Fair Game podcast is back to normal this week after the holiday season schedule, and we welcome Geoff Levin.
I will post the link here as soon as its available.
Geoff often comments here at the blog, and some of you may know he wrote the theme music we use on the podcast.
What you may not know is that he was around for, and played an integral role of the formation of Celebrity Centre. He was a member of the rock band People!.
We talk to Geoff about the destruction of his successful band — scientology “ethics” caused them to throw out the lead singer for being an “SP” who was not a scientologist. We also cover his dark times suffering from depression in scientology and how their “handlings” did not help but in fact made it worse, and what eventually brought him out of it. And of course, the destruction of his family with the disconnection of his children.
Tony Ortega wrote a piece about Geoff a couple of years ago with a link to an interview he did with Chris Shelton.
Geoff continues to work on a movie documenting his story called Brothers Broken: The Story That Stopped The Music
Geoff has a YouTube channel with his writing partner Bruce Chianese, check it out here.
And this is his IMDb page. And his Wikipedia entry.
Great to hear Geoff’s story! Geoff is such a talented musician and a great friend. People may not know that Geoff was the guy who composed the music for me for the 1980’s Dianetics “Questions” TV ads. Those ads sold more books than anything else.
Jeff I remember well that campaign. It was a perfect marketing campaign. It created a boom also here in Italy.
Now time to time I see they try again to launch a Dianetics campaign but it is always a solemn failure.
They consider it a huge win when a bookstore accepts their books.
If you truly believe that “your thoughts are not your thoughts”, you can not blame anyone for his/her thoughts nor behavior and that’s the end of the whole SP doctrine, disconnection, fair game, “psychs are the source of all evil”, “Xenu did us all in”, in other words the core scientology practice. There are no enemies left to condemn. Fight perhaps to protect yourself, but condemn certainly not. It opens the door for something unknown to scientology and that is compassion. “Forgive them Father, for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Ludo so true. Amongst all the contradictions belonging to scn this is one of the biggest. And it should make people think what this cult is all about. .
Same for those who are told that until they have a reactive mind they will make overts. But then is the person to be punished and be guity Then once they are clear this doesn’t change anyway.
In the sea org I’ve see how one can be blamed and blasted for any micro thing. And who does conditions and gets punishments is the guy no his ‘entities’. Nobody cares about it.
Very good comment indeed.
I haven’t listened to this episode yet , I will . But my daughter did and it confirmed my own story to her in a way I never seemed to be able to really get through. From the tactics of Julian and the ethics officer to the danger of the ot levels , this hole we find ourselves into and can’t get out of.
Being able to lie our way through an ethics interview or sec checking was further proof to me that ultimately they didn’t own me , I could outsmart them ….until I couldn’t of course and the declare order sealed my fate as far as disconnection , but the relief that comes with it is undeniable .
Thank you for sharing your story , heartbreaking but hopeful in the end.
Thanks for the touching episode. Wish Geoff well as he continues to heal from his years in Scientology.
At one point while listening to this, I couldn’t help but wonder why Scientologists aren’t more empathetic toward others, since our thoughts aren’t our own but the result of some thetan inside of us. But, as I learn more about Scientology, it seems to boil down to a way to controlling individuals so they hand over their money. Other considerations seem like collateral damage.
By the way, the week after Xmas, my son and I climbed some peaks in Mojave. Afterward, we took a southern detour so we could check out Mt. Jacinto (My son wants to hike the PCT after high school) and drive through Hemet. Before your shows, we probably just would have focused on the tacky castle and made a joke. But, as we drove through Gold Base, past the security personnel, my son and I couldn’t help but wonder what suffering people were enduring behind those fences.
Thanks again for opening our eyes and hearts!
Geoff thank you very much for sharing such experiences.
Scn is really a trap for good people. Most of those who take the bait are just good people.
Scientology is one hell of a mistake.
Mike, a head’s up. The word “Episode” is misspelled “Epsiode” for Episode 22 on the Fair Game website.
/
Thanks so much. Fixed now.
I just read an article on Tony Ortega’s website today about Krustie Alley. Some PopperRatzie saw her in a sandwich shop where she ordered 100 pork sausage sandwiches with extra pork fat.
The sandwarista asked her if she would like the crusts removed from her sandwiches. She screamed at him, “OF COURSE I WANT THE FUCKING CRUSTS REMOVED YOU FUCKING CRUST-BRAINED FUCKER! CAN’T YOU TELL I’M ON A FUCKING DIET? EVERY FUCKING ASSHOLE IN THIS WORLD KNOWS THAT I’M ALWAYS ON A FUCKING DIET AND THAT SHOULD BE FUCKING OBVIOUS TO A STUPID FUCKER LIKE YOU. IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY, THEN YOU WILL REALLY NEED TO REGISTER IN ONE OF OUR SCAMOLOGY MEST COURSES WHICH IS GUARANTEED NOT TO MEST YOU UP.”
The sandwarista then asked her if she wanted all 100 of her sandwiches to go. Krustie bellowed at him, “CAN’T YOU SAY THAT ANY LOUDER? DO YOU REALLY WANT ALL THE PEOPLE HERE TO KNOW I EAT 100 FUCKING SANDWICHES FOR LUNCH? DON’T YOU HAVE ANY FUCKING SENSITIVITY. YOU STUPID FUCKING WOG!”
Finally she asked him, “By the way, would you be interested in taking a free personality quiz? It will fix you right up and change your life forever. Wouldn’t you like to be a great big celebrity like me?”
That was all he posted. We don’t know how things proceeded from that point.
Bad people often believe they’re good people. We saw this with the harassment of Paulette Cooper.
I look forward to hearing Geoff Levin on the “Fair Game” podcast. I appreciate his courage, as well as the courage of Karen Schless Pressley. These are two representative examples of what tangling with an org can REALLY do to a person with artist abilities and a foothold in their career: destroy it.
Part is because orgs are continuously recruiting for staff and for the Sea Org, which entails: cut short your career. Another part is orgs frequently expect artists to donate time and skill for free.
Similar to Geoff, I also lost a great artistic partnership without valid cause. A staff member whose opinion was trusted erroneously told my work partner that I was “doing something with the Tech.” (I was not. The staff sought to imply I was “squirreling.”)
All the work with my artistic partner of two years was over and cancelled in a minute. The staff member encouraged my friend to write a me disconnection letter and cancel any further interactions.
Scientology orgs are, ironically, a difficult environment for a person of aesthetics, even though in Hubbard’s writings, he seems to praise and elevate individuals possessing these traits.
Peridot,
Your last paragraph was an accurate, dry assessment of scamology’s inherent tackyness and lack of aesthetic sophistication. It WAS, after all, created by a Crowleyian, narcissistic hack and con man…
It’s ironic, in a darkly humorous and somewhat sad way, how many total
wankers, posers, and talentless amateurs in the cult call themselves “artists” and profess a deep love of and respect for art and artists, based on their own Flubtard-fueled delusions of grandeur and utter lack of ability to actually create anything artistic…And this madness manifests in the cult’s consistent, policy-driven, organizational disrespect for and abuse of artists.
Regarding the podcast: I listened to the whole thing. Definitely worth checking out! Best Wishes to Geoff and his creative coohorts and loved ones!
Thanks to Mike and Leah and crew for the podcast-carry on!👍🏽♥️✌🏾😎
Mike, I’ve tried to comment, but when I press ‘submit’, it comes back as an error. The reason,’Incorrect email address’. It’s the same one I have had forever.
It seems like it is working now!!
Although I am not familiar with Mr.Levin’s music when he played in a band,I eagerly anticipate this podcast.I am looking forward to hearing his story and how he managed to escape from the tentacles of Scientology.I am sure it was a difficult and harrowing journey.Thank you again,Leah and Mike for shedding more light on the subject.
BTW: off topic? Funny?
Today, yep, TODAY I rcvd in mail, several name iteration mailing of, …(wait for it)…
(drum roll)
“GIVE THE GIFT OF SOURCE”
“It’s What The World Needs…. Now More Than Ever”
DIANETICS & SCIENTOLOGY
2020 HOLIDAY CATALOG
Featuring, “Looking for the Ultimate Masterpiece…(page 14)
One that unwraps the mysteries of the mind….(page 20)
That’s filled with the wisdom of the Classics (page 40)
(glossy BS continued…………………………….)
attested this day,
January 4, 2021
Outpointed Noted by Dept 11, department of Prediction.
bwhahahahahaha
Thank you for featuring a dear favorite (of mine) fellow pantheon and one who has unknowingly helped me beyond measure with his voice of sanity from a shared past reality.
Ooooops. My mistake – – – not Hawkins.
I get my Geoffs / Jeffersons mixed. 🙂
But though this didn’t feature who I was expecting, it was still a heart wrencher.
I’m glad he’s out and doing better.
Thanks for the podcast.
Brothers Broken: The story that stopped the Music – looks like a great idea for a film. I read the Village Voice in the early 1970’s and they were bitterly against Scientology. I did not listen and still travelled to LA to do the Clearing Course at the Manor Hotel, the early Celebrity Center. I loved to sit in the Coffee Houses in Greenwich Village in New York trying to overhear the latest cult philosophy. Too bad the internet was not available to reveal Hubbard’s true fascism. He broke a lot of people and the film could show that as well.
George – If I recall correctly you rented a closet at the Manor where you did your solo auditing. I did you one better and rented a room there for a few months along with a bunch of other scientologists while it was undergoing renovations. The furniture was old and rickety and the wallpaper was falling off a lot of the walls but nobody cared. We were “On Purpose”.
You might have been happy to have the privacy of a comfortable closet in which to do your auditing. Up The Bridge we go.
Richard, You are correct. I rented a closet. The New York Mission wiped out my $6,000 savings account on Life Repair and some other stuff.