Anonymous posting: NarCONon is Scientology

NOTE: This came in anonymously. It was badly formatted so it has been broken up in to something that's easier to read. Other than being reformatted, none of the text which was provided anonymously has been altered in any other way.

An additional disclaimer seems to be warranted: The opinions stated within the text that follows are those of the anonymous individual or individuals who wrote them and, while most of the information that's provided is collaborated with the extant court record and other public domain records, neither the Skeptic Tank nor any of its officers can vouch for the accuracy or completeness of the information below. The document is provided as consumer advocacy though readers should conduct a more detailed examination in to Scientology's history to decide for themselves whether the information provided below is factual or not.

Normally the Skeptic Tank doesn't publish the information which comes in to their offices when it's provided anonymously however there's apparently first-hand information being provided here which warrants an exception.

UPDATE: I've learned that the anonymous individual which wrote the following has apparently contacted the authorities in Southern California and has provided written descriptions of what he or she observed while with Scientology's NarCONon. Additionally I've learned that a number of human rights activists have provided copies of this anonymous text to the proper authorities in Southern California.

Posted by Anonymous
Wednesday, October 17, 2001 - 10:22 pm

------

I post this anonymously because of actual threats I have received from former bosses and die-hard Scientologists at the Narconon facility I used to work at.

Narconon is a scam run by the Co$ to raise money and manipulate and take advantage of desperate, easily-victimized drug addicts by subjecting them to basic Scientology teachings and getting them to join the Co$.

Narconon claims to have a 80% success rate. In the 7 months I was involved with one of 2 Narconon facilities in California, over 80 people attended and graduated from the program. I personally know that 71 of them relapsed. Many who relapse return to Narconon, where they are put on a degrading and punishing "ethics cycle" where they are forced to perform manual labor in order to "make up damage" to the Narconon facility and rejoin the group.

Relapsed addicts who return are not only put to work, but subject to even more intense efforts to get them to join the Co$ and be brainwashed by the Narconon "counselors". The facility, only licensed for a little over 32 patients by the State of California, had almost 50 because of all the relapsed graduates who returned.

The facility was overcrowded and in violation of fire and health codes. Pressed for time, the kitchen staff would defrost meat in the bathtubs while the bathroom was still in use by students. Whole rooms had nothing in them but beds from wall to wall, cramming students in. There was minimal staff supervision because staff members were totally outnumbered.

On-site drug use was rampant and students were constantly getting high in the facility or in the surrounding neighborhood after escaping unnoticed. The safety and well being of students was endangered when non-commercially licensed and uninsured staff members would drive students around in uninsured facility automobiles for program-sponsored events.

To deal with the lack of space at the actual facility, students were placed in temporarily rented apartments that were far from staff supervision (2 of these apartments being several miles away from the actual facility). State authorities were unaware of these ad-hoc facilities and no license had been granted for them.

Many Narconon graduates at facilities world-wide go on to work at the facility. This is often because the upper-level Scientologist counselors who run the facilities convince them they can't afford to go out in to the world or they will inevitably return to drug use.

Their only chance at sobriety is to work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day with minimal contact with family, vacation time, free time or personal time at Narconon. Narconon, the "couselors" say, saved their life, so the patient must "repay their debt" by working for Narconon.

They are paid $50 a week to start, and raises come only after they pass through various courses given at the local Co$ organization. "Counselors" have no formal training when it comes to first aid, drug abuse treatment, medicine, counseling. The only so-called formal training they have comes from the Co$ and the fact that all employees at the Narconon facility were themselves recent graduates.

Addicts and their families pay over $22,000 to go to Narconon after being convinced through deception and lies that the program will save their life or that of their addicted love one. A significant portion of this $22,000 goes to the Co$ as payment for classes staff members are required to take. Furthermore, thousands of dollars out of that $22,000 goes to purchasing books from the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE), itself an arm of Scientology and the "publisher and copyright owner" of the books Narconon uses (books that are all LRH's teachings).

Narconon "students" (the name used to refer to patients) are subject to an unproven, quack medical practice of the purification-rundown, where they sit in a sweltering sauna for hours on end, taking harmful doses of vitamins, minerals and niacin (a very harmful substance in the amount Narconon makes its "students" consume).

Never in my time at this Narconon facility was there every a licensed medical professional on staff, apart from a registered nurse who had gone through the program herself after becoming addicted to prescription medications she stole from work before coming to Narconon. This nurse, the facility's only licensed medical professional, relapsed 3 times during the course of my employment at the facility.

She was far from the only staff member to relapse. Both students and staff members were constantly getting kicked out or fired because of drug use, inappropriate sexual conduct between staff members and students, or being deemed "suppressive" by hardcore Co$ staff members after, say, a staff member missing a day of work, showing up late, or refusing to embrace forced Co$ teachings.

While at Narconon my job involved public relations for the facility and recruitment of new "students". I was told by my bosses to lie to any and all people who called the facility seeking help for themselves or loved ones.

We would lie about insurance coverage (We would tell people we knew for a fact that their insurance carrier would cover our program when in fact, such carrier had never, EVER agreed to cover the Narconon program because that health insurance company had doctors smart enough to recognize Narconon as the scam it is). So, innocent people would pay tens of thousands of dollars, sure that their insurance providor would reimburse them at a later date.

That reimbursement would never come but by then Narconon and Co$ already had their money. We would lie about our success rate, basing the statistics of a 70%-80% success rate on decades old studies done by obscure European research firms.

In actuality, there was no record of the firms conducting such studies of ever having existed. But, go to the website of any Narconon facility worldwide and they will taut this 70%-80% success rate. I would extoll our success rate to callers while at the same time knowing that well over 90% of students I had seen graduate from the program had relapsed.

We would constantly hear of graduates relapsing when their families would call mere days after the students graduation, devastated that they had already returned to drug use. I personally can recall the names of 6 students who graduated and became staff members... lasting less than a week as staff before relapsing. Almost all students who attempted to return home after graduation relapsed as well.

These unfortunate people are not statistics to me. I can recite the names of each and every one of these Narconon victims who I saw come in to the program desperate for help, only to be taken advantage of, abused, and manipulated.

Narconon tauts this high success rate but the staff knows it is not true. In typical C0$ fashion, however, they deny the facts and make themselves believe in the lies that best serve their agenda... recruitment and fundraising for the Co$ by taking advantage of drug addicts and their families.

Even the Narconon facilities are constantly sending students-turned-staff back and forth to one another for because of relapses. Narconon Southern California had to send their "Ethics Director" to the Northern Califoria facility after he relapsed.

Narconon Chillocco's Senior Case Supervisor (the upper-level Scientologist who determines what Scientology courses individual students will take, in what order, and how) relapsed and came to the So. Calif. facility to redo her program. Narconon Nor. Calif's Intake Director (the lead person responsible for bringing in new "students" relapsed and apparently had a sexual relationship with a juvenile "student" (Narconon Nor. Calif. is the only Narconon facility licensed to treat juveniles as well as adults), and was sent to Narconon So. Calif. to redo his program.

These staff members, supposedly among the most advanced, most accomplished, most experienced, most highly trained graduates and staff members of Narconon still could not stay sober! And because of their staunch dedication to the Co$, they were sent to another facility after their relapse (where they would avoid embarrassment and so that the students at the facility they used to work for would be unaware of what had occurred) where they would quickly go through their re-attempt at the program and get hired at a different Narconon facility.

Narconon is truly a criminal enterprise. It sickens me to know that I was responsible for bringing in decent people who sought out my guidance for help at the most desperate times of their lives to an evil organization like Narconon - an organization who's sole purpose was to defraud, manipulate, then brainwash these drug addicts and their families to the extent that the addict would get suckered in to accepting the Co$ and LRH's insane teachings. Lives and families are torn apart at Narconon.

When I left Narconon in an argument with my bosses because of my gradually becoming more and more aware of what a criminal conspiracy Narconon was and is, I was threatened by these Scientologist bosses of mine. For weeks after I left they tracked me down and left threatening messages on my answering machine. Despite such threats and the evil we all know Scientology can inflict upon those who it deems its enemies (especially people like myself who were on the inside of their tactics and teachings), I had to post this message here and share my experiences at and knowledge of Narconon in the hopes that it will keep at least 1 person from going to this facility were they previously considering it.