Part 28 (1/2)

* Sea Org staffers, who divorce at an alarmingly high rate, are an exception to this rule. Jeff Hawkins, for example, had three wives during the time he was in Scientology.

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* Scientology's course completion lists, published in the back of many church magazines, pertain strictly to programs, not individuals. The 1989 figure thus does not suggest that over 11,000 people were at Flag-indeed, according to the website , which keeps track of these statistics, just 5,515 people completed courses at Flag in 1989, and just 3,155 in 1998, some taking multiple courses. These numbers are consistent with anecdotal reports from Scientology members and onetime officials who say the number of people at Flag decreased in the 1990s, along with the number of courses or other programs they signed up for and completed.

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* According to several reports, Packer is no longer affiliated with the church.

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* Once, recalled Marc Headley's wife, Claire, Cruise came down with food poisoning at Int, prompting the immediate departure of the unfortunate Sea Org member who had unwittingly fed the actor bad shrimp.

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* This spate includes my own article, ”Inside Scientology,” published on February 23, 2006, in Rolling Stone.

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* The Sea Org had abandoned its navy-style uniforms as day-to-day attire in Clearwater by 1996, as part of the church's ongoing effort to make friends in the community. This would soon become standard practice throughout Scientology, though the Sea Org dons the formal uniform on special occasions.

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* The family ultimately settled with the church in 2004 for an undisclosed amount, estimated at $20 million.

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* The city of Clearwater has never conducted its own survey to test Scientology's claims.

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* A pseudonym.

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* The Cadet Org was abolished in the mid-1990s.

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* Richard Reiss was the senior case supervisor at Flag who was out of town on training in 1995, when Lisa McPherson was receiving counseling-her care fell to Reiss's deputy, Alain Kartuzinski.

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* Miscavige's missives, unlike L. Ron Hubbard's, are generally not for public consumption. With the exception of the occasional RTC Executive Directive, such as one of 1991 wherein Miscavige announced that the church was winning its campaign against the IRS, the leader's written words are confined to the base, where staffers maintain thick binders of his utterances. Miscavige speaks to the Scientologist public at events, and his speeches are often reprinted in Scientology magazines.

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* According to several former staffers, including Marc Headley, Miscavige rejected the golf cart, which was used instead by the base's public relations officials to give tours to visiting VIPs. When I visited Int in the winter of 2006, the OSA chief at the time, Mike Rinder, drove me around the base in the golf cart.

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* The church denies that it pressures people into having abortions. In 1996, a formal policy was enacted, banning Sea Org members from having children. Youngsters were seen as ”interfering with the productivity” of the staff, according to the current Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis. See Joe Childs and Thomas Tobin, ”No Kids Allowed,” St. Petersburg Times, June 13, 2010.