Nostradamus… if LRH said he would be back as a “political figure” I would not look at Trump but rather at someone like Putin, the only world leader with responsibility and real cojones now.
Happy New Year to all, and specially to My Dear Old Friend, RB.
I rather like to think Hubbard would come back as either Howdy Doody or Pinocchio. Of course he might need a hall pass to get out of the inner circles of hell to come back at all.
I always love your posts , dear RB, but this one is by far the best.
One minor “correction” though ; “Empathy” does exist on the Tone Scale as “Sympathy” which are almost interchangeable. However, it is considered a “Down-tone” , 0.9 on the Scale only 8/10th above “Death”.
In other words , (see the picture above where the greenish bigger cartoon character is patting on the head the smaller green-blueish one) feeling “sympathy” for another is a very “down-tone” attitude. On that drawing, it is the bigger cartoon character the one who is exhibiting “sympathy” , and not the smaller one as it is wrongly interpreted. So giving sympathy away is a sign of “weakness” according to that marvelous scale that Scientologists love so much.
“Sympathy (from the Greek words syn “together” and pathos “feeling” which means “fellow-feeling”) is the perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another human being. This empathic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint, from a personal perspective to the perspective of another group or individual who is in need. Empathy and sympathy are often used interchangeably. Sympathy is a feeling, but the two terms have distinct origins and meanings. Merriam Webster defines empathy as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions : the ability to share someone else’s feelings.” Their definition of sympathy is “the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s trouble, grief, misfortune, etc. : a feeling of support for something : a state in which different people share the same interests, opinions, goals, etc.” (Wikipedia)
For me , religion is a synonym of “Empathy” and “Compassion” for every life-form ; two things that Scn, sadly enough, has always lacked.
Happy New Year for you and your beloved family, dear RB ; may this new 2016 brings you wonderful revelations and a real path towards increased spiritual abilities.
I believe Hubbard made a distinction between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy was bad and thus was “low tone” because if you felt sympathy, you were “collapsing terminals.” Under Hubbardian theory, collapsing terminals meant you were not holding your position, and if you cannot hold your position, you surrender power, and with no power, you cannot help anyone. Hence, sympathy is multo male.
I’m thinking the closest Hubbard got to empathy was perhaps with the ARC triangle (affinity, reality, communication –> understanding) where in high ARC I suppose you would have empathy as an offshoot.
Yeah, I remember that about “collapsing terminals” ; it is just a wrong interpretation from LRH, though. Actually, w/out the human attribute of “collapsing” with others , our humanity would be lost. Nothing wrong with collapting if we can come out of it ; we usually do, collapsing is a temporary affair most of the time. A needed event to understand misery and suffering.
Another wonderful strip in which we get treated to the comedy of coercive scientological reasoning. It’s always devoid of basic human goodness but makes sense in terms of established mutual agreements. Once you’re a member you’ve agreed that yes, you want to clear the planet, yes, it is important to be ethical, yes, you exist not just as a single person but ultimately as the whole universe and YES scientology works! Now they’ve got you. Say NO to any of those things and you’re OUT but you’re also FREE!
Happy New Year to all. I hope that wherever your travels and interests take you, career, business, the arts, education and spirituality, that you go for the gusto and live life fully and completely on your own terms. Peace.
This is the one subject that is so left out, and yet the most important. The Spiritual Compassion and willingness to help your fellow man without expecting anything in return. This is truly GIVING.Would like to see more published on this. I think this is the line that can eventually make the IRS realize the truth. Thank you RB and Mike. My best New Year’s wishes to you and all of mankind..
I am a never-in, but have people very close to me who escaped another tyrannical, humanity-destroying “outfit.” The same warnings against free will, empathy and compassion that RB put in the mouth of the scientology “clergy” were used by that other outfit to try and keep people locked in, and to keep them out of church/synagogue/mosque. Free will, empathy and compassion are fundamental to what makes us human, and they are qualities that dictators, sociopaths and tyrants (like Miscavige) fear the most. RB’s cartoon demonstrates once again that he is an incredibly brilliant cartoonist who understands the power of an artist’s pencil.
I wish a verry happy new year to all of you who visit Mike’s Blog and of course to you Mike, and your family. May 2016 be the year in which the barriers that were imposed between family members by a thing that claims to be a religion, finally be taken down. May you all enjoy prosperity in whatever it is that you feel enriches your lives. May your endeavors to free others from spiritual shackles be fulfilled. May your flame of courage to speak out never extinguish, instead, may it continue to grow in brightness so those who are lost in the fog of Scientology might see a light to help guide them to a clearer state of mind than that which has been imposed upon them by this “church”.
My very best wishes to all!!!!!!
Best wishes to you , RB. One day many will come out and say that you opened their eyes….and even if it is just one , bravo and thank you for your work and insights.
Dearest RB, I have been wanting to write to you for several weeks now so here is my chance.
I’m the guy who told you to “Keep on truckin” a few months back and I hope you continue to do so. We are all so fortunate here to have you to make our Fridays and beyond special.
I love your work and hope you love it too. It is my wish that you continue to do this as long as it is fun, fulfilling, and exciting for you. Trying to come up with new info and being better every week could become stressful and it is my wish for you that if it stops becoming fun, and starts becoming stressful, that you will ride off into the sunset. I sure hope that doesn’t happen but I wanted you to know that I bet a lot of us on this site feel the same way.
A million thanks to you my friend, and here’s to you sir for making all of our lives a little better, and I sure hope I could return the favor to you some day. Happy New Year from one of your biggest fans
Hi Tommy J, Happy Happy 2016 to you I saw your post about RB, and I echo strongly all you posted about him. We are so very fortunate to have landed here and forged a Chain of all kinds of spirits, and what I continue to find is, that on Mike’s Blog are the truest emotions ie: courage, bravery, laughter, sadness, joy, and the confront we all have to keep it going as long as it takesI looked in vain for real feelings in Sea Org & cos, none to be found on a regular basis and now with dm, none at all..Love my dear friend to you & yours, Always Ann
Hi Tommy J. Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m still truckin’ and will continue to do so till the other guys get tired and give up. Coming up with new stuff isn’t really that hard. Every now and then I get stumped, at least as far as trying not to repeat myself on something I’ve already done but believe ot or not, the church still keeps me in the loop by sending me new materials via email. I’ve asked them to stop a few times but it seems that I’m on too many Central Files lists.
As far as returning the favor goes, just keep speaking out. The only thing the church really wants from us is our silence. Let’s not give it to them.
Happy New Year.
RB – I love the edge of your satire so much that I forget sometimes the tragedy of the lives of the “still trapped in.” This one was so sweet – it brought an unexpected tear. Bless your heart. Happy New Year to all you sweet people.
You really hit me with this installment Mike, I’d like to see about 500 printed out and handed out with WTH booklets, let the fun begin…Happy New Year !
Excellent post, DB and Mike. I was “taught” in the first seminar I ever went to as a non-$cientologist that sympathy was a no-no and very bad for one and that if you showed people sympathy you would be doing them a great disservice. Wow!
Scientology’s religious cloaking is in tatters due in large part to the continued public exposure of the unbridled avarice and wrath of its leader, David Miscavige.
An organization whose leader is seen as the embodiment of these seven deadly sins will have a major problem in the area of religion.
Speaking of compassion, I give you excerpts from COB’s 2016 New Year’s address:
“We’ve arrived at the close of an all but mythic year,” Mr. Miscavige began. “Not only a year equivalent to a thousand years of triumph, not only a year surpassing any since the first tick of time, but a year to remind us that time is quite easily compressed, especially when you’re working at warp speed. It was a year of upward mobility that takes us to the front porch of infinity.”
Hi Gadfly, A most Happy New Year to you. After I had the distinct non-pleasure of reading COB’s 2016 New Year address, I decided that he and all with him will definitely get to the front porch of infinity, but sorry none of their keys will fit the lock beyond.Infinity is no fool! Love, Ann.
“The front porch of infinity”?? What in God’s name must the audience think when they hear these bombastic speeches that mean absolutely nothing? It must be along the lines of “When I complete OT IX and X… THEN I’ll know what he means.”
I think they don’t track on the whole significance of it. They hear” triumph” and some science fictiony utterances delivered by their leader , that’s the extent of it. It all sounds like blahblahblah with some key words in between.
If you’ll pardon me for going into the full Randroid mode–infinity is simply the absence of definition. To offer someone infinity is effectively to offer them nothing. And James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom did it better anyway.
Really? Infinity actually has a front porch? How cool is that! I’d love to kick back on the front porch of infinity! Sit in the old rockin’ chair and watch my infinity go by. Maybe a have a couple of beers. Mike, this place sounds great! Want to join me?
He said that!?
Oh my… what a looney tune he whistles…. geezers, so he has been applying his own tech after all. He not only sits on the front porch of infinity he painted it barn yard red with the yellow swirls of the barber’s pole.
What a wacko! Your infinity dm will consist of a contemplating a cold, hard little clinker at the bottom of a slime pit, but don’t worry, you won’t be lonely.
I reread this a few times to try to make sense of it and I realized what’s happening here. Dan Sherman realizes the house of cards is collapsing and is trying out his comedy material to see how it flies. Well done, Dan, you’ll be okay, the audiences will be rolling in the aisles at this when delivered by the right comedian. David Miscavige didn’t understand the delivery, that’s all.
As a totally dedicated Scientologist (not really), I see Mr. Miscavige’s statements as quite brilliant.
“all but mythic year” (He didn’t say it was TOTALLY mythic – we’ll get there!)
“equivalent to a thousand years of triumph” and “time is quite easily compressed” (WOW!! That must be OTIX and OTX!! The ability to warp time!!!)
“the front porch of infinity” (EGAD!!! Only a few years ago we were looking for the road sign up ahead that says next stop infinity and now we are on the FRONT PORCH!!! OMG OMG OMG
Next year Mr. Miscavige will surely present us the KEYS to the front door! When that door opens even wogs will understand true Scientology reality!
“Not only a year equivalent to a thousand years of triumph, not only a year surpassing any since the first tick of time…blah blah” David Miscavige channeling Lady McBeth, protesting too much and still smarting from the humiliations of 2015.
Talk about purple prose and meaningless word salad! If that is what Miscavige really said, it does tell us that $cientology is scraping the bottom of the barrel and that only die-hard kool-aid drinkers remain (and very few of them). You have to wonder if Dan Sherman writes this crap under the influence of LSD. (Actually, if he used LSD his writings would probably make more sense than they do now.)
2015 was a “monumental failure” year for Co$, and let’s hope 2016 is similar with even more people leaving and more PR & legal disasters. Hopefully Co$ will decline so much that an important tipping point is reached: there are so few still-in and active that disconnection loses its power to keep people in the Co$ prison. When that happens there could be a quick collapse.
I don’t want to get into a fight over whose imaginary friend in the sky is better, but any religion that doesn’t have compassion and love is not a religion. The ‘tone scale’ is an attempt to reprogram the clam into a Lron clone. Even Mr. Spock had emotions, he just controlled them. RB hits another one over the fences.
Happy and prosperous New Year to all, and thanks MR for this page and all the work you do.
Worse. No one there has any “empathy”, the capability of being able to touch and understand the pain of others. Thus they cannot any longer “connect” with the real world.
As a “never in” CO$ always gave me the impression that it was a “religion” of “No Religion”, that all those things like having a guilty conscience for doing wrong and being accountable for one’s actions to a Higher Being was all tossed away, and instead your mindset was replaced with a form of Atheistic self-determinism….as if removing one’s guilty conscience made you truly free or something.
And yet, for an organization that smugly looks down on other religions, CO$ goes around calling itself a “religion” (obviously for tax exempt purposes), uses a Christian Cross as part of its main symbology (yet it teaches that Christ, and his sacrifice on the Cross was an “implant” and thus never happened), and it does other things to give itself the look and feel of being a “religion” — how hypocritical.
RB, as always you are a favorite of my Fridays. I look forward to more this year!
The problem when you want something to be both a dessert topping and a floor wax, is that you tend to end up with a floor wax-flavoured dessert – something that cannot work properly as a floor wax, and tastes awful as a dessert.
That is scientology in a nutshell – pretends to be both science and religion, and can’t be either of those things.
RB got it right with the “minister’s” cross upside down. I’ve seen various descriptions of the derivation of the scio cross, but I stick with the idea it’s a cross with an X over it.
Nobody I knew in scio 1975-1985 considered it a religion. It was a wink and a nod “yeah – right”. Maybe some do consider it a religion these days. I wouldn’t know.
Scio might be more accurate in renaming its ministers as priests. From dictionary.com “priest” – 1. a person whose office it is to perform religious rites, and especially to make sacrificial offerings.
I still have my minister certificate which required me to read one book on comparative religions and then attest.
RB you keep hitting the nail on the head. Brilliant New Years resolution.
Happy new year to you and thank you Mike for all your reporting. Happy new year!
One of your best, Regraded Being! Thanks. And Mike, Happy New Year to you and yours, and to all posters here. Mike is doing a bang up good job and I am very thankful for your blog and your work.
Int Base stats were $$$ millions down and Miscavige
had a fit of AFFLUENZA and checked into Betty Ford
Clinic in Palm Springs with Overdose of Imported Scotch
and AFFLUENZA. Donate NOW !!
“Rifle” is looking like the worst house in a great neighborhood. Haven’t even seen the new Range Rover parked there. However the surrounding La Quinta Resort is flourishing and prospering, having taken over the rest of what used to be Winter Headquarters. La Quinta Resort is owned and managed by Waldorf Astoria which is LRH’s stated standard for what the Fort Harrison should be (LOL). Have a happy rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic. Do you still have the electric putter that Shelly once gave you as a gag gift?
Are you moonlighting as a consultant to Regraded Being? By the way, KNX News is broadcasting live for the Rose Parade at the corner of Raymond and Colorado. Any positive press? Are your Pasadena minions out filling the trash cans with unwanted promo?
So true – again. That us vs them mentality seems to create no compassion, sympathy or empathy. It’s interesting considering that the big push in scientology is to “Clear the Planet.” How? – when there is such a disconnect from humanity. Thank you RB for your spot on satires.
Hey Mary! You and I can always get into the octagon for an “us vs. them!”
But yes, sympathy, empathy and caring have absolutely no place in the cult. People who engage in that type of activity, are DBs. And what find hilarious is loyalty to the party line as everything is falling apart for the cult! That’s some good brainwashing they have going for them.
Oh yeah RB… Ain’t that the truth! That hard as chrome and total lack of humanity BS sure does result in one of the worst creatures ever to mist a mirror – the scientology executive!
Oh, it still gives me the shudders today to realise I use to listen to those creatures or was in the same room as one and heaven forbid, accepted one as my senior.
Freedom from… sure is sweet thing when your talking about the scientology command structure.
In a really weird way the scientology command structure has a communal misunderstanding of what the dynamics actually are. “Authority over” is not cause. As soon as you leave out choice and have to resort to dictating and worshipping authority, you’re on a slippery slope to being toast yourself. The dynamics are urges, not possessions.
The greatest good is exactly what it is, something authoritarians can never accept.
I like how some scientologists consider things like going to mass as being” other practicey “. What a misapplication of an HCOPL that only applies to receiving an auditing intensive!
People in other, normal churches, tithe. And if they’re scientologists, that means that a couple of their dollars goes to something other than the cult. And that, folks, is about as off policy as you can get in the cult.
I believe, at some point, you’re on the cans until you cog that YOU ARE A SCIENTOLOGIST. And, ONLY a scientologist. Otherwise you’d be “mixing practices.” And that is Verboten!
“Freedoms just another word for nothing else to lose,” is another ideal summary of being a corporate scientologist. You have nothing left after the Cof$ has had its way with you.
(Gee I miss Janis).
I miss her, too. She was a force to be reckoned with. And, yes, that’s one of the sadder aspects of this cult. No health care. No dental. And when you get old, or sick, you are kicked to the side of the curb with your $500 check in your hand. I admire all the people who spent an inordinate amount of time in, come out and create their lives anew! That’s not an easy thing to do….
There was a time when I was in deep ethics trouble and since the COS didn’t want me until I gave them money, I checked out a Christian based church. The experience was fantastic. Those folks were nice and understanding and actually helped people for FREE without expecting anything in return. Scientology looked positively evil by comparison. Still does.
Compassion and empathy are not necessarily easy — it’s being confirmed by science that those two emotions are causes for:
1) a longer life
2) less aging
3) overall well being
4) more capacity to deal with the stresses and strife OF LIFE — every life has up and downs without making a
person a pariah —
5) increased compassion and empathy will enable those who left to ACTUALLY LEAVE – in other words
to be able to see their own skewered thinking caused by years of indoctrination in a dangerous cult
Neuroscience is advancing by leaps and bounds. It’s a growing changing science.
And religions which grow with the times and cultures — survive.
Those that don’t — well, thankfully they die out. Eventually.
Yes, it’s remarkable how tolerant and compassionate one becomes when you ease off on resisting change.
The granting of beingness is something even science is beginning to realise has a senior place in their calculations. You just can’t keep telling an atom how to behave.
Love it and you’ll soon understand it.
Interestingly, WH, even Biology is changing and growing rapidly. Just finished the updated version of Bruce Lipton’s “The Biology of Belief”, a huge jump in just 10 short years for any science. Very exciting stuff which bodes well for humankind, thus for all of Life as we know it. What an incredible time to be alive.
“Hold on Frank. We’re not trying to get her to leave her former religion. [Blah blah blah, in direct contradiction of the preceding statement.]”
How wondrous is Scientology training and processing. Note here that it is quite normal for the adherent to hear wildly incompatible utterances from a bloodsucking ghoul in a position of authority, and utter not a murmur of protest. Note how this particular subject, right up until the breaking point depicted here, was able to practice this cognitive dissonance without pause. We can only be gladdened, that when push came to shove, he was able to notice that Scientology, through further processing, was attempting to obliterate his conscience.
That must be the downward spiral then? We all end up ‘common folk.’
Scientology, where the end product is forgotten by the time you get there. I think they have taken this static, no location in time and space thing just a bit far.
May the other 24,998 sheeple be blessed with the same cognition. Happy New Year, Mike. I look forward to the day you shut down this blog because there is no scientology about which to talk.
Empathy and compassion and serving others have been scientifically proving to bring happiness to the one who practices such things. Jesus put it this way, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
That is the wrong way to go .. at first has christianity in itself auditing and technology, only it did not work as well as intended .. it was to easy to corrupt the way .. as like as scientology could be corrupted .. but easier .. means cristianity stays 2.000 years .. scientology only 50 .. cristianity will hold forever, because it includes a basic wish of all .. auditing and tech is a short term game .. as like as RB gave it today to us ..
Dio, I’m not suggesting there is anything intrinsically faulty with the “tech of spiritual healing” but we do see alarming deficits in those who have received repeated applications of it.
Not to be a downer here, but an acquaintance in LA finally got onto the New OT VII (GAT and all that jazz.) She audited on it and contracted cancer. The CS told her to use the normal status quo medical methods of handling it such as chemo and radiation. She was married to a well known chiropractor in LA, one who seemed to be into alternative methods as was she. But since she was on OT VII, Flag thought they owned her and could tell her how to treat her cancer. Like a good little Sheeple, she did what she was told. And her husband, the chio, bragged to friends how Kaiser insurance gave her all of it for free or for very little money and they were saving so much money. Long story short, she died pretty quickly using the “regular methods” that Flag told her to use. And he saved a lot of money and lost his wife. It seems like between the squirrelled OT VII tech and the didactic approach to her healing methods, she didn’t stand a chance.
Cindy, I do believe you’re suggesting there is a causative link between your friend’s cancer and her doing “squirreled” OTVII simply because they were sequential events. In some circles you would be derided for saying such a thing. In fact, that is a logical fallacy called, “false causation”.
As an RN I can attest to a significant success rate with chemo/radiation. Although I wouldn’t choose it for myself, one is far from ill-advised to go that route.
Roger Hornaday, I’m not saying one is better than the other (i.e., “natural alternative” methods versus “traditional” methods to beat cancer ) I’m just saying that the church told her in no uncertain terms which way to go to treat her cancer. I think that it is the person’s choice whichever way they go and that the person himself/herself should have been able to choose what to do and not been dictated to as to what they could and couldn’t do. I have also read on the blogs that there is a much larger number of cancer amongst Scn’s OTs than in the regular population, which seems to suggest that something in the way the “new and improved” OT Levels are run may be causing the higher rate of illness among that population.
I agree with you. There needs to be a merger of Scientology and Christianity. Unless you happen to be a 1.1 who feels that Christ would squirrel the tech and then true freedom would come.
“It’s more blessed to give than to receive??? What a DB! Everybody knows that getting money from people for the greatest good is the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD! Sure we have a couple of billion stashed away, but, YOU CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH MONEY FROM PEOPLE. You can write that down in big letters. We’re not a bunch of pansies here! We’re saving the damn world. And saving the damn world takes money! A shit load of money, understand? We’re under attack so, of course, we have to attack every single person who’s ever criticized us! Now! Starting with that CSMF, Alex Gibney! What a down stat he is! The people that post here are clueless! They wouldn’t know 3 swings if it was staring at them! Fuck! Do have to do everything by myself??? Empathy and compassion and serving othesr, MY ASS! Crap, where’s my bottle of Scotch?
Nostradamus… if LRH said he would be back as a “political figure” I would not look at Trump but rather at someone like Putin, the only world leader with responsibility and real cojones now.
Happy New Year to all, and specially to My Dear Old Friend, RB.
I rather like to think Hubbard would come back as either Howdy Doody or Pinocchio. Of course he might need a hall pass to get out of the inner circles of hell to come back at all.
I always love your posts , dear RB, but this one is by far the best.
One minor “correction” though ; “Empathy” does exist on the Tone Scale as “Sympathy” which are almost interchangeable. However, it is considered a “Down-tone” , 0.9 on the Scale only 8/10th above “Death”.
http://www.rehabilitatenz.co.nz/pages/tone-scale-full.html
In other words , (see the picture above where the greenish bigger cartoon character is patting on the head the smaller green-blueish one) feeling “sympathy” for another is a very “down-tone” attitude. On that drawing, it is the bigger cartoon character the one who is exhibiting “sympathy” , and not the smaller one as it is wrongly interpreted. So giving sympathy away is a sign of “weakness” according to that marvelous scale that Scientologists love so much.
“Sympathy (from the Greek words syn “together” and pathos “feeling” which means “fellow-feeling”) is the perception, understanding, and reaction to the distress or need of another human being. This empathic concern is driven by a switch in viewpoint, from a personal perspective to the perspective of another group or individual who is in need. Empathy and sympathy are often used interchangeably. Sympathy is a feeling, but the two terms have distinct origins and meanings. Merriam Webster defines empathy as “the feeling that you understand and share another person’s experiences and emotions : the ability to share someone else’s feelings.” Their definition of sympathy is “the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s trouble, grief, misfortune, etc. : a feeling of support for something : a state in which different people share the same interests, opinions, goals, etc.” (Wikipedia)
For me , religion is a synonym of “Empathy” and “Compassion” for every life-form ; two things that Scn, sadly enough, has always lacked.
Happy New Year for you and your beloved family, dear RB ; may this new 2016 brings you wonderful revelations and a real path towards increased spiritual abilities.
ML,
TC
I believe Hubbard made a distinction between empathy and sympathy. Sympathy was bad and thus was “low tone” because if you felt sympathy, you were “collapsing terminals.” Under Hubbardian theory, collapsing terminals meant you were not holding your position, and if you cannot hold your position, you surrender power, and with no power, you cannot help anyone. Hence, sympathy is multo male.
I’m thinking the closest Hubbard got to empathy was perhaps with the ARC triangle (affinity, reality, communication –> understanding) where in high ARC I suppose you would have empathy as an offshoot.
Yeah, I remember that about “collapsing terminals” ; it is just a wrong interpretation from LRH, though. Actually, w/out the human attribute of “collapsing” with others , our humanity would be lost. Nothing wrong with collapting if we can come out of it ; we usually do, collapsing is a temporary affair most of the time. A needed event to understand misery and suffering.
TC
Can you imagine a Scientology version of It’s a Wonderful Life?
When the sales bell rings, another reg gets their wings — until they’re downstat, when they get ripped off.
And the Heavenly voices sound like DM and LRH.
Thank you RB and Mike, what an excellent way to start a new year! Happy new year to all, may we all gain more tolerance and compassion.
Another wonderful strip in which we get treated to the comedy of coercive scientological reasoning. It’s always devoid of basic human goodness but makes sense in terms of established mutual agreements. Once you’re a member you’ve agreed that yes, you want to clear the planet, yes, it is important to be ethical, yes, you exist not just as a single person but ultimately as the whole universe and YES scientology works! Now they’ve got you. Say NO to any of those things and you’re OUT but you’re also FREE!
The NOI contingent must word clear RB’s strip today. I wonder how that would go over.
No better way to get your In-ethics than to just get out.
It’s hard to believe, but RB gets better every week. This one is amazing.
A happy, prosperous, Miscavige-free new year to all.
Sorry if it’s unrelated, but shouldn’t LRH’s new body be about 30 years old by now? And the great OT still hasn’t revealed himself? Hmmmm…..
He did say he would be back as a “political figure” didn’t he? Maybe he kicked Trump out of his body and took over all his BTs….LOL
Political Figure in which country ??
North Korea, Nigeria, Iran, Syria, ?
Dear Nostradamus, could you please give me the link or send me the scan where LRH said that. I will appreciate that very much! Tylevichd@gmail.com
Happy New Year to all. I hope that wherever your travels and interests take you, career, business, the arts, education and spirituality, that you go for the gusto and live life fully and completely on your own terms. Peace.
Very nice, Doug – to you too.
U 2, Doug! Peace out….
This is the one subject that is so left out, and yet the most important. The Spiritual Compassion and willingness to help your fellow man without expecting anything in return. This is truly GIVING.Would like to see more published on this. I think this is the line that can eventually make the IRS realize the truth. Thank you RB and Mike. My best New Year’s wishes to you and all of mankind..
I am a never-in, but have people very close to me who escaped another tyrannical, humanity-destroying “outfit.” The same warnings against free will, empathy and compassion that RB put in the mouth of the scientology “clergy” were used by that other outfit to try and keep people locked in, and to keep them out of church/synagogue/mosque. Free will, empathy and compassion are fundamental to what makes us human, and they are qualities that dictators, sociopaths and tyrants (like Miscavige) fear the most. RB’s cartoon demonstrates once again that he is an incredibly brilliant cartoonist who understands the power of an artist’s pencil.
Wonderful strip. Still ins, there is compassion awaiting you. Come on out.
I wish a verry happy new year to all of you who visit Mike’s Blog and of course to you Mike, and your family. May 2016 be the year in which the barriers that were imposed between family members by a thing that claims to be a religion, finally be taken down. May you all enjoy prosperity in whatever it is that you feel enriches your lives. May your endeavors to free others from spiritual shackles be fulfilled. May your flame of courage to speak out never extinguish, instead, may it continue to grow in brightness so those who are lost in the fog of Scientology might see a light to help guide them to a clearer state of mind than that which has been imposed upon them by this “church”.
My very best wishes to all!!!!!!
Beautifully written, RB. Thank you.
Best wishes to you , RB. One day many will come out and say that you opened their eyes….and even if it is just one , bravo and thank you for your work and insights.
Dearest RB, I have been wanting to write to you for several weeks now so here is my chance.
I’m the guy who told you to “Keep on truckin” a few months back and I hope you continue to do so. We are all so fortunate here to have you to make our Fridays and beyond special.
I love your work and hope you love it too. It is my wish that you continue to do this as long as it is fun, fulfilling, and exciting for you. Trying to come up with new info and being better every week could become stressful and it is my wish for you that if it stops becoming fun, and starts becoming stressful, that you will ride off into the sunset. I sure hope that doesn’t happen but I wanted you to know that I bet a lot of us on this site feel the same way.
A million thanks to you my friend, and here’s to you sir for making all of our lives a little better, and I sure hope I could return the favor to you some day. Happy New Year from one of your biggest fans
Hi Tommy J, Happy Happy 2016 to you I saw your post about RB, and I echo strongly all you posted about him. We are so very fortunate to have landed here and forged a Chain of all kinds of spirits, and what I continue to find is, that on Mike’s Blog are the truest emotions ie: courage, bravery, laughter, sadness, joy, and the confront we all have to keep it going as long as it takesI looked in vain for real feelings in Sea Org & cos, none to be found on a regular basis and now with dm, none at all..Love my dear friend to you & yours, Always Ann
Hi Tommy J. Thank you very much for your kind words. I’m still truckin’ and will continue to do so till the other guys get tired and give up. Coming up with new stuff isn’t really that hard. Every now and then I get stumped, at least as far as trying not to repeat myself on something I’ve already done but believe ot or not, the church still keeps me in the loop by sending me new materials via email. I’ve asked them to stop a few times but it seems that I’m on too many Central Files lists.
As far as returning the favor goes, just keep speaking out. The only thing the church really wants from us is our silence. Let’s not give it to them.
Happy New Year.
Thank you RB! LIfe is precious, and so are you. 🙂
That was a beautiful cartoon for the season. A great ending. Have a Super Great Happy New Year, RB !
Bravo! — and that’s straight from the heart
RB – I love the edge of your satire so much that I forget sometimes the tragedy of the lives of the “still trapped in.” This one was so sweet – it brought an unexpected tear. Bless your heart. Happy New Year to all you sweet people.
Yep!
Happy New Year RB
You really hit me with this installment Mike, I’d like to see about 500 printed out and handed out with WTH booklets, let the fun begin…Happy New Year !
Excellent post, DB and Mike. I was “taught” in the first seminar I ever went to as a non-$cientologist that sympathy was a no-no and very bad for one and that if you showed people sympathy you would be doing them a great disservice. Wow!
Scientology’s religious cloaking is in tatters due in large part to the continued public exposure of the unbridled avarice and wrath of its leader, David Miscavige.
An organization whose leader is seen as the embodiment of these seven deadly sins will have a major problem in the area of religion.
And I haven’t even touched upon his gluttony.
Speaking of compassion, I give you excerpts from COB’s 2016 New Year’s address:
“We’ve arrived at the close of an all but mythic year,” Mr. Miscavige began. “Not only a year equivalent to a thousand years of triumph, not only a year surpassing any since the first tick of time, but a year to remind us that time is quite easily compressed, especially when you’re working at warp speed. It was a year of upward mobility that takes us to the front porch of infinity.”
I would think that had to be a parody, except I know better.
Hi Gadfly, A most Happy New Year to you. After I had the distinct non-pleasure of reading COB’s 2016 New Year address, I decided that he and all with him will definitely get to the front porch of infinity, but sorry none of their keys will fit the lock beyond.Infinity is no fool! Love, Ann.
“The front porch of infinity”?? What in God’s name must the audience think when they hear these bombastic speeches that mean absolutely nothing? It must be along the lines of “When I complete OT IX and X… THEN I’ll know what he means.”
I think they don’t track on the whole significance of it. They hear” triumph” and some science fictiony utterances delivered by their leader , that’s the extent of it. It all sounds like blahblahblah with some key words in between.
Seems like he’s closer to the rear end of eternity.
HIs intention must be to put His sheeple to sleep. What claptrap.
If it hadn’t already been done, this clip would be useful to put into somebody’s documentary.
Putting the sheeple to sleepl. I like that.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
If you’ll pardon me for going into the full Randroid mode–infinity is simply the absence of definition. To offer someone infinity is effectively to offer them nothing. And James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom did it better anyway.
foxtrot uniform charlie kilo delta mike!
Affirmative. 🙂
Huh? I guess when, like David Miscavige, you have nothing at all to say, you say a whole lot of nothingness. That was some amazingly purple prose.
That is just too damned funny….
Really? Infinity actually has a front porch? How cool is that! I’d love to kick back on the front porch of infinity! Sit in the old rockin’ chair and watch my infinity go by. Maybe a have a couple of beers. Mike, this place sounds great! Want to join me?
It’s called “gobbledegook”. Lots of words, totally without significance or meaning of any kind. ROFL
Gobbledegook. Isn’t that German for when a turkey has a bunch of snot dripping out of it’s nose?
He said that!?
Oh my… what a looney tune he whistles…. geezers, so he has been applying his own tech after all. He not only sits on the front porch of infinity he painted it barn yard red with the yellow swirls of the barber’s pole.
What a wacko! Your infinity dm will consist of a contemplating a cold, hard little clinker at the bottom of a slime pit, but don’t worry, you won’t be lonely.
I reread this a few times to try to make sense of it and I realized what’s happening here. Dan Sherman realizes the house of cards is collapsing and is trying out his comedy material to see how it flies. Well done, Dan, you’ll be okay, the audiences will be rolling in the aisles at this when delivered by the right comedian. David Miscavige didn’t understand the delivery, that’s all.
Maybe we should forward this to Dave Colbert for when he goes back to stand up.
As a totally dedicated Scientologist (not really), I see Mr. Miscavige’s statements as quite brilliant.
“all but mythic year” (He didn’t say it was TOTALLY mythic – we’ll get there!)
“equivalent to a thousand years of triumph” and “time is quite easily compressed” (WOW!! That must be OTIX and OTX!! The ability to warp time!!!)
“the front porch of infinity” (EGAD!!! Only a few years ago we were looking for the road sign up ahead that says next stop infinity and now we are on the FRONT PORCH!!! OMG OMG OMG
Next year Mr. Miscavige will surely present us the KEYS to the front door! When that door opens even wogs will understand true Scientology reality!
“Not only a year equivalent to a thousand years of triumph, not only a year surpassing any since the first tick of time…blah blah” David Miscavige channeling Lady McBeth, protesting too much and still smarting from the humiliations of 2015.
The COB said that ???
After he sober’s up he will deny everything.
Talk about purple prose and meaningless word salad! If that is what Miscavige really said, it does tell us that $cientology is scraping the bottom of the barrel and that only die-hard kool-aid drinkers remain (and very few of them). You have to wonder if Dan Sherman writes this crap under the influence of LSD. (Actually, if he used LSD his writings would probably make more sense than they do now.)
2015 was a “monumental failure” year for Co$, and let’s hope 2016 is similar with even more people leaving and more PR & legal disasters. Hopefully Co$ will decline so much that an important tipping point is reached: there are so few still-in and active that disconnection loses its power to keep people in the Co$ prison. When that happens there could be a quick collapse.
Dear Mike,
Have a great 2016 together with your family and my best wishes for all who read this blog too.
I don’t want to get into a fight over whose imaginary friend in the sky is better, but any religion that doesn’t have compassion and love is not a religion. The ‘tone scale’ is an attempt to reprogram the clam into a Lron clone. Even Mr. Spock had emotions, he just controlled them. RB hits another one over the fences.
Happy and prosperous New Year to all, and thanks MR for this page and all the work you do.
On its best days, the cult is at chronic ‘no sympathy’.
None whatsoever….Zero….Nada….
Worse. No one there has any “empathy”, the capability of being able to touch and understand the pain of others. Thus they cannot any longer “connect” with the real world.
Great way to start the new year, RB!
As a “never in” CO$ always gave me the impression that it was a “religion” of “No Religion”, that all those things like having a guilty conscience for doing wrong and being accountable for one’s actions to a Higher Being was all tossed away, and instead your mindset was replaced with a form of Atheistic self-determinism….as if removing one’s guilty conscience made you truly free or something.
And yet, for an organization that smugly looks down on other religions, CO$ goes around calling itself a “religion” (obviously for tax exempt purposes), uses a Christian Cross as part of its main symbology (yet it teaches that Christ, and his sacrifice on the Cross was an “implant” and thus never happened), and it does other things to give itself the look and feel of being a “religion” — how hypocritical.
RB, as always you are a favorite of my Fridays. I look forward to more this year!
The problem when you want something to be both a dessert topping and a floor wax, is that you tend to end up with a floor wax-flavoured dessert – something that cannot work properly as a floor wax, and tastes awful as a dessert.
That is scientology in a nutshell – pretends to be both science and religion, and can’t be either of those things.
RB got it right with the “minister’s” cross upside down. I’ve seen various descriptions of the derivation of the scio cross, but I stick with the idea it’s a cross with an X over it.
Nobody I knew in scio 1975-1985 considered it a religion. It was a wink and a nod “yeah – right”. Maybe some do consider it a religion these days. I wouldn’t know.
Scio might be more accurate in renaming its ministers as priests. From dictionary.com “priest” – 1. a person whose office it is to perform religious rites, and especially to make sacrificial offerings.
I still have my minister certificate which required me to read one book on comparative religions and then attest.
“Reverend Richard” lol
RB you keep hitting the nail on the head. Brilliant New Years resolution.
Happy new year to you and thank you Mike for all your reporting. Happy new year!
Happy New Year!!!
Nice cartoon. So true.
One of your best, Regraded Being! Thanks. And Mike, Happy New Year to you and yours, and to all posters here. Mike is doing a bang up good job and I am very thankful for your blog and your work.
Int Base stats were $$$ millions down and Miscavige
had a fit of AFFLUENZA and checked into Betty Ford
Clinic in Palm Springs with Overdose of Imported Scotch
and AFFLUENZA. Donate NOW !!
Dave,
La Quinta Update:
“Rifle” is looking like the worst house in a great neighborhood. Haven’t even seen the new Range Rover parked there. However the surrounding La Quinta Resort is flourishing and prospering, having taken over the rest of what used to be Winter Headquarters. La Quinta Resort is owned and managed by Waldorf Astoria which is LRH’s stated standard for what the Fort Harrison should be (LOL). Have a happy rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic. Do you still have the electric putter that Shelly once gave you as a gag gift?
I can’t take out my wallet fast enough…..
Ken Hoden,
Are you moonlighting as a consultant to Regraded Being? By the way, KNX News is broadcasting live for the Rose Parade at the corner of Raymond and Colorado. Any positive press? Are your Pasadena minions out filling the trash cans with unwanted promo?
So true – again. That us vs them mentality seems to create no compassion, sympathy or empathy. It’s interesting considering that the big push in scientology is to “Clear the Planet.” How? – when there is such a disconnect from humanity. Thank you RB for your spot on satires.
Happy New Year to you!
Hey Mary! You and I can always get into the octagon for an “us vs. them!”
But yes, sympathy, empathy and caring have absolutely no place in the cult. People who engage in that type of activity, are DBs. And what find hilarious is loyalty to the party line as everything is falling apart for the cult! That’s some good brainwashing they have going for them.
Oh yeah RB… Ain’t that the truth! That hard as chrome and total lack of humanity BS sure does result in one of the worst creatures ever to mist a mirror – the scientology executive!
Oh, it still gives me the shudders today to realise I use to listen to those creatures or was in the same room as one and heaven forbid, accepted one as my senior.
Freedom from… sure is sweet thing when your talking about the scientology command structure.
In a really weird way the scientology command structure has a communal misunderstanding of what the dynamics actually are. “Authority over” is not cause. As soon as you leave out choice and have to resort to dictating and worshipping authority, you’re on a slippery slope to being toast yourself. The dynamics are urges, not possessions.
The greatest good is exactly what it is, something authoritarians can never accept.
I like how some scientologists consider things like going to mass as being” other practicey “. What a misapplication of an HCOPL that only applies to receiving an auditing intensive!
People in other, normal churches, tithe. And if they’re scientologists, that means that a couple of their dollars goes to something other than the cult. And that, folks, is about as off policy as you can get in the cult.
Do you have the HCOPL or HCOO that says that? Or was that an origination from our dear friend DM?
I believe, at some point, you’re on the cans until you cog that YOU ARE A SCIENTOLOGIST. And, ONLY a scientologist. Otherwise you’d be “mixing practices.” And that is Verboten!
I don’t have the HCOPL OR HCOO.
Bravo, RB. What a perfect way to begin a new year here, at Mike’s blog. Thank you both, for all that you do.
I’m beginning to like 2016 already.
1. Quote from RB. “That’s a heck of a surprise”. Lol
2. Love is not on the tone scale either
Love is not a tone level .. you can have love on all levels .. it is only different style of love ,, it is the same with hate ..
Friend, good post. I don’t always understand your thinking but you present interesting viewpoints (many on Marty’s blog in 2014). Keep posting.
Well, OF COURSE “love” is not on the tone scale, Guest. I mean, “What’s love got to do got to do with it. What’s love but a second hand emotion.”
Who would want a second hand emotion anyway? IT’S SECOND HAND!!! And that’s not Ideal…..
“Freedoms just another word for nothing else to lose,” is another ideal summary of being a corporate scientologist. You have nothing left after the Cof$ has had its way with you.
(Gee I miss Janis).
I miss her, too. She was a force to be reckoned with. And, yes, that’s one of the sadder aspects of this cult. No health care. No dental. And when you get old, or sick, you are kicked to the side of the curb with your $500 check in your hand. I admire all the people who spent an inordinate amount of time in, come out and create their lives anew! That’s not an easy thing to do….
Amen and Hallelujah Brother!
There was a time when I was in deep ethics trouble and since the COS didn’t want me until I gave them money, I checked out a Christian based church. The experience was fantastic. Those folks were nice and understanding and actually helped people for FREE without expecting anything in return. Scientology looked positively evil by comparison. Still does.
Powerful comment JustLook. Borrowing from Seinfeld, Miscavige’s yearly message to the poor as “pope” of scientology is “no soup kitchen for you!”
My favorite regraded being post so far.
Compassion and empathy are not necessarily easy — it’s being confirmed by science that those two emotions are causes for:
1) a longer life
2) less aging
3) overall well being
4) more capacity to deal with the stresses and strife OF LIFE — every life has up and downs without making a
person a pariah —
5) increased compassion and empathy will enable those who left to ACTUALLY LEAVE – in other words
to be able to see their own skewered thinking caused by years of indoctrination in a dangerous cult
Neuroscience is advancing by leaps and bounds. It’s a growing changing science.
And religions which grow with the times and cultures — survive.
Those that don’t — well, thankfully they die out. Eventually.
Happy New Year to all —
Love,
Windhorse
Yes, it’s remarkable how tolerant and compassionate one becomes when you ease off on resisting change.
The granting of beingness is something even science is beginning to realise has a senior place in their calculations. You just can’t keep telling an atom how to behave.
Love it and you’ll soon understand it.
Thumbs up, Windhorse.
I enjoy your posts.
Interestingly, WH, even Biology is changing and growing rapidly. Just finished the updated version of Bruce Lipton’s “The Biology of Belief”, a huge jump in just 10 short years for any science. Very exciting stuff which bodes well for humankind, thus for all of Life as we know it. What an incredible time to be alive.
“Hold on Frank. We’re not trying to get her to leave her former religion. [Blah blah blah, in direct contradiction of the preceding statement.]”
How wondrous is Scientology training and processing. Note here that it is quite normal for the adherent to hear wildly incompatible utterances from a bloodsucking ghoul in a position of authority, and utter not a murmur of protest. Note how this particular subject, right up until the breaking point depicted here, was able to practice this cognitive dissonance without pause. We can only be gladdened, that when push came to shove, he was able to notice that Scientology, through further processing, was attempting to obliterate his conscience.
Yeah, right! There’s only one true religion! The rests are implants! I thought this was common knowledge.
I didn’t know that knowledge was common?? I paid for exclusivity… geezers, I want my money back!
As if you don’t know about the NO REFUND policy! I have common knowledge as I am a common person…
That must be the downward spiral then? We all end up ‘common folk.’
Scientology, where the end product is forgotten by the time you get there. I think they have taken this static, no location in time and space thing just a bit far.
And…common folk are good folk.
Happy New Year, RB and Mike! Thanks for all that you do!
May the other 24,998 sheeple be blessed with the same cognition. Happy New Year, Mike. I look forward to the day you shut down this blog because there is no scientology about which to talk.
Then after the party at OSD’s, all here can come to the party at my house. We’ll have two big bashes – bicoastal.
Happy New Year, Mike. Thank you for all your work and for your correspondents (RB!) contributions to this blog.
What a way to start the New Year RB. Ty
Oh, this one is SO good! So very SPOT ON!! Yay, RB!!! A great way to begin 2016 and the further decline of the non religious c of s.
Empathy and compassion and serving others have been scientifically proving to bring happiness to the one who practices such things. Jesus put it this way, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Well put, Teri Looney!
I will go further and state that Christianity needs the tech of spiritual healing, which is auditing and scientology needs the tech of Jesus.
If you glean the best of both worlds, you will get the closest thing to a perfect religion: Christian Scientology.
Dio
That is the wrong way to go .. at first has christianity in itself auditing and technology, only it did not work as well as intended .. it was to easy to corrupt the way .. as like as scientology could be corrupted .. but easier .. means cristianity stays 2.000 years .. scientology only 50 .. cristianity will hold forever, because it includes a basic wish of all .. auditing and tech is a short term game .. as like as RB gave it today to us ..
Dio, I’m not suggesting there is anything intrinsically faulty with the “tech of spiritual healing” but we do see alarming deficits in those who have received repeated applications of it.
Not to be a downer here, but an acquaintance in LA finally got onto the New OT VII (GAT and all that jazz.) She audited on it and contracted cancer. The CS told her to use the normal status quo medical methods of handling it such as chemo and radiation. She was married to a well known chiropractor in LA, one who seemed to be into alternative methods as was she. But since she was on OT VII, Flag thought they owned her and could tell her how to treat her cancer. Like a good little Sheeple, she did what she was told. And her husband, the chio, bragged to friends how Kaiser insurance gave her all of it for free or for very little money and they were saving so much money. Long story short, she died pretty quickly using the “regular methods” that Flag told her to use. And he saved a lot of money and lost his wife. It seems like between the squirrelled OT VII tech and the didactic approach to her healing methods, she didn’t stand a chance.
Oh, that’s just awful. Another Cof$ consequence. So sad…
Cindy, I do believe you’re suggesting there is a causative link between your friend’s cancer and her doing “squirreled” OTVII simply because they were sequential events. In some circles you would be derided for saying such a thing. In fact, that is a logical fallacy called, “false causation”.
As an RN I can attest to a significant success rate with chemo/radiation. Although I wouldn’t choose it for myself, one is far from ill-advised to go that route.
Roger Hornaday, I’m not saying one is better than the other (i.e., “natural alternative” methods versus “traditional” methods to beat cancer ) I’m just saying that the church told her in no uncertain terms which way to go to treat her cancer. I think that it is the person’s choice whichever way they go and that the person himself/herself should have been able to choose what to do and not been dictated to as to what they could and couldn’t do. I have also read on the blogs that there is a much larger number of cancer amongst Scn’s OTs than in the regular population, which seems to suggest that something in the way the “new and improved” OT Levels are run may be causing the higher rate of illness among that population.
I agree with you. There needs to be a merger of Scientology and Christianity. Unless you happen to be a 1.1 who feels that Christ would squirrel the tech and then true freedom would come.
Davy Boy reading Teri Looney post!
“It’s more blessed to give than to receive??? What a DB! Everybody knows that getting money from people for the greatest good is the MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD! Sure we have a couple of billion stashed away, but, YOU CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH MONEY FROM PEOPLE. You can write that down in big letters. We’re not a bunch of pansies here! We’re saving the damn world. And saving the damn world takes money! A shit load of money, understand? We’re under attack so, of course, we have to attack every single person who’s ever criticized us! Now! Starting with that CSMF, Alex Gibney! What a down stat he is! The people that post here are clueless! They wouldn’t know 3 swings if it was staring at them! Fuck! Do have to do everything by myself??? Empathy and compassion and serving othesr, MY ASS! Crap, where’s my bottle of Scotch?
It looks very right to me what you have said ..
Laughter!
In that vein… Thanks for always giving great food for thought RB!