Adam's reaction to reading Beyond Belief

Hi,

So I finished reading "Beyond Belief" and I have a comment for Jenna, but I don't have her contact info, so I'll share here and hope she reads it.

Since leaving CLO Canada, I have shared a common concern for all the SO members I left behind, for the pains they are going through. Children have a particularly harsh experience, and when they're feeling down, you can see it plainly. The youngest staff member at the Canadian base during my involvement was Melissa Pilon. Having seen her go the full route from happy to confused to broken (we arrived and routed out in roughly the same 2 year timeframe), I have felt particularly bad for her. Recruited in the Sea Org at 12, she was actually twice Jenna's age by the time she started living in an org.

Having read about Jenna's experience starting at 6 years old, it really is "beyond belief" and in several ways worse then what I saw Melissa go through. There were things I wish I had told Melissa that none of the other SO members would think to say, like how school is actually really important, or that nobody should make lifetime commitments as a child. Last I heard, she has relocated from Toronto to Clearwater, and is probably back in the Sea Org at Flag -- persuing the only life she's ever known. Her situation seems hopeless, but now we have cause for optimism: If Jenna escaped and has made a life for herself, then it is fair to assume that Melissa will survive this too.

Thanks for telling your story, Jenna. It serves as a warning and a reason for hope.

-Adam

I think about these kids all the time too, Adam. It seems like the only thing we can do from here is pray and keep spreading the truth.

I think about my niece who joined as an infant (my sister and her husband were coerced into joining as a way to hurt my parents when they left SCN). I managed to find my sister at Clearwater Flag Base (on a trip to visit my grandparents in Orlando in my 20's) and saw my niece at age 3. Her teeth were black and rotten. She was shy and scared. At age 5 in Los Angeles, she fell down a flight of stairs in some Sea Org housing and broke her jaw. Her Dad worked nights at Bridge, Mom in CMO during the day so no one thought she needed any childcare and none was provided. She fell down while Dad was sleeping during the day. The SO didn't want to let my sister go to the emergency room with her - and they didn't want my niece to go to the emergency room.

When my sister finally got out a few years later, she had to fight in court to get her daughter - then aged 8. I thank God for my sister's second husband who was truly a father to my niece. This poor child was attending real school for the first time and they'd asked her to write her address. Not only did she not KNOW her address - she didn't know the meaning of the word ADDRESS! She hid under the dining room table and cried when she got home from school because she was so humiliated. Her step-dad sat with her and helped her understand it wasn't her fault. He worked to shore up her basic cultural knowledge for living in American society. She graduated High School at the top of her class - no thanks to Scientology.

This CULT has got to stop. There can be nothing so valuable that they hold against our government or nothing so shameful that they've participated in with our government that our government is beholden to them. It's time to take them down.

I'm thankful for Jenna's story. It is just one of many that needs to be heard.