What's new

Suicide of Greg Bashaw

AnonSunshine

Patron with Honors
For the newbies, here a story of a true Scientologist... who was betrayed
Based upon the story ""Death of a Scientologist," by Tori Marlan, Published in The Chicago Reader August 16, 2002

January 16, 2003
By Rick Ross
Scientologist Greg Bashaw reached far beyond the mythical plateau of achievement that Scientologists call "clear." Bashaw rose to Operating Thetan Level 7 or "OT7."

Putting this in pop perspective, movie stars John Travolta and Tom Cruise have not yet reached the level Bashaw achieved.

The highest level a Scientologist can hope for is OT8.

But after 20 years of Scientology courses, auditing and training Bashaw killed himself.

He was married and left behind a teenage son. Bashaw was once a successful advertising executive, but he died broke, deeply in debt and unemployed. And the church he had dedicated so much of his life to abandoned him through "excommunication."

Greg's father Bob struggles to understand what happened to his son. He says, "I knew him and this wasn't him -- What the hell happened here?"

However, Bob knew about his son's dedication to Scientology. Early on Greg borrowed thousands of dollars from his father for Scientology-related courses.

Bob says Greg used one of the loans to go with Laura to the church's Los Angeles complex for course work; he paid it back with interest, explaining that he'd felt pressured by the church to pay. He wrote his father, "Our financial officer for the Church informed us we would need another $1,700 to pay for the package we were securing. It was imperative to get it this past week; otherwise the annual price increase, which he had held off for us through administrative fancywork, would go into effect. Simply put, if we didn't send the money Wednesday, the prices would have gone up on us by $500."

Greg's parents were divorced. His mother quickly realized that her son was involved in something she felt was potentially dangerous. Bob received a letter from his ex-wife during 1981 citing an article about Scientology in Reader's Digest titled, "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult."

Greg's mother said in her letter that when she'd questioned Greg about the article, he claimed it was part of a conspiracy contrived against Scientology by "psychiatrists."

Greg's mother passed away before her son's suicide, but it was clear that she was deeply concerned about his involvement with Scientology.

Bob instead essentially accepted his son's involvement and did nothing.

Bob knew about Scientology's bad press, but when Greg said the stories about were not true, Bob accepted it.

Greg unsuccessfully tried to recruit his father.

Bob continued to have nagging doubts, but says, "There wasn't any big red flag that went up. And that's really what I was looking for."

At times Bob defended Greg to other family members. He said that he would "do battle" with Greg's aunts. In a letter to one of them he wrote: "The horror stories of Scientology victims and my imagination, plus what I have read, certainly conjure up rage and anxiety." But he couldn't bring himself to take any action. He said, "Integrity does not permit me to have a loving relationship with him while covertly working against what he sincerely believes in."

Bob concluded that his son was "free to make his own choices in life."

Greg largely cut his mother off after she criticized Scientology. Bob was afraid the same thing would happen to him. A bitter divorce had isolated him from his other children, but Greg had been away at college during that period. Bob wondered, "Do I take this position to not alienate him because he is the one of three children of mine that I am in touch with? The only one I can share my feelings and he truly shares his feelings with me? The answer is no."

So Bob decided to remain silent about Scientology.

Greg went to Clearwater, Florida, a bastion of Scientology, to take courses, which strained his budget. His wife and son did not accompany him because it cost too much. Money became tight for the Bashaw family, despite the fact that Greg earned a large income.

However, like most Scientologists Greg thought it was all worth it. He wrote, "Scientology has saved my ass, that's for sure. Now I'm unstuck, in the know, and working towards completion. It will be a new life when I get back."

Greg even believed his training enabled him to talk to the dead. He wrote Bob, "It's easy, like talking on a telephone, when you have the hang of it." Greg didn't divulge details because his talks with the dead "happened in the context of formal auditing sessions and so are confidential."

Bob remembers thinking, "What is this crap?" He considered doing something and claims he knew it was "bullshit." But in the end he did nothing. He rationalized; that maybe it is possible to speak with the dead?

Greg seemed to have a "good life." Married with a son, living in a two-story house on 16 acres of land in Barrington Hills, Illinois. And he was a highly paid successful executive at a well-known advertising firm.

But Greg was spending large sums of money on Scientology. Greg not only paid for costly courses; he donated even more cash to the controversial church. So much that they made him a "patron" of the International Association of Scientologists.

And Greg Bashaw decided to take on Scientology's critics by harassing them at anti-cult conferences.

"None of my encounters with Greg were pleasant," says Reg Alev, a former executive director of the now defunct Cult Awareness Network (CAN), which was bankrupted by Scientology lawsuits. He says Greg even confronted him on the way to the bathroom, yelling about CAN being a terrorist organization. Alev adds, "He was extremely confrontational and loud."

Jim Beebe also once associated with CAN says Greg picketed outside the CAN office and even outside staff members' homes. In 1992 Greg and other Scientologists sued the group, claiming religious discrimination, when they were refused membership. And Greg filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Human Rights.

Cynthia Kisser, executive director of CAN after Alev, said Greg's actions were part of an organized effort to "harass and disrupt" the network. She says that during the early to mid 90s Scientologists like Greg filed 50 nearly identical lawsuits and human rights complaints against CAN. Eventually they were dismissed, but they took their toll on the organization financially. Scientology eventually sued CAN into bankruptcy.

Greg left one advertising firm for another in 1997, but it was demotion according to his father. Bob later found out Greg quit after his old firm took on Prozac as a client, a drug that Scientology's Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) claimed could lead to "homicidal rages," suicide and had tried to get the FDA to ban.

Scientology believes they have the answers for mental health and are totally opposed to psychiatry and psychiatric drugs such as Prozac.

Bob says he could tell Greg was changing. His conversation was stilted and often he just repeated what someone else said. He wasn't his usual self. A former professional associate characterized Greg as "a deep thinker," but observed that his old friend's "creativity was not at the same level of consistency." Greg admitted that this was "connected to the auditing." Auditing is the intensive question and answer sessions Scientologists undergo with their "auditors," in an effort to supposedly "clear" themselves.

In September of 2000 Greg Bashaw returned once again to Clearwater for more Scientology training. His father finally said, "Greg, you're spending a hell of a lot of time down there. I don't understand it. You're spending time away from your job, and you're spending time away from your family." But Greg only answered, "You're right, dad. You don't understand it."

Greg was now an OT7 and he didn't get back from this trip for a month. When he saw his father again he admitted that he'd been fired from his job.

When Bob met with Greg later after that trip he learned that his son planned to kill himself. Greg was going to drive to a forest preserve and drink a bottle of Drano. Bob said, "I'm holding him, and he's saying he failed everybody, he isn't worth anything, he's a total failure."

Greg's last trip to Clearwater was apparently a disaster. "They threw him out," Bob says. Greg told his father that his church said they couldn't help him and sent him away, telling him never to return.

At this point the reality of his son's situation hit Bob hard. He said, "This is when the whole thing hit the fan with me. I realized what the hell [Scientology] had done to him."

Bob wanted his son to go to a psychiatric hospital and he says Greg's wife agreed. "That surprised me," Bob said, but it seems by this time Greg's wife had quit Scientology.

Greg checked into the psychiatric ward of a local hospital, such places are anathema to Scientologists who ardently oppose psychiatry.

The following morning in the psych unit, the first thing Bob told his son was that Scientology was evil and that it was his enemy. Greg seemed upset by this. "It was as if I'd slapped him in the face," says his father.

Greg tried to commit suicide twice in the next couple of months. His teenage son found him the first time on the floor, almost dead. The second time he emailed a suicide note to a friend who alerted the police. They arrived just in time to save his life again.

Then Greg promised his father he wouldn't try to kill himself again.

A Scientology spokesperson denied that the church excommunicated Greg. She said, "He seemed to be having some rather large troubles and he left the church to go sort out his life." But she added, "Frankly, no Scientologist would ever seek psychiatry as a solution to their problems."

When asked why so many former Scientologists so ardently oppose the church its spokesperson said, "There's only one reason and one reason only, they have lots of words they don't understand." A cryptic allusion that whatever failure there was it was a personal failure, rather than anything Scientology did.

In the Spring of 2001, things seemed hopeful. Greg was working again. An old friend found him a job. Bob visited with his son and he seemed to be getting better.

But Bob still wondered would he be alright? He wrote his son about a retreat for cult survivors in Ohio called Wellspring. Greg wasn't interested. He responded that "One of the things that happens when you have the bad experiences that I've had is that people assume your own beliefs are faulty." Greg rejected any possibility of professional help Wellspring might offer.

Greg then began to shut down. Phone messages from his father went unanswered and letters were returned. Greg finally wrote back and explained, "It's almost as if I had a stroke on a mental and spiritual level, and I have to start with learning how to use a fork again, metaphorically."

Greg Bashaw finally admitted, "For the last 10 years I was fooling myself regarding the services I was taking [with Scientology], and whether they were advancing me. I wanted them to be... In retrospect, I would have been better the last ten years to have focused on simply building a family life, and on work, as most people do... Being on the services the whole time was almost unbelievably demanding in terms of time, money and commitment. The fact that it did not 'pay off' has been an exceptionally bitter pill to swallow. The fact that at the end of the road I ended up in worse shape than I'd ever been in my entire life... well, that has been completely irreconcilable with any concept of reality."

But Greg seemed to be considering his future, He said, "I would like to get to a point where the focus of my life is not on my disability. It's been very difficult talking to people lately, because typically the whole conversation pivots around how well I'm doing or not doing."

But whatever optimism Greg expressed it dissipated by that summer. A former Scientologist he confided in said Greg told him that he "had broken something that the Church of Scientology could fix, [but] they weren't going to fix it."

During the last two months of his life Greg had no work. He stayed at home and deteriorated. He owed the bank $27,000 and $29,000 on credit cards. Bob says that early that year Greg's wife talked about suing Scientology to recover the money they'd paid in advance for auditing and course work. Bob says he was told they had "a balance of nearly $200,000 in credit."

However, Greg wouldn't sue. He wrote his father, "It would subject me and my family to a great deal of shame and embarrassment, and additionally such a stance does not reflect what I believe to be true."

His old friend got a call from Greg. "He asked me, 'What can I do?' He was in torment. He felt like he was losing control. I didn't have an answer. I asked him to come here right away." Greg drove for hours to his friend's home in another town. His friend recalled, "He arrived at my house, coherent but just barely hanging on. Greg was shaking and had all but lost the ability to function."

Greg agreed to check himself into a hospital. At first he refused medication and counseling. As a devoted Scientologist he had been drilled to resist the evils of psychiatry.

Bashaw had spent more than 20 years in Scientology. He gave the group everything he had spiritually, mentally, and financially. He wanted to lose his "reactive mind," but in the end he just lost his mind. His father says, "There were periods of time he was rational and he realized he was losing it and it was a terror, a horrible thing to him."

A former long-term member of Scientology explained that the church claims "it has the solution to all your problems. Then you realize most of the problems you had, Scientology created. That former member, who met Bashaw concluded, "Greg knew this but couldn't accept it. Greg Bashaw could not let go of the mental indoctrination he'd swallowed hook, line, and sinker -- he had a hard time struggling with the fact that he'd been living a lie. Everything he thought was real wasn't real anymore."

Greg wrote his father for the last time during the summer of 2002, "I wanted to call on Father's Day but was hospitalized and had no calling card. My condition worsened dramatically three weeks ago. I have been in the hospital the last two weeks and am now moving to an intensive outpatient status."

But despite his condition Greg still insisted that his wife not sue Scientology. He said, "They would put 50 lawyers on the case. They would employ private investigators, and the like, to help win their case. And the stress would be enormous... If you could get her to consider these points, as I have repeatedly over the last few months, it would be greatly appreciated."

Greg then said, "I told them this morning I still felt depressed and suicidal," and ended cryptically, "P.S. Thanks for being a great dad."

After leaving the hospital Greg drove to his friend's house and had dinner. It seemed like he was recovering and he talked about further treatment. But just three days later Greg Bashaw pulled onto the shoulder of a road, duct taped a hose from the exhaust pipe of his car into a window and sealed it tightly with a towel. He then sat in the passenger seat until he took his last breath of carbon monoxide.

Greg Bashaw ended his life just like Scientology's founder L Ron Hubbard's son had 25 years earlier.

The police found a suicide note in his hotel room. It said simply, "Goodbye [son], you were a good buddy. Love dad."

Note: Based upon "Death of a Scientologist," by Tori Marlan, Published in The Chicago Reader August 16, 2002
 

TG1

Angelic Poster
I'd not read this before. Such a terribly sad and true and powerful story.

And extremely well written.

Thanks very much, AnonSunshine, for posting this.

TG1
 

The_Fixer

Class Clown
What a shit story. Another one bites the dust. Thanks Scientology.

Bunch of fucking twats.

Jesus, this saddens me and I know it's just a typical story with a standard outcome.
 
No-one else has to die because of Scientology.

Help is widely available. If you know of someone who is still in distress because of their Cult experience, or is currently struggling with issues around leaving the Cult behind and moving forward with their life, please encourage and support them to get help. Many different forms of counseling are available, often on a sliding scale or free for those who can't pay...often no medication is involved, although medication can help when really needed. A medical doctor will decide in each case by case basis if helpful medication should be prescribed, when given a referral from a Counselor.

For someone who needs practical help (food, shelter, clothing, medical care, employment, etc.) call 211 or Social Services for the County or District where they are currently residing.

For crisis intervention:

In the USA:
1-800-273-TALK
(1-800-273-8255)

1-800-SUICIDE
(1-800-784-2433)

Postpartum Depression ?
1-800-PPD-MOMS
(1-800-773-6667)

For Military Veterans: Vet2Vet Veteran's Crisis Hotline
1-877-VET-2-VET
(1-877-838-2838)

1-800-799-4TTY • (1-800-799-4889)
TTY - For Those Who Are Hearing & Speech Impaired

For Teens, Kids & Their Families:
TEEN Nineline Hotline
1-800-999-9999

Help At The End Of The Line
24 hours / 7 days
1-800-448-3000

For Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Youth:
The Trevor Lifeline Crisis intervention & Suicide prevention
1-866-488-7386

State by State Crisis Intervention Resources: http://suicidehotlines.com/

Or, in an imminent crisis situation where intervention is needed:
Call 411 and ask, or Dial 0 and ask, or Check the FRONT pages of the phone book for:
suicide prevention
crisis intervention
hotlines - crisis or suicide
community crisis center
county mental health center
hospital mental health clinic

Or, call 911 and ask for help. Tell them you are, or someone you care about is in suicidal danger. Don't leave the person alone until help arrives.

Important and Useful Information for anyone interested in Helping a Suicidal Person: http://suicidal.com/helping/index.html

For International Help: http://suicideprevention.wikia.com/wiki/International_Suicide_Prevention_Directory
 

Sindy

Crusader
The Reader is big here in Chicago and this story was on the front page of the reader, in newstands across the Chicagoland area. It was impossible not to see and yet the Scientologists in the org, myself included, didn't talk about it. Very sad.

I do think there was an effort to reach out to the family by certain "authorized" people in the org but, it was kept quiet. Why put this entheta on people's lines? :ohmy::bigcry:

It wasn't until the year that I left and was really getting disillusioned that I asked a long time staff member if anyone ever cared for his family afterward. It was a ballsy thing to ask as it could have appeared like I was disaffected (which I was) but it took me getting to that state for me to even inquire. :nervous:

images
 

PTS

Elliott
What a bitch of a sad, tragic story. More tragic still is we know there are lots more accounts just like it. Some us have lived it.
I'm going to call this reason #138 why I protest
 

Moosejewels

Patron Meritorious
I had never read that before.

Thanks for (re)posting.

So very sad.

He discovered the lie and never recovered.

So sad.

:rose:
 

Daisee

Patron
I'd not read this before. Such a terribly sad and true and powerful story.

And extremely well written.

Thanks very much, AnonSunshine, for posting this.

TG1



I do not understand why people stay in a religion that ask them for large amounts of money and need to pay for courses.......I joined my church and bible study courses were free.... just show up every Wednesday night at 7pm for about an hour for 7 weeks.......I am frugal with money and don't like contracts so I could never be a scientologist......or a cosmetologist either after the lady told me my cosmotology class was going to be $3,000 dollars and no free financial aid she lost me.
 

Idle Morgue

Gold Meritorious Patron
Scientology works? Greg Bashaw was OT VII and the Church THREW HIM OUT. He had $200,000 on account. They refused to allow him to have any more services - kicked him out - and kept the money.

OT VII commits suicide! He quit his job because the company took on "Prozac" as a client - a drug that CCHR claims could lead to suicide.:whistling:

Wow - that is profound! Just fucking profound!

There is a new organization called "Citizen's Commission on Rights for Scientologists" - a group of non-Scientologists that have forced Scientology to apply a BLACK BOX WARNING on each and every course or auditing service they provide. It goes into effect 10-1-2012.

BLACK BOX WARNING: Scientology may cause suicide and homicide. Do not ask your registrar if Scientology is right for you. They will LIE and say it is. After they get your money - they can kick you out and still keep your money.

BLACK BOX WARNING: This event contains embellishment of "CHAOS and FEAR" and by watching it - may be hazzardous to your bank account. It is a fact that BAD NEWS delivered in a controlled environment triggers mechanisms in the mind that causes one to try to do something about it.

The registrars at this event are going to ask you for your bank account #, your IRA account, your stock portfolio and will attempt to empty them all. Do not go alone - bring your attorney with you to protect this mechanism of causing you to do things that will harm your financial future.

The registrars at this event will encourage you to go into debt. Do not do it.

Scientology may cause cancer, heart failure, kidney failure, suicide, embolisms, liver failure, death at an early age. Scientology may cause financial failure. Please ask a sane person - anyone but a Scientologist - if Scientology is right for you.
Greg left one advertising firm for another in 1997, but it was demotion according to his father. Bob later found out Greg quit after his old firm took on Prozac as a client, a drug that Scientology's Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) claimed could lead to "homicidal rages," suicide and had tried to get the FDA to ban.
 

Auditor's Toad

Clear as Mud
Highly likely in a DoP interview at flag he said he had suicidal thoughts & they labelled him an illegal PC.

They may have been compliments of the " SNR CS INT ".

And, yes, I've known that to happen to someone.
 

yzernow2

Patron
Thanks for reposting this story. I hadn't read it before. Such a tragedy and amplified by all the other horrible deaths left strewn in their path. For all the reasons I left scn years ago the most compelling was I knew with certainty that if I stayed I would be dead. Anybody looking at scn for any reason should look at the deaths. They show the real product. Scn makes the able...dead!
 

Demented LRH

Patron Meritorious
I read the story and came to a sad conclusion that some people have passed the point of no-return, no one can help them.
 
Top