Big hug to Ted for having so much common sense about what really helps people!
I don't in any way want to derail this thread, but I just posted in another thread my utter contempt for the way children and young adults are treated in being recruited for the Sea Org, and staff, and the way they are treated while serving. No one should have to endure that, especially a young person just starting out in life.
Parent lurkers, and others who care about the well-being of children, be very watchful and alert about this. Under no circumstances allow them to be recruited into the present day Sea Org, the evidence is clear that they will be gravely harmed in that criminally abusive organization. Staff is not much better.
No one under the age of twenty-one, who has not already graduated from high school and gotten a little reality on real life as a grownup should EVER join the SO or staff.
I agree, but the law probably allows them to do it at age 18 even without parental consent
Most kids and their parents are routinely lied to by recruiters, it is a clear pattern of practice and a whole lot of Ex Cadet Corps and Ex SO kids, now older, have grounds for a class action lawsuit against the COS. Most families have no idea what they are getting themselves into, and to what kind of an insanely abusive organization they are giving their children's lives over to. Wake up people!
How very true!
Lakey, great job on recounting early So Cal history, see others are chiming in to fill in some gaps, very worthwhile...keep sifting through those old memories!
This is valuable! Thanks for taking the time and energy to tell your stories and respond to others memories and questions.
Thanks for your encouragement. I enjoy doing it and its fun for me.
I used to be more hopeful about reform within COS, but the more I learn about the current scene in reality, I think the ENTIRE Sea Org should just be totally abolished and obliterated from the Scientology Organization. Replace it with staff management organized by geographical regions, rather than a total top-down worldwide hierarchy. Let the "church" evolve and break up into schisms based on local culture and interests, like all others do, it's progressive growth and change, it's evolution. That's the only prayer Scientology has of surviving as an organization. Too many crimes, too many overts, too many disaffected staff, SO, public and Ex's, not to mention all the critics, for it to survive as the fascist totalitarian cult that is is at present. Too much harm has been done to too many for it to survive, as it is, and too many people are watching who want all the many abuses; physical, sexual, financial, mental, emotional, spiritual and legal, to stop.
It's too far gone for simply reform. The only analogy I can think of is the German government after WWII. How in the hell could the allies have reformed it? It had to be dismantled and a totally new government created. If the guy with the patch on his eye in the Tom Cruise movie, had succeeded in killing off Hitler, it would have been interesting to see how the perpetrators would have set up the new German government. They were planning on saving the better parts of the rotten Nazi government. Maybe it is possible to save some portions of a rotten organization, who knows?
I'm so glad Lakey, you kept your kids out of the SO and that you finally blew yourself. I REALLY wish you had called the police and pressed charges for kidnapping, etc. of your daughter at the time. I understand why you tried to use their flawed ethics reporting system at the time to put ethics in on what is a systemically unethical program (recruiting minors to the SO).
Sandly, morally you may be correct but in the real world, it was not practical. She was only missing for about 2 hours and I knew she was somewhere nearby being supervised by her recruiter. I would have definitely been declared an SP right there on the spot and back in 2000 I still had some close Scientology friends and was still on course at the O.C. Org. My wife may have disconnected from me It was too steep of a gradient to bring in the police then. It sure got their attention and got my daughter back to me in about 20 minutes.
I think you just finally really woke up to how abusive the COS really was and is. It must have been quite a reality check for you after your years in, your years of service and the money spent supporting the COS. I'm really glad that you and your family are out and that you are talking things over with people here.
I woke up gradually, first Yvonne shunning me for 6 months for a toilet paper incident where I did my post perfectly, then Yvonne picking 18 year old unhatted Kitty over me for Treas Sec, then all the stuff on the Apollo. Three things kept me in, the gains I made in my early years, the many extremely able and decent people I met there and my belief in LRH being here to save the planet. I actually believed this for a very long time, maybe up to August of 2005 when I started reading everything I could find on the internet. To my credit, I got out 4 or 5 years earlier but I just felt current management was not following LRH, that if LRH was followed, everything would work out.
Around 2005, I was in the Freezone camp. It was extremely hard for me to give up on LRH. I still feel to this day, that he helped change my life for the better and I am extremely loyal to those who have helped me or my family. Once I began to see the corruption in much of what LRH had been doing, only then did I drop my Freezone approach to Scientology. It was really hard for me to turn against LRH, one of the hardest things I have had to confront in my life - that a man who I thought had helped me and countless others could be so dishonest and corrupt. To quote a well known ESMB poster, it was a Helluva Hoax.
I know that you and other individuals feel they have gotten good gains from their study of Scientology, and I don't want to invalidate that, but I have to say that I personally don't think all of the criminal actions and abuses by the church are exonerated by the few good gains that some individuals have found for themselves. Especially the crimes against children and young people, who by rights should be the most protected ones in any ethical, sane group of people, especially those who claim to be aware of themselves as spiritual beings.
And what's up with the "ethics" rule that if somebody is upstat-read making lots of money, recruiting more servants for the COS, then none of the rules apply to them and they are allowed to get away with their crimes and overts against their fellow workers or worse, their parishioners, with the collusion, collaboration and consent of the rest of the leadership of their "church"! What kind of leadership is that? This "ethical system" is a joke, and a bad one at that. How can anyone dignify this kind of activity by calling it "their religion"? How blind and stupid can people be??? I apologize to my friends who consider themselves Freezone or Indie Scientologists, and still feel that it is their "religion", if these words are offending, but I am just furious about this issue, and YOU SHOULD BE TOO!
Your above two paragraphs are awesome. Of course good deeds do not exonerate crimes. Maybe they mitigate the crimes a bit when penalties for the crimes are being decided. Gadfly posted something which helped me. "Acknowledge and applaud LRH when he does good and acknowledge when he is doing harm or evil and fight him on that. Keep things separate.
Sorry Lakey, abuse of children just sets me off, and gets my Scots up, royally! I want to go into battle over situations like this. I will NEVER forgive Scientology or ANY of it's leadership for creating, fostering and condoning the kinds of abuses that have historically happened in the SO and on staff, and that are ongoing TO THIS DAY. Criminal activity should be reported and prosecuted.
Don't feel sorry, take a bow!
The brainwashed parents who are themselves slaves to the cult are equally culpable in my mind and should lose their parental rights! For every one who stood up and got angry and protective of their kid, Lakey, is another who just caved in to the pressure, and abandoned their parental responsibility. I know that some of them are ESMB members and will likely be very hurt and offended by my telling it like it is here. I dislike hurting anyone, but sometimes telling the truth is called for. For ESMBers and Ex's, consider this a reality check. Consider this a severe reality adjustment, all you lurkers! GRRRR!
Well said, I agree with you.
Everyone- if you have any knowledge of crimes against children and minors (and others) in the COS, REPORT IT to local law enforcement and your local District Attorney. Do the right thing.
Such a leader would also have to contend with a multitude of captain's chair captains who felt they knew best on how to right the ship. Once again... 
