The Kotzé Report

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SECTION III

CHAPTER 5
THE AIMS AND OBJECTS OF SCIENTOLOGY

5.1.    Mr. Hubbard in his writings states in effect that Scientology developed out of Dianetics. The early days of Dianetics were the early beginnings of Scientology.[01] [02] It is that branch of Scientology that covers Mental Anatomy.[03] [04] Scientology evolved from Dianetics.[05] Scientology … is an extension of DIANETICS which is in itself an extension of old-time faculty-psychology of 400 years ago.[06]

5.2.    The goal of Dianetics is A world without insanity, without criminals and without war …[07] In September, 1965, Mr. Hubbard formulated the aims of Scientology as A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights …[08] [09] [10] Having so enunciated the aims of Scientology, he elaborates thereon as follows:

"First announced to an enturbulated world fifteen years ago, these aims are well within the grasp of our technology.

Non-political in nature, Scientology welcomes any individual of any creed, race or nation.

We seek no revolution. We seek only evolution to higher states of being for the individual and for Society.

We are achieving our aims.

After endless millenia of ignorance about himself, his mind and the Universe, a breakthrough has been made for Man.

Other efforts Man has made have been surpassed.

The combined truths of Fifty Thousand years of thinking men, distilled and amplified by new discoveries about Man, have made for this success.

We welcome you to Scientology. We only expect of you your help in achieving our aims and helping others. We expect you to be helped.

Scientology is the most vital movement on Earth today.

In a turbulent world, the job is not easy. But then, if it were, we wouldn't have to be doing it.

We respect Man and believe he is worthy of help. We respect you and believe you, too, can help.

Scientology does not owe its help. We have done nothing to cause us to propitiate. Had we done so, we would not now be bright enough to do what we are doing.

Man suspects all offers of help. He has often been betrayed, his confidence shattered. Too frequently he has given his trust and been betrayed. We may err, for we build a world with broken straws. But we will never betray your faith in us so long as you are one of us.

The sun never sets on Scientology.

And may a new day dawn for you, for those you love and for Man.

Our aims are simple if great.

And we will succeed, and are succeeding at each new revolution of the Earth.

Your help is acceptable to us.

Our help is yours."[11] [12] [13]

5.3.    The subject of Dianetics was treated in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Its fundamentals and characteristics have repeatedly been restated with substantial consistency by Mr. Hubbard in subsequent books, articles and various Scientology publications. These have been summarised[14] in remarkably lucid, concise and accurate form by Circuit Judge Wright, a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, in an opinion delivered on 5th February, 1969 in the case of The Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C. v. United States of America. The learned Circuit Judge said:

"The basic theory of Dianetics is that man possesses both a reactive mind and an analytic mind. The analytic mind is a superior computer, incapable of error, to which can be attributed none of the human misjudgements which create social problems and much individual suffering. These are traceable rather to the reactive mind, which is made up of 'engrams', or patterns imprinted on the nervous system in moments of pain, stress or unconsciousness. These imprinted patterns may be triggered by stimuli associated with the original imprinting, and may then produce unconscious or conditioned behaviour which is harmful or irrational. Dianetics is not presented as a simple description of the mind, but as a practical science which can cure many of the ills of man. In terms the ordinary person, encumbered by the 'engrams' of his reactive mind, as a 'preclear', by analogy to a computer from which previously programmed instructions have not been erased. The goal of Dianetics is to make persons 'clear', thus freeing the rational and infallible analytical mind. The benefits this will bring are set out in considerable and alluring detail. All mental disorders are said to be caused by 'engrams', as are all psychosomatic disorders, and that concept is broadly defined. A process of working toward 'clear' is described as 'auditing'. This process was explicitly characterized as 'therapy' in Hubbard's best-selling book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1950). The process involves conversation with an 'auditor' who would lead the subject or 'preclear' along his 'time-track', discovering and exposing 'engrams' along the way. Though auditing is represented primarily as a method of improving the spiritual condition of man,[15] rather explicit benefits to bodily health are promised as well."

5.4.    In the field of healing quite astounding claims are made in the name of dianetic therapy. It cures in the fullest sense all forms of psycho-somatic illness.[16] Mr. Hubbard claims that About seventy per cent of the physician's current roster of diseases falls into the category of psycho-somatic illness,[17] and he lists arthritis, dermatitis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, bursitis, ulcers, sinusitis,[18] bizarre aches and pains in various portions of the body, migraine headaches, the common cold,[19a] constipation,[19b] high blood pressure, diarrhea, priapism,[19c] withered arm, foreshortened nose, underdeveloped genital organs, hairlessness, enlarged organs, physical malformations, some cases of tuberculosis, liver trouble, kidney trouble, rashes, conjunctivitis,[19d] sexual perversion[19e] as psycho-somatic ills or the results thereof. Clearing of engrams is claimed to banish impotence.[20]

5.5.    During 1964 a Durban Auditor, Els Mellett, claimed to have cured an epileptic by means of auditing where a medical practitioner failed with tranquilising drugs.[21]

5.6.    Inorganic mental illness can also be treated and cured or benefitted by the use of dianetic therapy according to claims made by Mr. Hubbard.[22]

5.7.    Scientology literature reveals a confusing picture as to whether its processing and training techniques (as opposed to dianetic procedures) trespass on to the field of medicine. At times it is claimed that benefits to bodily health are merely a side effect of the technology of Dianetics and Scientology e.g. that the cure of psycho-somatic ills is not the primary objective but happens only when the primary objective, viz. improvement in the spiritual well being of man, has been achieved. An inconsistency really emerges: Processing is claimed to be and also not to be a form of treatment. Statements such as Scientology is not psycho-therapy[23] and the fact that processing can make the insane sane and cure psychomatic ills does not mean that Scientology is in the healing business[24] are frequently encountered yet not readily reconcilable with other statements encountered as frequently such as:

  1. "Auditing works on three levels:

    1. The Restoring level, which is primarily that of healing. Scientology can deal with all forms of psychosomatics (illness caused by the mind — about 70% of all illnesses), but this is not the goal of Scientology as such.
    2. …"[25]
  2. "With Scientology the sick can be made well, the insane sane and the able more able than was dreamed possible by even the most optimistic of savants."[26]

  3. "It is a documented fact that when the first Scientology book appeared fifteen years ago … and became a run-away best-seller overnight, that sick people became well through just reading the book, that bed-ridden patients got up and walked out of hospitals after reading this book."[27]

  4. "It is not surprising that one of the fields in which Scientology is making an immediate contribution is psycho-therapy."[28]

5.8.    The above contradictions and lack of clarity notwithstanding, the Commission is satisfied that healing and curing of disease is one of the expressed aims of Dianetics and Scientology as presently practised albeit not the primary expressed aim of making the able more able.[29] That this is so appears to be a logical consequence of Mr. Hubbard's own declarations referred to above that Scientology is an extension of Dianetics and that Dianetics is that branch of Scientology that covers Mental Anatomy. Indeed a witness, Dr. E.C. Hamlyn, a qualified medical practitioner in the field of psycho-somatic illness in Great Britain who testified on behalf of the Church of Scientology in South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., readily conceded that some scientologists — and certainly those who are dianetic auditors — do apply dianetic techniques.[30] This was at no stage retracted or disputed on behalf of the Church of Scientology in South Africa (Pty.) Ltd. Indeed after the conclusion of the evidence the legal representatives of the Church of Scientology in South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., on the 17th August, 1971, forwarded to the Secretary of the Commission "Series one 1971" of the Dianetic Information Group. Dr. Hamlyn, in an article entitled Handling Psychosomatics contained therein writes at page 9:

"Standard Dianetics was released by L. Ron Hubbard in June, 1969. It is a technology with which for the first time in his history, Man can now handle psychosomatic illness … It has the ability to eradicate all psychosomatic illness given the necessary facilities for its use."

5.9.    The practical application of that portion of Scientology which embraces Dianetics consisting, as it does, of auditing or processing cannot readily be gauged. There is bound to be a difference between its subjective experience and an objective evaluation of its merits and demerits. Seen from without, Dianetics seems to be an ingenious application of common psychological principles as applied in suggestion, mind over matter and confession therapies. Whether its highly debatable science is true or not is immaterial. Man is always interested in himself and willing to believe the best of himself, and here is a science which not only tells him he is basically good but also that his irrationality, his psychoses, his bad eyesight, his asthma, his arthritis and a host of other ills are due to what has been done to him, and that it can cure them merely by uncovering the source of the trouble — this being engrams in all cases. Faith is a great healer and a patient's willingness to co-operate in dianetic therapy is in itself proof that he believes in it. Besides there is the gratifying undivided attention of the auditor and the relief of finding a scapegoat (fictitious or otherwise) for what is wrong. Since many human ills have their origin in the sufferer's own mind it stands to reason that they can be treated through the mind. The Commission accepts therefore that it is possible to a limited extent to promote health mentally by means of dianetic auditing, especially since it is intensive and is done with the co-operation of the patient. In regard to a claim frequently made by Mr. Hubbard that he is a scientist who publishes in scientific journals the Commission records that no such publication has been submitted to it.

5.10.    The Commission is in duty bound to draw attention to the grave dangers inherent in allowing the untrained to apply treatment by auditing, processing and the application of dianetic therapy. Dr. M.B. Feldman, an eminent psychiatrist and former chairman of the National Group of Psychiatrists of the Medical Association of South Africa, cited the following example in the course of evidence:

"I was summoned to the surgical ward of a Provincial Hospital where a patient lay in bed who had cut both her wrists and her neck in, what was obviously, a fairly determined suicidal attempt. Upon questioning her and examining her, one came to the diagnosis of agitated melancholia, a form of depression with intense anxiety. I suggested that it would be necessary for her to recover her mental health, that she should agree to be transferred to another Provincial Hospital which specialised in the treatment of mental disturbances of this sort. She was reluctant to concur, giving as the reason that she had undertaken contractually with a body known as the Scientologists, not to consult a psychiatrist, nor to accept psychiatric treatment. She was, nevertheless, persuaded that it was in her interest to be transferred and she was transferred and she received conservative treatment, which means, tablets and psycho-therapy and in the course of time recovered … I was given to understand that she had agreed — had been advised by the Scientologists and had agreed to have daily sessions of three hours each in the ten days to two weeks prior to her determined suicidal attempt, and it struck me at the time, because it is axiomatic, that when a patient is in this state of acute agitated depression, one does not probe too deeply; one certainly does not lacerate the patient's psyche by intensive attempts at psycho-therapy at that particular stage. Later on, certainly, but at that stage it can do harm. Now in my own mind at that time, rightly or wrongly, I came to the conclusion that although she was subject to these attacks and although she was probably ill when she approached Scientology for help, that they had certainly not helped, and very possibly hindered and precipitated this, her first, suicidal attempt, in spite of her previous similar depressions."[31]

5.11.    Mr. Hubbard himself points to the danger of treatment by the unqualified:

"Knowing all the axioms and mechanisms, Dianetics is easy to apply to the fairly normal individual and can relieve his occlusions and colds and arthritis and other psychosomatic ills. It can be used as well to prevent aberrations[32] from occurring and can even be applied to determine the reactions of others. Although the fundamentals and mechanisms are simple and, with some study, very easily applied, partial information is dangerous, the technique may be the stuff of which sanity is made but one is after all engaging action with the very stuff which creates madness and he should at least inform himself with a few hours study before he experiments."[33]

5.12.    It is the view of the Commission that included in the aims and objects of Scientology is the aim and object of applying psycho-therapy to persons in need thereof, or to persons who Scientology practitioners consider to be in need thereof. Mr. Hubbard, as has been pointed out above, claims that this aim and object is achieved with almost total success. The claim was originally made that Dianetics contains a therapeutic technique with which can be treated all inorganic mental ills and all organic psycho-somatic ills, with assurance of complete cure in unselected cases.[34] The extravagance of this claim is later recognised by Mr. Hubbard himself in his second book on Dianetics, Science of Survival, where he remarks that from the beginning of man's efforts to solve the riddle of insanity the psychotic has been a great liability to the auditor[35] and that in attempting to bring an individual up the tone scale[36] he by-passes … around the majority of physical troubles and complexes and obsessions, but it does not obviate the occasional necessity of medical treatment for the pre-clear, and it unfortunately does not obviate the institutionalization of the obviously insane, no matter what Dianetics can do for these people.[37]

5.13.    Mr. Hubbard's general failure to provide specific case histories save by way of exception e.g. claiming that he worked himself back to fitness from blindness and lameness[38], makes it difficult to assess the ability of Scientology to achieve to any marked extent the aim of applying psycho-therapy and other remedial measures with success.

5.14.    Probably as it is that Scientology has and does achieve this aim to a degree[39] the Commission is firmly of the view that the application of psycho-therapy and the practice of psychology are functions which properly belong in part to the medical profession and in part to other appropriately trained persons and are not functions in which scientologists or other persons without adequate or any medical training should be permitted to participate however sincere and earnest they may be. Psycho-therapy and the treatment of problems by psychological means should be the concern and function of those qualified by training and experience to administer such therapy and treatment.

5.15.    The processes of diagnosis and treatment of emotional, behavioural and other psychological disturbances are so closely knit that it is impossible to say where diagnosis ends and treatment begins. The doctor makes his diagnosis on what the patient says and how he says it rather than what he finds when he physically examines the patient. The manifestations of anxiety, for instance, may be overt, but they are often masked. But whilst the doctor is making his diagnosis from what the patient says, the patient is gaining benefit from the very process of ventilating his thoughts in words, sometimes referred to as catharsis. By the time the doctor has made his diagnosis, sometimes with a minimum of talking on his part, the patient feels better and perhaps even [is] cured. The doctor having formulated his diagnosis from what he has heard, proceeds to apply his psycho-therapeutic methods more positively. The point at which the diagnostic procedure ends and treatment begins is therefore not definable. What the doctor regards primarily as a diagnostic procedure, namely listening, the patient regards as therapeutic. In other words, the diagnostic procedure of listening has therapeutic value. Furthermore, technical diagnostic procedures may carry therapeutic weight, if the patient thinks erroneously that they are therapeutic procedures.

5.16.    That laudable (if vague) aims of A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where Man is free to rise to greater heights[40] [41] [42] are defined more precisely in the so-called eight dynamics.[43]

5.17.    Mr. Hubbard sets out the eight dynamics as follows:

Underlying the dynamics, he explains, is the basic urge to survive. This may bring the various dynamics in conflict with one another. The ideal, however, is the achievement of the maximum benefit in all the dynamics.[45]

5.18.    The First Dynamic: An examination of Scientology, including Dianetics which is the field of Dynamics 1 - 4, shows that it is very far from realising this ideal. The stress throughout is mainly on the individual, i.e. on the First Dynamic: The urge toward survival of self. It is in this filed that Mr. Hubbard makes his most important contribution — not so much by original thought, but rather by using known ideas and techniques, giving them new names and welding them together into a system and a technology of his own.

5.19.    Scientology's aims with regard to individual man roughly fall into two categories: i. To make the able more able; and ii. To increase awareness. The former has to do with man's everyday life in which manifestations of ability can be evaluated; the latter is subjective and spiritual, and cannot be gauged by objective means other than the principle handsome is as handsome does. To make the able more able, is the first great objective of Scientology which, according to several witnesses who testified before the Commission, it apparently does achieve to a certain extent:

  1. Mr. H.W.G. Herman said that during the period 1961, when he became interested in Scientology, to 1969, when he testified, he saw many able persons take an interest in Scientology and derive tremendous benefits therefrom in the sense that they became more able.[46a]

  2. Mr. G.A. Rabie, the holder of the degrees of B.A. and LL.B. obtained at the University of Cape Town, stated that he had passed his first two grades viz. communication release and problem release which greatly enhanced his ability to communicate and to solve problems.[46b]

  3. Mr. J.B. Carter, an intelligent businessman, confidently claimed that Scientology helped him to improve himself, to confront people and to help him to find the answers to problems. It has given him new ideas, greater vigour and enthusiasm.[46c]

  4. Mr. P. van Niekerk, once an ardent scientologist who lost interest in the movement as a result of certain internal problems, stated that he repeatedly observed cases of persons of all types experience an improvement in ability.[46d]

Mr. Hubbard's point of departure is his categorical statement that man is basically good and that his mind is a perfect computer incapable of making mistakes.[47a] Since, however, experience teaches that man's actions often belie this basic goodness and the perfect functioning of the mind, he set out to discover what causes irrational and aberrated conduct. His answer as has been indicated above is contained in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, the foundation on which he later built Scientology.

5.20.    Certain aspects of dianetic therapy as expounded by Mr. Hubbard do reveal an undesirable approach. Some of these aspects are dealt with more fully elsewhere in this Report. These aspects include:

  1. An undue emphasis on the sordid aspects of sex. Attention is focussed on the sex life of parents, sexual irregularities, attempted abortions and so forth.[47b]

  2. In spite of declaring that none survive alone, dianetic therapy views everything from the vantage point of the individual and ignores the effect on other people.

  3. It disregards the possible effects of dianetic revelations on personal relationships, especially within the family. The engrams cited invariably prove parents to be despicable oppressive people. How is a relationship of mutal love and respect possible after such discoveries? During an unhappy period, as is elsewhere indicated, disruption in family and friendship relations followed in the wake of the survival policy of Scientology.

5.21.    The book Science of Survival deals with the elements of human experience (sight, sound, emotion, memory, the attitude to truth, to responsibility, persistence) and the part they play in observed behaviour. Mr. Hubbard points out that there is correlation between different aspects of behaviour, e.g. the best type of person (rating 4.0 on the so-called Tone Scale) would not only be constructive and courageous but also loving, friendsly, very moral and constant, whereas a 2.0 rating has all manner of nasty qualities, nags, makes derogatory comments, indulges in slander and untruth. He arranges the different types in a Tone Scale to be employed in the assessment of character — an interesting study but too subjective to be reliable and of consistent practical use. More important is the reformulation of the aim of dianetic processing as that of raising the preclear's tone and increasing his survival potential. This coupled with remarks to the effect that people tend to backslide, that some fail to respond satisfactorily and that one becomes the best that can be made of what one is natively, is a far cry from the over-confident and exaggerated claims made for Dianetics in the first book.

5.22.    From Dianetics Mr. Hubbard proceeded to Scientology. The difference between the two is explained by Mr. Hubbard as follows: Dianetics is the route from aberrated or normal to capable human being. It has positive use: It is great training and teaches the anatomy of the mind and its surface manifestations … but compared to Scientology — the route from human being to total freedom or total beingness — is nothing.[48] It is significant to note firstly that in the above there is mention only of human being without reference to relationships as set out in Dynamics 2 – 8 and secondly that total freedom is added to the aims of Scientology. The qualification total beingness indicates that it is much the same as complete spiritual awareness. But used out of this context as a slogan and as the title of anti-psychiatry publications it suggests freedom in quite a different sense, and links it to whatever conception of desirable freedom each reader has. Total Freedom in this way is a deliberately misleading, false promise. Mr. Hubbard himself condemns total freedom:

"A totality of barriers and a totality of freedom, alike, are no-game conditions. Each is similarly cruel. Each is similarly purposeless."[49]

And again:

"Great revolutionary movements fail. They promise unlimited freedom. That is the road to failure. Only stupid visionaries chant of endless freedom. … Freedom, in its entirety, … would be a freedom without thought or action, an unhappy condition of total nothingness … Fixed on too many barriers, man yearns to be free. But launched into toal freedom, he is purposeless and miserable."[50]

Nevertheless he does not scruple to circulate the following:

"ADVOCATE TOTAL FREEDOM

That is the policy …

That's the answer no nation or person can stand up to — if we keep saying it long and loud. SCIENTOLOGY IS THE ROAD TO TOTAL FREEDOM.

Used in argument one can invent reasons to baffle the attacking agency or person — but all these reasons should add up to everyone has rights to total freedom.

I think this alone can move mountains."[51]

And later revealing the purpose: As Scientology now brings TOTAL freedom, it must also have the power and the authority to bring total discipline or it will not survive.[52] Power — authority — total discipline; these are the signposts indicating the direction in which Scientology was developing.

5.23.    To begin with, however, Scientology is concerned exclusively with the development of the capable human being, i.e. making the able more able. This is to be done in various ways:

  1. By increasing the individual's I.Q.
  2. By developing his power to communicate, to control and solve problems.
  3. By promoting his self-determinism.
  4. By increasing his understanding.

Method (a) can be regarded as being within the power of Scientology, but with the important reservation that intelligence as such cannot be improved. Intelligence is a constant factor and it is generally accepted by educationalists that an improvement of I.Q. is possible through the learning of certain widely practised teachniques of concentration and memorising, i.e. drills which teach a person to use his abilities more effectively. Functioning can be enhanced but an increase in intelligence as such is an unachievable aim. Moreover the taking of tests is in itself preparation for further tests. Familiarity with the procedure and the type of question raised are bound to enable the candidate to improve his score. This is not indicated when Scientology's ability to improve I.Q.s is advertised, nor are the limits of such improvement indicated when it extols its ability to improve results by a certain number of points per session. Admittedly the techniques and drills are useful and may well even be of permanent value to the candidate. On the other hand the higher I.Q. scores tend to mislead by suggesting that the increase of ability is general instead of limited in scope. Methods (b), (c) and (d) are those by which Scientology makes its most worthwhile contribution, again not by startingly new discoveries, but by its application of existing knowledge; communication is of paramount importance in human society — there can be no communication unless there is someone to communicate with and something to communicate about; anyone who is in a position of control must be able to start — direct at will — and stop a process; that man has to deal with three worlds — the physical world around him, his own world and the world of other people. On these and similar ideas Mr. Hubbard built his technology. It is an ingenious and effective means to teach pupils to fix their attention, to control their movements, to confront objects and people in their environment, to examine their problems without emotional involvement and to persevere in whatever they undertake. Life is compared to a game with freedom, barriers and goals; willingness to undertake responsibility and ability to solve problems are qualities of a sane, healthy person, who will also possess self-determinism and as its concomitant understanding and readiness to grant others their own reality.

5.24.    Evidence tendered before the Commission in regard to the objects referred to in the preceding paragraph established that several persons were benefitted. Former scientologists like Mrs. M.J. Nicholson[53a] and Mr. W.J. Botha,[53b] who condemn its later developments, are convinced that Scientology was of real value to them in the initial stages of processing. Shy, retiring persons say that they gained self-confidence, developed greater will-power and self-control and became more outgoing.[53c] Others stress the increase in ability Scientology processing gave them.[53d] Some attribute their success in business to Scientology.[53e] The witness, Mr. Tannenbaum in addition claims that his intelligence was increased.[53f] The development of greater responsibility towards other people and society was also mentioned.[53g]

5.25.    The Second Dynamic: Apart from dwelling on sex as being largely responsible for people's aberrations, Mr. Hubbard devotes little space in his writing to the first part of this dynamic; he condemns the taboos attached to sexual matters, and says that promiscuity, perversion, sadism and irregular practices fall far down the line[54] (i.e. on the Tone Scale). Free love also since … it is non-survival not to have a well ordered system for the creation and upbringing of children, by families.[55] A society which reaches the level of free love, easy marriage and quick divorce and general sexual disaster is on its way out of history. Yet Mrs. M.J. Nicholson told the Commission:

"I found right from training as an auditor, as student auditor, where they would do what they would call button-pressing … right through to the top levels of training, that sex was always over-emphasized."[56]

5.26.    Mr. Hubbard does, however, pay considerable attention to children and their education. A great deal of what is said is a restatement of currently accepted educational principles and commonsense with regard to children. A good stable adult with love and tolerance in his heart is about the best therapy a child can have.[57a] First of all a child needs security.[57b] … It might be more advantageous … to teach a child how to think before teaching him what to think.[57c] If the child really feels that you are trying to help him, you can do a great deal with him.[57d] If a child is having a run of 'accidentically' breaking things, interspersed with odds and ends of disobedience, it is almost a certainty that the child is being badly badgered from some quarter or other.[57e] These are a few examples. The old saying that there are no problem children but only problem parents, is also encountered, in dianetic guise viz. the adult is the problem in child raising, not the child. The objective, too, is the same; the raising of healthy well-balanced, happy children with an independent spirit and zest for life — or in dianetic parlance — self-determined children without engrams and with worthwhile goals. Neither of the two booklets on Dianetics and Scientology as applied to children is the work of Mr. Hubbard himself, although he clearly approves of the contents. The one Child Dianetics: Dianetic Processing for Children is the result of the collaboration of two educational specialists, four dianetic auditors and two psychologists who are also qualified auditors. It is a synthesis of the views of all. There is much talk of the child's pre-natal and birth engrams, of ridding him of these by means of processing, of maintaining silence when he is ill or has been hurt and while punishing him in order to avoid creating more engrams, of getting him to confront things that oppress or frighten him. There is also real understanding of the child, of his inability to see and understand things as grownups do and the resulting confusion in his mind, of his need to be active, to play, to carry out his plans, to contribute his share in the family circle, and of the way he reacts to repression and frustration. There is useful practical advice. For example: Always keep your end of a bargain with a child. If you don't it will cause a break of affinity, and such breaks are difficult to mend. If your child acts strangely, look for the cause. Answer his questions very carefully and accurately no matter what the subject may be. Do not invalidate his statements and browbeat him into accepting the adult version.[58] If the child is simply fretful and 'unmanageable', you can often get him out of the lock by diverting his attention …[59a] And the following remark: If a child is happy in his environment, well adjusted to those around him, pursuing a successful child's life, perhaps it is best to leave well enough alone and do no dianetic processing …[59b] The great merit of the booklet Child Dianetics: Dianetic Processing for Children, however, is its appeal to parents to practise self-analysis and to consider how, what they do or say can affect their children. The second booklet on child education is Miracles for Breakfast written by a mother of two boys, out of her practical experience. She is obviously a capable, original woman who might be as able an educator without as with Scientology. But she certainly found it a great aid, for by teaching her to confront and control herself it enabled her to teach her children the same lesson. The problems she deals with are those of every family. How to stop quarrelling, what to do if the child is clumsy or slow to learn or hard to communicate with, how to ensure his safety and teach him responsibility.[60] Scientology by directing her attention to basic principles such as the importance of two-way communication and the destructiveness of unreasonable impulse, the positive effect of responsibility and recognition as opposed to the negative results of over-protection and invalidation gave her thoughts on how to handle her boy's coherence. The educational policy this led to is sound and practical. In summing up it may be said that Scientology thought on education contains little that is new, except its application of Dianetics instead of ordinary methods for discovering sources of trouble. Its success in this, like in the to make the able more able techniques, is largely due to the stress it lays on communication, self-determinism and self-analysis. These are positive ideas which through the centuries have worked wonders. After all Socrates said: Know thyself.

5.27.    However, not all the pronouncements of Scientology on the subject of education are above criticism. The following for example:

"A child is a man or woman who has not attained full growth. Any law which applies to the behaviour of men and women applies to children."[61a]

"When you give a child something, it's his … Clothes, toys, quarters, what he has been given, must remain under this exclusive control. So he tears up his shirt, wrecks his bed, breaks his fire engine. It's none of your business."[61b]

"If a child is punished and thereafter obeys, he can be considered to have succumbed. And the value of a child who will succumb to punishment is so slight that the Spartans would long since have drowned him … Or he can attack the punishment source either by direct action or by upsetting or fouling the person or the possessions of the source … as long as a human being will attack as a response to a valid threat, he can be said to be in fair mental condition — 'normal' …"[62a]

"Making a child stay in a home where he is restimulated is most certainly inhibitive, not only of his happiness but of his mental and physical development — a child should have many more rights about such things, more places to go."[62b]

He insists that one should be cause rather than effect, i.e. think for oneself and not accept any knowledge on the authority of someone else. Applied to children this reads as follows:

"One of the best ways to put children on a happy road is by offering them a little education. Interest them in the real world, and try to interest them in a hobby in which they can learn to use their bodies … Teach them walking tight-ropes, or how to fry eggs. The world isn't a bunch of selected subjects that somebody writes down in a book. This is the business of living, and if something is especially interesting to the child, that's the thing to teach."[63]

5.28.    Mr. Hubbard's attitude towards the assimilation of knowledge is unrealistic and in keeping with his exaggerated view of the powers and importance of the individual. He does not consider knowledge as a necessary implement in whatever task or profession one chooses. Perhaps that is why the superficial training of auditors is not felt to be inadequate.

5.29.    The Third Dynamic: Mr. Hubbard states: Life is a group effort … None survive alone.[64] Scientology devotes attention to three groups only[:] (i) the business group (ii) the family, and (iii) the Scientology organization.

  1. The business group: In this field, and that of organization generally, Mr. Hubbard makes observations which, though not necessarily new, are worthy of serious attention. If we omit the Scientology phraseology, we find sound basic ideas like the following: Work is a stable datum for our society. A man unhappy in his work is a sick and unhappy man — a hazard to his contemporaries and his organization, to his home and himself. By remedying the causes of unhappiness and inefficiency and exhaustion on the job an employer improves the efficiency of his staff. The very young child's offers to help should always be accepted. His attitude towards work as he grows up will then be that he is a participant in the general scheme of things. Juvenile delinquency is often the direct result of the teenager's frustration as the result of being prevented from working. Some people are accident prone. This can be remedied by making them more familiar with their tools and by assuring that they are in present time, i.e. that their attention is on the job. The importance of two-way communication also in the field of business is stressed, i.e. firstly communication between executive and staff, and secondly methods of efficient communication as part of organization. This aspect of a business undertaking is worked out in detail in the book How to Live though an Executive. Various aspects of Mr. Hubbard's organization of Scientology are also of note, e.g. his analysis of factors contributing to success or failure;[65] specialisation, i.e. each person having his own job to do, in Scientology terms wearing his own hat. With regard to the latter Mr. Hubbard writes:

    "Realise that the basic theory of organization is this:

    1. SO LONG AS EACH KNOWS AND WEARS AND WORKS AT HIS OWN AT ONLY, THINGS WILL BE SMOOTH;

    2. AND AS LONG AS EACH PERSON KNOWS WHAT THE OTHER HATS AROUND HIM DO, HE CAN GIVE THEM THEIR WORK WHEN IT COMES HIS WAY AND ALL WILL BE SUCCESSFUL AND SMOOTH."[66]

  2. The family: The Commission points out elsewhere that the importance of the family unit is conceded but that there is at the same time a marked disregard of the preservation of family ties. This is further borne out by the fact that the study of Scientology tends, in some cases, to take young people away from their homes and to bring estrangement between them and their parents. Practical instances did emerge in evidence and are fully discussed in the appropriate part of this Report. Scientology also tends to bring young people into opposition with their parents. There are references to the importance of communication for the creation of happy family life and also the statement that grown-ups also have rights, but if there is anything wrong it is the parents who are invariably blamed. Nowhere in Scientology writings do we find proof that it sees any value in parental experience for the guidance of their children nor that it wishes to protect the family unit against onslaughts from without. Indeed, when there is conflict between parents, brothers and sisters on the one hand and Scientology on the other, the young person is expected, or at one stage was expected to break off family connection for the sake of Scientology. The disconnection instructions have, so the Commission has been told, been repealed. The significance of this step, if any, is fully discussed in the appropriate part of this Report.

  3. The Scientology organization: The Scientology movement regards itself as of supreme importance, and in the course of its history has gone to ever greater lengths to strengthen itself as a group and to gain a wider sphere of influence. In its early phase it was an enthusiastic quest into the realms of the mind. It experimented, discussed, gave scope to individual initiative. It was even tolerant of people with whom it didn't agree. A statement by Mr. Hubbard, referring to patients who have undergone brain surgery or electric shock, which bears this out reads as follows:

    "That any possible hope of recovery via dianetics may be gone for these unfortunate patients in the majority of cases should not be blamed upon the psychiatrist and neuro-surgeon … On the whole these people have been entirely sincere in their efforts to help the insane … Legislation against them …, horror stories about them in newspapers and a general public antipathy …cannot but bring about a disorderly condition. Dianetics is a newly discovered science and is non-partisan."[67]

    This is a far cry indeed from the vitriolic attacks on psychiatry which were to follow and which is discussed in the appropriate part of this Report. However, as the Scientology organization expanded and came into conflict with existing opinion and institutions it became increasingly militant. It tightened its internal discipline.[68] The following injunction is made:

    (A) MAKE PENALTIES FOR NON COMPLIANCE AND FALSE REPORTS TOO GRUESOME TO BE FACED AND ENFORCE THEM.[69] It lashed out against all who criticise or impede its progress. In 1959 Mr. Hubbard published his Manual of Justice (confidential — for H.C.O. personnel only) which contains instructions on intelligence — … basically a listening and filing action. It is done all the time about everything and everybody.[70a]; investigation — When we need somebody haunted we investigate … we do so noisily always.[70b] and Overt investigation of someone or something attacking us by an outside detective agency should be done more often and hang the expense.[70c] Evidence brought before the Commission proved that this was not only the case in the past, but is still resorted to e.g. with regard to secret methods of obtaining the private correspondence of Mr. T.J. Stander.[71] There is also the reverse of investigation If you are being investigated or if the Central Organization is — sit tight, don't co-operate.[72a] You punish a man. He goes away to join the ranks of the squirrels. You swell the opposition. Don't do it. Shoot the offender for the general good and then patch him up quietly.[72b] The issue of amnesties on the 13th March 1963, 20th August 1965, 18th July 1966 and the 2nd January 1968 were attempts at such conciliation. At the same time the Fair Game Law and instructions re squirrels and high crime were issued and reaffirmed in the book Introduction to Scientology Ethics.

5.30.    To sum up: The Commission concludes that the main concern of the Scientology organization is its own survival and that its development is in the direction of power for Scientology at any cost. In this it would seem to fail by its own standards of attaining the best results in all the dynamics and also as a religion which it claims to be.

5.31.    The Fourth Dynamic: With regard to this dynamic Scientology abounds in contradictions. In its Creed it is stated that all men of whatever race, colour or creed were created with equal rights. Yet Mr. Hubbard also writes: While all men are created with equal rights under the law, an examination of the individuals in the society rapidly demonstrates that all men are not created with equal potential value to their fellows,[73a] and … any person from 2.0 down on the tone scale should not have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind …[73b] The Creed states that all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others. Yet in discussing the Third Dynamic not only resentment at criticism of Scientology, but an aggressive attitude to all possible opponents was mentioned.[74] There is a veiled threat which reads:

"The people who come to you with wild discreditable rumours, who seek to tear people's attention off Scientology, …

I can't end this HCO B without a confession. I know how to cure them rather easily.

Maybe I'll never let it be done."[75]

The Creed further states that the study of the mind and the healing of mentally caused ills should not be alienated from religion or condoned in non-religious fields. Yet it is by means of Dianetics, which is a science of mental health i.e. not spiritual and nowhere claimed to be a religion, that psycho-somatic illnesses are to be treated. The aim of making the able more able too is in contradiction with all mankind, since it points at the selection of people of superior ability and does not mention doing anything for the less fortunate. It is true that in theory making the able more able means the improvement of ability of people in all walks of life. In practice Scientology's efforts are, however, limited to the more prosperous members of society who are also the ones most likely to be able and to have had the advantages of education and a cultured background except for the lowly paid auditors or other adherents who are willing to be exploited.

5.32.    In the public field Scientology directs considerable effort and energy towards persons able to give it financial and other support or towards persons whom it believes are able so to do. The following examples may be cited:

  1. Mr. Hubbard circulated to Executives in Scientology Organizations a report from Mr. John McMaster re progress in South Africa. This document inter alia refers to Dr. Meiring Naude whose interest Mr. McMaster allegedly roused in regard to Scientology and states:

    "Well, as he is the Head of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research … we have now pervaded a vital area in South Africa, and you will have many friends there."[76] [77]

    The same report extols the activities of one Mr. Du Plessis on behalf of Scientology such [as] allegedly including interviews by Mr. Du Plessis with the late Dr. H.F. Verwoerd, Prime Minister, Union of South Africa, as the Republic of South Africa then was and also the Admiral of the South African Navy. The report concludes:

    "You asked for strong Orgs in South Africa. You will get them and there will be a friendly reciprocity of flow with the Government."[78]

  2. Mr. Hubbard, according to copies of correspondence submitted to the Commission, revealed no diffidence during his sojourn in South Africa in addressing the late Dr. Verwoerd and bestowing praise on him, e.g.:

    1. "Having viewed slum clearance projects in most major cities of the world may I state that you have conceived and created in the Johannesburg townships what is probably the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence. Any criticism of it could only be engaged upon by scoundrels or madmen and I know now your enemies to be both."[79]

    2. "Those who understand are never swayed by vicious writings in the English press.

      To cope with those who could be swayed we work ceaselessly to secure communication lines to create an image closer to the fact.

      We are doing everything we can to change the complexion of the English language press and in a very few months we hope to have the means of completely altering this public image.

      Peace with strength can yet save, with your undaunted leadership, South Africa.

      Meanwhile we sincerely hope that vileness such as that in last week's Sunday Times does nothing to dismay your dedication.

      I apologise that we were not yet able to prevent such a travesty, but can promise a better future in such things."[80]

  3. Mr. S.J. Parkhouse wrote as follows to the late Dr. Verwoerd on 7th November, 1960.

    "On bringing to Dr. Hubbard's attention the fact that Liberia and Ethiopia intend to institute an action against the Union in the World Court Dr. Hubbard suggested that the Union itself would be well within its rights in bringing suit against any and all countries seeking to promote internal trouble in the Union through the use of boycotts etcetera.

    Consequent to our discussion Dr. Hubbard prepared a form of suit which could be used by the Union in the World Court. I enclose a copy for your perusal.

    Apart from the blow that this would strike for the Union on the International front it would appear that such an action would establish the World Court as a place where civil matters between Nations could be settled without warfare and thus would be of service to humanity as a whole.

    In closing I would assure you of our continued willing assistance at all times."[81]

  4. Mr. Hubbard indicates a further method to all South African Organization viz. by entering the political arena extending support to the Government and directing criticism at the Opposition:

    "I wish to extend my appreciation to South African Scientologists for their splendid activities and alertness. And I wish to thank the South African Government for its forbearance and ex-Minister of Health Hertzog[82] for his sense of justice and fair play in his 1968 pro-Scientology decision. …

    Note, please, that the press in Southern Africa call Dr. Radford and Dr. Fischer when it wants adverse comments on Scientology. These two are United Party members.

    The United Party supports psychiatry in South Africa.

    Therefore, unwittingly the Government is led to pay for opposition and subversion."[83]

  5. Consistent with the pattern of his conduct in South Africa, Mr. Hubbard enters the political arena also in the United States of America. He claims to have written to the late President Kennedy as follows on 13th August, 1962:

    "Scientology is very easy to put into effect. The government only need turn over to us anyone it desires to condition to space flight or flight or anyone whose I.Q. it desires to have raised and we will take it from there. No lengthy discussions or investigations need be undertaken by the government beyond testing the end results in the person after processing is complete. The cost to the government would be maintenance expenses for the person so detailed and $25 per hour for processing received. Special arrangements for large numbers would have to be made but would be more or less on the same basis. All Scientology processing would be done in our own quarters due to the proximity to our communication lines. We cannot detail practitioners to the government or train government personnel. We cannot guarantee any result outside our own supervision."[84]

5.33.    Scientology also seeks to gain influence by sponsoring popular causes. This Scientology has done mainly in the field of mental health, beginning with its agitation against the Alaskan Mental Health Bill in the United States of America and still carrying it on today with attacks on psychiatry. As this part of Scientology's activity will be discussed separately, only its Fourth Dynamic aspect will be touched on here. The crucial question is: How does Scientology propose to realise its aim of a world without insanity? And what has it already done in this field? Dianetics held out the promise that it could cure in-organic mental illness by means of processing, though it did not consider the feasibility of auditing thousands of people for many hours each. In the book Science of Survival, however, it is admitted that there are people who have to be institutionalised. Then again Scientology denies the existence of insanity.

"There are no insane. There are only the physically ill.

'Insanity' is a non-existent malady invented to mystify and horrify the public."[85]

Yet Scientology refuses to have anything to do with people who have a background of insanity. Instead it concentrates on the investigation and criticism of existing institutions. A necessary and commendable activity in as far as it brings abuses to light, but negative in its sweeping condemnation of the good with the bad. So far, according to the evidence of Mr. G. Cook,[86a] Scientology has offered nothing positive in this field except auditing of individuals and plans for a welfare project to be launched in the future and even then not to be run by themselves.

5.34.    During the early stages of its work the Commission found no evidence of any active interest in the field of social welfare. A member of the Commission directed a question to such absence of evidence and it seems probable that it stimulated a measure of subsequent activity in this direction by the Church of Scientology in South Africa (Pty.) Ltd. There are, however, scientologists who in a personal capacity participate in the work of existing welfare organizations e.g. Mrs. N.E. Kleyn continued her active participation in the child Welfare Society, Pretoria, after joining the organization.[86b] According to Mr. G. Cook[86c] the organization is busy with a large-scale mental home project and a project for the mentally retarded in the Republic of South Africa. With regard to these the Commission points out that both schemes are in their very early stages and that they obviously were conceived after a member of the Commission had raised the question of social and charity work done by the Church of Scientology in South Africa (Pty.) Ltd.[86d] As a church it offers pastoral counselling explained as follows:

"… with all the modern inventions of Science human beings always seem to have something wrong with them. Perhaps you yourself are subject to an illness or an ailment, a pain or a ache, which constantly recurs. You may be among the many who have sought medical help but who have not received lasting relief.

This is where PASTORAL COUNSELLING comes to your aid.

Developed by the Founder of the Church of Scientology many years ago it has been refined and standardised. It treats bodies through the mind and spirit and produces that much desired result, a well happy, human being."[87]

This is dianetic therapy under another name. No charity is dispensed, the idea being that a person should be helped to help himself instead of receiving alms — a sound and long-established idea, but apt to be too slow in cases of urgent physical need.

5.35.    To sum up: With regard to the Fourth Dynamic, i.e. all mankind, Scientology has so far contributed little that is not primarily for the advancement of Scientology itself. It has given no proof, and the Commission has been unable to find, that it is able to realise its aim of a civilisation without insanity or the survival of all mankind.

5.36.    The Fifth Dynamic: The only evidence of activity directed towards this objective or in furtherance thereof gathered by the Commission is an undated circular letter addressed to Veterinary Surgeons. The circular reads:

"Scientology has something of value for all people who desire to help not only their fellow man, but also animals.

There is a vast, practically unexplored field here, in the animal world.

Animals have definite personalities. Knowing this, if one communicates with the animal as an individual, one can bring about a definite improvement in its well being, and to quite a large extent, control its susceptability to disease.

We have simple methods, which when applied with skill, can improve the health of an animal, already ill. We are referring here particularly to animals who do not respond to treatment.

Handling the owners of animals can be a problem. Here too, we have had wide and successful experience in dealing with people. Our methods could be of great assistance and value to you.

You are cordially invited to contact us at the above address for further discussion or information."[88]

It may well be possible to achieve beneficial results in the vast field referred to since sympathetic individual attention is effective therapy in any case. The auditing of animal owners would, by directing their attention to the animal's point of view, probably make for more humane treatment.

5.37.    The Sixth Dynamic: The urge towards existence as the physical universe or Matter, Energy, Space and Time (MEST). This is a contradiction in the theory of Scientology since in its basic philosophy it presents the theta — the spiritual which is immortal and is the human being — as being in conflict with MEST. Life is explained as a manifestation of theta-conquered MEST, through all forms of life from the simplest to the most complex.[89] The two, e.g. MEST and theta, the life-force or soul, then exist side by side, each with its own performance rules. When theta gets painfully mixed with MEST this results in engrams and a consequent deterioration of theta. From that theta's only escape is withdrawal by death, which enables it to find another body to move into. In Scientology practice, however, MEST figures as property which must be respected and protected and the physical environment which must be controlled. In regard to the social personality Mr. Hubbard writes:

"He fixes the tyre that is flat rather than attack the windscreen.

In the mechanical arts he can therefore repair things and make them work.

Property is the property of someone to the social personality and its theft or misuse is prevented or frowned upon."[90]

Scientology's drills for confronting the physical environment and handling objects have already been mentioned. These are useful and effective.

5.38.    The Seventh and Eighth Dynamics: These two dynamics properly belong to the spiritual sphere and are fully discussed elsewhere.

5.39.    The increase of awareness and total spiritual freedom: The procedures described in the two books which have greatest bearing on this part of Scientology, Scientology 8-8008 and The Creation of Human Ability, have the two-fold aim of —

  1. increasing awareness by getting the preclear (pupil) to confront all manner of real and unreal things and emotions, to project his attention to different spots and places, to bring him physically into touch with them, to view danger, security, the existence of others mentally, and leading him from self-determinism to pan-determinism.

    "In Pan-Determinism we are not concerned with either bad or good. We are only concerned with the fact that a thetan is trying to control many identities, … Pan-Determinism is what one is fighting for. It is the 'reason why' behind existence.

    The auditing commands for the running of pan-determinism are as follows: 'What do you feel you could control', and 'some more things' and 'some more things'."[91]

    All this is still in essence what Dianetics set out to do;

  2. the aim of increasing the power of the spirit by means of exteriorization. This is to be effected by Standard Operating Procedure (or SOP 8), which consists of various steps by which the spirit (or thetan) is projected outside the body. This, states Mr. Hubbard, brings the individuals into higher levels of certainty, higher levels of communication — communication not only with their own bodies but also with others and with the material universe.[92] Scientology has opened the gates to a better world. It is not a psycho-therapy nor a religion. It is a body of knowledge which, when properly used, gives freedom and truth to the individual.[93] Mr. Hubbard does not say from what or to what purpose.

5.40.    This tallies with the particulars given in advertisements of the first six OT (Operating Thetan) grades. OT 1: Extroverts a being and brings about an awareness of himself as a thetan and his relation to others and the physical universe. [?] OT 3: Ability to operate as an individual and awareness of his own identity as a thetan. OT 4: Brings about a state of exteriorization and the ability to operate as an exterior spiritual being. OT 5: Refamiliarises the thetan exterior with the physical universe. OT 6: Ability to operate freely as a thetan exterior and to act pan-determinedly, extends the influence of the thetan to the universe of others. This last is expressed in terms of faith. When in a full state of beingness … one could occasion faith itself to occur within his own universe, or could occasion people to have faith in him.[94]

5.41.    All this leads to the conclusion that the increase of spirituality claimed by Scientology is limited to increase of the individual's awareness of himself as a spiritual entity and to his realization of the power of his mind over matter. This may well have a liberating effect on his spirit and enable him to experience more fully and approach other people with more confidence. It is subjective experience and therefore beyond argument. It is clear, however, that this increase of spirituality is effected by means of technology. It in no way implies deep religious content. For such content it is dependent on what individual members bring to it from other sources.

5.42.    This conclusion is borne out by the expressed views of several students and adherents of Scientology. The following serve as examples:

  1. One point, however, must be made clear. Scientology does not have any intention of altering any individual's religious faith or sect. Further, it is more likely to increase the individual's reality on his own particular understanding of religion … Scientology can bring the realization of immortality to the individual through communication, and from the knowingness of immortality spring both good health and wisdom.[95]

  2. Scientology conflicts nowhere with the truth and will be found to agree with known facts in whatever field it overlaps. It does not conflict with any religious truths, … On the contrary, it has something to offer everyone, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Mohammedan, Agnostic, Atheist, Capitalist, Communist … Scientology affirms the existence of a Supreme Being, but leaves to the individual full scope to regard that Being as he will.[96]

  3. … In Scientology we have no dogma … We believe that through Scientology the fundamental aim of all the religions are obtainable … it is a validation … I don't know of any person who has come into Scientology with a fundamental religious belief, practice, who hasn't had it reaffirmed and strengthened as a result of their experiences in Scientology.[97]

5.43.    To sum up: This part of Scientology being entirely subjective the Commission cannot gauge to what extent it realizes its aims with regard to the increase of awareness and spiritual power. Whether such power as is developed is used for good or for evil must be decided on the grounds of the role Scientology has played and is playing in the lives of individuals and the community.

5.44.    Elsewhere in this Report the objects of the two companies Hubbard Scientology Organisations in South Africa (Proprietary) Limited and The Church of Scientology in South Africa (Proprietary) Limited have been set out. Insofar as these objects embrace commercial and spiritual aims the Commission has refrained from discussing them in this chapter since the former do not, in the view of the Commission, require discussion and the latter are treated elsewhere. The remaining objects are in no way inconsistent with the aims and objects of Scientology as set out in paragraphs 5.1-5.42 above. Indeed the first objects clause of Hubbard Scientology Organisations in South Africa (Proprietary) Limited stresses the specific aim of achieving all objects relating to the human mind, spirit and soul in mental psycho-somatic and allied fields by means and in accordance with the principles of the science known as Scientology developed by Mr. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, and outlined in his work Scientology 8-8008 and in other works by him.

5.45.    Legislation should, in the opinion of the Commission, be enacted which provides for the establishment and maintenance of a register of psycho-therapists and persons who practice psychology. Persons so registered should be subject to disciplinary control by the South African Medical and Dental Council, or any other approved registering body.

5.46.    The aforesaid legislation should furthermore, save in respect of classes of specified persons excepted from the provisions of the legislation, prohibit the application of psycho-therapy or any form thereof and the practice of psychology or any form thereof by persons not registered.

5.47.    Any form of advertisement by persons not registered should be prohibited.

5.48.    An effective method of defining the application of psycho-therapy and the practice of psychology in a manner which embraces both the aspects of diagnosis and treatment would be to use the definition of "psychological practice" as contained in the Psychological Practices Act 1965, of the State of Victoria as a guide. The definition is as follows:

"'Psychological practice' or 'practice of psychology' means —

  1. the evaluation of behaviour or cognitive processes or personality or adjustment in individuals or in groups through the interpretation of tests for assessing mental abilities aptitudes interests attitudes emotions motivation or personality characteristic;

  2. the use of any method or practice calculated to assist persons or groups with adjustment or emotional or behavior problems in the areas of work family school or personal relationships; or

  3. the administration of any prescribed test or the use of any prescribed technique device or instrument for assessing mental abilities aptitudes interests attitudes emotions motivation or personality characteristics — but does not include the interpretation of tests or the use of any method or practice by a teacher in the ordinary course of teaching or research in a university, State school, registered school or other prescribed educational institution; and to 'practice psychology' has a corresponding meaning."

The Commission considers that the word "character" ought to be inserted before the word "emotional" in (b) and the following words ought to be inserted after the words "behavior problems" in (b) "or of promoting positive personality change growth and development."

5.49.    The Psychological Practices Act 1965, inter alia provides that the Act does not apply to:

  1. Legally qualified medical practitioners.

  2. Anything done by any person who is a priest or a minister of a recognised religion in accordance with the usual practice of that religion.

  3. Anything which is necessary or required to be done by a student in the course of his studies as a student in any university or other prescribed educational institution.

  4. Anything done in accordance with the rules by any person under the supervision or direction of a registered psychologist.

5.50.    The above exceptions appear to the Commission to be necessary exceptions. Slight alterations to the phraseology might be desirable to bring the description of the excepted classes into line with conditions in the Republic of South Africa. For instance the word "qualified" in (a) should be deleted and substituted by "registered" and the words "a recognised religion" in (b) should be deleted and substituted by "a religion duly recognised by the State."

5.51.    In addition to the categories listed in the preceding paragraph registered Social Workers should be excepted from the provisions of any legislation to be enacted. The Commission is aware that the Registration of psychologists with the South African Medical and Dental Council is currently under review with a view to introducing subdivisions of various types of psychologists. Therefore any proposed legislation should be consistent with the outcome of such review.

5.52.    Since having resolved to make the aforegoing recommendation the Commission has learnt that Sir John G. Foster, K.B.E., Q.C., M.P. in his report on the practice and effects of Scientology in the United Kingdom has recommended the passing of legislation restricting the practice of psycho-therapy for reward to members of a profession properly trained and qualified in its techniques. Sir John Foster disapproved in strong terms of discriminating against a person merely because he is a Scientologist and states:

"I cannot see any reason why Scientologists should not be allowed to practice psychotherapy if they satisfy the proposed professional body that they are qualified to do so, that their techniques are sound, that their practitioners receive adequate training and operate under a stringent ethical code, and that there is no hint of exploitation."[98]

The Commission holds similar views and respectfully endorses them.


Footnotes

[01] Ziff, Judy: Editor, The Auditor No. 25 World Wide, The Journal of Scientology. Sidney Press Ltd., Bedford, England, p. 2.

[02] Regenass, Len: Editor, Scientology: The Field Staff Member Magazine, Vol. One, No. One. Loxley Bros. Ltd., London and Sheffield, England, p. 10.

[03] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival. Lonsdale and Bartholomew (Leicester) Ltd., England (June 1968), pp. i and v (Footnotes introduced after the founding of Scientology.

[04] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. F.E. Bording Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark (1966), p. 13.

[05] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. F.E. Bording Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark (1966), p. [?].

[06] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought. Foundry Press, Ltd., Bedford, England, p. 9.

[07] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival. Lonsdale and Bartholomew (Leicester) Ltd., England (June 1968), p. v.

[08] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide, The Journal of Scientology. The Southern Publishing Co. Ltd., Brighton, England (1965), p. 2.

[09] Regenass, Len: Editor, Scientology: The Field Staff Member Magazine, Vol. One, No. One. Loxley Bros. Ltd., London and Sheffield, England, Rear cover page.

[10] Staff, Pretoria Organization, Newsletter No. 4. The Church of Scientology in South Africa (Pty.) Ltd., Pretoria (1971), p. 1.

[11] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide: Op.cit., p. 2.

[12] Regenass, Len: Editor, The Field Staff Member Magazine, Vol. One, No. One: Op.cit., Rear cover page.

[13] Staff, Pretoria Organization, Newsletter No. 4: Op.cit., p. 1.

[14] The attributes of Dianetics are also summarised in the "Publisher's Introduction" (pp. ix-xxxi) of the book, Science of Survival.

[15] Hubbard sometimes defines the thetan as the spirit that has a body and is "coated by" and operates through a mind. Then, again he does not distinguish it from the mind, the imagination and thought itself. Sometimes, by implication he gives it religious meaning.

[16] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, pp. 91-92; 108.

[17] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. The Garden City Press Limited, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, Great Britain (May, 68), p. 91.

[18] Hare, Fred: Editor, The Auditor No. 1, The Saint Hill Journal of the Auditors Division, p. 3.

[19] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,
a) p. 92;
b) p. 98;
c) p. 99;
d) pp. 99-100;
e) p. 103.

[20] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science, p. 89.

[21] Hare, Fred: Editor, The Auditor No. 2. The Saint Hill Journal of the Auditors Division, p. 11.

[22] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, pp. 6, 141 and 193-4.

[23] Staff, Hubbard Association of Scientologists International: What is Scientology? A.M.&I. Abrahams (Pty.) Ltd., (1965), p. 1.

[24] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide: Op.cit., p. 3.

[25] Staff, Hubbard Association of Scientologists International: What is Scientology? A.M.&I. Abrahams (Pty.) Ltd., (1965), p. 6.

[26] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide: Op.cit., p. 3.

[27] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide: Op.cit., p. 3.

[28] Gerry [?] Keith: Scientology: Its contribution to knowledge, p. 2.

[29] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide: Op.cit., p. 3.

[30] Record of Evidence, Vol. 45, p. 7 et seq. — Dr. E.C. Hamlyn.

[31] Record of Evidence, Vol. 24, pp. 14-17 — Dr. M.B. Feldman.

[32] In the glossary at p. 413 of the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health aberration is defined as: "Any deviation or departure from rationality. Used in Dianetics to include psychoses, neuroses, compulsions and repressions of all kinds and classifications."

[33] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science: Op.cit., p. 95.

[34] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health: Op.cit., p. 6.

[35] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival, Book One, p. 28.

[36] Tone Scale is defined in the Scientology Abridged Dictionary as "a scale measuring and relating the various factors of behaviour, emotion and thought to levels on the scale."

[37] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival: Op.cit., Book Two, pp. 44-45.

[38] Article "My Philosophy" by L. Ron Hubbard in Understanding Minor Issue No. 108, p. 4.

[39] Cf. the claim of Mr. R.G. Rester that Scientology cured a spine defect (Record of Evidence Vol. 8(a) pp. 5 and 22); the evidence of Dr. Hansen of a schizophrenic transformed to normality (Record of Evidence vol. 38(b) p. 74) and the cure of psycho-somatic illnesses in a school-girl (pp. 74-75). Mr. S.J. Parkhouse, a rheumatism and migraine sufferer, states that he was totally cured (Record of Evidence Vol. 8(a) pp 45-46). Mr. H.W.G. Herman claims that Scientology aided him in overcoming a regular tendency to suffer severe headaches and to contract regular colds and bouts of influenza (Record of Evidence Vol. 9(b) pp. 99-100). Mrs. A.P. Parkhouse, testified that Scientology made it possible for her to handle three childbirths without drugs or anaesthetics (Record of Evidence Vol. 10(b) pp. 71-72). Dr. S.K.P. Badenhorst, a specialist anaesthetist, said that Scientology freed him of constant headaches and repeated annual colds (Record of Evidence Vol. 41, p. 85).

[40] Hubbard L. Ron: Editor, The Auditor No. 13 World Wide: Op.cit., p. 2.

[41] Regenass, Len: Editor, The Field Staff Member Magazine, Vol. One, No. One: Op.cit., Rear Cover page.

[42] Staff, Pretoria Organization: News Letter No. 4: Op.cit., p. 1.

[43] The term dynamic is defined in the Scientology Abridged Dictionary as "the urge, thrust and purpose of life — SURVIVE! — in its eight manifestations."

[44] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought: Op.cit., p. 21.

[45] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, pp. 33-34.

[46] Record of Evidence:
a) Vol. 9(b) pp. 75-76 — Mr. H.W.G. Herman.
b) Vol. 9(a) pp. 35-40 — Mr. G.A. Rabie.
c) Vol. 16(a) pp. 3-17 — Mr. J.B. Carter.
d) Vol. 27 pp. 44-45; 86 et seq. — Mr. P. van Niekerk.

[47] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health,
a) pp. 16-17;
b) pp. 185, 197, 221, 242, 300.

[48] The Auditor No. 25 World Wide, pp. 1-2.

[49] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: A New Slant on Life. F.E. Bording Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark, (1961), pp. 38-39.

[50] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: A New Slant on Life. F.E. Bording Ltd., Copenhagen, Denmark, (1961), pp. 38-39.

[51] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Policy Letter, 15 February 1966, Attacks on Scientology. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England.

[52] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Policy Letter, Ethics. Conditions Orders. Executive Ethics, 5 January 1968. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England.

[53] Record of Evidence:
a) Vol. 5 p. 14 — Mrs. M.J. Nicholson.
b) Vol. 19 pp. 14, 78 — Mr. W.J. Botha.
c) Vol. 10(b) pp. 78, 82, 106-7 — Mrs. A.P. Parkhouse. Vol. 10(a) pp. 28, 33 — Mr. A.G. Herman.
d) Vol. 9(a) pp. 35, 37, 40 — Mr. G.A. Rabie. Vol. 16(a) p. 3 et seq. — Mr. J.B. Carter.
e) Vol. 16(a) p. 3 — Mr. J.B. Carter. Vol. 7 p. 104 — Mr. A. Tannenbaum.
f) Vol. 7 p. 103 — Mr. A. Tannenbaum.
g) Vol. 4 pp 70, 88-90 — Mr. J.P. McNam[?]e.

[54] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival: Op.cit., p. 115.

[55] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival: Op.cit., p. 115.

[56] Record of evidence, Vol. 5, p. 38 — Mrs. M.J. Nicholson.

[57] Staff, The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.: Child Dianetics. Dianetic Processing for Children. (Copyright 1951 by L. Ron Hubbard) (1967),
a) p. 7;
b) p. 9;
c) p. 15;
d) p. 16;
e) p. 22.

[58] Staff, The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation, Inc.: Child Dianetics: Dianetic Processing for Children.

[59] Staff, The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation Inc.: Child Dianetics: Dianetic Processing for Children: Op.cit.,
a) p. 42;
b) p. 72.

[60] Minshull, Ruth: Miracles for Breakfast.

[61] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology: A New Slant on Life: Op.cit.,
a) p. 55;
b) p. 57.

[62] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health: Op.cit.,
a) p. 148;
b) p. 151;

[63] Staff, The Hubbard Dianetic Foundation Inc.: Child Dianetics: Dianetic Processing for Children: Op.cit., pp. 24-25.

[64] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health: Op.cit., p. 27.

[65] Hubbard L. Ron: Introduction to Scientology Ethics, pp. 25-32. (1968).

[66] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Policy Letter, 1 July 1965, Issue III: Hats, The Reason for. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, p. 1.

[67] Hubbard L. Ron: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health: Op.cit., p. 151, (footnote).

[68] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Policy Letter: a) 26 September 1967. Awards and Penalties. b) 6 October 1967. Condition of Liability, Treason, Doubt and Enemy. c) 18 October 1967. (Issue III). High crime.

[69] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Policy Letter of 5 January 1968: Bad News. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, p. 1.

[70] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Manual of Justice. Grant Production Company Limited, Great Britain (Copyright 1959),
a) p. 2;
b) p. 3;
c) p. 5.

[71] Record of Evidence, Vol. 51(a), p. 14.

[72] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Manual of Justice. Grant Production Company Limited, Great Britain (Copyright 1959),
a) p. 6;
b) p. 9.

[73] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival: Op.cit., Book One,
a) p. 127;
b) p. 131.

[74] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Bulletin of 29 September 1965. Issue II: The continuing Overt Act.

[75] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Bulletin of 29 September 1965. Issue II: The continuing Overt Act. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, p. 2.

[76] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Executive Letter of 16 August 1966. Confidential. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, a) p. 1.

[77] In an affidavit dated the 8th day of July 1969 at Pretoria submitted to the Commission, Dr. Naude negatives any suggestion that he was impressed by any aspect of Scientology.

[78] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Executive Letter of 16 August 1966. Confidential. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, p. 2.

[79] Hubbard L. Ron: Executive Director: Copy of letter to The Hon. Dr. H.F. Verwoerd, dated November 7th, 1960, Johannesburg.

[80] Hubbard L. Ron: Executive Director: Copy of Letter to the Hon. the Prime Minister Dr. H.F. Verwoerd, Pretoria, dated October 17th 1960, Johannesburg.

[81] Parkhouse S.J.: Director of Official Affairs, Hubbard Association of Scientologists International. Secret. Copy of letter to the Honourable Dr. H.F. Verwoerd, Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, Pretoria, dated 7th November 1960, Johannesburg.

[82] The reference is to a decision of a former Minister of Health not to appoint a Commission of Enquiry into Scientology on the ground that in his view no prima facie case existed for any such enquiry.

[83] Hubbard L. Ron: HCO Information letter of the 16th February, 1969: Ron's Journal 1968. South African Supplement for issue at tape play BP1. Hubbard Communications Office, East Grinstead, Sussex, England, p. 1.

[84] Department of Publications World Wide, East Grinstead, Sussex, England: The Findings of the U.S. Food and Drug Agency: The Garden City Press Limited, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England, p. 18.

[85] Editor, Monthly Magazine, Total Freedom, International S.A. Edition No. 2.: Complete Press (Pty.) Limited, Johannesburg, South Africa (1969), p. 1.

[86] Record of Evidence:
a) Vol. 53, pp. 53-93 — Mr. G. Cook.
b) Vol. 40, p. 42 — Mrs. N.E. Kleyn.
c) Vol. 53, pp. 65 et seq. — Mr. G. Cook.
d) Vol. 53, p. 92 — Mr. G. Cook.

[87] Parvin H.: Dissemination Secretary: Circular letter. The Church of Scientology in S.A. (Pty.) Ltd., Durban, South Africa. (No date).

[88] Kember, Jane: Association Secretary: Circular letter. To Veterinary Surgeons. Hubbard Association of Scientologists International, Johannesburg, South Africa. (No date).

[89] Hubbard L. Ron: Science of Survival, Book One, Ch. I.

[90] Hubbard L. Ron: Introduction to Scientology Ethics. 1st Edition. Colonna Press Ltd., Hemel, Hempstead, Herts. England. (1968), p. 19.

[91] Hubbard L. Ron: The Creation of Human Ability. The Garden City Press Limited, Letchworth, Hertfordshire, England, (1968), pp. 112-113.

[92] Hubbard L. Ron: Creation of Human Ability, p. 223.

[93] Hubbard L. Ron: The Creation of Human Ability: Op.cit., p. 251.

[94] Hubbard L. Ron: Scientology 8-8008. Fourth Edition. Grant Production Co. Ltd., London, England. (1965), p. 65.

[95] Horner J.F.: Fundamentals of Scientology. Condor Printers, Johannesburg. (195[?]), p. 12.

[96] Gerry [?] Keith: Scientology : Its contribution to knowledge: Op.cit., pp. 2-3.

[97] Record of Evidence, Vol. 51(b), p. 94 - Mr. D.B. Gaiman.

[98] Foster Sir John G.: Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, England. (December 1971), page 181, par. 262.

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