That is a bastardized version of the condition of liability to suite the needs of the church. Sad. And unneeded. The church, as previously stated, is obsolete.
Wow, great read. There is so much subtle manipulation and control in CoS, especially in terms of liability and responsibility. The executive team have utilized ingenious methods to control those less suspecting of their intentions. Keep up the good content.
Cigs, Knowledge Reports and Lots of Money. The Conditions in Action & Putting Ethics In On The Planet. One of the lofty intentions of the most Ethical of All Cults known…RB you are swinging on a ⭐️ Thank You & ?
Yes, they never answer such questions with anything other than generalities. They think they’re soooo clever, palming off that kind of twaddle. Can’t say I have “enjoyed” this RB because somehow its burning me up. But I really like that your comics always make me think, whether or not I find them funny. Right now I feel like taking that SO woman’s cigarette and….never mind.
Oh, and speaking of cigarettes, last week I was in a chain drug store and saw that a pack costs $12.00 a pack now. At a pack a day – what I used to smoke before I quit 34 years ago) that ‘s $84 a week. How can they afford to smoke?
When I said, “they” I meant Sea Org members,who earn, optimistically, $50 per week, although at $12 a pack I’d say it would be a pricey habit nowadays for most of us.
I quit in 1989. I don’t remember what i was paying then, but it was definitely less than $1.50, in New York City. How can I count the ways that I happy I was successful at quitting?
I love the little touch of adding the cigarette in Tiffany’s hand. If LRH did it, it must be good for us too!
Also, you really have to sit back and think about the concept of Knowledge Reports. It is SO CRUEL.
If you are in a group that encourages KR’s, that Sec Checks children for dirt on their parents, that threatens you with disconnection from your loved ones, that milks every last cent it can squeeze out of you…
well if a light bulb doesn’t go on above your head, I guess you lost and deserve sympathy.
LRH was obese and unhealthy and died way too young, IMO. He should have lived at least another 10 years into his 80s and if he had been cause over his own body, never mind over life, but just over his own bodily cravings for nicotine, and taken otherwise reasonable care of himself physically with the vitamins and green veggies and good protein and he espoused for others there’s no reason why he couldn’t have lasted well into his 90s and beyond. I think having to retire and hide out also did him in way before his time. Some people are just not meant to ret\ire and they deteriorate rapidly when they have no purposeful work or structure to their days.
One by one, most Scios will realize that they don’t want to be bullied anymore. I remember my moment. It was a similar conversation with an org exec. I asked, “So, what are you doing about it?” She tore into me like an angry pit bull and reamed me for my insolence. Then she said that she was going to write up a KR. I calmly said, “Go ahead. Just make sure I get a copy.” Then I hung up. Never heard from her again. Never saw the KR. Never looked back.
RB, I wanted to ask about the visual imagery in this one. The Scn cross you drew looks like it hints of being a sword? Or does it hint of being a phallic symbol? What was your intention to portray with that picture of the cross? I’m just curious
Well, in the original OT8, Hubbard claims he’s Lucifer, the barer of light. He goes on to say Jesus was given to fits of rage. Moreover, he claimed Jesus was a lover men and young boys. Christianity did not sit well Hubbard.
Well, as to Jesus being given to fits of rage, when he was 12 he did per the New Testament get wigged out in the temple with those money-changers. No big deal. But then, where LRH got the “lover of men and young boys” stuff is anyone’s guess.
More evidence exists in the Apochrapha (spelling?) that he was married to Mary Magdalene. In there it does say he “loved her best” and would kiss her on the mouth. And if they were married, why not kids? Then again, if he and MM weren’t married, maybe they were an item for a while. So what? Would be my attitude.
Idle – Thanks for the great lead! Just reading up on the Rosicrucians and AMORC. Appears to be another rip-off by LRH and possibly another source of his “enlightenment”.
On another note, if you enjoy reading and don’t mind going back a few decades, try “The Word”, by Irving Wallace. The novel is old, but still relevant if you consider the conflicts of ‘old church v. new church’ and how the discovery of ‘new’ data could have powerful effect on the current church. (I.e. Dianetics v. OT IX and X; LRH Tech v. Golden Age of Tech, etc.)
Funny story…..ElRonn lived on the estate of a nutty amateur “scientist/philosopher” back in the 1940s named Parsons. This nut actually helped develop rocket engines. He was the Chief Nut of a Satanist cult called O.T.O, for which he supplied his estate in California (I think it was
Pasadena) as its HQ. So ElRonn moved in and “explored the human consciousness”, while managing to steal away Parson’s mistress – who was one of a bevy of beauties camping out at the estate! Then they conned Parsons out of $20K for some scheme to buy yachts in Florida, then sell them in California! ElRonn ended up marrying her – Sara. Like they used to say on The Sopranos…..DIS f**kin guy!
Cindy,
If you scroll down to Mary’s post this morning you will fine four items she lists. This cross thingy that you ask about is what she is referring to in item #4 and it works best when delivered to our best friend Dave!!!!
This RB was almost a trigger. It brought back memories of those few days (hours? minutes? seconds?) in Sea Org when I first believed that ethics was something that worked and that I would not personally have ethics applied on me because I was obeying the rules and a good little dobee.
It was easy to sigh quietly at those who had fallen from grace due to their “obvious” bad behavior. I would barely read the lower conditions because I knew they would never have any relevance in my life.
I read the liability formula with new eyes today and thought back on the times that people were in power one day and liability the next, with no gradient steps, contrary to what the written policy even states and thought of how many times in my SO and GO career similar situations occurred – “but but but policy states…” means absolutely nothing because there is always an exact opposite policy the person who is attacking you could pull up to show you how wrong you are.
It was a rude awakening when I was in SO to understand that in scientology, you really really really don’t have to do anything wrong to get punished, someone will happily make up reasons to punish you if you get in their crosshairs for whatever arbitrary reason they decide is good enough at that moment. By then, however, I had already become a boiled frog. ( https://www.mikerindersblog.org/how-to-slow-boil-a-frog/ )
For those who believe this random ethics punishment started with David Miscavige read Janis’ book – an ENTIRE SHIP was put in liability. An entire ship. FWIW, I had fully and thoroughly left about the the time the Mission Holders’ Massacre occurred, therefore, all random ethics applied to me, including what one of my colleagues called “the oddest ethics order he had ever read” (and one I was never shown or made aware of although it was about me) was prior to Miscavige being at the helm.
Ethics is and has always been a way for scientology to force people to behave in a desired manner. Scientology ethics was and has always been a control mechanism of the highest form.
Great comment Valerie. I am reading Janice Gillham Grady’s book and am amazed at the harsh ethics that were meted out when it was LRH’s fault for not training the crew into seamen, not paying for new maps to replace outdated maps, not paying for other things that were needed to run a ship without accidents and hazards. When I read what that crew had to work with for equipment, with sleep deprivation, and with almost NO HATTING, it is amazing that more bad stuff didn’t happen than did. LRH didn’t have foreign speaking crew and so no one could communicate with the port authorities in places they went and it resulted in a flap and LRH being arrested for a day. Somehow LRH twisted that around to be all Mary Sue’s fault! He told her to take the kids and leave the ship and go live a wog life on land. It was his way of disconnecting from her. She cried and begged him to let her have another chance etc. Finally he said OK but you have to take a crew on one of the ships and go out to see and train up the crew to be good sailors. This from a woman who herself had no sea training. What a dangerous thing to let them go off by themselves when no one amongst them was trained in navigating and running a ship. But Mary Sue took up the gauntlet and went out there. She put up with so much crap from him. The sex must have been good for her to let him run roughshod over her like she did. Either that, or she was brainwashed like the rest of them and drinking strong Kool Aid. Sorry if I gave away too much of your book Janice. I hope others will buy and read it too.
RB, good one again, This brought back a memory. When on the 6 month sec check on OT VII, the IAS was all over you. It got to where when you just routed in, a page said they had to physically body route you to the IAS office for a “briefing.” If you refused to go, you were told you have to go anyway. So against my will i went as I was told I wouldn’t move on my program until I had the briefing. My usual IAS reg started regging me for money.
Then someone else I didn’t know, probably a temporary shark higher up RTC senior bypassed her and started in on me. She hammered me, beat me, invalidated me, threatened me and did all sorts of horrible things until I broke and gave money just to get out of there. Her tone level the entire time was anger and disgust. I left but I was so upset and ashamed that I had let her bully me.
The underling associate followed me to the elevator and I went off on her. I told her to never ever let that woman reg me again because as of today I would never ever ever give one thin dime to the IAS if that woman tried to reg me. I told how she bullied and raped, pillaged and plundered me and threatened and I won’t put up with it again. I said I’d ask for a refund if I thought they wouldn’t excommunicate me over it.
Anyway, the page must have told her what I said cuz next thing I knew the Recruiter found me and reamed me out for “nattering about the recruit cycle” she had done earlier on me I said I didn’t know what she was talking about. She said the IAS reg wrote a KR on me saying that during the reg cycle she had with me that I nattered about the recruiter. I explained what happened in the IAS reg cycle and how I’d reacted to it, and that I’d never nattered about the recruit cycle. Then the recruiter let me in on a secret: she said if a SO member was going to get in trouble by someone complaining about him/her, that person would do a pre-emptive strike by quickly writing up a KR on them (whether true or not), and get her KR in first so that when the complaint about her came in, she could point to the KR and say, “see, this is why she said that about me.” It was a dog eat dog attack before you can get attacked world. I was just shocked to see that she would use these dog eat dog Sea Org tactics on a public person. You captured it, RB.
You’re right about ‘you can’t make up this shit.’ The sad part is, this is SOP in every Idle Morgue. Screaming & yelling until you cough up the big bucks. What nonsense!
The culture of informing, the severe financial repercussions for falling out of favor, the mental gymnastics required to justify the contradictions and cruelty… it is all so exhausting.
Scientologists still in, you need a break from this mental anguish. You deserve a happy life, and the mythology that LRH pulled out of his hypocritical ass will simply make you miserable.
That’s friggin’ awful, Cindy. BTW, that was not happening in 1974 when I was at AOLA. The regges were actually nice (Enid Byrne, Charity Smith). Unbelievable how things have ‘evolved’. 🙁
Cindy, can you please tell me when your predatory reg experiences occurred. It seems like with fewer marks to reg, the most hungry and driven of these degraded beings will stop at nothing to get their pound of flesh. Recent reports are that they’ve been massing in and around CW, where well-off $cilons still fly in from around the world to get their BTs waxed and groomed, while their kids do some serious pole-running 😉
Standing up for yourself against that kind of verbal abuse and intimidation is the only self-respecting response that a sane person can have to folks like that. Organizations which breed and tolerate that kind of heinous douchebaggery are almost always rotten to their very core, but when management sides with its abusive employees against its own customers, then you know for sure that it’s time to RUN, not walk, out of there and never look back!
“but when management sides with its abusive employees against its own customers then you know for sure that it’s time to RUN, not walk, out of there and never look back!” That is so true, Harpoona. I wrote KR’s on stuff like this and it never got handled because it was coming from the top. Davie was putting pressure on them and so the entire SO became out exchange and criminal. You are right that as time went on there were fewer and fewer marks to reg, so the IAS and others circled Flag like buzzards around a dying carcass. Everyone wanted their pound of flesh even if they had to literally pound it out of you. The only thing my written KR’s ever got me was to have me called into Ethics to handle me on daring to point up and outpoint or out KSW thing up. Even though the KR bulletin says to not be afraid to write up your boss or senior, the SO felt that they should never be questioned and never be written up and that if anyone did that, then investigate the writer of the KR and never investigate the SO member(s).
Yep, then there’s that sweet moment of dawning revelation that, “OMG, it IS all about the money with these assholes!”
Cindy, during what time period did you have the experiences that you’ve described?
I got out of the cult in the late 70’s before things got infinitely worse, so I feel fortunate to have gotten out before then and sorry for the trauma that so many others suffered who stayed in.
That is Scientology ethics in action. You have the snitching culture with the KR threat and the control mechanism with the heavy ethics. The staff member smoking is a nice touch. It adds to the realness of the interaction. During my short stint on staff I saw that type of smoking many times.
Good, let them deliver carcinogenic chemicals to their body tissues on a regular basis and pay outrageious prices to serve their addiction to nicotine. Good for them!
And, while they’re at it, Miscavige should open a Sea Org facility right next to a coal mine. Let them drink water from a nearby stream and breathe the air filled with dust from all that “beautiful, clean coal”.
Betcha they were smoking American Spirits, the cheapest cigarette on the market today! With staff pay so low, it’s probably all they can afford.
Hmmmmm. Maybe the American Spirit people should market to Scientology contracted staff members and Sea Org.
Just found out someone I loved back in the day, died in January of a sudden brain aneurysm. She looked healthy and vibrant in the most recent photos. But then I also found out her OT7/OT8 husband has been suffering with dementia for a few years, to the point he has to be cared for by one of his children. Neither of them were even 70. I bring this up here, because way back, when the wife was mission public, her husband was constantly/continuously harassed to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars (he was already Clear, if I recall, and I believe Flag public at that point) literally every single week. His wife spent the beginning of every session voicing her extreme upsets over this. And of course, she was always made to look like the stop, the why, the suppressive, the one with counter-intention who really wasn’t supportive of her husband because she voiced her disagreements with his spending so much money all the time, with total disregard for their finances and future. She knew they would turn him against her if she outright refused. She was a devout Catholic and managed to raise their children in the faith, which she was ridiculed for behind the scenes. I always admired her for that and from what I can see, their children are not Scios, and appear to be well-adjusted and educated. Thank God for their mother’s tenacity.
I lost touch with them when I left in 1999, but I can only imagine this pressure intensified as she attested to Clear and they both continued at Flag. I will always hold a special place in my heart for her. She was a woman I admired immensely, for being a loving and most attentive/responsible mother and wife and even a board member for LSU alumni, all while under constant harassment from Cof$. RIP my friend. <3
You have my sympathy for the loss of your dear friend. I understand well the struggle she experienced with her husband, finances and the cult splitting husband and wife to divide and conquer just to line their coffers.
A lot can be explained by noticing where Hubbard put sympathy on the tone scale–very low toned.
sym·pa·thy
ˈsimpəTHē/
noun
a : inclination to think or feel alike : emotional or intellectual accord in sympathy with their goals
b : feeling of loyalty : tendency to favor or support
2. understanding between people; common feeling.
“the special sympathy between the two boys was obvious to all”
synonyms: rapport, fellow feeling, affinity, empathy, harmony, accord, compatibility
“Low toned?” Really?
Odd coincidence that her husband would develop dementia… I wonder if there were signs of his impairment recognized by scientology reggs. If they did notice signs of dementia, be certain they’d jump all over him before he was too far gone to sign for a hefty credit card transaction.
I’m sure your friend did a lot of good. May she rest in peace.
Thank you, TitleWaves and Old Surfer Dude.
I’m sure the slurch does everything it can to hide the fact that an OT7 (not sure if he made it to OT8) has dementia. Not very good PR…
Scientology loves to take advantage of brain-injured people. Isaac Hayes (stroke) and Raul Lopez (auto accident) before him. They will take advantage of anyone and everyone take collect a buck by Thursday at 2.
T- Marie, I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. Scientology rarely does anything other than force members to give up their hard earned money. Your story moved me…
Oh, about those cigarettes. Has anyone seen the TV show “The Leftovers” (you should!). In it, there is a cult, called The Guilty Remnant, and one of their features is that members smoke cigarettes incessantly. I wonder if Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel, was inspired by Scientology and L. Ron’s up-is-downism regarding cigarette smoking.
So true. Who smokes more? The Guilty Remnant or Scientology staff/SO? The winner there is the tobacco companies. I would recommend “The Leftovers” also, it is a very good series.
Hgc10 – “I wonder if Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel, was inspired by Scientology and L. Ron’s up-is-downism regarding cigarette smoking.” Ha, I wondered the same thing.
As always RB your column clicks some of my old Sci tech into the forefront. Hubbard created the CDEI scale as a way to view aspects of upsets in life. The CDEI means: Curious, Desired, Enforced, Inhibited.
Looking at that scale now, as regards the cherch, you have pointed out that they have abandoned the idea that the truth can be found here, or the enticement of someone getting better. No. They are now rapidly dropping directly to enforcing ‘command intention’, then the threat of disconnection if enforcement fails. They are dooming themselves by doing nothing to turn their game around, or up tone, or up scale, or towards truth.
Maybe Leah and Mike can help them with their ruin—— THE TRUTH.
Thank you RB for all of you fine work. You truly chronicle the present church of Scientology. I haven’t posted many comments on your work because I left in 82.
Most of these situations you so accurately portray in cartoon were not part of my Scientoogyl experience. The 70s and early 80s Scientology had not yet been further corrupted by DM. So my commenting would not be authentic because we did not have the IAS.
But I wanted to thank you for all that you do for this blog; thank you!
And other peeps, don’t forget to sign the petition for revoking IRS tax status.
It’s amazing OSD that we are still here talking about this. I’m actually surprised how much work I’ve had to do on myself and wrong knowledge I’ve had dissolve through introspection and reason.
My wife saw Scientology’s influence on me and I’d get angry at her judgements.
I now see that she saw some things in me that I did not (wives are good for that:-).
Especially when we were so impressionable and young.
Hubbard was and is a bad influence on the minds of youth. Please anybody reading this, keep you kids away from this hellish mind prison.
It is amazing that we’re still talking about it. But, that’s a great thing! We shouldn’t stop talking about Scientology until they have been dissolved. We need to carry our little movement forward.
LRH started raising the rates 5% a month in the ’70s. That was not a Miscavige brainchild. It was even announced in the auditor. It was supposed to be to get staff paid better. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Aquamarine, I remember this well. I think I was on staff in Toronto at the time, mid-70’s. It was one of those instances of thinking, ‘WTF!!?’ Not out loud, of course.
You are right Valerie. My sister (DeDe) in around 1981 was the Chairman of WDC (Watchdog Committee). They were a committee that was meant to have been running the management side of the cult. My understanding is that she proposed and all of the WDC agreed, to stop the 5% price hikes as they noticed that stats were going down and this was the “why”. Apparently DM reported this to LRH and this is one of the things that got her, DeDe, busted. The odd thing though is that DM was part of the WDC and also voted in favor of halting the 5% rate hike. Evidently the 5% price hike was reinstated in 1984.
Either way, it worked out great in the end and we all left the cult in ’82 for good.
Thanks Valerie. I was going to make that note. I and about 3/4 of my friends decided that we would only buy just what we had to. Really put the squeeze on the org to deliver prepaid services. ie full BC for $650.00. Several were refused their service and wrote to Ron (late 1970s) to no avail. Thus several more walked away.
To say that the orgs are their own worst enemy is putting it mildly.
Lie – a – bility. Yep, Scientologists sure have!
Never seen a condition formula change conditions yet that wouldn’t have happened anyway with a little gumption applied instead. Ethics conditions and formulas are designed to introvert and hold your attention on a particular course. ie always benefiting the Cof$.
Nothing wrong with the mechanical aspect of keeping records and methodically and logically responding to changes, but there’s everything wrong with adhering to formulas that others can then judge, manipulate their intention into and use against you. What an awful, awful thing organising Scientology turned out to be. Such things as ethics formulas/conditions and the policies associated with the perceived survival of the group… geezers add a military style discipline to run it, and bingo – a brainwashing manual on steroids! Hey, Scientology already employs the liberal use of barbed wire fences, heavy security & fanciful legalese to keep track of their own… think about that!
Good one RB, once again you’re scary accurate in satire.
Off topic but I got a call from the Atlanta org a couple of nights ago. I actually felt kind of sorry for the poor guy that called me you could just hear the desperation in his voice.
I tried to convince him to go get a real job because Scientology is dying. He asked why I thought that to wich I replied every time I drive by any Scientology Org the parking lots are always empty. I then asked him how many people were in the course room right now as we spoke, he tried to dance around the question. When I pressed further he said he didn’t know how many people were in the course room.
At one point in the conversation he said he did not have an easy job that he calls people every night and nine out of ten people laugh at him like I was laughing at him (I was actually trying to get him to temporarily pop out of the bubble).
I then asked if he really believed there are 20 million scientologists out there as they promote, he said he believes there are actually more than 20 million. The cognitive dissonance is amazing, he says 9 out of 10 people laugh at him and also believes there are more than 20 million.
At one point I got online and started reading OT 3 to him, I figured this would really scare him and he would hang up but to my surprise he stayed on the phone and listened to it all.
He actually admitted it costs about $50,000 to go clear, in my experience they usually don’t discuss numbers over the phone. All in all he seemed like a nice guy and I hope he wakes up soon. He said he wasn’t going to give up on me so I took that to mean I’ll be getting another call from him.
You’re a good soul, Doug. Not everyone would take the time to talk with a cult member. Like you, I hope this kid wakes up. But, I certainly wouldn’t bet on it.
When they have been pre-framed to ignore anything negative about the cult it is virtually impossible to get through to them. Have to admit that is a rather ingenious although evil form of mind control.
Doug, thanks for sharing that interesting and insightful report.
It’s mind-blowing to hear that someone really thinks that Scientology has more than 20 million members – but it’s a reminder of the level of delusion that some of the remaining bubble-dwellers operate at. He’s at an org that probably has a tiny active membership of around 100, in a vast metropolitan area of nearly 6 million, and apparently doesn’t get it. Even Scientology’s PRs are starting to make reference to “hundreds of thousands,” still way high, but the old claims of millions are getting too obviously implausible.
These are seeds of doubt you are planting…each phone call you have with him will be like pouring water on the seeds. Roots will not be far behind….keep at him and well done!
I couldn’t even read through that formula – brings back too many awful memories of the arbitrary ethics conditions being used to abuse, shame, break down and demoralize people who weren’t falling into line with the craziness.
These formulas and the penalties enforced have been an abuse from the very beginning. A lot of people think scn has gone wrong since DM came into power, but don’t forget that LRH wrote and developed these formulas on the ship where the penalties were ‘piloted’ to see how far he could push people. This is when throwing someone overboard as ‘ethics’ punishment came into use. In the orgs, where they didn’t have an ocean to throw someone into, they would make the victim stand in a dark alleyway and throw buckets of ice cold water over them.
Anyone who develops such unforgivable human rights abuse is not a humanitarian. These abuses were rolled out into every org across the planet in the ’60s and have been an organization-wide sponsored abuse and mind control tool ever since.
I can remember witnessing people in ‘lower conditions’ being forced to wear dirty rags, grey boiler suits and chains (yes, chains) so that the whole group would know what ‘lower condition’ they were in. If you were assigned to treason you were put in the ‘dungeon’ – a space at the bottom of the elevator shaft. What kind of humanitarian does this to people who in all good faith have given up their lives to serve something they think is going to help people?
The sooner this organization disintegrates the better.
“Anyone who develops such unforgivable human rights abuse is not a humanitarian. These abuses were rolled out into every org across the planet in the ’60s and have been an organization-wide sponsored abuse and mind control tool ever since.” …. well said. This is not an overstatement. Hubbard’s Ethics tech along these lines are cancerous. Unfortunately the path out of the mind set is sometimes a long and arduous one. Everyone inside is a victim of mind control.
Thanks Doug – and you’re right. It’s such an insidious mind control/mind conditioning tool (ethics conditions and other aspects of scn ‘tech’ and mentality) that it takes a l-o-n-g time to unwind and unravel from it for many people.
Too true White Light. This is Hubbard’s brain child and became one of his more despised, “enforced absolutes.” The guinea pig use of his crew I believe is one of his more despicable traits and barbaric human experiments. If one was to use his own formulas in ROPECs (remember that tech – repair of past ethics conditions?) on Hubbard himself, if only due to fact of his organisation failed miserably, especially broadly under his guidance – the string pulling goes directly to him and his stupid policies. He wallowed in treason as he never wore his hat as an officer responsible for the welfare of his shipmates. He saw money & power and chased that instead. Those stories by Gary, Lois and other messengers stand out as particularly telling as to the covert and not so covert loathing Hubbard had for his personnel. Hubbard never deserved the loyalty bestowed upon him, he spat in the face of his subordinates and every staff member to ever sign a contract. Now we’re really seeing the public response to that bs as it filters down the line. Leah, A&E & Mike are displaying what Hubbard should have done all those years ago, never desert those that are your true friends or require your help. Hubbard rode the back of help for quite some time, sucking in those attracted to thinking they were genuinely helping mankind before the reality of what he created materialized into tyranny.
What goes around comes around.
You’re spot on @IYawnalot – and this is the end of the line for the abuse. The truth is shining a big bright light on the reality of what has taken place for decades, thanks to Leah, Mike and everyone sharing their painful stories…
It got to the point that all you had to do to make up the damage and get out of the condition was donate money. Money solved everything with the church, including ethics conditions.
Even SPs will be magically undeclared if they inherit large amounts of money – at least until the money’s gone. I inherited money when my dad died. By the time they tried to get it out of me, I had bought a house and a grand piano. Whoops!
Yea Valerie!!! An acquaintance of mine was an illegal pc because of having worked at a psych institute before Scn. She could train but never get OT Levels. She tried many times. But always it was “No.”
Then she inherited a boat load of money. The church was on that like white on rice telling her she was now eligible and it had been an arbitrary, and buy your whole Bridge up to OT VII. She did. And then she died of cancer not long after getting onto OT VII. Her husband was a well known Scn Chiropractor in the LA area. He had her do only the medical stuff of chemo and radiation when she wanted to also try other things. But she couldn’t becuase she was on OT VII and the church forbade her to do anything except the norm of chemo and radiation. He boasted to a friend of mine about how wonderful it was having Kaiser insurance because, “they paid for everything.” So here is a Chiro who touts alternative healing, and he is happy with Kaiser, the traditional cancer handling stuff and all he can say is he liked it because it was cheap. He lost his wife to cancer. So I wouldn’t say it was a success story for Kaiser. I thought he would be doing all sorts of alternate healing things for his wife to save her, but he didn’t. Anyway, funny how she was illegal for decades and then once she got money, all was forgiven and she was regged for her entire bridge.
I’ve done the Liability Formula on myself. I did it to stop being lazy by eating fast food and other junk. Beginning with the Doubt Formula, I also did it on a man I liked who I said he wanted me to be his girlfriend back in the day, while he was actually engaged to his high school sweetheart a thousand miles away (I found out) Both times doing this formula proved helpful. That said, I can see how these same formulas could be used to humiliate and make someone utterly wrong…horrible. The Sea Org has to be one really sick, evil entity to allow this. I can’t imagine using Conditions Formulas in such ways and for such purposes. I would like to obliterate the Sea Org. I hate it.
High control groups have to control everyone in their group. The reg got her commission and everyone uplines got to record a good stat for that 2pm Thursday deadline. Everyone did well, except the guy who is out of his retirement fund or mortgage payment.
I use to think life was life was like a packet of cigarettes but you had to beg, borrow or steal the matches. Like what kept the tobacco industry alive so long until common sense (plus the body count) finally caught up with it. Similar analogy with the Catholic Church and child abuse. Scientology is only surviving presently because of lawyers, but the abuse count is finally beginning to catch up with it. Scientology in deposition, oh, what a wonderful idea!
Yawn, I agree. “Scientology” is close to the point of its existaece “in name only”. As long as there is money to pay the lawyers, it can theoretically exist and pump out its fake news, it can keep the lights on even after the last people have left the buildings. I wouldn’t put this ploy past Miscavige – to keep pretending even after the point where the orgs are literally empty of staff and public. I wouldn’t put it past him.
I started reading that Liability Formula and got sick. The “enemy” is ALWAYS the side that’s not the church of scientology/david miscavige. It honestly should have been simply written:
“(1) Get rid of any friends or family that are not die-hard scientologists.
(2) Do anything you can to destroy their lives but get any monies you can get out of them first.
(3) Give all your (and anyone else’s) money and assets to whatever the latest campaign that ‘Command Intention’ (whoever that is) deems.
(4) Bend over and take it.
How about a “Lose Story,” seems to me it’s a cross between a KR and a formula completion.
“Would you want others to have similar losses?” If yes is the answer, you get put back on post & promoted. If it’s No and you’re put into lowers until you really lose.
“(1) Get rid of any friends or family that are not die-hard scientologists.” This is NOT an exaggeration. I was told by a Flag MAA to disconnect from my cousins were never Scientologists but are Christians. And they never gave me crap about drinking the Kool-Aid either. This kind of BS is real.
Correct Yawnalot. Disconnection, and threatened hell and damnation: the “what about your eternity?” card to keep people in line or the threat of a SP declare. Disgusting!
Dear Python:
Dianetics orgs have tried three times (1998, 2011 and 2013) to obtain religious acknowledgement from the government, to no avail.
Now they are submitting another petition (TR-3?)
Not gonna happen…1). Mexico wants/needs the tax base…2). A&E is broadcasted there via A&E International. 3). I sent the journalist the link to Aftermath. ?
Coercion, Scientology Ethics is thy name! However, this particular guy is more than a bit dense. And, obviously, is incapable of getting his question answered. Back to TRs for six months! 🙂
This is spot on! I always observed that the C of S applies ethics conditions to control and manipulate. They tend to be applied arbitrarily! I would not be surprised if the members who do not write a negative email to the sponsors of the Aftermath are assigned a lower ethics condition!
That is a bastardized version of the condition of liability to suite the needs of the church. Sad. And unneeded. The church, as previously stated, is obsolete.
Wow, great read. There is so much subtle manipulation and control in CoS, especially in terms of liability and responsibility. The executive team have utilized ingenious methods to control those less suspecting of their intentions. Keep up the good content.
Thus is so sad cause it’s true?
“I’ll repeat the audit.. I mean, I’ll repeat the goddamned question…”
Classic. lol.
Dave,
Gullibility Update:
13% of adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
12% think that Elvis is still alive.
Why doesn’t anyone think that your Mark will do the right thing?
Per the Liability formula, do you have ANY friends?
Cigs, Knowledge Reports and Lots of Money. The Conditions in Action & Putting Ethics In On The Planet. One of the lofty intentions of the most Ethical of All Cults known…RB you are swinging on a ⭐️ Thank You & ?
Yes, they never answer such questions with anything other than generalities. They think they’re soooo clever, palming off that kind of twaddle. Can’t say I have “enjoyed” this RB because somehow its burning me up. But I really like that your comics always make me think, whether or not I find them funny. Right now I feel like taking that SO woman’s cigarette and….never mind.
Oh, and speaking of cigarettes, last week I was in a chain drug store and saw that a pack costs $12.00 a pack now. At a pack a day – what I used to smoke before I quit 34 years ago) that ‘s $84 a week. How can they afford to smoke?
When I said, “they” I meant Sea Org members,who earn, optimistically, $50 per week, although at $12 a pack I’d say it would be a pricey habit nowadays for most of us.
I quit in 1989. I don’t remember what i was paying then, but it was definitely less than $1.50, in New York City. How can I count the ways that I happy I was successful at quitting?
Another hit out of the park, Regraded Being.
I love the little touch of adding the cigarette in Tiffany’s hand. If LRH did it, it must be good for us too!
Also, you really have to sit back and think about the concept of Knowledge Reports. It is SO CRUEL.
If you are in a group that encourages KR’s, that Sec Checks children for dirt on their parents, that threatens you with disconnection from your loved ones, that milks every last cent it can squeeze out of you…
well if a light bulb doesn’t go on above your head, I guess you lost and deserve sympathy.
LRH was obese and unhealthy and died way too young, IMO. He should have lived at least another 10 years into his 80s and if he had been cause over his own body, never mind over life, but just over his own bodily cravings for nicotine, and taken otherwise reasonable care of himself physically with the vitamins and green veggies and good protein and he espoused for others there’s no reason why he couldn’t have lasted well into his 90s and beyond. I think having to retire and hide out also did him in way before his time. Some people are just not meant to ret\ire and they deteriorate rapidly when they have no purposeful work or structure to their days.
One by one, most Scios will realize that they don’t want to be bullied anymore. I remember my moment. It was a similar conversation with an org exec. I asked, “So, what are you doing about it?” She tore into me like an angry pit bull and reamed me for my insolence. Then she said that she was going to write up a KR. I calmly said, “Go ahead. Just make sure I get a copy.” Then I hung up. Never heard from her again. Never saw the KR. Never looked back.
The one thing they can’t handle is someone who stands up to them.
Good for you, Murray! If you confront them, they don’t know what to do!
RB, I wanted to ask about the visual imagery in this one. The Scn cross you drew looks like it hints of being a sword? Or does it hint of being a phallic symbol? What was your intention to portray with that picture of the cross? I’m just curious
It definitely has a dong-like appearance I’d say.
I’ll take ‘dong’ for $200, please.
Dong for $200: ‘Ecclesiastical leader holding the record for the tiniest’.
Loved it. Very clever as the cross is upside down… Reversed is so apropos…
It’s an upside down cross. In Christianity this would represent the anti-Christ and since Hubbard borrowed the cross, well….
I could be wrong.
Or, you could be right.
?
Well, in the original OT8, Hubbard claims he’s Lucifer, the barer of light. He goes on to say Jesus was given to fits of rage. Moreover, he claimed Jesus was a lover men and young boys. Christianity did not sit well Hubbard.
The upside down cross IS Lucifer! Nice touch, RB!
Well, as to Jesus being given to fits of rage, when he was 12 he did per the New Testament get wigged out in the temple with those money-changers. No big deal. But then, where LRH got the “lover of men and young boys” stuff is anyone’s guess.
More evidence exists in the Apochrapha (spelling?) that he was married to Mary Magdalene. In there it does say he “loved her best” and would kiss her on the mouth. And if they were married, why not kids? Then again, if he and MM weren’t married, maybe they were an item for a while. So what? Would be my attitude.
The Scientology Cross is the Rosy Cross…… Rememeber L Ron Hubbard practiced OTO and Thelma with Aleistar Crowley – the most evil man of the times.
Check it out – google Rosy Cross
RB – do a cartoon of a Scientologists discovering the Rosy Cross and how they use the tech to deal with such discovery
Idle – Thanks for the great lead! Just reading up on the Rosicrucians and AMORC. Appears to be another rip-off by LRH and possibly another source of his “enlightenment”.
On another note, if you enjoy reading and don’t mind going back a few decades, try “The Word”, by Irving Wallace. The novel is old, but still relevant if you consider the conflicts of ‘old church v. new church’ and how the discovery of ‘new’ data could have powerful effect on the current church. (I.e. Dianetics v. OT IX and X; LRH Tech v. Golden Age of Tech, etc.)
Funny story…..ElRonn lived on the estate of a nutty amateur “scientist/philosopher” back in the 1940s named Parsons. This nut actually helped develop rocket engines. He was the Chief Nut of a Satanist cult called O.T.O, for which he supplied his estate in California (I think it was
Pasadena) as its HQ. So ElRonn moved in and “explored the human consciousness”, while managing to steal away Parson’s mistress – who was one of a bevy of beauties camping out at the estate! Then they conned Parsons out of $20K for some scheme to buy yachts in Florida, then sell them in California! ElRonn ended up marrying her – Sara. Like they used to say on The Sopranos…..DIS f**kin guy!
😉
Cindy,
If you scroll down to Mary’s post this morning you will fine four items she lists. This cross thingy that you ask about is what she is referring to in item #4 and it works best when delivered to our best friend Dave!!!!
LOL
This RB was almost a trigger. It brought back memories of those few days (hours? minutes? seconds?) in Sea Org when I first believed that ethics was something that worked and that I would not personally have ethics applied on me because I was obeying the rules and a good little dobee.
It was easy to sigh quietly at those who had fallen from grace due to their “obvious” bad behavior. I would barely read the lower conditions because I knew they would never have any relevance in my life.
I read the liability formula with new eyes today and thought back on the times that people were in power one day and liability the next, with no gradient steps, contrary to what the written policy even states and thought of how many times in my SO and GO career similar situations occurred – “but but but policy states…” means absolutely nothing because there is always an exact opposite policy the person who is attacking you could pull up to show you how wrong you are.
It was a rude awakening when I was in SO to understand that in scientology, you really really really don’t have to do anything wrong to get punished, someone will happily make up reasons to punish you if you get in their crosshairs for whatever arbitrary reason they decide is good enough at that moment. By then, however, I had already become a boiled frog. ( https://www.mikerindersblog.org/how-to-slow-boil-a-frog/ )
For those who believe this random ethics punishment started with David Miscavige read Janis’ book – an ENTIRE SHIP was put in liability. An entire ship. FWIW, I had fully and thoroughly left about the the time the Mission Holders’ Massacre occurred, therefore, all random ethics applied to me, including what one of my colleagues called “the oddest ethics order he had ever read” (and one I was never shown or made aware of although it was about me) was prior to Miscavige being at the helm.
Ethics is and has always been a way for scientology to force people to behave in a desired manner. Scientology ethics was and has always been a control mechanism of the highest form.
Well said Valerie, this abuse goes back to Ron, no matter how you slice it. Miscavige has just perpetuated and misused it further.
Great comment Valerie. I am reading Janice Gillham Grady’s book and am amazed at the harsh ethics that were meted out when it was LRH’s fault for not training the crew into seamen, not paying for new maps to replace outdated maps, not paying for other things that were needed to run a ship without accidents and hazards. When I read what that crew had to work with for equipment, with sleep deprivation, and with almost NO HATTING, it is amazing that more bad stuff didn’t happen than did. LRH didn’t have foreign speaking crew and so no one could communicate with the port authorities in places they went and it resulted in a flap and LRH being arrested for a day. Somehow LRH twisted that around to be all Mary Sue’s fault! He told her to take the kids and leave the ship and go live a wog life on land. It was his way of disconnecting from her. She cried and begged him to let her have another chance etc. Finally he said OK but you have to take a crew on one of the ships and go out to see and train up the crew to be good sailors. This from a woman who herself had no sea training. What a dangerous thing to let them go off by themselves when no one amongst them was trained in navigating and running a ship. But Mary Sue took up the gauntlet and went out there. She put up with so much crap from him. The sex must have been good for her to let him run roughshod over her like she did. Either that, or she was brainwashed like the rest of them and drinking strong Kool Aid. Sorry if I gave away too much of your book Janice. I hope others will buy and read it too.
RB, good one again, This brought back a memory. When on the 6 month sec check on OT VII, the IAS was all over you. It got to where when you just routed in, a page said they had to physically body route you to the IAS office for a “briefing.” If you refused to go, you were told you have to go anyway. So against my will i went as I was told I wouldn’t move on my program until I had the briefing. My usual IAS reg started regging me for money.
Then someone else I didn’t know, probably a temporary shark higher up RTC senior bypassed her and started in on me. She hammered me, beat me, invalidated me, threatened me and did all sorts of horrible things until I broke and gave money just to get out of there. Her tone level the entire time was anger and disgust. I left but I was so upset and ashamed that I had let her bully me.
The underling associate followed me to the elevator and I went off on her. I told her to never ever let that woman reg me again because as of today I would never ever ever give one thin dime to the IAS if that woman tried to reg me. I told how she bullied and raped, pillaged and plundered me and threatened and I won’t put up with it again. I said I’d ask for a refund if I thought they wouldn’t excommunicate me over it.
Anyway, the page must have told her what I said cuz next thing I knew the Recruiter found me and reamed me out for “nattering about the recruit cycle” she had done earlier on me I said I didn’t know what she was talking about. She said the IAS reg wrote a KR on me saying that during the reg cycle she had with me that I nattered about the recruiter. I explained what happened in the IAS reg cycle and how I’d reacted to it, and that I’d never nattered about the recruit cycle. Then the recruiter let me in on a secret: she said if a SO member was going to get in trouble by someone complaining about him/her, that person would do a pre-emptive strike by quickly writing up a KR on them (whether true or not), and get her KR in first so that when the complaint about her came in, she could point to the KR and say, “see, this is why she said that about me.” It was a dog eat dog attack before you can get attacked world. I was just shocked to see that she would use these dog eat dog Sea Org tactics on a public person. You captured it, RB.
Amazing. You can’t make up this shit!
You’re right about ‘you can’t make up this shit.’ The sad part is, this is SOP in every Idle Morgue. Screaming & yelling until you cough up the big bucks. What nonsense!
And here I thought that screaming and yelling is low-toned comm. Silly me, I must have an M.U.!
Scientology is just one big mind f***.
The culture of informing, the severe financial repercussions for falling out of favor, the mental gymnastics required to justify the contradictions and cruelty… it is all so exhausting.
Scientologists still in, you need a break from this mental anguish. You deserve a happy life, and the mythology that LRH pulled out of his hypocritical ass will simply make you miserable.
That’s friggin’ awful, Cindy. BTW, that was not happening in 1974 when I was at AOLA. The regges were actually nice (Enid Byrne, Charity Smith). Unbelievable how things have ‘evolved’. 🙁
Unbelievable, indeed. Now it’s just insanity. Pure insanity.
Yes, you said it, Spike and Old Surfer Dude. Things changed for the worst or should I say “for the worserer” when Davie took over.
Cindy, can you please tell me when your predatory reg experiences occurred. It seems like with fewer marks to reg, the most hungry and driven of these degraded beings will stop at nothing to get their pound of flesh. Recent reports are that they’ve been massing in and around CW, where well-off $cilons still fly in from around the world to get their BTs waxed and groomed, while their kids do some serious pole-running 😉
Standing up for yourself against that kind of verbal abuse and intimidation is the only self-respecting response that a sane person can have to folks like that. Organizations which breed and tolerate that kind of heinous douchebaggery are almost always rotten to their very core, but when management sides with its abusive employees against its own customers, then you know for sure that it’s time to RUN, not walk, out of there and never look back!
“but when management sides with its abusive employees against its own customers then you know for sure that it’s time to RUN, not walk, out of there and never look back!” That is so true, Harpoona. I wrote KR’s on stuff like this and it never got handled because it was coming from the top. Davie was putting pressure on them and so the entire SO became out exchange and criminal. You are right that as time went on there were fewer and fewer marks to reg, so the IAS and others circled Flag like buzzards around a dying carcass. Everyone wanted their pound of flesh even if they had to literally pound it out of you. The only thing my written KR’s ever got me was to have me called into Ethics to handle me on daring to point up and outpoint or out KSW thing up. Even though the KR bulletin says to not be afraid to write up your boss or senior, the SO felt that they should never be questioned and never be written up and that if anyone did that, then investigate the writer of the KR and never investigate the SO member(s).
Yep, then there’s that sweet moment of dawning revelation that, “OMG, it IS all about the money with these assholes!”
Cindy, during what time period did you have the experiences that you’ve described?
I got out of the cult in the late 70’s before things got infinitely worse, so I feel fortunate to have gotten out before then and sorry for the trauma that so many others suffered who stayed in.
Wut?? I. Can’t. Wrap. My. Head. Around. This. Nonsense. ?
That is Scientology ethics in action. You have the snitching culture with the KR threat and the control mechanism with the heavy ethics. The staff member smoking is a nice touch. It adds to the realness of the interaction. During my short stint on staff I saw that type of smoking many times.
Hubbard: “Smoking doesn’t cause cancer. Not smoking enough causes cancer.”
You just can’t make THIS shit up!
Looks like someone did.
Good, let them deliver carcinogenic chemicals to their body tissues on a regular basis and pay outrageious prices to serve their addiction to nicotine. Good for them!
And, while they’re at it, Miscavige should open a Sea Org facility right next to a coal mine. Let them drink water from a nearby stream and breathe the air filled with dust from all that “beautiful, clean coal”.
Wow, I really do feel angry after reading this! What am I pulling in? 🙂
Betcha they were smoking American Spirits, the cheapest cigarette on the market today! With staff pay so low, it’s probably all they can afford.
Hmmmmm. Maybe the American Spirit people should market to Scientology contracted staff members and Sea Org.
Just found out someone I loved back in the day, died in January of a sudden brain aneurysm. She looked healthy and vibrant in the most recent photos. But then I also found out her OT7/OT8 husband has been suffering with dementia for a few years, to the point he has to be cared for by one of his children. Neither of them were even 70. I bring this up here, because way back, when the wife was mission public, her husband was constantly/continuously harassed to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars (he was already Clear, if I recall, and I believe Flag public at that point) literally every single week. His wife spent the beginning of every session voicing her extreme upsets over this. And of course, she was always made to look like the stop, the why, the suppressive, the one with counter-intention who really wasn’t supportive of her husband because she voiced her disagreements with his spending so much money all the time, with total disregard for their finances and future. She knew they would turn him against her if she outright refused. She was a devout Catholic and managed to raise their children in the faith, which she was ridiculed for behind the scenes. I always admired her for that and from what I can see, their children are not Scios, and appear to be well-adjusted and educated. Thank God for their mother’s tenacity.
I lost touch with them when I left in 1999, but I can only imagine this pressure intensified as she attested to Clear and they both continued at Flag. I will always hold a special place in my heart for her. She was a woman I admired immensely, for being a loving and most attentive/responsible mother and wife and even a board member for LSU alumni, all while under constant harassment from Cof$. RIP my friend. <3
You have my sympathy for the loss of your dear friend. I understand well the struggle she experienced with her husband, finances and the cult splitting husband and wife to divide and conquer just to line their coffers.
A lot can be explained by noticing where Hubbard put sympathy on the tone scale–very low toned.
sym·pa·thy
ˈsimpəTHē/
noun
a : inclination to think or feel alike : emotional or intellectual accord in sympathy with their goals
b : feeling of loyalty : tendency to favor or support
2. understanding between people; common feeling.
“the special sympathy between the two boys was obvious to all”
synonyms: rapport, fellow feeling, affinity, empathy, harmony, accord, compatibility
“Low toned?” Really?
Odd coincidence that her husband would develop dementia… I wonder if there were signs of his impairment recognized by scientology reggs. If they did notice signs of dementia, be certain they’d jump all over him before he was too far gone to sign for a hefty credit card transaction.
I’m sure your friend did a lot of good. May she rest in peace.
Thank you, TitleWaves and Old Surfer Dude.
I’m sure the slurch does everything it can to hide the fact that an OT7 (not sure if he made it to OT8) has dementia. Not very good PR…
Scientology loves to take advantage of brain-injured people. Isaac Hayes (stroke) and Raul Lopez (auto accident) before him. They will take advantage of anyone and everyone take collect a buck by Thursday at 2.
T- Marie, I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. Scientology rarely does anything other than force members to give up their hard earned money. Your story moved me…
Wow – how sad, the stress of it all finally got to both of them. Just my thought.
Shakespeare for Scientologists:
There are more things in heaven and earth, Hubbard, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
And way, way below Non-Existence, there is a condition of Confusion.
And below that, the condition of stupid.
I was confused about being stupid once. Then I walked pass the Pasadena Model Idle Morgue and smartened up instantly!
There! See? Scientology does work!
Holy shit! You’re right!
And below that the condition of being a $cientologist.
Now I’m confused.
See above.
Scientologists – by training and auditing and buying into the group think
go into total confusion.
Oh, about those cigarettes. Has anyone seen the TV show “The Leftovers” (you should!). In it, there is a cult, called The Guilty Remnant, and one of their features is that members smoke cigarettes incessantly. I wonder if Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel, was inspired by Scientology and L. Ron’s up-is-downism regarding cigarette smoking.
So true. Who smokes more? The Guilty Remnant or Scientology staff/SO? The winner there is the tobacco companies. I would recommend “The Leftovers” also, it is a very good series.
Hgc10 – “I wonder if Tom Perrotta, who wrote the novel, was inspired by Scientology and L. Ron’s up-is-downism regarding cigarette smoking.” Ha, I wondered the same thing.
As always RB your column clicks some of my old Sci tech into the forefront. Hubbard created the CDEI scale as a way to view aspects of upsets in life. The CDEI means: Curious, Desired, Enforced, Inhibited.
Looking at that scale now, as regards the cherch, you have pointed out that they have abandoned the idea that the truth can be found here, or the enticement of someone getting better. No. They are now rapidly dropping directly to enforcing ‘command intention’, then the threat of disconnection if enforcement fails. They are dooming themselves by doing nothing to turn their game around, or up tone, or up scale, or towards truth.
Maybe Leah and Mike can help them with their ruin—— THE TRUTH.
Thank you RB for all of you fine work. You truly chronicle the present church of Scientology. I haven’t posted many comments on your work because I left in 82.
Most of these situations you so accurately portray in cartoon were not part of my Scientoogyl experience. The 70s and early 80s Scientology had not yet been further corrupted by DM. So my commenting would not be authentic because we did not have the IAS.
But I wanted to thank you for all that you do for this blog; thank you!
And other peeps, don’t forget to sign the petition for revoking IRS tax status.
https://www.change.org/p/irs-commissioner-john-koskinen-we-demand-the-irs-commissioner-begin-an-investigation-into-scientology-s-tax-exempt-status/u/21155452?utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_update&utm_campaign=124710&sfmc_tk=fQ%2fL4qNfjaROW7uHPx7tZj7SA7nVhor6og690QN8uACuQWVqTmdrA1ocgmDMOrLM&j=124710&sfmc_sub=538462107&l=32_HTML&u=24192755&mid=7259882&jb=6
Brian, I left in ’82 also. The dwarf had started raising the rates by 5% a month.
It’s amazing OSD that we are still here talking about this. I’m actually surprised how much work I’ve had to do on myself and wrong knowledge I’ve had dissolve through introspection and reason.
My wife saw Scientology’s influence on me and I’d get angry at her judgements.
I now see that she saw some things in me that I did not (wives are good for that:-).
Especially when we were so impressionable and young.
Hubbard was and is a bad influence on the minds of youth. Please anybody reading this, keep you kids away from this hellish mind prison.
Hellish Mind Prison™️ by Brian
It is amazing that we’re still talking about it. But, that’s a great thing! We shouldn’t stop talking about Scientology until they have been dissolved. We need to carry our little movement forward.
“A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he’s married.”
H. L. Mencken
LRH started raising the rates 5% a month in the ’70s. That was not a Miscavige brainchild. It was even announced in the auditor. It was supposed to be to get staff paid better. Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
And it was called “The solution to inflation”
You’re joking, right? The solution to inflation is raising prices?
Down is up. And up is down.
No joke! I was there. LOL.
Aquamarine, I remember this well. I think I was on staff in Toronto at the time, mid-70’s. It was one of those instances of thinking, ‘WTF!!?’ Not out loud, of course.
I remember that depressing sinking feeling when prices went up. I was struggling to get money for the way it was.
It was s punch in my stomach.
God, how diabolical to have money and spirituality cemented together.
I wonder what the percent of those who did the OT levels and those who have scraped together pennies for the next action?
Wasn’t it around the time he created WISE and the financial dictator/polic that the prices went up?
You are right Valerie. My sister (DeDe) in around 1981 was the Chairman of WDC (Watchdog Committee). They were a committee that was meant to have been running the management side of the cult. My understanding is that she proposed and all of the WDC agreed, to stop the 5% price hikes as they noticed that stats were going down and this was the “why”. Apparently DM reported this to LRH and this is one of the things that got her, DeDe, busted. The odd thing though is that DM was part of the WDC and also voted in favor of halting the 5% rate hike. Evidently the 5% price hike was reinstated in 1984.
Either way, it worked out great in the end and we all left the cult in ’82 for good.
Thanks Valerie. I was going to make that note. I and about 3/4 of my friends decided that we would only buy just what we had to. Really put the squeeze on the org to deliver prepaid services. ie full BC for $650.00. Several were refused their service and wrote to Ron (late 1970s) to no avail. Thus several more walked away.
To say that the orgs are their own worst enemy is putting it mildly.
OSD, ’82 was a popular year for leaving. Moi aussi.
OSD, ~’82 is when the church started promoting the LRH ordered (because of inflation) 5% increases as “buy nows”. It was years old by that time.
Wow. That makes us brothers, Mike & Spike!
“Wow. That makes us brothers, Mike & Spike!”
Yes, Old Surfer Dude, except in my case it would be ‘sista’, LOL!
Thanks RB,
Staying relevant ,staying on the spot.
Lie – a – bility. Yep, Scientologists sure have!
Never seen a condition formula change conditions yet that wouldn’t have happened anyway with a little gumption applied instead. Ethics conditions and formulas are designed to introvert and hold your attention on a particular course. ie always benefiting the Cof$.
Nothing wrong with the mechanical aspect of keeping records and methodically and logically responding to changes, but there’s everything wrong with adhering to formulas that others can then judge, manipulate their intention into and use against you. What an awful, awful thing organising Scientology turned out to be. Such things as ethics formulas/conditions and the policies associated with the perceived survival of the group… geezers add a military style discipline to run it, and bingo – a brainwashing manual on steroids! Hey, Scientology already employs the liberal use of barbed wire fences, heavy security & fanciful legalese to keep track of their own… think about that!
Good one RB, once again you’re scary accurate in satire.
“A being is as valuable as he can serve others.” Truest words L. Ron Hubbard ever said. Too bad he didn’t practice what he preached.
A being is as valuable as he can when he’s handing over all of his money. When he runs out of money, he becomes a non-entity and is discarded.
Isn’t Lie-a-bility a country & western song, I Yawn?
It was until Scientology got a hold of it.
Lol! Now that’s some funny shit!
Now it is considered Cultic.
Off topic but I got a call from the Atlanta org a couple of nights ago. I actually felt kind of sorry for the poor guy that called me you could just hear the desperation in his voice.
I tried to convince him to go get a real job because Scientology is dying. He asked why I thought that to wich I replied every time I drive by any Scientology Org the parking lots are always empty. I then asked him how many people were in the course room right now as we spoke, he tried to dance around the question. When I pressed further he said he didn’t know how many people were in the course room.
At one point in the conversation he said he did not have an easy job that he calls people every night and nine out of ten people laugh at him like I was laughing at him (I was actually trying to get him to temporarily pop out of the bubble).
I then asked if he really believed there are 20 million scientologists out there as they promote, he said he believes there are actually more than 20 million. The cognitive dissonance is amazing, he says 9 out of 10 people laugh at him and also believes there are more than 20 million.
At one point I got online and started reading OT 3 to him, I figured this would really scare him and he would hang up but to my surprise he stayed on the phone and listened to it all.
He actually admitted it costs about $50,000 to go clear, in my experience they usually don’t discuss numbers over the phone. All in all he seemed like a nice guy and I hope he wakes up soon. He said he wasn’t going to give up on me so I took that to mean I’ll be getting another call from him.
How interesting!! Keep us updated!
You’re a good soul, Doug. Not everyone would take the time to talk with a cult member. Like you, I hope this kid wakes up. But, I certainly wouldn’t bet on it.
When they have been pre-framed to ignore anything negative about the cult it is virtually impossible to get through to them. Have to admit that is a rather ingenious although evil form of mind control.
Yes it is.
So great of you to try to talk to him. I am glad he listened. I hope he calls you back and you can eventually point him to an exit.
Doug, thanks for sharing that interesting and insightful report.
It’s mind-blowing to hear that someone really thinks that Scientology has more than 20 million members – but it’s a reminder of the level of delusion that some of the remaining bubble-dwellers operate at. He’s at an org that probably has a tiny active membership of around 100, in a vast metropolitan area of nearly 6 million, and apparently doesn’t get it. Even Scientology’s PRs are starting to make reference to “hundreds of thousands,” still way high, but the old claims of millions are getting too obviously implausible.
These are seeds of doubt you are planting…each phone call you have with him will be like pouring water on the seeds. Roots will not be far behind….keep at him and well done!
I never understood how anyone could cave to such B.S.
I couldn’t even read through that formula – brings back too many awful memories of the arbitrary ethics conditions being used to abuse, shame, break down and demoralize people who weren’t falling into line with the craziness.
These formulas and the penalties enforced have been an abuse from the very beginning. A lot of people think scn has gone wrong since DM came into power, but don’t forget that LRH wrote and developed these formulas on the ship where the penalties were ‘piloted’ to see how far he could push people. This is when throwing someone overboard as ‘ethics’ punishment came into use. In the orgs, where they didn’t have an ocean to throw someone into, they would make the victim stand in a dark alleyway and throw buckets of ice cold water over them.
Anyone who develops such unforgivable human rights abuse is not a humanitarian. These abuses were rolled out into every org across the planet in the ’60s and have been an organization-wide sponsored abuse and mind control tool ever since.
I can remember witnessing people in ‘lower conditions’ being forced to wear dirty rags, grey boiler suits and chains (yes, chains) so that the whole group would know what ‘lower condition’ they were in. If you were assigned to treason you were put in the ‘dungeon’ – a space at the bottom of the elevator shaft. What kind of humanitarian does this to people who in all good faith have given up their lives to serve something they think is going to help people?
The sooner this organization disintegrates the better.
“Anyone who develops such unforgivable human rights abuse is not a humanitarian. These abuses were rolled out into every org across the planet in the ’60s and have been an organization-wide sponsored abuse and mind control tool ever since.” …. well said. This is not an overstatement. Hubbard’s Ethics tech along these lines are cancerous. Unfortunately the path out of the mind set is sometimes a long and arduous one. Everyone inside is a victim of mind control.
Thanks Doug – and you’re right. It’s such an insidious mind control/mind conditioning tool (ethics conditions and other aspects of scn ‘tech’ and mentality) that it takes a l-o-n-g time to unwind and unravel from it for many people.
Too true White Light. This is Hubbard’s brain child and became one of his more despised, “enforced absolutes.” The guinea pig use of his crew I believe is one of his more despicable traits and barbaric human experiments. If one was to use his own formulas in ROPECs (remember that tech – repair of past ethics conditions?) on Hubbard himself, if only due to fact of his organisation failed miserably, especially broadly under his guidance – the string pulling goes directly to him and his stupid policies. He wallowed in treason as he never wore his hat as an officer responsible for the welfare of his shipmates. He saw money & power and chased that instead. Those stories by Gary, Lois and other messengers stand out as particularly telling as to the covert and not so covert loathing Hubbard had for his personnel. Hubbard never deserved the loyalty bestowed upon him, he spat in the face of his subordinates and every staff member to ever sign a contract. Now we’re really seeing the public response to that bs as it filters down the line. Leah, A&E & Mike are displaying what Hubbard should have done all those years ago, never desert those that are your true friends or require your help. Hubbard rode the back of help for quite some time, sucking in those attracted to thinking they were genuinely helping mankind before the reality of what he created materialized into tyranny.
What goes around comes around.
You’re spot on @IYawnalot – and this is the end of the line for the abuse. The truth is shining a big bright light on the reality of what has taken place for decades, thanks to Leah, Mike and everyone sharing their painful stories…
I yawn a lot, this is the best essay I ever read about LRH. It should be carved on his tombstone.
It got to the point that all you had to do to make up the damage and get out of the condition was donate money. Money solved everything with the church, including ethics conditions.
Even SPs will be magically undeclared if they inherit large amounts of money – at least until the money’s gone. I inherited money when my dad died. By the time they tried to get it out of me, I had bought a house and a grand piano. Whoops!
LMAO, Valerie!
Well done, Valerie!
Good for you, Valerie! You go girl!
Yea Valerie!!! An acquaintance of mine was an illegal pc because of having worked at a psych institute before Scn. She could train but never get OT Levels. She tried many times. But always it was “No.”
Then she inherited a boat load of money. The church was on that like white on rice telling her she was now eligible and it had been an arbitrary, and buy your whole Bridge up to OT VII. She did. And then she died of cancer not long after getting onto OT VII. Her husband was a well known Scn Chiropractor in the LA area. He had her do only the medical stuff of chemo and radiation when she wanted to also try other things. But she couldn’t becuase she was on OT VII and the church forbade her to do anything except the norm of chemo and radiation. He boasted to a friend of mine about how wonderful it was having Kaiser insurance because, “they paid for everything.” So here is a Chiro who touts alternative healing, and he is happy with Kaiser, the traditional cancer handling stuff and all he can say is he liked it because it was cheap. He lost his wife to cancer. So I wouldn’t say it was a success story for Kaiser. I thought he would be doing all sorts of alternate healing things for his wife to save her, but he didn’t. Anyway, funny how she was illegal for decades and then once she got money, all was forgiven and she was regged for her entire bridge.
Awesome, Valerie! I can only imagine the names they called you for being “PTS to the middle class”… LMAO 😉
@White light, I read your comment after I made mine. We both said the same thing in different ways. Yep.
Yes I saw that @Valerie! Just telling it like it is…
I’ve done the Liability Formula on myself. I did it to stop being lazy by eating fast food and other junk. Beginning with the Doubt Formula, I also did it on a man I liked who I said he wanted me to be his girlfriend back in the day, while he was actually engaged to his high school sweetheart a thousand miles away (I found out) Both times doing this formula proved helpful. That said, I can see how these same formulas could be used to humiliate and make someone utterly wrong…horrible. The Sea Org has to be one really sick, evil entity to allow this. I can’t imagine using Conditions Formulas in such ways and for such purposes. I would like to obliterate the Sea Org. I hate it.
High control groups have to control everyone in their group. The reg got her commission and everyone uplines got to record a good stat for that 2pm Thursday deadline. Everyone did well, except the guy who is out of his retirement fund or mortgage payment.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Momma says, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”
And with Scientology, the carrot is more like rotting meat.
With Scientology, everyone is the walking dead. They just don’t know it.
I use to think life was life was like a packet of cigarettes but you had to beg, borrow or steal the matches. Like what kept the tobacco industry alive so long until common sense (plus the body count) finally caught up with it. Similar analogy with the Catholic Church and child abuse. Scientology is only surviving presently because of lawyers, but the abuse count is finally beginning to catch up with it. Scientology in deposition, oh, what a wonderful idea!
Yawn, I agree. “Scientology” is close to the point of its existaece “in name only”. As long as there is money to pay the lawyers, it can theoretically exist and pump out its fake news, it can keep the lights on even after the last people have left the buildings. I wouldn’t put this ploy past Miscavige – to keep pretending even after the point where the orgs are literally empty of staff and public. I wouldn’t put it past him.
I started reading that Liability Formula and got sick. The “enemy” is ALWAYS the side that’s not the church of scientology/david miscavige. It honestly should have been simply written:
“(1) Get rid of any friends or family that are not die-hard scientologists.
(2) Do anything you can to destroy their lives but get any monies you can get out of them first.
(3) Give all your (and anyone else’s) money and assets to whatever the latest campaign that ‘Command Intention’ (whoever that is) deems.
(4) Bend over and take it.
You forgot: (5) When it’s all over write a success story.
Loved yours and Mary’s new Liability formula. Perfect!
A FORCED success story.
How about a “Lose Story,” seems to me it’s a cross between a KR and a formula completion.
“Would you want others to have similar losses?” If yes is the answer, you get put back on post & promoted. If it’s No and you’re put into lowers until you really lose.
Good one.
“(1) Get rid of any friends or family that are not die-hard scientologists.” This is NOT an exaggeration. I was told by a Flag MAA to disconnect from my cousins were never Scientologists but are Christians. And they never gave me crap about drinking the Kool-Aid either. This kind of BS is real.
Disconnection is all Scientology has left. It’s where every road leads within that group.Horrible thought isn’t it?
Correct Yawnalot. Disconnection, and threatened hell and damnation: the “what about your eternity?” card to keep people in line or the threat of a SP declare. Disgusting!
Not if all its members disconnect from Scientology.
Most everyone here has disconnected from Scientology. Hip, hip
Off topic Mike, but scienos are again trying to obtain religious association recognition from Mexico:
http://www.excelsior.com.mx/opinion/enrique-aranda/2017/08/25/1183964
Say What??
Dear Python:
Dianetics orgs have tried three times (1998, 2011 and 2013) to obtain religious acknowledgement from the government, to no avail.
Now they are submitting another petition (TR-3?)
Not gonna happen…1). Mexico wants/needs the tax base…2). A&E is broadcasted there via A&E International. 3). I sent the journalist the link to Aftermath. ?
I don’t have twitter but those who Twitter may want to include journalist Twitter account when tweeting about Aftermath….jus saying!
Coercion, Scientology Ethics is thy name! However, this particular guy is more than a bit dense. And, obviously, is incapable of getting his question answered. Back to TRs for six months! 🙂
This is spot on! I always observed that the C of S applies ethics conditions to control and manipulate. They tend to be applied arbitrarily! I would not be surprised if the members who do not write a negative email to the sponsors of the Aftermath are assigned a lower ethics condition!