strativarius
Inveterate gnashnab & snoutband
I know this is ass-about-face since I've posted several messages here already, but initially I just sort of gatecrashed the party, said a couple of things that probably didn't need to be said and failed to introduce myself properly. Sorry about that. I'm not using my real name but I'm not really worried if anybody figures out who I am, I don't know any dirty secrets that the CofS would rather keep hidden, so they're not going to be coming after me and anyway I was only a small fish...
So here we go on a trip down memory lane, it's a shame that my memory is pretty piss-poor!
Earliest recollections of Scn. are of 'helping-out' in central files at SH when I was 16 or 17. LRH was in residence (this would have been about 1963/4), and if I passed him walking along the drive he'd smile a big smile and ask how I was doing. Arthur Hubbard was the only one of his offspring I ever encountered, and that was when he once leaped out of the shrubbery and got me in a headlock. Very strange. There were some horses in one of the fields and a notice saying something along the lines of 'Do not feed or interact with the horses, the children are trying to communicate with them'.
When Elron was giving one of the SHSBC lectures we were allowed to 'down-tools' and sit in the solarium and listen over an extension speaker. When he was finished he'd stick his head 'round the door and smile and wave and we'd all clap.
I was actually living in London at the time, and only going to SH when I went to stay with my half-brother (who got me in originally) in Kent. HASI in Fitzroy Street in London was where I first did any kind of course, and my initial indoctrination was listening to a talk on Scn. given by David Gaiman, althought I can't remember what it was about specifically. Afterwards he asked us why we were there and how we hoped to benefit from Scientology. I put up my hand and he pointed at me and my lame reply was 'to be more aware', to which he barked 'to be more aware of what you half-wit?' Inferring, if not actually saying, the bit in italics.
Everyone at HASI seemed to be from the upper-middle-class 'OK yah' brigade, which to an oik like me was a trifle intimidating, but one person I immediately took to was Cornelia Alford, who was German or Austrian. She was a lovely lady. When HASI became HSOL and transferred to Tottenham Court Road, I recall wandering around the place completely off my face on acid (this was before I joined staff obviously) and she said to me 'You are much more beautiful wizzout ze LSD strativarius.' I also had several run-ins on the subject of smoking dope with Pam Thorne (Hurwitz) who I think was Qual Sec at the time. (More about her later.)
My bong-bashing days behind me, I joined staff at HSOL in 1968. Ron Hopkins was running the place and I was given the job of test-marker, with Peter Buttery as my immediate superior. My main interest was getting trained as an auditor, so as soon as I could I started studying in the academy.
Some staffers I worked with during my time at HSOL:
Geoff Brewer
Peter Buttery
Sue Finer/Loder
Alan & Barbara Gilbertson
Bruce & Anne Glushakow
Ron Hopkins
Paul Humphries
Nicky (thousand-yard-stare) Mendoza
Tom Morgan
Mike Oram
John Parselle
Alan Saint
Chris Speer
Pam Thorne/Hurwitz
John Harry Watson
By 1969 I was a class IV auditor auditing public PC's, but sometime around the middle of the year I was sent to SH to do the Standard Dianetics Course under Gilbert Black. When I got back to London from Sussex as an HDG (Hubbard Dianetic Graduate), I had to run the Dianetics course and c/s the Dianetic pc folders.
In February 1970 I did the Clearing course and OT I at the AO in Edinburgh. Strangely enough, my clear bracelet originally belonged to the aforementioned Peter Buttery, who sold it to me for a pittance and which I duly had engraved with my name, the date and my clear number - as you do. Being solid silver it must be worth a few quid as scrap. I wouldn't be seen dead wearing it these days.
The cheeky girls Isla Pryde and Audrey White signed my clear cert.
From 1971 to early 1974 I was out, but by about March '74 I was back in the fold again and once more working at the org in London.
I signed my Sea Org contract at SH in May '74 shortly before I got married, and it was countersigned by Bruce Glushakow and Linda Charlton.
In the Autumn of '74, as a reward for joining the Sea Org and getting trained as a class IV and Dianetic auditor to help Ron clear the planet, I was sent to the RPF where I joined Mick Parkee, La La Lou Lou, DartSmohen and Gary Earle (to whom I owe an huge debt of gratitude, part of which was turning me on to the Eagles) digging the foundations for the castle at SH and mending the potholes in the driveway at Stonelands, two of the many tasks that we were called upon to undertake.
Regarding the RPF, Dart is quite right, people didn't fuck with us and got out of our way. http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?6144-AOSHUK-Saint-Hill-RPF&p=98709&viewfull=1#post98709. OK, we weren't allowed to speak unless spoken to first, but, odd as it may seem since we were supposedly a bunch of DB's and statcrashers, the guys at SH regarded us as quite upstat. (Jeez, how I hate using these scn terms.) If you need something sorted, call the RPF and they'll handle it, was the general idea in our day.
25-11-74
MAA RPF <---
Bosun RPF
Commendation
strativarius
strativarius is highly commended for the work he has done on the RPF.
As a c/s he did care very much to deliver the best tech to his fellow RPFers.
He trained the auditors and showed great concern to each of the pc's
cases. During his time as c/s there was high completions and gains
in the RPF.
This is also true when he became Tech I/C.
As MAA he showed up to be a ruthless product officer that got things
done but also did care about the actuality of the products.
All in all he has been a great asset to the RPF as a unit.
Signed: (Can't read his sig and fucked if I can remember his name but it wasn't Dart.)
RPF Bosun
Having received similar complimentary commendations from Mick Parkee and others, I graduated off of the RPF in February 1975. When I got back to HSOL I found that my Clear, HAA, HDA and HDG certs had vanished from my auditing room and I never saw them (and an ancient bonsai Acer (Maple) I'd had for years) again.
Since I was contracted to HSOL and my old lady was working at FOLO UK I then started a tiresome cycle with John Harry W. about getting transferred to Saint Hill, but, in June I think it was, I decided I'd had it with the CofS and, along with my wife, fucked off to Ivybridge in Devon to work for a strange man who owned a manufacturing company near Plymouth. How he, as a Scientologist, managed to employ two blown Sea Org staff members and still remain in good standing I'll never know, but it could be because he, his wife and his entourage were paying hard cash for goods and services from the Church. That's my guess anyway.
My goldenrod was issued in June 1975.
PS: One final note. It probably took about 15 years before I felt fully 'decontaminated', and I've rarely given Scientology a thought since about 1990. Until now. There are some extraordinarily gifted writers here, so posting can be a bit intimidating, but I just post in the hope that anyone reading anything I've written (or supported), who is thinking of getting involved with the CofS, will think again.
S.
So here we go on a trip down memory lane, it's a shame that my memory is pretty piss-poor!
Earliest recollections of Scn. are of 'helping-out' in central files at SH when I was 16 or 17. LRH was in residence (this would have been about 1963/4), and if I passed him walking along the drive he'd smile a big smile and ask how I was doing. Arthur Hubbard was the only one of his offspring I ever encountered, and that was when he once leaped out of the shrubbery and got me in a headlock. Very strange. There were some horses in one of the fields and a notice saying something along the lines of 'Do not feed or interact with the horses, the children are trying to communicate with them'.
When Elron was giving one of the SHSBC lectures we were allowed to 'down-tools' and sit in the solarium and listen over an extension speaker. When he was finished he'd stick his head 'round the door and smile and wave and we'd all clap.
I was actually living in London at the time, and only going to SH when I went to stay with my half-brother (who got me in originally) in Kent. HASI in Fitzroy Street in London was where I first did any kind of course, and my initial indoctrination was listening to a talk on Scn. given by David Gaiman, althought I can't remember what it was about specifically. Afterwards he asked us why we were there and how we hoped to benefit from Scientology. I put up my hand and he pointed at me and my lame reply was 'to be more aware', to which he barked 'to be more aware of what you half-wit?' Inferring, if not actually saying, the bit in italics.
Everyone at HASI seemed to be from the upper-middle-class 'OK yah' brigade, which to an oik like me was a trifle intimidating, but one person I immediately took to was Cornelia Alford, who was German or Austrian. She was a lovely lady. When HASI became HSOL and transferred to Tottenham Court Road, I recall wandering around the place completely off my face on acid (this was before I joined staff obviously) and she said to me 'You are much more beautiful wizzout ze LSD strativarius.' I also had several run-ins on the subject of smoking dope with Pam Thorne (Hurwitz) who I think was Qual Sec at the time. (More about her later.)
My bong-bashing days behind me, I joined staff at HSOL in 1968. Ron Hopkins was running the place and I was given the job of test-marker, with Peter Buttery as my immediate superior. My main interest was getting trained as an auditor, so as soon as I could I started studying in the academy.
Some staffers I worked with during my time at HSOL:
Geoff Brewer
Peter Buttery
Sue Finer/Loder
Alan & Barbara Gilbertson
Bruce & Anne Glushakow
Ron Hopkins
Paul Humphries
Nicky (thousand-yard-stare) Mendoza
Tom Morgan
Mike Oram
John Parselle
Alan Saint
Chris Speer
Pam Thorne/Hurwitz
John Harry Watson
By 1969 I was a class IV auditor auditing public PC's, but sometime around the middle of the year I was sent to SH to do the Standard Dianetics Course under Gilbert Black. When I got back to London from Sussex as an HDG (Hubbard Dianetic Graduate), I had to run the Dianetics course and c/s the Dianetic pc folders.
In February 1970 I did the Clearing course and OT I at the AO in Edinburgh. Strangely enough, my clear bracelet originally belonged to the aforementioned Peter Buttery, who sold it to me for a pittance and which I duly had engraved with my name, the date and my clear number - as you do. Being solid silver it must be worth a few quid as scrap. I wouldn't be seen dead wearing it these days.
The cheeky girls Isla Pryde and Audrey White signed my clear cert.
From 1971 to early 1974 I was out, but by about March '74 I was back in the fold again and once more working at the org in London.
I signed my Sea Org contract at SH in May '74 shortly before I got married, and it was countersigned by Bruce Glushakow and Linda Charlton.
In the Autumn of '74, as a reward for joining the Sea Org and getting trained as a class IV and Dianetic auditor to help Ron clear the planet, I was sent to the RPF where I joined Mick Parkee, La La Lou Lou, DartSmohen and Gary Earle (to whom I owe an huge debt of gratitude, part of which was turning me on to the Eagles) digging the foundations for the castle at SH and mending the potholes in the driveway at Stonelands, two of the many tasks that we were called upon to undertake.
Regarding the RPF, Dart is quite right, people didn't fuck with us and got out of our way. http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?6144-AOSHUK-Saint-Hill-RPF&p=98709&viewfull=1#post98709. OK, we weren't allowed to speak unless spoken to first, but, odd as it may seem since we were supposedly a bunch of DB's and statcrashers, the guys at SH regarded us as quite upstat. (Jeez, how I hate using these scn terms.) If you need something sorted, call the RPF and they'll handle it, was the general idea in our day.
25-11-74
MAA RPF <---
Bosun RPF
Commendation
strativarius
strativarius is highly commended for the work he has done on the RPF.
As a c/s he did care very much to deliver the best tech to his fellow RPFers.
He trained the auditors and showed great concern to each of the pc's
cases. During his time as c/s there was high completions and gains
in the RPF.
This is also true when he became Tech I/C.
As MAA he showed up to be a ruthless product officer that got things
done but also did care about the actuality of the products.
All in all he has been a great asset to the RPF as a unit.
Signed: (Can't read his sig and fucked if I can remember his name but it wasn't Dart.)
RPF Bosun
Having received similar complimentary commendations from Mick Parkee and others, I graduated off of the RPF in February 1975. When I got back to HSOL I found that my Clear, HAA, HDA and HDG certs had vanished from my auditing room and I never saw them (and an ancient bonsai Acer (Maple) I'd had for years) again.
Since I was contracted to HSOL and my old lady was working at FOLO UK I then started a tiresome cycle with John Harry W. about getting transferred to Saint Hill, but, in June I think it was, I decided I'd had it with the CofS and, along with my wife, fucked off to Ivybridge in Devon to work for a strange man who owned a manufacturing company near Plymouth. How he, as a Scientologist, managed to employ two blown Sea Org staff members and still remain in good standing I'll never know, but it could be because he, his wife and his entourage were paying hard cash for goods and services from the Church. That's my guess anyway.
My goldenrod was issued in June 1975.
PS: One final note. It probably took about 15 years before I felt fully 'decontaminated', and I've rarely given Scientology a thought since about 1990. Until now. There are some extraordinarily gifted writers here, so posting can be a bit intimidating, but I just post in the hope that anyone reading anything I've written (or supported), who is thinking of getting involved with the CofS, will think again.
S.
Last edited:
OMG cool. That would have been something. 
and 
- glad to have you here. 
Keep sharing 
