You probably remember when the poster above was being used everywhere.
Miscavige flew into Atlanta and yanked his ribbon there in July 2016. Nearly 5 years ago.
According to Hubbard, within a few weeks it should have been St. Hill size and then continued to expand exponentially from there. They have had more than plenty of time to accomplish their “10X expansion across their zone.”
Of course, when you are a zero to begin with, 10X is still zero and that is what you see in Atlanta. In fact, all of Georgia. And Mississippi and South Carolina. Not even a mission anywhere in sight. Narconon basically run out of town. And as for the “ideal” org — this is a drive through in the middle of the day when they are advertising an “Open House”. Three cars and a VM Van. You wonder if they even have 3 staff?
The still below is the sign for the Open House though its very hard to read.
Thanks to one of our supporters for taking the time to shoot this video. Anyone in other cities with Ideal Orgs that would like to send in videos documenting their morgue state, please feel free to do so. If you have a video just note it in the comments and I will send you an email address to forward it to.
Henry George died in 1897 but he explained the post in his book “Progress and Poverty” which was the most popular book of his age. George ran for mayor of New York City but was smart enough to avoid the word socialism. He took a minor position recommending a rent tax which was rejected. Hubbard would have been the exact opposite of Henry George with his emphasis on slave labor. Henry George’s book is obviously out of date but the simplicity of his truth is clear. Labour is at a significant disadvantage when compared to Capital and Land ownership. Scientology is probably the mot extreme case of a screwed up economic system. Intense Capital, intense Land Ownership but no respect for any kind of labour.
What about Alabama? I personally know of one Scientologist in the Birmingham area. Is Scientology making progress in this state?
Nope
If one searches there are probably 15 – 20 videos of Ideal Morgues on Youtube. ALL reveal empty buildings with few to no public. The oldest one I saw was from about 15 years ago. So, basically only the FSO has any paying public on a continuing basis. After a couple days watching these I have changed my estimate of the number of non-staff REAL scamologists in the USA from ~5,000 to no more than 1,000. (I’m not counting active Solo Nuts people as they cannot be tracked like this)
O/T but regarding buildings and finances.
The Norwegian Newspapers Dagens Næringsliv (conservative) and Klassekampen (far-left) [dn.no and klassekampen.no] have been focusing on foreign ownership of property in our capitol Oslo.
In Klassekampen this little tidbit of information was revealed:
*** quote ***
Også USA er en del av systemet som lar de rike og mektige skjule eierskap og unngå skatt. Her er det riktignok store variasjoner mellom delstatene. Blant delstatene som har lavest skatt og mest hemmelighold, finner vi Joe Bidens hjemstat Delaware.
Religiøs utdanning
Neste adresse på rundturen i Oslo er Østre Aker vei 20. Her holder Statens lånekasse for utdanning (Lånekassen) til. Selskapet som de leier av, heter ØAV20 AS. Selskapet er eid av et International Buildings Investments Inc., som er registrert i nettopp Delaware.
Og eieren bak?
– Vi solgte til Scientologi-kirken, sier eiendomsutvikler Christen Wikborg.
Det har ikke lyktes Klassekampen å få kommentar fra den internasjonale Scientologikirken om hvorfor de har valgt å strukturere eierskapet på akkurat denne måten.
Som en religiøs organisasjon er Scientologikirken unntatt skattlegging. Unntaket omfatter imidlertid ikke aktivitet som er urelatert til den religiøse virksomheten.
Med et selskap registrert i Delaware unngår man å måtte betale skatt til Delaware på inntekter utenfor delstaten.
*** / quote / ***
Paywall:
https://klassekampen.no/utgave/2021-05-29/oslos-ukjente-skattekart
*** Google Translate ***
The United States is also part of the system that allows the rich and powerful to hide ownership and avoid taxes. Admittedly, there are large variations between the states here. Among the states with the lowest taxes and secrecy, we find Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware.
Religious education
The next address on the round trip in Oslo is Østre Aker vei 20. This is where the State Education Loan Fund (Lånekassen) is located. The company they rent from is called ØAV20 AS. The company is owned by an International Buildings Investments Inc., which is registered in Delaware.
And the owner behind?
– We sold to the Church of Scientology, says property developer Christen Wikborg.
Klassekampen has not succeeded in getting a comment from the International Church of Scientology on why they have chosen to structure the ownership in exactly this way.
As a religious organization, the Church of Scientology is exempt from taxation. However, the exception does not include activities that are unrelated to the religious activity.
A company registered in Delaware avoids having to pay tax to Delaware on income outside the state.
*** / translate / ***
Norway is quite transparant come information regarding companies, so the following data is gained from public records for ØAV20:
https://proff.no/selskap/%C3%B8av20-as/oslo/-/IF9RN040000/
the company board:
https://proff.no/roller/%C3%B8av20-as/oslo/-/IF9RN040000/
The Delaware company seems to own buildings in Denmark as well.
https://api.lassox.com/data/cvr/report?id=39828282/ZG9rdW1lbnRsYWdlcjovLzAzLzQ5LzFiL2QwL2I2LzExNWYtNDg2Yy04ZDcxLTUxNmJmM2RiYzFhMg.pdf
Recruiters had managed to gather over 200 staff for day org and well over 100 for foundation for the grand opening. Within one year that number was halved, and two years later that number was only just over 10 percent left. Amongst the staff for grand opening were trainees from flag that were not yet complete on their training, those mostly would go back to flag several months after the excitement of the grand opening had faded.
Amongst the grand opening staff were people that were disaffected staff of other orgs, that were promised a new and standard environment. Oops.
Child care had been promised for those with young children. A few months after the opening, child care was being done in the org, using places such as the unused KTL courseroom, and the walls in that room eventually looked like a daycare room. The plug eventually was pulled. Staff with young children left, except for the diehards, that took their kids to the org.
I can see that most of what is being done now in scientology is for showing the still-in scientologist that their donations do something. It’s not for clearing the planet as they think.
And of the several hundred staff on grand opening, my best guess is around twenty in total still remain. Those twenty would probably be there regardless of a full confession by DM himself.
That is fascinating, specific information. Were you either staff or public in Atlanta that saw this, or did you get this information form someone who was there in either capacity?
I was staff.
When we were sitting and watching the event just a few months after the grand opening, Jason Hemphill was bragging about the stats of the newly opened ideal org, we both looked at each other and said “Is he talking about Atlanta??” The numbers he was coming up with didn’t match what we knew about the real stats, and we were very familiar with the real stats.
It was a hot mess.
I knew it was the beginning of the end with so much regging of staff going on. This org was the poster child of financial irregularities. I came to my senses and realized that scientology is one big financial irregularity.
Atlanta Guy, thanks for the deets! I’m amazed that they actually managed to staff an org with numbers like that outside of California, where it’s easier for them to temporarily shuffle staff between locations and get members in the region to sign what are called something like “postulate” contracts – they only have to show (back) up if and when the org reaches a certain level of business, which of course never happens.
If they had half of 300 original staff a year later, still, what were 150 people doing?!
If I have it right, the Atlanta opening was in early 2016. By the time Orlando opened two years later, they couldn’t manage to raise more than a couple of dozen staff, from what I could tell looking at pictures found immediately after – though maybe a lot were pulled out of Clearwater for the event, and then quickly retreated. Cincinnati and Kansas City were and are reportedly staffed by a lot of Sea Org, which I assume was to make up for being unable to recruit regular staff. It seems that openings may be quickly losing steam, though we need more insider accounts like yours to confirm what’s really going on.
I’m curious what it is that keeps the twenty?
I’ll guess even if they heard from Hubbard himself that Hubbard felt he’d failed (as was the case, Hubbard did admit failure at the end of his life, told in the final pages of “Going Clear…” book by Lawrence Wright), the diehards, the twenty, would still carry on.
Those final diehards “holding the fort” manning their staff positions, against all things (bad management bad strategic management, being used as show pieces, even Hubbard’s admission of failure), they won’t give up their fort.
I think Hubbard would have had to issue a lot more orders in the end of his life, to have dissolved this Scientology movement.
There’s several episodes of a US TV series, “The Path” which have similar aspects to how the founder of “The Path” before he died, said the “Path” was something all caught up in it ought to move on from.
Had Hubbard more methodically admitted failure widely to the movement, and consciously dissolved Scientology’s whole cult bureaucracy setup, then that would have been somewhat effective.
But Hubbard’s writings do still exist, and the writings don’t order the self dissolving of the movement, instead the writings are the framework to build a “movement.”
And there will be always those that despite all the downsides, they’ll “keep the show on the road”, and “hold the fort” and the Hubbard writings and lectures framework is sufficient for them to keep holding onto.
(I worked in staff training, I used to be an OEC/FEBC and outer org staff training department course sup and word clearer at Flag, and witnessed firsthand the diehard class of Scientology staffers like your final 20 at Atlanta today. Training the diehards and wannabe diehards was my little role in the ongoing Scientology cult bureaucracy upkeeping mess of it all.)
Thanks for this recon. So morgues are turning into mission-sized entities. It’s possible that some staff commute together, or were gone at the time of the drive-through, but it still seems that their daytime headcount is down to just a handfull of people. I’m guessing this was a weekday and that, predictably, there would be somewhat more cars on a weekend or in the evening.
Atlanta is a metro area of over six million people. Though Scientology is probably affected by the same limit as churches and the sort businesses that people patronize regularly, that as distance increases over 15 to 20 minutes’ travel time, few and fewer are willing to go to the trouble of traveling that far, and so the org really only effectively draws from a part of the area more the size of a small city. The strategy of building single massive “ideal” orgs has actually limited them, though even a more robust network of locations including missions would probably only increase their membership marginally as general interest in scientology has dwindled.
O/T. This post contains an anecdote that Mike told in his recent podcast with Jon Atack. I am paraphrasing this anecdote here because I think it is just the funniest thing I’ve ever heard Mike say. I really hope you will enjoy this as much as I did and I enjoyed it plenty!
Please note that from now on, I have decided to call Tubby KIA (Mr. Know-It-All) because I think the main thing about the man is that he truly believed he knew everything.
In a terrific recent podcast by Mike Rinder and Jon Atack titled, “Scientology and the Myth of the RM (Reactive Mind)”, Mike explained how KIA pulled this amazing trick on his dupes concerning the RM. Here is a link to that podcast:
https://tonyortega.org/2021/05/29/mike-rinder-on-the-myth-of-the-reactive-mind-and-how-scientology-still-ropes-in-new-people/
I transcribed the part of the podcast where Mike explains this trick concerning the RM. The conversation about the RM begins around the 16:35 mark of the podcast.
——————————————————————————————————————–
Please excuse me for paraphrasing what Mike said in the following transcript. OK. Here goes:
Mike began by saying, “The creation of the RM was a stroke of absolute genius on the part of KIA because if you are trying to hook people, the best way to hook them is to tell them that whatever it is that is their problem is not their fault. Mike next quotes what KIA said about the RM:
And not only is it not their fault, only we have the means to slay this monster. Everyone has this monster called the RM in their minds and it affects every single human on this earth and it ultimately destroys them and they don’t even know it’s there. But we do. I am the first person in history that has discovered this monster and I not only discovered it, but I also developed the weapon to slay it. And for X dollars, I will slay your monster for you.
And what is even more incredible, is that when you get to the end of the road of the reveal, I will tell you that you the monster never really existed and you just imagined its existence all along.
Were it not for your belief that monster existed, it would never have existed in the first place. In fact, you didn’t believe it existed before I told you it existed and you paid me to help you get rid of it and once we got rid of it, I told you that it never really existed. It was all created by you and I’m not going to give you your money back.
——————————————————————————-
Mike? You called KIA a “genius” or maybe you just described this trick he pulled as being “genius”. But I wouldn’t go that far. Einstein was a genius. Leonardo Da Vinci was a genius. But, IMO KIA was not a genius. He was just an extremely slick con man.
Hello, Sir, can you tell me if this is the Christian Science Reading Room? My cousin from Florida said be sure to check out the big beautiful but empty CS Reading Room when I passed through Atlanta. Said it was a nice but empty, building – just like this place here. But my cuz didn’t say anything about a yellow delivery van. Anyway, I left my card stuck in the crack of the front door, so if anyone wants to get back to me that would be great.
Your friend,
Wiley C. Alamo, Sr.
Chief Process Server, Acme Server Corporation.
“We Specialize In Short Cases!!!”
Locashuns:
Lost Angels, CA,
East Grimier-stead, GB
Joe’s Burg, SA
Clear’Un Derwater, FL
Imagination Station, Venus
That’s a funny thing to ask – you went to a building, left your card in the front door but you do not know what that building was ? Surely you would know what type of building it was before leaving your card in the door – or do you just at random drive around, find buildings, park there and then enquire what it is ?
Its not suprising that org has little people – aren’t they in lockdown at the moment ? Are they even allowed to operate ?
AA, one of my ruses for checking out an org or mission, is to walk in and say I’m looking for Christian Science – it’s an understandable confusion. That provides an opening to ask, if it’s not that, what is it, and what goes on there, etc. – while having firm ground to stand on, that Scientology is not what I’m actually looking for.
Speaking of visits, I discovered that the Boston org’s current long-term “temporary” location is actually in a storefront across the street from a CS Reading Room that a congregation has shrunk down to after abandoning their church – while scientology is up on the third floor of a low-rent building that has government benefits offices on the first floor, and locked bathrooms because of the sort of clientele served. The org is there after seling a fabulous old mansion in a prime location that they had long owned, supposedly to soon move to an even bigger “ideal” facility, in a mismanaged project that has never come to fruition and at this point maybe never will.
How are these failing orgs financed for ongoing expenses? Who pays the bills? Is the mother church having to fork out the money to keep the ruse going?
Sandy, there are a couple of known cases of orgs being bailed out of deep financial holes by international management. I suspect there has been more of that, and more subtle support like struggling orgs being cut a break on the payments due “uplines”, that we just don’t know about – and that is becoming more common as scientology declines.
I’m also wondering if the pandemic won’t have pushed a lot of orgs into the red, and caused Miscavige to support them by dipping into the vast reserves that are in fact intended for just such emergencies. It’s a typical dynamic that once such a line is crossed, it can become the norm. I’ve long thought it inevitable that the CofS would end up subsidizing local orgs in order to keep the doors of the massive ‘ideal’ buildings open and sustain the illusion of ‘expansion’, and we may have reached that point.
I do really wish we had some recent local org and international management defectors who could tell us exactly what is actually going on with respect to things like this.
I’m also curious to see reports of how many of the missions that still had a physical presence like a storefront or office, have finally closed for good in the last year.
That video is pathetic. A cell phone unedited. I just posted a great one that highlights the same thing in hwd. You know, Mike, I always support you. You could, maybe just once, highlight one of my videos? I have contributed to your show for three seasons, I edited Karen DLC’s “My friend Mike Rinder” video. What is wrong with throwing me a bone once in a while? Get out of your bubble. Stop ignoring Anonymous in favor of the same ex-scis you always support. Work harder at losing the “clique” concept Sci installed in you 🙁 https://youtu.be/cEF23O6eOeA
Well, I certainly appreciate your support. But your first sentence is, to put it mildly, in poor taste.
What do you possible hope to gain by making such an ugly comment about someone who is clearly trying to do good by taking the time to shoot a video and send it to me? I was not asking for anything other than UNEDITED footage. It shows what it shows. It does not need music, or cuts or commentary or chyrons or anything else. That you would chose to deride it and the person who did it is awful. You are trying to make yourself seem superior at the expense of someone else who is genuinely trying to help? Why?
I watched your video. It does not show empty ideal org parking lots anywhere? It shows you taunting two Sea Org members, one in front of the Test center on Hollywood Blvd and another walking down Ivar Ave at the HGB.
It is my personal opinion that taunting individual scientologists is counter-productive. You are not accomplishing anything with them other than increasing their certainty that Hubbard is right about the wog world.
You can do what you want. And you have done a lot of good work. If you have unedited footage of empty ideal org parking lots or empty ideal orgs, please feel welcome to send to me and I will be happy to use it. That is the style I choose to maintain for this blog. It is really a simple thing and has nothing to do with cliques or whatever else you might have imagined to be the case.
This is not really about your blog or the parking lot video post. Your show paid me $150 in Season 1 for Gold Base photos. That means you are my employer. This is about you being my Hwd producer and I want to discuss your choice of what you promo on A&E/this blog etc.
I apologize to you re: previous comm line and I meant no offense to the well meaning and diligent person who posted the Atlanta report. Don’t be intimidated by Anonymous. My comment was just a final video straw remark as a childish means of getting your attention. It highlights my frustration at what I think is an unintentional bias you/Leah/others have as previously brainwashed people. I simply want to give some constructive criticism to try and get you up to the next dynamic, the dynamic beyond interviewing the same old non-Anons.
Recognize Anonymous exists!
While I am so glad A&E used much of my work on the show few of you Ex’s ever even slightly recognize my, or other Anons like AnonOrange and Nasty Nathanial, exist. Only Karen DLC, who is known for teamwork w/Anons, gets it!
I feel you are not consciously slighting us, you just are struggling to understand that we exist. In the next dynamic up.
You are in a kind of bubble world snow globe like the FL shot EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. I realize being emotionally naked for a cause in the mass media can at times be overwhelming. BUT:
RE HYPOCRISY I NEVER BAD MOUTH LRH in front of Scis. TONY ORTEGA constantly does that online and yet you promote him. He displays a constantly insecure smarminess on the subject. Fine. I only black PR LRH on March 13thin the presence of Scis. I almost never do that. This video explains at about the halfway mark:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpNM3KOaNeY
RE: THE VIDEO shows the empty parking lot at the Hollywood Inn. It is news to record what this location is up to and record it professionally.
We ask:
Hi.
How are you?
Where are you on the bridge?
Would you like to come talk to us and tell us if you are vaccinated or not?
Where is [PAC security guard] Parker Osmon?
I know the delivery is smarmy but the journalism is real. And concerned questions. Ron Miscavige’s book cover is clearly seen/promoted. The entheta is real for the guard. He stops disseminating Scientology. I throw in an educational Karen DLC video re: TWTH. Why can’t you throw us a bone to promote it? How is this inferior to a Chris Shelton video?
Perhaps you are broken and unable to work on a team from outside. I hope not! Relax! What more in this video is not “entheta” enough for you to recognize Nasty Nathanial and I did it? We both have credits in your Disney show. It is diligent for you, as a Producer/team player, to eventually recognize the contributions of the cast and crew. If you want to go to the next level in Hwd you must be more at cause. Relax!
I’m clumsily expressing my frustration at the rut going on as you re-interview people. I am so tired of promoting you ex’s behind the scenes. Do you know how many times I have discussed w/my lawyer GB how he should be on your podcast/radio show? Or how about having me on? I sell sell sell you behind the scenes.
Karen covered AnonOrange’s lawyer’s house burning down. Why can’t you folks? Why was AnonOrange’s Gold Base beating verboten in your promo campaign? Why don’t you promote anything I did with Karen? Her videos we did are great! You don’t need to post every day, esp. re: parking lots.
How much aftermath foundation do we have to promote in Hwd before you realize we exist?
GAY POPE BEING NICE PLAYLIST: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0YZZgj1G04rnj3w1cU_jEC07oc3zBRI4
How about promoting something like this video:
https://youtu.be/7STlkd-WSeY – Quiet Enturbulation
https://youtu.be/vtWsz0kIgFM – We promote Aftermath foundation
I understand how you don’t like jokers and degraders. I don’t care. I want to get them in trouble with DM. Also, they have had me charged/arrested for just standing on the street. I have every right to enturbulate them.
The point is I am trying to prevent your blog from falling into a rut by being not at cause and unable to go to the next dynamic.
WHAT IF
Just because part of what AGP does is controversial does not mean it all is
DM does not want you to reach out to DM. The Angry Gay Popes have a Vendetta against each other you know.
Always playing the victim is wrong. You have a lot of legal issues over your past behavior re: OSA. I get it.
I don’t need to do this. I’m just a Wog/Sci in name only trying to help you.
But you all live in a bubble. You will not give back.
Against my better judgment, I’m going to reply one time and then this topic will be closed.
First, you have a fundamental lack of understanding about TV production. Production companies hire firms who license and pay for footage for them. I am not a production company, let alone a licensing firm. In season 1 I was not even an Exec Producer of the Aftermath. Even as an Exec Producer I would not license images. Nor “hire” anyone. That is the production company.
You say you didn’t mean any offense to the “diligent person” who took the Atlanta footage — yet you said it was “pathetic.” Clearly, you did mean offense otherwise why be so directly insulting?
And this is sort of the crux of the problem. I have a personal aversion to the style of your activism. It does not mean you are wrong. It only means I don’t like it. Yet you seem to think I have an obligation to “promote” or praise you. You want to argue with me about whether you are taunting someone in the video by listing every question and then say “how is this different than Chris Shelton?” and “why won’t you throw me a bone?” Simple answer, I have never seen Chris Shelton make a video in front of a scientology org asking questions like this of anyone. And I think if you ask Chris Shelton he will agree with me that these low-level scientologists are not the correct target, they are victims of mind control.
You say: “I understand how you don’t like jokers and degraders. I don’t care.” Your first sentence is correct. But apparently you do care. Quite a lot.
As you also correctly state, you don’t need to do this. Great for fighting the good fight. Because you oppose scientology doesn’t mean I have agree with you on how you go about doing things.
And just as you say you don’t care, I can honestly tell you that I don’t care about your insults that I live in a bubble, am an elitist, play the victim or “have a lot of legal issues.”
Sorry to disappoint you, but as the old saying goes, you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Something I have found to be very accurate.
The red Avalanche automobile in the back parking lot is the ED Day Debbie Benk’s automobile.
She and her deceased husband Dr. Joel Benk had donated over four million and several of their children to the cult.
But please do not feel sorry for her. She adds her own twist to keep the cult surviving.
She recently returned after being Re-re-re-retrained as an executive. Such a misuse of the word.
The cult of scientology is never satiated.
BTW, the event that the LA executive announced the statistics of the newly opened org back then did not reveal true stats if the org. Also included in the event was the falsehood that staff being reged and paying for their own services was kindly omitted.
O/T Maybe this has been commented on here before; if so I apologize. Has anyone watched The Kominsky Method? Particularly the last few episodes of season 2 and all of season 3? Scientology figures heavily into it. It is played for laughs and the topic is money. I’d love to know other peoples’ reactions. I loved it!
I just watched the entire season 3 and it was great. Whoever wrote these had done their homework on Scientology or maybe an ex is writing for the show. I highly recommend any Scientology watchers to watch The Kaminsky Method. The cult plays a hilarious staring role this season with Hayley Jo Osmond playing a “ Flag Trained Reg”!
Thanks for this tip Sandy.
I had tried to watch this show in the past but seeing it with Osmond playing an FTR (is that a valid abbreviation?) should make it a lot more fun to watch.
The end of season 2 was brilliant with Haley Joel Osment in “A Thetan Arrives”, so I was curious if that story line would be continued. Thanks for the heads up! Netflix https://www.netflix.com/title/80201680
For what I have seen first hand in my years in SO is that all the so called SH size and ideal orgs that were done in the EU in the early 2000s were done with miles of butt-kicking and absolutely impossible schedules.
But obviously as you let go of the pressure everything went back to how it was before (in some cases worse). Nothing was achieved naturally but under so much pressure. It is obvious that nothing would hold up.
This in scn is called stat push, pushing in all possible ways so that something happens without following a natural path of growth. But then it’s the end.
Ideally, all Ideal mOrgs will be staffed by 80 year old clams who would rather be watching Judge Judy or Matlock reruns instead of showing you to the video kiosk. Because a stupid video can’t provide the salesmanship that is needed to get new meat into a course. Slow death it is, but it is still death.
That is how Miscavige is hiding his little cult from law enforcement and the press. ‘We so little and dying that you shouldn’t waste your time going after us’.
I will say that KC’s been trying, bless their hearts. I got a photo of a roadside sign (the kind that usually offers to buy ugly houses) promoting Dianetics, but the number went unanswered. I also saw a bunch of mailers in the recycling bins in my neighborhood a few months ago with the same number printed. The drive-bys I’ve done have shown no activity at all, but since they’re downtown it’s much harder to check parking than at the old org in midtown. I will say that the giant building photo that they show is incredibly misleading. The doors on Grand (the busy street) are closed off and except for a couple of lights, it looks dead. The building is tall, but has a pretty small footprint, and the parking lot that they show is across the street and a separate property from the morgue.
Mike, Thank you for covering the phenomena of “ideal org” with regularity, and thank you to folks in this blog community for passing along intel to Mike. This scheme-y scam is one of the BIGGEST ‘Emperor has No Clothes’ things C of S has going.
While you are in, you are prohibited from exposing yourself to anything negative about C of S. Many of us bought the raucous scam—that each person (org staff included) needed to take on a hundred thousand dollars or more of debt to “handle our area” and be a genuine participant in “salvaging this sector.”
Instead, these turn into exactly as is reported here: morgues, not anything “ideal” about it. No bustling public flooding in, no wage stability for hardworking org staff. Then, while you are struggling in a sea of “present time problems,” working to stay on top of all your high-roller debt, you find yourself commanded to attend MORE ideal org fundraisers (whaaaaa?) where you learn you are next responsible for helping to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for ideal-orgs-in-progress in your region.
At some point, one has to read the penmanship on the PC folder: This group is about scamming you for all of your assets and compelling (requiring) you to go into deep debt to participate. Though we re-hash this reality frequently in our blog community here, it remains to me so stunning. I felt bound to offer it up again. It’s madness, including the practice is heavy-duty contrary to the notion of doing things that are “pro-survival.” No, instead, it is a madness most vivid. How many economically non-affluent people get damned to financial hell for years with this roving, ongoing “ideal org” scam. It is heartbreaking.
I’m with Leah: I wish these ideal orgs would be forced to liquidate and pay all of us back. Correct the fraud that was perpetrated, including and especially, as a Now-Out, I am educated on how many several millions of dollars the C of S has. If management desire is to re-make itself in beautiful buildings with top-notch décor, do like any business does: do it, self-fund, go for it. Why did they need to scam so many naïve parishioners and org staff members out of their already modest financial assets? The more I am out, the more I study, the more I mentally tackle, the more I see this is some refined villainous behavior.
Though, thanks to these efforts of Mike, Leah, so many others, there is hope for realizing the notion stated by MLK, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
What is that sound—a drain with decomposing stuff swirling down it?
Dear Peridot:
You are absolutely correct. Although the cult scheduled me to arrive in a morgue 19 years ago (I was dying from untreated AIDS for my last 13 years in the Sea Organization and my wife was commanded to put me in a hospice to die) my then wife who they had held against her will had the audacity to take me to an actual hospital instead of sending my body into the ovens as was Command Intention.
After being treated by actual doctors rather than the Witch Doctor the cult sent me to I recovered quickly from Full-Blown AIDS. My heart only pumps a quarter of the normal amount of blood but without the doctors it would not be pumping any. (I say pumping, but on the EchoCardiogram it does not appear to be pumping, it just wiggles a bit on the edges).
But I must admit that I was wrong about something.
For a dozen years or more I told various crew of the Freewinds that the only way off of the ship was in a box. In that I was very close to being correct. The Captain Freewinds who made a point to me rather loudly that he was the only Right Arm Captain in the SO and that even DM would never tell him what to do told my wife that my death was imminent.
Peridot and Bill,
Thank you both for your powerful testimonies.
I get so frustrated when I hear/read people dismiss the
Hell of Scientology as some silly cult or ridiculous church,
without bothering to inform themselves, even cursorily, about
its crimes and abuses.
Gotta keep pushin’ that rock, though, until the very end…
Tick tock, Fleet Admiral McSavage.
Peridot, what’s “ideal”, from McSavage’s viewpoint, is there’s so LITTLE for him to “manage”. He & his speech-writers must spend all his days thinking up how to spin every little thing into a humongous WIN for his diminishing little enterprise. It must be depressing when he gets the (relatively) true stats and realizes through his alcoholic haze that there ain’t nothing anywhere that good happening anywhere within his tiny little fiefdom except shrinkage, and no guy enjoys “shrinkage”.
“Madness Most Vivid” ~ A great ‘tag line’ for all things Co$!
Wow. All the bullshit and fraud laid on members to make that happen.
O/T. Academic Paper — The Church of Scientology in Hungary: A “religious multinationals” case study (2018), by Holly Folk.
15 pages.
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315595559-12/church-scientology-hungary-holly-folk
* * * * * BEGIN ABSTRACT * * * * *
The Church of Scientology is a religious multinational endeavouring to make cultural adaptations in order to secure a foothold in Hungary. The chapter outlines the development of the organisation in the country, and how Internet has helped to create a virtual community linking the global organisation to a Hungarian community, which is made possible by facilities such as online translation. The use of Hungarian celebrities to endorse the organisation, and the provision of traditional food, entertainment and theme parties, are among attempts at “glocalisation”. Scientologists have faced opposition by state authorities, at the levels of national and local government. Changes in religious law resulted in the deregistration of Scientology as a religious organisation, but such opposition has not prevented the organisation from seeking cultural authenticity.
* * * * * END ABSTRACT * * * * *
You can request a PDF copy from the author at Research Gate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329821248_The_Church_of_Scientology_in_Hungary_Mapping_and_Monitoring
The paper appears as Chapter 12 in the book Minority Religions in Europe and the Middle East: Mapping and Monitoring (Routledge 2018):
https://www.amazon.com/Minority-Religions-Europe-Middle-East-ebook/dp/B07FM9L2YV/
The entire book is available:
Hardcover $5.88
Kindle $5.88
Rental $2.84 – $5.87, depending on length of time.
Paperback $36.01 (yes, that is correct as of this writing).
A Books.Google.com preview of the chapter is available at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=jwtpDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT229&lpg=PT229&dq=%22Holly+Folk%22+%22The+Church+of+Scientology+in+Hungary%22&source=bl&ots=5M0siYn9b0&sig=ACfU3U0A12HtDu2KTfFkZsLM5YM68LJBNw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjjzrrqqfDwAhUXJDQIHReuBRsQ6AEwA3oECBsQAg#v=onepage&q=%22Holly%20Folk%22%20%22The%20Church%20of%20Scientology%20in%20Hungary%22&f=false
Memorialized with four screenshots on ESMBR at:
https://exscn2.net/threads/academic-paper-the-church-of-scientology-in-hungary-a-religious-multinationals-case-study-2018-by-holly-folk.3288/
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