Miscavige’s reign of terror over Scientology

Brutalised staff who defected from the Church have given an insight into how its leader maintains control

FIRST POSTED JUNE 26, 2009

It was random and whimsical. It could be the look on your face. Or not answering a question quickly. But it always was a punishment." Mike Rinder, a Scientology spokesman for many years, described to the St Petersburg Times the perverse regime of its leader, David Miscavige. Top executives from the Church have been defecting and, along with Rinder, have reported Miscavige's "gruesome" assaults and abusive behaviour towards his management team.

Miscavige adopted standard brain-washing techniques, such as sleep deprivation and intimidation, to maintain control over his executive team at their headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. Staff underwent group confessions, similar to accounts of China's cultural revolution, in which "bad" thoughts about Miscavige and the Church as well as personal disclosures, including sexual fantasies, were extracted and punished. Punishments took the form of beatings and humiliation in front of the group. At times the confessions and beatings got out of control. As one executive said, "People are wild... I punched somebody. Everybody was punched. And screaming and yelling. It just got like, What the hell is going on here?"

The 30 or so senior Scientology staff members were only permitted to leave the office once a day for a shower. Otherwise, they remained in the office, the men slept on the floor around the conference table, women in cubicles, food was brought in and meetings were held at arbitrary times, eg 2am or 4am. Staff became physically disoriented and exhausted, barely managing to function in these conditions.

Narcissistic gratification is the seed of Miscavaige's success and his downfall

As Miscavige's reign of terror continued, it seems that his paranoia only increased and led to further attacks against staff as well as staff attacking each other to demonstrate their loyalty to Miscavige. One member admitted attacking other staff on Miscavige's orders, explaining that it was out of a "survival instinct. If I don't attack I'm going to be attacked". This admission is common amongst many staff and inmates alike caught within terrorist regimes, whether it was the concentration camps in Germany or Cambodia, or in the prison culture or detainment camps of today.

Despite this terrifying and abusive regime and an increasing number of defections, Miscavige continues to rule over staff who either remain loyal or are so frightened that they are unable to leave. The initial attraction to a religious leader who promises narcissistic gratification to his

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Great piece here. Interested in more on Scientology? The St. Petersburg Times offers compelling first-person accounts from 4 high-level Scientology defectors. Read the accounts of abuse by leader David Miscavige, watch videos here: http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/

Posted by Karen McAllister at 4:00pm on June 27, 2009

I have been reading about Scientology for a few years now, and since one of their stated "illusory" goals, aside from world domination, is to "obliterate" psychiatry (word in quotes used by Miscavige when addressing cult members), I am pleased that Dr. Covington, a Jungian psychoanalyst, has written this interesting article which gives insight into the cult's behavior. Scientology has enforced standards for members to lie -- they call it telling "acceptable truths" -- so nearly everything in Scientology is something other than it seems. They lie to Keep Scientology Working. It is Scientology's audacious claims that caught my attention, through the famous video of Tom Cruise, with his delusions of grandeur in saying things like: "We are the authorities on the mind." I thought he never finished high school, and now he's some kind of intellectual super empowered demigod. I went on to learn that Hubbard flunked out of college, and that David Miscavige, their present tiny leader, is a high school dropout. Yet, Scientology sells special "Hubbard study tech" which they sell through their front group of "Applied Scholastics," one of the hundreds of money making front group scams. Hubbard study tech is more effective at indoctrination than education. That is its thinly disguised purpose. A student goes from "clearing" words, with a dictionary, to clearing Hubbard's goofy lingo and concepts, in short order. I look forward to Dr. Covington writing other articles on aspects of Scientology. I am especially interested in how new cult members, in an information age, when the history of Scientology is revealed in documented detail in books such as Miller's excellent BARE FACED MESSIAH (free on the Xenu website), ignore reading the detailed history of their own "religion" and its founder. Equally puzzling, is how seemingly intelligent people, who have access to the web, still sometimes fall into the scam of Scientology, deceived by the impressiveness of a building, or the mystery in a meandering book of dated claptrap such as Dianetics. Anyway, "the psychs" strike back. Go for it. You have intelligence and thoughtfulness on your side. Let's not wait for a Jonestown to analyze every aspect of this cult.

Posted by Astrid Gottrich at 6:09pm on June 27, 2009

Thank you for voicing a psychological view of the Scientology leadership predicaments. I lived 27 years close to the top administrative ranks of Scientology, lived almost 7 years on the "Rehabilitation Project Force", witnessed the impact the Hubbard totalistic administrative rules and penalties have on the top ranked staffers, and also witnessed the several decades of "our" attempts to back psychological discussion or criticism of Scientology/Hubbard's movement's mental straightjacket control of the members. Glad to hear some psychologists are able to again criticize the movement. My wish list for outside research into Scientology is exhaustive looking into the "spiritual therapy" step by step command procedures, which are divided into the thousands of "processes" that Scientology parishioners must undergo, in climbing the Hubbard/Scientology "Bridge to Total Freedom." No one has done the years of research and homework into the "therapy" procedures core of this movement. Scientology IS a therapy religion, no doubt about it, and Hubbard has changed the cover language to say it is NOT psychology, but Scientology is psychology therapy. Things are slowly improving in some zones of Scientology, but in recent years, the abuse has mostly been focused inward, at the top ranks. Please contact Jeff Hawkins, who has a insightful take on the mental state over the decades, at the "Vatican" level of the movement. Hopefully now with this exposure, things can lighten the lives of those stuck in the self abuse who are unwittingly unaware of what they have been led to do to each other. Chuck Beatty, ex Sea Org (lifetime staff category), Scientology, 1975-2003 Pittsburgh, USA

Posted by Chuck Beatty at 7:42pm on June 27, 2009

Scientology was invented by a science fiction writer who saw the power and revenue potential of religions. What more needs to be said other than to ask, who in their right mind would fall for it? The answer is the simple-minded, ignorant and egotistical, plus those with a lust for power. Group suicide? Bring it on! Best thing religious fruitcakes can do is rid the world of themselves and their deranged idiocy, whilst at the same time benefitting the planet with less carbon polluters [humans].

Posted by Peter Simmons at 11:18am on July 3, 2009

I remember starting to read the Dianetics book back in 1993 or so becos everybody was saying how "brilliant" it was - then i realized that it was saying that "everything " that was wrong with the world was becos everybody's mothers had tried to abort them - i hooted with laughter and threw the book in the garbage can - why didn't everybody else ?? how could any thinking person fall for that garbage !!

Posted by VERONICA ROACH at 4:59pm on September 7, 2009