'Tom Cruise Told Me to Talk to a Bottle': Life at Scientology's Secret Headquarters
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| Marc Headley, now blown from Scientology for good |
Perhaps the best service that Headley provides with Blown for Good is giving non-Scientologists the sense of what it's really like to work, day in and day out, in such a strange organization, from the lowliest laborer mucking out excrement in a Gold Base pond (Headley says shit was coming out of his ears and pores for days) to what kind of luxuries the celebrities and high-ranking members enjoy. (Even when he was in charge of entire departments, Headley himself was never really a privileged member. After his marriage, he and his wife were lucky that they had to share their two bedroom Scientology apartment with only six other base workers.)
From the fear of meetings with "COB" (David Miscavige's nickname among Scientologists, standing for "Chairman of the Board") to how everyone was trained to eat a meal in only a few minutes (or often went without meals, and usually went without sleep), you get a palpable sense of working for Scientology, or what it was like just trying to be understood: Even in a book written for the general public, Headley can't seem to keep from falling occasionally into an alphabet soup of maddening Hubbard acronyms and jargon.
To illustrate what a foreign language Scientologists speak, he provides this example, spoken by his supervisor soon after he first becomes a church employee: "The ED ordered that I go over to the PAC and see the Dissem Secs from ASHO and AO and get the WUS and EUS T&P BMO lists that we use each week for our SBC promo. I should be back here at the HGB by dinner. If the FBO or Treas Sec ask where I went, can you tell them that I am on a GI cycle for the stats."
What's it mean? Not much. Not anything worth translating, anyway. Headley says it took him years to begin figuring that out, that the nonsense language, the overdetermined hierarchy, the talking to bottles and ashtrays, the constant threat that he'd be separated forever from his wife or his parents -- that none of it added up.
Headley gives credit to a couple of different sources for finally beginning to help him begin doubting his near slavery at Gold Base. Secretly listening on a Walkman while he worked to John & Ken, a comedy duo at Los Angeles radio station KFI, helped him begin to raise questions about life at the base. And even more importantly, he says, he was affected by watching Conan O'Brien, who always seemed to poke fun at Scientology celebrities in a way that was shocking to a Scientologist who always heard them spoken of in hushed tones of awe.
Once Headley was finally able to escape, he found that he didn't become homeless or a drug addict, as he was programmed to believe by his Scientology handlers. Instead, he used the skills he'd learned at the base to open his own multimedia business in Los Angeles. It's thriving, he says, and he and Claire now have two small boys, something they could not have done as long as the two of them had continued working at the compound.
In January, Headley filed a lawsuit against Scientology, claiming that the church had violated labor law by paying him very little or nothing at all during many years at the base. His attorney is Barry Van Sickle, and they've fended off numerous attempts by Scientology to have the lawsuit dismissed. A federal trial is scheduled in the lawsuit for November, 2010.
In the five years since he left the Gilman Hot Springs base, Headley has heard that conditions for the workers there have only worsened. "People are now being escorted by security on their bathroom breaks. Think about that. On their bathroom breaks," he says.
Headley says he gets regular reports on conditions throughout the Scientology organization from many sources.
"There are so many disaffected people in Scientology. So many disaffected Sea Org members, and they want to see everything come out," he says.
He points to the book as an example. The cover design? It's by a former Scientologist who designed many of the church's most iconic publications. And the editing? It was done by a former Scientologist who edited many of the church's most important books. "It's funny," he says with a laugh, when he points that out about his book.
Miscavige, he predicts, won't appreciate the humor. But he will get the message.
Tony Ortega is the editor-in-chief of the Village Voice. Since 1995, he's been writing about Scientology at several different publications. Among his other stories about L. Ron Hubbard's organization...
The Larry Wollersheim Saga -- Scientology Finally Pays For Its Fraud
The Tory Bezazian (Christman) Story -- How the Internet Saved A Scientologist From Herself
The Jason Beghe Defection -- A Scientology Celebrity Goes Rogue
The Robert Cipriano Case -- A Hellacious Example of Fair Game
The Paul Haggis Ultimatum -- The 'Crash' Director Tells Scientology to Shove It
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