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Starved to death in Denmark
The enlistment in Scientology
Eric Rubio thought, he will have a career and become happy in the elite of Scientology. Ten years later, he came back to France... In an urn. Eric died alone and starved.

et-sect-era
19.8.2002

By Cyril Malka

Eric was born in Aubervilliers, in France in June 1966. His mother was French and his father was from Buenos Aires. He was a quite reserved boy. He had only few friends went a lot in the cinema and had no special interests.

When he became 18, he was called to his military service, just like any other French boys until few times ago had to. It is unknown if he have had problems. His mother explains that when he got back from the army, he was dirty and tired, like he has had a lot of problems with the army's way of life.

After his parents got divorced, Eric chose to live with his father, who was living in Paris. It was more appealing to him and there were more possibilities in Paris than in his little town.

Paris is cut in 20 parts called "arrondissement". The father was then living in the 9th. Arrondissement... It was in the same arrondissement than Scientology. Eric was working in a pizzeria at that time.

She thought her son was about to become a priest

It is in 1991 that he contacted his mother again. He explained to her that he now was in the "Church of Scientology". The mother thought, her son wanted to become a priest. It surprised her because he never before had shown interest about religion before but, as she said to et-sect-era under the interview: - I didn't want to interfere, if he was interested in becoming a priest, it was okay, it was his life and his choice.

It is when she spoke with her mother that she found out what Scientology really was. Unhappily, following a pattern one knows much too well, Eric didn't listen to his mother. In the first time, he contacted her to explain to her about how great Scientology was, and that it wasn't a cult but a religion, about clearing the planet and about a lot of other exiting things.

As the mother was against the cult, it made Eric PTS (Potential Trouble Source). This forced Eric to "handle" his mother so he could enjoy the Scientology.

He worked in the office in Scientology and in the same time in other places. The last known regular job Eric had was in a hotel at the end of September 1991.

In the belief that he will become elite, Eric signed in, in the cult's Sea Organization which should send him to Denmark.

Sea Organization is the elite of Scientology and the member are signing in for a billion year.

Signing on the Sea Org

This is about the period when he came to Denmark for Scientology. It is the same picture which was used for his Green Card.

It was dreaming of power and of being something really special that Eric got in the Sea Organization and arrived in Copenhagen in 1992. At the time, it was easy to get the necessary papers to stay in the country. Even though Scientology was not (and still is not) recognized as a religion in Denmark, the cult could make its member come in the country under the same law and conditions than other religions missionaries.

Scientology helped its foreign members to get a resident permit. As a natural thing, they need the members ID papers so they can get those permits.

Life in the Sea Organization is hard. Eric lived under miserable conditions, with plastic instead of glass in the windows summer and winter and under quite debatable hygienic conditions.

Before one can become a full member of the Sea Org, one has to go through a quite tough treatment. A bit like in some of the American elite army where one has to undergo a great deal of humiliation before one can become part of a more glorious unit.

All this didn't give much time to Eric to write letters, but the first letter he sent was positive. They were written very politely and with a kind of distance, which was something which surprised his mother. They often begun with: "Dear mother", which wasn't an expression the mother, was able to recognize him in.

... I think I'll come home soon

She was surprised but thought that Eric now had gone into the navy and maybe because of that had a greater distance. Eric took her out of her misunderstanding and explained to her that only the name Sea Organization sounds as the navy. It was a department in Scientology.

A couple of year later, the Sea Organization and Scientology doesn't answer to the rose colored image Eric had from France and from the colored pamphlets.

In July 1994, under the hot sun of Copenhagen he wrote to his mother among other things:

"I am okay, but I have had enough of the Sea Organization. Scientology has not giving me what I hopped. In addition to that, I work for a miserable pay. Sometimes 100 DKK (about $13) a week, other times nothing. I think I will decide to come back to France after the summer holidays. I have found out that I have spilled 2 years of my life working for those people. There is an end to everything and since I have had enough to work for nothing and for people, that I will describe as hypocrites, I prefer to get back to France and to start over again on a more stable ground." (1)

Eric had just rckoned without his host. He had signed a contract for 1 billion year, and the cult actually persuaded him to stay in the Sea Organization. The following letters are all sent from the "Hotel Corona" which is the Sea Organization's quartering. Almost all the letters speaks about that he would like to get back to France.

Eric asks his mother several times that she sends a birth certificate. This paper is necessary so the French embassy can make the required papers (passport and ID-card) so Eric could get back to France. Eric kept on "losing" his papers in strange ways.

Blocked in Copenhagen

Eric is now blocked in Denmark. He can't get home. The only person who might help him, his mother, can't do much else that to explain that he is of course welcome to get back home, she awaits him. She keeps on sending him the same official papers over and over again.

The dialog between mother and son takes form of two monologs. He writes and asks for help, she answers. It appears that Eric doesn't receive most of the letters she sends. When his grandmother dies in 1998, the mother writes a letter of 4-5 pages about it. It is first in the year 2000 that Eric finds out of it, while he is speaking to his sister. This letter, as well as a lot of others hasn't made it through to him.

The letters he sends in the period 1995-1997 are conflicting. One says, he has decided to stay in Scandinavia anyway, the next asks for a birth certificate so he can get home. Only thing in common is that the word "Scientology" has vanished from the letters. Eric still lives in "Hotel Corona" but the letters are ripped of anything speaking about Scientology.

Eric is dissatisfied with the condition in the cult and just wants to get home. Here again, it is more complicated that he knew and Eric is now SP (Suppressive Person). He has to go through the 5 steps called A-E. He ends being declared unfit for the Sea Organization and can therefore not stay at the Hotel Corona.

Searching for a fixed point

Eric changes address and moves to the island of Amager in Copenhagen. He works in a Mexican restaurant where he makes pizzas and tortillas. Some times later he his cleaning offices. He is becoming sick and blind. His letters become more incoherent. His handwriting changes. From Amager, he moves to Valby, on the edge of Copenhagen. He lives now c/o a couple. He still pays to Scientology and read their books.

Things are getting more confused in his head, he can't keep a job. First of all because he sees less and less and get an operation for cataract. His sickness makes him quick-tempered, hot-headed. He has hypoparathyroidism. He is therefore sent and treated at the hospital one week in April 2000 but then doesn't come back to the outpatient department.

He not only reads Scientology's books, he tries to find a foothold in anything, and he even got in contact with Hara Krishna. The family where he is living can see that there is something wrong; they try to help him out. They have problems communicating as Eric still didn't learn Danish.

Good bye to mother

His diet is changing; he eats only vegetables and cut it down to be exclusively onions and garlic. It is cheap and he believes it is healthy. He still owes money and pays to Scientology. The people who knew him say he paid what he had to. He preferred not to eat and pay his debts.

In February 2000, he sends the last letter his mother will ever receive from him. With that letter, he sent a picture where he has obviously changed a lot, not to the better. The letter is very short and says:

"Dear mother,

I hope you are okay. I didn't write in a long time, as I have a lot of problems in Denmark. I have lost a lot of jobs and I might decide to get back to France. I really would appreciate if you would help me to find a solution as I don't know where to go.

I've got enough of Denmark.

So long
Eric" (2)

Eric's mother didn't hear more from him.

Eric tried to put money aside so he could get back. In the meantime the religious confusion in his head kept growing and he begun to be a difficult lodger. His sickness got worse because he didn't get proper diet and his thoughts were getting foggy. Because he couldn't see very well and because of his hot temper, he couldn't work any longer, he got on social welfare.

The couple who housed him didn't want him any more. They explain to et-sect-era: - We have really tried to keep him and to help him. We visited him when he was sick and at the hospital. We helped him with food also, because what he ate wasn't proper food. But he began to become violent and we didn't dare having him here any longer. Once, he wanted to hit me, explains the housewife, I got really scared and thought that now, he had gone too far. We had gone much farther then any host could tolerate.

Alone in Rodby

Eric had to find another apartment. It was easier to find a place to live in Rodby, in the south of Zeeland than in Copenhagen.

So Eric moved to Rodby.

Eric still paid to Scientology. His budget was quite tied. In his notebook, he had written a budget:

  5,377 DKK ($700) What he gets from welfare
- 2,500 DKK($330) Expenses
= 2,777 DKK($370) Rest
- 1,000 DKK ($132) Amount he gives to Scientology each month
= 1,777 DKK ($238) What is back
- 359 DKK ($47)  Expense
= 1,418 DKK($190) What is back

In July 2001, although he still is paying back an old debt, Scientology still tries to sell books to him. On July 27th. Natalia Nemes writes to him among other things:

"Dear Eric,

Thank you for your letter regarding the Learning how to Learn and the Tone Scale. As already gone over the phone, if you can send me the money, then I will send the books to you in very short order.

The Learning How to Learn costs: 85 DKK

[...]

I suggest you to buy the new version of "Science of Survival" with the Tones Scale and the Chart of Human Evaluation. This is translated also into French and it costs 450 DKK.

If you wish to buy these, just send me the money (check) and you will receive the books via me. [...]"

Eric, who needed help, didn't need further debts and to write a check of 1,535 DKK ($200) instead of 1,000 DKK.

Disappointed, Eric sends a letter on the 2nd. of August in which he writes that he has now found a new religion and when he is finished with step B of the Scientology's handling of SP's he doesn't wish to be a member any longer.

Natalia thinks this is okay and that he might come back later via the Continental Justice Chief.

As long as Eric pays, none in the cult is worrying.

We contacted Scientology to get in touch with Natalia Nemes, but she wasn't there any longer. She is now working in Los Angeles (USA).

Eric's physical condition is getting worse. He is in a lot of pain, especially the stomach aches.

Hospital and other things are free in Denmark, but Eric doesn't know all that. Scientology never taught him how to live in Denmark. After almost 10 years in Denmark, Eric still doesn't speak Danish.

He tries to meditate his way out of pain and he takes courses in intestine cleansing in the Scandinavian School of Yoga and Meditation.

The School explains to et-sect-era, that Eric was a nice guy. He didn't come regularly, they only saw him from time to time and he was especially interested in intestine cleansing courses. He didn't follow the regular courses.

Lived on garlic and spring water

The 9th. of November 2001, Eric pays for a course in the Yoga School: One bill of 300 DKK and one of 1,480 DKK ($235). None in the Yoga School imagines or knows that Eric just used his last money...

After this day, Eric disappears from everyone's horizon. He stays home and the only thing he eats is garlic. Spring water and garlic. A lot of French knows that onions and garlic are healthy. But their proportion of healthiness has grown beyond reasonable proportions in Eric's head. He thinks that it is healthy.

The social worker in charge of Eric is worried when she doesn't see him to control. They stop sending money to him and imagine than he then will get back to her, when he sees no money is coming.

Nothing happens.

The social worker decides to visit him to find out of what happened.

On January 15th. 2002, Eric is found in his apartment. His body was almost dissolved. He died in his kitchen while he wanted to cook. The cause of death was the parathyroid gland which stopped because of missing minerals and vitamins.

The autopsy mentions that he had not eaten in at least one day before his death. For everyone else, his kitchen was empty: Just some garlic. Eric's weight was of 45 kilos (90 pound) for 167 cm (5.47 Feet)

It is first 11 month after Eric's last letter, that the mother got news from her son. Through the official channels when the ashes of her son had to get back home.

Eric wanted to clear the planet and to become elite in Scientology... Since 1994, he had tried to get back home. He never got home alive.

HCO POLICY LETTER OF 7 FEBRUARY 1965
REISSUED 15 JUNE 1970

"You're here so you're a Scientologist. Now we're going to make you an expert auditor no matter what happens. We'd rather have you dead than incapable" L. Ron Hubbard

Postscript

In our work to find out of Eric's life in Denmark, we spoke with a lot of people who have known Eric in short or longer period of time. Everyone remembered him and had something to say.

Only Scientology have, despite of several called avoid saying anything. They were the one who knew Eric best and followed him from the time he came to Denmark, until almost the last days of his life. They had no problems cashing the checks he sent and tried to sell even more to him. They didn't try to help him to find his way back home.

At the time he died, Eric owed them a bit less than 12,000 DKK ($1,580). The loss has been negligible to the cult.

© 2002 - et-sect-era - Cyril Malka

Scan of every document and further information having to do with this can be required at cyril@etsectera.com

(1) En ce qui me concerne ça va, mais j'en ai marre de l'organisation maritime. La Scientologie ne m'a pas apporté ce que j'espérais. En plus, je travaille pour gagner quasiment rien du tout, parfois 100 couronnes par semaine, parfois rien. Je crois qu'ils se foutent du monde. Je pense que je vais prendre la décision de repartir pour la France après les vacances d'été. Je m'aperçois juste maintenant que j'ai perdu 2 ans de mon temps à travailler pour ces gens-là. De toute façon il y a une fin à tout, comme j'en ai marre de travailler pour rien et pour des gens que je qualifie d'un peu hypocrites, je préfère retourner en France et démarrer sur des bases un peu plus stables.

(2) Chère Maman. J'espère que tu vas bien, ça fait longtemps que je ne t'ai pas donné de mes nouvelles. J'ai beaucoup de problèmes au Danemark. J'ai perdu beaucoup d'emplois. Je vais peut-être prendre la décision définitive de rentrer en France. J'aimerais que tu m'aides à trouver une solution parce que je ne sais pas où aller. J'en ai marre du Danemark. A bientôt, Eric.