Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath (2016–…): Season 2, Episode 3 - The Perfect Scientology Family - full transcript
She'd tried to commit suicide and she
had nowhere to go to get help.
What does it mean
to be a successful parent?
And what makes a family a family?
Why is it that some families
get along fine
and some just fall apart?
How do I know what's right?
How do I know what's wrong?
How do I find out for myself?
This a story about
the perfect Scientology family.
I can't even imagine my family
without Scientology.
I mean, my parents met
at a Church of Scientology.
My brother was accepted to MIT at 15,
and he was a poster child for
L. Ron Hubbard's study technology.
We had three generations
of healthy, smart, capable people
applying Scientology
to the best of their ability.
And at the end of the day,
it destroyed us.
I am the writer
of the textbooks of Scientology.
The aim and goal is to put man
in a mental condition,
uh, where he him…
can solve his own problems.
Without any Scientology organization
things are not gonna change
on this planet.
After years of slowly
questioning Scientology…
Leah Remini and her very
public break with Scientology…
Stop lying to people
that they hold their eternity
in their hands.
Stop telling parents
that it doesn't matter
what you do this lifetime
other than Scientology.
If your religion is so amazing
and doing all these
amazing things for the world,
then it should stand up
to some questioning.
I would repeat this line,
"I want to die. I want to die".
That was my first idea of…
I want to end my own life.
You gave me up
at 13 years old.
How could you think
that this was okay for me?
These people are doing extreme things,
and they need to be held accountable.
For us to do more of this,
we wanted to do something
that could help these people.
We need to do more
than simply document stuff.
You got this.
People will continue to speak.
People will continue to fight.
What would you be thinking
if you were in the church
in this moment, and you were like…
and you heard, oh, Leah Remini
is interviewing Liz Gale.
There'd be a lot
of sleepless nights happening.
But why? Why would you be
worried about Liz Gale's story?
When you go beyond
the disconnection stories
and start getting into things
where people have died,
this is stuff that brings
to the attention of the world
that this is not just a crackpot cult
that sits around chanting
or does, you know,
weird stuff that nobody
needs to worry about
and it's not really hurting anybody.
This gets into the real harm
of what happens from your
involvement with Scientology.
It's beautiful.
I don't know which door to knock.
Is it a bet of which door's gonna open?
How are you?
- Hi, welcome.
- Hi, honey.
- Welcome.
- Thank you for having us.
I'm Elizabeth Gale, and I was
born into Scientology,
and I left the church in 2007.
Because I have publicly
denounced Scientology,
I'm rejecting my family's legacy,
is what I was told.
This was your family's property, right?
Yes, it is. We have 1,300 acres here.
So I don't know if you can see it,
but there's a little grassy
section right there.
My parents' house was right up there.
My grandparents built it.
There's, like, 40 acres
on the other side of that.
Then, like, that whole thing.
There's a creek.
We moved out here about seven
years ago with our first son.
- I can't stop looking at it.
- I know, it's really beautiful.
It's like a drug.
My family came across
on the Oregon Trail.
My great-great grandparents
homesteaded it.
- Oh, wow.
- And they worked really hard.
And then my grandparents
and my great-grandparents
bought additional parcels.
And my whole life, I was proud of it
and had been told that it's,
you know, our family heritage.
My great-great grandparents
were not Scientologists.
That was before Scientology existed.
And they came up here
from San Francisco,
following the gold rush.
For the Homestead Act,
you could get free land.
My great-grandparents
were not born Scientologists,
but my grandmother
did get her mother to do
some Scientology… Dianetics.
My grandmother was, like,
hardcore Dianeticist.
And my grandfather, too,
- was a Scientologist.
- Wow.
So my mother was raised from her birth…
- That way.
- That way.
Scientology claims…
like, on their websites…
they say, you know, we value
family and the family unit.
It promises and it sells the idea
that it has all the answers to life.
That it's scientific.
That it can be proven
and it has been proven
to solve all of mankind's issues.
All.
Scientology has just been everything.
Like, my parents met in Scientology.
My mom was on staff.
My dad was public at the LA Org.
And they went for it, full-on.
My brother and I both received
Child Dianetics
since two years old…
since before I could write.
What were you doing in Child Dianet…
like, what is Child Dianetics?
I mean, I have little memories of it.
But basically, just my mom auditing us.
There was a book
that was published by the church
called "Child Dianetics".
It was a compilation of materials
that Hubbard had given in lectures
or in other writings of his
where he talked about
how to treat children.
Child Dianetics then became loosely used
to describe the application of Dianetics
and Scientology principles to children.
My brother and I both…
we were kind of like poster children
for Scientology in some ways.
We had to make sacrifices at home.
We had a budget
because people in my family
wanted to do Scientology services.
My dad was our main provider
in our home,
so he worked a lot.
He had a software company
but I feel like he was present,
as much as a working father can be.
My mom would be an expert
in Scientology.
An expert in policy.
She was a professional
public Scientologist.
My mother would be gone on services
for long periods of time.
It was just, "This comes first."
"I have to go do this
and it's gonna make me better
"and our family better and it's just
the thing I have to do right now".
And then, on top of all of that,
she was a CCHR spokeswoman.
CCHR is the Citizens
Commission on Human Rights.
It is the arm of Scientology
designed to attack psychiatry.
It's a full-time, all-out,
no-holds-barred assault on Psychiatry.
We were kind of
a perfect Scientology family
in the beginning, with all the promise,
you know, and potential.
So you and your brother grew up
totally, fully indoctrinated
into Scientology.
Were you aware of
any issues that your family was having
growing up in Scientology that
Scientology was dealing with?
My mom told me that my brother
had broken his arm
when he was four years old.
There was a birthday party,
and he didn't want to get on the horse.
There was, like, a pony ride,
horse thing.
He didn't want to get on it,
and my mom said,
"Get on the horse," and he said,
"If I get on that horse,
I'm gonna break my arm".
She said, "Get on the horse".
And then he fell off
and broke his arm.
He went into surgery.
They had to reset it.
When she got him back, he was different.
He started throwing tantrums,
which he'd never done before.
He became moody.
He, I think, was just
behaving differently.
- At four?
- At four.
And I have two children.
When I hear that, I hear, wow,
your kid just broke their arm,
they're cranky, they just,
you know, went into surgery.
This is age-appropriate behavior.
The kicker is that she told me
that it was her
that was re-stimulating him,
that she realized
that he had gotten an engram…
an unconscious recording
through that time of pain.
LRH does say that a child acting up…
- Yes.
- Is only acting up because
- its re-stimulative mother.
- Yes!
And it already sets up
the mother as the enemy.
Scientologists believe,
and it's in "Dianetics,"
that when you're pregnant,
everything that might happen
to you is being recorded in
your child's subconscious mind.
As an unborn child,
you're very easily hurt.
You're not protected
by fully formed bones,
and there's no room to move.
And when you're experiencing pain,
everything being perceived
is recorded as an engram.
So the things said and done
around a pregnant woman
have a considerable effect
on an unborn child.
So the mother usually is the blame
when a child is acting out
because the mother
is what's considered
a re-stimulator to the child.
So if the child's acting out,
the mother was taught
that it was her fault
because you activate bad memories
for your child because
of the things that you did
when your child was in your womb.
So if they're children,
you know, they're children.
You know, they're acting up,
they're crying,
they're battling you at every turn,
like kids do.
The Scientologist parent would think,
I'm re-stimulating that child.
- You have to give up your bond.
- Oh, yes.
- Like, I hurt you.
- Yes.
Right? I was pregnant with you
and I bumped into the wall
- and I said, "Oh, shit".
- Yeah, yeah.
Now, every time I say, "Oh, shit,"
- which is a lot, your head hurts.
- Right.
Right, so go away from me, baby.
- Go be safe somewhere else.
- Yeah, so your mother,
- who's causing him to react…
- So the sound of her voice,
the smell of her person,
the things that,
typically, a four-year-old
who's having a hard time needs…
You know?
So she decided that it was her.
And to me, I'm imagining
a loving mother
who goes to her church for help.
And there's a certain kind
of support system
that says, you're okay, you've got this.
No mother's perfect.
Nobody expects you to be perfect.
And then there's the mindset
that pounces on that in a second
and says, well, there's this
Scientology boarding school starting up.
Maybe he should go there.
In Scientology, that separation
was set in stone.
So between the ages of four and eight,
your brother was acting like a child.
And your mother believed,
from her Scientology teachings,
that it was actually because of her.
Yeah, exactly.
But I know my mother loved us.
She just applied the technology.
What she knew. What she knew.
- Yeah.
- Right, what she was raised in.
She believed that she had
to give him the best chance
by giving him away from her
to the best next place,
which would be…
a Scientology school.
Delphi's an elite boarding school,
and you have to follow
a specific line of thinking
and a specific type of being
or you can't be there.
Scientologists send their kids
to a Scientology boarding school
at a very young age
to become the model
Scientology children.
Because there, they will get
the help of the LRH tech
and they will be
with like minded children
from other Scientology families
and won't have outside
influences on them.
So he goes to Delphi
boarding school until what age?
- Till he graduated, 14.
- Wow, until 14.
Yeah. He came home for breaks
and stuff like that,
- but he never lived with us.
- Yeah.
I also was sent
to boarding school at eight.
I mean, it's laid out in "Dianetics".
Eight years old is the time
to start clearing a child.
If you believe that
your child has engrams
or is re-stimulated, just keep him cool
until eight years old,
when you can get in there
and crack at their case.
At eight years old, you're, too,
- sent to have a school raise you.
- Yeah.
- A Scientology school.
- Yeah.
And how did you respond to that?
Once you send your child away…
That gap is created.
You are on your own now.
It was really overwhelming,
and I wasn't ready for it.
And so I probably called home crying…
every day.
When I look back later,
our childhoods were hard.
You just can't raise kids like that
and expect for them to be okay.
- Like, you just can't.
- Yeah.
My dad was on his way home
from a fishing trip,
and he had… like, a blood vessel
in his heart popped.
So he died instantly.
And there was no illness,
there was no nothing
leading up to it.
I was 12.
And I wasn't even
living with my parents.
So I hadn't seen him in a while.
My mom showed up,
and she just said, "Your dad died".
I talked to my mom about it.
You know, she's just like,
"I just don't understand
why you have to talk
about this kind of stuff".
I'm like, "What do you mean?"
So that I can heal and move on.
I mean, I don't want to talk about it
for the rest of my life.
But you have to get there.
To sit and cry and mourn
and feel the loss over someone
in Scientology
is not a normal thing to do.
- Like, it would be seen…
- Sympathy.
- And weak.
- Yeah, sympathetic.
And sympathetic is not a good thing.
Not a good thing.
We went to Flag… I remember this…
we went to Flag after my dad died.
And they did, like, a little
handling with me at that time.
I remember being told that dying on OTV
was a very unfortunate
side effect, but it happened.
Wait.
That's what a Sea Org member told me.
Who would sign up for OTV,
if a side effect is dropping dead?
Like, why didn't they tell us this
before he paid, whatever,
$40,000 to take this course?
If the whole point is
to become this powerful being
who's completely in charge of his body,
how could you just die?
That doesn't make sense.
So at 12, I started to not get it.
I just thought, this is what
took my parents away.
This is where all of our money has gone.
When my dad died, I was 12.
You know, it was really hard for me.
I stopped going to school.
I was unhappy. I cut class a bunch.
The staff ethics officer
at Delphi was just like,
"Do you want to be here?"
I was like,
"No, I don't want to be here".
She's like,
"Well then, you can go home".
I was like, "Thank you".
You know? It never occurred to
me that I could just go home.
So I went home,
but it's not a home anymore
if you don't have your dad,
and you don't have…
you know, my brother
had moved out by then.
And my mom said,
"What do you want to do?
What do you want to do for your life?"
Like, at that time
we lived in North Carolina
'cause of my dad's work…
like, what are we gonna do?
It was just my dad's work
that guided where we were,
what we were doing, you know?
And… Scientology.
So once you had
one of those factors gone,
it was just… suddenly it all
became about Scientology.
So we moved to LA,
and I took… I went
to CC Int every afternoon.
And I went and I did courses
in auditing.
When she left, it was one of those,
"Oh, I'll be back in just two weeks".
And it just went on and on.
And I felt very abandoned.
I felt…
angry.
She basically was saying,
"I'm done being a mom.
"There's something bigger,
something better
for me to be doing".
I don't know, you show me one kid
that wouldn't feel abandoned from that.
I did. I still do.
She just left. And…
Again!
- Right.
- Again, yeah.
And at that point, I had signed
my Sea Org contract too.
So…
that was looming at that time.
In the afternoons, I took
my courses at CC Int, right?
So I would walk down there,
and there's a 15-minute break
in between the afternoon sessions.
And that's your only break.
So during that break time
is when you get recruited
to join the Sea Org.
And it was just relentless.
Every day, every day.
And I just wanted to have
my 15 minute break.
So once you had signed your contract,
they couldn't recruit you anymore.
So I signed it, crying.
You know, here I am at 14 years old,
signing a billion-year contract.
And you just kind of
spin out of control.
- Then you feel even more alone.
- Right.
You know? And like…
I actually…
tried to commit suicide when I was 14.
I just felt really hopeless.
I felt like the path
that had been picked for me
was set in stone.
I just didn't want to
live that life anymore.
There's only so many things
you can do in Scientology
that are, like… will get you
out of where you are.
And attempting suicide
is one of them, you know?
So much pressure all the time.
And you're told that the outcome
is gonna be this…
you're gonna be happy.
You're gonna be happy.
You're gonna be perfect in a way.
And I just never felt that way.
I just never felt…
like, overall generally happy.
You know? And when I thought
about the Sea Org,
which was like… what was
so important to my mom
to throw me aside?
It just… this feeling of dread.
It was like a prison sentence
was coming up.
I just know I wanted
that life to be over.
And I wish someone had told me
that you don't have to kill yourself
to get out of that life.
You can just stand up and walk away.
And I didn't realize that.
I didn't realize that.
What did she do when you tried
to commit suicide at 14?
Well, she came back, and I…
I wasn't having it.
So after the attempt,
I spent some time in the hospital.
My mom was there the whole time.
She never left.
She wanted to make really sure
that I didn't get into
the hands of psychiatrists.
The horrible psychiatric
mental health system.
Which pisses me off now.
'Cause I could've used that.
It is hardly surprising
that a spokesperson
for the Citizens Commission
on Human Rights
would be so infused
with this hatred toward psychiatry.
I said, "What kind of church,
Mom, allows…"
a mother to leave their child
for months".
Like, what? She said,
"Actually, honey, it was the church
that made me go back".
That's what she said.
And I was like, Jesus Christ, Mom.
I like the version better
where you loved me,
and you wanted to come home
and be a mother.
Meaning, she didn't come back
because of you.
No, she didn't come back… I mean…
and she doesn't want me
to think poorly of her church.
- It wasn't her volition.
- Yes, right.
It was the church… to make
the church look good to you.
- Exactly, exactly.
- Ugh.
Which…
you know, is pretty shitty.
- It's a lot shitty.
- Yeah, yeah. It is.
It's always, protect the church.
And so yes, parents care
about their kids to an extent
if it doesn't affect Scientology
negatively.
But if that happens…
if they have to choose
between Scientology and their children,
nine out of ten times,
a good Scientologist
will choose their church,
will choose Scientology.
Let's stop calling it a church.
My brother was accepted to MIT at 15.
He… up till that point…
had been the youngest
graduate of Delphi.
And of course, they would say,
"This is how great you can be".
You know, "You can go to MIT at 15"
"if you're a third generation
Scientologist,
"'cause everything's perfect," you know?
So he was used as a…
as a marketing tool for Scientology.
Yeah. He went, actually,
to MIT for a short period
and decided that he would prefer
to go work
for Sky Dayton, Earthlink.
My brother was a kid
living in an adult's world.
He lived by himself.
He had a studio apartment in Hollywood.
And at his work, Sky Dayton…
who is the founder of Earthlink…
was a longtime Scientologist
and a Delphi graduate.
My brother had a girlfriend…
got a girlfriend there
who also worked at Earthlink,
who was a little bit older
and was not a Scientologist.
They were concerned because
his girlfriend had some qualms
about Scientology that she had
shared with him and vice versa.
They were talking to him
about his girlfriend
and trying to make sure
that he wasn't falling into
any anti-Scientology stuff.
So you're living on your own at 16
and having a lot of grown-ups
depend on you.
You know, there's pressure in that.
My brother was done with the bullshit,
and he just wanted to get out
of that environment.
And he chose to go back to MIT.
At MIT he joined a…
I don't know if it's a fraternity,
but it was, like, this cult-debunking
sort of organization.
So he felt that he was in a cult.
I… I think so.
It seems like he was
searching and fighting
this theology and this ideology
that he was raised with.
At that time, he started
playing the drums.
You know, he was really into music.
He seemed like he was
finding things that he liked
and he was experiencing them.
Even though you're separating
yourself out from Scientology,
you're still left
with a deep, deep sadness.
It's not an easy thing to do
to just walk away
from something you've known
your whole life.
I'm out, and I've been out
for four years,
but I still struggle.
Your brother did write,
I guess, his ex-girlfriend,
talking about… he never really
fully recovered
from the pain of losing your father.
- Yeah.
- And in this, he mentioned
something about, maybe I should have
asked for help outside of Scientology.
I don't know.
- What I read…
- Yeah. Right.
- Was pretty heartbreaking.
- Yeah.
I know that my brother Phil
went to the 15th floor
of the Green Building in Boston,
which is on the university campus.
And he wrote the mathematical
equation for his body weight
times the velocity times
the distance he would fall.
19-year-old Philip Gale
jumped off a building.
Plosky was inside watching TV
and heard a crash.
The windows of the building
were sealed,
so he actually had to throw a
chair out the window to break it
so that he could jump through.
The noise that we heard was
that chair hitting the ground.
Some of the people in my dorm
actually looked out the window
in time to see him fall.
For him to jump out of that window,
when everything seems like
it could've been avoided,
you know?
Like, you don't have to do
any of this anymore.
You don't have to do it.
But we aren't told that growing up.
We aren't told that there's
another way to live.
We are told…
that if you reject Scientology,
you will lose.
I look at my brother, and I think,
Who… who did you have?
What was there keeping you from
jumping off of that building?
You know?
And since I tried to commit suicide,
I feel guilty
that maybe I… I gave him the idea.
No, Liz, you don't think that, really.
You're a child.
It was so close afterwards.
- You're a child.
- I know, it's just…
And you were a victim yourself.
I tell you, I'd give a whole
lot of everything I had
to have him sitting at this table,
having this conversation with us today.
- What is this?
- A copy of his suicide note.
Yeah.
"Presumably I have jumped
from a tall building.
"Yes, it is odd.
"To tell you why
"would be to tell you my mind.
"I cannot do this.
"I am not crazy,
"albeit driven to suicide.
"It is not about
any single event or person.
"It is about stubborn sadness,
"and a detached view of the world.
"The saddest part is
the inevitable guilt and sorrow
"I will force upon
my family and my friends.
"And there is not much I can say.
"I'm sorry.
"Try to understand that this is about me
"and my fucked up ideas.
"It is not because I was raised poorly
"or not cared for enough.
"It just is.
"Please give my money to my family
"and my gizmos to people
who will use them.
"And no fucking suing.
I am scared of the fall".
"I am scared of the impact.
"But when it is through,
it will be through.
"Take care, world.
Philip Gale. And stay happy".
Even here, he's protecting his family.
Even here, he thinks
he has fucked up thinking.
And he was questioning things,
he was questioning his ideas,
and he was never able
to deal with the pain
of losing his dad.
He was never able
to deal with his depression.
He was never able to deal with that.
And so this says everything
that someone feels
when they question what
they were forced to believe.
That they are bad.
And that it was him who was fucked up.
Tonight, we honor L. Ron Hubbard.
It's the one name on Earth
synonymous with freedom
in every land,
"for this is " Ron's Birthday
Celebration 2010"!
LRH's birthday is a big deal.
You've landed at a birthday celebration
that captures every nuance
of those words,
epic, majestic, monumental
and magnificent.
If you grew up in Scientology…
even if you're a Scientologist
for a year…
you are expected to be
at this celebration.
Happy birthday, sir. To LRH.
- Hip-hip!
- Hooray!
- Hip-hip!
- Hooray!
You know, people are calling you,
other Scientologists all day, all night.
"Will you be at LRH's birthday?
Can I confirm you for
LRH's birthday event?"
And these big, elaborate celebrations
where L. Ron Hubbard
is celebrated as a deity.
I mean, it is like Christmas.
♪ Happy birthday to you, Ron ♪
♪ Happy birthday, our greatest friend ♪
It's a celebration for the birth
of the founder of Scientology.
It is a major event in Scientology.
I mean, life itself was born
through L. Ron Hubbard's birthday.
My brother killed himself
on March 13th.
To kill yourself on
L. Ron Hubbard's birthday is…
It's a big fuck you to L. Ron Hubbard.
After Phil died, my mother,
she went to Boston
to, like, get his stuff.
When she got there,
a reporter came to talk to her,
told her that
he'd interviewed my brother
for this series of articles
that came out
in the "Boston Herald".
He wasn't named in the interview.
But you have to understand
that even talking to a reporter
when you are a Scientologist
is a big deal.
And if it is a reporter
who has known to have
anti-Scientology history,
that's an even bigger deal.
The articles came out
in the very beginning of March.
Every day, an article was coming out,
written by this reporter,
who was anti-Scientology.
And my mom, she really believed
that his death was because of
this anti-Scientology stuff.
And so my mother went online,
and she posted something
to the critics that said
something along the lines of,
"I know that my son had contact
with you critics
"and I cannot help but think
that was a huge part
of why he decided to kill himself".
Scientologists are taught to believe
that it's the church first.
Their own family says,
"Just so everybody knows,
"this had nothing to do
with Scientology.
"'Cause Scientology's perfect.
And if they committed suicide,
that's on them".
The first time my mom and my stepdad
met my husband when I was pregnant,
they told us both… him in particular
that our child would be a Scientologist
whether we liked it or not.
My mom, she wanted my son…
my older son…
to come visit her in Florida for a week.
And while our relationship
wasn't going great,
she still wanted that.
You know, my son's turning eight.
You know, it's right at that time.
I could not risk allowing my children
to be subjected to Scientology.
It was just… it was too dangerous.
She would've tried
to take him from you.
Yeah, and I know others
who thought that it was okay
that their parents were Scientologists
and they just didn't have to, you know…
- Do it.
- They thought it was safe
to have that grandparent
relationship intact,
- but then they realize…
- Right. They realize that
by the time their kid is older,
they're already
a Scientologist at heart
because they believe
in the scientific facts
that L. Ron Hubbard laid out.
This land has been part
of my family for 110 years.
I've lived here for the past seven years
and moved out here under the impression
that it was gonna stay in our family.
But since I've rejected
Scientology, I had to choose.
I'd gotten every other aspect
of it out of my life.
'Cause I want it out of my life.
And unfortunately, there was no way
to still have my mom
and no way to still have this property…
if I'm not for Scientology.
I reached out to her and asked her,
you know, what about the boys?
Because they didn't do anything wrong.
And they love it here,
and they're good, strong boys
from this family.
And they could keep this property.
And they could grow up
and have children,
and it could be theirs.
It never even has to be mine.
She said I'd rejected the family legacy.
And that… that was that.
And the boys wouldn't get it.
I'm not gonna get it,
and the property is actually
going on the market shortly.
That makes me very sad to know
that something that's been
in your family for so long
is being sold.
You know, all of this destruction.
All of this destruction is Scientology.
In the end, this family lost it all.
The whole family has disintegrated
because of Scientology.
That's a fact.
And it doesn't just end
because the story ends.
It's gonna continue.
You have to fight for your friends.
You have to fight for your children.
I don't care what cult you're in.
I don't care what religious
theology you believe in.
But you need to protect your family.
You need to protect your children
and the people that you claim you love.
I knew I wouldn't inherit this anymore.
But I had to pick, and I picked my kids.
Because that's the kind of mom I am.
There's a 114-year chapter
of my family's life is over.
And that's sad, but at the same time,
that means that that Scientology chapter
is over too.
And it's hard to see how
they're all intertwined together,
but they are.
If Scientology worked,
then I wouldn't be here,
because we had three generations
of healthy,
smart, capable people
applying Scientology
to the best of their ability.
It ended up in death,
in suicide, in loss.
And one day, my kids are gonna
ask me about this ranch
that used to be in our family.
The one thing we do have is our freedom.
And so, to people
who are scared to leave,
get yourself in a position
where nobody has the ability
to put their thumb on you
or take away your livelihood.
Work hard at that.
And when you're ready, let us all know,
'cause we're here.
So I say, get your ducks in a row,
rip the Band-Aid off,
and welcome to the free world.
I have never met a more competent,
a more intelligent, a more tolerant,
a more compassionate being.
- What did you witness?
- I saw David Miscavige
physically beat people.
David Miscavige was a new level of evil
in the Church of Scientology.
And I was an executioner
of his evil directives.
The security system was
by design to keep people out.
Eventually it became to keep them in.
How did you justify this brutality?
The reality is that there's
David Miscavige
masquerading under a religion
and getting away with it.
And this is our leader?
What the hell's going on around here?
had nowhere to go to get help.
What does it mean
to be a successful parent?
And what makes a family a family?
Why is it that some families
get along fine
and some just fall apart?
How do I know what's right?
How do I know what's wrong?
How do I find out for myself?
This a story about
the perfect Scientology family.
I can't even imagine my family
without Scientology.
I mean, my parents met
at a Church of Scientology.
My brother was accepted to MIT at 15,
and he was a poster child for
L. Ron Hubbard's study technology.
We had three generations
of healthy, smart, capable people
applying Scientology
to the best of their ability.
And at the end of the day,
it destroyed us.
I am the writer
of the textbooks of Scientology.
The aim and goal is to put man
in a mental condition,
uh, where he him…
can solve his own problems.
Without any Scientology organization
things are not gonna change
on this planet.
After years of slowly
questioning Scientology…
Leah Remini and her very
public break with Scientology…
Stop lying to people
that they hold their eternity
in their hands.
Stop telling parents
that it doesn't matter
what you do this lifetime
other than Scientology.
If your religion is so amazing
and doing all these
amazing things for the world,
then it should stand up
to some questioning.
I would repeat this line,
"I want to die. I want to die".
That was my first idea of…
I want to end my own life.
You gave me up
at 13 years old.
How could you think
that this was okay for me?
These people are doing extreme things,
and they need to be held accountable.
For us to do more of this,
we wanted to do something
that could help these people.
We need to do more
than simply document stuff.
You got this.
People will continue to speak.
People will continue to fight.
What would you be thinking
if you were in the church
in this moment, and you were like…
and you heard, oh, Leah Remini
is interviewing Liz Gale.
There'd be a lot
of sleepless nights happening.
But why? Why would you be
worried about Liz Gale's story?
When you go beyond
the disconnection stories
and start getting into things
where people have died,
this is stuff that brings
to the attention of the world
that this is not just a crackpot cult
that sits around chanting
or does, you know,
weird stuff that nobody
needs to worry about
and it's not really hurting anybody.
This gets into the real harm
of what happens from your
involvement with Scientology.
It's beautiful.
I don't know which door to knock.
Is it a bet of which door's gonna open?
How are you?
- Hi, welcome.
- Hi, honey.
- Welcome.
- Thank you for having us.
I'm Elizabeth Gale, and I was
born into Scientology,
and I left the church in 2007.
Because I have publicly
denounced Scientology,
I'm rejecting my family's legacy,
is what I was told.
This was your family's property, right?
Yes, it is. We have 1,300 acres here.
So I don't know if you can see it,
but there's a little grassy
section right there.
My parents' house was right up there.
My grandparents built it.
There's, like, 40 acres
on the other side of that.
Then, like, that whole thing.
There's a creek.
We moved out here about seven
years ago with our first son.
- I can't stop looking at it.
- I know, it's really beautiful.
It's like a drug.
My family came across
on the Oregon Trail.
My great-great grandparents
homesteaded it.
- Oh, wow.
- And they worked really hard.
And then my grandparents
and my great-grandparents
bought additional parcels.
And my whole life, I was proud of it
and had been told that it's,
you know, our family heritage.
My great-great grandparents
were not Scientologists.
That was before Scientology existed.
And they came up here
from San Francisco,
following the gold rush.
For the Homestead Act,
you could get free land.
My great-grandparents
were not born Scientologists,
but my grandmother
did get her mother to do
some Scientology… Dianetics.
My grandmother was, like,
hardcore Dianeticist.
And my grandfather, too,
- was a Scientologist.
- Wow.
So my mother was raised from her birth…
- That way.
- That way.
Scientology claims…
like, on their websites…
they say, you know, we value
family and the family unit.
It promises and it sells the idea
that it has all the answers to life.
That it's scientific.
That it can be proven
and it has been proven
to solve all of mankind's issues.
All.
Scientology has just been everything.
Like, my parents met in Scientology.
My mom was on staff.
My dad was public at the LA Org.
And they went for it, full-on.
My brother and I both received
Child Dianetics
since two years old…
since before I could write.
What were you doing in Child Dianet…
like, what is Child Dianetics?
I mean, I have little memories of it.
But basically, just my mom auditing us.
There was a book
that was published by the church
called "Child Dianetics".
It was a compilation of materials
that Hubbard had given in lectures
or in other writings of his
where he talked about
how to treat children.
Child Dianetics then became loosely used
to describe the application of Dianetics
and Scientology principles to children.
My brother and I both…
we were kind of like poster children
for Scientology in some ways.
We had to make sacrifices at home.
We had a budget
because people in my family
wanted to do Scientology services.
My dad was our main provider
in our home,
so he worked a lot.
He had a software company
but I feel like he was present,
as much as a working father can be.
My mom would be an expert
in Scientology.
An expert in policy.
She was a professional
public Scientologist.
My mother would be gone on services
for long periods of time.
It was just, "This comes first."
"I have to go do this
and it's gonna make me better
"and our family better and it's just
the thing I have to do right now".
And then, on top of all of that,
she was a CCHR spokeswoman.
CCHR is the Citizens
Commission on Human Rights.
It is the arm of Scientology
designed to attack psychiatry.
It's a full-time, all-out,
no-holds-barred assault on Psychiatry.
We were kind of
a perfect Scientology family
in the beginning, with all the promise,
you know, and potential.
So you and your brother grew up
totally, fully indoctrinated
into Scientology.
Were you aware of
any issues that your family was having
growing up in Scientology that
Scientology was dealing with?
My mom told me that my brother
had broken his arm
when he was four years old.
There was a birthday party,
and he didn't want to get on the horse.
There was, like, a pony ride,
horse thing.
He didn't want to get on it,
and my mom said,
"Get on the horse," and he said,
"If I get on that horse,
I'm gonna break my arm".
She said, "Get on the horse".
And then he fell off
and broke his arm.
He went into surgery.
They had to reset it.
When she got him back, he was different.
He started throwing tantrums,
which he'd never done before.
He became moody.
He, I think, was just
behaving differently.
- At four?
- At four.
And I have two children.
When I hear that, I hear, wow,
your kid just broke their arm,
they're cranky, they just,
you know, went into surgery.
This is age-appropriate behavior.
The kicker is that she told me
that it was her
that was re-stimulating him,
that she realized
that he had gotten an engram…
an unconscious recording
through that time of pain.
LRH does say that a child acting up…
- Yes.
- Is only acting up because
- its re-stimulative mother.
- Yes!
And it already sets up
the mother as the enemy.
Scientologists believe,
and it's in "Dianetics,"
that when you're pregnant,
everything that might happen
to you is being recorded in
your child's subconscious mind.
As an unborn child,
you're very easily hurt.
You're not protected
by fully formed bones,
and there's no room to move.
And when you're experiencing pain,
everything being perceived
is recorded as an engram.
So the things said and done
around a pregnant woman
have a considerable effect
on an unborn child.
So the mother usually is the blame
when a child is acting out
because the mother
is what's considered
a re-stimulator to the child.
So if the child's acting out,
the mother was taught
that it was her fault
because you activate bad memories
for your child because
of the things that you did
when your child was in your womb.
So if they're children,
you know, they're children.
You know, they're acting up,
they're crying,
they're battling you at every turn,
like kids do.
The Scientologist parent would think,
I'm re-stimulating that child.
- You have to give up your bond.
- Oh, yes.
- Like, I hurt you.
- Yes.
Right? I was pregnant with you
and I bumped into the wall
- and I said, "Oh, shit".
- Yeah, yeah.
Now, every time I say, "Oh, shit,"
- which is a lot, your head hurts.
- Right.
Right, so go away from me, baby.
- Go be safe somewhere else.
- Yeah, so your mother,
- who's causing him to react…
- So the sound of her voice,
the smell of her person,
the things that,
typically, a four-year-old
who's having a hard time needs…
You know?
So she decided that it was her.
And to me, I'm imagining
a loving mother
who goes to her church for help.
And there's a certain kind
of support system
that says, you're okay, you've got this.
No mother's perfect.
Nobody expects you to be perfect.
And then there's the mindset
that pounces on that in a second
and says, well, there's this
Scientology boarding school starting up.
Maybe he should go there.
In Scientology, that separation
was set in stone.
So between the ages of four and eight,
your brother was acting like a child.
And your mother believed,
from her Scientology teachings,
that it was actually because of her.
Yeah, exactly.
But I know my mother loved us.
She just applied the technology.
What she knew. What she knew.
- Yeah.
- Right, what she was raised in.
She believed that she had
to give him the best chance
by giving him away from her
to the best next place,
which would be…
a Scientology school.
Delphi's an elite boarding school,
and you have to follow
a specific line of thinking
and a specific type of being
or you can't be there.
Scientologists send their kids
to a Scientology boarding school
at a very young age
to become the model
Scientology children.
Because there, they will get
the help of the LRH tech
and they will be
with like minded children
from other Scientology families
and won't have outside
influences on them.
So he goes to Delphi
boarding school until what age?
- Till he graduated, 14.
- Wow, until 14.
Yeah. He came home for breaks
and stuff like that,
- but he never lived with us.
- Yeah.
I also was sent
to boarding school at eight.
I mean, it's laid out in "Dianetics".
Eight years old is the time
to start clearing a child.
If you believe that
your child has engrams
or is re-stimulated, just keep him cool
until eight years old,
when you can get in there
and crack at their case.
At eight years old, you're, too,
- sent to have a school raise you.
- Yeah.
- A Scientology school.
- Yeah.
And how did you respond to that?
Once you send your child away…
That gap is created.
You are on your own now.
It was really overwhelming,
and I wasn't ready for it.
And so I probably called home crying…
every day.
When I look back later,
our childhoods were hard.
You just can't raise kids like that
and expect for them to be okay.
- Like, you just can't.
- Yeah.
My dad was on his way home
from a fishing trip,
and he had… like, a blood vessel
in his heart popped.
So he died instantly.
And there was no illness,
there was no nothing
leading up to it.
I was 12.
And I wasn't even
living with my parents.
So I hadn't seen him in a while.
My mom showed up,
and she just said, "Your dad died".
I talked to my mom about it.
You know, she's just like,
"I just don't understand
why you have to talk
about this kind of stuff".
I'm like, "What do you mean?"
So that I can heal and move on.
I mean, I don't want to talk about it
for the rest of my life.
But you have to get there.
To sit and cry and mourn
and feel the loss over someone
in Scientology
is not a normal thing to do.
- Like, it would be seen…
- Sympathy.
- And weak.
- Yeah, sympathetic.
And sympathetic is not a good thing.
Not a good thing.
We went to Flag… I remember this…
we went to Flag after my dad died.
And they did, like, a little
handling with me at that time.
I remember being told that dying on OTV
was a very unfortunate
side effect, but it happened.
Wait.
That's what a Sea Org member told me.
Who would sign up for OTV,
if a side effect is dropping dead?
Like, why didn't they tell us this
before he paid, whatever,
$40,000 to take this course?
If the whole point is
to become this powerful being
who's completely in charge of his body,
how could you just die?
That doesn't make sense.
So at 12, I started to not get it.
I just thought, this is what
took my parents away.
This is where all of our money has gone.
When my dad died, I was 12.
You know, it was really hard for me.
I stopped going to school.
I was unhappy. I cut class a bunch.
The staff ethics officer
at Delphi was just like,
"Do you want to be here?"
I was like,
"No, I don't want to be here".
She's like,
"Well then, you can go home".
I was like, "Thank you".
You know? It never occurred to
me that I could just go home.
So I went home,
but it's not a home anymore
if you don't have your dad,
and you don't have…
you know, my brother
had moved out by then.
And my mom said,
"What do you want to do?
What do you want to do for your life?"
Like, at that time
we lived in North Carolina
'cause of my dad's work…
like, what are we gonna do?
It was just my dad's work
that guided where we were,
what we were doing, you know?
And… Scientology.
So once you had
one of those factors gone,
it was just… suddenly it all
became about Scientology.
So we moved to LA,
and I took… I went
to CC Int every afternoon.
And I went and I did courses
in auditing.
When she left, it was one of those,
"Oh, I'll be back in just two weeks".
And it just went on and on.
And I felt very abandoned.
I felt…
angry.
She basically was saying,
"I'm done being a mom.
"There's something bigger,
something better
for me to be doing".
I don't know, you show me one kid
that wouldn't feel abandoned from that.
I did. I still do.
She just left. And…
Again!
- Right.
- Again, yeah.
And at that point, I had signed
my Sea Org contract too.
So…
that was looming at that time.
In the afternoons, I took
my courses at CC Int, right?
So I would walk down there,
and there's a 15-minute break
in between the afternoon sessions.
And that's your only break.
So during that break time
is when you get recruited
to join the Sea Org.
And it was just relentless.
Every day, every day.
And I just wanted to have
my 15 minute break.
So once you had signed your contract,
they couldn't recruit you anymore.
So I signed it, crying.
You know, here I am at 14 years old,
signing a billion-year contract.
And you just kind of
spin out of control.
- Then you feel even more alone.
- Right.
You know? And like…
I actually…
tried to commit suicide when I was 14.
I just felt really hopeless.
I felt like the path
that had been picked for me
was set in stone.
I just didn't want to
live that life anymore.
There's only so many things
you can do in Scientology
that are, like… will get you
out of where you are.
And attempting suicide
is one of them, you know?
So much pressure all the time.
And you're told that the outcome
is gonna be this…
you're gonna be happy.
You're gonna be happy.
You're gonna be perfect in a way.
And I just never felt that way.
I just never felt…
like, overall generally happy.
You know? And when I thought
about the Sea Org,
which was like… what was
so important to my mom
to throw me aside?
It just… this feeling of dread.
It was like a prison sentence
was coming up.
I just know I wanted
that life to be over.
And I wish someone had told me
that you don't have to kill yourself
to get out of that life.
You can just stand up and walk away.
And I didn't realize that.
I didn't realize that.
What did she do when you tried
to commit suicide at 14?
Well, she came back, and I…
I wasn't having it.
So after the attempt,
I spent some time in the hospital.
My mom was there the whole time.
She never left.
She wanted to make really sure
that I didn't get into
the hands of psychiatrists.
The horrible psychiatric
mental health system.
Which pisses me off now.
'Cause I could've used that.
It is hardly surprising
that a spokesperson
for the Citizens Commission
on Human Rights
would be so infused
with this hatred toward psychiatry.
I said, "What kind of church,
Mom, allows…"
a mother to leave their child
for months".
Like, what? She said,
"Actually, honey, it was the church
that made me go back".
That's what she said.
And I was like, Jesus Christ, Mom.
I like the version better
where you loved me,
and you wanted to come home
and be a mother.
Meaning, she didn't come back
because of you.
No, she didn't come back… I mean…
and she doesn't want me
to think poorly of her church.
- It wasn't her volition.
- Yes, right.
It was the church… to make
the church look good to you.
- Exactly, exactly.
- Ugh.
Which…
you know, is pretty shitty.
- It's a lot shitty.
- Yeah, yeah. It is.
It's always, protect the church.
And so yes, parents care
about their kids to an extent
if it doesn't affect Scientology
negatively.
But if that happens…
if they have to choose
between Scientology and their children,
nine out of ten times,
a good Scientologist
will choose their church,
will choose Scientology.
Let's stop calling it a church.
My brother was accepted to MIT at 15.
He… up till that point…
had been the youngest
graduate of Delphi.
And of course, they would say,
"This is how great you can be".
You know, "You can go to MIT at 15"
"if you're a third generation
Scientologist,
"'cause everything's perfect," you know?
So he was used as a…
as a marketing tool for Scientology.
Yeah. He went, actually,
to MIT for a short period
and decided that he would prefer
to go work
for Sky Dayton, Earthlink.
My brother was a kid
living in an adult's world.
He lived by himself.
He had a studio apartment in Hollywood.
And at his work, Sky Dayton…
who is the founder of Earthlink…
was a longtime Scientologist
and a Delphi graduate.
My brother had a girlfriend…
got a girlfriend there
who also worked at Earthlink,
who was a little bit older
and was not a Scientologist.
They were concerned because
his girlfriend had some qualms
about Scientology that she had
shared with him and vice versa.
They were talking to him
about his girlfriend
and trying to make sure
that he wasn't falling into
any anti-Scientology stuff.
So you're living on your own at 16
and having a lot of grown-ups
depend on you.
You know, there's pressure in that.
My brother was done with the bullshit,
and he just wanted to get out
of that environment.
And he chose to go back to MIT.
At MIT he joined a…
I don't know if it's a fraternity,
but it was, like, this cult-debunking
sort of organization.
So he felt that he was in a cult.
I… I think so.
It seems like he was
searching and fighting
this theology and this ideology
that he was raised with.
At that time, he started
playing the drums.
You know, he was really into music.
He seemed like he was
finding things that he liked
and he was experiencing them.
Even though you're separating
yourself out from Scientology,
you're still left
with a deep, deep sadness.
It's not an easy thing to do
to just walk away
from something you've known
your whole life.
I'm out, and I've been out
for four years,
but I still struggle.
Your brother did write,
I guess, his ex-girlfriend,
talking about… he never really
fully recovered
from the pain of losing your father.
- Yeah.
- And in this, he mentioned
something about, maybe I should have
asked for help outside of Scientology.
I don't know.
- What I read…
- Yeah. Right.
- Was pretty heartbreaking.
- Yeah.
I know that my brother Phil
went to the 15th floor
of the Green Building in Boston,
which is on the university campus.
And he wrote the mathematical
equation for his body weight
times the velocity times
the distance he would fall.
19-year-old Philip Gale
jumped off a building.
Plosky was inside watching TV
and heard a crash.
The windows of the building
were sealed,
so he actually had to throw a
chair out the window to break it
so that he could jump through.
The noise that we heard was
that chair hitting the ground.
Some of the people in my dorm
actually looked out the window
in time to see him fall.
For him to jump out of that window,
when everything seems like
it could've been avoided,
you know?
Like, you don't have to do
any of this anymore.
You don't have to do it.
But we aren't told that growing up.
We aren't told that there's
another way to live.
We are told…
that if you reject Scientology,
you will lose.
I look at my brother, and I think,
Who… who did you have?
What was there keeping you from
jumping off of that building?
You know?
And since I tried to commit suicide,
I feel guilty
that maybe I… I gave him the idea.
No, Liz, you don't think that, really.
You're a child.
It was so close afterwards.
- You're a child.
- I know, it's just…
And you were a victim yourself.
I tell you, I'd give a whole
lot of everything I had
to have him sitting at this table,
having this conversation with us today.
- What is this?
- A copy of his suicide note.
Yeah.
"Presumably I have jumped
from a tall building.
"Yes, it is odd.
"To tell you why
"would be to tell you my mind.
"I cannot do this.
"I am not crazy,
"albeit driven to suicide.
"It is not about
any single event or person.
"It is about stubborn sadness,
"and a detached view of the world.
"The saddest part is
the inevitable guilt and sorrow
"I will force upon
my family and my friends.
"And there is not much I can say.
"I'm sorry.
"Try to understand that this is about me
"and my fucked up ideas.
"It is not because I was raised poorly
"or not cared for enough.
"It just is.
"Please give my money to my family
"and my gizmos to people
who will use them.
"And no fucking suing.
I am scared of the fall".
"I am scared of the impact.
"But when it is through,
it will be through.
"Take care, world.
Philip Gale. And stay happy".
Even here, he's protecting his family.
Even here, he thinks
he has fucked up thinking.
And he was questioning things,
he was questioning his ideas,
and he was never able
to deal with the pain
of losing his dad.
He was never able
to deal with his depression.
He was never able to deal with that.
And so this says everything
that someone feels
when they question what
they were forced to believe.
That they are bad.
And that it was him who was fucked up.
Tonight, we honor L. Ron Hubbard.
It's the one name on Earth
synonymous with freedom
in every land,
"for this is " Ron's Birthday
Celebration 2010"!
LRH's birthday is a big deal.
You've landed at a birthday celebration
that captures every nuance
of those words,
epic, majestic, monumental
and magnificent.
If you grew up in Scientology…
even if you're a Scientologist
for a year…
you are expected to be
at this celebration.
Happy birthday, sir. To LRH.
- Hip-hip!
- Hooray!
- Hip-hip!
- Hooray!
You know, people are calling you,
other Scientologists all day, all night.
"Will you be at LRH's birthday?
Can I confirm you for
LRH's birthday event?"
And these big, elaborate celebrations
where L. Ron Hubbard
is celebrated as a deity.
I mean, it is like Christmas.
♪ Happy birthday to you, Ron ♪
♪ Happy birthday, our greatest friend ♪
It's a celebration for the birth
of the founder of Scientology.
It is a major event in Scientology.
I mean, life itself was born
through L. Ron Hubbard's birthday.
My brother killed himself
on March 13th.
To kill yourself on
L. Ron Hubbard's birthday is…
It's a big fuck you to L. Ron Hubbard.
After Phil died, my mother,
she went to Boston
to, like, get his stuff.
When she got there,
a reporter came to talk to her,
told her that
he'd interviewed my brother
for this series of articles
that came out
in the "Boston Herald".
He wasn't named in the interview.
But you have to understand
that even talking to a reporter
when you are a Scientologist
is a big deal.
And if it is a reporter
who has known to have
anti-Scientology history,
that's an even bigger deal.
The articles came out
in the very beginning of March.
Every day, an article was coming out,
written by this reporter,
who was anti-Scientology.
And my mom, she really believed
that his death was because of
this anti-Scientology stuff.
And so my mother went online,
and she posted something
to the critics that said
something along the lines of,
"I know that my son had contact
with you critics
"and I cannot help but think
that was a huge part
of why he decided to kill himself".
Scientologists are taught to believe
that it's the church first.
Their own family says,
"Just so everybody knows,
"this had nothing to do
with Scientology.
"'Cause Scientology's perfect.
And if they committed suicide,
that's on them".
The first time my mom and my stepdad
met my husband when I was pregnant,
they told us both… him in particular
that our child would be a Scientologist
whether we liked it or not.
My mom, she wanted my son…
my older son…
to come visit her in Florida for a week.
And while our relationship
wasn't going great,
she still wanted that.
You know, my son's turning eight.
You know, it's right at that time.
I could not risk allowing my children
to be subjected to Scientology.
It was just… it was too dangerous.
She would've tried
to take him from you.
Yeah, and I know others
who thought that it was okay
that their parents were Scientologists
and they just didn't have to, you know…
- Do it.
- They thought it was safe
to have that grandparent
relationship intact,
- but then they realize…
- Right. They realize that
by the time their kid is older,
they're already
a Scientologist at heart
because they believe
in the scientific facts
that L. Ron Hubbard laid out.
This land has been part
of my family for 110 years.
I've lived here for the past seven years
and moved out here under the impression
that it was gonna stay in our family.
But since I've rejected
Scientology, I had to choose.
I'd gotten every other aspect
of it out of my life.
'Cause I want it out of my life.
And unfortunately, there was no way
to still have my mom
and no way to still have this property…
if I'm not for Scientology.
I reached out to her and asked her,
you know, what about the boys?
Because they didn't do anything wrong.
And they love it here,
and they're good, strong boys
from this family.
And they could keep this property.
And they could grow up
and have children,
and it could be theirs.
It never even has to be mine.
She said I'd rejected the family legacy.
And that… that was that.
And the boys wouldn't get it.
I'm not gonna get it,
and the property is actually
going on the market shortly.
That makes me very sad to know
that something that's been
in your family for so long
is being sold.
You know, all of this destruction.
All of this destruction is Scientology.
In the end, this family lost it all.
The whole family has disintegrated
because of Scientology.
That's a fact.
And it doesn't just end
because the story ends.
It's gonna continue.
You have to fight for your friends.
You have to fight for your children.
I don't care what cult you're in.
I don't care what religious
theology you believe in.
But you need to protect your family.
You need to protect your children
and the people that you claim you love.
I knew I wouldn't inherit this anymore.
But I had to pick, and I picked my kids.
Because that's the kind of mom I am.
There's a 114-year chapter
of my family's life is over.
And that's sad, but at the same time,
that means that that Scientology chapter
is over too.
And it's hard to see how
they're all intertwined together,
but they are.
If Scientology worked,
then I wouldn't be here,
because we had three generations
of healthy,
smart, capable people
applying Scientology
to the best of their ability.
It ended up in death,
in suicide, in loss.
And one day, my kids are gonna
ask me about this ranch
that used to be in our family.
The one thing we do have is our freedom.
And so, to people
who are scared to leave,
get yourself in a position
where nobody has the ability
to put their thumb on you
or take away your livelihood.
Work hard at that.
And when you're ready, let us all know,
'cause we're here.
So I say, get your ducks in a row,
rip the Band-Aid off,
and welcome to the free world.
I have never met a more competent,
a more intelligent, a more tolerant,
a more compassionate being.
- What did you witness?
- I saw David Miscavige
physically beat people.
David Miscavige was a new level of evil
in the Church of Scientology.
And I was an executioner
of his evil directives.
The security system was
by design to keep people out.
Eventually it became to keep them in.
How did you justify this brutality?
The reality is that there's
David Miscavige
masquerading under a religion
and getting away with it.
And this is our leader?
What the hell's going on around here?