wondered where you heard that name Michael Doven before?
-Cruise didn't know he was being spied on, and "treated Doven like shit in front of me," said Rathbun.
Read all about it here.
Scientology, Winning! We Hear from the Church's #1 Student
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We're going to do something different this time, however. The first two weeks of 2012 have been disastrous for Scientology, what with former high-ranking official Debbie Cook e-mailing thousands of her fellow church members in what amounts to a call of rebellion that will further rip apart an organization splitting at the seams, and this week, a leak of major proportions: images of the outlandish and weird things planned for the "Super Power Building" that is slated to become Scientology's "Mecca" this year.
There's been so much "entheta" that is sure to "enturbulate" Scientologists (translation: negative press that is going to mess with their minds), we figured it was time to reverse the tide. And so, today, we're going to give Scientology a pure win, an upstat it is dearly in need of. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Michael Doven, perhaps the church's greatest living student of L. Ron Hubbard's technology!
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| Michael Doven (from his website) |
What followed were three testimonials by Scientologists describing how straight up and vertical their year was. Only one, however, carried an actual name and not just initials. It was the most enthusiastic and lengthy of the three, and it was signed by Michael Doven.
Doven's name is well known in Hollywood. For years he was personal assistant to Tom Cruise, who called him "The Dovenator," and he also served as a conduit between Cruise and Scientology leader David Miscavige. Today, Doven seems to have become Scientology's in-house celebrity photographer, and his client list reads like a church roster of famous names.
Besides photography, over the last year or more Doven dedicated himself to an astonishing goal: becoming the first person to study, test on, and complete the entire set of L. Ron Hubbard materials that Miscavige had corrected and republished in 2007 under the name "The Golden Age of Knowledge for All Eternity." And doing so has apparently changed Doven's life.
We've decided to publish his entire testimonial here, hoping to give Scientology a boost during these troubled times. Please read his gushing account to the end, and then we'll consider some additional things Doven has been up to in recent years...
This has been the greatest study of my life and I have achieved the greatest gains of any action I have ever done in Scientology.I have just completed the entire Golden Age of Knowledge line-up. To be specific that is all Basics books and lectures and then all Advanced Clinical Courses, Professional Courses and Congresses in sequence. It consists of approximately 1,500 hours of LRH lectures and several thousand pages of references, HCO Bulletins and Professional Auditor Bulletins. There are thousands of essays and hundreds of clay demos.It is made up of the greatest body of work and research on the mind, the spirit and life in the history of man. It spans 14 years from 1948 through 1962. It is comprised of nearly 100 courses and checksheets covering every book and lecture on the Materials Guide Chart. It is all the data prior to (and is the foundation of) the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course which was taught between 1961 and 1966.This has been the greatest study of my life and I have achieved the greatest gains of any action I have ever done in Scientology. I have had more cognitions, realizations and false data stripping on a daily basis than at any point in my life. I have had LRH with me many hours a day, month after month, teaching and joking and as a companion and friend as I traveled through life and the world. Over the last year, I have heard hundreds of stories that have entertained and taught me so much about life and living and subjects I never would have known about.You have to imagine that when you study and listen to LRH many hours a day without fail for months and years, he becomes very familiar. And per the ARC triangle, of course, understanding improves. My understanding has greatly improved on so many subjects!Here are a few: life, communication, livingness, spirits, death, the mind, bodies, purposes, exteriorization, auditing, religion, games, history, philosophy, science, the physical universe, whole track, civilizations, politics, leadership, God and gods, art, artists, creativity, organization, conditions, dynamics, relationships, sex, money, sports, athletes, children, movies, study, aberration and success. The list goes on and on!I have had the greatest teacher on Earth with the greatest reality on all of the subjects and recall of whole track in my ear and teaching me, drilling me, entertaining and working with me 4 to 7 hours a day average for well over a year!Do you think my life has improved a bit? It has 1,000 times over!Every dynamic of mine is flourishing. My tone level is out the roof! With a great understanding of life and accurate perception and correct estimation of effort, I am of course more able and capable than ever on my track. I am high toned and exterior all the time. I am tireless and in action, constantly attaining goals and targets and helping others attain theirs.I am supremely confident and certain of what I know and what I don't. I do not have maybes. I live with swift certainty. My health is fantastic, my family is flourishing, my wife is on the final legs of OT VII, my son completed his first three courses in Scientology and all of my groups, friends and clients are flourishing as well.I have the best friends on the planet and all of them are on courses and setting amazing examples in life. I have LRH and Sea Org members as constant companions and friends and examples of in-ethics people helping others.I am having highest ever financial statistics in all four of my companies--my fine art sales at Christies International Auctions, my photography aesthetics reaching hundreds of millions in magazines, my consulting clients all flourishing with 10X the number of clients in the last 12 months.With all of this, I am a Power FSM this year and helping orgs and individuals around the world. I am a Patron with Honors and a huge supporter of all our programs. I have dozens of commendations from around the world for helping.I set out to learn this data so that I could help others more effectively become more cause in their lives and I have certainly attained this. There is not a person I cannot help in dozens of ways. I live and breathe with full knowledge of the principles that underlie all of life. If one simply applied the concept of communication fully, one could resolve any and all problems in life!My studies certainly do not end here and I will continue to learn and apply this data to help others and I encourage all others to do the same.From the Anatomy of the Human Mind Congress LRH says:"You work on him, you get--increase his reality, you make him more and more capable of understanding and living in the real universe around him. You don't pay too much attention to what is wrong with him. You find out what is right with him and you improve that ability."Well, LRH and I together have done this with me and I appreciate it. My abilities are higher than ever and it shows!Thank you LRH for teaching this and recording it and caring enough to share it. Thank you Chairman of the Board RTC and all Sea Org members for constantly putting the tech there and making it available to us all!Thank you to all at Celebrity Centre International for helping me attain my goals to learn and apply this data! -- Michael Doven
Yesterday, I called Michael to congratulate him on his accomplishment. I was particularly curious about all those "clay demos" and wanted to ask about them.
I rang the number listed on his website, and he answered in a friendly manner. After I identified myself, however, he suddenly changed tone.
"Oh. I can't take this call right now." And he hung up.
Well, I was disappointed at that. Because there were some other things I wanted to ask him about besides all that time he spent with LRH. There was the time he went out to Texas in 2010, for example, and made a little visit to Marty Rathbun...
Marty Rathbun tells me a story from when he was still the second-highest ranking executive in the Church of Scientology.
It was some time after Arnold Schwarzenegger's November, 2003 election to governor of California, which had become the subject of conversation in David Miscavige's Land Rover.
"Miscavige was driving, and Tom Cruise was in the passenger seat. I was sitting behind Miscavige, and Michael Doven was sitting behind Cruise. At some point, Tom said, 'If Arnold can become governor, I can become president.' And Miscavige got really excited and said, 'Absolutely!' And the thing is, Tony, he meant it," Rathbun told me.
I love that story.
Rathbun knew Doven very well. From 2001 to 2003, Rathbun had audited Tom Cruise and was in daily contact with the two of them. But by 2004, Rathbun was out of Scientology and had gone so far into seclusion, rumors circulated on the Internet that he had died.
But in 2009, he resurfaced and started his blog, "Moving On Up A Little Higher," which savagely criticized Miscavige and quickly became a key component in a growing Independent Scientology movement.
The next time Rathbun saw Doven, it was under rather odd circumstances.
It was April, 2010. Rathbun had been blogging a little more than a year, and his site had become a beacon for new defectors, who were leaving the church and making their way to Corpus Christi. (Rathbun lives in a small town nearby, Ingleside on the Bay, Texas.)
The latest escapee from Scientology's secretive California desert base was John Brousseau, and he made a beeline for Rathbun's home.
Rathbun arranged for Brousseau to stay in a hotel in a nearby town, and took the precaution of having a friend book the room to throw off the church's Office of Special Affairs -- its intelligence and covert operations wing. But in less than a day, Rathbun says, Brousseau had been found. Showing up at his hotel were Tommy Davis -- then Scientology's chief spokesman -- and three other church members. (All of whom, Rathbun notes, are now out of the organization.)
When Brousseau told Rathbun that he had company, Rathbun says he quickly jumped in a vehicle and started to head over there. But he had to screech to a halt, he says, when he found four cars, each with four people, bearing down on him and blocking both lanes of his road.
Rathbun watched as out of one of the four cars, Michael Doven emerged. Rathbun today says he wishes he had a video camera with him and presence of mind to tape the incident (today he always has one with him), but instead he gunned his car and blew past the roadblock. Soon he was with Brousseau, and he took him to Corpus Christi, and gathered with his attorney. In the meantime, he called Mike Rinder, another former church executive who had recently defected, and asked him to fly over from Florida to help him out. Rinder was soon on a plane and on his way.
As Rathbun went to the Corpus Christi airport to pick up Rinder, he had a fascinating telephone conversation -- which he taped.
It was with Michael Doven, who, you'll hear, wants to talk to Marty about what had just happened.
Try to keep this background in mind as you listen to this remarkable conversation from April, 2010. Rathbun was once one of the most powerful executives in the church, but now he operates independently in South Texas, and his blog seems to be wreaking havoc in the official church as more longtime, high-paying church members leave to join with Rathbun in the independence movement.
Doven, on the other hand, has just taken part in a wild church operation -- an attempt to block Rathbun while other church operative descend on Brousseau, probably to intimidate him into coming back into the fold.
Doven has to somehow explain himself and make Rathbun feel like the one who is out of line. Rathbun, meanwhile, tells Doven that "the church is dead," and it seems to hit his old friend very hard.
I'm providing a transcript of the conversation, which Rathbun had put on his blog. It's lengthy, but I think it's remarkable, and something we hadn't reported here before.
It's an opportunity to listen to Michael Doven as he explains himself after doing the church's dirty work, and before he goes on his mission to be the first to complete the Golden Era of Knowledge...
Here's the transcript:
MICHAEL DOVEN: Hello.MARTY RATHBUN: Michael.MICHAEL: Hi.MARTY: Hi, what's happening?MICHAEL: Well, uh, love to chat. Uh, love to chat you up a little bit, and see if I can inject some sanity into this thing.MARTY: Inject some what?MICHAEL: Sanity.MARTY: Into what?MICHAEL: This whole scene, Marty. This whole ... this whole scene, you know?MARTY: Yeah, well, you know I'm willing to talk to anybody on any subject, my Grade 0 is fully in. Uh, but I don't think you know me well enough to know the incorrect way to approach me is to have 12 people ... or 16 people in 4 cars descend on my place.MICHAEL: I understand that. I mean you don't know me well enough to know ... I actually understand that.MARTY: I know .. I know you know. But yet .. but yet you DO it. And that is the frightening thing. I mean there's this gamemanship, this intimidation stuff, and you're being a vehicle for it. And I know that you know that it's not right.MICHAEL: Yeah, yeah. Well that's uh ... that's not my gig...you know ...MARTY: I know that, Michael.MICHAEL: ... everyone has their agenda. And ... and ... there are certain ... you know there are individuals with passionate feelings about .. you know ... communicating with you in different ways. Right? And uh ... and uh ... you know, although there may be some agreement as to ... uh ... the desire for that to occur ... and/or the uh ... you know, the ... what they want to communicate ... uh ... that's ... you know the HOW that takes place ... that's uh ... I'm calling you now. I'm calling you now. And uh ...MARTY: Where's everybody else?MICHAEL: Well I don't know everybody else ... I'm at McDonalds with ... uh ... two friends. Uh, I don't know if you know 'em, Michael and Denise Duff ...MARTY: Who?MICHAEL: Michael and Denise Duff ...MARTY: Uh huh.MICHAEL: ... and Michael Roberts.MARTY: Michael Roberts? And uh ...MICHAEL: Yeah.MARTY: Wow. Who were the other guys in the car with you?MICHAEL: That's who was in the car with me.MARTY: The guy in the back with the blonde hair is Michael Duff?MICHAEL: Uhhh ... this morning ... that is a dull morning ... No, that's not ... no Michael Duff has black hair.MARTY: Right, he was in the front seat with the camera.MICHAEL: Uh yeah ... uh yes, but the guy in the backseat's name ... I don't frankly know.MARTY: Is it an Int guy?MICHAEL: Um, I believe ... I don't know.MARTY: You got a guy in your car you don't even know, Michael.MICHAEL: Yeah, well there was a car load of individuals, and I didn't know ... have everybody's name.MARTY: OK. I just uh ... this is very odd. I like to identify who it is who came to visit me.MICHAEL: I know, I know that. I understand that. I ... I uh ... I would have chosen to ... uh .. you know ... I would have preferred to call ... email ... then show up. You know? And make an appointment. Something ... that would have been more ... uh ... more uh ... more my choice. I'm not going to make less of other people's choices, but that that would have been what I would have chosen to do. And uh ... it's just a straighter uh ... straighter approach ... you know?MARTY: Mmm huh.MICHAEL: So ... so ... uh ... so there you go. That's ... that's that.[Car door opens and closes; sounds of cars driving by.]MICHAEL: Umm ... I just wanted to talk about your ... you know, over a number of months ... it's just like ... All right, what's taking place here? HOW is it taking place? WHY is it taking place? WHAT is taking place? You know, how ... how ... how we get to this point, to where one who wants help and who wants to help people I know and care about ... uh ...MARTY: [while walking] I'm helping people Michael now ... this is the wrong button ... I'm helping people now like I've never helped people before. In fact, I'm doing my job unobstructed like I've never been able to do my job before. So I don't ... that paradigm doesn't really work for me.MICHAEL: Yeah, but let me ask you a question. At one point, before, just earlier, somewhere earlier, was there a sense of KNOWING you were helping with certainty and KNOWING that it was working, and KNOWING that you were contributing to something good? Was there that point?[pause]MARTY: You told Tiziano that I was "the who". What did you mean by that?MICHAEL: I told Tiziano that date coincident with the time that I spent with you, or directly after, were the lowest work years of my life.MARTY: Mmm hmm.MICHAEL: Now ...MARTY: And you attribute that to me?MICHAEL: I don't know where else to look, Marty.MARTY: [Laugh]MICHAEL: I can look at myself, I can take responsiblity for my shit, alright ...MARTY: Everything was ... everything was hunky-dory until Dave got his talons into Tom [Cruise], and now Tom is a mini-me David Miscavige and that's your problem.MICHAEL: Well, I ... I ... don't know ...MARTY: And I saw it, and saw it, and I witnessed it and I observed it, and I was completely in a position where I had no obligation or no fish-to-fry with anybody, and I observed it.[pause]MICHAEL: OK. And ... and..and..and... uh [unintelligible] ... that's your viewpoint.MARTY: I mean ... it IS my viewpoint.MICHAEL: Yeah, OK, you're entitled to that. I ... I got that. I ... I got that. I uh I don't work for him. I haven't for a number of years. I haven't seen him. I'm not currently ... that's not ... I'm not here to represent him, you know? I just have my own ... you know, whatever. I got that. But I got the sense back then ... did .. you know, you said you didn't, you weren't ... you had no agenda at the time. You know, and you were just ... but, were you helping? Did you help ...?MARTY: To answer ... to answer your question ... an earlier time when I was helping ...?MICHAEL: Yes.MARTY: I think when I got Tom's case straightened out from all the quickie bullshit he got from Ray, Dave and Greg ... got his OT IV straightened out, got his OT V done, got him through his divorce, got him his life together ... got him to start helping people like he'd never helped before, like Jaime ... that was help.MICHAEL: OK. OK. So you had a sense of helping, all right? So at what point did you decide "OK, now let's just fucking destroy them all, and destroy everything that I've just worked for ...."MARTY: What are you talking about?MICHAEL: "... and anybody that's had any gains."MARTY: Where's this generality coming from? Where's this generality coming from?MICHAEL: Well, what do you mean ... which generality?MARTY: Destroy ... who am I destroying? Who have I ... attempted to destroy? Who have I ... I have not attempted to destroy anybody.MICHAEL: Well, listen ...MARTY: Who have I attempted to destroy? This is Dave's case you're running on me.MICHAEL: No, no, no, no ... (unintelligible).MARTY: Oh this is. This, this, this is. You're trying to put intentions into me that I have not demonstrated, I have not communicated. Nor have I demonstrated in my actions.MICHAEL: Well OK, how about this? In terms of your actions, let me just ... just ask you ... in terms of the numbers of individuals around the planet who you know and have cared for at one point, who have had absolutely wonderful wins and gains, HOW are they being affected by your actions now?MARTY: Who? Name somebody. Is there a problem with somebody?[Sounds of interior airport noises in the background.]MICHAEL: Any, any upstanding current member of Scientology ...MARTY: Yeah ...?MICHAEL: ... are you helping them or harming them?MARTY: I'm helping them. And ...MICHAEL: And HOW is that help?MARTY: Because they are stalled and they are getting reverse Scientology applied to them. And they are becoming, and doing things against ... they're doing things against their nature, and they're being requ ... [to someone else next to Marty] ... hey Peter, how you doin' my man ... you got my marine corps cap on bro ...PETER: [mumbling] Mmm ...yeah ...MARTY: ... you big time ...PETER: [mumbling] ...mmm ...mmm...MARTY: ...been a long time we talked ...PETER: [softly] ... yeah right ...MARTY: ...all right bro, I'll catch ya. [To Michael] ... Umm, reverse Scientology's bein' run on all y'all. And the fact ...MICHAEL: OK ... OK ...MARTY: And the fact that you're having to go out and do things that go against your better judgement, is the proof of it. The fact that you admit you come out down here with 16 people to try to ambush Marty and try to intimidate him somehow ... I mean I know you Michael, you know that, you know me better than that. You spent two years with me, man.MICHAEL: Well ... I uh ... I'm talking to you now.MARTY: I know, and I'm talking to you.MICHAEL: [Softly] I know. [*deep breath*] Here's the deal Marty. I ... you now, the people I run into ... and I got that you have attracted to you all the disaffecteds and those who have ...MARTY: That's not true.MICHAEL: ... bad things not ...MARTY: That's not true.MICHAEL: OK....MARTY: That's not true. The disaffecteds ... you know the Anonymous people called me ... and said I'm a much bigger threat to Miscav ... to them than Miscavige will ever be. Because they see the same thing. They see this guy as taking the whole ship down with him, and they're afraid of me. So the disaffecteds and people that want to attack Scientology, fear me more than they fear David Miscavige.MICHAEL: Well ...MARTY: So ...MICHAEL: ... well what does that mea ...? ... I don't know what that means.MARTY: What it means is that this conver ... what it means is that this conversation you're having with me should be being had with David Miscavige.MICHAEL: Yeah, but ...MARTY: He's your problem.MICHAEL: But I see ...MARTY: He's your problem.MICHAEL: I got ... I got that you ... that that's your viewpoint. I see ... what I see is I'm winning ... and doing well ... and having wins ... and expressing those wins ... and sharing them ... and pitching in ... and joining orgs ... and helping ... that's what I'm seeing.MARTY: Have you read my blog?MICHAEL: I've read parts of it, not everything. I've read parts of it.MARTY: Well, you know, it's like spike Lee says ... judge me by the body of my work, don't judge me on some individual thing, ok? Read the blog. It's like we're ... it's like two ships passing in the night right now. I wear my ... I wear my Self in the wide open, and I bare my soul. It's all there for the whole world to see. And for you to start telling me that I'm doing things to *attack* uh ... multiple ... even multiple individuals, let alone uh, you know ... multitudes of people ... it's just inaccurate.MICHAEL: Well how are you HELPING all of those of us, including yourself in earlier years ... [inintelligible] ... put some chance of hope there for people ... how is that helping?MARTY: I don't know ... I don't know where to begin with you, because it's all there. Scientology's been hijacked. It's been hijacked for the personal aggrandizement of a extremely egotistical person.MICHAEL: So what are you gonna do, take it back? Or just give it away, or just destroy it? What's the plan there? Wreck it because it was hijacked? Or make it better?MARTY: Take it back? What you mean "take it back, destroy, hijack" ... no ... what I ...MICHAEL: I don't know, what are you going to do with it?MARTY: What I'm doing with it is applying it. Applying it as it was intended to be applied. And making it safe for others to do so. You guys gotta wake up and smell the coffee, man. The Church is dead, man.MICHAEL: That's not true for me and thousands of others, but if that's true for that's true for you, and I'm sorry to hear that.MARTY: The Church is dead. He killed it. It's dead.MICHAEL: [*heavy breath*] That's ... that's APATHY! That's FUCKING APATHY! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? YOU USED TO BE A FIGHTER, YOU USED TO FUCKING STAND UP TO MAKE THINGS *FUCKING* BETTER!MARTY: I'm doing that right now, man.MICHAEL: REALLY?MARTY: That's why you need to ... that's why you need to do your homework ... instead of just taking orders from DM ... and find out who you're talking to, because you're talking to a reality point ....MICHAEL: I haven't talked to him or seen him in two fucking years!MARTY: And you're going to sit there with a straight face and tell me that you're not following his orders right now ... you tell me Tommy Davis uh ... commandeered this whole plan and figured out to send 20 people down here?MICHAEL: I'm telling you I volunteered to come and speak with you because that's what I wanted.MARTY: Because we need some straight R on this ... I mean if we're gonna have a talk, let's talk R, let's not talk bullshit.MICHAEL: OK, I'll tell you straight, I volunteered to come because I wanted to talk to you.MARTY: You wanted to *stop* me? Where's that at, man?MICHAEL: I wanted to get in comm. And I gotta tell you, you must know by now ... that that probably isn't too popular.MARTY: I know, it's completely unpopular.MICHAEL: Yeah.MARTY: Utterly, I understand that.MICHAEL: So that tells you where I stand, you know.MARTY: Shheesh ... Michael, you came down with 20 freakin people, please.MICHAEL: Yeah. Well ...MARTY: I gotta pick somebody up, I'm gonna have to call you back, I'm sorry they're coming in right now. And I've got one of your guys is video-recording me, in the uh .. in the ... in the ... you wanna tell these guys to back off, or do you wanna ...CHRIS SMITH: Who are you talking to?MARTY: I'm talking to him.MICHAEL: They're not my guys.CHRIS SMITH: No, I'm talking to you right now. No, I'm actually talking to you right now.MARTY: I've got Chris Smith doing a confrontation with me ...CHRIS SMITH: I'm doing confrontation?MARTY: And a guy's got a video camera in my face ...CHRIS SMITH: Now this is Marty "Destroyer" Rathbun ...MARTY: ...so you wanna talk?...CHRIS SMITH: ... being videotaped. Who is it you're talking to Marty? Who could be more important than us?MARTY: Here you go ...MICHAEL: Now we're ...MARTY: (Back into the phone.) I gotta go. I'll talk to you later.
Well, it's too bad that Michael decided not to talk to me. I think it would be fascinating to ask him about going from that raid of Marty Rathbun's house to then becoming the first person to complete David Miscavige's do-over of Hubbard's materials.
Anyway, for this Thursday's stats, let's give Scientology a little upstat for Michael Doven's dedication and optimism. The church really needs it after the brutal couple of weeks it's had.
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