going-clear-scientology-hollywood-and-the-prison-of-belief-by-lawrence-wright-2

climates they attired themselves in white hot pants, halter tops, and platform shoes.
When the Commodore moved around the ship, one or more Messengers trailed behind
him, carrying his hat and an ashtray, lighting his cigarettes, and quickly moving a chair
into place if he started to sit down. People lived in fear of Hubbard’s teenage minions.
They had to call the Messenger “sir” even if she was a twelve-year-old girl. (That
practice has continued in the Sea Org. All senior ocials are referred to as “sir,”
regardless of gender.) “They held the power of God in their little hands, their little lips,”
Eltringham recalled.
The relationship between Hubbard and these girls was intimate but not overtly sexual.
They prepared his bath when he retired and would sit outside his room until he
awakened and called out, “Messenger!” They would help him out of bed, light his
cigarette, run his shower, prepare his toiletries, and help him dress. Some of the children
had parents on the ship, others were there alone, but in either case Hubbard was their
primary caretaker—and vice versa. When the girls became old enough to start wearing
makeup, Hubbard was the one who showed them how to apply it. He also helped them
do their hair.
While he was on the ship, Hubbard was working out a code of Scientology ethics. He
began with the idea that man is basically good. Even a criminal leaves clues to his
crime, because he wishes for someone to stop his unethical behavior, Hubbard theorized.
Similarly, a person who has accidentally hurt himself or gotten ill is “putting ethics in
on himself” in order to lessen the damage he does to others or to his environment. These
were testaments to the basic longing of all people to live decent, worthy lives.
Good and evil actions can be judged only by understanding what Hubbard termed the
Eight Dynamics. The First Dynamic is the Self and its urge toward existence. The Second
Dynamic is Sex, which includes the sexual act as well as the family unit. The Third
Dynamic is the Group—any school, or class, organization, city, or nation. The Fourth
Dynamic is Mankind. The Fifth Dynamic is the urge toward existence of all living
creatures, including vegetables and grass—“anything directly and intimately motivated
by life.” The Sixth Dynamic is the matter, energy, space, and time that compose the
reality we live in. The Seventh Dynamic is the Spiritual, which must be obtained before
expanding into the Eighth Dynamic, which is called Innity or God. The Scientology
mantra for judging ethical behavior is “the greatest good for the greatest number of
dynamics”—a formula that can excuse quite a number of crimes.
Every individual or group moves through stages, which Hubbard calls Ethics
Conditions, that incline toward either survival or collapse. They range from the highest
state, Power, to the lowest, Confusion. The way to determine what condition one is in at
any given moment is through statistics, compiled each Thursday at two p.m. For a
Scientology church, the relevant statistic might be how much money it is bringing in.
The “org” that brings in less money week after week is in a condition of Non-Existence,
which, plotted on a graph, is represented as a steeply plummeting line. A level or
slightly declining line indicates a condition of Emergency. Slightly up is Normal; sharply
up is Auence. Every Scientology organization, and every member of its sta,
henceforth would be judged by the implacable weekly statistics. Hubbard warned his