[religious brainwash] Lets Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology #6/195

Chapter two

“My purpose is to bring a barbarism out of the mud it thinks conceived it and to form, here on Earth, a civilization based on human understanding, not violence. That’s a big purpose. A broad field. A star-high goal. But I think it’s your purpose, too.”

—L. Ron Hubbard, Scientology 08¹

Ron Hubbard bought Saint Hill Manor from the Maharajah of Jaipur in 1959. The Manor is on the edge of the hamlet of Saint Hill, a few miles from the small Sussex town of East Grinstead, 30 miles south of London. For eight years, Saint Hill was the axis of the Scientology world, and many of Hubbard’s research “breakthroughs” were made there. Following Hubbard’s departure in 1967, Saint Hill remained a major Scientology center. I visited Saint Hill in August, 1975, to see whether to commit myself to six months of study there.

Saint Hill Manor, a large grey-stone building set in about 50 acres, was built by a retired soldier in the early eighteenth century. The house has a solid, military severity, largely devoid of Georgian charm. By the time I arrived, students no longer studied in the Manor, but in the “castle,” a peculiar folly on which construction had started in the mid-1960s and which was eventually finished in 1985. The word “castle” conjures images of imposing Norman keeps, but Saint Hill “castle” is only a castle in the sense that it is faced with yellow stone and has a few turrets. As castles go, it is very small, especially considering the score of years invested in its construction. By 1975, only one single-story wing was finished. The castle is a monstrosity; a hybrid of breeze-blocks, leaded windows and battlements under a flat, tarmac roof. However I was not interested in Hubbard’s architectural taste.

The place buzzed with smiling people, many in pseudo-naval uniforms. Although I had encountered “Sea Org” members before, it was strange seeing them en masse. At Saint Hill they wore colored lanyards and campaign ribbons on their navy blue blazers. A religion run by sailors? I pushed the thought aside.

An attractive brunette whisked me around, carefully avoiding the Manor, which housed the mysterious “Guardian’s Office.” Between the Manor and the castle there was an encampment of huts, occupied by busy Sea Org members. The expensive canteen was also housed in a corrugated hut, as were the book-store and several of the administrative offices. The “castle” housed the course-rooms and the public parts of the Organization. My tour ended in the office of the “Registrars” (the sales staff), where I was treated as royalty. I handed over what seemed to me a fortune (some £400); borrowed only after repeated assurances that I would make money easily after taking the auditor training courses.

Despite my insistence that I was only visiting, I was ushered into a course-room. Scientology has a tremendous sense of urgency, which took hold of me. I read the “Basic Study Manual” until the evening session ended. I was then told that a Sea Org member wanted to see me. I was surprised as it was eleven o’clock, and I had yet to find my lodgings. The Sea Org member was a recruiter, who, for the next two hours, tried to persuade me to join that group.

In 1967, Hubbard had put to sea with a group of devoted followers, who became the “Sea Organization.” I was shown photos of Hubbard dressed up as the “Commodore.” Sea Org Members signed a billionyearcontract, swearing to return life after life to fulfill “Ron’s purpose.” They also staffed the four “Advanced Organizations,” where the secret upper levels of Scientology were delivered. Saint Hill was one of the four. I had heard much of this before and had already been tempted to join the Sea Org and work at the Publications Organization in Denmark. I saw the Sea Org as the monastic order of Scientology, something like the Knights Templar, perhaps. I felt guilty, because I was not ready to renounce everything for the good of the cause. I doggedly insisted that I wanted to train as an “Auditor,” and “go Clear” before deciding whether to join the Sea Org. I was going to be a full-time student, and felt that as a trained Auditor I would be far more useful to the Sea Org.

Eventually the recruiter showed me a “confidential” Sea Org issue, which claimed that the governments of the world were on the verge of collapse. The Sea Org would survive and pick up the pieces. Her attempt to stir up a sense of impending doom failed miserably. I wanted no part of it. Hubbard had said elsewhere that Scientology was non-political. I was interested in Scientology as a therapy, nothing more.