Buoyed By Anonymous, A Former Scientologist Offers Thanks And A Heartbreaking Story
If estimates hold true, there were at least 6000 people protesting globally against the multitude of abuses for which the cyber-group calling themselves ‘Anonymous’ hopes to hold the Church of Scientology accountable, including, but not limited to: suppressing free speech, fraud, intimidation, extortion, even malevolent neglect toward its own members.
On last night’s GlossLip Radio show, Arnie Lerma joined me to discuss the protests in Washington, D.C. Lerma, a former member of Scientology and now one of its most outspoken critics, joined the 200 plus crowd of Anonymous protesters gathered in D.C.’s Dupont Circle.
I asked Arnie to describe the events and his experiences at the D.C. protests:
“The main group assembled at Dupont Circle, but we did not join them there because basically we had like a parade float, a truck with big signs on the side of it. We found a parking space in front of the Scientology building on R Street and Connecticut. It was wonderful. We couldn’t have done better.
Our first contact was their advance team, who came down to scope out the site and set up the sound system and the main body came down at about 11:00 o’clock.
They were disciplined, polite, intelligent, organized. I mean it was like clockwork. I was blown away.
I thought I was at a late ’60s anti-war rally. A lot of energy, and they kept everybody psyched. They had some good guys working the microphone. I don’t know them all, I mean, they’re anonymous. So I can’t thank them by name, but who ever they got running this, an running this picket, I can’t speak for the other ones, but the reports I’ve read are very, very complimentary. This was just an amazing choreographed maneuver, absolutely blown away.”
Lerma, has become a legendary figure within the anti-CoS movement due to his previously close ties to the Church for ten years of his life. A vivacious and articulate man, Arnie gives credit to Suzette Hubbard (daughter of CoS founder L. Ron Hubbard) for helping him leave the Church. That story in itself is mythic.
Arnie and Suzette began a love affair almost immediately upon meeting each other within the confines of the Church. The two, swept away in their love for one another, briefly escaped the Church and were only 48 hours (the waiting period between getting their license and the actual formalities) away from being married. When word got back to CoS officials, and Suzette’s father L. Ron, the two were immediately separated, and this was the wake-up call to Arnie to leave while he could.
After years of putting his life back together, Arnie took up the task of helping other defectors “deprogram” themselves from the Church’s process of indoctrination, a task he admits has drained him emotionally over the years, but one he can’t seem to walk away from.
It is through this specialized occupation, a young woman named, Jean Marie, sought out Arnie’s guidance.
Jean Marie approached Arnie for help in coming to terms with some traumatic events in her life involving the Church. Jean Marie was born into the Church of Scientology, with her father being a minister for the CoS for over 20 years. From what Jean Marie describes about her father’s final days, this was a man dealing with a severe bout of depression, with no recourse or options to treat it.
One of the most widely held tenets of the Church is as Arnie describes, “the demonization of psychiatry” and the abject refusal of modern methods, including the use of prescription medication to treat all the various mental illnesses.
As fate would have it, not only did Jean Marie attend the protest in D.C and tell the crowd her story, but we were lucky enough to have Jean Marie on the radio program last night to give us a first hand account of what happened to her family and what ultimately led to her father’s suicide in May 2001.
“I was there talking about my dad today in D.C. [My father] struggled in life and looked to the Church for answers. And they told him they had the answers so, you know, he was devoted. And at a really critical point in his life, he went to the church for help, and he was told he was an illegal PC, PC stands for pre-Clear, which means he was unable to receive services.
Well that didn’t make much sense because my dad had been a member of the founding Church of Scientology for 20 years. This happened when he went out to Los Angeles to get some special services to help him through an emotional blockage he was having in his life. To be honest, I want to tell you, I wasn’t there, this is just what I gathered, what I observed.
When he came back from LA, he was like a different person, it was like something happened to him, he had snapped. He was wringing his hands, looking off in the distance, looking completely morose. He wouldn’t speak about what happened to him. He was losing a tremendous amount of weight, and he couldn’t sleep. He’d cry. He’d sit on the sofa and cry all day. He of course, stopped going to work. My mom has a disability, she’s blind. It was an incredibly scary time, compounded with my mom’s disability and all this going on, plus not knowing what was going on with him.
So he died, he took his life on May 5, 2001. On the very first day he was ever left alone after he became ill. A week later I found a suicide note and in it he said he killed himself because he was a SP, which is a suppressive person.”
After the death of Jean Marie’s father, she went on a quest to find answers as to what might have led to her father’s suicide and what she discovered was a pattern of similar experiences within Scientology for those who’d had what she called a “psychotic break” and were unable to seek help outside the church to deal with their illness. Statistically speaking, suicide is a far too common end for those members within the Church who adhere to CoS teachings.
If you are one of those people who are suffering from a serious mental illness, and you are told it is essentially immoral to have your illness treated by either a psychiatrist or modern medicine, what other outcome is there?
Jean Marie may have the answer to that question:
“My father believed Scientology had all the answers, the only answers, and that is why he is no longer alive. He refused psychiatric treatment of any kind and instead opted for suicide thinking he could come back and get more psychological counseling, in the next lifetime.”
You know, it was his choice, he chose to be a Scientologist, he chose to commit suicide, he chose to refuse psychiatric treatment. He but he did so under false pretenses. Let’s get out the dictionary and look up the word fraud….he was totally deceived.”
I asked Jean Marie if she was ever able to get any answers about her father’s death from the Church. She said, though she contacted the D.C. office of CoS to talk to the “ethics handler,” no one ever returned her call.
Interestingly, she did say at her father’s funeral, there were many of his Scientology friends who were clearly saddened by her father’s passing. But, it wasn’t until later in the day she found out from her mother than those in attendance from the Church thought her father died from cancer, and not suicide.
Jean Marie’s mother never corrected this notion because to commit to suicide would be considered “entheta.” The best definition I could find for this was “disturbed in one’s thoughts.” Jean Marie also discloses a bizarre anecdote regarding her dad’s death which she shared:
“One of the Captain Douchebags down at the Church of Scientology told my mother, after my father died, he’d gotten in touch with my dad “spiritually” and forgave him on behalf of the whole Church of Scientology and my father had this tremendous outpouring grief and the he was finally at peace.”
I asked Jean Marie to clarify what this meant and she said, trying to contain her laughter:
“It means, using OT [Operating Thetan] powers, this person got in touch with my dad, and told him, “we forgive you, and my dad had a release of grief and that he basically was released of pressure of the psychotic depression now. and was free to come back into another body as another Scientolgist. They didn’t say this, but I’ve seen as much.”
What a nice, tidy mystic answer for all those nagging questions.
Arnie said more than any facts or figures about how the Church of Scientology has hurt peoples lives, it was the compelling story Jean Marie told to the crowd of shivering nameless faces which had the biggest impact. Her struggle to come to terms with her father’s suicide based on dangerous and fraudulent claims from the Church, is the galvanizing force to this movement.
As the media struggles to make sense of this group Anonymous, my co-host Josh Hathaway asked Jean Marie to describe her feelings on Anonymous and their calls to protest.
“Well, it was really a heartfelt moment. I came to this protest….but first of all I have to say, ANONYMOUS, thank you for stepping in and shining a light onto all these websites out there, with all this information. Without you there wouldn’t have been these protest today. So, when I went there I was just feeling so many different emotions, plus I’d had a strong cup of coffee and no sleep. I felt like I needed to talk, I felt like I needed provide some personal substance to the day, to the protest. And I just went for it. And I am overwhelmed with the response I’ve received. These last three weeks have been extremely therapeutic for me, and I feel like I have finally have some answers, because it’s been a mystery. A devastating mystery for the last seven years.”
I encourage you to listen to the entire broadcast, and I feel confident in saying it was the best insight into what Anonymous’ February 10 protest really meant.
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WOW, good work, very moving.
We need MOAR like this.
THANK YOU
Comment by ScaryANON — February 11, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
<3
Comment by David — February 11, 2008 @ 2:56 pm
Thank you for being there, and for being brave enough to tell your story.
Comment by Anonymous — February 11, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
This is great. I have a similar story. No one outside of the COS could ever really know what it is like to get out and get re-established in normal society. The stories told, unless you have lived them are just too incredible to believe and they (the church) put on such a great front. Until you are pretty far “in”, it all looks very helpful. Some never see the truth. They want it that way. That is why there are threats of being “declared” if you even look at the internet or talk negatively about them. It is always YOU, never them. I hope that anonymous really does raise the awareness of how bad this group is and also helps some people go free for real.
Comment by Free for real — February 11, 2008 @ 4:48 pm
http://digg.com/educational/Buoyed_By_Anonymous_A_Former_
Scientologist_Offers_Thanks
Digg if you wish to spread the word. Thanks.
Comment by D — February 11, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
Another Brave Lady!
Thanks so much for this story.
I hope this woman recognizes how important a contribution this is, especially to those who don’t yet have their voice.
There are hundreds more stories like this, of course.
They can be found all over the net, because the Co$ can never silence the truth.
Search for yourself.
Child Abuse (and Neglect) in the (Tax Exempt) Co$ Schools
http://www.taxexemptchildabuse.net/
Inside Story of Abuse:
http://www.skeptictank.org/childcos.htm
Google “Lisa McPherson”
Comment by Sou Manona — February 11, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
I would just like to say thank you, D. As well as helping the movement, you are helping individuals. Not just to see the truth, but to be able to express not just how they feel, but the individual reality they have had to endure to the rest of the world. Also, I express gratitude to Arnie Lerma, Jean Marie, and countless others who are helping us outsiders better prepare.
Comment by JohnJacobJingleheimerSchmidt — February 11, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
Thanks for the terrific article, it’s stories like these that bring the Co$’ shame to life. I’d like to add an article written by Anonymous:
Okay, time for a sappy, heart breaking story from Philadelphia.
Say hello to a scientologist.
Hi Scientologist!
She was sent out like the rest of the scientologists to “give us a scare” by taking pictures and being silent and mysterious and all that.
Now, you may have heard, that the best answer to this is to have a guy on a megaphone reciting the Xenu story. And in fact, for most of the scientologists, this actually worked. They went back inside.
She didn’t go back inside.
She, unlike the others, broke her firm resolve, and also broke into tears.
She stayed and listened. She heard about documented evidence of the CoS’s crimes. She heard about how these people who she thought were helping her, had killed others using the same techniques they were using on her. She heard the names, heard of their deaths. She heard about Operation Snow White. She heard it from 135 people who cared enough to come out and picket about it. She heard hundreds upon hundreds of cars honking for support.
She cried.
I don’t know what she’ll do next. But maybe she’ll get help. Maybe she’ll get out…
Comment by Anonymous — February 11, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
There’s evidence of another victory here as well. I don’t see any known scientologist comment-spammers spilling their lies.
It’s a pity really. They were making it easy to spread the truth by disproving their false claims.
Comment by Cade — February 11, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
it is out now and it cant be put back in we are legion
Comment by jay — February 11, 2008 @ 10:05 pm
I just got a dollar bill in my change with ’scientology kills ‘written on it what a way to send a message
Comment by jay — February 11, 2008 @ 10:08 pm
As someone who played a VERY small role in the team of people that organized the DC protest, I want to thank you for your very kind words. I admit that early on I was concerned that this thing would have gotten out of control in an embarrassing way that would hurt us in the long run. The fact that it was done in such a dare-I-say “professional” way was a great relief to me - and I beleive also a credit to everyone who participated. I’ve had the privilege to work with many of the key coordinators - if anyone can truly be called such a thing in a hivemind such as Anonymous. We were very fortunate to have such professional, determined, and astute people willing to stand up and do their part. I’m sure they will tell you that we accomplished this because each one of us just did one small bit. However, I want to take a moment to give them my public gratitude. These folks were truly responsible for helping to take this protest to the next level. When we had the opportunity to meet with them, even though we were not necessarily always tiemly in our arrival (we came in from Baltimore), these folks took the extra time to listen to our past political experiences and incorporate that into their already solid plans. I am sure it was their willingness to listen, ability to execute, and eagerness to share the glory that made them such effective [a-non]leaders.
Comment by Doc Anonymous — February 11, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
I find it richly ironic that the Scientologists have kept their control and power through secrecy, abuse tactics (yes, their behavior is classic ABUSE, including the “if you tell anyone, we’ll kick you out” it’s just what a pedophile tells a child they’re molesting), and now they’re up against a medium they CANNOT control: The Internet. There is no way they can shut down all the sites with information on their activities. There is no way they can stop the flood of truthtellers and whistle blowers.
Legion, indeed.
Comment by SemiAnonymous — February 12, 2008 @ 12:08 am
In all the newsreports i haven’t heard one family member of a scientologist or x-scientologist have anything good to say about it
I will be atending the next protest I believe they anounce it VIA youtube
PS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svm8opWWimw << for x-members in hiding
And scientologists hide stuff during the protests?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuoQ_cS8Yqs
why would scientologist want to hide files during a protest against them?
Comment by Anonymous — February 12, 2008 @ 3:09 am
Everything that sounds ridiculous about the tenants of Scientology is true. Was involveed in 1967-68 in LA at the top level, so I know for a fact. When I began to make comments regarding Hubbard and the brainwashing…was told I needed more processing. Left the org. and they wrote hand written letters threatening me for ten years, and scaring the hell out of my family. Live in Europe under another name. They are very dangerous when you go against them … J.
Comment by walkin7 — February 12, 2008 @ 6:18 am
Want to thank those who are exposing the realities of
this Cult…we did as much as we could…now we will support you in your endeavors. That they do some good, that is true as we have heard from some 9/11 people who were left on their own and in the dark as to what was really going on. But ask onesself, what was the intention and motivation for these acts? If people, the human race would exhibit more humanity, cults would no longer be the surrogates for what we need…empathy, understanding and acceptance. J.
Comment by walkin7 — February 12, 2008 @ 6:33 am
[...] wrote a story earlier today which summarized last night’s radio show featuring Arnie Lerma and a special guest whose story [...]
Pingback by Celebrity Blog | Babelogs | Celebrity Gossip » Blog Archive » Video From D.C. Anonymous Protest, Ex-Scientologist Speaks About Father’s Suicide — February 12, 2008 @ 9:06 am
I wish I could’ve been at the DC protest to hear this heart moving story. I wish I could’ve thanked you face-to-face for adding even more substance to our protests. So, I will do it here. Thank you for support our cause. Thank you from the bottom of all of Anonymous’ hearts.
We Are Anonymous
We Are Legion
We Do Forgive
We Do Forget
Comment by Anonymous — February 12, 2008 @ 10:04 am
Walkin7: On the 15th of March, our second global protest is scheduled to occur, again at 11am. If you could make it to the nearest CoS and testify, or even just be present, it would offer Anons not only locally but around the world support. It would be very appreciated, though if you chose to decline this invitation we will understand your reticence.
Hopefully you will at least see/read this comment, hahaha
Comment by Anonymous — February 12, 2008 @ 6:42 pm
I like the hahaha…I live in Switzerland…location
Basel. Is it our time zone 11:00 or with the six hours difference? Have nothing to loose supporting your group as long as it is based on fact, which so far it has been. Thanks for the repy. Important that we remain in contact and be supportive of one another.
It is the only way to go.
Comment by walkin7 — February 13, 2008 @ 9:20 am
Thank you for sharing your story with us walkin7/J. You help to remind us of the humanity and kindness of the people who have found themselves involved.
Comment by nonny — February 13, 2008 @ 2:01 pm
Thanks Nonny for the website … J
Thanks for the website Nonny. I am sure there are so many people out there who meeet this criteria. I sincerely hope that this movement stays in the realm
of respect and integrity. Otherwise, people will just put them into the category of attention seekers and pranksters, ignoring the real message. In the face of deception and mind manipulation techniques, which the SC uses, it can be difficult to remain factual when confronting them…as we are emotional beings. This is what they want, us to look out of control, to prove their point that SC in necessary and that they have the answers to mankinds problems. We are one anothers answers…love and live without fear, be in touch with that which makes us human, and take on the responsibility of Self…no blame…they have been experiences that each human has. It is how we interpret and perceive them which gives us our present day, recreates the past, and makes our future.
Wish you all a good day. J
Comment by walkin7 — February 14, 2008 @ 7:41 am
Hi walkin7/J. I am not responsible for this website at all, I am just an avid supporter of Dawn’s work (the writer of the article).
I just wanted to help remind people of what we are trying to protect, and people sharing their stories like you did really helps.
It can be easy to forget when we get our feelings hurt when they call us “bigots” and “terrorists” just for disapproving of their misdeeds and standing up for the people who have been hurt by them.
Comment by Nonny — February 14, 2008 @ 5:34 pm
You are all cordially invited to join us in celebration of L.R.Hubbard’s birthday in the form of protest on March 15th.
For more info:
http://www.youfoundthecard.com/
Comment by Nonny — February 14, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
Hi Nonny,
I didn’ mean that you made the website, but by clicking into your name I got into the other…so thanks. Maybe I am being misunderstood as to what I mean by being emotional and out of control in regard to Scientology and their followers as well as the upper group. No one has put a gun to peoples heads to make them go into the orgs. It is symptomatic of our society, family structure and values that is and has been prevalant since time began. We look for caring, and it isn’t there at home where it should be. So, we go somewhere, we are listened to, accepted, feel a sense of belonging, will make the world a better place, etc…that is what we have been searching for.
Can be called this or that, doesn’t matter…we feel good and alive. That this is a trap, as any ideology, religion, philosophy is…who cares…some
one is there for us. Can be the SC, a lover, a company, family, government…we are not there for ourselves. So, now we can blame whoever, whatever and life goes on without us realizing what we are doing. I am not talking about personal egos being threatened by being called this or that…I am talking about fear of not being accepted, valued, feeling at home, just being that which we are at the moment which is ever changing…and accepting the human state and life itself. Do we believe or not believe in the boogiman? I did as a child, now I am growing up and not giving it a reality. J Love to you.
Comment by walkin7 — February 15, 2008 @ 9:35 am