The Running Track at Gold before it was bulldozed
I have written a few pieces here about the Running Program — now titled “Cause Resurgence Rundown” in order to sell it to people as an “OT miracle rundown.” It literally consists of running around in a circle to the point of exhaustion and then running some more. That is ALL it is.
The “Running Program” began as a means to “crack” David Mayo. Hubbard sent down orders that Mayo (who was in trouble based on reports Miscavige had sent about him) was to “run around a tree until he dropped, get up and run again.” It was later in vogue with Miscavige for a number of years at Gold. As a punishment many people were sent to “run around a pole all day” and that is literally what it meant (though the “pole” was the palm tree you see above). Many times executives from Int were summarily despatched to the running track in our uniforms, with those horrible shoes and all, to run around in the S. California sun. I did it a number of times and I was not on the base a lot….
It WAS torture. It made you want to get back to the comfort of a desk and air-conditioning. A lot of groveling confessions resulted from a stint running around the pole.
After this practice was exposed in the media, the Running Track was ploughed under (no longer an easily identifiable thing in drone flyovers).
Never missing an opportunity to cash in, it was pitched as an “OT Rundown” to be done only in the new “Super Power” building, shrouded in secrecy. It has been being sold to the public at Flag for $5000 a pop. And even though it’s supposed to give you super OT powers, they apparently don’t last long, as you can do it “many times.” Some proudly announce having done it 3 times… It’s a terrific money-maker. It requires nothing other than someone to tell you “keep running.”
Though it was originally designed by Hubbard for Sea Org members, they can no longer do this “OT Rundown” unless they are Flag staff. I guess it’s not that important for them after all…. But then again, application of scientology to staff and the Sea Org is seen as an extravagance, they are not supposed to have “case on post,” so most Sea Org members are not even Clear.
What prompted me to bring up this old subject again is one of the “press releases” scientology periodically shovels onto “Patheos” — a website for religious stories nobody is interested in.
They are not really bringing back the “Running Program” at Gold, it just seemed like a good pun given the headline they put on their release.
Note a few things about this piece — like the others they churn out.
- There is no author, so nobody to contact for follow up or comment
- It has a LOT of links, trying to increase their SEO
- It somehow manages to mention and link to David Miscavige to try to boost his image online (which is terrible)
- It attempts to cash in on the “big name” of others, in this case the Mission Inn. Often it’s the Red Cross or the “United Nations” or some other organization that has no idea they will be used to promote scientology
- It reports on “news” that isn’t newsworthy.
Here it is:
I once ran a round around a circular room but it got cranky and went off to sulk in the corner.
Now I have heard it all.It has been said that the author Lewis Carroll was under the influence of various drugs when he wrote the novel Alice in Wonderland.LRH must have been using the same drugs when he wrote Dianetics and all his other books.David Miscaviage needs to take some of these drugs because he is already half a sandwich on his way to a good picnic.And if I want to run around in circles,I will chase after my two dogs when it is time for their weekly bath and grooming.And I can do it for free.I always look forward to reading your blogs concerning Scientology,Mr.Rinder.Suddenly being Autistic does not seem that bad after all.
I just had to say I really loved your comment “he is already half a sandwich on his way to a good picnic.” And reference to Lewis Carroll. I’ve had a shit day and this made me 🤣😂lmfao.
Thank you
I’m so completely dumbfounded that such smart people and the endless narcissism of “celebrities” justify the Hitleresque machinations of Miscavige. The fact that this fake religion makes out like a bandit with tax-free status and is a freaking wagon the govt does not know what to do with BECAUSE OF the monster they created by folding with this tax-exempt nonsense just further solidified my belief that the Feds are incompetent. There are, frankly, too many reported abuses at this point to allow an organization that literally does nothing but con money out of people to hide behind 1A. 1A does not protect criminality. One need only to look at the hands off approaches that ended horrifically with Jim Jones and David Koresh, and the absolute avoidance of holding people like Keith Raniere accountable early on rather than until he’d already destroyed so many lives is just further proof that they take the path of least resistance. Scientology sounds like a solid RICO case. They are worse than the Mafia, and even those guys get hit in court at some point. The letters in response to The Aftermath show from this cult read like a middle school mean girls slam book. It’s ludicrous. I mean, you have people, multiple people, telling the same horrific stories for literally DECADES, yet more proof is needed? How about another raid for probable cause? Or better yet, we’ve had Presidents who weaponized the IRS, yet they’ve lost their teeth in this case? I’m beyond disgusted. I’m so angry and heartbroken for the people abused by this evil organization. When will they be stopped?
That poor palm tree having to witness such pain & punishment. Plowing that track over diminishes nothing as the scam is now indoors at five gs a run! David Mayo,RIP, was one of the Good Ones to me. It is totally sadistic to use that running cruelty rundown as a method to give a thetan gains. Total Hogwash! Proves to me that going OT means shoveling more dollars by the thousands into dm’s coffers for delivering a service one could traverse in their driveway all by themselves at zero charge!
Mike,Your excellent piece brought on a thought. For all Ron’s bs on super powers and super TRs and Super Ls etc etc he really enjoyed abusing bodies along with minds, hearts and souls. dm throwing Sea Org members who were integral to his fake religion into the sewer tanks at Gold is a total abuse also. It makes me ill that this Lie of a Cult is still tax exempt! Just because a group is labeled as a church or religion never makes it so. The proof is in the Actions of said groups. Scientology is at the top of the list and continues to pull the wool over as many eyes as possible. And those eyes are starting to open to the Truth about the entire rotten swamp that is Scientology in 2020. 💔
Right, Ann. David Mayo WAS one of the “good ones”, or as good (human) as he was allowed to be.
Thank you Jere. In my experience many of us joined staff and Sea Org because we needed a direction that felt so different from the past. And we thought we were going to do good for the world .
Today I look back and think I certainly got a billion times more than I ever believed would happen when I dived into Ron’s tangled world! It was the mirror image of good & dm sealed the whole mess with his vindictive narcissistic sadistic behavior & personality .💔
Very Thankful to be Out.
That Press Release was interesting. However, no number of press releases propping up David M. and COS can counteract the power of negative word of mouth made even more powerful by the internet.
The ocean of online information telling the truth about COS unleashed by ex-Scientologists and non-Scientologists who have watched Aftermath, Going Clear, and other sources, is running rampant on social media.
Old Dave really shot himself in the foot forbidding members to look at online references to COS. Though they can’t see negative firsthand accounts, they also can’t post positive firsthand accounts. Other than the few clearly staff shills adding pro-COS comments here and there online in virtually the same exact language.
He needs new young recruits. Sure, he can recruit the children and grandchildren of Scientology members, but that pool is shrinking. He needs to seduce Gen-Z and they have proven to be the most skeptical generation to date. They essentially rule social media and research everything. Even Tom Cruise can’t help him with Gen Z. He’s pushing 60. They’re not his market. They didn’t grow up watching Risky Business with fond memories of him dancing in his underwear.
If you look at information about the lifecycle of a business or organization, COS is in the final stage: Death. Here’s a good source that explains it simply: https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/five-stages-of-decline.html
Mary, born-ins seem to often not make enthusiastic members or succesful staff, unlike the diehard old baby boomer “seekers” Scientology once recruited, at least according to reports and anecdotes that we see in places like this blog. So DM must have a cascading problem of attrition, which could at least partly explain reports that the Sea Org has been pared down.
The other problem is just that Dianetics and Scientology are so dated – they reek of the middle of the last century in a way that is not good. Even if Gen Z wasn’t more skeptical, they would still be going for more modern cults and gurus like Teal Swan or, closer to the beginning of this century, NXIVM and Keith Raniere – and whatever small number of them can’t resist the siren call of such groups and leaders, still will, but not to Scientology.
Exactly. Well said. I agree.
PeaceMaker observed:
“The ocean of online information telling the truth about COS unleashed by ex-Scientologists and non-Scientologists who have watched Aftermath, Going Clear, and other sources, is running rampant on social media.”
FANTASTIC! sources of the truth which are too numerous for the organization to even try to censor or otherwise swat.
THIS was needed back in the ’50s to avoid the mess which now has got to be cleaned up.
No matter. We work with what we’ve got.
A virtual run. How convenient for a cult that may claim to take the running challenge but is, more to the point, severely truth challenged.
No need to waste staff hours with wog activities such as training and running. All you need to do is tell the organizers you did it, and you get to post a piece that spills far more ink extolling the virtues of the cult than actually remarking on the charity it is trying to attach itself to in its futile attempt at gaining respectability.
A glance at google earth will show the original circular track and tree gone. But the unused baseball diamond is ROUND. That is not how baseball works. To me it says they are running in circles on the baseball diamond now because it is easier to hide from drones and google earth. Same torture, different area.
Yes I saw that, but the baseball “diamond” was always that way. And it’s not large enough – it has to be wide enough that you can do it without twisting your ankles and knees. But glad you are keeping your eye on the place.
How interesting. Yes I know Karen DLC’s ankles turned to jelly under that awful tree! Also, talk to me about getting Graham Berry on your show. We are discussing it and I told him he has to publish a website I wrote for him so there will be something to promote about him when he goes on.
One of my pet pieves while on staff was the assumption that staff are supposed to have “no case on post”. If one was able to set aside their case at will, then one would already be clear and OT and wouldn’t need processing…it never made sense other than for control.
Really, Eh, what is the point of Scientology if anyone can just “set aside their reactive mind” at will? Either the reactive mind is a powerless fraud or Hubbard was lying about it. Probably both.
I think this is from a “Welcome to the Sea Org” tape.
Again you just solve it by doing it. No thinking involved.
Another one – anybody who is on staff is considered to be fully trained for it on day one, no excuses. Like the time Hubbard appointed someone who had been at sea for maybe two weeks as a ship captain. And came down on her like a ton of bricks when she naturally screwed up.
She wasn’t even OT etc. but she was supposed to “remember” all the times she captained ships in past lives and use that to know how to run a diesel steamer. Maybe she was a ship captain in the Phoenician Navy, sadly all that training about how to coordinate three rows of oars doesn’t tell her the commands to issue to the engine room in modern English.
I think the worst example is the Flag Order 38 line about “backflash”, defined as any unnecessary added response to an order. Anybody senior to you can issue any order at any time. If you say anything other than “Yes Sir” you are guilty of backflash and can be severely disciplined.
If Dave Miscavige issues an order there are sycophants standing by to record the order, make it a formal written recorded item on a huge list in the depths of Building 50 (RTC building), and set it up to hound you mercilessly until you submit written evidence that it is done.
But what if the order is stupid, ridiculous or just plain nuts? “These roses were supposed to be red!” You say “YES SIR we will begin painting roses as soon as the special rose paint arrives from Builder’s Emporium Sir!” Quick creative thinking is required, if you hesitate at all that also counts as backflash.
In the long run these are all variations of the solipsistic idea that the world does not exist separately from the mind of L Ron Hubbard. In his world, the only real item is his will. In his crazy universe you can know something by knowing it (just making stuff up) and if it is true for you it is true! No need for all that messy scientific method stuff.
You think you are standing in his presence, a separate unique being who has needs, free will, knowledge of your own, No. To Hubbard you are just a game piece and he is the game maker. If he sweeps you off the board, it was your fault.
Of course you are not supposed to have any emotions other than slavish devotion, any other ideas than how to worship the supreme leader, any needs other than to serve with reverence. Magical thinking at its worst.
Eh=Eh, “no case on post” was just a verbal whip seniors could use if you woke up to the futility of it all, or you realized you were wasting your life away for nothing like what they were advertising, OR if you were a little under the weather that day. When I worked for a sane company, we’d get sent HOME to get over minor illnesses rather than infect our co-workers. Fewer people GOT sick as a result. scn could NEVER have enacted such a policy. EVERYONE was so vitally important, NO one could actually TAKE the 3-weeks a year leave ruled by policy, not even me, a lowly file clerk. (I did get 2 of them towards the end of my 5 years at Flag. I literally didn’t recognize my home town as I walked up the street to my Mom’s house, my childhood home. BLEW MY MIND how disconnected I’d gotten from the place. The front yards looked OVERGROWN with plants & flowers & all the GREEN, compared to Florida’s sun-bleached plant-life & sad-sack “grass”.
There’s also this bum licking rubbish (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/scientologybeliefs/2020/10/portrait-of-a-true-leader-david-miscavige/) on the same website – I’m not sure if Mike has featured this before? Anyway it’s the usual crap about how wonderful COB is… you have to wonder at his mental state with all this crap he has written about himself about how ‘great’ he is. The David Miscavige website is full of videos of similar crap, and is worth a look for a laugh if nothing else…
Quoting from the link provided by PartTimeSP:
A true leader rolls up his sleeves and fights in the trenches right alongside you if he has to.
This is certainly true in the case of the squirt. If and when the FBI ever come to their base with arrest warrants, he will actually fight alongside the slaves – but only because he has to – only because his freedom is threatened.
But until that happens? The squirt doesn’t give a fuck about anyone but himself and he will do everything he can to avoid ever having to fight providing he can escape to some country from which he cannot be extradited along with many millions of dollars in offshore accounts. But it really looks like COVID will get him before anyone else gets the chance.
Remember how Howard Hughes became a hermit and lived a solitary life in a hotel room? Well, he had the right idea. But he was just 50 years too early. I’m guessing that the squirt may well try to do something similar. But his crazy ego may get the better of him. He may actually believe he is invulnerable. Can you imagine a great big procession of all the slaves carrying him into a hospital ER and pleading with the staff?
You don’t understand. This is the Pope of Scamology. He must be saved. He absolutely must be saved!
Goodbye squirt. I only hope you have the kind of death you deserve. Writhing in agony in a hospital bed while your mind is full of memories of all the families you have destroyed and all the slaves you have driven to suicide.
As a goodbye message, I would just like to say: Go fuck yourself! Once you get COVID. No one else ever will!
Funny…nowhere in this ‘article’ is mentioned the name of the founder L. Ron Hubbard. Anymore it is DM and DM only. Even in the ‘success’ stories I’ve noticed a shift to thanking DM and only cursory mentioning LRH and many do not mention him at all. If Miscavige had more than a Junior High education he could’ve pulled off the coup d’etat that he so desperately wanted years ago…but alas he’s had to use draconian fascist tactics like torture and fear to keep himself in place. I still can’t believe that someone hasn’t just slugged the asshole.
If I had been in his position (and who would want to be) I would’ve come up with new OT levels years ago. If I had been Miscavige I would’ve told everyone (especially after he got rid of all the old guard) that LRH had trained me personally to OT level whatever and that LRH had personally given me the go ahead to continue the research. Then I would’ve started making up levels and charging accordingly. BUT Miscavige doesn’t have the acumen or insight or whatever it takes to fake up some OT levels. Hell look at OT 3, that hand written mess, that LRH came up with. One wouldn’t need much of an education to follow up on that…just some imagination…of which Miscavige has none.
People are getting sick and tired of repeating levels and having to rebuy all the books every few years (because of misplaced commas and semi colons). People are tired of being told that after years of being ‘clear’ or ‘OT’ that they’re really NOT clear after all and some have had to redo the entire bridge. Just look at the pics posted here and at Ortega’s of 80 year old OT VIII’s proudly holding up a cert showing their completion of ‘Student Hat’ accompanied by some lame ‘success story’ about how SH was the bestest ever and although they had done it before doing it again makes their lives great! My favorite line in all success stories…‘I now know who I really am’ or other claims along this line.
A lot of it comes down to what Mike has said before…that the biggest secret in Scientology is that the ‘Leader’ of Scientology isn’t a Scientologist. Thats one reason none of the above has happened. He has no interest in even trying. He knows he can’t make someone else do it (pulling a David Mayo out of the hat would turn around and bite him in the arse). So it’s repeat…repeat…repeat…until some of the few remaining people that are left get sick of it and remove him as COB. There has to be a way.
Linear, I think that’s DM’s fundamental problem, he can’t continually create new levels the way Hubbard did to keep the con going. He tried with OTVIII, given what might have been some of the best partial Hubbard materials still left on hand, and the first version of it was a disaster, resulting in it having to be watered down. The KTL and LOC courses that they then came up with, worked so well at connecting some people with their real life’s purpose that they left staff or abandoned the CofS entirely.
The Miscaivge regime would have to come up with something that either provided a real “wow” effect of catharsis and adrenaline rush, or at least really impressed the participants somehow. I suspect they are out of ideas on how to achieve that, and DM is concerned that anything they might try could have more serious unintended consequences.
So far it looks to me as if DM is on track to continue to string things out for the rest of his lifespan, even if the CofS is slowly hemorrhaging members and it will be left on the verge of collapse after his reign. He has enough reserves to maintain pretenses, including keeping the idle morgues open even if there are almost no members or staff left.
My parting thought it that if he wanted to do something without too much risk, he could for example trot out an OT9 “prep” course supposedly for a full release that was imminent (cough, cough), and fill it up with a bunch of scraps of “confidential” Hubbard material still left lying around, so that members would be left feeling as if they’d seen something very special but without any risky “wow” having to be produced. That might be enough to get him over the finish line of his life.
The cult version of “The Monkey Ran Around The Maypole”, but they expanded it to any given month and there were no flowers or ribbons and happy dances. Sounds about right.
Miscavige you are a despicable little prick. The aforementioned program should be used to run you out of town with a gargantuan rat nipping at your heels as a symbolic gesture.
Miscavige you are a despicable little prick. The aforementioned program should be used to run you out of town with a gargantuan rat nipping at your heels as a symbolic gesture.
The crowd applauds.
Isn’t the ‘run’ supposed to raise money for the Mission Inn? There goes Davy again, leading another Mission Massacre. Now with shin splints and bunions.
I just ran the course in 2 minutes, 23 seconds. Where’s my medal??
Mike, just curious. You wrote that you were not on the base a lot. Are you referring to Golden Era Productions when you refer to the base? Is that a different location from Int?
Gold/the base/Int are different names for the same thing. The property near Hemet that houses Golden Era Productions (and is know publicly for this) also houses “International Management” (though there is nothing left of that) and David Miscavige’s big RTC building (though he reportedly does not go there any more).
Thanks Mike for clearing that up.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I drove by Gold when I was in California, I thought it would be interesting to see it in person.
I had seen the pictures of the spikes on the fence, but there were no spikes on the fence, at least not on any part of the fence that was visible from the road. Is it possible they removed the spikes for PR reasons?
Yes that’s possible. But you can bet the motion sensors and floodlights have not been removed.
“He ensured the campaign’s informational components would be available, free of charge, to all who request them”.
Here’s a good idea. Request a truck load of them be shipped and give the delivery address of one’s local garbage dump. Hell, all they pass out on the street end up there eventually anyway. This could be quite environmentally friendly as it would cut through all the costs of street cleaning, little control, etc.
Oops. Pardon the typo. meant litter control