One of our regular readers, Doug Sprinkle, was in LA last week and went for a walk around the scientology complex.
Outside of Flag, this is the largest scientology operation on earth. It should be bustling with people in the middle of the day…
Unlike Flag, this IS a place for new public to be sucked into scientology. While Flag is a reflection of how many people are making it UP the Bridge, LA is a reflection of both that and how many people are COMING ONTO the Bridge.
Things are not looking good. We know Valley is a wasteland. Never hear anything at all from Inglewood, Pasadena or Ventura unless it is media coverage about a flap.
Scientology is on life support — an IV of whale blood. The cancer is overtaking the organism.
It was pretty empty, I was there I think in 2019 or 18. It wasn’t dead but it certainly isn’t what you would expect.
You could see that there was not a whole lot of public around however there was a steady trickle.
I was at one of the hotles near the Celeb center and I don’t think there was another soul in the hotel, at least I didn’t meet anyone or saw anyone.
Anyway when I was getting my initial interview and C/Sing I was sent to do my current course and I kid you not the supervisor was so close I though she was trying to fall on top of me.
It was a pretty girl, she was either dizy, horny or trying to get my hands to go where they didn’t belong; there was no one else in the course room from what I remember. In the back of my mind I’m thinking where is everyone. Luckily i was there only once. Thank god cause I don’t think my hands would have stayed still; I was back in Ethics writing up dirt for the MAA on myself, writing overts the next day cause that was part of the next step plus a $30k tech estimate for a SecCheck.
Lucky for me I didn’t have it so it never got taken however I did find myself the proud owner of a mostly complete set of books and lectures worth about $10K. Thats a very expensive piece of trash and I hope the dump appreciates my contribution.
Anyway it was a dead zone, There is another org in the area and that event was packed, easily a thousand people but I don’t know how many of these were staff.
Not surprised at all saying as big cheif DM hasnt even went up the bridge himself past the low OTs. JOKE!
maria what does DM not doing the useless Bridge to nowhere have to do with scamology being empty?
When the leader himself doesn’t bother to show up to climb the bridge, I’m wondering are the sheep starting to take notice? Or if they just aren’t many sheep left…..
no Maria, the sheep have ZERO info on what DM does or doesn’t do on the “Bridge”.
A ‘picture paints a thousand words’. Can’t contain myself…. Have you ever seen such a ‘group display’ of narcissism? Absolutely fascinating. On a side note…. looks like they’ve ‘upped their game’ regarding grammar and phonics. No doubt we are driving them crazy. Love it!
I have been to Dublin, London and Vienna orgs recently. All completely empty. London org had two public studying and one person in session during the mid-afternoon on a Saturday, Vienna was completely empty on a Sunday, just a receptionist and some (couldn’t have been more than 20-year old) C/S filling out forms. Scientology is so dead, it’s funny. I do like the LRH offices they have for display tho.
Combined with all the vids I’ve seen of the Idle Morgues this is more proof that there are no more than 3-4 thousand ACTIVE scamologists left in the USA, not counting staff. 4 thousand is most likely too high a number.
Real:
IMO, we must include staff as “active”. Many times, they’re the last to receive services or take courses. They’re also the only ones who might half-heartedly sometimes try to lure new meat into the grinder. Without staff, NO one can be ‘active’.
No, two different demographics as staff as a body cannot financially support the church. Just like a car company cannot be supported by its employees. It requires outside customers.
Scientologists will always be last to know the truth about scientology.
Pithy, profound and true!
I wonder if the emptiness could partly be result of the concentration of remaining operations at Flag. First the missions were cannibalized and hollowed out, then the local orgs, and maybe the shrinkage is finally squeezing even upper level orgs like AOLA.
No Peacemaker. Flag is also empty.
Real, recently there have been several reports of members giving up on their local orgs and moving to the Flage “mecca” — with indications that the total number may be in the hundreds. Do we know for certain that hasn’t at least temporarily propped up Flag’s business?
I can see that might not be enough to overcome recent downtrends exacerbated by the pandemic. And even if it does, the effect may not last, as it seems that over time there has been a continuous trickle of members into Clearwater but no real increase in local presence, as it’s apparently balanced out by by defections from disappointment and disilusionment over what they find “mecca” is actually like, once they get there.
I don’t know Peacemaker. All I DO know is that Flog is also empty.
Wow, what an interesting story…
20 years ago, that place was full of people…On course breaks, tons of people would be on the street and on weekends there would often be a que extending from inside the canteen out into the patio area…You could see RPF-ers dressed in all-black running from building to building and also fake-navy sea ogres strutting about in uniform, especially on the evenings when there were events happening. Graduations and events would be jam-packed.
It appears that the societal inoculation against this particular brand of culty phuckery is working….
I wonder what the staff and sea borg do all day, and how many of them actually wonder about what the fuck they are doing, ESPECIALLY the ones who are privy to the consistent, repeated, “tone 40” organizational lies about “exponential scientology expansion”…
Thanks for the photos, Doug!
No problem, I always enjoy walking around there. Like you say, the place used to be hopping with people. I only saw two or three people that look like they might have been public.
Thank god! I really hope the demise continues
Mark:
During the day, staff of all stripes are at the make-work of the bloated hierarchy Tubby created to afford LOTS of make-work for the slaves to do as they demonstrate just how enslaved (dedicated) they are to Him.
Fat chance that the tiny tyrant will relinquish ANYthing he has the use of. It’s his, ALL HIS, even if Co$ holds title to it for legal/IRS reasons.
These pictures pulls in memories. Since the
RPF I know “every inch” of these buildings and
the surrounds. Since about 20 years ago not
much public then but now even less. Poor (in
all aspects) staff and SO members. You would
think that they can think, but then again you are
not allowed to.
Wow Doug. It’s almost as if the entire crew “As-ised’ themselves. If they leave the lights out on halloween and walk around in luminescent black burkkas it will make headlines: “The aliens have arrived!’
I probably saw 10 or so Sea Org members walking around, I tried to take the pictures when I thought no one was looking. The last time I walked around there I had a security guy on the bicycle track me down to ask if he knew me and I didn’t feel like dealing with that again
Thanks for the clarification.
Doug,
The easy answer to “don’t I know you?” is to say you’re from Fairbanks, Alaska or some other place NO one is from, so it’s doubtful. Remember TR-L (lie) and say it with enough conviction and the drone won’t have anything to say, so will go away.
Of course, you’re just passing through, seeing the sights and the particular shades of blue caught your eye.
Actually I told him the truth, that I had been there many years ago to get auditing. He was a younger guy but I asked if he knew some of the people I remembered from being there, Steve Drabin, Mike Owens and Ron Williams. He said he knew Steve and had heard of Ron Williams. And then he rode off and left me alone.
The eventuality they cannot escape.
Covid 19 , is here for a decade with us .World Bank estimation of 2025 is for full vaccination of every body on earth not for elimination of virus.
Though vaccination may bring immunity in the body but the virus is still out there looking for non-vaccinated individuals.
Its every where as long as it has (physical) surface whether living or non living. In short you won’t find it on water and ice.
This socisl distancing and virtual gathering doesn’t fit well with Cults modus apprendi,
There is still a fair chance if they isolate themselves for atleast 50 years by moving to an agrarian community .
City shall get them empty, banrupt and thin….its a Final Count Down.
Modus apprehendi ?
It’s a Final cult-down?
Sadly, that which Miscavige carved out of scientology for his personal use can maintain a seeming life for quite awhile. It’s so tiny now, He can hold up all the facades hisself.
modus operandi : standard way of doing something, latin word commonly used in English Laws derived from Roman laws .
It may also be called as SoP ( standard operating procedure).
For your next point , I can only say, selling fake promises may keep glued the followers for some time but when majority realizes it’s an Utopia, then it’s Final Count Down for Cults …..its written on the wall.
Off topic, sorry.
Mark Kamran, you just raised an interesting question for me: have Sea Org members been ordered to be vaccinated? Anyone know for sure? If not I’d be interested in your speculations too 🙂
I was in Clearwater in September and Sea Org members were the only people in Florida wearing masks outside. Never saw any of them unmasked.
Interesting! Obviously masks are mandatory. Therefore it wouldn’t be far-fetched to speculate that for Sea Org members, the Covid vaccine is also mandatory. Living the way they do, most of them, a dozen to a room, sharing bathrooms as they do, common sense I would think would make vaccine mandates a no brainer for all SO. Of course if it is Command Intention that they all get the jab, then being mostly young and healthy and being vaccinated gives them f immunity… so perhaps the masks are just for PR…interesting. Thanks for the info.
True believers will still truly believe.
A believer will only be a believer for a long as they can pay their bills and keep a roof over their heads! Eventually they become a hasbeen. Once the church can no longer exploit them or coerce them to squeeze blood from their families and friends, they will stop “helping” them. And at that point, people tend to turn around. Albeit, a bit too late. 401’s, IRA’s, and savings gone, with nothing to show for, except. “I am an OT” or “a Clear.”
True believers have been brain dead for a long time, now. It’s all “working” on autopilot and inertia.
They will *believe* despite all evidence to the contrary as anything contrary to their beliefs MUST be false and manufactured specifically to hurt them personally. It’s cultish circular reasoning in a very tight little loop, as befits the tiny tyrant™.
We used to live in the Fountain Building across from Big Blue on Fountain Ave. My parents were in the Sea Org from 1979-1982 and we lived in that disgusting, roach infested apartment building.
I’m so sorry, Bad. Hope your present digs make up for these early times.
ALL the sea Org staff housing was roach-infested, from my observation. Perhaps the cleanest berthing I experienced was in the RPF ‘dorms’ in the Fort Harrison’s parking Garage. (no joke)
I worked so HARD to get another TRO from that place and it is being WASTED! Less than 2 years left to it! The power of a good TRO is unmistakable! Even if I could go to big blue I would not. Why bother? Seriously doubtful there are even body routers at Sunset/Vermont I could interact with.
Hwd blvd even emptier! HGB is so closed it basically acts as a series of confusing signs/closed entrances to keep process servers away. In a decade of protesting I have always seen Scis walk to/from the Hwd/Vine subway station to HGB every ten minutes. Now I have spent an entire random hour there when they did not know we were coming and NOBODY walked back and forth and NO cars or buses came or went.
Great comment, AGP. Sorry: what’s a TRO?
Temporary restraining order.
TRO is Temporary Restraining Order?
Temporary Restraining order
Hey, AGP! Are Angel and Franck still maintaining their posts? Just wondering since I haven’t heard anything about them in a long while.
I have not seen either of them in a year.
Ooooooohhh. Doesn’t sound good.
Or does it?
AGP,
Timing is everything.
The late night bus traffic, and the early morning bus traffic, from the Anthony Building over to the HGB, and back, is key to determining how full HGB is.
Berthing of HGB staffers is key.
Anthony Building traffic getting onto and off their buses is key.
If someone really wishes to find out the volume, watch for staff movement, during events.
Staff busing during the yearly New Year’s event, from the complex, over to the Shrine, is key.
If they do NOT rent the Shrine, that is key and a huge indicator.
If you wish to watach them, then watch them going and coming on their buses to work.
(I think it is key to have your head on straight, and be watching them for historical and paparazzi reasons, newsworthy and just media sharing reasons, give your photos to media, especially when you take what I call jackpot photos like AGP has done for years and years, he’s taken photos he didn’t even know how historically important they were due to the people he got on film having huge long histories, especially the OSA people AGP and others caught on camera.).
The Cont Training Org side of the complex, the Catalina St side, during meals in the morning, lunch and evening, shows their numbers well.
Meal times at PAC shows their numbers as the move between buildings for lunch.
Schedule monitoring is key and their weekday schedule, Mon, Tues, Weds will be slightly different than Thus. Fri is more like Mon and Tue and Wed. Sat and Sun will be different.
The various sides of the streets, at their scheduled meal times, is key to watch, and know the different units that leave from which doors to walk over to the mess hall i the complex main building.
SOME will always proudly “take their walks” as is proscribed in Hubbard policy.
The trainees who study in the Cont Training Org will have to do their drills body-routing at Vermont and Sunset corners.
My contact told me they do at least show up there, but minimally, as AGP mentions.
BUT also there was a graduation selfie photo op that the OEC outer org trainees did on the front of LA org a couple months back, showing that they still do their exec/staff apprenticing in LA Org.
With the switch of doing the “new OEC” at Flag though, that means the trainees will be sucked to Flag to do their upper exec training there this coming year.
Watching for bus traffic, by watchers, is key.
Watchers I wish would contact me, for tips, I myself was a watcher after I left Sea Org, there are more tips, especially how to spot the OSA staffers, who have to make their dashes into the building, and who is and who is not allowed to take org cars to work and who isn’t.
The great way to tell who is up the org board and who is down the org board, unit by unit, is by who drives personal cars, where they park how they cross from their parking arrangements to their work buidings.
To see who is who of the execs, was their personal or org car parking daily.
It’s all going to be some variation of the above.
Good luck watchers and snap photos, and find out the schedules, and look for staff buses, and get used to their schedules, if someone wishes to be in what I call the Scientology watcher historical paparazzi “for history and public interest” reasons.
Be an unobtrusive and respectful as possible.
Hubbard used to say that all people are Scientologists, some just haven’t realised it yet.
Of course it is the other way, most Scientologists and Sea Org members are regular citizens, they just have a ways to go to become normal citizens.
Chuck Beatty
ex Sea Org 1975 to 2003
Thanks Chuck if I go by there again I’m going to reread this. My amount of involvement was pretty minimal compared to some of you that post here. So I am not nearly as familiar with their operations as someone like you.
Chuck you missed the point. It is all CLOSED. We saw a bus at HGB with 6 people on it and 35 empty seats. Did you see the photos above? There is nobody out! There are no big events.
There were a few people out I just didn’t want to take pictures when they were around. Probably saw 10 or 15 sea org members walking around. Which is the equivalent of nobody out like you said
Yes.
No doubt it is dramatically down, even with the people Doug S chose not to film. Even with those in his photos, it is hugely down, no argument.
But to really get how really down they are, is to photo their spurts, at their spurt times, and you have to know their bus schedule, and be there as they wait to get on their buses, or depart their buses at their destinations, like Darth Xander did at Flag Clearwater in his years ago filming.
Doug Owens went to Anthony Building at the morning times staff get on their buses, and he caught them unawares.
Caspar used to film them getting on their HGB buses at night.
The personal cars, another spotter spotted where they parked, some offstreet OSA staff park away from the HGB a block or two away and walk to the HGB.
One spotter caught those same staff you speak about who aren’t coming and going like you say, and I believe you.
But to see how horrible it is, me, were I there, and had I the time, I’d go first spend some time, notice their schedules, and then follow their buses around for a day, and see where they go, when, and learn their schedules.
It takes time, when I lived in Hollywood my first year out of Sea Org there, I used my Sundays, since Sunday for the HGB building is the cleaning time allowed, Sunday morning, and OSA staff frequent the Market there on Ivar, and I’d see them there. Or I’d see them at the 99cent store on Sunset or Hollywood Blvd, buying up their snacks for the week there Sunday morning. I even saw Legal Guy OSA doing his laundry as he liked to walk from the Anthony Building over to one of the small laundromats and do his laundry quitely by himself.
One spotter spots all the higher richer Sea Org members buying up stuff at Trader Joes and Gelsen’s Markets on Sundays, since those richer Sea Org members drive their personal cars and buy up their weeks worth of snacks, etc, too.
They have patterns, they go spend their meager pay on snacks and they frequent the 99cent stores, alot, or they did.
I could spot a Sea Org member anywhere when they are out and about.
To see the total deflation score of non presence, still, their schedules for busing around is always key.
Where they show up for their events, is key, to see their decline.
Isn’t the Hollywood Guarantee building’s sole purpose to obscure and hide? That was purchased at the time when Tubby went into his “spider hole”, wasn’t it?
No it is mid level management and the legal address of the church globally. Find out more here: https://angrygaypope.com/hollywood_boulevard/index.htm
Your protesting at HGB was some of the all time “best” in the ways I appreciate it.
Namely you filmed the people, the OSA who came out to “handle” and derail you.
You bumped into their “top” OSA people, and their disgruntlement at not knowing how to deal with you was apparant.
I loved your filming for the people you caught on camera, and from them, I could extrapolate a lot.
It is dismal they don’t come out to be noticed any more.
I wonder how they manage to get to and from their berthing these days.
——————
One thing, longer range, once they feel “safe” they will come out again.
It might be that will be a longer stretch of time from now.
Xenu’s the word that gets them off the streets. Xenu and “body-thetans”. Magic garlic words to them.
Tell that to Mike Rinder he disagrees with you about my work.
where did Mike say he disagreed about your protesting?????
I’ve never seen him say that.
We argue in the comments here assuming DM won’t see the discussion.
What do they do when CoB does an inspection tour and the place is empty?
Nothing. COB is used to the place clearing out before him. Those who linger get punished.
Everyone knows THAT.
Not even a “security” body in sight? That’s down right spooky.
I did see a couple of security guys I just didn’t want to take a picture when they were around. The last time I walked around there one of them trackef me down on his bicycle to ask if he knew me.
Was it Parker Osmon or Odo Huber?
I don’t know those people. Been many years since I did any services at LA org.
They’re bike guards. Angry Gay Pope encounters them in many of his videos.
Those ‘security guys’ are cockroack wannabes. They don’t like the light and when you bang on their cage they scurry hither and yon in panic mode.
Yo Dave,
What’s the daily stat of a cockroach? Sorry, I mean a security guy.
– number of seconds to get from the dingy, dark camera room into broad daylight?
– quantity of ‘entheta’ delivered to passers by?
– distance traveled as measured by bicycle counter?
Good to know yer defendin the tech good buddy. BTW, when are ya gonna get off yer ass and get the Oh Tea Niner level out? Last I recall Clive was regging the Sac area Oh Teas to get their preps done for the Niner and Tenor levels. But that was 12 years ago! WTF dude? Are ya asleep at the wheel. Before long those folks who completed their set ups are gonna have to redo their do-do!! That’s kinda like payin twice fer the same thing …. I know ya would never do that. Thats all I have fer taday Dave, carry on with whatever yer not doin.
Laughter! Thanks, good buddy 🙂
I always like to jump in for a tune up! Glad you liked “tadays’ take.
That is a whole lot of empty. A nice sprinkling of the LA operations. Thank you Mr. Sprinkle.
Thanks for the report, Doug and Mike. All those shuttered windows in Big Blue are telling. Once upon a time, the building was a hospital, and the blinds would have been drawn every morning to let the sunshine in for patients. I’m guessing those blinds never go up on all but the first floor, and perhaps most of those stay down as well.
As far as body routing: it looks all too easy for passers by to avoid coming near it.
Thanks for taking the pictures and doing the outside tour. One other nearby place is Celebrity Center, or CC for short I imagine it must be really empty too because nowadays no celebrity wants their name connected to Scn at all. It is death to their career to do so. You don’t see Elizabeth Moss, John Travolta or Tom Cruise publicly talking about Scn and standing up for it nowadays. And Laura Prepon came out and formally distanced herself from Scn by saying she is no longer one and hasnt’ been for five years. I also don’t see Laura Prepon publicly standing up for alleged date rape artist / Scientologist Danny Masterson.
Well darn I should have went by there too but I didn’t think about it.
No worries. We got the idea. And then there is the Valley Org too but it’s dead. Next time you’re in town call some of the locals and we’ll have coffee or a meal with you.
I would like that.
Is it my imagination, wishful thinking, or are that blue building’s upper-floor windows blacked out or boarded up?
The wonderful emptyness of it all! Lets call it ‘The Final Blackout”!
Yo Dave,
Whadayagonnado now good buddy? Fewer and fewer peeps to yell at means more time for scotch and liver ailments. Somethin to look forward too …….. you’ll need it as the silence becomes deafening.
☺️☺️☺️
That’s good to call it “The Final Blackout” cuz LRH wrote a pulp fiction book by that title.
Dwrfenführer® may be discovering for hisself that whiskey may not be the solution, but it helps you forget the problem for a bit.
The strangest thing I saw was a security guard walking around with a German Shepherd on a leash. The dog was barking in an aggressive tone, I didn’t get the impression this was the kind of dog you walked up to and started petting. The last time I was here about a year ago I saw a security guy on a bicycle who tracked me down to ask if he knew me. And I also saw a security guard on a bicycle again, but seeing a security guy walking around with a German Shepherd struck me as strange.
As I was walking by the outside patio area, or whatever they call it on l Ron Hubbard boulevard someone had a big water hose and was watering down the sidewalk. I’m sure there was a valid reason but that struck me as an odd thing to be doing.
From reading this blog I have read about how staff members are instructed to run and not walk from building to building. And I got a glimpse of this first hand, it was around 9:30 AM and I saw 15 or 20 younger looking staff members running from ASHO to the CMO building.
And I walked by several sea org members on the sidewalk, with one exception they wouldn’t even make eye contact with me. Are they that terrified of encountering a potential SP?
Thanks for your report, Doug.
One thing beyond the “ghost town” aspect that jumped out at me was the utter disregard for the water conservation measures that are in force during this most severe California drought. It has been emphasized all over media how important it is to save water by sweeping sidewalk rather than hosing it down.
I guess homo novi has no need of wog laws and environmental consequences.
I would guess that the poor bastards (young staff members) are terrified of the snitcher in their midst who would write a knowledge report if they were seen to even LOOK at a possible SP. No way anyone wants to deal with the outcome of that.
Doug, I do believe they are that terrified of possibly meeting an SP and shattering.
Ghost places.
It is so obvious that all this therapeutic persistence is useless.
That organism has become so toxic not only to others but to itself as well. The point of no return has long been past.
There is no ‘tech’ neither remedy to save it.
It’s time to let it go.
There ?IS a tech to remedy it: LEAVE!
If it’s possible, those ghost-occupied buildings seem even more menacing than when they were patrolled by the Registrars and body-routers.
and WHO thought BLUE would be an attractive color for those mausoleums?
Blue was an ‘in’ color in the 1970s-80s – think Blockbuster video stores. Scientology ‘dates’ itself like that, in a way that shouts that it is out of step with the times and hopelessly entrenched in bad ideas.
Local orgs and missions often used the color, at least until very recently – well past its expiration date – and some may still. I expect that Big Blue will stay that color because Hubbard, tradition and inertia, and will eventually be one of the few remaining properties, kept open by funding from what’s left of financial reserves, perhaps turned into a sort of museum of a mid-century cult.
Two years ago it looked like that when we were shooting footage for my documentary. No one but a few security guards.
A ghost town.
Ironic that the Complex used to be a hospital. And the AOLA building was the morgue.
Now it is still a hospital for the mentally deprived and morgue for the souls lost.
I don’t live in LA anymore trading big blue buildings with purple mountain majesty Pikes Peak that i can hike any damn time i want whether or not my stats are up.
“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam
Where the deer and the antelope play
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day”
AAAAAAAAGGHHHHHHHH!
If Miscavige hears you singing that, he’ll jump up on a table and beat the living shit out of you!
McSavage needs NO reason to jump across the table and give you a ‘touch assist’ with his tiny little flailing fists. He hurts his own tiny fingers more than he hurts you, of course, so he can have the satisfaction of blaming you for what YOU forced HIM to do. Never mind that you followed his orders to the letter. That the actions backfired was because you were a CICS on Hollywood Blvd, not that the ordered action were the wrong things to do and targeted the wrong terminal.
I was trying to say that McSavage doesn’t want you to be happy.
For me it the elephant and Uganda Kob, but a big YES
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/megachurch-with-ferrari-driving-pastor-gives-back-4-4m-pandemic-loan/ar-AAPjJjy?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
Seems like COS is NOT the ONLY ONE……………it’s all about the $$$$$$ even when the pandemic prevent in person “parishioner attendance”……..
“parishioner attendance”??
More like pensioner attendance; perhaps petitioner attendance. propitiation?
Sadly Jere it seems like the “oldsters” give until it hurts them…..financially. They are broke & when it comes to their need for skilled nursing home admission or their OWN “funeral arrangements” just WHO gets stuck with THAT bill.
My heart aches for those brain washed oldsters who SHOULD be able to enjoy a secure or semi secure “Golden Age” to live out their lives comfortably.
So GLAD many of you saw the light & are OUT of the realm of eternal financial debt.