#947 - Ron Miscavige

[0] four, three, two, one.

[1] And we're live.

[2] What's up, Ron?

[3] How are you?

[4] I'm doing okay.

[5] You're doing all right?

[6] You're doing good, man. You're quick start.

[7] I came in here ten seconds ago.

[8] We're on the air, you know?

[9] Well, I wanted it to be that way.

[10] It's more natural.

[11] Sometimes, like, some of the best stuff gets said off mic.

[12] So we've figured now how to do it where people get in, and pretty much as soon as we sit down, we start talking.

[13] No complaints.

[14] So you contacted us after the Leah Remini interview.

[15] you.

[16] Right.

[17] And you wanted to get on, and you have this book that you wrote.

[18] It's called Ruthless.

[19] What's the correct pronunciation?

[20] It's Cavage, Ms. Cabbage?

[21] No, Ms. Cavage.

[22] Miss Cavage.

[23] Yeah.

[24] The actual name of the book is Routless.

[25] Right.

[26] Scientology, my son, David, Ms. Cabbage, and me. Right.

[27] Now, let me just say this before we get started, because Scientology, this is the first time I've ever been contacted.

[28] They sent an email to my publicist, and And they have a rebuttal to what you wrote, and their rebuttal is at a website, Ron Miscavagebook .com.

[29] And they want people to know about their website, which is Scientology .org, and they have a statement.

[30] This is their statement.

[31] Ron Miscavich is seeking to make money on the name of his famous son, David Miscavage.

[32] Oh, David Miscavich is taking.

[33] care of his father throughout his life, both financially and by helping him in even the most dire circumstances.

[34] Ron Miscavage was nowhere around when David Miscavich ascended to the leadership of the Church of Scientology, mentioned by and working directly with the religion's founder, L. Ron Hubbard and entrusted by him with the future of the church.

[35] Any father exploiting his son in this manner is a sad exercise of betrayal.

[36] Mr. David Miskavage's far -reaching vision and unrelenting dedication has brought the Church of Scientology to where it is today, guaranteeing its future for generations to come.

[37] Scientologists worldwide love and respect Mr. Miskavage for his tireless work on behalf of their religion.

[38] So that's their statement.

[39] That's what they wanted to say.

[40] And I feel like it's only fair.

[41] You know, we had Leah Remedy on and we have you on, and I've had Louis Theroux on.

[42] Right.

[43] And look, I feel like I don't know the story, but any time a father is so disconnected from his son, they have to write a book about him.

[44] It's a sad time.

[45] Do you feel like that?

[46] No. You don't feel sad at all?

[47] I don't feel that I just woke up one day and said, I'd like to write a book about Scientology.

[48] Right.

[49] And if I can give you a short, encapsulated statement, I think we could set a nice, groundwork for the whole interview.

[50] You mind if I do that?

[51] Sure.

[52] Okay.

[53] I was a Scientologist for 42 years.

[54] Were you raised in it?

[55] No. I got my family in in 1970.

[56] But I was in the church for 42 years.

[57] The last 26 and a half years, I worked at the international base in Hemet, California.

[58] I escaped from that base on March 25, 2012.

[59] You escaped?

[60] Escaped.

[61] That's right.

[62] I had to plan that escape for six months.

[63] We can go into this in more detail, but just let me give you this short story.

[64] About a year and a half later, there was a private and guest investigator caught by the name of Dwayne Powell, who was around the corner from my house, looking at a house to buy so he could spy on me from that house.

[65] And there's no shit.

[66] So a lady in the neighborhood saw him, and she thought he was a drug dealer or up to no good.

[67] So she called the West Dallas police, and Nick Pye came out and confronted the guy.

[68] He gave Nick some shit, and Nick said, hey, listen, man, you're under arrest.

[69] Do you mind if I look in your car?

[70] So Nick went to the van and opened it up, and in a trunk, there were five license plates from five different states.

[71] There were two handguns, a stun gun, two rifles, one fitted up with a silencer, and two thousand rounds of ammunition.

[72] So they arrested the guy.

[73] They took him in for interrogation, and then his son came looking for him, because his son was a partner in this business.

[74] The father's name was Dwayne Powell, and the son was Daniel Powell.

[75] Daniel came looking for his father.

[76] And by the way, if you want to hear these interviews, they're on Tony Ortega's website.

[77] Tony Ortega at the Underground Bunker.

[78] You can hear what I'm telling you.

[79] Okay.

[80] So Daniel is telling me, you know, how they operated.

[81] They were getting paid $10 ,000 a week to follow me and report on my doings from 8 o 'clock in the morning until 8 o 'clock every night.

[82] An incident happened in Janesville, Wisconsin.

[83] It's kind of, what do you do?

[84] Like, what could you possibly do that be worth studying?

[85] Is it just to freak you out?

[86] Like, that's what I don't understand.

[87] Like, if you follow, like, if I follow Jamie, you know what, you know what I'm going to get?

[88] I'm going to get Jamie looking at the internet, Jamie watching basketball, maybe Jamie goes to the gym, maybe Jamie goes for a run.

[89] Maybe Jamie goes on Tinder and does a little right, right, swiping right.

[90] Yeah, I don't know.

[91] Okay.

[92] What do people do that you could debt out of watching them?

[93] It's not like you're out there burying bodies.

[94] No kidding.

[95] Anyway, at least let me continue because this goes on So they're interrogating them That's Nick Pye and there was an alcohol, tobacco and firearms agent Ricky Hankins Right And because they were concerned about that silence or they thought Hey, maybe they're out to hit me Right Because I am the father of the chairman of the board Right So then Daniel the son is being interrogated And he said they They followed me to a town called Janesville, Wisconsin Where I went shopping and an Aldi's grocery store Okay This is very detailed Well I'm telling you, this is what happened so i come out and i had bags of grocery and it was a summertime so i had a pocket t -shirt on i bent over to put the groceries in the car i taught myself and was going to fall out i grabbed my left chest they're looking at me in the van which they had been following me in they saw me the father called his contact and said listen it looks like the target is having a heart attack what shall we do they referred to me as the target oh jesus no shit and you get a silencer and fucking two thousand runs of ammo.

[96] All right.

[97] Okay.

[98] So they called, the guy Greg said, listen, let me call you back.

[99] A couple minutes later, a guy come on the phone, identified himself as David Miscavage, and he said to them, listen, if it's his time to die, let him die.

[100] Don't do anything.

[101] Don't intervene.

[102] That's my son.

[103] All right?

[104] Well, it didn't just happen, right?

[105] I mean, you didn't, I don't want to interrupt your story because I feel like it goes on but i mean your relationship with your son didn't just start there so it had to it had to go sour no shit right listen my relationship with david when he was a kid was incredible i mean we got along great he was a snappy little kid he was just very bright great sense of humor uh just i enjoyed his company but as he grew older as he got into scientology which i got him in by the way and I can get into that, how I got him in.

[106] He then started acquiring power, and I think he went from Dr. Jekyll into Mr. Hyde.

[107] As an example, when I worked on staff, he never referred to me as dad.

[108] He called me Ron.

[109] The base that I lived on in Hammett, it got to the point where if you wanted to send a letter to somebody, you had to write the letter, put it in an unsealed envelope.

[110] The security guards would read it, see if there was anything bad in there that I shouldn't be saying, send it back, and I would correct it when it was okay, then they'd seal the envelope and send it out.

[111] If I wanted to call somebody on the telephone, I had to have somebody listening on the other extension.

[112] And this is by his orders?

[113] Or is this just how Scientology runs?

[114] No, it's not how Scientology works.

[115] He is the undisputed dictator of Scientology.

[116] So this is his entire doing.

[117] That's the way he wanted it to run.

[118] Scientology in 1970, when I got in, was totally different than it.

[119] How was it then?

[120] It was like for a free spirit, you know, just very laissez -faire, but you did courses.

[121] You could come in and do things that would actually improve your ability to communicate, to have better interpersonal relations.

[122] I bought the book.

[123] I bought Dianetics in 1994 because I moved to California, and I was really into self -help books and stuff like that, and I saw one of those late -night infomercial ads.

[124] Yeah.

[125] And I was like, this looks like, you know, the reactive mind.

[126] Hey, I want to have control of the reaction.

[127] of mine and uh you know i got into it i read it a little bit and i was like hmm some probably some good principles in here some decent ideas and i always associated scientologists with being um positive people that got a lot of things done that's that's a very true statement and i'm telling you at what they call the bottom of the bridge because the entire scientology experience would be a bridge to total freedom you enter in at a certain point you're given basic things basic courses basic communication skills that you're taught.

[128] And I'm telling you, you go out on the street after you do this stuff, and you're more effective in handling life.

[129] So the early stages of it, you feel, are very effective.

[130] They're very effective.

[131] I mean, they were effective then.

[132] They're effective today.

[133] If you learn the proper communication formula, that will improve your life alone.

[134] Sure.

[135] Just communicating correctly, knowing there's components, there's parts of it.

[136] It's not just, hey, you, and the other guy says, what do you want?

[137] You know, literally get the other person's attention, make sure you're giving him a communication that he can understand.

[138] You're not going to talk to somebody in French if he's English, you know, just all little details that you learn and you drill these.

[139] And then there's other things about interpectional relationships with your wife or a group.

[140] You learn these.

[141] You're better off.

[142] So they're essentially telling you how to be a better person in the beginning.

[143] Yes.

[144] And part of that, you would then also become more positive.

[145] right just simply by having this these skills well this sounds good it is good right so where does it go bad well here's where it goes bad look the further on you get in the let me back up a second let's say you learn the component parts of communication uh -huh and you say hey you know what this is good shit right you agree to that that's the first step on taking you on this entire journey And then maybe you'll learn how you could divide your business into seven parts so that you could monitor various parts of it or your life into seven parts.

[146] So you could manage how you're doing income -wise, how education is your public relations.

[147] These are all things you can easily agree to.

[148] So now a little later on, there's a datum or a fact introduced that doesn't quite make sense to you.

[149] But you think, you know what, everything they told me was good so far.

[150] I'm just going to accept this.

[151] Now you're on the road.

[152] Can you give me an example?

[153] Like, is it like Zeno type shit?

[154] Well, yeah, that would be a big example.

[155] But that's way down the line, right?

[156] That's way down the line.

[157] But there's some early wackiness that give you, like, indications that things might be getting a little...

[158] Well, no, I'm going to tell you something.

[159] You know, I think you're right.

[160] I think that's the one where you've agreed to so many things so far and all of the auditing you've gotten that's helped you.

[161] When it comes to that, as an example, you know, as an example, you're...

[162] example, when I got on that level, I thought, well, wait a minute, there's 150 billion people on 76 nearby planets, and they brought them here in spaceships.

[163] How do fuck did you get everybody here?

[164] I looked at it from...

[165] Physics point of view?

[166] Yeah, from a point of view of logistics.

[167] Right.

[168] It's a lot of spaceships.

[169] But I thought, well, I'll accept it.

[170] I'll just do it.

[171] 150 billion people?

[172] Per planet.

[173] The problem was overpopulation, all right?

[174] Oh.

[175] But do you see what saying so at that point you've agreed to so many things that were right right i understand when it comes up to that you're not going to say hey you're out of your goddamn mind it's it's helping you give you a direction in life it's making you more positive it's giving you better communication skills you have a structure that you can follow when you communicate with people it makes you more presentable so everything's good in the beginning yeah why doesn't somebody just take that part and just like get rid of the rest Listen, I tell in my book what we're looking at right here, you know, rootless Scientology, my son, David Miscabbage, and me, I say at the very end, if they were to just to stick to the beginning things, number one, and number two, have a general amnesty where they forgive everybody who they think has tried to done them in.

[176] The shit's going to hit the fan, but maybe at the end of it, you'd get some people back and knock off the disconnection policy.

[177] I think if they did that, it could be one of the best self -help groups ever.

[178] But once you get up into those upper levels where they tell you, you're going to become a superhuman.

[179] As an example, you will be able to, as a spiritual being, leave your body and go some other place as an example and read a newspaper in Germany.

[180] Huh.

[181] It's not like remote viewing.

[182] Yes, and I'm going to tell you, Joe, I was involved for 42 years.

[183] You never went to Germany?

[184] No. France in Portugal, but you know, what the fuck.

[185] No, seriously, though, I never met one person that ever achieved that, nor did I achieve it.

[186] But you don't talk about it.

[187] I understand.

[188] One of the things that say, you don't talk about your case to somebody else.

[189] So that's compartmentalized.

[190] So everybody who's done this is thinking, I never got it.

[191] Maybe I'm the only one.

[192] Right.

[193] So, like, maybe if I just keep working at this, one day I'm going to pop through.

[194] That's exactly it.

[195] Keep on go for the next level.

[196] Do they explain how you're going to do that?

[197] Is it through meditation techniques?

[198] Is it through some sort of hypnosis?

[199] Like how are they supposed to go to Germany and read newspaper?

[200] Well, out of their body.

[201] There's drills that they have you do.

[202] Like in the earlier, what they call OT levels, operating Thayton.

[203] Thayton is a word they use for spiritual being.

[204] Right.

[205] And one of the drills that you would do would be spot three objects outside of your body, spot three objects inside your body, spot three objects outside your body, spot three objects inside your body on a repetitive basis.

[206] And that's supposed to let you out as an example.

[207] So it's like a meditation.

[208] So you, yeah, I guess it would be.

[209] And you say spot, are you saying like envision?

[210] Well, I mean, in the physical universe, you can look at three spots.

[211] So you look at like that clock, this book, like that kind of thing.

[212] And then inside your body, just think about You'd envision three spots in your body.

[213] Your lungs, your ribs.

[214] Yeah.

[215] But then the other thing is, like, when you get to OT3 and you're talking about body Thetons, these are the alien beings that were brought here, put on a nearby volcano, an hydrogen bomb was set off, and they sent up a ray, grab these people.

[216] Look at it.

[217] You can look at the Internet and find this out.

[218] Oh, no, I've read it all.

[219] Okay.

[220] Yeah, unfortunately.

[221] And what happens then is they are all latched.

[222] of your body, like a bunch of fleas.

[223] Damn it.

[224] And they're affecting your thinking.

[225] Right.

[226] And your personality.

[227] And the idea on these upper levels is to get rid of all of them and achieve this.

[228] Nobody's ever done it.

[229] Like, if there were three people who did it, I'd say, you know, maybe it can be done.

[230] Not a fucking one.

[231] Excuse my French, buddy.

[232] No, you can swear away.

[233] Okay.

[234] Listen, I got my doctorate degree in swearing in the United States Marine Corps.

[235] But, you know.

[236] So how did you go from that to this?

[237] How do you go from the Marine Corps, which is about his real?

[238] real as it gets to this well you're just looking to prove yourself yes i was always look listen as a little kid in mount carnival pennsylvania where i was born and raised i used to go up in our garrett or the attic whatever you want to call it and my dad had all these books there and i used to take books off the shelf and read them and try to find out about life i was always looking for something and um always looking to improve myself or find a better way to live and i had a friend back in the 60s, Nelson Sandy, I'm a musician too.

[239] I don't know whether you knew that.

[240] No, I didn't.

[241] Yeah, I played professionally my whole life.

[242] Nelson Sandy, and I also been in the sales business because I had four kids, you know, you've got to pay the bills no matter what you do.

[243] So Nelson was a friend of mine in sales, and one day he said to me, Ron, how would you like to make an extra $100 ,000 a year?

[244] So what the hell, you know?

[245] Great.

[246] So he introduced me to something called Holiday Magic.

[247] That was a multi -marketing scheme.

[248] Oh, all right.

[249] You know what I mean by, like Amway, right?

[250] So what scheme?

[251] Pyramid scheme, right?

[252] Pyramid, yeah.

[253] So I went to an opportunity meeting and I thought, you know, maybe I could do this.

[254] So I bought in and I started doing it.

[255] And one day we're at an opportunity meeting that we were running.

[256] And there's a girl standing next to me talking to a guy over here and I'm talking to this guy.

[257] This guy says, I'm a Scientologist.

[258] I just hang on a second.

[259] What is that?

[260] I pinned him down for about a half an hour.

[261] And for whatever reason, the name rang a bell.

[262] So, he told me that I could go visit somebody who was a Scientologist, and they discuss it one day a week, got the name of Frank Ogle in Woodbury, New Jersey.

[263] By the way, you're from North Jersey, aren't you?

[264] Yeah, Newark.

[265] Newark, yeah.

[266] Okay, so I go to this place, and he would have little classes where he'd talk about communication and various things.

[267] I went there for about four days in a month, like for a month, one day a week.

[268] And I thought, okay, I got it now.

[269] Another factor here.

[270] David, when he was born, was cursed with an asthma condition.

[271] That was the bane of his existence.

[272] I mean, as a little baby, sometimes he turned blue.

[273] He couldn't breathe out.

[274] And it was horrible to watch this.

[275] And I was the one who took care of that just about totally.

[276] As a matter of fact, when he would have these attacks, I would take him to a pediatrician in Burlington, New Jersey, called Dr. Ziegler, he'd give him a shot of adrenaline.

[277] And I knew that giving a little kid a shot of adrenaline was not great, okay?

[278] So I would try all kinds of homes.

[279] They didn't have inhalers back then?

[280] They had inhalers, but that's handling the symptom, not the cause.

[281] And I didn't know what to do to handle the cause.

[282] Right.

[283] I used to do shit like one winner, he's just in a full -blown attack turning blue.

[284] It's in a cold jersey, you know, cold jersey.

[285] winter.

[286] I took him upstairs to the bathroom, took off his clothes, took off mine, stood in the shower, said, David, I'm not punish you, I'm with you.

[287] I had the warm water on, I turned it off.

[288] That water is that coming out of there about 34 degrees.

[289] He started breathing, kicked it, wiped him down with a Turkish towel, that handled it for the moment.

[290] I used to do shit like that, anything to handle him.

[291] So now, I found out about Scientology from this Nelson Sandy, and Frank Ogle was the guy.

[292] I took David down one day and I said, is there anything you can do for David with Scientology auditing, which is basically another word for counseling?

[293] Right.

[294] He took David in and 45 minutes later, Dave comes out, Isaiah, how's it going?

[295] He's his dad, I'm handled.

[296] And he never had another severe attack in his entire youth.

[297] How is that possible?

[298] With communication.

[299] With communication, you can stop asthma?

[300] You come to the point where you have a realization, maybe where it started or how you could be contributing to it or maybe where it starts kicking in you.

[301] How old was he when you brought him in there?

[302] I guess this was, he was about nine years old.

[303] Wow.

[304] Yeah.

[305] So like what tools did they use to help him kick asthma?

[306] That communication.

[307] But what you were like the just communication like hi, what's going on?

[308] You got asthma buddy?

[309] That's communication.

[310] Like what you mean by communication.

[311] Okay.

[312] He did, you used what's called creative processing.

[313] Okay.

[314] Something that they used to use.

[315] And what it is is, is you, figure out how you could be contributing to that and then you do a mental image picture of something that you think you're doing to contribute to that and back and forth it's a little for me to try to explain it in a little session like this it's a little hard because well it's a little hard to understand but it did work on him so you're saying in some sense asthma may be psychosomatic and maybe in your head for him it was to that degree.

[316] Yes, I am saying that.

[317] And he never got asthma again.

[318] He never had a severe attack again.

[319] He had minor attacks.

[320] But he was able to stop them with these methods.

[321] He used to get attacks so bad that it would debilitate him.

[322] I mean, he was out of school for a week one time with an asthmatic attack.

[323] This is before I ever took him to see Frank Ogle.

[324] And that impressed me. The fact that this handled that for the moment anyway.

[325] So with that and some other things, I decided I'm going to, to get my whole family in Scientology.

[326] Because look, his whole life, that was a problem for me to handle.

[327] And this, at least at that moment, got him to the point where he was like in charge of it, it didn't happen to him again, that severe.

[328] Does that make sense?

[329] Yeah, it does make sense.

[330] Yeah.

[331] So that's what persuaded you to begin.

[332] Quite a bit.

[333] So everything was good for a while?

[334] Right.

[335] I got in, I'll tell you how good it was.

[336] I got in and my whole family got in.

[337] I decided to take my whole family to England and in 1972 I moved there for a year and three months and had the whole family study Scientology.

[338] In England?

[339] Yeah.

[340] And then came back for a little while and went over again in 1974 study more Scientology.

[341] When I was there at that time, I got a recording deal with the Polydor Company solo album and I got a writer's contract with Chapples Publishing and I got asked to play on BBC.

[342] All of this is in a book, by the way.

[343] I'll give you details on it.

[344] So this was all while Elron Hubbard was alive?

[345] While he was alive, yeah.

[346] Did you meet him?

[347] Never met him.

[348] Nope.

[349] But your son did?

[350] Listen, my son joined the Sea Organization when he was 16 years old.

[351] Within seven months, he was working with El Ron Hubbard.

[352] What is the, the C organization is, explain that to people.

[353] Okay.

[354] There are several different ways that you could do Scientology.

[355] The number one way would be is if you're a public person and you just go, into an organization.

[356] They're called orgs.

[357] You go in and you buy services, but you live in the outside world, you have a job, you have a home, you know, all these things, but you pay for a service.

[358] That's number one.

[359] Another level would be that you worked for an organization and you could sign a two and a half year or a five year contract to work there and you would deliver.

[360] Don't they have like billion year contracts too?

[361] Well, now what?

[362] You're getting ahead of it.

[363] That's public, that's a, that's a, working for an organization on the level of a two and a half or a five -year contract.

[364] The last step would be the C organization.

[365] There you sign a billion -year contract.

[366] In other words, you're signing away your future lives to get this Scientology disseminated.

[367] Has anybody ever challenged one of those billion -year contracts?

[368] Like, what does it mean?

[369] Like, do you owe them anything for a billion years?

[370] Listen, you're getting the skinny.

[371] As hard as this is to believe, once you're in it for a while and you see that this is helping you and maybe your family, the point of it is that they want to get this disseminated to every man, woman, and child on the planet and improve life for everybody.

[372] So it's like you're on this crusade to get it disseminated.

[373] So they believe they're doing this to help people.

[374] Yes.

[375] All sounds good, right?

[376] All sounds good in the beginning.

[377] Well, it reads better than it lives.

[378] It's not that way at all, though.

[379] Well, how is it?

[380] How is it?

[381] these days right now would like sure they get people to donate money to what's called the international association of Scientologists or donate money to build an organism i mean build a new church someplace and they give you a piece of paper and commend you you know it's a nice business low overhead you know so you give them money they give you paper they give you a commendation or saying you're the some level right you're you're you've achieved some success look they've opened a lot new buildings.

[382] But Joe, there's not people in there.

[383] There's air, okay?

[384] But they say we're expanding.

[385] They're expanding the real estate interests, but they're not expanding the number of people in Scientology.

[386] Why is that?

[387] Well, if you go on the internet, you can find out all the abuses they've done.

[388] Like people going bankrupt because they had to contribute so much money that you get a second and third mortgage on their house, give it to the church.

[389] They can't afford it.

[390] They have to declare bankruptcy.

[391] People being disconnected from their families.

[392] Let's talk about that.

[393] I want to go back to the Sea Org thing for a second, but then let's talk about that.

[394] Yeah.

[395] So the Sea Org thing is your son joins the Seorg when he's 16 years old.

[396] Yeah, here's what happened.

[397] I came home from work one day, and he's laying in his room on his bed, kind of like that with his head and his hands.

[398] I said, hey, Dave, what's up, man?

[399] He says, Daddy, he says, I don't want to go to school anymore.

[400] He says, why not?

[401] He said, listen, all the kids are taking drugs.

[402] They just, they don't show the teachers any respect.

[403] They're not willing to learn anything.

[404] He says, I want to join the Seorg.

[405] I want to help El Ron Hubbard.

[406] Because by this time, we've been to England twice.

[407] He's trained to be an auditor.

[408] An auditor is a person who applies this technology of Scientology in auditing or counseling, okay?

[409] And he says, this is what I want to do.

[410] Well, I thought to myself, he's 15, he's going to be 16 shortly.

[411] Look, when I was 17, I joined the Marines.

[412] My dad had a sign for me because I was only 17.

[413] And it probably was one of the best moves I ever made.

[414] I mean, the first night in boot camp, I said to myself, this is the worst fucking mistake I've ever made in my life.

[415] At that moment, 12 weeks later, I said to myself, I can make myself do anything.

[416] And in that 12 weeks, it turned me from an undisciplined civilian into a disciplined Marine.

[417] And I've utilized that in my whole life.

[418] It's helped me always.

[419] I kind of looked at that and I thought, Well, I was 17.

[420] Maybe it looked like I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I came out of winter.

[421] And if David wants to do this, and what is he going to get out of going to school?

[422] And he has no desire to do anything else.

[423] I was okay.

[424] I'll help you.

[425] So that was it.

[426] So when he was 16, the next day we put him on a plane, he went down to the flagland base in Florida.

[427] And as I say, within I think it was seven or eight months, he was working right with Elron Hubbard out in California.

[428] Now, the C .org, like, is it a boat?

[429] You're actually on a boat?

[430] No. The sea organization is a term used because in 1967, Ron started what he called the Sea Project, where he bought this ship and invited people to come with him to contribute to this project, saying that his research could be done better away from landmasses.

[431] I mean, in fact, the law was after him.

[432] Oh, right.

[433] It was a tax thing, right?

[434] Yeah, I mean, they were trying to snag them.

[435] And when you're out in international waters, they can't serve you a subpoena.

[436] But it was such an adventure story.

[437] Right.

[438] And people look, hey.

[439] Look it.

[440] Plus you get to wear a captain's outfit.

[441] No, not everybody.

[442] He got to, right?

[443] Oh, yeah.

[444] Admiral, not captain.

[445] Did he give himself medals?

[446] Elron Hubbard?

[447] Yeah.

[448] You know, I never saw that.

[449] All I saw was that he was considered the Commodore.

[450] But you remember the Peace Corps?

[451] yes all right now that was an adventure and people would go on that sure but they actually were doing something though right what was the seor doing well the seor was on this ship and they'd have people come there for advanced level services get that and uh they would send missions out to various organizations to correct any outnesses in the way maybe they were delivering the technology or or fix something that was going wrong it was run like a little uh military organization and then the Seargue went ashore and they established the flag land base in Clearwater, Florida.

[452] So that is still referred to as flag.

[453] Yeah, when El Ron Hubbard had the ships, that was considered the flagship.

[454] Okay.

[455] Am I feeling you in an evidence?

[456] Yeah.

[457] So he joined that.

[458] He ascended through the ranks.

[459] He's working with El Ron Hubbard.

[460] Yeah.

[461] And slowly you guys get disconnected.

[462] Is that what happens?

[463] No. As a matter of fact, when he was doing that, we were still in very good communication.

[464] with each other like I'm telling you something we had a lot of great times together when he was growing up and no two ways about it and I can't say that it was like bad relationship in any way there was a guy by the name of Lord Acton he was a Britisher he was a member of parliament he lived from 1834 to early 1900s he's the one that made the observation power tends to corrupt an absolute power corrupts absolutely and I think this is what happened to David that when Elron Hubbard died he saw a chance to move up and he got people out of the way who didn't want to cooperate with him put people on various posts that would cooperate with him and he took over the ownership and the leadership of Scientology and what contributed to that was an incident where he had a severe asthmatic attack and they had to take him to the emergency room of a hospital.

[465] Paul Grady is a guy that took him there.

[466] And when Paul picked him up after they did the stuff, they handled him, he was okay.

[467] David said to Paul, listen, I had a great realization when I was there, and it's this.

[468] Power is not granted.

[469] It is assumed.

[470] So he assumed the leadership of Scientology, and he rose right to the top.

[471] That's how that happened.

[472] So how did you get disconnected from?

[473] Well, look, there was an event that he had, not an event.

[474] There's something that he did, which he'll always be admired for.

[475] He actually got the Church of Scientology tax exemption.

[476] All right?

[477] He literally got the IRS to grant the fact that this is a church.

[478] You have now a tax exemption.

[479] People contribute to it.

[480] Can he deduct it?

[481] That was a very, very big win.

[482] That then gave him power, okay?

[483] I decided to join the Sea Organization in 1985.

[484] I wanted to contribute to doing whatever I could to help him.

[485] I joined the Sea Organization, and I'm at the Hammett Base, you know.

[486] I'm coming out of the music studio because since I was a musician, I worked in the music studio, and we did films.

[487] I composed music for various technical films we had or public relations films.

[488] And I walked out of the studio one day, and I saw him a little.

[489] little distance off to the left with an entourage.

[490] And I yelled out, hey, Dave, and he turned around and he looked at me. And I'm telling you, Joe, he gave me a look that I thought I better never do that again.

[491] On that base, I was then a staff member.

[492] The fact that I was biologically, his father, and in fact, his father, he referred to me as Ron when he spoke to me. When he sent me a gift for my birthday or Christmas or something, he always said, dear dad.

[493] But that was the beginning.

[494] Now, further on down the road we got, the more it became, I used to have to call him sir after a while, okay?

[495] It became more and more me, Ron Miscavich, the staff member, and David, the leader of the church.

[496] Once they started implementing the rules at the base where you couldn't send a letter out without it being checked, where you surrounded with barbed wire pointing in and pointing out, you couldn't talk on the telephone without.

[497] having somebody listen.

[498] You couldn't drive off on your own to go to a store to get a fucking pair of underwear.

[499] You had to order it on the internet.

[500] If you got on the internet, there was a filter on it where anything about miscavage or Scientology come up, you'd be blocked.

[501] So now I'm living a sequestered life, waking up in the morning, going to breakfast at 9 o 'clock, 9 .30 having a muster.

[502] You know what a muster is?

[503] No. Okay, you'll line up your people and account for everybody.

[504] All right?

[505] 12 o 'clock, go to lunch, 1230, line up for another muster, go to work in the afternoon, 5 o 'clock, go to dinner, 5 .30, go to another muster, and work the rest of the night.

[506] Or sometimes, 9 .30 or 10 o 'clock, have another muster.

[507] That was my life, seven days a week, except on Saturday you'd work on the grounds to beautify the base.

[508] Doesn't sound like a good time, Ron.

[509] It's a gray existence, Joe.

[510] Is it?

[511] How would you like to live that way?

[512] It doesn't sound good.

[513] It wasn't good.

[514] Were you stuck?

[515] Well, here's a thing.

[516] There were enough times when I did things that were good like we would do an album.

[517] And as a matter of fact, here's something that we didn't.

[518] I first got in, and there was a book that came out called Mission Earth that Elron Hubbard wrote.

[519] Edgar Winner, you remember Edgar Winter or no?

[520] Edgar Winner, Johnny Winter's brother?

[521] Yes.

[522] The musician?

[523] The musician, the rock guy.

[524] Yeah.

[525] Okay, Edgar came to the bass, and we did an album.

[526] I played on the album with him.

[527] Edgar Winner?

[528] Yeah, he was a Scientologist.

[529] He was?

[530] He probably still is.

[531] Wow.

[532] One of them's dead, right?

[533] Johnny's dead.

[534] Yeah, Johnny's dead.

[535] But Edgar, I mean, he was, you have no idea how good he is until you see him operate in the studio.

[536] Anyway, I played the trumpet parts on the album.

[537] I played solos and some of the stuff.

[538] The album, that was what I did, and it was a great time.

[539] Bust your ass working, but that's a good time.

[540] Right.

[541] Isaac Hayes.

[542] I used to do gigs with him.

[543] Of course, you know how you say he's great guy, and those were fun times.

[544] There were other things that we did that turned out good.

[545] But then there's time in between where you're working sometimes days on end.

[546] Okay, a couple days, no sleep.

[547] Working your ass off.

[548] And if you screwed up, it was hell to pay.

[549] What kind of work is being done?

[550] What is all the work?

[551] Okay, I'll give you an example.

[552] There's about six major events.

[553] that are done by the church every year.

[554] There's the, in New Year's, there's a major event, okay?

[555] And then in March, you have El Ron Hubbard's birthday.

[556] And then in May, you have Dianetics.

[557] What do you guys do for Elron's birthday?

[558] Well, there would be an event where you would show him in various aspects of life, improving life in some aspect.

[559] And we'd have a video on that.

[560] And we would have to write music for that.

[561] Sydney would have to shoot the pictures or take old pictures and produce these, edit them.

[562] We'd do music for it, and we'd have a product.

[563] So at an event, when David's doing an event, they could present this.

[564] When the anniversary of Dianetics, modern science, mental health, that was another event.

[565] Okay.

[566] So you're preparing for events, essentially.

[567] All the time.

[568] When you'd end one, you'd have to start the next one.

[569] In June, you have the anniversary of the maiden voyage.

[570] That was something we did every year.

[571] And then there's Auditors Day in August, all right?

[572] And then there's the International Association of Scientology event in October.

[573] So all this time, you're just constantly working, you're never hanging out with your son.

[574] You don't have any quality time together?

[575] Sometimes he would come to the base for two months and wouldn't even give me a phone call.

[576] Look, Joe, you got to understand.

[577] I wish the fuck this didn't turn out this way, okay?

[578] Just straight up.

[579] So do you feel responsible in any way for bringing him in?

[580] well everybody deals with life the way they deal with it my other son isn't that way and my daughters aren't that way it is your other son scientology as well he's out of scientology now did he quit with you he quit earlier than me and what about your daughters they're in they're in yes and if they're disconnected from them they're disconnected from me right you're not allowed to they're not allowed to talk to you well here's what happens though if they were to talk to me they're friends would disconnect from them if you have a job with a Scientology employer and they found out that you talk to me, you'd get fired that day.

[581] It's insidious.

[582] It spreads out.

[583] The penalty for talking to what's called a suppressive person, which would be me, like a real -life prick.

[584] As an example, when I was 70 years old, David and my two daughters bought me a car.

[585] Okay?

[586] A car.

[587] When I was 75 years old, my daughter sent me 75 gifts.

[588] now I left now I'm the worst father who's ever lived I'm a slime ball they character assassinate me on their hate sites they would give a cart to somebody who was that bad oh we made a mistake he really was a prick all along it doesn't make sense so if you're trying to make sense out of it it doesn't make sense but this is built into the policy of Scientology anybody who leaves could be and says anything about the church could be considered to be a suppressive person And was this always the case, or has this been exacerbated?

[589] Well, Elron Herbert wrote the policies while he was alive.

[590] He also wrote more fiction than anybody that's ever lived.

[591] Yeah.

[592] Does everybody know that inside the church?

[593] They probably do, yeah.

[594] But didn't they, does anybody make that connection?

[595] No. No. The guy wrote more fake shit than any person that's ever walked the face of the earth.

[596] But he also had the time to talk to the aliens to get all the...

[597] this data yeah to write this real stuff that's just that is uh that's that's that's a that's a suspension of disbelief that yeah defies logic well as I said it defies understanding yeah look okay as I said earlier just need to get to a higher OTC what is it is that it O T levels O T O T operating Thayton levels okay but you got to understand most people who do it don't have rocks in her head they're not nuts they're not stupid people no i've talked i had a neighbor who's a scientist a very nice guy yeah and he sort of fit that bill that i was talking about earlier sure go ahead he fit that bill that i was talking about earlier where he's a guy that's always improving himself he's healthy exercise he's well kept he was a nice neighbor he's a good guy and uh you know i was like all right i i sort of looked into scientology after i became friends with him You know, I mean, I got the book early on, like I said, but I never really did anything other than read the book.

[598] I never looked into, this is before the Internet, you know.

[599] The Internet sort of exposed all this stuff to a lot of people.

[600] That was the end of it.

[601] Yeah.

[602] That literally is the end of Scientology.

[603] And how much has it dropped off since then?

[604] Well, it's been estimated by people who would know that there's maybe 20 ,000 Scientologists right now.

[605] What was it at its peak?

[606] I think it was in the early 90s, about 100 ,000.

[607] Wow.

[608] Yeah.

[609] 20 ,000.

[610] That's like a good Louis C .K. concert.

[611] Well, the thing is, most people, like at that international base, are people who have been around for 25, 30, 30, 45, 40 years.

[612] Right.

[613] And you think, okay, how could you live this way?

[614] Look, most people are not going to do what I do.

[615] I was 76 years old when I left, okay?

[616] And you were 75 when they gave you 75 gifts.

[617] So you're like, this is not enough.

[618] I got to get the fuck out of here.

[619] I need...

[620] No. You mean not enough gifts?

[621] I should have gotten 76, right?

[622] Yeah.

[623] Listen, I was this...

[624] Well, actually, I'll tell you something that happened, and I brought this just to show you, and you got a little...

[625] What is that?

[626] It's a Kindle.

[627] Okay.

[628] Are you allowed to have those in there?

[629] No. Really?

[630] You can't have a Kindle?

[631] And I didn't know why.

[632] I didn't know why.

[633] What happened is this?

[634] David gave me this Kindle.

[635] And he's like, shh.

[636] And the security.

[637] guards were doing their nut trying to get it away from me but they wouldn't come in strong army because david is the man so david gave it to you and the security guards were trying to take it away from you why okay i didn't know did you tell him it was loaded up with elron hubbard books well it was it was his fiction books that he put in there for me battlefield earth no not battlefield earth nor mission earth but the other earlier fiction was on here which i i thought was pretty interesting but anyway they're trying to get this as hey fuck you man Dave gave me this is mine you know okay Ron they'd back off now one day I'm reading something and there's a feature on here where you see this is the camera on that now yeah okay you see this little switch here mm -hmm that goes this way this way up down okay and in so if you got a word that you'd like to look up and get the of you'd go to the library or not the library the dictionary and you'd select the word and press it to the right and it would say search store i accidentally held it a little bit too long and it went right past search store to google i was on the internet with no filter with your kindle with my kindle i what the fuck is this you didn't even know about the google back then I knew about the Google, but there was filter on all their computers.

[638] Oh, but you could go through it with that.

[639] There's no filter on this.

[640] Wow.

[641] And that's why the security guards were trying to get it.

[642] But they wouldn't tell me that.

[643] Obviously, they're not going to say, well, there's no filters so you can get on the Internet.

[644] I mean, these guys weren't that swift.

[645] They weren't the sharpest knives in the drawer, but...

[646] But how did they know then?

[647] How did they know about that feature?

[648] They're the ones who, if you get a computer, you give it to them, they put a filter on it, and then they give it back to you.

[649] Oh, okay.

[650] So they just never...

[651] So they got some techno geeks to how to do that shit.

[652] But they had never done that to the Kindle.

[653] But they wanted to.

[654] Oh, they wanted to take it away from me straight up.

[655] So did you start Googling stuff with your Kindle?

[656] I looked at Google.

[657] Now...

[658] This first time I told the story, by the way, Joe, this is an exclusive, you know.

[659] Oh, I'm excited.

[660] Yeah.

[661] Well, I'll tell you.

[662] One of the things I looked at was like Elron Hubbard's war record.

[663] He was not a hero.

[664] He didn't have two purple hearts.

[665] He's a fucking made -up.

[666] story.

[667] And there was a girl named Annie Tidman who was with Elron Hubbard when he died.

[668] Annie Tidman was a messenger with Elron Hubbard since she was a little girl.

[669] And she was with him when he actually died.

[670] So Annie was a long -term loyal Scientologist.

[671] She's at the base where I lived in Hammett, and she got lung cancer.

[672] so they sent her to Los Angeles to get care and they sent a girl down to be like a personal servant to take care of her needs so she'd be okay so occasionally I would say to Martin who's the medical liaison officer in other words she took care of our health and she'd have us go to the doctors and stuff I said Martine how's Annie doing oh Ronnie she's doing great yeah okay good I'm on a Kindle she died six months earlier never told anybody on the base.

[673] Now, we're living in these apartments on the base.

[674] This is it several days later.

[675] And there was a building called the laundry room where you took your clothes to get cleaned and pressed.

[676] You picked up sheets.

[677] Little amenities like that.

[678] And there's two girls outside the laundry room.

[679] And they said, Ronnie, would you want to chip in for a birthday present for Annie?

[680] I said, nah, I'm going to pass on it now.

[681] They thought, Jesus Christ.

[682] They either know, and they're keeping up the ruse or they don't know and they're being used as shills to make sure people think she's still alive well that was a major thing for me i then started to think i got to get out of here mind you i thought earlier things were starting to go south and we would have i give you an example here's what happened we're on the ship and we're playing for a show and we're playing for a show at one of these maiden voyages, anniversary things.

[683] And we have a guy there who's a, he's not a rap artist, but he's like a beatbox, you know.

[684] You know, he can use his voice like that, you know.

[685] So now Dougie's up there, and then he starts saying, you know, he says, I'll tell you, my kid was picked up by the cops the other day, but he's not really a bad kid, you know.

[686] He's hanging out with the wrong guys and blah, blah, blah.

[687] And he's all saying this shit that you don't say to this exclusion.

[688] audience.

[689] David hears that.

[690] To handle this, me and the rest of the band were sent to work in the bilges on the ship.

[691] Because he fucked up.

[692] We paid the price.

[693] What I should have done was kicked in the band, because I was directing the band, kicked in the band and start playing the music and drowned them out.

[694] You're going to build.

[695] The temperature down there is between 125 and 130 degrees.

[696] I'm in my 60s.

[697] It doesn't matter.

[698] shit like that would go on so when things like that would happen I thought man we can't live this way but my wife Becky she is an eternal optimist she would always say run it's going to get better it can't keep on going this way and I'd say Becky listen if you see a boulder rolling down a mountain that boulder is not going to stop and start rolling up it's going to get worse if things are going bad they have a tendency to continue going bad it's just fantastic to me that you found out all this information on Google.

[699] Yeah.

[700] And that you were shielded from all this stuff.

[701] Yeah.

[702] That's the craziest part.

[703] And you were 75 at the time?

[704] Somewhere in that range?

[705] I was in my 70s in that time.

[706] I think it was two years later that we actually escaped.

[707] So how did you escape?

[708] Well, first of all, I used to run the music department.

[709] And when I say run it, you know, I'd make sure we did all the jobs we were supposed to do.

[710] And I would compose music.

[711] I worked with a guy by the name of Peter Schles.

[712] And we had some nice shit that we did together.

[713] So at this point, you'd been in for how many years?

[714] 40 years?

[715] No, in the C organization, over 20 -some years.

[716] 20 -something years in the C -organization, and all -in -all Scientology, much more than that.

[717] Yeah, well, I was in Scientology for 42 years.

[718] This is your only source of income.

[719] Yeah, it's 50.

[720] Well, to begin with when I got in, we got $30 a week.

[721] And then...

[722] Generous.

[723] what's that generous well it went up to 50 it went up to 50 when you got paid when you got paid sometimes you get paid sometimes you go for months without getting paid at all now the downside of that is you ain't paying much in a social security so if you leave like some of these people will leave they got shit for social security they may have no no place to go no marketable skill no car what are they going to do right so that you know So they just stay?

[724] They stay.

[725] They gut it out.

[726] And that's in the position that you were in.

[727] What made you decide?

[728] Okay.

[729] Well.

[730] Just the Google information?

[731] No. It was the treatment, the way people were being treated.

[732] And some of the shit that went down, like.

[733] So would you been okay if they treated you well?

[734] And you still found out that that woman had been dead for six months, then El Ron Howard wasn't really a war hero?

[735] No, but I'll tell you why.

[736] If they had been actually disseminating this information and, people on this planet were doing better, and life was becoming better for large numbers of people, I don't know if I still might be there.

[737] In other words, if you could do something, would you...

[738] So if Scientology was really being effective in doing what you thought it was supposed to do, precisely.

[739] Which is help humanity.

[740] Precisely.

[741] Do you think that at the core that it's potential to help humanity is still there?

[742] You think that, like, like you were saying that the beginning stages of Scientology are beneficial, and there is something...

[743] like if they got all these beneficial things and just offered those the odds of that happening the odds now i'm talking about would be the same odds as me turning into a penguin right now it's not likely to happen not so likely not not very likely maybe you know and your son he's going to be running it forever does it there's absolutely nobody who's going to take over is it election like hasn't no fucking election he's he runs it and that's the end of it he's surrounded by people, I guess you'd call him psychophants or sycophants who just pump him up all the time.

[744] And if he says, you don't know what I'd like to have such and such.

[745] Maybe he might want a different car.

[746] They'll go out and get it for him.

[747] What are those people like?

[748] What are the people like that surround him that enable him to maintain his power?

[749] They feel that he is a power source and they support him.

[750] A power source because he's the, he runs the organization?

[751] Well, yeah, because he got his tax exemption.

[752] He'll do things.

[753] He's tough.

[754] uh he's he's actually david is a very smart guy if it weren't for this streak in him where he attained all this power and had this shit going on in scientology who knows he i think he could be successful at anything well i believe that as well i think anybody who gets to i mean it's really unfortunate but anybody gets to any even a position of being like a drug kingpin like Pablo Escobar.

[755] I'm sure he could have been successful at other things had he decided to focus his mind in that direction.

[756] You're exactly right.

[757] And that's how I feel.

[758] So you feel like your son just fucked up in getting on a path that is, in your eyes, illegitimate versus, you know, him being a CEO of IBM or something like that.

[759] You could say that.

[760] You could say that.

[761] And I'll tell you, I think you'd be, you would be correct.

[762] Not, I think.

[763] You would be.

[764] Do you ever talk to him about Scientology?

[765] don't bring it up you don't bring it up no i mean look take anybody with that much power do you think you can sit down and say now look what i think is what the fuck you're talking to me about i'm running his fucking show you know yeah but if it's your dad i would think you'd just sit down i didn't have that line with them i'm telling you no listen if you're a scientologist and you're at that level you are of the belief that no spiritual being is another spiritual being's mother or father or daughter or sister, you happen to be occupying a body that maybe was given to you by another person, but in your heart, you're actually an independent thinking life unit, an immortal one to boot, okay?

[766] Right, okay, but let me ask you this.

[767] Do people really believe that, or do they just kind of go along with it because everybody else is going along with it?

[768] Is there ever a time where you're alone with somebody else in the Sea Org, maybe you're setting up some video or something like that and someone goes hey man is this shit on the up and up very seldom very seldom but what it does happen why though I'll tell you why the walls of yours no fuck no you're telling this to somebody they might write a knowledge report on you a knowledge report now you're in deep shit okay Jamie I'm writing a knowledge report as soon as we leave here okay listen you might laugh but boy when it's happened it's serious shit I'm sure listen I'm sure and if it's found out later that he said this to you and you didn't write a knowledge report you are as culpable as he is for saying and what happens to you somebody writes a knowledge you're going for interrogation oh what do they do they talk to you sit you down in a meter tell you what are your crimes what what what evil purpose do you have toward david what evil purpose do you have toward elron hubbard what thoughts have you had about leaving what thoughts have you had about destroying the organization anything of a harmful nature what if you say man fuck this place what do you do the They kick you out?

[769] No. So how's that work?

[770] What if you get there?

[771] What if someone writes a knowledge report?

[772] And you go, you know what, man?

[773] I've been thinking, I got on Google.

[774] I started reading a bunch of stuff.

[775] I think it's all bullshit.

[776] I don't even want to be here anymore, man. And fuck all this working for 50 bucks a week.

[777] This is stupid.

[778] I don't want to do this anymore.

[779] Why are we all doing this?

[780] Why don't we just take the beginning parts of this and just get rid of all of stupid shit about, you know, separating from your children and make this thing better?

[781] What do you say?

[782] What would they do to you?

[783] Well, first of all, you wouldn't dare do that if you were at a place like I was at the international base, okay, which is Golden Air Productions in Hamid, California.

[784] Why, what would they do to you?

[785] They'd seize you.

[786] And then what happens?

[787] And you'd be sequestered from the rest of the group, put into a place where you weren't associating with the rest of the group.

[788] Right.

[789] You'd go to lunch at a different time.

[790] You'd have a security guard watching you morning, afternoon, and night.

[791] And you can never leave?

[792] That's right.

[793] What if you say?

[794] I just want to go home.

[795] I want to get out of here.

[796] I want to go get an apartment somewhere.

[797] Can't do it, man. You just can't do it.

[798] You'd be kept.

[799] It'd fucking physically keep you.

[800] It physically, like, hold you down.

[801] Like put you in a jail.

[802] Listen, and if the church, well, I'm sure they're going to heard this, but they're going to say, oh, Ron could have left any time you could.

[803] That's bullshit.

[804] That's complete bullshit.

[805] If I would have been caught what I was trying to leave, which I'm going to get into, I didn't forget we were talking about that.

[806] If I would have been caught, they would have taken me and Becky, taking the keys to my car, I would have been sequestered from her.

[807] her she'd been sequestered from me we would have both been security checked sit down with the hands on an e -meter which i'm sure you know what is yeah i did one of those once okay i don't really think it works you don't think it works sometimes it does okay but that's not the point you'd sit down with that and be interrogated and then you'd work maybe four or five hours away it's a manual labor and when you weren't doing that you'd be back on the on the cans again as they say what if you don't work what if you You're like, fuck you, I don't want to work.

[808] Yeah, like a difficult bastard, right?

[809] Yeah, like, what's ever happened?

[810] Is anybody ever rebelled?

[811] I mean, it's human nature to rebel against authority.

[812] Yeah, but...

[813] A certain amount of human nature to succumb, but...

[814] But when you're up at a place where you have three or 400 people who feel differently, you're not that brave, okay?

[815] But does anybody ever have the gumption or the notion to go, hey, what the fuck are we doing?

[816] Does that ever happen?

[817] Okay, maybe...

[818] well no what they do is they escaped like i did that's it they don't they don't speak up well if they speak up they know what they're in for right they know what they're in for who the here there was a guy named alex he wanted to route out it took him four fucking years to route out route out that's what they call it wouldn't you that's the proper way to leave where you sit down and you do this routing for him it's basically security checking you till you're you know for years once you say if you sign a five -year car contract.

[819] Would you say there's, is that possible?

[820] A five -year contract?

[821] You would be at an outer org.

[822] There, you just walk out of the fucking place, and people do that.

[823] An outer org, but you can't do that at the C -org.

[824] Well, not.

[825] You could in Los Angeles.

[826] But at the international base, you're living on a compound.

[827] You're surrounded with barbed wire pointing in and pointing out.

[828] You're not going to jump that fence, or you'll really screw yourself on.

[829] But if you say, say if you sign a five -year contract, when the fifth year is up, you get to leave yeah okay they're gonna try to get you to reenlist okay but if you're at let's say you're working at one of the organizations in l .A. okay okay you can walk out in the street and say hey see you later what are they going to do because you're you're in the free world you're in the free world you're not in the free world at the international base I understand all right so you had to plot some sort of an out so you had to think about it and then you had to work with the wife and you guys had to like hush hush right and you asked me well let's to that well there's one major thing that led to it and that was this we got a new music director i didn't want to have the post anymore i was getting old and got this young guy and i would write melodies all day all week months every melody i ever wrote was rejected by him in other words everything i was doing was a piece of shit but i couldn't quit so this new guy was not fun to work with terrible it was terrible listen I was the only one who had gotten a recording contract on my own steam nobody gave it to me I didn't have a rich daddy or something a contract with chapels publishing for my writing and asked to play on the BBC nobody had achieved that in that department now maybe my skills weren't up to how they write modern music and I used to beg him I said listen what do you want as an acceptable particle I'm a trained musician let me give me some ideas what you want and I'll start writing that fuck you learn it just like I didn't this is I was treated well does this sound like a fun time so you couldn't talk to your son and say hey kid listen it's fucking new guy sucks wait a man I did that I called him and I called him and I said Dave you got to get together with me right so we got together and said look I'm working all day long and nothing I'm doing is being approved you got to get me a different job I says I don't care if you get me a job waxing cars in motorpool but I want to do something so at the end of the day you can say here's what he did okay right I get it he says I'll look into it he never looked into it a couple months later I said the Becky look we're getting the fuck out of here then we started planning so what was your plan as far as like getting a job because you had been working there for 25 years well I'm a I'm a good musician I'm not just a punk I mean I play quite a bit of jobs in Milwaukee so you had skills I have skills oh yeah I'm a good salesman too you know um i also here's how i look okay i'm 76 years old i want to spend the rest of my life suffering out every day fuck this right i'm getting the shit i'm getting out of here right got it and becky finally says okay and she saw the writing on the wall that it wasn't going to get better right so now we don't want to leave and leave everything behind because what little possessions we had was what we had all right so we started by the way i mentioned a little earlier that my daughter sent me 75 gifts on my 75th birthday right yeah becky came up with the idea my mother is going to celebrate by the way my wife younger than me my first wife i divorced him and married a much younger woman so her mother is going to have her 70th birthday so we decide to send her mother 70 gifts now in order to do this it has to through the security guards so we would send her like a detailing kit for a car i mean her chances of detailing a car as a gift were nil to none but they saw that okay we're sending her 70 gifts so it got through them we sent her our line elron hubbard library books that we had some other things and we got a lot of stuff out of there that i couldn't fit in a car when we were going oh you see what i'm saying smart and then after all we said and done when we got everything out of there we plotted it out and I did this on Sunday mornings on Sunday mornings you had breakfast at 9 o 'clock now we lived on the southern side of the base and we lived in rooms you couldn't have a refrigerator you couldn't have a coffee maker there but across the street on the north side I worked in the studio there was a refrigerator there and I used to keep like Italian salami, maybe suprasat, some Parmesan cheese, Romano cheese.

[830] So early Sunday morning at 9 o 'clock, and I planned this out because there's two gates.

[831] There's one main gate where there's a security guard sitting in a boot, and then down the road about 200 yards, there's another gate where there's a little camera, and they see you coming, and they got used to me going across to the north side to go to the studio, and I'd come back through the main gate and bring the security guards a piece of cheese or salami.

[832] So they thought, hey, Sunday morning he's going to get his goodies.

[833] In other words, I'm feeding the watchdogs.

[834] This is set up, right?

[835] So it comes the day we're going to leave.

[836] March 25th, 2012.

[837] We get up real early, and I had a little notebook.

[838] I must have checked it 20 times what I wanted to take, what I wanted to leave behind.

[839] Like the night before.

[840] And by the way, my biggest cover on being able to get out of there, was the fact that I was 76 years old and I was the father of the chairman of the board.

[841] Nobody would suspect that I was going to leave unauthorizedly.

[842] All right?

[843] Okay.

[844] So I'm out with a mesh bag full of shoes putting in the car and one of the security guards can buy on his bicycle, an Italian guy, Sal.

[845] Hey, Ronnie, how you doing that?

[846] Good, you know.

[847] And he sees me putting this in, but he justifies it in his mind.

[848] Oh, he's putting stuff in his car.

[849] Right.

[850] Doesn't think twice why I'm doing it.

[851] Of course.

[852] Another guy's coming by, an old -time Scientologist.

[853] I have a bag of clothes I'm putting in the car.

[854] Ronnie, how's it going?

[855] Good deal, Norm.

[856] Yeah.

[857] All right, you know, put it in the car.

[858] So we got through all that.

[859] Okay.

[860] So now, Sunday morning, 9 o 'clock, we get in the car, we're loaded up, and we're driving down.

[861] To get to that second gate is about a half mile down the road.

[862] We go there, and I'm going past our mess hall where we would eat, and this is called Massacre Canyon Inn, or MCI, it's where the crew would eat their meals.

[863] And I see the chase car.

[864] Like on Sunday morning, there's only two security guards on duty.

[865] One is in the main boot, and the other one is in a car so he can rove.

[866] And it's called a chase car.

[867] Okay.

[868] So the chase car is parked outside of the mess hall.

[869] I knew Sal was in there.

[870] So I go around another 100 yards down the road, get to the gate.

[871] And by the way, at this point, my heart is in my throat.

[872] all right because if you when i hit that buzzer if you're going to have said come up to the boot that was it that was fucked okay hit the buzzer didn't say anything the gate opens i pulled out of the gate as becky were turning left so i turned left jammed the throttle and i knew i had to make it down to these there's three roads one goes to route 60 straight ahead rather the other one goes to route 10 and if i turn left i go in the hammet I knew by the time I'm going down the road, and he was trying to get me in the next tail run.

[873] What the hell are you doing?

[874] Then he'd call Sal.

[875] Sal, get up to the booth, pronto.

[876] I know Sal would have to run out, get in the car.

[877] I'd already be at those crossroads or the tree roads.

[878] So I knew when Sal came, he'd either turn right or go straight ahead.

[879] I turned left, went in the Hammett.

[880] We hit the boondocks, and I was free.

[881] Wow.

[882] So what did you do then?

[883] We drove to Wisconsin.

[884] Did you have money on you?

[885] Yeah, I had money on me. And I paid for everything cash, Joe.

[886] You only get $50 a week.

[887] How long did you save money?

[888] Well, I was also getting Social Security, so I would salt that away.

[889] All right.

[890] Very low amount, by the way.

[891] Right, because you weren't making much money.

[892] Yeah, it's just bullshit.

[893] Right.

[894] But anyway, I paid for gas with cash.

[895] We ate for cash.

[896] We stayed in a motel two nights.

[897] It paid cash.

[898] Because you couldn't use your credit cards because they'd be able to track you.

[899] Exactly.

[900] So when you finally surfaced, how'd you surface?

[901] I went to her mother's place.

[902] And then what happens then?

[903] Did they try to get you?

[904] Well, here's what happens.

[905] No, believe me. Do they try to bring you back?

[906] You know, look, Ron, it's been a big misunderstanding.

[907] Oh, here's how it went.

[908] About two weeks later, we're sitting in her mother's house, and it's a split level where there's an upstairs and downstairs in the kitchen, the window was almost level with the ground.

[909] Do you know how a split level goes?

[910] And I'm looking out the window.

[911] We're having breakfast coffee.

[912] And I see his girl outside Marion And I thought, fuck, okay, they found me So I went through the garage outside And there's Greg Woolhair And he says Ah, Ronnie, I guess you're surprised That took us so long to get here Ha ha ha ha We thought you're gonna go to Laurie's place You never thought you'd come here Ha ha ha ha ha Like nothing happened, you know?

[913] Right So he says, okay So I said, Greg, listen You're just wasting your time I'm not going back And he says, Ron I says, hey, I don't want to live that life man it was a terrible fucking life I'm not doing it again he says you blue that's a term they use if you leave without authorization and he pulled out this policy it's called leaving and leaves and what it says leaving in leaves leaving and leaves that's the name of it and what it says in there substantially is this the only reason a person leaves a group is because they have committed harmful acts against the group and they want to remove themselves so they don't keep on committing harmful acts against the group how convenient no shit you can't just leave because you want to leave you have to be a bad guy or the fact that you know you're working maybe 12 14 16 hours a day sometimes not going to sleep for three days but you got that raise to 50 bucks a week i shouldn't have done it's a nice raise so you've you what do you do then when they say you're not going back well they try to convince me and it got to the point and I said, guys, you're wasting your time.

[914] I am not going back.

[915] And I went in town, and I saw him a couple times, and they says, come on, we'll take you out to a nice place to eat.

[916] We'll take you into a movie.

[917] Like, they're going to schmooze me into going back to live that life.

[918] Greg says to me, Ronnie, look, you can go to Flag.

[919] You'll have your own apartment.

[920] You have a kitchen.

[921] We know you like the cook.

[922] And then you can train some of the guys that sell.

[923] You can play with the band down there.

[924] I said, Greg, you're out of your fucking mind.

[925] You get me down there.

[926] It's going to be the same thing.

[927] No, it won't, Ronnie.

[928] And went on.

[929] So do you think they were just trying to bullshit you?

[930] Not what I think, absolutely.

[931] So if you got there, there'd be no apartment.

[932] They'd punish you right out of the knowledge report.

[933] You can't do this.

[934] Yeah.

[935] Why do they want you to stay?

[936] Why do they give a fuck if you leave?

[937] Because I would be what they consider to be a sensitive particle.

[938] Like these guys that were following me. A particle?

[939] Oh, here's what I mean by that.

[940] Like Dwayne Powell and Daniel Powell.

[941] Well, I was a father of the chairman of the board.

[942] Right.

[943] That's a blight.

[944] I mean...

[945] Did you ever talk to your son after this?

[946] I tried to call him once.

[947] I tried to call him after I found out the PIs were following me, and after I heard that you got on the phone and said, if he dies, let him die, don't intervene, don't do anything.

[948] This is what you heard, right?

[949] Well, you can hear it too.

[950] There's recording.

[951] Tony Ortega's, yeah, absolutely.

[952] Tony Ortega underground bunker, and you can hear these interviews.

[953] Okay, okay.

[954] They're as public as you're going to get.

[955] But you don't hear his actual words.

[956] No. So there'd be no reason that this guy would make up that story.

[957] Yeah, but people do make things up, right?

[958] Well, okay, let's put it this way.

[959] But I'm just playing devil's advocate.

[960] You can play devil's advocate.

[961] The father was interrogated to begin with.

[962] He told the same story.

[963] The son came in later, didn't have a chance to talk to his father, told the same story.

[964] Okay.

[965] So you haven't had a chance to talk to your son?

[966] I called and an attorney got in the phone and said, Ron, David won't talk to you.

[967] He doesn't feel he could trust you.

[968] Now, let me ask you this, as a father, because I'm a father and you're a father, the idea of being estranged from your kids in that way where your kid hates you and your kid doesn't want anybody to save you if you die, do you feel any remorse?

[969] Do you feel like in any way you fucked up?

[970] Do you ever look at your life and go, how did I lose my connection with my son?

[971] Listen It's written in policy To do what David did There's a policy that says Listen, somebody who leaves I understand that entirely But I'm talking about as a human being As a human being I thought it was terrible Because we had a good life together But do you feel any responsibility Do you feel like there's anything You could have done differently?

[972] Yeah, not get him in Scientology That's it?

[973] Yeah So you feel like once he got into Scientology It's not your fault He lives his life He's the one who got the power to do all these things.

[974] I understand, but you raised them, right?

[975] I mean, whatever connection and bond that you developed with him.

[976] We had a great life together when he was growing up, too.

[977] That didn't carry forth in some way.

[978] You know what I'm saying?

[979] I mean, obviously I'm not in Scientology, and obviously I was not in your situation.

[980] Yeah.

[981] But I can't imagine that you must have gone over it and looked at your communications with him and wondered if maybe if you extended yourself more, if you talked more, Is there something you could have done that would have prevented any of this?

[982] Joe, you're dreaming.

[983] I don't mind telling you that, okay?

[984] Please do.

[985] I'm doing it with all respect, okay, because you do good interviews.

[986] I've seen you do other interviews, and I'm happy you've got me on the show.

[987] No, I couldn't have done anything different, except maybe not get him in Scientology.

[988] So you feel like once he got the power, that would, listen, there's policy that El Ron Hubbard wrote.

[989] And David loved El Ron Hubbard, and he.

[990] He applies the policy to a tea.

[991] Does David believe all that stuff?

[992] Does he believe in the...

[993] Well, he's got to.

[994] There's a policy called Fair Game.

[995] Are you familiar with that?

[996] No. What's that?

[997] Fair game.

[998] If somebody goes against the church or talks out against the church and they're declared a suppressive person, he can be lied to, tricked to, and destroyed with no punishment on the person who did it.

[999] But that's not what I mean.

[1000] What I mean is the really crazy stuff.

[1001] Like the stuff that sounds like science fiction about like the Thetons and dropping them in a volcano and the hydrogen bomb and all that stuff.

[1002] Does everybody believe that stuff?

[1003] I think a lot of people do believe it.

[1004] Is it discussed?

[1005] No, you don't discuss that.

[1006] No one discusses.

[1007] So when you're sitting around the C -org?

[1008] But no, let's get back to what's pertinent to this.

[1009] And that's the policy, how to operate as a group.

[1010] That one, the fair game policy, is written.

[1011] And by the way, just to satisfy you, I'll send you soft copies if you can give you your email.

[1012] It's okay.

[1013] Okay, here's another one.

[1014] If a person does this, find or manufacture data about the person.

[1015] Okay, so once you've become their enemy, you left them, you left them, you're, you know, you're the dad of the chairman of the board, you're a sensitive particle, you got a real problem.

[1016] That's right.

[1017] Okay.

[1018] So you said they took out a bunch of different website addresses?

[1019] Not a bunch, 500.

[1020] In other words, they got 500 iterations of my name, variations.

[1021] So no matter what you put in, and by the way, I have a website, which I did just in, and it's called the real Ron Miscavage .com.

[1022] Okay.

[1023] And you could see my website, but if you put any other thing in there, you're going to get a hate site that tells you things about me that you think I was the worst person who ever lived.

[1024] Did you write this book?

[1025] What was the motivation?

[1026] Did you want to make money?

[1027] Absolutely not.

[1028] I wanted to help more.

[1029] But you did make money, right?

[1030] You made some money.

[1031] Yeah, but that isn't the reason.

[1032] of writing a book.

[1033] The reason to write it is...

[1034] That's the only reason I'd write a book.

[1035] Well, not me. The hundreds of families that are disconnected from their kids.

[1036] I understand.

[1037] And listen, I knew if I...

[1038] And by the way, what led me to write it was not even him saying, if he dies, let him die.

[1039] I then took a CD with these interrogations on of Daniel Powell and Dwayne Powell.

[1040] And my wife and I drove down to Florida to see my daughters.

[1041] And I was going to play these for them because now they're disconnected from me so i went to my daughter's daughter laurie's she's not home i went to denise's place her husband jerry answered the door answered the door about that far and he's talking to me i said jerry i'd like to speak to denise well you can't because she's not here i said well look where is she because i got to get in communication with her he says no you have to go to the church and handle it with the church i said jerry for christ's in as well everybody you have yeah they are if your wife's in you have to be in is that that works It basically is.

[1042] So he said, no, you got to handle it with them.

[1043] And I said, it's a waste of time.

[1044] So I'm talking for about 20 minutes.

[1045] And I finally said, Jerry, what's up?

[1046] What does this mean?

[1047] He's, well, I'll tell you why.

[1048] Denise and I are through with you and Becky forever.

[1049] That was it.

[1050] You know, fuck you.

[1051] I'm going to do a book, and I'm going to expose what you do to people.

[1052] Because if I did a blog, who am I?

[1053] I'm going to get maybe a couple thousand people to look at this blog.

[1054] But a book I knew that I could get, and I was on 20 -20.

[1055] I was on a Megan Kelly show.

[1056] I was on late night with Seth Myers.

[1057] So we got a lot of exposure, a lot of books, a lot of people are seeing what they did.

[1058] And I'm just hoping enough people do this so they're going to drop that disconnection policy, because that's a killer.

[1059] So do you think if they drop the disconnection policy, maybe a lot of the other policies would be more tolerable?

[1060] I think if they dropped the disconnection policy, and allowed you to talk to your family, listen, if they wanted to do Scientology and I could still talk to them, I wouldn't give a shit.

[1061] I'd say, fine, do what you want to do.

[1062] Look.

[1063] But wouldn't it bother you that they can't leave?

[1064] No, they're public.

[1065] Because they're not in the Sea Org.

[1066] They're not in the Sea Org.

[1067] But you can't really leave if you're public.

[1068] Like, was Leah Remini in the Sea Org?

[1069] No, she's a public Scientologist.

[1070] Right, but when she left, she took her whole family with her.

[1071] So they didn't get a chance to, you know, pick them out and say, look, you've got to disconnect from Leah.

[1072] That is, like, one of the things that is, like, the hallmark operation of problematic organizations, right?

[1073] They separate you from your family?

[1074] I think it's terrible.

[1075] I think it's the worst thing you can do to a person.

[1076] Look, and I'm not 45 fucking years anymore, okay?

[1077] Right.

[1078] I'm 81 years old in January.

[1079] I would like to see my family.

[1080] I would like to have some time.

[1081] We got pictures of my great -grandchildren on their Facebooks.

[1082] I've never met these kids.

[1083] I don't even know what their names are.

[1084] Son of a bitch.

[1085] I mean...

[1086] And you feel like your kids are going to be in there forever?

[1087] Yeah.

[1088] And they've never expressed any dissatisfaction?

[1089] Well, when I was in the Seorg, I was not around them.

[1090] We would only communicate through letters or they would send each other gifts on birthdays or Christmas or something.

[1091] I couldn't get leaves to see them.

[1092] At one point, my daughter, Lori, went to see David and said, listen, if dad can't come to see us, we would like to go to see him.

[1093] So he exceeded.

[1094] Just imagine she had to ask him if it's okay to come and see me. And they came to Celebrity Center, and we sent up seven about four days together and just having a good time, me cooking and just enjoying their company.

[1095] It just, the whole scene is really bad.

[1096] It's just not okay.

[1097] And it's the way it's set up It's built into the fucking DNA As to how to control people And you have a threat You have extortion, you have leverage And that's what that is That is why I wrote the book When you look back on your life Joining this in the 1970s 1970s?

[1098] When you look back in your life And you You think about that move That initial move of joining What goes on in your head I don't think about it because there's nothing I can do about it but I can tell you this I wouldn't have done it in other words if I knew then what I knew now I say hey you don't fuck you man I'm not doing this what do you think I'm nuts did new people join all the time I can't imagine there's very many new people joining right now you know unless there are a shepherd or somebody like that or somebody who's never looked at the internet you can't possibly and this is what people do that check something out they'll google it that's very common and you start looking at anything oh do i want to get involved in this you know by the way in the book i give references the books that were written in the late 1800s early 1900s the new thought movement and there's many many many many datums about life that if you were a scientologist and you see these is wait a minute elron hubber used to say this all right talking about the reactive mind.

[1099] Do you remember that from Dianetics?

[1100] William Atkinson and the other guys, they talk about its subconscious mind.

[1101] It records 24 hours a day.

[1102] They're talking about the same thing he was.

[1103] Well, Lawrence Wright talked about that and going clear.

[1104] He said that it seems like at least some of what was going on was Elron Hubbard trying to self -medicate.

[1105] That he was writing things to try to cure his own ills.

[1106] Probably, yeah.

[1107] But these people, I mean, you can go on the Internet.

[1108] and get these books for 99 cents because it's past 75 years you can't you can't copyright them right and of course you wouldn't know if you weren't a scientologist you wouldn't know which parts that he took out of that but i've run across many many things in the books that he just lifted almost copied and pasted it and put it into what he called scientology yeah well i mean if he's trying to get a great collection of work on how to work the mind how the mind works and it worked then so you know it would work now and so there is something to some of some of the principles that's what you've always said not a question about it and you think to this day that if you could remove a lot of it if you could filter it down to those things that are provably workable do you think it's savable do you think like let's say this what if you know your son listens to this podcast and he's like what the fuck this like this world who knows this life is not going to last forever what am i doing i can't even talk to my dad what maybe i've maybe i've lost my way maybe i get together with him we try to figure this out yeah and he says what can we do to make this better i know i'm talking crazy but i know i'm talking that's okay what the hell you know let's just as an exercise what would you do if he said let's talk it out I'll talk to them.

[1109] I'll talk to anybody anytime about anything.

[1110] If he said, listen, no new people are joining in Scientology.

[1111] We've got a real problem.

[1112] What do you think is the beneficial aspects of it that we should keep and we should we get rid of?

[1113] And I think he would come up with the things that I come up with also.

[1114] And so you have wrote about those in this book?

[1115] I tell about four points you could do and you could salvage it.

[1116] But the chances of that happening are just so remote.

[1117] I wouldn't bet two cents on it.

[1118] Well, we're not even trying to bet on it.

[1119] But do you think that that is, just what happens with people they get into these positions you create an ideology or you well no it's the power it's the acquisition of power and then in order to keep that power because I think power is almost like a drug that's almost like crack cocaine you get hooked on it you don't want to let go of it right and now you have things going to hell around you you're going to do anything you can perceive to be beneficial to keep it going and start implementing that and like buying new buildings and just making them into these palaces for people to come and do services and then you drive by them and there's nobody in them just nobody in them where are they getting all the money to buy these buildings people donate it but there's only 20 ,000 people yeah but you have whales man there are people inside a whale you just call them well I'm calling them a whale and as a matter fact it's like a gambling term it is it's somebody who goes to Las Vegas and yeah they got a lot of and they blow it all they get crazy come on Seven, right?

[1120] Yeah.

[1121] That's a whale.

[1122] Yeah.

[1123] Okay.

[1124] Well, you have people in there, and I feel no need to mention their names.

[1125] I'll tell you off the air, but I don't want to throw them.

[1126] But there's a lot of very wealthy people, and they donated a ton of cash.

[1127] One guy had a medical procedure.

[1128] He sold for something like $2 .4 billion.

[1129] Who knows?

[1130] He probably gave about $50 or $60 million to the church.

[1131] And the church...

[1132] What does he get for that?

[1133] Do they take them around one of those things like one of those...

[1134] old school king things no what are those things called they carry around well's carts i don't get a bunch of dudes that's pretty cool yeah do you remember uh that'll be dope history of the world part one madeline con was on it yes yeah one of those what are those things called they carry around i don't know but i'll i'll check it out and i'll send you an email you know but anyway jim you'll look it up look no they get a huge trophy okay oh you get a trophy for 50 million like six feet tall and you go on the stage and get your picture taking with David, and he congratulate you.

[1135] What about those, like, big dinner plate gold medals that, is it called a litter?

[1136] Wow, like, how weird.

[1137] A litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human power transport.

[1138] A simple litter often called a king carrier consists of a sling attached along to lengths of poles or stretched inside a frame.

[1139] Interesting.

[1140] Now you know.

[1141] It's called a litter.

[1142] I would have never guessed.

[1143] A litter.

[1144] No, I wouldn't have either.

[1145] How weird.

[1146] Like, what does Tom Cruise have to get to get one of those giant -ass gold medals?

[1147] it's bigger than the Olympics.

[1148] Oh, the Medal of Valor.

[1149] Oh, Valor.

[1150] Well, that's a different situation.

[1151] Let me tell you something.

[1152] Tell me something.

[1153] When you're a celebrity of his stature, there's no rules.

[1154] No rules?

[1155] No, you're cater to...

[1156] What about a celebrity of my stature, like a minor league celebrity?

[1157] What kind of sweet perks could I get?

[1158] You'd be pampered.

[1159] Ooh.

[1160] You'd be pampered, yeah.

[1161] Like good seats at a restaurant or something like that?

[1162] Well, good seats at an event.

[1163] Look at that.

[1164] Look at that.

[1165] Juicy gold medal.

[1166] That's beautiful.

[1167] Yeah.

[1168] I might join just get a nice.

[1169] metal.

[1170] Man, I'll tell you.

[1171] Stand in front of that big globe.

[1172] Hmm.

[1173] And I'll tell you, that set is put together.

[1174] I bet.

[1175] That takes a lot of work.

[1176] I bet.

[1177] Look at that handsome bastard.

[1178] Perfect cheeks.

[1179] Good nose structure.

[1180] Guy's 55 years old.

[1181] He looks great.

[1182] Yeah.

[1183] How they keeping him alive?

[1184] He looks great.

[1185] Like, he's one of those guys that doesn't look like he's aging.

[1186] I know, no. He probably works out.

[1187] Well, I'm sure he works out.

[1188] He's got to work out.

[1189] When I...

[1190] He's a great actor, right?

[1191] Admit to that, right?

[1192] He is.

[1193] He is good.

[1194] Tomorrow?

[1195] Do you ever see that?

[1196] Science Fiction movie?

[1197] No, I never did.

[1198] That's what it's called, right?

[1199] The Edge of Tomorrow?

[1200] The one when he keeps coming back to life again?

[1201] Yeah, lived, I repeat the kind of.

[1202] That's a fucking great movie.

[1203] I think he's so wacky that a lot of his movies, they don't get the credit they deserve.

[1204] Yeah.

[1205] You know what I mean?

[1206] Because he's so wacky, people are like, oh, this motherfucker.

[1207] Well, no, he's a draw.

[1208] And people enjoy watching the Mac.

[1209] I mean, there's no two ways about it.

[1210] That's not what I'm saying.

[1211] What I'm saying is I think that people don't respect the movie as much, like people that are real connoisseurs, a film that's a fantastic science fiction movie and what's it called the edge of tomorrow it's really good three years ago maybe four something like that wow it's a great movie man but i feel like if someone with no controversy attached to them was the star of that movie would been critically acclaimed it's an amazing film it doesn't have any holes in it it's really good well i tell you there's controversy attached to him isn't there there's a little bit yeah if you said there wasn't you'd be glib don't be glib don't be glib well i I know he works out.

[1212] When he got a house in Beverly Hills, I put the gym in.

[1213] I got the equipment for the gym in that house.

[1214] Well, he's a winner.

[1215] I mean, he's just a winner.

[1216] And he attributes a lot of those winning attitudes to Scientology.

[1217] Yeah.

[1218] I mean, a lot of his focus and the way he looks at things.

[1219] That's what I always think of when I used to think of before I started researching it and finding all the wacky stuff.

[1220] But before I knew what Scientology was, I thought of it.

[1221] being like, I thought of Dianetics, right?

[1222] I thought Dianetics was sort of like Anthony Robbins, unlimited power, like, oh, this is like a guideline for getting your shit together.

[1223] And that's what I've always wanted to do my whole life.

[1224] I've always felt like, ah, I wish I was more disciplined.

[1225] I wish I got my shit together more.

[1226] Maybe I need to read more books, and so I'd read Anthony Robbins, and then I read Dianetics.

[1227] I thought they were kind of the same thing back in the day.

[1228] Well, Anthony Robbins did steal some things from Scientology.

[1229] There's no two ways about it.

[1230] No. And there's also another thing called Est.

[1231] Yes, I've heard of that.

[1232] That used some of the scientific.

[1233] I know a guy's in that right now.

[1234] Is that a cult too?

[1235] It is, but I mean.

[1236] They're a little bit more.

[1237] Look, I don't know too much about it, but I know that there are some people who've done it who felt they had a lot of good wins out of it, okay?

[1238] Well, that's the thing, right?

[1239] Like, when you look at a guy like Tom Cruise, it's kind of undeniable that that guy is very successful, very driven, motivated, right?

[1240] Yeah, but don't forget, it wasn't just Scientology that did it for him.

[1241] Got talent.

[1242] he is a talented individual.

[1243] I remember the first one he did about, he was a kid at the Valley Forge Military Academy.

[1244] I forget what it's called now.

[1245] Taps.

[1246] Taps, yeah.

[1247] And when I saw that at that, man, I like this guy.

[1248] Well, he's in that pony boy movie too, right?

[1249] What the fuck was that called?

[1250] Outsiders, yeah.

[1251] He was in that too.

[1252] It's a great actor.

[1253] Yeah, and he did one with Paul Newman where he was a pool shark.

[1254] Remember that?

[1255] Color of Money.

[1256] One of my favorite movies.

[1257] No, I mean, there's no toys about it.

[1258] And individually, I mean, I met him many times.

[1259] He's a nice guy.

[1260] So does he have any knowledge of all this stuff When he sees all this disconnection and if he's a nice guy Why doesn't he step in and go hey Dave we got to fucking cut this shit Listen I can't imagine that he doesn't know about it I can't imagine that And so he just like a guy like you separated from your family It's beyond his control It's with LRH wants He would never do anything to go against Dave Why is that He considers David to be the top Spiritual being on his planet Look at there saluting each other Yep, that's...

[1261] Jesus.

[1262] That's, at the event...

[1263] Are they in the military?

[1264] Pardon me?

[1265] Are they in the military?

[1266] Are they?

[1267] Yeah.

[1268] No, this is...

[1269] So why are they saluting each other?

[1270] I'm just curious.

[1271] The fuck's going on there.

[1272] Okay, the sea organization.

[1273] When I see you in the morning, I want to...

[1274] We're saluting from now on.

[1275] We're going to salute each other.

[1276] Fuck it.

[1277] If he could do it.

[1278] Yeah.

[1279] How does that work?

[1280] Could anybody salute anybody or is that rude?

[1281] Is it like cultural appropriation?

[1282] It's like a person walking around with a Pocahontas outfit on.

[1283] Can people get mad at you?

[1284] No, anybody can salute another person.

[1285] You might say, you might say, see somebody going off from the plane and say, hey, have a good trip.

[1286] Yeah, but you would do it like almost in tongue and cheek, a jest.

[1287] Hey, you fucking animal, you.

[1288] I love you.

[1289] Okay, so the sea organization is a military -type organization, and you would salute people in the military.

[1290] But it's just non -ironic saluting outside of the military.

[1291] It just seems awful, odd.

[1292] Yeah.

[1293] And, yeah.

[1294] Well, there's a lot of things odd about it, but for whatever reason, it's kept on going.

[1295] Yeah.

[1296] Well, I think that's one of the reasons why.

[1297] That man right there, Tom Cruise.

[1298] Oh, yeah.

[1299] People look at him and go, this guy's in it.

[1300] He's a winner.

[1301] Well, now, here's what Elaron Hubbard said, that if we should get celebrities in because they are opinion leaders.

[1302] And what do you do with an opinion leader?

[1303] You want to be like that person.

[1304] Right.

[1305] And if an opinion leader is a Scientologist, well, I'm going to try this out.

[1306] I'm going to try out Scientology.

[1307] What's John Travolta like?

[1308] Very nice guy.

[1309] Seems like a nice guy.

[1310] He's literally a nice guy.

[1311] And so there's something those guys are getting out of it.

[1312] Yeah, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley and people like that.

[1313] They get auditing and they get pampered and they don't have to follow money rules.

[1314] So for them, it's almost like they're a part of like a gang or something.

[1315] You're in a click.

[1316] You're in a click.

[1317] You're in a click.

[1318] Everybody kisses your ass.

[1319] It's nice.

[1320] Nobody wants to piss you off.

[1321] Right.

[1322] If you get pissed off like Leah, well, with Leah, she saw shit.

[1323] go on and shelley was not there with david when he were at tom cruz's wedding and she said to tommy davis where's shelly and tommy davis says listen you don't have the fucking rank to ask that question oh you got to get a higher rank i thought that was like o t whatever that was a figure of speech okay if he would have said look at shelly's off doing a correction program that's why she's not here lea might still be in scientology oh so a correction program is shelly fucked up That's right.

[1324] And everybody in Scientology knows sometimes C .org member isn't seeing if you say, well, doing a correction program, they'd go, oh, okay.

[1325] And that would be it.

[1326] So the mistake was they disrespected Leah.

[1327] And she's very fiery.

[1328] Not a little bit, really fiery.

[1329] She's from Brooklyn.

[1330] She's very fiery.

[1331] She's a great person, too.

[1332] I'll tell you.

[1333] You know how I met Leah?

[1334] How'd you meet her?

[1335] I was in Celebrity Center in what's called the president's office.

[1336] office, and I was there for some event many years ago.

[1337] Is there an election?

[1338] No. So how does someone get to be president?

[1339] No, it's just, you're given the post of the president of that organization.

[1340] Oh, okay.

[1341] Yeah, it's just granted.

[1342] Now, Leah comes walking out of this room, and she said, I got the part.

[1343] I said, what do you mean you got the part?

[1344] She says, I got the part.

[1345] I says, who are you?

[1346] She says, my name is Leah.

[1347] I got the part in this new show called the King of Queens.

[1348] Hey, congratulations.

[1349] You have her hug.

[1350] That's how I met her.

[1351] The day she got the part.

[1352] And we've been good buddies ever since.

[1353] I met her real close to that time as well.

[1354] Yeah?

[1355] I'm good buddies with Kevin James.

[1356] Oh.

[1357] And Kevin James was, you know, obviously the lead of the King and Queens.

[1358] And he's a stand -up comic.

[1359] We came up together.

[1360] And, you know, I had always, I was like, what is she a Scientologist or something?

[1361] He's like, yeah, she's all focused.

[1362] She does all the Scientology shit.

[1363] He goes, ah, get the fucking hot.

[1364] He goes, yeah, but he's a funny man. He's a very funny guy.

[1365] He's hilarious.

[1366] Yeah.

[1367] And he just was like, oh, I don't know what the fuck's going on.

[1368] And that was it.

[1369] Like, he didn't talk about it.

[1370] She didn't talk about it.

[1371] I know.

[1372] And the show went on no matter why.

[1373] Yeah.

[1374] They're both professionals.

[1375] Oh, great show.

[1376] I enjoy it, and I watch very little TV, but that was a show, and I could pick it up any time and watch it.

[1377] Another thing I can watch is the Eagles beating the Giants melt down at the Meadowlands.

[1378] I don't you ever see that?

[1379] No. Well, the Eagles are down three touchdowns.

[1380] I can win in the last 13 seconds.

[1381] I'm originally from Pennsylvania.

[1382] Okay, you're reminiscing now?

[1383] Is that what's going on here?

[1384] Yeah.

[1385] A little change of pace, you know, break the tension here, you know?

[1386] There's no tension.

[1387] I know that.

[1388] So listen, Ron, good luck with this book.

[1389] It's called Ruthless.

[1390] People can get it everywhere.

[1391] You know, I'm an eternal optimist, and I would hope that one day you'd be able to speak to your kids and one day you'd be able to speak to your son and everybody could work this out.

[1392] But I would hope for the same thing and I guess I'm starting to lose hope on that matter because the years are going by now.

[1393] I've been out for like five years and I don't know what's going to change it other than maybe enough people speaking out and them dropping that disconnection policy.

[1394] Talk to Tom Cruise.

[1395] Tom Cruise, holler at me. Let's do a podcast, buddy.

[1396] Come on in here.

[1397] Let's straighten this whole bullshit out.

[1398] Yeah.

[1399] Thank you, Ron.

[1400] Appreciate it, buddy.

[1401] Okay.

[1402] Thank you.

[1403] Hey, thanks a lot for having me on.

[1404] I appreciate it.

[1405] How long were we going?