Are You Safe to Audit?

You’ve signed the four contracts of adhesion whereby the Church of Scientology strips you of all your legal rights. Now you’re ready to get started with auditing right?

No.

Still one more hurdle to cross: The A-J Eligibility Security Check.

Is it safe to audit you?

Tony Ortega posted A-J on his blog as part of the Freedom of Information data obtained by one of our favorite researchers Emma Best and the Muckrock website.

We analyze A-J in this installment of the Scientology Money Project. The entirety of A-J is posted at the bottom of our article in PDF form.

The A-J sec check is an interrogation conducted on an e-meter in the Hubbard Communications Office (HCO) by a Scientology Ethics Officer. The purpose of A-J is to determine if a person is eligible to receive auditing in the Church of Scientology. Specifically, A-J is used as a culling mechanism to reject anyone that might pose even the slightest risk to Scientology.

The first set of questions seeks to determine if a potential Scientologist has anyone in their family, social circles, Facebook friends, etc. opposed to Scientology:

A-1. Are you intimately connected to anyone who is antagonistic to mental or spiritual treatment or Scientology?
A-2. Have any of your family or friends ever expressed any disagreement with Scientology or with you being a Scientologist?
A-3. Is anyone evaluating for you or invalidating your wins?
A-4. Is there someone who doesn’t want you be here?
A-5. Is anyone invalidating Scientology?
A-6. Is anyone watching to see if you are making progress in Scientology?
A-7. Are you here to prove to someone that Scientology works, or to show them?
A-8. Are you not telling someone that you are a Scientologist?

If anyone opposed to Scientology is identified, Scientology’s policy is to “handle or disconnect.” Thus, from the outset a potential Scientologist is informed that an either/or dilemma exists: Handle anyone in their life that is critical of Scientology or disconnect from them. This shows how Scientology seeks to exert control over a new member from the very outset. The last question “Are you not telling someone that you are a Scientologist?” is pointed. The Church of Scientology won’t allow its members to withhold from anyone their allegiance to Scientology. As L. Ron wrote in KSW:
The second set of questions in A-J is about crime, misbehavior, and debts to people antagonistic to Scientology:

B-1. Do you have a criminal record?
B-2. Have you committed any crimes for which you have not been caught?
B-3. Are you currently doing anything bad?
B-4. Do you have any debts to any persons antagonistic to Scientology?

These are strange questions given the fact that the Church of Scientology has covered up for rapists,  child molesters, and other criminals in its membership. Scientology engages in credit card fraud and other financial irregularities. Scientology will reject a person for membership if they have been treated by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. Members of law enforcement are rejected as do those who hold security clearances, are journalists, or have worked in an intelligence agency.

A criminal record will not prevent one from becoming a Scientologist. It all depends on the crime. There are Scientologists who entered the Church with convictions for financial and other crimes. There are Scientologists who joined the Sea Org with criminal records for shoplifting, drunk driving, drug dealing, and other misdemeanor offenses. While a felony can keep a person from being accepted as a member by Scientology, once a person is in a Scientology the commission of a felony will not necessarily result in their expulsion. Scientology has harbored felons in the past and continues to do so today. Reed Slatkin, for example, was engaged in felonious conduct in his $600 million Ponzi scheme in the 1990’s. Slatkin’s criminality was reported to the Church by Scientologists and the Church did nothing because it was a beneficiary of Slatkin’s Ponzi scheme.

Section C questions are self-explanatory:

C-1. Have you ever threatened to sue or embarrass or attack Scientology or Scientologists?
C-2. Do you know of anyone who has?

The Church keeps out anyone hostile to Scientology. This is self-preservation. No religious group is obligated to allow in anyone antagonistic or antithetical to its aims. Scientology, however, goes to the greatest extent possible in asking prospective members if they know of anyone who is hostile to Scientology. What the Church seeks to do is to keep anything “entheta” out of the Church, this where “entheta” is defined as any thought, speech, or activity that is critical of Scientology.

Section D questions ask if a person feels they have been harmed in some way due to Scientology:

D-1. Have you gotten worse or been harmed in any way, because of being in Scientology?
D-2. Do you feel that Scientology or Dianetics books or auditing or material are responsible for some condition you are in?
D-3. Is anyone else the cause of the way you are now, or some condition you are in?

The Church will not accept any blame whatsoever for Scientology creating problems. The Church of Scientology can reject a person for membership if that person has blamed Scientology for any problems. Said another way: It’s always your fault because Scientology is infallible and is simply incapable of doing anything wrong.

Section E questions seek to discover if you have a hidden agenda or motive for wanting to become a Scientologist. For example, are you secretly a reporter, blogger, journalist, or a law enforcement agent? Scientology also wants to know if a family member, business associate, or a new romantic partner has made you come to Scientology as a condition of the relationship. These are the questions:

E-1. Are you here on your own determinism?
E-2. Do you feel obliged in any way, or to anyone, to be here?
E-3. Have you been sent here?

Section F questions are trick questions. L. Ron Hubbard didn’t want people who had what he called a “hidden standard” participating in Scientology:

F-1. Are you here to see if Scientology works?
F-2. Does Scientology always work for you?

An example of a hidden standard would be if a person secretly told themselves, “Scientology works only if it (fill in the blank).” Hidden standards include a person’s secret litmus test that Scientology is true and works only if it handles their health problems, financial situation, marriage issues, etc. For this reason, Scientology makes its members sign a contract stating that Scientology has promised them nothing:

Scientology promises people unlimited and fantastic things when it is after them to spend big money on auditing and courses. However, Scientology says the exact opposite thing in its contracts. This is a buyer beware situation: Read the fine print!

Section G questions probe a person’s attitude about wealthy and influential people:

G-1. Do you feel that special effort should be made to audit rich or influential people?
G-2. Should Scientology bear the expense of auditing for potentially important personalities?

Section H is a series of trick questions:

H-1. Do you want to get better?
H-2. Are you approaching Scientology with an “open mind”?
H-3. Do you know of any other mental technology that works?

Question H-1 speaks to Hubbard’s teaching that a person has to show a “demand for improvement” in

Question H-2 is a trap. As we saw with the example of “Miss Pattycake” in KSW, Hubbard never permits an open-minded approach regarding Scientology. As a Scientologist, open-mindedness is a crime, for it means one lacks a strict and ironclad conviction that Scientology alone has all the answers.

Question H-3 is also a trap. Scientology does not allow Scientology to engage in other practices. A doctrinaire Scientologist will emphatically declare that no other mental technology works. This is why Scientology told the IRS that Scientologists are expected to give up their existing religious beliefs and look only to Scientology for answers:

Although there is no policy or Scriptural mandate expressly requiring Scientologists to renounce other religious beliefs or membership in other churches, as a practical matter Scientologists are expected to and do become fully devoted to Scientology to the exclusion of other faiths. As Scientologists, they are required to look only to Scientology Scriptures for the answers to the fundamental questions of their existence and to seek enlightenment only from Scientology. Thus, a Scientologist who grew up in the Jewish faith who continues formal membership in his synagogue and attends services with his family violates no Scientology policy or tenet. On the other hand, such a person is not permitted to mix the practice of his former faith into his practice and understanding of Scientology so as to alter orthodox Scientology in any way.

Section I questions:

I-1. Do you believe that anyone can get better?
I-2. What gains are you expecting in Scientology?

Question I-1 is a trick question. A prospective Scientologist must believe that anyone can get better — but only by using Scientology.

Question 1-2 is Scientology’s way of finding out what you are expecting in Scientology. This allows Scientology’s salespeople to close you by playing on your own hopes and expectations. Per Scientology’s contract language, however, you agree that you may not rely upon anything said to you by any Scientology staff member. This is a bait and switch: Scientology staff members will promise you anything to separate you from large sums of your money. However, none of their promises can be relied upon:

Section J are questions asked, once again, to see if you — or anyone connected to you — is attempting to investigate, sue, or request refunds from Scientology:

J-1. Do you represent an attempt to investigate Scientology?
J-2. Do you know of anyone who is investigating Scientology?
J-3. Are you here to make any judgment about Scientology?
J-4. Have you ever gone to court about Dianetics or Scientology?
J-5. Have you ever had thoughts of suing or requesting refund if the tech “didn’t work”?

The additional questions in the A-J sec check compromise a vast fishing trip on the part of the Church of Scientology:

Additional Questions:
1. Have you ever threatened or attempted suicide?
1a. Have you ever seriously considered suicide?
2. Do you have any sort of security clearance? (If so, get full specifics.)
3. Are you or any member of your family a member or ex-member of the media, government, police, or spy organization such as the NSA, CIA, IRS, Dept of Justice, FBI, or any federal agency in any country?
4. Do you have any history of psychiatric or psychological treatment? (If so, get full data.)
5. Have you taken psychiatric drugs? (If so, what, when, how much, for how long?)
6. Have you had any shock treatment or so-called psychiatric brain operations? (If so, get full data.)
7. Are you terminally ill? Any history of cancer? (If so, get full details.)
7a. Do you have any body conditions, situations or illnesses and are you on any type of medication? (Get details and pull any strings.)
8. Have you ever been denied processing by HCO, the Office of Special Affairs or the Office of the Senior C/S Int for any reason? (If so, get full data.)
9. Have you ever had psychotic breaks (loss of touch with reality)? (Get full details)
10. Have you ever experienced heavy or over-restimulation? (If so, get full data.)
11. Do you have difficulties sleeping? (Get specifics.)
12. What is the state of your compliances to US or other countries’ tax codes? (Pull strings.)
13. Do you have a way of avoiding taxes that would be considered illegal?
14. Do you have any legal obligations you are in noncompliance with? (Such as child support, etc.) (Get full data.)

PDF of the A-J eligibility sec check. Note: Please hover your cursor over the document to invoke the page up/page down controls at the bottom of the page frame: