As a child, Debbie Norwitz learned self-reliance the hard way. Growing up void of parental support or love, as a young teen her self-awareness led to shocking discoveries. She scrapped to embrace her own femininity yet began parenting her baby sister when only twelve years old. Knowing only a cycle of chaos, Debbie left home at eighteen and entered into a vicious marriage, escaping by a rare chance of fate. Thrown in the mix, a stint in Las Vegas, passion-filled relationships, and workplace drama all led to more chaos. Would she ever know peace? Yet another failed marriage and time with the Church of Scientology as one of its highest-ranking officials generated only more chaos. After escaping control by her husband and the church, Debbie had had enough. Facing barriers head-on with an acute sense of survival and determination, she donated a kidney to her daughter, then traveled overseas on a solo backpacking journey and ignited a new sense of purpose. Thrown Overboard by Scientology and Other Life Overboards is an amazing true story of one womanâs survival from a world of neglect and danger to one of love and living life to the fullest.
As a child, Debbie Norwitz learned self-reliance the hard way. Growing up void of parental support or love, as a young teen her self-awareness led to shocking discoveries. She scrapped to embrace her own femininity yet began parenting her baby sister when only twelve years old. Knowing only a cycle of chaos, Debbie left home at eighteen and entered into a vicious marriage, escaping by a rare chance of fate. Thrown in the mix, a stint in Las Vegas, passion-filled relationships, and workplace drama all led to more chaos. Would she ever know peace? Yet another failed marriage and time with the Church of Scientology as one of its highest-ranking officials generated only more chaos. After escaping control by her husband and the church, Debbie had had enough. Facing barriers head-on with an acute sense of survival and determination, she donated a kidney to her daughter, then traveled overseas on a solo backpacking journey and ignited a new sense of purpose. Thrown Overboard by Scientology and Other Life Overboards is an amazing true story of one womanâs survival from a world of neglect and danger to one of love and living life to the fullest.
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The bitter cold water sliced through my petite frame, less than a hundred pounds. My white, oversized jumpsuit weighed me down, pulling me deeper and deeper into the oceanâs depths.
How did I get here? When my name was called, two members of the elite guard marched forward, grabbed my arms, and tossed me overboard. As I whirled through the air, my thoughts blurred. Will these be my final moments?
As I fought the waterâs tug, two sets of arms reached down, pulling me up as I gasped for air. My classmates and I treaded water until granted permission to board.
My husband and I served in L. Ron Hubbardâs Scientology Church organization for ten years. Trained by LRH himself, we became two of the highest trained Class VIII auditors in the world.
Born into the Jewish faith, my life has been a series of âoverboardsâ and struggle for survival. I endured a childhood of threats and intimidation, parents who fought constantly and ignored me during all stages of my growing up years.
I guess it was from a very young age when I made an unconscious decision to survive adversity. Although my neglect wasnât often physical, it was intellectually, emotionally and mentally destabilizing. I had no resources other than myself. I had no help from an older sister as we fought constantly. I was the âmotherâ for my younger sister, whom I cared for during most of her growing up years.
Emotionally strong, but with no book smarts, I was truly ignorant of any intellectual reality. I hadnât read books, newspapers, or magazines.
I survived an emotionally devastating first marriage and divorce, an illegal abortion, being a Change Girl and Shill at a Las Vegas Casino, ten years as a Scientologist, founding a childrenâs theater and statewide playwriting competition, ten years as a bookstore owner, running for political office as a Libertarian, a divorce after twenty-four years of marriage, a few illicit affairs and other romantic interludes, being a kidney donor, and my life-altering three-month solo backpacking trip through England, Europe, Scandinavia, and Ireland.
In the following pages, Iâve been completely forthcoming and havenât held anything back including my sexual escapades, scary experiences, and sometimes funny and embarrassing stories. By sharing them, I hope I can help someone else overcome their lifeâs âoverboards.â
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 One of my most embarrassing is featured in the âMy Tea Was Really Peaâ story while working as a Las Vegas Shill.
One of my most earth-shattering revelations was when I changed my perspective about a hurtful experience that battered my psyche, to total freedom from the continuous hurt and anger I had been feeling. I had this revelation after seeing a psychologist for the first time, and on my fifth and last visit, he said a simple sentence that changed my life  â âWhy are you letting him affect you like that?â
I stopped, stunned. What was he saying? Have I been letting my husband control me? This was a reality that had been far out of my capacity to realize ⌠until now! My mind raced as new images and realizations flooded into my consciousness, as if I was awake for the first time since I met Allan. No, I didnât have to be a victim and feel sorry for myself; I could sail over this ship and not drown in self-pity. I stood up with a ridiculously large grin on my face, thanked the doctor, and left his office. I didnât need him anymore. I felt so free!
In spite of being thrown overboard so many times in my life, I managed to take all that life threw at me with an indomitable spirit and a strong will to survive despite severe emotional neglect and the many stupid things Iâve done. Somehow, Iâve managed to grow and mature into a healthy eighty-three-year-old with a great positive attitude and looking forward to the next eighty!
Hopefully, those of you who read my stories will discover their inner strength and spirit to secure a better future for themselves.
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Debbie Norwitz
Debbie Norwitz's memoir is a tribute to her life which has been, by all accounts, varied and full of challenges. The idea that she has gathered together all of her memories with a view to empowering others is one of the strengths of this book.
Norwitz has an engaging writing style which invites you into her confidence - she shares the most intimate details of her life here, including embarrassing incidences, sexual encounters and the deterioration of her relationships whether with partners or family members. There is humour throughout as well as self-reflection and a self-deprecating view of herself combined with how far she has come from the timid girl of her young years.
The first part of the book is highly enjoyable where she describes her life as a young girl and her coming-of-age. I found the sections devoted to her time in Scientology most interesting, in what she explained about the religion as well as her experiences within it and I learned a lot that I did not know before about its beliefs and practices. This represented the most interesting part of the book for me, which was well-paced and informative.
I was looking forward to the latter sections of the book where Norwitz describes her solo trip around Europe, backpacking as a lady in her 50s but for me, the memoir drifted a bit here and formatting errors in the manuscript made some parts less easy to read. I loved the inclusion of her original photos from the trip but felt like it read more as an itinerary rather than anecdotal retellings. There were some experiences where she met people and had conversation but they are discussed generally and apart from the odd incident of danger or upset, I think that the recount became loose and fragmentary. It could be that the detail was difficult to recover sufficiently in the passage of years between the experiences and the writing about them but it meant that, for me, my attention drifted somewhat.
That being said, there is much that is interesting here and it is worth picking up as it is quite entertaining for the most part.