Armstrong Affidavit in Submission to Revenue Canada

[gerry armstrong]

In conformance with a helpful policy of providing the public with my
statements about Scientology made to government agencies, I am
providing the affidavit recently submitted in opposition to
Scientology's application for Federal Charity Status.

Thanks and congratulations to Gregg Hagglund for organizing and seeing
through this project.

Gerry

[Quote]

AFFIDAVIT OF GERALD ARMSTRONG
I, Gerald Armstrong, depose and state:
1. I am a Canadian citizen and a resident of the State of
Nevada, USA. I am an adult and could competently testify
concerning the facts herein if called upon to do so. I am making
this affidavit to support an opposition to the Scientology
organization's pending application for charity status in Canada.
2. I became involved with Scientology as a customer in
1969 at the organization's franchise in Vancouver, B.C., and
worked on staff at that franchise in 1970. In February, 1971 I
joined the Sea Organization ("Sea Org" or "SO") in Los Angeles,
California. The Sea Org is Scientology's "elite" pseudo-military
corps, then one of the two administration and power arms which
controlled Scientology around the world. Members of the Sea Org
sign contracts of servitude for one billion years. Throughout my
Scientology experience I gained a knowledge of organization
structure, function, control, finances, personnel, policies and
operations.
3. From 1971 to 1975 I was on the SO Flagship "Apollo" in
Morocco, Portugal, Spain and the Caribbean. L. Ron Hubbard (also
"LRH") Scientology's founder, and at that time its ruler and the
Sea Org's "Commodore," was on board and operated Scientology
internationally through the "crew" which numbered, during my stay
on board of four and a half years, around four hundred. The other
power arm of Scientology that Hubbard then used to maintain
control of Scientology was the Guardian's Office ("GO"), headed
by his wife Mary Sue Hubbard. Following the conviction and
imprisonment of eleven GO personnel including Mrs. Hubbard for
federal offenses in the United States, the GO was renamed the
Office of Special Affairs ("OSA").
4. My staff positions on board the "Apollo" involved
personal contact with Hubbard, his wife, administrative
organization staff, and people in the ports and countries the
ship visited. My positions included legal officer, public
relations officer, and intelligence officer. Hubbard patterned
his organization's intelligence apparatus on the system of Nazi
spy master Reinhard Gehlen. Scientology operates as a global
intelligence organization collecting overt and covert information
on individuals, other organizations and governments and running
covert operations against its "enemies."
5. In the fall of 1975 after the ship operation moved
ashore in Florida, I was posted in the GO Intelligence Bureau
connected to Hubbard's Personal Office. From December, 1975
through June, 1976 I held the post of Deputy LRH External
Communications Aide, handling Hubbard's dispatch and telex
traffic to and from Scientology operations. From July 1976 to
December 1977 I was assigned, on Hubbard's order, to the
Rehabilitation Project Force ("RPF"), the SO prison system. In
1978 I worked in Hubbard's cinematography crew in La Quinta,
California making movies under his direction until the fall of
that year when he again assigned me to the RPF, this time for
eight months first in La Quinta, then at a base in Gilman
Hotsprings near Hemet, California.
6. The RPF is a penal camp within Scientology created by
Hubbard to punish anyone he felt crossed his will, or he even
just disliked. People were assigned arbitrarily, for something as
slight as a needle movement on the "E-meter," the "electro-
psychometer" Scientology calls for "legal" reasons a "religious
artifact," but which in reality is, and is used as, a lie
detector. I was assigned by Hubbard the first time for
"insubordination," and the second time because he considered I
was "joking." During much of my RPF sentence I was the "Bosun,"
the highest RPF member and in charge of the unit. I became
intimately familiar with RPF policies and practices. On
information and belief, RPF camps still exist in Scientology
bases in California, Florida, Great Britain and Denmark.
7. The RPF was, and is intended to be, a degrading
experience to break the will of the person assigned. RPF members
were segregated, did physical or menial labor for little or no
pay, were required to run everywhere, and ate whatever was left
after the regular non-RPF staff members finished eating.
Telephone calls from RPF members to their family were only by
specific permission and were monitored. All mail from RPF members
was first read by security personnel. Anyone who took the
punishment of RPF assignment lightly was assigned to the RPF's
RPF, an even more degrading experience. People assigned were not
free to leave, and anyone who did wish to leave was guarded and
held until he had, among other things, signed a list of his
"crimes" extracted from his "auditing" files.
8. Auditing is Scientology's "psychotherapeutic"
processing, which the organization advertises as producing
increased IQ, abilities and awareness. In my experience, this
advertising is false; auditing does not increase IQ, abilities or
awareness. In my experience, auditing is used by Scientology for
the mind control, or "brainwashing" of its adherents. Scientology
denies that it engages in brainwashing, but Hubbard himself
stated in a bulletin about auditing: "We can brainwash faster
than the Russians (20 secs to total amnesia against three years
to slightly confused loyalty)." (parens are Hubbard's)
9. Statements made by a person being audited are recorded
by an "auditor." These statements, which include the person's
innermost thoughts, embarrassing incidents from his past, his
sexual history, acts which might be legally prosecutable, etc.
are available to and used by the intelligence personnel and
leaders of the organization for non-therapeutic purposes, such as
domination, intelligence operations or blackmail. Scientology
promotes to the public that statements made in auditing are
confidential, but they are not.
10. When I got out of the RPF in the spring of 1979 and
until the beginning of 1980 I worked in Hubbard's "Household
Unit" (HU) at Gilman Hotsprings, the SO unit which took care of
Hubbard's house, personal effects, transport, meals and so forth.
My positions included "Purchaser," "LRH Renovations In-Charge"
and "Deputy Commanding Officer HU."
11. My last position inside Scientology involved assembling
an archive of Hubbard's personal documents and providing research
assistance to a non-Scientologist author Omar Garrison who had
been contracted to write Hubbard's biography. In the course of my
research I uncovered and documented pervasive fraud concerning
representations made by Hubbard and Scientology about his past,
credentials, accomplishments, intentions and the claims and
efficacy of his psychotherapeutic "mental technology." I
attempted to get Scientology's leaders to correct the fraud, and
as a result I was ordered to a "security check," an interrogation
employing the E-meter.
12. I saw that the trust I had placed in Hubbard and
Scientology had been betrayed from the very beginning, that the
organization's leaders were ill-intentioned, and that the fraud I
sought to correct would continue. As a result, my wife and I fled
from the organization in December, 1981. We were fortunate in
being able to escape from Scientology, because if we had
announced our intention to leave we would have been separated and
locked up. I had seen many people locked up and guarded inside,
and I had been locked up and kept under guard myself.
13. Shortly after I left, Scientology published
"Suppressive Person Declares" on me, falsely accusing me of
"crimes" and "high crimes," including promulgating false
information about Hubbard and Scientology. The organization's
declaring someone a "suppressive person," or "SP," targets him as
an "enemy," and subjects him to Scientology's infamous and
judicially condemned "Fair Game Doctrine." One version of this
doctrine, written by Hubbard, a true and correct copy of which is
appended hereto as Exhibit A, states: "ENEMY - SP Order. Fair
game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by any
Scientologist...May be tricked, sued, or lied to or destroyed."
Scientology claims that the fair game policy was cancelled, but
this is false. Hubbard merely ordered that the term "fair game"
not be used as it caused bad public relations. Being "declared"
by Scientology can be a terrifying experience. On information and
belief, the practice of "declaring" people "suppressives" or
"enemies" continues to this day. The fair game doctrine continues
unabated.
14. During the first few months after I left the
organization I learned of an intelligence operation being
conducted against me and observed that I was being spied on.
Scientology personnel also stole photographs I possessed. Knowing
that my wife's and my life were in danger, I obtained from
Garrison, with his permission, certain documents I believed I
would need to defend us. I sent these to attorneys who had agreed
to represent me, one of whom was Michael Flynn, then
Scientology's most prominent lawyer enemy.
15. From the time I left the organization until the present
I have been the target of fair game. Acts against me by
Scientology agents pursuant to this basic Scientology policy
include:
- filing five lawsuits against me;
- following, surveilling and harassing me and my [ex-]wife;
- spying in our windows and upsetting our neighbors;
- attempting to involve us in a freeway "accident;"
- assaulting me;
- striking me bodily with a car;
- threatening to put a bullet between my eyes;
- attempting on more than 12 occasions to have me prosecuted
on false criminal charges, including by the FBI;
- stealing a manuscript and artwork from my car;
- filing false sworn statements about me in various
litigations;
- extracting and disseminating information from my
"confidential" auditing files;
- illegally videotaping me;
- attempting to entrap me in the commission of a crime;
- threatening me on several occasions if I testified about
my knowledge of Scientology;
- threatening my friends;
- subjecting me to a massive international "black
propaganda" campaign.
16. Black propaganda or "black PR" is the term Hubbard gave
to Scientology's policy and practice of destroying a designated
"target's" reputation and credibility or public belief in him by
the manufacture and spreading of falsehoods about him. Over the
years Scientology has published and disseminated a small mountain
of black PR on me, falsely accusing me of perversities and
crimes, including crimes against humanity, in an ongoing effort
to assassinate my character.
17. The first case Scientology filed against me went to
trial before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Paul G.
Breckenridge, Jr. in 1984, resulting in a decision in my favor. A
true and correct copy of that decision is appended hereto as
Exhibit B. Judge Breckenridge stated:
"In addition to violating and abusing its own members
civil rights, the organization over the years with its
"Fair Game" doctrine has harassed and abused those
persons not in the Church whom it perceives as enemies.
The organization clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid,
and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection
of its founder LRH. The evidence portrays a man who has
been virtually a pathological liar when it comes to his
history, background and achievements. The writings and
documents in evidence additionally reflect his egoism,
greed, avarice, lust for power, and vindictiveness and
aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be
disloyal or hostile." (Ex. B, pp 8,9)
18. Judge Breckenridge condemned as well Scientology's
abuse of its participants' auditing or psychotherapy records:
"culling supposedly confidential "P.C. folders or
files" to obtain information for purposes of
intimidation and/or harassment is repugnant and
outrageous." (Ex. B, pp 11,12)
19. Judge Breckenridge also described in his decision an
incident of Scientology's destruction of evidence:
"In January of 1980 there was an announcement of a
possible raid to be made by the FBI or other law
enforcement agencies of the property. Everyone on the
property was required by Hubbard's representatives, the
Commodore's Messengers, to go through all documents
located on the property and "vet" or destroy anything
which showed that Hubbard controlled Scientology
organizations, retained financial control, or was
issuing orders to people at Gilman Hot Springs.
"A commercial paper shredder was rented and
operated day and night for two weeks to destroy
hundreds of thousands of pages of documents." (Ex. B,
Appendix, p 2)
On several occasions, and pursuant to organization orders, I
participated in destroying evidence, including during this
incident identified by Judge Breckenridge. In my opinion,
Scientology's practice and policy of destruction of evidence
makes the organization's representations in any legal context
untrustworthy.
20. The 1984 decision by Judge Breckenridge was affirmed on
appeal in its entirety in 1991. A true and correct copy of the
opinion of the California Court of Appeal, Scientology v.
Armstrong, 232 Cal.App. 3d 1060, 283 Cal. Rptr. 917, is appended
hereto as Exhibit C.
21. Scientology also subjected my attorney Michael Flynn to
many years of fair game attacks, which included infiltrating his
office, threatening his family, paying known criminals to testify
falsely against him, suing him and his office some fifteen times,
framing him with the forgery of a $2,000,000 check, and targeting
him with an international black PR campaign. (See, e.g., U.S. v.
Kattar, 840 F.2d. 118). Flynn became desperate to have the
attacks and threats end, and ultimately, due to that desperation,
compromised his ethical responsibilities to me and his other
clients litigating against Scientology.
22. In December, 1986 Scientology and Flynn entered into an
agreement to settle all his some twenty clients' claims against
the organization, plus Flynn's own lawsuit seeking damages for
the years of fair game. I was to settle my claim for the years of
abuse inside Scientology and the years of fair game after I left.
Scientology and Flynn positioned me as a deal breaker, only
showing me the "settlement agreement" they wanted me to sign
after my arrival in Los Angeles from Boston, where I had been
working in Flynn's office.
23. I protested that I could not sign the document, which
required that I be absolutely silent about my then seventeen
years of experiences with Scientology, and which contained a
$50,000.00 liquidated damages penalty for any utterance I might
make to anyone. In response, Flynn stated that the conditions
were "not worth the paper they're printed on." He told me, "You
can't contract away your Constitutional rights;" "the conditions
are unenforceable." When I argued that the settlement document
opened me up to future problems with Scientology Flynn said,
"I'll be there for you."
24. Flynn said that he was sick of the litigation, the
threats to him and his family and wanted out. He said that
Scientology had ruined his marriage, his wife's health and his
life. He said that as a part of the settlement he and all co-
counsels had agreed to not become involved in organization-
related litigation in the future. He expressed a deep concern
that the courts in the US cannot deal with Scientology and its
lawyers and their contemptuous abuse of the justice system. He
told me that if I didn't sign I could look forward to more years
of fair game harassment and misery.
25. Flynn told me that the settlement's global form was to
give Scientology the opportunity it sought to change its
combative attitude and behavior by removing the threat he and his
clients represented to it. He said Scientology had promised to
cease fair game and that he and all his clients depended on my
signing to have fair game against them cease. Because of Flynn's
representations that the offensive conditions were not worth the
paper they were printed on, and to have fair game end for Flynn,
his family, his other clients and myself, I did sign
Scientology's document.
26. Although I sought peace and did nothing to irritate
Scientology, the organization had no intention of ending fair
game attacks on me or anyone else. Immediately following the
settlement Scientology delivered black PR documents about me to
the Los Angeles Times. Over the next three years, and before I
responded in any way, Scientology's attacks included:
- delivering black PR to various media representatives;
- publishing its own false and defamatory descriptions of my
Scientology experiences;
- disseminating to the media an edited and defamatory
version of the illegal videotape it had made of me;
- disseminating my own documents which had been sealed in my
case;
- filing affidavits about me in a civil lawsuit in England
which falsely charged that I had violated court orders and was
"an admitted agent provocateur of the US Government;"
- threatening to sue me if I even talked to attorneys in
the case in which the false charges were being made;
- threatening to expose a private writing if I did not
assist Scientology's effort to prevent a third party litigant
from accessing my LA Superior Court file;
- threatening to sue me if I testified even after being
served with a deposition subpoena.
27. In the fall of 1989, after service of the deposition
subpoena on me, I received a series of telephone calls from a
Scientology attorney threatening that I would be sued if I
testified about my experiences, even though I had been
subpoenaed. This attorney stated that I should refuse to answer
the deposition questions. As a result of his threats and
Scientology's other post-settlement fair game I concluded that
the "settlement agreement" and the organization's efforts to
enforce it were acting to obstruct justice, and that if I allowed
myself to be intimidated by the threats I would be abetting that
obstruction. I concluded that I could not avoid a confrontation
with Scientology, and subsequently responded to defend myself and
to try to correct the injustices created by the "settlement
agreement" and its misuse.
28. From that time until the present many people who
consider themselves victims of Scientology's abuse have contacted
me to request my assistance in their efforts to obtain redress or
defend themselves. I have come to believe that all people have a
God-given right to assist their fellows, which cannot be taken
away by human "contract." I have also come to see that a person's
right to participate in a public controversy, certainly a
controversy involving himself, should not and cannot be taken
away by "contract."
29. When I did respond to Scientology's attacks the
organization sued me in 1992 to enforce the "settlement
agreement." In the case of Scientology v. Armstrong, Marin County
(California) Superior Court Case No. 157680, the organization was
awarded by summary judgment $300,000 in liquidated damages,
$334,000 in costs and a permanent injunction prohibiting me from
discussing Scientology or Scientologists, or assisting in any way
Scientology's victims or fair game targets. This judgment is
suspect because, among other things, the judge ignored and
refused to address the US Constitution First Amendment religious
and due process issues and defenses. The judge ruled that
Scientology may say whatever it wants about me, no matter how
false, obnoxious or defamatory, and that I may not respond in any
way to defend myself. I believe that this ruling is so illogical,
so antisocial and so violative of basic human rights in a
civilized society that it cannot be legal.
30. Scientology's policy and practice of attacking and
compromising judges presiding over its legal proceedings is well
known. An article in the December 1980 American Lawyer entitled
"Scientology's War Against Judges," which focused on the criminal
trial of the eleven Scientology intelligence personnel in
connection with their burglarizing of US Federal offices and
theft of government documents, stated that Scientology's
"strategy amounts to an all-out war against the D.C.
district court judges, a war much more sophisticated,
better financed and more successful than the bizarre
tactics used by some other groups against their
courtroom adversaries, such as Synanon's attempt to
murder an opposing counsel by putting a rattlesnake in
his mailbox."
This all-out war continues to this day, and renders suspect every
legal decision obtained by Scientology, including the tax
exemption it obtained from the IRS in 1993.
31. It is widely known that Scientology agents were
involved in a scheme to set up and compromise US District Court
Judge Charles Richey with a prostitute. Another widely known
operation was reported in 1984 in the Clearwater Sun (Florida).
"The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa currently is
investigating a purported plot involving an attempt to
lure U.S. District Judge Ben Krentzman aboard a boat
off the Pinellas Suncoast where prostitutes and drugs
were to be used to put the judge in a compromising
position."
32. Another US District Court Judge in California James M.
Ideman stated about Scientology and its lawyers in a declaration
executed June 17, 1993, a true and correct copy of which is
appended hereto as Exhibit D:
"[Scientology] has recently begun to harass my former
law clerk who assisted me on this case, even though she
now lives in another city and has other legal
employment. This action, in combination with other
misconduct by counsel over the years has caused me to
reassess my state of mind with respect to the propriety
of my continuing to preside over the matter. I have
concluded that I should not." (Ex. D, p 1)
Judge Ideman also criticized Scientology's litigation practices:
"[Scientology's] noncompliance [with Court orders] has
consisted of evasions, misrepresentations, broken
promises and lies, but ultimately with refusal. As part
of this scheme to not comply, [the Scientology parties]
have undertaken a massive campaign of filing every
conceivable motion (and some inconceivable) to disguise
the true issue in these pretrial proceedings.
Apparently viewing litigation as war, plaintiffs by
this tactic have had the effect of massively increasing
the costs to the other parties, and for a while, to the
Court." (Ex. D, p 2)
33. It is a well known fact that Scientology carried out
intelligence operations against Los Angeles Superior Court Judge
Ronald Swearinger during the litigation of the case Wollersheim
v. Scientology, LA SC No. C332027, which resulted in a 1986
$30,000,000 damages judgment against the organization. After
Judge Breckenridge rendered his decision following my trial in
1984, Scientology carried out a black PR campaign against him.
Organization "president" Heber Jentzsch took this black PR
campaign on radio and even on CBS Television's "60 Minutes" to
falsely accuse Judge Breckenridge of being under the influence of
German Nazis.
34. I had never agreed when I settled my initial litigation
with Scientology to be the organization's defenseless punching
bag. I believe that a judgment in a US court which orders that
someone submit to being a punching bag, especially to a known
abusive and dangerous organization like Scientology, is itself
abusive and dangerous, and illegal. That Scientology should use
the courts to obtain such an order and unfair advantage is
indicative of its antisocial goals and disregard for civil rights
and basic equity.
35. If US Judges, with all the power and authority of the
US justice system, can be attacked by Scientology with relative
impunity, and caused to recuse themselves from presiding over
Scientology cases, certainly an individual litigant against
Scientology has little chance of survival in court. Scientology
uses its immense wealth to maintain a litigation machine of
dozens of lawyers and law firms to attack and ruin its perceived
opponents or critics. In my opinion, until such time as
Scientology ceases its use of the legal system to attack people
and deny them their civil rights the organization should not be
granted charity status. Scientology does not act charitably, is
not charitable, and its present overreaching policies and
practices towards critics and legitimate criticism make the
organization incompatible with charity.
36. Scientology's policy is to never deal directly with
legitimate criticism, but to attack the critic, with its
litigation machine, with covert intelligence operations, and with
terrible black propganda smear campaigns. Hubbard stated in his
policy entitled "Attacks on Scientology:"
"NEVER agree to an investigation of Scientolog. ONLY
agree to an investigation of the attackers.
....
This is the correct procedure:
(1) Spot who is attacking us.
(2) State investigating them promptly for
FELONIES or worse using our own
professionals, not outside agencies.
(3) Double curve our reply by saying we welcome
an investigation of them.
(4) Start feeding lurid, blood, sex, crime actual
evidence on the attacker to the press.
Don't ever tamely submit to an investigation of us.
Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way."
This policy and practice is the way Scientology deals with
criticism to this day. If Scientology's agents do not actually
find "lurid, blood, sex, crime actual evidence," they are
required by policy to manufacture the "evidence." Scientology, as
required by policy, ruins reputations and lives with this
antisocial and dangerous practice.
37. After Scientology sued me following the "settlement" I
learned from Michael Flynn that he had signed a "contract" with
Scientology which prevents him from assisting me in my defense.
His promise to "be there" for me was merely an inducement to get
me to sign so that fair game toward him would hopefully end.
Throughout the post-settlement litigation, Flynn, while admitting
that his contract with Scientology is illegal and unenforceable,
has refused my requests to come forward and assist in my defense,
stating that he fears again having his life ruined by more fair
game. This too is indicative of the organization's continuing
antisocial goals and rights abuses.
38. In January, 1997, while residing in California, I was
served with a subpoena for production of documents by Grady Ward
in the case of Scientology v. Ward, USDC Northern District of
California, case no. C-96-20207 RMW. Ward is accused of posting
some of Scientology's "secret scriptures" to the internet. After
receipt of the subpoena I received a letter from a Scientology
attorney threatening me with prosecution if I produced the
requested documents. I therefore advised the presiding judge in
the Ward case of the threat. For my communicating to the federal
judge Scientology was able to then obtain an order of contempt
against me sending me to jail and fining me. I believe that this
order is illegal and illegally obtained. I also believe that it
is indicative of Scientology's disregard for due process and its
abuse of the legal system to forward its anti-civil rights goals.
One of Scientology basic policies, as stated by Hubbard, is to
use the law to harass its opponents. This remains a basic policy
and practice of Scientology to this day.
39. Also in January, 1997 I discovered that in its 1991 IRS
Form 1023 submission, pursuant to which Scientology obtained its
tax exemption, the organization included a four page section
about me containing the same sort of black PR the organization
spreads to the media and public. What Scientology wrote about me,
in response to the IRS's questions concerning my Scientology-
related litigation is factually and in conclusion false. It is
also disgusting, asserting that my state of mind was "proved
conclusively to be one sordid, sado-masochistic nightmare."
Scientology submitted this and other false statements about me to
the IRS during a time when the organization believed it had me
silenced by its gag contract, and thus unable to respond to
correct the lies. I have asked Scientology to correct the lies
submitted to the IRS and it has refused.
40. Scientology's IRS tax exemption is based on lies, not
just about me, but about other individuals, and about the
organization's practices and intentions. In my opinion, the IRS
was derelict in its duty to investigate the truth or falsity of
Scientology's submissions. In my opinion, the US was derelict in
its duty in granting Scientology's tax exempt status, protecting
it, and supporting it in its global goals. In my opinion, by
granting the Scientology organization IRS tax exempt status, the
US turned its back on its citizens who have been and continue to
be victimized by the organization, and who are really the people
the US should protect and support. When I realized that
Scientology's leaders consider that their tax exempt billions
depend on silencing me, and that the US courts and government had
formed an unholy alliance with the organization, I left
California for Canada. I went to Canada where I would be free to
some degree to be able to correct Scientology's lies about me,
especially to the IRS, without the fear that Scientology could
manipulate a court into jailing me for doing so. I pray that
Canada will not now be derelict in its duty, and will not turn
its back on its citizens whom the country owes protection, but
will deny Scientology's application for charity status.
41. Scientology claims to be a religion, and in the US
claims all the extraordinary benefits conferred by the US
Constitution and Courts on religions. Scientology claims that it
is organized solely for religious purposes and that its policies
and bulletins, even its intelligence training instructions and
its "fair game" policy, are "scriptures." Scientology claims that
people and countries opposing its antisocial goals and practices
and civil rights abuses are engaging in "religious persecution."
42. In my opinion, it is axiomatic that there is no freedom
of religion where there is no freedom to criticize, oppose or
reform religion. The US was founded in great part by people
fleeing "religious persecution" for opposing, criticizing or
seeking to reform a religion, which had the power, often provided
by the State, to persecute them. The US recognized the need for
its citizens to be free from religious persecution in the
Religious Expression and Religious Establishment Clauses of the
First Amendment to the US Constitution.
43. Scientology, with its fair game attacks, black PR, gag
contracts, and aggressive litigation, is attempting to suppress
and eliminate criticism, as well as opposition and reformation
efforts. The Courts' enforcement of the organization's gag
contracts necessarily assists this one "religion's" suppression
and elimination of criticism. Judicial enforcement also results
in the promotion and establishment of Scientology by the removal
of opposition to its promotion and establishment. Unless the
Courts are also willing to become involved in and support every
other religion's suppression or elimination of criticism, its
judicial assistance to Scientology in its campaign is favoritism,
and impermissible. It is a tragedy for all that the US favors the
most abusive and irreligious of its "religions."
44. It is inconceivable that any Court in the US or Canada
would prosecute someone who under any circumstances signed a
"contract" which required that he not discuss God, Jesus Christ,
the Holy Bible, or the person's experiences in the Christian
religion; or for that matter Allah, Islam, Mohammed, the Koran,
the Vedas or Krishna. It is inconceivable that a Christian church
in the US or Canada would do what Scientology has done to silence
its critics.
45. My case is not unique. There are hundreds, if not
thousands, of Scientologists and ex-Scientologists in the US and
Canada who are bound by this organization's contracts of silence.
For this reason alone the statements of Scientology's
spokespeople cannot and should not be believed. And for this
reason alone charity status should not be granted. Those who
would speak the truth have been shuddered by "contract" and by
threat into silence. I just happen to be one of the few who have
chosen, despite Scientology's threats and attacks using the power
of the justice system, to speak up.
46. In the US, constitutionally guaranteed Freedom of
Religion has come to mean freedom for the religious corporation
and its leaders to persecute the practitioners, as well as the
critics, of the "religion." This is a perversion of Freedom,
worked by clever lawyers being paid by the corporate persecutors.
It must be changed, and true Freedom of Religion reinstituted.
The US is the only western country in which people can be jailed
for mentioning a religion - Scientology. I pray that Canada not
allow Scientology to get the legal foothold it seeks in this
country through its application for charity status. If it is
granted such status Scientology will be able to more easily
persecute its critics and followers and more easily pursue its
antisocial and irreligious goals.
47. In my estimation, Scientology is not a religion. It is
a psychotherapy cult with a totalitarian nature and destructive
organizational goals. It is dangerous, and its leaders are
cynical. Hubbard's cynicism when deciding to turn his
psychotherapy "clinic" into a religion in the early 1950's is
reflected in his comments in a letter Dated April 10, 1953 that
he wrote to Helen O'Brien, then his second in command in the US.
I had possession of the original of this letter while inside
Scientology. Hubbard wrote:
"RE CLINIC, HAS (Hubbard Association of Scientologists)
The arrangements that have been made seem a good
temporary measure. On a longer look, however, something
more equitable will have to be organized. I am not
quite sure what we would call the place - probably not
a clinic - but I am sure that it ought to be a company,
independent of the HAS but fed by the HAS.
.......
We don't want a clinic. We want one in operation but
not in name. Perhaps we could call it a Spiritual
Guidance Center. Think up its name, will you. And we
could put in nice desks and our boys in neat blue with
diplomas on the walls and 1. knock psychotherapy into
history and 2. make enough money to shine up my
operating scope and 3. keep the HAS solvent. It is a
problem of practical business.
I await your reaction on the religion angle. In my
opinion, we couldn't get worse public opinion than we
have had or have less customers with what we've got to
sell. A religious charter would be necessary in
Pennsylvania or NJ to make it stick. But I sure could
make it stick. We're treating the present time
beingness, psychotherapy treats the past and the brain.
And brother, that's religion, not mental science."
48. Scientology's cynical viewpoint toward actual religion
is also shown in two of Hubbard's bulletins "Routine 3 - Heaven"
dated May 11, 1963 and "Resistive Cases - Former Therapy" dated
September 23, 1968, true and cortrect copies of which are
appended hereto as Exhibit E and F respectively. In "Routine 3 -
Heaven," Hubbard writes:
"For a long while, some people have been cross
with me for my lack of co-operation in believing in a
Christian Heaven, God and Christ. I have never said I
didn't belive in a Big Thetan but there was certainly
something very corny about Heaven et al. Now I have to
apologize. There was a Heaven. Not too unlike, in cruel
betrayal, the heaven of the Assassins in the 12th
Century who, like everyone else, dramatized the whole
track implants - if a bit more so.
"Yes, I've been to Heaven. And so have you. And
you have the pattern of itsimplants in the HCO Bulletin
Line Plots. It was complete with gates, angels and
plaster saints - and electronic implant equipment."
(Ex. E, p 1)
49. To the uninitiated, which Scientology calls "raw meat,"
the organization professes to be compatible with Christianity. It
states in its "catechism," published in 1992 in its promotional
book What is Scientology?,
"Scientologists hold the Bible as a holy work and
have no argument with the Christian belief that Jesus
Christ was the Savior of Mankind and the Son of
God...There are probably many types of redemption.
That of Christ was to heaven."
In Scientology's actual teachings, however, in the policies and
procedures which indoctrinated Scientologists must follow, Jesus
Christ, Heaven, and Almighty God, are false ideas "implanted" in
man by electronic gadgets to achieve, not man's redemption, but
his enslavement. Scientology teaches, moreover, that its
procedures, developed by L. Ron Hubbard, are the only way to free
man from that "Christian" slavery.
50. In "Resistive Cases - Former Therapy," Hubbard writes:
"Old Therapies include the 2000 yr ago plus or
minus Aesculepian drug treatment (hillabore) which
produced a convulsion and coma and in which the nut
practitioner made up as a God and "visited" the patient
in a "dream." This outfit was all over the ancient
world.
"Also the Christian Church used (and uses)
implanting (with a squirrel version of the "7s").
These gangsters were the Nicomidians from lower Egypt
who were chased out for criminal practices (implanting
officials). They took over the Niocene Creed before the
year zero, invented Christ (who comes from the
Crucifixion in R6 75m years ago) and implanted their
way to "power." The original Nicomidians date about 600
BC and people who were Christ date at 75 m years ago."
(Ex. F, pp 1,2) (parens are Hubbard's)
51. Hubbard claims that his assertion that God, Heaven and
Christ are not real, but the content of "implants" from trillions
of years ago, is based on thousands of hours of "research."
"It is scientific research and is not in any way based
upon mere opinion of the researcher. This HCO Bulletin
is not the result of the belief or beliefs of anyone.
Scientology data reflects long, arduous and painstaking
research over a period of some thirty years into the
nature of Man, the mind, the human spirit and its
relationship to the physical universe. The data and
phenomena discovered in Scientology is common to all
minds and all men and can be demonstrated on anyone."
(Ex. E, p4)
52. At no time during the years I was inside the
organization and working close with Hubbard, did I ever observe
that he considered Scientology a religion. At no time during
those years did I consider Scientology a religion. Religious
status was sought for tax advantages and as a means for getting
away with Hubbard's and his organization's abuses and dangerous
practices. We in Scientology adopted religious terms and
trappings in a very cynical way to forward the organization's
irreligious goals. At no time since I left Scientology have
organization agents acted in relation to me in a religious
manner, nor in a charitable manner. In my opinion, religions
should not be officially permitted to get away with a lower
standard of conduct and human interaction than non-religions simply
because they are "religions." I pray that Scientology be denied
charity status in Canada so that its abusive lower standards are not
given official sanction, and so that hopefully the organization gets
the message that it must cease its abuses.
Sworn to this 27th day of February, 1998, in Chilliwack,
British Columbia.

Gerald Armstrong

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