[Today’s guest post is by Pete Griffiths.]
The bus journey from County Mayo to Dublin takes about three and a half hours and I am on the back seat pondering my insane decision. What am I doing? What am I thinking? These people are dangerous. Scientology comes after its critics to lie about them, harass them and ultimately to try to destroy them, to stop them bad mouthing it. Except it isn’t bad mouthing. The critics speak the truth. It is May 2009.
Over a year prior to this journey, I became aware that a group online calling themselves Anonymous were going to protest the Scientology mission in Dublin. What the heck for? Scientology is the good guys. It has the answers to drug addiction, education, criminal rehabilitation, study, communication, relationship problems, personal demons, insanity, war. The person I was chatting with laughed at me, called me an idiot and told me to look online.
“Yes but L. Ron Hubbard discovered all these amazing things…”
“He was away on a ship surrounded by underage girls in miniskirts. Just look online,” I got told again.
What harm could it do? It was 14 years since I had been involved with Scientology and maybe all these unknown people had a point. There sure seems to be a lot of them. That underage girl thing is a bit pervy all right. But that is the enemy line. That’s what they say to discredit the man and deny him his rightful accolades in the world of wogdom, or society as we know it (“wog” is the Scientologese word for a human being who hasn’t yet discovered Scientology, just an ordinary, normal, human). And he is the greatest friend Mankind has ever had because he researched and found out the truth about life and the universe and so on and so forth.
And I always planned to rejoin when I had enough money as I knew that enough money would grease the wheels or pour oil on any troubles that I may have had in the past. Then I could do my Bridge and go OT and have some superpowers…
What harm? If everything is as true as they say then surely a tiny amount entheta couldn’t rock the boat that much? Could it? All these Anonymous people don’t seem to have taken any harm.
I began to look online and discover to my increasing shock and horror that there is more to the story than I first envisaged. I read more and more and became fascinated by the subject, once I had overcome my initial fear. It seems that someone wasn’t telling the full story. I found out about ARS and the Old Guard. Crazy Scientology court actions against people like Gerry Armstrong. The Hamburg Conference. Ursula Caberta. Marty and Mike were out.
Finally, I read Russell Miller’s Bare-faced Messiah and my entire world changes before I even finish the book. Yes, I hesitated before I read the OT3 stuff but then thought, you know what, fuck it, nobody else has got pneumonia and died, here we go, wheeeeee!
Hubbard was just a con man. The whole thing is nothing but a money-making lie.
All the stuff that I have believed for these past years is just bullshit. Clear the planet? Clear the bank accounts of members, more like. What a disgusting, diabolical, deception and perpetrated with malice aforethought and nothing but evil intent.
“The only way to control somebody is to lie to him. You can write that in your book in big black letters, the only way to control somebody is to lie to him.” — L. Ron Hubbard
What a total bastard. I don’t have much Scientology material left, but I gather the things I have — books, posters, manuals — and build a huge bonfire in the yard. I am raging. I have never felt so betrayed. I devoted and dedicated years to that charlatan. All for nothing. Well, not nothing, he died with $680 million dollars in cash in boxes around him.
I found Tory “Magoo” Christman and she saved me. Who couldn’t believe this obviously sincere and brave lady speaking out about the abuse she saw and suffered? If she can do it…
…because that was my next thought. I have to do something, put a stop to this. Prevent new members from joining, get existing victims to realize they are being duped, deceived, and help them to leave. I can’t just stand by and do nothing. And so I’m on the bus heading up to Dublin to check out these Anonymous protests and I am feeling brave enough but at the same time, scared. I know how bad things could be. I can face the possibilities. They would probably stop short of murder, I mean they would hardly kill my family, would they? What’s the worst thing they could do to me? Call me a pedophile, I guess. People would say, no smoke without fire, and my life would be ruined. Would they do that? They did. But hey, we’re jumping the gun.
The bus arrives in Dublin and I get off and stroll round to Abbey Street. Will anyone be there?
I see a smallish crowd standing opposite the Scientology mission. I knew exactly where it was as I’d gone to look for it some years before.
There were posters, music playing, an overall air of a party or celebration of sorts going on. People in good spirits. Some people wearing Guy Fawkes masks, some wearing bandanas. I knew that the protestors tried to conceal their identities to prevent the Scientology “dirty tricks” department from getting up to mischief.
I walk up and introduce myself and get received very well. I meet the Madhair, Raptor, Cheshire Cat, Cuoin, Kick the Spike, Mike Garde, and many others. Most people had a nickname from being on the Internet but not Mike, I found out that he had been very vocal in exposing the cult for the past 25 years. What a legend. Kick was there because back when the bus stops had been operating outside the mission she waited for a bus each and every work night and every night this Scientology guy, we’ll call him Vinny, asked her to do the personality test. Every night she told him, no. The next night he’d ask her again and eventually she lost it. “Look at my face! Don’t ask me ever again!” she raged. I knew what that was all about. Scientologists believe that people who don’t know Scientology don’t know themselves at all and could say no like that for months on end and then one day just flip and say OK and follow them into the building for a testing session. When I was at the org and a person came in ranting about being taken off the mailing list we were told to say OK, but of course, never take them off because they don’t know their own minds, how could they, they are not Scientologists. It really is that crazy when you are in.
Everyone had a lot to say and I was their first real live ex-Scientologist. The talk flowed, the music played, and I learned a few rules like, stay on the opposite side of the street as the Scientologists call the police if anyone stands on the footpath right outside their door. It’s better anyway as the people in the mission can see us in all our glory. If the police do tell you to do something, do it. Drink plenty of water. Wear sensible shoes.
One Scientologist comes out with a camera and takes pictures of the many signs hanging on the window sills or just leaning against the wall of the empty old newspaper building. I don’t think he took photos of the protesting people when he was on the street but he certainly did when back inside. Hiding behind curtains with lens poking out. People tried to talk to him but he used “ignore” tech and looked quite smug and confident. Sad. I try telling him that I want to help him see the folly of his ways but get royally ignored.
The protestors, I find out, meet once a month, same place, roughly the same time, all organized online on a site that everyone goes on. I just have to join in. I really had some fun that first day. The protests go from morning until the evening and everyone leaves together for safety reasons as the Scientologists had been known to follow lone protestors.
That was the first of what became for me a total of one hundred monthly protests and four international conferences.
When I suggested to the gang that we host a conference like the Hamburg one I was initially laughed at because the Irish Scientology presence in Dublin was just a fun-sized concern of 43 active members. However we went ahead and did the Dublin Offlines 2012 conference with 14 guest speakers which is all available to watch on YouTube. And a great day was had by all.
And then a few years later, the Scientologists were able to dishonestly acquire a High Court Injunction which brought the protesting to an unfortunate end. There was just handful of people left at that stage anyway so we were not too fussed. I was able to go to the High Court and get the same judge who gave the injunction to lift the injunction which he did with the words that if he had known the full story at the time he would never have granted the inunction in the first place.
Shortly after that, the Scientologists in Dublin moved from their tiny office above a hairdressing shop on a city street to a 12 million euro “church”in a mainly residential area known as Firhouse, which also would have made any protesting somewhat superfluous. They had also recently purchased a Georgian building in Merrion Square to operate an “Office of National Affairs” at a cost of more millions. The membership according the national census was in the high 80s.
Clearly someone was pumping a lot of money into the two-bit Irish operation. But who and why? We can only speculate at this stage.
— Pete Griffiths
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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
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What a ride! Mike Garde has been a legend for a long time, but Pete and Anonymous put in a very good effort. The Dublin conference was brilliant - thanks for making the effort.
"I found Tory “Magoo” Christman and she saved me."
Wonderful. I think rather a lot of people would say the same about Tory. And she would say in turn that Andreas Heldal-Lund saved her. There's a long chain of good people holding out a helping hand to others, and you are very much one of those good people, Pete.
Andreas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Heldal-Lund