SAINT HILL ORGANIZATIONS
Church of Scientology Saint Hill Organizations are found in four locations around the world: East Grinstead, Los Angeles, Sydney and Copenhagen.
The fountainhead of much of Scientology—technically and organizationally—is the heritage of the church of Scientology at Saint Hill in East Grinstead, Sussex, England. During the period L. Ron Hubbard resided there, from 1959 through 1966, some of the Scientology religion’s most historically significant events took place.
“It was at Saint Hill that our growth began,”
Mr. Hubbard later wrote. “It was from here that the upper bastions of freedom and ability were issued.”
This English manor was not only Mr. Hubbard’s home, but the bustling site of some of his most important breakthroughs on the subject of the mind and spirit. The first Scientology Clears were made here, as were the first to reach the levels of OT—Operating Thetan.
“I arrived at Saint Hill in April 1965,” recalls a Scientologist. “There were about fifty-six or fifty-seven staff. By August, there were two hundred staff. It was CROWDED. People audited elbow to elbow and nobody minded.”
Another Scientologist said of the period: “My first impression of Saint Hill was it was busy and friendly. There were always new people arriving, but it was very orderly and stable.
“The atmosphere was enthusiastic. Clears were being announced all the time and there was a lot of very fast movement on the Grade Chart.”
During these years, Scientologists came from all corners of the world to listen to Mr. Hubbard’s daily lectures on his new discoveries. They applied these breakthroughs immediately, and from this came new techniques and procedures for training auditors to a level of skill not previously attainable on what was known as the original Saint Hill Special Briefing Course (SHSBC).
Today, all of the materials on which Mr. Hubbard briefed those first parishioners—in total, more than 430 recorded lectures—remain the very core of the Briefing Course.
When other churches were formed in Copenhagen, Los Angeles and Sydney to minister this advanced and special auditor training, they opened their doors as Saint Hill Organizations for they, too, specialize in conducting the SHSBC for all Scientology parishioners in their part of the world.
Saint Hill Organizations must maintain facilities for parishioners from both local areas and even other countries. Most parishioners who travel to a Saint Hill arrange their schedules so they can devote themselves to an intensive period of training—several months to a year—on the Briefing Course. Thus, Saint Hills have a high concentration of parishioners who devote their full time to religious services.
The intensity of discovery, of obtaining greater spiritual knowledge and practice is every bit as alive as in those earliest days of the Briefing Course.
Today, Scientologists still come to East Grinstead from around the world for the Briefing Course or simply to see an important place in Scientology’s history. Visitors to the Manor see the course rooms where the first lectures of the original Briefing Course were given, and the research room where Mr. Hubbard made his historic breakthroughs into the states of Clear and OT, opening the Bridge to all mankind.
And today, when a Scientologist wishes to dedicate himself to the full understanding of his religion at the church which represents the very heart of Scientology, he does so at a Saint Hill.
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