Resurfaced video: An afternoon in 1963 with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard

We want to thank the reader who brought to our attention that a pretty remarkable film featuring L. Ron Hubbard talking about Scientology from 1963 has resurfaced.

It appears that an independent Scientologist group in Argentina posted a video of the film to YouTube about four weeks ago, but we’re not sure whether it might have been posted earlier than that.

It’s new to us, at least, but some of you oldtimers might remember seeing it back in the day: It’s a 30-minute peek at L. Ron Hubbard working at Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, England, produced by early Dianeticist Reg Sharpe. It also features Hubbard’s wife Mary Sue (with a small speaking part!), and their children: Diana, Quentin, Suzette, and Arthur.

The film was apparently made for Scientologists around the world to get a sense of what things were like at Saint Hill, and it features a very short model auditing session with Hubbard asking the questions and Reg on the cans.

We can’t wait to see what your impressions of it are, but our first instinct was to get the thoughts of Alex Barnes-Ross, the former London Scientology staffer who has been focusing so much media attention on Saint Hill today.

“Knowing what I know now about hypnosis, the parallels couldn’t be more obvious. Seeing Hubbard demonstrate an auditing session – the way he speaks, raising his voice ‘start of session’ and ‘end of session,’ and getting the PC to ‘tell me I’m no longer auditing you’ – it’s textbook hypnotic tactics,” Alex says.

“When Hubbard asks, ‘Are there any gains you’d like to mention?’ The PC’s pause made me chuckle. He’s clearly struggling to think about how touching the various things on the table changed his life. But of course, he had to come up with something for the camera. The staged scene where Hubbard kisses his kids goodnight was poor acting worthy only of a Golden Raspberry Award, and if you ever wanted evidence that LRH was PTS, this is it. If I’m not mistaken, Peter Hemery, who was a close aide of Hubbard’s and features prominently in this film, wound up a declared SP.

“Two standout quotes for me were: ‘Scientology doesn’t work if it’s badly done’ – correction, sir. It doesn’t work full stop. And, ‘The sun never sets on Scientology’ – I think it’s pretty clear Scientology is past its heyday and now with fewer Scientologists than ever before, we’re moving into the twilight zone.”

Had Alex run into the film before?

“Nope, had no idea it even existed. I imagine Scientology wanted to keep the lid on this and filed it away in the archives of footage never to be played again after Hemery was declared. And also considering how much the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course is plugged.”

(Current leader David Miscavige has greatly diminished the prominence of the vaunted SHSBC.)

“It made me smile to see London get a mention,” Alex continued. “I mean, it was interesting to see old footage of Saint Hill – and how it hasn’t changed. The whole place is like a time capsule, especially the manor – kept exactly how it was when LRH left in 1966. Something else of note – which I believe has been said before – is that in Scientology you’re made to believe that during Ron’s residency at Saint Hill, the place was thriving and packed to the brim.. It was made to seem like the SHSBC was delivered to people in their hundreds, but this footage clearly shows just how small the room was and how there were only a handful of students.”

And how about our readers who were never Scientologists: How does Ron’s legendary “charisma” strike you? And the “technology” on display in that auditing session?

Ready to get your havingness raised, pilgrims?

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Scientology takeover of Clearwater continues

Only a couple of days after Mark Bunker left his seat on the Clearwater, Florida city council, an exclamation point was made on how the city will continue to be dominated by Scientology.

As Tracey McManus explained in a story at the Tampa Bay Times, wealthy Scientology donor Moises Agami paid $58 million for a tower in the downtown that has been the temporary home for City Hall. (The council has already approved spending on a new City Hall to come.)

Bunker re-visited the council (now as a citizen) to make his views known…

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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

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