It’s Saturday and Terra Cognita is in the house.
High Crime and the Cost of Scientology
If LRH had really wanted to save the planet as quickly as possible, why did he make his “tech” so expensive? And therefore, so inaccessible to so many? If the world was going to hell in a handbasket, why charge Scientologists—tasked with saving the planet—hundreds of thousands of dollars? Why not just give them the “tech” and allow them to get to work bailing out our little rock?
How ethical would it be to charge individuals a hundred grand for a vaccine to inoculate themselves against a plague decimating mankind? Of course, if you were a board member of a Bayer…yeah, you’d go along with the price structure. Reminds me of people selling water for $10 a bottle in storm-ravaged Houston.
We can’t talk about religion and money without talking about the highest-priced faith-based organization in the world: the Church of Scientology. One thing for sure: it’s not for the poor. Nor even for the middle class. Scientology is for the able—financially able, that is—and If you want to get to the top of the Bridge and “go free,” then you’d better be in pretty damned good financial shape. Or be related to someone who is—or was. (At the least, you’d better quit your teaching job and start selling high-priced MEST.)
The Numbers, Please
Different numbers have been tossed around about what it costs to fully go up the Scientology Bridge. I’ve heard $200,000. I’ve heard $300,000. My spouse said it costs closer to a half mil for someone to hit OT 8. Part of it depends on the PC.
Some require lots and lots of auditing—both for their lower levels and once they reach “OT.” Some people complete OT 7 in two or three years. Others take a decade. The “L’s,” the False Purpose Rundown, “confessionals,” the “alternate” route to “clear,” and having to redo all one’s training all add to the cost.
[Ed note: Today few people complete OT VII in under 10 years — you have to audit more than Ron did — and with six months checks required, often requiring two intensives of Flag Class IX auditing, that is about $40,000 per year, not including cost of travel, accommodations, the cost of C/Sing or the cost of the level itself. Solo NOTs is the gift that keeps on taking]
Two New Levels! Oh, Boy!
I can’t wait to see what OT 9 and 10 will cost. Or should I have said, I can’t wait to see what DM will charge for them? I wonder if these new rundowns will be one shot deals like OT 8, or whether, like OT 7, they’ll require years of solo-auditing accompanied by biannual sec-checks at Flag. Maybe he’ll devise some sort of combo. Or better yet, maybe Scientology will begin issuing their own credit cards.
I wouldn’t be surprised if DM has plans to build a whole new complex to handle the “massive” influx of OT 8s these monumental releases will generate.
WISE… or Not
As a business model, the Church of Scientology is huge failure. As a scam to fleece people out of their money…it’s been slightly more successful. Presumably it’s amassed—pocketed—billions of dollars over the years. I tried confirming these figures but apparently lacked the correct Swiss PIN numbers.
Terra Math
The average American makes about $50,000 per year. For those in the UK: 25-30,000 pounds. Australians average around $44,000 per year. But let’s look at discretionary income, which loosely defined, is what’s left over after paying for all of life’s necessities: food, housing, utilities, taxes, transportation, clothing, medical, the new Star Trek movie, etc. Discretionary income doesn’t include setting aside for retirement, education, reserves, and other “electives.”
Per the American Bureau of Labor and Statistics, those between the ages of 25 and 34 (prime candidates for delving into Scientology) earn an average of $59,002 per year. Their average expenditures come to $48,087. The difference between these two figures would be roughly their discretionary income: $10,915.
If it costs $300,000 to reach OT 8, and if one could flow $10,000 per year to pay toward Scientology, it would take 30 years to get to the top of the Bridge ($300,000/$10,000=30).
More Math: The population of the world is 7.5 billion. If the church convinced half of them to buy the full Bridge for $10, Scientology would make $37.5 billion dollars right off the bat. Which isn’t a bad paycheck. They might even put a few people in their “ideal org” course rooms.
But I Like Teaching Kids
The overwhelming majority of jobs don’t pay enough for people to play Scientology. Saving people’s lives as a cop, fireman, or nurse? As an EMT or Green Beret? Forget going up the Bridge. Teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic to kids? Carpentry, cutting hair, driving a bus? Sorry, Scientology is not for you. Punching the clock at Walmart, Trader Joe’s, or Starbucks? Yeah, right.
You ain’t ever gonna hear this from the Reg, but very few jobs pay well enough to afford Scientology. Not to worry. If you’ve ever sat in a Scientology registrar’s office, I guarantee you’ve been told that, “This next level will make you so much more able, the money will flow your way!”
And for you students, “Scientology is cheaper than college. And what you gain is a thousand times more valuable.”
If you didn’t have the cash, you may have :
Taken out a new mortgage on your home.
Cashed out your retirement accounts.
Stripped your pensions.
Dipped into your inheritances.
Sold assets: cars, land, real estate, Picassos, the family jewels.
Took out a business loan.
Increased the spending limits on your credit cards, maxed them out, and then signed up for new ones.
Put off having kids. Or forwent having them altogether. (You’ll have plenty of future lifetimes for playing mommy and daddy.)
Quit the job you loved—gave up your purpose in life—in favor of selling expensive MEST.
Signed up for a multi-level business, guaranteed to make you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Regs were always too happy to help you make any of these happen.
Last Words
If LRH really believed that Scientology was the world’s only chance at salvation, to charge as much as he did was a crime against humanity.
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
How can anything calling itself a church honestly ask members to pay those kinds of prices? I go to any regular church and speak to a priest for spiritual advice it doesn’t cost a penny. Even if these voluminous materials really are amazing “tech” why doesn’t the church make it affordable. It is crystal clear that hearing all the latest survivor stories that it was just relentless pressure on the regs to sell,sell,sell and parishioners who feel they have to agree when the church show up at their house and won’t leave have to constantly donate. Oh and oops we made a mistake you now have to repurchase all the basic books back catalogue because of a semi colon being in the wrong place I mean it’s so transparent what they are doing constantly repackaging their services and all the rediculous membership fees. I saw one story where the guy gave 30 years of service and over a million dollars but the second he couldn’t give any more or he would have been in debt was written up because he could have “handled his debts in a year or two and given us more”. I mean it is just disgusting! The sea org members who are doing manual labor 50 hours a week and being paid 40 bucks and being feed slop are actually slapped with a freeloader bill when they leave? Scientology should be the ones paying the freeloader bill. Imagine how much money they save by not paying staff and all the work that is done in Scientology like renovations or building work or training is done in-house so they have bare minimum wage costs, the staff sleep in buildings owned by the church yet which ever org they work for has to pay rent! The org that Aaron Levin smith worked for paid 5,000 a week rent to house the SO members and it also worked out that the money used to feed them per week worked out at 80 cent per meal that’s less than prison inmates! But the worst thing I’ve seen is the policy of declaring members SP’s if they try to get a refund. Everything is designed to extract money that’s it. This church may have some decent members or even some decent programs however most of what they are doing is criminal and I can’t believe they are able to commit these acts so flagrantly citing it under religious freedom. They need to lose their tax exempt status now.
Any chance I can be anonymously contacted? I feel I am in a dangerous situation just now. Thanks so much for being there.
I really wish I knew somebody that would put up the money to let me join Scientology as an undercover operative and to report about what it is it’s being said what it is it’s being done cuz I’m totally fascinated by the lunacy of the human beings that get involved I mean what’s their mindset I but I don’t feel sorry for them at all how could they be so stupid I haven’t had a Fascination about it four years having met L Ron Hubbard as a child and having read Dianetics and been to their office in Hollywood but any person that’s going to tell me to give up everything about my life that I like and enjoy and give up all my money I look at them and tell him there are goddamned idiot you know what you can go do with yourself I love my family I love my money I just don’t understand it at all
It’s called incremental changes. you don’t go in and they say “Abandon your family now!”. That is years down the road.
You also don’t get onto the OT levels in 2 months (unless you’re really rich). It takes time to indoctrinate yourself into the mindset. You believe the answers the CO$ are providing are real, and you are surrounded by people who (appear) to believe the same. You are slowly worked into a mindset where what you are being asked to do is normal and right.
Mny get in wanting to make themselves and their world better. The hell comes later, when they trapped themselves inside.
You going “undercover” wouldn’t work. You would be outed in a heartbeat by your own words and actions, and banned from any future courses as a PTS.
How can wealthy people who are usually smarter than the average individual with their money and how they utilize it be duped into believing this with all the information there is out there against Scientology you would think they would do their homework before investing Like Consulting their lawyers or their money management firms or speak to people that are in Scientology and people that aren’t involved with Scientology at all how can they be so stupid I just don’t get it
Wonder how lrh is liking being in hell.
Simply sad how so many people believed all this, truly believing they can clear the planet. So glad that Mike & Leah are finally exposing the truth.
The best comment I ever heard about the cost of $cientology was in the two-hour interview Jason Beghe gave several years ago. Follow the link below and go to 1:24:25 (though you should start a minute or two prior to get the context):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHb0BZyF5Ok
The first time I listen to this interview I was blown away because here was one of the celebrity $cientologists who had done both sides of the bridge and could speak meaningful about the outpoints most everyone sees these days.
One thing that would probably bug me if I were inside the Clamshell – why doesn’t the CoS pay people doing central files and stuff at the org with auditing hours? If auditing is awesome, why not use it in exchange for mowing the org lawn or other services around the idle morgue?
This post reminds me of the time I scraped up 90,000 for the L rundowns.
Stable exteriorization – what’s that all about??
Supposedly the Ls auditors are the bomb ditty – the most trained etc.
I look back – dangit, I could have bought a Ferrari.
But still, I am stoked with the experience of it all. There was some very deep personal stuff dealt with. Some mega releif, mixed feelings, and … unfortunately blackness when I closed my eyes.
🙁
When I later found my own path to full exteriorization, and what I would consider the level of 0t8, there were no regrets.
Coming back down, is freaky!! Like freakish empowerment, life energy overload, and strangely vulnerable.
I can truly see why Ron went through setting up what he set up. Except the money part WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?
In his scio-brain, I imagine that he had some equation of long term benefit of letting greed and corruption gain hold, and then getting fully exposed, overtaken, to never return. But I really don’t know. The cost hurts.
Sadly, i’m still in the financial hole.
On another note- the spiritual freedom aspect – I can truly see why other people would want to shut that down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its real folks. And some people may be afraid of being exposed, or of the truth.
The church, stolen, tweaked, manipulated, truncated, re-designed to fail.
Good thing we’re all growing up together. Noone left behind. No hell. No darkness for eternity. I don’t know, i’m just commenting this sunday morning. No church routine that i’ve adopted, just kind of winging it.
Assalamualaikum
Hi M8, do you have any hints for the rest of us re exteriorization?
Spike, M8 is completely delusional. Still damaged goods from scamology. Heard his rant before.
Thanks, Wynski.
Hi Spike, happy Labor Day. As Wynski says, i’m completely delusional. Still damaged goods from scamology. So, no, i have no hints to give you. But I can tell you some highlights of the adventure. I basically lost hope in the church 4 years ago, completely, and left to a far away land. Forgot about all of it as I found nature and loads of beauty. Got a memory foam and took it to a high mountain creek. Began to dial in mental discernment of everything – as at first it was quite a mental process. Layers and levels of mind began to open up. Top chakra blow out – as its called – happened. I think nutrition helps, as these days our food is depleted- taking vitamins and superfood seems to help. Just remember that YOU are the top authority. People can try to guide you, or advise, but finding what is true is 100% your responsibility. Also, the spiritual exteriorization i’m referring to was a lot different from what I had come to understand in the church. At first I thought, great I’ll pop out into the physical universe and see things with spirit eyeballs. What I experienced was very very great love, reconnecting with people thousands of miles away and seeing things in a whole new light. It was such a reconnection with my source that I felt totally satisfied and have since gone out of practice. Sometimes there are random experiences that are phenomenal and spiritually satisfying. When going out, out, out, there may be little things down here that nag you to come back in. Like pain, unresolved issues, whateva. So i’m just laying low, trying to be a whole person. One more thing- when raising up to the top, you might feel like god. I think this is natural, when you become one with god. There are so many different experiences I could talk about, but all I can say is good luck brother.
Thanks for sharing the highlights of your journey, M8. Maybe when I retire, I’ll find some high mountains to hike into. Being in nature and having lots of space is very rewarding. P.S. I’m a ‘Sista’.
Haha word!
and don’t forget, for those who somehow managed to go all the way to the top of The Bridge to Total Bullshit, there was one last little item to keep those $$$$$$ coming in – THE BODY THETANS KEEP COMING BACK and you have to keep auditing them from time to time. Say what you want about Hubbard, (OK, he was a rotten teeth insane cigarette addicted retard) he put together a great con for money that made it’s foolish followers keep on paying and paying and paying
Don’t forget to sign and share the petition to revoke Scientology’s IRS status.
https://www.change.org/p/irs-commissioner-john-koskinen-we-demand-the-irs-commissioner-begin-an-investigation-into-scientology-s-tax-exempt-status?recruiter=762529174&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=130363
Thxs for the link just signed it.
I’ve watched & read numerous articles about CoS & Sea Org ppl working 100 hr work weeks….what is everybody doing that is so critical & time consuming that they work from 8am to like 2-3am the next day….what the heck is everyone “working” on? Thursday Stats that represent what?
They’ve got to keep working long hours with little sleep so they can disengage their prefrontal cortex and not think.
Yeah, it’s just another form of control. If you do any research on cults, sleep deprivation comes up as a tactic to keep you in line with the cause.
Yet another dear Leader..:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/internet-rips-joel-osteen-slow-185116980.html
“I can’t wait to see what OT 9 and 10 will cost.” Are you being sarcastic? These levels don’t even exist. Don’t hold your breath waiting…
$cientology is like a Ponzi scheme in that the “next level” is the one that will handle all those things the previous levels didn’t, only that the “next level” doesn’t handle them either. I think $cientologists are really good at deluding themselves into think that because they want to believe that the “tech” will handle all their problems. LRH, at the end of his life, considered himself a failure. Don’t hold your breath on him coming back either.
The real OT 9 is suicide. That’s what LRH’s last OT “research” is. That’s what he was asking for; suicide by electroshock.
No doubt LRH finally found a 100 percent standard tech method for total exteriorization with full perception; electrocution; suicide. When you apply this, it has a standard result everytime. It has precedent. Just ask wardens who pull the switch at a death sentence. Its 100 percent standard.
The original OT 8 is knowledge of Ron being the anti Christ.
These are the final legacy of L Ron Hubbard; wishing to kill himself while auditing space aliens ? and OT8 as Ron the Anti Christ.
Could there be any other info to secure knowledge of Ron as a loon? Only the Prison of Belief could deny and occlude this fact.
Yes Brian, but how much would it cost?
Your life
This was posted by a man who was caught up in the disaster known as Harvey which I’m sure you are familiar with. I thought you might find his encounter interesting…
So another day in the can. The last text was from yesterday and we have been having a bad phone day down here. It’s amazing how adaptable people r. I can see little routines forming. HEB in the morning, noon and night. Ok I’m being shallow. I finally lost it today. It was late and no more gas in Town so I had to run into Portland to get some. As I’m filling up at the local Smackers, two vans drive up filled w these people in clean yellow shirts w big signs on the doors that read, “Scientology Disaster Relief. I’m just sitting there watching these folks. They have no food, tools or medical supplies. Not a one of them looked like they worked a day in their lives. So after fueling I grab my phone and walk up to take a shot for my scrapbook. Will Mr holy pants wings open the door w some Shit eating grin on his face and says, hi, can I help you? No I said, u people are so full of shit! I wish I would have photographed his face. Why that’s why we drove 1000 miles to help you, he blurted back. Help us do what, burn in Hell, I said. Bella my dog barked before I could made a further fool of myself. It just felt so good to dump on a van of poor helpless cocks. If they had been pulling a trailer of water, but we know what they’re selling. Anyway where’s Tom Cruse when you need him.
Thank all of you for the love you send us everyday. It is so appreciated. Down to 4% so I need to post. One last thing. No more devastation photos. The story is about the the people. The town has just been humming all day. It’s been another blessed day. Love you all. Harry Boyd
Priceless!
Clean clothes, no supplies.. why do they always look like they’re just going for a nice day at the beach instead of providing “disaster” relief.
You made my day sir! Thanks.
Excellent rundown! I saw a youtube from the St. Pete Times for a guy that spent over $300K for a year of CoS “services” while in Clearwater. At the end of the piece it quotes CoS saying that asking for donations is appropriate for churches and that they do it in a respectful way.
But actually, a lot of their tactics sound like same high-pressure, manipulative and deceptive practices that are illegal in financial investing and can cause people to lose their licenses. It works the same way for typical non-profits – you can lose your tax-exempt status that way. It’s not considered ethical to raise money with those tactics.
Unfortunately, as a country, we have exempted all religions from those same strategies which is why we have rich and predatory television evangelists who live in multi-million dollar homes but don’t have the decency to open their doors to flood victims or even pay for the expenses of ministering to them.
Until we get that problem fixed, or CoS declared something other than a religion, we are stuck with it.
However, I would think a good defense against CoS ragging on Leah and Mike and everyone else about “doing it for the money” would be to counter with their own unethical practices of earning a living. Someone like DM who rakes in an inordinate amount of cash on overpriced “services” he uses predatory and unethical sales tactics to generate has no business criticizing anyone else for how they do or do not make a living. One thing those “prosperity preachers” aren’t stupid enough to do is expose their hypocrisy by criticizing how others earn a living. After all, that’s part of being “successful”. Making fun of the rest of the world and charging money for the privilege of “clearing” them of its evils. They figure it would be silly to expose their own greater hypocrisy by even drawing a parallel.
This A&E show criticizing CoS doesn’t have a subscription cover charge with a scale that increases every time you hear a new episode exposing what it has done or interviewing a new person. They don’t ask anybody in the public to pledge money to support their venture. We don’t get high-pressured into recruiting new audience members or extorting them for money like some pyramid scheme. We all get the same access to the info whether or not we support their work. They don’t flip their shit if people ask questions or criticize them, or hit them with vindictive political “fair game” tactics taken out of old Cold War spy novels or particularly nasty political campaign strategies.
CoS makes a lot of its money by saying the world is an awful, evil place and only they have the answer to its woes, while making their “salvation” only reasonably available to rich people. Most materialistic religious leaders quickly find out however, that truly rich people are able to function in an evil world without having to spend such inordinate amounts of cash, so they frequently have to target those less fortunate, while promising their particular brand of salvation will somehow change their ability to pay for it with “special powers”.
In the Middle Ages, the Catholic church was under great scrutiny and fire for doing pretty much the same thing – selling “beneficences” – getting people to pay for salvation in their afterlife by buying “holy artifacts” and such. That kind of corruption was a big reason the Protestant movement and Reformation began. And religious leaders in some of those same Protestant sects have come under fire over the last century for doing similar things – selling overpriced condos and seminars, etc. Packaging and marketing “salvation”. Acting more like a profitable business than a church.
In addition to all the horrible abuses this organization gets by with that NO public, corporate or even tax-exempt organization could expect to escape prosecution for, CoS is probably one of the most financially predatory schemes on the planet, and even if none of the other horrible things it has done occurred, it should certainly be under great scrutiny for those. Pressuring people to bankrupt themselves to support the profligate lifestyles of a few is pretty much the universal definition of evil. If they want to insist they have that fight, fine. But they need to stfu about how any former member earns a dime. They cannot hold up to any kind of reasonable comparison, given how low their own standards are.
I hope that their members (and members of any predatory organization) can begin to see the great disconnect between words/ideology and actions/behavior. Because there should never be a giant chasm between the two in ANY faith or business or government. We should all stop listening and just start watching sometimes. Actions DO speak volumes louder than words.
Cece, re: your paragraph about the Middle Ages and corruption. Yes, I have thought the same, especially when COS apologists use the Catholic Church to defend COS. It was a long time ago, yet medieval practices are still happening, under the guise of religious freedom. Imo, never-in, lurker for a little over a year, the Sea Org is no different than serfdom, keeping people indentured, indebted, enslaved, while promising freedom. Pretty ironic, for a futuristic ideology.
Thanks Gravity! (et al) – corruption can happen in any religion, but at least it generally takes a few centuries. This one started its scam right out of the gate – and I think it was pretty much LRH’s original intention to not only legitimize his patchwork plagiarism of an ideology but to monetize it (and apparently weaponize it).
Like any malignant narcissist, once the courts refused to recognize his “tech” in the early days as legitimate, and the psychiatric world was less than overwhelmed, he went into high miffed mode and protected selling his little scheme by turning it into a religion (tax exempt benefits, yay!) and sunk all kinds of revenge-bucks into hating on the psychiatric field (you notice he only goes after the practitioners and not Big Pharma, even though a lot of his criticism involves the drugs they make and sell).
In many ways, it probably would have been better if that had never happened. If he had just been allowed to be another failed for-profit “self-help” infomercial scheme that fizzled out and went bankrupt because most people were unimpressed. But by turning it into a religion – and then militarizing it – he escaped that humiliation and insisted on and received blind devotion for his claims.
Probably the scariest difference is that most corrupt religions tend to pay off their critics instead of following them around like rabid dogs and harassing them with smear campaigns. The only voluntary exception I can think of is when CoS bought out an anti-cult organization and started redirecting interested parties that called or visited the website to their own “counselors” without telling the public what was going on. Sneaky, sneaky way to confuse and silence critics, by pretending to be a friendly. But I guess you can expect that behavior from an “All Bets Are Off” organization that behaves more like a psychopathic Mean Girl than a place for spiritual growth.
Note: Cece is not the same as Cecy. Just saying as today, as fortunate as I am, a friend thought was now CecyBeans. (I’d love to met him/her) 🙂
sorry if my name created confusion for you, as you clearly preceded me in this group!
Brilliant comments … found myself nearly cheering. LOVE ALL OF WHAT YOU WROTE, cecybeans!!
Bravo!!! Excellent commentary. I concur, it would be so very enlightening and revelatory for the uninitiated to view a small segment of the financial shenanigans of Scientology via and Aftermath episode. A simulated reg-cycle would be so amazing!
Cecybeans,
There is nothing in the Constitution about government not taking a church’s money. The “separation of church and state” is not literally even in the Constitution, nor in the Bill of Rights. That is just an established social/legal stand developed over the last couple hundred years based on lawyers and academics various writings and interpretations of the First Amendment. Congress can pass a law any time they decide to do so removing the tax-exempt status of any group or organization they want. However, it’s clear that no member of Congress would in any way want to touch this issue!
However, actual crimes are not covered in any way. And there are surely many of those going on!
Amendment I. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
IMHO – Often referenced, but misinterpreted (even by the SC). The Amendment originally intended, I believe, to prevent the government from dictating religious practices or prohibiting them.
Again thegman77, the NOT taking of taxes doesn’t hinge on religiosity. But upon non-profit status. I can form a religion, perhaps revolving around the Eleusinian Mysteries. While it would indeed be a religion, it’s practice would not make it tax exempt.
The origin of the tax exempt “deal” in general for churches arose when the congress came up with the idea of an unconstitutional tax rule vis-a-vis the pulpit being banned from talking politics. In exchange, no taxes. No one wants to touch it because if the taxes are broadly applied all those churches would storm the SCotUS and that no politics in the pulpit rule would fall faster house of cards in a hurricane. And the Party pulling the deal would be “dealt out” in churches across the nation.
THANKS Wynski ! I am always grateful for the education afforded me by the excellent contributors to this forum, such as yourself. You are appreciated.
It is called the Johnson Amendment (even though it is a law).
It restricts any 503(c) organization (charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary,, etc.) from directly or indirectly supporting or opposing political candidates or donating money to a political candidate. It is not applied only to religions, it is all c3 organizations.
It is not, as Wynski opines, “unconstitutional”. It has survived multiple challenges. But evangelicals, libertarians and many right / conservative organizations want to repeal it, on the grounds that it inhibits free speech. Pres, Trump is working to dismantle it, but as it is a law, Congress must act to abolish it.
…and Thank You ‘Six’! Honestly, being part of Mike’s online community is like going back to school. I have learned more about different theologies, philosophy, law, history and sociology than I ever would have imagined. My gratitude to all contributors here.
I didn’t mean to imply that the government formalized its stance on separation of church and state – that was read into the intention, however, by the secular nature of many founding fathers who definitely did not want to repeat some of the problems experienced in Europe with state religions, particularly since many of them either avoided organized religion or were agnostic.
That intention was preserved – to keep private or corporate money out of politics for the most part – at the advent of the IRS statutes when it was formed a century later, although private foundations have been circumventing this since the beginning of the 20th century – (and most recently it is in danger of being amended so that religious and charitable organizations WILL be able to openly take political stances – a move that is backed by the religious right in this country).
Because of that broad definition – and because nobody wants to be seen “persecuting” charitable 501c3 organizations defined as religions by getting involved with that status – the government has often left them alone. However, IRS audit rules do apply. I have often wondered how and why CoS has escaped more scrutiny, other than the fact that they are so aggressive they make it very expensive to examine them at all. Or maybe they have some well-placed individuals with influence on the inside, I’ve heard rumors.
(see Restrictions section in link)
https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/churches-religious-organizations/special-rules-limiting-irs-authority-to-audit-a-church
I have a question, I just came across a foundation set up by John Travolta…the Jett Travolta Foundation which is a non-profit organization that helps kids with special needs. Does this not go against Scientology teachings?
No Daryn, there in nothing about that in the CoS
Bottom line: one pays enormous amounts of money to be treated like shit, yelled at, sometimes physically/sexually abused, needs ignored, to eat poorly, to be pitted against family and friends, to be lied to, to learn to discriminate against other religions/races etc, to be separated from family, to earn an income below poverty level, to be spied on, to be threatened to ultimately be taught that you are a space alien.
Sign me up!
It’s a small step from drinking kool-aid to eating bullshit.
I am so stealing this! What a great line!
?
ooohhhh… me, too… me, too!!!
i just read Leah Remini’s book “Troublemaker,” in which she says that over the years she spent some $2 million on her Bridge and another $3 million in donations to the IAS and suchlike.
I guess only Leah herself is evil to the point of being toxic,,,, her money is just fine thank you very much.
Cof$: Thanks for the 5 million Remini. Now, fuck off.
Our side’s petition has just passed the Cult’s petition to “Stop Leah.”
Our side’s petition to the IRS is at 6158 signatures and climbing steadily every day.
The Cult’s petition to “Stop Leah” has 6122 signatures some of which are duplicates. Anons and Bunkeroos have also signed in order to post comments to Scilons.
Looks like a “small group of unemployed bloggers on the fringes of the internet” is larger than Scientology, the world’s fastest growing religion with 12,000,000 members scattered across all the continents of the world and whose “world’s largest all volunteer relief organization” has about 50 people in areas affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Please share and sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/irs-commissioner-john-koskinen-we-demand-the-irs-commissioner-begin-an-investigation-into-scientology-s-tax-exempt-status
This made my day; thank you!
As of GAT II release in November of 2013, Flag Intensives of auditing for set-ups and for 6 month check sec checks cost 5000.00 each. They used to 8300.00 each or thereabouts.
All and sundry push the idea that you can “get by on one int a year”, one int for two 6 month checks, but this isn’t really the case most of the time. I’ve heard of the random few getting through a check in 6 hours or less.
But even if you had to use one full Intensive per 6 month check, this is ten grand a year.
The six-month C/Sing time was 1800. X 2 per year = 3600.00
…
prices may have changed in the last bit, as my ear is no where near to the ground anymore, but I don’t think so.
…
I’m not disputing the insane amounts, merely adding what I experienced.
…
I’m thoroughly disgusted at the amount of money my spouse and I put on the bridge. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands. barf.
Thanks, TC. Another fantastic post as usual.
I’m so glad I never fully drank the koolaid, was never willing to compromise on living decently, was never rich enough to do much of anything bridge wise, and remained a fencesitter for so many years.
Still feel like I need to hide by using different emails, having a mailbox address and using aliases online.
Now, how do I get them to stop abusing my privacy by finding my phone number and calling me? I shouldn’t have to do any of these things.
Nothing but a big scam so LRH could live the good life, Anyone, especially visible celebrities that support the sexual abuse of children needs to be boycotted and cut off from making any money at all. I speak about T,C., John T. and the rest of the people that support this abusive corrupt institution.
I have already started that since reading mike & Tony’s for the last year.I refuse to watch ANY of their movies.Also,I’ve never even liked krusty or Jenna elfman EVER.Their personalities make them ugly.never cared for their acting,either.
How much auditing you “need” depends on the size of your bank account. The more money you have, the more auditing you “need.”
Terra, you amaze me, this is a really good article. You are the dichotomy Scientology as a organisation or its adherents can never fathom, or better stated, will hate with a passion. They detest and are threatened by anyone able enough to honestly evaluate statistics, workability and conclude motives. Conversely, this to me is precisely the point Hubbard had when he experienced his “eureka” moment years ago and everything he based his burgeoning organisation/policy/tech on was then researched into a disabling lie (and boy didn’t the money roll in because of the subterfuge!) In my opinion the tech doesn’t and has never done what it claims it does but in the right hands produces a beneficial thing similar to the value of confiding a problem to a good friend and then working out a solution either singularly or together. The blind trust expected and demanded you must have in your auditor/CS or organisationally for staff, your exec, is depended upon heavily but was perverted to such a degree it needs to be redefined beyond mere treason. The OT levels are pure fiction designed to keep you handing over the $ despite all the evidence they don’t work, pretty remarkable con really.
Scientology is its own dichotomy, it didn’t have a natural enemy in life so Hubbard dreamed one up. Think about it, you old timers especially. After a good session, who/what was your biggest threat to kill the FN? The reges endless demand for money – the Bridge, IAS, WISE, WTH et al, the statistical hunger execs, the recruiters hounding you incessantly, the, ‘you need to get trained’ by the DofT, sup etc? You weren’t and are never allowed to be you. The PTS tech in essence was a “look how bad it all is out there… you need more & more Scientology to handle that (look how many times you were ordered to redo the PTS/SP course). That tech poisoned you against things such as your own family, friends, work colleagues etc. and diverted all your energy back to Scientology. Scientology was never a substitute for life but they demanded you treat it as such, billion year contracts, doomsday KSW series and all.
If one develops the ability or naturally has the ability to become more able, it is exampled by the type of person who can see what Scientology actually does to maintain itself and its delusions. Similar observations can be made for politics, militarism, finance & bankers and a host of other potential boom/bust catastrophes – but that’s life! Scientology is part of the problem but a good look at it as above done by Terra is a useful guide map to how to avoid it and or it helps how to live with such bullshit.
Wow, just wow. So well said. Terra Cognita brings it again. Give up on a career, become a staff member or SO, I think was missed, or maybe I just missed it. But very well said nevertheless. Great post.,llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll/ – sorry, that last bit was Jackson the cat, but it was free and he loves me!
Excellent rundown of the finances! People think that if something is really expensive, then it is inherently better. That’s what advertising is all about, and that’s what LRon worked so well to his advantage.
“If the world was going to hell in a handbasket, why charge Scientologists—tasked with saving the planet—hundreds of thousands of dollars? Why not just give them the “tech” and allow them to get to work bailing out our little rock?”
Well, from the scientological perspective, giving away valuable goods and services to folks who haven’t earned them is doing them a disservice by putting them into an “out-exchange” condition. So, even if you had the best, most charitable, of intentions there, what you’re really doing is harming them instead of helping them…so, Elron commanded, “Don’t do it!”
Fair enough, if Elron said it, then it must be true, right? But what about all those poor, overworked, impoverished and mistreated $ea Org staff who don’t exactly rocket up the bridge to Infinity and Beyond? If you’re really gung ho on becoming an Oatee super powered thetan this lifetime, then joining the $ea Org is a very poor choice indeed, because very few of these poor duped and degraded dog’s bodies ever get anywhere near their Eternities.
By the time they’ve been in for just ten years, $ea Ogres would have earned approx. $500K if they’d just been paid a measly $10 per hour (14 hrs. per day X 7 days per week X 50 weeks per year X 10 years = 49,000 total hours worked). So, even at that very low monetary value placed on their work, these folks have more than put in their exchange and deserve to be shot up the bridge like they had rockets strapped to their backs!
But that rarely happens. Instead, the folks who’ve given their all for the cult — and often for much longer than just ten years — have next to nothing to show for it…no money, no MEST, no retirement fund, no health care and no Oatee super powers to show for it either!
It’s crystal clear that the cherch is supremely out of exchange with its most dedicated, loyal and hard-working employees…and that’s NOT an accident, that’s what REAL suppression looks like!
If auditing truly works better than Peter’s Pecker Oil, then why not train up a whole bunch of these very inexpensive $ea Org staff and get everyone up the bridge quick, so they can exponentially expand the cherch and finally clear, just like Elron intended?
There’s only three reasons that I can think of there which could explain this very non-optimum, out-exchange situation of long duration:
1. Lil davey is the biggest Super SP that’s ever been on $cn’s lines in its entire history.
2. $cn auditing doesn’t work and there are no Oatee super powers.
3. Both 1 and 2 are true.
I’m going with #3 myself, but you be judge there 😉
And yet, undaunted by all this, scientology keeps promoting “Ron” as man’s best friend and a great humanitarian. The organization keeping man’s only hope from humanity is made up of the “most ethical” folks. Etc. etc. etc. Orwellian!
Such a knot in the stomach topic Terra: money and Scientology. Great article!
Just recently I observed, in myself, the effects of equating money with my spiritual welfare.
In Scientology, when I wanted to better myself and find truth and wisdom, my mind would always go to how am I going to make money. I was never one of those who had the money. It was a constant stressful want; money and how to make it.
I sold door to door, selling music boxes and laser prints and gave all of it to Scientology.
When the prices started going up in the eighties it was like getting punched in the stomach. That which I couldn’t afford now became less affordable. How would I ever go free and save the universe? Complete horse shit.
The worst of this Scientology money scam was me equating my own self worth and success in spiritual enlightenment with money.
It is really the opposite. Spiritual life is the inner life. Cultivating self knowledge by going within; the truth is within us.
But in Scientology, you find the “truth” by going outside ourselves to slave to get money.
I cannot tell you how many thousands of thoughts I had over my 11 years in where I would think of going up the bridge and then have the thought,” I don’t have the money”
My x wife went insane to try to get money for her next action. So desperate she was to stop the voices in her head.
One of Ron’s greatest crimes, in my view, was equating large amounts of money with acquiring wisdom.
In retrospect I see now that not having the money was a blessing. The highly trained and highly audited people that I have encountered in these years from Marty’s blog to Mike’s reveals that they are the ones to feel sorry for.
The highly trained and highly audited have more implanted life and mind lies and falsehoods to work out.
I don’t mean to offend anyone, but those that have done a lot of the bridge have more shit to work out and may need therapy.
Those that post at Marty’s are a great example.
So grateful now for not having the money to go up the bridge and corrupt my reasoning skills.
You will go free if you have money is an insidious, diabolical, Hubbard indoctrination that really messes with clear thinking. It’s evil.
In Scientology there is one catagory of Saint: those with money. They are the ones we looked up to. Somehow we thought they were special.
Now I see them as victims of a con.
Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for fleecing billions from his “clients”, why is this little piss-ant not in jail yet or at least on trail for his crimes against the people he supposedly leads.
Keep going Mike & Leah, keep going.
Scientology has some things in common with televangelism and the shady prosperity gospel churches:
Being rich is all that matters. Wealth is held in the highest esteem, and if you are poor or sick, you are somehow a flawed human who deserves your ailments and afflictions for some crime you have committed. Either you have “pulled it in” (scientology), or you are not in favor with the Lord (prosperity gospel).
But, AS USUAL, scientology takes it even one step further in its greedy depravity. While the prosperity churches want your money, they won’t stop you from knowing their religion’s creeds and beliefs, cover to cover, all for free; all you have to do is open up a bible. The various denominations’ beliefs are easily learned and free to investigate. You are either duped or extremely credulous to give money to the more unscrupulous churches, but they don’t hide their teachings behind a financial barrier.
Well, we should all be grateful for the age of free information and the internet. We can now easily view all the formerly secret beliefs and teachings of scientology , and we can freely decide for ourselves before wasting a single penny. And yes you can read OT8 materials without any danger of contracting disease (LRH was such a liar, and so slimy).
And a bonus to the age of the internet is now we have a brutal and focused laser beam of truth penetrating into the crimes committed by scientology. The wimpy defenses and responses of scientology to any criticism are so easily dismissed, ridiculed, and in fact bring them more negative attention. The world is on to you, scientology. It’s over.
It really is the end of LRH’s twisted vision, and I thank the universe for that.
Yay! The petition to get the IRS to research the COS tax exempt status now has more people who support it than the petition to ban the Aftermath show
Please consider signing Jeffrey Augustin’s petition!
https://www.change.org/p/irs-commissioner-john-koskinen-we-demand-the-irs-commissioner-begin-an-investigation-into-scientology-s-tax-exempt-status
So Terra C. curious about a few things. First how can one be a doctor and be a $cn member its seems to be a conflict of interest in that a $cn member becomes sick or injured they are not treated they are blamed. So when an illness is obvious or congenital defect is found they cast them aside, so pathetic. I would never see a doctor who is a $cn wouldn’t trust them to do the right thing. I cannot understand a person who chose to be a doctor and expect to do no harm. All $cn in medicine need to leave so the real world can take care of ourselves and they should be ashamed of them selves.
Of course there has to be a OT 9 & 10….just how would the organization continue to pull in money to feed the Cash Cow as people continue to work their asses off to get to levels 6, 7, 8…& THEN where do they go from there?? Once those levels are paid off, well, common sense dictates that “someone” has to designed an more improved higher level. I can only imagine what the “celebs” are willing to pay out to get higher & higher to move up that damned bridge to nowhere. For the “normal people” it’s more & deeper debt.
Terra, this article really hit home for me.
I always wondered how you could clear the planet when you charged such exorbitant prices.
I was in scientology from age 25 to 33.
I had a blue collar Union job (which I’m still working at today in my 50’s). I ended up depleting a company-contributed savings account, convincing my brother to sell our condo we lived in, getting 7 credit cards, taking out at high interest (22%) loan, and emptying my personal savings account all for the sake of ” going free”.
I was 25 when I read Dianetics. I went to get book one auditing, and yes it did help me. Going over painful memories does have therapeutic value. It was never my intention to continue on into scientology; but I did for 8 years and $ 94,000. ( On the grade chart I was at OT eligibility and OT preps. Never made it to the really expensive OT levels.)
I was fortunate to leave while I was relatively young. I could still work to pay off the credit cards and loans (with some help from my parents), get married, raise a family and participate in real life experiences.
For so many years I’ve kept my scientology experience secret. It’s good to have a forum to be able communicate, discuss and sort all this stuff out. Thank you Mike Rinder.
Welcome Carl ! No Scn experience is too small to share. Thanks for contributing.
Chris Shelton points out that if Miscavige really believed in the Bridge he’d train the members of the Sea Org to be OTs. Think what “big beings” they would be then!
But he doesn’t. Chris was Sea Org for 19 years and never got past Clear.
You’d think so.
I once asked why the SO and staff members don’t really move up the bridge. The response was that they are already big beings for having joining staff or SO and are busy working to clear the planet. They’ll get theirs in time.
I thought a few things: wtf? But they’re supposed to get that, and why in the hell should they pay for that then if they’re already big beings??!??!!! (Some would pay because you’d never end up getting auditing if you didn’t due to tiny staff size and of course paying public was always the priority. Which I can see; however, the staff were always broke and being a small group you’d think everyone would look out for each other. Plus this would help the public by having staff members improve themselves.)
What a crock!
Good article. Why is Scientology so expensive? Don’t worry, that’s a rhetorical question.
Despite being a Scientologist, my father had still managed to squirrel away nearly $20,000 for college. The reg at the Org got that of course. Why go to college when Scientology is more valuable and practical for life skills?
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!! Whew! Sorry, had a moment there. At least I can laugh about it now, even if my heart still sinks about what could have been.
When the IAS registrars came to town they were much put out that all of that money had slipped away from their greedy little hands right into the org’s accounts. I’ve heard stories about the IAS or another Scientology org stealing money from another org, but it was 1988 and that sort of thing wasn’t happening yet. Though it was the first time a Scientology registrar offered to open a credit card account for me. I was 19 years old, on staff at the Delphian School, and earning about $160 per month.
“Are you kidding?” I said, even as I had to admit to myself that the thought of my very own credit card sounded pretty good. “My bank account is overdrawn right now. Absolutely not.” Fortunately, my mother was at the org that day and she gave me moral support for withstanding their overtures.
Another time they found out my grandmother was loaded and finally pressured me into calling her. She had never progressed from grandmotherly to chilly so fast.
“What do you need money for? Are you in trouble?”
“I need it for my association.”
“What association?”
“The international association.” I looked at the reg nervously. She nodded encouragingly.
“What are you talking about?” My grandmother was an impatient woman, and her tone implied all kinds of trouble.
“Never mind, grandma…”
“What?” hissed the reg. “Don’t stop! Ask her!”
“The International Association of Scientologists,” I finally squeaked out.
“Scientologists!” my grandmother roared. “No.” She hung up. She didn’t talk to me for a year. And then pretended it never happened. Which was fine by me. This was the same woman who had given me a custom-made lion-head ring of gold melted from her “old rings”, with eyes of diamonds and a ruby mouth. The next time she saw me, she nodded approvingly at its continued presence on my finger. (I never wore it at the org. I loved that ring too much.)
When she hung up on me, I turned on the registrars and gave them such a look they were quiet for a moment and looked at each other to see who would speak first. I’m happy to say I never gave any more money to the IAS after that day, even when I finally had my own money.
My grandmother passed away a few days ago. Today’s article reminded me of her.
I’m sorry for your loss. May your memories of her bring you comfort when your heart aches.
And it is a good story. I hope you still have the ring.
Hugs
Thank you, BB. Yes, I still have the ring!
Looks like you got lots of your stength and fortitude from your Grandmother. Sorry for your loss. Glad she was around when you needed her, so that she could serve as a source of reason in the face of the money hungry zombie thugs of the IAS.
It seems like they could make more money by making services more affordable and being nicer. They seem to be stuck in an unproductive behavior pattern.
You’ll know when the Clamopocolypse is here when the prices come down and they start a TV ad campaign. If it’s not Les Dane, it’s Grant Cardone and if it’s not them, it’s a scam. At least with Les Dane you get a used car…. I don’t know what you get from Cardone, probably a Texas flood car…
Mike, in reality they have nothing valuable to sell. The number of members has been falling since ~”75 due to that fact
All true Terra, all true even though none of this can really be seriously discussed inside the bubble of scientology. The logic is irrefutable. Scientology is all about stepping outside that box of reality. Except in real life you really can’t. Therefore, the way for a middle class Joe or Jane to make it up the ‘bridge to total freedom’ is to co-audit. Sounds good except in all the years that I was in I never saw it actually work. That’s just my personal experience. The other route offered to the teeming masses of unwashed seekers is to join staff and then your ‘bridge to total freedom’ will be paid for as one of the perks. Here again, I have never seen this actually happen, even when the Universe Corps showed up in an org I was in. Being on staff means that you will have to moonlight to exist in in the ‘MEST universe’.
Terra sez:
“You ain’t ever gonna hear this from the Reg, but very few jobs pay well enough to afford Scientology.”
Ms. B. Haven adds: “You ain’t ever gonna hear this from a Recruiter, but very few Scientology jobs pay enough to be able to afford to eat.”
I sure have to agree with this post; couldn’t understand why the prices have increased to unattainable levels. Back in my day, early to late ’70s, the cost was workable. I got the SHSBC and Sr. SHSBC for $325.00, the levels 0-IV cost $100.00 each, auditing was $50.00 per hour, but you could get it at half that, co-audits cost about $25.00 per hour of C/S time, which would cover about 12 hours of auditing.
Something happened the gutted the ability to reach for it.
Bob g
Bob G. Hubbard, always in need of more $ ordered the prices jacked up to those levels. If you read his writings he admits that he could never have enough money, gold, jewels, etc.
I haven’t the time right now to look up the details, but up to the late 70s Scientology had tax exemption in the US. There was a raid on the church and they lost tax exemption, leaving Hubbard with a huge tax assessment. It became top priority to get as much cash as possible into the hands of L Ron Hubbard so he could pay his taxes. Or clear his name.
This is the reason for a lot of the strange and stupid actions of the Church in the early 80s. Shutting down the mission network (because Hubbard wanted their cash), brutal monthly price increases, Hubbard going into hiding, Hubbard writing “Technical Film Scripts” that he could charge the church for, the establishment of the for-profit Author’s Services International to service exactly one author (Hubbard) and make sure he got top dollar for his works, the release of new fiction works and the unleashing of armies of Scientologists to buy them in bookstores so they could be fake best-sellers.
They say “follow the money” to find where the criminals are hiding. In this case money explains all kinds of otherwise inexplicable phenomena in Scientology in the 80s. Look in the book “Let’s Sell These People a Piece of Blue Sky” by Jon Atack for details.
Hi Bruce;
Has anyone ever done a time line re: external events and internal reactions? I think it would be a real eye opener.
Bob G, I also remember those prices …
Having faith should never cost. Thanks for your information Mark.
That’s why Scientology doesn’t believe in faith. They do believe in cold, hard cash, though.
The most corrupted institutions are the Churches.
Amen, MadMex!
MadMax, you obviously haven’t closely examined government. LOL
90% of churches are local, live hand to mouth and serve the local community with no one making money.
Now that the bridge is so streamlined it’s probably possible to do it for as cheap as $250,000. But what about Supra Power, and Cause Resurgence Runsown that can only be done ar Flag. Or the Ls that will certainly speed up your progress.
And that does not include your voluntary/mandatory IAS donations.
Yes you have to be rich to go up bridge unless you want to work till you die or are disabled at around 70 because your stress level is out the roof.
Hey two great examples of rich and disabled. Michael Baybek and Izzy Chait.
That’s the EP of being in Scientology.
In my opinion the reason LRH put high prices on services in the 60’s and 70’s was to increase his income and to increase the pool of people that could not afford services, so instead they were recruited as staff member/Sea Org slaves that work for free in exchange for free auditing and training. (I worked for LRH in 1972-3) This gave him an “fanatical” army worth many $ billions that he used to carry out his vengeful acts against all those opposed him taking over the planet in the 70’s and 80’s. (Lawyers and PI’s were too expensive to build an army with in those days). And, in the 1990’s to present time, the reason David Miscavige is defrauding whales out their hundreds of $ millions is because he can do it more easily than delivering services and use the “free money” to hire an army of lawyers and PIs to crush his enemies.
Money in Scientology is used to crush people, their families and their businesses. After 40 years in Scientology I can say it does not have a lick of a socially redeeming qualities and will never change its ways.
Hi Robert Almblad – I never thought about it before but raising the prices to get more people on staff is probably a good opinion.
This is all from memory and may not be accurate. I recall the first round of 5% monthly price increases which started sometime in the late 1970’s which was blamed on inflation. There actually was high inflation at the time and it was said that the price increases would help maintain the orgs and missions and raise staff pay, which of course it never did. The price increases eventually stopped and I bought into it and stuck around.
A couple (?) years later the monthly increases resumed and, I think, blamed on needing to build up a “defense fund”. I realized it was bullshit and I was outa there along with probably hundreds of other scn-ists in the “Great Los Angeles Exodus” of 1982 or 1983.
At that point I had no problems with the tech or the administration, but regardless of what wonders were on the OohTee levels I wasn’t going to pay the price. It might have taken a year or so before I took a good look back at the “We know everything about everything” attitude I had bought into and recognized it as cult mind and blind faith and I was out for good. I never looked back until watching Going Clear got me interested.
I’ll admit that in the intervening years I would occasionally wonder if I had “missed something” by not doing the OohTee levels. Such is the mystery and lure of attaining of Super Powers – laughter
I support this theory. The maniac may have been mentally ill, but there is no doubt there was a method to his madness.
Robert, thanks for that perspective from the old days. As you are probably aware, a lot of people, including quite a few who comment online, had experiences with Scientology that only seemed to get bad in the 1980s, around the time that Miscavige was coming to prominence and power – and they see that as effect and cause, not coincidence. The truth, as I started to figure out at the time, and have confirmed with old timers over the years, is more as you relate it, that things at the core were long rotten, but many in the outer orgs and missions managed to come away with an experience more driven by the generational idealism of the era than Hubbard’s actual intentions.
It’s an interesting theory, that price increases drove people on staff and into the Sea Org, where their cheap labor could be exploited. I think it may well be right in some respect, though when it comes to things like that, I’m never sure whether it was a premeditated or conscious strategy, or just one of those complex organizational phenomenon that arise coincidentally and spontaneously, and then self-propagate because they are successful in some respect.
Spot on. My sentiments exactly.
LRH set up Scientology for one reason only. To make money. I think he first thought that his *method* was going to set the medical world on fire. Just think being able to *cure* yourself using only your mind! Wondrous. When he was laughed off the planet because it was a stinking pile of Bullshit he turned to *teaching and offering* it instead. While the damage done to people because of this is incalculable, the numbers of followers seems to be very small and shrinking all the time. As all you SPs have pointed out, when you reach a point when you ought to be able to heal yourself, affect the world around you to your own addenda you find you got nothing for all the money spent and years wasted in the pursuit of *clear*.
Please keep the pressure up. You and Leah are going what LRH said he could. Making a very positive difference in the world. It takes a great deal of courage to try and cure the ills this scary monster created.
I agree that LRH was extremely money oriented. The weird thing about him though is that he rarely spent it. No really expensive clothes, cars, homes, never went on vacations or travelled (unless he was hiding from the IRS/FBI and other assorted boogie men). So, yes he was money motivated but I feel the money was more of a representation of him winning a game. I often hear of a different game – the man with the most toys at the end, wins. He didn’t go for toys but for money, power and control over his minions. His money ended up in foreign bank accounts, just horded. My theory is from working around him for nearly a decade and also speaking with about 5 messengers who worked with him thru the 70’s (wife, sisters and friends) that confirmed my observation of him rarely spending his cash.
He also fooled himself thoroughly that his “technology” works even to the point of auditing himself and chasing BTs until the end. So, maybe his other motivation secondary to hording cash was he actually thought he was saving the planet. He surely convinced his followers of such.
I read somewhere that Elron’s “estate” was worth 650 million dollars when he died in 1986 which would be worth well over a billion in today’s dollars. Yikes!
I also read some old Jewish jokes somewhere. One was “May you make a million dollars – and spend it all on doctors.” Another one was “May all your teeth fall out except for one – so you can have a toothache.”
Scientology puts a huge price tag on its “services” delivered by slaves who don’t get paid.
Hubbard does give some clues as to why he made Scientology so expensive. Not to clear the planet – not because it costs that much – there is no state of Clear or OT.
He does it to make it valuable so one believes.
I got into Scientology because it was promised to be a precise SCIENCE.
He takes stuff (borrowed from others) in the beginning that are common sense applicable advice to improve ones conditions. If you apply the advice – it improves your life. This sets the hook.
Scientology also seems to give you freedom in the beginning – “What is True for You is True” until you question LRH, David Miscavige…..the dead agent packs keep you hoping Scientology is what it claims to be….just long enough until you get hooked.
Then slowly over time – the Science turns from SCIENCE into FAITH and Hubbard becomes “SOURCE”. What is true for you is wrong and what is true for Scientology is always right.
Hubbard says to make something valuable – make it very expensive and hard to obtain. This gets people reaching for it. Underneath our noses – he does this.
This is very clever – L Ron Hubbard accuses the medical field and other fields of doing this. Hubbard says they make it “complicated and expensive” in so many words…so people value it.
The reason Hubbard priced Scientology out of reach for most people is that SO ONE BELIEVES.
L Ron Hubbard promises SCIENCE and delivers FAITH – just like every other CHURCH!
That is all they have to do – get people to BELIEVE and whallla!! They are tax exempt and enjoy the benefits of being a criminal organization above the laws of the land…..hiding behind the ole “Religious Cloak”.
If you invest a lot of money into your faith – your ego will demand that you be right…hence Hubbard’s Laws of Commotion….”for every piece of LRH tech…there is an equal and exact opposite piece of tech” to justify WHY SCIENTOLOGY DOES NOT WORK.
That was a great post.
Well said Idle.
In the inimitable words of L. Ron Hubbard: “What’s good for the duck hunter (Scientology) is not necessarily good for the duck (Scientologist).”
Hubbard: What’s good for me is MONEY! And lots of it.
Hubbard said, when they asked if he had a Swiss bank account. “I don’t have a Swiss bank account. I have a bank account in Switzerland, but, it doesn’t have a lot money in it.” This is on tape.
“I don’t have an American passport, I have a passport from America.” See, I can be clever and speak in circles too.
L. Ron Hubbard was an expert at twisting words while demanding others clear up their misunderstoods per ‘study tech’ which is just a control operation he used to keep people stupid. What a complete load of happy horseshit.
A complete mindfuck.
OSD that’s a good one, (“I don’t have a Swiss bank account, I have a bank account in Switzerland”) here’s another: On this video (link below) of L.Ron Hubbard being interviewed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_w-YWwC1lI
at around 13:10 Hubbard is asked “How many times have you been married”? He answers “I’ve been married twice, I am happily married right now. My first wife is dead.” He is then asked “What happened to your second wife?” Hubbard answers “I’ve never had a second wife.”
err…whaa? How’s that possible?
I’ll s’plain it to you Scientology style – he audited it out.
I love it : ” … a crime against humanity”… it is a very good definition and picture of what Scientology really is!
What you said is total common sense, but when you’re brain washed common sense flys out the window, and that’s what LRH knew.
Again, I’m so grateful I woke up! ☺️
You again hit hard Terra!
My brother is struggling on 2 jobs living, in a shity small flat, with 2’credits on his name trying to collect enough money to try OT preps and OT eligibility for the second time.
Me and my wife were spending on scn between 25 and 35% of our income, we can’t afford us both moving up the bridge so we decided that she will go Clear first (and she made it and found nothing special).
Most people here prefer course work (basics are pushed mostly) over auditing, or stops to move up after arc straightwire, because one intensive of auditing cost near a good monthly pay (a good Moscow monthly pay).
In last maiden voyage movies there were even a video block about “co-auditing factory on survival round in Moscow ideal org”. Yeah right there are people on co-auditing, but ask better how many of them are on grades.
I got a call from Atlanta about a week and a half ago. One of the many things I said to him was that I had met several clears and I was unimpressed with all of them, that most were fat and obese and did not appear to be cause over their own appetite much less the environment. He surprised me by saying that he was not impressed with some of the clears he had met also.
Haha! Exactly.
Years ago, our staff in DSA was an overweight diabetic, smoker, and clear and scilon for decades. I remember when I found out from the ED that she had a couple of terrible health incidents/conditions (I want to say heart-related) and was no longer on staff. My eyes bugged out and my jaw hit the floor. She wasn’t a beaming example of clear in the first place but to hear that -wow. That was like a big smack to the face and I started to snap of of it albeit slowly.
I’ve known a few members who gave all their savings, retirement funds, maxed out credit cards, remortgaged their homes, had to file bankruptcy and wound up so poor they lived in their cars until they could find a friend to bum a room from. Really. Completely despicable “results” from the tech that promises to salvage man and make him able, free and prosperous. What a joke!
In my early days, I was having a conversation about my bridge progress with our SO member ED. At one point she said that it if one declares bankruptcy then they are basically banned from going up the bridge. I thought WTF?!!?! At the prices you charge, ooops the suggested amounts for donations, totally put a majority of the people in debt and likely on that road. So pay for your bridge, and your other donations, but don’t go bankrupt. Omg, what an oxymoron.
What an ox of a moron.
Extremely and always, relevant. Why even charge for knowledge that is so important to a person’s “eternity”?
I so wonder what Hubbard told Ray Mitoff on Hubbard’s final deathbed conversations Ray had, near the end of Hubbard’s life.
The Lawrence Wright “Going Clear….” book has Hubbard’s final details that Sarge was told.
I so wonder what Hubbard told Ray.
I’ve heard it said that his final words were “Ray, I think I just crapped myself.”
“Why even charge for knowledge that is so important to a person’s “eternity”?
Just another incongurency that illustrates the drive for the mighty buck (greed) and the few who hold all the secrets (power) will be there ultimately destruction as other empires in our world history can attest.
Speaking of ‘High Crimes’, check out the escape story over on the Tony O’s ‘Bunker’. There are revelations or recent, well with the statute of limitations, $cientology credit card and wire fraud while trying to get an escapee back. Hoping the FBI’s on the case, and the IRS is looking at this illegal activity by a 501(c)3 organization.
Evidence keeps piling up…..story is a horrible one and demonstrates the psychosis rampant in the cult. It’s awful what he had to go thru….No behavior is beneath this cult. They literally have no boundaries to succeed… Revolting.
You’ve heard of Wayne’s World, right? Well, this is Dave’s World.
“why did he make his “tech” so expensive? “….Because he’s a “con artist” – a person who cheats or tricks others by persuading them to believe something that is not true.
Considering that Lron considered himself “a Lady’s Man”….(count the wifes)…
“the debonair con artist lives by scamming rich women”
He just targeted all the “Rich”!
SO TRUE: My Ex-Husband did or wanted to do ALL OF THE ABOVE to try to make enough money to pay for his Bridge – including the upset about the fact that I got pregnant (because he didn’t want to spend the money on raising kids this lifetime). He couldn’t hold a regular job because he had to be able to take an unlimited of time off to hang out at Flag. When doing courses and intensives there, he could never be sure when he would be finished with each action in order to return home, because of what the C of S would always say: “It takes as long as it takes.”
QUESTION: I own a business and am a director for a non-profit organizational well. The labor board does not allow me to speak ill of former employees who no longer work for me and for the other non-profit business (even if I have justification for having fired them). If I have nothing good to say about them, I am only allowed to say one thing … and that is whether or not I would be willing to rehire them. If I say anything that defames their character or their work history at my business, I can get sued. Why doesn’t the C of S have to live by the same rules? Why are they allowed to defame their former employers – especially when they can’t prove that anything they say is true?
Ginny, you aren’t allowed to say anything except “whether or not you would be willing to rehire them” to EMPLOYERS who ask you about your ex-employee. Different set of laws. And specific.
The CoS isn’t doing that. What they are doing would be covered under general libel laws. Not the specific state law you are referring to. I imagine you are in California. That is where that law was first passed.
Probably they get away with violating labor laws because so far nobody has come forward to sue them or bring charges. When you are in the Sea Org you don’t have anyone informing you about your legal rights, and the idea is it will all be solved inside Scientology.
Now that you bring it up, perhaps someone will come forward. But it is not easy to bring suit against Scientology. They have practically endless resources to defend against legal issues and can simply wear you out with counter motions and legal tricks. Even those that have won have spent decades at it.
The Headleys sued for Labor Law violations. Scientology took refuge behind the First Amendment. And prevailed.
The Headley’s atty screwed up by suing in a direction that already had SCotUS settled law AGAINST them. A truly bizarre move by an experienced atty. what happened to them that ISN’T covered by the 1st Amend was assault, battery and the like. They most likely WOULD have prevailed if they had sued thusly.
I’m not speaking out of my hat. I have won 30 out of 30 complaints in front of judges for employers. One as an appellate ruling (new law). The direction their atty took was unfathomable given their circumstances.
Totally correct about the incompetence of the attorney and the failure to plead causes of action that would have prevailed (Appellate decision made that clear).
I was simply responding to the comment wondering whether anyone had sued over labor law violations. They did and whether their attorney was a boob or not that is not an easy avenue for anyone to prevail.
Totally realize that Mike. I just wanted to put the data in about how the Church might be successfully taken to court. So that they don’t appear too invincible to people who might have such a claim to make.
Thanks again for the forum you provide us.
Yep, I should have taken more time with the original comment. I believe there are many viable causes of action — its a matter of finding an attorney willing to take on the case. But I also think the climate is changing sufficiently that there are going to be plenty who eventually see gold in them thar hills and take a run at it. That dam is going to break sooner or later.
The attorney should be very careful how the contract is worded though, so that they won’t run up over a million dollars of costs related to the case in over 2 years, only to have the client dismiss them suddenly without explanation and never get repaid for their time and efforts…
🙁
Good question you bring up, Ginny. Probably the church doesn’t have to abide by the same rules that employers do because the church pretends it is not a business and by whatever means, got the IRS to say that they are a church. Thus they get all the benefits of being a church, which in this case means, the employees are considered volunteers or clergy, and so they don’t have to abide by labor laws.
Cindy, I’m not certain, but believe the critical term is that Scn was declared a “religion” and thus afforded many exemptions not available to either businesses or any other 501C3 organizations (The Red Cross for example).
I guess I could start The Church of The Concrete Sidewalk, but that isn’t going to get me much in the way of federal and state exemptions until I get that religion confirmation from the government.
I’m sure Wynski, Bruce or Mike have better knowledge than I on this subject. But imho, nothing can change permanently until the IRS withdraws the classification of “religion” from the CoS. Until then, we just need to support all the good people willing to expose this organization and keep gathering hard evidence for their demise.
OhioBuckeye, the gov doesn’t confirm or declare something a religion. The organization itself declares it. See 1st Amendment of the U.S. Const. for more details.
True,..thanks.
I was unclear. My musing was more concerning the awarding of tax exemption status as a religion and not the the religion declaration itself.
Always happy to receive knowledgeable information . ?
Again the tax exempt status is tied to non-profit status OhioBuckeye and NOT being a religion. A religion/church can be for profit in status.
That’s Scientology for you. It defies all logical sense to fit into life like the rest of us have to. Money & asshole lawyers operating in a system that doesn’t care what the facts are concerning religious shenanigans.
I’ve met many a type like your ex hubby in Scientology. Hope you’ve moved on successfully.
“It takes as long as we makes.”
Well said and often forgotten in the amazement we express over other more egregious COS activities. Hubs was a short term thinker. Fleecing the whales was where the short term money was.
Sorry T.C. but the impeccable logic presented in this post will only cause the scamologists to come at you like the screeching harpies that Hubbard’s “tek” turned them into…
I’m really surprised we haven’t had the defenders of Ron and his precious “tech” come outta the woodwork yet. I can just hear the justifications — I’m sure they’ll be equally interesting and absurd at the same time.
But there’s no getting around the fact that Ron was in it for the money. If he truly wanted to help people, he would have charged a small fee for services. Hard to argue with logic, but people will try nonetheless.
KatherineINCali, in the last few days I think the remaining criminal types left the site. One being asked why he won’t start his own pro-scamology blog. They are probably regrouping waiting for new message points from OSA. The messeging defending pedophiles and promoting suicide didn’t work out so well…