The story of a Scientologist from The Netherlands

by Viking

When I recently decided to leave the church after 17 years, I didn't have a clue about the abuses occurring at the top.

For several years I had observed that David Miscavige was incompetent as a manager (one only needs to take a look at org statistics), but I had never expected him to be the pathetic dictator he really is.

When I first heard detailed accounts from those who worked closely with him, I couldn't believe it. But, after more reading and comparing the data with my own experiences in the church, I concluded that the stories must be true.

I left the church because I realized I would not be able to continue on my Bridge there.

After all, how can one possibly move up the Bridge in a Scientology organization if one has observed that the IAS is a suppressive group?

How can someone make progress within the church if he thinks the Ideal Org strategy is beyond silly?

And what if one has the "weird" notion that orgs exist to help people live better lives, rather than thoroughly messing up their finances?

For many years I had been studying Ron's lectures, practically on a daily basis. The more I studied, the more I became convinced that things were awfully wrong in Scientology organizations.

The first time I realized that something was really going wrong within the church was with the release of the Golden Age of Tech.

I distinctly remember sitting at the event while people all around me were cheering and clapping as David Miscavige explained how wrong things had been in the past and that the real WHY had now been found! And, he assured us that, from now on, everything would be "perfect".

I was very upset! I knew it was untrue.

First, it just so happened that only a year prior I had received the Grades and NED and had attested to Clear, with tons of wins! My auditor had been an old-time OTVII with a lot of experience. (She later got cancer while being a staff auditor, which I thought was quite an alarming outpoint.)

Second, I had never had any doubt about whether I could become a competent auditor or not, prior to GAT and I had plans to start my training soon. I thought it would be a nice game. I also knew I would be very proud to achieve the status of Competent Auditor. After all, auditors were a small group of the most intelligent and competent people on the planet.

And now we were being told by DM that any old hillbilly could become an auditor. Not just an auditor, but a perfect one!

Well, beside the fact that I already knew absolutes are unobtainable in this universe, I also knew that this whole story of the "real why" was false.

Despite my limited knowledge of policy, I knew that a good solution for down-statistics could never be a bunch of new ideas and drills which completely invalidated the existing study technology developed by LRH.

What upset me most, however, is that I seemed to be the only one who saw the outpoints.

I felt very much alone.

In the years following, I had more and more questions and disagreements, particularly with the way public were being treated.

I observed that Scientologists were not doing well in life, and that almost every one I knew had heavy debts, including myself.

The org was not the "safe place" it was supposed to be. It was a place were you had to be continually on guard, because the slightest weakness could cost you money, which you didn't have anyway.

Being in the org meant you would inevitably run into someone who would pressure you to do something you didn't want to do. Someone who would pressure you to spend time doing things you didn't want to spend time on. Or someone who would pressure you to spend money for something you didn't need or want.

And most dangerous of all were those individuals who had helped you somehow with something or other in the past, because it was much more difficult to say "no" to them.

That was the typical org atmosphere.  

In the meantime my progress on the Bridge had been halted. Suddenly, out of the blue, my Clear status was cancelled and I was ordered to redo my CCRD.

I used up 4 intensives of auditing on this. A massive waste of time and money.

Then came the "Basics", again with the same DM lies about how bad things had been before their existence. He followed this up by bragging about how thoroughly-researched things were now, and how, for the first time ever, we had the "real" tech in our hands.

How eternally grateful we should be to our great leader, David Miscavige, Savior of Mankind!

Even the Dianetics book itself had apparently "never been published correctly." A whole prefix had been missing for all those years! But, thank God, this very important prefix had now been found and placed where it belonged.

Dianetics had been in circulation since 1950. I had to wonder, during all that time, had Ron never looked in his own book and said, "Hey, where's my prefix?"

And if he had found his prefix missing, wouldn't he have arranged for it to be corrected in the next reprint?

I'm certain he would have.

So, if this "improvement" was so obviously wrong, what was I supposed to think about the "improvements" in all the other books...?

Then came the Ideal Org strategy, once again announced by David Miscavige. At that point I finally became  sure that the man was utterly incompetent in his post.

The Ideal Org strategy was so obviously wrong, I don't even feel the need to comment on it here.

During my 17 years in Scientology I seldom went to events because I hated them. My final one was LRH's Birthday, last March. I hadn't been to an event for several years prior and I wanted to evaluate things "in a new unit of time."

After all, I was studying Ron's lectures regularly and I felt I had made very good progress, spiritually. Lot's of changes, lot's of new ideas, etc. So, perhaps my viewpoint on events would have changed, too.

Well, as it turns out, that was not to be the case.

The LRH Birthday event unfortunately included an Ideal Org fund-raising session, and there were less attendees there that night than I'd ever witnessed before.

On the way back home I realized that there would be no way for me to move up the Bridge within the Church.

If I had purchased a couple of intensives and had gotten some auditing, my disagreements would've soon become a "problem" and I'm sure I would've wound up in front of the Ethics Officer, who would've had the ugly task of  "handling" me.

I was never big on being "handled".

I trust myself and my own observations a little too much for that, and so buying more auditing would've been an expensive waste of time.

I finally decided to search the internet and geeeee... was I happy to find out there were so many Scientologists outside the church!!! And that all the Bridge materials were available outside the church!

I worked out a very clear Doubt Condition and sent it off to the org.

I haven't heard anything since.

Actually, I'm a bit disappointed about that. I had expected to receive reports, phone calls and handlings, finally resulting in an SP declare.

Having read so many things on the internet and having understood how many good and competent people have been declared, I would be proud to receive such a certificate!

Can anyone offer up some advice on how to go about obtaining one....?

from Viking