Greg Capazorio was awarded an IAS Freedom Medal with a stirring video concocted by the Sherminator that made it seem that the Way To Happiness Campaign was integrated across the entire Gauteng Prison system in South Africa.
Of course, as with most of these videos, it was, to put it kindly, a bit of an overstatement. To be accurate about it, it was more like a 90% fabrication. Some South African friends told me Capazorio was not even the primary mover for what was done (there was some WTH distribution and use). Perhaps one or more of them can enlighten us a little in the comments.
And I would be willing to bet my last dollar that if you went to the Gauteng Prison System today you would be hard pressed to find a single copy of the WTH.
Greg then went on to become the head of Criminon International. A program that has really never taken off. Partly because it really isn’t much of a “program”, but more so because the church/IAS doesn’t fund it, so it is left scrounging for “donations” but competes against the far better organized, promoted and “glamorous” vultures that sit at the top of the black, leafless church fundraising tree. IAS (who claim credit for anything Criminon does), Ideal Orgs, Planetary Dissemination, CCHR, even Narconon and Applied Scholastics etc etc etc.
So, what is Greg Capazorio doing? Shilling for the IAS in the time honored tradition of IAS Medal Winners. He seems to be closely following the slimy footsteps of Michael Roberts, Jeff Pomerantz and Andrik Schapers. Do an event, attract some interest, help reg some marks and take a 10% commission.
Funny, I was looking through some photos of old IAS Medal Winners recently — so many of them have slipped quietly off into the sunset like Philippe DeHenning, Paul Rood, Julia Migenes, Jane Allen, Gabriele Segalla, Debbie Mace and many more (or like Rena Weinberg and Peter Schless they have been “disappeared”). Wendy Honnor turned into an SP. Rick Pendery showed up getting auditing with a declared SP. Dennis Clark is dying in a hospital or assisted care facility and apparently nobody cares. Nicky Hopkins, Joan Lonstein, Dennis Dubin, Isaac Hayes and Lawrence Anthony died (there may be others). It’s NOT a very impressive display. Even the only winner of the special diamond studded, one of a kind Freedom Medal Of Valor (valor: courage in the face of great danger) for his massive international dissemination and for being the “most dedicated Scientologist David Miscavige knows” has pulled back and no longer “disseminates” at all. (Somewhat ironic — Capazorio is Tom Cruise’s brother-in-law).
And let’s not forget some of the other IAS Freedom winners — the people that moved Ukraine into a civilized democracy, eliminated psychiatry in Italy, saved Indonesia with LRH tech, implemented LRH tech across entire nations of West Africa, brought peace to the Middle East, wiped out psychiatry in Japan, salvaged Venezuela, made Mexican prisons crime-free blah blah blah blah blah. One thing of note is that while the vast majority of scientology activity is in the US, apart from celebrity winners, there have been VERY few Freedom Medal winners for work done IN the US except 9/11 awarded to 2 staff members. This is just off the top of my head. Someone going through all the old award speeches and videos could compile a list of claims made about “changing conditions across a nation” and “salvaging a society” that would put the United Nations to shame. None of it is true.
But hey, that’s old news.
At this time, Gregorio Capazorio owns a property on Indian Rocks Rd Largo that is abandoned yet he is somehow getting homestead designation when he doesn’t live there. Its a shambles boarded up on the backside with an exposed swimming pool . He’s pouring money in to this location at 1872 Indian Rocks Rd Largo, FL in a rumored effort to create a wonderful new Scieno vacation camp out of 2 lots. One lot is empty. The other is this rotting cesspool. Occasionally, there will be lights on at night and you see a woman in there making a bed or something. Otherwise, no people. Bizarre.
COBSCOHB, too. 😀
This is perhaps the best story from an IAS money grubber. http://androvillans.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/ex-scientologist-story-411-confessions-of-an-ias-fundraiser/
Wow, that’s an amazing account and a valuable contribution. Thank you!
Hay Andro!
Can you please email me at alanzo at alanzosblog dot com?
Thanks.
Alanzo
Rick Mycroft, this is COB. You are so wrong, because all of my decisions are rational, and to prove it I just bought rationaldecision.com.and Iamneverirrational.net. So what more proof do you need? And to point up how completely wrong Rinder is I bought itdoesnotsucktobemiscavige.com AND .net. End of story.
If anyone is looking for a nice sounding Internet domain name for their site or blog, 99 RCS domains just expired and dropped into the open market the night before last. The scavengers have already moved in and picked up some with training in the name, but there should be some good ones left
For the list:
http://forums.whyweprotest.net/threads/ive-got-99-problems-but-a-scientology-domain-aint-one-of-them.119954
So… Did someone make a rational decision and drop a bunch of domains that they weren’t using? Or are the ranks of INCOMM so thin that not only was there a hat with no one assigned, but no one left who even knew that the job wasn’t being done? Or did Dangerous Dave order another extended lock-down of INCOMM?
I think “rational decision” can be ruled out, don’t you?
originalauditing.net, orthodoxauditing.net, realauditing.com, reformedtraining.com…
Thank you for that link. There may be some IFA people who would be interested.
There’s a second batch that’ll soon be available if they can’t immediately figure out which empty desk handled Internet registration. In September, if the time machine order falls off, then they start losing important stuff.
Spot on Mike! I can tell you for a fact that Rick Pendery didn’t do the real work in the Mexican prisons for which he got his medal. The whole thing was exaggerated beyond all recognition I am sure but the great work that was actually done was done by a wonderful Mexican gentleman named Jose Diaz. To this day Jose wonders why he didn’t get the medal and thinks it was because he has never been a Scientologist!
Haydn, I have to say, can you write more about this? Or have you already?
“Luckily he always pulls in wives who have money and who are able to support him”.
And I would add, who are willing to support him.
The majority of those serving the cult consistently and full time in some capacity are completely supported by spouses or families.
The Churches of Scientology would have almost no CL V org staff or full time volunteers if such people for any reason withdrew their financial support.
Buuuuaahahaha….
To Dave, staff are chaff.
Now he can say that Class V Org staff are no longer moonlighting – the parents support them instead! Just goes to show that people will still try their best to get this subject moving even if I think they are daft doing so under the circumstances.
IAS – I Advocate Suicide.
When I was growing up in the Christian church there were always stories of God’s miraculous power to save, heal, and deliver. People were cured of cancer, the blind saw, the lame walked, the dead were raised, etc. However, all of these miracles happened overseas where Christians had more faith. Indeed they had “true faith” and stood on the promises in God’s word. These Christians overseas were not materialistic like we lazy Christians in America.
The solution was to get your vaccines and head over as a missionary to preach the Gospel and help villagers with cholera and other dire diseases in war-torn lands. And oh, by the way Brother, you’d better get your Last Will and Testament in order in case you die, get bitten by a deadly snake, or are hacked to death with a machete, strangled, tortured and then shot in the head by the locals while serving Christ in these violent lands where God’s miracles were taking faith because “real faith” had to be practiced.
What’s that you say Brother? You say you’re not ready to get your vaccines, write out your Will, and then head overseas to live in abject poverty and war torn villages to preach the Gospel?
Well then the least you could do is write we in Missions International a big fat check. We’ll do the “heavy lifting” for Jesus over there and put your name on the Honor Roll. That’s the very least you can do to help God.
In all religious frames of reference, the miracles always happen somewhere else.
“I find your lack of faith disturbing.” Darth Vader
I don’t think now days anyone wants to be a Freedom Medal Winner because it’s all a hoax!
I’m a Freedom Medal Sinner.
jswift, Looks like a source of Hubbard’s personal religiosity, poaching of some christian methodology, and disdain for the Christian religion.
I’m not a fan of Greg’s but I am well aware that he worked quite tirelessly with prisoners across the prison sector. He did a lot of volunteer minister work. I personally accompanied him and Liliane Kihm on some of these visits.
His marriage landed in divorce because of his dedication to the “cause”.
Greg isn’t an executive type personality hence his ability to run any program would fail.
His forte was working on the ground at grass root level.
He was doomed to fail. Luckily he always pulls in wives who have money and who are able to support him.
Category: Friends of TC
Jeopardy Statement : There are nasty, rude, non-caring, lying piles of crap, that demand their 10% of out exchange money. Fleecing the sheeple until there is nothing left but a broken life.
ANSWER: Who are IAS regs?
Jeopardy statement: He’s short, he pontificates publicly several times a year, takes no orders, beats up his staff, lives like a king while those around him starve, takes credit for things he hasn’t done, hobnobs with the rich and famous while producing nothing.
Answer: Who is David Miscavige?
“A religion attacked and ridiculed from within itself.”
“What is Scientology?”
Holy shit, just imagine the amount of anal probing / sec checking Greggy Boy had to endure to get approval to marry Tom Cruise’s sister.
Should have warranted a permanent life-time OT Elig approval.
I wonder if he ever wondered why the organization who have him he medal for his work never showed any interest in funding that work. Rather odd.
“First policy: All funding is done by the public.”
From DM notes to a subordinate circa 1996.
‘All funding is done by the public’: that makes sense. For what is Scientology Inc else but a cult for DIY mindcontrol?
To be an ass kisser you need the anal probe.
Maybe, but I think Dave would do better with a colostrum bag around his neck.
Do you mean a colonoscopy bag?
Daniel D,
Maybe the money for his Church work comes from his brother-in-law. Seems like that would work for all concerned: CO$ gets grist for its fake PR, he gets medals and brownie points, TC pays.
I remember when I first heard of this award, I thought it was nice that people get awarded for their hard work. It’s normal, a lot of people get awards in various fields to acknowledge each other for cool stuff. My friend just got an architecture award for a building he did. But of course, with the rcs, the duplicity and oober hype sets in (added inapplicable) and it turns into a joke. The TC one was cheesy and far, far too much and was so offensive, to so many dedicated staff who had years of real service. So TC got rich dancing in his underwear and spread it around a little. BFD!! This is so crass. Another one was a guy in Thailand (I think) who was doing a great job of just helping people and introducing Scn in the region he was living in. The presentation put such a ridiculous spin on it. The difference between what the guy was saying and the hyperbolized narration was huge. The guy even looked embarrassed. This whole thing became a phony PR extravaganza with bells, whistles and clowns and completely lost the human element. God forbid they just give some real facts and thank someone.
David Miscavige, the PT Barnum of popes
🙂 🙂 🙂
I don’t have emoticon tech down.
Please, Mike, give MJ at least the 3 more smiley faces that are so richly deserved…
OMG that really fits MJ!
Yes, indeed!
I have determined that Dave’s community service will be to clean out the elephant cages in the Greatest Show on Earth circus after he gives back all the money he stole.
May be wrong here, but isn’t it almost as dangerous to get a Medal of Honor as it is to be a spokesperson for COS? I would be afraid to be in that person’s shoes. Sort of like the mafia kissing you on the cheek IMHO.
Jane Allen was a good friend of ours for a long time. She has gone completely out of touch. I haven’t heard from her n years. I assume she’s out of the ‘church’ but I have no confirmation of that.
Her older son was married to Abby Juneau’s daughter, Melissa, but he decided one day that he was done with scientology and he split with his wife and left CW.
I sure would love to know how Jane is.
She was ill for quite some time, and I understand she isn’t involved with the church any longer, but I haven’t talked to her since I saw her in hospital sometime before 2000.
In one of my last attended CoS events in Johannesburg, the guest speaker was Capazorio, and the invitation read “Come and hear what Criminon is Planning for the Year Ahead.” OK! A reveal of a future . .
.
Well, the only aspect related to any future, was that Greg was flying back to LA the next week. No mention of the year ahead. No disclosing any plans at all. It was simply an IAS regging event.
.
I concluded after this that Criminon International therefor had no future. And this was backed up by my prior attempts to raise the South African (and African) Criminon activities by creating a new professional web page for them at my cost, with specific email accounts, e-faxes and so on, to create a more professional face to the public. Well – Int Criminon vetoed that!! No – “they were busy doing exactly that”. As of writing this, 3 years later, nothing has happened. Mmmm . . . the definition of an SP comes to mind . . . and who? One Helena some-thing or another at Int who used to be a South African running Criminon here after Capazoria left. (She married a wealthy Scn from Chicago and relocated, I’m told.)
.
So, I have allowed the web domain of CriminonAfrica.Org to expire. Oh – and I would have been the web master to them for free as well. (And yes – I had reserved CriminonXXX.Org for almost every country/region on the planet! (Where XXX was the country name – UK, Germany, Italy, Russia, WUSA, Brazil, and so on . . )
.
I tried to assist to automate the stats reporting system from Africa to int – an Excel system. It would automatically graph results, assign conditions, and the steps to be taken as per policy. But, no. Not acceptable.
.
Hell, I’m not bitching. It was fun to discover how unprofessional ABLE and Criminon was being run, how pathetic the staff were, and that Capazorio and Co couldn’t lead kindergarten kids to a garden party! But more than that, they distinctly exhibited the 1.1 – 1.5 Tone Band’s symptom of stopping activities all around them. And they have – Criminon is dead in SA, as it is around the world.
.
This is such a pity,as the program does produce the desired results for jail inmates.
COB SOP.
Helena Wilson (ex Basil Wilson) was the driving force of Criminon SA….. left for USA and remarried. http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/h/helena-wilson.html
Defrauded by Peter Cooke property scam… another story…
Wasn’t Peter Schless working at Golden Era as a keyboard player for the “Apollo Stars”?
He was in the Golden Era musicians and composed most of the music for the films and videos shot by Gold. He fell into disfavor around 2004 and ended up in the Hole. No idea what happened to him since. An enormous waste of talent.
When it’s mentioned that it sucks to be Miscavige, I can’t help but think about the vampire aspect of the thirsty one.
2004 was 10 years ago. Does that mean Peter Schless has been in the hole for ten years???!!!
The last report I had was late 2012. The Hole was “disbanded” after a lot of negative publicity and the possibility of an FBI raid. But the people were still not allowed to hold a post. They were in sort of a scientology purgatory, though heaven wasn’t on offer, only possible reprieve by COB if he had a need for you again.
I knew Peter – he once tried to recruit me for the Sea Org – I didn’t go for it. He would have been so much better off pursuing his songwriting in Hollywood. I really do feel for the guy. This is some sick shit. The karma police are about to go medieval on little Davie.
And then there is the ever explanatory — blah blah blah blah 🙂
Had to chuckle on that one Mike. Even made it into a post.
Windhorse
In your honor Christine. 🙂
MJ you are too funny.I heard they are coming up for a cure for the common cold, never befor done in the history of the universe.
But, but, but…CLEARS DON’T GET COLDS! They’re immune from WOG diseases! Even cancer! Although why members on the upper levels still get and die from cancer is a mystery to me. Hey, maybe they were PTS to the upper levels! Yeah, yeah, that’s it…
Drink two cups of kool-aid and call me in the morning.
They will need all that Kool Aide for their humanitarian efforts in Lagos. No doubt the IAS will be called upon to bring their clears to town to stop the pandemic. EVERYONE KNOWS that the $cientologists who are clear are immune ……. right Davey?
“Drink two cups of kool-aid and call me in the morning.”
With a credit card number…….
Shit, I forgot thanks.
As usual very witty presentation of the PR that has been used for years to portray an image of expansion when, in fact, there is death and desertion left, right and center…and of course, a straight up and vertical disaster.
To match the disaster of DM’s leadership. Tony posted and interesting article from the BBC where a survey reports only 25,000 Scientologists in the US whereas, in 2001, the same survey reported 55,0000. It sucks to be DM.
Silvia, nice post! But, at this point in time, they’re probably down to no more than 15,000 member in the U.S. And how many of those fly under the radar because they have family or friends still in, I don’t know. But, that number seems to be growing too. I think the Pasadena Idle Morgue has been around for, what, 4 years now? More? As someone who keeps an eye on that morgue, I see different staff members EVERY TIME I go up there. NO ONE is outside to body route. All they have is a sign that says, of course, FREE PERSONALITY TEST. Their level of confront has bottomed out, I guess. All one has to do is go on YouTube and type in “scientology.” . It’s about 98% against the cult. Just overwhelming negative information on them. Kind of like a Tsunami of bad press.
When I have seen them set up near the Apple Store on Colorado B’lvd, there are hundreds and hundreds of people with ZERO interest in joining a loser CULT.
It’s a form of RELIGIOUS SHUNNING…the good kind.
” Some South African friends told me Capazorio was not even the primary mover for what was done…”
In Peter Bonyai’s must read recent book (Hungarian OTL history, excellent book, on Amazon kindle), and in Mark Fisher’s Jeff Augustine interview part 1, the shifting of praise to some individuals is an unfortunate skill of some people.
One week before the collapse of Nazi Germany Hitler was handing out Iron Crosses.
Didn’t the IAS stop World War 2?
Not only that, MJ, but they stopped the Zombie Apocalypse with their sooper dooper powers. However, they are threatening to dry up all the oceans if Teegeeack doesn’t accept them as their rulers.
Next stop ….Ferguson, Missouri
To the child soldiers that were his last line of defense…
OSD,
Same deal with D.M.
IAS Medal Winner Paul Rood is still active for the church. After a seriously mental breakdown he is working for CCHR and Narcanon. He was seen In the IAS event of 2012 where he got credits for things he didn’t done. (The whole event about CCHR Holland was a big lie because every announcement was far behind the truth.) He also still uses his Medal Winner status to get money for several projects where the church is involved.
You make some fantastic points, Mike. Out of curiosity, has a former IAS reg ever spoken up or shared his or her story of what it was like to milk the public?
I only know the story of registrar Hy Levy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-IoOe5Lx8w
Sindy (Cynthia) Fagen tells the IAS Reg story. Here’s a short snippet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7onFMyc45U
Dollar, that would be fantastic! I hope one shows up on this blog.
Thanks hansje and Panda. Very useful and informative videos.