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Scientology in Turmoil: Debbie Cook's E-Mail, Annotated
By Tony Ortega Fri., Jan. 6 2012 at 3:17 PM
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/01/scientology_in_3.php

DebbieCookFSO.jpg
​Since news broke Sunday of Debbie Cook's stunning e-mail, sent to thousands of her fellow Scientologists, word of a serious rift inside the church has been appearing in many news outlets, particularly in Europe. In the meantime, we provided additional depth and context about Debbie Cook, her career, and her salvo against church leader David Miscavige.

This morning, the Cook story showed up on ABC's Good Morning America. We couldn't help noticing that the editing on it was a bit strange, and it leads us to think it was only part of a larger segment -- perhaps something that's going to play tonight on Nightline?

If so, that means a whole group of new folks may be coming to this story, and we figure they're going to have a lot of questions about who this Debbie Cook is and what her e-mail is all about. (And plenty more will wonder, "What is Scientology?")

So this afternoon, we've put together an annotated version of Debbie's e-mail, and we hope it helps you navigate this pretty shocking story about Scientology's internal crisis.


Dear Friend, 

I am emailing you as a friend and fellow Scientologist. As we enter a new
 year, it is hoped that 2012 can be a year of great dissemination and a year
 of real progress up The Bridge for all Scientologists.

As we explained in our introduction to Scientology, church members are encouraged to take courses and do counseling ("auditing") so they can complete ever more expensive and esoteric levels of Scientology understanding. This process is know as "The Bridge," so Debbie is wishing her fellow church members a year of successful advancement.


Although I am not in the Sea Org right now, I served in the Sea Org at Flag
 for 29 years. 17 of those years were as Captain FSO. I am a trained auditor
and C/S as well as an OEC, FEBC and DSEC.

As we wrote earlier, Cook enjoyed a storied career as the captain of the Flag Service Organization, which made her CEO, essentially, of Scientology's spiritual mecca in Clearwater, Forida. Such positions are only held by executives in the "Sea Organization," Scientology's hardcore elite corps that requires its workers to sign billion-year contracts and promise to come back, lifetime after lifetime, and dedicate themselves utterly. Along the way to becoming the commanding officer at Flag, Debbie had become a "case supervisor" (C/S), which means that she was qualified to oversee how auditors handled individual cases. She had also completed work in various executive training packages -- the Organization Executive Course (OEC), Flag Executive Briefing Course (FEBC), and the Data Series Evaluator Course (DSEC). In other words, Debbie Cook was trained to the gills, had an illustrious past as an almost legendary executive at Flag, and had immense authority for the average Scientologist who might be receiving this e-mail.


I am completely dedicated to the technology of Dianetics and Scientology and
 the works of LRH. I have seen some of the most stunning and miraculous 
results in the application of LRH technology and I absolutely know it is
 worth fighting to keep it pure and unadulterated.

My husband and I are in good standing and we are not connected with anyone
 who is not in good standing. We have steadfastly refused to speak to any
 media, even though many have contacted us.

But I do have some very serious concerns about out-KSW that I see permeating 
the Scientology religion.

Another key concept to understand is that to Scientologists, L. Ron Hubbard -- who died in 1986 -- is still the one and only "Source" for their "technology." When current church leader David Miscavige in 2007 put out a new set of Hubbard's books -- The Basics -- it was based on the notion that Miscavige had found transcription errors that occurred when Hubbard was publishing the books in the 1950s. In other words, these new editions were even more "pure" and "unadulterated." In her message, Cook is stressing that she too cares about Hubbard's original words and ideas, but she lets on now that she sees a problem with the current church, that it is not following Hubbard's program to "Keep Scientology Working," and that as a result the church is permeated with "out-KSW" activity.


I have the utmost respect for the thousands of dedicated Scientologists and
 Sea Org members. Together, we have come through everything this world could 
throw at us and have some real impingement on the world around us. I am
 proud of our accomplishments and I know you are too. 
However there is no question that this new age of continuous fundraising is
 not our finest moment.

The timing of Cook's e-mail, New Year's Eve, was calculated for maximum effect. Not only does a lot of fundraising go on at New Year's Eve events put on by Scientology (see this video for an example), but in November, the St. Petersburg Times published a devastating expose about the church's current obsession with raising money from its members. And unlike previous exposes about the church's high management, this was a series that revealed what just about every Scientologist is currently struggling with -- management's mania for donations.


LRH says in HCO PL 9 Jan 51, An Essay on Management, 


"drop no curtains between the organization and the public about anything."
 - LRH

Based on this policy I am communicating to you about some situations that we
 need to do something about within our religion, within our group.

LRH -- L. Ron Hubbard -- wrote not only many books that Scientologists use, but also thousands of "policy letters" that spell out every facet of Scientology's processes, staffing, internal justice, and administration. Cook brilliantly relies on direct quotations of Hubbard's words to make her arguments in this e-mail. It's not just Debbie Cook who has a problem with the way Scientology is going today -- it's LRH himself who would be appalled. That's an extremely powerful argument for a group of people who consider Hubbard almost a god.


Actions that are either not covered in policy or directly violate LRH policy
 and tech include the extreme over-regging and fund-raising activities that have become so much a part of nearly every Sea Org org and Class V org as
 well as every "OT Committee". This fundraising is not covered anywhere in 
LRH policy.

In Scientology parlance, it's a "registrar" whose job it is to convince church members to give more money for services and for donations. (Particularly since the publication of The Basics books, however, many more executives and ordinary workers have been expected to help out with sales and fundraising. "The role model of Scientologists is supposed to be the auditor. But auditors have been turned into fundraisers," says ex-Sea Org member Chuck Beatty.) The act of asking for donations has become known as "regging," and here Debbie complains about "over-regging." At individual "orgs" -- churches -- volunteer OTs (high-ranking church members) in "OT Committees" are also raising money for new buildings, as can be seen in a rather remarkable video we published last year, featuring an "OT chairman."


Hardworking Sea Org members and the dedicated staff of orgs around the world
 aren't choosing to do these actions. Nor are the OTs. I am sure they would
 be more than happy if they could just get on with direct dissemination of 
Scientology as they have done for so many years.

But the truth is that this is being driven from the very highest echelons
 within the Scientology structure and clearly there is a lot of pressure to 
make targets that are being set.

By feeding on their own -- subjecting Scientologists to constant fundraising -- the church isn't spending enough time bringing in new people -- "disseminating" Scientology. As we wrote last year, there's good evidence that the church is shrinking. There may be no more than about 40,000 active Scientologists around the world, and not the 10 million members that the church claims.


The IAS: The [International Association of Scientologists] was created unbeknownst to LRH in 1984 by Marc Yager and
 David Miscavige. This was supposed to be based on LRH policies on the 
subject of membership and the HASI, however the IAS is nothing like the
 membership system described by LRH which only has two memberships and is
 covered in HCO PL 22 March 1965 "Current Promotion and Org Program Summary,
 Membership Rundown" and states:

"There are two memberships..." - LRH

"She's absolutely correct. In 1983, I was in the room doing my own project when I witnessed the executives of the CMO Int fire the project to start the IAS," says Chuck Beatty, a former Sea Org member who is today a sort of unofficial church historian. "They didn't bother Hubbard with the details of what they were doing."

Beatty says the IAS was formed as a way to raise funds to help Scientology fight its legal battles, and to do so with a non-profit organization.

"One of its purposes was to sidestep the IRS," Beatty says, reminding me that in 1983, Scientology did not have tax exempt status (that came in 1993). The executives who started the IAS wanted to take church member donations to create a war chest for Scientology's battles, Beatty says.


LRH lists there the INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP and gives its cost at 10
 pounds sterling or $30 US. He also lists a LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP which is
 priced at $75 US. There are no other memberships or statuses approved or 
known to LRH.

Furthermore, membership monies are supposed to go directly to the org where 
the membership is signed up, and the money used for dissemination by that 
org, in that area.

This is covered in HCOPL 1 Sept 1965R Membership
 Policies.

"It all goes into the HCO Book Account in the area where the membership is 
brought and is not part of the organization's weekly gross income.
 Membership monies go to dissemination". - LRH

Currently membership monies are held as Int reserves and have grown to well
 in excess of a billion dollars. Only a tiny fraction has ever been spent, in
 violation of the policy above. Only the interest earned from the holdings 
have been used very sparingly to fund projects through grants. In fact many 
of the activities you see at IAS events are not actually funded by the IAS,
 but rather by the Scientologists involved.

Cook's assertion that Miscavige and the church have amassed a billion dollars in cash reserves has been one of the most-talked about things in her e-mail. Can Scientology really have so much at its disposal? Well, let's look at what we know.

Just a little more than a month ago, the St. Petersburg Times (now Tampa Bay Times) published its latest blockbuster expose of the church, focusing on how much Scientology has become about fundraising. Journalists Joe Childs and Tom Tobin provided these eye-opening numbers:

"Scientology rings up astonishing sums: $100 million a year just from services sold in Clearwater, a minimum of $250 million since 2006 for the International Association of Scientologists, tens of millions for new church buildings called Ideal Orgs, and untold millions more from selling new volumes of church scripture."

Our own sources suggest that the St. Pete Times may actually have been conservative in its estimates. Revenue for services at Flag over the last six years have averaged $138 million a year, we're told, and The Basics -- a republication of key Hubbard books which was launched in 2007 -- has brought in hundreds of millions more.

But Beatty tells me that Hubbard himself wanted the church to have a lot of cash on hand.

"Hubbard did want the church to amass a big reserve," he says. "His instruction was that we needed to have enough so that the church could keep going for five years, even if every dime in revenue was cut off. That was our target."

Cook, however, complains that even with all the money on hand, it isn't being spent the way Hubbard wanted it to be used...


Think about it, how many ads disseminating Scientology, Dianetics or any Scn 
affiliated programs have you seen on TV? Heard on the radio? Seen in
 newspapers? I haven't seen one in the 4 years I have lived in San Antonio,
Texas, the 7th largest city in the US. How many have you seen?

Debbie Cook may have not seen many ads, but my own experience is different. On the Internet, at least, Scientology ads seem ubiquitous. And they show up in places like Hulu, where they get wide exposure.

Beatty acknowledged that Cook might simply not be familiar with the Internet enough to know how much Scientology advertises there. On the other hand, he points out, Scientology doesn't do the kind of massive television campaigns that it did under the leadership of marketing executive Jefferson Hawkins in the 1980s.


Donating anything more than a lifetime membership to the IAS is not based on
 LRH policy. The article "What Your Donations Buy" (The Auditor, The Monthly
 Journal of Scientology No. 51, 1970) is clearly talking about how the church
 uses your donations for Dianetics and Scientology services. Next time you
 are asked to donate outside of services, realize that you are engaged in
 fundraising and ask to see something in writing from L. Ron Hubbard that
 this is something he expects from you as a Scientologist.

Now we get to the really difficult part of the e-mail for her fellow church members. They are at this point being asked to think for themselves and to speak up rather than simply accept what they are told by church officials.

As Jason Beghe explained to us the other day, this is a radical suggestion for devoted church members. Beghe is a veteran actor of films and television series, and in the 1990s he was a celebrated member of Scientology. In 2008, he announced his defection from the church and has been criticizing it ever since.

"I know it's hard to understand how someone can be so dense. But you're in a trance. When someone of this magnitude speaks up, it has an effect," Beghe told us.

"These people cannot think for themselves, which is ironic, because they're told when they get into Scientology that they'll be trained to do exactly that," he said. "At some point they're going to wake up. Hopefully."


New Org Buildings: LRH also never directed the purchase of opulent buildings
or the posh renovations or furnishings for every org.

In fact, if you read HCO PL 12 March 75 Issue II, "The Ideal Org", which is
 what this program has been called, and nowhere in it will you find 20 
million dollar buildings or even any reference to the poshness of org
 premises at all as part of LRH's description of an "Ideal Org". Instead, an 
Ideal Org was one that delivered and moved people up The Bridge - something 
that is not part of this "Ideal Org" program.

LRH says in the PL that an Ideal Org:

"would be clean and attractive enough not to repel its public" - LRH.

This is all it says about the state of the building.

Beatty says this is a devastating critique by Cook. For the last decade, Scientologists have been under incredible pressure to raise money for lavish new buildings to replace their current orgs -- many of which are not full at all, and really don't need replacing.

Beatty explains that Cook is showing that Hubbard's idea of an "Ideal Org" was based on what it produced -- not what it looked like.

"Hubbard would have removed Miscavige for that alone. He basically knocked out Hubbard's final, long-range plans for the movement," Beatty says. "Hubbard wanted 'Saint Hill Sized' organizations. He never pushed for the Ideal Orgs."

Beatty is referring to the legendary status of Saint Hill Manor -- Hubbard's UK home -- which in the 1960s was known for its bustling productivity as it trained auditors and moved church members up the "bridge." Ever since, orgs have been measured by whether they are "Saint Hill Sized" (although what, exactly, makes an org Saint Hill Sized seems to be something of an elusive set of criteria).

Cook is charging that Miscavige has thrown out Hubbard's plan -- to produce more busy, bustling and at least clean, if utilitarian, facilities -- and has replaced it with a worldwide real estate buying binge for large, opulent buildings that have largely been sitting empty. Members, meanwhile, are constantly hit up for cash for these projects, as can be seen in videos we have published here.


As a result of this off-policy alteration of the Ideal Org PL, we have the 
majority of top OTs, now deemed "OT Ambassadors", heavily engaged in 
fund-raising activities that include "bingo", "pirate dinners", "knitting 
classes", "hay rides", and many other activities strictly revolving around
 raising funds for the required multi-millions of dollars to fund their
"Ideal Org". As part of this, people around every org are now asked to
 donate to their local "Ideal Org" instead of their own services or their own 
Bridge.

LRH says in HCO PL Org Ethics and Tech:

"GET RID OF DISTRACTIONS FROM SCIENTOLOGY in your org. Baby-sitting or 
raffle tickets and such nonsense." - LRH

Cook really hits home on this one. As we saw last year, not only does David Miscavige have Scientologists around the world participating in extremely embarrassing rituals to convince each other to give until it hurts, Miscavige himself seems to take humor in watching his followers engage in such silliness.

Last year, we published a video which shows Miscavige describing European Scientologists putting on those "pirate dinners" and similar mummery, and note the way Miscavige describes it, his voice dripping with derision.


Yet these distractions are rampant as they are being used as fund-raisers to
 get money for the huge quotas being issued to fund the "Ideal Org".

"If the org slumps... don't engage in 'fund-raising' or 'selling postcards'
 or borrowing money.

Just make more income with Scientology. 
It's a sign of very poor management to seek extraordinary solutions for
 finance outside Scientology. It has always failed."

"For orgs as for pcs, 'Solve It With Scientology'.

"Every time I myself have sought to solve financial or personnel in other
 ways than Scientology I have lost out. So I can tell you from experience 
that org solvency lies in more Scientology, not patented combs or
 fund-raising barbeques."

HCO PL 24 February 1964, Issue II, Org Programming, (OEC Vol. 7, p. 930)

The point is that Scientologists and OT's need to be training, auditing and 
disseminating to raw public- not regging each other or holding internal
 fundraisers.

Many ex-Scientologists tell me that what started their disaffection with the church was the way they tended to get hung up on their journey "up the bridge." They might get stuck on a particular level for years, spending large amounts of money for auditing but never getting "gains" or "wins."

The constant focus on donations only exacerbates that situation, as members find that they can't advance when all of their money is going to things like the IAS or new buildings. For many current church members, then, Cook's admonition here -- that such fundraising is stunting their own spiritual advancement -- will likely strike a chord.


Out Tech: Over the last few years we have seen literally hundreds and
 hundreds of people who were validated as clear using the CCRD as developed 
by LRH now being told they are not Clear. This included hundreds of OTs who
 were then put onto NED as a "handling". LRH clearly forbid any Dianetics to
 be run on OTs in HCOB "Dianetics Forbidden on OTs". This is out tech. This
 entire technical "handling" was directed personally by COB RTC and was done
 on thousands of OTs. But it was based not on an LRH HCO Bulletin, but rather 
based on a single C/S instruction where LRH C/Sed one pre-OT who had not 
achieved the state of clear but was mid OT III and not making it. LRH
 directed a solo handling that the pre-OT was to do to get himself to achieve 
the state of Clear. This LRH C/S taken out of context was then used to
 implement a technical handling that was in direct violation of an LRH HCOB.

That's a mouthful of Scientology jargon about upper-level teachings ("NED" is New Era Dianetics, "OT III" is Operating Thetan Level Three, etc.), but Beatty helped me understand what it all comes down to:

"She's giving an example of Miscavige taking a single comment by Hubbard in regards to a single person's case and applying it to the entire movement as a policy, with tremendously harmful results," Beatty says. The upshot was that many, many longtime, highly trained Scientologists were told that their training had been faulty and they were expected to redo levels that had cost them tens of thousands of dollars. Famous defectors such as Tory Christman and Jason Beghe say it was this order to redo levels that caused them to question Miscavige and the church.


This and other "technical handlings" done on Solo NOTs auditors created
 great expense and hardship on Solo NOTs auditors around the world as they
 were made to do these handlings to continue on the level.

Beatty gave me this description for Solo New Era Dianetics for OTs (Solo NOTs): "It's high volume solo exorcism," he says.


Then there are the "fast grades at Flag" that no other org has. How can it
 be that Flag has been delivering grades differently to the rest of the world
 for the last 3 years? Whatever the problem is, the fact is that having "fast
 Grades" at Flag creates a hidden data line and is a HIGH CRIME and the 
subject of an entire policy letter called HCOPL "TECH DEGRADES" which LRH 
has placed at the start of every Scientology course.

More recently the fad seems to be that nearly everyone needs to "re-do their
 Purif and do a long objectives program", including many OTs mid Solo NOTs.

There is nothing wrong with doing objectives, but it is a clear violation of
 HCOB 'MIXING RUNDOWNS AND REPAIRS" to have a person mid a rundown or OT 
level be taken off it and placed on an objectives program.

Solo NOTs auditors are also being made to get their objectives from a Class 
IX auditor at great expense as they are not being allowed to co-audit.

Flag has made many millions of dollars on the above listed out tech
 handlings because OTs mid Solo NOTs are forced to get these out-tech actions 
to be able to get back onto and stay on the level and complete it. Not to
 mention the spiritual effects of the out tech that this has on each OT.

I myself was subject to these out tech "handlings", including extensive FPRD
 mid Solo NOTs. It took its toll in many ways, including physical situations 
I am still dealing with today. So I have some reality of the hardship 
caused.

We're just going to have to take Debbie Cook's word for it that the standard way of becoming an exteriorizing superhuman intergalactic shaman is being screwed up on many different levels, and we can only assume this would outrage your typical Hubbardite.


LRH Command Structure: LRH left us with a complex and balanced command
 structure, with our orgs led by the Office of ED International. This office
 was considered so important that LRH created a special management group 
called the Watch Dog Committee whose only purpose was to see that this
 office and the other needed layers of management existed. LRH ED 339R speaks
 of this extensively as the protection for our Church. But these people are
 missing. And not just some. As of just a few years ago there were no members
 of the office of ED Int on post, not to mention top execs throughout the 
International Management structure.

We're getting back to something interesting here. As we wrote on Wednesday, Cook experienced the vacuum of leadership that occurred in the mid-2000s as David Miscavige purged nearly every high-ranking official around him and sent them to "The Hole," a hellish sort of prison at Scientology's secretive desert base in Southern California (imagine getting locked up at your office with your co-workers for a couple of years, and only being able to leave when you are marched out and ordered to jump in a lake together, and you get some idea).

"Her point is absolutely valid," Beatty tells me. "The top two councils of the movement have been decimated by Miscavige -- the Watchdog Committee and Executive Strata."

If Hubbard had intended that there would be some measure of checks and balances among the many entities he was leaving behind, instead Miscavige has either driven off or disappeared his many top executives at "Int base" in California, including Heber Jentzsch, who is still nominally the "president" of the Church of Scientology, International, but has not been heard from in years.

You may have also wondered... where is Heber, the President of the Church? 
What about Ray Mitthoff, Senior C/S International, the one that LRH
 personally turned over the upper OT Levels to? How about Norman Starkey,
 LRH's Trustee? What happened to Guillaume - Executive Director 
International? And Marc Yeager, the WDC Chairman? What happened to the other
 International Management executives that you have seen at events over the
 years?

The truth is that I spent weeks working in the empty International
 Management building at Int. Empty because everyone had been removed from
 post. When I first went up lines I was briefed extensively by David
 Miscavige about how bad all of them were and how they had done many things 
that were all very discreditable. This seemed to "explain" the fact that the
 entirety of the Watchdog Committee no longer existed. The entirety of the 
Executive Strata, which consisted of ED International and 11 other top 
International executives that were the top executives in their particular
 fields, no longer existed. That the Commodore's Messenger Org International
 no longer existed. All of these key command structures of Scientology 
International, put there by LRH, had been removed.

There were hundreds and hundreds of unanswered letters and requests for help 
from org staff, written based on LRH ED 339R where LRH says that staff can
 write to these top executives in the Exec Strata for help. But this is not
 possible if all these execs have been removed and no one is there to help 
them or to get evaluations and programming done to expand Scientology.

Well, after that I got to spend some quality time with Heber, Ray Mithoff,
 Norman Starkey, Guillaume, as well as the entirety of International
 Management at the time, who were all off post and doing very long and harsh 
ethics programs. These have gone on for years and to the only result of that 
they are still off post. There is no denying that these top executives have 
all gradually disappeared from the scene. You don't see them at the big
 events anymore or on the ship at Maiden Voyage.

"Quality time," heh. Cook is being exceedingly cheeky here. The recipients of her e-mail may be so sheltered that they don't realize that Cook herself was put in "The Hole" in 2007, which is why she got to spend time with Jentzsch and other executives doing time in Miscavige's prison. As we reported Wednesday, Cook herself is reported to have gone through a harrowing, and homophobic, hazing:

"For the next twelve hours Debbie was made to stand in a large garbage can and face one hundred people screaming at her demanding a confession as to her 'homosexual tendencies'. While this was going on, water was poured over her head. Signs were put around Debbie's neck, one marked in magic marker 'LESBO' while this torture proceeded. Debbie was repeatedly slapped across the face by other women in the room during the interrogation. Debbie never did break."

A year after that incident, Debbie was no longer in the Sea Org or a staff member of the church. She claims to have remained in good standing as a public member of the church, but now that she has sent out this e-mail, that will likely change.


David Miscavige has now become the "leader" of the Scientology religion. Yet 
what LRH left behind was a huge structure to properly manage all aspects of 
the Scientology religion. He put a complete and brilliant organizational
 structure there, not one individual. There never was supposed to be a
 "leader" other than LRH himself as the goal maker for our group.

There is a situation here and even if you have not been to the International
 Management Base you should be able to see that over regging and frequent
 tech changes are not OK and you have a responsibility to do something to 
Keep Scientology Working. You should be able to find and read the 
references on membership in OEC Volume 6. Find and read the HCO PL entitled
 "The Ideal Org" (Data Series 40). Find and read the references on org 
buildings, including HCO PL 24 Aug 65 II, Cleanliness of Quarters and Staff, 
Improve our Image. Also, HCO PL 17 June 69, The Org Image.

If you don't want to make waves or put yourself in danger of being taken off
 the level or denied eligibility, then there are some simple things you can
 do. First and foremost, withdraw your support from off policy actions. Stop
 donating to anything other than your own services and actual Bridge 
progress. Simply demand to see an LRH reference that says you are required
 to make other such donations. No one will be able to produce any references
 because there aren't any.

Again, Cook returns to the radical notion that Scientologists stand up to management. How is that working? Well, here's an example of what we saw on Facebook as recipients of this e-mail reacted to its ideas...

"It is an email that maliciously mixes truths and LRH references with half-truths, un-truths and disaffection," wrote a European Scientologist who sent out a warning to her friends. She then indicated that she had notified the church's Office of Special Affairs -- its intelligence and covert operations wing -- and said she was willing to help anyone who need "dead agenting material" about Cook. In other words, slander that could be used to convince Scientologists that Cook was not to be trusted.

Cook clearly has an uphill battle on her hands.


Stop supporting any of the activities that are being done to forward
 off-policy fund-raising in your area.

LRH says what he expects of a Scientologist - that is what he expects you to 
do. In fact he put it in HCOB 10 June 1960 Issue I, Keeping Scientology
 Working Series 33, WHAT WE EXPECT OF A SCIENTOLOGIST. Read it and follow it.

The other thing you can do is to send this email to as many others as you
 can, even if you do it anonymously.

Please keep this email among us, the Scientologists. The media have no place 
in this. You may wonder why I have not written a KR and gone about my 
business. The answer is, I have. But there is no longer anyone to send that 
KR to.

Cook was apparently pretty naive about the Internet. Within minutes of her thousands of copies of this email going out, it was being fed to reporters.


But you can and should write reports and bring off-policy to the attention
 of local org executives and local Sea org members.

We are a strong and powerful group and we can affect a change. We have
 weathered many storms. I am sorry that I am the one telling you, but a new 
storm is upon us. It's waves are already in the media and the world around
 us.

The truth is that as a Scientologist you are more able, more perceptive and 
have a higher integrity. Scientology is supposed to allow you to "think for
 yourself" and never compromise your own integrity. And most certainly LRH
 held every Scientologist responsible to KEEP SCIENTOLOGY WORKING.

As we reported on Wednesday, Cook's own background contains some less than ideal behavior, particularly in the way she participated in the fundraising she now decries. But several prominent ex-Scientologists all said that Cook would only have been following directions, and that she actually has enormous personal integrity.


I am not trying to do anything other than affect a change in serious off 
policy actions occurring. My husband and I have most of our family and many 
many good friends who are Scientologists. I have not been real interested in 
sticking my neck out like this.

However, I also know that I dedicated my entire adult life to supporting LRH
 and the application of LRH technology and if I ever had to look LRH in the
 eye I wouldn't be able to say I did everything I could to Keep Scientology
 Working if I didn't do something about it now.

We all have a stake in this. It is simply not possible to read the LRH 
references and not see the alterations and violations that are currently
 occurring.

You have a very simple obligation to LRH. Don't participate in anything off
 policy, and let others know they should not either. If every person who 
reads this email does nothing more than step back from off-policy actions we 
would have changed direction. If we took all that energy and directed it
 into auditing, training and raw public dissemination, we would be winning.

And that is what I wish for you and all of us as we ring in this new year.

ARC,

Debbie Cook

"ARC" -- affinity, reality, communication" -- is a standard sign-off for Scientologists, a reference to a bedrock concept by Hubbard that church members use to express warmth for each other. To the end, Debbie is trying her best to reach out to her fellow Scientologists as a Scientologist. Her program is not to criticize Hubbard or Scientology itself, only the leadership of Miscavige and the way he has consolidated power and has worn down his followers with all of the money-grubbing.

I hope these annotations have helped readers understand what Cook intended, and can see now how it might be an enormously effective message for Scientologists who are exhausted by the fundraising, stuck on their journey up the Bridge, and are doubting the diminutive man at the top of the organization.



Tony Ortega is the editor-in-chief of The Village Voice. Since 1995, he's been writing about Scientology at several publications.

[email protected] | @VoiceTonyO | Facebook: Tony Ortega

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SCIENTOLOGY IN THE VILLAGE VOICE

[All recent stories] | [What is Scientology?] | [Top 25 People Crippling Scientology]
[Commenters of the Week] | [Thursday 2pm Stats!] | [Scientology vs. South Park]
[This Week Aboard the Apollo] | [Sunday Funnies]

FEATURED INVESTIGATIONS

[Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis secretly recorded discussing "disconnection"]
[Benjamin Ring, LA deputy sheriff, wants you to spend your 401K on Scientology]
[Scientologists: How many of them are there, anyway?]
[Scientology hates clean ice: The "Fair Game" operation that should turn your stomach]
[Scientology hates clean ice, part 2: Another target, and the web as weapon]
[Paulette Cooper, Scientology's original and worst nightmare: a Thanksgiving tribute]

THE TOP 25 PEOPLE CRIPPLING SCIENTOLOGY

1. L. Ron Hubbard | 2. David Miscavige | 3. Marty Rathbun | 4. Tom Cruise | 5. Joe Childs and Tom Tobin | 6. Anonymous | 7. Mark Bunker | 8. Mike Rinder | 9. Jason Beghe | 10. Lisa McPherson | 11. Nick Xenophon | 12. Tommy Davis | 13. Janet Reitman | 14. Tory Christman | 15. Andreas Heldal-Lund | 16. Marc and Claire Headley | 17. Jefferson Hawkins | 18. Amy Scobee | 19. The Squirrel Busters | 20. Trey Parker and Matt Stone | 21. Kendrick Moxon | 22. Jamie DeWolf | 23. Ken Dandar | 24. Dave Touretzky | 25. Xenu

HELD ABOARD THE FREEWINDS: TALES OF THE SEA ORG

[Valeska Paris, held against her will from 1996 to 2007 on Scientology's cruise ship]
[Ramana Dienes-Browning, marriage at 16, sexual interrogation, life in the engine room]
[Melissa Paris, Valeska's sister: forced to marry at 16]

SCIENTOLOGY VS. SOUTH PARK: INVESTIGATION AS RETALIATION

[Scientology targeted South Park's Parker and Stone in an investigation]
[More documents in the South Park probe: instructions to send in a young mole]
[Scientology responds in typical fashion] | [Lloyd Kaufman confirms the probe]
[Mark Ebner also investigated after South Park involvement]
[Mark Chauppetta, private eye, explains what Scientology operatives look for]

MARTY RATHBUN AND THE SIEGE OF SOUTH TEXAS

[Scientology has Rathbun arrested] | [Rathbun and Mark Bunker reveal surprising ties]
In Germany with Ursula Caberta: [Announcing plans] | [Press conference] | [Making news about Tom Cruise, Bill Clinton, and Tony Blair] | [Post-trip interview]
The Squirrel Busters: [Goons with cameras on their heads] | [Rathbun's open letter to neighbors] | [Ingleside on the Bay, Texas rallies to Rathbun's cause] | [Squirrel Buster's claim to be making a "documentary"] | [VIDEO: "On a Boat"] | ["Anna" sent to creep out Monique Rathbun] | [Squirrel Busters go hillbilly] | [A videographer blows the whistle on the goon squad] | [Ed Bryan, OT VIII, shows the power of Scientology's highest levels]

SCIENTOLOGY SPYING AND "FAIR GAME"

[Secret Scientology documents spell out spying operation against Marc Headley]
[Scientology's West U.S. spies list revealed] | [Scientology's enemies list: Are you on it?]
Spy operation against Washington Post writer Richard Leiby: [Part 1] | [Part 2]
[A Scientology spy comes clean: Paulien Lombard's remarkable public confession]
[Scientology advertises for writers in Freedom magazine]
[Accidental leak shows Scientology spy wing plans to "handle" the Voice]
[Lori Hodgson and Disconnection: "No one's going to take my eternity away"]

SCIENTOLOGY AND CELEBRITIES

[Hey, Scientology Celebrity, Here's Your Media Training Checksheet!]
[Tom Cruise and X Factor's Stacy Francis singing together on the Freewinds]
[X Factor's Stacy Francis: Her first husband, Michael Sandlofer, answers abuse claims]
[Tom Cruise and Baby Suri embarrassed by news item, so someone must pay]
["Tom Cruise told me to talk to a bottle"] | [Tom Cruise likes coconut cake] | [Tom Cruise has a sense of humor] | ["Tom Cruise not a kook!"] | [Paulette Cooper on Tom Cruise]
[Paul Haggis, director of Crash, issues an ultimatum, leaves the church]
[Character actor Jason Beghe defects noisily] | [Actor Michael Fairman reveals his "suppressive person" declaration] | [Michael Fairman talks to the Voice]
[Giovanni Ribisi as David Koresh: Scientology-Branch Davidian link makes sense]
[Russell Brand weds ex-Scientologists in wild ceremony] | [Skip Press on Haggis]
[Placido Domingo Jr.: Scientology's retaliation is "scary and pathetic"]
Grant Cardone, NatGeo's "Turnaround King": [Doing Scientology's dirty work?] | [Milton Katselas complained about Cardone's smear job] | [Cardone runs to Huffpo]
[Philip Boyd, Saving Grace actor, rips "the business that is Scientology"]

JANET REITMAN'S INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY

[Our review of Inside Scientology] | [An interview with Janet Reitman] | [A report from Reitman's first book tour appearance] | [At the Half-King: Reitman not afraid]
[Scientology doesn't like Inside Scientology] | [Q&A at Washington Post]
[A roundup of Reitman's print reviews, and why isn't she on television more?]

HUGH URBAN'S THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY

[A review of Urban's scholarly history of the church] | [An interview with Hugh Urban]

EX-SCIENTOLOGISTS SPEAK OUT

["The Money Machine": another blockbuster St. Pete Times investigation]
[Marc Headley: "Tom Cruise told me to talk to a bottle"] | [The Nancy Many interview]
[Sympathy for the Devil: Tory Christman's Story] | [Jeff Hawkins' Counterfeit Dreams]
[86 Million Thin Dimes: The Lawrence Wollersheim Saga] | [Mike Rinder on spying]

OVERSEAS NEWS

[Scientology in Israel: Arson, attempted murder, paranoia -- and a visit by the Voice!]
[Scientology dodges a bullet in Australia] | [Scientology exec Jan Eastgate arrested]
[All hell breaks loose in Israel] | [Scientology sees fundraising gold in the UK riots]
[Aussie former rugby pro Chris Guider calls David Miscavige "toxic" and "violent"]
[Stephen Cox, UK church newbie, pledges 20K pounds] | [Biggi Reichert: A German Lisa McPherson?] | [The Birmingham trove: 7,000 internal e-mails]
[Australian farmer blamed for giving Tom Cruise a bad shrimp, loses her friends, family]

ODD VIDEOS AND ODDER NEWS

[Scientology chillin' with hip hop!] | [The curious career of Scientology rapper Chill EB]
[Chill EB and me: the Voice interviews Scientology's in-house rapper]
[Scientology singalong, "We Stand Tall"] | [Captain Bill Robertson and "Galactic Patrol"]
[Scientology wins a major award!] | [Scientology wants your money: Meet Dede!]
[Birmingham in the House! The "Ideal" dance mix] | [Scientology and the Nation of Islam]
[When Scientology was hip] | [Sad: David Miscavige makes fun of his own fundraisers]
[Freedom magazine parodies The New Yorker. Hilarity ensues.]
[Scientology surf report: Anonymous parties outside the New York "org"]

THE VIEW INSIDE THE BUBBLE

[A scientologist's letter to the Voice and its readers] | [Scientology silent birth]
[Tad Reeves: Scientology might listen to this guy] | [More Tad Reeves and family]
[Scientology never forgets: A heartwarming telemarketing holiday miracle]
[Desperate Scientology fundraising caught on video]
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Mimi The Great 43 minutes ago
I agree,I do think Good Morning America is just a taste of something larger. Fantastic work translating all that, definitely a mouthful!

3 people liked this.

Damian DeWitt 41 minutes ago
Tony, it is a real joy to see your modesty about what you are doing here, in comparison with what the Tampa Bay Times, "the paper of record on Scientology" does.

Presenting an annotated version of Debbie's dynamite e-mail is a great service to the news-reading public. This is what engaged academics ought to be doing and are not.

This is a first-class journalistic contribution. Thanks again to you and the marvelous Chuck Beatty.

(Edited by author 0 minutes ago)
Synthia Elizabeth Fagen and 5 more liked this

robinlandseadel 8 minutes ago in reply to Damian DeWitt
I couldn't agree more.

Synthia Elizabeth Fagen 37 minutes ago
I feel like a broken record here but, again, thank you for the AMAZING job you are doing. Wow!
2 people liked this.

skippress 29 minutes ago
It's always hilarious to me when Scientology "executives" or former staff cry out about the "alteration of tech" or "bad transcriptions" or other such garbage about early books or policy letters. Anyone who's ever published a book knows you get the final look at it before publication, and Hubbard published a lot of books. He was so persnickety about detail, he instituted "white glove" cleaning inspections on the Apollo flaghsip, and that was carried out in every Scientology organization staffed by Sea Org members. The "tech" got corrupted? Balderdash! THERE IS NO TECH. It's all made up by Hubbard or stolen from other places. Dianetics is nothing more than abreaction that was developed by Freud and Breuer and abandoned. Debbie Cook is doing what ALL former high-ranking Scientologists do upon leaving. When they reach out to other Scientologists, they make sure to state their "ranking" such as what OT levels they finished, certificates they gained, ranks they held in the Sea Org. That's a way of convincing themselves that - as in Cook's case - they WASTED deccades of their life on b.s. and they're trying to make it OK in their mind. Follow LRH? You mean, the "super intellect" who died in a trailer in Creston, CA screaming at unseen disembodied space alien "body thetans" he thought were attacking him? Debbie Cook - this is your life.
3 people liked this.

TonyOrtega 3 minutes ago in reply to skippress
I had the same reaction, Skip, when I was watching Miscavige in the video of the 2007 unveiling of the basics. He kept talking about these sloppy dictations and transcriptions as if Hubbard just talked into a dictaphone and then walked away, never caring what actually got published. There isn't a writer like that in the world, especially one who -- let's face it -- by then was an old pro. (By that I don't mean Hubbard was a GOOD science fiction writer, just that by '50 he was very much an old hand at writing and publishing.) The idea that he didn't pore over every galley with a fine-toothed comb is just ludicrous.

M. Tilse 23 minutes ago
Hi Tony,
The section on the beginnings of the IAS reminded me. It was just before that, that the big fund raising era started. When Mary Sue and the other "scientology eleven" went to jail after the FBI raid, there was the 'Safe Environment Fund' that was getting money for "their defense". That was a new thing, before that all monies were for 'services' only. AFAIK. About 1984, I was back in the sea org, working at SMI Int. which was then at big blue. Just before that church memberships had gone from HASI to Church of Scientology International. I remember that the IAS was started and became the official membership after that. The IAS was a big deal and was launched with fanfare. What a lot of folks don't know and I was told while I was staff at SMI, was that it was because of the legal threats from the Julie Christopherson case and the Wollersheim case that money had to be moved out of Church of Scientology California assets, so it was hit on that C of S of C would purchase 'lifetime' memberships for all sea org members in the IAS, (at $2000 each) to preserve that money and keep it safe from court judgments. This was done in the summer of '84. Funny that in '85, no longer in the sea org, I had to pony up my own $2000 for that same lifetime membership supposedly I already had.

Michael Leonard Tilse

TonyOrtega 1 minute ago in reply to M. Tilse
Yes, Beatty specifically mentioned the Christofferson case as a main motivator for the IAS. Thanks for those details!

Jefferson Hawkins 12 minutes ago
Tony - a valiant effort to de-code the jargon-filled e-mail! I think the bottom line is that Debbie Cook is trying to get Scientologists to question their Church leadership. This is not an easy task with a group that has been indoctrinated to believe that any questioning of the Church leaders is tantamount to treason against their religion. It is considered a "High Crime" in Scientology to speak out against the leaders or criticize anything they do, which makes reform all but impossible. Scientologists are also trained to block out any critical information with thought-stopping techniques, such as labeling any critical information as "entheta" and shunning any critical people as "SPs." That said, the thought-stopping shield eventually breaks down when the cognitive dissonance becomes too great. Scientologists will publicly disavow Debbie, will "unfriend" her on Facebook, will claim they have never read her email, and will loudly proclaim their undying support for Miscavige. Privately - not so much. They will read the email, they will have doubts, they will start to question. And once they start to look - well, you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.
1 person liked this.

JustCallMeMary 5 minutes ago
Tony wrote regarding Debbie's proclamation about OTs getting unnecessary processes and programs for more money since Miscavige took over : "We're just going to have to take Debbie Cook's word for it that the standard way of becoming an exteriorizing superhuman intergalactic shaman is being screwed up on many different levels, and we can only assume this would outrage your typical Hubbardite."

I really chuckled reading that but the truth is, every scientologist who has read the policy and technical bulletin titled "Keeping Scientology Working" and who has done one of the most basic courses in Scientology : Hubbard Qualified Scientologist Course will know what she is talking about. Its about mixing rundowns and actions..bla bla bla. Its a big no-no and all those OTs who have been having this other stuff shoved down their throats all these years have all known something is not right with what was happening, just by the very nature of their basic training. They just felt like they had no choice. Debbie iss reminding them that they do have a choice. To do what Hubbard says. Not Miscavige.

Everytime I read her email I see more and more what a powerful thing she has done to open the eyes of these people and put Miscavige on the chopping block.

Paul Jay Salerno 0 minutes ago
Great job Tony,

DO 0 minutes ago
"Debbie Cook may have not seen many ads, but my own experience is different. On the Internet, at least, Scientology ads seem ubiquitous. And they show up in places like Hulu, where they get wide exposure."
Tony, this is almost certainly because you have probably done Scientology related searches on Google, or visited Scientology related pages. Your consumption of this material means that Google's ad selection algorithm will show you more ads for Scientology, as you have a demonstrated interest in it.

It's also worth pointing out that the costs for Scientology related ads on the Internet are probably very low, as there are no competitors bidding up the search terms.
 
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