Helping Community Businesses to Prosper
ne organization often mentioned in the litany of lies about Scientology is the
World Institute of Scientology Enterprises (WISE).
Media, which seldom get the facts of anything right, and dishonest politicians who intentionally distort the truth to achieve some devious end, have tried to categorize WISE as a cleverly disguised “front group” for Scientology. Such a description is hard to accept considering “front groups” do not detail their real connections, and yet the word “Scientology” appears prominently in the group’s name.
WISE and its members have been accused of being part of an imaginary plot to achieve “world domination.”
The truth of the matter, however, is far different.
WISE is a nonprofit religious membership organization for Scientologists comprised of business leaders and professionals in many fields. Scientologists throughout Germany belong to the organization.
WISE was established in 1979 to help put the administrative technology developed by L. Ron Hubbard into use in business. Mr. Hubbard’s writings on organizational management and administration emerged from his research to streamline administrative matters in Churches of Scientology.
As parishioners of the Church came in contact with this remarkable technology, they soon found that secular businesses and vocations were also enhanced by application of these extremely workable principles. Thus many adopted the administrative technology for use in their own businesses.
One of the key purposes of WISE is to instill ethical principles into businesses, a goal which should be welcome in an age when unethical commercial practices are all too common.
WISE furnishes arbitration services to its members to help them quickly and equitably settle business disputes. By utilizing Scientology ethics and justice principles and procedures, such disputes are handled long before they become a problem which must be addressed by the legal system.
WISE also provides a way for business people to network by publishing directories of its members and giving them opportunities to meet, such as at national or international conventions. It also offers courses in Mr. Hubbard’s administrative technology to anyone who wishes to study it—Scientologist and non-Scientologist alike.
One such course is the “Personal Integrity Course,” which enables one to explore his own sense of ethics and personal integrity and his ability to deal with dilemmas of an ethical nature.
One business owner who finished this course had this to say about her experience:
“What an ending to an exciting and fruitful few days.
“The knowledge I have obtained could have no price tag—it is priceless.
“If everyone could learn the technology contained in just this course alone—the world would be a much happier place.
“Thank you for this opportunity.”
Other courses teach basic communications skills, how to monitor a business and increase productivity, how to eliminate confusions and more easily handle any kind of work. And again, these courses are open to all who wish to avail themselves of this enormously useful information.
Today, an estimated 30,000 Scientologists live in Germany. If each and every one of these individuals operated a WISE business—which they do not—they would represent little competition to the more than 50 million members of other religious faiths. Such statistics make the accusations of “world domination” laughable.
That the few who do run businesses have been so successful, despite having drawn critical attention from the media, should be viewed in a proper and unbiased fashion—namely, they must be doing something right in their businesses.
And perhaps their prosperity is what upsets those who are not so successful or who do not have such valuable administrative technology.
Mr. Hubbard’s administrative technology has become widely popular in Germany because, like the principles of the Scientology religion, these basic administrative principles work. And when applied, an individual is not only able to become happier, but more productive, more ethical and more stable in life.
And that is the true story of WISE in Germany.
