Suppressive Person - Suppressive Person Policies and Practices

Suppressive Person Policies and Practices

According to the Hubbard textbook titled Introduction to Scientology Ethics ("the Ethics book"), when an individual is found to be under the influence of a Suppressive Person, it is believed that this will affect their general well-being. An individual with an SP in their vicinity is likely to be under stress or frequently upset, and this would potentially jeopardize the stability of any treatment or education. Therefore, a parishioner who is found to have such suppressive connections is not permitted to participate in certain Scientology classes and counseling until the situation has been adequately resolved.

The Ethics book provides a guideline for use in sorting out such a condition. A first step is always to educate the person about the phenomenon of the Suppressive Person and the effects this is believed to have on the individuals close to the SP. Once the education step is completed, the person can further follow the guidelines to sort out the situation so that the parishioner is no longer negatively affected.

If after reasonable attempts have been made to "handle" the situation to no avail, the parishioner may take the option of "disconnecting" from the SP. Scientology Security checks are also common for SP and PTS situations.

In the Scientology Ethics book, "disconnection" is defined as a self-determined decision made by an individual that he is not going to be connected to another. It is a severing of a "communication line".

The concept of the Suppressive Person in Scientology has been the source of some controversy, due in some part to aversion to the idea of "disconnecting" from close family members and friends.

Another source of controversy related to the Suppressive Person doctrine is the formal administrative judgment that labels an individual a "Suppressive Person." This is known as an "SP Declare," and is issued as a "Flag Ethics Order" since 1976. This is because presently, an SP Declare needs to be approved by the "International Justice Chief" (IJC), who resides at Gold Base, which is not a formal Scientology office and thus not authorized to issue Ethics Orders.

Non-Scientologists can be and have been labelled as suppressive persons. A suppressive person is one who has been responsible for "suppressive acts," defined by Hubbard as being "the overt or covert actions or omissions knowingly and willfully undertaken to suppress, reduce, prevent or destroy case gains, and/or the influence of Scn on activities, and/or the continued Scn success and actions on the part of organizations actions and Scientologists."

Similarly, entire groups could be declared suppressive; suppressive groups, in Hubbard's view, were "those which seek to destroy Scn or which specialize in injuring or killing persons or damaging their cases or which advocate suppression of mankind.". Under this broader definition, suppressiveness included more than just publicly opposing Scientology; it also included any group supporting activities to which Hubbard was strongly opposed, especially psychiatry.

Hubbard considered reporters and government agents to be members of suppressive groups: "There are no good reporters. There are no good government or SP group agents. The longer you try to be nice, the worse off you will be. And the sooner one learns this, the happier he will be."

The Church of Scientology maintains a central list of ex-members and splinter groups formally declared to be suppressive. In an executive directive of 1992, the Church's "International Justice Chief" lists over 400 groups and over 2,300 individuals considered to be suppressive. The list includes individual ex-Scientologists and breakaway groups regarded as hostile or heretical, such as Erhard Seminars Training (EST).