When Tony posted the pics of Scn celebs at the event, I am surprised that they posted and named Michael Roberts amongst the celebs. Are you kidding me? His one claim to fame was from the 70’s in some tv show he was part of as an ensemble cast. After that show he didn’t do much and he was never a good actor to begin with. So he was an out of work has been actor for many decades and yet they include him in the pics? Shaking my head. I saw him after a DM event in the 80’s or 90’s and FM had given him some award and boy did he work it. He went ‘on tour” to every building in Clearwater where there were people and he glad handed and bragged about this big award he had, and showed it off, and faked humility, etc. It was sickening what a huge ego he had and how he was working the press on his little DM award to try to stay relevant. After seeing his performance showing everyone his little award and glad handing, I came away thinking he was a blow hard.

You seem to not understand. Religion itself is not evil. It’s the people behind each of those traumatic events you described.

Your opinion is rather biased, claiming that any belief was set out to be a money and power controlling business, but the truth is that religion is only evil when someone decides to abuse it. The old crusader wars of the Catholics were controlled by the Popes that were bigger than kings, and that were themselves twisted and greedy. And religion- like anything with an influence, for example money, are not itself evil, but only when one decides to use them for horrible purposes.

Thank you for following up with those brave souls who have escaped that evil cult. Stay strong, keep up the great work, and hugs to you and Leah from my wife and I!

Down to the bare nitty gritty, LRH knew he had successfully scammed each and every person who read his handwritten letter on OTIII, after which they didn’t abort (leave). I could just hear an EVIL, gutteral, deep dark laughing L. Ron Hubbard as he wrote the OTVIII final message each graduate would eagerly rush to read, to learn the elusive great truth they’d expended millions seeking, as he amused himself, while reveling in his imagined looks on their faces once each had finished reading his truth!

I don’t know if LRH gave any speeches to the successful graduates crossing The Bridge, but if he did I could basically hear him saying the following: “First and foremost I’d like to say that after all your blood, sweat, and tears laboring all those years seeking the ultimate truth through Scientology you have successfully completed OTVIII to become one of my proud, my few, my elite Scientologists by conquering The Bridge. I truly want to strongly state, from the bottom of my heart,” he says maniacally laughing.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have been…scammed, hustled, manipulated…PIMPED!!! But, stick around for I’ll have a new release, soon…”

Bravo! I just wanted the Scientologists to leave me alone. I would move and they would find me. I would ask them not to call and they would call. I think they even got into my house. pretending to be a vacuum salesman. I ended up in a mental hospital having to tell the male nurse to send back word that I wasn’t going anywhere with them when I got out. They had sent word they were coming to pick me up. My husband’s family had just come into a lot of money. They swindled them probably threatening to sue because they said I insulted their religion. I just made a simple observation: Why are they using the cross, a Christian symbol on the top of their church or cult. as I saw it. Yes, I threw the book I bought from them in the garbage because I bought it thinking that it was about science when it was actually about science fiction. Nobody can give me back my mental health that suffered after their harassment and threats. I can’t get the years back with my children growing up without me on a remote island. Some of what they said and did to me was criminal and sick.

Also love the show I truly hope you two will bring down this BS so call religion

All religion are evil, think about it they all teach folks to be judgmental, it was also force on millions of Native Americans. They were told what they believe in was wrong many kill if they did not accept the beliefs of those who came here in 1492. For many years after slaves were free they were not allow to enter a catholic church. The early Mormon church was highly prejudicial against black people. All man made religion have an agenda, that is to get folks to give up there $$$ and step away from family members that speak out against of there church. And if you are gay every religion teach gay is a sickness and a sin and that you should disown them cause it will bring shame onto you. So religion is man made to control people and its been like that since the beginning of time.

Apologies, I was unaware and meant no offense. Leigh

Kristen, Hubbard was using meth and becoming a bottle-a-day alcoholic in the early days of Dianetics. Two years earlier his family had probably moved him to put him in a psychiatric program for troubled vets, after he was arrested for petty theft and passing bad checks while living out of a trailer in California; he admits to being at the psychiatric hospital in Georgia but spins it as working with patients there (as he admits to experimenting on his fellow patients when he was in Navy hospitals, and was likely doing the same).

Hubbard’s drug use is well documented in his own words, such as his early encouragement about how “benzedrine helps a case run,” and his letter to his 3rd wife stating “I’m drinking lots of rum and popping pinks and greys.” Several people who worked around him at Saint Hill have testified to his going through a bottle of rum a day.

He does also refer in at least one place to how “trying to get off the soporific [phenobarbita] was a tough job.” Phenobarbital is comparable in some ways to opiates, so that could fit with your observation.

Also, one effect of both long-term stimulant and alcohol abuse can be delusional parasitosis, a psychiatric condition where people feel and believe that they are parasitized by bugs, worms, or other creatures. That’s why meth addicts often have sores from scratching themselves, and it may well explain Hubbard’s belief in “body thetans” (BTs), a sort of spiritual parasite supposedly attached to bodies.

Jon Atack wrote a good piece about Hubbard’s Tangled Relationship With Mind-Altering Substances:

> https://tonyortega.org/2013/10/26/jon-atack-considers-l-ron-hubbards-tangled-relationship-with-mind-altering-substances/