By Catarina Sandström Pamnell more
6 November 1998

Source: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/msg/b5b0793776fb4e1c

This is the story of Gitte Mogensen, as it was told to me by one of persons who were there, "babywatching" more her. He is a former staff member of DK Foundation org in Copenhagen, Denmark, Karsten J. Lorenzen.

A few of you have heard some of this story already, but Karsten did not want it widely spread before, for a particular reason. Now he says that is not a stop anymore,  so here it is.

Not long after this happened, Karsten left Scientology. He said he kept having nightmares of Gitte's bruised face. The worst part, he said, is not just knowing that he had been obeying orders, but that he sincerely believed at the time that what they were doing was the right thing. They were "saving a girl from the evil psychs".

This was put together from notes I took while talking to Karsten in a restaurant after the picket in Copenhagen two days ago, Nov 4, so it is a bit sketchy and not to be viewed as the final version - maybe Karsten will give that himself some day.

Thanks, Karsten, for having the courage to tell about this.

This happened around May 1996.

The "Golden Age of Tech" had just been announced. Every org was to send 3 or 4 people to Flag to get trained as "Golden Age of Tech" Course Supervisor, Case Supervisor and Word Clearer. The DK Foundation org sent three people to Flag, Dennis, Per and Gitte Mogensen. Gitte was a handball player and in very good physical shape.

The following is what Karsten heard about what happened at Flag, from talking to the other Danish students, and mostly from a Flag OSA staff, a French woman called Valerie.

The course was said to be the toughest preparation course ever held, with students given very stiff targets on their Student Points (the statistic of a student; various points are given for pages read, words cleared, drills passed, etc.). Gitte was not doing well and fell behind, so she was sent to Ethics. This was the last time the other Danish students saw her.

At Ethics she broke down. Four people were assigned as "nannies" to watch her, one of them was Flag OSA staff Valerie.

Gitte was put on a special diet: fruit, bread, water, juice, Cal-Mag and vitamins.

She was upset and out of control. She grabbed a knife and slashed both her wrists. Luckily, the people watching her were able to stop the blood flow. They had to wrestle with her to get her under control, and during this her face got scratched.

She got checked up by a male medical doctor at Flag (Karsten did not know his name, "the one they usually go to".)

Then she was sent back to Denmark the day before the other Danes came back. Valerie went with Gitte on the plane, maybe because she had formerly worked in Copenhagen.

An old public member, a nice lady called Gulli, had an apartment in Birkeroed (north of Copenhagen, about 20 minutes drive). She was supposed to go away for a while, and let the org borrow her place for Gitte to stay there with her watcher.

Valerie was now very tired and suffered from jet lag. Karsten, who was the PES (Public Executive Secretary, head of the public divisions) of DK Foundation org, was called up by Erik, the HES (HCO Executive Secretary, head of among other things personnel, ethics and sales). Erik said that he and the ED, Niels, wanted to speak to Karsten. When he got to the org they asked him whether he knew Gitte, but he didn't. They said she was in this apartment in Birkeroed and needed help, and she could not go to the hospital since then she would be put in the hands of the psychs. Could he go there? He agreed to do this, as long as his girlfriend (also DK org staff) could come along. They were going through a rough time in their relationship, and he was worried that she would be upset if he went away without warning.

When he got to Birkeroed, Valerie said she was going to take a nap. If Gitte woke up and wanted to go to the bathroom, he had to make sure first that there was absolutely nothing in there that she could use to harm herself.

Karsten talked with his girlfriend all night, until she left at 5 a.m. to go to her job at DK org.

Gitte woke up in the morning. She was very thin, just skin and bones, had scratches in her face and bandages around both wrists. She asked to go to the bathroom. Karsten went in there to first remove anything he thought could possibly be dangerous, before letting her in. Then Gitte went back to sleep.

Karsten woke Valerie up at about 7 or 8 a.m. He asked her what was going on with Gitte, and Valerie told about what had happened at Flag.

They made some breakfast. Karsten asked what about Gitte, and was told of the diet she was on. She was to have 2 slices of white bread, 1 glass of juice, 1 banana and vitamins. Karsten prepared this on a tray, which Valerie brought to Gitte.

Now Karsten wanted to catch some sleep, but Valerie told him her seniors at AOSH (that would have been OSA though, she was Flag OSA staff) had told her they needed to take Gitte to a doctor in Aarhus (in Jutland, about 350 kilometres from Copenhagen).

Karsten had no money for transportation, so at 9 a.m. when the DK Day org opened he called there to get the phone number for the ED of the Foundation org, Niels, who in the daytime was working as an engineer at a well known company called NKT. Karsten asked Niels to make sure they got money to bring Gitte to the doctor. Niels said he was going to call the finance office of the org and arrange it. Half an hour later, Karsten called the org, but they said they had not heard anything about this from Niels. Karsten got mad, as they had to take a train from Copenhagen in 30 minutes, and demanded that they just get the money. He, Valerie and Gitte took a cab to Copenhagen, got a woman from the finance office to bring the money, and got on the train at the last minute.

The train to Kalundborg took 2.5 hours, they waited half an hour there and then got on the ferry to Aarhus. Gitte wanted to go outside to look at the water. They hesitated to let her out, in case she would jump, but she was calm and they took her out for a little while.

In Aarhus, they took a cab to the doctor (Karsten estimates from the cab fare that this was about 5 kilometres from the ferry). The doctor had a large and very nice house. Expensive furniture, exclusive leather chairs, etc. They were the last visitors for the day, only the doctor and a nurse were there. Gitte went in alone to be examined. Afterwards, Valerie asked the doctor what he had said to Gitte, and Valerie and Karsten were let into the doctor's office and told everything that had been said. The doctor wanted to make some tests: he had taken some samples of Gitte's hair, skin and blood, and gave them containers to take urine/stool samples. She was going to be put on a vitamin treatment - this doctor did not work with drugs.

They took a cab back to town. They had to wait another two hours before getting the ferry at 9 p.m., so they got something to eat. Gitte had 2 potatoes, a very small piece of meat and a few beans. She was quiet, waiting for orders from her watchers. Karsten talked to her a bit, asked how she was, and got in some contact with her. She sounded humiliated, and didn't want to speak much when Valerie was near. If Valerie told her something, she looked at Karsten for approval. Since he was Danish and more at home, he became the one who took charge while they were travelling.

On the train, Gitte fell asleep. In Copenhagen, Erik picked them up at the central station. Karsten's girlfriend had called. Karsten wanted to stay with Gitte, he thought it was his job to see that she was OK. But Erik said he'd better go home to be with his girlfriend, so he went home.

Next morning, Karsten was called into the org and told to go back to Birkeroed, so Valerie could get some sleep. First he was to wake Gitte up to have breakfast. He went into her room with a tray and called "Gitte, here's your breakfast". There was no response. He called her several times, but there was still no response. He went to Valerie and asked her to wake Gitte up. Valerie yelled, but Gitte didn't move. Valerie told Karsten to check if there were any reactions at all, while she called the org. Karsten found that her heart was beating and that she was still breathing, but when he shook her there was no reactions. He told Valerie that Gitte was alive, but he still could not wake her up. Not even when he poured water on her did she respond. Valerie said she had been told by her senior to put food in Gitte's mouth, make sure she chewed and swallowed it, and then leave her and they would send an auditor over to handle her. Karsten held Gitte's head, while Valerie pushed food into her.

At that point, the woman who owned the apartment walked in. She panicked. Karsten asked her to leave the room, then went out to talk to her, asked her to go and clean the dishes to get her to calm down. Karsten went back to Gitte. She was coughing, spit running from her mouth, but Valerie kept pushing food in her. Then they stopped the feeding attempt and left her alone, like they had been told. Karsten asked the owner of the apartment why she was there, she was supposed to be on holiday? She wanted to know what was happening. He said this is what is best now, and an auditor is coming from AOSH, and the woman calmed down.

The auditor, a woman, arrived. She went in to work with Gitte, then came out and said "she's fine now, her eyes are open". Karsten went to check her - her eyes were open, but there was no response, nobody there - it was like looking into the eyes of a dead person. The auditor told them to keep her on the diet, and for Karsten to come into the org later, she had to teach him something.

Karsten went to the DK org later that night, and learned how to do the body comm assist. This was to be done if that situation ever happened again. Then he went home to change his shirt, had an argument with his girlfriend, and went back to Birkeroed.

Gitte was sleeping. Valerie said she had to be wakened up to take a walk, then she should eat bread, fruit, vitamins, Cal-Mag, etc. Karsten questioned the Cal-Mag (that is supposed to calm a person down, but she seemed rather to need to be made more awake). Gitte was woken up and Valerie took her for a walk. Karsten called DK org and asked them for someone more qualified to come and take care of this situation. They said there were two public members who were qualified nurses. The nurses did come, and Karsten went home.

The next day, Karsten went back to Birkeroed. The org called and said there was a problem - Gitte's parents now knew that she was back in Denmark and wanted to see her. Karsten said they could not see her in this condition, they had to invent something to say to the parents. The org told them that Gitte was on a top secret program preparing for the Dianetics Day event, and could not talk to them for a few days. The parents were calmed for a moment, but they must have sensed that something was wrong, and kept calling for her. The org called to Birkeroed again, and eventually Gitte's sister was allowed to call her. Karsten asked Gitte if she wanted to speak to her sister, but she didn't. Karsten spoke to the sister and said things would soon be fine again, and after a while Gitte did come to talk to her sister. They were both crying. Gitte didn't say much to her sister, Karsten and Valerie were standing beside her. Her sister wanted to see her, but they said it was impossible. Karsten called the org to ask what to do. He was told to go home. That was the last time he saw Gitte.

The rest he was told by other people in DK org. The parents eventually convinced the org to let them go to see Gitte. The two nurses were present to give a better impression. Gitte was crying. The parents wanted to take her home, and after some discussion they finally were allowed to take her for one night. She never came back. Karsten went to the apartment to be there if she would show up, but she never did.

On the saturday that week, there was the  Dianetics Day event. Before the event, Niels (the ED) asked Karsten how he was. He said it was hell, with all the things that had been going on with Gitte, and with his personal life. So he was told to go get some auditing, and then got a commendation for his outstanding help on the situation with Gitte.

The following week, Gitte's parents came to get her things from the org (when she left to go for training at Flag, she had given up her apartment, and stored some things in the org basement). Karsten helped them to carry the stuff upstairs, and asked them how Gitte was doing. They just said she was fine now. He has not heard anything more about her since.

Catarina Pamnell