:===Begin Quote=== [Hate Groups : Scientology] Mutiny at Dutch Scientology organization Item 4828 • Posted: Sat, Oct. 25 2003 • Weblogged by Religion News Blog ReligionNewsBlog.com Permalink to this article (Click link to copy to clipboard) http://www.religionnewsblog.com/4828-Mutiny_at_Dutch_Scientology_organization.html

Het Parool (Netherlands), Oct. 25, 2003 http://www.parool.nl By SLADJANA LABOVIC en BART MIDDELBURG

[Note:Rough, incomplete translation.]

According to Dutch newspaper Het Parool, the head quarters of the Church of Scientology Netherlands is being confronted with a mass exodus. Internal documents show the leadership speaking of 'mutiny' [which the cult lists as one of twenty-two High Crimes seen as Attacks on Scientology and Scientologists]. Top Scientologists from abroad have been flown in to deal with the crisis.

There are at least two groups of deserters. Over time, the so-called Independents - Scientologists who have discovered that life outside the 'church' is much better, nicer, and cheaper - have separated themselves from the Trade Marks (Scientologists who believe that the Church of Scientology has a monopoly on L. Ron Hubbard's legacy).

Another group of believers consists of Scientologists who have been turned their backs on the organization as the result of a fraud scandal, in which Scientologists have - via Dutch and foreign companies - defrauded fellow-believers and non-Scientologists. According to fraud victims, much of the money eventually ended up in Scientology's bank accounts.

Both groups are actively organizing themselves outside the sect's sphere of influence. A lawyer for the fraud victims is preparing a lawsuit. The Independents have organized themselves in a new, much more liberal movement. Their website is called, Ronsorg.nl, which stands for "Ron's Organization and Network for Standard Tech."

These developments are the results of a 'slow, steady awakening,' says Caspar de Rijk, who in the early seventies was one of the founders and also director of Scientology Nederland. "Scientology is a real sect: you believe, you worship Hubbard, you are never allowed to do anything the church forbids, and you are allowed to pay until you're blue in the face. But at a certain moment people discover that things can also be done in a different fashion. At present, more and more people are discovering this."

The big problem has always been, according to De Rijk, that Scientology "manipulates the communication among its members," enforced by such things as the notorious internal system of sanctions, so-called 'ethics.' "You are no longer allowed to talk with your family, you are not allowed to talk with those who are critical of Scientology, you are not allowed anything. Therefore you never discovered that you could also be a Scientologist outside of Scientology. Internet, New Age in general and other factors have changed all that. What Hubbard once started is thus brought back to normal proportions."

In Amsterdam, Scientology depends especially on its downtown recruitment practices. People on the street are asked whether they'd like to get a free 'personality test.' Those who say yes have to visit the Org (Scientology location), where they must complete a lengthy list of questions, and are attached to an E-meter. Invariably, the result is that the person in question is told he or she must have obtain therapy - from Scientology.

A number of Scientologists also run 'management firms' that offer these tests to companies. "It's all about money, and nothing else," says former director De Rijk.

A recent meeting organized for apostate Scientologists drew 50 people. "They all had something like: look, outside of Scientology we can do exactly the same thing, but than without the indoctrination and intimidation. What followed was a kind of explosion amongst Scientology-members: fantastic to know that we can do this! And that is what's happening now."

De Rijk himself says he started to doubt several years ago, after he was held hostage by Scientology strongmen in Copenhagen, Denmark (where Scientology has a large department). "I was with the Sea Org, an elite department set up like the military. If you disagree with anything, utter criticism or are angry, you are questioned and put on the E-meter, with which they test whether your intention are good or bad. I did not have bad intention, so I refused."

According to Scientology's 'ethics' that is a major crime: followers are expected not to think for themselves or to have their own opinion. Therefore De Rijk was handed over to RPF, the Rehabilitation Project Force, an internal Scientology re-education camp.

"I refused that as well," says De Rijk. "This caused some panic, because apparently that had never before happened. So they kept me in a room for an afternoon with a pair of bodyguards. Of course they considered me to be dangerous because I was a high-level OT. I was then thrown out of the organization and started to think: what am I looking for? What do others seek here - sometimes paying a thousand dollars an hour."

For the Scientology Kerk Nederland (reported operating on a loss for many years) the departure of dozens of active members must be a huge financial loss. Not only does the sect lose income, but the Ronsorg site also provides apostates with instructions on how they can demands refunds of course fees and donations from the International Association of Scientologists in East Grinstead, England.

Scientology always reacts strongly to such requests, warns Ronsorg. "What you can expect is that they try to make you change your mind, by pushing your buttons." During their stay on the 'Bridge to Clear' Scientologists are constantly 'audited.' That process brings up many personal issues, which are recorded in personal files. Scientology merely has to remind deserters or potential apostates that they at one time, say, committed adultery or used drugs. Scientology has no qualms about starting extensive libel campaigns, using its personal files.

The apostates who have been defrauded by Scientologists via Dutch and foreign companies have taken legal steps. Together with a lawyer they are studying their options regarding refund and damage-claims. "Shortly we will set up a foundation and will go public," says a spokesperson.

Scientology leaders have responded to the mutiny according to the sect's standard protocol. Apostates are said to be SP-declares - a kind of dead penalty within the Org, in which the person thus declared to be 'Suppressive Persons.' According to Scientology 'ethics' SP's may be "sued, tricked, lied to, or destroyed." They are shunned because they have been in communication with and/or joined a group that has been declared 'suppressive.' Another so-called 'High Crime' is the taking of 'non-standard' material and giving it to other Scientologists 'in the hope that they will join the suppressive group.'

The number of SP-declares is kept low for strategic reasons. After all, it is difficult to explain internally why a third of the Org's active members are suddenly declared 'suppressive.' :===End Quote===

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From: spamtrap@apologeticsindex.org
Subject: [Hate Groups : Scientology] More bad news for Scientology in the Netherlands
Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 18:33:45 +0100
Organization: Apologetics Index: http://www.ApologeticsIndex.org/ + Religion News Blog: http://www.religionnewsblog.com
Message-ID: <fa4dqvk14uj5n1jn1735vtce6kna7p49dm@4ax.com>

Following the recent news of a 'mutiny' at the Amsterdam, Netherlands office of Scientology, the cult - a commercial enterprise and a hate group masquerading as a religion - is getting more bad press (and TV-coverage) in the Netherlands.

Amsterdam daily, Het Parool, today carries an article in which former Scientology recruiter John Leemhuis explains why he has left the organization and joined the ranks of other defectors who, while still pursuing Scientology's 'tech', want nothing to do with the so-called 'Church' of Scientology.

Leemhuis was a 'body-router' - as recruiters are known within Scientology. For the past ten years, he worked six days a week encouraging people on the street to take the cult's 'personality test' (a discredited, pseudo-scientific recruitment tool). He was paid €40-€50 ($45-$57) a week.

Het Parool writes, Leemhuis (44) was willing to talk with us, but only on the condition that we wouldn't talk bad about Hubbard. "In a previous piece you called him a faile science-fiction writer, but I disagree with that. Hubbard's techniques are fine, a science. The only problem is that Scientology misuses that science."

In order to continue his prescribed Scientology courses on the 'Bridge to Clear," Leemhuis found it necessary six years ago to go into debt for tens of thousands of guilders - not much in comparison, but Leemhuis received a discount due to his work as a body-router.

"I have been paying off the loan ever since, and in essence that is true for everyone in Scientology. Everyone gets into debt, and everyone works from 9 in the morning till 11 at night. If at some time you are not 'on staff,' as they refer to being present at the 'Org' (Scientology 'mission'), they immediately call you. Where are you? You've got to study! You must come here, now! Yes, they reason like this: as long as you're busy, you can't think. That's what keeps Scientology going: people who make themselves completely dependent and who don't get a cent in return. And then there are inheritances and donations. Ik know people who, in guilders, have paid half a million ($260.000). A friend of mine borrowed a total of Dfl 300.000 ($156.000).

Some five years ago, Leemhuis started doubting due to a number of incidents. For example, Paul Rood - a prominent Scientologist - every so often was doing an estafette, by bike or on foot, for world peace in general, and Scientology in specific.

"He was going to bike to The Hage, then to Brussels, and then to the Yugoslav Republic. All for publicity of course. Well, at some point I went with him in his van, en take this from me: if he was going to be met somewhere with much fanfare, he would get on his bike for the last kilometer, then load the bike back into the van and on to the next stop. I can not stand that kind of dishonesty. But if you said something about it at the Scientology office, then immediately yet another investigation was started against you, and the result was that you were not considered OK."

Aside from that, Scientology has drastically evolved, says Leemhuis. "In the past it was all about Hubburd, about the ideals. Now it merely is a money machine. It is all mind-control, PR, and money, money, money. Nothing else."

"A good friend of mine fixed all computers for them, but he wasn't 'on staff' nearly as much as I was, because he works a regular job. So they simply post a notice that he has to work on his 'ethics' - which means other Scientologists are not allowed to talk with you, and you have to better yourself. That boy did absolute nothing wrong, but everything and everyone must simply be registered and manipulated. That has nothing to do with Hubbard. He stood for gathering knowledge, freedom, gaining control over your life. The Church of Scientology does exactly the opposite: limit your freedom, and use you.

That development has in the past few months, as reported earlier, led to a true exodus: around 50 active members (out of 150) have left the sect. Leemhuis confirms: "I estimate that at present some 60 people have left." Those sixty people, including Leemhuis, all want their money back. Doesn't this lead to financial problems for the Dutch branch?

Leemhuis: "Yes, but they have been in financial trouble for years. First we we housed at the Nieuwezijds in a building from De Slegte, at a rent of DFL 10.000 ($5200) a month, and even that we couldn't always pay. We had to leave that building, and now we're a litte further up the street in a building that rents for Dfl 40.000 ($20.800) a month! The telephone service is regularly cut off when there is no money. And that is now going to get worse."

Bit by bit a picture emerges of a 'church' (apostrophies in the original article) of which only the leadership remains behind, in the form of the ladies Julia Rijnvis and Maria Koster. "And that is going to happen," says Leemhuis, who understandably is now considered to be an excommunicated supprevise person. While in the past he considered his great commission to be the winning of souls, he now does the exact opposite: "That church simply must close. No one should come there anymore."

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