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Allegations of extortion by Scientology

In 1995, Patrick Jost posted a message to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup describing his experience with Scientology. The following excerpts highlight his allegations of threats and assault by a Scientology OT - an Operating Thetan, someone who has completed advanced levels of Scientology training.

You can read the complete text of the original post on the Operation Clambake message board, where Jost's earlier newsgroup post was discussed in 2004.

In the following text, quotes from Jost's account are indented and printed in purple text; emphasis is added in red.


Patrick Jost alleges extortion by Scientology representatives

Jost begins by describing his background in Los Angeles and his initial involvement in Scientology, which consisted of auditing and courses at the Celebrity Centre there. According to his account, he was declared a natural Clear (someone who didn't have a reactive mind to begin with). He also says Scientologists initiated discussions about the possibility of Jost joining the Guardian Office.

Jost said he did an accelerated course to advance through New Era Dianetics up to OT III, but "nothing happened" - he wasn't achieving the supposed results of Scientology, such as increased intelligence and perfect memory. He became increasingly skeptical about Scientology's results, teachings, and founder. At the same time, the Celebrity Centre began asking him to pay for additional services, which had previously been free for Jost. When he discussed his concerns with his Course Supervisor, she assigned him an Ethics course. That led to a meeting with the Ethics Officer, who, Jost says, assaulted and threatened him.

Shortly after this altercation, Jost had dinner with the person who had sponsored his initial Scientology training.

A few nights later, I had dinner with my "sponsor"; I didn't know it when I set up the dinner, but two "representatives" from the CoS came along as well.
My sponsor didn't get to say more than "hello"; the two CoS reps told me that I had betrayed my sponsor, the Church, Hubbard, my fellow Scientologists, and that I was a criminal. They said I had committed a "high crime" by attacking the Ethics Officer.

Within Scientology, a "high crime" is a specific and extremely serious type of unethical act, as spelled out in official Scientology policy letters. High crimes include remaining in contact with a Suppressive Person, continuing to read something after going past a misunderstood word, and leaving Scientology publicly.

I was told that the ONLY way "out" was to sign up for the Sea Org - then and there - and promise to pay not only for all of the services I had received, but for what I gathered was about two years of additional training and auditing.

Extortion involves threatening physical harm or other harm to a person's well-being, such as their reputation in order to coerce a person to provide money or services - for example, "if you don't pay me $100, I'll break your kneecaps". As Wikipedia notes, actually obtaining the money or service is not required; the threat alone constitutes extortion.

In this case, the alleged extortion involved both money AND a service - joining the Sea Org.

The Sea Org is the most dedicated group of Scientologists. Sea Org members sign a billion-year contract, establishing their commitment to continue to serve in the Sea Org for lifetime after lifetime.

I said that I was not going to join the Sea Org, not pay them anything, and not stop asking questions. One of them said "you know, I could kill you right now... with a thought". I said "well, you know, I've been asking for demonstrations for a while now, why don't you just do it and get it over with?"
The reply was something like "don't worry, we'll get you when we have to".

Jost's resistance to being coerced is met, here, with a restatement of the threat.

As Jost concludes his account, he notes that he received an invoice from Scientology, even though he had been told that there would be no charge to him for his Scientology services. Even after his blunt refusal to pay, Scientology was continuing to try to exact money from him.

This page was last updated on April 24, 2011.