Category Archives: texas

Longevity

Posted on May 23, 2014 by | 268 comments

 

Excerpt from Pancho Durango and the Zen of Fishing:

Wilson studied a couple of sea gulls fighting over a shred of dead shrimp on the surface of the bay. When the battle no longer held his interest, he turned and asked the old man, “Pancho, how old are you?”

“I am not sure.” Pancho continued to slowly reel and jerk his line, his attention thirty yards out and ten feet deep.

“How can that be?”

“I was born deep in the Copper Canyon. We did not keep records of anything, including birth.”

“Well, we know you are at least in your seventies and perhaps in your eighties.”

“Perhaps.” The conversation held less interest for Pancho than the three dimensional chess match he silently waged with fish that apparently only he could see.

“And you are strong of mind and body. “

“Some apparently believe so.”

“What is the key to longevity?”

Pancho said with no hesitation, and with as much emphasis as you’d expect from a request for another live shrimp to hook for bait, “You live as long as you have something worthwhile to give”.

“And who is the judge of that.”

“Only you of course.”

Wilson frowned as he squinted at the horizon. “So, goodness and righteousness have nothing to do with it?”

“It all depends on what you consider is good and right.”

Wilson sunk his head and smirked apathetically at the ripples beneath his feet. Once again Pancho had blithely turned a simple question into a deep philosophical riddle. Time to rebait the hook and make another cast. Always the right thing to do when you know your next question will be hit out of the park by the old man like a twenty year old on steroids.

268 Comments

Posted in Mark Rathbun, Marty Rathbun, texas, Uncategorized, Zen

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Bare-Faced Messiah by Russell Miller

Posted on March 13, 2014 by | 114 comments

Russell Miller’s book is finally going to be published in the U.S. apparently.  An interview with Miller was posted on Tony Ortega’s blog this morning.  I read the book last year.  I actually thought I had read it back in the eighties when it was published.  After all, I helped direct and coordinate the abusive litigation tactics that drove his U.S. publisher into dropping the project.  When I read the book, I recognized that in fact I had never read it all those years back.  It was lingering cult delusion that made me think I had.  In the eighties I had only read summaries and ‘dead agent’ packs compiled by Office of Special Affairs.  Even in the past couple years I have referred to Miller as a propagandist; that was before actually having read the book.  What I found remarkable about the thorough read I did was how balanced and even-handed Miller was about L. Ron Hubbard. It is not a wholesale condemnation.  While I don’t attest to the accuracy of all his facts, for the most part the book covers a lot of irrefutable history pretty accurately.

As Miller noted in his interview, the nature of the legal attacks upon the book, similar to the defenses in Rathbun v. Miscavige incidentally, revolve around strained (read invented) intellectual property rights theories.  If the book were inherently dishonest there would have been claims based on defamation theories.  But as we have noted previously, to Scientology the purpose of the suit is to not to win, but instead to harass.

Mr. Miller makes reference to a profanity-laced Scientology outburst about the book during the legal proceedings.  The actual quotation is interesting.  It is a quotation from the deposition of Norman F. Starkey, then executor of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.  It appears in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York Opinion:

2. Norman Starkey, the Executor of Hubbard’s estate who licensed plaintiff to exploit the Hubbard copyrights stated in his deposition: “That scum bag book is full of bullshit, man, and you know it. It is full of bullshit…. goddam, fucking bullshit.” (Gready Aff.Exh. A, p. 94.)

If you think that language is strong, you should have heard Miscavige’s reaction to Starkey nearly blowing millions of dollars of litigation fees on that one infantile, albeit honest, outburst.  One of the most remarkable feats in the litigation was overcoming that clear evidence that the real  Scientology complaint about Miller’s book was that it did not like the facts being aired, and not that it was suffering any harm by having copyrighted works quoted. But, again as Miller notes the U.S. legal system has some flaws, and Scientology has perfected the ruthless, if expensive, exploitation of them.

As to the man in the red sports car following Mr. Miller in Los Angeles, that in fact was the infamous Eugene M. Ingram.  Ingram made so much Scientology money by his aggressive, noisy investigative tactics that he bought himself two shiny new sports cars (a Mitsubishi 3000GT and a Lotus Esprit), one with gold-plated mag hubs.  In his inimitable style he wore loud, flashy Hawaiian shirts during his stake outs with those bright low riders.  When I reported on the flap of Ingram being so easily and regularly made because of his audacious ways, David Miscavige ordered that Ingram be encouraged to be even more loud and noticeable, ‘it’s supposed to be a noisy investigation, isn’t it?’  Incidentally, that is what ‘ensuring the orthodox practice of the scriptures’ that Scientology lawyers are paid so much to repeat interminably is all about.

I apologize publicly to Mr. Miller for my involvement in the investigative tactics designed to shudder him into silence, and the unlawful abuse of legal process to block publication in the United States and cost his publishers inordinate sums in other countries.

I encourage people to purchase his book once available and read it.  Not just because it will make me feel a bit better about my own efforts to suppress it, but because I believe it is essential reading for anyone involved with Scientology.

114 Comments

Posted in acknowledgments, cover up, David Miscavige, harassment, healing, l. ron hubbard, los angeles, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, PI reports, propaganda, Scientology, texas, Uncategorized

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Scientology Stalker

Posted on March 3, 2014 by | 58 comments

The individual in the photograph below was hired by Scientology Inc. to stalk my wife not too long ago.  I would appreciate it if folks would distribute this around interested forums asking that anyone who recognizes him to please provide me with the name and contact information for this individual, at rathbunmark57@gmail.com.  Thank you.

Scientology Stalker. Identification requested.

Scientology Stalker. Identification requested.

The individual drives an old white Ford pickup truck (with red detail trim stripes) displaying the following decals:

IMG_1035

IMG_1031

IMG_1033

58 Comments

Posted in Casablanca, cover up, David Miscavige, ethics, harassment, healing, justice, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, PI reports, Scientology, texas, Uncategorized

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War on “Scientologists at War”

Posted on February 18, 2014 by | 47 comments

David Miscavige and his Scientology Inc picked yet another losing war against freedom of the press and of speech.  This one was an official complaint and proceeding launched against UK Channel Four and Roast Beef Productions for their documentary Scientologists at War.  Of course, only the finest and most expensive lawyers that could be bought in London took up the Scientology cudgel.  The results were published in the official publication of England’s official agency (Ofcom) tasked with upholding standards of fairness in media.   The Scientology case can be found at page 43 of OfComm’s latest journal.  It is an informative read.

47 Comments

Posted in acknowledgments, Casablanca, celebrities, ethics, harassment, healing, independents, int base, Israel, John Travolta, justice, l. ron hubbard, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, office of special affairs, texas, the future, the Reformation, the world, Tom Cruise

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Miscavige’s Obsession with the Rathbuns

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | 229 comments

Many have speculated why the Miscavige obsession with our family is so intense and seemingly inexorable.  Miscavige has spent millions in a variety of forums attempting to explain or justify it.  The writings on that score in his publications, legal threats to media, and legal pleadings and utterances from his PR hacks and agents – including the deep ranks of expensive attorneys – are so far-ranging, self-contradictory and red herring in nature, that they are unhelpful in discerning the answer to the question: why such an obsession?  Yet, the answer is apparent, by the repeated expression of our objectives right here on this blog as well as in  a number of media interviews. Below are several excerpts and links to support the ideat that the motivation for Miscavige’s mania lies in his need to resurrect the effectiveness of Scientology’s domestic terror apparatus.

The record:

September 25 2009, Winds of Change:

To stand and communicate one’s convictions and defend the rights of other friends to do the same is the remedy for Miscavige’s brand of terrorism.  It can make one feel healthier and more whole. If enough people follow your lead, it will lead to the end of the Scientology reign of terror.

September 26 2009, Independent Scientologists Community:

People who have simply exercised their abilities to be there and comfortably confront when faced with Church intimidation tactics – and not allowed themselves to be drawn into flash fights and the resultant creation of ridges – have as-is’d the invaders. That has happened most frequently when the person being targeted by the Church has the comfort of knowing he has people who are behind him or her with unconditional love. It is quite remarkable.

I am fairly certain that if a decent percentage of independent Scientologists stand up, identify themselves, and freely associate with like-minded friends in the light of day at least three things will happen:

a. Many individual lives will regain meaning. Many more lives still will reap the gains from each of us who independently and freely use Scientology with no other motivation than to help others reach higher states of beingness.

b. Scientology (the subject and community) will experience a renaissance within society at large.

c. Miscavige’s church will be forced to either radically reform by reversing its suppressive operating basis or face its inevitable demise (note the intransitive is used; it is not because of anything that you or I will do to it that will cause it other than being their comfortably – it will be a self-inflicted fate).

February 1 2010, The Underground Railroad Goes Overland:

One primary purpose behind encouraging people to overtly declare their independence was to break the back of the mafia-like protection racket run by the C of M. That is, to help people get out from under the black cloud of intimidation and threatened execution of forced disconnection for purposes of breaking Scientologists’ wills and independent thought processes.  The idea has proven workable. Each person who overtly straightens his back demonstrates to many more how incapable the  C of M is to ride straight backs. For each who does so overtly, dozens more begin to straighten their own by witnessing it can be done without serious repercussion and seeing tall walking people blossoming.

January 21 2011, Confront of Evil:

The pathetic and empty nature of their threats serves as confirmation of my oft-repeated analysis: AS INDEPENDENTS BECOME MORE NUMEROUS AND COURAGEOUS, RADICAL SCIENTOLOGY’S RESOURCES TO HARASS WILL BECOME MORE DISSIPATED AND THEIR “ATTACKS” WILL BECOME LESS AND LESS EFFECTIVE. And so it has played itself out in that fashion.

August 18 2011, Why The Obsession?:

People who have been following this blog for some time understand that this is a message I have often repeated: when enough real Scientologists stand up and be heard as Independents, Miscavige’s resources will be spread so thin trying to intimidate them that his actions will be so ineffectual that the world will see there is nothing to fear from Radical Corporate Scientology. 

It apparently has come to pass that from Miscavige’s perspective too many people have stood up and been counted so that Scientology has lost its terror-control factor.  There are not enough resources to re-corral or make examples of all those who have stood and are continuing to do so, nor even a significant portion of them.  Apparently, in the mind of Miscavige the only way to discredit the notion that Scientology can no longer hunt you to the grave if you dissent is to very visibly and thoroughly destroy the guy who widely and repeatedly asserted that there was nothing to fear – and the current state of affairs to gain – by standing up.

229 Comments

Posted in Casablanca, David Miscavige, ethics, harassment, healing, independents, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, PI reports, policy, propaganda, Scientology, texas, the Reformation, Uncategorized

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Scientology Spies Invade New Braunfels Texas

Posted on February 8, 2014 by | 178 comments

With Scientology Inc.’s traveling phalanx of lawyers comes a mobile surveillance apparatus.  In the case of New Braunfels Texas a team of several operatives are deployed spreading from the courtroom where Rathbun v. Miscavige is being heard, throughout the courthouse, along the sidewalks to the coffee and sandwich shops team Monique frequents at breakfast and lunch.

Here are two of its operatives (including coordinator Cathy Norman, director of OSA operations for ‘church’ of Scientology of Texas in Austin) keeping close tabs on Monique Rathbun.

 

Scientology street agent

Scientology street agent

 

OSA chief Texas Cathy Norman joins street operative

OSA chief Texas Cathy Norman joins street operative

Miscavige keeping his promise 'you can run, but you cannot hide.'

Miscavige keeping his promise ‘you can run, but you cannot hide.’

The Scientology surveillance squad assigned the Comal County Texas courthouse is sponsored and protected by unindicted co-conspirator in the U.S. v. Hubbard criminal case, Kendrick Moxon.

Moxon

When Monique politely inquired of the name of one of the spying agents, Moxon aggressively attempted to silence Monique.  With Scientology it seems that the more things change the more they remain the same.

 

178 Comments

Posted in cover up, David Miscavige, ethics, harassment, healing, legal threats, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, PI reports, policy, texas

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Monique Rathbun vs. David Miscavige by the numbers

Posted on January 28, 2014 by | 190 comments

There have been published reports that seventeen lawyers have appeared in the Comal County courtroom on the Scientology side of the aisle in the case of Monique Rathbun vs. David Miscavige, et al.  In fact, twenty-two lawyers have made official appearances and/or physical appearances in the case for Scientology Inc.

Many of those lawyers have made multiple flights to Comal County from New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., or driven from Dallas, Austin and San Antonio to attend hearings on behalf of Miscavige and his co-defendants.

For some perspective consider these facts:

  1. The Scientology lawyer roster was roughly half of that for the nine-year, $30,000,000+ Lisa McPherson litigation. That litigation involved upwards of a half dozen lawsuits.  David Miscavige on many occasions lamented that McPherson constituted the greatest public relations disaster in Scientology’s history (including that created by 11 top Scientology officials being jailed for conducting the largest domestic espionage campaign in history against the United States government). Principal lawyers in the McPherson matter are visibly directing the big name lawyers recruited by Scientology Inc. to front in Rathbun vs. Miscavige.
  2. The Rathbun v. Miscavige Scientology lawyer roster is about double that employed to deal with United States v Hubbard (the aforementioned government espionage case).  That litigation involved at least a dozen lawsuits. Principal lawyers in the U.S. v Hubbard matter are visibly directing the big name lawyers recruited by Scientology Inc. to front in Rathbun vs. Miscavige.
  3. Scientology and Miscavige employed roughly half the number of lawyers he has so far in Rathbun v Miscavige during the take down by over-litigation and intimidation against the largest and most feared agency of the United States government, the Internal Revenue Service. That matter included more than twenty-two hundred lawsuits. Principal lawyers in the Scientology Inc. v IRS matter are visibly directing the big name lawyers recruited by Scientology Inc. to front in Rathbun vs. Miscavige.

I have come to learn through life experience that oftentimes the magnitude of force one musters to intimidate and overwhelm can serve as a fairly accurate measuring stick of the degree of the organizer’s cowardice.

 

190 Comments

Posted in Casablanca, cover up, David Miscavige, ethics, harassment, justice, legal threats, miscavige crimes, miscavige lawyers, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, PI reports, policy, Scientology, texas, Uncategorized

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Judge to Scientology…

Posted on January 23, 2014 by | 114 comments

Here is a balanced and accurate piece of journalism on yesterday’s proceedings in Monique Rathbun vs. David Miscavige, et al.:  The San Antonio Express News.

114 Comments

Posted in acknowledgments, Casablanca, cover up, David Miscavige, ethics, events, harassment, healing, justice, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, Scientology, texas

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Wanted: Scientology Evidence

Posted on January 20, 2014 by | 62 comments

1.   Print editions of any Freedom magazines published since summer 2009 to the present.

2.  Any first hand witness to the following youtube channel and the video of our home – or any similar ones – depicted in the screen grab below:

115Bayshore

3.  Evidence of David Miscavige, Religious Technology Center (RTC), Church of Scientology International (CSI), and any of their agents ordering or executing the destruction of evidence since July 2013.

If you have access to such evidence, please contact me at rathbunmark@yahoo.com.

62 Comments

Posted in Casablanca, cover up, David Miscavige, ethics, harassment, healing, monique rathbun, office of special affairs, PI reports, texas, Uncategorized

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A Course in Graduating from Scientology

Posted on December 30, 2013 by | 369 comments

Given recent vicissitudes in these parts it is not practicable for me to be hosting visitors and engaging in lengthy, uninterruptible sessions.  Yet, the desire for guided tours out of the Scientology philosophical labyrinth continues to be expressed. I have come up with a solution that may be workable given current conditions and apropos given the evolution of what we do.  As noted recently, in essence my coaching or counselling has focused more on connecting dots to get people out of the ‘why trap’ Scientology has so effectively ensnared them into.

I am offering a Graduating from Scientology correspondence course.  It is designed for:

-Those who are Clear or higher on the Scientology grade chart and are not planning on doing any more Scientology OT levels.

-Those who find Scientology still occupies their attention and somehow holds them back from moving on with doing and experiencing new things.

-Those having difficulty correlating the gains they did get from Scientology with the outside world and other philosophies and religions.

-Those wishing to continue with spiritual growth, but who do not want to start from square zero.

The course is organized by reading assignments followed by one to one discussions after each venture.  I call them ventures (Oxford Dict. Definition: a risky or daring journey or undertaking) not because of any real danger.  I am simply highlighting the risk that Scientology contends faces people when they are invited to face and use their minds – something Hubbard once gratefully acknowledged Freud for discovering was not in fact dangerous.  The apparent daring or risk involved is simple – if Scientology is the only road to ultimate freedom, and Hubbard really is the unforgiving God set forth so strongly in Scientology policy, there will be hell to pay for those venturing along such a path. Follow up discussions after each venture will be conducted by e-mail, phone and/or skype as appropriate to the venture and individual.

The course does not prescribe a particular ology, ism, or path.  Instead, it is designed to equip an individual to choose and blaze his own way.  The course does seek to make sense of Scientology at the upper levels and to understand what in actual fact Hubbard was attempting to address. In that regard, following through with the full course requires a fair amount of study assignments.  That might be desirable to those who entered Scientology with the intention of learning the secrets of the woof and warp of the universe, but gave up when they recognized Scientology would not truly reveal them.  For others not so inclined, you may want to hang for the first several ventures which culminate in a break point that is called ‘Cutting To The Chase.’  It might be that you by then hit a point where Scientology is sufficiently contextualized for you that you can let it go and move on.  Others who find it simply uninteresting or lacking in other respects are free to drop out at any stage.

The only pre-requisite is that the participant has read What Is Wrong With Scientology?: Healing Through Understanding, The Scientology Reformation, and Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior.

In order to participate, simply set up a hushmail.com account and reach out to me at howdoesitfeel@hushmail.com.

Donations are voluntary on the basis of what each individual considers each venture was worth.

369 Comments

Posted in Casablanca, Deconstructing Scientology, Integral Theory, l. ron hubbard, Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior, philosophy, Scientology, texas, the future, What Is Wrong With Scientology?

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