DECLARATION OF LAWRENCE WOODCRAFT
Experiences in Scientology
I, Lawrence Woodcraft, declare as follows:
1. I am over the age of 18 years.
2. The statements herein are of my own personal knowledge and if called
upon
as a witness, I can testify competently thereto.
3. I joined the Scientology Sea Organization in Clearwater, Florida in
1986.
This is the main group that Scientology employs to run all of their
"churches"
and various organizations. When I joined the Sea Org in Florida, I
was
promised that I would work as an architect, that my family and I would live
in
a two-bedroom apartment and our children would attend private school.
All of
these promises were broken. Instead we were all crammed into one tiny
motel
room, our children didn't attend school and I was made to work on
interviewing
scientologists at their service organization in Florida, not in
architecture.
4. I was in the Sea Org until 1988, but after that I remained a
"public"
Scientologist, in other words still donating money to receive
Scientology
Services and training.
5. My ex-wife's name is Lesley and she remains in the Sea Org (we divorced
in
1993.) I have two daughters; Astra, age 22 and Zoe age 16. Both
of my
daughters came under intense pressure to join the Sea Org (a
Para-military
organization to which a member is coerced to sign a contract of
dedicated
service to Scientology for 1 billion years). Astra did this at
the
insistence of her mother and other Scientology Sea Org members in 1993 age
14
in Los Angeles and Zoe went to an organization called the Cadet
Organization
which trains children from infants up to age 14, and prepares them to
become
contracted Sea Org members in Florida and other locations. Zoe
started in the
Cadet Organization at age 2 and stayed until she was 15 years
old.
6. By the year 1994, I became disillusioned with Scientology in that
I
realized I was not getting the personal and spiritual benefits promised to
me
in Scientology. At that point I refused to purchase any further
"services"
from Scientology. I was working as an architect in Los Angeles and
had
several clients who were Scientology construction companies, who fed me
work
on a regular basis.
7. In 1998, my daughter Astra (then aged 19) abandoned her job with the
Church
in LA and flew to England where she lived with my sister. I later
found out
she was pregnant. I had no prior knowledge of this, or of her mistreatment
by
the church where she received none of the education she had been promised
and
was made to work in excess of 80 hours a week for years. The
Church's
security chief in Los Angeles named Jeff Porter accused me of being
disaffected and causing my daughter Astra to break her billion-year
contract
and leave Scientology. Astra has formally left the church and she and
her
baby now live with me.
8. In 1998 my youngest daughter Zoe informed me that she also wanted to
leave
the Church and live a normal life with me in LA and attend school.
When she
told her mother in Florida of her decision, her mother and other
Scientologists prevented her from leaving Scientology for the next two
years.
Zoe found it next to impossible to leave the Church with their
permission.
Her seniors in Scientology told her she would have to complete a program
of
reading references by Hubbard and confess to crimes she had committed
against
the Church. (Scientology believes that the only reason anyone would leave
the
Sea Org is because of crimes they have committed against the
organization,
Hubbard has written exactly this.) So Zoe valiantly attempted over a
two-year
period to read the references and write up her crimes, but each time she
got
close to completing her mother and her Scientology seniors would add more
to
the program in an effort to stop her leaving. In Feb of 2000, I flew
to
Florida to get her. She had figured out how she would escape from the
Cadet
Organization and we were to meet at the Clearwater Public Library.
She had
all her clothes jammed into a cardboard box that she had hidden in an
alley.
We drove up to the alley to get the box and Zoe was terrified Church
security
would catch us, or we would be seen on one of the many security
cameras. She
was very stressed, which for a 15 year old is not right. She also had
the
additional stress of knowing her mother, grandmother and brother (also in
the
Sea Org) would probably never speak to her again. After all the
brainwashing
and coercion she had been put through I still had to make it okay for her
to
leave Scientology. We took a return flight to LA. Getting Zoe
to adjust to
daily normal life is an ongoing process. When she enrolled in public
school
there were no transcript records of her education to turn over, as she
had
never had normal schooling and she had not been in school for the previous
6
months. She now attends a local high school where she is at least a
year
behind due to not attending school for extended periods of time.
9. In Sept 2000, I received a phone call from Wilf Betke of
Parkstone
Construction. I have known Wilf for 4 years and I have supplied him
with many
sets of plans for construction projects, with absolutely no problems
or
complaints. He said that word was going around that I was declared
a
"suppressive person" and he was no longer allowed to talk to me.
A
suppressive person in Scientology is a person who no longer adheres to
the
dogma of Scientology. Being labeled suppressive in Scientology also
means I
would be subjected to what is called Fair Game. Fair game means that
I could
be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist
without
any discipline of the Scientologist: may be tricked, sued or lied to
or
destroyed. I called another Scientology construction company,
Boston Brick
and Stone, who faxed me a copy of a letter they had received from the
Scientology International Justice Chief stating that I was a
suppressive
person, and they could no longer hire me. Again, I have worked for
Boston
Brick and Stone for about 4 years, doing engineering projects for them
and
obtaining building permits. Boston Brick and Stone told me that as I was
in
the middle of several projects with them, the family that's owns the
company
were told they could no longer receive Scientology training and auditing
until
I finished up the projects. In all, 4 companies who regularly gave me
work
dropped me overnight. David Morse and Co. also dropped me for a ranch
house I
was designing for him in Ventura and I was being considered for some
design
work for Survival Insurance Co and was also dropped. This is all a
result of
being Fair Game. I was declared a suppressive person by Scientology
because I
helped my two daughters start a life outside of Scientology's control.
I
personally found it extremely stressful to deal with this period of my
life.
People who I had professional dealings with over a period of years and whom
I
counted as friends were suddenly my enemies. My work for them had been of
a
high professional standard, but the fact that I suddenly lost so much
work
made me feel like a failure even though rationally I knew this was not
the
case. I would have long telephone conversations with people who now
despised
me in that I had "attacked" their religion. In their ignorance of
the
activities of their own Church, they thought I could just go in and repent
my
"sins" and everything would be back to normal. I knew this was not
possible
and "forgiveness" would cost thousands of dollars and probably take
years.
Besides, I wasn't willing to "repent" on principle.
10. Scientologists that I had worked for would call me and apply pressure
on
me to go into the Organization and "handle" my declare. This was
because they
were used to working with me and found it difficult to replace me. I
had such
conversations with Wilf, Bob Roley, Don Hall of Boston Brick and Stone,
and
Fred Reno. I explained to them my upset with the Church was over the
fact
that my children were abused physically and mentally in Scientology and
I
would not back down. I would never expect my daughters to go back
into
Scientology so that I could maintain my business. This in affect
was
blackmail.
11. I obtained a copy of the order declaring me a suppressive person and
it
contained many lies, for example it states that I am a "squirrel", which
in
Scientology is someone who alters Scientology dogma. I have never done
this.
It says that I hindered the efforts to recover my daughters. They
both
decided to leave of their own choice and Astra was pregnant and no
longer
eligible for staff and therefore not recoverable unless she agreed to have
an
abortion. They also stated that I had not made "case gain" during
my
participation in scientology and that made me a "suppressive." Before
this,
when Scientology personnel were trying to recover me and get me to pay
for
more services, I was told that the reason I had had poor results in
Scientology was that I had received low quality service as it was before
the
"golden age of tech." The 'golden age of tech ' consisted of
major
"improvements" that occurred in Scientology in 1997, when it was found
that
Scientologists were not being properly trained in the delivery of
auditing. I
emphasize that I never had any kind of hearing to establish any kind of
guilt
or to allow me to answer "charges" against me of things I had supposedly
done
to make me a suppressive. The first I heard was the telephone call
that
Scientologists were no longer allowed to associate with me.
12. I wrote a letter to the International Justice Chief and requested
a
hearing over what had happened. This was denied and I was told I would have
to
be interviewed by a church employee called Lisa Hamilton. I went in
to the
Los Angeles Head Scientology Office for this in Oct 2000. I had an
interview,
which was conducted with me connected to an e-meter (presumably in an
attempt
to see if I was being truthful.) Among other things, I was asked to list
all
my friends who were scientologists, what conversations I had had with
them,
what if any articles I had posted on the Internet, had I ever been on
the
Internet, had I ever seen anti-scientology web-sites, who was my
service
provider, what was my screen name. I was asked at length questions
about the
circumstances under which my daughters left the church. I was told
that I
would have to attend many more such interviews and purchase "security
checks"
(invasive interrogation) so they could get to the bottom of what was going
on.
I declined to attend unlimited interviews; for one thing I had to
concentrate
my efforts on rebuilding my business, with two daughters and a
granddaughter
to support, while a concerted attempt had been made to cause me
financial
ruin.
13. In summary, I was attracted to Scientology because of the claims that
it
could help improve your family life by bringing family members closer
together, help a person with their personal life, and make them more able
in
their professional life, able to expand their business, make a better
income
and so on. In other words Scientology claimed it could help in virtually
all
areas of life. With this in mind I agreed that all my family could move
to
Clearwater, Florida. I sold my house in London and disposed of my
business
there. Looking forward to a bright future, my wife and I, two daughters and
a
stepson moved here in 1986. 14 years later, I had divorced my wife, my
eldest
daughter now has a 2-year-old baby and she and the 16-year-old missed
major
parts of their education. My 22-year-old daughter has a bill from the
church
for $90,000 for the courses and auditing she received, but gets no
child
support from her ex-husband, who remains a sea org member. Their mother
and
brother will never speak to them or have any contact. Not even a
birthday
card, as the Church forbids this. While I give financial support to
my
daughters and try to help them complete school and college, the
Church
condemns me as a "suppressive" and treats me as a common criminal. They
made a
concerted effort to ruin my architectural business by forbidding any
clients
who were Scientologists to have any dealings with me. Even though
these
clients had been very happy with the service I had provided they all
stopped
calling me. In the Dissemination Manual, Hubbard says of enemies of
Scientology, "If possible, of course, ruin him utterly". This is what
the
church tried to do to me. This is despite the fact that I am a
licensed
architect in the state of California, in good standing and a member of
the
American Institute of Architects. If I were an unethical or
non-professional
architect, I would have lost my license and be barred from the AIA. At
this
time I am unable to speak to my ex-wife and stepson as Scientology
prevents
them from having any contact with me. This is what Scientology has done for
my
family. This is what Scientology has done for me.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States
of
America and the State of Florida that the foregoing is true and
correct.
Executed in Clearwater, Florida this 24th day of January, 2001
Lawrence Woodcraft |