"With these low points on your personality graph, you are going to ------"
(Here, you use what you know of Scientology and assess this)
"Not a very bright prospect is it? Unless you care to change it."
At this point the evaluator leans back in his chair, puts down his pencil on the chart, smiles and says:
"Well, Mr, (Mrs, Miss) - That's what your tests show!
"Thank you very much."
The Evaluator does not reach or try to sell any more than this. If the job has been done well, the person should be worried and will probably ask a question as to what he can do about it all.
This makes explicitly clear - though it probably was that already - that the whole aim of the Personality Test is to so unsettle the person on the receiving end that they feel compelled to buy a Scientology course. "The person should be worried ..."
If so, the evaluator says:
"That is very commendable, wanting to do something about it. A point in your favour".
"There are many things you can do. There are all sorts of things that people go in for. In the past they tried psychology, psycho- analysis, Dale Carnegie, Confidence Courses, Mental Exercises, read books, but these things had a very limited application and you could get yourself terribly involved in mysteries, expenses and wasted time, before you found any solutions to your difficulties. All across the world today, people are coming to us, to find simpler, more straight forward [sic] answers."
(Here the evaluator grows confidential) ......
"Look, I'm technical staff here. I don't have anything to do with sales or courses, but if you'd like a confidential tip, there are all sorts of courses and services going on here all the time, but your best bet is to spend L1 (or cost of PE) on a Personal Efficiency Course and discover what Scientology can offer you. That will save you from getting involved. Go and see that lady over there and tell her you only want the Personal Efficiency Course, so that you can find out what Scientology is about."
Then route the person to P.E. Registrar. [...]
The P.E. Registrar should realise that if the person walks over from the evaluator's table to Reg., he, or she, is SOLD already.
Note how Hubbard tells the evaluator to lie - "I don't have anything to do with sales or courses" - when, as he makes clear, the whole purpose of the evaluator is to sell to the person the need for courses!
I can confirm the above as still being in use; it is precisely the approach that was used on me. The only differences were that the courses offered cost 50 times more than in 1961 (inflation, y'know) and that the evaluator herself tried to sell the courses to me, rather than send me to the registrar. I don't know whether this is standard practice or just a local peculiarity.
This HCO Policy Letter is not an isolated example, but develops a theme set out in earlier Policy Letters. HCO PLs of Oct 28, 1960 and Nov 24, 1960 both deal with similar matters, though perhaps not in quite such detail as the one of Feb 15, 1961 quoted above. In dealing with the use of Personality Tests, Hubbard writes in HCO PL of Oct 28, 1960:
Remarks that 'Scientology can influence this or that characteristic' or 'auditing can remedy that' or 'Processing can change this' or 'Training can stabilise that' should be repeatedly used during the evaluation for the sake of impingement [...] Remember low cases want only to escape the consequences of life [...] Certain traits showing difficulty in handling people should be stressed as most easily remedied and kept remedied by academy training. Graphs showing the 'therapeutic' value of training should be in the display book and on walls [...] We will take full advantage of the superstitions of people at the level of prediction.
This can be seen in a number of Scientology publications; on page 220 of 'What Is Scientology' (1992 edition) can be seen a number of graphs said to have been produced using the OCA. Presumably the CoS expects people to look at the graphs, not at what the graphs actually say, as it is curious that several of the graphs show characteristics declining after auditing. Case A has apparently become less active, Case B less happy and less communicative, and Case C considerably less certain. Only one out of the four shows an across-the-board improvement. Validation by Ron? Hubbard developed the theme some more in HCO Policy Letter of Nov 24, 1960. This was evidently rewritten and expanded into the HCO PL of Feb 15, 1961 on which I have already commented. Referring to the "rawmeat" as an "Incomer" (because he brings Income, no doubt), Hubbard writes:
Evaluator takes Incomer off meter without explanation and turns to graph. Evaluator now explains each point of graph. But it is vital that at each low point, where explained he adds, 'Scientology can help that.' This is said directly to make an impingement. The wording can be varied but the sense must be the same. Do not precede this statement with 'Dont' worry' [sic] or the like as this cancels inpingement. Graph done, Evaluator explains IQ. If low he says 'Scientology training can raise that.' He explains levels of IQ; tells person even if it's high that IQ means little unless person knows something with it. Evaluator now takes up the Meter Case Assessment sheet. Here he tells of pc's future. It is done by looking at pc's statement of his past and by rephrasing saying it is going to happen, (without Scientology fates don't change much. Accidents, divorces, &c., happen again). This is all rapidly done. Factually, expertly [...] The Evaluator now leans back and says 'That's it.' Incomer is hanging on ropes. If Incomer says anything like 'What can I do about it?' Evaluator says, 'That is very commendable, wanting to do something about it. A good point in your favour. I'm a technical person, not a sales personnel [sic]. Confidentially, though, I'll give you a tip. Don't spend money foolishly until you know what you're spending it for. Psychiatrists and so on could cost you thousands. You'd buy anything they said because you know little about the mind. So why don't you take an Anatomy Course and learn something about the mind. That's just a tip. It's cheap and you'll be wiser about what to do about yourself. The person over there is in the Service Department. Ask him.' [...] If the Incomer walks out without buying, the PrR man (even if he is interviewing someone else and even if Incomer has not approached him) rushes over and gives Incomer a copy of Problems of Work and Dianetics, Evolution of a Science, and says 'Here are two books that might help you,' and without waiting for an answer goes back to his desk. The above routine is at this time a set, fixed activity. As it works further it may be improved.
It evidently did work, as it was reformulated in even greater detail only ten weeks later.
Judging from the documents I have cited and from my own experience, it seems evident that the Personality Test is, to put it bluntly, a rather nasty con trick. However, it plainly does work. 'What Is Scientology?' (1992 edition) states that 18 percent of current Scientologists joined as a result of taking the OCA. Even if one uses the much lower figures for Scientology membership cited by critics, that still means that since the introduction of the OCA, several hundred thousand people have been recruited by that means. It is virtually certain that few, if any, knew at the time what lies behind the image of the smiling recruiter handing out leaflets inviting you to "Find out about yourself".
good luck.
