Unknown magazine, July, 1939, Slaves of Sleep, by L. Ron Hubbard. If you want to find the origin of the upper level courses in Scientology, especially OT III and the Wall of Fire, you need look no further than the science fiction had fantasy stories that he wrote. All of Xenu, (All Hail Xenu) was rooted in the rock-’em, sock-’em space operas that Hubbard wrote. Later he tired of “writing for a penny a word,” and started a fake religion.
He still wrote fiction, the only difference was that deluded underlings thought it was for real and piled mountains of cash on his head.
Virginia (Ginger) Ross Breggin was in Scientology for over a decade, some of this time in the Guardian’s Office, now known as OSA, or, the office of special affairs. This is the group responsible for handling critics, reporters, disaffected members and legal problems. They are also in charge of dirty tricks and the hiring of private investigators.
So why did she leave this group who followed the greatest “humanitarian” of the world, L. Ron Hubbard? Ginger says,
“When I was pregnant in 1978 I was forced to work 13 or more hours a day, despite my doctor’s orders to the contrary. I worked these hours up until the day I went into labor.”
“I was instructed to stop breast feeding and return to post four weeks after the birth of my child. At that time, I was still bleeding and exhausted from the birth.”
The minions of Hubbard are usually treated as dogs or worse, Ginger was no exception.
“I experienced many personal and traumatic episodes while in Scientology which I will not bother to detail in this letter since they appear to fall outside the realm of the information requested. My experiences are common to other staff and GO members and include being placed in lower conditions, working huge numbers of hours, being required to suppress personal needs for the sake of the group, and so forth. The scars will last a lifetime.”
Synthia Fagen and her husband were devoted, long-term Scientologists who left because of the money hungry culture where people were just dollar signs. She says of her reasons for leaving, “Six months ago, in November of 2009, my staff contract was up and I did not re-sign. Though I was expected to come back I knew I never would if my concerns were not addressed. They never were.
I was the IAS Membership Officer (of all posts!). My husband was, at the time, the Chief Academy Sup and had been on staff for 25 years straight. During this last staff contract, the Basics came out and that was the beginning of the end for me as this is when the group engram was laid in.
The Basics evolution was, in my opinion, insane. Where outpoints in the church and its management were not new, here they were coming at us full force, with a vengeance and with a ferocity and velocity that I had never experienced before and it was NOT FUN. Now, DM and the “quota mongers” would state that this was straight up and vertical expansion. After all, the staff were not doing enough so “get used to the rocket ride baby cause we’re clearing the planet for real now”. Unequivocal hogwash.”
More on the hard sales tactics used by the most “ethical” people in the world.
“Harassment: People being called non-stop, daily, no matter how many times they asked not to be and, after being harassed by the org, being put in a stack of “ARC X” folders. One gentleman told our ED that he literally felt so depressed that he thought of taking his own life because of our unrelenting calls. He said he counted that one day, he received 63 calls.”
“Oh, there’s so much more. Lots of cross orders and cross regging and impossible money targets and I could go on and on. I felt like everyday on post was all about money and I was engaging in behavior that I felt wrong about just so that I wouldn’t appear reasonable or off-purpose. I started to lose self-respect.”
Once she started looking on the internet Synthia knew that she was part of a scam. She told her husband and after some very hard thinking and soul searching he joined her in leaving Scientology. Stories like hers are now being repeated around the world. The cult in dying, I only wish it was a faster death.
Maria Pia Gardini a former Italian Scientologist, was systematically bled dry of her money by high pressure sales techniques and the usual false promises. And when neither of those methods worked they used outright intimidation.
She speaks about the constant hounding for money on the part of Scientology, “On the 21st of December, 1991, Tito Mazza, who was the Flag Service I/C [in charge] in Italy, and Marco Puggelli, who was a Flag FSM [field staff member], came to my home in Italy seeking a donation for a Class VIII project at Flag. Shortly after they arrived, Debbie Cook, the Commanding Officer for the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida, called on the telephone concerning this same project. She told me the cost of executing the program was 2 million dollars U.S. and she wanted me to finance the entire project. I told her I would never give them 2 million dollars whereupon she said she knew I would inherit a large sum of money from my mother’s death just 10 days before and felt I should give them the money. I continued to say no and asked them to leave. They would not but stayed and continued badgering me. Finally, one of them took me into a side room and told me if I just gave them a check to prove to the Captain of Flag that I was a good Scientologist they would leave. They repeatedly told me I should be a good Scientologist and give them the money. I was also at this time very vulnerable. My daughter had died one year before and my mother had now died 10 days before. I was alone in the world. I finally gave them a check for $30,000 and they left. At that point I told them not to return asking me for money. . . The morning after, my maid came into my bedroom and told me there were two people sleeping in a car in my garden. I got dressed and went to see who it was. There I found two sea org members whom I recognized as working for Flag and the Flag Ship Service Org. When I approached the car to tell them they could not come into my garden in the middle of the night, they got out of the car and asked me for coffee. I took them into the house and gave them coffee. They then fell asleep in my home. Around ten o’clock, I received a phone call from Debbie Cook, who told me I had not given enough money and I needed to give more to the two staff members at my home. She went on and on about the project needing my help, that Italy was really down and it could be the first Clear country etc. Finally, I gave another $50,000.”
The story continues in a similar vein showing how this woman was browbeaten into giving more and more money to the cult. It should be noted that Debbie Cook, the captain of the thieves at Clearwater, has since quit the cult. I have not heard of her attempting to make any restitution to her victims.
The story of Maria Pia Gardini is a complicated one, perhaps of more interest to former cult members than casual readers. It is remarkable however, in that it demonstrates the tremendous confusion within the organization, and of course the constant lying. When it comes to your money though, there is no confusion about that. They want it and they want it NOW.
Maria also wrote a book about her time in Scientology, but since I can’t read Italian I cannot say much about it except to say that judging by what she has written in English it should make for some juicy reading.
Brenden Moore spent six years inside of Scientology, part of the time as an Ethics Officer.
What does he now think of Scientology: “Scientology is hiding under the banner of religion, to hamper investigations into it and to avoid paying taxes. . . Scientology also cost me my marriage and devastated my family – MY sister lost her marriage, her home and acreage. . . My sister, brother and thirteen nephews and nieces have been trapped in this evil cult since 1968. I have been harassed and threatened by phone – there was a set up to have me physically harmed – I was sued in a failed attempt to silence me.”
Brian Canup, former case supervisor Brand Blvd Mission in Glendale, California. Left Scientology in 1998. There are a number of reasons why Brian left. One of them has to be that he once got paid $11.00 for two weeks pay. In Scientology the alive of the money, the biggest slice, is sent uplines to Scientology management. The local group lives on what is left.
No, it was not the money issue alone that drove Brian out the door. He was sick, very sick yet he was refused time off to see a doctor.
“There is truly no way to describe to some who has never had pneumonia just how miserable and painful a serious case can be. When my 1 day a week finally rolled around and I managed to seek medical aid (with a healthy deposit into my bank account by my mother to cover such expenses) the news was dire indeed. After x-rays were taken the doctor informed me that in 14 years of practice he had not seen such an advanced case of pneumonia in a person that wasn’t wheeled in riding a gurney. My right lung was 1/2 filled with fluid and my left was 3/4 full. I asked him just how serious that was. His response chills my even now. “2, maybe 3 more days and you’d more than likely have asphyxiated in your sleep”. I did not find death very agreeable then and certainly don’t now and it is undeniable that the missions inflexibility and Scn wariness of medical doctors came within 72 hours of putting me in the ground.”
A former Scientologist talks about medical care in Scientology:
Brian’s story is not an isolated instance; stories like his abound on the net. Besides their own crackpot methods of healing the fact is that the cult is too cheap to spend money on their members. Below is a video about Narconon, the fake Scientology drug rehab program that is very dangerous to anyone caught up in it. How many have died? Too many!
Charlotte Kates was young in 1998, only 17, when she joined staff at the Philadelphia org. While there she saw the usual contradictions of Scientology life. The constant and insatiable demands for money. Public members were hounded without mercy for courses, books, IAS memberships and donations for this and that. No matter that it was impossible for these goals to be reached. In fact there is no word for “impossible” in this cult. Young Miss Kates was given the task of getting 200 Scientologists online with the cookie cutter Scientology web sites. Yet there were only 183 active public members to draw from! Anyone stupid enough to remark on such an absurd goal would be in “ethics” trouble right away or at the very least to stop thinking like a “wog” meaning non-Scientologist. As always the staff were treated like dogs. The pay was bad no matter how much money they took in. Staff members had to moonlight on outside jobs just to survive.
Her story is interesting but it must be said that she was very foolish for getting involved in the first place. She had already read some of the critical debunking facts about Hubbard, she even saw it on 60 Minutes, yet she joined it anyway. Another red flag was when she was talked out of taking her thyroid medication by a couple of staff jerks who had no medical training, they said auditing would take care of her physical problems. No need to take those pills!
Usually it takes about a half a million dollars and some years of study to reach the upper level courses that teach alien possession. But this guy got there on his own. This story is from the Clearwater Sun, August 25, 1981.
“A downtown Clearwater businessman who last year joined the Church of Scientology was committed to a Mental hospital Monday after a psychiatrist testified that Scientology apparently contributed to the man’s insanity. Francis G. Diamond, 45, a successful antique dealer before his breakdown, told Circuit Judge William Walker that other Scientologists’ “thetans,” or spirits, had invaded his body during counseling sessions and now control him.”It’s not something out of Star Trek-it happens,” insisted Diamond, who brought a book by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to corroborate his defense.The book states that “Operating thetans” – advanced – level Scientologists can leave their bodies and “control or operate thought, life, matter, energy, space and time.”The commitment hearing was at Horizon Hospital, a psychiatric facility on U.S. 19 where Diamond was taken by police after friends grew concerned about his behavior.”
. . .”Such hearings are generally closed to the press, but Diamond, requested that a Clearwater Sun reporter attend, and the judge agreed, “I want people to know what Scientology did to me,” Diamond said in a weekend interview in a locked ward at the hospital. Diamond contends he is neither irrational and nor violent, but says the “Operating thetans” who control him are unpredictable. He blames them for his decisions to close his business, liquidate his inventory, sell land he owned in Pennsylvania, move out of his apartment and live in a car.
. . .Scientology spokesman Wolfe ridiculed Diamond’s statements, saying “he’s crazy.” Wolfe said the E-meter does not produce an electrical charge. Wolfe also said that although Scientologists can command their thetans to leave their bodies, “it’s nonsense” that a thetan will enter another person’s body.” Dedicated Scieno watchers will recognise Milt Wolfe as a Guardian’s Office agent which is their department of criminality and harassment of critics and unruly Scientologists. His boss, Mary Sue Hubbard, did seven years in federal prison for ordering the burglary of the FBI among other things. To read the rest of this story go here: http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/clearwatersun/cwsun-0825-1981.htm
Brown McKee was in Scientology for twenty-four years before being declared an SP and tossed out the door. He was a mission holder who ran two of these franchises. Brown said he tried to reform the abusive aspects of the cult for years. He and other mission holders met in 1981 in Clearwater to demand changes in the way the Sea Org and Scientology management’s practices. Nothing came of this except the swapping of horror stories as to what has been going on in Scientology.
Brown was bitter about the death of his wife who relied on auditing to keep her healthy, “And Julie complained of tiredness and this and that. Julie rarely ever complained of anything. But anyway, I saw her beginning to slow down, and by the summer of 1978, she, who was also a very highly trained auditor — and, also, you must is realize both of us were totally persuaded that the source of all illness was mental, except for, say, a broken leg, and the way of curing it is with auditing. This is what — it’s our business.
So, during the summer, Julie lost more and more of her energy and had some swelling and some small chest pains and this and that and began to lose her voice. So, I thought, “Well, Flag has the best auditors in the world and should be able to help her out.” So, I sent her down here to Clearwater in, I guess it was, October of 1978. We never even really thought about going to see a doctor; that’s just not what — the Scientologist doesn’t think about that. . . [after she was so sick she had to be taken to the hospital] She was there two days when we were given the report. And what it was adenocarcinoma, which was a cancer of the lymph glands of the lungs, and her right lung had totally collapsed, and which this cancer had also infiltrated her throat and paralyzed her vocal cords. And it had progressed to the point where it was totally hopeless. “
As to the young rulers of the cult, “They’re immature, ignorant, brainwashed religious zealots. That’s my personal opinion.”
Peter Graves joined Scientology in Boston after being assured that Scientology methods would raise his IQ, cure diseases and fix whatever in his life was wrong. After four years none of these things came to pass. Besides these false promises he found out that the secrets he divulged in his auditing sessions, we not secret at all. He goes on to say, “I made numerous disclosures during auditing concerning my life and the lives of others, that were thereafter revealed to third parties. As a Church member, I became aware of the practice of revealing auditing disclosures to third parties for many purposes, including harassment, attack, blocking legal remedies and extortion.”
When the con was made apparent to him, “In December of 1979, I left Scientology due to an increasing awareness of the fraudulent representation made to me and the general scheme of Scientology to swindle and destroy people.”
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