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Commodore's Messenger Book II: Riding Out The Storms with L. Ron Hubbard Paperback – August 22, 2018
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Janis Gillham Grady
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Print length594 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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Publication dateAugust 22, 2018
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Dimensions6 x 1.34 x 9 inches
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ISBN-101721725288
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ISBN-13978-1721725281
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Editorial Reviews
Review
A stunning memoir of events on board L. Ron Hubbard's Apollo among the Messengers and other teenage crew, and their camaraderie, escapades, and very real dangers in foreign countries the latter of which I am sure Hubbard was utterly ignorant. Janis Grady gives an in-depth view of their innocent unconditional service to Hubbard throughout his slow descent into increasing egotistical abuses and cruelty to those same young people ... --Hana Eltringham
This is a rip-roaring story of adventure and misadventure that is hard to put down. It is a fast-paced page-turner, especially for anyone interested in the mysterious personality of L. Ron Hubbard and the highly improbable but real lives of those who followed him to sea. Riveting tales delivered in the clear, innocent voice of an honest girl swept up in experiences beyond the ken of most ordinary young people. --Amos Jessup
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; First edition (August 22, 2018)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 594 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1721725288
- ISBN-13 : 978-1721725281
- Item Weight : 1.73 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.34 x 9 inches
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Best Sellers Rank:
#1,611,583 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #129 in Scientology
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

INTRODUCTION
BEFORE READING THIS BOOK, it is best you have an understanding of who I am.
My mother was Yvonne Gillham-Jentzsch, the founder of Celebrity Centre for the Church of Scientology. After my parents divorced, my mother married Heber Jentzsch, who is well known as the President of the Church of Scientology International.
My father is Peter F. Gillham (AKA Pete or Peter Snr.) who, in the 1970s, was known as one of the top lecturers on the subject of Scientology. In addition to his lectures Peter authored two successful books “Tell It Like It Is” and “The Fundamentals of Success” which thousands of people credited with helping them. He later became internationally known as a nutritionist with monthly newsletters giving nutritional advice and tips. In the 1980s he developed instant CalMag, leading him to develop Natural Calm by Natural Vitality in the 1990s, which he writes about in his book “The Miracle Nutrient.” Natural Calm remains a best-selling magnesium supplement and has helped thousands of people internationally improve their health.
In the mid-1960s ”the Gillhams” were regarded as Scientology’s first family in Australia. When Scientology was banned in the Australian state of Victoria, my parents moved the family to England. Shortly afterwards we moved to the Scientology ships. In later years, we were accepted as the second family of Scientology. Yvonne headed up Scientology’s Celebrity Centre and built it to more than two hundred staff, while Peter introduced people into Scientology through his books, lectures and as the Executive Director of the Scientology Phoenix mission. Meanwhile my sister Terri, my sister-in-law Doreen Smith-Gillham and I were all senior ranking Commodore’s Messengers working directly with L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology. My brother, Peter Jr., also worked directly with L. Ron Hubbard on the ship and on land.
As a child of 11, in January 1968, I arrived on the Scientology ship, the Royal Scotman where I became an original Commodore’s Messenger for L. Ron Hubbard. Over the next 11 years I spent six hours or more a day with L. Ron Hubbard, until December of 1979, when shortly after, Hubbard went into “hiding” with fellow Commodore’s Messengers, Annie and Pat Broeker. Hubbard passed away in January 1986.
Many who were there say I was raised by Hubbard. My husband jokes that I was raised by wolves (living in a pack), but I believe I was not raised at all, but grew into the world around me. Ha!
I lived on the Scientology ship, Apollo (previously named Royal Scotman) for eight years as a personal messenger for L. Ron Hubbard and then another three years by his side as he moved around the U.S. east coast to the west. As Commodore’s Messengers, we were direct representatives of Hubbard within the world of Scientology. After 22 years, I left in August 1990, no longer able to agree with the direction the Church of Scientology was taking. Along with my husband of 11 years, we disappeared into the night to raise a family outside of the world of Scientology.
Customer reviews
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So Janis' much anticipated book (s), intertwined with Hubbard's writings of the same period she writes about in her two books, just helped rewrite and revise that history in my mind.
Hubbard turns out to be a big cry baby. Janis just lays down irrefutable first hand, day by day, stories of his life, when she was one of his Commodore's Messengers.
The only "OT" (supernatural event) she witnessed was one time he quietly did a sort of mind telekinetic concentration to project (supposedly) his will over a long distance, to ameliorate some ongoing tragedy occuring elsewhere on earth.
Hubbard never soul-fly, never in the day to day events of her years at Hubbard's beck and call, waiting in the hall outside his office, to carry messages for him, never did she witness by him or anyone else, any obviously supernatural event. Coincidences here and there, of course, but no soul-flying, no mind over matter, no ashtrays flying around for Hubbard to tap his KOOL cigarette ashes into, no, the Commodore's Messengers had to carry the ashtrays for Hubbard to tap his ashes into. He was unable to move a single ashtray with his mind. (This is somewhat of an ongoing inside joke, when it has been long revealed the Commodorie's Messengers had to carry Hubbard's ashtrays, since the beginner Scientologists on one of their training levels do a training drill called "TR-8" which they shout at ashtrays and demand the ashtrays rise into the air, but in reality, no one of course ever makes the ashtrays physically rise my their mind power).
The biggest lesson of Janis' books to me, a long term hopeful dupe of the Scientology movement, was that Hubbard displayed no supernatural powers, never, not once.
The book was truly sobering and history revisionism in a positive way.
Thankyou eternally Janis Grady Gillham.
Unauthorized biographies have sought to demonize Hubbard and portray him at his worst, based mostly on a disparate variety of limited accounts.
This is the first author who brings years of personal and up-close experience, with a thorough attention to detail and avoidance of personal judgements except for occasional, appropriate expressions of what it was like for her at the time and how she felt.
This is a highly valuable work continuing from the first book, and giving a real sense of the personality and life of the movement's leader and guru during the critical, formative years of Scientology on the high seas, where the Sea Organization was launched to serve and protect the fast-growing religion from its enemies - both real and imagined - continually evading them using Hubbard's knowledge gained serving in the U.S. Navy - including intelligence and counter-intelligence methods.
For those who served this movement in any capacity, the book fills in huge gaping holes that could only have been filled with imagination guided by sharply limited facts. But even for those who did not take part in the Scientology experience, it gives an account of adventures, daring and heroism of ordinary and extraordinary members, rare in modern life outside of war and revolution.
Readers are left to form their own conclusions about one of the most controversial movements of our time, but to do so with plenty of wide-ranging episodes, first-hand accounts and detailed information to draw from.
Highly recommended.
By Scott Gordon on October 21, 2018
Unauthorized biographies have sought to demonize Hubbard and portray him at his worst, based mostly on a disparate variety of limited accounts.
This is the first author who brings years of personal and up-close experience, with a thorough attention to detail and avoidance of personal judgements except for occasional, appropriate expressions of what it was like for her at the time and how she felt.
This is a highly valuable work continuing from the first book, and giving a real sense of the personality and life of the movement's leader and guru during the critical, formative years of Scientology on the high seas, where the Sea Organization was launched to serve and protect the fast-growing religion from its enemies - both real and imagined - continually evading them using Hubbard's knowledge gained serving in the U.S. Navy - including intelligence and counter-intelligence methods.
For those who served this movement in any capacity, the book fills in huge gaping holes that could only have been filled with imagination guided by sharply limited facts. But even for those who did not take part in the Scientology experience, it gives an account of adventures, daring and heroism of ordinary and extraordinary members, rare in modern life outside of war and revolution.
Readers are left to form their own conclusions about one of the most controversial movements of our time, but to do so with plenty of wide-ranging episodes, first-hand accounts and detailed information to draw from.
Highly recommended.
She takes you on her journey of mental and physical survival of the world she experienced when she personally worked for years directly with L. Ron Hubbard. I was there on the Apollo during some of these years and I was shocked and blown away as to how much I didn’t know about and I knew a lot. She sheds new insight as to who he really was. It is a real life horror story of a child surviving while working next to one of the world most notorious narcissistic paranoid demagogues.







