Philip Spickler March 6, 1931 - January 17, 2020

[vegan3]

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/philip-spickler-obituary?id=2028048

Born in Detroit, last of four siblings, Phil was a sickly child who became strong and healthy with Dianetics when he was in college. He had a multifaceted career: surveyor, construction engineer (he worked on Titan II missile sites around Tucson, and on Dulles Airport); Scientology auditor, minister, and mission holder who had worked with Hubbard in the 50s and founded Scientology missions in Detroit and the SF Bay Area; and a substitute teacher in the Sequoias Union High School District and the Palo Alto School District. After retiring from Scientology he lived for 6 years on a sailboard in south Florida.
He was married three times, to Kathy, Teri, and Julie; he had four children, 2 step-children, and nine grandchildren.
Words cannot capture his amazing spirit. All who knew him will greatly miss him.

(if they meant the school district in Redwood City, it was Sequoia Union High School, sans "S".

The Sequoia Union High School District is a public union school district in the San Francisco Bay Area, primarily serving the southern San Mateo County communities of Atherton, Belmont, East Palo Alto, Ladera, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City, and Woodside. Wikipedia

with an S would be off somewhere around Yosemite, although no such school district exists there except the college.
College of the Sequoias is a public two-year community college in Visalia, California. The college is named for the Giant Sequoia trees native to the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range. Wikipedia

- Native Americans of the Southern Sierra -
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks are the homelands of the Mono (Monache), Yokuts, Tübatulabal, Paiute, and Western Shoshone.)

About Phil Spickler

Here is a text of Phil Spickler’s letter to the 9th Free Zone Convention in 2010: “Dear Anita, What follows are some thoughts about training, as I once experienced it. In January of 1957, I underto…

philspickler.wordpress.com

 

[vegan3]

OBITUARY

What follows is my entry in a local Short Story Contest. It all started when I began reading the obituary page in our daily newspaper. A sort of gallows humor emerged as I looked at the pictures an…

philspickler.wordpress.com

OBITUARY
Posted on February 11, 2014 by Tatiana Baklanova

What follows is my entry in a local Short Story Contest.

It all started when I began reading the obituary page in our daily newspaper.
A sort of gallows humor emerged as I looked at the pictures and read about the dearly departed’s life and times. I noticed, with my eight decades of living, that I was about the same age as many who passed off the mortal coil.
In reading many of the “obits,” I concluded that if I wanted a good obit I’d best write it in advance of my passing. Some of the statements I noted in reading obits started with “died peacefully;” “passed on surrounded by loving family;” “died after a long illness;” “left unexpectedly;” “died after a brief illness,” “passed on peacefully,” etc. Personally, I don’t think I’d be dying peacefully if I were surrounded by family . And preferably not peacefully in any case: to quote Dylan Thomas, “Do not go gentle into that good night/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light” – that’s more my style.

Also, the pictures which accompanied some of the obits sometimes showed the deceased at about age 20: surely not accurate for their look by the time of their death. And the photos showing them having aged: at best, these show the remorselessness of time..

To get to the point, I became certain that it was a big mistake to leave the writing of one’s obit to family.

Over the years I had formed opinions about just what happens after body death, such as going to heaven (or somewhere else ); reincarnating; returning to a vast pool of spiritual nothingness from which individual souls or spirits emerge . . . By the time I passed 8 decades, I was pleasantly uncertain as to what, if anything, came after dying. I philosophically settled for the idea that there would be either something or nothing. If there was to be something, I’d find out when the time came.

I had been having a lot of fun and many laughs writing my obituary. When I finished I had a glorious obituary, and one that even gave me the feeling that I’ll be missed.

Perhaps I erred in sending copies of my obit to a few of my old cronies, thinking they’d get quite a kick out of it. Imagine my surprise a few days later, finding my obit featured in our daily newspaper!
I was so taken by the outpourings of friends and relatives arriving on the answering machine and by e-mail that I said to myself, and I quote, “What the hell – I’ll just go ahead and make it true.”

That night, using a method of dying I learned about in the South Seas, where one lies down and wills one’s body to die, I lay down to pursue this method, and after awhile fell into a dreamless sleep.
Unfortunately, to my dismay, I awoke the next morning in excellent health and spirits.

 

[Reyne Mayer]

one of the things i find interesting about his history, is wasn't he one of the first mission holders to get 'massacred' -- but several years before the early 1980s event where DM was the public face of the CoS corporations, and thus more obviously at the behest of LRH himself? his description of auditing by using rapport with the PC rather than an e-meter suggests to me he was one of those who are naturally good with people; but he also seems to have been rather of a free spirit and iconoclast, and i'm guessing that came into conflict with Hubbard's KSW and the orthodoxy being imposed by the CMO and SO.

 

[vegan3]

My only memory has no date. I just remember hearing he’d sailed off to South America. I knew Mimi was still in and kept waiting to hear if Phil was squirreling/declared and I never heard that. Other members of that mission opened a new mission in the next city over (Mountain View) and I knew nothing about massacres until decades later. Santa Clara was the most visible shift of “missing” people and a much larger mission. The majority of people I know that are still in came from one or the other of those two missions.

 

[vegan3]

there was no internet then. people that are in generally are not talking to people that are out. and if you are moving up the bridge, first you start at a mission. then you go to an org. then (in my era) you went to LA. lots of people joined the sea org somewhere along the line. the LA area is still full of scn and ex-scn people. of course most of the lifers now end up in the clearwater area.

santa clara was in three different locations in the 70's, only because it kept out-growing the buildings. the last location may have technically been san jose (stevens creek mission). my first memory of palo alto was the location on middlefield (an old house near downtown). then for some reason it moved to menlo park. later on, mountain view was run by penny and marc silber (originally from PA/santa barbara), then later was a very small los altos, at the corner of PA and Mtn. View. run (according to carmelo) by drew and dede johnston. another very small palo alto came much later on el camino where the feshbachs were. i didn't know anything about drew or dede, but those other people had been around forever and are still around! (plus the kids)

the infamous woodruffs (dan, john and claire) came from santa clara. their kids are still in. feshbach/palo alto kids still in. silber/palo alto kids still in. stokes/santa clara kids still in (mountain view). then alan and janet hollander (santa clara) split up but janet and at least one of her keough kids are still in with delphian school in oregon.

 

[Reyne Mayer]

I knew Mimi was still in and kept waiting to hear if Phil was squirreling/declared and I never heard that.

i suspect that is an early case of celebs getting kid glove treatment and tolerance that are the absolute reverse of what general 'public' are subject to.

and thanks for the perspective of what it was like back then, particularly at the missions.

i wonder if some of the changes in location had to do more with changes in franchisee -- and just the sort of behind-the-scenes goings on, sometimes unsavory, that public were kept in the dark about and that i still think we know too little about. like c. 1980 a couple of missions got busted for the illegitimate credit union operations providing loans before the era of credit cards, that ultimately attracted law enforcement attention -- and that it's now hard to even find much about, with the people involved as both victims and perpetrators seeming having faded into the woodwork hardly ever to be heard from.

 

[vegan3]

idk. menlo park was still phil. kingsley wimbush was ousted from stevens creek. a bunch of key people left santa clara but i didn't know why then. the woodruffs and many others had migrated to LA.

 

[vegan3]

this thread in the old forum is carmelo in 2011 still trying to figure out what the FUCK happened...


https://forum.exscn.net/threads/bill-franks-story-about-brainwashing-thread-merge.22265/page-12

"Welcome, my name is Ed Berwick, I was in from 68-76. If you remember Teri Spickler, she is my wife, we've been married since the mid 70s. I did OT levels, the bc, and started a center that is now an org. I've audited for decades, outside the Co$ basically book one, but also grades, repair, power, etc.

My question is based on something that I'm told Alan Walter told my source. He , according to my source, said that there were three of you (presumably Alan, Dean Stokes, and yourself) that were aiming to make a coup, and take over just prior to the Mission Holders massacre. Is this true? Would you elaborate some?

thanks"
--------------------------------

"Dear Sir, Indeed I remember Teri Spickler.
Yes, there is some truth to this. We didn't get too far with this but I very well remember Alan walter and myself up all night before I believe the last meeting yelling at Miscavage and his crew which included Norm starkey. Our theme wa that if you are going to hold the power then you indeed have to be responsible for the fact that you don't know **** about Scientoogy or running it.I believe that that was the night that Yeager, who had some post that I can't recall, on his knees in front of me, this was earlier in the night, begging us to call this off.
One shouldn't forget that the midget is scared ****less of people and being a wog just like us guys -or at least me. Afterall, we were not asking for more that the opportunity to expand the church but they saw it as losing contorl which gets us back to the purpose of the o/w thing I revealed. as I think I said on my FB page, miscavage once said to me that he would do anything rather than having to sell laser prints(which was the big source of income for Scnoes trying toearn their way up the bridge back in the early 80's" He seems to have meant every word of "I would do anything".
But then again he was in a tough spot being 4'8" with an eight grade education. best, Bill"

i didn't see the whole real story until i saw the link in here that came from jon atack and posted by sneakster
-------------------------------------

https://exscn2.net/threads/cuitys-ethics-report-on-dm.1704/#post-161155

just read the link with all the story posted by the sneakster the other day. first time i'd read actual details of what happened and doubt i made it through the whole document at that. so many of those people i knew. think we still have third gen Stokes in the cult. i knew the mother and her boys. then the boys of the boys are still around! (that link really should be in this thread to keep it all together so going to find it now.)

actual report 1982 Mission Holders Conference

The 1982 US Mission Holders' Conference, San Francisco

 

[Ed8]

OBITUARY

What follows is my entry in a local Short Story Contest. It all started when I began reading the obituary page in our daily newspaper. A sort of gallows humor emerged as I looked at the pictures an…

philspickler.wordpress.com

OBITUARY
Posted on February 11, 2014 by Tatiana Baklanova

It all started when I began reading the obituary page in our daily newspaper.
A sort of gallows humor emerged as I looked at the pictures and read about the dearly departed’s life and times. I noticed, with my eight decades of living, that I was about the same age as many who passed off the mortal coil.
In reading many of the “obits,” I concluded that if I wanted a good obit I’d best write it in advance of my passing. Some of the statements I noted in reading obits started with “died peacefully;” “passed on surrounded by loving family;” “died after a long illness;” “left unexpectedly;” “died after a brief illness,” “passed on peacefully,” etc. Personally, I don’t think I’d be dying peacefully if I were surrounded by family . And preferably not peacefully in any case: to quote Dylan Thomas, “Do not go gentle into that good night/ Rage, rage against the dying of the light” – that’s more my style.

Also, the pictures which accompanied some of the obits sometimes showed the deceased at about age 20: surely not accurate for their look by the time of their death. And the photos showing them having aged: at best, these show the remorselessness of time..

To get to the point, I became certain that it was a big mistake to leave the writing of one’s obit to family.

Over the years I had formed opinions about just what happens after body death, such as going to heaven (or somewhere else ); reincarnating; returning to a vast pool of spiritual nothingness from which individual souls or spirits emerge . . . By the time I passed 8 decades, I was pleasantly uncertain as to what, if anything, came after dying. I philosophically settled for the idea that there would be either something or nothing. If there was to be something, I’d find out when the time came.

I had been having a lot of fun and many laughs writing my obituary. When I finished I had a glorious obituary, and one that even gave me the feeling that I’ll be missed.

Perhaps I erred in sending copies of my obit to a few of my old cronies, thinking they’d get quite a kick out of it. Imagine my surprise a few days later, finding my obit featured in our daily newspaper!
I was so taken by the outpourings of friends and relatives arriving on the answering machine and by e-mail that I said to myself, and I quote, “What the hell – I’ll just go ahead and make it true.”

That night, using a method of dying I learned about in the South Seas, where one lies down and wills one’s body to die, I lay down to pursue this method, and after awhile fell into a dreamless sleep.
Unfortunately, to my dismay, I awoke the next morning in excellent health and spirits.

(joke)
It was a "little death". ;-)

 

[Ed8]

I used to verbally spar with him in a friendly manner on the IVy group. He is a good guy.

 

[vegan3]

I used to verbally spar with him in a friendly manner on the IVy group. He is a good guy.

Is? I don’t know what ivy group is.

 

[Ed8]

Is? I don’t know what ivy group is.

Is. Above time tracks his existence persists. Hubbard talked a lot about exteriorizing from the body. There is also exteriorization from the physical universe. There are other universes, including what Hubbard called magic track. From outside of a universe its time track(s) can be seen. Magic track contains multiple pocket universes, including the so-called "between lives area". I prefer the Tibetan name: Bardo. It's much shorter.

IVy = International Viewpoints magazine. A bunch of ex-churchies just like this place.

 

[vegan3]

well i don't know the words you use. yes phil would still be in existence, just not as "phil". so many of these ex-scn that have no concept of reincarnation. just boggles the mind. i do believe we planned our lives. so when i got in at age ELEVEN, it was likely my own choice in the end. i was jabbering with my sister about something that happened when i was a kid. i was asking about her end of the story. i knew my end. and i hadn't given it much thought, but had expected i must have been 8 or 9 at the time. once i hashed through it all, turns out i was five. what a bullheaded kid i was!

What exactly is this “de-dinging”?

 

[Ed8]

de-dinging?

 

[Hatshepsut]

this thread in the old forum is carmelo in 2011 still trying to figure out what the FUCK happened...

https://forum.exscn.net/threads/bill-franks-story-about-brainwashing-thread-merge.22265/page-12

"Welcome, my name is Ed Berwick, I was in from 68-76. If you remember Teri Spickler, she is my wife, we've been married since the mid 70s. I did OT levels, the bc, and started a center that is now an org. I've audited for decades, outside the Co$ basically book one, but also grades, repair, power, etc.

My question is based on something that I'm told Alan Walter told my source. He , according to my source, said that there were three of you (presumably Alan, Dean Stokes, and yourself) that were aiming to make a coup, and take over just prior to the Mission Holders massacre. Is this true? Would you elaborate some?

thanks"
--------------------------------

"Dear Sir, Indeed I remember Teri Spickler.
Yes, there is some truth to this. We didn't get too far with this but I very well remember Alan walter and myself up all night before I believe the last meeting yelling at Miscavage and his crew which included Norm starkey. Our theme wa that if you are going to hold the power then you indeed have to be responsible for the fact that you don't know **** about Scientoogy or running it.I believe that that was the night that Yeager, who had some post that I can't recall, on his knees in front of me, this was earlier in the night, begging us to call this off.
One shouldn't forget that the midget is scared ****less of people and being a wog just like us guys -or at least me. Afterall, we were not asking for more that the opportunity to expand the church but they saw it as losing contorl which gets us back to the purpose of the o/w thing I revealed. as I think I said on my FB page, miscavage once said to me that he would do anything rather than having to sell laser prints(which was the big source of income for Scnoes trying toearn their way up the bridge back in the early 80's" He seems to have meant every word of "I would do anything".
But then again he was in a tough spot being 4'8" with an eight grade education. best, Bill"

i didn't see the whole real story until i saw the link in here that came from jon atack and posted by sneakster
-------------------------------------

https://exscn2.net/threads/cuitys-ethics-report-on-dm.1704/#post-161155

just read the link with all the story posted by the sneakster the other day. first time i'd read actual details of what happened and doubt i made it through the whole document at that. so many of those people i knew. think we still have third gen Stokes in the cult. i knew the mother and her boys. then the boys of the boys are still around! (that link really should be in this thread to keep it all together so going to find it now.)

actual report 1982 Mission Holders Conference

The 1982 US Mission Holders' Conference, San Francisco

Wow on the rehash, in depth of the Mission Holders Conference in San Francisco, 1982. What a dramatization of power and control. 'This is US .....and THIS is U. You get a condition of enemy til you get me my damn money."

I remember when, right in front of my eyes, Ruth Minshull's book, How To Choose Your People, was whisked off our book shelf for not paying dues to RTC. She was SP for freeloading on mission's bookshelves, trying to make money.

I was at the conference where Wendell Reynolds was threatening us in NYC. I think it was the winter of 82. I was disappointed they'd cancelled David Mayo who we thought was scheduled. I remember the ice cream suits walking up and down the isle between us in those rows of folding chairs. We were all being held suspect.

Staff were all so broke, having pooled gas money to pile in the back of someone's coup and make the drive from Orlando to NYC. We were dumbfounded to be accused of stealing from Scientology mgmt. The only good thing was the landmark Park Ave bakery curbside by the hotel's exit. I blotted out the failed purpose of going there, but, I'll always remember those cream puffs from the Jewish bakery.

 

[Hatshepsut]

I'm reading the obituary link as I catch up on the rest of this thread. I had discovered Phil's Six Directions process back in the 90s when I was really under the weather. Such simple things could dig a person out. You gotta appreciate that the folks who helped create some processes used in a lot of Scn, understood the basic basic fundamentals. Even if they didn't feel the need to have to impart them, This went for some things coming out of the 50s.

 

[I M Dex]

I was at the conference where Wendell Reynolds was threatening us in NYC. I think it was the winter of 82. I was disappointed they'd cancelled David Mayo who we thought was scheduled. I remember the ice cream suits walking up and down the aisle between us in those rows of folding chairs. We were all being held suspect.
Staff were all so broke, having pooled gas money to pile in the back of someone's coup and make the drive from Orlando to NYC. We were dumbfounded to be accused of stealing from Scientology mgmt. The only good thing was that landmark Park Ave bakery, curbside by the hotel's exit. I blotted out the failed purpose of going there, but, I'll always remember those cream puffs from the Jewish bakery.

I was Lead HGC auditor at the NY org at that time, I remember Reynolds at the podium. By this time, to me, almost everything going on outside my auditing room was exasperating idiocy. I thought it was all supposed to be about providing "case gain", and none of this reflected any interest in that, and yet everybody around me was mouthing the party line. if it wasn't all along a mass of policies to be picked from for those in power to justify what they were doing, and "pan-determinism" was code for following orders regardless of their value. I remember encountering Mayo a couple of times in NY, once in 1980, once in 1982.

 

[Hatshepsut]

Everything happened so fast in 82, almost as if it was a blueprint lassoed down from the akasha or etheric realm.

I had a cog once about how service facsimiles embed themselves in the mindscape. I actually saw it was 'those conditions a person feels are necessary for him to feel he is winning or going to be safe and surviving'. Textbook or just about.....for at least one definition.

As I scanned over this later I could see I had bits of theta automaticity, or even 'angels' in charge of organizing and re-organizing these structures. There had to be this or that configuration of events, this or that personna dramatis, this or that dynamic involved, this or that power play or upset. And it was amazing how similar some earlier similars could be as far as the conditions I found myself in on stage.... or games sphere. It gobsmacked me and I felt helpless for a bit, realizing how much effect I could be of forgotten decisions. But the real shock was that my co-operative lifeforce was still helping me construct or automatically re-enact old things.....each time!! The re-enact part are the land mines.

From the time I was 19, I'd always felt I remembered some of things used in Scientology, from other planets. I got chastised for it of course.
I remembered the rising scale processing and a Beingness debrief.... a sort of original clearing of past 'hats' when coming back from assignments elsewhere and ridding the debris.

 

[vegan3]

de-dinging?

It’s mentioned a few places mainly i think in the massacre doc.

 

[Ed8]

Everything happened so fast in 82, almost as if it was a blueprint lassoed down from the akasha or etheric realm.

I had a cog once about how service facsimiles embed themselves in the mindscape. I actually saw it was 'those conditions a person feels are necessary for him to feel he is winning or going to be safe and surviving'. Textbook or just about.....for at least one definition.

As I scanned over this later I could see I had bits of theta automaticity, or even 'angels' in charge of organizing and re-organizing these structures. There had to be this or that configuration of events, this or that personna dramatis, this or that dynamic involved, this or that power play or upset. And it was amazing how similar some earlier similars could be as far as the conditions I found myself in on stage.... or games sphere. It gobsmacked me and I felt helpless for a bit, realizing how 'at effect' I could be of forgotten postulates. But the real shock was that my co-operative lifeforce was still helping me construct or automatically re-enact these old things.....each time!! The re-enact part are the land mines.

From the time I was 19, I'd always felt I remembered some of things used in Scientology, from other planets. I got chastised for it of course.
I remembered the rising scale processing and a Beingness debrief.... a sort of original clearing of past 'hats' when coming back from assignments elsewhere and ridding the debris.

Group serfacs are a very real thing. Some people called them memes, but online use of the word to mean internet memes of text and image sort of killed that. Anyway, serfacs can exist on any dynamic in this universe. Fixed ideas held by a group mind are difficult for an individual to resist. 1st dynamics are dominated by 3rd dynamics.

I am so glad I was out by '78. Ethics Officers/MAAs are an idiotic idea that have nothing to do with helping people.