SCI
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It was as a "G.O." volunteer that I once sat in on a meeting in
which the murders of two defectors were planned. I understood that these
murders were justified on the basis of the Scientology credo: "the
greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics." In other words, the
ends justify the means.
I was given written policies -- fully illustrated -- on how to break
and enter into buildings. At one point, while working for Scientology in
Washington, D.C., I was required to break into the nearby headquarters
of the American Psychiatric Association and steal financial and
membership records. Which I did.
I was coached to perjure myself in a lawsuit involving a Florida
judge, and although I never did appear in court, I was fully prepared to
implicate the judge in sexual misconduct in order to serve the "church."
After just a few months of a systematic program of hypnosis and
indoctrination, I was operating entirely on a stimulus response basis. I
would have followed any command I was given. Including murder. Or
suicide.
I was not alone in this.
Another ex-Scientologist writes:
Shortly after I returned home, Jonestown occurred, and that
did it for me. I realized that if at any point LRH
(L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology) had handed me a glass of
poison and told me to drink it, I would have, with no questions asked
and no second thoughts.
-- affidavit of an ex-Scientologist
What is interesting to me is the reaction that parents have when
they find out their children are in Scientology.
Each week, I receive phone calls from parents from all over the
country. I send them information. They begin to read. They call me with
questions. And then I see the growing horror as they begin to realize
what has really happened to them.
Someone has taken their children, transformed them into unthinking
and belligerent strangers, and filled them with bizarre ideas which defy
any approach through logic or reason.
"That's because," I explain to the parent, "your child is in a
trance state. Hypnotized. He can't think."
"Don't try to reason with them," I tell the parent. "It doesn't
work."
Gradually the parents begin to understand. Their child has been
kidnapped, psychologically, by a cult. And there's nothing they can do
about it.
"But this is America," parents tell me. "This can't happen in
America."
"Why doesn't the government do something about it?"
I want to help them. I tell them I will send them information. I
give them whatever advice I can. "Write to them. See if you can get them
back home for a visit. Tell them over and over that you love them."
But I am frustrated because deep in my heart I know there is not
much I can do to help them. The one way possible to get someone out of a
cult like Scientology -- deprogramming -- is illegal. Because it is
considered kidnapping. The fact that the child has already been
kidnapped -- psychologically, physically, mentally, emotionally --
doesn't enter in. Legally.
I notice a pattern in the parents' calls. At first they call
frequently, voices frightened and hysterical. But then, as they begin to
comprehend the reality of the situation, the calls become less and less
frequent. They are paralyzed by a legal system lacking precedents in the
grey area of mind control.
I try to be optimistic. "Never give up hope," I tell them. "A
miracle can always happen. It did for my parents. Maybe it will for you.
Just don't give up."
It has taken me ten years to be able to write this book. I knew all
along that I had to write it. If you explore a strange country, and you
find it to be a very dangerous place, and you happen to be one of the
few to return from that country alive, it become a moral necessity to
warn others of the danger.
As trite as it may sound, if I can prevent even one other person,
especially a young person, from having to live through the nightmare of
Scientology -- then I will feel satisfied.
Villa Appel, in Cults of America, writes:
Human beings need order. They need a framework that can account for
and explain experience.
We are all vulnerable. And vulnerability is the exact opportunity
exploited by all the cults, especially Scientology.
The antidote is information. Education. And exposure. It is the
purpose of this book to shine a small light into the dark and secret
world of Scientology.
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