The powers that be get very tight lipped …. took me several rounds and a couple of weeks to get to the truth when Enid Byrn (my AOLA reg) ‘disappeared’….. Cancer – I’m sure it had (likely still has) something to do with the obvious ineffectiveness and uselessness of ‘going OT’. And what was the ‘party line’? Obviously the fabulously thought stopping phrases were …. ‘she was PTS’ and naturally ‘she pulled it in’ – Because blaming the person for their illness removes any doubt that the Tech ‘works’. Sickening. I’m glad my brother got out of the SO when he did. He was at GOLD and was fitness boarded ….. I’d love to know if he’s no longer involved, but I can’t talk to him about it …. I can’t tell him I’m out…. for all I know he’s under the radar too!
Sad but true. I saw some of these guys that gave most of their life’s to the sea org ending up at least once a year before a fitness board to see if they were still OK to be there. Just because some exec asked for it. Poor people I remember their faces in fear trying to move faster and be more productive. Lucky that they claim to help people.
Are there any retired Sea Org bunkerites collecting Social Security from their SO earnings alone? It seems it would be difficult, since a $25 – $50 weekly paycheck is not enough to qualify for SS. One needs at least ten years of earning $10,000+ per year, with the FICA taxes properly deducted, to qualify for US Social Security at retirement age of 65-66. That sounds like an outside income is necessary, for sure, to qualify for Social Security.
The Social Security payment scale is weighted for inflation, so money earned in one’s youth is important. During our 20s my close friend finished college quick, and went into a good-paying field right away. I hung around pool halls, worked blue collar jobs, and was always broke. But during our 40s-50s the status was reversed – I had a new degree and a good professional income, and my friend’s chosen field had collapsed, so he was working blue collar jobs. Despite nearly equal lifetime earnings, my SS check lags behind his by $600 a month. My youthful goofing off? Expensive, though I didn’t know it at the time.
With Occult magic, Hubbard eliminated old age, sickness and death for Laurie Guerin or Webster the last Sea Org member ordering me to return to the Freewinds ship. Laurie, I won the battle. For thirty years we have all been a very happy family with far better chances than you. Good luck.
Louis Schwartz ? Tall gentlemen from NCY, a Reg at Flag. He was my Flag reg and then one day he disspeared. I asked his wife, the blonde woman,but she was tight lipped.
Hi George,
I met Louis in 1975 in San Francisco. He was married to Maureen and I think that Julian is their son. Anyway, Louis joined the See Ogre soon after he divorced Maureen and was a reg at Asho and later at Flog.
Seemed like I’d run into him every few years. I liked Louis a lot. Good man caught in a terrible cult.
I heard Louis had Dimentia or Parkensons Disease but was still in the SO back in 2010 or so. I would imagine he would have been dumped onto the welfare lines by now. Can’t imagine Julian wanting to to care giving when their is a planet out their to salvage.
Heber might be one of the good guys. At least when he was being Heber the human being and not Heber the scientologist. The poor bugger has been swilling the KSW Kool-Aid for so long every cell of his quickly aging body is saturated with it. I would bet that if the razor wire fence was opened and he was strongly encouraged to walk out, he wouldn’t do it even though he probably has family that would take him in. It is incredibly hard to admit to being a sucker for the con. It’s often easier to be “right” than look like a fool. He has wasted his life for the cult. Extremely sad.
Nails on the head all over the place Ms. B. Those I know who are still in just have to be right. As Hubbard would say, they’re being “last ditch right”. Too painful to admit that they wasted so many years. At least we on this blog and at Tony’s, etc., can confront and admit this, painful as it sometimes is to do so.
I observe some people being “last ditch right” when it comes to politics, too. And about their personal relationships. People getting done in that way. And about their children – OMG, especially about their kids! Willful blindness. And their “kids” take full advantage of it. Very sad. I’ve got “kids” in quotes because the ones I have in mind doing their parents in are in their late 30s, pushing 40.
Its sad, really, observing up close the people I know who do themselves in, in this way – some of them Scientologists, some of them in other ways. Its hard to just stand there and observe how they keep letting themselves be hurt, and conned, taken advantage of, etc., just so they can keep on being right. Makes me want to SHAKE them and say, “Wake up! Can’t you see what’s HAPPENING here?”
There could be if they could get the government to pay for it.
However, since the employer of “religious workers” don’t have to pay social security and retirement benefits in exchange for not having to pay stuff like minimum wage or obey labour laws – by not taking care of these people in their old age, they’re almost certainly violating their religious worker contract.
So the government wouldn’t pay the employers of exempt ‘religious workers’ because the employer is contractually obligated to. I’m no law-knowin’ guy, but i think that’s supposed to be how it works.
“There could be if they could get the government to pay for it.”
James what are you talking about? I said, “There is certainly no S.O. financed retirement homes.”
“– by not taking care of these people in their old age, they’re almost certainly violating their religious worker contract.”
Wrong James, there is no such clause in SO contract.
Isn’t the whole point of a “religious worker” status such that: in exchange for not having to abide by labour laws that include things like paying a minimum wage, benefits, social security, i.e. all the stuff that a normal business would be required to pay for; the religious employer agrees to take on the responsibility of caring for the needs of the worker, including retirement?
I mean, that’s what i thought you had to agree to. “Monks in a monastery” for their entire lives. Am i wrong here?
There is a home for elderly SO members…at least there was about ten years ago…I believe it is on Fountain Ave…but I don’t know how it is financed. I think it is small. I know friends who visited there. It may be a place that just happened to have SO members there, but I was told it was for SO members. I like to think it still exists.
The cult is stingy and heartless. One would think that a lifetime of service filled with very long hours, hardly any pay and hardly any time off would move them to create facilities for those willing to contribute but no longer able to do so. Who was it that said that a culture defines itself by how it treats its children and its old people? Cruel cult. No matter how much you’ve contributed, if/when you are no longer useful, well, screw you. Its wrong, so wrong.
“There is a home for elderly SO members…at least there was about ten years ago…I believe it is on Fountain Ave”
Annie, I know the building. That isn’t an SO retirement home. There are about 10X as many SO members who are past retirement time than would fit in that building. Unless they have very “interesting” showers fitted in the bathrooms.
Back in the day when there were a bunch of us 20-30 somethings busy evading SO recruiters, we used to joke that we would join the SO one day as a retirement plan. We wanted to get on with our lives and try and have a little fun while we were young and able to do so. We figured we could suffer for the cult in our old age and be taken care of. All very ‘other fish to fry’ attitude. Most of us woke up and got real jobs with pension plans and are doing quite well in retirement now. Not so with those still chasing the rainbow of ‘OT’ super powers and total cause over matter, energy, space and time. Suckers…
The Freewinds financed the HIV when I got it.
And they financed the chiropractor who treated me for full blown AIDS.
They may as well spent the money on a gas chamber. The result would have been the same.
I believe it was in 2013 when I was still at AOLA/Big Blue, a retirement facility in nearby Glendale, CA; was taking in “retired” S.O. Members, and there were a handful there. I left the SO just before Christmas 2014 and am now out of Scn as well, not sure if the place in Glendale is still being used or not.
unelectedfloofgoofer says
I think we haven’t seen the last of Richard yet. You have to be really tenacious to hang on in the Sea Org as long as he did.
Notmy Realname says
The powers that be get very tight lipped …. took me several rounds and a couple of weeks to get to the truth when Enid Byrn (my AOLA reg) ‘disappeared’….. Cancer – I’m sure it had (likely still has) something to do with the obvious ineffectiveness and uselessness of ‘going OT’. And what was the ‘party line’? Obviously the fabulously thought stopping phrases were …. ‘she was PTS’ and naturally ‘she pulled it in’ – Because blaming the person for their illness removes any doubt that the Tech ‘works’. Sickening. I’m glad my brother got out of the SO when he did. He was at GOLD and was fitness boarded ….. I’d love to know if he’s no longer involved, but I can’t talk to him about it …. I can’t tell him I’m out…. for all I know he’s under the radar too!
Xenu's Son says
Nice one RB,thanks.
LoosingMyReligion says
Sad but true. I saw some of these guys that gave most of their life’s to the sea org ending up at least once a year before a fitness board to see if they were still OK to be there. Just because some exec asked for it. Poor people I remember their faces in fear trying to move faster and be more productive. Lucky that they claim to help people.
Ammo Alamo says
Are there any retired Sea Org bunkerites collecting Social Security from their SO earnings alone? It seems it would be difficult, since a $25 – $50 weekly paycheck is not enough to qualify for SS. One needs at least ten years of earning $10,000+ per year, with the FICA taxes properly deducted, to qualify for US Social Security at retirement age of 65-66. That sounds like an outside income is necessary, for sure, to qualify for Social Security.
The Social Security payment scale is weighted for inflation, so money earned in one’s youth is important. During our 20s my close friend finished college quick, and went into a good-paying field right away. I hung around pool halls, worked blue collar jobs, and was always broke. But during our 40s-50s the status was reversed – I had a new degree and a good professional income, and my friend’s chosen field had collapsed, so he was working blue collar jobs. Despite nearly equal lifetime earnings, my SS check lags behind his by $600 a month. My youthful goofing off? Expensive, though I didn’t know it at the time.
Wynski says
“The Social Security payment scale is weighted for inflation”
Not really. The gov’t stopped tracking actual monetary inflation around 1972. They now use measures that don’t at all reflect inflation.
Zee Moo says
Richard is chum.
George M. White says
With Occult magic, Hubbard eliminated old age, sickness and death for Laurie Guerin or Webster the last Sea Org member ordering me to return to the Freewinds ship. Laurie, I won the battle. For thirty years we have all been a very happy family with far better chances than you. Good luck.
George M. White says
I wonder where Louis Schwartz is now. He was a great guy.
Christopher Baranet says
Louis Schwartz ? Tall gentlemen from NCY, a Reg at Flag. He was my Flag reg and then one day he disspeared. I asked his wife, the blonde woman,but she was tight lipped.
George M. White says
Thanks for the update. Last I heard he was in California.
l
Newcomer says
Hi George,
I met Louis in 1975 in San Francisco. He was married to Maureen and I think that Julian is their son. Anyway, Louis joined the See Ogre soon after he divorced Maureen and was a reg at Asho and later at Flog.
Seemed like I’d run into him every few years. I liked Louis a lot. Good man caught in a terrible cult.
I heard Louis had Dimentia or Parkensons Disease but was still in the SO back in 2010 or so. I would imagine he would have been dumped onto the welfare lines by now. Can’t imagine Julian wanting to to care giving when their is a planet out their to salvage.
George M. White says
Thanks for the update. I liked Louis a lot. I would help him if I could.
Old Surfer Dude says
Heber is MIA. And has been for a very long time. He’s one of the good guys & it’s a shame that this is happening to him.
But…This is Scientology. People disappear.
Ms. B. Haven says
Heber might be one of the good guys. At least when he was being Heber the human being and not Heber the scientologist. The poor bugger has been swilling the KSW Kool-Aid for so long every cell of his quickly aging body is saturated with it. I would bet that if the razor wire fence was opened and he was strongly encouraged to walk out, he wouldn’t do it even though he probably has family that would take him in. It is incredibly hard to admit to being a sucker for the con. It’s often easier to be “right” than look like a fool. He has wasted his life for the cult. Extremely sad.
Aquamarine says
Nails on the head all over the place Ms. B. Those I know who are still in just have to be right. As Hubbard would say, they’re being “last ditch right”. Too painful to admit that they wasted so many years. At least we on this blog and at Tony’s, etc., can confront and admit this, painful as it sometimes is to do so.
I observe some people being “last ditch right” when it comes to politics, too. And about their personal relationships. People getting done in that way. And about their children – OMG, especially about their kids! Willful blindness. And their “kids” take full advantage of it. Very sad. I’ve got “kids” in quotes because the ones I have in mind doing their parents in are in their late 30s, pushing 40.
Its sad, really, observing up close the people I know who do themselves in, in this way – some of them Scientologists, some of them in other ways. Its hard to just stand there and observe how they keep letting themselves be hurt, and conned, taken advantage of, etc., just so they can keep on being right. Makes me want to SHAKE them and say, “Wake up! Can’t you see what’s HAPPENING here?”
Newcomer says
Now it’s time for $cientology to disappear!
Glenn says
OMG! RB. You hit yet another “nail” squarely on the head. The RPF trailers at the Base must be the cult’s “senior living accomodations” now.
Wynski says
They just dump the old people into homeless shelters probably. There is certainly no S.O. financed retirement homes.
James Rosso says
There could be if they could get the government to pay for it.
However, since the employer of “religious workers” don’t have to pay social security and retirement benefits in exchange for not having to pay stuff like minimum wage or obey labour laws – by not taking care of these people in their old age, they’re almost certainly violating their religious worker contract.
So the government wouldn’t pay the employers of exempt ‘religious workers’ because the employer is contractually obligated to. I’m no law-knowin’ guy, but i think that’s supposed to be how it works.
Wynski says
“There could be if they could get the government to pay for it.”
James what are you talking about? I said, “There is certainly no S.O. financed retirement homes.”
“– by not taking care of these people in their old age, they’re almost certainly violating their religious worker contract.”
Wrong James, there is no such clause in SO contract.
James Rosso says
Isn’t the whole point of a “religious worker” status such that: in exchange for not having to abide by labour laws that include things like paying a minimum wage, benefits, social security, i.e. all the stuff that a normal business would be required to pay for; the religious employer agrees to take on the responsibility of caring for the needs of the worker, including retirement?
I mean, that’s what i thought you had to agree to. “Monks in a monastery” for their entire lives. Am i wrong here?
Annie Oakley says
There is a home for elderly SO members…at least there was about ten years ago…I believe it is on Fountain Ave…but I don’t know how it is financed. I think it is small. I know friends who visited there. It may be a place that just happened to have SO members there, but I was told it was for SO members. I like to think it still exists.
Aquamarine says
The cult is stingy and heartless. One would think that a lifetime of service filled with very long hours, hardly any pay and hardly any time off would move them to create facilities for those willing to contribute but no longer able to do so. Who was it that said that a culture defines itself by how it treats its children and its old people? Cruel cult. No matter how much you’ve contributed, if/when you are no longer useful, well, screw you. Its wrong, so wrong.
Imaberrated says
My mother is in her 80s and is still working for Flag. She lives and works at the Hacienda.
Wynski says
“There is a home for elderly SO members…at least there was about ten years ago…I believe it is on Fountain Ave”
Annie, I know the building. That isn’t an SO retirement home. There are about 10X as many SO members who are past retirement time than would fit in that building. Unless they have very “interesting” showers fitted in the bathrooms.
Ms. B. Haven says
Back in the day when there were a bunch of us 20-30 somethings busy evading SO recruiters, we used to joke that we would join the SO one day as a retirement plan. We wanted to get on with our lives and try and have a little fun while we were young and able to do so. We figured we could suffer for the cult in our old age and be taken care of. All very ‘other fish to fry’ attitude. Most of us woke up and got real jobs with pension plans and are doing quite well in retirement now. Not so with those still chasing the rainbow of ‘OT’ super powers and total cause over matter, energy, space and time. Suckers…
Dead Men Tell No Tales Bill Straass says
The Freewinds financed the HIV when I got it.
And they financed the chiropractor who treated me for full blown AIDS.
They may as well spent the money on a gas chamber. The result would have been the same.
Mark says
I believe it was in 2013 when I was still at AOLA/Big Blue, a retirement facility in nearby Glendale, CA; was taking in “retired” S.O. Members, and there were a handful there. I left the SO just before Christmas 2014 and am now out of Scn as well, not sure if the place in Glendale is still being used or not.
hgc10 says
RB, Tell the truth. Salty old Richard is inspired by Seamus Levine from “Family Guy,” right?