1 8 million members: Interview with Tommy Davis, the former chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International. He explains the difficulty in getting exact numbers: “There’s no process of conversion, there is no baptism.” Becoming a Scientologist is a simple decision: “Either you are or you aren’t.”
2 welcomes 4.4 million: “What Is Scientology?” YouTube video, posted by Church of Scientology, January 2, 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vcb_4L8T8gg.
3 about 30,000 members: Interview with Mike Rinder. Rinder is the former head of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs and functioned as the church’s chief spokesperson from 1991 through 2007.
4 $1 billion in liquid assets: Interview with Mark “Marty” Rathbun. Rathbun is the former Inspector General for Ethics for the church. Tony Ortega, “Scientology in Turmoil: Debbie Cook’s E-mail, Annotated,” Runnin’ Scared (blog), The Village Voice, Jan. 6, 2012. According to the distinguished religious historian R. Scott Appleby at the University of Notre Dame, even the Roman Catholic Church is unlikely to have $1 billion in cash on hand. R. Scott Appleby, personal communication.
5 12 million square feet of property: Church of Scientology International, “Scientology: Unparalleled Growth Since 2004,” www.scientologynews.org/stats.html.
6 The most recent addition: Kevin Roderick, “Scientology Reveals Plans for Sunset Boulevard Studio,” LA Observed, July 12, 2012.
7 apartment buildings, hotels: Pinellas County Property Appraiser, 2012 tax roll.
8 5,000, 6,000, or 10,000 members: Church of Scientology International, What Is Scientology?, p. 324; interview with Tommy Davis; personal communication from Karin Pouw.
9 between 3,000 and 5,000: Claire Headley and Mike Rinder, personal communication. Rinder, who offers the higher number, places about 2,000 Sea Org members at Flag, 1,500 in LA, 500 at Gold Base and Int Base, 200 in the UK, 300 in Denmark, 150 in Australia, 200 on the Freewinds, and the rest scattered around Africa, Italy, Canada, and Mexico.
1. THE CONVERT
1 “You have a mind”: Interview with Jim Logan.
2 “What is true”: According to Haggis, the passage came from the Hubbard Qualified Scientologist course. It was later published in Hubbard’s book The Way to Happiness. Hubbard, The Way to Happiness, p. 48.
3 “find the ruin”: Peter F. Gillham, Tell It Like It Is: A Course in Scientology Dissemination (Los Angeles: Red Baron Publishing, 1972), p. 37.
4 “Once the person”: Hubbard, “Dissemination Drill,” Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, Oct. 23, 1965.
5 “Speed City”: Interview with Herman Goodden.
6 “You walked in one day”: Hubbard, “Clearing Congress Lectures,” Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, July 4, 1958.
7 “A civilization without insanity”: What Is Scientology?, p. xiii.
8 “Scientology works 100 percent”: Ibid., p. 215.
9 Most of them were white: Harriet Whitehead, “Reasonably Fantastic: Some Perspectives on Scientology, Science Fiction, and Occultism,” in Zaretsky and Leone, Religious Movements in Contemporary America, p. 549.
10 “After drugs”: Interview with Jim Dincalci.
11 superhuman powers: Interview with Skip Press.
12 The device measures: Hubbard, Electropsychometric Auditing Operators Manual, 1952.
13 “It gives Man his”: What Is Scientology?, p. 175.
14 “Our most spectacular feat”: James Phelan, “Have You Ever Been a Boo-Hoo?,” Saturday Evening Post, March 21, 1964, pp. 81–85.
15 The E-Meter is presumed: Response of the Church of Scientology to queries.
16 “The needle just idles”: Hubbard, E Meter Essentials 1961—Clearing Series, vol. 1, p. 18.
17 “Be three feet back”: Hubbard, Philadelphia Doctorate Course Transcripts.
18 Free of the limitations: Ibid.
19 The ultimate goal: Whitehead, Renunciation and Reformulation, p. 176.
20 The goal of Scientology: Vosper, The Mind Benders, p. 31.
21 Among other qualities: Hubbard, Dianetics, pp. 170–73.
22 “The dianetic clear is”: Ibid., p. xv.
23 “Operating Thetan”: What Is Scientology?, p. 167.
24 “neither Buddha nor Jesus”: Ability, unsigned, undated (probably 1958), issue 81, reprint of an editorial from Certainty, vol. 5, no. 10.
25 “Note several large”: WikiLeaks, “Church of Scientology Collected Operating Thetan Documents,” March 24, 2008, wikileaks.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology_collected_?Operating_Thetan_documents; Revised Declaration of Hana Whitfield, Church of Scientology vs. Steven Fishman and Uwe Geertz, US District Court, Central District of California, April 4, 1994.
26 “Laughter comes from the rear”: WikiLeaks, “Church of Scientology Collected Operating Thetan Documents,” March 24, 2008, wikileaks.org/wiki/Church_of_Scientology_?collected_Operating_Thetan_documents.
27 “The material involved”: Hubbard, “Ron’s Journal ’67,” taped lecture.