From 1989 to 1991 I was working in the NOTS unit at AOLA. I saw some pcs taking years to complete OT 5 when it should have only taken weeks or a couple of months at the most.

One particularly horrendous cycle was the story of Donna Curry. Amir Guerran was the C/S and James Fuller was the auditor. Griffee Blythe Howson was the Senior C/S of the NOTS unit at the time. There was a pre-OT by the name of Donna Curry. Donna was getting NOTS auditing by James Fuller. She was very wealthy. She was very over weight.

Morbidly obese. She wanted James to audit her at her house because she was so fat she couldn't go out much. Of course, she paid handsomely for this service. The doctor told her that if she didn't lose weight she would die.

Instead of encouraging her to go on a diet, the Case Supervisor at AOLA, Amir Guerran, agreed with Donna's plan to commit suicide by taking sleeping pills. They gave her some end of life processing.

She was even C/Sed by Amir with the OK from Griffee to have rudiments flown on dropping the body.

Although Donna communicated her plans to some of her family and friends, her close circle were loyal Scientologists who were trusting of the AOLA and were sure that the C/S and auditor would wisely counsel Donna to get her ethics in, diet and that they would encourage Donna to take actions that would lead her to lose weight and to live.

Donna was being taken care of by a Mexican maid by the name of Laura.

I never knew her last name. With the knowledge of AOLA, Laura assisted Donna in committing suicide. When Donna died Laura took possession of all her jewelry and was allowed to get all the money in Donna's account at AOLA and Celebrity Center transferred to her accounts with the C/Ses knowledge because Donna told everything to her auditor.

Instead of the Org C/Sing and auditing her toward survival, they supported her in committing suicide and sympathized with her.

Donna told friends that the Doctor had told her that she would only live 6 months if she didn't lose weight, but that she felt it was impossible to lose weight. So instead, Donna committed suicide and stipulated that she be cremated so that there would be no scandal.

Members of her family, Gary and Janet Lawrence from San Diego, still donate considerable amounts of money to Scientology. Gary was Donna's brother.

This supports what critics have been saying that certain Churches of Scientology agree with and sometimes assist people to commit suicide.

It also shows the ineptitude of even high level orgs to handle people who are on their lines.

Another sad case was Ellen Griffin. She was a very lovely person.

She was a Class 6 auditor who had a field practice in the Studio City area of the San Fernando Valley. She was urged by the Scientology community to get auditing and to use alternative therapies to handle her breast cancer. She later died of breast cancer. She probably would be alive today if she had simply opted for standard medical handling.

Another Scientologist who died needlessly of lymphoma when he probably could have been cured if he had accepted regular treatment was Don Freedman, a very experienced and wonderful Class 8 auditor.

Go Back