Climbing the family tree of Scientology, you’re bound to run into a 1960’s cult calling itself the Process Church of the Final Judgement. The main things you’re likely to hear about the Process Church though are not it’s links to Scientology, but to Satanism (as well as speculatiion on Charles Manson and the Son of Sam murders). Other people have covered these aspects of the Process Church really well though, already. And here are some good links for exploring those aspects of their group:

1. Fortean Times on the Process Church
2. Rigorous Intuition on the Process and Four Pi Movement
3. Disinfo has a good overview with lots of links
4. CharlesManson.com has a page about the Process Church as well
5. Satan’s Process

Anyway, my interest in the Process Church at the moment lies not so much with the Satanic aspects of it, but with their connection to Scientology. Let’s start with the Fortean Times article:

In 1963, two people met at the L Ron Hubbard Institute of Scientology on Fitzroy Street, London. They were both studying to be ‘auditors’. Based on his earlier system of Dianetics, ‘auditing’ was Hubbard’s method of discovering and eliminating ‘engrams,’ the psychic residue from past traumas. The aim of auditing was to become ‘clear,’ to wipe the psychic slate clean and become, in effect, a kind of superman, no longer enthralled to neurotic fears and hang-ups.

Robert DeGrimston Moore and Mary Ann McClean were both fascinated by auditing and soon grew proficient. Although they came from considerably different backgrounds, both were enthusiastic Scientologists.

They also became interested in the work of psychologist Alfred Adler, which dovetailed neatly with Hubbards ideas, but ultimately caused them to start a system of their own outside Scientology:

Each had been excited by the theory of life goals proposed by Freud’s renegade disciple, Alfred Adler, and each saw promise in the therapy processes devised by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. Adler had based his “individual psychology” on the premise that each person was guided by a single hidden desire, and if compulsive distortions could be cleared away the person would achieve his particular life’s goal.

[…] Calling their practice Compulsions Analysis, they recruited clients through Robert’s friendship network and set about inventing a distinctive psychotherapy designed to raise normal individuals up to superior levels of functioning. Some of the work was very much like psychoanalysis, and they frequently employed the E-Meter lie detector device used in Scientology. Whatever the techniques did for individual psyches, they produced very powerful emotional bonds linking clients with the two therapists and, through group sessions, with each other.

Supposedly “process” was a term borrowed from Hubbard, and they began increasingly use it to describe the clients and friends who had undergone the Compulsions Analysis therapy process. According to another source, they renamed the “E-Meter” of Scientology to the “P-Scope” (I’m assuming the “P” stood for “Process”):

The Process employed an electronic device they called a P-Scope to uncover subconscious feelings and goals. The P-Scope is built much like the Scientologist’s E-Meter, which in turn is a heat sensitive instrument similiar to bio-feedback and lie-detector marchines. The P-Scope was used in sessions that involved a therapist and one or more clients. The therapist asked questions of the client and recorded the machine’s readings. These readings were organized into a Goal Line and thus the client’s ultimate subconscious goal could be discovered

They also used something called “Training Routine Zero” which was allegedly lifted from Scientology: “For this two members sit completely still and unreponsive staring into each other’s eyes for an extended amount of time. To ‘pass’ this test a person must be able to completely ignore all attempts to distract him/her.” This routine supposedly is common still to Scientology, and can last upwards of two to three hours. In it, if the student flinches, moves, smiles or reacts in any manner, they are “flunked” and forced to start over again. It is supposed to be a technique for dismantling the “reactive” mind. Read more about it here, along with an account by Christopher Reeves alleged experiences with TR-0. Another site has some additional information on the TR-0 techniques, which may or may not be speculative:

During TR-0, a student may hallucinate, and will almost certainly experience some sort of dissociation; however, the drill is continued until the student can effortlessly maintain an unblinking stare with his partner.

In the second training routine, called TR-0 “bullbaited,” the students do TR-0 as in the first drill, but one of the two students must “bullbait” the other and “flatten his buttons.” In other words, the student is to say or do anything at all to make the other student react, and then flunk the student for reacting. This drill is continued until each student can confront anything the partner says or does without reacting.

In doing TR-0 “bullbaited,” students commonly use explicitly sexual material to provoke a reaction. This can include physically touching the student. Verbal abuse is also condoned in this drill, with the justification that such abuse occurs in life and in “auditing,” and the student must be prepared to “handle” it.

As this group expanded and became more intense, the members began to search around for a way to take things to the next level. From Fortean Times:

Strange things began to happen. The group, which now numbered around 30, began to feel various ‘group mind’ effects. They also began to feel set apart from the rest of society. Like many ‘alternative’ groups in the Sixties, Compulsions Analysis moved from self-help to a kind of spiritual quest, as those that had gone through ‘the process’ began to regard the rest of society as a kind of bad dream. The DeGrimstons began to feel that what they had created was something more than a new therapy. They looked around for a new name, and decided on something that must have seemed obvious. In 1965, Compulsions Analysis, a derivative of Scientology, became the Process Church of the Final Judgement.

After this point in their development, they veered pretty far off from their original psycho-Scientological base. They began travelling around and the DeGrimston’s began to articulate the theology for which they eventually became infamous. They began using a swastika-like symbol, and spoke of four basic types of god-beings:

Jehovah was “the wrathful god of vengeance and retribution” who demanded discipline, courage, and dedication to duty and purity (The Gods). Lucifer, also called the Light Bearer, was fun loving and kind. He valued success and peace. Satan instilled in his followers two very distinct qualities. The first being the desire to rise above the human realm, to be free of its needs, and to become “all soul and no body”. The other quality is a desire to sink below the human realm and become absorbed in violence and other forms of excessive physical indulgence. Christ is the gods link to human beings and provides humans with all the skills they need to overcome problems and difficulties in life.

After helping to sow the seeds for the Satanic Panic which continues still to grip the culture, the Process Church seems to have fizzled out in the mid 1970’s. Again, if you want to know more about these aspects of them, check out the articles linked above. Interestingly, the Process Church either survived or was revived by some of it’s members, and in a bizarre turnaround eventually evolved into the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Here’s an excellent article that details how the two are connected.

[Next Time on Scientology Offshoot Theatre: Werner Erhard, “est” training & Landmark Forum]