Spoken in many times. My son used to be a breeze to year. We have a lot of old ties to politics and prose. And you know, i thought i would talk a little bit. And so much to say about scientology. Here i am in washington which has a unique role in scientology at the other would talk a little bit about the history of how washington plays into scientology. Born in 1911. And when he was 12 his father was stationed here. He came through the panama canal with this family. That was a memorable trip for him because on that ship there was a figure who would change his life. His name was Lieutenant Commander snake thompson. Now, many people used to say that that man did not really exist, but he did. He was a real figure. Part of his assignment in the navy camille best buy in japan. He was also a cat fancier. He was responsible for her introducing burmese cats. He was a fascinating figure. He trained cats. He added trade canseco. The young ron hubbard was on this ship coming to the panama canal on is whether washington. Snake thompson had just been to vienna to talk to floyd. He was riding in the count from the navy. And to do with the Mental Health of veterans and serving military personnel. He had gone to vienna to learn what it could. And he drowned some of the information into this very impressionable at the man. So when they arrived in washington a couple of things happen. Hubbard is a boy scout. He claimed to be the youngest eagles got ever. But regardless of his marriage in that regard he came and made Calvin Coolidge at the white house. Cloudy was here he went to the library of congress and read up on floyd. Well, that was a turning point in his career. It happened right here in washington. It is appropriate that we need here also on a boat tour meant talking about scientology because if there was ever i mean, every movement in a way has a book behind it. You can always look through these movements. Someone has written a book contains the world that first world shaking book was diabetic which came out in 1950. Ended dominated the New York Times bestseller list in a way that i hope to emulate. So much so, the category for selfhelp books. Became so popular after the war. Diphtheria dynamics is the you can hear yourself. You dont need to spend a whole lot of money. All you need to do is get at the root of your problem which are in a section of your mind, the reactive mind. And there are buried all the fears that have grown out of bad experiences youve had in your lifetime. And if you can just recall the, lead them of your energy will clear your reactive mind. When you achieve that state you will become clear. That book sold millions of copies. Hubbard made millions of dollars and lost them as well. He even lost control of the name dynamics for its time. He decided that there was another way. That job data myself. I missed a valuable part of west ministry he really wanted to get another life and mine for self. President of the gliding club. Quite an adventure is character. But he did not finish. He was a miserable student. He often claimed to have completed his education here in civil engineering. Really wasnt true. He did go on to write dynamics. After that he invented the religion. Its called scientology. Well, what is scientology exactly . Is a lot to know about it. Its a very eccentric world view created by a writer whose specialty was Science Fiction. And so there are many elements in scientology the sound like Science Fiction because there were written by somebody who had written very similar things the idea is that you are and immortal soul and you live for and you will live again. Remember the past five times and chief your salvation. This is good news. In the course of therapy called on the between you and your auditors a device. Toucans. In the old days it used to the Campbell Soup cans with the label scared off theres a small amount of electricity passing through those wires. Onethird of an actual lie detector. It measures your skin responses without your pulse of respiration. It does do something. And so when youre talking to your other the kneele is constantly registering. Now, in scientology they think that it measures the massive your thoughts. They think the onset of mass. You can see the movement as they disaggregate it read a painful memory might show up on the meter, and if you continually go through and training of its painful qualities in the middle slow them. Present it no longer affects your behavior. If you have that happen to you, the next thing might be you would be asked to fund an earlier advance. Theres an argument with your wife some of the moment in your life that resembles the moment . You might say, yes my mother once said the same thing to me when i was about to and then on never forget it pretty soon it calms down. You go back further and further. One of the things that happened during this time, hubbard moved again to washington d. C. In 1957. Moving right around dupont circle. I share many of you noted fun of the Historic Churches of scientology, one of the most beautiful buildings in this neighborhood. One of the Original Church is scientology. Much of his theology was invented here. During that time people began to have memories and the one. This was a controversial experiment in the history of scientology. You really remember that far back. Remember arguments the appearance and while there were having intercourse is Something Like that. Then they began to have memories even further back to my previous lifetimes. Hubbard himself began to resist that. Eventually he endorsed it wholeheartedly. Now just imagine youve had that argument with your spouse, remember the argument with your mother suddenly in your other than you might have an image. In your other says, stop right there. Well, i dont know. And just had an image of a farmhouse. Well, look around. What d. C. . You might say, well, i seeresses, straw. Open the door and walk . What it looks like in the 17th century. Well, bear in mind, it might be saying this is true if you believe that it adds validity to this image that is then amplified into what feels like a real memory. That becomes a past life. For many people this is real and valid as other real memories live at. Think the important that would be, that knowledge that, yes, i did live again. Therefore i am immortal. Another thing that happens oftentimes is that people have the experience of leaving the body. Scientology is called drawing exteriors. They sense that they have floated away. They can look around behind, go the other planets. Im not trying to denigrate the sperry says the people of in scientology or other religions. What other people sale of scientology, a criticism that they might launch against the church is not going to really reach them. They had a chance for me experience, got information that they find valuable. Now a couple of questions that people often ask me. And going to treat them kind of quickly, but i think there are important. Was hubbard crazy . He is often seen that way. He did have concerns that he expressed about his own Mental Health. He actually wrote to the veterans of ministration per some assistance. Some kind of psychological assistance. He never actually we dont have any record that he actually got that. Many people live given me their diagnosis. Some professionals have weight gain. Malignant narcissism. And certainly if elected is behavior you dont show a lot of a thing nobody in history has ever mounted his own mentality choir is carefully as l. Ron hubbard. Meticulous the examining every detail. Here we are in the bookstore. I have to take by halftime. He holds the guinness book of World Records for the number of titles republished be more than a thousand. He continually rope mostly what he wrote about to buy his own interior journey. That is what scientology really is. And when he enters the church of scientology, its like a breadcrumb cheryl in his mind bit deeper into his mind to go. One way and look at hubbard, if we were in another culture, an aboriginal culture, anthropologists sometimes talk of schizophrenia as being a shaman disease. People who have these experiences, sometimes in our culture we would say theyre crazy in need to be on medication. People who have extraordinary mental breakdowns attorneys come back and feel like the heal themselves. They are the people that people go to to be healed. He added. The his life that he propagated as the truth. He said that he was a guerrilla veteran of world war ii peace said that after the war he was so badly injured that he was blinded and crippled and that medicine cannot help them. So he developed his own techniques of healing, and those of the techniques that evolved into diabetics. It then became the root of scientology. But, the record shows that he was never injured in the war. He did have conjunctivitis, but there was nothing seriously wrong with them. The idea of the shamans journey is buried in the legend that he created about self. Now, was he a con man . This is believe the most common perception. I think that if he really were a con man at some point in his life there would have taken the money and run. He never did that. He spent his entire existence alone with those kansas and staring at the meter trying to find will was going on inside the vast universe inside his mind that was how he passed all of his time to be creating a bureaucracy to support this amazing theology that he come up with. Now hubbard died 27 years ago today he was succeeded by airing a man named david this damage whose 25 years old. He was not the designated successor. He shoved aside his competitors and ruthlessly to control the church. His one great legacy also took place here. When hubbard died he mated decision to not raise taxes. The church of scientology. And by 1993 the church of a billion dollars to the irs. It did not have a billion dollars. It was an existential moment. The church had to get a tax exemption. In in order to do that it had to give the irs to recognize it as a religion. And theres only one agency in the country that can determine whether your religion and not, and that is the irs. The organization is very ill equipped to make such sanctions. So how did the church of scientology go about acquiring that exemption . Well, they began by launching a series of lawsuits against the irs, 2400 against the irs and individual agents. They hired private detectives to follow agent spivvy the evenfall of them to conventions and see who was drinking too much for fooling around. It would write about those episodes in their own magazine. Intimidation, forceful responses to the irs to menderes was brought to its knees. It was really overwhelmed by this cascade of lawsuits. But there was a problem the church still had. It of a billion dollars. Both of these entities with modern dance. One day take it was here, the current head of the church now. He was having lunch with one of the attorneys here in washington along with his wife who represents. And they were having lunch at the bombay club. And suddenly said, look, ive had enough of this bill we were going to go over to the address. The lawyers were kind of stunned. Indeed did jump in again and went to 1111 constitution avenue and 110. Were from the church of scientology. You want to see the commissioner well, the commissioner was not really available that very moment, but he quickly was. They had an interest in getting this resolved as well. Now, then maybe it merits the reason the irs made the distinction that the church of scientology is a bonafide religion. I dont know. I dont know what the standards they use to determine a religion are. In any case, the circumstances, the trade off was that the suits stopped and the agents and was granted. Once that happened these vast privileges and protections of the First Amendment guarantees of religion surrounded the church of scientology and protected it until the stay. So those events all took place in washington d. C. I thought i would just give you a little bit of historical background before inviting you to respond with some questions. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much for coming. Can you speculate as to the future . You seem to be. [inaudible] yes, id be happy talk about that. Im not the first to talk about this. Ive had 12 people tell me that they did physically assaulted them. More than 20 witnesses. He was not the only one inside a church that was beating people up, but he was the head of the church. And it was quite remarkable, that some that kind of behavior could go one. Some of the people who were beaten and others were confined. The reeducation camps in different locations. Especially in the desert compound in Southern California which is where the c word, the clergy of scientology has its headquarters, 500 acres. On that compound there are two double wide trailers. At one. He decided that he was going to start sending some of his top level executives there for reeducation. All the furniture was taken out. They slept on the floor, sleeping bags. Only allow the once a day for a shower in a rush. And during that time there were supposed to query each other about what their crimes are, whats gone wrong. Until you what went wrong, there was a lot of physical confrontation, a lot of abuse. More than 100 people of one. Really the entire top tier of scientology management was confined. This is gone on for years i friend could tell you stories about having interviewed in years ago. Hes been locked up for seven years. I speak as an amateur here about tax law. I understanding of the 501c3 is that at least the one that the churches given, there are layers of accountability. There has to be responsibility. One entity is accountable to the next. When you have one individual who can put all the other individuals into a double wide trailer for years on end, i dont know the you can say that there is any other individual who has any power in front of the church of scientology. I think the churches and a crisis point in its future not willing to come forward and confront his accusers. People and mr. Chair responsibility. A moral responsibility to address those abuses. That particularly charm the celebrity have been used to promote scientology. Nobody else has done more to bring people in to scientology. They have a responsibility to understand whats going on. The supreme court, with the basic form of fundraising, fixed donation was not an income tax deductible on. In october of 1993, evidently its independent from the eaves and organization. Normally it gave Tax Exemptions overruled the u. S. Supreme court and gave them that tax deduction. Cal in the world can the irs of rule a judgment of the u. S. Supreme court . Your obviously Better Qualified answer that and i am. One thing i would say, when they gave that exemption they also awarded the church the power to determine which of its own entities are taxexempt. I have been seeking a power myself another thing that they have, hubbard wrote in a memorable novels. Those are also taxexempt. They had nothing to do with the church scripture, but according to the irs this capacious judgment that was given to the church kamal of that falls under this jurisdiction of religious literature. Indicated publicly that they had spent 1 million in investigating the iras before that was given. Who follows up on Something Like that . Well, you know, i think it first of all the when you have a situation like that its an ideal place for an Investigative Reporter to go in and say, no, that many of the same questions. I think the windows need to be opened. Ive tried as much as i possibly can to crack them open. I get very little cooperation but i think awareness in the public and demand a Public Officials of we know more about it. Said he personally been intimidated by scientology . A time reporter, said that after changes in the case is quite became so intolerable. Prevented the publication of your book in england. The second part of my question, you know, people disappearing in being held against their will, where is the Justice Department . You will have to remind me if i dont hit every point. I just had innumerable legal letters. I am not intimidated by them. My last book was about al qaeda. [laughter] one thing i have learned, it al qaeda doesnt have any lawyers. If they did there would be a really dangerous organization. The u. K. , yes, its true. By british publisher backed out. It shows several things. One is that my american publisher offered kurds and was willing to withstand all these kind of shots across the bout of we have been receiving. Im very grateful to have that kind of support. And been asked by the International Writers organization to go to britain and talk to members of parliament and the minister of justice about the libel laws which are foreclosed in many cases, the flow of information to people who might really need information about an organization that could be very dangerous. I understand the stance of the brits and this kind of thing. Were going to turn to will begin to change it can and hoping to find another british publisher who is willing. Okay. While i was doing my story for the new yorker i stumbled over an fbi investigation. Theyre line of attack was human trafficking. And the fbi ran up a white flag. So, but according to one of my sources, they were thinking of doing a raid. Its got high senses and motion detectors and formidable, but they were going to break in and go into the hole and open the door and liberate everyone. They go so far as to think that david would try to escape in tom cruises airplane. So they got the tail numbers on tom cruises airplane to make sure it didnt go away. What my sources told the fbi if you broke open the hole and said, youre free, people would say were here by our own will so the book is the prison of belief. I was wondering if you came across a dollar amount of what would be needed to fight defeat seems theres always money coming in but it doesnt good anywhere. Well, there is a lot of money in scientology. When hubbard left the church, they didnt have that much money. He had a lot of money. A lot of money was transferred to historied account. But when they had that huge liability to the irs, they just didnt have that much money in their coffers now they have a billion dollars in asset in offshore accounts. The Catholic Church would have trouble coming up with a billion dollars in cash. Thats a testament to the emotion of the members to amass that amount of money. Whether or not they had money or lawyers as they have, what they really need is members, and