This is from commenter Doug Sprinkle. It is amazing how desperate these orgs are to get hold of anyone who has ever had anything to do with them. I asked him out of curiosity about his time at DC Org and he sent this write up. It is SO typical and so clearly PRECISELY what happened that I thought it worth posting her for posterity’s sake. This IS how people are treated in scientology orgs. They’re like cattle, herded in to be milked for all they’ve got and the staff believe they have every right to neglect/mistreat/abuse people who are PAYING THEM for service. It’s such an upside down world in scientology.
Just when I thought Scientology had given up on me completely I got this in the mail from Atlanta.
Do you think I should quit my job and move to Atlanta to go work for them?
It strikes me as odd that I spent much more time getting audited at founding Church in DC, was only at Atlanta once for a TR course. I’ve never heard anything from DC but Atlanta won’t give up on me.
I did the TR course in Atlanta before I had ever been to DC. That was way back in 1989, and I have never been back since. 31 years later they are still sending me mail. I don’t remember the name of the course but I was there for three or four days and never went back. I do recall the course supervisor seemed to be in a hurry to finish up the course that final day, I didn’t know about their Thursday 2:00 p.m. deadlines at the time but I think it was on a Thursday.
Then I moved to North Carolina in 1991 and was still a true believer so I contacted FCDC. I went there, even though I’d already had auditing in the past they had me take the OCA test, I was told how thoroughly screwed up I was. Among other things I was told that I was lazy, even though the guy giving me the results, Tom Clapp, appeared to be about 50 lbs overweight. So they had me get Life Repair auditing. Every weekend I was doing the 4-hour drive to and from North Carolina to Washington DC. I wasn’t getting any dramatic results from the Life Repair and I was told that I had some mysterious condition that was blocking me from getting results. They wouldn’t provide any details about this condition other than it was going to take $5,000 to handle. I was young and poor and couldn’t come up with $5,000. They tried to get me to take out a loan, I refused. Liz Clapp even told me the org would loan me the money to get the auditing and I could pay them back with no interest (isn’t that against LRH policy?). Again I refused to do that and they sensed I was about to walk out the door and then they backed off. They ended up getting a student to do New Era Dianetics on me. I was totally excited about this having read the hype about NED, but that didn’t do much for me either. Later I was told they found out I never had this mysterious condition after all that they wanted me to go into debt for $5,000 to correct.
Then they persuaded me I needed the Purification Rundown even though I was 27 years old and had never done drugs. I ended up doing the Purification Rundown at my gym in North Carolina, they sent someone down to supervise it. That was embarrassing as hell having people I knew from the gym wonder what I was doing sitting in a sauna every day for hours at a time and also having some guy scold me if I got out of the sauna too soon. At some point during the Purif RD they did something, and I don’t remember what now, something involving the case supervisor, but it was clearly something that wasn’t right. I mentioned it to the purification supervisor, and a day or two later I got a call from Steve Lower in DC asking if I was upset about the incident (and I just can’t recall what the incident was, I never made it to clear and therefore don’t have a perfect memory) and I said it was no big deal not to worry about it. I got the impression Steve was calling to apologize for the incident happening. However the next time I went to DC I was literally interrogated over this, I was made to feel I had been the one that committed some transgression. I was put on the cans and asked questions like: Did you have a negative thought about the case supervisor? Do you know another technology that works? Have you ever had a negative thought about L. Ron Hubbard? This is when it really started to hit me that something was wrong with Scientology.
But I continued to drive up there on the weekends but it got to the point that I would drive up there and sit around all day Saturday and Sunday waiting to go in session. It was a complete waste of my time and money to drive up there and get a hotel in Washington DC and just sit around never being able to get in session. One of your posts from a year or two ago explained to me what was going on, about how members that pay more money get priority access to the auditor. They had several dentists and chiropractors that were there every weekend and undoubtedly paying more money than me and therefore getting in session ahead of me. By this time I was really getting burnt out working a full-time job during the week and driving up there every weekend. I told them I wasn’t coming back the following weekend that I was taking the weekend off, they seemed appalled by this. I explained to them that I was exhausted and needed a break but they didn’t view that as an acceptable excuse. They even called me during the week to try to get me to change my mind but I took the weekend off anyway. I still recall Steve Lower saying “I don’t agree with you not coming here this weekend”.
I went back the next weekend and same story, I sit around all weekend waiting to get in session, I think they finally got me in Sunday evening around 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. and then I had to drive back to North Carolina. I realize this is trivial compared to what Sea Org Members go through, but still I was getting totally burnt out. I was scheduled to go back again the following weekend, I called Steve Lower in the middle of the week and told him that unless he could guarantee me I wouldn’t have to wait around all weekend I didn’t want to come back that weekend. Steve assured me under no uncertain terms I would not have to wait to get in session this time. So I went back and same story I wait around all day Saturday without getting in session, while I was waiting I was persuaded to take a course which cost me another $100. I told them I didn’t bring my checkbook or credit card, they said it was OK I could give them my account number the following week to pay for it. I don’t remember the name of the course but it was just a a bunch of Hubbard writings that I’d already seen for another course. I think I finally got into session briefly again Sunday night. But I was spending 95% of my time just sitting around there waiting to go in session. I drove back that night and I was beyond pissed off at this point. I had been getting disillusioned for some time because I wasn’t getting the fantastic results I was supposed to get, I was talking to other public also who said they weren’t getting much results either.
The whole week I was stewing about driving up there again after being promised me I wouldn’t have to wait around only to wait around again. And that Friday Liz Clapp called me at work to get my credit card number to pay for that course I took, I came unglued and told her I wasn’t going to pay for that course. I let her know how pissed off I was that I explicitly told her and Steve I didn’t want to have to wait around that weekend and that’s exactly what happened anyway. She backed off and tried to tell me I needed to come up for a free session with the chaplain to handle this upset. Then the chaplain called me urging me to come back again the following weekend to handle the upset. I never went back, I was done.
They made a few attempts at trying to recover me, one of their attempts involved trying to get me to buy a lecture by Hubbard which supposedly would make everything right. On another occasion one of their auditors happened to be in Raleigh and was going to give me a free auditing session I turned that down also. After they finally gave up I got a call from the chaplain telling me I still had money on account and asked if I was okay with them giving that money to the bookstore, or some other department I’m not sure. I asked why don’t you just send the money to me instead considering it was my money, he told me they couldn’t do that.
I ended up moving to another state and I got one final call from Steve Lower a few months later, he apparently had called my previous place of employment and found out where I had moved to. It was almost laughable, he started the conversation by saying we never reviewed your folders from LA did we? I said how the hell would I know? He tried to sell me some service for $300 where they would review my folders from LA and the folders from DC at the same time to “crack my case.” I told him I wasn’t interested. He then asked where I was going to go for service, I said I wasn’t going anywhere for service that I was done. By this time he was clearly getting frazzled and in an exasperated tone of voice he screamed Bye! and hung up. Just to have a little fun I called him back a few minutes later and explained to him that if I’m going to come back for service that I think they should compensate me for all the money I spent on hotels and travel to Washington DC considering most of the time I just sat around without getting in session. He said something to the effect that he would look into it and I never heard from Washington DC again.
I should have mentioned they were always asking about my finances, and I was dumb enough to answer their questions. Prior to one of my trips I had told Tom Clapp that I had received a $700 tax refund check. I was always required to see Steve Lower on Sunday nights before I left, on this occasion he said to me “I’m going to have you write a check for $700”. Obviously Tom had passed on the information about the tax refund check to Steve.
They would constantly call me on Thursdays around noon asking if I could finish paying for this for that service that I had told them I was interested in doing. It’s kind of comical thinking back on it now.
Yeah…join staff. That experience is sure to wash your brain and clean your individuality right out of your personality. Definitely will turn you into a robotic policy applier whether you like it or not because, “we’d rather have you dead than incompetent.” Their words not mine! Yeah…it’s a lot of fun because their, “highest purpose” gets lost in the chaos of cross orders, incomplete programs and no sleep for those screaming execs who give you severe reality adjustments while their spittle is landing on your nose and in your sleep deprived state all you can think about is that drop of spit sitting on your nose and lose track of what she is saying. Oops. Looney bin!. hahahahaha
Karen Berg?
Is this the wife of Dr Eric Berg the chiropractor turned nutrionalist on Youtube? He has about 3 Million followers.
Is Karen still on staff? are they both still in Scientology
Doug…I knew those characters: Tom, Liz, and Steve. They were and are all truly sleazy, dedicated Ron-bots. Really.
I worked as a Director of Technical Services(DTS) for the DC org on 16th Street for a year and two months(2010-2011). I had asked to be posted as a dianetics auditor, and Kirsten Spleithof, the HAS(HCO Area Secretary), gave me that job instead. It was an incredibly weird, stressful working environment, and the majority(not all) of the auditors were prima donna assholes, as were the D of P and the D of T( director of processing and director of training). All of the shenanigans you speak of occurred regularly. It is true that the big spenders went to the front of the auditing line and that those with modest means and relatively small auditing actions often ended up getting treated like you were treated…And, yes, stats got padded with bullshit auditing and “ethics” cycles. It was also true that HGC and Registrar staff would use information culled from pc folders to pressure pc’s into buying auditing and/or course packages (as opposed to individual courses or fewer hours of auditing). Predictably, Thursday before 2 pm every week was a time of last-minute, tone-criminal grabs for money from public members.
With no experience at all and no training as a nutritionist or doctor, I was told to interview preclears regarding “sessionability” and to recommend diets and supplements. The book I was told to use as a data reference was Adelle Davis’ book LET’S EAT RIGHT TO KEEP FIT…It was a joke, a clusterfuck, and a daily farce, full of back-stabbing, rumor-mongering, shit-talking, face-ripping, and epically boring, allegedly universe-saving, “work”. Many of the “executives” were women, who, in hindsight, I think of as being the OT HARRIDAN HORDE: Kim Belotti, Slyvia Stannard, Sue Taylor, Karen Berg, Irene Rochefort, Michelle Rochefort. It was an incredibly toxic, insane environment. I am glad that you left it behind!
Thanks for sharing that Mark, that’s very interesting. I had my experience there in 1991.
From the waiting area where I spent many hours sitting I could overhear their staff meetings. I recall one of their meetings Tom was trying to get everyone excited about the birthday game. I recall him pounding the table with excitement as he said they were going to go from 20 staff members to 160 staff members in 4 weeks. That seemed like a totally delusional goal to me, and I wasn’t sure how they could physically accommodate that many people in the building. I recall another Sunday afternoon when I had been waiting around all day and I could overhear one of the meetings, I can’t recall the name of the executive director but all she talked about was money. She constantly said “money is good”. I also heard her talk about one of the staff members who had been sitting around for 10 minutes when he could have been on the phone calling people for money.
From some of the conversations I heard I gathered that Tom would show up at people’s houses unexpectedly (only rich people of course) to get money out of them, and I gather he was pretty successful at it also.
I recall one incident where I had been double teamed over the phone by Tom and Steve and they pressured me into saying I would pay for the purification run down in a few days. They told me that their boss had told them that if I didn’t make the payment now they weren’t going to allow me to do the purification run down and being naive I fell for it. A few days later I was getting nervous about spending that much money, and I called Tom and told him I was going to hold off for a while on doing the purification run down. He almost had a nervous breakdown, apparently that would have screwed up his stats for the week, and he pressured me into sending the money. I have to admit he was very persuasive.
I realize I got a pretty light compared to some of the people. I recall talking to a very attractive African-American lady who was either a dentist or a chiropractor, she looked like Halle Berry, and she had taken out $100,000 mortgage on her house to pay all the way up to clear. She was a nice person and I hope she wasn’t wiped out by that.
I was told that both Tom and Liz were clears. I recall thinking if they are what a clear is, then I wasn’t impressed.
Did they make a big effort to recover you after you left?
And I’m glad you are out also.
Doug
Maybe the powers that be in Scientology should try a new tactic by advertising using a line from Alice in Wonderland.”We are all mad here!”At least a person would have some idea of what they were about to get into.
If I ever see another acronym it will be too many already. I may be able to pass for a Scientologist pretty soon because I’m beginning to understand the language.
Doug,
Many thanks. Followed right along with your narrative. 100% on.
Thanks
Patience, Doug. A couple of years ago, I got a New Year’s Eve call from FCDC trying to get me to attend their NY’s party that night. I once bought a book from FCDC — about 45 years previous, and nearly 40 years after I was tossed off of Flag for being incapable of holding any post Flag/flog had, including being in the RPF(The last “post” I held in scientology). I *THOUGHT* I’d been kicked out of scientology — I haven’t darkened their doors since, but it’s possible they just didn’t want me hanging around saying “This is ridiculous.”, my favorite phrase at the time. The RPF wasn’t doing anything for me; I certainly wasn’t getting more tractable; indeed I was questioning TPTB as often and as publicly as I could get away with, while following the rules exactly to the letter and no further. Maybe getting rid of me made it easier to control the others? I dunno.🤣
What is TPTB?
Thanks
If I may…I think it means “The Powers That Be”. That’s what I have always thought of it as and it’s in the internet’s ‘Urban Dictionary’ as this as well. Though Jere Lull may have a different explanation but in context with his sentence I think that’s what he means. Jere you can correct me if I’m wrong.
I should have figured that out.
My experience is the best approach (at least for me) is just to lie to them. When they ask if you will attend something, just say “Yes”. Then don’t go.
If they should ever call you back (which they never did to me), you can always lie to them again and give them some excuse.
But just be careful the excuse you choose does not let them tell you they can fix the cause with auditing or with some books or some other bullshit.
You can always tell them to “Just Fuck Off!”. But, in my opinion, that should always be a last resort. Nor reason to anger them unnecessarily
Doug writes, “He tried to sell me some service for $300 where they would review my folders from LA and the folders from DC at the same time to “crack my case.” I told him I wasn’t interested.” hmmm
A never-in might question why someone would go through so much time, expense and aggravation just to get some auditing. For some people it might have been the idea of getting their “case cracked” but for me I might have hoped I might eventually develop an extrasensory or paranormal ability – or two! I was riding along with the Scientology Magical Mystery Tour.
Starting in 1972 there was a TV series called “Kung Fu”. The lead character was Kwai Chang Caine who was a Shaolin monk. Said of Caine,
Looked for he cannot be seen
Listened for he cannot be heard
Reached for he cannot be touched
Now those would be some pretty cool abilities to develop but compared to the psychic abilities of an OhTee – pffft
They kept over promising and under delivering. I was done by this point.
Oh my God, Doug. I am a never-in and your story just took me totally into your life trying to do right by the cult, hoping for success that you never found, and your patience. I am so glad you are out! Re: Nurik It looks like they took his passport away, he looks pretty much stuck, not that happy about it. I am sorry he is trapped.
Yes I fell for the con hook line and sinker.
Doug, MANY of us bought the lines they were feeding us. Some got away. some are still imprisoned by the false beliefs.
Making smart assed homoerotic comments or talking about Shelly Miscavige is one way to stop such behavior pronto!
I told an ex- that all they had to do to get the calls to stop is to say: “Every time you people call me I make a new $100 contribution to the Aftermath Foundation.”
Jim related: “Every time you people call me I make a new $100 contribution to the Aftermath Foundation.”
WOW!, Just Wow. Fantastic comeback.
A similar comment worked for me too
Thanks for the testimony Doug Sprinkle. Yep, you have an amazing ability to put up with the $cieno shit. Thankfully, you got out. Had you been a rich guy you would have received much more love bombing and ass kissing.
Yeah, Atlanta is really scraping the barrel looking for staff. I wonder where they found Nurik? His eyes and posture say, ‘don’t hit me anymore, I’ll be good…’
I was comvinced to be on staff in Atlanta. I have since “blown” and freed myself of the rituals and financial drain it was putting me in. For courses that they offer everyone seems to be miserable, broke and lack any social connections. They owe me money that I’ll never see again.
And I spent time in NY with the sea org. It is a nughtmare. I managed to purposely self-sabotage to get kicked out. Luckily I wasn’t put in the bunker but instead sent back to Atlanta. Working 84 plus hours per week and getting paid $25.
When were you in Atlanta?
Lee:
I saw the conditions staff had in NYO back in the early ’70s. The ones who didn’t moonlight for money to live might have done better living under bridges. At least, their quarters might have been more upstat 😉 As public working a 9-5 job for minimum wage, $100 gross/week, I “scored” a shower in an apartment as clean as we felt like keeping it. Just two of us, not the dozen or more Org staff who would have packed into the place to keep costs almost zero — what they could afford on staff pay (or lack thereof). Even without extra tenants, I was able to save a few bucks a week towards doing Class VI out in LA. NYC wasn’t a cheap place to live even then, but I fell into a sweet deal on the apartment.
I think I’ve said this before: “Scientology: the Fakeyist Religion on Earth.” I don’t think there’s anything complicated or mysterious about the current COS strategy. Let the orgs struggle in quiet desperation while continuing to keep the church propped up by the money from all the whales and celebs. Really, COB isn’t much concerned if his COS never delivers another service as long as he can keep building ideal orgs like some ecclesiastical Sarah Winchester. That, and continue to fund all of his front groups. All DM needs is the appearance that the COS is a big deal so he can go on playing Fearless Leader.
What Doug tells us is exactly what happens in the world of scn wherever there is an org. Pathetically true.
Plus the guy on the promo says he’s on staff to contribute to his community. A great bullshit. They never did it.
Years ago in UK they applied for charitable status. Obviously the commission rejected the request as they did not find evidence of charitable actions or help in the community. SCN tried to pass the sale of services as helping the community! Absurd and in fact it all ended there.
In addition, on their site where there are Q/A to the question if scn believes in charity they say they believe in it but in essence it always requires an exchange. An answer worthy of what they call ‘doing Q&A’.
Scoundrels.
What’s worse is that the despair caused by their piss poor customer service is now your PTP you’ll now be paying them to handle. Throw in a mind-numbing torrent of havingness grinding and, before you know it, you’ll have used up your hours on absolutely nothing and have to pay for another intensive.
And the cycle begins again.
Obviously, customer service isn’t a current concern. The old “missions” were all about service and got the stats to match, including the ability and willingness to PAY their staff a living wage & treat them like humans instead of animals (or *mushrooms*) ;-)*(mushrooms: kept in the dark & buried in manure.
Oh Doug, just be happy you never went to Flag. There they have the “Look-in System” that records video and audio of auditing sessions. Bad enough in itself, but worse fact is the information is shared with staff who use it in their ploys for more money. So the only “result” of service there is a more personally tailored reg. cycle.
I learned of this from a friend who was hit up by a registrar a couple hours after a session. In the session he had “confessed” that he had kept secret from his registrar the fact he had big bucks saved up. He said he “gave up” this secret as he worried it was preventing his session from starting. Well, he did and 10 mins after the session ended some girl trying to get money found him and hit him up. When he tried to brush her off saying “I have no money saved up” the girl replied “oh come on, I know if you looked hard enough for it you’d find it”.
Yes I’m well aware I got off easy compared to some of you.
In my experience Hubbard only sold auditing, training and books and within the orgs and missions the only person soliciting money was the registrar. Somehow Miscavige convinced scientologists that all staff members should ask for money and that scientologists should donate money for building projects and “good works”. There are stories of orgs and missions running scams on people to get money when Elron was alive but I don’t think it was widespread and they didn’t last long.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again…Miscavige is the biggest squirrel in the history of Scientology.
SadStateofAffairs.
Agreed! He is the biggest – for sure! But he is also the smallest.
Ain’t it funny how these things work out sometimes?
But there is nothing funny about that psychopathic creep! Except maybe for the way he is riding this cult right down into the ground. Whadda Stooge!
That $300 should have been the first thing tech services did, anyway, no extra charge, as it determines what your next action is supposed to be.Paying extra for a standard action is just par for the course, though:
“Charge whatever the market (suckers) will bear.”
— MORE if possible.
LOL
SSoA, McSavage is Both the biggest squirrel ever hatched and the most effective SP, destroying what had been scientology with a skill I never would have guessed he had.
I’m guessing that it really makes very little sense for the leader(s) of this scam to be beating the bushes in the hope of scaring up some support (meaning financial support) to bring in some money.
I’d be very interested if anyone could make a guess just how it makes any sense for the following reasons:
1) My guess is that almost all of their income now comes from a few extremely wealthy so-called “whales” who donate many millions of dollars either for the gratification of getting their names on some plaque in some building somewhere or out of fear they will be hounded and hounded until their dying days by reges or other high-pressure sales people demanding they turn over money to be given to the Grand Poobah so he can put it into one of his secret offshore numbered bank accounts.
2) They may be thinking they need to try and get new suckers in the hope that one day in the future, some of these suckers will become very wealthy and may then donate huge sums of money – even though that seems extremely unlikely.
An alternate possible reason is that the Grand Poobah has just gone nuts and has lost touch with reality and just figures that people are sitting around doing nothing – i.e. they are not bringing in any money these days from the sale of courses or auditing or from begging people for money … so they ought to be doing something to bring in some money and even bringing in a tiny bit of money is better than nothing.
However, it just makes no sense to me. But I may be missing something here. Would anyone reading this like to offer some alternative explanations as to why they are acting as if they are on fire and they are begging for money to buy fire extinguishers? I cannot think of any reason why they are acting this way. None of it makes much sense. I suppose that “insanity” is really the primary explanation as to why they are begging for some money these days. It certainly is not like it makes any sense for them to expect to bring in “big bucks”. I just cannot see that happening in any way shape or form. Do you?
It would seem that Miscavige wants scientologists to flounder around on the lower levels and doing repeats since people attaining the higher levels are not good examples of OatTea-ness.
People pay huge amounts of money on the OT levels but there aren’t that many people doing them so the primary and continuing source of income seems to be donations.
Skyler, they do that because that’s what they do.
It was originally almost a sensible routine, the idea being that someone who can pay for minor services will get life improvements and eventually be able to pay more and more.
It has never worked and never will, but being dedicated fundamentalists they can’t change with the times.
You can think of lots of ways they could wangle their 50s space opera take on religion into something people would actually pay cash money for. There is always a market for the flat Earth society and the saucer cults. They’re everywhere. But Scientology is stuck in a 50s rut and can’t change even when the house is burning down around them.
Seems like some people just can’t live ordinary lives. There has to be something significant about their every thought, that the world needs to know.
Some aren’t so great and that is almost all of us. Not to say that it is useless to pursue a dream of greatness, but if you succeed it won’t be because of some magical quote by L Ron Hubbard. It would be a result of a lot of hard work and a little luck.
If you’re not willing to sweat the hard work, do what you can and take joy in what you have.
Scientology and the millions of other similar short-cuts to greatness don’t get you there. After spending endless cash and investing endless hours on the starry-eyed ephemera, the followers crash back to earth poorer, friendless and less powerful than before.
The same number of hours spent with their families or volunteering at the homeless shelter would have made a tangible difference.
Skyler1, clearly I have not personal experience with the cult, but from the outside looking in I think you nailed it that the Grand Poobah is nuts. He’s obsessed with power and money. Those are the things that make his life worth living and as it slips away he will fade away – has to scare the bejeebers out of him.
Nice analysis Peggy. Just ask Mike how nuts he really is. Mike is a real gent and as such, you never hear him cursing and swearing and calling people names – at least I have never heard that. But if you can ever get him talking about the Poobah, I bet you will see another side of Mike Rinder – and who could blame him? I know that I never could.
If you may be wondering what I’m talking about, just watch Mike’s episode of The Aftermath (the one that describes how he blew this crazy scam. You will get a good idea of just what he likely thinks about Miss Cabbage. Mike was beaten and shamed beyond belief and IMHO, he was repeatedly psychologically tortured by the creep which finally forced Mike to blow. I’d love to hear Mike speak out his true feelings about this nutbar.
Skyler1 opined:
“An alternate possible reason is that the Grand Poobah has just gone nuts and has lost touch with reality and just figures that people are sitting around doing nothing – i.e. they are not bringing in any money these days from the sale of courses or auditing or from begging people for money … so they ought to be doing something to bring in some money and even bringing in a tiny bit of money is better than nothing.”
Oh, he’s nuts, alright, never having had much of a relationship with reality. Guy reminds me of a little fur-fru dog constantly challenging a monster of a pit bull. He doesn’t realize that SOMEtime, his bluff won’t work & he’ll be gone in one bite.
Truthfully, Davey don’t care ’bout what used to be scientology, only how much money he can squeeze out of its remains.