Who is David Miscavige

Part III of III

In his childhood there were signs that David Miscavige nurtured anger within him, that he had no problem resorting to violence to address his problems. Dropping out of high school because other kids were “doing drugs” does not show a noble character, rather it leaves one supposing that he quit a situation because it was difficult and uncomfortable.

Numerous teens in the 1960s and ‘70s attended school amongst drugs and alcohol. It was part and parcel of the times. Given that it was such a widespread issue, such a part of mainstream teen society, his deciding to quit school over it seems simply a convenient excuse.

Miscavige quit because the going got tough and he was not able to control it. Joining Scientology at 16 was simply running away from his problems both at home and at school.

Today his silence in the face of increasing scandal and negativity towards the organization he now leads is an echo of his past. Ignoring the issues, living in a glorious bubble of a false reality of his own making, Miscavige hides behind his private investigators, his razor topped walls, his multiple attorneys and those under him who are wholly expendable where his own hide is concerned.

Never once has he shown true strength, honor or leadership. Instead he denies, refutes and ignores even hard and fast evidence supporting the claims against his “church”.

Teflon Dave, untouchable behind the government granted shield of First Amendment protection.

Bully extraordinaire.

With nothing and no one to hold him accountable he spends his days in luxury while leaving pain, fear and chaos in his wake.

Dropping out of high school at the age of 16 surely does not prepare anyone to run such a massive conglomerate efficiently, smoothly or with any real organization.

Hubbard’s original ambition to disseminate the information to the world while Clearing the Planet is now a secondary necessity for Miscavige. First priority is raking in the cash and the only way to do that is to milk the Tech Cow of Scientology Sales.

His followers are little more than tools, a means to an end.

The tailored suits, expensive shoes and Cartier watches, the fleet of luxury vehicles, manicures, private jets and a staff catering to his every demand are quite the achievement for the son of a salesman from the coal region of Pennsylvania.

More importantly, for a twisted, cruel, damaged man with a propensity towards violence, his position allows him to torture, torment and terrify those below him with impunity.

He thrives on the chaos, creates it purposefully in order to build himself up in his own eyes.

Ron Miscavige laments, “How did it come to this? How did a young boy who was an affectionate, happy, bright kid with a great sense of humor and a desire to help others grow into a man who surrounds himself only with people who suck up to him and lives a lavish lifestyle while those who work for him live no better than medieval serfs? What is the catalyst for such an unfortunate transformation? I have concluded that it is the acquisition of power. Some who come into positions of power may be able to remain whole and true to themselves, but my son David has demonstrated beyond doubt that he is not one of them.”

–Ruthless, pg 234

Was he truly affectionate and happy? Perhaps at one time he was capable of common human decency, but even then the “affectionate and happy” boy carried within him a streak of darkness that has consumed anything good that may have once existed. How happy can a boy be when he is fighting his perceived bullies and preferring to hold himself apart from his peers?

It is obvious Ron loved and still loves his son. Given what David has become it would certainly be understandable for a parent to grasp anything positive like a lifeline in a storm.

Anything remotely redeeming.

Whatever he was in the distant past is gone however, burned away in the crucible of rage and control.

Marc Headley tells a story of Miscavige sneaking through the offices of his underlings, rifling through the desk drawers in the night in hopes of finding something amiss. Upon finding any such evidence COB would later, in front of others, produce the offending misdemeanor as though he’d had some secret intuition that it existed and then viciously, verbally peel the skin from the unfortunate person’s back. David was actively looking for any excuse to punish another.

In Chapter 15 of Blown For Good, Headley writes “It was a pure nightmare when he was around. People would blow, would get sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force and would exist in a constant state of terror. When Miscavige was at the base, it was like the place had frozen over and nothing would get done.”

He further describes Miscavige’s terrorizing of those around him during what Headley describes as a typical meeting, “The doors by the officer’s side shook a little. Dave Miscavige came storming in. He went up to the podium and started screaming at us. We were the heathens responsible, we had caused this flood, we were scum, we had sabotaged everything that he or LRH had ever tried to do, we were the reason security checking was developed, we were the reason the drug rundown was developed, we were the reason why the purification rundown was developed, we were scum, and the entire org was assigned a condition of Confusion! 15-minute meal breaks, no canteen privileges, no liberties, no nothing. And everybody automatically lost two Team Share cards and would not be able to get them back until the entire organization was upgraded out of lower conditions.”

Marc Headley is not the only one who lived through COB’s cruel antics. Amy Scobee also describes experiences under Miscavige’s thumb in her book as well.

From Scientology-Abuse At The Top, Amy Scobee, Kindle edition, Chapter 6

“Under his direction, small perks such as listening to the radio or having plants or family photos on our desks, were discarded. An issue came out canceling family time (an hour a day for parents to spend with their children). Another issue came out forbidding any further pregnancies by Sea Org members, with the penalty of off-load (being shipped out of the organization in disgrace) should that occur.”

Chapter 7:

“At the Int base, Miscavige is known to pride himself on having memorized the sexual irregularities of practically every staff member there. He has demonstrated his “accomplishment” to others by picking staff at random and announcing their most embarrassing sexual information, to prove how much he’s ‘in the know’.”

Chapter 9:

“As Miscavige felt he wasn’t getting adequate response from people, he created name tags to place on their chests. The first one was a fluorescent pink tag that said “Wheeeeeeeee!!!!!!!” to signify that the person wearing the tag was irresponsible. He was passing these out like candy for people to wear, replacing the usual post title tag that was part of the uniform.”

The insanity does not end here. Debbie Cook, one time Captain of the Church of Scientology’s Flag Service Org stated under oath before a judge in 2012:

“I witnessed Mr. Miscavige physically punching in the face and wrestling to the ground another very senior executive at Scientology international level [Mark Yager]. … One time I was called into a conference room and he (David Miscavige) ordered his secretary to slap me and she slapped me so hard I fell over into the chairs. (Another) time Mr. Miscavige ordered his communicator to break my finger if I didn’t answer his question.”

Chris Guider a former Inspector General MAA (Master at Arms) for Scientology described one experience in a 2011 interview “I’ve seen him physically beat one staff member, Mark Fisher, who was formerly an executive in RTC and worked very closely with Miscavige for a lot of years. And I witnessed [Miscavige] beating him. …

[Miscavige] was standing behind a person, who was editing the . And [Miscavige was] telling him how he was doing this wrong and that wrong, and screaming at him. In the Ethics Officer role, you have this little … “riding crop” [stick] … and it’s just meant to be a symbol of authority that the Ethics Officer has. Well anyway, Miscavige told me to BEAT the guy with the stick. I looked at him and I refused to do that. He took that very, very severely on me because I didn’t just do what he wanted me to do.”

Former Scientologist Mark Fisher, one time Corporate Liaison was brutally attacked and left bloody by the COB.

“Miscavige .. came racing across and grabbed me around my throat, and started choking me, and I immediately went down into a fetal position on the ground and covered up because I didn’t want to fight back or get hit. He was pulling on my hair and was punching at me and kicking at me. And this went on for two or three minutes. And when he finally stopped and calmed down, I stood up and I reached behind my head and my head was bleeding behind from him pulling my hair.”

The constant physical abuse is terrible by itself, however David Miscavige’s cruelty goes much deeper.

He seems to receive satisfaction from causing humiliation and degradation on those around him. This emotional abuse is sinister in its execution.

The well known incident of Musical Chairs that he forced his captives held in The Hole to endure is a prime example of cruel emotional abuse run mad. Even the creation of such a place of incarceration as The Hole shows the depth of the man’s sadism.

Miscavige creates the situations that result in his own personnel landing in trouble in the first place. Issuing conflicting orders impossible to carry out, leveling deadlines that can barely be met and assignments with outrageous requirements that leave subordinates drained, exhausted and bereft of morale he then castigates his physically and emotionally drained staff, finding fault and nitpicking.

DM maneuvers his staff like pawns on a chess board into constant failures, then exercises his fetish for tormenting others with nefarious joy.

While there are quite a few people within the organization who appear to have dropped out of sight, none of these elicit more worry and concern that Miscavige’s own wife, Shelly.

Whatever reason she has been “disappeared” by the one man in all the world who is supposed to protect and care for her, she is his most horrible victim.

From all accounts Shelly was devoted, loyal and steadfast towards her vicious husband. No one knows what “mistake” she made to land her banished, not to be seen or heard from again since 2007. Has he disconnected from her? Does he visit her, subjecting her to beatings and the sharp edge of his tongue?

Where is Shelly and what shape is she in?

Currently, as lawsuits begin to pile up against him and the organization he rules, he is conspicuous by his invisibility.

Leading from the shadows, playing hide-and-seek with process servers and skulking behind a wall of attorneys for protection one can only hope that his days of violence are finally numbered. As time goes on fewer and fewer of his former victims are willing to remain silent, the lurking lawsuits demand to be addressed and justice may finally be on the horizon. Is there even a prayer of a chance that Shelly will be discovered and freed in the midst of these proceedings?

For a man who lives to be in control, that his world is slowly spiraling out of it must surely be a terrible thing for this life long bully to consider.

David Miscavige ran from his problems as a teen and he’s running from his problems now. Instead of showing courage, dignity or even the smallest bit of honor, he is hiding.

The stress he is potentially under right now is a bad thing for those around him, one can be sure. There can be no doubt that he is taking out his temper and fear on everyone within reach. We can only imagine the depraved levels he has sunken to at this point.

For now we hold our collective breath and watch.

Watch how this new spotlight on Scientology and it’s leader’s abuses will play out while hoping that this Master Bully will finally be brought to justice and his followers freed.