One of our favorite stories of 2016 was the lengthy piece we wrote about Skip Young. At one point, he had worked as an operator for the Church of Scientology while he was a police officer, and he became a footnote in the Snow White Program of the 1970s. Years later, he had been “declared suppressive” by the church, and his adult daughters disconnected from him. Skip now has a startling update for us, as he attempted to reunite with his daughters this past Christmas and… Well, we’ll let him tell the tale.
This year I had the worst Christmas ever and it’s all thanks to that wonderful organization dedicated to Peace on Earth, the Church of Scientology.
I got involved in Scientology over 40 years ago and was fairly active until 2008. If you want more details of my history in Scientology, you can go to my website and see my gorgeous daughters, the subject of which is this article.
In January 2014 I was investigated by my church and Comm Ev’d for daring to read stuff on the Internet and for discussing the church’s problems (in private conversations) with two of my friends. They accused me of several Crimes and High Crimes — all re-wordings of the same actions: reading and speaking (again in private).
In all my 40 years I had never sought to “investigate” Scientology by going on the Internet or reading any books by former Scientologists. But on January 1, 2012 I read Debbie Cook’s famous email and it got me very curious as to what the hell was going on that I was completely unaware of at the upper levels of my church. So I dove in and read everything I could get my hands on. In October 2013, the church found out about it and called me in for an investigation. I just happened to be in Clearwater visiting my daughters at the time.
After telling me that reading anything critical of Scientology was a crime, the Master-at-Arms at Flag wrote up a study order because I told her that in all my years I had never seen any policy that clearly and specifically outlawed any Scientologist from readying anything he or she wanted. In fact, I had always believed in the goal of the organization to help individuals achieve Spiritual Freedom, which would certainly include Person Freedom, would it not?
Back in California where I live, I completed the Study Order as promised and took all the offensive stuff off my computer. I promised the MAA at AOLA that I had achieved Ethics Change and would never seek to read any more of that objectionable stuff. She told me that was the end of the Study Cycle, but one week later she called me and said that a Committee of Evidence had been called on me. Obviously I felt betrayed by her and by the church, to which I had given many years of loyal service. I tried to focus her attention on the Ethics Gradients policies and how she was skipping from #7 all the way up to #22, but she was deaf. It was like trying to reason with my cat. It’s programmed to eat and sleep; that’s pretty much it.
The Committee meeting took place on January 4, 2014 at AOLA during which time I told the four members that I meant no harm and that I was just trying to either verify or refute the assertions made in Debbie’s email. After all, according to the Data Series (PLs written by LRH on how to investigate to see if things are true or false) I had duty to myself to find out the true information of what was going on the church. One of the Committee members asked me why upon reading Debbie’s email I didn’t come in to AOLA and ask an MAA if Debbie’s allegations were true.
Frankly that seemed like a childish question. If there is out-Tech and therefore out-Ethics at the upper orgs, would anyone at AOLA admit it to me? Hell no.
According to L. Ron Hubbard policy, a Committee of Evidence is supposed to be completed within one week, or else it is determined to be Non-Existent and is – by policy – to be disbanded.
After the Comm Eve meeting was adjourned, it took more than 6 months for the Findings and Recommendations to be issued because initially they had no evidence against me. No one had written any Knowledge Reports (letters of complaint) on me. All of the data they had on me came from me. In a Comm Ev hearsay is considered inadmissible. So the church had to scurry around to find or invent some evidence.
While waiting for my punishment I was told that they don’t do that “one week” thing anymore, they take as much time as is needed to convict you. Also, they don’t provide copies of the Bill of Particulars or Findings and Recommendations any more either. Interesting that the organization (HCO – AOLA) prosecuting me for failing to follow LRH policy was, itself, failing to follow LRH policy. You can’t make this stuff up.
How easily they simply ignore established policy today and justify it. Incidentally, the out-Tech that I found in my Internet research that was rampant in the organization was exactly what Debbie Cook was alerting the public about. And there is more I didn’t find out about. One can try to ignore it, but when it is right in front of your face, it must be confronted.
Because they had no evidence on which to base the Findings & Recommendations, during the 6 month hiatus, they hired a highly skilled person to hack into my computer (this was the same period when a private eye working for Scientology tried to hack Mike Rinder and Tony Ortega and went to prison for it, so I can imagine it was the same guy targeting me). They found the needed “evidence” to convict me. It showed books I had read and websites I had visited. They even hacked my emails.
When had I returned to San Diego in December 2013 I did exactly what I had promised the Flag MAA I would do. I took ALL (and I mean all) of the website URLs and the ebooks I had bought and read off my computer. I did forget to purge some emails, however. And I vowed to obey the promise I made and not search for this stuff again. However, in December 1013 when the MAA at AOLA told me they were planning to Comm Ev me, I said (silently to myself) “screw you, Bitch, the War is On!” And immediately went back on the Internet searching for some help from others who had gone through similar attacks. So that is what the criminal hacker found in about March of 2014.
In July 2014 the F & R’s came out. They declared me PTS Type-J, a designation which incidentally does not exist (see my website for an explanation). HCO at AOLA then forced my two daughters and my son in England to disconnect from me. I haven’t seen them since (with one minor exception in which I paid Megan a surprise visit by flying from San Diego to Tampa in 2015 and simply showed up at her doorstep at 7:30 AM. I surprised her as she came out to go to work. She hugged me, but wouldn’t speak to me. What a waste of time and energy – and lost affection).
Since 2014 all the birthday cards and Christmas cards I have sent to the girls have either been intercepted by Ethics personnel or been returned to sender. The girls have not sent me any such cards either, especially no Happy Father’s Day. But I do have many, many such cards given to me by the girls when they were actually free to demonstrate their deep love and affection, prior to the F & Rs. They are lovely and reflect their true feelings, absent pressure from the church. That was before Scientology turned them into Robots (that is a terrible thing to say about one’s own flesh and blood, but you must call a strike a strike — to use a baseball analogy).
Now back to the current scene. For the last two years I have been purposely staying under the radar, not posting very much on Facebook, not speaking out about the continuing terrible conditions visited upon Scientologists and former ones. I had a plan. I was not and never will be willing to accept my “fate” at being declared as whatever they have labeled me as. I am not a “turn the other cheek” kind of person.
After reading the Findings and Recommendations of my Comm Ev, I am firmly convinced that we are dealing with a bunch of robots who have totally lost the ability to think independently. They have been at it for almost 70 years and there are fewer than 80,000 Clears, many of whom are now dead. The planet contains 7.6 billion people. Somehow I don’t think they are going to make it.
Over the years I have tried not to think ill of my daughters, Megan & Alexis, for the disconnection, as they are in a trap. But as described in the book and movie Going Clear the trap is not physical but mental and can be stepped out of if one can muster the internal strength to do so. Like thousands of other Scientologists who remain loyal, they are living in fear but would readily mislabel their mental conviction as “Tone 40.”
Anyway, as the holidays neared this year, I figured the only way to see my daughters together was to pay a surprise visit on Christmas day when I was certain they would both be at their mother’s house in Clearwater.
So I flew there a few days before Christmas and did a little surveillance, something at which I have a lot of experience. I now know the name of my newest son-in-law, obtained from Pinellas County records. My youngest daughter, Alexis, who joined the Sea Org only because I signed a release when she was 16 so she could join got married in April 2015 and, of course, no one bothered to tell me about it. But as part of my visit I would have liked to welcome Ryan James Conner to the family — but I never got the chance.
And I was in for another surprise. When I went by the residence of my other daughter, Megan, I saw a “Baby on Board” sticker on the rear of her car. Again no one bothered to tell me “Hey Skip, just wanted you to know, you are a grandpa.” It wouldn’t have been my first grandchild — I have at least 4 others, two by the son in England who also won’t speak to me and two from my first born son, who lives in the San Diego area, and who has nothing to do with Scientology and remains extremely loyal to Dad.
On Christmas morning when I approached my ex-wife’s house in Clearwater, I could see that they had guests. At least two other cars were parked in front, so I figured I had better not make a big scene or someone, for sure, would call the cops. Incidentally, in 2015 when I surprised my lovely daughter Megan, she threatened to call the police on me if I ever simply showed up at her door again.
When I went to the front door, my ex’s new husband answered the door and as soon as he saw me, he shut the door and locked it. I never got to see Megan, Alexis, Ryan or the new baby.
The venture turned out to be an expensive bust… except that I learned still more about the life of a Scientologist. The day that one ceases to learn from daily interactions with his fellow man, is the day he starts to turn inward and seeks death – Confucius? No Skip Young.
Anyone who reads this and has had long-term interactions with Scientologists knows the following to be true. They are the most arrogant, self-righteous people on the face of the Earth. They live in a bubble; and a very small one, at that. They think that their personal sacrifices and transgressions against others will result in the improvement of life on Earth. They think they are making a difference in world affairs and reducing Man’s inhumanity toward Man, but they are woefully misguided; heads deeply embedded in sand.
I’m sorry because I had invested so much of my life energy into the effort, but the Church of Scientology is in a Condition lower than Non-Existence relative to the rest of Earth’s groups. No one gives a damn what the Church of Scientology does or thinks.
A few years ago I was watching a stand-up comedy routine on Hulu. At the beginning of his warm up the comedian asked who in the audience was a Christian, who was Jewish, who was Muslim. And then he said “If there are any Scientologists, go fuck yourselves!” I thought, gee, the PR department has really screwed the pooch over the last 20 years or so. If a comedian takes time from his routine to dis Scientology, things must really be in the shitter.
Of course, Scientology’s PR department would blame “The Suppressives” for all its woes. The church, they say, certainly has not done anything wrong. Why they are the “Most Ethical People on Earth” don’t you know?
As we have seen recently, the church of Scientology is hanging on by a thread; losing personnel and adherents daily. Their most talented people have left up lines years ago.
This deterioration of the organization is what troubles me as a father. My daughters are caught up in the water circling the drain. As any good parent, we want only the best for our children. Any reasonable parent wants their offspring to fare better in life than they have. I would just love to have a few minutes with them to shake them by the shoulders and say wake up! Get an education, develop some marketable skills so you can get a decent job and support yourselves because you are soon going to be working in an organization with no desired products or services.
Yes I realize that with your limited education and meager job skills if you do leave church employment, you will be out in the work force competing with people for minimum wage jobs. But that’s no reason to stay.
I wanted to shout at them (and their ignorant and very stubborn mother) that if you have a man, like me, whose purpose in life was to create and support the members of a family and work for them until he drops over dead, you don’t just abandon such a person. Nowadays there are too few of us left. But I suppose they would say “But, Dad I’m just doing what LRH said to do.”
I suppose the girls are right on that point and that is the problem.
My lovely daughters are under guard, willingly confined behind bars made of mental “mass.”
In all my Internet searches I have concluded that there are very few people who would like to totally shut down the church or outlaw Scientology. The “so-called” Suppressive Persons (who do not exhibit any of the characteristics of the Anti-Social Personality – another policy that is simply ignored nowadays) just want the criminal activity of the church to stop and want the ridiculous disconnection policy to be reversed.
Why can’t modern day Scientology executives who run the church (let’s be frank, we all know there is only one of them) simply remember what principles LRH started with: Affinity, Reality, Communication?
— Skip Young
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When an OT renews his vows
Major Scientology donors Tom and Victoria Cummins (Patron Maximus with Honors, about $32.5 million just to the IAS), decided to renew their vows in Dubai with 150 friends, and we can only look on in awe.
Oh come on, guys, Victoria’s dress for the ceremony is the bomb.
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“You look at the basic mechanism of life, and we see this fellow kicks off as Ebenezer Snouzer and gets born as young Billy Jones. And nobody is more convinced when he becomes young Billy Jones that he has never been Ebenezer Snouzer. Does this have any liability to him? It certainly does. Because the inescapable truth of the matter, contained in earlier postulates, is that he was and is Ebenezer Snouzer. And so Ebenezer Snouzer, to some slight degree, goes on living. And we have past lives cropping
up, and fellows going around pleading with us to believe that they can’t shoot, can’t ride, girls just begging to be believed that they have no charm, you know? That’s to keep Ebenezer or Betty Schnouzer from living on, don’t you see?” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 4, 1957
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“An implanter would be a controller and controllers work outside of this planet. We here have been fooled our whole lives about everything. But this understanding comes from outside of Scientology. One would recognize every mystery when one understands the Matrix rulers, how they operate, and what supreme being they answer to. One must understand that what we see in current time is a playout of a war between an evil and an all good God. The war is almost over and we are reaching the point that LRH referred to as The Markabian Landing and Christians call Christ’s Second Coming. The truth and deception about this Matrix had to remain hidden otherwise they couldn’t control you. It’s ok. Big changes are coming soon.”
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“The only thing I want from Disqus is to bring back the downvote, make the AV image bigger and make the YouTube video image much smaller.”
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Start making your plans…
Head over to the convention website and meet us in St. Louis!
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!
We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.
Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!
Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!
Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Tiponi Grey’s daughter: She knew her life might end at any time
[TWO years ago] Even in 2018, Scientology is still selling L. Ron Hubbard like he had the universe figured out
[THREE years ago] Aaron Smith-Levin appears on ‘Leah Remini,’ hours later gets own Scientology attack site
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s appeal on rehab zoning fight in Maryland to be heard today
[FIVE years ago] Sunday Funnies: Scientology now selling the idea it solved the Ferguson crisis
[SIX years ago] MONIQUE RATHBUN FILES FOR SANCTIONS, SUBMITS SCIENTOLOGY LEADER’S FOUL-MOUTHED TEXTS
[SEVEN years ago] John Sweeney’s Trailer for His New Book, The Church of Fear
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 1,807 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,311 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 1,831 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 851 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 742 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,049 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 1,917 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,691 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,465 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 2,811 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,377 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,296 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,464 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,045 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,306 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,344 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,057 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,582 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,109 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,672 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 2,812 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,132 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 7,988 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,107 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,462 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 5,765 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 1,871 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,273 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,145 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,728 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,223 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,477 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,586 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 4, 2020 at 07:00
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The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2018 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2018), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | 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 | Shelly Miscavige, 14 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 | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
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