This reminds me of when they put James Byrne out to pasture to tell “personal stories” about the Commodore.
All a 50 year SO veteran is good for is an event in Melbourne org? This of course is not likely to generate much revenue, so it tells you how unimportant he is seen to be. If he is in Australia it should at least be being held at AOSHANZO where there are more whales (or at least the Australian version — James Packer no longer in the mix so the average whale size went down by a factor of 43X…) If he has such good stuff, he should really be doing this at Flag where the real whales gather.
But the truth of the matter is that Wick doesn’t have much to say. Other than a time period looking after Hubbard’s motorcycles and vehicles, he was in the engine room of the Apollo. You can be sure, Hubbard didn’t venture down to the loud, dirty E/R to pass time with the “snipes.” After leaving the Apollo, I don’t recall where he was and what he did. It’s possible he was with Hubbard at LaQuinta, but I don’t recall ever seeing him there and he was not at Gold. So, his exposure to “Ron” was limited.
No doubt he has had a script put together for him that focuses on some anecdotes about Hubbard being a master photographer, taking brilliant photos that were used in the original edition of What Is Scientology? (a couple are below — you can see how amateur they are) or inventing new musical genres with the Apollo Stars (take a listen to the Power of Source sometime, but be prepared to have your eardrums assaulted).
He probably won’t cover the establishment of the RPF. Or being thrown out of Morocco or Hubbard escaping and hiding incognito in Queens (where the shot below was taken).
No mention of Mary Sue or Quinten or other children. Nothing about the strokes he suffered on board the Apollo or how he dumped his motorcycle and injured himself.
But for the sheeple, they don’t WANT to hear anything that doesn’t match their God-like image of Hubbard.
I have been wondering about something for a while, am hoping for some help. Given the prevalence of sexual abuse/molestation and rape of kids and with some understanding of how this is fostered and justified, I keep going back to etiology. Is there any evidence that Hubbard sexually abused/raped kids who served him, or other kids he came into contact with? I keep wondering if that’s part and parcel of why he came up with the crap that he did about kids, and why he used abuse so much in the first place. Did it extend to sexual abuse as well?
James Byrne I particularly HATE as he threw a cup of hot coffee in my face and camera at Christmastime. Happy Holidays! See the video link.
https://youtu.be/Mguu-t_CSh4
Does anyone know anything about him? I heard he would throw people in the sewage pits/fountains at gold base as a punishment.
When I saw him he was demoted to doing random guard duty at the Winter Wonderland. I was told by a female SO who left that he mentioned me in training one day. “Watch out for this guy the Gay Pope. But you losers probably deserve him!” What a swell guy.
Hi Mike , would you comment on this sentence of above post.
Or being thrown out of Morocco…
Morocco is a Muslim Arab country that’s why it caught my attention.
What happened in Morocco ?
Hubbard had a grand plan to bring sec checking “tech” to the King’s security forces so they could weed out threats.
When there was an attempted coup shortly thereafter, the Apollo was escorted out of Moroccan waters by the Navy, never to return.
So how LRH sold this “unique” idea to Moracaan Royalty to use religious artifact as lie detector ?
Is it their side business ,off the books activity ?
Did they pulled it alone ?
It’s opening a new and sinster chapter of cold War era , the Golden period of Cults in Western world.
Mike this was the incident that got me interested in exposing Scientology as a never-in. It was the first story in Bent Corydon’s book, which I stumbled upon at a Tower Records. From there, it was on to the internet and down the rabbit hole.
It might be more entertaining to have some old-timers tell stories about James Byrne. What a wack job.
Yeah, perfect!
Those pictures in today’s blog reminded me that one of the funniest books ever published is The Scientology Handbook. Why? Those stupid ass photographs used as illustrations! I laughed at the example Mike used today of the chef happily pouring poison onto what looks like a salad and the manager ordering him removed from the premises. Like the part of the handbook called ‘Investigations’, it shows a guy laying out his ‘battle plan’ for a furniture factory and then learning why no furniture is being made:
THERE’S NO LUMBER ON THE SHELVES!
I mean, who thinks this stuff up?
Never mind. I think I have an idea.
In terms of last 100 years, it looks like the Mormon Church has done okay. Christian Science, pretty much never got off the ground.
Scientology spurted a little better than Christian Science, but will never approach the Mormons. I’ll bet Scientology is way less than the Christian Scientists?
Scientology has bigger emptier premises than Christian Science though.
Scientology has Xenu and body-thetans, and no one else sells quack pseudo-therapy and exorcism like Scientology.
Hubbard admitted failing, but that news didn’t make it to the leadership even, just Sarge got that LRH briefing.
Ex Scientologists, quitters, and the non Scientologist public in the world is better informed about Scientology/Hubbard history than are Scientologists, due to the Hubbard self censoring rules constraining Scientologists from all the entheta about Hubbard and Scientology.
Dismal mess Hubbard left, and he quit, to boot. He’s out doing the OT running program circling the distant star, rehabbing himself, if you take what Sarge said seriously. I take it seriously, except no one’s a soul, and no one soul flies around distant stars to “rehab” themselves, is all.
Per Sarge, who I believe and trust his recollection of his final LRH briefings, LRH told Sarge he’s not coming back.
So, LRH is violating the Sea Org motto of “We Come Back” even.
And, he was failing to exorcise some nasty body thetans at the end of his life, per Sarge, also, using OT 7 Solo Nots.
That kind of makes sense, since quackery addressing imaginary beliefs (souls without bodies infesting us humans and messing with us) are a stretch and not to be expected to be fixed with quackery pseudo-therapy and exorcism.
So if everyone just learns this final messy Hubbard life details, then they stay away from the Scientology quackery outfit, and that’s all future people need to know.
“…he was failing to exorcise some nasty body thetans at the end of his life”.
Yes Chuck, it’s kind of hard to exorcise some entity that doesn’t exist in the first place. It does make for an excellent con though. The con man just needs to make sure that he doesn’t get caught up in his own game though like Hubbard apparently did. I suspect Capt’n Miscaviage will go down that same path and end up a drooling, incontinent ‘OT’ without a friend in the world. Sad, but well deserved.
Truth be told, Chuck, Mormonism was doing well until Russell M. Nelson took the helm. Since then, things seem to be going down the old toilet. A revelation from God saying that Mormons aren’t supposed to call themselves that anymore, removing the capstone from the Salt Lake Temple and finding most of the contents rotted away, etc.
Chuck and Alcoboy, Mormonism is also having its internet reckoning, with young mormons in particular getting access to information about the dubious early histories of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young that the church had long been able to sweep under the rug, as well as just being exposed to general critical information about the sort of organizations that score higher than normal on measures of the characteristics of high control groups or cults.
Chuck, Christian Science was relatively big in its heyday with around a quarter of a million members at a time when the US population was about a third of what it is now, and in addition they attracted a lot of well-off and influential members. That’s why they have, or have left behind, impressive buildings all over the country, and are known for their now-fading phenomenon of reading rooms placed in high visibility locations. They are reportedly down to about 100,000 members, which is at least 3 to 4 times as large as Scientology.
They became popular at a point when the population was moving to cities, where even the well-off lived in fear of communicable diseases like tuberculosis, for which there there were not yet medical cures, so a doctor couldn’t offer that much more hope than a Christian Science practitioner did. That started to shift as the last century progressed and medicines like antibiotics were introduced, undermining Christian Science’s appeal. Scientology has followed a similar pattern, as medicines to more effectively treat psychological and mental conditions have been introduced since the middle of the last century.
Good comparison. Also bear in mind that, while psychiatric abuses were common a century ago modern psychiatry is more toward actual cure and not the horrid monster Scientology makes it out to be.
I do not know how many members of Christian Science there but there are enough of them to support an extensive network of Retirement homes – I know a couple of people who work in that environment.
A fact that most ignore about Christian Science is that the “true believers” are as bad as Scientologists when it comes down to disconnection.
This is form personal experience. One of our good friends here in Denver was the mother of two children, the elder a boy was in good health and the younger daughter called Hayley who had this fatal condition where she just did not grow. Hayley was a wonderful little girl and her brother doted on her.
Their grandparents had NEVER been to see them since Hayley was born. They would have nothing at all to do with them. When Hayley died there were a lot of people at her funeral – including us of course, she was a well loved child. The grandparents never attended and had not even called.
Christian Science is the “nice” thing people think it is.
I know we’re always in for some entertainment when I see this classic photo of the ol’ grifter on the days post.
Those photos of his are incredibly cringe worthy. When they first appeared, I thought that I was missing something about their brilliance because Hubbard touted himself as an accomplished photographer. Sort of like listening to some sophisticated music and not getting it. That is often the case with me, I don’t have much creative talent and my personal preferences are often outside societies “norm”. But these photos just SUCK. Even the most dedicated KSW, gung-ho Kool-Aid swiller would have to admit the same. (It’s good questions regarding Hubbard’s “talents” don’t appear on ‘sec checks’ or it would be ‘rock slam’ city for sure).
As for music, Hubbard has called himself a crooner and organist. In this lifetime. On the ‘whole track’ he bragged that he was the one who actually invented music when he went by the name of Arp Cola. With millions of lifetimes under his ample belt since then, one would think that Hubbard would have a huge advantage over an unknown group of degraded ‘wogs’ trying to break into the music biz at Woodstock with their leader peaking on acid. Decide for yourself.
Hubbard’s Road to Freedom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpTUhN__FRk
Santana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaaT_HRb4GU
Great points indeed. It was my vocal unappreciation of Hubbard fatuous Battlefield Earth that ran me into trouble in the SO. Janet Weiland was PPRO EU IIRC – she was fairly new to the job and was rushing around gushing about what the genius Hubbard had produced with this turgid tome of his. We were in some sort of briefing pr meeting She mde the mistake of asking what people thought of the book and made the mistake of of picking me out to answer – I was CO AOSH EU and, IIRC I was the only native English speaker in the group of AOSJ EU staff. I just said that I thought it was childish rubbish and that you could tell the LRH had been left behind by Sci-Fi writing and development – what he wrote back in his pulp fiction was of the same level as the others. But they had carried on writing and Sci Fi had moved on.
Personally I figure HUbbard was still a pulp writer and he figured the more words he used the more he would get paid.
Next thing I know I got a KR from Janet. Which I just laughed at.
Great story. Janet Weiland, gees, she’s still there.
Also, she’s the lady who has climbed up the mast in that one big group well deck photo of the Apollo with LRH in the white MC suit, she’s up the pole that’s her.
Wow, she’s a diehard, and she’s mentioned even in one of the academic’s recent books, “Among the Scientologists” which is so hard to read and take at all seriously, but she’s doing her duty telling Hubbard BS fibs. A true diehard she is.
Janet also was the one who chased Tory through LAX, that day Tory Christman was flying to Clearwater to join up with the LMT.
My gosh, Janet could be the “mule” (a Lawrence Wright word) meaning a core person around which to write a huge long “pro” (nutty to the core) view of a diehard Sea Org OSA PR person, for Hubbard, for Scientology.
————————-
Thanks again Mick, you’re posting on ARS was pivotal, when I learned you were you, I think you used to post as Deo Moto or something, when I learned it was you, that just boosted my faith in the ex’s who were posting on ARS way back. Say hi to Nancy and son.
I just said “hi” to Nancy and your behalf and she said to return the same to you and that it is nice to hear from you.
Yep DeoMorto was my handle in those days. 🙂
You have been doing a great job since you got out, Chuck. just awesome.
Hearing that James Byrne has been relegated to telling old Ron stories is sad because he used to be the hot shot number one NOTS auditor at Flag. People paid an extra premium to request him as their auditor.
I’m waiting for the Chan Man to give talks about his and Ron’s adventures last lifetime
Wick was in charge of the Mad Hatter Studio in LA, Chick Corea’s old studio that he gave to the Sea Org for some reason. This was in the late 90s, so my guess is he got RPFed and ended up in Australia like Chris Guider and so many others. He and his brother WAK (Wick and Wack, get it?) are both from New Zealand, so it is unlikely that he just got ill and was sent back to his native country to mooch off of the National Health.
I think Wak is probably still working on the Freewinds. In the early 2000s he was the one that met passengers flying in at the airport, so some of the readers of this blog may have met him.
I knew both brothers fairly well, so sad that they are still drinking the Kool-aid. What a waste.
Thanks Bruce. The third brother is John who ended up at ASI.
John Allcock? Am I right in thinking that he was married to Nettie Allcock? The lady who know takes care of Heber Jentzsch.
Yes, they have been married since the Apollo days. They have also been in separate locations (LA and Gilman) for more than 20 years…
I met Wick at Flag AO in 13, he was pushing folders about. Nice chill sort of a fella. We chatted in elevators and so forth.
He alluded to some static that had landed him in the position, but he wasn’t too fussed about it either. I got the idea he was enjoying laying low. He referenced his LRH connection – various bits I recall not.
I feel sad for him, his family, wasting their lives on Hubbard lies… But I can also kind of be glad for him.
If he’s got to be stuck his last few precious years, there’s worse SO fates than travelling puppet.
Being trotted out as Speaker of Note as an SO member … Well, it sounds a lot like pushing folders about.
O/T. Academic paper on Exscn.net (i.e., ESMB).
Nancy DiTunnariello, Jenna L. Currie-Mueller, “U-Turn on the Bridge to Freedom: An Interaction Process Analysis of Task and Relational Messages in Totalistic Organization Exit Conversations on Online Discussion Boards,” International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 16 (5), 235-243, 2022.
https://publications.waset.org/10012529/u-turn-on-the-bridge-to-freedom-an-interaction-process-analysis-of-task-and-relational-messages-in-totalistic-organization-exit-conversations-on-online-discussion-boards
https://publications.waset.org/10012529/pdf
* * * * * BEGIN ABSTRACT * * * * *
Totalistic organizations include organizations that operate by playing a prominent role in the life of its members through embedding values and practices. The Church of Scientology (CoS) is an example of a religious totalistic organization and has recently garnered attention because of the questionable treatment of members by those with authority, particularly when members try to leave the Church. The purpose of this study was to analyze exit communication and evaluate the task and relational messages discussed on online discussion boards for individuals with a previous or current connection to the totalistic CoS. Using organizational exit phases and interaction process analysis (IPA), researchers coded 30 boards consisting of 14,179 thought units from the Exscn.net website. Findings report that all stages of exit were present, and post-exit surfaced most often. Posts indicated more tasks than relational messages, where individuals mainly provided orientation/information. After a discussion of the study’s contributions, limitations and directions for future research are explained.
* * * * * END ABSTRACT * * * * *
/
I thought Wick married Annie in the 70’s and was parked at FLB when that opened…
Is the Power Of Source actually worse than anything put out by Yoko Ono?
No, but that’s not much of a recommendation…
I once had a fictional intelligence officer torture folks by making them listen to Yoko Ono.
https://freelancetraveller.com/features/stories/fihp/fihp10.html
Now that the Chauchat was in Jumpspace, Daevagh needed to speak to Dennis. He knocked on the Captain’s Cabin door.
“Enter!” Dennis yelled.
The door slid open and Daevagh stepped in.
Dennis was sitting across the lower bunk with his back against the wall. The screen over the desk across the cabin was showing what appeared to be a documentary program.
“What are you watching?” Dav asked.
“A recent episode of a Solomani documentary series,” said Dennis. “It’s called ‘Man’s Crisis of Identity in the Latter Half of the Twentieth Century.’ The subject of this episode is the question of whether Yoko Ono was actually a fifth Beatle, or just a talentless and inscrutable bore.”
This was almost completely beyond Daevagh’s comprehension.
“So which was he?” he asked.
“She,” said Dennis. “I personally favor the talentless bore point of view.”
“I must confess,” Dennis continued, “that I’ve found a roll of duct tape, a high quality audio headset, and one of her early recordings to be quite useful when questioning a prisoner.”
“Um . . . okay,” said Dav.
“Did you need to speak to me about something?”
“It can wait.” Said Daevagh as he slowly backed out of the Captain’s Cabin.
Scientology may actually be worse than the Mafia. I’ve never heard of the Mafia harassing it’s critics. There may have been some harassment back in the 1970’s when Joe Colombo was around, but I’ve never heard of it. There may be more “made” members of the Mafia than there are Scientologists worldwide. How does one deal with an organization that’s worse than the Mafia?
“How does one deal with an organization that’s worse than the Mafia?”
It’s a work in progress… but maybe it’ll just fizzle out or simply, until no one cares anymore. Time will sort it out one way or the other.
My own dream in all this is that I’ll live long enough to see Scientology swirl down the drain.
As time marches on there are less and less survivors from the Apollo ship, so less and less first hand story’s about the “the old man” as he was sometimes called. Regaling members with Hubbard’s brilliant adventures is equivalent to reading short story’s from a William Rice Burroughs book. Pure fiction. Concocting ways to attract members to Scientology events are diminishing with every passing day. Thanks Mike for keeping us abreast of the underwhelming expansion of the cult.