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She was there to keep her away from her mother, but they were also worried about her blowing [Scientology jargon for escaping or defecting] because of her clear statement that she didn’t want to be there. Freewinds is a Finnhansa Class cruise ship currently operated by Church of Scientology. View Freewinds' current position, recent track, speed, course, next port destination, estimated time of arrival (ETA) and more in the cruise ship tracker map below.
Suppressive persons and fair game
“Just as the ship was getting ready to leave, I grabbed my stuff and went to the gangway. But the security guards there told me I was still on the restricted list,” she says. After her passport was given to her, she rushed to put a few things in a bag, then prepared some food for the CO, so she’d be eating when she came out of auditing and wouldn’t look for Ramana. We’ve written frequently about Beghe since he became the first of Scientology’s pampered celebrities to make a noisy exit and denounce the organization in a very public way in 2008. Since then, he’s continued to be a vocal critic of Scientology.
DAVID MISCAVIGE:
The ownership and management of the vessel was organized through a complicated web of Scientology-run corporations and entities, most of which are owned by the FST. It is owned by San Donato Properties, a Panamanian corporation of which FST is the sole shareholder. Another FST-owned Panamanian corporation, Transcorp Services, owns the mortgage on the Freewinds. FSS Organization was a Netherlands Antilles corporation responsible for paying certain taxes on the vessel to the Netherlands Antilles authorities. Scientology courses are delivered aboard the vessel by the Flag Ship Service Organization (FSSO), in effect a floating branch of the Church of Scientology. Majestic Cruise Lines is a Panamanian corporation which operates the Freewinds, receiving payment from FSSO for the use of the ship.
THE FREEWINDSSCIENTOLOGY’S RELIGIOUS RETREAT AT SEA
With measles, you typically will develop a rash 14 days on average after you were first exposed to the virus, although this can vary from 7 to 21 days. You tend to be contagious for about eight days, spanning from four days before the rash appears to four days after. Therefore, it could be a while before everyone gets their ship together. The ship passengers and crew members could be spending well over 21 days in quarantine.
Views on Hubbard
Despite leaving both the Sea Org and Scientology itself, Ramana has not yet been declared a suppressive person by the church. Until last week, she had never spoken publicly about her rejection of it. Since she’s left, it’s been very hard to get back to a normal relationship with her mother, who is still in the church. “Ninety-nine percent of the time I’m talking to a Scientologist. Soon enough, after being convinced to stay in the Sea Org, she was feeling disillusioned again and became more determined than ever to leave.
▼ Global Social Betterment & Humanitarian Programs Supported by the Church of Scientology
Far more than a cosmetic upgrade, the ship was stripped from stem to stern, below the water line to the top of her stacks—all six decks. She emerged a fully redesigned, technologically advanced vessel—the ideal religious retreat for ministering religious services. This week, actress Leah Remini , a former Scientologist who has become a fierce critic of the church, lodged similar charges about the Freewinds on Twitter. When you hear the phrase ” Scientology cruise ship, ” it may conjure images of Tom Cruise playing shuffleboard on the deck while church members sunbathe and sip strawberry daiquiris.
measles quarantine
Scientology cruise ship still quarantined as passengers are tested for measles - The Guardian
Scientology cruise ship still quarantined as passengers are tested for measles.
Posted: Mon, 06 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
It felt like someone who really doesn’t like you and doesn’t want you to leave is in charge of your freedom. She was becoming deeply disillusioned not only with her own work on the ship, but with the goals of the Sea Org itself. “We just wore normal cotton shorts and overalls,” she says. “I was working one time in a very small pipe, having to clean the rust out from the inside.
The Freewinds provides a safe, aesthetic, distraction-free environment appropriate for ministration of this profoundly spiritual level of auditing. Thus, while the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater ministers the highest levels of training and auditing from the bottom of the Bridge to New OT VII, the most advanced OT level (New OT VIII) is exclusively entrusted to the FSSO. While living on the Freewinds – which never docks in US ports or territorial waters – he had his passport confiscated and worked 16 to 24 hours a day in unsafe working conditions, he alleges. That included repainting pipes, cleaning the ship decks and cleaning fuel tanks without safety equipment. He claims after working with blue asbestos and concrete dust he later coughed up blood.
Woman Claims Scientology ‘Freewinds’ Cruise Ship Was Like a Prison
Beghe’s was a familiar voice on Scientology’s internal films, and he says he would be asked, for example, to read aloud from Hubbard’s fiction for events on the ship. She had to be tough on the crew, she says, to make sure that the guests paying tens of thousands of dollars were enjoying their stays. I asked her if there were any particular guests she remembered, any of Scientology’s celebrities, for example. Meanwhile, she says, they were working another angle on her.
But now three Sea Org members took Ramana back into a small room to convince her that signing the contract meant she needed to join the organization immediately. An FBI raid on the Church of Scientology's headquarters revealed documentation that detailed Scientology's criminal actions against various critics of the organization. Nine individuals related to the case were prosecuted on charges of theft, burglary, conspiracy, and other crimes. Ramana Dienes-Browning, a former senior executive on the Freewinds, was placed in an "extensive re-indoctrination" program when her attempt to escape was discovered.
And she believes that her story will help others to leave. And that’s something she feels compelled to do, even at the cost of her own family being ripped apart by the church. When she did finish the program and was finally free of the Sea Org, in November 2003, she flew directly to London and called the Swedish man. Her routing out, which was supposed to take a month, lasted two months.
Health inspectors board Scientology cruise ship to investigate measles case - ABC News
Health inspectors board Scientology cruise ship to investigate measles case.
Posted: Sat, 04 May 2019 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The ship, named the Freewinds, was originally quarantined in St. Lucia late last month before it set sail for its home port of Curacao with about 300 people on board. Welcome to 2019, when the measles virus is making news more often than the Kardashians. A recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the Centers Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that from January 1 to April 26, 2019, there's been 704 reported cases of measles in the United States. That's already the most cases since 1994, when 963 cases occurred the entire year. According to Reuters Eikon shipping data, the ship arrived in St. Lucia on Thursday.
They hang out in the Starlight Room, play shuffleboard, and achieve Operating Thetan Level VIII. To an outsider, the Freewinds looks just like any other cruise ship. In fact, it was an ordinary cruise ship called the MS Bohème before the Church of Scientology bought it from Commodore Cruise Line in 1985.
I got industrial paint chips in my eyes, and had to move incrementally to get out” before she could wash out her eyes. “I was about to get away, and all of a sudden these guys showed up with this huge metal piping that had to be loaded. I had to stand there and wait for them to get it on board. And I’m standing there, my heart pounding, my stomach churning.
The CMO had been created when Hubbard was plying the Mediterranean in 1969 and assembled a group of young sailors to carry his dispatches and generally run errands for him. Decades later, it was now one of the more powerful Sea Org divisions, and oversaw services on the ship, making sure church members paying those high prices were pleased with their experience. Ramana had become a very dedicated dancer, and she was becoming more and more serious about it as she entered her teens. “I was splitting my time between school, dancing classes, and the org. My mother was very supportive about my decision to be a professional dancer,” Ramana says, but she adds that her mother also wanted her to remain dedicated to Scientology. And now, for simply speaking out about her time on the ship, she faces the very real possibility of forever losing contact with her mother and brother.
