Originally published March 9, 2014 on Mike Rinder’s blog (here).
“There are those who could be called ‘merchants of chaos.’ These are people who want an environment to look very, very disturbing. These are people who gain some sort of advantage, they feel, if the environment is made to look more threatening.” – Scientology Handbook
The Sea Org does not hire people. It recruits them. I spent a year doing Sea Org recruitment and worked with a couple of the most successful SO recruiters on the planet. During that time, I learned a few things that you should know.
Young Scientologists are the biggest pool of potential Sea Org recruits.
Generally speaking, young Scientologists lack critical thinking skills and real world experience. Sea Org recruiters prey on this ignorance to convince the potential recruits that the Sea Org is the only answer to the world’s problems. The way they do this is far more organized and methodical than you might imagine.
Many years ago, one of the top SO recruiters put together a series of “indoctrination steps,” referred to within recruitment circles as “The Briefing.” It’s a PowerPoint presentation that contains various LRH quotes (some from confidential Sea Org-only issues) about how there are only so many years left before the world implodes, and how Scientology, and specifically the Sea Org, is the only solution. If that was the extent of the briefing, then it wouldn’t really be that big of a deal and I wouldn’t be writing this. But over the years this recruiter developed it into something much more involved.
The whole point of The Briefing is to convince Scientologists that they are living in a Matrix-like world of hidden dangers and covert conspiracies. Most people, even those with PhDs, do not understand the vast complexities of international banking, global politics and world-wide media. A person could spend years learning about just one or two small parts of any of these subjects. It can be quite an ego-boost if someone sat you down and in a few hours offered you a comprehensive overview that appeared to explain everything, in easy-to-follow steps, and wraps it all up with a solution to the whole mess.
Prior to 1967, Hubbard blamed Scientology’s troubles mainly on opposition from “psychiatry” as a general body, without really naming specific people or entities. With the release of Ron’s Journal 67 (and the formation of the Sea Org) Hubbard laid out, in detail, how he had uncovered a vast worldwide conspiracy of 12 men (international bankers) who were the primary source of attacks since Dianetics had been published. They used psychiatry, he said, as a tool to control populations and had their fingers in all kinds of pies politically and financially, and used media channels to push their messages. There is a lot more to Hubbard’s tales of persecution, which he continued to write about for years in various Scientology issues and in Freedom Magazine articles. Say what you want about international bankers (and I’m not implying that they are a bunch of good guys) but the information Hubbard published is full of logical inconsistencies, gross omissions of crucial information, half-truths, innuendo and just plain lies.
The Briefing then adds to this a host of 9/11 conspiracy theory, including documentary footage from Alex Jones and David Icke (both easily proven liars and sensationalists as shown here, here, and here) and other anonymous internet 9/11 Truthers to make the point that the US government is acting on orders of these world bankers to purposefully and knowingly subvert education standards, the US currency and even setup concentration camps within US borders (supposedly to be run by Canadian and Mexican military). According to the “historical data” from The Briefing, this conspiracy has been developing since the mid-to-late 1800s and was formulated by the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, Francis Galton (of eugenics fame), Hitler, the psychs, etc, ad infinitum.
Sea Org recruiters have used Hubbard’s incredibly simplistic world view to convince young Scientologists that this is all going on right in front of their eyes, but they never saw any of it before because they didn’t know what “signs” to look for.
What I want to highlight here is that this methodology creates a mindset within the prospect that the world is a very dangerous place, full of nameless, faceless enemies who are literally plotting to kill everyone for their own aggrandizement and power.
The recruiter then offers one, and only one, possible solution to this condition: join the Sea Org NOW. It is absolutely imperative that the prospect join immediately. Without giving any real specifics as to what the Sea Org is actually doing to prevent any of this, a picture is painted that merely by the Sea Org’s very presence this “worldwide suppression” will be shattered.
The prospect is told in no uncertain terms that it is their responsibility to save the world. They even tell the prospect that those who become aware of this information and don’t act on it one-for-one end up on the skids and destitute. Lines are used such as, “There was this one guy who I briefed, and he didn’t join and I found out a few months later that the guy was on drugs and totally crashed out. You don’t want that to happen to you. You need to take responsibility for what you know.”
One crucial aspect of the recruiter’s methodology is to ensure that the prospect is isolated from his parents, spouse or other opinion leaders who might try to convince the prospect that he doesn’t need to join. He’s told that the “special confidential briefing” puts him in a secret information loop that only a few elite Sea Org members are aware of. This makes it much easier for the prospect to then discount the concerns of their loved ones, who just “don’t know what they’re talking about” when they try to convince the prospect that dropping out of college, quitting their job, leaving their fiancé or whatever is absolutely ridiculous.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Ethics is used mercilessly to ensure that the concerned loved ones and friends toe the line and don’t interfere with the prospect “doing the greatest good.” I’ve seen metered ethics interviews, condition assignments and even Courts of Ethics called on people who try to stand in the way of the prospect arriving into the Sea Org. The closer it gets to Thursday before 2pm the steeper and more extreme the ethics gradients become.
Sea Org recruiters are amongst the most convincing, smooth talking and charismatic Merchants of Chaos you will ever encounter. Whether they believe their own lies or not is immaterial. It is a fact that they spend all day, every day, weaving tales of terror to beguile and amaze unsuspecting Scientologists and convince them that the Sea Org is the world’s only salvation. I recruited eleven people into the Sea Org during my stint as a recruiter. Most of them I believe have made it out of the Sea Org now and I can’t tell you how thankful I am for that. I hope that by making this information public it may help any parents or concerned loved ones out there reading this. The Sea Org is not an organization you want your loved ones joining.
Oh, brother. It’s understandable that people want to feel special and want to help others. Just lovely how some hucksters grab onto that and use it to manipulate people. In the 1980s, someone close to me dragged me to a meeting of Werner Erhard’s Hunger Project. I kept saying to the presenters, “OK, so what are we going to do about hunger?” They kept saying we would “raise awareness.” I was already “aware” of it and looking for some action to take. They couldn’t tell me one concrete thing they would do. I’m glad I had a skeptical enough mind to stay far away.
There is a conspiracy of silence over the abuse of Sea Org workers. The victims themselves suffer in silence. God help them. Recovery starts by talking about what happened, and letting those feelings out.
Just a short “thank you” for your fine articles & videos.
Gawd, that briefing sounds like the kind of bullshit that Bruce Wiseman sits around spewing at parties. Always surrounded by dimwits who think they’re “getting the real data.” I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Wiseman had a hand in developing it.
Puke.
No, it’s the brainchild of Brandon Faust, PAC Sea Org Recruiter Extraordinaire. He first put it together when he was a recruiter at Bridge Publications.
Chris,
Brandon Faust was the recruiter who asked my 14 year old daughter within ten minutes of meeting her if she “ever did weird sex stuff, like have sex with other girls or animals”. Right in front of me (her mom).
My daughter looked shell-shocked and nodded her head “no”. I was surprised too because I didn’t know at this time how recruits had to fill out detailed questionnaires regarding their sexual history.
What got me was that an ADULT MAN would ask this question to a young teen-age girl. There were two other women with him at that time. I am not being prudish or prim here but I think that this is an extremely inappropriate question or conversation to have between an adult man and teen girl and simply would not be done in the “real world”. A man who does this sort of thing could even be considered “a perv” and I know a few fathers who would take offense and throw the guy out of the house.
Brandon is extreme in his efforts and I’m pretty sure he grew up in the cult and knows little else outside it. Perhaps that’s why he saw nothing wrong with asking that question as if he was asking her if she preferred Pepsi or Coke to drink.
A couple of my kids went through years of hell with Sea Org recruiters, who think they all the rights in the world to invade your home life and interfere in your family relations, not to mention criticize parents to the kids they are recruiting (third partying). Today, my daughter wants nothing to do with Scientology and another son, very little.
I could go on and on about this topic and wrote a long, probably incoherent post on Mike Rinder’s Blog in response to your wonderful article. I was so happy that someone had addressed this issue! Recruiters have always been hot on the trail but in the 2000’s it was really stepped up with “The Briefing” and metered interviews at the org, followed by long recruitment sessions/guilt trips that could go for hours. Parents were also pressured and bullied too. I was one of them, so I know all about it.
I did meet another guy (sorry I can’t remember his name), who I think said he was from CC. He started coming to my house with Emmett, another recruiter. This guy told me that he wrote “The Briefing” and asked me what I thought of it. I told him it was a well put together presentation but that it entered into matters of faith. He didn’t question me at all about why I said that and went deep into thought. That was a little strange. People in the cult cannot discuss any of the “tech” so to speak, especially a Sea Org recruiter with a lowly public like me, who is not their mark and who they have nothing but CONTEMPT for.