Caroline posted on Exscientologist Message Board:
At least some of the Aftermath people are still okay with the SP doctrine and declaring certain people “evil.” They just don’t want to be on the receiving end.
Gerry reached out to Leah Remini in February 2019 about the Aftermath’s support for Scientology’s SP doctrine. (Complete letter with images here.)
Poster “dchoiceisalwaysrs” posted in response:
I will just say that there is one key part that I disagree with Gerry. There are two Hubbardian methods of defining an SP and those are A) the 12 Characteristics and B) as Gerry essentially stated the Crimes/High Crimes itemized in the NOT ETHICS book but the conflated, ethics with SCN (in)-JUSTICE, book. I do however see how in practice the Scientologist’s who adhere to method B as being the predominate and senior deciding method.
About the excerpted transcript of Leah talking about evil as suppressives…I will have to get back on that but it seems ‘out of place or out of context or I am just too tired to have made sense of it…although I think it might actually tie into Gerry’s omission of the 12 Characteristics…NO?
“Hubbard’s Twelve Characteristics” or “Hubbard’s Twelve Attitudes,” are listed in his policy letter of September 27, 1966, “The Antisocial Personality [–] The Anti-Scientologist.”1
As can be seen in the writings about the Scientologists’ Suppressive Person doctrine, I have not omitted these characteristics or attitudes at all, but have addressed them and how they relate to the doctrine. See, e.g., my June 29, 2013 article “SPDL: The SP Doctrine on Trial: Opening Statement by Gerry Armstrong,” a long relevant excerpt from which follows:
Mike Rinder, like Mr. Rathbun, a long time enforcer of the Suppressive Person doctrine for the Scientologists, stated on his blog earlier this month:
Suppressive Persons are denominated as those individuals who display the majority of characteristics of the anti-social personality.
This is false. It also contains a grammatical oddity. To denominate something means to name it. So, retaining his sentence elements, what Mr. Rinder meant was, and he should have written:
Those individuals who display the majority of characteristics of the anti-social personality are denominated “Suppressive Persons.”
This is false, however, because individuals denominated “Suppressive Persons” do not display the majority of the characteristics of antisocial personalities, or even any of these characteristics. What Mr. Rinder is saying is black PR.
Steve Hall, an “Independent” Scientology leader, as Mr. Rathbun has been, wrote, for example, on his blog in 2012, in an article he called “The Sociopath of Scientology,” referring to current cult head David Miscavige:
it is easy to see in LRH’s [Mr. Hubbard’s] writings when he had encountered the sociopath or “suppressive person” because he starts to describe the personality several times.
[…]
the clearest picture of the sociopathic, antisocial or suppressive personality.
Mr. Hall also asserts that mental health professionals have validated Mr. Hubbard’s work identifying the characteristics of antisocial personalities.
Martha Stout has greatly contributed to the work that LRH began — she has identified the SP using criteria that are truly original. Sociopaths (SPs) currently number 4% in the US as I mentioned which puts social personalities at 96%.
Martha Stout is a psychologist, and author of the widely-read and often-cited book The Sociopath Next Door, and she has done no such thing. She has not identified the SP or SPs, and she has provided no criteria for identifying them. She identified the sociopath, and it could be said that she provided criteria to do so. SPs are not, however, sociopaths, and the criteria for their respective identification are unrelated.
All criteria for identifying SPs are scientological and scriptural, provided by Mr. Hubbard. They are unalterable, as is all Scientology scripture, and may not be added to.
In 2009 the Tampa Bay Times recorded Amy Scobee saying:
And the description of a suppressive person, if anyone wants to look it up on the Internet or whatever, the perfect example is the description of — the profile of a sociopath.
Ms. Scobee might really have believed this at the time, even as an Exscientologist, but it is false. The profile of a sociopath does not describe a Suppressive Person. Mr. Hubbard described, even defined, the SP very exactly in Scientology scripture.
Lawrence Wright in his 2013 Scientology book Going Clear says:
Anyone who stands in the way of a thetan’s progress is a Suppressive Person (SP). This is a key concept in Scientology. Hubbard used the term to describe a sociopath.
Mr. Hubbard did not.
It is true that, more or less, anyone who stands in the way of a Scientologist’s progress in Scientology is a Suppressive Person or SP. That’s roughly per definition. It is true that this is a key concept in Scientology.
Mr. Hubbard did not, however, use the term Suppressive Person to describe a sociopath. He used the term sociopath, or really psychopath or antisocial personality, to describe a Suppressive Person. There is a difference.
The key scriptural policy letter for understanding the Scientologists’ Suppressive Person doctrine, and in which Mr. Hubbard defines SP quite clearly is Hubbard Communication Office Policy Letter of March 1, 1965 “Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists – the Fair Game Law.” In different contexts this policy letter is dated March 7, 1965.
He states:
A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by Suppressive Acts.
SUPPRESSIVE ACTS are acts calculated to impede or destroy Scientology or a Scientologist and which are listed at length in this policy letter.
[…]
The terms “High Crimes” and “Suppressive Acts” were used interchangeably by Mr. Hubbard in Scientology scripture and by Scientologists in Scientology.
A long list of Suppressive Acts is included in Scientology’s book Introduction to Scientology Ethics, and the same definitions are given for “SP,” “Suppressive Acts” and “PTS” as in the 1965 policy letter. The Ethics book I’m reading from is © 1998.
Due to the extreme urgency of our mission I have worked to remove some of the fundamental barriers from our progress.
The chief stumbling block, huge above all others, is the upset we have with POTENTIAL TROUBLE SOURCES and their relationship to suppressive persons or groups. [In the Ethics book, the Scientologists minusculized the “s” and the “p” of Suppressive Persons and the “g” of Groups.]
A POTENTIAL TROUBLE SOURCE is defined as a person who while active in Scientology or a preclear yet remains connected to a person or group that is a suppressive person or group.
A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by suppressive acts. [The Scientologists minusculized the “s” and “a” of Suppressive Acts.]
SUPPRESSIVE ACTS are acts calculated to impede or destroy Scientology or a Scientologist and which are listed here at length. [The original says, “which are listed at length in this policy letter.”]
On August 7, 1965 Mr. Hubbard issued a policy letter entitled “Suppressive Persons, Main Characteristics of.” “Suppressive” as a noun, or “Suppressive Person” appears 5 times in this policy letter. “SP,” or “SPs,” referring to Suppressive Persons, appear 41 times. There is no mention of antisocial personalities, psychopaths or sociopaths.
The 16 “characteristics” of SPs that Mr. Hubbard lists in this policy letter are virtually all Scientology-specific. The “characteristics” concerned, for example, Scientology policy, dissemination of Scientology, orgs, Scientology staff, auditing, the “Examiner” post, and “restimulation,” which has a particular meaning in Scientology.2
On September 27,1966, a year and a half after issuing the “Suppressive Acts” policy letter, Mr. Hubbard issued a policy letter entitled “The Antisocial Personality – The Anti-Scientologist.” He also issued this policy letter as a “technical bulletin.” The title is the only place in this approximately 3,000 word document where the word “Scientologist” appears. The word “Scientology” does not appear. The term “antisocial” appears 59 times. Of those, “antisocial personality” or “antisocial personalities” appear 43 times. “Characteristic” or “characteristics” appear 12 times. Mr. Hubbard also uses “attributes,” referring to “characteristics,” which is the term known throughout Scientology.
In this policy letter, Mr. Hubbard lists what he claims are the 12 characteristics of the antisocial personality, and the converse 12 characteristics of the “social personality.” Scientologists learn very early in their indoctrination about these “12 characteristics” of the antisocial personality, and these describe what SPs are.
He wrote:
Thus it is the twelve given characteristics alone which identify the anti-social personality. And these same twelve reversed are the sole criteria of the social personality if one wishes to be truthful about them.
This policy letter is what is being used to show that Mr. Hubbard described the antisocial personality. The fact of his description is being used to equate antisocial personalities with anti-scientologists, or “Suppressive Persons.” This equation is being validated or proven, Mr. Rathbun and others say, because mental health scientists’ descriptions of the antisocial personality in the 21st century are in some ways or words similar to Mr. Hubbard’s 1966 description.
In a rewrite of the SP doctrine’s history, Steve Hall has altered the sequence in which Mr. Hubbard first published his Suppressive Acts or High Crimes list and his 12 characteristics of his antisocial personality.
For example, did you know that at one point LRH wrote in an HCOPL anyone who blows from course should be declared an SP? In other words, there are the 12 characteristics of an antisocial personality plus 12 characteristics of a social personality which together was at one time, “The Test.” Then later, there came a list of high crimes which apparently if you violated them, rendered the test irrelevant.
The High Crimes list was March 1965. “The Antisocial Personality, the Anti-Scientologist” with its 12 characteristics was September 1966. These “characteristics” were never the test, or a test, for identifying or declaring someone a Suppressive Person. SPs were identified by their commission of Suppressive Acts; that is, acts that might reduce Scientology’s influence or activities or the success of some Scientologist, such as L. Ron Hubbard. When SPs were identified, then the characteristics of antisocial personalities were ascribed to them, or smeared on them.
On 17 March 1965, Mr. Hubbard issued a policy letter entitled “Fair Game Law — Organizational Suppressive Acts — The Source of the Fair Game Law,” which specifically added “blowing,” as Mr. Hall put it, to the March 1, 1965 policy letter “Suppressive Acts, Suppression of Scientology and Scientologists – The Fair Game Law.”
Students or pcs who resign or leave courses or sessions and refuse to return despite normal efforts, become suppressive of that course or organization and cease to have the rights of its protection or assistance.
So the correct sequence, using Mr. Hall’s terminology and process:
at one point LRH wrote an HCOPL that contained a list of high crimes, which if you violated them got you declared SP. Later, the same month, he wrote in an HCOPL: anyone who blows from course should be declared an SP! 18 months later there are his 12 characteristics of an antisocial personality plus 12 characteristics of a social personality which together LRH presented as “The Test.”
Mr. Hubbard had to have been lying about his 12 characteristics being the test, or any test, in Scientology, for identifying and declaring SPs. His test, as he states it in his “Antisocial Personality – Anti-Scientologist” policy letter is actually infantile and antisocial. But it was never used; and he ran all of Scientology. What was used for identifying and declaring SPs was the commission of SP Acts that might reduce his or his organization’s influence or successes.3
See, e.g, my Suppressive Person Declare. Notice that there are no “characteristics” or “attitudes” of SPs identified or referred to. There are only what the Scientologists/Hubbard said are my actions.
See too, e.g., Caroline’s SP Declare. No mention of her violation of Hubbard’s twelve or sixteen “characteristics;” just her actions, which, the Scientologists claim, violate Hubbard’s some of Hubbard’s “Suppressive Acts.”
The Scientologists don’t give a flying fork, or any other tableware, whether people inside or outside Scientology have these characteristics or attitudes. And the Scientologists do not define an SP with these characteristics. In fact, many of these characteristics are compelled in Scientologists; although, naturally, they deny these characteristics in themselves and project them onto SPs, the persons who “threaten” Scientology.
In essence, you cannot be a Scientologist unless you project your antisocial characteristics onto the SP class. And, in essence, SPs are persons who tell the truth about Hubbard, Scientology and Scientologists’ antisociality. This projection is, in fact, compelled by such policies as what is laid down in Scientology Policy Directive 28 of August 13, 1982, “Suppressive Act – Dealing with a Declared Suppressive Person:”4
The clipped form of the SP doctrine asserts that people who threaten Scientology or Scientologists are “Suppressive Persons,” or “SPs;” or stated the other way around, SPs are persons who threaten Scientology or Scientologists. (That’s the definition.) For the most part, these are persons who tell the truth about Hubbard, Scientology or Scientologists that the Scientologists don’t want told. (There is a mountain of such truth or truths.) Hubbard taught, and the Scientologists teach, that SPs are what are known in wog science as antisocial personalities, or sociopaths, or psychopaths. And Hubbard taught and Scientologists teach that SPs have certain antisocial or antiscientology characteristics. These characteristics are to be both adopted, and justified, by Scientologists in relation to the SP class, and are to be projected unexcused onto the subject SPs, the person telling the uncomfortable but vital truth.
Notes
- HCO PL The Antisocial Personality The Anti-Scientologist ↩
- https://www.suppressiveperson.org/1965/08/07/hcopl-suppressive-persons-main-characteristics-of/ ↩
- The Sp Doctrine On Trial: Opening Statement by Gerry Armstrong ↩
- Scientology Policy Directive 28 of August 13, 1982, “Suppressive Act – Dealing with a Declared Suppressive Person ↩