The information below was provided by Aaron Smith-Levin, along with an interview video he did with Sam Crabtree. I knew both his parents in the Sea Org back in the day, his father Paul more than his mother Debbie, especially when he was the Cram Off RTC.
The video is a long one, but fascinating.
Sam is a second-generation Scientologist born into the Sea Org in 1983. His parents left the Sea Org when he was 6 years and raised Sam as a public Scientologist. After serving three more years in the Sea Org from age 17 to age 20 Sam moved to Clearwater to again be a public Scientologist. Sam was living in Clearwater in 2009 when The St. Pete Times published the “Truth Rundown” series which revealed the horrific abuse that had been occurring at the Int Base. Those articles caused Sam to reconsider his involvement in Scientology. From 2009 to 2012 Sam was out of Scientology but stayed under-the-radar due to professional and familial connections to Scientologists. In 2012 everything came crashing down when Sam lost his family, his friends and his job. After a series of unfortunate events which Sam discusses in this interview, Sam ended up serving 4 years in prison for a non-violent offense.
In May 2019 Sam was released from prison but with no friends or family to turn to and no money Sam was immediately on the street homeless. Sam contacted the Aftermath Foundation for help. With the support of our generous volunteers the Aftermath Foundation was able to help Sam set up his new life in Denver, Colorado.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Aftermath Foundation and thank you Sam for sharing your story with the world.
Aaron has broken this video down into shorter segments:
Homeless after prison, the Aftermath Foundation helps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXehWWo3_fQ
Four Years of Incarceration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxKfG3Dglt0
Everything Falls Apart in 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSZsMLNwaiY
The Tampa Bay Times “Truth Rundown” Articles Changes Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=culKMlq6sJY
Being the “Cadet Estates Project In Charge” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8VQ2XeCpNE
Being in the Sea Org from age 17 to 21 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1L1-OC1BQw
What Makes One a “True Believer” in Scientology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihI6J5nJIA0
Scientologist-owned School was a Recruit Pool for the Sea Org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0UbW56OR0
Leaving the Sea Org at 6 Years Old and Returning at 17 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwvgk5GZ1wg
Born into the Sea Org https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8Ob6Qo4sIU
Another great interview from Aaron. I’m elated that the Aftermath foundation is helping those in need. And Aaron your compassion and true nature of wanting to help people came through loud and clear. All of you who created the Aftermath foundation are to me commended.
I did listen to this today. I’m right off the bat confused about the arrest for being in the cargo hold. The arrest doesn’t confuse me, I would have been surprised if he hadn’t been arrested, but was he read his right to an attorney? Maybe I missed that but things sure may have gone a lot better if he had legal representation.
I am glad that he reached out to the Aftermath Foundation. No one except ex-members would be able to understand completely what he has been through and his mistrust of the outside world.
I sure wish him all the best.
GREAT WORK!
THANK YOU AFTERMATH FOUNDATION.
THANKS TO AARON SMITH-LEVIN FOR CONTINUING TO MAKE SUCH IN-DEPTH, INFORMATIVE INTERVIEWS👍
THANKS TO LEAH AND MIKE FOR REFUSING TO TAKE ANY MORE SCIENTOLOGY SHIT-AND CONTINUING TO PUT YOUR FEET IN POPE HOMUNCULUS’ PUNK ASS🤗
Wow! What an impacting jam-packed interview, covering so many aspects and important issues relative to the cult. Aaron, thanks for bringing the interview to us. Praises to the Aftermath Foundation for their dedication and to all who have contributed either through help or donations! Wishing Sam the best in life going forward. There’s an easy way to contribute to the Aftermath Foundation – through AmazonSmile. Almost anything anyone wants can be purchased through Amazon, and with its AmazonSmile program 0.5% of purchase price of eligible products will go to the charitable organization of your choice. And you can name the Aftermath Foundation as your choice of charitable organization. Yeh, it’s a small percentage, but every penny adds up with each and every individual using this avenue. https://org.amazon.com/
I’ve designated it as my charity – it’s an easy way to contribute.
In order to shop, you want to use https://smile.amazon.com/ You can select a charity – Aftermath, of course – and then when you use that address in the future, it will automatically be set for the charity you chose. I shop at Amazon a lot so my contribution is adding up slowly but surely. It’s a totally painless way to give!
This man didn’t help himself when he needed to. “They didn’t care if I was good.” So he acted badly. It seems, he did 3 yrs or about, in county, waiting for a trial that he wouldn’t walk up the stairs for. I’m guessing they won’t give you bail if you don’t show up to court on your own. That would explain the county time. So basically 1 yr for B&E, trespassing, etc. I’m mostly guessing what happened during the jail experience but,he does admit a lot of it himself. I hope he turns his life around. He has a good start now.
How long were you in scientology before you got fitness-boarded- out and left on the streets with nothing?
Shereefe, if he waited a year or years for a trial then his constitutional rights were GROSSLY violated and all public officials involved should be in Fed prison per Federal Code.
You DO know what rights were violated under the US Const. right?
That is such great news! Someone like that could slide back into scientology so easily in a weak state just out of prison. Nevertheless Aaron really needs to learn video editing because my videos are VERY well edited yet my avg view length (critical to youtube) is barely 6 minutes. People just will NOT watch long talking head videos with few edits since you are competing on YT with literally millions of professional (and usually pirated) shows.
Good point AGP.
I like the in depth, “we have all day” type interviews.
I tend to download the videos, convert them to mp3 and listen while I’m at work.
AGP. Love your videos too. Keep churning ’em out.
Off topic. Does anyone know when Janis Gilham-Grady’s third vol. of her memoirs is due out.
Kudos to the Aftermath Foundation for helping yet another person get back on their feet. I luckily had my parents and sister.
Marvelous that ex-$cientologists without resources can find the help they need in The Aftermath Foundation to establish themselves in a much happier though not perfect world than the cult one they came from (which is about as imperfect and inhuman as humanly possible by design).
All hail the Aftermath Foundation! The greatest Foundation in the world!
I worked with Debbie at Flag in 83. We were in the Flag Internship together. I remember that she was pregnant and said she was going to name you Sam. She was in our little impromptu wedding in the chapel at 11pm. She gave us the Second Dynamic book as a gift. Debbie was quite a character. Seeing what it would be like to raise a family in that environment was part of my desire to leave the SO. My wife stayed with me and we are together to this day, after two trips in and out of the SO. Finally left for good in 2004.
A great example of the power of
The Aftermath Foundation!
I hope it continues
Funny, imagine if Sam had stayed in Scientology and he was just returning from prison….what would that scenario look like?
Sam would be ordered to buy a couple sets of the Basics to “donate to libraries” so that he can make “amends for his out ethics behavior” and speaking of Ethics, he would be ordered to Ethics where he would be ordered to take (or re-take) courses to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
After completing all that and buying multiple sets of the Basics (paid for by his parents or ‘borrowed’ from a wealthy Scientologist, he would be ordered to rejoin the Sea Org, with a 4 year minimum in the EPF.
And, we can’t forget, most important of all, sit for a POW video in order to “strike an effective blow against an enemy of Scientology”
Thank you Aftermath Foundation. I wish you all success in helping the victims of this terrible regime.
That’s a good name for it: Regime!
Don’t forget a few ways to donate to the Aftermath Foundation: Go through Amazon to Smileamazon.com and a portion of everything you buy gets donated to the Aftermath Fdn. You just pick them as your charity to contribute to. Another way to give is to put it in your Will or Living Trust that they get something. Everyone should have a Will.
This does indeed sound like a fascinating story. Unfortunately, the complete video is approx 2 hours long and regretfully, I found it impossible to keep my attention focused on that video for very long.
I have a great respect for The Aftermath Foundation and the work that Aaron does and I really don’t want to offend either Aaron or Sam but I’m hoping someone may condense this story and summarize it into maybe a single page.
I’d really like to know how Sam spent so long in prison for what seemed to me to be such a harmless and trivial offence. Was the reason that he had no idea how the criminal justice system works owing to his upbringing in Scamology? Was there some reason why he never asked for a lawyer or asked to speak to anyone who might have helped him?
I’m very sorry about this and sincerely hope that someone will summarize this story.
P.S. I realize that Aaron split up the full video into approx 10 segments and that showed good insight and was a big help. Unfortunately, the individual segments were still far too long and I just couldn’t remain focused for that long.
I apologize to Aaron and Sam and sincerely hope they will not feel offended.
Sure. A guy was in scientology. Became disillusioned, was kicked out with nowhere to go. He contacted the Aftermath Foundation hoping to get bus fare to be a homeless person somewhere else. The Aftermath Foundation stepped in do a lot more, to help him get a life he never had no thanks to scientology.
The entire video is one hour and fifty minutes. He lost 23 years of his life. I’ve wasted one hour and fifty minutes each watching B movies on netflix. I watched the video to get his experience and Aaron’s reactions which were similar to mine, as I was in for decades.
Thank you Aftermath.
Thank you Peabody.
Skyler, the parts of Sam’s story that haven’t yet been summarized here but are difficult for someone not in that position to understand are:
1. After losing everything, Sam developed some psychotic ideations that caused him to act in strange ways. He lost a second job this way. (He lost the first job at a Scientology company for openly criticizing Scientology on social media.) An example of his thought processes was that he formed the idea that he should follow a person wearing a certain colored shirt wherever he was going.
2. Being homeless and following such impulses, Sam eventually ended up breaking into an airport and falling asleep in the baggage area of an airplane. He was arrested for this. It was unclear to me how much of what happened during the following 4 years of incarceration was due to his being treated inhumanely by the jail staff, how much was due to still being in the throes of psychotic ideations, and how much was essentially PTSD from losing his family, friends and job. (He was not defensive about possible interpretations. I can’t even guess what he would say himself about that.) I also wasn’t clear if the jail and courts started out by violating his rights or just failed to recognize his trauma and threw the book at him for being uncooperative. He definitely gave up hope of humane treatment and decided not to cooperate, and this strategy made things worse for him. He was repeatedly beaten brutally with kicks to the head. So as someone said, over 2 of the 4 years was a product of his not cooperating, yet as others pointed out, this was not an instance of the “justice system” serving justice. If nothing else, they could have given him credit for time served when he had already been incarcerated for over 2 years for falling asleep in a cargo hold.
I also think they ought to have been able to recognize the psych issues involved and get him into treatment instead of prison. He was lucid during the interview and recognized where his mental processes had gone off the rails, so it’s reasonable to suppose he could have done so much earlier with more human treatment and possibly medication.
Another thing of note is that Aaron was moved to tears several times during Sam’s story. When Sam asked for help, he only asked the Aftermath Foundation to buy him a bus ticket. He intended to try to work himself out of homelessness and into a job on his own. The foundation helped him much more than that, but Aaron was overcome by emotion that Sam asked for so little. It’s worth watching if you ever get the time.
Another story of Scientologists abandoning their children at the demand of Scientology itself. Sad.
Sad, but, NOT surprising.
It’s wonderful to see such tangible results. The Foundation is doing a wonderful job, thank you to everyone involved. Time for an ad hoc donation from me 🙂
O/T Kat L , I knew you had something to do with that billboard. Lol you’re a “fixer”. My Lt. Used to say “Stand back and do nothing, you become part of the problem. Do something and you fix the problem.” I’ve mentioned here about writing people ( I mentioned Jim Jones and how a letter of complaint began the end of Jim Jones). I tried to get others to put their complaints in writing to whomever (i.e. Police depts, companies, etc.). If something is in writing, it’s harder to make it go away. Anyway, I’m glad ur on the blog. Your awesome!
Thanks for the billboard
Thank you for the support. My dad used to say the same exact same thing (he was a jet pilot in the air force so there must be a connection) My mom taught me that it’s important to stand up to bullies. This cult is a giant bully. I can’t just sit back and do nothing- even if it’s just a billboard or an official letter or two. This was not just me. Many people contributed to the go fund me, and my two partners in crime were just as instrumental, if not more so than me! We still have the go fund me up, and even though the billboard wasn’t fully covered by donations, we are going to donate any new contributions to the Aftermath Foundation so that more people can be helped. If anyone wishes to donate, it is pinned to my twitter account under @katlarue7.
Thanks again!
BTW- I still read everyone’s postings every day. I haven’t left- I have just been a little busy in some other fronts lol!!
Kat
I remember Paul and Debbie. Not he of course. Sounds like PAul & Debbie didn’t help him when he most needed it.