Shooting Stars, Part Eleven
"Don't burn your bridges behind you. Don't burn your bridges before they are crossed.” Old Proverbs
“And, whatever you do, don’t burn your bridges while you’re on them.” Face’s Corollary
As I have written about before on ESMB, I have a true “Friend for Life” of over 20 years that is a gifted, way out there, “New Age” Psychotherapist. My friend is one of the most well read persons—if not the most well read—I have ever known. He was educated at top tier schools and has had a remarkable career with many wonderful outcomes with his clients, is revered in our community and is internationally “known” in his profession. My friend’s practice is very successful with a “wait list” and he stopped processing insurance 15 years ago. Outside of my Primary Care Doc and Neurosurgeon there is no one else that has contributed more to the miracle of my recovery to date from the Hemorrhagic Lesion that took out part of my right anterior temporal lobe a little over 5 years ago.
Over the last few years we have had some wonderfully helpful discussions about Scn, El Ron and my SO days. He has “checked out” ESMB and has read much of what I have posted here and sees ESMB, and especially all Y’all, as being an important element in the marked improvement of my memory and ability to read and write over the last 15 months or so. I’m still very, very slow and my short-term memory and a significant amount of my long term memory for Math and symbolic notation reasoning are permanently shot, but, I’m in better “shape” now than any of my Docs thought possible, given the severity of my brain damage. I am still “awakening” into the world of Left Brain Dominance and, believe me, it’s “more better than half bad”!
Thirty five years or so ago—when my friend was doing his Post Doc Research on schizophrenics (a fascinating project and story)—he bought a copy of DMSMH, read it, saw it for what it was i.e. poorly written, unfounded, rehashed, plagiaristic “pop” psychology from the ‘50’s, sprinkled with some “real” stuff that he already knew and threw it away when he was finished.
Fast forward to 6 months ago—35 years, two cities, three residences and 4 office locations later. Around 11:30 PM on a Sunday evening my friend’s phone rings and he answers it. Yep, you got it! On the other end of the line was, as he described it, “an adolescent, breathlessly giddy sycophant wanting to know about ‘wins’ and ‘gains’ I had from reading ‘Book One’.” My friend informed her that he was a Psychotherapist, had thrown the book away 35 years ago and didn’t appreciate being called at 11:30 PM on a Sunday night. He was about to ask, “how in the hell did you get my unlisted private number,” when the young woman hung up.
His take on all this? That there was a clear undercurrent of fear in the caller’s voice and that, “these people are desperate.”
Shooting Stars, Part Eleven
Kristallnacht; Shooting The Stars (conclusion)
“Burning Bridges”
By late ’80 early ‘81 I knew that I would not be serving out my billion year contract and would eventually have to walk away from the SO. All the hope that I had that the SO would “evolve” and “settle down” had evaporated from being around El Ron during a chunk of the ‘70’s and suffocated by the tightening noose of CMO control of all things SO and Scn. When Bill Franks was made ED Int I saw it as the last chance to avert impending disaster and I was not the only person with that opinion. I knew from chats and conversations with Mission Holder folks that the “natives were restless”.
One Mission Holder I knew—an original BC student—had already embarked on a project to acquire every El Ron reel to reel tape possible from Pubs DK and other sources, and copies of every issue of every book, PAB, Bulletin, etc possible and then go “dark”. This person was convinced that the “materials” would one day be altered and that El Ron was in the process of “disconnecting” from “real” Scn and Scns, that a “showdown” was coming and that it was time to “walk away” and my friend advised me to keep my head down because things were fixing to get real nasty for anyone that actually knew El Ron, was an “Old Timer”, was an actual Scn and cared about Scn’s “Big Picture” and long term future.
In another chat, with an original CL VIII that was quietly “slipping away”, I was told that, as far as they were concerned, El Ron had F’d the “Bridge” up with the KNOTS Era and that it was very doubtful to that there were any upper “OT Sections”, and that El Ron’s best days were behind Hisself. Other chats with other folks, inside and outside the SO, and my own observations and experiences confirmed for me that, most likely, Bill Franks was gonna wind up getting creamed. The CMO was gonna be “It” and that’s how El Ron wanted it. When the CMO took out the GO I knew, then and there, it was all over but the crying— not that I thought the GO were a bunch of Saints but at least the GO were, to me, a counterbalance to the CMO and were somewhat Scns. On the other hand, the CMO were an “entity” if you will, conjured from El Ron’s greatest fears and avarices and, for the most part, had not a clue what Scn was about, just who and what Scns were and were, functionally, juvenile delinquent gangsters.
As I have written earlier in this series, the “Old Guard” was being done away with and the folks that the “New Guard” was being comprised of were not trained, experienced, nor were they the same “quality” of humanity as the “Old Guard”. As I have said, beginning in early ’76, I saw a small, steady stream of the folks go “over the rainbow” that would wind up being “It” by '80. Having interacted with and known many of them—such as the Miscavige’s, Starkey, Reynolds, Broeker, etc, etc—I was unnerved and disturbed by where I saw things heading. I knew Vicki Azneran and when she showed up as an Int Honcho it further confirmed my worst fears; Senior Management of Scn was no longer in the hands of “real” Scns. Knowing El Ron, the “New Guard”, the “Old Guard” and the Mission Holder’s as I did it was obvious that a “Civil War” was coming and El Ron and Hisself’s “New Guard” was gonna “Win” and the opportunity for a better future for Scn and Scns would forever be lost.
We are all so fortunate that the details of the Scn Kristallnacht are readily available on the Net. A wealth of good, solid and truthful “Insider” information from all 6 “Camps” comprises the foundation “Tiles” to the “Mosaic” all of Us here are adding to. I say “all 6 Camps” as at that time Institutionalized Scn was functionally a “5 legged stool"; Field Public, Missions, Orgs, GO, SO. By the time of the Kristallnacht, the 6th Camp, the CMO, had become a group separate and apart from the SO and all others, controlled the conduit to “Source” and, thereby, held “Dominion” over all of Us. The Children of the Corn (COC) were now the “seat” that sat upon the legs of the stool and I knew, by far, they were the least qualified or fit for leadership and command. I knew what was most likely about to be unleashed on my fellow Scns. I had not the "voice" to warn Y'all...and that weighs on my heart to this day.
As the events of the first two Flag Mission Holder’s Conferences unfolded I kept my mouth shut and head down as I also knew that—as long as the CMO had ANY authority whatsoever—disaster loomed at any given moment. Although I had once been in the highest echelons of International “Management” and been a trusted member of the “Inner Circle” I was, at this time, on the “front lines” in the Service Org arena and—as long as I continued to bring in the “gelt”—was relatively “safe” if I stayed “real small” in my foxhole. There was nothing that I could do in anyway to contribute to or help bring about a good outcome. The 5 Camps had no clue what they were dealing with. I knew these COC and what was being unleashed on my fellow Scns. The COC cared not about “upstats”, “integrity” or “justness”…what they cared about was whether or not you were instantly complied with no matter what inane, idiotic or insane orders they were shouting at you, and whether or not you groveled appropriately before them. When Bill Franks was ousted and Kerry Gleason installed as ED Int my hopes and dreams for Scn were over…I knew then that El Ron and Hisself’s COC were gonna wind up Shooting the Stars.
The COC were now the Gate Keepers to the Gate of Greed and El Ron handed them the keys to the Padlock of Fear on Gate of Greed...Hate.
In a week or so,
Shooting Stars, Part Twelve
“Kristallnacht; The Real ‘Wall Of Fire’”
Peace.
Face
