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Encyclopedia > Scientology Justice

This article forms part of the series on
Scientology Image File history File links Scientology_new_style_logo. ... Scientology is a religious movement based on a system of beliefs, teachings, practices, and rituals that originated as philosophy in 1952 by author L. Ron Hubbard, and characterized by the Church of Scientology in 1953 as an applied religious philosophy. Hubbard defined Scientology as knowing how to know [1], although...

Dianetics
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Scientology beliefs
Thetan · Past lives
Space opera · Xenu
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Study Tech · E-meter · Auditing
Purification Rundown
Disconnection · Comm Evs
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MEST · ARC · Tone scale
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L. Ron Hubbard · David Miscavige
Paulette Cooper · Lisa McPherson
Arnaldo Lerma
Public groups and recruitment
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ABLE · CBAA · CCHR
Narconon · Criminon
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Suppressive Person · Fair Game
Operation Snow White
Operation Freakout
Operation Clambake
Patter Drills
Rehabilitation Project Force
Scientology and the legal system
Scientology versus the Internet
Fishman Affidavit · ScienTOMogy
South Park

The Scientology Justice system is a means for a Scientology organization to take action against a member whose conduct or actions are viewed as highly desctructive or offensive by an executive within the organization. The actions employed are a Court of Ethics, a Committee of Evidence, and a Board of Investigation. Dianetics is a practice which is based on ideas about the human mind. ... In Dianetics, the secular predecessor of Scientology, an engram is defined as a painful memory of unconsciousness stored in the stimulus-response unconscious (the reactive mind). ... In Dianetics and Scientology, Clear is defined as a state in which a person is free of unwanted influences of past memories, unwanted emotions, and mental and physical pain not existing in present time. ... This article examines the beliefs and practices of Scientology as taught by the Church of Scientology. ... The term thetan is used in Scientology to mean something roughly synonymous with spirit or soul. ... Past Lives redirects here. ... In Scientology doctrine, space opera was the term used by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to describe extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions. ... In Scientology doctrine, Xenu (also Xemu) is a galactic ruler (of the Galactic Confederacy) who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. ... This article examines the beliefs and practices of Scientology as taught by the Church of Scientology. ... Study tech, or study technology, is a method of study, devised and spelled out by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. ... An E-Meter is a battery powered electronic instrument made by the Church of Scientology (CoS). ... This article is in need of attention. ... The Purification Rundown[1], known as The Purif within Scientology, is a program of detoxification developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, involving the use of saunas, vitamins, and the drinking of oils. ... Disconnection is a practice in Scientology, in which a Scientologist severs all ties between themselves and friends, colleagues, or family members who criticize Scientology practices. ... In the Scientology religion, MEST is an acronym for Matter, Energy, Space and Time, considered by Scientologists to be the four component parts of the physical universe. ... ARC is a fundamental concept in Scientology doctrine. ... The tone scale in Scientology is a characterization of human mood and behaviour by various positions on a scale from +40 to -40. ... An official Church of Scientology portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1970 Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was a prolific American author and founder of the controversial Church of Scientology. ... David Miscavige (born April 30, 1960) is Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center[1], a corporation that owns the trademarked names and symbols of Dianetics and Scientology. ... Paulette Cooper is an American author who is best known for activism against the Church of Scientology and the repercussions she suffered as a result. ... Lisa McPherson (born Lisa Skonetski, February 10, 1959–December 5, 1995) was a Scientologist who died while in the care of the Church of Scientology (CoS). ... Arnaldo (Arnie) Pagliarini Lerma (b. ... The Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA) is a personality test that is given for free by the Church of Scientology. ... The Association for Better Living and Education (A.B.L.E.) is a secular branch of the Church of Scientology. ... Founded in 1983, the Concerned Businessmens Association of America (CBAA) is an element of the Scientology movement directed at promoting moral education and enhanced well-being through the use of Hubbards The Way to Happiness booklet in their Set A Good Example (SAGE) program, which holds childrens... The international headquarters of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. ... Narconon is not associated with Narcotics Anonymous which is sometimes abbreviated Narcanon. Scientologys Narconon is a rehabilitation program for drug abusers in several dozen treatment centers worldwide, chiefly in the United States and western Europe. ... Criminon is a secular non proft 501 C3 working with government departments and inmates to reduce recidivism and restore self respect to the inmate. ... The Volunteer Minister program is a worldwide effort founded by the Church of Scientology International. ... World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE) is an organization that educates and assists businesses in the use of Scientology management techniques. ... This is a list of Scientology organizations operated by the Church of Scientology (CoS), including Church offices, missions, Celebrity Centres and publicized Scientology and Dianetics groups. ... The Sea Org logo. ... Official Scientology Cross Symbol The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by the late author L. Ron Hubbard. ... The Gold Base is the headquarters of Golden Era Productions, the media division of the Church of Scientology, located near Hemet, California with the address of: 19625 Highway 79, Gilman Hot Springs, CA 92583. ... Celebrity Centres are Church of Scientology centers that are open to the public but serve mostly artists and celebrities and other professionals, leaders and promising new-comers in the fields of the arts, sports, management and government. ... The Office of Special Affairs (OSA) is a department of the Church of Scientology responsible for directing legal affairs, publicizing the Churchs social betterment works, and oversee[ing its] social reform programs. Observers outside the Church have characterized the department as an intelligence agency, comparing it variously to the... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The Religious Technology Center (RTC) is a non-profit organization established in 1982 by the Church of Scientology to control and oversee the uses of all of the trademarks, symbols and sacred texts of Scientology and Dianetics, including the copyrighted works of the religions founder, L. Ron Hubbard. ... This article examines controversial issues involving Scientology and its affiliated organizations. ... In Scientology, a formally condemned and shunned heretic or wrongdoer is labelled a Suppressive Person, often abbreviated SP. L. Ron Hubbard coined the term to refer to enemies of the Church of Scientology, whose suppressive acts are said to impede the progress of Scientology. ... Fair Game is a status assigned to those whom the Church of Scientology has officially declared to be Suppressive Persons or Suppressive Persons are those whose actions are deemed to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist. ... Operation Snow White was the name given internally by the Church of Scientology to a program which included the largest incident of domestic espionage in the history of the United States. ... Operation PC Freakout was the name given by the Church of Scientology to a covert plan undertaken by the Church in 1976, with the goal of harassing Paulette Cooper, author of a book critical of Scientology titled The Scandal of Scientology. The plan came to light when the FBI seized... Operation Clambake Operation Clambake (xenu. ... Patter drills were added to many Scientology training courses by David Miscavige beginning in mid-1995. ... The Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, is a system of work camps set up by the Church of Scientology Sea Organization, intended to correct members who have not lived up to CoS expectations or have violated certain policies. ... The Church of Scientology is well known for its extensive use of the legal system. ... Scientology versus the Internet is the colloquial term for a long-running online dispute between the Church of Scientology and a number of the Churchs online critics. ... The Fishman Affidavit is a set of court documents submitted by ex-Scientologist Steven Fishman in 1994 containing criticisms of the Church of Scientology and, controversially, substantial portions of the Operating Thetan course materials. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Scientology. ... Trapped in the Closet is episode 137 of the Comedy Central series South Park. ... Scientology is a religious movement based on a system of beliefs, teachings, practices, and rituals that originated as philosophy in 1952 by author L. Ron Hubbard, and characterized by the Church of Scientology in 1953 as an applied religious philosophy. Hubbard defined Scientology as knowing how to know [1], although...


These actions are intend to provide a system rather than have completely arbitrary decisions made by an executive, as seen in many modern corporations. In theory, Church members are supposed to have protections built into the system, based their activities, skills, and other factors. However, these methods are very similar to a military tribunal rather than a court of law. A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try enemy forces members during war time, it operates outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil matters; the judges are military officers; and the judges fulfill the role of jurors. ... This article is about courts of law. ...

Contents


Court of Ethics

A court of ethics is convened by an ethics officer or church executive senior to the church member being charged. The offenses being accused are of non-serious nature and the sentences are at the discretion of the person who convened the court of ethics. The court is not supposed to engage in investigation, but rather operate only on known evidence. There is no means of recourse from the sentence of a court of ethics.


Committee of Evidence

A committee of evidence is usually referred to by the abbreviated term, "Comm Ev" and is a tribunal that deals with serious offenses. In principle, the comm ev is only convened at a church member's request or when there is evidence of serious wrongdoing by a church member. A tribunal commonly refers to a judicial proceeding with two or more persons who act as judges. ...


In practice, those who have had negative experiences with comm evs maintain that a Scientology organization can simply ignore requests by a church member for a comm ev if the actions of one or more church executives would be viewed negatively as a result, or a Scientology organization can convene a comm ev against a church member whose actions are viewed as threatening to vested interests of one or more church executives. In the latter case, charges against a church member can be based on false accusations with no evidence whatsoever, and the comm ev is, essentially, directed to find a way to confirm the charges. A set of wild card charges often used to set-up a church member for punishment, are violations of any ten points of the 1965 policy letter "Keeping Scientology Working" written by founder, L. Ron Hubbard. (The ten points in this policy letter were not criminalized by L. Ron Hubbard, as per the implication of the discussion in that policy letter, many church members were not fully following these points and he urged them to work harder at doing so. The criminalization of these points occurred in January 1991.) These ten points are very general, thus anyone can be accused of violating some of them to some degree. "Violators" are deemed guilty of high crimes and can be declared a suppressive person and expelled. The term wild card was originally used to card games, but the term has evolved so that it now may describe what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary calls an unknown or unpredictable factor in any number of domains. ... An official Church of Scientology portrait of L. Ron Hubbard, circa 1970 Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was a prolific American author and founder of the controversial Church of Scientology. ... In Scientology, a formally condemned and shunned heretic or wrongdoer is labelled a Suppressive Person, often abbreviated SP. L. Ron Hubbard coined the term to refer to enemies of the Church of Scientology, whose suppressive acts are said to impede the progress of Scientology. ...


There is an method of appeal of such abuses that extends to the International Justice Chief, but that is no guarantee any abuses get remedied.


Administrative procedure

Administratively, the comm ev is initiated by a convening authority, usually the LRH Communicator of the organization. This person does so at the request, usually, of another church executive who makes formal accusations of violations of church ethics codes. A chairman, a secretary, and two to five other members are chosen by the convening authority who are "senior" to the accused. No one may object to any person who has been chosen to serve on the comm ev. Their task is to read and hear evidence for and against the accused church member. They have two weeks to complete the comm ev. After reviewing evidence, the secretary and members vote on whether they think the accused church member is guilty or not guilty of each of the presented charges. There is no standard method of voting. Conviction on a charge is by majority vote. The comm ev then recommends punishment, which in principle, must be done in accordance with L. Ron Hubbard's policies, but in practice, is arbitrary. The outcome of a comm ev is issued in a document called the "Findings and Recommendations". All comm ev members must sign this document whether they agree with it or not. The Findings and Recommendations require approval of the LRH Communicator, the Continental Justice Chief, and the International Justice Chief. Disapprovals on this document are rare, but the Recommendations can be changed to lessen the severity of the punishment. The only means of recourse are: A review comm ev, where the committee is supposed to just listen to the recordings and review the documents of the original comm ev, then issue new Findings and Recommendations, or a petition by the accused church member to have the comm ev cancelled, which is directed to an executive highly-placed in the church hierarchy. The review comm ev has the option of making new recommendations which can be more harsh than the original. Ethics (from Greek ἦθος meaning custom) is the branch of axiology, one of the four major branches of philosophy, which attempts to understand the nature of morality; to define that which is right from that which is wrong. ... A chairman is the presiding officer of a meeting, organization, committee, or other deliberative body. ... A secretary is an office/administrative support position. ... Guilty is a Anarcho-punk album, by the band Oi Polloi. ...


Comparison with Trials by a Jury

The comm ev resembles a military tribunal more than it does a jury trial or a court martial: There are three to six voting members versus six or twelve on a jury. A comm ev requires a majority quota for conviction, while a jury trial requires unanimity. Due process of some form is present in jury trials, but absent in comm evs. A felony jury trial requires charges to be unanimously approved by a grand jury to proceed, while a comm ev can be initiated on executive accusation alone. There is citizen access to jury trial proceedings and documents as a means of oversight, while comm evs are done with some level of secrecy where even other church members cannot review the evidence and testimony. Jury members must be peers of the accused, while voting members of a comm ev must be seniors of the accused church member. (In practice, comm ev voting members are always church staff members.) In jury trials, the accused may retain legal counsel for assistance in court. Comm ev policy explicitly bars any legal representation. Jury trials have strict rules for evidence, while comm evs can use certain forms of hearsay, such as an offhand comment scribbled on a piece of scrap paper. A jury trial allows testimony by witnesses on material fact. A comm ev allows this in principle, but in practice, a comm ev chairman may arbitrarily refuse testimony by a relevant witness. Jurors can vote on charges with impunity based on the facts and the law. Comm ev members face being comm ev'd themselves if the convening authority believes they were not aggressive enough in pursuit of the comm ev findings. This provides a grand opportunity for a pre-ordained verdict. Both the comm ev and military tribunal suffer from the separability problem. Even if there is no manipulation otherwise, individual charges voted on simultaneously can produce an outcome that is unsatisfactory to all parties. If sequential voting were used, it would necessitate some members having to change their votes based on prior verdicts. However, there is no guarantee that any voting members would do so. A military tribunal is a kind of military court designed to try enemy forces members during war time, it operates outside the scope of conventional criminal and civil matters; the judges are military officers; and the judges fulfill the role of jurors. ... A jury trial is a trial in which the judge of the facts, as opposed to the judge of the law, is a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not legal professionals. ... A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a military court that determines punishments for members of the military subject to military law. ... A majority is a subset of a group that is more than half of the entire group. ... A quota is a prescribed number or share of something. ... Unanimity is near complete agreement by everyone. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A felony, in many common law legal systems, is the term for a very serious crime; misdemeanors are considered to be less serious. ... A grand jury is a type of common law jury responsible for investigating alleged crimes, examining evidence, and issuing indictments if they believe that there is enough evidence for a trial to proceed. ... Proceedings are the collection of academic papers that are published in the context of a conference. ... A document is a writing that contains information. ... Secret redirects here. ... The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (eg. ... In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. ... A peer is a person of the same age, status, or ability as another specified person. ... Senior is: An advanced adult A high-level position The older of two people of the same family with the exact same name, often a parent (for example, Ken Griffey, Sr. ... Most general, a representation is a performing of selected functions or roles of another physical or abstract object/person/organization in predefined circumstances and it is based on the consensus of the group/community involved. ... The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (eg. ... Hearsay in its most general and oldest meaning is a term used in the law of evidence to describe an out of court statement offered to establish the facts asserted in that statement. ... Facts is one of the following: The plural of the word fact. ... Law (from the late Old English lagu of probable North Germanic origin) in politics and jurisprudence, is a set of rules or norms of conduct which mandate, proscribe or permit specified relationships among people and organizations, intended to provide methods for ensuring the impartial treatment of such people, and provide... In law, a verdict indicates the judgment of a case before a court of law. ... The Separability Problem is a concept from the field of social choice theory that describes the situation where two or more issues up for vote on a ballot either are, or are perceived as, related. ... Meaning To control or operate upon (a person or group) by unfair means to ones own advantage. ...


Tool of Coercion?

When L. Ron Hubbard devised the comm ev in 1963, there were considerably fewer church offenses designated and published than there are at present. The number of charges brought against church members in comm evs has increased over the mid-1960's. At the time of its inception, the comm ev may have had favorable acceptance compared to what existed previously. Nevertheless, most Scientologists presently dislike comm evs and will take or not take certain actions for fear of them. Commonly heard phrases in the Church of Scientology are: "If I don't, I will be comm ev'd" and "If I do, I'll get comm ev'd." Scientology is a system of beliefs and teachings, originally established as a secular philosophy in 1952 by author L. Ron Hubbard, and subsequently reoriented from 1953 as an applied religious philosophy. It is most prominently represented by the Church of Scientology. ...


The kinship of the comm ev to a military tribunal gives it the same vulnerabilities to injustice, namely paradoxical verdicts and trial "rigging". The use of multiple accusations from altitude, generalities (such as the Keeping Scientology Working violation), inconclusive evidence, no standard method of voting, semi-secretive proceedings, vague rules of evidence, possible retaliation against voting members, and no application of fundamental justice, wreak havoc on justice within the Church of Scientology. Since 1980, the Commodore's Messenger Organization International has exerted influence over comm evs held at Scientology organizations staffed by Sea Organization members. This is usually accomplished by "discussions" with the comm ev chairman so as to preserve plausible denial. Any church members who object to the comm ev or its unjust results are often accused of "snarling about justice". Revenge is retaliation against a person or group in response to wrongdoing. ... Fundamental justice is a term in Canadian administrative law that signifies those basic procedural rights that are afforded anyone or anybody facing an adjudicative process or procedure that affects fundamental rights. ... Lady Justice - allegory of Justice as woman with sword and with book - statue at court building. ... Official Scientology Cross Symbol The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 by the late author L. Ron Hubbard. ... The Commodores Messenger Organization (CMO) was started by L. Ron Hubbard in 1969 while he was living aboard the Sea Organization ship called the Apollo. ... The Sea Org logo. ... A Senate committee, the Church Committee in 1974-1975 conducted an investigation of the intelligence agencies. ...


It could be said that the comm ev procedure was motivated by L. Ron Hubbard's disdain for and utter rejection of law courts. Unfortunately, this includes basic inalienable principles of justice, the foremost being, natural justice. This article is about courts of law. ... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The doctrine of natural justice is founded in the notion that logical reasoning may allow the determination of just, or fair, processes in legal proceedings. ...


References

Note: HCOPL is an abbrevation for Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, the senior policies of the Church of Scientology.


HCOPL 7 September 1963, Committees of Evidence, Scientology Jurisprudence, Administration of


HCOPL 22 September 1963, Concerning Committees of Evidence


HCOPL 7 February 1965, Keeping Scientology Working Series 1


HCOPL 24 February 1965, Addendum to HCO Policy Letter of 7 Sept. 63 Committees of Evidence, Scientology Jurisprudence, Administration of


HCOPL 26 May 1965, Courts of Ethics


HCOPL 17 July 1966 Issue II, Evidence, Admissibility of in Hearings, Boards or Committees


HCOPL 7 March 1965RB Issue I, revised 8 January 1991, Suppressive Acts Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists


External links

  • Official Church of Scientology statement on their justice system
  • An account of a committee of evidence

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