In
June of 2006 Kyle’s father, Tom Brennan, first learned that Kyle was seeing a
psychiatrist in Charlottesville. Brennan was very unhappy about it, but I didn’t
think much of it at the time as he was not directly involved in his son’s life.
Soon
after this Kyle and I started receiving letters—and anti-psychiatry hate literature—from the Church
of Scientology about the evils of psychiatry and psychotherapeutic drugs. I
found these annoying, but I didn’t think much
of it. At the time I regarded Scientology as a goofy, harmless organization.
In
July of 2006, Tom Brennan convinced Kyle that he should come and stay with him
in Florida at his apartment. He promised Kyle that he would take him to look at
the Florida State and the University of South Florida campuses.
Kyle
traveled to Florida the following month, arriving on August 15. Within three days he called me
complaining that his father had duped him. Brennan
at the time didn’t even have an apartment—he had lied to Kyle.
Instead,
Brennan was living in Tampa, in what Kyle called a “Scientology
flop-house.” Kyle said he felt uncomfortable being around Scientologists. They
have their own vocabulary, he told me, and they were pressuring him to
take a Scientology personality test—something he absolutely refused to
do.
Within
a few days of this conversation Brennan and Kyle moved from Tampa into an
apartment at 423 Cleveland Street in downtown Clearwater. This place is near the
old Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology’s main headquarters. Things seemed to be
going a little better after their move from the flop-house.
Within
a week I received another distressing call from Kyle. I could hear a lot of
noise at the other end of the phone line, and I asked, "Kyle, are
you on campus?"
“Hell
no,” he responded, “I'm at a mall watching my father make an ass out of
himself. He's chasing people down trying to sell them L. Ron Hubbard books.” (A
third-rate science fiction writer, Hubbard founded Scientology in the 1950s.)
“Kyle,”
I said, “you’re kidding about this, right?"
“Heck
no, Mom,” came his answer. “ Please . . . tell me that I'm not sharing the
same DNA with this dude.”
Kyle
told me again that his father had duped him. Brennan, Kyle said, had no
intention of taking him to look at colleges. Furthermore, according to Kyle,
Brennan said that a college education was a waste of money, and that what he
needed to improve his life was to get involved with Scientology.
Kyle
wanted no part of Scientology. Despite this, however, Tom Brennan and his
Scientologist girlfriend had been placing a great deal
of pressure on Kyle to take a personality test.
(Brennan's girlfriend was a staffer at the New York City Org—or Scientology “church”—in
Clearwater for training. Brennan and his future wife were introduced by their
mutual friend Denise Miscavige Gentile, the twin sister of the organization’s
head. They were married soon after Kyle returned to Charlottesville in September.)
At
this point Kyle wanted to come home. He wanted to go back to school in
Charlottesville, at Piedmont Virginia Community College, but the fall semester
was already underway. He asked me if I would talk with his professors to
see if he could start the semester late, as he did not want
to waste any more time.
Kyle
called again the following day. He was upset. The previous evening, everybody
in the apartment—Kyle, Brennan, and Borden—had gotten into a huge argument. Kyle
said they were pushing him to pay for a personality test, and they wanted him
to take Scientology courses. They also told Kyle that his mother was “evil” for
allowing him to see a psychiatrist. Kyle told me that the argument had
been extremely heated. At one point, Kyle said, he told Brennan and his
girlfriend what he really thought of Scientology—he thought it was ludicrous—and
also how he felt about his father spending all of his money on it.
When
Kyle returned home he said that he had overheard Brennan's girlfriend tell his father he
was now “an enemy of their church.”
Kyle
returned home without telling his father he was leaving—he took a cab to
the airport on September 7 and left without saying goodbye.
Kyle
was never the same after this visit.
