The New York Inquirer (Feb. 2007): "Scientology's Hard Sell" by Cat Spencer

...] Money. That’s all it was about as far as I could see. It wasn’t about spiritual enlightenment, helping people, or making my life better. They wanted to take me for my hard-earned dollars through persuasion, aggression, and good old-fashioned guilt tripping. (Don’t you want to get better? Then buy this book! Attend this conference!) It was Madison Avenue thinly cloaked by religion. At least advertising companies are blatant about what they are trying to do. It’s a known fact that advertisers try to make consumers feel like they are lacking, and that the solution to their problems will come once they purchase that beer/shoe/yogurt/lipstick/cruise/handbag. [ It wasn’t about spiritual enlightenment, helping people, or making my life better. They wanted to take me for my hard-earned dollars through persuasion, aggression, and good old-fashioned guilt tripping. (Don’t you want to get better? Then buy this book! Attend this conference!) It was Madison Avenue thinly cloaked by religion. At least advertising companies are blatant about what they are trying to do. It’s a known fact that advertisers try to make consumers feel like they are lacking, and that the solution to their problems will come once they purchase that beer/shoe/yogurt/lipstick/cruise/handbag. [ ...

Affidavit of Michael Leonard Tilse (19 April 2003)

Such registrars as Howard Becker and Michael Roberts even came to my house uninvited and verbally "double-teamed" me, playing on my "buttons" of my desire to help and support my religious philosophy for hours until I was emotionally beaten into giving them more money for the IAS. I was made to feel guilty if I did not give them more money. I had to forcefully ask them to leave more than once. One time I had to flee my own house because they were putting so much manipulative emotional pressure on me.

Affidavit of Maria Pia Gardini (19 January 2001, part 2)

9. At 6:00 p.m. Charmaign woke up. She was yelling and screaming, "Why did you let me sleep!" We told her she was so drunk she couldn't stand up from the chair. She then started right in telling me she wanted $35,000 from me for a Cornerstone donation to the project. She told me she would not leave the house until I paid. This went on until 8:00 p.m. as I tried to resist her in every way, even locking myself in the bathroom for half an hour with her banging on the outside saying she would never leave.

Church of Scientology International (29 September 1987): "International Management Bulletin No. 108: What is life worth? The importance of Hard Sell" (excerpt)

How To Boom Your GI [Gross Income] The most successful orgs have very hard selling registrars. They apply the LRH data in the new Hard Sell pack and they are experts in Big League Sales Techniques. The top registrars on the planet sell more services and get more people up The Bridge in one week, than others (who do not know and apply the LRH Hard Sell data and Big Leagues Sales) do in a whole year. Fact! And this is not just a question of making money, it is a question of getting public contacted and onto and up The Bridge. The registrar can make all the difference applying LRH Tech on Hard Sell. The thing to do is: Get a copy of the Hard Sell Pack to all your registrars and have them read it and USE it on post.

it on post. Implement daily drilling of Hard Sell for all registrars and call-in personnel.

Read quotes from the Hard Sell Pack to all staff at staff musters.

Get your registrars trained in Big League Sales using LRH ED 236 INT REGISTRATION PROGRAM NO 2.

Cram anyone who fails to sell by being soft sell or not applying Big League Sales.

Get your registrars regularly briefed on Tech wins and the rave results of auditing and training in your org. And keep them briefed on the services your org delivers.

Keep the cases of your registrars and dissemination personnel flying. Their hard selling depends on their own reality.

Get more registrars and train them in Hard Sell and Big League Sales.

Jon Atack: "The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics And L. Ron Hubbard - The Personality Test"

Scientology sales staff ("registrars") are extensively trained and drilled in hard-selling techniques. The first stage of recruitment is to focus the person's attention on the most distressing areas of his or her life (the "ruin"). Hypnotherapists might call this an "emotional induction". Any intense emotion tends to overwhelm critical thinking. The coolness of rational thinking is distinct from the heat of the emotions. The recruiter then plays upon the person's fear that the condition will worsen. Then the "solution" of Scientology is offered.

Jon Atack: "The Total Freedom Trap: Scientology, Dianetics And L. Ron Hubbard - Hard Selling"

Hard selling techniques are another aspect of the use of undue influence or destructive persuasion upon members. Clients of Scientology are harassed with demands for ever increasing "donations" for auditing and indoctrination Completion of the Scientology "Bridge" costs in the region of £200,000 or $350,000 (there are Scientologists who have paid even more). Many Scientologists have found themselves homeless and deeply in debt as a result of high pressure selling. Sales interviews can last for as much as 13 hours; and depend upon the sophisticated manipulation techniques described in Les Dane's Big League Sales Closing Techniques.

BBC (1999): "French scientologists guilty of fraud"

The former leader of the church in southern France, Xavier Delamare, was sentenced to two years in jail, including 18 months suspended, and fined 16,000 dollars for manipulating people into giving money to the church .

St. Petersburg Times (1998): "Scientology got blame for French suicide" by Lucy Morgan

Mrs. Vic said Mazier kept pressuring her husband to borrow 30,000 francs (about $6,000) so he could take the Purification Rundown course after Vic had spent several months taking other less expensive courses. On the day before her husband's death, Mrs. Vic testified, Mazier came to their home in Lyon and urged her to sign loan papers for the money. She said her husband became highly agitated, paced the house and went to the Scientology center in Lyon instead of going to his job as an industrial designer. "Mazier said (Vic) was not well and had to take this purification to get well," Mrs. Vic recalled. "I said no, we have enough money problems, we can't spend 30,000 francs like this." After spending a day with Mazier and failing to convince his wife to help obtain the loan, Vic returned home looking for papers so he could apply for the loan by himself, Mrs. Vic said. "He was just coming in and out, very agitated," she said. "He kept getting up out of bed, he was unable to sleep." At 5 a.m. as she tried to stop him, Vic dashed toward the window in the room where their two sons were sleeping. "He said "Don't keep me, it's the only solution,"' and he went through the window, she told the Times. Patrice Vic was 31.

Declaration of Charlotte L. Kates (11 October 1998)

As mandated in Scientology policy, the reg continued the hard sell until she felt that she honestly would not get out of that cycle if she did not agree to buy the intensive. She was given a list of the names and telephone numbers of wealthy Clearwater Scientologists, and told to call them until one of them agreed to let her put her intensive on his credit card. She resisted the idea, and once again, felt forced to back down. Calling down the list, asking people she did not know for a credit card number for an $8000 intensive, she hated the idea but her resistance had been broken down. Eventually, one agreed. 14. She returned to Flag for further "handling" for her Lyme disease, which was continually worsening as she put off medical treatment on the advice of CoS representatives. Once again, after receiving numerous "intensives" Flag auditing, she was still afflicted with Lyme disease. Nevertheless, Scientology continued to exploit the situation for money, involving her again in an intense registration session. She was told that she would need $8000 worth of additional auditing. She explained repeatedly to the registrar that she had nothing, that she had spent her last $2000 for her 4-year-old daughter's International Association of Scientologists Lifetime Membership, that she could simply not afford another intensive.She resisted the idea, and once again, felt forced to back down. Calling down the list, asking people she did not know for a credit card number for an $8000 intensive, she hated the idea but her resistance had been broken down. Eventually, one agreed. 15. She received the intensive. After spending approximately one hundred thousand dollars on Scientology's cures, she had "learned" in her auditing sessions that billions of years ago, in a past life, she had been forced to "zap" her mother with a ray gun by an evil space government, yet she was still afflicted with Lyme disease. She had maxed out all of her credit cards, taken out loans, and otherwise expended all of her resources--and given all of her money to Scientology in return for a much-promised, never-materialized cure for her Lyme disease. She was repeatedly discouraged from visiting a doctor, and sent back again and again, to Flag, for more NED Assists, more auditing, one more intensive, one more process, eventually leaving one Scientologist with untreated Lyme disease, and the CoS thousands of dollars richer. She still owes one Scientologist in Clearwater $8000. Scientology still promises her a cure, still attempts to lead her on the medical runaround.

Affidavit of Scott Mayer (9 March 1994)

Scientology had various sales courses that taught registrars to strip resistance from people they were 'regging.' Registrars were taught how to push various buttons with regard to their mortality and their spirituality and their ability to be at peace as a being. Every button that could possibly pushed was pushed in order to get a person to make large advance payments. We got so good at it that we were sending $250,000 to $500,000 a week out of the Los Angeles area alone. The money would be sent out of the country to various places in the world including accounts in St. Hill, England. 8. The purpose of the registrar is to make more money all the time for Scientology. At the time,Registrars were taught how to push various buttons with regard to their mortality and their spirituality and their ability to be at peace as a being. Every button that could possibly pushed was pushed in order to get a person to make large advance payments. We got so good at it that we were sending $250,000 to $500,000 a week out of the Los Angeles area alone. The money would be sent out of the country to various places in the world including accounts in St. Hill, England. [...] ...Indeed, I personally pressured people to take out mortgages on their homes in order to pay for Scientology services. Moreover, at one point I put together a group of 8 or 10 registrars on the Excalibur, trained them up under Jim Douglas and forced collection of back monies from people who owed the Sea Org or Scientology money.

Affidavit of Monica Pignotti (29 September 1989)

where the person would be asked to write a check for an amount that they didn't have in the bank account . The theory behind this was that by writing such a check, the person would be given the incentive to create the money (Scientologists call creating something "mocking it up"). If a person really had a strong intention to get the money, he or she could mock it up. I wrote a postulate check for $1,000, even though I had less that $100 in my bank account. The next day, I went to my bank to try to get a loan for $1,000, but was turned down due to no credit history. My check bounced. There was a least one occasion that I can recall that registrars from higher Scientology organizations came to our mission and used high pressure sales tactics to get us to sign up for more courses. One such tactic was called the "postulate check",. The theory behind this was that by writing such a check, the person would be given the incentive to create the money (Scientologists call creating something "mocking it up"). If a person really had a strong intention to get the money, he or she could mock it up. I wrote a postulate check for $1,000, even though I had less that $100 in my bank account. The next day, I went to my bank to try to get a loan for $1,000, but was turned down due to no credit history. My check bounced.

Affidavit of Hana Eltringham Whitfield (8 March 1994)

The dentists were pushed to buy a CSI auditing package for nearly $1,000 an hour, with a minimum of 25 hours, for each dentist. They saw their budget overextend and put a stop on the check. On the same day the dentists heard one of their SMS consultants, who touted no connection between SMS and CSI, talk about the transgressions they had divulged to their auditors in confidential priest-penitent auditing sessions. The same day, one dentist's wife also bought home a pack of critical CSI news articles from the public library. 12.They saw their budget overextend and put a stop on the check. On the same day the dentists heard one of their SMS consultants, who touted no connection between SMS and CSI, talk about the transgressions they had divulged to their auditors in confidential priest-penitent auditing sessions. The same day, one dentist's wife also bought home a pack of critical CSI news articles from the public library. 13. SMS and CSI went into overdrive and the screaming and duress began. The dentists were threatened: to make the check good one dentist was blackmailed and the other was told he would reincarnate as a rock in his next life. My superior and I were fired two weeks later, and I left Scientology forever.

Monica Pignotti, LMSW: "The Use of Mind Control in Scientology"

Once the registrar gets the person into his/her office, the person is not allowed to leave until he/she has signed up for a course and paid. If the person says, "I’d like time to think this over", this is not allowed. The staff at Sterling is told that the person should not be allowed to "think" about it because that would give his "reactive mind" a chance to take over and so they must pay immediately. I have personally talked to many people who have been held for hours in the registrars office, sometimes all night, until out of sheer exhaustion, they gave in. For further details, see The Scientology Registrar - The job of the registrar in Scientology is to use high pressure sales tactics to sign people up for courses. This is especially true for front groups, such as Sterling Management, Singer and numerous others.The staff at Sterling is told that the person should not be allowed to "think" about it because that would give his "reactive mind" a chance to take over and so they must pay immediately. I have personally talked to many people who have been held for hours in the registrars office, sometimes all night, until out of sheer exhaustion, they gave in. For further details, see Robert Geary , DDS’s video or audio tape at the 1990 CAN Conference (available from CAN National) and the Sally Jessy Raphael show of July 9, 1991.

Bob Penny: "Social Control in Scientology - Scientology Training: Selling 'Hard Sell'"

On one occasion (personal experience) this went on day and night for three days. These words do not begin to describe it. Hard Sell technique that I observed (and was subjected to) consisted of a fast-paced and disorienting swirl of asserted and presumed agreements, trumped-up emergencies, plays on loyalty, physical exhaustion, sophistical arguments, accusations of betrayal, guilt-trips, browbeating, physical and verbal intimidation, humiliations, attacks, threats, insults, alienations of affection, ganging-up-on, asserted and presumed commitments, promises, demands, orders, invalidations, ridicule, plays on deeply felt needs, pleas, misidentifications, misrepresentations, putting words in my mouth, telling me what I think, asserted truths, validations, praise, flattery, plays on status, "trust me's" -- anything to destroy my position, to close the sale, to get the stat, to get the check.These words do not begin to describe it. Hard Sell is official written Church policy. It is justified in terms of this preemptive definition: caring enough about the person to insist that he Buy Now and get the service that will rehabilitate him. Actual techniques are learned primarily from role models, but also in classes and workshops. The effect is to undermine all meaning and value apart from Scientology. It becomes permissible to destroy anything (of someone else's) to produce a result useful to the Church. A registrar told my wife, "What have you got to lose?" when they were discussing whether I might leave if she borrowed against our fledgling business to purchase Scientology services. That same registrar explained his actions to me, "I'm just doing my job." I tried to explain away such events as just the isolated action of lone individuals, but after my 1986 trip to Scientology's base in Florida I could no longer deny that this sort of action is typical, characteristic, and approved by the Church. I saw and experienced additional instances, and attempts were made to recruit me for similar activity. I saw that a major activity at the religious retreat is to train people in such actions and to handle their scruples.

Time (1983): "Mystery of the Vanished Ruler" (Gerry Armstrong has scans of this article)

"I was constantly hammered to coerce people to get loans," he claims. [ ... ] Alan Walter, a Scientologist for 20 years and a mission holder in the Middle West, contends that "Hubbard was a genius in many ways. He was set up by these kids. They were doing insane things. It was a reign of terror." Larry Wollersheim, who considered himself "a cult salesman," says that he was trained to locate the assets of church members and then help them devise explanations to relatives for why they needed so much money.he claims. [ ...

Irish Times (2002): "Church pressed woman to sell shop, court told"

it was suggested to her that she could borrow from her family or her boyfriend if she did not have the money . She was told there would be a cost involved, and When it was suggested that she should sell her sports shop to pay for the courses, she was shocked because she had spent the previous 12 months trying to prevent it from going under. She was told she was completely wasted as a retailer and should involve herself with the most ethical group on the planet. They put pressure on her. The cost of the courses was (pounds) 9,200 sterling. "By the time they had finished with me after five hours had elapsed, I had agreed I was going to sell my business. I was elated," she said. She tried to borrow from her boyfriend at the time, who turned down her request.

Akron Beacon Journal (1990): "A tale of capture and brainwashing" by Richard Weizel

But Shumaker said they got nervous when Sterling wanted them to sign up immediately and pay $20,000 for further seminar work. "They were intent on closing the sale that night, and taking our $20,000 right then and there," said Shumaker. "They didn't want to wait and wanted to know how big our credit lines were."

City of Clearwater Commission Hearing, 1982: The Church of Scientology - Day 4, conclusion