u/No-Vermicelli-1557

I want to be fair. Not everything in the Sea Org was bad. When I was leaving they actually improved a lot of things for staff. I don't know if it was like this in other Sea Orgs but I'm talking specifically about Flag in Clearwater.

Laundry. They installed a bunch of washers and dryers. Free detergent capsules. You could change your sheets every day if you wanted. Clean towels anytime. You could throw your dirty uniform in the bin and pick up a fresh one from the shelf. You got five shirts, two pants, two ties, two vests, one jacket, one coat. No more washing and ironing late at night. That was a huge relief.

Medical. Before, if you had diarrhea or hemorrhoids or the flu they'd just tell you to drink water and take vitamins. When I was leaving they built a whole medical floor. They had BEMER machines, hyperbaric chambers, collagen beds, red light therapy. I don't know if they actually work but they existed. They also set up vitamin shelves in the galley. You could grab as many vitamins as you wanted. Except vitamin E. That one was always gone.

Food. In the beginning the food was terrible. By the time I left it was actually good. Lots of salad options. Wednesday was the best because they always served salmon or steak and cake. Holidays were heaven for your stomach.

I think they made these changes because of all the bad press online. The Sea Org actually started caring about staff comfort. Or at least pretending to.

59 years of the Sea Org. And I'm so fucking glad I don't have to celebrate it anymore.

If you were in the Sea Org you know what a KR is. A Knowledge Report. You had to write one whenever someone did something wrong. Or when you thought they did something wrong. Or just because.

Everyone in the Sea Org gets a ton of KRs. I never saw my own ethics folder but I'm sure it's like 6 inches thick.

Hubbard wrote that everyone should have three baskets on their desk. IN. OUT. PENDING. But on Flag with thousands of staff that system just doesn't work. So they built this whole mail system instead.

Everyone writes messages on open routing forms. No envelopes. Anyone can read them. You drop them in the OUT basket of your department. Then a communicator collects all the OUT baskets from the whole org and brings them to the comm center. A few people sort everything by department. DIV 4. DIV 6A. Whatever.

Then they drop all the messages for that department into one big IN basket.

And then all the staff from that department have to dig through the pile and find their own name. If you can answer right away you write your reply and drop it in the OUT basket. If you can't answer right away you put it in your personal pigeonhole or take it with you.

So when you're digging through a pile of papers looking for your name you can't help but read some of the other stuff. It's all open. Right there in front of you. Routing slips. KRs. Commanding officers notes. Everything.

That's how I read some of the funniest KRs I ever saw.

Here are the ones I still remember.

Someone got a KR for smelling flowers. New kid overslept. Ran to the bus stop. While waiting he bent down and smelled some flowers that bloomed. Didn't pick them. Just smelled. Security was watching. He got written up for slacking and not looking stressed enough about being late.

A married guy and his wife got KRs for having unprotected sex that could cause pregnancy.

Someone got a KR for eating a sandwich in a coat closet because they were late for lunch and didn't want to miss the meal.

Someone got a KR for accepting a Montblanc pen from a public person who gave them to a bunch of staff.

Someone got a KR for having Star Wars bedsheets instead of standard white ones.

Someone got a KR because their shampoo smelled too much like tea tree oil.

I have my own stupid KRs too. But I'm not sharing those because some of them are still too specific. Maybe one day.

Anyone else read something ridiculous in the mail pile? Share your KR stories.

I've been working at a non-Scientology company for over a year now. After many years of slavery in the Sea Org.

And I didn't even realize it until my boss told me I was the perfect employee. Then I started thinking. What made me perfect in his eyes???

Turns out I almost never ask for time off. If I get a task I stay late until it's done. And I do it 100%. No excuses. I bring solutions not problems. I never complain about overtime or weekends. I never argue with orders. I just do it.

I follow procedures like my life depends on it. I think in stats. If the numbers go down it's an emergency for me. Other managers complain about being tired or the weather. I just quietly hit the target.

Because of regular security checks back in the day I don't hide mistakes. I don't steal. I don't gossip behind people's backs. That habit is just gone.

So now I'm getting promoted. And I don't even know if that's good or bad.

Anyone else notice this after leaving? Did Sea Org training make you the "perfect employee" too???

I don't know if they still do this but when I was at Flag there was this thing called the shame board.

Security would go into your berthing when you weren't there. They'd take photos of everything that wasn't "standard." Messy stuff. Dirty socks. Unmade bed. Trash not taken out. Then they'd print the photos and put them on a board. And they'd put that board at the bus stop.

So on Friday night when you'd get back late from CSP and step off the bus, the first thing you'd see was your own messy room with your name on it. For everyone to see.

But that wasn't enough humiliation. They'd also send the photos to your senior. And your senior would show them at a meeting in front of everyone. Point at the photos. Call you out. Shame you in front of your whole team.

I'm pretty sure this gave me OCD. And I know I'm not the only one.

Now I'm out. I know nobody is going to break into my apartment and take photos of my messy kitchen. I know nobody is going to show them to my coworkers. But I still can't leave the house without making everything spotless. If I don't, I get anxious.

It's exhausting.

Anyone else deal with this? Do they still do shame boards?

When I was in the Sea Org this made perfect sense to me. Now I look back and it's just insane!!!

If you liked someone, both of you had to write a CSW. That's a Completed Staff Work. A formal request you have to write for everything. You list all the reasons. You get approvals from multiple executives. If they approve the relationship, then you have to write another CSW just to get married.

And here's the kicker. They could just say no!!!

Why? Because one of you might be "in a project" or could get sent to another org or mission. So your relationship was basically a staffing decision.

Then in the last few years they made it even worse. New rule. You couldn't marry someone above or below your org level.

The Sea Org at Flag is split into different orgs. FSO does services for public. FLB is the higher management org. You could be in the same city. Same building even. But if one was FSO and the other FLB, you couldn't marry. They created this weird caste system. FLB only with FLB. FSO only with FSO. And so on.

So many relationships got destroyed because of this rule. It's just stupid!!!

In the Sea Org, masturbation is basically one of the worst things you can do. It's a huge deal. And to avoid restimulating the reactive bank, you're not allowed to read or watch anything sexual. No porn. No romance novels. Nothing.

I remember hearing about a girl who got in trouble for ordering Cosmopolitan magazines. Not for the articles — she read the sex advice. That was enough to land her in hot water.

So imagine my surprise when I decided to read L. Ron Hubbard's Mission Earth series. Massive books. Sci-fi. Written by the founder himself.

And it's full of graphic sex scenes. Detailed. Explicit.

The same guy who says sex is a trap and masturbation is a crime — wrote 10 books full of dirty stuff.

In the Sea Org we weren't allowed to watch movies or TV. The only exceptions were LIBS (days off) or if you an upstat award. Hubbard wrote about TV being hidden hypnosis — it makes you passive, shuts down critical thinking, feeds fear into the reactive mind. So TV was basically banned.

My friend went on LOA in 2021 and brought back a USB stick with Game of Thrones on it. I couldn't watch it openly — I'd get a Knowledge Report written on me for sure.

So every night I set an alarm for 2 AM. I'd wake up, go to the bathroom, lock the door, put on my headphones, and watch one episode. Just one.

The next day I felt like crap. No sleep. But it was worth it. That show was literally the only thing that made sense in my life at the time. The crazy part? I went through multiple sec checks during that period. Never came up. Never got caught.

The funny thing is — Scientology says TV is evil, but they have their own Scientology Network now. So TV is fine as long as it's their TV. Classic.

Now that I'm out, I can watch whatever I want whenever I want. I will never take that freedom for granted again.

I was born into a Scientologist family. I joined the Sea Org right out of high school. I spent a lot of years there. For me, Scientology terms were completely normal. I don't know how to explain it — I didn't just speak Scientology. I thought in Scientology terms.

When I left the Sea Org and started working at a regular company (wog company — that's what we call non-Scientologists), I had to talk to people who weren't Scientologists. At first nobody understood me.

I'd say things like:

"You need to confront this."
"This is my case."
"I need to handle my 2D."

People would just stare at me.

It took me a while to realize why. I had to find normal words for everything. Think in my head first, strip out all the Scientology terms, then speak. It was exhausting.

Now it's easier. But I still catch myself sometimes.

One of the most painful things in the Sea Org is LIBS and LOA. LIBS is your day off. LOA is vacation.

I worked for a whole year and only had one LIBS. And that one was only 2.5 hours long. They made me carry a pager with me the whole time — in case something happened and I had to come back.

Everyone who worked in the Sea Org knows how hard it is to get time off. You have to write this huge CSW (a formal request) where you list every single supervisor up to the Captain. Every single one has to sign it. You also have to find a replacement for yourself. And your stats have to be up.

I remember this Russian girl. She worked in the Sea Org for almost 10 years. Never took a single vacation. Not once.

One day she decided she was finally going to take one. It was a whole drama. She had to do a sec check (confession) before her leave. Because she had been working like a horse for years, she had metabolism problems and her sec check took three months.

Finally she finished the sec check and was ready to go. But then her replacement got suddenly transferred to LA. So they told her — you have to wait for a new person from EPF and fully train them. That took another six months.

Then they told her — your sec check expired, it's only valid for three months. You have to do it again. She barely got through it in one month.

She was finally ready. She had her CSW approved. She even bought her plane tickets early to save money. Everyone signed off except one person. The DIV 4A exec. She didn't approve it because she didn't like that the vacation was during LRH's birthday event.

The Russian girl had a complete breakdown. She didn't want to work anymore. They sent her to EPF Category B.

Almost 10 years. No vacation. And when she finally tried, the system broke her.

I was in EPF Category B at Flag. For those who don't know — EPF is the Estates Project Force. It's the probationary period for new Sea Org recruits. But Category B was different. That was for people who messed up. Since RPF wasn't really a thing anymore by 2017, they just sent you back to EPF. You did the same work, same study, same long hours, but now you were mixed in with the new recruits. Basically punishment without calling it punishment.

So we did MEST work with the cadets. MEST stands for Matter, Energy, Space, Time — the physical universe. In practice it means manual labor. Cleaning, fixing, painting, hauling stuff around. That's where I met her.

She was this young girl from Argentina. She was 16. She joined the Sea Org with her mom. She had dark brown eyes. And she looked like one of those blue characters from Avatar — that movie with the tall people from Pandora. Same kind of face, same bright energy. Like she didn't belong in this world.

One day we were clearing old wooden pallets and boards. That cadet kid stepped on a board with a nail sticking out. The nail went all the way through her foot. When she lifted her foot, blood was shooting out like a fountain.

She was 16. Working without any safety gear. Nobody even blinked. Just a normal day.

I finished EPF and got sent to work at the Fort Harrison. A year later, that girl finished her cadet and EPF training too. She was 17. They put her to work as a housekeeper at the Fort Harrison. 8 AM to 7 PM. Every day. Scrubbing toilets, making beds, cleaning rooms for public.

She was a kid. One time she got caught reading a book in the bathroom during her shift. They gave her an ethics hearing. For reading. While cleaning other people's toilets.

I felt so bad for her.

When I left the Sea Org I found out her mom had cancer. I saw so many Sea Org staff die from cancer because they didn't get proper treatment. And... her eyes were just empty by then.

I still think about her. My heart hurts every time.

I'm a second-gen Scientologist. I worked at Flag in Clearwater for years. When I was there, I worked with Ben Rinder. He was a cook at the Hourglass restaurant in the Fort Harrison. He had a big scar under his eye. Everyone at Flag told me it was a burn scar. It wasn't until I left the Sea Org and got online that I learned it wasn't a burn — it was cancer.

I had no idea who his dad was. I didn't even know Mike Rinder existed. In the Sea Org, you just don't know anything about the outside world or who these people really are.

Ben's wife was Jackie. She was a Latina who dyed her hair blonde. She was the I/C of the bar at the Pavilion next to the Fort Harrison pool. She had a junior staff member under her — a Russian girl named Tatiana.

One day they were both in the office trying to push stats and got into an argument. Jackie beat Tatiana in the face with a copy of Introduction to Scientology Ethics.Tatiana had bruises all over her face for a month.

I always wondered why she never got punished. No condition, no ethics hearing, no Committee of Evidence. Nothing.

After I left the Sea Org and started reading about Scientology online, I finally understood why.

Because Ben is Mike Rinder's son. And Mike had already left Scientology and was exposing everything.

In Scientology, if you're connected to an SP or a declared enemy, you're essentially untouchable and protected? No — it's more like they can't touch you too hard because it would draw attention to the family. And also because the whole family is being used as a weapon against Mike. They can't punish her publicly because that would expose the game.

So Jackie got away with it. And Ben's wife got away with it because the Church needed them to stay in and stay quiet and keep being used against their father.

I'm a second-generation Scientologist. I worked in the Sea Org for many years, and most of that time was at Flag in Clearwater. It was only after I left and started living in the real world that I realized how insane some of the stuff was.

One story sticks with me.

The husband of the senior C/S at Central Qual for staff was an OT3 and worked there as an auditor. He ran off with two girls who also worked in Qual.

Back then we got paid in cash, in envelopes, every Friday. Auditors who did over 50 hours a week made almost $200. They handed out the money in the basement of the Flag, and there was always a huge line. So each department sent one person to pick up the pay for everyone.

This guy — the C/S's husband — picked up the pay for all the auditors in Central Qual. For almost a month he just didn't give it to them. He told them accounting didn't release it, they'd get it next week. But he was saving it up.

After a month he took off with two girls — one was a Folder Page, the other was some admin worker.
The drama was insane.
The whole Central Qual got put on low ethics conditions for a month. The C/S wife was crying in front of everyone.
After that, they forced all staff to open bank accounts and switched to direct deposit.