Good one RB. This reminds me of IAS Criminal Registrar Ted Braggin. That guy made
L Ron Hubbard sound and look sane.
What a fucking criminal con man – Ted Braggin. I hated his “regge psychos”.
Is he in the HOLE yet? Last I heard, his ethics folder was getting rather thick and you know what Ron says about a thick ethics folder…..
IAS registrar took $3,000 from my wife for lifetime membership in around 1988. He took the money along with countless thousands and never returned to England to his main office. My wife ended with a lost $3,000 which they never refunded. Dave, imagine what my investment of $3,000 in stocks would have returned. That is how much you owe me.
RB, still laughing! This has to be included in the coffee table book. Practically every line is a chuckle or an outright LOL. Especially liked “She kept a handful of blank IAS donation forms in her purse…” 🙂 Oh, and “She is preparing the macaroni salad for the event…” Good stuff, RB .
As I recall, that bronze bust was cringe-worthy enough to give folks secondaries or locks on past-life engrams. They should GIVE those things away to drum up need for Dianetics™ auditing.
Put a row of those things facing outward from the org, and the place would be safer than Fort Knox.
Have to keep the cultists busy so they don’t start questioning things. The sense of urgency can never be permitted to slip, or they no longer seem to have a fantastic purpose.
Yes, every clam should carry a lot of IAS donation forms with them at all times. That way they can get wogs to donate too. Yeah, that could happen….Thanks RB, this one is funny.
RB captures meticulously the utter myopic and pointless activities of the Kafka-est organization.
When viewed with a fish lens it’s enough to make Mad Magazine seem like the book “See Dick And Jane Run”. Scientology is truly an insane asylum.
“The author explains the origin of the ideas of Ayn Rand and exposes “Objectivism as a classic cult, unusual because of its overt emphasis on self-interest, rationality, and atheism, but typical of cults in its guru-worship, thought control, trial and excommuciation of deviants, and hostility to existing society.”
For some time these IAS events had become a truly hallucinating nightmare.
They barred the doors with someone who didn’t let anyone out – literally – until the suppressive quota was reached. Hours and hours of bullshit hammered on people (pressing on the sence of guilt) about why it was vital to do the odds now.
Technically it was a kidnapping. And it went on late into the night with everyone held there against their will.
Then it seems that the thing was changed because it created bad PR. But really?
Of course, those who left earlier were not stopped but had an appointment the very next day with ethics.
Those who have not seen it can hardly imagine it.
Then of course we no longer heard anything of those ‘great disasters’ that they had to solve.
And the refreshments were almost always macaroni! Hitting people up for thousands, tens of thousands of dollars – the least they could have done was spring for some decent protein. But no, macaroni (ok, cheap red sauce pasta) and canned soda.
Knowing what I know today about how the Sea Ogres weren’t allowed to eat, and realizing today how hungry and tired they must have been at these things, and as such, how resentful they must have felt watching us public stuffing our faces whilst they, famished and exhausted had to endure watching us pig out , and still sell us whatever item it was they had to push right then – knowing and understanding this today, I know what I would have done.
Ordinarily I ate very little if anything at these things, but knowing what I know today, I would have gone back and forth with HUGE platefuls of pasta to them, INSISTING that they sit down and eat with me OR I wouldn’t give a dime. I would have said, “Come on, let’s sit down together and eat and talk about my buying ___________.”
I would have 8C’d and Tone 40’d them and by God I would have FED those SO’s and made them sit down and eat like normal humans do!
And THEN and only then would I have donated, or bought whatever Scientology flavor of the month thing they were selling.
Because you see I used to look at them, these SO’s, and they looked so …what’s the word…DOUR. So stern. I thought they secretly hated us public.
More likely they were just hungry, and tired, and afraid of being yelled out or otherwise punished if they didn’t make the target set for them for that evening’s event.
Aqua. Right! Then when one managed to approach the banquet at the end of the evening, the maccaroni had become a compact block and a chainsaw was needed to cut a part of them.
Laughter! Yeah, food was for the most part at those things was bloody AWFUL.
But then, if one were really HUNGRY, one had to eat it, of course.
I made sure I ate beforehand, even if it was a handful of peanuts or a few slices of cheese on the run, enough protein to hold me throughout the 3 hours of video etc., until I got back home.
But then, I’m half Italian and kind of spoiled when it comes to food. Plain cooking, yes! Very simple dishes, yes! Nothing fancy, necessarily. Nothing expensive, or complicated. “Gourmet” of itself is never the goal.
Simple fare, dishes each made with a few fresh, wholesome ingredients – that is the concept. Eating this way is what keeps one healthy, the sugar cravings at bay and the weight off!
End of unasked for and (very likely) unwanted mini-lecture 🙂
Aqua are you half Italian? This pleases me. You are just right about the food. Unfortunately there was always everything in economics. After hours people were throwing themselves on the buffet eating with two hands and any TR was gone. What I remember most fondly was the cheese. After some exposure to the air it began to sweat and to oxidize and curled and folded in on itself. I definitely DON’T miss all those silly events. Take care.
Yes I am, LmR. I don’t look it, but fItalian and Albanian from way back on the maternal side – my mother was first generation. And then, what I do look like: American of English/Scot extraction from way back on the paternal side. A true American mutt 🙂
And, ah, yes, the cheese – that cheese, on top of the ziti, getting cold, congealing…yeah. Stomach turning slightly even now at the memory of that.
Each time a holiday rolls around, that I am no longer obliged to attend one of these “functions” (I think of them as DISfunctions) – that I no longer have to show up for a Scientology event, and worse, PRETEND to be enjoying myself is high on my Gratitude List.
Aqua, So funny. Those events were just ridiculous, they always wanted something and never gave anything in exchange.
Every day I am more and more grateful to Mike’s blog and to those who participate in it for being out of it. I was already out for years but with my head still trapped inside.
These holidays we will make serious and real Italian food so much and varied that one will feel bad, that will be a real event!
Peridotsays
To “Loosing my Religion”: 100 percent real, what you describe. The one time I was certain a registrar was angry enough to physically smash my head in was “Ari” the IAS fundraiser aboard the Freewinds. He was utterly FURIOUS that I was not going to donate $30,000 or $40,000 to reach my next IAS status. My calm, confused rationale at the time: I was a single person who just taken on a handful of new loans and credit cards to reach a big new status for our “Ideal Org” back home. I could not see my way to “do more” (and why would I?)
This truly scared me, how ferocious and furious he was. It was just him and me in his office. I felt so vulnerable and un-safe. Of course, he is not going to let me go anywhere until he gives me the verbal thrashing of a lifetime. In any other professional context, his treatment of me as a guest and client would be labeled “verbal abuse.” Yet, at the time, it never even occurred to me to write a knowledge report or tell anybody.
It is stunning to look back at these dark experiences and accept that I took it. When I finally left the group, I understood: “All these years, I have been in abusive relationship.” When the times are good, they are euphoric, but when the times are bad, they are terrorizing.
Peridot. Right. That’s the true nature of scn – abusive and fascistic. Glad you got out of there too.
Without pretending to mean anything in particular, if one observes a person’s environment, friendships, where he lives, then he can get an idea of who that person is. If we look at scn – what we know really is – then we have a good idea of what hubbard (and DM now) had in their mind and who they really are. What we see is a reflection of who they really are. Bad stuff.
Yes we were. How I managed to raise 5 children amongst this insanity. Well really I didn’t.
I’m just now these last few years beginning to live normal and know how to and what that is.
Someday the severity of LRH and his followers abuse upon others will be widely understood. It’s complicated on purpose 😕
It’s hard for scholars, politicians, therapists to understand what a mind f*c it is because it’s wayyyy out there. Like absorbing a whole new theory.
I loved your comment about holding your own with an off-the-reservation IAS registrar. I don’t care about “like” buttons ordinarily but for your comment alone I would want it so I could “like” it 100X.
I’ll bet that Reg was using an Anger Tone Level ploy on you, you know, to frighten and cower you into submission.
I’ll just bet that he had drilled it, and quite possibly had used it successfully in the past – on someone else, or on a number of others who could not confront the shock and awe of his “temper”.
I’m so glad you didn’t cave to it. Allow me to say with all my heart that your NOT caving it to it was so well done!
Good one RB. This reminds me of IAS Criminal Registrar Ted Braggin. That guy made
L Ron Hubbard sound and look sane.
What a fucking criminal con man – Ted Braggin. I hated his “regge psychos”.
Is he in the HOLE yet? Last I heard, his ethics folder was getting rather thick and you know what Ron says about a thick ethics folder…..
Oh for f**k’s sake. The “car has gone PTS”?! I won’t even get into how absurd that is.
Apparently my car has gone PTS too (possible tire situation). Need new ones. 😂
IAS registrar took $3,000 from my wife for lifetime membership in around 1988. He took the money along with countless thousands and never returned to England to his main office. My wife ended with a lost $3,000 which they never refunded. Dave, imagine what my investment of $3,000 in stocks would have returned. That is how much you owe me.
RB, still laughing! This has to be included in the coffee table book. Practically every line is a chuckle or an outright LOL. Especially liked “She kept a handful of blank IAS donation forms in her purse…” 🙂 Oh, and “She is preparing the macaroni salad for the event…” Good stuff, RB .
8×11 framed photo of LRH’s bronze bust, ha ha!
It reminds me of scientology merch. I always get a kick out of the overpriced, chintzy scientology swag they flog, especially this time of year.
As I recall, that bronze bust was cringe-worthy enough to give folks secondaries or locks on past-life engrams. They should GIVE those things away to drum up need for Dianetics™ auditing.
Put a row of those things facing outward from the org, and the place would be safer than Fort Knox.
Have to keep the cultists busy so they don’t start questioning things. The sense of urgency can never be permitted to slip, or they no longer seem to have a fantastic purpose.
Yes, every clam should carry a lot of IAS donation forms with them at all times. That way they can get wogs to donate too. Yeah, that could happen….Thanks RB, this one is funny.
RB captures meticulously the utter myopic and pointless activities of the Kafka-est organization.
When viewed with a fish lens it’s enough to make Mad Magazine seem like the book “See Dick And Jane Run”. Scientology is truly an insane asylum.
Great one RB
I had every place in my car filled with books and tapes…….until I got to the garbage dump.
Some people are surprised or alarmed that there things outside of their bubble.
At Minicon (THE Minnesota Science Fiction Convention) I had the following exchange with a woman dressed as a New Generation Klingon:
FK: (Seeing the button I was wearing) “Godless Capitalist.” You must be a Ferengi.
LB: No, I’m an Objectivist, I read Ayn Rand.
FK: (Blank stare)
Apparently the woman dressed as a New Generation Klingon was surprised that there are some things outside of the Star Trek bubble.
“The Ayn Rand Cult”
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/1e/The_Ayn_Rand_Cult_%28cover%29.jpg
“The author explains the origin of the ideas of Ayn Rand and exposes “Objectivism as a classic cult, unusual because of its overt emphasis on self-interest, rationality, and atheism, but typical of cults in its guru-worship, thought control, trial and excommuciation of deviants, and hostility to existing society.”
Pluvo,
Not many people know this but Ayn Rand also wrote poetry.
An early work of hers went like this:
Roses are red/ Violets are blue/
Finish this poem yourself/ You dependent parasite.
Love,
Aqua
PS: That’s Stephen Colbert’s joke, not mine 🙂
For some time these IAS events had become a truly hallucinating nightmare.
They barred the doors with someone who didn’t let anyone out – literally – until the suppressive quota was reached. Hours and hours of bullshit hammered on people (pressing on the sence of guilt) about why it was vital to do the odds now.
Technically it was a kidnapping. And it went on late into the night with everyone held there against their will.
Then it seems that the thing was changed because it created bad PR. But really?
Of course, those who left earlier were not stopped but had an appointment the very next day with ethics.
Those who have not seen it can hardly imagine it.
Then of course we no longer heard anything of those ‘great disasters’ that they had to solve.
And the refreshments were almost always macaroni! Hitting people up for thousands, tens of thousands of dollars – the least they could have done was spring for some decent protein. But no, macaroni (ok, cheap red sauce pasta) and canned soda.
Knowing what I know today about how the Sea Ogres weren’t allowed to eat, and realizing today how hungry and tired they must have been at these things, and as such, how resentful they must have felt watching us public stuffing our faces whilst they, famished and exhausted had to endure watching us pig out , and still sell us whatever item it was they had to push right then – knowing and understanding this today, I know what I would have done.
Ordinarily I ate very little if anything at these things, but knowing what I know today, I would have gone back and forth with HUGE platefuls of pasta to them, INSISTING that they sit down and eat with me OR I wouldn’t give a dime. I would have said, “Come on, let’s sit down together and eat and talk about my buying ___________.”
I would have 8C’d and Tone 40’d them and by God I would have FED those SO’s and made them sit down and eat like normal humans do!
And THEN and only then would I have donated, or bought whatever Scientology flavor of the month thing they were selling.
Because you see I used to look at them, these SO’s, and they looked so …what’s the word…DOUR. So stern. I thought they secretly hated us public.
More likely they were just hungry, and tired, and afraid of being yelled out or otherwise punished if they didn’t make the target set for them for that evening’s event.
But back then I had no idea.
Aqua. Right! Then when one managed to approach the banquet at the end of the evening, the maccaroni had become a compact block and a chainsaw was needed to cut a part of them.
Laughter! Yeah, food was for the most part at those things was bloody AWFUL.
But then, if one were really HUNGRY, one had to eat it, of course.
I made sure I ate beforehand, even if it was a handful of peanuts or a few slices of cheese on the run, enough protein to hold me throughout the 3 hours of video etc., until I got back home.
But then, I’m half Italian and kind of spoiled when it comes to food. Plain cooking, yes! Very simple dishes, yes! Nothing fancy, necessarily. Nothing expensive, or complicated. “Gourmet” of itself is never the goal.
Simple fare, dishes each made with a few fresh, wholesome ingredients – that is the concept. Eating this way is what keeps one healthy, the sugar cravings at bay and the weight off!
End of unasked for and (very likely) unwanted mini-lecture 🙂
Aqua are you half Italian? This pleases me. You are just right about the food. Unfortunately there was always everything in economics. After hours people were throwing themselves on the buffet eating with two hands and any TR was gone. What I remember most fondly was the cheese. After some exposure to the air it began to sweat and to oxidize and curled and folded in on itself. I definitely DON’T miss all those silly events. Take care.
Yes I am, LmR. I don’t look it, but fItalian and Albanian from way back on the maternal side – my mother was first generation. And then, what I do look like: American of English/Scot extraction from way back on the paternal side. A true American mutt 🙂
And, ah, yes, the cheese – that cheese, on top of the ziti, getting cold, congealing…yeah. Stomach turning slightly even now at the memory of that.
Each time a holiday rolls around, that I am no longer obliged to attend one of these “functions” (I think of them as DISfunctions) – that I no longer have to show up for a Scientology event, and worse, PRETEND to be enjoying myself is high on my Gratitude List.
Aqua, So funny. Those events were just ridiculous, they always wanted something and never gave anything in exchange.
Every day I am more and more grateful to Mike’s blog and to those who participate in it for being out of it. I was already out for years but with my head still trapped inside.
These holidays we will make serious and real Italian food so much and varied that one will feel bad, that will be a real event!
To “Loosing my Religion”: 100 percent real, what you describe. The one time I was certain a registrar was angry enough to physically smash my head in was “Ari” the IAS fundraiser aboard the Freewinds. He was utterly FURIOUS that I was not going to donate $30,000 or $40,000 to reach my next IAS status. My calm, confused rationale at the time: I was a single person who just taken on a handful of new loans and credit cards to reach a big new status for our “Ideal Org” back home. I could not see my way to “do more” (and why would I?)
This truly scared me, how ferocious and furious he was. It was just him and me in his office. I felt so vulnerable and un-safe. Of course, he is not going to let me go anywhere until he gives me the verbal thrashing of a lifetime. In any other professional context, his treatment of me as a guest and client would be labeled “verbal abuse.” Yet, at the time, it never even occurred to me to write a knowledge report or tell anybody.
It is stunning to look back at these dark experiences and accept that I took it. When I finally left the group, I understood: “All these years, I have been in abusive relationship.” When the times are good, they are euphoric, but when the times are bad, they are terrorizing.
Peridot. Right. That’s the true nature of scn – abusive and fascistic. Glad you got out of there too.
Without pretending to mean anything in particular, if one observes a person’s environment, friendships, where he lives, then he can get an idea of who that person is. If we look at scn – what we know really is – then we have a good idea of what hubbard (and DM now) had in their mind and who they really are. What we see is a reflection of who they really are. Bad stuff.
Yes we were. How I managed to raise 5 children amongst this insanity. Well really I didn’t.
I’m just now these last few years beginning to live normal and know how to and what that is.
Someday the severity of LRH and his followers abuse upon others will be widely understood. It’s complicated on purpose 😕
It’s hard for scholars, politicians, therapists to understand what a mind f*c it is because it’s wayyyy out there. Like absorbing a whole new theory.
It’s more than absorbing ONE theory; it’s choking on a constellation of mutually contradictory & incomprehensible theories
Peridot,
I loved your comment about holding your own with an off-the-reservation IAS registrar. I don’t care about “like” buttons ordinarily but for your comment alone I would want it so I could “like” it 100X.
I’ll bet that Reg was using an Anger Tone Level ploy on you, you know, to frighten and cower you into submission.
I’ll just bet that he had drilled it, and quite possibly had used it successfully in the past – on someone else, or on a number of others who could not confront the shock and awe of his “temper”.
I’m so glad you didn’t cave to it. Allow me to say with all my heart that your NOT caving it to it was so well done!