What's new

San Jose Mission & LA Sea Org

jerryf25

Patron
June-Aug. 1976: student and PC at San Jose Mission

Sep. 1976 – Nov. 1979: Sea Org, Los Angeles


I first became aware of Scientology in 1976 while I was a music student at San Jose State University. Nancy Olsen, a disseminator from the San Jose mission, struck up a conversation with me on campus and I accepted her invitation to attend an introductory lecture.

After the lecture I began reading DMSMH and Fundamentals of Thought. I enrolled in the Comm Course for $25. During one of the TR drills I experienced myself perceiving the room from above my body. This made a big impression on me. I had already been sympathetic to reincarnation, but did not have a strong reality on having a non-physical existence.

I purchased a block of auditing at $50 per hour, which used up most of my savings. After the auditing I enrolled in the Student Hat course.

I liked Hubbard’s insights and the high morale that I saw in students and staff members. I was doing fine as a college music student at the time, but I had a notion that I had found something better than music. I dropped out of college and signed up with the Los Angeles Sea Org, wanting to be closer to source. My parents tried to warn me about Hubbard and Scn, but my mind was already made up.

In 1976 pay for EPF members was $5 per week, along with free substandard housing and food. This was just before the purchase of the Cedars complex. We were berthed in a multi-story house in L.A. on Alvarado, near the old LA Org. I recall seeing a lot of RPF members and I think we shared the building with them.

I stayed on the EPF for about 1 year. It took me so long probably because I had no prior Scn staff experience, limited auditing and no tech training beyond the comm course. My EPF work consisted mainly of:

* Cleaning
* Assisting with building renovations of the Cedars of Lebanon hospital
* Caring for the children of other Sea Org members

My EPF training period was interrupted for about a month when I was sent on a mission as a night watchman at the newly purchased complex in Hollywood. Escrow had not closed yet and there was a fence around the buildings. One night I temporarily lost my set of keys to the complex. I found the keys, but was replaced on the mission and returned to continue my EPF training.

After awhile, the EPF pay was raised to $8.60 per week. The low pay did not bother me while I was in the Sea Org. I did not feel exploited. I thought that I was making valued contributions to a humanitarian group.

We were told that Hubbard did not receive any of the church income. This turned out to be a lie, as I later learned that he directly controlled Scientology overseas accounts.

After graduating from the EPF I was assigned to the Cadet Estates Org (later renamed Child Care Org). By this time, the Sea Org orgs had begun moving into the complex.

Outbreaks of lice occurred periodically with the children. The childcare operation was illegal in that the adult-to-child ratio was too low. We always knew ahead of time when we would be inspected by government agencies. This allowed us time to give extra attention to cleaning, take some of the kids to a park or temporarily bring in extra adults to create the illusion of a legal adult-child ratio.

My posts while with the Child Care Org were governor, day care center nanny and briefly day center I/C. My last year I was briefly the Cadet Org Coordinator, which was under PAC Senior HCO.

After three years in the Sea Org, some rationality began to return to my mind. This resulted partly from developing a relationship with a woman who had joined the Sea Org during my third year. We eventually married while we were both still in the Sea Org. I became a step-parent to her four children. Trying to develop caring relationships with them helped me wake up to the irrationality of the Sea Org way of life. Sea Org schedules severely restricted the time that parents spend with their children. I realized I could not be an effective parent under those conditions.

Also, for the first time I began to question the church’s policy of charging high prices for auditing. If we were supposed to be a humanitarian group, how could we justify charging high prices for auditing and courses? I couldn’t justify it in my mind.

In the 1970s I believed in the goal of clearing the planet, but towards the end of my time in the SO I concluded that Hubbard’s technologies and policies were incapable of achieving that goal. A couple of reasons being the excessive price of auditing and auditor training that was too slow and complex.

I gave one week’s notice to my supervisor before leaving with my wife and children. A couple of staff members later came to my room and said they were there to collect my scientology books and policies. I handed them over without objecting, even though I had personally paid for my books.

Also, I was told that I would be sleeping separately from my wife. I obeyed and slept at the complex while she stayed in our apartment on Fountain Blvd. I think their intention was to find out whose idea it was to leave and to see if either one of us could be salvaged as staff members. Both of us wanted out. My parents picked us up and we left.

My transition was not easy, even though my parents were generous with their love and support after leaving Scientology.

Not until years after leaving the Sea Org did I realize that I had been a Scientology robot. While in the Sea Org, only what Hubbard decreed truly mattered.

After studying cults, deprogramming and various exposés on Scientology, I structured a Scientology recovery program for myself. I chose as a recovery goal to equal and surpass my pre-Scientology level of prosperity and contentment – a goal I have partially, but not fully achieved.

Last year I posted a version of the recovery program at alt.religion.scientology. A copy of it is posted at this forum. http://forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=105

I occasionally use bits and pieces of Hubbard’s concepts that I consider to be workable.

I consider Hubbard to be one of the major criminals of the 20th century, but I do not blame him or his church for any difficulties I have endured in life.

Jerry Fallenberg
 

Emma

Con te partirò
Administrator
OMG!!!! Jerry that was you who posted that recovery program!!!??

Thank you sooo much for writing that original post. I did most of the steps on it and it helped me tremendously. I hope you don't mind that I reposted it here.

Welcome to the board :)

I hope you enjoy your stay.
 

Bea Kiddo

Crusader
Jerry your name is so familiar to me!!! Do you have red hair, by chance?

I was around PAC base at those times, in child care. I would have been 3 - 7 years old during that time. Anne Zanier, Natalie Ellis - and likely others I dont recall the names offhand...:p
 

Lulu Belle

Moonbat
Jerry your name is so familiar to me!!! Do you have red hair, by chance?

I was around PAC base at those times, in child care. I would have been 3 - 7 years old during that time. Anne Zanier, Natalie Ellis - and likely others I dont recall the names offhand...:p

Nedra Cohee? Or was she later on?

Donna Proffit. Nancy something (I can't remember her last name). Joanne Byrd.

And a cast of others I can't remember now.
 

jerryf25

Patron
Jerry your name is so familiar to me!!! Do you have red hair, by chance?

I was around PAC base at those times, in child care. I would have been 3 - 7 years old during that time. Anne Zanier, Natalie Ellis - and likely others I dont recall the names offhand...:p

Yeah, I had red/auburn hair then. Now it’s brown with some gray (and less of it).

The name Anne Zanier is vaguely familiar. I get an image of her - brown hair, a friendly person. I think she may have been a staff member around 1977 or 78; might have started when I did.

Before being posted to the Cadet Estates Org, me and other EPFers were sent to the org to help out when it was still located on Melrose. That was a wild place.

Here’s a list of Cadet Estates Org/Child Care Org staff members I remember from 1977-79 and also some of the children’s names I recall:

Staff 1977-1979

Balasz, Iris -- Ethics office - married to Eric Lindengren
Byrd, Joanne -- Nanny
Bloomfield, Mike -- Cadet Org Coordinator
Blount, Jan -- Nanny
Calhoun, Susan -- Day care center I/C and later CO
Davis, Sierra -- Nanny. She and her husband owned the green van used by the org
Dixon, Judy -- Governess I/C
Dixon, Woody -- Head cook
Ernisee, Rick -- Governor
Ernisee, Esther -- Took care of babies
Garcia, Frank -- Nanny or governor
Garcia, Juanita -- Nanny
Gibson, Jolene -- Medical Officer
LaMarr, Steve -- Assistant Guardian
Lindengren, Eric -- Org driver, ran the mimeo machine
Mahoney, Terry -- Cook (assistant to Woody)
Merrill, ? -- CO
Radstrom, Debi -- In charge of children’s training/course supervisor
Beth & ? (blonde twins) mother was Thelma Summers


Cadet Estates Org children and teenagers from same period:

Child --- Parents
------ -------
Aragorn ------ Miriam
Arreola, Juan ----- Carlos and Danielle
Balaz, Jimmy --- Iris Balaz
Bloomfield, Jackie ----- Mike Bloomfield
Byrd, John ------- Joanne Byrd
Calhoun, Regan and Lori ----- Susan and Bill Calhoun
Cohen, Brian ----- Virginia Cohen
Helgeson, Kiersten --- Nancy Helgeson
Ian ------------ Nicole, Cope Officer for AOLA
JJ (Jennifer)
Mahoney, Crystal -- Terry Mahoney
Morehead, Gary and Christy -- Cathy
Murray, Denise - 4 Murray kids total ---- father was Joe
Price, Seth
Radstrom, Jesse ------ Ron and Debi
Schwartz, Abel
Tabayoyan, Casavius ---- Mary and Andre
Wright, Chen-Dao and Mettaya
Yarborough, Sunny and Barry ------ Barbara Yarborough
 
Last edited:

jerryf25

Patron
I don't recall a Frank Walter at the San Jose mission. I was only on lines there for one summer (1976). About the only names I recall are Nancy Olsen, the disseminator who invited me to attend the introductory lecture, Carl - my auditor, and another student, Patty Guzetta, who joined the PAC EPF not long after me.

Jerry
 

Gib

Crusader
I stayed on the EPF for about 1 year. It took me so long probably because I had no prior Scn staff experience, limited auditing and no tech training beyond the comm course. My EPF work consisted mainly of:

* Cleaning
* Assisting with building renovations of the Cedars of Lebanon hospital
* Caring for the children of other Sea Org members

Thanks Jerry for the write-up :thumbsup:

I didn't know the elite of the planet - SO members - started out as janitors and babysitters.
 
Thanks Jerry for the write-up :thumbsup:

I didn't know the elite of the planet - SO members - started out as janitors and babysitters.

well you should know that sort of thing

"before enlightenment, chop wood carry water

after enlightenment, chop wood carry water"
 
great clip gib

the film industry is part of the entertainment industry. as sam goldwyn once told a director who wanted to make a film that would send a message, "you want to send a message? call western union."

but there are films that, if there is such a thing as "substance" have substance and this is prime example
 

Idle Morgue

Gold Meritorious Patron
well you should know that sort of thing

"before enlightenment, chop wood carry water

after enlightenment, chop wood carry water"

Scientology = chop wood, carry water 18 hours per day, 364 days per year -for the rest of your degraded being lives - all one billion of them! Give us all of your money, your children and your mest! NO - you don't get anything in return - you get to call yourself a Scientologist you lucky piece of alien crap!:lol:
 
Top