Church of Scientology Reveals Its Dark Side

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright March 3, 2012
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                  Beneath the glittery veneer of Hollywood stars, the Church of Scientology reveals its ugly underbelly, this tine exposing the kind of mistreatment and abuse usually kept under wraps.  “I witnessed Mr. Miscavige physically punching in the face and wrestling to the ground another very senior executive at Scientology International Level,” said Debbie Cook, the former director of Scientology’s spiritual Mecca in Clearwater, Florida.  Running Scientology Clearwater center for 17-years, Cook saw firsthand the inner-workings of Scientology, especially current church leader David Miscavige who ordered another church elder to slap Cook in the face so hard that she hit the ground.  Founded in 1950 by reclusive pulp fiction SciFi writer L.Ron Hubbard, the Church was built off of Hubbard’s best selling book “Dianetics:  The Modern Science of Mental Health,” claiming unprecedented psychological breakthroughs.

             Hubbard developed Scientology while living in the later 1940s with Jet Propulsion Laboratory and California Institute of Technology rocket scientist John “Jack” Whiteside Parson in Pasadena, Calif., a religious devotee of English magician Aleister Crowley’s occult religious order called Ordo Templi Orientis [OTO].  Working together Hubbard and Parson created “Babylon Working,” a kind of sexual ritual that involved masturbation to the ancient “Mother of Abomination” in ancient Babylon.  Eventually Hubbard loomed Scientology from Parson’s OTO occult practices and his hodgepodge tome called “Scientology.”  Hubbard’s book borrowed heavily from Freudian psychology, especially pop culture notions of hypnosis, involving mind control and post-hypnotic suggestion.  It’s no accident that “Manchurian Candidate” author Richard Condon was inspired by Dianetics.

             Since its origins in the early ‘50s, Scientology has had periodic reports leaked to the media by disgruntled Church followers, involving various kinds of criminal behavior, including abductions, false imprisonments, torture, brainwashing, beatings, larceny and occasional unexplained murders.  Cook’s recent disclosures to ABC News about her abuse were promptly repudiated.  “This alleged incident did not occur and I would remember it if it had,” said Scientology leader David Miscavige.  Cook testified in 2007 that she was taken to a pair of jail-like double-wide trailers in Southern California called “the hole” against her will, held hostage for several weeks, forced to live in an insect infested environment without electricity with barely edible nutrition.  Cook admitted that Church officials forced her into a trashcan and poured water on her head, insisting she confess to her sins.

             Cook’s recent testimony gives a devastating peek into the Guantanamo Bay-like torture chamber performed on wayward Church members when they threaten to go public with such outrageous abuse.  Church officials deny that “the hole” ever existed, attributing Cook’s reports as vicious retaliation by a disgruntled Church member.  Church officials admit that its leaders “did participate in religious discipline, a program of ethics and correction entered into voluntarily as part of their religious observances,” admitting that “something” took place, while, as the same time, denying involuntary incarceration and hazing.  Church officials insist “the idea that the Church held her hostage or anyone else against their will [is] denied,” said Scientology’s official response, concerned about legal prosecution.  Cook’s reports are “inaccurate, misleading and intended to create sensationalized media attention.”     

             Admitting that Cook participated in some kind of “religious discipline” gives a free X-Ray into what really happens behind the scenes in religious cults.  Scientology vehemently resents the “cult” label yet the same coercion, intimidation, bizarre rituals and abusive behavior occurs.  When Cook and her husband, Wayne Baumgarten  resigned from the Church in 2007, she was forced to sign confidentiality agreements in exchange for a severance package of $100,000.  Scientology sued Cook and Baumgarten for breaching their confidentiality agreements in Texas state court.  Cook contended that the confidentiality agreement was invalid because it was obtained under duress.  She claimed she went public because she cares about the Church and believes Miscavige’s leadership was destructive.  Church officials referred to Cook and her husband as disgruntled “defrocked apostates.”

             Cook’s self-report of her abuse by Scientology conforms to other former cult members that fall from grace and get evicted  Angry and betrayed by her abusive treatment, Cook went public to expose her own abuse in hopes of preventing others from the same indignity. “I have never lost my passion  and love for the Church and all that it stands for, and all that it does to help others,” said Cook, showing the extent of her brainwashing—continuing to thank her tormentors for the privilege of serving.  Judging by Cook’s misgivings, she and her husband face a difficult readjustment period without the structure, discipline and security provided by the Church.   Cook felt mistreated and betrayed by her surrogate family, probably not altogether different from her own family.  Cook’s experience should alert others that there are real consequences to glomming on to religious cults.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.       

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