Singing for David Miscavige: What it was like in Scientology’s indentured servitude

[Bruce Hines and the ‘Cine Castle’ at Scientology’s Gold Base]

Today’s guest post is by Bruce Hines.

In Scientology, “Gold” refers to Golden Era Productions. It is one of the units, considered to be its own separate organization, located at the Int Base, or the international headquarters of Scientology. Back when I was briefly part of it, Gold made movies, produced CDs and tapes, made and repaired E-meters, had a band, took care of the marketing of Scientology, put together various publications, tended to the grounds and buildings on that property, made promotional videos and still photographs, supplied other Scientology organizations in the world with projectors and audio players, ran training courses and provided auditing for the staff of the base, and other stuff.

The Int Base, often referred to as simply “Int,” was located on a property called Gilman Hot Springs. I think the land occupied about 500 acres, not counting much more acreage to the east, which was a 9-hole golf course, and to the west that had once been another golf course of 18 holes, destroyed years earlier by a flood. For a long time (more than 65 years), before being acquired by Scientology, the property had been a resort, complete with actual hot springs (which apparently dried up when an aqueduct was being built between the Colorado River and LA, causing problems with the ground water in the valley). The base is bisected by a public thoroughfare called Gilman Springs Road, which runs roughly southeast from California State Route 60 to the San Jacinto valley. That valley has two main cities, San Jacinto (closer to the Int Base) and Hemet, which are adjacent to each other. Typically when driving there from LA, one would take Route 60, which is actually a freeway, and get off on Gilman Springs Road.

On the base, the portion considered “Gold” is located mainly to the south of the road, and Religious Technology Center (RTC), Commodore’s Messenger Organization International (CMO Int), which included the Watchdog Committee (WDC), and some other smaller units are on the north side. Everyone living and working at that base, with very few exceptions, were and are in the Sea Organization. Generally, in the 14 years I was posted at Int, Gold was looked down upon by the staff who worked north of the road. Not only was Gold lower on the chain of command, but it would often be referred to with a certain disdain. Terrain-wise, the south side of the road was even at a lower elevation. I believe the contempt that “higher” organizations held for “lower” organizations in the Scientology network stemmed from David Miscavige, who lived and worked on the Int base, and was the top guy in RTC and in the world. He seemed to look down on everyone and that attitude permeated the whole base. For example, the staff in RTC seemed to consider the staff in CMO Int to be incompetent fools.

If a person who was posted on the north side of the base got in trouble and was removed from post, most often they would then get moved across the road to some new job in Gold. This would be after some form of “ethics handling” and correction. Many of the staff in Gold had earlier held posts in one of the organizations on the other side of the road. And that is how I ended up being posted in Gold, briefly.

I and my “twin” on the Rehabilitation Project Force, Wiebke Hansen, graduated from the RPF in the summer of 1998. Wiebke had earlier been the Executive Director of the Scientology Organization in Hamburg, Germany. That org had for some years prior to 1995 often won the annual “LRH Birthday Game” competition. The goal was to be deemed the most successful one on the planet, the one that had expanded the most. Their big rival was the Orange County Org, that also tended to be growing relatively rapidly during those years. The problem was that the statistics reported by the Hamburg Org, upon which their expansion was gauged, were false. They weren’t as successful as everyone had thought. So, Wiebke was removed from her position in Hamburg and brought to Int, where she was put on manual labor out at “Happy Valley,” another property owned by Scientology near San Jacinto. She was not in the Sea Organization at that time, as most staff in Scientology organizations around the world were also not. But, after being under “handling” for some weeks, she decided that she would join the Sea Org in order to do the RPF program. I guess she felt, or had been convinced, that getting rehabilitated in this way was her only hope.

There is no question in my mind that such a handling of a lower-org staff member could only have been ordered by Miscavige. There were strict rules about needing the proper security clearance to go to Int and even to know its location. Much more commonly, a person in Wiebke’s position would have been ordered to go to the “Continental Org,” which in this case that would be in Copenhagen, and dealt with there. Above that organization was the “Flag Command Bureaux” in Los Angeles, where in rare cases a person might be required to go. To be pulled to super-secret Int was highly unusual. Looking at it from Wiebke’s viewpoint, imagine being in your home country with friends and family one day, and then in a remote, rural area in another country almost 6,000 miles away the next day. Then she was held there under watch. She didn’t return to Germany for many years, if at all. The power that Miscavige had over the lives of others is mind boggling. True, people did not have to submit to that power. But I have come to know all too well that such obedience does happen in cults.

That move from Germany occurred in the summer of 1995. She and I became RPF twins, partly because her English wasn’t that good and I could speak German. Also, she had reached the level of “New OT 8” in her auditing and the level I had reached allowed me to audit her. For the next three years we proceeded through the RPF program. Many interesting things happened along the way, but I won’t go into those now.

Suddenly in mid-1998 there was a push to get Wiebke graduated and off the RPF. She and I were close to completing the whole program. We were rushed to get through some last steps. We put together our application to graduate and that got approved. We were pretty happy about it all. As we left Happy Valley, the guy in charge of the RPF, Chris Guider, took us to a movie in Hemet, which was unheard of. We watched Six Days Seven Nights, starring Harrison Ford and Anne Heche. It was only later that I found out why there had been a push to get us off the RPF and why we were taken to a movie. You see, Marc Yager and Ray Mithoff, who had been two of the top people in the world of Scientology, were going to the RPF. Yager had been Inspector General (IG) for Administration in RTC, right under David Miscavige, and then had been Commanding Officer of CMO Int for a some years. Mithoff had been IG Tech and Senior Case Supervisor International. The two of them had been instrumental in getting Wiebke to agree to go to Int and do the RPF.

Again, to me it was incredible that these two guys would be dealt with in this way. They were at the very top in all of Scientology and had been successful for about 20 years. Particularly Yager had been a close friend of Miscavige as they advanced up the ranks. Then, in some fit of rage or whim, they got banished to the RPF. They couldn’t even see their wives. In fact, Yager’s wife divorced him. They were scapegoats, having been blamed by Miscavige for something or other that he considered serious, something that probably Miscavige himself was responsible for. Yager and Mithoff accepted their fate, and spent two or three years doing the RPF program. They did complete the RPF and got posts back at Int, but some years later ended up in the infamous “Hole.”

It seems that, for some reason, Miscavige did not want Wiebke to see those two men on the RPF. They had for years been main speakers at the international events, four or five events per year, seen by almost all Scientologists in the world. They were the best-known senior executives in all of Scientology, after only David Miscavige himself. They were transported from the Int Base to Happy Valley while Wiebke and I were at the movie.

It was only after I left Scientology and got on the Internet that I understood why Wiebke was treated specially. For one, she was a well-known leader in the German-speaking areas, where there were several successful orgs. If she soured and ended up back in Germany as a declared suppressive person, the negative ramifications could be huge. More importantly, she was the reason behind one of the bigger PR nightmares for Scientology, caused in no small part by Miscavige himself. From the perspective of her family and many people in Hamburg and beyond, Wiebke simply disappeared. No one knew where she had gone.

Her brother started asking questions and eventually some German documentarians got involved. They started doing research and even hired a plane to fly over the RPF site at Happy Valley, getting footage of the tents and trailers where we lived and worked. I well remember us scattering for cover when that plane was flying overhead. From then on we were supposed to put down our work implements and calmly walk to a place out of view if a plane or helicopter was nearby. We were all supposed to keep an eye out and yell “Break time!” as a signal if a plane was overhead. That was kind of funny since we never got real breaks on the RPF, except for short periods to eat lunch and dinner.

A missing-person report was filed with the German police. Wiebke had to go to the German consulate in LA to let them know that she was all right. I had to drill her on how to talk to the authorities before she went. That documentary, “Missing in Happy Valley,” did come out, which was quite damaging to Scientology, especially in the German-speaking areas. Anyway, after we watched the Harrison Ford movie in town, Chris drove us to the base where we both got posts in Gold. One of the main divisions of Gold was called Cine, which was responsible for making films and other audio-visual products. Wiebke had been a fairly accomplished artist before she got into Scientology and so she was posted as a set painter. I got posted as a gaffer. As in Hollywood, a gaffer is one of the people involved in making movies, responsible for lighting and getting electrical power to the lights. I knew absolutely nothing about this when I started. But after three years on the RPF I was very relieved to be in Gold.

Having just completed my “rehabilitation,” I was determined to make good. I was going to work hard, follow the rules, and be a productive staff member. I wasn’t thinking about moving up to some higher post. I just wanted to show that I was an OK person and do what I could to advance the cause. My posting there coincided with the completion of “The Castle,” a newly constructed, very large building where Cine would be making films and promotional videos. It was situated at the west end of the base on the south side of the road. The staff in Cine were just moving in and setting up the various spaces for operation. It had two large studios with high ceilings, catwalks and rigging equipment overhead. There was a big area with an array of power tools for building sets and making props. There were areas for costumes, for makeup, for high-tech sound equipment and cameras, for a bunch of offices, plus other spaces and things I’m forgetting.

A lot of lights were needed to equip the studios. I quickly came to learn that there are many types and sizes of lights used in cinematography. The powers that be there at the base had acquired old, used lights. Considering how much was being spent to build and outfit the Castle, I would think that the amount saved by buying used lights, rather than new ones, was negligible by comparison. In any event, my first task was to deal with all these old lights. I was taken to an area outside the building where there were something like 30 or 40 of these lights lying in the dirt in a jumble. The idea was to paint them so they would look like new.

I started by trying to put them in order. There were some pallets around, which I laid out, putting similar lights together on them. Some of the lights were big, like two or three feet in diameter, some were maybe six inches wide, and there were various sizes in between. It was a hot summer and I was on the sunny side of the building for most of the day. Then I had to sand-blast them to remove the chipped and scratched paint. A machine to do so had been rented from a store in a nearby town, and bags of sand had been purchased. I poured sand into a hopper, which then was propelled through a hose and shot out a nozzle. After a couple of tries I got pretty good at getting the housings of the lights down to bare metal. This
went on for many days.

One day, when I had sand-blasted about half of the lights, Miscavige suddenly walked out the door with, as usual, an entourage in tow. I believe he was going around to see how the Castle was coming along. I stopped what I was doing and straightened up, facing him, so he could say what he wanted to say to me. He was generally referred to as COB, which stands for Chairman of the Board. No matter who you were on the base, when he approached, you gave him your undivided attention and hoped for the best. He was usually in a foul mood and had a short fuse.

He looked around at the lights. After a bit he said to me, “Is this your project?” “Yes, sir!” I replied. So far, so good. He seemed to think that what I was doing with the lights was OK. It was a good thing that I had taken the time to get the lights out of the dirt and place them neatly on pallets. He then went on to say that I should get some finer sand. He asked if I understood why that would be. I wasn’t sure. At that point he got just a bit impatient, but not bad. “Think about it, man!” he said, and went on to explain how the bare metal on the lights would then have smaller pits. “Yes, sir, I understand.”

He then turned and walked back in the door to continue his rounds, with his people following behind. Overall, he seemed pleased. I was relieved, as that encounter had gone pretty well. People on the base would say that they had “a good comm cycle with COB.” My conversation with him would fall into that category. There were plenty of “bad comm cycles with COB” that occurred on the base, usually with very unpleasant consequences.

I then went to my immediate supervisors and told them that I needed finer sand, as COB had ordered. Much to my surprise, they weren’t interested. I should just make do with the sand I had. I was feeling uneasy, as I certainly did not want to be in non-compliance with COB. If he were to find out, I would be in deep shit. I’m not sure, but possibly there weren’t options as to the kinds of sand one could get for use in that type of blaster. Nonetheless, I occurred to me that maybe Miscavige was right about staff being CI (counter-intentioned) and noncompliant, a common complaint of his. In retrospect, I view it differently. He actually was not the expert in all things like he seemed to think he was. Many of the people in Cine at that time had years of experience in such work. While I don’t know for sure what they were thinking, I can imagine that they understood that finer sand would not make a difference and that it would be a waste of time and resources to get some.

Besides my work on the cine lights, there were other activities that I, as a Gold staff member, participated in. These included “all-hands” to improve the grounds or set up for an event, cleaning and organizing out-of-the-way nooks and crannies that had been neglected (in case COB decided to walk through them), and communal meals. After being all day in the hot sun, it was a relief when we all got to go to dinner. All of the staff of Gold would eat together. I don’t remember exactly, but there were something like 300 or 400 people in that organization back then. Far fewer now. We ate in a large building called “MCI,” which stood for Massacre Canyon Inn. That had been the name of the place back when it was a resort. There were large rooms inside that could accommodate conventions or big celebrations, and it had a big kitchen. There is actually a narrow canyon just to the west of the property that runs from Gilman Springs Road into the hills that are immediately north of the base. Two tribes of Native Americans had a battle there once and it became known as Massacre Canyon.

After the meal there was always a muster. All the staff of Gold lined up, military style, by division. Everyone would be accounted for and then there would be announcements. During my time there, every evening right after the muster, everyone would gather together to sing. I kid you not. I never experienced anything like that in my 24 years in the Sea Org, except during those two weeks in Gold. You see, in 1986 a music album had been produced and put out to all of Scientology by senior management. It had been recorded in music studios at Gold using the Golden Era Musicians, who were good musically and included notables like keyboardist Peter Schless (who wrote the song “On the Wings of Love” with Jeffrey Osborne), Mike Ogletree (who was the drummer for Simple Minds for a time), and, of course, trumpeter Ron Miscavige Sr. (COB’s father). The songs on the album had been composed by Mr. Hubbard himself, and then arranged and produced into bland 80s-style pop music.

Some celebrities and near-celebrities were recruited to sing or play on some of the songs. These people included John Travolta, Julia Migenes (an opera singer), Michael Roberts, Frank Stallone (the brother of Sylvester Stallone — Frank had gotten involved in Scientology for a while but couldn’t receive auditing due to him being an illegal pc, having received some kind of treatment from psychs), Leif Garret (who didn’t stay in Scientology very long), Chick Corea, and Karen Black.

Anyway, one of the songs on that album was titled, “Make It Go Right.” L. Ron Hubbard had years earlier written in policy letters about making things go right, getting the job done regardless of any obstacles or difficulties that might arise. That phrase became a motto that all Scientologists are familiar with. That was the song we sang every evening, or at least the chorus of it. It went:

Make it go right,
That is the way,
Make it go right,
And win the day!

Not the greatest of lyrics in my opinion. It sounds like a song for children. I am pretty sure that this nightly singing was the result of an order from Miscavige. It had something to do with the power of aesthetics to get all these wayward Gold staff members to perform better on their jobs. There was a guy named Tom Ashworth, who had earlier been, I think, the Deputy Commanding Officer for Production of the Commodore’s Messenger Organization International (DCOP CMOI). Those titles sound so impressive! He was a good guy, who had been busted down to Gold at some point. He stood in front of the singers and directed us, complete with hand motions to set the tempo. Tom had had some kind of experience in music before he joined the Sea Org, as I recall, and so was chosen for that task. We were divided into two groups. One sang the first line, then the other sang the second line, the first group then sang the third line, and then everyone together sang the last line, as directed by Tom. It was a silly ritual that we were all forced to perform. We had to obediently submit to that quirky yet regular bit of control, one more part of our lives that were totally determined by insane rules and schedules and etiquette and repetitive actions.

Back to the Cine lights. One night while I was “on study” (working on a course up in the Gold Qualifications Division as part of my training), someone took one of the lights to a room inside the Castle and spray painted it in a maroon color. I didn’t know that was going to happen. Marc Headley was one of the guys involved and might have done the actual painting. This was a light that had been blasted with sand that was too coarse. It looked really good! So much for needing different sand. The next day, COB and some of his people walked through and saw the light, which I also knew nothing about. Evidently they liked how that light looked.

The next day, Greg Wilhere, who at the time was one of the top RTC executives, came up to me where I was working outside with the lights. He informed me that I would be going back to CMO Int, which is where I had worked prior to the RPF. This was almost unheard of. Most people would have to prove themselves in Gold for some time before being promoted to a post in one of the higher organizations, if they got promoted at all. Evidently, there was a plan for Sue Koon (ex-wife of Dan) to “re-compile” the technical bulletins for the famous “L Rundowns” (super-expensive auditing available only at the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater). An assistant was needed for her, and my case level (i.e., how high I had gone in my own auditing) made me qualified. It seems that I got the credit for that one cine light and was deemed to be dependable or something. I don’t know if COB thought I had done the spray painting or what.

Before long I was “routing into CMO Int.” Routing forms are a big deal in Scientology. Mr. Hubbard himself said everyone should use them. There are routing forms for everything, like getting sent to the Ethics department because you were late for study time, or going to the registrar to pay for more auditing, or getting sent to attest to the completion of a course, or returning from a mission, or a zillion other things. Following the form, you would go from one “terminal” (person with a particular job in the organization) to another, each one signing the form as you went. One person might get you entered into the payroll, another might get you set up at a desk, etc. In principal such forms could be useful, but their use got carried to extremes.

During my “routing in” process I attended a CMO Int muster for the first time in over three and a half years. It took place in the double-wide trailers that later became the Hole. The uniform of the day was whites, meaning we all dressed alike in white naval uniforms, even though we were out in the California desert. I had to try to dig up all those uniform parts, like a white, webbed belt with a brass buckle, and white leather shoes that needed a special white polish.

People commented about how tan I was — I had been working out in the sun everyday and the others attending that muster had been mainly sitting at desks. I was feeling very fortunate to be there after all that I had gone through. It seemed like a dream come true for me to be back in the unit I had worked in for eight years.

It meant that my stint in Gold lasted only two weeks. But my time back in CMO Int was even shorter. My routing form took me to a room in those double-wide trailers where I had to study binders and binders of the current organizational strategies and programs. After a couple of days of that, Miscavige came into that room and I “had a bad comm cycle with COB.” I have already written in detail in another essay about that fateful encounter, and its aftermath, so I won’t go into it here. In brief, my life blew up and I was soon back on the RPF, where I would remain for another three years. I don’t think those bulletins for the L Rundowns ever got re-compiled.

— Bruce Hines

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