Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath

All right.

Hey guys.

My name is Valerie Haney and I was in the Sea Org for 22 years

and three of those years, I worked

for David and Shelly Miscavige.

Like if I didn't do and say exactly what X wanted

me to do and say in that interview,

then I was better off dead because I would have

probably killed myself if they didn't

let me leave at that moment.

It was always monitored.

It was always controlled so there was never a point where

there wasn't another Scientologist watching me

or another security guard on the entrance

way to where I was staying.

Because I was scared.

I was scared on if I was to just leave right there,

would I have a family?

Would they turn my family against me?

What are my options?

I felt that if I didn't give them exactly what they wanted,

then they wouldn't let me leave.

And that was my only opportunity of leaving because I did

everything else that they told me to do

and it was excruciating but I kept a good face on

and that was the last test in order

for me to go see my family and be a normal person.

Well, because I'm not gaining anything from this.

I can... I am a free person already.

I am just trying to explain to people

and let others know what's happening

with this organization and hopefully

help other people with it.

I am the writer of the textbooks

of Scientology.

The aim and goal is to put man in a mental condition

where he can control his own problems.

Without any Scientology organization,

things are not going to change on this planet.

After years of slowly

questioning Scientology...

Leah Remini in her very

public break with Scientology.

Scientology.

What they do.

Trying to destroy people.

Trying to destroy their families when they leave.

They create a lot of people who are

willing to fight against them.

Scientology takes tax free dollars

and ruins people's lives.

This is not the life that I want to live.

I wanted to end my life.

Some people it takes a year.

Some people it takes 10 years of just

peeling that onion of how you were

manipulated and made to think.

This season, we really needed

to focus on the reason why Scientology is able to do

the things that they do.

It is because they have tax exempt status.

People who have bravely come on and told their stories

have not told those stories in vain.

They are having an impact.

We're presenting our case to the world, to the FBI,

to the IRS.

The most important thing that has to be done

is the persistent telling of the truth

and that's what you're doing.

You have to continue to fight.

You have to continue to fight for what's right.

What Scientology has gotten away with all these years

is when you left, and Marty Rathbun left,

and Mark and Claire Headly, Amy Scobey, Debbie Cook,

when everybody left and was going to the press

saying the abuse has been going on and continues to go on.

David Miscavige would punch, slap open handed,

grab by the next, throw to the floor.

I myself was punched several times by David Miscavige.

Scientology responded with that's a lie.

Then they said, well, it did happen

but now the people that were doing are gone.

Yeah.

They assert emphatically David

Miscavige never abused anyone.

They say that Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun did.

And it led to his ultimate complete removal

from any position whatsoever in the church.

So we've been hoping that a person

would have left the Gold Base and say

the abuse is still happening.

Yes.

And that person is a person named Valerie.

Who managed to pull off one of the great

escapes from the Gold Base.

My name is Valerie Haney

and I was in the Sea Organization for 22 years.

I knew Valerie when she worked for the leader's

wife, Shelly Miscavige.

When I heard that she was out and I heard that she was

already going to the authorities,

I had like crazy mad respect for her.

So I got a hold of her and I offered her a job

because I wanted to help her.

And I wanted them to know, you're just

not going to fuck with her.

Sorry.

I was born into Scientology.

My parents both worked for the church,

for the Sea Organization.

And when I was born, there was a rule

that was out where you couldn't have

kids in the Sea Organization.

So they had to leave temporarily to have me

and then when the child gets to be six years old,

then you can come back.

What was life like growing

up in the Sea Organization?

Well I didn't have actual parents because their schedule

was 7 o'clock in the morning to midnight so I would never

see them during the day and they worked seven

days a week so it was very...

I didn't really have parents.

If you tell your parents, and I was actually told this

by a nanny that was there, if you tell

your parents that you miss them, you're

pulling them off of their job.

And if they worry about you, then

you're a problem so you better not say that to your parents.

That's literally what I was told when I was 6 years

old, wanting to see my mom.

So members are not children.

That's right.

Like it's beyond even the Scientology.

You're an old being in a young body.

No, you're a Sea Org member...

Exactly.

in a young body.

A Sea Org member is expected to not complain,

to comply, to do whatever their senior orders them to do.

I mean there are so many rules and regulations

for a Sea Org member.

- It's crazy. - Yeah.

And they get applied to children.

And the actual scriptures for the Sea Organization,

there's an exact line that I had to remember

and remember and remember, verbatim.

And it was, if you feel like taking it out on someone,

do so by all means.

That was L. Ron Hubbard.

- He said that. - Right.

There is another reference

that I have that says, you know, if someone is doing something

that you're not liking and it's kind of a distraction

for you, then if you want to give them a black eye,

go for it.

The way you're treated, and you

often lose all of your compassion, your empathy.

So they become immune to being yelled

at and ridiculed and shamed.

You're creating people who are kind of immune to abuse,

to receiving it but also giving it.

You just learn that if you say to anyone that you're hurt

or that you feel sad or that you feel any emotion,

that is a bad thing and you will get

reprimanded and interrogated and you will be attacked.

You know, knock it off.

And what are you doing?

And get with it.

And I was like, um, OK.

At six years old.

So I got pretty hard pretty fast.

When you're a Scientologist, the idea of schooling

was not important.

I... you know, don't even have a GED.

Right.

One of my first jobs was...

I was a waitress.

And I was a waitress for the top executives at the Clearwater

flag land base.

Dave and Shelly came to the opening and I was there

and I served them.

And Shelley was like, oh my gosh.

I love this girl and I want her to work for me.

You know, they were the Royalty of Scientology

so I was honored.

And I was like, oh my gosh, really?

And Shelley was lovely.

And it was just beautiful.

And Dave was the most important person in Scientology

so the fact that they wanted me, little 15-year-old me,

to work for them was like wow!

And then Shelly wanted to take me to Gold.

It's in California and it's got all

of the major top Scientology executives

there so for me to go from Flag to the base is like, oh

my gosh!

But my immediate impression when I first got to Gold

was that everyone that works there was not happy

and that they were frightened.