Standing Order no. 3
"All HCO Personnel and Scientology Personnel should not discourage communication to me."
"I am always willing to help."
"By my own creed, a being is only as valuable as he can serve others."
On the third floor, scientologists participate in drills designed, as Velona said, to "better their skills in communication." Near a window sat two students facing each other and staring directly into each other's eyes. They sat motionless and speechless. "This drill allows one to feel more comfortable when talking to somebody eye-to-eye," Velona said. In the middle of the room two women also faced each other. One said, "Do birds fly?"
"No sweetie, but I like your dress," the other answered.
"But do birds fly?" the one said again.
"I had pancakes for breakfast this morning," the other replied. Velona said the drill teaches a student "to persevere until her question is answered."
In the corner of the room a man kneaded and shaped figures in clay, as Hubbard peered down from a photograph. The student, according to Velona, was taking abstract concepts like fear and anger and shaping them into simple shapes. He was bringing "significant, immaterial concepts down to earth," Velona said.
Just as students simplify and reduct abstract concepts into clay, so does Scientology--according to the church's book What Is Scientology?-- determine accurately the invariable instrumental means." One of the instruments used to measure people's "honest and potential character" is an E-meter. The E-meter console sends 1.5 volts of electricity through two wires to two tin cans held in the hands of the student. The auditor sits facing the student and the dials of the console, and asks the student to consider certain questions. The student's reaction to these questions register on the dial of the E-meter and allow "a trained counselor to determine if a person feels bad in a certain area," Velona said.
THE E-METER, according to Velona, measures the changes of resistance" within a person's body and the person's response to certain concepts or thoughts. "Everything has certain resistance," Velona said, standing over the meter. "All recollections have a molecular mass" which are registered on the E-meter and interpreted by the trained auditor. Velona said that the auditor, however, does not evaluate a person's response but "encourages a person to come to his own realizations."
"The basis of the test is honesty--the individual is his own best counselor and judge," Velona said.
The two individuals continued to stare into each other's eyes. silent beneath a photograph of Hubbard. They were advancing their communication potential.
With the more than five million world-wide followers it claims to have today, perhaps Scientology will continue to grow. After all, Scientology literature claims that Hubbard has applied science to the humanities, unifying the realms of the spirit and the natural sciences. And, as Velona said, John Travolta is a scientologist.