I had read on Scientology’s German Vulture Minister ® site that
the
cult was holding one of its yellow tent events in Stuttgart, so I decided to
go.
My major target was to get another Scientology service, and I set a few
conditional
targets for afterward, if I was able to make it through my service. My
last Scientology service had been a “Sunday Service,” which
included
some “locational processes,” at the Vancouver Org on November 11,
2001, and which was completely dissatisfying. So I was really looking forward
to getting a brand new service. I chose July 30, the final day the predators
(aptly
of the genus gyps) would be operating in Stuttgart, before they took their
gyppery
to Karlsruhe.
It was a hot clear morning and there were plenty of people walking past the
cult’s tent, which was just a block off Königstrasse, a major
pedestrians-only
street, so with my hiking boots, backpack and NYPD baseball cap disguise I had
no trouble blending in with a multitude of potential marks. The Scientologists
had their tent open completely on one side, and half open on the end that
faced
the street, where they were luring us in with roses. There were two women
dressed
in burgundy Schneewittchen dresses, a clownchen, and several more cultists in
their standard bright yellow VM T-shirts thrusting long-stemmed yellow roses
at
every passer-by, and beckoning and directing us into the tent. I had no choice
but to take a thrust rose and allow myself to be 8-Ced inside.
As soon as I entered I was encircled by a swarm of yellow jackets, or
yellow
shirts really, to whom I right away apologized for speaking so little Deutsch.
That was no problem, however, because they immediately brought in and
introduced
yet another worker, Petra, who spoke good English, and who would be the person
to deliver my service. Petra extracted me from the circle and moved me further
inside the tent. There were about twenty Scientologists who were visibly part
of the operation, and an unknown number of OSA/RTC personnel who obviously
weren’t
decked out in VM gear and may or may not have been visible. Five or six
massage
tables were set up inside the tent, although there wasn’t any tech
delivery
happening on them when I first arrived.
I asked Petra what was going on, and she said that they were Scientology
Volunteer
Ministers, and she asked if I had ever heard of Scientology. I said that I had
and I asked if it wasn’t a science. She said that yes it was. She said
that
they were helping people with back pain. Noticing the massage tables that
Petra
was walking me toward, I voiced an enthusiastic cognition that what they were
doing was giving massages. She responded emphatically that it had absolutely
nothing
to do with massage, and that she would show me.
She told me to put my backpack on a chair that was next to one of the
tables.
She then told me to take my boots off, and she had me lie face down on the
table.
The bill of my NYPD disguise conflicted with the massage table, so I placed it
on top of my backpack. She put a finger on both sides of my spine at about C6
and ran them down my back three times. Then she ran her fingers up both sides
of my spine three times. Then, using her whole hand, she stroked both sides of
my back, away from the spine, moving down my back with each stroke. This
procedure
was done three times, then she reversed direction, stroking away from my
spine,
moving up my back, for another three times.
This is a “Nerve Assist,” described in HCOB of 25 August 1987,
which I trained on at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida, and delivered
to a number of Flag public preclears. This was absolutely the wrong action for
me, and I was thoroughly dissatisfied with the service. I didn’t want to
cause an upset for Petra, however, so I didn’t tell her the service was
unsatisfactory, but I informed David Miscavige, the boss of all Scientology
internationally,
in a letter I wrote to him the following day.
http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/writings/letkeman-ltr-miscavige-2003-07-
31.html
After the nerve assist, I sat on the table and chatted with Petra as I put
my boots back on. I asked her if she did the assists on all sorts of people
with
back pain, and she said she did. I asked if she went to hospitals, and she
said
that she did, if possible. I attempted to get her to confirm that the nerve
assist
cures back pain, and she said that yes it did, and she explained to me that
the
assist unblocks nerve channels. It was clear that the context and goal for
Petra
was not really so much to cure my back pain but to recruit me. In fact, I had
just as much back pain after the nerve assist as I had before I had the
“service.”
She insisted that even if back pain wasn’t my item I should get trained
to be able to cure the back pain of my friends or other people I know.
This
seemed to be her cue to herself to then maneuver me over to a table stacked
with
Volunteer Minister booklets and introduce me to Agnes Martin who was
supervising
the book table. Petra selected the English language assist booklet from the
table,
opened it to the “nerve assist” pages,
and explained that that was the service that I had received, and that the
booklet
would teach me to do it on others. Agnes engaged me in small talk about where
I come from and what I’m doing, which led to her revealing that she had
been to Los Angeles and had enjoyed the view from the Griffith
Observatory.
At one point Agnes asked if I had ever heard of Scientology. I said that I
had and proudly told her that I knew it had something to do with volcanoes.
She
and Petra obviously thought I was referring to Hubbard’s 1950 mental
quackery
book, rather than Xenu’s
final solution in Incident
II, because they informed me that it was Dianetics I was talking about.
They
told me that the same person who discovered Dianetics also discovered
Scientology
-- L. Ron Hubbard. They showed me his name on the front cover of the assist
booklet,
and pointed out the address listed inside the booklet for the cult’s
organization
in Los Angeles -- L. Ron Hubbard Way.
While we were talking, Petra encouraged me to take the booklet that they
had
shown me, which they said contained all the instructions I would need for
delivering
assists to my friends and associates who needed these services. When I had
agreed
to take the booklet, and had it in my hands, Agnes suddenly announced that
they
were not selling them, but that the booklet cost the cultists five Euros and
they
would appreciate any donation I would make. I expressed my dismay at the
amount
they were being bilked for the booklets, but I delved into my jeans pocket
and
came up with zwei fünfzig Centstücke, und happily contributed to
the
motion. Agnes, applying, I imagined, Grosse Liga Verkäufe, went VBIs on
me.
But, having accomplished my major target, and getting Dones on my
conditionals,
I was VGIs, so it all worked out.
At the close, they whipped out a CF form and placed it on the table in
front
of me, along with a ballpoint pen, and instructed me to fill it out with my
name,
address, telephone number, etc. They said that I should fill out the form so
they
could check back with me. They said that they wanted to check back with me
after
I’d had the opportunity to find and walk down L. Ron Hubbard Way. I
told
them that no thanks I wouldn’t do that. They said goodbye and to have a
good time in Germany. I said Tschüss, and went off seeking Gerry.
Well, Gerry had been watching me from a reasonable distance as I was
getting
my nerve assist and being regged, so I quickly spotted him and walked over to
meet him. I had him take some photos of me in front of the tent in case proof
was needed that I had been there and had received a Scientology service on
that
date. We are webbing some of these photos
along with this report. Scientology’s leaders are gargantuan and
notorious
liars, and have lied about other services I’ve had, so it was necessary
to document this latest service very well. Another conditional target
Done!
Gerry also took photos of three vinyl panels the Scientologists had
hanging
on the outside of the open end their tent. One panel
contained images from the World Trade Center tragedy, including the
infamous
Vulturazzi photo of then New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani talking to a
yellow-shirted
VM. A second panel contained another image from Ground Zero, plus an amazing
munchausenism
claiming that Hubbard was in New York in 1973 to
conduct a sociology study, in which he predicted what would happen three
decades
later. Wow! For what he was really doing in 1973 -- hiding out in Queens from
fear of being extradited to France for fraud – see Jim Dincalci’s
account from Bare-Faced Messiah. http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/CoS/BFM/bfm19.htm
The third tent panel contained twelve
letters relating to the Vulture Ministers operation, mainly in connection
with
the WTC disaster. Gerry also took individual pics of the letters which
we’ve
webbed here. Because the letters were printed on
vinyl, and because the light was not good and the panels were moving in the
breeze,
the images are not clear, so we’ve also provided html text for what we
were
able to make out with certainty.
Not only does Scientology’s Vulture Minister scam feed off human
tragedies
in the affluent western world (you won’t find them giving nerve assists
in famine-stricken Ethiopia), but the operation generates its own tragedies
as
well. Every person the Scientologists lure into their tents, onto their
massage
tables, or under their fingers is at risk of being victimized as I was, and
as
countless other people have been. Every person recruited is facing potential
financial
ruin, facing being ripped off for tens or even hundreds of thousands of
dollars
buying the cult’s false promises. Every person can be separated from
her
loved ones, her whole family destroyed by Scientology’s heartless
disconnection
policy. Every person conned into the cultists’ clutches will be lied
to,
exploited and cheated, and, if she ever complains or requests her money back,
she can be fair gamed and
obliterated.
I am quite certain that many or most of the Scientologists that the cult
operates
as volunteer ministers, like Petra and Agnes, do not know what they’re
doing,
do not know what lies they are believing and repeating, and do not know what
potential
for tragedies they are creating. Their blissful ignorance was captured in the
irony of the question asked on one of the posters inside their tent:
“Gibt
es zu vielHass auf der Welt?” -- “Is
there too much hate in the world?” Accepting that Scientology is
opposing
hate in the world, these people have joined a virulent hate group. Wanting to
get others to join them in reducing hatred, they lure them with roses and
“assists”
into the same hate group that has brought them to hate.
Scientology’s “suppressive person doctrine” is among the
most hateful and hate-inciting ideas ever invented by man. Hubbard was no
humanitarian
as the cult claims. He was a pathological liar, fraudster, evildoer and
misanthrope.
We who are the victims of Scientology's suppressive person doctrine, and its
implementation
– the judicially
condemned “fair game” policy – sometimes joke about the
cult, and even poke fun at its Vulture Ministers®. But it really is no
laughing
matter. The whole thing -- the smiles, flowers, yellow shirts, the
“help,”
booklets, tent and the glitz, and the lies, greed and hatred underlying this
illusion
of philanthropy – is a tragic crying shame.
Caroline Letkeman