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 … [Read more...]
Episode 45: Activist and Author Dr. Brian Sheen
I Leah and I welcomed Dr. Brian Sheen onto the Fair Game Podcast this week. I have known Brian since the days of the Apollo, when he was training to be the senior Case Supervisor for the Advanced Org in the UK. He led an interesting life in the scientology world outside the Sea Org, including in a mission and as a WISE business consultant. He had an experience with Flag that ended his involvement in scientology and went on to get a PhD, but because his former wife and daughter were still in scientology, never spoke out about Scientology. The story of how he came to be declared … [Read more...]
Tales from the Apollo
Another story from the early years of the Sea Org aboard the Apollo by Gary Reisdorf. Stores Party Gone Wild - Sled breaking One of the functions of being a deckhand is when the ship was at anchor, we had the privilege of running people and goods from the shore to the ship. Boat runs are normally quite fun and took us away from our usual mundane jobs of painting that bucket of rust, sanding and varnishing the railings or re-caulking the wooden decks. We had 8 lifeboats on the ship to save the passengers and crew if the ship began to sink. The problem is, only 2 of them … [Read more...]
Line Snapping Fun
Another post from my friend and former shipmate, Gary Reisdorf. Agadir Line Snapping Fun I was just leaving the most forward room on the Apollo, the foc'sle, when I heard the commotion. The most forward cabin was the Deck Force’s storage room, called the Bosun’s Locker, where we stored all of the paint and ropes we used when working on the ship. Being a Deckhand, I started my day preparing paint, paintbrushes and rollers for a day’s painting and ended the day cleaning brushes and rollers, all in the Bosun’s Locker. Being the most forward part of the ship, it was away from seniors, … [Read more...]
Apollo Tales
My friend Gary Reisdorf sent me this article from is early days (around the time I first met him). His wife, Lois, provided us all with a wonderful series of posts about her history in the Sea Org with L. Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige. Tales From The Apollo One of the hardest things to do while on the ship was getting approval to purchase items you needed to do your job. In most companies, if you were running out of copy paper or pens, you would merely send an email to the appropriate person in the company and let them know. The next day or 2 we would have a delivery … [Read more...]