Thoughts on the latest Marty thing

Over on the Underground Bunker, a lot of people have been reacting to the bizarre twist in Marty and Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit with comments like:

“My first thought is that I hope Monique, Marty and their baby are safe and well. No matter what other stuff is going on, that’s the most important part of all of this.”

Yeah, I’m not so sure about that. Let’s not forget that a) this is bigger than Marty and his family, and b) Marty has plenty of blood on his hands (figuratively speaking). The Rathbuns started something, something that could have helped a lot of people and made up for a lot of damage, and now they’ve backed away. One could question whether they had a moral obligation to continue. I can see both sides.

When I saw Marty’s “Rue this day” post, my first thought was, “True colors.” His continued silence hasn’t changed my opinion. LRH wrote something about “misemotion” that was pretty accurage, and I think it applies here: When one reacts with an inappropriate emotion, it’s probably because one feels guilty.

So what happened? We just can’t know. I can’t help but think of Bob Minton backing down and saying “It was like the Terminator was after you.” I didn’t think the Co$ still had that kind of bite, but maybe it does. So maybe the Co$ has blackmailed Marty. (Tony seems to think that isn’t the case, and I suppose he has good reason, though I wish he’d share his thoughts.)

Or maybe Monique just got sick of the whole thing and said “Stop it or I leave.” (Whether Marty should have dragged Monique into this is another question.)

To me, this feels a lot like Mr. Minton’s reversal; the difference is that Bob wasn’t in, he wasn’t DM’s right-hand man, and he wasn’t the one helping to make the misery happen.

The Rathbuns started something big, and now they are stopping it, and a lot of us are going to be disappointed. But we can live with that.

More worrying are the families that are broken up, the lives wasted and destroyed, and the fortunes sunken into this terrible, dangerous, life-destroying business-masquerading-as-a-religion. The Rathbuns’ lawsuit was a great opportunity to help stop that, and now it looks as if that chance is going to disappear.

Sure, it’s great that Marty can get on with his life, and his wife and child the same. But considering the consequences, is that *really* the most important thing?

Just goes to show that not everyone is cut out to be a hero.

I hope I’m wrong and there’s some other explanation.

Seeing Marty’s temper in action, I don’t think there is.

ML,
Caliwog

P.S. Tony: You will rue this day! RUE THIS DAY, I tell you!

Caliwog still exists!

…and is enjoying recent events immensely. I’ve been wondering if Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun still think I’m an OSA agent? One of these days I’ll have to get around to asking them!

Something I never thought I’d read

From Marty Rathbun’s blog, yesterday:

“About the closest thing scientologists are going to find to that original L. Ron Hubbard package is David Miscavige.”

You’ve come a long way, Marty. It’s good to have you over on this side.

Read the entire post

ML,
Caliwog

Death by Scientology

Tony Ortega did a great job covering the death or Brad Halsey yesterday, but I am going to go one step further and share my opinion: Brad Halsey was killed by Scientology.

I’m sure you all read the story: Mr. Halsey was a long-time Scientologist who was declared an SP by the Church, but remained loyal to Hubbard and his Scientology “tech”. After a motorcycle accident (which is proof to Scientologists that he was a Potential Trouble Source, or PTS, connected to suppression; PTSs are accident-prone), Mr. Halsey was in severe pain, but like a good Scientologist, he refused to take pain medication. (Scientology teaches that drug companies are evil, part of the galactic psychiatric conspiracy. No, seriously, they believe that.) As a devoted Scientologist, it’s a safe bet that he also refused traditional medical care, choosing instead to relieve his symptoms with auditing and “touch assists.”

Eventually, the pain became too much and Mr. Halsey decided to take his own life – or, as he apparently wrote in his suicide note, leave his body. This is what Scientology teaches: If the body breaks down too badly, just get rid of it and let it die. The “thetan” (spirit) will simply pick up another one, and if one has paid enough to be an Operating Thetan, one can bypass the “implant stations” set up by the evil galactic overlord Xenu and continue on as one was.

Now, we all have our own beliefs of what happens after death. You may think Brad Halsey is in Heaven, or Hell, or Purgatory, or you may think he is nowhere. Gone, zero, blanked out, kaput. You may even think he will be re-incarnated with similar traits.

But Scientologists believe that Brad Halsey, the sentient, reasoning, identifiable being, voluntarily left his body, literally flew out of it, and (provided he did not take the option of touring the stars or taking a decade or two off to live as a horse or a dog – Hubbard mentioned that as an option) is, as we speak, occupying the body of some newborn baby somewhere — very likely with all of his knowledge, experience and personality intact, or at least just below the surface.

All he needs to do is wait it out for a few years ’till he’s old enough to pick up the E-Meter cans, then he can get back to helping to depose Miscavige and purify the Tech, or whatever it is the indies think they are going to do.

I’m straying from my point, so let me reiterate: Brad Halsey chose to avoid medication and end his own life based on the outcome promised to him by L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology.

It’s the same mindset that keeps people like Shelly Miscavige and Heber Jentzsch in Scientology’s prison camps… by their own free will.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone has the right to end their own life – but I’d rather it be a properly informed choice. Mr. Halsay made his decision based on what Hubbard told him. Had Mr. Halsey recovered from his Scientology experience, would he have made the same choices? Or would he have pursued proper medical care, and perhaps managed to live a longer life with less pain… or perhaps no pain at all?

Sadly, we will never know, because Brad Halsey was a believing Scientologist.

To Mr. Halsey’s loved ones, I offer my deepest condolences, and I hope you will understand the spirit in which this article is written.

And to L. Ron Hubbard, I say: Congratulations, you old fraudulent fuck – twenty-eight years dead and you got another one. I bet you’re laughing your flabby, Vistaril-filled ass off.

ML,
Caliwog

Ron the Tyrant

Best article on Hubbard I’ve read in a while:

Jon Atack puts it to Scientologists — did L. Ron Hubbard have the qualities of a leader?

The “data” con

Something that was pointed out in an anti-Scientology book or interview I read/heard recently (there were a couple) — L. Ron Hubbard’s use of the word “data.”

LRH uses the word “data” (correctly) to refer to pieces of information. But now we get into one of the slicker elements of Hubbard’s con: The reliance on dictionary definitions (only of words he didn’t redefine, of course) rather than accepted usage.

The word “data” implies facts — in fact, the definition in Webster’s dictionary is “facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something.” (Oddly enough, the definition of “datum,” the singular form, does not mention facts.) At the time Hubbard re-wrote his own language, the word “data” was also being associated with then-new electronic computers, which were not broadly understood and often assumed to be infallible.

So by skillfully using the word “data,” the ol’ fraud subtly implied that the information he was giving was factual.

Hubbard would say “Here is a datum concerning blah blah blah,” and give some sage-sounding piece of nonsense advice: “A stuck flow always reverses on the terminal,” or some shit like that. Scientologists would refer to this as a “datum” and regard it as factual.

In fact, what Hubbard should have said was “Here’s an idea I have about blah blah blah.” or “Here’s a theory.” I wonder how Scientologists would have reacted to his ideas then? They’d probably still buy in, but at least they wouldn’t think they were somehow flawed for not understanding it. (Of course, then the con wouldn’t work.)

It’s a subtle use of language that should remind us all what a brilliant con man L. Ron Hubbard was — and that Scientology outside of the Church is just as dangerous as Scientology inside the Church.

Here’s a bit of “data” for you: If you live your life by the advice given by L. Ron Hubbard, you’re still in a cult, and you’re still giving over your mind to a dangerous con man who only had the answers to one thing: How to line his own pockets with his victims’ money.

ML,
Caliwog

The times, are they a-changin’?

A conversation I never thought I would see take place on Marty’s blog:

http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/scientology-intelligence-manual/#comment-283741

The interesting stuff starts at CommunicatorIC’s comment.

Long read (and still growing), but worth it — lots of people making legitimate criticisms of LRH, pretty severe ones at that — entheta to be sure. And yet Marty is letting the conversation take place! I added my own comment, we’ll see if it escapes censorship.

ML,
Caliwog

Mike Rinder is full of shit

Since Marty Rathbun has been so quiet of late, I’ve been reading Mike Rinder’s blog with interest. It’s always been obvious to me that Mike is a Hubbard apologist. Like Marty, he blames the evils of the Church on David Miscavige; like Marty, he knows full well the policies that were written by LRH; unlike Marty, he is not trying to make money from auditing, so he doesn’t have the same motivation to white-wash Hubbard.

It’s too bad, really — I’ve always kind of liked Mike. Marty has been an unapologetic thug, but Mike seems to be a bit of an underdog… although he did spend years running OSA, the Church’s spying, harassment and dirty tricks division.

So, anyway, I saw a glimmer of hope when Mike’s blog entry of December Fourth (The Texas Showdown) said:

You will see in my declaration that was filed today that I cited some little known LRH references that may surprise some readers of this blog. It’s not all sweetness and light and “My Philosophy”. People no doubt will still try to justify that they are “misapplied” and “taken out of context.” I ask that you simply read them for what they are and compare what has been reported about the activities taken against the Rathbuns. This IS the “tech” that is being applied.

Holy shit! thought I. Perhaps Mike was coming around?? I read his declaration in the Monique Rathbun case. And as all of you who read it will know… I was disappointed.

Mike posted a couple of policy excerpts from 1972, but doesn’t attribute them to Hubbard. (And it’s possible they were written by Hubbard operatives; that did happen.) But, as always, the blame remains squarely on David Miscavige. Even when he mentioned Lisa McPherson, he blames Miscavige for handling “her case” and not Hubbard for instructing his followers that the cure for a psychotic break is to lock someone in a room and not talk to them.

Now, maybe I’m being too harsh, or too impatient… rewriting negative policies from the pre-Miscavige era is a baby step. Still, there’s nothing in here that states what seems so obvious to me, but is missed by so many people: Miscavige is running the Church according to Hubbard’s rules.

Mike should know better. Even after all Hubbard has done to him (from beyond the grave, no less!) he insists on protecting the Ol’ Fraud. God bless his deluded little soul, and may he some day truly escape from Scientology.

ML,
Caliwog

The Rathbun lawsuit

As you’ve probably read on Tony Ortega’s site, Marty Rathbun’s wife Monique is suing the Church of Scientology.

My issues with Marty remain unchanged. I wasn’t sure where he was going for a while there, but it’s clear from the latest posts that he still thinks Hubbard is some great spiritual guru, and I still think he’s derailing potential ex-Scientologists from their path towards the light by trying to whitewash that old shitheel L. Ron Hubbard (despite recent admissions that maybe LRH wasn’t the person he said he was — no shit, Sherlock). I still don’t like what the guy is doing.

But I stand 100% in support of the lawsuit against the Church of Scientology. Marty and the indies and I may disagree on the source of the Church’s evil ways — they try to blame them on Miscavige, we know they came from LRH — but they are still evil and they are still wrong. The harassment Marty and Monique continue to deal with is terrible, and I admire both of them for dealing with it so stoically.

Caliwog says: Go get ’em, Mosey!

ML,
Caliwog

A quote for the Hubbard apologists

“I was so excited about the function of auditing and its potential for assisting individuals to become more able and aware, that I was willing to overlook Hubbard’s faults, as they gradually became known to me. That was up to a point of course, the final point being my realization that his intentions were entirely self serving. I saw that he was in it for money and personal power, and his actual intentions were not as stated.

“The basic function of auditing is a wonderful thing, but Hubbard perverted it. The idea of counseling has been around for an awfully long time.”

— John McMaster, Clear #1, in an interview for Bent Corydon’s book L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?