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Kathy Braceland is an OT with a lot of Scientology training. She is a great artist. You should check out her work at http://www.k-jostudio.com/, but only after you’ve read her declaration of independence below. Kathy is one of the most compassionate beings I have had the privilege of coming to know during this great adventure. She is a valuable friend to me and to all of us. 

Lucky me, I worked with a guy who was on HQS way back in 1973.  I was already fascinated with people but I found him most interesting because he carried himself differently than anyone I knew.  As we became friends, I told him things I had stopped telling others because they thought I was “a little off” for thinking such things.  I told him I was interested in telepathy.  Instead of laughing, he agreed with me but said he didn’t know how to do that yet.  I told him I thought that we didn’t just live one life, the body died but we continued to live.  Surprisingly, he didn’t laugh or run away.   I said I wanted to help people and I wanted to know how the mind worked.  He said I should become an auditor, then brought me into the Mission in Edmonton, Alberta (Canada).  I was 17.

Lucky me again, the staff consisted of 2 Cl VIII’s, 2 Cl VI’s, 1 Cl IV and all of them were at least OT III.  I happily paid my $25 for the Comm Course and started my adventure to become an auditor.  I did every course the mission offered, ending with HSDC.  My wish came true.  I learned how the mind worked and I could help people.  I was on cloud 9…this is what I wanted to be…an auditor.  I audited and audited, hundreds of hours of Dianetics.  It was wonderful.  The wins and gains were absolutley mind blowing… literally…ha ha…. 

At the end of 1974, I flew to FCDC.  I was going to be a Cl IV auditor!  Having absolutely no reality on a Cl IV org, nor the USA and Americans, I didn’t know what I was in store for other than I was going to be amongst the big boys that LRH talked about in Keeping Scientology Working.  I was up for it.  I brought my own pc with me just in case they didn’t have one.  I figured he could train up to Cl IV to keep himself busy while he waited for me to audit him.

The training was awesome…rough, tough and standard.  I did my HSDC internship and was a certified, gold sealed Dianetics auditor…wow!  I started my Academy Levels.  TRs and metering every morning, then study and drill.  The course rooms and HGC were full — FCDC was buzzing.  It was exhilarating!  I threw myself into study 7 days a week, 9am until midnight or more.  I would audit any pc I was asked to, on any action. I audited the staff too.  I became the flub catch auditor and the course sup’s little helper.  I did my Cl IV internship and was now a gold sealed, certified Cl IV auditor.  A dream come true!

I returned to Edmonton to audit in the HGC.  I did lots of Life Repairs, Dianetics, repair lists, grades…everything I could audit.  My pcs were flying and I was having the time of my life.  In 1976, I was asked if I would train to be the Cram Off and Qual Sec for the Mission.  I figured, I could help even more pcs at once by assisting other auditors and I could also help the Mission.  Cool….  So I went to FCDC and trained as a Qual Sec.  Ooohh…FEBC tapes, ESTO tapes…awesome!  I returned to Edmonton, set up my Qual and went to work.  I also continued to audit in the HGC. 

In 1977, I went to FCDC and did my Senior Cl IV auditor training.  I kept a rigorous training schedule and would be the first to arrive and last to leave the course room each day.  I couldn’t get enough of the tech…oh man, it was incredible!  Life is just getting better and better.

In 1978, the Edmonton mission became a Cl IV org.  So I graduated into being an org staff member.  Cool….  Life was good.  Our newly formed org rocked!  The course rooms were full, the HGC was alive and full, there were lots of staff and more coming on board…it was fun…it was the best!

I continued on until 1981 and then moved to Los Angeles, where I trained on the HRD and CCRD.  I also attested to Clear.  I concentrated on my OT levels over the next few years and finished OT IV in 1985.  It was all completely fabulous and such a rocket ride!

Then things changed….

January 1986 came to be.  I was at the Palladium event where this guy I’d never heard of stood up and announced that LRH was dead and basically, he was taking over.  Enter David Miscavige.  My heart sank.  None of this was good news.  Through the rest of the event, my mind raced on how I was going to get up the rest of the OT levels quickly.  Over the next few months, I somehow paid for and did OT V and got onto Solo NOTS, finished that and then completed OT VIII in August 1988.  I did it…wow…I made it!  Thank you LRH!!

With the advent of Miscavige, I saw lawsuits spring up.  Prices for services 10Xed what they were, making the Bridge virtually unattainable for the general populace of earth.  Blanket C/Sing (i.e. insanity) was very quickly introduced where everyone going onto their OT levels were sec checked, whether they needed it or not… including in the non-interference zone.  We were all guilty until proven innocent.  This was all under the guise of protecting upper level materials from getting into the wrong hands.  Miscavige had to be certain that no one else would raise a lawsuit against the church and reveal data to the masses.  After all, a few slipped through the cracks.  Who knows who might be next?  It was absurd!

Public Scientologists were asked to drop their lives and help their church.  Nothing wrong with a call to arms, if the intent is clean.  But it wasn’t.  The public were encouraged to taunt, sneer at and hate anyone opposing the church.

Miscavige’s blanket, worldwide C/Sing continued into the 1990’s.  In 1991, Miscavige announced that no one had really finished NOTS, so everybody had to redo it.  At the same time, he said that it was voluntary.  However, if you wanted to get the gains that you’re obviously missing, you’d better get on it.

Miscavige introduced the Golden Age of Tech in the 90’s as well.  The training that we all did prior to this was awesome!  It didn’t need to be fixed.  But Miscavige, being the antithesis of LRH, thought differently than LRH.  Miscavige made a blanket statment to all auditors that we didn’t really understand what we’d been studying for all these years and weren’t we just stupid for thinking we did?  Apparently, none of us were auditing correctly over these decades.  Thusly, the blanket invalidation of all the pc’s that we audited — our pc’s truly didn’t get any wins from the tech that we misapplied.  So now all auditors had to retrain and do it the correct way.  I won’t go into the endless stream of out tech that exists in the orgs…I’ll only mention the out tech of 3 swings on the needle for the f/n and that will get everyone started….

The route to Clear became arduous.  You damn near had to give up your first born. Another blanket C/S was put in place by Miscavige to invalidate the state of Clear and those that had attained it.  Even OT’s were rechecked on their Clear status.  It got worse….  Miscavige introduced yet another blanket C/S on Solo NOTS comps.  Apparently no one did Solo NOTS correctly and no one really finished it.  Miscavige even issued his own laughable “confidential issue” that directly contradicted 2 upper level LRH HCOB’s.  Miscavige’s intent was to confuse, introvert and invalidate.  So now anyone who comped OT VII and anyone currently on OT VII, were supposed to do it all over again.

The same thing happened with OT VIII.   Miscavige claimed that no one did OT VIII correctly either, so it had to be redone.  More lies being spilled from Miscavige’s face.  His intent was to confuse, introvert and invalidate.

All of Miscavige’s cruel and evil inval took it’s toll on the public and staff too.  Increasingly, I saw SO members, staff and public looking like the wind had been knocked out of their sails.  It got to the point where my friends in the SO couldn’t even talk to me..or have lunch with me.  It broke my heart to see it like this….  Unfortunately, the guys in the church bought the snake oil.  They became what I call Stepford Scientologists.  It may be mean but it’s also true. 

A little about church events:  Events are thrown at a huge expense, standing ovations for every person that walks out on stage every 3 minutes, more money has to be donated for all the various networks to keep the bridge to total freedom alive, loads of talk about the expansive promo that’s going to be released (and never is) and LRH is mentioned just often enough at key points to keep the audience interested.  At some point in the late 80’s, the events became mandatory.  That makes me laugh….

Miscavige’s message is always the same — there’s a hidden data line that only he knows about. 

Miscavige has created a never ending mystery sandwich and holds a constant carrot in front of Scientologists. 

Miscavige has invalidated every auditor, pc, Clear, pre OT and OT on this planet and introduced a hidden data line that only he is privy to.  So here’s a public person (or staff) that has been pounded into the ground and made to feel worthless and now Miscavige says he has found some lost tech that’s going to save them from hell.  He’s one sick individual….

Of course the truth of the matter is, there is no hidden data line.  Period. 

Being the little chatterbox that I am, I could go on and on.  I hope no one minds that I didn’t get into my own personal war stories or show my battle scars.  They’re not significant to my story.  Besides, it’s more fun live and in person to talk about that stuff because you’d get all kinds of wild gestures and facial expressions.  But seriously (or as serious as I can get) I really only wanted to give a “before and after” picture from my perspective. 

I guess I should close this up by saying that I’ve been an Independent Scientologist for a very long time and maybe it will help some by knowing this.  I think it will because I have to say, Marty — a man I have always had the deepest respect for — helped me immensely by publicly stating he was out of the church and the reasons for it.  When I saw that first interview with him…I thought “are you kidding me?  Marty Rathbun?  Awesome!”  I hope my little story will have a similar effect. 

I am absolutely delighted to be amongst all of you wonderful self and pan determined beings.  Thanks for letting me roam freely amongst you…. 

Kathy Braceland
Senior Cl IV
OT VIII
Los Angeles, California
email: kathybraceland@aol.com

The Pearlman family is one to emulate. A beautiful mixture of love, loyalty, insouciance and understanding makes them a joy to be around and associate with. Now you all get to experience them.
 

We would be proud to come out as Independent Scientologists on your site.  We have no Kool-Aid drinking family members. So we Murray and Exilda Pearlman do hereby declare ourselves Independent Scientologists and formally resign from the Church of Scientology as run by David Miscavige.
 
Exilda and I do have some track.  She is a Permanent Class VIII C/S interned and certified by LRH. She got in Scientology in 1964-did the BC at Saint Hill and the 8 course at AOLA in 1970-71.  She interned at Flag for a year in 1973-74 and – LRH C/Sed quite a few of her folders.   She interacted with LRH quite a bit.  He was a playful bloke back then.  She was on staff from 1966 until late 1979 at the LA org as an auditor, Qual Sec and Senior C/S when she left staff.  She did OT VIII in 1994 and went back on OT VII about 2 yrs ago. 

I got on staff at the LA org in 1968 and went Clear in Dec of 1969.  I went to Flag and did the OEC-FEBC course and also had both L-10 and L-12 in 1971.  LRH was my C/S on L-12, it was than called L-10MX as it was experimental- It certainly was one of the best experiences of my life.  You could tell LRH was having fun with developing L-12.  I held many posts during my tenure at the LA org through 1975 and when I left Flag was personally appointed by LRH as the HCO AS (Area Secretary) L A org.   I than worked with the GO for a couple of years doing Social type things including CCHR through 1977 and than did Cl 5 of the Briefing course which was all material through 1971.  I finished OT V in 1995 & had routed onto OTVI- I got some set ups at Flag about two years ago.  The auditing during LRH’s time was definitely better than the Golden Age of Tech auditing.

Why we are Independent Scientologists now has been written on your Web site over and over.  The gross out tech including ethics and admin by Flag and the Orgs  because of David Miscavige setting himself up as a Dictator.  The Golden Age was when LRH was alive and his tech should be followed.  You know when someone comes up with some wild story I always say "does this person think I am an Idiot".  One of the idiot out-points was the Basic Book thing.  That is a Classic "do I look like an idiot".  Or better yet does LRH look like an idiot, which he attempts to make LRH look like.  Oh yes LRH had these books on his desk and knew they were filled with out tech for years. The Blind leading the Blind. Give me a break.  The gross injustice and ethics cycle with my son which is a story for another time.  The watching of the tech being perverted starting with the Golden Age of Tech.  The greed of money for money sake.  The Church is now the true definition of a Squirrel Group.
 
We look forward to the time when the tech is restored and the organization is back set up as LRH intended.   Our friends are those Scientologists and others that are looking for the truth and finding it for themselves.
 
Murray and Exilda Pearlman
 
Email:  Trimurray@yahoo.com

Brad is a successful Optometrist who has been helping people see better for over 25 years in Minnesota. He has been a supporter of – not just financially, but as a time and effort contributor to – community causes involving keeping kids off drugs spreading the “Say NO to Drugs, Say YES to Life” message in the Twin Cities.

In addition to helping Brad manage his practice Natalie works as a freelance writer and columnist.  She is OT IV and writes a column for a local paper called “Outside the Box”, where she participates in activities that are outside her comfort zone and writes about them.

Natalie was Mrs. Excelsior 2008 and competed in the Mrs. Minnesota pageant, all the while promoting her platform which was spreading the “Say NO to Drugs, Say YES to Life” message for the Foundation for a Drug Free World. That was until the church kept distracting her from that purpose by asking her to buy more basics and donate money etc.  Natalie was more interested in keeping kids off drugs. She emphasizes the strength of that interest by publicly relating that her biological father was and is a drug addict so this cause is near and dear to her.

You gotta love this couple.

 Declaration of Independence
Having been dedicated Scientologists in good standing for the past 20 years and patrons of the IAS, it is with a heavy heart and a firm resolve that I Brad Hagemo and my wife Natalie do hereby withdraw our support of and membership in the Church of Scientology International.  We wish to make it clear that we still support LRH, his goals and his legacy of the Tech.  We also want to acknowledge a clear distinction between the staff and public of our Churches and Missions still struggling to maintain a semblance of LRH‘s church, versus those who blindly follow the dysfunctional executive strata of  C of S International headed by David Miscavage.

LRH made it clear that we inherit the condition we fail to assign.  We all have an obligation as free thinking, responsible thetans to look honestly at the conditions which exist in our dynamics and apply the correct formula.  For too long we have ignored the true condition of the C of S because we wanted to believe the smoke and mirrors PR line that we were winning.  When we did look at the isness what we saw was a small, desperate group of individuals playing a new and off purpose game of acquiring real estate, which we cannot afford and cannot justify based on statistics.  Our Church had morphed into something that was both unfamiliar and unwelcoming.

At elaborate International events we would hear about the “demand” for C of S services as a justification for the off-policy fundraising for “Ideal Orgs”.  Fundraising done with full disregard of the very clear  LRH policy against it.  We looked at our own local org and saw no such demand.  We did see endless demands for time and money, overwhelmed staff, and a growing ARC broken field.

We did see tables put in front of doors to stop parishioners from leaving after a Maiden Voyage event turned into a fundraiser.  We did see upstat Scientologist physically stopped from leaving a recruitment cycle, and threatened with ethics actions if they did not stay, by a Sea Org member.  Further being told they wouldn’t be allowed to leave unless they signed the contract.

We did see attempts to break up families.  A recruitment cycle where the husband was encouraged to divorce his physically ill wife because she was “out-exchange” and “not contributing” so that he could then be on staff.   This same “out-exchange” wife made it onto Solo Nots before her health failed, and spent over 30 years of her life contributing to Scientology.  Many times at the detriment of her health.

We have recently seen attempts to break up our own family.  Local staff sent a package of “data” regarding our family to Flag in an attempt to third party us to our daughter, who was training there.  This was done with the intention to stop her from coming home for Christmas.  When that failed an attempt was made by a local  HCO terminal to encourage our teenage daughter to abandon her family and move in with her.  All of this because we as Scientologist chose to stop violating our personal integrity and instead be there and communicate.

We asked ourselves how could intelligent and well intentioned Scientologist be forwarding lines which are clearly not based on LRH policy.  The Church is out exchange and doing harm to the very people LRH intended to help. Scientology Churches are no longer operating on the basis that their products are thoroughly audited Pcs and well trained students.  We continued to look and found example after example of the power of the Church being used to intimidate those who would dissent and stifle free communication amongst Scientologists.

While there are many more examples of the off-purpose direction our Church has taken, our intention here is not to lay out a detailed indictment of the C of S.  Suffice it to say that we arrived at our decision honestly and not in a moment of caprice.  What is true for us is as follows:

1.  David Miscavage and his following of sycophants are the most dangerous squirrel group on the planet.

2.  KSW is being ignored while standard LRH Ethics, Tech and Admin are being altered to the detriment of the Church and its parishioners.

3.  As Scientologists trying to live by the Code of Honor we can no longer in good conscience be associated with a group, which is using the immense power that is the Church of Scientology to hide their crimes while betraying the trust of its members.

4.  We as Scientologist assign the condition of Treason to David Miscavage, RTC and all who continue to follow his illegal orders.

5.  We hereby declare our Independence as Scientologists who cherish personal integrity, and have the courage to observe what we have observed in the face of attacks from a rogue Church.

6.  Let it be known here and now that we are proud to stand in the presence of those who went before us and paid a far higher price in order to stand up for LRH.

Respectfully,

Dr. Brad and Natalie Hagemo
Contact: mnnat@aol.com

I have commented before about how many people have been demanding policy and strategy statements for guidance and some sort of assurance that sticking their necks out will not be for naught. Upon reflection and analysis of where we’ve come and where we are going, I think it is time to venture a proposal or at least share what I believe should serve as a strategy statement.
Some wise folks have posted a quote from Mohandas K Gandhi in their comments on this blog. It goes: “Be the change you want to see in the world.” I did not think much of it until I began to read more about Gandhi and had some long, deep discussions with several Independents, including Ivan Obolensky. Ivan is a well-read student of history. He was also until very recently unaware of what was going on with the Independence movement. As is his habit, when he learned of it he rapidly absorbed all that has been written of it. From a relatively exterior point of view he related to me what he has observed of the movement against his wealth of knowledge of world history. He noted that whether by design or not, we seemed to be following a clear, clean and natural direction along Gandhi’s morally transcending, winning line of advice.

In light of most our first impulses to bring down the tyrany by direct confrontation, what makes Gandhi’s approach so workable?
LRH commented in a lecture (What Scientology is Doing 6 June 1955) about the inevitable result of overthrows: “If you want to know what kind of government you’d get after you revolted against a government, look at the government you revolted against. Things will be a little bit bullet-nicked, but that will be about the only difference. We could, at this time, put together an organization or a group in Scientology sufficiently strong, sufficiently powerful to run over everything it came to. This would be a fascinating thing to do. Be a game in itself. And then someday — me gone, other guys gone — all of a sudden there sits this thing, this organization. And somebody has to rise up and say, ‘Auditors of the world, unite: Overthrow this monster!’ And everybody would see it go down very plainly, you see. Down it’d go. Then they’d say, ‘Fine! Now we are free.’ And they would get another handful of letters cancelling their certificates.”
So, how does one liberate people from oppressive, evil rule? Gandhi urged Indians to engage in a peaceful revolution, not to overthrow British rule, but instead to cut loose the collective shackles it had bound the Indian populace with. Despite every temptation to do so, he advised the people not to engage in direct conflict with their rulers, but instead to be and act free of that rule as if it did not exist. Understanding that a slave is only one because he agrees to be one in the first place, Gandhi sought to liberate India by raising its people out of their slave mentality. By being and acting free – and eschewing all temptations to engage force vs force – India ultimately transformed itself from an externally governed colony to a sovereign nation.
Historically, the most productive ‘revolutions’ have been ones based on integration,  inclusion and love rather than segregation, exclusion and hate. The Civil Rights movement in America is a good example. Its acknowledged primary mover, Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, happened to be a dedicated student (and self proclaimed disciple) of Gandhi. He pointed out that nonviolent resistance is not only the brave road to travel it is the most effective way to proceed:
“It must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly non-violent. This is why Gandhi often said that if cowardice is the only alternative to violence, it is better to fight. He made this statement conscious of the fact that there is always another alternative: no individual or group need submit to any wrong, nor need they use violence to right that wrong; there is the way of nonviolent resistance. This is ultimately the way of the strong man. It is not a method of stagnant passivity. The phrase ‘passive-resistance’ often gives the false impression that this is a sort of ‘do-nothing method’ in which the resister quietly and passively accepts evil. But nothing could be further from the truth. For while the non-violent resister is passive in the sense that he is not physically aggressive toward his opponent, his mind and emotions are always active, constantly seeking to persuade his opponent that he is wrong. The method is passive physically but strongly active spiritually. It is not passive non-resistance to evil, it is active nonviolent resistance to evil.”
Perhaps you are thinking by now along the lines of, “all good and fine, and inspiring and all, but we aren’t contending with colonial India nor with the Jim Crow South.” True. So, let’s relate this history to some fundamental Scientology – something we all agree is eternally applicable. Some of us have had to check the seemingly natural inclination to charge over the ramparts to reclaim what is rightfully ours. I think most of us came to understand that that attitude is precisely what is wrong with Mestology. It has reversed the order of the Conditions of Existence. It is on a mission to have wonderful cathedrals worldwide, along with predictable, compliant members, all to make Scientology fit in and be acceptable to satisfy some weird kind of PTSness to the middle (or more likely upper) class. Among other problems, enroute to that goal its people have sacrificed being Scientologists by doing acts that are anathema to Scientologists. The felony has been compounded by the church’s obsession with dictating behavior to the point of denying, rather than granting, beingness to its own people.
Let’s turn to LRH to get the sequence straight:
“The game of life demands that one assume a beingness in order to accomplish a doingness in the direction of havingness. These three conditions are given in an order of seniority where life is concerned. The ability to be is more important than the ability to do. The ability to do is more important than the ability to have. In most people all three conditions are sufficiently confused that they are best understood in reverse order. When one has clarified the idea of possession or havingness, one can then proceed to clarify doingness for general activity, and when this is done one understands beingness or identity.
“It is an essential to a successful existence that each of these three conditions be clarified and understood. The ability to assume or to grant beingness is probably the highest of human virtues. It is even more important to be able to permit other people have beingness than to be able oneself to assume it.”

In retrospect, I believe during 2009 we have made a huge step on the subject of  “be.” Imagine where we will be in a year if we consolidate those gains toward enhancing the Conditions of Existence. I believe our strategy for 2010 can be simply stated by drawing from Gandhi, King and Hubbard:

BE, DO, AND HAVE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD.

Some might ask, but what of DM and his incessant efforts to drag us into his sick GPM?  To that I say, the only power he has over you is that which you grant him. The only power an SP has is that of enturbulation. Organized crime only succeeds where it successfully intils fear in prospective victims.  Where it cannot or does not, it is nothing.  Finally, contemplate these words of Gandhi:  “When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fail. Think of it, always.”

Peace to everybody throughout 2010 and beyond.

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Hey, take a look at the article on Mary Jo, Sherry, Geir and Jack, http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1062092.ece

I guess this about a lot of the folks who frequent this blog.  What a wonderful service to humanity – separating out Scientology from Mestology in the public mind.  My hat is off to all of you.