Managing to recruit: religious conversion in the workplace

Sociology of Religion, Winter, 1998 by Deana Hall

PMCs can use this extensive knowledge of the professionals' financial situation to counter individual refusals to sign up for courses based on a lack of financial resources (Geary 1994: 9, 10, 14; Hall and Kent 1995: 36; Hall and Kent 1994: 56). As we shall see, the PMCs also can use this information at a later date to convince medical professionals that they need Scientology courses to handle personal problems. Following their practice analysis, practitioners attend their first practice management training program.

The practice management training program generally consists of supervised reading, twelve hours daily for five to eight days (Gorman 1990: 28). During training, generally offered at PMC's training facilities, PMC consultants will identify for the doctors potential "problems" supposedly indicated by their Oxford Capacity Analysis personality profile.(6) The consultant will suggest that unless the professional "handles" these personal problems, all of the time and money invested in the management course will be wasted. The consultant then will suggest or recommend that the professional consult with a recruiter from Scientology (Ochart 1993a, 124; Ochart 1993b, 230, 237, 249; Hall and Kent 1995: 17). During this Scientology consultation, the Scientologist recommends a specific program of both courses and auditing (which is a form of psychological therapy and ideological instruction), to help the person deal with the personal issues identified by the personality profile.

According to interview subjects, these meetings occur late at night, after several long days of training. Often the meeting results in PMC clients agreeing to join Scientology in an effort to gain Scientology's assistance in alleviating these newly identified alleged personal problems. One interview subject commented on this process as it occurred during his practice management training program.

The scuttlebutt was that . . . this guy was a recruiter for Scientology, and everybody knew that. So everybody, all of us, all the dentists and podiatrists, . . . and periodontists and chiropractors that were there with us, we all went in [to the private meeting with the Scientology recruiter] with our eyes open, knowing that this guy was going to try to get us to sign up for Scientology. And so we all had this sense of invulnerability, that we were tough and we weren't going to fall for this. . . . None of us were going to sign up for this. In reality, every single one of us did, every single one of us did (Hall and Kent 1995: 17-18).

Although it is difficult to access specific percentages, the data indicate that medical professionals do enter Scientology through PMC management programs. Officials for one PMC, for example, acknowledge that about 20 percent of the chiropractors who sign up for management consulting also wind up in Scientology courses (Koff 1987). In fact, a number of WISE publications, including the 1989 Western United States Business Directory, refer to one of the PMCs as being Scientology's most effective recruiting organization (Ochart 1993b: 249, exhibit 5; Wilson 1993: 99, exhibit 2; WISE 1989).