The technologies utilized by ABLE have developed into four general social betterment programs, each addressing a specific area of current social concern: Applied Scholastics, an educational program; Narconon, a drug rehabilitation program; Criminon, a criminal rehabilitation program; and a program for improving public morality based on a nonreligious moral code called “The Way to Happiness.”
The Church and its parishioners financially support ABLE and its social betterment groups. And while ABLE additionally raises funds through donations and grants from non-Scientology related entities, ABLE and its related organizations do not in turn contribute to the financial support of any Church of Scientology.
Applied Scholastics Inc. is responsible for the broad-based application in society of Mr. Hubbard’s Study Technology, a revolutionary methodology which enables a person to learn how to learn and also delineates the major barriers to effective study and how to overcome them. The efficacy of Mr. Hubbard’s methods has been documented in a number of independent studies. Applied Scholastics manages hundreds of programs around the world through which students, parents, teachers, educational organizations and businesses work to eradicate illiteracy and improve education.
Applied Scholastics also sponsors literacy projects in the inner cities of Compton, California; Washington, D.C.; Harlem, New York; Memphis, Tennessee; and other cities in the United States and elsewhere. Working side by side with members of other religious faiths and concerned citizens, and utilizing Study Technology, these literacy efforts are providing effective solutions to inner-city urban decay and violence, raising literacy levels, returning citizens to productivity and restoring hope for the future.
A similar program in South Africa, Education Alive, has brought the benefits of literacy to millions of disadvantaged black students and teachers. This program originated in the mid-1970s, long before the walls of apartheid fell, as Scientology’s long-term solution to enable black Africans to become responsible participants in the affairs of their country.
Since Applied Scholastics began in the 1960s, more than 3 million students, parents, teachers, and staff members of educational organizations and businesses have participated in its programs, delivered today by 156 groups in 31 countries on all six continents.
The Church of Scientology and its members have provided major financial support to the Narconon drug rehabilitation program since its inception in the 1970s.
Narconon—meaning “non-narcosis” or “no-drugs”—headed by Narconon International in Los Angeles, operates in 34 locations in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Denmark, England and Russia. The Narconon program has freed more than 25,000 people from the debilitating effects of drug addiction. Its drug-free withdrawal, detoxification and rehabilitation program utilizes Mr. Hubbard’s technologies and is officially recognized in several countries as the most effective drug rehabilitation program available.
In addition to drug-free withdrawal, the Narconon program enables a person to locate and overcome the source of the problem—why he or she became drug or alcohol-dependent in the first place—and a detoxification procedure which rids the body of drug residues. Mr. Hubbard developed a procedure and regimen, known in the Narconon program as the “New Life Detoxification Procedure,” when he discovered that drugs, chemicals and other toxins lodge in the body’s fatty tissues and thereafter hinder mental well-being and block spiritual advancement. The procedure consists of a tightly supervised regimen of exercise, sauna sweat-out, nutrition (including vitamins, minerals and oil) and a properly ordered schedule with sufficient rest that is used to rid the body of these hostile biochemical substances.
Narconon also operates the largest training and rehabilitation facility of its kind in the world, the Narconon Chilocco New Life Center near Newkirk, Oklahoma, which is accredited by the Commission for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, the foremost authority on drug rehabilitation programs in the United States.
In Sweden, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, governments provide funding for Narconon drug education efforts and support delivery of the drug rehabilitation program. In 1988, a resolution passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the success of Narconon and Mr. Hubbard’s drug rehabilitation technology. With 69 to 78 percent of its graduates still off drugs after two years and no instances of drug-related crimes among its graduates, its success rate is unmatched.
Criminon—meaning “no crime”—is a criminal rehabilitation program participated in by inmates in more than 200 U.S. correctional facilities. The Criminon program grew out of the Narconon prison programs, which by the 1980s, as drug usage increased in all sectors of society, had shifted its emphasis from prisons to community-based activities. Criminon expanded into the correctional facilities to fill the need that still existed there.
The Criminon program addresses the underlying causes of criminality, using portions of the Narconon program to handle the individual’s drug problems, and The Way to Happiness common-sense moral program to restore his self-esteem.
In an independent study of juvenile offenders enrolled in the Criminon program, only two percent of the pilot group reverted to crime. In a comparable control group, 80 percent were recidivist.
The revolving-door syndrome that currently plagues our prisons and threatens our communities now has a workable solution through Criminon, which truly rehabilitates criminals and returns them to society as productive members.
The Way to Happiness Foundation raises funds to support the publication and distribution of The Way to Happiness booklet and its use in social betterment programs, such as Criminon, around the world.
The Way to Happiness is a common sense moral code written by Mr. Hubbard as a solution to the declining moral values in society. It appeals to reason and can be applied by anyone, regardless of race, creed, nationality or ethnic origins. It contains 21 separate precepts, each constituting a rule for living relevant to anyone in society today, particularly in this era of foundering mores in which few seem able to muster up the religious faith demanded of moral codes in ages past. Mr. Hubbard’s code filled a need and immediately spread into society to create a grass roots movement that has spread far beyond the borders of the United States. More than 47 million copies have been distributed in 40 countries and 17 languages.
The booklet was found to bring peace through moral harmony from the individual in prisons, to riot-torn inner cities, to war zones of foreign countries.
When South Africa was suffering from political turmoil and riots, distribution of The Way to Happiness in the black township of Soweto did much to ease racial tensions and bring an end to the violence. Similarly, in the drug-torn nation of Colombia, that nation’s largest and most influential newspaper distributed copies of the booklet to all subscribers and printed a series of quotes from it in its editions. A Colombian army general was so taken with the work that he had 30,000 copies distributed to soldiers fighting the drug war.
The booklet has also brought about reform in inner-city areas among hard-core gang members. In Los Angeles, for instance, after being exposed to its teachings, gang members voluntarily removed graffiti from buildings in their neighborhood and passed out hundreds of copies of the booklet to others in the area.
It is used by law enforcement agencies and prisons, and in thousands of schools, where contests on the application of selected precepts are held. In one year alone, The Way to Happiness program received 321 proclamations and acknowledgments.
From Russia to Colombia, South Africa to Australia, this small booklet is helping revitalize moral values in our world.
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From: The Church of Scientology: 40th Anniversary.
Copyright 1994-2001 CSI. All Rights Reserved. Dianetics and Scientology are trademarks and service marks owned by Religious Technology Center and are used with its permission. ABLE, Applied Scholastics, Narconon and Criminon are trademarks and service marks owned by the Association for Better Living and Education.