The Story of Narconon
abilities and their development. I was amazed I had never run across such workability within a multitude of other works I had studied over the years. I’m not a gullible person when it comes to accepting new or different approaches or ideas. If they work, fine. Otherwise, throw them out the window. They either work or they don’t. I was tired of experimenting with so many ideas and philosophies, many having credence only because some “authority” had written them.
What impressed me the most about [Hubbard’s] materials was that they concentrated not only on identifying abilities, but also on methods (practical exercises) by which to develop them. I realised that drug addiction was nothing more than a “disability,” resulting when a person ceases to use abilities essential to constructive survival.
I found that if a person rehabilitated and applied certain abilities, that person could persevere toward goals set, confront life, isolate problems and resolve them, communicate with life, be responsible and set ethical standards, and function within the band of certainty.
I finally realised I had developed the essential abilities needed to overcome my drug problem. Feeling myself on safe ground, I knew I had to make this technology available to other addicts in the prison. I thought back over the years of all the junkies I had shot up with, and remembered their most treasured conversation, “One of these days I’m going to quit.” I had found the means and was going to share it with them. That’s when I made the decision real by writing it down on my calendar page in my cell.
So effective was the technology I had learned, that I experienced a freedom long lost to me. The tall prison walls became only temporary barriers. I realised that my 6×8 foot cell was all that I needed as a command post. Even back then, I knew Narconon would reach international proportions, and even wrote an article on it in 1967, “The Purpose of Narconon.”
The programme was sanctioned by the warden, and it soon began to expand from its original twenty members. I then started to get requests from non-addict inmates who wanted to get into Narconon. They told me they were impressed with what Narconon students had told them about the programme and what the technology taught. I approached the Administration for permission to include non-addicts. At first it resisted, saying that non-addict members didn’t need the services of Narconon, and that they might disrupt the programme.
I demonstrated to officials that any person, inmate or otherwise, could benefit from Narconon because its attention was on increasing abilities, that we had an ethics mechanism built into the programme, and that the responsibility and involvement required of a member would soon dissuade anyone not serious about improvement. I convinced the prison officials. The programme met its expectations so well that seven months after the beginning of Narconon, I was asked to start another programme for young offenders housed in the annex outside the prison walls.
I then wrote to Mr. Hubbard about Narconon. He and his organizations supported our programme by donating books, tapes and course materials. We received hundreds of letters from throughout the world validating our efforts to make drug addiction and criminal or illegal behaviour a thing of the past in our lives.”
Shortly after founding the Narconon programme, William Benitez researched his court conviction and discovered he had been tried under the wrong statute and was sentenced in excess of that prescribed by law. Upon return to court, Mr. Benitez was advised that he could conceivably be re-sentenced to time served and be released based on his eighteen months already served because of the miscarriage of justice.
The Narconon programme was only a few months old at that time and Mr. Benitez believed the programme would collapse if he didn’t return to complete it. Rather than petitioning for his immediate release, he requested a smaller sentence which would allow him to fully implement Narconon programme development. The Court re-sentenced him to four to six years, leaving him sixteen months to serve. Mr. Benitez returned to prison and developed the programme to its full capacity. As he states, “It was the best, but toughest decision I ever made in my life. I would have loved to walk away from that court a free man.”
The Narconon programme subsequently came to the attention of the public when reporters from the Arizona Daily Star secured permission from the warden to interview the inmate who requested to be returned to the walls. The Star printed a two-part series on the Narconon programme in August 1966. TV Channel 10 News from Phoenix also took its cameras to the prison to interview Mr. Benitez and members of the