Scientology has been disseminating one of my writings, which has come to be
known as the "Pig Dream," and I thought I should mitigate my damages by letting
the world know what it is, and its long and amazing history.
Posted and E-mailed
Scientology has been disseminating one of my writings, which has
come to be known as the "Pig Dream," and I thought I should
mitigate my damages by letting the world know what it is, and its
long and amazing history.
It doesn't hold a candle to Grady Ward's coprophilic opera, but
draws from the same set of short scatologisms, which probably
come from Old Norse, and Scientology uses it to attack me in the
same way it uses Grady's literature to attack him. It is an honor
to share both Scientology's attacks and the English language with
the man.
On March 9, 1985, while staying at the Wilsonville, Oregon home
of Garry McMurry, attorney for Julie Christofferson, and while
waiting to testify in her trial, I had a dream. I have had few
dreams in my life which were memorable and that I remembered the
next morning. I have had fewer still that I wrote down; and I
have had only one really raunchy dream that was memorable, that I
remembered, and that I wrote down.
Because of the Scientology war, March, 1985 was a stressful
enough time for me to excuse my dreaming any sort of dream. But
the pig dream doesn't really relate to anything then going on,
and, being a dream, it doesn't need excusing. Only years later
did I come to understand, aside from its immediate and very
obvious message, what it meant in my life.
What follows is a version with the expletives excised, because
that's the only version I have with me, and because it's enough
for Scientology's prurient purposes. ARS wordsmiths are invited
to fill in the blanks.
[Quote]
3-10-85
Last night as I dreamed I received a warning to not [blank]
the [blank blank]. If I did I would myself turn into a [blank].
Sometime later, sure enough, there appeared a [blank blank
blank blank] and [blank]. She turned her [blank blank blank]
almost in [blank blank], and turned her head back, looking at me
[blank blank blank blank]. Her [blank] was [blank blank]. Her
ears [blank blank]. Her mouth didn't move but she asked in
perfect English if I'd like [blank blank blank]. There were
[blank] of [blank] around her [blank].
I wanted to [blank blank] but I said no. She disappeared. I
woke up.
I have thought of her several times today. She was there.
I'm still here. [Blank blank blank blank blank]
(c) G. Armstrong
[End Quote]
For some then inexplicable reason I sent a copy of the unexcised
recitation of the dream to my friend Dan Sherman, who had been,
unbeknownst to me, operated by Scientology since 1982 to become
my friend and ultimately to set me up in a cult intel op. I say
"then inexplicable" because future events have made clear why I
was moved to send the writing to Sherman.
During my cross-examination in the Christofferson trial in the
spring of 1985 cult lawyer Earle Cooley revealed that Sherman had
been working for Scientology, that I had been set up, that they
had four hours of illegally taken videotapes of me during parts
of which I swear like a logger, and that they had a number of
writings they'd tricked from me, plus the dream. My recollection
is that Multnomah County Judge Londer didn't allow the cult to
admit it into evidence.
On July 3, 1986 cult lawyer Donald Randolph of the LA lawfirm
Overland, Berke, Wesley, Gits, Randolph and Levanas signed and
filed in Armstrong I (LASC No, 420153) the cult's "Objection of
Cross-Defendant Church of Scientology of California to Release of
Pre-Clear Files," supported by, among other exhibits, the pig
dream. It is possible that Randolph later had a falling out with
the cult; and there might be a reference to that in the 1992
American Lawyer article, which unfortunately I don't have here.
What the cult had Randolph do in my case to prevent me from
obtaining my pc folders was really low, and for a lawyer with any
conscience left that could have been enough for a falling out.
More about this in a future post.
In the 7/3/86 objection to release of my files, Randolph wrote:
"The above admissions (statements Randolph claimed
were extracted from my pc folders), if the Church is
ever forced to use them, must be construed as
admissions against Armstrong's interest. They paint an
incredibly sad picture of a pathetic and troubled
individual who engaged in one illegal or deviant act
after another until entering the Church; who continued,
although in a comparatively minor way, to practice his
debased activities while a member of the Church; and
who immediately resumed his extremely aberrated
activities upon leaving the Church as demonstrated by
his theft of thousands of pages of personal materials
and his "talking pig" essay, a sickening "personal
creative work" authored by Armstrong for potential
publication."
On November 18, 1986 I executed a declaration in Armstrong I
which stated:
"The organization has demonstrated continually
throughout the litigation of this case that truth,
which must have some relationship to legitimate
discovery, is, as far as the organization is concerned,
irrelevant. Attached hereto [ ] is a copy of a
recitation of a dream I had in March 1985. I have
blacked out for this purpose, anything which could be
considered offensive. Donald Randolph has, in
furtherance of the organization's goals, defined the
recitation of the dream a "sickening work"
demonstrating my "extremely aberrated activities." The
dream was a dream. The recitation was true, and as
artistically tight as I was capable of. To the
organization, if it suits its purposes, however, dreams
are reality, and truth is whatever can be twisted
therefrom. The only thing "sickening" about the dream
is how the organization acquired it and went about its
degradation. I sent it to my friend Dan Sherman, a
professional writer who had throughout 1984 encouraged
me to write and who had "critiqued" some of my work.
Sherman was, of course, being operated by the
organization in the "Armstrong Operation" (the same
operation which John Peterson says never happened), and
Sherman either gave the organization the "dream" he had
dutifully tricked me into sending him, or the
organization simply stole it from him. Attached hereto
[ ] is a letter from Sherman from March 1986 in which
he indicates that the organization was indeed getting
his mail. Since writing me, however, Sherman has
apparently again been pressured by the organization
because he has again cut communication with me and gone
into hiding." (parens in orig).
The "settlement" of my litigation occurred in December, 1986, and
the case file, which contained the pig dream, was, on
Scientology's insistence, sealed.
When I again became involved in the Scientology war, I filed in
the appeal the cult had taken from the 1984 Breckenridge decision
a declaration I executed March 15, 1990 in which I wrote about
Scientology's next use of the pig dream.
"On December 21, 1988 I received a call from
Michael Flynn who relayed a message from Michael Lee
Hertzberg, one of the organization's leading attorneys.
Paul Morantz, Bent Corydon's attorney in one or another
case, filed a motion to unseal the _Armstrong_ court
file. Judge Geernaert, who had inherited the
_Armstrong_ file after Judge Breckenridge retired,
allowed the unsealing. The organization had 30 days to
appeal. They wanted me to file a pleading to keep the
court file sealed. They said that otherwise the "pig
document" would come out. (This document, which was
specifically sealed by Judge Breckenridge, was a
recitation of a dream I had in 1985.) They also stated
that if I didn't file something it would unsettle the
settlement. They said they have a case on point. They
said it would be bad for me. I could have to give the
(settlement) money back. Mr. Flynn translated for me:
"It's a veiled threat." I said my decision at that time
was to do nothing." (Parens in orig)
"On December 27, 1988 I again spoke by telephone
with Mr. Flynn who had himself spoken to lawyers on
both sides of Mr. Corydon's litigation. This is what I
considered relevant at the time. Following Judge
Geernaert's unsealing of the _Armstrong- court file,
the organization filed a petition for a writ of
supersedeas claiming the sealing of the file was
consideration for settlement. In his response Paul
Morantz filed some settlement documents, a notary seal
from the State of Pennsylvania on which identified Bill
Franks, like me a former organization executive and
witness in various organization-related cases, as their
source. Mr. Franks had sent the documents to a lawyer
to look at and the lawyer gave them to another lawyer
who gave them to Mr. Morantz. The organization reacted.
They claimed to have "the smoking gun," the proof of
settlement violations. They charged that there were
numerous breaches: they knew last summer that Mr.
Franks had spent time with the Aznarans (who I
understood to be organization executives who had
recently defected and had sued the organization); and
they had some instance of Homer Schomer doing something
three weeks before. Mr. Flynn advised me he was going
to file a pleading to say the settlement documents
should remain sealed. I said I felt the court file
should be unsealed and almost certainly would be at
some point, but that I wouldn't do anything at that
time." (Parens in orig)
When I was in Johannesburg, South Africa in August, 1991 at the
request of Malcolm Nothling to testify in his case against
Scientology, one of the cult's local attorneys smirked to
Malcolm's attorney that he had the "pig dream."
Various cult black PR packs on me obtained in discovery in my
Marin County litigation contain a statement parroting this one:
"Armstrong's state of mind is illustrated by
various "literary" writings authored by him, none of
which more clearly demonstrated it than a document now
known as the "pig letter," in which Armstrong purported
to describe a dream. [Attachment]"
One of the cult's black PR attacks on Factnet contained this
statement:
"Gerry Armstrong, according to their Articles of
Incorporation, is the President of FACTNET.
In December 1981 Armstrong, who worked as a
librarian for the Church of Scientology, stole more
than 10,000 pages of records belonging to L. Ron
Hubbard and the Church. Armstrong loaned and showed the
documents to others who were bent on attacking the
Church to support their attacks.
Armstrong's state of mind is clearly illustrated
by various "literary" writings authored by him, none of
which more clearly demonstrated it than a document now
known as the "pig letter," in which Armstrong described
in graphic detail a dream he had where a pig asked him
to have sex and he declined despite the fact he wanted
to. Armstrong was formerly a heavy drug user, and on at
least one occasion he was paid to provide homosexual
sex."
At the 1993 Nonscam CAN Convention in Minneapolis, a cult heavy
(I think named something like Bratchi, and a sometimes sidekick
of Gene Ingram) hassled me about the dream.
Last month OSA mean guy Lynn Farny sent the dream and a bunch of
other black PR on me to Channel 4 in the UK to try to stop the
Hubbard documentary. In Edmonton, Alberta, Yvette Shank, OSA mean
woman, sent the dream and another set of black PR to CHED Radio.
I suppose the cult will soon be sending it to Congress, if they
haven't already.
But they know that my writing about my dream is, as their
attorney Donald Randolph stated under oath, my "personal creative
work authored for potential publication." And they should know
the copyright law well enough to know that by their dissemination
of my unpublished work they are just being lowdown sneaky little
garden variety copyright terrorists.
Gerry
Copyright © Gerry Armstrong - All Rights Reserved.