What is HFA

A Deep Dive Into Scientology Jargon

This post is in response to the opinion poll ending October 31, 2024. Be sure to place your votes in this week’s poll before Thursday.

HFA or held from above is a common phrase in Scientology lingo. For those of you who haven’t read it, I did a deep dive into Scientology’s Org Board for the Underground Bunker on August 5, 2024. Hubbard created a massive, top heavy chart that he cribbed from the US Navy.

However, his chart is not as efficient as the Navy’s. Hubbard created a leader, then 7-9 Divisions. Each Division has 3 Departments then it goes from there. Yes, you read that right. Bare bones executive staffing at a Scientology Organization is 31 top executives. A minimum of thirty-one executives must be in place before other staff is placed.

This is where HFA come in. I was in Scientology in the 1970s. When I was there, there was no internet. People weren’t able to research what Scientology was. There were hundreds of people on the SHSBC, the course I was supervising.

At ASHO Day in Los Angeles in the 1970s, the Org Board was a massive thing. It was mounted on one giant wall. The job titles were all listed there. Every single one. Every executive and every grunt. And there were names or HFA under each job.

Even back then, when there were hundreds of people rushing around on staff all day long there was one static. Lots of jobs were HFA. It was the job of Division One to staff the place, but if the executive didn’t have staff, they did the jobs.

I was one of the names on that board. I was in Division 4, Department 11. My boss was the DOT. Director of Training. This is a photo of a portion of one of the many Org Board policies written in 1965. Hubbard was very strict about no misunderstood words. However, the policy had typos in it (See Department 10.)

Scientology jobs are not like jobs in the real world. A person trains for a job. They show up and do the job. Boom, they are gone. The powers that be have moved them. Or they breathed wrong and got demoted. Or some other whim. Or the person wises up and escapes. Even though there are names on the Org Board, memos aren’t addressed to a name. They are addressed to a post. It is expected that the person will leave sooner rather than later.

Anyone who has been on staff in Scientology for any length of time has been moved from one position to another repeatedly. Anyone who has had an executive post has held other posts from above. Because, you see, the people below them disappear overnight. The executive simply notes that the name is gone from the Org Board. In its place: HFA. Ooops, one more job for that executive. And the executive better notice, because if they don’t take up the slack, they, too will disappear.

This makes a person who leaves Sea Org one of the best workers you can hire. They have been trained never to do anything but work on the job. Taking a break or long lunch makes them nervous. They work any hours you want. They are used to having massive amounts of work dumped on them. They don’t complain.

Today with membership dwindling worldwide, there have been reports of some organizations having less than half a dozen staff. These half dozen staff are required to do approximately 100-200 busywork jobs Hubbard created for his Organization Board. In today’s Scientology, with the entire membership estimated to be below 20,000, I would love to see one of their Org Boards. I guess they are glad they have no one walking in the door. There wouldn’t be time to deal with them.

Miscavige released his Golden Age of Admin. It was supposed to get everyone trained on the Org Board and all Hubbard’s other useless organization policy. Perhaps now that staff is returning to implement it, when they see all the HFAs they will wake up? Ah well, it’s a dream.