Memorial Day: Remembering Scientology’s dead

Today is Memorial Day, and I thought this was a good time to remember and reflect on some of the deaths allegedly associated with Scientology.

• Lisa McPherson, died December 5th, 1995, age 36, severe dehydration. After a minor traffic accident, Lisa stripped off all her clothes and walked down the street naked, hoping to get attention and help. Scientologists picked her up from the hospital and locked her in a room for 17 days, applying LRH’s “Introspective Rundown.” When she was weak, unable to move and refusing to eat, Scientologists put her in the car, drove past the closest hospital (6 minutes away) and took her to a hospital 45 minutes away. She was dead on arrival. The coroner noted multiple bruises and bug bites on her body.
• John Buchanan, May 1994, suicide (jumped from building). John borrowed huge sums of money to pay for Scientology courses and training, then committed suicide to escape his debts. He believed, as LRH taught, that his spirit (Thetan) would return to Earth to pick up another body.
• Heribert Pfaff, August 28th, 1988, age 31, head trauma. Heribert had epilepsy, and in accordance with LRH and Scientology’s teachings, had stopped taking medication. While staying at Scientology’s Fort Harrison Hotel, Heribert suffered a seizure, hit his head on the nightstand, and died.
• Quentin Hubbard, November 12, 1966, age 22, suicide (presumed carbon monoxide poisoning). Hubbard’s son and heir apparent, Quentin disagreed with his father and is said to have hidden his homosexuality, in fear of his father’s disapproval. (LRH taught that homosexuality was an aberration.) Quentin’s suicide was his second attempt; after he was found unconscious in his car, LRH is alleged to have been furious, screaming “That stupid fucking kid! Look what he’s done to me!” Quentin never woke up, and died two weeks later.

Many deaths have an alleged association with Scientology; http://whyaretheydead.info has a list of the most famous ones. The Church of Scientology will argue that all religions have deaths associated with them, and that’s true — but we’re not talking about people running swords into each other because they wouldn’t accept their vision of God. No, these deaths are related to people who were attempting to follow the dangerous and unscientific methodology of LRH’s “technology”.

On this Memorial Day, I urge you to remember Scientology’s dead, and don’t lose the big picture. David Miscavige beating his staff is only one of the crimes this “religion” has committed. Scientology, as laid out by it’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, is dangerous, evil, and rotten to the core.

ML,
Caliwog

IAS – An international fraud?

Marty has posted two interesting blog entries, one entitled Abolish the IAS and the other IAS – An international fraud?

The IAS is the International Association of Scientologists, and it’s an organization that all Co$-affiliated Scientologists (as opposed to independents or freezoners) must join. It’s also the organization that harangues the crap out of Scientologists to donate more money. (Slappy needs a new pair of shoes!)

Marty points out a very interesting detail of the Church’s plea for tax-exemption. He posted a document allegedly sent to the IRS by the Church. It says:

You have called our attention to … statements to the effect that IAS membership is required in order for a parishioner to participate in religious services…There is no Church policy or directive which sets forth such a requirement, nor has there ever been such a Church policy or directive…. Neither HASI nor any other membership system in the United States has ever required membership as a condition of participating in religious services at a Scientology church.

To understand the true deceptiveness of this statement – and as you’re about to see, it’s pretty damn slick – you have to understand what is meant by services. Most people think of “religious services” as mass, communion, havdalah, stuff like that. Scientology has some trite little ceremonies, primarily to lend credence to the illusion that it’s a religion. But “services” generally indicate things that you take or pay for – auditing, OT levels, courses, and the like.

So, technically, what the Co$ told the IRS is correct. You don’t have to be an IAS member to participate in Scientology services, but you do have to be an IAS member to take Scientology services! Now, you can attend all the Scientology ceremonies you want, but unless you take Scientology services, you ain’t movin’ one baby step up the Bridge to Mental Slavery Total Freedom.

Evil little buggers, aren’t they? Marty, good on you for posting this.

Unfortunately, Marty does once again leave out L. Ron Hubbard’s role in all this. Some like to blame DM for the IAS, even though it was formed in 1984, two years before Hubbard died… sorry, dropped his body. Anyway, the IAS replaced an organization called the HASI, or Hubbard Association of Scientologists International. Hubbard started the HASI in 1954. (It was originally just the HAS, but Hubbard neglected to incorporate as a non-profit organization, and had to try again. This is the most able being on the planet, remember.) The HASI sold memberships in return for a discount on classes and services — just like the IAS. And HASI membership was required to take services — just like the IAS. The big difference? The HASI apparently wasn’t so big on donations, and membership wasn’t anywhere near as expensive. But the purpose of the HASI was the same: Charge for memberships that were required to take Scientology services. And remember, Scientology teaches that taking Scientology services is the only way to achieve spiritual freedom.

Once again, DM may have made things worse – but his basis for operation is the path laid out by LRH. VWD*, Slappy!

*VWD: Very Well Done, a high compliment in Scientologese.

ML,
Caliwog

Mike Rinder’s Open Letter To His Family

Today, Marty posted an open letter from sidekick Mike Rinder to his estranged wife and two kids, all of whom are still in the Church of Scientology. When I saw the title, my first thought was “There’s no way I can comment on this without looking like a total jerk.”

But then I read Mike’s letter – all 30+ paragraphs – and I can tell you that I have no problem commenting on it whatsoever.

I figured Mike’s letter would be an impassioned plea to get his family back. “I love you. I miss you. Let’s find a way to work this out so we can be a part of each other’s lives.” Isn’t that what you’d expect from a man who is separated from his wife and adult children by their religion?

Mike’s letter is nothing like that. All it is, is a long, rambling indictment of David Miscavige, an attempt to convinced his family – I was going to use the phrase “loved ones,” but I’m not sure that applies – that when it comes to Scientology and LRH, DM is wrong and he, Mike, is right.

This letter isn’t about the heartache of a husband separated from his family. It’s a salesman trying to turn his family against David Miscavige. Do a search and see for yourself: There are 21 references to DM and 15 references to LRH, but word “love” appears only once. In the signature.

I find this exceptionally sad, because it shows exactly what Scientology does to people: The love of family is replaced by the love of LRH. The Ol’ Fraud taught that “HE&R” – Human Emotion and Reaction – are bad things, and clearly LRH’s teachings have bleached Mike of any love or emotion he may have had.

To me, this letter is sad, sad proof that things aren’t going to change if Marty and Mike take over the Church.

If my father or spouse sent me a letter like this, I’d be heartbroken… but maybe that’s because I’m not a Scientologist.

Read the full letter here.

ML,
Caliwog

LRH: Death by presents

This weekend, in his blog entry Miscavige’s annihilation of Tom Cruise (part one), Marty quotes from an LRH lecture in which LRH says that showering someone with presents can actually prove fatal:

And if you want to just get rid of somebody…start giving them a lot of presents. [If] every 15 or 20 minutes, why, they could receive another present, they…they would either run away utterly or die in their tracks.
— LRH, “Cycles of Action” lecture from the Philadelphia Doctorate Course series

LRH goes on to say, essentially, that money doesn’t buy you happiness. Except that while the rest of us can say that in four words, LRH takes about four hours.

Incidentally, the gist of Marty’s blog entry is that when Tom Cruise admired David Miscagive’s Harley-Davidson – which had been custom-painted by cheap Scientology labor – David had the same guys paint two of Tom’s bikes to match. This, according to Marty, is proof that DM is out to destroy Tom Cruise. (Death by presents!) Doesn’t make sense to me, but what do I know? I’m just a wog. Hell, I’m still taking ibuprofen when I get a headache – how ass-backwards can a thetan get?

ML,
Caliwog

LRH: Spinney and bent

In a previous post entitled Ship of Fools, I said that Scientology believes that reading a word you don’t understand can make you feel dizzy.

I was wrong, and I would like to apologize. L. Ron Hubbard never said that a misunderstood word could make you feel dizzy.

According to LRH’s Basic Study Manual, dizziness is, in fact, caused by reading about something to which you don’t have physical access (i.e. trying to learn about tractors without having a tractor there to look at, although LRH says a picture of a tractor will do in a pinch). LRH refers to this as “lack of mass,” and along with dizziness, it can make you feel – and I swear I’m not making this up, LRH actually said it – “squashed, bent, sort of spinney, sort of lifeless.” And if that’s not bad enough, you may also experience boredom, anger, nausea, headaches and eye pain.

Reading a word you don’t understand has its own set of symptoms. According to LRH, a misunderstood word will make you feel “blank,” “tired,” “washed out,” or “like you are not there.” It can also make you feel worried, upset, or hysterical, and could potentially make you drop whatever course of study you are taking.

For your own personal safety, you may wish to read Barriers to Study, in which LRH outlines the full catalog of learning-related maladies.

Meanwhile, please accept my most humble apologies for squirreling* the tech, especially any of you who may have attempted to cure a dizzy spell by looking words up in a dictionary.

You should have gone to a tractor dealership.

ML,
Caliwog

* Squirreling: Scientologese for “altering”.

Scientology slave wages: Is DM really to blame?

Scientology pays its staffers criminally low wages, an abuse that many Independents are happy to blame on church leader David Miscavige. But pitiful staff pay wasn’t DM’s idea – it was L. Ron Hubbard’s. LRH talks about it – hell, he almost brags about it – in a 1970 bulletin entitled “What Your Fees* Buy”:

“A Sea Org member draws only about 4 pounds a week [about $53 in 2010 dollars] and his room and board… staff members over the world work for so little that Execs occasionally get letters from their landladies demanding orgs increase their pay level so staff members can pay their rent. Occasionally some org or franchise goes on a big kick of high pay. We very soon pull the rug out from under that.”
— LRH

Scientology continues to pay Sea Org members a pittance – estimates range from $25 to $75 per week. ($208 per week is the poverty line.) Once again, it appears that David Miscavige is running the Church of Scientology exactly the way LRH intended…abuses and all.

Read the original bulletin in PDF format here.

ML,
Caliwog

* In a 1991 update, the word “fees” was changed to “donations” throughout the document. This web page outlines all of the alterations.

Prediction: Italian dossiers to be held up as proof of DM’s surpressiveness

As reported on Xenu TV, Italian authorities have raided a Co$ org in Turin and discovered hidden files with lurid information about church enemies (as well as their members).

Now, anyone who has been following Scientology’s antics knows this is standard operating procedure, and has been for decades. LRH mandated it:

Start investigating [those who “attack” the Church] promptly for FELONIES or worse…Start feeding lurid, blood sex crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press. Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way.” — LRH, HCO PL 25 Feb 1966 ATTACKS ON SCIENTOLOGY (PDF)

My prediction: If Marty reports on this at all, he and his band of merry men will use it as evidence of how David Miscavige has perverted LRH tech and is solely responsible for turning LRH’s Church of Scientology into an evil cult.

Maybe Marty will surprise me by giving the full story. Heck, he surprised me by posting my comment asking if he would eliminate the RPF. (Go here and search for “Caliwog”). He hasn’t yet answered the question, but at least he posted it.

What do you say, Marty? How about acknowledging that what we’re seeing in Italy is a) long-time Scientology policy, b) traceable back to LRH, and c) wrong?

ML,
Caliwog

Ship of fools

Today’s post comes from Mike Rinder (hi, Mike!), former Co$ spokesman and Marty’s #2, and it outlines David Miscavige’s lavish spending of Scientologists’ money on important ecclesiastical activities like scuba diving and a private dining room on Scientology’s asbestos-laden ship of dreams, the Freewinds.

This is a great time to illustrate a point on which I agree with Marty, Mark, and their New Reformed Church of Rathbunology Scientology: The Church is chasing their parishioners down for more money, more money, more money (Scientologists refer to this as “regging,” pronounced with a J) and then misusing those funds in a style that makes Imelda Marcos and her shoe collection pale by comparison. And that just ain’t right.

In a piece entitled “What Your Fees Buy,” L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “I know that Dianetics and Scientology services should be free and I wish they were.” To which I always wanted to ask the Ol’ Fraud: So why aren’t they?

Most major religions survive on donations – but they don’t tie them to their scriptures. Walk into any synagogue or Christian church and ask for a bible. They’ll give you one. Want a Book of Mormon? Call up the Latter Day Saints. They’ll back a truck up to your door and shovel the damn things into your front hall. Too shy to ask? Check into a Motel 6, open the nightstand drawer, and there’s your Bible, courtesy of the Gideons. Everything they believe, even the weird stuff, is yours to peruse, free of charge.

Now try walking into a Church of Scientology and asking for a copy of OT3 (the one with Xenu and his volcanoes). They’ll deny it even exists. (That’s akin to asking a priest if Jesus was really born to a virgin, and having him say “Jesus? I don’t know who you’re talking about.”) Ask them for a copy of Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health. Oh, they’ll give you one — but not for free.

Why not?

Because LRH, financial genius that he was, came up with the concept of exchange. Nothing is free; everything must be paid for. Even if the exchange isn’t fair, it must exist. (That’s why Sea Org members are paid a pittance, rather than not paid at all.) It was a brilliant idea that allowed LRH to condition his followers to either pay or work for Scientology services. Planting that little bug in his followers’ ears made LRH a very rich man.

Of course, the subject of exchange is conveniently forgotten when it comes to taxes. The Church of Scientology uses all the same public services that taxpaying Americans use – including, as we learned in this post, Medicaid -but they don’t pay for them. I don’t know where Marty stands on that issue, because he hasn’t talked about it on his blog, which leads me to believe he’d like to leave that stone unturned. Probably a wise idea, as it sets the stage for Marty’s future Church to evade taxes, too.

Anyway, a great article, Mike. I honestly believe that when Marty takes over, the mass regging will stop. Prices will drop. The private dining room on the Freewinds will go away, and you and Marty will eat right alongside your flock. OT3 still won’t be given out free of charge; nor will Dianetics. Parishioners will still believe that psychiatry and drug companies are evil, that misunderstanding a word can cause a dizzy spell, and that the proper way to treat a person for a psychotic break is to lock them in a room and stop speaking to them.

But at least you guys won’t charge as much to do it.

Original post: Ship of fools

ML,
Caliwog

Propoganda by redefinition of words

You’re probably wondering why I haven’t commented on this post yet, and the answer is because I’ve only just now stopped laughing.

Marty cites an LRH quote in which the Ol’ Fraud suggests that his PR people adopt the Nazi and Communist technique of redefining words.

Marty then shows a Co$ flyer that, according to Marty, redefines the word “Humanitarian”. (Which isn’t quite true — since Scns believe they are saving the world, I suppose that donating money to build an Idle Org really does make one a humanitarian.) Down in the comment section, Marty’s crowd of cheerleaders* goes on to accuse DM of redefining even more words.

If I understand Marty and his fan club correctly, redefinition of words is a bad thing…and that’s what makes this post a barrel of lulz.

Because if you read the rest of this policy – the part Marty left out – LRH goes on to tell his followers that they are supposed to redefine words! Says LRH:

“Psychiatry” and “psychiatrist” are easily redefined to mean “an antisocial enemy of the people.” This takes the kill-crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions…it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards.” — LRH

So once again, Marty is lambasting David Miscavage for following LRH policy. And here I thought the whole point of the independent movement was that DM and his crew were altering LRH policy!

If I was an independent Scientologist, this post would make me pretty angry, because Marty is essentially cherry-picking bits of LRH’s tech to prove a false point – just like Church management does. (Oh, wait, Marty was Church management!) Lucky for Marty, thinking for oneself isn’t a high priority for most Scientologists. LRH conveniently taught his followers to accept a leader’s words without question. They did it for LRH, they did it for DM, and doing it for MR is simply a matter of falling into a comfortable and familiar pattern.

Hmm. Come to think of it, if I was an indie, I probably wouldn’t get angry at all.

Thanks for the laughs, Marty.

Original post: Propaganda by redefinition of words

ML,
Caliwog

*”Marty’s Crowd of Cheerleaders” is hereby redefined as “commenters whose opinions agree with Marty’s.” As we Co$ protesters are learning, comments that disagree with Marty’s POV generally don’t pass moderation.

[Marty’s] respects to Malcolm X

In today’s blog entry, Marty remembers Malcolm X, who he describes as having “had a profound effect upon me personally.”

“His autobiography chronicles obvious parallels to our struggle in his discovery that a sect leader had severely corrupted the religion he had devoted his life to defending,” says Marty.

The Independents claim that David Miscavige has altered L. Ron Hubbard’s original writings. Now, there’s no question that changes have been made. Per LRH policy, issues that have been revised must carry the date of revision. Several policies were revised after L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986. Though Scientologists believe in reincarnation, so far as I can tell, LRH has not (yet) returned from the dead. So obviously someone else made the changes.

But to say that DM’s alterations are the reason Scientology has become the evil cult that it is, well, that just ain’t true.

LRH is behind the Church’s most tyrannical abuses. Do some research and look up a punishment called overboarding. Look up the Rehabilitation Project Force. Look up disconnection. All of these have their origins in LRH policy.

To get a better feel for the Church of Scientology in the pre-DM days, read up on what the Church did to Paulette Cooper as revenge for her book The Scandal of Scientology – the famous Operation Freakout, which took place in 1976. David Miscavige was 16. He had just joined the Sea Organization. He hadn’t even started his gig as LRH’s cameraman.

David Miscavige isn’t responsible for originating those practices. Continuing them? Definitely. Making them worse? Perhaps. But originating them? Nope. That was all L. Ron Hubbard. As Scientologists would say, “LRH is the why.”

Marty obviously considers DM to be the “sect leader” who “corrupted the religion”. But the fact is that DM hasn’t significantly altered the basic teachings and practices of Scientology.

LRH set up Dianetics and Scientology to make money. I think he eventually began to believe his own bullshit – but the fact is that it’s still bullshit. We were not shoved into volcanoes and blown up by an evil galactic overlord. People do not get sick solely because they are connected to someone who treats them badly. Nor do they give up a subject of study only because they read a word they didn’t understand. Serious diseases cannot be treated by simply touching a person and saying “feel my finger.” Young children are not “little adults” that must be treated like grown-ups instead of being nurtured. And your life’s troubles are not caused by millions of invisible space spirits clinging to your body.

That’s the truth about Scientology. Toppling David Miscavige and replacing him with Marty Rathbun – or anyone else – isn’t going to change that.

ML,
Caliwog