2013: Former Vietnamese soldiers were put through Scientology’s Purification Rundown. These veterans did the program based on the false promise that this program would purge their bodies of the Agent Orange to which they were exposed in the Vietnam War.

The LA wildfires have created an opportunity for the Scientology Cult to promote and sell its dangerous and pseudoscientific Purification Rundown to unwitting people who think this program is actually scientific.

As a a public service, we are exposing Scientology’s Purification Rundown for what it actually is and does. Because Scientology’s phony drug treatment Narconon program also uses the Purification Rundown as its core process, the same information we present applies to Narconon.

L. Ron Hubbard’s publicly stated premise for the Purification Rundown is this: Toxins and drug residues are stored in body fat. These toxins and drug residues, Hubbard wrote from his Dianetics framework, keep a person’s mental image pictures in a state of chronic restimulation. This results in 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 argued, a person will 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:

The low quality 1990’s-era Scientology illustration shown below describes the basic Purification Rundown concept: Taking any type of drugs creates a deficiency of B complex and niacin. Hubbard’s solution is to remedy the B complex and niacin by taking vitamins. This is followed by having program participants exercise and then sweat for five hours a day in a sauna.  Hubbard claims this regimen will flush the toxins and drug residues lodged in a person’s body fat:

A newer Scientology illustration describes the process in a slightly different way: 

The Purification Rundown requires participants to take medically unsafe daily megadoses of niacin. A typical Purification Rundown runs everyday for 3-4 weeks. There is no set time limit as participants self-attest to completion. There is no medical doctor on site. A medically-untrained “Purif Supervisor” is in charge. Here are the dangers of niacin overdose as listed by the Mayo Clinic: 

Niacin overdose is unlikely if you take niacin only in the amount prescribed by your healthcare professional. You can’t overdose on niacin by eating too many niacin-rich foods. But taking too much over-the-counter or prescription niacin can be dangerous.

Symptoms of a niacin overdose include: 

• Severe skin flushing combined with dizziness.
• Rapid heartbeat.
• Itching.
• Nausea and vomiting.
• Abdominal pain.
• Diarrhea.
• Gout.
• Rash.

If you think you may have overdosed, seek medical attention right away.

Because niacin has been linked to liver damage and strokes, most healthcare professionals now recommend it only for people who can’t take statins to treat high triglyceride levels.

If you’re concerned about taking niacin, talk to your healthcare professional. 

While it is folly to take Hubbard’s quack science purification program seriously, we ask seven basic questions merely for the sake of argument: 

1. What is a mental image picture? Please describe the exact physical structure of a mental image picture. 
2. Where are mental image pictures stored in the body? If mental image pictures are located in the brain, in what part of the brain are they located? 
3. Since toxins and drug residues keep mental image pictures in a state of chronic restimulation, then we must assume these toxins and residues initiate the communication. This leads us to ask: What is the signaling method initiated by toxins and drug residues to communicate with mental image pictures? 
4. If mental image pictures are stored in the brain, then it would seem that they are triggered by synaptic activity. How are toxins and drug residues able to selectively locate,  target, and trigger mental image pictures? Do mental image pictures have toxin and drug residue receptors? 
5. How do drug residues and toxins have sufficient stored chemical energy to signal, or otherwise bind to, mental image pictures in order to chronically restimulate them? 
6. By what biochemical process are B1 and niacin able to selectively target, and bind to,  molecular toxins and drug residues and purge them from the body via the sweat glands? 
7. Once Hubbard’s B1, niacin, and sweat program cleanses the body of drug residues and toxins, the mental image pictures remain. Therefore, Dianetics and Scientology are required to erase the mental image pictures. Therefore, the Purification Rundown is actually designed to convince a person of the reality of mental image pictures and their need for the super-expensive Scientology Bridge. 

The physiological mechanisms of the Purification Rundown were left unexplained by Hubbard. This is because the actual mechanism of the program is rooted in Hubbard’s posited body thetans which are traceable to genocide perpetrated 75 millions years ago by Xenu. We present the evidence directly from Hubbard.

The undisclosed secret of Narconon is this: L. Ron Hubbard wrote that the Purification Rundown is covertly designed to address a person’s body thetans (BT’s) that are being “chronically restimulated” by the mental image pictures caused by drug residues and toxins stored in body fat.

The “Purif” is actually handling BT’s. The Church of Scientology and Narconon have never publicly disclosed this fact – and this is why we are disclosing here on the Scientology Money Project.

Here is what L. Ron  Hubbard wrote about the Purification Rundown; this is found in 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 Thetans (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. Hubbard says this 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.”

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.

The promotional literature for the Purification Rundown typically does not mention Scientology and instead relies on the using the names of front groups.

SCIENTOLOGY’S NARCONON DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM

[Narconon Tijuana]

Based upon the evidence in OT IV, Scientology’s Narconon drug treatment program, which has the Purification Rundown at its core, is crypto-Scientology delivered under the guise of a “secular drug treatment program based upon the works of L. Ron Hubbard.”

None of this is ever disclosed to prospective Narconon clients or the public. 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.

A 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.

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 our view, 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 Hubbard’s body thetan metaphysics.

Narconon Egypt

From a legal perspective it seems that Narconon should fully disclose that its actual program is designed to handle body thetans.

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:  

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 (sic). 

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 Narconon 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 Scientology Policy Directive “Statements by Staff Members” policy must be read and signed by all Scientologists before doing any Scientology course, level, program, or handling: 

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: