Another must-read posted on Marty’s blog, a copy of the declaration he drafted in support of Marc and Claire Headley’s legal case. While much of what is in this declaration has been revealed before, it presents a comprehensive picture of David Miscavige’s warped world. Among the revelations:

1. How Miscavige took over RTC and subverted its purpose into protecting him personally and safeguarding his extravagant lifestyle.

2. How staff are obsessively guarded, watched, interrogated, imprisoned and harassed, at Miscavige’s orders, to prevent them from ever leaving and speaking out about what they have witnessed.

3. How Miscavige goofed off, drank liquor, enjoyed a six-figure salary, had lavish quarters built for himself, awarded himself expensive boats and cars, employed a personal chef, a personal steward, a personal house keeper, a professional hair dresser and a professional chiropractor, and jet-setted to Tom Cruise’s mansion or Colorado ranch, all while forcing all other Sea Org staff to work around the clock with little or no sleep, under brutal conditions, for under $50 a week.

4. How Miscavige has turned the Church into his personal money making machine, dedicated to hiding his crimes and protecting his personal power base.

These are things that every Scientologist should know about what has happened to their Church. You know something is wrong with the Church. Isn’t it time you found out what’s really going on ?

I had the privilege of spending a couple days as a guest at Claire’s and Marc’s home not too long ago. I got to spend some quality time with them and other friends. I learned something that I did not know before. After talking to a number of people I learned that Claire and Marc only ever got into a confict with DM’s organization because of an RTC retaliation campaign conducted against them. Their crime ?  

Assisting a friend to escape from imprisonment where she received some of the worst kind of mind manipulation I have ever heard of Miscavige performing. Once again, DM created a state of mind in others that the only way to survive his persecution and harrassment was to turn to the courts.  

Accordingly, I did some study on their legal case. I saw the most patent, wall of sworn falsehoods being thrown at them by an army of well-heeled lawyers (and perjury-willing church “witnesses”). I decided to do what I could to help counter-balance the fraud RTC is attempting to pass off on the court.

To anyone who knew Marc or Claire Haedley

I suggest to anyone who knew Marc or Claire during their years in the church to contact them to share any facts that might be relevant to their case. They stood up alone and have sacrificed much to stay standing as long as they have.

A new growth industry has cropped up in the past couple of years: former Scientology insiders writing books exposing the excesses of the church. Ever since the courageously reported series in the St. Petersburg Times last year, it seems that more and more former Scientology leaders are telling their stories. While former Scientologists have been speaking out for decades, Scientology was always able to create enough doubt about their credibility to keep the awareness of the organization from going mainstream. Lately, Scientology has been unable to destroy the lives of the its critics. The latest book on the subject may shed some light on why.

Headley soon ended up in Hemet, California at "Golden Era Productions," a gated compound of Scientology administration known as "Int Base" or "International Base;" the international operations headquarters. It has also been referred to as "Gold Base."

It does not take long before Headley saw that life inside Gold Base was not one of comeradery and mutual respect. He was assigned to "tape production," the department responsible for producing of thousands of propaganda tapes that would be shipped to Scientology missions all over the world. He was one of the first staffers to repopulate the now-vacant department after all but one of it's previous staff were shipped off to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), a sub-organization devoted to punishing and humiliating poor performers.

People in the RPF are subjected to daily cruelty as a constant warning to other Sea Org members about what happens to those who make mistakes or disobey commands. The sin of the previous staff was to allow sub-standard videotapes of Scientology CEO David Miscavige to be shipped out to the public. For that crime, they would be treated as enemies and isolated for months, years, or decades, separated even from their families inside Scientology.  It appears that Headley was either very lucky or very crafty in avoiding a similar fate for himself for many years.

At first, Headley said he recognized how absurd the entire Sea Organiziation was. Even so, over the 15 years he was in Scientolgoy, his defenses were very effectively broken down. Even without being sent to the RPF, he essentially submitted to torture. At one point, for example, he and many others spent days in the sweltering desert heat, chipping out several feet of dried sewage from a dried out above-ground sewage lake. He did this with hand tools and without a mask or eye protection, inhaling volumes of the dried sewage dust, which blew in thick clouds around the workers. Their crime was that they had not met unrealistic goals set for them by the warped mind of the head of Scientology.

Other punishments were less degrading and health-risking, but even harsher in their own way.

Most of the harshest abuse chronicled by Headley came on the orders of David Miscavige, the current head of the Scientology organization. According to the common understanding of Scientology history, Miscavige has had uncontested and unquestioned control of the Scientology organization since the death of L. Ron Hubbard in 1986. Some former Scientologists still glorify Hubbard, but none of them speak well of Miscavige.

Headley corroborates one of the most brutal stories from the Saint Petersburg Times series in 2009. He confirms the tale of a nightmare game of musical chairs, inflicted by Miscavige on dozens of his senior staff members. Once again, the staff had failed to meet some of his unrealistic performance demands, and Miscavige believed their failure was a sign of disloyalty. The players were told that all but the single winner of the game would be shipped off to other continents.  Once there, they would serve in disgrace, in horrible and humiliating conditions forever, without even the chance to say goodbye to their families and friends. Not surprisingly, the game got brutal, with old friends physically attacking each other in the panic to save their "careers."

After the game, the cruelty continued as Miscavige dragged out the decision about who would be sent to what Scientology outpost. At one point, hours into the torture, Miscavige asked one of his victims why he had begun to cry. The man said he was sad that he would never see his wife again.

"Did you ever cry for me !?" Miscavige yelled.

For those not familiar with how authoritarian groups like Scientology control their members, it may seem incomprehensible that someone would stay in the church under such conditions. It is important to remember that members Members believe that the group holds the keys to truth and eternal salvation. They've been trained to see those who leave as weak and/or evil.

Headley obviously could not have written the book unless he had eventually left.  After sacrificing fifteen years of his life to meet the ever-shifting demands of the organization, he was put in a trap of conflicting, high-pressure orders between two superiors.  After coming up with a clever way of obeying both conflicting orders, Headley was told he was being sent to the RPF any way.   His options were so miserable that he knew he had to leave.

He could not simply walk out the door, however, because Scientology takes steps to prevent such departures, known as "blowing." The church's efforts to prevent his escape are further demonstrations of the ownership interest the church feels it has in its members.

Headley left relatively recently, so he provides a relatively recent snapshot of the inner organization. If Headley's understanding is correct, the Church of Scientology is leaking Sea Org members, who are slipping away in increasing numbers. Other Scientology watchers have also reported that the organization is shrinking. It would appear that Miscavige's sociopathic behavior has so weakened the enterprise that even with all of its money, the church can't stop its most embarrassing secrets from getting out.

Were I completely unfamiliar with how Scientology has manipulated the government using its protected status as a religion, I would not have believed these things could go on in the United States without someone going to jail. As a skeptic, I might not have believed them at all, were it not for two things: the ever-growing library of similar stories from other former Scientologists, and some limited personal experience with Scientologists and ex-Scientologists.

I recommend "Blown for Good," although it may take some patience to get through the first hundred pages, at least for anyone who isn't at least marginally familiar with Scientology jargon. Follow this link for an online dictionary of Scientology terms. Headley helpfully provides a glossary in the back of the book, but even so, when Scientologists talk about the church, it's almost as if they were speaking a different language. After about the first 100 pages, however, the book becomes impossible to put down.