International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 5, 2014 65
if at all. Jenna’s serious indoctrination and
separation from the outside world had begun:
Questioning attitudes and
nonconforming behavior was [sic] kept
in check through threats, punishments,
and humiliation in front on the group.
Any time you were late, flunked an
inspection, or behaved in a way that was
not considered ethical, you would get a
chit [a “kind of written demerit”],
sometimes several chits a day.
(p. 50)
Copies of chits were placed into the children’s
ethics folders, with this self-policing destroying
trust between them.
The youngsters were subjected to a nonstop,
exhausting, physical and educational routine.
Rising at 6:30 AM, they dressed, cleaned their
dormitories, did laundry, swept, and collected
trash. At 7:00 AM, they lined up for “morning
muster,” a military-style inspection. Then they
went to “Chinese school,” where they had to
parrot in unison quotations from L. Ron
Hubbard.
After that came a period of “fulfilling their
posts,” primarily physical labor. When Jenna
was 6 years old, her job was to maintain a
portion of the grounds. At age 7, when she
signed her billion-year contract1 with the
church, she was given the Medical Liaison
Officer post, which required her to “visit each
child at the Ranch and make what was called the
‘Sick List.’ This meant I had to walk up to
everyone and ask him or her, ‘Do you have any
sickness?’” (p. 55). When she received a
positive response, Jenna treated the condition,
sometimes even serious cuts. She distributed
vitamins, made a special health concoction, and
administered “assists,” special procedures based
on the Scientology theory that “the Thetan
controlled the mind and the body” (p. 56). If a
child appeared seriously ill, Jenna would tell an
adult, but she never saw a doctor while she was
at The Ranch. They never used drugs to relieve
pain or fevers. “Looking back on this time,”
Jenna tells us,
1 A symbolic religious contract all Sea Org members sign to
signify their dedication to the organization.
…it’s difficult even for me to
understand how a seven-year-old child
could be entrusted to do a job like this. I
hate to think what might have happened
if a child had been extremely sick and I
hadn’t realized the seriousness…
However, I didn’t feel unqualified or
unprepared, because this was the only
way I knew to do things. They
supposedly told me how to care for kids,
and I learned how to follow their
instructions as best I could. (p 57)
Finally, the children ate breakfast at 8:30
afterward they cleaned the dishes and kitchen,
and had their “second muster.” This time
consisted of the labor-intensive work projects
that lasted 4 hours and brought, according to
Jenna, the total hours of work time for young
children and young teens to more than thirty-five
hours a week (in addition to their schooling and
Scientology training). The small work teams
landscaped, hauled heavy rocks, loaded piles of
roofing into wheelbarrows, and pulled weeds in
every kind of temperature and weather. The
children were told they had to do this heavy
labor in return for the privilege of living at The
Ranch. They were also told the work kept them
from being criminals because only criminals got
things for free. And it was good training for
them.
At 1:45 PM, after lunch and cleanup, the
children began school, which lasted until 6:00
PM, with one 15-minute break. They learned
subjects on their own. From 6:00 PM to 6:45
PM, the children ate and cleaned up dinner.
Then their Scientology studies, complicated and
demanding Scientology courses that included
training-routine (TR) drills, lasted until 9:00
PM. Before their 9:30 PM bedtime, all children
had to fill out a point-based personal progress
report for the day. On Thursday afternoons,
they calculated complex numerical data,
charting on graphs their personal improvement.
Jenna summarizes her early life:
The list of duties and procedures went
on endlessly, and the result of all this
process, paperwork, and regulations was
that there were no children at the
Ranch—only little adults. At special
if at all. Jenna’s serious indoctrination and
separation from the outside world had begun:
Questioning attitudes and
nonconforming behavior was [sic] kept
in check through threats, punishments,
and humiliation in front on the group.
Any time you were late, flunked an
inspection, or behaved in a way that was
not considered ethical, you would get a
chit [a “kind of written demerit”],
sometimes several chits a day.
(p. 50)
Copies of chits were placed into the children’s
ethics folders, with this self-policing destroying
trust between them.
The youngsters were subjected to a nonstop,
exhausting, physical and educational routine.
Rising at 6:30 AM, they dressed, cleaned their
dormitories, did laundry, swept, and collected
trash. At 7:00 AM, they lined up for “morning
muster,” a military-style inspection. Then they
went to “Chinese school,” where they had to
parrot in unison quotations from L. Ron
Hubbard.
After that came a period of “fulfilling their
posts,” primarily physical labor. When Jenna
was 6 years old, her job was to maintain a
portion of the grounds. At age 7, when she
signed her billion-year contract1 with the
church, she was given the Medical Liaison
Officer post, which required her to “visit each
child at the Ranch and make what was called the
‘Sick List.’ This meant I had to walk up to
everyone and ask him or her, ‘Do you have any
sickness?’” (p. 55). When she received a
positive response, Jenna treated the condition,
sometimes even serious cuts. She distributed
vitamins, made a special health concoction, and
administered “assists,” special procedures based
on the Scientology theory that “the Thetan
controlled the mind and the body” (p. 56). If a
child appeared seriously ill, Jenna would tell an
adult, but she never saw a doctor while she was
at The Ranch. They never used drugs to relieve
pain or fevers. “Looking back on this time,”
Jenna tells us,
1 A symbolic religious contract all Sea Org members sign to
signify their dedication to the organization.
…it’s difficult even for me to
understand how a seven-year-old child
could be entrusted to do a job like this. I
hate to think what might have happened
if a child had been extremely sick and I
hadn’t realized the seriousness…
However, I didn’t feel unqualified or
unprepared, because this was the only
way I knew to do things. They
supposedly told me how to care for kids,
and I learned how to follow their
instructions as best I could. (p 57)
Finally, the children ate breakfast at 8:30
afterward they cleaned the dishes and kitchen,
and had their “second muster.” This time
consisted of the labor-intensive work projects
that lasted 4 hours and brought, according to
Jenna, the total hours of work time for young
children and young teens to more than thirty-five
hours a week (in addition to their schooling and
Scientology training). The small work teams
landscaped, hauled heavy rocks, loaded piles of
roofing into wheelbarrows, and pulled weeds in
every kind of temperature and weather. The
children were told they had to do this heavy
labor in return for the privilege of living at The
Ranch. They were also told the work kept them
from being criminals because only criminals got
things for free. And it was good training for
them.
At 1:45 PM, after lunch and cleanup, the
children began school, which lasted until 6:00
PM, with one 15-minute break. They learned
subjects on their own. From 6:00 PM to 6:45
PM, the children ate and cleaned up dinner.
Then their Scientology studies, complicated and
demanding Scientology courses that included
training-routine (TR) drills, lasted until 9:00
PM. Before their 9:30 PM bedtime, all children
had to fill out a point-based personal progress
report for the day. On Thursday afternoons,
they calculated complex numerical data,
charting on graphs their personal improvement.
Jenna summarizes her early life:
The list of duties and procedures went
on endlessly, and the result of all this
process, paperwork, and regulations was
that there were no children at the
Ranch—only little adults. At special
