This is a sad admission of the reality of working in a scientology org.
This “ideal Org” ED is feasting on pie in the sky and trying to convince everyone not only how good it tastes, but how wonderfully nutritious it is too.
After FORTY YEARS they are no closer to achieving a stable income for staff (which was a KEY criteria of “SH Size” according to L. Ron Hubbard).
40 years on for Steve, and THIRTY TWO YEARS since it was published he is still using the quote about “Speed of expansion is the problem of management…” (because the world is rapidly coming to an end). Wow.
If this is true, and these people have THE “standard management and admin tech” and the “only tech to salvage beings” — how can this problem not be solved in 32 years? It’s not that “there will always be the need for more expansion” it is that in truth there has been NO EXPANSION during this entire time except in square footage of marble flooring and number of video cameras installed in auditing rooms.
He then goes on to fantasize about what it would be like to have 190 staff… Years after this org became “ideal” it is a “dream” to have 28 auditors.
But saddest of all is his pitch that there is “command intention” that staff be well paid, audited and trained.
And for proof how wonderful it is, after FORTY YEARS the ED of this “ideal org” has “finished SRD” and is “moving on his administrative training.”
Why after 40 years is this “ideal org ED” not an OEC/FEBC? Why isnt he at least a Class V auditor? Why isn’t he OT VIII?
Apparently this just isn’t seen as a departure from the expected. He is loud and proud about the fact that he has been on staff for 40 years and is nowhere and his org is nowhere. Just as long as he puts in an LRH quote and tells everyone how great it is and how close they are to clearing their area, nobody notices anything else.
“The truth is, orgs will hire ANYBODY.”
So true, and so much at variance with all the wonderful compliments the staff would pay you in order to get you to sign a contract, your big-beingness, unique intelligence, your utter specialness. After a while I realized this line was being fed to everyone, and that any mobile, ambulatory mass of living protoplasm resembling homo sapiens was qualified to be on staff.
Something is odd?
This twerp has been on Staff 40 years, is in charge of an ideal Org but has to go to LA to see “how its all done”. I thought LA was staffed by SO and the Org there is combined by off policy COB.
Also he has recently finished the SRD and doing some basic training. After 40 years he still does not know how to boom an Org?
This is madness, to boom and Org you deliver Processing and Training as laid out in Policy letters. Its easy, just follow them.
I forgot they no longer have OEC and Tech volumes in these Ideal Orgs, nor any staff that are even trained basically.
What a sad state of affairs all thanks to that COB bag of shit, what a detestable being he is.
Even St Hill over in the UK LRH’s home they have no SHSBC available as it was worth the phone call to check this out.
Also they had no OEC or Tech volumes for staff to read. I thought this was very interesting.
So the Orgs only run on dictates from COB and he has replaced LRH.
Seems this SHSBC is riddled with out Tech and is being remade in the orginal pure LRH.
Pure crap as always, they will then be regged to do it again. Even GAT I SHSBC was riddled with non LRH. That is true actually as it was got at by COB then.
Still the public will pay they always do, and a fool and his money are soon parted!
Scn orgs have NEVER been able to provide its staff a decent, sustainable living wage. And in my opinion, they were never designed to do so. When I was on staff, occasionally we would have a good GI week (e.g. $20-30,000), with about 25 staff members, on those weeks I could expect to get about $200 – and that was executive pay grade. HCO expeditors probably got about $50. But, this would only happen about once a month. Other weeks you got anywhere from nothing to about $50.
To this day I have no idea how I managed to survive that.
This is Hubbard’s “brilliant” management technology at work. Maybe its brilliant if you don’t have to experience it? Or if you were in Int Management?
Hubbard’s revolutionary admin tech and his orgs only “work” in communistic or fascist states. Lovely.
Orgs willingly accept the help, labor and effort of well-intentioned beings, but will not take responsibility for ensuring they have adequate shelter, proper food or acceptable health care. And this is the place where a new civilization is being born? Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll take my chances in the wild and woolly world.
Orgs have a hard time recruiting staff because of:
1) Long, long hours
2) Little to no pay
3) Very poor standard of living
4) No health care or benefits
5) Ruthless and unkind treatment
You don’t need to be a genius to figure this one out.
The truth is, orgs will hire ANYBODY. And that is per policy, Fast Flow Recruitment. All they have to do is pass a metered interview and they’re on-board. What kind of company/business/or whatever operates this way? What a complete waste of time. All it takes is for them to receive their first “paycheck” and they head for the exit. Somehow LRH found this to be beneficial. What a dope.
The only recruits that “stick” are established, dedicated Scnists or “wog” DBs. Now that’s a party.
Kind of sad actually. Forty years of his life spent on staff with little to show for it. The org is no closer to Saint Hill Size than it was in 1983 (in fact, it might even be smaller – I recall that Portland was booming in the early eighties), and he personally has done his SRD, so he is basically nowhere on the Bridge. Steve is a true believer though.
I was on staff for a total of six years in the Sea Org at an Int-level org. So many pleasure moments to recall I don’t know where to start, such as:
1) Getting yelled at for no reason.
2) Beans and rice diet plan with a serious lack of protein and/or edible food.
3) Months and months go by without a day off.
4) Having a secret stash of toilet paper when there was no budget in the FP for it.
5) No social activities of any kind.
6) CSWs getting disapproved for time off even though your personal stats were up.
7) Being given an impossible order to do by your senior and just told to “make it go right” (easy for them to say).
8) Very limited opportunities to meet the opposite sex, but hey, why am I thinking of sex anyways when I could just take another cold shower?
9) Getting woken up at 4 AM to handle a flap that you didn’t cause.
10) Sleeping in a 10 foot by 10 foot dorm room with 10 other male Sea Org members, some of whom snore and have personal hygiene issues.
11) Working late every night and averaging 3 hours of sleep per night.
12) Getting assigned a lower condition that you didn’t think was correct.
13) No pay for weeks.
Well, the list could go on, but I’m starting to miss the “good ole days”.
Hi Jethro Bodine,I knew I loved you from your posts! Thank you for or another amazing one! So much flashed before my eyes as I went down the list…I so I humbly submit #14 Doing each item on your list & getting the same outcomes,when suddenly a new secret SO list comes out of the vault & I am now to keep on with the latter list while adding the items of condition treason, 5 day old beans & dogs if any food at all, being called Honey after every slap,having to white glove your room & come back to find it trashed & be told you the SP Rock Slamming lying DB evil intentioned bitch did this yourself,& gosh I miss those days so much I can’t believed I changed the outcomes & blew! Laughter! Love Ann.
Hi Jethro Bodine, Looked at your great list again & have to add two more from the ladies viewpoint although I heard a lot of SO guys say what you did about berthing & sex..#15 being asked on dates by the opposite sex but having no $ to go anywhere on H’wood Blvd so sitting on the loading dock @ Asho on Temple St drinking coffee & talking shop.#16 Two SO members falling for each other & having to meet in the attic of the H’wood Inn with this gentleman picking the master lock to open the door,because rank that was higher than mine was not allowed in a relationship.Sneaking around all the time,until I realized the danger he was in decided to end it for his sake.Young love crazy.#17 berthing with six women in a room meant for two,no closet space no hot water & falling out of the top third bunk all the time & crashing to the floor because of nightmares yes I had them in the SO.#18 being in my room at H’wood Inn & every girl with me 5 had the flu terribly no dr.visits just vitamins & I got yelled at all the time because I did not get it,Always Ann.
Hmm. Click! There!
Category:Bob Keenan
Now to start tugging on the loose ends.
Replying mostly to Aquamarine above: Aqua, anyone with any savvy like thee and me, know that the Dwarf has sabotaged the whole game. In my Org, long long ago, when we started to expand in came the SO (under Miscavige’s command by then) and simply attacked, overtly or covertly, those staff who were creating the stats/products. Down statistics are deliberately caused – per policy and per (admittedly not so) simple observation when one strips all the other bullshit away as people don’t like to confront uncomfortable facts. He has altered the tech, cancelled or covertly ignored HCO Policy Letters, ad infinitum and ad nauseum. Per another post here above he has even removed OEC and Tech Vols from the Orgs (how obvious can one get?!) Those old timers still left in are now literally, the PTS blind being led by the suppressively blind. It’s no great mystery. It is a mystery to those still in and laboring under any other delusion that it is not. We all used to groan when we knew the SO “management” were descending on the Org. It is and was complete sabotage.
Foolproof, thank you for your response to my rant. Your sharing of your staff experience with the SO being sent in to “handle” upstats is a help. Every so often I suddenly experience anger and amazement, it sort of rears up out of my mental in-basket, showing me that I have not fully confronted what continues to be the sabotage of orgs and staff. My confront was high enough to get me the hell out but there’s still more to process, apparently. My confront on errors and mistakes, even serious mistakes, due to misunderstood words and/or lack of hatting is pretty good, but my confront on planned, intentional deliberate evil needs work. In fairness, probably every one of those SO sent in were themselves severely PTS. Thanks again, Foolproof.
Hi Aqua, it’s worth listening to the LRH tape “The Anti-Social Personality” if you can get hold of it. As LRH says it’s gruesome, but people should know the data. Glad I could be of help. I wouldn’t worry too much about your own particular level of confront of evil and all that, we all have varying degrees of problems with that, but listening to the tape and other similar data puts things in perspective, and of course actually has a calming (but also strengthening) effect. If and when you can listen to the tape you will know exactly what I mean. LRH is very funny on the tape as well, starts off with a joke or two at governments and East Grinstead Urban District Council.
OK, I’m still not over this and need to rant a bit more about joining staff and making auditors.
One would THINK that with a planet to clear, with the way to do that being via auditing and training people in volume, with the way to do THAT being by creation of lots of Scientology orgs with plenty of well-trained staff to do Departments 1 – 7 – if this is the way to go then WHY or why is it made so damned difficult to be on staff? Why isn’t getting excellent, loyal, dedicated staff in Missions and Class V orgs given the absolute HIGHEST priority, because, hello! there are billions of PCs out there who need to be audited and who need to themselves become auditors.
It is STAFF who will do the job of auditing and training. LRH said that orgs are “auditing and training factories”. So to me, its kind of duh-obvious that staff should be both trained to very high standards using AND well paid and otherwise nurtured and treated well. A staff job should be a position that is highly respected and coveted by the multitudes. That does not mean it is an easy job, but it means that it is a rewarding, if demanding, and satisfying and yes, well paid job.
Now, one would THINK that Scientology Management would be 100% behind this as part of their policy on their admin scale to clearing planet Earth!
A business expands because of the excellence and affordability of its product or service to its targeted markets, and the expertise of its staff in producing and/or delivering its products and services.
How can the still ins not see this? I figured it out, eons ago you’ve all figured it out. How do they not see this?
Ok, I’m done.
Just to add some info, I don’t know if this was ever relayed to the blogs, when GAT II was released an order came down to the D/FBO’s of all orgs to round up all OEC and Technical Volume’s and individual Bullitens and Policy Letters along with Tech and Admin dictionarys for destruction by pulping. This was done under the command intention of KSW, eliminating incorrect technology. So right now, no org is in the strictest sense, supposed to have any OEC or Tech Vols since the new revisions are still not done. So we have Idle Morgs with no Tech or Policy to go back on. Just Command Intention now.
Yes, I heard this. Astounding. So you go into any Class V Org now and there are no Tech Vols! I wonder when an auditor gets a cram/pinksheet with a sited HCOB violation, what he looks at when star-rating it.
I got a chill when I read that there are no longer any tech vols or tech dictionaries or OEC’s in any of the Class V orgs. OMG. This is how they prevent you from looking up what LRH said versus what David “Let Him Die” Miscavige says. This is how they prevent people from applying KSW of knowing if they have the right technology. And this is how you decimate an org. It is pure evil being perpetrated by the ones who were brought into existence to ensure that everything was “on tech” and “on policy.” The RTC are the flying monkeys of David Miscavige doing his evil bidding.
Some think David Miscavige bought on the California drought. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/california-drought-abortion_n_7571584.html
Now that’s a good one.
That’s funny!
Less funny is the fact that the West coast drought is geo-engineered intentionally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsYG5emdZp8
You’re falling for another con. Really.
When I got to “Join us.” all I could think is that those two words should have done in a creepy looking 72pt font and read “Jooiinn uuss.”
What’s the deal about 190 staff members? I was on staff at St. Louis org from 1972 to 1975 and we had 190 staff members and the pay was still 15 bucks a week.
It dawned on me the first month in scientology that no one on staff ever went up the bridge. When I voiced this opinion loudly, it was not appreciated..
Disconnection in the Co$ is much like the ancient Roman “damnatio memoriae.” Roman generals and emperors would often try to erase the images of their predecessors by removing faces from statues and having inscriptions re-struck to make the former folks “disappear.” Voila! The previous regime did not exist. It translates to roughly “condemnation of the memory or reminder.” Heber never existed! What are you talking about? Sara Northrup never existed! They were removed from memory. Quite effective in many communities.
Yes, OTD, and even before the Romans, the Egyptian pharaohs did this also in their tombs.
And after the Romans, the Soviets and probably the Chinese and the North Koreans as well have tried to erase memories by the magic of photo retouching. Orwell covered this in “1984” — the process of making a declared “unperson” literally disappear from the historical record, which was constantly being rewritten by the Party.
When I was in, I would read or hear these plea’s every now and then. At first they impinged and then it became like the boy who cried wolf. It solidified that things were not getting better. I saw very little improvement over my 30 + years as a Scientologist. I would ask myself ” Why can’t these orgs expand??” I felt that it was a pretty good product (the auditing) (and some of the courses). Lots of people liked them at least and I knew many who wanted some of it. It was kind of pricey. I thought to myself; ” why don’t they just lower the prices and start paying the auditors 25 bucks an hour and limit the admin staff”? I have seen the best times in some Orgs was when they were paying the auditors well. I would ask execs about this from time to time and get all the tired excuses.. “not standard admin”, ” We are not a business”, etc, etc. Over the years I built up a lot of BPC on the whole subject that I didn’t even knew I had. When I read the Truth Rundown all of the mass blew. I knew what the REAL WHY was. It was that sick little bastard miscabbage. The little punk who thinks he knows it all but is really a very sick individual who loves to suppress others and accumulate wealth for himself.
Tony you asked this question. A question that would be asked by a benevolent person seeing Scientology as a service to humanity.
” why don’t they just lower the prices and start paying the auditors 25 bucks an hour and limit the admin staff”?
My opinion in answering this question is that L Ron Hubbard saw Scientology as a buisness. A buisness based on lies and deception. A Fraud with smatterings of benevolent cognitions in auditing.
The whole religion angle (serving humanity) was to avoid taxes (make money).
Have a cheap work force because of religious status (make money)
Avoid law suits, because of religious status, from false claims of healing (make money)
Ron cared more about money and power than people. He put sympathy below hate on the tone scale.
So his sympathies for suffering humanity extended only to the bank accounts of those under the spell (make money)
Ron was not sensitive to the suffering of humanity in truth. He penned “What is Greatness” as a hypnotic manipulation to bring his subjects under the spell of “what a wonderful messiah he is.”
What is Greatness is a piece of psycho manipulation. If Ron truly lived by What Is Greatness and truly believed in it’s value, he could have never never ever ever have written Fair Game, ruin utterly or Bolivar.
Ron’s messiaship was a hypnotic ruse. I believe this to be the answer to your question.
I don’t care what Ron wanted. I’m just saying that a lot of people enjoy auditing and I think it could be of benefit if ran in a business like way that made sense such as what I spoke of. I’m not talking OT levels. I’m talking people listening to others about their day to day problems. Auditing could help.
Oh, ok, got it Tony. Thanks for clarifying. 🙂
And yes I agree, auditing can help. I am all for looking, whenever it takes place.
That’s right Tony. I hear you!
“sick little bastard” is a good description. I laughed and laughed.
Several pies in the sky. In fact I’m feeling a little pie faced now while reading your letter Steve. But I’m feeling the pipe dream a little Steve. I won’t even have to fire up my opium pipe today. I’ve seen it all before. Be on staff forever. Make good money. Live in nice apartment. Get all the love and friendship you need from your teammates. Save the planet. Be completely protected from the cruel world and live in the utopia free of pain and suffering. Go all the way through OT levels FOR FREE! Be like Ron. Be one of the true heroes in the world.
What an euphoria?!!! During my SO times, this was at least weekly pep-talk starting from your direct senior and going higher: “Imagine…..”. Very fast I stopped disillusioning myself from this description of “Ideal Scene”. That would come from the execs who were low on the Bridge.
After 40 years still believing in 190 staff members? I think the guy started to smoke pot, since Oregon legalized the use from July 1st. Oh yes, he will do another Purif soon…
Add $1 and all the CO$ “command intention” in the world and you still won’t have enough money to buy a coffee at Starbucks.
Aside from all that malarky about helping mankind blah blah blah, I’d like to point out that being on staff in the church of scientology is not a “career”, it is servitude to an order. It is like being a priest or a nun. It is an ALTERNATIVE to having a career.
It is an ALTERNATIVE to having a personal life with personal goals and personal interests. It’s an alternative to having good sex, to going on vacations, to having a family and raising children. It is an alternative to teaching yourself how to install a new bathroom or learning a new language. Being on staff is an alternative to having a Bloody Mary in the afternoon and knowing it is perfectly okay to enjoy doing absolutely NOTHING productive! So, let’s just be clear on that, okay Steve?
I’d just as soon join the Unicorn Patrol or Space Rangers. At least in the Space Rangers I get a secret decoder ring.
If, after 40 years’ Steve hasn’t seen things go his way, why is he still around? That clown has drunk a lot of kool-aid.
Steve is actually a great guy. I will say one thing he is (was) a pretty good basketball player. Tough nosed defender.
I think that staying on staff for 40 years and still trying to promote CoS means he’s not just a tough-nosed defender, he’s a world-class defender. But what he’s chosen to defend…!
VOODOO Doughnuts, now there’s a place that doesn’t need any “Body routers”, 6 AM most mornings all ready lined up out the door and in the street, give em something they really, really want!!!
A free intensive with every 100 doughnuts?
Although an avid watcher of the slow implosion of Scientology both as a former member and as a relation of a current member, nothing has prompted me to reply before like a post about Voodoo Donuts has – – they are the Scientology of Donuts – – all hype and no delivery (okay, okay – they’re not a criminal enterprise….as far as we know). When in :Portland, head straight to Blue Star Donuts for world class donuts made from brioche dough. All the quality that Voodoo promises, none of the hype.
Hi Neptune, Good to meet you.For a little donut twist on my usual posts,thank you for your info.When I pick a donut all I want is for it to be fresh,have good ingredients,some part whatever I feel,chocolate,no donut backflash,no donut o/ws,& bring a touch of sweetness with my coffee.Ann.
“This statement is as true today as it was when LRH wrote it in 1983.” Yep, it’s exactly as true now as it was then.
Mr. Crandell starts out with telling us that he’s been on Staff for 40 years and is in the business to “save beings and get them up the Bridge.” I wonder how many of those “beings” he saw get Declared or quietly disappear from Scientology over the years. My guess is many of them and only a very few if any, are still left from when he became Staff 40 years ago. It wouldn’t really matter what happened to any of those people though, because Scientology is rapidly expanding world-wide and new people are flooding in.
As long as the attention is on getting 190 people on Staff, 28 auditors, 15 sups, etc., who cares? People are expendable, and they come and go with the wind.
Mr. Crandell ends with telling us to look at the Ethics point of “an optimum solution to any problem would be that solution which brought the greatest benefits to the greatest number of dynamics.” Who says that the reader even has a problem? Mr. Crandell does. He tells the reader that not being on Staff is a problem for them, when really the problem is his own. He uses shaming by pointing out that they are not really using their ‘Ethics tech’ and challenges their personal level of dedication to Scientology.
“It’s that simple.”
“Who says that the reader even has a problem?”
I laughed at this, Pepper. Lots of my staff recruitment cycles were begun with the premise that somehow I had this problem about joining staff when in fact I had no problem, I simply did not want to do it!
Hi Aqua, I was recruited for the S.O. for many years. In spite of telling the recruiters that I had a husband, children, job, etc. it didn’t phase them at all. They were set to convince me that my abilities would be better utilized in the S.O. and that I would be so much happier, on purpose, etc. It was a little shocking to me that they would actually think I would leave my family and life behind to join the S.O. Crazy!
I would rationalize this behavior though and only try to see their side of things. Eventually I figured out that when I was approached by recruiters I would have to flat out refuse to see the S.O. film for the hundreth time. I also learned to say “No” when asked if I ever thought of joining the S.O. (I did but couldn’t say it anymore), even the very slightest thought. I used to feel mean doing this.
I can see how my comment would come off as not being empathetic to Mr. Crandell and I’m sure that he is a very nice person. Most Staff and S.O. are good people. Something about his letter took me back to my own recruitment cycles, including those I’ve seen others go through, and all of the covert manipulation that goes on in them. Whether Mr. Crandell is being knowingly covert, I can’t say but the concepts in his letter are certainly manipulative.
How many Portland Scientologists are actively on their Bridge vs. those who quit? Scientology causes vastly more people to quit than ever go up the Bridge. I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that it’s designed to suck the money & life out of the few who stay.
Great insight/observations/comments, Pepper!
ML, One Point Won
I once was asked to do a metered interview on a very high exec. I wondered why me….I’m not OT III or above.
When I was given his folder I was totally surprised to see not only was he not OT he hadn’t done all of his Grades. I audited many SO members (when their stats were up) and found a majority of them had not done the grades or above, aside from those who did so before joining the SO. It was hard to do a grade chart action on them as low stats and lower conditions reverted to handling out ruds and pts situations once they could receive auditing again. Setting aside low stats and lower conditions as a stumbling block to taking these well deserved folks up the grade chart, trying to get them sessionable was the main reason most SO staff never received auditing at all. I would suggest that speed of expansion is truly the problem of management but not in the way this guy above is talking about. He wants 28 auditors four of which would audit 190 staff members? This comes from a guy who, after 40 years, appears to have not made it up at least one side of the grade chart? This is his reality…. four auditors to handle 190 staff? Nothing new here. Same old management, same low to nonexistent pay and same old bullshit.
SO ‘volunteers’ don’t need auditing, they have ‘no case on post’. No case = nothing to handle = no ‘reactive mind’ = OT. Or it could mean I have a crashing mu or maybe the whole scam is just that, a scam. It’s a scam for paying public and a scam for staff choosing this ‘volunteer’ career path.
Hi Potpie,Interesting post.That is why I donated a bunch of money for auditing when I joined SO.Evidently word got around & I was besieged with requests from Asho D & F members to borrow $ to pay for them too.Being very young it seems to me now & kind hearted about The Bridge back then,I tolerated the requests till GOI took me over.Ann
Steve and Diane Crandell (Snr C/S there last I knew) did at least through OT V many years ago. Steve is also OEC/FEBC trained I believe. Now back at the bottom of the Bridge and the “SRD”. They are dedicated, true believers.
So where’s the bit about no pay and this being a “volunteer” career?
I suspect it’s forty years of “intangible ” rewards and benefits. And the “best” is yet to come.
Meanwhile, we all look at each other and whisk the air by our temples and whistle…
Hey, that’s right, Simi! They’re all VOLUNTEERS! The only money they’ll receive is what the cult gives them. And we all know how that’s going to work out…
This is not the best time to be on staff. The best time to be on staff is AFTER the pay has risen to be comparable to what you would make in the wog world. What could be more obvious? And if you consider going up the bridge to be a good thing, the best time to be on staff is AFTER current staff had gotten some OT levels under their belts.
That letter is stuffed with many generalities. Pay is getting better and better? Show me the stats, or hit the road.
Three decades of observing Scientology Class V org staff come and go has shown me that the only ones able to make a “career” out of this job are those who are 1) fully financially supported by a spouse who is not on staff, or 2) by parents or family, usually not on staff, or, 3) in possession of an independent and reliable income sufficient to make moonlighting unnecessary.
I know longterm org staff of middle age still essentially dependent upon family to pay their bills while moonlight as they’ve been doing for decades, shifting from job to job, business to business, never sticking with anything.
Then there are the teenage children of these middle aged staff, the kids who have quit high school and signed staff contracts, as well as the pushing 30-somethings and pushing 40-somethings STILL living with Mom and Dad and fully supported by them.
To these, add a sprinkling of TFRs and you have the Class V orgs’ “stable staff terminals”.
I used to marvel at this because one hears so much about job shortages, people of all ages desperate for jobs and if staff paid a living wage the orgs would be flooded with applicants and could take the best, the most able, the most dedicated, and Scientology could not help but grow.
But year after year I saw brite, enthusiastic, well meaning people just fall by the wayside because they couldn’t support themselves adequately and still do their staff jobs, at least for any significant length of time. I felt badly for these nice people who would simply disappear one day (so bizarre but that’s another topic) By some miracle – and I do mean MIRACLE, I never permitted myself to be snagged.
Edit: TFBs, not TFRs. (Trust Fund Babies.)
Congratulations to you Aqua. It was not a miracle that kept you off staff, but a smart cookie who can look and see the outpoints and eventually woke completely up and got the heck out. My hat is off to you and all who were brave enough to leave.
In a way is sad as this ED honestly feels is his career and has dedicated all his time to make it so; nothing wrong with the purpose or dedication.
And we got back to the lesson many of us have learned since: ‘belief”, which became the road of blindness.
In a way it causes psychosis as one is living in one small ‘bubble’ while the rest of humanity is living life in the world.
Hi SILVIA, Good to meet you.I like your post.”the road of blindness”,so true and so hard to find a way out forward or backward when all around is nothing but blackness.When I emerged into “life in the world” that first year out I literally thought I was seeing the world as in a dream.Only four years in the SO bubble & I was that detached from the reality of life.This is why I have such deep respect & admiration for all those in Going Clear… Mike Marty Paulette all those that were in for years & years at the highest levels & left.I can never thank them enough for paving the way & giving me the strength to tell my small experience with the incredible twisted force that is Dianetics, Scientology,& the barred prison it imposed on body mind & spirit.The years roll on for me & I’m still seeing the damage & using all my true intention & true force to expose all the harm that it did to me & so many countless others.It does this,sometimes loudly,sometimes softly, but always under cover of ultimate Control.Ann.
Well Steve, I have a few questions:
Do you realize that in your paragraph about your dreams for 190 staff you point out how far off that mark you are?
If I fell for the “free the planet” dream my practical side would want to know: If all the people your org has freed in 40 years were tallied up? how much of Portland has your org freed? a neighborhood ? A city block? A large apartment building? A wing? A floor?
I’m glad you’re happy with your accomplishments, but I’m pretty sure the planet is safe from Scientology.
…”free the planet…” That will actually happen when the cult is no more. That huge building in Portland is empty. Way empty. Beyond empty. Your voice will bounce off the walls. It’s as empty as empty can be. AND…IT’S NOT GOING TO GET ANY BETTER!
40 years. Man, what a waste of time and energy. And I’m still annoyed that I wasted a year of my time and a couple of thousand dollars twenty years ago.
Yep, that I can see that, Kevin. However, seeing as we just celebrated our Independence Day, I want you to reflect on the FREEDOM you now have NOW. What a difference you life is now! Enjoy being out of the cult! You’re actually free now. Not the cult kind of freedom, but, the Wog kind of freedom.
Hi Kevin,Good to meet you! And I am still very annoyed at the four SO years & the 21k I gave Asho F 41 years ago! Got to let it all go.Ann.
Good job Kevin. Unfortunately I chugged down a lot more kool aide and coughed up a bunch more hairballs before I figured it out! Some of us are endowed with more bone above the neck that we need.
🙂 Count me as one in your group, Coop.
I’d rather “join staff” of the Voodoo Doughnuts shop a couple blocks away from the Portland org. That way, at least I’d be delivering something people genuinely want (and are even willing to stand in line and wait for).
Hi trowl125,Good to meet you.I second your post! If we are ever in Portland we will stop at Voodoo Doughnuts for me a one time treat of the maple & bacon! So much yummier than SO fare.Ann
I’ll vouch for the straight up and vertical stats at VOODOO donuts. I was in Portland a couple months ago and there was a line a block long at VOODOO donuts. Although I made myself very available, just a couple blocks away at the Portland Ideal Org, I didn’t see one body router within several blocks, and this was on a Thursday about noon.
I know Steve and used to work with him. Nice guy BUT, like I was, he is sooo much brainwashed, he can’t see. I was too. Took me 2 years to disconnect completely and to come back into the real world.
Yes, these idle orgs are doing so well and stats are straight up and vertical they have to send bulk emails like the following;
Hi Everyone,
Help is needed by experienced painters at Los Gatos Org. Every room needs to be repainted. There is one Estates Manager there and it’s a huge job for one person. This is a chance to flow some power to this upstat, Ideal Org, and to LRH. If you are willing to donate some time, contact Heather at 408/466-8909. You will win as a result of helping!
ML,
Terri Knoll
Estates Mgr SNC
Terri, honey, I don’t think I’ll be able to make the ‘painting party.’ Now, I’m sure those who answer your call will, in fact, get wins from manual labor. And good for them. But I got the most precious win of all when I walked away from your cult: FREEDOM! So, count me out…
Hi Glenn,Good to meet you.I had to add a comment regarding the email.Just my take,but I do not feel Ron is waiting with bated breath on Target 2 or 3, to have power flow to him regarding painting the Los Gatos Idael Org.When I had to paint Big Blue all these bright primary colors in the hallways,before Asho moved over there,it ended up looking like Mr. Rogers met Romper Room.Which us oldsters will recall,even at 5 I disliked that show.I don’t recall Ron being particularly interested in the paint scheme.As long as it came in done perfectly on time.And Heather dear,just exactly what do I win? A huge headache from the paint fumes?At least that is not as bad as having to pour straight ammonia on these horrible old little tiles that lined the front entrance of Big Blue & scrape each one up with a dull screwdriver for over 6-7 hours.Ann.
“Flow power to LRH”??? He be daid, dude. I ‘specs they done cremated him, too, to be sure no one would ever find out what terrible condition he was in.
Hi thegman77,Yes didn’t I read or think that he was cremated the next day with no autopsy?No cos & SO member should know the condition he passed in.Got to keep the magic lamp lit & the nightmare alive & reaching for those $.Ann.
Glen,
IIRC Los Gatos Org beautified their building before the Ideal Org program started and it was a very nice place, inside and out. Then they were forced by the Ideal Org pgm to redesign and refurbish AGAIN. The ED was pretty stressed out even before the Ideal Org pgm began and the building was empty most of the time, except for a few dedicated staff. It would be interesting to know why they have to repaint the interior.
“This is a chance to flow some power…to LRH”
LRH is dead! His beingness has moved on to a higher state at Target Two, a place so unencumbered that he had to leave earth to get there and carry on his research in a superior zone! From his advanced condition he must know everything going on down here, at least with the CoS, and have greater powers than those of mere humans.
So why isn’t he flowing some power downward? That’s the way it normally works between a religion and its prophet or deity.
Delusional to say the least.
Don’t forget psychotic…
This is truly sad. The way that I see it is that there is a problem with imagination. In the first paragraph, Mr. Steve Crandell, ED says, “…I love my job and cannot imagine doing anything else.” Later in his desperate letter, he says, “We have room for over 190 staff each[sic] org. Imagine for a minute…190 staff.” First he can’t imagine something and then he wants everyone else to imagine something. Perhaps he needs to do a little 50s style Creative Processing to loosen up his imagination a bit.
Imagination is all fine and good, but when it comes to major decisions like career moves, I’m the sort that prefers to look at the facts. Mike laid these facts out pretty good. Staff pay, expansion, bridge progress, etc. that are all important to scientologists.
What I can’t imagine is how someone could possibly hang in there as a staff member for 40 years and ignore the real world that is all around them. I could care less what one’s beliefs are, but in 40 years you would think that the cognitive dissonance would be enough to make one’s head explode.
I can imagine this, the little trip that Mr. Crandell took to LA Org with Mr. Stanley to do some extensive training and apprenticeship involved a bit of good old fashioned body routing to get the Bodies in the Shop stats straight up and vertical. They should be thankful that they are back in Portland where things must be calmer.
Hi Mrs B. Haven,I liked your post and good to meet you. Your comment that in 40 years you would think the cognitive dissonance would be enough to make one’s head explode is true.I honestly do not know how public staff SO etc. continue on today each day with their assigned tasks.In the dark with blinders on.All except David Miscavige who seems to be strangely like a robot with no soul stuffing money as fast as he can away for that big rainy day that eventually will come to him.And a nice lightning strike would not hurt either.Ann.
I remember Diana Hubbard back in the day was talking at the Hollywood Palladium. She was up on stage telling us all that the planet would be cleared in a few years.
It was late 70s early eighties.
We all believed her. We left that talk in a heightened state of deluded emotional frenzy.
It reminds me of all the fundamentalists predictions of the end of the world that never come true, yet true believers still cling to the irrational.
The man who convinced you that:
“all critics are criminals” or
“invalidating the tech is a punishable ethics offense” or
“Scientology will grant you total freedom”
Is
A
Hypnotic operator.
When we unmask the “savior” we find an ordinary man with an unusual ability to convince you that lies are truth.
Just step back and think of the statement “all critics are criminals. We found this by research.” (paraphrased) L Ron Hubbard
All = every single person on the planet is a criminal if they disagree with Ron.
This mindset has placed a hypnotic wall in the Scientologist to never look closely at Ron’s promises (outcomes of auditing), for fear of being kicked out of the group and being defined as a criminal.
Equating criticism with overts is another hypnotic command.
So get this:
Anytime we look at the promises and see a discrepancy, it is our evil that is causing that.
Do we have any idea of the effect this voodoo has on sanity?
Instead of developing freedom, Ron Hubbard trapped us.
He knew what he was doing. And he did it for himself: power, money and ego.
Hi Brian,You made this week sing with your two posts today.Wow was I ever tangled up in Ron’s hypnotic web! I recall Diana coming twice to the Palladium for SO in late 70s & one much earlier too.Didn’t we all just float out of there our feet not touching the ground! Now I feel we were pulled on an invisible magnetic track that went to Diana passed on into the Tech & he was the puppet Master or slave Mind Master. Cameras in auditing rooms! I have enough trouble with these fancy color infrared night vision ones we had to have installed outside & inside our house here. Didn’t want them but there are those in Baton Rouge now,up to no good 24/7. When we hit 70 in about 5 years we are seriously thinking of a final move to Pensacola, Fla.Less crime, traffic & I like gazing at the ocean.I still can’t imagine holding those cans with a camera on me.With my penchant for identifying light bulbs about to blow in the old Asho auditing spaces, I’d cause the cameras to record backwards! Always Ann.
Really great post.
It is my belief that Hubbard’s “talent” was his imagination. His ability to convince others was not a talent, it was a natural result of being a sociopath. He was able to lie with utter conviction because he had no scruples. Historically people flock around men and women who make their pitch with great bravado. They can make the most outlandish claims but as long as they appear thoroughly confident, people will buy the Bridge they’re selling.
A common example of this is the success many bi-polar people have in getting otherwise savvy businessmen on board with outlandish deals. While in a manic phase they are utterly convinced they are best friends with Donald Trump and are his close financial advisor. It is their CONVICTION that sells the dumb deal and when they resume their medication they are remorseful about what they’ve done. To pull off a con you only need a good imagination and a twinkle in the eye. Oh, and one more thing is needed: a person who is easily seduced by promises also known as a “mark”.
Hi Roger,Great post!
.To my list of how not to join the SO,I must add now I was the perfect, sensitive, young, well read,with $,loving ,dreamer “mark” Ron could hope for at the time.Also gullible as anything! I hope I am growing up spiritually since those days.Always Ann.
Thanks Ann. Yep, I was signing my billion year contract five years after you did. I didn’t witness anything outrageous, just lots and lots and lots of little things that left me with the overall impression that the place was totally run by Mickey Mouse. It seemed like a bunch of kids playing at being grown-up. But yeah, I was ripe for the pickin’, a perfect mark.
The world is not coming to an end Brian, whether anybody in the world knows it or not. Quite the contrary life on Earth is just beginning from some. Mankind will survive. It is the lame ass Church of Scientology that likes to put that thought into already dazed people’s minds on Earth, to get them to turn over their money to the church so the church can turn out nothing in exchange worth the money they were given unfortunately. It is the end of the Church of Scientology and a new dawn for Mankind, led by people like you, me and others……. 🙂 Can you imagine giving up your 9 to 5 job to go scrub out a garbage dumpster with a tooth brush because some church amnesiac wants you to know you were a bad boy! Courts in the United States of America don’t even hand out sentences like that or in South America either as far as I know! 🙂 We are the pioneers, not the Church of Scientology. It is a race and we must not lose it this time. 🙂
Hi Lawrence,Excellent post.We are the pioneers & I think that is why all in The Cult of Scientology kick & scream like total crazed KoolAid drinkers that they are,when anyone dares shine a light on their abusive,all the way around system.It is a race,& it is the cult who believes with deadly intensity they will win it.I say don’t be so sure, throughout time great empires have fallen & will do so again.Ann.
Hi Roger,Thank you for your post.Yes we were marks yet The SO the entire structure was outrageous from top to bottom.I feel we both had different degrees of that probably but in the long view I was a slave.Not just to Ron,but to the whole auditing & training Tech, the whole promise of OT beingness of clearing the planet & putting ethics in on the universe.Your take on kids playing grown ups run by Mickey Mouse is most interesting for me.I wish I had had that hindsight when I was in.I was deadly serious about it all at the start & for some years along the way.Sometimes I have had those out say, Oh Ann you are joking you never would have died in the SO!Well with what I know today & what my mind set was then, I most certainly would have.I love reading all the posts here,in a way they help me look at aspects of my journey in & out of cos & SO I might miss.Always Ann