((Editor's comments in double parenthesis - Homer))
EXM 34
L. Ron Hubbard, Man or More than a Man?
BY BOB ROSS (1)
Editor's Copyright (C) 1992 A Voice of the Free Zone (Electra)
Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes.
I read the article in Astounding Stories in May 1950. This was
a very exciting article but I was not sure it was not a hoax,
so I looked in the phone book and found that the Hermitage House
Publishing company actually existed. I called them and they said
the book was being published. I immediately got on a subway train
and went to their offices where I found other people also trying
to get the book. But, it wasn't yet off the presses. I left money,
to get my copy and got mine on May 9, 1950.
A few months later I saw a demonstration by an Elizabeth student,
of putting a young woman through a dental extraction under gas,
this made many things in the book more real to me. I also audited
and was audited. In December of 1950 I went to Israel with 50
copies of DMSMH. That got me in touch with many people and Dianetics
got going in Israel. I decided after two years and 4,000 hours
of auditing that Dianetics worked but that my expertise and knowledge
left much to be desired. I had achieved one medical "miracle"
by getting a woman (Emmy) walking who had been bedridden for five
years, and who had been given up by three medical specialists,
an internist, a surgeon, and a psychiatrist. It took 2,000 hours
over a period of 2 years (I could do it a lot faster today). She
did not dance, but she walked for five years after that.
Past Lives, Psychiatrists
In November 1950, a month before I left New York for Israel I
was told in a whisper, in a corner, as a deep dark secret, that
if you ran dianetics long enough you ran into past deaths. At
that time, one would become outcast from the psychological community
for talking about such things. Freud, himself, didn't even acknowledge
the actuality of recalling life in the womb (Prenatal engrams).
He called them "fantasies of life in the womb." Jung
spoke not of memories of past lives, but of archetypes. To actually
consider that people lived before was simply not acceptable at
that time. Today Past Life Regression Therapy is a recognized
sub branch of Psychological counselling, though not by everybody.
I once used creative processing on a teenager, who years later
in college went to a psychologist for help and recognized what
he was asking her to do. He admitted to her that he had learned
this from Scientology. Two years later one of my Israeli pc's
had gotten back to before conception and experienced going through
a "wall of colors" to enter the ovum. A few days later
she was listening as I ran her mother on HER mother's death (The
girl had been three-years old when her grandmother died). When
I completed mother's session, I saw the girl lying with arms folded
across her chest in the "death valence" position. I
asked her, with a snap of the fingers, Who's dead?" thinking
that she had gone into grandmother's valence.
"I am." She replied. I asked three times and got the
same answer each time. I then took her into another room and ran
that past death. Then I directed her to run the intervening time
up to present time. She ran directly into a between lives implant
with "God" commanding her to forget. It was not until
1963, eleven years later, when I was at St. Hill, that I heard
Ron describe a somewhat similar between-lives incident. I knew
then with great certainty that Ron had not made these things up
but had run into them with pcs and on his own track. Lack of Public
Acknowledgement of LRH
Even though there is no public acknowledgement of LRH by the psychological
community, every Psychologist and psychiatrist had a copy of Dianetics
hidden on his bookshelf. As more and more people recalled life
in the womb and past lives, it became OK to talk about such things.
After-Death experiences, for example, became respectable. Then
medical researchers, without mentioning Dianetics, proved that
what was said in operating rooms was recorded by patients and
so could affect them. The Primal Scream by Janov is easily recognized
as coming from Dianetics. Berne's Games People Play puts one in
mind of Service Facsimiles. And, so on.
Pictures Of The Future
In 1954 I visited Wing Angell in Chicago. Wing told me that he
had seen Ron's picture of the future of Scientology. I was unable
to confront that at that time, so I ignored it. In 1964, ten years
later, I met Wing again, this time at S.H. I reminded him of my
visit and asked him what he had seen. He immediately had a compulsive
outflow in which he told me that he had seen Ron's mental picture
of every future gain, loss, and advance in Scientology. And, that
he had seen each of these come to pass since I had last seen him
in 1954. This included seeing the raid by the FDA on the Founding
Church in Washington, D.C. about 1959, five years before it occurred.
About 1960 in Tucson Arizona I heard from another auditor about
a pc who after running many past life incidents ran a future track
incident of a fatal car crash. The auditor said that he asked
the pc if he could alter that incident. The pc was able to slow
down his car going up a hill enough to avoid a fatal collision
at the top of that hill with a car coming out of a hidden side
road. Five years later, the pc recognized the hill, slowed down,
and avoided hitting the car that came out of that hidden side
road at the top of the hill. Communicating With Ron
Like all graduates from S.H. I had the privilege, in 1964, of
an hour with Ron before leaving. He said, "Ask me anything
you want." I asked him how he had arrived at the decisions
he had made with regard to South Africa when Peter Greene was
denounced (I think about 1960). He said, "I lacked detailed
information and when I lack detailed information I take broad
measures." In that instance his broad measure was to replace
all the executives. He also said "When I chop heads off,
I later sew them back on. This isn't always noticed."
I remember in the 1960's Ron made some changes in the tech which
seemed at the moment as though they were only for the purpose
of getting more money out of people. It took me two years to recognize
the technical validity of that change.
I remember on the 18th A.C.C. I wrote a note to Ron about my course
pc. Shortly afterward Ron issued a broad public announcement in
Ability magazine saying that he was making a change in research
direction because of a letter he had received from Bob Ross. That
reference and another both appear in the Red Volumes.
Ron's Physical Appearance
I have seen Ron many times. Once I was standing in front of 1810
19th St., N.W. when he came barrelling up the steps of 1812 past
a group of students about 15 feet away from me. He seemed shorter
than most of them, about 5'6" or 7". I saw him very
clearly another time toward the end of an after Congress party,
about 1960. I went up to him to say "Good Night," and
noticed that he was so tall (about 7' or 2.13 Meters) that my
outstretched hand would barely have reached the top o his head.
I took his hand, to shake hands and noticed that his hand was
extremely large and that I could see the pores of his skin as
though under a magnifying glass.
At Saint Hill I saw him often on the grounds, where he talked
occasionally with students. I met and spoke to him once as he
was being picked up by his chauffeur at the East Grinstead Public
Library. He seemed to me to be having some trouble physically
getting into the car. I went over to him to say "Hello."
I had just come back after taking a week's unauthorized leave
to go to Paris. He said to me, "I told them you would be
back." I saw him again at a performance of a Gilbert and
Sullivan Operetta starring Jenny Edmunds, course supervisor and
Reg Sharpe's girl friend. Ron was standing surrounded by many
students and was a full head taller than most of them.
Missed Withholds
To me one of the most important and least predicted discoveries
of Scientology was the discovery of the anatomy and effects of
the missed withhold. It took 13 years to discover it and of all
things in Scientology it remains perhaps the hardest to explain
to a psychologist. Ron could be acclaimed a genius on that one
point alone.
Ron's plans For The Church
Having failed to ask Wing Angell for what else he had seen in
Ron's plans for the future of Scientology (that had not yet taken
place as of 1964) I have had to guess at what they might have
been, based upon what has occurred since. When people left the
church in droves in 1982-85 I came to the conclusion that Ron
had planned it that way.
I am convinced that the church would have gotten far bigger than
it has, if Ron had not set things up to keep it relatively small
and weak, to prevent it from totally dominating the planet. As
the church exists today, it serves to spread knowledge through
books into society. It remains relatively small because as people
come up tone and become more capable they become able to recognize
the lies and suppression that the church uses. I have been asked
for my view on why the church went sour and whether this had any
connection to LRH. Some people, of course, think it went sour
because Ron became paranoid. However, in 1954 on the Philadelphia
Doctorate Course Ron spoke of the possibility of a Church of Scientology
developing and turning into a monster which should be destroyed.
My opinion is that he set it up to self destruct. I deduce this
from the following policies known or inferred which he put into
place.
Keys To Church Self Destruction
1) Taking non-auditor's on staff. I personally know people on
staff who were highly unethical, did not have the goals of an
auditor and didn't know that auditing works. I am sure that some
of these were infiltrated agents of the FBI, the Army, the Navy,
the CIA, the U.S.S.R., the Mafia and no doubt others. I feel that
I myself, was driven out of the church by false reports and out-ethics
actions by persons who were afraid that I would see what they
were doing. However, as early as 1956 I had heard that the most
capable auditors never seemed to last on staff. At that time,
I decided that Ron wanted them out in society spreading the tech.
2) The "No Verbal Data" Policy Letter. This eliminated
the line of tradition which made up for errors and things left
out of the course materials, Ron had stated earlier (ca. 1956)
that this line of tradition was necessary for the proper transmission
of the tech. If some one had heard all the tapes there might be
no gap, but who has? You might say that the materials were somewhat
booby trapped. Without the tradition line to clear things up if
someone stole the materials (for example the Russians) they would
not be able to use them for lack of the verbal tradition. This
was also evident in DMSMH itself. I saw immediately in 1950 that
as written the book would turn off establishment types who would
not even read it or take it seriously and this turned out to be
the case. Only mavericks and science-fiction fans took the book
seriously at first.
3) I infer that Ron set up Miscavige to drive out competent staff,
all at one time. Ron is known to drop little comments to willing
ears. Also, what Miscavige did was completely contrary to the
Ethics P/Ls which I learned 100% star rate, as the first E/O (Ethics
Officer) in NY in 1965.
Ethics policies (1965) also state that people who left or were
declared would not be readmitted to Scientology if they became
part of a group declared suppressive, until such time as that
group was disbanded or destroyed. That way, every person who became
disaffected and left or was declared, was persuaded to remain
out of contact with other disaffected people for fear of being
considered part of a suppressive group.
((I am not sure how this benefits the field.))
That is why I came to the conclusion that Ron had set it up to
"drive fledglings out of the comfortable nest" of the
Orgs and into society. Driving most of the capable people out
of the Orgs also provided a more diffuse target for real planetary
suppressives to shoot at, as they were no longer all in one place
in the Church. It could be said, however, that planetary suppressives
have been attacking the field to prevent the spread of Scientology
via the church of Scientology itself.
4) I infer that Ron set Miscavige up to destroy the mission network
and kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, for the apparent
purpose of pulling money out of the Church into LRH's private
accounts. He made it seem reasonable as part of legitimizing the
transfer of copyrights to the RTC.
5) I have heard reports by and of people who were contacted theta-
wise by Ron and told to leave the church and set up various underground
and successor projects and organizations. This included a report
that Ron had told some people at Saint Hill theta-wise of the
FBI raid before it occurred.
6) I knew an ex-member of EST who told me that Werner Erhardt
at first sent his graduates forty or fifty at a time to the nearest
Org for more help and training, but Ron gave orders to reject
them. This kept them relatively uncontaminated with Scientology
and weakened the church. Werner had been trying to expand the
church by a different kind of mission action.
Man Or More?
I used to dream of achieving a cleared planet, and wondered what
I would do after that had been achieved. After all, I thought,
if each clear could clear just two other people every year the
world would be clear in fifty years or so. I was not alone in
feeling so confident. I can well remember a meeting of my dianetics
group in Tel Aviv in 1951, we were very seriously discussing what
kind of government we should create for the cleared planet we
all expected in the near future. What would I do next after the
planet was cleared? I imagined arriving as a full OT on another
planet, alone or as part of a team and considered how to go about
it without making it obvious that the tech I was teaching was
from off-planet, and without myself being worshipped. I decided
that it might take a few thousand years, coming back time after
time as one prophet or teacher or another to give pieces of tech,
so that it would then seem to be a logical development from local
philosophy and religion.
The stories I've heard that "prove" that Ron couldn't
be what he obviously was, could only be believed by people who
don't know that the tech works, or that OT is possible. The more
I hear such stories the more amazed I am that Ron accomplished
what he did, supposing those stories were true.
I choose to think that Ron was on the side of the angels, appearances
to the contrary. He said in the course of a lecture 1963-64 while
I was at Saint Hill that being worshipped would prevent people
from thinking that they could achieve OT abilities themselves.
I choose to think that he has deliberately made himself appear
to be a very fallible, money-hungry, human being lusting for power
over others. Recently I heard a story from the days when he was
hiding in Clearwater, so that he wouldn't be subpoenaed. While
coming back from Tampa, they were passed on the highway by a Police
Car with flashing lights and siren. LRH crouched on the floor
under a blanket or coat to not be seen and then when they got
back to their hideout, he hid under the bed. It took an hour for
his aide (Laurel Sullivan I think ) to coax him out. When I heard
this I laughed and thought how well he was dramatizing his "humanity".
I could imagine doing that myself as a high powered OT clearing
a planet while appearing human.
How would you do it?
Well, that's my view of LRH.
Bob Ross
B. Robert Ross (B. for Bernard) H.S.S. Cl VI (1964), Founding
Scientologist, 1950 born 4/30/21 Bachelor of Electrical Engineering,
1944, Licensed Professional Engineer, N.Y. State, U.S.A. 1947,
Servo systems Engineer, E-Meters designer. Old timer May 1950,
brought Dn to Israel 1951, Led Dn group 1951-3, HCA/HPA D.C. 1957,
18th ACC, 21st ACC, Briefing course D.C. under Dick and Jan Halpem
1961, SHSBC (18 months) 1963-4, Full Cl VI auditor trained to
run R6 on PCs. (Knowledgeable on running GPMs by R3M2), Staff
member NY Org '65-7, D of T, Diseem Sec, Distrib Sec, E/O, Review
Auditor, Cram Off, Qual Sec, Staff D.C. Org 1976. Author, lecturer,
auditor, engineer.
IVy