Patty Moher has become a wonderful addition to our weekly podcast, Group Therapy. And we’re so glad she’s sharing these amazing tales from her past.
Back in the summer of 2007, a woman I knew, Patricia Greenway, contacted me about speaking at the APA (American Psychiatric Association) annual convention in New Orleans.
Patricia, a well-known Scientology critic at that time, had a friend who worked at the APA and asked her to put together a group of people who could provide a good presentation.
The presenters were:
— Peter Alexander, an OT 7 ex-Scientologist who was also a Scientology celeb of sorts, formerly the Senior VP at Universal Studios.
— Dr. Dave Touretzky, a research professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University, truly the OG when it comes to Scientology critics.
— Me. 27 years in the cult, 7 years out, and still pissed off about it.
The deal was that we would all personally cover the costs of travel, food, and hotel, and the APA would provide us with an honorarium of $600.00.
This symposium was an invite-only, hush-hush affair. Two representatives from each state were asked to attend. One from the state’s legal department and one from the state’s PR dept. All psychiatrists.
There were maybe 120 people altogether, and security was tight! There was no mention of this event in the written program, which listed the time and place of all the different symposia that were taking place.
The woman running the convention truly needed some Xanax as she was all freaked out about the Scientologists infiltrating the convention. She said it had happened in the past and she has guards outside to check IDs.
At the time, I thought, “Damn, lady, let them in and give them a seat. Maybe they will learn a thing or two.” But, nah, that would have just made her even more anxious.
Peter, Dave, and I discussed what parts of Scientology we were going to discuss so we didn’t have any overlap.
Peter went first. He’s tall and handsome and a very good speaker. He talked about moving up the Scientology “Bridge,” the indoctrination, the money spent, and how it destroyed his family when he left. Peter is also the first person who told me the story of how, when he was protesting the cult in Clearwater, one of the OSA agents quietly mentioned his “PC Folder” data to him.
A PC folder is where all the written confessions and problems you’ve discussed with your auditor/minister are kept, and are supposed to be 100 percent confidential.
I kept an eye on the audience while Peter was talking, and it became pretty evident that this crowd had no idea what Scientology was about.
I was next. When I got up to speak, I took a breath and took it all in.
There I was, in front of over 100 psychiatrists, giving a talk about Scientology, with a thousand thoughts all rushing through my head. I took it all in and thought, girl, you’ve come a long way.
I did this really neat PowerPoint presentation with all that really crazy Hubbard conspiracy theories about the evil psych now and on the whole track. I gave a history about it, and I explained that Scientologists are terrified of the psychs and will do everything they can to avoid ever having to see or deal with a psych.
I went into the entire evil psych mythology and how behind every attack on Scientology, you will “find a psych connection.” I explained that Scientology claims to be exposing and taking out the psychs, and looking at the faces of these people, I can only say they were very surprised at the information.
After my talk, Dr. Dave was up.
Dave’s a CMU professor, and he held class. His PowerPoint was, in fact, powerful. His lecture on Scientology was not like anything I had experienced before. He explained CCHR and Hubbard’s desire to annihilate psychiatry, and talked about Scientology “ethics,” the PTS SP tech, and more, all from his perspective. It was fabulous.
After that, there was a Q&A that went on for quite a while.
And to top it off, I have a copy of the check that the American Psychiatric Association paid me.
When it arrived in the mail, I was filled with joy. I had come a long way from the insanity known as Scientology.
Plus, I can add the very suppressive achievement of “Paid by the Evil Psychs.”
— Patty Moher
Bonus items from our tipsters
22.0 on the Tone Scale is “Games”…
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And all this time I thought being paid by the evil psychs was just a rumor scientology started. Patty, I’m flabbergasted that you have not been awarded your own hate page. It’s unspeakable. /s
That's so incredible Patty, and Dave and Peter!
Makes you all SPs of the highest powers ever!