L. Ron Hubbard wrote his own methods of investigation within the world of Scientology and “Rollback” is one of the key investigatory tools used by specially-trained Scientology Ethics Officers when doing their detective work. This is actually a confidential procedure, but that doesn’t stop me from breaking it all down for you. Enjoy!
This clip was excerpted from Critical Q&A #49, first published on March 19, 2016.
Hi Chris,
My experience with “rollback” was at SMI Int in 1984. I was posted as Qual Sec I/T. I observed that the “number of missions international” stat was being falsified. There were msn packages that never had resulted in any actual mission, missions that had folded, etc, and all were being counted on the number of missions international stat. So I wrote a dispatch to the C/O SMI Int, pointing this out. Of course, reporting the real stat would have put SMI Int downstat so that wasn’t ok. John Mettle (spelling?) the Chief Off (I think, at the time) pulled me in for a “rollback session” to find the “enemy line” and where I got this idea the SMI Int stats were false. He got very frustrated because I told him I observed myself that non-existent missions, failed missions and even just partially bought mission packages were being reported as “active missions” on the stat. We went round and round, insisting I had gotten this idea from somewhere. It was beyond what he had been trained on to find someone who had observed something for himself, realized what it was, (deliberate falsification of International statistics) and reported it. And plus that I stuck to my observation and interpretation of what I had seen. In that “session” I realized that the effort of “rollback” was not to find the SP or the Enemy, but rather thought reform so that you would doubt your own observation and thinking processes in the face of enormous pressure, doubt yourself, punish yourself and toe the line. I left SMI Int shortly after that.