Declaration of Independence
Max Bleiweiss (aka VBMax) Indie 500 #331 19 May 2012
The time has come to announce publically that I am no longer a member of the Church of Scientology and am joining the group of Independent Scientologists that follow the applied religious philosophy of L. Ron Hubbard. This was not a difficult decision to make; the only difficulties encountered were in communicating with “friends” and relatives. This, mostly, did not go well but I was prepared for any eventuality.
I’ve been a Scientologist since 1973 and first heard of it through a job ad in an L.A. newspaper. I had recently returned to the U.S. after 5 years overseas and needed work so I went down to the old L.A. Org near Alvarado St. for a job interview. The receptionist asked me to have a seat on the couch and I read through the “Scientology Picture Book” which was on the coffee table in front of me. I thought to myself, “This is really interesting!” Then, I was taken to view the LRH video interview with Tony Hitchman which also piqued my interest. Next, the Div 6 Reg enlightened me about the Comm Course (HAS) and I found myself on the course within a few minutes.
That fantastic, little $25 course blew my case to smithereens and made me a Scientologist for life!
And so it was that I entered into a staff contract after a few days with only a comm course under my belt. I won’t bore you with all the details of the insanities I witnessed and became part of while on staff there. Suffice it to say that it differed greatly from what I was learning in my staff hatting. And some of the crazy execs I encountered back then are still infamous to this day. But, as I said, I was a Scientologist for life so I soldiered on. I finished my contract in 1976 and this brings up a point in a recent Marty post about the Church’s running a “can’t have” on auditor training even back then. Part of the exchange for my employment was training to Class IV but there was no way I could get trained while doing my post since I was never studentable, worked day and night, even all-nighters and had to moonlight on the weekends just to pay rent in some downstat rooming house. So, I waited till I finished my contract to route on and start my Class IV training. But the Org didn’t allow it; they said it had to have been done during the contract time.
I spent the next couple of years as a public, was on the NED course at ASHO in 1979 and had the good fortune to be audited to Clear by my twin. We both went to a briefing about Superpower and were recruited into the SO to get personally trained by LRH as Superpower auditors. (Think about it, that was 33 years ago and still no Superpower.) Now, part of my think about joining the SO was that it was LRH’s Org, so naturally very sane and ethical. Oops…. It turned out to be just as nutty as my L.A. Org experience if not more so. I never did get to go uplines for that promised auditor training but the good news is I did get the HKTL training and applied it as the HKTL Pilot I/C and Sup from 1980-1983 at NWCI.
I also had various misadventures including some squirrel ethics and justice applied to me. I finally wound up on the PAC RPF in 1983 with a bunch of other really upstat staff members. In 1985, I was fitness boarded out of the SO for medical reasons; during one of my “ethics handlings” (the Running Program pilot), I’d turned on some serious health problems that still exist to this day. So I was a public once again.
Like so many others, I have spent a lot of time and money since, trying to get up the Bridge, but it’s been 10 years since my last services. In 2002 I came to Flag for OTVI & VII after selling my house in L.A. and buying the package with the proceeds. I was one of the people on a list that was compiled for a program to produce 10,000 NOTS auditors. I felt like I was doing my duty to make it to Flag as part of the program, and in fact I arrived on precisely my target date. However, those last services at Flag were a dog’s breakfast and I just wasn’t willing to continue any longer. It included invalidation of Clear, attempting to run Dianetics on me and a demand for additional, unnecessary sec checking by RTC after the Flag C/S had OKed me to attest.
At that time I had no idea how bad things actually were. It wasn’t until the Debbie Cook cycle that I found out how bad. In fact if it were not for a teaser on TV about an upcoming Debbie Cook interview I would probably still be in blinders. The rest is of course history, I did my due diligence, followed the trial, found “Friends of LRH” and other significant links. I never dreamed that I would ever go to a website titled “Scientology-cult.com” but that one turned out to be a very important one, as well as this one. In fact, the day I decided to leave the Church was the day I found Marty’s blog which was also the day of Ronnie Bell’s great declaration writeup. I was, as I put it then, in anguish at what I had found and didn’t want to believe it but it had to be confronted. And confront it I have, and I’ve come through it with flying colors thanks to all of you independents out there. You gave me back my hope when it all looked so hopeless. And now I’m a part of the team, the team I always wanted to be on to begin with. So, all you LRH Independents are my new friends.
I’m especially grateful to those Independents who blazed the trail for me so it became safe to go into the water.
And special thanks to Marty for putting the site here where we are free to communicate. (And blow tons of charge while doing so!)
So, Marty I believe I’ve earned my invitation to the party.
Moving On Up a Little Higher 