Chapter Seven - Total Control

CHAPTER SEVEN

Total Control

BY THE EARLY 1970s, L. Ron Hubbard had transformed Scientology into a global operation and he ruled it with absolute authority. He was no longer just a founder. He was the Source. Everything flowed from him. Every policy, every doctrine, every punishment.

And the Church enforced his will with precision.

One of the key tools was disconnection. If someone became critical of Scientology, even a family member, you were expected to cut them off completely. No calls. No contact. No explanation. Critics were labeled suppressive persons, and anyone who maintained a relationship with them was at risk of being expelled. Disconnection didn’t just silence dissent. It broke people down. It turned families into leverage.

Another weapon was something called Fair Game.

In Hubbard’s own words, a suppressive person “may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist… may be tricked, sued, lied to, or destroyed.” The Church later claimed the policy was canceled. But only the term was canceled, not the practice. Private investigators, harassment campaigns, legal threats, and character assassinations. Scientology went after its enemies with surgical intensity.

Inside the Church, loyalty wasn’t optional. It was required. And not just in belief, in behavior, language, posture, and tone. Every detail mattered. Members were expected to follow the tech exactly. If something didn’t work, it was never the system’s fault. It was yours. You were either hiding something, doing it wrong, or resisting the process.

People who failed or spoke out were sent to internal punishment programs like the Rehabilitation Project Force, or the RPF. These were labor camps within the Church. Long hours, menial tasks, isolation, group shaming, and intense re-auditing. People spent years in RPF facilities trying to earn their way back into good standing.

But no matter how harsh it got, many members stayed. Some believed deeply. Others were afraid to leave. For many, it wasn’t just a belief system. It was their entire identity, their community, their job, their family, and their future.

And Hubbard made sure the walls were high.

Information was tightly controlled. Outsiders were labeled as threats. Doubt was treated as a weakness, or worse, a sign of possession by hostile spiritual entities. Everything was designed to isolate, intimidate, and indoctrinate.

This was no longer about spiritual growth.

It was about control. Total, top-down, airtight control.

And if the law ever came knocking, Hubbard had already planned for that too.