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Meet Maria Pia Gardini

Declaration #1


Presented by Stacy Brooks
March 1, 2001

I, Maria Pia Gardini declare as follows:

1.      I am over the age of 18 years.
     
2.      The statements herein are of my own personal knowledge and if called
upon as a witness, I can testify competently thereto.
     
3.      My name is Maria Pia Gardini.  I am an Italian citizen. 

4.      I became involved in Scientology through the Narconon program.  My
daughter went into the program and at this time she gave me some books to read
about Scientology.  After 8 months or so she finished her program and told me
she wanted to continue studying Scientology.  My mother and I paid for her
auditing up to OT VII.

5.      After she was on the OT levels, she convinced me to meet some of the
people in the Rome org.  They convinced me to do the purification rundown and
to try auditing, so I bought one intensive of "book one" auditing.

6.      I started the purification rundown:  on the second day I blew (left
suddenly) the sauna.  I was scared to death of being in the heat for four to
five hours.  I was 49 years old and felt I would die.  Members of the org came
to my home and convinced me to return and keep doing it.  They said I was just
going through something and if I continued, I would get out of it.  So, I
returned and finished the rundown.  I quickly told them I was done, and I was
done.

7.      I then started the auditing.  My father was dead and I had always been
sad about his death.  When I started auditing, my auditor was a very warm and
kind woman and we audited almost the whole 12 hours that I had purchased on my
father's death.  I went through a lot of emotions talking about his death,
crying and laughing and at the end I did feel better.

8.      I then decided to continue.  I wanted to buy another intensive, but I
was regged to buy 10 intensives more of book one auditing.  Meanwhile, they
also sold me an academy package so I could study to myself become an auditor.
Soon, I was getting auditing 3-4 hours a day and studying an additional several
hours a day.

9.      When I attested the completion of book one, I was told I had to
continue to handle the many more areas of my life.  I then bought all the
Scientology Grades auditing plus NED (New Era Dianetics.)

10.     I started on the objectives.  This was the first failure for me.  Doing
a drill called "Op Pro by Dup" involving repetitive actions with a book and
bottle, I became so upset I threw the bottle at my auditor and tore up the book
used in the auditing.  The auditor had to physically restrain me to keep me in
the room.

11.     Before I had just done auditing where I had talked a lot, so of course
one will feel better talking about their problems.  Now, this was something
different.

12.     I ended up slapping the auditor and running from the room.  I ran home
and that evening four staff members came to get me.  They explained to me that
I had lost control and if I finished the auditing I would regain control.  I
returned with them and finished the auditing.

13.     I then audited the Grades 0-IV.  I did not have any great achievements
during these.  It was just sit there and listen and talk to the auditor.  I
told the C/S that I didn't have any "wins" on this (I in fact told everyone
this), but they reminded me that I had had a lot of wins before on my book one
and the grades were just to stabilize me for my OT levels.  They told me to
just continue.

14.     Then, they tried to audit me on NED, but after all the hours of book
one I was desperate…I had already talked about everything!  I became sick and
was interviewed by someone who said I had to do the CCRD.  I had paid for 12 ˝
hours of NED and audited for 25 minutes.  When I tried to get the money back
for these unused hours they said no, I paid for the intensive and I had started
it.  So that was the end of that money (about $2000.)

15.     I then went to Rome and while I was there a "mission" arrived from CLO
Italy to recruit people into the Sea Organization (SO.)  They wanted me to join
and worked very hard on me.  I agreed and they gave me a contract for 1 billion
years.

16.     In the mean time I had done the class IV internship.  They now wanted
me to start in the SO, but I wanted to go attest to clear first.  I bought CCRD
in Copenhagen AOSH and went to do it.  I was told, because I was a Sea Org
member the room and board would be free.  When I arrived, I was told "Free?
CLO Italy doesn't have any money on account here."  I had to pay for myself.

17.     They put me in a hotel that was owned by the church called "Nordland."
It was like a pigsty; so dirty.  I found one room that was less dirty than the
others and did not have other people in it. 

18.     At this point I was now a class V auditor.  It was terrible in
Copenhagen.  I was given an auditor who was Swiss German who did not speak
Italian, but something similar.  I started eligibility with him and the session
went on and on and on because I could not understand him.  I was supposed to
stay there two weeks but was there two months.  Then, I was told I had to buy
more intensives.  I explained the language problem, so they switched auditors.
He spoke good Italian, so I finished eligibility in two hours then moved to the
CCRD.  I then attested to clear.

19.     Clear is supposed to be an expanded person.  I did not feel this.  I
really wanted badly to go back to Italy.  When I did go back, I simply changed
suitcases and went to Milano to train for the Sea Org.

20.     Now, I was put in the kitchen to cook for 70 staff members.  This was
terrible.  Then, they wanted me to wash dishes.  I said no.  I never have
washed dishes in my life.  I had my car there so I left again.  I went back
home for 2 days before they came and got me.  This whole time my daughter was
progressing in Scientology.  She was at Flag and I was afraid that they would
tell her I was misbehaving and she would be upset with me.  So, I went back.
When I went back, they told me I was done with the first phase of my training.

21.     I then told them I had to go back to Rome to close up the house.  In
Rome, there was another mission to get people to do the OT levels in
Copenhagen.  I bought a package for OT I-III.  I wrote for permission to do
these levels instead of going to work.  I received this permission and went to
Copenhagen to do my OT levels.

22.     While I was doing my levels in Copenhagen, I was paying my own room and
board and then they asked me to start auditing their pcs. 

23.     I went onto OT I.  It was bullshit.  You walked around by yourself and
"spotted" things.

24.       In the middle of it I went into a coffee shop…I expanded myself on
good coffee.  After a couple of hours I went back and they asked me if I had
any wins.  I said, "sure sure," so they sent me to attest to being done.

25.     The next day I started doing OT II.  On this you run dichotomies.  You
have a long list of whole track implants like electric implants and talking
implants etc.  You have to run down the track to run them out.  It is solo
auditing and it is done by talking aloud to yourself. 

26.     When I went in session, I hade to spot a light and from there run the
implant.  Then, I read my meter and ran back and forth the dichotomies of the
implant.  While doing this I was in a place where thin dividers divided the
walls and you could hear other people running their implants.  Also, the wall
was painted black and I couldn't see the light.  I wrote the C/S and asked him
"Where is the light!"

27.     The next day trying to audit, there was a circus behind the building
and I could hear the elephant.  The next day I wrote I could not find the
light, but I did find the elephant.

28.     In the end, I ran off three implants, said I could find no more and
asked to move on.  I then attested to OT II.  I also did the old clearing
course and OT II is this same thing manipulated around a bit.

29.     Now, I start OT III.  This is what I really wanted, what all of us
Scientologists wanted.  It is the big mystery:  the Wall of Fire.

30.     I opened the course materials, read what was before me, and closed the
book.  This was the wall of fire?  I had already read this.

31.     At this time, I was a huge science fiction fan.  Now, I was racking my
brain about this story about Xenu and the battle with the loyal officers.  I
had heard this story before but could not remember where.  The story involves
an "evil galactic overlord" named Xenu who was captured 75 million years ago
and put into an electric trap, and you have these electric strips, like in the
department stores, and LRH tells you that beings (called thetans) were brought
to the planet earth back then and trapped with these electronic strips and put
into a volcano then blown up and they are now stuck all over people's bodies.
Now, I feel that I have a full population in my body!  There were people in the
room passing out when reading this.  I am not so impressionable.

32.     That night when I went to bed I was wondering where are all these
beings (now called body thetans) in my body?

33.     The day after studying about OT III, I started to audit it in my
bedroom in the Nordland hotel.  You are supposed to talk to your body thetans
and make them go away from you.  Each night I took my auditing folder to the
C/S, carrying it in a suitcase with a chain attached to my wrist.  We had to do
this to ensure the confidentiality of the very secret materials.

34.     When I did my first session, my needle was stuck.  I got so angry that
the needle started to move.  Then I said, "I found a body thetan," and started
to audit.  I think I was auditing my rage.

35.     I audited 100 hours on OT III.  This was a lot; almost double what many
people audit, but I wanted to be certain that I had all of these body thetans
gone.  The "End Phenomenon" of OT III is that all of your body thetans are now
gone.  So, I was convinced all my body thetans were gone and I attested to
being finished with OT III.

36.     Now, I said, I will go back to my post in Italy.  No, I am told, I must
stay and do OT IV and V.  I say I do not have the money in Copenhagen to pay
for these levels.  That night, from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. they regged me to
purchase these OT levels.

37.     I finally called my mother to borrow money and she was very angry with
me, but she did send me the money.  So, now I start OT IV.

38.     What do I read in the OT IV materials?  That I now have to handle "Body
Thetan Clusters.  I said what?  More BTs?  I was told yes, now I am handling
drugs on the "whole track":  all drugs I ever did and the drugs the body
thetans did.  These body thetans, you see, were not gone after OT III because
they were "druggies."   Ok, I said.  Let's get rid of the druggie body thetans.

39.     I did this level and attested that I was now free from druggie body
thetans.

40.     Now, I go to do OT V.  An auditor audits this.  I get an HCOB to read
and what is in this HCOB?  BT's and clusters!  I say, "I don't have any more!"
and he says, "Yes you have.  These BT's are sleeping and you have to wake them
up.  Then you give them an identity and they will go away." 

41.     I now figured what the hell.  I had done OT IV; let's do V.  At this
time you have to make up things to keep yourself going.

42.     So, the auditor command is "Look at your body (not with your eyes) and
locate a cluster."  When the auditor gets a read he says, "Where is this?"  I
say, "On the knee!"  I then had to telepathically communicate with the BT and
ask it "What are you?"  The BT says, "a banana."  You tell the auditor "a
banana." Or it says, "a piece of paper" or whatever comes into your head and
the auditor says "Ok…tell him that is the item;" for example "The banana is the
item."  I tell him the item is the banana and at that point the BT can blow or
he can stay there.  If he doesn't blow on the "What" question you ask him "Who
are you?"  You get all sorts of names here: Napoleon, Julius Caesar, John
Travolta, whoever!  You tell all these to the auditor.  He gets a read and
tells you which name is the right one.  Then the BT will blow.  These are the
only two commands.

43.     I did this for 40 hours.  Then, I attested to OT V.

44.     While I had been auditing, there was a raid in Italy and all of the
organizations were closed.  When I returned to Italy after OT V, the entire org
of Roma had moved into my apartment (they had called me in Copenhagen and asked
to move into my apartment.)  I had instructed my building superintendent to let
them in but to not give them a key.  They somehow got a key and made a copy
anyway.  They were there all the time…the whole building was protesting.

45.     So, when I returned, I made them leave.  I found them another apartment
and paid for the first two months of rent.  It took five days for a cleaning
company to clean my apartment, it was such a mess.

46.     Now, I went to CLO in Milano to work.  They were working in a hotel
because they had lost their building to the government.  I wondered what the
hell I was doing there.  I had no job to do.  We had Int (International
Management) missions in to handle the problems while I was paying the hotel for
everyone in CLO.  I figured I would go on to do OT VI and OT VII.  One of my
seniors thought this would be good for me to do.  At this moment, I was running
out of money.  So, to do these levels I sold my apartment in Rome.  My mother
was very, very angry with this.  She told me I was crazy and they will ruin me.
She was right.

47.     Now, I come to Flag.  Again, I was supposed to get room and board
because I was a staff member.  Bah.  No room and board!  I have again to pay
for myself.

48.     I now go onto the OT VI course and what is there?  BODY THETANS AND
CLUSTERS!  The questions were the same two as on OT V.  "What" and "Who."  I
almost went nuts.  When I protested I was told it was the same procedure but
the fact that I was doing it solo made it different and better.  They told me
that body thetans were everywhere.  The materials also explained that my body
was not a body at all, but a mass of BT clusters.  If they were not there, my
body would be translucent. 

49.     I went into session on OT VI.  At the end, I attested that I had
completed OT VI, not that I had no more BTs.

50.     Now, I moved to OT VII.  Now, the end phenomenon of this level is: NO
BT'S LEFT OF ANY KIND.  NO SLEEPING BTS' NO DRUGGIE BT'S NOTHING.  One thing I
audited on OT VII was suppressive BTs. 

51.     Sometimes, you have a BT that will blow only from your body to the
door, so you have to mock up a scissors to cut the string that is keeping them
attached to your body.   Also, you have BTs in layers, so you have to mock up a
hand to brush them off. 

52.     I never went to my home to audit; I stayed at the Sand Castle and
audited for 8 months.  When I wasn't auditing I studied to be a class IX
auditor and was auditing public pcs.

53.     When I attested to OT VII, Captain Ron Norton called me.  I was
validated as being a class IX auditor and OT VII completion.  What the hell was
I going to do with it?  They asked me to sign on to work at Flag and they would
send another auditor to Italy to replace me.  I told them to call my senior.

54.     In Italy they were still trying to open up the orgs.  My senior did
agree, though I said I had to go back to Italy to finish up and prepare.  I did
this.

55.     When I arrived to start working at Flag, I was told that they would put
me in the Sand Castle hotel because there is no room at the Hacienda.  The Sand
Castle was dirty and had unbelievable cockroaches.

56.     They told me I had to pay 10% of what a public would pay, since it was
a public room.  When they took me to the room there was no furniture, no bed
nothing.  I complained but was told it was too late at night to do anything.  I
was told to sleep in a chair.  I said no, I just arrive after 10 hours of
travel.  It was February 8 and cold.  I ended up sleeping on the carpet.

57.     The next day I refused to go to work unless I received a bed.  They
then showed me a bed that had been outside in the garden; they were going to
throw it away.  It was so dirty I would not put my dog on that mattress.  It
had holes where rats had eaten it.  I absolutely refused.  I told them I would
start work on Monday.  I went to the store and bought myself a bed, blankets,
chair and sheets.  I had it all brought to the Sand Castle.

58.     After one month, I was told they had a place in the Hacienda Gardens
for me.  So, I put my stuff together and they took me to the Hacienda.  When
they opened the door, I plugged my nose it stunk so badly.  There were eight
beds one atop of the other.  At this point I said take me to the captain.

59.     I went to the Captain and told him I will not live like this.  I want
to go back to Italy.  He said no, we have a small apartment in the Hacienda
that we rent.  We will give it to you for half price.  I agreed to this and
paid $400 per month (this turned out to be full price.)

60.     Now, I moved into this apartment.  At the end of the first month, five
other people were sleeping in this apartment.  They were putting staff members
in my paid for apartment.  These people would eat my food and drink my water.
I returned to the captain.

61.     I said enough is enough.  You broke all your promises and I want to go
home.  The captain told me to return to the Hacienda, wait three days and he
will come visit me and we will take care of this.

62.     In the mean time, I called an area realtor and arranged to purchase a
condominium.  By the time I met with the captain, I had my new home.  At first,
he told me no, I couldn't stay off the base.  I said it was this or nothing.
He told me to write a CSW, which I did, and he approved it.  Thus, I had
special permission to live outside of sea org quarters.

63.     So, I started to audit again.  Then, there was a change of captains.
Ron Norton went to Gold and Debbie Cook became the captain.  This was in 1988.
When Debbie Cook became captain, my real problems started. 

64.     First, she wanted me to move back to the Hacienda, or she insisted that
I share my condo with other staff members.  I told her no to both.  At this
time, I was almost every week the auditor with the most hours in the chair and
that year I won the worldwide highest auditing hours cup at the Auditors Day
celebration.  At this point, I was a money making machine for them.

65.     I was always on the chair auditing.  In September of 1990 I received a
phone call from Italy saying my daughter was in the hospital in Pavia in Italy
and I had to go to her at once.  I CSW'd to go see her and it was approved.

66.     I returned to Italy and two months later, my daughter died:  November
18, 1990.  She was 29 years old and an OT VII.

67.     A bit before I left, however, I asked the senior C/S, Kathy Webb, to
give me a program to audit my daughter because she was OT VII.  This was to
help her physically.  The answer was, with AIDS, she will die.  What program do
you want?  Give her a program to drop the body.  Of course, I never did such a
process on her.  You don't go to a sick person and say, "I give you a program
to drop your body."

68.     Also in 1989 or 1990 they started releasing OT VIII.  I was told to buy
a package on the Freewinds because this is the only place OT VIII was delivered
due to its extreme confidentiality.  I bought a package, but then I went to
Italy because of my daughter.

69.     Two days after my daughter's death, I took her to the cemetery to bury
her in our family mausoleum.  On this day, I was recalled to Flag.  My daughter
was not yet buried.  Flag phoned me and spoke to my mother, who told them to
fuck off and leave me alone and forget my phone number.  She was heavily
against Scientology. 

70.     When I spoke with them I told them my daughter had left a daughter of
11 years old, Camilla, and I could not leave immediately.  The called me every
day, several times a day to get me to come back immediately.  They called with
no regard to the 6-hour time difference between the USA and Italy.  They would
call at 4:00 a.m. and wake up the whole house of grieving people to demand my
return.

71.     On the 29th of November, 11 days after my daughter's death, I returned
to Flag.  I left my granddaughter with her stepfather and my mother.  When I
returned to Flag I was very angry and the staff at Flag were astonished at
this.  They could not understand why I would be mad.  I then went right back to
work, but I was not able to produce as well as I had before.  Because of this,
they decided to send me to the ship to do my OT VIII.

72.     The ship was in the Bahamas.  I had to buy my own ticket to get there.
When I arrived, I also had to pay for my own room and board.  I didn't want to
sleep in the staff berthing below decks, as it was extremely hot down there,
like 100 degrees.  I could not do this.  As soon as I arrived, instead of
starting my own program I was put to work auditing others on their sec check
for OT VII and OT VIII eligibility.  I was very valuable to them as I could
audit in three languages:  English, Italian, and French.

73.     Soon after I arrived, Milt Wolf, one of the ship captains, and David
Light, a registrar, sat with me and regged me to buy books and materials.  They
also sold me a gold OT bracelet that cost thousands of dollars.  They sat with
me and would not let me go until I had bought and bought.  I ended up buying an
extra suitcase to carry all the materials I had bought.  Eventually, I arrived
in the course room to start OT VIII.

74.     The OT VIII material was titled "Truth Revealed."  When I opened the
materials and read the data, I went nuts.  I couldn't believe what I was
reading.  BODY THETANS!

75.     Basically on OT VIII you run processes from the "History of Man" book,
right down to clams.  You have to go down the track to clam, figure out an
overt, then locate a BT (not cluster; you communicate telepathically and figure
out the overt, write it down and ask the BT with the meter:  "Is it yours?"
"Is it mine?"  When you get a read, you indicate who's it is and get an FN and
move on.  This is the truth revealed.

76.     On all levels above OT III when you audit you always ask if the read is
the person's or the BT's read.

77.     I was so upset with OT VIII that I talked to the supervisor.  She told
me to just do it and I will be amazed at the wins I will have getting rid of
overts off all the BTs from the whole track.  I wanted to get out of there but
there I was in the middle of the ocean.  I was furious!  I was just ordering
BTs on a sec check (Scientology Security Check.) 

78.     The night I attested to OT VIII, I went ashore with some friends to see
the casino in Nassau.  Guess who was gambling there?  David Miscavige, Guillame
Leserve and Ray Mithoff.  Isn't gambling an overt in Scientology?  When I saw
this, I was ready to leave Scientology.  Between the gambling and the OT VIII,
it was like garbage.  I wanted to leave, but this was very difficult.

79.     When I was finished, (this was December 1990) I returned to Flag.  Now,
I was trying to figure out how to leave Scientology.  The occasion came in
October 1991 when I received a call that my mother was in hospital and very,
very sick.  Now, I could return to Italy.

80.     I CSW'd to leave.  My CSW was NOT approved.  I went to the Captain to
talk to her and she told me no, it was not important that my mother was dying.
It was only a body.  I must stay at Flag and produce for Scientology.

81.     I again CSW'd to leave.  Instead of giving it to the Captain, I gave it
to my DofP  (Director of Processing) for OT eligibility.  Then, I went to my
condo, packed my suitcase, went to the airport, bought a ticket and went to
Italy.

82.     I thought I would be declared a blow, but after four days in Italy I
received, by fax, the CSW I had written.  It was approved.  My mother died
December 11, 1991.

83.     On the 21st of December, Flag started regging me for the money I was
inheriting from my mother's death.  Please see my other affidavit for the
completion of this story.

I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of
America and the state of Florida that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed in Grosetto, Italy this 14th day of February 2001

Maria Pia Gardini


You can also read:

Declaration #2

Declaration # 3

Letter from Scientology attorney, Kendrick Moxon

Letter in response from LMT attorney, John Merrett

Watch the LMT's video taped interview with Maria Pia Gardini.

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