Scientology's Bournemouth Mission, Poole, Dorset.
I have a story for you from someone that was at the Bournemouth Mission....it will be done in several parts.
Scientology - My Story and Experiences
This is the story of my Scientology experiences back in the '90's.
Some of it is a little hazy as it all happened a quarter of a century ago, but I am going to tell it in as much detail as possible. Another reason that I cannot always remember exact sequences of events, dates etc...is simply because the whole thing was such a mindf**k that, to me, it was a surreal experience.
You may ask why I am telling this story now, all these years later? The answer to this is I used to know quite a few people in Scientology, and a lot of these people, like me are now well and truly out of it, never to return. I have met up with some of these people at various times in my life. Some of them I am still in contact with now. Naturally enough our conversations often detail our Scientology years, our own experiences of others that we knew.
Despite the fact that Scientology ruined a good part of my life, I actually consider myself to be one of the lucky ones! On and off I have read various message boards on Scientology critical websites. The personal stories that have been posted by some people often portray horrific experiences, particularly by those in the sea org.
As time has gone on, and the number of stories I have read has grown, I have decided to put fingers to key board and tell about my own experiences. There has always been something inside me urging to tell my story. That has now burst out into the open, so here is my story and experiences........
For the purposes of this script you may refer to me as "Xenu's Uncle". Names have been abbreviated to initials, but the events and dates are, to the best of my knowledge, as true as they can be bearing in mind that some of the details have come from other people.
I was first introduced into Scientology in 1990 or '91. I was in the army at the time and met a young lady whilst on leave by the name of EV. I was her partner for a few years. She was working for the scientology mission, at Poole, Dorset, and told me of glowing recommendations for it.
Naturally enough I was invited to come along to the Mission by EV. I found the people to be very friendly and chatty, and I really connected with the aims of scientology.( After all, who wouldn't want a better world with no wars, no insanity and populated by people who did everything right?)
The Executive Director of the Mission was a woman by the name of DL. The Deputy Director of the Mission was another woman by the name of AC. She very soon convinced me to leave the army and join staff. This was a very difficult decision to make as I loved my job and the pay was quite good. However, the usual scientology "hard sell" won me over and I left and I left the army after paying them a large sum of money to clear off early. ( What a mistake that was!)
The Mission Holder was a guy by the name of RK. He had the ability to charm the hind legs off a donkey. Youll be able to out a lot about him by doing an internet search. Most of the staff used to think the sun shone out of RK's arse. Some simply thought he talked out of his arse.......! As it turned out the latter group were correct, but more of this later.
I started off working for the Mission as a Division 6 couse supervisor, someone who took the courses for the public newcomers into scientology. I was also a promo'er during the day when I wasn't on course. The promo'ers used to go out to various towns and distribute thousands of Oxford Capacity Analysis questionares to the public.
These Oxford Capacity Analysis forms were often the first thing that a newcomer to scientology would encounter. They consist of 200 questions, each one answered by 'Yes', 'No' or 'Maybe'. Then they would be marked and the results would supposedly give the " Personality Trait" of the person. I have been informed there Is no perfect way to answer these questionaires. No matter how a person answers the result is always a bad trait which "scientology can help them with".
At this point I should add that before I joined the Mission staff I had misgivings about how much the staff pay was, I was then promised £100 per week, which I thought was a bit low, but could probably manage with.As it turned out the most I ever got was about £50 per week, on a rare couple of weeks it was higher.
The hours at the Mission were long. We'd start at 10am and would be lucky if we finished by midnight. Two in the morning was frequent, with 4 in the mornings not being unheard of......There was always something to do. Once the courses had finished for the day the staff would be writing letters to people on "Central Files". These CF contained details of anyone who had ever bought anything, and the hastily scrawled letters were designed to entice them into the Mission for more "services".
Bournemouth Mission used to make a lot of money. A huge amount of money. At one time the gross income in a week was almost as much as St. Hill made.....The problem was that much of this money was made by rather dubious, if not entirely illegal, means.
AC was a brilliant registrar (for what it's worth). She could get people to empty their bank accounts, re morgage their homes, take out loans for cars, boats, computers etc......and the proceeds would all go the Mission. Don't believe me? Ok, look at "The Big Story" documentary which features AC admitting that this DID happen, after she got out of scientology. People used to be reg'ed to pay in money for services that were FAR in excess of what the Mission could provide. It wasn't uncommon for people to payin "Advbanced Payments" for OT8, when the Mission could only deliver up to "Clear". It didn't matter how the money came in, as long as it came in as quickly as possible, and as much as possible.
The only problem with this is that many people who had paid in a lot of money would wake up to the fact they'd been scammed, usually because inside themselves they weren't happy about departing with all their finances to begin with, despite the persuasion "it was the best investment ever".
The result was that a fair proportion of the income would go out again to pay for all the refund or repayment requests. Many of these had gone legal, because simply asking the Mission "could I have my money back please", did not work. Hence the Treasury Division had filing cabinet drawers full of repayment requests, legal repayment requests and "flappy" repayment requests. These were the ones that had gone more than legal, and things like winding up orders were due to be issued.
So the general state of play would be that people were asset stripped in order to repay previous people who had also been asset stripped!
In the scientology world Bournemouth Mission was an "irregular" part of the scenario because it was run in a manner that seemed to be VERY beneficial to the "executives" who masterminded it.
For example, the "executives" RK and DL, lived in a magnificent rented detached house in Bournemouth. Lovely views, big double garage with electric doors, big lounge, big kitchen etc....It was the sort of house most ordinary mortals could only dream about. In addition the house had a cleaning compnay to clean the inside each week, and the rent on the place included a gardening company to manicure the garden.....
RK and DL lived there with their other halves. RK was living with a woman called JL, now his wife, who was also a scientologist. DL lived with her husband PL who was the Mission's top auditor. In addition one of the Mission'sregistrar's (SP) lived there.
Naturally it didn't end there. The Mission Holder went around in a plush Toyota MR2, and the Ed had a Rover, so did AC.
How was this all paid for? Easy. The Mission Holder had a bank account entitled "Regional Management Account", this was something that, a while after I became staff was pointed out to me via "policy letters", (for what they're worth), was completely illegal by scientology standards.
Anyway this "Regional Management Account" was the Bournemouth executives passport to a cozy little lifestyle. It had cleared funds going into it from the Main Account, therefore any money in it was free to use. And use it they did! The rented house was paid for from it, so was the council tax, utility bills, rent of a state of the art TV and video recorder, an interior cleaning company for upkeep of the house, lease hire charges for the Mission Holder's MR2, and the lease hire charge for the two Rovers.
The house alone was £1,000 per month (remember this was early 90s) The MR2 was £630 or so per month and the two Rovers were around £330 per month each. Add on to this all the other mentioned charges......
To be continued....
I have a story for you from someone that was at the Bournemouth Mission....it will be done in several parts.
Scientology - My Story and Experiences
This is the story of my Scientology experiences back in the '90's.
Some of it is a little hazy as it all happened a quarter of a century ago, but I am going to tell it in as much detail as possible. Another reason that I cannot always remember exact sequences of events, dates etc...is simply because the whole thing was such a mindf**k that, to me, it was a surreal experience.
You may ask why I am telling this story now, all these years later? The answer to this is I used to know quite a few people in Scientology, and a lot of these people, like me are now well and truly out of it, never to return. I have met up with some of these people at various times in my life. Some of them I am still in contact with now. Naturally enough our conversations often detail our Scientology years, our own experiences of others that we knew.
Despite the fact that Scientology ruined a good part of my life, I actually consider myself to be one of the lucky ones! On and off I have read various message boards on Scientology critical websites. The personal stories that have been posted by some people often portray horrific experiences, particularly by those in the sea org.
As time has gone on, and the number of stories I have read has grown, I have decided to put fingers to key board and tell about my own experiences. There has always been something inside me urging to tell my story. That has now burst out into the open, so here is my story and experiences........
For the purposes of this script you may refer to me as "Xenu's Uncle". Names have been abbreviated to initials, but the events and dates are, to the best of my knowledge, as true as they can be bearing in mind that some of the details have come from other people.
I was first introduced into Scientology in 1990 or '91. I was in the army at the time and met a young lady whilst on leave by the name of EV. I was her partner for a few years. She was working for the scientology mission, at Poole, Dorset, and told me of glowing recommendations for it.
Naturally enough I was invited to come along to the Mission by EV. I found the people to be very friendly and chatty, and I really connected with the aims of scientology.( After all, who wouldn't want a better world with no wars, no insanity and populated by people who did everything right?)
The Executive Director of the Mission was a woman by the name of DL. The Deputy Director of the Mission was another woman by the name of AC. She very soon convinced me to leave the army and join staff. This was a very difficult decision to make as I loved my job and the pay was quite good. However, the usual scientology "hard sell" won me over and I left and I left the army after paying them a large sum of money to clear off early. ( What a mistake that was!)
The Mission Holder was a guy by the name of RK. He had the ability to charm the hind legs off a donkey. Youll be able to out a lot about him by doing an internet search. Most of the staff used to think the sun shone out of RK's arse. Some simply thought he talked out of his arse.......! As it turned out the latter group were correct, but more of this later.
I started off working for the Mission as a Division 6 couse supervisor, someone who took the courses for the public newcomers into scientology. I was also a promo'er during the day when I wasn't on course. The promo'ers used to go out to various towns and distribute thousands of Oxford Capacity Analysis questionares to the public.
These Oxford Capacity Analysis forms were often the first thing that a newcomer to scientology would encounter. They consist of 200 questions, each one answered by 'Yes', 'No' or 'Maybe'. Then they would be marked and the results would supposedly give the " Personality Trait" of the person. I have been informed there Is no perfect way to answer these questionaires. No matter how a person answers the result is always a bad trait which "scientology can help them with".
At this point I should add that before I joined the Mission staff I had misgivings about how much the staff pay was, I was then promised £100 per week, which I thought was a bit low, but could probably manage with.As it turned out the most I ever got was about £50 per week, on a rare couple of weeks it was higher.
The hours at the Mission were long. We'd start at 10am and would be lucky if we finished by midnight. Two in the morning was frequent, with 4 in the mornings not being unheard of......There was always something to do. Once the courses had finished for the day the staff would be writing letters to people on "Central Files". These CF contained details of anyone who had ever bought anything, and the hastily scrawled letters were designed to entice them into the Mission for more "services".
Bournemouth Mission used to make a lot of money. A huge amount of money. At one time the gross income in a week was almost as much as St. Hill made.....The problem was that much of this money was made by rather dubious, if not entirely illegal, means.
AC was a brilliant registrar (for what it's worth). She could get people to empty their bank accounts, re morgage their homes, take out loans for cars, boats, computers etc......and the proceeds would all go the Mission. Don't believe me? Ok, look at "The Big Story" documentary which features AC admitting that this DID happen, after she got out of scientology. People used to be reg'ed to pay in money for services that were FAR in excess of what the Mission could provide. It wasn't uncommon for people to payin "Advbanced Payments" for OT8, when the Mission could only deliver up to "Clear". It didn't matter how the money came in, as long as it came in as quickly as possible, and as much as possible.
The only problem with this is that many people who had paid in a lot of money would wake up to the fact they'd been scammed, usually because inside themselves they weren't happy about departing with all their finances to begin with, despite the persuasion "it was the best investment ever".
The result was that a fair proportion of the income would go out again to pay for all the refund or repayment requests. Many of these had gone legal, because simply asking the Mission "could I have my money back please", did not work. Hence the Treasury Division had filing cabinet drawers full of repayment requests, legal repayment requests and "flappy" repayment requests. These were the ones that had gone more than legal, and things like winding up orders were due to be issued.
So the general state of play would be that people were asset stripped in order to repay previous people who had also been asset stripped!
In the scientology world Bournemouth Mission was an "irregular" part of the scenario because it was run in a manner that seemed to be VERY beneficial to the "executives" who masterminded it.
For example, the "executives" RK and DL, lived in a magnificent rented detached house in Bournemouth. Lovely views, big double garage with electric doors, big lounge, big kitchen etc....It was the sort of house most ordinary mortals could only dream about. In addition the house had a cleaning compnay to clean the inside each week, and the rent on the place included a gardening company to manicure the garden.....
RK and DL lived there with their other halves. RK was living with a woman called JL, now his wife, who was also a scientologist. DL lived with her husband PL who was the Mission's top auditor. In addition one of the Mission'sregistrar's (SP) lived there.
Naturally it didn't end there. The Mission Holder went around in a plush Toyota MR2, and the Ed had a Rover, so did AC.
How was this all paid for? Easy. The Mission Holder had a bank account entitled "Regional Management Account", this was something that, a while after I became staff was pointed out to me via "policy letters", (for what they're worth), was completely illegal by scientology standards.
Anyway this "Regional Management Account" was the Bournemouth executives passport to a cozy little lifestyle. It had cleared funds going into it from the Main Account, therefore any money in it was free to use. And use it they did! The rented house was paid for from it, so was the council tax, utility bills, rent of a state of the art TV and video recorder, an interior cleaning company for upkeep of the house, lease hire charges for the Mission Holder's MR2, and the lease hire charge for the two Rovers.
The house alone was £1,000 per month (remember this was early 90s) The MR2 was £630 or so per month and the two Rovers were around £330 per month each. Add on to this all the other mentioned charges......
To be continued....
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