As Scientology whistleblower Hana Whitfield braced for Milton, she had news for us
Like so many of you, we spent time yesterday watching news of Hurricane Milton's progress as it neared the Florida coast and Scientology’s spiritual mecca, the Flag Land Base in Clearwater.
As the day progressed, Milton's track creeped to the south, suggesting that it wasn't going to be quite the direct hit on Flag that it might have been. (And you know the OT 8s in Clearwater will claim credit for their power over MEST, right?)
Anyway, as Tom Cruise's condo appeared to be less in the bullseye, we grew more concerned about someone we knew was sheltering farther south, in the Cape Coral area.
We're talking about Hana Whitfield, the former Deputy Commodore of Scientology under founder L. Ron Hubbard, and who was such a central figure in Alex Gibney's 2015 film Going Clear.
We called up Hana yesterday to ask about her preparations for riding out the storm, and we ended up getting much more serious personal news from her.
She assured us that she was in a safe place, out of a flood zone, and she had friends with her to get through the deluge, Jim and Julie Grant.
But she wanted us to know, and she said she didn't mind us passing along, that on October 18 she's going in for surgery to have the top lobe of her right lung removed.
She explained that she's had a mass there for a decade that her doctors were keeping an eye on, and just recently it began to grow. It has been diagnosed as an uncommon type of lung cancer.
But it was caught in time that her doctors believe removing the top lobe (one of three we have on the right lung) will take care of it and she won't need chemo or radiation.
“Let your readers know that I'm fine. I expect to come through it one hundred percent,” she said.
In fact, she says, she's been writing again after taking some time off from her book after her husband Jerry Whitfield's death in January 2023.
“Last year I couldn't work on it after that. But this year I'm working in it very hard,* she says.
We're glad to hear that and we'll be hoping to get good news from her after her surgery.
This morning we sent a text to see if we could get a report from Hana about how she had come through the storm, and we were relieved to get a text reply.
“We came through very well. No damage to our houses! No flooding! We were very fortunate. However, we are without power and my guess is that it could be weeks, even months, before the lights come on again.”
We hope it’s sooner than that, Hana!
Mark Ebner and Rick Ross team up
Our longest suffering readers may remember that your Proprietor’s career covering the subject of Scientology began with a November 1995 cover story in the Phoenix New Times about a deprogrammer named Rick Ross.
We have fond memories of getting to know Rick and writing the first full-length profile about him and his work helping parents get their kids out of groups like Scientology.
And we’re happy to report that Rick has now teamed up with our old friend Mark Ebner, and the two of them have a deal to produce a book about Rick’s many exploits.
Ebner sent us over this announcement, which we’re glad to post.
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Group Therapy: Our round table of rowdy regulars on the week’s news
Glad to hear the Grants are helping Hana, and Hana's okay and the upcoming surgery is major stuff, really wish Hana well. Everyone ever trained by Julie or regged by Jim, I hope remember them fondly, I do. Hana was about as close to "Source" as they come in my mind, and she and Jerry have and had done so much good since leaving.
Great news on Ebner and Ross, it's them who have always brought up the uncomforatble truth why anyone with a right mind should eschew Scientology.
(If someone has to know what Scientology is: well it's quackery pseudo-therapy and space alien souls exorcism, which is all quackery placebo at best, and the best of Scientology are the good intentioned gullibles duped into manning Scientology, who all contend with the nastiest horribly backfiring laid in stone regulations that cause the ceaseless heartbreaking and deadly consequences of Hubbard's quackery. Scientology is soul quackery with super nasty regulations constraining the follower, and anyone criticizing Scientology is in the right almost entirely.)
I hope Tom Cruise puts in a presence, and does something good for Clearwater helping his "home" area with some money donations. Scientology local whales ought to figure out how to put some money into helping Clearwater.
Good that Hana made it through the weather, and good luck with the health scare. And hope that everyone else in Florida are doing well, in the circumstances.