Scientology’s Spiffy Golden Era Studios Has Its Own Dentist!

Ever since Debbie Cook rocked Scientology with her infamous New Year’s Eve e-mail last year, Scientology leader David Miscavige has been on a major campaign to disprove one of her complaints — that he’s not spending money to burnish the church’s image.

Cook, a longtime, somewhat legendary employee of Scientology’s “Sea Org,” shocked her fellow church members with her e-mail, which accused Miscavige of, among other things, amassing a billion-dollar slush fund through donations to the International Association of Scientologists. And while every church member was under intense pressure to donate to the IAS’s coffers, they were seeing nothing to show for it. When was the last time, she asked, that a Scientologist ever saw a church ad on television?

Well, Miscavige appeared to take that part of her screed to heart. Since the spring of last year, the church has been on a major network television advertising binge, showing up most recently during the Super Bowl and the Grammys. And we’ve noticed other efforts that are aimed at countering all the bad press the church has been subject to.

Much of the bad news in the last four years, for example, has been about awful conditions at Scientology’s secretive international base near Hemet, California. Numerous ex-officials have detailed horrific conditions of confinement, assault, and mental torture at the base.

The “Int Base” is also known as “Gold” because it houses Scientology’s in-house movie production unit, Golden Era Studios. We just noticed this new lengthy film that Golden Era has produced about itself, making it look like a paradise of creative energy.

We asked a couple of people who used to work at the base, Marc Headley and Mike Rinder, to comment on the film, which seems intended to counter the picture the two of them, among others, painted of life and work on the base.

Says Rinder…

This is a propaganda video like the ones they do to show the “disaster relief” and other “good works.”

It is amazing that Krystal Simmons is featured. She’s one of only a handful of African Americans at the Int Base (literally less than 5, I think….).

It certainly shows the lavish facilities. Like everything else in David Miscavige’s world, it substitutes buildings and expensive equipment for substance….

It doesn’t show Henning Heldt (he is one of the featured people) making Mark Ginge Nelson lick a bathroom floor…

And everyone was probably allowed to get a good night’s sleep before being shot, which is a rare event.

Truthfully, Gold is a beautiful facility. But it’s like Auschwitz located in a movie set. If it weren’t so oppressive it would be nice.

Says Headley…

To sum it up. “Lipstick, meet Pig.”

That is how I would explain this video.

And this response just came in from Jefferson Hawkins in our comments…

I think this Gold video was made in 2010, possibly earlier. To anyone who has actually lived and worked there, it’s a hilarious travesty. Anyone caught running or biking around the property, or playing basketball, would have been pounced on by an Ethics Officer and issued an “Idle Report.” The only time people run is when they are required to take laps around the buildings as punishment. And that’s not done in jogging suits and Nikes, it’s done in Sea Org uniforms and hard street shoes. As usual, Scientology is all about image. They produced this video to counter some of the first insider accounts of the real conditions inside the Gold Base, mine included. Debbie’s testimony, I believe, was after this video was produced. So they don’t change actual conditions, they just put out a glossy, staged video and blanket denials. As to the “dentist,” he has a long waiting list, and it’s taken care of in rank order. So RTC goes first, and so on down the food chain. If you are a t the bottom, good luck on getting any dental care. After I left the Sea Org, I had to have over $10,000 in dental work done, including a crown that had been half completed by Dentist Bob and left that way.

————

LINKS OF NOTE

We hear that this Friday morning, BBC5 radio’s Victoria Derbyshire show will feature a spokesperson from the Church of Scientology. And considering how infrequently someone from the church actually appears on air — or anywhere — to answer questions, it might be worth getting up at 5 am Eastern time to listen in.

Also Friday, on the God Discussion radio show, Victoria Britton will discuss the death of her son Kyle Brennan, which became the subject of a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology. (The lawsuit was dismissed for lack of evidence.)

————

Posted by Tony Ortega on February 14, 2013 at 07:00