L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, defines the word "slavery" as "being positioned in another's time and space." (Scientology and Dianetics Technical Dictionary, page 390) For Hubbard to honestly arrive at formulating such a definition, it follows that he must have studied how an ordinary human being can be turned into one who would willingly work long hours everyday over many years, for a subsistence. Someone who would endure treatment that is only slightly more humane than received by prisoners of war.
Securing the cooperation of large numbers of people to conduct their lives contrary to what they previously viewed as "common sense" requires a radical shift in their faculties of observation, analysis, and evaluation of data. This process is called "thought reform". Hubbard seems to have perfected his own methods of thought reform to effect the ends of group control.
Adjunct to his research into the human mind and spirit, Hubbard perceived a need to redefine some words already in the English language. Every student in the Church of Scientology discovers quickly that to be part of the group, you need to learn and use Hubbard's idiosyncratic lingo. One important and fundamental word is "postulate". He defines it in the Hubbard Professional Course of August 1956 in lecture 4:"Well, we just borrow the word which is in seldom use in the English language, we call that postulate. And we mean by postulate, self-created truth." I thought it was very peculiar that Hubbard would take a word of established meaning, then redefine it for purposes which were unclear. "Why not just use the word determination?" I thought to myself.
Is postulate "in seldom use" as Hubbard asserted in his 1956 lecture? A student of geometry will know that it is common vocabulary. Entering postulate into the Google search engine shows that there are approximately 7,690,000 hits. Does this indicate "seldom use"? By comparison, entering "recollection", which I think we would agree is a commonly used English word, gives approximately 8,620,000 hits. This means that postulate gets 12% less hits than does recollection. Is the margin between "seldom use" and "common use" a 12% difference in usage frequency? I think not and suggest here that Hubbard was not ignorant on this point, but rather dishonest.
To continue with my studies as a new Scientologist, I adopted Hubbard's definition and swept my questions of his motives into the back of my mind. The alternative was to be sent to the "Word Clearer" based on Hubbard's dogma that if one does not accept or understand a word, then there must be earlier misunderstood words that prevent the student from grasping this new word. A student could be with a word clearer for hours or days, which is not necessarily pleasant.
In my Scientology course studies, I then find that I need to look up the words "Time" and "Space" in the Scientology and Dianetics Technical Dictionary. On page 397, Space is defined, "the viewpoint of dimension. It doesn't exist without a viewpoint." I thought of space as being objective. Even if I wasn't looking, space would exist. Hubbard implies that space is personal, I look and and thus I put the space there. Is this hinting that I really have some godlike power over the material universe that I was unaware of? This notion was very strange to me, but to be in harmony with the group, I had to put it aside.
On page 437, Time is defined: "a postulate that space and particles will persist." Recall that Hubbard defines postulate as a "self-created truth". Thus, Hubbard also implies that time is personal. It is a self-created truth. I decide that space and particles will persist and they do. Another notion that was objectionable. And again, such disagreement had to be suppressed to be in concordance with The Founder of Scientology.
Hubbard's words are considered authoritative dogma, superseding the definitions in common English dictionaries written by those who are ignorant of Hubbard's research. Time and Space are what Hubbard states, not what the dictionary states. I cast off the definitions of objective space and time, adopting Hubbard's personal definitions instead.
I soon found that I developed a strong allegiance to L. Ron Hubbard without personally knowing him, corresponding with him, or working with him. I was employed 6 days a week, 10 hours a day at the local Scientology mission. Holding down a second job to pay rent and food as the pay at the mission was usually not enough to even help with the essentials.
My new, personal notions of space and time were now being gradually depersonalized. My own life became dominated by the Church of Scientology. To me, it was the most important cause and its leader, L. Ron Hubbard, was virtually a deity. Hubbard would never acknowledge any such status, yet he had a god-like influence over many thousands of members. How could this be? His mission was to "Clear the Planet" and "Salvage Mankind" and we were there to help him.
Many events occurred between what happened in that Scientology course room almost thirty years ago, and this moment in time. Hubbard's quote: "The way out is the way through" has relevant truth in it. I learned that the Church of Scientology has a malicious, dark side which has gotten it into serious legal and public relations trouble many times. Practices like Fair Game, Enforced Disconnection, and Suppressive Person declares alone have caused many decent people upset and loss from resultant broken families or ruined businesses.
My path out was signaled by the glare of reality as it was shown into my depersonalized space. I located some fallacies interjected by the current leader, which he refused to explain, acknowledge or defend. His response was to have me punished for recognizing his fiasco, which just got me to examine it more closely. His breach was my opportunity. I took my exit.
Being on the outside, I questioned how I ever stayed in so long. The answer at the end, points to my course studies at the beginning: I agreed with Hubbard's personalizing definitions of space and time, abandoning my own objective notions. Lying to oneself is the essence of coercion. Since I was lying to myself about these basic facts of existence, I could then easily lie to myself about many other things. My notions of space and time could then be depersonalized. Adoption of Hubbard's particular definitions of space and time gave me a special identity, which concealed its true purpose. And that would be? Let's find a word describing the condition of "being positioned in another's time and space." That would be Hubbard's definition for Slavery.
Do my experiences indicate that thought reform is being employed on members of the Church of Scientology throughout the organization?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.