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Burroughs On Scientology

Los Angeles Free Press, 06 Mar 1970

In view of the fact that my articles and statements on Scientology may haveinfluenced young people to associate themselves with the so called Church ofScientology, I feel an obligation to make my present views on the subjectquite clear.

Some of the techniques are highly valuable and warrant further study andexperimentation. The E Meter is a useful device ... (many variations of thisinstrument are possible). On the other hand I am in flat disagreement with theorganizational policy. No body of knowledge needs an organizational policy.Organizational policy can only impede the advancement of knowledge. There is abasic incompatibility between any organization and freedom of thought. SupposeNewton had founded a Church of Newtonian Physics and refused to show hisformula to anyone who doubted the tenets of Newtonian Physics? Allorganizations create organizational necessities. It is preciselyorganizational necessities that have prevented Scientology from obtaining theserious consideration merited by the importance of Mr. Hubbard's discoveries.Scientologists are not prepared to accept intelligent and sometimes criticalevaluation. They demand unquestioning acceptance.

Mr. Hubbard's overtly fascist utterances (China is the real threat to worldpeace, Scientology is protecting the home, the church, the family, decentmorals ... positively no wife swapping. It's a dirty Communist trick ...national boundaries, the concepts of RIGHT and WRONG against evil freethinking psychiatrist) can hardly recommend him to the militant students.Certainly it is time for the Scientologists to come out in plain English onone side or the other, if they expect the trust and support of young people.Which side are you on Hubbard, which side are you on?

This statement which appears in my forthcoming bookThe Job needsconsiderable amplification. I quote fromFreedom Scientologynumber 11 ... (no date)PSYCHIATRY No. 1 - beliefs and aims.

An expose of this weird cult

Psychiatry: n. a medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis,treatment and care of mental Illness and defect and, by extension, of manypersonal problems of personal adjustment. Historically, psychiatry grew upwithin the framework of medicine and dealt with the medical care of thementally ill. As the Science and art developed, much of its treatment was notspecifically medical, and any of those treated were not (in, any ordinarysense of the word) ill, either somatically or mentally. The practice ofpsychiatry is thus often indistinguishable from that of other specialties thatdeal with problems of psychological adjustment. The term medical psychology isfairly descriptive of the practice of psychiatry but not of the curriculum fortraining in that field, which seldom includes any background in psychology ofnormal people - adj. psychiatric.

'Mental Health' began promoting and organizing itself after the Second WorldWar. Various mental health groups, societies and committees were set upthroughout the world, and pronouncements made as to the future ofcivilization.

Dr. Brock Chisholm was at that time a prime mover in these organizations. Hisown pronouncements are of interest - even if they sound unbelievable.

1945 - 'Let us accept our own responsibility to remodel the world' and theremodeling plan is basically very simple. The way to prevent future wars isworld government - established by developing world citizens with a 'state ofemotional maturity' achieved, as Chisholm put it, by 'the re-interpretationand eventual eradication of the concept of right and wrong which has been thebasis of child training ...'

Chisholm knew this couldn't be done overnight. People tend to cling to theirold 'prejudices about national patriotism, individualism, loyalty to familyand friends and their devotion to 'narrow' religious dogmas. 'There issomething to be said for ... gently putting aside the mistaken old ways of ourelders ... If it cannot be done gently, it may have to be done roughly or evenviolently.'

'We have swallowed all manner of poisonous certainties fed us by our parents,our Sunday and day school teachers ...'

'If the race is to be freed from its crippling burden of good and evil it mustbe the psychiatrists who take the original responsibility.'

'We should begin to teach psychology in the first year in school, at about 5or 6 years of age, before their ability to think has been entirelyspoiled.'

'... to root out and destroy the oldest and most flourishing parasiticalgrowth in the world, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.'

Ten years later Dr. Chisholm was still talking ... 'A man who fathers sixchildren is an indifferent fellow who has ignored his responsibilities as acitizen of the world. There is nothing admirable in competing with rabbits...'

These are the views of one of the world leaders in the weird cult ofpsychiatry. Chisholm is not alone - read Julian Huxley's views on God. 'Theadvance of natural science ... has brought us to a stage at which God is nolonger a useful hypothesis. A faint trace of a cosmic Cheshire cat. But thegrowth of ... knowledge will rub even that from the universe - I do notbelieve in the existence of a god or gods.'

These are not just isolated views. The Kinsey report reached a conclusion onhomosexual molesters of children that such molesting may have contributedfavorably to later socio-sexual development, and further states thatpre-marital sex relations of women help females to adjust emotionally tovarious types of males - and in hospitals, psychiatric courses have includedthese teachings:

'Pre-marital and extra-marital relations may be quite useful in establishinggood 'mental hygiene', and that masturbation is all right in adolescents, butis 'wrongfully' frowned on in later life.'

The psychiatrist does not stop there. There is one other piece de resistancetucked away that he has been trying to get introduced for years. It is the'Alaska Mental Health Bill.' It is the most authoritative, undemocraticsuggestion to appear so far from the cult of psychiatry. This is what it setsout to do.

A large area in Alaska should be set aside for the 'treatment' of 'mental'prisoners from other states in the U.S.A. Commitment of 'patients' may be upon'written application of an interested party', or may be by 'any health,welfare or police officer ...' Proceeding for commitment may be held inprivate without event the 'prisoner' being notified of such hearings, RULES OFEVIDENCE DO NOT APPLY AT SUCH HEARINGS.

This means that you could be lying in bed at night, be awoken by the'authorities' and be sent straight to Alaska, whether you object or not. Your'case' has already been heard, without your knowing anything about it, and adecision taken that Alaska is the place for you. And what works in the U.S.A.will work in other countries.

It is a matter of historical record that Scientology Organizations have foughtthis Bill in every country since it was first announced. They will continue todo so, because the freedom of human rights for each and every individual is atstake. There are already several cases of people who have 'disappeared'because of political controversy - and they can be removed because of their socalled 'irrational' behavior, or their sanity discredited or being 'mentallyunbalanced.' Doctor H.A. Overstreet has listed the new style 'symptoms' ofmental illness in his book 'The Great Enterprise - Relating Ourselves to OurWorld.' He writes:

'A man ... may be angrily against racial equality, public housing, financialand technical aid to backward countries, organized labor and the preaching ofsocial rather than salvational religion ... such people may appear 'normal' inthe sense that they are able to hold a job and otherwise maintain their statusas members of society: but they are, we now recognize, well along the roadtoward mental illness.'

There we have it. Modern 'psychiatry' and 'mental health', as promoted by theChisholms, the Overstreets and the Huxleys is completely anti-Christ andsubversive. No wonder ex-Detective Superintendent Fabian of the Yard hasdescribed it as 'the biggest hoax of the century.' Summing up the views ofthis cult, as expressed by its own leaders, it can be clearly seen -

Psychiatry denies God.
Psychiatry ridicules the Bible and itsteachings.
Psychiatry advocates promiscuous sexual behavior andperversion.
Psychiatry attracts national sovereignty and personalloyalties.
Psychiatry wants to commit 'patients' without a fairhearing.

There are, however, many sincere, dedicated and public-spirited people whowork for 'mental health' on the public level, and are not aware of the weirdcult they are actually involved with. That is why this series will appear -responsibility is being accepted for publicizing the facts.

Note: Not all psychiatrists are bad. Many would like to reform thepractices inflicted by the few on the many. We shall publish theirviews.

"Most of them psychiatrist fellers is Jews ain't they Clem?"

"Sure are. The Jews don't believe in Christ, Luke. I read about it in myMasonic home work."

All this is uneasily reminiscent of theProtocols of Zion and theVolkischer Beobachter. (The Protocols of Zion is ananti-Semitic forgery first published in St. Petersburg in 1903. In 1921 theProtocols were established as a forgery. The Nazis insisted that the Protocolswere genuine and produced this document in support of their anti-Semiticmeasures. Anti-Semitic propaganda poured out of theDer SturmerandDer Volkischer Beobachter daily cartoons of hideous Jewsraping Christian girls and eating Christian babies as they plot worldconquest. The Protocols outline the following steps in the master plan ...Fomenting world wide subversion and undermining authority byfosteringliberal ideas, breaking down the family by encouraging every sort oflicense, permissiveness and immorality, undermining and discrediting religion.Gentiles are to be encouraged to be atheists. Gentiles are to be encouraged tobe atheists.) We can read and appreciate Ezra Pound's poetry without sharinghis political views. Can we make a similar distinction between Mr. Hubbard'spublicly expressed opinions and the technology and practice of Scientology?No, we cannot.

A separation between Mr. Hubbard's work and his opinions is ruled out by Mr.Hubbard's grandiose claims ... 'Galaxy upon galaxy billions of light yearsaway have no bridge no route to freedom ... Scientology is the one and onlyroad to total freedom and total power ... Scientology has the answers to allthe problems of the universe including the method of solution' ... When theFounder, Controller and Guardian of the 'road to total freedom' startsspouting John Birch talk, his road is called in question and we have everyright to ask precisely what his 'method of solution' is. If Mr. Hubbard werecontent to be a technician who has made some important discoveries we couldafford to ignore his personal opinions. When he sets himself up as the saviorof all possible universes we cannot. The shoddy presentation, the reactionaryopinions, the preposterous claims, the atrocious writing are so immediatelyrepellent that few intelligent people can be persuaded that Scientology isworth a second glance. And should anyone wish to make an objective evaluation,he would find it difficult to do so owing to the structure of the ScientologyOrganization. To begin with, the techniques actually in use are not describedin Mr. Hubbard's books. To learn these techniques one must take courses at aScientology Center. And one does not simply pay the tuition, obtain thematerials and study. Oh no. One must JOIN. One must 'sign up for the durationof the universe' ... (Sea Org members are required to sign a billion yearcontract) ... The advanced courses are not only unpublished but'confidential', and any student revealing this material is subject toexpulsion and exclusion from further training. These materials can only beobtained by undergoing the training and theconditions for traininglaid down by Mr. Hubbard. In order to gain access to the materials of theClearing Course, I had to undergo a series of Security Checks (at my ownexpense of course) carried out on a lie detector ... ('Do you have any doubtsabout Scientology? Do you have any unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard? Doyou know any Communists personally? - No one asked whether I knew any CIA menpersonally - Are you connected to aSuppressive Person? ... ASuppressive Person is anyone in disagreement with Scientology ... Are you herefor any other reason than what you say you are? Do you consider these securitymeasures unnecessary? ETC. for twenty three hours) ... You have to swear andbelieve on some level that the organizational policy is correct andthat the materials are as Mr. Hubbard says they are before you can see them.It's like a physicist saying 'you can't see my formula unless you first agreethat they are correct sight unseen.' The practice of Security Checks has beendiscontinued. However, anyone expressing doubts about Scientology would findhimself excluded from the advanced courses. And the practice of assigning'Conditions' is still in effect. These conditions, 'Non-existence','Liability', 'Treason', 'Doubt', are assigned for misdemeanors and crimesagainst Scientology. A student assigned to an advanced condition must wear adirty grey rag around his arm, may not bathe, shave or change his clothes,must remain on the premises, must perform manual work, deliver a 'paralyzingblow to the enemy', admit his errors and petition every member of the centerfor forgiveness. Does Mr. Hubbard seriously expect mature scientists, artists,and professional men who have distinguished themselves in their respectivefields to submit to this prep school nonsense?

Furthermore, whole categories of people are automatically excluded fromtraining and processing and may never see Mr. Hubbard's confidentialmaterials: Suppressive Persons, that is anyone who has ever publicly attackedScientology together with all their families and connections. Anyone 'sittingin judgment on Scientology.' Anyone who has come to find out 'if Scientologyworks.' No one who has used cannabis within the last six weeks or LSD withinthe last 3 months may be processed. Such are the unique difficultiesencountered by anyone who wishes to inform himself on the subject ofScientology.

As to my personal evaluation, after six months of study: I would not bewriting this article unless I was convinced that Scientology is worth seriousconsideration. I feel that I have benefited greatly from Scientologyprocessing. In an earlier article inMayfair I said thatScientology can do more in ten hours than psychoanalysis can do in ten years.For what this is worth I still think so. Scientology is incomparably moreprecise and efficient than any method of psychotherapy now in use. Butunfortunately, Scientology has duplicated some of the basic errors ofconventional psychotherapy. Any aberration that effects the human mind musthave a three dimensional coordinate point in the human nervous system.Otherwise it could not producer an effect any more than a television or radiobroadcast could be seen or heard without a receiving set. When Westernpsychiatrists turned away from Pavlov's lead and postulated Super Egos, Idsand Complexes without locating these entities in the human nervous system theyfoundered in mystical abstractions. And where, for that matter, is Mr.Hubbard's Reactive Mind? (When I suggested that the Reactive Mind must belocated in the hypothalamus my suggestion fell on unresponsive ears. Mr.Hubbard is not interested in suggestions. He states flatly that he has neverknown any suggestion from a student to contain the slightest value.)

The Reactive Mind, as set forth by Mr. Hubbard in the Clearing Course, is amodel control instrument well worth the attention of anyone who is looking forinner freedom. Familiarity with this artifact gives one a considerableemancipation from crippling automatic reactions. Mr. Hubbard places theReactive Mind in unimaginable antiquity, thus making any examination of itsorigin impossible. In view of a dim rusty label 'Made in USA September 17,1889,' I cannot go along with this. My guess is that this control artifact wasset up around the turn of the century. That is was largely the work of oneman. That its purpose was and is to keep people enslaved on this planet, toblock the exploration of space and to ensure a parasitic ersatz immortalityfor the founder and his confederates. As long as anyone reacts to the ReactiveMind, HE is there. I have, in fact, an identical picture of this man. He wasneither very famous nor completely obscure. He was neither very rich nor poor.He was probably a mathematician, perhaps a composer of music, almost certainlya Mayan scholar. The tip off came from the Mayan codices. To summarize mypersonal impression: I feel that Scientology has scratched some surfaces andturned up some leads. Experimentation and research carried out by workers inthe fields of electronics, virology, cybernetics, biology, and operantconditioning could result in revolutionary advances.

Mr. Hubbard says that the mere sight of his confidential materials would makeany WOG - (His revealing term to designate those unversed in Scientology) -violently sick. I can claim some experience and skill in the scrivener'strade, but I could not undertake to write a few words guaranteed to make anyappreciable number of readers physically sick. So, if this claim is justified,it is certainly a matter for investigation. I am sure that volunteers inabundance would step forward. Who would pass up an opportunity to read suchpotent prose? A headache or a cold or the loss of the last supper is a smallprice to pay. This is not a frivolous suggestion. If words can make peoplevomit how are these particular words effecting the vomiting centers in thehypothalamus? Or is this claim put forward to give his followers a feeling ofimportance and to justify rather substantial fees? Only an actual test cangive us the answer.

If the Scientologists persist in a self-imposed isolation and in withholdingtheir materials from those best qualified to evaluate and use them, they maywell find themselves bypassed. Mr. Hubbard says he wants recognition for hisdiscoveries. Well, let him then show his confidential materials free of chargeand without any restrictions to qualified workers in other fields. He says hehas the road to freedom. Others have been a long time on that road. At theEdinburgh Writer's Conference in 1952 Alex Trocchi coined the phrase'astronauts of inner space.' Let him show his confidential materials to theastronauts of inner space: Alex Trocchi, Brion Gysin, Allen Ginsberg, TimothyLeary, to anthropologists like Castaneda and shamans like Don Juan. Let himshow his material to mathematicians, computer programmers, biologists andvirologists, to students of language like Marshall McLuhan and Noam Chomsky.Let him show his material to those who have fought for freedom in the streets,Eldridge Cleaver, Stokely Carmichael, Abbie Hoffman, Dick Gregory, to theveterans of Chicago and Paris and Mexico City.

Above all, young people have a right to see his materials. So let him set up acenter and give his processing and materials free of charge and withoutrestrictions of any kind to anyone under the age of 35. If he has what he sayshe has, the results should be cataclysmic. And the mass application of othertechniques now available should produce even more interesting results. In myforthcoming book,The Job, I describe the experiments of doctor NealE. Miller who has taught rats to lower blood pressure, reduce rate of heartbeats, control digestion and breathing and brain waves. He has taught rats inone hour to do what yogis take 20 years to learn. Anything a rat can do youcan do better, as subsequent experiments with human subjects havedemonstrated.

Quote fromTIME, July 18, 1969, page 59 ... 'Through thecerebrospinal nervous system, the mind is able to dominate much of the body,how a man walks, talks, etc. But the body's glandular and visceral processes,run by what the scientists call the automatic nervous system, have long beenconsidered beyond the reach of conscious control. Now though, experimentalpsychologists have proved that the body's automatic nervous system can betaught.'

The results of such experiments tend to support the theory of mind over matterso long ridiculed by modern science. "People are reexamining old concepts likemind/body dualism" says Dr. Bernard Engel of the National Institute of ChildHealth in Baltimore. Engel's work in "automatic shaping" has enabled him toalter heart rates, and rhythms to alleviate irregular heart beats and highblood pressure. Other researchers have proved that man can learn to controleven such functions as sweating, blood pressure, intestinal contractions andbrain waves.

The vistas are staggering. Dr. Joe Kamiya of the Langley Porter NeurologicalInstitute in San Francisco, who has experimented with conscious regulation ofbrain waves, looks forward to the day when men will have "an internalvocabulary, a language he can use to explain more effectively and completelyhow he feels inside. In time we should be able to talk fluently about feelingssuch as brain wave production, blood pressure and so on."

In one test eight of ten subjects were able to control the tone, emitting orsuppressing brain waves as requested. Dr. Peter Lang has applied automaticlearning to control the human heart rate. The subject becomes able, as Langputs it, "to drive his own heart."

"Man may be able to control his internal processes, to relieve insomnia,regulate digestion and improve sexual response."

But, warns Dr. Neal Miller of the Rockefeller Institute ... "The question nowis whether automatic learning can be effective enough. We don't know yet."

Well, why not find out? Let's condition people on an assembly line to controlbrain waves and bodily processes. This could lead to complete mood control.Any trip you want without drugs. Both psychiatric and Scientology processingare based on the assumption that a conflict brought into conscious focus losespower. Undoubtedly it does lose power temporarily. This method is rather likemending an interminable fence that keeps falling down behind you. So, insteadof directing attention to the brain waves that accompany conflict, why notdirect attention towards the brain waves that accompany calm and relaxation?Millions of people emitting alpha brain waves could cool the whole scene.Instead of going where the trouble is, why not go where the trouble isn't? Itis time to get down to the bioelectronics of the actual brain mechanism andtune conflict out.

In his book,The Teachings of Don Juan, Castaneda describedhallucinogenic drugs of devastating potency, drugs unknown to modern science.These drugs should be investigated and made available.

Unimaginable extensions of awareness are now possible in terms of existingtechniques. Let's set up a center where all these techniques are pooled andinterchanged. Let's explore and chart inner space. Your inner space belongs toyou. It is time to demand what is yours and to challenge anyone who claims tohave knowledge of inner space to come out and show what he has.

This brain wave control is not property. Alpha waves are the waves of sleepand dream, a relaxed calm state of mind. So we hold Alpha Festivals where400,000 brains get together and emit alpha waves. Many other brain waves canbe isolated and subjects trained to emit them. Any kind of wave you want. Finda wave you like and emit it. Epileptic fit waves if your thing is fits. Andthe ever popular sex waves. Emit pot waves and put the narcs out of business.The Woodstock Festival portends a new mass consciousness. This consciousnesswith the mass emission of brain waves can produce far reaching effects.Everywhere people pool their funds and buy an encephalographic unit. Tinkersmake their own. Whole cities are dreamy and somnolent with alpha waves. Sexwave orgies sweep the world. You can feel the aura of an epilepsy fit formiles; horses paw the ground, and dogs howl. There are pop festivals to rockand roll brain waves. Peace, love, and beauty waves engulf the cops. They arethrowing away their guns. A blizzard of sugary benevolence about to blow. Thepresident calls for a nationwide alpha day. The ESP waves have been isolated.Mass telepathy breaks out. Any waves you like.