Bob Keenan MC of the London Ideal Org Opening
Bob Keenan was formerly posted as the LRH PPRO UK, but was David Miscavige’s “go to guy” in the UK. He had a relatively short career as one of Dear Leader’s pets.
When Miscavige was in the UK for the IAS event or any other activities, Keenan was “the man”. He picked up Miscavige from Farnborough Business Jet Airport when he arrived in Cruise’s Gulfstream with a little convoy of rented Range Rovers and BMWs. He arranged special food. He oversaw “security” and acted as a personal “bodyguard.”
As LRH PPRO he worked in the Manor, just downstairs from the private office suite of the great man himself. Miscavige took over most of the second floor so he would have a suitable office in keeping with his station in life. (Miscavige also took over the bedrooms on the third floor for himself and his entourage — Miscavige took Mary Sue’s for himself).
As is his habit, Miscavige used Keenan based on whim. Keenan was a Miscavige messenger boy. He accompanied him to the pub and on his “outings”. And he was also Miscavige’s “enforcer.” Keenan was the one that carried out Miscavige’s orders to have me, Heber, Guillaume Lesevre, Greg Wilhere and Marc Yager thrown (clothed) into the St Hill lake (a rather chilly and dirty experience in November). He is also the one who, on instructions from Miscavige, took me into the hallway outside Miscavige’s Manor Office and punched me so hard I blacked out.
Keenan was supposed to be the person who dealt with John Sweeney and the BBC, though he somehow managed to avoid being interviewed on camera. For the most part he simply “reported” about what anyone else was doing “direct to COB.” He was Miscavige’s “trusted” eyes and ears, a spy for Dear Leader who monitored what others were doing.
Miscavige wanted Keenan to move to Int because he was “trusted”. Keenan contrived all sorts of excuses to avoid doing so, mostly on the basis that his wife was “not qualified.” I believe Keenan saw the writing on the wall and knew if he went to Int he would not last long. Miscavige favorites ALL ended up in trouble. He had witnessed it himself. He was happy to deal with Miscavige once or maybe twice a year.
In 2006 Miscavige brought him to the Int Base, and along with Debbie Cook (another of the Miscavige “flavor of the month” pets at the time), they “inspected” the Hole and carried out Miscavige orders to throw all the detainees in the lake on the Int Base (this was one of Keenan’s specialties). Not too long thereafter of course, Debbie herself ended up in the Hole.
Keenan was an expert brown-noser. He was not without charm. He told good stories and had a colorful history. He claimed to have been a London fireman, a British Marine and trainer of competitive yacht crews — though I don’t know which of these stories are true. He NEVER disagreed with Miscavige. He made sure Miscavige had everything he could possibly want, the PPRO staff were used as servants for Miscavige while he was in residence at St Hill, and Keenan ensured the finest foods were available etc etc.
Keenan also had a darker side too. He envisaged himself as a master strategist/intelligence operative. He hired a number of “experts” that worked directly for him. These included former journalists and a guy named James Hunt who claimed to be an expert at surveillance, investigations and had “contacts” to help deal with unpleasant problems. Keenan maintained the lines to these people personally and paid them in cash. Keenan had developed a network of “supporters” who donated cash to the “cause”. He would literally ride off in the middle of the night on his Triumph motorcycle to collect bags of cash from these “supporters” that were then used to pay his “professionals.”
Marty Rathbun published a piece on Bob Keenan on his blog in 2010 — I have reprinted it below:
Miscavige Attempts to Frame BBC’s John Sweeney
For the past several years LRH PPRO UK, one Bob Keenan, has been doing nothing but running intelligence operations directly for David Miscavige, beating and hazing Int staff in the UK directly for David Miscavige, or doing incredibly criminal regging for Idle Orgs directly for David Miscavige. That is how Miscavige deploys his favorite L Ron Hubbard Personal Public Relations Officer. This is an example of how David Miscavige covertly black P.R.s the Founder in a more effective way than all Scientology haters combined can do.
Miscavige started bypassing OSA on operations of a very sensitive nature several years ago. They were too incriminating and too illegal for OSA to be trusted with keeping them from winding Miscavige up in the news or jail. Keenan fancied himself a Cugine (a young ambitious gangster who will do anything to climb the ranks in the mafia). Keenan funded such operations by approaching former GO/OSA public (such as David Gaiman and Andy Hutton) for cash donations. Keenan would then give the cash to “media/invest professionals (MIPs)”(his operatives) so nothing about their dirty deeds would appear on church books. MIPs are generally alcoholic ex-Fleet Street tabloid reports who will do anything against a former colleague for a little drinking money. Keenan had a whole stable of them.
An MIP with Mike Rinder and Bob “Babbo” Keenan
In Autumn 2009 Keenan was summoned to the US by Miscavige and asssigned the task of taking me out, by any means necessary so as to squash the Independent movement. He set up a number of Wile E. Coyote operations many of which are still operating today, including the several juvenile anti-Marty web sites and blogs. All of his ops – backfiring as they inevitably do – have ultimately contributed to the forward progress of the Independent movement. Bob, who was once a cugine, is today merely a Babbo (a mafia underling who is considered to be useless).
The following is taken from a 2007 despatch from Miscavige in which he critiques a Bob Keenan proposed operation to “get Sweeney (John of BBC fame) busted.” The proposal was for a hired resource to befriend Sweeney so that he might set Sweeney up for some illegal activity that Sweeney would then be “gotten” for, fired by the BBC, discredited, and nullified as a threat.
Here are David Miscavige’s verbatim instructions to Babbo Bob Keenan.
MEDIA/INVEST PROFESSIONAL: Speaking of paying people, the only problem with this proposal is that if word leaks out on that, it sounds like we’re paying to “get Sweeney.” The budget isn’t the problem. Doing it on the product basis of “getting him busted” won’t look good if it comes out. You of all people should understand how this works. Solve it. Solve it while not losing the media professional.
Miscavige’s contribution to the plan to frame an internationally renowned journalist (a plan he ordered in the first place) was advice to adjust the wording so the word could not leak out that the church was paying someone for the product of “getting him (Sweeney) busted”, as that would backfire on the church.
In other words, Miscavige’s contribution is to encourage the illegal program, and to compound the felony with slick cover up.
Ultimately, Babbo Bob failed to get Sweeney busted.
Tommy Davis was right when he asserted to the St Petersburg Times that David Miscavige gives a whole new meaning to the term “religious leader.”
—
Keenan was the BMOC at St Hill because he had direct access to Dear Leader. He was with him virtually all the time when Miscavige was in England, and corresponded with him routinely when Miscavige was elsewhere. So everyone knew to be careful around “Mr. Keenan” as he could drop a dime on anyone at any time and they would suddenly be in disfavor and find themselves being investigated by the RTC Reps at St Hill.
But eventually his favored status soured. Just as it does with everyone who comes in contact with Miscavige.
Keenan refused to be “promoted” permanently to Int and then routed out of the Sea Org — supposedly due to a physical disability. The same “explanation” used to cover the departures of Debbie Cook, Tommy and Jessica and other high profile ex-SO members. He divorced his wife (Tatiana) once he no longer needed her to provide an excuse for avoiding being transferred to the Int base.
Keenan was set up with a do nothing job with a wealthy scientologist outside of Brighton named Mike Holland.
But today he no longer works for Holland and is reportedly working with another of his contacts from when he was PPRO UK, Andrew Skirrow.
It seems Keenan now wants to disassociate himself entirely from his scientology past, and has changed his name to “Rob Swan.” Tommy Davis transformed himself into Thomas Davis. Keenan went a step further — he adjusted his first name and came up with an entirely NEW last name.
Some sleuths in the UK tracked this back from a report listing Robert Keenan as a Director of a company named Bright Green Eco Tech in 2011. Then a subsequent check showed Robert Swan as a Director of Bright Green Eco Tech. His birthdate is 1964, which is the same as Bob Keenan.
Robert Swan created a LinkedIn page — with a photo of Bob Keenan. The photo has since been removed. I shouldn’t have been so slow to grab a screenshot!
Bob Keenan disappeared from LinkedIn and as a director of two companies, suddenly to be replaced by “Rob Swan.”
There is no question that Bob Keenan morphed into Rob Swan.
Curiously on his LinkedIn page, Keenan/Swan claims the following (his other activities — ie Bright Green Eco Tech and a couple of other related things only extend back 2 or 3 years):
Huntermay
– (15 years 8 months)San Francisco Bay Area, New York and London
Huntermay – specialists in forensic due diligence investigations, Corporate negotiations, Crisis media management and other related corporate consultation. Huntermay works with a number of international government agencies and multinational organisations to help and train in the effective discovery, isolation and resolving of corporate and governmental contractual risk, litigation mitigation, due diligence, crisis management and asset recovery.
This is apparently James Hunt’s company. The only web presence for “huntermay” is James Hunt on Twitter as “@huntermay” (https://twitter.com/huntermay), though it appears huntermay was dissolved and reformed as mayhunter, with James John Hunt involved in both companies as “Media Manager”. Though both of these companies are reported as “dissolved” in the UK at the end of 2011.
Either “Rob Swan” is telling a lie about his employment history and James Hunt is covering for him or perhaps Keenan WAS working for them during his time in the Sea Org and collecting some of the money he was picking up in paper bags around the UK? It is a strange thing to claim a directorship in an investigation company when he was the LRH Personal Public Relations Officer UK?
I wrote an article that mentioned James Hunt and his US operations in March of this year entitled Black Bag Operations.
This is all very strange. But here is what is not explained at all:
Bob Keenan was the most senior “PR” for scientology in the UK for many years. He was a trusted Miscavige lieutenant.
Why would he be going to such lengths to distance himself from his past? Why is he trying to hide?
He certainly isn’t speaking out about the abuses he witnessed or participated in, though it is rumored he is no longer in good standing with the church…
Perhaps some sleuths out there can come up with some further clues. This has been discussed in the past on other blogs.
Maybe Bob Keenan/Rob Swan would like to talk to me?
Re: Bob Keenan was the most senior “PR” for scientology in the UK for many years. He was a trusted Miscavige lieutenant. Why would he be going to such lengths to distance himself from his past? Why is he trying to hide? “Nobody has even noticed you’re gone, man. That’s the point. You’re nothing.”
Wooo Jens. Tell us all when you are ready.
I think you’re getting the wrong impresion. I was never in, and am relating from newspaper articles and court documents.
Mike
You never came across to me as a whimp, but how the hell did you actually allow this shit bag to throw you in a lake in November?
I do not consider myself a violent person but I had a rule in the C of S regarding staff and public, same rule outside the Org.
Once someone puts their hands on you, you knock them out quickly and cleanly.
Zero tolerence.
I remember telling this to Harvey Jaques once when he got overly mouthy and he did not put his hand on me or he would have pulled back a stump.
Why should anyone put up with physical violence on their person (unless you are alone against 5 but still you can use a brick) is beyond me.
regards
Well, there is no short answer. Same reason people keep giving money to support lies. Same reason people put up with the RPF. Sec checks. Regging at all hours of the day and night. It’s based on the inherent goodness of people who are looking for the good and trying to do the right thing in the face of people who exploit those qualities because they have no conscience.
If you can’t understand this it is simply that you have never gotten yourself into a position where you abdicate your will to a “greater cause.”
Why do people strap on bombs and blow themselves up in order to kill infidels? Because they believe in a higher purpose. It does not make sense. But it is an observable fact of life on earth that this happens in varying degrees of insanity.
Understood Mike.
Perhaps that is why I refused to join the SO as I did not like being dictated to by totally untrained imbiciles who had no understanding of of what a Mission was supposed to do when it arrived.
Tech trained SO at St Hill, that was a different matter.
These people I respected.
But once you met the likes of Harvey Jaques and observed their behaviour you came to realise something was VERY wrong in the Org and being a minority the simple thing was to just walk away.
Having seen how its been over the last thirty years I feel it was the correct thing to do.
@Hiatus57—
While surely some will jump me for daring to say that SO life VS outside life IS different … but it is.
Here’s my take:
Harvey Jacques was mouthy. Harvey Jacques was pushy. Harvey Jacques DID NOT determine whether OR NOT you slept in your own bed that night. Or would see your children the next day.
Harvey Jacques is a bully. Fair enough. Bullies typically will back down when someone stands up to them.
BUT IF he held the key to your next meal. To your next 1-5 years (because IF you hit Harvey for SURE you were heading to the RPF) … would you STILL be so sure what you would do?
Which is why — Brian might think himself a broken record concerning LRH — I consider myself a broken record concerning …
HOW IN THE WORLD can anyone possibly know EXACTLY what is someones karma? Or someone’s future.? Or how damaged someone might be or how HORRIBLE someone is who takes a settlement and forever more is quiet. Or why Mike Rinder didn’t punch that UK guy?
David Miscavige, his minions, the current people IN scientology who aren’t looking, LRH are FABULOUS opportunities to figure out …
WHAT THE F*** am I doing in my life? Why am I STILL constantly triggered by hearing of SO violence or
people who chose to just walk away without a world.
WHAT????
If not you, then who? Is going to find answers that enable you to become who you apparently WANTED to be way back when you got involved.
And the answers — as far as I can tell do not include somehow being incredulous that someone didn’t act as you claim you would have done.
So others get to reply and I don’t?
Interesting that windhorse gets to post such utter uninspected drivel
I am not permitted to point out the oupoints in his statement then?
I assume you are referring to the fact that I trashed your ad hominem response?
Remain at least relatively polite and offer your opinions instead of trying to throw mud at someone else for expressing their opinion and passing judgment on their intelligence or state of mind and you can say practically anything you want here as long as it’s on topic.
Turn this into an ad hominem forum and you will find you are shut down.
BTW, windhorse is a she, not a he.
Thanks Mike. I’ve notice a lot of Marty’s posters are now appearing here because his blog is no longer being posted.
+100
“He is also the one who, on instructions from Miscavige, took me into the hallway outside Miscavige’s Manor Office and punched me so hard I blacked out.”
Mike, like Conan I’m speechless too.
Mike, permit to ask, I’ll take the risk that you may find this a stupid question, WHY did you let him do it?
So many able men, who were much bigger and stronger than Miscvige, were punched by him. WHY did they let him do it? In Nazi Germany many Jews did not defend themselves. However, they were faced by guns and by physical death. I would say that the normal reaction of a man, when hit by another man, is to hit the hell back. Why did no one ever hit the fuck back?
Fear of the consequences of doings so. Conditioning that caused you to believe you “deserved” it and to lash back would have been to confirm that it was your overts and withholds that were the root cause of the problem.
That is pure evil. I am sorry you had to experience that Mike.
I am sorry for always pushing this. But I truly feel its important to look at:
This violence against normal people goes way back. The blue print for this evil was started here. Please read folks.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/roos/roos-books.html
The betrayal of this organization calling itself a “church” leaves one so angry!
I must sound like a broken record:
the blue print, the architecture, the procedure, the philososphic reasoning, the us vs them mentality, the holy writ to fight the enemy, the black ops instruction-training-check list-demo, the institutionalization and paramilitary immoral nature of this, was how Ron himself dealt with the “enemy.”
All of the heart ache that you Mike, you Marty, you Karen and all the rest – is written up as black ops tech written by LRH to do exactly what it’s doing: to destroy
LRH created this monster and a monster is applying his tech. I have heard from you that know him, Dave, that he sent leather bound books of Bolivar out to people.
If LRH thought like Mother Theresa, Dave would be feeding people. LRH hated criticism and competition. Dave is a good student.
Excellent article Mike. I have written up my experiences, it’s problems, emotions and all the crap one goes through after working for or even volunteering for OSA, for my own healing. One becomes stigmatized with a trust issue, and finds it hard to trust others or be trusted again. That’s hard to get through and can take many years. Thank you for your blog and continued exposure to the truths.
Whiler it’s difficult for me, as a never-in, to feel compassion for OSA volunteers, the story of Remy PETIT in France does bring home that it’s alll a slippery slope[1] and the real abuse is metered out by the criminal organisation known as the “church” of $cientology.
So, OSA volunteers, stop ruining your lives trying to ruin the lives of others, m’kay?
[1] Remy PETIT went from doing some minor harassment of a “psych” who was an expert wittness in a trial for manslaughter of $cientology public Patrice VIC. After stealing some mail and other fun and games, Remy turned state’s evidence and was instrumental in assuring conviction of several staff at the top of OSA France. On the eve of the inevitable appeal, Remy PETIT was found dead, the police being satisfied that there was no case to pursue, i.e. his death was ruled a suicide. (All of this is as I remember it from reading a couple of court documents some time ago, the original conviction is on the Internet with the names blanked out.)
Bob Keenan’s life was so full of oddities it never made any real sense. I spent many hours/days with the guy over the years in the UK and noticed he only ever told anecdotes and never really described his life in the army or as a fireman and left a great deal out. In hindsight his life descriptions read like cover stories. Though he was the LRH PPRO he did anything and was into everything but his actual job. His actions were highly destructive. He got involved in destroying a viable Sunderland Org (a viable Sunderland was a rarity indeed) and was heavily involved in destroying Birmingham Org apparently at David Miscavige’s behest, or so he said. And that’s just a couple of his acts.
This article, added to the data I already had, now makes me wonder whether Bob Keenan’s “contacts” worked for him over the years or he was really working for them all along.
I’m curious. How does a LRH PPRO go about destroying these orgs? What, exactly, are the moves? Does this gentleman intend and succeed at destroying orgs, or does he intend to help and fail miserably?
No he did not intend to help. Here’s one example: the ED Sunderland took out a loan to pay for some auditing she had at St Hill. She did not tell the bank the loan was for auditing. Bob Keenan found out and said it was “fraud” and there could be PR repercussions then had her removed from post and declared type B criminal by OSA. Bob was so “in” with DM no one questioned him. With no ED the org crashed and never recovered. Of course she was ostracized to boot. This is just one example of Bob Keenan terrorizing staff. I have many many other examples.
Ta very much Mike. this is exactly what I was just about to start looking into LOL! Funny dat 😀
It’s posts like this that make me very glad I was referred to The Sociopath Next Door, by Martha Stout.
It all makes sense when you simply face up to what you are really dealing with…people who really, honestly, sincerely don’t give a shit about anyone.
Bob Keenan/Rob Swan seems to have too much money. Any customer that dealt with Mr ‘Swan’ probably got the ‘it’s an emergency’ bums rush, something akin to the ‘Spanish Prisoner’ scam. And now that the ‘businesses’ are closed, the trail gets colder.
Of course that doesn’t mean that Keenan/Swan didn’t skim from the Sweeny affair or any other job. All that cash must have been very tempting, and the timing works out. Collect for the Sweeny job and then escape later. I smell another clam scam.
Keenan/Swan could make a lot of money writing a book about what saw and did in the CO$. Let’s hope he sees that. Or did he get a Debbie Cook payout when he left?
Is there any end to the rabbit hole of miscavige’s corruption?
What truly makes my skin crawl is the concept of: is there such a thing as a “friend of miscavige?”
He truly gives credence to the term, ‘guilty by association.’
Mike, excellent post. I cringe when I see what you went through at the hands of DM and his henchmen. YOu are doing such good work on exposing this shit, and doing it so well. I was struck that this would make a great movie either on the big screen or a made for TV movie. You just can’t make this stuff up.
And then another thought came in. In one of Shakespeare’s plays, the son finds out that the mom and uncle are lovers who conspired to murder his dad so that they could be together and take over the kingdom. He decides to produce a play with the same story line…. “the play’s the thing / wherein we’ll prick the conscious of the king.” It is mean to Miss his Withholds and hopefully drive him insane from it, or at least drive him out.
We should do the same thing! If a movie was made of all this back story stuff, the illegal mob type of OSA stuff that DM is up to his eyeballs in, and made the story follow pretty closely the real life happenings, it would miss DM’s withholds but good and might throw him over the edge and thus end his reign of terror faster, kind of like help Karma along…. Any screen writers out there?
Thank you Mike for this post , I find it necessary to be reminded of why I defected and lost family. Having never been in the so or on staff I only had the eyes of a public person and only observed the subtle consequences of the abuses on the staff and the culture , although I got a small taste of it during recruit cycles if my children.
I hope Robert Swan starts talking and help speed up the recovery process for others and himself.
This is so crazy.
Yet more exposure to what’s going on behind the curtain or behind the thin social veneer that those still in represent and keep hidden.
At this rate I’m not sure IT will ever end but I do know that it needs to. What a cruel, vicious, destructive organization.
I wonder what people like Tommy or Jessica or Bob/Rob would say about why their silence. Cuz it’s such a great movement? Cuz not keeping silent will bring the wrath of this wealthy group down on them?
McCarran,
I think Les nailed it is his post a little further down…
“It all makes sense when you simply face up to what you are really dealing with…people who really, honestly, sincerely don’t give a shit about anyone.”
If they did ……. they would do something about it. Know them by their actions! And if you think because someone is out that they have changed ……. well ……… maybe and maybe not.
Yes, you’re right, Cooper (Les). “Know them by their actions” is right.
“He is also the one who, on instructions from Miscavige, took me into the hallway outside Miscavige’s Manor Office and punched me so hard I blacked out.”
Mike,
Why is it that ex-Scientologists can so matter-of-factly make statements like that? I made a statement sort of like that in an email to you a few days ago. In Scientology, a statement like that is business as usual. In the real world, statements like that are distressing at best. I guess if you were to look at that from a sane non-bubble viewpoint, that alone would be enough to make you turn and walk away.
I don’t think that ability is limited to ex-scientilogists. It could be the result of trauma. I can make similar statements about the physical abuse I experienced or witnessed as a child. I don’t know what the explanation is but I can certainly relate to statements like Mike’s.
Maybe it’s just what happens sometimes when the abnormal was your normal. Emotion gets disconnected from the memories as a survival technique.
How else is one suppose to state a fact about physical abuse in a blog post? Is Mike supposed to add in *crying* after writing some one used him as a human punching bag? You state what happened to you, you could be more dramatic but there is really no need when you are speaking of abuse that merely accurately describing it does the job nicely.
In my experience, this is from Ex-SO and people who have never been in a cult, people can usually easily speak about physical abuse or incidents – it’s the mental and psychological abuses that go much deeper and are more difficult for most people to put into words.
Most Ex-SO I know would much rather have taken a gut punch or a few hits to the head over a year in the RPF, or SP hall, or a few days of gang band sec checks. Physical assaults and abuse grab attention in the media, but victims will usually always tell you the physical stuff was peanuts compared to the mental torture.
Very insightful Cre8tivewmn. Abuse has many forms. We all have such vastly different experiences. Being quite feral before I got into Scn, if I encountered even a very slight abusive tone, I was very likely to become violent. Scn actually helped me to handle this, as I found peace and solace, in the auditing room, where I had control over the skill to relieve suffering for others, and being causative over the evil I had seen. I was an HGC auditor before I finished life repair. This is probably backwards for most people. In my experience, in listening to many, I found the continuous invalidation and neglect of children, (neglect is a powerful invalidator) to be the most deeply damaging. Just my experience. There have been many Miscavige helpers in the demise of Scn. They will reap what they have sown. The SO had such a deep chasm between “heroic, selfless, strong, dedicated” and “total worthless piece of shit abuser and abusee”. I feel much compassion for their struggle to make sense of their experiences. My only humble advice is…don’t forget to put the good, in the mix of your analysis of your experiences, as well as the bad. “Grief is evidence that you loved well.”
“He is also the one who, on instructions from Miscavige, took me into the hallway outside Miscavige’s Manor Office and punched me so hard I blacked out.”
Mike I don’t know what to say. I’m speechless with rage
What a repulsive, psychotic cult the Church of Scientology is.
David Miscavige you are a baboon.
Speechless with rage might be how Mike felt at the time….plus knowing any retaliation
ie: kicking Babbo’s ass, would not result in a better condition for Mike at that time.
But now Mike has picked his moment and is delivering a counter punch much stronger
than the one Babbo Bob delivered.
Rage was also my immediate reaction when I read about you getting punched so hard by this cowardly creep that you blacked out, Mike. To quell the fury I kept telling myself over and over that you couldn’t retaliate without getting further beaten or otherwise punished, so best to just make no resistance. Still…
OMG…I feel like clawing his eyes out. I’m not surprised that he changed his name. Despicable person.
Great that you’re shining this light on him now, Mike. Whether he has gone undercover or now actually out, the spotlight should follow him everywhere. As a Mafioso afficianado, he is undoubtedly familiar with this group’s chief maxim: “Don’t get mad, get even”.
Changing your last name does not erase Karma.
Bags of money extorted or leveraged from others makes things worse.
The real why is David Miscavige, you just cannot procrastinate beyond that.
But of course David Miscavige was mentored by one of the best and he took to his mentoring well. Refer to Tony Os blog today for basic on deception and where the karma of the cult originated…… all IMHO of course.
Another fantastic post, Mike.
This is the kind of information that I think is very important to expose. And when you do it, you do it so very well.
As they have been in your “Black Bag Operations” post (which I think is one of the most important you have ever written) I think these few sentences alone could be fuel for many important posts exposing Scientology fanaticism, criminality, and abuse:
Questions to stir up more possible stories:
1. Who were the targets of these investigations?
2. What were the unpleasant problems, and how were they “solved” exactly?
3. What specific actions were taken that the targets did not know about?
4. What specific damage was caused to them?
5. What resources and methods were used during these operations, and are those resources and methods still in use and something people should be watching out for?
Exposure of these covert Scientology operations is a public service for a free society, and for the individuals who have been, and still could be, harmed by them.
Thanks for your all your work, Mike.
Alanzo
Curiouser and Curiouser… well, I would say either Bob/Rob is either on the way out or the way IN – DEEP, DEEP IN, like covert mole. Pretend to be disaffected, declared, infiltrate the Scn community and work his magic.
I find the name changing business rather humorous, as if us dumb country bumpkins can’t connect the dots.
What’s next? Plastic surgery? A sex change? Roberta Albatross…it’s gotta nice ring to it.
On your way out and in deep deep in are sort of the same thing sometime actually. Those who go the deepest into the organization find out the ugliest secrets.
As you know Mike — and others who know/knew me — I stopped taking services in 1993 — after attaining OT VIII (I believe version 2) — and 20 years of involvement in Scientology — 8 of which were in the Sea Org — 5 at Flag, first as senior management – then 2 in the FSO.
I provide this bit of background as background only.
While Idle Morgue has salient points — I have found for me at least that trauma is MUCH more complicated than just a cognition about how bad LRH is/was and what a con he ran.
Trauma gets remembered IN the body. Not OT/NOTS style but in the very fiber of the body. Types of yoga and chi gong can start to bring this forward.
I’ve worked with and for VETS for years and trust me — THEY have trauma. DEEP DEEP trauma.
My suggestion for those genuinely interested in freeing themselves from chronic flash backs, nightmares, knee-jerk reactions to people and to REGAIN the youth exuburance they had when they joined Scientology in the hopes of better their lives and the lives of others :
Google Peter Levine — PhD — Healing Trauma — there are LOTS of his books available …
TRAUMA is something that is just now in the past 10 years really gathering understanding and hope.
AND IMHO — there isn’t a scientologist who was IN the SO who didn’t experience TRAUMA.
Deep trauma. From chain lockers on the Apollo, to being punched in the stomach to losing ones child and family. To never addressing TRULY their own childhood/teenage trauma and thus live currently without having addressed and handled THE cause of their addictions and are disassociated from the reality of their lives.
I’ve found that many of the former scientologists who were in the SO while many are experiencing on the surface good lives — children, homes etc … there is a deep wall-off part of themselves … they tend to NOT be able to fully embrace themselves and are often somewhat cold.
In point of fact — a FULLY whole human being is a deeply caring, warm and compassionate soul.
Love,
Windhorse
Very wise comments, Windhorse. One thing that strikes me about combat vets I’ve known is that their response to and recovery from trauma seem to vary dramatically from one individual to another. I’m doubtful there’s a single approach to recovery that works for everyone, or even that we can agree on what the ultimate desired outcome would look like for everyone. People are so different.
“People are so different” — precisely true.
There is no one size fits all.
There are some incredibly valuable workable tools however which can start to unlock the mystery of life and living which includes trauma, death etc.
One thing that I like to try to keep in mind is this from 9th Century Buddhist– Shantideva:
“No one knows our fate and none our suffering”
Windhorse
I believe you are right on; seen it, been there in a much lower gradient, nontheless experienced it. Its a complex sit and each person needs to adress these issues individually. After 3 years Im still amazed at what goes on in this particular organization and the degree of trickery Hubbard was able to construct. But its journey well worth the hatd work to rediscover ones self.
Warm Regards
+100 windhorse.
“AND IMHO — there isn’t a scientologist who was IN the SO who didn’t experience TRAUMA.”
And perhaps there isn’t a scientologist (member of a cult) who didn’t experience TRAUMA either. When you become management and impose it on others the depth has the potential to increase exponentially. When you run it on yourself it can become a ‘game over’ scenario.
Cooper — absolutely — everyone as far as I can tell — experienced trauma being part of scientology. Public, staff in outer orgs, mission staff, and SO staff whether top, middle or low level staff member.
The affects are long term and very few survived unscathed. Some feel AS IF they’ve survived but their lives are fractured by divorce(s), addiction(s), failure(s) and even non-failure.
Every day I see a part of myself that is still walled-off from what “should” be a complete person. Some comes from pre-scientology trauma … other from scientology trauma.
BUT as a member of this unique cult, scientology, we have a shared unique experience that members of other cults and/or religions cannot understand.
We — as a group — have a shared karma.
Which makes THIS blog and others so valuable. The ability to face our *sins*, our failures, our hopes and fears and bring them to light.
Windhorse
Thank you Windhorse for your response to Cooper. You have spoken my truth and my heart. I hope one day I and all of us that suffered at the hands of this group will recover.
“No one knows our fate and none our suffering”. Exactly
Yes, windhorse +1000.
I actually got a “service dog” when I rescued my Chesapeake Bay Retriever from the pound 5 years ago. She didn’t know she was my service dog, I didn’t know she was my service dog.
However,though my dog belongs to both my husband and me and is very loyal, she “alerts” when I am showing symptoms of the PTSD (and hey I would never admit I even had PTSD – I’m one strong person, just ask anyone around me) from my years in SO and B1, flashbacks to the abuses that I experienced and comes between me and whatever is causing me distress.
If my husband raises his voice, and he works in a noisy environment so he tends to talk really loud a lot of time no matter how much I tell him to use his “inside voice”, that sets me off. She senses my internal distress and gets between the two of us, ears alert. If he keeps talking loud, she will actually physically push him further away from me then lick his face til he talks quieter.
I believed I was tough and relatively unscathed by my years in Sea Org and B1. It took me “saving” a dog to find out that I was the one who needed saving. I used to pride myself on my ability to handle any situation without emotion. Now I am glad to once again feel emotion.
Valerie — what a wonderful story and experience. Without my three, four-legged furry friends – who each in their own way act to “save” me, I would be seriously lost.
Once when waking up from a terrible nightmare and then moving in an odd way — I had a gut wrenching charlie-horse and was (yes) screaming in pain. I had my leg off the side of my bed and my cat – Shadow – bit my toe (not hard but enough to feel it for sure)—- which startled me so much, the charlie horse went away and I started to laugh.
She wakes me up often from nightmares. Although I didn’t realize it until recently – I just thought she was being irritating. 🙂
Love,
Windhorse
Valerie, What a wonderful story. Thank you for sharing it. I’m so glad you are recovering with the help of that wonderful dog. And regarding “wogs,” we have (well I have) thought when in the RCS, that I was on a much higher plane than a mere wog and that I could help them, etc. But that help came from an elevated level of superiority and almost condescendence, born from the idea that we are better than them and cream at the top etc. This is taught to us in the cult and it makes a wedge between “us” and “them.” How do you get in true ARC with this attitude? I contend that there are “wogs” we may seek to help and end up having them help up us instead, just as your dog did. There is no one monopoly on truth. You find it in all sorts of places and likewise, helping others or being helped comes from the most surprising of places and incidents.
Your compassionate view lets you see so much, and you are right.
There is another aspect to this trauma that some may or may not have considered, and that is the trauma of reliving your own experiences by reading the experiences of others. It is helpful and healing to read that one is not alone, and yet when I read about others being pressured by the IAS or recounting a desolate childhood, I am right there and can feel it, even though it isn’t “my” experience – it still feels traumatizing.
Well this article has got me thinking, and wondering about Bobbo Bob.
Awesome piece today Mike. Thank you. Scary to look at your skeletal photo again. Who needs any more evidence of the management abuses of Scientology.
Scientology – it sure fucks people up!
Some people just can’t handle the truth.
They hide and then dwindle down to nothing.
They make no effort at all to figure out what happened to their lives.
There is an excellent posting by Mockingbird (with help from Arnie Lerma and Jon Atack) on EXSMB about how Scientology really works.
It’s complicated but until one fully understands what happened to them and how they went from trying to improve their lives to giving up all of their money and signing billion year contracts to work for free and get abused – they don’t heal and will be prone to get sucked into other cult like groups and activities. (Based on what I have observed). One must study hypnosis and mind controlling tactics used by the Co$ to trap, enslave and ruin lives.
It does take a lot of courage and Bob Keenan, Tommy Davis and others who have witnessed the abuse as well as participated in it – have NO courage. I am afraid they are too far gone. Look at Pat Broeker.