This seems a very appropriate post to reprint in light of the recent article Scientology Shriveling. Media Take Note: They Lie To You.
This was originally published on 27 March 2013.
I would assume that if anyone wants to take the time, they will find that some of the missions the church is given credit for in this article from 2013 no longer exist today (though I suspect the scientology.org website is about as fast to remove closed missions from their list as they are to remove declared OT VII’s from the list of “10,000 on Solo Nots Sometime Never.”
Again, it is unfortunate for David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology that they now have a listing of all Missions on their website.
Another Scientology Mission closes…
The 1993 edition of “What Is Scientology?” gives a perfect 20 year comparison of the period that Miscavige routinely calls our “greatest expansion in history”. And that comparison is not pretty — and certainly doesnt fall into the category of “greatest periods of expansion.”
What do Ideal Orgs Have To Do With It?
As you may be aware, David Miscavige himself announced that every “Ideal Org” would be the central point for expansion in its zone – putting missions and groups in its field, and as they expanded they would create a huge new field and the original Ideal Org would become an AO and each of the Missions would become orgs and that the groups would become missions. There was a CGI graphic of this scheme that was shown at many events when he was originally trying to sell the public on this idea and convince them this was not just a scheme to make money, but truly a plan to Clear the Planet (just like the Super Power Building). Miscavige himself spent many many hours rejecting and having the video redone to his exact specifications.
Part of the plan is that every Org is supposed to have 20 flourishing and prospering missions around it that are a direct result of the Org’s Div 6 reaching out and creating new Missions and working to expand the ones they already have. It is the entire theory of Miscavige’s Ideal Org “strategy” though not much is said about it these days.
There will be more to come analyzing the state of the Ideal Orgs in detail, this post addresses the state of the Scientology Mission Network in broad terms and the success of some of these “Ideal Orgs” in “building their field” and opening or running Missions around them as feeders onto the Bridge.
It’s not a pretty picture.
The Facts as Presented by the Church of Scientology
First, the raw figures.
In 1993 there were a total of 236 Missions internationally.
Today, the total is 325.
This is a 37% increase over 20 years – less than 2% a year. Hardly spectacular, and certainly not going to “Clear The Planet.” But it IS better than the increase in number of orgs…
BUT – and this is a big but given the “strategy” mentioned above.
The increase is composed of 44 new Missions in Russia, 22 in Ukraine, 17 in Hungary, 16 in other Eastern Bloc countries and 17 in Taiwan. Between them that is 116. Meaning a net loss of 27 missions in other countries around the world.
There are two orgs in Russia, one is “ideal” and the other is not so they are on the Miscavige quota (though it must be said that the VAST majority of these missions were opened in the 90’s — NOT in the last decade — the years of greatest expansion according to Miscavige (the last 5 years) have seen virtually no growth in missions in Russia.
There is an org in Hungary – Budapest — though NOT an Ideal Org…. (hmmm, guess you don’t HAVE to be an ideal org…)
There is NO ORG in Ukraine or any other Eastern bloc country or Taiwan. (of course there is now an org in Taiwan, one of three buildings opened in the last year)
But in this time of massive international expansion the listing also shows there is no longer ANY SCIENTOLOGY MISSION (and no orgs of course) in the following countries that DID have Missions in 1993 – Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Zaire, Malaysia, Cuba and Honduras.
Now, let’s analyze the first Ideal Orgs as they have had the longest to achieve the desired objective of 20 missions in their zone:
Buffalo – Today it counts Albany, Middletown and Rochester. An increase of 1 (Middletown) since 1993.
Tampa – Belleaire, Clearwater, Ocala (really Orlando Org is closest but give them the benefit of the doubt as all of these are actually missions owned and operated by Flag public). Increase of 2 since 1993.
San Francisco – There are 6 class V orgs in Northern California and who knows who claims which missions. There are 22 missions in the region today. There were 14 in 1993. An increase of ONE mission per org in 20 years.
Madrid – 2 in 1993, 5 today. 3 is the BIGGEST expansion around any of the original “Ideal Orgs”
Joburg – 4 in 1993, 4 today. No increase.
New York – 3 in 1993, 1 today. No comment.
I would hazard a guess that many of those Missions in Russia and Ukraine are VERY difficult to find, if they even exist today.
Do Everything Possible to Avoid Closing a Mission
I received word recently that the Beverly Hills Mission (once one of the most financially successful Missions in the SMI Network) had “combined” with the Sherman Oaks mission in order to survive. SMI insisted that they keep AN auditing room in Beverly Hills, so there would be “no mission closure”! So in those more remote areas, you can imagine what qualifies as a mission so SMI doesn’t have to report another “closure.”
It’s really embarrassing when it happens in Los Angeles or Tampa, like the Mission of Old Tampa Bay that “sprang up” and disappeared again or the much publicized “celebrity mission” of Santa Monica pictured above – or this one in Redlands which was covered in an earlier post here.
No Evidence of Expansion
Of course, Orgs and Missions are the best indicator of “expansion.” In spite of the Shermanspeak and endless hype, there just is NO evidence of the monumental expansion — or any expansion at all! Even according to the church’s OWN website…
And I haven’t even touched on where are the 11,ooo Scientology Orgs, Missions and related groups as so far we have only accounted for 150 orgs and 325 missions. Wonder where the other 10,525+ are?
We will examine the REAL state of one of these orgs, straight from the horses’ mouth…. What is happening INSIDE one of the original “Ideal Orgs” today. It is a heartbreaking story that is difficult to read, but lays bare the lies. Maybe Miscavige should visit an ACTUAL org every now and then instead of just showing up for Grand Opening hype fests….
More and more people are sending information to me about their stories and the current scene in their area, copies of emails and promotional pieces. It is greatly appreciated. I am working to put it together into cohesive posts. Keep the information flowing.
in france toulouse ,vannes and brunnoy missions just vanished
lyon is not doing well saint etienne is mute
marseilles wake up somedays
voila
Cece, the Sunland Mission in CA has been paid for and subsidized for years by donations from some of the OT’s. It never actually supported itself enough to even pay its light bill. It was no surprise to me when they closed their doors as I had seen the writing on the wall for years. Sad how things have changed from the earlier days.
I’m not sure if the Sunland Mission is on the list or not but when I stopped by for a few photos last winter late afternoon on a Saturday I believe, The neatly typed sign on the door explained the hours and it was only a few 2 days a week and some on a few hours of Sunday. Before I knew it there was news it was closed.
Late 2008 I took my new boyfriend never in to visit the Santa Clarita Mission one late afternoon. The door was open and we went in. There was 2 gals at their computers on the opposite wall with their backs to the door! As we briefly looked at a few book covers which were by the door on a table, I and Terry noticed the hundreds of leaves piled up behind the door on the inside and under the table on the other side. We gently left hoping no one would suddenly notice us. I phoned the Mission holder and gave her a piece of my mind. 2013 it was closed. I didn’t get up close to see if there was a ‘moved to’ sign. Oh well.
Same as happened with the missions has happened with groups as in the tragic story Ginger tells of her mothers CBAA which WAS doing something for humanity. I was assisting her with the CBAA finances and late 2006 she complained that the one really yearly big Donor (a husband and wife team) were now giving all their money to the IAS. Barbara was in tears about it. I immediately took a rush dispatch to I-Help requesting Help. Do you think I-Help did anything at all? Of course not! Cut across an IAS source stolen from CBAA certainly not! That business was being run very lovingly and professionally by Barb and her husband. Every year it touched 100s of children and sent winners and their parents to Disneyland. Per Ginger they were the biggest outlet of TWTH. Barbara was forced into spending 100s of hours on auditing the TWTH booklet stock per order from above and under a lot of pressure but she held up until she no longer could deliver her product – the love of her life. Sorry this got so long.
And with Orlando being not far from the “The mecca of technical perfection” I think adds a little to the embarrassment.
It’s about a 45 minute drive to Clearwater from there. Despite that, Scientology never caught on to any large degree in Orlando. That never really bothered me when I was in until I started getting bombarded by staff from all sides for donations to expand. It did nothing but cultivate question marks inside my head and if you have ever been involved with the Co$, you know you are forbidden to question anything about the actions of the “Church”. The only real “Command Intention” of the COB is to cover up and conceal the fact that the Co$ is deflating at a catastrophic level. The only thing DM has going for him are his remaining minions of staff and public who regard such truths to be entheta.
I walked out of the Orlando Org never to return in 2011. It was virtually unchanged since when I first set foot in there in 1989. Same storefront with hardly anyone on course or in session. All they would ever talk about was expansion as if it actually was occurring in there. The Chicago Org was like that as well, except they managed to raise enough cash for an Ideal Org. Look how well that went. Talk about pseudo-expansion.
Would it be fair to say that the preponderance of all US sheeple are in California and Florida? The difference between those two places is that California is actually home to most of these schmucks, whereas Clearwater was and is an alien invasion. Sure, some die hards relocated to Florida, but Florida has never been a fertile ground for new blood. The other 48 states in total probably can’t match the California numbers.
Once again, California demonstrates that you should never underestimate the power of collective stupidity.
That, and it pretty much started in California and then there are 40 million people in California, over 10% of the US population. I don’t think Scientology ever did catch on very strongly in the Midwest, even in the so-called boom years.
Didn’t it start in New Jersey? No, Pheonix? No, Washington? Somewhere in the midwest?
Nope, I’m thinking it just took root in California where hubbard found a combination of gullibility and cash.
Several years ago Winston Kao of Natural Pluss Plus, in Clearwater promoted the ‘Secret’ to many of his Scientology friends and associates and got put in lower conditions for promoting something other than Scientology. He had to pay LARGE for more intensives of sec checking because he ‘liked’ another viewpoint that may have been similar to LRH. The MAA who pushed this was another one of those young boiler plate MAAs who had their own agenda.
In the meantime, unfortunately, Winston is fully toeing the line…..
Greta
Interesting that kool aide drinkers consider that “They are the IAS” and yet donations to the IAS do nothing more than provide a “slush fund” for wee Davey. When Co$ public get reged for the IAS it seems they see “EXPANSION” and can’t see the real use at all. It seems they are used to the arm twisting and appear to love it. Better than being sent to the MAA for being uncooperative and having to pay for more sec checking. What a world they live in!!
“We are the IAS” makes me groan out of compassion for the already softened up robots (good Scientologists) who are already so intellectually compromised that these kind of slogans probably sink in below the level of critical inspection and evaluation. Especially considering the condition a lot of these people are in spiritually. Yikes.
The truth is that the financial quotas (IAS, Ideal Orgs, Planetary Dissem, etc) that come down from DM, through the SO and into the Central Orgs are so steep, constant and unrelenting that the pressure for compliance (and fear of penalty if one fails to do so) is greater than the once held reasonable view not to fleece new people because they will leave and criticize the organization to others.
On a Friday afternoon, traveling to a mission to disrupt a brand new public (who has never been in an org), to ask for a lifetime IAS membership or a donation to the Ideal Org seems like a BAD idea and destructive. On Wednesday night, it all of a sudden seems like a bright idea and an only hope to meet one’s target because this individual isn’t already jaded by prior reg cycles — better to blow this person out of Scientology than not to meet the immediate target.
That’s the treatment of the public. The mission staff are also subject to the pressures of the Central Orgs staff recruitment quotas. These staff get harassed until they finally acquiesce and join staff at the org — given full immunity from any repercussions due to leaving the mission in shambles.
The missions are not just closing due to lack of public. They are actively being destroyed by the very organizations that are supposed to be helping them build.
Matt, so frickin true! When the CW mission was established in 1983, Ann & Carter had to get permission for Carter to be on staff from Ron Norton, CO FSO, because Carter was ex-S.O.
Mike, I think the amount of Missions reported for JBG is incorrect, but I will do some digging – as far as I am aware, there are only 2 Missions left – and one of them is barely producing anything. The other is the oldest Mission in Joburg – originally started by Neville & Bronwen Jory (ex SO staff & both highly trained – Neville was a CLVIII Auditor – interned under LRH). They ran a very successful Mission but “lost” it in the 80’s massacre and “gave” the mission to the Church – this was the birth of the Joburg North Org.
They started again from ground level up from their own home in Norwood (a suburb in Joburg) in the late 80’s. Both of them have since died, and their daughters Louveigne Jory-Muller (on OTVII) and her sister, Dione Knodl now run the mission.
Thanks for keeping this information current Mike. This lack of expansion was a major factor in my doubt formula and the fact that the church didnt address this issue but attacked you on a personal level spoke volumes. Now with the “special correspondents” networking in the different parts of the world we can finally find out the truth!
Mike
A bit off the subject but while LRH was at the helm, was there ever a basic program on how to clear the planet other than one of getting all orgs to St. Hill size?
Greta
Not that I am aware of, though “thinking” in the church is that this is what all policy is for.
>Berkley Mission
The mission in Berkeley appears to be dead/inactive. It is a single door off the street, no real storefront. They used to setup a table in the subway (Bart) station but have not do so for a very long time. They had a table at a recent street fair, hyping personality tests. No takers and as I bicycled by, I shouted that $cientology is an evil criminal cult.
I think the numbers probably might tell only a very small portion of the story. For example the Bremen Mission in Germany had 1993 a whole floor in a building located in the main shopping area of the Bremen City. There was tons of foot traffic and large displays facing pedestrians. Later they moved into an old mansion sponsored by a local wealthy Scientologist. Now they are in a worn out old run down industrial area in the suburbs. In these years they went from a well-positioned Mission with some actual visibility and activity to a low level place in an industrial area, where they are tucked away into oblivion. Still they count as one mission, but there are worlds between what it was 1993 and what it is now.
All that despite Hamburg Org is “Idle” for quite some time showing how well the idle org program works.
The other mission I have firsthand information about is the Sunland Mission in Southern California. A year ago they installed a large Scientology display. That move proved to be a fatal one in the area of the largest concentration of Scientologists on the planet, because just a few months ago the mission closed for good. The brand name apparently was just too stinky even here in Sunland. And the idle org of Pasadena is right around the corner.
It would be interesting to see the actual quality of those missions. I would not be surprised to see that most places have probably decayed from somewhat working installations to garages or fake mailbox addresses.
I watched the “Mission Scam” for years at Flag. A person with time and no money is made to agree to run a mission. A person with money but no time is made to pay the $50,000 for the Mission Starter Package.
The Mission Starter Package is a huge pile of books and e-meters that cost the “church” about $500.
The materials wind up in a garage or garden shed over in Russia, Hungary, etc. Maybe the person starting the mission pays for himself or some others to get trained at the local org. Oppps – the next Golden Age of Bullshit gets released and the certs are no good. Opppps – the books are re-released along with the latest e-meter and the $50,000 starter package needs to go to the dump. Miscavige ensures the mission network is cut off at the knees. Of course the dead missions are still counted for PR reasons. Hip, hip, herrayyyyy!!!!!!!!
Always enoy reading your perspective Matt. I mean really, what does this religion believe in, again? I forgot.
They’re not allowed to simply explain that they are a past lives trauma pseudo-therapy and crank exorcism practice.
They train crank past life therapists and crank exorcists. Their crank therapy and exorcism is supposed to result in super pure souls who can fly out of their skulls at will and engage and operate as pure souls.
But no one ever gets to the end of this fantasy, since it is fantasy and only is as good as you can “mock it up” in your own noggin!
Group hallucination and it’s like herding cats, trying to get this hallucination to be really real for everyone in the world to play along.
Only layers of dribbling this fantasy out in tiny snippets with lots of requirements and security clearances and authorizations do you get your chance to become a co-fantacist of this Hubbard fantasy.
Crank past lives trauma pseudo-therapy and crank high volume dead space alien soul exorcism, and the Xenu engram is the big daddy engram for which Scientologists today have to do their OT levels 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, a whole bunch of exorcism of ‘body thetans” and “body thetan clusters”.
Wikipedia now has a good definition of body thetans, thankyou everyone who helped get “body thetans” defined on Wikipedia!
Money and slaves. Oh yea, did I say money?
You’re funny Mat.
Yep, that pretty well sums it up Mat.
One may speculate what would have happened if miscavige et al left the missions alone in the first place. I saw some damn busy and dare I say uptone missions back in the day.
One horrible point in all this is that miscavige is as happy as a clam that no-one but no-one will receive genuine servicing on his watch, he’s gone out of his way to make it so. Let alone just understanding that he and he alone fully capitalised on the power of and enjoys the commissioning of disconnection, forced abortions and suppressive declares. He uses them as personal weapons on his countless enemies – his robot followers are incapable of comprehending the overt they are involved with and are committing on a daily basis, if they ever do – God help them.
Miscavige enjoys what he does – think about that.
Missions are throw away sub unit organizations to weed out the more affluent wannabes who look profitable to buy their whole Bridge to Total Freedom.
The Missions funnel people “up the Bridge” to higher Class 5 and then Sea Org orgs and to Flag and to the Freewinds.
Nets to widden the search for newbies is what Missions are.
It’s part of the whole funnel the clients into the Hubbard lineup of services leading them to their past lives crank pseudo therapy and “Clear” (free of their engram bank’s ill effects), and thence to their Xenu engram briefing and then to their exorcism of their loads of body thetans and body thetan clusters, and then to OT 8 on the Freedwinds.
No soul astronauts at the end of this fantasy!
Missions may have had their high times when they did more funneling of interested newbies, but a whole bunch of cultural factors also existed back when Missions were more fruitful as new sources of interested newbies.
Scientology does still have to stand on their beliefs and on what Scientology auditing and their OT levels 3, 4, 5k, 6 and 7 exorcism supposedly does.
Do they make “OT” super souls, I don’t think they do. The world would be transformed by now by at least a few of the super being pure soul OT superpeople had Scientology ever been able to make their soul astronauts!
The Mission that was in Chula Vista, just south of San Diego was put into existence just as you have described Matt. It was open literally a few hours a week to process incoming faxes etc. SMI only got interested when the mission holder started making arrangement to close it. Otherwise, it’s lack of production and zero activity (for years) did not even come up on SMI’s radar screen, nor did the local morgue in San Diego ever get involved with it. It was simply an address that was being propped up by someone of good intentions who had been duped like so many others.
For your info, tomorrow we are going to explore the real state of the Mission network a little further….
Clearwater Mission is barely a mission at all. 4 staff with the ED and Msn Holder holding the execs in all divisions HFA. Truth si, she doesn’t trust any one else to hold responsibilities. Sound familiar? Probably why she admires DM so much….she, Ann Manierre, follows his SOP to the hilt! Soooo sad.
Well you can say goodbye to Bay Cities Mission which was in Concord,CA. It then moved to Benicia, stayed a little while and then “merged with Berkley Mission”. I will have to check on Sonoma Mission and Santa Rosa Mission next time I’m in the area. Last time I looked they looked pretty sad and that was about 5 years or so ago.
I checked the Santa Rosa mission’s site and they now have this listed:
Please visit our temporary location or call us for an appointment.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
(707) 939-6774
1055 Broadway, Ste F1
Sonoma, CA 95476
Apparently their former location in Santa Rosa is no longer in existance. I will drive by in the next couple of days and take a look as I live here in Santa Rosa, CA.
Penny,
The mission of Sonoma is/was being run by Donna Barton. The Santa Rosa Mission moved from E street to a new building and finally to their new real estate office/mission on Mendocino (again). I did see a sign out, but its been awhile since I drove by there. SR has always had a muddy field with questionable tech, despite the small dedicated group (which is now gone). When I was at the Org, the mission/ city office etc of SR was a pain. There has never been much product out it no matter who was running it.
There’s one mission listed for the state of Maine — in Bangor, an old lumber town that is now a small, mostly working-class city. The address is a 3rd-floor “suite” in what looks (on Google street view) to be a somewhat dilapidated mixed-use building with no sign visible from outside. Doesn’t seem like fertile Scientology territory, somehow. It’s a bit more than an hour’s drive from my place, but someday I’ll head up there and see if it’s real.
On an O/T note … Bangor is notable for being the home town of Stephen King, highly regarded in these parts as a regular Maine guy who made it big but hung around town. King also started his own radio station out of frustration that nobody plays the music he likes anymore — WKIT, one of the last great independent rock-and-roll venues in America. That one small station has probably got more listeners on a bad day than Dave Miscavige on his best one. Just to keep things in perspective.
I’ve mentioned here before- I live near Bangor and I’ve gone by this “mission”. The sign that was once on the side of the building is now gone. The building is filled with doctor’s offices and the like, and the “church” is now gone. The website still lists this address as being open though.
You make a great point about it being weird to place an mission in Bangor, when there are larger and more diverse cities in Maine besides Bangor.
Richard, you didn’t say at which point on the compass you are from Bangor but I noticed there’s a Mission of Brunswick listed on the Chult’s website. If you are South of Bangor, Brunswick would be a little more than an hours drive away from you as well, IIRC. So if you’re driving that way some day, perhaps you’d like to do a “driveby shooting” of that mission and report back to us. If photographs are not possible, a description of the mission’s location, number of cars in the parking lot, signs of life in the building, hours of operation, or anything thing else you can tell us about the place would be interesting and helpful.
The address is: 2 Lincoln Street, Brunswick, ME, 04011, Phone: (207) 725-1066.
I’ve been meaning to investigate and report on my city’s/country’s Org (actually looks more like a rundown Mission) for the past year. Your comment (and Snowflake’s) has inspired me to do it sooner rather than later. Thanks.
When I was still in, Seattle Org had three missions. One was in Bellvue and was probably the best with about 5-7 staff I think. Then there was the Seattle Mission with about 6 people or so and then there was the university mission which was on thin ice. The university mission ended up closing and so did the Seattle mission I believe. The Seattle Org is an Idle Org now but hasn’t opened any new missions and seems to be struggling itself. What a winning strategy David Miscaviage.
Bellingham is gone (thank goodness). Somebody needs to tell me how Seattle keeps the lights on.
Somewhere there was a phrase of “Look, don’t listen”. Wonder if it was deleted from the books that conform the Golden Era of Knowledge.
If for Scientologists ‘knowledge = blindness” they should be graduated with honors.
Yea, Silvia, so was “Seek To Live With The Truth.” I’m pretty sure this was taken out of all Scientology references as well. I haven’t seen evidence of it from those still in.
Maybe DIM misspoke when he said Scientology is expanding. Maybe he meant Scientologists are expanding. There is an obesity epidemic after all. 🙂
Their waistlines are expanding along with the hubris and lies in direct proportion to the shriveling up of bank accounts and general well being!
These missions are STRAW MISSIONS.
Example: I was reg’ed at Flag for $300,000.to give to three Flag ex SO
who had business cards and a PO Box for a ghost mission.
It was total bullshit, I did not give them any money because it was plain that they would use the money to go .up the Bridge, they delivered no product. It was a scam
Very popular with upper management to make it look like Scientology expansion.