Thursday, February 19, 2009

The Tory Horror Picture Show

Criticism of Tory Christman Magoo, some of which I may agree, some not. That the LMT failed upon her joining I would not agree. That she is a spy from the CoS outing people who call her for help I would not agree either. On the other hand, I would agree with what is quoted below, with some reservations

Magoo made a great disservice for her cause when she tried to capitalize on the Jett Travolta tragedy through changing her story and when she censored dissenting opinions and banned the posters from her Youtube channel.

PS - just go through this tread in ARS to see how anti-cultists try to suppress dissenting opinions, constantly changing the topic title and likening it to chocolate recipe.

Magoo - The Tory Horror Picture Show - alt.religion.scientology | Google Groups
Now she claims, that she would like to help other people to get out of the cult. If asked to show one, only one person, whom she helped to break free, she has no answer.

[...] One agenda of her is for example to find out, who is critical of the church or who wants to leave it. Thus she posts her phone number and asks people to call her, for she will help them. From time to time she reports such calls. She is always very happy when she receives a call like this and likes to end all her reports with the words: "Way to go, OSA!". Afterwards one never ever hears anything of this people who called her. There are no follow-ups from her, nor any statements of those people. Niente. Nothing. Nada. Nichts.
That may be a good point. I saw several times in ARS titles from her along the line of "another OT 8 leaves the CoS, way to go OSA" but I never had time to follow through such claims. Having seen her lie and censor about her seizures in the Jett Travolta tragedy, I do give some credence to the claims above. To be double-checked, though, given the fact that source is not very reliable either.
"[....] Instead of that I have read several stories of people, who left or wanted to leave and she contacted them. For example to a father of three, if I remember right (it was on ocmb, the story) and this man, Greg Bashaw, was in the hospital because he was very sick and in a poor psychic condition, but he was under surveillance and could have been helped of course. One day he got a visit from someone, whom he knew from the church. Hours later the man was dead. Name of the visitor: Tory Bezazian. Reason of Bashaw's death: suicide. When asked about this terrible incident, she never answered. She did not deny to have visited this man. "
Jesse Prince was also with Magoo on that occasion.

2 comments:

Monica Pignotti said...

I don't agree with this part either:
"Now she claims, that she would like to help other people to get out of the cult. If asked to show one, only one person, whom she helped to break free, she has no answer."
The fact she won't name names doesn't mean she hasn't helped anyone to leave. I personally know at least one specific person she helped to leave and witnessed the process first-hand, but to protect the privacy of that individual I, too will not name names because that person hasn't given me permission and is entitled to privacy. The person who posted this doesn't seem to be aware that even if people who are doing this kind of counseling are not mental health professionals there is still the basic human decency of protecting people's privacy and not naming names unless the person wants to come forward.
Getting or not getting people out of Scientology is not evidence, though, as to whether the person is a spy. In the early 80s, there was a couple (Ford Schwartz and his wife) who were spies for the GO who were actually doing exit counselings to be believable, all the while working for the GO. Eventually, the material they were exposed to persuaded them to leave, but for quite some time, they were actually successfully counseling people out of Scientology while they were still in!

Bernie said...

I thought about that too and indeed it may be the case.

However, I also thought that if Tory really helped many people to leave (which is the impression I get through her many messages to that effect), there would be at least one such person who in the meantime would be open and public about it.

PS - I did meet the Schwartz in 1983 near SFO. Actually it was quite inland and the hottest weather I experienced in the world. Their story (that they gradually became convinced that the entheta had something real in it) quite impressed me.