Tag Archives: marty rathbun

Freedom of Speech, Religion and Conscience

by Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun

The Radical Corporate church of Scientology has filed a Motion for Summary Judgment in the Debbie Cook case.

The church is asking the court to declare the church the winners of the lawsuit based on the facts that they have presented to the court. To grant a Summary Judgment, the court must decide that there is no triable issue of fact. That means that no evidence that Debbie can present conflicts with the facts that the church says are established and prove its case for breach of contract.

You can read the church Summary Judgment Motion here, but for those of you who do not care to get mired down in legal mumbo-jumbo, here it is in a nutshell:

Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment

The church claims Debbie and Wayne left the church and signed contracts not to speak about their experiences.   They were paid money in exchange for their silence.  The church asserts that any claims by Debbie and Wayne that they signed the agreements under duress are invalid as even if that were true, Debbie and Wayne did nothing to overtly invalidate the agreements for 4 years.  Their inaction indicated agreement with the contract and thus they “ratified” it by their inaction.  They are arguing that because Debbie did not battle George Spencer, and effectively cross examine herself on the stand on 9 February, and testify about the duress she has continued to experience since leaving Flag in October 2007, there was no such continuing duress.

Here is where some readers of this blog can help.

Evidence can be submitted to the court by Debbie’s attorneys in the form of sworn affidavits.

A lot of people out there have communicated having experienced continuing duress similar to that experienced by Debbie.  In particular, those who can honestly testify, in the form of sworn affidavit, to the following fact pattern may be integral in defeating corporate Scientology’s summary judgment motion:

  1. Saw first-hand that David Miscavige operated as the supreme leader of Scientology and that there was no possibility of objecting to or defying his dictates no matter how unlawful without severe loss of rights.  That includes corporeal punishment including battery, loss of consortium (split up from 2D), lessened sleep, food deprivation, imprisonment, personal degradation, severe hazing, torture, surveillance, monitoring by covert and overt means after leaving, etc.
  2. Witnessed David Miscavige beating, punching, kicking, choking, slapping, throwing water at, physically threatening, severely hazing yourself or other staff members,  or witnessed agents of Miscavige doing the same or witnessed Miscavige ordering others to do the same.
  3. Left church employ because of “1” and/or “2” either by escape (unauthorized sudden departure) or route out procedure.
  4. Knew of corporate church policy and/or standard operating procedure to silence former members by way of any or all of the following:

a)       signing non-disclosure agreements under intimidating circumstances including presence of Security and/or OSA personnel, presence of an OSA attorney, and/or presence of video recording equipment.

b)       Witnessing or participation in the blow drill: where departed staff are tracked down by use of roving teams, credit card information, life history information, pc folder information, in order to make them participate in “a”.

c)       Having a provisional SP declare held over one’s head, whereby you were told that if you remained compliant and silent on the outside the SP declare would not come, but if you did otherwise you would be SP declared thus either lose your immortal future and/or lose the right to communicate with friends, associates, business contacts, and family.

5. Were so indoctrinated in an isolated cult for so long that you lost all sense of common mores of civilized society.  In other words, developed a mindset where you accepted the wholesale violations of civil and human rights visited upon self and others as justified or normal activity that did not warrant protest or reporting.   Many have reported having developed a state of mind where the ends (no matter how unlawful or shocking) justified the means; where for extended periods of time they felt so degraded by their experience that they believed there was something awry with themselves for even harboring thoughts that Miscavige’s reign of violence and human rights violations was in any way actionable or wrong.

6.  Because of 1-5 lived for a substantial period of time in fear or reticence of telling anyone about the facts underlying 1-5 or other facts concerning the loss of liberty or Human Rights of self and/or others by David Miscavige or agents of the church of Scientology.

A)     Include any of the common manifestations you may have experienced that are often reported by others – nightmares about being apprehended and returned to the Hole or the Int Base or the RPF, nightmares about being visited (and being declared) and having your friends, family, and associates disconnected from you.

B)      Include your own thought processes (backed by what you witnessed that prompted it) that kept yourself living in silent fear; such as taking a given period of time on the outside to begin to reckon that what you experienced inside was in fact unlawful or unacceptable in a civilized society; and such as awakening to the unlawful, unjustified nature of your experience only when you saw others were standing up and talking of their similar experiences over a period of time; and such as over time comparing what you experienced inside to the outside, and that experience beginning to wake your conscience with a need to do something about those left behind suffering.

C)      Include your considerations about protecting the religion of Scientology.  Part and parcel with that would be explaining any conditioning that had caused you to believe that the religion of Scientology was the same as the “church of Scientology” and how that played in keeping you silent and compliant – and of course how time played a part in the differentiation process that caused you to begin to communicate the evils you witnessed.

What is important to emphasize in “6” is time. How much time did it take you to decrompress from the physical and mental trauma of what you experienced in 1-5 to begin to speak with others about your experience; whether as a personal catharsis or as a conscientious need to help others still similarly situated.

I know there are literally hundreds who could and would attest to parts of 1 through 6 above. However,  we are looking for corroborative witnesses to the experiences of Debbie and Wayne.  Part and parcel of that of course is parallel experiences with an overlapping fact pattern.

Recognize, the inclusion of David Miscavige is important in distinguishing between the hundreds with similar experience and the few dozen with experiences sufficiently parallel with Debbie and Wayne’s experience to be admissible, relevant witnesses.  “The boss”, as you may have heard Church of Scientology International counsel Eliot Abelson refer to Miscavige in Debbie’s signing video, is front and center in this case.  Irrespective of Abelson’s now-world-famous admission the “church” is doing everything in its power to keep the chief perp out of this dispute, without Miscavige, of course, there is no dispute. Without Miscavige there is no 31 December 2011 e-mail by Debbie, there is no need to speak out, there is no cause to shudder into silence, there is no need for redress for aggravated assault and battery, torture, imprisonment, and the entire array of serial human rights abuses Miscavige perpetrates to this day.

If you feel you can honestly swear to facts that fit squarely within 1-6 above, or your experience roughly follows the pattern of 1-6 above, an affidavit from you might be critical in overcoming David Miscavige’s dishonest and aggressive attempt to bury Debbie Cook through court process.

If you are willing to consider drafting and signing such an affidavit, please tell your story – emphasizing the facts that fit within the 1-6 pattern – in writing to Mike Rinder at rindermike@yahoo.com and copy me at rathbunmark@yahoo.com.

Despite David Miscavige’s best efforts to prevent Debbie from establishing a defense of any kind we are continuing to assist her counsel in ways that ensure that she have as full, fair and affordable a defense as possible.

If you step up, you will be protected.

Miscavige and Misogyny

Definition of MISOGYNY

: a hatred of women

— miso·gy·nic adjective

— mi·sog·y·nist noun or adjective

— mi·sog·y·nis·tic adjective

Origin of MISOGYNY

Greek misogynia, from misein to hate + gynē woman — more at queen

First Known Use: circa 1656     – Merriam-Websters.com

Many here have expressed dismay while attempting to divine David Miscavige’s “logic” in launching perhaps the largest footnuke in Scientology history by suing Debbie Cook.

Mike Rinder and I went through the same process the moment we first finished reading the lawsuit and motion for Temporary Injunction.

However, Rinder in his inimitable, deliberative style soon summed up what I believe to be a perfectly accurate estimation of Miscavige’s thought processes in one succinct sentence.

Mike read the following from Debbie’s 15 January email to the “church”:

“I put out a simple message to not support anything not covered in tech or policy by L Ron Hubbard and to go up the Bridge.  How is that so horrible and despicable?  Oh, I forgot, I dared to challenge DM.  My OL (Opinion Leader) is L Ron Hubbard.”

Mike turned to me and said, “I know exactly what happened;  Miscavige read this and said, ‘I AM GOING TO TEACH THAT BITCH A LESSON’.”

Mike was spot on because Mike understands that at bottom David Miscavige is the worst sort of misogynist.

When I joined the Sea Org in January 1978 one thing that impressed me about Ron Hubbard’s international organization was that it was way, way ahead of the times in terms of gender equality.   Some of the most powerful figures in Scientology – all appointed by L Ron Hubbard himself – were women.   Mary Sue Hubbard and Jane Kember on the Guardian’s Office side, and Dede Reisdorf Voegeding and Gale Reisdorf Irwin on the Sea Org side.

Well, the first order of business in Miscavige’s rise to power was the calculated, systematic destruction of all four of those women.

But, that was not the end of it.

Upon formation of Religious Technology Center, which was intended to carry out an international Qual function so as to guarantee the practice of Standard Technology in churches of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard appointed two more women to its highest positions, Inspector General – Annie Tidman Broeker; and D/Inspector General  – Vicki Aznaran.

Both very competent women were ruthlessly taken down by Miscavige.

By the late eighties there were but four remaining high-profile, internationally recognized women executives heading major Scientology entities, Terri Gamboa at Author Services Inc (ASI, before it became a glorified sales con outfit), Janet Light at International Association of Scientologists (IAS), Bitty Blythe Miscavige as Commanding Officer CMO Int,  and Debbie Cook at Flag Service Organization.

When Miscavige’s ordered criminal reg tactics of ASI were creating big external threats for the church, he blamed it all on Terri and blew her off.

Bitty rose to the position of Inspector General – chiefly on the merits of her years’ long projects to help upgrade Flag into a two million dollars a week income cash cow.  Janet was left to get on with it as she turned IAS into an even more profitable outfit, albeit out-exchange and criminal, than Flag.

Bitty had her ups and downs and ups, but in the year 2000 she too was blown off by Miscavige’s misogynist behavior after having the temerity to challenge him.

Then in early 2007 Janet was imprisoned in the hole and broken after expressing disagreements with Miscavige’s  increasing greed and criminality.  Shortly after Miscavige sent his own wife, COB Assistant Shelly, to a gulag because she too began to question Miscavige’s sanity.

That left Debbie as the last powerful woman in Scientology standing.  If you’ve been following since her New Years message this year, you know the misogynist behavior Miscavige visited upon her.

And when Debbie drew a line in the sand and told the dictator “make my day” he could not resist his own evil, misogynist impulses.

My guess is that if there were a support network like the Independent Movement in place back in the day none of these powerful women (all friends and trusted confidants of L Ron Hubbard) would have given up and left Scientology behind.

In my mind Debbie stands for all the great women of Scientology.

When Debbie told the SP “no!”, she represented every former great woman in Scientology that Miscavige blew off or destroyed.

When she prevails it will rehabilitate the power of female legends in the history of the Scientology movement.

It will restore complete gender equality in Scientology for the future.

It will quite possibly mark the end of Miscavige’s reign of terror; for the simple reason that I imagine he cannot live with the fact of being bested by a woman.

Note: While the above is only a brief overview, the details of the misogynist, sexist nature of Scientology Inc’s supreme leader and its effect in destroying Scientology Inc will be fully exposed in my upcoming book.

 

Ronnie Bell and Personal Integrity

Another Texan! What’s up with Washington, Florida and Cali these days?  And the rest of the world for that matter. By the way, if you haven’t already done so, go to Scientology-cult.com and sign the Indies 500 list.  I think Steve Hall is right – it’ll take just about 500 to mark the final tipping point.  Welcome aboard Ronnie. This write up right here Smokes, with a capital S.  – Marty

Dear friends and family,

I’d like to share something very personal with you.

Scientology is a subject that teaches about, and helps one to attain personal freedom. Anti-social personalities are, of course, threatened by this, and suppress others’ freedom to discover truth for themselves.

“What is true for you is what you have observed yourself. And when you lose that, you have lost everything.

What is 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.


Of course, we can talk about honor, truth, nobility—all these things as esoteric terms. But I think they would all be covered very well if what we really observed was what we observed, that we took care to observe what we were observing, that we always observed to observe.”

L Ron Hubbard
From the essay “Personal Integrity”

The freedom to observe is part of being a free person. Free people come to their own conclusions by freely making their own observations and investigations. A free person also keeps their own counsel, and selects their own decisions.

You’re certainly intelligent enough to reach your own conclusions about facts you freely investigate.

If you’re commanded to not investigate, is that freedom?

Why would someone bar you with fear of excommunication for the crime of simply observing?

There can be only two reasons:

1) The internet is so dark and evil that your whole being will be swallowed up forever in a paralysis of eternal damnation, if you so much as dare to look.

2) Someone is trying to hide something from you about them.

Relax for a moment and put your TR-0 in. Ask yourself: which of these answers seems more reasonable?

I think that educated Scientologists are smart enough and observant enough to differentiate between harmful third party and reports from honest individuals who are simply revealing what they themselves have observed.

In that spirit, I’d like to say that it’s possible that you may not have granted yourself the right to freely observe and investigate the many hundreds of honest reports about the true scene in our church.

I recently chose to put on my personal integrity hat, and do my own free investigation of these reports.

What I can tell you is that there are more of them than you might imagine. Secondly, the character and worthiness of the individuals making these reports is of the highest order. Many, if not most of these individuals, are highly trained and processed, and most have long careers of service on staff in the Sea Org and Class V orgs. In fact, you probably know many of these people personally.

After months of personal investigation, and comparing the reports of other Scientologists to my own observations of ‘things that should not be’ within our church, I applied the Doubt formula to the situation. My final analysis is that certain suppressive individuals within our church have done great harm to our religion and the third dynamic over the last thirty years. I have chosen to remain in that group who are loyal to LRH and to the Standard Tech of Dianetics and Scientology.

Please see my attached write-up.

In closing, I value you as a friend, and hope that you grant yourself the freedom to make your own observations, and draw your own conclusions about the current state of our church.

It’s very likely that you’ll soon be pushed to disconnect from me because of the position I’ve taken in regards to the church. Just know that LRH canceled the policy of disconnection in 1968 and never re-instated it (see RJ-68). No one has the right to force you to disconnect from anyone. Only you have that right.

Thank you for being there, and for communicating.

ARC,

Ronnie Bell

 

RONNIE BELL’S WRITE UP

My name is Ronnie Bell. I am now, and will always be a Scientologist.

After about a year of searching, I found Scientology in early 1973, when I was nineteen years of age. I attended a standard Dianetics lecture at the L.A. Org, and routed right onto the Hubbard Apprentice Scientologist (Comm) course. Long story short – that course was run Flag-style, and the incredible wins I experienced made me a Scientologist for life. Although I didn’t do a lot of training after completing the Comm Course, I read most of LRH’s books, did the HQS Course, and an introductory Ethics course, all in my first two years.

Over subsequent years, I completed Life Repair, the Purification Rundown, and the CCRD, as well as many Div 6 courses, and the Student Hat. I paid for OT Preps and Solo 1 at ASHO and AOLA (respectively) in the summer of 2005, and received six weeks of full time auditing at ASHO. That auditing began with my Clear status being de-certified, and went downhill from there. The final results of that auditing were inconclusive. I did not make it to the Solo 1 course.

I also served as a hired staff member in the Sea Org renovations org from 1988, to 1997. I worked on all of the major church projects in that time, including (but not limited to) HGB, LRH Exhibition, Manor Hotel and C.C., Saint Hill Castle, ASI, Flag Land Base, Sandcastle, Super Power building, Coachman, Clearwater Building, and PAC Base renos.

I’ve also worked on many volunteer projects, including the ASHO Central Files project in 1994, where I was the Volunteer I/C.

Since at least the early 1980s, I’ve noted a great many disturbing things occurring within my church. Some of these outpoints have been acute, one-off instances, while others have become chronic, down-trending situations of great magnitude and seriousness. Most of these are of such seriousness, that they’ve become real and present threats to the viability of the Church of Scientology as a group.

These chronic outpoints have grown to such a state of magnitude, that they have caused me a great deal of spiritual distress, resulting in decreased reach for the Bridge, lowered ARC with my natural constituents within the group, feelings of hopelessness about the health and well-being of my religion, and doubt about church management’s ability to correctly apply LRH tech to handle these issues.

Perhaps worst of all, I found that I’d fallen into tacit agreement with the suppressive and unspoken command to not look – not listen, and that I’d cut myself off from any information channel which did not emanate from church management. By doing so, I violated my own Code of Honor, and caused myself to operate in something of a PTS condition in life for many years.

I have recently looked over all of the outpoints with the existing scene in our church, and have given myself permission to become informed of the great number of Knowledge Reports by upstat Scientologists around the globe. Having looked at all of the evidence, and having consulted my own reality on what I’ve personally observed, it’s my conclusion that the corporate church and its officers have violated and degraded the tech of Scientology, and have sunk into lower conditions on the third dynamic.

As they say, ‘what has been seen, cannot be unseen’. Therefore, I have chosen to withdraw my allegiance from the corporate church, and to make it known that I intend to stand with those who remain friends of LRH, and who practice and disseminate the Standard Tech of Scientology, as developed and written by its founder. The following is a partial list of major outpoints within the corporate church that I am personally aware of.

 

Outpoints and Things That Should Not Be within the Church of Scientology

 

1. By direct observation, the number of students on major auditor training courses has fallen continuously and precipitously over the last 30 years.

2. Most Int level execs known to the public, have virtually disappeared from public view. In fact, the whole of the Int Exec Strata which was widely known to Scientology public has now become virtually invisible or non-existent. Letters and KRs to individuals, posts, and offices at that level, now routinely go unanswered.

3. Orgs have become more like new car dealerships, than oases of spiritual freedom. Public are often trapped into crush sales situations by staff of every level whenever they venture into an org. This aggressive over-reach on the part of church staff even extends to parishioners’ homes and businesses.

4. HGCs are much quieter and emptier than in decades past. Again, by direct observation.

5. The practice of disconnection is in full use by church officials today, despite the policy being canceled by LRH more than 40 years ago (see RJ 68). This has been attested to by hundreds of Independent Scientologists, whose friends and family members have been coerced into disconnecting from them after they have left the corporate church.

6. Clears and OTs have routinely had their Clear state invalidated on auditing lines for close to a decade. This has apparently been done by executive order, and has no basis in the written technology of LRH. This is a monstrously suppressive act, and has caused untold anguish, hardship, and disaster for thousands of Clears and OTs. Many have been spiritually crashed by this action, including myself.

7. An unwritten rule that parishioners should ‘not look – not listen’ has somehow solidified into a tacit agreement over the last three decades. Scientologist public are often warned by org terminals to ignore widespread reports about the church in the news media and on the internet. This violates a person’s right to freely give and receive communication, per the Code of Honor.

8. As a result of this suppress on Scientologists’ comm lines, most who are actively on lines in the church have no idea of the very real outpoints and failings of church management, both domestically, and internationally.

9. The international church puts on at least four major international events each year, which is a violation of LRH policy on the subject. LRH specifically forbid such gargantuan galas, as they take staff and public away from auditing and training, and drain precious financial resources.

10. All such international events are staged for the primary purpose of crush selling the public on new books and lectures, or for donations to the IAS. This is proven by the fact that public who attend such events are routinely funneled through a physical gauntlet of registrars and high pressure sales people when these events conclude. Church staff are even posted at the exits to force the public into the crush regging area.

11. Donations to the IAS from the Scientology public now number into the hundreds of millions of dollars, but there has been little result shown for such a massive outpouring of support. The public has been told that the IAS is keeping the church safe from outside suppression, but anyone availing themselves of widespread news coverage of the church’s court battles and struggles with governments, can see that this simply isn’t so. For the most part, church parishioners aren’t even dimly aware of what a precarious position the international church is in right now, as regards its reputation and PR with the broad public. In fact, parishioners have almost no awareness of the fact that the corporate church is primarily engaged in legal battles with Scientologists who have dared to speak the truth about gross outpoints, and even crimes they’ve witnessed within the church.

12. The public has been crush regged to donate to many ‘Ideal Org’ projects around the world. They’ve been led to believe that if they provide swank new quarters for their orgs, that they will attract new public, and help to expand the Scientology religion. Neither has occurred. Every such ‘Ideal Org’ is as empty of bodies as they were before their publics set them up in much more expensive digs. Now these orgs are in even worse shape than before, because their monthly building expenses have increased many times over. This program has forced orgs into ‘having to have before they can do’, which is a complete reversal of the natural order of Be – Do – Have. The ‘Ideal Org’ program also violates several LRH advices about procuring real estate for orgs. See HCOPL 23 Sept. 1970 Quarters, Policy Regarding on org premises. See HCOPL 24 February 1964, Issue II Org Programming on demanding donations for buildings.

13. The so-called Super Power Building in Clearwater is a glaring outpoint. It has been under construction for at least 18 years now, and is still not finished or occupied. This has flapped all over City of Clearwater lines for years, and the Flag Service Org has taken a lot of heat from the city about that idle real estate. This has caused inestimable damage to the PR of Scientology, both in Florida, and around the world.

14. Those on OT VII are forced to report to Flag every six months for a ‘check’. As it turns out, this ‘six month check’ is nothing more than a Sec Check, which is not required in the written LRH materials regarding that level. It’s also inspection before the fact, which is expressly forbidden by LRH ethics tech advices. Reportedly, the cost for this service is $10,000 per intensive. Not only is it out-tech, but it’s an absolute rip off of dedicated and upstat public. It is also highly destructive to parishioners’ income production, and family stability.

15. Per widespread reports, 30 of the 54 Class XII auditors ever made, have been declared SP. All 8 of the Class XIIs personally trained by LRH have been declared SPs. It is illogical in the extreme that such a high a percentage of a single group of people, are actually suppressive persons.

16. Most of the first 100 Clears have also been declared, including John McMaster, Clear #1. Again, this is a strong indicator that the true SP is active within the church.

“Now any time you find thirty people on staff being removed because they were suppressive, you know they had the wrong Why, because the percentages are wrong. It’s just as mathematical as that.

If they’ve done that then I can also assure you they’ve left the suppressive on the staff and I can also assure you the guy that did it was suppressive.”

HCOPL 15 MARCH 1977 RA
Data Ser 41 RA, Evaluation, The Situation
(Management Series Vol. 1, p. 154)

17. The standard floating needle has been redefined by COB, David Miscavige, as a “three swing” needle. This is a squirrel definition of a phenomenon that has been well defined by LRH for well over half a century, and which has been learned and used by thousands upon thousands of successful auditors. Since this squirrel definition has been enforced, auditing times for processes and rundowns of all types has lengthened greatly, and over-runs on processes are now the rule, rather than the exception.

From Friends of LRH.com ~ http://www.friendsoflrh.org/Section2/ :

The contrivance of COB’s interpretation is borne out by the fact that, from the release of the bulletin What Is A Floating Needle in 1978 to the Senior C/S Conference in 1995, there isn’t one known instance of a student or auditor, from Class XII on down, having come to COB’s understanding of F/Ns on their own, despite thousands having word-cleared the definition.

Since this redefinition of F/Ns was first incorporated into the Pro Metering and Solo courses, students have been referred to sources as far-fetched as the Art Series, the Marketing Series, a physics text, and The Encyclopedia of Music, in order to understand it.

LRH’s definition of an F/N, on the other hand, couldn’t be simpler:

“A floating needle is a rhythmic sweep of the dial at a slow, even pace of the needle.

That’s what an F/N is. No other definition is correct.”

HCOB 21 July 1978
What Is A Floating Needle?
(Tech Vol. II, p. 204)

 

18. The so-called “Golden Age of Tech” has turned out to be an enormous invalidation of pre-existing technology developed by LRH. The hundreds of drills and verbatim memorization of materials has resulted in robotic auditors who have little ARC, Understanding, or Duplication, while auditing.

Per LRH:

“The only allowed practical drills on any Scientology course including PE [Personal Efficiency] are:

    1. Modified Comm Course for PE

    2. Original Comm Course TRs 0-4

    3. Original Upper Indoc TRs

    4. E-Meter drills contained in the Book of E-Meter Drills

    5. Dissemination drills when I write and release them.

    NO other practical drills of any kind will be permitted.

    Other practical drills are abolished.

    Reason: They consume time uselessly, suppress actual processes and mess up data and cases. I did not authorize these drills and have now seen that they teach alter-is of easy processes. They are not needed. They make poor auditors. I have just reviewed this matter thoroughly and have traced several training failures to these wildcat drills. Further, I traced several failed cases on course to them.

    Somewhere along the line somebody went mad inventing “drills” and “TRs”.

    If this is permitted to continue, we will no longer turn out good auditors. The standard drills as listed above have proven sufficient for years.”

 

HCO P/L April 1965 Issue II

        Drills, Allowed

        (OEC Vol. 4, p. 616)

 

The length of checksheets has also vastly increased over those in use during the true golden age of Scientology (1965 – 1980). There are many tech references by LRH that advise against long checksheets for auditors, and which do advise getting newly trained auditors in the chair and auditing. Per LRH, an auditor learns to audit by auditing – not by endless course study and drilling.

The following is from Friends of LRH.com ~ http://www.friendsoflrh.org/Section2/ :

With the issuance of RTC ED #450, COB announces his revamping of every single auditor course checksheet.

These include the Academy Levels, NED, Grad V, and the Briefing Course.

He also heralds new checksheets for all Div. 6 (Introductory) courses, such as Life Improvement, Dianetic Seminar, Success Through Communication, and HQS.

Finally, he announces the restructuring of all co-audit courses, such as TRs and Objectives, Scientology Drug Rundown, and Method 1.

Each of these checksheets has since been compared to its earlier versions. In almost every case, they were found to be far, far longer — often two to three times or more.

LRH warned of the devastating consequences that overly long checksheets have on training:

 

“Speedup of HDCs, Class IV, VI, VII, VIII and ‘HGC Auditor’ courses at all orgs, AOs (and SHs) would encourage more students. My time for it is 3 weeks. This was up to 5 and even 11 to 13 weeks at once by illegal checksheet increases.

    …Fast training gets students in.

    Slow training messes up the whole field and denies enrollments.”

 

HCOB 23 December 1970

    Fast Courses

    (Tech Vol. IX, p. 213)

 

“Unreal and lengthy checksheets [are] the most frequently used methods of stopping students.”

LRH ED 592 INT

    Special Program, Fast Academies

    3 October 1967

    (OEC Vol. 4, p. 372)

 

See also; HCOPL 7 Feb. 1965 Keeping Scientology Working, HCOB 8 March 1962 The Bad Auditor, HCOB 22 January 1977 In-Tech, The Only Way to Achieve It.

 

19. Through deceit, and the suppressive practice of dissuading Scientologists from accessing widely disseminated news and media, church management has caused Scientologists to believe that they are the only source of LRH’s spiritual technology. The vast majority of staff and public within corporate Scientology have no idea that LRH’s technology is widely in use outside the corporate church. There are literally hundreds of Independent Scientology groups and practitioners delivering On Source training and processing outside of the established churches. In fact, it’s been reported by thousands of ex-corporate church members, that these individuals and organizations are delivering far superior results, and are more On Source, than any corporate church orgs. The truth is, the entire Bridge is available outside the corporate church.

20. The corporate church has discontinued measuring their production by the only two stats that LRH considered to be of primary importance. Those are; number of case completions, and number of new auditors graduated. Today, the public is wowed by stats at international events such as, ‘number of new square feet added’, ‘Basic books and lectures sales’, ‘number of people studying the Basics’, ‘number of books translated’, ‘populations of countries where Scientology has taken hold’, etc. All of these are impressive, but they’re simply sub-products of the only stats that count – number of case completions, and number of new auditors made. Unsurprisingly, those two vital statistics are never mentioned at major church events, or in any of the church promotional materials.

“Orgs have only 2 major final valuable products.

One is well-trained auditors. The other is satisfied pcs.”

LRH ED 131 INT
Life Repair Block
8 December 1970
(OEC Vol. 4, p. 145)


“The product of an org is well-taught students and thoroughly audited pcs.”

HCO P/L 17 June 1970RB
KSW Series 5R, Tech Degrades
(OEC Vol. 0, p. 14)

21. A recent comparison of auditor training completions published in church magazines from the mid-70s to the present day, shows a ten-fold decrease in the number of auditor course graduates and major case completions. Despite the glitz and glamor of church magazines, Ideal Org buildings, and international events, the fact is, the corporate church of Scientology is shrinking fast.

From: http://www.friendsoflrh.org/Section2/ ~

“In early 1971, ASHO’s The Auditor magazine, Issue 61, listed the total number of Scientologists who had trained on the Hubbard Standard Dianetics Course (HSDC). This list includes graduates from the course’s initial release in May 1969 to the publication of this magazine less than 2 years later.

Here is a summary:

LA Org                  209 (over 2 a week)

    ASHO                    146 (about 1½ a week)

    San Francisco     88 (1 a week)

    Toronto                83 (1 a week)

    New York            64 (1 every 11 days)

In contrast, completions of the New Era Dianetics (NED) Course — the modern equivalent of the Hubbard Standard Dianetics Course — compiled from 2004 to 2005 revealed the following:

LA Org                  0

    ASHO                    3

    San Francisco     4

    Toronto                0

    New York            2

The number of NED comps for 2006-08 varied slightly from 2004-05, but averaged out roughly the same. Compared to the figures from mid-1969 to early 1971, this represents a decline of 95 to 100%.”

22. By my personal observation and experience, many old timers (those who’ve been in Scientology for 30 years or more) avoid going into the orgs, and many have nearly given up on progressing up the full Bridge this lifetime. In my view, they, like me, have noted most of the outpoints above, and have quietly withdrawn from the church for the most part, because they don’t know how to fix what’s wrong with their church, and are afraid to rock the boat.

From: http://www.friendsoflrh.org/Section2/ ~

When confronted with proof of an unprecedented crash at all levels of training, staff and public often respond with justifications and reasons why. LRH wrote extensively about the mental mechanism behind this phenomenon:

“One often wonders why people are so ‘reasonable’ about intolerable and illogical situations.

The answer is very simple: they cannot recognize outpoints when they see them and so try to make everything seem logical.

The ability to actually see an outpoint for what it is, in itself is an ability to attain some peace of mind.

…The human reaction is to REACT! to an outpoint. And then get ‘reasonable’ and adopt some explanation for it, usually untrue.

You can safely say that ‘being reasonable’ is a symptom of being unable to recognize outpoints for what they are and use them to discover actual situations.”

HCO P/L 30 September 1973 Issue II

    Data Series 30, Situation Finding

    (Management Series Vol. 1, p. 128)

“A lot of people are on a stuck flow of being sensible and sane — and that winds up in stupidity. So they get reasonable. Their confront of evil isn’t up to it — basically, their confront of outpoints.”

HCO P/L 18 March 1977RA

    Data Series 43RA, Evaluation and Programs

    (Management Series Vol. 1, p. 167)

23. The corporate church has priced Scientology services far out of reach for the average man and woman. LRH references exist wherein he goes into detail about how to properly price auditing and training, so that the vast majority of public can realistically afford it. Per LRH, services should be priced within reach of the lower middle class. That is certainly NOT the case with today’s prices for services, which can only be realistically reached by those in the upper middle class or higher. This is a suppressive act, as it puts Scientology auditing and training out of reach for most people.

Prices should be set according to HCOPL 23 Sept 1964 which is actually based on “the average lower class of lower middle class pay scale.” Such is clearly not the case today, where it costs upwards of $29,000 to become an auditor in a Class V Org, if one is an IAS member. This is more than half a year’s salary at the U.S. median income. In fact, that figure represents 100% annual salary for the average lower class of the lower middle class today.

 

In Summary

I can no longer ignore that which is clearly right in front of my eyes. I have not-ised the many outpoints I have seen within the church for over two decades now, and have paid dearly for my non-confront of evil and my tacit agreement with the fallen state of my church.

I have taken the time to make my own evaluations of the hundreds of reports written by upstat Scientologists outside the corporate church, and have found them to be not only credible, but solidly backed up by LRH advices, policy, and tech. Most of what I’ve read is also consistent with my personal observations, experience, and reality.

The overwhelming body of evidence to hand proves to me that the Church of Scientology has been taken over and transformed into a dictatorship by one David Miscavige, and that he has turned it into his personal fiefdom. Voluminous testimony by scores of formerly well-respected, highly placed officers of the Church, tells a sordid tale of betrayal, violence, illegal acts, manipulation, suppression, lies, alterations, and outright destruction of the Church hierarchy by this one man.

It is abundantly clear to me, that this one man has quietly been destroying all that LRH, the Sea Org, and dedicated staffs built, in the 30 years before he wrested control away from the duly appointed officers of the Church. He is the primary driver of every outpoint listed in my write-up above.

 “So we can assume that people who are a bit inclined to malign, knock apart and shoot the human race, and have that as their only goal, can get into Scientology and can remove things from the technical line, or pervert or alter things in the technical line, which then makes Scientology unworkable.”

“And the higher on a command line the power is drawn from, the wider area the alter-is covers.”

LRH

Class VIII TAPE 1
“An Introduction To Standard Tech”
24 September 1968

“There are people who suppress. They are few. They often rise up to being in charge and then all things decay. They are essentially psychopathic personalities. Such want position in order to kill.

…They arrived when they arrived, in charge of things, because nobody when they were on their way up said ‘No’. They are monuments to the cowards, the reasonable people who didn’t put period to them while they were still only small bullies and still vulnerable.”

LRH

HCO P/L 7 December 1969
Ethics, The Design of
(OEC Vol. 1, p. 483)

Until David Miscavige is brought to justice, and removed from his position of corporate control over the Church of Scientology International, I consider the corporate church and all who remain connected to it, to be PTS, and in lower conditions.

I hereby assign COB, David Miscavige the condition of Treason.

Resignation

In the By-laws of the Church of Spiritual Technology, LRH differentiates between the RELIGION of Scientology and the CHURCH of Scientology. He EXPLICITLY says that the RELIGION of Scientology and the CHURCH are not necessarily “co-terminal.”

Exact quote:

“Religion of Scientology” and “Church of Scientology” shall not necessarily be coterminal.” http://www.savescientology.com/cstbylaws.pdf

In light of the above, and the contents of this write-up, I now formally resign from the Church of Scientology and hereby declare myself to be an Independent Scientologist.

I’ve examined the stats of the corporate Church of Scientology, versus the stats of those upstat Scientologists who have been falsely declared and banished from their religion, and have found in favor of the banished. I now declare my allegiance to those who remain friends of LRH and the true technology of Dianetics and Scientology.

Ronnie Bell

 

 

Debbie Cook Tells the Hole Truth

ABC Nightline Special Edition 29 February 2012

Village Voice Critique and more Scn Inc v Cook News

References, other recent related posts:

Another PR Crisis?

Miscavige’s Cult of Abuse and Torture

Feb 27 Scn Inc v Cook Update

The Battle of San Antonio: A Review

Another PR Crisis?

ABC news dubs Miscavige’s abuse and torture as Another Scientology PR Crisis.  (Good Morning America coverage).  Ya think?

More in depth coverage is scheduled for tonight’s ABC Nightline.

Tony Ortega at the Village Voice has published a bunch of Cook litigation related documents, at Inside the Alamo.   The last letter that Tony posts is a not so subtle threat toward Debbie’s counsel Ray Jeffrey.  Standard operating procedure for corporate Scientology: when the law doesn’t support you – argue the facts, when the facts don’t suport you – argue the law, when the facts and law go against you – destroy opposition counsel by any means necessary.  Dave apparently missed the memo, the Cold War ended for everybody else a couple of decades ago.

Stay tuned for updates throughout the day.

I have a feeling that exposure of Miscavige’s sickness is going viral today.

UPDATE 8:08 a.m.: Battered Woman Syndrome. Marc Yager is the unidentified individual who wrote to ABC denying that Miscavige beat him. Over the past 2 1/2 years Yager has been doing little other than writing statements denying Miscavige beats him. He may yet turn into the most curious and widely studied case of battered woman syndrome.

UPDATE 2:02 pm: On Yahoo News top stories.

UPDATE 2:49 pm: UPI.com coverage

UPDATE: 4:52 pm: Jonathan Hurley weighs in.

UPDATE: 8:48 pm: UK Daily Mail.

UPDATE: 9:40 pm: Gather.com.

Miscavige’s Cult of Abuse and Torture

See the stories from down under:

Scientology Head Under Fire, A Current Affair Australia

Cult of Abuse and Torture, Today and Tonight Australia

From Official Corporate Scientology response: Both Ms. Cook and her husband are expelled from the Church, are prohibited from calling themselves Scientologists …

Good luck with that one Dave.

 

 

Scientology Inc v. Debbie Cook Update

Miscavige had his attorneys in on Saturday churning out juvenile threats in emailed letter form to Debbie and her counsel.  One in particular is of interest to all who donated to the defense.  George Spencer Esq of San Antonio Texas has warned that Debbie must preserve documentation of the amounts donated to her defense fund along with the names of all donors.  He threatens that he is going to compel the production of such and that he intends to collect damages from the fund – of course leaving Debbie defenseless. Apparently Spencer’s boss Miscavige is apoplectic over the fact that Debbie has managed to be represented by competent counsel.  And since, as will be made clear below Spencer is now given to reading my blog, a word to you Mr. Spencer:

Your attempt to cut off Ray Jeffrey’s office from being paid the minimal amounts he has agreed to take on Ms. Cook’s defense for, while being paid sickening amounts of blood money yourself by the cult, can be characterized best by one word: UNETHICAL.

I wanted to let those who have donated through my blog know that your donations to date are safe from attachment since they have already been paid to counsel.  Future donations will be similarly rapidly forwarded to their ultimate destination. Also, your identities are safe with me.  I am committing right here and now to defy any order from any authority to produce the names of donors.  I won’t do it irrespective of the consequences to me personally.  That is worse case scenario as we can find absolutely zero legal basis for Miscavige/Spencer’s demand.  But, in the interest of full disclosure, you all ought to know what Miscavige is up to with respect to the case you have so generously supported.

Oh yeah, Miscavige also has his San Antonio messenger boy threatening to collect damages from “anyone who conspired with defendants, or aids and abets them” (implying yours truly) for Debbie having the temerity to post a “Thank You” on this blog to all who donated, An Open Letter to My Friends by Debbie Cook.  That is in addition to claiming damages for Debbie’s having given sworn testimony in court on 9 February 2012.  That is right, they are in effect accusing the Judge of abetting tortious conduct in her court on that fine Thursday afternoon.

Miscavige, like his idol  the Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini before him, apparently staunchly believes that his rule is Supreme to mere courts and distractions like the civil law and constitutional rights.  Even when he is attempting to use those same courts to harass, intimidate and destroy those who have exposed his FELONIES to the light of day.

What is remarkable is that he is so out of touch with the 21st Century that he commits such views to writing, and that leading members of the Texas bar are so hard up for money that they’d forward such bizarre pronunciamentos.

Toronto – David Stokes

You need a scorecard these days to keep track of who is in and who is out of Scientology Inc in Toronto.

On the 31st of August, 1973, I stepped through the front door of the Toronto org for the very first time.  I was introduced to the Public Reg, Judy Breaks.  (She later became Judy Light, a Flag reg for some time, I believe.)  I began the HQS course that evening.  I was on the Bridge to Total Freedom.

On the 31st of August, 2011, exactly 38 years later, I stepped through the front door of the Toronto Org possibly for the last time.  I came for a meeting with the Toronto Day Org’s Ethics Officer, David Felske (David is the son of the local, Toronto DSA, a woman named Pat Felske).  He showed me the two written official Flag Ethic’s Orders that he had received that morning.  I read them both.  The first one declared me to be a Suppressive Person.  The second one expelled me from the Church.  The EO told me I would not be given a copy of either of these two published Ethics Orders.  I left the meeting.  I left the building.

Thirty-eight years.  To the day.

Perhaps now I could get back on the Bridge to Total Freedom as an Independent Scientologist.  Has anyone else, reading this, had a similar thought?

Hello!  My name is Dave Stokes.  I have lived in Toronto all my life.  Sixty-one years.  The Toronto Org has always been my Org.

My personal Scientology history is:

–        I joined staff on three different occasions, completing one 2.5 year contract (’73 thru ’76) and not completing two others (’78 and ’86).

–        As a public, I completed three auditor training courses (HSDC, Academy Levels 0-4, and the Sec Checker course).  I failed to complete all three internships and therefore I have no auditor experience.

–        As a public I made it to Dianetic Case Completion at Toronto Org (2001).

–        I went Clear and did my OT 1-5 at AO ANZO in 2002-3.

–        I began solo auditing on OT 7 in June, 2004.

–        I stopped solo auditing on OT 7 in July, 2005.

–        Having a personal computer, I had been a good boy and behaved myself from 1997 to 2009 by viewing only “approved” web sites and not reading any “entheta” anywhere from any source.

–        My behaviour changed in August, 2009 when I found out about and listened to all the Truth Rundown videos.

–        Thereafter, I had a valence shift and I became a bad boy and misbehaved wickedly from August of 2009 to August of 2011 reading anything and everything I could find about Scientology on the internet and elsewhere.

–        I was Comm Ev’ed in the last week of June, 2011.

–        I was found guilty of my alleged crimes and high crimes, declared an SP and expelled from the Church, 31 August 2011.

–        I am declaring myself to be an Independent Scientologist, Feb. 2012.

What were my high crimes that caused me to become an “overnight” SP, you might wonder?

I looked.  I spoke up.  (We all did this, is that not the case?)

In late 2009, having committed these two crimes, my Flag D of P (Nancy Hawkins) asked me to stop.  I said “No.”  In 2010, a Flag MAA (Wella MacDonald) told me to stop.  I said “No.”  A Flag Tour Qual Consultant (Myron Rapp) ordered me to stop.  I said “No.”  The FSC for Canada (Arda Froese) encouraged my to stop.  I said “No.”  In 2011, two OSA agents (Peter Stevenson and John MacPhail) counselled me to stop. (I did not know they were OSA agents at the time.  I thought they were concerned fellow Toronto Scientologists just trying to help me in my hour of need.  However, the only evidence at my Comm Ev was submitted by Stevenson and MacPhail.)  In 2011, the Chairman of my Comm Ev (Susan Sisson) warned me to stop.  I said “No.”  My ex-wife (27 years of marriage), my son and my daughter begged me to stop.  I said “No.”

Perhaps this is not an unfamiliar story to many others?

Since August of 2009, I have tried hard to inform myself of missing data that was unavailable to me as a parishioner of David Miscavige’s church.  In no particular order, this data includes:

–        Reported physical violence at Int Headquarters on SO staff by SO staff.

–        SP declarations on 18 of 54 Class 12 auditors (meaning one-third of all Class 12’s have been declared over the years to be SP’s).

–        SP declarations of 38 of 54 original Old Saint Hill staff members (meaning 70% of the original Old Saint Hill staff have been declared over the years to be SP’s).

–        The details of David Mayo’s removal from post, his comm ev and subsequent declaration and expulsion.

–        The “instant SP declarations” of many veteran mission holders in 1982.

–        The treatment of Mary Sue Hubbard and the non-announcement of her death in 2002 and therefore no subsequent celebration of her life.

–        The details of the editing of LRH’s written and spoken words after the fact of his death.

–        The details of the re-introduction of disconnection policy in 1982.

–        The fact of the continuing promise of Super Power “next year”.

–        The details of the non existence of the New World Corps and Universe Corps.

–        The details of LRH’s death.

–        The details of changes made to LRH’s will the day before he died.

–        The details surrounding Lisa MacPherson’s death.

–        Pat and Annie Broeker’s disappearance from public view in 1987.

Apparently International Management considers the staff and public of a Class 5 Org to be of such a low order as to be unable to correctly confront and evaluate such data.  For the record, I object.

The only Class 5 Org that I have reality on is Toronto.  Thirty-eight years is enough time to become familiar with the workings of the Toronto Org.  I have done no services at any other lower Org.  In those 38 years I have observed the following key Org stats that have entered a completely non viable range (= condition of Non-Existence):

–        Auditors made (= Non-E).

–        Releases made (= Non-E).

–        Clears made (= Non-E).

–        New public starts (= Non-E).

–        Staff Pay (= Non-E).

The Toronto Org has managed to stay alive only because two stats have not yet slipped into Non-Existence:

–        Gross Income (= Danger).

–        Number of Staff (= Danger).

As well, over the years continual emergencies arise in Toronto like:

–        Unpaid property taxes resulting in threats of being locked out.

–        Unpaid heating bills resulting in the heat being turned off (it’s Canada!).

–        No air conditioning (= unbearably hot auditing rooms and course rooms).

–        Plumbing failures resulting in degraded bathroom facilities.

–        Wasted money due to incompetent local management decisions (like $180,000 wasted on purchasing significantly unusable architectural plans for the new “Ideal Org” reno’s).

–        And no toilet paper!

The Org actually is a smelly near-corpse that should have died years ago.  But people of good will keep it going.  Dedicated, long suffering staff members perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation every Thursday somewhere around two o’clock.

The basic history of this Org is straightforward.  Its heydays were the 1970’s.  That 10 year period produced several thousand public and several hundred staff (as Jim Logan will attest to).  I was one of them.  As was Jim.  And many of us are still around.  Myself and Jim included.  And Paul Staffer.

There was a gradual decline over the last thirty years.  Now, in 2012, there is a core group of about 200 Toronto Scientologists.  This group is made up of 30 year or 40 year veteran Scientologists and their offspring.  About 30 are on Toronto staff.  The rest make up the bulk of Toronto’s public.  There are about 35 active OT 7’s and 8’s.  There are about 15 staff and field auditors who actually audit others on grade chart actions.

This core group over the years has been abused.  They’ve been knocked around.  They’ve been through building fires and police raids and government trials and bad press and stupid ED’s and psychotic CO’s and staff rip-offs and suppressive quotas and wrong whys and weird evals and unrealistic promises and no heat and no toilet paper and no fun.

And still some of them are here.  Bedraggled.  Bruised.  But breathing.

In my opinion, these Toronto Scientologists only need three uninterrupted hours of truthful information regarding the world-wide Scientology scene to have a cognition. Given that cog, I am convinced they’d soon renounce current management and join the independent field.  But … it won’t happen.  It won’t happen for a very good reason.  The threat of disconnection.

These +30 year, +35 year, and +40 year Toronto Scientologists have their day-to-day routines, their families, their livelihoods, their friends, their associates solidly intermingled.  It’s almost incestuous.  Disconnection would cause any veteran Toronto Scientologist to lose everything and everybody he or she needs or values.

I know.  It happened to me.  It has been six months since I was declared.  In that time, my ex wife has not spoken to me.  My son has not spoken to me.  My daughter has not spoken to me.  My best friends have not spoken to me.  My employer has not spoken to me.  My doctor has not spoken to me.  My accountant has not spoken to me.

Luckily, my personal motto is:  “Be willing to experience anything.”

I am truly enjoying my state of “being disconnected from”.  Maybe I should go to the examiner and attest to something! (Joke.)  If somebody, anybody, disconnects from me given my beingness, then, it’s his loss and my gain.  Being a bad boy is bring back fond memories.  A plus point!  Might it be the same with you?

And I have long prepared for this disconnection.  I figured it was going to happen sooner or later.

In 2005, I left Flag without permission, without routing out, without my confidential materials, and without saying goodbye.  Flag was pissed!  I had been on the level for 13 months.  I then simply stopped auditing on OT 7.  I had had enough.  I had seen enough.  I knew something was wrong.  Very wrong.  But in 2005 it was only a vague knowingness.  I thought it was me!  I thought I must have fucked up.  Again.  You know, more overts.  More withholds. More mis-understoods.  But I was not going to let anyone touch me.  Handle me.  Convince me.  Re-hab me.  Sec check me.  In my mind I was going to withdraw (Theta/MEST theory) and think things through for a while.  On my own.

So I lied to people.  I lied to all the people who tried to get me to resume my auditing.  And from 2005 to 2011 that was close to probably thirty different people.  I lied to them all.  I made excuses.  I made vague promises to continue sometime in the future.  In other words, I stalled for time.  And peace.  Admittedly, I was still concerned about what life would be like after declare and disconnection.

Then in 2009 I watched all the videos of “The Truth Rundown” and began reading Marty’s blog.  I became a lurker.  And for the next two years I did some pretty serious research on the internet.  The main question that I personally wanted answered was: “What would cause a long-time SO member to actually leave the Church after so many years of dedication, persistence and loyalty?”  I reasoned that the answers to that question would reveal the big outpoints.  Perhaps even the biggest outpoint in all of Scientology.  I read so many personal stories of ex-SO members that I lost count.  I read all the posts.  All the comments.  All the books.  Watched  all the videos.  I got all the data I could.

And the answers were revealing.  The outpoints became obvious.  To me.

I then knew why I had stopped my solo auditing.  It was no longer vague.  It was concrete.  The pieces of the puzzle all fit.  It all made sense.  But it had taken me a total of five years.  And didn’t Marty say that he decompressed for four years?  Others have given similar time periods to get over the shock or whatever they needed to get over.

So for 5 years I had been preparing for my inevitable declare and disconnection.  It still shook me.

The Toronto Scientologists, with their lives so intimately connected with everything Scientological, are not so prepared.  And that’s why it is going to be so difficult for many of them to leave.  For many, almost impossible.  Inconceivable.

The fear factor is huge.  Is this similar in other orgs?

The heartening thing is that seven +25 year Toronto Scientologists, all OT’s, contacted me after I had been declared.  They acted independently of each other, of course.  It took courage.  I thanked them individually for that.  The conversations were not too long, just long enough.  Danger hung in the air palpably.  Each wished me luck.  Each voiced fears.  Thoughts.  Considerations.  And each expressed his or her own wish that the PT insanity would soon end. Peacefully.  With no blood (metaphorically).  But each, in his or her own way, acknowledged that being disconnected was not an option available to them.  He or she would avoid SP declaration and disconnection at all costs.  I did not press the point.  I ended by saying that I’d be in touch if anything really exciting happened.  Not one of these seven people told me not to get back in touch.

So … I think the following statement is exciting:

“ I, David Stokes, of Toronto, Canada, (not Boise, Idaho) declare that I am now an Independent Scientologist.”

So, I’ll be shortly getting back in touch with these seven Toronto OT’s and giving them this exciting news.  And Debbie Cook’s email.  More excitement!  We’ll see what happens.

Also, I invite any lurking Toronto Scientologist or any other Scientologist, veteran or neophyte, who wishes to communicate with me, on any subject whatsoever, Scientology or otherwise, local or worldwide, to email me.  My secure email address is:  davestokes@hushmail.com

Those who have known me well over the years know that I pride myself on my discretion.  Any comm given to me I treat as inviolable.  Sacred!

My secret plan is to facilitate a mass Toronto Scientologist declaration of Independence.  Twenty-five OT’s sounds about right.  Twenty-five Independent Beings announcing together that “the chains are off”,  “we are at cause, not effect” and “we think for ourselves”.  Perhaps unrealistic but a plan nonetheless.  Again, a secret plan.  So mum’s the word, please.

Any suggestions?

I wish you well,

Dave  (a.k.a.  Toronto Public)

Kristina Royce: Perspective

Kristina has been a Scientologist during six decades.  Thus, she provides a broad view that few can share.  Read and learn.

These are my reasons for no longer wanting to participate with the Church of Scientology and why I have disconnected from it.  To begin with, here is a quote by LRH on the aims of Scientology, which I fully support.

The Aims of Scientology, by L. Ron Hubbard

A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.

 It has been my understanding and belief that the purpose of Scientology was to Clear the population of this planet in order to achieve the Aims of Scientology as quoted above.  Therefore, I believe that whatever else the Church is doing, its primary goal is getting people through to Clear and above.  Scientology is the only subject that I am aware of that expresses the above goal and has a technology that the group applies for the purpose of obtaining that result.  It is my belief that the CofS should be concentrating on this goal above all else and that any other activities that the church sponsors and/or carries out should be done only if they do not interfere in any way with the senior goal of clearing the planet and, indeed, contribute to it.  As long as the church stayed true to the above, I would continue to support it in this endeavor.  However, over the years, I have seen more and more evidence to the contrary.  I believe the current Church of Scientology is no longer on the straight path to fulfill these goals and has become out-ethics and has gone into Treason to LRH.  This is why I no longer support or want to be associated with that organization.  Following are specifics that have led me to this conclusion:

Through the years since I first go involved in Scientology in 1964, I have experienced various disappointments with organizations I was personally involved with.  Such things as mishandlings of a public person by a reg or out-ARC between senior execs and their juniors or misapplication of ethics.  I won’t try to give specifics here as this is merely to give some background to what follows.  Whenever I saw these things, back in the early days, I would consider it an isolated incident.  However, over the years, I heard similar complaints from other people involved in Scientology and witnessed enough myself to come to see there were definite outpoints in organizations, at least the ones I witnessed myself.  Additionally, I also witnessed the struggle those organizations had in trying to arrive at viability within the organization.  I believe every organization I was personally involved with during those years was always struggling to some degree to stay afloat.  There would be ups and downs, but I never personally witnessed a Scientology organization arriving at a viable Normal level of operation.  During those years, this puzzled me as LRH had written specific policies, which, if followed, should have resulted in viable orgs.

Years later, while on staff at FSSO, I believed that I got the answer regarding the problems orgs were having.  That was when we were handed a briefing sheet about Key To Life, LOC and Superpower with a number of quotes by LRH explaining why these things were needed.  In that briefing sheet there were quotes by LRH stating that Orgs were not going to make it and were doomed to failure if staff did not get through Key To Life, LOC and finally Superpower.  The “Why” that he had found on why orgs were failing was that staff were not able to duplicate policy and that the handling for this was getting staff through those actions.  If this were not done, he said, orgs would eventually fail altogether.

When I read this, I was very happy to see that LRH had found THE reason for the outpoints I had noticed over the years and was excited to see that Management was now taking the steps necessary to get these actions in on all staff.  Staff at FSSO, including me, were immediately put onto the Key To Life course.  This was such good news to me as I felt things were finally moving in the right direction and, once staff were gotten through all the actions, clearing the planet would take off like never before.

In 1990 I left staff at FSSO and no longer had my finger on the pulse of what was going on within the church.  I was active at the Boston Org, both on course and as part of the OT Committee and through this was able to witness at least the struggle that particular org was having, even with newly trained Execs of that org freshly back from California. (I don’t know where exactly they received their training, but the ED did tell me that part of her training involved training at Int Mgmt level.)  Being public again, I wasn’t paying attention to the progress of the local staff in regards to Superpower, but I finished up my KTL and LOC while I was there along with a number of other public.

In 1998 we moved to Clearwater to be near FSO as we intended to get onto New OT VII and also to be near Conan and Devin, who were in the SO there at the time.  I was already through New OT V.  Richard was a previous New OT VII completion and planned to get back on the level as he had been advised to do.  Both Richard and I had done the original OT V, VI and VII.  I wondered why these new levels were called “New” OT V, VI, and VII as this seemed to me to be a “Technical Degrade” of the previous levels.  I hoped this would be explained somewhere in the material, but I never saw an explanation.  What I had come to believe (and I’m not sure where I got this data or perhaps just came to this as my own conclusion) was that these “New” levels were needed for people to truly make it on the original levels, but have really no idea if this is the case.  Anyway, prior to getting onto OT VII, the promotion of this level was that if enough people (I think the number was 10,000) got on this level, that this would be one way we could affect the clearing of the planet.  Knowing what the level consisted of, I thought there could be validity to that statement.  I saw contrary data to this statement later on, once I was in the SO again, this time at FSO.  (I’ll write more on that point below.)

Shortly after we moved to Clearwater, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Superpower building was held.  This was very exciting for me as, once again, I saw hope for the orgs as outlined by LRH in the briefing sheet I had read.  In May of 2003, a few months after I started on New OT VII, I joined the SO at FSO to be part of the New World Corps, which meant I would be trained up through to deliver Superpower.  Once on the TTC (Tech Training Corps), I of course met other NWC TTCers.  Through several conversations, I learned that at least these people I talked to had not done KTL or LOC and I asked them why they had not taken those courses first, as it was my understanding that they must be done first before training to be a Superpower auditor.  Those two or three people told me I asked that KTL and LOC were no longer on the line up as requirements for Superpower training.  I never checked into this with anyone else, but if this is true, then someone is not following LRH’s advice, as I understood it.  Perhaps these courses were going to be done by those people later, but that is an outpoint (wrong sequence) as these people were now training without having done KTL, which would inhibit their ability to understand what the Technical Bulletins they were being trained on.  I had done not only KTL and LOC, but also had done the Primary Rundown on the Apollo, indirectly under LRH supervision.  This put my ability to duplicate way ahead of other TTCers who had not done any of these courses.  This did not make sense to me.

While I was on the TTC, I was also still auditing on New OT VII.  During my time at FSO, I learned directly from some and indirectly from others that there were quite a few staff members who had started New OT VII who were no longer able to continue on the level.  One or two told me they didn’t get enough sleep to be able to audit.  Another told me she needed a review to continue on OT VII, but had not been able to get the review for over two years.  This is an additional outpoint, as she should not be left sitting in situation where she needed a review.  Another staff member told me that she understood there were about 150 staff members who had started New OT VII, but were off the level for one reason or another.  In any case, it became a major outpoint to me that staff that had gotten onto New OT VII were not now auditing.  The way I see it, if New OT VII really does help in clearing the planet and if the church really were being true to the original goal of Clearing the Planet, then anything and everything would be done to get people (staff included, of course!) on and through this level.  In fact, it would make perfect sense to have a whole unit set up for those staff who were auditing on New OT VII whereby the first priority would be for them to be in session, per LRH specific data on this level, everyday and when not in session (which due to the nature of the level, would be quite a bit of time) could be training up for the post that they would hold once off the level.  It would make perfect sense that this would be set up and staff would be systematically gotten up the bridge and onto New OT VII and then, once completed, put on the post that they had been training for.  What a powerhouse FSO would be if they were to do this.  But, NO!  Not only was nothing like this even remotely being done, there was nothing particularly set up for those of us who were on the level.  I had to share a room, the only space left, as I understood it, where I could audit on this level.  This was in the Class VIII course room where one room was not being used at that time, so the supervisor made it available to us.  I shared it with three other people who were auditing on the level.  I was told by the Director of Personnel Enhancement (senior over the TTC) that there was nothing set up or being set up for staff who audited on New OT VII.  There were neither rooms nor a Solo NOTS D of P assigned to staff auditing on New OT VII.  We were on our own to “make things go right”!  How is that for intention to Clear the Planet!!  The whole scene for staff on New OT VII was, in my opinion, major out-ethics and major off-purpose to the original goal of Scientology.  I wrote up reports about this every week, but saw no changes occur while I was there.

Additionally, regarding New OT VII, there is another major outpoint going on.  That is the six-month checks.  As a public, I was under the impression that the six-month checks were to insure the pre-OT’s auditing was going along standardly and to correct any outnesses that might have come up.  When I joined the SO at FSO in 2003, I had been auditing on New OT VII for less than six months.  When I was due for a six-month check, I was already in the SO.  So one day, I went over to the Sandcastle and up to the Solo NOTs area and asked to see my (as a public) D of P.  While waiting for her to come out, the TTC I/C showed up.  He asked me what I was doing there and I told him I was getting ready to get started on my six-month check.  He laughed and said that there is no six-month check if you’re in the SO.  I asked why that would be, thinking whether you’re in the SO or not, you would want to be sure to handle any area that needed correction.  He said that was not what the six-month check was all about and that it was merely done for the purpose of making sure the person on Solo NOTs had not gone out-ethics in any way.  I couldn’t believe this and thought he was mistaken and told him I wanted to check this out with my D of P.  Just then, the D of P saw me and came over to find out what I needed.  I told her what the TTC I/C had just said and she confirmed that this was the case, so there was no six-month check for me.  Well, this is an outpoint on a number of levels.  First off, you have a person who has gotten all the way up the Bridge and is now on Solo NOTs, and he has to be checked every six months for out-ethics?!  A person can’t get on the level without going through all kinds of checks to make sure his/her ethics are in.  So, why this “inspection before the fact” (off-policy) check to see if he/she has gone out ethics within the last six months?  Further, this is an interruption of a major action (out-tech) enforced on the Solo NOTs auditor every six months.  This cannot be good per LRH technical data on interrupting a major action.  So, WHY is this being done?  This seems very squirrelly to me.  Something is very wrong with this picture.

To make another point regarding outnesses I witnessed, I need to go back to my time on staff at AOLA.  Most of the time I was there, I was the Tech Sec.  I had been DTS and then D of P for a short time prior to being put on the post of Tech Sec.  Later, I was put on the post of HAS.  During my time there, I got very familiar with the Org Board and how a Scientology organization works.  As an Exec, I was also part of Exec Counsel, Ad Counsel and Financial Planning, which helped me to understand the needs and wants of the various departments and divisions of the organization.  For the most part, my time there was good.  I did witness some outpoints, most of which I chalked up to be isolated situations.  The biggest outpoint to me was the lack of ARC in use amongst the staff.  In fact, I even mentioned this to the then CO (Fred Hare) who told me that ARC is not used in the SO, because you would never get anything done.  Well, I didn’t agree with that then and I never did go into agreement with that, but I saw other staff who did.  I chalked this up to their being low on the Grade Chart and out of valence.  I had already done all the way through the original OT levels prior to joining staff and thought it was just a matter of case regarding those low or nowhere on the Bridge.  But that didn’t account for others who were farther along on the bridge.  Anyway, I decided one day I would try being forceful with my juniors instead of using ARC, just as an experiment.  What happened is they became less efficient and, of course, lower toned.  I quickly got together with them and apologized for my behavior and, to my recollection, that is the last time I went (albeit causatively) out of valence while on staff.  But this little experiment proved to me that out-ARC was not the way to go.

Now, jump ahead to 1989 when I was on staff at the Freewinds Relay Office prior to going to the FSSO.  While there, I was almost immediately posted as Super Cargo (with no hatting, by the way) as I had been HAS on my last post.  In fact, I was on the post of Super Cargo at the same time as being an “expeditor” under the HAS, which meant I was her senior and her junior at the same time!  An interesting juxtaposition.  In any case, I soon learned that there now were new seniors over areas that did not exist in this new capacity when I was on staff at AOLA.  That was, CMO Messengers.  I just couldn’t wrap my wits around that one.  When I was on the Apollo, LRH had a number of messengers and that was precisely what they were, his personal messengers.  LRH used his messengers to give and receive information (not orders) from staff.  I never heard of or witnessed any LRH Messenger by-passing the entire Org Board structure to give an order to a staff member on the ship.  Now, I was told, whenever a CMO Messenger comes to you with an order, you must obey it as if LRH personally was giving you this order.  So there I was, being the Super Cargo at FRO when this little 12 year old CMO Messenger came with an order that I needed to obtain a certain number of filing cabinets in a certain color for the FSSO and that this needed to be done immediately.  This order did not go through my senior.  He came directly to me.  Yet, when I asked my senior about it, she said, yes, we all must obey any order we get from a CMO Messenger as if it were straight from LRH.  When I asked to see Policy on this, she had none, but pointed to a letter from Int Management that was tacked on her wall.  I read it, but didn’t get how this altered policy.  She told me to think of it this way:  that Int Management has to shoulder the responsibility of the whole Church, so anything that they ask us to do we need to do so willingly and at once.  In fact, the person that had been Super Cargo before me had been whisked away to Int with no replacement.  Sometime prior to my being posted as Super Cargo, I had seen him protesting this order and trying to find a replacement.  I heard him trying to defend his post and saying this was being handled off-policy, but he was sent off without a replacement anyway.  Later, I became the replacement, but he had already been shipped off.

Now, move ahead to 2003 when I’m on the TTC at FSO.  There I witnessed not only CMO Messengers running around (at least in the course room where I personally saw this happen) making demands and giving orders, but now RTC Reps have been added to the mix.  Wow, talk about too many chiefs and not enough Indians.  This was, in my opinion, completely off-policy, out-Org Board, and inefficient.  Put those people on the posts they are demanding things get done and maybe more things would be getting done.  What I witnessed was a complete by-pass of the organization structure of FSO.  This means FSO was (is?) in Danger.  However, per LRH, if a condition goes on too long, it will fall to the next lower condition.  So by the time I was there, I would imagine that FSO was way down the conditions, perhaps in Confusion.  But at the same time, correct Danger formulas were not being applied.  I didn’t see any CMO or RTC staff come in to handle the area while at the same time getting it up the conditions, nor any senior over the area.  No, just daily visits to the courseroom telling the supervisors or sometimes directly to the students what they were doing wrong.  How does anything get corrected this way?

By the end of 2003, I had come to the conclusion that there was no way to correct the outnesses I had witnessed as the outnesses I saw were either being done directly by or with the complicity of the very people who were supposed to see these outnesses get corrected.  So who can one report to in this case?  I did send one report up to RTC at Int, but got a letter back stating that my report had been turned over to the local RTC to handle.  I never heard any more on that report.  By this time, my body had become the effect of the stress I was under, which I believe was mainly due to my recognition that things weren’t quite right, but seeing no solution within the church structure to handle it.  I decided I needed to get out of this organization, get some space away from it and get my body back into good health.  So I left the FSO.

During the time of routing out of the SO, I often sat in the confidential Qual study area in the Sandcastle while waiting for the routing-out Sec Check.  One evening while there, I was asked by a NOTs auditor to check him out on a bulletin for a cram cycle he was on.  The reference was, I believe, Auditor’s Rights.  While checking him out, he originated to me that in the future he would always remember this particular bulletin regarding his rights as an auditor and went on to say that he had been auditing a person on Solo NOTs on her six month Sec Check and she completed it rather quickly.  He ended the session and sent her happily to the examiner.  Shortly after this, he was told by an Exec (I believe it was the Chief Officer) that he had to take this person back in and give her more Sec Checking.  He refused at first, saying she was done.  Then the exec demanded that she be taken back in and that he needed to do this to get the hours (stats) up before Thursday at 2:PM, stat time.  I don’t know what occurred to make him go along with this, but he did and now regretted it, saying the next time this happens, he will use this bulletin as his reference and refuse the order.   I don’t know how often this happened or happens or if this was one of those isolated incidents, but I believe the pressure to get the stats up or get more money in could result in out-tech such as this.  My own brother has told me of out-tech actions being applied to him during his six-month check visits.  In fact, this has happened to the point where he now refuses to return to FSO for any action whatsoever and feels that FSO is in Treason to him.

After I left the SO for the last time, I slowly began to reflect on all the things I had seen and experienced while there and earlier while in the FSSO.  I began to wonder if the good outweighs the bad and thought perhaps there are New OT VIII’s out in the world now doing all kinds of wonderful things.  I decided to start searching on the internet to see if anyone was promoting the gains they had achieved having finished OT VIII.  Unfortunately, the only place I could find any good reports were from the Church of Scientology itself.  This didn’t feel right.  I don’t know why the church would not allow someone to speak up about their gains outside of church-controlled communication.  In any case, while looking, I did find a website announcing the passing of Mary Sue Hubbard.  It annoyed me that the church had made no mention of this in any of their publications.  After all, LRH many times had acknowledged Mary Sue’s contributions to Scientology.  Anyway, that was just one more outpoint.

The more I looked at outpoints I had witnessed, the more outpoints showed up.  One major one is Superpower.  Way back when I was on staff at FSSO and had read the briefing sheet where LRH was quoted regarding Superpower and the need to get it in on staff.  (As I recall, LRH wrote that Superpower was to be done on all staff first, then government officials and then delivered to public.)  KTL and LOC were released to staff then, in 1990.  I was hopeful that Superpower would soon be delivered to all staff.  Now, here we are in 2011 and still no Superpower.  However, there was a public person who received at least some of the Superpower rundowns.  His name is Matt Feshback.  Matt gave a talk, which I attended, about the wins he had received from this auditing.  This was back around 1999, I believe.  In any case, it was many years ago, now.  So, my question is, so what if the “Superpower Building” isn’t quite ready yet with all the bells and whistles.  So what that there aren’t enough staff to fill the required posts in the new building.  The fact is that at least some of the rundowns are in deliverable form and were delivered to at least one public that I am aware of.  Therefore, at least some Superpower could be being delivered to staff, as it was to Matt Feshback.  The fact that nothing has been set up or provided for staff to be rotated through these rundowns, speaks volumes to me.  The sane thing to do, obviously, would be to send at least one staff member at a time to wherever Matt was sent to be audited by whoever Matt was audited by so that one staff member is that much more able to duplicate LRH.  Once that one staff member is done, send another and another and so on.  If there is more than one auditor who can deliver Superpower, than send that many staff to receive it and keep on rotating staff through.  If this had been started back when Matt Feshback received his Superpower rundowns, how many staff could have been gotten through by now?  How much more sanity would there be within the organizations if this had been done?  Of course, this is assuming that what Matt Feshback said was true, that he really did receive a number of Superpower rundowns and that he really did have major wins as a result.  But, if he did speak the truth and if what that briefing sheet quoted LRH having said is real, then there is clearly insanity at the top of the Church for not having gotten these actions going on as many staff as possible.

Here is my problem with “Ideal Orgs”.  The following quote is what LRH has to say in HCO POLICY LETTER OF 12 MARCH 1975 Issue II Data Series 40 THE IDEAL ORG:

“Such an ideal org would be built by taking what one has and step by step

building and smoothing; grooving in and handling each of its functions, with

each of its divisions doing more and more of its full job better and better.

The business is always there-the skill with which it is handled and the results

on pcs and students is the single important line which makes it possible to

build the rest.

The ideal org is the image one builds toward. It is the product of the causative

actions of many. Anything which is short of an ideal org is an outpoint that

can be put right. The end product is not just an ideal org but a new civilization

already on its way.”  L. RON HUBBARD  Founder

What LRH says here makes total sense.  This is not what I see Int Mgmt doing under the direction of COB.  It is all cart before the horse.

And finally, The Basics Event, which was when I came to the conclusion that the current C of S is in Treason to LRH under the leadership of David Miscavige.  Here are the main things said by DM during the event that I took issue with:

  • “Let me be blunt:  No, you are not stupid.”  Here DM was pointing out WHY everyone had trouble understanding the basic books.  This was not true for me and I’ve spoken to several others who attended the event who did not feel stupid about the basics.  (Me, Richard, Martha, Cyndi, Steve, to name those I remember.)
  • “How is it that by survey and experience Scientologists find reading an LRH bulletin or policy letter far easier than a book?”  Then DM said that LRH hand wrote or typed all the policies and bulletins (and says this is the reason one can read the policy or bulletin easier than a book, which I find to be a ridiculous statement.)  This I know to not be true as, while on the Apollo, I personally witnessed one of LRH’s transcribers taking the data from a tape LRH had dictated into and typing it out on a typewriter.
  • Then Miscavige goes on to explain how the original books were incorrectly transcribed and/or edited prior to going to the press and that, because of this, no one in all these years ever got the full meaning of the data.  I find it hard to believe that all those years while LRH was alive and delivering training himself, that no one really got it.  Perhaps those mistakes did exist in the books, but I do not believe for a minute that this means no one got the data.  I did several of the Basic Books extension courses and did not find anything new that I had not already understood from earlier versions of the basic books.  To me, this was a major invalidation of LRH and technical degrade of the original basic books.  This event took place in 2007, decades after the books had been written.  If these outpoints really are so destructive to the point DM says in the event, that no one reading the books would be able to truly understand them, and therefore would miss the underlying foundation upon which all else was written, what a huge FLUNK on COB and RTC for not catching this years ago.  That would be nothing less than Treason to LRH and to all Scientologists, in my opinion.  We know that the books had been gone over earlier as there had been earlier new versions of the books published and pushed as the new, corrected versions which everyone should now own.
  • The event has a video where there is this statement: “the book plus the lecture equals full conceptual understanding”… Who says?  That is positioned as if it is an LRH datum, but it’s just a made up statement with no basis in reality.
  • Then, to top it off, DM said:  “I could walk off this stage in the next 30 seconds after simply telling you to read and listen in sequence and I would know that you would fly.  In fact, I’d know if you did just that, read and listened in sequence, by the end of your study, you’d know the basics of Dianetics and Scientology better than any Dianeticist or Scientologist from 1950 right up to the present time.”  This is an outright invalidation of LRH and all auditors since 1950.  That right there did it for me.

Why We Stay by Mike Rinder

Mike just posted the following as a comment in response to another comment.  To me it is one of those gems that cuts right to the heart of matters.  It is timely since literally thousands of  Corporate Scientologists have had some eye opening revelations come their way over the past two months.  It behooves us all to consider who we are dealing with, what motivates them, and what considerations and concerns they harbor. It also is useful to examine the other side of the coin, and so, below the first article please see “Why We Leave” by Steve “Thoughtful” Hall.

Why We Stay by Mike Rinder

This is a really difficult subject to explain. I look back and wonder why I stayed as long as I did. And I have given this a lot of thought, and I am sure there are a lot of scholarly and learned treatises that would explain this phenomena. I have only analyzed this for myself and what I have seen or heard with others.

I believe there is a “perfect storm” of factors in the RCS, and though I am certain many of these things are not unique to the RCS, I believe its hard to find anything that has ALL of these things acting in concert. And to one degree or another, I believe each of these apply to everyone involved in the RCS (SO, staff and public).

1. You feel an obligation to not violate your personal integrity by withdrawing allegiance from a group you have committed to. And the flip side of that coin, you are heavily invested in something (whether financially or emotionally or both) and to walk away from it requires admitting you were wrong/stupid/duped.

2. You don’t want to let others down. People who have relied on you, supported you, looked up to you. You value their friendship and don’t want to upset them.

3. You believe that to forsake the RCS and Miscavology is to abandon your eternity as there is no other “brand” of Scientology, everything else is pure squirrel suppressiveness which will drive you into a state of black MEST (meanwhile, this is the object of the reverse Scientology being run in the RCS). Even the idea of “abandoning your eternity” is contrary to fundamental Scientology principles – its an impossibility.

4. You have to walk away from your family, friends or business associates. The level of trauma associated with this depends on the degree of immersion in the “Scientology bubble.” Sea Org members often have to decide to leave a spouse and/or children. They normally have no college degree and no resume and no money. Many public Scientologists also have family who will dicsonnect or they will lose their jobs or their customers.

5. It is hammered into you that whatever condition you find yourself in — YOU “pulled it in” — whether it is being beaten and tortured or bankrupted by heavy pressure regging. It is always what YOU did and the organization/Miscavige is NEVER wrong. Then to “blow” only proves it further — its YOUR O/Ws. This mindset is cemented with the “sec checking” that has become routine operating procedure in the RCS. Think a critical thought about anything and you will pay (literally or figuratively or both) with a sec check that doesnt conclude until you find some O/W (real or imagined) that makes YOU responsible.

6. The thought that whatever injustice/abuse/difficulty/hardship you may be experiencing, it is “nothing” in the overall scheme of things. a) You have no doubt experienced worse on the whole track, so why get upset? b) physical pain and duress don’t damage you spiritually so what’s the big deal and c) the biggest one of all “the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics” (as long as Dynamic 3 counts as 8 and the other 7 are one each) — “Scientology is expanding and clearing the planet, so there are some outnesses, they are small in comparison to all the good that is being done.”

7. Finally, I believe the vast majority of Scientologists are optimistic and think to themselves, “tomorrow will be another day and things will be better.” Unreal but true.

Maybe others have thoughts on this, but that is what I have concluded.

Why We Leave by Steve “Thoughtful” Hall

There’s an additional reason for “why we stay” which comes down to intuition or as we would call it in Scientology, “knowingness.” I wanted to leave many times in my Scientology career at the Int base. But for some reason I stayed. Something inside of me urged me to weather the storm. To use it as a laboratory. To learn from the experience — what would happen if I were pushed to the brink of extinction? I found out.

I found out I could survive anything. I found out there is a limit to what torture can do. There is a point where a compressible being cannot be further compressed no matter what is done to him. And better yet, I found out that even in that compressed state, I could fight back. I could make postulates. I could refuse to agree with realities. And finally, I found I could boldly walk right out the front door like Houdini — despite any number of chains, cameras, motion detectors, evil security guards (Danny), vicious Nazi like people, and most troublesome, the chains of love you feel for a spouse and those friends you must leave behind. Despite all these things, I found I could walk out the door and nothing, no power, no one could stop me.

I learned that through torture. I learned it is still possible to be OT despite physical, emotional, mental and spiritual suppression.

But there was an even greater reason behind my knowingness. Something for which I am thankful — very thankful — that I stayed as long as I did, and witnessed what I did. And I saw the violence with my own eyes.

If I hadn’t had seen what I saw, I would have never been able to create Scientology-cult.com, perhaps the first voice in the wilderness resulting from the correct WHY and which thereby opened the door to a handling for Scientology.

Why did Mike stay? Why did Marty stay? Why did I stay? Why did you stay?

Look at what we are doing now. Organizations, like people are born, they live for a time, and die.

The Church of Scientology is not dead. It’s worse than that! It’s below death and has been for some time. We — as a group — have beaten death on the third dynamic and Scientology is rising from the ashes like Phoenix.

What Mike experienced, what Marty experienced, what I experienced, what you experienced — all these experiences are what make this possible. We learned our lessons. We came to our senses because things got bad enough, we regained our collective personal integrity and with that comes everything.

What is Scientology if not the technology to bring the dead back to life? But not just on the first dynamic, but on the third. I wrote about this in an article called, “The Iron Door” on Scientology-cult.com. But it’s a very real thing.

If we had not stayed and suffered through what we did, we would not be able to do what we are doing now.

It was a perfect storm alright. A perfect storm for the rebirth of the greatest spiritual philosophy the world has ever known. Look in the mirror. You are making it happen.