Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me by Ron Miscavige & Dan Koon

Author:Ron Miscavige & Dan Koon
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Silvertail Books
Published: 2016-05-02T16:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER

IN LATE SUMMER 1984, AS PART OF THE CHURCH’S STRATEGY to fund ongoing litigation, of which there was much at the time, someone came up with the idea of forming the International Association of Scientologists (IAS), a membership organization that all Scientologists had to join to receive church services. Several years earlier, after the FBI raided the church and numerous staff, including Mary Sue Hubbard, were facing prison terms, the church had established a legal defense fund that brought in a considerable amount of money. The new idea behind IAS was to repackage that fund to create a new source of income. Attorneys explained how it could be set up offshore to put it beyond the reach of the IRS or an agency of any government. Six weeks later, in October, church leaders, including David, gathered at St. Hill to sign a Pledge to Mankind to support the Aims of Scientology. The event, which signified the formation of the IAS, was videotaped and then played to Scientologists all over the world. The video proved hugely popular, but it marked the birth of a Frankenstein’s monster.

That first event soon spawned others: a New Year’s celebration, an LRH birthday celebration, a May 9 Dianetics anniversary, a weeklong Freewinds Maiden Voyage Anniversary celebration, an Auditor’s Day celebration and, coming full circle, an IAS celebration every October. As time went on, another event, held at the church’s Celebrity Centre in Hollywood, a study center and hotel for stars, was added to the roster. Year after year these events became more lavish, with elaborate stage decorations, specially produced videos to announce the latest church accomplishment or product for sale, graphic effects to highlight church expansion, all intended to increase the impact of speeches that church executives and, increasingly, David himself delivered by teleprompter.

To prepare for the productions, people were pulled away from their usual duties and sucked into frantic event-related activities. The shows became base-wide nightmares, although I must admit they did accomplish the only effect David truly wanted: Scientology audiences deeply impressed with Scientology’s ever-widening impact on society under his leadership. The events became showcases for such things as Scientology’s disaster relief efforts, its antidrug campaigns, and its continual push, as spearheaded by David, to make a better world through the works of L. Ron Hubbard.

The reality is, however, that these extravaganzas were Scientology’s Potemkin villages. Just as Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin built fake villages to impress Catherine the Great during a tour of Crimea, David erected hollow facades of Scientology expansion and good works to amaze Scientologists. Many, if not most, of the nifty programs (for example, a new broadcast television advertising campaign “that will reach billions with the message of Scientology”) announced at events were never completed. The busy churches around the world featured in specially prepared videos were filled with parishioners who had been press-ganged into creating the appearance of a hive of activity, which disappeared the minute the video crew left town.

The agenda behind these events became plain

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