Seattle Ethics Orders Project |
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Exposing Suppression in Seattle
Richard and Vicki Palmer
In July of 2009 Richard and Vicki watched the on-line testimony of Marty Rathbun, Amy Scobee and other former Sea Org members who told eyewitness accounts of COB, David Miscavige, physically attacking other Sea Org members. We listened to church spokesperson Tommy Davis deny that this happened, but accuse Marty Rathbun of beating Sea Org members at least 50 times over the course of several years. We didn’t know which side to believe but we were horrified that any of this could be true!
Although we felt a little guilty for having watched these videos, we consulted LRH references and realized that nowhere does Ron EVER say that Scientologists are forbidden from reading anything; forbidden from talking to anyone; forbidden from CONFRONTING anything! Ron would never expect us to turn over the job of evaluating data to someone else.
At the very least we were concerned about the competency of current management and felt the need to ask questions. We tentatively ventured onto the internet to see what other information was available. We found that scores of former Sea Org and church staff had written their stories about abuse, mistreatment and out-tech. We urge you to do the same and evaluate the data for yourself, make up your own mind. Let us reassure you that you will not run into any confidential OT materials since the church has done an excellent job of having it removed.
For several months we read many eye-opening accounts of what has actually been going on in the upper levels of management since Ron died in 1986. It takes some confront. We did not feel that writing KRs on these outnesses would be of any use, but we felt like we had to do something. When in doubt, communicate! So we decided to speak about our concerns with close friends and family members.
First Vicki told her good friend VS about these videos. She promptly reported her for doing so.
Next she told her parents, Bert Schippers & Lynne Hoverson. She never told them what they should think about the data, just suggested they review it. Bert & Lynne believed the video testimonies and felt like the outnesses described on the internet answered questions that they had been having about the church themselves.
In October 2009 we shared our concerns with Vicki’s brother, Danar Hoverson, and his wife, Ximena. Danar had been in the Sea Org at Flag for 17 years and his wife nearly as long. They were out now and living in Seattle. They became very defensive about David Miscavige and all of upper management. Danar seemed to believe that there were times that physical punishment was called for! We could not see eye to eye on the matter. Nothing we had ever read from Ron would EVER justify physical punishment for staff. In fact, why would it ever be necessary if one were skilled at using ARC?
We were glad that Danar was at least willing to discuss the matter. Unfortunately he refused to watch the videos or give credence to any claims against David Miscavige, so he didn’t really know what we were talking about. Danar and Ximena became very cold and distrustful of us, all the more difficult because we all worked at Bert & Lynne’s business.
In the spring of 2010, Richard was invited on a roadtrip to San Francisco with a non-Scientologist friend. Richard thought this would be an opportunity to talk to a few of his very dear church friends about these matters.
Their first stop was in Portland, OR to talk to his friend Paul. They didn’t have long to visit with him so Richard came right out with his concerns about David Miscavige. They argued about it quite a bit but Paul refused to look at any evidence. Paul knew that Richard was going to visit their friends in California, Tom and Doug, so he warned them about Richard’s agenda. Richard received text messages from both Tom and Doug that he would not be welcome by them. Dejected, Richard did his best to enjoy the weekend in San Francisco visiting with friends of his travel partner.
Paul wrote a brief KR on Richard. Although he sent Richard a copy of the KR he did not include the lengthy verbal report, including personal information, that Paul relayed to the Director of Special Affairs Seattle over the phone.
At this point we were “guilty” of talking to 6 people about our concerns. We had KRs written on us, but no communication from any org terminal. At no point did we encourage any form of mutiny or try to organize any form of protest. We were simply communicating. We DO have the inalienable right to utter our opinions and to counter the opinions of others. No authority less than god can suspend this right!
The next thing we know, we were being treated like SPs even though we had never had a hearing. Vicki’s brother met secretly with their mother and urged her to fire Vicki! He tried to convince her that Richard and Vicki were trying to get Bert and her out of the church so they would stop donating money and give it to them! He gave her proof of our motivation in the fact that Richard was currently unemployed but hadn’t told the family. Danar could only have been told this information by Ann Pearce, DSA Seattle, who had been told this fact by Richard’s friend Paul! This personal information was being used to third party us by our own church! In actual fact, Richard was still employed but on contract only, so his pay was indeed lower. He had told Paul and some others that he was unemployed as a simplified explanation for the change of terms in his employment.
Vicki’s parents were fully capable of deciding what they were doing and we had no ulterior motives for telling them any of this. Money was never a factor. Once Danar realized that Bert and Lynne were not going to listen to him, he and his wife began to look for other jobs.
On Danar’s last day of work he got mad at Vicki and very loudly and publicly accused her of attacking Scientology. Bert had two other Scientologists working for him at the time and that brings us to the seventh person that we talked to about David Miscavige. Krysty and Cyndi both worked for Bert and had overheard Danar’s outburst. Bert talked to Cyndi and Vicki tried to explain things to Krysty. She told Krysty about our concerns and some of the other things that we had found on the internet. Krysty is a sweet person and tried to be understanding, but she didn’t want to be involved in any trouble. Vicki was disturbed by the conversation to see a Scientologist say that she just “didn’t want to know.” My dear, what does the word Scientology mean?
Krysty wrote a KR on Vicki for their conversation, although it was obvious that she was pressured to do so. She was very reluctant to give her a copy and edited out evaluative comments before giving it to her.
Soon after this, an MAA from Flag (Sharon Forscher) visited Vicki and told her that she was in big trouble. She accused her of 10 to 15 different High Crimes just for talking to friends and family members! Vicki told her that she would stop talking about these issues if Sharon could prove they were lies, as she had no interest in spreading lies. Sharon could not prove that anything was a lie! Her only “proof” was that the people telling these stories were “declared SPs” and therefore shouldn’t be listened to.
Sharon wasn’t successful in bullying Vicki into obedience so we were treated like an enemy of the org. We were not allowed to attend the Idea Org Grand Opening. We were notified of this two days before the event and were given no course of appeal even though we requested it. We were later refused entry when we dropped by the org for a tour. It was as if we were declared guilty before even having a hearing. Ann Pearce even placed pictures of us with our 12-year-old son in her “Enemies” book kept at reception at both the org and test center to prevent us from entering!
We are really disappointed in Ann Pearce. She never even contacted us to try to handle our considerations in spite of the fact that Richard and she had worked closely together on staff. We had even named her as our son’s godmother when he was born.
A few months later Vicki was told over the phone by Lindy, an MAA at AOLA, that they were convening a Comm Ev on Vicki and Richard. That, in fact, it had started 24 hours earlier. We were told that if we wanted to defend ourselves we had to come down to LA immediately. She refused to send us a written summons, Bill of Particulars, or even tell us the charges against us. If we wanted to see anything in writing we would be shown in person only in LA. We couldn’t make it down there on such short notice.
In December 2010 a friend of Vicki’s said she was disconnecting from her because we had been declared SPs. We received no Ethics Order in the mail or even by phone. We have requested a copy of the declare but have received no response from IJC. This ethics cycle is completely off-policy and is therefore invalid per HCO PL “Orders, Query of.”
But that’s how easy it is to get declared an SP: talking to seven close friends and family members! We were declared for simply COMMUNICATING. Why is the church trying to shut us up? What are they hiding? The truth will reveal itself if a healthy interchange of communication is allowed. There is no need to suppress lies, they have very little power.
Beware that there is a sort of secret justice system in place that we are not told about. It convicts those who speak out without listening to them. One is found guilty and punished to keep them quiet. We have no quarrel with the Seattle Org and have always considered them our group. We only speak out against abuse and suppressive management.
Many of you know Richard and me. Richard has been in Scientology since 1989 and I have been in Scientology my entire life. Richard was on staff at the Seattle org for 13 years. We have both experienced enormous, life-changing wins from Scientology auditing and training. We both continue to consider ourselves Scientologists in spite of the Church expelling us.
We miss our friends and family members that have chosen to disconnect from us. The Scientologists we have known are some of the most incredible, intelligent and creative people we have ever met. They pride themselves on being independent thinkers and questioning everything they are told. We think it’s time to start asking questions.