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The Hard Sell
From the Evening Argus, 30 March 1994
The centre in Poole, which accepted Jon's money, was singled out for praise in the cult, the Evening Argus has learned.
It was a "supreme" example of how to get "floods of new people into your mission".
The office also covers the Chichester area.
An internal report, dated April t 1993, tells how each week sales team:
SELLS between 200 and 300 Hubbard books.
STARTS 40 to 50 new people on courses.
DISTRIBUTES 200,000 "pieces of promo" in the area.
And any member of staff who sold 15 books one day got a "large cash bonus".
The sales team was thoroughly drilled on ways of getting the public to part with its money.
Example: Staff were told: "One thing that works is to have the person read the information given on the back cover of the Dianetics book . . . the person is then gotten to purchase the book on the spot, paying either by cash or credit card."
The customer's name, address, and telephone number were taken and a date fixed for another appointment. [A box in the text has these words printed in bold type: SCIENTOLOGY: THE INSIDE STORY.]
One of the main recommendations in the 12-page report is straight from the mouth of L. Ron Hubbard himself: "Make sure that lots of bodies move through the shop, no matter whether they're spending or not.
"Just work all the time to move lots of bodies through the place."
Other training drills were listed in a document from the Hubbard Communications Office at Saint Hill in the Eighties.
Drill: "To train the student to get the prospect (public) in a receptive, positive frame of mind so he will further agree with what he is told."
Drill: "To train the student to handle sales resistance in the home with more than one person present."
Drill: "To Train a registrar (sales staff) to completely handle the prospect (public) so he will pay for a service now."
Drill: "To train the student, after having stripped the prospect (public) of initial sales resistance, to put the prospect (public) in a position of deciding to buy."
Practical exercises to help staff achieve all these aims are detailed in the report.
This is what Jon was not told when he stepped through the door of the Dianetics centre.
Nor was he told about the final drill on the last page of the guide.
Here the student is taught to set up a microphone or another 'bugging' device secretly to record sales interviews.
Tapes are then played to the "supervisor" who decides whether his "pupil" needs further training.
It is a technique used widely in marketing and selling.
But there is one difference.
Scientologists are not selling adverts or double glazing.
The Verdict:
Mr Mansell said: "I've seen people literally have their lives completely and totally dragged out of the depths of degradation by Scientology."
Jon was not one of them.
Now happily married, he said: "I went from being a reasonably happy, open sort of person to an almost suicide case. Mentally and emotionally, I was a complete wreck after it."
He had just one message: "Don't get involved. Don't even talk to them. Learn by mistakes."
[A large picture shows Mr. Hubbard seated at a desk with a paper in his hands. Caption: "Top: Ron Hubbard, pictured by the Evening Argus at East Grinstead in December, 1959." A second picture shows a young man sitting in a chair. Two long ribbon-like arrows run from his head down over his knees. A woman, standing, is pointing at his chest. By his forehead is the word "THETAN". On his left shoulder the word "BODY". On his left elbow near one of the arrows "COMMUNICATION WAVE FLOWING", with this caption: "Left: A demonstration of the cult's healing technique, as it appears in the handbook, above. A small picture above shows a book "The Scientology Handbook, by L. Ron Hubbard."
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