My Scientology Story - For what its worth....

Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 12:47pm

Some of my friends are not familiar with my history with Scientology so I thought I would do a brief write up to explain how I got involved, what I did when I was working in the Sea Org and where I am at now.

I got into Scientology when I was about 14 years old. My Dad had gotten involved a year or so before after reading the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. I was a shy teenager and my Dad thought it would do me some good.

After my first auditing (counseling session) I was completely hooked. I was able to resolve some problems and some emotions that were bothering me at the time and it made me feel ecstatic and light headed! I wanted to learn and get more.

Throughout my high school years, I worked during the summer time and saved my money so that I could buy auditing during the fall and winter months. My Dad thought I would appreciate what I was doing more if I paid for it myself. He helped me a little bit, but I ended up paying for almost 100 hours of auditing through my summer jobs and moved up the Grade Chart through Dianetics and my Expanded Grade 4. All done before I graduated high school.

It was during my senior year in High School that I met Greg and Sandy Wilhere at the Washington DC Organization where I was doing my processing. They were the first Sea Org members I had ever met and I was completely impressed. Before long, I looked up to them and wanted to be like them.

It wasn’t long before I wanted to drop my plans of going to College (I was accepted at the University of Virginia, Syracuse University and USC in LA) and instead join the Sea Organization and sign a billion year contract.

After high school graduation, I joined the Sea Org in this new place – the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. This was the summer of 1976 and the Sea Org had recently moved there. I had high hopes of meeting and working with L. Ron Hubbard.

One of my roommates in the Sea Org was a 16 year old guy who had just dropped out of High School to join. His name was David Miscavige and he was a jerk even then. He acted like he was your friend, but would turn on you at the drop of a hat.

I held various positions at Flag and moved up the ranks quickly. Mainly my posts at first were involved with the Hotel and Estates matters as the LRH Communicator for Estates.

During this time, I made sure I went to my 2 ½ hours of study time each day. LRH ordered that all management people get through the Data Series Evaluators Course. It was considered a difficult course to get through by many in management, but I took to it like a fish to water. I completed the course where many others failed.

The knowledge I gained on the Data Series led to my posting at first as an Evaluator in management and then eventually, I was sent to the then mysterious confidential base at Gilman Hot Springs to train to be the Authorization person who would approve all evaluations. Previously no one was trusted with that position and they had to be approved by Watchdog Committee or LRH himself.

This was in 1982 and I was given the authority to approve all evaluations by myself and sent back to Clearwater to train up the managers in the Flag Bureau to become good evaluators. It was during this time that the Flag Bureau got every Scientology Organization on the planet their own evaluation and program for the first time in history and the statistics and expansion internationally was booming.

Shortly thereafter, I was promoted to the International Base in California to work under the new Religious Technology Center (RTC) being formed up. RTC were going to have the final approval on all management evaluations, programs, policies etc. as part of the corporate sort out of Scientology organizations.

This was a tumultuous time in Scientology history. The Mission Holder conference happened with people being declared Suppressive and people like David Mayo was removed from his position as Senior C/S International along with many key international management people at that time. All done, as we later found out, based on false reports by David Miscavige to LRH. It was a crazy time.

I was named as a member of the jury on the huge Committee of Evidence against people like David Mayo, Kerry Gleeson and other key international management executives who had been removed from their posts. I had a big problem however with this. International stats were booming at the time in my opinion and I had worked with many of these individuals and felt like they were getting a huge raw deal. I felt deep down that LRH had to be getting false reports and information.

It came up in my auditing sessions at the time that I had disagreements with what was going on with these people and so I was summarily removed not only from the Committee jury, but removed from my position in RTC by DM and eventually sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) in LA.

It was at this time that I first had my doubts about the Sea Org and the direction they were taking and considered leaving. However while on the RPF, I was twinned up with Stacy Young and we were assigned to get each other through the RPF program and graduate. Stacy did an excellent job and we took care of each other during this stressful time and eventually graduated the RPF. It did not take years to complete back then. We finished the program in less than 6 months.

From there, I did a project to renovate the offices of Author Services Inc (ASI), the company that was established to handle LRH’s books and money. DM was the Chairman of the Board of this company at that time. He supposedly was no longer part of Church management to protect corporate integrity and the pending IRS tax exemption, but as everyone in the Sea Org at Int level knew, he was in charge.

Shortly thereafter, LRH came up with the idea of establishing a “Corporate Liaison Office” within the Church of Scientology, so that DM and ASI ( and LRH as well) could issue orders and directives into the Church of Scientology whenever they wanted to and it would not be a “corporate” violation. This office would also handle DM’s personal needs both administratively and domestically.

I was chosen to be the Corporate Liaison In Charge and was personally interviewed and approved by DM and his wife Shelly. My first job was to get personnel to handle the various duties and get office space set up and renovated for DM and ASI both at the Int Base and in LA at the Complex.

The office grew to 3 people at the Int Base and 4 more in LA. While the other executives at ASI did not use our office very often, DM and Shelly relied on me and the personal at the Int Base extensively. Since DM at that time was mainly spending his time in LA at ASI, I became DM’s right hand man at the Int Base dealing with anything having to do with Golden Era Productions – audio, movies, manufacturing, buildings and renovations to name a few. I was intimately involved in the production of the Road to Freedom music album after LRH died.

We had personnel at Int and in LA who handled the cleaning of DM’s room and office as well as washing his clothes, taking care of his food and anything else he or Shelly might need.

I lasted on this post for almost 6 years. I had the ability to deal with DM and not take his rants and yelling personally, but instead turning around and getting those things done that he needed done or was upset about. And I dealt with the Gold Staff with a velvet touch, not an iron fist. Whereas DM would rip someone to pieces verbally and leave, I would always stay behind and help the person figure out how to get the job done to make DM happy.

During this time period, DM pulled off his power play, getting rid of Pat and Annie Broeker, Vicki Aznaran and Jesse Prince to name a few. I wasn’t directly involved in what was going on because he only briefed me on things on a “need to know” basis, but I did assist him with whatever he asked me to do. For example, I was the person DM called when the OT 8, 9 and 10 materials were taken from Pat Broeker and entrusted with protecting them under lock and key in a secret location.

RTC was reorganized and I was responsible for working out the Organization Board and statistics for RTC and got these approved by DM. At first RTC was starting out on the right foot in dealing with management. RTC was responsible for protecting and registering the trade and service marks of Scientology. They also were responsible for ensuring that LRH’s tech and policy was kept pure and that Scientology organizations would grow and expand by ensuring that Scientology Executives and Technical Personnel were fully trained and processed for their positions and then their final postings permanently approved by RTC, thus helping to ensure the expansion of Scientology.

DM allowed me for about a year to go work under Marc Yager in the Management Branch of RTC where I could use my skills with the Data Series to help RTC do it’s job, but it wasn’t long before he demanded that I be returned to him because the person who replaced me could not keep up with DM as well as I could. In the back of my mind I remember not being happy about having to return to work for him but I had no choice.

He put me in charge of getting personnel for the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) and for the LRH Ranch in Creston, California which I successfully accomplished. He also had me overseeing getting new personnel for the Gold Movie crew and oversee the audio productions lines. During this time, I also was involved with handling the production barriers with the new Super 7 E-meter which had been moved to the Gold Base. I also oversaw the production of the various colors of meters and the Limited Edition Metal plated meters that were sold for large sums of money.

All during my time working at the Int base, I continued to study daily and completed the OEC and FEBC executive courses and was starting on my Auditor training. I also got myself up the Grade Chart onto my OT levels and was auditing on OT 7 – Solo Nots. Unfortunately, I was one of the few who managed to get that high on the bridge in the Sea Org.

Sometime in early 1990, things started taking a serious change for the worse. DM would bypass executives at the drop of a hat, even if they were doing their jobs. He would walk into an area and issue 15 cross orders in a matter of seconds. He was getting more and more upset with what was happening at the base. During this time, he had become friends with Tom Cruise who had been brought to the base and began traveling with Cruise around the country and basically goofing off. I don’t know if this had an affect on DM and his demeanor, but he became even more of an asshole than he had previously been.

I was married to a girl name Julie Caetano. We got married in 1984 and she was a long time Commodore’s Messenger, having worked personally with LRH on the ship as a young girl and then later at the bases in California. While we were married, she was the Watchdog Committee member who was responsible for Golden Era Productions. We worked together to help Gold expand, make money and handle situations for DM. I loved Julie very much and we lived together happily for 6 years.

In early 1990, Julie was ordered removed from her position as WDC Gold and sent to the RPF without even a Committee of Evidence when her production had been excellent for several years. Attacking me is one thing. I could handle that. But attacking my wife, which I felt was unjustified, and I began to defend and fight back. It turned out to be my Achilles Heel.

I suspected (correctly I later found out) that DM was behind her removal. I had seen it happen to others before. He would order it and others would carry it out and he would then deny he had anything to do with it. I was having more doubts about DM and what he was doing. He then began becoming more and more upset with me and started to make fun of me and try to humiliate me in front of others. I was removed from my position and put on the grounds doing labor work and started 6 months of continuous security checking.

I was sec checked by people like Bruce Hines as my auditor. We would reach the end of the sec check question list, and because “I hadn’t come fully clean” according to DM or Shelly, my auditor would be removed and I would be assigned to someone else. It got to the point where I made up transgressions that I knew DM and Shelly would accept in order to complete the Security Check.

I eventually thought maybe I should be posted back as an Evaluator in Management where I had had tremendous success before. I petitioned DM asking for this posting and it was denied. Greg Wilhere who was the Inspector General in RTC, was sent in to handle me to go back on my post as the Corporate Liaison In Charge, which is what I did. There was no other choice for me. Obviously DM felt that he needed me and I knew that he did too.

At the end of May, my wife Julie had been in the RPF for a few months and I was tired of being separated from her. We were allowed to go to San Diego to her brother’s wedding at the time and I picked her up from the RPF and we drove down in our car to the wedding. We had a great time. It was on the drive back to the base, that I decided that I was going crazy trying to please DM as he was getting more and more irrational, and I wanted to be with my wife again.

So I decided I would blow the Sea Org in my car after dropping off my wife and then return a few days later. DM would assign me to the RPF and I would be back with my wife and I could handle any of my disagreements.

I did just that. I took 2 days off - on the run in my car. I purchased black clothes and items I would need in the RPF and after 2 days returned to the base. DM had gotten word that I wanted to go to the RPF (which he fully planned on doing) but since that was what I wanted to do, he changed his mind and instead put me in the Grounds Area as the “Deweeder” on a 600 acre base. Shortly thereafter, all of my Scientology Certificates were summarily cancelled. Everything I had ever done in 17 years in Scientology gone by the stroke of a pen! I knew then that DM was not following LRH policy and had no intention of doing so.

Plus the public humiliation of staff had begun, whereby DM would make someone stand before the whole base crew (over 600 people) and read out what the person had “confessed” in their auditing sessions or sec checks. All of a sudden, if someone masturbated and it came out in an auditing session, DM would make them stand up and held up to ridicule by the entire base. I was completely outraged by this behavior.

It was not Scientology and not why I joined. I joined to help people, not denigrate them.

Because I had blown the base, I was kept separated from my wife and she was turned against me. We had never had a single fight in over 6 years of marriage and now she wouldn’t speak with me and when she did, it was with a security guard present. We never were able to discuss what was really going on.

The famous “flood” happened shortly thereafter at the Int Base which others have written about. In less than 30 minutes, enough rain fell on the base that a massive mudslide happened and washed out the bungalows (called the G Units) that had been renovated for Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Not to mention the damage it did to many parts of the base.

DM went insane. He called a base wide briefing and proceeded to act like a mad man. I swear I thought he was foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. He blamed the Gold crew for the flood, which was an act of Nature, and the punishments became ridiculously harsh.

It was shortly thereafter when I was working in the garage at the base that DM physically attacked me in front of others. I told this story in the video link below. I decided that I had to get away for good, or I was going to go crazy. I would NEVER participate in physical violence against anyone. The fact that the “Leader” of Scientology was physically attacking me, was not Scientology. Between the public humiliations and now physical attacks I decided I no longer would be a part of it.

Here is the SP Times Video Link:

http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/fisher.shtml

The only problem I had was that I didn’t want to leave my wife, who I loved dearly. After the first time I left, she became terribly cold towards me. Not like her self at all. She wouldn’t talk with me when we were together. She felt I had gotten irrational. She and the rest of the people had been released from the RPF and posted in Estates at the Int Base by DM.

After the physical attack by DM, I decided I had to leave. Julie would not acknowledge me at all and I was under Security watch with a full time security guard. The only way I could finally leave was to act like I had changed for the better and could be trusted. I started to say what I knew they wanted to hear so they would release the security watch. I was acting. I couldn’t wait to get out of there for good.

I was eventually allowed to move back to the apartment that my wife and I shared with some other staff in town in the middle of the desert. When Julie still would not talk to me on my birthday, I decided I had enough. She wasn’t with me anymore.

I missed the bus to the base on purpose in the morning and ran to a small machine shop to call a taxi and went to a motel in town and demanded that Security either give me my car and stuff back or I was going to the Police. I was deadly serious and they knew it from the sound of my voice. This threat worked. I was given back my car, gave ½ of the money in my bank account to Julie and gathered my few personal things and left for good.

I felt a tremendous sense of freedom the day I drove away from the base for good. Sort of like the last day of school and you were leaving for summer vacation. However I also felt bad for having left my wife, friends and the life I had known.

After all, I had signed that Billion Year Contract. I had dedicated my life to helping people through the technology of LRH and Scientology and that was going to be gone. But at the same time, I felt like I was going crazy watching how DM was degrading people and misapplying LRH’s tech and policy.

There was no way to get rid of him from the inside and there was no way I was going to continue to live in that prison like environment.

After leaving, many of my former Sea Org friends have left over the years and everyone of them told me it was good that I left when I did, because it got MUCH WORSE and DM got crazier by the year.

For many years, I remained silent about what happened to me in the Sea Org. I did not speak out publicly or testify against Scientology, though some of my friends did. I am thankful that some of my former colleagues did speak out on their own and told the truth about what happened to me when David Miscavige physically attacked me.

When Marty Rathbun, Mike Rinder, Amy Scobee and Tom Devocht first spoke out to the SP Times and were attacked by DM and Scientology saying that DM never attacked anyone, I knew that I had to back them up and come out with my own story. Enough was enough.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1023717.ece

Please see the following story from the SP Times about what happened to me and my other friends in Las Vegas after we thought we had left the Sea Org:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/article1048123.ece

Over the years since leaving Scientology, I have had my ups and downs and I am not a perfect person by any means. But I do have a good heart and still like to help people. I hope that my speaking out helps others who are on the fence to do something and get the abuses at the hands of DM stopped once and for all.

Mark Fisher

Late 1980s in the Sea Org with my ex-wife Julie.

With John Travolta in 1986 during the Road to Freedom Album recording.

Wedding day October 1984 at the Star of California Ship/Pool at the Int Base

Wedding Party Oct 1984. The guys left to right are Jason Bennick, Andre Taboyoyan, Jesse Prince, John McGinley, HH Peterson and Gary Conley. The little girl is Roanne Hubbard, LRH's grand daughter. The girls left to right are my ex wife Julie, Lisa Schroer, Carol Bourke, Jenny Johnston, Fleur Thomas, Jackie Wolff and Michelle Yager. Out completely - Andre, Jesse, John and Jackie. Out of the SO but still connected to Scn - Jason, Jenny. Still in - Gary, Lisa, Fleur, Michelle, Carol and Roanne. Not sure - HH.

Me today - Eiffel Tower Paris France

Me today - Las Vegas