In a new YouTube video, Leah and I talk to Rachael Hastings, a former Sea Org member at Scientology Media Productions who escaped in 2020.
Rachael was recruited as a “Pro” (professional) camerawoman and became a favorite of David Miscavige. Then as part of an “ethics handling” for being gay, she was required to interrogate a man who admitted to molesting young girls and engaging in child pornography. Despite her insistence that he be reported, scientology officials in CSI and RTC refused to do so, instead they kept him in the Sea Org and continued to send him out to local scientology organizations where he had perpetrated most, if not all of his crimes.
Due to the YouTube algorithms and policies that result in videos being taken down, we have removed his name and some of the details from the video.
But as I noted in the video description — I am naming him here: Martin Wilkesmann
Wilkesmann admitted engaging in numerous sexual assaults on underage girls, as well as enticing pre-pubescent girls to take off their clothes and touch themselves while he recorded them on a webcam and masturbated.
This guy told scientology officials he could not help himself from engaging in these activities, and yet they did nothing and even sent him back out where he would be in a position to violate other girls.
Elizabeth: I understand your urgency & passion to stop predators, in this case by a “fake” religion, from criminality. However, in trying to stop their crimes, law enforcement is not allowed to break the law either. Law enforcement cannot just hack into an organization or an individuals computer and/or servers, unless they have Search Warrants.
We live in a country that has a Constitution & Bill of Rights. We are not Communist China, Naz1 Germany, North Korea, etc., that can violate its citizens privacy without “probable cause” & a signature from a judge. So, as frustrating as it is that LE has to climb many legal mountains in order to access the digital info you mention above, if we make exceptions to access SCN’s servers based on the suspicions we have that nefarious activities are occurring, we risk losing the protections we treasure as US citizens under the Constitution. It’s a slippery & dangerous slope if we allow invasions of privacy without going through the appropriate legal steps to obtain the info. Any evidence the government would glean illegally would be immediately thrown out in court.
As a retired LEO detective, I think inroads could be made to get an official investigation started; ideally with a federal jurisdiction agency. Beginning with a comprehensive report consisting of carefully collected evidence of human testimony, documents, photographs, video/audio recording acquisition; essentially handing an already well researched issue to the selected agency on a giant platter. Of course, all of the submitted information would have to be independently verified by LE, which could take a substantial amount of time. The first battle in winning this war will be finding the right jurisdiction & agency, with meticulous & principled investigators willing to spend the time & resources to “do it right”.
Speaking as an ex and as someone that has followed this CRAP for 50 years, every illegality was clearly documented over and OVER including hearings in 1982. Yes 1982, in Clearwater, Florida. If you think political AND LE corruption is not involved in this to the very core, you are DELUDED.
I want to thank Mike Rinder, Tony Ortega, Debbie Cook, Hy Levy, Karen De la Carriere, Jeffrey Augustine, Mat and Claire Headley, Aaron Smith Levin and many many others for speaking out and writing truth and exposing the cult of Scientology like you do and have done for over a decade. These writings helped me see the truth and leave and have helped so many people leave the cult. You all are heroes plus the many I haven’t mentioned here. You all faced Fair Gaming because of speaking out but you were courageous enough to do so anyway. Thank you for helping free so many people from that evil cult.
Aren’t they the most ethical group on the planet?
Typical, in my experience. They would justify 1st degree murder.
It’s vile that Scientology harbors sexual predators and that law enforcement is complicit. However, please be cautious if there are confidentiality laws protecting the person confessing. Just as a receptionist in a medical office is not allowed to release medical information (i.e., it’s not only physicians bound to medical privacy), I would think that ALL church employees are not permitted to release certain information even if they are not ordained ministers if information was provided during auditing/confession. I was a victim of sexual abuse and totally support your endeavors, and it would be unfortunate if you all were penalized while the authorities still did nothing about this pedophile.
The fact that this cult is still allowed to run makes me wonder if the authorities are not being paid off. You know, just like the LAPD.
Look at Epstein getting away with so much along with the ‘higher ups’ who financed and partook in the abuse in which he was involved. The pressure was on to put him away, so they did forever. Those who backed him are still free.
Keep up the pressure. Love all of these SPTV channels giving them a run for their money. Get justice for all victims of DMiscavige.
Here, hear.
$cientology – it’s ALWAYS worse than you think.
I’ve been hoping that the successful prosecution of DJ Donkey Punch would lead to a revival of interest in the most horrific of crimes the Kult has been covering up for years – child abuse.
And hopefully this becomes an avalanche of truth that sweeps this evil organisation away finally. Via the only thing that can do so – the US justice system. No govt. agency will take it on as they won’t get the witnesses from “inside” nor the dox. needed – I know that the police here in Oz have planned then abandoned at least one raid because of that.
Nobody wins, nobody rejoices when this sort of vile scumbag is trapped in the light like a cockroach on the kitchen floor. But at least the victims can get some sort of closure.
And hopefully the double-cross Death Star will meet its final implosion and Darth Midget goes down squealing and bawling with it.
Tic toc.
It’s unbelievable that the “most ethical people on earth” would allow this monster to remain in their ranks. Disgusting.
Sweet baby Xenu.
Thank you, Rachel, for lifting your voice and telling your important story.
The hypocrisy — and the cognitive dissonance — of demanding to tell you who you can and cannot love, while turning a blind eye to serial predators is just mind-boggling.
Thank you so much for exposing this. I was in the cult for 27 years and now out for 24 years and the latest avalanche of accurate news on the cult is making me so happy.
This is just sick. Even more sickening is that our government officials just allow them to keep getting away with this crap. At what point are the FBI, IRS, DOJ, etc., going to say “enough is enough”? Just how much more information do they need to put an end to this madness?
We don’t know yet if this has been reported to the FBI, the IRS, or the DOJ that you mention. My understanding (and correct me if I’m wrong) is that Rachel Hastings did report it all up and down the Scn orgs and made her suggestion to turn him over to police widely known. But the church refused to turn him over and even protected him and perpetuated his opportunities to abuse underage girls by sending him out to lower orgs on missions. So I didn’t get that she reported it to the FBI at that time. I think it should be reported now to the FBI and maybe they would raid the place looking for files on this.
Cyndi, Rachael says in the video that she told the FBI what she knew, though I think there was a significant lapse in time after she reported things inside the CofS.
Thank you for letting me know. I stand corrected. I hope they go after this podophile.
Disgusting – to put it mildly. Even though Rachel reported Martin W., I am assuming by now Martin is no where to be found. Scientology has a way of shipping people off to parts unknown if they are part of anything illegal and considering what’s coming down on dave and his “church,” Martin will be G O N E. I hope there are ways around what dave and his “church” will do to avoid prosecution.
By the very nature of Scientology being a “private” religion it has to be and has been a draw for child predators. I know that it is a very small religion backed by large cash. I find it very hard to believe that information about these types of crimes and others are not at least partially saved on computers and hard drives somewhere. I also know that some of these predators had to have accessed criminal activity on public and private servers using Scientology computers at some point. I do not understand why law enforcement has not hacked into all of Scientology’s private servers, related servers and combed through them with a teeny tiny little lice comb for information about all predatory criminal activity of any kind. For Christ sake these people have a travel bureau. There has to be about 6 million ways into these public and private servers. If any information about crimes of a sexual or financial nature ever came within spitting distance of a public server it has to still be there somewhere. It’s like trying to get pee out of a pool.
Off Topic:
Just read that Bijou Phillips is divorcing Danny Masterson.
Smart financial move on her part in that California is a community property state, and the Jane Does will soon be gunning for all he’s worth in civil suits.
Yes, that’s financially smart on her part, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this divorce in the event of his conviction had been pre-arranged and mutually agreed upon.
That said, its both sad and hilarious and so typical of a Scientology cult member to throw the ostensibly much loved one under the bus in this way.
How loyally she stood by her man,all during the trial. How loudly she wailed and sobbed when he was convicted. With such passionate conviction did she say what a “life changing partner” Danny Masterson has been…what a “wonderful father” he was…
BUT! He’s officially guilty now. He’s a jailbird now. A “Degraded Being”. Useless to her and worse, a financial liablity to her. And worst of all, a distinct liability to her cult, so,
“Hey, no hard feelings Danny Boy but I gotta disconnect now, y’know? And I don’t have an infinity of time in which to do it. Its the Greatest Good…Just sign here…thanks…’bye… I’ll visit you… Love you, Bijou.
Talk about a quickie divorce! She’s not even waiting for the appeal that he’ll be filing. And she wants the Masterson name expunged from her official records.
For the record I have no sympathy for the Donkey Puncher.
If it had been Bijou who had been tried and convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to 30 years in prison, he would dump her just as coldly, calculatingly and quickly as she is dumping him. He would without question do to her what she is doing to him.
Here we observe just one more example of the value of the “love” of Scientology cult people. Whether sweetheart or spouse, sibling or friend; parent or child, the “love” of such a person is WORTHLESS.
What I’m going to say next is controversial and I’ll probably regret it, but I’m going to say it anyway. With the caveat that I am one ex-Scientologist from whom a loved one has never disconnected, I’m going to say that such the best way to recover from being treated like this is to close one’s heart and say to oneself AND them (ESPECIALLY them), “Ok, you want to leave me? Fine. There’s the door. Leave. Fuck off, and don’t come back, because we’re done.”
Now, before you tell me how wrong this attitude is I’m going to tell you that I know how wrong it is.
It isn’t the right attitude. It doesn’t make things right. But it sure does make it even.
It sure as hell does “communicate” to a cult member that you KNOW what they are REALLY doing and what they are really saying.
Possibly covered up with sweet words and protests of how difficult this is for them and blah blah blah,…- see, despite such verbal obfuscation what they’re actually doing in real time is dumping you for their own benefit with no concern for your feelings and no willingness to listen to YOU. The real message they’re giving you is “Fuck off. We’re done.”
Therefore you deciding that if they can cut your heart out like this without a qualm then they’re not worth your love or even a smidgeon of concern for them , and letting them know this in no uncertain terms will be understood, and they’ll respect you for it. Why do you have to be just as cruel and cold as they are in order for them to respect you? I’ll tell you why. Because people who can do this have no soul. There’s nothing there any more. Just a shell.
And shell people, robot people, only respect and obey FORCE. One day they may become human again. There’s always that possibility. But in the meantime, they’re not human, if they can do this.
Ergo, they tell you to fuck off, and actually MEAN it? Good, you tell them to fuck off, and mean it. Oh, and by the way, you’d better mean it.
Bingo, you and this person have COMMUNICATED. The contempt for you will dissolve. (You don’t think they have contempt for you? Guess again.) They may not love you any more, or even like you any more. BUT you will be respected, and this person will NEVER forget the way you “handled” it all. He or she will THINK about you, frequently, because you didn’t beg or grovel or justify yourself or plead or plead with them to stay with you.
And here’s something else I firmly believe: Love, affection, etc., without respect or trust is worthless.
So if someone effectively shows you that they neither respect you or trust you, you have to let that person go. No matter who it is. Take the person at his or her word; Disconnection is contempt, distrust, dislike and disrespect. Don’t delude yourself that its anything else, and they can’t help it, etc.
Don’t do that to yourself.
OK, end of rant and thanks for reading this if by some miracle you have managed to do so.
I read it all the way through, Aqua, and I think you make some good points. My kids disconnected from me at the behest of the church. A few years ago I let my ex husband (who is in comm with the kids) know that I took them out of my life insurance as beneficiaries and out of my Will and that they were inheriting nothing from me, no insurance pay out, no inheritance, no nothing. I hope the kids respect me for that. Of course, my hope also is that they leave the cult and come back to me. But as they have both married Scns, that becomes harder when your spouse is a Scn too.
Cindy, first, thank you for reading all thru my off topic and non-sequitur rant.
Secondly – cutting your kids entirely out of your will, your life insurance and your life, and lettoing them know it was…VERY WELL DONE!
YOU disconnected from THEM!
BRAVAVISSIMA!
YOU want no communication from THEM…Amazing!
Boy oh boy, did THAT ever “communicate”!
Of course they’ll never let you know that but mark my words if there was any kind of inheritance of substance that they lost – look, I’m not a betting person but if I had a milion dollars I would put EVERY PENNY on their having been QUITE shaken up by this utterly ballsy, fearless, self-respecting decision you made! I have absolutely NO doubt that this rocked their world.
And its also great because culties that they are, they will have to REPORT this to Ethics.
Aside from the fact that they fuckinjg deserve it for having treated you in such a monstrously unfair and cruel way, I’m glad you did it just for yourself, just for your own dignity as a person, a human being totally separate from them. To use some Scientologese, you made your statement about your own First Dynamic.
In fact, I’d go so far as to opine that they are now revolving ways of getting back in your good graces – for the money.
As long as they’re still in the cult, any reconcilliation with you will be about the money no matter how many crocodile tears they shed to make you feel sorry for them.
Another benefit to what you did: the cult will NOT be pleased to learn that they’re getting nothing from you.
You’d better believe that they’ve been speculating about your health, and their prospects in the event of your demise.
And the cult being the cult, your kids being disinherited by YOU will make them less valuable to CO$ and more likely to be mistreated, which is a good thing, because they more they’re mistreated, the more likely they’ll have to leave.
I applaud you loudly for your courage in doing what you did, Cindy. You actually helped them by what you did. Seriously.
Wow Aqua, thank you! My head is getting so big I won’t be able to get through the door, so big from your accolades. It makes me feel good to get this kind of support and validation for doing something that I know needed to be done for my own sanity. Thank you!
“It makes me feel good to get this kind of support and validation for doing something that I KNOW NEEDED TO BE DONE FOR MY OWN SANITY”.
Pretty much says it all!
So, you’re welcome, and I meant every word, but to see who should REALLY be thanked, look in the mirror.
If I were you I’d be thanking myself every day. Seriously.
Yes, I agree. I should validate myself daily for having the courage to look, to believe what I saw, and to make the decision to leave and keep gone instead of going back to “route out properly” or do “A to E” to get back in. All of us writing here went through the same process of looking, listening, believing what we heard and saw, confronting the evil, and eventually leaving. Congratulations to each and every one of us. And as Tiny Tim said, “God bless us, every one!”
Thank you again, Aqua. I agree that we should all pat ourselves on the back for confronting the evil that is the C of S, for looking, listening, confronting, and leaving. And letting them know that they can go fuck themselves and that you are disconnecting from them, that will make their head spin. So everyone here writing and reading the blogs and speaking out, pat yourselves on the back for getting out and getting free. As Tiny Tim said, “God bless us, every one!”
Tiny Tim, LOL! Yes, Amen to that 🙂
Good move on your part Cindy. I agree with Aqua, if your kids inherit anything from you, it will be in the cult’s coffers before Thursday at 2:00. Even though your are a vile, despicable, bitter defrocked apostate with no hope for eternal salvation, the cult will gladly accept whatever money, life insurance, stocks, bonds, IOUs or whatever they can scrape up after you drop your body. They can take that to the bank. NOT!!!
Yes they have their scruples of not having anything to do with us vile, unwashed, bitter apostates. But no scruples on taking our money after we die. The buzzards picking the bones.
But you see, you know the truth. You know the truth about yourself, and you know the truth about your kids and the cult they’re stuck in. Because you put them there of course but so freakin’ what? How old must they be before they start to look and observe? How old were you? How old was I? How old was Mike Rinder and Leah Remini and thousands of other Ex scientologist who observed what they observed, and eventually got the hell out? We did it; so can your kids. And unless and until they do they are not WORTHY of YOUR company. Nor are they worth your time or any wasted tender feelings. And for goddamned sure they’re not worth a penny of your money! Hate? No way! Indifference at best. Boredom.
And as for what they think of you, why would you care?
If somehow you learned that all the inmates of the local insane asylum thought you were an evil monster who must be shunned, would you care? Woud it bother you?
You’d probably think it funny that they’d be so deluded as to believe that you’re the cause of all the ills of Planet Earth.
You’d laugh about it because in this asylum are people who without their medication would be walking around thinking they’re Napolean or Cleopatra.
They’re nuts, these inmates.
And they think you’re dangerous…so? Its funny, isn’t it? So laugh!
That’s what you should be doing. That’s what we ALL should be doing. Not hating the cult – laughing at it. Because the cult IS an insane asylum, and their member are the inmates.
End of another rant 🙂
Look, I’m getting this ALL out my system, OK?
Rant on, Aqua. Because what you say is true! To label us SP means they give us all the power… they have to disconnect from us because they would melt if they got too close to an SP. The way they shatter suppression is to run, run fast and hard away from these uber powerful SP’s. It is very funny. If they want to look at real evil, have them see documentaries on the Holocaust and Hitler.
I hear you Aqua. I was only reading the other day that the ancient Greeks had about 18 definitions/understandings on the concept of love. It appears that those Greeks back then knew a thing or two about how to get on with one another.
Cults like Scientology and numerous other totalitarian regimes have bastardized all emotional behavior to fit into their agendas of maintaining and expanding their control and wealth. Degrading others is the only way that can go about it, geezers some cultures bind the feet of girls because it looks ‘cute’ and others stone females because of perceived infractions of morals. Hubbard’s own personal life is a prime example of the work-ability of his so called “applied religious philosophy”. What a sick joke he turned out to be, look how he degraded not only himself but his own family(s).
In contrast though and unfortunately it didn’t last all that long in history before going the way of the dollar, was Mary Baker Eddy of Christian Science. She said, “Every individual that you meet, in any situation, has some degree of truth to exchange with you. If you would recognize that, then everything that you would do would be progress. This is not a rationalization, or ‘cute logic’. Even sorrow itself serves the function of never leaving us where it found us.” But nowhere in that statement does it qualify what the truth is, could or should be – it may well be that the truth of that someone is that they are an asshole. Spotting that also fits well in with progress.
The point of all this to me is when assessing people is to spot the soulless fool. Tough call indeed if lies and emotional attraction are involved. Sometimes you get lucky, but at least with Scientology, they herald themselves well now as a criminal organisation and lie not only to themselves but to anyone who would listen or read. While anyone is in that cult they are severely compromised and are blinded towards the humanities. Disconnection is such a lazy and wickedly evil way to manage & enforce ideas.
“…when assessing people…spot the soulless fool.”
Exactly, Yawn.
What really tough though – what has to be the toughest thing to do is spot someone you totally love, someone you totally need and totally want in your life, someone you can’t imagine living without – spot THIS person as a soulless fool, and deal with him or her accordingly.
Yeah, its tough alright isn’t it? Compromising and even going against your own instincts if and when things go south is such a delicate balancing act with your emotions, desires and even grass roots level survival. It can impact your life radically with relationships. There sure can be the dark side compared to the good times.
That’s where Scientology’s disconnection in particular is such an evil thing. Through no fault or personality flaw of your own, a loved one, even a spouse, friends, anyone who believes and follows the insane doctrine of Hubbard’s and severs their life connection from you solely for their perceived benefit of the alleged, but totally false, threat to their immortality. If the ‘tech’ worked as advertised you wouldn’t need disconnection, just communicate or withdraw to a amendable degree but not sever love ones from your life! Miscavige in particular, weaponized it even further but very much kept alive Hubbard’s tool of disconnection for the reason of maintaining control by fear. Fair Gaming is the first cousin of disconnection imo. If there’s a living example of one soulless fool above all other soulless fools, it’s Miscavige. (Notwithstanding those with the power and influence content to keep Scientology exactly the way it is… there are monsters where the light doesn’t shine. Some fly make believe jet fighters or control vast financial wealth).
Aqua, I’m wondering if you still regret saying what you did. I’ve been reading your posts since coming to Mike’s blog many years ago. I think you are one of the more sane, even keeled, down -to-earth, common sense posters here. I happen to agree with your approach with one small tweak. I think it is possible to do everything you mentioned without closing your heart. I have told people:
“Ok, you want to leave me? Fine. There’s the door. Leave. Fuck off, and don’t come back, because we’re done.”
I have done this with no hatred whatsoever directed towards the person in question. I have only pulled this off a couple of times in my life, but it felt good when I did it and the person I was addressing came around completely. I would have felt good even if they hadn’t. The point is, I stood my ground, said what needed to be said and let the chips fall as they may with a clear conscience and no hatred. Pure anger, (what Buddhists might call vajra anger) but no hatred. I wish I were able to pull this off more often but I have plenty of human failings and things usually end up messy.
Hi Ms. B,
Thanks for all the nice things you said 🙂
“Close your heart” was poor phraseology.
I agree with you 100% about hatred.
Hatred is life sapping.
An emotion to be avoided at all times.
Hatred is a totally losing emotion!
What I intended to communicate by saying “close your heart” was advice to not give in to the impulse to beg, to apologize, explain, to justify; to give into the desperate drive to do ANYTHING to keep this particular someone in your life again.
Pleading with the person to understand and agree with you, etc. You don’t do any of this, contrary to how you feel, which is very likely devasted, and overwhelmed with loss. You have no idea how you’re going to exist without this person, but hey, this person is telling you very clearly how expendable you are to him or her, so you don’t show your devastation.
Instead you refrain from prostrating yourself mentally and emotionally, you don’t open a vein. Your feelings mean nothing to this person. If this person loved you he or she could not BEAR to hurt you, to cause you such pain. Show this person your suffering and maybe you’ll be pitied in a superior sort of way.
Someone like this doesn’t give a crap about you and they are showing you very plainly that they don’t, so, you, loving them, desperately needing them, let them go.
You coolly and calmly agree that all communication should be permanently ceased.
no matter how hard it is for you; you’re dying inside but you let them go without emotion.
Its the only way to treat someone who is treating you like this. Its the ONLY thing that will communicate and make the loved one respect you. He or she has decided to ditch you – for whatever reason – the reason doesn’t matter.
Hate? No, absolutelly not. You love this person.
But you do it anyway. Because there’s no mercy there for you with this person doing this. no love, no compassion. So you let the person go, and you convey firmly but without anger that this is final and would he or she please slam the door on the way out. You don’t have that person’s love but you will have that person’s respect. All of this is what I meant to convey with the phrase “closing your heart”. I can’t think of another phrase though I’m sure there’s a much better one 🙂
Because, according to Hubbard, the underage girls “pulled it in.”
If that simple statement in this particular context is not enough to make any Scientologist gag and run away as fast as they can, then their entire conscience has been altered from good to evil, and they deserve any bad thing that comes their way.
Hubbard always bordered on evil intent. An underage girl can not by definition be responsible for the advances of a marauding child molestor. The fact that Scientology continues to provide such a person with fresh opportunities to assault underage females, instead of reporting him to the authorities, tells us how that so-called “church” cares so little for anyone too young to make big cash donations.
Pardon me while I go upchuck. The evil of Scientology knows no limits.