Many people have asked me about the meaning of the title of this blog.
One of the original inspirations for doing what we have been doing for the past three years came from listening to an early 1960’s interview of gospel singer and civil rights activist Mahalia Jackson conducted by American popular historian and civil rights activist Studs Terkel. For the next several decades until he died in his nineties Studs often told a story about Mahalia that he often characterized as “what it is all about” and “what this world needs now.”
I guess another way of putting it is integrity. Mahalia in turn was inspired, and inspired others, by song, particularly this one:
The Words to the Music from Mahalia. Thanks for the Sunday foot-tapping time Marty. What a fun trip this was!
Songwriters: Rev W H Brewster
One these morning soon one morning
I’m gonna lay down my cross get me a crown
Soon one evening late in the evening
Late in the evening I’m going home live on high
Soon as my feet strike Zion
Lay down my heavy burdens
Put on my robe in glory
Going home one day and tell my story
I’ve been coming over hills and mountains
Gonna drink from the Christian Fountain
You know all God’s sons and daughters that mornin’ now
Will drink that old healing water
And we gonna live on forever, we gonna live on forever
We gonna live on up in glory afterwhile.
Oh Lord I’m going out sight-seeing in Beulah
March all around God’s altar
Walk and never get tired
Fly Lord and never falter
I’m gonna move on up a little higher
Gonna meet old man Daniel
Gonna move on up a little higher
Gonna meet the Hebrew children
Gonna move on up a little higher
Meet Paul and Silas
Gonna meet my friends and kindred
Gonna move on up a little higher
Gonna meet my loving mother
I’m gonna move on up a little higher
Gonna meet the Lily of the valley
I’m gonna feast with the Rose of Sharon
It will be always howdy howdy
It will be always howdy, howdy
It will be always howdy howdy and never goodbye
Oh will you be there early one morning
Will you be there somewhere round the altar
Will you be there oh when the angels shall call the roll
God knows I’ll be waiting
Yes I’ll be watching somewhere on the altar
Well I’ll be waiting oh at the beautiful yes golden gate
Well well soon as my feet strike Zion
Gonna lay down my heavy burden
I’m going to put on my robe in glory
I’ve been coming over the hills and mountains
Gonna drink from the Christian Fountain
You know all God’s sons and daughters that mornin’
Will drink that old healing water
Meet me there early one morning
Meet me there somewhere on the altar
Meet me there oh when the angels shall call the roll
Here is the promised rundown on Tony Ortega’s report of this year’s annual L Ron Hubbard Birthday Celebration event from Clearwater Florida.
It is just about the thirtieth anniversary of my introduction to the strange case of Gerry Armstrong. Armstrong was the LRH archivist who left the church in 1981. That year a tremendous amount of attention had gone onto how the church was promoting L Ron Hubbard to the public. That was because the church was confronting a) the top eleven officials of the Guardian’s Office (including Hubbard’s wife Mary Sue) were facing lengthy jail sentences, while b) a rash of lawsuits had been filed naming the church as well as L Ron Hubbard as defendants, and c) the central claim of each suit was fraud, more specifically alleging that the church lured them into Scientology based on false claims as to L Ron Hubbard’s super man biography. Essentially the claim was that if L Ron Hubbard was not an engineer, nuclear physicist, wounded and crippled war hero who was miraculously healed by his own brainchild Dianetics, and he was not the model of perfect virtue since then, why, then they were defrauded into spending money and devoting years to Scientology.
Now, this is a very short-handed summary of a history that was not clear to me for many years after the facts – notwithstanding my personal involvement in some of it – , not even totally clear until very recently. The whole story will arrive soon enough.
Armstrong pointed out to L Ron Hubbard’s messengers that something had better be done about the representations the church was making. He based that concern on having worked tirelessly to provide David Miscavige’s Special Project (of which I was then the files man for) with material to prove the claims about Hubbard to be true, and coming up empty handed on many counts. David Miscavige’s handling for Armstrong’s origination was to send Norman F Starkey down to the Commodores Messenger Org International to give Armstrong a Severe Reality Adjustment (SRA – loud verbal brow beating) for being “disaffected.” Armstrong then blew, with a few boxes of LRH archives with which to defend himself. In response to being hounded by Miscavige directed PIs for several months, Armstrong reacted by devoting the rest of his life to proving that L Ron Hubbard was a fraud.
As was Miscavige’s habit, he continued to pursue Armstrong as the devil incarnate while at the same time taking Armstrong’s advice, just ignoring the source of it communicating as if it were his own. No more representations about LRH went out without my authorization – which was backed by an extensive fact-checking process.
We sued Armstrong for theft of the archives documents. The trial occurred in early 1984. We had two very competent trial lawyers doing a yeoman-like job putting on the plaintiff’s case for several weeks. By the time the plaintiff’s case rested I had the unenviable task of informing Miscavige that the attorneys wanted authority to enter settlement negotiations before the defendant’s case was presented. The attorneys demonstrated that while we could do significant damage to Armstrong’s credibility, at the end of the day we did not have answers for the far more important and relevant issues – that is, the truth or falsity of representations made by Hubbard and the church about the life of L Ron Hubbard. What’s more, they explained that by a number of comments by the judge (this was a non-jury trial) it was clear the judge was focusing on that lack of evidence . The attorneys reported that Armstrong’s attorney was amenable to settlement – and that this was a short window of opportunity to protect the image of Hubbard and the church; that once Armstrong’s side had the podium we were in for weeks upon weeks of medieval style Inquisition on L Ron Hubbard (all to be covered by the media).
Miscavige, in his inimitable style, called the attorneys “pussies” (his word) and worse and threatened to fire them if they so much as entertained the thought of “settlement”, let alone mentioned it, again.
The attorneys – and their back up staff – did everything in their power, short of being dragged out of court for defying court orders, to keep a lid on the evidence admitted. They also did an admirable job of attempting to discredit the witnesses and evidence they entered.
But, in the end their prognosis turned out to be quite conservative. The judge issued a ruling about Hubbard who of course was not there, finding as a matter of fact that he was a “pathological liar” and “paranoid” and “schizophrenic.” Not only did L Ron Hubbard’s life history get annihilated by the world wide media – it continued to be for thirty years, with only lame denials in response, as Gerry Armstrong was right all along in this respect: the church had little to no to counter documentation for the claims the church had loudly trumpeted about L Ron Hubbard’s life. Fact of the matter is, the church’s lack of ability to document many of the claims has been such a given fact that it has bred the type of disbelief expressed by Tony Ortega in his most recent article. He can’t believe that that church is not only focusing on the claims, but thirty years later they are exaggerating them even more.
Some of the representations covered in this year’s March 13th event – such as the alleged Oregon sub chasing incident was “regarded as among the most regionally famed encounters of the war” – are so easily discredited that those in the know have to wonder: are the people making such representations attempting to set up L Ron Hubbard for a fall?
It gets worse. The “L Ron Hubbard Biographer” attempts to position LRH as saving the world from “evil” scientists bent on blowing it up. A five minute google research project (for the culturally or historically illiterate who don’t already know it) would show that those “evil” scientists allegedly plotting to destroy earth were engaged in precisely the opposite activity – they were the original movement to demand “conscience” be incorporated into science because of the destructive power of what they were discovering.
To position Richard Nixon with Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein is about as credible as trying to position Adolph Hitler with leading members of the German underground anti-Nazi movement.
It is pure insanity that is issuing from the lips of Dan Sherman and David Miscavige. It is madness. I would write it off as only such if I were not aware of the fact that David Miscavige is acutely aware of who ultimately takes the brunt of this.
What is more a travesty is the overall technique of Sherman and Miscavige. They are attempting to literalize L Ron Hubbard. As any intelligent student of Scientology knows, one of Hubbard’s virtues is his story telling ability. He can lecture for one hour on the subject of a simple principle; and he can tell a number of colorful stories and anecdotes to get the audience to view it from a number of angles to the point where they can understand the principle conceptually. Of course, we also know that Hubbard has done that literally thousands of times and it was all recorded for posterity. So, Sherman and Miscavige come along – take an anecdote out, alone, bereft of any context for what principle it is being used to illustrate, and tell the public:
a) Every word is literally true.
b) That “a” is of utmost importance, or why would they be conveying it with such ostentatious implant a/v technology; and thus
c) L Ron Hubbard ought to be viewed and treated like a God, and not as the thinking and living out of the box kind of guy he was, and thus
d) Scientology is really about belief, and not observation and workability, and thus
e) David Miscavige must be viewed as the Pope, infallibility and all.
While this madness is clearly intended to up the mushroom treatment (being kept in the dark and being fed manure) of captive cult member audiences – David Miscavige is well aware of what its long term effect will be, more years of dragging L Ron Hubbard through the mud publicly as allegedly making false claims as to his history, qualifications and competence.
I keep asking, and I keep meaning it when I do, how can it get any darker than that?
Some of you may know Marsha and Steve Friedman, but for those of you who don’t, here’s a little information about these two new independents.
Marsha became a Scientologist in 1969 and introduced Steve to Scientology in 1973. They are well-known as Scientologists in the Clearwater community, where they moved in 1989. They are also well-known as successful business people who own and operate a national PR agency, founded by Marsha 22 years ago. The firm, headquartered until recently in downtown Clearwater, represents professionals, high-profile individuals and corporations in a wide range of industries. Their staff is comprised mostly of media professionals, and each month they arrange an average of 160 radio interviews, 20 local and national TV appearances and millions of potential readers in offline and online print. As well they market online, with Marsha having 70,000 friends and followers on the various social networking sites. She is also the author of the book, Celebritize Yourself, and is co-host of a recently launched national talk radio show airing weekly on Sirius/XM.
– Mike Rinder
Here’s Marsha’s story in her own words.
Dear Friends,
As I don’t know where this post will wind up in the wild world of the Internet, consider this an “Open Letter” to friends I know and those I don’t, people in the church or on the fence, public and/or staff.
While writing this letter might seem as evidence to those within the church that we have gone “to the dark side,” I’m actually writing this for the purpose of telling the truth and filling in the vacuum of data for the friends and family who have chosen to disconnect from me and Steve, and others who might become new friends.
To start, I’d like to share a little of my background. I became a Scientologist in 1969 and joined staff at the Miami Org as Marsha Ulan. I have fond memories of being on staff during that era, and can vividly recall those exciting days when new HCOB’s and HCO PL’s were released. Whenever this happened, we always stopped whatever we were doing to read LRH’s new breakthroughs. The energy and excitement were beyond compare; we knew we were part of a great new movement.
While still on staff in 1973, I introduced Steve to Scientology and shortly thereafter we got married. (We were raised together in Queens, NY, and have known each other since we were 7 and 8 years old.)
I finished my contract and left staff in March of 1974 to have our first child together. We’ve now been happily married going on 39 years in May, and are the very proud parents of 2 sons, a daughter, 3 grandchildren and a new great-grandson (whew…even hard for us to believe!).
In 1989 we moved to Clearwater to be close to Flag, and while I never went back on staff, I always volunteered for OSA whenever called upon. Over the years, we did a lot of services at Flag, including auditing on OT 7 until about a year ago when we routed off the level.
I had no idea when I routed out of the Flag AO last year that this journey would lead me here. And, quite honestly, in a strange sort of way, I have my auditor and FSM to thank for finding my path to this portal. You see, when Steve and I chose to route off of OT 7, it wasn’t conceivable to anyone in the Church that we could have made that decision without being influenced by people we were told are “the enemy.” Our instantaneous response was, “What enemy? Are we in some kind of war?”
Then we were accused of being associated with “friends of LRH.” We thought, “How strange, of course we’re friends of LRH and, yes, that is who we associate with.” And this wasn’t said tongue-in-cheek at all, even though it may seem that way. Truly, we were the best of soldiers. We didn’t dare read anything on the Internet about Scientology. We were told it was evil, enturbulating and could cause us great harm. While neither Steve nor I believed anything or anyone had that kind of power over us, especially considering we were OT and armed with ethics and PTS tech, we chose to simply follow the rules and do as we were told.
But, after routing off services and being free to think, read and experience whatever we desired, I decided to look and see who those “enemies” were and what exactly was meant by “friends of LRH.”
Once I started to look, I anticipated finding a volume of success stories and well publicized good works of the church by independent media coverage. However, the only pro-church coverage I found were press releases the church wrote and paid to have distributed by PR distribution services. But most important was what I found from independent news coverage – the harrowing stories of people who had been on staff, and the violation of their human rights.
After doing a lot of research online, when Debbie Cook’s email hit my inbox at the beginning of this year, I found myself in complete agreement with the points she raised. And, for the reasons listed below, on Tuesday, February 28th, I learned the church was planning to issue a declare on me and Steve. This was told to me over lunch by one of my closest Scientology friends of twenty years.
My crimes? Since I’ve received no communication from anyone at the church, or OSA, I can only speculate on their reasoning:
1. On January 2, 2012, I forwarded Debbie Cook’s email to 3 people with whom I had a close relationship: my brother and two friends. My brother did not respond to my email nor did he call or try to engage in any conversation. Rather, he sent me a Knowledge Report in the mail and after a 60 plus year relationship, he just disconnected from me. My sister-in-law disconnected shortly thereafter.
The initial response from my two friends was to say that while they didn’t agree, they still loved and treasured my friendship and would like to just agree to disagree. However, they have both since disconnected.
2. On February 8th, after receiving an email from two Scientology business associates asking to contract my company for services, I sent them a response letting them know of my agreement with the points Debbie Cook raised in her letter. As lines in the sand were obviously being drawn at this point, I felt it was only appropriate they should know my feelings, in case they preferred not to engage my company for this reason. (I never heard back from either person, even though one of them was someone I’ve known over 30 years.)
3. Around this same time, I got about 5 or 6 messages on Facebook, stating I was Facebook friends with Debbie Cook and requesting I un-friend her. I didn’t un-friend Debbie Cook; I un-friended them instead.
The close friend, who over lunch told me of the declare coming down, said he was meeting with OSA’s Kathy True that following Saturday to “right this wrong.” He said he would contact me after the meeting to let me know what occurred.
I never heard from him again. After a very close 20-year friendship, he has disconnected from me, un-friended me on Facebook and had all of his family do the same.
At that point, I assumed a declare had been issued. Then, a couple weeks ago, I learned about a Facebook posting below, by someone I don’t know, which resulted in a lot of FB disconnections from Scientologists.
“Marsha Freidman and her husband Steve Friedman have been Declared Suppressive, I know this as a fact. This Declare can be seen and verified with any MAA or OSA terminal.
“As your Facebook Friend, I would most appreciate your removing them as your Facebook friend ASAP.
“Thanks in advance for your action on this,
“Russell”
Lastly, I learned from my son who works for a Scientologist (and former friend) of some false things being said about me by the church:
1. That the church has been trying to “handle” me for a year but I refused to take any calls, return any calls or speak to anyone.
This is completely false. No one from the church ever called, emailed or even stopped by my office (located until recently a few blocks away from Flag) to talk to me about any problems they had with me.
In fact, it’s quite to the contrary. This past Christmas I was very involved as usual in an event the church is associated with. In 1989 I founded a group that I later established as a non-profit called Cherish the Children Foundation, which championed for abused, abandoned and neglected children. For 22 years me and my organization sponsored a Christmas party for these foster children in which the church played a role as a co-sponsor. This past year was no different and one of OSA’s staff even attended the event, without one word spoken to me throughout the planning or at the event itself.
If perhaps this statement was referring to “handling” my husband, the situation there is that when he turned in his confidential materials and said he would no longer be auditing, both his auditor and FSM (at different times) visited him at our office. His auditor was furious about his decision, yelling at him in the driveway with accusations that he’s been “influenced” by enemies. His communication was nasty enough that he called Steve back later that same day to apologize. Then, two MAA’s called Steve (on the phone at the same time) yelling and threatening him about what would happen if he didn’t come into the Org to see them. Well, if you knew Steve, you’d know he doesn’t take kindly to being threatened. Without raising his voice, but with tons of intention he told them their threats were meaningless and they wouldn’t be seeing him. They hung up the phone on him and he has never heard from anyone at the church since then. So, if no longer wanting to audit on OT 7 is a suppressive act, he’s guilty.
2. That I broadly spread Debbie Cook’s email.
Completely untrue. I sent Debbie Cook’s email to three people.
3. That my FSM came to my house to talk to me but my husband slammed the door in her face.
Completely untrue. My last home in Clearwater that we lived in for two years was very close to Flag and my FSM had never seen it. It’s a high security condo building. No one can even enter the building to get to our unit to have the door slammed in their face.
What did occur was our FSM stopped by one day at the office while we were working. She arrived unannounced and went into Steve’s office. He was not happy about a prior conversation where she called him an “a-hole.” He told her that she didn’t have an appointment and asked her to leave. He never left his desk to close the door or slam it in her face. She got up and walked out and it was apparent she was upset. Right or wrong, I asked him to call her afterwards to apologize. He did and she accepted his apology.
To date, Steve and I have still have not heard from anyone from the church about a formal declare. Nor do we know what other untruths have been said about us in a goldenrod, which we understand is apparently available at Flag.
So, after being an upstat, loyal and dedicated Scientologist for 43 years, my journey has led me here.
It’s been very difficult at times to confront the lies I believed for so many years and the aberrations that exist within the church at the most senior level.
During this journey, I was so careful not to speak to my friends in any great depth of what I found. I was concerned it would enturbulate them and I didn’t want to create that effect. While I was being so careful to protect those I loved, they disconnected from me without any thought or reason when they were told the church had declared me a suppressive person.
If any one of those people were asked what they thought of me a few months ago, they would have declared me not suppressive, but rather their sister and friend, whom they loved and cherished. Yet with nary a question, they have disconnected because they were told we have gone to the “dark side” and are now suppressive people.
As I didn’t take the opportunity to speak candidly with friends before our declare, and had I known they would have disconnected from me so easily without even a question, let me say, here and now, what I should have said to them when we were still speaking.
To them I would say, honestly and truly, the only “dark side” that exists is at the senior level of management of the C of S and OSA. The entheta embroiled in the activities of disconnection and declares becomes very apparent when one is on the other side and subjected to disconnection and being declared.
But, like an auditing session – where you blow chunks of charge and see the world as bright and shining – that’s what it’s like to be on the other side, where suppression is non-existent. I’m talking of the suppression of being told who you can and can’t talk to, what you can and can’t read, what you can and can’t think, what you can and can’t do, where and how you spend your time and your money. Now that we’re on the other side, that suppression doesn’t exist anymore. It’s the most wonderful freedom Steve and I have experienced in a long time. The sad part is that until the suppression came off, we didn’t even realize how other-determined we had agreed to be.
We have personally experienced the off-policy regime that currently exists within the church. The following are just a few specifics that speak for themselves.
1. Steve and I have been declared but we never received any communication from the church about this status. Instead, we have heard only rumors that we have been declared – with NO prior ethics or justice actions, or Committee of Evidence held as clearly defined in policy.
2. Parishioners have disconnected from us, some who are directly in comm with the MAAs office, even though the policy on disconnection was cancelled in Ron’s Journal ‘68, (an LRH lecture of 1968). The existence of this LRH reference is completely ignored by the church. At the same time they have reported to the media that disconnection is not practiced. Is it really okay for any person or entity to force you to disconnect from those you love, be it family or friend? What kind of a church does this?
3. We have been “crush-regged” for the IAS and for fundraising for Ideal Orgs. Yet there are numerous LRH policy references against fundraising, many of which can be found on http://www.friendsoflrh.org/COBvsLRH/. Can anyone truly deny that crush regging exists? We’ve all experienced it. On many occasions I have been regged by my auditor after finishing up at the examiner, by my D of P, Board I/C and examiner. Finishing a checksheet cycle in qual was usually accompanied by a reg cycle with the Cram Officer, Qual Consultant or MLO. And, the bigger reg cycles usually included the D/ED and MAA, and oftentimes an FSM (other than our own) or an OL in town.
By no stretch of the imagination could we be considered wealthy. But we gave when we could – $100k to the IAS and thousands more to library donations in addition to the hundreds of thousands for bridge cycles over the years.
But the reg cycle that took place in the last quarter of 2010 turned the corner for us. After being detained for over 3 hours with a host of people, some using verbal force to try and close us to take out a $100k second mortgage on our home (to no avail), we realized we were no longer giving because we wanted to; it was now being demanded of us. I was told the donations were necessary because the church was building a “war chest.” The irony is that while one of LRH’s stated aims for Scientology is “a civilization without war,” money is being accumulated for a war, which flies in the face of LRH’s intention. When I finally got to look at this, I asked myself, “What war is the church fighting?” I know what I was told by the Church powers that be, but I didn’t feel I had enough data to really understand what I was told. When I started looking, I saw the evidence to support the fact that, yes, this church IS at war. But unfortunately, I found that the war is against anyone who dares to expose the off-policy injustices and crimes being perpetrated.
Debbie Cook is just one example. There are many, many other individuals who have come forth with similar or worse stories of their own. And these very well documented stories all live online.
The question you have to ask yourself is, “What if? What if any of these reports of abuse at the highest level of the Church are true?” When I asked myself that question, I realized I could never stand proudly and look myself in the eye, if I didn’t do something to expose the dirty secrets that are very well-known to the rest of the world, but unknown to those on the inside who choose not to look.
To those still in the church, think of LRH’s essay on Personal Integrity.
“Personal integrity is knowing what you know. What you know is what you know and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed. And that is integrity and there is no other integrity.”
And, think of the Code of Honor which says: “Your self-determinism and your honor are more important than your immediate life. Your integrity to yourself is more important than your body.”
Another important reference is an LRH quote from 9 Dec. 1952 PDC tape called “What’s Wrong With This Universe:” LRH says, “Man’s degradation always stems from his first desertion or breakage of really the Code of Honor. He breaks the Code of Honor and after that he starts downhill and he gets worse and worse and worse and worse because his trust in himself is worse and therefore he can’t trust what his own energy is or anything else.”
If anything I’ve said resonates even to the slightest degree, then you owe it to yourself to do as LRH says, “Look, don’t listen.” Even if you decide the data you find is not true for you, at least you’ve taken responsibility to “know.” The other side of the coin is to not know, and that’s when you mess with your integrity.
Personal integrity is the one thing no one can ever take from you. Only you can give it away.
While our SP declare was intended to negatively impact us, it’s actually been a very freeing action for both of us.
Our lives are good. Steve and I feel very fortunate that we’ve never been solely dependent on Scientologists for friends, employees and clients. We have a successful business with a wonderful staff and a great stable of clients. And, thankfully our business is doing well.
I know many people who have experienced disconnection from the church are not as fortunate as we are in this way. But, just as we have created close friendships and business relationships with people outside the church, from all walks of life, we know others can do this too in time.
At the end of the day, Steve and I have chosen to maintain our Code of Honor and our personal integrity. We’re able to freely enjoy our family and friends, to keep our business flourishing and prospering, our clients happy and to live our lives to the fullest, all while contributing to the happiness and survival of others.
In summary, due to all that has happened and the off-policy regime that exists, we’re happy to announce our formal resignation and disconnection from the current C of S.
The new story is about a contest winner named Carl Frederick. Frederick has decided to cut ties with the contest. Tony’s reporting created the effect I was suggesting be created on the “church’s” Human Rights propaganda campaign front. The article gives an inside look at what goes through the mind of someone supporting a corporate Scientology public relations program when he is informed about the criminal activities such a program seeks to create a cover for.
Frederick speaks of the corporate Scientology love bombing:
“You’re never treated anywhere in your life as a writer better than you are there. Tuxedos, parties on rooftops — there were evenpapparazi. They give you the whole works,” he says.
Frederick speaks to the question of why continuing to engage in such an innocent sounding activity would be an unethical choice:
“I had blinders on. Self-fitted blinders. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of my appreciation of the contest,” he says. “I still think the contest is a good thing. But once you’ve gone through it, you should probably leave. It’s the long-term association that I have a problem with,” he says. “It implies an acceptance of everything.”
He also talks about the moral dilemma attached to such decision making:
“I feel good in my mind that I did turn this down, but I am conflicted about it,” he says. “They really do a lot for us. I’ve had nothing but niceness from these guys.”
Ortega’s article is your inside look at deconstruction of the propaganda front activity. A great primer for anyone inclined to do something about the Human Rights propaganda activity of Miscavige discussed in last night’s post.
David Miscavige has Corporate Scientology buying and defrauding politicians right, left and center in a systematic scheme to cover up his human trafficking operation with Human Rights. Check out Senator Harry Reid’s latest endorsement.
Here is another Opinion Leader in the field unwittingly pimping for the biggest, most blatant human rights abuser in recent American history:
The longer David Miscavige gets away with such fraudulent activity, the longer he is enabled to run his torture camp activities. In order to put period to this blatant travesty I believe it is incumbant upon us to expose it.
Each time Miscavige puts out a “PR wire” press release or holds an event on Human Rights using prominent folk to front for him, I suggest that constituents, and industrious non-constituents, of such used personages expend a little time getting the truth to them about how they are being used.
You can inform them with the abundant available links about the only legitimate Human Rights work that is going on in the world of Scientology at this time; that of Independent Scientologists attempting to shut down Miscavige’s personal house of horrors at the international Scientology Inc headquarters.
It might seem oxymoronic at first glance that this should be the important first step in correcting Scientology’s public identification with Human Rights violations. But, if you read the Axioms of Dianetics and Scientology I think you’ll understand that to bury the truth and allow lies and crimes to continue will result in persistence. Until the continued perpetration of the crimes and continued perpetuation of it by such false propaganda as we see above is exposed and ended, the rights violations will proliferate unabated. Ultimately, unchecked Miscavige’s cult lunacy and cruelty will create destruction of such magnitude that he will forever destroy the name under which he is performing them, Scientology.
The lives of the people continuing to be adversely effected by David Miscavige’s insanity are worth the effort to educate.
Here are two suggested primer links to begin the educational process on the types of human rights abuses these opinion leaders are perpetuating and protecting in the name of Human Rights.
Kudos to Aida Thomas and those who assisted her in discovering and exposing the Office of Special Affairs (OSA, church of Scientology dirty tricks and propaganda wing) operative who publicly slimed her friend Silvia Kusada:
In my view Aida sets a wonderful example of what friendship really entails.
As for Neil Roger Woods – aka Tim Higgs, aka truthseeker, the OSA operative very active in attempting to disrupt and destroy the lives and reputations of Independent Scientologists – he had his fun on this blog for a spell in 2010. That was until we noted that his creepy comments indicated he was an OSA troll.
This Woods message was a dead give-away:
4/24/2010
Mr. Rinder,
Have you ever been on the other end of one these “gang ups”? If so, was it just once or more than once? If a man spends years of his life shooting others, should others feel sorry for him when he gets shot?
Should we feel sympathy for someone who was once on the cause end of something like this but is now on the effect end?
Didn’t you and Marty Rathbun help to build the Frankenstein monster over the last 20-30 years we are now having to deal with?
Isn’t there a word for things that happen like this?
Isn’t that word “Karma”?
It is David Miscavige attempting to export the Hole right into our living room – the tell-tale “I am going to take your treasonous act of coming clean to make you guilty until you cave in and shut up”.
Woods ought to be exposed to the point where societal peer pressure forces him to confess and repent. “Oh”, the OSA trolls will rant, “but you are proposing to do just what OSA does!” No, I’m not. I have published OSA programs straight from their greasy files that direct the spreading of black PR (not fact) to ensure that folk of our ilk lose their jobs and any possibility of a livelihood. Examples, Tory Christman Program, OSA War Against Independence. That is precisely what Woods has been involved in, going on for years now. Mr Woods does not deserve to earn a red penny from anyone until he makes good on what he has been doing to others at the behest of Miscavige’s OSA network. To allow him to continue to harm people of good will is ethical bankruptcy.
Thanks again to Aida for not only demonstrating what a friend is, but also for helping to put Ethics in where sorely needed.
Thanks for the responses to my post of 20 March, Council for Spiritual Integrity. A lot of the initial information shared serves to confirm datums that I have already found to be true and have based my actions over the past three years upon. Among them:
1. The eighties leaders were different than current leaders in that the former ultimately were bought. I knew from the outset that David Miscavige was acutely aware of the fact that most everybody had a price. So much so that his ENTIRE, blanket strategy for dealing with exposure of his crimes can be summed up in two parts: a) Leverage: created by intelligence, black PR, and legal to put the target into a more amenable frame of mind, followed by b) buy off, and that means literally – nobody settles with David Miscavige whom Miscavige does not own to one degree or another.
That is one reason why I have stayed true from the beginning to the vow never to accept money from anyone that carries with it any attempt to influence my direction or behavior. I have turned down large sums of money that have been offered to get me to go in certain directions; and I will continue to refuse such in the future. People donate when they see fit – presumably by their following the chronicle of where I am going as memorialized on this blog. Monique can attest to the trend – and how no matter how lean things become on this end, I have not and will not pander or attempt to please to make a living – to me that is not living; that is the route to dying.
2. Among today’s crew we have a number of folks with a far higher confront of evil and experiential track on how to deal with it.
While I am studying all this in far more depth and intend to share more of my findings, one more recently recognized truth can be added.
3. The pioneers of the past were far more invested in terms of active involvement. They met,they rallied, they demonstrated, they worked hard (far more than is necessary now with the internet) to collect information and get it published and distributed. Almost perhaps to a fault. Many critical ones devoted so much time and effort to the cause that they were forced out of the game entirely by financial necessity.
I have noted a number of times over the past couple years that much of what I do I consider to be “ethics” actions; and that we as a movement are following the Scientology sequence of ethics, tech, admin. I find it to be necessary in order to assure that tech and admin can go in. That is why when engaged in ethics activities I continually promote that others not directly involved get real busy with tech and admin; because a) that is the only reason for the sacrifices in the ethics band – to make it possible to get tech in, and b) enough proliferation of tech will be the final ethics nail allowing a move into the admin band.
The past few months have been almost completely consumed with activities falling into the ethics band. The amount of kicking and screaming from the ethics-challenged beast has been horrifying during this period.
I have likened the struggle with the Corporate Scientology organization to the American civil rights struggle and the South African civil rights movement. On the latter, I have noted that the most effective measure in ending appartheid was making those who profited from it no longer profit from it. And that was accomplished by making those who supported the profiteers understand they ultimately empowered the slavoracy; and by persistent exposure of that empowerment made those ultimately supporting the slave-masters no longer support them.
I think on this score, we can learn from the pioneers; both of the civil rights movements and of the earlier Independent movement. I think we ought to learn from them a higher level of personal involvement. I am asking people to step up to make it uncomfortable on those who are perpetuating Miscavige’s character assassination network. I am not suggesting in the slightest that anyone engage in anything resembling harassment, Corporate Scientology style or otherwise. I am suggesting that the likes of Joel Phillips, John Allender, Ed Bryan, Joanne Wheaton, Norman Bates (whatever his real last name is), Iz Chait, Dave Lublow, and other known agents of Corporate Scientology’s domestic terrorist network be called to account for their months and years of domestic terrorist work.
Miscavige, being the 1.1 coward that he is, has polluted the internet and American neighborhoods by having OSA volunteers and PIs serve as an “arm’s length” domestic terrorist network. Please do what you can to help disinfect this sickness with sunshine.
Get hold of Steve and/or Karen with your website building skills, your ability to investigate and inform those who ought to know about the domestic terror network and its actors.
A wise man once noted that if one knows of out ethics and doesn’t do anything about it, after a while of doing nothing about it he becomes an accomplice.
For those who have not been following this blog for long, in its early days of late 2009 I initiated the idea of people standing up and announcing themselves as Independent Scientologists. Some of the benefits of doing so and some of where I saw this trend going was covered in the post titled Independent Scientologists Community 26 Sept 2009.
Since then I have taken some heat from various sectors for not embracing the “Freezone” or the “International Freezone Association”. Rather than waste a lot of time in debate I kept carrying along with the “Independent” agenda. The idea was that given enough numbers and enough persistence three aims would ultimately be achieved:
a) Scientology would ultimately become differentiated in the public mind from the Church of Scientology as Independent Scientologists took a stand and took more responsibility for it.
b) Scientologists in greater numbers would no longer feel they had to disassociate themselves with from Scientology to survive and flourish. They would de-pts from Scientology Inc and recognize that no madman can or should have a monopoly on their religion.
c) By the continued momentum of “a” and “b” the dark empire of Corporate Scientology would become increasingly irrelevant as the subject of Scientology rose from the ashes like the Phoenix in the forms of myriad Independent Scientologists.
We are one month past the beginning of year three in a plan that I initially estimated would take about five years.
There is a long way to go.
There will always be peaks and valleys.
Hopefully, we will continue to experience momentum.
Independent Scientologists Jim Logan and Sinar Parman recently took a trip to David Miscavige’s Scientology Inc Headquarters near Hemet California. Here is Jim’s report.
I went back to Gold. I was last there in October 1992. It appeared bigger in memory than it was yesterday. Yesterday it seemed like the buildings had actually shrunk. There was “more” of the place, with the Castle, the Berthing buildings (I couldn’t see theRTCBuildingor the grotesque Bonnyview from the roadside), but even these seemed to physically be withdrawn, actually shrinking back. Not there. It was just something I noticed even in the real excitement I felt at returning to this place. It was a palpable perception of even the building structures themselves pulling back and getting a smaller space. Of course, I’ve had a lot of auditing in the past few years too, plus some really extensive study so maybe my viewpoint has shifted a bit J
I had the intention of returning there for the salutary act of Confront, Reach and Withdraw on the spaces that I was forbidden to be in, but, prior to that prohibition, had put so much of my own life and free theta, and my literal blood, sweat and tears, into creating.
I also wanted to bring a simple bouquet of flowers for the memory of my wife Annie and our life we created there, and in honor of the dedication and devotion of her own to a purpose we both embrace.
As I drove from LA toHemet, on the way to meet Sinar Parman, a fellow former Int Base staff member, and someone who I feel a special relationship with as he too worked personally with L. Ron Hubbard and knew and loved Annie, I was envisioning what it would be like to drive up to the gate, get out of the vehicle and approach the Main Booth. I saw in this, Danny Dunnigan, coming out of the guard booth, in his black uniform. He didn’t recognize me at first, as I saw myself approaching with the small bundle of flowers, handpicked from the garden at Scott Campbell’s house by his wonderful wife Karry, for me, for that day and for Annie.
But then he responded, with hostility and refused to accept the token and went back in the booth, picking up the phone and spreading the word – Jim Logan is here.
So there I was, in fact, driving up to the Main Booth at Golden Era Productions, with Sinar in the passenger seat, instant hatted on the little Canon digital camera, and both of us coming back.
I stopped and looked through the darkened glass and there was Danny, pretty much as I had viewed him earlier on my drive in. I picked up the bouquet of fresh garden flowers, and stepped outside.
I noticed that Danny didn’t get up, there seemed to be a communication lag of reaction there, and I made several steps toward the little structure, hoping someone would emerge so I could ask if I could leave the token in memory of my recently passed wife. One of their fellow staff.
The door on the side opened part way, and Kevin Caetano put his head out. I said something on the order of “I’ve come with these flowers for Annie, would it be possible for me to leave them?”
Without answering me Kevin Caetano in a sort of fearful hostility, and without looking directly at me, or Sinar for that matter, said “You’re trespassing, get off the property”.
I repeated my request, as I wasn’t sure he’d actually heard me since it didn’t appear to me he was actually looking at me and he certainly wasn’t communicating TO me. He was kind of oddly, angrily growling at someone, something else, looking askance and growling this little tiny, hostile growl at his imagined enemy, out to destroy all that is good, to destroy him.
If it weren’t for the randomity of the moment, I think I would have guffawed at the circumstances, in complete reflexive rejection.
Here I was, offering a bouquet of flowers in memory of a loved one – to a Church of Scientology – and I was greeted with a terrified hate and barely moving to even open the door of the darkened little room these men lived and worked in, all they could manage to expel was a weakly bilious croak “You’re trespassing, you’re trespassing” and then shrink back into this tiny cave, closing the window and hunkering down again.
As some sort of “buffer” against the evil Sinar, me and the flowers I offered, presented to them, they had a non-Scientologist it appeared, ask us to leave directly. Kevin wouldn’t talk to us, only this presumed Private Investigator, who relayed the orders.
We got back in the car, turned around, and went to the west end of the property, just past the “NO TRESPASSING” sign, at the edge of the orchard that Sinar himself had helped to plant.
We parked and got out, to complete the process of Confront, Reach and Withdraw, and for me to place somewhere on the side of the property line, the flowers.
As we walked up theGilman Springs Roadtoward the Castle, Danny raced by in the Security truck, blackened windows and all, and went to park behind where I’d left our car on the side of the road. We started to walk back, me wondering whether I’d parked on public property and not wanting to have them tow the vehicle in some puerile bit of nonsense. I approached while they peered in the empty SUV and walked about it, writing down the license plate, and as I did they got back in their truck and when I got within about 20 feet, they pulled out, and parked again in front. Some silly cat and mouse game. I realized I was parked freely and left them to do whatever it was they thought they were doing.
Back toward the Base we went. I stopped at the first place I wanted to confront, the old golf course, from the first flood way back when, that destroyed it and where on Saturday renovations, in the base “all hands”, I had gone to mark off the area as it was planned to be a large garden to grow self-sufficiently and feed the staff.
We continued up the highway, at one point, and right beside us a giant Dodge 3500 truck blasted their horn sounding like a ship’s foghorn. I thought it might have been Security playing around, but it was actually a public person, expressing their somewhat less than cordial affinity for whom they thought were Gold staff.
I saw the Castle for the first time aside from photos. It came after I left in 92. A nice enough place. Then we came to OGH. Old Gilman House, the home of the former owner of Gilman Hot Springs Spa. I’d spent the last few days I was at Gold at OGH. Along with Jesse Prince and Fred Houck, both “pariah” at the time, and on the line to “route out” of the Sea Org.
My time there was spent in utter turmoil, with no sleep as I was way too enturbulated, and crying at the losses I was experiencing in real time, guarded and unable to speak to my wife, or return to the apartment were we lived. The only communication coming from Jackson who was trying to get me sessionable to be Sec Checked before being removed from the property. I never did get sessionable in the several days I was there, getting only snips of sleep, and unable to even eat, doing nothing more really than literally beg to see Annie and protesting “But you’re supposed to be the good guys”.
I reached for it, I withdrew from it and continued the process. Bing, attention freed up we moved on.
I glanced over the swamp, and up toward the LRH Music Studio where I last worked. I could see “the Hole”, and we stopped across the road, on the south side, to look over the garage. Reached and withdrew and was able to completely have the space, permeating it, and the surrounding grounds.
On we went, this time just east of the garage and viewing the parking lot behind and the rear of MCI.
Here Sinar and I reminisced about the days when we would muster together back of the Massacre Canyon Inn for Saturday Renos, the whole of the base, and all of us looking forward to a day outside in “civies” and “grungies”, able to express some little style in our choice of clothes and enjoy the grounds that we were busy creating.
Sinar’s haunt, MCI, as a chef and his own life spreading through the building, withdrawing, reaching and a return of ownership for spaces he creates.
Up the road a bit and I could see F&E over the roof of the Lodges. LRH Films and Equipment, where Annie worked and where I proposed to her, and why the flowers in the first place. There was a symbolism to this, and a recalling of my happier days.
I had bought them one day in LA. I’d written a note for her “ Say uncle, there’s more where these came from”. I’d dropped them off with Roberta Lantz to give to Annie and went back to my post, just after supper. Later that night Annie called me and asked me to come to F&E; she wanted to talk.
I got there sometime late in the evening, maybe 10:30 p.m., and asked to see her. I was shown to an anteroom of the darkroom where she worked. I waited, leaning up on a counter, with my arms folded across my chest, ready for rejection, hoping for her hand. She came out of the darkroom, in her white uniform but with a powder blue sweater on for the cold temperature of the space. I think it had a little design on it, maybe a teddy bear. I don’t recall exactly as I was so taken by the color and her hair over her shoulders and the figure of this woman I loved so deeply.
She stood across from me, maybe four feet away and looked me straight in the eye and paused.
I stood, as cavalierly as I could mock up, but excited beyond description and held the look and the silence.
She began to speak.. softly saying… “Uncle.”
And our life began with our first real kiss.
Returning to Gold, and looking at that space, I did cry. But this time, it was different than all the tears I’ve shed over these years we’ve been forced apart. This time there was an end to it. She’s not there, she is free again, and we know each other with no space or time to separate us as beings. We won Dave. There is nothing you can do to tear asunder what we alone create.
With R&W complete on this spot, I felt very much awake, very much aware and continued on, east of the Main Booth.
Sinar said he didn’t want to go on, up the road. I urged him forward as I needed to continue and I wanted a suitable spot to place the bouquet. As we went up and came directly across from the Villas, while I was looking at the various places on the other bank of the road, the back of theMainGoldBuilding“36” as it was known, I felt something and my attention went to the Villas.
There it was, Dave’s offices, and as clear as the exhaust from a dump truck, a black roiling mass of hate and frustration.
I asked Sinar “Do you see that?”
“Yes” he replied. “I’ve seen since the Guard Booth. That’s why I didn’t want to come up here”.
I called across the road to Dave. “Hey, come on out, you pussy”. And in that moment, with ZERO affect on me from this being’s entheta and hatred, I laughed and realized just how pitiful a coward he really is.
I was done. End Phenomena reached and I could have at will any space there, including Dave’s, and penetrated all through it. I owned it. I could let it be.
As we sauntered back Sinar realized it was probably about dinner time for the staff. It was then I noticed that we had seen absolutely no one from the Base, save a brief fearful encounter by the Guards. In fact, the only person that came close to us appeared to be a non-Scientology PI that was in the area of the Main Booth, and had been filming us.
As I thought about the poor staff, kept within their walls, blinds drawn and in the “intruder” drill, hungry, I thought we’d better walk a bit faster and let them at least have their supper.
Walking back we reached a marked curb where a public bus stop had a sign. There beside it was a nice large stone, and I placed the flowers, carefully removing the twist tie so there was no reason to charge me with littering.
Out of the booth came the non-Scientology PI.
“You can’t leave that there.”
“It’s a public bus stop”. I answered as we walked by.
“Are you refusing to remove them?”
“It’s a public bus stop”. I replied again.
He asked twice more, I responded similarly, and couldn’t help but smile. After all, they were a bouquet of flowers for a loved one, and this was the argument he was having, representing a Church?
He walked up to the spot where I’d lain them, and I decided to pull out the Canon and film him taking them away. I don’t know how or why, but as soon as I aimed the camera, he stopped. He didn’t get to the memoriam, but turned around and carried on filming Sinar and me.
I didn’t see him take away the flowers. Perhaps he saw what it was, he realized himself what I had placed, and maybe, that which is good in him, the angels of his better nature, stayed his progress. I’ll say that is true. Even if it isn’t it’s what he would choose were he to be who he really is.
A few seconds of this reciprocal video game, and I was done. It was so silly.
As we walked back, passing Qual on the other side, and MCI on our side, both places we’d worked with fervor and purpose, we came again to “the Hole”.
This time, with my process complete, I could see a different thing over the Hole than I’d seen first time passed, or up at the Villas. This perceivable mass was thinner, with no hate, and more of an apathy, a dark sort of death pall. I’ve seen this at funerals, which is what it reminded.
It was then that I noticed something about the whole place.
It had no life.
Gone was the vigor I’d recalled. Gone was that feeling of excitement, and purpose, and hope and joy that I completely sensed as I lived and worked there from early 86, just after LRH had left.
All that was there, the only visible life energy, was Dave Miscavige’s hateful, angry bluster-mass, and the thin apathetic pall over the Hole, with all else noticeably absent, even the Guards unable to speak and needing a via.
I looked at this once bustling hive of purpose and the postulate of freedom for beings in all places and saw it was bereft of the real life that animated it. The life and creation of beings like Sinar and myself.
As we got to the car, Sinar got up an artistic urge and wanted to take shots of me in the fading sunlight.
I was happy. So I stood where he wanted me and he reeled off some pix.
My happiness is expressed by the awareness that I am free to create anything I want. I created spaces at Gold, building a large majority of the places I saw at one time on the track. Here is a new unit of time, and what lies ahead is the infinity of future.
For those at Gold. There will come a day when you muster in MCI and someone else will speak to you collected there, other than David Miscavige.
You will be told “It is over” once again, only this time it’s the end of the torturous years. The end of the toiling, with nothing to show. The end of the reversal of your goodwill and intention and malignment of your being by this single Suppressive Person. The end of the “ogre” and the return of truth and cause to you.
You will be “shell-shocked” and dazed. You’ll be asked to walk freely among the areas you choose, leave if you want to, as the gates are opened, but just walk and talk to whomever you wish and whatever you please.
You are being given full pay and a fair exchange for you work. Go to the canteen, splurge. Go to town, buy whatever you want. If you come back, it is on your own determinism. We’ll be doing some Group Processing next. I think you’ll like it. But it is your choice to be here for it.
It is time to deal with the past and clear it. To be here in the present. To decide what is the future.
There are those of us who wished, who have come here to help you as we can – to be truly FREE.
On March 13, 2012 Moving On Up A Little Higher received its sixth millionth (6,000,000) visit.
People from 107 countries have tuned in so far this year. I have included below a list of the top fifty countries in order of rank by number of visits.
Thanks for visiting. Thanks for participating in the conversations. And thanks for letting others know about the Scientology blog that never sleeps.
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United Kingdom
Germany
Australia
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Netherlands
Austria
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New Zealand
Hungary
Japan
Taiwan
Ireland
Portugal
Belgium
Venezuela
Philippines
Spain
Hong Kong
Thailand
Poland
Finland
Israel
Peru
Russian Federation
Singapore
Indonesia
Romania
Greece
India
Croatia
Czech Republic
Ecuador
Turkey
Guatemala
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Moving On Up a Little Higher 