After reading this latest installment of RB’s insight and wit, my first thought was of Paul Haggis’ comment about his having been in a cult for 30 years without knowing it. I’m seeing that this is what occurred to me also. Then the old metaphor of boiling a frog beginning with very tepid water and slowly, ever so slowly, increasing the heat came to mind and I’m seeing that this is precisely how I became a cult person. There were so many gradients that I barely realized how I was losing my power of choice and becoming owned, but so gradually that I didn’t perceive it. But the thing with me – and I’d say this is true for everyone here – the thing was, the water got hot enough for me to say, “Lemme outta here!” So this frog jumped out of the pot before I got really cooked.
Mike, RB, all of you reading, posting and lurking, thanks so much. Its great to be able to come here and read and learn, vent, and sometimes rant 🙂
I have to admit to having a bit of a gambling addiction….and so I was perusing the Vegas oddsmakers and right there in black and white they are actually taking bets on whether the midget will last out the year. Any UTR info would be appreciated.
Harvey, I wish I could honestly say I believe that the Midget will not last the year, but I don’t. I believe he’ll last for the rest of his life while at the same time the flock of actual practicing Sheeple dwindles regularly. Because of his enormous wealth and the leverage he holds over the lives of Scientologists I believe he’ll continue in power unchallenged unless an event of some sort, something “unprecedented” occurs, which takes him down. The Church of Scientology is for all practical purposes dead, except the parishioners are so stubborn and stupid and brainwashed they think the opposite, that its burgeoning and expanding. Something will have to occur in the lives of each of them to make them LOOK. Once they look, its over, they’re out of there, or well on their way out of there. But getting these culties to look – whoa! That’s a huge accomplishment. I think they’ll each have to personally experience something that will make them look. I don’t think it can come from the outside because they’re so brainwashed any data from the outside is automatically distrusted and rejected. They don’t even have to look at it to know that its unworthy and untrue. All they need to know is that it doesn’t come from their trusted source. Very sad, actually, how they’ve actually imprisoned themselves. Miscavige hasn’t imprisoned them, they do it to themselves.
I could edit this, and make it a lot more readable, but I thought I’d just leave the train of thought first draft, so you can see that.
Ultimately and really, everyone imprisons themselves. People have published books and gone on lecture tours on the general subject of Positive Thinking (seeing opportunity, being constructive, etc.). The R6 Bank sits there (dichotomies) and pushes back. So auditing looks for the reasons underpinning that. [“What is ‘that’?”, is a big question with many-sided answers, e.g. Scn rudiments.] If the decision TO BE is forever, then does it follow that the notion and practicality of “WE” also is forever?
Maybe you (or someone) can explain the part other than oneself alone. Others do exist. I honestly get confused on this. Practically, I ignore it in everyday life. I can meet my responsibilities, with the annoying limitations that bodies begin a decay after about the age of 24-28, and get what we call “old”. Backs curve, hair goes white, skin wrinkles, healing slows, and eventually, the biological system fails. We call it “death” and take it for granted, or for inevitable, but I’m not sure anyone really understands why cells don’t reproduce with the same energy and strength (or even more, gaining from experience). Other civilizations had non-decaying bodies (hundreds of years at least), but those can be blown up in wars. Wars, one of thetakind’s perennial “fun things to do.”
And in a broader sense, isn’t decay of the being an analogy of decay of a body? A body’s cells break down eventually, but in a being, it is “morality” which breaks down. And doesn’t that impact and influence others, so that eventually you get a deterioration of what Scn calls a Fourth Dynamic, or perhaps even the Seventh Dynamic, and perhaps even belief in God, and belief in oneself? So that “organism” of thetakind begins to deteriorate. The thought of it all – the considerations, the perceptions and the freshness and joy and aspirations – grows “senile”. And Rod Serling made a Twilight Zone movie about an old folks home and old folks turning into kids again. Would that it were that easy, to just “believe” and have it happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzEP_kGY-Rk
What I’m confused about is whether each of exists as “a single being under God”, as it were, destined to go alone, or whether each of us exists as part of “thetakind under God”, as it were, somehow inextricably in contact and “linked” in some manner. For example: if the decision TO BE is forever, then does it follow that the notion and practicality of “WE” also is forever? Is it just O/W and M/W/H that would make me question this? Or is it above that and into the questions of assuming responsibility as an individual? As opposed to mere agreements?
A being gets so wrapped up in being a body …. The solution for the Co$ people and for the “non-believers” is simply body death. That will occur (based on all prior evidence). So the beings will “escape” their self-imposed “Prison of Reality of Body” that way, eventually. But the thing is a being doesn’t want to. Doesn’t want to “die”. I tried posting about how a being spends most of his time and energy taking care of a body in this “game” we have going with bodies, and nobody reading cared to make a comment one way or the other, which tells me there is very broad unreality on the fact that an immortal being is in fact enslaved to this game of bodies.
The rest of Eternity is a long time, by my reckoning. But even there, you have a being thinking in terms of time and of agreements. the “WE” of it all.
My solution so far is to look at the EP of original OT VII as an ability to move into and out of any reality at will. But … one must find one’s own solution to “Where do I/we go from here?” Scn takes you there, but it doesn’t tell you what to do. That would be Ethics, and Scn didn’t mess with that, didn’t mess with a being’s self-determinism. Scns apparently wish it did, and make up things to the effect that it does. But the fact is, it doesn’t. And there is the prison (or freedom) made by oneself.
So … we live in a Twilight Zone. There’s God. There’s Creation. There’s individuals. There’s “we”. And the only parts we have explained after a long, long time and billions of man-hours thinking about it, is what a being is, and how it works or functions. We are at a train stop in a town called “Creation,” and we can make what we want of it. Kick the can, or pass the buck. And should one or some of us decide to catch the next train, what lies up ahead? Another sign post reading “Creation”? I think that is individual, no longer “we”. One can influence another, communicate with another, but it is up to the other to create that communication and receive it. More than that, it is up to the individual to create a communication to begin with, to have a thought to communicate. And that is clearly individual.
Concerning your thoughts and interesting questions, I’ll share what came to my mind. Now, I’m not OT and fairly low on the Bridge so this may well not be satisfactory for you, but its the best I’ve got.
When I did KTL I had a 2-part win that as thetans, immortal beings, each of us innately had all the power that could be needed and wanted to be, do or have anything. Each of us could decide what we wanted to be as individuals. Each of us natively had the power to be each other, groups, etc. Each of us could also change anything and/or disappear anything and then create it or them again. And last but not least, each of us has always lived and would always live, in bodies, or without bodies. Immortality has no end, and as such, its has no beginning. Just another way of saying “infinity”. This was part 1 of this win.
Now, experiencing this, you’d think I would have felt wonderful, gloriously uplifted, etc. But what I experienced was alarm! My first reaction was a protest: “No! How boring! An eternity of this would be AWFUL! I wouldn’t want everything to be so EASY – for ETERNITY…Why, I’d go out of my mind!”
And, with these thoughts came part 2 of the win, that, if I knew I had all this power, all this perfection, if really knew that I knew everything and was actually proving it to myself and others and watching others prove that they also knew everything and also had total power and perfection the boredom would be exscrutiating and I’d have to do something, somehow, if only pretend, that I didn’t know everything, couldn’t as is everything, create anything whenever I wanted…you get the idea. I’d have to create some disabilities in myself and/or others, just to make things interesting.
So, part 2 was that I create games, we each of us create games which have as their component parts knowingness and unknowingness, freedoms and barriers, abilities and disabilities, goals and purposes, and this is what living life is.
I think that as thetans there is “I” and there is “we” depending upon the viewpoint looked from at any given time. I do believe we can be the dynamics and that its a matter of decision. It makes sense to me, but its way easier said than done. Having bodies can make it extremely difficult to be others because obviously one body is not another body and they’re separate, and if pain and emotions make you forget that you’re not this body, you just have it, then it can be and frequently is very confusing.
Well, I suspect I’ve gone far afield and at this point have no idea if this even pertains, let alone answers what you have shared, so I’d better stopI 🙂
Spot on. A Class VIII mentioned to me, or told me, years ago that Scn was not set up to handle OT’s who rolled in. Take it or leave it, but I think his point was that you can have some guy who’s more aware, who will not get run on processes that are designed for (let’s call them) “near-OT’s”. And their auditors may not be able to handle the level of awareness to make the PC (pre-OT) feel understood, or keep up with them. The books like Advanced Procedures and Axioms, and Creation of Human Ability, plus the Scn 0-8 through 8-8008 had approaches that are not, to my knowledge, run on new PC’s. I thought what you posted was exactly sequitur to what I said, even as disorganized as mine was.
I found that admin scales are really the be-do-have of life, and integrate or relate (either way) one person’s many activities with other people’s many activities. I still say those are the most powerful collection of a dozen words or so in any language. The scale is the logic of any activity, and honest, I’m not sure LRH realized what he had, when he slapped it together, how far-reaching it is. One person I intro’d to them finally got back to me when I asked, and said words to the effect that what was on an admin scale was what she did naturally every day. So I just said, good! – that was the point I was making, and that with admin scales you can look at it all and maybe organize better, spot illogics in one’s games, understand others games better, and have more fun.
(My internet was down, so sorry for the delay posting back.)
Thanks for your reply Aquamarine. So you’re obviously going with the over…..me, I think I’ll take the under, but what do I know I’m just an inveterate gambler.
Maybe it’s just me, but I view ‘Alan’ as being he only one not carrying a lot of BPC into the conversation. Factual criticism flies without all of the emotional baggage. Only he had the positive approach…….. let’s all go for a coffee/beer/wine/shot/whatever. Use what you gained from your time in and move on.
Hold on everybody! We might have just rushed to judgement. I just read on Globalnewswire that The Church of $cientology is celebrating WORLD ORPHAN DAY. Or maybe now that I come to think about it maybe they’re celebrating how many orphans they’ve actually MADE. I’ll get to the bottom of this and let you know.
Looking forward to it. The one that burns the most for me is their “disaster relief” staged photos. “OK kid we’re done with ya, scram…oh and hand over the yellow shirt. NEXT!”
It’s so true, no matter how you stand on The Tech, everyone agrees that lil davey the savage is a sadistic and vengeful sociopath who needs to go down!
Yet, as cowed and craven as those on the inside still are, it could be decades before any kind of internal revolt against Dear Leader is sparked. But putting him and his evil minions under extreme pressure from the outside, by focusing in on the evil of the cherch’s policy of enforced disconnection and the harm that it’s caused countless families, may very well be the most effective means of catalyzing that needed reform much sooner.
Sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant and it has already worked to drive change from the outside in a number of different ways. When a series of escaping members told their first-person accounts of either being subjected to felony physical assault by lil davey the savage or of having directly witnessing those crimes, he either discontinued that physical abuse of staff or now does so much more secretively. Similarly, after numerous credible accounts of the false imprisonment and physical abuse/neglect of top $cn execs in The Hole became public knowledge, it was shut down as well. Further, multiple credible allegations of coerced abortions appears to have led the cherch to modify its behavior toward pregnant Sea Org staff members as well. Going back even further, the well-documented abuse and neglect of infants and children within the Sea Org’s daycare and cadet orgs led directly to cherch’s decision to ban Sea Org staff from having children or bringing them up if they they were already parents when they joined.
So, there’s very good reason to believe that by raising public awareness of the truly heinous policy of coerced disconnection that something can indeed be done about it. The reason that the policy of disconnection continues to be rigidly enforced and ex-members declared suppressive for the most trivial of infractions is that lil davey + evil minions very correctly intuit that their reign of terror is quite likely to end when enough folks, both inside and outside the cherch, can freely discuss the many atrocities and massive human rights abuses that have taken place for decades under their malign leadership.
It’s a lose-lose situation for lil davey and those in thrall to him: Either continue to ineffectively deny and cover up what many folks already know, and many more are soon to learn when Leah’s series premiers, and thereby highlight the cherch’s unwillingness to reform itself; or cancel the policy of disconnection and allow folks on the inside to hear the real truth about what their cherch actually stands for and the many crimes it has perpetrated for decades.
Tick tock, lil davey, time is running out. Many thanks to RB for doing his/her part in seeing that it grows shorter and shorter all the time!
“Each episode follows Remini and Mike Rinder, a former international spokesperson for Scientology, as they meet with ex-officials and other insiders who accuse the Church of harmful practices and explain why they left.”
That’s the first that I heard that Mike is going to be featured along with Leah in each episode of the 8-part docuseries…outstanding!
Interestingly, one of the two producing partners for the series, Eli Holzman, had this to say about $cn’s response to the project:
“We’ve endeavored to be responsive to and work with the Church as best we could,” says Holzman. “The Church has taken an interest in this show and has made its presence felt and its opinion known. There are times that our people have been followed. There are times when, inexplicably, the Church became aware of things that we were planning to film. We have no idea how they could’ve possibly learned them. We’ve tried to conduct ourselves in a completely above-board, transparent manner.
“Thus far, we’re not aware of the Church doing anything that we have a problem with,” he adds. “Every step we take with an abundance of caution and we are in constant dialogue with the Church.”
Umm, I don;t know about you, but I think that everyone SHOULD have a problem with this killer cult following folks around and, apparently, obtaining private information concerning the details of what they were going to film. This is exactly the kind of creepy, veiled threat crap that the cherch has become infamous for and it needs to be exposed and highlighted every time that it occurs.
The two producers interviewed for the story either are not sufficiently aware of how dangerous the cult can be, or they’re doing their best to portray themselves as being naive and unbiased towards it. While I can appreciate that as a preemptive move on their parts to avoid the possibility of being sued by the cherch, it’s never a good idea to show weakness or an “open-minded” attitude toward this truly sociopathic group. Hopefully, they will not have pulled any punches in telling it like it truly is, because when it comes to $cn, it’s ALWAYS worse than you thought!
Yes, Leah and I did all the interviews for the show together. I hope everyone feels it lives up to their expectations — which may be impossible… 🙂
As for the statements from Eli – I think this evidences the opposite of weakness. The church has done everything they usually do. Follow us. Send wheelbarrow loads of letters and demands. They knew this is what would happen, saying they don’t have a problem with what the church has done effectively renders their intimidation/harassment efforts as meaningless.
I took his quote to mean that he didn’t view the cherch’s behavior as being morally objectionable or ethically wrong. It’s one thing to say, “take your best shot, ya evil fuck weasels,” but quite another to normalize it as acceptable behavior. But I’ll go with your interpretation there.
Personally speaking, I’m just glad that an in depth look into how the cherch’s policies and actions have harmed individuals and families is being presented to a wider television audience and to many who might not otherwise be aware of the truly evil nature of the cherch’s present leadership and the actions taken by it under his control.
I think that after you’ve heard the 257th horror story of the cherch’s systematic abuse and endemic corruption that you’re still just as disgusted as ever, but no longer shocked to hear the next story. So, for folks who have not been anywhere near as tuned in as we have over the years, some of this stuff will be truly shocking and hard to believe could have been allowed to continue without someone going to jail and the cherch’s power structure being fundamentally reformed, which is exactly the RIGHT kind of response to have!
Good post, Harpoona! Here is infor on Leah Remini’s upcoming series on Disconnection: “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” on A&E: Nov. 29 at 10 p.m. But check the time for your local stations. I am not sure what time zone that time is for.
Gee… hadn’t quite thought of that before.
“The Factors of Apostatism.”
Before the beginning was Scientology…
The first act of apostatism was to assume freedom was not was it was said to be,
The second was a desire to unfracture your family and regain your sanity towards life.
The third act was to embrace the internet.
The fourth was to utter a disagreement, no matter the consequences & to hell with them!
Then there were arguments, but the arguments were good…
From my view of never being in, after reading about the horrors (like today’s story on Tony’s blog) of CoS and finally leaving the cult, one pretty much has to deal with the shell-shockedness of it all.
I see Regraded Being’s point, but I would also think that just being out of this evil organization would unite ex-members more than anything. I find ex-scientologists to be most supporting.
Welcome to the real world where we can all disagree or agree as we choose. Nothing wrong with that. In fact it is lots better than the totalitarian system that is Scientology.
Brilliant , RB!
One day I was taking a walk and see a lady who lives close by walking straight towards me. She is stll a scientologist. I waved at her with a big smile , she couldn’t avoid me , had to stop. I engaged her in conversation as if nothing special was going on , as if I was not a declared sp , as if it meant nothing. She didn’t know what to do but after a few minutes of smiles and casual talk , I could tell that she forgot about the sp business and gave me news of her kid and it became a nice exchange.
The hug I gave her at the end was not totally well received but overall it was pretty ” normal”.
I wanted her to feel that the sp label means nothing to me and life goes on rather well.
And that is the simplicity of it.
Very good approach, Marie Guerin. 🙂 I hope you can continue talking with her and maintain a friendship. At the very least it looks like you made a little dent in her ‘SP-armour’ and helped her to see that people are people, no matter what label you stick on them.
or in Hubbard dogma, good roads and fair weather handling is what defuses SP family.
(And later I realized good roads/fair weather talk is really “do unto others, as you want them to do to you” which is ancient common sense; I’d first thought that “using the tech, and it would protect you” applies also to using good roads/fair weather on them who considered me SP and it would work to overcome their mentality.)
When I went to an anti cult conference in Hamburg in 2007, I tried chum it up with OSA people outside, they were nice back to me in conversation:
Disagreement is for cowards. I prefer destroying those that disagree. Their families and kids etc.
This way there is no more disagreement, and all is back to normal; very simple.
In fact, to really be free from annoying disagreement, creating a black ops Intel army of willing hounds is the way to go.
First though, I have to do a few things:
1) convince my students that I have found the only way to be free
2) teach them that by not destroying those “evil disagree people” you are helping them destroy this sector of the universe thus making you evil as well.
3) redefine our innate sense of conscience as being “reasonable” and “open minded” thus making it easier for “willing hounds” to destroy utterly the SP free thinker stinkers.
Then and only then will we be safe from SP logic and reason.
Hip hip!!! Hooray!!! THE PLANET IS OURS!!!!!!! YEEEAAAYYY……… We get to take over and own the planet!!!!! YEEEEAAAY!!!! My own planet!!!!
Many years ago I encountered this really terrific church. The people there were really nice. I made lots of wonderfull friends.
They had some creed about all men having inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write on the opinions of others.
Does anyone know what I’m talking about or was I just dreaming?
1976:Mood was good .2016: North Korea type mood.
1976:Famous people were joining.2016.Most famous people already left.Nobody joining.
Auditors were made.More were made in a week then than now in a year.
Prices were affordable.Prices increased by about 500% plus statuses and endless sec checks.
Caring auditors, reasonable results..Steely eyed GAT 2 detectives i mean auditors produce,produce eh.well they produce,well I don’t know do you?
We believed bad people were trying to stop our good work .2016.We now understand that good people are trying to stop our bad work,disconnection,abortions,ripoffs,gulag camps, exorcising half a million space cooties at between $400.000- $500,000.
We believed there would be ot with magic powers some day.2016.we have met the ot’s and seen that the EP of spending $400.000 to chase of space cooties is broke,old and disconnected from your family.
Missions opening every where.2016:Missions closing everywhere.At leat 150 missions closed that I can think of.
ISIS recruits children to blow themselves up in Mosul or Aleppo and secure their eternity.
The SO only asks children in la and clearwater to disconnect from us to secure their eternity..
Taking out scientology is like taking Isis in Mosul.Do it block by block and watch the suicide bombers eh goonsquads I mean psych busters ,never mind.
Let’s take a whole city section of Mosul:Here you go Leah!Can’t wait.
That’s an excellent “then vs. now” comparison! I’m sure glad that I escaped the cult in the late 70’s while I was still a young adult and went on to complete my education and have a full career. It would be a living hell to have wasted my life on a cruel and uncaring cult and be left with no assets, no marketable job skills and a family that I no longer had any connection to.
I think I heard of that group. They had some happy book that said you must honor and care for your parents (and also to brush your teeth). I think they had a problem though with many of the children not speaking to their parents for decades or something….Some disconnection thingy. Many of them did have nice teeth though.
I don’t think you were dreaming you were merely making assumptions based on good faith, those creeds would be upheld in FACT and not just in THEORY. I myself recall a church where people were smart and friendly. The ambiance was positive and there was distain for pessimistic, defeatist attitudes toward life.
A strong self-congratulatory attitude prevailed. In fact, that self-congratulatory attitude was the definitive characteristic of that group. “Hooray for us!” “We are the best!” “Everybody else is uninformed stupid or evil!”
In retrospect we can see with perfect 20/20 how the contradiction between the egalitarian creed and the narcissistic self-concept would form a noxious gas which spoiled our little Camelot. Those two opposing forces created it and they also brought it down in time.
RB, you excel at reflecting the hear and now of being in and being out. A sense of humor is vital to growth and you supply the vehicle for laughing at ourselves. Keep of the great work.
RB – Thank you. This entry was particularly refreshing. Sometimes I read this blog or talk to ex-Scientologists and am stunned by how right they STILL must be – just as when they were gung-ho members, but now on the “opposite side;” how important it is to them that others MUST agree with their own resulting viewpoint from their experiences in the church.
You are truly brilliant in poking fun at all of us, thereby inciting increased awareness and realizations that each person’s viewpoint is valid – Thanks Mike, for giving RB the platform in which to do so.
I agree. I see labels being applied to the people that are no longer part of the church with a big brush stroke. The truth of the matter is as you say WWAW, we all have our own individual stories and our reasons for being out.
Yeah, but if you’re in the States and you’re not in, like, Michigan, you can’t get Timmy’s easily. Starbucks, meanwhile, is in every damn airport in the US, and since that’s where I spend a lot of my time, it’s a go-to. Besides, their caramel brulee latte is damn good.
Starbucks is even in Aussie. Timmy’s? – who or what is that… a tennis racket?
That fermented coffee bean Starbucks sell every now and again is real nice.
A world without coffee is a world without a morning. Starbucks provides a good service for all coffee junkies. There’e plenty of room for many roasting players, such is the demand.
Regraded being…this one really struck a nerve. Thanks for your ongoing contribution to the dismantling of the midget and his evil empire.
What is happening in your strip today is happening more and more throughout the world. I will bet the standing order Number One to the midget’s lawyers right now is: Just keep me out of jail and my swiss bank accounts intact. Go ahead keep your billions midget….JUST GO AWAY.
Yes midget – you go away.
Of course, there’s those that hunted the Nazi’s until all their enemies died of old age, generally inside a jail cell, and that’s not even mentioning those had really nasty shaving accidents and were never seen or heard of again. There’s those that consider there is no other other game worth playing and just love the hunt. What a bitch such types exist hey?
Your safety is your only concern – splurge on it, the game just gets hotter and hotter with the passing of each day. It’s beyond your criminality now, even your contacts whomever or whoever they might be in the general sphere of such monetary influence have their issues with you too now, such is the trail corruption leaves behind. Their growing anxiety compounds with each passing day too. Trust no one, the walls are closing in on you.
Bring it on Leah, the pots a boiling!
What’s that thing in the mirror then? In mine there’s some really old gesyer that just stares back me like he’s sayin, “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen, would you? You thick as a brick numskull!”
After reading this latest installment of RB’s insight and wit, my first thought was of Paul Haggis’ comment about his having been in a cult for 30 years without knowing it. I’m seeing that this is what occurred to me also. Then the old metaphor of boiling a frog beginning with very tepid water and slowly, ever so slowly, increasing the heat came to mind and I’m seeing that this is precisely how I became a cult person. There were so many gradients that I barely realized how I was losing my power of choice and becoming owned, but so gradually that I didn’t perceive it. But the thing with me – and I’d say this is true for everyone here – the thing was, the water got hot enough for me to say, “Lemme outta here!” So this frog jumped out of the pot before I got really cooked.
Mike, RB, all of you reading, posting and lurking, thanks so much. Its great to be able to come here and read and learn, vent, and sometimes rant 🙂
I have to admit to having a bit of a gambling addiction….and so I was perusing the Vegas oddsmakers and right there in black and white they are actually taking bets on whether the midget will last out the year. Any UTR info would be appreciated.
Harvey, I wish I could honestly say I believe that the Midget will not last the year, but I don’t. I believe he’ll last for the rest of his life while at the same time the flock of actual practicing Sheeple dwindles regularly. Because of his enormous wealth and the leverage he holds over the lives of Scientologists I believe he’ll continue in power unchallenged unless an event of some sort, something “unprecedented” occurs, which takes him down. The Church of Scientology is for all practical purposes dead, except the parishioners are so stubborn and stupid and brainwashed they think the opposite, that its burgeoning and expanding. Something will have to occur in the lives of each of them to make them LOOK. Once they look, its over, they’re out of there, or well on their way out of there. But getting these culties to look – whoa! That’s a huge accomplishment. I think they’ll each have to personally experience something that will make them look. I don’t think it can come from the outside because they’re so brainwashed any data from the outside is automatically distrusted and rejected. They don’t even have to look at it to know that its unworthy and untrue. All they need to know is that it doesn’t come from their trusted source. Very sad, actually, how they’ve actually imprisoned themselves. Miscavige hasn’t imprisoned them, they do it to themselves.
Aqua –
I could edit this, and make it a lot more readable, but I thought I’d just leave the train of thought first draft, so you can see that.
Ultimately and really, everyone imprisons themselves. People have published books and gone on lecture tours on the general subject of Positive Thinking (seeing opportunity, being constructive, etc.). The R6 Bank sits there (dichotomies) and pushes back. So auditing looks for the reasons underpinning that. [“What is ‘that’?”, is a big question with many-sided answers, e.g. Scn rudiments.] If the decision TO BE is forever, then does it follow that the notion and practicality of “WE” also is forever?
Maybe you (or someone) can explain the part other than oneself alone. Others do exist. I honestly get confused on this. Practically, I ignore it in everyday life. I can meet my responsibilities, with the annoying limitations that bodies begin a decay after about the age of 24-28, and get what we call “old”. Backs curve, hair goes white, skin wrinkles, healing slows, and eventually, the biological system fails. We call it “death” and take it for granted, or for inevitable, but I’m not sure anyone really understands why cells don’t reproduce with the same energy and strength (or even more, gaining from experience). Other civilizations had non-decaying bodies (hundreds of years at least), but those can be blown up in wars. Wars, one of thetakind’s perennial “fun things to do.”
And in a broader sense, isn’t decay of the being an analogy of decay of a body? A body’s cells break down eventually, but in a being, it is “morality” which breaks down. And doesn’t that impact and influence others, so that eventually you get a deterioration of what Scn calls a Fourth Dynamic, or perhaps even the Seventh Dynamic, and perhaps even belief in God, and belief in oneself? So that “organism” of thetakind begins to deteriorate. The thought of it all – the considerations, the perceptions and the freshness and joy and aspirations – grows “senile”. And Rod Serling made a Twilight Zone movie about an old folks home and old folks turning into kids again. Would that it were that easy, to just “believe” and have it happen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzEP_kGY-Rk
What I’m confused about is whether each of exists as “a single being under God”, as it were, destined to go alone, or whether each of us exists as part of “thetakind under God”, as it were, somehow inextricably in contact and “linked” in some manner. For example: if the decision TO BE is forever, then does it follow that the notion and practicality of “WE” also is forever? Is it just O/W and M/W/H that would make me question this? Or is it above that and into the questions of assuming responsibility as an individual? As opposed to mere agreements?
A being gets so wrapped up in being a body …. The solution for the Co$ people and for the “non-believers” is simply body death. That will occur (based on all prior evidence). So the beings will “escape” their self-imposed “Prison of Reality of Body” that way, eventually. But the thing is a being doesn’t want to. Doesn’t want to “die”. I tried posting about how a being spends most of his time and energy taking care of a body in this “game” we have going with bodies, and nobody reading cared to make a comment one way or the other, which tells me there is very broad unreality on the fact that an immortal being is in fact enslaved to this game of bodies.
The rest of Eternity is a long time, by my reckoning. But even there, you have a being thinking in terms of time and of agreements. the “WE” of it all.
My solution so far is to look at the EP of original OT VII as an ability to move into and out of any reality at will. But … one must find one’s own solution to “Where do I/we go from here?” Scn takes you there, but it doesn’t tell you what to do. That would be Ethics, and Scn didn’t mess with that, didn’t mess with a being’s self-determinism. Scns apparently wish it did, and make up things to the effect that it does. But the fact is, it doesn’t. And there is the prison (or freedom) made by oneself.
So … we live in a Twilight Zone. There’s God. There’s Creation. There’s individuals. There’s “we”. And the only parts we have explained after a long, long time and billions of man-hours thinking about it, is what a being is, and how it works or functions. We are at a train stop in a town called “Creation,” and we can make what we want of it. Kick the can, or pass the buck. And should one or some of us decide to catch the next train, what lies up ahead? Another sign post reading “Creation”? I think that is individual, no longer “we”. One can influence another, communicate with another, but it is up to the other to create that communication and receive it. More than that, it is up to the individual to create a communication to begin with, to have a thought to communicate. And that is clearly individual.
Random thoughts, left in a package at a station.
Hi Nickname,
Concerning your thoughts and interesting questions, I’ll share what came to my mind. Now, I’m not OT and fairly low on the Bridge so this may well not be satisfactory for you, but its the best I’ve got.
When I did KTL I had a 2-part win that as thetans, immortal beings, each of us innately had all the power that could be needed and wanted to be, do or have anything. Each of us could decide what we wanted to be as individuals. Each of us natively had the power to be each other, groups, etc. Each of us could also change anything and/or disappear anything and then create it or them again. And last but not least, each of us has always lived and would always live, in bodies, or without bodies. Immortality has no end, and as such, its has no beginning. Just another way of saying “infinity”. This was part 1 of this win.
Now, experiencing this, you’d think I would have felt wonderful, gloriously uplifted, etc. But what I experienced was alarm! My first reaction was a protest: “No! How boring! An eternity of this would be AWFUL! I wouldn’t want everything to be so EASY – for ETERNITY…Why, I’d go out of my mind!”
And, with these thoughts came part 2 of the win, that, if I knew I had all this power, all this perfection, if really knew that I knew everything and was actually proving it to myself and others and watching others prove that they also knew everything and also had total power and perfection the boredom would be exscrutiating and I’d have to do something, somehow, if only pretend, that I didn’t know everything, couldn’t as is everything, create anything whenever I wanted…you get the idea. I’d have to create some disabilities in myself and/or others, just to make things interesting.
So, part 2 was that I create games, we each of us create games which have as their component parts knowingness and unknowingness, freedoms and barriers, abilities and disabilities, goals and purposes, and this is what living life is.
I think that as thetans there is “I” and there is “we” depending upon the viewpoint looked from at any given time. I do believe we can be the dynamics and that its a matter of decision. It makes sense to me, but its way easier said than done. Having bodies can make it extremely difficult to be others because obviously one body is not another body and they’re separate, and if pain and emotions make you forget that you’re not this body, you just have it, then it can be and frequently is very confusing.
Well, I suspect I’ve gone far afield and at this point have no idea if this even pertains, let alone answers what you have shared, so I’d better stopI 🙂
Aqua –
Spot on. A Class VIII mentioned to me, or told me, years ago that Scn was not set up to handle OT’s who rolled in. Take it or leave it, but I think his point was that you can have some guy who’s more aware, who will not get run on processes that are designed for (let’s call them) “near-OT’s”. And their auditors may not be able to handle the level of awareness to make the PC (pre-OT) feel understood, or keep up with them. The books like Advanced Procedures and Axioms, and Creation of Human Ability, plus the Scn 0-8 through 8-8008 had approaches that are not, to my knowledge, run on new PC’s. I thought what you posted was exactly sequitur to what I said, even as disorganized as mine was.
I found that admin scales are really the be-do-have of life, and integrate or relate (either way) one person’s many activities with other people’s many activities. I still say those are the most powerful collection of a dozen words or so in any language. The scale is the logic of any activity, and honest, I’m not sure LRH realized what he had, when he slapped it together, how far-reaching it is. One person I intro’d to them finally got back to me when I asked, and said words to the effect that what was on an admin scale was what she did naturally every day. So I just said, good! – that was the point I was making, and that with admin scales you can look at it all and maybe organize better, spot illogics in one’s games, understand others games better, and have more fun.
(My internet was down, so sorry for the delay posting back.)
Thanks for your reply Aquamarine. So you’re obviously going with the over…..me, I think I’ll take the under, but what do I know I’m just an inveterate gambler.
Got it, Harvey. Well, since you’re going with “under”, you deserve high odds. Just know that this is a bet I would gladly lose.
Maybe it’s just me, but I view ‘Alan’ as being he only one not carrying a lot of BPC into the conversation. Factual criticism flies without all of the emotional baggage. Only he had the positive approach…….. let’s all go for a coffee/beer/wine/shot/whatever. Use what you gained from your time in and move on.
Hold on everybody! We might have just rushed to judgement. I just read on Globalnewswire that The Church of $cientology is celebrating WORLD ORPHAN DAY. Or maybe now that I come to think about it maybe they’re celebrating how many orphans they’ve actually MADE. I’ll get to the bottom of this and let you know.
I have a post coming about this. But there are a couple of others ahead of it. Oh, the hypocrisy.
It is impossible not to be a hypocrit while drinking the Kool Aid. That’s one of the many reasons we are all out from under the Miscloud.
Looking forward to it. The one that burns the most for me is their “disaster relief” staged photos. “OK kid we’re done with ya, scram…oh and hand over the yellow shirt. NEXT!”
It’s so true, no matter how you stand on The Tech, everyone agrees that lil davey the savage is a sadistic and vengeful sociopath who needs to go down!
Yet, as cowed and craven as those on the inside still are, it could be decades before any kind of internal revolt against Dear Leader is sparked. But putting him and his evil minions under extreme pressure from the outside, by focusing in on the evil of the cherch’s policy of enforced disconnection and the harm that it’s caused countless families, may very well be the most effective means of catalyzing that needed reform much sooner.
Sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant and it has already worked to drive change from the outside in a number of different ways. When a series of escaping members told their first-person accounts of either being subjected to felony physical assault by lil davey the savage or of having directly witnessing those crimes, he either discontinued that physical abuse of staff or now does so much more secretively. Similarly, after numerous credible accounts of the false imprisonment and physical abuse/neglect of top $cn execs in The Hole became public knowledge, it was shut down as well. Further, multiple credible allegations of coerced abortions appears to have led the cherch to modify its behavior toward pregnant Sea Org staff members as well. Going back even further, the well-documented abuse and neglect of infants and children within the Sea Org’s daycare and cadet orgs led directly to cherch’s decision to ban Sea Org staff from having children or bringing them up if they they were already parents when they joined.
So, there’s very good reason to believe that by raising public awareness of the truly heinous policy of coerced disconnection that something can indeed be done about it. The reason that the policy of disconnection continues to be rigidly enforced and ex-members declared suppressive for the most trivial of infractions is that lil davey + evil minions very correctly intuit that their reign of terror is quite likely to end when enough folks, both inside and outside the cherch, can freely discuss the many atrocities and massive human rights abuses that have taken place for decades under their malign leadership.
It’s a lose-lose situation for lil davey and those in thrall to him: Either continue to ineffectively deny and cover up what many folks already know, and many more are soon to learn when Leah’s series premiers, and thereby highlight the cherch’s unwillingness to reform itself; or cancel the policy of disconnection and allow folks on the inside to hear the real truth about what their cherch actually stands for and the many crimes it has perpetrated for decades.
Tick tock, lil davey, time is running out. Many thanks to RB for doing his/her part in seeing that it grows shorter and shorter all the time!
Speaking of disconnection and Leah Remini’s upcoming A&E series on that subject, check out this story http://realscreen.com/2016/11/18/holzman-saidman-tread-carefully-into-scientology-with-leah-remini/
“Each episode follows Remini and Mike Rinder, a former international spokesperson for Scientology, as they meet with ex-officials and other insiders who accuse the Church of harmful practices and explain why they left.”
That’s the first that I heard that Mike is going to be featured along with Leah in each episode of the 8-part docuseries…outstanding!
Interestingly, one of the two producing partners for the series, Eli Holzman, had this to say about $cn’s response to the project:
“We’ve endeavored to be responsive to and work with the Church as best we could,” says Holzman. “The Church has taken an interest in this show and has made its presence felt and its opinion known. There are times that our people have been followed. There are times when, inexplicably, the Church became aware of things that we were planning to film. We have no idea how they could’ve possibly learned them. We’ve tried to conduct ourselves in a completely above-board, transparent manner.
“Thus far, we’re not aware of the Church doing anything that we have a problem with,” he adds. “Every step we take with an abundance of caution and we are in constant dialogue with the Church.”
Umm, I don;t know about you, but I think that everyone SHOULD have a problem with this killer cult following folks around and, apparently, obtaining private information concerning the details of what they were going to film. This is exactly the kind of creepy, veiled threat crap that the cherch has become infamous for and it needs to be exposed and highlighted every time that it occurs.
The two producers interviewed for the story either are not sufficiently aware of how dangerous the cult can be, or they’re doing their best to portray themselves as being naive and unbiased towards it. While I can appreciate that as a preemptive move on their parts to avoid the possibility of being sued by the cherch, it’s never a good idea to show weakness or an “open-minded” attitude toward this truly sociopathic group. Hopefully, they will not have pulled any punches in telling it like it truly is, because when it comes to $cn, it’s ALWAYS worse than you thought!
Yes, Leah and I did all the interviews for the show together. I hope everyone feels it lives up to their expectations — which may be impossible… 🙂
As for the statements from Eli – I think this evidences the opposite of weakness. The church has done everything they usually do. Follow us. Send wheelbarrow loads of letters and demands. They knew this is what would happen, saying they don’t have a problem with what the church has done effectively renders their intimidation/harassment efforts as meaningless.
I took his quote to mean that he didn’t view the cherch’s behavior as being morally objectionable or ethically wrong. It’s one thing to say, “take your best shot, ya evil fuck weasels,” but quite another to normalize it as acceptable behavior. But I’ll go with your interpretation there.
Personally speaking, I’m just glad that an in depth look into how the cherch’s policies and actions have harmed individuals and families is being presented to a wider television audience and to many who might not otherwise be aware of the truly evil nature of the cherch’s present leadership and the actions taken by it under his control.
I think that after you’ve heard the 257th horror story of the cherch’s systematic abuse and endemic corruption that you’re still just as disgusted as ever, but no longer shocked to hear the next story. So, for folks who have not been anywhere near as tuned in as we have over the years, some of this stuff will be truly shocking and hard to believe could have been allowed to continue without someone going to jail and the cherch’s power structure being fundamentally reformed, which is exactly the RIGHT kind of response to have!
Hear hear!
Good post, Harpoona! Here is infor on Leah Remini’s upcoming series on Disconnection: “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” on A&E: Nov. 29 at 10 p.m. But check the time for your local stations. I am not sure what time zone that time is for.
Gee… hadn’t quite thought of that before.
“The Factors of Apostatism.”
Before the beginning was Scientology…
The first act of apostatism was to assume freedom was not was it was said to be,
The second was a desire to unfracture your family and regain your sanity towards life.
The third act was to embrace the internet.
The fourth was to utter a disagreement, no matter the consequences & to hell with them!
Then there were arguments, but the arguments were good…
Good one RB… you twist the other way.
The internet sees all & knows all. It’s everywhere. There’s nowhere to hide. The Clams don’t stand a chance.
From my view of never being in, after reading about the horrors (like today’s story on Tony’s blog) of CoS and finally leaving the cult, one pretty much has to deal with the shell-shockedness of it all.
I see Regraded Being’s point, but I would also think that just being out of this evil organization would unite ex-members more than anything. I find ex-scientologists to be most supporting.
Welcome to the real world where we can all disagree or agree as we choose. Nothing wrong with that. In fact it is lots better than the totalitarian system that is Scientology.
Nice. Thanks RB!
Brilliant , RB!
One day I was taking a walk and see a lady who lives close by walking straight towards me. She is stll a scientologist. I waved at her with a big smile , she couldn’t avoid me , had to stop. I engaged her in conversation as if nothing special was going on , as if I was not a declared sp , as if it meant nothing. She didn’t know what to do but after a few minutes of smiles and casual talk , I could tell that she forgot about the sp business and gave me news of her kid and it became a nice exchange.
The hug I gave her at the end was not totally well received but overall it was pretty ” normal”.
I wanted her to feel that the sp label means nothing to me and life goes on rather well.
And that is the simplicity of it.
Very good approach, Marie Guerin. 🙂 I hope you can continue talking with her and maintain a friendship. At the very least it looks like you made a little dent in her ‘SP-armour’ and helped her to see that people are people, no matter what label you stick on them.
The emotion part of human brains gets activated by sincere well meaning human interaction and that overrides rational (irrational training) thought.
or in Hubbard dogma, good roads and fair weather handling is what defuses SP family.
(And later I realized good roads/fair weather talk is really “do unto others, as you want them to do to you” which is ancient common sense; I’d first thought that “using the tech, and it would protect you” applies also to using good roads/fair weather on them who considered me SP and it would work to overcome their mentality.)
When I went to an anti cult conference in Hamburg in 2007, I tried chum it up with OSA people outside, they were nice back to me in conversation:
http://chuckbeatty77.webs.com/Two%20German%20DSAs,%20Hamburg,%20Apr%2007.jpg
http://chuckbeatty77.webs.com/German%20DSA%20Frank,%20Hamburg,%2007.jpg
Good one !
Thank you RB!
Big hello from LRHs Bulgravia.
I disagree with everybody, especially with anyone who says anything.
I disagree with your disagreement, so there!
You’re both wrong. 🙂
You’re right, FOTF! Because I’m the only one who’s right! And that settles it! Period! End of story. Nothing to see here. Move along…
Disagreement is for cowards. I prefer destroying those that disagree. Their families and kids etc.
This way there is no more disagreement, and all is back to normal; very simple.
In fact, to really be free from annoying disagreement, creating a black ops Intel army of willing hounds is the way to go.
First though, I have to do a few things:
1) convince my students that I have found the only way to be free
2) teach them that by not destroying those “evil disagree people” you are helping them destroy this sector of the universe thus making you evil as well.
3) redefine our innate sense of conscience as being “reasonable” and “open minded” thus making it easier for “willing hounds” to destroy utterly the SP free thinker stinkers.
Then and only then will we be safe from SP logic and reason.
Hip hip!!! Hooray!!! THE PLANET IS OURS!!!!!!! YEEEAAAYYY……… We get to take over and own the planet!!!!! YEEEEAAAY!!!! My own planet!!!!
Our group is so awesome! Thank you Ron
Wonderful post, RB! Give me a call sometime.
Many years ago I encountered this really terrific church. The people there were really nice. I made lots of wonderfull friends.
They had some creed about all men having inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write on the opinions of others.
Does anyone know what I’m talking about or was I just dreaming?
It was a dream that turned into a nightmare.
1976:Mood was good .2016: North Korea type mood.
1976:Famous people were joining.2016.Most famous people already left.Nobody joining.
Auditors were made.More were made in a week then than now in a year.
Prices were affordable.Prices increased by about 500% plus statuses and endless sec checks.
Caring auditors, reasonable results..Steely eyed GAT 2 detectives i mean auditors produce,produce eh.well they produce,well I don’t know do you?
We believed bad people were trying to stop our good work .2016.We now understand that good people are trying to stop our bad work,disconnection,abortions,ripoffs,gulag camps, exorcising half a million space cooties at between $400.000- $500,000.
We believed there would be ot with magic powers some day.2016.we have met the ot’s and seen that the EP of spending $400.000 to chase of space cooties is broke,old and disconnected from your family.
Missions opening every where.2016:Missions closing everywhere.At leat 150 missions closed that I can think of.
ISIS recruits children to blow themselves up in Mosul or Aleppo and secure their eternity.
The SO only asks children in la and clearwater to disconnect from us to secure their eternity..
Taking out scientology is like taking Isis in Mosul.Do it block by block and watch the suicide bombers eh goonsquads I mean psych busters ,never mind.
Let’s take a whole city section of Mosul:Here you go Leah!Can’t wait.
That’s an excellent “then vs. now” comparison! I’m sure glad that I escaped the cult in the late 70’s while I was still a young adult and went on to complete my education and have a full career. It would be a living hell to have wasted my life on a cruel and uncaring cult and be left with no assets, no marketable job skills and a family that I no longer had any connection to.
“It was a dream that turned into a nightmare.” And then it became slavery.
I think I heard of that group. They had some happy book that said you must honor and care for your parents (and also to brush your teeth). I think they had a problem though with many of the children not speaking to their parents for decades or something….Some disconnection thingy. Many of them did have nice teeth though.
I don’t think you were dreaming you were merely making assumptions based on good faith, those creeds would be upheld in FACT and not just in THEORY. I myself recall a church where people were smart and friendly. The ambiance was positive and there was distain for pessimistic, defeatist attitudes toward life.
A strong self-congratulatory attitude prevailed. In fact, that self-congratulatory attitude was the definitive characteristic of that group. “Hooray for us!” “We are the best!” “Everybody else is uninformed stupid or evil!”
In retrospect we can see with perfect 20/20 how the contradiction between the egalitarian creed and the narcissistic self-concept would form a noxious gas which spoiled our little Camelot. Those two opposing forces created it and they also brought it down in time.
RB, you excel at reflecting the hear and now of being in and being out. A sense of humor is vital to growth and you supply the vehicle for laughing at ourselves. Keep of the great work.
RB – Thank you. This entry was particularly refreshing. Sometimes I read this blog or talk to ex-Scientologists and am stunned by how right they STILL must be – just as when they were gung-ho members, but now on the “opposite side;” how important it is to them that others MUST agree with their own resulting viewpoint from their experiences in the church.
You are truly brilliant in poking fun at all of us, thereby inciting increased awareness and realizations that each person’s viewpoint is valid – Thanks Mike, for giving RB the platform in which to do so.
I agree. I see labels being applied to the people that are no longer part of the church with a big brush stroke. The truth of the matter is as you say WWAW, we all have our own individual stories and our reasons for being out.
This was excellent.
Free thinking with a dose of happiness, friendship, disagreement and bickering. True life.
Bravo RB.
Starbucks, and not Timmy’s?
/writes up Koffee Report…
Agreed. Starbucks sucks, Timmy’s is the real thing!
Yeah, but if you’re in the States and you’re not in, like, Michigan, you can’t get Timmy’s easily. Starbucks, meanwhile, is in every damn airport in the US, and since that’s where I spend a lot of my time, it’s a go-to. Besides, their caramel brulee latte is damn good.
Starbucks is ubiquitous. They know what you want before you order.
Starbucks is even in Aussie. Timmy’s? – who or what is that… a tennis racket?
That fermented coffee bean Starbucks sell every now and again is real nice.
A world without coffee is a world without a morning. Starbucks provides a good service for all coffee junkies. There’e plenty of room for many roasting players, such is the demand.
Alice went down the rabbit hole and ended up at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. This is just flagrant plagiarism. 🙂
FREE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREE THINKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
FREE THINKING HAPPY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!
YEEEAAAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RG! That was great!!
I think this video fits today’s RB perfectly.
https://youtu.be/rE3j_RHkqJc
His other videos are awesome too.
Oh boy!!!
Regraded being…this one really struck a nerve. Thanks for your ongoing contribution to the dismantling of the midget and his evil empire.
What is happening in your strip today is happening more and more throughout the world. I will bet the standing order Number One to the midget’s lawyers right now is: Just keep me out of jail and my swiss bank accounts intact. Go ahead keep your billions midget….JUST GO AWAY.
Tick Tock Davey boy.
Yes midget – you go away.
Of course, there’s those that hunted the Nazi’s until all their enemies died of old age, generally inside a jail cell, and that’s not even mentioning those had really nasty shaving accidents and were never seen or heard of again. There’s those that consider there is no other other game worth playing and just love the hunt. What a bitch such types exist hey?
Your safety is your only concern – splurge on it, the game just gets hotter and hotter with the passing of each day. It’s beyond your criminality now, even your contacts whomever or whoever they might be in the general sphere of such monetary influence have their issues with you too now, such is the trail corruption leaves behind. Their growing anxiety compounds with each passing day too. Trust no one, the walls are closing in on you.
Bring it on Leah, the pots a boiling!
the best thing about not being in scientology is NOT being a scientologist! Good realization.
OT VIII – realize you were just making it all up.
OT Whatever – realize it was all bullshit from the beginning and walk away free.
The only point on the Bridge that actually delivers what is promised. “Free, free, set them free” like it says in the Sting song.
Yrp Bruce, when I left I was truly free to be me.
I’ve been me for a long time. But, sometimes I become you…
What’s that thing in the mirror then? In mine there’s some really old gesyer that just stares back me like he’s sayin, “I tried to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen, would you? You thick as a brick numskull!”
You and me both, brother, you and me both. I tell my wife our mirrors are defective! That can’t possibly be my face!
Holy holy shot, Mike! You just blew my mind! And…it was FREE!!! As a Scotsman, I truly appreciate free.
OSD, a boyfriend of mine back in the day, a musician, had a favorite saying: “If its for free, its for me”. Is this your motto too?
Damn right it is!
🙂