The Church of Scientology is trying to dampen down another scandal from a former high-ranking member. Debbie Cook ran the church’s Flag Base in Clearwater, Florida for 17 years. A former “captain”, Cook has offered testimony and given interviews detailing alleged physical abuse by church leader David Miscavige as well as a hellish trailer known as “the hole” for bad scientologists. It has been a bad period of Scientology which recently saw a French court uphold its fraud conviction in France.
Cook testified that “I witnessed Mr. Miscavige physically punching in the face and wrestling to the ground another very senior executive at Scientology International level.” She also said that Miscavige ordered another scientologist to slap her so hard that it knocked her down.
Then there is the hole, described as a pair of double-wide trailers with guards posted at the door. She said that she and others were forced to sleep on the floor in trailer infested with ants and fed “leftovers, slop, bits of meat, soupy kind of leftovers thrown into a pot and cooked and barely edible.”
She described demeaning forms of punishment and eventually was given $50,000 in exchange for promising not to speak ill of the Church or its leaders when she and her husband left the Church.
The Church denies the statements but has not announced a libel action — a curious omission for the notoriously litigious church. Of course, a libel lawsuit would trigger discovery and a claim of truth as the ultimate defense to defamation.
Source: ABC
Lord Xenu you are exactly right!
Don’t blame Miscavige. He is only an opportunistic little thug who learned from the GrandMaster of Scam – L. Ron Hubbard himself. Scientology is rotten to the core, and is designed to suck dry any money-bearing humans in its vicinity. The corpses are everywhere. Do a google search. This story of internal abuse is nothing new.
The only way to avoid being a former high Scientology officer is to stay high.
The sad thing is, Hubbard predicted exactlly what is happening. Back in its hayday… people gained something from Dianetics and Scientology. But when he left, and “others” took over, they did exactlly what he said NOT to do.
Now we have money grubbing, back-stabbing sob’s at every turn. The people still hanging on are the ones who actually GAINED something from the teachings years ago… and can’t believe/ won’t believe that things have sunk as far as they have.
Wanna punk LRH and his teachings? There’s nothing stopping you. But it’s a damn shame things have gone so far wrong, and left what was actually GOOD… in the mud. And there is still good out there. Just harder to find these days.
That’s my 2 cents.
I was an active scientologist for 34 years, untill 2009 when all the skeletons started rolling out the closet. Today I am on my own. I believe that those who left and still maintains being scientologists are as guilty as the ones still in the organisation.
The guilt being completely disloyal to the beatifull and lovely religious philosophy Hubbard evolved.
But if he had not made a disciplined and dedicated organisation, the ideas had ended right there, just as ideas in the mainstream of cosmos.
I am not blaming anybody but the Universe.
It’s tough and heartless, and it will punish anybody trying to rise above it.
L Ron Hubbard did just that and probably promised too much, as so many philosophers before him.
But who didn’t. I for sure did towards my ex-wives.
Time will show that the ideas of Hubbard were way ahead of his time.
And everything will be okay, as always.
Mike S.
And most religions throw in the “personal profit guaranteed” angle, and some eternal life in either a boring place, or one guaranteeing 48 renewable virgins, or even your very own planet, etc.
Was Buddha the only one offering getting off the eternal wheel?
L. Ron Hubbard was an excellent SciFi writer. His “decalogy” (ten book series) entitled “Mission to Earth” was among the best such series I’ve ever read. It was written in an ironic, snarky manner, that to me indicated he was well aware of the religious fraud he became rich and famous for perpetrating. What Hubbard developed as probably a money raising tax dodge seems to have morphed into a full-blown nasty cult, with all the baggage such things develop. The ability of human beings to be scammed into believing something other will save them from their personal demons is unlimited.
I if can beat David Miscavige in a MMA bout, do I get to be the head of Scientology? If violence is how members of that cult are kept in line, then it would seem to be a possibility.
These guys are pikers compared the The Empire epitomized by Jim Jones.
Ask them no questions and they will tell you no lies.
I used to know a guy who had life by the tail, great kids a good wife, a good business and was making money hand over fist.
He got into Dianetics and started thinking that was the answer to life. I wondered how long it would take him to destruct, it was only a few years.
He lost his son, he got divorced and he lost his business. I attribute it to the false teachings of Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard who I consider one of the most evil men in human history.
If you want a philosophy for life, choose well and stay away from philosophies divorced from reality or which proclaim there are no boundaries.
Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed.
Re: Don’t know how…..
Would you please extend that to the conventional religions, you know the old time legends that we know so well?
Ah, the good ol’ days are gone forever
lol (Thanks, seamus…) and what rafflaw said… How anyone can take Scientology seriously is beyond me…
from Wikipedia:
Xenu, also spelled Xemu, was, according to the founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the “Galactic Confederacy” who, 75 million years ago, brought billions[4][5] of his people to Earth in a DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the essences of these many people remained, and that they form around people in modern times, causing them spiritual harm.[1][6]
These events are known within Scientology as “Incident II”,[7] and the traumatic memories associated with them as The Wall of Fire or the R6 implant. The narrative of Xenu is part of Scientologist teachings about extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in earthly events, collectively described as space opera by Hubbard. Hubbard detailed the story in Operating Thetan level III (OT III) in 1967, warning that the R6 “implant” (past trauma)[8] was “calculated to kill (by pneumonia, etc.) anyone who attempts to solve it”.[8][9][10]
Within the Church of Scientology, the Xenu story is part of the church’s secret “Advanced Technology”,[7] considered a sacred and esoteric teaching,[11] and normally only revealed to members who have already contributed large amounts of money.[12] The church avoids mention of Xenu in public statements and has gone to considerable effort to maintain the story’s confidentiality, including legal action on the grounds of both copyright and trade secrecy.[13] Officials of the Church of Scientology widely deny or try to hide the Xenu story.[14][15] Despite this, much material on Xenu has leaked to the public via court documents, copies of Hubbard’s notes, and the Internet.[14] In commentary on the impact of the Xenu text, academic scholars have discussed and analyzed the writings by Hubbard and their place within Scientology within the contexts of science fiction,[16] UFO religions,[17] gnosticism[18][19] and creation myth.[20]
I do like a good pun.
Stop your lies punny Earthling or I will destroy your planet. End communication.
Xenu
Talking Dog: I was ready to join, thinking that if I could become a “bishop” all my income would be tax free, but alas, your website is down. Another missed opportunity for the 99%.
Religion for Nazis 101…. Good for the truth seeker….
I have a sect called the Church of Computertology and the leader is L. Bob Hacker. We worship on the internet and dont bother with buildings or in person services. We sell virus protection programs against catholic and other religious groups trying to infect our computers or minds.
http://www.computertology.org
Wow. How do people stay in an organization like this? Oh, I forgot. It is supposed to be a religion. Yikes.