Prisoner of the Sea Organization
The post today about"Prisoners of St. Hill" in England prompted me to
write this one.
In 1977 I was a staff member of the $cientology Celebrity Centre in
Hollywood. It was determined that I was a troublemaker based on really
nothing - my department had higher statistics than most, and we put the
central files of the organization into "present time" (meaning that all
the filing was up to date on a daily basis, which had never before been
done in a $cientology organization, at least in the southern California
area.
So I was given a choice of going to work with the $cientology slave
labor force known as the Rehabilitation Project Force, which was
concentrated at the former Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, a complex which
is now known as ASHO and AOLA on (ridiculous) L. Ron Hubbard Way south
of Hollywood, or I would be kicked out of the so-called church and
declared to be a "suppressive person." That was the standard choice
given staff members picked for slave labor in those days. I didn't have
any friends who were not $cientologists - which the organization very
carefully arranges for as many members as possible. I had alienated my
family over $cientology. I had no money. So I chose to be a slave,
slightly buying into the chance that I might actually be a messed-up
spiritual being in need of rehabilitation.
Curiously enough, a lot of executives like myself, who were high
achievers for the organization despite receiving only room and board
and a few measly dollars a week from which we had to buy our clothes
and everything else, were there on the "RPF" for the same reason I was
put there. And I watched a lot of them fall apart mentally and cry and
emote about their errors, some of which occurred in past lives. One guy
bawled at the top of his lungs at the weekly group confessional which
was the RPF equivalent of "sharing wins." He was convinced he had been
a Nazi tank commander in his past life and had run over people with a
tank and enjoyed it.
After a day of watching this, I decided that, options or not, the place
was ridiculous and this was just a cheap construction force to fix up
the buildings for free, which using the ruse of making the people think
they needed rehabilitation. It was one of L. Ron Hubbard's more evil
and greedy moves - and I saw a lot of them during my years as a staff
member. Of course, I kept denying what my eyes saw and what my logic
told me, and buying into the "great spiritual truths ahead" bullshit
propagated by Mankind's greatest enemy, the greedy vicious liar
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard.
So I told the person in charge one day that I didn't belong on the RPF
and that I wanted to leave. "Come with me," she gleefully said with a
Cheshire cat smile on her face. And she lead me to the basement of the
"complex" where the "RPF's RPF" was located.
Until they encountered it personally, no one knew it existed. It was an
even more demeaning slave labor force who cleaned out the bowels of the
old buildings. Think of coal miners or New York sewer workers in the
19th century, and that's about how most of them looked. You were
allowed to shower only once a week, to do your laundry in the shower,
and otherwise you had to do hard labor which was mostly cleaning the
filthiest of places all day long.
You were also supposed to be given an exit "security check" which
involved being grilled relentlessly with an electropsychometer to
uncover your supposed deep dark secret crimes that had led you to fall
into such a state of disgrace. The most heinous "crimes" would be
having a "List One Rock Slam" which was a jerky needle reaction on the
"E-meter" when a number of things were mentioned, like the name L. Ron
Hubbard.
Of course, at this time a woman named Paulette Ausley was in charge of
the quality of all the so-called "technology" of $cientology as the
head of the Qualifications Division worldwide under L. Ron Hubbard. She
was on the ship Apollo with Hubbard and consulted with him regularly.
Ausley did not know the difference between a "rock slam" and a "dirty
needle" (the latter of which supposedly arose at, say, a nagging
thought). How do I know this? Because her former husband John told me
later, and I verified it (without mentioning John had told me) with
Nikki Merwin, who was Mary Sue Hubbard's secretary at the time. Nikki
told me "Everyone knew Paulette had that misunderstood, so what." (A
"misunderstood" is in $cientology terms a misconstrued meaning for a
word or phrase in someone's mind.)
So let's stop for a moment here. Hubbard bought a giant building for
cash - $13 million I believe (Nikki's husband Rick was in charge of
"estates" and buying property at the time, that's what he told me it
cost). He needed it renovated. Hubbard was a cheap, greedy bastard so
here was a woman who thought a dirty needle was a rock slam, and if you
read off a list with Hubbard's name on it, active executives who were
constantly thinking of ways to keep people buying $cientology, some of
them would get what Paulette Ausley thought was a rock slam.
Which meant those people could be seen as "List One R/Sers" and need
great rehabilitation which, according to obese lazy bastard Hubbard
would include strenuous physical activity.
How convenient.
Back to my story. When I got to the RPF's RPF I learned there was a
group with even less esteem called "the turkeys." These were people who
refused to do the slave labor and said screw it. They were left with a
guard or two in a small room, to simply sit there all day doing nothing
but talking amongst each other, if that. After a few hours sitting with
the turkeys, who were either freaked out or sullen and silent, I tried
to figure out an escape route. But there were enforcers around like
Andre Tabayoyan, who was supposedly a black belt martial artist.
When I saw one of the guards browbeat a formerly respected "case
supervisor" (a person who looks over the supposed spiritual progress of
people who buy $cientology and get "auditing" or $cientology
counseling) into a psychotic rage that resulted in the person saying he
was going to get a lawyer and sue the "church" I relented about
working. Why? Because if you threatened to sue $cientology, ever, staff
or "public," you were declared a Potential Trouble Source Type C and
never ever again allowed to have $cientology "counseling." In short, a
$cientology death sentence.
For the uninformed, this is the continual control mechanism developed
by the evil Hubbard. Everything within $cientology is calculated to
convince you that no one else, ever, has developed a way to spiritual
freedom other than Hubbard. Every issue of Advance magazine at the time
(the publication of the organization where the top levels of
$cientology were done then) would have a story about some other
religion or philosophy and explain the basics of it, then at the end
have a few paragraphs about how that religion or philosophy had failed
in its mission and Mankind had been saved (hallelujah!) only due to the
persistence and benevolence of L. Ron Hubbard.
It didn't matter than getting to the supposedly top exalted states cost
hundreds of thousands of dollars and once you'd spent that and done all
the "training" and counseling available, you would be endlessly
browbeat to join Hubbard's slave labor force, the Sea Organization. To
do otherwise would be "off purpose" from Hubbard's idea of "clearing
the planet."
Which basically meant - all you Earth people's give me, Ron the Space
Emperor Xenu reincarnated, all your bucks and devotion.
Ah, but I digress.
So I left the "turkeys" and went to work on the RPF's RPF. I had worked
in a foundry at one point in my life prior to this. I had worked on a
water and sewer crew for a city. I had dug ditches. I was never so
filthy as I was cleaning out the bowels of the "complex" and we were
only allowed to shower once a week.
And when we went to shower we had to had a "buddy" along. That's how it
worked at all times - you had another person watching you and reporting
back to "superiors" if you got out of line at all.
Sound like Nazism? Gee, wonder why. What are the "case folder" written
records of each "auditing session" but the Hubbard equivalent of Nazi
dossiers? And the organization has used them like that, repeatedly.
We were allowed a few personal possessions, so I packed mine in a
pillowcase along with my clothes. When my "buddy" was taking a shower,
I found a staircase. It lead upstairs to a roof. I found a grassy area
below and jumped. It was night time - I had no idea until I got outside
- and I took off running across a parking lot and hurried down Sunset
Boulevard as pursuers yelled threats at me from the roof where they'd
pursued me.
And I would've stayed gone except for one problem. I had an expensive
Martin guitar back in my former room at the Wilcox Hotel in Hollywood
where the Celebrity Centre staff members stayed. After a few days I
called the Celebrity Centre and told Harry Kaneer, then the "Master at
Arms" or "ethics officer" (the one who had given me my ultimatum in the
company of a 6'4" "Class 8" auditor named James Fiducia) that I simply
wanted to part ways, but I wanted my guitar.
Coercion followed and I agree to meet with a woman named Diane Marple
in the lobby of the Wilcox Hotel. I explained to her that I was sick of
all the mess, that I wanted my guitar (which she had with her) and that
I planned to become a successful musician. She launched into a standard
"the Earth is doomed within a few years unless $cientology succeeds"
mantra which tapped into the reason I joined $cientology in the first
place; I thought it would help me help people.
Yvonne Jentzsch, the founder of Celebrity Centre, thoroughly believed
this mantra. Of course, she also told a staff meeting that Henry
Kissinger was a Russian KGB member, but I didn't know how crazy she was
at the time. How could I? I was exhorted by Hubbard to not read
newspapers, to not watch TV, to ignore anything from "wogs" (his
oft-used term for anyone not a $cientologist).
So there was Diane Marple and two 6'3" muscle-bound goons (one of whom
I knew) who had come along with her to forcefully take me back to the
RPF if necessary. I wanted that guitar, it had cost me a lot of money
prior to joining the Sea Org. So with her promise that she would
deliver my guitar to a former staff member friend of mine (which she
did, I later learned), I went back to the RPF.
During the time I'd been gone, I'd done some construction work with my
former staff member friend (the ONLY person I knew who would take me
in) and I had some money.
This time I did the RPF's RPF "program" which basically consisted of
writing out how awfully wrong you'd been using one of Hubbard's
bullshit "ethics formulas." I "graduated" to the RPF.
By this time, the word had leaked out of the $cientology community
about the despicable conditions the slave laborers were working under.
Non-staff $cientologists weren't happy about some of their former
favorite staff members who were suddenly "evil and in need of
rehabilitation."
And the bulk of the work on the "complex" was about done.
So Hubbard suddenly "discovered" that awful things were going on and
dispatched a "missionaire" to straighten it out and get anyone who
didn't want to be on the RPF or staff off of it and back into public
life.
Of course, every single course they'd taken while working at room and
board, a few dollars a week if that, and often eating rice and beans
for all their meals, and all the "auditing" they received would have to
be paid for at full price, which could mean hundreds of thousands of
dollars in a "freeloader debt." You see, Hubbard felt that if you
didn't uphold your Sea Org contract and work your billion years (no
kidding, that's what it read) you were a "freeloader" just there for
"free services" and you should pay through the nose.
Later, they changed that (due to public non-$cientology pressure) and
began giving people credit for time on staff -- if you did five years,
no charges applied. 20% for one year, etc.
And there I was, getting my "exit security check" by a Class 8 auditor
who had formerly run the Advanced Organization. Dang, he just couldn't
find any of those awful evil crimes Hubbard was sure was there. So he
tried to beg me into staying because he thought I was a cool guy.
"Sorry, Gary," I told him. "This scene here is bullshit, and you know
it."
Myself and a number of people were "routed off" while being treated
like evil alien space cattle. But there was a catch. We had to sign a
document that stated that if we ever revealed to ANYONE what had
occurred on the RPF, we would get a $cientology death sentence and
additionally pay a FINE to the "church" of $50,000.
What the hell, we all figured. Anything to get the hell out of that
psychotic zoo.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is just one of the many, many horror
stories of being involved in $cientology for far, far too long.
Had I not been a disillusioned, impressionable, very young baby boomer
without a good stable family, I might never have fallen and continued
to fall for the continual lies, delusions and hypnotic mantras of L.
Ron Hubbard and his eager minions.
Gee, wonder if they'll try to enforce the $50,000 fine on me now?
All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg of what I went through
with these jerks. Their problem is, I have a photographic memory and
some decent writing skills.
Forward this story, but only completely unchanged, to anyone you wish.
And tell everyone you know that $cientology is the most evil cult on
planet Earth, and that it will be finished within a couple of years. It
is a dying beast staggering to its knees, and no one will rescue from
the filth it created, in which it will choke into nothingness.
Skip Press
Skipper <skipspamless@earthlink.net>
29 Jun 2003
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