All of them, those in power, and those who want the power, would pamper us, if we agreed to overlook their crookedness by wilfully restricting our activities.
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Radar (March 17, 2008): "Cult Friction" by John Cook
[...]
One day, when
Hill
was 16, the local head of the Religious
Technology Center, the body in charge of
enforcing Church doctrine, told her she needed a
"sec check," or security check—a lengthy inquest
using an E-meter. "I was interrogated eight hours a day for six weeks," she says. "I couldn't talk
to my friends. I had to put on a grubby uniform, and when I wasn't being
interrogated, I had to clean the bathroom. When I
slept, there was always someone guarding the room."
She was never told why.
After six weeks, she was flown to L.A. When she arrived, she was told to go to the Office of Special Affairs' boardroom, where she found Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun, Miscavige's second-in-command. "[Rinder] said, 'Your parents are leaving, and you're going with them.'" The sec check was standard operating procedure for anyone—even a 16-year-old—leaving the Church. "They wanted to know if I had any evil intentions toward my uncle," Hill says. "They wanted to find out if I was going to speak out." [...] Rolling Stone: "Inside Scientology" by Janet Reitman
Eventually, Jeffrey found himself on "PTS watch," monitoring
Sea Org members who wanted to leave the order. According
to church officials, Sea Org members can leave anytime
they want. But in practice, the attitude is "the only
reason you'd want to leave is because you've done something
wrong," says Jeffrey. This would
call for a round of "sec checks," which would
continue throughout the "route out" process, which can
take up to a year. During that time, former Sea Org
members have asserted, they are subjected to so much
pressure they often decide not to leave after all.
The Mirror (Nov. 2005): "Mirror investigates: Inside cult castle" by David Edwards
"I had to leave." But leaving the cult was not easy.
Richard, now 42, was taken to see a senior member of staff
who screamed abuse at him.
"Before they let me go, they gave me some security checking and fed me lots of vitamins which made me feel very strange and I entered in a very dreamlike state," he says. "It was not quite like having hallucinations but I couldn't tell between thoughts and reality. "I went into a very passive state, I felt I had committed bad acts - what they call 'overts'. "I went to past lives and got into a very, very strange but euphoric state. "I wrote lots and lots of confessions and was videotaped while this was going on... "Only then was I allowed home." Chris Owen: "The Control Agenda: Control, Responsibility and Freedom in the Church of Scientology"
One final point about the nature of the organisational
control practiced by Scientology. Both in this and in
the previous sphere of interest, personal control, things
which non-Scientologists would regard as being desirable
have been jettisoned in the pursuit of the goals of
Scientology. In the first sphere, the burden of mental
blockages has (supposedly) been relieved but at the
cost of suppressing individual emotionalism and effecting
what amounts to a personality change. In the second
sphere, the risks of disunity and misuse of Scientology
technology have been reduced by establishing a tough
disciplinary code, rigorously enforced, but at the cost
of suppressing individual expression and liberty. It
is surely a deep irony that an individual who has gained
control over "matter, energy, space and time" should
simultaneously be prohibited on pain of expulsion from
expressing views dissenting from those of Scientology's
leaders or official policies. The same trend of sacrificing
something important for the sake of achieving a Scientology
goal is carried over into the third sphere, with disturbing
consequences for Scientologists and non-Scientologists
alike.
Affidavit of Martin Ottmann (19 April 1996): The Means Of Control
I received about 20 Security Checks in various forms
from August 1990 until July 1992:
a. Standard Security Check — I was questioned by an auditor or MAA from a prepared list. That happened in a secluded room and I was attached to the E-meter. The questions dealt either with my personal background or with my situation on post. Affidavit of Jonathan Caven-Atack (9 April 1995)
57. Scientologists are periodically subjected to confessional
interrogations, where printed lists, sometimes numbering
hundreds of questions, are asked [JCA-122]. Scientologists
pay #200 per hour for these "confessionals" [JCA-32].
Confessional lists are checked with the subject connected
to the "E-meter" [JCA-103]. Such interrogations are
now generally styled "confessionals", "integrity processing"
and "eligibility confessionals" but were originally
styled "security checks" or "sec checks": "In the early
'60s LRH [Hubbard] developed the technology known as
Sec Checking. As issued it was
used for two purposes: as a general tool to clean up
a pc's
overts
and
withholds
and as a security tool to detect
out-ethics
persons and security risks. [JCA-123]. In "The
Only Valid Security Check", details are requested concerning
potential past misdeeds, including: shoplifting, theft,
forgery, blackmail, smuggling, drunkenness, burglary,
embezzlement, cannibalism, drug addiction, sexual practices
and counterfeiting. There are also 21 questions relating
to Hubbard, his wife and Scientology [JCA-122]. A Scientology
"Bulletin" says "The specific details of each misdeed
must be gotten." [JCA-124].
Forbes: "The prophet and profits of Scientology" by Richard Behar
Schomer, who never saw or spoke to Hubbard after 1975,
says that when he became visibly troubled about these
matters, he himself was subjected
to a ten-hour "gang-bang sec check," an increasingly
common experience among church members, which in this
case included being accused of being a CIA spy, threatened
with jail and physical harm and spat upon by Miscavige.
Jon Atack: "A Piece of Blue Sky - Chapter 2: The Scientology War"
Samuels explained that he could not pay the additional
tithe. His Missions were non-profit, tax-exempt corporations,
and Bridge had been separated from the Church and made
into a for-profit corporation, and such donations would
be illegal. Samuels was taken
into a side room by eight members of the International
Finance Police, and given a "Gang Sec Check."
He was threatened with a "Suppressive declare" if he
did not make "personal payments to L. Ron Hubbard."
So he handed over $20,000 and a $10,000 wrist watch
to a Finance Policeman.
|
Robert Kaufman (1972): "Inside Scientology/Dianetics / Appendix I - Security Checks"
Security Check Children
[...] What has somebody told you not to tell? [...] The Only Valid Security Check [...] Have you ever lived or worked under an assumed
name? [...] Affidavit of Mary Tabayoyon (5 March 1994)
82. I had had so many security checks and had told
every imaginable smallest damaging thing I'd ever
done, over and over, I really started to think that
since this lifetime has been gone over with a fine
tooth comb I must have a multitude of crimes in
previous lives that I hadn't properly exposed to
scrutiny of the Ethics Officer. To help
account for the bad experiences I was having in the
present, I, like a number of
other Scientologists, began inventing atrocious acts
committed in prior lifetimes. I
conjured these up to explain why I was so unhappy
and always being yelled at despite my efforts to do
everything perfect.
Affidavit of Hana Eltringham Whitfield (8 August 1989)
I finally left at the end of March 1982, after three
harrowing months of security checking, being screamed
at, being threatened, being asked angrily and threateningly
over and over again while hooked up to Scientology's
lie detector, whether I was in contact with the FBI,
the CIA, the US Government, the Mafia, the Secret Service,
the AMA, the FDA, the AFF, or with hundreds of named
Scientology dissidents. I was accused of being in their
pay. I was threateningly asked whether any of them were
paying me. I was angrily accused of being in phone communication
with them. None of it was true. I painstakingly wrote
down every misdeed I could ever remember committing
and worked long hours late in the night, night after
night for a week, "to make up the dreadful damage I
had caused". I started making up, imagining greater
and worse misdeeds in my written admissions to try to
reach the "evil" in me again. Not even that worked.
Affidavit of Howard "Homer" Schomer (18 March 1986)
32. During the period 1974-1977, [handwritten: as well
as the rest of my tenure in the Sea Org] I know it was
almost impossible to leave the Organization and the
only [handwritten: sure] way to leave was to escape.
All kinds of threats would be
made and an individual would be subject to "Sec Checks"
(Security Checks). I myself was subject to two horrible
such "Sec Checks" where I was deprived of sleep, food,
water, and toilet facilities. I was punched,
spat upon, threatened, intimidated and completely humiliated
as a human being. In order to leave, people were forced
to sign releases against their will as I was. There
was no choice in signing the releases because you were
[handwritten: threatened to be] imprisoned and threatened
with criminal "frame ups" and possible kidnapping.
Affidavit of Tonja Burden (25 January 1980)
In Los Angeles I was locked in a room and forced to
undergo a 'security check' on the E-meter. I was
very scared and crying, and told them I had a family
reunion to go to during the Holidays. I told them
I had relatives on the police department in Las Vegas,
and that I would come back after the Holidays.
I convinced them to release me, and I returned home
by bus. For weeks after I arrived home, they constantly
called me to find out when I would return.
Monica Pignotti: "My Nine Lives in Scientology"
Whenever a person wants to leave Scientology, the first
action taken is to "pull their overts and withholds",
meaning to get the person to disclose what harmful acts
he has committed against the group and any other crimes
the auditor can dig up. This is
done by what is known as a security check, or "sec check",
which is a series of questions designed to discover
crimes.
Willamette Week (1985): "Scientology on trial"
The Security Checks described throughout the trial involve
questioning of an individual who is attached to a crude
lie-detection device known as an E-Meter. Questions
on one Sec-Check form included in part:
Have you ever
had any unkind thoughts about LRH? |