I am pleased to announce that the latest Regime Report is now available at Truth About Scientology:

http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/read/regime/regimerptvol01no07.html

This one's only two weeks late - I'm improving!

You can access all seven Regime Reports easily from the Recommended Reading - Regime Report page:

http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/read/regime/

My thanks to Murray, a tip of the hat to all his readers, and a pleasant evening to all.

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The Regime Report

Organizational Delusion

By Murray Luther
Unofficial Correspondent for
the Church of Scientology

"I have always thought it was a most valuable trait to recognize reality and not to pursue delusions. But when I now think over my life up to and including the years of imprisonment, there was no period in which I was free of delusory notions."

That's a quote by Albert Speer, from his 1970 publication of his memoirs, Inside the Third Reich. It took him 20 years of reflection in Spandau prison to come to that unfortunate conclusion. Not only is his account of the Hitler regime revealing, but it's unique too, if you consider that he was the only Nazi official to admit guilt for war crimes during the Nuremburg trials.

Inside the Third Reich is a must-read for anyone seeking more understanding of the anatomy of organizations gone bad. And for those familiar with the history of the Church of Scientology, they will see many parallels. The book reminds us that fanatics come in all varieties of ideological stripes not necessarily limited to purely religious agendas.

Moreover, Speer provides us with some insight into the mindset of a totalitarian organization.

"The departure from reality, which was visibly spreading like a contagion, was no peculiarity of the National Socialist regime. But in normal circumstances people who turn their backs on reality are soon set straight by the mockery and criticism of those around them, which makes them aware they have lost credibility. In the Third Reich there were no such correctives, especially for those who belonged to the upper stratum. On the contrary, every self-deception was multiplied as in a hall of distorting mirrors, becoming a repeatedly confirmed picture of a fantastical dream world which no longer bore any relationship to the grim outside world"

Scientologists, like many other fanatical groups, like to maintain, even enforce, their own version of reality. They've created for themselves a pseudo-utopia that thrives independently of the outside world. This so called "world of Scientology" is impervious to even the most ordinary of social customs and constraints, and manages to survive largely due to the Church's rigid enforcement of group policy. It's a totalitarian system designed to be tamper-proof and immune to outside influence.

Scientologists are obliged to operate within this closed system while at the same time forbidden to make honest critical evaluations of its operation. And Scientologists are never allowed to integrate ideas into the system not originated by L. Ron Hubbard. It's a system that cannot correct itself, nor can it evolve towards improvement.

Scientologists would no doubt dispute this assessment by arguing that their organizational structure has a built in remedy process in the form of an Ethics Division and a Qualifications Division. But even these departments are subject to the rigid edicts of those at the top-- executives driven by a strict adherence to Hubbard's policies. When you work for the Church, Hubbard is not only the best way, it's the only way.

None of this is to imply that Scientologists never admit to mistakes-- they can and do. But they never attribute errors to weak or ineffective policy. In Scientology, it's an accepted given that Hubbard's organizational policies are 100% workable. This renders most criticism of Church activities into a futile and pointless activity. But what happens when major or severe errors occur of a magnitude that adversely affect the overall well being of the Church? That's when self preservation kicks in, and the survival of the group becomes senior to any other consideration, including the possibility that ill-conceived policies may be at the root of the problem.

In its constant effort to be right at all times, the Church must occasionally resort to justifying their various misdeeds. Rather than admit that the system doesn't always work, the Church maintains that their policies are always correct-- it's only when these policies are misapplied do errors occur. And when improper application can't be blamed, the Church will always fall back on their litany of ever-present conspiracies.

Remember, that in the minds of Scientologists there exist insidious enemies from both without and within, who with great calculation have been plotting out the Church's demise since its very beginnings. Where's Art Bell when you really need him?

All of this adds up to classic textbook totalitarian thinking. The system is always right. The system is never the problem. And most important, the system must prevail in order for the group to survive. It's this pattern of thinking that's created absolute orthodoxies throughout history, from the Spanish Inquisition of the 16th century to the Wahhibi Muslims of today. This is the kind of thinking that's allowed tyrants like Hitler and Stalin to enjoy unlimited power in spite of their penchant for destruction and atrocity.

A more conventional organization would suffer from a loss of credibility if they were to deny reality to such an extent. Not a problem for the Church of Scientology. They simply alter reality by enforcing policies that are absolute, that can be neither questioned nor negotiated. Needless to say, unsuspecting Church members eventually lose their perspective on the world around them. And so it is with any individual within a totalitarian organization who is obligated to perceive the world in the way that the group has arbitrarily dictated the world to be.

So what happens in the case of the Church of Scientology when a member finds himself in disagreement with some aspect of the organization? For the Scientologist who has deviated, even in the slightest way from Church authority, must be, well, "corrected." It's a process that I imagine might have been similar to the sort of things that went on with political dissidents in the old Soviet Union. Citizens who couldn't tow the party line always had the option of "re-education." The communist system was correct, and therefore any criticism of this most-perfect-of-systems was merely an indication that you hadn't quite "gotten" the subject. The Soviet Union had re-education camps in Siberia, the Church of Scientology has the RPF.*

Granted, public Scientologists don't have to go through such a severe gauntlet as the RPF, but they too have no choice but to go along with L.

Ron Hubbard's view of the world. Any student who dares question any aspect of the tech simply gets sent to cramming and restudies the material for as long as it takes until the disagreement is squelched or otherwise "handled." The PC is no better off. Even the most minor expression of dissatisfaction can cost you hours of correction lists, security checks, and days on end slugging it out with the Ethics Officer. There's only one road out of this "difference of opinion" predicament. The Scientologist must accept a prescribed view of the subject, a narrow view that has been authoritatively established by Hubbard and Church leaders. One could almost admire the genius of such an all-encompassing method of tyrannical organization.

It's perhaps unsettling to consider that delusional thinking may be easier to come by then one might expect. Albert Speer gives us a look into how absolute notions can lead to grand departures from reality. Speer relates one incident in which Hermann Goering refused to accept that American fighters had finally encroached into German skies, despite the irrefutable evidence presented to him by one of his generals. Goering simply countered the evidence by issuing an official order stating that nobody saw any fighters. Speer describes the exchange: ". . . [Goering] acted like a bankrupt who up to the last moment wants to deceive himself along with his creditors."

Submerged within a dictatorship, one's objectivity becomes so severely limited, it makes it virtually impossible to perceive things going awry, much less to correct them. Speer explains, "...in Hitler's system, as in every totalitarian regime, when a man's position rises, his isolation increases and he is therefore more sheltered from harsh reality;"

Eventually Albert Speer faced up to reality, though not soon enough to avoid his twenty-year conviction for war crimes. On the other hand, there were those in the Nazi regime who had become incapable of facing up to the delusional world they'd created. Hitler, along with his top officials, Goering, Himmler, and Goebbels preferred to take their own lives rather than face the harsh realities of their destructive regime. How ironic that these criminal despots finally met the harshest reality of all.

*RPF - Rehabilitation Project Force; Organizational unit of the Church of Scientology where Sea Org staff are sent to remedy their poor performance.

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Murray Luther is the pen name of a Scientologist of over twenty-five years who currently remains in good standing with the Church. He's the founder of the Scientology Independent Network, an advocacy group for former members of the Church of Scientology.

All views expressed here are those of Murray Luther and do not necessarily reflect the views of truthaboutscientolog.com or scientology-lies.com.

All material by Murray Luther is copyrighted, with all rights, either stated or implied held by the author. Material posted by Murray Luther on the internet may be reproduced for non-commercial use only.

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