Religious Technology Center is the most powerful executive organization within the Scientology empire, and its current chairman,
David Miscavige, is widely recognized as the effective head of the church.
Personnel are bound by policy as written by
L. Ron Hubbard and by orders from any senior. Each staff member is junior to those above them on the organizational chart (called an "org board"[4]: 369 ) and is senior to those under them.
Scientology "members" are those public individuals who are not on staff, who pay the organization for training or
auditing services, and who live and work separately from the Church of Scientology.[5]: 70 Members defer to all staff personnel, who are seen as their seniors. All members and staff defer to
Sea Org staff. Even though public members are not part of the organization proper, they are ranked within the entire chain of command and are frequently pressed into service for clerical or promotional tasks or recruiting new members.[2]: 180 Members who recruit people for Scientology services are called "field staff members" (FSM) and are paid a commission of 10%–15% of the amount the new person pays.[6][7][2]: 181
The recruit is transformed from a client to a follower and from a follower to a deployable agent.
Staff sign
employment contracts, though in recent years these contracts label them as
volunteers or "religious workers" to circumvent
labor laws because staff are almost universally paid less than locally mandated
minimum wage. However, all organizational policies written by L. Ron Hubbard refer to such workers as "staff".[8]
These contracts have lengthy durations. At a Class V organization, a contract may be as short as 2.5 years; extending to 5 years or more if they are sent to
Flag Service Org for extensive training. Sea Org members sign billion-year contracts; effectively a perpetual contract with no expiration date. Sea Org personnel live in communal housing; Class V staff make their own living arrangements and sometimes even have second jobs.[2]: 182
Pay
Staff hold
posts where they are either given a small fixed
allowance (Sea Org)[9] or are paid based on a
share-percentage of the organization's weekly gross receipts.[8][2]: 135–136 Occasionally, those who work in sales or fundraising posts may have a chance for
bonuses. Sea Org members who work for one of the
for-profit corporations in the network are paid a minimum wage, reduced by deductions for housing and other expenses, bringing their pay back in line with other Sea Org allowances.
The employees of Hubbard's Org are not merely officials, but also disciples. Hence commitment of staff to the Org is secured by ideological means, replacing the need for the attractions of tenure, secure salary and orderly promotion through a work hierarchy.
Staff are required to keep "
stats" (
statistics)—a count of their production. They perform weekly evaluations of their own stats and are required to chart the stats on a graph, declare their "
ethics condition" for last week's production, and write up their "ethics formula", laying out their plans for the next week. Personnel whose production stats were lower than the prior week, or whose graph shows a general downtrending pattern, are dealt with by the "
ethics officer", often with harsh penalties.[5] For example, certain conditions below "Normal" may preclude getting paid at all.[2]: 183
Staff may be punished, though usually for lack of production or insubordination; not usually for basic behavioral matters. In the
Sea Org, staff are routinely removed from post and reassigned to the
Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), a forced labor and re-indoctrination program.[1][9] Removing a staff members completely from the organization is called "offloading".
Sea Org members are heavily discouraged from engaging in any family activities such as the raising of children, and are expected to spend their entire waking hours in service to the Church of Scientology.[1][9]
Further paralleling the institutional order of developed societies, ... Hubbard has strategically used that authority to establish Scientology upon the legal-rational basis of an almost ideal-typical bureaucracy. This social world is run along formal lines defined by "Policy"—the stream of bulletins and material written or authorized by Hubbard, periodically compiled into thick volumes and treated for all intents and purposes as law. Policy specifies every aspect of organizational life.
— Roger Straus in Scientology "Ethics": Deviance, Identity and Social Control in a Cult-Like Social World [5]: 70
Training
Though formal training courses are available for all posts, staff members are expected to be proficient at all times, whether trained or not. All posts have a "hat writeup" ("hat" for short) which consists of Hubbard writings pertaining to that post and other writeups written by those who held the post before.[4]: 244–245
Enhancement
Staff are recruited with promises that they are expected to train or be audited for 2.5 hours per day worked (called "enhancement"),[2]: 182 but in reality enhancement time is usually bumped for the latest emergency—called a "flap" [10]: 284 [4]: 131 —or expected to be performed outside of their normal work hours.
Staff receive Scientology training, and occasionally
auditing, on a
deferred basis. Invoices are written up for services taken, but no payment is expected while the staff member continues to work for the organization. If they complete their contract, they are pressured to re-commit for another contract term,[11] but if they leave having fulfilled their contract term their deferred invoices are forgiven or waived. While seeming to be free services, if a staff member is offloaded (fired) or breaks their contract by leaving before its term completion, they are immediately invoiced for all services rendered during their employment.[2]: 182 Since Sea Org members sign perpetual contracts, their invoice—called a "freeloader bill"—can be quite high; no waivers or reductions being given for years of service rendered.[9][12]
If a person leaves before their contract termination date without performing specific steps for leaving (called "routing out"[11]), they are considered "blown" and such individuals will often be
declared suppressive.
A former professional
American football player in the
NFL,[13][14] Adams served in 2004 as senior vice president of the Scientology organization's
Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE).[15] Adams worked in 2006 as a "communications executive with the Church of Scientology in Hollywood";[16] he was a vice president of the Church of Scientology in 2006.[17] He held the position of vice president of public affairs for the Church of Scientology International in 2009,[18] as well as vice president of the International School of Scientology.[19][20]
Carmichael became a Scientology ordained minister in 1973.[21] Since at least 1987 he was the President of the Church of Scientology of New York, and as of 2006 was the spokesman for all the Scientology establishments in the New York and New Jersey area.[22][23]
Wife of David Miscavige, formerly his "communicator" (executive assistant), not seen publicly since 2007, and reputedly still in the Sea Org.[28][29][30]: 303
Scientology spokesman, president of the Union of the Churches of Scientology in France, Vice-President of the European Office of the Church of Scientology for Public Affairs and Human Rights, chairman of European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom, and has authored the book Everything you need to know about Scientology (in French).[38]
Kenneth Howard Shapiro
Registar of Church of Scientology of Los Angeles branch.[39]
Norman Starkey
Joined Scientology in 1960 in South Africa and served on the Apollo and became the captain of the ship.[40][41]: 198 In a will executed the day before the death of L. Ron Hubbard, Starkey was appointed trustee and executor of Hubbard's estate (Author's Trust Fund B).[42][43]: 146–7 [41]: 356 For years Starkey was deputy to David Miscavige and was involved in many of the actions related to the "Corporate Sort Out" project of the 1980s.[42][43]: 138 After the Corporate Sort Out, the
Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) was created to take over the functions of Author's Trust Fund B, with Starkey in charge and doing business as
L. Ron Hubbard Library.[42][44]: 54, Bates 150131 Starkey has worked in the
All Clear Unit,[42]Commodore's Messenger Org,[41]: 296 the
Guardian's Office legal bureau,[41]: 271 AVC Aide post,[45] was in charge of the
RPF at Happy Valley,[41]: 360 and has been president of
Author Services Inc.[41]: 356 According to an account by Marc Headley, in at least one of Miscavige's "group punishments" it was Norman Starkey who read the lines for the "
overboard drill" at
Gold Base—"We commit your sins to the waves; may you arise a better thetan"—read prior to each staff member being forced to jump into the swimming pool wearing their full uniform.[46]: 214–5 [47]: 208 Reported to have been one of the prisoners in
The Hole.[45]
AKA Chel Stith. In 2005 was President of the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles, later Deputy Executive Director of the Church of Scientology of Pasadena.[48]
Former member of Scientology's
Sea Org, whose members "occupy the most essential and trusted positions in the senior churches in the Scientology hierarchy";[54] went on to become an outspoken critic of Scientology.[55] While a member of the organization, Armstrong was "officially authorized by the Church of Scientology to write a biography" about L. Ron Hubbard.[56] He left the organization in 1981.[57]
Vicki Aznaran and Richard Aznaran
Vicki Aznaran joined Scientology in 1972. She was a
Sea Org member who rose to be one of the top officials in the Church of Scientology, and was a deputy for
Annie Broeker who had posted her as Inspector General of
RTC (1984-1987).[47]: 119 [43]: 150 Vicki's husband, Richard Aznaran, was the Church's head of security.[6] When Hubbard died,
David Miscavige made his play for power and displaced
the Broekers, Hubbard's trusted aides.[43]: 154 By 1987, Miscavige installed himself as head of RTC and he purged anyone loyal to the Broekers or the Aznarans.[47]: 122 The Aznarans were sent to the
Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF: Scientology's forced-labor reeducation camp) in 1987 but left the Sea Org shortly thereafter.[6][47]: 119
In 1988 the Aznarans filed suit against the Church of Scientology for false imprisonment and emotional abuse. The complaint alleged staff were treated with physical abuse, lack of sleep, brainwashing and slave-like conditions. Among other deprivations, they alleged staff were paid with 'tokens' to be exchanged for room and board, and any dissatisfaction with their work or attitude would cause tokens to be withheld, resulting in staff sleeping outside and being fed only rice, beans and water. In the early 1980s, both Richard and Vicki Aznaran had been assigned to the RPF at different times, separating them from each other. Even when not on the RPF, they were separated at times for lengthy periods, including a time when Richard was sent to Hubbard's ranch and was made to sleep in a horse stable.[41]: 358–62 [47]: 124
They cooperated with
Richard Behar for his 1991 exposé, The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power, where Vicki is quoted as saying "This is a criminal organization, day in and day out".[6] In an interview with
Forrest Sawyer which preceded Miscavige's only television interview, Vicki said Miscavige ordered attacks—"have them, their homes, broken into, have them beaten, have things stolen from them, slash their tires, break their car windows, whatever".[30]: 219 The Aznarans filed affidavits in support of Fishman in the case of Church of Scientology International v. Fishman and Geertz, however, at some point Richard Aznaran reached out to
Mike Rinder to negotiate a settlement of their own case; they did settle and Vicki retracted her March 1994 affidavit just a month later.[58][47]: 124
Former spokesman and director of
Celebrity Centre International, Los Angeles.[59][60][61] Was listed as an "International Spokesperson" on Scientology Newsroom, the Church's official media resource center.[34]
Joined the
Sea Org in 1994,[62] In 2005,
MSNBC characterized Feshbach as a "Senior Scientologist",[63] and
Fox News Channel called her "a high-level Scientologist" within the organization.[64] In 2006, MSNBC described Feshbach as, "a high-level Scientology practitioner and member of the church's influential Feshbach family".[65] Feshbach began working with assistants to celebrity Scientology member and actor,
Tom Cruise,[66] in April 2005; she attended to
Katie Holmes.[67] By 2009, Feshbach had become a public spokesperson for Scientology;[59] as of January 2011, she was listed as an "International Spokesperson" on Scientology Newsroom, the Church's official media resource center.[34]
Jefferson Hawkins
Joined Scientology in 1967 and was in for 37 years. Worked in the marketing unit. Creator of the 1980s Dianetics promotional campaign including the TV ads with the exploding volcano which landed the book onto
The New York Times Best Seller list. The first of five assaults by David Miscavige was in 2002 when Miscavige leapt off a table on top of Hawkins, hitting and choking him.[68][59]: part 3 [30]: 275–6 [43]: 67–70, 177 His book Counterfeit Dreams: One Man's Journey into and Out of the World of Scientology was published in 2010.[69]
Warren McShane
McShane joined Scientology in 1973 and held numerous positions in the Church of Scientology including working in the
Guardian's Office and holding the position of assistant guardian for intelligence in New York. In 1983 he joined
Religious Technology Center and held the post of president of RTC, and later Deputy Inspector General for Legal Affairs RTC.[70][47]: 154 McShane registered numerous trademarks for Scientology.[70]
In RTC's attempt to stop the online publishing of their
OT level texts in
RTC v Wollersheim, McShane testified that "the church derives significant revenue from the fixed donations its members pay to study the texts".[71][3]: 185 According to
Mike Rinder, his reputation with Miscavige was "he's the best liar I know", and McShane was frequently used in lawsuit depositions to deny Miscavige's involvement with day-to-day operations of the Church of Scientology.[47]: 154
Former president[26][72] of the
Religious Technology Center;[73] later left the Church of Scientology and took part in a St. Petersburg Times exposé on the Church; today practices Scientology outside of the Church,[59] operating a website that "has become an online community for what he calls 'independent Scientologists'."[74]
Vaughn (b.1938–d.2003) worked for the Church of Scientology for 22 years; was a national spokesperson and worldwide public relations officer; worked under David Miscavige at
Author Services Inc. Stacey (b.1952–) worked for Scientology for 15 years; worked under
Mike Rinder at
Office of Special Affairs USA. In 1989 they left the
Sea Org together and were
fair gamed and surveilled for years by Scientology. Both later were expert witnesses against Scientology in several prominent legal cases. Vaughn went on to become an online critic of Scientology, and Stacey an anti-Scientology advocate with the
Lisa McPherson Trust.[80][3]: 125 [43]: 155 [47]: 125, 172 [81]
Former auditor of L. Ron Hubbard, former Senior Case Supervisor International, ousted by
David Miscavige and sentenced to physical punishment in 1982. Mayo escaped and in 1983 started his own splinter group called
Advanced Ability Center.[47]: 99–101
^
abMcManus, Tracey (November 17, 2022).
"Scientology workers signed contracts under duress, their lawyers say". Tampa Bay Times. While being subjected to long interrogations and psychological punishment during the 'routing out' process, [they] were held in isolation and surveilled 24 hours a day by security ... [P]hysical force is not required to prove duress and that confinement and threat of force is sufficient. That's not a subjective fear, [...] they're basically being trapped on the ship until they sign the documents.
^"Bob Adams". Players. NFL. 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
^"Bob Adams". Player Bio. DatabaseFootball.com. 2006. Archived from
the original on November 21, 2010. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
^Asimov, Nanette (June 9, 2004). "Scientology link to public schools – As early as the third grade, students in S.F. and elsewhere are subtly introduced to church's concepts via anti-drug teachings". San Francisco Chronicle. p. A1.
^Rubin, Joel (October 1, 2005). "District Scrambles to Ensure Human Rights Event Is Religion-Free; Officials were unaware of Scientology's role in the international forum at Jordan High in Watts". Los Angeles Times. p. B4.
^Ortega, Tony (June 24, 2008).
"Scientology's Crushing Defeat".
The Village Voice. They gathered evidence to show that despite the confusing profusion of names and acronyms, Scientology was really a single enterprise, and its actions and litigation were directed by one man, Hubbard's successor David Miscavige. Former high-ranking officials declared that they had witnessed Miscavige—who supposedly had no position or standing at the time with CSC, the corporation being sued—directing the litigation against Wollersheim and ordering the destruction of key evidence in the case. Special intelligence operations, they declared, were formed to target not only Wollersheim and his attorneys but even the judge, witnesses, and their family and friends. When the jury awarded Wollersheim $30 million, one former official testified, Miscavige vowed that it would never be paid, even if it cost more than $30 million to avoid it. CSC, meanwhile, was purposely ransacked of all assets to make sure that Wollersheim couldn't reach it, two former officers declared.
^Hansen, Susan (June 1997). "Did Scientology Strike Back?". The American Lawyer.
^Horne, William W. (July–August 1992).
"The Two Faces of Scientology"(PDF). The American Lawyer: 74–82. In particular, Los Angeles's 14-lawyer Bowles & Moxon, which does more of the church's work than any other law firm and acts as Scientology's de facto in-house department ... Bowles & Moxon was formed in 1987 with two lawyers, [Kendrick] Moxon and name partner Timothy Bowles, and opened an office later that year in the church's Hollywood headquarters complex. Today [1992] seven of the firm's lawyers are Scientologists, including all four partners. Moxon, for example, has a long history with the church. In the late 1970s he served a stint as the "District of Columbia Assistant Guardian for the Legal Bureau," working in the very office where massive covert operations against the government were being run at the time, according to a stipulation of evidence that was agreed to by all parties in the 1979 federal criminal case against nine of the church leaders. (
text-only version)
^Dahlburg, John-Thor (February 29, 2000). "Report Urges Dissolution of Scientology Church in France – Europe: Panel calls group a danger to the public and a threat to national security". Los Angeles Times.
^Staff (August 6, 2005). "Dollars and sense: Bloggers take on costs of Scientology". Bakersfield Californian.
^Norman Starkey, Executor and Trustee of the Estate of L. Ron Hubbard. Church of Scientology International. My name is Norman Starkey. I'm a founding Scientologist, having received my first services in South Africa in 1960. I'm also a founding staff member. I've been on staff for fifty-one years. I knew and worked closely with Mr. L. Ron Hubbard for some twenty years. I served him in many capacities. I was one of his Personal Aides and also became the Captain of his 3,300-ton ship that served as his home. On his departure from this life, I was appointed by him to be the Trustee and Executor of his estate.
Form 1023 – Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code – Church of Scientology International, Washington, DC, August 18, 1993
Church of Scientology International (November 4, 1993). "Form 1023 Attached Statement" (Document). IRS. pp. Bates 150068–150181.
"FOIA copy"(PDF).
^Lewis, Anthony (August 1, 1968). "Britain Curbs Activities of Cult of Scientologists; Refuses to Admit Americans Known to Be Followers Minister of Health Declares Group Socially Harmful". The New York Times.
^Rathbun, Frank H.; Rathbun Family Association (1989). Rathbun, Rathbone, Rathburn Family Historian. Rathbun Family Association. p. 32. v.9–v.16 1989–1996.
^
abBeaumont, Peter; Toni O'Loughlin; Paul Harris (November 22, 2009). "World: Special report: Wrath descends on the Church of Scientology : It has been a bad year for the controversial church, founded by L Ron Hubbard. Hollywood figures deserted it and Australia's prime minister is considering an inquiry into its activities". The Observer. At the centre of Xenophon's long, impassioned speech were the allegations of Aaron Saxton, who was 'born' into Scientology and 'rose to a position of influence in Sydney and the United States'.