My History in Scientology - Clive Nicol, 1970 through 2006

The very first time I heard anything about scientology was in Victoria, Australia in the 1960s. I next came into contact with Scientology in 1970 while at college in Bournemouth, UK. There an old friend of mine, Peter Thompson from Birmingham, introduced myself and a group of mutual friends to Scientology. Those were Eddie Dodd, and his once wife Jenny, Lynda Jones, (she was Lynda Harrington at the time), Zoran Peshich, Gill Peshich and Ralph Hilton. They were the core of the group then and those people are all still Scientologists active in different areas now. In that little group we did TRs 0 to 4 for some months, under the supervision of the mission franchise holder from Birmingham - a New Zealander, called Don Ryburn and his wife Stepheney Ryburn. They had recently established a franchise in Birmingham as a project while on LOA from the ship, Apollo. That mission was subsequently very successful and turned into an org. From there Peter Thompson and I went to Birmingham Mission from Bournemouth and we together we studied and audited on the HSDC, (Hubbard Standard Dianetics Course).

Later I moved to London and did my Academy training at St. Hill Foundation in the early 1970s. Academy students at that time coaudited the expanded grades on each other, family and friends etc. It was a requirement that each student audit the whole of the expanded grades on at least one other person. M1 word clearing and the Primary Rundown were prerequisites for starting academy training. Students audited! It was expected that a class 4 student completion would be able to audit proficiently in the HGC. In fact I and other students did audit in the St. Hill Foundation HGC - The c/s then was Naomi Whittaker (ironically she was my last auditor in the cofs) and the D of P was Jim Granger. That was a fun and productive time - I trained and co-audited up to level 4, and made it to OT3 by 1982.

Then a few years later I joined staff in the 'Bournemouth and Poole Mission' as a weekend auditor. This was a very successful mission run by Roger Kaye. There were a host of great people there - some are still there. There was Andrea Lloyd-Davis as registrar, Paul Durrant as c/s and auditor and others. While on staff there I progressed and moved further (as a paying public) on the bridge to attest to 'New OT5' in 1989 and completed the PDC in 1990.

In 1993 I joined staff at Brighton Org, which is just 30 miles south of St. Hill. My initial post there was as a replacement for Bill Payne - replacing him as Qual Sec when he left. (I later also replaced him as 'The Why' for troubles in the org in 1998 :-) Later I trained further and became the C/S, auditor and word clearer also. The people I worked with there were Michelle Payne (Bill's wife then), Michelle Brown, Muriel Mc Enery (who was the ED), and Nigel Mc Enery - auditor in training and later his second wife - Angela Mc Enery,(LRH Comm). Tim Clarke was supervisor and D of T. The division 6 area was run by Cat Clarke and Tracy Tarbet - who was also the D/ED. Her husband Campbell Tarbet was running HCO. I was on staff there from 1993 through till 1999 - when I decided to step back from the Church of Scientology. I blew for a month and then came back to route out correctly from the org. While going through the routing out procedure I was threaten with '..if you don't do exactly as I tell you, I'll get you declared and here is a copy of the despatch I have sent to Flag already to set your declare in motion...'. This was while I was being handled on my routing off staff... So then I had my 'staff leaving security check' to do. No one on staff either at Brighton or St. Hill was able to provide it as a staff service. So I bought two intensives in the NOTs HGC at St. Hill as a paying public - as that seemed to be the only way to actually get the sec check! So... I received 22 hours of correction lists on previous auditing, and then the first question of the sec check, then I'm out of hours! So now I needed to save up more money to pay for the bulk of the actual Staff Leaving Sec Check - (supposedly provided by the organisation). I didn't save up the money quick enough and I also changed address at the same time with out telling all the appropriate people - though the MAA had been sent that info - it was apparently deemed that I had blown - but in fact it was a failure to resign for service!   :-)

Well, I did get declared, well I think so anyway. I received a brief email from Brighton Org to that effect - but I never received any Golden Rod document :-)  After 30 years of study and auditing in the cofs... I was happy overall with the services I had received and abilities regained, but as far as the CofS were concerned I  had become an SP. Summary - 1970 through 1982:  raw public to OT3, 1982 to 1999 , up to NOTs, on staff and down to SP.  At least I had obtained enough wins and case gain to last a life time and so I settled into other areas of my life altogether - and decided to wait for the next...  :-))

After a few years I became fed up with waiting for the next life time.... So I took to the Internet. Wow!!  Was I surprised - I found a whole bunch of people doing scientology outside of the cofs - who were collectively known as the Free Zone. One of these people was the husband of my last auditor (Naomi Whittaker) at St. Hill - Clive Whittaker. I took a little time reviewing all the different groups and in summer 2004 joined up with Ron's Org. It was the founder of this group who in fact originated the term Free Zone. Though now the free zone is somewhat a generic term for scientologists not under the control - and I mean control - of the cofs. I went to Frankfurt and was delighted with what I found there. An org -  two course rooms, four auditing rooms, a div 6 room and students' dinning area and kitchen. On one side of the office block containing the org was an industrial zone - this often being quoted by the church plants who tried to degrade what they found, and the other side over looked the river Main. Why were the cofs so fixated on the industrial side and not the beautiful river side... never mentioning the top quality org space inside...

Once there in Ron's Org Frankfurt, I had an interview - followed by a short program - and I was rolling again and back onto the OT levels - with Excalibur. Excalibur is a level in Ron's Org that encompasses the NOTs band. Since then my life has got better and better and I continue along the Bridge.

Clive Nicol