Val Ross: Stopping Scientology’s plans for a vault in Wyoming, and the future

[A drone shot of the interrupted vault construction at Sweeney Ranch.]

I had left Utah in the dust and I was living a good life in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming. My children had moved out years earlier. My daughter was in Chicago at the time, my son had graduated from college and was working at Morgan Stanley. He had married and divorced and was sharing custody of his two children — a daughter and a son who looked remarkably like my two children — in a wonderfully civilized manner with his ex-wife.

I continued to live my life as though Scientology had never been a part of it. I did not mention the word to anyone I met, nor did I care what was happening with Scientology. I had no clue Scientology was attempting to infest Wyoming near where I lived.

On April 1, 2011 my past and present collided. I came home from work to a message on our answering machine from Kendra in Scientology. My reaction? Terror. The phone was not listed in my name, and the house was not in my name at that time. They had managed to track me down. I returned the initial call and responded the way a Scientologist would expect me to. All I said was “leave me the fuck alone.” Any Scientologist worth their salt takes that to mean “stalk me to the ends of the earth.”

Kendra called back, I told her I was busy, it was tax season. It was, and I had half a dozen returns to do for friends and family, but that was a day or two worth of work. She asked to send me a CD. I told her that if I received one, she would get it back unopened.

That bought me two weeks to independently research Scientology, to discover what had happened since I stopped caring about anything that was going on in that world.

I started my research. I was not surprised to learn that L. Ron Hubbard had died, it was to be expected after that long, but was absolutely appalled to discover that David Miscavige was leading Scientology. The Broekers taking over would not have made me blink, several other high ranking officials either, but when I read that Miscavige was in charge, I had to check to be sure I wasn’t reading a parody. Then I was just thrilled I had left before that punk took over. I was thinking that all ex-Scientologists were being called because something big or bad had gone down if he was in charge, I just didn’t know what.

When I started my research, I still wanted Scientology to be what it was promised to be all those years before. I had spent a lot of time blaming myself for not doing things right or not understanding “the tech.” Now, more than 25 years later, I was taking the time and effort to understand that had it never been me not getting it, it was all about the fact that Scientology didn’t make sense. What had been promised me was not what was true and never had been.

I read Russell Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah, John Atack’s A Piece of Blue Sky, and then Marc Headley’s Blown for Good in rapid succession. Each book built on the other breaking down any lingering belief that there was anything good to be found in Scientology. Nor was there anything real about the lies I had believed all those years about the founder. Miller broke down the fable of the man Hubbard claimed to be, exposing the lies he preached as the gospel of his life. Atack built on that, and then showed just how flimsy the “tech” was and how it really wasn’t researched or technology, just a fake religion. Marc’s book showed me that the abuse continued to exist and people were not getting better.

The depth of the brainwashing I had endured just flabbergasted me. I only spent a fraction of my life in Scientology and it once again struck me that there were pieces of brain shrapnel from that period embedded in places that snuck up on me. It is the most insidious form of torture possible because it is couched as spiritual healing.

After reading all three of those books, going down the Wollersheim rabbit hole, learning about Lisa McPherson, discovering that my ex-mother-in-law had sued Scientology, and discovered the Scientology enemies list with Mark’s name on it, I was armed with information and ready for the call that came in as expected on April 16.

I let Kendra talk first, just to see what she had to say. The first thing she did was read me the ten points of Keeping Scientology Working. Then she asked me if that indicated. I laughed and said “KSW? Why should it?” She kept reading the script which included that I was Clear. Yeah, I said, that happened over 30 years ago. Then she started to try to talk to me about the need to redo Clear. I asked her where she was from before she got into Sea Org. Wham! Wyoming, that’s why she was calling me.

I told her I had zero interest in Scientology and to leave me alone. She asked if she could send me a CD. I told her I refused to receive a CD from her and would not allow anything from Scientology to come near my computer, because I wasn’t fond of “net nannies.” Then I asked her if she missed Wyoming. She sounded wistful, but guiltily got back on script. She told me about the Basics and how they had corrected all the Hubbard writings and now they were correct. I asked her how she could read Keeping Scientology Working about never changing a word LRH had written and then tell me that LRH documents had been altered in the same call without getting confused. I told her I knew she was doing as ordered, but I wasn’t going to spend any time or money on anything to do with Scientology, she was wasting her time. We ended the call cordially.

Then the letters started. They were addressed to me with the last name I had when married to Mark at my current address with an apartment number from when I lived in Salt Lake. I knew then that Scientology was buying their address lists from Amex, because they were the only ones who had messed up my address like that and it had taken four years to correct it in their system.

For the first three months I ignored the two to three calls a day from various people and wrote “RETURN TO STALKER” on all mail sent to me. They didn’t get the hint, so I started printing out the Lisa McPherson story and including autopsy photos using their return envelopes to send it, with no return address. I would get a call from Kendra every Sunday like clockwork. I would answer only those because I felt like she needed to talk. I’d tell her she was still wasting her time, come on home to Wyoming, her family missed her. I was always nice to her.

I had by then told my husband and a few close friends about my time in Scientology. This part should make all readers of this blog smile. My husband, bless his heart, wanted to know if there was a way we could help get Kendra out of there. “Do you think she’s OK?” he would keep asking.

And then, six months later, after hundreds of letters and calls, my Sunday call didn’t come from Kendra. It came from Larry Jacobs calling from Kendra’s number. Now that was a name I recognized! If you haven’t read Blown For Good, you should, and if you have, you can refresh your memory in Chapter 29. Larry Jacobs was the video director for the infamous Tom Cruise IAS Freedom Medal video. He blew and security then called Marc to try to get him to break into Larry’s password-protected laptop. I had hit pay dirt with this call.

I decided I was going to play this one out to the end. I started out slowly, asking where Kendra was. He said she hadn’t come in yet. I asked if this call was being recorded. He said “……. Uh … no…..” I said “nice comm lag.” Comm lag is Scientology-speak meaning your communication was too slow, also a tell for any trained Scientologist that something was being withheld. He said “well, it isn’t.” I said “well, I’m recording you so at least one of us is telling the truth.” Then I asked him what he thought of David Miscavige as the leader of Scientology. He said “he is the kindest, most benevolent man…” I started laughing. “OMG they make you Chinese School Tom Cruise’s Freedom Medal speech?” He said “well, it’s true.” I responded “I’ve met the man.”

I asked him flat out why he felt he had the right to call and send me letters nonstop when I had expressly stated I wanted no contact. He said “if a PC has left session, and you know something is unflat and you have to flatten it.” Translated that means if someone left counseling angry they need to fix the problem. I said “So you wait almost thirty years to do it?” I then went on to ask him just what he was trying to flatten, what it was he knew about me that needed to be fixed. He said “you’re Clear and….” I said “OT V,” I interrupted, “but you won’t find my folders anywhere, what class of an auditor am I?” He said “I don’t know.”

I let him know he wouldn’t find any information related to what I had done in Sea Org, what admin training I had, where I spent time after I left my post in Sea Org or what I was doing, so it seemed rather inappropriate for him to think he could fix me when he had no clue how long I was in Scientology, what I did or when I left. Then I said, “I know more about you than you do about me.” He asked what I meant.

I said “remember just before that IAS event for the Tom Cruise Freedom Medal when you blew and they were scrambling for the password to your laptop? I don’t know where you went, but I know you blew.” He said “I didn’t blow.” I said “Then why didn’t they just go to the RPF or wherever you were and get your password from you?” He replied “I don’t know.”

By then it was getting tiresome so I concluded, “here’s the deal, I’m over this. If you guys want to keep calling and mailing, keep it up, but for every letter I receive, every phone call I get from Scientology, I will find a blog that exposes Scientology and donate $5.00. But Scientology will never ever get a penny out of me.” He said “well it’s obvious that you are using the Internet so I’m just going to have you blacklisted.” There was a minute of typing and he said “OK, you’re blacklisted.” I said “Thank You!” And hung up. Thats all it took. Not a single call or letter since. FWIW I know Kendra didn’t come in that day and that she is no longer in Scientology and where she is now. So far, the score for trying to recover me -1.

I then started delving into Scientology-related happenings in more detail. I discovered that in the summer of 2008, construction had begun at the Wyoming Church of Spiritual Technology site where new vaults were planned. No permits were obtained prior to construction, they just jumped in and began destroying our landscape, trashing access roads and land that wasn’t even owned by them as well as obliterating years of growth on the Sweeney Ranch property. When approached, the attorney for ISGS, the construction company, said that everything they were doing was appropriate for the zoning and didn’t require permits. Sling-loads of material and conexes had been choppered in after dark and massive work lights were erected. The land all this construction was occurring on was zoned agricultural, there are strict limitations on the size and type of buildings that can be erected, the amount of land that can be cleared, etc.

My research of the property ownership records showed that CST didn’t own the entirety of the property they had taken over, 2 percent of it right in the middle of the property was not owned by them. That is true to this day. They have not been able to take ownership of 2 percent of the land in that Sweeny Ranch area. That didn’t stop them from occupying it.

The neighbors were up in arms because of the noise, lights all night long, equipment and helicopter noises putting their livestock off their feed etc. Stop-work orders had been issued and ignored. By the time I actually paid attention to what was going on, there were large piles of rebar, dozens of conex trailers and other construction related items and heavy equipment littering the property and the work was in full swing.

I contacted the sheriff, a friend of mine, and told him he didn’t know what he was up against. I spent the better part of two days sitting down and talking to anyone who was interested about what Scientology was and how to deal with them, this included attorneys in this area who represented Scientology entities. I suggested they expect them to lie, not tell the truth.

The sheriff’s office then scheduled a site visit. I went with them. We found lots of construction materials still there, but of course on the day of the visit, the equipment was idle. There was a large disturbed area further back. I told them I was pretty sure there would be underground excavation there. The people giving us the tour of the property denied it. The sheriffs didn’t believe them and moved aside the equipment blocking that area aside to expose a huge underground excavation. It took three site visits before they began backfilling the cavern they had created. Then they began hauling out all the material and equipment that had been stockpiled on there.

By 2014, CST began petitioning the county to allow a windmill farm to be erected in the middle of that property, which was surrounded by cattle ranches. There were half a dozen county commission meetings, well attended by dozens of dissenting locals, and that plan was shut down. In the 2010 census, Sweeney ranch was a census-designated area with 17 occupants. By 2020, even the caretaker house had been abandoned. Today that land, though still owned by CST, is leased to neighboring ranchers for grazing.

In other areas of my life, I was gradually starting to talk more about Scientology. By 2012, I had connected with a few exes and decided to start telling people about my experiences. I began posting my story in short pieces over a 3-4 week period on Operation Clambake message board. It was disjointed at best, and I was trying to spew it out quickly and get it over. It backfired spectacularly.

Someone at ESMB read it and directed people from ESMB to it. The people at ESMB began an attack thread on their site, doubting everything including the town I came from, saying I hadn’t been raped, speculating I had maybe been in Sea Org, maybe I was telling someone else’s story or just trying to get attention, saying I was a disgrace for pretending to be a sexual assault victim when I wasn’t. They decided I was still married to Mark, had never divorced, and had Stockholm Syndrome because I got upset when I got directed to the thread by a message at OCMB and told them to quit posting things about my ex which my children could see and to leave my children out of it.

Someone at ESMB decided they knew my username at ESMB and sent “me” a message telling “me” my home address and phone number. However the person who received that message was not me. Mark Plummer recognized who I was and began defending me as did one of my ex-BC students. The other piranhas at ESMB attempted to tell those two they were wrong for defending me. The person at ESMB who had sent some random person my name and home phone number, not having gotten a response from that person, then messaged me on OCMB and told me what she had written to “me” at ESMB. I let her know I was unhappy that she had given an unknown stranger my personal information. She then gave me a link to the vitriol on ESMB.

By this time, it was out of control. Links to things that had nothing to do with me, with the last name I hadn’t gone by since 2006 were starting to show up in the thread. According to someone at ESMB someone with the name I had when I was married to Mark was living in Florida, so that was me and I was probably an OSA plant. They were posting my ex-husband’s arrest record at a time when my children hadn’t even been made aware if it. I called people out on that site and let them know that their cruelty was the very reason more people weren’t speaking out. I went to OCMB and replaced every post there with an x. Some people, including the person who had shared my personal information, sent me private messages as though I was their friend, asking me to restore what I had written and keep talking. Um, no.

But over at ESMB others were hell bent on making sure I was obliterated. One of the people was an admin on that site, which disgusted me. He came on my Facebook and told people where I lived, so I deleted my Facebook profile and didn’t get a new one until 2015. After that, my attorney contacted the admins on ESMB with a cease and desist. Some of the more personal information was taken down from the thread and finally the attacks ceased although the thread is still there. I didn’t ever post on either site again.

During 2012-2013, I had a series of medical problems; a DVT, heart surgery related to damage done by childhood rheumatic fever which finally needed to be addressed, and a severely broken foot that required three surgeries to get it semi-functional again. I also spent a lot of that time working on getting the pieces of my brain back in place. It is beyond comprehension that Hubbard would even pretend to know how to fix the mind, to know about mental health. As I was meshing my past with my present, it became obvious to me that the mind is capable of so many things. For all those years, I had kept an entire portion of my life not only hidden from others, but effectively hidden from myself as well.

I read blogs and occasionally commented but backed off commenting for long periods too. I gingerly came back on Facebook in 2015, but didn’t even seek out any Scientology-related groups until, I think 2018. I was semi-active commenting on Mike’s and Tony’s sites and very active behind the scenes helping to slow or stop Scientology, sharing info with people as I could. But after my run in with the piranhas at ESMB, I vowed never to go public with my story.

As for the people who attacked me at ESMB. I hope you believe me now. If not, I don’t care. I’m glad I went public with what happened to me and was able to have a safe place to actually tell what I went through. Scientology is hard on people. It’s messy getting out and it’s messy getting on with life. People want to believe something so they grab for any idea they can when their entire belief system has collapsed under them. I hope each person who has had a messy leaving ends up in a safe place in the end. To those of you who attacked me at ESMB, if you are reading this, I understand that Scientology really does a number on your head. I hope you have had the chance to unlearn the anger and distrust that Scientology trained into you and have found your peace. I have found mine.

In early 2022, I knew I needed to get off Facebook for mental health reasons. But I didn’t want to leave a trail. I laboriously went back to every post I had made on my personal timeline, downloaded them by date to my external hard drive then deleted them. In July 2022 I deleted myself from Facebook. I am only on Instagram and Snapchat, with a small following on Snap and about 100 followers on Insta.

As I continued to read blogs, I began to see that history was just going to keep repeating itself in Scientology. I saw that Danny Masterson was going to be prosecuted for rape. I sat in the background and watched and commented on the Masterson trial from Substack only. The mistrial was devastating to me, it was like someone had personally done me wrong. Then those brave girls rose from the ashes and went after him again. That was amazing, and when the trial ended the way it did, I realized that I needed to stop being a spectator, stop feeling sorry for myself. It was time to face the fact that my vow of silence was harming me. That first piece I sent to Tony just testing the water, the one Tony asked me to expand on it a little, add some of my Scientology history, almost didn’t happen. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through it again. But then I took a deep breath and started to talk and it has led to me saying all of this. There are so many stories I haven’t told, but they are all just stories of auditing I had, celebrity events I catered, they are all peripheral to the main story and if there’s room, they may show up in a book I hope to write soon.

I’m not sorry I have spoken out. I hope other people who have left understand that their voice is important too. I thought mine wasn’t, but the more I wrote, the more back channel messages I got, the more I understood that the Scientology omertà has got to be broken. It is not my place to keep Scientology’s secrets. I owe them nothing, I’m lucky I escaped with my life.

The life that I escaped with, the one I’m living now, well, believe it or not, I still tend to believe the best in everyone. This means there have been a few times when someone I thought I could trust has stabbed me in the back so hard the sword came out the front. But I’ve learned that I can’t assume everyone is like that. And I’ve learned that I can’t stop myself from caring about the next person who comes along. It worries my husband because he hates seeing me hurt, but he knows he can’t change me. How wonderful is it that I am now married to a man who instead of wanting to hurt me hates seeing me hurt?

J.K. Simmons said in his Oscars speech: “And if I may, call your mom, everybody. I’ve told this [to], like, a billion people, or so. Call your mom, call your dad. If you’re lucky enough to have a parent or two alive on this planet, call ‘em. Don’t text. Don’t email. Call them on the phone. Tell ‘em you love ‘em, and thank them, and listen to them for as long as they want to talk to you.” As long as Scientology has ruined even that simple statement for some of the people reading this, how is it possible to just sit back and say, meh, not my problem?

I am not going to stay silent. You will hear from me again. Had Scientology not tried to recover me, the chances are that I would never have said a word for the rest of my life to anyone about Scientology and the harm it had caused me. Now my dentist, my doctor, my mailman, everyone from the family reunion, anyone who will listen to me knows I was in and knows to stay away. I know from talking to them that each time I write something else, they share it with others and they discuss it among themselves. They take to heart what it is and has always been to associate with Scientology and know to stay away.

In a recent podcast episode, Tony, referring to the Scientology’s attempts to recover people said “I don’t know, it must work, they keep doing it.” Well maybe in their tiny bubble they believe that if one out of every hundred people they call comes back in, it’s worth it. What they do not think to track is the 99 who said no. I’m one of the ones who said no. Scientology’s relentless six month campaign to recover me caused one person to blow, hastened the demise of their Wyoming project, and forced me to speak out against them just to get them to leave me alone. I don’t know the reach of Tony’s blog, but I know I personally have shared my story with hundreds as it has unfolded and most of those those hundreds had never heard of Scientology but will now never go near it.

I hope other people reading this who have left Scientology will take the chance to feel what it’s like to unburden themselves of the secrets Scientology insisted they keep. It’s time for this to be over.

— Valerie Ross

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