Ant's Scientology Story X
I was employed by Nye Danske/ Nye Danske Lloyd (an insurance company) from 1. March 1971 to 31. October 1979, and it is that period that this installment is concerned with.While I was staff at Athena Publication in 1971, the man from Gestetner I mentioned in the last installment got me a job in an insurance company. There is a bit of a "joke" associated with that. When the end of my staff contract was approaching, I considered carefully whether or not to return to England. There were various factors, one of them being that (like many Scientologists of that time) I was eager to go further up "The Bridge". To do that in England I would need to go to Saint Hill, near East Grinstead, Sussex, which was some way away from London where I reckoned I would get a job. I also was somewhat established in Denmark, and I rather liked the country. So I decided to stay in Denmark, with the intention (perhaps you could say "postulate") of being as close to the AOSH as possible. I had an idea that I ought to learn the language if lived here (based on my understanding of reality, etc. in connection with ARC). I thought (out reality!) that it would only take a year! Well, the man from Gestetner, who I mentioned in my last installment, found me a job with Nye Danske, an insurance company with its headquarters on Rådhuspladsen (Town Hall Square), and from Rådhuspladsen ran Jernbanegade (= railway road). AOSH was in Jernbanegade across the road from where I worked and from the window of where my printing machine was first placed, on the first floor, was Pubs Org (I could see into their window) and on higher floors were both the AO (Advanced Organisation) and SH (Saint Hill). It is difficult to imagine being closer – my postulate had worked. Unfortunately it was the wrong postulate. I should have postulated getting fast up the "Bridge". In fact, having started OT III in 1968, I did not finish til 1979 eleven years later!
Getting somewhat higher wages, my first action was to pay back the loan I got from my insurance company way back in 1955 to pay for a flat for six months (unsuccessful Scientology practice – security was a life insurance my father took out when I was a baby). I continued my OT III solo auditing, and the Dianetic course and internship at the DK Org (one of the two class IV orgs in Copenhagen).
A little story about that was that in the middle of summer, it was still light, I came home from course in the evening and there were a few people crowded around the main door to the building where Fru Thøfner's flat was, where I still lived. I tried to push past but was stopped: Hr. Thøfner had fallen from the second floor balcony, and they could not wake Fru Thøfner to tell her – would I wake her and tell her (I had a key to the flat). My Danish was not that good then, so I got some one else to do so, when I had let them into the flat. He died a week after, and the result of that for me was that I got an extra room in the flat.
I built up acquaintances with some of the Danes at DK Org. I'd expressed a desire to have a bicycle, and one of them got me a second hand one (the telephone company send their engineers round on cycles, and sold them after four years). That was the start of my cycling career that lasted to this day.
Another friend I had was Stephen Lind. I visited and weekended sometimes with him and his family, and he encouraged me to run (now, written ca. 2000, called "jogging"). He helped me buy shoes and clothing for it, and encouraged me to go monthly to an arranged "run" of ten kilometres. Unfortunately when the split came (1983, he stayed in the church and I understand now that he is dead).
At that time although I was 43 years old, I had never had a home of my own, always living in "digs" (furnished rooms in someone else's house). I never considered, let alone postulated otherwise. A lady at the insurance company drew my attention to the fact that the insurance company owned blocks of flats, and the staff had first priority in getting one, and she advised me to contact the Personnel Director and get my name down. I did so and shortly afterwards a flat came up if I was able to take it within three weeks. I had started a special savings account for housing expenses, where the state (then!) paid an extra 4% interest, so I had the money for the deposit, moved in, buying some second hand furniture, and "pinching" a bed I found in a container outside Fru Thøfner's flat. I guess I have an excellent "guardian angel" for it is a perfect flat for me 13 kms from the centre of Copenhagen (I often cycled to work and back), close to bus and train station, middle of a shopping area, but a little laid back from the main road, and marvelous cycling country around. It is on the fourth floor, with no lift (helps to keep me fit) and has marvelous sunsets, and numbers of trees visible I am still here forty years later!
Being still associated with the "Church" and keen on Scientology I tried to do something to help the cause. Mainly there were four things.
When I could not get my e-meter repaired, I organised for Pubs Org one man in Germany, and three people in Denmark doing e-meter repairs. I had gone into Pubs Orgs (which by that time had moved over to the same building as the AOSH) with my e-meter which I needed repaired. I was shown a pile of about 15 e-meters, and told that Barry Penberthy, who handled e-meters, was in England and there was no one in Denmark to do it. Being the fool I was, I offered to help out, though my knowledge of emeter repairs and electronics was primitive, and my practical experience was practically nil. Some how I got into contact with three people in Denmark to do it., and sort of supervised them, and there was a man in Germany, Don Maier, from USA who I had contact with. He had been connected with Scientology since 1950, having been the "victim" in a demonstration session Ron had give, with Don lieing on a coach. Previously he had been a bomber Pilot in the second World War, based in England and flying over Germany – and survived whereas some of his crews did not. He was now working in a firm which supported the US army on electronic matters, had been based in Korea where he met his second wife, and now was based in Germany, where while traveling round to various US bases there, he also visited Scientology Orgs and serviced e-meters. He told me that earlier (before I met him) he had intended to travel to East Grinstead to see Barry Penberthy and study e-meter technology. When he got to Harwich (by boat) he was asked where he was going and why, and said he was going to East Grinstead to study emeters. At that time there was a ban (later found to be illegal) on anyone entering the UK to study Scientology. The boat had arrived at about noon, with him and his car. He was placed in a room (he did not try and see if the door was locked) until the boat sailed back to the Hook of Holland. He was placed on it with his car. When telling the story, he made a comment on how ungrateful England was for his war time work!
I became registrar of the Auditors Association for Copenhagen (really for Denmark) covering the field auditors for the two Scientology orgs in Copenhagen. What happened was that as E-meter in charge at Pubs Org, I got to see Ron’s Bulletins, etc., as they came out and saw when he announced that he wanted Auditors Associations, with a registrar and a secretary affiliated to each org. I was wildly excited with this, and very much afraid that someone else would get one of the jobs (unpaid) before me. The idea was to help the auditor's trained by the Org. However, there were two class IV orgs in the area, and it seemed to me very foolish to have two Auditor's Associations in one city, so I worked successfully to get one for both orgs. I had had auditor training at the DK Org, and Scot Leland, am American class VIII auditor, married to a Dane and affiliated with Copenhagen org (colloquially called "Cope Org" :-) ) was appointed Secretary. In the Policy Ron issued it said that the Association had to meet on the org's premises, which was a disadvantage, but the thing which annoyed me very much was one of the first meetings. Captain Bill Robertson was sort of head of Scientology in Europe, with his headquarters in Copenhagen. He had a lot of charisma. He had been to Flag for the Flag Executive Briefing Course (FEBC) which was the new marvelous thing at that time. He wanted to talk to the Auditor's Association so a meeting was arranged, on Cope Orgs premises, and I would guess there were as many Cope Org staff there as field auditors (Capt. Bill possibly did not realise that). What I remember him saying was that "you (the AA) should form a seven Division Org, with a Department of Inspections and Reports, and the Inspections Officer should go round to all field auditors, and inspect the auditing folders of their PCs, and send the auditors into the org for cramming". I was aghast (but hid my feelings).
A few years later (I guess 1981) Bill Remak, a franchise holder, got DK Org to agree with his running an Auditor's Association. He had three shops next to each other for his Franchise, and loaned one of them to the Auditors' Association. This was off policy, since policy stated the Auditors Association should be run on Org premises. About ten people came in and enthusiastically worked together to get the place in order. I remember them working on filing cabinets with HCO Bulletins. But Bill Remak, an American, was declared a Suppressive Person, and that effort ended almost as soon as it began.
I had read a lot of policy in my time, some of which seemed very sound. One of the was entitled "Why Orgs Stay Small", 28 Feb 1966. I have a suspicion that very few understand it, as it is full of examples using org post terminology. A small bit of it was :
So what is a proper sized basic group?
A group is a proper size when the individuals in it can easily approach the manager of that group on a familiar friendly basis and be sure he knows what they're doing and why and if they're doing it.
(I have put this lower case – Ron wrote it upper case (CAPITALS) which seems to me to make it less readable)
I wanted to help Scientology along, and at the same time I needed to improve my Danish – which I found difficult, because people would talk to me in English, including answering questions which I asked in my best Danish. (The younger generation had English as there first foreign language at school, only elderly people had German, and thus had difficulty with English, though on course, where little was translated from English, I found that many people had trouble. I also felt that "customers" of Orgs (also called "public" in the org – a term I hated) had difficulty in understanding the way Scientology Orgs worked. I decided to do something about this. I thought I would form a group of "customers" of orgs, and help them understand.
It would be a small group (following the principle above) and I decided to call it "Scientology Minigruppe 1"
I wanted to print some stationary for it, with a nice heading Scientology Minigruppe 1, with Scientology in smallish letters and below Minigruppe 1 in large. This was 15 or 20 years before the days when you could do such a thing on a home computer. I went to an associate at work (for whom, in the firm's time, I printed a magazine for Alsation dog owners), and asked him to help. He was quite willing, and I think he got it done by an outside firm. I had no trouble about Scientology and having a connection with it.
It was also policy that if you ran a field Scientology group you had to have it approved by the org, who would issue a certificate. I went to the Distribution Secretary (or group secretary) of an org (I can't remember which one) to get a certificate, and had enormous trouble. They could not stomach the idea of a "Mini" group. I referred them to the Policy (in Volume 7 of the green volumes), but the person was very reluctant. I got the certificate in the end, but I don't think he cottoned on. I suppose the common idea was that in Scientology you should be big and dominating, and "mini" did not fit into the picture. I was looking for people interested in Scientology, but who had not been staff in an org.
We had in the group two of the people who repaired emeters, a friend who did understand English, but whose wife was French, so he knew my problem, a locksmith and his wife (the wife had disseminated sclerosis, badly, and once was carried up to my fourth floor flat by two group members for a meeting, normally held at her house), an engineer (working as taxi driver) and a widow with her daughter of about twelve.
We met regularly (on a Sunday, I cycled part way round Copenhagen, following battlements which had been changed to a recreational area and ARC amongst us went up as we met and worked together on various projects. One method of getting them to better understand orgs, I evolved came to be called a "shock assist". We approached various orgs and a franchise offering the group to come for a day (in the weekend) to help them out. It was kind of a reverse flow to what they were used to, which kind of shocked them (someone offering them help!) which was the source of the name "shock assist". Once we went to Pubs Org with the offer, and they wanted us (for one day) to translate – very foolish. What we did was clean their windows, which were badly in need of it. Twice we went to Jutland, once for a shock assist to a Franchise. I can't remember the other reason. We also did a bit of translating – we found that Ruth Minshull's book How to Choose Your People had been nearly completely translated in to Danish, but the last chapter or so lacked. We worked on that, partly by going on holiday together to a rented holiday house in the island south of Copenhagen (Falster)
I can't remember how Scientology Minigruppe 1 ended. I formed another Minigrupe, Scientology Minigruppe 2. On 26thApril 1970 the first of a series of Policy Letters came out called the Data Series. I found the Data Series very interesting. Scientology Minigruppe 2 was concerned with the Data Series, both studying it, and translating it to Danish. In it were Steffen Lind, a young lady, an elderly lady who later joined the Sea Org, and I can not remember who else. We met weekly in my flat, and later with Stefan Lind and his family, who had moved out to a flat in Kokkedal, some 20 kms north of Copenhagen. Again I can not remember how it ended, but I still have some of the Data Series translated to Danish.
Auditing and Training
I don't have a very good memory of what I did, now (in 2013).
When working for Pubs Org I (with other Pubs Staff) did the Standard Dianetic Course, at the DK Org (Class IV Org). I went on to internship of this course. Internship were done in Qual, which was done at DK Orgs Rosenborgade premises, and Maiken Borre was Qual Sec – I had something to do with her later, after I was thrown out of the "Church"..
I continued plugging away at my OT III. Although I did OT IV, partly in Edinburgh, and partly at the newly arrived from Greece Advanced Org, at Abilund, a large house some way north of Copenhagen, it was adjudicated that my OT III was not finished. So I plugged away at this, being taken off at a point to be audited on Grade 0 (which I had not had in its complete form, having come into Scientology before the Grade chart existed). I did OT VII at one point, when it became the practice, returning to OTIII when I had done that (it being called OTIIIX if one had done OTVII in this context. One funny thing was that when the C/S and who ever were puzzling over why it took me so long, they hit on the idea of having me do Tr. 8 (the intention in an ashtray one). This needed a coach, and certainly was not something on the AO curriculum, so I was sent down to the Saint Hill Academy to do it, causing some wonderment as to why a person on Advance Organisation levels should be doing a Tr.
I can remember I did the Mini Course Supervisor Course (which was not very "Mini") at one point, and had thoughts of going on the staff of FEGU (I don't remember what that meant, but it was Danish for the organisation that handles word blindness and reading difficulties, especially in children, a sort of covert way of getting people into Scientology, as well as its avowed purpose of helping people).
Looking for certificates, I can only find one for Checkout Mini Course, 3rd April 1972, And one for Method-I Completion 28th September 1974. Regarding the latter, there was some procedure whereby you first looked up all the words on the Student Hat, and when you had done that you were declared "Super Literate" and were able to go through a course without being checked out on material. I started that, no doubt at the beginning of the Student Hat Course, but, no doubt because I was fairly good at English, the language all Scientology materials were in, I found it extremely boring and time wasting, and gave up, preferring to be checked out rather than continue. (I probably kept going to sleep while doing it, called "doping off", that happened often in my Scientology career).
I left my job in 1971 to do a "heroic" act to help Pubs Org. That starts the last, rather exciting and varied, part of my time officially connected to the official Scientology body. So that’s the next installment.
Written October 2013.
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4th October, I got the following comment from a friend, Jim Rowles in USA, when he saw the above:
Ah yes...... the turbulent 70's. Yours is an interesting read. The 'complete-your-case' program which became expanded grades; the 'postulate checks' fiasco, Ron going nuts and requiring EVERYONE to immediately do a drug rundown(the Dianetics R3R version)--while I was in the middle of OT2; The endless OT3, and the abandonment of the old OT 4-7 which were real OT drills.
What you wrote rings true for the period. It was also when I began withdrawing my allegiance to that group, finalized around 84.
Keep having fun!
jim
Yes, indeed. I did not get involved in the Complete Your Case programme, but I knew some one who did, and it seemed to be a good thing, though I don't remember details. I think it was a full time thing, where you audited preclears, but in return got auditing (and loads of auditing experience) your self. My vague memory is that it was unpaid or perhaps lowly paid.
I do remember a meeting with I guess thirty or so people at DK Org, where we were not allowed to leave until we had seen the registrar and signed up for a service (I think I got out secretly due to a friendly staff member letting me out). Also at that time people were urged to get loans to pay for services. I believe that some were advised to apply to more than one bank at almost the same time, so that the fact that you had got a loan from another bank had not been registered when you applied for the second and third loan. Another "trick" registrars did was to get people to "kautionere" (means stand as security for another persons loan) for someone for whom a bank would not give a loan. I was once asked to "kautionere" and refused - it looked a very risky thing to me, and I had not intention of letting my economy be threatened.
Postulate checks were where the Registrar convinced you that although you did not have money in the bank to pay for the service, you could write a check for more than was in your bank account, knowing that postulates worked and the money would come in as a result of your postulate (or something like that), I think also registrars got one or more people to write a check on an ordinary piece of paper if they did not have their check book with them. Indeed they were wild times in some ways.
I also remembered another thing from that period. We got a fair number of people coming from USA to talk. We are a Danish speaking nation, and they would start by asking, in English, "is there anyone here who does not understand English?". Of course those that did not would not know what they were being asked :-)
See! A comment to me jogs my memory - any more comments or questions?
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Looking at this in 2021, and making a few corrections including typographical I now intend to go on with my long Scientology tail/tale.
