Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
From: mgstrand@iastate.edu (Mark G Strand)
Subject: Re: I have details
Message-ID: <mgstrand.685911191@vincent1.iastate.edu>
Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
References: <1991Sep25.014304.3471@cco.caltech.edu>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 1991 18:53:11 GMT
Lines: 106

In <1991Sep25.014304.3471@cco.caltech.edu> bruce@cco.caltech.edu (Bruce James Bell) writes:

>I have received another letter from my anonymous correspondent,
>explaining the circumstances under which he was requested to destroy
>books, and also recounting some other *interesting* things about
>the COS.  I am free to quote this letter as long as I maintain
>anonymity, so here goes:

>{ begin letter: }

>[ identity deleted ]
>In article <1991Sep22.113751.27056@cco.caltech.edu> you write:
>[ lines from my posting deleted ]
>>By email, Leny Freeman writes:
>[ quotes deleted ]
>>LF-> Without naming who the person is claiming this offense could I be
>>LF-> emailed as to the approx date, city, church and the offending
>>LF-> individual(s) who allegedly were ordering book vandalism?  This will
>>LF-> be reported to the proper officers of the church and will be
>>LF-> investigated.  If the accused individual(s) are still in the church it
>>LF-> may come down to a justice action.  

>This is the sort of thing I was afraid of stirring up, and the major
>reason I saw fit not to post a message to the newsgroup.  I was a
>scientology volunteer for about a year and a half and finally became a
>staff member.  Bailing out of a staff contract after one year was
>one gruesome experience.  It left me confused and with a bill to
>scientology for [ abt.$10,000 ] (for my "training"), which I've been able to
>duck for the last 10 years.  What I was finally told was that I would
>be expected to pay off the bill before I could "continue up the
>bridge."  I was assigned a "condition of doubt" by the ethics officer,
>a condition that would be upgraded as I paid off the bill.  So, to
>summarize: I'm not in the best standing with scientology, and if
>they're looking for a scapegoat to pin something on, they've got one.

>(Please feel free to quote any of this material in any of your
>postings, but PLEASE do not attribute it to me.  I still wish to
>remain anonymous for obvious reasons.)

>>A point that is easy to overlook in a situation like this is that
>>it is *impossible* to prove anything over the net.  Even assuming
>>that a letter/posting is not the result of
>>  unattended terminals
>>  account breakins
>>  forged mail/postings
>>there is the inescapable fact that all you have is a collection of
>>bytes sent by somebody hundreds or thousands of miles away who you
>>have probably never seen.  There is no guarantee that *anybody* on
>>the net is telling the truth.  The best you can get is a set of references
>>to some book or person hopefully more connected to reality.  That does
>>not mean that there is no point to discussing things over the net, but
>>you should keep in mind the limitations involved.

>Amen.  

>This isn't an attempt to convince you of what happened, but some of
>the details are interesting.  About 10 years ago I was interested in
>scientology, and read everything I could get my hands on.  One of the
>books I found in the university library was an account by someone who
>actually went through clear and the ot levels.  I wish I could
>remember the name of it.  I've actually spent the last couple of hours
>looking through the on-line card catalogs and couldn't find it.

The name of the book you're thinking of is "Inside Scientology: How I Joined 
Scientology and Became Superhuman" by Robert Kaufman. I agree, it was an 
excellent book.

>The book was written by a scientologist who describes his experiences
>with becomming clear and OT, his doubt that anything was happening to
>him other than his wallet getting lighter.  Good book.

>After reading it, I told the mission director about it.  She gave me
>fan incredibly fearful look, then told me that I could be audited to
>handle it.  It seems that I'd messed up my "case" by reading this
>book, seeing that it contained confidential OT-3 course materials that
>are not to be seen by anyone below that case level.  Since she was
>OT-4, she could audit me back to a "functional" state, but I would now
>never fully recover until I completed OT-3.  I was also told that it
>would be a good idea to remove this book from the library considering
>that it could ruin other people's cases as well, thus denying them
>total freedom via scientology.  The "ethics" issue was also stated,
>and I was asked to base my decision to remove the book based on the
>"greatest good for the greatest number of people."  I never actually
>removed the book from the libaray.  I dropped into a 6" crawl space
>between two walls in the men's room where it wouldn't be found until
>they tear down the building.

>I'm happy to report that I haven't suffered any grave consequences
>from being exposed to OT-3 materials after all these years.  I haven't
>removed any books from librarys either.

>{ :end letter }

>Well, there you have it.

>Judge for yourself whether or not it is true.

>Bruce J. Bell                        bruce@cco.caltech.edu