Well, this “Grand Slam Event” was just too good to be true. Literally.
I happened to be in Austin this evening, and dropped by the Grand Slam Event. These photos were taken right as the big event was getting underway.
Nobody in sight except a woman standing near the table set up in the entrance that had a few lonely Dianetics fliers on it. She was hiding behind the column smoking a cigarette until she saw me taking photos and then scurried inside, leaving the card table abandoned.
This org is literally across the street from the University of Texas. Perhaps on NY Org and the original London Org in Tottenham Court Rd have better locations.
And it is absolutely DEAD. Of course, they KNOW they cannot actually do anything until they are an “ideal org” — but they are NOT moving to a new location. Why things are going to change then is a complete mystery.
Until then, if you want to participate in a Grand Slam Event, go to Denny’s. They would seem to be the Winning Team as they are likely making more money selling bacon, eggs and pancakes than the Church of Scientology is selling the only route to spiritual freedom.
Absolutely hilarious Mike, Is this an open event where all are invited but no one goes LOL.
I cannot believe they have the cheek to ask an admission fee for an event that is all about getting money out of the field with no services delivered!
Is there end to the greed and shame of these people?
How dare they call themselves Scientologists. Does this nonsense ever get reported in the main stream media?
If the general public could be informed as to how the system works in the world of Scientology would this not save a few people from bankruptcy?
Hello, I’m Chad. I write a religion blog where I go to a different church each week and write about them. I went to the Scientology church twice, once to check out their beliefs, once to an actual service. It was quite an interesting experience and also a bit bizarre. I went home and researched them, finding a lot of things that upset me. I love this blog, and would like to talk to former Scientologists about your experiences and how they compare to my experience as an ex-Mormon. If you wouldn’t mind talking, Mike Rinder has my contact information, contact him to get a hold of me.
Memo to Dave – better issue a new mandate for how your “Shatter and Confront Tech”-trained Org staff are instructed handle observers with cameras.
Scurrying away and hiding does not exactly give the impression that you seem to be shooting for of that “Mighty Scientology Empire.” On the contrary, it gives the impression of twelve year old boys caught with their Daddy’s Playboys.
How absolutely pathetic and embarrassing. But I guess ‘management’ has no shame left – charging an admission fee to a fundraiser? Bizarro World.
I misread the headline as “Austin Realty” and thought “Yep, he’ll pocket a bundle when he folds up that one.” 2 million in 1980? It’s gonna be a REALLY big bundle.
And yeah, Kevin has it right: the Internet has ended the con. No amount of PR (or money, or anything else) can put the cult’s dirty laundry back in the bag, especially among the highly wired younger generations. The truth is out there, and it ain’t going away.
Mike –
With the recent posts showing almost zero activity in the various orgs, I wonder if it is time to revisit the question: how many *active* scientologists are there, in the world?
My guesses, from recent posts: Western US: 2K sea org, 1K staff, 1K active members; Eastern US: about the same, for a max. total of 10K. Foreign countries are hard to assess, but probably less than the Western US so let’s guess 2.5K.
So my guess is 12.5 K max, active scientologists in the world, and many of those are “on the fence”. That’s “straight down and vertical” movement, thanks to the great leadership of DM.
Your thoughts?
Visitor, if you mean by “active”; “in session or on course”, then the WUS can’t have 1k active scn’ers. I seriously doubt that in any given week there are 1,000 unique individuals on course or in session in the entire WUS mission/org network. AOLA & ASHO maybe have only a couple score.
Well HOW ABOUT THEM COWBOYS !!! YEEHAA!! LOOKS LIKE THE ALAMO AFTER
THE MEXICANS LEFT. BADGES ? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING BADGES.
I know we are speaking of the Austin Org but I wanted to let you know what the Ideal Morgue of New York City is doing in pt, too. Sorry if I confused you.
I came into the City for business about two weeks ago and since I was in the area, decided to walk to the New York Org. I have pictures of the New York Ideal Morgue on a Saturday afternoon at 3:30-4Pm. This Org is located a half block from the busiest intersection in Times Square. The day was beautiful with THOUSANDS of people walking by the Org and down the Street. I saw lots of People handing out leaflets to broadway shows, tours of the city, etc. But here sits the Ideal Morgue with all it’s doors closed and the ad from the Super Bowl playing on a tv screen behind the front windows. There was a speaker attached outside for the sound and not ONE PERSON STOPPED. As I peered in the window I saw a staff member at reception and no one around. At 3:30 a lone Staff member came outside to smoke and at a few minutes , they walked back in. No one came in or out at breaktime. I was a body reg at one time and would never have allowed all of these potential pc’s and students slip by me. What is wrong here?
This is really sad. That’s all I got to say. Pathetic. If anyone actually showed up to go in there I wonder if the staff would even know what to do anymore.
Thanks for the pics. This blog is the best for telling and showing ‘it’ like it truly is!
Does Tommy Davis ever visit this place? He now lives in Austin, and says that Scientology’s membership is “definitely in the millions”.
I’d wish all the Sea Org members a happy Mothers day visiting with your moms, but I’m sure most of your CSW’s will be disapproved. But have a nice Sunday anyway.
Perhaps Mike should have saved the day by inviting the staff to a card table briefing.
Right next to a college? Back in the day, the button that worked on Students was the idea of learning “Study Tech.” For those that were able to hack doing an intro course, Student Hat and some TR’s often had great wins that would help them be a better student. Too bad it’s always been a push to suck as much money as possible out of everyone which often leads to people unmocking things like college or giving up college to join staff. I always felt that if you just focused on giving people wins in life and let them continue on their life path Scientology would have grown without constantly operating in the effort band. You give people great wins and they tell their friends and soon you have people coming to you. I’m sure I’m being too simplistic and heavy regging seems to have always been part of the DNA going back to Hubbard. It just would have been nice to see if sustained growth could have been achieved without it. I guess this boils down to the question could Scientology and Dianetics have been successful if it wasn’t a cult?
Actually if you want a grand slam, come to Mike’s blog. There is a new one every day.
So sad but so predictable. Yet more proof that Dave is not intelligent.
Aaahhh … the drag! That’s what Austinites call Guadalupe Street, which runs along the west side of the UT campus.
You are not kidding that CoS’s Austin location must be one of the most “ideal” in the world. It’s in the same block as the University Coop where students buy their books and school supplies and right next door to the Texas CVS drug store. But the 50,000 students at The University of Texas at Austin ignore the Church of Scientology like it’s peddling herpes.
If they gave away Grand Slam breakfasts the place would be packed !
Mike wrote:
Until then, if you want to participate in a Grand Slam Event, go to Denny’s. They would seem to be the Winning Team as they are likely making more money selling bacon, eggs and pancakes than the Church of Scientology is selling the only route to spiritual freedom.
LOL!
Actually, a good side study would be to map the growth of McDonald’s vs. the Growth of Dianetics and Scientology, since they both started about the same year and they both operate on 100% standard tech, and they both have a Bridge to Total Fatness.
Alanzo
Another typical busyness day at your local friendly cult hangout. It’s what those in the know refer to as a GOOD INDICATOR!!!!!
Yo Dave,
Better take another notch up on your golden thong …….. it’s what is called ‘belt tightening’ in todays world but it used to be referred to as ‘tightening the noose’.
Either way, if you can’t yet perceive it perhaps you had better dream up a new process for your SP building. It could be called the ‘I’m Fucked Rundown’. PC stands on a chair with arms bound behind and noose around his neck. Twin (or you) apply switch until the perp (I mean PC) cognites on just how fucked he/she is and that the dwindling spiral of obsessive cult think is the why.
On second thought, forget it. I’m sure you are aware of the collapse in the Ideal Morgues since you have been running that process in Hemet for years. Have a nice visit with your Mom on this fine Mothers Day.
I’m sure you are thinking of her today since she has the honor of giving birth to the Ideal Son………
Mike, please publish the link to the Claire Headley interviews — so far there have been two. They are riveting. I only saw them when a mutual friend pointed me to Tony Ortega’s web site and THEN I had to go hunt for it.
Perhaps a link so Mike doesn’t have to hunt for them as well?
You can find it on Karen De La Carriere’s site
https://www.youtube.com/user/SurvivingScientology/videos
Will you take a gander at that building !
All hat and no cattle
One lonely smoking sea hag? Oy vey. Guessing she had all that good food and wonderful news all to herself. At least they made $10.
While the rest of us were trying to get up the bridge, David started playing game of thrones. What a fucking infant!
“While the rest of us were trying to get up the bridge, David started playing game of thrones…”
+1
I was PES Austin Foundation in 1980 when this building was purchased by Flag for $2 million cash.
There was no fundraising to make the purchase possible. It was simply purchased by church management. And a program was written to get the move done without disruption of production. Moving the org without disrupting production was quite a challenge because it involved hundreds of people. I have heard that the location was personally chosen by LRH.
The only push was to sell lots of training and processing. Day and Foundation orgs each had about 5-6 staff in Div 6. I was a newly minted Flag trained OEC grad. I must say I really enjoyed my post of PES Foundation, which I held for 3 years before moving to Dissem Sec.
There was one body router who could get up to 100 people per night routed into the org. The street is really crowded when the Univ. of Texas is having classes. I remember telling this body router not to bring in so many people because it wasn’t possible to handle them. So she might get 30 people in and then go study or go in session. We easily sold 100 or more DMSMH to raw public per week.
Wow, this shows what a good location and standard dissem tech and good PR can produce and did produce back in the day. What a shame to see what it has degraded into today.
I disagree. IMHO it shows you what happens when Scientology’s secrets/dirty laundry are no longer secret. If back then the internet existed with the same info we now have available on OT III, Snow White, Paulette Cooper, etc, etc, etc. the Austin org would have been just as empty. More than likely there would never have even been an Austin Org as there wouldn’t been the money to buy the building to begin with. IMHO the “why” is not ideal orgs or DM – though DM has certainly accelerated the collapse with his dimwitted “strategy”. The “why ” for Scientology’s demise is that what Scientology really is about can now be discovered with a few strokes on your keyboard and a click or two on a mouse. I can only imagine that if the internet had been around when I got in (1977) I would have had at least a dozen close friends sending me one link after another to read. Maybe I’d have stayed in anyway. Who knows. But think of all those who would have walked or never gotten in to begin with. No, sorry to say, Scientology’s demise is due strictly and only to the curtain having been pulled back via the internet. DM is nothing more than the catalyst for the acceleration of the inevitable demise of Scientology. Perhaps we should thank him.
Denny’s?
They actually deliver a VFP and you can leave when you’ve finished without being made to pay for the next meal in advance.
Oh and the only Vulture you would see would be on the TV on the wall.
But, koolaid drinkers beware, they offer free internet access!
Thanks for being on the scene, Mike. This is like one of those classic “Perception:Reality” ads for Rolling Stone. And somehow the pathetic image of a lone staffer stealing time for a smoke — then scurrying away at the sight of a camera — seems like a perfect microcosm of Miscavige’s empire.
It’s advertised as a “briefing and fundraiser” with an admission price of $10. So they want to charge you to go into an event where they will solicit more money from you. No thanks!
Same scenario as the recent Detroit Org event.
Your reference to Dennys cracked me up.
btw, that building looks just fine as it is. apparently a great location. there is no reason why they shouldn’t be prospering.
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
Cassius, a nobleman, is speaking with his friend, Brutus, and trying to persuade him that, in the best interests of the public, Julius Caesar must be stopped from becoming monarch of Rome. Brutus is aware of Caesar’s intentions, and is torn between his love of his friend Caesar and his duty to the republic. Cassius continues by reminding Brutus that Caesar is just a man, not a god, and that they are equal men to Caesar. They were all born equally free, and so why would they suddenly have to bow to another man? On another level this phrase has been interpreted to mean that fate is not what drives men to their decisions and actions, but rather the human condition.
http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/fault-dear-brutus-our-stars
Unbelievable! Great report.
So not only is noone at the Austin Org when they’re heading to “VICTORY,” but you have to pay $10 in order to go and then PAY MORE MONEY.
The Church of Scientology, where the only thing worshipped is the almighty dollar. Specifically, YOUR dollar.
When will the IRS wake up to the massive scam that has been exercised on the American public over the last 40+ years? I know DM loved his “the war is over ” spiel, but I think the war hasn’t even begun yet. And when it does, the Church of Scientology will be destroyed.
Yeup – at Denny’s!!! Probably better auditing there too!! – lol! Ahhh – the good ol’ days 🙂
Denny’s — the best coffee shop auditing around!
Cindy would you like to hear a Denny’s fun fact? Of course you would!
In 1977 Denny’s introduced The Grand Slam Breakfast in Atlanta as a nod to Hank Aaron. It went on to become Denny’s most famous and still popular breakfast.
Hank Aaron hit 16 grand slams in his major league career…….just saying!
well at least they can sell the left over hot dogs to the staff, so it’s not a total loss.
how’d you like to be one of the few to show up and get all that lovely attention focused on you.
or be one of the speakers prattling on to an empty room about unprecedented expansion.
even self delusion has it’s limits. i imagine that with each one of these fails, one or two people say to themselves “but how can this be, why doesn’t anyone want to come here, why don’t they want to show up?” then they go look for and find out the real why.
that lonely, worn out, “throw a party and nobody comes” staff in Austin brings to mind one of my favorite comments.
“all scientologists are ex-scientologists, they just don’t know it yet”.
At least Denny’s delivers a product and exchanges something for your money.
The church does lack these simple ingredients and so, their recipe for expansion is producing only empty buildings.
If you expect and exchange in today’s church Silvia then you’re selfish and just out for yourself -That is what I came to learn.
According to Dave and the IAS you need to give generously and the good feeling you have in your heart at the end of the reg. session IS your exchange. Once your write the check, several IAS folks will gang hug you, smiling and clapping while telling you what a big being you are. At that point tears should well up in your eyes with appreciation of their love and your recognition that the exchange is complete!
Expecting auditing or training dollar for dollar is soooo 60’s thinking and old-school.
Yes, KFrancis: exchange is such 60’s old-school… and by next Thursday you are hounded for your next increase in status. What is that? Not next training or auditing level? How do the “ins” stay in? Hard to imagine except if your only child is drunk on Koolaid.
There are so many “under the radar fliers” today that they are regularly bumping into each other and are sharing their views with each other. I think 2014 is the tipping point for Miscavige’s Ponzi scheme.
Looking at the illustration on the flier, the church is supposed to have four floors. The building in your photos only has two, Mike. Are you sure you were at the right place?
Or are the two top floors a “spiritual place” that us WOG’s cannot see, a place where thetans come (without their meat bodies) to join in briefings and fundraisers..?
They are raising money to add the additional floors. So they can have four empty floors instead of two.
Roy, you are cracking me up! That’s hysterical!
The bottom is the same. Given the great location, I imagine they’re planning to expand (the building anyway). I doubt having an Ideal Addition will expand the org.
There is a floor below street level and two floors from the ground up. That makes three levels as it is now.
Whimper!… Sniff!…Sob!…. S – O – B!!!
10 bucks to get in so you can be regged for your kids’ college fund? Am I missing something here?
No Dan, you aren’t. You can’t miss a point, if there isn’t one to begin with. Austin Org is simply manifesting some immutable law, like ‘Only flies are attracted to Bullshit.” With 30,000+ bright and relatively shiny students mere feet from their doorway, this “well-established” Org is still unable to attract anything, but disdain.
Please allow me to be a little crass – just for emphasis. What’s happening with Austin Org at the moment is like walking into a high-end brothel with a suitcase filled with Benjamins, and a bottle of Viagra in your pocket and still not being able to get laid.
There’s just no hope for the wicked.
Odd
I dropped by the Austin Org about twenty years ago. Yeah, really superb location, and if the old Davis/Riverside “disseminator system” was in there at the university, this org had all the potential in the world. Nowadays? Get real. You’ve have to be offering unlimited free beer to get the students into a Scientology org. (and …… paying to get into a fundraiser? Say what?)
The beer idea might fly. Monasteries of old times had monk beer.
Xenu beer would be a no brainer.
“Come in for a free personality test or intro film, and get a coupon good for Xenu beer!”
Have a for profit subsidiary next door using LRH’s standard formula for Xenu beer!
Some photo shopping of these new Ideal Orgs, including funny additions of the new age Scientology businesses nearby would be funny to see.
Or better still, some ex members form a beer company, and put out “Xenu Beer! It’s Standard!”
The Austin Org is dead. It has been dead for a long time. I live in Austin and drive by the Austin Morgue pretty regularly. It is across the street from the University of Texas but the students all have internet access and have watched South Park so they aren’t about to get involved with Scientology. Texas doesn’t want or need Scientology. Hook em Horns!
Mike,
You should have dropped in and checked out the “good food”.
Probably Doritos and dip.
The Austin Org looks so….so…..post Apocalyptic.
Another lifeless edifice AKA an “Ideal Org”.
Probably “Ideal” to some I guess.
We won’t mention any names.
They are actually charging $10 to come to a fund raising event? The Co$ has financially ruined everyone for the Idle Morgue get rich buying real estate using opm and no money down scam and they have the balls to actually charge the members to come get some more fleecing???
Not quite-bright! But, by all means, continue doing the exact opposite of what may help you!!
At least at Denny’s you can get a Grand Slam with a side of real bacon and coffee including the tip for $10. No one will lie to you either about where the money goes – it is on your plate! LOL
Makes total sense, IM.
It’s a fundraising event, so the fundraising starts even before you walk in the door. They should be charging $25 to park in their parking lot. Oops, this would be in exchange for a service, so that would definitely be a no-no. Better to just close the parking lot and not have a free-service free-fall situation going on.
So true Morris! Today – you get absolutely nothing in exchange from Scientology and in reality – they have been selling flawed tek for 64 years!! Criminal Out-Exchange Organization!
It is fascinating. The abject fraud, the insane lies, who do these filthy criminals think they are lying to? Nobody believes their frauds, not even the few surviving customers David has left.
Yes it costs $10.to get in,but $5,000. to get out !!!!!
500 phone calls later and late night IAS reg visits
because of third party that you are a Whale.
The picture gets much clearer
From Been there Done that.