About Karen Pressley
CV
Media Interviews
Philosophy of education
Portfolio
Presentations
Publications
Karen Pressley is an educator, author, communication specialist and director of KAP Communications in Atlanta. She maintains an active speaking schedule and provides professional writing, editing, and desktop publishing services to contract clients. Passionate about freedom of expression, she finished her Bachelor of Science in Communications (Media and Public Relations concentration) in 2008 and her Master of Arts in Professional Writing in May 2011. She is teaching writing at college/university level while managing her communications firm and plans to start her PhD program in January 2012. Karen’s teaching interests include interdisciplinary studies in English and Communication such as composition, non-fiction writing, technical writing, multimodal composition, and document design.
Her scholarly interests include application of rhetorical theory to bring further insight into teaching digital literacies to non-traditional students in the workforce who lack 21st Century digital skills; and, how individual creative expression (writing and design) may be affected by oppressive rhetoric (such as authoritarian leaders of groups i.e. religion, education, politics, domestic settings), and how individuals can restore personal autonomy through creative expression (such as writing) after breaking free of unhealthy relationships. She's also interested in women's development in the context of coping with coercive control in unhealthy relationships that may oppress women's creativity.
Background
Prior to moving to Atlanta in 1998, a series of creative, entrepreneurial ventures accent Karen's professional background as a communication specialist. She has worked as a graphic designer, fashion designer, and music publisher, and public relations manager for her recording studio. In the early 1980s, Karen put aside her career as a fashion designer for celebrity clientele in Hollywood to work with her (then) husband, Peter Schless, musician and award-winning composer. She established their music publishing company and managed their recording studio, Schlessmusik, in Studio City, California. They published hit songs including “On the Wings of Love” co-written and recorded by Jeffrey Osborne, the theme song for the movie, “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” and more.
A cultic sojourn, 1982 - 1998
A sojourn with the Church of Scientology from 1982 - 1998 diverted Karen's creative entrepreneurship to a journey through a spiritual labyrinth. She recruited celebrities for Scientology's Celebrity Centre in Hollywood before she signed a symbolic eternal contract with the church's management group, the Sea Organization, in 1985. She served in executive positions at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre before she became the Commanding Office of the Celebrity Centre International network in 1988. She managed the international network of Celebrity Centres before she went on to work for the senior level of church management at Scientology’s desert headquarters near Los Angeles from 1989 - 1998.
During her nine-year tenure at the International Management base, and traveling to Scientology bases around the world on special projects, Karen's disillusionment with Scientology beliefs and practices escalated. At the Int base, Karen witnessed church leader David Miscavige and other leaders commit physical, verbal, and psychological abuse on staff. While caring for staff image and getting a first-hand look at staff living conditions on several continents, she observed human rights violations including coercion of abortions, substandard living and child care conditions, and violations of labor laws with slave-like working hours and compensation. Karen failed twice in attempts to get out of the Sea Org in 1990 and 1993, returning under coercion both times to maintain her marriage with Peter Schless. She finally escaped Scientology in 1998, without Peter. Miscavige urged Peter's disconnection from Karen and enforced their divorce. Award-winning composer Peter Schless remains to this day behind the barrier-guarded fences of the International Management desert base.
A time of personal renaissance
Karen reunited with her family in Atlanta in 1998 and began to build a new life. She returned to her Christian roots in 1999 and formed Wings of Love Ministries. Karen is frequently consulted by media, educators, families, and individuals about Scientology and cult-related issues, including recovery and doctrinal questions. Karen remarried, and lives with her husband Gregory in the Atlanta metro area.
Karen's college education unfolded not only new ways of thinking, but led her to develop invaluable relationships with faculty, two who have become mentors. Their scholarly support, encouragement, and direction have added to Karen's growing creativity and scholarship, and marks a significant period of empowerment in the ongoing process of personal expansion in the newest phase of her life.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King
Despite attempts by Scientology authorities to quiet Karen about her experiences in Scientology, and particularly not to appear in major media, Karen refuses to be silent about things that matter to her. She has actively exposed Scientology's human rights violations. She is a guest speaker for radio and television shows, conferences, seminars, and lectures in academic classes. She has appeared on Dateline NBC (about recruiting celebrities for Scientology), CBS Inside Edition (commented on the death of Jett Travolta), CNN (commented on Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ wedding in Italy), and many local and national television and radio shows. Her published interviews include the Los Angeles Times, Atlanta Sunday Paper, Andrew Morton’s book, An Unauthorized Biography of Tom Cruise (St. Martin’s Press, 2008) and Janet Reitman's book, Inside Scientology (Houghton & Mifflin Publishers) (forthcoming July 2011).
"A book should be a ball of light in one's hand." - Ezra Pound
Her first two books exposing her Scientology experiences, Chasing After the Wind (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001) and Escaping Scientology: An Insider’s True Story (New Hope Publishers, 2006) were suppressed from publication by Scientology officials, which Karen has exposed to media. She is presently preparing for the upcoming release of a revised version of a memoir, Escaping Scientology: An Insider's True Story.
Passionate about freedom of speech, Karen directs many writing projects toward communication and creativity topics related to cultic studies. She authored five entries for Baker Dictionary of Cults (forthcoming, 2011), and numerous articles on Scientology for websites and e-publications. She is preparing to teach writing at college/university level and is shaping a pedagogy for teaching composition that is based on liberation and developing creativity. She also writes about women's empowerment and leadership, and co-authored awomen’s inspirational book, Seven Secrets to Timeless Beauty with Norma Day (Harvest House Publishers, 2005).
Her newest work in progress, Experiencing Creativity: Breaking Free from Spiritual Abuse and the Emergence of the Creative Self, provides a theoretical framework for understanding how cult rhetoric can suppress creativity of individuals under coercive control. It illustrates the communication process through Karen's "Hegemonic Communication Mode"l within the hegemony of oppressive relationships, and addresses healing from spiritual abuse.This book references an upcoming article, "From the Fire to a Blessing Field: Transitioning from an Unhealthy Relationship to a Life of Creativity" (ICSA Today, forthcoming 2011) and her research article “Creativity and Cults from Sociological and Communication Perspectives: The Processes Involved in the Birth of a Secret Creative Self” (Dec. 2010), which includes a case study on Karen’s experiences in Scientology. She co-authored this article with sociologist Dr. Miriam Boeri, who also included a case study on her former membership in the Children of God (Family of Love) cult. Their article appears in the "The Last Draw - Creativity and Cults," the final issue of Cultic Studies Review, a journal published by the International Association of Cultic Studies (ICSA, Dec. 2010). Karen and Dr. Boeri co-presented their paper at ICSA’s international conference in New York in July 2010 with a discussion on “Creativity and Cults.”
Karen maintains an active speaking schedule. Her display of a strong creative self since departing Scientology debunks Hubbard's claim that people who leave Scientology will not be successful. Karen's personal, academic, and professional achievements confirm that once an individual breaks free from an oppressive, unhealthy relationship, and reclaims sovereignty over one's life, the individual can experience a personal renaissance. More about Karen's Cultic Studies interests
Karen invites you to read one of her recent articles, "From the fire to a blessing field: Transitioning from an unhealthy relationship to a life of creativity." She describes "coercive control" and the radical difference between a life subject to coercion versus a life free of it. After reading this article, you'll understand how Scientology's environment of coercive control reduces the ability to think autonomously or creatively and instills terror and powerlessness. Her article offers insight into the importance of creativity and maintaining self-autonomy, as well as options that individuals have when they are disempowered and coping with coercive control in any type of relationship. A condensed version of this story is forthcoming 2011 in ICSA Today. Meanwhile, READ THE UNCONDENSED ARTICLE.
