Holy Cow Series 4

Ron's Many Hats

HAT:
The duties of a post. It comes from
the fact that jobs are often distinguished by a type of hat as
fireman, policeman, conductor, etc. Hence the term hat

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The mad hatter in Alice in Wonderland always carried a selection of hats with him where ever he went. "I keep them to sell" he told people. Hubbard wore all the hats he did - not to sell, but to get everything going and "keep the show on the road" . He got to love all the attention and admiration he got from his followers and loathed criticism raised by his enemies. Many of these hats he couldn't easily turn over, and some of them - it seems - he just wouldn't let go of. Since he was so multiple hatted it could often be confusing from which hat he was communicating from.

I have composed this long list of hats he wore and will try to sort them out and give an evaluation of his performance hat by hat. He did: 1) research, C/Sing and auditing, 2) Scientology™ writing and lecturing, 3) goal making, 4) policy making and writing. 5) He managed the organizations; and he was the commodore of the Sea Org. 6) He did public relations and promotion, 7) He was fighting psychiatry and 'the enemy'. 8) He found time to make photos and instructional films. 9) He wore the hat as founder of Church of Scientology™ and Source. That is a lot of hats - and I have probably not listed them all.

To me the Tech is Hubbard's true legacy. He was an intuitive researcher with an engineer's approach. There is very little formal research of the type universities condone. He would get these bright ideas, while working with the subject as an auditor or case supervisor and test it out and release it. He was depending on feedback from his auditors for the final testing. His Book One, Dianetics, is an early example of that. At great length prenatal incidents are described in the book as the basic area to address. Yet applying the methods of the book (Book One auditing) or later versions of Dianetics™ (NED) , this prenatal period only rarely shows up in auditing and has proven of little consequence for cases. In other words the importance it was given wasn't based on thorough research. It was based on the maxim that the basic incident needed to resolve the case is earlier and at the time past lives wasn't suspected or looked for. When his auditors started to apply Book One auditing, past lives turned up very quickly and the prenatal period rarely did. Many of his ideas were great, but not fully tested. His method was to release promising but untested processes to his auditors and then they would test them. Early on this led to the release of many approaches that later proved insufficient. You may say as the Tech and the Bridge kept developing we were all guinni pigs. The subject as an applied practice had many ups and downs. Many of its goals it couldn't live up to in terms of ability achieved or time needed to achieve them. Later all his findings got organized into the line-up we today know as Standard Tech and the Bridge. It only contains a fraction of all the published processes. The Pilot, the Freezone researcher, says about 10%.

Even to this day little evidence exist, that Standard Tech is the ultimate approach. Critics say it's expensive and time consuming. Old-timers tell you about "old" processes that worked like dynamite, but were abandoned. As an auditor I know that Standard Tech works very well. Hubbard's Tech accomplishes results that was unheard of prior to Scientology™ or in other therapies or spiritual practices of today. But it is evident it was never fully reevaluated in hindsight.

Hubbard had a background as fiction writer. He had developed a tremendous ability to write with great speed with little need to go back and do corrections. He would lecture without notes and it was recorded as his famous taped lectures. It was an approach of first inspiration is right and just go with it. Put it out there, let us work with it as a group and then pass final judgment. As a result we have a tremendous body of work of published materials. Students would say there is way too much. Scholars and researchers would say it is a marvelous treasure. What we have in the Tech Volumes, in his books and the hundreds and hundreds of lectures is a time track of all his research and teaching activities. Since it was recorded or written at the time it took place it is a tremendous resource. It is, what historians call source materials. Original recordings and documents. Hubbard was very proud of his writings. He wouldn't always revise earlier materials for proven mistakes. The description of the prenatal period is one example. Another example is from A History of Man, where whole track incidents containing the Piltdown Man are described. The Piltdown Man was a prehistoric ape man found in Britain. It turned out to be a hoax and a practical joke by "the finder". Big scandal. Yet this wasn't revised in later editions of the book. Scholars will appreciate the fact that it's left in there. Students won't. In my opinion the luxury of hindsight is precious. It may be a risky and by scholars considered a sacrilegious undertaking, but as far as the applied technology is concerned, it needs to be compiled into textbook form, video's etc. with all the benefits of reevaluating the Tech in the light of practical experience and years of application. This technology could benefit the many, if these books were easy to understand and widely available.

The goals of Scientology™ have been expressed as: a world without crime, war and insanity. A world where honest men can prosper. For the organizations the goal has been expressed as: a Clear Planet. For the individual as: reaching the state of Clear and OT.

These are the goals Hubbard dreamed could become reality if the Tech was fully refined and applied on the various dynamics.

In an early writing called Essay on Management, Hubbard describes goals and goal makers:

Famous goal makers in history mentioned in the essay are Jesus, Mohammed, Alexander the Great and Jefferson.

In the same essay he also writes:

To Hubbard and his followers this conflict between goal making and managing was ever present. In all his active life, Hubbard was known as the boss, the top manager and commodore and not as a lofty independent goal maker. The movement has suffered greatly as a result of his image and the goals getting tarnished by the down and dirty duties of a manager.

Policy making is: "the act of envisioning the already established goals and purposes of a business and formulating workable rules, procedures and methods of operation to attain them now and in the future." (Quotes from Admin Dictionary)
We are down to the guidelines for how to conduct business and make money:

"Policy is such things as the organizing board, hats. It is how to write letters. It is how to get the show on the road, keep it there and handle the bumps. Policy is the broad general outline originated by top management."
And:
"Policy is a growing thing, based on "what has worked." What works well today becomes tomorrow's policy."

In many respects Hubbard was brilliant as a policy maker. He would first do things himself or run pilot projects. He would develop a whole philosophy around groups and management of groups and organizations, that has many gems in it. All this led to growth, expansion and dissemination of the Tech. But his deep involvement with management and policy making also tarnished his image seriously.

As it said in Essay of Management: "The dreamer of dreams and the user of flogs on lazy backs cannot be encompassed in the same man".
That is not the only problem. As time went on Hubbard got more and more set in his ways and policy with it. At some point he announced Standard Admin:

The "soaring Tech stats" of Class 8 were actually very short lived. The Class 8 program caused an upswing because it was the newest and latest. The public flooded in with renewed hope to get their cases handled. The real problem at the time was however Quickie Grades (meaning only using one process per grade and sometimes not even run that to full result) and that wasn't fixed with Class 8 so the newness effect soon faded. The boom was not a result of "100% Standard", but a fad.
You do get a feeling, starting with Class 8 in 1968, that Hubbard feels it's all done and said. And when you look as his previous production since 1950, you can't blame him. It's a tremendous body of work; he may have set a world record among philosophers and non-fiction writers. Maybe that's why he is set on declaring all the policy he has formulated and written up for "Standard Admin", meaning it gets some kind of status of Holy Scripture, that shall forever stand and be followed. It gets elevated to the status already granted to the Tech by the release of Class 8.

Hubbard had a tremendous charisma. He could inspire staff to go through hell and high waters to carry out his plans and orders.
A Scientology™ friend of mine told me, that he often would get this response when he told public about the wonders and expansion of Scientology: "That's not possible!" My friend's response was: "That's right!" His point was that Hubbard and the organizations had done the impossible. This was due to Hubbard's Tech and goal making, but his personal charisma was an important part of this too.
As a manager he could really make things happen. He figured he would five double the stats and the production of any Scientology™ area he took direct control of. This is of course very impressive and possibly why he kept being the Executive Director and later the Commodore. But he also reveals a history of deciding to "bypass and handle personally" and in this way unsettle and sometimes in wrath dismantle his existing exec strata. This frequent change of top management escalated in the seventies. The leadership changes "made it look like a banana republic" as one cynical person commented. When you see how many things he overall was involved in, you get the impression, that he was working on his image and legacy and liked to show off his tremendous abilities, including telling existing leadership, that they weren't up to his standards. In hindsight it would have been much more ideal, if he had built up a stable leadership he felt he could trust and had concentrated on the Tech and goal making. There were many loyal, able and well intended candidates for the top positions.

Hubbard was the principal promoter of Scientology™ and the organizations. Early on through personal appearances and later through articles and promotional writings. I found it a little pitiful, when I saw Hubbard's books and the only promotion on the cover was a quote from the author himself. No reviews to quote. Also the organizations' magazines had this Hubbard Policy to follow: The only author name allowed in the magazines was Hubbard's. Not even the names of the editorial staff had any place there. It must have been a lonely life off stage. Another conflict here is, that salesmen and promoters are not always known for being entirely truthful; and that hurts the credibility of the basic subject. The declaration of "Standard Tech" and "Standard Admin" are examples of that. The above quote announcing "Standard Admin" is dated Oct 25, 1968. That is only two months after the release of Class 8 and "Standard Tech". Hardly enough time for conclusive testing. "Standard Tech" was great promotion at the time. The Orgs got flooded with business. But as mentioned it didn't correct Quickie Grades. "Standard Admin" made staff feel proud, study and work harder. It soon became clear, that there were plenty of additional problems not yet tackled, technically and administratively. They adroitly got swept under the rug by the promotional people and sales personnel. Hubbard promotional statements got elevated to Scripture. And again, he didn't like to revise his earlier writings which left the infallibility of "Standard Tech" and especially "Standard Admin" in there as Holy Cows.

Throughout his Scientology™ life, Hubbard was haunted by various hostile groups and individuals. Psychiatry, AMA and various governments and government agencies as FDA (e-meter raid 1963) , FBI (snow white raids 1977), IRS (about tax-free church status and own income tax), State of Victoria in Australia (Anderson Report and a ban in1966) and British Parliament (foreign student ban 1968). He established Guardian's Office to deal with all that but was always passionately involved in these fights and conflicts. He was looking for one common denominator between these attacks in order to identify the "real enemy". He was suspecting a small group of "insiders". I can't for a fact tell you what would have happened, if he hadn't been involved in all these fights. Maybe they were necessary. Maybe he was onto something. My suspicion is however, that we would all have come out a lot better if he hadn't been so passionate about "the enemy". In speech - if not in action - he also took on "vested interests" and powerful groups like international bankers, the Rockefeller Foundation and other suspected insider groups. Not to speak of "squirrels". His declared goal in 1968 (Ron's Journal 67) was to "handle the fourth dynamic engram". Sort of being the new sheriff in town, that single-handedly cleans it up with his gun and fists. Only he wasn't talking about Dodge City, but about the whole planet. This put us all in way over our heads. Arguably Ron's Journal 67 marks a turning point. Hubbard wanted to pour considerable work and resources into this fight. He introduced a tough Ethics system to get the most production out of his staff. Much of the revenue was used to build up the Sea Organization, which goal was to "Put Ethics in on this Planet". Under Mary Sue's leadership the powerful (and expensive) Guardian's Org network was established to take care of PR and covert operations. It has been described as a spy organization, complete with dirty tricks, planted spies in the press and government and a big legal department. The covet GO operation known as Snow White led eventually to the FBI raids in July 1977 and the criminal conviction of nine leading GO execs, including his wife, Mary Sue.

This belligerent attitude has been "cast in concrete" as policy and Scientology™ offices continue to exist to carry on the crusade. A later article in the Holy Cow Series is devoted to "Dealing with the Enemy" where we will go in more detail on this and the ethic system of Scientology.

Here we are into Hubbard's hobbies. He has done good work in these fields, which is remarkable. But it gives me this impression, that much of what he did, he did for show, to build up this super human image as part of his legacy and to extend his biography for dust covers. I find his music great and refreshing; his photos and tech films does not appeal to me, but that is a matter of taste. The tech films are instructive as visual aids and a good practical help. But according to different accounts the atmosphere on the film set was very unpleasant and it seems to be reflected in the frozen acting.

Hubbard' used the title "Founder" under his name on many of his technical writings and policies. He was the founder of the Church of Scientology. He also described himself as "Source", meaning source of Scientology. This is on the Org Board and many other places.

I am an ex-member of Church of Scientology, so you may excuse me, if you think I am disrespectful and maybe sacrilegious.

But personally it repels me, when he tried to elevate himself to a religious figure and his writings to infallible Holy Scripture; you were not allowed to discuss, disagree with or try to use them for further research. Hubbard says, that the only reason you get confused or can't understand (or agree with?) his work is, if you have a misunderstood word. I have cleared up all my misunderstood words and after understanding his writings and applying them I ran into a couple of Holy Cows and many arbitraries.

When I look over his works I find them a great inspiration in many fields. They could inspire a renaissance in areas. But I see the Tech alone as his legacy for the ages. But all too often the elevation of his writing to Scripture and, as we have seen, his many hats and the built in conflicts have led to a very unfortunate A=A=A=A=A type of thinking between Tech, admin, promotion, crusades against 'the enemy' and (as will be covered later) Ethical conduct, that became a narrower and narrower path. This instills a robotic and passive attitude. We need to break away from that and in the most disrespectful way bring about a renaissance anyway. Somehow, step by step, Hubbard turned from showing courageous disrespect of Authorities in his early work into building himself as an infallible religious figure you had to worship. Copernicus, Galileo, Giordano Bruno and Edison are my heroes in history. Galileo got jailed, Bruno burned alive by Rome both for heresy. They stood up for free thought, science and technology. I want to include Hubbard as an inspirational figure, but he has to promise me, that he is not running for Pope of Rome.

The A=A=A=A equation between Tech, admin, promotion and crusades as all being Scripture is certainly a Holy Cow. It's held to be true by Church of Scientology, but it isn't. The biggest outpoint in Hubbard's professional life is however in my opinion, what is not there. Maybe it exists in archives as unpublished instructions, that wasn't carried out. It is this: Regardless his extensive writings on know-how and hats, there are now vital hats and hat write ups missing. He was the researcher and tech writer of Scientology. These hats were never turned over. He was the policy maker and policy reviser. These hats haven’t been turned over either. In the six years between his sudden retirement in 1980 and his death 1986 this was apparently never taken care of. All this is of course part of the 'Group Engram' described in the first article in this series.
It raises a number of questions in my mind: Was he reluctant to turn these hats over as he felt it would hurt the integrity of the subject or his legacy and his image? Was there foul play involved and write ups do exist but are suppressed? Or, as some have suggested, was he completely burned out after 30 years of non stop creation? He still wrote "Battlefield Earth" and "Mission Earth" in retirement which only makes the situation even more mysterious.

With a streak of malice, I will describe the current situation in Church of Scientology™ this way: It can best be described as a body or Genetic Entity without a thetan. The vital functions that weren't turned over of policy making, research, correction/revising of existing tech and especially of policy comprise to my mind an organization without a head or thetan - real leadership is missing. You could describe it as a plane flying on autopilot (using existing tech and policy). To me it is the biggest outpoint in Church of Scientology™ today. Hubbard's Tech may be timeless but policy, promotion, dealing with the enemy etc. are not and these functions can not be performed rotely "according to ancient Scripture". It takes an alert and responsive leadership to take care of business. They must have freedom to adapt and modify things as do other organizations like governments and private businesses.

The tragedy of Hubbard's life was perhaps, that he was so good at so many things. He was the dreamer of dreams par exellance. But gradually he got dragged into the role as the user of flogs on lazy backs. As a crusader against the fourth dynamic engram he stretched resources to the max and introduced a new objective, that was remote from the self-improvement business of the organizations. And as he wrote in 1951: "The dreamer of dreams and the user of flogs on lazy backs cannot be encompassed in the same man".

In the Freezone we want to polish the goals of the Tech. Let us clean that up, and put all the rest in a pile for possible recycling. Let's Keep the Technology Working.

Holy Cow Rundown (4)
The Holy Cow Rundown that goes along with this series, is intended to handle any personal charge that you may have along these lines. It uses a standard 20 buttons prep check. PC reads the article and does demos. In session, the auditor assesses the concepts and items below and prepcheck charged items. The C/S may add items, but shouldn't delete any.

No leadership
Pretended leadership
No LRH Hat turnover
Stolen Hats
No research
Notes, not research
Too much data
Outdated Policy
Outdated Tech
PR out of date
Authoritarian Policy
Authoritarian Tech
Goal making getting corrupted
Goals being compromised

(list tentative at this point - qualified input needed)

Sincerely,               
Holy Cow!              

Group Engrams and Holy Cows       (HSC 1)
Is KSW a  Holy Cow?                        (HCS 2)
Don't Speak about the Tech!            (HCS 3)
Ron's Many  Hats                               (HCS 4)
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"Many of these hats he couldn't easily turn over, and some of them - it seems - he just wouldn't let go of"

 "There is very little formal research of the type universities condone. He would get these bright ideas while working with the subject"

"It was an approach of first inspiration is right and just go with it. Put it out there, let us work with it as a group and then pass final judgment"

"Famous goal makers in history mentioned in the essay are Jesus, Mohammed, Alexander the Great and Jefferson"

"The dreamer of dreams and the user of flogs on lazy backs cannot be encompassed in the same man, for the dream, to be effective, must be revered and the judge and the task master can only be respected"

"We are down to the guidelines for how to conduct business and make money"

"The "soaring Tech stats" of Class 8 were actually very short lived. The Class 8 program caused an upswing because it was the newest and latest"

"Hubbard had a tremendous charisma. He could inspire staff to go through hell and high waters to carry out his plans and orders"

"Another conflict here is, that salesmen and promoters are not always known for being entirely truthful; and that hurts the credibility of the basic subject"

 "His declared goal in 1968 was to "handle the fourth dynamic engram". Sort of being the new sheriff in town, that single-handedly cleans it up with his gun and fists. Only he wasn't talking about Dodge City, but about the whole planet"

" according to different accounts the atmosphere on the film set was very unpleasant and it seems to be reflected in the frozen acting"

"he tried to elevate himself to a religious figure and his writings to infallible Holy Scripture; you were not allowed to discuss, disagree with or try to use them for further research"

"When I look over his works I find them a great inspiration in many fields. They could inspire a renaissance"

 "This instills a robotic and passive attitude. We need to break away from that and in the most disrespectful way bring about a renaissance anyway"

"Regardless his extensive writings on know-how and hats, there are now vital hats and hat write ups missing. He was the researcher and tech writer of Scientology. These hats were never turned over"

"The vital functions that weren't turned over of policy making, research, correction/revising of existing tech and especially of policy has created an organization without a head or thetan - real leadership is missing"

"He was the dreamer of dreams par exellance. But gradually he got dragged into the role as the user of flogs on lazy backs"

"In the Freezone we want to polish the goals of the Tech. Let us clean that up and put all the rest in a pile for possible recycling. Let's Keep the Technology Working"