Tag Archives: Scientology Germany

The Waterkamps Declare Independence

Gerhard Waterkamp and his family are living testament to the power of the Code of Honor.   They stood up to the German government and now they are standing up to its latest alter ego – corporate Scientology.

The Waterkamps

I was born and raised in Germany in a roman catholic family. At age 14 I cognited that the Roman Catholic church was in the majority not a spiritual organization concerned with the advancement of the spiritual aspects of humanity, but an organization with the purpose of controlling populations. There were a lot of good Christian people in the church and I loved some of the monks in the Dominican order I where I served as an Altar boy and ran youth groups for the church. But really, the church was just there as a control operation. So I forfeited my life in heaven and exchanged it for an eternity in hell – at least that is what my priest told me when I told him I was quitting his operation. I hurt my mother as she was a strong believer in catholic doctrines and I am sorry for that.  But it was more important to me to act on my principles and convictions than to take heed of other’s feelings, not to mention threats of eternal fire and other scary stuff. As a young kid in postwar Germany you were still very directly confronted with the horrors of war and the holocaust. And there was one question on my mind: How in the world could good and decent people stand by when their jewish neighbors were put on a transport and killed? The answer eluded me for more than 40 years.

But that was it for me on spiritualism. My mind was set, it was all a fraud. On a vacation trip 1979 in Portland Oregon somebody dragged me and my girlfriend into a building, made me fill out answers to 200 questions and then sat me down to look at a graph. Oh boy, was I screwed up. The lady looked me in the eyes and said: “you are a spirit”. I just went, ‘hey stay away from me with the ghost stuff, but what do you have to fix this screwed up graph?’ She mentioned the Dianetics book and wanted to sell me one. 1980 back in Germany I finally bought it and read it in 3 days. I was fascinated. This guy Hubbard understood everything I had read from Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm and what I knew from my dabbling in some of the eastern philosophies and Baghwan/Osh.  Not only that, this Hubbard guy was able to operationalize the data so you could do something practical with them. I was hooked.

I joined Scientology and the Bremen Mission as part time PRO (Public Relation Officer). There was this huge misconception about Scientology in Germany and I wanted to do something about it. So I went to all the public enemies of Scientology in the area, introduced myself, explained what Scientology is and left my card in case of any questions. That was 1980 and the world was good. I did auditor training in the mission and the grades and Scientology changed my life for the better. I married, brought my wife into Scientology and she became a very successful course supervisor in the mission. There were no PR issues in Bremen and the Bremen Mission was the only one recognized with a special non profit status. No attacks, we just had a good time; quite an untypical picture for Germany at that time.

Gerhard and Sabine back in the day

I really enjoyed the tech just a few things were off. If there would be such a thing as an insanity meter (like a Geiger counter just counting insanity particles) there would be an interesting phenomenon. The higher you went up management lines (not public or tech lines), the more insane it became. This thing would start with a quiet happy humming in the Mission over to a sound of a male cat in heat while in Hamburg Org to an outright concert of a dozen foghorns in Kopenhagen. These sea org recruiters that came to the mission were plain nuts and the IAS regges borderline violent insane. I experienced the slaughter of Wiebke Hansen, whom I knew very well when she was ED of Hamburg Org. David Miscavige made a draconian example of her and most was kept from public, but I knew her and people very close to her well and saw much of the bloodshed.

I loved the tech and saw it work; the nuisance of Scientology management was something one had to put up with. Nothing is perfect. So I issued a personal restraining order for all IAS regges and ignored recruiters. My wife and I went up the bridge to OTVII and I did my L’s, trained up to NED auditor and some OEC. We did Clear to OTVII at FLAG. Again I loved the tech, but the management at FLAG was insane. I was at the level of CFO for large corporations at that time in my career and the PR situation in Germany got really catastrophic (and worsened from there). Federal government officials at minister level told the German industry they should not have Scientologists in management. The stuff that was going on would make a witchhunt look like a stroll in the park. It was enough to read the Dianetic book to get fired from a job of some importance as happened to a trainer of the German Olympic fencing team. The hysteria in Germany grew wild. All fueled by a grossly misbehaving church and interested parties like the German Verfassungschutz which faced dissolution when the wall came down and they were in urgent need of a new enemy image to justify their existence, or Ursula Caberta a politician who saw this as a vehicle for her own self importance and getting taxpayer funding. I had the opportunity to befriend another big name critic in Germany much later. Renate Hartwig had written several anti Scientology books and was one of the most influential critics of her time. When I talked with her we found out the Verfassungschutz works even dirtier than OSA. No kidding – it is possible- but she wrote a book about that after we came to know each other and stopped her attacks on Scientology.

There was no differentiation (as there is now) between Scientology as a religious philosophy and Scientology as an organization. So as a public who participated in Scientology as a path of spiritual enrichment you were automatically branded with all the hysteria created against the church. I hoped (as it often turned out), that when people knew me and my family, they would recognize that the hysteria is not true and I hoped I could get some credit for good work and by setting a personal example.

Oh gee, was I wrong. 1995 a few weeks before I was to be announced the CEO of a 5000 person division of a large multinational manufacturer, the roman catholic church finally got even with me for deserting them as an altar boy. A roman catholic priest got a hold of a FLAG magazine listing my wife and me as OT VI completions and passed it to my employer. A few days later I was escorted by security out of the building. The owners wrote me a letter stating how disappointed they were, as per their own words, I had been one of their most energetic and productive executives and how in the world could I do it to them to be involved in Scientology.

Shortly thereafter the German Verfassungsschutz contacted one of my sisters with an offer: Work with us against Scientology and all is forgotten and forgiven.

Darn it, principles and convictions can be such a bitch.

Here I was, without means to support my family, publicly ousted as a bad guy and practically blacklisted from management positions in Germany. But here comes fate in the form of the US government to the rescue. We won the green card lottery! Next we were going through medical exams, background checks and other fun activities to be finally able to enter the US legally and permanently in August of 1996.

The Waterkamps come to America

When I had a job and money I got calls every day from the church to give money. When I was destroyed and still stood by my religion – silence. There is one individual though I want to thank. Maria Robb, she gave us our first job to get started in the US. She and her husband are nice and very decent people, too bad they are not looking. Maria, if you read this, if you ever need help, you have an open invitation, I owe you one.

From 1993 to 1996 I audited on OTVII and felt in1996 I was done, but Flag was again in turmoil and the C/S did not know what to do. I guess they were working on the re-release of OTVII at that time. I also noticed increasing outpoints with the church.There were falsehoods wherever you looked. I gave $45,000 starting in 1993 for Super Power because Bruce and Charmaine told me they needed the money to finish the building and release Super Power in two years’ time. I saw the importance and wanted to help. I visited Bruce about 7 years later and when I asked him why isn’t Super Power released yet he enthusiastically told me that COB is now involved and redoing and redesigning the whole interior and there will be wonderful statues. He clearly ignored the blank look on my face and definitely discounted the good state of my memory as I vividly recalled him telling me the urgent vital need for the money to release Super Power 7 years earlier. The statements of the church and the actual facts were just not adding up. 10,000 on OTVII makes no sense with the delivery model that everyone has to show up every 6 months in Florida. But the delivery model makes a lot of sense if you want a steady stream of prospects you can knock over for money. While the OT materials are downloadable with a Google search and are public domain, a pre OT had to go through a ever more complex procedure of locks and allowed locations for the materials for “security”. With the help of Murphy’s law this will lead either to paranoia or sure liability assignments, because the lock of one of the snappers on the briefcase in the locked cabinet in the locked office of the locked house was not locked. Oh boy, people in such a liability are an easy job for regges. As my favorite DofP and Reg the late Hy Levi said in the Truth Rundown. “It is all about the money.” Once you understood this, a lot of the insanity made sense.

I could tell hundreds of observations I made during 1988 and 1996 at Flag. I spent more than a year there, but it all adds up to this: The statements made by church officials do not match what is done.

During this time I was at a great point with OTVII and I had to rebuild my life in the US. I figured I would focus on that and all will sort out for the good, just give them more time. I hate to admit how wrong I was.

On another note I am a strong believer in human rights. So I went to Leisa Goodman the human rights director in the church in Los Angeles and told her: “If the Church is so for human rights, why don’t we do anything against the human rights violations in Germany?” Six weeks later Leisa came back and we started working on several media projects. During this time I met Mike Rinder and Heber Jentzsch on many occasions. We met Tommy Davis, Isaac Hayes, John Travolta and Chick Chorea when we testified in front of a government committee about human rights violations in Germany. And I am grateful to all of them for this. It is my fierce conviction that no government has the right to  the prejudicial treatment of an individual based on his or her membership – or perceived membership – in a certain group or category as the German government is doing.

Heber with the Waterkamp girls

My oldest daughter became involved in Youth for Human rights and was named President for this organization. One day she came home and said she had resigned from it because she felt she was used just as a puppet and her role was just fake. She did not want this as it felt like a lie.

Time went by. My daughters both went to Delphi LA and graduated form 8 and took off to college. Which brings us close to present time.

John Travolta and the Waterkamps Advocating for Human Rights

In January I read in a German online magazine that Debbie Cook had written anemail. Anyway, it was about time to pick up my spiritual path that I had postponed in the hope the insanity would be finished and I would have a smooth ride. So I started to check up where the church is. Of course over the years I got hundreds of calls to buy the basics, do this, do that but I told them I do stuff when I am ready and that is all I have to say. So here I am reading the different websites and oh my god, it has gotten much worse. In 1996 the church was more misleading than really flat out lying. When I watched the Truth Rundown I knew first hand what was true and what wasn’t. And everybody on those videos gave their viewpoint correctly and gave the truth. I then read the statements of the church and they were flat out utter lies. Denying the undeniable. I saw the church had completely lost it. Not because of what the critics said, but in the responses of the church. Freedom mag had become solely hate pages s consisting of character assassinations. I was used to Leisa Goodman and Andrew Milne who cared about facts and while I felt they were under undue pressure at times, would never turn this kind of garbage out that the church put up on their websites.

So I started more thorough research. Anybody can write stuff on a website, it was time for independent verification. Just one example of what I discovered. I found out and got it first hand how the church had taken a friend of mine for over $100,000.00 in sec checks, because he had mentioned critical thoughts about David Miscavige. And the church did not stop there. They were in the process of breaking up his family after 40 years of marriage. Daughter turning on father, wife turning on husband all in the name of the church. It was heartbreaking to see how the church was degrading decent human beings into being scared, robotic and confused individuals. The wife had done OTVIII twice and was in complete obedience to the church and treason to her husband of 40 years, all just because he could not take the treatment he was given any longer. The family had agreed for 4 years not to talk about Scientology matters so nobody could write knowledge reports about each other. Here is the hammer, they are a field auditors group highly trained in PTS SP tech and did nothing else in their day to day life than Scientology.

While the tech that I studied was designed to bring about spiritual freedom, the current church uses it to make slaves. They want control, they need obedience and to own you so they can own your money. I am not as highly technically trained as others, but I can observe the products the church puts out these days. After 4 months I came to the conclusion the church has morphed into a fascistic organization that destroys lives. The final end product of this church is enslaved individuals, destroyed families, destroyed relationships: in short, destroyed lives. I saw this over and over and over during my research. It was not the exception, for anybody having temporary gains there were 10 disasters. The church arbitrarily applies policy where it fits their purpose to cover up their crimes. There is no honest application of green on white or red on white anymore.

So I knew what was coming, when I sent a request to Flag and other Scientology organizations for a return of my unused money. They can live with the fact that I talk to Marty, Mike and Karen. They cannot live with the fact that I want the money back that they owe me per their own policy.

Which brings us to present time. This morning the rumor mill started and the facebook police went into action:

“Sorry to tell you Sabine Waterkamp got declared a few days ago. I have unfriended her and also blocked her on Facebook. I suggest you do the same.

 Any questions? Call Daniel, Chief MAA at Flag, (727) 423-1269. That’s how I learned of the sad event.

ML, Sandee”

The irony is this this email is sent around to our friends by Sandee Ferman. Sandee was fired from Delphi Academy a few years ago because she was involved in massive fraud by falsifying statistics at Delphi Academy for years which brought the school to the brink of disaster. The church has to use known frauds these days to do their dirty work.

As expected nobody from the church has informed us.  They are too cowardly to confront us. Nobody has shown us any declare, no committee of evidence, nothing. Hi Freya, if you are still at OSA and read this our fax is 818-951-7352. You should send us at least a copy so we know what we are accused off.

Now get this, when Sandee was asked for more information this is the response:

Daniel, Chief MAA at Flag, reports they connected up with unfriendlies and started speaking out against the Church. They also requested refunds. It was pretty clear to me. I just got off the phone with him. I gave you his cell phone number.

But I got even better; the church called the step father of Jake Leistra, a young man who was the boyfriend of my youngest daughter. We took him into our house for some time and helped him also financially, while his parents were giving him in his own words no money at all.  He ate our food, slept in our guest bed, drove our cars and got any support we could give. We even took him on occasional vacation trips paid for him no questions asked. When he had to move his furniture we carried it with him and let him use our cars. So his stepfather, who does not support Jake with any money at all (Jake’s own words), tells him we were declared and sends him to AOLA.  Jake went to AOLA and got a SP declare shown and reports back to my daughter that the declare states Sabine and I are talking to undesirables and that I asked for a refund of unused money on account. Oh, by the way, they not only showed him this declare, they showed him the disconnection policies and worked him over. After that,  Jake (like a little spineless marsh mellow), rolled over and made himself a doormat. He called my daughter on the phone telling her he needs to break up with her because her parents are declared. The church even breaks up girlfriend and boyfriend, and robs a young man of the opportunities for a better life.

Chick Corea: Wake Up! Your little helpers in arms in the fight for Human Rights are having their own violated by your ‘church’ at this moment

So here it is, the church confirms on official lines, that when they are asked per their own policy to repay money that they hold for parishioners they pull out a declare to avoid paying it. It is all about the money. Not to mention they confirm they have a disconnection policy.

Not that I care what the church does. The church has less moral authority than the gopher in our front yard to assign me anything. I do not give notorious liars and suppressives any importance. The church has proven through their own hate websites and their many documented crimes against human beings, their corruption of Scientology technology with the effect of destroying and suppressing human beings and their constant blatant violations of policy that they are in treason to LRH, the goals of Scientology and all of mankind.

I am a Scientologist and I stood up for my religion against discrimination in Germany and I will stand up for my religion against a suppressive group like the current Church of Scientology. I am an independent Scientologist.

But I need to thank the church for helping me to answer the question I had on my mind for 40 years. How could Nazi Germany and the Holocaust happen?

Obviously you need to put up a higher purpose, like saving the aryan race or saving the planet. A lot of good, willing people will come and really help with this positive goal. Then you put them into a pressure cooker, military drill, sleep deprivation and work them really hard. Next you make it a crime to receive any other communication than the one approved by dear Fuehrer and work them even harder, then you shoot some of them for the just and good cause (to save the aryan race or the planet or whatever your item is) or just beat them up publicly to instill fear. And you keep that up for some time and everybody who says “wait a minute” is sent to the death camp or RPF and you end up with a group of robots that stop thinking and do the most incredible things like killing other human beings just for a different opinion, race or skin color.

To my friends still in the church: It takes people with spine and knowing the price of freedom to prevent this from happening.

My beautiful and wonderful wife of 26 years, Sabine, who went with me through all of this, claims number 357 on the Indy 500 list and I’d like to be 358.

If you want to contact me directly you can email me at
gerhardwaterkamp@gmail.com

Gerhard Waterkamp

BONUS addition – Gerhard’s letter to the Flag MAA:

Open letter to Chief MAA Flag Land Base

Dear Daniel, It came to my attention that you started to dramatize your PTSnes on my and my family’s communication lines. First I want to alert you to the fact that I as a Scientologist resign from the Church of Scientology as said church has abandoned the goals and the creed of Scientology as laid out by L. Ron Hubbard. I am in full support of the religious philosophy of Scientology but the current Church of Scientology demonstrates through their actions on a daily basis their disdain for the tech, policy and basic human decency and should not be allowed to have the word Scientology as part of their name. You are sending local operatives to contact friends and acquaintances of me and my family and spread vicious lies about us. I sent your operative Sandee Ferman a cease and desist notice and if this is not immediately complied with I will file in court against her and the church civilly for harassment and start also criminal proceedings. I also demand that you immediately cease and desist in all activities directed against me, my familiy, my business, and my business and social relationships.  In the event that you choose not to cease and desist, or in any other manner, choose to retaliate against me, or any of my business associates, including vendors with which I have done business, I am prepared to protect my legal rights to the maximum extent permitted by law, including a civil action and a request for punitive damages. Secondly any Tortious Interference with prospective economic advantage of mine or with contractual relationships of our business with clients and vendors entitles me to economic losses, and damages for mental distress and since I can prove malice on your part I will also be entitled to punitive damages.  I am fully aware that you and your agents are in contact with one of my business associates spreading lies about me and will monitor the situation and if you do not stop the tortious interference I will put your and the churches ethics in on that. Since FLAG does not have enough ethics and decency to respond to justified and on policy refund request, but elects to start a smear campaign against me and my family, this constitutes willful infliction of emotional pain for which I will have to obtain damages as well in a separate lawsuit. Here is a suggestion, before you end up in the RPF of the RPF because in your PTSnes you are currently screwing this up beyond belief: apply correct ethics for a change. Put in Ethics at Flag, so that FLAG as an organization applies the refund policy correctly and ethically as laid out by LRH in HCOPL 23 October 1963, REFUND POLICY. Do the same to CCInt and the Super Power project. Bruce and Charmaine obtained fraudulently funds from me with the help of outright lies and deception. I am not interested in a fight with the church. The church has made itself completely and utterly irrelevant for me personally and for society as a whole. With their predatory regging practices, outright PR lies to cover up their crimes people are defecting in droves. Your church is more a laughing stock than anything of importance. No wonder it ranks in polls in the US in reputation even under radical Muslims.  Fighting the church is a waste of time and energy and attention units. Fighting the abuses and crimes committed by this church though is necessary to keep an ethics presence and control your dramatizations. You may not know this. I fought side by side with the president of the Church of Scientology Heber Jentzsch against abuses and human rights violations of the German government and gave my career to protect my religion. Do not make the mistake to think I let the church get away with abuses against me, my family or my business.  The church put my friend Heber Jentzsch into the hole and he failed to look through the lies and deceit put up by David Miscavige and his enablers. I am still defending Scientology this time against an abusive and corrupt church against the enemy from within. So get your ethics in and handle your PTS situation and get ethics in on this cycle. Pay me the money back that is owed to me and stop this nonsense. That is your job and what LRH expects from. Not to instigate smear campaigns, that is what crooks are doing. If you want to check out of the Sea Org and its insanity I will help you to get your life together.

ML Gerhard Waterkamp

Also: Check at 3:25 for Gerhard’s statement at US Congressional hearing at this link: Congressional Hearing on Germany v Scientology.