Better Business Bureau article on Sterling Management Dianetics Hubbard Scientology

Better Business Bureau article on Sterling Management Dianetics Hubbard Scientology Scientology

Vol23 No 6 - The Business Link - Publication of the
Better Business Bureau September 1991
Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino Counties

The Sterling Road to Scientology
Business Consulting and Training Seminars
Really Sell Scientology

" . . in the end, money is what Scientology is all about. " Time Magazine, May 6, 1991

When Dr. Scott Sutherland and his wife, Amy, finished an introductory seminar in Chicago last summer, they were sold on Sterling Management Systems. So sold that within the next few days they signed a contract for thousands of dollars worth of "professional training courses," to be augmented, they learned later, by more courses for still more money.

The Sutherlands flew to Sterling's head-quarters in Glendale, California, soon after, convinced that they would learn, through the training, how they could improve their medical practice, attract more patients,and improve collections.

Once in California, the Sutherlands, like many others, began their week with an in-depth discussion with their assigned consultant about improving Scott's practice. Before long, though, the discussion turned to the results of the personality assessment questionnaires they had previously completed. Both Scott and Amy, the consultant said, had problems that would never allow them to realize the advantages they had hoped to gain from the courses they'd signed up for.

The solution?

Handle the problems first.

How?

Dianetics.

Thus entered a representative from the Dianetics office down the hall from Sterling Management. [A recent article in California magazine defines Dianetics as "a mental `science' formulated by the late fabulist L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology) and introduced to the world in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health.

THE STERLING ROAD TO
SCIENTOLOGY
(continued from page 1)

The Sutherlands had noticed mention of Scientology in Sterling's General Enrollment Agreement, which credited L. Ron Hubbard with having developed a management technology "being successfully applied in many businesses and professional practices" and with having founded the "Scientology religious philosophy." In spite of their reservations about it, though, they had taken the Agreement at its word - that it was a technology applied in business and professional practices. "Sterling Management denied any ties to Dianetics.

`If you have problems, you see some- one in Dianetics. Sterling is business management.'"

Scott says Sterling Management denied any ties to Dianetics, telling them, "If you have problems, you see someone in Dianetics. Sterling is business management." They agreed to be audited [a Dianetics technique, according to Time magazine's May 6 article on Scientology, that uses a simplified lie detector called an "E-meter" to measure electrical changes in the skin while subjects usually discuss intimate details of their past]. "It was a very hard sell," they say.

Immediately afterward, the Sutherlands decided against being audited and in spite of more "hard sell," they held their ground. They have requested but have not gotten back any of the money they paid Sterling Management.

The Sutherlands' experience with Sterling Management Systems is, with slight variations, typical of what others (usually professional men and women -- doctors, dentists, veterinarians) report to the Better Business Bureau. The innocuous-looking card most of them receive in the mail, inviting them to Sterling's introductory seminar, is the first step down a financial and emotional toll-road that will quickly detour them to Scientology. Besides soliciting through these invitational cards, Time says that Sterling Management also mails a free newsletter to more than 300,000 health-care professionals, mostly dentists, promising to increase their incomes dramatically through their seminars and courses. The Church of Scientology, Time says, attracts "the unwary through a wide array of front groups in such businesses as publishing, consulting, health care, and even remedial education." The group recruits "wealthy and respectable professionals through a web of consulting groups that typically hide their ties to Scientology." Sterling Management's "true aim," it says, "is to hook customers for Scientology. "

". . . the training was fraudulently presented as a professional management seminar when in reality it is a front to promote Scientology. "

Complaints to the Bureau seem to bear this out. Statements such as, ". . . we feel the [Sterling Management's] training was fraudulently presented as a professional management seminar when in reality it is a front to promote Scientology," and "the course's content was infiltrated with Scientology philosophy as were the instructors of these courses," appear in complaints, as do phrases like "a lot of pressure," "hard sell," etc. And Sterling Management, according to complaints, denies any involvement in Dianetics but holdsthat they are business management.

Not all of Scientology's disguised solicitations, though, come through the mail, and not all are from Sterling Management. Bureau employee Carla Simms became part of a blanket-to-blanket solicitation at the beach last month, when she was asked to fill out a pink "Dianetics" questionnaire and stick it in the sand to be picked up later. She declined. Chino resident Susie Ridgeway answered her door to someone who handed her a pink "personality survey" containing 50 or 60 questions. Not knowing what the word "Dianetics" on it meant, she and her husband, Ted, each filled one out. A couple of days later they received a call, asking them to come to an office in Tustin to go over some of their personality traits. Told this was for"self-improvement," the Ridgeways went.

The rest of their story is similar to others. Susie was led into one room, Ted into another. Each was told they should take the courses to help the other. Disenchanted by getting a sales pitch, Susie tried once to leave. Nevertheless, she and Ted signed up. When she later noticed "Church of Scientology" on their charge slip, Susie, a member of another church, decided she wanted nothing to do with Scientology.

The Ridgeways called the next day and were told "No problem; bring the literature back and we'll credit your account." They brought the books back. Once there, though, they were sent to the chaplain's office, where they were kept waiting hours to see her.

"They were giving people something to drink . . . they would say, `Here, drink this. You'll feel better.' "

Susie describes what she saw and heard while they waited in the courtyard outside the chaplain's office: "[Scientology] people were walking around with walkie talkies.. they were giving people somethingto drink in a paper cup - people who were saying things like, `I don't understand . . .' `I want to leave . . .' Once of them was a 12 or 13-year-old girl. "They [the Scientologists] would say, `Here, drink this and you'll feel better.'

In the same courtyard, Ted, Susie says, overheard Scientologists tell a nine-year-old boy that he owed them $900 but could work it off.

When the chaplain finally saw the Ridgeways to tell them there was nothing she could do to give them their money back, Susie lost her temper. "You deceived us all the way," she shouted. "We didn't know this was a church - it's nothing more than a cult." Ted and Susie left, without their refund. "At this point, we were frazzled," she says. "We didn't know what to do."

As to the classes themselves, Dr. La Verne Hutchinson, an Ohio orthodontist who was solicited by Sterling Management, calls them "farcical." "They're a subtle indoctrination," she says. She describes the text material as "rambling," and notes that "90 percent of the teachings were repetitious." But you don't know that when you order books, she says, because they don't arrive until you're back home.

"Every book in Sterling Management's offices except the telephone book and dictionary are the writings of L. Ron Hubbard."

She also notes that every book in Sterling Management's offices except the telephone book and dictionary are the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. "Even God used a variety of authors to write His Bible," she says.

She tells about the 12-hour days spent in training: "You're isolated, treated like a child. You check in and check out. You answer roll call. You aren't to speak to anyone else. If you speak to a room monitor, you must raise your hand. You keep busy doing their things on their schedule."

Dr. Hutchinson credits having been forewarned to "watch out for certain things and not get sucked into Scientology" with keeping her from getting in deeper. Still, she has not gotten back any of the thousands of dollars she paid.

Dr. Hutchinson's partner in some of the class exercises was Dee Rowe, of Gadsden, Alabama, who, with her dentist husband, Glover, had flown to Glendale for management training. The Rowes' story was told, in part, in Time magazine's article.

Again, taking Dee into one room and Glover into another, they convinced the Rowes to agree to auditing by predicting that without it their marriage wouldn't last a year and Dee would abuse their child.

Dee says about the classes: "I feel very strongly that mind control techniques were in effect from the beginning. We were there from 9 a.m. till 10 p.m. or midnight ... I begged them to let me take a nap."

In one of the first courses, she says, "they pointed out to us, by asking specific questions, how everyone in our lives - family and friends -had controlled and manipulated us and turned us into the kind of people we are now. They pitted us against our family."

Dee wanted to leave when she was told she and Glover would have to turn their minds over to them completely. She was then held in a room at the Church of Scientology, her captor planted between her and the door, for seven hours while Scientologists moved into Glover's hotel room with him for two days and nights.

"Pretend you're watching a pornographic movie and I'm blind. Describe it to me."

Dee tells about pressure to undergo auditing. Ordering her to pick up the E-meter cans, she was asked questions such as "What evil intentions do you have against the Church of Scientology?" Hours later, exhausted, she pretended to be mentally under the control of her interrogator, saying whatever she thought he wanted to hear. He then asked about sexual experiences. "Pretend you're watching a pornographic movie and I'm blind. Describe it to me," he instructed. When he left the room 15 or 20 minutes later to consult with his case supervisor, she bolted. "I'd over-heard Dianetics people say they lived in the neighborhood near the church," Dee says, "so I ran away from there to the highway. Then I heard foot-steps behind me and realized that one of them was chasing me. When I tried to flag a car down, he stopped. Just stopped and stared at me as I ran. I came to an intersection and a car pulled up. Another guy I recog- nized jumped out and started after me. I ran back the other way to get away from him. He got back into the car, turned around and pulled up beside me, and said, `Dee, get in.' " I ran in the opposite direction until I found a pay phone and called police."

Dee and Glover now speak to community groups and churches about their experience in the hope of helping others avoid being drawn in to Scientology.

Los Angeles attorney Barry Van Sickle, who is filing suit against the Church of Scientology on behalf of the Rowes for such causes of action as infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy, says that most people believe the church is a cult. He cites such reasons as the extreme loyalty (in some cases abandonment of children) it demands of its followers, the break with other family members, the philosophies that "if it's written by L. Ron Hubbard it must be right," that no one besides the church has such vision and knowledge of the "truth," and that Scientology is the one and only answer.

The 15 complaints received by the Bureau so far have come from widely scattered parts of the United States - from Pennsylvania to California, Minnesota to Texas. Most who complain are outraged enough to send additional pages detailing their experience with Sterling. Asking for reimbursement of amounts of up to $20,000, a few of them get it after deducting, of course, the amount representing that portion of the "services" they received, and less a hefty 15 percent "termination fee." Although some complain about this fee, saying that the contract was first breached by Sterling, others, like the Sutherlands, are willing to forego reimbursement just to sever their relationship with Sterling.

Many of the complainants we talked to told of harassment after they walked away from Sterling Management or Scientology-tactics ranging from several phone calls daily, for months, to the ploy of two Scientologists who knocked at the Ridgeways' door, claiming to represent the Social Security Administration and demanding to inspect their bank statements. Although most of these complainants expressed some fear for their safety if the Church of Scientology could identify them through this article, all of them told us their stories, saying, "Yes, I'll do anything I can to stop them."

• Note: The names and locations of everyone mentioned in this article except those of Glover and Dee Rowe, and Barry Van Sickle have been changed at their request.

[end]

This article has not yet been webbed

Arnaldo Lerma
Lermanet.com Exposing the CON

I'd prefer to die speaking my mind than live fearing to speake

If the Borg were to breed with the Ferengi you'd get Scientology!

The only real product of Scientology is More Scientologists That is the etiology of cancer.

The only thing that works in scientology are its lawyers

The internet is the Liberty Tree
http://www.lermanet.com/faqs.html
http://www.lermanet.com/exit/hubbard-the-hypnotist.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/scientology/altreligionscientology-killfile-settings.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/crowley-hubbard-666.htm
http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/flint-suicides-in-scientology-040383.htm
both with IMAGES!!

"Scientologists believe that most human problems can be traced to lingering spirits of an extraterrestrial people massacred by their ruler, Xenu, over 75 million years ago. These spirits attach themselves by "clusters" to individuals in the contemporary world, causing spiritual harm and negatively influencing the lives of their hosts" [Judge Leonie Brinkema 4 Oct 96 Memorandum Opinion]

What do we get from getting people out of scientology? We create an individual who has become a Houdini of all mind traps.. folks who won't be fooled again. People who can DE-program, People who can spring mental traps..

We create, by freeing someone of scientology, a being who has the ability to break the strongest slave chains of all.

Those forged of lies. (c) Arnaldo Lerma

From: Lermanet.com <alerma@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Better Business Bureau article on Sterling Management Dianetics Hubbard Scientology
Organization: Lermanet.com Exposing the CON called Scientology
Message-ID: <hqd3h1dnb6jvjigvdbm1k3ghd9p5qgpq14@4ax.com>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 13:10:21 GMT

On Sun, 28 Aug 2005 02:51:46 +0200, Mike Gormez <mgormez@chello.nl> wrote:

>"On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 21:55:32 GMT, Lermanet.com <alerma@verizon.net> wrote
>in <iqm1h19s6k3iuh72jinl7p7br3shnkiuuf@4ax.com>:
>
>>Vol23 No 6 - The Business Link - Publication of the
>>Better Business Bureau September 1991
>>Serving Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino Counties
>
>>[end]
>>
>>This article has not yet been webbed
>
>It is, as it is part of the historic FACTNet archive. A nicer looking
>version is here
>http://www.whyaretheydead.net/misc/work/The_Sterling_Road_to_Scientology.html

Grab these images and embed links so that the "original' is available - for scientology's "its all lies" crows..

http://www.lermanet.com/image/bbb-page1.jpg
http://www.lermanet.com/image/bbb-page2.jpg
http://www.lermanet.com/image/bbb-page3.jpg
http://www.lermanet.com/image/bbb-page4.jpg

Thanks!

arnie