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The H-Files

FBI files on L Ron Hubbard


FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 300

[FBI FILES 300-300E, numbering 25 pages, are part of one report submitted to FBI Headquarters from SAC, Los Angeles]

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

Los Angeles, California
January 17, 1975

_SCIENTOLOGY_

Records of the Los Angeles Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation disclosed the following information concerning Scientology or the Church of Scientology:

There have been numerous inquiries from citizens to the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning Scientology. Many of the citizens requested information concerning the organization inasmuch as their relatives have become associated with the organization. Other individuals volunteered information, pamphlets published by Scientology and other data which they had collected.

Records of the United States Coast Guard, Long Beach, California, onMay [sic] 1, 1973, disclosed that the Church of Scientology currently had four boats registered in its name at that facility.

Telephone directories of the Los Angeles, California, area disclosed numerous telephones listed to the Church of Scientology and its branches and local organizations.

The following article entitled "Scientology," undated, which contains information concerning that organization, was furnished to the FBI by a concerned citizen who desired to furnish the information. That article is as follows:

[continued in FBI FILE 300B]

FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 300B

[continued from FBI FILE 300]

_SCIENTOLOGY_

"Life" magazine, issue of November 15, 1968 contains an article on Scientology and states, "A growing cult reaches dangerously into the mind."

A publication entitled "Reality" dated May, 1960, is self-described as the official publication of Dianetics and Scientology in California and the western United States. The founder is listed as L. RON HUBBARD. On page 3 of this publication it states, "In the hands of the intelligent, Scientology, by altering human energy, has duplicated any miracle of yesteryear in healing. But it is far more than a science of healing. By it and by it alone could be determined the quality of those who govern man. By Scientology one can know and predict his fellows, he can heal and secure the future of his children, he can evaluate tomorrow and learn to rule today...In a few hours Scientology can make the lame walk, the blind see."

L. RON HUBBARD has been associated with a number of organizations having their headquarters in Washington, D.C. Among those organizations are the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International, Hubbard Dianetic Research

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Foundation, and Academy of Scientology. His organizations allegedly advance a new method of curing mental illness known as Dianetics.

The April 24, 1952, issue of the "Times Herald" newspaper, Washington, D.C., revealed that HUBBARD's wife charged in a divorice suit that he was "hopelessly insane" and subjected her to "scientific torture experiments." According to the article, competent medical advisors recommended HUBBARD be committed to a private sanitarium for psychiatric observation and treatment for mental ailment known as "paranoid-schizophrenia."

In late 1962 investigators of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration executed a search warrant on the headquarters of L. RON HUBBARD in Washington, D.C. The warrant was based on allegations that certain books and publications authored by HUBBARD and his associates made false and fraudelent claims for certain cures. He was also allegedly manufacturing and selling a "wonder machine" which the Food and Drug Administration also claimed had been misrepresented At that time HUBBARD was in England and no arrests were made.

On February 20, 1960, one Dr. L. RON HUBBARD, JR. came to Michigan City, Indiana, and rented a suite of rooms

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in the Spaulding Hotel. He represented himself as a doctor of Dianetics and Scientology. HUBBARD claimed he was superior to psychiatrists and could audit people's minds, taking them back to the time they were in their mother's womb. For a series of five visits, Dr. HUBBARD charged $500. In spite of the fee HUBBARD was obtaining patients and doing a good business much to the consternation of the local medical society who believed he was a fraud.

On approximately March 20, 1960, Dr. HUBBARD was joined by a woman named Mrs. NINA WEST, a co-practitioner of Dr. HUBBARD. WEST did not represent herself as a doctor but claimed proficiency in the auditing of people's minds. She indicated she was from England and had a ten year old daughter in a private school in England.

According to articles appearing in Los Angeles newspapers in April of 1951 HUBBARD was accused of kidnaping his wife by force and imprisoning their 13 month old daughter.

The Founding Church of Scientology is self-described as follows:

The Founding Church of Scientology is a legally constituted Church, domiciled in the District of Columbia.

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It has branches in other states, and has many correspondents and members of its sister religious felowship in all parts of the world.

The Church of Scientology is dedicated to the freedom of the Spirit. The entirety of the activities of the Church of Scientology are dedicated to this end, to the freeing of the Spirit of Man.

Scientology believes that the Spirit of Man is Man himself, not his body.

Scientology believes that the Spirit of Man can be saved from the burden of past sins, by the counseling and aiding of the Spirit.

Our ends are purely spiritual, not secular.

By the means of Scientology, we believe, Man can be made free and pure, free of the taint of past sins and free to do good to himself and his fellows.

Scientology believes in religious freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America.

Scientology will extend the hand of friendship to all who are believers in Man as a Spirit.

Scientology is a deadly enemy of secular teachings as stated by such latter day philosophers as Marx and others of that ilk.

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Scientology believes that the United States of America and the World as a whole requires religious freedom to Survive.

The following is a statement by the Founding Church of Scientology dated January 5, 1963, concerning the seizure of property by the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare:

"The seizure of the property and records of our religious organization, the Founding Church of Scientology, at the instigation of the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, is a shocking example of government bureaucracy gone mad.

It is a direct and frightening attack upon the Constitutional rights of freedom of religion, freedom of press, and freedom of speech.

Without any prior warning, or opportunity for officials of the Church to appear in Court for a hearing, a large force of United States Marshals entered Church premises and seized property and pamphlets used in the religious work of the Church.

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There is no criticism of the Court which issued the seizure warrant, because it is not apparent from the warrant that the Court was advised by the government department that the premises and property of a church were to be entered and seized. Nor is it clear that the United States Attorney's office was advised by the Department officials that a church owned or possessed the property and literature that was seized.

More than two months ago, the Food and Drug Administration interfered with the delivery of the Church and its affiliated organizations of the imported scientific instruments which are used in connection with certain phases of the Church's religious activities. Protest was made with the Baltimore office of the Food and Drug Administration, and ample evidence was submitted showing that the detention of the property was in violation of the law and the Constitution of the United States. But up to this time the Church and its attorney have received no administrative ruling, which could be appealed either within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, or to the Courts.

Instead, there has been a subsequent seizure of property, without notice or prior Court hearing for the

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Church, such as might have occured under Stalin or Kruschev in Russia.

If the legimate work and activities of one religious organization can be ruthlessly attacked and violated by one branch of the United States Government, no other religious organization is safe from similar or like illegal intrusion and attack. The question directly raised is: "Are we in America today living under a Godless government which intends ultimately to destroy all religions and religious organizations?"

There is nothing in the so-called warrant that was issued to indicate that the Court was informed...as it should have been...that civil administrative proceedings were pending and had not been decided. The facts are that the District Office of the Food and Drug Administration in Chicago had previously ruled against the seizure or detention of property such as was seized by request of the same government agency in Washington on January 4th. And previously another government agency, the Customs Bureau, had made a definite ruling that is in direct conflict with the basic contention of the Food and Drug Administration on which its seizure of the Church's property was founded."

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"The Auditor", monthly journal of Scientology contains an advertisement for the Mark V E-Meter which reads as follows"

"The Hubbard Mark V E-Meter (Electrometer) is a unique electronic achievement perfected by L. RON HUBBARD after years of intensive research.

"The E-Meter is used to disclose truth to the individual who is being processed and thus free him spiritually.

"The mark V E-Meter is an extremely valuable and vital auditing tool which each student on the Road to Clear must own.

"Buy your Mark V E-Meter and learn how to use it as an essential part of your academy training at your nearest local Organization. Prepare for the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course now.

"Price for your Mark V E-Meter, in its fine mahogany case and complete with full instructions on its care and maintenance, is $140.00."

The following is a statement by L.RON HUBBARD, Founder, Church of Scientology, dated January 6, 1963:

"Toward the end of August 62 I offered President KENNEDY my assistance and the help of Scientology in

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narrowing the gap in the space race.

"Twice in recent years the White House has specifically requested from us a presentation of Scientology to see what it could do to help the general effort. We responded with a mass of information.

"As Scientology can raise men's ability through the Church's processing procedures it could be of benefit in improving American scientists in their work on technical problems. However, as Scientology fell in the realm of the spirit and refused to consider Man an animal sprung from mud, the help was not accepted.

"In August when KENNEDY had been President awhile I thought it only courteous to make the gesture again. I did not realize that there were lesser officials of the government who were evidently imbued with ideas of religious persecution.

"I would greatly like to have a conference with Mr. KENNEDY on this subject. I am sure we could come to some amicable understanding on religious matters. Extreme measures such as attacking churches and burning philosophical texts are not going to solve anything. It puts America no further ahead in the space race. Religion should

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not be a factor in these matters.

"If Scientolgoy can make smarter scientists I don't think we should forego this national victory just because of some point of religious difference. If we can make better pilots and astronauts without injuring their faith, I don't see why we can't forego the idea that Man is an animal for a bit. The matter should not rise to the heights of religious persecution. Religious bigotry has no place in national victory. Unless we do something to give America an edge over her enemies she will continue to be bled white by the tax collectors to support some stupid and costly science. If by making smarter scientists (and we have many cases that say we can) we can save America money and give her victory. Religious persecution should not be used to keep us from doing it.

"However, if President KENNEDY did grant me an audience to discuss this matter that is so embarrassing to the government at home and abroad, I would have to have some guarantee of safety of person.

"As all of books have been seized for burning, it looks as though I will have to get busy and write another book."

L. RON HUBBARD

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The "Life" magazine mentioned above makes the following observations regarding Scientology:

"Among believers, Scientology and its Founder are beyond frivolous question: Scientology is the Truth, it is the path to "a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war..." and "for the first time in all ages there is something that ... delivers the answers to the eternal questions and delivers immortality as well."

"So much of a credo might be regarded as harmless--practically indistinguishable from any number of minority schemes for the improvement of Man. But Scientology is scary--becuase of its size and growth, and becuase of the potentially disastrous techniques it so casually makes use of. To attain the Truth, a Scientologist surrenders himself to "auditing," a crude form of psychoanalysis. In the best medical circumstances this is a delicate procedure, but in Scientology it is undertaken by an "auditor" who is simply another Scientologist in training, who uses an "E-meter," which resembles a lie detector. A government report, made to the parliament of the state of Victoria in Australia three years ago, called Scientology "the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy."

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[continued in FBI FILE 300C]

FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 300C

[continued from FBI FILE 300B]

The following article regarding two members of the Church of Scientology appeared in the November 25, 1969 issue of the "Los Angeles Times':

Motive Sought in Slaying of Youth, Woman

Only Clue Discovered Was Common Membership of Pair in Scientology Sect

BY DIAL TORGERSON and JERRY COHEN Times Staff Writers

Police investigating the weird slayings of a youth and young woman pursued Monday what they termed the only common thread between the pair: their membership in the Church of Scientology.

The Scientology organization--a mystical, quasi-scientific group--verified that Doreen Gaul, 19, and James Sharp, 15, were members of the group.

"We are shocked and bereaved by this sudden and brutal crime," a Scientology spokesman said.

The deaths brought to 13 the number of seemingly motiveless murders in Los Angeles since the first of the year. As in the Tate case and other still-unsolved killings, the murders of Miss Gaul and Sharp were crimes of shocking brutality.

Miss Gaul had been stripped except for a string of Indian beads. Both had been repeatedly stabbed and beaten about the face and head. Their eyes were slashed.

They had been murdered elsewhere and their bodies dumped in an alley a half-mile from a hippie-like cult commune which Miss Gaul had left Friday evening for a Scientology session with young Sharp.

Police were concentrating on two aspects of the mystery: where the couple had gone Saturday night and where the crime occurred.

"It's difficult to see how a crime of this sort could be committed--one which would involve this much blood and this much noise--without someone noticing it," said Capt. Frank L. Brittell.

He said it could have been the work of a gang--because of the excessive number of blows rained on the victims. Police talked to scores of people in the Alvarado-Westlake district where the victims lived. Many were fellow Scientologists.

"These two people could have both belonged to the Meat Cutters Union or the church down the street, " said Brittell. "But the only thing they have in common in Scientology. This is the only thread we have so far."

Scientology had its beginnings in the Dyanetics [sic] fad begun in 1950 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who now runs what he calls a worldwide church.

In Los Angeles, Scientology has four "church" and administrative buildings and a number of communal living quarters in old Victorian mansions on side streets in the neighborhoods near MacArthur Park.

"Auditors" who offer "parishioners" of Scientology a mystical version of psychological therapy have been ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to stop using a crude form of lie detector called the Scientology E-meter--a galvanome-

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ter with two tin cans attached.

It was learned that Miss Gaul had said that Sharp who came here from Missouri last June, was going to "audit" her Friday night. "Auditing" is a term applied to the process of achieving a "clear" state of soul.

The victims lived about a block apart. Sharp lived with an older Scientology worker in an old but well-kept three-story apartment building at 921 S. Bonnie Brae St. Miss Gaul had lived four days at a 14-room commune called Thetan Manor at 1032 S. Bonnie Brae. (Operating Thetan, in the language of Scientology, means reaching the advanced level of study in the cult.)

Sharp was the son of a prosperous salesman living in the upper middle class suburb of Crestwood, southwest of St. Louis. He left high school in June, with his father's permission, to study Scientology here.

"He was a very, very intelligent boy," the father told newsmen in St. Louis.

Miss Gaul, the eldest of four children, was graduated in the spring of 1968 from a parochial high school in Albany, N.Y. Friends said that until she became devoted to Scientology after graduation, the attractive young woman had been a devout Roman Catholic.

Her father told a newsman in Albany that she had apparently become disenchanted with Scientology in recent weeks.

Garb Described

"She was a good kid, but an emotional kid," he said. "She was always looking for green grass and rainbows."

Miss Gaul was wearing a skirt and blouse or sweater when she left Thetan Manor to go to Sharp's house. Mike Thompson, a resident at the commune, remembered her looks: "She was outa sight," he said Monday.

Shortly before midnight, a man taking a short cut through an alley between Arapahoe St. and Magnolia Ave., south of 11th St., found the bodies. They were so badly battered police at first believed them the victims of shotgun blasts.

Preliminary reports indicated Miss Gaul had not been raped.

Police said Scientology officials cooperated with them in their investigation. The Rev. Natalie Fisher, who describes herself as resident agent of Scientology's American St. Hill Organization at 2723 W. Temple St., issued a statement saying in part:

"This organization has no facts or information regarding the circumstances of the crime, but we are doing everything in our power to assist law enforcement agencies to see that justice is done."

Police said there was no apparent connection between the latest deaths and 11 others, including the five Tate murders, which have remained unsolved in Los Angeles County since January.

Other seemingly motiveless crimes included the deaths of a wealthy grocer and his wife in the Los Feliz district and the slaying of four young women in separate crimes.

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[continued in FBI FILE 300D]

FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 300D

[continued from FBI FILE 300C]

The "Los Angeles Times," issue of October 10, 1970, Part I, Page 23, contains the following article regarding Scientology:

Ex-Scientologist Tells of Fear' Atmosphere

McMaster Accuses Hubbard of Fostering Spiritual Tyranny Within Organization

BY JOHN DART
Times Religion Writer

One year ago an articulate but soft-spoken man named John McMaster was extolling the virtues of Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the worldwide, quasi-scientific "religion."

Appearing on television talk shows and giving lectures as Hubbard's personal representative, McMaster was eminently qualified. He was the first person to achieve Scientology's state of "clear," which purportedly gives a person full control of his mental processes.

Now McMaster describes the Church of Scientology and other organizations run by Hubbard as engaging in "spiritual tyranny."

"Ron was always busy getting everybody looking beyond the mulberry bush for a nonexistent enemy," said McMaster in a recent interview.

Discipline Group

The 43-year-old South African was in Los Angeles for the first time since he resigned last November from Scientology's Sea Organization.

Scientology was an out-growth of a book, "Dianetics," published in 1950 and written by Hubbard, a onetime science-fiction writer and Hollywood screenwriter.

For more than a decade, working from a yacht in the Mediterranean, Hubbard has elaborated on psychoanalytic techniques with the "E-meter," similar to a lie detector, and the courses offering "the road to total freedom."

The Scientology organizations have had run-ins with the Food and Drug Administration and Internal Revenue Service in this country and with some government agencies in other countries. However, Scientology officials claim that they have been falsely misrepresented by some disenchanted followers, government officials and the news media.

London Suburb

World headquarters is in a London suburb, but a large following exists in the United States, particularly in Los Angeles where the American Saint Hill Organization, 2723 W. Temple St., represents the only advanced-course center for Scientology in this country.

McMaster said he resigned because of "unnecessary harshness" in the organization "that kept people in a kind of electronic jitter." He said he also opposed his reassignment from a public relations mission to the United Nations to service aboard one of the Sea Organization's several yachts.

McMaster, still convinced of the value of Scientology's teachings and analytic techniques, recently gave some lectures in Phoenix and the Los Angeles area on behalf of a Dianology organization in Westwood run by Jack Horner, another ex-Scientologist.

Lecture sponsors in Phoenix, McMaster said, were told by Scientologists that "a different spirit was occupying the body of John McMaster." McMaster said he had heard that explanation used be-

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fore in Scientology to explain the changed attitudes of some persons.

A spokesman from the Church of Scientology, 2005 W. 9th St., denied that the church has said that of McMaster.

Regarding the circumstances of McMaster's resignation, the spokesman said reports had been made by Scientologists last year that McMaster was "holding the founder in contempt in public," was becoming money-motivated and was accused of conduct unbecoming a minister of the church.

"We started making every attempt to get him to undergo spiritual rehabilitation, but these attempts were thwarted," said the spokesman. A telegram was sent recalling McMaster for rest and spiritual counseling, but no reply was made, said the official.

Later Expelled

"At that point he left and went into hiding and tendered his resignation, but not through proper authorities," said the spokesman. For McMaster's "betrayal of trust" and other acts, he was later expelled from the church, the spokesman said.

McMaster left New York by freighter to his home in Durban, South Africa, but only after expressing the hope for some rapprochement with Hubbard.

While in Durban McMaster said he was approached by Scientologists who offered to give him some "Class A auditing (interviewing)" free of charge. "I accepted it as a peace offering but I asked my mother to come with me," said McMaster.

"It wasn't auditing. It was a security check--they were trying to find some crimes I'd committed," McMaster said.

Closed Book'

"At this stage, they left me and I realized that Scientology was a closed book for me," he said.

McMaster said he has not denounced the techniques of Dianetics and Scientology "and never will." But the organization in charge has "built a structure and called it God," he said.

McMaster in February, 1966 became the first of thousands to achieve "clear" status.

If McMaster disagreed with the practices in Scientology, why didn't he quit sooner? "I felt that as long as I could get out and deliver the sane truth, this would show that all this ethics stuff (internal security) was perfectly unnecessary," he said. "It didn't work," he said..

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[continued in FBI FILE 300E]

FROM THE FILES OF THE FBI 300E

[continued from FBI FILE 300D]

"Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health", by L. RON HUBBARD, a handbook of dianetic therapy, published in June 1950 by Hermitage House, New York, New York, contains the following synopsis concerning dianetics, the basis of Scientology:

THE creation of dianetics is a milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and arch.

Dianetics (Gr., dianoua--thought) is the science of mind. Far simpler than physics or chemistry, it compares with them in the exactness of its axioms and is on a considerably higher echelon of usefulness. The hidden source of all psycho-somatic ills and human aberration has been discovered and skills have been developed for their invariable cure.

[there follows 9 Xeroxed pages of text, apparently from the 1950 edition of DtMSoMH, discussing the four dynamics of survival, the state of clear and how one can achieve it using dianetics, the reactive mind and engrams and their relationship to psychosomatic illness, the purpose and process of auditing, the time track, and an extensive discussion of prenatal engrams. The selection ends with the following paragraph]

This matter of prenatal life is discussed here at length in this synopsis to give the reader a perspective on the subject. We are dealing here with an exact science, precision axioms and new skills of application. By them we gain a command over aberration and psycho-somatic ills and with them we take an evolutionary step in the development of Man which places him yet another stage above his distant cousins of the animal kingdom.

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[this ends the Los Angeles Field Office report, begun in FBI FILE 300]

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