My old friend from the Apollo, Neil Sarfati alerted me yesterday that he had finally “made the big time.”
He didn’t mean he had a new number one album of his sax playing, he was referring to becoming a target of the STAND League haters.
It’s familiar stuff from STAND buffoon Martin Landon.
First, if you have not do so, you should listen to the interview Neil did with the BBC Outlook program. I link to it below.
It is very even-handed, mild-mannered and rather gentle on L. Ron Hubbard and life in the Sea Org back in the days of the Apollo. But because Neil is a no longer a cult member and doesn’t display the required fawning adulation of the Old Man, he comes under fire from the Hate League as a bigot. It’s almost amusing to watch someone pile scorn on another, without any basis in fact, while proclaiming to be the holier than thou arbiters of who is a hater/bigot. The irony is lost on them
Martin Landon resorts to the usual scientology tactics, starting out with some name-calling and proclaiming Neil is “reduced to seeking attention by exploiting his former religion.” You can be sure that after thirty or more years of saying nothing, the accusation of this being the act of an attention seeker is just bizarre. And how does one “exploit” scientology? That assumes there is some positive reputation to cling onto to give oneself a boost. That’s pretty funny.
Landon then relies on the tired refrain that scientology pulls out when they have nothing else to say: “apostates all lie,” a twisted interpretation of their paid expert Bryan Wilson (for more on this, listen to the Fair Game podcast we did with Chris Shelton on this very topic).
Then Landon claims “we could pity him” — but of course he doesn’t, he just continues to attack.
What is remarkable about this is that Martin Landon has NO CLUE about Neil’s experiences. I don’t even know if he was born when this all went down in the 1970’s. He certainly was never on the
Apollo or in the Sea Org or in the RPF. But he just “knows” it’s all lies.
Neil’s recent BBC interview (if you don’t know, this is a hugely popular show aired on the BBC ll over the world):
After the episode aired, Tony Ortega reported on it at his blog, with reactions from Neil about what was left out.
Neil was also featured in an article in The Guardian last year:
If you want to hear the Apollo Stars “Power of Source” album, it’s on YouTube:
My final thought: Welcome to the Big Time Neil! Always happy to have new additions to the gang. It’s a badge of honor to be smeared by the haters and bigots at STAND.
“Enjoy a romantic evening in the grip of the regges”.
No more acutely spot on snark has ever been written.
Talk about putting a damper on all things romantic, an evening a deux with a Scientology registrar works far better than an ice cold shower.
But then, that’s the idea, isn’t it?
In its promo and policy CO$ purports to love and support it, but in practice our favorite cult hates, undermines and destroys the “2nd dynamic”.
Whoops, this comment is going to make no sense because it belongs to today’s Thursday Funnies, not yesterday’s article.
STAND acts exactly as hubbard describes the hypothetical reactive mind in dianetics: stimulus-response (reactive).
This frontgroup has nothing rational, it is just a “bank” always attive spiting hate and lying.
Neil, I remember your playing on the Power of Source album ! After listening to the album I wrote to LRH with a rave review and told him that you were a “one-man-intergalactic-space-orchestra” all by yourself!
Obviously you were already a member of the “Church of Music” before you ever heard of the CO$. Glad you kept playing your ax. And glad you made your way out of what devolved into a blatant cult.
Yo Martin Landon –
Earth to you, to STAND and to your cult:
Ex-Sea Org Members’ stories ARE colorful.
They are FANTASTIC.
They ARE “beyond belief”.
Exciting, suspenseful, riveting!
Wild AND woolly, baby!
Plus, they are TRUE.
These people, many of them, went thru hell and lived to tell about it,
Mr. Sarfati is only one of them.
Quite a number of Ex-SOs with fantastic, horrifying, seemingly incredible yet TRUE experiences are still around capable of sharing what they went thru in Scientology with the general public.
And they are perfectly at liberty to do so.
People LIKE to be amazed and shocked.
It makes good TV and interesting press – which you well know. And the Church of Scientology is no slouch in dishing out whatever they can get away with about people it doesn’t like. CO$ dishes it out but good, as you well know.
So put down the pearls, Mr. Landon.
Get over it, OK?
Stop clutching your pearls.
Tell Dwarf to stop clutching his.
Deal with it.
It might help for you to clear the phrase “news-worthy”.
Be sure to use it in a lot of sentences for full conceptual understanding.
Much love,
Aqua
Good grief. I was curious to see the article on STAND’s site. Instead, the top thing I see is some book on “priest-penitent confidentiality”.
What protections exist when the religion violates that priest-penitent confidentiality against members or ex-members, particularly for the purposes of blackmail and extortion? If I went into a confessional at a Catholic church and told the priest about a bunch of sins, no one would be sitting me down later and saying “Do you still do this sin?” or realizing I was never a Catholic and publishing those things I admitted to.
Outside of Scientology, any use of priest-penitent confidentiality tends to be about not forcing priests to share what they’ve been told. In Scientology, priest-penitent confidentiality is routinely violated to produce evidence against the ‘penitent’ and used to block court access to documents that could be used as evidence against them.
As for Neil Sarfati, many lulz that they tried using the “He weren’t nothing without us” line, as if his volunteered musical talent wasn’t what drew the attention they (LRH, ship crew) were sponging off of rather than the other way around.
This is great Neil, thanks for the history.
When I hit the RPF in 1996, Kenny Campelman was the security at the ranch where the RPF was.
Old Apollo era Sea Org members always had a slight normal laxness to them, they just didn’t have the full blown fanaticism of the David Miscavige era downtrodden Sea Orgers.
I fell somewhere in between, never being on the Apollo, and being a newbie Sea Org member at Clearwater in Dec 1975 when you Apollo vets who’d all rubbed elbows with LRH were deciding what to do next in life.
SO many Apollo vets all jumped ship in the next 4 years, so by 1980, I’ll bet most of those that came over from Daytona, were out.
I should have taken the hint.
I wasted another 20 years til it was just not happening, no “OTs” nowhere.
The Hubbard “OT” scam, and Hubbard we learn later, he didn’t get much out of his own quackery either.
Figures. My career in Sea Org, since I became an admin course sup, I define that job as cult bureaucrat training department.
Thanks for standing and really earning Hubbard’s real Knighthood, you were the original Joking and Degrader. True isn’t it? I recall when the J and D PL came out, you’d blown then, and that PL I’d heard was LRH’s way of justifying how you left (him and his ship of fools who stayed).
People quit and quit, even those closest to Hubbard, quit. All the high ups, all quit.
Hey Neil, how much did Norman Starkey play in your gigs?
The bongos, thats Tom Rodriquez. Charlie was drums, and did Norman play a little too?
In the one photo, who is on the guitar in the rear right, is that Chuck Murray?
I see PJ Severnsen, and Dan Auerbach on the ukelele. And Luten on trombone and Russ Meadows on guitar, and Tamia on guiter and Craig Ferrera on guitar. Lotta guitars.
I liked your jamming, you guys did some 1976 event jamming at the Fort Harrison I remember.
– Chuck Beatty, xTeamXenu 75 to 03
Is that Laurel Sullivan next to LRH?
Yes, she is standing. Dede is sitting next to him.
Annie to the far left. Then Dan Auerbach. Hubbard. Dede. David Rossouw. Standing is Russ Meadows, Laurel and Tony Strawn.
They are a bunch of toothless yappy little dogs.
S(quealing)
T(oadies)
A(nd)
A(rseholian)
D(ipshits)
There is no “Martin Landon” listed in Scientology completions online anywhere. There is no evidence that Scientologist Martin Landon exists other than as a stock photo.
There is a Martin Landon, born 1956, who is deceased. So perhaps STAND League’s Martin Landon is writing from the great beyond and is being channeled by Ed Parkin when he is not writing as Alicia Selverson and his many other fake STAND League Stock Photo Scientologists?
See my article on STAND League’s real and fake members: https://scientologymoneyproject.com/2021/03/25/25-of-scientologys-stand-league-hate-bloggers-are-unverifiable-online-are-they-real-people/
It really doesn’t matter at all what STAND says. All over the world Scientology is getting regular terrible PR that people actually HEAR or read, unlike STAND, which my guess is that even just a handful of Scientologists ever see. The genie has been out of the bottle for some time now.
Tell new people you meet that you spent decades in Scientology and watch their reactions. That’ll tell you all you need to know about the success of truth tellers like Mike, Leah, Karen, Chris and others.
You are so right Joe. The sea-orgers don’t have time to read it, and public are not much inclined to read stuff that’s not source. That leaves us sp-ers at Mike’s blog and MAYBE the same number of die hards grasping at anything .
While the SCN cult yearns and craves *RELIGIOUS* recognition in the courts and with other religions, it acts like a venomous gangster spewing hatred.
Bent on revenge and retaliation to anyone who speaks out is a failing strategy which increases their
enemies speaking out by the day!
Perhaps it is the extra terrestrial psychiatrists that have *IMPLANTED* these hateful SO members and STAND staff to act this way ? 🙂 🙂
This is not normal conduct of a person who signed a religious pledge and joined a *CHURCH*.
They have their bible ~~ Science of Survival, the book, supposedly able to “predict human behavior,” but they cannot predict the outcomes and consequences of their HATE campaigns?
This makes me think they are TYPE 3 lunatics who have had whole track implants ~~ by psychiatrists of course…..
Laughter.
Wow. He was “basking in the ovations of thousands.” Like hubbard with his fiction? Or his “science?” Or like Travolta with his hubbard film project? Or those remaining who have to try to market hubbard’s wares anonymously or through front groups? Or hubbard’s vanity press that tries to elevate him into the mainstream or on bestseller lists–never without extensive trickery?
He “threw it away.” You’d think he quit the Beatles to join a cult. Instead, he quit a cult and coincidentally, a musical vanity project that few have even heard of. Which is a good thing; just try listening to their album!
We should all be as fortunate as Neil. Getting dissed by STAAD is a prestige comparable to a celebrity getting satirized by Mad Magazine. In both cases you know you’ve made the big time.
After a couple of years of watching and reading and listening I really have to wonder just when someone will go totally ballistic on some of these people and cause some really terrible damage. The abuse is written about everywhere and one day someone will do just that.
Then it will be too late.
Thanks Zee Moo, Oh my, OT 10. But I sold my Thetan on Ebay.
😂 😂 😂
If a member of the STAND League wants to see a hater all one has to do is look in a mirror.
OMG Mike, I am humbled to be welcomed into this most worthy of groups. Yes, I have finally made the real Big Time. So many old and new friends. But most of all I am proud to be receiving the Surpressodegalictic Davidiosmuckheadmodos analfacetous. A full-size Collage made up of forfeited Chase credit cards of DM.
🙂
STAND?? No it’s STAAD, Scientologists Taking Action Against Discrimination. Discrimination? No, just using the First Amendment to spread a little truth.
Well done Neil, when staad attacks you, you have reached OT 10, Outraged Thetan number 10.