R2-45

Not to be confused with the telecommunications standard RJ-45.

A Colt M1911 pistol in .45 ACP, the standard military sidearm of the day.

R2-45 is an alleged Scientology auditing process created by L. Ron Hubbard. The process of R2-45 reportedly refers to the use of a firearm (such as a "Colt 45") to shoot and kill the victim, causing the victim's soul ("thetan") to leave the body ("exteriorization"). In 1952 during a meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, Hubbard explained the process of R2-45, during which he fired a shot at the floor. In a lecture of 1958, Hubbard comments that "Death is not the same as clearing but there is, remember, R2-45. It's a very valid technique. A lot of people have used it before now."

“ R2-45: AN ENORMOUSLY EFFECTIVE PROCESS FOR EXTERIORIZATION BUT ITS USE IS FROWNED UPON BY THIS SOCIETY AT THIS TIME. ” — L. Ron Hubbard, The Creation of Human Ability
(all caps as in the original)

While representatives of the Church of Scientology have publicly acknowledged that "Auditing Process R2-45" refers to "someone being killed and [their spirit] leaving the body", they say that it was presented as a "jest" or "joke" by Hubbard." In the transcript for the lecture "Exteriorization", in which Hubbard refers in passing to R2-45, a footnote refers to the process as being "used humorously".

However, critics of Scientology have said that Hubbard also used it in apparently non-humorous contexts. On March 6, 1968, Hubbard issued an internal memo titled "RACKET EXPOSED," in which he denounced twelve people (Peter Goodwin, Jim Stathis, Peter Knight, Mrs. Knight, Nora Goodwin, Ron Frost, Margaret Frost, Nina Collingwood, Freda Gaiman, Frank Manley, Mary Ann Taylor, and George Wateridge) as "Enemies of mankind, the planet and all life," and ordered that "Any Sea Org member contacting any of them is to use Auditing Process R2-45." Former Scientologist Bent Corydon wrote that in late 1967 at Saint Hill, he personally received a copy of an order naming four former Scientologists as enemies and "fair game" and ordering any Sea Org member who encountered them to use R2-45.

According to a US government investigation, in 1965, ex-Scientology Charles Berner received a "Fair Game Order". Afterwards, Berner stated he received other life threatening letters, "indicating he should apply technique R2-45 to himself. This particular technique is a route whereby an individual places a 45 caliber pistol to his head and disassociates himself from his body."

In 2009, the international, non-profit, journalistic organisation Wikileaks published an audio clip purporting to be an excerpt from a Hubbard lecture discussing R2-45. In that recording, reportedly from a lecture given on November 20th, 1959, Hubbard explains "I can make a Clear out of almost anybody under these circumstances. And even the cops or gangsters could make a Clear out of anybody over these circumstances by taking a Webley 38 or Smith & Wesson, or Colt or something like that and doing R2-45. That exteriorizes almost anybody."

See also

• Fair Game (Scientology)
• Suppressive Person
• Scientology controversy

External links

• Auditing Process R2-45: Did Hubbard order murders? at Xenu-Directory, a Scientology Critical Information Directory.