Years after he left, Scientology still has not worn off

Mannheim, Germany
November 11, 1999
Mannheimer Morgen

Former member Jesse Prince wants to save others from a similar fate / Eavesdropping, kidnappings and other violations of the law

from our staff member Stephan Toengi

The 16 wasted years are past, but their effect lingers on. In order to save others from something similar, Jesse Prince told of his time in Scientology management. "I did not just lose my personality there," ran his statement describing that which outsiders can understand only with difficulty: how someone can stay with the organization. For two days Prince spoke with Cologne Constitutional Security, which had invited him to Germany. Now he has told his story to our newspaper.

1976 in San Francisco: 22 year old Jesse felt alone in the big city which he was seeing for the first time. The conditions were ideal for him to get hung up in Scientology. After only one month he belonged to the Sea Org, an elitist organization in fantasy uniforms. As section leader he worked 15 hours per day for which he received a mere $12 a week. When he soon wanted to leave, Scientology put him into a reeducation camp. "I felt like a prisoner there: work in black clothes, I had to sleep on a thin mattress in a basement without electricity." After 18 months, Scientology corrected its "big mistake" and paid him a paltry $2,400 in compensation.

Interrogations that lasted for hours, always the same questions, light hypnosis: "Brainwashing changed me," stated Prince in his explanation of why he stayed with Scientology. When its founder, L. Ron Hubbard (1911-86), sought out the best man to educate his propagandists in his deluded psycho-thesis of "total spiritual freedom," Prince had — as he said — "bad luck": he was chosen to develop a training program for staff. At the time, said Prince, there was a singular confrontation with the guru: "Hubbard could not conceive of a colored man like me of being so intelligent." Behind the glass was a man who had nothing in common with the PR photographs: unbrushed teeth, long unkempt hair, the same with his fingernails. Serious doubts arose in Prince. "Hubbard was obsessed with a phobia, he was afraid of people and bacteria." Because of that he always communicated from behind glass.

Or through instructions in letters or on tape, as Prince received them. After that, he produced a training video four times a year that went out to staff around the world. From 1982, he was the second in command at the "Religious Technology Center" (RTC). Prince said, "At the time, that was the most powerful and influential organization worldwide." There he was not only involved with granting licenses to Scientology organizations, but also with covert intelligence assignments and with legal proceedings for or against Scientology. In his promotion to the RTC executive council he was forced to sign an undated letter of resignation. Presumably this letter was used when he was "dismissed" in 1987.

Prince took the leap to freedom in 1992 with his wife Monika, an Offenbacher by birth. Up until that time he had "audited" Hollywood stars including Tom Cruise and his wife Nicole Kidman ("Celebrities like them are abused"); "auditing" is a spiritual confession that exposes a person's innermost thoughts. "Scientology has many faces," concludes Prince today. "I know that because I have seen that the people in the top categories do not practice its teachings." Such as inciting others to violate the law. When Prince talks about what he has behind him, his shame surfaces. He has, however, told a few things, supported by sworn testimony. Such as how he eavesdropped from a car on high-ranking members who were suspected of fraud in homes ("A dirty business"). Or how he had abducted a non-Scientologist who was charged with "espionage": "a private detective held a pistol on him while I hooked him up to a lie detector." Or how, from 1984, he destroyed evidence which could have incriminated Scientology in court. He also knows of attempts made at intimidation against people in the judicial area: "One time a judge's dog was killed and put in his garden."

"Scientology dispenses poison in small doses," Prince made an analogy. "You get sicker and sicker without noticing it." Every feeling is eradicated except the hate of all those who take a critical stand on Scientology. "Feelings are dangerous because they are not controllable." Prince is still nursing himself in that regard: "I am always ready to learn love and respect for people who show me some kind of human feeling." Seven years after his departure he still went to therapy.

Scientology has no more forgotten him than he has the organization. Using slander, it destroyed his first attempt at a career. In 1998, a death threat was imparted to him by way of a friend, in Los Angeles he looked into the barrel of a pistol. One of his two daughters has been bothered with denunciations, in front of the house of his 73 year old father march Scientologists with racial expressions. Besides that they demand he keep his mouth closed to keep his son from being affected. "Scientology is even after me here in Germany." Doesn't all that make him afraid? "I have nothing to lose that would make life worth living if I don't use it to warn others."