Thanks for posting this Dr. Shannon. I know exactly what you are talking about and really can confirm just about everything you said from first-hand observations myself. Good job on getting out.

I particularly enjoyed reading it because it reminded me of how strong I was in doing exactly what you did. It does take a lot of courage and being tough as nails to endure all the B.S. thrown at you when trying to get out. And it also reminded me of what I am free of and how priceless that is.

This is so true!

I can remember my first day of freedom. I got up, walked around, sat down, made a coffee, and enjoyed the silence. I knew I'd never answer to them again, knew I'd never again have to fear HCO or RTC, knew I could get a job or go to Uni or start a business. My life was my own again. It was a precious feeling.

I'm so glad you are out of that hell hole Dr Shannon.

Enjoy the rest of your life

- Itsaline

Congradulations and Welcome.

Dr. Shannon:
Thank you for your personal story.
You got out of a criminal organization.
Please read about the circunstances of the death of Quentin Hubbard LRH's son), Ron Hubbard death with Vistaril in his behind, death of Flo Barnet (David Miscavige's mother-in-law, who threatened of blowing the whistle, and was found dead with several shots, suicide? - it is hard to someone to kill herself with several shots), all the deaths at Fort Homicide, Clearwater, the death of the former owner of the Freewinds, who did not want to sell the boat to DM, and ended up dead. One week after his demise, DM bought the boat.
And the list goes on and on...
Thanks God that you are out of there!
Sunshine

Dr. Shannon,

I am glad that you and your husband made it out of the cult together. Thanks for posting and I hope to read more of your posts.

Nice indeed to see you posting on here. Kudos to you for being willing to share your story in public.

Dr. Shannon, I'm sure you've word cleared "Leaving and Leaves" (a Scientology policy that says it's "suppressive" to promote that you're leaving because of some disaffection - it also says that it's wrong to hold onto people that do not want to be there - this is mostly overlooked in the orgs when this policy is referred to). I had a similar circumstance with a family member. One thing is to openly promote mutiny - quite another thing is to talk to your spouse (or a close friend or relative) about your intentions about your future. Could you ever imagine that someone could be so brainwashed that they would not be able to tell the difference. How unbelievably evil.

How hard it is to give up the dream and illusion of Scientology after so many years. How hard it is to find out the emperor really is not wearing any clothes and the wizard is a miserable old man behind the curtain. I think it was Carl Sagan that said life itself was so wondrous that it was unnecessary to believe in fairy tales. Please remember that if you and your husband get down on yourself for wasting time and energy on the illusion that is Scientology.

Hi Dr. Shannon,

I've read your story. Thanks for sharing.

Like you, I was in the S.O. Nothing you've said is an exaggeration. If anything, you've understated how insane it was to be there.

The yelling--the intimidation--the poor treatment--the back-stabbing--the total-lack-of-helpfullness--the complete-lack-of-personal-time--the absolute heartlessness--IT'S ALL TRUE, and it was relentless. It's hard to put into words how degrading life is there.

They say, "only the tigers survive." What a crock of shit!! You have to be MENTALLY DERANGED and completely out of any other options to want to stay in that environment--if that's what a "cleared planet" is going to be like--HOLY SHIT!! They need to be stopped!!

Please continue to post and share your stories....They are important.

mb

I left in 1980, long before the abuses and out-tech reached the pitch you experienced. I thought it was bad enough at Flag then that my spouse and I decided to leave. You went through a lot worse than I did.

I stayed with the tech -- I'm in the FreeZone -- after I calmed down long enough to realize that the tech was something very different from the organization (which didn't apply it). But even that took me a few years.



An anecdote you may find interesting: In 1979, Flag had a MAA who decided that the staff weren't getting enough nourishment (though the cooks did a damned good job considering the budget was something like 70 cents per staff member per day). He had bottles of multivitamins, C, a few other things placed on every table. Staff could take vitamins or not, as they chose.

Within a few weeks, stats across Flag rose.

The MAA was sent to the RPF. The vitamins disappeared. The stats went back down.



These "six month checks" didn't exist when I was around. I've never seen the policies or tech that indicated why they should exist (and frankly I doubt that LRH had anything do with them). My gut response, without data either way, is that a "six month check" is a hell of an inval of a PC's state. Either I got my major stable win or I didn't but who the hell are you to decide? (This is far from your story, but you seem to have the right background to be able to explain it to me.)



Alas, this was the situation in the late 70s too. There has always seemed to be a tacit agreement that staff and SO are there to "sacrifice their lives" for the public. I've never understood why, but I've seen it over and over. Wasn't the point of all this to make us more capable?!

I'm glad that you and your husband were able to be there for one another. I saw too many marriages broken apart.

We held each other together, as you did. It made a huge difference, both initially and in the years that followed.

Welcome to OCMB Dr Shannon, and thank you for sharing your story, it will
indeed help others not to fall into the same trap, so keep posting whatever you can to this end, the more the better, until our combined efforts can
finally bring an end to this criminally insane organization.

Well done for seeing that $cientology is nothing of what it promises, but
only one huge pack of lies.

Thank you so much for coming forward and telling your story. I can hardly wait to hear more.


Patty P

Dr. Shannon,

Click here to see the video of Greg and Debra Barnes--2 OT 7s who got declared for pointing out that the 6 month Sec Check was completely off policy.

The way the 6 month check-up is being done violates a specific LRH reference--I forget which one, but they talk about it in the video.

Basically, DM deleted about 5 pages of a 7 page reference. When Greg and Debra spotted this they got railroaded out of $cientology!! They donated over half a million dollars and dedicated 20 years of their life--so much for "ethics protection."

mb

Dr Shannon,

I know the pull that the orgs have on public leaving, I can only imagine what those 4 days were like. During those 4 days, did they try to keep you and your husband apart? Work one against the other? Knowing how the SO works, I am amazed you two made it out in 4 days. Did they allow you to take all of your belongings?

During the 4 days, did you have doubts about the tech or did that come later?

I hope you do not mind all these questions.

I continually hope that those people in the SO who are my friends make it out too.

During the time I was public at Flag it was clear that things were pretty bad for the staff, but not the way you describe it. Things must be spiralling downhill, as we have all been assuming.

Some points you may like to consider, vis a vis your experiences:

6 month sec checks violate "Mixing Major Actions", a basic tech reference.

Sec checks in a dangerous environment are degrading.

Making a PC unsessionable is directly suppressive.

Auditing past a win is a basic error.

Violating the auditor's code, particularly confidentiality and inval and eval is suppressive and damaging to the PC.

Asserting ethics conditions is tantamount to a wrong indication and is not only out-tech but will obviously key in the NOTs case.

Several key parts of the NOTs materials were suppressed and not available to people on OT VII. As a result all OT VII's have bypassed cases.

Obviously, Flag is a suppressive environment; the entire CoS is a suppressive organization; any person auditing within it is by definition PTS; it is characteristic of SP's to give you problems; any person auditing on VII within the CoS is auditing over continuous PTPs, and thus will make no (or little) gains.

If you still consider that the tech is worth pursuing (and who can blame you for not thinking so?), there are some people around who can help you.

Roland

Thank you for such an articulate expression of your experiences.

As someone who was never in, your post provides a valuable perspective. I'm not the only one looking forward to reading more, when you feel like posting.

Best to you and your husband. It breaks my heart to read about his family.