The 1982 Clearwater Hearings

Day 2 - May 6, 1982

Lori Taverna

Lori Tells the council about the many abuses she witnessed in Scientology including medical neglect of staff members and their children.

Lori's video testimony is incomplete but the missing segments can be read in the transcripts.

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the biographical outline of Mr. Hubbard from the book, Dianetics: The Original Thesis, which Mr. Berfield and Mr. Calderbank were referring to earlier.

(A copy of the biographical outline from Dianetics: The Original ThesiE was marked as Exhibit No. 24, as of this date.)

MR. FLYNN- And rather than place the book into evidence, we are going to put a xeroxed copy of it into evidence. And Mr. Greene will read from a portion of that biography.

MR. GREENE: Again, this is from Exhibit 24, page 158: "L. Ron Hubbard. Scientology was developed by L. Ron Hubbard, a writer and.philosopher. It was completed after thirty-five years of research. Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska on March 13, 1911. Much of Hubbard's early youth was spent in the American West, and he traveled extensively in Asia as a young man.

"He studied science and mathematics at George Washington University, graduating from Columbian College." Columbian College, as you may know, is the undergraduate Arts and Science Program at George Washington University.

"He attended Princeton University and obtained a degree as Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D., from Sequoia University.

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"Before World War II, he was well known in exploration-circles and is to this day a member of the Explorers Club. He wrote and published over fifteen million words of articles and novels of all kinds before World War II. During that war, he served as Commander of Corps Vettes and was extensively decorated. Crippled and blind at the end of the war, he resumed his studies in philosophy and by his discoveries recovered so fully that he was reclassified in 1949 for full combat duty.

"It is a matter of medical record that he has twice been pronounced dead, and in 1950 he was given a perfect score on mental and physical fitness reports. Revolted by war and man's inhumanity to man, he resigned his commission rather than assist the government-research projects."

Dropping-down some paragraphs: "Unlike any other philosopher at any age, Hubbard has led a very full and adventurous life. He has been the hero in numerous novels and even of a famous motion picture. Probably no philosopher of modern times.has had the popularity and appeal of Hubbard or such startling successes in his own lifetime."

MR. LeCHER: What famous motion picture does he appear as the hero in?

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MR. DeWOLFE: None.

I think that the motion picture that he may be referring to is Mister Roberts; that was a rumor that he spread around. But he had no connection with the movie, nor the play, nor the character Mister.Roberts.

MRS. GARVEY: It says there that he was given a perfect score on mental and physical fitness reports. Is he currently getting-disability checks from the federal government?

MR. FLYNN: If you know.

MR. DeWOLFE: I don't know. I do know that he continued to receive them throughout the early fifties. I remember in '54 and '55 'in Washington, D.C., he got one every month. I don't believe -- it was somewhere between $80 and $140.00 a month.

MRS. GAR-VEY: So, if he was receiving disability checks, he can't, obviously, be in perfect mental and physical shape.

MR. DeWOLFE: Correct.

MRS. GARVEY: That's unusual.

MR.,CALDERBANK: Mr. DeWolfe, so that people don't misinterpret your testimony and what is being presented here as a personal attack on L. Ron Hubbard, do you persornlly know of thousands of dollars, both in Dianetics
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and Scientology, that was paid based on the information in the books, his biography, and his background, his research; is that right?

MR. DeWOLFE: Right.

MR. CALDERBANK: And you understand the weight of
your testimony is that -- because, if many people are
spending thousands of dollars daily here in Clearwater,
based on his background, based solely just on the
representations made in books, published and written
articles, in verbal communication and you're now
saying that each of these is false?

MR. DeWOLFE: Correct.

MR. BERFIELD: Along that same line, Mr. DeWolfe, his comments that he was blind and had total recovery, did he ever address that subject to you?

MR. DeWOLFE: He's never been blind, to my knowledge, during the -- are you talking about being blind?

MR. BERFIELD: Yes, sir, wounded or -
MRS. GARVEY: You never questioned him about that?

MR. DeWOLFE: I'm sorry, what?

MRS. GARVEY: You never questioned him about that, that part of his biography?

MR. DeWOLFE: There were times during the fifties that were periods that he had been away from me - And
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because of his incredible charisma - what did I know if he said he had been blinded and now he could see? But this, to my knowledge, he's never been blinded and always had pretty decent eyesight.

MR. BERFIELD: I have a question to the counselor: Do you have copies of his medical records?

MR. FLYNN: No, we don't. However, we do have copies of the outline of his naval career, which has been introduced into evidence, which we just went through. And it may be helpful if the Commission took that exhibit and each one of you scrutinize it so- that you can see precisely where he was at various times.

in addition to that, we have some evidence of the discharge from the- Oak Knoll Military Hospital, which we will be introducing,.which shows that he suffered from a duodenal ulcer.

MR. CALDERBANK: You've never ever seen any records
or case histories, a compiling of data, that your father
did to verify any of the claims that he's made in Dianetics or auditing?

MR. DeWOLFE: No.

I knew he had an ulcer.

MR. HATCHETT: Pardon me. You did say he had an ulcer? I didn't hear you.

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MR. DeWOLFE: Huh?

MR. HATCHETT: Yes, he had an ulcer?

MR. DeWOLFE: Yes, he had an ulcer.

MR. HATCHETT: I didn't hear you. Thank you.

MR. DeWOLFE: He drank copious amounts of that milky, chalky stuff that the Navy -
MR. LeCHER: Like Maalox?

MR. DeWOLFE: Yes. But it was far more unpleasant than that.

MR. LeCHER: Can we get to the next document?

MR. FLYNN:, Yes. To speed things up here a little bit, what I will do is I'll mark two more biographical sketches of similar type as exhibits. The top one will be Exhibit 25 and the next one will be Exhibit 26.

(A copy of a biographical sketch wa. marked as Exhibit No. 25, as of this date;

A copy of a biographical sketch was marked as Exhibit No. 26, as of this date.)

MR. FLYNN: And then, we'll mark the cover of the book, All About Radiation.

(The cover of the book, All About Radiation, was marked as Exhibit No. 27, as of this date.)

MR. FLYNN: As you can see in another biographical sketch, it basically says the same thing: he is a
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graduate of George Washington University, Columbian College, which is the undergraduate school, and he gives hi's - - he represents himself to be a student at Princeton. Well, in fact, as I indicated to you at the outset, the only training he had at Princeton, and as Mr. DeWolfe testified, was connected with his naval training during-World War II,- which -- he was at no point a part of Princeton University as an undergraduate student.

And the cover of the book, if we could put that on so that everyone can see the representations right on the cover of the book, All About Radiation, it states that it is by a nuclear physicist and a medical doctor. It doesn't really appear that well on the projector, but, as you can see, that representation is held out right on the cover of the book.

And, in fact, if you open the book, there is no name of any-doctor in the book. Under the the book is divided into two
sections, Book I and Book II. Book I is apparently written by a medical doctor as has been held out to be on the
cover, and at the bottom of the page the only thing that appears is "By Medicus," which is a Latin term that means
medical. But there's no name of any medical doctor in this book who supposedly co- authored the book. But the
inference is clear on the
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front that it was written by a medical doctor and a nuclear physicist.

And Mr. Hubbard would like -- wants to testify as to who wrote-the entire book.

MR. LeCHER: Who wrote the entire book, sir, about radiation?

MR. DeWOLFE: L. Ron Hubbard.

MR. LeCHER: L. Ron Hubbard. And he is not a medical doctor?

MR. FLYNN: You might want to. answer that: Is your father a medical doctor?

MR. DeWOLFE: Is my father a medical doctor? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

MR. LeCHER: Is your father a medical doctor?

MR. DeWOLFE: No, nor is he a nuclear physicist.

MR. LeCHER: Has he ever been to any medical school in a foreign land? Has he ever been to a medical school in a foreign land like Mexico, England
MR. DeWOLFE: No, never.

MR. LeCHER: Okay. Thank you. These hearings are really not appear to being a personal attack on your.father. We're trying to get to the bottom of this to understand why he is so credible to so many people. Apparently, he has no background
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to back up his opinion of himself.

.I'm glad you were able to come to speak to us today and yesterday,-sir.

Is there anything you'd like to
MR. FLYNN: The next witness is Lori Taverna.

MR. LeCHER: Lori -- Miss Taverna; is that correct?

MS. TAVERNA: That's right.

MR. LeCHER: Will you please be sworn in by our City Clerk, Mrs. Williams?

.LORI TAVERNA, a witness herein, having first been duly sworn by a Clerk for the City of Clearwater, was examined and testified as follows:

MR. LeCHER: Thank you.

Your name is Lori, L-o-r-i T-a-v-e-r-n-a.

I will ask you the same five basic questions that we have asked every other witness. The first one is: Are you appearing here today and testifying under oath voluntarily?

MS. TAVERNA: Yes, I am.

MR. LeCHER.- Number two: Have you been paid by anyone -for your testimony, other than for the expense of coming to Clearwater?

MS. TAVERNA: No, I haven't.

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MR. LeCHER: Number three: Do you have a lawsuit against the "Church" of Scientology?

MS. TAVERNA: No, I don't.

MR. LeCHER: Number four: Does the "Church" of Scientology have a lawsuit against you?

MS. TAVERNA: No.

MR. LeCHER: Number five: Has anyone suggested to you that you should state anything but the truth or has
anyone suggested that you change your testimony for any reason?

M -S. TAVERNA: No.

MR. LeCHER: Thank you.

Would you like to make a statement, or would you -how would you like to proceed?

MS. TAVERNA: Well
MR. LeCHER: Start with your background; we'd like to hear that, first.

MS. TAVERNA: Okay.

It's a little hard for me to summarize my years in Scientology, but I'll try to get it together. I'm very nervous right now.

mi. LeCHER: Well, don't be.

MS. TAVERNA: Okay.

MR. LeCHER: We're nice people.

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MRS. GARVEY: Bring the mike up.

MR. LeCHER: Bring the mike up so that the people can hear you in the back of-the room and we can hear you up.here, and it will all be audible.

MS. TAVERNA: Okay.

Basically, I've been in Scientology for seventeen years. I came in sometime in June 1965. 1 attended a free lecture, and in that lecture I was told about the active mind, how it affects people, and there's a state known as clear where you can be rid of this mind and rid yourself of all psychosomatic illness, all irrational behavior, be totally free, IQ would be raised, and so forth.

It sounded very good to me. It sounded like something I was looking for. Part of the aims of Scientology were a world without crime, without - I forgot already without war, crime, insanity. And I had two small children, and I just thought it was something to make a better world. And I decided to find out more about it.

After -- then, in the next few years, I took courses; I became an auditor, which is a counselor; I became trained as a supervisor to train other auditors. I read about Ron Hubbard, about his past, that he was blind and crippled in the war, that he was restored to
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health by his own techniques from his research, that I became very dedicated to Ron Hubbard. I felt that he was I
guess in a way, supernatural or the greatest person. I'd ever heard of. I'm just going to look at my notes.

MR. LeCHER: Certainly. You can follow your outline or your notes, if you prefer.

MS. TAVERNA: Well, I just took some notes on background. The rest I'll just follow from my outline
MR. LeCHER: Certainly.

MS. TAVERNA: -- here.

Oh, then, I worked on staff for many years after that as an auditor and training supervisor. I got paid about -- between $3.00 and $10.00 a week for this. And money wasn't important to me, because I felt the purpose was a good purpose.

I also felt a responsibility. Like, in Scientology if you're not contributing, you feel guilty. And I wanted to help, so, most of the years, I had worked as a staff member.

I also felt that -- it's sort of said in a lot of the writings of Scientology that it is the only thing that can save this planet from destruction. There's a lot of talk against the medical profession, mental health,
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and enemies of Scientology: the government, the CIA. I had started to feel that it was us against them. And then, I stopped associating with people not in Scientology because I felt they didn't understand. They wouldn't -- I couldn't communicate with them. So, basically, it became a larger part of my life.

Oh, and Ron Hubbard was worshipped by many people; he was looked at as a god. I never actually worshipped him but anything he said I believed to be true. After so many years, it made sense to me. Whatever he said, any orders he gave were followed without any question.

I got divorced from my husband in about 1971 1 would say, mainly, because he wasn't a Scientologist. I felt he didn't want to help, he didn't want to contribute and so forth, and a lot of distance developed between us because of this.

I traveled to England, to Spain, Los Angeles, and did all these upper levels as a highly-trained auditor.

I'll give specifics of what I did up until now, briefly.

MR. LeCHER: Sure.

MS. TAVERNA: In 1971, 1 went to the Professional Supervisors' School in Los Angeles, and I did the course in two weeks. And then, I saw a telex from Ron Hubbard
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which said all people doing training had to do a training drill called TR 0, which is a communication drill where you sit and confront another person. You don't speak, you don't move; you don't do anything like that. Now, he added in his telex that you're not allowed to blink.

So, I questioned the telex that was shown to me, then, I was word cleared, which means in Scientology -there's a rule that if you disagree with any of the technology, you have to have a misunderstood word. So, I was word cleared, and they said, "No, Ron Hubbard said blinkless." I felt it was very natural to blink and it wasn't a distraction to being there. So, we had to -oh, you had to do it for two hours. You had to sit in a chair, confront another person, and not blink your eyes for a two-hour period. It was timed on a clock.

So, I stayed there for three months, and I did this drill seven days a week, from eight in the morning till eleven at night. Students accumulated there for many months because no one was passing this. Duress was placed on-the students.. There was a Commanding Officer who walked around with a nightstick and he would bang it on the table and say, !'You're going to pass today."

A lot of students went.psychotic. Some students fainted during this. Many students had no more white
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left in their eyes; it almost looked like they were bleeding.

I realized at this point - this is back in 171 that people were insane there. I tried to talk to the Ethics Officer, talked to people and say, "Something is wrong here." I was labeled a troublesome student; I was put in a separate room. They said to "Take Lori Taverna out of the room, we'll get some passes."

So, they started passing people who weren't doing this. They passed people with tears running down their eyes. I said, "You either do it or you don't do it." But after three months, Ron Hubbard came out with a bulletin, which was called "TR Breakthrough." He saw, I imagine, that no one was passing, and he said, "We no longer have time requirements on TR 0. You do it until you achieve the end result." So, at that point, everyone went home.

Something else happened during this time in '71. I was approached by Bruce Raymond, who was a member of the Guardian's Office. He asked me if I would --'he said I was chosen to be a secret agent. He said he had a dossier on me; he went to rattle off my whole life history. He said I was chosen because I had an excellent Ethics record, that I was well respected and knew I was a good
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person. He was in a special division of the Guardian's Office to protect Ron Hubbard's life.

I was very confused. I was also frightened because I didn't know who he was exactly or who I was dealing with. But I thought if this was the real purpose - you know, I loved Ron Hubbard very much - and I said if I could do something to help him I will. He gave me a code name, and I was to use a post office box on my return to New York and we would communicate through this post office box.

He said if I ever divulged this that he would -- I would be dealt with severely. And he said he would see that I was declared what they call Type 3 PTS, which means that you're psychotic and that they would see that I would be committed, and he would deny ever speaking to me.

So, that's the only thing in Scientology that ever really frightened me. I went back to New York. I did communicate one or two times through this post office box. I was sent documents, some kind of training manual on how to do espionage, how to be an undercover agent. I studied it, sent it back. I passed the course. And I got my first assignment, which I looked at and I felt was so absurd that I just didn't want to be a part of it.

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It said something - I-don't remember exactly something to the effect that I was to go to different areas of Manhattan and see if I spot anyone wearing black clothes.- And it was just so absurd to me, I said, you know, I just couldn't bring myself to do this. And I was to see if they were wearing partly black clothes or totally black clothes.

So, I just ripped up the orders. And then, I was frightened that something was going to happen to me because I wasn't cooperating. So, I just put all the things into my bathtub and burned all the things. I never communicated to them again. But I was left with the feeling that I would be approached again. But nothing happened with it.

I didn't see Bruce Raymond again till 1972 or 1973. A very good ZrIend of mine told me that he was selected to do a Guardian's.Office project and he was meeting someone-at my apartment, and it turned out to be Bruce Raymond. And when I opened the door, I almost fainted because I had this earlier fear, and now he was in my house. He came with a girl named Kathy Savas. I had to leave the room because the Guardian's office was very secretive.

He did this project. He told me when he was doing
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it. Then, after he did it - I'm sure he was bonded and everything, but we were very close - he told me what he did. He said, "I had to go into a building in Manhattan mid-town and I had to get someone's fingerprints on a blank piece of paper or an envelope." He said it was a woman's fingerprints, someone who wrote a book against Scientology. And he said, "I don't know why I had to do this." He said, "But it must have been something very important because I was treated like a hero." He said they were all making a very big fuss over this, and he was awarded auditing as a reward for doing this project.

That's all I know about that. But if I just -- it came back to my memory when I remembered about Paulette Cooper. I assume it might have been Paulette Cooper, because I think something was done like that. And I felt very spooked and hurt that this friend of mine did, it because he's now dead - he died in 1975 - but he was part of something very illegal and corrupt and he was never told what he was doing. And he was never part of the Guardian's Office.

I've been in so many years that I probably could. talk a lot, so I'm going to try to summarize.

So, I was kind of up set because I have three children and I'm divorced, so I never could make enough
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money to support my children properly. So, I would leave staff for a little while, get my business going, be successful. And just as I was doing really well, there was an event in New York, and there was a project called Operation Z.

This was a program to train people to disseminate Scientology on a large scale to thousands of people at a time. And it was supposed to be public lecturing to beginning -- new people to explain what it is. We were. told that you didn't have to have a contract to an organization or be part of the organization, because I was unhappy as a staff member and I didn't want to do that. He said the training wou-ld take two weeks, you would go to Clearwater When you returned, you'll be paid approximately $700.00 a week. He said that they already had Madison Square Garden booked and John Travolta was going to be there giving the seminars..

This made me very happy, because I felt that
Scientology could be delivered properly and to reach people, because at this time I. - felt it was the greatest thing in the world. Even though there were outnesses all these years, it's hard to describe why I stayed in, but I felt that people in it were not duplicating the technology properly. I said, "Well, this is something
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good." I signed up immediately; I dropped everything. I paid my rent a month in advance, I had my children taken care of, and I was on the plane. I came to Clearwater in 1978, it was June.

When I got here, I found out it was not exactly as the fellow had said. Things weren't organized; it wasn't all ready to go. They had people here who were in Scientology two weeks, they weren't trained. They wouldn't be able to deliver this to the public.

After a couple of weeks, I saw the project was going nowhere, and I took over as the Ops Z Trainer. I fled, and I was trying to get this project off the ground.

Anyway, instead of two weeks., I ended up staying here three months in Clearwater. I had accumulated acouple of thousand dollars in debts at home because my business collapsed. I had someone running it for me, but it didn't work out. My children had to go back to school in September. And I didn't want to stay anymore because nothing was true of what was told to me.

Also, when I got here, I was very, very shocked to see Fort Harrison. The only thing I'd ever seen was a brochure showing pools and cabanas. And Flag is promoted to Scientologists as-the greatest place on the planet, the safest place. It's something like going

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