My name is Sydney Osborne. I got in Scientology at the Denver Org in 1989 and was on staff as a sup and Director of Training from 1990-2002. I was on Mace-Kingsley Family Center staff (Scn field group) from 2004-2008 starting in Div 2, and later becoming the OES. I’ve posted on this blog a few times as XclassVStaff.
I’ve known and worked with a lot of wonderful people in Scientology.
The Church of Scientology continues to deny practicing disconnection, states there is no pressure from the church, and that it’s voluntary on the part of its parishioners. I’d like to share my own recent experiences with this to illustrate the fallacy of this assertion.
On 19 Nov 2013, I received a letter in the mail from the FLB (Flag Land Base) Justice Chief informing me I’d been declared (not an actual declare, mind you, just a letter telling me a declare had been issued). Enclosed was a copy of the A to E reference highlighting the points I’d been found “demonstrably guilty of.”
Prior to this I received no Knowledge Reports, no summons by Ethics, no notice of a Committee of Evidence being held. In short, no communication whatsoever from the Church of Scientology. Incidentally, this violates the church’s own jurisprudence policies.
My significant other and I live in Tennessee, and planned to visit Denver over Thanksgiving and see friends who are still in the church.
On 21 Nov, I learned from some Denver friends that the local DSA’s office was calling public informing them I’d been declared and thus they needed to disconnect from me. I’d been in contact with some friends I hadn’t seen in years. They’d invited us to stay with them a few nights in Denver and we were all eagerly anticipating some quality friend time. But now that I’d been declared, our friends had no choice but to take back their invitation. They have family in the church, some on staff, and were worried about ethics repercussions, including family disconnecting from them if they visited with us.
Several friends expressed their own disagreements with the church, but said due to how entrenched the church is with their lives and their businesses they would have to disconnect from me. A few said they would have to un-friend me publicly, but that they would still be my friend as long as the church didn’t know about it. And fewer still said they would remain my friend and not allow the church to dictate to them about it.
I understand where they are coming from. I remember being in their shoes, when I also disconnected from people I cared about. And when I did it, I thought it was the right thing to do, or at least the lesser evil.
It was no secret I had disagreements with church management over the last many years. I voiced these things in KR’s, crams and vocally in the church. I tried to keep it on “correct” church lines. But it became clear that the outpoints I saw were only growing and not being fixed. I decided to maintain two separate FB accounts – one with Scientologists active in the church and one with all of my other friends, including many ex-Scientologists or Indies. I did this, not only for me, but for my Scn friends. I didn’t want to give them the problem of having to disconnect from me. And despite my disagreements, I didn’t want to lose touch with so many people I cared about, some for twenty plus years. So I had been sort of keeping a toe dipped in church waters.
During my staff tenure from 1990-2002, I was a course supervisor and Dir Training. I loved being a supervisor. Along with many of my fellow staff, I set aside my first and second dynamics and dedicated myself to helping people go up the Bridge and to achieving the Aims of Scientology . I often worked a full full time schedule, meaning 7 days a week, for the full hours the org was open – M-F 9am to 11pm or later, and on weekends 9:30am to 6:30pm or later. Training students was a labor of love for me, and in some ways my students were like the children I would never have. Since none of the rest of my family were in Scientology, my students and fellow staff were my family. Obviously, I didn’t want to be disconnected from them. So I’ve mostly laid low publicly about my disagreements, posting only a few times on this forum anonymously. Until now. (Here’s looking at you Justice Chief FLB :} )
Over the next few weeks as word of my declare spread, more and more of my Scn family disconnected. All of this without ever knowing what I had allegedly been found guilty of. I still don’t know. Most of these simply un-friended me on FB with no communication at all. I rarely used my Scn FB account, so I can’t tell you exactly how many Scn friends I had before the un-friending began, but it was in the 150-170 range. As soon as I realized I’d been declared I went on FB and saw I’d been un-friended by many already.
This is from 20 Nov where you can see I had 125 FB friends:
A few days later, I installed a plug-in called who-deleted-me to track my friend attrition. Here are some screenshots so you can see the downward trend of friends in my Scn account.
This shows 22 Nov through 22 Dec:
And 18 Dec through 17 Jan.
Since then, it’s been flatlined at 73. However, I suspect that will change after this post. 🙂
Here are some comments received from friends who did give some communication after my declare and then disconnected:
“So I probably have to Un friend you on Facebook. But I don’t mean it”
“I guess I gotta say goodbye Syd….”
“I love you-”
“You understand that this will be the last comm I send to you at this point. I’d love to hear from you again whenever you get back in the group.”
“I am not going to call and at this point this will, with much sadness, be my last comm with you until such time as things resolve to the point where we can be in comm again.”
“I suggest you handle any ARC breaks you may have or clear any MUs you may have or get your OWs written up.”
“And if at any time the declare is rescinded, if you are not too ARCX with me for not staying in touch, please do then get back in touch with me.”
“I will sadly have to unfriend u on stupid fb.”
Never have I felt so fortunate none of my family are church members and that my business is not dependent upon Scientologists. Thankfully, my communication with my family is now better than it has been in decades. I actually have time now to spend with them.
My loss of friends is not new or different. The disconnection I experienced mirrors countless others’. This part of my story is mild compared to many.
The Church of Scientology does enforce a disconnection policy between its parishioners and anyone they deem unfit to be a member. A sad state of affairs coming from a group that claims to be a religion. From a group that touts itself a defender of Human Rights.
The only choice a parishioner has when a friend or family member is declared a suppressive person is to disconnect or be named a suppressive person themselves, in which case they would suffer the same fate. Let me be clear here. I spoke with several Scn friends about this, sometimes both of us in tears because they didn’t want to disconnect but had to in order to maintain their good standing with the church. This is the hand of the church enforcing its will and driving a wedge between people who care about one another, not a decision truly left up to the parishioner. This practice failed miserably for Catholicism and is demonstrably failing for Scientology.
I’m happy to communicate with anyone about this. Anyone who wants can mail me at [email protected]
Hey Sydney,
Sad story, but glad to see you out.
Fern and I have been out for maybe 8 years now.
Cheers,
Tom Tillman
what kind o sad person gets involved with websites like facebook?
Er, people who don’t really have any friends in the first place LOL.
Go down the road walk into a bar and start talking to real human beings and pretty soon you come to realise that Grade 0 was always a natural state of ability in the first place.
If people disconnect from you for no good reason they never were friends. I never thought of other staff as friends as I knew how they react when you come under the SO nazi boots.
Thank you, Sydney! It’s amazing that this organization that “declares a member an SP//Suppressive Person” and on the “SP Declare it says: “Her only terminal is the International Justice Chief via the Continental Justice Chief”. For most people who were ever “in”, we know what this means. For people who were never “in” this is not just *a* statement. This is something, as Sydney described SO well, that TOTALLY changes one’s life.
Did *any* of us “choose” to be declared SP?
I’ve yet to meet someone who was “in” who does so. (I know some critics and some Anons who have told me they’d like an SP declare. I always tell them the same thing: Go to xenu.net and copy the format on mine. Just make up the rest. That’s all THEY DO!
As Sydney mentioned, one is supposed to get a rather extensive series of “Ethics Actions” BEFORE one is declared SP. NONE Of that happened to Sydney, nor myself 13 years ago.
Bless you for speaking out, Sydney! If you’d ever like to talk, give me a call.
Meantime: Enjoy your life!
Tory/Magoo
So glad you are “out” my beautiful, talented, bright, wonderful daughter!
Like I said, getting along great with my mom these days! ^^^
Love you, too, Mom! <3
wahhh…. boohoo… sniff….. (happy tears)
David Mayo – Sunday Talk on Disillusionment – scientology part1 of 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRkCemuQY8A
Well done 😀 Love ya Syndey – now we can be real friends out in the open! Happy!!!! xxx
Congratulations Sydney !
I have messaged you to your hushmail account.
Thanks for sharing your story !
Dear Sidney,
I can very much relate to everything you said in your post. Thank you for exposing this dirty little lie that our ex “church” continues to tell. Enforced disconnection as practiced by the Church of Scientology IS accomplished by blackmail, which is an additional crime in itself…..a crime practiced by cowards.
I too have experienced the results of this “unofficial” or, more accurately, covert policy. (Yes OSA, I am and have been aware of it.) This policy gives many good people the choice of either violating their own integrity by invalidating and disconnecting from friends who they know damned well are also good people, or losing important friendships and relationships which would be very destructive to the dynamics of their lives. Some have more to lose than others. No one should ever have to make that choice. Thankfully you are doing OK, Sidney.
I appreciate your raising your voice.
I see some people trying to compare Scientology disconnection with that of Catholics, but the real comparison is to Mormonism. The Mormons and the Scientologists are the most alike in regards to money grubbing and disconnection, as well as hiding information that is not flattering to the church. Tax them all. End the hypocrisy. Enjoy.
Scientology disconnection and Catholic excommunication is definitely not similar. I know, being raised a Catholic (no religion now) and having a Catholic father who divorced his first wife and then married my mom after which he could not receive sacraments. Catholics DO NOT SHUN or disconnect their relationship with anyone who has left or been excommunicated from the Church. It was simply a matter of not being able to receive Communion or the other sacraments in the church until his first wife died, and then my mom and dad got married again, when I was about 12, in the Catholic church. My dad always went to Mass through the years he didn’t receive the communion host at Mass, he sent all his kids to Catholic school, and was very much a part of the church community, except for not getting sacraments. There is never any talk of shunning people who leave the church.
“More communication, not less, is the answer” (LRH) unless you have things to hide and run a cult based on fraud and abuse, then the motto changes to “less communication and disconnection is the answer to keep scientologists unaware of Miscavige’s and church criminal activities”.
Hi Sydney,
My last comment got lost in cyberspace.
Anyway all I wanted to say that I’m glad you are here.
LR
Nicely told story of your experience, Sydney. Thanks very much for sharing it.
I was jarred by that one commenter to you on FB who said something like handle your ARCX, clear up your M/Us, and deal with your O/Ws. As someone above mentioned, that is pretty presumptuous and arrogant.
And it reflects so well the controlled mindset and crippled critical reasoning that keeps people trapped inside: It _cannot possibly_ be the case that there is something wrong with Scientology. It can only be you, the person who leaves, who is at fault.
Because the organization insists on on denying any honest self-reflection or commitment to improvement, it will stunt, blind, deafen, and ultimately destroy itself. Heck, even beyond that, it may be the first fundamentalist group that refuses to follow its own fundamentals!
Congratulations for getting out.
Sydney congratulations, welcome to a “True Group” one that believes in each other and supporting each other. As you can see from the posts differences of opinion are allowed, nobody sees an MAA for it, no A- E, everyone is granted beingness, no evaluation or invalidation.
Thanks Mike
Its been about 14 years ago when I was hand delivered my SP declare. If I remember back then correctly, when you go, about 10 or more Scientologist go with you and about over a 100+ “wogs” that you have dealt with in Business or otherwise go with you also.
Unwarranted disconnection type behavior is bad for Cults, Religions, Businesses, Governments and etc.
Hope you do well Sydney.
I totally agree Sid. There are very few things that I am proud of doing while I was a Scientologist but one of them was refusing to disconnect from a friend. Re- connection day is the way to go. Hey let’s do it!
I just noticed that my last comment was #41001 which I thought was cool. That’s a lot of comments! Good job everyone!
I just remembered a woman who disconnected from me and then, a week later, she told me she and her daughter had been sick the whole week because of me. I’m very powerful eh?
btw, you can acquire NEW friends by contacting other ex-scientologists and critics of Scientology. In fact, they are way more numerous.
Too many people say “This is wrong! BUT I’m going to have to disconnect from you.”
All it would take is for enough brave souls to say “This is wrong and I will NOT disconnect from you” and it would all be over.
We should pick a date and call it “Scientology Re-connection Day” – a day for reaching out to those who have disconnected, a day for refusing to be cowed by the cult.
May 15th is the United Nations “International Day of Families” – just a suggestion.
By coincidence, today is “International Day of Solidarity with Detained and Missing Staff Members” – I guess that’s not a UN day that’s celebrated in the cult, or by Shelley Miscavige.
I was told BG my brother in law in my last conversation with him before he disconnected from me that the MAA in Nashville bragged that they (OSA?) knew who I was before I came out. I was posting on martys blog. They were also sending me weird emails. A good reason for people to just come out I think. Once you are free they can’t hurt you.
by my brother in law…
Chris – how did they find out? Did you use a pseudo name? Did you post personal things they knew about you? It would help those that are still under the radar to know their tactics.
I was posting as DFB. There’s a band I like called the Eels and they have a song called Dog Faced Boy.
I’m not sure how they figured it out. I think I mentioned the Phoenix org but I didn’t give much away about my idntity. I know a one point
They hacked martys computer or email and some Indies were getting weird emails. I still have them.
I also had two experiences on staff, one I left Flag without routing out and one in LA when I was very green and I ran out of money and left without permission. Both these incidents they knew how I was traveling, where I was going etc. I didn’t reveal that info to anyone, so they can quickly get your flight and other info (one was Greyhound bus). That stuff is creepy IMO.
Sydney .. I am a never in. You are extremely brave. I will leave my favorite quote behind..
” Everything will be OK in the End..
If it’s NOT OK..
It is NOT the End. ”
Good Luck. Give your love and friendship to those who will return it!
Nice to see you here, Baby. Great quote.
Aww Thank you Bela..I have to put on an avi..My first Post.
Some “friends”. Disconnect with a phone call, nothing in writing. No evidence of anyone you suppressed. No victim. The Church expecting it’s members to wallow in this injustice. And the members jumping on the band wagon! No personal Integrity whatsoever. By the way, is the Church still delivering the Personal Ethics and Integrity Course or is everyone looking at walls?
Sydney, I hope you know this in no way demeans all of the good work you have done and your time spent helping others. The Church does this to steal your identity. It is identity theft. THEY decide who is a Scientologist and who isn’t. It’s become a “conditional” religion. You can be a part of it under certain social conditions. And if you do not align with the social programs they can not grant you any beingness. It is called ETHNIC CLEANSING.
I am glad you are no longer obligated to contribute to that. Best to hang on to your civil rights.
You aren’t the only one. Witch hunts left right and center now, the Church is very busy attacking the customers and it’s own children. Anyone who misses a with hold is added to the hit list. No mercy. It is unmocking itself by unmocking the family. It’s David’s purpose to unmock the family unit manifesting on a grander scale.
Have a great summer and have lots of FUN.
Congratulations to you Sydney! What a brave, courageous person you are to leave and then share your story immediately. This policy of disconnection is so heinous to me it is incomprehensible. I am a former member of another cult who has joined up with these wonderful people here, at the Bunker, & at all the ex-sci websites.
Even though I know this happens, it is stunning to me the immediate downward spiral of your FB friends. You are very sympathetic to those remaining, which I understand completely having read so many stories. Nothing is ever clear (no pun intended), many remain incarcerated for reasons other than their love of Mi$cientology. Many are afraid. But unfortunately there are so many who will continue to drink the kool aide and deny deny deny, lie lie lie, and contribute to the continual abuse led by little Davey.
You will be an inspiration to those remaining who sense there is a life outside of their current cell. They read the blogs, they lurk. And they can leave if they want, just like you. You go girl!!!!
Hi Outraged,
I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I could have been braver, faster. I received my declare letter in Nov of 2013. And in the heart of me, I’ve been fully out since 2008, with nagging doubts for years even before that. It was a hefty process get to the point of being able to post publicly.
The culture of the current church is complicated. When you’re in it, it’s hard to see things clearly. Even when you notice things that aren’t right, there are simultaneously instances where you see people’s lives improving because they received help from a caring Scn auditor, supervisor or ethics officer. And even as you start to see the balance of harmful vs helpful things are tipped the wrong way, it’s still hard. Egads, I could write a book about it! Oh, wait, some people already have. 🙂
Anyway, thanks for your encouragement and support. I sure hope more people are able to truly look at this scene and make integrity-filled choices!
Sydney – no matter how long it took, what you did was brave and courageous. There are so many who will never take that first step. Don’t belittle your achievement. Right now I imagine your life is all up in the air. Almost like having PTSD.
I hope those reading here who are still-in will take courage from your story.
and write the book!!! everyone’s book is different. Or start a blog. Or tell us more stories. We LURVE stories.
and, you are very welcome. :-}
Maybe one day I will be brave enough to tell about my cult experience. Different cult but cult nonetheless.
Alright, I will be brave. It was called Lifespring. This is the FIRST time I mentioned the name of the cult in any post. heh, you gave me the courage.
Well, you just made my night even more awesome, Outraged!
The only thing I know about Lifespring may be totally wrong. I really don’t know. In the church we were told to keep an eye out for folks who’d been in Lifespring because it was supposed to be a squirrel offshoot group of Scn.
And thanks for the incentive. I plan to tell more stories of my Scn adventures for sure!
I can’t wait to hear about your experiences. (feel free to email me about ’em if you’d rather for now: [email protected] ) 😀
I’m stunned. Please tell me what you heard. I worked for this organization. Was paid mucho dinero. People died. It is/was a cult. But I am petrified about writing anything in public. It was too small. It will be very easy to figure out who I am.
my email:
[email protected]
Hi Sidney, thank you very much for your write up! It’s an accurate description of what happens these days in the RCS. I applaud you for sticking to your integrity once you decided that enough was enough. At the same time I’m sorry for your losses, this disconnection practice is toxic and should be put to rest ASAP along with the rest of the RCS.
I am in a similar situation as you have been, but haven’t heard of any declare on me yet (I wondered too if I had super powazzzz to dodge bulets like Neo). My FB is largely still intact. Only certain people were informed on my “disaffected” status and the fact that I have been put under an non enturb. Order. Sadly my marriage didn’t survive and my daughter was recruited to the SO. My ex is one of those that does see outpoints and has disagreements , but keeps blind faith that things will turn for the better. There is a silent hope DM will step down or made to step down. We, out here, of course KNOW that will NEVER EVER happen. Anyway, as I kept being on collision course with management on all levels things became untenable. Contact with my daughter is very limited, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to speak with her.
Since then I’m engaged in a covert operation to further enlighten those that doubt. Just like you, I too have many contacts in this field I used to service as a staff member. I use websites like this one, with stories just like yours to wake people up and make them realize their doubts are shared by many well intentioned, decent people around the world. Make them see that the outpoints they observe are observed by many and that there is nothing wrong with THEM for having these thoughts.
I’m probably one of those backlogged still-to-declare cycles Mike is speaking of. So apparently I am operating in borrowed time that will end someday. When I’ll receive the news I’m declared a Special Person, I will be delighted to post openly like you do now.
In my dealings with the “still ins” I consistently find the following categories of Scientologists (public and staff):
1. The hardcore Kool-Aid drinkers with weird looking eyes who would sell out their grandmothers to receive a pat on the back from anyone in any kind of power. These are the fanatics (very small percentage though). Stay away from these people, the will rat you out quicker than you can spell SP. Even the persons in the other categories of “still ins” find these people scary and avoid them, only talking to them on a good road, fair weather type of basis.
2. Then there are those that are kept in by some form of leverage. They have invested too much in it to quit now, like most of the OTC. These persons want to keep the door open for their chance to “eternity”. Those on OT levels are in utter fear something might come up on their sec checks. Many of them have depleted bank accounts and simply can’t afford extensive sec checks at their expense. But all these persons know for a fact that things aren’t fun in the church anymore. Most of them have deep-rooted disagreements with the GAGs, GAK, and Idle Org programs. They will keep up the pretense though, no matter how transparent. Here you will also find the people that have too many family members and friends deeply involved (staff, SO etc) and they don’t want to lose them. But they despise what the church has become. But they don’t want to make trouble for everyone else. Some of these people lurk here and other websites and become aware and finally make the stand. (Now, the good news is that this is by far the largest group)!
3. These are persons that benefit from the church and its parishioner’s financially. This category doesn’t necessarily believe in Scientology. They mostly pretend. The big shot FSMs, having firm lines with the IAS and FLAG reg tours, etc. They even get a percentage for the funds raised for ideal orgs. Puke! Amongst these are also business owners that employ org staff on moonlight jobs underpaying them and squeezing them out even further. These are people DM can least count on when shit hits the fan for him. They already are in the know how things are within the church and they just play along with the scam.
All in all a pretty rag-tag, ramshackle group that hasn’t got any coherency left and is about to collapse. The internet will be the key in the downfall of the RCS powered by courageous people speaking out. Of course named categories are the way I perceive this field and maybe defected or not applicable elsewhere. Just meant to give an impression on how fragile this house of cards is. And the wind is picking up………
Love, Disaffected. (sorry for the long post today, I just got enraged and felt the urge to write)
Great post!
I know of people getting disconnected from and they have not been declared.
Beware of your “good” friends and family members still in – many are sent to spy and report! If you don’t want to be Declared and lose friends and family – just don’t talk to any Scientologist’s – play the good roads good weather tech.
Hopefully soon – the exodus will be so huge that those left in the cult will have no choice but to LOOK!
Can you imagine what that would be like?
Lurkers – think about it!
You are being completely bamboozled so you may want to do your own independent research on Scientology and make up your own mind!
How can you be at cause when you can’t look?
How can you be self determined when you are told what to do, what to read, who to talk to and not talk to?
How are your finances? Divorced yet? Family shattered through disconnection?
What is it going to take for you to see that your friends in Scientology are getting broken? Check out court records, bankruptcy website and look for lawsuits against Scientologist’s for financial debt not paid back. Divorces and other messes they won’t tell you about. Most of the Scientologist’s are not doing well – but until you look – you don’t know this! Your friends still in are hurting – many financially ruined beyond belief.
Do you see the 10,000,000 members? How can you clear the planet with everyone broke and broken?
I don’t care what you do – it is your life, your mind and your soul.
Just step out and look. Don’t tell anyone and do it for your own certainty!
Find out what your church is hiding from you and why they don’t want you looking at the internet.
You can look and not read any confidential materials. Just read the stuff you want to read. Can literally thousands of people all be SP’s? There are more people out of Scientology than in. More SP Declares being made than Clears and OT’s.
Find out about the “purge” because it will happen to you too if you stay long enough!
I would hate to be one of those guys – one of the last to KNOW.
How humiliating that would be to see everyone leave but you refused to look.
Dollar Morgue: you just spoke to the main audience at this blog apart from the regular posters.
20 may 2014:
“In our first year we have seen 255,234 different people visit the blog (unique visitors), resulting in a total of 1,252,169 visits and 2,768,536 pages of information viewed.”
Those are Mike’s stats over 1 year. I had a big realization right then and there. (regular posters might consist of a couple of hundred people, some OSA operatives, some other interested parties but the large chunk would be lurkers)
We might not always realize, but we really DO speak directly to lurkers! Thanks for addressing them directly and so eloquently as you just did!
I’m trying to get a Russian person (ex SO, got out through me together with her husband, so UTR has some benefits) to set up a blog in Russian. They are still decompressing though. I would love to have the whole of eastern Europe covered with at least 1 daily blog in their native language. Most of eastern Europeans don’t speak English well enough to be informed on English blogs.
According to a friend I have in Hungary, plenty of tales to tell there too, but no platform for those who are not that conversant in English.
If anyone of you have connections or are yourself living in a country English is not common, please make an effort to get a daily blog going.
No where to run for Davey, lets cut off as much lines as we can by exposing his crimes and blatant lies to as many RCS scientologists as we can.
I bet some of the Russian recruits will have second thoughts of joining the SO to escape Russia, if they knew the place they were escaping to would make Stalin’s gulag look like a scouts holiday camp.
correction: I’m responding to Idle Morgue of course instead of Dollar Morgue, hope you can understand the mix up :), my bad anyways!
It seems to me that there are more ex-scientologists than there are those left behind. I know that in Australia where I come from there are only about 2000 left. World wide there are now less than 50,000 left inside and these few poor deluded souls think that disconnecting from ex-scientologists is the worst thing they can do.
Who are they trying to kid? I believe that the best way to handle this idiocy is for all the ex-scientologists to write disconnection letters to all those that you know are still there – informing them of the real truth behind the Cult of COB. Imagine 10’s of thousands of letters hitting the “churches” personally written to staff and sea org personal saying that, as ex-members, we choose to no longer associate with those staff and SO members as long as they remained within the “Cult of COB.” In other words reverse the flow. If it was organised well enough (maybe through Marty and Mike) it would not just be a flow it could be a flood.
I am thinking about this and can see that it could be a huge event.What about organising an ex-scientologists disconnection day with 10’s of thousands of ex-members turning up enmasse to personally deliver hand written letters. Get the local press and TV to cover this in each city or nationally. What a coup!!
Tell me what you think.
Peter, I think your idea rocks. Peer pressure from the group that counts!
Thanks Mike and “You all” for the feedback.
I sent the idea on to Marty and he wrote-
“Interesting idea Peter. Disconnection goes against my grain personally.”
Good point Marty and so I wrote back,
Ok Marty I get that. And you are right. Just because others disconnect from us does not give us the right to disconnect from them. Disconnection is after all is cruel and heartless (some might even say suppressive.)
But then I got thinking about Facebook and a request to be friends so why not reverse the flow on Scientology totally.
Instead of disconnection letters the letters could be requests to reconnect. In other words letters that say things like “even though you want to disown me I still want to be your friend (daughter, mother,sister, wife or whatever.)” An explanation as to why the letter writer can no longer support the church could be part of it and an invitation to visit for a special event (birthday, thanksgiving, Christmas etc.) could also be included as well as photos and little personal touches (like a drawing from a favourite niece or something).
I know from personal experience that Scientology can turn one into a heartless, unfeeling, cruel and even abusive person.
Every day I struggle with the fact that I can still and sometimes do carve someone up emotionally without even giving it a second thought. I once saw Pat Bloomberg (ex CO ANZO) being RPFed at a “Public Hanging” muster and her daughter was promoted to the second highest post in the CLO at the same time. And the daughter was over the moon happy about it. I could have done that kind of thing in a heartbeat (not to an Australian or Kiwi like Pat but to a Yank, Pommy, European or Jap without question). So that is the kind of net that the COB’s people are still caught in. I would just think that there must be a way to break the circuit or the cycle or whatever it is that keeps the Scientologists in a prison of their own making. And, as there are far more of us than there are of them, maybe it is time to do something.
What about “International Scientology Reconnection & Reconciliation day.”
Not that I want to see the re-establishment of Scientology ‘cos I don’t. But I really would like to see the philosophy and techniques contained within the “Church” to be set free from the shackles of the cult and become freely available to all. “it should be free and freely available like school milk.” or some such thing.
There is a picture in my head that I can’t get rid of from a revolution (I think is was in the Philippines at the end of the Makos era). The people took to the streets in peaceful revolution against the government. The protesters were confronted with soldiers with guns. So the older women in the protest (the mothers) went to the front of the crowd with long stemmed roses and put the roses in the barrels of the the soldier’s rifles. Nobody is going to shoot an older lady who could be the mother of someone you know especially when she is giving you the gift of a rose. The Makos government collapsed.
I don’t really know about all this – it is very much a work in progress.
Writing letters, emails and contacting Scientologists via Facebook and Twitter are well worthwhile.
Give them another chance to hear the truth from someone they know and perhaps respect. Fill them in on the choice details about why you have decided to call it a day.
But there’s no need to disconnect from these people. Instead, let them know they can always contact you – even if they need lots of time to think about it.
Yes, I really like the idea of going for Reconnection. Fight fire with water, so to speak.
We could start International Reconnection Days or some such (if someone hasn’t already done so). Protests where we stand outside churches and say we will accept any letters you want to get out to your family and friends. Hand them to us and we’ll get them to your loved ones. Or put mailboxes out to receive communications from anyone who wants to send them.
Could be fun. 🙂
I also like the idea of “Reconnection” event. We all make large picket signs and those that have lost loved ones to disconnection print their picture(s) on the poster and picket with them at PAC area first, and then later, at Flag. We contact media first to let them know when we’ll be there and get media coverage to shed light on the forced disconnections and financial scams of the church.
Thank you for sharing your experience with everyone. There is ample proof that David Miscavige and his Cherch of $cientology do indeed enforce disconnection. I am sorry that you lost some friends but I am sure you will gain more friends now that you have left the cult.
Oh, c’mon Mike! There’s no disconnection in Scientology.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDfo0s32v6w
…on second thought.
Well done Sydney!! Welcome! I remember your postings well and always enjoyed your point of view. I’m ex class V staff too. Your write up was excellent with real stats! Such an impressive illustration of the ridiculous fb disconnection practice, like a bunch of preteens bullying each other. So stupid. I predict your friend stat will improve with real friends, where you are free to speak your mind and be yourself. Best wishes!
Welcome to the fastest growing group on planet earth. Heres the lucky part. All of the good, caring well trained, true friends will at some point be declared and end up on Mikes Blog. You can rest assured that anyone worth anything will be declared by the church and all thats going to be left are the scum who are either a). In agreement with DM’s out ethics behavior. b). too blind to see whats going on and therefore not someone you would want to have in your life anyway. c). Living in fear and at some point will have a cognition and leave in which case end up here.
The best thing we can do as a group is to make a space for the worthwhile ones that eventually get out. The rest will need to be cleaned up by us later.
IMO the best have or will see the light earlier rather than later. Thanks for speaking up.
Love your handle, Starzstuff!
I’ve already met some great people through Mike and Christie, and other Special People. And had some great conversations today with people new to me after this blog post came out. It’s been great!!
“The best thing we can do as a group is to make a space for the worthwhile ones that eventually get out.” I agree wholeheartedly!!
“Welcome to the fastest growing group on planet earth”. Laughter!
So much for “Never desert a comrade in need, in danger or in trouble.”
“I love you.” Bye bye…
Sorry. I just can’t stop laughing over this…
Tell me about it. I’ve done a lot of alternate laughing and crying of late!
That’s awesome Sydney. I can feel the theta in your universe 🙂 When you get some free time, please make sure to check out my website detailing alterations in the books and exposing Miscavige’s lies about the originals: http://www.trueLRH.com
I created the website to help Scientologists gain greater certainty with respect to the organization and Miscavige’s “leaderships.”
*leadership 🙂
“I suggest you handle any ARC breaks you may have or clear any MUs you may have or get your OWs written up.”
Barf! I suggest the author of this one be challenged for an original thought.
Hi Sydney and partner.
Great to see you out here in the sunshine!
Whether the number of your FB friends now shoot up through the roof or not you will have some TRUE friends out here and that is what counts.
Good luck on your new path.
Greta
Thanks a ton, Greta! It’s sure a lot easier to breathe and communicate out here. 😀
You might want to keep on using that FB-plug in to see the stats go up again. 🙂
13 new friends added today so far! 😀
My new lucky number.
relationships, no matter how important or vital are not worth it if they come on the condition of human bondage.
one of the so many rich ironies of scientology is one has to conform to and be bound by the group in order the be free as an individual. the more you work toward your freedom the more bound you become to the group.
look how inextricable it becomes for members when reacting to someone bucking the group.
livelihoods and relationships of all kinds meshed together and subjugated to one overarching purpose.
in that, one has worked towards individual freedom(?)
one day, you just wanted to get over your shyness, the next, you’re locked in a do or die battle for this sector of the galaxy.
the road between those two points is paved with a just subtle enough gradient that you don’t even realize when and how you got there.
did you initially get involved because the planet needed clearing or was it to handle your ruin?
you began because you wanted to handle X and you end up handling Y.
that’s how it looks to this outsider.
P.S. i mean “you” as in the typical scientologist, not addressing Sydney Osborne directly.
“one day, you just wanted to get over your shyness, the next, you’re locked in a do or die battle for this sector of the galaxy.” Oh, that line made me belly laugh. 🙂
Even though you didn’t address it to me, Sydney, I’ll answer. I got in specifically to handle a repeating difficulty in life. And here’s some irony for you – My difficulty was that I kept getting attached to people who bullied me and wanted to be the overlords of my life. I wanted help to become better at getting them off of me and being cause of my own life.
Me too Sydney. I kept attracting vampires, narcissists and little did I know that I was the perfect bait to get sucked into one of the biggest and badiest Narcissistic Organization’s in the World. Scientology sucks your energy, money and time and then throws you out like trash if you don’t like it.
How ironic that “life lesson” keeps coming into our lives until we fully handle it! For me – I had to study Narcissism and Co-Dependency to fully understand what I was dealing with and why the pain was so deep!
David MIscavige has all of the attributes of a full blown Narcissist! The Organization also has all of the attributes. People are used and discarded. There is no empathy and this is enforced on other members. “Raw meat, Meat bodies, 2-D (loaded language) all intended to slowly indoctrinate people into not believing human beings or families matter.
There is a ton of information about this personality disorder from our friends – “The Psychs”! LOL – more irony! The Anti-Social is one thing and the information in Scientology is very limited compared to the Narcissist. One thing for sure – they do not get better but worse over time.
It took me a long time even to be “able” to look at information from Psychiatry due to the mind control tactics used in Scientology – blaming “the Pyschs” and enforcing the “enemy” upon every Scientologist!
Once I started to look and read – I was so relieved that there is information about cults as well as the Narcissist and the devastating effects of their traps.
Looks like you graduated that lesson.
“Looks like you graduated that lesson.” Yeah, Dollar Morgue, what an expensive one that was!! 😛
“Scientology sucks your energy, money and time and then throws you out like trash if you don’t like it.” Boy, have I seen that time and again, Idle. Thus the need for decompression after we leave I guess. Gotta build those internal batteries back up.
WhiteStar, made me laugh too. What I also find funny and poignant about your comment is you have grasped a very essential aspect of life in the church. Yet, as an outsider, I’m assuming never-in, you would be held in disdain as a wog, and certainly not capable of understanding, by a card-carrying, kool-aid guzzling church member.
Hey Syd,
I recall talking with you about your experiences as a course supervisor, which was corroborated by conversations with other from Denver who recalled being in your academy. Essentially you were thrown to the wolves when you were put on post, on a FULL time schedule as you mentioned, without anyone to spell you off at any time. And no training on your post. You, in your inimitable way, cracked the books and figured it all out for yourself while suping.
After a lot of hard work, and counter intention from others, you learned and followed what LRH said to do to have an effective academy, and you HAD a big, booming academy, where people were showing up early to make sure they had a seat, auditing was occuring in any broom closet or boiler room that could fit a couple of chairs, and it was EXPECTED that if you were on course you helped your fellow students. Everyone there was there to learn Scn, primarily to audit, and to help each other make it.
With the arrival of the GAT team from Flag, you were VERY rudely shoved aside, and the academy never recovered. ARC in training was tossed out the window. Supervisors were expected to be *ssholes, who invalidated the student, not the student’s errors (very fine, or not-so-fine, distinction.)
I recall my direct experience on staff in Denver in the early 2000’s, when Sarah came back from Flag from a sup training ‘evolution’ that was touted as the ‘end-all’ in supervisor training, that was supposed to speed student progress on course incredibly, blah-blah, that she had even more of the ‘*sshole supervisor valence’ run in on her. As you pointed out she was prior to getting ‘trained’ as a supervisor one of the sweetest people you’d want to meet.
So the outpoints you talk about confronting and trying to handle through correct church procedures were NOT minor.
You are a tremendously effective and caring person, I’m glad to count you as a friend with so many others, whether in or out of the church. Those of your friends that are still in the church, and they are your friends, may they disentangle their minds and spirits (so to speak) and confront the evil mud they are stuck in, as we have been fortunate enough to do so.
Thanks so much for that, Mike.
Man, it really was so much fun in the days when our org was too small for all the co-auditing we had going on! And so many great students on lines then. All of us together were living the true ideals of Scn if only for a brief time.
It was pretty great seeing co-auditors on rickety metal chairs in the boiler room – freezing because it was winter – having huge cognitions. Now the Denver Org is beautiful and spacious beyond belief – and oh, so sadly empty.
I didn’t even realize how great my Academy was doing until the Tech Sec and Qual Sec from ASHO came in one day and their jaws dropped at how full and busy it was. They told me I had the biggest co-audit in the WUS outside of the PAC base!
I’m glad to be your friend, too! There are a lot of us out here now. I hope more join us soon.
By the way, we have some catching up to do!
Yes, a continually degrading state of affairs that doesn’t have any fixes and only keeps getting worse. I recall writing KRs on being conned by WISE to come in for an informational only to run into a 10%-of-your-income crush reging cycle, evil eyes on failing to attend IAS events, no shows for Ideal Org fundraisers, etc. But it only got worse, tons of daily calls for money from FLAG, AOs, Library campaigns and what have you not. In the end, I just changed phones and moved to evade the 500lb. of annual junk mail I was getting from the collective arms of the church and disconnected from them, and from each online Scientologist completely. And if I ever got declared, I wouldn’t know nor care about it.
Ugh, that sounds pretty horrible, Formost. Too bad all of the stories we share on here aren’t rare anomalies.
I’m glad you found your own way out.
Hi Sydney.
As simple as a move and phone # change.
Great to have you openly in our group Sydney! It was fine people like you that made it worthwhile being a part of that group. It’s very unfortunate that Miscavige is continuing to amplify the most inhumane and destructive aspects woven into Scientology by it’s founder. Reading your story this morning I had a realization, if I may. In early 1986 I seated along with my friends on metal folding chairs inside the parking garage at Celebrity Center when we were told Hubbard died.
My heart sank because that was the signal to me that the inevitable spiral of violence, abuse, inhumanity and INSANITY would destroy the church. The only guy that could apply pressure to the braking mechanism of the crazy train was dead and the train lost the only Engineer who could choose a different track. Miscavige is a bully who made his way to the locomotive and tossed people off who were loyal to the original Engineer. Miscavige simply put the throttle down on the same tracks that lead to a cliff edge where a thousand foot drop ends in a ravine. My heart sank because the image of the train at the bottom of that ravine represented what I knew would come to pass. Watching a loved one die slowly is painful for everyone. This terminal illness in Scientology started long before Jan 1986. Glad you jumped off the train. The bumpy landing is nothing compared to the shock of those still aboard when the train goes airborne over the edge. I wish you god speed in your journey.
Thanks for sharing your realization, Doug. I can’t tell you how glad I am to be off that train. The last several years on it were miserable.
Welcome out Sidney, this is the right place to be!
Amen, Sabine.
I think it is useful to understand Scientology as an ideology like communism or national socialism.
In order for the purity and uniformity of the ideology to remain at high levels, those people who are highly trained and experienced over many decades become a threat to the authoritarian hierarchy, and purges are required to cleanse the population of too many highly trained opinion leaders who may do too little thinking in concert with the latest set of orders.
It’s the reason for recruiting children into the Sea Org, and it is why we saw Class 8’s being hounded after GAT I.
Scientology must be purged from time to time to get rid of those who know too much.
It happened to the early Dianetists in the 50’s with the release of the new “Scientology”. It happened again in the early 60’s to all the “Only Ones” who protested a conveyor-belt-like “Bridge to Total Freedom” where all cases were to be uniformly handled. It happened in the late 60’s and early 70’s with the take over of the Sea Org. It happened when Ron needed all the cash from Mission Holders to be on the run from the law in the early 80’s. It happened again with GAT 1. And now it is happening with GAT 2.
Regular purges are required of any ideology.
That’s what we are seeing here.
The question is whether Miscavige can recruit a new population big enough to sustain Scientology into the future. Because of the Internet, he probably can not.
Alanzo
Alanzo – Thank you! The fact that this is known now should help lurker’s in doubt. I believe most of the few members left are in doubt. It has to be just unbearable inside the bubble of lies and deceit. Thanks to all of you who had the courage to speak out – the truth is now available. So lurkers – step out for a moment or two and take a look.
The truth will stand on its own. We are all alive and well (and we read the confidential information all over the internet – we did not get sick or die and some of us even laughed as to the absurdity of it all. It is no wonder Co$ wanted to keep it $ecret and charge huge fees to “get it”). None the less – it is your life, your mind, your spirit and you have a right to look and know what Scientology IS and what it IS NOT and why!
NIcely put, Alanzo! Spot on observations.
I’m so glad we have the Internet these days. It’s helped with righting injustices the world over, and we are using it as a tool for that here and now, with and out of Scientology.
Congratulations on getting out, Sydney.
And having the courage and integrity to turn around and face them publicly – and to provide the documentation and facts to once again show the public that they are lying to them.
I especially liked your “Here’s looking at you Justice Chief FLB :}”
LOL!!
You’re gonna fit in right nicely ’round here!
Alanzo
“The question is whether Miscavige can recruit a new population big enough to sustain Scientology into the future.”
You are joking surely? When they can’t even muster a measly couple of thousand to the greatest event in the history of everything; when “OT Committees” around the world celebrate the sales of a handful DMSMH and a dozen or so WDAHs; when the ONLY recruits to the Sea Org are non-English speaking or 2nd / 3rd / 4th generation Scientologists; when new public who have been cattle-prodded into empty Orgs are instantly turned off by inhuman FART displays and intrusive interviews or sec-checking; when almost daily media articles expose more and more abuses; when there are more SPs then there are active Scientologists – then the tipping point was passed some time back.
OK!! OK!!
Jeez. Don’t overwhelm me with all the good news at once!
Gradients, Martin. You just might make me think that, as a critic of Scientology, I might be out of a job soon.
What will I do then?
Sell used cars, or what?
Alanzo
Sell off Miscavige’s estate.
Thank you for posting your story Sydney and welcome out of the cult of Scientology!
Scientology has audited out the love, compassion and true intimacy out of the members that choose to stay and ignore the obvious out points.
One cannot have a true friend or be true friend in the cult. One cannot even keep their family safe from this insidious game called “disconnection”. You have not lost friends Sydney, your friends have lost you. They are robots; not thinking for themselves. Not able to observe the entire scene of What Scientology really is – they are broken and their lives shattered by the traps of money on account, friends and family “in” and businesses all wrapped around the tentacles of the Scientology tech.
Disconnection is used to keep the members from knowing the truth about what Scientology IS doing and what it IS not doing.
While these people apply the tech and have some wins – they have no clue what the leader has been up to and his lavish lifestyle. They continue contributing to Scientology because they had some wins, they want more and the most disgusting reason is that they TRUST the Organization. They don’t know what the Leader is doing and the lives that are actually ruined by affiliation with Scientology.
It is all kept hidden from view – and disconnection is one of the many ways the members are made into clubbed seals. They are forced to accept whatever the Organization enforces upon them. They are fed lies about expansion and how the money is spent. There is no transparency of financial records. They hide behind the “Religious Cloak”.
I suggest you read and listen to Lawrence Brennan’s affidavit online. He explains “Religious Cloaking” and what Scientology is doing to obtain maximum profits while using slaves to deliver services.
Scientology does not have to abide by the laws of the land. They get to charge enormous fees with no accountability. No refunds either. They are sitting on Billions of dollars and most of that was obtained through manipulative techniques where members were lied to. Super Power, Ideal Orgs – it is all a scam to obtain real estate holdings with no money from the Organization invested. Ideal Orgs are sitting empty but the Organization just increased its liquidity through these investments. Collecting $250 million for 20 plus years for Super Power is another scam. It is fraud – plain and simple. Luis Garcia is doing something about that – so check him out on the net.
They have staff members sign legal contracts without legal representation and then enforce inhumane labor on them. There is nothing anyone can do about it. They are a Church. Governments won’t get involved unless there is ample evidence of abuse. I think we have overreached that threshold of abuse that has been reported in the media on the net. The more people that speak out, perhaps the more pressure will be put on the government to investigate this cult, yank their NON PROFIT status and shut them down.
Hell yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the recommendation. I will definitely check out that affidavit. I’ve never heard the term ‘religious cloaking.’ Knowledge is power!
And you’re so right. Scientology’s enforced micro-management of parishioners’ lives creates robots. No matter how good the person underneath, no one can live in a way that’s honest and true to themselves in those sort of suppressive conditions.
I’ve been following Luis Garcia’s suit. What a guy!
By the way, you post a lot of great stuff on here. Thanks for all of that! I’ve found it helpful and I’m sure others have as well.
Thank you Sydney! Sending you a huge hug! 🙂
I had no idea about how Religions “run” and no familiarity with “religious cloaking” or how Non Profits run. Shortly after I left the cult due to the same reasons you left, I found Lawrence Brennan’s affidavit on the net. I can’t express the pain and grief I felt reading it. It was so heart breaking – I cried!
I felt very betrayed by my “church”. I loved that book – it is what kept me in Scientology. It described the perfect religion – it was everything I wanted in a group too. Scientology was it for me – due to what was written in that book!
I am so appreciative of Lawrence Brennan’s courage to speak up and let the World know what was happening behind the scenes of our “church”. Thank you so much!
In late 1984 or early 1985, I performed a Scientology marriage ceremony for a young couple, Laurie and Eddie. I performed this at the request of the family with whom I was good friends. They were well aware that a couple of years earlier I had been declared by the Finance police, but nobody paid much attention to that fact. The ceremony was outdoors in Ridley Park in Philadelphia. The whole family attended, except her older brother, David, who wished her well, but was unable to get away. This was obviously before he discovered what a powerful political tool enforced disconnection could be. In case you haven’t guessed, the young lady was Laurie Miscavige. David’s hypocricy has no limits.
Well that’s an interesting story, Dave.
On unfriending….
http://possiblyhelpfuladvice.com/?attachment_id=7253
For me, the interesting things about today’s post are:
• People unfriend you on FB as a formality mainly to keep the “church” off their back. Your real friends will find a way to stay connected, even if on the down-low.
• That makes those people dramatize missed withholds to those still in the church.
• If LRH is right, we can expect those dramatizing missed withholds to blow the church
• So, instead of handling the problem, the “church” has now have multiplied the problem
• Shrinkage in the “church” leads to more pressure on the remaining few to follow mutated “policy”, especially financially
• The enforced retread(s) of the PTS/SP course were done to make parishioners “cognite” that their friends are PTS and SP, but that’s just a smokescreen to hide from parishioners the fact that Miscavige and his minions are SP and PTS
Oh, yeah. If Mike’s survey of “declared people” tells us anything, it’s that trained former staff members are the clay pigeons that Miscavige shoots. Just Sydney is now experiencing.
Good points, POT.
There are an awful lot of highly trained people out there who’ve been declared or have simply drifted off lines quietly. The church is superb at ridding itself of its best and most valuable resources.
On a slightly different note, one of the interesting things I observed during the F/N evolution of “must be 3 swings, et al” is trained auditors and OT’s having conversations about how they had to go to the Coachman or the AO to get a pass on their F/N’s, so they had to get in the groove of calling them “the way Flag sups expect” which is “not the same as I would call them in session.” People see the outpoints. It’s just hard to confront the whole suppressive scene.
Welcome out here in the fresh air, Sidney! And well done, brave lady.
Thank you, Frik!
Thanks for speaking out Sydney. You will be helping others do the same. The CoS continues this practice because it is the only control mechanism they have and they wield it with vigor, then lie about doing it.
Now that you spoken out on a larger platform they will start lying to all who will listen or somehow connected to you about what a bad person you are. The usual fare, out ethics, out 2d, dissaffected, out tech blah blah blah.
It is interesting that we all have the same traits, once we leave. Ha.
Welcome to the Indy Field. :>)
Yes, Tim, let the Black PR games begin!
Well, really they began long ago. Based on other declares I’ve seen in recent years, I’m sure the goldenrod issued on me has some interesting things in that are exaggerated or flat-out lies. And enough truth to make the lies seem true. It was Anita Warren’s declare – which contained some pretty blatant lies I had firsthand knowledge about – that was my very last straw.
I remember when I was on staff and someone would get declared, people would always start in with this sort of whisper campaign of, “Ya know, there was this one time when Joe (insert anecdote here – coached me incorrectly, mentioned something derogatory about the GAT, had really bad body odor). I always suspected there was something off with him.”
Thank you for telling your story Sydney!
Thanks for being out here to read it. 🙂
“This is the hand of the church enforcing its will and driving a wedge between people who care about one another. This practice failed miserably for Catholicism and is demonstrably failing for Scientology”.
Amen, Sidney. Thank you for your honest, articulate sharing with us of your experiences with the Church of No-Such-Thing-As-Disconnection Scientology.
Thank you also for all that you did for your students as a caring, dedicated and effective Course Sup.
When I was actively in I had a few excellent Sups myself, and these individuals, by the way they worked with me and cared about me, with their high ARC for me coupled with their tech expertise, these people changed my life, literally, and I shall always be grateful to them for being instrumental in bringing out the good, the potential, the capability in me, which was already there, but buried, somehow.
Being a truly effective Course Sup in Scientology is so very valuable that I’m finding it difficult to express myself about it properly, but I have no doubt that you will duplicate what I’ve stated here.
And, last but not least, Sidney, hats off to you, you know? A hearty ack for the way you’ve stood up for what you know to be right.
Gosh, Aquamarine, thanks for the great acks! I’m glad to finally be out in the open on this subject.
I know exactly what you mean about sups. A good sup is a wonderful thing! I’ve had some great sups in my time and I certainly enjoyed being a supervisor. I hope I helped some of my students as much as you were helped by the sups you loved.
Hi Sydney;
One of the many reasons SP Declares are so insane to the group that issues the declares is that it is cutting it’s own comm lines, not the comm lines of the person being declared. What that means is that the group is reducing it’s ability to be at cause, and is moving towards being an effect, withdrawing responsibility from an area means that area is now cause over you.
So, Sydney, you are now of greater cause over the CofS than the CofS is over you, congradulations!
Bob – also at cause.
At-Cause-Us! Sounds pretty great to me.
It’s a far better place we are than we were before.
Off topic, but looks like CofSs policy of refusing ALL refunds has launched another law suit. http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/03/25/66439.htm
Great! Thanks for spotting that Roy.
I imagine future lawsuits are heading in the direction of straight up and vertical too.
@MJ
you are always so funny!!!
I do it to keep from crying Laurie. 😉
Just read this, Roy. TEAM VANCE, YOU GO, GUY!
Seems like the same complaint that Jason Beghe had – COS not delivering what they had promised. But Jason was high profile and I think he got a sum of his money back. I had naively assumed that the reg guys were just sci. troopers but it seems that they were getting a cut of the proceeds and are motivated by greed rather than the good of the cult. I hope the court is convinced that this was a con job. I also hope he has good lawyers.
If you go to Tony’s Blog, it was talked about for much of the day.
Tony also supplies a link to the 40 page filing.
If all your friends are fellow Church members then you aren’t IN a Church. You’re in a cult.
Thank you Sydney for speaking up.
OSA representatives, you may one day open your eyes, obviously something is very wrong. The fact that not 10s, 100s but 1,000s of parishioners that for years have supported activities such as Supervising, Auditing, Disseminating and basically helping others are now being ‘declared’ is beyond an out point. You are wrongly assigning a ‘status of suppressive’ to the wrong people, it is wrong source. The origin of suppression is inside, at the top and within you.
I am not sorry for Sydney and others as they have had the courage to stand up and speak with facts about the scene; I am sorry about you for the future that awaits you, ain’t going to be pleasant and you know it.
And thank you, Silvia. You’ve been speaking out for a while and doing a great job with it. 🙂
Sydney. You are one of the best, sweet, fabulous and wonderful people that I have ever had the pleasure to meet. People still go on and on about how you were the best sup EVER, in the entire galaxy! So sad that the Church practices and enforces disconnection. Thank you for helping to spread the truth.
Big hugs to you, my friend!
I’m so glad we’ve stayed in touch throughout all of this. Thanks for always being a good friend to me.
Amen, Paul. I remember how joyful you and Jacki felt when you found out that Syd and Pete were out and that you could be in comm again!
That was such a great day, Anita!! Thanks for bringing us back together. <3
Great write-up Sydney! Your story reads like a Kafka novel, with a dash of Orwell.
I have experienced similar, though not the same magnitude (didn’t have as many friends :))
I’ve thought about this a lot, trying to understand my profound disappointment with my “friends” and have concluded:
Scn makes good people do bad things.
These are good people faced with a seemingly impossible situation. The church pits the Code of Honor against The Greatest Good for the Greatest Number of Dynamics. Most side with the Greatest Good and may or may not know they have violated their own Code of Honor. But from past personal experience and auditing, violations of the Code of Honor are the worst!
Hey! What ever happened to the Handle step? NO ONE even attempts to handle anymore, just drop down straight to disconnection. But, as you mentioned, the church has no problems blatantly violating its own policy and tech. So, if they overtly violate tech and policy, what does that make them? Squirrels? Certainly not Scnists.
I’ll bet many of your friends can recognize this, and will privately admit that what the church is doing is wrong and off-policy, but none of them will even attempt to do anything about it. Largely because they are powerless against the RCS Beast. Reports, KRs, crams have no effect on a group that refuses to correct itself; and because of that current members are in apathy as group members. They know NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT.
It’s a horrible situation, Statpush. I don’t hold it against any of my friends who are still in Scn. Like LRH said, in ‘What Do I Think of Auditors?’, “I consider all auditors my friends. I consider them that even when they squirrel.”
I can’t hold it against them. Some of them are basically being blackmailed because of their family/friend/business connections. And of course, the church threatens your eternity, saying there is no way out for you if you become declared yourself.
And I know some of them feel it’s the right thing to do to disconnect from me now that I have been declared.
I understand. What a rock and a hard place we all allowed ourselves to get into. Any of my old friends who wants to talk about it, I’m happy to. Now, or in the future. Whenever they’re ready. 🙂
That LRH quote – always one of my favorites. Thanks for reminding me Sydney.
Hi Sydney, I’m originally from Denver and where I got into Scn in 70. I came to Alaska in 78. Dennis Braun was the C/S. I guess he’s still there. Mike McDonald, that’s a sad story.
I too tried to handle outnesses on the proper lines. Those that can see are targeted, then our integrity gets in the way and out the door we go.
Hi iForrest,
It sounds like we know a lot of the same folks. I spent a bit of time at the Anchorage Mission in 2002 as well.
As far as I know, Dennis is still C/S’ing in Denver. What a great C/S he is! I really enjoyed working with him on tech lines.
And Mike Macdonald was great to work with too. It was a great loss to the Denver Scn community, I’m sure, when he passed away.
I’m sure we know a lot of the same folks. Yes, my wife tells me you were at the mission in Anchorage. I missed you. I must have been out looking for that yellow metal that you can find in the dirt and mud.
Welcome to “out.” This is where the air is fresh.
You posting your story is instrumental in helping others and in ending the abusive reign of David Miscavige. Thank you for taking this step.
You’re right, Annabelle, this is some great air!
Hello Sydney,
Thanks for your story and proof that the FCoS is practicing Disconnection like the breathing of air to any living thing.
I’m happy that you are not dependent on a job connected to Scientologists and that your family is not a Scn one either. They will help you along with those you know to be your true friends. You are fortunate in that respect.
I like your picture above too!
Thank you, Pepper!
Welcome out Sydney! I remember you well from Mace Kingsley and always thought you were one of the best staff there. I’m sorry to hear so many people disconnected, but welcome to the outside! You’re story, along with the stats and graphs, is impossible to deny and another arrow into the evil heart of the CoS’s disconnection policies.
Natasha!!! Hi, how are you?
So great to “see” you here. Look me up on FB or email me at [email protected] if you like.
welcome Sydney and thank you for your story. I feel for those who felt compelled to disconnect from you. Truth is what one strives for and once found there is no turning back. It is the lack of confront of the truth by so-called “friends” that amazes me!! May your life be blessed with new wonderful caring people.
Thank you, Carol.
It’s a tough thing when the group you’ve dedicated yourself to is no longer true to themselves. I wish courage for all my friends who are still in and feeling trapped or confused.
And I have had such a lovely inundation of good comm so far today. It’s great to find new connections!
What so fascinating about this is that the act of disconnection makes the space a being occupies that much smaller. And, of course, it demonstrates the lack of freedom to choose. So many of those who are still in are trapped, but they’re so illogical, they gloat to one another about how much better they are than the rest of the outside (much larger) world. And so goes the road to “total freedom”!
That’s so true, Robin. They do gloat. They’re so smug, so sure that they’re right. It presses my buttons, big time. It really annoys the hell out of me.
I have to keep reminding myself that this reaction of mine is because for years I was smug. I did my share of gloating to and with others about how right we all were being in the church, and of looking down on others who were not, or who had run afowl of the church.
Of course, this gloating and smugness began to fall away when I began to look and think for myself. True data was and is the cure for this type of obnoxiousness. It worked for many; it worked for me, and will work for many others trapped in this cult.
Thanks for that Aqua.
This is not so much a sad state of affairs for a group that claims to be a religion, as it is for a group that claims COMMUNICATION IS THE UNIVERSAL SOLVENT!
ARC? KRC? Who needs that when you have thought-stopping mechanisms and a pre-fabricated way of life? Today they use “write up your O/Ws” to wash their hands of having to look.
Seems like the obnosis drill has been perverted into “see what we tell you is there”.
Thank you for sharing your story, though. And excellent work on getting that unfriend counter. Perhaps others can use it to document the non-existent voluntary disconnection policy in action, too.
Unfortunately, it is tough to be openly communicative in the church these days. So it makes their own original good principles of ARC and KRC un-usable to a large degree.
The friend counter (whodeletedme) also tells you exactly who disconnects from you. Which I’m glad to be able to see for myself. 🙂
All the better. Knowledge is liberating 🙂
Wish I knew such plugin existed. I lost some 200 Facebook friends almost over night too. And you know what…I don’t miss them.
And look, now you and I are friends. 😀
Brave indeed Sydney! Your story should run on CNN along with the Tommy Davis clip right after he says: “There’s no such thing as disconnection as you’re characterizing it…There isn’t any such policy in the church that’s dictating who people should or should not be in communication with. It just doesn’t happen.”
Yeah, maybe we could modify the clip so my graphs show behind Tommy’s head while he spouts his bs. 🙂
Yes! Mike please let Anderson Cooper know we’re ready to run with it.
Brilliant Sydney. Get Tony Ortega to run your graphics and other news outlets will pick it up from there. It is proof that the church makes you disconnect. Get those graphics out there!
I saw a documentary on the Amish and they practice shunning. But their shunning isn’t bad like ours. They let people back in with much less horrific amends and money required of them.
An observation I omitted to make when I posted this.
The church has an enormous backlog of “declares” (or what passes for them these days, a letter with a highlighted PL attached). It takes them years to get through the process for people who are not directly on their radar (like Syd and Pete). The evidence is that I first met them in 2010. We met on a number of occasions when they were still living in the local area and made no secret of it.
That is a guaranteed ticket to being declared. Consorting with the biggest SP’s on earth is not take lightly. But it has taken them 3 years to get around to notifying Syd.
They have stacks of names they are waiting to get to. Problem is, they have more people to declare than they have newly coming in. They are eating themselves alive, literally.
It’s a crazy world inside the bubble. They just KNOW they are right about everything they do, even as their own actions are killing them.
Syd was doing nothing that harmed the church, no matter how far they stretched their think.
But yet again, they created another enemy who will now affect others. She touched the lives of a LOT of people, and every single one of them knows her to be an intelligent, kind and gentle person who has devoted much of her life to helping others. This is what drives most people away — when someone they know personally is declared an SP. Someone they KNOW is not.
Keep cranking out those declares guys. While it has become the only real control mechanism you have left, it is also the poison that is eating away at your internal organs every day.
I always say that the one thing the cult IS expert at is making enemies. They get the gold cert on that ability.
Straight up and vertical Tony.
Absolute ‘golden LEMON’ award!
Greta
“The pebble, dropped in a pool, can make ripples to the furthest shore.” LRH… TWTH
With the declares of the Cooks, Goldberg’s, Garcia’s, Cindy Temps, Mary Kahn, Sydney Osborne and many many others the church is dropping not pebbles but boulders that are causing huge waves which just pound incessantly at the foundation of the church.
Very often buildings and organizations look sound and stable right up to the second when erosion final has its way with the foundation and the structure is completely torn apart in just moments by its own weight.
“No Longer Safe for Occupancy”, needs to be posted on the front door of this church.
“No Longer Safe for Occupancy” posted on the front door of the church… good one.
Mike you are right that they “fast-flow” excommunication of the ones that are high priority. Since I had two kids on staff in executive positions, they had to declare me fast before I turned the kids. And they did it too. My kids unofficially disconnected (when they told me they didn’t want to) on my birthday. Happy birthday to me. And then officially a few weeks later.
I was willing to be UTR and not say a word to the kids and not cause waves all in an effort to keep my kids. I wasn’t hurting a soul. Yet the church chose to make an enemy of me with their kangaroo declare. It wasn’t even an official declare, but a letter saying I was declared (yet none of my friends who contacted me said they’d been shown it, so I doubt there even is a “real” declare on me)… no Comm Ev called on me, no summons, no KR, no nothing. Just a letter with a photocopy of a reference with a line or two highlighted in yellow. That is what is passing for a Declare now. So anyone who is a lurker or KA drinker who knows me, don’t believe it unless you see actual goldenrod on me. As Ron says, “If it isn’t written, it isn’t true.” And in the Corporate C of $, if it is written and not by LRH, it is probably a lie.
Yeah, I was kinda baffled about how long it took before I got declared.
I was wondering if I had developed the super power of invisibility. 🙂
Well, Mike, I really appreciate you giving me a platform to speak out! You are kicking serious butt, and I am proud to call you my friend.
Oh, thanks Mike. I’ve been wondering … what exactly does it take to get kicked out these days? LOL
Sydney, some of those “Notices of Shunning” you got, expressed affection towards you. Clearly you were very well liked.
I got lectured by “friends” like a disobedient child, for suggesting they google Debbie Cook. I didn’t know I’d been associating with people so dumb.
Yes, Madora. It’s so sad how the RCS creates breaks between people who do really care about one another. And continues to forward its 1984-style regime of trying to prevent people from looking for themselves.
That makes a lot of sense Mike. A “friend” disconnected from me on third party from an maa, before anyone told me I was a bad egg. I’m more like eggs benedict. I think it was posting here that got my notification expedited. I’m so proud, thanks! 🙂
We’re all scrambled eggs.
Hallie Jane, yes you are Eggs Benedict, with champagne. YOu go girl! And MJ, you are scrambled eggs. (kidding, we love you.)
I was wondering what held up my SP declare.
Thanks for this.
I have publicly associated with a known critic and declared SP for a little over a year now. So far I’ve been harassed a bit (not for public discussion, still), but no declare and no disconnections from me.
So another 2-3 years before that happens? 🙂
I guess it depends on how much you act like Katniss in real life. 🙂
To the extent that most of my actions with respect to the cult have many possible interpretations (both for and against the cult), I act very much like Katniss. My praise is never really praise, if you know what I mean. And when they do things to me, I never react to the perpetrators’ faces or discuss what happened in a public forum.
I know it must be KILLING Captain Blackheart to not have smoked out my real identity by now. Plenty of A’s for creativity and effort, though.
It’s looking to me like all the most powerful, most intelligent and well-educated Scientologists are now on the outside of the Co$. 🙂 Why on earth crazy Davy would want to pick a fight with this group of people shows his inability to think clearly. He’s creating a powerful opposing army that is literally in the process of taking him down. Right on, Davey! Keep up the good work.
When I became staff at Saint Hill, the ORG ( SFO)
that I came from circulated the rumor that I had joined the Sea Org
and was declared an S.P. instantly. This was before the internet and facebook.
It never went anywhere as there was nothing in writing and a complete fabrication.
It turned out to be a battle of concepts with one SFO staff who’s ser fac was not on good terms with me. Long story short, eventually all worked out for the best.
Most of the time I let things play out rather than get enmeshed in life and death
struggles over ideas and people who do not amount to a fart in an elevator.
iTS MUCH BETTER TO HAVE REAL ENEMIES THAN FAKE FRIENDS
Hear! Hear!
Wow, that sounds pretty gruesome, Jose!
Here’s to real friends!
Dear Sydney,
All things being relative. When my reserve unit shipped out to Vietnam
we took 80 coffins, after 9 months we filled every one of them.
In Scientology its covertly pushing ideas about someone else to others
and staying invisible to the target you want destroyed ( classic third party)
Marty Rathbun has the tech on that as described in his books on Reverse Scientology and Black Dianetics.
Yeah, Scn is a different kind of war, for sure, Jose.
You’re a wise man Jose Chung. Living such reality tends to keep things in perspective.
Hi Syd. Nice write up. You look great.
Here’s my prediction. A large number of the people who love you and who capitulated to the demands of the group by disconnecting will resent being forced to make that decision. This will set them on the path which leads to the truth.
There can be no other reason for such an egregious violation of basic human rights except to try and continue their game of blocking the truth about dave. The truth that he did torture his staff. The truth that his programs are off-source. The truth that his stats are complete lies. The truth that he lives a life of luxury while everyone else suffers. The truth that he is a sociopathic little tyrant who has no intention of forwarding spiritual freedom. The evidence of these truths is all over the internet. And you are a traitor to miscavige’s goal of making sure everyone is oblivious of the truth.
So I guess I need to know if you are going to do your A-E?
We love you guys.
Perfect comment Les. Ties right in with what I just wrote (immediately before seeing your comment).
Lol! You are awesome, Les!
No A-E for me. I’m looking forward to seeing Davey get started on his long and grueling A-E!
He has a lot of gall altering the tech as he has, treating his support system like doormats, and being an all around buttmunch! I have a feeling he’s going to be working Whole Track Lowers!!
Buttmunch??? ROTHFLMAO. Wonderful new word. Welcome to the fresh air, Sydney. Breathing it, with full awareness, really makes one’s world expand.
As for grudges, I often wonder why an one would “hold” one? Does it somehow raise one’s tone level? Does it make one feel good? Is it not actual proof of the other person’s continuing power over you? Who is it hurting, if not yourself? Is it somehow not carrying on the very vindictiveness which is regularly reported on this blog?
To HATE another is to loose an extremely toxic stream within one’s own body, brain and mind. Hold it for a long time and illness and loss of joy will surely come to pass in your life.
Welcome to freedom. We have been waiting for you. 🙂
😀 😀
Thanks for coming out into the open.
It is always a shock to hear the crap that some Scientologists say to someone who gets declared. “Clear your mu’s and write up your o/w’s!” What a bunch of crap!!
I really have to say that I don’t respect someone who disconnects because they make their money somehow being closely connected to the cult. I think about all the ex Sea Org members who got dumped on the street at age 50+ with nothing and have to start all over, not even eligible for social security. I think if more people stood up and took a little heat it could change this game a lot faster.
After I resigned quite a few of “my friends” dumped me. I realized that they were really never a friend. More of a pretend friend or fellow cult member. My real friends did continue to communicate with me and ended up being declared themselves. I do have lots of love and respect for someone who doesn’t bail when the going gets tough.
Yes, it’s horrible to see someone who’s dedicated their life to what they thought was a great cause only to be thrown out like so much trash. There is so much injustice connected with the RCS these days, I couldn’t not speak out!
I’ve already gotten several new friend requests on FB this a.m. since this post and am looking forward to loads more!
I don’t really hold it against those still in who felt they had to disconnect. My head has been where theirs are. I hope they all find their owns paths back to integrity. I know it can be hard, but like you say, if more people stood up to the suppression, it would be a game changer.
I agree with you Sydney and I hope your transition goes smoothly.
Sydney, an increasing number of people are speaking up. The last time I spoke to our local DSA he had all sorts of DA packs at hand. And from reliable sources I know they’re not only used on those who left in bad standing (like me :)) but these packs are primarily used to keep the questioning flock inside. We can’t expect an organization build up in 60 plus years to crumble down in the 3 or 4 years its been getting serious opposition (Tony O, finally getting serious back up by Marty, Mike, Karen, Steve, and many more). That is, objectively seen, a little more then just wanting to look at the bright side. It IS happening. Granted, I too would like more people to speak out. But that requires the path we all travelled, i.e., voicing doubts within (which is happening a lot these days), inevitably being struck down by harsh ethic’s or nonsensical orders as: “clear your MU’s, no MU’s?…. what are your CI’s on command intention? etc..). Then faced with your integrity beating you up, then finally taking baby steps to find data outside the church. And now you added to the daily growing army of people actively opposing it. Whishing you lots of fun with your newly acquired status of Special Person.
I would have trouble reuniting with a disconnector. I might be a bad person and hold a grudge but I would do it without reservation or limit. 🙂
Well, there are a few people I wouldn’t want to re-connect with. But that’s mainly because they were such perpetrators of the “vulture culture” (as Mike puts it) themselves.
It’d be pretty hypocritical of me to hold a grudge against all of them though. 🙂
Tony – my thoughts exactly who the F**k are you to eval and dare state “Clear your mu’s and write up your o/w’s!” So friggin typical. Probably just another who has not trained and just spews Scientology words out of their ass.
Sydney, good for you and obviously these were never your “friends”. I hope that you prosper in all that you do.
Thanks for your good wishes, Ms. P.
And yeah, I’ve cleared so many mu’s and written so many o/w’s before it came to this, it’s just not a solution I’m keen to look to any more – since it didn’t actually resolve the situation. 😉
Les and I understand that journey that begins when you first spot the discrepancies and you try to fix them. It’s a rough road until your integrity finally forces you to leave because you realize it is totally out of your control. No matter what the consequences may be, OUT is better than IN. We love you and P.
Yes, you two were instrumental in helping me through the initial pain of it all! You are two of my favorite people in the universe! Thanks for always being helpful and honest and wonderful!
Love you Sydney!
Thanks, Christie! Love you too!!
What a brave and good thing you did to come out publicly. This will help a lot of lurkers and KA drinkers who know you. I loved the graphics you did and the copy and paste of actual emails you got regarding disconnection. Save this as proof so that it can be used in the future to prove that it is the church ordering the disconnection and is not voluntary. I’m sorry for the people you lost. I’m in same boat… lost a lot of friends and my kids. Keep posting these coming out stories, Mike. It is helping. Welcome to the group, Sydney!
Thanks, Cindy! It’s been cathartic for me to post on this blog. It’d be great to have it help others too.
I’m sorry for the people you’ve lost too. You and I talked some about your kids (if you are the Cindy I think you are) at the first Indy Ann event in Florida. I hope you are able to re-connect them someday soon!!
It is funny that the following came out of me in my last post:
What is this “self” that one wants to save? Is it the body? Is it the body? Is it the soul?
Isn’t there just a body (physical) and the soul (spiritual)? Mind is just an organ of perception. It is the sixth sense. It belongs to the category of “sense.”
.
The church of Scientology is simply going the same route that the Catholic Church went. It is the same dramatization. It is group aberration under display.
It is fascinating indeed. Underlying this aberration is the desire to save oneself.
What is this “self” that one wants to save? Is it the body? Is it the body? Is it the soul?
According to Buddha:
“The Absolute Truth is that there is nothing absolute in the world, that everything is relative, conditioned and impermanent, and that there is no unchanging, everlasting, absolute substance like Self, Soul, or Ātman within or without.”
Shall we worry about an impermanent, or a dynamically changing soul? Or shall we just be… an ever changing dynamic spirit?
Scientologists like Kirtie Alley seems to defend their religion as if they are defending their ego.
A dynamic soul… when it is identified with some set of fixed ideas, it changes into an ugly ego.
.
very well said…
“Scientologists like Kirtie Alley seems to defend their religion as if they are defending their ego.
A dynamic soul… when it is identified with some set of fixed ideas, it changes into an ugly ego.”
.
Yeah, when a religion needs that much defending, something is wrong.
Thassa right. 😉
very well said…
Hmm.. I do wonder though if Vinay and jonsty are one and the same… Vinay has been known to post under different names. And the link to his blog is telling. That signature…
newline+dot
.
Congrats Sydney…..you have been given a gift of finding out who your real friends are! Can I ask you (and vinaire if you are reading these comments) what “group aberration” on part of Catholics you are referring to? Since it has been around some 2000 years or so, I was not sure exactly what time period, or event in Catholic history that you were referencing. Maybe the the whole Catholic/Church of England/Henry VIII dustup of 500 years ago or the Spanish Inquisition?
I am not sure if a discussion on Catholic Church belongs on this thread, but we can certainly discuss that topic on my blog here:
http://vinaire.me/2010/10/29/can-god-be-defined/
.
I was wondering the same thing myself, Mr Chalker. As a catholic of more decades than I care to count, I’ve never experienced any push to disconnect, never heard anyone speak about their own experience of it, never heard about it in religious history class at school.
You raised the issue on this blog, Vinaire, perhaps you could also answer the query on this blog. One sentence would handle it.
Hi Chee,
Well, a lot of similarities could be drawn, I’m sure. But I was specifically referring to the practice of disconnection or “ex-communication” as the Catholics call it.
Thanks for the congrats. 🙂
Hmmm…come to think of it, I don’t know any Catholics personally who’ve run into this ex-communication problem.
Maybe this is one of those preconceived notions I’ve gotten from listening to other Scientologists justify disconnection.
Wasn’t “ex-communication” practiced in the Catholic Church at one time? Keep in mind that we are looking at a historical perspective. The Church of Scientology may sort itself out like the Catholic Church did after a while. But there is a parallel between “ex-communication” and “disconnection”.
Hello again vinarie, Sydney and Silent Majority
Thank you for your responses…..the reason i asked the question about why Catholicism was brought up in connection with disconnection was, like Silent, I too am Catholic and I have never heard of any Catholic “disconnection” as it were. Sure, we could go back into 2000 years of history and point out all the misdeeds of the Catholic Church (of which there are many) but I think that is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. A much closer analogy to the Co$ practice of disconnection would be with fundamentalist Muslims (anyone who is not a Muslim is an infidel). But it is much less scary to point out the errors of a group (Christians) whose motto is “turn the other cheek” than a group who believes all non believers should be blown up (again, fundamentalist, extremist Muslims)
I agree with you vinaire that this may not be the appropriate blog to extend this discussion, but I do find it interesting that Scientologists seem to have a particular dislike for Catholics. Perhaps that is because the Catholic Church is one of the few organizations that has actually taken a public position on the Co$, calling it “demonic”, but I don’t think it’s fair to make a particular accusation without any proof.
I also find it interesting that the Co$ likes to use the Catholic Church as an example when it is challenged about the precepts of its faith (like DM famously did with Ted Koppel 20+ years ago when he attempted to compare the story of virgin birth of Jesus to LRH’s near miss with a train on the Van Allen belt). I think we need to be cognizant of the danger of doing this as it allows the Co$ to hide behind history. More than once I saw Tommy Davis state “we are a new religion and we are going to have missteps” (I am paraphrasing here) as if their deliberate illegal actions were “missteps”.
I don’t mean or want to start a religious debate here on Mike’s blog, because I agree with you vinarie, it’s not the right place. But I also think this blog should be a place for the truth, so unless someone can provide specific proof, they should be careful of the comparisons and analogies they make.
Sorry vinaire and Sydney,one more comment and I’ll be done. Ex-communication has nothing to do with disconnection. First of you, no one excommunicates anyone, you excommunicate yourself with actions that are seen as not following Catholic doctrine. There is no official “goldenrod” excommunication paper or anything of the sort. Furthermore, a person in the Church can continue to communicate with a person who has been “excommunicated”.
The only thing that happens when you are “ex-communicated” is that you are not able to partake in the Sacraments of the Church. So for example, let’s say someone gets a civil divorce but does not obtain an annulment from the Church and then goes and gets remarried. That person can no longer receive Communion (that is, if the priest is even aware of the situation) until they get an annulment.
Really, the only person who knows If you have not followed Catholic doctrine is you. That is why I say you really “ex-communicate” yourself. No kind of notice is sent, no one in your community knows (unless you tel them of course). It may have been different in the past when the Church made statements about say public officials who have taken a public stance contrary to the Church’s teaching, but aside from denying these people communion or a Church burial, not much is done. I know of a few cases where the Church has refused to bury known Mafia members because they were known murderers, etc.
Brave Sydney! You are awesome. Thank you so much for coming out in the open with your story. You and I have been conversing and friends for a while. I remember your dedication and good work all the way back in Denver when I used to “run you” from my management position. You are good people and you don’t deserve to lose close friends like this. No one does. The toxic disconnection policies of RCS need to stop. Your story, while maybe not as severe as others, still stands as a testament to your bravery and RCS’s stupidity and I’m so glad you are telling it.
Thanks, Chris!
It’s great to be back in touch with you! And much more fun now that you don’t want my weekly report, etc. 😉
Time to make new friends and re-connect with old ones.