Successor Organization Is Religious Fellowship
Formation of the Hubbard Association of Scientologists, International (HASI) to replace the Hubbard Association of Scientologists (HAS) was announced by L. Ron Hubbard during the closing sessions of the June Congress in Phoenix.
Death of the HAS, Mr. Hubbard said, was preferable to going through all the red tape and filling out the thousands of necessary forms to transfer the old organization into the new.
As far as the “field” is concerned, this will make little difference except to give auditors and schools complete security from legal interference. The new organization, the HASI, is a non-profit religious fellowship, and as such, Ron said, is entitled to the constitutional guarantees of a Supreme Court ruling that no state shall take action to prevent operation of any organization concerned with the study or advance of the human soul.
Facetiously, Ron added that the old HAS, set up for study into problems of the mind, was out of date, since Scientology has no concern with problems of the mind but deals primarily with the thetan, which is unknown in law.
This religious fellowship, Ron said, should prevent a repetition of such fiascoes as that in Detroit of more than a year ago in which two Scientologists were arrested and tried only in the news headlines.
Late in June, a direct mail program to start selling Scientology to the public was to start in Phoenix, where trained auditors are available to care for any returns from the direct mail campaign. After this test, the program will be extended to other cities and areas as quickly as possible.
In the Phoenix area, all auditors—good, bad, and indifferent— will take part in the project. These will be tested, and those failing to reach a set standard will be given an opportunity to have their own cases brought up to this standard free of cost. A board will be set up by the auditors themselves with the power to set standards and examine professional auditors.
Other changes contemplated deal directly with the associate schools, which will remain practically as they are when new contracts are negotiated. E. L. Kish, who has been operating the Scientology Foundation in Akron, Ohio, has resigned as a school, and the contract held by Dr. Walter E. Hanan of Spokane, Wash., has been cancelled and probably will be reassigned to Dr. Gordon Fleming, also of Spokane.
New tapes for use in the various schools are being prepared, and will be ready for distribution shortly. Ron announced these will be half-hour lectures, as it has been found that students will listen to live lectures for an hour or more, but will become bored with long sessions on tapes. These tapes will put the training at each of the schools on a level with the training given at the clinical course, Ron declared.
In addition, an Instructor’s Handbook will be issued students to assist them in learning and using the data contained on the tapes.
As part of the new training programs, associate schools will not be licensed to issue official certificates after July 1. The student, after taking the course, must appear before examining boards in Phoenix, Camden, N.J., or London, and pass an examination before he can be certified. Ability to pass the examination is the only requirement, and this could be done by a person who has attended none of the schools, although Ron thought it unlikely anyone could acquire sufficient know-how without attending classes.
Clinical course graduates will not be affected by this examination requirement. The next clinical course, the Seventh, starting 21 June and ending 1 August, will be the last, the HASI has announced.
Ron said that the clinical courses which he has been conducting have permitted him to extend and simplify techniques to a point where success with both the student and pre-clear is almost a certainty. Part of this technique, labeled “Technique 30”, was demonstrated before the Phoenix Congress. Auditing today, Ron said, is directed toward the third dynamic with much better results than in the old days when the first and second dynamics were stressed.
Doctors of Scientology, a degree issued only to graduates of the clinical courses and B.Scn’s who have proven themselves in the field, will have ministerial status, Ron said. A medallion is now being designed—with an explosion as the central motif—which men will wear on their tie and women will wear as a broach. This will be the only ministerial “uniform” recognized for Scientologists, and will be registered as such with the National Board of Ministers.
All certificates issued under the old HAS are being validated by the new organization, and memberships—including Founding Members—are being transferred to the HASI.
No certificates have been issued recently, Ron said, waiting for the completion of the new organization. These now will be completed, bearing the name of the HASI instead of the HAS.
After the Congress, Ron said in an interview that the $50 charge for Doctor of Divinity certificates would be refunded since it was learned there would be no cost of registering the certificates. However, in a bulletin put out by the HASI dated 12 June, it was announced this $50 would be used for the medallion, a pin, a book containing all services which the minister of Scientology might be called upon to perform, and for the issuance of sufficient identification.
The HASI has three offices—Phoenix, Camden, and London—all incorporated under the new organization. However, the London office will continue to be called the HAS.
Officers in the HASI include: L. Ron Hubbard, chairman of the board; John Galusha, president; Mary Sue Hubbard, treasurer; Ralph Swanson, vice president; and Ken Barrett, secretary.
Mr. Hubbard announced that earlier plans for him to go to Europe in August have been cancelled.
[The Aberree, Volume 1, Issue 4, July-August 1954]