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Punishments, Too Gruesomes, Lowers You Went Through, etc. as Staff

TheOriginalBigBlue

Gold Meritorious Patron
I was 17 years old, and they had me in the industrial shredder at PAC. It's located in the motor pool. This was when I was "on decks" routing out of the SO. I wasn't given any protective gear during the time I was shredding. It went on for 8+ hours. I have to say it was nice being isolated from everyone, but having to occasionally talk to the witch that ran estates at the time (in 2004) was unnerving.

Side note: She was actually very nice to me while I was on decks, but prior to that she had treated me like dogshit. I never understood why.

Anyway, for several weeks I would blow my nose and it would be all kinds of different colors because of the dust that got up in there. That's one of the ways I found out about all the sex and other stuff that was going on at PAC. I would occasionally stop and read some of the things I was shredding.

Commanding Estates is probably like commanding a prison colony with all the responsibility but not enough funding or authority to do the job. Estates people learn to look after their own.
 

dchoiceisalwaysrs

Gold Meritorious Patron
Good chance it was diatomaceous earth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diatomaceous_earth

It wasn't. Sugar is fairly distinctive and I was rolling around with my face literally inches above it. Plus the kitchen guys were pretty pissed off at us hosing down the place the second time as it was apparently quite expensive to have it put down. I guess it acted as a preventative as there were no bugs there at all, dead or alive.

I don't know how they got cleaned out. Tens of thousands of dead palmetto bugs would surely have clogged the drains.

Paul
 

lolrl

New Member
At Flag in 2006, Tech Div was crashing for weeks. Not sure why. It was the beginning of December, so maybe people were trying to spend time with their families. Crazy, I know. Anyway, the public training department was in some serious hot water, and after post one night we were herded into the Metering Practical room, lined up in front of the entirety of Flag Base RTC, and screamed at by one of their Trainees for what felt like at least an hour. We were assigned Lowers, rice & beans, 15 minute meal breaks, no canteen privileges, the works.

Then, we were marched across town to a crumbling old building (which is now staff berthing, I believe) where we had to do demolition and heavy manual labor until 1am. We were not allowed to talk. HCO watched over us, and yelled any time a mouth was opened. We got on the last bus home, got 5 hours of sleep, and reported for muster at 7am. The next night we were assigned to cleaning the galley. Then, because our sleep deprivation and humiliation wasn't making public complete courses faster, we were put into Pig's Berthing.

Pig's Berthing was two apartments at the Hacienda, one for men and one for women. The women's had no electricity (so no lights), no hot water, and not enough beds for an entire department. I slept on the floor of the living room in an apartment with no heat, with a single sheet as my only bedding, in December. This went on for over a week - I can't remember how long, exactly, because it all started blending together. One morning, I said something critical about the situation to a friend, who was in a different department. I said, verbatim: "I am sleeping on the floor with one sheet." My department head pulled me aside and yelled at me for dramatizing and nattering. When I cried during this, she slapped me on the back and said "get the stats up and we can all get past this."

My favorite part is that my own stats were up the whole time. Both of them.
 

programmer_guy

True Ex-Scientologist
At Flag in 2006, Tech Div was crashing for weeks. Not sure why. It was the beginning of December, so maybe people were trying to spend time with their families. Crazy, I know. Anyway, the public training department was in some serious hot water, and after post one night we were herded into the Metering Practical room, lined up in front of the entirety of Flag Base RTC, and screamed at by one of their Trainees for what felt like at least an hour. We were assigned Lowers, rice & beans, 15 minute meal breaks, no canteen privileges, the works.

Then, we were marched across town to a crumbling old building (which is now staff berthing, I believe) where we had to do demolition and heavy manual labor until 1am. We were not allowed to talk. HCO watched over us, and yelled any time a mouth was opened. We got on the last bus home, got 5 hours of sleep, and reported for muster at 7am. The next night we were assigned to cleaning the galley. Then, because our sleep deprivation and humiliation wasn't making public complete courses faster, we were put into Pig's Berthing.

Pig's Berthing was two apartments at the Hacienda, one for men and one for women. The women's had no electricity (so no lights), no hot water, and not enough beds for an entire department. I slept on the floor of the living room in an apartment with no heat, with a single sheet as my only bedding, in December. This went on for over a week - I can't remember how long, exactly, because it all started blending together. One morning, I said something critical about the situation to a friend, who was in a different department. I said, verbatim: "I am sleeping on the floor with one sheet." My department head pulled me aside and yelled at me for dramatizing and nattering. When I cried during this, she slapped me on the back and said "get the stats up and we can all get past this."

My favorite part is that my own stats were up the whole time. Both of them.


If the Church of Scientology had been set up as a democratic organization then none of this crap would have happened.
That's my opinion.

IIRC, Hubbard had put down notions of democracy but I don't have the quote at hand.
 

Helena Handbasket

Gold Meritorious Patron

Glenda

Crusader
At Flag in 2006, Tech Div was crashing for weeks. Not sure why. It was the beginning of December, so maybe people were trying to spend time with their families. Crazy, I know. Anyway, the public training department was in some serious hot water, and after post one night we were herded into the Metering Practical room, lined up in front of the entirety of Flag Base RTC, and screamed at by one of their Trainees for what felt like at least an hour. We were assigned Lowers, rice & beans, 15 minute meal breaks, no canteen privileges, the works.

Then, we were marched across town to a crumbling old building (which is now staff berthing, I believe) where we had to do demolition and heavy manual labor until 1am. We were not allowed to talk. HCO watched over us, and yelled any time a mouth was opened. We got on the last bus home, got 5 hours of sleep, and reported for muster at 7am. The next night we were assigned to cleaning the galley. Then, because our sleep deprivation and humiliation wasn't making public complete courses faster, we were put into Pig's Berthing.

Pig's Berthing was two apartments at the Hacienda, one for men and one for women. The women's had no electricity (so no lights), no hot water, and not enough beds for an entire department. I slept on the floor of the living room in an apartment with no heat, with a single sheet as my only bedding, in December. This went on for over a week - I can't remember how long, exactly, because it all started blending together. One morning, I said something critical about the situation to a friend, who was in a different department. I said, verbatim: "I am sleeping on the floor with one sheet." My department head pulled me aside and yelled at me for dramatizing and nattering. When I cried during this, she slapped me on the back and said "get the stats up and we can all get past this."

My favorite part is that my own stats were up the whole time. Both of them.

Welcome to ESMB lolrl.

Thank you for sharing the above account. I'm not sure what to say, it's just crazy and cruel treatment.

I hope that you are doing okay. When you are ready, and only if you are ready to, maybe you can share more of your story on ESMB.

Take good care and again, welcome to ESMB. :)
 

lolrl

New Member
Welcome to ESMB lolrl.

Thank you for sharing the above account. I'm not sure what to say, it's just crazy and cruel treatment.

I hope that you are doing okay. When you are ready, and only if you are ready to, maybe you can share more of your story on ESMB.

Take good care and again, welcome to ESMB. :)

Thank you! I'm doing much, much better; it's been 9 years that I've been out, and only in the last 2 years have I started to come to terms with how fucked up Scientology is. I came to this realization through reading memoirs about OTHER cults, and thinking, "gee, that sounds awfully familiar... but... no, it couldn't be!" Jenna Hill's book, which I could relate to in so many ways and on so many experiences, is what finally tipped me over into giving up my defenses.

I will share more over time. Thank you all for support and for being an outlet.
 

Veda

Sponsor
If the Church of Scientology had been set up as a democratic organization then none of this crap would have happened.

-snip-

Well, it wasn't set up as a democracy. It was set up as a cult - a psycho-political cult disguised as a religion.


1955-brainwashing-front2.jpg

And Hubbard knew precisely what he was doing when he did it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-Washing_(book)


 

TheOriginalBigBlue

Gold Meritorious Patron
At Flag in 2006, Tech Div was crashing for weeks. Not sure why. It was the beginning of December, so maybe people were trying to spend time with their families. Crazy, I know. Anyway, the public training department was in some serious hot water, and after post one night we were herded into the Metering Practical room, lined up in front of the entirety of Flag Base RTC, and screamed at by one of their Trainees for what felt like at least an hour. We were assigned Lowers, rice & beans, 15 minute meal breaks, no canteen privileges, the works.

Then, we were marched across town to a crumbling old building (which is now staff berthing, I believe) where we had to do demolition and heavy manual labor until 1am. We were not allowed to talk. HCO watched over us, and yelled any time a mouth was opened. We got on the last bus home, got 5 hours of sleep, and reported for muster at 7am. The next night we were assigned to cleaning the galley. Then, because our sleep deprivation and humiliation wasn't making public complete courses faster, we were put into Pig's Berthing.

Pig's Berthing was two apartments at the Hacienda, one for men and one for women. The women's had no electricity (so no lights), no hot water, and not enough beds for an entire department. I slept on the floor of the living room in an apartment with no heat, with a single sheet as my only bedding, in December. This went on for over a week - I can't remember how long, exactly, because it all started blending together. One morning, I said something critical about the situation to a friend, who was in a different department. I said, verbatim: "I am sleeping on the floor with one sheet." My department head pulled me aside and yelled at me for dramatizing and nattering. When I cried during this, she slapped me on the back and said "get the stats up and we can all get past this."

My favorite part is that my own stats were up the whole time. Both of them.

"Pig's Berthing" - that expression was in use in the Sea Org when LRH was alive, as was the culinary specialty of Rice & Beans, well before DM came into his own.

Being screamed at for about an hour sounds hauntingly like Miscavige's SRA (Severe Reality Adjustment) improvisation which we started to see working its way down through the CMO circa 1980.

There is a constant, insatiable need for physical labor in the SO because Estates crew and new recruits going through the EPF program are never sufficient so there is always this overarching motivation to assign Lower Conditions amends or sentence people to the RPF. Then when they are needed back on post because things are getting desperate there they get a reprieve.

What is interesting is the natural historic inclination towards "Crime and Punishment" instead of understanding and lifting people up.


Rothenburg The Medieval Crime Museum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-08jKaCd-00
 
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dchoiceisalwaysrs

Gold Meritorious Patron
Well, it wasn't set up as a democracy. It was set up as a cult - a psycho-political cult disguised as a religion.


1955-brainwashing-front2.jpg

And Hubbard knew precisely what he was doing when he did it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-Washing_(book)



I agree with you. However, there is his spew about the best political system would be a Benevolent Monarchy, and finally I understand that to to really have meant the majority of inurements benefiting the Ronarchy or as in today the Mis-anarchy....cult by any other name...!

Psycho for sure and they... OSA with their left hand ...are really pouring the coal on the (faux religious) political actions (purposes,per OT ORGS PL) these days while their other left hand is fumbling miserably at handling the attacks.
 

katzen

Patron
I was 17 years old, and they had me in the industrial shredder at PAC. It's located in the motor pool. This was when I was "on decks" routing out of the SO. I wasn't given any protective gear during the time I was shredding. It went on for 8+ hours. I have to say it was nice being isolated from everyone, but having to occasionally talk to the witch that ran estates at the time (in 2004) was unnerving.

Side note: She was actually very nice to me while I was on decks, but prior to that she had treated me like dogshit. I never understood why.

Anyway, for several weeks I would blow my nose and it would be all kinds of different colors because of the dust that got up in there. That's one of the ways I found out about all the sex and other stuff that was going on at PAC. I would occasionally stop and read some of the things I was shredding.

Hopefully it's not frowned upon here to dig up old posts and reply, but I think I'm going to be doing this a lot here if it's okay.

I also spent a lot of time with this huge shredder through the ages of 12-14. I really enjoyed it. So much better than studying all day when not being screamed at. There's endless stuff to shred around there. Papers, books, video tapes. A lot of it more interesting than what I had to study on course. Once I caught some skin on the thing while tossing some videos down the shoot and gave myself a nasty cut and scar down my arm.


That scar got me out of the Sea Org quickly and easily once I put a mind to it. Yeah I have suicidal thoughts and intentions, and look at this scar down my arm that looks like I messily attempted to slit my wrist. GOODBYE! I was out in 48 hours.


My favorite insult while I was in the SO was "go shred yourself." In the end, I guess I went ahead and shredded myself. Man am I glad I did. I think about this every day when I shred my unneeded mail in my own home where no one ever screams at me for not going Saint Hill Size.
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Hopefully it's not frowned upon here to dig up old posts and reply, but I think I'm going to be doing this a lot here if it's okay.

No, it's fine. There's tons of useful, interesting stuff on ESMB that most people not here from the oughties won't have seen.

A request, though. The default font/size is far easier on the eye than alternatives, unless for a special reason. :)

Paul
 

katzen

Patron
No, it's fine. There's tons of useful, interesting stuff on ESMB that most people not here from the oughties won't have seen.

A request, though. The default font/size is far easier on the eye than alternatives, unless for a special reason. :)

Paul

Thanks for the info. Because I use my phone, writing in the dialog box is nearly impossible. I have been writing replies elsewhere and copy/pasting, which I guess changes the font even though I can't actually see that it does that. Sorry for whatever crazy font change this made. I haven't used a message board in like 10 years, and iPhones really don't like them I guess!
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Thanks for the info. Because I use my phone, writing in the dialog box is nearly impossible. I have been writing replies elsewhere and copy/pasting, which I guess changes the font even though I can't actually see that it does that. Sorry for whatever crazy font change this made. I haven't used a message board in like 10 years, and iPhones really don't like them I guess!

Fair enough. Could you use microphone input? Speech-to-text software is surprisingly good these days. If not, don't worry about it.

Paul
 

katzen

Patron
Fair enough. Could you use microphone input? Speech-to-text software is surprisingly good these days. If not, don't worry about it.

Paul

Hey Paul, or anyone else reading this:

Could you tell me if what I've written here now looks like the default font? I found the pop up "paste as plain text" button here, but since my text looks like the default to me on all my replies I really won't know if it makes a difference unless someone tells me.

Thanks
 

strativarius

Inveterate gnashnab & snoutband
Hey Paul, or anyone else reading this:

Could you tell me if what I've written here now looks like the default font? I found the pop up "paste as plain text" button here, but since my text looks like the default to me on all my replies I really won't know if it makes a difference unless someone tells me.

Thanks

It's perfect, just perfect. Thank you.
 

tesseract

Patron with Horrors
Hey Paul, or anyone else reading this:

Could you tell me if what I've written here now looks like the default font? I found the pop up "paste as plain text" button here, but since my text looks like the default to me on all my replies I really won't know if it makes a difference unless someone tells me.

Thanks

Here's an alternative method that very much encourages learning-by-doing as I found, although it may not work well on your phone and maybe you can use it only on a tablet or computer. You can use the "[SUP]A[/SUP]/A" labelled button in the left upper corner during making (or editing) a post to switch between all codes in your text ( [some format]the formatted text[/some format] ) being displayed as either codes or format (for example, a different font). That way you see all remaining formatting code or useless html fragments that are there even if your phone shouldn't display it as format. :thumbsup: However, take care that what you've written or assembled there is copied to the clipboard of the phone or computer before you switch, as occasionally it all vanishes. There is an auto-save / restore function on ESMB too, you may see it flashing up in the right lower corner of the text box.
PS: I have a newer Android phone and for me the text box works fine. However, on my last rather old and smaller smartphone, it would not, together with many other functions of the forum and other sites too. :p
 
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