the heels of an investigation
by the New Jersey Medical Association, which filed a case against
the Elizabeth Foundation for teaching medicine without a license.
Hubbard was not only claiming all sorts of cures, he was also
experimenting on "Preclears" with drugs, especially benzedrine.
In a lecture in June 1950, Hubbard had admitted to having been
a phenobarbitol addict. He also spoke knowledgeably about the
effects of sodium amytal, ACTH (a hormone), opium, marijuana
and sodium pentathol. New directors were appointed in Elizabeth
and fought a losing battle to keep the Foundation solvent.
Sara, who despite her husband's reward was supposedly "Clear"
already, brought a divorce suit in Los Angeles. She was desperate
for the return of her one-year-old daughter. She alleged that
Hubbard had subjected her to "scientific torture experiments,"
that her marriage was bigamous, that she had medical evidence
that Hubbard was a "paranoid schizophrenic," and that he had
kidnapped their daughter.
Sara Northrup Hubbard's original complaint against her husband
has mysteriously disappeared from the microfilm records of the
Los Angeles County Courthouse. Fortunately, copies are still
in existence. Among the alleged torture experiments was this:
Hubbard systematically prevented plaintiff from sleeping continuously
for a period of over four days, and then in her agony, furnished
her with a supply of sleeping pills, all resulting in a nearness
to the shadow of death...plaintiff became numb and lost
consciousness, and was thereafter taken by said Hubbard to the
Hollywood Leland Hospital, where she was kept under a vigilant
guard from friend and family, under an assumed name for five
days.
Sara claimed that such "experiments" were frequent during the
course of their marriage. She also claimed that Hubbard had
many times physically abused her, once strangling her so violently
that the eustachian tube of her left ear had ruptured, impairing
her hearing. Hubbard had allegedly asked her to commit suicide
"if she really loved him," because although he wanted to leave
her, he feared a divorce would damage his reputation."
- page 119, "A Piece of Blue Sky" by Jon Atack.
Shades of the Brainwashing Manual's methodology, "pain-drug hypnosis".
There are numerous other references to Hubbard's use of drugs, including
his admiration for Crowley's Do What Thou Wilt in the area of taking
drugs; far too many to include here. It looks like his dream of clearing
himself and reaching a higher plane using drugs never materialized, but
there's convincing evidence Hubbard never gave up the "experiment", at
least on himself. Many of his early lectures were given while on cocaine,
Ron Jr. is quoted as saying in Corydon's book; that certainly makes
sense when you listen to them. Later lectures tell a different story;
he sounds tired, slow and defensive...the high is gone, and the
"chemicals" no longer produce the desired effect of a "one-shot clear".
--
Cogito, ergo sum.
If it isn't written it isn't true. - scientology maxim