Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief Page #8

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I gave her a time

and i hung up.

I go up to my daughter's room,

and i wrapped her up.

And there's

that bodyguard with me.

I said,

"oh, my sister-in-law

is in that car

"and she's gonna

take the baby to the doctor."

He said, "well,

has this been approved?"

"of course

it was approved!"

She's in my arms,

and i got in the car.

My friend,

she just nods her head.

Boom! With that,

i pull my leg in,

shut that door.

She hits the locks,

and we drive.

And people

are yelling my name,

Saying, "spanky, no! No!"

I mean, just freaked out.

I'm thinkin'

"i'm a dead person,

"something terrible

is gonna happen to me."

I was just so frightened

That they would come

to fetch me up.

One of the turning points

In travolta's relationship

with the church

Is when he understood

what was happening to spanky,

He didn't

do anything about it.

I know that

he certainly got exposed

To the fact

that not everything

was on the up and up.

Why that wasn't sufficient

for him to leave,

I don't know.

I often wonder what--

what could possibly

keep him there?

Can you recall an incident

Which occurred

when your mother

looked younger?

An auditor learns to

keep notes contemporaneously

As he is doing a session,

About every detail

of the person's life,

Back to birth and beyond.

If you do the whole program,

You end up with

up to a file cabinet full

Of pre-clear folders

on notations about your life,

Your thoughts,

and your considerations

about your life.

It's the most

intimate detail.

You're always encouraged,

you're always threatened,

To disclose more

and more and more.

And all of it's recorded.

All of this material,

Which is represented to you

to be held sacrosanct--

In fact, any information

That might do some harm

to the organization,

Gets unclassified

automatically

And gets reported

to another branch

of the church

That deals with "ethics."

Travolta was down

in clearwater.

We'd finished

the renovations.

Every auditing room

had two cameras--

One on the meter,

and one on the guy

getting auditing.

Miscavige would sit

in this 15x15 room,

Cameras of every session.

You can flip in between 'em,

And he was watching

these things.

And it was

for "training purposes."

Well, travolta saw that,

And he said,

"i will not be videoed."

So i was there when

they were setting it up,

And miscavige

was directing it.

"get him

into a hotel room,

"hook up secret,

private videos."

There were rumors

That he was

threatening to leave,

And another scientologist

told me that he was delegated

To create a black pr package--

all the damaging material

They could use

against travolta,

Which came

from his auditing sessions.

I know this

because i used to do it

When i was the head

of the office of

special affairs.

We would

put a team of people

Onto going through

all of these pc folders

And finding things

that they believe.

By exposing them

or threatening to expose them,

They will cower the person

That they're worried about

into silence.

There is a particular writing

Where hubbard

is training these office

of special affairs people

On how, when you use

private information

To control somebody

to do what you want them

to do,

And to silence them

from speaking out

against scientology,

It's really not blackmail,

because you're not

asking for money.

But you're holding

this secret information

Over the person's head

to silence them.

As far as travolta

is concerned,

People say, well, he--

there's all these things

that we know about

That have been rumored

in the tabloids.

But in fact,

it's more of

a two-way street.

You know, he's provided

with an auditor

Whose shoulder

he can cry on,

But he's also

provided with the muscle

of the church,

In the form of myself

and mike rinder.

On many occasions,

We were sent out

to get with his publicist,

To get with his lawyer,

And to help squash

or intimidate these people

That are making accusations

against him.

Once that happened,

I think he was really

the church's captive.

Mr. John travolta!

When they were facing lawsuits

and stuff like that,

He'd be brought forward,

And make his testimony

about how great

scientology is.

He had the opportunity

To affect

the behavior of the church,

and he chose not to.

Now i've been a scientologist

for 23 years.

I've felt like a pioneer

in many-- in many ways,

And i've--

i've seen my efforts

come to fruition...

In various ways.

I think very few people

can say that.

I've-- i'm part of a--

of a frontier in a way,

You know, that,

that very few people

ever get to be part of.

Thank you.

Welcome to church!

It was the biggest event

in scientology history,

And of course,

miscavige wanted to milk it

for everything he had.

It's this

grand, produced thing,

Where it's all

a single person

on a gigantic stage,

All this sort of

nazi symbolism.

I clearly recall

getting prepared

for the event

And miscavige

up in that office,

You know,

going 18-20 hours a day

Writing this speech,

and thinking to myself,

"my god, you know?

This is not just

"a victory celebration,

"this is a--

this is a coup."

What we are going

to talk about

Is the war

to end all wars.

When you are in scientology,

you are in all the way.

There's no half in

and half out.

A decade into

miscavige's leadership,

A simmering crisis

finally came to a boil.

For years hubbard had

insisted that scientology

was a religion

And should be tax-exempt,

So he had refused

to pay any taxes.

We were facing a tax bill

Of over a billion dollars,

and the total assets,

Liquid and material,

and property of the church

Was about a quarter of that

at the time, in the '80s.

And so just

from a real simple

accounting basis,

It was life and death.

If we don't

get exemption, we die.

If we get it, we survive.

As lrh said,

"one certainly

couldn't contest anyone

"as holy as the commissioner

of the irs,

"whom i believe gives god

his orders." lrh.

Faced with this crisis,

David miscavige

formulated a strategy.

Think of the nerve

that it takes

To decide to take on a war

with the irs.

The church of scientology

Has been crucifying

the federal agency

For its sins

on a regular basis,

Both in and out of courts.

Thousands of scientologists

all filed lawsuits,

Not just against the irs,

But against

individual irs employees.

2400 total lawsuits,

All going at the irs

at one time.

It was

a litigation nightmare.

Being miscavige's

right-hand man,

I was in charge

of all those efforts.

We were not only

suing them in every possible

jurisdiction there was,

We were investigating

the irs for crimes generally,

Or things that would

offend the public.

...These hearings

into irs integrity...

In the late '80s,

There were hearings

about irs abuses

That had nothing to do

with scientology,

Had nothing to do

with nonprofits,

Had nothing

to do with churches.

They had to do

with joe taxpayer.

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