Accounts of Life At The Base
An LA Weekly article from 2001 mentioned claims that Gold Base "houses the church's highly secretive security apparatus". The fences surrounding the base feature inward-facing spikes, in addition to numerous motion sensors and mounted surveillance cameras.
Both former Scientologists and critics of the Church, including Marty Rathbun and Marc Headley, have claimed that Gold Base serves as a place of detention and discipline for wayward Scientologists. Between 2004 and 2010, a small building at Gold Base known as "The Hole" was allegedly used by David Miscavige to hold senior Scientology executives against their will as punishment for even minuscule offenses. In 2012, Debbie Cook, the former director of the Church's Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida, testified in court that she was imprisoned in the Hole for a seven-week period in 2007. The Church of Scientology has refuted the allegations and denied the existence of the Hole.
Another form of discipline allegedly practiced at Gold Base is "overboarding", a practice that supposedly originated with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. According to Headley, overboarding at Gold Base has taken place either at a lake on the property or in a swimming pool on the Star of California, a mock sailing ship on the property.
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