In this article we propose a new approach to considering the Church of Scientology in historical terms.

This approach is simple: Pre-Sea Org and Post-Sea Org.

Our thesis is that Scientology is, and has always been, an inherently criminal cult from its early days when only Hubbard’s Dianetics Foundation existed and the Church of Scientology was still in the future.

Scientology’s innate criminality is a direct expression of L. Ron Hubbard’s innate criminality: The Founder is the Cult.

Based upon his inherent criminality, L. Ron Hubbard’s creation of the Sea Org in 1967 was a criminal solution to his need to obtain a labor force at the lowest possible cost without offering any benefits, insurance, pension, or assuming any responsibilities whatsoever.

From 1950 to 1967, L. Ron Hubbard lived in the following locations listed below and in the order shown. His followers could come and see him at these locations:

1950: Bayhead, New Jersey

1951: Wichita, Kansas

1953: Phoenix, Arizona

1955: Washington DC

1959 – 1967: St. Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex, UK. 

During this period several important points must be emphasized:

A. The Scientology Sea Org did not exist. Scientology staff members made their own living arrangements. 

B. L. Ron Hubbard established Scientology Orgs in the US and the Commonwealth countries where Scientologists could receive auditing and training. Again, Scientology staff members at these Orgs and visiting public made their own living arrangements. There were no Scientology-owned hotels. 

C. L. Ron Hubbard created Franchises, which were later renamed Missions. Franchises were legally separate organizations that sold Scientology goods and services. Franchise owners paid Hubbard 10% of their income. Franchise owners hired, trained, and paid their own staff members. In many cases, Franchise staff members were sent to Scientology Orgs, such as St. Hill, for training. The Franchise owners paid for the Orgs for training services.

D. The Franchises introduced many people to Scientology and were extremely successful as feeder lines into the Church of Scientology. Most notably, Tom Cruise entered Scientology in 1986 through the Sherman Oaks Mission in the San Fernando Valley. This mission was owned by the late Phil Spickler, the father of Cruise’s first wife Mimi Rogers.

E. When public Scientologists at the Missions reached a certain level, they were transferred to Scientology Orgs where they could move further up Scientology’s Bridge.

F. During the period 1950-1967, L. Ron Hubbard traveled to various cities where he staged “Scientology Congresses” and other lecture series. These lectures were recorded and sold to Scientologists along with Hubbard’s books and Scientology magazines. An example is Hubbard’s South African Anatomy Congress which he delivered in Johannesburg in July, 1961:

Hubbard’s Scientology management staff, called the Hubbard Communications Office Worldwide, or the HCO, managed the franchises and Orgs. The HCO supervised the publication, sales, and collection of royalties on Hubbard’s auditing, books, recorded lectures, course packs, magazines, training services, and promotional materials.

The Hubbard Communications Office Worldwide had been established by Hubbard at Saint Hill in 1959. This operation was proof of Scientology’s growth and burgeoning financial power. Telexes were sent and received around the clock from Saint Hill to an expanding global network of Scientology orgs, operatives, lawyers, and private investigators. However, Hubbard needed more than just the HCO to run Scientology as his need for specialized departments became necessary as his empire grew.

During the early 1960’s it became apparent to Hubbard that he required an inner circle of Scientology careerists — people who would devote their lives to both himself and Scientology and would have no other purposes in life. These careerists were needed to give the movement stability, enforce Hubbard’s policies, and increase revenues by achieving international growth.

Scientology careerists were also needed to manage and supervise the growing cadre of non-Scientology lawyers and private investigators required to counter the rising tide of criticism from the media, lawsuits from former members, and investigations from governments in those countries where Scientology operated. In order to take Scientology to the next level, then, Hubbard took two key steps in February 1966 that became key inflection points in Scientology.

In a policy letter dated February 17, 1966 entitled “PUBLIC INVESTIGATION SECTION” Hubbard wrote:

The Public Investigation Section is formed in Division 1, Dept. 3, as Section 5.

The purpose of this section is:

“TO HELP LRH INVESTIGATE PUBLIC MATTERS AND INDIVIDUALS WHICH SEEM TO IMPEDE HUMAN LIBERTY S0 THAT SUCH MATTERS MAY BE EXPOSED AND TO FURNISH INTELLIGENCE REQUIRED IN GUIDING THE PROGRESS OF SCIENTOLOGY.”

It is composed wholly of professional investigators…

The section may never be used on Ethics Section matters but may work with Ethics when an ex-Scientologist is involved…

The statistic of the section is dual consisting or the number of cases successfully investigated on specific projects and the number of derogatory news stories appearing that week related to enemies of Scientology related to a specific project…

It will be seen that the section has all the useful functions of an intelligence and propaganda agency. It finds the data and sees that it gets action…

The mechanism employed is very straightforward. We never use the data to threaten to expose. We simply collect it and expose…

The creation of the “Public Investigation Section” reveals Hubbard’s malign and premeditated intent to use both confidential parishioner information and tax-exempt dollars to finance and engage in vicious Fair Game attacks against former Scientologists and anyone else who spoke out against Scientology.

The Public Investigation became the Guardian’s Office in 1966. Hubbard then created the Sea Org in 1967 to handle the marketing, sales, delivery, of Scientology goods and services. Ethics within Scientology became part of Sea Org duties. 

After its creation, the Sea Org and the Guardian’s Office were often at odds with each other for control within Scientology. As the powerful Controller of the GO, Mary Sue Hubbard was second only to her husband L. Ron Hubbard in the Scientology power structure. However,  Mary Sue and her husband were also Sea Org members whereas not all of the Guardians Office members were Sea Org.

As a prelude to releasing the OT Levels, L. Ron Hubbard created his paramilitary Sea Org in 1967 and purchased purchased several ships, most notably the Royal Scotsman which he rechristened as the Apollo. Hubbard needed the Sea Org to crew, staff, and serve as auditors when he put to sea in the Apollo.

Based upon his inherent criminality, L. Ron Hubbard’s creation of the Sea Org in 1967 was a criminal solution to his need to obtain a labor force at the lowest possible cost without offering any benefits, insurance, pension, or assuming any responsibilities whatsoever.

Hubbard left St. Hill in 1967 and would live on the Apollo with his wife Mary Sue until 1975. Hubbard would leave the ship at times for various reasons. For instance, he wrote the OT levels in a rented villa on Las Palmas. Hubbard left the ship as he required hospitalization at one point. He also left the ship in 1972 and lived in secrecy that year in a nondescript apartment in Queens, New York. Two Sea Org members lived with him. They cooked and cleaned for Hubbard and handled his communications needs.

Hubbard wrote Operation Snow White during his stay in Queens. He also saw Werner Erhard on television and ordered a Fair Game campaign to be waged against the EST Founder. Hubbard felt Erhard had stolen from Scientology. Erhard had, in fact, gone through Scientology and left as a Grade 4 Release.

The Apollo became Commodore L. Ron Hubbard’s Flag ship from which he ran his farflung Scientology empire by telex. Hubbard also “fired off” Sea Org members from the Apollo or St. Hill on various missions such as investigating “downstat Orgs” where sales had crashed.  

Sea Org members lived communally on the Apollo. As such their basic living needs required for eating, sleeping, laundry, bathing, etc. were provided for and called “berthing.” Sea Org members were paid a small weekly stipend in exchange for 100+ hour workweeks. Children of Sea Org members on the Apollo were given work assignments as Sea Org cadets and received minimal schooling.

The Apollo was Scientology’s first hotel where “hotel” is defined as a place where public Scientologists live for a given length of time as paid guests for the duration of their Scientology services which are delievered by Sea Org members.

We define a “Scientology hotel” as a Scientology Org with the following characteristics:  

1. The facility is a “Sea Org Org”, which means it is staffed and operated solely by Sea Org members.

2. A Sea Org Org is called a “Base” because the Sea Org is a paramilitary organization.

3. Communal berthing is provided for Sea Org members. Berthing is typically located in offsite Sea Org apartments. Sea Org are bussed to and from berthing to the Base. In the US, one indicator of human trafficking is that a trafficked person lives where they work. For this reason, Scientology in America stopped this practice of berthing Sea Org at Orgs many years ago.

3A. Sea Org may never leave the base without permission.

4. Public Scientologists must receive permission to route onto and off the base. Public Scientologists are not free to come and go from the Base as they please.

4. An actual Scientology-owned and Sea Org staffed hotel, or hotels, is located on the Base. Scientology publics coming to the Org for services may only stay at the Scientology hotel and are expected to take all their meals in the Scientology restaurants.

5.  Dining quarters for Sea Org is provided at the Base. 

6. There are auditing and course rooms where Sea Org members deliver services to public Scientologists. These Sea Org members include minors who, as auditors and ethics officers, are exposed to horrendous sexual, and even criminal, confessions and cover ups committed by adults. These minors are also subject to brutal Scientology sec checks and other intense violations and crimes against their persons.

7. Sea Org management is in place to ensure that income is produced by the sale of Scientology goods and services.

8. Sea Org management is in place to police all Scientologists; receive knowledge reports; and mete out punishments as needed to Sea Org and publics alike. Punishments range from lower conditions up to SP Declares and expulsion from Scientology.

9. Sea Org management at a given hotel is subject to policing by higher Scientology management bodies including RTC reps. 

10. There is pervasive and widespread video surveillance occuring at the Base on a 24/7/365 basis. Security is also present and active to prevent the escape of Sea Org members. Sea Org members have no expectation of privacy in their berthing, mail, or phone calls. 

The first actual land-based hotels purchased and operated by Scientology are:

1. The Château Élysée hotel in Los Feliz was purchased in 1973 and became the Celebrity Centre International. There are Sea Org management offices and auditing and course rooms in the CCI but no Sea Org berthing. There is a restaurant, room service, and hotel rooms for visiting public Scientologists. Scientology purchased apartment  buildings across the street from Celebrity Centre for use as Sea Org berthing. Another apartment building on the same block as Celebrity Centre was converted to a Scientology hotel for public Scientologists.  

2. In 1975, L. Ron Hubbard and the Sea Org left the Apollo as the ship had been increasingly banned from Mediterranean ports and was stigmatized as a CIA ship.  The Sea Org disguised itself as as the “United Churches of Florida” and purchased the Fort Harrison hotel and a bank building in Clearwater, Florida.

2A. Scientology quickly purchased other properties in Clearwater for berthing; additional  hotels for paying publics; facilities for management offices; vehicle maintenance; laundry; Sea Org cafeterias; restaurants; pc folder storage, and other requirements. The Sea Org properties in Clearwater are collectively referred to as Flag Land Base.

2B. Flag Land Base runs a regular shuttle service to and from Tampa International Airport to pick up incoming public Scientologists or return departing Scientologists. Every part of the Scientology hotel experience is controlled in the extreme.  

3. In 1977, Scientology purchased the shuttered Cedars of Lebanon hospital in Los Angeles and repurposed it for Sea Org berthing; service delivery organizations for publics; and management offices including OSA. This complex occupies an entire city block and became Pac Base. Locals refer to it as Big Blue.

4. In 1985, Scientology purchased a small cruise ship called the Bohème. The ship was rechristened the Freewinds. While the ostensible purpose of the Freewinds was to deliver the newly-released OT VIII, the vessel’s real purpose was to serve as the offshore headquarters of the newly-created David Miscavige super-slush-fund called the IAS. The IAS was registered in Curacao and the Freewinds in Panama. The Freewinds was owned by a series of murky shell companies. While Scientology paid $5 million in cash for the vessel, the Freewinds had a mortgage on it to San Donato Properties. 

Scientology also purchased properties which became Sea Org bases that do not deliver services to the public: 

In 1979, Scientology purchased the 500-acred Gilman Hot Springs resort in San Jacinto and converted it into Golden Era Studios and Int Base. The RTC Building was erected at this base. There is Sea Org berthing on Gold Base and additional berthing in nearby apartments and homes.

Scientology purchased the HGB building in Hollywood in 1988. The HGB served as Sea Org management offices. OSA and RTC occupy the top two stories of the HGB.

Scientology purchased the old KCET lot in East Hollywood in 2011 and renamed in Scientology Media Productions. This was a $100 million total investment to renovate what was then an almost 100-year old structure; make seismic retrofits; and equip the facility with state-of-the-art film and music equipment. Former Scientologist film director Mitch Brisker has said that David Miscavige works at this facility.

Scientology Sea Org minors also labor in these non-public facing Scientology organizations which are definitely not hotels as we are using the word in this article. They are subject to the same heavy ethics and sec checks as minors in Scientology delivery organizations. 

As a paramilitary, Sea Org members are required to live in communal berthing. In 1967, this meant that Sea Org couples who already had children, or those who got married and gave birth to children, required care for their children. Sea Org nurseries were created for children six years and under.

These nurseries became notorious for their utterly squalid and filthy conditions in which children were malnourished and their basic hyenic needs were virtually ignored. Once the children of Sea Org members turned six years old, they were sent to “Cadet Orgs” where they were expected to work for the Sea Org and received the most basic education.

The Sea Org children in nurseries and the Cadet Org lived separately from their Sea Org parents. Hubbard’s “Family time” policy called for one hour per day where Sea Org parents and their children could be together. However, this was generally a farce as the demands on Sea Org parents called for 20 hour workdays and sometimes days of work without any sleep. Family time was a fiction and generally any time spent between parents and children was virtually nonexistent. 

1968: The Daily Mail’s Peter Smith located Hubbard on the Apollo in Bizerta, Tunisia. Hubbard consented to a filmed interview. This was Hubbard’s last known public appearance.

After 1968, Hubbard did not make public appearances. However, he was always surrounded by his Guardians Office and Sea Org staff members. He was also accessible to public Scientologists who came to the Apollo for services. Mission holders routinely visited the Apollo to discuss technical, financial, management  and other matters.

1972: As mentioned, Hubbard left the Apollo and traveled to Queens, New York where he secretly lived for one year with two of his staff members. He then returned to the Apollo.

1975: Hubbard remained on the Apollo until 1975 when the ship was retired. The Apollo crew went ashore and covertly established itself in Clearwater, Florida using the fictitious name of “The United Churches of Florida.” Hubbard secretly lived in nearby Dunedin.

1976: Hubbard fled Florida to Southern California and stayed in various cities until he settled in the desert town of La Quinta near Palm Springs.

February 1980:  Hubbard fled La Quinta with Pat and Annie Broeker. The three took an extended trip along the West Coast of America in an RV with Pat and Annie Broeker. Hubbard arranged to purchase several ranches in the remote part of the Southern California desert. Scientology’s leader needed remote places in case he needed to escape. 

1983: Pat Broeker purchased a ranch in Creston, California using the name Mike Mitchell. Pat and Annie move there under the names Mike and Lisa Mitchell. L. Ron Hubbard joined them at the ranch where he used the name Jack Farnsworth. The “Mitchells” told neighbors that Jack was their uncle. Hubbard died at the ranch on January 24, 1986.

It would be a second generation Scientologist named David Miscavige who would lead a cabal of other Sea Org execs in destroying the Guardian’s Office. This happened after the Sea Org debacle in which Mary Sue Hubbard went to prison and L. Ron Hubbard was named an unindicted co-conspirator.

After destroying and disbanding the Guardians Office, the Miscavige cabal destroyed the Scientology Mission Holders per the orders of L. Ron Hubbard.

The Guardian’s Office was destroyed only to reemerge as the notorious Scientology Office of Special Affairs. Many of the “Old GO Crims” such as Linda Hamel were transferred into OSA, this despite Scientology swearing to the IRS that all GO personnel had been purged from Scientology. Of course, Scientology left itself an opening by making a caveat that a few GO were rehabilitated. 

David Miscavige and his cabal would next drive the disgraced Mary Sue Hubbard into permanent exile and house arrest. Miscavige and his cabal forced Mary Sue Hubbard to sign over her rights to L. Ron Hubbard’s intellectual properties which were community property worth ~$85 million as L. Ron never divorced Mary Sue.

The $85 million figure comes from the late Sea Org exec Denise Brennan who stated that Hubbard demanded this figure as repayment for all the work he had done in creating the tech. Serious financial and creative accounting fuckery ensued to transfer this much cash to Hubbard. 

David Miscavige had been a Scientologist since he was a child; he dropped out of high school and joined the Sea Org at age 16.

After L. Ron Hubbard died, David Miscavige  took over Scientology and perpetuated Hubbard’s horrific abuse of Sea Org children as well as adults. 

David Miscavige issued the order for forced abortions in the Sea Org, a policy which continued for three decades and ended only after a firestorm of public criticism and exposure by the women in the Sea Org members who were forced to get abortions or lose everything including their husbands and families. Many of these women had been born into Scientology and it was all they had and knew. The thought of an SP Declare and Disconnection forced them to choose between an abortion or losing everything.