Let's Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky: Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology (49 page)

Several former members of the CMO have given full and
shocking accounts of their time with Hubbard. In addition to carrying messages,
Messengers looked after all the Commodore’s personal needs. Teenage girls
wearing white hot pants would put out his clothes for him, prepare his shower,
dress him, change the music on his tape recorder, light his cigarettes, even
catch the ash as it fell.
³
The CMO Household Unit would rinse
Hubbard’s washing seven, and later as many as 17 times to rid it of the vaguest
hint of the smell of soap.
⁴
There was a Messenger on “watch” 24
hours a day to attend to his slightest whim.
⁵

The story of Messenger Tonja Burden is compelling.
⁶
Her parents were enthusiastic Scientologists, and encouraged their daughter to
join the Sea Org in March 1973, when she was only 13. A few months later, she
was separated from them and sent to the
Apollo
. In September, her
parents left the Sea Organization, and Scientology. Tonja remained in the
custody of the Sea Org. Legally, she was beyond their reach, on a Panamanian
vessel far from US waters. She was told that her father had been declared
Suppressive. Nonetheless, she wanted to go home, and tried to persuade her
seniors that she could convince her parents to rejoin Scientology. She says she
was told to Disconnect, which “meant no more communication with my parents.
They told me that my parents would not make it in the world, but that I would
make it in the world.”

She was assigned to “Training Routines” to teach her the
duties of a Commodore’s Messenger:

During the Training Routines, myself and two others
practiced carrying messages to LRH. We had to listen to a message, repeat it in
the same tone, and practice salutes.

“Ghosting” was on the job training where I learned
how to serve LRH. I followed another messenger around and observed her carry
his hat, light his cigarettes, carry his ashtray, and prepare his toiletries.
Eventually, I performed those duties.

As his servant, I would sit outside his room and
help him out of bed when he called “messenger.” I responded by assisting him
out of bed, lighting his cigarette, running his shower, preparing his
toiletries and helping him dress. After that I ran to the office to check it,
hoping it passed “white-glove” inspection [if there was the slightest mark on a
white glove run over a surface, the whole area would have to be re-cleaned] He
frequently exploded if he found dust or dirt or smelled soap in his clothes.
That is why we used 13 buckets to rinse...

While on the
Apollo
, I observed numerous
punishments meted out for many minor infractions or mistakes made in connection
with Hubbard’s very strict and bizarre policies. On a number of occasions, I
saw people placed in the “chain lockers” of the boat on direct orders of
Hubbard. These lockers were small, smelly holes, covered by grates, where the
chain for the anchor was stored. I saw one boy held in there for 30 nights,
crying and begging to be released. He was only allowed out to clean the bilges
where the sewer and refuse of the ship collected. I believe his “crimes” were
taking or using a musical instrument, I believe a flute, of someone else [sic]
without permission.

This is how Tonja summed up her days in the CMO: “I was in
Scientology from the age of 13 to the age of 18. I received at some times $2.50
per week pay, and at other times approximately $17.20 a week. I received no
education.”

Tonja Burden remained in the Commodores Messenger Org until
November 1977, when, at age 18, she made her escape from Scientology. In 1986,
the Scientologists paid her an out of Court settlement to abandon a suit she
had brought for kidnapping.

In October 1975, when the
Apollo
finally ran out of
ports in which to berth, Hubbard flew ashore with a small CMO unit. When he
fled to Washington, DC, in 1976, he was again accompanied by a small CMO unit.
The CMO became Hubbard’s eyes and ears in the new Flag Land Base, from whence
the Scientology Church was controlled. They were known as CMO CW for
Commodore’s Messenger Organization, Clearwater.

Hubbard was at “Winter Headquarters,” codenamed Rifle, his
hacienda in La Quinta, from October 1976 until July 1977.
⁷
In one of
the few Scientology “technical bulletins” written while there he took a
characteristic swipe at the medical profession
⁸
: “Doctors are often
careless and incompetent, psychiatrists are simply outright murderers. The
solution is not to pick up the pieces for them but to demand medical doctors
become competent and to abolish psychiatry and psychiatrists as well as psychologists
and other famous Nazi criminal outgrowths.” This was the view of the outside
world which Hubbard implanted into his naive, adolescent Messengers.

Commodore’s Messenger Anne Rosenblum joined Hubbard’s retinue
at La Quinta in the late Spring of 1977. His appearance surprised her
⁹
:
“he had long reddish-greyish hair down past his shoulders, rotting teeth, a
really fat gut, and I believe at that time he had a full beard for ‘disguise’.
He didn’t look anything like his pictures.”

In July, with the FBI raids of the Guardian’s Offices in Los
Angeles and Washington, Hubbard went into even deeper seclusion. One of his two
controlling lines into Scientology had been through the GO in Los Angeles. He
fled with three of his Messengers.
¹⁰
It was obvious to Hubbard that
for the GO to have been caught it must be riddled with Suppressives.
Communication to the GO was therefore dangerous, and the CMO became his only
remaining link with the Church. The young Messengers had not suffered the
corruption of the outside (or “wog”) world. They were the children of
Scientologists, often indoctrinated since birth, and many had spent their
formative years in the company of the Commodore. Now the key Messengers, nearly
all girls, were in their late teens, and ferociously dedicated to their
Commodore. From this point, Hubbard would increasingly place his trust in them.

Hubbard, with three Messengers, left for Sparks, Nevada, in
the dead of night, in Hubbard’s station-wagon, Beauty. They drove away from the
hacienda with their lights off, so pursuit could be readily detected. Hubbard
had stomach trouble throughout the trip. Perhaps his old “wound,” the ulcer
which still provided him with a veteran’s pension, was acting up? A scheme went
into effect almost immediately to camouflage Hubbard, and keep him hidden from
the world. The two older Messengers were married, under assumed names. The
marriage was bigamous for both of them, but legal considerations rarely stopped
close devotees from serving Hubbard. The bigamists then claimed that Hubbard
was their elderly grand-uncle, and the third Messenger a cousin, and set up
house together.

Hubbard stayed in seclusion for almost six months,
maintaining control of the Scientology Church through his Messengers. He used
the time to outline 33 Scientology training films, writing the scripts for 15.
He also wrote a peculiar screenplay called
Revolt in the Stars
. Despite
his admonitions that OT3 was lethal to the uninitiated,
Revolt in the Stars
centered on the supposed incidents of 75 million years ago, providing many new
details. The evil prince Xenu, perpetrator of the massacre of millions, was
apparently assisted in his malicious deeds by the Galactic Minister of Police,
Chi, and the Executive President of the Galactic Interplanetary Bank, Chu.
Along with Chi and Chu, we find Mish, one of the few “Loyal Officers” to
survive the catastrophe, the Lady Min, and the heroic Rawl, whom one suspects
is the Hubbard character.

By December 1977, Hubbard could no longer resist the
temptation to turn his scripts to celluloid. The would-be spectacular
Revolt
in the Stars
was too ambitious, and would require the skills and budget of
the movie Star Wars, but he could make a start with Scientology promotional and
Tech films. The Tech films were to be demonstrations of good auditing practice.
Hubbard moved back to Winter HQ at La Quinta.
¹¹

 Two properties were purchased in Indio, California. A 10
acre ranch, codenamed Monroe, became a barracks for the CMO crew who made the
Tech films. The 140 acre ranch where shooting actually took place was called
Silver, a popular codename, it seems. In the grapefruit orchards of Silver, a
huge barn was built, camouflaging Hubbard’s film studio.
¹²

A recruitment drive was launched in the Scientology world
for professionals with experience in music or film. At the age of 15, Ver-Dawn
Hartwell left school to join the Commodore’s Messenger Organization.
^{13, 14}
Her older sister had been involved in Scientology for several years. Their
parents were accomplished dancers, and had just finished the introductory
Communication Course when they were approached by recruiters for the “CMO Cine
Org.” They were lured out to the desert with glib promises of excellent pay,
exciting work and a beautiful location. They were even shown photographs of the
resort hotel they would be staying in - in Clearwater. Instead they ended up in
the desert in the squalor of Monroe, with the rest of the Cine Org.

Adell and Ernie Hartwell had given their family and friends
the address of their supposed destination. They were surprised when the Scientologist
who met them in Los Angeles checked to see if the car was bugged, and drove
down side streets to make sure they were not being followed. He explained that
the precautions were because Hubbard’s whereabouts were top secret.

Ernie was startled when they arrived: “I was absolutely
shocked to see everybody running around in shorts, ragged clothes, dirty, and unkempt
... they put us in a ... little three-room shack on the edge of the ranch ...
We go inside and what a mess ... the place was totally overrun with bugs,
insects ... The facilities consisted of a mattress on the floor ... when
somebody turned the lights on, of course, it stirred up all the bugs and
everything began to fly all over the place.”

The Hartwells set to work, initially on a schedule starting
at seven in the morning and finishing at 11 or 12 at night. In spite of their
protests, they were given no free time, even on weekends. They were told the
recruiter who had lied to them about the wonderful pay and working conditions
was being disciplined. The same old Scientology excuse, “he’s been removed.” It
did not help.

Adell Hartwell was confused by the set up:

The main thing that I disliked ... before we could
see the place, we had to be programmed on the lies that we had to tell. If we
run into one of our friends, we had to tell a lie to them and tell them we were
just there for a vacation. We had the man’s name and everything to give. We had
to go twenty-five miles to use the telephone, and ... usually there was
somebody with us ... There was [sic] no papers...

We were schooled on how to get away from process
servers, FBI agents, any government official or any policeman who wanted
anything to do with Hubbard ... there was [sic] four different ways that they
trained us to handle them, even if ... [we] had to use ... physical force. And
that went on for days, that training. One of us would be the FBI agent and the
other one would be who we are ... until we had it down pat.

... We were just like we had been cut off from the
world. We were behind closed - locked doors with curtains always pulled ... we
were to hide anything pertaining to the word “Scientology” in books or anything
that would disclose that it was the Church of Scientology ... anytime we left
from one building to another, everything that we carried had to be in sacks.
There was nothing that could be visible that had “Scientology” on it ... Fred
Roth was put in the RPF [Rehabilitation Project Force] because he said the word
“Scientology” on the golf course.

All outgoing mail was censored, and all incoming mail came
via Clearwater. Ernie Hartwell was a Navy veteran, so Adell had not led a
sheltered life; even so she was startled by Hubbard’s turns of phrase:

I was in the shed one day, the wardrobe, working ... I hadn’t
met Hubbard at this time. And I heard this terrible screaming filthy language
like I had never heard before. I had something in my hand and it fell to the
floor and my mouth flew open. I said, “Who in the world is that?” And they said
it was the Boss, because we weren’t allowed to use the word “Hubbard” for
security reasons. And I said, “You mean the leader of the Church speaks like
that?” And they said, “Yes. He doesn’t believe in keeping anything back.”

Ernie confirmed this: “He was a screaming maniac ... He’d
tell you to do one thing and turn around two minutes later and tell you not to
do it.” Many people who were once close to Hubbard have remarked on his
tantrums.

In her five month stay, Dell never saw Hubbard vary his
wardrobe.
¹³
: “He’s a big man with a big stomach. His hair was long
and shabby - gray, with reddish spots, and he always wore pants that were way
too big with one suspender, and he always had a bandana and a cowboy hat.”

In keeping with Hubbard’s dust phobia, the set had to be
washed down, with special odor-free soap, before he arrived each day, and
rinsed four times over with clean water. A “white glove inspection” would take
place. This could be problematical when sets had just been painted. The crew
would desperately use anything to hand to dry the paint, after a lookout atop a
pole sighted Hubbard’s car in the distance. Sets which would have taken
Hollywood weeks to prepare had to be built in a single day. Filming was usually
done at night.
¹⁵

People with a fever would be “quarantined” in a 10 by 12
foot room. Adell Hartwell says that at one time there were 13 teenagers crammed
in, all running fevers, and all still smoking (cancer being the result of
engrams or body thetans or whatever, supposedly granting Scientologists
immunity).
¹⁴