L. Ron Hubbard B2

Clockwise from above: the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles; the Church of Scientology in Madrid, Spain; the inauguration of the Church of Scientology building in Milan, Italy in 2016; sci-fi novels by L. Ron Hubbard.

EXERCISES IN

FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY L. Ron Hubbard

UPPER INTERMEDIATE

B2

ON CD 4

GLOSSARY

1 eventually: finalmente 2 to drop out: abandonar 3 to claim: sostener 4 pen names: pseudónimos, nombres de pluma 5 side effect: efecto secundario 6 procedure: procedimiento 7 injury: lesión

Right: the Church of Scientology bookstore in Copenhagen, Denmark. Left: L. Ron Hubbard in the 1960s. Profeta, visionario o estafador, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard fundó la Iglesia de la Cienciología y la convirtió en una polémica y poderosa corporación basándose en un conjunto de ideas que, según él, pueden borrar el contenido negativo de la mente y salvar a la humanidad.

Born on 13 March 1911 in the mid-western US state of Nebraska, L. Ron Hubbard was the son of a navy officer and spent time in Asia and the South Pacific. He studied civil engineering in Washington, D.C. but was a bad student, eventually1 dropping out2. Nevertheless, Hubbard later claimed3 to have worked as a nuclear physicist.

PULP FICTION

In the 1930s, Hubbard became a wellknown writer for pulp fiction magazines. He wrote in a variety of genres but mainly science fiction, under pen names4 that included Winchester Remington Colt, Kurt von Rachen and Legionnaire 148. In 1938, Hubbard claimed to have had a revelatory experience as the result of a side effect5 of a sedative used in a dental procedure6. He emerged having formulated the principles of a selfhelp system called Dianetics, but would not put it into book form until later.

DIANETICS

During World War Two, Hubbard served in naval intelligence and later claimed to have left service as a war hero with a Purple Heart medal for a combat-related injury7 , although there are no records of it. Documents do show that Hubbard’s superiors found him self-important8 and unsuitable9 for command10. In 1950, Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, a 180,000-word book allegedly11 completed in six weeks. Based vaguely on the ideas of Sigmund Freud and Eastern12 philosophy, it was written in pseudoscientific jargon13 and was immediately dismissed14 by the American

SCIENTOLOGY FACTS:

Members:

The organisation claims that it has some eight million to fifteen million members worldwide, four million of them in the US. This number, however, may include the vast majority who only take an introductory course.

Churches in the world:

The first international outposts of the Church were in cities like Paris, London, Vienna, Düsseldorf, Munich and Florence. According to the official website, there are now more than 11,000 churches, missions and groups in 184 nations.

Net worth:

The Church of Scientology has an estimated worth15 close to $2 billion and owns properties across the globe including $400 million in property in Los Angeles. At their spiritual headquarters16 in Clearwater, Florida, the church has sixty properties worth an estimated $168 million.

GLOSSARY

8 self-important: vanidoso 9 unsuitable: no apto 10 command: mando, cargo de oficial 11 allegedly: supuestamente 12 Eastern: oriental 13 jargon: jerga 14 to dismiss: desestimar 15 to have a worth: tener activos por valor de 16 headquarters: sede central

THE COST OF REACHING CLEAR

Reaching47 the level of ‘clear’ is an expensive process in the Church of Scientology. As members rise48 through the hierarchy, they are expected to constantly take courses. An introductory ‘taster49’ course is just $35. But each subsequent step requires a new course, and courses start at around $650 and then escalate into the thousands at higher levels. Today, a session with an auditor costs about $800 per hour with an average length of 2.5 hours required. A pack of Dianetics books costs about $4,000, with each update requiring a new purchase50 .

GLOSSARY

17 to damn: maldecir 18 to beg: suplicar 19 to no response: sin obtener respuesta 20 to fall out of fashion: pasar de moda 21 in debt: endeudado 22 to refashion: remodelar, rehacer 23 current: actual 24 aim: objetivo 25 to enlighten: iluminar 26 so-called: denominado 27 refusal: rechazo 28 to pay tax: pagar impuestos 29 to sail: navegar 30 crew: tripulación 31 to add: añadir 32 lavish: fastuoso 33 to pursue: perseguir 34 membership: afiliación 35 to remove: eliminar 36 any such: tales 37 at threat: bajo amenaza 38 seclusion: aislamiento 39 tax bill: reclamación de impuestos 40 to flood: inundar 41 lawsuits: demandas 42 to file: presentar 43 former: ex 44 allegations: acusaciones 45 to ban: prohibir Psychological Association. In response, Hubbard repeatedly damned17 psychiatry as a profession —although he did once send a letter begging18 the Association for psychiatric help (to no response19).

CONFESSIONS

Dianetics was a massive commercial success at first but soon fell out of fashion20 , and Hubbard, in debt21, lost the rights to the book. In 1951, Hubbard refashioned22 Dianetics into a belief system called Scientology, founding the Church of Scientology in 1954. The Church believed that negative memories known as ‘engrams’ from current23 and past lives could be removed by using an electrical device called an ‘e-meter’ in confessionary sessions with ‘auditors’. The aim24 was to purge the mind and reach an enlightened25 state known as ‘being clear’, which also returned the human being to their original divine state as a so-called26 ‘thetan’.

CELEBRITIES

When Hubbard’s refusal27 to pay tax28 became problematic, he went abroad and spent years sailing29 around the Mediterranean with a young crew30 of Scientologists. On returning to the US in the early 1970s, he went to Hollywood, where he hoped movie stars would add31 glamour and money to the organisation. Celebrity Centers, such as the lavish32 centre in Los Angeles, were built. Here, famous Scientologists, including Priscilla Presley, Elisabeth Moss, John Travolta and Tom Cruise put an attractive face on the Church.

CENSORSHIP

Now both the US and international authorities were pursuing33 Hubbard. But Scientology was already rich and powerful, with a radical membership34 prepared to do anything for it. There were attempts to infiltrate government offices and remove35 unfavourable records —as if they were a form of ‘engram’. Scientologists believed, as Hubbard claimed, that any such36 action was justifiable as the human race was at threat37 from an evil galactic dictator called Xenu.

TAX-FREE

Hubbard died in 1986, spending his final years paranoid and in seclusion38. But the Church continued under David Miscavige, who had joined at the age of eleven. When the Church received a billion-dollar tax

VS. ANONYMOUS

In 2008, the Church of Scientology became the target51 of a series of protests, pranks52, and hacks by a leaderless online community called Anonymous. Project Chanology was a turning point53 for the collective, which had formed on the internet message board54 4chan and went from conducting trolling raids55 on individuals in organisations to a form of coordinated activism that, while irreverent, became increasingly political. The protest arose56 in response to the Church of Scientology's attempts57 to remove material from an interview with Scientologist Tom Cruise from the internet. Anonymous responded with a series of videos that declared war on the Church for alleged breach58 of copyright and brainwashing59 , and by flooding its servers with fake60 data requests. It turned into an international protest occurring in Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Later targets of Anonymous ‘hacktivism’ included government agencies, child pornography sites, copyright protection agencies and corporations such as PayPal and Sony. They publicly supported WikiLeaks and the Occupy movement and, most recently, supported the protests against police brutality in response to the George Floyd killing.

bill39 in 1993, the US tax authorities were flooded40 with thousands of lawsuits41 filed42 by Scientologists. As a result, the Church was recognised as a religion in the US and given tax-exempt status. It enjoys full religious status in other countries too, including Australia, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

ABUSIVE PRACTICES

In the mid 2000s, a number of former43 senior members of the Church turned against it. There were allegations44 of human and civil right violations of members, and of pressure being put on them to give massive donations. As recently as 2015, a team of aggressive lawyers employed by the Church tried to get the documentary Going Clear, based on a book by the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright, banned45. Today, while its membership has declined, the Church of Scientology remains active, with investments and real estate46 worth billions of dollars across the world.

SPEAK UP Explains

Clockwise from centre: David Miscavige in 2017; members of the group Anonymous adopt the Guy Fawkes as an identity-concealing symbol of rebellion in protest against Scientology; a new Church opens in Ventura, California in February 2020.

GLOSSARY

46 real estate: bienes inmobiliarios 47 to reach: alcanzar 48 to rise: aumentar 49 taster: muestra de degustación 50 purchase: compra 51 target: blanco, objetivo 52 pranks: bromas pesadas 53 turning point: punto de inflexión 54 message board: foro de internet 55 trolling raids: ataques de trolls 56 to arise: emerger 57 attempts: intentos 58 alleged breach: presunta violación 59 to brainwash: lavar el cerebro 60 fake: falsas

Pulp fiction magazines. Revistas de literatura pulp. Se trata de publicaciones de bajo precio surgidas a principios del siglo XX y muy populares hasta los años 50, y que incluían historias dirigidas a un público adulto con tramas repletas de sexo y violencia. El nombre proviene del sustantivo pulp (‘pulpa’), que hace referencia al papel de mala calidad utilizado para imprimirlas, más rugoso y espeso, y que amarilleaba rápidamente. En 1994, Quentin Tarantino cosechó un gran éxito con su particular homenaje a este género con la película Pulp Fiction, protagonizada, entre otros, por Uma Thurman y John Travolta.