This is Photojournalist Fred G. Haseney with his eye on scientology and its little sister, dianetics. As you may know, dianetics celebrated its 66th anniversary yesterday (“66 years ago, L. Ron Hubbard transubstantiated from pulp writer to god among men,” May 9, 2016). And, as some of you know, I toured PAC Base a year ago in anticipation of dianetics turning sixty-five (“Dianetics Turns 65,” May 9, 2015). Upon accepting Phil and Willie’s invitation to be part of their excellent adventure, I looked forward to scientology’s party with glee. I envisioned bigger event signs welcoming veritable hordes of partygoers. A year ago, non-scientologists performed sound checks before the event began, hoping to maintain peace and quiet in the neighborhood. This year, even the crickets didn’t show up: there were no banners, no partygoers, no carnival barkers, no Registrars barring scientologists from leaving the event without forking over their wallets and purses. So, it is with great pride that I report from the Pacific Area Command Base (“PAC Base” or “Big Blue”), the so-called “church” of scientology’s West Coast headquarters. Today’s blog is part of the “Reconnecting the Disconnected and Declared” series.

Photo Caption: Phil and Willie Jones drive south along L. Ron Hubbard Way (“LRH Way”). The orange cone to the left is there because of on-going, early morning construction underway on the front of American Saint Hill Organization (“ASHO”), at 1413 LRH Way.

Photo Caption: As Phil and Willie approached Pacific Grill & Barbecue on LRH Way, I shot this picture. In it, you can see the “call me” sign securely attached to the driver’s door. This is the last time we saw that sign; within an hour, it will mysteriously disappear.

Photo Caption: This is our first drive-by of the day. LRH Way is to my right; Pacific Grill is to my left. Grep is on the sidewalk, filming the proceedings as Phil and Willie arrive. Notice that everyone at the cafe looks in unison at the “call me” sign that’s affixed to the passenger door of their vehicle.

Photo Caption: Phil and Willie drive south on LRH Way and are about to turn right on Fountain Ave. On the other side of the street is AOLA; a couple of Sea Org members are in front of the building. Just before I took this picture, an elderly Sea Org (“SO”) member approached me, getting pretty damned close to me. In his antagonism for what we were doing, he asked, “Can I ask you a question?” Since I’m never one to fight, argue or stand in anyone’s way of tumbling with the people around them, I replied, “I’m sorry, but I can’t talk to you. I’m here just to take pictures.” With that, I put my headphones back into place so I could continue listening to Billy Idol, Madonna and Muse remixes. The louder the music in my ears at PAC Base, the better.

Photo Caption: Without fanfare, AOLA went into lockdown. In this picture, SO members and, perhaps, a public scientologist stand outside the front door to AOLA, unable to enter the building.

Photo Caption: A few moments later, with lockdown at AOLA still securely into place, a SO member, standing to the right of AOLA’s entrance, tries to open the front door. The woman SO to the left of those doors looks away, wondering what to do next. A couple of them appear to be looking at us, perhaps wondering how we could have done such a thing.

A note to public scientologists, SO members as well as PAC Base Security Guards (“SG”): it is not my intention to disrupt your activities. All I want is for Phil and Willie’s message of love to be understood and duplicated. As scientologists, you should know very well what “understood and duplicated” means. You and I have studied ad nauseam the “cycle of communication,” and when someone’s communication is fully understood and duplicated, that means the message has been received, loud and clear; that all of scientology’s disconnected and declared have been released from captivity, free to call or contact their family, their loved ones, their friends and former colleagues.

Photo Caption: A few moments later, AOLA is still under lockdown as more SO members arrive, patiently awaiting to return to post.

During the two years I worked for Office of Special Affairs, I prepared internal audits for PAC Base orgs; I did this, I think, to help scientology defense in the 1986 Lawrence Wollersheim court case. Wollersheim would later be awarded millions of dollars, but I knew little, if anything, about the case. When I inquired, an OSA staff member quietly told me to ignore the noise and just continue working. I worked full-time for OSA. For each hour worked, I earned $10 an hour as well as $10 in training awards for any course I wanted at the org for whom I did the audits work. As a result of my hard work, I earned the Solo Auditor’s Courses, Part I and II at AOLA as well as the PTS/SP Course (PTS/SP stands for “Potential Trouble Source and Suppressive Person”), a course I did in 1990. As a just reward for all of the hard work I did for my church, scientology yanked all such training awards by a certain date, making it impossible to do those courses. Actually, scientology did me a favor. What a service. Thank you!

Photo Caption: As Phil and Willie drove past ASHO and Pacific Grill, they passed a female SO member, seen to the left in this photo, talking on a cell phone. See the SG straddling a bicycle further north along LRH Way. Noticing their vehicle, she asked quite nicely about Phil and Willie’s sign. I approached, handing her a free handout depicting the “call me” sign. If I remember correctly, the SO lady then made a beeline for the SG, handing over the handbill (as evidence of her unfailing duty and responsibility to scientology, no doubt).

Stay tuned; more pictures and coverage to come. My thanks to Phil and Willie, Grep and, of course, Tony Ortega.

All images (unless noted otherwise) © 2015—2016 Fred G. Haseney. All rights reserved.

Sources:

Exploding volcano photograph.

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