My Life As A Scientologist

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Agnes Hadley

First published 1994, Second Edition 1998

Copyright: Agnes Hadley, 1994

The material contained herein represents the personal  experience and opinion of the author and does not represent that of any other  person.

Contents

• Agnes Hadley
• Introduction
• Arriving At Saint Hill Manor
• What was St. Hill?
• The Daily Activity of Scheduling Students.
• The Tuesday Lectures
• Expansion at St. Hill
• The Weekly Graduation Day
• My First Experience in a Very Important Job
• An Approach Made to Me about Auditing
• The Reality of Being a Staff Member
• Moving Towards the Sea Org
• The Early Days of Sea Org Life.
• Sea Org Training - Trying to Cope.
• Approaching Land - A Mission
• My Second Mission - Set Up An Advanced Organization
• Advanced Organization - Denmark
• Being a Representative in the Office of LRH
• Advanced Org Move - A New Job, Uniforms and Expansion.
• A Non LRH book Applied On the Job!
• Decision to Transfer and, Learning it the Hard Way
• Questions and Changes
• The Approaching Reality of No More LRH Letters.
• Sad, Cope, Find a Buddy
• The Final Decision

Introduction

These are my experiences within the Church of Scientology where I served from  1960 through to 1982.

The start of the experience was at the Church's headquarters at Saint Hill  Manor, at East Grinstead, in West Sussex, England. They were rather large  quarters where the founder, L Ron Hubbard (known to Scientologists as LRH), and  his wife Mary Sue, lived in the early days. They had four beautiful children,  all with red hair. Quentin Hubbard was the oldest, then Diana, then Suzette and  lastly their youngest boy, Arthur. They also had a dog named Vickie. The  children grew up around St.Hill and they had private tutors who came to give  them their schooling.

Hubbard's goal was to have a SAFE and QUIET place with maximum comfort for  all the purposes he was heading out to achieve. This included a home for himself  and his family, a business operations unit, and a place where public could go to  train. Those were people who were eligible for getting trained as professional  listeners (known in the Scientology world as Auditors). This training required  time, courage and many, many months of long days of study. From that time, the  goals set out for this operation were about to become a reality!

Even before going to the famous St.Hill Manor, Ron had trained people on many  different courses. He first trained students, and then supervisors to take over  from him in supervising the students. He kept a very close eye each day on the  supervisors he trained, and also on the students they trained.

The two major courses for training to be a Professional Auditor were what are  known today as the Academy Levels 0-IV and the famous ST.HILL SPECIAL BRIEFING  COURSE.

Apart from training there was another organization for Professional Auditing.  St.Hill provided a service so that Auditors who were already trained were  available to deliver processing, at that time, and possibly still are today.  Pre-step and Major-step for any study course in Scientology then the Academy  Levels 0 -IV were some of the steps you had to take to get anywhere near to  getting on the St Hill Special Briefing Course.

Promotion was a big activity at that time It was very well arranged and  planned, and very professional. Booklets about the famous St.Hill went out with  each promotional package, sent to a full mailing list each month. The promotion  seemed to work. Students arrived weekly, by the bucket load. Mondays were the  days of new arrivals. Tuesdays were the days of the famous LRH lectures and the  announcing of new students on courses. Fridays were the special days for  graduations.

Staff had to be hired as fast as possible to help handle administrative lines  and keep up with the numbers of new people arriving for courses and Professional  Auditing. St.Hill had about as much traffic running through it per day as the  local East Grinstead main street. There were cars, motorbikes, delivery vans,  and taxis, with people leaving for - wherever. There were people going to find  rooms for staying in the local town. You just never saw a dull moment. It was  action all the time.

People who showed an interest in courses, or who wrote and asked questions,  were written to, telling them what steps one had to take or do to be able to  come to St.Hill. This was the case for Professional Auditing as well.

People who wanted to do the St Hill Special Briefing Course usually wrote in  months before and kept a good letter line before making any final arrangements.  They had many questions to ask an Advance Registrar and these were carefully  answered, to make it easier for the person to come. The Briefing Course took at  least one year and one had to be well prepared. This also applied to processing.  Some people stayed for weeks to do a lot of intensive auditing. Some stayed even  longer.

One might perhaps ask, how did all these students and professional preclears  arrive? And how was St.Hill so well promoted to get so many, many people there?

LRH had already promoted Scientology throughout the world where Scientology  centers were operating. He sold off his earlier lectures and books to people  previously attending his lectures.

In the earlier days of St.Hill, being there with Ron and Mary Sue - whether  on staff, as a student or as a professional Preclear - was FUN! It was LOTS OF  FUN seeing all the activity and being part of it. Once having had the  experiences of those GOOD OLD DAYS, it's something one does not forget easily.  Perhaps this is just words for someone curious enough to read these short  stories. If you read on, you will arrive at some sort of conclusion but it's  your choice whether you read on or not Perhaps you will read these stories for  the purpose of finding out how the writer experienced the Church of Scientology.  Perhaps you may want to find out if the writer went through a similar experience  to your own. These stories might even catch a person still in the Church, though  it is more likely that the reader will already have left that organization. One  hopes that, by reading about the experiences of other people in the Church of  Scientology, it might help some readers to get answers for themselves on how it  all went so very wrong.

Staff and Franchise Holders who were around from the early 1950's up to 1980  and beyond, became a danger to the new leaders of the Church of Scientology.  This included those who knew LRH and Mary Sue, or who had worked for either of  them. Having worked with both was great, if you got a chance. Having rules and  games set out, and rewards written in Policy by LRH to use along with a justice  system that worked, was great as well..

Old Timers knew a lot. They were there, growing and expanding together with  LRH. They knew what was written by him policywise, and techwise. They  also knew later what was not written by him, and what executive orders being put  in were not approved by him.

Those people unwilling or refusing to conform to the changes which started to  take place in the beginning of the 1980s, were easily removed from post,  assigned to the ethics department for doing Mest work, or - if considered  serious enough threats - were sent to the infamous Rehabilitation Force. Some  were later removed from staff altogether and were just thrown out of the Church  of Scientology EXPELLED or EXCOMMUNICATED. From the new regime's viewpoint,  those people had to go!

Why?

It's called removing TRACEABLE EVIDENCE. That evidence might possibly get  those who misused the true writing's of LRH's Policy on the Justice System  within the Church of Scientology, to face up and be removed themselves. One can  find over the years, how very much the Church has changed, either by its  structure, its personnel, and most of all, its Green Volumes and Red Volumes.  Nowadays the headings are under the name of the Church of the Religious  Technology Center, or are headed, "For the Board of Directors of the Church of  Scientology”.

Any Old Timer, having worked in the Church of Scientology, can fall back on  Green and Red Volumes and look and see how Policy or Technical issues were  written. Some staff or public from back then will perhaps have single issues of  their own. When you were a staff member or had been in the Church taking  services in those times, you could compare the policies then to now. In the days  of LRH at St.Hill, and even until the beginning 1980's, it was a normal  operation. Staff got any and all Policy issues by LRH that came out when headed,  "For Broad Public Issue."

Having old issues of Policy and Tech, and updates coming out later on, or  having done courses in the Church of Scientology before 1980, one can witness  the CHANGES! One does not need to have the Church of Scientology, or the  Religious Technology Center try to prove otherwise. These are some of the  differences that went on, there are more but that requires you to read on.

The following stories are told from personal experience gained from over  twelve years I served. They include some areas other than St.Hill and the Flag  Land Base and Ron Hubbard's ships. They then move on to Ron's first European  Advanced Organization, traveling world-wide then back to his Flag Land Base  before I finally left to go into the OUTSIDE WORLD.

I would like to say a thank you to those who were involved either in bringing  me towards knowing Scientology, or in encouraging me to become a staff member so  I could work with a famous man who gave an incredible Tech. Those are  principally - LRH, Mary Sue Hubbard, Capt.W B Robertson, A. Porter, P.Scafari,  M.Long, my buddy, C.Broadbent, P.Williams, J.V.Staden, M. Warick, M.Q., P.Q.,  and to a girl only known as Nula.

I am sure there are others.

Most of all, a special thank you goes to my daughter for persisting with me  so that I was able to stay within the Church up to the last moment. Also for  baring with me and my horrible ending before I finally had to tell myself that  it was time to go! She stayed at my side and protected me and listened to me in  some horrible times towards the end. I thank her for baring with me while she  was so very young when she had to give up the friends she grew up with and loved  in order to be with me. And I thank her too for baring with me when I took her  away from what was her home. Having been born in the Church of Scientology, she  suffered this loss for many, many years. Realizing where the suppression came  from, we both came to terms with it eventually, even though it took years for  both of us to understand each other about it.

I believe I am forgiven!

Now, I wish you an interesting time reading what comes next.

Arriving At Saint Hill Manor

I joined Scientology at St. Hill Manor in early 1960. It was a pretty big  place with lots of grounds. Small huts around the grounds intended for growing  indoor vegetables became Auditing huts in a very short time as the Org expanded.  There was a swimming pool and fish pond, and beautiful, green lawns, all very  well kept.

The first day I spent a short time in East Grinstead was very strange indeed.  I had decided to have a coffee at the London Coffee House near the approach road  to St. Hill. As I sat there, I thought "Something good is going to happen".  Strangely enough, that was about to come true.

I had lost my job of being a nurse looking after babies. It was a very busy  and tiring job, indeed. Now I had to think about a new way. Where would I go and  what would I do?

Into the coffee shop came a red-headed girl. Asking me if I was OK, she sat  down at my table as if it was supposed to happen like this. She had obviously  noticed that I had been crying. Wiping the tears from my face, I told her that I  had lost my job and didn't quite know what to do. She seemed concerned and  wanting to help. Then she said that she knew where I might perhaps get a job.  When I brightened up she said, "If you're interested, I'll show you.  You can look around, see if you think you might like the place, and perhaps ask  for a job". I said OK. I had nothing else in mind, so off I went with her.

We were soon at St. Hill Manor. In the 60s you could get good transport  there. Before that moment I had not known it existed. It's not in East  Grinstead but outside of town, set in beautiful surroundings. Being off the  central lines, hardly anyone new it was there until it became well known to the  East Grinstead community, much later on.

However, I was taken by Nula - the girl I'd met in the coffee shop - to  Reception. Nula introduced her to me to a lady called Monica who asked if I  would like a tour. I quickly said OK.

The tour was very interesting indeed even though it was a little bit strange.  I was told to be quiet as I moved around the course rooms because students were  studying. But I never was told what are they studying.

Monica was head of the Hubbard Communications Office, and in charge of hiring  staff. She asked me if I would be interested in having a job. When I said I  didn't know what would I do, she said there was so much to get done they  certainly could find something for me. When she asked if I could file papers  into folders, I quickly told her I could. Then she told me to take a few minutes  to think about whether I really would like a job there, and hurried off to put  papers in a lot of baskets named IN, PENDING, and OUT, with the names of  Divisions and Departments Heads on them. I later found out that this was known  as the Comm System used in the Scientology Organization.

I browsed around looking here and there, having my mind more on what I could  see than thinking if I really wanted a job or what I could do. It was so  interesting. Then all of a sudden a voice sparked out. "Well, deary, have  you made up your mind?" I glanced quickly in Monica's direction and  looked very interested and excited. With all the new surroundings it was hard to  place thoughts where they should be. Then as soon as I said I would like a job,  she asked, "When can you start"?

I said, "In the morning", not even realizing it had been a Sunday.  But I just didn't care.

Monica asked if I could be there at 9am then said, "Have a nice day, and  see you tomorrow. Bye Bye".

I went slowly out, feeling excited, not even bothering to ask the hours, or  how much pay would I earn. Well, at least I had a job.

Monday arrived and off I went to St. Hill. In those days buses ran regularly,  just five to ten minutes from downtown East Grinstead. I got off at St. Hill  Green which is known for its beautiful green lawns in the middle of the road.  Beautiful trees flowed past, forming an archway approach as I walked towards the  entrance to the Manor.

There were two entrances. At the front was the gateway to the Manor House  itself. At the back was the car park, with a driveway down to the pavilion and  chapel rooms. You could walk down past offices and out through that first  entrance again. In those days one was allowed to enter through the front gate if  one was working in the Manor building. Cars and students had to use the back  way.

I found Monica's office and she got me started within minutes, taking me  down to the basement of the Manor. The first part was full of filing cabinets.  The second part was sectioned off with typewriters going full blast. She showed  me a lot of paper and told me to get them into A - Z order then left me to it.  Now I started what was known as Central Files. I still didn't even bother to ask  what the hours were, or what pay I would get or when would I get a break for  lunch. I was just excited to have a job.

The sectioned-off area was where all LRH's Policy and Bulletin issues got  typed up. I learned that these typists got the original issues from LRH on  foolscap paper in his own handwriting. The typists were fast and were considered  excellent workers by LRH's standards. Some Bulletins were 15- 20 pages long  and you certainly had to be able to read LRH's handwriting. Anyone possessing a  hand-written Policy Letter or Bulletin wouldn't wish to part with it.

The Bulletins and Policy Letters would be typed on a stencil. Then they went  back up to get verified and then sent back down (always hand-routed). Clipped to  the stencil was a note saying, "OK to mimeo", and signed L Ron. If it was  not correct, LRH would personally rewrite the section so that it was exactly  duplicated. Then it was sent back up again for final OK, and sent back down with  his approval for Mimeo. It was very rare that any one of them was wrong. Molly,  his main typist, would insist that all Bulletins were proof read before going up  to LRH. Only when she was happy with it would she pass it to LRH's Communicator  with a note which said it had been proof read, and with an attest, "Please OK  for Mimeo, signed L Molly.

Molly and her assistants also worked in the Mimeo section - old machines with  drums and stencils and ink. These worked all day long except for lunch breaks  and evening breaks, or to change the drum or stencils. They stopped sometimes to  allow the operators to get some sleep.

Central Files was the place where any and all records of anyone ever writing  into St. Hill were stored. Any letters asking about what St. Hill delivered, or  what one could expect to get, see and do there, were filed. People were able to  write in and ask questions of any kind to the Director of Training, or Director  of Processing. Believe it or not, you got answers in those days. The replies  were all written by the Letter Registrars operating in Division Two -  Dissemination.

Division Two had its own color letter paper, used for public letters - white  with the St. Hill Letterhead. Its Divisional dispatch paper was light purple. .  All other Divisions had their own color of paper for easy identification so  that one knew which Division or which post the letter had come from.

I had to learn an awful lot in my first two weeks on staff, getting to feel  my way around in what still seemed a very strange but interesting place indeed.  Then there were certainly more interesting days to come.

What was St. Hill?

Saint Hill was a place you went to be educated and trained as a Hubbard  Professional Auditor, also known as a listener.

Staff had to be employed to help with the volume of traffic arriving. It was  important to help new arrivals with their housing, with Supervising and Auditing  procedures, Course Administrative matters, and the handling of materials, etc.  They had to be able to study and be provided with all the material to assist  them in reaching their goals of becoming professional Auditors.

One had first to have the practical experience of auditing another student,  Then, when good enough, you could audit a staff person or sometimes a completely  new person. The initial processes, called the Grades, are still done today, even  though there are added steps such as Life Repair and the Drug Rundown. You did  many, many auditing hours before being allowed to pass the practical and  classify on a particular level. Each Course level had a theory and practical  Exam. After that one could also do a professional Internship on the levels. This  was usually done after Class IV. Then you would be be "Official Interned" on  all levels and qualified to deliver any of the levels 0- IV. Before the St. Hill  Special Briefing Course was available, the highest level of training at St Hill  was Class IV.

Having done your training through to Class IV, you did the Special Briefing  Course. When that was completed you were classified as a Hubbard Professional  Auditor Class VI. Many students who could afford the time and money, carried on  through to Class VII training which was the famous Power Processing level.

With all this training going on to deliver these famous levels, LRH had to  establish a Technical Unit.

The Unit for Professional Auditing was named the Hubbard Guidance Center,  shortened to HGC. A Director of Processing and a Technical Secretary and Course  Administrator with administrative personal were then appointed to handle the  demand.

To handle Training and Qualifications and Certification, a Department of  Training was established fast, with jobs and functions operated by professional  people trained by LRH. Then the Technical Division on the Scientology  Organization Org Board came into being, to be known as DIV 4. It certainly played  a big roll in passing each student through his or her courses.

On each level of training you had to do some Examinations. These were always  written. The standard of training was high, thanks to the supervising which kept  a high tone attitude among all students. The Exams got marked either Well Done,  Very Well Done, or Flunk. The Examiners were stiff and stern. Two Examiners had  to do this because of so much traffic. They accepted no less than 100% If you  didn't pass your written Exam, you got sent to a place known as Cramming - a  correction pool unit. Some students spent days re-doing drills, or having to  re-read parts of the material. It could be tough when one had to re-do entire  sections.

All students going through for an Exam had the jitters, thinking, Do I know  it all? Will I pass or not? Going to Exams was more the worry than sitting down  doing the Exam itself. No one liked to flunk and have to go to Cramming. It  always made one feel bad, and a failure. It reminded one of school days of not  passing tests. It could also cost a fair bit of money as Cramming was charged  extra and not included in your package of training. Cramming was charged at an  hourly or daily rate, depending on what the situation was and how long one was  in there. The Cashier had the job to deal with each one coming out from there.

If you observed students in Cramming, you might wonder how on earth they  could afford to stay in there for days on end. But somehow they always got  through and, with clearance from Treasury, they went back to Course.

Certificates and Awards was a nice department. That was where the award of  certificates was done, either for a level on a course, for processing or staff  administration. Exams or attestations were always done by professional  Examiners, and always on the Scientology E-Meter with the Preclear holding the  cans. Included in the attest procedure was the matter of any reservations or  doubts the PC might have. If there were signs of such doubt, the Examiner went  to the Qualifications Secretary. Sometimes there was a Review of the case done  as a result of that.

In the early days, the walls of Qualifications Division were hung with  certificates of L. Ron Hubbard. They showed what levels of Processing he had  completed - all signed with his name on them and certified by the Qualifications  Secretary.

Getting a certificate wasn't easy. One had to work hard for it. They made  sure that one really had completed a course fully before one got the reward.

All Processing certificates were approved by the Qualifications Secretary. He  or she inspected the client's Preclear folder. (The term PreClear is used in  Scientology for someone who is not yet clear or an Operating Thetan - OT. The  full definition can be found in the Scientology Technical Dictionary) Preclears  waited until the Qual Sec had checked the folder. Then they were allowed to  attest.

The Scientology Organization was divided into separate Divisions. These were  further divided into Departments. Each Division or Dept had personnel to handle  whatever came up. This is similar to any big company with Management positions,  with a head over a section or a department. One would be trained and directed to  handle that exact job. It was a well-organized structure.

The Hubbard Communications Office (HCO), was Division One. It had a section  known as Dept I - Routing. Each new arrival, whether a student, staff or  preclear, went through this section where he was given a routing form, starting  at reception. This was a form with the names of the departments you had to visit  in the right order. The receptionist was usually a young and perky girl. She  would usually say, "Hi! Welcome to St Hill", and would chat away with  you while logging you in. When she had asked what service you were there for,  and any thing else of importance, she would pass you on to Dept 3 where you got  your clearance, security wise, and then guide you to the next office.

There was a section which handled justice, dealing with disputes that came  up. This might have been for the protection of staff members on their jobs or  for overall security of the place, or for personal situations. It handled  justice hearings and the statistics of each post.

Job evaluations were done weekly to see how each person was doing in his or  her post. Products were assessed, and graphs were kept for each post by the  Statistic In-Charge (Person in charge of that post). It might have been  separately "posted", with a person performing the function of Graphing  Clerk. The whole Dept was known as Inspections and Reports.

The Ethics Officer saw you if you were late on post in the morning, or for  Roll Call as a student or even preclear. He or she checked how you were doing product  wise. If you checked out OK you were sent back to study, or back to staff  post, or session. The first time you got a warning. The second time you got a  reprimand. The third time you had to stay behind after hours and stuff envelopes  with things like Auditors Mailing, a magazine that went out every three months.  It didn't matter who you were. The same rules applied to all, even Executives.

In those days, the Ethics Officer was a Canadian woman. No one dared to tread  on her toes. She stood no nonsense whatsoever. Well respected by LRH, she was  liked by others and very skilled at her job. She showed certainty and trust  amongst the public and staff. It wasn't a bad thing to visit her. You knew she  would handle the problem and you would leave fully satisfied. It was a sort of  pleasure to visit her.

She got whistled at by students daily, particularly the men. But she took it  all in a days strive, just laughing and waving them by as she went to her  office. One could say students thought that flirting with the Ethics Officer  would convince her to be softer with them..

When routing in, you visited Mary, the Registrar Back then the Registrar  certainty was a friend you could rely on to get you on your course and would  answer pretty much anything you wanted to know. Mary was rather elderly but  extremely able. She had been in her own business as a consultant before going to  St. Hill. She had a way about her which made you feel at home. She was also very  good at getting you to pay for your next service! She was able always to give  good advice You felt like you got somewhere when you visited her. Her office was  extremely presentable. There were always flowers around, and you got a coffee or  a tea, and sometimes some excellent cookies. When you were finished with her she  would say, "See Ya! And remember - any troubles come and visit me.  Ok?" Then she would send you off to the next person on your Routing Form -  the Cashier.

Mike was the friendly cashier and always had a smile. He knew exactly how  much you had on your credit account. He took time to talk to you, to answer  questions and clear you for taking your course. As he debited your account, he  would say, "Have a great stay, and don't hesitate to visit me if you have  any questions".

All courses were done in the pavilion or the chapel. Auditing was conducted  in the huts until the Castle was complete. You worked hard daily, from 9am to 12  noon, and then from 1pm through to 6pm. In the evenings, Foundation went from  7-30pm up to 10pm. One never had time to ease off, or to look around or be lazy!  You were kept on your toes all the time because people needed your attention.

The Daily Activity of Scheduling Students.

Students arrived in droves. There was the buzz of the cars, motorbikes or  whatever form of transport they could use to get to St. Hill to be on post or on  course in time.

Course schedule started at 9-30. Students stood around smoking, or drinking  coffee before roll call. We didn't dare to be late. There were breaks of  fifteen minutes in morning and afternoon, and an hour for lunch. The schedule  ended at 6-30pm.

The student's canteen was stuffy and smoky, and there were so many there  you were lucky if you got a place. Each one brought his own food - sandwiches or  hot soup in a flask. We gathered in groups, shared laughs and either discussed  the experiences we had had on course in the morning, or just good old general  gossip if we were on staff!

Auditors began their day at 9am, perhaps by studying their Preclear  folders depending on how many he or she had been assigned that day. If cramming  was needed, your Preclears were re-scheduled and told to wait until you were  through. Of course they were given some sort of explanation from the personnel  in charge of ensuring that Preclears got their Auditing daily. Some would go off  to read, others even chose to help stuffing Auditors Magazines. It was friendly  and it was fun to help, and you just did it.

You kept quiet around the Auditing rooms and didn't talk loud Each room had  an IN SESSION sign on it which was to be strictly respected .

Students were on courses doing drills - sometimes loud ones. Certain places  for practicals had to be set up especially for Upper Indoc TRs. These were  special training drills which required quite a lot of shouting. They were done  in the grounds around the pavilion and Chapel course rooms.

There was a constant stream of deliveries for the private quarters of LRH and  Mary Sue Hubbard as well as paper, pens and various office supplies for the  organization. In all, it was busy and active all the time.

The lower Course Supervisor was a South African known as Peter K. An  Australian called Malcolm C, the Class VI Unit Supervisor, was in charge of the  Top Unit of the St. Hill Special Briefing Course. Both Supervisors were well  known for their firm, precise manner, demanding, exactness to the letter, in the  theory and the practical drilling. Each student was carefully supervised to see  that the standard was kept up and practiced at the highest level.

If you had passed a drill or had drilled a session procedure but didn't apply  it correctly, you were given what was (and perhaps still is), known as a PINK  SHEET. That was an immediate correction, written on pink paper. No one liked  getting a pink sheet, but it was the only way to keep the standard in. You were  expected to apply what you had learned. Pink Sheets were then handled before  carrying on with your course. This applied both to theory and practical studies.

All students worked very hard on courses and never spent any time wasting  around. After all, they were there for studying and not much else. So any spare  time was precious, and it was spent well and calculated carefully. St. Hill was  always open up to 10pm, even at weekends. Some people worked late and at  weekends to progress their studies. They might spend time drilling with another  student, doing training drills which were on each level of the Academy levels  and the higher courses. They might listen to Ron on tape - something which each  student had to do. It took a lot of the time to get through the three hundred or  more tapes that were on the St. Hill Special Briefing Course. That was an awful  lot!

Supervisors gave students daily and weekly targets, but these were to be  given realistically without too steep a gradient, or just brushing past stuff  quickly so as to reach one's targets. The Supervisor had to have this in mind  and guard against it.

Clapping successful students was a daily activity. This was done to validate  those who passed a theory or practical level, or finished a section of a  check sheet. One knew that completions or products were happening. Towards the  end of the day, a staff member also knew when supper was getting close, by  hearing the clapping from the direction of the course rooms.

Supervisors helped students falling short of their daily targets by  interviewing them. If they were bugged, it sometimes required some correction.  In that case the student was sent to Qualifications to get sorted out. Then he  was sent back on course as soon as possible. There were many things to be  observed by a Supervisor. He or she had his hands full and there was never a  dull moment.

The days passed by at a high speed. No sooner were you arriving than the day  was ending. Then it was time for some well-earned sleep in order to be bright  and shiny and ready for another hard days work.

The Tuesday Lectures

The most exciting day in the week was Tuesday. Everybody looked forward to it  and took part. St. Hill came to a standstill when everyone went to listen to LRH's  lecture given especially for students. Each lecture was added to the list of  tapes on check sheets. Mary Sue and staff attended also. No one dared to miss  this time, scheduled weekly from 4pm until 6pm.

Who would have missed that day!

LRH gave each lecture in the chapel. The surroundings made the Tuesday  lectures special because the chapel was on the east side of the Manor,  surrounded with beautifully-kept lawns and a swimming pool and fish pond, though  these were considered to be the private part of the family home.

Everyone was usually seated a good ten minutes before he arrived. It was so  quiet you would hear a pin drop. Staff attended lectures in one of the large  staff working areas where a TV Screen was hooked up so they could watch him.

LRH nearly always appeared on time. Then the silence was broken with screams  of joy and laughter from everyone, and most of all by himself. Oh, those  students were so happy to see him and hear another Tuesday lecture. They seemed  to want him to really enjoy their gratefulness that he was there to give them so  much data to work with. Often he had to break the clapping because time was  scarce. He always took the greatest of care so as not to upset them while they  praised him. He handled it in a great way by saying, "Great. You're here  again! Great. Thank you. Thank you VERY MUCH!. OK - Ready to start?"

"Oh Yes", they cried out.

He normally started off with something like, "What day is it? Today is  April the 10th, so-and-so year", - getting their full attention.

The students always acknowledged the date, sometimes giving it for him.

LRH usually had a list of new students. He was always kept informed about new  arrivals, and usually knew the person in those days. All new students were asked  to stand up and take a bow. After the bows were done, LRH would announce that  days lecture.

All students had note pads and kept their notes through their training, and  even when they left St. Hill. You could hear the turning of note pad pages, and  the sound of pencils writing, it was so quite between LRH's words.

The lectures sometimes went on longer than 6pm, though no one cared. Seeing  LRH and listening to him was the most important thing.

When the lectures ended, LRH usually said something like, "Well - I hope  this gives some new light on the studies you're involved with at this time.  Let's see what the reports turn out to be on your daily and weekly studies.  Have a great evening, or a good supper, or a good week. OK See Ja! Bye".

He was heartily thanked by the students with a very well earned applause. He  often walked out leaving you to clap your heart away. Everyone was happy. It  kept the spirits up all around, especially the students. This was vital data.  They had to adjust to it, to learn from it, and apply it to their studies and  Auditing.

The lectures that were given back in those days of the 1960s and 1970s,  became part of the Scientology courses delivered anywhere today. Those lectures  were the most valuable moments of the expansion of St. Hill and the Academy  levels 0-IV and the St. Hill Special Briefing Course. Anyone having had that  opportunity, would know how important they were and might remark that they would  have never have missed those days.

They were very lucky.

Expansion at St. Hill

New Arrivals began their Routing Forms with an Orientation checklist. This  told them where everything was. Each student had to do this so that he or she  could know where he was at any time and not get lost. New staff did it also. The  number of checklists used weekly kept the Mimeo office very busy.

All schedules for staff and public and students were strictly kept at all  times. St. Hill didn't yet have its own eating places. Practical matters such as  these were very well organized indeed. Executives who ran St Hill arranged a  service daily for staff to go and eat at the local lunching places around  downtown East Grinstead. In those days one had some money. One didn't wonder  whether one would or would not get paid. Believe it or not, you were paid; and  not badly either - even if it was the 1960s .

Students had their own room, know as a Canteen room, though nothing was  there. It was only a place to be used to eat the lunches you brought with you  daily. Sometimes you could get in there but it was really only for students.  Staff were forbidden to lunch with students.

The local taxi service would come up daily at 12 noon Monday through Friday  and pick up those eagerly waiting for going to town. One had to be sharp to get  to the taxis. There were two or three taxis at the most, able to hold 5 people  each. It was a service paid for by St. Hill for staff use only.

Due to the expansion of St. Hill canteen room got too small. Then some  thought it was a good idea to find a place to set up a proper canteen. The idea  started off when someone saw flasks of coffee standing on the trunk of someone's  car, using a plank of wood as a table top for place plastic cups and four or  five flasks of coffee. This service was operated by one student who was also on  the course. He managed to do it between his breaks and being on course.

Later came the agreement that a bigger place could be provided. There was a  hut that was only used for old filing cabinets etc. Permission was asked to the  Executive Directors and it was approved immediately because the demand was so  high. So the student, known only as Charlie, who started off with coffee and tea  on the trunk of his car, landed up being in business each day on a full day's  schedule. He changed his training schedule to evenings and used the days to  provide this most needed and wanted service, making it into a business, covering  the costs and making a little bit extra on the side. Whatever that might have  been, that went into his training steps so that he could continue his traffic .

Everybody loved the St. Hill Snack Bar Canteen. They were able to sneak out  during work time, and grab a coffee or tea! When you were crushed for something  to drink or to take away the afternoon hunger, just knowing it was available was  a help. One could pretty much get anything one wanted as it grew And it did  indeed grow. It was packed daily, especially during breaks. No more taxis for  taking the staff down at lunch time to get fed.

One could land up buying fish and chips - a favorite of English people. It  also landed up being a favorite for the many Americans that were there. It  provided sandwiches of many kinds, and of course the good old American  hamburger, English sausages, beans on toast, egg and chips, Cornish pasties, and  all sorts of fruit. It even had a menu for breakfast, lunch - and supper as its  known in England. The canteen was open six days a week from 9am to 10pm.

Now that the Eating Dept was solved for many, and costs of the taxi service  were taken away, there was room for still more expansion as LRH wished.

With the ideas of new stuff coming into shape at the time, the top of the  Hill was being shaped into castles. One was ready at about that time. Another  one was nearing completion. So, of course, changes for bettering the service to  public and general business were obviously the next thing - and they did  improve!

The plan for moving the training out of the pavilion and the chapel up to the  castle was put into action. This allowed the chapel to remain as only a chapel  for services. At the back of the castle 30 Auditing rooms were built for public  and Hubbard Guidance Center Auditors to use.

During the mid 1960s, St. Hill services were still only up to the level of  Power Processing and the St. Hill Special Briefing Course. But expansion carried  on and one could hardly keep up with the changes. The first Clear was announced  after LRH returned from Rhodesia.

The older part of the Manor ground floor, and the basement used for offices,  became the more closed Advanced Courses Operation. The existing administrative  services such as part of Mimeo, the Hubbard Communications Office, and the  Address and Letter Registrar, moved over to the areas where courses and public  had been.

LRH remained at the Manor for some time into the 1970s Then he started to  move away from St Hill for further expansion.

Maintenance of the buildings and gardens, the lawn cutting, and the beautiful  rose gardens was continued. The swimming pool and the fish ponds were still seen  to, and the cats and the dog the Hubbard family were looked after. One still  took great care to respect the grounds, and certainly no litter was allowed.

Rumors started spreading about what and who would be moving into the castle.  And there were other rumors about some Advanced Organization setting up in the  Manor. Daily discussions went on regarding where those working in the Manor  would move.

Then one day a very special staff meeting was called.

Back then they were held in some office large enough to hold around  two-hundred staff. Organizational matters were discussed, such as how to improve  matters amongst Divisions. Usually on Friday everyone was looking forward to a  good weekend. But - this particular Friday had something special thing about it.  Most of the staff seemed to get it into their heads that perhaps something was  going to happen about those empty new rooms in the Castle. While waiting for the  meeting, some of us even said, It's maybe this weekend we're going to move.  But who?

The Friday meetings were run by a Senior Executive - usually someone from  LRH's staff. This time he started off by saying, "This is good news. St  Hill expands! But what is not such good news is that LRH would like to ask you  to work through the weekend. There's going to be a turnaround of St. Hill  administrative offices and it involves moving the student's quarters as well. So  we need strong men and fit women. The men will do the heavy moving, the women  the papers and light desks. He said we would be paid for the hours we worked,  and asked if everyone could come. Of course everyone agreed! Who would say no to  LRH? The In Charge of the meeting thanked us for our willingness to help, ending  the discussion by saying that LRH would like the whole move completed by 6pm  Sunday. So it was agreed that everyone would be at St Hill at 9am Saturday the  next morning.

It was a major operation and heavy work involving filing cabinets by the  dozen, and hundreds of desks and chairs. But one hadn't much time to think  about it. You only thought about getting a good nights sleep to have enough  strength to pull your part of the weight the next day!

Arriving the next day we found many, many people. Even some students took  time off to help out. It was a tremendous operation. All staff were sectioned  off to do particular areas.. Maps were already laid out, indicating what to move  and where to move it. There were supervisors to ensure areas were moved strictly  according to the plans in order to avoid confusion.

All seemed to pull together. Everyone was ready for one-and-a-half days hard,  physical work. But that didn't matter. It just had to get done and that was it.

Dragging loads of files up and down hills was not easy, and the weather  wasn't good either. Telephone lines and telex machines had to get moved, so the  experts for that were called in.. All you saw during these one-and-a-half days  were people moving anything they could. People were out off breath because the  track was bad enough in itself without having to carry heavy things. Added to  that, it was was one of those lovely English rainy weekends. We were constantly  trying to keep things covered up, which didn't help.

Believe it or not, tired as everybody was, it all was done, except for minor  matters. So the next day started off with all staff in new areas and students  studying in new locations. New Orientation Checklists had to get drawn up pretty  fast. We needed a new stable datum in on where one was, and what was where.

The Weekly Graduation Day

Friday - the most famous day of the week - was chosen for graduation day  because nothing could be better to end off the week. One could have some nice  memories over the weekend and be ready for another hard week on the following  Monday.

Graduation took place in the chapel at a time to fit in with LRH's  schedule. We got informed a few hours before.

There was great joy at these graduations, and no one ever missed them. There  was laughter and hard clapping that could be heard all over the Manor. You  couldn't help but say: "OH, this must be Friday. I gotta get over there  and watch it". Those staff that could get away always did.

The graduation afternoon was for the students so they got the seats first. If  you couldn't stick your head over the others trying to catch a glimpse of the  graduation, you just stood on the ledges of the big side windows where you had a  pretty good view.

Students gathered together with Supervisors for each level.

The graduations were started off by announcing new arrivals. Then we were  told who had started or had finished a new level. Each finishing student was  asked to stand up and take a bow, and was allowed to mention something of the  what he or she had learned on the level. As the courses grew longer, the time  took longer too; so it had either to start earlier or end late. Who cared!

Hearing of the first Clear being announced on one particular Friday, was a  graduation that stood out by itself.

When the Advanced courses were set up, those got added to the graduation  ceremony on each Friday. The same was done for the new arrivals to the Clearing  Course, then to the OT steps as well. Clears started to bet announced and then  completions on the OT levels. First it started off with Clear, then a few weeks  later with OT I Soon came OT Il Then it carried forward on up to OT III. One  could write another book on all the technical developments, although some of  that already has been written by others. A particularly special week was the  announcement of the first Power Process.

When a completion from the St. Hill Special Briefing Course was to be  announced this was very, very special. They didn't get made easily, or quickly.  So - when the rumor of such a completion was about to get announced, that was  not one to miss. We wanted to hear what he or she would have to say about the  course, and what he or she was planning to do next.

Each student completing the St. Hill Special Briefing Course went through a  special routing form, passing several sections of the Technical and  Qualifications side of the Scientology Organizations Board. Once he or she had  passed the course completion exam at 100%, the routing form went to LRH. He  passed the student with one of two remarks. Either, "Passed - VWD. L  Ron", or "VVWD. Passed with Honors".

Getting LRH's signature on your routing form first was really something. But  getting, "With Honors", was something else! If you got that it meant  that, by the evidence of your results as a Auditor, knowing and being able to  apply what you had learned, LRH knew that was what that student could do.

The next thing was getting your reward with a certificate having "With  Honors" written on it. Back then, and in most cases, it was signed by LRH  himself. Later on it was signed by the Qualifications Secretary.

So - Friday afternoons were special for the students. There was clicking of  cameras and chatter amongst the crowd. At times the doors were unable to be  closed, busting at the seams with the number of people wanting to cram in there  to watch, particularly when LRH was there. Of course, rumors went around like  wild fire. This week LRH is attending. Got to be there. Cant miss him. No way!  The glow in the air was great. There was fun and bright-looking faces and St.  Hill came to a halt once again.

Mary Sue came in along with her favorite little dog named Vickie and always  sat in the front row. There was silence. Then there was great clapping as  everyone made sure that they appreciated LRH's presence once again. Then after  a few minutes he would put the signal sign up. STOP! Then he would say, Thank  you very much!"

All replied, "Very well Sir".

Then he would say, "Ok. Let's begin. We have only a few completions  this week. I have been asked to attend and give some out. So we will start off  with those, and get them out of the way. Then I will pass over the rest of the  graduation to the Supervisors and will leave you to carry on. OK with you"?

"Yes Sir"!

"First Completion is from the Power Processing and I am proud to  announce the completion of Power to a name thats pretty familiar to all of  you and that is L RON Hubbard".

Everybody was delighted and clapped with joy. Wha - that was great. They were  happy and full of laughter.

LRH was laughing himself, and said, "OK Laugh! Nice surprise Ha! OK Lets  go on. Another very special announcement, and that Is the first Clear - John Mc  Master"! (John, who died in 1993, was a South African living in England for  many years).

Laughs and clapping. Applause. Applause.

There was lots of talk by John Mc Master about the great results that came  from this. He made a great acknowledgment to Ron for his breakthroughs in these  areas. Then another graduation took place.. The first St. Hill Special Briefing  Course. completion, known only to students as Pete I. He spoke of the main gains  in being able to practice his skills in Auditing, and about the privilege of  having LRH around to correct and give the various technical writings and always  there to iron out technical and training bugs on training, It was great to hear.  It was also great to hear how students were able to help LRH research the line  for a well-mapped out way to train a person to become a professional Auditor.

A big hand went to LRH accompanied by the clicking of the cameras. What an  ending to the week. And how well worth being there. That evening, spirits were  high. Students organized a party and we all visited the local pub in down town  East Grinstead to celebrate the victory.

LRH wished us a great week ahead, and no one lost the good moments of those  first announcements.

My First Experience in a Very Important Job

Now I begin another experience - that of a new job.

My first days had been spent working in Central Files in the same room as the  Mimeo operation from which all L Ron Hubbard's issues - such as his Policy  Letters and Technical Bulletins - went out. This had been my first experience  within St. Hill - a job I only did for two weeks. Then the lady who had placed  me in that area, visited me again. She said, "We need someone in another  section of the organization. Perhaps you can help out. We'll get someone to  take over here".

I thought, OK.

She told me, "This job was very important. We are beginning this section  of the organization and it needs people to run it". I had no clue where and  what I was really going to do. But since I learned fast, that didn't bother me.  All I was told was that it was a very Important job and I took that very  seriously.

The job was being LRH's first Technical Page. This was for taking the  Auditing folders to him twice a day after the auditors had done their sessions  and to collect them when called for. I had no idea what he did with them. In  those days I was a professional Wog just doing a job, not having even  done any Scientology course or had any auditing.

That new division was Technical Division Number 4 on the Scientology  Organization Org Board. As I was shown around a large room, I saw a big board  with lots of names in different columns. It was quickly explained that it was  the Hubbard Guidance Center Board for Auditing done by professional Auditors.  The names of the Auditors were there in three different columns, with the  schedule times for Auditors and Preclears

The preference of Auditors were listed downwards. The Top Auditors were first  in line. Then horizontal were the preclear names and their blocks of times.  Auditors names were in one color, Preclears names in another. I got the hang of  it pretty quick. Apart from my main duty to take folders to and from LRH, I had  also to route people with their Preclear folder to another section of the  organization. Preclears were not allowed to carry their own folders and that was  why the page system was introduced.

In this section in Technical Division there was also a section named  Technical Services. Another person was put on to the job of helping to provide  students with material, tape machines and other items they needed. That function  was named Student Admin. Another part of Technical services helped provide  accommodation for the students and Preclears. East Grinstead was used to provide  places whether with people of the community using their spare rooms in private  houses, or renting places. Somehow, places were always found. One had to have  knowledge of the availability of housing around the area. In those early days it  seemed that anyone was willing to provide a place for students to stay.

Some lines had already been established where accommodation was available for  students and professional public Preclears, but it had to be worked at. New  places had to be found all the time.

I could see that I was in for some busy days.

My job grew. It turned into taking care of the scheduling board as well as  taking the folders to and from LRH or other sections of the organization.  Wherever the Preclear was routed, the page took the person and the file along.

Then I got my first job, assigned by LRH.

On the very first day, I had to take the folders to LRH's office. Even  though I had no idea who this man was, l was scared just to meet him in person.  But, nervous as I was, I did it. I was drilled on what to do, and to tell him  where l had left the folders. I was told to wait a minute or so in case he  wanted to give me anything to take back to the Technical Division.

A list always accompanied the folders together with a list of the Auditors  names.

On my very first visit, after passing his Communicator, known only as Ken, I  knocked on the door. After hearing "OK, come in", loud and clear, in I  walked.

LRH says, "Oh, hi. You must be the Page".

I said, "Yes ".

"OK place the folders here".

There was a heavy, long table. One side was marked IN, and the other side  OUT.

LRH said, "Don't worry. You will learn all the steps. Do you have any  questions"?

Of course I replied, "No", shaking the word out. And I thought to  myself, What questions would I have? I didn't even know what I was really  doing except to bring the folders at that and that time, and to wait to see if I  had to take anything back. That was what I was told to do, and that was what I  had got in my head. So - I sort of laughed a bit and said nervously,  "That's all"?

He replied, "Yes, Thank you and goodbye"!

I left politely, thinking to myself, Gosh, thank God that first trip was over  but how were the rest going to be? But I was quick at learning and built my  courage up to take the next trip to him with a bit more strength.

That next trip came soon. I went there and, without any reservation this  time, placed the folders in the IN area. As I put the folders down he said,  "Thanks. My gosh - seems like you want me to work". He laughed as he  said it, and then asked me how was the day? Then how was I?

I replied, "I'm OK, Ron, OK". I was a bit shaky still, though  holding up

Noticing me shaking, he said, "You don't have to shake. What's so scary  in here? Is it me? Or is it the room"?

I laughed. Then he did too and we both landed up roaring with laughter.

He said, "I ain't going to bite ya. So go along. And thanks for the  folders. I'll call for you when I'm ready".

That was a relief for me. I suddenly felt a little better, but not knowing  why. I did know one thing for sure, though. If I was asked if I'd spoken  personally to Ron Hubbard, I could say, OH Yes. Somehow he made me chuckle over  that brief exchange of words. I would say I was starting to know LRH as I did  that very important job.

An Approach Made to Me about Auditing

I had by now learned the ropes around my job as Tech Page and I liked it. I  had also learned much about the practical handling of Auditors, and the moving  Preclear folders around, even though I had never had Auditing. A friend of mine  doing the Briefing Course, and whom I got to know at the breaks, had spoken to  me about it a bit. But I had no idea what it was really about. I was never  actually pushed into anything. I was simply working and getting paid for it, and  that was what I thought it would always be like.

Each day I took Preclear folders to LRH and received them back again when I  was called. LRH seemed to be very precise on looking into the folders. I could  never figure out how he could handle so many, or actually what he did with them.  I was aware that he was writing advice to the Auditor for the next session. I  learned that when he gave me some sheets of paper in form of lists of actions.  The color was light green, and they were in his handwriting. .

Directed to the Auditor, those lists contained the Auditor's and Preclear's  names and detailed the next actions for that case. Another list contained the  names of who did Well Done and Very Well Done sessions. Another list was of  comments to Auditors in the The Hubbard Guidance Center (HGC). Those lists had  remarks on technical points, and data on the when the next Auditor's meeting  with LRH and Qualifications personnel would be.

So - after the visit to LRH, I would take all the lists and distribute them  to File or to the Auditor's Bulletin Board or to Qualifications personal. I  had to learn the Divisions and the Hat (Job Title), each one wore. I had to be  very sure not to deliver the wrong paper to the wrong place or I would really  have heard about it. But I never did.

Each Auditor had his or her folders on time for the day’s sessions. Some  Auditors knew from the list of comments, whether or not he or she had hit  Cramming, or had got a Very Well Done, or only a Well Done, or sometimes a  Re-assigned placed against that Preclear. Re-assigned was the last thing any  Auditor would want to get on his folders or noted on Write-ups coming down from  L R H. It meant that it would be better for that Preclear to have another  Auditor. It could be that he or she just didn't fit with that Auditor. Or, when  there was a Complete Re-assigned, it would mean that that Auditor had goofed  badly - messing up the technical session or perhaps a few sessions. Often the  word "Flunk" was written. That meant that the Auditor had made some  errors somewhere and he or she was to hurry to Qualifications to the Cramming  Officer to get corrected.

A Re-assign could also have meant that Preclear's Auditor was not qualified  to audit the next action on that Preclear. That Preclear would then be  re-assigned to an Auditor able to do the next action. The Preclears of that  Auditor often had to wait for a new Auditor. Meanwhile they helped out by doing  something like stuffing Auditors magazines, or packing things, or whatever.

It was all well run and well supervised in order to keep things moving,  especially for the public who had come a long way to St Hill to receive the most  powerful processes available in Scientology.

Auditors did their Admin whenever possible, although the day was mainly spent  in session. ”In Session” and ”Please Be Quiet” was what you saw on  Auditor's doors most of the time.

Students from the St. Hill Special Briefing Course took staff as Preclears  and I wondered if one day I would ever be approached.

One day, when I made my usual run with the folders to LRH, I had an odd idea  in my mind and feeling in my gut which bothered me. I was not sure why but  something made me think, Will he ask me If I have had any Auditing. But why was  I scared to get approached, for heavens sake? I had no idea what it was like -  bad or good. Obviously it was full of unknowns. If asked, I would not have known  how to reply. I would have wondered what I might be getting myself. into if I  said Yes to something I had no idea. about. I might have asked myself,. What is  so special about that, anyway?

That day when I felt uneasy in my bones, I was in for a major surprise. I  made my usual visit to LRH's office passing his communicator first as always,  knocking on the door and getting the OK to go in. That day he had finished  meeting with Mary Sue in Conference.

When she saw me, she said, "Hi - come on in. LRH is waiting for the  folders. I hope you're fine today".

I replied, "Fine. Lots of work".

Susie just grinned and said, "You're a strong girl. Work is good for  you". We laughed as she left, saying, "See Ya"!

LRH said, "Hello. Thanks for the folders". Then in the next  sentence, without me being able to make any move, he said, "Sit down, young  one. I have to talk to you".

I thought, OH Gosh - now I'm in for it. What on earth have I done wrong?  But because his intention was so strong, it struck me rather quickly. I sat down  as fast as I could as he asked, "Now - how has your day been today?  Everything all right"?

I said, "Pretty good. Can't complain. Busy and so much to do".

He just laughed and said, "You will manage. Don't worry. Well now - you  have been here a while and you are getting to know what its all about.  Right"?

As he waited for a reply, I just sat there dumbly, nearly loosing my wits  again, Why I don't know.

Then he said, "Perhaps you'd like to have some Auditing. Have you been  spoken to about that yet"?

I said, "No, Ron", and closed myself within myself.

He replied, "OK Well how about it"?

I said, "Well - I haven't got any idea how it works, or what I am  supposed to do.

He said, "That's easy. We'll get someone to explain all that".

I looked at him and laughed.

He looked at me and said, "Don't worry. We're not going kill Ja. You  can try it to see if you like it and tell me. OK? You'll soon find out what it  is".

There was a rumbling feeling moving in my tummy and around me. I thought he  was able to read my mind, somehow. I said, "I will tell you how it  goes". Then I asked him, "Is that all, Ron"?

He smiled and said, "Off with you, and don't worry".

I walked out of that office this time with the thoughts and words we had  spoken all about me. I thought over the matter of being approached about  Auditing and how I had dared to say Yes!

I was quickly back at my place. It was late morning. Then by late afternoon I  was approached by Margarete, a fine lady friend of LRH from America. She was on  the Briefing Course and asked if I would like to have a chat with her. We  quickly arranged a time. I took my lunch break to talk with her, grabbing a  sandwich I had packed that morning. Being asked by Ron had made me wanna know what the devil this auditing was really all about.

Margarete took me into her Auditing room very smoothly and quietly, closed  the door and checked that the In Session sign was on the outside, just like  other Auditors did before entering. I watched everything she did, thinking that  I must observe everything. I was damned-well going to find out all about this  auditing.

As we chatted a bit about myself, she asked where l had worked before St.  Hill, and when had I discovered the place, and what did l think of it. She said  LRH had suggested that she ask me if I had any interest in auditing, and to  explain a bit about it, and what it did.. Of course, as soon as I agreed to have  auditing we were arranging a date. for my first session.

I loved it.

When I took the folders to LRH next, I thanked him for suggesting it to me. I  even started on a course soon after my first sessions.

I was becoming a Scientologist.

The Reality of Being a Staff Member

In most cases it was hard work and long hours for any staff member working in  a Scientology Organization. This was so, whether it be St. Hill, in an Advanced  Org, a Class IV Org, at the Flag Land Base, or on any of the ships.

In the earlier days at St. Hill, I remember that it was fun to work. One  could even say I loved it and truly did. It was also a pleasure being at St.  Hill with Ron and his family. It was exciting being there when Policy and Tech  was being written and issued in bucket loads, hardly giving you enough time to  read the earlier ones from the days before! But you read them though all right.  No one wouldn't.

It was standard procedure that you checked out on the Policy when it arrived  in your In-basket. Auditors receiving technical issues checked out on those as  well. There were no exceptions. Every staff member, Auditor or Admin person had  to check out on Policy as it arrived. Molly S and her staff in the famous Mimeo  Department turned them out daily for Ron Hubbard. Never a day went by without  something new arriving in each staff members In-basket.

The Central Hubbard Communications Office (HCO) had always so much traffic  running through it because that's where staff picked up Issues from their  In-basket each morning before going to their jobs .

The traffic didn't only contain newly-issued Policy letters or Bulletins  There were also written orders, or requests for data to do with the job one was  doing. One had also to follow up on information needed by you on your job, or  follow an order to get something done for a senior of one's Division. Those  communications were known in Policy to be headed as Comm. They were routed to  your post title and function and not to you in the way of a personal letter. For  example, communications would read something like this:

To The Director of Examinations Oct. 30th 1962.

From Director of Technical Services.

Dear Jane

What exams have you passed since Oct. 1st of 1962? Please list who you  have passed, and on what level. I need a record of certificates to be  requested to Certificates and Awards in Qual. I need this by 15th Oct. 1962.

Love, Joe.

These communications had a defined term to them called "dispatches"  That's known as "comms" as well and some examples can be found in the  Administrative Dictionary.

Many new staff had to be hired, and as that was done, Policy for the  administrative side of the Scientology Organizational Org Board was being  written. It was expected that you would read the Policy coming out in order to  be educated and to know where to refer if any questions were asked.

Scientologists - whether working in Scientology Organizations now or then,  when the subject was being formed and written - used a famous saying: "What  Isn't Written Isn't True". Many stuck to that as a basic principle and.  guide. It worked in many cases. It was amazing to have this and Technical Issues  coming out at the same time. Many times, one wondered how on earth a man could  produce so much volume and at such a speed. He certainly had some devoted people  to help him.

Now Auditors were getting trained up, higher and higher.

Levels were getting completed on the higher part of the Scientology Grade  Chart. No sooner had you done one than new ones were released. You wondered if  any more were coming from Ron Hubbard. But there were lots more to come! .

Communications Office handled the incoming mail. There was always a lot and  usually it took a good two hours to sort it all out. One had to stamp all  incoming letters with a date and time received as one opened them.

Student letters were treated as priority and were never opened. They were  only placed in the student's mail box for them to collect. Students liked to  get mail from their mums and dads, other family members or just friends. The  students got as much mail as the internal management, and that was always a lot  each day.

A member of Treasury was always present for witnessing a cheque or money  order received. The mail clerk signed cheques and such money orders over to  Treasury who took care of them from then onwards.

Everyone was busy. Registrars were on the telephones, calling people up while  the letter registrars were typing letters. Reception was busy logging in new  arrivals, or taking calls. Auditors were getting people into session. Delivery  vans were bringing some good items for the canteen shop, and delivering other  goods.

It was a hopping and bobbing place for a good twelve to fourteen hours per  day - and happy too.

Some areas expanded so fast that extra staff had to be put in to handle the  flow. Qualifications was invoicing in as much traffic for daily exams as one  would check in items at a super market store cashiers desk nowadays. It just  never stopped!

Letter registrars were pretty fast. Their typists had to turn out at least  forty letters per day. To make their job easier, they didn't have to place the  letters in envelopes and do the folding work. The office responsible for hiring  personnel brought in additional people to do advance-information packages with  details about St Hill. They pulled the publics letter files out and filed  papers for the typist, so that the typists only had to type as they sat at their  Dictaphone machines. There was an extra pool of personnel who dictated into  those machines.

Staff meetings were held once a week at first, then later to once. every two  weeks. Personnel in charge of each area or the In Charge of the Division would  be responsible for planning improvements to be done. There was always a complete  cooperation between all staff and public. Live communication helped sort out  anything that was slowing progress, like gossip or dissatisfaction amongst  personnel. Such things never were left to carry on but were taken up at once and  cleared completely to avoid breakdowns, or personnel leaving. Some personnel  left because they just couldn't keep up the pace but not much was said about  them leaving.

The whole thing ran on high morale and production and drive. Some staff were  particularly dedicated to LRH and his goals.

New arrangements known as, getting to be ”An OK Staff Member” fell into  place from 1960 onwards. Staff were classified in sections I, II, and Ill. These  consisted of hatting you on your responsibilities, and making you familiar, on a  gradient, with the role of being a staff member.

Back then, one had to classify as being a Scientologist. That would mean that  one had at least done some Auditing and some introductory courses in  Scientology. Each member was given time to study these knew Policies regarding  staff. In your In-basket came a blank yellow folder. Then came certain staff  issues and general Policy which you placed in the folder. The volume that came  out after those early issues is now known as Volume 0 of the Green Volumes.

If you ever changed your job, you were expected to write up what you did on  that job, and placed the related Policy with it. That was known as your Hat  Write-up. The Hat Write-up was for everyone and applied to high and low  positions equally - whether it be the Dustbin In Charge, the File Clerk, or the  head of a Division.

There was a saying that LRH couldn't wear all Hats and needed help. That  certainly was so, and he got the help. You were proud to be a Staff Member back  in those days, and it showed.

Moving Towards the Sea Org

The days of the Sea Org began around the years 1967-69. While working at St.  Hill, you might often wonder where so-and-so had gone. You actually would start  to realize that some faces weren't being seen daily. Rumors went around that  they were practicing ship rope tying. It was going around that this was being  done in one of the sheds between the Manor and the road up to the castles. One  was not supposed to know what went on in those sheds, but peeping in the key  holes where the drills were being done, led to the idea that something else was  going on somewhere!

What was actually going on was exactly what had been rumored, and that was  drilling on rope knotting. It seemed strange. Then people wouldn't show up for  work anymore. They just never came back to their jobs and someone else took that  job over. It soon got around the place that they went off to Ron on a ship but  it was not official that Ron had bought any such ship. Then it slipped out that  Ron was away and that he had taken some people to help him on some research! One  tried to figure out what the research was.

We staff that remained, carried on the show, but we wondered whether we would  really get to know the story. Finally that mystery was over. It was announced at  a staff meeting that Ron had bought a ship and had started to establish an OT  Operation aboard it. St. Hill would now have a Operations Liaison Office to be  open for communications to and from the ship and later for applications to join  the ship.

St. Hill carried on delivering auditing and training. Ron had left enough  people to train and supervise others. He also left behind a certain number of  well trained executives to continue St. Hill. Students and Preclears flooded  into St. Hill even more, regardless of whether Ron was there or not.

Before Ron left St. Hill to start the Sea Org, he had already established the  communication line for any and all people wanting to write to him. In the  earlier days there was a famous saying above the letter box to Ron in every Org:

"I am always willing to be communicated to. Any and all  communications once received by me will be answered by me directly".

One can find that in the Green Volumes. People who were at St. Hill in the  early days will certainly remember that well.

Writing a letter to Ron and getting a reply was quite common. But later,  before he died, a number of his letters were replied to headed L. Ron Hubbard,  and with a rubber stamp saying, "Love Ron" at the bottom. This was put  in quite soon after he left for the Sea Org as he was unable to sign letters  personally.

Public were very important to Ron, and so were the students.

Why?

Simply because he worked with the letters students wrote to him about the  courses, the Auditing and the weekly reports. This was a vital source line for  information.

One day, back before LRH moved off St. Hill, a rather elderly lady from the  public, wrote to Ron asking for a way to go Clear faster because she didn't know  how long she would live. She couldn't risk spending too long studying and  perhaps not being able to finish. She got her wish in a letter written by Ron  himself. It mentioned something like:

"Your letter was extremely important to me, and I have found a way that  perhaps could help someone who wants to get on the Clearing Course faster.  There will soon be a course for that, so I hope that helps you out."

As a result of that there came the Solo Course and steps to get people on to  the Clearing Course. That lady did go on the first Solo Course, and she went all  the way to up the OT Steps. She even managed to do the Briefing Course. Whether  or not she is alive today is another question.

The Sea Org was apparently growing, though St. Hill didn't get to know too  much about what was going on there. Then one Monday morning bright and early  there was a surprise. A man and a woman in navy-officer uniforms showed up. One  wondered who they were. One of them had been on staff a while back, now here she  was in uniform.

A staff meeting was called rather quickly. Then in came these two people.  Their announcement was brief as they told their names and their mission. They  said that Ron was now on a ship and had sent them to St Hill to ask who would  like to join with him.

Those who were interested raised there hands. Those wishing to know more  about it were asked to stay. Those who said no were told to go back to their  jobs. There wasn't any pressure to make you join. If you weren't interested  you just left the room, and that was it.

An interview with one of the officers then took place with each person  Briefly you were told LRH needed help on the ship, and you would get to know all  details about when you arrived. But you were not told where you would go or how  you would get there. You were simply told that, if you wished to join, you must  be at St. Hill by Friday at the end of that week with packed bags. Then you  would get the next information. A passport was necessary. You had to get one if  you did not have one already. Your post would somehow be taken care of - just  how I don't recall, but that was no longer your concern.

We had no idea where we would go, or what was expected of any of us. We  arrived on that Friday, leaving your home and bags in the attic or in the care  of someone. You told your landlady you were going on a trip, but how long for,  you didn't know. One was sure the landladies thought one crazy, not knowing  where one was going or for how long!

That Friday morning at St. Hill was mad. There were so many people; bags,  screaming kids, mums and dads. The two officers from the Sea Org managed to get  together around eighty people and convinced us to take off with them to a  unknown destination. It was pretty incredible, but it did happen.

Soon a bus arrived and all of us hopped into it, with our two Missionair  officers, waving goodbye to those seeing us off. Then it headed for Heathrow  Airport, London. It seemed a short ride as we were all chatting so excitedly  about the trip.

We arrived at Heathrow Airport and gathered around in a group, with our two  In Charge officers known as A. and B. We were asked to line up got a ticket and  moved away. Then you looked at where you were going. It was strange. I hadn't  even heard of the place.

We soon boarded the plane chartered for us all and took off. Around four  hours later we arrived, but the ship was not there. Then we awaited instructions  were to fly to next Arriving at a small airport near Tunis, we were asked to sit  and wait in the heat for buses to arrive along sandy roads. We piled into the  buses which were not air conditioned in those days in that area. Our bus was hot  and sticky and sweaty but we didn't even bother to question how long the drive  would be.

It was a long, tiring, dusty and sweaty journey along desert roads and took  more than one day too. Unlike modern coaches, the seats were upright, and hard.  You just couldn't lie back and sleep, even a little. Children and babies were  tired. Fancy traveling with babies, and hardly anything to feed them with.

As we went through small villages we saw that they were obviously pretty  poor. Then we stopped after two hours for toilet breaks and washing, and  catching a drink at a water fountain. We didn't know if it was drinkable or  not. You didn't really care. Your mouth was dry and you wanted water, so you  drank!

One didn't know when one would get any food. We weren't given any money to  lash out at fancy eating places. We didn't know if we were to be provided  places for a rest. The Missionairs instructions were to arrive at the airport  and hire buses, then to drive until arriving where the ship was - somewhere in  North Africa.

Complaining of being tired, and hungry, we noticed there were markets in some  villages. The buses stopped and asked if there is some way to get some food. But  we were not allowed to get out of the bus. We ate oranges, lots of oranges as  the food budget was low. One had to make do with what one had been given. It  seemed that the officers weren't prepared for the long journey, and had not  allocated money for resting places. That was screwed up. One never knew or found  out why.

The climate was very different to what we were used to and no one seemed to  get adjusted to it easily. The children were affected most They were unhappy and  cried a lot. Even the older people didn't like the heat. Coming from England to  that place was too extreme. But the hours went by and you just fell asleep in  your seat between all the bumps and the rolling from side to side on the awful  roads, wondering when we would arrive.

By that time we had been traveling ten hours, if not more. It was so long,  one just couldn't think too well. Suddenly the word passed around that we were  coming to the ship, we are coming to the ship.

"Look, don't you see it"?

"Where"?

"Over there! Over there", people were shouting.

"Look, There's a town. And There's the dock".

"Are we going to the ship? Lets hope Ron is there".

We asked the Missionairs if we were finally coming to the place and they  replied that we were.

The weather was very hot as we passed along the little streets of a village  towards the dock. We had arrived! Everyone said, Thank God. Tired, hungry, dirty  and sweaty, it was a great relief.

We got off the bus and headed towards a large ship, not really having any  idea what it was or who was there. We hoped for a glimpse of LRH, adjusting to  the new reality that we would have to face. Then as I approached the steps to go  up the gang plank, a voice shouted down saying, "Hi. Welcome aboard".

It was LRH.

I saluted saying, "Glad to be with you, Sir"!

My move away from St. Hill to the Sea Org had begun.

The Early Days of Sea Org Life

It was certainly great to rest up after that long and tiring journey. We all  got some much-needed sleep. Sleeping in a bunk was so new. One had only a tiny  space where only one bag was allowed and there was hardly room to move around.  We had to get used to that, fast.

Some of us were eager to get to know what everything was, where everything  was, and to know most of all what we would be doing.

I approached the Hubbard Communications Office which was situated in the "tween  Decks below the main deck. Then I saw someone I knew from St. Hill. I had found  her again. She headed a Division on the ship, and saw that you were informed of  schedules, both for port and at sea.

We were in port for about two weeks. One had to read the rules of the ship,  and do an orientation Checklist similar to what we did already at St. Hill. When  you had done that and returned it to HCO, you were asked to take a seat. Then I  was given a paper and asked to read it. It was a contract headed: A Billion  Year Contract. I had not expected such a paper. I read it, and re-read it  because it required, more or less, that I would agree to work for the Church of  Scientology Sea Organization for the rest of my life. My first thought was, I  shan't live for a billion years. It was so strange to me. Never in my entire  life had I been asked to read something like that.

I read it several times more. Then suddenly there was a hand on my shoulder,  and that's all it took. I signed. That hand on my shoulder happened to belong to  LRH.

I spoke a few minutes with him, and the Sect of HCO. She brought me to where  I could help out for the time being until I was informed of my regular duties  attending ship functions at sea. Having little or no reality on all this, I was  pretty much overwhelmed. But I coped like very many others were having to do as  they went through the same thing.

The section I was put under was Ethics. I began first to file Ethics Reports,  updating staff and various other Ethics files. Lunch break soon came and I  attended my first real meal on a ship. Dressed in blue overall's, I was  extremely hot. A chance to go up on deck and sit down with a cool breeze blowing  was what was needed.

Some people who joined me on the ship really didn't expect that they had to  stay there and sign a contract. They didn't expect to have to work very hard.  It just didn't fit with what they thought in their own little world. Perhaps  they had thought it might be a luxury liner and they were going to lie back,  swim and have fun. That was not to be the case. So they had to make up their  minds - stay and fit in, or go back home. Those who didn't fit were soon  escorted off the ship. Some had to be given the air fare as they didn't have  money to get back home. I imagined that LRH was not pleased about having them  brought there only to have to get them home again at the Sea Organization's  expense.

I had heard that the ship would soon leave port and we had to chose to stick  it out - to make it or break it! I chose to stay.

One week passed and one got to know one's job.. I learned the duties and  prepared the ship for sea. The adventure of going to sea was approaching and I  was scared but there was nothing one could do about it. I was there. So I  thought, Pull your socks up and confront it.

It was really a tight group you worked with, and especially for LRH.  Everything was to be learned fast and thoroughly. We had no time to louse around  and pretend to work when we weren't. So many things had to be done. You just did  all that was needed, and helped out anywhere. We had to work tight and close  because a ship does not wait for you. When at sea it needs control and attention  at all times.

At sea you did lookout watches, forward and aft. You drilled when you weren't  on watch. You practiced on the helm, and various other sailing duties. As you  improved at other duties, you learned navigation. Drilling it and doing it was  the name of the game and you did it daily.

The ship and its crew were now operational, and new recruits were learning  the ropes. Being at sea on the first trip was at once an interesting and  frightening experience. But when you had no idea how to do anything, you just  did what you could. I hoped no one would ever find out I was scared to be at sea  or that it was not something I liked.

Soon we came to enter port. I was looking forward to this so very much. It  happened so fast, I was less scared. In port one took turns in watching the  ship. This was called Quarter Master Watches. You took care of the gangway, and  noted all on-coming and off-going people. You looked around and up and down to  ensure that all was Ok, and that nothing was out of place.

Lrh's schedule was different to the main crew. He was usually on his deck  late afternoons.

While in port, auditing and organizational training carried on. I did duties  such as Yeoman Assistant in Administration for the Ethics Officer.

The Ethics officer in those days was known as B.B. He was not liked at all by  most people. In the end he was not liked by LRH and especially by Mary Sue He  turned out to be most unsuitable and LRH fired him. After it was disclosed that  he was in possession of drugs, he got ordered off the ship within a few hours  and was never seen again.

Each day LRH and his aides toured the ship to inspect it and check that all  was in order. It took a lot to handle the ship and to know what had to be done  daily. On the tours of inspection, they also found out from each Division how  things were going on Lrh's projects.

My goodness, how different it was to being on land!

Sea Org Training - Trying to Cope

When in port, the ship ran two operations: An organization, and a sea vessel,  with basic repairs and general maintenance to be done. These were done daily,  and one was assigned to different duties at different days of tile week. You  also had a duty on the ship in the Organizational part, where your training to  be a sailor was improved. Sea Org books with drills were available at study time  and you were expected to do it. After all, we were training to be able to run a  ship, take it to sea, bring it to port and operate it as professional sailors.

Some days emergency drills, like Man Overboard, or Fire tween Decks, would  be called. You never were warned about those. There might also have been drills  like fire in the Galley, or another vessel approaching too near. The Captain  just called them. You took off your organizational hat and were then on your job  as a seaman. All kinds of things had to be learned so that we were ready and  able to handle anything at once and not wait for something to ram into us. No  such thing would be allowed to happen. We had to keep remembering that was a  ship. It was not a hotel or anything else but a ship!

When going to sea, we were told one or two days beforehand. That meant that  readiness for sea had to be done. This included tying down desks to fixed bolts  around the floors, removing any papers that were around and placing them in  fixed positions not to be moved while the ship was moving. Filing cabinets had  to be roped around and fixed to bolt fixtures. We even had drills for this in  port. The Chief Officer and Captain would inspect your area and see if all was  OK. They would flunk you on what was not OK and up to the standard required by  the Captain.

Then a real readiness for sea arrived. All was done, and we set sail. Each  one was assigned to a watch. Some did a day watch. Some did night watches as  well.

That time we were traveling around the Morocco coast. It was rough at night,  and you had to learn how to control yourself as the sea waves and currents got  at you. For beginner's like myself, getting sick was part of it. But you got  over it fast and were back to the job facing the enturbulations around you.  Sometimes there were force seven-to-eight winds, and waves beating with force  against the ship's sides.

Having an upset stomach was not what one wanted or liked but once I had to  excuse myself from the watch. Someone stood in for me and off I went down to the  deck below. After leaving the bridge, I had to pass very near to Ron Hubbard's  office. The door was open and he was in there talking to someone. He glimpsed me  and came out, laughed and said, "So - you're experiencing sea sickness,  ha".

Then he gave me some sort of seasickness pills, and said, "Go, take  these, and drink some good water. Then take yourself up again. Go aft and  confront your ship, and what is around you. Then look ahead not down. Sway with  the ship when it moves".

He gave me a sort of quick demo of swaying, saying, "Like this. You will  be OK in an hour or so. Let me know. Alright?"

I was amazed at the directness, and immediate solution handling and  confrontation and not allowing me to be the effect. I said, "Ok, Sir. Thank  you".

My stomach upset and dizziness was turning off faster than I could think  about having been sick. I called up to the bridge and said,, "I'm fine  now and ready for watch". No sooner was I back in action than I met LRH  back up on the Bridge. He paused and said, "Guess you are operational and  ready for the job again".

I said, "Yes Sir", and gave him a salute.

There were others who had seasickness. They were assisted by seasickness  pills as well, and learned similar handlings to mine!

Mary Sue was many times on the bridge as a helmsman. She was very good  indeed. Her captain was LRH who wore the Commodore's hat. Then she was trained  to relieve him of being captain. When not doing the bridge work, she helped  drill us on different functions and was very, very patient. With great support  and confidence she drummed in the handling of the ship and what we had to do. We  were all becoming familiar with being sailors and were past the sea sickness  stage.

Approaching Land - A Mission

We are now getting into 1968 or there about. Dates and years seemed to go by  so fast. The first Sea Org Mission was to fly to Scotland and give a set of  mission orders to the Executive Director of the 1st Advanced Organization  outside St. Hill Manor.

The briefing orders were first to be done in clay and to be checked by the  Missions Operator. Then he could see that one knew what mission one was supposed  to do, and all the steps to it. The title of the mission was Courier - UK  Transfer. Advanced Organization, Los Angeles.

The name of the Executive Director of the Advanced Organization in Scotland  was withheld from me for security reasons. It was explained that the name would  be in the orders to be opened on arrival in the Transfer Operation Mission. What  I understood was that some UK Scotland staff at that Advanced Org were going to  move out to Los Angeles. It was clear that the In-Charge at Scotland would get  relieved by another staff member there. Then that one would be the In-Charge of  the new Advanced Organization, United States. He was to take with him some staff  already assigned to posts in the new Los Angeles Advanced Organization.

It was not to be a slow task. The orders were to make it smooth but fast - a  smooth changeover.

In those days, each Mission was run directly from the ship under direct  supervision and control from LRH. Having been trained personally by him was an  advantage. His then Mission Operations Chief was a strong and tough lad, known  as Bill. He was a very intelligent person, well educated in Engineering and  Electronics. He briefed me on this mission. I was somewhat familiar with the  standards he operated on, as I was his Assistant in the Control Information  Center on the ship known as the Royal Scotsman.

Your general instructions for firing or preparing a Mission went something  like this, with rather a long checklist.

1. Without being previously prepared, you were called to Control  Information Center (CIC)..
2. You were told you were about to go on a Mission.
3. It was arranged when to go into Briefing. If you had other duties you  ended them off quickly, and returned to briefing. Your job would get covered  by another staff member while you were under Missions and Operation.
4. Return to Mission Ops
5. Study your mission orders.
6. Clay demo them. You were expected to be fast, possibly stay up all  night because that mission was to go out early the next day.
7. Operations checked that the clay demo was OK. Any questions were asked  and explained by the Operations Chief.
8. Sleep if you could, or be ready to fire at the departure time.  Clearance for set off was added such like checking for items as follows.
9. Passports were given and security steps taken. You were never allowed  to mention where you came from to anyone while on Mission.
10. Operation instructions were laid out and you were given your relay  lines instructions on how to feed back to the Ship's Operations Chief that  your mission targets were completed.
11. Missions expenses were given.
12. Verifications of all actions done. That was usually signed as ”Ready”
    Then you left.

No sooner were you briefed on the Mission, than you were taken to the airport  by Transport Operations. The plane was via Greece to Scotland where I took a  taxi. I was so happy to be back on solid land again, and seeing Scotland. I must  say, that was what I preferred.

I entered the building where the Advanced Organization, Scotland. had already  been operating for quite some time - how long I don't recall.

They had rented a large, run-down hotel pretty cheaply. It had been fixed it  up quite well even though the outside wasn't that good.

Many people - public and staff - were around, overloading the hallways. They  were pouring in people from all over the place, world wide. Rooms were packed  and staff were running around, trying to keep up with all the traffic.

The Advanced Organization, Scotland, was receiving all the public ready and  able to enroll on the Advanced Courses. They came from the United States,  Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and anywhere else in the world. People  were coming from St Hill Manor to Scotland.

No sooner had I stepped into the place than the receptionist passed me  quickly over to the Communicator for the Executive Director saying, "You  must be from wherever the ship is. Correct?"

I said, "Yes. I'm here to see your Executive Director".

She asked me to take a seat for a moment and I took the time to open my  instructions. Just as I read the name among the papers, out came a tall, stern,  young man dressed in naval uniform - black suit with gold braids on the right  arm, and a white and gold cap. He gave me an impression of strength and power.  There were a lot of good feelings in the air with him. I stood stunned at first.  Then I said, "I know you from St. Hill. So this is where you landed up. My  Gosh!".

We laughed together really loud. It was such a shock and a great surprise all  in one.

He said, "Great to see you again. Are you on the ship now? I just got a  telex to tell me you were arriving". Rushing me into his office, he  mentioned some nice moments we had shared at St. Hill. Then he took the pack and  read it all.

After he had read it, I said, "Well - you're off again pretty quick,  ha". "

He smiled and said, Yes. But we'll catch up again one day".

It was a pleasant moment even if it was only brief. As I saluted him to a  successful mission, he was off before I could hardly turn around. But now I knew  where Bill Robertson had disappeared to from St. Hill. He was going to be the  new In-Charge of the move to United States, Los Angeles.

The orders were to split the staff at the Advanced Org, Scotland down the  middle. One half would go to Los Angeles, and the other half stay in Scotland.  The Los Angeles half was to go pack their belongings and many trunks of material  and books and E-Meters. Supplies had to go with the personnel too. It all was  fast and smooth and out within twenty-four hours. The new Advanced Organization  was about to be opened up in the United States.

The moving of the Advanced Org from St. Hill to Scotland had been well  promoted and campaigns had been done all around the world. The Clearing Course  and the OT Levels were now available in Scotland and the traffic was tremendous,  with people arriving all the time. Many more also wrote, wanting to come. Their  letters arrived from all over the world. The doors were bursting with people and  there was so much demand that LRH was telephoned at the ship saying,  "Please open an Advanced Org in the United States.

A survey was done by a mission which went ahead of this one firing, to see  the local orgs around the US. The job was to observe what demand there was to  trigger off an Advanced Org. The mission was fired in its targeted time and it  turned out to be another very successful thing LRH did for the public.

My first Mission was complete. When I asked what my next step was to be, I  was told to remain in Scotland and help out at the Advanced Org there. I did  that for a while. Then after two months I was homesick, mainly because I missed  being around LRH. In those days I had the nerve to telex and ask to go home and  my request was granted.

I returned to the ship at the Island of Corfu. It was only for a week but it  was really beautiful. Then I was told that I was to go on another mission.

My Second Mission - Set Up An Advanced Organization

It was now around about 1969. I had done my basic sea training and had got  quite some experience at sea and in port.

While I was on watches at sea, LRH always appeared to oversee the navigation  and helmsmanship. Many times he stood up there and ran the commands to the  person on the helm. He always oversaw the Vogue and the safety of both crew and  ship.

LRH had trained some people to take command, keeping the ship on course. They  were obviously beginning to be useful to him and could do things for themselves.  Some were already trained seamen and that took some of the burden off the Old  Man. But even then they didn't do the things the way he wanted them done.  Sometimes you would hear some yelling going on, and other times you only heard  laughs and fun, and expressions like, "Ha - Man. Great job". So there  were always two sides to it all. A great job done was always validated. When  that was from LRH it was extra special.

We were off the island of Corfu with most of the flotilla. The Enchanter was there, later renamed the Diana, after Lrh's daughter. Then there  were the Athena and the Royal Scotsman. LRH was usually on the Royal  Scotsman, later called the Apollo. It was rare to have all the  flotilla in one port altogether.

While at Corfu, LRH looked around to see if it would be possible to put an  Advanced Org into that area. He visited some officials and the idea soon became  a reality. He came back with the news, and the next thing we read in the Orders  of the Day was, Good news, Advanced Organization, Greece is about to get  under way.

Everyone thought, Wha! what now?. Did it mean that the ship would stay  in port for some time or what? The rumors started about who might be on that  new Advanced Organization. Briefing soon took place for personnel for the  "AO - GREECE". Staff (or crew as they were known in ships terms), were  given a survey to fill in about what posts they'd held in a Scientology Org  before. We had to turn it in as soon as possible. Then out came the list of crew  and the posts to which they had been assigned. It was all pretty quick for AO  GREECE.

I was on that list.

Instructions soon came for those crew. They were ordered to meet in B Deck  Lounge at 2pm one afternoon. We were very curious to know what we were going to  be doing. Questions were asked. Where was AO Greece? Had a building had been  bought? But these details weren't openly available despite rumors going around.  Most of us didn't really take much notice until the real news appeared in the  Orders of the Day.

So we met at 2pm and were told that a building had been purchased. We were  handed out blue overalls and had to go with the Estate's personnel to start  fixing it up. It certainly was quite a broken down sort of building, never  having been finished by whoever had had it before. We worked approximately one  week and then all of a sudden it stopped. We were back at the ship and doing the  routine work again. Those assigned to the AO Greece Project were asked to meet  in the B deck lounge. Then orders were announced, something like this:

Get ready to leave within twenty-four hours. That means GET READY we are  leaving.

Those words sounded stern but there was no time to hang around and gossip  about the problems of this very sudden change. The Readiness for Sea actions  were put into effect at once. On the entire flotilla you saw ropes being got  out, bolts being placed to fixtures, desks getting tied down. Food was brought  on board, and so many more things had to get done. It was Go Go GO. The entire  flotilla was to be out of that port in twenty-four hours.

At such short notice it was not easy to get everything ready. Supply lines  had to be completed, and shore contacts ended. We had been in port a good part  of the summer, heading towards winter and more or less had settled down to daily  routine work. Public Relations appeared to have been building up and our local  shore relations were good. But a rattle snake seemed to have been put somewhere  up in the government, for it all to be turned around. We had to act fast and get  out!

The reason that was given was that government had been getting false reports  about the Royal Scotsman. Someone had fed in data about the ship having dealings  with drugs. It was a threat to the ship off shore. Officials suspected the ship  without any facts to back that up. Some talks took place but the situation  didn't get resolved that quickly. It then became a risk for us to remain there.  So as to avoid further hassles and shore flaps which would have cost time and  money, Lrh's solution was to move the ships and crew out while leaving some  Missionairs there to sort things out.

The entire flotilla was out within the time given, leaving a very tired the  crew indeed. Later the parties responsible for spreading false data against the  ship were investigated. This led back to "plants". Government spies,  operated from some level of the state of that area, had been placed as crew on  the ship and the dock. They operated on the dock as ordinary merchants, selling  goods to the ship as their cover. They had been filtering information back to  the Authorities about any move that was made on the ship.

The next question was, What would happen to the AO Greece?

Some of the crew assigned to that operation were to report to the Athena which  was able to take the bulk of the equipment, and some would go directly to a new, unknown location.

The Commanding Officer of the Athena, known as Jill, was  ordered to LRH's office to tell him where she was going to put the Advanced  Organization. Something had to happen and LRH wanted it done fast.

Jill was LRH's Right Hander at that time. She had disappeared from St.  Hill after having done the Briefing Course, and the Class 7 Course. A  well-educated lady both in business, and Scientology, she had been called to Las  Palmas where LRH had been at the time and worked as some sort of do-it-all  communicator for him. She was soon able to sail the Royal Scotsman with LRH  supervising and had also learned to drive a car without ever knowing how. She  had bought houses for LRH and did practically anything, even though she was not  at all experienced in some things. But she landed up doing it all, she was so  capable.

LRH liked Jill a lot. He put great trust in her, and respected her highly.  She knew how he operated and took the load, even if it was tough. She was  someone who could give and get orders, read them, and get them done. She was  also able to talk realistically with him if she did not think something was  right in all respects. Jill had a way with LRH and anyone else that dealt with  her. She was a tough, no-nonsense women, and got things done. And she was a  friend of mine.

One time she asked me to walk with her up to LRH's Office. I agreed and said  I would wait for her but she told me to go to bed. She looked nervous as she was  about to go in so I avoided her order and, comforted her towards his office and  waited. She was going to propose to LRH where she would place the AO in Europe.  I thought she might be nervous because she didn't know exactly how he was going  to react. But he had already told her to bring some solutions along, so he  obviously trusted her enough to give her that responsibility. She seemed not to  want too many people to know her ideas before she told him, so she had kept the  secret to herself. Now she knew she had to have a solution when she went in  there.

Waiting outside I waved her good luck.

I was about 3am when she went in there. It seemed so long until she came out.  Around 4-30am out she came, with smiles on her face saying, "Huh! Made it!  Let's get the crew and go".

I said, "Jill - do you know it's near 5 am in the morning? Don't you  want to sleep?

She said, "To hell with sleep. We can sleep in the plane".

I started, saying, "What plane? Where?"

Jill turned around and said, "Hush! I can't answer all these silly  questions now. But trust me. You'll find out. Come on. Let's get something  to drink".

We walked, not really observing where we were going, tripping on the stairs,  making loud noises and hushing at each other to be quiet We held back some  chuckles, forgetting it was the early hours of the morning as we headed toward  the good old galley as we chatted.

Jill said, "I was nervous that he would be mad at my proposal. But, when  you talk to the Old Man, one thing you have to have in your head is solutions.  That's what it's all about and that saved my neck. Now I feel I can relax, even  if its only for five minutes".

It felt like a new adventure was approaching for me. I didn't even know  where I was heading, yet, but I was happy. She was happy and wanted to enjoy the  fun, whispering in my ear, "I wonder if we can chat up Liza for a coffee.

I said, "Leave Liza to me".

Having had night duty in the Control Information Center which ran 24 hours a  day, I had been a secret visitor to the galley. so I knew Good Old Liza the  chief night cook, pretty well. So in we went. The smell of doughnuts being  cooked was irresistible and went to our noses at once. HUM. That sort of made it  easier for me to convince Liza now not only to let us have two coffees but two  doughnuts as well.

Liza was a girl from Las Vegas and really into doughnut making. She was well  in with LRH and Mary Sue who both loved doughnuts. Every Tuesday night was  Doughnut-Making-Time. And this night when the location for the next Advanced  Organization was about to be announced, was Tuesday night. So it was certainly  time for celebration.

Liza was in a bright and cheerful mood.

I said in a charming way, "Liza - that smell is not to be wasted without  a taste to prove you're the greatest cook".

We got our coffee's and two doughnuts and it was 5am as we slipped up to the  top deck to enjoying our feast! Later when I went to thank Liza for the treat,  she told me that LRH had already slipped in the back way and got his share  before us. She had a big smile on her face. Liza was always happy when LRH had  showed up to taste and to pass her doughnut cooking. She said that she gave him  at least four each Tuesday night and did it when he thought no one was around.

When Jill and I had finished our coffee and doughnuts, we headed down below  deck to start the business of packing up all the items which we had thought  would be used for AO Greece.

I didn't try to get Jill to tell me where are we going to put the new AO.  She seemed to have that all well under control. Anyway, being part of the crew,  I was going to get to know it in the end, so why worry.

Tired as we were, 8am soon came. Staff started to move around the ship. Those  staying were about to move out of port. The rest attended the meeting about  flying away to some new location where the AO was to be set up. Our bags were  packed from the previous day, and all the stuff that could go with us was  getting packed up. The rest went with the remaining AO crew who sailed with the Athena.

Just before leaving the ship LRH appeared, saying, "Have a safe and good  trip to Denmark".

Now we knew then where we were going, sad as it was to leave LRH. But it was  another important mission.

Advanced Organization - Denmark

Jill and her husband and fifteen of us landed in bitter-cold Copenhagen. It  was so very different to Greece! We took taxis to the center of the city, and as  we didn't have any place rented, we went to an hotel near the famous Tivoli  Gardens.

In Copenhagen there already existed a Class IV Org, and around Denmark were  some small groups where Scientology reading and courses took place in private  homes. One such place was Hovesgade, Number 6, where a lady called Joan and her  husband were running the Class IV center. Joan was a South African. She and her  husband knew Jill from the time when they had all been in South Africa,  beginning Scientology in Johannesburg. Perhaps that was one reason why  Copenhagen was chosen. Who knows?

We were allowed to rest for the day. With packing and assisting the rest of  the ship to prepare for sea, we had had very little sleep. Even having a bath  was a luxury.

Then we got the next instructions by evening, to be carried out the following  day. Meanwhile Jill made telephone calls She went to see Joan and her husband to  ask whether there was any spare space to operate from at their center until a  building was found for the AO. They easily arranged a fairly large room for an  instant operation, not far from our hotel. A few other matters were discussed  and then Jill returned. I hadn't seen her since she had put us in the hotel.

We had a good night's sleep then headed down for breakfast. For us that was  a real luxury. It such a nice hotel, and one we considered to be for rich  people. Then we walked to the Class IV Org It was a two-kilometers away and we  couldn't afford taxi's then.

Jill and her husband were there already and introduced us to Joan. She showed  us around, then took us quickly into our room where there were chairs and a  large round table big enough for ten people or more.

Now Jill explained that we would write letters to a list of names and  addresses that the Class IV Org had provided. People wanted information on the  Advanced Services and we would tell them when they could start. She made it  clear that the letters had to be interesting and to write in our best  handwriting. There was no such thing as a typewriter, or Dictaphone there. We  were now on our own and had to start from scratch using the little that we had.  Each of us had a quota of thirty letters per day. None of us thought or worried  about where we lived. We were starting somewhere. Our first step was to let  people know the Advanced Org was there. We all got on pretty well with the  leader of the Class IV Org, though she was not our chief. We didn't have  anything else but her room and, while we were writing letters, Jill and her  husband were out, scouting for a building.

Getting a place to operate and somewhere of our own to sleep was the first  priority. It had to be cheaper than living in a hotel, especially as our budget  was very limited. It was costly to feed the crew and pay the hotel when nothing  was coming in. There was only an emergency float which had been arranged via the  local Class IV Org for the mission's urgent needs. Now the overall objective was  to get a place, and get operational.

This daily procedure went on for approximately two weeks. Then we were told  that we would be leaving in the morning by train and taxi for a place outside of  Copenhagen known as Horbeak.

Having a location forty kilometers outside of City center, and right off bus  routes and not in easy access to public transport was going to have its  problems. The commanding officer could see that too, but she took what she could  get despite the barriers we were going to find ahead. We knew we would have to  have a ongoing transport service set up daily.

The location was called Abbelund. Situated on a farm with various  houses that were for family holidays, it had not been rented for quite some  time. But with a number of little houses on it, there was plenty of room for  expansion. The family that owned it lived on the same grounds but away from the  the staff sleeping and working quarters of our org. The family's name was  Silvester. They spoke not a word of English and Danish was not easy for us. But  the Commanding Officer got on very well with them, and they took a liking to  her. When we moved in they insisted that she was to eat with the whole family  once a week and she kept the promise..

The area was really picturesque. The grounds were full of flowers and fish  ponds, and beautifully kept lawns. There were plenty of places for walks, and  for getting away from the daily work. The family even had their own horses.  Whether of not these new surroundings would prove to be the ideal home for the  Advanced Organization - Denmark - we would find out later.

We soon settled in The sleeping quarters had four pretty big rooms. We could  easily fit eight bunks in each. That soon solved the sleeping requirements of  the staff.

The main sleeping house was furnished already and had two bathrooms and three  toilets. Then there were three other houses with some beds and furniture in  place. Those didn't need to be used in the beginning but were needed within  three months. All we had to pay for was new bunks.

The main house had around about twelve quite large, furnished rooms suitable  as work spaces. A large dining room and a fully-equipped kitchen was available  too, with all the necessary tableware and kitchen utensils. That kept the  starting costs right down.

This Advanced Organization was run just like any other organization.  Schedules were put in. Study and Auditing and Training for the public was to get  going as quickly as possible.

The Commanding Officer asked approval of treasury to get the org a car.  Without one, we would have been pretty stuck. It was approved. Then a full-time  driver was put on the job of bringing public to and from the train station and  the airport.

Now the letter writing started to pay off. We began to see arrivals who  wished to receive what we had promoted in the letters. The word got around  quickly. Tours went out to make it known that we were there. Staff started to  get recruited and slowly more and more people showed up. Then we had to provide  transport for people to get to their accommodation with the one car we had for  everything. It was quite a problem to work out. Somehow we coped, with different  people helping out.

The place was great for retirement, but not for the purposes of an AO. But  the important thing was that the Advanced Org was there and the students could  go further with their auditing and training.

The AO didn't make a lot of money in the first weeks. After three or four  months, completions were made and courses had students on them - so traffic was  in and out, even if it was slow.

The Org had a good number of Auditors and C/Ss. Weekly reports had to be sent  to Flag. That meant they went to where LRH was; somewhere in the USA. Around  that time LRH ordered the ships to be sold, so a base was set up for controlling  Orgs, AO's and Missions but it was not important that we know exactly where that  was.

In the early days, LRH saw all statistics, and gave his advice weekly on the  running of the orgs and the missions. This was in form of telexes of course. It  was learned over some time that LRH had not been fully informed of the exact  location of the Advanced Organization in Denmark. He certainly knew it was  there, but in temporary places. Its exact location off public transport lines  was a major concern. This appeared to come about when he had observed the  statistics of the AO - Denmark after it had been running for a good half year.  Overall it was not doing as well as he wished or expected it to do. So he  started to ask why.

An investigation had to take place as LRH had also received some letters from  public, and letters from staff saying how they felt and how the AO was and where  it was. So one could see that he got his data

Reviewing all aspects, including the statistics, he could see that something  was wrong. Why didn't it do better than it should have done? After all, the  Advanced Organization - Los Angeles, was now set up, and was doing great. They  had had over 100 people on lines in less than three months, and the delivery and  completions of services were doing well. There had been a weekly average of five  to ten Clears over three months from start up. The income was around 30,000  Dollars a week, which was very satisfying.

Advanced Org - Denmark had only half that amount of public on lines within  six months of start up. The income was very low for months, and completions  weren't very many - around five within three months, average. Those were poor  stats. What was the next step to take? What was certain was that something had  to change.

Questions had been asked and chances of improvement had been given to get  more people on services. A much better income was needed.

There was no telex machine locally and only one telephone. Telexes were  received at the Class IV Org in the center of Copenhagen. Transport In-Charge  collected and sent them each day, going into town 40 Kilometers.

Then some very unpleasant information reached LRH. He heard that staff had  not gotten paid for months because such little money had come in. But an expense  had been passed for a trampoline to provide some recreation for the staff as  paying them had not been possible.

All these matters needed attention and as fast. The Advanced Org had to  improve. The staff had to get paid. The statistics had to go up. LRH was  dissatisfied and it showed, so he ordered a mission there to find the bugs.

The first step of the mission was to remove the current Commanding Officer.  In those times, when one had had enough chances and no result one didn't ask  questions. You either removed yourself or got removed. Then you returned to the  ship and got investigated where you could speak up in your defense.

Jill got removed pretty much at once. She saw to it she was not seen or heard  of and got herself away as fast as possible. She had disappeared before I could  see her even though she knew she was going. Knowing LRH pretty well, and his  Right Hand for many months, Jill took it rather personally and apparently had  quite some upset with him over that. Whether he pardoned her is not known. She  later asked for leave from the Sea Org for having a baby, and wanted to return  to South Africa. Then she proposed to LRH that she travel Europe at her own  expense to get Scientology going within a German area. That request was granted.  She and her husband were most successful. They traveled around, set up a  Franchise, and put someone in charge. It boomed and later turned into one of the  most successful Class IV Orgs in Europe - the Munich Org.

The new commanding officer of the A O - Denmark was now in place. He was an  Australian known as Blake. He had been on the St. Hill Special Briefing Course  and later joined the rest of those that had "disappeared" to a secret place.  He had also done some Sea Org and Mission training prior to his new assignment.

An urgent staff meeting was called and Mission Orders were read out by the  new Commanding Officer. We heard that we would be moving again, carrying on  working at Abbelund until a new place was found.

One had to get used to a new Commanding Officer and not take things too  personally, although I had lost a friend and it hurt. That took time to heal.  But the good part about having the Mission there was that LRH had ordered that  the crew get paid. Within 24 hours of the Mission arriving, were called one by  one to the Banking Office to receive our back pay of eight weeks. It seemed  that, when LRH was directly handling something, it got done. I wondered who  would pay this out. The Advanced Organization didn't have much money. Then we  learned that the Sea Org Reserves had been ordered to pay it.

The going had been rough as one didn't have ones own money to act as a  reserve. Staff who smoked hadn't been able to afford cigarettes and had been  seen grabbing cigarette buts from public ash trays, it was so bad. Also - our  eating had been poor, often beans and rice, but having little money allocated  for food, one had to make ends meet. So, eight weeks pay was a lot for a staff  member, particularly since we had not seen any for weeks.

Being paid was also a boost in staff morale which had dropped over many  weeks. We were able to improve our stats somewhat and when Friday evening came,  were able to hire taxis after work and go into Copenhagen to a place known as  Club 6. This was the first liberty we had gotten in six months of AO Denmark, Abbelund.

We found out later that Club 6 was right next door to the premises which were  about to be rented for the new location of the Advanced Org.

Being a Representative in the Office of LRH

Advanced Orgs, and Class IV Orgs always had a box in their Reception with the  message: Any and All Communications received by me will be answered by me. This box was used regularly by Public and Staff, and was emptied by the LRH  Communicator every few days.

The job of LRH's Communicator for the Advanced Org meant that you had to take  care of any communications which went to and from the Org for the Office of LRH.

What did the LRH Communicator do with these letters?

The position required trust. When the letters were sorted out, a proposed  reply was always drawn up by the local LRH communicator. Usually you got hold of  administrative files belonging to the person to ensure you were familiar with  that person. Any relative information was noted extra on a separate sheet  attached to the proposed letter. This was done so that LRH could see at a glance  and either approve the reply, or otherwise note what else was to be included in  the reply.

All letters were written on pretty nice paper, with a hard surface to it, and  the heading L. Ron Hubbard. As we reached towards the 1980's one was a bit  unsure whether writing a letter to LRH was actually getting to him, let alone if  he actually saw or read any of them.

The LRH Communicator World Wide at that time was an English woman known as  Irene. She had done the job for many years, while LRH was at St. Hill, and later  at the ship.

A letter from Ron was a booster when you found one in your In-basket, or in  your mailbox. Wha. Great. You were full of joy as you opened it to see what he  had written.

The doubts began with public and staff when they started to get answers that  were not related to the subject they had written on. Or perhaps the reply would  be incomplete. Or perhaps it referred the person to someone else. When one went  to that other person he of she often didn't know anything of the matter, or told  you to see them later, or that they would get to that another time. Such answers  weren't very convincing. It took the trust out of the matter, and in some cases  left doubts altogether. The sudden change of a stable datum line and the fact  that the line might be unreliable, concerned many staff members. It had always  been such a reliable and stable line for all as. Could you speak about your  doubts? I dared to, even though mentioning any doubt - about whether LRH was or  was not getting letters - was considered to be unspeakable. Had this got out to  the Public, it would have created utter confusion between them and LRH. That  stable datum had existed for many years, and anything to change that was kept  out, no matter what it took to do so. Therefore, mentioning it was not done. One  suppressed it and kept it to oneself. If you did dare to mention it - perhaps  even to the LRH communicator - you got a dirty look. They thought it was and  insult even to question such a matter. Many letters did reach LRH still, but  that was certainly before the 80's. Later, prepared letters were approved and  stamped with his signature. Each communicator in each organization had a rubber  stamp and slowly put that system in.

When working as a communicator at the end of 1979, and later in other areas  of the organization, I found that my own letters were still getting to him. It  helped to know that the lines still worked, and where the letters went. It was  good to know Lrh's reply on a letter he signed personally.

The gradient introduction of the pre-post stampers of Lrh's signature  created greater chances for someone to filter the line. Seeing that the line was  being taken over made it hard for someone who had known LRH, and one wondered if  he knew that it would get worse. When in 1979 the following letter  headed, "Office of LRH", was received, I finally knew that the line had  been disrupted.

Dear...., Thank you very much for your letter which you say was mailed a  long while ago. My communicator has not found it, even after inquiring at  the organization you are at to try to trace it. Very sorry indeed, honey.

Love R.

For Office of L. Ron Hubbard (L. W.)

As a matter of interest among the contents of that letter which had been  "lost", were questions to LRH in three parts. It raised certain  concerns one had in connection to the job, the Public and, "Your mail to  you, Ron.".

Being accustomed to have replies written personally by LRH, one could say one  was not pleased to find out one's letter had been lost or misplaced. And here  was a letter not even stamped by him, but by his secretary. So - I made some  investigations and there was one hell of a price to pay for that. But I'll  write about it in a later chapter. So you'll have to read on to find out about  that, I guess.

Advanced Org Move - A New Job, Uniforms and Expansion

The Advanced Org Abbelund moved into Copenhagen.

We arrived pretty much within the time scheduled in the Mission Orders. That  had been to find a new place in downtown Copenhagen within two weeks from the  Mission arriving at Abbelund. It was a run-down hotel in mid Copenhagen,  and only five mins from the famous walking street of Copenhagen. We had to find  sleeping quarters as well.

I think you can imagine the pressure that there was to get it, and to move  the whole place again.

The new building was pretty, and big. It had space for many rooms although a  lot of repair work was needed on painting the walls and fixing the floors to  make it look any way presentable to receive anybody. We just had to get busy.

There was a lot of space on the first and second floor to be turned into  single-size offices. The plan was to build these as quickly as possible, make  Auditing rooms first, then a Director of Processing room, and a Case Supervisor  room. The Course Room was a large room which needed the floor sanding down, so  machines were hired.

The repairs got under way in order to make the building more or less ready  and open for business by the Monday after the weekend move. So, imagine the  speed that the move had to take place at. The personnel had to move this time,  and the trunks of material, and any extra MEST stuff that had been bought. And  there was so much of the general stuff one has to do in any move.

The first thing we did on arriving was to get the plans figured out for the  large rooms, up and down. Walls had to go up fast. This meant partitions all  over the place. Then came the painters with white paint. Those who didn't do  sawing of wood, or sanding or hammering, did painting. This of course included  women. In no time, single rooms were created and office equipment was coming in.  There were donations from the public of desks and chairs. The local Class IV  orgs that heard about the new Advanced Organization moving to central  Copenhagen, chipped in with many things. Money was donated as there were no  reserves from the small income the Advanced Org had made at Abbelund.

It was known that LRH paid an emergency float of some kind, to set it up.  Such funds always came from the reserves of Scientology and in those times had  to have LRH's personal approval.

Telephone lines had to be installed so that the organization had a direct  telephone link into the organization - most of all for the public to call in.

Believe it or not, apart from cleaning up and improvements, the basics were  all there, and available for us starting on target that Monday at 1pm. After  that, improvements were carried on through the months ahead.-

Problems like not having technical material in for German or French was the  first thing one had to worry about. The next thing was being certain about  finding Auditors who could deliver in those languages and keep up with the high  volume of demand that was coming.

As the weeks went by, and statistics improved, and pay for staff was seen,  things started to look brighter. Missionairs were happy, and reached their  targets too.

Once the establishment was done, some new faces appeared on executive level.  A new commanding officer was appointed - another South African, holding the post  of Captain AOSH DK Copenhagen.

Improvements of appearance in the MEST were being made and that was nice to  see. Over the years ahead we went from rough wooden floors to fine carpet's  throughout the building. Then, together with wall to wall carpets throughout the  organization, came improvement of communications within the lines of the  organization; an intercom system, and telephones in all offices. One by one,  Auditing rooms got wall to wall carpet too, and were furnished with pretty nice  stuff. Some rooms were even sound proofed.

LRH was very pleased when he read the statistics of products completed in a  such short period of time. The number of new people arriving and training, the  amount of auditing taking place, and the number of completions all went up each  week. So more personnel were hired as the organization grew bigger and bigger.  Delivery got bigger as well, due to the vast increase in traffic. New postings  had to be done. Staff had to get trained. Some had be get moved around to fit  the most urgently-needed areas.

Moving at the pace which the Advanced Organization moved at, one could get to  know how other jobs worked and improve ones experience in the Organization.

So from being a communicator for LRH at the first Advanced Org in Europe, my  jobs went from doing Technical Services to Director of Processing. Then came the  idea to take a greater challenge and prepare myself for this.

Each time you moved, your post had to be replaced by someone who could do the  job well. So you had the job of grooving the new one in. Usually they read the  hat that was written for the job. Then they were checked out on it. The next  step was to do the job, showing the new person the steps before getting him or  her to do it. You watched carefully for a period of time, checking everything,  and answering questions as they came up. After that was done you could take up  your new job, except now it was you who had to be the student and be checked out  on every detail.

Staff study time was scheduled daily, worked out by each Division so that  each staff member might to go off and study his or her hat, or a course, or  whatever he or she was auditing on. You just had to learn fast. Not only that,  it was your duty to keep improving yourself for the job, and accepting  responsibility for any and all functions of the job you were entrusted to do.  Your own enhancement time was reflected against your production. That was based  on how well you performed your job, and how good the statistics were for the  post you held.

Getting replacements for both Director of Technical Services and Dept of  Processing, I still wanted more challenge. That challenge was to work with  public, either in the Public Division (division 6), or the Registration  Department (Division 2).

To do this, one had to have no back-off about talking to people, and had to  have pretty good telephone abilities. Those were required for both Divisions.  Most of all it was important that you were not a potential security risk or a  trouble source, especially on money lines.

I chose Division 2 after speaking to Lilla, the In-charge of that Division.  She had to put what is known as a Completed Staff Work proposal through to the  Captain to get approval. The replacement from the previous job had been done.  Lilla seemed to think I was capable and she wanted me. So she decided to punch  it through. Getting people switched around for other jobs was not easy. One had  to do some wheeling and dealing. There had to be internal discussions about  switching one staff member to another job and getting a replacement. This was a  challenge in itself. Then being new to a new game and a new post one had to  start all over again.

One had to learn what services were available both in the lower part of the  Org and the Advanced part because Class IV services, and the St Hill Special  Briefing Course were delivered in the technical division (Division 4).

The organization spent large amounts of money each month on mailings -  actions to promote the organization and the services it was able to deliver both  in St. Hill. And, in the upper part where Advanced Levels were. In central  files, where the active publics letters and correspondence were kept, the  volume went from 5.000 to 10.000 within six months. It went from 15.000 to  30.000 in the late 1970's. Being active meant being on a service, or at a rest  period but remaining interested in carrying on. These were figure's on which to  base some sort of expansion improvement.

The organization was split as a St. Hill and an Advanced Organization, though  operating under one roof. As a registrar it was essential to know and understand  what services were available. The job entailed telephoning prospective students,  interviewing them, and writing to them. One had to be be confident in giving  correct answers about anything, ranging from how to get there, what to pay,  where to stay, and so on. The public wanted certainty that all would be fine  when they arrived.

You had to create your job. You were required to build up a central  communications telephone system. After each communication, you had to make a  short summary sheet (called Data Sheets), and place it in each file after.

Name: _____________ Date: ______________

Purpose of Call: _________________________

Results: _______________________________

Anything that resulted in the person paying for a new service, or planning to  arrive soon required you to notify other sections of the organization. In the  beginning we had no proper data sheets so one just made them up oneself. Then an Addresso system was installed to make it easy to keep things up to date  at all times. One's contacts might have been anywhere in the world. They ranged  from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, to the Bahamas. You talked to  all walks of life.

One's products that were listed daily were telephone contacts to be made,  interviews to be done, income confirmed or arrived, and new people who would  arrive - usually for the first time, Your chief saw these lists several times  during the day and checked up on how you were doing, and looked for bugs when  products were at a slow space.

The day started off at 9am with Roll Call for all staff. You were never  excused for being late. An amends project might be given such like stuffing  mailings after 10.30pm at night.

After roll call, followed a cleaning of your space, and getting a coffee as  fast as you could, and putting on your lipstick, powder, and perfume, but only  if you could afford those. One somehow did. Making yourself as presentable as  possible was essential.

One thing that definitely improved the appearance of staff was uniforms.  Being a girl or woman you would try to have some say over the shaping of your  skirt when the dressmaker fitted you. That's about the one thing you could  manage to have some say over without following a set rules of how it was to  look.

The dressmaker's operation just happened to be next door, and on the same  floor as the organization, so that made things very easy when it came to getting  uniforms and the Advanced Organization was paying

The move to better quarters, expansion, improvement in appearance with  uniforms, and getting a challenge, seemed quite a lot to deal with. However, you  coped, got on with the job and learned more as you went along.

A Non LRH book Applied On the Job!

Now having learned the ropes of being a registrar I wanted to improve in  selling services for the Church.

In the Church of Scientology public newspapers or magazines weren't available  for anyone, including public. Whether it was forbidden or not is hard to pin  down. That was not written anywhere. But something else was forbidden. Staff  would play cards for money after work or on liberty, just having fun. They would  have a few beers if they could afford it. Then they were asked by the Ethics  Office not to play cards for money. This order came from a Commanding Officer of  another Org, not the one I was in. It was said that if people in the wog world were to hear that we were playing for cash they might say that Scientology  was into gambling.

Seniors seemed concerned about the ban. Perhaps it was because of their own  loss of not winning some money. Or perhaps someone observed outsiders spreading  rumors that Scientologists were gambling, One never knew the answer.

Anyway - forbidding newspapers or magazines, privately or otherwise, was  never official. It was only frowned upon if someone was seen reading anything  other than an LRH book. Only one thing seemed to be well established. In the  tightly-operated business that a Scientology Org was, who would have time for  reading tabloid newspapers? With regard to newspapers it would be said, Thats  nothing to do with us. And anyway, reading newspapers is silly because they  don't report all the truth.

However, not everyone thought the same. Some felt it was a way of being kept  informed about the outside world. If you did not poke your nose into newspapers  or TV, you would have lived only in a Scientology world, never ever knowing  about what went on outside. That was more than 80% the case.

For those who left later on, and had to adjust to the outside world again, it  was not easy. For some who were born into the Scientology world it might have  been the first time they had experienced the outside world at all.

Working on the new job was a challenge. You had to find ways to improve. One  had to think, Create Your Job - so you did.

One had the list of available services and all its prices. You had the Chart  of Awareness and the Gradation Chart, which listed all levels of the Scientology  Bridge from Life Repair to OT VII, and you had the other side of the Bridge  Chart concerned with training, starting from the Communications Course and  progressing to Class 8.

The Registration Department was kept very much up to date with what was  available and how to approach the customer. We had weekly briefings from  technically-trained Case Supervisors, and regular updates from the Training  Department.

Even when things ran along well, you were always looking for improvement on  the selling of the service. Your approach and presentation counted a lot when  calling or interviewing one's customers.

By that time, LRH had many Policy Letters written. These appeared in the  Green Volumes and were used all the time. But having a professional approach to  the matter of closing a sale one had to be looking for improvement all the time.

The org was in the city and only five minutes away from some main stores. But  to get the chance to get out was not that easy. Officially, you had half an hour  for lunch. You could perhaps get away with one hour if you could get someone  within your department to cover for you. This was usually arranged among  ourselves. Deciding to get out one lunch break and have a bite to eat, I headed  down the famous walking street of Copenhagen. Enjoying a sandwich I had bought,  a bookshop caught my eye. I went in and strolled around, checking my watch so  that I would not be late, although I knew the book shop was far more interesting  than getting back to my desk.

Suddenly a book caught my attention. It read BIG LEAGUE SALES. Author Des  Lane. I opened it up. At the same time a guilt feeling immediately started  in my stomach. I was reading a non- SCN book. Then I said, Oh to hell with  it. I ain't gonna miss my chance, and carried on reading.

The introduction was fantastic! I loved what I read and said to myself, I've  gotta get it. My next thought was, How do I pay, and do I have enough  money to buy it? I managed somehow to scrape up 120 Danish Kroners which was  all my pay. I did consider it was an awful lot, but then I thought if it was as  good as it was saying, my income could double in a very short time. I realized  that I would only see if it worked by reading it and trying the tools. Of course  one would make the money for the organization. But then I thought that my pay  and bonus, based on how much income I made, might improve. Then I wondered about  being seen in such a shot. Then I realized that I didn't have my uniform on so  nobody would know I was a Scientologist. Anyway, they wouldn't care whether I  bought that book or any other for that matter. So I told myself sternly to stop  the paranoia, and bought the book.

Then I had to get back to work and read it. But now the problem was, having a  non-SCN book, when and where could I read it. I could not afford to worry  whether it was OK or not. I justified this by thinking that LRH read newspapers  and kept himself well informed on world affairs! It was important. You never  knew who was an enemy in your back garden.

The book contained many different approaches to sales techniques. That was  what I wanted to know. It contained a gold mine of other data on handling sales  which was obvious would pay off later.

So - around eleven that night, I got home and read until the early hours of  the morning, loosing my most needed sleep. I didn't care. The book was more  important for me at that time than my sleep. Towards sunrise I knew I would only  catch about four hours sleep, and better close the eyes and rest a bit. But I  was already half way through the book. I put the alarm on for twenty minutes  before normal waking-up time so that I could spend that time reading before I'd  have to shower, get ready and eat some sort of breakfast It would only be  something like pancakes or oats and I was so excited over what I had read so  far.

I put the book under my pillow and got off to the organization with the idea  in mind to make a greater effort to get my stats. That would allow me to leave  early enough that evening and get home and finish off reading it! I managed to  show the Commanding Officer the stats were up compared the week before and after  10.30pm muster I was off. (If your stats were down, you had to stuff mailings in  Division 1 for around an hour, then secure and go home. You still had to be on  time the next day at 9am for muster of all staff).

I could only afford a bus card to travel to and from the org to the sleeping  quarters by paying it out of my wages. Normally many of us walked because the  pay was low in the late 1970's and a lot of the times we might only get paid  half or three-quarters of the full amount. It depended on what they were able to  afford to give out in pay. Berthing and food was paid at the expense of the  organization on a weekly Financial Planning (FP), basis.

Accommodation went something like this: Married couples got double rooms.  Single parents with a child got a single room. Single people with no children  lived in dormitories, bunking up around six to ten per room according to the  size of the room.

Ok - back to the Big League Sales book. Having gotten home again, finishing  it off was a treat for me. I loved reading it. I loved the style of the book. I  felt I had a secret of some new tools which I was going to put into action. Once  or twice I wondered whether I would get found out and would have to reveal that  I read a non-SCN book. What would happen then?

At my work in the day I practiced the drills in the book, and the different  approaches. They actually worked, and I was getting results. One important point  which contributed to the results was that I made cards of the key factors and  referred to them when a certain approach had to get used. Each time it seemed to  work. My secret code was only to write down the key points, not indicating where  they came from. My secret was working, and I was having fun!

The income improved 5% to 10% in one week. Then 10% to 50% in two weeks, and  50% to 100% in three to four weeks. A good week in those days was figures going  from 20.000 US dollars to 30.000 dollars to 50.000 dollars over a period of  three weeks and upwards. The danger of this was, the more you made, the more  demand you were in for from your seniors and executives from the organization. I  continued to improve on the application of the sales techniques. The income went  soaring from 70.000 to over 100.000 dollars per week. But - what I didn't expect  and was not prepared for was the demand for more from those above me.  Nevertheless I carried on, regardless of the pressure, though it certainly  started to make me unhappy. I had to build up a contact list; and resources to  be able to achieve the demands of my seniors. Along with that, my own prepared  daily program had to be well planned out. That was one of the good reasons to  mention the success of the book. The building up of resources was a key issue.

Next to knowing your working tools and knowing your customers, you had to  care for them, and ensure that they received the services they worked so hard to  get.

Having obtained such results you can imagine the pressure was placed on me by  the executives. They could expect a fair sum of completed sales each week. That  sometimes got in the way, in more ways than one. Operating on a one way street,  with only half a day off, one had to fight to get the result. And the only way  to stay above it all was keep cool, get your morale up, get out for a break,  walk around the block and hold your position in space. That meant not letting  others take advantage of you or tell you what to do, especially when in most  cases the seniors had never done such a job. Neither did they have a clue about  handling people from all walks of life - particularly on the subject of money!  They didn't know how to interview or be a good listener, either. A major part  of the hat was handling the logistics of actions that had to be done to locate  contacts and complete all steps on a weekly target. The Commanding Officer had  her targets to get because the organization ran on statistics and weekly  targets.

The operation was on a continuous create - making regular contacts and  finding out when they could come, when they felt they were able to pay, and how  much, One built a structure of clients to count on, sometimes for the week to  come or for a few weeks time. If they were ready for Advanced services, one  questioned if they had completed all steps to be allowed to enter advanced  courses, asked if they were ready to do the Solo Course and so on. A factor that  always involved anyone coming to the Advanced Org for Auditing, Training, or  Advanced Solo Levels was, What could he or she afford? All services had  to be paid at the quoted price. In the Church, prices from the 1970's onwards  were increasing at 5% each month for services of all kinds. This was a way to  get public to pay if they were still able to afford the already high prices.  Believe it or not, they did. They dug up the money from anywhere so that they  would not have to pay the new higher price each month. This placed tremendous  pressure on the public. Those who could and would pay, usually came from Class  IV Orgs, or a Franchise.

One morning I got my daily visit from the Commanding Officer around 10.30am.  As she came in, I said, "Take a seat". The office was bright, full of  glass, with red carpet and flowers, and always a cup of coffee available for  visitors. She caught me between a telephone call, and finishing an interview and  I wondered what she wanted apart from the routine hassle of how many bodies or  money was expected to arrive.

She sat down just as my typist grabbed my signature on a letter that had to  go at once. Then she mentioned that she had something more than usual to ask  about. When she pulled out a telex from an important person, addressed to the  Registrar, she asked me to read it and to telephone her to say what she might  answer.

I read: Division II. Attention - Chief Registrar. VWD (Meaning Very well  Done), on income. It's been on an Affluence trend towards Power for over four  weeks! Who is assisting you? What success do you have running up such an income?  Who are your registrars besides yourself, and income lines. Please give the data  and break it down on what actions are successful.

Added in the telex to the Commanding Officer was: We are aware you have  increased the number of personnel in the Treasury Division, and also in the Dept  of Income and the Dept of Registration, Who are these people? And could they  help out with answering the above. It ended with L.L.R. (That meant - Love, Ron)

I gathered LRH had read the stats and obviously was interested to know how  the improvement was done, what was being done and how was it being done. He  wanted to know what was successful. He was interested in all stats in all  Divisions and the reasons why they were up or down. He wanted to know what had  been changed both in up trends and down trends.

When reading the telex my first reaction was how nice to see that Ron was  seeing the production figures. At that time, the telexes he wrote were actually  from him. After I re-read it I suddenly had to think what I could answer. Then I  had a guilty feeling about The book!, run through my mind. Secretly I  knew that it had been a major part in my success. My stomach went hard. I felt I  was going red and I wondered if she would see that.

The Commanding Officer asked me what I had to say. Fortunately the telephone  rang, and someone was waiting outside. I breathed a sigh of relief. I could  stall answering the question for the moment. Then I would have time to think  about what I should reply.

I asked the CO if she could leave the telex, telling that I would answer it  within a few hours and send it down to her. As she left the office, I felt very  relieved and mumbled, "Thank God" as I picked up the telephone. I was  back to the job, leaving the telex in front of me. But it could not be put off  for long. Telexes from LRH were always answered the same day.

As soon as I was free I was back to confronting answering that telex from The  Old Man. In one way I was happy he was asking. In another way I wondered what he  would say about me using a non-SCN book, not written by him. My biggest worry  was what his reaction would be if I told him the truth. I read the telex over  and over again. Each time I read, Tell me what you are doing, which is  successful.

I decided to write the following:

Dear Sir,

Thanks very much for your telex. The following are some successful actions  done based upon a book I read out of working hours. I found it useful to the  job, and it helped to increase sales and approaches. The book's name is BIG  LEAGUE SALES by Les Dane. I put some of the drills and methods into practice and  found that they worked great. So I carried on taking parts out of the book and  putting them into action. I will carry on applying them and watch out for  further results. The following applications are successful:

Give a friendly and reliable feeling to the customers on what you are  talking to them about.

Know your services well, and be always kept briefed by the Technical  Division who delivers the Services or Wants available at all times.

Be interested not only in getting advance donations from your customers,  but see that he or she arrives and gets delivered to.

When customers arrive take an interest in each one to ensure he/she is  receiving the service paid for, and if reported by customers on delays or lack  of service or otherwise report attention to delivery lines, and liaise with  customer and delivery lines for smooth handling to result without delay.

Do follow ups on any interest for services with those in the field or  where ever one was receiving interest either by telephone call, or letter, and  get confirmations where ever possible, and keep a data file on follow-ups on  each cycle that needs to get the customer to eventually arrive in the shop.

Used tech consultant personnel for interviews if any technical questions  arise, separate tech and income each time on each client applicable whether in  letter, telephone call or interview.

Will keep you posted on its progress to higher Steps.

L. Chief Registrar.

For weeks on end the success went on and I certainly got my money's worth  from reading that book and other books Les Dane had written. Here I must mention  an SO1 letter written to Ron from the office of the Registrar. It went something  like this.

Dear Sir,

Following up the telex week ending... on the reasons for improvement of  the stats, I wanted personally to write a short note to mention that I hope  you didn't object to me applying tools out of a book that's not SCN. It was  so good I had to try its tools and it obviously worked. Ha! L.

I waited some weeks then one day as I emptied my In basket I read the back  titled L. Ron Hubbard.

Dear L,

I most certainly got the telexed reply from your Commanding Officer. You  would have seen the VWD telex to your Commanding Officer on reply to the  questions about your success. Great on how you improved the production  through applying some drills from the Big League Sales book by Les Dane. I  read it myself. It's great. BLS Tech will come out as a Bulletin which can  assist others in the use of it. Have a great success in applying the tricks,  Honey. L. Ron.

That made my day! I was over the moon for days reading that letter. I was so  very happy that my secret had been accepted, and delighted that BLS Tech was  later put into Scientology Organizations.

Decision to Transfer and, Learning it the Hard Way

I worked at the Scientology Organization for a good number of years and built  a very successful working system in my job. It was expanding very well indeed.  Then I took the plunge to take myself out into the field and go directly to the  public instead of sitting behind a desk and waiting for them to come in through  the main door.

The move required a transfer to the European Office. At that time it had a  Division known as Tours in it, separate to Senior Management. It meant going to  another area and leaving the Advanced Organization.

It took more than three months to find a replacement. I had trained one  locally who had worked under me for a long time. But when I came to the point of  saying, I have trained my replacement, it was not as simple as I thought it  would be. Appearing before the Personnel section of that Organization, I had to  give them full details about who my replacement was and proof that she was  hatted. Then I was told that this would take a few days before I would know all  would be OK. Meanwhile I just kept on at my old job. After some days I had heard  nothing, so I decided I'd better check this up. So off I went to the Personnel  section and stood in front of the desk. Then I asked if I may sit down, and any  news on of my replacement? The lady went away and came back after some time  handing me some papers.

It read: "OK on registrar trainer hatting, but it cannot be your  replacement. That will have to be a person equally as good. This can be either a  Technical person or a Administrative one."

I thought what an arbitration that was, to have to have a replacement as good  as myself. Of course I queried the objection to the proposed replacement on my  job. They then explained that my proposed replacement was someone already in the  Division and not a new recruit. That was true. She was recruited by me to the  Division and had spent several months learning the ropes. I thought to myself  about all the work I had done, and now they were using this kind of trick. I  knew now that they wanted new recruits that would take more time to train up  from scratch. I also thought that even if I recruited to the section and trained  the person up, I might get told that this was not my replacement. Gosh all that  effort and now this. I guessed they were trying to gain on others recruiting for  them and with them getting the statistics. Pretty cheap labor!

I realized that I couldn't argue with those guys and waste time. It wasn't  worth it. So, I decided in my free time to investigate the source behind that  trick. What I found out was the Advanced Org actually wanted a guy in Management  Europe who wanted to switch over. He was an Auditor and wanted to be in the  Advanced Organization and get further training. But management weren't willing  to let him go without having a suitable replacement as good as he was, if it  meant loosing a Tech guy for themselves and gaining an experienced  Administration person in exchange even if it was for Tours. Their logic was: If  we get that person, perhaps Europe Management will get more money in commissions  through the tours.

I told the seniors of this Management I wished to come, and that I knew who  the Advanced Org wanted in exchange. I established that it was a fact that the  auditor guy showed an interest in getting replaced and getting over to the  Advanced Org. So I told them, Let's not waste time. Let's get on with it  and write it up as a proposal and see if they buy it.

I considered it a challenge to play a bigger game, realizing perhaps there  were greater risks involved. Somehow this got through The Advanced Org got its  Tech Auditor, and Management got the Admin person.

Ending off matters with my replacement, saying goodbye as I was leaving was  not easy, but one just had to take the game as it was and not get too emotional.

I found it hard to adjust to the new location and its operation, because it  was actually a new Division put under Management but run by Flag, the senior  management, known also as The Flag Land Base. Later this was known as Gilham Hot  Springs where the real senior control management was operating, and which has  become the secret base these days.

It was a challenge to start up touring around and building the activity up  from scratch through Europe. I did some local registration for that area and  proved to them I was OK. I did a few trips around Europe, and then I was invited  to go to the Flag Land Base and meet up with the most experienced registrars in  Division 6. It was an invitation at their expense. I had learned during my short  time at the European Management that, in order to get invited to Flag, one had  to be considered pretty darn good. It had to be approved locally by Management  and seniors of Tours.

The Flag Land Base was situated at the Fort Harrison Hotel at Tampa, Florida.  It had been set up as service organization, approved of course by LRH. Its  purpose in the beginning was exclusively for the elite such as celebrities. The  idea was that they could have a place to get away from it all. This created a  safe and acceptable environment for such people to enjoy. These were usually  celebrities already, having gotten to know what Scientology was by being  involved in it through Yvonne Gilham who ran the first Celebrity Center in Los  Angeles. She is sadly dead now.

A few such celebrities were: Chick Corea, Priscilla Presley, Karen Black,  John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

You had to save and be prepared to spend a lot of money there. When deciding  to take yourself to Flag, you would never get away without spending a good few  thousand dollars. Some spent between 50.000 to 100.000. Accommodation could  range between $80 to $500 a week. The food in most cases was individually paid  for, depending on what class of accommodation you took.

One eating place, known as the Hour Glass, was for the rich, and those who  could afford high prices. Another was the Lemon Tree.

Since the expenses of running and staffing such a hotel were very high, the  senior Management soon realized that keeping it for VIPs was not viable. So the  doors were opened to those who could afford it - rich people in general, or  sometimes even for the not-so-well-off. So the "Very Important" title  was soon laid to rest.

While being at the Flag Land Base I met many, many people. I worked close to  the Registrars, pulling in the money for Flag. They averaged  two-hundred-thousand to half a million dollars per week at that time. Just for  the record, an average cost to run the Fort Harrison back in the 80's was said  to be around $700.000 or more per week. One never ever got to see the real  figure's, but as a Registrar you experienced the pressure from the executives  who ran the place for making the money

To obtain the standard and the number of people to arrive at Flag for  services per week, it soon became clear to Flag Management and its service  organization that it had to go worldwide. So they did. They produced a video  known as the Secret of Flag Results, and scheduled dates around the world,  including Europe, for showing it. These events took place on Saturday evenings  wherever they went.

Prior to the actual tour, an advance man was sent to prepare the event, find  the hotel and accommodation for the tour personnel. Then promotion had to go out  to the local Org or Franchises and public well in advance. The room in the hotel  for such an event generally cost them a packet since it was usually something  like the Hilton or the Sheraton..

I worked in Public Division 6 at the Land Base for a few weeks prior to  knowing I would be with the next tour going out. So I got some idea about how it  all was going along, and what to expect. There was certainly much more pressure  for the Tours personnel than I had already experienced where I was.

The Tour's first stop was Paris. That was great. Some people there knew me  already. Others did not. Most of the people spoke French so we had to have a  translator which was not always easy to get.

The Paris Organization working quarters were not particularly upstat. Rooms  were few and far between and were taken up for auditing in the main. One often  had to sit at a desk in a corridor because they hadn't expected so much  expansion so quickly. It was more than busy - much more than when I had been  there last.

Flag Services were much more expensive than at a lower Org. I had to learn  all the prices quickly. One had to promote the very best of C/Sing and Auditors  who were available at Flag and be sure to instill a sense of trust into the  public to help them decide about going there.

Rundowns that could not be done outside of Flag were a key factor in getting  people interested to go there. One had to say that it was the only place one  could get this-and-that handled, or that this-and-that rundown was the very  thing that would assist that person's situation. Such rundowns were the L  Rundowns, The Case Cracker Rundown, The Case Booster Rundown, The Flag Special  Intensive, and many more.

After the Saturday night event with Flag some people were overjoyed. They  flipped out, perhaps waiting to get an interview with the most senior Flag  Consultants. Appointments were always arranged the same evening while people  were enthusiastic. Those appointments were usually made by the local Registrar.  The Flag Registrars were also known as consultants. They liaised with the Org  Registrars since they knew their public better than the Flag consultants did.

It all worked pretty OK in the beginning. If they worked together with the  local registrar it was OK, particularly if the local Org did well. If Flag did  well too, it was fine. But disputes seemed to appear as soon as either one or  the other did not have a good week, or advantage was taken either way.

However, the Paris Tour interviews were lined up. Then they would get down to  work to get the business finished up. It sometimes also involved a technical  consultant before it got turned over to people involved in the arrangements for  paying. These weren't small amounts for the customers to pay. In most cases it  involved between $10.000 to $30.000 or more. It depended on what was needed and  wanted on each case. More often or not it depended on how much the person could  pay, or whether or not they had reserves. I often wondered where they got those  of sums of money. But, you couldn't put any counter thought on any income lines.  You just had to work it out and get it, no matter what. Sometimes the reserves  were there, sometimes it involved documents or agreements or certain terms under  which one could get the moneys freed up. Sometimes there was a lot of waiting  time. Sometimes it took weeks or months for some money to come through from a  house or car sale, an insurance policy to pay out, or an inheritance to come  through. Some had savings and made part payments. Others perhaps had a family to  turn to for the money.

Flag operated very much on the buy now basis, offering special deals, with  certain percentages taken off if one paid within a set time period. Of course  this was encouraged. If a saving could be seen, the public would try to go for  it, provided the funds were possible from somewhere. This would assist the  registrars in their weekly income. Of course all efforts were made to find a way  the customer could get hold of money right then. It was the best plan to get it  that week and not have to wait. This of course shows you the pressure put down  the line to squeeze the customer. The closer to the week ending, the more  pressure was put on.

Many, many tricks were done to get the customer to buy right then. It was  hard to stay above all of it sometimes. But you just had to and not think it  could not be done. Taking a walk around the block was part of a repair program  to get you back up tone, and to feel you could carry on. As the weeks went by  one often wondered how one managed to handle it all.

Mainly one felt the heat, the mental force, from the Big Brothers above,  watching you and calling you by telephone from the United States, spending at  least ten minutes or more each time and picking times of the day when the  telephone rates were higher instead of calling in the evening after a certain  time. That didn't seem to matter to them. It was more important to get the  information than to consider what the calls cost because of the pressure from  their seniors who needed to know right then. Each time they called, you got  asked how was it going, and what was lined up now. Any news? That meant, How  much income do you expect? It got even tougher when one couldn't say. You  were under some sort of threat if you hadn't gotten anything confirmed since  last time they called. It was as if they were saying, Well what are you  doing? How come there is no change, and such silly, stupid stuff without  asking logical things like, What kind of interest is there? or, How  many people? and placing more concern on volume of interviews instead of the  cash expected to come in.

It certainly didn't seem to get considered that Prospects take time to  arrange moneys and that one has to work hard at interviews and call-ins. Then,  out of 20 to 30 interviews, you might only get one good one with a pretty  damned-good amount of services sold.

Nothing came out of the skies, which seniors seemed to expect. They wanted  miracles without doing much, and expected big fishes to come easy. They did not.  The reality was totally beyond their understanding. All the steps one had to do  to set-up a sale took time; talking, working out and logistics and handling  banks. People sometimes had more than one bank. Sometimes there might be only  one person doing all of these actions. Those at the Flag Base waiting on  predictions to be completed, sometimes operated in a state that seemed unreal.  And, if some predicted amount suddenly dropped out, they got mad. Patience would  run out and threats would start coming in. Conditions might be threatened, or  there might be a danger that you would be removed and sent to the RPF.

Most of those seniors back at the Flag Base were statistic-counting people,  sitting at desks, collecting and getting orders. They compiled the figures  without ever ever having to deal with Tours or real, live people within the  existing world. It became a necessary and ongoing adjustment of reality for a  consultant to try to bear with it and do the job.

One could never voice things such as mentioned above. That would bring an  immediate assignment of a Condition. Perhaps you would be fired from the job.  Where one was trying to place a reality one could possibly be declared PTS,  threatened for backflash or disrespect to seniors Reality did not count. It  could not.

Products were expected and it seemed that it didn't matter how they were  gotten. To give an example: The target given and expected to be met as an  average Income for a Flag Registrar or a person working in the field for Flag,  was around $50.000 - not less. And the more you made each week the more you were  targeted to make the next.

If you operated as a single Tour without anyone else, you did several  functions: The Registrar function, the Admin, the Logistic of the sale, the  arrangements of moneys available, the Telephone Caller for prospects and the  Interviewer. And you had to see that all was completed at the Org you were  selling for weekly.

The first Flag Tours in Europe ranged between $200.000 to $300.000 in main  areas such as Copenhagen AO, and Munich Class IV Org. These were the biggest  Orgs at the time. Also Franchises were part of getting people to Flag, and  certainly supported the money to Flag since these were the ones with reserves in  their hands. The Flag Tour being new into Europe and the highest Scientology  Services Org in the world was a big thing in the beginning. In those days, each  area the Tour went to was excited. It was really something not to miss out on if  one could afford it. One could sometimes dream up the money out of nowhere to  get a service at Flag. That was the thing to do. The Flag Tours certainly made a  packet of money. Within the first two or three tours at the beginning of the  80's, Flag did a few million dollars, and what praise they got for that.

After that I stayed out in EU Tours, assisting AOs, Class IV's and Flag. The  operational products were:

1. Interviews done for Class IV, AO's and Flag.
2. Income for Class IV's, AO's and Flag.
3. Number of people arrived for the first time to an AO, Flag, or Class IV by  Tours.
4. Amount of income received in commissions to Tours EU by income made by  Tours for AO's, Flag and Class IV Orgs.

The Tours Unit was run financially on what it raised in commissions for the  services it sold. That income had to cover paying its Tours personnel, staff out  on tour and back at base, Admin staff, the office supplies, telephone costs at  base and on tour, and Tour expenses like trains or planes.

Besides being responsible for the overall scene, one had also to go out and  make the money, and keep all your staff working. There were an average of 10 to  15 under you all around Europe and Africa, and 2 to 3 at the base. The hardest  thing to take and not get into a fight about happened when other areas hadn't  worked as hard for the statistics. Sometimes they found reasons to hassle those  who worked their guts out to make the money. One had to have the nerve to get a  number of Tours staff involved in defending ones rights as a staff member.

Sometimes one heard reports like their pay was cut, and the expenses and the  reserves were cut. Then suddenly there weren't any reserves in the records as  one had previously noticed and expected to have in order to carry on. Reserves  were set aside each week in case of a poor week. They were there to fall back on  if necessary to keep the operation running.

When your administrator who didn't follow up the admin part of it while you  were out on tour, you didn't take that lying down. You made it clear where they  were wrong at the same time risking something like being told you could not tell  Management what to do. Reminding them of Tours Flag Policy didn't seem to  matter. They interpreted it to suit their own needs by adding arbitraries into  it to make it fit what they thought the Policy meant. They even were caught  getting Tours Seniors at Flag to agree to it. They had the power to do so, and  even had their own Flag Money Banking Officer.

When they decided to put change in, you could only boil this behavior down  to a Power Push against another unit which was in Power. You realized there was  someone trying to get too big for his boots, even if they were recognized as a  successful management operation.

One fought for keeping to the way the rules were laid out. It was important  not to allow others, whatever their position, to say No when and where it suited  them. You had to stand up and put the breaks on and get it straight. It became a  weekly affair to fight either to keep operational or have your income expenses  being used by others who didn't make the money and expected to see Tours  personnel hitchhiking to work.

Management's income came from training staff from Orgs - for which the Orgs  had to pay - and from Class IV Orgs who sent a weekly percent to them. The  amount depended upon how well the Org did each week.

Times were changing. It became the working reality that things were probably  not going to get easier, if at all. They would probably get even tougher with  the management who hired you.

Questions and Changes

Many, many people never saw LRH or the family, and many would have loved to  have had that opportunity. There were others who saw him a lot in the earlier  days before St. Hill, and at St. Hill, and then during the setting-up of the  Scientology Sea Organization, and the Flag Service Organization at the Fort  Harrison Hotel in Tampa.

The fact is that most people who are still in the Church of Scientology and  most who have left it, never had a chance to meet LRH But certainly a vast  majority show their eternal gratitude to him both for the technical and the  organizational work he did. It is amazing to see how LRH's Tech remains in use,  not only in the Church of Scientology but around the world in the Independent  Scientology movements and the Free Zone, much to the displeasure of the current  Management of the Church of Scientology.

One might ask how and why?

It's simply because many people were able to study under LRH's personal  supervision back in the 1960's and through the hay days of St Hill Manor when he  was there. Up to the 1970's, it was not so controlled in the sense of what  material you could use. You just did your training at St Hill, or at another  organization somewhere around the world which was franchised to the headquarters  of Scientology.

When you did the courses, you kept the study material that you had paid for.  Then, provided you had been trained and certified as a professional Auditor  under some Scientology Organization, you were allowed to practice without anyone  harassing you with all kinds of regulations and rules on what you MAY use or MAY  NOT USE or DELIVER. There were certainly no threats of a house arrest warrant  being presented at your doorstep. That could and would include police raids on  your home or the sending of private investigators on your trail. They even  allegedly obtained permission to have your telephone lines monitored, your  private mail intercepted, and your bank account queried. It's interesting to  see that all these harassments were on Communication and Income lines. They  allegedly could even have your business interfered with. The result was that one  was left in FEAR of HIMSELF or HERSELF. Scared to carry on, you might be forced  into a position from which you would have to stop delivering because of various  clauses. The official Church has somehow gained a position over the use of the  material, with some powerful back up. They seem to have fixed on what they  consider is strictly theirs to use exclusively.

This matter has become very involved through the years since LRH's death. But  many felt it was their RIGHT and freedom to use the technical works which, in  the past, were promoted as being freely available. Whatever way you view this,  it always would lead back to the Church Management making attempts to single out  and control anyone delivering OUTSIDE OF THE OFFICIAL CHURCH unless they agreed  with the Church what they could or could not deliver. Such materials are those  that the Church of Scientology register's as theirs. It has been suggested in  Free Spirit Magazine to get legal advice on this. Not a bad suggestion. However,  I have heard of people being sued by the Church of Scientology, and have read  reports of court cases where some people went bankrupt because of having to  defend themselves. People got scared and succumbed over this.

Another effect of this harassment is to make the spirit which is within any  one of us very small and degraded. Then he or she gets the feeling to give up.  It's a weapon used by others to control your actions without being able to be  at cause. It's a trick used in many destructive regimes where some become  strong and powerful and become a threat to those that try to hold control,  perhaps without ever knowing what really is involved.

Some people are able to see through these maneuvers and assess the position  correctly. But they are dangerous to the holders of power recently put in place.

Some independent people managed to get out by arranging a deal with the  Church, with clauses requiring them to pay large amounts of money. This was the  usual approach used to get Independents or individuals to stop practicing.

Whoever would have thought that the Management of the Church of Scientology  would be so bananas about the Tech and go so far to try to gain a monopoly in  the field? Or to try to control those Scientologists who aren't even in the  Church who devoted not only their lives but their entire earrings to the work?

What we might ask now is BY WHOM has the Church of Scientology been taken  over? What we do believe is that it is operated by some power-driven madness.  This has been seen by those both within and outside the Church. It is evident  that, pretty soon after LRH died, someone suddenly claimed control, with  documentation to back the claim. It has certainly been questioned whether that  documentation was genuine or a complete fraud. (Many know their own answers on  this and claim to have evidence to support some doubts about the value of the  Church's claims on their rights).

As the days passed during those years after Lrh's death, the organization  had to present someone as its In-charge. So a figurehead had to come into the  spotlight. The Church then claimed and named an In-charge for both Technical and  Administrative functions. It is assumed that care was taken in this choice, and  that there were some people advising the Church to set up many, many corporate  companies. That would then make it even more difficult ever to get to the bottom  of all the changes and replacements LRH had wished to give control over to.  Bearing that in mind, certain care must have gone into assuring that those that  were around before LRH died were excluded from discussions.

If any questions about the changeover did arise, what would be the handling?

Certain questions were asked then as they still are today. Did the founder  die suddenly, or was he removed as with any leader or director of a company? Who  now has assumed the position of power he once occupied? Mary Sue Hubbard was not  put in the position even though she was previously a key terminal, mentioned by  Hubbard in the Green Volumes along with one other member of the family. One  particular volume of interest is that of 29th March, 1960. Those staff who  worked under LRH were interested in who would take up the leadership.  Subsequently many of those staff were fired or thrown out, declared suppressive  or placed in ethics or put on the Rehabilitation Project Force.

There is much evidence of people who have now left the Church having been  very badly treated while inside. Some of their stories are hard to believe, but  they are strongly proclaimed as true.

One method of handling staff members “misdeeds” was to do some crazy  action of running around trees in a desert area in heat for hours at a time  during the day or sometimes at night. This was done in California at Gilham Hot  Springs. Some people report being kept in dark rooms without any contact with  the outside world. Some were placed in bad conditions for months in some cases,  and thus were caused painful mental experiences.

A well-known punishment action done was personalised consultation of bad  deeds using an electrical device known as a E-Meter to help the inquisitor trace  wrong doings. Most of the time the person who ordered the investigation was  interested to know the results in order to prove that he or she was the correct  target to hit and punish.

Every Scientologist in the subject since the 1950's would agree right up to  today that LRH did not place restrictions and regulations on whoever might use  the technical works. All detrimental changes seemed to come in when LRH started  not to appear in person and went off the communication lines and his  communications got answered by others. In time it became obvious that something  was really wrong on top level management. You had to learn as you went along.  Sometimes it was hard, sometimes easy. It depended on how well things were going  for you. Staff took things day by day. Personnel were being switched around,  leaving the area even and going elsewhere. Sometimes you didn't know where they  went. At other times it was for a mission. Often you just never knew why he or  she left.

You worked with dedication at your job and to Scientology itself, and you put  a lot into it to keep it going. You worked hard to keep your spirits up. Then a  Policy letter came from St. Hill. It appeared in everyone’s In-basket saying  that the week would in future start at 2 pm on Thursday and end at the following  Thursday.

In the 1970's the infamous Thursday deadline was not as it is today in  Scientology Orgs. In those days the pressure was not there There were gradient  steps put in to get us used to doing it and stats were seen directly by LRH. One  certainly heard from him if they were up or down but in a positive constructive  manner, never in a forceful one. But, as the years went by, things started to  get more and more controlled and complicated, meaning it went from weekly  reporting the stats to daily control, and then hourly with visits from your  seniors more than three or four times a day. They would constantly ask, How  it is going? What about was the income expected in? ‘How about that Auditor  auditing? How many Well Done hours have there been? How and when is that student  going through to finish? and so on and on. Each Post had a statistic and got  graphed and checked weekly. It sort of gave one the feeling of "Big Brother  is watching you". It left no space for the feeling that you could do it  alone without being spied on all the time. You had no self esteem to operate on  your own strength, to pull your weight, or self control to make it go right. It  seemed so stupid. Whether you were on a mission, or out on a tour, you still got  called and sometimes you wondered how they could afford the cost of calling  sometimes five or six times a day. There were times when you had to interrupt an  interview because your senior was on the telephone. Most times you tried telling  the receptionist to ask them to call back. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it  did not. They wanted you on the telephone there and then, and that was it!

If stats were up, liberty was allowed. Fridays were usually the day and you  got 24 hours. Then you had to report back to duty by Saturday at nine in the  morning. The Orgs operated on a watch system similar to a ship. One week it was  Port watch’s turn, the next week Starboard watch. But if your stats weren't up  in any way you got to hear about it from the Ethics Officer. "Down  Stats" were only allowed hygiene time, for about four hours and then back  to your Post. The Hubbard Communications Office (HCO), Dept 3 was responsible  for collecting the stats and the Inspections-and-Reports Section, Dept 3 of  Ethics was responsible for doing investigations of Down Stats, and sometimes  finding out why the stats were up. This was to ensure that successful actions  were maintained or reinforced. In a number of cases one got further hatting or  cramming.

Getting any time off was hard for many people, especially Tours personnel.  Loosing a Friday was pretty important, as that was a day where people worked in  the outside world. Your week started part of Saturday and you struggled to catch  up for lost time starting from Monday. Whoever heard of working on weekends?  Well, we did. In a Scientology Organisation, we worked seven days a week, 12-15  hours a day, whether we were management or otherwise.

Staff worked hard, and it showed by the strain on their faces. They were  often exhausted as well and the morale was very low much of the time. This came  about by little or no time for oneself, perhaps no pay that week. With no proper  diet, being too tired to be sessionable, or perhaps too tired to sit down and  study, there was little or no progress on one’s own auditing or training. In  some cases people fell asleep in sessions, or while at study. Then, when you got  checked out and flunked for misunderstood words it was often through pure  exhaustion. You might laugh - but it is true!

Working so hard and being pushed mentally was the danger for staff. You felt  as if you were on a speeding train all the time, day in and day out from 9am to  10.30pm. But it didn't end there. If you were a Down Stat from the same time the  week before, you were made to stuff magazines or mailings or write letters for  an hour. That meant not leaving the org until 11.30 pm. Getting home to snatch a  few hours of sleep was heaven and you certainly made sure to do so wherever  possible, and hopefully not to have someone on your back even while you slept.  It seemed that you had no sooner closed your eyes than the wake up call girl or  boy was around at 7.30am to warn you to rise.

Mothers with family had to get their kids to eat a breakfast and get them off  to school. And they were given one hour extra for the evening meal at 5.30 pm.  Then they had to report back to work by 7.30 pm. Many-a-time people were under  so much pressure that they skipped that hour and had to ask someone to tell the  nanny to take the child and see that it was put to bed. As a mother hardly ever  got to read a bedtime story to her kid, nannies sometimes seemed to become their  mums.

Tours personnel were often away from their children, and that hurt. Even  while you were back time was so very short. The demand for you to be out there  on the job was first and foremost, and you hardly saw them grow.

Being involved with the public was a chance for some delight. Public showed  reality of life and livingness in the real world. They certainly had earnings  and homes. Some had children and husbands to care for. They knew what it was  like to make a living, and taught you some things that you would perhaps never  have known otherwise.

Staff and Management personnel in a Scientology Organisation were usually  very young. They were often recruited from leaving school and had little  experience in the outside world in a job. They were easy targets to get them to  abide by the rules. Others who had a bit of an education and experience in  living and working in the outside world before entering a Scientology  Organisation, knew better and didn't like being pushed around. Sometimes this  got in the way of doing your job. You shut up for fear something might happen.  During the St. Hill days when LRH and family were there, one could speak out.  You did not get placed in ethics. Things were done more on a consulting basis,  to discuss a situation. You got help and were corrected on a one-to-one basis,  with reality. It got harder as the years went on, and one had to become stronger  to cope with it all on an every-day basis. That was just the reality you had to  face.

One might ask how on earth one stood it. That's a question many who have left  a Scientology Organisation have asked themselves time and time again. It can  only really be real when you have been there, in it, and a part of it.  Explaining it to someone who never was inside in those years is pretty hard. It  is not understandable in some cases. Perhaps some people found answers for  themselves. Some asked others to explain it to them. Many maybe cannot  comprehend the Scientology management structure as it became.

What was experienced by many is that delightful feeling of having been part  of the building of LRH's success. This can never be taken away even though,  through some power-crazed madness, attempts have been made to squash thetans  from out of existence altogether, and rip them from everything that they may  have earned throughout hard years. Franchise Holders who built their missions up  to a Power Condition, had them ripped apart by the Religious Technology Centre  in this madness. Believe it or not, anyone who had been close to LRH or to Mary  Sue Hubbard, who did not conform to the way the Church of Scientology is run  today, has been removed, declared suppressive, excommunicated, or thrown out of  any Scientology Organisation. There is a noticeable difference in appearance in  those who remain and conform.

An EXTREME fact to note is that no member of the Hubbard family remains  functional as a MAIN leader in the Church today. Perhaps, if at all, holding  low-key posting, but monitored under the control of senior Scientology  management. They may be in good standing, and outside the official Church staff  posting's. But the mighty question which remains in the minds of many of us  today is: Under who's thumb and under what conditions does the remaining  Hubbard family live today?

This whole scenario leads to a surprising factor that was noticed even in the  1980's. While interviewing people officially or just in informal chats, someone  gathered the data about concerns amongst public taking services at some  Scientology organisations. Here are some of those notes that person has kindly  allowed to be known. These are separated out in two parts: Questions and  Concerns.

Questions: What was LRH like? How is he? Does he really see and know what is  going on in all of Scientology Orgs? How can he really know, if he gets reported  correctly all matters of concern? Does his Management report tell it exactly as  it is or who control's that? Does he know his staff are under so much stress and  strain? Is he concerned to have happy and functionally healthy staff with some  sort of fun in their lives?

Concerns voiced back in the early 1980's: How's his health and that of his  wife and the children? What will happen when LRH dies? How will Scientology  carry on? He has given such a great Tech it's hard to imagine how he really is,  and a shame one cannot ever meet him. Many of the public, who kept the orgs  there by buying and receiving services, wanted to know that their letters were  received. But even the LRH Comm lines weren't to be fully believed by staff or  public.

Any doubts about staff and how they performed on the job, and what they did  or did not do well, was reported to the Ethics Officer in form of "Ethics  Chits". Later, when things got worse, communications are known to have been  twisted around. Then, one’s thoughts about others and their ability or  inability to perform, were kept to oneself for fear of getting oneself into  trouble, or being misunderstood, or being wrongly evaluated. There was the fear  that you would be the next victim being listed as a source of trouble.

After the early 1980's when LRH left, Scientology Justice was increasingly  misused. As LRH’s written Policy of how Justice was supposed to work, was  forgotten or was not used correctly, or not duplicated exactly, the problem  became worse. Therefore one’s thoughts became "private secrets".  Fearful of of getting into trouble or being found out for thinking something ”wrong”,  you just stuck them in the back of your mind while you figured out the best way  to handle them. You had to to survive. As the months and years went by, you  learned to watch exactly what you said, and to who you would tell your concerns.  Perhaps you would find those who were known to keep their lips closed, and  others who certainly would not. You had to take precautions on both fronts,  because if you voiced some things they would get misused by some person for  gain.

In those times there this caution in speaking out developed into a saying: The  ability to lawfully withhold. Keeping stats above normal week by week, one  constantly strived to avoid being hit by a lower Condition, or a wrongly  assigned Condition. Sometimes, whether right or wrong, they just got given a  Condition or were assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force. Then you just  had to fight for your rights in spite of any risk of backfire. Sometimes, even  if you had the guts to refer to your rights by showing your senior the correct  Policy, he might add his own meaning into it rather than take what was written.  Then you had to try to make your senior face his altered version. But sometimes  it was no use if he or she wanted you in a lower Condition than the one you knew  you were rightly in.

Staff members operated for the benefit of the Org and its future, and for LRH  when he was alive. But you often landed up being the victim instead of a  helpful, caring, remedy maker. This was not missed by the public who soon  observed how quickly things were changing.

As a final remedy one thought that one could resort to Ron’s open public  Policy of: You can always communicate to Ron. So we took the plunge and  did that without realising what a price it would cost.

The Approaching Reality of No More LRH Letters

Writing letters to Ron was what everyone liked doing, whether you were staff  or public. With the Public Open Policy of LRH, the door was open for all, and so  we all used it. But from the time LRH left until his death, the whole thing  slid. By now one didn't trust the line, but took the risk and wrote anyway. A  month might go by and no letter arrived. One might then request to see the  Ethics Officer about certain public questions regarding LRH. Then you had to  stand up to being questioned on a letter you expected to get back from LRH. Then  it became the local Ethics Office interviewing you, and such interviews seemed  to be timed when perhaps you had not had such a good week. It seemed as if it  was kept in a file for the right moment to string you out and attack. Who knows?  Now they seemed to be confusing two matters that had no relationship to the job,  as if covering up the real reason for the interview. One didn’t know anymore  if one was being interviewed about a downstat or to get one into a condition for  writing valid questions to LRH.

Ethics Officers never liked getting beaten or put into place. They were  supposed to put you in the right place, or to see to it you understood what was  wanted to be seen, whether that was valid or not. However - if one was certain  of the position, one challenged the guy with Policy. Whether that sunk in or not  depended upon whose instructions he was following, and what he was supposed to  achieve. If you could see through that and position it correctly, you might be  seen by the Ethics Officer to be dangerous to himself or to the one who intended  to create the confusion in the first place.

The last factor in this chain of events was being told: Letters need not  be written as they aren't necessary at this time. The conclusion was that  LRH would not answer because the line isn't there anymore. Those LRH letter  writing days had finished!

The battle had been a difficult one and cost the price finally of tearing the  job apart.

The decision about whether or not to go on working with the Church of  Scientology when so much had changed was now vital. You had to make a decision  by yourself. You either had to adjust to the rapid change, allowing them to make  the rules for you, or do something to change it for yourself.

Jobs and personnel, and even the top management changed around so fast you  could hardly keep up with it. New levels of command were introduced. Data Eval  lines, a Stats Eval Section, and many other networks to run the large numbers of  Orgs that were being formed up. Then came the introduction of the infamous  so-called, Watch Dog Committee, to be in overall charge of other areas of  management. They gave orders down the lines, reviewing the statistics of each  Scientology Organisation, seeing what was up and what was down. They gave weekly  instructions to each Org, and ensured that orders were done. Each week a  Condition for the week was assigned to each Org. This Condition normally  included the assignment of the Commanding Officer, or Executive Director of the  Org.

The Watch Dog Committee was the foremost obvious change. One wondered whether  this was done through LRH or even if he knew there was such a unit. There were  certainly rumours flying around about Ron not seeing telexes or having much  direct contact with Orgs. It became more certain that he was no longer directing  the running of Scientology Organisations.

Now one began to wonder who this WDC really was. Where was LRH?

Sad, Cope, Find a Buddy

It was difficult to carry on with the reality of knowing Source was not  there, and your comm line had been messed around.

Having survived the Ethics Officer threats and with many interviews trying to  find a situation that was not there at all, one carried on with the business and  put the thoughts of LRH in the back out of one’s head until there was time to  take it up again. One had to do one’s job even though one was angry. The job  required full attention and a daily plan worked out for all areas - a Daily  Battle Plan. Somehow one managed to get it all together and keep at it, and get  a break, even if it was only five minutes, getting outside the inner circles and  walking down a block of streets where you saw busy shoppers. Having no money to  buy yourself anything, you might at least look at nice things. It was a way to  keep the morale up and perhaps extrovert from what was happening inside the  walls of the Church. It was getting some space.

Another thing that helped to keep you sane was having a Buddy. When  training staff, you soon figured out somebody to play along with. The Buddy  could share the load as there seemed not to be enough time in a day to get all  things done to meet the 2pm deadline for statistics.

Then attempts to take direct control were noticed. Having given over names of  clients in confidence only for the purpose to have a prediction of what services  had been sold to whom, it was not expected that Executives would get involved in  your business or go behind your back and start giving orders to your personnel.  However, this seemed to have become a routine procedure.

Enough was enough. Being the personnel's senior, you called the Executive  responsible and faced him. The reality you got back from some young,  inexperienced person, was sometimes quite bizarre. Regardless of what you  explained, they wouldn't accept anything. They would use justifications such as, Where the hell were you? They would say they called your office and no  one was there. This was crazy since management was in the same building and only  required to walk over and leave a note, or whatever. So - the situations were  altered to whatever the Executives wanted them to be. They didn’t want the  real facts of the matter. All they wanted to know was, what was paid in or sold  in services for that week.

In spite of this madness of some young, perhaps inexperienced, senior, you  put it out of your mind and stayed above hot water. You gave seniors a list of  things you predicted would come in. You called them or they called you two or  three times a day. But you had to make a rule about when they could call,  because, if you did not do so, you could spend too much time at the telephone to  them than doing the job and missing a sale.

Things got tougher as one went along, and one never expected that. If you had  given the true list to your seniors, you knew that they were mad enough to try  to locate the clients to call them, making up stories to find out if they were  intending to take a service and checking if a representative had been in touch  with them. What that achieved no one knew.

Your personnel would complain to you, suspecting that you had called the  client directly. Then, when further investigation had taken place, you would  find out that it had been someone else. Your personnel would be mad at you and  this caused distrust amongst them and with the client. One then wondered who one  could trust the client's information to. Some clients didn't like their details  given out and calls being made to them at odd hours of the night or early  morning.

Despite this interference, one had to maintain a causative attitude. But, as  more control took place, you started to wonder if you were in a war or a  power-hungry madhouse. You wondered if the Executives really remembered what  they were there for and why. After all, this was a church, and was selling  Scientology Freedom Services.

Soon one had to make a final decision.

The Final Decision

Having grown up in Scientology Organisations one knew how they worked. But  now one could hardly keep up with all of the new developments, or with the  personnel changing so rapidly

The change that stood out over everything else was that the Oldies - those  old-timers who had been around for a long time - started to go. You wouldn't  know where they went to. Some left but others were taken off their job's and one  might see them on some menial cleaning, filing or painting work. These were the  ones who got removed from their post in the first two years of the madness. The  misuse of Justice and Ethics started to come in more and more, beginning with  the infamous, Mission Holders Meeting in 1983. Those Mission Holders got very  rough treatment as procedures for trying to control them and their public were  brought in. These policies also included anyone who knew how it had all worked  under the Hubbard family, and was therefore considered to be dangerous.

The Church’s handling was to remove anyone who was considered to be going  against the new plans. They used any and all means to get those people out of  the way so that the changes could take place. One was removed whether the  reasons were valid or not, and was not allowed to question or argue. Normally  you were told you were Downstats on your job and had committed various crimes  which had persisted for a long time and now had been found out. Many protested  for reasons of incorrect handling, or unjust and improper use of Ethics and  Justice.

The whole game became: Change and Remove anyone who would cause trouble or  would perhaps let out what he or she knew of the true track of the Church of  Scientology and knew what really happened regarding the removing of any Hubbard  family member from power.

The people who didn't keep quiet and who spoke out loudest were Old Timers.  Others were smart and just observed any and all changes. But all of them got  wise as the madness went on and took careful note as soon as new rules started  to come in and people were removed without any explanation.

Then came the Finance Police, instigated by the Religious Technology Centre  (RTC). They applied harsh ”ethics” then assigned many staff incorrect  Conditions. Some got investigations, others were simply just told to leave.  Certain individuals, who had been important, were apparently seen by those RTC  personnel to be dangerous. Two of these were William Brenton Robertson, and Alex  Sibirsky. Both held high positions, having had close liaison lines with Ron  Hubbard. They knew that the lines were being cut to L. Ron Hubbard and queried  matters. It certainly cost them. They were falsely accused of sabotage, and  Second Dynamic wrong doing's - things which the Church of Scientology dealt with  harshly.

To keep yourself above hot water, you made yourself as small as you could and  didn't stick out. You tried not to get yourself noticed, otherwise you were  likely to be the next target.

The Finance Police got control of the Ethics officers of Orgs, the Flag  Services Org at Tampa, Florida, and the overall Sea Org Management. Then it all  suddenly went mad in a fury of harsh ethics, as if that would have brought  matters under control or would have brought more money in. Of course it did not.  What it resulted in was those who were unwilling to stand up to being hit  getting up and leaving.

People who were known to produce well on their jobs and did the job in spite  of those mad people, got used to it but always stayed one step ahead, and at  cause. Some people were suddenly ”found to be unsuitable” to be on staff or  that they did not fit some part off the qualifications of staff membership, or  Sea Org membership. Others got placed on the RPF. You hardly ever really got the  truth about why people left, or were removed to the RPF. You would get lots of  “Suppressive Declares” in your daily in-basket. There were also write-ups of  Committees of Evidence as well as complete dismissals.

The new day started at 9 am sharp often ending at around 11pm or midnight.  Missionairs on missions held staff meetings in Orgs so that you could hear about  some new ”reality factors” or rules, or about new conditions which would be  put in as from a certain date,

A friend I had known for years was removed after having had a senior C/S  throw paper in her face, told to SHUT UP, LISTEN AND GET THE F*** out of the  way. YOU’RE FIRED! She was known well for her Standard Tech and for keeping to  it. The reason for her removal was that she refused to go against the technical  issues on a technical matter and stood up against a Religious Technology Centre  member. In her late sixties, she landed herself on the RPF and later developed  cancer. She died after being confined to bed somewhere near the Flag Service Org  at Tampa, having not seen anyone for months.

As this insanity went on, you got your own personnel to stay as calm as  possible, to keep out of sight and say little. You taught them to do only what  they had to do with any RTC person they talked to and no more. Being the Senior  to many people was tough because you had to try to protect both yourself and  your staff, even at times when "Buddy" was not around.

The RTC seemed to think that taking a position at any time was their right.  They might step in at any moment, originating wild orders without reality, as if  that would handle any matter that seemed pressing to themselves or any one of  them. You could get told to leave the premises, and get out on tour ten minutes  after you had just returned from one, tired and hungry, having had little sleep  during a long travel. You knew that income was obviously tight when the  international head guys put the pressure down the line.

On one such occasion, unwilling to leave just like that, I thought fast. It  was clearly madness to go out right then but if one refused, then what? I said,  "Ok, I’ll go get the travel money and expenses first". Then, before  leaving, I set up a place to meet Buddy. Grabbing new clothes I dashed to a bar,  sat down and waited for Buddy, and made a plan about how to keep myself around  for the rest of the week. It worked out by going to a hotel. I coordinated with  Buddy, using a code when calling in, so he would know it was me. He called back  on the direct line in my room, asking for a name as if I was a client.

So - no one knew I stayed in the hotel from Tuesday to Friday noon before  taking a fast train out to somewhere in Europe. Buddy went on the train as well,  leaving two back line staff to take calls and pass them on at the location we  were going to. After all, Executives didn't care where you went as long as you  made money.

Buddy had secretly been planning to leave altogether. He told me on one  occasion that I should be at a certain place at a particular time to receive a  call. Having finished off the week, and both having gone on to the next location  to set up to work the tour, he had not been out 48 hours before he was asked to  return to base at once. He called in and said he would be back in 24 hours. Then  he called his wife, arranging with her what she was to do and where to meet. He  switched trains to planes and arrived back at the base early, picked up his  clothes and got out without anyone seeing. Then he met his wife in the location  arranged.

After I was called by Management about Buddy, asking if I knew where he was,  I told them I didn’t know. They wanted to know when I had last seen him. Now I  realised what all his calls and plans had been about. My stomach turned upside  down. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't eat or sleep, or work, so I packed  myself up and left the tour and went back to the base.

There I got questioned about his reason for leaving. Luckily he had not given  me any clue that he was going. He just left without warning so I was not guilty  of knowing he was going to leave.

Many discussions took place with Executives. Those responsible for seeing  that the money kept on coming in were keen to make sure that Buddy’s leaving  didn't change anything. Now things got even harder.

I got ill suddenly and was unable to hold food down. With the pure exhaustion  and stress of the job, it wasn't a wonder one's body would break down. It became  obvious that I wouldn't be able to travel long distances under the current  situation, so I replaced myself, putting another in charge.

I now worked in the office at the base and rested, trying to recover from the  body system breakdown. The medical officer wasn't trained as a professional  doctor except perhaps first aid or Red Cross experience. She didn't think to  request a pass to have a doctor investigate my illness.

Recovering slowly day by day, I started to take walks. Then eventually I  returned to office and carried on, doing some work. During most of the recovery,  I didn't see anyone except when I reported for a check-up every three days to  the Medical Officer.

Loosing my job, my Buddy, and the comm line to LRH, I had to find out my  purpose to carry on. And I had to decide if it was a game I was willing to play.

The purposes of the game originally were two things: 1) To find out more  about Scientology and oneself. 2) A spiritual agreement with LRH to help him by  working on staff. When I asked myself if these things had been achieved, the  answer was Yes.

I looked at the game as it was currently being played and discovered that  there was little or no fun, or acceptance within that game. Then there was the  fear of what may or may not happen to you each Thursday at 2 pm if your stats  weren't what the RTC wanted. With the bringing in of a working police force, the  game had become a week-to-week race to beat them and to prevent any person from  the RTC coming down on your back and yelling at you and invalidating any good  you had achieved. With no acceptance of those now in charge, and being unable to  make much sense of their logic, I had to decide; do I work for these mad guys or  do I change something? Or do I step out of the game?

It did not take long to figure that out, though the hardest thing was telling  LRH what my decision was because I had an agreement with him. However, I knew it  could be sorted out, and the best thing was to do this on a spiritual level with  LRH. It would cost little or no time; only my ability to communicate and see  what came back. So, in doing so, I thanked him deeply for the Scientology  Technology he left for mankind. I told him that I was eternally grateful for  this, and for all he had done, and that I had achieved the two purposes which I  joined staff for. I said that his Tech would stay around and be used personally  for myself and for many lifetimes to come, but I would take off now and work on  another game in another time and space. I finished by saying that I had no doubt  we would be meeting up again for another round of battle!!

What did he say you would of course ask?

"Just fine, honey!" - and then the smile.

I got acknowledged and took off, and my life in the Church of Scientology was  closed.