As an aside I was wondering, what is the take on how LRH himself would have handled the infectious disease known as the Internet. DM has inherited (Manhandled into his possession) a cult in an age of increasing visibility, when it just became easier and easier to see all the nooks and crannies of an organization. Would LRH had had any better luck keeping the scars from showing, the celebs from leaving, the truth from getting out..?
JJ, I’ll take a stab at your question about handling the internet, since it’s an interesting topic.
My analysis, is that Hubbard continually evolved Dianetics and Scientology in the ways that turned out to give him the most control. Loyalists and apologists may argue that he had other motives as well, including saying that what was at the heart of the organizational control were attempts to maintain the purity and proper delivery of the “tech” so that it would work as it was supposed to, but regardless I think it is accurate to look at it in terms of control.
Hubbard’s first major experiment in control was the Sea Project that become the Sea Org, where he took dedicated followers on ships where there was near complete physical and information control, and almost no oversight by legal or civil authorities. The policies and organizational dynamics that developed there, including the RPF, then slowly spread into the rest of his organization when Hubbard and his followers came ashore.
My answer would be in response to the free flow of information on the internet Hubbard would have likely found ways to have more of his followers live in controlled situations, but I don’t see how he could have done more to control the general exposure of information on the internet. In Hubbard’s day, I think that many more of his then-young followers tended to live communally in residences full of Scientologists, though unofficially; to some extent this has been replace by the shift towards families of CofS members, who of course reside together.
So I think that what probably would have evolved would have been something along the lines of Scientology living communities based in the same building or complex as an “org,” and in LA and Clearwater likely even gated communities, all of which would have allowed for a variety of control mechanisms including hooking everyone up to a filtered internet feed. And once they had a base like that, they probably could have run their own filtered ISP (internet service provider) and required that any local members living independently subscribe to the internet through that service (including smartphones), doing pretty much the same thing that the Chinese have done with the “great firewall of China.”
Miscavige does not have the creativity that Hubbard did, nor the doctrinal flexibility that “source” had to evolve very different or even new organizational structures. That’s not to say the modern CofS hasn’t made some changes and even altered or abandoned some Hubbard policy and practices, but it is still very hampered in adapting – much less in actually evolving. What I think we do see happening as a largely unplanned adaptation in the face of decline, is that Scientologists are increasingly left concentrated in LA and Clearwater where there are self-policing “public” communities, and that an increasingly large percentage of the members left are those serving in the controlled environment of the Sea Org.
As to control, remember that in the late 1940s not long before he started Dianetics, Hubbard wrote in his “Affirmations” (which the CofS has conceded in court, were written by Hubbard) that “Men are your slaves.” I think that if one looks closely and honestly at the history that follows, it shows Hubbard evolving ways to exercise increasing control over members, and even some of his closest and most admiring old followers admit that was what happened though they may claim it was not calculated or intentional.
To finish answering the question, I think that Hubbard would have had only had limited success in reducing the amount of exposure and of information getting out, and it still would have been hard to control celebrities, though I can imagine Hubbard being more ruthless in trying to ensure that departing public figures kept any disaffection hidden. But I think he would have done more and been more effective in limiting the amount of information getting in, even to “public” members.
Thank you for the detailed answer to my query. I agree. Miscavige may have missed the boat on raising an indoctrinated sect. Going so anti second dynamic means he has to pull people in off the streets, and in the US and most of western Europe and wealthier parts of Asia the tech is always gonna show up the fable and the ponzi) that is CofS. If he hadn’t been so squeamish and anti social he could have had a cult like Manson or some of the newer scarier breeder cults, ended up with thirty or forty little Miscavige’s running around. An even sicker scenario yes, but ready made sycophants is a lot easier than having the average pleb on the street unlearn real life in favor of Scientology world…
You’re probably in bed Mike, plus you’re probably already aware of the editorial in Freedom. I nearly gagged when I saw the title and piddled when I read just the first few paragraphs. Oh boy….
The Feb. issue editorial deals with spying. By the government to be precise. I also have concerns about Big Brother; however the author (whose name I didn’t bother noting) was incensed that anyone should be spied upon. Everyone has the right to privacy. It’s a constitutional given, etc…
And the next article was just a laugh a minute. Religious freedom. Huh. How complicated it could be if not handled properly. It can be cumbersome at times. Where do you draw the line? Just thought you’d like to know, particularly about how objectionable scientologists find violation of our right to privacy.
Whoa, I just took a look and this is just the most obvious and absurd hypocrisy…talk about projection! “In this issue, we pursue the dual quests for openness in government and the rights of citizens to be safe from all forms of official and corporate spying.”….wow…no words.
Star, maybe they were all hiding for a surprise birthday party and they were all going to jump out…..oh who am kidding…..the Idle Morgues are empty. Real empty. The kind of emptiness that goes on forever.
It’s fascinating to me that if $cilons really were to do an honest Doubt Formula, per Elron’s explicit instructions, then they’d immediately run into trouble for free-ranging on the internet! This is the classic Catch-22 situation in which you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Elron’s supposedly universal – across all of time and space – Conditions of Existence hierarchy is complete made-up, pulled from out his arse crap, but as a commonsense approach to weighing the pros and cons concerning a situation that you’re uncertain about, the first part of the Doubt Formula makes obvious and logical sense.
Perhaps we should be challenging $cn’s most learned tech and business admin terminals (snort) to a series of debates focusing on the implementation and lack of proper implementation of Elron’s own very clear instructions on points such as this.
If one of the first steps in seeking to effectively resolve doubt is to inform yourself fully regarding every aspect of the matter, then having free and unfettered access to a full panorama of information is a necessary precondition of being able to do so, Yet, if the cherch interprets policy to mean that $cilons in good standing are forbidden from accessing the internet and other sources freely, then it has effectively prevented the Doubt Condition formula from being implemented even before the start. The fact that this blatantly obvious logical inconsistency can’t even be discussed openly among $cilon co-cultists demonstrates exactly how high a degree of control and demand that cherch members must conform to in order to continue to remain in good standing.
Personally speaking, my own exit from the cult was precipitated in part by doing a real Doubt formula about whether I wanted to remain on staff – working for pennies and depending on wog employment for my actual livelihood – or route out of my position as D of P at a class IV org. In the late 70’s, before the Mission Holder’s Massacre and well before $cn’s very own Moonchild, lil davey the savage took over control of the cherch, there wasn’t that much out there in the media about the cherch, so my grounds for doubt were more about personal financial survival than anything else. No one that I knew actually made a decent living out of being on staff, so I was definitely not alone in finding my way to the cult exit door.
Regraded Being, so good, as always. So funny how the audience is mostly empty chairs, only a very few people in attendance, and at the end only one guy is left, and it turns out it’s because he is related to the speaker and doesn’t want to disconnect, lol. It mirrors the situation inside these days. I love Regraded Being strips! Happy Friday to all. 🙂
I went to the San Diego Org OT committee. The few times I attended (kind of forced to attend), there were about 10 to 15 people in attendance. Remember that greater San Diego has a population of probably 3 1/2 million. But, they knew that the reason was that their org wasn’t Ideal yet and all of the other orgs were booming. What a joke!
T.J, I love RB on Friday too. And I have not forgotten I would send you a poem. Got to dig out my poet hat ! I am so thankful I do not have to drill on policy for poetry the next day! ?
That is really so funny. From a nutritional point of view, bad hair can be the end result of a deficiency in one’s diet of the essential amino acid L-Methionine. In the case of Scientologists this may still be true, with the addition of daily out-ethics, chronic MU’s, fake O/W write ups and conditions formulas! Maybe those Scientologists that fall into that category should first donate freely for no other reason than that they are out of their minds, $1 Million dollars to the church, and then go get some Super Power auditing, worth about $1,149.83. 🙂
Back when the dinky book: “Introduction to Scientology” came out in the 70’s(?) 20 or so of my friends all zeroed in on Hubbard’s Doubt formula. Shit, does the old man know what he is unleashing? If you apply #1 and #2 it remains hard to stay connected to the lame-ass orgs, even back then. #1 stated: Inform oneself honestly of the actual intentions and activities…. #2 stated: Examine the statistics……..
Iffin your head was on straight and you had at least one foot in the real world there was no way in hell you would want to join staff. Added to that was the evasion, even then, of the true stats. yeah, if it had not been for the tech delivery and the belief that Ron would continue to dig deeper in to the mental machinery, the places would have folded then and there.
As RB wrote: …our job is to bring in more money and nothing else. That is what it has truly become.
OT committees, what a genius way to get public $cilons to take on the work and responsibilities of actual staff members! Too bad their OaTy suppa powerz don’t seem up to the task and $cn is collapsing despite their all-powerful postulates to the contrary…hmmm, must be an SP lurking about, or maybe they all have crimes! Xenu only knows, it couldn’t be something wrong with the Holy Tech or Moonchild Miscavige’s leadership 😉
Lenny and Marge are non-$cieno characters. Anyone who actually had their blinders off enough to see the real world would have left Clamland long ago. Those still in are either doing so to stay connected to family or have such deep business ties to $cieno entities that they can’t leave either. How loyal such people are is being shown in the lack of new completions and the emptiness of The Fleecewinds and Stupor Powerz.
$cientology is now a wish fulfillment operation, selling ‘prosperity’ and “OT Powerz”. Real life may not intrude on that business plan.
Sounds like “clearing the planet” is working quite well.. The distorted haze that was once over the eyes of those who “blew” has been cleared away, in some cases is slowly being cleared away once members wake up & “smell the coffee” & stop drinking the Kool Aid to realize what’s really going on right under their nose.
I can’t imagine the pain and disappointment that caused the once loyalist, that they’ve for decades been duped into giving up their all for this???? Then to “Blow” and their only “thanks” for years of dedication is disconnection from family members all in the name of ??????
You are all so strong and you continue to amaze and inspire me.
“I think the right way to do this is to research everything negative that’s out there about Scientology and apply what we’ve learned from the Data Series to sort it all out. That should get us back on track and winning again.”
Oh yes, absolutely! I think that researching everything that’s available out there would definitely get most of them “back on track” and “winning again”……just not in the way they would envision.
And the way they are handling all of the “entheta” out there, such as the lame-ass and regurgitated smear sites, DM hiding from the media, using that “non-Scientologist Scientology expert” Yingling to speak on their behalf, those embarrassingly recycled and robotic “The Church disputes many of the statements made by [fill in the blank]” formulated statements, etc., just isn’t cutting it anymore to outside folks, whether a former Scientologist or a never-in.
They need to figure out some way to update their “PR handling” policies for the 21st Century…..of course, without acknowledging Hubbard’s infallibility. Maybe just blame the LRH transcribers again or something…..because their tactics are getting pretty pathetic and would be almost laughable at this point if it wasn’t for the emotional devastation they bring to people’s lives.
What causes Scientologists to question Scientology? Scientology. The behavior of other Scientologists. The actions taken by CoS to “address” their questions. Scientology’s own PR efforts. Scientology’s actions against detractors and former members.
In my research of Scn, I have always been struck by the phrase “being handled”. It comes up so often in the literature, promo materials and quotes from members. “Being handled” has no statement of mission, intent, methodology of action, desired results and no measurement of success or failure. The term ‘mad genius’ comes to mind.
Ha! Being in scientology, I never noticed that. What a great thought-stopper. It’s being handled – ahhhh, doesn’t knowing that make you feel so much better? Now where did I put my credit card?
I have never liked the term “being handled”, it’s really off-putting. Also some of the other terms, such as you are a “terminal” and you “duplicate” something and have a “case”. Having a ‘case’ makes me think of having a welfare case, or a court case. Or a case of smallpox, or other illness. It doesn’t invoke pleasant associations. Being called a ‘terminal’ makes me think of terminal as in ending, terminated, dead, or a terminal illness. The saying “I duplicate you” sounds to me like “I copy you” or I imitate you, rather than what they intend it to mean, which is, I think, “I understand you”. Why not just say “I understand you”? There are other words they use also which are confusing, and I always think, they stress communication so much, yet use words that confuse and hinder real communication, why? Maybe because they want to be a club or group that has it’s own special words and secret rituals, so only those people feel they a part of it, it’s part of trying to be inclusive, different, special. I don’t know. Random musings on this topic. Please don’t try to handle me. lol. :-p
Great point TJ. The latest phrase they use nowadays is “I’m tracking you” for “I understand you” or “are you tracking me?” for “do you understand the point I’m making?” That phrase really made me feel uncomfortable whenever the MAA would use it on me. Creepy….
Using phrases like that really solidifies that good old cult image! I imagine it is something that DM or TC devised and it just filtered down to the peons.
Yep . Happened to me, too. I questioned the way the org was doing things and, zowie! Off to ethics and lower conditions! And the area I questioned was swept under the rug because it was planned by the Sea Org and they are “the most theta beings on the whole planet” so that made it right.
Damn kool aid drinkers!
I post here under my real name as I love to hear from people I knew when I was staff. I’m certain that 99.44% of those still in are plagued with doubts and it’s only a matter of time before each actually awakens to what’s been happening.
RB’s illustrated a very common scene in Scientology right now. Our “stable data” of “what is integrity?” and right and wrong has been shaken for so long and so violently that you can’t hold on to them without your teeth chattering. Try to hold on too long and your brains are shaken up so much you start to question your own sanity.
Sooner (hopefully) or later, you learn the path back to making sense of any of it involves letting go of the violent numbing vibration that the church has become. There’s a tingling sensation all over when you do let go (after the “thud” of being thrown off on to the pavement) and, then, living begins again.
Any old friends visiting here? Feel free to contact me, even if you’re still, somehow, holding on. I’ve “been there, done that”, but still moving on.
Thank you Dan, a post that echoed for me, especially the letting go of the cult and how that feels. Your name seems familiar, I was in Sea Org Asho F many years ago. Good to meet you. ❤️
Soooo true.
I just had a call from my pal from Scientology time who watched aetv show (all episodes are on the rutube) and after that decided to go through all the data and googled stuff. Of course he found all this “whois” hatesites and really stunned. He started to ask himself questions like “why all this people who were so evil all there lives were so high in the seaorg” or “how it happened that years after they entered the church or were raised in it with all auditing and tech applied they still were such scumbags who were constantly whitholding and committing overts”. I really believe that soon enough people from the bubble will be prohibited even going to this hatesites)
Yes. I’m sure there will be a new “policy” about new people coming in having to go immediately to Ethics to do Lowers as all Wogs have seen, heard, read (something)…. If they refuse, they will be declared Suppressive.
If that happens, and someone new comes in and they refuse Ethics and get declared (before they spend a lot of their time and money on Scientology), then the “church” would probably be doing them a favor, especially if they don’t have family members inside.
It’s a tough spot for staff these days. They have to be ‘nice’ to counter the current perception by the public that they are uncaring money grubbers. If they do actually get a ‘new person’ through the doors, slamming them into an MAAs office staffed by a minor who is trained to grill them on their masturbation habits probably won’t produce a new $cientologist.
That leaves the Div 6 dept to field questions they know are floating around in the new ‘raw publics’ uncharted mind. Being inside the cult is like tiptoeing through a minefield.
Yo Dave,
How were your stats yesterday at too. Too low, too ugly and too many downstat staff that need to be sent off too Your RPF. It must really suck to be You good buddy!
In Russia yes, I was in scn between 2007/08 and 2015 and I can say that there were many new faces in the org, on the other hand I can’t say that number of Scientologysts in Russia is increasing because as far as I can see new face always replays someone who just stop going to the org or picking up the phone (like me and my wife did). And by the way one of the Seaorg recruitment pitchs are “you will be working im Florida or California”, needles to say that to California or Florida goes only chaps who can pay for their ticket and visa application.
In this YouTube video with Steve Cannane, author of the book “Fair Game” published about 4 months ago, he talks about how Scientology does a lot of recruiting in Taiwan, and then brings people to the U.S. on a religious Visa. Here is a link to the video, the part I mentioned is at 49:00 into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91YWrejC71o
T.J, Wasn’t the book and video the Best?! I have alot of books about leaving the cult and I love them all. Fair Game was not only well written, but just seeing that title in print instead of being the Fair Game target when in, was so great.❤️
I don’t know how about states but in Russia all new public in their day one already have to sign dozen of documents that all the money that they are given are voluntary donations and they do except nothing in exchange and all the services that they will take may doesn’t work in real world
Yea, I was joking but it is kinda funny (not ha ha funny) that the reason I and many others were declared was for reading the internet etc. and finding out that david miscavige is a sociopath and then not going in to “get handled.” I mean really! How many people these days in the US have never heard of the leader of the church of scientology/david miscavige? How many people hear the word “scientology” and not think of a toxic waste dump?
I can’t get past LRH’s use of the word tech. I have seen yall use it, “technology”,’and with that I agree. “machinery and equipment
developed from the application of scientific knowledge.” But! He tweaked a lie detector. Then he “borrowed” from psychiatry, e.g. Desensitization. Mary Cover Jones was the first to utilize this non technologic method in the 1920’s, but it wasn’t widely used until the 50s.
No wonder he was anti psych, and isolationist. Fear of being discovered?
Victor, after the Golden Age of Foot Bulletry was released, incidents of unforced errors, irreparable PR disasters and pissing off the entire internet increased on a straight up and vertical trend line.
However, knowing that stats need to increase on a weekly basis forever, Lil davey had to come up with something to top his previous success, because in $cn you’re only as upstat as your stats for the past week indicate. Although he’s yet to announce it formally, Moonchild Miscavige’s solution there was to secretly launch the “Rain of Lead Era,” in which every effort to counteract all of the horrible PR that the cherch has been receiving is designed specifically to backfire on them and make things worse for the cult in objectively measurable ways!
The “Who is…” smear sites accomplish that task in aces because they’re not only ineffective, ludicrous and off-putting to wogs, but also cause True Believer $cilons to question their faith as well. If these ex-$ea Org staff members were all such down-stat losers and suppressive DBs, then how in the world did they manage to rise in the $ea Org to top management positions over the decades without being detected and declared many years ago!? If all of those serious crimes that they’ve been accused of actually occurred, then $cn management’s inability to detect them and get rid of the evil ones simply failed miserably.
And everyone in $cn knows the Tech is infallible, so with only one individual calling all the shots in the cherch, what are wogs, exes and still-in $cilons to conclude here?
Yes thank you that makes sense. But you know in Russia with all your historical background when a dearest leader start to say that all of his subordinates are scumbags and guilty in everything we can only say something like “ohhhh yes we do believe you of course”)))
As an aside I was wondering, what is the take on how LRH himself would have handled the infectious disease known as the Internet. DM has inherited (Manhandled into his possession) a cult in an age of increasing visibility, when it just became easier and easier to see all the nooks and crannies of an organization. Would LRH had had any better luck keeping the scars from showing, the celebs from leaving, the truth from getting out..?
JJ, I’ll take a stab at your question about handling the internet, since it’s an interesting topic.
My analysis, is that Hubbard continually evolved Dianetics and Scientology in the ways that turned out to give him the most control. Loyalists and apologists may argue that he had other motives as well, including saying that what was at the heart of the organizational control were attempts to maintain the purity and proper delivery of the “tech” so that it would work as it was supposed to, but regardless I think it is accurate to look at it in terms of control.
Hubbard’s first major experiment in control was the Sea Project that become the Sea Org, where he took dedicated followers on ships where there was near complete physical and information control, and almost no oversight by legal or civil authorities. The policies and organizational dynamics that developed there, including the RPF, then slowly spread into the rest of his organization when Hubbard and his followers came ashore.
My answer would be in response to the free flow of information on the internet Hubbard would have likely found ways to have more of his followers live in controlled situations, but I don’t see how he could have done more to control the general exposure of information on the internet. In Hubbard’s day, I think that many more of his then-young followers tended to live communally in residences full of Scientologists, though unofficially; to some extent this has been replace by the shift towards families of CofS members, who of course reside together.
So I think that what probably would have evolved would have been something along the lines of Scientology living communities based in the same building or complex as an “org,” and in LA and Clearwater likely even gated communities, all of which would have allowed for a variety of control mechanisms including hooking everyone up to a filtered internet feed. And once they had a base like that, they probably could have run their own filtered ISP (internet service provider) and required that any local members living independently subscribe to the internet through that service (including smartphones), doing pretty much the same thing that the Chinese have done with the “great firewall of China.”
Miscavige does not have the creativity that Hubbard did, nor the doctrinal flexibility that “source” had to evolve very different or even new organizational structures. That’s not to say the modern CofS hasn’t made some changes and even altered or abandoned some Hubbard policy and practices, but it is still very hampered in adapting – much less in actually evolving. What I think we do see happening as a largely unplanned adaptation in the face of decline, is that Scientologists are increasingly left concentrated in LA and Clearwater where there are self-policing “public” communities, and that an increasingly large percentage of the members left are those serving in the controlled environment of the Sea Org.
As to control, remember that in the late 1940s not long before he started Dianetics, Hubbard wrote in his “Affirmations” (which the CofS has conceded in court, were written by Hubbard) that “Men are your slaves.” I think that if one looks closely and honestly at the history that follows, it shows Hubbard evolving ways to exercise increasing control over members, and even some of his closest and most admiring old followers admit that was what happened though they may claim it was not calculated or intentional.
To finish answering the question, I think that Hubbard would have had only had limited success in reducing the amount of exposure and of information getting out, and it still would have been hard to control celebrities, though I can imagine Hubbard being more ruthless in trying to ensure that departing public figures kept any disaffection hidden. But I think he would have done more and been more effective in limiting the amount of information getting in, even to “public” members.
Really good and detailed answer !
Thank you for the detailed answer to my query. I agree. Miscavige may have missed the boat on raising an indoctrinated sect. Going so anti second dynamic means he has to pull people in off the streets, and in the US and most of western Europe and wealthier parts of Asia the tech is always gonna show up the fable and the ponzi) that is CofS. If he hadn’t been so squeamish and anti social he could have had a cult like Manson or some of the newer scarier breeder cults, ended up with thirty or forty little Miscavige’s running around. An even sicker scenario yes, but ready made sycophants is a lot easier than having the average pleb on the street unlearn real life in favor of Scientology world…
You’re probably in bed Mike, plus you’re probably already aware of the editorial in Freedom. I nearly gagged when I saw the title and piddled when I read just the first few paragraphs. Oh boy….
I dont read Freedom. What is the editorial about?
The Feb. issue editorial deals with spying. By the government to be precise. I also have concerns about Big Brother; however the author (whose name I didn’t bother noting) was incensed that anyone should be spied upon. Everyone has the right to privacy. It’s a constitutional given, etc…
And the next article was just a laugh a minute. Religious freedom. Huh. How complicated it could be if not handled properly. It can be cumbersome at times. Where do you draw the line? Just thought you’d like to know, particularly about how objectionable scientologists find violation of our right to privacy.
Aha, thanks for that. Will take a look and perhaps offer my thoughts on it if I have a few minutes.
Whoa, I just took a look and this is just the most obvious and absurd hypocrisy…talk about projection! “In this issue, we pursue the dual quests for openness in government and the rights of citizens to be safe from all forms of official and corporate spying.”….wow…no words.
Yes, Melissa. As my friend Bugs Bunny would say “What a bunch of maroons.”
Drove by the Scientology building in Seattle. Empty parking lot & empty building..will the last scientologist leaving Seattle turn the lights out.
Star, maybe they were all hiding for a surprise birthday party and they were all going to jump out…..oh who am kidding…..the Idle Morgues are empty. Real empty. The kind of emptiness that goes on forever.
It’s fascinating to me that if $cilons really were to do an honest Doubt Formula, per Elron’s explicit instructions, then they’d immediately run into trouble for free-ranging on the internet! This is the classic Catch-22 situation in which you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Elron’s supposedly universal – across all of time and space – Conditions of Existence hierarchy is complete made-up, pulled from out his arse crap, but as a commonsense approach to weighing the pros and cons concerning a situation that you’re uncertain about, the first part of the Doubt Formula makes obvious and logical sense.
Perhaps we should be challenging $cn’s most learned tech and business admin terminals (snort) to a series of debates focusing on the implementation and lack of proper implementation of Elron’s own very clear instructions on points such as this.
If one of the first steps in seeking to effectively resolve doubt is to inform yourself fully regarding every aspect of the matter, then having free and unfettered access to a full panorama of information is a necessary precondition of being able to do so, Yet, if the cherch interprets policy to mean that $cilons in good standing are forbidden from accessing the internet and other sources freely, then it has effectively prevented the Doubt Condition formula from being implemented even before the start. The fact that this blatantly obvious logical inconsistency can’t even be discussed openly among $cilon co-cultists demonstrates exactly how high a degree of control and demand that cherch members must conform to in order to continue to remain in good standing.
Personally speaking, my own exit from the cult was precipitated in part by doing a real Doubt formula about whether I wanted to remain on staff – working for pennies and depending on wog employment for my actual livelihood – or route out of my position as D of P at a class IV org. In the late 70’s, before the Mission Holder’s Massacre and well before $cn’s very own Moonchild, lil davey the savage took over control of the cherch, there wasn’t that much out there in the media about the cherch, so my grounds for doubt were more about personal financial survival than anything else. No one that I knew actually made a decent living out of being on staff, so I was definitely not alone in finding my way to the cult exit door.
Love this Harpoona, Thank you.❤️
Regraded Being, so good, as always. So funny how the audience is mostly empty chairs, only a very few people in attendance, and at the end only one guy is left, and it turns out it’s because he is related to the speaker and doesn’t want to disconnect, lol. It mirrors the situation inside these days. I love Regraded Being strips! Happy Friday to all. 🙂
I went to the San Diego Org OT committee. The few times I attended (kind of forced to attend), there were about 10 to 15 people in attendance. Remember that greater San Diego has a population of probably 3 1/2 million. But, they knew that the reason was that their org wasn’t Ideal yet and all of the other orgs were booming. What a joke!
T.J, I love RB on Friday too. And I have not forgotten I would send you a poem. Got to dig out my poet hat ! I am so thankful I do not have to drill on policy for poetry the next day! ?
Love it RB.
Scientology’s bad hair day is now everyday.
I thought they’ve been having bad hair days forever. I doubt they have time to comb their hair…
That is really so funny. From a nutritional point of view, bad hair can be the end result of a deficiency in one’s diet of the essential amino acid L-Methionine. In the case of Scientologists this may still be true, with the addition of daily out-ethics, chronic MU’s, fake O/W write ups and conditions formulas! Maybe those Scientologists that fall into that category should first donate freely for no other reason than that they are out of their minds, $1 Million dollars to the church, and then go get some Super Power auditing, worth about $1,149.83. 🙂
Oh! So spot on!
RB you hit it.
Back when the dinky book: “Introduction to Scientology” came out in the 70’s(?) 20 or so of my friends all zeroed in on Hubbard’s Doubt formula. Shit, does the old man know what he is unleashing? If you apply #1 and #2 it remains hard to stay connected to the lame-ass orgs, even back then. #1 stated: Inform oneself honestly of the actual intentions and activities…. #2 stated: Examine the statistics……..
Iffin your head was on straight and you had at least one foot in the real world there was no way in hell you would want to join staff. Added to that was the evasion, even then, of the true stats. yeah, if it had not been for the tech delivery and the belief that Ron would continue to dig deeper in to the mental machinery, the places would have folded then and there.
As RB wrote: …our job is to bring in more money and nothing else. That is what it has truly become.
OT committees, what a genius way to get public $cilons to take on the work and responsibilities of actual staff members! Too bad their OaTy suppa powerz don’t seem up to the task and $cn is collapsing despite their all-powerful postulates to the contrary…hmmm, must be an SP lurking about, or maybe they all have crimes! Xenu only knows, it couldn’t be something wrong with the Holy Tech or Moonchild Miscavige’s leadership 😉
Lenny and Marge are non-$cieno characters. Anyone who actually had their blinders off enough to see the real world would have left Clamland long ago. Those still in are either doing so to stay connected to family or have such deep business ties to $cieno entities that they can’t leave either. How loyal such people are is being shown in the lack of new completions and the emptiness of The Fleecewinds and Stupor Powerz.
$cientology is now a wish fulfillment operation, selling ‘prosperity’ and “OT Powerz”. Real life may not intrude on that business plan.
Aha!! (Great one, RB!)
I can totally relate!
Sounds like “clearing the planet” is working quite well.. The distorted haze that was once over the eyes of those who “blew” has been cleared away, in some cases is slowly being cleared away once members wake up & “smell the coffee” & stop drinking the Kool Aid to realize what’s really going on right under their nose.
I can’t imagine the pain and disappointment that caused the once loyalist, that they’ve for decades been duped into giving up their all for this???? Then to “Blow” and their only “thanks” for years of dedication is disconnection from family members all in the name of ??????
You are all so strong and you continue to amaze and inspire me.
“I think the right way to do this is to research everything negative that’s out there about Scientology and apply what we’ve learned from the Data Series to sort it all out. That should get us back on track and winning again.”
Oh yes, absolutely! I think that researching everything that’s available out there would definitely get most of them “back on track” and “winning again”……just not in the way they would envision.
And the way they are handling all of the “entheta” out there, such as the lame-ass and regurgitated smear sites, DM hiding from the media, using that “non-Scientologist Scientology expert” Yingling to speak on their behalf, those embarrassingly recycled and robotic “The Church disputes many of the statements made by [fill in the blank]” formulated statements, etc., just isn’t cutting it anymore to outside folks, whether a former Scientologist or a never-in.
They need to figure out some way to update their “PR handling” policies for the 21st Century…..of course, without acknowledging Hubbard’s infallibility. Maybe just blame the LRH transcribers again or something…..because their tactics are getting pretty pathetic and would be almost laughable at this point if it wasn’t for the emotional devastation they bring to people’s lives.
Correction: “without acknowledging Hubbard’s fallibility”
Thank you RB for another good belly laugh! Look at all those empty chairs. The Data Series was intended to keep them full, not the other way around.
What causes Scientologists to question Scientology? Scientology. The behavior of other Scientologists. The actions taken by CoS to “address” their questions. Scientology’s own PR efforts. Scientology’s actions against detractors and former members.
Scientology is its own worst enemy.
And that’s what you get when you’re Not Nice.
In my research of Scn, I have always been struck by the phrase “being handled”. It comes up so often in the literature, promo materials and quotes from members. “Being handled” has no statement of mission, intent, methodology of action, desired results and no measurement of success or failure. The term ‘mad genius’ comes to mind.
From my experience, “Being handled” is another way of saying “being manipulated”.
Or being “dealt with”…
Ha! Being in scientology, I never noticed that. What a great thought-stopper. It’s being handled – ahhhh, doesn’t knowing that make you feel so much better? Now where did I put my credit card?
Actually I think it’s called being Man Handled…
“Being handled” means instilling cognitive dissonance.
Yep! You got that right!
That’s true!
I have never liked the term “being handled”, it’s really off-putting. Also some of the other terms, such as you are a “terminal” and you “duplicate” something and have a “case”. Having a ‘case’ makes me think of having a welfare case, or a court case. Or a case of smallpox, or other illness. It doesn’t invoke pleasant associations. Being called a ‘terminal’ makes me think of terminal as in ending, terminated, dead, or a terminal illness. The saying “I duplicate you” sounds to me like “I copy you” or I imitate you, rather than what they intend it to mean, which is, I think, “I understand you”. Why not just say “I understand you”? There are other words they use also which are confusing, and I always think, they stress communication so much, yet use words that confuse and hinder real communication, why? Maybe because they want to be a club or group that has it’s own special words and secret rituals, so only those people feel they a part of it, it’s part of trying to be inclusive, different, special. I don’t know. Random musings on this topic. Please don’t try to handle me. lol. :-p
Great point TJ. The latest phrase they use nowadays is “I’m tracking you” for “I understand you” or “are you tracking me?” for “do you understand the point I’m making?” That phrase really made me feel uncomfortable whenever the MAA would use it on me. Creepy….
Using phrases like that really solidifies that good old cult image! I imagine it is something that DM or TC devised and it just filtered down to the peons.
I thought “are you feeling me” was a more modern phrase..like ..are you feeling me? Know what I mean?
Knowumsayindawg?
RB.you made my Friday.
He makes everyone Friday better.
Yep . Happened to me, too. I questioned the way the org was doing things and, zowie! Off to ethics and lower conditions! And the area I questioned was swept under the rug because it was planned by the Sea Org and they are “the most theta beings on the whole planet” so that made it right.
Damn kool aid drinkers!
I post here under my real name as I love to hear from people I knew when I was staff. I’m certain that 99.44% of those still in are plagued with doubts and it’s only a matter of time before each actually awakens to what’s been happening.
RB’s illustrated a very common scene in Scientology right now. Our “stable data” of “what is integrity?” and right and wrong has been shaken for so long and so violently that you can’t hold on to them without your teeth chattering. Try to hold on too long and your brains are shaken up so much you start to question your own sanity.
Sooner (hopefully) or later, you learn the path back to making sense of any of it involves letting go of the violent numbing vibration that the church has become. There’s a tingling sensation all over when you do let go (after the “thud” of being thrown off on to the pavement) and, then, living begins again.
Any old friends visiting here? Feel free to contact me, even if you’re still, somehow, holding on. I’ve “been there, done that”, but still moving on.
Thank you Dan, a post that echoed for me, especially the letting go of the cult and how that feels. Your name seems familiar, I was in Sea Org Asho F many years ago. Good to meet you. ❤️
Buhahaha !
Soooo true.
I just had a call from my pal from Scientology time who watched aetv show (all episodes are on the rutube) and after that decided to go through all the data and googled stuff. Of course he found all this “whois” hatesites and really stunned. He started to ask himself questions like “why all this people who were so evil all there lives were so high in the seaorg” or “how it happened that years after they entered the church or were raised in it with all auditing and tech applied they still were such scumbags who were constantly whitholding and committing overts”. I really believe that soon enough people from the bubble will be prohibited even going to this hatesites)
Yes. I’m sure there will be a new “policy” about new people coming in having to go immediately to Ethics to do Lowers as all Wogs have seen, heard, read (something)…. If they refuse, they will be declared Suppressive.
Scientology=Toxic David Miscavige=Sociopath
If that happens, and someone new comes in and they refuse Ethics and get declared (before they spend a lot of their time and money on Scientology), then the “church” would probably be doing them a favor, especially if they don’t have family members inside.
It’s a tough spot for staff these days. They have to be ‘nice’ to counter the current perception by the public that they are uncaring money grubbers. If they do actually get a ‘new person’ through the doors, slamming them into an MAAs office staffed by a minor who is trained to grill them on their masturbation habits probably won’t produce a new $cientologist.
That leaves the Div 6 dept to field questions they know are floating around in the new ‘raw publics’ uncharted mind. Being inside the cult is like tiptoeing through a minefield.
Yo Dave,
How were your stats yesterday at too. Too low, too ugly and too many downstat staff that need to be sent off too Your RPF. It must really suck to be You good buddy!
Haaa,haa,ha,ha !! “Being grilled by a minor about their masturbation habits” That sounds illegal. Ha, ha, ha!
Are there any new people coming in? Other than those from other countries who view it as a possible entryway into the U.S. that is.
In Russia yes, I was in scn between 2007/08 and 2015 and I can say that there were many new faces in the org, on the other hand I can’t say that number of Scientologysts in Russia is increasing because as far as I can see new face always replays someone who just stop going to the org or picking up the phone (like me and my wife did). And by the way one of the Seaorg recruitment pitchs are “you will be working im Florida or California”, needles to say that to California or Florida goes only chaps who can pay for their ticket and visa application.
In this YouTube video with Steve Cannane, author of the book “Fair Game” published about 4 months ago, he talks about how Scientology does a lot of recruiting in Taiwan, and then brings people to the U.S. on a religious Visa. Here is a link to the video, the part I mentioned is at 49:00 into the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91YWrejC71o
T.J, Wasn’t the book and video the Best?! I have alot of books about leaving the cult and I love them all. Fair Game was not only well written, but just seeing that title in print instead of being the Fair Game target when in, was so great.❤️
I don’t know how about states but in Russia all new public in their day one already have to sign dozen of documents that all the money that they are given are voluntary donations and they do except nothing in exchange and all the services that they will take may doesn’t work in real world
Yea, I was joking but it is kinda funny (not ha ha funny) that the reason I and many others were declared was for reading the internet etc. and finding out that david miscavige is a sociopath and then not going in to “get handled.” I mean really! How many people these days in the US have never heard of the leader of the church of scientology/david miscavige? How many people hear the word “scientology” and not think of a toxic waste dump?
I can’t get past LRH’s use of the word tech. I have seen yall use it, “technology”,’and with that I agree. “machinery and equipment
developed from the application of scientific knowledge.” But! He tweaked a lie detector. Then he “borrowed” from psychiatry, e.g. Desensitization. Mary Cover Jones was the first to utilize this non technologic method in the 1920’s, but it wasn’t widely used until the 50s.
No wonder he was anti psych, and isolationist. Fear of being discovered?
Victor, after the Golden Age of Foot Bulletry was released, incidents of unforced errors, irreparable PR disasters and pissing off the entire internet increased on a straight up and vertical trend line.
However, knowing that stats need to increase on a weekly basis forever, Lil davey had to come up with something to top his previous success, because in $cn you’re only as upstat as your stats for the past week indicate. Although he’s yet to announce it formally, Moonchild Miscavige’s solution there was to secretly launch the “Rain of Lead Era,” in which every effort to counteract all of the horrible PR that the cherch has been receiving is designed specifically to backfire on them and make things worse for the cult in objectively measurable ways!
The “Who is…” smear sites accomplish that task in aces because they’re not only ineffective, ludicrous and off-putting to wogs, but also cause True Believer $cilons to question their faith as well. If these ex-$ea Org staff members were all such down-stat losers and suppressive DBs, then how in the world did they manage to rise in the $ea Org to top management positions over the decades without being detected and declared many years ago!? If all of those serious crimes that they’ve been accused of actually occurred, then $cn management’s inability to detect them and get rid of the evil ones simply failed miserably.
And everyone in $cn knows the Tech is infallible, so with only one individual calling all the shots in the cherch, what are wogs, exes and still-in $cilons to conclude here?
Yes thank you that makes sense. But you know in Russia with all your historical background when a dearest leader start to say that all of his subordinates are scumbags and guilty in everything we can only say something like “ohhhh yes we do believe you of course”)))