Blown for Good Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology (14 page)

“He wrote an advice on what to do with people that blow from the Int Base?” I ask.

“Oh yeah,” Tom said without missing a beat. “You know how LRH talks about how you always leave the door a crack open for people that leave Scientology, in case they ever want to come back?”

“Yeah, that is in some ethics policies, right?” I said.

“Well in this one advice, he talks about the people that leave and says, ’If they leave from the Int Base, we close the door completely and bolt it shut!’ Anyone who leaves almost automatically gets declared a suppressive person based on that one LRH advice alone.”

“That is why there was all this cloak and dagger stuff going on around here. No one could know that anyone from the Int Base was in touch with LRH or they could possibly find out where he was based on this,” Tom explained. “So it was decided that the best way to make sure that the people from the Int Base did not talk about anything to anyone, was to keep them all locked up here on a full time basis. That solved the problem altogether. But then there were a few cases where people went crazy and then ended up blowing or breaking out or whatever.”

“What happened to those people?” I asked, preparing for what might be my future fate someday.

“Those guys get sent out to the Happy Valley,” Tom said happily with almost a chuckle in his voice. “It was nicknamed that because the people that get sent out there are crazy. People who want to leave and think that Scientology is bad or doesn’t work.”

“There used to be a Rehabilitation Project Force here at the base too. But it was recently disbanded and most of the people were transferred to the Estates Division. A few people had to go out to Happy Valley and some even went to the Rehabilitation Project Force in Los Angeles.”

“Are there a lot of people out there at Happy Valley?” I asked.

“Well, not really. There is this one gal that was out there forever, Annie Broeker. She used to live with Hubbard and in 1986 she was moved from the ranch in Creston to Happy Valley. She lived there for three years and never left for any reason. Finally she got okay to come back to the Int Base and now she has a house that she lives in here. She never leaves the base, though. She has been here for at least a year and I don’t think she has ever left!” Tom explained.

“Why?” I asked, wondering if I will be stuck here for years on end.

“I think it has something to do with her ex-husband, Pat. He used to work for LRH and there was supposedly an issue about Pat and Annie from LRH. Dave Miscavige had the issue cancelled, Pat disappeared and Annie showed up at Happy Valley. That’s all I know. Either way, she does not ever leave the base – EVER.”

How could I have gotten myself into this? Was this going to be a nightmare? I told myself if for any reason I was not fully comfortable with anything that happens that I would get the hell out of here any way I can. I was not going to end up like Annie, locked up here like a prisoner for the rest of my life.

“Don’t worry about that,” Tom said. “You would have to lose all your Team Share cards before you start worrying about that stuff.”

Team Share cards was a system of privileges that existed throughout the base. It operated on advices from LRH and each staff member was given five cards. You had a Social Card, Bonus Card, Allowance Card, Chow Card and Berthing Card. If you screwed up or your statistics went down, you would lose a card. They were also lost in the above order. If you wanted to get a card back, you had to increase your production. Any one of your seniors could revoke a card from you at anytime if you were disrespectful or simply pissed them off. Each time you lost a card, you also lost the privileges that went along with that card. There were rarely ever any social activities or bonuses, so those two cards were just buffers to keep you getting paid and fed with a place to stay.

Each week a list of who had what cards was issued to the crew. You could see the guys in the hot seats were the ones with the least number of cards. Most people had three to five cards. There were a few crew members that had one, two or no cards at all.

The crew members with zero cards had to sleep wherever they could find a place. They had to scrape up leftovers to eat and they did not get paid at all. The system was arbitrary and if you were in any way threatening or nonconforming to what your seniors wanted, you could lose a card.

Between all of the new rules and rumored advices that had been written, there was no way that I was getting out of this place without a fight. Dave Miscavige was rumored to have said that the Int Base was like Disneyland! And I guess that if you took away all of the trains, rides, giant characters running around, food, happiness, kids, parents or anything else pleasant, and the ability to leave whenever you wanted, the Int Base could be compared to Disneyland.

On the Base Orientation Course, I had to learn the lingo for the different buildings around the Gilman Hot Springs property. There were hundreds of abbreviations and names for buildings that made no sense, but everybody was required to learn them all. It seemed impossible to learn the different buildings since the base was a huge, sprawling compound that took at least an hour to walk around. It was something like 500 acres.

In the course pack, there was a list of all the buildings on the base with descriptions of each
(see map included after Author's Note and before Chapter 1)
:

BV:
Bonnie View or Beautiful View – This is LRH’s house that sits at the highest elevation of the Int Base property and has a beautiful view of the property. The house was built from the ground up based on LRH advices. The entire house has different furnishings for each season that are routinely swapped out. Furniture, drapes, beds sheets etc. are all custom designed to match each season of the year.

Studio Two:
This is the studio where all film mix downs are done by the Audio Division of Gold. There is also a Post Lip Sync studio located in this same building, as well as the film sound transfer facilities used by manufacturing.

Villas:
This was where Religious Technology Center was located. There were three buildings, the upper, middle and lower villas. Not only was RTC located here, but top executives also lived here.

Star of California Clipper Ship:
The Star of California is a giant clipper ship that was built into the property to be used as a local attraction for people from nearby Hemet and San Jacinto. Promoted as a movie set, local residents were given public tours on Sundays to see how a real movie set looks. The Star of California also has an Olympic size swimming pool, Jacuzzi, sauna and other facilities that could be used for entertaining and local events.

The Spa:
The Spa is now the location of the Qualifications Division of Gold. The Spa used to be the main location on the property where the hot springs would surface and several large steam bath facilities were located here. After the United States Government drilled a large underground tunnel through the back side of the mountain, they hit the underground river that fed the hot springs and the springs dried up. Old Man Gilman, who had run the hot springs resort since 1913, had several boilers set up beneath the Spa, and continued to run the hot springs resort for several years before finally retiring in 1978 and selling the property.

Del Sol:
This is where the Commodores’ Messenger Organization and Executive Strata International, and Watchdog Committee were located. Del Sol used to be the main hotel unit for the Gilman Hot Springs Resort.

The 200s:
The 200s were where network units for several areas of CMO Int were housed. These included LRH Public Personal Relations Office International and LRH Technical Research and Compilations.

Ranchos:
This is where both the Translations Unit, and the LRH Book Compilations Unit were located. They took approved manuscripts from LRH Technical Research and Compilations and turned these into courses and books for Scientology organizations around the world. They had typesetting, book design and even did glossaries and other book items here.

119 & 40s House:
This is where Commodore’s Messenger Organization Gold was located and is the unit directly responsible for making sure that Watchdog Committee programs for Golden Era Productions get done.

G Units or Gs:
These are houses that were converted to luxury accommodations for VIP guests that stay at the Int Base.

Building 36:
Building 36 was the brand new state of the art manufacturing building that was built for Golden Era Productions. It houses production facilities for Hubbard E-Meter Manufacturing and both 16 mm film and Cassette Tape Production. Bldg 36 also houses the Executive, Hubbard Communications Office, Dissemination, Central Marketing Unit, Treasury, and Port Captain Division offices of Golden Era Productions.

Tavern:
The tavern is a VIP facility where actors brought to the base for Cine or Audio productions could be serviced. It is done up in the motif of the Knights of the Round Table complete with a large sword embedded in a stone as you enter the building.

Gym:
This was the building where the Cine Division had their shooting stage. Originally called the “gym” because the activities of the base were confidential even to the local residents. As a result, the permit to build the studio was applied for under the guise of a “Basketball Gym.” Any and all references to the building were to be specified as the “Gym”. The Gym also housed the make-up, costumes, camera, lighting, and set sound departments.

F&E:
This is where the film and equipment branch is housed, and contains the personnel responsible for maintaining Hubbard’s wealth of personal photography equipment and his photos and having them ready in perfect order for use at any time. They also oversee programs being run in the Cine Division of Gold.

Upper Lodges:
This is where Gold’s entire film editing department was housed. It has a large 35 mm film theater where the shoot crew watch their daily footage as well as feature films.

Lower Lodges:
This is where pre-production areas were housed. Logistics, art department, research and assembly, scriptwriting, casting, and pre-production director are all located there.

MCI:
Massacre Canyon Inn, or MCI, is the dining facility for the entire base. It has both crew and officer dining hall areas that service all organizations located on the property. It also houses the offices for Gold’s Domestic Services Division staff.

Garage:
The garage used to be a public gas station that was converted into the maintenance facility for the entire property. Motor Pool Gold is located here as well as the entire Estates Division. The grounds, electrical, construction, engineering and building maintenance departments of the Estates Division are all housed here. Cine’s sets and props departments took up the west half of the building. It also contains the International Landlord Office.

Trailers:
The trailers were a collection of temporary buildings that were set up to accommodate the Central Marketing Unit (CMU) as well as the tape editing and technician departments of Audio. These trailers later housed LRH Technical Research and Compilations unit and the International Finance Office.

Studio One:
This is the LRH Music Studio Complex. It has a state of the art music studio and is one of the most advanced music studios in the world. Adjacent to the main studio are music scoring, and storage for all of the Golden Era Musicians’ equipment. Also in this same building are very upscale conference and dining facilities for visiting musicians that are brought up to the studio for recordings.

Lecture Mix:
This is where all Hubbard’s lectures are restored, mixed and made ready for high-speed duplication using Clearsound technology.

Music Rehearsal:
This is where the musicians rehearse for upcoming concerts and performances.

Upper RAV
:
This is where L
R
H’s
A
udio
V
isual Unit, or RAV, is located. This is the unit that is responsible for maintaining LRH’s arsenal of personal audio equipment. They are also responsible for running all of the programs in the Audio division of Golden Era Productions. They are the unit that produces any LRH special edition audio releases that Gold is not allowed to produce.

Lower RAV:
This is the mixing studio that RAV uses to mix special edition products.

12 Mic:
This is the recording room located in Lower RAV. It is called the 12 Mic because it has 12 separate microphones that are used to get the most realistic recording possible.

Horwich House:
This is where Jon Horwich and his daughter Roanne lived. Roanne is LRH’s granddaughter and lives on the property.

OGH:
O
ld
G
ilman
H
ouse is the house that the family that owned and ran the property for most of the early and mid 1900’s lived. This house was used for temporary staff lodging.

ISO
:
This building was right next to Old Gilman House. This is where you went if you were sick. Isolation. There was a men’s section and a women’s section. If you had a cold or got sick, you would have to stay here until better. You could not go back home or do any work on your post or with the general crew because you might make more people sick. The smell that came from isolation was enough to keep most people from ever getting sick.