How Scientology kills without pulling a trigger: The story of a sister who was loved

Lately I have written about some things that I experienced while in Scientology. As a result, I have been thinking more about my sister. Her name was Lindy. I still miss her.

She was the person who introduced me to Scientology and encouraged me to get involved. She really did mean well. She believed, as Scientologists do, that the practices of that cult would benefit anybody. Actually, it went beyond being of benefit — it was the only way a person could escape the “dwindling spiral” and achieve higher states of being. And getting as many people as possible to become Scientologists was the only way planet earth could be saved from catastrophe. You would be very negligent if you didn’t try to get someone you loved onto the “Bridge to Total Freedom.”

She was the oldest of three children and I was the youngest, with seven years between us. We were always exceptionally close, mainly because she was so thoughtful and caring. With the age difference there was no sibling rivalry. One of my earliest memories was her trying to get me to do the bop with her, leading me by the hand around the rec room in the basement of our house. I must have been about four years old. I remember that she had a baritone ukelele, with which she accompanied herself while singing to our English bulldog, Jiggs. She taught me some chords on that ukelele, which was the beginning of my interest in playing music. Sometimes she would take me places and my hand was just big enough to hold on to one of her fingers as we walked along.

As we grew older, she remained an important part of my life. She was the one who taught me to ride a two-wheeled bicycle. One day she got me to jump off a diving board and swim to the opposite side of the pool, which was the first time I swam by myself. She taught me to drive a manual transmission in her slightly beat-up, faded green, ‘55 Chevy with a 3-speed stick shift on the column. She called that car the Green Hornet. When I was in high school, she gave it to me to drive during her many-months-long trip around Europe.

She always accepted me regardless of whatever phase I was going through. She was busy with her own life but often made time to do things with me. She had many friends and was involved in many activities — school, dancing, skiing, parties, travel, political activism, and others. She was sociable. She was popular. She had a great sense of humor. She was considerate. She always remembered and did things for her family.

Maybe I am biased, but I know a lot of people who held similar opinions of her. After I graduated from high school I went to the University of Colorado in Boulder. Lindy had been living there for a few years. She had gotten a bachelor’s degree and was working on a master’s, in History I think it was, but I don’t recall if she completed that. She had met a guy named Joe Duncanson, who was working on a PhD in Physics. They got married when I was in my last year of high school.

When I was living in Boulder I would get together with her every few weeks. Often some of my friends would go along. They all really liked her. She would sometimes cook good food for us, or play music on a high-tech stereo that her husband had put together, or share recreational drugs with us, as was the fashion of the day in those parts. She was liberal-minded and socially conscious. She was actively working against things like the war in Vietnam, abuse of the environment, the military-industrial complex, government policies that she didn’t agree with, and social injustice. This was in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s when such topics were frequently discussed. Lindy would talk to me about her views and encourage me to get involved.

Then in my junior year I studied abroad in England. While I was away, she and Joe moved to Idaho. That was a radical thing for them to do. They just packed up and left. Joe stopped going for his PhD, even though he was very close to completing that degree. They lived on some land that belonged to the somewhat wealthy family of one of Lindy’s friends, Jo Struthers. Lindy and Jo had been roommates at some point prior to that.

Lindy and her husband lived in a small trailer that had been used by sheep herders, as I was told later. I guess it was on a big ranch. It was kind of a classic “drop out and go live in nature” move for them, all very hippy-like. Their first daughter, whom they named Sunshine, was born while living there. I was off at the University of Lancaster and wasn’t paying much attention to what they were doing. After I got back to Boulder, Lindy visited Colorado for a few days in order to attend my brother’s wedding. She was quite pregnant with Sunshine. Lindy was still her usual cheery self. That was when she gave me a copy of a paperback, Dianetics, the Modern Science of Mental Health. She talked about this new subject she found that was really cool.

I had never heard anything about Dianetics nor Scientology. But I trusted my sister. She had always seemed so sensible and level-headed to me. I decided I would read that book, which was the beginning of a long, tumultuous, crazy trek for me. But I won’t go into all that now. This is about my sister.

Evidently, Jo Struthers had gotten Lindy interested in Scientology. I don’t know when nor how. But, looking back, it would have been at a time of major change in my sister’s life, and she was probably looking for something to help make sense of things. She had always been a curious person, which included finding out about ‘alternative’ subjects.

Life went on. I got drafted into the army. Fortunately, I did not get sent to Vietnam, but rather to Germany. While I was over there, Lindy and Joe moved to Salt Lake City, where there was a Scientology center. That must have been the place closest to Idaho that offered Scientology courses. After some time they again moved, this time to Los Angeles, where there was a lot more going on in the world of Scientology. I returned from Europe and, after a couple of years in Denver, I too moved to LA. That was in 1978. Lindy and Joe had a small apartment in the lower part of their house, where I lived. I paid them a low rent. It was on Micheltorena Street in the Silver Lake area.

Lindy was very attentive and made sure that I was getting on well in my new life in California. Joe was an electrical contractor and hired me, probably at Lindy’s urging, to work as an electrician. I knew very little about that subject when I started. Lindy and Joe were busy trying to make progress, such as it was, in Scientology, as was I. Joe was successful business-wise. They saved money in order to be able to move up the Bridge.

After about eight months, I joined the “Sea Organization” (silly me) and got sent to Clearwater in Florida. I tried to stay in touch with Lindy, though, unlike her, I had never been much of a letter writer. I was always getting newsy letters from her no matter where I was. I would sometimes reply, but not always. It didn’t help that I had little free time in my Sea Org life.

A few years later, Lindy and her family relocated from LA back to Boulder. I’m not sure why, though it did make it possible for our parents to look after their kids. Then, she and Joe could make trips to Clearwater for auditing on the more advanced levels. She would stay in Florida for two or three weeks at a time, as was usual for people who visited “Flag” (the Flag Service Organization or FSO). I managed to get together with her for dinner or something whenever she was there. It was always great to see her.

She was proud of me because I was a dedicated Sea Org member and had become a “Flag auditor,” a “Class IX” who could audit people at the highest steps of the Bridge. Lindy and Joe both finally made it through New OT VIII, which was, and still is, as high as one could go in Scientology. By then I had been promoted to the International Headquarters of Scientology, which at the time was a very top-secret base in southern California about 90 miles east of LA near Hemet. I had very little opportunity to see or talk to her. It was forbidden for me to even tell here where I was. I managed to make a two-day trip to Boulder on Xmas day in 1992. That was the last time I saw her.

Now, I’m finally getting to the main thing I wanted to write about. Most of what follows I learned after the fact. At some point in the early ‘90s, Lindy became aware of a small lump in her breast. To my knowledge, she didn’t tell anyone, except maybe her husband. She was one of those Scientologists who thought any physical problem should be handled by Scientology and not by mainstream medicine. Auditing should be able to take care of anything, as a person involved in that cult is led to believe. She had an aversion to medical doctors. That never made sense to me, particularly because our father was a physician and she had always been close to him.

I now know that the kind of lump that Lindy had can be successfully treated routinely. That was also true 30 years ago, which was around the time Lindy became aware of her problem. But she unfortunately opted to rely on Scientology to cure her. Not a wise decision.

After a time, in 1995, she and her family suddenly moved to Clearwater. Because of the level she had reached on the “Bridge,” she could not be audited in the Denver area. Nor even in LA. I heard later from a friend that Lindy and Joe sold their Boulder house quickly, agreeing to a low price, so they could get settled in Clearwater as soon as possible. Though I no longer believe that Scientology has any capability of curing anyone of cancer, it is understandable that she wanted to live in Clearwater so she could go in and get auditing to address her illness.

But that was not to be. There are some pretty strange and hard-to-understand rules in the world of Scientology. One of these has to do with what is called an “illegal pc.” A pc, or preclear, is a person who is getting audited. There are certain classes of people who are forbidden to be audited, including those those who have taken psychiatric medications or have been in a psychiatric institution. An organization can get in big trouble if they allow one of these people to get audited.

At Flag, which is where my sister was hoping to get auditing in Clearwater, illegal pcs also include those who have had ties to intelligence agencies and people who are terminally ill. This policy was based on an order from the Guardians Office that was issued in 1976, shortly after the Flag Service Organization started operating. Even though the Guardian’s Office was disbanded in disgrace in the early ‘80s, this policy was rigorously enforced. I believe that in later years the policy was given a different name (i.e. not from the Guardian’s Office), but those rules remained in force. Because my sister had cancer, she was deemed to be terminally ill and so was not allowed on the Flag Land Base.

By this time, I had landed on the “Rehabilitation Project Force.” I was sequestered on a 500-acre property that Scientology owned about 10 miles from the international headquarters. Then I was really cut off from the outside world, even from the Scientology world. I didn’t know that Lindy was ill until I got a letter from a family member in 1997. I don’t remember if it was one of my nieces or my brother who wrote me. But that was when I learned that Lindy had cancer and that she could not get any assistance from the “church.” Being on the RPF at the “Int Base,” where our schedule was very tightly controlled, I had virtually no communication with my family. There was no letter-writing time. No one had a mobile phone. There were only a couple of phones on the whole RPF property, for the security personnel and the few regular staff who were posted there, and those on the RPF had no access to them.

I decided I needed to call her. That was not a simple matter. I had to write a “CSW” (Completed Staff Work), which is a formal request written according to a specific format. It had to be approved by a series of people. I wrote it, put it in a box, and had to wait for it to move through the “lines” to the various “terminals” to get approval. A day or two later, I did get permission to make the call and then had to wait until a certain time of the day. I went to the security office where there was a phone. The security guard who was on duty had to be present and listened in on another phone.

My RPF “twin” (another RPFer with whom I had to do everything, even, for example, wait outside the rest room when they needed to use it) also had to be present. I was able to get a hold of my sister. She did not sound good at all. The cancer was pretty advanced by this time. She sounded weak and out of it. It was hard to know what to say. I was not allowed to say that I was on the RPF or anything about where I was. The whole situation was very distressing to me. But “case on post” was not allowed. I couldn’t “dramatize” my “case.” Negative emotions, for example, would be an example of “case.” I was supposed to buckle down and focus on getting through my RPF program. Being sad or the like was not contributing to clearing the planet.

The one thing I could do was to write a “Knowledge Report.” RPFers were allowed to do that. I wrote in the report, in so many words, that after Lindy’s contributions to Scientology she should not be neglected by it. I did learn later that a person was then sent from the FSO to Lindy’s home to giver her some “assist” auditing. At least it was something, though of course it was not going to change the course of her illness. I don’t know if that happened as a result of my report.

One of the distressing aspects was that my sister had been a model Scientologist. She made it all the way to New OT VIII, for which she gave some hundreds of thousands of dollars to Scientology. She and her husband donated money to the “International Association of Scientologists” and they were “Patrons of the IAS,” meaning that they had given a lot of money ($40,000 I think it was) to the IAS as a pure donation. Lindy was also “tech trained.” That means that she did the courses required to be able to audit other people. Scientologists are constantly urged to do such training, but relatively few actually do so, and fewer still become certified auditors. She had done the “Saint Hill Special Briefing Course,” which made her a “Class VI auditor.” She also trained as a “Case Supervisor” and supervised auditing at the organization in Denver. She had been staff at a mission. She even had wanted to join the Sea Org at one point. She wasn’t allowed to because she had taken LSD. That disqualified a person from being a Sea Org member. A person could have used heroin, other opiates, cocaine, meth, mescaline, psilocybin, or many other things, and still have been allowed to join the Sea Org. But even one small dose of LSD was an “out qual.” Go figure. But her willingness did show that she was dedicated to the cause.

Another distressing aspect was that Lindy’s cancer could have been, very likely, successfully treated by medical doctors. The variety of breast cancer that she had was slow-growing and not aggressive. Many women with similar cancers, if they get treated right away, go on to live long, cancer-free lives. I came to learn later that it had been at least five years, possibly longer, between the time she first became aware of a lump and when I phoned her. It is heart-breaking that she was so under the influence of the lies of Scientology.

I regret very much that I did not go see her and also that I did not attend her funeral. Being on the RPF, that was virtually impossible. It would have entailed a much more lengthy CSW. I would have had to receive a security check (a type of auditing in which a person is asked about bad acts and bad intentions) and pass it. And that was soon after the “Golden Age of Tech” had come out, which made all auditing actions take considerably longer. I would have had to arrange for another person, probably a trusted RPFer, to travel with me to make sure I didn’t try to leave or cause bad PR. I would have had to pretend that this other person was a friend who came along to help, or something. Plus, I had no money. Usually Sea Org members, and especially those who have been on the RPF, have little money. I would have had to borrow enough for round-trip flights for two people between LA and Florida, plus their lodging and food. I didn’t see how I could arrange such a loan from the RPF, nor how I would ever be able to pay it back. I didn’t even have suitable clothes.

After a few weeks I arranged to phone Lindy again. I had received no news in the meantime. I wanted to at least give some moral support. I dialed the number and her husband answered. He said my timing was amazing as Lindy had just passed away. Literally, she died a few minutes before I called. I was devastated. My life on the RPF had to go on. I did receive an auditing session to address my upset. I also had to give an auditing session to another guy who was on the RPF, Rich Gilbert, to address his upset. He had known my sister well and had worked with her husband.

But there was no time to grieve. We had to get on with our RPF auditing program, which consisted of finding all our harmful acts and evil purposes. Then we could again become productive Sea Org members — nothing was more important than that, as the fate of the planet was at stake. There was also the justification that Lindy would just go and pick up another body and then continue in Scientology. Right.

Joe Duncanson is still a Scientologist and has disconnected from me. One of Lindy’s daughters likewise is still in and has disconnected. Much to my delight, her other daughter, Sunshine, is out and I get to see her regularly. Jo Struthers is also still in.

Lindy was only 52 when she passed away. So much for the special abilities that an “OT” (operating thetan) was supposed to have. It is a tragedy that someone so full of life would needlessly die so young. Of course, Scientologists never blame Scientology.

But I do.

— Bruce Hines

 
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Leah Remini podcast: Jefferson Hawkins

Says Mike: “We are joined by Jeff Hawkins, an extremely talented, thoughtful and articulate former Sea Org member to recount his experiences with David Miscavige, his role in making Dianetics a bestseller again the 80’s and his journey into and out of scientology. He is the author of 3 books on the subject.” Listen to the episode right here!

 
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Did you know you can get an email every morning when we post our daily Scientology story? We know some of the folks who come to the Underground Bunker aren’t here to talk about the politics of the day, and that’s why we created a daily politics feature over at our other blog, The Lowdown, and we ask readers to take their political discussions over there. And if you drop us a line at tonyo94 AT gmail, we’ll put you on the list so you get a morning reminder that a new Scientology story has been posted — and only for our Scientology stories.

 
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Source Code

“Greece, in its Golden Age, could be said to have been at Tone 4. Perhaps in the first days of this country, when we were searching out a wilderness and building the nation, we could be said to have been at Tone 4. A nation follows in its cycles the same tone scale as individuals. A person can be as high as Greece was, or in a state of apathy as were the American Indians when they were destroyed as a nation. You can tell just what the mental health of a nation is by observing its actions. A country like Russia that is always angry is at 1.5 or 2. It is either angry or in a state of war. If a human being were in this band he would be titled insane. A state in this band could not help being a police state. The United States for a while was rather bored but getting along. However, this last war reduced us to around 2.1, which is rather overtly hostile — ready to fight. We are drifting back down the tone scale. Between here and death is totalitarianism.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 15, 1951

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“The actual value of a trained SO member is very high, yet is not being assigned a value. The wogworld tends to impress on people that the individual has no value. Welfare states deplore having people. Yet we run on and because of people. The value is actually too high to be calculated easily. Because value to self is all the wide world thinks of. Value to the group is discounted. Yet the whole value of a being is to his group and not to himself at all. The aberrated think of modern times says one has no real value to the group. Yet that is a being’s greatest value. We should work more on these lines in a practical sense.” — The Commodore, February 15, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“After being audited by trey I was trying to find a source point to all the time lines. I had found about 10 in the stars and a million sent back to raise the vibration of the planet. So if the spirit is in the static it is all knowing so it can’t see the physical universe being source. because if it knows everything then it knows the creation and that would vanish the creation, so there must be another viewpoint that is in the physical universe that can create all the timelines. So I think that is where I go when I pop out of this time and go to a void and then pop into another point in time. And since all the timelines come from the same spirit then I would be able to view all of them from there and even repair them from there. So then if we could get to that point it would be like being 3 feet behind your head you would just KNOW HOW to heal it. So that was my realization. If there was a way we can get to that source point which is in the physical universe and can see it and all its time lines we could fix this place pretty easy.”

 
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Past is Prologue

1996: The first Internet posting by Monica Pignotti was made to a.r.s this week. Monica is known for her affidavit, which [was posted to the ‘net]. “For those of you who don’t know me I am a EX 6-year member of the CofS who wrote an account of my experience which was posted on ars My Nine Lives in Scientology. I was involved from 1970-76, which included time done on the Apollo, Clearwater, AOLA and the Salt Lake City mission. I’d love to hear from anyone who knew me back then and anyone else who would care to write. I’ve been out for nearly 20 years now — the anniversary date of my leaving and getting back my freedom was August 22nd, 1976. I’ve never for a moment regretted my decision to leave and I am a very happy SP, even though current members believe this is an oxymoron.”

 
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Random Howdy

“Jenna Elfman is jihadi-level crazy. She wouldn’t hesitate to go on a martyr mission if D.M. ordered her to.”

 
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next pretrial conference May 31. Trial scheduled for August 29.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Last hearing was on January 18, referred to grand jury.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference March 25 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for April 8.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Next hearing February 15.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Eleventh Circuit affirmed ruling granting Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Garcias considering next move.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Scientology has said it will file an anti-SLAPP motion.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

 
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

 
Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. 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 a weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology spying on Anonymous: Leaked from the files of a church private eye
[TWO years ago] DRONE FLYOVER: First look at Scientology’s drug rehab at Larry Hagman’s estate
[THREE years ago] The Axioms of Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard’s science-y foundation of Scientology ‘tech’
[FOUR years ago] Scientology mag: Why aren’t you in Florida already dumping all that sweet cash?
[FIVE years ago] Federal judge once again finds for Scientology’s nonexistent and Orwellian ‘arbitration’
[SIX years ago] Chuck Beatty is right: L. Ron Hubbard lofted culty cosmic ideas a decade before ‘Dianetics’
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: New ‘Continental’ Narconons opening soon?
[EIGHT years ago] Did John Travolta reveal too much about Scientology?
[NINE years ago] Blogging Dianetics, Part 7: The Hard Cell
[TEN years ago] SCIENTOLOGY’S DISGRACE: AN OPEN LETTER TO TOM CRUISE

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 15, 2022 at 07:00

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Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), 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, 15 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

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

 

Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast