Hey Mike, Would you and Leah possibly be interested in starting an annual, Freedom from scientology day? It would be a day to celebrate people who have left the cult during the past year. Is this something that would make sense? Do you think it would make sense for you and Leah to back it somehow?
One purpose of this day would be to keep the idea of the harm this criminal org does alive in the mind of the public. Then, when people ask others about this cult, they would not respond in a way that turns it into a joke so much as recognizing it is a terrible criminal organization set up as a for-profit business masquerading as a religion.
That is what Yashar Ali called it and I think that is the perfect description.
Before we had any meter repair at FSO I sometimes had to personally repair meters. I had to remove a few roaches (actually palmetto bugs) and the high humidity in the area caused the needle to stick to the little white stops on each end of the dial.
The toughest one I repaired was Mark VI #415. It R/Sed continuly due to a bad on-off switch. I had to take it apart and clean it after which it worked fine. That was a good gradient to later working on the gyros of the fin stabilizers on the Freewinds.
The first techs that the ship hired to work on them had worked on their earlier units on the V1 and V-2 rockets in Peenemunde in Nazi Deutschland. It is the same technology.
Heil Miscaviage!
I really should stop calling DM those silly names as it doesn’t add to the conversation, but I ENJOY trying to think up something new. I been stuck too long at home without any of my normal social outlets this year, so am trying to substitute, I guess. And silly names come so EASILY when I think about him and his DEMONstrated abilities.
There you go.
LRH Tech works 100 percent of the time when applied standardly.
Therefore, anything that works is LRH Tech. They need to be crammed on the “Affluence Attainment Formula”. “Doing the things that won, not new things untried as yet”.
Then they will cognite that using a gun is the standard way to rob people.
Those cockaroaches from AOLA called me and my wife 5+ times a day to get me to donate to the Basics Campaign so that some poor SOB in China could find out about LRH Tech.
I could not say that I had no money because I had 38+ thousand on account when they got my wife to re-finance the house. Since they were not delivering the service anyway, the only (and cowardly) way to get them to leave us alone was to give them all the money. They don’t really want anyone to go up the Bridge.
Bill Strauss said: “… was to give them all the money. They don’t really want anyone to go up the Bridge.”
This is correct on both counts. Scientology’s first main objective, one that is baked into its DNA is to get money.
As to your second point: they really don’t believe in their own technology or that “going up the bridge makes the able more able” because if that was true, every single Sea Org member would be OTVIII by now.
Think about it: Sea Org members are resources for Scientology’s use. A more effective member is more valuable than a less effective member, therefore it’s in Scientology’s interests to maximize the effectiveness of its units. Anyone who’s played a 4x game with a tech tree knows that! They don’t have tons and tons of units to throw at the problems they face; they’re a tiny group. So gamewise, they’re like the Protoss instead of the Zerg. Sea Org members are like Protoss Zealots without upgraded weapons and personal shields, and without a speed boost.
They obviously have the time needed to get them up the bridge too; they have them 24/7/365. Instead, Scientology is content to leave Sea Org members to languish as pre-clears for YEARS. The only explanation is that the Scientology DOESN’T make you “more able,” and on some level they know it.
Bill, you know that LRH “tech” wasn’t evaluated first on if it worked, only that the tubby one said it. It was up to US to say it worked by carefully stepping through a verbal minefield that said we ‘experienced’ the required EP and believing what we wrote enough to F/N at the Examiner. Took a lot of self-deception, in my experience. I don’t know how many times I “faked it” so my poor auditor could get a WDAH for his stat. After a few times, I could tell myself it was “real”, and it pretty much felt “real”.
Jere: Well, at least You got to decide whether or not to “fake” it, as you say.
After they took all the money my wife could borrow I never got the service so I never really found bad LRH Tech. I found some DM “Tech” that really sucks, though.
Moo, I WOULD answer, if only to say “No, no, a thousand times N-o-o-o-o!” It’s the only type of social interaction available these days, and would give me a giggle. I don’t feel any guilt at all in saying i’m ENJOYING not being in the scn rat-race any more.
I am bullbaiting them every time I post on this blog with my real name.
My last autitor from the Freewinds (OTVIII Review Auditor Joan Heller) freaked when she ran into me in the elevator at AOLA a few years after I left the ship. No doubt the last thing she had heard about me was that I was on my death-bed (which I was). And certainly her TR-0 was passed by RTC..
She is an OTVIII auditor (and a very good one from my experience with her) and she has a n
button on ghosts?
She is the one that was auditing me in my last session on the Freewinds when on an FPRD correction list, she got a read on “Present Time Problem? I told her that I was dying.
I’ll never forget the first time I hung up on an IAS reg. He wasn’t taking no for an answer. I finally asked him, “How long are you going to let this conversation drag on until you accept the fact that I’m not going to give you any money?” He ignored my question and continued with his tedious harangue. That was it for me. I said, “This conversation can no longer serve any purpose. I’m done talking to you.” Then I hung up.
To my surprise, he didn’t call back. What do you know? My audacious tactic actually worked. It was an eye-opening lesson for me: Just say no. What a revelation. I felt like I’d learned a Jedi mind trick that made me invincible.
Love it Chris, thanks for all you’ve endured from the cult & Just on
keep Saying No !
I must admit my favorite line was “it’s hard to get an older Scientologist to flinch at the threat of eternal doom” LOL brother
I used to say, “Hold Pls” and then put the phone in a drawer under a whole bunch of towels. Eventually it would start wailing like a siren and then I would just unplug it for the rest of the day. After three days of that, they never called back.
Of course, this was in the days before personal computers and they couldn’t see my bank balance or other financial info. So, I don’t know how that would work today. But with all the incoming robo calls and scam calls, how badly do people really need to answer incoming calls? Many people won’t answer calls unless they recognize the name of the caller on Caller ID.
Yes, and those were the days when many IAS regs were hapless org staff pulling double duty. And it was before DMs fanatical Schutzstaffel of hit men and leg breakers dominated the scene. Nowadays the IAS operates like some kind of ecclesiastical Mafia that will resort to any degree of intimidation in order to extract their protection money.
Peridot, there’s no reason to feel ‘guilty’ once you’re out and no longer in thrall of their lies and misrepresentations. “The greatest revenge is living well.” Live EXCELLENTLY just to enjoy the feeling of sticking it to them, if that’s what it takes ! There’s no need to feel guilt for proving them dead wrong. THEY should feel guilty for living the same old lies and learning nothing of value thereby
Looks like Oliver is Flattened about getting people in.
In my own experience I never saw anybody making money after these seminars. Usually they ended up GIVING their money to the org.
Now that the public got more free from scn control, they will start to think a bit more for themselves and the cult must invent something really amazing to get them back in.
Exact. After he razed int management in 2005, no one got any new ideas if that weren’t aligned with dave’s. Do you know what? In my opinion DM will sooner or later come up with something “extraordinary” so that he can launch a planetary amnesty and try to pull in whoever they can to avoid further sinking.
Newcomer, there’s NO way I’d agree to doing anything on a perch or porch for eternity. 1 Billion years was already ridiculous and they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain: delivering “tech” that “worked” or delivering what was promised. I’d have been satisfied if they toned down the promises and delivered any of THAT.
“I’d have been satisfied if they toned down the promises and delivered any of THAT.”
Yep, I’m with you. I had gains doing the grades and the old “Dianetics Today” course. Fun times but that all went away.
It has always amazed me how a cherch could make a claim on eternity. Takes some major audacity but as we know, our fav cherch has no shortages in that department!!
I was a real sap. Did the run thru Oh Tea Ate and of course came away with “Where is the beef?!!!” First Clue: If you don’t know where it is then ……… ITS YOU! Second Clue: Yes, you have been led to slaughter!
You don’t sound like a “Newcomer” if you made it to OTVIII.
I was in the OTVIII courseroom on opening Day June 6, 1988 as Capt Ray Mithoff wanted more air flow from the A/C. There was fungus in the vents and so we were ordered to put filters in the vents to stop the fungus. There would be hell to pay if by God, there was fungus coming out on Opening Day. So I was ordered up to the OTVIII courseroom. Capt Ray Mithoff and Snr C/S Int Jeff Walker were there and Capt Mithoff ordered me to remove the filters. Course Sup Alice Hablutzel (later Webber) was just starting to call roll. After she called the first name the students all started to cheer.
It was a big deal for them, the release of OT VIII.
When my Juniors and I pulled the filters off large amounts of fungus blew out just as the students were opening the packs.
Capt Mithoff was not bothered by this. He thanked me and we left.
I figured that fungus would blow out but did not want to non-comply to a direct order from Capt Mithoff. There was a Lot of fungus and it was on virtually All of the OTVIII packs.
IF their finances improved a whit, it all had to go to scientology, so no net financial improvement; rather more likely, any small improvement meant that your future revenue had to be twice as much higher just to cover what they expected from you in the future, OR you had to downgrade your quality of living enough to cover their expectations.
otherles, you can be ecstatic that you avoided their Central Files and they can’t bother you. You can’t really appreciate how blindly persistent they can be. Hearing others (us) chatter about it just isn’t the same.
Totally true. I even tried to “donate” them all to a thrift store. When I asked if they’d accept all my Scientology books, tapes and lectures they said “no, we don’t wish to appear to be supporting that cult”. This was in Clearwater of course.
Libraries have discriminating tastes and only really want books which will be withdrawn by the public for reading. Anything that just fills up the shelves blocks books which are actually READABLE.
I had to pay the dump to take all 1,000 lbs of my L Ron Hubbard shit. You can’t sell it for anything and the library’s threw them out. Mike – maybe a podcast on the “Basics” and putting them in every Library. That scammed a lot of money from members. Libraries threw them out. You can find books about Scientology written by critics in the Library though. That is where I read Leah’s book – Troublemaker. That sent me on my journey out of the cult. Thanks Leah. I also got Janet Reitman’s book on audio – Inside Scientology. It was riveting. Especially about Tom Cruise. I think he would not be able to handle the truth at this point of his life. I hope he never finds out just what was done to trick him to believe in Scientology and David Miscavige so he would get trapped in. It was unreal. I think he may R45 himself if he found out the truth. His fragile ego could not handle it.
Mike – I love your podcasts with Leah.
You are really doing a great job.
GREAT post RB. Very funny now that I am out and so true.
I have posted this before about the ‘Basics Scam’. When it was at its height and everyone had bought the requisite set plus one or more the calls kept coming with the ‘donate a set to a library’ scam. I decided to first search the local libraries on the net and then to make a few calls. NO BASICS BOOKS had been donated to a library within a 250 mile radius of my location. That includes a couple of large college campuses, several Community colleges, umpteen town libraries and regional libraries. When I didn’t find them in the stacks that’s when I decided to ask if they had been pulped. Only one library mentioned getting anything regarding LRH and Scn and that was a box load of Dianetics books. My belief is that they NEVER sent ANY books to ANY libraries ANYWHERE. If they did the publication plant would have had to run 24/7 just for the supply. Every member was regged for multiple Basics sets for ‘donation’. My belief is that each set marked as ‘donation’ meant ‘Free Money’!
I agree, Any attempt to discover honest and truthful accountability in the Scion donations program would cause borderline “parishioners” to leave rapidly.
Trying to protect assets with huge legal/ PI fees as well as massive useless building acquisitions is an attempt to spend those TAX FREE funds but they’re only spenting a small percentage of their income which could be problematic long term.
Not a sustainable plan Dave. Time to buy up that property in Belize, build the compound and lawyer up
Glenn: No tipping fee? In many places, they charge per the ton.
Around here, anything that burns gets turned into steam and thus benefits society a little, unlike the words printed on the scn books’ pages
“Today, all the books, lectures and other materials could be put on a server
connected to the Internet and distributed freely to every man, woman and
child on the planet. The cost would probably be under $250K for the hardware
and software. Much cheaper than running the ScTV on cable for a year.”
………………………………………………………….
Elron said books make booms. “The L. Ron Hubbard Scientology and Dianetics Free Library”
It might get more interest than Christian Science reading rooms and save trees.
Remember when Mission Earth decalogy came out? People started butying the paintings / posters of characters from the book because they were told they would go up in value and they could sell later and make a killing. Wrong. No one wanted them even for free after that.
When L. Ron Hubbard was receiving a penny a word writing for the pulps Ayn Rand was a world class author who had her work published in hardcover and adapted for motion pictures. All of Ayn Rand’s work is still in print by the New American Library. Some of L. Ron Hubbard’s later literary work is printed by Bridge Publications. Who owns the New American Library? The stockholders. Who owns Bridge Publications? Bridge Publications is a department of Scientology.
My first wife, now CO FSSO CMDR Sharron Webber bought I think ALL of them. ( The Battlefield Earth paintings ). In the last few years I was on the ship before I died I saw them everywhere in the halls, etc. She must have just donated them.
I remember Ron Miscaviage Snr (at the time I did not know there was any other) and his wife Loretta in the FSO AOs when they came to get services there. I was the Scheduling Board I/C scheduling their sessions.
It was, AFAICT, worthless THEN. At the time, I was in the real world making real money & could have afforded one, but I never was tempted by the plastic POS that Miscavige & co produced. UGLY and too likely to malfunction, in my estimation.
George, given the date it was probably a MK VII. Not much historical or collector value in those. Though perhaps there is some inherent value in owning an artifact that was actually produced by slave labor at the International Base. Nowadays the Easy Bake VIII is manufactured off-shore just like your phones and laptops.
In 1979 when they released the MK VI the first 100 units were signed by Hubbard. Real ink on the dial card. I can see someone parting with $100 or so for a signed original first edition cult-o-meter. Like having the genuine Tarot deck used by Aleister Crowley or a piece of the True Cross.
We were always trying to make the odd buck by coming out with “Special Editions”. I think the most egregiously silly one was the silver edition MK VI, in a super-shiny chrome plated Halliburton brief case. We talked Halliburton into plating the cases, which were quite impressively shiny for at least the first hour. So maybe the briefcase has some collector value for briefcase aficionados.
There were MK VI meters that were literally gold- and silver-plated. Real metal in a super-thin sputtered layer on the plastic. Very pretty until someone actually touches them. There was a very real danger that something would short out with all that metal inside and out. A mechanical rockslam of magnitude.
It was actually an order directly from Hubbard that we sell “special editions” to cover R&D expenses or just to make the odd buck. Just as a cleared cannibal is just that, a leather-bound special edition of a pile of scat still smells.
Before we had any meter repair at FSO I sometimes had to personally repair meters. I had to remove a few roaches (actually palmetto bugs) and the high humidity in the area caused the needle to stick to the little white stops on each end of the dial. Handling that was pretty easy; just remove the glass and use. Q tip and alcohol to clean the white stop pieces (which appeared to be made of porcelin.
The toughest one I repaired was Mark VI #415. It R/Sed continuly due to a bad on-off switch. I had to take it apart and clean it after which it worked fine. That was a good gradient to later working on the gyros of the fin stabilizers on the Freewinds.
The first techs that the ship hired to work on them had worked on their earlier units on the V1 and V-2 rockets in Peenemunde in Nazi Deutschland. It is the same technology.
Heil Miscaviage!
Bruce wrote – “A mechanical rockslam of magnitude.” laughter!
A rockslam is the needle on the e-meter clacking back and forth and supposedly indicated “an evil intention or purpose” and earned a “red tag” on the person’s auditing folder, immediate attention required. A rockslam of “magnitude” might call for a Code Blue, all hands on deck!
I’m of the opinion that a particularly embarrassing withhold almost discovered by an auditor might cause a rock slam. One time I think I had a rock slam in a session with a female auditor. I heard the needle clack and she was a bit startled but kept her TRs in. I swear I had no “evil intentions” toward her, just a bit of a romantic and sexual fantasy which she might have been close to discovering. It didn’t come up in a future session so I got by. haha
True, but Mathieson E-Meters also had capacitors (often called condensers back in those days). Don’t ask me how I know that.
Tubes require more voltage.
That is probably where LRH got the line in “Man the Unfathomable movie “A few thousand Volts will take care of that!”.
Is that the gist of these prosperity seminars? Give money to Scientology and you will magically get more money back? Kind of like the prosperity TV preachers on tv?
When I first arrived in the States I became acquainted with the Televangelists for the first time and soon developed a huge contempt for them. After all, these guys were getting their money for nothing. Scientology delivered services for the money they received and I saw this is much superior.
There was a certain logic to this at the time and also some serious flaws.
Well, fast forward a few years and we have the IAS and Ideal Orgs and all the rest.
At least the Christian Churches only expect their parishioners to donate 10% or their income. Scientology expects theirs to donate everything they own and then max out their credit cards as well.
I eventually came to see Scientology as more predatory by far than the Televangelists. This was not only a change in my viewpoint. Scientology changed as well.
Yup, they tried that line on me back in the ’70s. something on the order of “flows”, as I recall. Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now. Money given to the tiny Tyrant™ just disappears into a black hole.
Hey Mike, Would you and Leah possibly be interested in starting an annual, Freedom from scientology day? It would be a day to celebrate people who have left the cult during the past year. Is this something that would make sense? Do you think it would make sense for you and Leah to back it somehow?
One purpose of this day would be to keep the idea of the harm this criminal org does alive in the mind of the public. Then, when people ask others about this cult, they would not respond in a way that turns it into a joke so much as recognizing it is a terrible criminal organization set up as a for-profit business masquerading as a religion.
That is what Yashar Ali called it and I think that is the perfect description.
“Just keep calling people until they cognite that you’re not going to stop calling unless they agree to come in.”
This was my earliest and most rapid Scientology cognition.!
Hilarious, RB
Before we had any meter repair at FSO I sometimes had to personally repair meters. I had to remove a few roaches (actually palmetto bugs) and the high humidity in the area caused the needle to stick to the little white stops on each end of the dial.
The toughest one I repaired was Mark VI #415. It R/Sed continuly due to a bad on-off switch. I had to take it apart and clean it after which it worked fine. That was a good gradient to later working on the gyros of the fin stabilizers on the Freewinds.
The first techs that the ship hired to work on them had worked on their earlier units on the V1 and V-2 rockets in Peenemunde in Nazi Deutschland. It is the same technology.
Heil Miscaviage!
And, as always, whatever you gave them this week won’t be enough NEXT week, or you’re a “downstat”, and likely a DB in their tiny little minds
I really should stop calling DM those silly names as it doesn’t add to the conversation, but I ENJOY trying to think up something new. I been stuck too long at home without any of my normal social outlets this year, so am trying to substitute, I guess. And silly names come so EASILY when I think about him and his DEMONstrated abilities.
How do you like “THE TWERP”?
It’s become my favorite.
There you go.
LRH Tech works 100 percent of the time when applied standardly.
Therefore, anything that works is LRH Tech. They need to be crammed on the “Affluence Attainment Formula”. “Doing the things that won, not new things untried as yet”.
Then they will cognite that using a gun is the standard way to rob people.
Those cockaroaches from AOLA called me and my wife 5+ times a day to get me to donate to the Basics Campaign so that some poor SOB in China could find out about LRH Tech.
I could not say that I had no money because I had 38+ thousand on account when they got my wife to re-finance the house. Since they were not delivering the service anyway, the only (and cowardly) way to get them to leave us alone was to give them all the money. They don’t really want anyone to go up the Bridge.
I liked one phrase I ran across lately:”The Bridge to total insolvency.”
Bill Strauss said: “… was to give them all the money. They don’t really want anyone to go up the Bridge.”
This is correct on both counts. Scientology’s first main objective, one that is baked into its DNA is to get money.
As to your second point: they really don’t believe in their own technology or that “going up the bridge makes the able more able” because if that was true, every single Sea Org member would be OTVIII by now.
Think about it: Sea Org members are resources for Scientology’s use. A more effective member is more valuable than a less effective member, therefore it’s in Scientology’s interests to maximize the effectiveness of its units. Anyone who’s played a 4x game with a tech tree knows that! They don’t have tons and tons of units to throw at the problems they face; they’re a tiny group. So gamewise, they’re like the Protoss instead of the Zerg. Sea Org members are like Protoss Zealots without upgraded weapons and personal shields, and without a speed boost.
They obviously have the time needed to get them up the bridge too; they have them 24/7/365. Instead, Scientology is content to leave Sea Org members to languish as pre-clears for YEARS. The only explanation is that the Scientology DOESN’T make you “more able,” and on some level they know it.
Bill, you know that LRH “tech” wasn’t evaluated first on if it worked, only that the tubby one said it. It was up to US to say it worked by carefully stepping through a verbal minefield that said we ‘experienced’ the required EP and believing what we wrote enough to F/N at the Examiner. Took a lot of self-deception, in my experience. I don’t know how many times I “faked it” so my poor auditor could get a WDAH for his stat. After a few times, I could tell myself it was “real”, and it pretty much felt “real”.
Jere: Well, at least You got to decide whether or not to “fake” it, as you say.
After they took all the money my wife could borrow I never got the service so I never really found bad LRH Tech. I found some DM “Tech” that really sucks, though.
$cientology, the ‘your auto warranty is over, buy useless extended coverage’ phone scam. I bet most clams don’t answer the phone when the mOrg calls.
Moo, I WOULD answer, if only to say “No, no, a thousand times N-o-o-o-o!” It’s the only type of social interaction available these days, and would give me a giggle. I don’t feel any guilt at all in saying i’m ENJOYING not being in the scn rat-race any more.
Moo, I’m no longer a clam, but I will answer if they deign to call, as it’s so much fun to bullbait them.
I am bullbaiting them every time I post on this blog with my real name.
My last autitor from the Freewinds (OTVIII Review Auditor Joan Heller) freaked when she ran into me in the elevator at AOLA a few years after I left the ship. No doubt the last thing she had heard about me was that I was on my death-bed (which I was). And certainly her TR-0 was passed by RTC..
She is an OTVIII auditor (and a very good one from my experience with her) and she has a n
button on ghosts?
She is the one that was auditing me in my last session on the Freewinds when on an FPRD correction list, she got a read on “Present Time Problem? I told her that I was dying.
I’ll never forget the first time I hung up on an IAS reg. He wasn’t taking no for an answer. I finally asked him, “How long are you going to let this conversation drag on until you accept the fact that I’m not going to give you any money?” He ignored my question and continued with his tedious harangue. That was it for me. I said, “This conversation can no longer serve any purpose. I’m done talking to you.” Then I hung up.
To my surprise, he didn’t call back. What do you know? My audacious tactic actually worked. It was an eye-opening lesson for me: Just say no. What a revelation. I felt like I’d learned a Jedi mind trick that made me invincible.
Love it Chris, thanks for all you’ve endured from the cult & Just on
keep Saying No !
I must admit my favorite line was “it’s hard to get an older Scientologist to flinch at the threat of eternal doom” LOL brother
I used to say, “Hold Pls” and then put the phone in a drawer under a whole bunch of towels. Eventually it would start wailing like a siren and then I would just unplug it for the rest of the day. After three days of that, they never called back.
Of course, this was in the days before personal computers and they couldn’t see my bank balance or other financial info. So, I don’t know how that would work today. But with all the incoming robo calls and scam calls, how badly do people really need to answer incoming calls? Many people won’t answer calls unless they recognize the name of the caller on Caller ID.
Yes, and those were the days when many IAS regs were hapless org staff pulling double duty. And it was before DMs fanatical Schutzstaffel of hit men and leg breakers dominated the scene. Nowadays the IAS operates like some kind of ecclesiastical Mafia that will resort to any degree of intimidation in order to extract their protection money.
My stomach is hurting from all the button flattening chatter. RB is Friday guilty pleasure!
Peridot, there’s no reason to feel ‘guilty’ once you’re out and no longer in thrall of their lies and misrepresentations. “The greatest revenge is living well.” Live EXCELLENTLY just to enjoy the feeling of sticking it to them, if that’s what it takes ! There’s no need to feel guilt for proving them dead wrong. THEY should feel guilty for living the same old lies and learning nothing of value thereby
Looks like Oliver is Flattened about getting people in.
In my own experience I never saw anybody making money after these seminars. Usually they ended up GIVING their money to the org.
Now that the public got more free from scn control, they will start to think a bit more for themselves and the cult must invent something really amazing to get them back in.
No doubt dave will have to come up with something. None of the other staffers seem to be able to do anything about the damned spiral into emptyness.
Yo Dave,
Try offering free sec checks to the pleebes if they come to yer front perch of eternity.
Exact. After he razed int management in 2005, no one got any new ideas if that weren’t aligned with dave’s. Do you know what? In my opinion DM will sooner or later come up with something “extraordinary” so that he can launch a planetary amnesty and try to pull in whoever they can to avoid further sinking.
Newcomer, there’s NO way I’d agree to doing anything on a perch or porch for eternity. 1 Billion years was already ridiculous and they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain: delivering “tech” that “worked” or delivering what was promised. I’d have been satisfied if they toned down the promises and delivered any of THAT.
“I’d have been satisfied if they toned down the promises and delivered any of THAT.”
Yep, I’m with you. I had gains doing the grades and the old “Dianetics Today” course. Fun times but that all went away.
It has always amazed me how a cherch could make a claim on eternity. Takes some major audacity but as we know, our fav cherch has no shortages in that department!!
I was a real sap. Did the run thru Oh Tea Ate and of course came away with “Where is the beef?!!!” First Clue: If you don’t know where it is then ……… ITS YOU! Second Clue: Yes, you have been led to slaughter!
You don’t sound like a “Newcomer” if you made it to OTVIII.
I was in the OTVIII courseroom on opening Day June 6, 1988 as Capt Ray Mithoff wanted more air flow from the A/C. There was fungus in the vents and so we were ordered to put filters in the vents to stop the fungus. There would be hell to pay if by God, there was fungus coming out on Opening Day. So I was ordered up to the OTVIII courseroom. Capt Ray Mithoff and Snr C/S Int Jeff Walker were there and Capt Mithoff ordered me to remove the filters. Course Sup Alice Hablutzel (later Webber) was just starting to call roll. After she called the first name the students all started to cheer.
It was a big deal for them, the release of OT VIII.
When my Juniors and I pulled the filters off large amounts of fungus blew out just as the students were opening the packs.
Capt Mithoff was not bothered by this. He thanked me and we left.
I figured that fungus would blow out but did not want to non-comply to a direct order from Capt Mithoff. There was a Lot of fungus and it was on virtually All of the OTVIII packs.
IF their finances improved a whit, it all had to go to scientology, so no net financial improvement; rather more likely, any small improvement meant that your future revenue had to be twice as much higher just to cover what they expected from you in the future, OR you had to downgrade your quality of living enough to cover their expectations.
The only “prosperity” in those things is to Dwarfenführer’s bank accounts. and a slight bit to those who get a percentage of the “take”.
It this point I’m glad I never got on their mailing list.
otherles, you can be ecstatic that you avoided their Central Files and they can’t bother you. You can’t really appreciate how blindly persistent they can be. Hearing others (us) chatter about it just isn’t the same.
“Most of us own several copies of the same sets of LRH books and lectures. It’s become surprisingly difficult to even give them away.”
Give them away? Simple, the local garbage dump took all of mine.
Even the libraries don’t want them if you try to donate them.
Cindy.
Totally true. I even tried to “donate” them all to a thrift store. When I asked if they’d accept all my Scientology books, tapes and lectures they said “no, we don’t wish to appear to be supporting that cult”. This was in Clearwater of course.
Libraries have discriminating tastes and only really want books which will be withdrawn by the public for reading. Anything that just fills up the shelves blocks books which are actually READABLE.
I had to pay the dump to take all 1,000 lbs of my L Ron Hubbard shit. You can’t sell it for anything and the library’s threw them out. Mike – maybe a podcast on the “Basics” and putting them in every Library. That scammed a lot of money from members. Libraries threw them out. You can find books about Scientology written by critics in the Library though. That is where I read Leah’s book – Troublemaker. That sent me on my journey out of the cult. Thanks Leah. I also got Janet Reitman’s book on audio – Inside Scientology. It was riveting. Especially about Tom Cruise. I think he would not be able to handle the truth at this point of his life. I hope he never finds out just what was done to trick him to believe in Scientology and David Miscavige so he would get trapped in. It was unreal. I think he may R45 himself if he found out the truth. His fragile ego could not handle it.
Mike – I love your podcasts with Leah.
You are really doing a great job.
GREAT post RB. Very funny now that I am out and so true.
I have posted this before about the ‘Basics Scam’. When it was at its height and everyone had bought the requisite set plus one or more the calls kept coming with the ‘donate a set to a library’ scam. I decided to first search the local libraries on the net and then to make a few calls. NO BASICS BOOKS had been donated to a library within a 250 mile radius of my location. That includes a couple of large college campuses, several Community colleges, umpteen town libraries and regional libraries. When I didn’t find them in the stacks that’s when I decided to ask if they had been pulped. Only one library mentioned getting anything regarding LRH and Scn and that was a box load of Dianetics books. My belief is that they NEVER sent ANY books to ANY libraries ANYWHERE. If they did the publication plant would have had to run 24/7 just for the supply. Every member was regged for multiple Basics sets for ‘donation’. My belief is that each set marked as ‘donation’ meant ‘Free Money’!
I agree, Any attempt to discover honest and truthful accountability in the Scion donations program would cause borderline “parishioners” to leave rapidly.
Trying to protect assets with huge legal/ PI fees as well as massive useless building acquisitions is an attempt to spend those TAX FREE funds but they’re only spenting a small percentage of their income which could be problematic long term.
Not a sustainable plan Dave. Time to buy up that property in Belize, build the compound and lawyer up
Glenn: No tipping fee? In many places, they charge per the ton.
Around here, anything that burns gets turned into steam and thus benefits society a little, unlike the words printed on the scn books’ pages
Someone on another blog suggested:
“Today, all the books, lectures and other materials could be put on a server
connected to the Internet and distributed freely to every man, woman and
child on the planet. The cost would probably be under $250K for the hardware
and software. Much cheaper than running the ScTV on cable for a year.”
………………………………………………………….
Elron said books make booms. “The L. Ron Hubbard Scientology and Dianetics Free Library”
It might get more interest than Christian Science reading rooms and save trees.
too damn funny!
Wow, so true. It gives me the kind of laugh that isn’t funny.
In 1988, my FSM paid $25,000 for a special edition e-meter. It is probably worthless today.
Remember when Mission Earth decalogy came out? People started butying the paintings / posters of characters from the book because they were told they would go up in value and they could sell later and make a killing. Wrong. No one wanted them even for free after that.
When L. Ron Hubbard was receiving a penny a word writing for the pulps Ayn Rand was a world class author who had her work published in hardcover and adapted for motion pictures. All of Ayn Rand’s work is still in print by the New American Library. Some of L. Ron Hubbard’s later literary work is printed by Bridge Publications. Who owns the New American Library? The stockholders. Who owns Bridge Publications? Bridge Publications is a department of Scientology.
I remember. There was an art gallery on Cleveland selling them. I never bought them, but I remember the salesman on a motor cycle .
My first wife, now CO FSSO CMDR Sharron Webber bought I think ALL of them. ( The Battlefield Earth paintings ). In the last few years I was on the ship before I died I saw them everywhere in the halls, etc. She must have just donated them.
I remember Ron Miscaviage Snr (at the time I did not know there was any other) and his wife Loretta in the FSO AOs when they came to get services there. I was the Scheduling Board I/C scheduling their sessions.
It was pretty worthless then, too.
It WAS worthless then, too. cheap plastic POS.
It was, AFAICT, worthless THEN. At the time, I was in the real world making real money & could have afforded one, but I never was tempted by the plastic POS that Miscavige & co produced. UGLY and too likely to malfunction, in my estimation.
George, given the date it was probably a MK VII. Not much historical or collector value in those. Though perhaps there is some inherent value in owning an artifact that was actually produced by slave labor at the International Base. Nowadays the Easy Bake VIII is manufactured off-shore just like your phones and laptops.
In 1979 when they released the MK VI the first 100 units were signed by Hubbard. Real ink on the dial card. I can see someone parting with $100 or so for a signed original first edition cult-o-meter. Like having the genuine Tarot deck used by Aleister Crowley or a piece of the True Cross.
We were always trying to make the odd buck by coming out with “Special Editions”. I think the most egregiously silly one was the silver edition MK VI, in a super-shiny chrome plated Halliburton brief case. We talked Halliburton into plating the cases, which were quite impressively shiny for at least the first hour. So maybe the briefcase has some collector value for briefcase aficionados.
There were MK VI meters that were literally gold- and silver-plated. Real metal in a super-thin sputtered layer on the plastic. Very pretty until someone actually touches them. There was a very real danger that something would short out with all that metal inside and out. A mechanical rockslam of magnitude.
It was actually an order directly from Hubbard that we sell “special editions” to cover R&D expenses or just to make the odd buck. Just as a cleared cannibal is just that, a leather-bound special edition of a pile of scat still smells.
Before we had any meter repair at FSO I sometimes had to personally repair meters. I had to remove a few roaches (actually palmetto bugs) and the high humidity in the area caused the needle to stick to the little white stops on each end of the dial. Handling that was pretty easy; just remove the glass and use. Q tip and alcohol to clean the white stop pieces (which appeared to be made of porcelin.
The toughest one I repaired was Mark VI #415. It R/Sed continuly due to a bad on-off switch. I had to take it apart and clean it after which it worked fine. That was a good gradient to later working on the gyros of the fin stabilizers on the Freewinds.
The first techs that the ship hired to work on them had worked on their earlier units on the V1 and V-2 rockets in Peenemunde in Nazi Deutschland. It is the same technology.
Heil Miscaviage!
Bruce wrote – “A mechanical rockslam of magnitude.” laughter!
A rockslam is the needle on the e-meter clacking back and forth and supposedly indicated “an evil intention or purpose” and earned a “red tag” on the person’s auditing folder, immediate attention required. A rockslam of “magnitude” might call for a Code Blue, all hands on deck!
I’m of the opinion that a particularly embarrassing withhold almost discovered by an auditor might cause a rock slam. One time I think I had a rock slam in a session with a female auditor. I heard the needle clack and she was a bit startled but kept her TRs in. I swear I had no “evil intentions” toward her, just a bit of a romantic and sexual fantasy which she might have been close to discovering. It didn’t come up in a future session so I got by. haha
In 33 years the capacitors in the box will have dried out and the box is kerput. A Mathison tube e-meter has longer life span.
True, but Mathieson E-Meters also had capacitors (often called condensers back in those days). Don’t ask me how I know that.
Tubes require more voltage.
That is probably where LRH got the line in “Man the Unfathomable movie “A few thousand Volts will take care of that!”.
Is that the gist of these prosperity seminars? Give money to Scientology and you will magically get more money back? Kind of like the prosperity TV preachers on tv?
That is the gist of anything $cientology.
“Give us yer money and time and we will exchange in abundance with hot air in the form of lies.”
Who wouldn’t be interested in a deal like that?
I figured it was probably a stupid question but decided to ask it anyway.
When I first arrived in the States I became acquainted with the Televangelists for the first time and soon developed a huge contempt for them. After all, these guys were getting their money for nothing. Scientology delivered services for the money they received and I saw this is much superior.
There was a certain logic to this at the time and also some serious flaws.
Well, fast forward a few years and we have the IAS and Ideal Orgs and all the rest.
At least the Christian Churches only expect their parishioners to donate 10% or their income. Scientology expects theirs to donate everything they own and then max out their credit cards as well.
I eventually came to see Scientology as more predatory by far than the Televangelists. This was not only a change in my viewpoint. Scientology changed as well.
Right, Cavalier.
They want their marks to donate 110% of what they have to scn’s money-making enterprise, if not more.
Right, Cavalier. Real religions ask for 10% of your current income. scientology demands at LEAST 110% of your current and future worth.
Yup, they tried that line on me back in the ’70s. something on the order of “flows”, as I recall. Didn’t work then, doesn’t work now. Money given to the tiny Tyrant™ just disappears into a black hole.
“Tiny Tyrant” … Hmmm …. Not bad. How’s about “Tiny TWERP” or “TWERP Tyrant”?
There are other variations … like “Mini-Monster” or “Mini-Mouse”.
Mini-Mouse sounds familiar for some reason.