Subject: Some history about ASHO
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 09:55:50 -0400
Message-ID: <4aTfNxYB8rjk+zi=6dM7MBmkS5HU@4ax.com>
I found this interesting bit of history about ASHO on alt.clearing.technology. Warrior, can you pick up where Phil Spickler left off? Or maybe Ishmael could.
Stacy
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Subject: FarewellToASHO.PJS
Date: 15 Sep 1999 03:13:39 -0400
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The following first appeared in the private email list
IVy-subscribers, which is available to all those who
subscribe to the printed magazine, International Viewpoints.
************************************************************************
Farewell to ASHO (a response to Alan Walter)
by Phil Spickler
18 Aug 99
Dear Alan,
In response to your request for information regarding the exodus of
numerous tech terminals from ASHO that I think took place in the late summer
or early fall of 1969, I hereby present the following recalls.
I think it was sometime early in 1969 that the chilling information arrived at ASHO stating that in the future, the then-College of Scientology in Los Angeles was to become a Sea Organization organization. Prior status of that organization known as ASHO was that of a non-Sea Organization org that was in the business of delivering, on the training side, everything up through Class VI, the Briefing Course and Class VII, and on the auditing side of the Grade Chart everything up through Grade VI and the Solo Course.
And it was a pretty fun place, as you know, since your missions, as feeder groups, had a lot to do with making it the upstat place that it was.
Back to the story:
Along with the news that ASHO was to become a Sea Organization org, with all the paramilitary uniforms and that whole schtick, came an offer to the existing ASHO staff which went something like this: We'd love to have you join the Sea Org when the conversion occurs, but if you don't,you may leave, and we wish you well in whatever you're going to do next. Sounded pretty friendly at the time. And some of us really didn't think that what Jehovah Hubbard really meant in that message was, "I need you! Stay where you are and join the Sea Org, or I'll kill you." More on the killing later.
Well, anyway, as time went by, Sea Org arrival came in on a gradient, which finally left us with a Captain by the name of Fred Payer, who in the very early '60's had been a really sweet fresh-faced kid who had arrived with his cute wife Cynthia at the Washington, D.C. Org with a great deal of idealism and enthusiasm for Scientology and its founder. By 1969 the Fred Payer that had arrived at ASHO wearing a business suit with twin Berettas in shoulder holsters under each armpit was anything but a pleasant force to be reckoned with.
Some of the Class VIIIs and the VIIs and the VIs on the ASHO tech staff weren't quite sure whether they were going to stay at ASHO or not, but after Fred got through with numerous and unmentioned acts of aggression in the tech department, there was very much of an individual and collective agreement to get the heck out. ASHO at that time had a pretty fancy tech staff, and suffice it to say, some of the top mission holders would not have objected to some of those folks coming their way.
There was no overt encouragement for these folks to do that, with the possible exception of the mission holder in Palo Alto, chap by the name of Gifford Pinchot, who hadn't realized, being rather naive to the organization and the subject in general, what would have befallen him had he succeeded in capturing any of the ASHO tech staff prior to the big "OK to leave if you wish."
Well, when the great exodus occurred, Gifford acquired quite a few of the tech heavyweights at ASHO, yours truly being one of them. I think a few had left a bit earlier for the highly successful missions of one Martin Samuels. To the best of my knowledge, none of them ended up in any of the Alan Walter missions, nor had Alan ever (and wisely) encouraged such things.
It seems to me that the giant 13- or 16-page ethics order that had been drawn up on your noble self presumably as the result of a Comm Ev, had actually appeared at ASHO before our departure in the summer or fall of '69.
I remember looking at the first few pages of it in disbelief and horror, and wondering which one or group of headhunters at Flag had decided that you had become far too successful to be permitted to live.
By late 1969/ early 1970, we tech giants had produced a very upstat and fairly large mission then known as Mission of Santa Clara, near San Jose, California. And just as our stats were topping out, Jehovah Hubbard strikes again as an ethics order comes out on Malcolm Cheminais and Phil Spickler, assigning us a permanent (get that! Permanent!) Condition of Doubt, but offering us relief from this if we are willing to be comm-ev'd at the AO.
Well, I don't think Ron invented the idea of a kangaroo court (that's a court where the verdict is already decided -- I'm not sure what the connection with kangaroos is), but suffice it to say, several Comm Evs later, each group that had been appointed at AO to kill us couldn't do it, and they got killed in return: Failed to carry out orders.
Now the original ethics order was signed by none other than Nate Jessup, who at that time was Commodore Staff IV, which on the Org Board made him grand master of tech worldwide. It wasn't until around 1975, having become good buddies with Artie Maren, then-director of PR for the US Guardian's Office, and having performed a rather noble and non-harmful act on behalf of that group, that Artie, in a fit of friendship, showed me the handwritten by LRH dispatch that ordered the execution of Malcolm Cheminais and Phil Spickler and ordered the Guardian's Office to issue it under Nate Jessup, C/S IV's, name.
So there you have some of the exciting events of those years, and some of the palace or heavenly intrigues and the lengths that Jehovah Hubbard would go to if he felt that people should remain selfless in their devotion to his needs, should they fail to divine that and do something else. The people in the heavenly court with L. Ron Hubbard who seemed to have such duplicity, whatever the heck that means, in allowing their brethren to be executed, must be understood to be Jehovah's angels, and the way you get to be an angel in any heaven with ANY god is to become a perfect instrument of unquestioned obedience and duplication of the will of that particular god or creator. I have it from sources on high that that's a very accurate definition of an angel.
Of course, when you have a god in which the forces of light and darkness are continuously at war within this one god, you get some pretty lively entertainment if you happen to be in that particular god's playing field, n'est-ce pas?
If more data on this is required, please let me know --otherwise, I think some of the things that are occurring on the lines of the fabled IVy-list meet my best specifications for the presence, namely interesting, informative, historical and hysterical, and humorous, and should do much in some circles for lightening up the 3D engram, or should it better be called the 3D GPM.
I hope in my next posting to provide some information and some viewpoint that will greatly please the amazing Joe Harrington, who has already taken some giant steps toward the clearing of the aforementioned 3D GPM.
All the best, and let's keep the history flowing -- Phil
From: Warrior <werreour@flash.net
Subject: Re: Some history about ASHO
Date: 15 Sep 1999 08:33:48 -0700
Message-ID: <7roe8s$6me@drn.newsguy.com>
I found Phil Spickler's account of ASHO between 1969-1975 to be really interesting. I never knew any of the individuals Phil mentioned very well.
I was acquainted with Arte Maren (he was a Guardian Office PR) and Alan Walter (a very successful mission holder) since they both were big wheels in Scienoland. Arte Maren, Vaughn Young and Heber Jentzsch were the GO PRs who always gave briefings to the SO staffs whenever there was a need to do some damage control regarding bad press or some type of "shore flap".
And Alan Walter's missions were consistently among the top-producing missions in Scienoland. I know this since I prepared many, many FSM Commission checks for his missions. L. Ron Hubbard thought very highly of Alan -- enough so that he commended Alan in an HCO Policy Letter.
Undoubtedly Ishmael could fill in a little of the history of ASHO since he was already on staff there (in HCO) in 1975 when I joined the SO in October 1975 (the same month as you, Stacy!). I reported to ASHO for my "active duty" in November 1975, immediately after completing my basic SO indoctrination program (known as "Product Zero") and undergoing the mandatory "sec check" (called a "7A Sec Check" - see Tech Vol IV). During October 1975, I worked briefly on a Sea Org mission under Yvonne Jentzsch, who, with the help of the EPF ("Estates Project Force") and the RPF ("Rehabilitation Project Force"), moved the Celebrity Center from its downtown location to the new headquarters on La Brea Ave. We moved the entire contents of the org -- furniture, filing cabinets, "pc" folders, etc. literally *overnight*. I received a commendation from Yvonne, along with a promise that she would take me, and some others, out to a steak and lobster dinner, as a way of showing her appreciation for our efforts.
Sadly, she was to die before she could fulfill her promise.
Ishmael was to leave the SO shortly after I arrived. He had already gotten a taste of SO "ethics" when his senior ordered him to wear a grey rag on his arm for some imagined crime which had resulted in a "condition of liability"
being assigned to him by someone. I forget who it was in ASHO Day's HCO that informed Ishmael of the "condition assignment". I think Jack Dirmann, the HCO Area Sec, had ordered someone -- maybe Eddie Hansen, the HCO Cope Officer or Mike Grau, the Director of Inspections & Reports or Bill Skrifvars, the Director of Communications -- to inform Ishmael that he had to wear a grey rag (which was a dirty t-shirt or some such thing -- I'll let Ishmael clarify).
If I recall correctly, Bill Skrifvars was Ishmael's senior. Undoubtedly, Ishmael could tell you some stories about other HCO staff. He would probably remember most of these HCO staff:
Jack Dirmann, the HCO Area Sec.
Eddie Hansen, HCO Cope Officer Bill Skrifvars, Director of Communications Mike Grau, Director of Inspections and Reports Dean Donier, HCO Comm Runner (who might have held this post after Dave) Beverly Shabert (later Bev Mustard), Internal Comm Flow Officer Sherry Miljoiner, Hatting Officer Steve Grant, Sea Org Recruiter (the fellow who recruited me) Craig Sargeant, HCO Ethics Officer (Mike Grau's junior) About Phil Spickler: I never knew the man when I was in Scienoland.
But I knew of him since he, like Alan Walter, had a reputation as a very successful mission holder. I only saw Phil a couple of times. My recollection is that he came to ASHO in late 1975 or perhaps 1976. I don't know the circumstances of his arrival at ASHO, but I have a memory of Phil talking with the Commanding Officer ASHO Day, Lt. Commander Irene Howey (later Irene Dirmann) in the hallway between reception and the basic courses course room at the old ASHO on Temple Street.
Phil's daughter, Mimi Spickler, came to ASHO around 1976. She ended up working briefly at ASHO Day as a non-SO tech staff person -- (a Case Supervisor I believe). I don't know the circumstances of Mimi's departure from ASHO. Perhaps it was because she completed her Class VIII Course and Internship. But ASHO was under orders to phase out all non-SO staff and replace them with SO staff in accordance with a Board Policy Letter entitled "Financial Management Standardization Series". Herbie Parkhouse, the then Deputy Guardian Finance World Wide, wrote the issue for Hubbard. At one point, Mimi had a brief affair with another mission holder, a fellow named Steve Surrey. Mimi was to later set up a field group with her husband, Jim Rogers, another Class VII, in the LA area.
In 1989, I moved away from LA, and I never saw or heard from Mimi again until I saw that she had married the actor Tom Cruise.
Anyway, I've already written lots about ASHO, so I'll not repeat it all here. One thing I will comment on though. Working at ASHO Day was like being in a prison camp -- very harsh "ethics", very little freedom for personal time off, constant orders to do one SO program or another, relogging of and enforced compliance to Hubbard's Aides Order 44-39R, repeated SO missions and orders being issued by everyone from Capt. Bill Robertson, Flag, the Guardian Office, the Commodore's Messenger Org, the Watchdog Committee, etc. It was insane. We were always being threatened to get our "stats" up. "Libs" were frequently cancelled for reasons best known to management. We were ordered to instantly comply to targets on the telexed orders -- write up this -- word clear that -- handle this -- knock out "CI" -- do "O/W writeups" -- send a staff to Flag for training or correction -- "Comm Ev" this person -- "Fitness Board" that person-- "Declare so-and-so -- find the "SPs" on staff -- "handle the ARC broken field" -- "recover blown students" -- "get the Ruds Reg cracking -- "False Data Strip" this -- "demo that" -- do a "3rd Party Invest" -- "find the why" -- "slam back in the successful actions" blah blah blah...
Constant telexed orders arrived from Hubbard and Flag and FOLO and AVC and the CMO and WDC and the GO. It was like a slave colony or a prison camp with 12 wardens on your back. There were so many orders coming into the org it was unreal.
I am so glad to be out of that nightmare.
Warrior
Interested readers may find more of my SO experiences webbed at:
http://www.entheta.org/entheta/1stpersn/warrior/
