At the same time it appears that he is charismatic and highly capable of motivating, organizing, controlling, manipulating, and inspiring his adherents. Superior Court Judge Paul Breckinridge, Church of Scientology of California v Gerald Armstrong 1984
He is a fraud and has always been a fraud ... My father has always used the confidential information extracted from people during [auditing] to intimidate, threaten and coerce them to do what he wanted, which often meant getting them to give him money. My father routinely used false threats and [information from confessionals] particularly about crimes people had committed to extort money from them ... My father has always held out Scientology and auditing to be based purely on science and not on religious ‘belief’ or faith. We regularly promised and distributed publications with ‘scientific guarantees’. This was and has always been common practice. My father and I created a ‘religious front’ only for tax purposes and legal protection ‘from fraud claims’. We almost always told nearly everyone that Scientology was really science, not a religion, but that the religious front was created to deal with the government. Ron deWolfe, eldest son of Hubbard
The dianetics concept is unscientific and unworthy of discussion or review. Newsweek article November 1950 ‘Poor Man’s Psychoanalysis?’
It is the firm conclusion of this Board that most scientology’ and dianetic’ techniques are those of authoritative hypnosis and as such are dangerous ... the scientific evidence which the Board heard from several expert witnesses of the highest repute ... leads to the inescapable conclusion that it is only in name that there is any difference between authoritative hypnosis and most of the techniques of scientology. Many scientology techniques are in fact hypnotic techniques, and Hubbard has not changed their nature by changing their names. The Anderson Report, Victoria Board of Enquiry 1965
Scientology is evil; its techniques are evil; its practice is a serious threat to the community, medically, morally, and socially; and its adherents are sadly deluded and often mentally ill ... The world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy. ibid.
Scientology is unique within the UFO culture because of this secretiveness, as well as because of the capitalist format under which they operate. Scientology is also difficult to categorize. While it bears strong similarities to the Ashtar Command or the Aetherius Society, its emphasis upon the Xenu event as the central message of the group seems to place them within the ancient astronaut tradition. Either way, Scientology is perhaps most different from other UFO groups in their attempt to keep all of the space opera stuff under wraps. They really would have preferred the rest of us not to know about Xenu and the galactic federation. Alas, such secrets are hard to keep. Gregory Reece, UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture
Scientologists see themselves as possessors of doctrines and skills that can save the world, if not the galaxy. Professor Stephen A Kent
The prospect of a new global order is also central to many variants of the Human Potential and New Age movements and Scientology. All these very different kinds of NRM nevertheless share a conviction that human beings have, perhaps for the first time, come into possession of the knowledge required to free them from traditional structures of thought and action. James A Beckford, New Religious Movements and Globalisation 2004
This is how they suck you in, they offer these innocuous-seeming self-improvement courses for 40 bucks, then they start to interest you in Dianetic auditing ... It’s a kind of crack psychotherapy. David S Touretzsky
The one thing that was really cool about L Ron Hubbard was that he really got the concept that if people united, and not in some airy-fairy way, but if they united and they put their, you know, muscle and brawn together and they worked really hard, you could create a better civilization. Kirstie Alley
I felt great and I got rid of some stuff that I didn’t realize that I was dragging around. And I said, ‘Whoa, I think I’ve become a Scientologist.’ Isaac Hayes
I took a couple of courses. One of them was in communication, and I learned some things about communication that really got my act going ... They have a lot of very good technology. That’s what really appealed to me about it. It’s not faith-based. It’s all technology. And I’m obsessed with technology. Jerry Seinfeld
Very early one morning in July 1977 the FBI, having been tipped off about Operation Snow White, carried out raids on Scientology offices in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, carting off nearly fifty thousand documents. One of the files was titled ‘Operation Freakout’. It concerned the treatment of Paulette Cooper, the journalist who had published an exposé of Scientology, The Scandal of Scientology, six years earlier. After having been indicted for perjury and making bomb threats against Scientology, Cooper had gone into a deep depression. She stopped eating. At one point, she weighed just eighty-three pounds. She considered suicide. Finally, she persuaded a doctor to give her sodium pentothal, or ‘truth serum’, and question her under the anaesthesia. The government was sufficiently impressed that the prosecutor dropped the case against her, but her reputation was ruined, she was broke, and her health was uncertain. The day after the FBI raid on the Scientology headquarters, Cooper was flying back from Africa, on assignment for a travel magazine, when she read a story in the International Herald Tribune about the raid. One of the files the federal agents discovered was titled ‘Operation Freakout’. The goal of the operation was to get Cooper ‘incarcerated in a mental institution or jail’. Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Scientology always has been a game of power and control. L Ron Hubbard was the ultimate con man, and it's hard to figure out how much of Scientology was an experiment in brainwashing and controlling people, and how much of it was truly intended to help people. Jenna Miscavige Hill, ‘Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape’
The government is satisfied that Scientology is socially harmful. It alienates members of families from each other and attributes squalid and disgraceful motives to all who oppose it; its authoritarian principles and practice are a potential menace to the personality and well-being of those so deluded as to become followers; above all, its methods can be a serious danger to the health of those who submit to them ... There is no power under existing law to prohibit the practice of Scientology; but the government has concluded that it is so objectionable that it would be right to take all steps within its power to curb its growth. Kenneth Robinson, British minister of health
Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious ... In my judgement it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous.
It is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit and has as its real objective money and power for Mr Hubbard, his wife and those close to him at the top.
It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestioningly, and to those who criticise or oppose it.
It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others. Justice Latey, Re B and G (Minors) (Custody) Family Division 20 June – 5-23 July 1984
In my opinion the church has one of the most effective intelligence operations in the US rivalling even that of the FBI. Ted Gunderson, former head of FBI Los Angeles office
Substantial evidence supports the conclusion Scientology leaders made the deliberate decision to ruin Wollersheim economically and possible psychologically ... We do not mean to suggest Scientology's retributive program as described in the evidence of this case represented a full scale modern day Inquisition. Nevertheless there are some parallels in purpose and effect. Fair game like the Inquisition targeted heretics. Other testimony established Scientology is a hierarchical organization which exhibits near paranoid attitudes toward certain institutions and individuals – in particular the government, mental health professions, disaffected members, and others who criticize the organization or its leadership ... During trial, Wollersheim's experts testified Scientology’s auditing and disconnect practices constituted brainwashing and thought reform akin to what the Chinese and North Koreans practiced on American prisoners of war. Wollersheim v Church of Scientology, California appellate court 1986
For some, it is a cult; to its members it’s a way of life. America’s Book of Secrets s3e1: Scientology, History 2014
Scientology was virtually founded in Hollywood. ibid.
Scientology: it was attracting followers in Britain ... an organisation that is ‘essentially evil’. Portillo’s State Secrets 7/10: Monarchy, BBC 2015
Not welcome in Britain: the religious leader that the government tried to keep out. Portillo’s State Secrets 8/10: Banned
The religion was causing alarm amongst government ministers. ibid.
Critics accused Hubbard of running a money-making cult. ibid.
We will begin the session now. You will remain aware of everything that goes on. We’re going to find an indecent in your life you have an exact record. Then by sending you through it at the time it happened, we’re going to reduce it. We will reduce the pain. Go to the beginning of that incident. Tell me what’s happening. Scientology: Going Clear: The Prison of Belief ***** opening scene, 2015