Wynot's speech to the Neo-Pagans
by Wynot
Lisa McPherson was an apparently devout Scientologist who had
attained a state of 'Clear', signifying that scientology/dianetics had freed
her of all possible mental aberrations. Lisa lived in Clearwater, Florida,
which is the site of the world headquarters of the church of scientology. She
worked for a Scientologist owned company as a bookeeper, and earned a salary
of over $100,000 per year.
Relatives and former friends said that Lisa had contacted them during
the summer and fall of 1995, and hinted that she was thinking of leaving the
church.
On November 18, 1995, Lisa was involved in a minor automobile
accident. Though physically uninjured, she removed all her clothes, and began
wandering down the street. The paramedics who had arrived on the scene
grabbed her and wrapped her in a blanket, and took her to the nearest
hospital for psychiatric observation. The parameds asked her why she was
doing this, and she answered that she wanted help. Within a few minutes after
her arrival at the hospital, several Scientologists showed up and removed
her, telling hospital officials that her religion did not allow her to be
treated by psychiatrists. Lisa apparently made no protest at her removal.
Scientology has a term for members who begin exhibiting psychotic
behaviour; they are called PTS, or Potential Trouble Sources. Following rules
for the treatment of such people laid down by founder L. Ron Hubbard, Lisa
was locked in a room in the basement of the Fort Harrison Hotel, tied to a
bed, and drugged with chloral-hydrate, a powerful hypnotic prescribed for her
by a Scientologist doctor who never actually saw her while she was alive. She
was kept watch over in shifts by members who were untrained in medical care,
and who were not allowed to speak to her. She was seen a couple times by a
doctor whose license to practice had been revoked by the state of Arizona for
mis-use of prescription drugs.
Logs written by the scientologists keeping watch over her show that
she asked repeatedly to be let go, and refused food or water. They did try to
force her to drink a concoction called Cal-Mag, a milkshake like drink made
mostly of calcium and magnesium, both of which cause dehydration. After
seventeen days, it became obvious to her keepers that she was sick to the
point of death. She was placed in the back of a church van, and driven to a
hospital twenty-five miles away, although there were four hospitals closer,
where a scientologist Doctor declared her "Dead on arrival" on December 5,
1995. Her weight at the time of her death was 117 pounds; the paramedics who
had helped her after the accident only 17 days before had reported her as a
being a healthy 170. An autopsy was performed, and the attending Doctor
stated that Lisa died of an embolism caused by dehydration and excessive bed
rest.
Scientology works like a lot of cults. The basic premise holds a promise of
certainty, of a belief system that is supposedly 'scientifically proven',with
a further promise of mystical powers.
Originally, Hubbard called it Dianetics. He claimed that all mental
and physical problems were caused by engrams, repressed memories from
childhood and the womb, of painful events and misunderstood words and
sentences. Through a process he called 'auditing', which was basically
formalized freudian analysis, a person would be encouraged to remember all
sorts of horrible things from the past; whether these memories were true or
not was not terribly important. A prime tenet of scientology is "what is true
is what's true for you". Hubbard claimed that by bringing up these memories
in our minds, and then mentally blowing them away, all problems could be
cured, and a person would become 'Clear'.
At a large meeting in Los Angeles in 1951, Hubbard presented his
first 'Clear' to the world. Supposedly, 'Clears' have perfect memory, and are
able to communicate with anybody on any subject. Responding to questions from
the audience, the young woman was unable to remember what she had for
breakfast 2 years before, what was on page 247 of Hubbard's book Dianetics,
and finally could not remember what color tie Hubbard was wearing when he
turned his back to her. This appeared to be a devastating setback for
Hubbard's claims, but it barely slowed him down. Hubbard continued publishing
his claims for dianetics, and welcoming more and more people to auditing
sessions. Eventually, when it became obvious that Dianetics did not solve
anybody's problems (except Hubbard's financial ones), he began teaching that
it was really awful things that happened in past lives that created all
mankind's ills. And if you spend enough money for CoS auditing nowadays, you
can learn that all your problems are caused by the souls of dead aliens
trying to take over your body. In 1954(?), Hubbard incorporated dianetics as
the Church of Scientology in an attempt to gain tax-free status.
Pretty soon, Hubbard had people holding soup cans connected to
ohmeters, and used as simplified lie detectors. He called them 'electro
psychometers, eventually shortened to just e-meters. Scientologists quickly
learned how to make the needles on the meter swing however the auditor seemed
to want, using techniques familiar to anyone who has played with bio-feedback
devices. By making up past life stories, and claiming big wins and
cognizance's, one could convince one's auditor, and oneself, that the e-meter
worked, and that you were going clear. Anyone who has ever been hypnotized
knows how easy it is to just go along with the hypnotist's suggestions in
that state. It can be a really good feeling, and a person may want more of
it.
As Scientology grew larger, the money poured in. Hubbard still could
not get tax-exempt status for his church. In the late 1950s, Scientology was
investigated by the Food and Drug Administration because of their claims that
usage of the e-meter could cure diseases, like cancer and seborrhea. This led
to an investigation by the FDA, who eventually forced Hubbard to put a label
on each e-meter sold, stating that it was not a therapeutic device, and
forbade scientology from making medical claims for the device.This did not
stop the church from making such claims, but it did force them to hide them
behind a veil of pseudo scientific gobble-de-goop.
In the early 1960s, Hubbard bought an old cattle barge, renamed it
the Freewinds, and took to the sea, with a makeshift navy he called 'The Sea
Org', and a group of teenage girls whom he called his 'messengers'.
Scientologists came from all over the world to be near the 'Source' of all
knowledge. He exercised dictatorial powers, and would throw people overboard
if they did anything which displeased him. One time he forced a six year old
boy to spend two days in the anchor storage room, a dark and dirty place,
without food, for an infraction of the rules.
In the seventies, high Scientology management, led by Hubbard,
planned a massive undercover operation against the United States government,
code named Snow White. They began infiltrating offices of the FDA, the FBI,
and the IRS, getting jobs as clerical and janitorial workers. Their mission
was to steal, destroy, or alter any documents they could find which concerned
Scientology. Eventually they were caught, and seven of them , including
Hubbard's wife, served prison time. Hubbard was named an 'un-indicted co
conspirator', and spent the rest of his life in hiding.
Since its inception, Scientology has maintained policies of SP
Declares and disconnections. A disconnection is exactly what it sounds like;
members are forced to sever all relations with family or friends who
criticize the church. I learned of this first hand recently when a friend of
nearly 20 years sent me a disconnection letter the day I picketed in front of
his church. He also sent a diconnection letter to another friend who was even
closer to him than me, merely because she would not give up her friendship
with me.
The SP Declare is what happens to people who leave the Church. They
are declared Suppressive Persons, and their names distributed to all
Scientology organizations. They may not receive Scientology services, and may
be "tricked, lied to or utterly destroyed' by any Scientologist, without fear
of punishment. The church maintains a special department, the Office of
Special Affairs, or OSA, for 'handling' people who have left the church, or
who have actively spoken out against the church and its practices. Their
tactics include the use of private investigators assigned to find, or invent,
crimes with which to blackmail those the church considers enemies.
For years, the church of scientology has gotten away with such
practices because they have an enormous amount of money stockpiled, and can
intimidate individuals who do not believe they have a chance against such a
powerful organisation. Reporters who tried to investigate the church found
themselves the focus of private investigators, writers who wrote about the
church found their publishers shying away from threatened lawsuits. One
journalist, Paulette Cooper was framed for making bomb threats in an
operation the church called 'freakout'. She very nearly went to prison,
before the plot was found out and her name was cleared. She was sued by the
church 15 times, and her career nearly ruined.
How does the church of scientology get away with such behaviour?
Through the profligate use of money, the hiring of battallions of lawyers and
private investigators, and by making people afraid of them. Heber Jentsch,
the president of the Church of Scientology, has said that "We are not a turn
the other cheek religion". They have proven it over and over again. By
creating a climate of fear, they have successfully hidden the truth about
their practices and beliefs from most of the public. Exposes by Reader's
Digest and Time Magazine have rolled right off their backs. Using copyrights
and 'trade secret status' of their higher teachings have helped them keep
sucking in the uninformed.
The internet has changed that; in 1995 a newsgroup was created,
called alt.religion.scientology. A newsgroup is like a bulletin board, where
anybody can post messages, and read messages by others. It quickly became a
gathering place for former scientologists, and people who had lost friends
and family to the church. Information about other's fights against the church
became available, and people learned that they were not alone. The church, of
course, did not like this, and attempted to remove this newsgroup from the
internet. That got a lot more people mad, folks who had never cared about
Scientology one way or the other before. Secret church documents have now
spread all over the world wide web, placed on web pages in countries where
the church has no lawyers to try to stop them. Information about the church's
true nature is freely available to anyone with a computer and a modem, or
just a local library with an internet connnection.
The last few years have seen pickets agianst the church in The USA,
Canada, France, England, Ireland, Norway, Denmark and Germany. While the
church claims to be constantly expanding, its own web site shows that the
actual number of churchs and missions has shrunk precipitously. More and more
people have seen the story of Lisa McPherson on tabloid television shows, and
on CBS's Sixty Minutes. Bryant Gumble exposed how the church destroyed the
Cult Awareness Network with over fifty lawsuits. The Wall Street Journal has
told how the Church obtained an illegal secret agreement with the IRS to
finally get its long desired tax free status in the early 1990s. Italy, and
Greece have indicted Scientology organisations for fraud. In Germany,
Scientologists are not allowed to hold government employment. Heber Jentsch,
the president of the church, is wanted in Spain for jumping a 1 million
dollar bond and fleeing the country to avoid prosecution for fraud. Canada
has convicted the entire church for criminal behaviour, and watches them
carefully.
Thanks to modern communications, world-wide magazines, television,
radio, and especially the internet, the truth about the cult of Scientology
is out. They will continue to find it harder and harder to gain new recruits.
Eventually they will wither and disappear.
