Subject: Another C of S dropout
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 14:21:34 -0500
Organization: The Lisa McPherson Trust, 33 North Fort Harrison Avenue, Clearwater, Florida 33755 Telephone: (727) 467-9335 Fax: (727) 467-9345 Message-ID: <h16kOPHWWd4wRn1CvQJqk6UJwshd@4ax.com>
I won't go into any detail about who or where this person is, but as of yesterday afternoon there is another confirmed Miscavige Church of Scientology dropout.
This was someone who had been drawn in by a management seminar.
His wife called me last week, having found out about the LMT via the internet.
She told the usual story: her husband thought he was going to a seminar about how to iimprove his business but it turned out to be a front for the C of S. She was leery but he was enthralled and promised her he'd only do a little Scientology to see what it was like. Gradually he became more and more of a stranger to her and she began to be alarmed.
He stopped consulting her before handing over large amounts of money to them. He started warning her not to criticize Scientology or he would leave her. One minute he would be raging at her, the next minute he would be "handling" her.
By the time she called me, she was ready to file for divorce just to keep him from giving the C of S the rest of their money. She broke into tears many times during our conversation, heartborken that she was losing her husband to the C of S.
I spent about three hours talking to this woman on the phone, educating her about what Scientology is and what the Church of Scientology is all about. She was greatly relieved to find an organization that could explain what was happening to her husband and her marriage.
Mark Bunker had just returned from his trip to Chicago to videotape an interview with another couple who had been drawn in by an identical management seminar. We sent this woman a copy of that interview and a copy of Steve Hassan's new book, Releasing the Bonds.
A few days later the husband called and had a long talk with David. He asked a lot of questions about Scientology and David gave him a perspective he had never had before.
Yesterday I called to speak to the wife but the husband happened to answer the phone, and we ended up talking for about an hour. He had seen Mark's video and had a lot of questions about it and about Scientology in general. What did I think about Scientology? I told him I didn't think the C of S should be encouraging him to divorce his wife simply because she was critical of the C of S's heavy-handed tactics. I also told him I didn't think he should be pressured to give them money without consulting his wife. He said he totally agreed with me about that, because he loves his wife and doesn't like the amount of time he's being told to spend away from her and his business.
Then he asked me if I thought it should cost so much to go Clear. I said definitely I didn't agree that it should cost so much. I told him about Peter Alexander giving them a million dollars by the time he was OT7. The man was horrified.
I won't go into much more detail for the sake of the man's privacy. The bottom line is that he wants a repayment of the money he has on account that hasn't been used. I pointed out that per the Refund/Repayment policy, he will be required to sign a waiver that he won't sue the Church, and he will be barred from all further services at the Church of Scientology.
He said that didn't bother him, because he didn't want any further services at the Church of Scientology anyway.
He was very happy and relieved by the end of our conversation and thanked everyone at the LMT for the time we've spent helping him.
Stacy
