Sea Org

Sea Org
Sea Organization
Formation	1967
Founder	L. Ron Hubbard (Commodore)
Headquarters	Gold Base, California (Church of Scientology headquarters)
Location	Los Angeles; Clearwater, Florida; London; Saint Hill Manor; Copenhagen; and on the Freewinds;
Leader	David Miscavige (Captain)
Publication	High Winds
Parent organization	Church of Scientology
Formerly called	Sea Project

The Sea Organization or Sea Org is the senior-most status of staff within the Church of Scientology network of corporations, but is not itself incorporated. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Sea Org was started as L. Ron Hubbard's private navy, and adopted naval uniforms and ranks.^[2]^: 263^[3]^: 124 Today, all Scientology management organizations are exclusively staffed with Sea Org members.^[4] The Sea Org maintains strict codes for its members, beginning with a symbolic billion-year pledge of service to Scientology upon initiation.^[3]^: 125 David Miscavige, the leader of Scientology, is the highest-ranking Sea Org officer with the rank of captain. The rank of commodore is permanently reserved for the late L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology.^[1]^: 139 Some ex-members and scholars have described the Sea Org as a totalitarian organization marked by intensive surveillance and a lack of freedom.^[3]^: 125

In a 1992 memorandum by the Church of Scientology International, the following information was provided to the Internal Revenue Service with regards to nature of the Sea Org:^[5]

[The Sea Org] does not have an ecclesiastical organizing board or command channels chart or secular existence such as an incorporated or unincorporated association. [...] Although there is no such "organization" as the Sea Organization, the term Sea Org has a colloquial usage which implies that there is. There are general recruitment posters and literature for "The Sea Org" which implies that people will be employed by the Sea Org when in reality they will join, making the billion year commitment, at some church that is staffed by Sea Org members and become employees of that church corporation. [...] The Sea Org exists as a spiritual commitment that is factually beyond the full understanding of the [Internal Revenue] Service or any other but a trained and audited Scientologist.

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^ Church of Scientology, Nov. 23, 1992: Third Set of Responses to the IRS in support of Scientology's application for 501(c)(3) tax exemption.

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[5] Church of Scientology, Nov. 23, 1992: Third Set of Responses to the IRS in support of Scientology's application for 501(c)(3) tax exemption.

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