Episode 54: The Sea Organization Deep Dive with Hana Whitfield
Leah and Mike do a deep dive into the Sea Organization with Hana Whitfield, one of the first Sea Org members. Hana joined L. Ron Hubbard in Las Palmas in 1967, and went on to Captain various Sea Org ships and bases. We cover the early years of the formation of the SO, her recollections of Hubbard, his “Mission Into Time” and much more.
The formation of the Sea Org
The first ship of the Sea Project, later renamed Athena.
Hubbard’s failed effort to locate buried treasure he “recalled” from past lives…
One of the crazier Hubbard lectures where he announces OT III and the formation of the Sea Org.
All Sea Org members commit themselves to serving for a billion years
Sea Org members pride themselves on being “tough.”
There is no concern over physical violence among SO members in the course of doing their jobs:
You’re expected to do any job in the SO, trained or not:
More on what is expected of a Sea Org member
9 Comments
Love the show! Great work on reiterating their tax exemption. I would love to hear your thoughts on Scientologist who leave quietly like Laura Prepon. Do you think you could use those “covert” defectors to influence more government change?
Can we please have more episodes with Hana?
Suggestions for future Hana episode: Mikey, Lili, and Hana (instead of dissecting Scientology structures) just share a glass (water, tea, coffee, wine, what have you) and just share the inter generational dish of a common age being in the organization. Mike and Hanna joined and stayed longer but perhaps comparing what being in their early teens/twenties in the Sea Org across generations. Perhaps add a fourth younger guest like Misceviches niece.
Growing up in a cult myself that started in the 60s I have had inter generational conversations like this now that we’ve all left and it’s fascinating to me.
Hi Kimberly, I do believe their Scientology experiences would be extremely helpful in educating more governmental change. The difficulty is (1) in locating many of them (2) getting them to talk about their experiences. Remember that many of those who left “quietly,” were suffering from extreme Scientology abuse, some for many years, and may not have recovered to a point where they are willing to go public.
Hi Kimberly, I do believe their Scientology experiences would be extremely helpful in educating more governmental change. The difficulty is (1) in locating many of them (2) getting them to talk about their experiences. Remember that many of those who left “quietly,” were suffering from extreme Scientology abuse, some for many years, and may not have recovered to a point where they are willing to go public.
Leah, I would love to hear your thoughts on how training routines that teach you how not to react, not to feel or express feelings affects actors in scientology. Can you talk about the acting process of getting to those emotions (and especially with dramatic actors like Elizabeth Moss and Erika Christensen) with what seems to be the opposite training under scientology? Thank you! Love all that you and Mike do!
After listening to ep 54, it made me think of a question if you guys ever do another q&a: knowing that LRH and David miscavige enjoy punishing people even for minor “infractions,” often in cruel and unusual ways, do you think either or both of them would go so far as sentencing someone to death if that’s something they were able to do with impunity? Or did/do they have some semblance of a consience? If either or both of them were ever able to gain any political power, do you think they’d ever contemplate genocide and if so, of which populations and by what methods? I’m just curious what your assessment is of the megalomania involved in leading scientology and whether it has any bounds.
What does Scientology due when there members have no more money because they’ve taken it all
There’s always more money, you just tell them to go away until they have it. Mortgage your house, open a new credit card, live well below your means, take a 2nd job. Remember the “Sham-wow” infomercial guy, he was a Scientologist and had an army of Scientologists working in malls across America selling infomercial products. You can actually make a lot of money fast doing that.
It’s not money that runs out first, it’s the will to keep trying. So if you break mentally, then you go away. But if you’re still dedicated to the treadmill, there’s always another thing you can do. Like crackheads, you never run out of money, you just might do progressively worse things to get it!
Dear Hana,
Is it also possible that LRH was smuggling gold and cash during the Mission Into Time voyages? He would have kept this secret from even the dive recovery team. He smuggled gold bullion with Errol Flynn in 1957. (sic… Nibs). I know we all wanted and liked the idea of Whole Track Research, but like all things LRH, there were multiple layers of truth. I personally would love to retrace the voyages and shore missions and double check the facts and also take more photos of the main subjects. What about the aborted attempt to ‘obtain’ some ancient gold bars covered in lead from the maritime museum? Mum and my brother were on the Apollo throughout most of 1973. Tell us about Phillip Quirino and his connection to the US navy and electronic communications. Captain Bill told me quite a lot of stuff in 1982 and 1984 I think that most SO staff failed to piece together the different missions LRH undertook from 1945 onwards and put them into perspective of his intelligence officer career. Tangiers and Las Palmas were contact points for Ron and his spy-network masters and friends. Director John Huston mentions this and so does William S Burroughs. Half of the HDRF were CIA agents or associates. So I am sure you will see how us swampers were completely unaware of what we got ourselves into. And yet, Ron could also be a fun and entertaining and learned human being, despite his leanings. What an enigma huh! Thanks for all your testimonials.