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

ather than sending their parents to another post. The baby boom eventually prompted
Hubbard to order that no one could get pregnant without his permission; according to
several Sea Org members, any woman disobeying his command would be “o-loaded” to
another Scientology organization or flown to New York for an abortion. 7
WORD ARRIVED while the Apollo was in dry dock in Portugal that the French government
was going to indict the Church of Scientology for fraud, with Hubbard named as a
conspirator (he would eventually be convicted in absentia and sentenced to four years
in prison). Hubbard ew to New York the very next day. Few crew members knew
where he was. Jim Dincalci, his medical ocer, and Paul Preston, a former Green Beret
who acted as Hubbard’s bodyguard, joined him and set up housekeeping in Queens.
It was an odd interlude. Abruptly freed from the daily responsibility of running the
ship, training executives, and overseeing the entire Scientology enterprise, Hubbard
suddenly had time on his hands. He spent it watching television and reading novels.
Dincalci was designated to be the chef, which meant that sh sticks and pasta were on
the menu until Dincalci learned how to expand his repertoire. He studied Adelle Davis’s
popular health food book Let’s Get Well. Hubbard began to gain energy and lose weight.
He would go for walks around the neighborhood, but always in a clownish disguise—a
wig, a hat, and glasses with no prescription. Hubbard thought he was being nondescript,
but Dincalci heard the comments the kids were making about how goofy he looked.
Dincalci had long since come to the conclusion that Hubbard was not an Operating
Thetan. He was obese and weird and he failed to exhibit any of the extraordinary
powers that are supposed to be a part of the OT arsenal. Moreover, he was under siege
by various countries. Why couldn’t he simply set things straight? Wasn’t he supposed to
be in control of his environment? How could he be so persecuted and powerless? What
was he doing hiding out in Queens, wearing a wig and watching television when the
planet needed salvation? At one point, Hubbard was talking about how pleasant it used
to be to sit on a cloud, but now he complained to Dincalci, “I’m PTS to nations.” He
meant that he was a Potential Trouble Source because entire countries were
dysfunctional and suppressive. Dincalci thought, “Oh, that explains it,” but then it
didn’t, really.
During the ten months Hubbard was in hiding in Queens, he began plotting another
way to destroy SMERSH. His escapade to take over the World Federation for Mental
Health had been foiled, he believed, by those sinister forces. One day, Hubbard surprised
Dincalci by asking him for the names of Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs. Dincalci dutifully
trotted to the library to look them up. He wouldn’t learn the real signicance of Snow
White for some time. Hubbard had set in motion an operation so daring and dangerous
that it threatened to destroy Scientology forever.
On April 20, 1973, Hubbard wrote a secret order, “Snow White Program,” in which he
noted a dangerous trend in the gradual reduction since 1967 of countries available to
Scientology. He put the blame on the American and British governments, which he said
were spreading false allegations against the church. He proposed to swamp the