What
is the Narconon
therapy programme?
The Narconon programme consists of nine
separate elements conducted over 12 weeks, for a fee
which stood at $15,000 in 1992 (i.e. $178.57 per day). A
curious aspect of the programme is that it is claimed to
be "a totally drug-free, highly effective program to
rehabilitate drug and alcohol abusers..." and the
total absence of drugs in the programme is repeatedly
touted as one of its main features ("Narconon
Drug Rehabilitation and Education Services",
pamphlet, pub. 1989). However, according to a testimonial
given by Narconon's medical director, Dr. Ray Stowers, in
an hearing in Oklahoma City on Oct. 24 1991, staff at the
Narconon Chilocco New Life Center prescribe Valium and
sedatives to patients going through difficult
withdrawals. Dr. Stowers also admitted that he
occasionally had prescribed Valium and sedatives by phone
to such patients. Handing out prescriptions of controlled
and highly addictive substances such as Valium over the
phone is usually not viewed as responsible medical
practice, and was specifically criticised by the Board of
Mental Health of the State of Oklahoma in its 1991 report
on Narconon:
"Narconon fails
to provide adequate supervision for clients
prescribed [clonidine] given this drug's risks and
potential for adverse consequences. Such failure to
adequately supervise endangers the safety, health
and/or the physical or mental well being of the
Narconon clients."
(Findings
of Fact regarding the Narconon-Chilocco Application
For Certification by the Board of Mental Health,
State of Oklahoma, 13 December 1991)
Another pamphlet - this one produced by
the Narconon facility at Chilocco, Oklahoma in 1992 -
gives the following details of the nine steps which
comprise the programme:
"1. DRUG WITHDRAWAL:
In this first part of the program a person gets a
complete physical by our Medical Director, who is on
call 24 hours a day. A withdrawal program is then
written up according to the individual needs of that
person. The program will assist the individual to
stop current drug use with minimal discomfort through
proper nutrition, vitamins and care from experienced
Narconon staff and a qualified nurse who is available
24 hours a day.
2. THE THERAPEUTIC TR
COURSE: This course extroverts the
individual and gets him/her into better communication
with others and with the environment around him/her.
This is accomplished through a series of simple
Training Routines (TRs). Each TR is a specific drill
(exercise) on one part of communication. Together,
the TRs show how to get oneself understood and how to
communicate better with others."
This course, the Narconon Communication
Course, was described in a report commissioned by the
California State Department of Health (the "Tennant
Report") as follows:
"[The course] involves a rigid
series of training routines termed TR's subnumbered
0-9. Each TR is an individually prescribed entity
which must be mastered before proceeding on an upward
"gradient" to the next TR. TR0 involves
three exercises specified as "eyes closed,"
"eyes opened," and "bullbaiting."
The premise seems to involve the exercise of trust in
"eyes closed," the exercise of direct eye
contact tolerance (staring into the coach's eyes) in
"eyes open," and the seeking of an
emotional weak spot or "button" and a
corresponding emotional response to it in the
bullbaiting routine. The bullbaiting exercise seems
to involve principally physical characteristics that
may be used to embarrass or humiliate an individual
and condition him to accept and control is responses
to these verbal threats to his body image. For
example, one might poke fun at a poor complexion, a
crooked nose, and etc. Bullbaiting appears to be a
crude forerunner of the more polished auditing
procedure and is accomplished without the use of the
so-called E-meter. Additionally it appears to be the
primary part of TR0 or the initial exercise routine.
TR1 through 9 involves mastering
written course materials obviously adapted from L.
Ron Hubbard's works and incorporated into the
Narconon Communication Course. They primarily involve
the "proper" understanding of key words and
phrases that must be looked up in the Narconon
dictionary and then demonstrated in each exercise
routine. TR1 teaches students to "clearly
communicate"; TR2 -- how to
"acknowledge" properly; TR3 -- how to get
an answer to a question without
"variation"' and TR4 -- how to handle
"origenation" -- to accept a pain or
discomfort and find out where it originated.
The first five TR's (0-4) must be
mastered in their entirety three times before
proceeding to TR6. (We were informed that no TR5
existed [see note below]. ) TR6 involves
"good and effective control over an individual
or group"' TR7 -- the same as TR6 but on a
higher "gradient" which presumably means
physical control over a threatening or disturbed
individual. TR8 involves "intention without
reservation" - to totally clarify ones
intentions (which may be nonverbal). TR9 is a
culmination of previous TR's and stresses
particularly the thorough mastery of four
conceptions, i.e. "exact intention,"
"exact strength needed," "exact force
necessary," and "exact intention without
reservation or limit."
The student now goes backwards
through this routine and if successful is given a
certificate of completion for the basic Narconon
Communication Course. Upon completion of the basic
Communication Course the student is apparently free
to choose any number of more "advanced"
course study programs, most of which appear to be
stepping stones towards the attainment of HQS
(Hubbard Qualified Scientologist) status. We were
told that approximately 90 percent of the students go
on into the various courses available. A Mr. John
Powers, who stated he is the new staff auditor for
Narconon New Life, states that he hoped all graduates
of the basic Narconon Communications Course would
take courses leading to HQS."
[Outline
for recovery, House Evaluation ("Tennant Report") - by
Forrest S. Tennant, Jr., M.D., Dr.P.H., Jane Thomas,
R.N., Mike Reilly, and Joseph Shannon, M.D., M.P.H.
Submitted to Don Z. Miller, Deputy Director, Health
Treatment System, State Department of Health,
Sacramento, CA, on 31 Oct 1974.]
(In fact, TR5 does exist. The
"Technical Dictionary of Dianetics &
Scientology" (Bridge Publications Inc., 1974)
defines it as "a drill called "Hand
Mimicry," a drill to educate students that verbal
commands are not entirely necessary ... "You make
that body sit in that chair." "Thank you."
")
A detailed comparison of Narconon's
Communication Course and that run by the Church of
Scientology reveals that the two are, in fact, virtually
identical; see "Narconon and Scientology: a comparison".
"3. THE NARCONON NEW
LIFE DETOXIFICATION PROCEDURE: This is the
part of the program where drug residues and other
toxic substances are removed from the body. These
residues are locked in the fatty tissues of the body
and can be released into the blood stream years after
the individual stops taking drugs. These residues can
cause the cravings for drugs and are one of the main
reasons that an individual returns to taking drugs.
The Narconon program removes these residues through
an exact regimen of exercise, sauna and nutritional
supplements."
This is undoubtedly the most
contentious aspect of Narconon's programme. It has been
banned outright in the Russian Federation under order #254 of
the Ministry of Public Health and Medical Industry, issued 19 June 1996. Its scientific validity
is highly questionable; see "What medical
recognition has been gained by Narconon?"
"4. THE LEARNING
IMPROVEMENT COURSE: This course gives the
individual the ability to recognize and overcome the
three main barriers to study and learning. The
individual also learns how to fully use a dictionary,
how to do demonstrations of concepts so he/she can
easily understand them and how to spot and handle any
difficulties in his/her studies."
Like the Communication Course, this is
a direct adaptation of Scientology course materials - in
this case the "Study Technology" originally
devised by L. Ron Hubbard to train Scientologists. The
course chiefly involves learning "how to fully use a
dictionary", reflecting Hubbard's belief that people
feel "bent, dizzy, sort of dead" if they do not
fully understand every possible meaning of a word. In
practice, this can involve writing out definitions for
every word in a sentence, including "and",
"it", "the", and so on. This may well
be useful for grammarians but it is difficult to see the
relevance to drug rehabilitation.
"5. THE COMMUNICATIONS
AND PERCEPTION COURSE: In this course the
individual does a series of exercises designed to
fully extrovert his/her attention and focus it on the
environment. This greatly raises his/her perception
and the ability to handle the environment and control
his/her life. The individual also helps another
person through the same exercises, which increases
his/her responsibility and ability to handle life and
help others.
6. THE UPS AND DOWNS IN
LIFE COURSE: This course gives the
individual the ability to spot and handle those
influences in the environment that could cause the
individual to revert back to drug use. The individual
learns the characteristics of the social and
anti-social personalities so that he/she can spot the
differences and better choose his/her friends and
associates."
The Ups and Downs in Life Course
incorporates a key element of the Church of Scientology's
worldview, namely its identification of people as
"social" and "anti-social" - the
latter more usually being referred to as
"Suppressive Persons" or "SPs".
Activities which are defined as "suppressive"
include such things as publicly criticising Scientology
or Scientologists; "delivering up the person of a
Scientologist without defense or protest to the demands
of civil or criminal law"; "continued adherence
to a person or group pronounced a Suppressive Person or
Group by HCO [Hubbard Communications Office]", and
so on. Anyone guilty of such "crimes" is held
to be acting deliberately to "suppress
Mankind"; therefore, according to L. Ron Hubbard,
"they cannot be granted the rights and beingness
ordinarily accorded rational beings." (Reference: Introduction
to Scientology Ethics, L. Ron Hubbard, 1967).
The Tennant Report notes that Narconon
staff are subject to typical Scientology discipline. It
states:
"The various offenses that
staff may be disciplined for are characterized as
high crimes, felonies, misdemeanors or errors. One
section of the "Organization Executive
Course" specifies that staff
"convicted" of "high crimes" in
addition to having all training certificates revoked
and being banned from the organization, will further
be labeled as "fair game." A later
directive from Hubbard instructs that the term
"fair game" not be used any longer as it is
potentially harmful for public relations.
The evaluation team was unable to
ascertain to what extent these staff disciplinary
practices are actually utilized within the program.
One staff member interviewed indicated that one of
his responsibilities was staff auditor, which within
the organization means that he would administer
E-meter or "truth detector" tests to other
staff members. The circumstances under which these
tests would take place was not explained."
(Tennant
Report,
1974)
"7. THE PERSONAL
VALUES AND INTEGRITY COURSE: This course
gives the individual information that will improve
survival potential; it teaches the individual what is
needed to survive. It also gives the individual
knowledge about personal ethics, honesty and
integrity and shows him/her how to correct
counter-survival behavior."
The Church of Scientology has an
extremely rigid internal disciplinary structure, called
"Scientology Ethics" (or just
"Ethics") which is intended to "correct
counter-survival behaviour" amongst its members.
Such behaviour includes, amongst many other things,
debate and dissent about Scientology or its leaders; the
organisation is emphatically not run on democratic lines
(indeed, its "scriptures" written by Hubbard
specifically denounce democratic systems). Given the very
strong similarity between Narconon and Scientology
doctrine, it is no surprise to see that
"ethics" appear in Narconon as well. As already
mentioned, staff are reported to be subject to
Scientology-style discipline. The authors of the Tennant
Report observed the use of similar disciplinary practices
amongst the Narconon students but were unable to unearth
much information about it:
"Our interviewed data
indicated that the Narconon disciplinary approach was
based on the "Student's Guide to Ethical
Behavior." We were not able to get a copy of the
latter document. We were told that infractions were
"routed" to the "Ethics Officer"
who taught the infractors where they went wrong. We
were unable to obtain any precise information as to
what infractions were other than the drinking of
alcohol 24 hours prior to a course. All medication
use or abuse is considered deviant or aberrant
behavior but the rules or regulations determining
policy actions were simply unstated. One of the
"supervisors" interviewed stated that a
student using Dilantin, phenobarbital, and Tedral was
expelled from Narconon New Life Halfway House.
Presumably the latter individual was epileptic and
asthmatic and his medication use precluded
participation in the Narconon rehabilitation
program."
(Tennant
Report,
1974)
The "Student's Guide to Ethical
Behavior" appears to be very similar to the
"Preclear's Code" in Scientology, being a
statement of the rights and obligations of the member. A
similar code of conduct applies to their
"supervisors".
"8. THE CHANGING
CONDITIONS IN LIFE COURSE: This gives the
individual the exact step-by-step technology he/she
needs to improve his/her life. This technology covers
how to apply exact steps to improve conditions in
life. It also teaches how to apply this technology to
repair previous bad conditions in one's life.
9. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS
COURSE: This course teaches the individual a
moral code, which is a guide to living a happier life
based on the book "The Way to Happiness,"
written by L. Ron Hubbard."
The inclusion of the Way to Happiness
Course is interesting, as internal Scientology documents
explicitly state that the book "The Way to
Happiness" is "the largest dissemination
project in Scientology history." This connection
perhaps goes some way to explaining why, having reached
this ninth step, an internal Narconon flowchart (dated
1984) states that the next and final step is "ROUTE
TO NEAREST [SCIENTOLOGY] ORG[ANIZATION] FOR FURTHER
SERVICES IF INDIVIDUAL SO DESIRES."
This lends some credence to the
frequent claim by critics of Scientology that Narconon
clients are expressly directed into Scientology (this,
they suggest, being the primary goal of the Narconon
programme). Some have suggested that as many as 50-75
percent of those who undergo full Narconon training
become Scientologists. The 1974 Tennant Report states of
the patients interviewed at Narconon New Life in Los
Angeles that "most ... wanted to become qualified
scientologists." Heber Jentzsch, President of the
Church of Scientology International, told the Boston
Herald (3 March 1998) that only about 6 percent
actually do become members of Scientology. However, the
Church's tendency to use statistics creatively means that
this figure has to be treated with some caution.
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