Translation of this article: http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/archives/5029

Интересные вещи происходят в последнее время в российском сектоведении. На днях, в Москве побывал Джеральд Армстронг. Личность в определенных кругах очень известная, если не легендарная. Но чтобы понять, кто это и почему так важен его визит, следует начать совсем не с него, а с учения о дианетике и саентологии, Лафайета Рональда Хаббарда, и того, почему культ саентологии в таких справочниках, как «Религии и секты в современной России» Новосибирского апологетического центра и «Сектоведение. Тоталитарные секты» А. Л. Дворкина обозначен, как тоталитарно-деструктивная секта.

Scientology and the “Democratic GULAG”

by Alexander Chaussov
June 4, 2011

Interesting things have been happening lately concerning cults in Russia.  Gerald Armstrong recently visited Moscow.  He is very well known, if not a legend, in certain circles.  However, to understand who he is and why his visit is so important, we must begin not with him, but with the teachings of Dianetics and Scientology, with Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, and why the Scientology cult is called a totalitarian and destructive sect on reference websites such as “Religions and Sects in Russia Today” by the Novosibirsk Center for Apologetics Research and Alexander L. Dvorkin’s “Sectarian Studies: Totalitarian Sects”.

The Scientology cult has been operating in Russia since the 1990s. It is essentially a network of ramified organizations which offer techniques to become no more, no less than a superhuman, or an “Operating Thetan” (OT).  Of course, this is not for free.  According to reference materials published by the St. Irenaeus of Lyon Center, the method for becoming a superman devised by Hubbard (the founder of Scientology) is based on telling the organization every detail about oneself, even the most intimate ones.  A closer look at the information on “Sectarian Studies: Totalitarian Sects” shows that the cult has its own intelligence gathering structures and that the goal of this organization is money and power.  Moreover, this power should preferably be worldwide and total.

In the 1990s, Russia became a “field of experimentation” for Scientologists.  They conducted experiments on children affected by the Chernobyl accident (documentary film: Svoboda ot sovesti ["Freedom of Conscience"]).  They conducted experiments in business with lethal results at the Moscow ventilator factory.  At one time, even Sergei Kiriyenko was recruited into Scientology, and we shall tactfully pass over in silence a great number of Russian regional officials.

Cartoon by Igor Kolgarev: Stubble-faced plumber conducting brain surgery while reading from a book entitled "Dianetics". A portrait of Hubbard hangs on the left above a stack of books. The spine of the top book says "Hubbard", the third book below this top book says "Scientology".

Up to the 1990s, Scientology was also a problem for authorities in the U.S., who waged a campaign against it.  It is true that this campaign ended, in actual fact, in victory for Scientology, with full legal recognition as a religious community, this despite the fact that cult’s founder, the late Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, once said: “If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.” In other words, even the father/founder of Scientology understood very well how much his “religion” had to do with religion.

In Russia, there is now a complete network of Scientology centers. They are not as actively involved in the social and political life of the country as during the “dashing nineties”, but, nevertheless, the public has has no insurance against getting caught up with this sect and parting with a substantial amount of money and property in the name of total personal progress.

This is precisely why the visit of Gerald Armstrong and his public appearances in the media are so important.  It’s because Armstrong rose through the ranks of the Scientology cult to the post of legal officer for the organization, so he witnessed from the inside how everything happens.  He left several years later, after he realized that Scientology is a totalitarian sect.

Armstrong has already given an interview about his life in the cult to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.  Information has it that a detailed interview with him will air on VGTRK [All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company] early this summer.  In principle, everything about him should appear in the Yandex search engine for anyone who wishes to look him up, but I would like to draw attention to one interesting feature of “American democracy”.  In an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, Mr. Armstrong said, among other things, that “The RPF (Rehabilitation Project Force) is a Scientology prison …  It was created in 1974.  People are sent there if, for example, the movement’s leaders think people aren’t working as hard as they should.  Or for some other arbitrary reason.  When I was there, a man was punished simply because of a smell that Hubbard didn’t like.  The duration of the sentences is not specified and the ‘convicts’ get only a quarter of their salary.   When they move about, they always have to run.  They are fed leftovers.  They are not allowed to talk, except to answer questions …   The purpose of this ‘gulag’ is to break a person’s will.  Moreover, for repeated violation of rules, there is an even more brutal prison, the ‘RPF’s RPF’, where a person is generally kept under 24-hour surveillance.

“… a U.S. court even decided last year that Scientologists have the right to hold people captive, to track them down and to forcibly bring them back and lock them up, because this is based on doctrine.”

This is what happens when democracy and the rights of religious minorities are implemented in a liberal manner.  If we believe the words of Gerald Armstrong, one year has already passed since the U.S. permitted religious concentration camps.  It seems to me that, even if we have “an insufficient level of democracy”, taking it to that level would make it possible to democratize everything, even complete “Hitlerization” or “Hubbardization”, whichever is deemed more practical.

Ex-legal officer of the Scientology organization Gerald Armstrong: “I landed in a jail for cult members because I got into an argument with the secretary of Hubbard’s third wife”

In the U.S., his former coreligionists long ago declared him an outlaw

[discussion]

by Alexey Ovchinnikov
Photo: Marina Volosevicha and AP
June 1, 2011

Gerald Armstrong came to Moscow to warn the country about the danger that threatens it

According to their rules, they can now hunt him down and, without qualms, take his life.  All the sins of Canadian Gerald Armstrong stem from the fact that he left the so-called “Church of Scientology”, where he was a personal assistant to the organization’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard.  He travels the world describing what goes on behind the scenes in this organization which he openly brands as a cult.  Gerald Armstrong was recently in Moscow and, following a conference with students at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, he answered questions from Komsomolskaya Pravda.

THE SMARTS TO ESCAPE

- Mr. Armstrong, how did you get into this cult?

- I became involved in Vancouver in 1969. I, like many people, was attracted by the idea of improving my intelligence through Scientology.

- Did it improve?

- (Laughs). Actually, yes: I acquired enough smarts to escape from the cult, but I spent twelve and a half years there.

- Did you personally know the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard?

- Indeed. I rose to the post of legal officer.  I was responsible for contacting customs officials and police in the countries at whose ports we stopped.  Later, I became the public relations officer and then the intelligence officer on board the “Apollo”, the ship on which Hubbard sailed with his admirers, hiding from the taxation authorities of various countries.  The ship was the headquarters of Scientology’s elite order, the “Sea Organization”, the nerve center of the entire Scientology organization.  I was Hubbard’s personal archivist.  But I twice did time in the “Rehabilitation Project Force” or RPF.

Church of Scientology

A PRIVATE GULAG IN THE U.S. IS LEGAL

- What is the RPF?

- The RPF is a Scientology prison, similar to a gulag.  It was created in 1974.  People are sent there if, for example, the movement’s leaders think people aren’t working as hard as they should.  Or for some other arbitrary reason.  When I was there, a man was punished simply because of a smell that Hubbard didn’t like.  The duration of the sentences is not specified and the “convicts” get only a quarter of their salary.   When they move about, they always have to run.  They are fed leftovers.  They are not allowed to talk, except to answer questions …   The purpose of this “gulag” is to break a person’s will.  Moreover, for repeated violation of rules, there is an even more brutal prison, the “RPF’s RPF”, where a person is generally kept under 24-hour surveillance.

- What offense did you commit?

- I dared to talk back to the secretary of Hubbard’s third wife. The second time I went to the RPF was because Hubbard thought I was joking about how he was making films.

- Does the RPF exist today, after the U.S. recognized Scientology as a religion?

- Oh, yes!  In fact, a U.S. court even decided last year that Scientologists have the right to hold people captive, to track them down and to forcibly bring them back and lock them up, because this is based on doctrine.  They declared me an SP …

THE MOST FAMOUS SCIENTOLOGIST: TOM CRUISE

- What is an SP?

- A Suppressive Person.  According to Scientology, these are the people who are responsible for every evil on earth.  Myself, for example (laughs).  In reality, SP’s are ordinary people who are not afraid to tell the truth about Scientology.  This doctrine by itself makes the organization criminal.  Every new Scientologist is told at the very first encounter that Scientology is continually at war.

- With whom?

- With the SP’s.  SP’s are subject to the so-called “Fair Game” policy.  According to the rules laid down by Hubbard, any Scientologist may take away the possessions and even the life of an SP.  If you are declared an SP, other Scientologists are not allowed to communicate with you.  On the internet, there is a video in which perhaps the best known Scientologist today, Hollywood actor Tom Cruise, at a ceremony to award him a special Scientology medal, expresses the hope that before long there won’t be any SP’s left in the world.

- This sounds like Nazism …

- This is the closest parallel that comes to mind.  Hitler’s “Untermensch” doctrine really is similar to a number of Scientology doctrines.

- Have they tried to kill you?

- They don’t seem to have tried outright, but there have been six assaults.  I was once hit by a car.  In Southern California, agents of the “church” tried to run me off the freeway at high speed.  They would go further, I’m sure, but they are afraid they would go to jail.  There have been countless threats and lawsuits.  In the U.S., they fabricated a case against me and, as a result, I have no right to utter the words “Scientology”, “Dianetics”, “Hubbard”, and so on.  For each utterance, I am to be fined fifty thousand dollars.  So I’ve already spent a couple of millions speaking with you (laughs).  The court allowed them to say anything they please about me.  That’s justice, American-style …

- How did this happen?

- As I’ve already said, the case was fabricated.  Without corruption and blackmail, they couldn’t have gotten away with this.  According to my information, they have spent about five million dollars in legal fees on me.

The most famous Scientologist in the world, Tom Cruise, delivers a speech at the opening of the new Church of Scientology in Madrid. "Get full auditing and you will become a rain man!"

CONDOLEEZZA RICE PROTECTED SCIENTOLOGY

- Mr. Armstrong, at one time, several U.S. federal agencies declared that Hubbard was wanted and they were searching for him all over the planet.  Then suddenly, it was peace and harmony; they even recognized Scientology as a religion …

- In my opinion, it’s all obvious.  At first, the U.S. federal government genuinely and very strongly opposed Scientology.  In 1977, FBI agents searched the organization’s offices in Washington and Los Angeles, and they found hundreds of documents that had been stolen from government agencies.  The then head of the FBI later told reporters that “Scientology has one of the most effective intelligence services in the U.S., on par with even the FBI.”  Beginning in 1993, the process suddenly went in the opposite direction: Scientology was recognized as a religion  …

- Bill Clinton came to power in 1993 …

- Yes, and he also sympathized with Scientologists.  Madeleine Albright and then Condoleezza Rice openly defended the organization. They actually made it their ally.  Since that time, they have been protecting Scientology around the world.  I think this decision was made on the advice of the intelligence services.

A MATTER OF NATIONAL SECURITY

- What did that accomplish?

- Scientology itself is a highly developed intelligence agency.  I’ll elaborate a little about how it works.  According to Hubbard’s doctrine, every Scientologist must continually raise their intelligence and seek self-improvement through a procedure called auditing.  During this process, which on the surface looks beneficial (and is conducted using a primitive lie detector called an E-Meter), all of a person’s secrets are divulged: details concerning the family, complexes, grudges, sexual experiences, and every personal story.  Scientology claims that this is a kind of confession, but it is not.  All of the information is recorded and forwarded to the organization’s intelligence department.  This information can then be used to blackmail the relatives or friends about whom information was confided during auditing.

- A powerful tool to gain leverage …

- Exactly!  Moreover, the Hubbard-style intelligence department itself searches for people who take an interest in it, but it collects embarrassing information about them first.  This includes politicians, officials of international organizations, police, FBI agents …

Likewise for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, the IRS.  My information is that, when the IRS declared that Hubbard was wanted, Scientologists collected information on all top IRS officials and paid for any information which could embarrass them.  It is highly probable that they found something against the then director of the IRS, because the IRS suddenly formed a friendly relationship with Scientology.  The same goes for the U.S. intelligence services, as I said earlier.  So the presence of Scientology in any country is a danger not just to individuals and to public order.  It is also a matter of national security.  I spoke about this recently with your Justice Ministry …

A MONIED CULT

- What did you discuss, if it’s not a secret?

- I reiterated to them what I know about Scientology, and I talked about my legal predicament and how this can help Russia with your country’s position in relation to Scientology.  After all, Scientologists have on several occasions filed lawsuits against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights for refusing to re-register the “church”.  However, my own situation (and not only mine) clearly shows that Scientology is organized so as to violate human rights.  Any member of this organization is a direct participant in an all-out effort to suppress human rights.

- But recently, a huge Scientology center opened right in the middle of Moscow on Taganskaya Square …

- Yes, I saw that building.  I saw posts by your bloggers who went in and took a lot of pictures there.  It’s all very opulent, and this is evidence that, in Russia, they have a lot of money.  It’s also evidence that Scientologists in Russia are, unfortunately, quite at ease.  Your government has already shut down several active schools, but sadly, it has not yet issued a single warning to Russia’s citizens about the dangers of this cult.  In Germany, for example, the government regularly talks about this on its websites and in its publications and brochures.  I would strongly recommend that Russia do the same if, of course, you want to preserve Christian morals in society, including the institution of the family.

THE GURU LIED ABOUT EVERYTHING

- Why did you leave the organization?

- One day, an order came to destroy all documents showing Hubbard’s involvement in Scientology and its finances.  It was feared that the FBI would find them.  While riffling through old papers, we found about twenty boxes of Hubbard’s personal documents.  I asked for permission to read them, to later compile an updated version of his biography, and I began to study them.  I discovered that Hubbard lied to everyone about everything.  For example, he said that he was an engineer and a nuclear physicist, that during wartime he was crippled and blinded, that he was awarded 27 combat decorations …

- And in reality?

- He was expelled during his second year of university.  He spent the entire war on the home front, and so he was not injured, he was not blinded, and he did not receive 27 decorations.  And then Scientology completely fell apart for me.  I knew that my IQ had not increased one point and that I had not acquired any superpowers …  I had wasted twelve and a half years of my life …  I read his notes: “Every man is my slave.”  He programmed himself to have limitless power.  To do this, he even used psychotropic substances.

IN RUSSIA, SCIENTOLOGY AROUSED THE INTEREST OF ENTERTAINERS AND PROFESSORS

- Tom Cruise and John Travolta are the most famous Scientologists in the U.S.  Do you know of any Russian celebrities who are involved in this organization?

- There are some, of course, but I do not know their names.

- “I can’t name them at the moment,” interjects Alexander Dvorkin, a leading Russian expert on sectarian studies, “But when the Scientologists had just arrived in Russia, many of our stage celebrities and even university professors were actively interested.  One of these professors even opened an L. Ron Hubbard reading room at his department and posthumously awarded Hubbard an honorary doctorate.”

- Are celebrities recruited with their knowledge or by trickery?

- In Hollywood, many understand that a connection with Scientology can give their career a big boost.  When a movie starring Tom Cruise comes out, every cult member is obliged to buy 30 tickets to see the movie or to purchase DVD’s.  Scientology has a very powerful intelligence gathering appartus, so when a reporter wants to meet with Cruise himself, the actor is provided a complete file on the reporter, including all of the person’s weak spots.

September 1997, Paris. French scientologists outside the German embassy protesting against the prohibition of Hubbard's teachings in Germany.

FROM KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA‘S FILES

“If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion!”

Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American science fiction writer and the founder of the “Church of Scientology”.  He was born in 1911, in Nebraska.

Hubbard initially wanted to become a nuclear physicist, but he was unable to pass the exams for the introductory course.  Being in need of money, he began to write science fiction stories.

At the start of World War II, he was drafted into the Navy, but he sat out the war on the home front.  He “distinguished himself” only once: by lying that he had located a Japanese submarine, alerting commanding officers, and firing at the submarine for several hours.  When it was discovered that the submarine was a figment of his imagination, he became very upset and, for some reason, he fired all his ship’s guns at an island belonging to Mexico, a U.S. ally.  Rear Admiral Braisted noted in Hubbard’s fitness report after the incident: “Consider this officer lacking in the essential qualities of judgement, leadership and cooperation. He acts without forethought as to probable results.”

Hubbard was then assigned ashore due to illness (ulcers).  After his discharge, he bombarded the FBI and the CIA with letters in which he proclaimed his desire to destroy the communists.  These agencies quickly stopped paying attention, deeming him mentally unstable.

In 1945, Hubbard met John Whiteside Parsons, a devotee of Aleister Crowley (one of the most well-known Satanists of the twentieth century), and he regularly frequented occult circles.

In the late 1940s, he invented his own religion and, according to the recollections of friends, he did not stop using drugs.

It is reported that in 1949, at a science fiction writers convention in New Jersey, Hubbard said: “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion.”  In 1950, he published his bible, entitled “Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health”.  Four years later, the “International Church of Scientology” was born.  Since then, Hubbard’s teachings have made their way around the world.

In some countries, Hubbard was declared persona non grata.  From 1977 to 1981, Hubbard lived on a yacht in international waters, a fugitive from the justice system of different countries.  Shortly after his return to the United States, he went into hiding and remained in the U.S. until his death in 1986.  In 1996, the State Duma adopted a resolution classifying the “Church of Scientology” as a destructive religious organization.

According to some accounts, Hubbard’s dream of making a fortune by inventing his own religion came true: at the time of his death, his wealth reached 640 million dollars …

Translation and transcript

Gerry Armstrong

Prof. Alexander Dvorkin

Alexander Dvorkin (AD): I’ll translate from here.

Gerry Armstrong (GA): And I say in English, Christ is risen.

AD: Indeed he is risen.

GA: You all know my name is Gerry Armstrong, and I’m here from Canada. This is my fourth visit to Russia.

I was in, first of all Nizhny Novgorod, Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and now Moscow, and actually this is my fourth trip to Moscow, because I flew in here and had experiences here before as well.

I just want to, first of all, correct something which was put in the announcement here in the University’s publication. To my knowledge, Scientology has never attempted to murder me. It’s very understandable that that would be reported because I have been assaulted six times, and they have threatened to assassinate me. But to my knowledge, they have never tried, and I’m here safely.

I wish to speak briefly tonight about an aspect of Scientology which makes the organization dangerous. And then I’ll attempt to explain why I’m here in Russia, another time.

Some of you may have seen a rather famous video of the most famous Scientologist, Tom Cruise. This was published on the Internet in 2008, and it was made by Tom Cruise at the time he received, in 2004, Scientology’s Freedom of Valor award. Tom talks about people that are referred to as “Suppressive Persons”, or “SPs.” And SPs, Scientology teaches, are the most evil, 2 1/2% of people on the planet. And Tom says he welcomes the day when there will be no SPs left on Earth. Scientology teaches that Suppressive Persons are basically equivalent to what are known in the psychology science as sociopaths or psychopaths. And Scientology teaches that they cannot be cured, and that they are responsible for all accidents, illness and every evil on Earth. I am an SP.

(Applause)

In truth, Scientology does not attack or go after real criminals, real psychopaths, real sociopaths. SPs or Suppressive Persons are simply ordinary people in every walk of life who tell the truth about Scientology. The Suppressive Person doctrine makes Scientology a criminal organization. The enforcement or application of the Suppressive Person doctrine is known by the name, “Fair Game.” The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard wrote extensively about Suppressive Persons. When he wrote about it, he said in Scientology policy, which they call scripture, that SPs are fair game, they may be tricked, lied to, cheated, stolen from and destroyed. Scientology declared me an SP in early 1982 and have fair gamed me ever since.

Besides the physical assaults that I mentioned, I have been run into physically with a car, this was by an agent hired by Scientology. They terrorized my wife and me on a freeway in southern California, and they did similarly with myself and friends on an autobahn in Germany. They have sued me six times, driven me into bankruptcy. They’ve tried to have me prosecuted on false criminal charges, including with the FBI, the District Attorney in Los Angeles, and even the legal authorities in Ekaterinburg.

The Suppressive Person doctrine is used to terrorize Scientologists, keep them in a constant state of fear, and likewise to terrorize people like myself, who is outside the organization.

They have created and disseminated around the world a mass of what they call “black propaganda”. It was Hubbard’s practice and policy to destroy people’s reputations, credibility, livelihoods, relationships and their lives with black PR. And if you look up who Gerry Armstrong is on the Internet, you will find a mass of black PR about me. They disseminated black PR on me, calling me a criminal and worse right here in Russia, including to the FSB. And they also attempted to get the United States embassy here in Moscow to pick me up.

The Suppressive Person doctrine is what is used to justify the break-up of families. If Scientology declares someone a Suppressive Person, other Scientologists may not communicate to them, and pursuant to their policy, may not even grant them credence. There is an element in Scientology however, that does deal with Suppressive Persons, and they deal with them in an aggressive, criminal manner.

Scientology is actually at war. Because however, they cannot pick up guns, and cannot bomb us, just for fear of prosecution, much of their attacks on Suppressive Persons like myself are in secret, covert intelligence matters. One of the first things that a new Scientologist learns is that they are at war, and consequently, Scientologists virtually automatically know that they are to attack, to ruin the lives of any Suppressive Person. So, to me the Suppressive Person doctrine is unjustifiable. There is no excuse. It is indefensible.

The closest historical parallel would be the Nazi’s “Untermensch” doctrine. So the way that the Nazis treated the Jews is very similar to the way Scientology treats or would like to treat Suppressive Persons. The Suppressive Person doctrine justifies an endless array of immoral and criminal activities.

Scientology is under incredible pressure around the world and more and more people are becoming educated about the organization. I think that that can be evidenced just by the number of people here who have come to hear about the organization. Scientology cannot stop the spread of information now about its practices and about its intentions. As the pressure mounts on Scientology, also the risk, the threat, to individuals like me and to other people in society, mounts. And yet there is no choice but to keep talking and keep educating people, and keep spreading the word.

And I would like to thank all of you for coming here and for being willing to listen, and I hope and pray that you also spread the word.

I would like now to just touch on my legal situation and what brings me here specifically at this time. I am subject to an order in the United States which prohibits me from even saying the word, “Scientology.” How Scientology obtained that order is a very long story, but it essentially involves massive abuse of the legal process. And while I am prevented from saying the word “Scientology” or mentioning one word about my now-42 years of experience and knowledge about this organization, Scientology believes and the court has agreed with them, that they can say whatever they want about me, no matter how false or defamatory, and I cannot respond.

This order is on penalty of $50,000 per utterance. So this is a very valuable talk to you.

I am also subject to another order which permits Scientology to have me jailed and further fined for anything I say. I cannot talk about Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, any Scientology organization, including all of their directors, officers, employees, volunteers, agents and attorneys. Similarly with Scientology’s affiliated organizations or entities such as their front groups Criminon, Narconon, Citizens Commission on Human Rights — that’s the organization that they use to attack psychiatry, their Volunteer Minister organization, their Way to Happiness  organization — “The Way to Happiness” is a little booklet that Scientology hands out at disaster sites. And similarly all of their directors, officers, employees, volunteers, agents and attorneys. So virtually every Scientologist here in Russia, it applies to them as well. This order also applies to anyone acting in concert with me.

So Dr. Dvorkin and his organization act in concert with me, and now St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University acts in concert with me. I have been invited, in fact, here on other occasions, by the Russian Orthodox Church. So I have your wonderful and massive church acting in concert with me.

This order, series of orders and judgments sound completely bizarre, but it is very real. And it is my hope to both do something about this order, these orders while I’m here, and to offer this extraordinary legal situation and my experience to Russia, who is standing up, to whatever degree, to Scientology.

The European Human Rights court has sided with Scientology, and my case, and my situation demonstrates that Scientology is a massive human rights abuser.

In that Scientology in the United States is considered a religion, and seeks here in Russia to be recognized as a religion, these orders would be equivalent to penalizing someone $50,000 per utterance for saying the name “God” or sending someone to jail for talking about his experiences or knowledge in the Christian religion.

And tomorrow I believe I will be speaking to the Russian Justice Department to offer them whatever assistance can be made of myself and my strange, extraordinary legal situation.

So I think, if it would be okay, I would like to open up the –

Maybe you should say a few words about your biography.

Oh, my biography, okay.

I got into Scientology in 1969 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. And I was brought in, in the same way that Scientology lures everyone in: promises of increased intelligence quotient or IQ. Scientology promises that IQ’s will go up, on average, 1 point per hour of their therapy, their psychotherapy called auditing. IQ is something which is measurable and is a secular matter, not a religious matter. I had over a thousand hours of Scientology auditing. (Laughs) You can tell, right? (Laughs) But at least I acquired sufficient smarts to be able to leave the organization.

In 1971, I joined what is known as the Sea Organization. This is the organization, the part of Scientology which runs it around the world. Also in early 1971, I was sent to the ship which L. Ron Hubbard was on, the Apollo. At that time, we were in Morocco, and we sailed up and down the Moroccan coast and to Portugal, and Spain and the little Atlantic islands, Madeira, the Canaries. I started off on board washing dishes. I became the storesman briefly, and then I became the ship’s driver, the driver of a little car which we had on board.

Beginning of 1972, I became the ship’s legal officer. I was responsible for customs, immigration, police. The port authorities, tug boats, I hired them. I then became the public relations officer, and then in 1974, I became the ship’s intelligence officer. At that time, because of difficulties we were having in Europe, the ship sailed across the Atlantic and we spent the next year in the Caribbean.

Hubbard was on board during most of those years. He was off the ship briefly in 1973 because he was convicted of fraud in France. In 1975, the ship’s complement came ashore in Florida, and I was close to Hubbard at the time. I was then handling his communications.

I was sent on a mission from Florida to Los Angeles to set up a base. I got in an argument with his wife’s, Mary Sue Hubbard’s, secretary. Hubbard had me locked up, and then assigned me to Scientology’s prison system, the Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF. The existence of these RPF re-education camps is a reason why every country should warn their citizens about this organization. I spent 17 months in the RPF at that time. I got out and was transferred again to California, to work with Hubbard shooting movies. And again he assigned me to the RPF, this time for joking. He got the idea that I was joking about his movie-making. In fact, I was not. As I can see you are all able to laugh. Inside Scientology it was a crime to laugh about the wrong thing. I stayed 8 months at that time in the RPF, and then, when I got out, I worked in Hubbard’s Household Unit at a new base that they had bought in Gilman Hot Springs, California. Gilman Hot Springs is the current headquarters of Scientology. The present leader, David Miscavige, lives there.

At the beginning of 1980, there was a threat of a raid. I understood what that meant, because the Federal Bureau of Investigation had raided Scientology in 1977, and 11 of its intelligence personnel were charged in United States Federal Court, convicted and sentenced to prison. There was a constant threat and awareness wherever I was in Scientology, of a raid by police or other authorities. And at that time, everyone was ordered to destroy any documents which showed that Hubbard had been to the property, that he intended to live there, that he controlled Scientology or controlled Scientology finances. In this search for documents which incriminated Hubbard, one of my juniors discovered a box of very old material in his personal archive.

She brought this box to me and I decided that it should not be destroyed because of its historical value. And then we discovered approximately 20 boxes of similar material in Hubbard’s personal effects.

I petitioned Hubbard to then assemble an archive of his personal documents and do the research for a biography. Ironically, Hubbard approved my petition, and I spent the next 2 years assembling this archive and working with an outside non-Scientologist writer by the name of Omar Garrison.

During the course of my research and study of his personal documents, I deprogrammed myself. And I documented that he had lied about virtually every aspect of his life. He claimed for example to be a civil engineer and a nuclear physicist, and this was very significant to me. It was what was in Scientology advertisements which brought me in and kept me there for all those years. He and Scientology claimed that he had been crippled and blinded during the Second World War. He claimed to have been awarded 27 medals, including 2 Purple Hearts.

He lied about his family, he lied about his wives, and he lied about explorations which he had claimed. So he was not a civil engineer, not a nuclear physicist. He flunked out of his second year of university. Regarding medals, he received 4 standard service medals. He was not crippled and blinded. He was never wounded in action. He in fact was a malingerer.

Importantly, when I began to see that Hubbard was virtually a pathological liar, the whole of Scientology fell apart for me. I had to confront the fact that Scientology does not work. As I mentioned, my IQ did not go up 1 point. I didn’t have any of the promised super powers, and I had to confront the fact that I had wasted all those years, and also confront the fact that now I was going to have this aggressive, criminal organization, target me.

So I made plans and escaped. If I had not escaped, I would have again been locked up, and because of my state of mind at that time, and my firm opposition to Scientology, I would have been kept there and killed. But I did successfully escape and, as I knew would happen, Scientology immediately targeted me. In addition to assaulting me, which I’ve mentioned, they have sued me six times. The first case in which they sued me went to trial in Los Angeles in 1984. This is a very famous judgment in which the judge condemned fair game as a practice and declared Hubbard to be a pathological liar.

Scientology could not stop attack however, but have continued to this day to consider me a major enemy.

(Applause)

(Question and Answer period)

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD:About ruining families, how did Hubbard explain that he had several wives. How did he explain it to other people if he was so much for the good family? How come he himself couldn’t have one?

GA: I think the answer is obvious. He was a liar, and Scientologists are liars. Scientology claims, as Hubbard claimed, to have the technology to improve family relations. But, in truth, they break up families. Hubbard broke up families and he broke up his own family.

Hubbard’s second marriage was bigamous. He kidnapped the daughter of his second marriage and took off with her to Cuba in 1951. And then he denied his paternity and blamed someone else for being her father. And I met that daughter, and she of all of his 7 children, looked most like him.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD:Is there a connection between Scientology and Masons?

GA: I don’t believe there is a connection, direct connection between Scientology, but there is a definite connection between Scientology and occultism. During the time when Hubbard claimed that he had already started Scientology, he was involved with one John W. Parsons, who was a devotee of Aleister Crowley. And Aleister Crowley is the founder of the Ordo Templi Orientis, which is a black magic occult group.

It is certain that there are aspects of occultism in Scientology. Hubbard of course claimed that Scientology is scientific in its basis, but the real source of Scientology is occultism.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: How Scientology is dangerous for Scientologists and how did it lure people in?

GA:It’s dangerous to an individual psychologically. It alters the human psyche, replaces the extremely valuable human conscience with Hubbard’s system. It’s dangerous to families, which I’ve mentioned. It’s dangerous to finances. It is dangerous to people outside, which I mentioned, like myself. It’s dangerous to the social order. It’s dangerous to nations. It’s dangerous to businesses.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: Now, in Russia, we can often hear that the United States has an exemplary democratic state and exemplary judicial state. So how is it possible, in such an exemplary state, such a wild decision against you, and could it be explained by a very high degree of corruption?

GA: It is explained by a high degree of public relations and also by a high degree of corruption that the public relations covers.

Very importantly, the United States has a completely different view of religious freedom than what Europe and we recognize. Freedom of religion in the United States has come to mean freedom for the religious corporation to suppress and destroy the religious freedoms of its individuals.

There was a judgment in fact, last year, in 2010, in which the court ruled that Scientology was free to lock people up, and if they escaped, go back and bring them back and lock them up. And the basis for that is because it is the religious doctrine of the corporation to do so. So it’s quite easy to understand why Scientology chose to be a religion, so that it can get away with abusing people and other human rights abuses. That’s another case that I hope to speak to the Justice Ministry about.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: But maybe you should also tell about support of Scientology by the Government of the United States as of 1993. Will you say a few words?

GA: The United States Federal Government for many years opposed Scientology and, in fact, as I mentioned, raided Scientology’s intelligence bureaus in 1977. And until 1993, denied Scientology tax exemption. But for a number of reasons, in 1993, the federal government made a strategic decision to quit opposing Scientology, and to make an ally of Scientology. And since 1993, they have promoted and defended Scientology around the world. I believe that this was a strategic decision made by the US intelligence community.

I may have mentioned Scientology at its core and in operation is a massive intelligence organization. They obtain and use intelligence from all levels of society. From their own personnel during the auditing process, each person divulges their innermost secrets, their innermost thoughts, their whole sexual history, details about their families, anything embarrassing, anything for which they could be prosecuted. All of this information, details, are written down or otherwise recorded.

Scientology equates that process with the process that you know of confession. But the people to whom the confession is made, the auditor, do not keep those secrets secret. That information is provided to Scientology’s intelligence and enforcement arms, attorneys, any way that Scientology can use it.

Additionally, Scientology’s intelligence personnel seek data, information, intelligence from every stratum of society. From government, police, businesses, the entertainment industry, medical organizations, schools, everything. The flow of information that Scientology obtains on a daily basis is massive. And so it’s very easy to see why the United States would want to have Scientology as an ally, rather than working against them.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: And you should mention that all this information flows one way. The orders come from Los Angeles and …

GA: The orders in Scientology all come from Los Angeles, and the flow of intelligence information all goes to Los Angeles. So it’s very easy to see why the United States would defend and promote Scientology around the world, and in so doing turn its back on Scientology’s victims.

The federal government knows about my case and it is indeed a problem for them. So, for me, the threat is really not only from Scientology, but from the US federal government and its intelligence tentacles.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: First question: As you went to Scientology, probably you were looking for the truth, so now, after all these years in Scientology and after Scientology,the picture of the world that you had was totally ruined. So what now? How do you see the world now? And what is the truth for you today?

Second question: You partially answered it … So, in Scientology, when we want to use a person, I understand I have to compromise him several times in order to turn him into a slave of the organization. So I would like to learn what kind of hooks they use in order to make men its slave.

Russia also has secret services, Aren’t you afraid that they might somehow want to use your information, to recruit you, or eventually to recruit you, or something?

That was a strange question.

So first question about your world view and, second, aren’t you afraid to be recruited by Russian secret services?

GA: Since I left Scientology, I have indeed sought the truth and I have found that the truth is within me. I became a Christian, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. God is Truth. So, I now know that I was kept safe, throughout my whole experience in Scientology, throughout all of these years as fair game. And not by anything that I did, but by what God did in me.

Regarding the FSB, for example, I would welcome an opportunity to speak to them. I doubt that they would recruit me. I think that I am probably too independent thinking and I, some time ago, I gave up the idea of intelligence, that is espionage, completely. So I do not get involved in schemes or secret machinations, but again I would welcome to talk to them. I must trust that they have the interest of the country as their first directive, so in that sense, we share to a small degree, a common enemy. And I would hope that if they did contact me, that they would use my information, my situation, judiciously to help Russia and Russians. I am not an intelligence operative and I could not be one. Thank you for excellent questions.

Audience member (translated by AD):

My name is Sergey, and I have two questions. If not secret, what will you talk about tomorrow with the Ministry of Justice? (laughter and applause)

Second question: how widespread is Scientology in Russia? How can it be dangerous to Russia and why would Scientology be interested in the Russian people?

GA: As I understand, the first question had to do with the Ministry of Justice.

AD: What exactly are you going to talk there about?

GA: I am going to talk … Really, I hope to answer all of their questions, but I will be talking about legal matters. I mentioned that Russia has legal matters concerning Scientology in the European Court of Human Rights. And, as I also mentioned, there are many individuals in Russia and organizations in Russia which act in concert with me. My goal is to have my legal situation, as it affects me and others, end, but while it is going on, to make as much use of it as possible.

What was the second part?

AD: The history of Scientology in Russia and why Scientology would be interested in Russia.

GA: I probably do not have as much information as maybe even you have about Scientology in Russia. But when the Soviet Union broke apart, there was a flood of Scientologists and other cults from the West, into Russia. In a sense, Russia at that point became fair game for Scientology. Russia had to some extent been cut off from knowledge about organizations like Scientology. And consequently, Scientology expanded in Russia and spread rather rapidly. Scientology always lies about its membership. For decades it has been claiming to be the world’s fastest growing religion. Just today, Dr. Dvorkin had some statistics that Scientology claimed about its membership here.

AD (adding after Russian translation): They claim 125,00 followers in Moscow (laughter), 500,000 in Russia.

GA: So behind Scientology’s spread, there is now a spread of information. And as this crowd here evidences, people are becoming educated about this cult. And Russia is already a civilized, educated country. So, my prediction would be that education here will beat Scientology. The mass of material on the Internet at this point makes it virtually impossible for Scientology to get what it wants, which is total control.

Consequently, Scientology is expanding now, into third world countries. And that’s another area of serious danger. And the dangers of Scientology are really what I already articulated. They are dangers to the individual, dangers to family, danger to democracy, danger to society, danger to the nation. And all of those dangers have to be recognized to really deal with Scientology as a threat.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: Today, how many people … are there more people like you who decide to leave the cult and to fight it?  And are there any programs for rehabilitation for ex-Scientologists?

GA: I left at the end of 1981. And at that time there were very few people who were speaking out. Now, I would say that the numbers have multiplied considerably, but Scientology is still able to silence people who leave. They silence them by legal means, by threat, by holding over them connections to their families and friends who are still inside. Scientology also runs covert operations in order to compromise people who leave, and even sets up its own phony organizations which pretend to offer help to victims of Scientology.

So, in a sense, there are more people speaking out. The Internet is full of critical material about Scientology. In the last three years, there have been four very critical books written about Scientology. And those are all by people who were highly placed and left recently. I look at it this way, that Scientology is still an incredible threat, but the result is in the balance, so that they have neither won nor lost.

But all signs, to me, point toward Scientology’s power being removed and that Scientologists are on the wrong side of this battle. And when things are in a balance like this, just a little poke can move that, a little word can have a great effect.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: Could you tell a little bit more about the Rehabilitation Project Force that you talked about, those camps?

GA: Hubbard created the Rehabilitation Project Force in the beginning of 1974. People were assigned to it if he viewed them as non-producers, that is, they didn’t work hard enough. And people could be assigned for a simple movement of the needle on an E-Meter.

AD (in Russian): Describes the E-Meter for the audience.

GA: And in reality, people were assigned completely arbitrarily. If Hubbard detected a smell that he didn’t like, the person who created that smell could be sent to the RPF. The sentences to the RPF were not pronounced in terms of years, but you had to work your way through a program that could take many years.

RPF members did hard, dirty physical work. They received 1/4 of the pay of regular Scientology Sea Org members.

So when I was assigned, at that time, I was then getting $17.20 a week. And in the RPF I received $4.30 a week.

RPF members were not allowed to talk to other crew members unless they were spoken to. They had to run everywhere. They wore black boiler suits everywhere. For the slightest infraction, they had to run up and down stairs and perform other physical punishment. And they were subjected to endless hours of what are called security checks. And that’s when the E-Meter is used as a lie detector. The whole purpose of the RPF was to break the will of someone who is assigned.

If someone objected to the RPF, or for some other minor infraction, they could be assigned to the RPF’s RPF, which was an even more degrading experience. The person was guarded fulltime and could not speak. And this could go on for an indeterminate amount of time. Anyone who wanted to leave was locked up.

The RPF ate after the rest of the Sea Org crew ate, whatever was left. So it was meant to be a degrading experience.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: You were recruited in 1969 and, in 1971, you were intelligence officer, though you started as a dishwasher, so what kind of special gifts you had that Hubbard liked you so much, appointed you to such a high …?

GA: I was actually the intelligence officer beginning in 1974. And I really don’t know why, except that I was very compliant, and I had basic street sense, street smarts, and I had been, by that time, I had been inside for 5 years, and had, in that capacity, already dealt with outside people in my capacity as Legal Officer and then Public Relations Officer.

I knew how to write, and I had very high test scores, so I think that Hubbard and his people took these things into account. They needed somebody and, by a series of ironies, they decided on me. At that time too, I also had an affinity for intelligence, so I was not a security risk. And I think I was simply in either the right or the wrong place at the right or wrong time, depending on how you look at it.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: Do you have some sense of disappointment that, perhaps you had your own plans for life, your own kind of ideas, and then you kind of spent all your life fighting against Scientology? Is there a sense of disappointment and, perhaps, there is no time for you to look more into Christianity? Is there a kind of disappointment that your life was somehow wasted fighting Scientology?

GA: When I reflect on it, there are times when, naturally, I have some regret about the precarious situation that I’m in. But when I reflect a little deeper, I have to be grateful for the experience that I was given, and the opportunity that I have even now. It is something that no one has to do. You don’t have to go to prison to experience freedom, but at the same time, you can get out of the prison experience something that is valuable and, in this case, something which can help others so they don’t have to do it. So in that sense, I don’t consider that my life is a total waste.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: Are there social networks on the Internet that are created by Scientology and supported by Scientology?

GA: Yes there are. Scientology has a very large Internet presence. It has agents on the Internet. It hires outside professionals, computer Internet security professionals, and they use the Internet to attack their opponents. But the Internet is a great leveling of the battlefield. And because Scientology’s opposition has truth on its side, then ultimately the Internet and all forms of communication assist the opposition more than they assist Scientology.

AD: But, Gerry, the question was, you know, social networks like Twitter, or something, I’m not very familiar with them, but you know there are social networks where people communicate. Are there such things created by Scientology?

GA: I don’t think that they have separate networks. But they use those networks, they use those forums.  They have their in house network, which is not accessible. So they are connected themselves.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: Since you saw the documents of Hubbard, what’s more in Hubbard’s personal diaries. Is it more Satanism and occultism coming from Parsons or more “science fiction” fantasies of Hubbard himself? That’s the first question.

Second question: Apparently, he [audience member]says Scientology spends about half of its budget for legal matters, legal issues, to fight its opponents, and he says that Scientology puts a lot of money into recruiting legal students in Russia. So, what’s your assessment, you know, how much they spend on recruitment?

GA: The documents that I had possession of, and many of them were entered into evidence in the first case in which Scientology sued me, they do expose Hubbard’s occult past, his occult writings. And there were some very important documents like that which affected me greatly. These were documents which are often called Affirmations or Admissions. This is a record that Hubbard kept in which he programmed himself. And he writes such things as “Men are my slaves.” So they are the writing of a person who is trying to program power into himself. It’s an occult practice. And the documents also expose his relationship with Parsons and Crowley. They expose his own considerations about his sexual prowess and sexual inadequacy. There is evidence there of his drug consumption, and even while he was on the ship many years after this, he was dosing himself with testosterone. In my observation, that’s how he maintained his aggressive nature, and his bulk. He was a very big, bulky man, but he gave the signs of someone who was taking hormones.

His science fiction sort of writings appear in what are called the OT or Operating Thetan levels. He was, of course, a science fiction writer during the time he was starting Scientology. And even during the last eight years, nine years of his life, he wrote more science fiction. In fact he turned, you may know the Xenu story, but he turned that story into a novel and a screenplay. He gave it the title “Revolt in the Stars” and he attempted to have a movie made with his screenplay. I had the job, just after I was out of the RPF in December 1977, I had the task of editing and proofreading the 2 manuscripts.

He also, you probably know, wrote “Battlefield Earth”, which was turned into one of the world’s worst movies. And then he wrote, just towards the end of his life, the book “Mission Earth”, which was divided into 10 books. There are aspects of science fiction and his science fiction fantasies which go throughout Scientology. Right in Scientology scripture, there are stories of the Marcabians, the Fifth Invaders, the Fourth Invaders, but in the personal archive documents which I had possession of, they were not concerned with science fiction of that nature, but definitely dealt with his occult period, his occult practices.

Did I answer?

Audience member (in Russian): Thank you very much.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: So then about Scientology programs. If they spend half of their budget for fighting the opponents, then how much is left for recruitment?

GA: Okay, I do not believe that they spend anywhere near half of their budget on legal matters. Just on me, they have probably spent $5 million on legal fees. And they do maintain a network of highly priced lawyers around the world. I had not before considered what you said about them recruiting among legal students, but that makes a lot of sense, and I could believe that they would have a program like that. They do spend a lot of money on marketing. They just purchased a massive printing and publishing company in Los Angeles. They just purchased an operating television station in Los Angeles. They already had a fairly large film studio and, of course, they have connections into virtually all the film studios in Hollywood. And the amount of publishing that they do is enormous. But I do not know the specifics of their budget.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: So for a long time you knew Hubbard. So what was he like in personal relationship and how did he treat people who surrounded him?

GA: Everyone who was close to him, who worked with him, kept him in a degree of awe. He could be very charming. He was certainly charismatic, almost hypnotic. At the same time he had a hair-trigger anger, and if he was displeased in any way, he could become violent in a flash.

There was a study which was done within the last few years of his personality, and he was identified as a malignant narcissist. So he was ruthless regarding anyone who crossed him in any way.

Now I see him as a gargantuan liar. That was the key aspect of his personality and the way he dealt with people and the way he handled problems in life. When everything is added up, I see him, from my study, and my understanding of psychology, as a rather classic sociopath. And he got many people under his spell. But when you broke from his spell, then he became a violent enemy.

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: You said that, in 1993, America changed, began to cooperate with Scientology. Can you tell in detail what happened then, how did it happen and who was responsible for this decision? Do you have any names perhaps?  It could be that even the President of the US at that time was …

GA: Clinton.

AD: …was responsible?

(Question from the audience in Russian)

AD: So he [audience member] asked about Russia. He said, “Well, you asked me later about Russia.”

GA: Up until 1993, the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service, had denied Scientology tax exemption. Scientology or Scientologists under the direction of Scientology had filed over 2,000 lawsuits against the IRS. Each one of those lawsuits would require an attorney be assigned from the US Justice Department. So, it was costing the federal government an incredible amount of money to defend these lawsuits. Litigation in the United States is very costly, so when the IRS granted tax exemption, Scientology dismissed all these lawsuits. So that’s one factor.

Scientology as I mentioned, is an intelligence organization. They were investigating everyone in the IRS. They were recruiting whistleblowers.

AD: Whistleblowers? Like private investigators?

GA: Former IRS employees who had information which was damaging to the IRS. They had private investigators investigating the IRS. And I don’t have any specific information about what they found on IRS agents or the people who control the IRS, but there’s a great deal of speculation that they had damaging information on the Director of the IRS and other IRS agents.

So that’s a second factor.

And the third factor has to do with the US intelligence community seeing this as a strategic decision which benefited the United States because it would potentially create an alliance which would–there is a friendly relationship and a contractual relationship between Scientology and the IRS. So there’s the opportunity which I mentioned for a flow of intelligence between Scientology to the IRS to the federal government. There are Scientology high tech firms which are involved in communication security. They are the kind of firms that the federal government would like to have on their side.

So all of these factors add up to that decision, and, of course, all national governments form alliances with very unsavory countries, unsavory dictators, and the US has certainly done that historically, so this is not a particularly exceptional strategic decision to make.

What is exceptional about it is that it further victimizes the US’s own citizens.

AD: All about the person. At what level this decision was taken. Was the President responsible?

GA: Well, on paper at least, the decision was made by the Director of the IRS. But it is also known that the President at the time, Bill Clinton, had a very friendly relationship with Scientology. And the Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, under Bill Clinton, acted for Scientology. The decision is so important that it seems impossible that the President didn’t know, or that the intelligence community didn’t know, the FBI didn’t know, the CIA didn’t know. The only thing that makes sense is that they all knew, they all agreed. They all came to that decision.

AD: I think that was the last question.

(Applause)

Vice-Rector, Father Georgiy Orekhanov (in Russian, translated by AD):

I think it will be a common opinion that today’s meeting had a unique character. We received a very unique person. And we all became his friends, with all the consequences following it.

(Laughter followed by applause)

And we’ll be very happy to have you as our guest as often as possible each time you will come to Russia. Thank you very much for your exciting story and for answering questions.  And welcome to St. Tikhon’s!

(Applause)

GA: Thank you, and thank you all.

2:12 -End-

Gerry Armstrong’s Truth about Scientology
by Alexander Filippov

May 20, 2011

Gerry Armstrong, former personal secretary to L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology, spoke on May 18 at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University.  The meeting was attended by clergy, professors, university staff and many guests.

Gerry Armstrong

The university lecture room was completely filled with people and those for whom there weren’t enough seats stood in the aisle.  The meeting lasted over two hours and translation was provided by Alexander Dvorkin, a scholar at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University who specializes in nontraditional religious movements and sects.

The Scientology sect has spread throughout the world and the organization collects information about its members which it uses to totally control all aspects of their lives, leaving them no possibility of privacy.

Mr. Armstrong’s testimony and analysis are very important for gaining a true understanding of the Scientology organization, its development, its doctrine, its crimes, the scale of its expansion and the ways to combat it because, having been secretary to Hubbard for many years, he possesses full and accurate information.

Gerry Armstrong spoke about the doctrine and the history of the “Church of Scientology”, one of the most dangerous cults in the world today, about the threat the sect poses for private individuals and for society as a whole, and about his work in this organization, his personal impressions of his encounters with Hubbard, the contents of Hubbard’s personal documents, his escape from the totalitarian organization, and the fight that ensued.

Biography of Mr. Armstrong, former personal secretary to L. Ron Hubbard

“I got into the Scientology cult in 1969 and, in 1971, I joined the “Sea Organization” (which runs the sect around the world).  I was sent to the ship which Hubbard was on and there I became a dishwasher, then a storesman, and the ship’s driver for a little car we had on board.  In 1972, I became the legal officer.  Then I became responsible for public relations and for the organization’s intelligence department.

“But sometime later I was locked up in a secret prison and ’sentenced’ to confinement in the ‘Rehabilitation Project Force’ (RPF), which is like a reeducation camp (the very existence of the RPF should be grounds for citizens of all countries to recognize the threat the cult poses to human rights).  When the punishment was over, I was again working with Hubbard”, said Armstrong.

The cult’s reeducation camps

Hubbard created Scientology’s reeducation camps in 1974.  People could be sent there if he thought they weren’t working hard enough, if someone looked the wrong way or laughed at him, or for a simple movement of the needle on an electropsychometer (E-meter).  The electro-psychometer was “invented” by Hubbard and is a primitive lie detector; it has a display with a needle and two tin can electrodes through which a current passes.

Persons subjected to punishment were not allowed to speak, except to answer questions.  They wore a special black outfit.   For any “crime”, they had to run up and down stairs or perform other physical punishment.  They were fed leftovers from the plates of Sea Organization members.  The purpose of the camp was to break the will of the inmate.  A person who objected to anything during the punishment would be kept under surveillance 24 hours a day.  Victims were generally forbidden to speak and the duration of confinement was not specified at all.

“When Hubbard thought I was joking about how he made films, I was again sent to the RPF.  This time I spent 8 months there.  Then I started working at the Scientology headquarters in California.”

During searches, U.S. police found documents that resulted in jail sentences for certain Scientologists, so when it became known in 1979 that a new search was imminent, Armstrong was ordered to destroy all of L. Ron Hubbard’s documents.

At that time, all members of the sect were afraid the FBI would search the headquarters.  Hubbard gave orders to destroy all personal documents that incriminated him.  Armstrong and his subordinates faithfully searched for documents and destroyed them, until one of his juniors found about 20 boxes of various documents relating to Hubbard’s youth, including personal diaries.  Armstrong said the documents were very valuable and should not be destroyed.  He petitioned Hubbard to authorize the preparation of a new biography.

Ironically, Hubbard approved the petition, and Mr. Armstrong spent two years collecting documents.  During this work, Armstrong said, “I actually deprogrammed myself, realizing that the leader’s every word was a lie.”  It turned out that he was not a hero, he spent the entire war on the home front, evading military service, he was not a nuclear physicist, he was not injured and he did not receive 27 medals for bravery.

L. Ron Hubbard

The truth about L. Ron Hubbard

Gerry Armstrong described his impressions about working with L. Ron Hubbard and the reasons for which he decided to escape from the sect. “When I realized that Hubbard was a pathological liar,” said Armstrong, “Scientology fell apart for me.”"The diaries I had with me after escaping and which I used in the courts against the cult show the connection between Hubbard and occultism.  There were also documents called ‘affirmations’ that Hubbard used to program himself with a certain emotional momentum, for example, by reciting the phrase: ‘All people are my slaves.’

“The diaries also document his connection with Parsons and describe his sexual perversions.  In addition, Hubbard was a drug addict and he pumped himself up with testosterone, which further increased his aggressiveness.  All this is laid out in the documents.  He gave the impression of a man strung out on hormones,” confided Armstrong.

According to Armstrong, Hubbard was a narcissist and a sociopath: “He certainly had a certain charm, when he wanted to, but he constantly kept everyone under pressure and, if something wasn’t to his liking, he would throw a terrible tantrum.  Hubbard was ruthless with anyone who said anything contrary to his opinion.  He was a pathological liar on a gargantuan scale, a classic sociopath.”

What influenced Hubbard more: delusions or Satanism?  In response to this question, Armstrong said that Hubbard wrote a lot of fiction; he was not connected with the Masons.  The real source of Scientology is a direct relationship with occultism and Satanism, which he picked up from Parsons, a devotee of European Satanist Aleister Crowley.

From the sect to Christianity

Having decided to act against the terrifying Scientology machine, Armstrong realized that all the anger of this aggressive organization would be unleashed against him.  “Because I knew too much, I would have been locked up again and I would not have come out alive.  I thought of escaping and I managed to escape,” said Mr. Armstrong.

As expected, the organization began its fight against the escapee.  The first lawsuit was initiated in 1984 and, since then, the organization has considered Gerry Armstrong its number one enemy. There have been six attempts on his life in the U.S. and in Germany.  A campaign of “black PR” is being waged against him on the internet.

Armstrong said that, after he left the sect, he became a Christian and found the truth: “God is truth. I thank God for this experience, which allowed me to appreciate the value of freedom.  My task is to do my utmost so that other people do not lose this freedom.”

Mr. Armstrong described how the cult prosecuted him in America.  A U.S. court handed down an absurd decision that stipulates Mr. Armstrong has no right to even utter the word “Scientology”, and that whenever he pronounces the word “Scientology”, he has to pay a fifty thousand dollar fine.  “So our meeting today is very valuable,” joked Armstrong.  This decision also applies to individuals and legal entities “who act in concert with Mr. Armstrong”, for example, said Armstrong: St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, which invited him to Russia, the St. Irenaeus of Lyon Center and the entire Russian Orthodox Church.  While he is not allowed to speak, the cult is allowed to say whatever it wishes about Mr. Armstrong.

Father Georgiy Orekhanov asked how American democracy could produce such a wild court decision.

Father Georgiy Orekhanov

The guest speaker replied: “Due to corruption and pressure on the court, with the help of embarrassing material gathered by the cult’s intelligence agents.”

How is Scientology a threat to individuals and to the world?

Speaking about the dangers of Scientology, Armstrong said that Scientology destroys the morals and the psyche of an individual, replacing human principles by Hubbard’s system of values.  It destroys families and can ruin businesses.  It is a threat to the societies and to the countries in which it operates.  The cult’s methods violate laws and human rights at all levels: from total espionage to direct crimes such as kidnapping people, holding them in Scientology prisons, and even murder.

“Scientology continues to be incredibly dangerous, but we – those who fight the cult – are not going away.  However, it would be wrong to think that our victory is near.  They have not yet won, but they haven’t lost,” warned Armstrong.

The organization is in a state of war with the entire world: “The first thing a new Scientologist learns is that Scientology is at war.”

One of the elements of Scientology doctrine is the policy concerning “suppressive persons” – people who are supposedly to blame for all the troubles on earth.  Scientologists are supposed to subject them to “Fair Game”, whereby cult members must strive to inflict maximum damage to “suppressive persons”, to seize their property and, if necessary, to kill them.  The list of people that Scientologists believe are the cause of all misfortunes includes, for example, critics of Scientology such as Gerry Armstrong and Alexander Dvorkin.

Answering a question from the pravmir.ru correspondent about how Scientology obtained its tax exemption from the U.S. government, Armstrong cited four factors.

First factor. Scientologists filed more than two thousand lawsuits against the U.S. government.  For each of these claims, the U.S. Department of Justice had to appoint a lawyer.  These lawsuits were costing the government a great deal of money.  When tax-exempt status was granted, Scientology withdrew the lawsuits.

Second factor. Scientologists researched the biographies of all high officials of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), they hired former IRS personnel and they paid for any information that could undermine the IRS, hiring private investigators to follow the officials.  “I have no information concerning exactly what they learned about the officials, but they probably found compromising evidence.”

Third factor. In Armstrong’s opinion, the decision was influenced by America’s intelligence agencies (FBI and CIA), who considered that the information the sect could provide the government might be useful.  This would not be a historical first.  It is possible for the government to make agreements with dictators and even with socially dangerous organizations.

Fourth factor. On paper, the decision was made by the director of the IRS.  However, it is known that then U.S. President Bill Clinton had friendly relations with the cult and that his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was actively defending its interests.  The decision to cooperate with the Scientology cult was so important that it would be absolutely unbelievable to assume that the President, the Secretary of State, and the heads of the intelligence agencies did not know about it.  We must assume that they knew about it and agreed with it.

Scientologists hire experts in the field of internet technologies and they use the personal data that trusting account holders share in social networks such as Facebook or vkontakte.ru: “I don’t think they operate their own social networks, but they use all the available ones.”

In 2010, a court handed down a ruling which said that Scientologists have the right to forcibly hold people and, if they escape, to pursue and capture them.  The basis for this decision is that this “is a matter of religious doctrine”.

“It is clear why Scientology chooses to be called a religion.  In America, this allows it to bully people and violate human rights, if it is written in religious scripture,” explained Armstrong. “I will also speak about this with the Ministry of Justice of Russia,” said Gerry Armstrong, elaborating on the plans for his visit to Russia.

Russia and Scientology – Who will win?

Despite all the power of this totalitarian sect, the Scientology “church” can be defeated.  Gerry Armstrong sees the proof of this in what he has witnessed during his lifetime: “More and more people today know the truth about this organization.”  Armstrong came to Russia to help prevent the spread of Scientology in our country.

Link to a complete audio recording of Gerry Armstrong’s May 18, 2011 conference at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University:
http://media.pravmir.ru/mp3/armst.mp3
Duration: 2 hours 11 min. 57 sec.

Gerry Armstrong: “A U.S. court has authorized the Scientology cult to forcibly retain its recalcitrant members”

by Stanislav Kolotvin
Photos by Alisa Merkulova
May 19, 2011

Gerry Armstrong is in Russia for what is already the fourth time. He has previously traveled to cities such as Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Nizhny Novgorod. Each of his visits has, like the past 30 years of his life, been devoted to exposing the true nature of the Scientology sect, a task for which Mr. Armstrong uses the documents he has preserved concerning the activities of L. Ron Hubbard.

The central theme of Mr. Armstrong’s lecture, which was translated by his longtime friend, Professor Alexander Dvorkin, head of sectarian studies at Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University, was Scientology’s doctrine regarding “suppressive persons” – the evildoers and psychopaths who are to blame for all the troubles on earth. However, among the people that Scientologists have put on this list, there are no criminals or even mentally ill persons. All “suppressive persons” are critics of Scientology, such as Mr. Armstrong. According to the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard, whose word, for Scientologists, is sacred and requires compliance, “suppressive persons” are subject to the doctrine of “Fair Game”, according to which any suppressive person becomes a “legitimate prey” for Scientologists. It is incumbent on followers of the sect to strive to seize the person’s property and, if necessary, to physically destroy an opponent. The “suppressive person” doctrine is highly reminiscent of the Nazi theory regarding “subhumans”.

After he left the sect, Gerry Armstrong was declared a “suppressive person” and there have been six attempts on his life in the U.S. and in Germany. In addition, a campaign of “black PR” has been waged against him for many years on the internet, and Scientologists brought lawsuits against him in the U.S. and complained about him to the FBI and even to courts in Yekaterinburg. Five million dollars were spent over 30 years for the services of lawyers around the world whose sole concern was to send Mr. Armstrong to jail on fabricated charges!

The reason for which Scientologists have no scruples about the means they use to fight against Gerry Armstrong becomes clear when one considers his biography. Mr. Armstrong became involved with the sect in 1969 and he began working in a low-paid post as a dishwasher. However, he quickly rose through Scientology’s ranks of Scientology and he was soon accepted into the “Sea Organization”, which united the members of the sect who were close to Hubbard. In 1972, he became head of legal services, and, in 1974, he was the head of Scientology’s own intelligence service. Throughout this time, Armstrong was on Hubbard’s personal ship, the “Apollo”, as the sect’s founder sailed along the European coast (with the exception of 1973, when Hubbard was convicted of fraud in France). Armstrong was soon entrusted with a mission to go to Los Angeles and establish a central Scientology base there, but he got into an argument with the secretary of Hubbard’s third wife and was sent to the so-called “Rehabilitation Project Force” (RPF), a kind of Scientology gulag.

The RPF is designed to break a person’s will. Offending Scientologists are assigned the dirtiest and heaviest labor, and they are forbidden to speak to other sect members, except to answer questions. He literally had to eat the food left in plates by others after their meals. He did not have the right to walk normally; he could only run. His already low Scientology wages were reduced and, during his 17 months in the RPF, Mr. Armstrong received 4 U.S. dollars and 30 cents a week. For the slightest offense, RPF inmates were forced to run to exhaustion up and down stairs. The duration of stay in the RPF was not specified at all, but only depended on the mood of the sect’s leaders.

At the end of his first assignment to the RPF, Armstrong was entrusted with organizing the shooting of films about Hubbard, but the sect’s founder soon thought that Armstrong was allowing himself to refer jokingly to these films, so Hubbard again ordered the offender to the RPF. After 8 months of confinement, Armstrong oversaw the creation of Scientology’s current headquarters in California.

During searches in 1977, American police uncovered documents that resulted in jail sentences for 11 high-ranking Scientologists, led by Hubbard’s third wife. When it became known in 1979 that a new search was imminent, Armstrong was ordered to destroy all documents that compromised L. Ron Hubbard. He faithfully executed the order, until he found about 20 boxes of various old documents, including Hubbard’s personal diaries. He did not destroy them because he felt they had historical value, and he requested that he be assigned to the drafting of a new autobiography of the sect’s founder. It is at this point that the total deception on which Scientology is built was unveiled to Armstrong.

He had previously admired Hubbard as a nuclear physicist, as a recipient of 27 senior military awards that he supposedly earned at the sacrifice of his health (including his eyesight, which was miraculously restored), as the author of numerous scientific studies, as an exemplary family man. Now he had before him evidence that Hubbard sat out the war on the home front, was expelled from his second year of university, and abducted his own children from different marriages. Armstrong realized that he had wasted 12 years of his life, that after a thousand hours of Scientology “auditing” procedures, his IQ had not increased at the promised rate of 1 point per hour, and that he had not received the promised super-powers.

Armstrong thought about everything and he fled from the sect in 1982. He immediately became the target of lawsuits. Scientology lost the first case, but then came a series of absurd court rulings, one of which allows Mr. Armstrong to be fined fifty thousand dollars for each utterance of the word “Scientology” or for mentioning any of the members of the sect or any organization that cooperates with Scientology. The same fine, according to the court order, applies to all individuals and organizations that cooperate and are in agreement with Mr. Armstrong, for example the Russian Orthodox Church and the police of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Mr. Armstrong explained why the U.S. federal government, which had previously opposed Scientology, decided in 1993 to make it an ally. One reason was the activities of the Scientologists to undermine the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and its upper management. After 1993, the IRS began providing help to Scientologists, a complete reversal. But the main reason for U.S. cooperation with Scientology is the sect’s mode of operation. During the “auditing” procedure (for which each session costs a considerable amount of money), all members of the sect have to give an account of themselves to their seniors and to disclose the most secret and embarrassing aspects of their lives and of the lives of their relatives and friends. Their revelations are recorded on audio and in writing and then transferred to the sect’s headquarters in California. Scientologists thus possess intelligence from around the world. Since Scientologists primarily try to attract influential persons – intelligence specialists, famous actors, business people and politicians – it becomes clear why the U.S. government has so zealously been trying to aid the spread of Scientology.

However, by working with Scientologists, the United States is betraying its own citizens. In 2010, a U.S. court handed down a ruling according to which Scientologists may legally hold recalcitrant members of their sect in custody and forcibly take them back if they escape! In addition, U.S. authorities support a number of committees established by Scientologists which supposedly fight for human rights and even help … victims of Scientology!

During Mr. Armstrong’s conference at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, the lecture hall was full and people were standing in the aisles. The main part of his talk ended with a long round of applause and the speaker was then bombarded with questions. Responding to one question, for example, Mr. Armstrong explained how Scientology is dangerous to sect members themselves – it is dangerous for their mental health, it destroys their families, their financial savings disappear with the ever-growing number of costly hypnotic procedures, and cult members mobilize to fight against “suppressive persons”.

When asked about the number of people fleeing the sect, the lecturer said that the scale is difficult to evaluate because Scientologists have many levers to force these people to remain silent: the compromising information collected during their time in the sect, death threats, restricting contact with relatives who remain in the sect. News of senior members leaving the sect resonates more loudly. Books have recently been published by four persons who not very long ago belonged to Scientology’s elite. True information about Scientology is the best way to prevent its spread in Europe and Russia, but Scientologists are now directing their efforts toward third world countries where knowledge of the cult’s sad reputation has not yet gotten through.

The university’s guest also mentioned that, during this visit, he will meet with officials of Russia’s Ministry of Justice to offer advice in connection with complaints against Russia filed at the Strasbourg court by Scientologists.

Summing up the evening, the Vice-Rector of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, Archpriest Georgiy Orekhanov, said that all those assembled are, of course, Mr. Armstrong’s friends, with all the judicial consequences this entails, and that the university’s administration would be glad to have him as a guest whenever he decides to come back to Russia.

Former personal secretary to Scientology founder at St. Tikhon’s University

by Alexander Filippov,
Student at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University
May 19, 2011

Gerry Armstrong, former personal secretary to Ron Hubbard, founder of the “Church of Scientology”, spoke at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University on May 18 at 7 P.M. The meeting was attended by university teachers and associates and by numerous guests. The hall was filled to capacity and the meeting lasted two hours.

Gerry Armstrong

During his talk, Gerry Armstrong spoke about the history of the “Church of Scientology “, one of the most dangerous cults in the world today, and about his work in this organization, his personal impressions of his encounters with Hubbard, the contents of Hubbard’s personal documents, his escape from the totalitarian organization, and his subsequent fight against it.

Gerry Armstrong answered many questions from the audience. He spoke about the danger that the sect poses for private individuals and for society as a whole.  In particular, he explained how cooperation began between the cult and the U.S. government in 1993 and how security services, as well as then U.S. President Bill Clinton and his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, were involved in taking the decision regarding this cooperation..

Gerry Armstrong will meet on May 19 with officials of the Russian Ministry of Justice to provide information for combatting the spread of this destructive organization in Russia.

Meeting with former Hubbard archivist and biographer Gerry Armstrong

by Father Konstantin Ivanchenko
May 19, 2011  2:32 A.M.

Alexander Dvorkin invited Father Alexei Volkov and us to a meeting with Gerry Armstrong at St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University, where we are studying.

Gerry Armstrong is the former archivist of Ron Hubbard, the founder of the American totalitarian sect, the “Church of Scientology”.  At the end of 1981, he left the sect and devoted his life to aiding those who suffer from this organization.

The meeting was interesting, even though Alexander Dvorkin long ago described the key biographical details in his book “Sectarian Studies” and in his publications.  I won’t summarize the talk or the questions and answers here because this will probably be posted on the website of the St. Irenaeus of Lyons Centre, which also announced the meeting.  If a report doesn’t appear there in the coming week, I will try to write one.

[Omitted: 2 paragraphs in which the author says that, after the meeting, he found photos of the Moscow Scientology Centre and of John Travolta.]

On Sunday, we should have another meeting with Gerry Armstrong.

Gerry Armstrong speaking. Alexander Dvorkin provided translation.

The lecture hall was packed with people.

“DO, yourself, much MORE CHARGING, and you will WIN.”—LRH

Among all the astonishing incidents I’ve been in at Scientology protests or pickets, this is astonishing.

It was August 21 at the Vancouver org in the early afternoon, a perfect summer day and there were 8 or 10 of us, excellent wogs all, protesting our masks off.

Except perhaps to quibbling orienteers, the org is on the northwest corner of Hastings Street and Homer Street. Most of the protesting, flyering, dancing, cake, etc. happens  at the front entrance on Hastings, which runs more or less east and west.

There’s a side entrance into the org on Homer, which runs more or less north and south. Go south and downhill a block and a bit and you reach Burrard Inlet. That day, the Coral Princess was in town.

There’s also an entrance from the alley at the rear of the building. Some of the Scientologists use the side or rear entrances during protests to avoid having to confront the evil SP protestors, and I suppose to avoid too having to shatter us. The protestors, of course, know about the Scientologists’ covert entrances and often catch them coming and going despite the Scientologists’ best avoidance tech.

I sometimes walk around during protests and check out the org’s building, the condition of the paint or bricks, accumulations of dirt, weeds and other crap, or anything new or interesting, and I sometimes take photos.

On that occasion, I started wandering downhill on Homer and spotted 3 Vancouver Scientologists, who, I’m pretty sure, were staff members, at the side entrance, waiting for someone to let them in.

It was a clear organization failure that these 3 Vantologists were stranded on the sidewalk out in the open where the SPs could see them, but I didn’t rub it in at all. There were 3 ladies and they turned their backs to me, as Scientologists often or standardly do when SPs like me are somewhere near. I took a pic without much of an attempt to engage them in conversation as I passed by.

To me, it was pretty goofy that these people were waiting enturbulatedly at a locked door when they could walk in through the unlocked front entrance. This sort of thing happens in Scientology when some in-charge, or org program director, or the cult head himself, issues an order, which was probably dumb to begin with, but doesn’t get changed even when it becomes clear it was dumb.

So here, for example, org personnel had at one time been ordered to use the side entrance during protests, since, someone observed, protestors are always at the front. Except, the protestors, who include, I’m sure, rocket scientists, had actually figured this stratagem out. And sometimes, as on this occasion, because the doorman who has to unlock the door when someone knocks has left his post, the knockers are left knocking.

After passing the ladies, I turned into the alley at the back of the org, which runs more or less east and west between Homer and Richards Street. The buildings on both sides of the alley have some well worth viewing graffiti, although the constant and oppressive urine smell doesn’t make it a destination for many tourists. That block of alley was recently paved, but the paving hadn’t reduced, and probably increased, the pissoir problem. Well, there hadn’t been a good rain really in some weeks. The org’s rear entrance is arrowed in this pic, which looks from the Homer corner down the alley to Richards.

As I entered the alley, I noticed a guy standing if the rear entrance, which was open, and he noticed me. The rear entrance was doubtlessly a truck loading dock or platform in the building’s pre-Scientology history.  There’s a drop of about 2 feet straight down to the asphalt. I think the building, which is brick, and actually a few bricks loose of an ideal org , used to be Peoples Credit Jewellers.

It isn’t very often that org personnel appear at the rear entrance, and I thought it was a good image and began to frame it, when the guy yelled at me something like, “Don’t you dare photograph her. She’s doing a religious practice.” Then immediately he jumped down into the alley and charged at me. He had a black shirt and tan pants and a ring of keys on his belt, so I thought he was probably security.

He ran right at me and threw a palm-first punch at me, stopping just an inch or two from my face. I remember he had what seemed then immense hands, and he was a big guy, much bigger then I am. I think my camera was somewhere near my eyes, because I got the idea of him smashing it into my face.

As he charged me and punched at me, he yelled again something like, “She’s doing a religious practice. Don’t you dare photograph her. She’s on a religious practice.” He repeated this theme I believe four times during our confrontation, which lasted a maximum of half a minute.

I held my ground reasonably well as he charged, punched, and then held his hand in my face for a couple of seconds. His body seemed to shake as if he was restraining himself with great will power from totally shattering me.  I was actually dumbfounded, and rendered virtually speechless, even though I thought of saying something about not laying a finger on me  not to touch me because legal repercussions. Mainly I was trying to divine what he was so charged up about.

My first thought was that he was talking about one of the 3 ladies I’d just walked by and photographed at the side entrance. I supposed in a flash that he could have been instructed that waiting outside a church is religious practice, or religious exercise, and that photographing a person waiting at a church was a crime, and he could punish that crime. But I also reasoned in another flash that even if waiting was a sacrament, photographing waiters on public sidewalks, or even from public sidewalks, couldn’t conceivably be a crime, or violate any of the waiters’ rights, most definitely their right to wait.

In a couple more flashes, however, I realized that the guy was referring to a runner, a young lady, who was just then turning around at the other end of the alley at Richards and running back to the org. The guy realized I had just cognited that it was the runner he’d been talking about, and he positioned his body in the alley between me and the young lady.

Because of this Scientology bad religious cop’s severe aggression, and the incredibleness of this data, I wanted to get a pic of his face, but he knew this so kept his back turned to me. I waited him out, however, and my camera was ready when he glanced back once to check on me.  A Scientology PI had similarly charged me with his head down in 1982, and tried to keep his back to me to prevent a photo of his face.

Then I got a pic of the alley Scientologist holding me back as the running lady approaches in the alley. By this time, I’m thinking that she’s probably on the Purif, Scientology’s “Purification Rundown,” and this is her running step. She could have been running laps in the alley as punishment, as laps are run in the RPF, but it seemed most likely that she was running as part of the Purif Program she’d bought.

Scientology inventor L. Ron Hubbard stated in scripture that the purpose of running on the Purif is “to get the blood circulating and the system functioning so that impurities held in the system can be released and are pumped out.” Running, of course, necessarily increases respiration, over, for example, walking. And running in the alley, which increased the inhalation of the pissy, reeking alley air, just to avoid SPs, felt sad and cruel to me.

The young lady quickly arrived at the rear entrance, the guy directed her inside, and she leapt up the loading platform and disappeared into the org.The guy strode right behind her, also leapt up and closed the rear doors behind him.

I’m a runner, and I do much of my running in the mountains on trails, but sometimes I run around cities, including Vancouver.  I’ve related my running experience to Scientology’s Purif, and written down some of my thoughts. In the late 1970’s at the int base at Gilman Hotsprings I actually did the program. Then in the late 1980’s I picked up running, without the rest of the Purif. Running honestly works! Scientology honestly doesn’t.

There are runners I’ve encountered who viewed running as a spiritual experience, or even as their own personal spiritual experience, particularly I think trail runners. My position is that spirituality in running is as spiritual as spirituality can be in any other human activity. But no matter how spiritual we runners thought running was, or even if some runners thought it was religious practice, nobody ever thought runners were not to be photographed.

This poor guy had been given this whacky computation that he aligned with his SP doctrine implant, resulting in his bizarre and dangerous behavior. The doctrine had left the 3 ladies in waitingness. The young lady’s need to do her running step when aligned with the SP doctrine made her run back and forth in the stinking alley, and leap inside to avoid friendly fellow Canucks. There are all sorts of friendlier places and safer spaces to run to from the org if people need to get their blood circulating and their system functioning.