Daily Archives: November 30, 2009

Ted Horner was one of my earliest opinion leaders in the SO.  My first SO job in January 78 was serving on one of the PAC renos missions that he operated. He seemed to be able to keep an even, easy going,  and friendly manner no matter how heavy the pressure got.  Though many can attest I wasn’t so successful, I tried to emulate Ted’s cool. Ted exuded that same calm throughout the wild eighties at Int/Gold.  He seems to have landed in an environment and created a life that meets his pleasant demeanor.  Here’s Ted’s story in his own words:

Gosh, this narrative has been over a year in the making.

To start off, I have to credit Jeff Hawkins (Fishdaddy) for being my initial inspiration.  Don’t be fooled by his calm, soft-spoken style.  Hawk, you have the heart of a lion when you published your Counterfeit Dreams, long before most others even ventured to reveal their identities.

Hats off as well to Marty, for being a breath of fresh air among the toxic “natter boards” and for his coming clean.  So what if he attracts a bunch of yapping critics? His biggest asset is his capacity to grant beingness, an ability we can all work on a lot harder.

I hate like hell writing a first-person narrative, it seems so self-serving, but here goes: 

I stumbled onto Scientology in the summer of 1973 in Denver, Colorado, the target of a body-router from the Denver Mission.  Scientology was an attractive subject to a 20 year-old college dropout, looking to find his way in the world. 

Denver Mission was big.  An HQS Course operated in the unfinished basement of a storefront with over 100 enthusiastic students. The supervision was tough and unreasonable.  The 4 – 5 month comprehensive course on the basics of Scientology cost just $100. Academy Levels in those days were only a few hundred bucks.  A few years later, I paid $600 dollars for the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course, joining hundreds of others at ASHO.

Flash forward 35 years and it is obvious that something is very seriously wrong with the institution of Scientology, and not only the high prices.

My connection with organized Scientology ended after 20 years when I successfully managed to blow from the Int Base on July 4th 1993.  It was truly my Independence Day.

While I was a fugitive from OSA and its private investigators, I never really stopped applying the Scientology philosophy and technology.  I did so naturally, in whatever way it might better my life and those in my environment. I still do.

I have to credit those on Marty’s Blog for giving me clarity on the premise that even though the organized church has gone corrupt, this is entirely different from the actual technology and philosophy.  They helped me see that it is okay to practice Scientology, just, please, not the organized brand.

I’ve had plenty of the organized brand of Scientology to last me a lifetime, and maybe a few more.

I started on staff at Narconon when it was a GO social coordination project.  This brought me to LA and eventually the Sea Org, where I initially worked in mission operations setting up the Big Blue Complex. 

I was then recruited “over the rainbow” and was posted as an Assistant Cameraman.  My senior was an abrasive, loudmouth punky teenager, named David Miscavige; at least that’s how I saw him at the time.  I would never be very far from him over the next 15 years.

Doreen Smith Gillham turned over her hat to me as LRH Equipment I/C in 1978 and this evolved into the post of Film & Equipment I/C under the LRH Household Unit. Over the next 7 or 8 years I worked primarily as a photographer and equipment logistics person for LRH.  In those later years, he used photography as a pleasant diversion. It was something he could do when he was cooped up at those confidential locations.

At times, the Old Man would get very enthusiastic about his photography.  It was not unusual for me to receive half a dozen lengthy dispatches in a single traffic run which would send me combing LA and Hollywood on research and purchasing trips.

DM was never very far away.  By the early 80s, he was the final traffic filter from the base to LRH.  My traffic eventually went directly to DM then passed onto LRH.  

I have to say this; DM completely supported and backed up the work of my unit at that time. Previously, when I was forced to send my traffic via CMO Int or the Watch Messengers, there were inevitable slows and arbitrary rejects. He removed them. It was fast flow management and I moved into a high ethics condition and I WAS given protection.

Later, from my limited perspective, DM began to change.  He discovered the power of those infamous public events.  I was there from the beginning as producer and director until I left in 1993. What started out as a way to use television techniques to bring management’s message directly to staffs throughout the world, evolved into a big money propaganda machine. 

Add to that his obsession with Hollywood stardom, and he just ended up buying his own brand of BS and finds he can’t stop himself or the insanity.

At the end he began tearing up my unit, the one he had supported for so many years. It was ironic that it was here that the directives on establishing and protecting production lines was piloted under LRH direction.

People commonly ask, “Why didn’t you do something to stop it?” The changes were very slow, over many years, and more importantly, we were blinded by our own complicity. 

We are all responsible to some degree for DM and what the Church of Scientology had become.  Anyone who says otherwise, either wasn’t there, or hasn’t a shred of responsibility.

After abruptly leaving the Sea Org, I have been blessed to live a life better than perhaps I am entitled to.  I credit much of that to the man and his philosophy and technology, to my many comrades throughout the years, and even to that abrasive, loudmouth punky bastard.

I am not promising to join the ranks of “crusaders” but I will not pass up any reasonable opportunity to help set some things straight.

DM always had a unique capacity to bring out the best and the worst in all of us, so in the later case, if anyone has any complaints with me from those days, please contact me, and I’ll try to make it right for you.

That is also an invitation for any of my old friends, or anyone at all, to contact me directly at belizeted@yahoo.com.
Ted Horner
Belize, Central America