Crashing a ‘Mace-Kingsley’ event in Pasadena to get some answers about Scientology and kids

Marcy Sargeant of the Mace-Kingsley Family Center in Clearwater, Florida, held a seminar at Scientology’s Pasadena “Ideal Org” on Sunday.

The timing is interesting, because just last week, Leah Remini’s A&E series, Scientology and the Aftermath, interviewed Tara Reile and Nathan Rich, two former students at the notoriously abusive “Mace-Kingsley” ranches operated by Scientologists in California and New Mexico. Co-star Mike Rinder explained that the ranch had been shut down in 2002, but that Mace-Kingsley (named after two high-level Scientologists) still ran as a center for auditing children in Clearwater.

Erin Hodges Plumb, the brave Southern California resident who had taken a copy of Karen Pressley’s new book to a mixer at Scientology’s Int Base three weeks ago, signed up for a spot in the seminar, which was supposed to be open only to Scientologists.

Erin, a middle school teacher of special needs students, brought along some books again, but more importantly, she spent considerable time talking to Scientology officials, including Marcy Sargeant herself. But at first, she tells us, she faced obstacles.

“I was made to watch a video ‘to help me understand,’ they said. it was annoying. One quote from the video made me laugh out loud: ‘Some infants are born insane and some addicted to drugs.'”

She was then assigned to someone who was supposed to help her understand Scientology terminology.

“I kept insisting on going to the seminar. He said I wouldn’t understand, and when I heard a term I don’t know, my brain would freeze and no longer comprehend what was being said. I told him I was a college educated woman with a master’s degree. I can figure it out. He tried to sell me a line of books that cover what was covered in the seminar and I said, why, when I can just go to the seminar? I insisted, and he finally took me to the seminar but told me no cameras and I had a person assigned to me to help me with any questions.”

 
The seminar itself started with an announcement that they would be watching a video, which didn’t thrill Erin. But that didn’t happen, and Marcy Sargeant of Mace-Kingsley began speaking. Erin says there were about 25 people in attendance.

“She passed out the book that she said was The Way to Happiness for children, called How to Make Good Choices. And we were encouraged to write in the book and pay for it at the break, only $5. I declined.”

Sargeant said that the Mace-Kingsley center has 32 staff, and 15 are auditors, servicing 60 to 70 children.

“She quoted Hubbard, that a child is a man or woman who has not attained full growth, and she said that you are the same person as an adult as a baby. But she did not say that children are young adults. She talked about in the 50s and 60s everybody went to church and that’s where we learned our morals, and as there was a decrease of people going to churches there was a decreasing morals — but she didn’t mention that we were sitting in a so-called church.”

Also, Erin says that Sargeant seemed to go off the Hubbard script at times.

“She said that children require love, compassion, good control, nourishment, a bed, moral guidance and education. She repeated that so we could write it down but stated it was not LRH. She also said that a family is a group with a common goal for the group survival and advancement — which again she said was not from Hubbard.”

But there was a pretty heavy pitch for Scientology products.

 
“She recommended that everyone needs to be educated in the basics of Scientology and in Study Tech. She recommended Study Tech and the Communication Course for children, and I asked what age is appropriate for that. She said they need to be reading, and in order to take the courses they should be like 7 years old.” (Mace-Kingsley advertises that it provides auditing for infants, but Erin says nothing was said at the seminar about infants or toddlers in the morning session.)

In general, Erin got the impression of a group that had some genuine concerns and some unconventional solutions.

“I had wanted to see what they were saying about children. I got the feeling that they were actually trying to help, but they were also trying to sell these courses. And it felt like there are a lot of single moms going to Mace-Kingsley, and the draw is that it provides them with all the answers.”

Erin got a chance to speak with Sargeant after her presentation.

“I told her that what she was saying seemed to come from her experience as a mother of five children and five grandchildren. I said she wasn’t really speaking from the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard. She disagreed and tried to say that everything she learned or was teaching was from her Hubbard training but I told her that the experiences she was sharing with us were about how she had raised her own children. I mentioned that Hubbard didn’t raise his own children. She disagreed, saying that Hubbard had had seven children and she had personally known some of them. I said yes, but he was not instrumental in raising them. At that point she asked me what I’d been reading.

“I asked about the use of 50-year-old material by Hubbard when current studies show the brain develops until our 20s. She asked why I was saying the teaching is 50 years old, and I replied that Hubbard had died more than 30 years ago. She said she would go into more specifics from the courses after lunch but I felt I had enough and had said my piece.”

 
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Spot the difference

Can you spot the difference?

Nashville, Tennessee, 2009…

 
Dublin, Ireland, 2017…

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 16, 2017 at 07:00

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