Here is another in a long string of defectors who tells just how evil Scientology is and always had been. If the devil himself had sat on the shoulder of L. Ron Hubbard as he planned the RPF is couldn’t have been much worse. Here Gary Weber tells of the various people that he met, including David Miscavige, and talks about what they did. As we have seen in these stories Scientology was started by a money-hungry writer who tired of “writing for a penny a word,” so he came up with a “religion,” that the fools of that era bought into. Things got much worse in later years when the writer and opportunist started to believe his own lies.
More on the cult of Scientology. This is a religion?
A new defector from the Sea Org, out less than a month, sheds light on how things fare inside the cult of Scientology. The following was taken from the “Underground Bunker,” by Tony Ortega on 3/26/14.
Jillian Schlesinger: How I got into Scientology, and how I got out
This is happening in Los Angeles, on Fountain Avenue, in an old hospital building painted blue and topped with huge, lit-up letters that read SCIENTOLOGY.
And this is only weeks ago. In 2014. In the center of one of the largest cities in a country that likes to think of itself as one of the freest on earth.
A woman of 30. Already a veteran of years of working 19-hour days for eight dollars a week. With no access to a telephone. Sleeping in a room with 11 other women on a floor of the old hospital with only a single bathroom. She’s never owned a car. She’s never rented her own apartment. She’s never owned a cell phone. She’s never had a credit card.
Except for helping out her family as a child, she’s only ever had one employer: She’s worked for Scientology since she first joined staff at 15.
She cannot watch television. She cannot read the news. She lives in the movie capital of the world but the only time she gets to watch a film is when Tom Cruise has a new one out and she and all of her coworkers are taken in buses to see it so Tom will get good movie sales.
But she’s had enough.
She’s had some job assignments that weren’t the best. There was that endless scanning of documents in a bare cement basement of a building on Hollywood Boulevard, for example. That was drudgery. But this latest assignment was the worst. In order to save money so more of it could be sent “uplines” to Scientology leader David Miscavige, the “Sea Org” had created a construction crew so it wouldn’t have to pay outside contractors.
The woman has never worked construction before. But now, she finds herself stripping fiberglass insulation without protective clothing at one job site. At another, she’s helping repair a ceiling, backbreaking work, at a former hotel on Hollywood Boulevard that has served as dingy ‘berthing’ for Sea Org workers for years.
And that’s where Jillian Schlesinger begins to plan her escape. After a week, she’s filled the duffel bag with her clothes. She sneaks into the building’s ‘galley’ — where there’s a phone — and calls her father. She asks him to drive over and see her, and she gives him the duffel. In a week, she tells him, meet me at the same place, at the same time.
And over the next seven days, each time she goes to work, she carries a few more personal items from her room at the old hospital and hides them at her construction site at the old inn.
She sees her father again and gives him her personal items. But she admits to him, she’s not ready to leave yet.
In fact, she hasn’t even made up her mind if she’s really going to do it. He tells her he understands. She has to make up her own mind, he tells her. He can’t force her to make a decision.
So a few more days go by.
And then, on a Wednesday, as she’s heading home with a roommate, she learns that it’s her last day working at the inn. Tomorrow, her work unit will switch to a construction project somewhere at the old hospital complex, where she lives. She knows instantly that there’s going to be a unique opportunity to make a run for it in the morning. And if she doesn’t take it, she might not have another opportunity for who knows how long.
The next morning, she heads for the bus stop. She knows that no one at the old hospital realizes yet that her job location has changed. They won’t miss her, thinking that she’s still working at the old Inn. But when she arrives there, she knows no one there is expecting her.
So she walks right past it. She walks to the metro stop, which is nearby. She goes down and buys a ticket — she’s been saving up some money, even on her meager earnings — and takes the subway to Union Station. Then she buys a ticket for an Amtrak train to Orange County. No one stops her. When she arrives at the station in Santa Ana, she asks to borrow a telephone from the employees there. She doesn’t have one of her own. She calls her father, and he doesn’t answer.
She doesn’t panic. She knows he works nearby. So she takes a cab. When he sees her, he’s taken by surprise. And he beams. She’s made her own decision. She has left Scientology’s Sea Org. And now both of them, they know, will have to leave the church itself. They’ve had only a few weeks since then to get used to the idea.
Stories of abuse in the Sea Org are not new, there are dozens of them on the net and many in this blog. Nothing changes in Scientology when you get down to it. Sea Org members and Scientology staffers have told their dire stories over periods of time that span decades. This is one of the reasons that the cult grew rich: it enslaved its members.
The following is from the blog of Mike Rinder, former head of OSA Int. and now prominant defector. You can read this story, and many others at http://www.mikerindersblog.org/enforced-disconnection-proof/
Enforced Disconnection — More Proof
By Mike Rinder, March 25, 2014
My name is Sydney Osborne. I got in Scientology at the Denver Org in 1989 and was on staff as a sup and Director of Training from 1990-2002. I was on Mace-Kingsley Family Center staff (Scn field group) from 2004-2008 starting in Div 2, and later becoming the OES. I’ve posted on this blog a few times as XclassVStaff.
I’ve known and worked with a lot of wonderful people in Scientology.
The Church of Scientology continues to deny practicing disconnection, states there is no pressure from the church, and that it’s voluntary on the part of its parishioners. I’d like to share my own recent experiences with this to illustrate the fallacy of this assertion.
On 19 Nov 2013, I received a letter in the mail from the FLB (Flag Land Base) Justice Chief informing me I’d been declared (not an actual declare, mind you, just a letter telling me a declare had been issued). Enclosed was a copy of the A to E reference highlighting the points I’d been found “demonstrably guilty of.”
Prior to this I received no Knowledge Reports, no summons by Ethics, no notice of a Committee of Evidence being held. In short, no communication whatsoever from the Church of Scientology. Incidentally, this violates the church’s own jurisprudence policies.
My significant other and I live in Tennessee, and planned to visit Denver over Thanksgiving and see friends who are still in the church.
On 21 Nov, I learned from some Denver friends that the local DSA’s office was calling public informing them I’d been declared and thus they needed to disconnect from me. I’d been in contact with some friends I hadn’t seen in years. They’d invited us to stay with them a few nights in Denver and we were all eagerly anticipating some quality friend time. But now that I’d been declared, our friends had no choice but to take back their invitation. They have family in the church, some on staff, and were worried about ethics repercussions, including family disconnecting from them if they visited with us.
Several friends expressed their own disagreements with the church, but said due to how entrenched the church is with their lives and their businesses they would have to disconnect from me. A few said they would have to un-friend me publicly, but that they would still be my friend as long as the church didn’t know about it. And fewer still said they would remain my friend and not allow the church to dictate to them about it.
I understand where they are coming from. I remember being in their shoes, when I also disconnected from people I cared about. And when I did it, I thought it was the right thing to do, or at least the lesser evil.
It was no secret I had disagreements with church management over the last many years. I voiced these things in KR’s, crams and vocally in the church. I tried to keep it on “correct” church lines. But it became clear that the outpoints I saw were only growing and not being fixed. I decided to maintain two separate FB accounts – one with Scientologists active in the church and one with all of my other friends, including many ex-Scientologists or Indies. I did this, not only for me, but for my Scn friends. I didn’t want to give them the problem of having to disconnect from me. And despite my disagreements, I didn’t want to lose touch with so many people I cared about, some for twenty plus years. So I had been sort of keeping a toe dipped in church waters.
During my staff tenure from 1990-2002, I was a course supervisor and Dir Training. Iloved being a supervisor. Along with many of my fellow staff, I set aside my first and second dynamics and dedicated myself to helping people go up the Bridge and to achieving the Aims of Scientology . I often worked a full full time schedule, meaning 7 days a week, for the full hours the org was open – M-F 9am to 11pm or later, and on weekends 9:30am to 6:30pm or later. Training students was a labor of love for me, and in some ways my students were like the children I would never have. Since none of the rest of my family were in Scientology, my students and fellow staff were my family. Obviously, I didn’t want to be disconnected from them. So I’ve mostly laid low publicly about my disagreements, posting only a few times on this forum anonymously. Until now. (Here’s looking at you Justice Chief FLB :} )
Over the next few weeks as word of my declare spread, more and more of my Scn family disconnected. All of this without ever knowing what I had allegedly been found guilty of. I still don’t know. Most of these simply un-friended me on FB with no communication at all. I rarely used my Scn FB account, so I can’t tell you exactly how many Scn friends I had before the un-friending began, but it was in the 150-170 range. As soon as I realized I’d been declared I went on FB and saw I’d been un-friended by many already.
. . .
Here are some comments received from friends who did give some communication after my declare and then disconnected:
“So I probably have to Un friend you on Facebook. But I don’t mean it”
“I guess I gotta say goodbye Syd….”
“I love you-”
“You understand that this will be the last comm I send to you at this point. I’d love to hear from you again whenever you get back in the group.”
“I am not going to call and at this point this will, with much sadness, be my last comm with you until such time as things resolve to the point where we can be in comm again.”
“I suggest you handle any ARC breaks you may have or clear any MUs you may have or get your OWs written up.”
“And if at any time the declare is rescinded, if you are not too ARCX with me for not staying in touch, please do then get back in touch with me.”
“I will sadly have to unfriend u on stupid fb.”
Never have I felt so fortunate none of my family are church members and that my business is not dependent upon Scientologists. Thankfully, my communication with my family is now better than it has been in decades. I actually have time now to spend with them.
My loss of friends is not new or different. The disconnection I experienced mirrors countless others’. This part of my story is mild compared to many.
The Church of Scientology does enforce a disconnection policy between its parishioners and anyone they deem unfit to be a member. A sad state of affairs coming from a group that claims to be a religion. From a group that touts itself a defender of Human Rights.
The only choice a parishioner has when a friend or family member is declared a suppressive person is to disconnect or be named a suppressive person themselves, in which case they would suffer the same fate. Let me be clear here. I spoke with several Scn friends about this, sometimes both of us in tears because they didn’t want to disconnect but had to in order to maintain their good standing with the church. This is the hand of the church enforcing its will and driving a wedge between people who care about one another, not a decision truly left up to the parishioner. This practice failed miserably for Catholicism and is demonstrably failing for Scientology.
The Sea Org has been called a paramilitary force since they have uniforms, ranks and their own vocabulary of military sounding names. But in practice they are incompetent, ill-led rabble and mere cannon fodder. Scientology will go to great lengths to enlist members yet they often get thrown out for relatively trivial offences. Their lives are often miserable due to poor living conditions, lack of sleep and unrealistic work targets. Yet they sucker people into it year after year with with threats and high pressure; and also slick ads like the one above. Does anyone really think that diminutive girl, whose head is almost lost inside that hat, could really do any fighting with that dull fake sword? But even if she could by some miracle defend herself with fencing and swordplay, of what utility would that be to Scientology? None, it is all part of the Bull Shit that is Scientology.
How do they treat each other? Hubbard had little to say about kindness, respect and empathy for his troops. Not much about human dignity either. Sea Org members yell and scream in each others faces and threaten dire punishments for unmet quota’s. They follow through with these threats too. If there is one thing that this group does do very well it is to crush the live and joy out of its members.
Other than this the Sea Org members have a fun time. Oops, I forgot one thing; they are made to spy on each other. The list of offences is almost endless and range for the high-crime of an innocent kiss to sleeping on the job. One of the worst things is to be guilty of wanting to leave the Sea Org; although looking around on the Internet is also a terrible crime. Once accused of a crime the interrogations and security checks come into play. Welcome to the group that thinks it can rule the world.
The following is a very typical story of what happens to Sea Org members that manage to keep any spirit or spine.
Alex’s Story. Chewed up and spat out.
[Danger, this story contains large amounts of in-group slang and terms that would only be understood by a Scientologist or someone who has studied this dreary cult far too long. Danger to sanity might follow reading this, or compulsive laughter.]
Hi, my name is Alexandre Rex Salomon, (known as Alex) and this is my story:
After being on staff at Narconon Johannesburg for about 8 months in 2006, I joined staff at Joburg Day. I signed a contract to be trained as a Class V auditor and was placed on the TTC. After many months of training, my department’s executive, the Qual Sec (Daryl Berman), took me aside after course one day and told me that due to the new Basics release, what was needed and wanted by him and other executives was that I be taken off of the TTC and placed on the ATC (Admin Training Corps) to be trained as a Professional Registrar. I was not happy with this to say the least, but allowed myself to be convinced that this was acceptable and allowed my own reality to be compromised. He took me to the ED (Albert de Beer) and the HAS (Sabina Laktionova) and officially removed me from the TTC. In the presence of the most executive persons on the Org Board I felt too intimidated to query this at the time.
The next day when my direct senior, the SSO (Kiki Etzioni) issued me with my new TIP (to now train as a Registrar) I queried it with her, since as I understood it, a trainee could not be removed from the TTC pool and moved to another division of the Org Board. She did not come to my aid to speak out against the above executives.
I further queried this with the Cramming Officer (Thomas Pagenkopf) who agreed with me, but did not speak out against our senior Daryl nor any other party involved in the decision. After nothing came from that I decided to approach a SO member to assist (who I believed was in a good position to speak out against a decision made by a Org executives), yet the FR (Laurent Malherbe) also just agreed with me but did not do anything to help me reverse the change in post. Lastly I approached the LC AF (Robert Bokkelmann) for assistance to remain on the TTC. He very adamantly agreed that it was off-policy to take me off the TTC and move me to another department, yet told me that he did not want to get involved.
I was taken off of the TTC and put in the ATC. To my knowledge no one objected. This was my first upset with the Joburg Org. Before all the above, when I was still new on staff, training in the division 6 course room doing the Personal Efficiency course, I met Jaco Snyman. He was also new on staff. We became romantically involved and later on moved in together and got engaged.
At some point a recruit mission arrived in Joburg. Their purpose was to man up an AOAF team to go to Flag for training. Many events were held to recruit people for the Sea Org. At this stage my 2d Jaco was the PPO for Joburg Org Day and was at one of these events assisting to recruit. When people were called to go up on stage and pledge to join the SO – he later on told me – that the ED (Albert de Beer) convinced him to go up on stahe and announce he was joining the SO which he duly did. This was commended and encouraged by the ED (Albert de Beer) as well as the Mission I/C . This was my second upset with the Org, and had now extended to being upset with the SO and Flag too.
My objection to this was that I was not qualled for the SO (due to my drug history) and if Jaco joined, I would lose my fiancé (we had already been engaged for almost a year by this point). I hardly slept that night when he came home and told me that he had joined the SO.
The next day at the Org I was livid and ready to again seek assistance. Jaco was passively going along with everything, yet I believed that he did not truly want to leave me and even told me it was not his fault that I could not join too.
I fought with the Mission staff who had gotten wind of my objection. They made me read the policy on the ‘Greatest Good for the Greatest number of Dynamics’. I found it ironic that the “greatest good” could be used as one saw fit, and that there were different versions thereof. My version of the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics was to leave both Jaco and I on staff and in a 2D. It included the org not losing a staff member and for me not having to sacrifice my 2D for AO AF. As I saw it, I was taking into account the greatest number of dynamics and not destroying an entire dynamic (2D), yet they somehow saw it otherwise.
The only person who took proactive action was the EO (Vanessa Kruger) who used applicable extracts from the Scn Marriage Course to handle both of us, since we had entered a mutual agreement and committed to being engaged to each other. She also addressed his commitment made to being on staff and that there was a shortage of Class V Org staff. This helped to reiterate and verbalise what I was trying to get across, which I do appreciate, since I was so upset and emotionally distraught I could hardly express myself without shouting or crying.
Yet the ED (Albert de Beer), the majority of executives and other SO members all backed the decision for him to leave staff, leave me and join the SO.
I decided that since virtually nobody was helping me, I would try to join the SO to salvage my 2D and auditor career and so I withdrew my previous statement regarding the details of my drug history. And I was signed up to the join the SO.
All SO members training for the AO AF were to train at Flag. Within a couple of weeks the AOAF Mission had arranged my visa (I was awarded a 2 year visa) and a plane ticket for the USA. In May 2008, I boarded a plane for Flag. I was the third person to leave SA for Flag for the AO AF and the first girl. I was assured that Jaco would join me there once his cycle was complete and his visa approved.
Upon arrival at the Flag base my ID, passport (all means of identification) and cell phone were confiscated and locked away. When I queried this, I was told that exterior influences may disrupt my time at Flag. I was not given access to email and I was only allowed one 10-15min supervised phone call per week. There were no pay phones on the base. These things seemed very un-kosher and I felt my first pang of enslavement. As it turns out these actions are illegal, yet Flag does it all the time.
To read the rest of the story go here: http://backincomm.wordpress.com/2014/01/19/alexs-story-chewed-up-and-spat-out/
When it comes to the subject of forced disconnection the “church” of Scientology still lies through its teeth and says such a policy just doesn’t exist. However, this practice has been documented time and time again in the press and on the Internet. A recent defector has flung the lie back in their face with bold statements on Mike Rinder’s blog. This is what Cindy Temps says:
DISCONNECTION
When I told my other friend of 35 years about this, she said, “Cindy, I love you, but I am disconnecting from you because if the church comes after you, I’ll be next because I’m connected to you, and I can’t lose my son and two grandkids.” I was in good standing then, and she disconnected just so that the church wouldn’t “come for her” next. She even made me bring out my computer where she then erased every email to or from her so that the church could never see that she was in support of Debbie Cook. She told me she hated David Miscavige and “wished he were dead” because “he ruined our church.” But in spite of that, I was the one she disconnected from, not him. She threw me to the curb in spite of the fact that we spent a year of our lives co-auditing each other, and had enjoyed many decades of friendship — and all because she was certain the disconnection punishment would be used to rip her family from her “when they come for me.” She acted hunted and scared, like she was under the thumb of the Stasi. (The Stasiwas the secret police of former communist East Germany. From Wikipedia: One of its main tasks was spying on the population, mainly through a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents
This is what our church has degenerated into, a Stasi environment, and all because the club of disconnection is used to bludgeon people to keep them in line.
I am recently declared for “being connected to SPs.” No mention of WHO they think I’m connected to, no Com Ev, no Bill of Particulars, no specifics, no Goldenrod. Just vague, generic witch hunt material used to suppress a good person. Since when does searching for truth make you suppressive?
But isn’t Scientology growing? They make that claim day and day out. Cindy throws cold water on that idea.
HCO DECIMATED
I saw HCO decimated in my time on Solo Nots. Instead of the veteran MAA’s I’d come to know over the years, my next trip saw not even one familiar face; instead all were very young 20 something’s, many from Eastern Europe still struggling with the language. The young kids have no time track with Scn to know how it was booming in the earlier years. They accept what is espoused as, “command intention,” not knowing that it is NOT “LRH’s intention.” On my last trip to Flag in 2011, the Flag HGC was empty and I was my auditor’s only pc. I was sent to the D of P, the MAA and Qual, one after another over and over so they could reg me to spend money on more intensives of auditing. They even put me on the meter and used it as a lie detector to ask if I had sold a property and what did I do with the money. This went on for days after my actual auditing was completed, and I missed 2 flights out of there by being detained to reg me nonstop. I came home and wrote reports on all the out tech on that trip as well as the individual SO members who had been out tech. All that got me was two MAA’s at my door unannounced, unwelcome, to “handle me on my KR.”
Chris Shelton was in the Sea Org for 26 years before the greed and avarice of Scientology management drove him out the door. Here are some videos in which he details what Scientology is all about. The “Sea Org,” should really be named the, “Sales Org.”
Androvillans's Blog 