Former Scientologist Cathy Schenkelberg is taking a big step tonight, and so we called her yesterday to find out how she’s feeling as her one-woman show, “Squeeze My Cans” begins a run at the Hollywood Fringe Festival.
Cathy’s a longtime reader at the Bunker, and someone who has been through some struggles to recover from her years in the church — years that ended up costing her about a million dollars and leaving her broke.
“I’m not a celebrity and I’m not ex-Sea Org. I was just a public Scientologist who got in because I met someone,” she tells us. “I’m a Midwest girl, from Nebraska, and I had been introduced to Scientology a couple of times, and then I met an actress in Chicago who told me it was helping mankind and helping the planet. And at that point in my life I wanted to do something less selfish with my life.”
Cathy says she “jumped in with both feet” in 1991. “I wanted to contribute. So that’s how I got in. Scientology sold that to me, that they were the most ethical, sane group. And they said it was non-denominational, so I could stay a Catholic. God, that was a fucking lie,” she says with a laugh.
“I was auditioning, doing voiceover work. I thought I’d go away for a year and build houses or something. I got into basic courses, and I was making a lot of money doing voiceover parts. And they knew it. So they told me that everything was dire. I was going to pull in illness or disease or even death if I didn’t go to the next level,” she says.
So Cathy pushed her way to Clear, expecting that it was her ultimate goal. “But then they were pushing me on to the OT levels. I was pregnant at the time, but I did it.”
And how high did she get in the end? “I got up to OT 7 and spent a million dollars.”
Life hasn’t been easy since then. But she’s found a way to turn her struggle into a show that she’s been workshopping and developing into tonight’s premiere. (There will also be eight more performances at the festival through June 26.)
“It’s not a monologue. I have music, sound, lights, projections. Lots of surprises. I take the audience on a journey on how I got into Scientology and how I got out of it and how difficult it was,” she says. “It’s dark. It’s funny. I got a lot of laughs in Chicago.”
Catch “Squeeze My Cans” at 8 pm tonight at Sacred Fools Theater Company’s “Black Box” performance space at 6322 Santa Monica Blvd. And then let us know what you thought of the show!
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No, Goldman Sachs is not funding “Scientology”
You may have seen the reprint of an article at Raw Story yesterday that originally showed up at something called “The Influence” that refers to Scientology, Goldman Sachs, and US prisons.
It’s a really excellent article that exposes a very troubling situation in America’s prisons — that a bizarre drug education program is being used all over the place that was put together in the shadiest way possible by a couple of shadowy characters, one of whom now makes a living writing books about UFOs.
We hope this article gets the attention it deserves, and that the quack “MRT” drug rehab program stops getting support from the US government and funders like Goldman Sachs.
Having said all that, we will add that we think it was really unfortunate for author Sarah Beller (or her editors) to refer to MRT as Scientology-based. That is completely unsupportable by the evidence supplied in the article.
Yes, there’s one Scientology concept that’s been awkwardly pressed into service in the AA-like program that stresses an inmate moving up a ladder of “morality” until he can reach the very Christian concept of “grace.”
This nightmare program is a mashup of a lot of different bad ideas. It’s likely that some of the language used in the “ladder” concept does reflect the “conditions” that are found in Scientology. But the overall concepts of this heavily AA- and Christian-influenced program are nothing like Scientology.
Calling MRT “Scientology-based” comes off as merely an attempt at clickbait because Scientology is such a hot topic right now. MRT is not Scientology-based. One of its chief architects is a psychologist, and MRT is generally a bad imitation of psychology, which is anathema to Scientology.
Anyway, like we said, great article, great investigative work. But sadly, now other news organizations will likely refer to MRT as “that Scientology prison program,” when Scientology actually has its own prison program, Criminon, which Beller seemed unaware of.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on June 10, 2016 at 07:00
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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
