Is Scientology Merely a Bizarre Church, or a Violent Cult?

Scientology's leader David Miscavige

The St. Pete Times wrapped up an in-depth, three-part expose’ on the “church” of Scientology this week. This is a gutsy move considering Scientology’s infamous history of litigation against its critics, and the fact that St. Pete, Florida is one of the organization’s strongholds.  

In the first part of the series, former high-ranking Scientologists who’ve defected tell a harrowing tale about how senior leadership treated underlings and dealt severe penalties for incompetence.  David Miscavige, who took over the top spot in the organization after founder L. Ron Hubbard died, is described as a physically short but brutal autocrat who regularly beats and humiliates his staff.  From the article:

Miscavige gathered the group (of executive staff) and out of nowhere slapped a manager named Tom De Vocht, threw him to the ground and delivered more blows. De Vocht took the beating and the humiliation in silence — the way other executives always took the leader’s attacks.  This account comes from executives who for decades were key figures in Scientology’s powerful inner circle. Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives to leave the church, are speaking out for the first time.

Miscavige was a 16-year old high school drop out from Philadelphia when he started working for Hubbard, serving food and keeping the grounds at the Fort Harrison Hotel, the organization’s “spiritual headquarters” in Clearwater, Florida. In short order, Hubbard had the ambitious teenager leading “missions” (including remodeling Hubbard’s home in Southern California) and giving orders to men twice his age.  Apparently, Hubbard saw something in Miscavige that he wanted to cultivate, and the young leader rose quickly through the ranks.

Several former members attest to Miscavige’s random attacks, claiming that he would inexplicably explode in fits of violence without warning.

“If it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, he’d lose it,” De Vocht said. “If it was contrary to how he thought, he’d lose it. If he found it to be smart aleck, or it was a better answer than he had, he would lose it.”

Rathbun and Rinder provide vivid detail about those they saw Miscavige brutalize. 

Marc Yager: At least 20 times.  Guillaume Lesevre: At least 10 times. Ray Mithoff: Rathbun said Miscavige “would regularly hit this guy open-handed upside the head real hard and jar him. Or grab him by the neck and throw him on the floor.”

Norman Starkey: “Right in the parking lot, (Miscavige) just beat the living f— out of him, got him on the ground and then started kicking him when he was down,” Rathbun said.

He said he saw Rinder “get beat up at least a dozen times just in those last four years … some of them were pretty gruesome.”   Said Rinder: “Yager was like a punching bag. So was I.”  

He added: “The issue wasn’t the physical pain of it. The issue was the humiliation and the domination. … It’s the fact that the domination you’re getting — hit in the face, kicked — and you can’t do anything about it. If you did try, you’d be attacking the COB.  “It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment.”

The series goes on to document a lengthy list of abuses, from organized character assassination to the cover up of events preceeding Scientology member Lisa McPherson’s death.

McPherson, a 36-year-old parishioner in apparent good health, had spent 17 days in a guarded room at the church’s Fort Harrison Hotel. Scientology staffers tried to nurse her out of a mental breakdown, but she became ill. She drew her last breaths in the back seat of a van as they drove her to a hospital in the next county. 

Rathbun (former high-ranking executive), who defected from Scientology’s staff in late 2004, admits that as prosecutors and attorneys for McPherson’s family prepared subpoenas, he ordered the destruction of incriminating evidence about her care at the Fort Harrison.

He and others who have left the church disclose for the first time that Miscavige was involved in McPherson’s Scientology counseling. Just weeks before her mental breakdown, they say, it was the leader himself who determined that she had reached an enhanced mental state that Scientologists call “clear.’’

The final part of the series describes Scientology’s particular brand of internal discipline, called “ecclesiastical justice.” 

The four high-ranking executives who left Scientology say that church leader David Miscavige not only physically attacked members of his executive staff, he messed with their minds.  He frequently had groups of managers jump into a pool or a lake. He mustered them into group confessions that sometimes spun into free-for-alls, with people hitting one another.

For reasons dating back to Hubbard’s rule, using a pool or lake to dole out discipline evidently carries special significance — perhaps as a parallel practice to traditional baptism, but with a sinister twist.

Miscavige had the staffers line up at the diving board in their uniforms, and one by one, jump into the pool. Before each person went in, Norman Starkey, once the captain of the Apollo, called on them to be better spiritual beings. He recited a traditional Sea Org (a divisional group of Scientology) saying:

We commit your sins and errors to the deep and trust you will rise a better thetan.

Miscavige ordered the group to go to an office in their wet clothes and stay put until they figured out where they had failed.

The St. Pete Times should be applauded for its willingness to print these reports — not long ago they’d have been sheepishly avoided by almost all mainline media outlets.  (Should be noted that Scientology’s official response is “it’s all lies”.)

Much of the credit for news like this ever seeing the light of day goes to the group calling itself Anonymous, which has doggedly exposed and protested Scientology across the U.S.   On its website, under a section entitled “Why is Scientology Dangerous,” the group writes:

The Church of Scientology, while claiming to be a religion and functioning as such, behaves strikingly like a business and cult. The “fair game” policy, for example, is responsible for the harassment of numerous scientology critics over the years. As L. Ron Hubbard said, concerning suppressive peoples (those who are not in support of scientology):

“The homes, property, places and abodes of persons who have been active in attempting to: suppress Scientology or Scientologists are all beyond any protection of Scientology Ethics, unless absolved by later Ethics or an amnesty … this Policy Letter extends to suppressive non-Scientology wives and husbands and parents, or other family members or hostile groups or even close friends.”

I think that sums it up quite well. But, I’m going to have to give the final word on the topic to South Park (unfortunately you’ll have to click on the link below to reach it because YouTube disabled embedding…hmmm, wonder why).

South Park Video on Scientology

–David DiSalvo