When you ask what percentage actually have those stories, the answer depends on how you look at it.

If you’re asking how many speak out, the answer is a lot. If you’re asking how many speak out that have a high profile, the answer is not many. The problem is simple: when I read a story about how they cram people into trailers until it’s full as a form of punishment, feed them minimally, made to work 16 hour days for ridiculously low, third world levels of pay and force them all to confess their “crimes”- which were then not accepted if the “crime” wasn’t severe or incriminating enough, forcing that person to come up with something bad enough that it would be accepted as a confession, I’m usually reading that from the perspective of a specific person who was there and spoke out.

The question then becomes, what about all those people who were there? Are we to assume that this was one event that happened one time and was simply an aberration? If everyone else who was there doesn’t write or interview about that experience, does that mean those stories do not exist or are invalid? Everyone in that particular trailer during the event being spoken of by one person has that story, but only a couple of people are speaking about it. The percentage of people who publicly spoke out doesn’t really line up with the number of people who had the experience, does it?

Then I read about how people who leave are forced to sign a confession of all their “crimes” and that their “crimes” will be altered into something more severe if the signed confession isn’t deemed incriminating enough.

It’s sort of like police brutality and corruption: Are we to assume that the only incidents are the ones being caught on camera and posted online? The ones where a lawsuit was filed, won, and publicized? No, the clear truth is that there is more than what we have on public record. “Going Clear”, “Beyond Belief”, and “Inside Scientology” aren’t the only books, but they form a pretty clear and consistent picture of the organization and it’s ills.

I grew up in Hemet and San Jacinto. Lived there until 2010, in fact. Gold Base is in San Jacinto. I’ve heard quite a few firsthand accounts of experiences over the years and heard a lot of rumors. Some (like Golden Era Productions being a porn studio) were untrue, while others (that they owned Kirby apartments) were half true (they had several members living there in groups of 6, but to my knowledge they didn’t own the place) and others turned out to be absolutely true (they use parts of Gold Base for harsh punishments and something of a work camp).

When I read a multiple books that were released in the last few years and those stories match up with rumors I’d heard from others in the area from the early nineties through the mid 2000’s, that’s validation of those rumors in my eyes.

The quantity of people with these stories and the quantity of people who speak out don’t need to align. For every one who escapes and tells their story there are ten more who don’t escape at all. There are those who leave under certain circumstances and do not wish to endanger their family and/or endanger any visiting or communication privileges they might have. It’s a very simplistic perspective to say that only a few people (percentage wise) have these stories.