This personal story from another of the growing list of Special Correspondents is so applicable to so many that I though it important to post it. It aligns with the recent post I did entitled Divide and Rule. Mike Rinder
As an ex-Class V org staff member, here's something I've found interesting.
Throughout my staff tenure of 12 1/2 years, I never visited any other Class V org than my own. Who could afford it? I was on staff. And never had time off anyway.
The point is, the only idea I had of what it was like at other orgs is what I saw played at events. When you see videos of filled up Academies and people lined up for Stress Tests at multiple places around the country and world, it's easy to introvert on how much you and your org suck. It's easy to think that every other org is 'doing it right' but somehow your org is not cutting it.
General staff, at least in my org, had no access to actual OIC's of other orgs, only Bday game standings, which allegedly show only rate of growth.
I know that I chewed on this with many of my fellow staff at the time and we were constantly looking for the 'right why' that made our org so much more pathetic than all the ones featured in event videos.
We'd scour policies and bulletins and buckle down that much harder, but never saw any results to rival those flaunted before us.
After I finally left staff and went to a few Class V orgs in other locations (ones that had been showcased at events no less), I was shocked! Their courserooms were empty, the number of people on auditor training was pathetic, BIS and Div 6 starts were abysmal. Finally I could see that my org had been doing pretty well comparatively, and in some cases much better than the alleged "Ideal Orgs."
This led me to start looking online where I began to learn how DM and senior execs lie about all sorts of things, from how many Scn'ists there are, to LRH books being in every library, to how many orgs/missions/groups exist, etc, etc.
Is it any wonder then, that orgs like Hamburg decide to falsify that they are St Hill Size? (I've heard rumors of other such falsifications, although I'm not privy to any firsthand.)
How can any Class V Org live up to what they are shown on video?
When you're being told at every staff meeting and muster how you're expected to achieve results like those you see at events, not knowing that what you're seeing is false, it's disheartening and creates apathy and self-inval. At least that's what I witnessed at my org.
XClassVStaff
Special Correspondent At Large
Mike, thanks for posting my thoughts above. It’s nice to get them in front of an audience who gets it and to have such wonderful feedback.
You are most welcome. Your involvement and input is appreciated. Mike
I worked 80-90 hr workweeks for almost 10 years (74-84) at a Cl V org, mostly as an auditor. I thought I was helping to establish the org, so that future staff would be able to support themselves. We all had to moonlight as waitresses and cab drivers. The staff was incredibly dedicated at that time to helping LRH get things off the ground. It’s so bizarre and stupid to expect people to work for nothing and then to expect that that group is going to be healthy or in good condition. It’s incredibly offensive to have all these millions of dollars in accounts and being collected for mest when a staff member still can’t afford basic living expenses. God forbid you produce on the 2D and have a child to support. Many staff had parents or spouses supporting them so it really was a camouflaged hole.
I like this blog Mike. Please continue to expose the lies.
I shall do my best. I dont think I am going to run dry anytime soon….
If you ever need any input on Narconon let me know. Luke and I did a piece that aired on NBC a while back. We both earned smear sites as a gift from the Church for our efforts. Im happy to continue to help expose the lies any way i can.
It’s been 20 years since I stopped doing services at my org. I just kept waiting for sanity to be restored. Every time I put my foot in the door somewhere in Scientology I found myself unwilling to participate basically because there was no theta. I remember going to a new years event at the Shrine in the mid 90’s. After the event Sea Org staff were standing at all the exits blocking anyone from leaving. My wfe and I were so disgusted the we immediately headed for the rear exit where we were confronted by a Sea Org person who tryed to stop me from leaving. I shoved him out of the way and we left. That was the last major event I’ve attended. It’s been a long slow bleed in the Co$ for a long time and I’m sure it will continue. Independent Scientology is the only solution.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for this report.
What a vicious game Mr. Miscavige plays! His policies & programmes extract funds from parishioners until their personal finances are destroyed to the enrichment of his real estate holdings. He uses propaganda of “expansion everywhere else” to invalidate and introvert the staff at each org. Chairman of the Board David Miscavige has truly created a game where everyone loses.
Boy, this is great timing! Another SP and I were emailing about not being able to give gobs of money to IAS events. When we would see all these people giving all this money, it too was invalidating. I wondered how in the world are they doing it? What am I doing wrong? Now I cringe knowing that those people are being taken on the worst ride of their lives.
I have what will probably be called a stupid question, but I’ll ask it anyway as I’m trying to understand this. When a Class V org is touted on the DM videos as doing fabulously well and their stats are published etc, doesn’t the staff at that specific org then know that DM is lying because they know their own stats and they see that their true stats are different from what DM said in the video about them? Wouldn’t this tend to wake up the staff of that org that is touted in the video?
That has been my question too!
That’s a darn good question, Jane.
I suspect what happens is due to the withhold nature of the situation, that org or mission or group is going to follow through the whole overt cycle and justify what they’re being told. I know it seems ludicrous, but here’s an example of what I observed at Tampa.
They had a GIANT St Hill Sized trophy on display, but the OIC had nowhere near St Hill Size stats.
There were times you could arrive at the org during production hours and either have no one at the reception desk, or a teenage staff member who was having an idle conversation with another teen staff memeber and they would both ignore you for minutes if you let them.
The number of public on Acad Levels at the time was 4 or 5. They had a couple of M1 co-audits and about 3 Obj co-audits.
Despite claims of great staff pay, most of the staff were still moonlighting and the ones who admitted it were making between $30 and $100 a week.
Yet, when I would ask them questions re How could this be considered St Hill Size, they had it all justified out and threw out the catch phrases of “Ideal Org” and “Make/Break for OUR org” a lot, while also talking about how “absolutes were unobtainable” implying there was always room for improvement.
Just pure and utter blindness to their own situation.
At Flag in the late ’70s and early ’80s, they had what was called ITO. This was the International Training Org.
I was there for most of 1979. Staff from around the U.S. and the world came there to train. After living in the same quarters, having meals with, and most importantly studying and drilling with, a great deal of ARC developed amongst staff from all over.
Staff would openly talk about their home orgs and their stats etc. It was no secret.
My feeling was that most orgs were about the same and most staff around the world were very similar. Conditions were not terrible, but they certainly weren’t “straight up and vertical”. There just seemed to be a steady progress. Moral amongst staff was very high with much hope for a better world. The product we wanted was well taught students and thoroughly audited pc’s.That included each other.
LA Org had the reputation as the least favorable org to be in since it was so close to management.
At the timeframe Hamburg Org did make it to St Hill Size I had been staff in Munich and had access to all OIC stats of Hamburg. If one knew a bit the org board and the flow of publics through it one could compare stats. Like 100 new people in Div 6 a week. 200 routed to higher services to Div 4 a week and 500 academy completions a week. And that week for week. Stupid example here but it could be figured out that all the Hamburg stats are false. But management did not look and wanted Hamburg to be St Hill Size. Management knew that Hamburg stats had been false. My guess they ordered it on some higher level more or less directly. David Mistcavige (oh sorry for that typo) knew that this St Hill Size will not work and thus had to invent something better. He could have choosen another approach. Like: „we have not enough impact on society and thus are struggling to reach our target. Here is our plan. We need to move up as many people on the bridge with honest results. In order to accomplish that we lower prizes…“ something like that.
Of course you’re right, Schorsch. A CLO has access to all their orgs’ stats, so putting the pieces together would have been simple. But it makes sense that if there are stat pushes at the top of the org board (i.e. DM), they will roll all the way down through all of CofS.
XClassVStaff, I feel your pain. I spent nearly a decade fighting the good fight in a CLV org. I count my fellow staff members as some of the finest individuals I’ve known. They know what Scn is. It is such a betrayal of management to do anything other than help and assist the CLV staff member.
I’ve asked myself, if orgs had a choice, would they independently seek out and PAY for “management services” provided by Scn middle and Int management? I think not. No, unfortunately orgs are prisoners of an archaic, dysfunctional, top-heavy, dictatorial management.
Don’t you think it’s time for orgs to be set free? Free-range Scn orgs. Wouldn’t it be great to see a CLV do a “Dror Center” and declare their independence? To simply say “NO!” to insane management interference, to operate their org the way they see fit? Withhold any funds from management until they have demonstrated their “services” are effective and WORTH IT?
Wouldn’t it be great to see a CLV do a “Dror Center” and declare their independence? To simply say “NO!” to insane management interference, to operate their org the way they see fit?
Yes, I think we’d all love to see that happen. If and when it does, you’re going to see that org quintuple in size, overnight.
Damn Right! I think that what it would take would be an ED or Senior C/S or some very respected, highly technically trained Scientologist in the area who would call a meeting to explain what they were going to do, invite everyone who was interested, and then…..damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, just do it. And you are right, they would expand exponentially.
That would be a beautiful thing, Statpush. What Dani Lemberger pulled off was impressive. I don’t know what it would take to do something like that in the U.S.
Even if there were an org with the chutzpah to pull it off, I think their next challenge would be trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff in regards to all the arbitraries put on the line since GAT was released. And just shaking their minds free of the Vulture Culture (as Mike puts it) that gets ingrained in your brain.
Hi stat push, what a concept of “free range scn org”! We could even have
organic, genetically unmodified orgs! Pure LRH, with all the goodies that
go along with that.
The only thing expanding is the gap between Reality and Scientology PR.
Lol, yep.
My heart goes out to every deceived staff and public around the world. ❤
We’ve all been lied to by a psychotic organization.
There’s no greater freedom than living truthfully.
One of the early eye-openings I had regards the birthday game. My local mission kept talking about how well they were doing in the birthday game. And yet, when I looked around, I saw a struggling mission having trouble paying the rent, few people in the course room on any kind of major course, and no auditing going on. Then I volunteered to cover someone’s post for some kind of emergency. While I was there, I got to see them tallying the game points. The mission’s stats were actually quite psychotic and roller coastery – up, then down, then up again, then crash, then up a little, and on and on. So, they kept getting points after they would crash, then recover a bit. The TREND was actually down, but because of these little recoveries, they kept getting points. I don’t know if they were counting points correctly. Maybe they misunderstood how to count some things, or maybe they were stretching the truth. But that definitely made me start thinking about those birthday game events with the big winners, and wondering just how real they were.
Years ago (prior to SMI), I was the ED of a mission. Back then, we used to go to the Class V orgs nearby for all kinds of things or just to visit. None of them were “ideal” and most were struggling to some degree. But the very worst of them still had people on course learning to be auditors and had PCs in auditing. Those orgs weren’t fancy; they weren’t rich; they didn’t look opulent or high-tech or, sometimes, even in very good repair. But they were much more “ideal” than any org that I’ve seen in the last many years.
Same was true for our org, Cindy. Even though BIS was flatlined over a 20 year period, we’d still eke out BDG points by playing off the 3 and 6 week trends. Our senior execs played the system and pushed other staff to do so as well. So, for example, if you needed two more BIS to be “Up on a 3” we had fall back public we could call to come in and do a tape play. They might come in on Thursday before 2pm and listen to a tape for 5 min over their lunch break. But of course, this in no way reflected any actual growth on the part of our org.
The subject of stats and trends is grossly mis-used in CofS. But in large part, that’s because it’s all become a big PR game!
XClassVStaff, yes it is disheartening to see the events and wonder what’s wrong
with your org and staff there. What can be more upsetting to a thetan than any-
thing else is a wrong item or a wrong indication and on top of that it is a super-
invalidation. DM does not believe in LRH Tech, consequently he isn’t concerned
that he is playing with the core of sanity or insanity when he glibly, evilly, willfully
(take your pick) give the seals all these lies at events. They all go home and feel
elated at how well Scientology is doing in the world but at the same time feel this
hollow inadequacy when looking at their own orgs. What an insidious problem!
Too true, Lars.
I can’t imagine DM is very good at perceiving the consequences his actions have on all the people who support him. He is stuck in Feudalistic times, lording over everyone who still grants him power.
It can only go badly for him in the end, but meanwhile, 1000’s of staff and public suffer for DM’s arbitrary reasons.
There is only one thing that makes people “stay away in droves” as Ron says……. OUT TECH !!!
And the majority of staff do not know this because they have never experienced it, themselves. They think that GAT=Standard Tech. It does not. GAT has, however, invalidate standard auditors who then get a failed purpose and wander off and don’t audit.
A few months ago I visited an “Ideal Org” near me which had been opened with grand hoopla a few months previously and asked for a tour of the ORG. What I got was a tour of a BUILDING and was shone all of the new wonderful expensive mest in that building. The archetecture was nice. I like archecture and I oooed and aahed politely. However, unbeknownst to the tour guide I was there to have a tour of the ORG. An ORG is made up of beings. I had purposely visited on a Tuesday which is pretty close to Wednesday for Day Orgs and Thursday for Foundation. I figured I should be riding the crest of the weekly stat push. Well, the place was empty. My very sincere guide spoke only broken English (I’m in the US).
I was introduced to the Introduction to Scientology Lecturer Robot, A.K.A., Miscavige’s imitation Mormon Tabernacle video display . I was the only person there besides my guide.
I was shown large and EMPTY div 6 courserooms. (And yes,I was visiting during production time, not dinner or lunch)
I saw two beautiful, state of the art, computer controlled saunas with no one in them and I noticed that there was no-one on the scheduling board.
Next were the Div 4 course rooms where they did have about 8 students.
No one probably notice that I noticed that they were ALL on basic books courses, no one was studying a course pack, no one was drilling, and no one was doing TRs. Next I asked to see the HGC. It was empty. There was no Board I/C and on one there.
No one probably notice that I noticed that not only were there no PCs waiting for sessions, but there were only two PCs on the scheduling board…..who were not scheduled to go into session until the following weekend!
Of course I was asked if I had thought about joining staff. I told them that I had a long time ago but that I could not do so right then. Then I quickly changed the subject, gave my guide a very high ARC “thank you very much for the tour and left.
As I was walking away, the magnitude of Miscavige’s betrayal of Ron and Scientologists hit me yet again. Because I KNOW what those orgs could be still be doing to improve and enhance lives if they were outflowing Standard Tech. I know that they would be full no matter what the building looked like.
I have seen it.
And the noble purposes and hard work of staff members deserve better. Out Tech is not acceptable.
I was a Universe Corps Auditor for 9 years, and before that I was “Held From Above” the Athena Cram Officer at CLO WUS from 1982 to 1989. I have a very soft spot for the CL V Org Staff member to this day 15 years after I have been long dead and gone. (Declared). Not going into my scene much, but I will say this, I Know from having been to probably 30 or so CL V Orgs as a Missionaire, representing CMO INT, ILO, IMO etc from 1979-1998 from Seattle, Toronto, LA Org, San Diego, Vancouver, New York, Pasadena, San Francisco, Austin, St. Louis, Dallas etc, etc. CL V Org staff I salute you had it very hard and still do this day I believe.
I’ll bet you have some very interesting stories, Mreppen. It’d be great to hear more.
And I couldn’t agree more. Cl V Org Staff are some of the hardest working, most underappreciated people on the planet.
It’s nice to see another caring staff member discovering the truth and walking away from the radical church. I hope many more follow.
Mike – thanks for posting all of this news! I felt the same way as a public until I went to a few other Class Five Morgues – they were ALL empty! I could not figure out what was wrong ….and then I got Debbie Cook’s e-mail!
Thanks for the “special corespondent” you have filling us in! This is needed by those poor saps still in the Church of Scientology and think it is their fault no one is coming in! Even the Advanced Orgs are virtually empty! It is getting worse each month!
Thanks for that. It’s good to know others keep waking up and are being there and communicating.
Excellent post.
Yes, this is an extremely sad situation and I know for a fact that one Class V org ‘s staff have failed purposes. They are a handful of caring, capable, sincere, terrific people, and they carry on bravely with a valient effort to be “uptone” but I can see, I know its just mocked up, and it breaks my heart, really.
I hope I can get to meet the Dwarf one day, so I can smile warmly, shake his hand and then calmly spit full into his face – for his machinations, for the way he has set these people up, isolated orgs and staff from one another and coldly manipulated these good people so as to cause them to self inval and self-blame for their losses. Damn him.for this.
It’s true, Aquamarine. Some of the best people I’ve ever known have been Class V staff. DM is using their good intentions to pave the way to his Hell!
We all thought that it was only us that was messing up …. Hugs
Aww, thanks, Christine! 🙂