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During mid to late January,
Lawrence Woodcraft and his daughters, Astra and Zoe, as well as
Astra's daughter, Kate, visited all of us at the Lisa McPherson Trust
in Clearwater. During their visit, each of the Woodcrafts shared
intimate details of their personal experiences in Scientology's
paramilitary Sea Organization.
ASTRA
Astra Woodcraft was seven years old when her
parents thrust her into the world of Scientology's "elite" Sea
Organization. From the cramped quarters of the motel room her
family of five shared when they first arrived at the Flag Land Base
in Clearwater, Florida, Astra was moved into a dormitory where,
because Scientology would not provide a bed for her, she slept on a
couch for a year.
This was the beginning of Astra's life in the
sub-standard and oppressive living environment that is accepted as
routine to those in the Sea Organization.
Astra's affidavit covers her formative childhood
and teenage years. In it she describes the poor schooling she
received and the hours working at the behest of the Church of
Scientology, including having to guard other members who wanted to
leave. Shortly after her fifteenth birthday, Astra married a
21-year-old man on the orders of her superiors. She tells of being
belittled and yelled at by other Sea Org members, including her own
mother, when she refused to get an abortion after becoming pregnant
at 19.
In this affidavit and in newspapers articles published in the
San Francisco Chronicle on February 12, 2001 and also in the London Daily Mail on February 17, 2001 , Astra speaks out about these
horrific experiences and many others inconceivable to those
unfamiliar with the practices of
Scientology.
Watch "The Story of Kate", a
video interview of Astra Woodcraft, in which she details the
pressure that was brought to bear on her to abort her baby when it
was discovered that she was pregnant. Meet Astra's beautiful
daughter, Kate, who is alive today because of Astra's courageous
escape from Scientology's Sea Organization. and "Lawrence Woodcraft on
Astra's Story".
There are also two more videos in which Astra reveals what it was like for
her in Scientology: "Astra's Childhood in the Sea Org"
ZOE
Astra's 16-year-old younger sister, Zoe
Woodcraft, became involved with Scientology's Sea Organization when
she was just two years old. Her mother joined the Sea Org
while doing services at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida,
without consulting her husband Lawrence. She then insisted that he
also join and that they move the entire family from England to the
Scientology headquarters in Clearwater. Thus Zoe, her
seven-year-old sister Astra and 15-year-old brother (who also joined
the Sea Org at this time) were thrust into the regimented,
controlled environment of Scientology's paramilitary Sea
Organization.
In Zoe's
affidavit we learn what it is really
like for children raised in the Sea Org. Zoe was raised by other Sea
Org members who were assigned to be nannies. Often these "nannies"
were children not much older than she. Zoe was housed far from her
parents in sometimes filthy, cockroach-ridden and dilapidated
buildings. Her only education was from Scientology "course
supervisors" with no educational qualifications other than training
in the Scientology method of learning. For years she was housed at
the "Cadet Org" on a remote ranch in California, where the children
were completely cut off from the outside world. As Zoe put
it, "This ranch was hours away from normal civilization.
In the year plus that I lived there we never went into town for a
field trip; never went to a movie, shopping or anything. We
were totally isolated."
As Zoe grew older she was pressed by Sea Org
personnel to sign her own billion-year contract and dedicate her
entire life to the Sea Org. The inducements were many -- a few
dollars more a week in pay, better living quarters, more time
off. Zoe, however, was not persuaded, thanks in part to the
influence of her father and her sister Astra, who were by that time
both out of the Sea Org. As the quality of her life in the Sea
Org continued to decline, Zoe finally requested permission to leave
so she could join her father and sister, who were living in
California.
When Zoe made known her desire to leave, she was
subjected to nearly a year of punishment and repeated attempts to
persuade or coerce her into staying. She was kicked out of her
dorm and forced to sleep on the floor in her mother's bedroom. She
was told she was "out ethics" and forced to do "ethics handlings."
Her handlers showed Zoe newspaper articles about gruesome crimes and
warned her that the outside world was a horrible and dangerous place
in which to live. Her motives were continually
questioned. Didn't she want to "save the planet through
Scientology?" Those who had been her comrades for years
shunned her and Sea Org officials placed her on a treadmill of
endless assignments that had to be completed before they would allow
her to leave.
In early 2000, Zoe's father flew from California
to Clearwater, Florida to help his daughter escape. Since that
time, Zoe has struggled to overcome her experiences in Scientology
and to make up for the years of sub-standard education she was
subjected to in the Sea Org. She attends a public high school in
California and is quickly catching up with her new friends. She and
Astra have both had to learn to live without their mother,
grandmother and brother, all Sea Org members who now refuse to
communicate with them. Zoe sat down with Stacy Brooks and her father to tell us her story in a six-part video interview produced by LMT Media. (Complete transcripts of the interview are available at the video link
too.)
Zoe also wrote an
essay about her experiences for her
English class in the fall of 2000. That English assignment
made its way to the Lisa McPherson Trust and so moved the judges of
the 2000 LMT Literati Contest that they awarded Zoe Woodcraft a
first place prize in the Juvenile Division. Her essay was originally
posted on our website under the "nom de plume" of Darla de Toledo.
Now you know the author's true identity.
LAWRENCE
Lawrence Woodcraft was a licensed architect in
England when, in 1986, he was recruited to join the Sea Organization
and go to work for Scientology in Clearwater, Florida. He left
England with his two young daughters, Astra and Zoe, and joined his
then-wife Leslie, who had already been recruited and was a staff
member at Flag in Clearwater. Immediately all the promises that had
been made to convince him to join staff were broken. He was ordered
to take a job that had nothing to do with architecture; his entire
family was crammed into one motel room instead of the two-bedroom
apartment he had been promised; his children did not go to private
school as he had been told they would; in fact, Zoe did not go to
school at all and Astra attended public school only briefly.
By 1994 Lawrence had
routed out of the Sea Org and built a successful architectural
practice in Los Angeles. He subsequently helped both of his
daughters get out of the Sea Org. This allowed Astra to save the
life of her unborn baby, as had she stayed in the Sea Org she would
have been forced to have an abortion. His younger daughter Zoe had never been to a
proper school and is now, at age 16, in a
public high school working hard to catch up with her fellow
students.
For helping his daughters
get out of the Sea Org, Lawrence was declared a Suppressive Person
in September 2000. All of his Scientology clients were ordered to
cease doing business with him in an attempt to destroy his
architecture practice.
Read Lawrence's affidavit about his experiences
in Scientology, and also check out the link below where you can read
another affidavit by Lawrence in which he gives a firsthand account
of the deadly levels of blue asbestos he encountered on the
Scientology ship Freewinds.
As Lawrence said, "While I give financial support
to my daughters and try to help them complete school and college,
the Church condemns me as a 'suppressive' and treats me as a common
criminal."
Welcome to the world of Scientology -- through
the looking glass.
We have separate page up for the affidavits and
videos Lawrence Woodcraft provided on the discoveries he
made concerning asbestos on Scientology's
ship, the Freewinds
.
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