I published an essay by Lois Reisdorf (“Fleecing the Sheeple”) and promised that she would be providing us with more information from her considerable experience as the daughter of scientology aristocracy in South Africa, her subsequent experiences as one of the first Commodore’s Messengers working with L. Ron Hubbard on the Apollo and interaction with David Miscavige rising. It is a fascinating story. Here is the first installment.
MAKING OF A CHILD SCIENTOLOGIST AND SEA ORG MEMBER
I am starting from the beginning of my life and the making of me into a Scientologist and child Sea Org member…….
I would like to state right off the bat that I seriously loved my parents and will never hold this against them. They were great and I had a deep love for them. My Mom, Bronwen Jory passed away from brain cancer in 1997 at the age of 58 and my step-Dad Neville Jory passed away in 2007 at the age of 67 from COPD/Emphysema. This was after more than 30 years working their butts off for Scientology. I was lucky enough to rejoin my family at the age of 22 and spent all the years from that age until their deaths with them and gave them 3 amazing grandsons who they adored. They were the best example of what one would think of as a Scientologist, they truly helped people.
As far back as I can remember, I was Scientologist. I grew up with no drugs and when I was sick or had problems it was always handled with Scientology – touch assists, various processes, Dianetic auditing by my step-Dad. As a child I suffered from migraine headaches and never once had a pain killer and cannot remember ever taking “medicine”. It is still very hard for me to NOT use Scientology words to describe things and only in the last 2 years at the age of 56 do I have to rethink everything I have believed in, all my life. I have read almost every book about Scn in the last 2 years, but specifically left the book Bare Faced Messiah until last as I honestly could not face what I was to learn about LRH…..it was much easier to read about all the abuse and what had become of the SO and DM, than it was for me to read about LRH. Well, I finally finished it and all I can say is that it was shattering to me. I have since read Fair Game and it too was amazing. My personal stories of LRH will follow, and a lot of things finally make sense to me.
I was born in Durban, South Africa in 1960. In apartheid South Africa. My parents were looking for “something” and stumbled upon Scn. My father, Bryan Lingwood, did not end up becoming a Scientologist, but my mother did. This eventually resulted in their divorce in the mid-1960’s. Life was pretty normal from what little I can remember but it started to radically change in 1965. My Dad was transferred to Johannesburg for his job, and Mom started taking courses at the Joburg Org and within months joined staff. This did not sit well with Dad and they started separating in 1966. After their separation Mom was still full-time at the Org, and in order to support 3 little girls she rented a big house and then sub-let to other Joburg Org staff members so I was surrounded by Scientologists and this included the Starkey’s, Von Pjeil’s, Chisholm’s and many other well-known Scientology families. All of us kids would play together.
Lois, her mother and two younger sisters
I spent many hours at the Joburg Org, and during school holidays from age 6 til 9 would do the children comm courses. Friday nights were spent running around the Joburg Org with a bunch of other kids. We were Scientology kids, used the lingo and had a good understanding of it. I remember doing tone scale drills at 6 years old in Joubert Park (which was downtown Joburg). The Org was located at 23 Hancock Street in 3 small houses, right off the park. I still remember the address!
In about 1966 Neville Jory joined the Joburg Org after having just completed his SHSBC at Saint Hill. Mom and him fell in love and soon after got married. In 1968 Neville went to the Apollo and did his Class VIII course with LRH and then returned back to the Joburg Org. By this time Mom and Neville had baby #4 and soon after baby #5. Neville became my beloved step-father. He was a very good Dad to us 3 girls and treated us as if we were his own. Not once in all my life did I feel that the 3 of us were any different from the next 3 kids they had together. (6 Kids altogether, last one born in 1975.)
In early 1970, Mom and Neville decided to buy a Franchise (Mission) in Durban, so we all went back to Durban and they started and ran their VERY successful franchise in Durban. I can remember it being a very fun, happy place. This is the place where many other subsequently famous Scientologists got into Scientology i.e. Corbett’s, Southworth’s etc. I could not wait to go to the franchise on Friday nights where I was now doing the adult comm-course; HQS etc. However, I do remember them being VERY financially strapped ALL the time. I was an avid swimmer, field hockey player and had to always arrange my own lifts to and from my extra curricular activities. They worked all the time. But in South Africa, no matter how poor you were, you could always afford a nanny or two to look after us kids and cook. (During the apartheid era.) That was how they were able to cope with working at the mission full-time and me and my siblings.
It was during this time-period that I got all whiny and upset with my Mom that she was never there. So one day she got hold of me and told me that there was only 5 years left for the planet, and if she does not do her job by helping to clear the planet, then it’s going to blow-up. This was the turning point for me. At first I was scared out of my mind but then became more responsible with duties at home and with my small siblings, I hardly ever whined again, I could not wait to become an adult like them and help clear the planet. I was fully on board, even though quite scared.
In 1972 at the age of 12, my Mom and Neville and I signed the Sea Org contract (the other kids were too young to sign). It took them almost a year to turn over the mission to someone and to get things in order for us to join the SO in Copenhagen, Denmark at AOSHEU. It was a very exciting time for me, I could not wait. This was seriously what I thought I was meant to do. One of the biggest things that happened in this prep time – my biological father lost custody of us 3 girls and Neville adopted us. What my father went though is another story in itself. He lost his kids. To this day, I am the only one he has a loving relationship with. I was 12, next one was about 7 and his youngest daughter was around 5.
The family heads to the Sea Org in Copenhagen
BTW – this father of mine (Bryan Lingwood), who was never a scientologist is the only parent still alive today, he is 81 years old and is in great physical and mental health and in fact acts as though he is in his 60’s – just goes to show!
In 1973 we embarked on a ship (yes a cruise! It was cheaper to travel then by ship than by air) called the Europa from Durban, South Africa, around the Cape of Good Hope and up the west coast of Africa through the Mediterranean to Trieste, Italy. It was amazing and the first time I had left SA. Growing up in apartheid SA, I had never seen television, there were no TV’s in the whole country! Talk about being in a bubble of Scientology, and then on top of that you are in the bubble of Apartheid South Africa – I was so naïve it was ridiculous. I had no clue about drugs either.
Our ages were – Me 12, sister 8, sister 6, brother 4, baby sister 3 – traipsing through Europe. We arrived in Copenhagen and all I can say is that I was so disappointed. It was ugly, dreary and cold. Here I had grown up in Africa for goodness sake, most probably had very rarely even worn a jersey.
It got even worse once we were installed into the SO berthing and my siblings were put in the “nursery” it was a dark, cold, damp place in the basement and I am sure moldy. My two youngest siblings had major chest problems and were sick constantly.
I and my 2 sisters went to an International school and I had a post in the AO when I was not in school, kind of like an expeditor.
I hated it there and I was not happy. Within a couple of months an Apollo recruitment mission arrived and this was my out. I got recruited to be a messenger for LRH and I was ecstatic. I thought this was going to be the best thing since sliced bread; I could be an adult and help save the planet in a big way.
I arrived on the Apollo at 13 (late 1973) years old at midnight, alone, with no family and no-one I knew. I wore white bobby socks, a bright yellow skirt ,red shirt and red buckle shoes. I had never sworn in my life and frankly did not even know what swear words were, I basically knew nothing about sex; had never seen TV; I did not even know about such things as the Vietnam War which was raging during 1973. I think back on all of this and I shudder. What was I getting myself into. To be a messenger for LRH and my life would change forever….
Within a year, my parents and the 4 kids left the SO and returned to South Africa and LRH gave them special permission to leave and start Missions there. Mom was pregnant with child #6, they had visa problems and Dad had been CO AO and had been busted….so things got hairy for them.
I on the other hand, was now fully ensconced into being an LRH Messenger and life on the Apollo. The first few months were very rough for me; crying every night in my bunk bed. But after a year I was fully on board…..
Next up will be life with LRH as his messenger.
Lois, thanks so much for this. I’ve long awaited to read your incredible experiences and am so happy to see you’re sharing this. Your story is so important for so many people and I hope this spreads far and wide.
I too was a young kid bashing around the Joburg org circa 69 onwards – did my first course (HAS) in 1969. I remember ‘the Jory girls” so well – beautiful young ladies with flaming locks of gorgeous red hair. You and your sisters were real head-turners!
Who would have known that 25 years later your sister and I would end up becoming best friends for close to 21 years and our children would grow up together as soul-mates?
That, of course, all came crashing down 3 years ago this very month when I knew the inevitable was about to happen and made the decision to phone your sister for one last chat and tell her what had happened (I’d been subjected to a horrific witch-hunt for months by that stage and had finally had enough). All I wanted was to present my version of events and wish her well into the future. I was utterly dumbfounded by the icy, stone-cold response I got from her. For her, there was NO question that I be summarily excised from her life without any sorrow or regret and she wouldn’t even let me tell her my side of the story. I had become an overnight SP in her eyes despite having not even appeared before any ethics committee or comm-ev at that stage.
But what was unforgivable in my book, was that by extension, my daughter was tarred with the same brush and her lifelong soul-mate cut ties with her too – literally weeks after he had given a speech at her 21st Birthday party about what an incredible person & friend she had been to him for 2 decades. Of all the “friends” I lost, (and there were many), that one hurt the most.
Hi Shelley, thanks so much for your comments, it means a lot to me. It is disgusting how the church can turn otherwise great people into such hateful people. That sister of mine that you speak of knows better, more than any of my other siblings and that is what upsets me the most, she knows the truth and that is the ultimate betrayal………
HI Lois. Been waiting for you and Janis and the other early messengers, to pen some of your experiences. I was on board when you, …and I remember a Christmas Eve night when you, or Shelly or Janis,.. but I think it was you, was on watch outside of LRH’s study/family room (don’t recall what that space was called on A deck) – trying not to cry..missing your folks and miserable. And I tried to cheer you up. I have commented here on this before, but your story reminded me of it again and how terribly young you were to be all alone without family. The Apollo sure was an experience…especially the “Rock Festival”. When I got out and then read Bare Faced Messiah..I was shocked.. and not quite believing it all.. but then read the chapter on the Rock Festival and as I had been there and experienced it, knew he had gotten it totally right.. so I figured the rest of the info was correct also. That book is still one of the best.
Thanks again Madge for your kindness that night. Yes it was a hard time. I hope you will enjoy the rest of my stories to come. It has been a real “awakening” for me…..
Lois,
Thanks for another installment of your story. Although I was older when I got in I was very naive when it came to spiritual matters. I thought I was going to achieve huge enlightenment. Somehow just never happened. And somehow I kept be buffered back and forth like driftwood on the ocean tide. Very relatable.
Great story ! Thanks. Can’t wait to read your next chapter.
Fascinating to read your story and am looking forward to more. I got in in my late 20s and there were very few children around the org. So your viewpoint, I believe, if very important to the long history of scio. Thank you so much for gifting us with your history.
Fascinating. Cannot wait to read more. Thank you for sharing.
I cannot fathom my mother allowing me to leave home at 13, even if asked by the Pope himself (she’s mightily catholic).
Especially if the pope required you to wear hot pants (LRH Messenger 1970s outfit)
I’d pay to see a picture of COB in hot pants!
Dear Lois:
The former Apollo was rammed by a railroad!
First ever!
Here the details:
http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/533/392/1506796/
What???? My home of 4 years was sunk! But not just sunk – it was sunk by a train. LRH would have put the entire deck force in Treason forever, for that one.
I’ll have a drink in honor of that rust-bucket going down! Hilarious.
I guess that would qualify for a new definition of training. ?
ed don’t suppose you could decipher that story for us? Or me incase I’m the only one with questions.
The Apollo was sold twice between 1977 and 1980, then in Sept 1980 it was sitting in dock at Brownsville, Texas. when a train accidentally rammed it, causing 10 millions bucks of damage, way more than it’s last two selling prices (1977 it brought 90,000 bucks, 1978 it brought 188,000 bucks, and during the arguing over how much it was worth after the accident one side said 2.5 million and the other said only 350 thousand bucks), but the damage ended up so costly it was a total loss. (Water was taken on due to the damage, but it didn’t sink.)
Total loss due to it not being worth the money to fix it, following the Sept 1980 train smashing into it.
http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/533/392/1506796/
Lois — thanks for writing and sharing such a clear and interesting story! I can’t wait to read future parts.
Your parents sounded wonderful, by the way.
Just adding another scoop of thanks on the well earned heap of praise here. And I’m looking forward to reading the rest!
Thank you Lois for speaking out. I can not wait to hear more of your stories. Thank you Thank you Thank you.
can not wait until the next chapter ……
So wonderful to see you here Lois.Thank you for being one of my heroes.Always ?
It is so exraordinary to have such a recollection of what life was about in the Apollo (Royal Scotman ?) in the those days. Thank you for sharing.
Lois, I hope you can shed some light on what happened with the SA blog Back in Comm?
https://backincomm.wordpress.com/
The posts are all there it seems. Amazing amount of SA back history.
Cece, from what I’ve heard, scnafrica grew disillusioned with LRH and didn’t want to promote the Indie scene in South Africa anymore. Too bad, really. I didn’t go there for the Indie stuff, I went there for the gossip about the orgs. It was one of the best blogs out there for “the story behind the story”.
I heard that it was just a matter of life putting demands on the “admins” of Back in Comm.
Hi Lois and thank you so much. Your story made me think of Rip Van Winkle. I can’t imagine reading through these books, then finally Bare Faced Messiah, and realizing your beliefs were based on a charlatan.
I too was in a cult and it took me a long time to realize it was all a lie.
I’m 64 and spent age 21-57 a HASI member = 36yrs. Even having those first 21 years of my life to fall back on it was rough getting out. I can’t imagine what it must be like for all those raised in the church who knew nothing else to compare to. Thank you for leaving and thank you for telling your story. It will be hope to my daughter and son when they wake up and face the wall of declare and disconnection.
Sandra Gabrielle Hollywood Kruchko
Jeremy Anders Benedict
Who doesn’t google their own name when they first are allowed to use the internet 🙂
I hope and pray you get your kids back Cece.
Hi Cece, so sorry you have lost your 2 kids. I have lost one out of three. Still, to lose 2 must so hard.
Thanks but with the pain comes wisdom somehow as odd as that may seem. I’m sure it will all be worth it in the end. I’m so sorry for everyone else that has lost kids and the siblings that lost siblings is painful too. I never thought a heart ache could hurt like a head ache. Scientology drills the love and compassion out of one eventually. Produces self-centered robot beings and they don’t know it. I’d rather have the pain – thank you 🙂
Thank you for sharing your great bio beginning, Lois. You were brave to go to the Apollo alone as a 13 year old. I can’t wait to hear more of your continuing story.
Well written Lowie. I know what you went through. Been there. Love ya.
Janis, we would love a book or your extended narrative. I did read Fair Game and it was wonderful to fill in so many pieces of the puzzle. Thank you.
Am working to fill in the rest of the pieces.
Wow! thank you for putting pen to paper. Your words create quite the journey of your life at a remarkable time & place in history. The apartheid South Africa is something I know a little of with good friends I made in business being brought up in Rhodesia before being forced out of the country completely. They literally ran for their lives, never to return. Their large family scattered to the winds. They talk about it with mixed emotions, a loving family torn apart, but their family business cannot deny they profited from the discrimination by taking advantage of cheap labor and the lower living standards of those under such incredible repression, but such is nature and the horror which is known as apartheid.
The Scientology angle on existence is well… something we are all coming to terms with and I look forward to your next writing. One thing you mentioned did stick in my attention and that was the believed scenario that the world only had five years to go before it blows up. That type of paranoia set the stage for many things in Scientology (blossoming into KSW1). The hard fact is WW2 and it’s aftermath was fresh in the minds of many in those days, nuclear weapons were ACTUALLY used on human cities to end it and Hubbard was convinced he had the only solution to it not happening again. He embarked upon a movement in which the carnage of broken lives it had created in the sacrifice are only now truly being comprehended. If there ever was truth in the saying, “the end justified the means” – Scientology is indeed based upon an incredible lie. The tech (workable or not) of the mind so developed had nothing to do with any giving any presentable results for humanity as a whole really. There was never any need to create such a brutally disciplined, military styled organisation in the belief it would create and maintain sanity! Look at what it turned into & how it worked out. In many ways Scientology as a social experiment just became another form of apartheid in its infancy.
Thanks, Lowie. Very interesting and I’ll avidly follow your story.
Hello Lois
Nice to hear your story.
My wife and I knew your mother very well.
You forgot to mention what a beautiful ballroom dancer (and person) she was even before her encounter with Scientology or Neville, and you look a lot like her.
I am sorry to hear of her passing.
Looking forward to the rest of your story.
Mike Moretti
Hi Mike, yes Mom was a wonderful ballroom dancer and a model. I am fascinated that you knew her before Neville. Did you know my Dad Bryan? Yes, it was devastating to lose her at a young age. I take that as a compliment that I look a lot like her, she was a beautiful woman! More stories to come.
Thank you, thank you!
And what a beautiful family.
Wow! And this is just the first chapter! Lois, many thanks for posting this.
Thank you for sharing your story Lois. I applaud your courage.
Great story, Lois, can’t wait for the next installment!
“So one day she got hold of me and told me that there was only 5 years left for the planet, and if she does not do her job by helping to clear the planet, then it’s going to blow-up. This was the turning point for me.”
Well, that’s certainly one way to snap your kids out of all their HE&R dramatics! Very much like an updated modern version of some of those classic folk tales, like Hansel and Gretel, which were designed to scare the beejeezus out of kids so they’d toe the line and shut up 😉
Do you think that mom made that one up on her own or was it a group delusion that was based on something Elron said?
My own comment on this is that I remember back in the late-60s, I also had this same fear and this was in Iowa, so it must have been something that the cult was pushing heavily and internationally, at the time. My parents and my 2 younger sisters also joined the SO (Apollo) in 1971. I guess this was their recruitment line. Go OT to save planet earth. 40 some years later and the earth still hasn’t been nuked.
Disclosure – Lois is my wife.
I also remember this ‘the end is nigh’ doomsday prophecy. It’s how many of us were recruited – myself into the GO in Joburg org at the ripe young age of 15. Wonder how LRH justified this when he railed against the media and others as being ‘merchants of chaos’ and responsible for major suppression on society? Telling a young child or anyone for that matter that they better buck up because ‘the world is going to end’ is just downright criminal (whether you believe it or not). Right up until the time I made my exit 3 years ago these ‘hell-fire and brimstone’ horror stories were still being used as a tool by SO recruiters. I’m sure nothing’s changed.
I’m pretty sure that the “5 years left” came from a policy or issue where LRH is trying to scare people – something about the world ending with a bang or a whimper unless scientology takes over.
“5 Years” was a blue-on-white; an LRHED (Executive Directive), as I recall. It was definitely a ‘hail and brimstone’ sort of pronouncement. No doubt Davey will be pushing it strongly again as the Russian bear growls once more.
http://www.ozy.com/pov/the-bear-is-growling-former-cia-chiefs-report-from-russia/73900?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11082016&variable=0cb34eeb300f206e270ba4186837e947
Thank you Lois. Can’t wait for the next installment. Love the pace and level of detail. Thank you Mike for keeping this venue alive.
Thank you Lois. April 1981 I met the Von Pjeils, the Southworths and Bronwen & Neville Jory. Neville gave me access to the core of why I was around for 35 years. They were some team.
I was born in 1960 as well. And joined the Sea Org as a thirteen year old under the pressure of my mom. Then at 15 went to the Apollo. Quite the coincidence.
Funny Mike. I said to Lois that I used to do children’s comm course every school holidays from age 6 – 9 with a bunch of other kids. Then started real courses and suditing. Arrived on Apollo in late 73 (same time as Lowie) as s totally naive kid from Australia. Lots of similarities.
Funny, I did my 1st course – HAS at age 10 in Toronto
Org.
Now that’s just plain scary, Michael.
I did my first locational at birth. The command was ‘Spot your mother.’ You probably ran the same one, unless it was ‘Find the beach.’ ?
Mike, although my parents didn’t run a mission and we were about 100 miles from the nearest org – Twin Cities, I still clearly remember doing TR’s with my brothers and sisters at around 6 years old and later. I also remember my father nightly reading DMSMH aloud to me when I was in my teens. I saved up my paper-route money to by a $300 HSDC course, which I did complete at around 15 years old.
I must say though that I wasn’t as naïve as you and Lois were when arriving on the Apollo in ’71, as a 17 year old. Although I was naïve, I did have older buddies and we would get up to what teenage boys get up to back in the Midwest but on a minor scale – a bit of drinking and looking at Playboys. Still a bit confused at how to approach the opposite sex though. – oh wait – I’m still confused about that.
More! … (and thank you Lois.. you’re a good writer too)
Thank you Lois.
Thank you for sharing your life story.
No doubt you will be helping others by sharing.
I honor your courage and goodness. ❤️
This almost brought a tear to my eye – especially seeing photos of Bronwyn and Neville Jory, two of the most wonderful people I knew. The Jory Mission really was a great place (the subsequent one in Joburg, that is).In those days it was really all about personal improvement: no pressure, no money (worth mentioning). If scn had always been like that it would still be a roaring success to this day, even if no Bridge truly exists. I know many people today who were around 50 years ago in scn and still have fond memories. Many of LRH’s lies were quite well known, I’m told, and people didn’t have a problem with it. The tech worked, they said, and that’s all that counted. Pity how it all ended up, when it is no longer enough that the tech works. Sure some of it works, but at a cost of millions (today)??
Oh wow. Fascinating start to your life … and heartbreaking.
Thanks, Lois, for telling your story.
Looking forward to reading more.
Thanks Lois.enjoyed reading your story.Stories like yours help me put my scientology time in perrspective and reorient myself after leaving the bubble.Hopefully others with a good stoty to tell will share it too.
Thank you Lois, amazing story even this little bit into it. Cannot wait for the next installment.