Like a pitiless concrete angel, the vast two-winged Scientology building stands in downtown LA proclaiming its power to the city of dreams. The building, the old Cedars of Lebanon hospital the Church acquired in the 1970s, is painted a deep space blue and on top of it a great white sign proclaims ‘Scientology’. At night, it lights up, piercing the night sky. Welcome to L Ron Hubbard Way. This street, and the area around it, is dominated by the Church of the Stars. White-shirted, black-trousered adepts hurry across the street, hither and yon.
After lunch we met Tommy and Mike at the far end of the complex from the old hospital. The car park was packed, a sea of windscreens flashing in the sun. It hadn’t drizzled the whole time I was in America. Odd. When I walked through the doors, the strangest thing happened. I stepped into the building about ten feet ahead of the camera teams and Tommy and Mike, and I saw an entire film set, frozen in space and time, as if waiting for a signal from on high, from the Director. One beat, and then as if by unspoken command, everyone started moving, criss-crossing paths, hurrying slightly too fast for real life. I had walked inside a Church of Scientology video. Creepy.
Tommy and Mike were the soul of politeness. It was walk this way, see this, can I answer your question? What had they got up to over lunch? Shown Miscavige the tape of me doing an impression of John Cleese in Fawlty Towers going nuts? I guess so.
We came to a stop in front of a bust of L Ron Hubbard. There is a brilliant Dr Who episode, Blink, about stone statues that are in reality space aliens that move when you blink. Since watching that, I have always felt uneasy in front of statues or busts of any kind.
All of Mr Hubbard’s lectures on compact discs, said Tommy, tantalisingly, pointing at a wall of CDs.
The same thing that we saw at Saint Hill, I said. I didn’t say it then, but the Church of Scientology’s centre in LA is the least religious religious building I have ever been in, in the whole world. It looks and feels like a shop.
A fancy plasma screen caught my eye. Mr Hubbard, said Tommy, gave over 3,000 lectures…
Inside a wood-lined study was a desk, decorated by a naval white cap, as if the captain of the Isle of Wight ferry had just popped out for a pint.
Every Church of Scientology, said Tommy, has an office for L Ron Hubbard.
Other religions have shrines to their dead founders. Scientology, in keeping with its weird mix of corporate Americana, dollar signs and religiosity, has an office. Tommy went on to explain that LRH wasn’t a prophet, guru or a god.
Smashing, I said. What is the naval hat for?
Tommy waxed lyrical about Mr Hubbard’s mastery of the sea, a master mariner licensed to captain any ship on any ocean of any tonnage, sail or motor. The heretic biographer Russell Miller gave me a somewhat different version of Hubbard’s career in the US Navy: ‘He fired on Mexico by mistake. He fought a battle with a submarine that never existed on the Pacific coast. He was not a war hero. He stumbled from courts martial to investigations to unpaid bills. His war career was a disaster.’
Our tour continued. Outwardly, I appeared interested. Inwardly, I was wondering, when would I get fired? We came across a grown man playing with plasticine. Mr Hubbard worked out, said Tommy, that playing with clay figures helps Scientologists.
The man lumped his figures into a ball…
‘…And the supervisor will be able to see…’
…then rolled out his clay.
We walked past a couple sitting at a table facing each other, an E-meter on the table. In real life, it was an unimpressive piece of kit, whiffing of Bakelite and 1950s valves. The needle, floating or not, would not look out of place on the dashboard of a Spitfire. Hi-tech, Scientology is not.
Tommy explained how the Scientologists were training how to become an auditor: ‘And so that involves how to use the E-meter and various drills for that.’
Drill is a military word.
‘…and that they know their tools, they know their trade perfectly and exactly…’
We were watching a display of auditing, not the real thing.
What are the wood bricks for? I asked.
‘Similar to the clay,’ said Tommy.
More auditing was going on.
‘The auditor does not ever validate, evaluate or anything like that. The auditor is fully there to assist the person receiving the auditing and finding out for himself what it is that’s troubling him.’
There were more grown-ups playing with clay, people studying, people auditing with E-meters in rooms off the main corridors. In one long room there were dozens of people, bent over their studies or their clay, none of whom paid any attention whatsoever to the two agents, the reporter, the four separate people behind cameras and the sound person with the very long boom. And that is weird. It is a simple constant of working for TV, everywhere on the planet, that people come up to you and ask, ‘what are you filming?’ and ‘what’s it for?’ and ‘when does it go out?’ and ‘hello, Mum.’ When people not only don’t do that, but do the opposite and entirely ignore the cameras, one can reasonably deduce that they been commanded to behave in that peculiar way, beforehand. It was like wandering around inside the set of The Truman Show.
‘Was that satisfactory?’
Very, very good, I said. More than satisfactory.
We were out in the fresh air.
‘If you wouldn’t mind,’ asked Tommy, ‘letting me know where you are going to go? The only reason literally is that when you show up, people are going to call me and say “there is a camera crew here, do you know who they are?”… So just let me know and I will just… even if you just tell me on the day I will tell everyone here there is a crew from the BBC… OK?’
I couldn’t be bothered answering that.
‘Do you have any questions John?’
How much is the Church worth?
‘To be honest with you, I have actually no idea.’
After our tour, it was back to ‘The Some Say Brainwashing Cult’ suite at the Celebrity Centre. Juliette Lewis walked in, the goofy yet very beautiful star of Natural Born Killers and former girlfriend of Brad Pitt. In 2007, she was a musician with her own rock band.
The Sci’gy Leaks messages had predicted: ‘Juliette will go off on him about narconon and that she wld be dead if it wasnt for the program and how dare he criticize it.’ And lo, it came to pass.
You’re a Scientologist, why?
‘Well, thirteen years ago I had a little drug problem that was horrible and I did the Narconon programme and it’s the only drug rehab I ever did and then never looked back, never did drugs again, so I’m kind of happy about that.’
What does Scientology do for you? Has it made you a better person?
‘Well, what I think about Hubbard just as a writer is he’s like just really interesting and I find his writing compelling and makes me think about things all the like courses I’ve done in Scientology’s made me able to understand communication better so that I could connect with people because as an artist first and foremost that’s like the most important thing to me is this connection with people. And also to understand each other, to resolve differences, because when I was like more of an introverted teen who couldn’t articulate my feelings to save my life, it was really an uncomfortable place to be so now just being able to be more comfortable in my own skin, eh, has allowed me to do live rock and roll shows as well so it’s good, good things. I’ve only had good things.’
It felt like Groundhog Day. Still I had to through the motions.
Which level of Scientology are you at, I asked?
‘I don’t like to speak in mysteric, you know, mysterious terms that people don’t understand so first and foremost I would just say I’m Juliette, I am an artist, I am female, those are the things I’m sure you understand. So as far as levels in Scientology I’ve done lots of courses, I’ve had the auditing which is the equivalent to what counselling might, you might know as counselling and stuff like that.’
Some people say that it’s a sinister brainwashing cult. What would you say to that?
‘Some people have also said that women are really stupid and shouldn’t vote!’
Well, the people who said that it’s a sinister brainwashing cult used to be in Scientology.
‘I did movies for fifteen years and I still do movies, and I’ve been sort of in the public eye, I guess, since I was twenty, so I’m kind of used to stereotypes, clichés, rumours, even my best of friends, you know who, they’re just hilarious stories, so, the point is the brainwashing thing I just think is funny because anybody who knows me that’s like really funny, I don’t know.’
Who’s Xenu?
‘Who’s who?’
Xenu.
She did a weird kind of, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about’ look. Not terribly convincing. Hardly Oscar winning.
‘I don’t know. Is that, what? Off the internet?’
The Church seeks to mock the utility of the internet and net-nanny its parishioners and Juliette’s response fitted in nicely within this picture.
I told Juliette about the evil galactic warlord who blew up bits of aliens, having flown them to earth, next to volcanoes.
‘Really? I don’t…’ She burst into infectious giggles. ‘It sounds like great science fiction!’
Has it anything to do with your religion?
‘I’ve never heard of it. I don’t know. Xenu? I don’t go on the internet a lot for like conspiracy theories and research so I don’t know that that theory, the aliens…’
But you’ve never heard it?
‘Xenu? No! Never heard it. It sounds like a good movie.’
But nothing to do with Scientology?
‘No. That’s the thing, the reason, you have to know why I came here today, is because I have a little rock and roll band and we tour the world and I have to do phone interviews and in-person interviews for hours and hours and hours, and a lot of times like I’ll go to Denmark, Sweden, Germany, UK and I get asked about Scientology, and a lot of the times the journalists will have really funny questions, they’re funny, depending on what mood I’m in, other times they’re annoying or aggravating.’
Funny ha-ha? Or funny peculiar?
‘Yes, exactly,’ she laughed again, ‘either one depending on the mood I’m in. But no, my point is to come here is to do, give, do whatever I can to clear the air and I can only talk from personal experience and I, just as a purely selfish reason, would love to not be asked some of the very peculiar rumour questions that I’m asked a lot about Scientology. I’m also asked really funny questions about Hollywood because people have a lot of stereotypes about being an actress, you know, that I own a Rolls Royce or I have a team of stylists. I do yoga, and so I do do some alternative medicine just not the stereotype and this is from you know, all these little funny magazines, on being a Hollywood actress. So I’m used to sort of rumour and stereotype. But the Xenu and the brainwashing and the thing and aliens and blah-de-blah, this is the stellar imagination of people which I think is really creative.’
Nothing whatsoever to do with reality of the Church of Scientology as you’ve experienced it?
‘As I have experienced… That is there are tall tales dreamed up by bored people, maybe people who are on the internet a lot, who do lots of blogging, maybe they don’t do blogging, maybe they just read conspiracy theories.’
Other than your mum and dad, is LRH the greatest influence in your life?
‘I’m sort of influenced, like a lot of artists, we’re very kind of led by our imaginations and creativity and daydreams and stuff like that so right now I’m sort of this single minded rock and roll singer so my biggest influence right now is rock music. Next week it might be something else, but I have to sing Neil Young…’
‘Naw, I’m just kidding. But to answer your question. Influence? Influence about things that I find strengthen and seriously L Ron Hubbard… I do hate when things are said, they’re so negative and so wrong, they’re so far-fetched off somebody that that I find extremely compassionate, intelligent and helpful to me, yeah. So it really, you know you get like that, you want to stick up for somebody that’s, you think, is a decent person, humanitarian.’
When you do the Narconon thing, in the sauna, you drank the corn oil or whatever it was?
‘The oil at the end of the programme, not in the sauna, cos it needs sweated out, but at the end to put back in the oils you lose in, in or eh go into your, to replace, give your body good fat eh and get out… Out with the old, in with the new.’
It worked for you?
‘Yeah, not only did it work, it’s friggin’ genius, can I say genius?’
Yeah.
They gave me some more Scientologists to interview, and I asked them my usual questions, but I had no idea who they were, and they all stayed on script, and none were as lucid as Juliette.
Reflecting on my four encounters with Anne Archer, Leah Rimini, Kirstie Alley and Juliette Lewis while writing this book, I set what they had to say against the tests for brainwashing set out in Lifton’s book. This is a wholly subjective exercise. Lifton’s first test, milieu control, was passed with flying colours. They either did not use the internet at all or kept well away of anti-Scientology sites; they only referred to critics of Scientology in wholly negative terms. Normal, everyday sources of information for the rest of us – journalism, newspapers, TV – were also derided.
On mystical manipulation: Leah, Kirstie and Juliette all denied the existence of Xenu who has, by the way, 2,240,000 hits on Google. I did not ask Anne about the space alien Satan. The women spoke reverently of the ‘technology’ or the assistance offered by the Church, but critics say the E-meter and the auditing process is a form of brainwashing. Lifton’s third test, the demand for purity, requiring the elimination of ‘taints’ and ‘poisons’ was evidenced in their reactions to critics in general and me in particular: uniformly negative. The fourth test, the cult of confession, is virtually impossible to score if the adherents are still inside the cult. One can only apply it to people who have left. The fifth test, the sacred science, is similar to the second, mystical manipulation: again, the results would be positive. The sixth test, loading the language, generates an interesting observation: none of the women got very far with me into the brain-hurting maze of linguistic spaghetti which ex-Scientologists like Donna Shannon, Mike Henderson and Bruce Hines say they routinely used when inside the Sea Org. On the contrary, they blocked me. Likewise Tom Cruise and John Travolta, on the very rare occasions when they are asked probing questions about Scientology, block, and talk in general terms about technology and improved communication skills. The sixth, seventh and eighth tests seem impossible to score, even subjectively, if the adherents are still inside the cult, if cult it be.
Rick Ross’s simpler three definers of a cult are, first, does the group have an absolute totalitarian leader who has no meaningful accountability? Second, does the group have a process that can be seen as brainwashing: control of information, a manipulation of people in such a way as to gain undue influence over them psychologically and emotionally? Third, does the group do harm? You decide.
That evening we drove to Santa Barbara to meet another defector, one who was happy to talk to us, but not willing to be filmed. I zig-zagged from side to side of the freeways, watching for cars tailing us. I remember driving off the highway into a long, empty car park overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and parking, waiting, watching, to double check that we were not being followed. Had the BBC given us a sea-going car, I would have driven off into the Pacific all the way to Hawaii, to test if we were being followed, but unfortunately the bean-counters vetoed it.
But, according to Sci’gy-Leaks, they were on our tail although not sure who we were going to see. The Communicator was told by Mike: ‘Dear Sir. SG is confirmed in the Bay area not STB [Santa Barbara] ml Mike.’
Who is the mysterious SG? We have no idea. The only SG that pops up on the pro-Church ‘Religious Freedom Watch’ website is Scott Goehring, the founder of an internet newsgroup called ‘alt.religion.scientology’ (often abbreviated a.r.s or ARS) which the Church strongly dislikes because it encourages Scientologists to defect. However, we had no plans to talk to any SG.
The Sci’gy-Leaks message traffic takes up the story. On Friday morning the Communicator asks: ‘Who were they seeing at STB then?’ Mike replies: ‘Dear sir Jeff Hawkins.’
Dead right. So they followed us successfully all the way to Santa Barbara and smoked out our source, without us ever realising that we were being tailed. This was an impressive achievement. One ex-member of the Church explained to me: ‘The most likely ways are: 1. There was a plant who talked to Jeff or someone who talked to Jeff and he mentioned it or 2. His phone records were gotten and it became known he was in touch with you and the deduction went from there. There is a data base, both hard copy and computerized on Suppressive Persons and reporters at OSA Int. It is maintained in the Investigations (Intelligence) Bureau (division).’
So perhaps all the agents did was track us on the freeway heading to Santa Barbara, make a phonecall to check on SPs in the Santa Barbara area and come up with Jeff’s name. If we did succeed in losing them, all they had to do was to discreetly tail Jeff from his home – and he would have led them to us. But it is equally possible that we never succeeded in shaking them.
Jeff Hawkins joined the Church in 1967 and left 38 years later, taking my tally in 2007 of people who had been inside Scientology past a century: 108 years, combined, to be exact. Jeff is a brilliant graphic designer who was responsible for the volcano logo on Scientology books and TV ad campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s. He had only recently left the Church and he was not yet ready to go on TV, but the picture he described of life inside was somewhat different from what I had just heard from Juliette Lewis and all. He is a compact, quietly spoken, seemingly diffident man. He said he had been beaten by David Miscavige.
Once? I asked.
‘Five times,’ he said. ‘The first time was in February, 2002. I was doing writing in the Marketing area. I was called to a meeting with Miscavige to go over a script. There were 30 or 40 people there, all of the top execs of Scientology. He proceeded to disparage the script completely and denigrate me. He was talking about me in the third person, as if I wasn’t there. At one point he started saying “Look how he looks at me!” He was pointing to my face and getting himself worked up into a fury. Then all of a sudden he pumped up on the table and launched himself at me, beating me about the head and knocking me down on the ground, scratching my face and tearing my shirt. I was then sent to do “deck” work, physical labour, for two months.
‘In 2003, while we were taking a break from a meeting with him, he was talking to me and suddenly began slapping me, hard, on the side of my head. He hit me with the flat of his hand, very hard, about eight times. Then he went over and began to hit Marc Yager, [another senior Sea Org member] knocking him to the ground.
‘Once in 2004, he was giving a group of executives a tour of the RTC [Religious Technology Centre] Building at Gold, and after he had finished showing us one room, he was walking past me out the door when he suddenly punched me in the stomach, hard enough to take my breath away.
‘He once hit me repeatedly in the face at a meeting, enough to scratch my face and draw blood. He signalled to his Communicator, Lou Stuckenbrock [the same Lou of the Sci’gy-Leaks messages which the Church deny], who produced a small bottle of disinfectant and dabbed it on my face.
‘He hit me another time at a meeting.
‘I also saw him physically abuse others. At a meeting in the RTC Building, he knocked one executive off his chair and to the ground. At another meeting he beat Lyman Spurlock about the head. As mentioned above, I saw him beat Marc Yager to the ground. This is not to mention the verbal abuse, profanity, and threats, which were constant. He twice ordered me “over-boarded.” I was thrown in the swimming pool at the “Star of California” – at Gold Base, in the Californian desert, once, fully clothed. This is about the only use the pool gets any more.
‘Another time, just before I was offloaded [quit the Church] in 2005, I was thrown in the freezing lake, at night, in February. My age at the time, 58.
‘I was beaten by others as well, numerous times by one of Miscavige’s “pets,” on his orders. I was once hit by a woman executive, and she demanded of my fellow staff “why didn’t one of you hit him?”’
The Church of Scientology and David Miscavige deny all allegations that he is physically violent in any way.
The Church’s Freedom Magazine says of Jeff that he is a ‘liar to the core’ running with an ‘honest to goodness terrorist organization’ – the usual, in other words.
Some time after we met him, Jeff published an e-book about his experiences in the Church, Counterfeit Dreams. In it, he describes the moment he did OT III: ‘I sat with trembling hands… an evil galactic overlord named Xenu… they were then dumped into volcanoes, the volcanoes were exploded with H-bombs, and the Thetans then went through days of brainwashing with pictures of angels and devils…’
Back in 2007, Jeff went on to explain that there was a RPF dungeon of the mind hidden inside the Scientology ‘Concrete Angel’ complex which we had been given a tour of that very day. He drew us a picture of 20 or so Sea Org prisoners, cooped up in a small airless room, paying for their crimes against the Church in a part of the complex he called Lebanon Hall. The prisoners were in bunks. Outside was a guard and a security camera. Jeff also drew us a map showing the location of the dormitory - on the first floor as you enter the building, but accessible through a door from the ground floor if you went round the back. Third, he drew Miscavige beating an executive up, throwing a chair and the man to the ground. The victim? Mike Rinder. That was something to ask Mike, next time I met him.