By an anonymous UTR

Fifty-year Scientology veteran and OT7 Werner Lossau passed away on February 26 after an 18-month battle with leukaemia. To some, it may seem odd that his obituary should be posted in Back in Comm, a forum with which he had no dealings, but those who knew him in his latter years know his views were entirely in keeping with ours. Certainly, no requiem will be held for him in the org.

In September 2012 (wanting to wrap up his OT7 before the 2012 end-of-the-world-according-to-the-Mayan-calendar) Werner had his last Solo session and phoned his Flag DofP, pronouncing himself complete and uninterested in OT8. Why? – one of his best friends and OT8s is today an alcoholic. Never one to doubt his own knowingness, when the Flag CS disputed, Werner calmly went into his back yard and burned his confidential materials – end of cycle!

He never returned to Flag for any handling, but delighted in long email correspondence with anyone at Flag willing to endure being called a robot and an idiot, or anyone else willing to receive his endless barrage of questions as to:

What happens with all the money donated to the IAS?

Where’s all the old Int management (half of whom he was buddies with)?

If the EP of OT7 is the last little skellum sent packing, and he was adamant he had accomplished just that (and which Flag ultimately seemed to indicate they agreed with) why did he need any more auditing (he had a TIP of four intensives), or further sec checks, given he had no interest in OT8? “If they’re gone, they’re gone!”

Where was all his money that should have been in his account? And why had Flag repeatedly dipped into his account without his permission?

Why did Flag tend to lie about almost everything?

What in hell’s name were all these false stats shown at international events??

He received ‘good roads good weather’ responses from all and sundry including the Flag Captain, promising the world if Werner would just return: no more auditing, no more cost, no more having to deal with frigging morons… responses that Werner considered unadulterated lies, and with some cause.

In contrast to that view, Werner described Debbie Cook’s notorious email as “the most theta communication I have ever read”. He had done all the OT levels at least twice (and some THREE times). Werner totally believed in the tech (that is, LRH’s tech) but believed something was wrong with the OT levels and particularly OT7. He believed they had been altered from what LRH devised. Nonetheless, he was proud of having standardly done OT7: Werner was a trained auditor and a highly accomplished one – he was German after all, and consequently flawless. Secondly, he standardly did AT LEAST six sessions a day for the two and a half years he was on the level. He virtually gave up work to complete, and also spent months on base at Flag to try finish. The wins, he often said, were non-existent. Nonetheless, he persevered with what LRH said.

One of his most frequent anecdotes from Flag went like this: “I was flunked on a ‘look in’ session and when I queried this was told I had put a comma out of place in my work sheets.” This was the WHY for his not being able to attest to OT7, said Werner. As you will see later, Werner was an accomplished writer and criticising his grammar cut him to the quick!

Werner lived and breathed Scientology and was not swayed one jot by Miscavige’s version of “the way LRH intended it but never personally got round to”. He viewed a Scientologist as someone who applied Scientology in his or her life so as to improve conditions. He went up the Bridge several times over because he joined in the Earlies before the Bridge was fully streamlined and was therefore something of a guinea-pig, rather than because he was on today’s circular Bridge to Nowhere.

Werner trained at St Hill while LRH was there and had massive loyalty to the ol’ man. He was not interested in the IAS, and irrespective of what eventual status might have been coerced from him (he never said) he believed his old $65 HASI Lifetime Membership was quite adequate. He also was extremely cynical about Ideal Orgs, and made a point of overtly inspecting both Joburg and the Test Centre whenever he came to town – usually with a staff member in tow to take note of all the outpoints. He was particularly aghast at the Test Centre: when he visited it on two occasions the first time the building was flooded and the second it was shut.

Joburg got little better shrift from him. Once while on course, he needed the loo but there was no toilet paper. He got in his car to go elsewhere, with ED Albert de Beer dogging his heels for some donation (certainly not enquiring as to why he was blowing the course room!). When Werner got in the car and drove off ignoring him (his mind was elsewhere, he said) Albert wrote Werner a stinking KR for ‘blowing the comm cycle’. Finally relieved, Werner returned to inform Albert of several of his failings and never again spoke to him – ever.

There was probably not a staff member Werner had not called an idiot or worse to his face – he didn’t humour fools! Werner kept track of every cent he donated and conscientiously followed up to ensure his donations were spent on what they were given for. Where, he wanted to know, were the Library Basics books he donated for? He personally went to check and found them missing in action. Where, he also wanted to know, were the TWTH DVDs and booklets he donated for Warren Bruckman’s infamous police campaign that had supposedly reduced crime by 40% in Sandton? MIA in Deneysville, he found.

Werner was one of that rare breed that did not have to be regged. When he first read Dianetics, he went to considerable effort to arrive at Fitzroy House in London from Germany, cash in hand, and asked to go Clear. Once he picked up and dusted down the staff member (he literally burst into tears, was the way Werner described it) the runaround that was the Bridge then commenced. But Werner believed in the tech and persisted.

He was proud of the fact that he paid for two wives to go all the way up the Bridge. His latest wife (fourth, but fifth marriage – he married one twice) a Thai national, was with him to the end – presumably communicating theta-wise because she had no English and he no Thai.

Werner was never expelled from the church, though he certainly tempted fate by taunting the church at every opportunity. He expected to be expelled and was perfectly sanguine as to the possibility. Most people who knew Werner thought his progress up the Bridge would terminate at OT5. He felt his case had been so messed up by Flag that he refused to consider OT7 unless Flag paid for his 5 to be redone. This impossible task he finally accomplished – though that never stopped Flag from trying to steal his package, as he described it. One day when he went to sign for his next intensive, he found it was all gone and that Flag had contrary to all promises simply deducted OT5 off his account. And so began a re-enactment of the original fight to get Flag to pay – and once again Werner came out on top of some very bruised, trodden upon and battered regs, execs and chaplains.

Despite his abrasiveness, Werner was very well known and loved. About fifteen years ago he moved home from Joburg to the Vaal River (Deneysville) – his third love (after Scientology and women) was sailing. A compulsive over-achiever, he ran successful business after successful business – his most recent being selling miniature swimming pools. He took a business that required the ultimate salesmanship and became by far the best in the region. That was Werner.

He was a larger-than-life character, and consciously so. He explained this by describing his objective when entering a room as being for everyone to know he was there. Certainly, this frequently made him objectionable, but never uninteresting. To enter the Solo course room at Flag was to instantly know Werner was on course. Notwithstanding rules for student behaviour, he would disrupt the entire space in strident Germanic tones should a supervisor disagree with his calling a needle read.

It was shortly after his fifth marriage that he went on honeymoon to Thailand and contracted an illness there. He almost died there, but returned declaiming that Thailand is no place to fall sick. In his happiness with his new-found love he seemingly forgot he was not only in his 80s but had only a couple of weeks before had an operation (albeit fairly minor) for his lower back. His weakened state was not up to the hygiene and food of Thailand, and except for a brief recovery about a year ago his health did not return.

True to his beliefs, he refused traditional cancer treatment and opted for the natural option. A kind man to the end towards those that meant something to him, one of his last actions was to adopt the fully-grown children of his new wife. The Lossau name will live on in Thailand!

His name despite the varied reactions it may cause deserves to be remembered. He was around in the best of times and the worst of times but he was there. And that matters.

Goodbye Werner!