John Damonte
| John Damonte | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birthday | 1916 |
| Deceased | Yes |
| Died on | October 1976 |
| info | or November 5th 1975 (two sites mentioned below give different dates |
| Nationality | Gibraltarian |
| Occupation | Homeopath |
John Damonte and his Scientology role.
England 50s 60s[edit | edit source]
Written by Antony Phillips. This is a stub, and additions are welcome. Particularly I lack data on his early life, when he came into Scientology, what he did in Scientology, and others personal impressions of him.
John DaMonte was a Gibraltarian of Spanish, Italian and Jewish descent.
I understood that John was a business man with a small import/export business, the sort of thing that depended on contacts with people concerned with a certain area of products and good ARC and trust, and that he gave up that business in order to work full time in Scientology. Something in the order of a small office with a secretary, perhaps traveling a bit to foreign parts.
John Damonte was Association Secretary of London, England Scientology Organisation. I remember him when the organisation was at Fitzroy Street. A very friendly man, perhaps you could say charismatic in a quiet way. What I remember now was that my father had an executive position on the sales side of the Metal Box Company, and he got three people he knew (but who knew nothing of Scientology) to do an OCA (Oxford Capacity Analysis – the 200 question personality that Scientology had under various names). As a test of the usefulness of these tests John Damonte (not knowing the people) was given the results and gave an analysis of their suitability as sales personnel. I understand that his analysis of all of them was accurate.
What is interesting from those wanting an objective look at Hubbard and his organisation is what Joan DeVeule told me when I visited her in the 70's. Joan had been HCO Secretary (This was the Scientology Organisation Board prior to the seven Division Org, where HCO was a separate organisation). (See biography of Joan).
At Saint Hill, The Saint Hill Briefing Course Administrator, Reg Sharpe, had given leave of absence to a very well liked female student, but had not told Ron Hubbard. Ron noticed this student was missing, and asked Reg Sharpe if she had leave of absence. Reg answered "no". Ron then had the student declared an SP (Suppressive Person) and everyone connected to her had to disconnect from her. Some people refused to disconnect (understandably) and they were declared SP, and the circle widened to rather quickly include John Damonte, who also refused to disconnect. When Joan told this to me I had not the remotest idea that, in 2014, I would be writing this up for general use, so I did not get details that I, and possibly you, are curious about now. However Joan gave me to understand that this made great damage to the London Org, who lost a very able Association Secretary (which on the 7 division Org Board would have been Org. Exec Sec) and a large amount of potential future customers.
Last autumn (Autumn 2013) I got the idea of googling John Damonte. I got a surprise.
He apparently became famous in homeopathy. I cannot find the site I found last autumn, which mentioned more extensively than the following, his connection to Scientology, and efforts to help the disabused after he left. I can quote the following, though:
"John DaMonte was also heavily into Scientology for a time and on close terms with Ron Hubbard down in East Grinstead. But later he withdrew from all that, after seeing the darker side of it…. Once out of Scientology he helped many other people to get out and to get over the ordeal and to re-orientate themselves after getting out. He led just such a group in Zurich… "
Death[edit | edit source]
Apparently he built up a large collection of homeopathic remedies over some years and had them stored in the lower half of his house in Hampstead (London). Quoting from [[1]]:
- John DaMonte’s life took a major downward turn soon after some flash-floods in 1975 when his house in Hampstead became flooded; the water ran in the top of the split level house and flowed right through and spilled out the other end into the garden. This event greatly upset and depressed John DaMonte and he freely admitted that it had unsettled him and from which he never recovered. He died in the November from a heart attack.
Please fill in the gaps in this biography. That's the idea behind this Wiki Scientolipedia. We chip in and do what we can (and if we want to help in that way). You could also see: [[2]]