Scientology Snitch Culture

When Twin is a Dirty Word

As soon as a person enters the doors of any Scientology building.they are officially part of a snitch culture. They will hear words like self-determinism, freedom, ability, make your own choices and told be told their study on courses is done at their own speed, but the first action a supervisor does is assign you a twin. The theory is that this twin will help you get through the drills on the course faster and study will be easier. The truth is that you are in the door, now you are being watched.

The very first document anyone reads on their first course in Scientology is Keeping Scientology Working. You will encounter this draconian policy any time you start a course in Scientology the entirety of the time you are in.. It is drilled into you. Items 9 and 10 on the list tell you it is your duty to ensure no one does anything incorrectly in Scientology ever.The other items on the list make sure you know Hubbard is the one who knows exactly what is right so don’t question it.

This is where a twin comes in. The twin has to drill you on how to practice what you have learned. If you and the twin disagree on what you are practicing, by all means, feel free to ask the supervisor for help. You will be “helped” by the supervisor saying “what do your materials state?” or “is there a word you didn’t understand?” This means both you and your twin must now re read what you just finished.

Then, after re-reading the entire document, knowing full well it still doesn’t make sense, but now being aware that the supervisor route is not the way to go, you could surreptitiously look around the course room to see if another set of two people are drilling what you don’t understand. Don’t let your supervisor catch you not paying attention to your material, though, you’ll be forced to re read it again. If you’re lucky enough to see someone else doing it, then you might be brave enough to try imitating what they are doing. If not, best course of action is just to suck it up and say “let’s do this.” 

It was the luck of the draw that the twin I was assigned at the beginning of my journey onto Scientology got along well with me. We seemed to agree on how things should be done, and generally moved fairly smoothly through the courses we did together. We would do a drill. If either of us did something that was not supposed to happen in the drill, the other one would say “flunk” and after a quick conversation, we would start again. We mostly avoided having the supervisor administer us for having the temerity to communicate- on the Communications Course.

However, there were others where the results were different. I saw one person angrily yell that the whole thing was ridiculous and storm out, leaving his twin in the lurch. The supervisor and the student left behind were chastised for that. Hubbard said that the only reason a person leaves was because of misunderstood words. The person without a twin was left to wait a couple of days for a new twin. I heard rumor that the person who left was called a few dozen times to try to get them to come back. I did not see him again while I was there.

In another case, a person called the supervisor over because their twin was badmouthing the process. Let me make this clear. This was on the Communications Course. The introductory course in Scientology. The person who was badmouthing Scientology was sent to. ethics. They had been on course two days total. They left. 

I’m telling you this to make it clear that from the moment you set foot in the door of Scientology, no matter what you are told, you are expected to rigorously toe a line you usually don’t even know exists. And there are always eyes on you. It’s a shame I don’t have a less compatible twin.