NEW upcoming book - Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology, by Janis GIllham Grady

NEW upcoming book - Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization, by Janis GIllham Grady.

From Karen on ESMB: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthre...Grady-****New-Book****-with-nothing-held-back

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Janis Gillham Grady arranged a fabulous get together. It really was a wonderful time.(I counted at least 100) of Ex Scientologists in a Park in Burbank.

Janis Gillham Grady announced her book release ~~ soon to be on Amazon.

I counted at least 100 folk and when we saw the drone zoom into us with what looked like a camera videoing us we thought "oh oh" ..but it was Michael Laws's drone and a lot of laughter and relief followed.

Janis lets her hair down and tells it like it was. No adjectives spared, no stories watered down.

Chuck Beatty was so excited when he read it, he could not sleep for 3 nights out of excitement if that gives a clue





EDITED TO ADD:

Tweeted with HT to Karen: https://twitter.com/IndieScieNews/status/878864367600754688



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Another tweet of Janis's book to get her name in the tweet as author.

Retweets, quotations and replies welcome.

https://twitter.com/IndieScieNews/status/879070743924948992

Janis created a new thread on ESMB with more information.

Default Commodores Messenger Book I by Janis Gillham Grady
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?44076-Commodores-Messenger-Book-I-by-Janis-Gillham-Grady

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Commodores Messenger Book I, A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization by Janis Gillham Grady

Expecting to be released in July 2017.

Introduction as to who I am:

My mother was Yvonne Gillham-Jentzsch, the founder of Celebrity Centre for the Church of Scientology. After my parents divorced, my mother married Heber Jentzsch, who is well known as the President of the Church of Scientology International.

My father is Peter F. Gillham (AKA Pete or Peter Snr.) who, in the 1970s, was known as one of the top lecturers on the subject of Scientology. In addition to his lectures, Peter authored two successful books “Tell It Like It Is” and “The Fundamentals of Success” which thousands of people credited with helping them. He later became internationally known as a nutritionist with monthly newsletters giving nutritional advice and tips. In the 1980s he developed instant CalMag, leading him to develop Natural Calm by Natural Vitality in the 1990s, which he writes about in his book “The Miracle Nutrient.” Natural Calm remains a best-selling magnesium supplement and has helped thousands of people internationally improve their health.

In the mid-1960s ”the Gillhams” were regarded as Scientology’s first family in Australia. When Scientology was banned in the Australian state of Victoria, my parents moved the family to England. Shortly afterwards we moved to the Scientology ships. In later years, we were accepted as the second family of Scientology. Yvonne headed up Scientology’s Celebrity Centre and built it to more than two hundred staff, while Peter introduced people into Scientology through his books, lectures and as the Executive Director of the Scientology Phoenix mission. Meanwhile my sister Terri, my sister-in-law Doreen Smith-Gillham and me were all senior ranking Commodore’s Messengers working directly with L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. My brother, Peter Jr., also worked directly with L. Ron Hubbard on the ship and on land.

As a child of 11, in January 1968, I arrived on the Scientology ship, the Royal Scotman where I became an original Commodore’s Messenger for L. Ron Hubbard. Over the next 11 years I spent six hours or more a day with L. Ron Hubbard, until December of 1979, when shortly after, Hubbard went into “hiding” with fellow Commodore’s Messengers, Annie and Pat Broeker. Hubbard passed away in January 1986.

Many who were there say I was raised by Hubbard. My husband jokes that I was raised by wolves (living in a pack), but I believe I was not raised at all, but grew into the world around me. Ha!

Having lived on the Scientology ship, Apollo (previously named Royal Scotman) for eight years as a personal messenger for L. Ron Hubbard and then another three years by his side as he moved around the U.S. east coast to the west. As Commodore’s Messengers, we were direct representatives of Hubbard within the world of Scientology. After 22 years, I left in August 1990, no longer able to agree with the direction the Church of Scientology was taking. Along with my husband of 11 years, we disappeared into the night to raise a family outside of the world of Scientology.

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Tweeted with new thread ESMB title and ESMB thread link.
As always, retweets, quotations and replies welcome.

https://twitter.com/IndieScieNews/status/880946860747370497

Janis Grady is out but she still thinks self-proclaimed nutritionists selling vitamins to the gullible is a good idea. Well I hope she's not taking a bunch of antioxidants regularly. Antioxidants interfere with the body's natural ability to fight cancer.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antioxidants-may-make-cancer-worse/

AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER ON AMAZON - Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization, by Janis Gillham Grady. Automatic delivery to your Kindle device or app on August 1, 2017.

https://www.amazon.com/Commodores-Messenger-Adrift-Scientology-Organization-ebook/dp/B0742Q7H2F/

Smashwords Release August 1, 2017: Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization, by Janis Gillham Grady.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/737340

Janis Grady’s new book on life in Scientology: Jon Atack’s take, and an excerpt

By Jon Atack, July 22, 2017

Quote:

Janis Gillham Grady’s Commodore’s Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization is a vital addition to the history of Scientology.

The three Gillham children were the founding members of the Commodore’s Messenger Organization. As Janis says, “As a child of 11, in January 1968, I arrived on the Scientology ship, the Royal Scotman where I became an original Commodore’s Messenger for L. Ron Hubbard. Over the next 11 years I spent six hours or more a day with L. Ron Hubbard, until December of 1979, when shortly after, Hubbard went into ‘hiding’ with fellow Commodore’s Messengers, Annie and Pat Broeker.”

The Gillham family were intimately connected with Ron Hubbard from the 1950s, when parents Peter and Yvonne played an important role in establishing Scientology in Australia. Yvonne became famous as the creator of the Celebrity Center. She is fondly remembered by many who knew her – while Hubbard raged and bullied, Yvonne used empathy and charm to solve problems.

This account deserves to be read alongside other now classic accounts of Hubbard and his system – Joe Winter’s Doctor’s Report on Dianetics and Helen O’Brien’s Dianetics in Limbo, for instance. Hopefully, L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.’s The Telling of Me will one day become broadly available, too.

I relied upon about 150 accounts of Hubbard’s life for my own Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky. It surprised me that those accounts tended to agree – I had expected them to be colored by the bitterness that most felt after their time with Hubbard, and their disappointment at the failure of his promises to elevate them to superhuman status. However, resentment has not clouded memory here: Janis’s fine book adds much to the picture, and fits neatly with existing accounts.

As a child, Janis felt the sense of persecution at the Victoria State Enquiry into Scientology. Steve Cannane gives a well-rounded account of the Enquiry in his excellent Fair Game, but it is fascinating to read this personal account. I have never supported efforts to ban Scientology, or attacks upon Scientologists – which only strengthen belief and resistance with a sense of martyrdom. Scientologists need to be rescued from the harms inherent in Scientology, rather than being punished for their convinced and genuine belief in its benefits.

Janis describes Hubbard’s unrequited lust for her mother, Yvonne. On the Clearing Course films, Hubbard revealed that he had recovered from pneumonia while discovering the “R6 Bank” in the winter of 1965. In 1966, he uncovered the secrets of Xenu, in the midst of another attack. It seems likely that his 100 cigarette-a-day habit had more to do with the pneumonia than volcanoes (though Hubbard had said that smoking was related to volcano envy…). After Yvonne nursed him through his autumn 1967 bout of pneumonia, Hubbard made her his “personal steward” at the Villa Estrella near Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria. The Commodore, as he had recently styled himself, was awaiting the refit of the Avon River and the Enchanter, the first two vessels of the Sea Project (a/k/a the Hubbard Exploration Company).

Hubbard followed the path of tyrannical rulers throughout history – he first separated Yvonne from her boyfriend, Haskell Cooke. Soon afterwards, Cooke was badly injured during the refit of the Avon River and returned home to Mexico. Hubbard accused him of “desertion” and declared him “Suppressive” for leaving, despite injuries received in the Commodore’s service. Yvonne was told nothing of this. Hubbard continued to reassure her that her children would soon join her from England, but the weeks went by, as he continued his efforts to seduce her.

Yvonne continued to rebuff the Commodore’s sexual advances, so found herself the target of the usual recriminations: an ethics order was promulgated, roundly criticizing Yvonne Gillham and reducing her to the lowest Sea Org rank of Swamper. Hubbard asserted that she was in a state of “non-existence”. Her crimes seem to have been twice failing to have snacks ready and allowing shellac to be used instead of “filler” to paint a room.

As a young girl, Janis was also the object of Hubbard’s attentions. She managed to push him away, but his attempt raises the question: why did a man in his 50s seek the constant attention of teenage girls? And was he successful with other “Messengers”?

The book is packed with photographs, many previously unpublished. It offers the most complete account of life in Hubbard’s private navy to date.

Anyone interested in Scientology – one of the most fascinating stories ever told – will find Janis’s account compelling. She checked her recollection with other eye witnesses, so adds a wealth of detail to the history of Scientology. I look forward to book two!

— Jon Atack

Continued with an excerpt from the book, and open comments, here:
http://tonyortega.org/2017/07/22/ja...n-scientology-jon-atacks-take-and-an-excerpt/

Sounds good.

Why was this soon deleted from Ortega's blog?:

"As a young girl, Janis was also the object of Hubbard’s attentions. She managed to push him away, but his attempt raises the question: why did a man in his 50s seek the constant attention of teenage girls? And was he successful with other “Messengers”?"

Tony Ortega has addressed this:

http://tonyortega.org/2017/07/22/janis-gradys-new-book-on-life-in-scientology-jon-atacks-take-and-an-excerpt/#comment-3430764537

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TonyOrtega • 25 minutes ago

Sorry for the confusion on today's post. I was literally at the gate about to board a long flight when I got a call from Janis Grady telling me that Jon Atack had misremembered something from her book. She assured me that at no point in her book does she say she had to push away Hubbard from some kind of advance. Jon agreed that we should pull out that paragraph until I had a chance to add an editor's note. Which I will do when I get home, which is pretty soon, now that I'm in a cab from the airport.

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EDITED TO ADD:

Tony Ortega has now added the following Editor's Note to the article.

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Editor’s note: An earlier version of Jon’s review contained a paragraph which referred to Janis, as a young girl, fending off an advance by L. Ron Hubbard. We removed that paragraph when it turned out that Jon was thinking of something from another book, Steve Cannane’s Fair Game, which refers to Janis’s sister, Terri, also one of the “Messengers,” dodging an attempt by Hubbard to kiss her.

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You can buy the book here:

Commodore's Messenger
A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization

Authored by Janis Rae Gillham-Grady
Cover design or artwork by Jefferson Hawkins
Maps by Jefferson Hawkins
Edited by Karen Pressley
Edition: First

https://www.createspace.com/7196129

The paperback version of the book is now available on Amazon itself:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/154720219X/

/

Tweeted.

Retweets, quotations and replies welcome.

https://twitter.com/IndieScieNews/status/889685533999366144

Mike Rinder: Janis Gillham Grady Talks About Her New Book

http://www.mikerindersblog.org/janis-gillham-grady-talks-about-her-new-book/

The post at Mike's blog contains both an article by Janis and an excerpt from the first chapter of her book.

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I have known Janis for more than 40 years. She is someone I will always hold dear. Janis was one of my first friends on the Apollo, a fellow Australian teenager like her sister Terri, we were a small contingent. In fact, it might well have been just the 3 of us in that exclusive club. Those are the sort of relationships that never die. Janis is truly a Sea Org historian. Someone with first-hand and unique experience and a desire to record the information for everyone else to share.

She graciously wrote this piece to explain a bit about her new book.

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September 3, 2017: Center for Inquiry Los Angeles - Commodore’s Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/la/events/commodores_messenger_a_child_adrift_in_the_scientology_sea_org/





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Commodore’s Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization

Starts: Sunday, September 3rd 2017 at 11:00 am

Ends: Sunday, September 3rd 2017 at 12:30 pm

Location: Center for inquiry - Los Angeles, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027

Scientology Founder L.R. Hubbard has been dead for over 30 years now, but many of those who knew him are still around. Case in point: Janis Gillham Grady.

Janis's mother, Yvonne, founded Scientology's Celebrity Centre and was married to Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International. Her father, Peter F. Gillham, was known as one of the top lecturers on the subject of Scientology in the 1970s.
Commodore's Messenger book cover

In the mid-1960s "the Gillhams" were regarded as Scientology's first family in Australia. But when Scientology was banned in the Australian state of Victoria, Janis's family moved to England and eventually lived aboard the Scientology ship, the Royal Scotsman (later the Apollo), where she became an original Commodore's Messenger for L. Ron Hubbard.

Over the next 11 years she spent six hours or more nearly every day with L. Ron Hubbard until he went into hiding with fellow Commodore's Messengers, Annie and Pat Broeker. Hubbard passed away in January 1986.

Janis's book, Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization, comes from the earliest days and the epicentre of Scientology's Sea Organization. As one of Hubbard's messengers, she was privy to all his moods and was intimately familiar with everything happening on board the ship as well as throughout the Scientology network.

Please join us for a fascinating, super-insider look at a Scientology even Leah Remini couldn't imagine.

General admission: $8
Students: $4
Planet Level Members (& higher) FREE

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September 3, 2017: Center for Inquiry Los Angeles - Commodore’s Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization

http://www.centerforinquiry.net/la/events/commodores_messenger_a_child_adrift_in_the_scientology_sea_org/





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Commodore’s Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization

Starts: Sunday, September 3rd 2017 at 11:00 am

Ends: Sunday, September 3rd 2017 at 12:30 pm

Location: Center for inquiry - Los Angeles, 4773 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027

Scientology Founder L.R. Hubbard has been dead for over 30 years now, but many of those who knew him are still around. Case in point: Janis Gillham Grady.

Janis's mother, Yvonne, founded Scientology's Celebrity Centre and was married to Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International. Her father, Peter F. Gillham, was known as one of the top lecturers on the subject of Scientology in the 1970s.

In the mid-1960s "the Gillhams" were regarded as Scientology's first family in Australia. But when Scientology was banned in the Australian state of Victoria, Janis's family moved to England and eventually lived aboard the Scientology ship, the Royal Scotsman (later the Apollo), where she became an original Commodore's Messenger for L. Ron Hubbard.

Over the next 11 years she spent six hours or more nearly every day with L. Ron Hubbard until he went into hiding with fellow Commodore's Messengers, Annie and Pat Broeker. Hubbard passed away in January 1986.

Janis's book, Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization, comes from the earliest days and the epicentre of Scientology's Sea Organization. As one of Hubbard's messengers, she was privy to all his moods and was intimately familiar with everything happening on board the ship as well as throughout the Scientology network.

Please join us for a fascinating, super-insider look at a Scientology even Leah Remini couldn't imagine.

General admission: $8
Students: $4
Planet Level Members (& higher) FREE

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flyonethewall at Tony Ortega's blog has a relevant observation. Having not read the book yet, I do not know if it is accurate.

https://tonyortega.org/2017/09/02/louis-theroux-isnt-the-first-who-tried-to-find-scientologys-positive-side-and-failed/#comment-3499546879

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flyonthewall • 11 minutes ago

Speaking of looking for a positive side of Scientology, about 125 pages into Commodore's Messenger and oh boy. Did you know that the root cause of Phillip Wearne's (a key whistleblower in Australia) upset with Hubbard and Scientology was that Scientology made him more ethical and this newfound level of ethics made it impossible for Wearne to make any money at his business? I guess that implies he was a crooked businessman before Scientology and when he became an ethical Scientologist he couldn't make money being a crook anymore so he was mad at Hubbard...for making him ethical....and ruining his business....ok. That's actually what Gilham writes in her book. Oh and also Hubbard was a very practical and grounded person...whose organization ripped Janis's family apart and made their lives a living hell. Yay!

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EDITED TO ADD:

https://tonyortega.org/2017/09/02/louis-theroux-isnt-the-first-who-tried-to-find-scientologys-positive-side-and-failed/#comment-3499562902

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flyonthewall => Puget Buckeye • 2 minutes ago

it's presented both as what she was told and what she believes. In a following section, she relays a bizarre claim that Wearne was being used by a CIA front and being paid handsomely and then puts in parenthesis that this is what the Guardian's Office said but she has not personally tried to verify the claim.

There are some interesting bits, don't get me wrong, but the apologist stuff is very frustrating. For example, Ron was kicked out of Rhodesia bc he was getting involved in politics down there. Yeah, that's one way to put it. There is a picture of Amos Jessup in it and apparently he was interviewed or contributed to the book. That was interesting. Be curious what, if anything, there is on Susan Meister.

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EXCLUSIVE: She was Scientology royalty - served as L Ron Hubbard's 'Commodore Messenger' - but Janis Grady tells how an excoriating rant by leader David Miscavige over lack of preparation for a visit from Tom Cruise made her flee the church

• In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com Janis Grady spoke for the first time and told of how Scientology defined and destroyed her family
• Her mother Yvonne Gillham-Jentzsch founded the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre - her stepfather was the church's president
• She tells of the culture of secrecy and fear, being held captive against her will and the 'group think' L Ron Hubbard fostered
• As one of Hubbard's original Commodore Messengers on his flagship Sea Org ship, she revealed he had penalties such as 'overboarding' - throwing members over the ship - as punishment
• She claims celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are separate from the rest of the church and blind to any mistreatment of the staff
• She and her siblings were instructed to write letters 'disconnecting' from their father as he had been deemed a 'suppressive person'
• When her mother died in 1978, she was not invited to the church's memorial service

Quote:

Janis Gillham Grady was no ordinary member of the church - she was Scientology royalty.

Her mother Yvonne Gillham-Jentzsch founded the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre. Her father Peter Gillham espoused the Scientology creed around the globe. Her stepfather Heber Jentzsch was the church's president.

Such was her parents' devotion to the cause that Janis and her siblings had been raised in large part by L Ron Hubbard and his wife, Mary Sue.

But as she stood next to her husband, Paul, listening as church leader David Miscavige delivered an excoriating rant something in Janis snapped.

It was 11 p.m. and Miscavige was berating them for damage caused by a sudden summer storm that had flooded the church's 500-acre compound in La Quinta, just east of Los Angeles, devastating villas prepared for an imminent visit from Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

As their fellow members of the Sea Org - the church's administrative 'clergy' - loaded into buses to return to the base for a 24-hour clean up, Paul and Janis threw what belongings they could into their car. Then they drove and they just kept driving.

As their fellow members of the Sea Org - the church's administrative 'clergy' - loaded into buses to return to the base for a 24-hour clean up, Paul and Janis threw what belongings they could into their car. Then they drove and they just kept driving.

It is 27 years since the August night.

Now, in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com to mark the publication of her memoir, Janis has spoken for the first time and told of how Scientology defined and destroyed her family.

She has described her extraordinary childhood separated from her mother, 'adrift' in Scientology and put to work from the age of 11 as one of Hubbard's original Commodore Messengers aboard his flagship Sea Org ship, by his side six hours a day almost every day for eight years.

She talks about the culture of secrecy and fear, the cruel and humiliating punishments, of being held against her will and the 'group think' that normalized the strange distorted reality Hubbard fostered.

Speaking from her home in Las Vegas, Nevada mother-of-two, Janis, 61 said: 'Public relations people within the church are altering history and I look around at who's left and who even know Hubbard and there's very few people left. I thought, "I can set the record straight."'

Janis's mother, Yvonne had been sent to Los Angeles where she began putting into action her idea for a Celebrity Centre.

Today the overarching Celebrity Centres act as part fixer part concierge for a host of high profile church members including Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Orange is the New Black's Laura Prepon and Mad Men's, Elizabeth Moss.

According to Janis, as run by Miscavige, 57, today's centers bear little resemblance to those her mother conceived. Celebrities are separate from the rest of the church, blind to abuses and mistreatment of the staff and have little or no power.

Meanwhile stored information gleaned during auditing - the process of interrogation by which Scientologists strive to attain a 'clear' status - is a rich bank of material used by Scientology hierarchy.

Janis said: 'That has been an issue ever since the start.'

Janis cannot pin point a moment when the scales fell from her eyes but serving Hubbard so closely she saw clearly that he was not 'divine' as some believed.

She said: 'He wasn't godly. He didn't have these incredible powers. People thought he could levitate things and he couldn't do that. He was a regular human being.'

Regular and flawed. Janis found out in later years that he had sexually harassed her mother - a source of great distress to the loyal Yvonne who found herself branded 'non-existent' and suppressive at various times because she had resisted his advances.

She also learned that her mother repeatedly petitioned to have her children transferred from the ships to Los Angeles but was refused because her children were deemed 'too valuable' by Hubbard.

'I look at Scientology today and if LRH [L Ron Hubbard] knew that this was going on, the fundraising and the billions of dollars that they've raised, he'd be turning in his grave if he had one. To me he would have called it criminal.'

Janis's early childhood in Australia seemed normal enough. Her father was an accountant, her mother a kindergarten teacher. But when Janis was nine, her brother Peter, 12 and sister Terri 11, her 'whole world shifted.'

Her mother left the family and traveled to the UK, to East Grinstead, Sussex where L Ron Hubbard had established his base at St Hill Manor.

Janis said: 'Over the years they became parents who switched their passions and allegiance from our family to dedicate themselves foremost to L Ron Hubbard's world of Dianetics and Scientology.'

She said: 'For a time that feels too long to measure, Mum's world did not include Peter, Terri me. It would be many years before I ever connected the dots to understand my parents' choice for our lives.'

Truth be told, today as the mother of a 26-year-old son and 23-year-old daughter Janis struggles to reconcile her own experience of motherhood with the choices her mother made.

She admitted: 'Scientology became her priority. I'd look at my own kids growing up and think: "What was my mother thinking?" I'd look at my daughter at 11 years old, the age I was when I went onto the ship, and I'd think "I could never do that."'

'When I left Scientology I knew I was pregnant and that there was no way I was going to raise my child there.'

Much of what Janis now views as the neglect and mistreatment she claims she experienced and witnessed as a child stemmed from Hubbard's notion that children 'were adults, they were just in little bodies.'

Preaching that we are all Thetans - alien beings who have lived many lives and simply occupy our body for one of them - Hubbard believed children were essentially old souls in small packages.

In the first episode of the new season of her hit show, 'Scientology and the Aftermath, actress Leah Remini who split from the church and is now one of its most vocal critics, addressed the danger of this belief. To her it leaves children vulnerable to abuse, because it wipes away any sense of 'parental ownership.'

Janis revealed: 'Hubbard used to say that parents used to dump there children on the Sea Org but they didn't, they wanted to be with their children but they had to work long hours and there was an issue with that.'

Hubbard's 'solution' to the growing childcare problem according to Janis was to buy a ranch in Mexico and ship the children of its Los Angeles members there wholesale.

She said: 'Some people who were at the Celebrity Centre told me that my mother had actually hidden children from Celebrity Centre staff so they weren't shipped down to Mexico. She round up the children and put them in a different building when they came to get them.'

Those sent were, she said 'neglected.'

She explained: 'There's a lot of horror stories from these kids about being molested and not being cared for. I heard of one child who told their mother they'd been molested and the response was "What did you do to pull that in?" Because in Scientology if something bad happens to you it's because you've done something to 'pull it in.' So a little five-year-old…they're responsible for some pedophile. That was the attitude.'

For her part Janis's childhood was spent in a cycle of the hope of being reunited with her mother and it's repeated dashing.

On December 9, 1965 her mother left for England. On December 22, 1965, following a public inquiry, Victoria legislature passed a bill outlawing the practice of Scientology.

The following May her father put Janis, her brother and her sister on a ship from Melbourne to Southampton to join their mother at St Hill Mansion. They made the 41-day voyage while he stayed to pack up their lives in Australia.

Janis recalled: 'When we first arrived at St Hill, Hubbard was in Rhodesia, people were arriving from Australia so it was exciting and we would play with the Hubbard children and everyone was friendly.'

But when Hubbard arrived the atmosphere changed, she said. He had begun writing his 'ethics conditions' placing members into different categories of existence according to how well they did their jobs and followed his rules.

Janis said: 'I started seeing men walking around unshaven and women without their make-up on, my parents wouldn't come home or they'd come home very late.

'That was when the conditions of 'non-existence' and so on were being assigned. If you were non-existent one of the penalties was that you weren't allowed to shave or clean up. If you were considered a threat to progress you were assigned a condition of 'liability' and had to wear a grey rag around your arm.

'And if you had doubts about being in the group and were assigned a condition of doubt you had to wear a chain around your wrist and most people ignored you.'

Janis and her siblings were at St Hill for a year and a half until Hubbard decided to establish his Sea Org, a quasi-military clergy of sorts made up of Scientology's most dedicated members.

Those signing up to be part of it signed a contract pledging complete loyalty for 'the next billion years.'

Little did Janis know as she entered into it that she was effectively signing away her childhood. She said: 'My mum was one of the original people asked to join. She always said to me, "I only agreed to join if you kids could be kept with me and I kept being told you would be."

It was an empty promise. Janis and her siblings spent most of the next eight years separated from their parents and sometimes each other.

She said: 'It was cruel.' She and her siblings were assigned as pot and dishwashers when they joined the Royal Scotman (later renamed the Apollo) in January 1968.

Soon after Janis was summoned to run messages for Hubbard around the ship and given the role of Commodore Messenger. She worked one of three shifts: noon to 6pm, 6pm to midnight, midnight till dawn - though Hubbard usually released her at 3am when he went to bed.

Hubbard always had his pack of non-filtered Kools cigarettes and a flip lighter in his right-hand pants pocket and smoked wherever he went.

He also had an explosive temper that struck Janis as odd given his preaching on the weaknesses of 'Human Emotion and Response' (HE&R).

She described Hubbard as hugely 'charismatic' but admitted: 'I didn't like being around his temper. He was very explosive and unpredictable, yelling and screaming at the drop of a hat.'

When Janis was around 12 Hubbard was working on what he called his 'Heavy Ethics,' in which he wrote that to 'get compliance,' one sometimes needed to 'implement penalties…too gruesome to confront.'

Two such penalties were 'overboarding' and 'the chain locker.'

The first person to be 'overboarded' was a loyal, disciplined, servant and auditor of Hubbard himself. His crime was to cast off a line from the dock one day before being told to by Hubbard.

Janis recalled: 'Hubbard got furious at [name] and ordered him overboard. From there it became a ceremony.

'People would muster on the deck. They'd open up the gate from the well deck, which was probably about two decks up. The chaplain and the Master at Arms would stand there. The chaplain would say, "Commit your sins and errors to the deep and hope you will raise a better Thetan." Then they'd pick them up and throw them over the side.'

Janis added: 'There's a difference between jumping and being thrown. As a kid I'd get thrown over the side and I didn't have an issue, I was more fearless and I used to jump from there to swim anyway.

'But I watched people have panic attacks, or they'd hit the water then say they couldn't swim.'

On one occasion Janis watched her own mother flung overboard.

Another traumatic recollection is of her father been put in the chain locker, the dark, cramped place where the anchor chain was stored.

She said: 'My dad was put in the chain locker for three or four days. If you needed to go to the bathroom they'd take off the cover and escort you there and back, though I heard some people were given buckets.

'He was fed on bread and water. It was very traumatic to watch my father go through that.'

The trauma was only exacerbated by the fact that she and her sister Terri - her mother and brother were not on the same ship at the time - were instructed to write letters 'disconnecting' from their father as he had been deemed a 'suppressive person.'

Janis said: 'I remember sitting in tears as I'm writing, 'I Janis Gilham disconnect from Peter Gilham…'

Meanwhile, Janis's mother, Yvonne had been sent to Los Angeles where she began putting into action her idea for a Celebrity Centre.

Janis explained: 'Her idea was to help people - in the beginning some of them were artists they weren't all celebrities but her whole idea was she would take different datums by Hubbard and teach that person to use them in their life.'

Perhaps the cruelest wound inflicted by Scientology - and one that Janis cannot forgive to this day - was that she was denied a chance to say goodbye to her mother.

By then Janis was living in La Quinta in a ranch known as WHQ (Winter Headquarters) and her mother was working out of Los Angeles.

Janis has been able to piece together what happened. She said: 'In October 1977 my mother had been on tour in Mexico and had a stroke. Whoever was with her just put her on a flight back to LA because I found out later when she was picked up from the airport she was slurring her words.'

The following month Janis received a suitcase from her mother for her 21st birthday but was disturbed by the letter that accompanied it. She said: 'Words were missing. It just didn't seem right.'

She tried to find out if her mother was okay and was told that she was fine.

She said: 'What I didn't know was that my sister had got a phone call from someone saying you're mum is really sick and they're keeping it from you. I don't know who made that call or who 'they' were.'

Janis's sister Terri found her mother in her apartment, alone and delirious. She took her to hospital where she was diagnosed as having two brain tumors.

From there Janis later discovered her mother had been taken to the Scientology base in Clearwater, Florida.

'When you get sick you're considered a 'down stat,' she said. 'A burden. The priority was to go and clear that planet and if you get in the way you're collateral damage. It's groupthink. Step over them while you keep going.'

Janis knew nothing of her mother's illness until she received a phone call informing her she had died on January 23, 1978.

She said: 'It's that whole mentality. Scientology becomes a priority over life, your family, your wellness.'

Janis attended a small family memorial. The church organized a large celebrity memorial service to which she was not invited.

She said: 'I didn't even want to ask how it went.'

When it comes to the fractured relationship she had with her mother Janis said: 'I try not to look on that. I don't want to keep looking back. When you're in it you don't consider yourself abused or a victim and then when you step away from it…the first few years it's like peeling an onion.

'Layers come off, things that you didn't want to confront or acknowledge. I knew that she always thought of us. She'd get these cute little cards of cute little girls and sent them to me and write, 'This reminds me of you.' So I hold onto that but I just got to keep moving forward.'

During her last few years in Scientology's Sea Org Janis was a senior and largely respected member, who had met and married fellow Sea Org member, former medical student, Paul Grady in 1979.

But she watched the sweeping away of the 'old guard' and the rise of David Miscavige with unease.
Today she believes he has changed Scientology beyond recognition.

She claims: 'He runs everything on fear and he personally gets in the face of people.'

She claims Miscavige is an enthusiastic proponent of the Rehabilitation Project Force where Sea Org members who had been assigned a low condition were 'rehabilitated' by being assigned 'the dirtiest and grossest jobs of hard labor.'

She said: 'They were required to run, not walk, everywhere and were forbidden to speak. This 'rehabilitation' program at the Scientology penal colony stripped staff members of all rights and dignity. It was like leprosy.'

Janis herself was held captive for several days, without any form of communication with the outside world, shunned by the group and guarded 24 hours a day for some perceived misdemeanor.

Once out of the church Janis reconnected with her brother and sister who had already left and she and her husband hoped for a fresh start in Las Vegas, when another former Scientologist who had 'escaped' offered to help get them started in the mortgage loans business.

They established a life, built a company and started a family.

But they began to notice that one of their employees never closed a deal.

One day Janis raised the matter with a colleague.

She said: 'This broker said, "Oh [name] is not here as a loan officer. His real job is as a private eye and he's in Vegas on a job."'

She was told how he'd shown her broker his Private Eye license, and his gun and his whole set up of how he listened to these people.'

According to Janis, Lubow was a 'Scientology plant' who had listened to their business and embedded himself in their lives for more than a year.

Remarkably she just accepted that this is what 'they' did. Just like she never reported finding her off base storage facility broken into and all her birthday cards and correspondence from Hubbard stolen.

In response to DailyMail.com's request for comment, The Church of Scientology said: 'Janis Grady has not been a member of the Church of Scientology for nearly thirty years.

'We have not read her book and so are not in a position to confirm or deny any of its contents, but the false allegations you raise are contrary to our archive records about the Gillham family and do not represent in any way the Church today.'

Looking back Janis said, even though she had left she didn't have the 'separation' needed to see things clearly.

There are still remnants of Scientology woven into Janis's DNA. If she hurts herself she still does a 'contact assist' placing the injured part back on whatever caused it injury and repeating until the pain goes away.

On some level Janis may never be completely clear of the long shadow of Scientology.

But after three decades on the inside and three on the outside she is finally 'separate' enough to talk about the life she kept secret for so many years.

Source, with photos:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4817386/Janis-Grady-Scientology-royalty-reveals-fled.html

'Tom Cruise, John Travolta, they have no power.' Scientology royalty who escaped the celebrity church reveals the abuse she suffered - and truth about who runs it

• Shocking new details about the Church of Scientology are revealed in an exclusive DailyMailTV interview
• Go to DailyMail.tv to find out when the airs in your area

Quote:

Janis Grady was born into Scientology royalty and partly brought up by its founder L. Ron Hubbard before she escaped its clutches.

Now she is exclusively telling DailyMailTV about what she saw at the heart of the controversial celebrity church - and dishes on everything from abuse she suffered from senior figures to the truth about how it treats its most famous followers.

Continued at
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/dailymai...entology-revealed-escaped-church-royalty.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4817386/Janis-Grady-Scientology-royalty-reveals-fled.html

In depth article today covering Janice's story complete with pics and additional material.

Readers comments are entertaining too.

Daily Mail may not be the best rag for news but it sure does an excellent job of hitting the COS where it hurts.

Lol, no.

Ex Scientologist Reveals How David Miscavige Coddled Tom Cruise

Miscavige ranted over lack of prep for star's visit with then-wife Nicole Kidman?

By Radar Staff

Quote:

A former top Scientologist, Janis Grady, has told all about Tom Cruise and the church’s leader David Miscavige in an explosive new interview.

Grady claimed to the Daily Mail that Miscavigne’s meltdown over the lack of preparation for a Tom Cruise visit with his then-wife Nicole Kidman caused her to flee the controversial church!

Once one of L Ron Hubbard’s elite “Commodore Messengers,” Grady, 61, claimed that she left Scientology after Miscavige, 57, berated underlings over the Cruise incident. In an interview about her new memoir, Commodore’s Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization, Grady told how Scientology allegedly destroyed her family.

She said that on an August night 27 years ago, Miscavige berated her and other Scientology members for damage caused by a sudden summer storm that had flooded the church’s 500-acre compound in Hemet, California. The storm damage had ruined special villas that had been prepared for an imminent visit Cruise and Kidman.

Miscavige is reportedly a close friend of Cruise, the most famous member of Scientology.

The leader’s rant caused Grady to snap, she wrote in her book.

According to Grady, other members of the Sea Org, the church’s administrative ‘clergy,’ got on buses to return to the base for a 24-hour clean-up of the villas meant for Cruise, now 55, and Kidman.

But the harsh Miscavige order caused Grady and her husband Paul to throw their belongings into their car and drive away from Scientology for good. “They just kept driving,” as the Daily Mail reported.

Also in her memoir, Grady has described how she worked for Scientology from the age of 11 on, by Hubbard’s side, six hours a day nearly every day for eight years.

Continued here:
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2...veals-how-david-miscavige-coddled-tom-cruise/

View attachment 437E80D600000578-4817386-She_has_described_her_ext

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4817386/Janis-Grady-Scientology-royalty-reveals-fled.html

http://theapolloseries.blogspot.nl/...j0hTo/s640/directr.jpgn-past-and-present.html

http://www.mikerindersblog.org/janis-gillham-grady-talks-about-her-new-book/

Sounds good.

BTW, in the scientology crime syndicate, "archive records" = OSA files

The book is now available in Australia from Vivid Publishing.

Commodore's Messenger: A Child Adrift in the Scientology Sea Organization by Janis Gillham Grady

http://www.vividpublishing.com.au/commodoresmessenger/

Aussie Scientology whistleblower lifts the lid on the religion | Yahoo7

Janis Gillham Grady grew up with Scientology. Now she's opened up to Bryan Seymour, who joins us live.

Video: https://au.tv.yahoo.com/plus7/the-m...-whistleblower-lifts-the-lid-on-the-religion/

Janis Gillham Grady, author of Commodore's Messenger, on Andy Nolch's Indie Scientology Podcast.

Australian former senior Scientologist calls on celebrities to step away from the group

By Bryan Seymour, Yahoo7

Quote:

A former Scientology heavyweight is calling on celebrities to stop promoting the abusive group.

Janis Gillham Grady rose from humble beginnings in Australia to serve alongside the multi-billion dollar cult's founder L Ron Hubbard.

Now she's written a stunning tell-all account of her experience and has spoke exclusively to 7 News from her Las Vegas home.

Australian-born Ms Grady's book tells the story of her childhood serving Hubbard.

"I was with him for six hours a day for nearly 11 years on and off," Ms Grady said.

As a child in 1960s Melbourne, her parent's senior position with Scientology was suddenly a negative, when it was banned in Victoria.

"No-one was allowed to practice Scientology so we had police showing up at our house to see if we were practicing you could be arrested for doing Scientology in the State of Victoria."

She and her father Peter were both imprisoned and chained by the church for minor transgressions.

"He didn't kill anyone, he didn't get drunk, do anything like that it was part of how justice was issued in those days. Hubbard issued it and people accepted it."

Finally settling in Los Angeles, Ms Grady's mother set up the first Celebrity Centre. It grew quickly.

"It was the biggest Org in the world at the time."

Ms Grady's mum Yvonne Gillham-Jentzsch got John Travolta involved and he adored her. Travolta was studying at the Celebrity Centre when he got his first big break on Welcome Back Kotter.

"The celebrities of today are treated very different to how they were treated when my mother was there."

"The Scientologists are shutting themselves away from the real world when they should be embracing the real world and reaching out to it."

Many families, including here in Australia, are cut off from those still trapped inside.

"People are being forced to disconnect so that they don't talk because people who have left and know what's going on, on the inside will talk to those that are on the inside and tell them the truth of what's happening."

While many celebrities have left, 61-year-old Ms Grady believes those remaining, like Elizabeth Moss, hold the key.

"That's what they all need to do, they need to get on the internet and see the stories that have been going on and do something about it because they're the ones who can. You've got to be on the inside if you're going to reform that place."

The current leader David Miscavige, accused of assaulting and abusing staff, shows no sign of loosening his grip.

"David Miscavige is a lot more intense on his demands to get things done than Hubbard was."

The Church of Scientology refused 7 News's request for an interview, issuing a statement rejecting Ms Grady's claims. Read the full statement below.

It is beyond question is that Scientology's membership has plummeted to less than 20,000 worldwide and here in Australia, barely 1,500."

Ms Grady's second book is due out next year, she says it's ludicrous for Scientology to attack her.

"For them to attack me they're like attacking themselves since I was born in Scientology, raised by Scientology parents and then raised by Hubbard himself as a teenager."

The article includes nine photos and a statement from the cult:
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/37741027/former-senior-scientologist-calls-on-celebrities-to-step-away/

Janis Gillham Grady, author of Commodore's Messenger, on the Independent Scientology Scientolipedia Podcast.

'They are shutting themselves away from the real world': Former senior Australian Scientologist who spent her childhood serving L Ron Hubbard urges star celebrities to reform controversial religion

• A former Australian Scientologist urges celebrities to help reform the religion
• Anyone with the power to reform the church is still 'on the inside', Ms Grady said
• Ms Grady spent 6 hours a day for 11 years serving L Ron Hubbard in the 1960s
• She is set to release a second tell-all book about her experiences with Hubbard
• Also claims that the current leader David Miscavige is 'intense' and abusive

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...tologist-urges-celebs-help-reform-church.html