by Michaela Haas
21 April 1997
Sueddeutsche Zeitung
more
Anonymous translation from German.
Source:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/msg/4f053d763f7e1277
Source:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.religion.scientology/msg/3f37352becfb5b8c
Source:
http://www.lermanet2.com/cisar/survey/hp.htm#trn0454
Tanya's Training as the perfect machine.
She wanted to become a better, happier person - what a 16
year old went through instead with the elite corps of Hubbard
youths in England.
Hamburg, in April. Tanya
spoke cooly and detached, like a radio announcer, as she told
how she lost her childhood. She neither raised, nor lowered, her
voice. Her hands rested motionless on her legs. No picture hangs
on the white walls of her small dwelling to liven up the
emptiness. Tanya had been on the highest road there was, as
described by Scientology founder
L. Ron Hubbard in his
vision of a god-like person, "a perfect machine, well oiled,
shimmering with power, and in a position to direct all her own
functions without need of any further expectation."
Tanya does not look like she has just come of age. Her
chubby-cheeked face with no make-up under her shoulder-length,
red hair makes her look child-like, but what she says and how
she says it has nothing to do with youthfulness, nothing
innocent. She is so horribly grown up, as only a person, who has
never been permitted to have a proper childhood, can be. Perhaps
it will become clear to this teenager, what hopes and dreams
Scientology appeals to, how cleverly the organization seizes
hold of a person's identity. Whenever Tanya talks about
Scientology, she says "we" or "church" — just as she has been
trained to do from a toddler onwards.
It has been nine months since Tanya fled
Saint Hill
with the help of the British police. The
Sea Org in Saint Hill,
officially an elite organization of Scientology in Sussex,
England, is what Scientology parents dream of for their
children. This is where the future leaders of the so-called
church are trained, a salvation group which is supposed to lead
humanity over "the bridge to total freedom." From what Tanya
tells us, though, it does not sound like a religious place.
Tanya was 16 years old when she stopped going to school in
Stuttgart
and went to Saint Hill — voluntarily. "I thought that
the people there would be like saints," she said. "You heard
people saying that everyone there abided by the rules, no one
scolded you, no one lied, nobody fooled you. You were told that
everything there was so perfect." Her father had just moved in
with his new girlfriend, and Tanya felt she was in the way. In
Saint Hill, she thought, she would be received with open arms by
a loving community. Tanya joined Scientology and signed a
"contract for a billion years." That means for this life and for
all others in which you come back. She sighed. That would not
have been stupidity, she said, half apologizing, "that was
naiveté." She had been promised 30 (British) pounds per week,
and a day off every other Saturday. However, when she got to
Saint Hill, nothing was perfect and nothing happened as
promised.
Bullies in Charge
What awaited Tanya was eight to ten hours work per day,
followed by five hours study of the Hubbardist writings. She
seldom got to bed before midnight. About 300 Scientologists live
in Saint Hill, including, according to Scientology's own
statement, 77 children and teenagers. "There were more and more
children," said Tanya. She pulls a pile of photographs from a
paper bag in order to show a picture of herself. Her red hair
shone unmistakably from a crowd of young girls in school
uniforms. At the time she was still slim. She put on many pounds
later, as if she needed this thick, soft, protective layer.
The photographs also show a castle-like manor, a luxuriously
furnished library, and splendid, wood-panelled halls, "really
very idyllic, a vision of beauty," said Tanya. She pointed to a
building in the background of the 22 hectare (55 acre) park.
That was the sauna for the "purification
rundown," a cure in which Scientologists sit for hours in
the sauna in order to sweat out poisons. She and other youths
had helped to build the sauna. "That was hellish work. Also, we
had to dig the path through the park. We had to dig it up three
times, each time approximately one meter (yard) deep and one
meter wide. That was the time that we had to work throughout the
night.
Apparently no work was too rigorous for
children, some of whom were 14 years old. She received the
promised amount of money for her work once or twice, other times
she received nothing, "or only three to six pounds and as good
as never got a day off. Because, in order to have a day off, you
had to have somebody to replace you. And there simply wasn't
anybody." Tanya raises serious accusations. She was not
permitted to leave her post, not even when she had a fever. One
time she was beat up by another Scientologist. "They didn't want
to let me go to the doctor, until I told them I would not lift
another finger at work." The doctor diagnosed a brain concussion
and prescribed at least three days rest, "but I was not
permitted to lie down. I was on post." Sometimes she was not
relieved to go eat or to use the bathroom. "If I went anyway,
there was trouble. They took it out on you. You were yelled at
and humiliated. There is a rigid hierarchy at Saint Hill."
Every offense was recorded in the ethics file, detailed
accounts which are used if someone breaks the Scientology rules.
"Then they write the report which goes into the folder." That
way the sect has information on everybody, "and if you want to
leave, they can use it to put pressure on you." Tanya reported
exactly, and, upon being questioned, recalled precise details.
The Scientology Commissioner of the Hamburg Senate,
Ursula Caberta, who takes
care of Tanya, regards her as absolutely credible.
Scientology reacts nervously to all this. Unsummoned,
Scientology speaker Georg Stoffel showed up at the "Sueddeutsche
Zeitung" editorial desk. He asked whether the "SZ" had
researched Tanya's history, and he wanted to present proof that
Tanya was a notorious liar, had stolen, a relative had even
threatened to take legal measures because of this. Weeks before,
in a different matter, he had sent a five page letter from
Tanya's father, an ardent Scientologist, in which he regretted
that his daughter had broken off her "process of self- and truth
discovery" at Saint Hill. As far as any unpleasantness she may
have related about his "church", he said she was an "underage
girl ... still unstable", and had problems with honesty.
However, the father was not ready to talk with the "SZ". His
attorney said that he would sue if his family name were to be
made public.
Anyway, the Scientology speaker wanted to present proof
against Tanya. Stoffel and his colleague, Sabine Weber, waited
for us in one of the conference rooms of the Dianetic center in
Munich, under a giant picture of Scientology founder L. Ron
Hubbard. They had a pile of documents — but these did
not have to do with Tanya, but about alleged discrimination
against Scientologists. The accusation against Tanya turned out
to be an angry letter by an aunt who complained that Tanya had
drunk nine liters of cola, taken 20 marks, and ran up a 400 mark
($300) phone bill, not entirely unusual offenses for a teenager.
An opinion from Saint Hill dismissed Tanya's accusations as
"dream-like fantasies of a manipulated teenager." However, the
Scientologists confirmed Tanya's credibility in their letter.
She was involved in the construction of the sauna. The letter
read, "her work hours were from 8:30 a.m. to 10 at night" - as
if that were a normal assignment.
The strident orders, the arduous physical labor to the point
of total exhaustion, even the existence of a punishment camp in
Saint Hill — called a "rehabilitation
project" in Scientology jargon — all that has been
testified to in detail by both English and and other German
ex-members. This is the first time a youthful ex-Scientologist
has spoken about what happens to children in the most feared and
most secret cadre of the sect, the Sea Org. How an entire
generation of the sect is put to work there, how they have
perhaps no chance of ever finding their way out of the
Scientology maze. Previously only Scientology's failed attempt
to put children into their own school in Hamburg, the successful
establishment of a school in Denmark, to which Scientology
children from Hamburg are also sent, was known.
In Hubbard's teachings, there are no children, only thetans,
god-like beings, in larger or smaller bodies. "Every law which
pertains to the behavior of men and women", wrote Hubbard, "also
pertains to children." An adult German ex-Scientologist said
that she had seen with her own eyes, at Saint Hill, an eight
year old who had been certified as a so-called auditor, a
Scientology confessor, who manipulates others with hypnotic
processes. "Age is not as important in Scientology," said Tanya,
"as how much you produce. Because of this, children can occupy
positions of great importance. You must call them "sir" and hold
the door open for them." Her direct supervisor at Saint Hill had
been 13 years old.
Tanya, born in
Zimbabwe,
grew up in
South Africa, and took her first Scientology course when she
was about eight years old. It was a children's communication
course in
Johannesburg. "It was supposed to improve my relationship
with my stepmother," said Tanya, "but it didn't do that." Her
mother died when Tanya was four years old. Her father and his
new wife were Scientologists. They took many courses and paid a
high price. "My family had paid much money for that," said
Tanya, "in Scientology, nothing is for free." At seven years
old, the oldest son of her father's girlfriend had already had
to get auditing, hours long interrogation on a lie detector. "He
hated it, every time. A child does not want to go into the org
on weekends, sit in a room for hours, and be interrogated."
The questionnaire for a typical "Security
Check" for six to twelve year olds shows how systematically
children have feelings of shame of guilt thrust upon them: "What
has someone forbidden you to tell?" - "Have you ever
disappointed your parents?" — "Have you ever done
something to your body that you should not have done?" and so
forth, up to 99 questions.
When she was hit as a child, said Tanya, she was not
consoled, but asked instead, "What have you done wrong?" That is
supposed to mean, "What mistake have I made that I have pulled
in this kind of unhappiness?" At home she was very unhappy and
lonely. "One time I asked my father what he would do if I killed
myself. His answer: 'You are responsible for yourself.'" This is
a typical answer for a Scientologist, says Tanya, who settled
the matter by going away to Saint Hill.
After Tanya proved herself by helping to build the sauna,
"after numerous intelligence tests and checks", she was assigned
to one of the seven "divisions." Tanya went to the HCO, the
Hubbard Communications Office. "We were responsible for
everything that had to do with communications, the front line
for mail and advertising," she said. All mail was opened.
Advertisements, which came in bundles of up to 4,000 pieces, had
to be folded, and put in envelopes by the children, and stamped.
HCO was also responsible for recruiting new people, preventing
escapes, and bringing back escapees. More people left, said
Tanya, than supposed, but very few of them are willing to talk
about their experiences - out of fear. The organization knows
everything about the defectors. Everything has been recorded in
the "ethics folders", anything said by a Scientologist during
his auditing sessions. Tanya said, "You were really treated like
a piece of garbage." Six months later she knew enough about the
structure to plan her own escape from Saint Hill.
At first, Tanya announced officially that she wished to
leave. As a result of that, she says, she was locked in a room
by the security officials. "I had to write everything down that
I have ever done wrong in my life. I cheated on a test once. I
stole five marks, everything possible." She was put on the lie
detector and put under constant watch. "Someone was constantly
with me so that I would not take off, so that I would not do
anything wrong." Tanya altered her tactics. She claimed that her
father was on his death bed after a heart attack, and that she
had to see him — and she received leave.
In August of 1996, she traveled back to Saint Hill to pick up
her personal belongings. She thought that her lies had not yet
been detected. Nevertheless, Scientology had suspicions, and
Tanya became afraid. With the help of Ursula Caberta, the
Scientology Commissioner of the Hamburg Senate, and the British
police, she finally fled Saint Hill two days later.
Tanya's narrative sounds like a nightmare, and it is
continuing. She reported that, directly after her escape, she
was approached by two unknown men in an automobile while she was
on her way to Caberta's office, "Tanya, what are you doing
here?" Tanya thought one of them wished to shake her hand,
because he held his hand out. "But then, when I did not reach
out to shake his hand, he grabbed me and pulled me into the
car." The men drove her around for hours, apparently without
going anywhere. Tanya lost her sense of direction. "They said I
knew what was going to happen, and I had earned it." Tanya
supposed that she would be brought back to England. "I committed
a crime, just taking off like that." As they drove through a
city, she was able to break loose at a stop light. She called
for the police. The search for the kidnappers turned up nothing.
The investigation had to be called off without being closed.
However, the speaker for the Hamburg District Attorney's Office,
Ruediger Bagger, confirmed that the case was being taken
seriously, but he did not wish to go into details. "I don't want
to claim that it was Scientologists," said Tanya, "but they used
Scientology words. Nobody else speaks like that."
To Finally Be Important
After that, Tanya hardly went out of the house alone. During
that time, she said, she could hardly sleep at night. She was
constantly running over to the window whenever she heard a car
outside. She assumed a false identity, a false background.
Despite protective measures, for three weeks she has been
terrorized over the telephone. Some evenings the telephone rings
incessantly, sometimes at three o'clock in the morning, and
nobody is ever on the other end. She thought it over very
carefully before telling her story to this newspaper. It is a
kind of reparation: she had recruited other children into
Scientology and possibly ruined their lives. It is also the
conclusion of her past years, closing down of her past with
Scientology, as well as her childhood in a broken home. Going to
the press, as far as the Scientologists are concerned, is one of
the worst sins. Ursula Caberta says that the police are informed
and will now "have to check more often into Tanya's rights."
Tanya says, "Scientology is a dictatorship, and I want everybody
to know that."
She also still blames herself. "Somehow I was stupid enough
to believe all that," she said, and recalled some of the absurd
ideas that had been made a part of her childhood: "That one
could recall things in this life which happened millions of
years ago, that you were maybe a rock, I think ..." she says and
taps her forehead. She had to also recall what she liked about
it, "the feeling of being important, being good, doing anything,
and being able to get anything. That's what most people are
looking for, and that's how you end up in there."
Starting in August, Tanya will be going back to school again,
two years behind her class. She is on her own, aided by a
welfare grant. She only has contact with her grandmother, from
whom she has learned that her father does not want anything more
to do with her. Tanya wrote him a letter, really only one line,
"Since I love him, it's all the same to me what happens." She
just does not want to be one of those people who do not say when
they love others. She says, "I do not think that he will ever
speak with me again." [more about
Disconnection] |