This is important to know: A lot of what I’m telling here is because I did something most people in my position didn’t do — I never stopped writing letters home.
I was only making $5.50 an hour as a full Electronic Engineer that year. Started five years earlier at $3.65. Candy bars were $.35. When I started in the Sea Org two years later our allowance was $17.20 per week. Inflation.
On the other hand, you could make 9% on a CD if you held it for 5 years. A regular checking account made 5% interest. Buying a house was an impossible dream for almost everyone. I was living in a rat-bag studio apartment on Bush Street in San Francisco for $165 per month. Should have bought gold.
I did buy a nice Nikon F2AS that sold for almost its buy price 25 years later. I had some of those massive lenses too, and a full slide duplication setup. Gold Security threw it all in the dumpster one time when I was away working at an event, but Dumpster Diver Leroy rescued it. (Byron Turner was Leroy's real name, he played one of the PCs in the original TR4 "The Professional TR Course". The one who says "I've never been able to understand a single thing you've said! to Dan Koon)
So much secrecy about this Guardian Office crime. Thank you Val for shedding some light on a criminal activity that will forever stain Scientology’s history..
Regarding your husband. The fact is that almost none of Scientology auditing therapy or training wisdoms actually work because it’s based on Hubbard’s half baked plagiarism of earlier mental health therapies.
So Mark’s serious mental disabilities were not handled, although I’m sure he thought he was “just fine”. Scientology does not address the issues they promise to handle. So those issues they had before joining Scientology are still there. As a result members are dangerous because they think they are sane when they are brainwashed. Their issues are papered over until they leave and recognize they have much personal work to do. Great article Val.
Wonderful writing Val. Your undercover work was illegal but as nothing has happened in all these years, you get off 'scot free'. I sort of want to track down 'Mark' and kick his ass. Hitting your wife under almost all circumstances is just so despicable that I want to 'teach him a lesson'. Hitting a pregnant woman is beyond despicable. As Val got out and found a good husband in the future, I'll just let Mark slide.
I turned myself in to the FBI, told them what I did. This was in 2012 just before my heart surgery. They thanked me for my time and told me to get on with my life. “Scot free” is a relative term, I lived looking over my shoulders a lot of years, it felt good to get therapy and tell the truth.
As for Mark, according to my son who still has a relationship with his father, he has had 11 stents, and has had 3 strokes. He and his wife resent each other and spend all day every day stuck in a house they can’t leave. He can’t walk across the room even on oxygen without having to sit down. Some of children see him on holidays and his birthday for an hour or two. He has his groceries delivered. They don’t even dare call an ambulance because “everyone is out to get them”. One of the kids who still speak to them has to take them to the hospital. No, they don’t do what the doctor says afterwards and don’t do follow-ups. That would entail leaving the house. He has grandchildren he has never met. They have an estate in Bali they haven’t been able to go to for 6 years. I find that poetic justice. Let him live a hellish life to see how it feels, but I’m in no way to blame so I don’t have to care.
Val, if you ever write a book, I'll read it!!! Exquisite details and I can't wait to hear how you left Mark, hopefully in a ditch somewhere. Thank you for all your articles, you are amazing. 💜
What an amazing story.
I was only making $5.50 an hour as a full Electronic Engineer that year. Started five years earlier at $3.65. Candy bars were $.35. When I started in the Sea Org two years later our allowance was $17.20 per week. Inflation.
On the other hand, you could make 9% on a CD if you held it for 5 years. A regular checking account made 5% interest. Buying a house was an impossible dream for almost everyone. I was living in a rat-bag studio apartment on Bush Street in San Francisco for $165 per month. Should have bought gold.
I did buy a nice Nikon F2AS that sold for almost its buy price 25 years later. I had some of those massive lenses too, and a full slide duplication setup. Gold Security threw it all in the dumpster one time when I was away working at an event, but Dumpster Diver Leroy rescued it. (Byron Turner was Leroy's real name, he played one of the PCs in the original TR4 "The Professional TR Course". The one who says "I've never been able to understand a single thing you've said! to Dan Koon)
Thanks for sharing, Val.
So much secrecy about this Guardian Office crime. Thank you Val for shedding some light on a criminal activity that will forever stain Scientology’s history..
Regarding your husband. The fact is that almost none of Scientology auditing therapy or training wisdoms actually work because it’s based on Hubbard’s half baked plagiarism of earlier mental health therapies.
So Mark’s serious mental disabilities were not handled, although I’m sure he thought he was “just fine”. Scientology does not address the issues they promise to handle. So those issues they had before joining Scientology are still there. As a result members are dangerous because they think they are sane when they are brainwashed. Their issues are papered over until they leave and recognize they have much personal work to do. Great article Val.
I feel certain Mark is or was a narcissist.
Verity, from my observations and personal experience it is a fact that Scientology encourages and breeds narcissism.
Wonderful writing Val. Your undercover work was illegal but as nothing has happened in all these years, you get off 'scot free'. I sort of want to track down 'Mark' and kick his ass. Hitting your wife under almost all circumstances is just so despicable that I want to 'teach him a lesson'. Hitting a pregnant woman is beyond despicable. As Val got out and found a good husband in the future, I'll just let Mark slide.
I turned myself in to the FBI, told them what I did. This was in 2012 just before my heart surgery. They thanked me for my time and told me to get on with my life. “Scot free” is a relative term, I lived looking over my shoulders a lot of years, it felt good to get therapy and tell the truth.
As for Mark, according to my son who still has a relationship with his father, he has had 11 stents, and has had 3 strokes. He and his wife resent each other and spend all day every day stuck in a house they can’t leave. He can’t walk across the room even on oxygen without having to sit down. Some of children see him on holidays and his birthday for an hour or two. He has his groceries delivered. They don’t even dare call an ambulance because “everyone is out to get them”. One of the kids who still speak to them has to take them to the hospital. No, they don’t do what the doctor says afterwards and don’t do follow-ups. That would entail leaving the house. He has grandchildren he has never met. They have an estate in Bali they haven’t been able to go to for 6 years. I find that poetic justice. Let him live a hellish life to see how it feels, but I’m in no way to blame so I don’t have to care.
Val, if you ever write a book, I'll read it!!! Exquisite details and I can't wait to hear how you left Mark, hopefully in a ditch somewhere. Thank you for all your articles, you are amazing. 💜
Great article, Val. So glad you are out and happy.
Take note that Mary Sue didn’t immediately order Val to quit FBI.
MSH deserved her jail time. And Hubbard himself doubly deserved to have been nailed and sent also but he let MSH take the fall.
Hubbard was a creep.
Val I’m sure some publication would take a story of your FBI infiltration and the story deserves wider coverage.