It seems the Nuremberg Rally style events have run their course in LA — the largest population of scientologists on earth.
On Sep 21, 2014, at 6:46 PM, Tashania Faust <westuseventsunit@scientology.net> wrote:
Ideally, every Scientologist attends the 7-10 major events presented by Int Management yearly.
The challenge of the Event Dept is ensuring they are conveniently located and scheduled.
Please help us achieve this and CLICK HERE TO FILL IN SURVEY
Please be open in answering the questions. And thanks for taking the time! 🙂
ML, Tashania (Event Director PAC)
To save you the trouble of clicking, here is the screen it takes you to:
We would like to get your views regarding the upcoming International Scientology Events.
Now, it is a dead certainty that if they were filling up the venues, they would not be surveying anyone about anything. Their default operational mode is “Do it how we want it and you WILL participate and you WILL enjoy it.” Â Deviation from this is a sure fire sign of the apocalypse.
But it is really only further confirmation what is already painfully obvious.
The events held at the Shrine Auditorium (which holds 6300) are virtually empty in the upper level and not even full at the bottom level. Â Estimated attendance around 3500 (from people who are there and who have experience with crowd sizes at scientology venues). Back in the 90’s it was a huge flap if the Shrine was not full bother lower and upper levels, for any event — in fact there was “overflow” space for people that could not get in.
Now they are moving the biggest NON LIVE LA event (the New Year’s Event is live in LA, the only one) to the Bonaventure hotel that holds a maximum of 3000 people.
That they cannot scrape together even 5000 people in LA is astonishing. There are at least 500 SO members at Gold. Another 500 in the HGB. At least 500 in PAC. And between the other entities (CLO WUS, Bridge, ASI, IAS, SMP, Int Dissem Printing Thingie, CST etc etc) there are at least another 500. There are 6 Class V Orgs in LA, 5 of which are “ideal” — they should have AT LEAST 100 staff each.
So, just STAFF in Los Angeles there are 2600 people.
The number of public is plummeting. And the number who are willing to attend events and subject themselves to the “reg drill” afterwards is even less.
This is a real problem for Miscavige. He cannot keep people believing there is massive international expansion and the largest humanitarian force on earth is hard at work if they do not come to his events. They are not going to find this information anywhere else because it is made up hype. They are not going to see anyone IN their local orgs. They are not going to see the media reports of the massive 4th dynamic salvage campaigns because there is nothing to report about them because they are not happening. Nobody else has ANY reason whatsoever to make up stories about the “planetary salvage” going on all around the world.
These events are the ONLY avenue for him to keep the sheeple from heading for the lifeboats.
The press gangs are already working overtime to scrape together the 5000 needed to fill the tent in the UK. They are chartering buses from Romania and Ukraine and Moscow and Poland and putting heavy pressure on everyone who is a Patron Meritoriuous to show up from wherever they are in the world. The “live” events MUST be packed at all costs and massive effort goes into this.
But with the sad state of affairs in LA — home to the largest population of scientologists on earth, as well as all the senior echelons of scientology and more orgs than any other city — you KNOW how dismal it is in the other more remote areas. I bet there are a number of orgs where the attendance for the IAS event is a lot less than 50. Ruth Eckerd Hal in Clearwater is STILL used after 20 years, and its increasingly difficult to fill it with 2300 people — if the massive international expansion were true, surely it would be reflected in the population of active scientologists at the Mecca? And by now the events would be being held in a larger venue. It’s even become a struggle to get enough people to pay the ridiculous rates for a week of being regged on the Freewinds for the Maiden Voyage Anniversary cruises to bankruptcy.
47X expansion. Not.
I just want to say to Richard. Thank you!!! :):)
I’ll be watching when the little runt slips and falls. I can hardly wait.
Karma is catching up to him and you can’t out run Karma.
Mike, this is just fantastic news. For me, there is no better news than evidence of shrinking event attendance.
Once, back in the day, a Class V staff member told me that only 100 people had shown up for the last (major) event, and that this was completely unacceptable, something like that. I suggested that this be surveyed, and all I got was a kind of look and she turned away. I wasn’t surprised. There’s no way that events could be surveyed with honest responses obtained.
I knew why I avoided events whenever possible: the excrutiating 3 hour length, the constant booming voice (I suppose that would be Pomerantz), the non-stop childish, cartoon-like visuals and sound effects, the endless repetition of live testimonials, Miscavige’s sentences which droned llengthily in a kind of up and down cadence, being not allowed to leave, having to fill out a survey and lie on it, because what I liked best about ANY int event was that it was OVER, having to paste a smile on my face and being angry inside that I had to pretend, feeling guilty because I hated these things and thinking there was something wrong with me, being buttonholed by staff who pretended to be interested in me when I knew they just needed to sell me the new release, and feeling sorry for them, buying something I didn’t want because I felt sorry for the staff and so I could get the hell out of there, frequently the food, – I think that covers it.)
“So, just STAFF in Los Angeles there are 2600 people.”
Mike, I know you get constantly updated info, but even with that I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts he’s draining off that estimated staff number you have at a steady clip. That’s probably part of the problem he’s trying to manage. I bet his seat fillers are greatly diminished as well.
Back when all this started blowing up in ’08, I remember thinking that there would be a tipping point, at which time we could stand down and half of what’s left would come pouring out of the building (so to speak) and start throwing rocks at those left inside. This seems to be coming true, in spades. 🙂 He’s losing the ability to throw piles of people at problems.
I’ll wager the next tipping point will be when his numbers are decreased to the point where he begins to discover fear does not breed loyalty, but instead, contempt.
Mike & John P:
Mike has documented the implosion of the cult in terms of losing public participation and reduced income. John – you have written that the cult has large reserves that will keep them afloat financially even with reduced income. A relevant question here however is how long can the cult continue to function if the staff and Sea Org levels are shrinking rapidly? Will they close everything but parts of Flag, LA, and St Hill/London? How will the skilled liar DM sell that as “expansion”?
My response
Q 1: I quit, COB sucks!
Q 2: Maybe in a billion years
Q3: When DM goes to prison
What fun responses did you give?
“the clunky “wall of awards” that moved apart, revealing more and more awards…”
OMG, for real? That is sooooo cheesy.
Oh, and getting all those people there and then letting only the “Celebs” in is so par for the cult course. They’re so fucked up.
Don’t they do that already? (I’m only half joking)
this is why i predicted long ago that eventually they would go to”live” video only events based on the claim that expansion is so massive that not enough people can attend, like they’ve out grown live events.
that way they can tie in their TV studio, have staged red carpet segments and a controlled VIP audience.
miscavige has to know it’s shrinking, he can tell just by the money alone. he knows he has to do something at some point. i bet this survey thing is also in some way subtle damage control, like floating the idea that people can’t make it, which infers there are people, rather than attendance is low because there are no people.
Tom Cruise COME ON DOWN! You’re the next contestant on the “Price is your Status!”
Mike, you mention that the cult is holding events at the Bonaventure in downtown LA because they can’t fill the Shrine’s 6,500 seats. As you said, one of the key reasons for the move is that the Bonaventure can hold 3,000 people in the main ballroom, less than half what the old venue could hold.
But importantly, the Bonaventure also makes it much easier to hide even more dismal failures: they can partition off the room into various sizes to hold anywhere from 3,000 down to only 600 people. So as call-ins fail to materialize, they can shrink the space to meet their actual projected numbers. It’s far less embarrassing to have a smaller room full of people than an immense room that’s only sparsely filled in.
Using the flexible partitioning allows them to say that the events are always held in the California Ballroom, but the room changes sizes depending on the event. How very clever of them to elevate disguising failure to the art form it is. It would be easier to change what they’re doing wrong and actually work for success instead, but there’s little chance of that happening.
Good point JPC. Hadn’t thought of that.
You can’t let reality cloud your vision. When LRH Hall is done (capacity eleventy zillion), all twelve remaining OTs will clone themselves. Once they’ve done that, the ideal photoshopolator will fill the live feed view to capacity. If they all wear the new sooperdoopersweatsuits, no one will notice.
You have now been handled. Done. Now, now, now, etc.
Good point JVC made. But they can always open the temporary room partitioning through the magic of photoshopping and brag that the Shrine was getting too small so they had to move to this bigger location. I bet OSA has noticed your comment and passed it on to DM as a must have in the new LRH hall in Clearwater.
Always enjoyed your comments John, here & elsewhere.
Money viewed practically has a way of producing it’s own explanation.
Great post! I never thought of that. So, JPC, do you think this will be their main venue in L.A. from now on?
This whole, “fill the events” thing has been going on for decades.
I remember some time around 1990, being called repeatedly to show up for the “massively important” grand opening of the L Ron Hubbard Life exhibition in Hollywood. The church had wrangled a permit to close Hollywood Blvd and there were searchlights and such and there was a pretty good sized crowd that showed up out in front spilling into the street. The purpose of having the large crowd was to film it so the grand opening looked more impressive. It was the same kind of dishonesty I witnessed of having RPF members buy copies of Battlefield Earth to raise it on the bestseller charts.
But that night, after the cameras stopped rolling, the riff-raff level scientologists were told to go home and that the exhibit was only going to be open that night to “VIPs”. I was ready to turn around but the gal I was dating barged us into the exhibit anyway. I still remember the grand finale of the exhibit, the clunky “wall of awards” that moved apart, revealing more and more awards. Another embarrassing moment as a scientologist.
Weird how they can’t get people at events. The video at ScientologydotOrg says 4.4 million people join each year!
Yes Heidi, but then 4.5 million quit.
Heidi: I haven’t seen the video as I don’t want to click on their site and add to the stats but that 4,400,000 people joining each year is totally delusional. The local org. is empty except for a couple of long-faced grey-haired people hovering around a way-over- eager young receptionist with bad english who told me just because I don’t see people milling around like in their videos (that was my question) doesn’t mean they don’t have loads of people in the back part of the building on coursework. Well are there hundreds back there I asked? A. It will be very busy in a couple of hours when people get off work, accompanied by big delusional smile.
@Cat Daddy – “We shall overcome, today…”
Same words, different crusade.
Tick tock, tick tock, Davey, tick tock.
RJ 67
Thanks for this, Mike. This is good news!
Like Marty Rathbun before you (and continuing to this day), you have tirelessly exposed the crimes and abuses of the Church of Scientology to the light of day – despite personal danger.
With each passing day you are helping to enlighten those who are willing to look. In this, it would be hard to overstate the value of your work.
May good fortune be with you and yours for all of your days.
Thank you Scott.
Even though the end seems to be in sight, we should be wary of taking the spotlight off the cult until the stake is driven through its heart and the head is cut off. Massive defections of SO, whales suing whales, more loud celeb defections, more lawsuits, etc. Please don’t let up on them Mike.
Just to clarify, I won’t be attending or giving them any money, nor will anyone I know.
We stand tall…
Except for one individual…
Apologies to Dylan:
I ain’t gonna work on Davey’s farm no more
I aint gonna work on Davey’s farm no more
Well, I try my best
To be just like I am
But all the sheeple want you
To be just like them
Those big events make me so goddamned bored
I ain’t gonna work on Davey’s farm no more
My considered opinion after having been involved in events for only a couple of years is that EVERYONE at Int/Gold would be overjoyed to see the end of these 6 or 7 times yearly third dynamic engrams. Mike, can you believe that some people have been doing that for well over 20 years? I can’t believe that even DM would not mind getting that gorilla off his back. How many thousands of gaskets has he blown over the years due to event-related matters? No matter how bad events are the the public they are far worse for those who have to work on putting them together. Just speaking from experience here.
Dan — I agree with you 100%. Dave cannot walk away from these events, much as he would like to, as they are the only vehicle he has for keeping the sheeple “informed” about how well everything is going. After busting everyone he no doubt rants at every single event how he is the “only one” who HAS to do the events (followed up with — “nobody wants to hear from any of you SP’s anyway, the only person they are interested in hearing from is me”).
What an arrogant little twerp. A really good beating would be a start to balance his stuck flow.
MJ – when you find a nice board fence I will join you by sitting on it and waiting for a certain person to come by.
Count me in.
There is one benefit not mentioned, for those SO staff who get to go to the events: The repetitive standing ovations are the most aerobic exercise any of them ever get.
Mike, thank you once again for running the numbers from oftentimes mundane material in order to present the evidence of Co$ decline under the “Liliputian in Chief”, Davey MisCarriage…..you don’t see analysis like this anywhere else….
I know you were high up in the organization before you left. During your tenure, You probably saw the data on church-wide attendance and event attendance and regging ops results, etc….so you, with your background, are uniquely qualified to parse through the smoke and mirrors and analyze this type of material for the rest of us — a big Thank You for that.
It would be interesting to know who else in the top leadership who are cowering directly under Little Davey right now, as the numbers continue to go south….it would be interesting to be a “fly on the wall” to observe the panicky and madcap interactions between DM and his chiefs over all of this falling apart right before their eyes…..all despite their desperate efforts to turn things around…
I could just imagine in my mind’s eye DM thundering at his leaders from behind his posh desk: “Let the beratings and beatings begin, and not cease until morale improves!” ( knowing smile)
If I were the cowering executive, I would lie. “Tell the Wanker what he wants to hear” would be my motto… That’s what happens in the wog world.
It is amazing how fast something can come and go.
One religion in one lifetime.
yes Lars, amazing how fast a life can be wasted in this horrid cult. Not a religion in this Scientology though.
I agree with Statpush. A faith should show faith: giving and helping without expecting: “exchange.”
I cannot speak for staff, but I can say that since my history was as a public I firmly believe public are not attending because 1) they do not enjoy heavy regging, and 2) they feel betrayed by a Church that tells them again and again that Scientology is expanding, while the local org sits empty. Moreover, I am sure that many of the public Scientologists do keep up with the bad press on the internet which tells the real truth about Ron’s religion.
I think you’re right on the money, Beryl. I’ll add way too repetitive, long and loud to that list also.
And may I add that the parents are VERY upset about this. They see that their daughter is being worked to the bone and is already developing chronic health problems (only in her early 20’s) due to lack of sleep, rest and proper nutrition. Sadly, the young lady believes that 10,000 people will be cleared yearly simply because that is what she is being told. I sincerely hope that each one of them gets out one day, and the sooner the better.
Good point. And even if it were 10,000 per year, that would be nowhere near enough to ever clear the planet, even assuming that a world saturated with clears would necessarily be a whole lot better than the world we now have.
As a result of my decompression, I’ve thought there is something odd about Scn’s “group”. Allow me to explain. I was raised Christian and our church’s congregation was a pretty tight-knit group. In addition to weekly mass, and the school, they had their own “events”, maybe bake sales, bingo night, a Friday fish fry, sporting events and so on. Never did I feel like there were any arm-twisting going on to make these events a success. In fact, we looked forward to them. Parents were friends with other parents, kids were friends with other kids, almost like an extended family.
There are many differences between these events and Scn’s Nuremberg rallies. For one, money was never really discussed. Sure, the event had a purpose; like renovating a wing of the school, or new basketball uniforms, or helping a family who experienced some type of hardship. But, the attendees were never “regged”, in fact it was more important that they just be there, rather than how much they could donate. There just seemed to be a natural, effortless cohesion that existed within the group.
I’m beginning to think there is something inherent to Scn itself, which makes it incapable of manifesting these types of qualities. Maybe its because being active in Scn is essentially a self-centered, somewhat narcissistic activity. And since the group really doesn’t participate in altruistic activities, like feeding the poor or sheltering the homeless, there is very little reason or purpose for them to congregate.
So much in Scn is about the individual. The individual pays his own way; the individual goes into session; the individual is responsible for HIS condition; even in the courseroom, it’s pretty much self-study. While Hubbard would often philosophize about the 3rd Dynamic, it often felt clinical and detached.
If you strip away all the PR and lies, you may find that Scn really doesn’t require a group. I mean, think about it, what do they need a group for? No, Scn has a “group” because management DEMANDS they be a group 7-10 times a year. Deep down I think Scnists know this is pretense and secretly object to being forced to congregate against their will. And for what? To sit there and be subjected to lies and propaganda? Oh boy, kinda makes you want to immigrate to North Korea.
Our Christian church events were always about someone else, whereas Scn events are ALWAYS about itself. It’s all about how great WE’RE doing. WE did this [fill in the blank] (stand, applaud, sit), aren’t WE great! And the Christian church never even talked about the Pope, much less gush about how great he is, or how smart he is or how dedicated he is. No, it was the members of the congregation that were important.
Maybe at the root of Scn’s dysfunctional group is the pretense that it is a bona fide religion. And as a bona fide religion it has to have the trappings of one. COB’s events are much, much closer to old-time revivals than anything else. Kinda like a godless “religious” revival + a dash of carnie + nazi fanaticism.
+1
I think you are right about Scientology not needing to be a group. The success that the Independent Field is having is not about how great the group and its goals are, it is simply improving one life at a time (as you noted the individual) with the correct auditing or training step.
Statpush: Love your comment. And you are so right. The only thing the “Church” of Scn promotes is themselves as powerful beings that are in present time, finding parking spaces and being blown out of their minds, etc. Their attn is on themselves and the money it takes to keep the organization that keeps them personally blown out operating. A very small game. I would like to ask every person who posts here or reads here to attend a church service just once, any church will do. I attended an Episcopal and Methodist church service when I first got out of Scn. I was so impressed with the kindness and real humanity of the parishioners and clergy. Their outreach programs to help those less fortunate were very impressive. There was NO talk about how great THEY felt. It was all about truly helping others and contributing to those less fortunate.
Listening to the people talk about the people they helped in the community was so refreshing and brought tears to my eyes.
The RCS are less and less powerful with every week they exist.
Thanks to Mike and Tony and others who help expose them for what they truly are.
As you said, Statpush, they are a godless religious revival with a big dose of carnival, and Nazi fanaticism. Perfect description!
Very interesting points Statpush. Scn wasn’t always disassociated from giving though. The original bridge was supposed to be 50% auditing and 50% training which would have balanced out the flows. It’s very humbling to handle someone else’s problems that are worse than yours. It gives perspective. It’s funny how now, the rcs is on opposite ends, ie, give till you do yourself in, and, it’s all about you and your case gain. I think the latter group has been shrinking so the whole activity is now about martyrdom. 90% martyrs and 10% beautiful wealthy people who are fawned over. To all who are decompressing, I strongly recommend rejecting the concept of martyrdom and rid yourselves of this very bad habit, of being a martyr to the cause. You ARE good enough, your best is good enough, it’s ok to take your time, you deserve a peaceful and prosperous life. Go for it.
This survey demonstrates how isolated and out of touch with the public the Church and the Sea Org staff members are. They actually think that attendance is low at events because of the location, time or day. They aren’t thinking that people just don’t want to go events because they don’t like what they hear, the events are too long and loud, there are too many events held in the year, having to buy multiple copies of releases at the events, or any other reason.
Many Sea Org members were recruited at a young age, teens to young adults, where they lack crucial life experience. They are easy to mold and are living in a controlled environment with little contact with the outside world. Including their families.
The new project at PAC Base is this: Deliver services (auditing and training) and produce income equal to that of Flag. Also, the target that 10,000 people must be Cleared yearly.
I know this because I have friends who have kids in the S.O. at PAC Base. One young lady who joined the S.O. at the age of 14 and is still a young adult recently told her parents that she not only cannot take a day off, but she isn’t allowed to take an hour or two off on a Sunday morning until these targets are met. Now, I don’t know what exactly is in her mind and how she views this, except that obviously she believes she is not allowed even an hour off on Sunday morning. This is what the parents are telling me and of course, they “can’t talk about it” because “they (SO members) are not supposed to say what they are working on.”
What really grabbed my attention is that PAC Base is now expected to deliver equal to Flag. That shows that they are really in trouble. I am no expert on the stats as far as delivery and GI between the orgs, but I think I can safely say that PAC Base doesn’t come near Flag in terms of this.
The Sea Org members at PAC are given their marching orders and the slavery and deception continues.
I agree they are totally out of touch. I think they kind of suspect what the real reason for poor event attendance is–and you very correctly gave the real reason–but then that would be admitting that Scientology would have to change to include deep sixing the real agenda which is to funnel mega bucks to the top of the pyramid.
The only things that needs to be delivered at PAC base are the SO. They need to be delivered to the bus station and go home.
I’m hoping the current condition will help some young people out of the rcs. Parents get ready! I think around age 30, a lot of adults start to question more and a new maturity rises. The schedule and duress will give many pause, as physical problems start to manifest and they start to ask themselves, if this life is worth it. Mike, I honestly think your steady stream of truth telling and reporting has shortened the runway for less disconnected people, as evident by the flatlining of attendance in the rcs. Please take a win on this.
Good point you make about maturity. I was army for awhile many years ago and it seems an operating basis was that 18 year olds were much preferred over 25 year olds. The young are all so willing to snap to and obey but when around 25 comes about silly orders are questioned and the signs of actionable mutiny manifest.
Insanity is a term which means just that. Any attempt to justify it fails to understand why the term exists in the first place – it’s nuts in other words.
First off – Miscavige needs to go, he’s an infection of the terminal kind.
I’m with you all here. The SO need to be delivered. It was exactly what got me out of the church, watching SO members walk single file from their bus to the Sand Castle at Flag during dinner break. They had only been gone barely 30 minutes. I was talking to my mom on my cell phone outside and watched this scene. It was in that moment that I realized I could no longer support this church as a group who treats people like this.
Tashania,
Tell Dave to take his megalomania and shove it.
“The Best day for an Event is:”
Feb 29th.
“The Second Best day for an Event is:”
Every other leap year
Rest assured anyone not responding with “I will attend an event no matter where it is” gets a visit from the Office of Special Assholes to determine the nature and depth of the disaffection. Sec Checks follow for anyone not VVGIs on the disaffected asshole review.
By next year the event attendees should be able to fit into the local Starbucks.
And be working there.
They HAVE TO keep lying that expansion is 50X, 100X, 1000X and so on (as expansion MUST be stellar) until it is so ridiculous that the current lies will look like understatements (because stating anything close to fact would be admission of the con and the sudden death of the Ponzi scheme).
The sheep will SEE less and less of what they are being told exists until they realize what they are being told can’t possibly be true.
A sure formula to kill the “church” real good as the lies will HAVE to widen the gap between fact and fiction faster and faster.
MisCariage is doomed, regardless what he does.
It’s not the price of admission, it’s the cost of getting out .
I have said this before on this Blog:
The IDEAL ORG PROGRAM is David Miscaviges Ebola Virus and Vietnam
with a Chernoble on top !!!
I would not go to a Scientology event if they were handing out $10,000. bills
and diamond studded Gold bars .NO THANKYOU, eat my shorts.
Hell, I WOULD go to an event if they were handing out $10,000 bills and diamond studded gold bars.
I would do it for, umm, 1,000.00.
Problem is, if they gave you a $1000 bill at the entrance, they would make sure they hit you for two of them at the way out. It’s all about the money.
I took the survey.
Other: Although there was no Comm Ev and I’ve seen nothing in writing, rumor has it I’ve been declared. So I figure the Religious Event Police wouldn’t let me in the door.
Other: Wednesday
Other: Thursday B42
>The number of public is plummeting.
Is the number of SO staff also plummeting? Or are they recruiting people under false pretenses in Eastern Europe to maintain staff levels?
With Flag empty, are they laying off hotel workers?
You are right, Miscavaige cannot lie to the people forever about the empty orgs and collapse of the criminal cult of $cientology.
Young Russians, Hungarians, etc.. are coming on staff at Flag for obvious reasons. Even the Hare Krisna’s growth is coming from eastern Europe today. Quote from Wiki:
“In recent decades the movement’s most rapid expansions in terms of numbers of membership have been within Eastern Europe (especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union)…”
Like the rest of staff, Russians are cheap labor. But, as the cost of room and board increases as a percentage of ever declining income, they will eventually be unceremoniously off-loaded or sent to RPF to save DM’s Rubels.
Staff are inside the bubble and do not get the same truthful information the public gets (except when they attend these empty events with 80%staff and 20% public) and while many/most doubt DM or his “management people”, they have no where else to go. So, they stay on, getting their heads full of DM mush BS, hoping someday it will get better.
Here’s what should be done: compile a master list of all event confirms. At the event, match up the attendees with the list. Those confirms not at the event are targeted for ethics interviews the following day and routed to an IAS reg to handle their treason condition. Could be another source of income for the sheep leader.
These facts of disastrous attendance are also confirmed by the, sometimes posted posters of other rip off, sorry, fundraising events – if you see them closely they show between 25-35 people at the most.
And myself, like others like Dean, we also used to quietly disappear from the events at Ruth E. and go do something else; the outer org trainees (over 1,000) filled the scene.
Tick Tock…just a matter of a few more months of this evidence of public refusing to be abused and the criminal empire of DM will collapse for real. About time.
So this is their attempt at being “standard” is it? i.e. to lessen the wrath of COB which they know is not only coming but is going to get worse – a lot worse, surely they must suspect he’s insane by now. Capt’n Abraham and his whale comes to mind, the crew perished in that story – faithful to a madman to the bitter end.
It’s a sad state of affairs really. Those poor souls working 70-80 hrs week for pennies. They must be relentlessly searching for answers to explain to themselves that dull dead feeling mixed with the high anxiety that failure brings. I wonder just what in the hell they must chat about waiting for the bus??
It’s now they turn to some sort squirreled representation of the admin tech in a faint but desperate hope it just might appease dear leader in some way – “see boss, we’re using survey policy, please don’t beat me…”
Nothing the church does even slightly resembles Scientology – it’s way too series for that.
Serious = interest because of penalty.
It’s a punishment battalion.
It’s Ahab, an uncommon but Biblical name. Ahab was a King of Israel, and his name may be a derivation of Abraham.
Yeah, you right I think. Brain cells ain’t what they use to be but the rocket science is still right. COB sux!
One wonders who was nuttier – Captain Bill with his aliens landing on the roof in LA or COB with his copper grounding rod, dog in Captain*’s uniform and empty Orgs.
Foolproof, I vote for El Wrong Hubbard who had said HIS aliens take BILLIONS of tax evaders on a trans galactic trip in DC 8’s so that they could be nuked near volcanoes! LMAO
One of the stupidest things about this is the unbelievable amount of effort, money and staff time that goes into these interminably boring and predictable events. We have read in the past how at Gold it is essentially a full time occupation for numerous staff to prepare for and hold an event, then once that one is over, immediately move onto preparing the next event. Plus the parade of sleepless nights over weeks. At ILO it is not quite that drastic, but events preparation for a significant chunk of staff there also occurs on an almost nonstop basis. Then you get the mega events like release of the Basics, GAT I, GAT II, etc where the preps are 10X of the “regular” events. Then circa 2001 came the famous bag drill where Miscavige in his narcissistic delusions claimed that, for whatever is being released, he has already sold the entire audience and all the staff need to do is collect the money by creating a gauntlet of beggars holding out bags and screaming cash or credit at the poor public who are trying to escape for all they are worth. The misery of all this no doubt has been multiplied exponentially by the never-ending parades of Ideal Org and other fundraising events. It is no wonder that Scientology is declining precipitously over the years as the amount of time and effort sucked up by events goes up and up. Staff are not even on posts anymore and it is hey you city.
Well explained Sad State. “Hey You” Org Boards are also my particular Bete Noire. They started also in the early 1980s – funny date co-incidence eh?
Well said SSOA. It’s such a waste of staff’s time, especially, those that just wanted to help others and better themselves. It’s a true betrayal of trust.
I used to enjoy events in the 90’s. The reg cycles were tolerable and the news believable. There was a massive shift and the news started getting more and more “fantastic” and these so called IAS freedom winners were just not making sense. It always made me feel like I was a nobody. The regging got hard core. When I joined staff at AOLA in div six in 2001 one of the Div Six hats was to get tickets out to the public. This is when things got psycho. We would get lists of public and literally go door to door Confirming people and giving out tickets. The public hated it, we hated it and people came less. We were punished for not meeting our quota’s and the call in rooms started becoming like punishment rooms.
Some bright spark came up with an idea that Miscavich’s pitch was all that was needed to sell the tapes we so regularly had to sell that we were just to say to the public “will that be cash or check or credit card. Weeks of drilling until 2am in the mess hall at pack so we could have confront to do this. It was by far the worst thing to happen at an event. The public left that hall in 10 mins and we were left wandering round in circles looking for our prey. That was the beginning of the end for public showing up at PAC events. Every event after that just got smaller. So yes you had 2000 staff there and 500 public. Imagine running that gauntlet every event. We even hid in the parking lot to sell books/tapes to public on the way out of the parking decks.
This was even before the basics evolution. I cannot imagine what that horror show was like.
You cannot imagine being a Div Six staff member at AOLA. You were responsible for every public in the USA coming to AOLA and had to wear every Div Six hat as well as Book store officer, event IC, tours, etc.
Int Management were idiots. None of them could run a coffee shop let alone an international organization.
Right Richard. In the late 70’s we had only about 2 events a year with a live band and lots of fun and inspiration. We danced all night and really enjoyed ourselves.
Isn’t there fund raising going on for a new hall in Clearwater? The L Ron Hubbard Hall? How many people is that place supposed to hold?
Mike, maybe they can bus the people down from Siberia through Mongolia, charter boats to cross the Bering Strait, come through Alaska down to LA. That might work.
Mike wrote:
“Their default operational mode is “Do it how we want it and you WILL participate and you WILL enjoy it.” Deviation from this is a sure fire sign of the apocalypse.”
Derivation of apocalypse:
[ Late Latin apocalypsis < Greek apokálypsis revelation, derivative of apokalýptein to uncover, reveal ]
Sure fire sign of the apocalypse, indeed.
heh heh.
Alanzo
Good one Alanzo!
If I’m remembering correctly, John P Capitalist wrote a blog post sometime near the end of 2013 in which he predicted that 2014 would see the collapse of Scientology’s event business.
I wonder how Miscavage is explaining this to himself. CICSs everywhere?
When I was on staff with my wife, we were ordered to go to all of these events. I went to one or two and after seeing how boring and full of PR they were I quit going. We were told that the events were mandatory. All staff had to attend. I never went to them. I would use the free time to do something more entertaining with our kids and go to see a movie or watch a video on our TV that the SO said we couldn’t have.
I hear you Dean. My successful exit strategy on the last one I attended was Tone 40 out the door and woe to anyone who tried to stop me.
The bus ride to and from the events, when I was on the RPF in PAC doing the event setups that the RPF members do, was a treat. After years in the complex on the RPF never getting out, that bus ride of RPF members that went in the mornings typically was a treat to see the outside world. RPF don’t get to go to the real events, we watched them a week or two afterwards!
God, the good old days of Sea Org deprivation, we each had our views, me, I took all events all years as “time off” and enjoyed crowd watching, just eyeballing who came, and recalling how many of the public had used to be Sea Org staff in years prior!
In so many ways, the events are more than whatever management or DM wishes those events to be.
They are also times to just see the other people who you otherwise don’t ever get to see except when at events.
They are social gatherings, I liked the opportunity to see people I’d last seen years earlier.
The pain of becoming a public after leaving the Sea Org, the fantasy that Scientology makes “OT” superpeople soul astronauts was always in my mind, and I was always hoping it was true.
Events are times to socialize and pretend the big group fantasy about becoming OT, that’s what they were, to me.
The Shrine was part of the old fantasy that LRH had himself talked there, even if Scientologists aren’t told the full story of that first Clear lady who couldn’t remember the color or LRH’s tie on the Shrine stage in 1950!
The history of the Scientology events, I’d hoped someday someone would leak ALL of the Scientology recorded events, as history.
The years of false promises is Scientology tradition. The ongoing OT fairtyale that binds.
“This is a real problem for Miscavige. He cannot keep people believing there is massive international expansion ….”
Miscavige doesn’t know how to push the fantasy enough! He’s letting them eat each other alive for their money, and he’s not pushing their fantasy OT goals for them to put their sights on OTness rather than IAS money status.
Their money focus to keep up the MEST to supposedly lure people is the major strategic blunder incorrect focus of Miscavige.
He should push the OT fantasy across the boards!
Chuck, great comment.
DM does not push OT because he is a DB. Promoting OT as “important” would ultimately point a finger at him as “leader” who actually embodies the opposite of OT: a timid, frightened psychopath who shot every OT around him for the past 30 years. He is now all alone with no OTs to buffer his idiotic strategy and now just has his enMEST buildings and probably 10 terrified close sycophants to conjole him in his psychopathic megalomania.
Good on ya Dean! And now you have a life they said you couldn’t live.
I’ll bet if there was an event at the Shrine featuring Jamie DeWolf it would fill up. Hell, I might show up no matter where it was held!
Jamie DeWolf would pack the place! That young man is very talented and he takes on the cult.
On a toboggan slide to non-existence and good riddance!
On a turbo charged toboggan slide to non-existence and good riddance.
Sorry, MJ. I just don’t have any patience when it come to this cult. Their demise cannot come soon enough.
However, I do have to admit that is simply hilarious watching them squirm now. As each day goes by, they become more irrelevant. One of my favorite description of them is: Evil Clowns.