Remembering Dan Sherman, Scientology’s bad biographer and worse speechwriter

[Karen#1]

Remembering Dan Sherman, Scientology’s bad biographer and worse speechwriter

Tony Ortega

11 hr ago




One thing that’s changed over our years of covering Scientology is that we used to get more videos from big events that featured David Miscavige giving speeches.

And over the years, we noted repeatedly how crazy Miscavige’s sentence structure was in these hours-long stemwinders.

Miscavige is a high school dropout, and it turned out he was relying on a speechwriter named Dan Sherman for his high-falutin’ prose stylings. (Here’s a great piece from Mike Rinder pointing out the crazy Shermanspeak phrases in a typical Miscavige speech.)

And Dan’s influence on Dave’s lingo was confirmed when we got a chance to see Dan himself speak at a 2012 L. Ron Hubbard birthday event and got a load of his bizarre phrasing and sideways sentences that could be really tough to untangle.

We also dug his shaggy mullet, and Dan was also notable because he was Scientology’s official L. Ron Hubbard biographer, and was forever working on a book about the founder that we knew would never see the light of day.

Now there’s a report that Dan has passed away, and we’re working to get some confirmation of that (while flying back to New York after a family vacation), but in the meantime we thought we’d remind you of one of Dan’s finest performance.

It was something we wrote about at the Village Voice in 2012, and featured Dan telling a whopper about how Hubbard had prevented US atomic scientists from using the early A-bomb to overthrow the government! And who was the ringleader of this crazy scheme: Why, US Congressman Richard Nixon!

Seriously, enjoy Dan’s crazy ideas about sentence structure as you watch again this short clip from the 2012 LRH Birthday event, above. And here’s the transcript:

There are a couple of ancillary notes relevant to what transpired on the 15th of November [of 1945] in the basement of Caltech’s Atheneum Hall. In the first place, those participating in what is remembered as the Nuclear Scientists’ Revolt most definitely suffered severe punishments. Specifically and summarily, a full 64 were stripped of security clearances, thus effectively ending their careers in government research departments. Well, for another telling footnote, the henchman was none other than future American president and Watergate villain, Richard Nixon. In the second place, those in attendance indeed represented the cream of America’s atom bomb project, including a chief engineer who designed the triggering device, and no less than three Nobel Laureates for theoretical physics. Not in attendance but not far away in sentiment was A-bomb father Robert Oppenheimer who, when the first mushroom cloud arose was overheard whispering, “Now I become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” But the overriding point, and vastly so, is simply this: How is it, LRH asks, did these brilliant minds come to believe America would never actually drop the bomb? How is it they swallowed the story that went something like this: The government was to build a grandstand where Hitler and the Japanese emperor would sit, whereupon, as LRH described it, “They were going to press a button, they were going to have an atom bomb go off, and they were going to say, ‘See what we’re going to do to you’.” To which he adds, “And these dopes fell for that. These so-called great brains fell for that story.” But in so far as the bomb was now an inexorable fact of existence, and, as Heinlein so colorfully phrased it, “You can’t turn the sausage back into a hog,” we come to the next turn in our LRH trail.

Here’s how we reacted to that word salad in 2012:

How is it this isn’t in every school book in this great land of ours? L. Ron Hubbard stopped Richard Nixon from leading a group of rogue scientists to overthrow the U.S. government. Oh, and the Manhattan Project was going to fly Hitler and Emperor Hirohito over to watch an A-bomb demonstration from a giant grandstand in the New Mexico desert. Yeah, we didn’t hear about that one either.

These tall tales from Sherman were really something, and they were a staple for every LRH Birthday event for years. But now, well, like the rest of Scientology, Dan has faded away, and we’ll miss him.

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

Remembering Dan Sherman, Scientology’s bad biographer and worse speechwriter

Tony Ortega

11 hr ago



One thing that’s changed over our years of covering Scientology is that we used to get more videos from big events that featured David Miscavige giving speeches.

And over the years, we noted repeatedly how crazy Miscavige’s sentence structure was in these hours-long stemwinders.

Miscavige is a high school dropout, and it turned out he was relying on a speechwriter named Dan Sherman for his high-falutin’ prose stylings. (Here’s a great piece from Mike Rinder pointing out the crazy Shermanspeak phrases in a typical Miscavige speech.)

And Dan’s influence on Dave’s lingo was confirmed when we got a chance to see Dan himself speak at a 2012 L. Ron Hubbard birthday event and got a load of his bizarre phrasing and sideways sentences that could be really tough to untangle.

We also dug his shaggy mullet, and Dan was also notable because he was Scientology’s official L. Ron Hubbard biographer, and was forever working on a book about the founder that we knew would never see the light of day.

Now there’s a report that Dan has passed away, and we’re working to get some confirmation of that (while flying back to New York after a family vacation), but in the meantime we thought we’d remind you of one of Dan’s finest performance.

It was something we wrote about at the Village Voice in 2012, and featured Dan telling a whopper about how Hubbard had prevented US atomic scientists from using the early A-bomb to overthrow the government! And who was the ringleader of this crazy scheme: Why, US Congressman Richard Nixon!

Seriously, enjoy Dan’s crazy ideas about sentence structure as you watch again this short clip from the 2012 LRH Birthday event, above. And here’s the transcript:


Here’s how we reacted to that word salad in 2012:


These tall tales from Sherman were really something, and they were a staple for every LRH Birthday event for years. But now, well, like the rest of Scientology, Dan has faded away, and we’ll miss him.

Long long ago in a distant universe. . .

Once upon a time, Dan Sherman was a fun & creative homo-sapiens writer.​

​

Then something happened to him—he mysteriously disappeared. However, much later he suddenly and unexpectedly popped up as a newly reborn homo-novis propaganda pornographer.​

​

The cult tried but miserably failed to transform Sherman into Leni Riefenstahl. . .​

"If Hitler's successful recruitment film was 'TRIUMPH OF THE WILL',
then ex-Scientologists debunking the cult all across the internet has
proven to be the 'TRIUMPH OF THE WON'T'." —Don Hubbard




​

.

 

[flaglandbase]

So many people suddenly dying in the cult, piecemeal annexations of Clearwater, mysterious suicides including Miscavige's mother-in-law and his missing wife. . . he seems to be following Putin's playbook.

 

[Isaac]

Dan Sherman was a very small man like David Miscavige. Did he live at Int Base in Hemit?

 

[Karen#1]

No, Dan Sherman was not a Sea Org member.
Only Sea Org members can live on base.
Dan Sherman lived in a condo on a high rise on Los Feliz Boulevard, 90027.
Walking distance from my home !

 

[onceuponatime]

I wonder if they will try to put any sort of spin on this. I know Scientologists who think he has been working on an LRH biography this entire time. They blamed the fact that there was no biography on Sherman, obviously they never understood the reality of the situation and why an official biography will never come out.

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

..

I wonder if they will try to put any sort of spin on this. I know Scientologists who think he has been working on an LRH biography this entire time. They blamed the fact that there was no biography on Sherman, obviously they never understood the reality of the situation and why an official biography will never come out.

..

Waiting for the "LRH BIOGRAPHY" to be released is like waiting for the scientific research, trials and verifiable results behind Dianetics & Scientology to be released.

REASON: Scientology never publishes its own overts/withholds—because hyperbolic misdirection, fraud, lying and donation-demands are the only "technologies" that the cult ever discovered to prevent its members from quickly blowing en masse.

..

 

[Dotey OT]

..

..

Waiting for the "LRH BIOGRAPHY" to be released is like waiting for the scientific research, trials and verifiable results behind Dianetics & Scientology to be released.

REASON: Scientology never publishes its own overts/withholds—because hyperbolic misdirection, fraud, lying and donation-demands are the only "technologies" that the cult ever discovered to prevent its members from quickly blowing en masse.

..

I wonder, are scn public aware that he passed? I was sitting in front of two current sc'ists yesterday and did not think to ask.

Then further, will it be announced that someone will take up where he left off?

Moreover (I couldn't resist) was Dan married?

 

[onceuponatime]

I wonder, are scn public aware that he passed? I was sitting in front of two current sc'ists yesterday and did not think to ask.

Then further, will it be announced that someone will take up where he left off?

Moreover (I couldn't resist) was Dan married?

I wondered the same thing. I haven't heard anything but I haven't been checking. I also wonder if they will tell people about Jacques.

 

[Dotey OT]

I wondered the same thing. I haven't heard anything but I haven't been checking. I also wonder if they will tell people about Jacques.

I searched for an obit for the Sherminator but was unsuccessful.

 

[Reyne Mayer]

So many people suddenly dying in the cult, piecemeal annexations of Clearwater, mysterious suicides including Miscavige's mother-in-law and his missing wife. . . he seems to be following Putin's playbook.

i think we're just seeing a symptom of the demographic cliff that the CoS is facing, that so many of their key people were baby boomers recruited during a particular time frame -- and due to rejection of modern medical care, and heavy rates of smoking, apparently likely to die at least a decade earlier than their peers. it's already showing up in the fast shrinking mission network -- those are dropping like flies because the long-time mission holders are aging out, either retiring or passing on; from what i've seen there are only half a dozen to a dozen left in the US that have old school street-facing (even if second-story) locations, and no more than a few dozen total still with a nominal presence somewhere like a back groom.

if you knock off a decade, virtually all of the old guard will be gone with about another 15 years:

 

[onceuponatime]

I searched for an obit for the Sherminator but was unsuccessful.

I also haven't seen anything posted about it. When/if I hear anything about it I'll post here.

 

[Dotey OT]

i think we're just seeing a symptom of the demographic cliff that the CoS is facing, that so many of their key people were baby boomers recruited during a particular time frame -- and due to rejection of modern medical care, and heavy rates of smoking, apparently likely to die at least a decade earlier than their peers. it's already showing up in the fast shrinking mission network -- those are dropping like flies because the long-time mission holders are aging out, either retiring or passing on; from what i've seen there are only half a dozen to a dozen left in the US that have old school street-facing (even if second-story) locations, and no more than a few dozen total still with a nominal presence somewhere like a back groom.

if you knock off a decade, virtually all of the old guard will be gone with about another 15 years:

We have had fso recovery people showing up at our house a few times in the last few weeks. They were really after my better half, but yesterday they came to talk to me!! I don't really care if they know who I am through these post btw. The one class 9 auditor said she had been in since '67. Both were +70. I think they came out to see me to get to the bottom of why my better half won't get a arcx session. They did admit to me that I had been dead filed. The class 9 said she felt sorry for me after our half hour discussion where I politely told her a few things that they didn't want to hear.

Afterword, I kicked myself because I forgot to ask about Dan Sherman to see if they knew.

Oh btw osa, the chaplain left her sunglasses, can they come back out and pick them up???

 

[onceuponatime]

We have had fso recovery people showing up at our house a few times in the last few weeks. They were really after my better half, but yesterday they came to talk to me!! I don't really care if they know who I am through these post btw. The one class 9 auditor said she had been in since '67. Both were +70. I think they came out to see me to get to the bottom of why my better half won't get a arcx session. They did admit to me that I had been dead filed. The class 9 said she felt sorry for me after our half hour discussion where I politely told her a few things that they didn't want to hear.

Afterword, I kicked myself because I forgot to ask about Dan Sherman to see if they knew.

Oh btw osa, the chaplain left her sunglasses, can they come back out and pick them up???

Only deadfiled? I'll see what I can do to fix that for you. They must be desperate from people if you haven't already been declared. Or maybe OSA really is that incompetent.

 

[Dotey OT]

Only deadfiled? I'll see what I can do to fix that for you. They must be desperate from people if you haven't already been declared. Or maybe OSA really is that incompetent.

I know. I feel slighted. They even tried to contact my other half today knowing full well I own books that a scn cannot read, and know things that a scn would know is entheta. I can't wait to see what happens next.