Training Routines

"When Mrs Pattycake comes to us to be taught,turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed dedicated glare" - L. Ron Hubbard 'Keep Scientology Working"

The most common recruiting approach of Scientology is the 'free personality test'. Whatever the answers, the victim will be told they have problems that can be resolved with a 'Communications Course' . The training course begins with TR-0 which consists of staring into another person's eyes for two hours without blinking. If the trainee does blink, the trainer calls 'Flunk' and the process starts again. Most victims report hallucinating by the end, and are totally disoriented. There is not suprisingly a feeling of intense relief, and euphoria at the end, which is sold to the victim as typical of the 'Big Wins' they will achieve via Scientology. Other cults tend to do the same thing by using hyperventilation - sorry, 'breathing exercises" One person was so disoriented after this that he signed a blank piece of paper on which Scientology later typed a letter of authority authorising them to empty his building society account. He eventually recovered the money after legal action.

Another course is 'BullBaiting' in which the victim has to remain unflinching while the other person tries to provoke them by endless insults This has the side-effect of training the other person in the art of ignoring other people's feelings. The net result of such training courses is the zombie-like demeanour of many Scientologists. The purpose of the training course in which trainees are supposed to curl up in the foetal position and pretend to be a child that has wet himself is unclear....

There is the TR-4 course in which students are trained to think that all questions must have a standard response. Queries such as 'Do birds fly?' are asked, and any responses not considered adequate are met with repetition of the question.. The belief that "It's none of your business" or "I'm tired and I need sleep" are not a valid responses will come in useful for Scientology "Sec-checks" in their later career

Another course involves the student giving commands to an ashtray.The ashtray is order to "stand up" in a forceful ("Tone 40") voice. Of course nothing happens, but then the student picks up the ashtray and thanks it for complying with his order. He then tells the ashtray to "Sit down" and the process continues, over and over and over again....

After each stage the subject attests that the purpose of the course has been achieved, and may have to testify publicly to their 'Big Win' thus making it harder to reject the nonsense later. If in doubt, the student can attest to some piece of scienobabble such as (after a 'Key to Life' course) "After word-clearing today I felt my case blow wide open and my grantingness of beingness reach levels I never dreamed possible. What a win. Thank you Ron.".

If enough money is paid, one can become a "Clear", allegedly with perfect health and perfect vision. But all that actually happens is that you get a cheap little bracelet saying "CLEAR " and a large hole in your bank balance. The definition of "Clear" has changed over the years, but the only meaningful definition is "someone who has paid Scientology a lot of money, and believes they have got rid of their "engrams " but has not yet paid enough money to reach the giddy heights of the OT levels whwere they will learn that they have to sort out their BodyThetans as well".

The best description of the traing process is in Margery Wakefield's "The Road to Xenu"

People who are likely to be public spokespersons for the cult do TR-L ("lying") as follows:(quoted in the Latey judgement)

""INTELLIGENCE SPECIALIST TRAINING ROUTINE - TR-L

Purpose: To train the student to give a false statement with good TR-1. To train the student to outflow false data effectively.

Position: Same as TR-1

Commands,. Part I "Tell me a lie". Command given by coach. Part 2 interview type 2 WC by coach.

Training Stress: In Part I coach gives command, student originates a falsehood. Coach flunks for out TR 1 or TR 0. In Part 2 coach asks questions of the student on his background or a subject. "Student gives untrue data of a plausible sort that the student backs up with further explanatory data upon the coach further questions. The coach flunks for out TR 0 and TR 1, and for student fumbling on question answers. The student should be coached on a gradient until he/she can lie facily."

Short example:

Coach: Where do you come from?

Student: I come from the Housewives Committee on Drug Abuse.

Coach: But you said earlier that you were single.

Student: Well, actually I was married but am divorced. I have 2 kids in the suburbs where I am a housewife, in fact I'm a member of the P.T.A.

Coach: What town is it that you live in?

Student: West Brighton.

Coach: But there is no public school in West Brighton.

Student: I know. I send my children to school in Brighton, and that's where I'm a P.T.A. member.

Coach: Oh, and who is the Chairman there? etc."

And the test of success of any course is - to sell the next course. "When a student has finished a course, he should want the next course in training. If not, out-tech or out-ethics or both. Just as a pc's indicators should be in wanting the next level of auditing, so should a student's good indicators be in wanting the next level of training." HCOPL 19 Oct, 1968, 'Course Completion Student Indicators'.

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