Jon
Zegel
ZEGEL
TAPE NO. 3
July 1984
Copyright
(C) 1982 John Zegel Redistribution rights
granted for non-commercial purposes.
((This
is the complete and unabridged, word for
word transcript of John Zegel's tape number
3. Remember that Zegel recants the entirety
of his first 3 tapes, including this one,
in the 4th tape.))
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Jon
Zegel
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Part
One
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Part
Two
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Part
Three
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Transcript
Hello
again, it's July 1984 and this is Jon Zegel.
This
is tape number 3 in the series of tapes that we've
produced.
When
we did the first tape a little over a year ago,
in July of 1983, there were just a few hundred
splinters around the world. By the time we did
tape number 2 in January of 1984, there were thousands
of splinters, a real worldwide splinter movement.
This
tape, I believe, marks the end of the 'splinter'
movement.
There
exists today a complete new Church. We are no
longer a schism of Scientology. In fact, we have
arrived. We lack only a common name.
As
you know, a Church is by definition a collection
of people who share the same philosophy and beliefs.
The new Church is such a collection, a group of
people who believe in the philosophy of Scientology,
the basic dignity and rightness of people, they
believe that people have a right to improve their
lives and the lives of those around them without
becoming emotionally or economically bankrupt,
and that people, just as they are, are basically
good and are seeking to survive.
In
this tape, we are going to take a hard look at
some of the difficult areas to confront. We will
look at Church credibility, who is in control,
and the most difficult area, LRH's involvement
or noninvolvement in what has occurred. We will
look at the question I am asked most often, "How
could this have happened?" And lastly, we
will look at what this all means.
Credibility.
In
any situation where evaluation of data is important,
the credibility of information is always a question.
Church credibility has been extremely poor, both
with the public and the press. Here are a couple
of examples of why.
In
March of this year, a group of people concerned
with the Church's failure to make prompt repayments
staged a protest demonstration at the Cedars complex
here in Los Angeles. The march was covered by
both local and national media, TV, radio, press
and so on.
The
Church responded by sending Scientologists out
carrying signs saying "Sponsored by the Los
Angeles Psychiatric Association" and passing
out similar statements to the press.
What
follows is the report broadcast on KFWB radio:
"People
upset with the refund policy of the Church of
Scientology marched in front of the Church headquarters
in Hollywood today. KFWB's John Brooks reports
that the protesters have filed suit against the
Church and claimed they have been harassed and
intimidated."
"Former
Scientologists who say they were denied refunds
totaling thousands of dollars marched down the
Sunset Boulevard sidewalk, while current members
of the Church joined the march with their own
picket signs and gave out misleading statements
to the press as though they were part of the protest.
Other Scientologists took down the names of the
marchers and photographed them. The former Scientologists
say harassment and intimidation are what they
faced when they tried to get refunds, despite
Church advertisements that money would be promptly
returned. Church spokeswoman Shirley Young says
protesters failed to follow the refund procedures
and are using this issue in a continuing effort
to discredit Scientology. John Brooks, KFWB news
98."
The
credibility problem is not just a US phenomenon.
What follows is a recording of a BBC radio call-in
program featuring Scientology's UK Director of
Public Relations, Mike Garside. He's being asked
questions about Church policies on disconnection.
The first person you will hear is a caller named
George.
Caller:
"I agree a person should be allowed not to
talk to someone if they don't want to, but I disagree
with the fact of a Church saying to a person,
'You should not associate with someone else because
we decided he is no longer in agreement with our
aims, and so you should stop your communication
with him.' "
Interviewer:
"Do you in fact do that?"
Mike:
"Well I think, I think really, we, you know,
you need to look at the actual policy of the Church
in the matter, and really uh, the...the..."
Interviewer:
"Come on Mike, tell us, what is the policy
of the Church in the matter? Do you or do you
not tell your people not to associate with those
who have broken away?"
Mike:
"What we say is that if somebody is, if somebody's
survival is being threatened by somebody they
are associated with, then it is probably a good
idea for them to keep cool on it and to steer
clear of them for a while."
Interviewer:
"Are they being 'keeping very cool' of you
George?"
George:
"Uh, well, yes, yes, but, their policy from
what I have read is not that it should be a good
idea, but if they don't, they themselves could
be declared as a suppressive person."
Interviewer:
"True or false, Mike? Last word on that..."
Mike:
"I, I think really the, the, the basic charge
of that is false."
OK,
let's see what the Church policy actually says.
From the Church Policy Letter 10 September 1983
called PTSness and Disconnection, on page 2, "the
term disconnection is defined as a self-determined
decision made by an individual that he is not
going to be connected to another. It is a severing
of communication."
The
issue here, by the way, is not disconnection,
but whether or not it is self-determined. Let's
have a further look, on page 4 of the same Policy
Letter it states "A pc is connected to a
person or group that has been declared suppressive
by HCO in a published Ethics Order. He should
disconnect."
It
goes on to say, "No attempt should be made
to establish communication with the declared SP
to clear matters up or to seek to reform the SP.
The SP's reform is strictly in the hands of HCO.
The PTS simply disconnects."
And
later goes on to say, "To fail or refuse
to disconnect from a suppressive person not only
denies the PTS case gain, it also is supportive
of the suppressive, in itself a suppressive act.
And it must be so labeled."
It
then refers to HCOPL 23 December 1965RA, which
was revised and reissued on the 10th of September
1983, and is called Suppressive Acts.
It
was republished just a couple of months before
this radio program was broadcast. Let's have a
look at it.
Sure
enough, on page 4 under Suppressive Acts it states,
28.) "Continued adherence to a person or
group pronounced a suppressive person or group
by HCO."
Further,
on page 9 it says: "Any PTS who fails to
either handle or disconnect from the SP who is
making him or her a PTS, is, by failing to do
so, guilty of a suppressive act."
So,
is disconnection self-determined? In fact, no
it is not, specifically in two instances. One
when handling fails, and when a person has been
pronounced an SP by HCO. The only choice is being
on lines or not. If you disconnect, you can be
on lines.
Mr.
Garside would have you believe that this is all
self-determined. Let's see how it is actually
applied. I will read from three actual Church
Ethics Orders all issued within the past 12 months.
I've
deleted the names of those involved for obvious
reasons.
From
the first, this one issued at FOLO West US, it
says, "Any Scientologist found to be maintaining
a line with, offering support to, or in any way
granting credence to ...., and his or her motivations,
is also subject to declare and denial of any further
service."
On
another Findings and Recommendations from a Comm
Ev, it says "...that this person be declared
a Suppressive Person, her only terminal being
the International Justice Chief".
And
on a third, this one from Flag, it says, "All
Scientologists and In-Ethics individuals everywhere
are warned not to associate with these suppressive
individuals or become involved in any treatments
with them, as such would be personally dangerous
to your progress in Scientology. Any such association
would also make any person connected a Potential
Trouble Source per the policies governing PTSness.
These individuals' only terminal is the International
Justice Chief."
So
does the Church practice a policy of involuntary
disconnection?
There
is no question about it.
Just
as an aside, the very same policy letter, Suppressive
Acts, restates FAIR GAME. On page 10 it says,
"Also, until a Suppressive Person or group
is absolved, no Committee of Evidence may be called
on any Scientologist or person for any offenses
of ANY KIND against the Suppressive Person, except
for offenses which violate the laws of the land."
Is
that Fair Game? You bet it is. And I have seen
it applied to myself and others recently. All
claims that "Fair Game was Canceled"
are just more evidence of this lack of credibility.
Forgery
of Documents.
According
to the RTC, LRH donated his trademarks to the
RTC on two documents called Assignment Agreements.
Real questions exist regarding these Assignment
Agreements. They have been examined by two professional
Questioned Document Examiners, with proven credentials
and long careers. These are not people with any
axes of their own to grind.
They
have been examined by John L. Swanson of Boston
MA., and Erngard Wassard of Holt Denmark. Both
have found the LRH signatures on the Agreements
highly questionable.
((In
later trials, the credentials of John L. Swanson
were thrown into doubt as his training was not
as extensive as originally thought.))
Ms.
Wassard, after examining the two Assignment Agreements,
states,
"The
doubtful signatures show so much similarity in
the writing movement and shape of the letters,
in the breaking off of lines, the tilt, and not
least in the chaos of big loops in the upper zone
of the writing, that there is a probability amounting
almost to certainty that
the
two signatures have been made by the same person,
and
that that person is NOT identical with the person
L. Ron Hubbard who has signed his name on the
known samples, since the doubtful signatures show
a multitude of deviations from the authentic writing,
which are typical of forgeries."
She then lists 18 specific discrepancies between
the real and questioned signatures, and states,
"Apart
from all this, there are so many interruptions
of the writing, interruptions of the line, added
lines, irrelevant additions, omissions and failing
imitations, that the conclusion must be that there
is a probability amounting almost to certainty
that the signatures are forgeries of the signature
of L. Ron Hubbard."
She
goes on to say,
"Note:
The phrase 'A probability amounting almost to
certainty' is the strongest phrase used in cases
of this nature, also by the police. It is my personal
honest belief that the doubtful signatures are
not authentic."
And
she signs her name at the bottom.
The
Church had deleted sections of these documents
when they first submitted them to the court in
the Omaha Trademark case. When complete copies
of the documents were later obtained, it was discovered
that the Notary Public, the Official Witness to
these Questioned Signatures, was none other than
David Miscavige.
Further
examination by the Questioned Document Examiners
of the complete documents show remarkable similarities
between Mr. Miscavige's signature and the questioned
signatures of L. Ron Hubbard.
You
know the Church is very fond of putting heads
on pikes and making grand claims that it has reformed.
(('We found and busted the SP, so that isn't going
on any more...')) I would suggest to you that
such claims be viewed with the deepest skepticism.
I
say this for two reasons.
One,
the only remedy for lying is, of course, telling
the truth.
And
I believe that there has been little evidence
of that.
And
Two, the only real evidence of reform is the making
amends for damages done. I would point out that
there is NO evidence of that at all.
So
beware of the claims of reform.
The
same senior personnel are on post, and the same
policies are in force. A few minor figures have
been crucified to be sure, but I see no evidence
of reform.
By
the way, Lyman Spurlock, who is the Chief Executive
Officer of The Church of Spiritual Technology,
and a trustee of the RTC, recently said under
oath that former Scientologists who wish their
folders not be held by the Church can contact
the Church, and while present, have their folders
destroyed. I wonder if that's true.
While
the 1982 Mission Holders Conference is old news,
it was pivotal in recent Church history. Since
I have uncovered some new data about it, I thought
I would share it with you. I was very fortunate
to obtain an audio recording of the Sunday Evening
Meeting, as well as having interviewed several
people who attended.
First,
according to all accounts, those who attended
the conference were extensively flashbulbed, that
is, flash guns from cameras were fired in their
faces every 10 to 20 seconds or so, throughout
the first 4 hours of the conference. There were
three individuals actually doing this, among them
Jesse Prince who is the secretary on the Board
of Directors of the RTC.
The
atmosphere, not being allowed to leave, heavy
ethics presence, flashbulbing, etc. is all very
typical of implants. Clearly, this flashbulbing
was not for photography. Simple arithmetic would
indicate that flashing every 20 seconds or so
would lead to between 60 and 120 flashes per hour.
Since ordinary 35mm film contains 36 exposures
per reel, and no film changes were observed, something
else besides photography was going on.
MAAs
additionally patrolled the room making sure every
eye was on the speakers. If one glanced away,
even for a moment, one of these MAAs would come
right in front of you, glare directly at your
face, wait until you looked straight ahead and
then move out of your way.
Not
one person on that podium said a word to stop
this flashbulbing and intimidation. David Miscavige,
trustee of the Church of Spiritual Technology,
trustee of the RTC and trustee of Author Services,
Lyman Spurlock who is the Chief Executive Officer
of the Church of Spiritual Technology, trustee
of the RTC, Mark Yeager who is CO CMO INT, that
is Commanding Officer of the Commodore's Messenger
Org International, and Chairman of the Watchdog
Committee, Norman Starkey, who is the Chief Executive
Officer of Author Services, Guillaume Leserve,
who is the Executive Director International of
the Church of Scientology, Raymond Mithoff, the
Senior C/S International for the Church of Scientology,
Jesse Prince who is the Secretary of the RTC and
a member of its Board of Directors and Wendell
Reynolds who is the Finance Dictator.
The
highest tech and admin terminals in the Church
sat through this for 4 hours without one protest,
so they must've agreed and subscribed to this
kind of behavior. That's the only conclusion that
can be reached.
One
of the things that always puzzled me about the
Mission Holder's Conference was, why publish the
transcript?
There
is an answer to that question, but I never would
have discovered without the audio tape. The answer
is what was written up in the transcript does
not match what was said. There are hundreds of
minor alterations, deletions of 4 letter words
and so on. But little of that is significant.
What is significant is the major difference between
what the Church Attorney Larry Heller said, and
what the transcripts said.
Now
what I am going to do is, I'll alternately read
a couple of lines of the transcript of Mr. Heller's
remark and then I'll play that segment of the
tape, and you'll see what I am talking about.
Now
what I am doing right now is, I am reading from
page one of SO ED 2104 INT, which is the transcript
of the Mission Holder's meeting. I am looking
at paragraph number 4 of Mr. Heller's remarks
that begin as follows:
"All
of the Scientology/Dianetic trademarks were previously
owned by L. Ron Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard has donated
the vast majority of those to a corporation which
some of you have probably heard of, by the name
of Religious Technology Center. "
Now
I'll play the corresponding section from the tape.
((Zegel
plays actual tape...))
"All
of the Scientology/Dianetic trademarks are owned
and will be owned in perpetuity by L. Ron Hubbard.
L. Ron Hubbard has licensed those trademarks,
or the vast majority and the use of them, to a
corporation which some of you have probably heard
of, by the name of Religious Technologies Corporation."
Just
to recap briefly, what the transcript says is
that the trademarks were owned previously by L.
Ron Hubbard and donated to the Religious Technology
Center. What Mr. Heller actually said was that
the trademarks are owned in perpetuity by L. Ron
Hubbard and are licensed to the Religious Technology
Center.
Now
the use of those two terms, that Ron OWNED the
trademarks and continues to own them and licenses
them to the Religious Technology Center are consistent
throughout Mr. Heller's speech.
The
next line of the transcript reads as follows,
"In donating those trademarks, L. Ron Hubbard
imposed the duty on Religious Technology Center
(RTC) of assuring that the source of those trademarks,
the technology that those trademarks represent,
are given and disseminated to the public in the
way that he formulated those trademarks."
Now
let's listen to what Mr. Heller actually said.
"In
licensing those trademarks, L. Ron Hubbard imposed
the duty on Religious Technologies Corporation
of assuring that the source of those trademarks,
the technology that those trademarks represent
are given and disseminated to the public in the
way that he formulated those trademarks."
Mr.
Heller is clearly speaking of a licensing of trademarks
to the RTC, NOT a donation. That, coupled with
the question of the authenticity of the signatures
on the Assignment Agreements that we covered earlier,
leaves some mighty large unanswered questions.
It
is my opinion, and let us be sure that we have
labeled this clearly, THIS IS MY OPINION as to
why this was done. I believe what you have going
on here is a 'have your cake and eat it too' type
set-up. It is very clear that there is the desire
on someone's part to file lawsuits to stop other
people from using Scientology materials and trademarks.
If L. Ron Hubbard is the owner of those trademarks,
he is an indispensable person in the lawsuits.
If, on the other hand, he has donated the trademarks
to the RTC or some other organization, THAT person
or organization becomes the principal in the lawsuit
and L. Ron Hubbard is spared the inconvenience
or the discomfort of having to appear in court.
On
the other hand, if the Assignment Agreement is
genuine, LRH ends up giving up ownership of the
trademarks. Now, there was always an outpoint
to my way of thinking in LRH GIVING these trademarks
away.
A
lot of things can be said about LRH, but that
he gives away the materials of Dianetics and Scientology
is not one of them. So that act in itself was
an outpoint.
If
what Mr. Heller said is true, that these trademarks
have been LICENSED to the RTC, and I have every
reason to believe that what he spoke there was
the truth since he was very much involved in the
documents surrounding it, then LRH is being paid
royalties or other fees for the licenses and the
trademarks, and these other documents talking
about the donation have simply been created to
shield him from becoming a principal in the lawsuits
regarding the trademarks.
And
that's really all that's going on.
There
has been some question about verbal declares at
this meeting.
Here,
in David Miscavige's own words, he'll tell you
about two declares, and you will actually here
him say "Declare her!" as Cora Lee Wimbush,
having just heard that her husband Kingsley has
been declared, rises to leave.
Now
you will have to listen closely.
((Zegel
plays tape...))
David
Miscavige:
"Scientology
will go as far as it works, and when it is not
applied correctly that's a violation of trademarks.
****???????????????**** I just want to tell you
exactly how much business we mean, you know, remember
we said Dean Stokes and Kingsley Wimbush were
here. Well, they've been declared, and we are
going to file criminal charges on them. Kingsley
Wimbush and his 'de-dinging' process is OFF SOURCE
and is Squirrel and is a violation of trademarks.
And he is calling something Scientology that isn't,
and it's not going to go on any more."
Next
person who I am going to introduce to you is Warrant
Officer Lyman Spurlock. He is the Corporate Affairs
Director of the Church and he is going to brief
you on the new Corporate structure of the Church.
"Declare
her (snaps finger)."
((In
transcribing this tape, the sound level was so
bad I had to go get the printed copy of the transcript
to decipher some of the text. In doing so, I noticed
that the printed transcript has a slightly different
view than the recorded tape. Here is the relevant
section from the transcript.
David
Miscavige:
"Scientology
will go as far as it works, and when it is not
applied correctly (out-tech), that's a violation
of trademarks. This is a very serious matter.
Earlier
this evening both Kingsley Wimbush and Dan Stokes
were here. They have both now been declared, and
we are pursuing criminal charges against them.
They have both been delivering their own squirrel
tech, while calling it Scientology. Kingsley Wimbush's
"dinging process" is completely squirrel.
You won't find it in any tech, yet he has been
calling it Scientology. That's a violation of
trademark laws and he now faces some serious charges
for this crime. This sort of activity is NOT going
to go on anymore." ))
As
long as we are talking about Mission Holders,
I thought it might be a good idea to look at what
happened to two of them, because their stories
are instructive of something I feel needs exposing.
And that is the practice of the Church of Scientology
deciding to do something, taking over large missions,
or converting their cash into Church assets, those
sorts of things, and how they will manufacture
a shore story to justify those actions.
The
process is really quite consistent, and takes
place in 4 stages.
They
decide what they want. Mest, money, a stat, silence,
etc.
They try using ordinary means to get it, conversation,
asking for it, promotion and so on.
Presuming that that fails, they take severe actions,
they'll relicense all the missions with Church
in control, or they'll simply take what they want
or they'll intimidate or they'll lie or they'll
threaten etc.
What they'll do is they'll change the past or
manufacture a past in all manner of shore stories
in black PR on the person or group to make it
alright, and to discredit any objection that person
might have over what was done.
Let's watch this in action, and the most important
element of this is changing the past, as I think
you'll see.
The
first of these Mission Holders we will look into
is Kingsley Wimbush. Obviously, the eval that
Kingsley Wimbush did that led to the famous de-dinging
has been much maligned. I thought you might be
interested to hear his side of the story.
In
June of 1982, Kingsley owned 6 missions and employed
132 staff.
At
its peak, this network was taking in nearly $175,000
a week, much of which went to reserves. The staff
was well paid, a booming scene all around. Kingsley
and others who were around at the time credit
the booming scene which was going on there to
the eval and the effects that had on the staff.
During
the summer of 1982, Kingsley made the eval available
to other Mission Holders who wanted it, and reports
of rave successes in using it were far and wide,
stats up and so on. And these are verified by
my interviews with those who used it.
As
Kingsley will now, in hindsight, freely admit,
however, there were some minor out-tech points,
but those were really minor and the eval did produce
results. Nonetheless, in the first week of August
1982, Roger Barnes, who was then with SMI, Scientology
Missions International, received a telex from
International Management labeling the eval out-tech.
Mr.
Barnes contacted Kingsley who in turn contacted
every Mission Holder by letter and phone instructing
them to stop using the eval, return the tapes,
etc. He even received a commendation for doing
such a thorough and rapid job cleaning up the
scene, and he even refunded some of the money
that had been paid to him.
He
was ordered to Flag for Sec Checking and got 25
hours. During the 25 hours, he had an absolutely
enormous win, really saw what had gone wrong,
and asked to go to Ethics so that he might go
ahead and complete the cycle by doing lower conditions.
This request, by the way, was denied, but that
didn't stop him. He simply got ahold of an Ethics
book, sat down and began to apply the conditions
anyway.
Generally,
he was absolutely blown out and delighted with
the results that he'd had. He went to Div 6 there
at Flag, that is the Public Division, and got
a list of those people that Flag said had been
upset by the eval. He contacted each and every
one of those people, and there was only about
10 or 12, personally, with a resolve to handle
them.
It
was interesting to note that he never really found
any people that were upset with his eval. All
the people that were on that list were upset with
Flag, but for reasons other than the eval. He
handled them anyway, and simply continued the
cycle.
But
the Church was not satisfied. They ordered that
he take additional sec checking, and in fact,
he had nearly a hundred hours more. In hindsight,
Kingsley feels that what the Church was doing
was just digging up or attempting to dig up dirt
to use against him.
Anyway,
he continued on the sec checking at Flag. He learned
along the way that there was to be a Mission Holders
meeting in San Francisco, and requested permission
to attend. He was told he was not permitted to
attend.
But
on Sunday October the 17th at 6am, that's the
day of the meeting, a CMO messenger awoke him
and said, "You are ordered to attend the
Mission Holders meeting, you have 5 minutes before
we leave."
Kingsley
was delighted, he lept up, you know, cleaned up
as best he could, threw some clothes into a suitcase
and jumped on an airplane back to San Francisco.
He arrived at the Mission Holders meeting expectantly,
and was declared on the spot. Obviously, this
was a tremendous blow to him. And in fact, it
took him a couple of days to fully regain his
equilibrium, as I suppose it would any of us.
Nonetheless,
he caught a plane back to Flag and set up meetings
with the SMI Justice Chief, a guy named Jay Griffin.
Griffin told him, "Look, you can't stay on
as Mission Holder because you are now a declared
SP, so what I want you to do is to sign over your
missions to SMI, do your A to E, and then we will
give your missions back to you as soon as you
are undeclared." Kingsley agreed to do it.
Soon
afterwards, however, an SMI ethics order appeared
on Kingsley that said,
"He
may never be a Mission Holder again, and may never
do the upper bridge."
That
ethics order of course was signed by Jay Griffin.
Kingsley
is tremendously discouraged, his mission network,
complete, has been taken away from him, and he
returns home.
The
Church begins to spread malicious rumors about
him, saying that he has been embezzling money,
guilty of bribery, he has enough crimes to be
put in jail for four lifetimes. Miscavige, as
you heard at the Mission Holders meeting, said
that the Church was going to pursue criminal charges
against him. All that was just hot air.
Nonetheless,
in November of 1982, Kingsley got a call from
Jay Griffin to come to Los Angeles, that they'd
"sit down and discuss things and get them
straight."
Kingsley
was delighted, he drove all night from northern
California to get to Los Angeles the following
day. He arrives and checks into a motel and calls
Griffin, only to be told to report to a particular
address that Griffin gave him. So he jumps in
his car and he goes to the address and he enters
a room and he discovers within the room two private
detectives and a court stenographer and is given
the following recommendation.
"Anything
you say can be held against you."
Kingsley,
as you might imagine, freaked out a bit. He said
look, I am not going to get into this until I
talk to an attorney, and goes off and does so.
He spends a little bit of time with the attorney,
explains exactly what's occurred, the attorney
says look you have absolutely nothing to worry
about, go and talk to them all you want.
And
so he does. In fact, he goes back and he discusses
with the PI's, the Private Detectives, Private
Investigators if you will, precisely what is going
on in great detail, and all this is typed up by
the stenographer and so on, and the Private Investigators,
frankly, couldn't be less interested. The Church
had apparently told them that Kingsley was responsible
for blood highway from one end of the country
to the other, and they were very disinterested
in what they discovered from him.
Nonetheless,
shortly thereafter, a comm ev was held. Of course,
the findings and recommendations for it were never
published.
The
loss, well, from the Mission Network there was
a loss of about $400,000 in cash that went into
the Church, another $400,000 approximately in
real estate equity, and those missions have never
recovered.
Why
was this done to Kingsley? Well, we are going
to look into the story of another large mission
holder, Steve Surry, because he was TOLD why.
Steve
owned 5 US missions, Salt Lake City, Denver, 3
in the Seattle area called Bellevue, Seattle per
se, and University Way. As of October 1982, his
network had highest-ever stats of nearly $40,000
per week and the 5 missions have a net worth of
cash and liquid assets of nearly 1 million dollars.
Steve,
as did the other mission holders, attended the
1982 Mission Holders Conference, was as shocked
at its content. But he was more shocked at what
came next.
By
Wednesday, October the 20th, Bridge, a private
profit-making corporation, had called him on the
phone and told him that every single one of his
missions must have 100 copies of every Scientology
book as their book stocks.
He
was told "If you don't, the Finance Police
will be at your door."
Well,
a deal was struck. By Thursday, October the 28th,
the Commanding Officer of FOLO West US, Link Elliot
had, unbeknownst to Steve, traveled to the Salt
Lake City Mission and had begun conversion of
it into an Org.
As
a matter of fact, on Friday the 29th of October,
he called a meeting of all the Mission public
to announce it. On Sunday, October 31st, Steve
received a call from the Salt Lake Mission ED.
"Lieutenant Galloway of the International
Finance Police is here and he wants $15,000 per
day for inspections."
Steve
considered carefully his position at that point,
and he realized that either he would pay the $15,000
a day or they would simply declare him and take
the money anyway. So he paid $30,000 for 2 days
inspections to the International Finance Police.
Monday,
November the 1st was not to be a good day. To
begin the day, Steve received a call from the
Seattle area missions telling him that the University
Way Mission broke.
On
the same day, later on, the Salt Lake Mission
ED, whose conscience was really bothering him,
called Steve up to tell him about becoming an
org. Steve, as you might imagine, was shocked,
dismayed and angered.
I
asked Steve what he got for the $75,000 that he
paid to the Finance Police. After considering
his answer carefully, he made it very clear that
what the Missions got out of it was literally
nothing. What was being done to the missions at
that point was simply a gigantic reg event for
Flag, both public and staff were being ordered
and/or encouraged to go to Flag.
They
didn't inspect any books, any folders or anything.
He was additionally ordered to get 10 staff members
to Flag at a cost to the Mission network of an
additional $17,000.
On
Wednesday, November the 3rd, Steve got the answer.
This is the answer for Kingsley, and it's the
answer for him. He had a meeting with Link Elliot
again, who is the Commanding Officer of FOLO West
US, and asked him what the heck was going on.
Link said very clearly that he was under orders
from the Watchdog Committee to turn all large
Missions into Orgs, and any mission holder who
refused would be declared.
Steve
asked, "Well what exchange am I to get for
this, I have put these years of my life into building
these missions..." and the answer to the
question was nothing.
By
the end of the day, of Thanksgiving Day, November
25th 1982, beyond the $45,000 for the Seattle
area missions, beyond the $30,000 for the Salt
Lake City Mission, an additional $87,000 in fines
had been levied against the Mission network. The
total paid in 5 weeks time was $75,000 in inspections,
$25,000 in books, films and so on, $17,000 for
staff training and $87,000 in fines, for a total
of $204,000 paid to the Church of Scientology.
But
there is a Catch-22 in all of this, as well. In
December of 1982, Steve was recalled to Flag,
obviously he had 'bad attitude' by this time,
and among the things that occurred was that he
was sent to Ethics, and it was decided he would
work out of the condition of Treason, as he had
been upset with management and so forth.
And
what was his amends project to be? His amends
project was to be turning the Salt Lake City mission
into an Org.
In
January 1983, Steve returned home. He tried to
put all of the upsets behind him. He contacted
his mission ED's, look we are going to put this
network back together, we're going to get back
on our feet and go for it. But in the middle of
the month he was called by SMI, Scientology Missions
International, and told that a Committee of Evidence
was called on him, and 22 mission holders, as
well.
His
mission executives around the country were being
told that he was being Comm Ev'd, there was lots
of third party, and so forth, and so his ability
to actually control and manage those missions
was diminished considerably.
When
Steve finally did get to testify before the Comm
Ev, he discovered that they had only two reports
of dubious credibility on him.
The
reports had very little information in them, and
yet, according to the findings that were later
read to him, he was found guilty of dozens of
crimes and High Crimes.
And
yet, those findings and the recommendations that
would have gone with them, simply were not issued.
In
February of 1983, because of his deteriorating
ability to manage the missions, as a result of
the third party and the unknownness of his findings
and recommendations from the Comm Ev, Steve felt
it was best for the network and best for his own
sanity for him to resign, which he did.
On
May the 1st 1983, the findings and recommendations
of the Committee of Evidence were finally published.
It's interesting to note that Steve was NOT declared,
he was just given lower conditions.
Of
course, by that time, his career was ruined, his
mission network was torn to pieces, and he started
a new life.
A
number of people have asked me to tell my story.
I should say our story, because it involves both
myself and my wife Vivian.
And
although we've been hesitant to do so, it so well
illustrates the 4 stage approach that we mentioned
earlier, you know, decide to do something, try
the usual means, take severe actions, and then
change the past to make a justifiable shore story,
that I have decided to go ahead and do so.
Our
story begins in December 1982 when I was called
by a Flag reg and asked about doing more NOTS.
I was quite candid with him about how I felt about
Church activities, including the Mission Holders
meeting, the materials revealed in the Ron DeWolfe
trial, the Richard Stewart, you know he was the
private business owner in Los Angeles that was
so abused and so on. And he wrote me up to the
CMO, that is, the reg ((wrote me up)).
I
was called in and an attempt was made to 'handle'
me, but their promise to follow up on the cycle
and call me back and so forth was broken several
times. And as more and more activities continued
in Los Angeles, by the spring time we had contacted
Vivian's son, who is Mark Yeager, at that time
the Commanding Officer of the CMO International,
and Chairman of the Watchdog Committee.
We
asked that he come home and have a talk with us.
He said he was unable to do so because he was
leaving town and couldn't, but he would meet us
within a few weeks. In the interim, we were called
and visited by Jeff Chervel (sp?) from the RTC,
Ray Mithoff, who is the Senior C/S International
and Jesse Prince, who was a principal in the Inspector
Generals Network.
We
were told, as the three of them came in a group,
that they had flown in from Flag just to see us.
Over that weekend that they called, we had 8 plus
or minus hours of meetings with them, and told
them specifically our observations and grievances.
They were convinced that there was a third party
and we, as active field auditors, must have out-tech.
There
was some yelling, mostly by Jesse Prince, but
otherwise the meetings were cordial. What was
most surprising was their expression of complete
shock and not knowing about any of these activities
that had allegedly gone on in Los Angeles.
The
following Saturday we were visited again, this
time by Jesse Prince, Jeff Chervel and his aide
named Warren McShane. We were told that the Senior
C/S International, Ray Mithoff, had written a
program just for us, and that two 'auditors' had
been flown in especially from Flag to handle us.
We were told we would be getting some word clearing,
and sec checking, and all of this was going to
be done for free, provided that we handle other
disaffected field as exchange.
We
agreed and spent a week being sec checked up one
side and down the other. Our sec checkers, we
later learned, were both in the Finance Police.
By Saturday night, we were called to a meeting
with Ray Mithoff, Warren McShane and Jesse Prince.
During the meeting, Jesse became abusive, vulgar
and threatening, when we refused to take a Condition
of Confusion purely on his say so.
He
accused us of all manner of crimes and High Crimes,
none of which we were guilty. After some minutes
of the yelling and the threats, I stood up and
Vivian with me, and said, "That's it. We've
heard all we're going to of this, good night",
and tried to leave.
It
was then that we were assaulted. Ray grabbed Vivian
and yanked her back into the room, Jesse and Warren
grabbed my arms and held me.
Finally,
amid their yelling and cursing, we struggled free
and escaped.
There
were attempts by our auditors to patch things
up, but all they were allowed to run was "What
withhold did Ray miss on you?" or "What
withhold did Jesse miss on you?" and so forth.
Approximately
two months later, we learned that we were to be
Comm Ev'd. We had already resigned from the Church,
not so much because of our cycle ((with Ray and
gang)) but because of what we saw being done to
others. The Committee of Evidence, nonetheless,
went on. Vivian, always the more direct of the
two of us, refused to attend. I did attend, but
made it clear that it was only as a courtesy to
the members.
Besides,
we had learned previously that the findings and
recommendations for the Comm Ev, although it had
not yet taken place, had already been written
up at Int.
My
reporting that fact made them angry. That I would
even think that they would allow such a thing
to go on. But it turned out to be true, and when
the findings and recommendations were finally
published, 3 of the 4 committee members wrote
really serious knowledge reports to the Church
saying that the findings and recommendations had
been significantly altered. By the way, for anyone
that's interested in seeing them, I have copies
of those Knowledge Reports.
A
mission, as a matter of fact, was fired to Los
Angeles to handle the "Zegel Comm Ev which
was flapping". What was the Church's response
to altered findings and recommendations? "We
can't change the findings and recommendations
because that would be following the enemy line."
I guess it means more to the Church for the lies
to stand.
Coming
up a little closer to present time, I thought
we would talk about the recent Church caper in
Germany. The OT Committee, which is an association
of Free Scientologists from around the world,
was holding a convention in Munich, West Germany
and the Church fired two missions and 10 detectives
to try to disrupt that meeting.
These
missions came from COST, the Church Of Spiritual
Technology, which is the new alter-ego of the
Church of Scientology and the RTC, the Religious
Technology Center. They discovered that attending
this meeting was one Silvie Herman, a former staff
member from Munich, and what the missions attempted
to do was to collect an affidavit from some of
her former staff memeber associates, indicating
that perhaps she had misappropriated funds or
embezzled money or some such things while on staff,
so that they could present criminal charges against
her.
In
fact, they did collect such an affidavit, they
went to the German Police and the German Police
came and arrested Silvie Herman and put her in
jail. The Free Scientologists that were there
got real real busy when this occurred, gathered
up a huge amount of documentation indicating that
this was a typical kind of Church activity, that
they had submitted false affidavits and so forth
in the past, and had this material delivered to
the judge prior to the hearing.
When
the hearing for Silvie took place, the judge looked
through the materials and said that there was
considerable question in their minds regarding
this particular affidavit. As a result of that,
he released Silvie on her own recognizance, but
unknown to the Church Officials at that time,
the State Attorney, which is the next higher level
Attorney in the German legal system, had had a
meeting with the judge scheduled for just 15 minutes
after this trial was to be over.
In
fact, that meeting took place and a decision was
made that there should be a raid against the Orgs
in Munich.
The
following morning at 8 am, 100 police officers
arrived in front of the Munich Org and another
15 or 20 arrived at the local mission.
4500
kilograms of files were taken at the Org. Approximately
300 kilograms of files were taken at the nearby
Mission, a total of nearly 5 metric tons of documents.
Of
those materials, no pc folders were taken.
After
reviewing that information, and looking through
the financial records of the Church, a hearing
on the status was held and it was found that the
Church of Scientology, in fact, was not a Church
at all, but a trade or commercial activity, a
for-profit corporation in Germany.
Scientology
has lost its Church status. They now, all the
staff members, have to apply for trade licenses
to be Scientologists.
There
was another Church caper recently in Spain. John
Caban, who is one of the principles in the OT
committee, lives in Madrid, and had arranged with
Peers Gartstrom (sp?), a former CO of the Madrid
Org, to come to Spain to speak to Spanish officials
regarding alleged illegal activities of the Church
in Spain in previous years.
Melissa
Caban, John's wife, went to the airport to pick
Peers Gartstrom up, and as he was walking up the
ramp toward her, three plainclothes "officers"
took Peers away. Later, Church detectives approached
Melissa and said to her, "Your husband is
next."
Melissa
was obviously very shaken by what she had seen.
She went home, she got on the phone, she called
all the Spanish legal officials that she could
think of, the local police, the state police,
other individuals of that nature, simply trying
to find out what had happened to Peers, and none
of them knew anything about it at all.
Ultimately,
how it turned out, was that the Church had sent
private detectives to pick him up. They had identified
themselves, pretending to be law enforcement individuals,
had taken Peers away, apparently scared him to
death saying that Interpol was after him and he
was going to have to run for his life and so forth.
Peers was put back on a plane and went back to
Denmark or another one of the Scandinavian countries,
and has not been seen or heard from since.
But
what Melissa did was to go to the Spanish authorities,
identified the three Church detectives that had
impersonated police officers, they were arrested
by Spanish authorities and charged with impersonating
police officers, criminal charges.
I
thought perhaps it would be worthwhile to take
a few minutes as well and talk about Robin Scott.
For those of you that haven't heard, Robin Scott
was involved in an operation in the early part
of 1984 where individuals entered the Org in Denmark
wearing Sea Org uniforms or the like, and collected
a NOTS pack, walked away with it, and had it in
their possession.
The
Church, obviously, was very disturbed to hear
that this had happened, since that obviously would
cut into their monopoly on the NOTS technology,
or so they thought, and so an operation was planned
to 'get' Robin Scott.
Peter
Glass was the Scientologist that was chosen to
assist the Church in this activity, and what Glass
did was call Robin on the phone.
He
told Robin that he was a musician working in Denmark
making very good money, and wanted to do Solo
through advanced section 3 ((OT III)) for himself
and his wife. He wanted his advanced section V,
what the Church calls NOTS and other auditing.
He
invited Robin to join him at a rather posh resort,
where he was to be going on a vacation, and the
two of them would discuss the details, exchange
money, and so forth. On March the 13th, 1984,
Robin got on a plane flying toward this resort,
and the plane had a stopover in Copenhagen. And
while that made him a little bit nervous, he really
didn't think too much about it.
As
he got off the plane, policemen stopped him, there
were GO staff members about, hiding behind pillars,
taking photographs and carrying on, and one of
them had been present to identify him for the
law enforcement people.
It
was a very smooth operation on the part of the
Church, and in fact, you know, one of their better
operations. Robin was first taken to a holding
area in the airport, where he was questioned,
his luggage was searched, it was, in fact, determined
he was the person that the Church was talking
about. He was then taken to jail in Copenhagen.
He spoke extensively to the Danish Police, felt
that coming completely clean with them, telling
them every single detail of not only what he did,
but why, was the most important factor, and essentially
found them to be very affable and very helpful
to him, and were not hostile or mean or unpleasant
to him in any way.
At
any rate, he found that a lawyer was appointed
for him by the Danish authorities, the lawyer
turned out to be an exceptionally skilled and
really very helpful individual, who placed calls
to Robin's wife, and made sure that those kind
of communication lines stayed open, and that he
got mail and visits and all the things that one
would want given in that rather unpleasant circumstance.
During
this period of time, Robin was approached by Church
officials and offered a deal. If he would merely
return the materials that he had taken, and sign
an affidavit they had prepared, they would drop
the charges against him.
He
had largely returned the materials already, but
he was horrified when he read the affidavit that
they had prepared. What the affidavit did was
indicated that there was a large international
conspiracy of which Robin was only a part, and
that the conspirators included David Mayo in Santa
Barbara, Bent Corydon in Riverside, Lawrence West
in San Diego, California and a wide variety of
terminals in Europe.
Robin
simply refused to sign the affidavit, that information,
in fact, was not true, he states it's unequivocably
not true, and I have talked to the majority of
the other people that those affidavits were designed
to implicate, and they said they simply had no
knowledge or understanding of what was going on
at all.
This
is another instance of the Church simply attempting
to manufacture bad news about these people that
it is trying to discredit when, in fact, that
bad news, that discreditable information, does
not exist.
Robin's
trial date was set for Wednesday, April the 18th.
Five days prior to that on Friday April the 13th,
he was informed that he had a visitor. A strange
event in itself in that he had already had his
prescribed visitor that week. His lawyer, of course,
could see him as often as necessary, but he was
only permitted one visitor.
Nonetheless,
he was escorted down to the visitors area and
he found that in this small room, which was about
the size of an average auditing room, there were
10 people jammed in there. The RTC had fired a
mission to Copenhagen to try to get something
more going against Robin Scott.
In
that room was a Judge, the Judge's Bailiff, a
stenographer, an interpreter, three Church attorneys,
including Thomas Small that had been flown in
from Los Angeles, Warren McShane and a variety
of other Sea Org members in full uniform and regalia.
The
attempt here was to get an injunction served on
Robin to prevent him from distributing the materials
that he had collected from the org in Denmark.
Because, in fact, he had already returned those
materials, the Judge found in Robin's favor. That
was the end of that.
The
cost of that was inestimable.
On
Wednesday, April the 18th, came the trial date
for Robin. He went into court, the Church charged
that he had damaged them to the tune of $200,000,
because the GI at the Denmark AO had crashed by
that much apparently, charged him with theft,
and charged him with entering the premises with
the intent to obtain documents or information,
essentially an industrial espionage-type charge.
Regarding
the damages, the Church was unable to establish
in court that the criminal court was the right
place to sue for damages. The judge threw that
charge out because that, of course, is a civil
damages activity, and he was very surprised that
the Church had tried to get away with that in
criminal court.
The
second charge of theft was withdrawn by the Church,
they couldn't prove that Robin had stolen anything.
The
third charge however, of entering premises with
intent to get documents, Robin had pleaded guilty
to, and the judge looked at that, and said, "Yes,
indeed that's the case, the ordinary sentence
for that is 4 months. However, you have already
served one month, I will suspend the remaining
three months, and so you are free to go."
The
Church, of course, had very bad indicators on
that, Robin was tickled pink, and within 24 hours
was on a plane and back together with his wife
in Candacriag in the UK.
So,
we are very pleased that Robin is free, we are
sorry that any religious group exists on the face
of the Earth that hides its materials, or holds
its materials so far from the public that the
only way that one can get them is to undertake
such Herculean tasks.
Perhaps
the period of time when that is the case, is now
behind us.
Probably
a dozen times a week I am asked this question,
"How on Earth could this have happened?"
How
could the Church and the tech that I love get
so far off the rails. Hundreds of thousands spent
on private investigators for harassment, millions
and millions spent on lawyers, dozens of law suits,
the Church lying to the press and to the public,
missions closed, all manner of abuses, how on
Earth could this have happened.
It
is my conclusion that there are three closely
related factors that brought this about.
The
first of these three factors is the spill-over
of tech into admin. It is important to remember
that, to a large degree, tech was developed for
use in auditing, in that closed environment. As
the Church grew, and being an admin terminal became
a career, we discover more and more instances
of the tech being misapplied as an admin tool.
We
find admin terminals studying the tech with the
viewpoint of "How can I use this to get my
stats up?"
The
result is that there is a bending of the technology.
For example, a pc who natters in session is indicating
the presence of a missed withhold, a simple technical
matter. The auditor locates and handles the missed
withhold because, and this is important, because
the pc will directly benefit. He will feel better,
the session will proceed more smoothly, and the
pc will get more gain.
You
can see the direct benefit. This benevolent tech,
however, has been bent to mean that anyone with
any complaint has crimes against the org, and
is used as a justification for all types of acts
against the person involved.
The
paranoia and relief confronting actual outpoints
is terrifying. Anyone with a complaint is a potential
criminal, and boy is that convenient.
This
altering of the tech is squirreling, if you will.
Let's take a look at Ethics. Remember when Ethics
was the 'Reason and Contemplation of Optimum Survival'?
Boy,
have we come a long way from that to on-the-spot
declares, dirty tricks, private investigators,
a variety of illegal acts, and so on. Is this
Ethics? I think not. I see it more as arrogant
lawlessness in the name of Ethics.
We
have to deal with this Technology in the frame
for which it was developed, rather than buttering
it all over the universe.
Let's
take another simple piece of technology as an
example. What turns it on, will turn it off.
I
would suggest that if I were to talk over to you
and put an anvil on your foot, that my continuing
to put anvil's on your foot would not turn that
off. The datum, put back in context, and there's
the key factor, IN CONTEXT, means if an auditing
process produces a reactive response in the pc,
the continuation of that process will ultimately
run out that reactive response. That is demonstrably
true, and also demonstrably of benefit to the
pc. So what turns it on, will turn it off, but
not when you are dealing with anvils on the foot,
or when you are dealing with lies to the press.
You
can not eliminate dishonesty with more dishonesty.
Do you see?
And
it's a trap. We recognize the basic truth of the
technology, we have seen the successful applications,
and yet we are trapped in the misapplications
or the applications out of context. The tech MUST
be applied in the context for which it was created.
Otherwise, it can be a real trap.
The
second part of the answer to the question, "How
could this have happened?" is what I call
'The NO LOOK'.
Those
people within the Church, or out, who don't want
to look at anything but what the Church of Scientology
tells them to look at.
You've
encountered them and so have I, you know, 'No,
don't play me any tape, no, I don't want to read
that' and so on.
Why
would a person, in a subject that reveres LOOKING,
you know, look--don't think, if it's true for
you it's true, and so forth, why would, within
that philosophy, we have people who won't look?
It's troubled me for some time. In fact the answer
came just after Christmas of this past year. I
was given a sweater that was the wrong size and
I took it back to the store to exchange it.
The
clerk was not at all attentive to me. He kept
walking away and so on. Just before I started
to say something, and I wanted to say something
sharply to this person, I hesitated, 'He'll think
I have a missed withhold' I thought. Now why did
I think THAT?
I
was really puzzled, my universe sort of went 'creeeak!',
and I was determined to figure out why I had this
particular computation. And I did figure out what
had gone on, to explain...
Let
me create an example, and it's really quite simple.
Let us suppose I walk into the org and the reg
wants me to sign up for a service. I say "Are
you kidding me with these prices or what?"
Now the reg, seeing that I am upset, and of course,
the basis of my upset you must understand, most
likely, is that I want Scientology and can't get
it...
Nonetheless,
he arranges a free session for me, so at least
I am going to get SOME Scientology. I go into
the session, and this issue of prices is on my
mind. Now, of course, the auditor will check for
ARC breaks and Problems, but eventually we are
going to have to handle prices, and since I am
complaining, he's not going to have much choice
but to pull the withhold, you know?
"On
the subject of prices has a withhold been missed?"
And
so on. And we'll pick up probably chatter to friends,
and go earlier, and maybe pick up an incident
in the 5 and dime store as a kid, you know, change
the price on a toy or something to buy it when
you didn't have enough money.
Any
rate, that ultimately will F/N and there will
be a bit of charge off the case, and you'll feel
better.
Now,
a smart auditor has a broader look, and perhaps
will check the subject of money, you know, now
that'll get the meter active, for missed withholds.
In this society, a good auditor can generally
get a chain or two on money almost any time. But
we'll take these couple of chains and we'll run
'em off and we blow a bit more charge off the
case and you'll end up at the end feeling a bit
better.
But
look at the misapplication. Are the prices in
fact lower? No they're not. Is the person's income
any higher? No. Well, what are we doing then?
Well, apparently, what we are trying to do is
to run out the analytical evaluation that prices
are too high. Does it work?
Unfortunately,
sometimes the answer is yes. But perhaps not why
you think. It works because the session, which
has failed to handle the real situation, is now
a lock on the present scene, you know. A = A.
The disagreement with prices = the missed withhold
on money. And if you continue to speak out, it
means you have MORE overts, and of course, you
don't want to have more overts, and you certainly
don't want others to THINK that you have more
overts.
Let's
look at this a bit further. Look around the room
you are in right now and select any object, any
object at all. I promise you I can find a chain
of overts or withholds in your case regarding
that object.
Suppose
you chose a lamp. "Did you ever do anything
you shouldn't have done with the lights on?"
How about "Have you ever done anything you
shouldn't have done with the lights off?"
If
you picked up a piece of paper, how about "Ever
write a love note you shouldn't have written?"
How about "Did you ever read something on
paper that wasn't addressed to you?" Do you
get the idea?
You
can find a chain of overts or withholds under
ANYTHING in the bank, because A = A, that is Anything
equals Anything.
Perhaps
you committed an overt when there was a plant
in the room.
Well,
we can find that overt, although disrelated, via
the plant, because in the bank the plant equals
the overt. The fact of a chain of overts under
prices or money does not mean that the complaint
is invalid, only that there is some charge there.
A charge present does not mean that there is no
real present time situation.
But
watch the implication come forward. If you read
or hear something you shouldn't, say about the
field or Anti-Scientology and you observe it to
be true or agree, you must have withholds. That's
what the Church would say. And, of course, it's
true. Now, no one wants to have withholds or be
bad, and certainly no one generally wants their
withholds exposed. So all the Church has to do
is indicate that any time you agree with anything
that they don't like, it means you have overts
and withholds. And they do that.
All
this sec checking business centers around this
phenomenon. And the trap is that it is true, 100
percent. Anyone who agrees with the field has
withholds. Of course, so does anyone who has ever
driven a Volkswagon, so does anyone who's ever
eaten fish and chips and so does anyone who has
ever breathed.
((Ron
wrote a bulletin early on that said ALL ARC BREAKS
STEM FROM MISSED WITHHOLDS. He later suggested
that the nature of the missed withhold was more
related to the wrong or missed item in the GPM
than it was to any overts the pc had committed.
He
makes it clear though that the pc's complaints
and natter about the auditor only really indicate
a missed withhold when the auditor is doing his
best for the pc. If the auditor is not doing his
best, and in fact is trying to harm, use, or suppress
the pc, the pc will of course get upset and start
complaining and attacking and nattering about
the auditor.
So
it takes some skill to determine what's really
going on with the pc. It may very well be true
that a pc high enough on the tone scale, when
faced with blatant suppression, out-tech, or subversive
intentions on the part of the auditor, would just
turn the session around on the auditor and pull
HIS withholds! So it may still be possible that
the pc that succumbs to complaints and natter
and 1.1. attacks rather than direct handling of
incoming suppression is suffering from his own
indecisions in the past and his own, as yet, still
unpulled overts.
The
fact is though, that if you really DO pull the
withholds of the pc who is being abused by the
auditor, he WILL come up tone to suddenly turning
the tables on the auditor and putting HIM in session
to get HIS overts to stop.
When
someone does you wrong, you complain and natter
to the degree that you have done wrong too and
have it justified and restrained, and you handle
the wrong coming at you terminatedly to the degree
that your own slate is clean.
The
fact that a pc complains about an auditor means
that the auditor is doing wrong, AND the pc has
missed withholds on the subject of his own.
The
Church would have you believe that if you had
no missed withholds of your own, you would be
able to tolerate any wrong that came your way,
WHICH IS TRUE, but that don't make it RIGHT! Get
it? The Church is still wrong. The fact that people
blow and natter and complain about the Church
rather than handle its out-ethics terminatedly
merely means that the Church is committing overts
that are similar to the overts that are restrained
and withheld on the pc's own track. Thus, the
Church gets away with murder, and smugly claims
that everyone who doesn't like it has withholds.
YES,
THEY HAVE WITHHOLDS AND SO DOES THE CHURCH, WHICH
IS WHY YOUR WITHHOLDS ARE BEING RESTIMULATED!
The
very biggest problem though that I see in the
money arena with the Church is that everyone in
the Church has a massive MU on the concept of
WORTH. How much is auditing worth? How much is
Eternal Freedom worth? Is it worth a million dollars
to not go to hell forever?
Is
it worth your life? Is it worth eternal slavery
to those that freed you?
Their
concept of worth is what you are willing to trade
for the end result of the service. Surely, getting
free of this joint is worth every penny you have,
as long as the price does not ruin your Eternal
Future.
So
when you want to buy auditing you ask, "How
much is Eternal Freedom?", they say "How
much you got?" And you say, "Well I've
got this much." And they say, "Good!
It's worth ALL OF IT!"
But
this can only go on as long as there is no competition
from other purveyors of Eternal Freedom.
Say
the Church is selling auditing at $3000 per intensive.
They say, "Well it's worth that much!"
And you say, "But I don't got that much!"
And they say, "Well tough, come back when
you do, we can't sell auditing for less than its
worth."
Then
one day, Joe Squirrel comes along and offers the
same auditing services for $2000 an intensive.
He is starting competition. And the Church goes
to him and says 'But you can't do that, you are
selling it for less than it's worth!' And he says
'Worth Smorth. If I sold it for $3000 an intensive
I would be making far less money than I am selling
it for $2000 an intensive, so IT'S WORTH IT TO
ME TO SELL IT FOR LESS.'
Then
someone else comes along and starts selling the
same service for $1000 per intensive and all the
customers start coming to him, and obviously pretty
soon the Church and the other guy have to both
lower their Copyright competitive.
So
now let's say that 20 people are selling auditing,
each trying to steal market share by undercutting
the rest because it is WORTH it to them to do
so, and the price of an intensive is down around
$50 an intensive. How low can this go? Well pretty
soon, you find that people just can't charge any
less because of the baseline costs of keeping
themselves alive, and so when there are lots of
competitors, each trying their best to streamline
their operation, and give the best service for
the lowest amount, you find that pretty soon everyone
is charging just about the same price and that
price is the minimum deliverable price for that
product.
Now,
here is where the MU on worth gets cleared up.
Let's say you bought an intensive with one of
the earlier providers at $1000 an intensive, but
you never used it. So you are the proud owner
of one unused intensive and you held onto it while
prices were plummeting.
Even
though the guy who sold you the intensive for
$1000 is now charging $50 per intensive, he certainly
does not owe you your money back nor even more
intensives to make up for the amount of money
you originally paid. This is true for any commodity.
If you buy a commodity and then prices come down,
you take a capital loss.
So,
one day you decide you don't really need this
intensive that is waiting for you at that provider
and you get the idea that maybe you ought to offer
it up for sale to someone else who might want
to buy it and use it. So you go to market and
you set up a stand and you make a great big sign
that says 'One Intensive for sale, 1000 bucks.'
Someone
comes over to you and points out to you that others
are selling intensives for $50, how can you expect
to sell your intensive for $1000? So you say,
"Well that's what I paid for it, that's what
I want to get for it." A little discussion
with your potential buyer shows you that you don't
stand much chance of getting what you want, you
certainly do not DESERVE to get what you want
just because you want it, right? So you say, "But
it's WORTH $1000! It was worth it to me to pay
$1000, and it should be worth it to others to
pay $1000 for this intensive."
And
your buyer says, "Yes, no doubt if this were
the last intensive in the world, you would probably
find a buyer at $1000 very quickly, but intensives
are everywhere, and they cost $50, and frankly
you can't sell your intensive for $1000 today
because IT IS NO LONGER WORTH $1000, it is worth
only $50!"
So
finally, you understand that the WORTH of an item
is exactly and only what you can get for it on
the open market. It may be "priceless"
art from the Orient, but if nobody wants it, it's
completely worthless.
On
the other hand, if someone wants it really bad,
and they are willing to give everything they own
for it, then it's certainly worth something more.
However, if they can get it for $50 dollars down
the street, then its never worth more than that
lowest price that he can get it for down the street.
Saying, "But it's WORTH a million dollars,
buy it from me instead" is ridiculous.
So
the next time someone says, "Well the reason
that auditing is priced so high is because it
is worth a lot of money", realize that you
are talking to a criminal liar who thinks that
price is a function of worth, rather than worth
being a function of price.
Price
is actually a function of VALUE AND AVAILABILITY
through independent dealers. The more something
is valued the higher its price, until you hit
its ceiling price where no buyer can afford to
purchase it. And the more available it is, the
less its price will be until you hit its baseline
floor where no seller can afford to produce it
and bring it to market.
The
monetary WORTH of any item IS its price, and is
solely and only what you can buy or sell it for
on the free market.
Now
you understand the fanatical devotion the Church
puts towards wiping out free market competition.
It places an inflated WORTH on their products.))
The
third part of the answer to the question "How
could this have happened?" is, like it or
not, LRH and his influence. It does not take a
genius to recognize that no matter who is holding
the Senior Management positions in the Church,
the Church has behaved in an irrational and erratic
fashion over the years.
Just
by dumb luck, someone would have risen to Senior
Management who is sane, yet almost without exception
every Senior Management person has been removed
and vilified.
And
surely the actions of current management, and
their influence on the Church, indicates serious
problems there as well.
The
tech says that when there is a constant trouble
in an area, look only at those people who have
been there throughout the time of the trouble.
In this instance, unfortunately, it's Ron himself.
And yes I know that current public relations press
and so on, is that he hasn't managed the Church
since 1966, but that is simply a lie, another
in a long line of shore stories.
The
facade that LRH constructed for himself, to shield
himself from blame, or legal liabilities for wrongdoing
by the Church, is falling apart. In addition,
the PR image that has been presented of Ron is
also falling apart. The implications of all this
are pretty wide-reaching.
Ron's
image is going to be tarnished, that's just the
way that that is, and not because of enemies,
but because of actualities, lies and misrepresentations.
We
in the new Church are going to have to confront
and deal with this truth. We have already proven
our ability to do so by our handling of the scene
with the Church. Now there is going to be a scene
with Ron. This is going to be tougher, but since
we know it is a problem, let's simply go ahead
and tackle it head on.
I
have done my best in the past, on these tapes,
to collect and verify every bit of information
wherever possible. And this tape is certainly
no exception. Now this isn't necessarily going
to be easy, so fasten your seat belt.
The
first area we are going to look at is claims about
LRH's early life. And before we are too harsh,
let any of us who has never exaggerated our own
life, or our own accomplishments, cast the first
stone.
But
this information is going to be published, and
as believers in this philosophy, we are going
to have to handle it. While many many details
about LRH's past have been falsified or exaggerated,
I intend to concentrate on those that relate to
or influence the tech.
Let
me give you an example, LRH's claim that he was
raised on a cattle ranch. Records show however
that he lived mostly in small towns with relatives,
not on a ranch. This is no big deal, the person
who developed the tech could have lived either
place without affecting the quality of the work.
So who cares about that particular claim anyway.
On
the other hand, LRH claims to have extensively
traveled throughout the Far East as a young man,
including being taught by a variety of mystics
and so forth. In fact, according to records, his
travels to the East consisted of a two week trip
to China with the YMCA, and a short period on
Guam, when his father was assigned there by the
Navy. These travels are NOT extensive, and LRH's
diaries and notes from this period fail to demonstrate
any significant insights.
I
trust you see the difference between the two types
of discrepancies.
OK,
here we go.
Ron's
college career is not as illustrious as we have
been led to believe. He spent, in fact, only one
year in college, and the nuclear physics course
which is so talked about, in fact, he received
an F in.
He
never received any degree at all. The doctorate
that he claims came from Sequoia University, a
mail-order diploma mill.
Some
records indicate that Ron had a financial or ownership
interest in it.
His
military career is not as he has represented it
either. LRH saw no verified combat that we can
determine, and certainly was not a combat hero.
He was never wounded, and was neither blinded
nor crippled. He did not command a squadron of
Corvettes, nor was he returned as the first casualty
of the Easter Theatre on the Secretary of the
Navy's private plane.
There
have been claims that LRH won between 20 and 40
medals and Palms, but Naval records indicate that
he received only four campaign ribbons. He won
no Purple Heart, the automatic decoration for
those who are wounded in the line of duty.
The
shore story was that he was in Naval Intelligence,
and consequently, his records fail to show his
actual accomplishments.
((Meaning
that for security purposes his history has been
played down by those employing him in the undercover
operations of Intelligence.))
Careful
review however shows NO indication at all of an
intelligence career, and the important records,
such as being wounded and so forth, would not
have been the type of records purged from any
Intelligence Officer's file anyway.
LRH's
post-war career takes on a different character,
with his claim of being blinded and crippled deleted.
Clearly he did not cure himself of those things
by his early experiments in Dianetics. What is
clear is that after leaving the Military, Ron
was very mentally uncomfortable.
He
wrote repeatedly to the Veterans Administration
asking for financial, medical and psychiatric
assistance. During this period, also, he was involved
with Aleister Crowley, and all manner of cultic
ritual. Some of which was, if you will, unsavory.
The
next area that is important to look at is the
development of the tech. Here we have considerable
contradictions. LRH would have us believe that
he is the Sole Source of all of the worthwhile
tech, and that everything that was contributed
by others was either useless, dead-ends and so
on.
However,
in my interviews with dozens of people, many many
individuals contributed SIGNIFICANTLY to the tech,
not just in refinements, or in methods of application,
but in terms of genuine basic pieces of tech,
most still in use today.
((Thank
God, or else the whole thing probably wouldn't
work!))
For
example, the TRs were developed in Washington
D.C. by Jan and Dick Halpern, and early bulletins
apparently even included acknowledgements to them
for that creation. Later, of course, those acknowledgements
were deleted.
The
CCHs were also developed by the Halperns, with
the help of LRH, Jr. or Nibs.
The
concept of repetitive questioning was created
by Jack Horner, ((who)) according to the Church,
((is)) one of the most horrible Squirrels of all
times.
((Jack
Horner is presently listed on FLAG ED 2830RB Suppressive
Persons and Suppressive Groups List. Nibs (Ron
DeWolfe) is not listed, but he is certainly not
in good standing, and I vaguely remember from
somewhere that the Halperns had been declared,
but they are NOT on the present list.
It
should also be noted that John McMaster was the
driving force behind the original Power Processes,
now considered confidential even though they are
no longer on the Bridge. McMaster resigned from
the Church in disgust in the early '70's. He too
is NOT on the declare list.))
So,
as you can see, the tech has come from a wide
variety of Sources.
Once
again, we must put this in perspective, because
we don't want to completely negate LRH's contributions
to the tech either.
Either
extreme is incorrect. His contributions are myriad
and important. He has been a catalyst, a harvester,
and has written brilliantly about the material.
But has not created all of it, as we have been
led to believe over the years. This is simply
another example of changing the past to meet current
needs.
What
WE need to do is to rebalance our affection for
Ron. We can still hold him in high esteem for
what he really created, and stop the false admiration
of him for things he did not. That I believe will
be good for all involved.
What
IS important in this technology is not Source.
Now, I realize that's a heretical thing to say,
but what is important is not Source, but TRUTH.
We can be gracious about past misrepresentations,
we could waste our time in useless castigation,
but I suggest we simply forgive all past lies,
and spend the time and energy we might have devoted
to blame and regret to a rededication by each
of us to find the Truth.
The
relationships between LRH, the Church, and the
variety of peripheral corporations surrounding
it, have been the subject of much controversy.
I would suggest that the principle problems faced
here are the lies. The Church, its officials,
not to mention LRH himself, have had to live double
lives, not unlike the woman who is being physically
beaten by her husband at home, yet says that all
is well while speaking to the neighbors.
Living
that kind of a lie, and the Church, the Sea Org,
the Commodore's Messenger Org, the RTC, Author's
Services, and the Church of Spiritual Technology
all live that kind of lie, is a nearly impossible
and emotionally devastating task.
The
hottest subject in this area of course is money.
LRH has always claimed that his only compensation
from the Church has been book royalties, and that,
of course, is a half-truth. While he has received
book royalties, they have been enormously higher
than those paid by regular publishers.
However,
since LRH controls the publisher, Bridge and New
Era Publications, formerly PUBS and PUBS DK, he
set the royalties where he liked.
Facts.
LRH's royalties through 1981 on his book income
have been in excess of $50,000 per week. Sometimes
much more. No, that was not an error, that was
$50,000 per week.
Now,
an author is entitled to whatever royalty the
market will bear. Of course, when one controls
the publishing company, it will bear a great deal
more.
Beyond
this, LRH has billed the RRF, do you remember
the Religious Research Foundation, he's billed
the RRF $10,000,000 for the scripts, directorial
fees and consulting for the Tech Films. At least
$2,100,000 as already been paid, yet LRH maintains
control of all the copyrights for both the scripts
and the films.
Most
recently, through LRH's private company called
Author Services, he has been collecting huge sums.
According to individuals I have interviewed, between
March and October of 1982, LRH was collecting
in excess of a $1,000,000 per week. That money
came from the US, and it went to Bridge, then
across to NEP, that's in Denmark, and then by
bank wire or transfer to accounts in Luxemborg
and Lichtenstein.
The
shore story of LRH financing all the research
and so forth is just that, a shore story.
Church
critics and the IRS have known about this for
years.
Such
large sums going to an individual is called inurement,
that is the proceeds of a non-profit corporation
benefiting a private person.
Such
could cause the loss of tax-exempt status, and
apparently the Church as already lost that status.
((They just got it back. 1994))
See
how the problems begin to accumulate?
The
next area we'll look at is MCCS, Mission Corporate
Category Sortout.
It
was run by Laurel Sullivan, LRH's personal public
relations director. The mission was to take all
Church entities, the Church of Scientology, Bridge,
LRH etc etc, and sort them out by category.
Now
MCCS had a problem that it was supposed to solve.
And the problem was, LRH controls the Church and
has always controlled the Church, but he couldn't
control the Church. Now you solve that problem.
For
example, the trademarks were an issue. To prevent
Trademarks from going into the Public Domain,
one must exercise both supervision and control
over the marks. If LRH controlled the marks, he
controlled the Church. So did he then control
the Church, or have the marks gone into the Public
Domain. You can see the problem I'm sure.
As
an aside, the trademark cases, both in Omaha and
in San Diego, are brought and funded by the RTC,
just as their assertion of control, to establish
a legal presence as being in control. Now this
is a pretty expensive exercise, and I believe
there is a pretty good chance the trademarks will
be ruled to be in the Public Domain. ((No chance.))
If
LRH had been in control, of course, he would be
legally liable in some of the many lawsuits against
the case, but LRH had, of course, 'resigned in
1966'. See how the confusions and conflicts begin
to mount?
MCCS
was to create an image by paper trail, an alteration
of the past, that would demonstrate, after the
fact, that LRH was NOT in control of the Church,
when, in fact, he was. LRH's category was to be
'An Author receiving royalties'. That, of course,
is a half-truth, and in talking to the people
involved, I learned how this works.
First,
you must become indoctrinated to get this. You
must live, underline that, you must LIVE the half-truth.
You LIVE 'LRH is an Author collecting royalties'.
You do not live 'He runs the publishing company
and takes as much money as he likes.'
You
live only the half of the truth that is consistent
with the image that you are trying to create.
MCCS was then to clean up any inconsistencies
with the half-truth that was being created. And
that's all MCCS was trying to do, change the past
to make it consistent with the half-truth in the
present.
There
have been a variety of other financial transactions,
the details of which are long and dreary. They
follow a similar pattern of LRH collecting large
sums of money, while PR indicating that such was
not the case. So what IS this? What are we looking
at?
How
can LRH have contributed so much to the tech,
and yet be involved in these activities of, to
say the least, questionable morality, not to mention
questionable legality?
The
answer is found in the dictionary under the term
Schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia
comes from the Greek, schizine which means to
split, and phrenos which means mind. And the definition
has two parts.
A
form of psychosis in which the patient disassociates
himself from the environment and deteriorates
in character and personality.
The condition of having or showing markedly inconsistent
or contradictory qualities, split personality.
This is not just a psychiatric term, it can be
said of nearly anything. For example, a fancy
sports car can be said to be schizophrenic when
its a great deal of fun to drive, and yet is constantly
in need of repairs.
LRH,
by all accounts of those who were close to him,
suffers from schizophrenia. He has disassociated
himself to the point that he is in seclusion.
He can be, on the one hand, the brilliant author
of much of the tech, while on the other, a ruthless,
vicious tyrant, screaming, punishing, and intimidating
his near associates into submission. Being a vengeful,
vicious adversary to any he views as his enemies.
The
Church, especially its high officials, have had
to live this double life. They have had to live
the PR half-truths in lies, pretend everything
was OK, and yet comply with orders from him they
KNEW would cause harm and bring disrepute to the
Church.
These
Church officials, for the most part, I believe,
acted with good hearts. They wanted to see people
on the Bridge getting gains, regardless of the
sacrifices they had to make in their own personal
integrity. Those sacrifices, sad to say, were
misguided. The lies and half-truths have grown
to such a state that the Church has lost all credibility,
and if we are not careful, the tech will soon
follow.
They
missed the point, the ONLY remedy for lies is
the TRUTH, NEVER more lies.
We
haven't mentioned the Gerry Armstrong case, and
this might be a good time to do so. Gerry Armstrong
was accused by the Church of stealing thousands
of documents and invading the privacy of LRH and
Mary Sue.
Gerry
had been appointed by LRH ((as)) his biography
researcher in January of 1980 and ((he)) worked
almost two years on the post, amassing tens of
thousands of documents. He was instructed to provide
copies of those documents to Omar Garrison.
As
Gerry read the documents he was collecting, he
realized that the Church and LRH had been lying
about LRH's past, his credentials and accomplishments.
((Didn't LRH see this coming?))
When
he tried to correct those lies, he was sec checked
and threatened. He left the Sea Org, delivering
the last batch of documents to Garrison in the
process. What followed was a false SP declare,
and threats from the Church. Gerry collected from
Garrison copies of those documents he felt would
protect him.
Later,
the Church paid Garrison $240,000 NOT to write
the biography, and sued Gerry.
The
case, which took six weeks to try, was heard in
Los Angeles Superior Court by Judge Paul G. Breckenridge,
Jr. His finding was issued on June the 20th of
this year ((1984)).
Judge
Breckenridge found that Gerry was NOT guilty of
stealing Church documents, invading the privacy
of LRH and Mary Sue. He found that 'The organization
clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this
bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of
its founder, L. Ron Hubbard.'
He
found that Gerry and Jocelyn Armstrong, as well
as the other defense witnesses, were credible
and extremely persuasive. While saying of Mary
Sue, "Her credibility leaves much to be desired,
she struck the familiar pose of not seeing, hearing,
or knowing any evil, yet she was the head of the
Guardian's Office."
He
went on to say, "The Guardians Office, which
the plaintiff headed, was no respecter of anyone's
civil rights, particularly that of privacy."
Obviously, the Church has appealed.
Gerry
and Jocelyn Armstrong are interesting heros in
all of this, because they have fought a fight,
not for themselves, but for the truth. And they
have earned our respect and admiration and thanks.
I just wish their ordeal was over.
Here's
a hot bit of news just in from the U.K. The Church
had filed an injunction with the courts against
Ron Lowery and Robin Scott demanding that all
NOTS packs they had in their possession be turned
over to the court. The judge, however, has denied
the Church's request, ruling that those individuals
can keep, copy and distribute those materials
in any way they see fit. How about that!
((I
would check on the present status of this before
doing anything rash.))
Before
getting into the conclusions portion of this tape,
I would like to invite any of you who would like
a free list of New Church centers worldwide, to
send me a stamped, self-addressed business-sized
envelope to, The Clear Center, 11934 Riverside
Drive, Suite 211, North Hollywood, CA 91607 USA.
I
guess it's time to draw some conclusions about
all of this, and the first conclusions I've drawn
is that it's necessary to question everything.
Stanley Milgram did remarkable experiments in
obedience to authority among university students.
And he demonstrated an alarming willingness of
the average person to perpetrate harmful actions
on fellow human beings when they fail to question
directives of a superior.
We
have surely seen that, and all of us right now,
share a very special vulnerability. You know the
discrediting of the faith leaves the disillusioned
hungering for new ideas, and a new faith. In fact,
the end of an old fanaticism does not lead to
NO fanaticism, but merely moves fanaticism over
to a new cause.
A
quote "No Scientology" fanatic is no
less a fanatic, and is closer in belief to the
fanatic Scientologist than to their true opposite,
the tolerationist.
The
danger we face is that by bringing down the old,
we prepare the path for the new fanatics. This
is what we must steel ourselves to and guard against.
We must understand it and prevent it.
Each
of us, in our own way, is vulnerable now to a
new faith, a new Way, or a new Guru.
The
second conclusion I think we can draw from all
of this, is that we must return to the basic philosophy,
we must LOOK. We were charged in the beginning
with the responsibility to determine what was
true for ourselves, and our failure to uphold
that responsibility has left us vulnerable. Look
for yourself, study, investigate, question and
examine EVERYTHING. THAT is the real lesson to
learn from all of this.
The
third conclusion I think is not to throw the baby
out with the bath water. We need no campaign to
defile LRH, no campaign to defile the tech. We
need a calm rational evaluation and a reunion
with the society we so carelessly shoved aside.
I
am very pleased, and a little sad to announce
that this is the last of these tapes. Their objective
has been achieved, a New Church exists. I would
like to thank all of you for your help, your good
wishes and your support. My investigations, I
assure you, continue.
Perhaps
this is a bittersweet ending, but from our disillusionment
can grow a new faith in our own abilities to see
and judge the truth.
Jon
Zegel
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