Our readers may have missed a recent smackdown of Tony Ortega by Dani Lemberger, the head of Dror Center, a Scientology organization that broke away from the church in 2012. We did.
But it is an important event in the independent field, for it illustrates a paradigm shift in the movement. Namely, the separation of pro-LRH, pro-Scientologists from the haters and black propagandists who had, by stealth and sophisticated counter-intelligence techniques[1], hoodwinked a number of prominent independent Scientologists into believing that nothing but the destruction of Scientology could rid the world of the abusive policies and practices of the church under the one-man leadership of David Miscavige.
Click here for a ringside seat of the extravaganza, and enjoy.
In summary, Ortega lambasted CNN and religious scholar and TV personality, Reza Aslan, for filming a positive documentary on the practice of Scientology outside the church. Among other prominent persons in the independent field, Aslan and his film crew visited the Dror Center in Haifa, Israel.
Ortega railed against CNN and Aslan for daring to show the benefits of Scientology, which laid bare his religious bigotry and his true message of hatred, intolerance and exclusion.
Lemberger took exception. He wrote an eloquent comment on Ortega’s blog, and then elaborated his position in an interview that was posted on the Association of Free Scientologists Israel (AFSI) website. We encourage everyone to read both pieces in the link above.
Among other things, Lemberger nails Ortega for:
●his “refusal to differentiate between the Church and the subject of Scientology,” pointing out the definition of insanity is the inability to recognize differences in things, which leads to an absurd fear of apples, for example, based on one apple that, many years ago, had a worm in it;
●his refusal to experience Scientology processing or to even visit the Dror Center during Ortega’s occasional trips to Israel, as requested by Lemberger; and,
●his positioning as an authority and journalist writing on the subject of Scientology when, in fact, he has a strong hatred and scorn of Hubbard and the philosophy he founded.
Ortega is a religious hate monger, his blog a cesspool of hatred, intolerance and exclusion. “No,” he protested to us several years ago when we called bullshit to his face; he was just reporting on corruption and inhumane treatment. His writings betray his contention.
We have no objection to Ortega, or anyone, commenting fairly on abuses and corruption done in the name of Scientology, but Ortega goes well beyond fair and balanced reporting by insulting and offending an entire class of persons who practice Scientology and proclaim its workability and benefits.
Fine, if he doesn’t want to practice the religion. But why does he have a problem with others who do? Who appointed him the Religious Thought Police?
Ortega is a Black Propagandist. Was then. Is now. Will forever be.
We applaud Dani Lemberger for his courageous stand and his continued commitment to forwarding the aims and true message of Scientology.
____________________
END NOTE:
[1] See: Disinformation Part 1: How Trolls Control an Internet Forum
Amen!
Dear Merrell,
Thank you for posting this article and linking to the article which appeared on the AFSI site.
Two technical notes first:
1. Dror Center is in Haifa, north Israel, not in Tel Aviv. This is a vital point of local patriotism. Tel Aviv is the big city, Haifa is always inferior. Our friend Hemi Benvinisti, who comes from Tel Aviv to do services at Dror, Haifa, says we deserve a medal from the mayor of Haifa because it’s the first time ever somebody from Tel Aviv comes to Haifa for anything.
2. The article about Ortega-Aslan was posted on the site of the Association of Free Scientologists Israel (AFSI), it is not the Dror Center site. About three years ago a group of “indie” Scientologists in Israel established a non-profit association so that the aims of free Scientology can be forwarded and protected. We now have Scientology activities in Israel that are not part of Dror, most notably Don Schaul who is in Tel Aviv.
Now, to the subject matter itself. Yes, I have seen many “indie” Scientologist drift and become Scientology opponents. Marty Rathbun, when I spent a week with him at his home in June 2012, was still an ardent Scientologist and auditor and a few months later “changed sides”. Karen de la Carriere too was with us as a Scientologist opposing the lunatic Miscavige. Same was true of Mike Rinder, who told me he plans to continue doing Scientology and now seems to hold an anti-Scientology, anti-Hubbard position.
All have a right to change their minds and I do not need to protect LRH if anyone wants to attack him. I’m sure he can fend for himself, wherever he may be.
Yet I observe the drift and it dismays me. There may be PTSness to the likes of Ortega, Alex Gibney or Lawrence Wright or whatever. Clearly the book and film “Going Clear” fail to do the very minimum of contacting several non-Church Scientologists, show the other side of Scientology and attempt to explain why some nuts like myself still do Scientology, despite the church’s criminality.
The last few years my wife, Tami, and I have traveled extensively to observe for ourselves. We’ve gone from Idaho to Sweden to South Africa, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Florida, California and more. And I have not yet been to Australia, Russia, Atlanta and countless other places.
All over the world we witness an enthusiastic “re-birth” of Scientology, maybe similar to the scene of the 1950-60’s, like old-old-timers have described it to me. Some of this I could still observe when we got on lines at COSMOD, the San Francisco Mission in 1980. The Mission Holder, Martin Samuels, was promptly declared in 1982. Guess by whom.
So it’s happening now world-wide. At Dror Center we now have young people coming in, who’ve never even heard of the fricking CoS, enjoying wins on TR’s, co-auditing Dianetics, eager to become auditors. And we also enjoy the constant trickle of ex-Churchies coming from abroad to do their OT Levels and rid themselves of traumas from their last contact with the Church’s “AO’s”. Like Anthony Price from Sidney or Marat Iskanderov from Almaty and many more.
I’m so happy to see us working together and building up our network of friendship and support. Thanks, Dani
You’re welcome, Dani. Thanks for posting. By organizing, the field will become stronger and more prominent. Good technical results will win out. If we do that, we will change the narrative on Scientology.
As you can see, I fixed the two errors you pointed out.
Merrell,
Thank you for the fixes, thank you for publishing the article which appeared on the AFSI blog and for the historical work you are doing in making the works of Hubbard free and available to all.
It does look like we’re making it, doesn’t it?
Yes, Dani. We’re winning. Definitely. I see a gigantic under swell demand for real Scientology that’s beginning to blow the lid off a lot of suppression and efforts to hold back the true message and benefits of Scientology.
Thank you for your validation. And I have to throw it back at you for your role, too. So many people deserve a lot of credit for making this independent effort possible, and I hope they realize we’re not hogging the victory stand and have room next to us for them, even those who have turned their backs on LRH and the religion, which is their right. The Truth Rundown, for example, was a milestone event that made our achievement possible. One day, maybe… I hope, we can all celebrate together. And, of course, there is a lot more work to be done.
Thank you Dani Lemberger for everything that you are doing in the field and for keeping the flame alive. I concur with you in your observations.
And thank you Merrel Vannier for the article; well written and very informative.
Yes I did see it, and how sweet it was, beautiful job and thank you Dani!!!
Youre right Merrill, Ortega is a bigot, plain and simple, and those Scientologists who think he is only after Miscavidge are drinking a different flavor of kool aid.
The problem Dave has in dealing with him, is that his hands are so filthy from his own overts that he simply cant, and all Ortega has to do is sit back and recite those overts, and the overts of those who act on his behalf or follow his squirrel tech. And that is where Tony should end his own personal jihad, because the evidence of the workability of Scientology is overwhelming when done right.
That’s great to see Dani fighting back. I am so proud I do belong to a group of people who can differentiate. I am also happy that I can share this reality with you: there is a suppressive church and there is a unique subject both called Scientology. But they are not the same. Thanks Merrell and Dani for the good work.
After reading a post I happened across on the SCIENTOLiPEDIA facebook page, I was directed here and then to the Free Scientologists Israel page where I left a comment which I’d like to post here too:
Dear Dani & Tami,
I just happened across mention of this whole debacle on the SCIENTOLiPEDIA facebook group and decided to come here and fully inform myself.
I for one want to congratulate you and Dror Centre for everything you guys are doing. Having met both you and Tami, I came away with the knowledge that you are genuine, caring, uptoned and wonderful people. I just loved how much ARC shone forth from of you. Your passion for helping others is palpable.
I too have a problem with this extremist view that SCN is either ALL bad or ALL good. Neither are true in my estimation, and this viewpoint occludes anyone from being able to find out for themselves what it really is. I do believe that one should be allowed to discuss, debate and engage in honest dialogue – this is healthy and it encourages people to think for themselves. Recently, my mantra has become “what is true for you” as I have been sorting out the wheat from the chaff in terms of the technology and philosophy of Scientology.
And Dani, you are perfectly correct in calling it an applied philosophy. LRH himself termed it thus. That it later got positioned as a religion is a discussion for another day.
One thing I can categorically state is that LRH’s technology is no longer practiced or applied in the entity calling itself the “Church of Scientology”. I know this as I was on staff as recently as 2012 and was also subjected to their kangaroo court system of “ethics”. I experienced situations, practices and operating basis’ that were so alienated from anything Scientology it was unrecognisable to me. I prefer terming what they are doing as “Miscavology” because that’s what it is. DM has turned the philosophy and technology as founded by LRH on it’s head – they do NOT apply Scientology. Furthermore, he has brought about a situation where the door is wide open to Black PR and vilify LRH due to the misinformation and inaccuracies they propose as “fact” – stuff that is and has been debunked, further tarnishing LRH’s reputation. I should know as both my husband and my mother extensively interacted and worked with Ron.
Although I have not availed myself of services outside of the “church” I will defend to the death the rights of others to do as I KNOW that there are gains and wins to be had from applying this technology to one’s life. I had many such gains in the early days when the tech was correctly applied – before DM came along with his own squirrel version. And yes, he had help in doing so – he was not alone.
Anyway, I don’t want to belabour the point too much. I agree 100% that you have the right to speak up when you see misleading data, intentional misinformation and articles written with the pure agenda of inciting vitriol and attack on LRH or the philosophy he founded. I admire your courage in doing so.
With love to you and the amazing team at Dror Centre
Shelley
Shells,
Thank you for posting here and on the AFSI site. Your kind words are, well, almost embarrassing.
To have LRH’s Tech for myself and not to share with others would be a terrible overt, wouldn’t it?
We actually have so much fun and gains from delivering, that I consider myself the one fortunate to be able to provide the Tech to others.
Thanks, Dani
Merrell,
I really appreciate the good work you’ve been doing.
First with the Independent Church of Scientology and for exposing Tony Ortega for the religious bigot he really is.
I’d say that Ortega is a major third party on the scene by pretending to support the nascent “Independence” movement.
As Ron says in the HCOB The Third Party Law:
It is very easy to see that two in conflict are fighting. They are very visible. What is harder to see or suspect is that a third party existed and actively promoted the quarrel.
The usually unsuspected and “reasonable” third party, the bystander who denies any part of it is the one that brought the conflict into existence in the first place.
The hidden third party, seeming at times to be a supporter of only one side, is to be found as the instigator.
This is a useful law on many dynamics. It is the cause of war.
Another thing about Tony maybe many here don’t know. Is that his “understanding” of Scientology as such is based pretty much on disinformation and false data promoted by Rick Ross an acolyte of the notorious Ted Patrick who was one of the guiding lights of CAN and the whole “Anti-Cult Movement”:
http://bernie.cncfamily.com/acm.htm
In fact one of his first assignments as a reporter for the New Times was to interview Ross about Scientology.
Since then his objective seems to be to malign the subject of Scientology and Ron while pretending to be “objective” and “reasonable” which is probably one of the reasons that he’s such Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder into his cess pool of lies.
In fact he’s had the audacity to write that the main reason that Scientology was having difficulties was because of L Ron Hubbard which is like saying that the trouble with Christianity is due to its association with Jesus Christ.
Thus Merrell.
You are doing a public service by exposing Tony Ortega for the fraud he really is and you deserve to be commended.
LR
Thank you for the post. Good points. Dani Lemberger actually did a better job than I exposing him; I just reported on it. I’m saving my piece for a later time, but will only run it if Ortega continues to attack the religion of Scientology and people who practice the religion for the purpose of bettering their lives and others’ — in their estimation, which is the only valid measuring stick. Ortega has an interesting history, especially for a person who likes to judge and attack others. I’ll leave it at that for now.
I want to add a quote in reply to your post, which a supporter sent me:
From HCOPL 30 June 1970 Data Series 11 THE SITUATION:
Under the section entitled, “INTERFERENCE”:
“The only danger is that the situation can be so far from any ideal that others with fixed ideas and madness can defy the most accurate and sensible solutions. But that’s part of the situation, isn’t it?”
Miscavige created the fertile situation into which someone like Ortega could sow his seeds of hate, intolerance, and exclusion.
We are currently a minority religion. We have yet to win our battle against prejudice, in no small part due to the abuses and corruption of the Miscavige administration of the church. Ortega would never get away with his bigotry against those minorities who have won their battles. Which makes him a bully, too.
I appeal to all independent Scientologists to encourage Ortega and other Scientology critics to stick to demonstrable and provable allegations of abuse and corruption and to refrain from insulting, offending, and ridiculing the religion of Scientology and its adherents. This principle is universally accepted as socially appropriate conduct toward minority groups, be they racial, sexual or religious, so it is an easy one for fair-minded people to grasp and adhere to.
Hey you’re welcome.
We should avoid making the same mistake that the so called “Church of Scientology” makes and that is confusing character assassination with the “dead agent caper” or “dead agenting”:
As Ron says in HCO POLICY LETTER OF 13 AUGUST 1970 Issue II PR Series 2 THE MISSING INGREDIENT:
The technique of proving utterances false is called “DEAD AGENTING.” It’s in the first book of Chinese espionage. When the enemy agent gives false data, those who believed him but now find it false kill him-or at least cease to believe him.
So the PR slang for it is “dead agenting.”
This consists of disproving utterly the false statement with documents or demonstration or display.
One has to have a kit (a collection of documents) or the ability to demonstrate or something to display.
Since many of his “sources” of “information” have come from “documents” that have been obtained through the FOIA and are of questionable veracity.
In fact much of it comes from the late cross dressing Director of the FBI Jane Edgar Hoover.
Others from our friends in the so called “Intelligence” Community and State Department when they were accusing us of running guns, selling drugs and having orgies (the latter I somehow missed and was the main reason I got into Scientology….just kidding) and various other assorted “crimes”.
Take a look at how Margaret has pretty much deconstructed the myths perpetrated by Cooper, Russell and later plagiarized by Wright and later promoted in that shoddy “doc” by Gibney:
http://scientologymyths.com/hubbardww2.htm
Never mind the fact that Ortega considers someone as historically challenged as Atack a “historian”:
http://www.chaletbooks.com/chaletreports/
Like the writer of this series of posts says:
“Only fiction doesn’t leave a paper trail.”
And much of what Tony writes is nothing but fiction.
Also I wouldn’t trust the lame stream media with our current disagreement with the current regime or exposing their corruption as they evidently have gotten the story wrong which they usually do since like Tony they assign the most compromised, lazy and mentally inept “journalists” to the Scientology beat.
Usually those who have a wikipedia “understanding” of the subject and the organization or who receive their marching orders from SMERSH like say Larry Wright who’s last name defies his type of journalism. Since in most cases he gets the story wrong:
http://banditobooks.com/essay/content/2.php
Robin, I edited out the sentence re: Ortega. Hope you don’t mind. Too inflammatory. As you said in the sentence following it, which I also edited as no longer applicable, it isn’t important.
Yeah but it was funny 🙂
Hey but I understand. So no I don’t mind.
It was funny.
I doubt very much if a suppressive such as Ortega will change his viewpoint. His diatribes smack of a hidden agenda or at the least an Idea Fixẻ. And very suppressive.
The best way to handle such matters is to be resoundingly successful in ones application of the technology and not give him any attention for one gets what one puts attention on.
“There is no more deadly way to get even with a suppressive or an antagonistic person or a downgrading society than by flourishing and prospering.
All a suppressive person or society is trying to do is prevent one from flourishing and prospering. Of course, one has to handle threats or attacks. But don’t get stuck in on them. One handles them but puts his main attention on doing things that will make one and the group flourish and prosper.
One cannot simply vanish in life, one cannot just become a nothingness. And the wrong way to handle suppression is to be low key and hope one isn’t noticed. That is simply agreement with the suppressive person or society.
Attempts at suppression are totally defeated in the long run simply by Flourishing and Prospering!
The ammunition in such a battle is effective beingness and for us, effective promotion, books, excellent results and satisfied people. Use what you have. The very best way to flourish and prosper is to sell and get out the good products.
Now, while reading this if it has occurred to you that if you did, the suppressives would simply attack harder or that you had better be careful, then could I point out that people who have that reservation are a bit or a great deal under suppression. And that they need to locate and handle it with what is called “PTS Tech” available in any org. It is a certain indicator that if one has reservations about being able to Flourish and Prosper he needs to unsuppress himself!
So there is the ultimate victory over any suppressive group or society. Not to do them in – as they are very busy doing themselves in – but only handle enough to hold them off until one day we get to them with proper rundowns.
The ultimate weapon is to Flourish and Prosper.” LRH (LRH ED 307 INT, RJ 31 1980 – The Year of Expansion)”
Ortega is a smut merchant on anything about Scientology, the technology as well as the CO$ under Miscavige, he does not distinguish. His following likewise are “haters” of everything is respect to Scientology, that’s his public.
Mislead primarily by one “gone-off-the-deep-end” Mark Rathbun & Co. that resolution to the squirreling and alter-is of the tech is best resolved by exposure, attack, auditing and training outside the wall of the church. This coalesced the standard Scientology practitioners out here in the field with those engaged in other tech such as R.O., Idenics and Mayo’s reduction trauma tech, and with those who damned and attacked everything about Scientology. This should never have happened, those trained in LRH tech to the teeth should have known better than kow-tow this nonsensical unworkable approach.
It was around that time too that Ortega left the Village Voice and started to write exclusively for the Scientology community. A rather sad joke, since he never understood anything about Scientology. My position has been since day 1 to ignore that troll.
Hi All Well done thinking it out….Tony in his own way is as nuts as COB is nuts in his own way…It is the perfect example of ,,,A equals A………..
Back in 2012, after reading few paragraphs of this low-mood, dark and unhealthy underground bunker, I thought that even to bark at thieves, it was not safe to use a rabid dog.
Marty Rathbun finally learned this lesson, if I judge from one of his last posts.
Cool + for the post