Dear Andy: I track with your thinking and comparison here COMPLETELY. I think it is right on.

I am very glad, Year 2021, to be introduced to you through Mike’s blog. I’ve now read a variety of your posts and personal stories. I am grateful for your truth-telling. Hearing of your staff and “public” (your time at Flag) experiences, I am blown away.

One would think, getting out of C of S and reading several posts from fellow former members, former staff and Sea Org especially, that a person would cease to be blown away. Yet, no, that is not what I find. Your tales blew me away newly.

Appreciate you, Andy. Thanks for checking in every once in a while, being a spectacularly gifted photographer, inspiring cancer survivor, and “special correspondent” for Mike’s Something Can Be Done About It blog.

Hi mark marco, Thank you you always understand.Spooky to think that there are Sea Org members sleepwalking up and down the twisted bridge,that may never leave because David’s World is their security,it is all they know.Yes Treason was the condition I was placed in toward the end of my SO time.I have to say of all the conditions Treason was by far the loneliest and the most isolating of all.Your comment on friends rang very true.And when you are very hungry as I was you begin to see shadows behind every sec- checker and every list you run,you wonder Will I be next to go pull weeds in the hot sun all day and night too! So I clawed my way out because I think my spirit willed I do so.Lord knows back then my mind and body even at that point still was under contract to Ron.I love the idea of a book of yours.I have secretly thought you should do that some time ago.You are very talented.I have this darn song stuck in my head.I think it is Foreigner,,the lead singer.I have always liked it.So Love and “Into The Midnight Blue” and ever more,Ann.

Katherine, thanks so much. I have to say it felt good to write it.
Now I feel elevated…[word]… elated! Yes yes yes. I feel very well indeed.
Very nice, unexpected goodness. You are inspiring me to attempt to write the whole story as a novel. (i’ve been attending community college to learn writing, actually)
Thanks for letting me know.-mm

Hello Theta Clear! Thank you for the comments! As for the photos, there are several things I do to capture such images. I use a full frame DSLR, have a wide (14mm) angle lens, capture the images in the raw format. These things afford a wide depth of field and great detail.

At Delphi, near the end of my “service” there, one poor soul was declared, placed in the condition of “Liability”. I remember seeing him go shamefully by in the hall, forbidden to speak, as we were all duely informed… Honestly, I’m pretty sure none of us (180 Staff, plus some 30 children) were familiar with the action, first-hand knowledge, of anything lower than Non-Existence until poor Tom was declared. He had a speech impediment, too, always studdered. God, they tortured him. I didn’t even realize how badly, as bad as it obviously was. No one had illusions about that.
To be assigned the Danger formula was punishment enough to be called a crisis for yourself. Social carnage is what I would call it now, being in the condition of Danger. Folks, this is Scientology Ethics and you never knew how lucky you were never to have heard of it. The closest word in the English language would be Hell.
So, Treason, huh? Deep. I remember reading that in the original Policy Letter version, what Treason was. Something like “not knowing who your friends are”, if I recall. Pretty scary thing to say to a devout Scientologist, let me tell you. It was a shaky experience just reading about it, in the “safety” of the org library… I always thought you had to be fired if you didn’t get out of Liability, actually thought it just couldn’t get any worse…
“not in the ‘real’ world.”
Today it is a little difficult to sleep, because someone who I consider knowledgable says there must still be 3,000-5,000 active Sea Org individuals, worldwide.
Every one of them operating under Scientologies’ version of the “The Real World”, and the LRH definition of reality. I have to wonder how many of those already know that they are riding a runaway train straight towards a pretty serious identity crisis, ?
Ann, you are the first person in my life that I have ever known to get that far down into pergatory and survive the trip back. Welcome back to the human race, and for all of us here. Ain’t we the bomb. I don’t mean it lightly.
We are the proof that Truth triumphs.

Mark,

Your post brought tears to my eyes. As a never-in, that was one of the most succinct yet devastating descriptions of life inside the cult that I’ve ever read. I hope you’re well and I’m glad you’re out.

But being that you supposedly “bring in” bad things that happen to you (but are common occurrences to everyone else outside the CoS) such as the Flu etc., I’ve always wondered what the CoS line is on rape.

Is that considered something that a “VICTIM” — ‘pulled in’ on themselves? I’ve thought about this question for quite sometime and due to its sensitive nature, I’ve been hesitant to ask about the topic.

If anyone is able to respond I’d be grateful, but I do not expect a response as it may be way too personal.

If I understand correctly from former members…some criminal activities (and to be specific there have been victim first person stories regarding sexual harassment, child abuse both sexually and physically and of course the assaults that have all been alleged, and in many instance corroborated) so there may not be specific LE involvement or reporting. But, how is rape viewed and handled if it occurs both from the pulling it in aspect and the actual handling if reported within church lines.

Thank you.

Way to go, Mike! Woo Hoo!

I have a solid reality on that, Andy. At first when we were just a Mission at PR org , we used to send auditors to the homes of the sick PCs or students to give them Assists. We did it, not so that we could have them on course or the HGC so raise any stats, but because we really cared. Most of them couldn’t believe the sincerity of the gesture (they were quite new to Scn) , but it was quite genuine , I assure you.

But as time went by, staff became insensitive , and mostly fixated on “Thursday before 2pm” quotas. Now, ill PCs or students were a bothersome “Dev-T” (“An inconvenient , bothersome distraction” , to define it for the Never-ins). “He is just PTS” , was the frequent statement as a reply to a senior’s question, “Where the hell is John Doe ?” when asking about a student or PC who had missed on his/her schedule. “Oh, I see, let’s continue with the next student, how is _________ doing….. ?” , was the senior’s reply as if already dismissing the “PTS” student/PC as a possible “stat” , obviously not caring about his/her well being, but looking at him/her as an “obvious” Dev-T particle better left unhandled.

I grow tired of so much insensibility, and just left thinking , “these crazy fucks are no longer doing LRH” , not realizing that Scn’s cultish nature was already Insidiously beginning to show up more markedly within the group. It was not that others were not following LRH, it was that the “Cult Culture” had already been created due to LRH’s OWN policies and practices.

Andy Porter : ” But in a Scientology organization you simply do not cry at your desk. Doing so would indicate that you had a disagreement with the way things are, you would be accused of dramatizing, and making your senior wrong. In the civilized world of Scientology crying is only done in the dark, alone when no one is around to report your weakness for thought handling.”

Not only that, dear Andy, but crying is committing one of the worse administrative crimes in Scn : CASE ON POST ; something LRH was heavily against. Actually, it is classified as a “High Crime” or a “Crime” at least, per the Scn Justice code. I am guilty myself of lots of insensible act as a senior back then when I very much believed in LRH’s bullshit.

Great article , Andy, regardless if those two groups are actually of comparable magnitude or not ; they are not at all , and in this case “similars” are not “similar” to paraphrase LRH. What is similar is the misguided use of lawyers (no offense intended, Counselors) in PR matters. Lawyers and PR mix as well as water and oil. PR should only be handled by PR trained executives who inspect EVERY dispatch a lawyer writes in behalf of the company.

Anyway, your article was very informative, and I really like your writer’s style and your ability to communicate a concept. Much success to you.

Best regards,
Peter Torres

P.S.
How do you manage to integrate your use of light so well in your Fall photos, and how you handle to get perspectives with so much depth ? I didn’t know that one could do that with photos.