Scientology -The Apollo series

Sharone Stainforth · 30th December 2009, 05:18 PM

I have a number of bizarre tales about my experiences with some of the cults that reside in East Grinstead. However I need to be careful what I write here, some cult members may cry "harassment!" or "persecution!". I've known a number of people who have been adversely affected by offending these sad individuals.

I hasten to add, I have never been a cult member but I do know a lot of people who are.

I grew up in East Grinstead (Apparently Britain's cult capital) where the UK headquarters for the Church of Scientology is based, and heard a lot of weird stories and had some first-hand experiences of strange goings on.

In fact, shortly after leaving school in the late eighties, I went to work for my dad in the building trade. The cult had commissioned an imposing modern day castle to be built to house the College of Scientology (Apparently castles are exempt from tax in the UK), and we were contracted to do some work here (There were a large number of people in the trade who had nothing to do with Scientology working here also). Anyway, during those few months, we witnessed some very odd goings-on.

The castle is built next to Saint Hill Manor, which is also owned by the church, and nearby is Greenfields Primary School, which teaches cult members children. From the outside it's a picture of peace and tranquillity. But after stepping behind the walls of the castle retreat for the first time, I got a shock.

I saw people dressed in black uniforms with peaked caps running to and fro and were obviously members of the lower ranks because people wearing high ranking military-style uniforms were barking out orders and talking into walkie-talkies. These low ranking guys were called runners. Apparently the hierarchy mirrors the U.S. Navy: petty officers, midshipmen, warrant officers, ensigns, lieutenants, commanders and captains. They call themselves the Sea Organisation.

One day I was in the castle doing some work in a hall, and there were a number of kids, aged about 9 or 10, sitting opposite each other staring into the opposite kids eyes. A woman was sitting in front of them in silence. They weren't allowed to talk or move… just stare! They did this for about an hour!!!

Another time I was working late in a boiler room with a bunch of other workmen, when two officers walked past us down the corridor, holding a runner by each arm. They stopped at the far wall and told the runner to, "Look at the wall - now say hello to the wall".
The runner responded with a very monotone, "Hello wall".
They carried on walking into another corridor and we could distinctly hear them ordering the runner to say hello to every wall they walked past.

Apparently, Scientologists believe that if you hurt yourself, you should touch the object that caused it, so as to suck out the pain. Anyway, whilst working at the castle a number of runners were involved in some rather unfortunate accidents, partly because they were told to work to hard for to long.

I witnessed one runner, a girl of about twenty years of age, fall twenty feet from a pitch roof and although not badly injured was in obvious pain and had sustained a number of cuts and bruises. A couple of hours later, after being patched up, she returned and proceeded to lie on the spot were she landed - first on her front then on her back.

On another occasion I saw a runner carrying a large sheet of wood through a doorway, he managed to trap his fingers between the wood and the door panel, partially severing his little finger. He simply dropped the sheet of wood and proceeded to rub his bloody finger up and down the edge of the wood, splattering blood everywhere.

Every morning the higher-ranking officers would gather the runners up and hold a motivational meeting on a grassy knoll on the castle grounds. They would also try and round up all the contract workers who, not having anything to do with the cult, refused, preferring to read the paper and eat bacon sarnies.

This caused friction between the contractors and the Scientologists, and when building materials started to disappear from the store, the Scientologists accused the contractors of steeling.

In an attempt to find the guilty party the Scientologists proposed that all contractors take part in a lie detector test. Apparently the test was rather primitive and involved holding onto two tin cans, each attached by a wire. Obviously the contractors refused, but when they were threatened with the sack, one burly Eastender, who had obviously had enough of their accusations, decided to head-butt one of the officers, bloodying his nose. After that nothing was said about stolen materials and lie detector tests and everyone kept their jobs, including the Eastender. Apparently (but this isn't confirmed), the officer asked him afterwards if he could place his nose to his forehead.

LOL.

The last straw came one day when I went to plumb in a water pipe at a portacabin where some of the runners were sleeping. Before entering the cabin I noticed this horrible stench, and as soon as I walked through the door I noticed this young guy dressed only in a T-shirt smearing shit over the walls and windows, obviously suffering from some form of psychological breakdown.

Being young and naïve, and understandably shocked I ran to one of the officers and informed him of the situation. He looked utterly blasé about what I told him, and simply got on his walkie-talkie and ordered some of his colleagues to go down, and in his words, "sort the f*%#er out".
Knowing what I now know about this cult, I can only guess that the poor guy was punished and maybe even physically and mentally tortured… Who knows?

Suffice to say, I didn't want to have anything more to do with these people and left the job shortly after, for pastures more mundane.

Scientology -The Apollo series

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

East. Grinstead and surrounding areas vs Scientology.

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