Somehow, they are focusing on the number of staff needed for this to be an “ideal org”. There has always been a rush to try to get people to sign up for staff, and the opening of an ideal org is the only real excuse they have. They tell people that with their ideal org they will suddenly have a massive influx of public and everyone will earn a living wage. It never happens.
The only people who can exist on staff are those who have some other form of surviving with no money — they live with their parents or they have a spouse that works a normal job, or they got an inheritence or someone has offered to give them a room rather than joining staff themselves or they “moonlight” at some other job. But moonlighting is increasingly difficult as virtually none of those orgs are now “Day” and “Foundation” so there is no “spare” time for moonlighting. Miscavige has pretty much done away with Day and Foundation as a concept. No “new” ideal org is Day or Foundation. Even ASHO has become one entity. SH Foundation disappeared altogether.
The fact is that being a staff member in a Class V scientology organization is NOT a viable occupation despite Hubbard’s promises in the early 1980’s with LRH ED 339R.
So, what does an “All-Ideal Cali” actually mean?
For a week or two there might be a few extra staff — Santa Barbara org has typically had about 10 staff members for the last 40 years. They will import some people from other orgs and perhaps some SO members to try and make it seem there is a supervisor in the courseroom and an auditor. But a few weeks or months after Miscavige yanks his ribbon, it will settle back down to where things were before all the money was raised.
Just as it is in all the other “ideal” orgs in California.
Sacramento is dead. Sand Diego is even deader. Valley, Stevens Creek, Silicon Valley, Inglewood — every one of them is a tiny, moribund activity. Most of them go for months on end without making a single Clear. The vast majority don’t make a single Class IV auditor in any given year.
And what of the cities with no org at all? What do the people in Bakersfield or Fresno do? How about Riverside? Palm Springs? Or anywhere north of Sacramento?
The illusion that something will be different with the “last” ideal org completed in California is just that. It’s meaningless.
Scientology is not opening any new organizations. In fact, the total number of Class V organizations is shrinking. After the initial burst of activity, each ideal org sinks back into the doldrums.
What in fact are they celebrating?
“So, what does an “All-Ideal Cali” actually mean?”
All it takes to have an “all clear” state or country is to have ONE org in that area and for it to be Idle ^h^h^h^h “ideal”®, as currently defined be Dwarfenführer™.
(Note for the younger readers: ^h refers to the character which erased the previous visible character on the screen/paper/telex. a/k/a “backspace” or (DEL[ete]).
“What in fact are they celebrating?”
What they always celebrate, their shared delusions. “Nothing new here, folks, move along.”
To look on people is to look on living people. Are we all dead pretending to be alive or are we all in life pretending to be dead? Do people live or are they dead? To look on people is to look on dying people.
They will still be in terminal decline after they open Ventura. Maybe even a bit worse, because the move from a nice location in downtown Santa Barbara to a nondescript office park nearly an hours’ drive to the South is likely to cost them some aging diehards who will slip away in the face of a daunting commute.
And the current Ventura mission will vanish if it hasn’t already, if it follows the pattern of what happens in such situations, like in Dublin. If I recall there were reports of Sea Org activity at the mission within the last year, whatever that was about; but they almost certainly can’t pull off the theoretical ideal of having an org surrounded by missions, and instead the soon-to-be-nearby org is likely to end up cannibalizing the mission.
I don’t know how the will manage perceptions around that, except with “ideal California” done – and failed to reverse Scientology’s failing fortunes – they’ll have to find some new carrot (or fish) to dangle in front of the clubbed seals.
PeaceMaker: Was Ventura a viable franchise/”mission” before Davey promoted it to Ideal Morgue? As I recall, a couple-three “missions” were destroyed by that “honor”.
Jere, there has long been the Buenaventura mission in Ventura, but now they are moving the once-thriving Santa Barbara org down the coast into an “ideal” building also in Ventura – it doesn’t even make sense, does it?
I’m guessing they’re expecting that the Ventura mission will continue to operate alongside the org moving there according to theory – but the history of how that does, or doesn’t, work out in reality is also not good. Even missions without a nearby org are struggling, and getting staff if not customers poached by other orgs, so they probably don’t stand a chance with an org moving in and getting all the attention and priority of an “opening.”
It appears that most missions are so financially marginal that they either have to be located in part of some space that the mission holder runs a real money-making business out of (often cunningly hidden with the appearance of a separate address), or require infusions of cash in order to make their rent. I suspect that mission holders have been becoming disaffected over having to continue subsidizing operations that Scientology virtually prohibits them from closing (celebrities like Jenna Elfman excepted, of course), and there’s probably some something ugly going on behind the scenes over the Ventura mission that is probably a drain on the mission holder and now about turn into into a truly idle morgue.
I just checked the California corporations database. The mission has existed in its present form since 1982 – though I’ve seen hints of some sort of failure either before or since – and the CEO as of their 2018 filing was Vicky L. Miller but the secretary and CFO had turned over since the 2016 filing.
Here’s more info about how it has moved around over the years – typically, it used to be located near downtown in storefront/office space, but now is out in what is probably the cheapest commercial/industrial building:
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/not-santa-barbara-ideal-org/#comment-259508
“What in fact are they celebrating?”
I’ll give it to you in two words: Dave’s ego.
Gadfly pithily observed:
“What in fact are they celebrating?”
I’ll give it to you in two words: Dave’s ego.
BINGO!
I live in Sacramento, and frequently go to events at the Golden 1 Center, the home of the Sacramento Kings. It is right next door to the Sacramento Org, and I like to park where I’ll then have to walk by the Org to and from the events. Only once did I set one person inside that looked routed in. All other times I’ve seen no one other than staff, sitting around or smoking out back. Dead it is!
I got in Scientology during the mid 70’s in Sac and tiny little pip sqeek Arden Way mission was tons busier, even operating out of a small shopping center. If we had been standing around smoking cigarettes all day we ‘d have been hung from the rafters. Oh well, so much for the change in leadership. Sad, or maybe not so sad.
The whole Scientology Shizz is just modern day Slavery. You and others like Leah that you are working with are the Harriett Tubman of this age.
👍
Mike, you say, “virtually none of those orgs are now “Day” and “Foundation.” I believe that is incorrect. The example you give — “ASHO has become one entity. SH Foundation disappeared altogether” — is not really relevant relevant because it is a Sea Org Org. With Sea Org Orgs there is no need for “Day” and “Foundation” schedules. Further, my understanding is that Ventura is, in fact, recruiting for separate “Day” and “Foundation” staffs.
They may have gotten rid of the “Day” and Foundation” distinction for Sea Org Orgs, including now LA Org, because it never was necessary or helpful for such Orgs. I’d be surprised if they have eliminated the distinction for non-Sea Org Orgs manned with contracted staff.
No, they have gotten rid of it in virtually all Class V orgs. Back in the day almost all orgs had Day and Foundations. DC, Ptl, Toronto, London, Sydney, Melbourne etc etc
And ASHO since its inception was a Day and Foundation set up even though an SO Org. The only other SO installation that was Day and Fdn was AOSHUK and SHF.
I stand corrected. I guess they don’t have enough staff members to staff separate Day and Foundation Orgs. Doing away with separate Day and Foundation Orgs potentially cuts staffing requirements in half.
Mike, I can attest that in the early 70s, NYC had a Day and Foundation. I worked with the former as they “moonlighted” and studied with Foundation staff.
Portland has Day and Foundation currently
These cult members are severely deluded. HEY. Cult members! I’m sorry to tell you this, but, it’s ALL MAKE BELIEVE!!! And Hubbard was NOT in perfect health when he died. In fact, he had heart attack. And two other strokes. He had a stroke. Then a heart attack, and then another stroke. The last stroke killed him.
“Smoking doesn’t cause cancer! Not smoking ENOUGH causes cancer.” LRH
oSD, please Don’t yell that TOO loudly. If they hear and understand, THEN who would we have to laugh at?
Now that’s a good point! I’ll try to not be too loud. I’m trying to control myself….still trying…not sure I can take it…sorry jere, I’m about to explode! Here it comes…Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
I hope that wasn’t too loud (snicker, snicker)
I was walking around downtown Seattle a couple of days ago and passed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They stood there smiling, next to their magazine rack. I paid them no mind (okay, maybe I sneered just a bit), and they didn’t try to body-route me. I couldn’t help thinking how big this destructive cult is, compared to how tiny Scientology is in comparison. The trouble is scientology, with all its billions, punches way above its weight in all the evil it brings into the world. Someday it’ll go the way of phrenology and the Roman mystery cults; the sooner the better. I’d of course like to see the JWs gone as well, but that won’t happen for a while yet.
bixntram, JW may not be the sanest, so to speak, of the Christian sects, but I don’t know how it could become as objectively obscene as scientology is, has always been. I don’t believe it will be disbanded until and unless they’ve got a similar percentage of “bitter, defrocked apostates” as scientology has created of its public and staff. It takes a LOT to disband an organization whose members believe wholeheartedly is their key to a better Eternity®.
Just for the record, the JWs are not a Christian sect. It’s easy to think they are because they use some of the same language, but they deny the divinity of Christ, which means they aren’t Christian. They are really a rebirth of the ancient Arian heresy, which St. Augustine and others warned about early on in Christian history.
There’s a massive amount of child sexual abuse in the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They also practice shunning for anyone who steps out of line — say, if someone reports she was abused as a child. They vehemently discourage outside education and friendships.
I don’t care about whether they’re considered “heresy” or not. I’m the ultimate heretic, being an atheist. I care that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are a severely destructive cult and I don’t know why they get such a pass.
Bixntram opined:
“Someday it’ll go the way of phrenology and the Roman mystery cults;”
Perhaps, but it’s already survived ‘way too long. if we WORK towards their end, it will happen sooner; perhaps within our lifetimes. Shameless plug: Support the Aftermath Foundation however you can to help the toxic cult along on its way to obscurity.
Note: I have no connection to the Aftermath Foundation except through this blog, and do not benefit monetarily from it. I ONLY benefit the way the rest of us do: Each clapping seal helped to get away from that organization masquerading as a church is one less active working toward its survival and (generally) one more on “our” side.
I know so little about the inner workings of this cult, but everything I read just says that DM thinks he’s teflon, that he’s smarter than everyone, and he’s never going to go down like most all criminals and tyrants in the past thought. “thought”
The truth you speak. The irony is that Miscavige is actually stupid and will go down.
Yes, the 9th grade drop-out is stupid, and we’re all waiting for him and his cult to go down.
He has no heir. I can’t picture him grooming someone to take over. But since he’s only 59, we could easily have another 15-25 years to wait for Miscavige to become sufficiently feeble, physically and/or mentally diminished. And most of the lawyers are also old-timers, old guard. I’ve never read of any new generation in the works.
It would be both frightening and hilarious when Miscavige kicks it to see the scramble to take over. All the organizational violence as someone attempts to assert supreme control. If DM goes feeble, like Alzheimer’s or dementia, I can imagine a group of attorneys running things for their own benefit for many years. Scientology on autopilot.
But with a few billion in assets there will definitely be sharks in waiting, for as many years as neceesary, anticipating the scent of blood, so they can enter a frenzy over control of RTC, CST, ASI, IAS, COS, etc.
It will be fascinating to see what lies in Scientology’s future. What will fail first? How long can Miscavige last? How rapidly will membership continue to age and diminish? What future scandals will emerge? What criminal and civil actions will occur? Scientology is always stranger and more complicated than you could ever imagine. You just can’t make this stuff up. Anything can happen.
Often wives or paramours take over a cult when the leader is in decline and gone, as they are inherently in a position of trust and influence. I haven’t heard anything about Lou Stuckenbrock in years, but she’d be a prime candidate – or someone who replaced her (and Shelly).
I could also see Miscavige trying to turn over the reins to a sort of committee after his demise, the way Hubbard did – which would then be blamed for the declining state of affairs they inherited, the way Miscavige and Broeker were.
Totalitarian leaders usually hold on until the bitter end, partly because they know nothing else than a life in power, and also because their successors are likely to turn on them.
Regardless, I think you are right that outside lawyers will retain outsized influence, and possibly virtually take over – or literally end up as court-appointed receivers.
He has no heir, but check out Dave’s hair! 😂
So, he’s only 59, you say.
But how quickly can he trash his liver, kidneys, and heart with all those bottles of single-malt? I’m thinking it could happen fairly quickly, if he hasn’t already succeeded.
AND, he’s too paranoid to “groom” a replacement who conceivable replace him in a coup similar to the ones the twerp engineered in his meteoric rise through the ranks.
Plus he still has asthma. It’s possible he’s getting a real doctor to treat it and taking medication undercover, but if he isn’t, that’s going to shorten his life. People with breathing problems sometimes turn to alcohol because it makes it feel easier to breathe temporarily. In the long term, though, it makes any breathing-related problems much, much worse. Excess alcohol is absolutely terrible for the lungs — definitely contraindicated for someone with asthma.
If those currently in the Clam Scam are the ‘able being made more able’, when will the membership be able to see the scam?
(Snarky comment about Scientology.)
Mike quips: “And what of the cities with no org at all? What do the people in Bakersfield or Fresno do? How about Riverside? Palm Springs? Or anywhere north of Sacramento?”
Answer: Folks living in those places are the lucky ones. Virtually no cult influence in those areas and even though scientology is expanding at unprecedented orders of magnitude, there will NEVER be any cult influence in those areas.
Going, going gone for less than ten cents on the dollar. Give it up Davey. You made a big mistake when you rejected Hubbard as the anti-Christ and as Satan and Lucifer. If you at least kept that, you would have a small population of Occultists. You will never again appeal to the mass population. Get over it.
To answer your question , Mike … What do the people in Bakersfield, Fresno, Riverside, Palm Springs, Eureka, etc do since they have no org? Same as the folks in Dubuque, Topeka or Butte do … Suffer because they are deprived of their infinity of future, … or MOVE to an “org city” like Buffalo or Battle Creek and get on that bridge to total freedom … or just freaking DILETTANTE their lives away bowling and shopping at Wal-Mart … But I’m warning all those folks who don’t take the second choice above …
NO KSW FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!
Better KFC than KSW any day!
I’d like to see some Kentucky Fried COB.
Gadfly opined:
“I’d like to see some Kentucky Fried COB.”
That would be an awfully small,awfully bitter meal.
PS. Actually there are pretty much more analogies to fascism.
Recently I met a guy I knew in the 90s in Milano he is a so member in a small org. He recognize me and as he didn’t try to bring me into salvation in the first 30 secs we went for a coffee. I asked him how was going and he said ‘as usual’. I told him ok but I am out since 15 years d he look at me and repeated yes just as usual. Well no real changes I will say.
It is even more dead in any scamology org in Western EU. A year after Tom Cruise yanked himself while opening Madrid Org it was empty. Paris is also empty and has been for well over a decade. Germany, worse.
I’ve watched corporations die. It is a slow and painful process. All the propaganda in the world will not ameliorate the hard reality of empty Orgs. Miscavige is persistent if nothing else. Scientology won’t die easily. That’s why I appreciate what you are doing Mike. The blight of Scientology is shriveling everywhere. We just need to keeping pushing.
$cientology is a toxic brand and no amount of PR or money can ever fix that. It’s nothing but a rotting ship with a slow leak.
Could not agree more.
Let’s look from Miscavige’s viewpoint for a minute.
He has billions and the Still Ins keep giving him money.
Why should he leave?
They obviously believe what he tells them. Why else would they hand over so much money?
Ergo, why change anything?
Why not just continue to do whatever has been getting him LOTS of money for the past 18 years?
Now, if, and/or when, the sheeple stop giving him, in sufficient volume, money, well, THAT would be an altogether different story. THAT would get his attention.
But they don’t stop. They keep giving. Bigly.
His Ideal M’Org Program. His Planetary Dissem. His IAS Status Scam. Way To Happiness fund drives. Mandating that Public re-do courses, and pay much more for these courses than they paid before. Mandating that Public re-do auditing actions again and again and pay each time again, and more.
These are all HIS “Brite Ideas” that became Plans, that became Programs.
HIS.
HE thought them up.
And they WORK. YES, THEY WORK!
And before you howl that they don’t work, LOOK from HIS viewpoint!
From HIS viewpoint, they “work” because the Still Ins accept them, agree with them, comply with them and pay for them!
From HIS viewpoint, how is any of that NOT workable?
After all, its not like his “goals” for Scientology have anything to do with actually delivering Scientology!
Miscavige’s true goals are the retaining of his power over the Still Ins.
The amount of money these idiots give him is his direct index of that.
“Power is when people listen to you.”
-David Miscavige.
“Give me money for this…give me money for that…”
And they DO.
This WORKS, doesn’t it?
SO, he keeps doing it.
Why shouldn’t he?
End of Rant from Former Idiot Aqua 🙂
Aqua, good comment. Here’s what I see. A con can only go on for a finite amount of time. And he cannot keep things static. Atrophy sets in. No amount of money can counter bad PR. And we are not stopping until the organization is dwindled to a handful of diehards. And then there is the subject of karma. Hubbard spent his last 8 years in hide. Misscumige has already started on that road. It will only escalate for him.
BKmole, yes, agreed on all. As regards all the angles you’ve mentioned above, Scientology is definitely and totally losing and will keep losing. Scientology as an organization is shrinking and losing rapidly. It is pretty much dead now.
But Scientology isn’t Miscavige. HE has access to a great deal of money. This money gives the organization a semblance of staying power; it buys the organization expertise and protection and time.
But, again, Scientology the organization is not Miscavige. As linked as they are in the public’s mind he knows he’s separate and he knows that his POWER derives from people BELIEVING that HE IS Scientology.
So, here he is, deriving POWER, his ONLY power he’s ever had or will have, from an organization that is DYING. An organization that for all practical purposes is already dead. I mean, its twitching, but there’s not much life left in it!
His TRUE power is ONLY the power that Scientology has and Scientology is in its death throes.
So what is the guy to do?
Well, exactly what he is doing now!
Push out a LOT of BIG lies!
D your best to convince everyone still in that Scientology is THRIVING.
That’s a very important perception (illusion) that HE has to maintain because HIS power derives solely from it!
To continue:
Scientology the organization is dying and doomed but Miscavige is very much alive and everything he has and who he is is inextricably linked to the FACTUAL success and expansion of Scientology, OR, barring that, the ILLUSION of the success and expansion of Scientology.
And this man is a narcissist, don’t forget.
He’s in a fight for his life, his very beingness, constantly.
Possibly – this is just me opining, but possibly Miscavige’s only true goals, the REAL ones he has for himself – are to 1) by any fraudulent but legal means necessary stay in power for the duration of his lifetime, and 2) to be revered in perpetuity by whomever the Scientologists are who are left when he dies and to also be revered in the official annals of Scientology.
I think what scares him – terrifies him – are the concepts of being deposed WITHIN his lifetime (for “No Results” ) and then, once dead, or deposed or exiled, despised and remembered forever after by his group and in the annals of Scientology as the loathsome SP who DESTROYED Scientology!
Personally, I think he has known for some time that Scientology the organization is beyond hope and doomed. I think he has for close to 2 decades now only cared about his power while he’s alive and then his legacy. I’ll go further and opine that the above are his obsessions.
I also believe he doesn’t care a jot if Scientology vanishes altogether tomorrow so long as his group doesn’t blame him for its failure. Don’t blame him! Valient David fought bravely and tirelessly against the Goliath SPs…that sort of thing…:)
These opinions of mine are based on data shared by Mike Rinder as well as what several others on this blog and elsewhere have shared with regard to their personal experiences with David Miscavige.
Aqua, cool comment. Thank you.
The bottom line. Scientology manages by statistics. With the graphs out for everyone to see it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the Miscavige is full of ——. Unless the Orgs are all falsifying stats, or Davy is, or both.
I have had some direct dealings with Miscavige. At that time it was not a bad experience. I think that’s why I stayed in the cult longer than most.
All true! Yet, not cavil with you but the graphs are NOT “out for all to see”. If they were, Miscavige would have been gone long ago! Look, I was never staff or SO, so take what I’m going to say for whatever its worth. When I was in, my org kept doing worse and worse. The staff in my org believed that they had to keep up with what they perceived were all the other orgs doing very well. In other words, the staff in my org considered themselves the “only one” in the sense of being the only limping, shrinking org! Now, when I got out, I read online that MANY orgs were nearly empty of people, with skeleton staffs! So, I’d say its possible that, not knowing each other’s stats, not knowing the Int Mgmt stats, each Scientology (limping, failing, shrinking) – each org believes itself to be the only org not making it and desperately needing to “catch up” to the rest. And if this is the actual scene, with each org believing itself to be the only one failing, then Miscavige has pulled off quite a trick.
The Church of Scientology in its various corporate entities is essentially an extremely successful real estate holding company. Its “front” is as a church and by this guise is able to raise large sums of money from a small amount of parishioners who either have too much money or too much credit . Added to the value of their buildings and cash on hand is of course the great financial value of being tax exempt .My guess is that Miscavige knows that there is a shelf life on the potential donations of the current moneyed members , but that there’s probably a good 15 years before that reaches critical mass. He knows that there is no “ideal cali” or any plan or even any realistic hope to extensively expand the membership of the CoS as LRH at least always hoped would happen … and the man known to some as COB probably couldn’t care less …
Perfect description There is no REAL intention towards anything else than REAL estates. DM knows the cult is in a cul de sac. I will bet that he is concentrating on the hard core public and not new one. There is no exec strata since almost 20 years. Nobody is expanding anything. As you said maybe 10/15 years.
In 15 years Miscavige would be in his mid-70s and about the same age as when Hubbard shuffled off to Target Two. I think that’s about what he’s aiming for, to keep the balls in the air until around then, continuing to open a couple of new facilities a year, and even starting to spend down reserves to keep them all open and keep up the illusion.
This sounds more like stat push and musical chairs. What a shame. No real stuff.
This makes me think to amazing analogy with fascism. The propaganda machine was still running and saying how Italy was winning even when the allies armies were at the door and was over.
It isn’t that the ideal orgs “great expansion” and PR is just a gimmick to explain how come they are so much under attack by all sides? Sps are going crazy!
As the delusional $cientologists love to say, “When the SP’s are screaming; we are winning.” (Or some nonsense like that — can’t remember the exact phrasing off hand.)
As if. The only thing they’re “winning” is tacky, obnoxious trophies, deeper levels of delusion and a severe misunderstanding of reality.
True. When I was younger (more than 30 years ago) I disseminated all my friends and got them in the cult. 4 of us joined staff and sea org. Now I save 2 of them. They won’t step in even under torture. A third one did it by him self getting sp declared. I miss 2 out the list and I will feel fine. No joke.
Well maybe Dave can turn things around this year with a new and improved Pee Tee Ess course designed specifically to handle the onset of of a pandemic.
“Join staff at yer new ideal org, give money, get trained, get audited, get regged and avoid the ravages of life with our new immunity to viral infections rundown.
Rolling on the floor laughing.
A way to make the PTS/SP Course effective would be to get the sheeple to realize they’re PTS to Dave!
Gadfly, Hubtard knew that would happen (with him being named) and thus wrote a policy for Ethics to declare anyone as nuts who said they were PTS to a church exec.
I’m not saying it would be easy. Eventually those who flee the clutches of David Musthaveit, will realize they’ve been supporting a thief all along.