Cults Inside Out: How People Get in and Can Get Out

by Rick Alan Ross

Historically L. Ron Hubbard is a controversial figure. In the introduction to his book about Hubbard and Scientology titled Bare-Faced Messiah, author Russell Miller writes, “Scientology has vigorously promoted an image of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, as a romantic adventurer and philosopher whose early life fortuitously prepared him, in the manner of Jesus Christ, for his declared mission to save the world. The glorification of ‘Ron,’ superman and savior, required a cavalier disregard for facts: Thus it is that every biography of Hubbard published by the church is interwoven with lies, half-truths and ludicrous embellishments.”859 L. Ron Hubbard claimed to be a nuclear physicist and said he had traveled into outer space without his body. California superior court judge Paul Brekenridge described Hubbard as “a pathological liar.”860

  Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska, on March 13, 1911. After “flunking out” of George Washington University in 1932, he became a “pulp fiction writer.”861 In 1950 Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, proclaiming it was “a milestone for man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of the wheel and arch.”862 The book became a best seller and spawned “Dianetics groups” across the United States.863 Eventually, what had started out as a self-improvement program became a religion. Hubbard’s son said his father “told [him] and a lot of other people that the way to make a million was to start a religion.”864 In 1954 Hubbard launched the Church of Scientology.

  L. Ron Hubbard taught that the human spirit is immortal and lives on through many lifetimes. He wrote that Scientology is “the means to attain true spiritual freedom and immortality.”865 Purportedly this goal is accomplished through Scientology courses, training, and what is called “auditing” or “spiritual counseling.”866 One of Hubbard’s pivotal points to explain the need for such auditing is the continuing influence of ancient spirits.

  Hubbard wrote that Xenu (pronounced Zee-new), “the head of the galactic federation” seventy-five million years ago, to resolve an overpopulation problem, killed millions of people by blowing them up volcanically on earth. Xenu then packaged their disembodied spirits in “clusters” so that many spirits could live on in one body. Hubbard labeled these spirits “body thetans” or BTs.867 The story about Xenu and details concerning BTs are disclosed to Scientologists when they reach a certain level of training known as OT-3 (Operating Thetan Level 3).868 At that point Scientologists learn how Hubbard’s teachings can free them from the influence of these ancient, shackled spirits.

  Along this prescribed path, or what is called the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” a Scientologist eventually reaches what is called the state of “clear” and then begins to move on through the various Operating Thetan (OT) levels, which are graded from OT-1 through OT-8. The story of Xenu is strictly withheld until a Scientologist reaches OT-3; only then can it be shared, despite its substantial importance within Scientology‘s belief system.

  David Touretzky, avid researcher of Scientology and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told the New Yorker that to pay for the course work and auditing necessary to reach the “upper levels,” it could potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.869 When asked about Scientology, Cynthia Kisser, the executive director of an organization devoted to exposing cults, told Time magazine, “No cult extracts more money from its members.”870

  When L. Ron Hubbard died at the age of seventy-four in 1986, he reportedly “left behind a $640 million dollar fortune.”871 According to the coroner’s report, Hubbard apparently took an antianxiety drug hydroxyzine (Vistaril); his assistants reportedly said that this was “only one of many psychiatric and pain medications Hubbard ingested over the years.”872 This is an interesting detail considering that Scientology, as ordained by its founder, is generally an outspoken critic of psychiatry, psychiatrists, psychiatric medications, and mental health professionals.

  1995—The Death of Lisa McPherson

  On December 5, 1995, Lisa McPherson, a longtime member of Scientology, died under strange circumstances. McPherson had been staying at Scientology’s Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, for seventeen days immediately preceding her death. When Scientologists brought McPherson to a hospital ER in Port Richey, she had already stopped breathing and had no heartbeat. The young woman was also described as gaunt, and her body was bruised.873 According to Scientology, McPherson had checked into the hotel for “rest and relaxation” and “suddenly fell ill.”874 The coroner initially concluded that there was no way McPherson “suddenly fell ill.”875

  Lisa McPherson had been a devoted Scientologist since the age of eighteen. She’d moved from Texas to Florida in 1994 to be closer to Scientology’s headquarters in Clearwater. She worked for a Scientology-linked company and was committed to the church’s training. In 1995 McPherson reached the state of “clear,” but only a month later, after a minor traffic accident, it appears that she had a mental breakdown. After getting out of her car, McPherson took off her clothes in the street. She told a paramedic, “I need help. I need to talk to someone.” The young woman was then taken to a nearby hospital and received a psychiatric evaluation, which is the equivalent of a sacrilege to Scientologists. McPherson subsequently signed out of the hospital against the doctor’s advice.876

  It is from this point that the situation seemed to devolve under the control of Scientology. McPherson was brought to the Fort Harrison Hotel and put under the constant watch of Scientologists there. This included feeding her, doling out “valerian root capsules,” administering “herbal sleeping preparations,” and giving McPherson various dietary supplements consistent with Scientology’s beliefs.

  Copious notes concerning McPherson’s condition and treatment were taken each day.877 According to those log entries, she was “blabbering” and “shaking.” And at times she spoke “incoherently for hour after hour.” McPherson “refused to eat” and was at times “violent,” “combative,” and/or “confused.” And she experienced “difficulties even to swallow a bit of water.”878 A Scientologist “cut her nails” to “reduce the risk of scratches,” but the Scientologists involved with her care didn’t take McPherson back to the hospital for more than two weeks. The two crucial last days of log entries were destroyed. But days before McPherson died, it was noted that she was “not strong enough” to stand.879

  Almost three years after Lisa McPherson‘s death, after a police investigation and lengthy review by a state prosecutor, Scientology was charged with two felonies: “practicing medicine without a license and abuse of a disabled adult.”880 In its defense Scientology commissioned studies concerning the cause of McPherson’s death, challenging the coroner’s conclusions. Dr. Joan Wood, the coroner, received thousands of pages of documents and numerous subpoenas. “It became very difficult,” said Jacqueline Martino, a former chief investigator who worked with Wood for sixteen years. “I think she almost tried to stand alone against this behemoth, Scientology.”881 Ultimately under considerable pressure, Wood amended the death certificate from cause of death “undetermined” to “accident.” The coroner had first said the death was due to a blood clot brought on by “severe dehydration.”882 Because of the change Wood made concerning the cause of death, criminal charges against Scientology were dropped.883

  Lisa McPherson’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in February 1997 against Scientology, and it was settled out of court in May 2004. The terms of that settlement remain confidential.884

  In September 2003 certain Scientology release forms were made public through the Internet. These releases and/or agreements contain the statement that the signer opposes psychiatric treatment and that if the signer should become mentally ill, Scientology is authorized to “extricate” him or her from treatment or care by mental health professionals. Rather than receiving such care or treatment, he or she agrees to submit to the so-called Introspection Rundown, a Scientology practice L. Ron Hubbard had devised.

  It appears that Lisa McPherson was subjected to this Scientology proc
edure.

  The release form reads, “I understand that the Introspection Rundown… includes being isolated from all sources of potential spiritual upset, including, but not limited to family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact. As part of the Introspection Rundown, I specifically consent to Church members being with me 24 hours a day at the direction of my Case Supervisor.” Moreover, “the Case Supervisor will determine the time period in which I will remain isolated” and that “such duration will be completely at the discretion of the Case Supervisor.” The release form or legal contract concludes, “I further understand that by signing below, I am forever giving up my right to sue the Church…for any injury or damage suffered in any way connected with Scientology religious services or spiritual assistance.”885

  Dr. Joan Wood, who served as a medical examiner for eighteen years and performed more than fifty-six hundred autopsies, never recovered from the one she did on Lisa McPherson. That event in Wood’s life reportedly so “scarred” the coroner that she went into a “reclusive retirement.”886 “Sadly, the Scientology episode took its toll on Joan Wood, [and] that was her demise,” lawyer Denis de Vlaming said. When Wood died in 2011 at the age of sixty-seven, no one she knew professionally through her long career found out until it appeared in a newspaper.

  2012—Alleged Abuses of David Miscavige

  2012 would prove to be a very bad year for Scientology, both in court and generally through negative media exposure. Seemingly endless bad press would engulf the purported cult, first through former members claiming the church had abused them and also through the breakdown of its most famous member’s marriage, that of movie star Tom Cruise.

  In January 2012 Debbie Cook, formerly one of the most high-ranking staff members of Scientology, sent out an e-mail raising questions about the organization’s fund-raising tactics. It seems that Cook hoped to reform the church from within and urged thousands of Scientologists who received her e-mail to take on what she called the “responsibility that every Scientologist has” regarding the legacy of L. Ron Hubbard.887 Cook claimed that despite seemingly endless appeals for needed money, Scientology actually held more than $1 billion in cash reserves.

  Fifty-year-old Cook had served Scientology faithfully since she was a teenager. She’d risen in its ranks and assumed command of the church’s important hub in Clearwater, Florida, reportedly “the most revered Scientology spiritual center anywhere.” Cook ran Clearwater for seventeen years before leaving in 2007.888 In a prepared statement she said after her January e-mail, “I am not trying to pick a fight with the Church, nor am I bitter, or blasting or any of the other things concocted by other media outlets. I am simply asking my friends to do their part, the part that Mr. Hubbard asked of all Scientologists, which is to make sure that they only follow the workable technology laid out in policy and bulletins written by Hubbard exactly as he wrote them. This is the responsibility every Scientologist has—to keep it unadulterated.”889

  Cook and other former Scientology staff seem to feel that David Miscavige, Hubbard’s successor and the current head of Scientology, has somehow adulterated Hubbard’s teachings. Like Cook, David Miscavige started with Scientology when he was very young. His father, Ron Miscavige Sr., brought him into the organization as a small and sickly boy, suffering from asthma and severe allergies. But by the time he was twelve, David Miscavige was reportedly already providing Scientology’s version of religious counseling, called “auditing.”890 Dropping out of high school at sixteen, Miscavige embraced Scientology full time. “I wanted to dedicate my life to this…The thought of hanging around two more years in that existence so that I could match up with the status quo meant nothing to me because I knew that in two years I would go and work with the church anyway,” he explained in an interview.891

  Miscavige became a staff member of Scientology in what is known as the Sea Organization (Sea Org), working within the “Commodore’s Messenger Organization.” “Commodore” was the title Hubbard gave himself when he created a personal navy within Scientology. Miscavige’s job as a messenger was to help in the implementation and management of Hubbard’s policies. He was housed, like many other Sea Org members, within Scientology facilities at Clearwater and encapsulated within its subculture. At the age of nineteen in 1979, he rose to the rank of “action chief.” And in the wake of the “Snow White” program, Miscavige played an increasingly important and pivotal political role within the organization. He is credited with obtaining the resignation of Mary Sue Hubbard in 1981. “I knew if it was going to be a physical takeover we’re going to lose because they had a couple thousand staff and we [the ‘messengers’] had about 50.” Nevertheless his takeover succeeded. He later commented, “Nobody gives you power. I’ll tell you what power is. Power in my estimation is if people will listen to you. That’s it.”892

  Two years after Mary Sue Hubbard was deposed, it seems David Miscavige had largely consolidated and sealed his position of power in Scientology. When questions were raised about L. Ron Hubbard’s status and competency by his son, a sworn statement emerged in 1983, signed by the reclusive Scientology founder. Hubbard’s statement included fingerprints for the purpose of identification and reportedly used a “special ink” to date his signature. In this document, which a judge later ruled authentic, Hubbard called Miscavige his “trusted associate” and “good friend” who reportedly kept his “affairs in good order.” When L. Ron Hubbard died in 1986, it appears that Miscavige was firmly in control and had effectively become the new “Commodore.”893

  In 1991 Time magazine featured Scientology on its cover as the “Cult of Greed,”894 But two years later David Miscavige won a great victory. After seemingly endless litigation and conflict with the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Scientology was finally awarded the tax-exempt status it had sought for forty years.

  Jazz musician Chick Corea, a longtime Scientologist, later told the St. Petersburg Times, “The one incredible thing that we all needed was what David did…[He] came and took all the dropped balls and caught them all and kind of saved the organization from splintering apart, and put it back together again for all our sakes.”895 But Vaughn Young, a former Scientology insider who’d spent twenty years in the organization, saw things somewhat differently. In a 1989 interview Young said many Scientologists looked on Miscavige with “a combination of admiration and fear.” Young warned, “He’s got a serious vicious streak in him that you don’t want to trigger.”896

  It was this alleged “vicious streak” that became the focus of press attention in 2012. After Debbie Cook sent her e-mail expressing concerns about fund-raising and Miscavige, she was sued. Scientology claimed Cook had been paid $50,000 severance and had signed a strict confidentiality agreement, which prohibited her from discussing anything about Scientology. After receiving the money, Cook moved to San Antonio, Texas, with her husband. When she appeared in a Texas court, her testimony was shocking.

  Under oath Cook testified in March 2012 that in 2007 she had been held under guard in “the hole,” a pair of double-wide trailers within Scientology’s “Gold Base” compound located in the desert near Los Angeles. Cook said dozens of former Scientology executives were held there. She testified that in the hole they were fed “slop” and reportedly “forced to sleep on an ant-infested floor.”897 Cook testified that she spent seven weeks in the hole, where she was screamed at in a volatile and often violent environment. At times the electricity was turned off, even though temperatures exceeded one hundred degrees. Cook testified that she had been made to stand in a trash can while fellow executives poured water over her and screamed that she was a lesbian. Cook stated that at one point she witnessed David Miscavige punching one executive in the face. Another executive was told to lick the bathroom floor, which he did for thirty minutes. Cook said David Miscavige ordered an employee to break one of her fingers. The Scientology employee then bent back one of her fingers but didn’t fracture it.898

  Cook explained under oath that
at the end of her ordeal, she signed the confidentiality agreement. “I would have signed that I stabbed babies over and over again and loved it. I would have done anything basically at that point,” she said.899 Debbie Cook stated that she was “basically imprisoned” during the last months she spent in Clearwater. Her attorney concluded that the agreement his client signed was “unenforceable” because she had been put under duress.900

  Scientology denied everything.

  But Cook said her testimony represented only “the tip of the iceberg.”901

  Weeks after Debbie Cook’s testimony in San Antonio, Scientology decided to settle the lawsuit. Neither Cook nor Scientology’s spokesperson would offer further comment. The document disclosed stated that neither party would pay the other anything. Cook’s website and Facebook page were then shut down.902 Debbie Cook and her husband, Wayne Baumgarten, sold their car, furniture, and household possessions. Then they moved to Guadeloupe, an island in the Caribbean. Jon Donley, who had once worked at the couple’s marketing company in Texas, asked them if their move was a condition of the settlement. “They looked me right in the eyes and said, ‘We can’t talk about that,’” Donley said.903

  Other former Scientology staffers have spoken out about alleged abuse by David Miscavige. According to former insiders, Miscavige had smashed Scientology executive Mike Rinder’s head into a wall. Rinder claimed that Miscavige had attacked him repeatedly. “That happened more than once.” he told the press. In 2009 four former Scientology staffers claimed David Miscavige had assaulted them.904

  Scientology has described the allegations of such former members as “total lies.” 905

  When Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis resigned from Scientology after thirty-five years, the event drew considerable press attention. In 2011 an article published in the New Yorker magazine explicitly outlined the reasons for Haggis’s action. The screenwriter discussed in some detail Scientology’s policy of “disconnection,” which encourages members to cut off family, friends, and associates who have been declared suppressive persons or SPs. An SP is often someone who in some way has expressed criticism of the organization.