The first four subliminal sequences, transcribed below, are similar in style and content to the ones I located in earlier episodes. The last sequence consists of rapidly flashing photographs that relate to a story on the next episode.
[00:00:00.751]
[Screen: The Church challenges the credibility of the contributors appearing in this program, and their statements.
As of the airing of this episode, the Church has not agreed to participate.
Information the Church provided about matters discussed in this series can be viewed at:
aetv.com/aftermathletters]
[00:00:03.841]
[The Church disputes many of the statements made by Leah Remini.
…viewers should know the duplicity at work when Ms. Remini stage-managed her departure from the Church of Scientology…
…she desperately tried to remain a Scientologist in 2013, knowing full well she was on the verge of being expelled for refusing to abide by the high level of ethics and decency Scientologists are expected to maintain…
…her transgressions were so egregious she was expelled, which remains the source of her bitterness today…
(Excerpt from letter received from the Church of Scientology 09/09/2016)]
[00:00:25.135]
LR (in studio, dark background): Okay. Here’s what the Church has to say about Marc and Claire Headley.
LR (reading): “The Church disputes many of the statements made by Marc and Claire Headley. They filed two ill-founded lawsuits against the Church, seeking millions in damages. The issue of Mrs. Headley’s pregnancy was part of the Headley’s failed lawsuits and was aimed at generating hostile inflammatory press toward the Church to accompany their frivolous litigation.”
[Scene: airplane; MR coming out of an airport; LR follows]
[Screen: DENVER, Colorado]
[00:00:59.888]
[Screen: Leah and Mike have traveled to Denver to meet former Church of Scientology executives Marc and Claire Headley
Their journey has been noticed]
LR: You see these two cars parked in the parking lot there?
MR: Yeah.
LR: Yeah, I just want to keep an eye on them when we pull out.
They seem to be together, cuz they’re talking. Do you see how they’re talking to each other?
MR: Yup.
Yeah, the guy on the right’s got his left window open.
LR: Yeah, like they’re just totally staring at us. You know what I mean?
MR: They’re moving! There he is.
LR: Oh, there he is. There! No! Let him go! Stop! Let him go. Here you go. Go ahead. No, we’re good. Go ahead. No we’re good. Go ahead. No we’re good, go ahead. No we’re good, go ahead. No, we’re good, go ahead!
MR: Watch this.
[Scene: MR turns right into parking lot where other car is exiting; engages driver of the vehicle they’re focused on.]
MR: Hey Buddy.
Driver: How’re you?
MR: I’m good, who you working for?
Male (driving away): TMZ.
MR: Yeah, right.
LR: Yeah, okay. Piece of sh–.
MR: Yeah, they’re not TMZ.
LR: Because TMZ and photographers, they would, they follow you only to get the shot.
MR: Where’s your camera? You don’t want a shot? You’re from TMZ and you don’t want a shot?
LR: Yeah.
MR: Hah. Right.
[00:02:11.002]
Producer (off camera): Mike how do they find us?
MR: By tracking your airline reservations.
Producer: That’s legal?
MR: No. But you can do it.
Producer: But it’s an intimidation tactic, right?
LR: Well, it doesn’t intimidate me. Makes me want to retaliate. You know? Cuz I’m not going to f—ing stand for it. It’s one thing if it’s paparazzi. Because that’s the business that I’m in.
But I’m not in the business of being stalked by f—ing ass—– I don’t know.
[00:02:38.392]
[Black screen]
[Screen: 1950
SCIENCE FICTION WRITER L. RON HUBBARD PUBLISHES “DIANETICS”
LRH: I am the writer of the textbooks of Scientology. The aim and goal is to put man in a, a mental condition ah, where he him- can solve his own problems.]
[00:02:44.012]
[Screen: THE BASIS FOR A NEW RELIGION. Scientology cross; geometric embellishments; montage of Hubbard photos coming into focus and zooming in from the four screen corners]
LR (in studio): It offers you a sense of purpose in life.
[Screen: Large 3D grayscale Scientology cross, zooming out. Geometric embellishments behind cross.]
LR: Not only are you fixing yourself. But you’re also helping mankind.
[00:02:59.971]
[Screen: Transition frames (“horizontal blinds”) Image desaturates over a few frames.]
[Black screen, white wavy lines on left]
[Screen: Faint cross in a circle, lower left. Wavy lines left and right.]
FOR 35 YEARS (fading in)
FOR 35 YEARS
LEAH REMINI WAS A DEVOUT SCIENTOLOGIST
[Scene: Scientology promotional video
LEAH REMINI
Celebrity Centre Annual Gala, 1999
LR: Without any Scientology organization things are going to change on this planet.]
[Transition frames. Horizontal blinds, wavy lines left and right. Image desaturating.]
[Transition frames. Horizontal blinds effect on text and background cross image.]
[00:03:13.341]
[Screen: 2013
LEAH PUBLICLY SPLIT WITH THE CHURCH
Female reporter: After years of slowly questioning Scientology…
[New York Post: TV star quits Scientology]
Male reporter: Leah Remini in her very public break with Scientology….]
[People: Leah Remini: MY ESCAPE FROM SCIENTOLOGY]
[00:03:21.231]
[Scene: Black bird lights on Scientology cross atop the Super Power building in Clearwater. Scene fades to black.]
[00:03:21.831]
[Black screen]
LR (in studio): I didn’t want to find out that what I had done my whole life was a lie.
[Black screen]
[00:03:26.851]
[Screen: Scientology cross over a geometric design; grayscale. Low opacity, blurred.]
NOW LEAH WILL EXPOSE [fading in]
[Screen: centered Scientology cross; geometric embellishments]
NOW LEAH WILL EXPOSE
[Scene: LR and MR approach a white door]
[Scene: LR and MR approach a gray door]
[Scene: LR and MR at a blue door. LR rings the bell]
[Scene: LR hugging blonde woman wearing a blue blouse; restaurant setting]
[00:03:32.841]
[Screen: No text. Dark screen, low opacity grayscale Scientology cross left of center]
[00:03:33.814]
[00:03:36.183]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR [fading in, zooming in]
Subliminal Sequence
[00:03:36.216]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR RELIGION
[00:03:36.250]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR
[00:03:36.283]
[00:03:36.316]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR CORPORATION
[00:03:36.350]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR
[00:03:36.383]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR CULT
[00:03:36.416]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR
[00:03:36.450]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR RELIGION
[00:03:36.483]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR
[00:03:36.516]
[00:03:36.550]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR CORPORATION
[00:03:36.583]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR
[00:03:36.617]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR CULT
[00:03:36.650]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR
[00:03:36.683]
[00:03:36.717]
THE ABUSES OF THIS BILLION DOLLAR RELIGION
LEAH REMINI
SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH [fading in]
[00:04:09.216]
[Black screen]
[…]
[00:43:58.923]
LR (in car with MR): It’s one thing to tell a story, for me. It’s another thing to actually do something that’s actually going to help people.
LR (in studio): What can we do?
What can you do?
What can you do?
What can our lawyers do here? I don’t know what those things are. But I have to find a way to, to bring justice to some of these people who’ve been victimized, and to prevent anything in the future from happening from this cult or another cult.
LR (in studio): I don’t want people to feel powerless because something seems more powerful than you.
Do something. You can do something.
[00:44:34.913]
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.34.913
[Screen: ON THE NEXT EPISODE]
[Scene: Aaron Smith-Levin in a living room setting]
ASL (crying): We’re twin brothers, we spent every day of our lives together.
ASL (in studio): I characterized my state of mind at that time as being similar to the Hitler youth.
ASL (crying): They said, “There’s been an accident, and your brother has died.”
[Scene: family photos]
LR (in studio): Do you know the pain of this mother and this brother, going, “we gave up a relationship to the Church of Scientology.” And now he’s gone.
ASL (crying): Unconditional love does not exist in Scientology.
LR: Right.
Subliminal sequence
[Black screen]
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.604
Photo: Collin Smith-Levin (67 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.638S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.671
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.705
Photo caption: COLLIN SMITH-LEVIN (33 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.738
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.771
Photo: Collin in a course room scene (67 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.805S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.838
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.871
Sea Org member group shot; Flag SO members (34 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.905
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.938
Smith-Levin family photo (67 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.44.59.972S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.005
S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.038
Photo: Collin (34 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.072
S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.105
Photo: Aaron and Collin in a course room (67 ms.)
S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.138S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.172
S1E5(YT) | 00.45.00.205
Notes
Leah Remini: Scientology & the Aftermath: Golden Era (Season 1, Episode 5). (2016-12-27). IMDB. ↩
Leah Remini (LR): Five times a year, you are required to be at a Scientology event.
S1E5(YT) | 00.04.54.128
It’s mandatory that you’re there. You’re dressed up. And they start out this movie.
The horses, galloping. Look at this sh-. “Like, we’re doing some sh- here man. We’re slaying the dragons. Look at us.”
And then these graphics come up, and “we’ve saved that country,” and “we took this drug company down,” and “we won this”, and “we save thousands of lives here” and “hundreds of thousands here.” And things like “MILLIONS.”
So if you have any doubts, which I did, when you hear some of these statistics, you’re like “Oh, my God. We are changing the world. So, all of our sacrifices, the money, the time, the missed vacations. It’s all worth it, because look, overall, look at what we’re doing!”
Mike Rinder (MR) (in studio, smiling): I don’t think that Leah realizes the level of deception that is involved in those events. She doesn’t know what went on behind the scenes. She doesn’t know how those events got put together, and how those things are staged!
S1E5(YT) | 00.06.43.437
MR (in car with LR): This morning we’re going to meet Marc Headley.
MR (in studio): Marc was integral to the production of all of the events that were put on. He produced a lot of those events. He was intimately involved and oversaw all aspects of Scientology’s propaganda machine.
[Scene: Marc Headley opens vehicle door for LR, who exits the vehicle.]
LR: Hi, Honey.
MH: Hello, Good mor-. Good to see you.
LR: You too.
MH: My name is Marc Headley. And I was a Scientologist for 25 years. And I was in Golden Era Productions, or “Gold.” And I left in 2005.
[…]
S1E5(YT) | 00.08.19.734
LR (with MH and MR in a garage workshop): Now, you, were what? What was your job in the Sea Org?
MH: For a good majority of the time, I was the, either the pre-production director, which we did all of the research and assembly, costumes, makeup, ah, sets and props, all the preparatory actions for the events. And then for a good amount of time, I was either the assistant producer or the producer.
LR: So you did these events. You, you produced these events.
MH: Full time. It was my job to produce these events, to make it look like Scientology was expanding. There’s a Golden Era Productions casting office in Celebrity Centre, for the specific function of having auditions to get people to appear in Scientology promotional films or videos.
LR (with MH and MR): There were times when I doubted the Church and then I’d go to an event and I’d see these statistics. And I remember thinking, “Like, Wow, Leah, you’re an ass-. Look at the amazing things that the Church is doing.”
MH (in household setting): I mean I can tell you from being involved in the production of events and promotional videos for Scientology over a fifteen year period. It’s most likely bullsh–.
LR: Because of these statistics, I was like kind of brought back in. It makes me believe.
MH: Yeah.
LR: And it makes me give up my money. And it makes me give up my time. And I recently just found out that these statistics are not true.
MH (smiling): Yeah. A lot of times, the way it would happen is we would put together stories. Possible stories to be used for an event.
LR: Uh-hm.
MH: And then the script writers would then take those um stories and then they would try to flesh them out into something that can be talked about at the event.
LR: Like, give me an example.
S1E5(YT) | 00.05.35.669
MH: Let’s say there’s twenty-five people that are participating in Scientology activities in a certain town. Then that would go to the script writers and that would turn into dozens. Cuz “dozens” sounds more than twenty-five. But dozens is technically correct.
LR: Okay.
MH: It’s two dozen. That’s dozens.
LR: Okay.
MH: That might go to David Miscavige, who approved every single speech, every single video script. He would get the script and then maybe he would say, “Dozens. That’s nothing. We’re talking, we need to have the big picture. What’s a going, where Scientology’s going global. We can’t talk about dozens. So maybe it turns into “scores” or “teams” or even “hundreds.”
LR: Even though it’s an outright lie?
MH: It morphs into something bigger than it is.
MR: Why would our Church lie to us?
MH: (nods, turns to LR)
LR: Correct!
MR: They, they sit there and go, “well obviously this true. David Miscavige isn’t going to stand up there and lie to us.
MH: The best way I can represent it is, the events are not a documentary. They are a commercial.
LR (in studio): You know, you do think you’re watching a documentary. You don’t think you’re watching fiction. You don’t think you’re watching a movie, made up.
You know you think you’re being told the truth! And any one of those people will tell you they believe it. We all believed it. So, it’s hard to hear!1
Notes
Excerpted from Leah Remini: Scientology & the Aftermath, Season 1, Episode 5. IMDB↩
Marc Headley: There’s a policy letter that L. Ron Hubbard wrote. It’s one of the five tapes that you listen to when you join the Sea Org. And it’s a lecture that L. Ron Hubbard gave to Sea Org members in the 1960s. Which is, “Whoever controls the public relations, controls the world.”
If you are going to control or govern or have influence upon an area, you have to make ethnic surveys. You have to find out what is most liked and what is next most liked and what is considered bad and what is considered totally evil. When you’ve got the lists of those things, now you know the control buttons of the society. Those are the buttons of control, boy. 2
It is a maxim in any actuality such as ours that you have to know the buttons on which people respond and buttons which they abhor.
If you (a) back up your PR actions 100 percent with good, sound ethnic surveys, (b) get your programs, your mock-ups and your actions re-analyzed after they are planned and (c) then follow those planned actions and programs, you can take the world!3
Notes
From Leah Remini: Scientology & The Aftermath (Season 1 Episode 5) ↩
Hubbard, L. R. (1969-10-29). It’s A PRO World. Welcome to the Sea Org. This document in PDF format. ↩
Hubbard, L. (1988-09-11) PR Series 15; Marketing Series 23 Ethnic Surveys↩
