Scientology Critical Information Directory

This site is best viewed using a highly standards-compliant browser

Laurel Sullivan

Former scientologist, left after 15 years.

«Laurel Sullivan. LRH's personal public relations director who ran MCCS, Mission Corporate Category Sortout. — Zegel 3.

She left the Church of Scientology in 1981 after serving fifteen years, the last eight as Hubbard's personal public relations adviser. From 1972-81 she was in charge of a secret operation to transfer money from church funds to Hubbard through a corporate shell, the Religious Research Foundation (RRF), incorporated in Liberia with accounts in banks in Lichtenstein and Luxemburg. When she left Scientology in 1981, she said that the RRF's assets were between $200 million and $300 million, and at one point in the 1970s they totalled $330 million. — Lamont.»

[Source: "Who's Who in Scientology" by Martin Hunt]


Los Angeles Times (Jun. 24, 1990): "The Mind Behind the Religion" by Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos

Sullivan, the former public relations officer, recalled how after an appearance he would ask: "How many minutes of applause did I get? How many times did they say, 'Hip, hip, hurray!'? How many people showed up? How many letters did I get?"

"If you remained in awe of him ... he was great," said Sullivan, who had a falling out with the church in 1981. "If you crossed him, or appeared to cross him, he would lash out at you, scream at you, accuse you of things."

Forbes (Oct. 1986): "The prophet and profits of Scientology" by Richard Behar

In 1980 Laurel Sullivan, for seven years Hubbard's principal public relations official, was put in charge of an internal operation called Mission Corporate Category Sortout (Hubbard liked military jargon and organization), at the behest of Miscavige. Sullivan says she planned ways to juggle the church's corporations to shield the unseen Hubbard from legal liability and to ensure that the income lines to Hubbard from the church could not be traced.

CBC (Nov. 1985): "The Fifth Estate - Scientology"

Hana Gartner (voice over):

Watson's daughter, Laurel Sullivan, is 36 now, and a partner in a California advertising agency. But she was just a teenager when her father introduced her to Scientology.

Laurel Sullivan:

I did originally question it. But you see, when you are 17-year old, you idealize your father. You don't ever think that he will lead you to something that could hurt you. You are totally open. I think that it's important to understand the subtleties of what happens in your mind, a gradual progression of leaving the group of your family, friends, society, then to an inner circle of another reality. Ex-Scientologists often refer to it as the twilight zone. [...]

Willamette Week (Jun. 1985): "Scientology on trial"

Another former Scientologist, Laurel Sullivan, who served for years as one of Hubbard's top personal public-relations aides, said she was sickened by the fact that RPF people "had to eat out of buckets." [...]

An early method, according to testimony, involved the Religious Research Foundation based in Liberia with a bank account in Luxembourg and later, Liechtenstein. Through the RRF alone, Hubbard received up to $385,000 annually according to Laurel Sullivan, the personal public-relations side who worked directly with Hubbard for several years.

Sullivan also testified that Hubbard was to get $10 million for his role in producing a series of Scientology films in 1979. Making the deal even more lucrative for Hubbard was the fact that the CSC provided the $5 million used to fund the project as well as some 185 people to work on it. Hubbard, by the way, retained all rights to the films, which were to be leased to various Scientology missions and organizations.

Sullivan also discussed a special project called the Mission Corporate Category Sort Out, which began in 1980 and was to be designed, according to orders she received from Hubbard's top aide, to hide Hubbard's control of Scientology and his income while maintaining both.

New York Times (Sep. 3, 1984): "Lawyer says Church of Scientology is Waging Campaign to 'Frame' Him" by Robert Lindsey

Many of the same former officials said in an interview that they believed that the church had fabricated the evidence purporting to implicate Mr. Flynn in forgery in an effort to silence his legal attack against their organization. "He was our No. 1 enemy," said Laurel Sullivan, a former senior official. "We were always trying to set up an operation against Michael." [...]

«Miss Sullivan and other former officials compared the allegations that Mr. Flynn had forged a check to efforts that they said they had worked on while still in the church to smear Paulette Cooper, [...]

AP (May 1984): "Ex-publicist says she was 'target' of Scientologists"

LOS ANGELES — A former publicist for Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard testified Friday that she left the church in November 1981 because she had become "a target" of hostility by church members.

Ex-publicist Laurel Sullivan, 34, was cross-examined by church attorney Robert Harris in a lawsuit brought by the church and Mary Sue Hubbard, the founder's wife, seeking to recover allegedly stolen documents from former church archivist Gerald Armstrong.

Sullivan said that after she was "busted" from her job as Hubbard's publicist, she got a job in the church archives, where Armstrong was gathering material for a Hubbard biography. As the project continued, she said, she began to fear that some people would see the biography as a downgrading of Hubbard's image and that she would then become "a target."

[ Up ] [ Page 1 ] [ Home ]