David Miscavige, leader of Scientology

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David Miscavige (born 1960) succeeded L. Ron Hubbard in 1987 and is the current leader of Scientology with the title, Chairman of the Board Chairman of the Board (COB) of the Religious Technology Center (RTC).

Beatings general violence etc
Miscavige has been accused of assaulting and beating members of staff, Mr. Miscavige told me on more than one occasion how he had physically attacked a female who was a fellow "Commodore's Messenger" in 1981. He said he beat her up and threw her off post. ,

At Gold Base according to former staff members beatings took place secretly during the 1990’s but from 2000 he beat, “these guys” steadily more and it became habitual. During 2003 and 2004 the author assumes beatings happened at least once every day and there may have been several if there were many meetings. Rick Cruzen, Mark Ingber, Gueilleme Leserve, Ray Mitoff, Mike Rinder and Marc Yager were hit repeatedly at meetings. Other former members of Miscavige’s staff confirm that beatings became more frequent in later years. 

"The four assaults I witnessed were against Mike Rinder, Mark Yager, Guillaume Leserve and Ray Mithhoff (four of the highest-ranking officers of the Church of Scientology). In the case of Mike Rinder, he and I were standing shoulder to shoulder when Mike was attacked. Miscavige didn't like a minor edit that Mike had made to a video we were working on. Suddenly Miscavige just went off: he lunged, grabbed Mike's head with both hands and bashed his head into solid cherry-wood paneling three times putting his whole body into the effort. Mike has since departed from the Church. Violent physical abuse is just the tip of a dark iceberg."

This lady left the official Church of Scientology due to Miscavige's violence but stayed an unofficial Scientoligist.
 * National: Leaving the Church, But Not the Faith

Others leave Scientology alltogether.

At 5 foot 5 Miscavige is relatively short for a man, even a man his size can easily get violent as part of a cult where others are too brainwashed or too frightened to stand up to him.

There was other abuse besides beatings

Jackie Wolff wept as she recalled the chaotic night she was ordered to stand at a microphone in the mess hall and confess her “crimes” in front of 300 fellow workers, many jeering and heckling her.

Gary Morehead dredged up his recollection of Scientology leader David Miscavige punishing venerable church leaders by forcing them to live out of tents for days, wash with a garden hose and use an open latrine. 

Coerced abortions
Laura DeCrescenzo was one victim of this policy.

"Miscavige’s arbitrary policy that makes conceiving a child a crime warranting offload from the Sea Org is contrary to Hubbard policy. It has also spawned a policy that has required countless women to obtain abortions."

Janet Honn-Alex leader of Planned Parenthood in Riverside, California provides evidence of very many coerced abortions from women in the Scientology headquarters at Goldbase firmly controlled by Miscavige.

"'I just felt that it was strange that they would all make the same decision. Independent of their individual circumstances, they had all made the decision to have an abortion, no matter how old they were or how many children they already had. We found that almost unbelievable. And when we started asking more questions, in order to find out their individual motives, because we were suspicious, they stopped coming to us altogether, for any services.'"

Claire Headley in a law suit claims that very many women from Goldbase were pressured into having abputions and told to keep quiet about coming from there. She makes other serious claims about abuse in that base, see Gold Base.

See also:- Evidence of coerced abortions.

Further accusations
Further accusations involve human trafficking among other serious wrongs.

Speculation about how Miscavige holds onto power
Four major reasons. 1. Miscavige runs Scientology in a Stalinist fashion with control over communication. It's collapsing, but if you're in Scientology all you hear is that things are going great and any bad press is a minor hiccup resulting from wrong information or THE INTERNATIONAL PSYCHIATRIST CONSPIRACY WHICH WILL BE DESTROYED. 2. If anyone did try to rise up, who would they get to join with them? They'd have to convince lots of other high-level Scilons to join them, and also to ensure that none of those high-level staff members decide to get themselves some extra credit by snitching on their fellow conspirators. Furthermore, we know Miscavige encourages high-up staff members to live the high life - those in a position to overthrow him might well think it's in their best interests to maintain the status quo. 3. Scientology contains a number of fail-safes. So much of Scientology doctrine states, not in so many words, that "Scientology is always right and if you have doubts then the fault is with you." And if you're on the Scientology staff and everyone around you appears happy with the cult, it would be all too easy to convince yourself that it is, in fact, your fault you're not happy. 4. Scientologists don't want to rock the boat. Maybe things are bad under Miscavige, but what happens to the cult you've devoted your life to if he disappears? He's made himself so intrinsic to the cult that members who do have their doubts about him think "Well, I don't think he's fantastic, but I don't want to lose my Bridge to Total Freedom."  I think they are afraid of messing with their "eternity", family disconnection and they are too afraid of not being able to go up the Bridge, especially after forking over all that dough for so many years. Don't forget the want of going up the Bridge is SO powerful, that many have casted family members aside, lost their friends and have drained their bank accounts and more. COS's carrot that they dangled before their members is way too tempting for many. They probably feel they have come this far, they want to see the end result and nothing can stand in their path. (OTVIII) And it's all some of them know. (I am talking about publics) I guess I really can't speak for how COS members feel, I can only guess.

And I would imagine there is quite a HUGE difference in staff, public and Sea Orger's feelings about their individual paths in COS. Some have been working all their lives to go up the Bridge, by working off their courses in the Sea Org or staff. 

"Divide and conquer. The various people can't compare notes, so they think their doubts are theirs alone, not shared by the rest of the staff." In Hubbard's absence, the cult has changed dramatically. In January 1982, his young followers created the Religious Technology Center "for the primary purpose of ensuring and maintaining the purity and integrity of Scientology." One of the Sea Orgs, David Miscavige, 22, who claimed to be in regular touch with Hubbard, contended that the founder had "donated" all rights to his courses and techniques to the new corporation. Some defectors, however, insist that the church planned to purchase these so-called trademarks from Hubbard for $85 million. Others believe the new corporation, in which Hubbard is not officially involved, was formed to shield him and his assets from the many lawsuits. 

Hubbard's tech is designed as to stop any form of mutiny in it's track and it is highly effective. This is how it works:

First of all the Scientologists are in group consensus that suppressive beings will lose the bridge; "The Road To Total Freedom."

As part of the "Keep Scientology Working" (KSW) mantra everyone is encouraged to report anything that isn't working so it may get fixed and KSW.

In reality what happens is that if anyone says anything negative about Scientology then the receiver has to write a "Knowledge Report" on that person. If they do not then they can get in trouble as being PTS (Potential Trouble Source) and therefore close to a SP (Suppressive Being) who is the worst evil in the world.

So say for example there are two people and someone says to the other, "Just between you and me, David Miscavige must be doing something wrong because he has all the elements of a suppressive being"

In Scientology that is high treason and totally unacceptable to even have that thought.

Even thinking David Miscaviage has a bad haircut will get you a knowledge report.

The receiver would have to write a knowledge report straight away. If he/she doesn't then they are conspiring. A knowledge report would go to the Ethics Office and then the person who said that would have to have a sec check (Security Check)

On the sec check, the emeter which acts like a lie detector, they would be asked questions relating about the said incident and be found out. That is, to actually have harbored this though and acted upon it.

The person would be RPF'd for this. RPF's are not allowed to talk to other Sea Org members unless first spoken too. They are totally degraded through over working and studying L Ron Hubbards' works. It is like a prison camp and no one wants to go there unless they have no "real" choice.

OK. So this first part is controlling communications between people. It is very common for spouses and family members to write knowledge reports on each other and is not seen as a bad thing because you are helping them and therfore Keeping Scientology Working.

As you can see any dissent is very quickly picked up and that leaves an environment which makes it difficult to have shared criticism. In the Sea Organization that is even more so as all your relationships are other Sea Org members and therfore the consensus of this shared reality is even stronger. (See Milton's experiments)

Having said the above though, David Miscavige is not fallible. The tech as far as everyone is concerned is the Golden Goose.

A lot of people will be having doubts about him at the moment i would say, but harboring them.

When i say that, i mean the thought will jump into their mind but they would almost instantly place it into their subconscious mind (because it is high treason to have such thoughts) before it can get a "charge" and read on the emeter.

And of course, this is how you control the mind by controlling thoughts. See "How to spot a cult" NZ documentary for more info.

So i would say it would be very easy for someone to convince the group that DM caused squirreling, anon etc.. etc.. and take him down and Scientologists would buy it.

The problem remaining is that it is treacherous area with everyone writing knowledge reports and living in fear so no body has time to actually organize a coup. However, you can't keep burning bridges without it coming back to bite you in the arse at some point. 

Progress
It does not appear that Miscavige got very far on the bridge. 

References and external links

 * Who is David Miscavige? This is a very comprehensive website with plenty of detailed accusations against David Miscavige.
 * Miscavige’s reign of terror over Scientology This compares the rule of Miscavige with opression in Communist regimes etc.
 * David Miscavige The Wikipedia article is more neutral, it says some good things and had fewer details about what is bad than this article has.
 * Death in slow motion: Part 2 of 3 in a special report on the Church of Scientology This newspaper article includes information about the part David Miscavige played in the case of Lisa McPherson and about his style of leadership generally.
 * Has Scientology Leader David Miscavige Been Trying To Silence CNN's Anderson Cooper? This has yet more allegations about Miscavige being violent and encouraging a culture of violence, the second page has information about how Scientology abuses the law in an effort to silence critics.
 * Is david miscavige a true believer? This is an Anonymous discussion thread on David Miscavige, the participants cannot agree whether Miscavige believed in Scientology teachings or simply uses Scientology.
 * Why have $cientologists not overthrown DM? This is an Anonymous discussion thread on David Miscavige. Most participants seem to feel the dictator has power to prevent revolt.
 * David Miscavige PROJECT MASS SHOOP This is an Anonymous discussion thread on David Miscavige. We apologise to any university academics reading this who may feel the discussion is not very intellectual, it will keep your undergraduates entertained and ensure that they do not respect Scientology.
 * 1984 SP Declare on Miscavige Alleged Declare against Miscavige
 * David Miscavige is the ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion. The Scientology Website tries to make out Miscavige is Mr Good Guy.

Videos
These videos are not very intellectual in the same way as David Miscavige does not appear to be very intellectual, non the less the videos show something about the man's character and they are a small sample of Miscavige related videos on Youtube.


 * Scientology Exposed - The Violence of Leader David Miscavige A former high ranking Scientologist claims he was seriously beaten by Miscavige.
 * David Miscavige Discusses Anonymous! This video shows how far Scientology training enables Miscavige to control anger, even in front of television cameras.
 * Miscavige at a birthday party David Miscavige at a birthday party for Tom Cruise