WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SEA ORG?

CHAPTER THREE

Interviewer: We resume our interview on the real life and subject matter of the Sea Organization and Scientology as seen through the eyes of Nomad, a man who was a Sea Org member at all levels of its hierarchy, for over 30 years. Shall we continue?

Nomad: Yes.

Interviewer: Where do we pick up from at this juncture?

Nomad: I think that it is appropriate at this point to understand David Miscavige a bit better. It would be inconceivable to assume that everything he did was bad, and of course, that is not true. It is important to understand the man for what he is - a man. Someone who made some mistakes - serious ones at that - but no more or less than many other men and women in the history of our civilization. Scientology is following the same route that many other large religions and organizations have gone. It's unfortunate - but true.

Interviewer: How so?

Nomad: David Miscavige has fallen, unfortunately, into the same trap that many other leaders before him have been victimized by. POWER. Power mis-used and abused - and the resultant circumstances. David Miscavige - no doubt - was not always a sour apple. He worked for and under LRH himself. He ran missions, he helped in the making of films, he did other things to help expand Scientology in his day. We cannot assume that he set out on a course of knowing destruction from day one - I simply do not think that is true. But it does take a tremendous amount of courage and humility to be a leader, one that can lead men and women who sometimes can be agonizingly inane, stupid, reckless, ruthless, and incompetent - and then on the plus side - and more importantly - men and women who can accomplish fantastic results and who demonstrate a competence above and beyond the norm. A true leader has to be able to tolerate every facet of humanity, and give equal rights and equal say to all of them without showing favoritism, intolerance or abuse. He has to be able to build an empire based the skills and contribution of every member below him, and make an atmosphere that provides security and justice for the menial worker and the generals. LRH was capable of doing this - I know - I worked under him. David Miscavige has violated the fundamentals of leadership to the core.

Interviewer: I have heard the term Simon Bolivar - referring to leaders. Is that what you mean?

Nomad: Yes, in a sense. LRH refers to the qualities of leadership in a Policy Letter entitled THE RESPONSIBILITY OF LEADERS. If you want to summarize the errors that David Miscavige has made, into one summatable form, it would be a violaion of the simple principles of leadership. Dictators never get this until they are deposed or removed. They accrue power and power hungry yes-men around them, building themselves up while introducing arbitrary rules, laws and mandates to keep everyone else in line. When you see a leadership resort to dictatorial means, use of fear, threats and other means, you know that they are no longer leading men and women - they are commanding, authoritative and by the very nature of that activity - they are reducing others in stature, power and demeaning their dignity, their purpose and their dedication.

Interviewer: Forced contribution.

Nomad: Yes. We could say a lot of things about the current administration of the Church, and of course, most or all of those roads would lead back to David Miscavige, not because we want them to, but simply because they WILL and DO. David Miscavige has been running the Church with a steel glove now since the mid-80s when he took the helm. If he were running a corporation, possibly a military establishment, that mentality and approach would be workable - I doubt it - but just to give him the benefit of the doubt. But Scientology is an activity engaged in freedom. You cannot engage in a campaign to restrict people, force them into an enclave and lifestyle that cuts them off from the rest of the world, demand their contribution and compel it with threats, fear and constant invalidation, and expect to get a free people. It's a contradiction of facts and terms.

Interviewer: In an earlier interview you mentioned that you were going to tell us how David Miscavige interrupted the growth of Scientology.

Nomad: I can tell you what I observed. In 1987, just a year after Mr Hubbard passed away, I personally observed the power-push from David Miscavige. It was then that I got my first inkling of where he was going with all of this. Early in that year, I believe it was April, Messengers at the Pacific Base came flying through our offices grabbing these small little framed pictures of LRH - which had a photo of Ron on one side and a quotation from him on the other side. The quotation spoke of Pat and Annie Broeker and the fact that LRH had promoted them to Loyal Officers, a rank that no one else in the Sea Org had been given - including David Miscavige. I remember clearly jumping up as the Messenger reached onto my desk to grab my personal photo and practically shouting him down. What the hell are you doing? He proceeded to tell me that it was orders from David Miscavige to collect up all these LRH photos. When I asked why, he wouldn't answer. He just took it and marched out of the office.

Interviewer: That's rather wrong.

Nomad: Actually, it's the first time in my 13 years in Scientology that I had seen this kind of gestapo tactic - to be honest. I wrote a report about the matter, clearly referring to it as an off-policy action and of course I mentioned David Miscavige in the report. I sent that up to the proper ethics authority at CMO Int.

Interviewer: And?

Nomad: Within days, a delegation of ALL the top brass from that base, including the second highest in command in Scientology, next to David Miscavige himself, walked into my office. You have to envision sitting at your desk and having about ten of the top executives standing in your office staring you down, while the second in command proceeds to destroy your name and your reputation in front of these people. I was summarily accused of being "off Source" meaning in so many words "not with the program". When I asked this man what the hell he was talking about he wouldn't answer or give me a single fact, just continued to treat me like I was a criminal. They marched out of my office and that day, or the next, I was getting a metered ethics interview from an RTC meter checker - one that went on for two or three days and which left me spinning.
Interviewer: Did you ever find out why this happened?

Nomad: No - in fact - not even the interviewer would tell me. But by the nature of the questions she was asking me I realized that it was because of that single report I had written about David Miscavige. I realized at that point that David Miscavige had set himself up "above the law". I was not permitted to write reports about him or accuse him of anything - obviously. Considering the magnitude of the response that occurred as a backlash on me personally.

Interviewer: What happened from there?

Nomad: Life didn't get easier. It was like having a shadow hanging over me. I could feel it and sense it in the way that my seniors spoke to me or talked "at me". I wasn't trusted anymore. My name was mud. Needless to say, being who I am and not giving two nickels worth of care about what others thought, I went about my job. Fortunately I was going out to other countries quite frequently - the nature of my job at the time - and in so doing I began to observe first hand that organizations were getting smaller. Fact. I wasn't even looking for it - but because I was in contact with so many organizations and staff, it started to dawn on me that towards the 1980s Scientology orgs seemed to be contracting. So I sat down and over a period of a week or so, I did a stat analysis...

Interviewer: Which is?

Nomad: Statistical analysis ... you look at the statistics of an organization or a geographical area and determine purely based on those statistics what the trends tell you, where are the trouble spots, what should be dealt with to improve on them. Anhow, I did the math, crunched the numbers and sure enough the statistics showed a significant drop in the size and stature of our organizations, both within the SO and without.

Interviewer: So you wrote another report?

Nomad: Exactly. This time I decided to write it to ED International, using the standard report lines provided by LRH. I sent a detailed two or three page report to the Executive Director International with my observations. He wrote me back and thanked me and said that the report was good. I felt somewhat empowered by his answer, but only a matter of weeks later I was called into the office of the Commanding Officer of the CMO (Commodore's Messenger Org) and handed my RPF assignment.

Interviewer: Just like that?

Nomad: That's it. No confrontation by my accusers, no reports, no explanation. Just literally I was handed the sheet of paper assigning me to the RPF because I was "disaffected". Naturally, I couldn't get an answer from anyone as to what I had done to get that label, but it didn't take me long to realize that my report had upset the apple cart one more time.

Interviewer: What happened from there?

Nomad: Long story and not really relevant... but I was basically told that either I do the RPF or I leave the Sea Org. I had a wife and kid then. It was a form of extortion really.

Interviewer: Terrible.

Nomad: It gets worse, believe me. This is all happening at the end of the 80's. Clearly, David Miscavige's grip on the Church by this point is both authoritative and dictatorial - which is evidenced by the fact that anyone stupid enough to talk up against him is going to call down the thunder on himself. I don't really consider myself stupid, then or now, but the truth is that I was one of those guys who just wouldn't shut up. The only way they could shut me down was to completely slander my name, defame me and make it so that everyone else saw me as a black sheep, and then shove me out of sight into the RPF. I recall clearly, some months later as I sat in the basement of the building where the RPF resided, watching a videod event of a recent Scientology event put on by David Miscavige and some other international execs wherein they boasted these tremendous statistics with vaulting graphs to ooooh and ahhhh the parishioners about all this great expansion going on in Scientology. The figures were categorically false, I knew it, because I had added up similar figures and more so, I had been out to those organizations and had seen them with my own eyes. They were smaller than before. I knew at that point that Scientology was in for a bad trip and that it had fallen into the hands of someone with another agenda.

Interviewer: Amazing. Is there anything you want to say before we end this segment of today's interview?

Nomad: Yes. While people are reading this information they could be thinking to themselves that this is ancient, dated stuff or maybe that it has nothing to do with the present scene in Scientology. On both counts I have this to say. It has EVERYTHING to do with the current scene and the only reason I am telling you these details at all is so that people can understand how it came to pass. It is very easy for David Miscavige to wave a hand and have his PR machinery make nothing of everything I say here. Hitler did it and had people convinced that killing millions of Jews was acceptable. David Miscavige commands a group that is very dedicated to the purpose of expanding Scientology. If ANY significant portion of those people knew the truth of what was going on, David Miscavige would be in serious waters because there is nothing stopping an organized group of dedicated executives from marching into his office one day and informing him that the gig is up - he's out. That is ALL it would take and the scales would be tipped on Scientology - back in the right direction. So the more we talk, the more we tell our stories, each and every one of us, the more chance there is that truth will prevail and eventually the dictator will be deposed and the Scientology ship will be put back on course again.

Interviewer: Thank you Sir. Until our next interview.

Nomad: You're welcome.

Written by Outside the Box