(Note: This article is based upon my Narconon article originally published by Tony Ortega at the Underground Bunker. I have added additional content in this version).

We discuss the real secret of Narconon in this article. We will show you what L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology, and Narconon are withholding from prospective Narconon customers and the public at large.

The material we present is of significant and timely interest given the wave of lawsuits against Narconon. Essentially, Narconon represents its program as having a scientific basis. In this essay we show the real secret of Narconon. This goes to Narconon misrepresenting what it actually based upon and what the Narconon “treatment program” is actually doing according to L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard’s publicly stated premise for the Purification Rundown is this: Drug residues stored in the body “chronically restimulate” stored mental image pictures and thus cause clouded thinking, mood swings, feelings of being drugged, lethargy, and many other adverse physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual forms of distress. By flushing out drug residues in the Purification Rundown, Hubbard avers, a person attains a clear body and a clear mind. Here is the essential description of the Purification Rundown as articulated by Hubbard in his book Clear Body Clear Mind:

Let’s clay demo this with an image I created:

According to Hubbard, if one flushes the drug residues from their body then the mental image pictures become inert and cannot negatively affect a person.

Below: This low quality Church of Scientology illustration (circa 1990) shows the basic Purification Rundown concept: A deficiency of B complex and niacin are created by taking drugs. The solution is to remedy the B complex and niacin deficiency. Niacin, B1, exercise, and sweating for five hours a day in a sauna will allow a person to flush the toxic drug residues lodged in their body fat:

I have created another diagram below to show a drug residue as a molecular structure – which is what any drug residue would have to actually exist as if the body were not able to metabolize it and break it down. Hence:

Given the diagram above, any scientific researcher can ask nine basic physiological questions:

1. What is a “mental image picture” and where is it physically located in the body?
2. What is the exact physical structure of a mental image picture?
3. In and of itself, how can the molecular structure of a “drug residue” stored in the body chronically restimulate a mental image picture?
4. Hubbard states that drug residues are stored in the fat tissues of the body. Therefore are Hubbard’s posited mental image pictures also physical structures stored in fat tissues in proximity to the molecular drug residues? In other words, by what physical mechanism do the molecular structures of drug residues signal mental image pictures in order to chronically restimulate them? One could assume there would be a chemical signaling mechanism.
5. Alternately, rather than chemical signaling, are molecular drug residues able to selectively bind to mental image pictures in order to chronically restimulate them? Do mental image pictures have receptors for molecular drug residues?
6. How do molecular drug residues have sufficient stored chemical energy to signal, or otherwise bind to, mental image pictures in order to chronically restimulate them?
7. By what biochemical process is niacin able to selectively target molecular drug residues and purge them from the body via the sweat glands?
8. What is physiological pathway and mechanisms by which niacin bound to drug residues exits the body via the sweat glands?
9. Do molecular drug residues have niacin receptors? If so, when bound to niacin, these molecular drug residues are somehow transported out of the body via the sweat glands.

For illustrative purposes, I created the image below to show a niacin molecule bound to a drug reside molecule exiting the body. I used a large red X to show how the mental image picture has become inert, or inactive, as a result of the niacin flushing the drug residue from the body. This is what Hubbard publicly claims is happening on the Purification Rundown:

Beyond this simplistic explanation, the physiological mechanisms of the Purification Rundown are left unexplained by Hubbard.

This is just as well for the real and publicly undisclosed secret of Narconon is this: The Purification Rundown component of the Narconon program is designed to address the body thetans (BT’s) that are being chronically restimulated by the mental image pictures caused by drug residues. The “Purif” is actually handling BT’s, Hubbard, Narconon, and the Church of Scientology have never publicly disclosed this fact – and this is why we are disclosing here on the Scientology Money Project.

Let’s have Mr. Hubbard himself tell you himself from the OT IV materials posted online.

Knowing that BT’s and BT clusters are affected by drugs, we can finally approach the Holy of Holies in the Scientology Purification Rundown, and here we speak of the megadoses of niacin. As a point of reference, a person must reach the level of OT III in Scientology learn about Body Thetan’s (BT’s). Thus, in the OT IV materials Hubbard states that persons below OT III case level will not understand that  Niacin and B1 knock body thetans out of chronic restimulation.  and BT’s in the OT 4 course pack.

This then is the secret of the Purification Rundown that only OT III’s and above can understand: Niacin and B1 causes BT’s to drop out restimulation. Per Hubbard, “This too brings about an improvement in the case condition of the person.”

Again, let’s clay demo what Hubbard said is really going on in the Purification Rundown. I created the illustration below we show a “drug engram” in which BT’s are in chronic restimulation as a result of being “stuck to” mental image pictures that are held in place by drug residues:

Let’s look once again at what Hubbard wrote on OT IV:

We can now see Hubbard’s emphasis on megadoses of niacin in the Purification Rundown. Hubbard said that niacin and B1 flush the drug residues from the body and thus allow BT’s to drop out of the drug engrams and resultant chronic restimulation in which they are stuck. This causes the BT’s to cease mocking up the drug engrams.

After completing the Purification Rundown, Hubbard expected to see “destimulated” BT’s that had dropped out of drug engrams. As a result, there would be inert mental image pictures. This is why Hubbard said the Purification Rundown would bring about an improvement in the case condition of the person.

Given Hubbard’s claims about the Purif and how it handles BT’s explains why the Church of Scientology is backed into a corner and has never funded any scientific peer-reviewed testing. The Church does not care to disclose to any scientific researchers Hubbard’s metaphysical basis for the Purification Rundown. However, we do so here at the Underground Bunker.

[Narconon Tijuana]

Based upon the evidence in OT IV, Narconon is demonstrably crypto-Scientology delivered under the guise of a “secular drug treatment program based upon the works of L. Ron Hubbard” — and yet this none of this is disclosed to prospective Narconon clients. The inescapable fact is that the theory and application of Narconon is inextricably linked to Scientology’s OT levels, Xenu, and BT’s.

To participate in the Narconon program is to be surreptitiously pulled by Scientology into its core Xenu cosmology. The covert, hidden, and secret goal of Narconon is to handle a person’s BT’s and clusters of BT’s by getting them to blow by use of megadoses of niacin. This will make a person feel better according to Hubbard. More importantly, it just might make Narconon graduates amenable to becoming Scientologists or Narconon staff members.

Narconon has long been viewed as both a Scientology money-maker and a Scientology recruitment portal. According to Mark Ebner’s 2011 article about Narconon in The Fix, the real goal of Narconon is to turn customers into Scientologists:

The Narconon Exposed flow chart showing the instruction to route Narconon graduates to the nearest Org can be found here.

One key question remains: Is a person who completes the Narconon program truly and fully free of BT’s and their deleterious effects?

The answer is no.

In the confidential OT IV course pack, Hubbard candidly admitted that the Purification Rundown doesn’t handle all of the BT’s and BT clusters:

Hubbard admits that a person who completes the Purification Rundown is “not completely and entirely handled on the subject of drugs.” And yet Narconon charges $30,000 – $40,000 (or more) for a program in which a person, per L. Ron Hubbard, is “not completely and entirely handled on the subject of drugs.” This is downright scandalous.

What is the best that Hubbard — and therefore Narconon — can claim for the Purification Rundown? It is this:

From a Scientology “technical” perspective, then, the best result a Narconon customer could expect to receive for their money is a some “partial destimulation” of drug engrams and BT’s that even Hubbard himself could not quantify. All Hubbard could say is that the Purification Rundown puts a person into better case shape.

In my opinion, Narconon is intentionally selling a mislabeled and misbranded product: Narconon is covertly and inherently based upon Hubbard’s BT theory. Narconon is not secular in any way whatsoever. Narconon intentionally fails to disclose the Body Thetan theory to which Hubbard ascribes and credits the claimed results of the Purification Rundown.

[Narconon Egypt]

From a legal perspective, it seems that Narconon should fully disclose the actual Scientology BT basis of Narconon. Such informed consent would allow prospective Narconon clients, or their families, to have the full facts that Narconon is metaphysical in nature and is not scientific. The public and prospective Narconon clients are entitled to know that Narconon is based upon Hubbard’s secret teaching that body thetans — and clusters of body thetans – are being handled on the Narconon program.

OT 4 is called the “OT Drug Rundown.” What this tells us is that even if a person does the Purification Rundown they still must handle more BT’s and more BT drug effects up on OT 4. The public and prospective Narconon clients should be informed that Narconon, according to Hubbard himself, cannot fully handle the effects of drugs.

Narconon should also be required to disclose the leaked internal memo written by Claudia Arcabascio, Narconon International’s Legal Affairs Director. In this memo, Ms. Arcabascio concedes that there is no scientific evidence for Narconon’s claimed success rates (spelling errors in the original e-mail):

From: Claudia Arcabascio
Subject: Re: Wolverton BBB complaint and suggested response
To: XXXXXX
Cc: “PRODUCTION NNI” , “John Walser A/ED NN FC”
Date: Monday, January 12, 2009, 4:36 PM

Dear XXXXXX,

Thanks for sent me this. I don’t have a copy of the letter received from the BBB which makes difficult for me to see if the answer is appropiate.

However, I see the letter okay less than the comment of “hearsay”. It is a generality.

I cannot reach Helena today to review this. Instead, I recommend the following:

1. Correct the letter (more ARC in the letter and change the expression of “hearsay” for specifics and do not say that we have 70% success (we do not have scientific evidence of it).

2. Send a copy of the letter received from BBB to Mike Toth along with the proposed answer (corrected by you).

3. Get okay from the attorney

4. Send the letter (preferably by certified mail return receipt request). Check out this point with Mike Toth first.

If you send to Mike Toth the complete data, it should not take for him more than 10 minutes of his time.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

ML,

Claudia

Despite Ms. Arcabascio’s internal memo, Narconon Fresh Start and Narconon Spring Hill claim a 76% success rate:

Despite these astounding success claims the actual contract clients must sign makes it clear that Narconon offers no guarantee:

The Narconon “No Guarantee” clause is cut from the same shabby cloth as all the other Church of Scientology contracts: “The Tech produces miraculous results! However, your results may differ. “ We saw this recently with the Scientology Policy Directive “Statements by Staff Members.”

L. Ron Hubbard did not promise anything, and, Narconon guarantees nothing. The apple does not fall from the tree.

And just like the rest of the companies in the Scientology bad faith business empire, all Narconon contracts require customers to sign away their legal rights to sue Narconon and agree to arbitration: