Safer Planet

David (Dave) Miscavige -- Article in the St. Petersburg Times

This article came out a few years ago but I only ran into it recently.

I really admire Mr. David Miscavige. As a Scientologist I am very greatful to him for everything he has done to create a better world and to expand the Scientology religious movement.

I've been a social activist all my life and have always thought we could do something to improve life, but it's only since being a Scientologists that I have had real tools to be able to do so.

Anyway, here's the part of the article I thought was really cool:

Miscavige recalls meeting the founder in 1977. Hubbard, then 66, wore a straw cowboy hat, slacks, a short-sleeved shirt and boots. He was leaving a dining room when the teenager from Clearwater introduced himself. “Oh I know who you are,” he remembers Hubbard saying. “Welcome aboard.”

As most Scientologists do, Miscavige often refers to Hubbard by his initials, LRH. He says Hubbard called him by the nickname “Misc” (pronounced Misk).

“I never thought LRH was looking at me as: Oh, Dave is 17 years old or 18 years old,” Miscavige said. “It was just Dave, person to person. Spiritual being to spiritual being, so to speak.”

Miscavige, a photography bug, quickly grasped filmmaking concepts such as camera angles and continuity, said Norman Starkey, who was on the camera crew and now is a high-ranking Scientologist. “He was always thinking ahead, thinking of the future, predicting it and taking action.”

Hubbard appointed Miscavige camera chief and considered him his best friend, Starkey said. And in the mornings, when the film crew gathered for work, “David Miscavige was always the first person whose hand he’d shake.”