ello, my name is Tony Lonstien, and here is a little bit about myself:

     I am originally from South Africa and for those familiar with this country, I was born in Johannesburg of immigrant parents from Lithuania. My first language was Yiddish, followed by English and Afrikaans in school as well as Sesotu, one of the native languages taught to me by my maid, who in fact brought me up.

     I married, then my wife and I went to live in England (London) and, after travelling Europe, settled in Israel. In fact, we were both volunteers for the six-day war in 1967. I opened the first muli-level marketing program in that country and became a millionaire in Israeli terms.

     My wife, Joan, and I returned to South Africa in 1971 as I felt an obligation to my mother -- "a Yiddish mother."

     Despite my accomplishments, my life was full of surprises and they were not always pleasant surprises but rather unexpected highs and lows. My marriage was under a lot of strain and, in fact, I was searching for solutions to handle the rocky road that I was travelling.

     In December 1971, I attended a lecture and found what I had been looking for all my life. The lecture addressed man, the spirit, and I learned that I was a Thetan (spirit) and I had a mind and I had a body.

     Suddenly, life took on a new meaning; true, I had material success but my life was going nowhere. Upon finding out more about this new subject -- Scientology -- and the wonderful discoveries of L. Ron Hubbard, I became more causative about the direction I was taking and the bumpy road started smoothing out.

     I immigrated to the United States in 1984 together with my wife and three sons. Settled in Los Angeles and started a long-distance telephone company when the market opened up after the breakup of AT&T’s monopoly.