Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

205 Quentin had been on vacation: Sharon Spigelmyer, “Scientology Student Death Probe,” Las Vegas Sun, Nov. 25, 1976.

206 Meantime, Mary Sue arranged: Atack, A Piece of Blue Sky, p. 214.

207 Hubbard himself was convinced: Interview with anonymous former Sea Org member.






4. THE FAITH FACTORY


1 “magnetically impregnated”: McWilliams, Southern California, p. 254.

2 An organization called Mighty I AM: Ibid., p. 263.

3 Charlie Chaplin: Epstein, Sister Aimee, p. 420.

4 Milton Berle: Berle with Frankel, Milton Berle, p. 129.

5 nautical outfits: McWilliams, Southern California, p. 260.

6 “They all fell short”: Quinn, The Original Sin, p. 127.

7 “any person important enough”: Hubbard, “Celebrity Defined,” HCO Policy Letter, Nov. 6, 1980.

8 “If you want one”: Unsigned editorial, Ability magazine, undated. According to the church, the magazine was published in March 1955. The church claims that William Burke Belknap, Jr., an early Dianeticist, whose byline is on the article following the “Project Celebrity” editorial, most likely wrote the article. Robert Vaughn Young, who was the chief spokesperson for the church but left the organization in 1989, wrote that Hubbard personally authored the “Project Celebrity” editorial. Young, “The Cult of Celebrities,” Sept. 27, 1997, http://www.xenu.net/archive/celebrities/.

9 “make celebrities even better known”: Hubbard, “Celebrity Centre: Major Target,” HCO Policy Letter, Oct. 19, 1980.

10 “The Master did his Sunday best”: Peggy Conway letter to Gloria Swanson, Sept. 25, 1956.

11 “Without Scientology, I would”: What Is Scientology?, p. 235.

12 “I AM A SCIENTOLOGIST”: John H. Richardson, “Catch a Rising Star,” Premiere, Sept. 1993, p. 87.

13 “increase your self-confidence”: Variety, Sept. 9, 1993, p. 7.

14 “make it in the industry”: Ibid., Dec. 22, 1988, p. 22.

15 Scientologists stood outside: Interview with Tom McCafferty.

16 Jerry Seinfeld: “When It Comes to Comedy, He’s ‘All In,’ ” Parade magazine, www.parade.com/celebrity/articles/071017-jerry-seinfeld.html.

17 Elvis Presley: Interview with Spanky Taylor.

18 Rock Hudson: Interview with Spanky Taylor, and Gary Hart, personal communication. It is rumored that Hudson’s auditor hit on a homosexual “withhold,” that Hudson refused to acknowledge, and so he bolted. Interview with Skip Press. Hart says that as a result of the Hudson fiasco, Hubbard kicked the auditor off the staff and placed Yvonne Jentzsch in a condition of Danger.

19 fifty thousand documents: Reitman, Inside Scientology, p. 112.

20 “Operation Freakout”: US v. Jane Kember, Morris Budlong, Sentencing Memorandum, pp. 23–25.

21 One of the doors: Interview with Jesse Prince. Also, Stephen A. Kent, “Brainwashing in Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF),” Sept. 13, 2000, www.solitarytrees.net/pubs/skent/brain.htm.

22 Altogether, about 120: Interview with Jesse Prince.

23 “Fuck you”: Ibid.

24 “Behind ideological totalism”: Lifton, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, p. 436.

25 “thought-terminating cliché”: Ibid., p. 429.

26 “a common, ordinary,”: Hubbard, “Scientology Definitions I: OT and Clear Defined,” lecture, Nov. 29, 1966.

27 Johannesburg Confessional List: Hubbard, “Johannesburg Confessional List,” HCO Policy Letter, Apr. 7, 1961, revised Nov. 15, 1987.

28 The result of the sec-check: Monica Pignotti, “My Nine Lives in Scientology,” www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/pignotti/.

29 “apparent converts”: Robert Jay Lifton, personal correspondence.

30 “truth blurred”: Lifton, Witness to an Extreme Century, p. 44.

31 the real intention: Klein, The Shock Doctrine, p. 47.

32 After 9/11, documents emerging: Lifton, Witness to an Extreme Century, p. 380.

33 “You are a good mother”: Klein, The Shock Doctrine, p. 39.

34 In 1955, he distributed: On Hubbard’s authorship of the pamphlet, see Corydon, L. Ron Hubbard, pp. 108–9. Hubbard himself later claimed: “It was written by a man named Paul Fadkeller, and it was published in Berlin in 1947.” Hubbard, “Operational Bulletin #8,” Dec. 13, 1955.

35 “BrainWashing”: See Brian Ambry, “Revisiting the Textbook on Psychopolitics, Also Known As the Brainwashing Manual,” www.freewebs.com/slyandtalledgy/Brainwashing%20Manual%20Parallels.pdf.

36 “[t]he art and science: Anonymous [Hubbard?], “BrainWashing: Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics,” 1955, p. 6.

37 The text specifies how: Ibid., pp. 25–26.

38 “A psychopolitician must work”: Ibid., p. 3.

39 From the perspective of: See Dick Anthony, “Tactical Ambiguity and Brainwashing Formulations,” in Zablocki and Robbins, Misunderstanding Cults, p. 282.

40 “tumultuous”: interview with Jesse Prince.

41 Brainwashing theory: See Benjamin Zablocki’s essay, “Scientific Theory of Brainwashing,” in Zablocki and Robbins, Misunderstanding Cults, pp. 159–214.

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