What awaits you at the end of Scientology’s long, arduous journey

[Last time, Val Ross told us about working as a spy at the FBI after its raid on Scientology in 1977. She’s working on a subsequent installment in her tale, but in the meantime sent us this fascinating look at what she’s going through right now.]

Since 2013 I’ve been working with an attorney who is also a state legislator. In July 2020, at the height of Covid, I retired. After Covid, when the work picked up again in mid-2021, the attorney got a new assistant who worked really hard at running his business into the ground.

He came by my house in 2022 and asked me to please rescue him. I came back at an increased salary and decreased schedule. He had an assistant who was supposed to be getting groomed to be my replacement. However, it was obvious that his heart wasn’t in getting me replaced, and the new assistant wasn’t up to the task, so I found and hired a qualified person and trained her to take over the high paced high stress business. I am confident that this person, with hundreds of pages of instructions as well as some very intense one-on-one training will make the cut and I can actually re retire for real this time.

What does this have to do with Scientology?

It’s a stark contrast actually. When you leave a Scientology position, you are supposed to find and train your replacement. I did that in this case, but it wasn’t required. I did it because I actually cared about the baby I had built and didn’t want it to fail, and I wanted to make sure I left with the best possible all around feeling, on my terms.

Also, in Scientology, leaving is a secret, you don’t tell anyone because that would cause upset. You’re supposed to just disappear and your new replacement is there. How that doesn’t cause upset is a mystery to me.

As for retirement in the Scientology world, there is no such prospect for staff or Sea Org members. Back in the day, a staff member who was too old to be of use was simply offloaded to family, if any existed, if not they were unceremoniously kicked to the curb.

These days, it is my understanding that this is no longer done, now they are hidden in a nursing home where their non-Scientology family is not allowed to visit them if they do manage to figure out where they are. They die alone with strangers. Scientology does its best to hide the fact that this person has died. Annie Broeker died in June 2011. Even her sisters who were looking for her were not told of her death. Heber Jentzsch is rumored to be in a nursing home.

What a sad lonely isolated life. They gave all day and all night of their entire life to what they were told was the noble goal of saving the planet, yet at the end of their lives, when they deserve to rest, when they deserve praise and accolades for a job well done, they are hidden and isolated and they die in what Scientology considers ignominy.

Here I’ve not only told my treasured clients I’m leaving but some of them have my contact information to keep in touch with me outside of work. I’ve received flowers and other well wishes and cried as I said goodbye to some clients I’ve worked closely with all these years. I’ve gotten to hear what a difference I made in their lives at a very hard time for them.

Another huge difference is the client data dump. I have told my replacement about which clients have lost a child or a spouse recently. We treat our clients with respect. That’s something that doesn’t happen in Scientology.

There are clients who are deeply embarrassed that they come to us. That is understandable. We listen to them and do what we can, if possible, to help them. Scientology, which claims to be saving the world, treats everyone as a pocketbook. They do not want to hear who you are or what your fears are. When taking over a new post as a Scientologist, you are not told about your co-workers’ quirks, or which clients need TLC. You are taught the relevant policy for your post. You are taught that you must always be on task, that there is no time in the world for Dev-T (Developed and Unnecessary Traffic) or misemotion.

I beg to differ. You need the time to treat people as people. If not, it’s a bleak world.

I am able to tell my replacement about the candy bowl and what candy each client and the boss (with ordering links) likes. I can tell her about the stickers and multi colored pens and rainbow pencils) I have in my purse to give to clients’ children so they have their own paperwork to do while their parents fill out theirs.

As I have been phasing out, if a client asks to speak to me, I put them on speaker so the new girl can listen in and learn how to answer the questions. One client was thanking me for what I did and the gift I gave their daughter. My replacement said “Gifts? You didn’t tell me I got to give gifts! That’s my favorite thing.” I knew then I had chosen the right replacement.

I’m not going to disappear. I am not going to hide away in a nursing home. I have no plans to channel surf in a darkened living room. My cameras and my pickleball gear are
ready to go. The travel trailer is going to be our home away from home. We will stay connected via Starlink, though we will sometimes choose to go off grid on purpose. The canoe will get a workout, I will spend time with friends and relatives. I will enjoy this new phase of my life because I’ve been working at one job or the other now for 55 years. It’s someone else’s turn.

But contrary to Scientology preaching that you have to isolate yourself to save the planet, I disagree. It’s not hard to make the world a better place. You don’t do it by hiding people from the ones they love. You don’t do it by forcing them to do repetitive busywork day in and day out until their mind and body give in. You do it one kindness at a time.

— Valerie Ross

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