What is Bullbaiting

Scientology Training Routine 0 Part 3

This article is written in response to the poll that closed August 22, 2024. Place your votes in the latest poll here.

When Hubbard created the initial Training Routines (TRs) in Scientology, there were 4 basic TRs. Training Routine 0 is the first thing a student learns when they begin the Intro Course, the Communications Course. Bullbaiting is part 3 of TR 0. TR0 is the very first step in learning to communicate the Scientology way. The Comm Course, as it is usually known, is supposed to get a person to be able to better communicate in life.

TR 0 Part 1 Beingness: Two people sit across from each other about 3 feet apart, eyes closed. The drill is complete when the people can be with the other person for an extended period without fidgeting or getting drowsy.

TR 0 Part 2 Confront: Two people sit across from each other about 3 feet apart, eyes open. The drill is complete when the people can look at each other comfortably for an extended period without fidgeting or getting drowsy.

TR 0 Part 3 Bullbaiting. This definition is taken directly from Scientology’s website:

The coach says things to the student to try to provoke a reaction, including teasing, joking and yelling. The coach may say or do anything except leaving the chair. The student must be able to sit and watch the coach without getting distracted or reacting in any way. If he does, the coach flunks him and the TR starts over. The coach will attempt to find the student’s “buttons” (things that cause a reaction). The stated purpose of this TR is to train the student to be there in a communication situation without getting distracted.

If you are reading this and scratching your head, wondering how any of what is described above has to do with actual communication, take a gold star and go to the head of the class. You’re right. It doesn’t.

Even the word Bullbaiting is a red flag. Bull Baiting originated in Shakespearean times as a blood sport. A bull would have pepper blown up its nose to enrage it, then it would be put in a ring, either in a hole in a ground or tied to a stake. A specially bred English Bulldog would come into the ring and bite at it. People paid for the privilege of having their dog attack the bull. A 1744 ad that appeared in a Wokingham, Berkshire, England paper read as follows:

BULL BAITING. On Wednesday next, being St. Thomas’s Day, Two Bulls will be baited in the Market-Place, Wokingham, which will be run for, a very handsome MOROCCO COLLAR, stitched with Silver, and a Silver Plate for a Label, of a Guinea and Half Value. Each Dog is to be let three Times at the first Bull, four Times at the second, and only one Dog run at a Time. The Owner of each Dog that runs, pays One Shilling for Entrance. Proper Judges will be appointed before running to determine who may be the Winner, A good Ordinary at the King’s Inn, between the Times of Baiting the Bulls.

At the time, the belief was that baiting improved the meat quality and tenderness when consumed. The Cruelty to Animals Act passed in 1835 outlawed this and other similar sports.

Bullbaiting in Scientology was a similarly unpleasant experience for the person being attacked by their twin. I saw people leave the course room crying and never return. Your twin is allowed to poke and prod you, say hateful things to you, yell at you, make fun of you. They are supposed to do whatever they can without leaving their chair just to get you to react. If you react, even something as simple as a flinch, you are flunked and subjected to further humiliation at the hand of your twin.

Another reason a person doesn’t get to be close friends with anyone in Scientology is because a drill like this gives them fodder. If your twin knows any word you don’t like, they will say it over and over. Upset about something? Expect to hear about it at volume in a course room with other people. Aversion to others in your space? Oh, your twin will be right there. Those ten extra pounds you haven’t lost since having a baby. You will be so body shamed.

This is where the thousand yard stare you hear about Scientologists having comes from, and the reason a Scientologist may seem emotionless to you. They don’t just seem emotionless. Scientology’s very first training teaches them that emotion is bad, and they are trained over and over at every level to ensure that you show no emotion. After awhile, it becomes easier to just not feel than to care.

It is similarly hard after leaving to shake that training. It isn’t easy to break free of the rote communication “skills,” methods of dealing with others that are not really dealing with someone at all, that Hubbard said were the way to communicate with anyone on any subject.

I did discover that my bullbaiting training came in useful once in my post-Scientology life. A man decided I had cut in front of him in line at an in-store pharmacy. I was holding my young son who was running a 105F fever and my name had been called to come to the counter to pick up the prescription my doctor had called in. Out of nowhere, a large man jumped up and got directly in my face, spittle flying, telling me he was there first. The pharmacist was reaching for their phone to call security, customers were either backing off or getting ready to intervene.

I was a tired, scared, single mom raising two children and couldn’t really do anything about the man in my face while holding my very sick child in my arms. I had no support system and no one except my young child was there with me. The last thing I needed was something like that happening to me at that moment. I just stood there and stared unseeingly through the man. After a minute he said “aw fuck you,” and stomped back to his chair. I looked back at the pharmacist, paid for the prescription and left.

These days, I would have reacted differently, probably turning my back on him, or just putting my phone to my ear and saying “hey Siri dial 911.” But at the time, I reacted exactly the way Scientology taught me to react when being abused. I shut down and took it.

That’s what their very first Training Routine teaches you to do. The very first one. And, no, it certainly doesn’t get better, it gets so much worse.