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anyone with his intellect;
instead he wanted you to help yourself, and all mankind, by using the subject
he had developed. This view of Hubbard is shared by all devoted Scientologists.
    By the summer of 1975 I was coming back onto an even keel.
My life revolved around Scientology, and I had put my ex-girlfriend out of
mind, although the subject had never been addressed in my counseling. I had
abandoned those of my friends who were not interested in Scientology, because
my lifestyle had changed so much, and I had made new friends - all of them
Scientologists.
    I had a powerful feeling of comradeship for the Mission
staff, and wanted to become one of their number. I knew that they took only a
day off each week, and worked all the weekday evenings too. From their comments
it was obvious that the pay was very low. Even so, I wanted to work with them.
I was told that I would have to “petition” the Guardian’s Office of the Church
to obtain permission to join the Mission staff and that I would also have to
become more highly qualified in Scientology.
    In order to qualify for staff, I would have to do Auditor
training courses which were only available at a “Church of Scientology,” or
“Org” (for “Organization”). The nearest was in Manchester, and was in a
partially condemned building in the Chinese district. Some of the walls had just
been painted purple to try and brighten up the remarkably dingy premises. There
was only one student there. The “Registrar” was too insistent, even
belligerent. He seemed to take an immediate dislike to me. I decided to go to
Saint Hill instead.
     
    1.     Hubbard, Scientology: A History of Man, p.5.
    2.     Letter to US Navy from Flag Operations Liaisons Office East US letter to
US National Personnel Records Center, 28 May 1974. Hubbard navy records.
    3.     Flag Divisional Directive 69RA “Facts about L. Ron Hubbard Things You
Should Know”, 8 March 1974, revised 7 April 1974.
    4.     Hubbard, “My Philosophy”, 1965, Technical Bulletins vol.6, p.1.
    5.     HCOPL “Dissemination Drill” 23 October 1965.
    6.     HCOB “Training Drills Modernized” 16 August 1971, issue II.

Chapter two
    Saint Hill
    “My purpose is to bring a barbarism out
of the mud it thinks conceived it and to form, here on Earth, a civilization
based on human understanding, not violence. That’s a big purpose. A broad
field. A star-high goal. But I think it’s your purpose, too.”
    —L.
Ron Hubbard, Scientology 08 1
    Ron Hubbard bought Saint Hill Manor from the Maharajah of
Jaipur in 1959. The Manor is on the edge of the hamlet of Saint Hill, a few
miles from the small Sussex town of East Grinstead, 30 miles south of London.
For eight years, Saint Hill was the axis of the Scientology world, and many of
Hubbard’s research “breakthroughs” were made there. Following Hubbard’s
departure in 1967, Saint Hill remained a major Scientology center. I visited
Saint Hill in August, 1975, to see whether to commit myself to six months of
study there.
    Saint Hill Manor, a large grey-stone building set in about
50 acres, was built by a retired soldier in the early eighteenth century. The
house has a solid, military severity, largely devoid of Georgian charm. By the
time I arrived, students no longer studied in the Manor, but in the “castle,” a
peculiar folly on which construction had started in the mid-1960s and which was
eventually finished in 1985. The word “castle” conjures images of imposing
Norman keeps, but Saint Hill “castle” is only a castle in the sense that it is
faced with yellow stone and has a few turrets. As castles go, it is very small,
especially considering the score of years invested in its construction. By
1975, only one single-story wing was finished. The castle is a monstrosity; a
hybrid of breeze-blocks, leaded windows and battlements under a flat, tarmac
roof. However I was not interested in Hubbard’s architectural taste.
    The place buzzed with smiling