David Miscavige

Ray Jeffrey Files Petition to Depose Mark & Monique Rathbun on their Finances

July 24, 2017: As reported today by Tony Ortega, attorney Ray Jeffrey has filed a petition with the District Court of Bexar County, Texas to examine the financial records Mark & Monique Rathbun. This is a matter arising from Monique Rathbun’s sudden and unexpected firing of her legal team and dropping her legal case against David Miscavige et. al.

The poster TX Lawyer commented on the Underground Bunker today:

Just to put this in context, this is what’s known in Texas civil litigation as a Rule 202 petition, which allows a potential plaintiff to obtain a court order to take a deposition even where a lawsuit is not pending, so long as you are doing it to investigate a potential claim or suit (or to preserve the witness’s testimony for use in an anticipated suit). They’re a pretty common procedure here in Texas, and most judges routinely grant them when requested. I do note that those document requests are awfully broad, so I would not be surprised if the judge pares them back if the Rathbuns object.

Tony is right that the Bexar County courts use a rotating docket for motions hearings, so you rarely know who’s going to decide your motion before you show up for the 9 am cattle call. And the 15 days referenced in the motion is the minimum amount of notice you have to give to the prospective witness, after the petition has been served on them, before the hearing can be held. It’s unclear whether the Rathbuns have been served yet, but you would ordinarily expect service to have happened by now. So whoever’s watching the docket sheet should look out for return of service and any notice of hearing.

As a practical matter, no halfway competent attorney would ever sue a client on an unpaid contingency fee unless they had a pretty good idea that some kind of payment or exchange was made. If the Church did make any kind of payment to Marty, either as a settlement or for his recent propaganda services, it’s going to be found pretty readily.

And here’s something to keep an eye on: If and when the Rathbuns respond to the 202 petition, who is their lawyer going to be?

Marty Rathbun’s 2012 Warning to OSA

Marty Rathbun’s 2012 warning to OSA staff. Filed here for forensic and dossier purposes. Rathbun alleges that David Miscavige is engaging in an ongoing criminal conspiracy. Enough said. Inferences can easily be drawn.

Scientology Gold Base Overflight. Drone HD Video. DJI Phantom 4 Flight 3.

Spectacular HD video taken from a drone overflight of the Church of Scientology’s no-longer-secret secret “Gold Base” in San Jacinto, California. Thanks to the unnamed expert drone pilot for this outstanding video. Featured at the end is David Miscavige’s $70,000,000 RTC Headquarters building.

Early in the video the “Eagle’s Nest” lookout post is seen. Some have said Eagle’s Nest is actually a sniper’s nest. Is it?

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jackson Morehead, former Director of Security at Gold Base for many years. Jackson answers the question, “Is Eagle’s Nest a sniper’s nest?” and many of my other questions, including questions about the weapons inventory at Gold Base, in our interview:

L. Ron Hubbard and the Zen of Org Economics

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While compiling information on the economic model of Scientology, I found a fascinating 1970 HCO PL (scroll down) in which L. Ron Hubbard emphasized that the economic viability of an Org trumped posh quarters. Wanting to wring the maximum amount of cash out of Scientology’s Orgs, Hubbard was a pragmatist when it came to the matter of dwellings. This is why Hubbard could live in a rented house in Elizabeth, New Jersey; his manor at St. Hill; on a ship; in nondescript apartments in Queens, Culver City, or Hemet; or in a Bluebird motorhome. Hubbard was also quite willing for Scientology’s facilities to be merely adequate.

In Miscavige era Scientology, this policy has been reversed. Thus, while the Ideal Orgs are posh, they are essentially empty, nonviable, money-losing operations. As such, the Ideal Orgs are not financially sustainable or even justifiable; particularly as these Orgs must increasingly rely upon IAS subsidies or simply begging public Scientologists for subsistence money to pay their utility bills.

Beginning in 2002, David Miscavige bet hundreds of millions of dollars on his Ideal Org strategy. This strategy has proven to be a staggering failure insofar as Scientology membership and the reputation of the Church of Scientology continues to plummet in a free fall. Scientology’s psycho-terrorism of Fair Game and the enslavement and utter exploitation of Sea Org members are mutually contradictory with its goals of growth and expansion and “good PR.”

The Church of Scientology is hopelessly mired in a series of conflicting goals. Scientology cannot possibly hope to create a world without war, crime, or insanity when it is perpetually at war with Culture and governments; engaged in the criminality of financially raping its own members; and perpetually behaving in an insane manner. This self-destructive operating basis is unworkable and cannot possibly be called a technology.

And as membership and cash flow continues to exponentially diminish, the IAS reserves will be increasingly relied upon to fund daily operations, i.e. OSA’s disastrous campaigns of psycho-terrorist Fair Game; endless lawyers; damage control; creating hate websites; the dissemination of the usual PR lies; the enslavement and utter exploitation of Sea Org members; and the subsidizing of both new and existing empty Ideal Orgs.

Bottom Line: Given the Church of Scientology’s system of cruelty and greed created by Founder L. Ron Hubbard it really doesn’t matter if Scientology is ensconced in palaces or housed in decaying strip malls. The System of Scientology itself is doomed to failure and is in a state of decay, stagnation, and collapse. This collapse is dramatically accentuated by staggering revelations of Scientology’s enormous depravity and cruelty.

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, Bast Grinstead, Sussex
HCO POLICY LETTER OF 23 SEPTEMBER 1970

Remimeo
Estate Bureau
LRH Comm Hat
OES Hat
ED Hat
CO Hat

QUARTERS, POLICY REGARDING
HISTORICAL

In twenty years an enormous amount of experience has been gained regarding the quarters and housing of orgs.

From this experience there are only a few clear-cut lessons. These follow:

A. VIABILITY of the org (its economic survival including its security from political-enemy-motivated attack) is the first and foremost consideration. In terms of quarters an org can afford just so much expense. Therefore, viability is the first consideration—not how posh or what repute or what image. Thus, we have the policy that:

THE FIRST CONSIDERATION IN PROCURING QUARTERS IS THE VIABILITY OF THE ORG.

Example: Stockholm took very posh, fancy quarters. Up to that time it has been viable. The overload of expense rapidly upset the salary sum, the staff began to moonlight (work on other jobs), and the org all but collapsed until cheaper quarters were found.

Example: Phoenix 1955. A beautiful, big building at small expense was found. It was very prominent. Enemy local attack was stepped up in the area including door-to-door black propaganda by psychiatrists and a campaign by commie newspaper reporters. The full reserves of the org went into furnishing these quarters. The area had to be abandoned,
losing all reserves. Elizabeth, New Jersey, 1950. The shabby quarters there made lots of money. Beautiful country quarters were under survey for purchase. The psychiatric block, much stronger then, began action in Trenton, New Jersey to invoke a law against medical schools. If the better quarters had been purchased, they would have been lost. The org foolishly moved to New York City across the river where the New York Org owned a building.

CONCLUSION: Viability of economics must not exceed the income of the org. The SAFE figure for rent and mortgage payments must not exceed 15 percent to 17 percent of the gross income of the org.

Political security must be attained by counterattack and if not attained or is risky, no heavy property investment or renovation should be programed.

If a country itself is liable to fall, property investment and renovation should be held to a minimum as viability is under the general political threat to the country itself.

B. Quarters must be close to ample and cheap student and pc housing, restaurants and transport.

Example: Abellund in Denmark, 1969, was a lovely place. The org there failed because it was 42 kilometers in the country without transport or taxis or buses, had no student housing nearby and had no restaurants. It was lovely but hated by students and pcs. Its isolation and general atmosphere promoted idleness and the org was down to half rations and no pay when forcefully moved by Flag into Copenhagen where in very bad quarters and bad housing it became viable. Student housing and feeding is very expensive and facilities scarce even so and still hurts the org income greatly.

Example: Elizabeth, New Jersey 1950. The org was located amid square blocks full of rooming houses and at the city center of three railways and bus lines. The students’ own rooms were used for auditing which permitted org expansion. Nothing was posh. Everything noisy. The org was very viable and had streams of people.

Example: SH 1960-1968. The presence of lots of rooms for students in the town and cheap living despite the lousiness of the quarters gave SH in England its greatest periods of affluence. Political attack barred out foreign students, and the town people came at length to petition the government to remove the ban. (The closure of the 1955 Phoenix org also caused 35 small-town businesses to close in the org vicinity.)

CONCLUSION: The presence of ample, cheap housing and restaurants and general and local transport is a main factor in the viability of an org.

C. Image is a secondary consideration.

Example: Hotel Reycar Alicante Spain was relatively cheap. It was quite posh. Students complained as it cost a bit more than they were willing to pay. Image in this case worked against the org,

Example: Johannesburg’s three old buildings foolishly sold and the money squandered has yet to attain the income it made in its “old, horrible quarters” despite its newer image.

Example: The beauty of Saint Hill in England is secondary to its viability and student housing.

CONCLUSION: One does all he can by staff work to improve the image. If image is the reason why one must move from an area where the org was viable or had student housing, forget it. Polish up what you have already, Image is gratifying. If A and B exist, one can think about image. Image of the outer building does not much affect A and B. Cleanliness and order of what you have is the image to concentrate upon. Staff pay and food and cheap student housing do more for an org than a posh building.

D. DON’T SELL IN ORDER TO RENT IF YOU’RE VIABLE.

Example: London about 1965 agreed to sell its buildings. Three years later by agreement it had to vacate. It squandered its money so made and has rented quarters and has not done well since.

Example; Johannesburg sold its buildings in the late 60s for a profit, blew the profit on old bills instead of making the money and has been on a struggle ever since.

Example: Reversely, Washington, DC has paid for its buildings in rent several times over and has nothing and is in sporadic trouble, probably exceeding its 17 percent of gross for quarters.

CONCLUSION: Purchase is superior to renting unless political viability is very bad. And when an org owns quarters and is viable, it is not clever to sell and rent.

E. Expensive office equipment is not a first priority.

Example: Camden, New Jersey 1954 bought beautiful desks and chairs and cabinets. When it moved they were seized on a landlord pretext. All its reserves were tied up in furniture which can’t be resold anyway.

CONCLUSION: Enough desks and chairs and furnishings is far superior to top-grade office furniture. Reserves tied up in furniture is never recoverable. Furniture quality does not influence production. Furniture lack does reduce production.

F. Renovations are destructive if extensive.

Example: London 1958-59 rented 7 Fitzroy. Contrary to orders which were to hire a man and do one room at a time, it went all out with contractors and even rewired the place and went broke on renovation bills. It took three rough years to get the org out of debt. Then when the building was given back to the owners (Church of England), they charged huge building damages which had to be paid although they had a new, sleek building in return for an old wreck it had been.

Example: Phoenix 1955 cost all the org reserves to renovate a building then lost.

Example: A ship was fully renovated before use and wound up costing more than a huge, usable ship.

CONCLUSION: Don’t renovate at vast expense. Use and make it better as you can with your own people.

G. Other businesses or rentals to support an org wind up very costly.

Example: Hickstead Garage was bought to support Saint Hill. Was a horrible drag and distraction and supported nothing, not even itself. Saint Hill Special Briefing Course supported Saint Hill.

CONCLUSION: Schemes to use other than Scientology actions or partial rentals, etc., can be a bad nuisance. Scientology supports Scientology orgs and we learn this over and over.

H. Depending on political viability, it is better to buy than rent. If political viability is shaky, it is better to rent than buy.

Example: Spain’s Hotel Reycar was a great success as a rental, getting org quarters so students would rent rooms. However, the Spanish government was worked on by the South African ambassador who was worked on by the World Federation of Mental Health stooge Stander, a commie in South Africa. The org was subjected to surveillance and upset and moved. It could not have moved easily had it owned.

CONCLUSION: In politically troubled areas use a downstat hotel and promise student room rentals. One can move in hours. Or one can stay. This would apply to the Middle East or to any country, like Spain, subjected to political menace. (Spain is intolerant of religions, and its officials are bought easily and is caving in to Russian pressures and
probably won’t live as a government beyond Franco’s death.)

I. Where possible, don’t split up units of the same org unless you have to.

Example: Notting Hill Gate 1955 was rented. Half the org stayed a bus ride away at 163 Holland Park, London. Denied some of the services of an org, each part had a rough time.

Examples: The HGC Los Angeles from 1956 for some time was separate. This was not too bad and it paralleled an earlier 1955 separate building HGC in Washington. But the secret here was the personal competence of the HGC D of P and when that person was promoted to Los Angeles the HGC did much less well. The separate HGC in LA got
into out-tech.

CONCLUSION: The functioning public line units (Academy, HGC) should not be in separate buildings from the org. However, working units such as Mimeo or even Div 2, except the Body Reg, have sometimes been separate from an org and no trouble was experienced. Housing and food for a staff can of course be separate and should be.

SUMMARY

The above are the major policies relating to obtaining and situating quarters.

A and B are much more important than the remainder.

An org which adventures more than 15 percent of its current gross income
for rent or purchase payments can get into far more serious trouble than an org
with a poor building image. Hopeful thinking contrary to these policies, especially
A and B, can smash an org,

The switch of address alone can cost an org a great deal unless loudly remedied.

One maxim is, if you have a going concern with enough income and pay,
don’t monkey with it until you can realize a total purchase price with A and B
in mind.

L. RON HUBBARD
Founder

The Real Ron Miscavige

The real Ron Miscavige speaks at his new website.

Ron.Miscavige

After Ron and Becky Miscavige escaped from the Sea Org, his son David Miscavige fraudulently used Scientology’s 501(c)3 tax-exempt dollars to pay two private investigators $10,000 per week for eighteen months to follow and spy on his father. This was $720,000 in “Church” money not spent in the public interest. This money inured only to the benefit of David Miscavige and his incredible paranoia.

After telling his PI’s “If he dies let him die” after they thought Ron was having a heart attack, David Miscavige then had his boot-licking and mentally ill sycophants in OSA put up hate websites on his own father Ron Miscavige.

David Miscavige then made his two sisters disconnect from their father. Sick and twisted behavior so typical of the Church of Scientology. The psycho-terrorism of emotional blackmail. These are the Scientology policies Tom Cruise, Kirsti Alley, Jenna Elfman, Michael Pena, and the rest of Scientology’s celebrities support.

ron-miscavige None of Scientology’s Fair Game worked. Ron Miscavige, a proud Marine Corps veteran, refused to be silenced or bowed by the viciousness of the Scientology Cult.

Ron’s just not like that. He won’t back down.
At age 80, Ron Miscavige became a New York Times bestselling author when he wrote his book Ruthless along with his fellow former Sea Org member Dan Koon.

I have had the pleasure of interviewing Ron Miscavige. Here is our first interview:

Why is it so hard to find a Scientologist in good standing?

(Note: This article was first published at Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker)

On Wednesday, Tony Ortega wrote that a Tampa federal judge continues to uphold his ruling that a California couple, Louis and Rocio Garcia, must submit their allegations of fraud to Scientology’s internal arbitration scheme — which doesn’t, actually, exist. And part of their frustration, the Garcia’s allege, is that every time they select a Scientologist they want to make an arbitrator in the Orwellian scheme, Scientology finds a way to declare that person “not in good standing.” Even the judge admitted it was pretty impossible to figure out who is and who isn’t in “good standing” in the church.

What is a Scientologist in good standing anyway?

It ought to be easy to decide who a Scientologist in good standing is. After all, there are millions of ’em, right?

For many years, Scientology officials openly claimed that the church had about eight million members.

In the ABC Nightline episode of February 14, 1992 Forest Sawyer was able to get church president Heber Jentzsch to clarify Scientology’s eight-million-member claim:

Sawyer: How do you get to call them members?
Jentzsch: Because they joined and they came in and they studied Scientology.
Sawyer: They took one course, maybe.
Jentzsch: Well, that’s how valuable the course is. Eight million people, yes, over a period of the last – since 1954.

In 1997, Mike Rinder, then the organization’s spokesman, invoked the same number. Criticizing what defectors from the church were saying, he told a press conference, “If any of the things these people say are true, there would not be eight million Scientologists in the world today.”

And as recently as 2004, the church told the Deseret News that it had eight million members.

In more recent years, as Tony has pointed out, Scientology is a lot less specific about its size. Scientology spokespeople are careful only to refer to “millions.” And here’s what the church’s website today says about Scientology’s growth:

With Scientology, millions know life can be a worthwhile proposition, that Man can live a fulfilled life in harmony with others and that the world can be a happier place. Scientologists work to create such a world every day, joined by others who share this dream. The undeniable relevance of Scientology to the lives of these millions assures its permanence in our society. Millions upon millions more will follow in this quest to create a better world.

Pretty vague, right?

In fact, in 1999 Jentzsch gave a deposition, and under oath he admitted that the “eight million” figure was arrived at not by estimating current active membership, but by adding up all of the people who had ever, in the church’s entire history, ever so much as bought a single book or took a single course.

But even if we take Jentzsch at his word, that eight million people had interacted in some way with Scientology since things began with the publication of ‘Dianetics’ in 1950, it would mean that over the period 1950 to 1999, when Jentzsch made that claim, it would represent about 163,000 new people joining every year. And if you know something about the size and number of Scientology’s “orgs” over the years, you know that number is pure fantasy. (For a more realistic assessment of Scientology’s current size, see the Bunker’s report from recent defector Paul Burkhart.)

But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that there are millions of Scientologists, and it’s just some kind of miracle that you never actually bump into any in your daily life. What does Scientology itself say about what defines a Scientologist?

The membership organization for Scientology, known as the International Association of Scientologists (IAS), has a very loose definition of a Scientologist on its website:

A Scientologist is defined as “essentially one who betters the conditions of himself and the conditions of others by using Scientology technology.”

Hey, that sounds easy. As long as we’re using Scientology tech, and we’re bettering ourselves, we’re Scientologists in good standing!

Well, not quite. The IAS isn’t going to make it that easy. In order to be considered in good standing by the IAS, you actually need to be a member of it. Lifetime IAS memberships cost $5,000 and Scientologists are constantly under a lot of pressure to donate even bigger amounts.

It seems pretty clear that to be considered “in good standing” by Scientology’s leaders, you’ll need to be an active donor and participant in the IAS.

But hang on. How big is the IAS?

Not anything close to millions. Former church executives will tell you that IAS numbers are in the tens of thousands, not millions. (And here’s the latest solid estimate for overall membership in this rapidly shrinking movement.)

But OK, let’s say you cut the check and join the IAS. Then that means you’re officially a part of the Church of Scientology, right?

Well, hold on. While the IAS is the “official membership organization” of Scientology, the IAS, legally speaking, isn’t part of the “Church of Scientology” itself…

In fact, according to what Scientology told the IRS in its 1992 application for 501(c)3 tax exemption, there’s actually no single thing known as the “Church of Scientology”….
And to add to the confusion, also according to the IRS application you don’t have to belong to the IAS to be in good standing with “a church of Scientology.”

Lost yet?

But see, that’s the beauty of Scientology’s rules for “in good standing.” They can say it’s whatever they want it to be!

Despite L. Ron Hubbard’s millions of words about everything from Scientology baptisms to Scientology funerals and how to clean windows and how to use a vibrator (we’re not kidding), and despite all the books and checksheets and pamphlets and fliers that current leader David Miscavige has killed whole forests to put out, the Church of Scientology really has no definitive policy stating what constitutes a Scientologist in good standing.

Who or what is a Scientologist? The answer is that it all depends on the circumstances, which Scientology uses to its best advantage in court. For decades Scientologists have smugly said to each other, “Everyone is a Scientologist; they just don’t know it yet.”

But for the purposes of arbitration? Scientologists “in good standing” are only whatever handful of people the church can count on to rule precisely the way church wants them to.
__

My comments over at the Bunker to expand on this article:

As the funnel of “millions of Scientologists” dramatically narrows down to a tiny handful of Scientologists in good standing, here’s how, according to court documents, it works: Mike Ellis, the 315 pound Scientology International Justice Chief with health problems is supposedly the only guy in the world who can decide who is in good standing or not. Here is what Scientology told the court about Scientology IJC Mike Ellis:

Mr. Ellis weighs 315 pounds, suffers from high blood pressure, fatigue and tightness in his chest. He was seen by a cardiologist on January 16, 2015. The cardiologist obtained a history, conducted an examination, diagnosed “angina pectoris” and told Mr. Ellis that he was “unable to travel.” http://tonyortega.org/2015/01/…

Scientology would have us believe that some guy on a bike with health problems is the only person who gets to decide which Scientologists are in good standing with the Church:

Scientology International Justice Chief Mike Ellis.

But in reality, the guy on the bike with health problems actually gets told who is in good standing by another guy in a fake navy uniform with a bad temper who likes to hit people and is Tom Cruise’s best friend:

David Miscavige

That is how it really works in Scientology.

On a related note: In 2015, Scientology IJC Mike Ellis had an earache, high blood pressure, angina, and weighed 315 pounds. PTS much? And why does Mr. Ellis have these problems if Scientology is supposed to handle the underlying spiritual causes of physical disease? It is our sincere hope that the Church of Scientology gets IJC Mike Ellis the medical help he needs. It is also our hope that Mike Ellis comes to his senses and stops breaking up families via Scientology’s toxic policy of Disconnection. On a scale of Scientology evil, Mike Ellis is extremely evil as he is the Cult Enforcer of Disconnection.

Mike Ellis is also the man who refuses legitimate repayment requests and thus enables the Church to go into a criminal ripoff condition that Mr. Hubbard called “out exchange.” Hubbard wrote, “A criminal is a person who wants something for nothing” and Mike Ellis is enabling the criminality of Scientology when he denies repayment requests of “monies on account.” What this means is that most Scientologists pay the Church money for future services. This is called “monies on account” and creates the impression in Scientologist that these monies belong to them and are in their account. Scientology actively pressures Scientologists to put monies on account. Many Scientology have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars “on account.”

However, when many of these Scientologists decide to leave the Church and do not want future services, the Church keeps their “monies on account” and will not give it back. This is called theft. Scientology, of course, uses sleazy contracts in order to claim the monies were donations and that Scientology does not have to give the money back. This “monies on account” fraud is aided and abetted by Scientology’s phony “Claims Verification Board” and is one of the many demonstrable reasons why Scientology is considered a criminal organization masquerading as a religion. David Miscavige really does belong in prison.

Mike Ellis does not apply policy justly and is therefore not wearing his hat. He is out ethics, off policy, and a disgrace as a Sea Org member. This bad Karma is all on Mike Ellis and perhaps explains his health problems.

What happens when Scientology helps you reach ‘your full potential’

(Note: This article originally appeared on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker)

Jeffrey Augustine is back to help us think about the message in Scientology’s newest ad…

This year’s Scientology Super Bowl commercial was pretty much like the previous four: It looked like those slick Apple ads from a decade ago, and it tries to give you the warm and fuzzies about learning things about yourself.

This year’s ad concluded with these lines…

…Through all of life’s journey
There’s no language adequate to describe
The ultimate heights you can attain…
Your full potential

Those lines are heard as images of a young woman is taking the sensors for the Scientology E-meter — she’s about to unleash her full potential because she’s engaging in Scientology. That’s the point, right? And now, at Scientology’s website, you can see the same slogan…

Like its previous ads, Scientology’s commercial really doesn’t tell you anything about how Scientology works or what you’ll be asked to accept if you join. So what does it mean that Scientology will help you reach “your full potential”?

In its early history, Scientology made a lot of exorbitant claims about what it could do. L. Ron Hubbard claimed that his “technology” could cure diabetes, allergies, cancer, and other diseases, as well teach people how to “go exterior with full perception” — leave your body at will. In other words, reaching your full potential meant becoming a superhuman with amazing powers.

But is that what Scientology delivers? Seeing this new slogan made us think about some famous cases in Scientology history. Did these people reach their “full potential”?

Lisa McPherson tried to reach her full potential in Scientology. She was from Dallas and had moved to Florida to be at Scientology’s “spiritual mecca,” the Flag Land Base. Scientology leader David Miscavige himself decided in the summer of 1995 that she had gone “Clear,” a major step for a Scientologist. But then what happened over the next few months is a tragic story that this website has told in real time, on the 20th anniversary of Lisa’s death.

Steve Brackett, the one-time fiancé of The Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright and a high-level “OT” Scientologist, never reached his full potential in Scientology because, facing bankruptcy and financial ruin in a church where money is everything, he jumped off the Highway 1 Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur coast of California and plunged nearly 200 feet to his death sometime in the darkness of the very early morning hours of May 28, 2009.

Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis never reached his full potential in Scientology. He murdered his landlady, killed her cat, and then fell or jumped to his death from a roof in darkness in 2012.

Jenny Linson, Marc Yager, and Dave Bloomberg, three high-ranking Scientology officials, are seen acting like lunatics at Los Angeles International Airport. Is this the full potential they were aiming for?

William “Rex” Fowler never reached his full potential in Scientology. Following a bitter dispute over Fowler’s large donation of company funds to Scientology, Fowler shot and killed his business partner in cold blood and then turned his 9mm Glock pistol on himself. Fowler’s suicide attempt failed, and he was prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison. As police were still investigating the crime scene, Fowler’s Scientologist wife arrived and insisted to police that she be allowed to take her husband’s briefcase as it contained classified Scientology OT materials. The police refused her demand. The briefcase was later returned.

Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International, never realized his full potential in Scientology because he’s been imprisoned in “The Hole” since 2004, let out only occasionally for a few appearances.

Charles Manson spent some of the 1960s at the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island in Washington State. During that time, he got into Scientology and did quite a bit of auditing — his warden at the time even said it was good to see that Charlie was applying himself to something. But Charlie didn’t reach his full potential with Scientology. When he got out of prison he put together his own amalgamation of ideas as he gathered The Family around him and committed some of the most famous murders of all time.

Reed Slatkin never reached his full potential in Scientology. Instead, he was caught swindling $593 million in a Ponzi scheme and was sent to prison. Slatkin was very generous with his stolen money and donated a great deal of it to the Church of Scientology. After his arrest and conviction, the Church of Scientology was forced to give back some of the money Slatkin had donated, although the church fought having to return the funds. Slatkin died of a heart attack in 2015, two years after being released from incarceration.

A legendary auditor and “Tech Wizard” in Scientology, Class XII Case Supervisor David Mayo was the Senior Case Supervisor International (C/S INT) for all of Scientology. Mayo had been widely credited with having saved L. Ron Hubbard from death in 1978 by using a special program of auditing that later became the basis of NED for OT’s. Mayo was regarded as Hubbard’s successor on the Tech lines of the Church. However, David Mayo fell on the wrong side of things politically in the aftermath of Snow White Program and the widespread paranoia it created inside of Scientology. Hubbard turned on Mayo and declared him an SP. Mayo infuriated Hubbard and Scientology when he defied them by opening his acclaimed Advanced Ability Center in Santa Barbara in 1983. Countless Scientologists left the Church to receive services from Mayo and his team at the AAC. David Mayo quickly became the target of Scientology’s wrath and an incredible program of Fair Game ensued. In a 2013 interview with Tony Ortega, Jon Atack said of David Mayo:

David Mayo was harassed for years. He was the subject of at least one murder attempt. I spent a month in Palo Alto in 1986, where I first interviewed Mayo and I was impressed by his sober grasp. He described without rancor the horrors of his own treatment -– for instance, being forced to run round a pole planted in the desert for hours on end –- and he was very precise. I was most impressed by his obvious distress when adulated, which happened a few times during my stays in Palo Alto. He very obviously didn’t want to assume Hubbard’s narcissistic mantle. I’m very glad that he didn’t take Scientology over, because I might have been tempted to stay in the fold. Wherever he is now, I wish him peace and fulfillment. He deserves it.

Music legend Isaac Hayes had won an Academy award, a Golden Globe, and three Grammys but he had declared bankruptcy in 1977, beset by financial and legal problems. He became a Scientologist in the early 1990s, and then enjoyed a profitable second career when he became the voice of “Chef” on a new animated cable show South Park. Chef proved to be a lucrative role for Hayes and allowed him to support his fourth wife and their young child. Following South Park’s airing of its Scientology parody “Trapped in the Closet” on November 16, 2005, Hayes was heavily pressured by Scientology to resign from the show. Hayes subsequently suffered a debilitating stroke in January 2006. Hayes’ son Isaac Hayes III said in a 2016 interview that someone in Scientology quit the South Park job on his father’s behalf in March 2006. Having lost his substantial South Park income, the post-stroke Hayes was forced to relearn the piano and return to the grueling life of touring on the road in order to earn a living. Hayes collapsed on a treadmill in his Memphis home and died at age 65 on August 10, 2008.

Declared the “World’s First Clear” on March 9, 1966 by L. Ron Hubbard, John McMaster was a celebrated and charismatic Scientology goodwill ambassador. McMaster traveled the world for many years on speaking tours, television appearance, and radio interviews where he extolled Hubbard and Scientology’s tech. A closeted gay man in a homophobic Church, McMaster was routinely punished by L. Ron Hubbard, who ordered him overboarded on the flagship Apollo numerous times. On one trip over the side of the ship, McMaster’s shoulder was seriously injured and was temporarily paralyzed. After years of faithful service while enduring abusive treatment and being paid slave wages, John McMaster left Scientology in November 1969 after being excommunicated by Hubbard. Hubbard’s hateful order read in part, “John McMaster is assigned a condition of Treason for rendering himself liable to blackmail by reason of his homosexual activities.”

Born in 1956, Annie Tidman was an original Commodore’s Messenger who served L. Ron Hubbard aboard the Apollo. Annie married Pat Broeker in 1978, and Hubbard left Hemet in 1980 to go into permanent hiding, he took his trusted aides Pat and Annie with him. Hubbard eventually settled in at his secret ranch in Creston, California in 1983. Pat and Annie lived on the ranch and took care of Hubbard in his final years. After Hubbard’s death in January 1986, Pat and Annie were thought to be potential successors because Hubbard had anointed them with the special title “Loyal Officers.” But David Miscavige pushed them out of the way to take over control of the church. Pat and Annie divorced, and Annie lived at Scientology’s secretive “Int Base” near Hemet, California as a loyal Sea Org member. She was later moved to an apartment in Hollywood to suffer the final stages of cancer. Her own family didn’t learn of her 2011 death at 55 until about six months later.

Is Shelly Miscavige reaching her full potential? It’s hard to know, because since 2005 she’s been kept at a super-secretive Scientology base in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead, California. At one time, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige was a major church executive in her own right, but since her banishment Shelly has been seen in public only once, at her father’s 2007 funeral in the presence of a Scientology “handler.” A new sighting of Shelly suggests that she’s still at the mountain compound, and in frail health.

Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of L. Ron Hubbard, never reached her full potential in Scientology because she was sent to prison for her part in the Snow White Program, which she oversaw. After her release from prison, Mary Sue was pushed out of her role as a church executive by David Miscavige, and she lived in Los Feliz with Scientology handlers watching her. She died from breast cancer and COPD on November 25, 2002 at the age of 71.

L. Ron Hubbard never exhibited the potential that he promised for others that would come from Scientology. He was not clairvoyant, did not have total recall, and he was certainly not impervious to disease. On January 24, 1986, he died of a stroke while in hiding, estranged from his wife Mary Sue and their children, and with the psychiatric drug Vistaril in his blood.
— Jeffrey Augustine