The scientology hype machine is rolling along, trying to keep the sheeple convinced that handing over money for “ideal orgs” is going to change the world.
Austin is one of the few orgs NOT required to get a new building — like Toronto.
It is directly across the street from the University of Texas and has been for decades. Scientology-think leads them to believe that this is a ready-made audience. 40,000 bright, young, inquisitive “raw meat” literally RIGHT THERE.
They never seem to mention that this org has been small and failing forever. That they cannot persuade anyone to come in and try out Dianetics and Scientology. It’s not the lack of nice desks and carpets and custom-made signage that is keeping them away. Scientology is toxic and in the google-me world it is impossible to get anyone IN.
And I guess it never occurred to anyone that they should make the money to upgrade their org by actually selling and delivering Dianetics and Scientology? Like Ron said? Oh, they can’t do that? Then why invest heaps of money into them? (Rhetorical question — this is merely a transfer of assets from liquid to real estate).
After more than 15 years of trying, they are installing new windows and painting the facade.
Texas is not just “heating up” it is ON FIRE!
And then there is Chicago.
No, they are not second to none. They are about 43rd…
Another org that had a building purchased for them years ago and they cannot raise the money to renovate it. But now, 15+ years into the “ideal org program” they are now “truly #1″…
And Ventura of course.
This is going to make ALL the difference. Tucked away on a back street off the freeway, this org is going to tip the scales and make California “ideal”. How amazing is that going to be.
It can become another empty shell like Valley and Sacramento and Orange County and San Diego and Pasadena and, and, and… But get your money in now, because they are “under construction.” You know this because they have 4 pictures of guys on ladders, fixing ceilings.
“Ron established an overhead structure that far exceeded the gross income. I began to hold out for an organizational structure that could exist within its income with the idea of expanding the structure as our income increased. This idea did not satisfy Ron” – events of 1951 as described by Don Purcell in DIANETICS TODAY, Vol III, No.1
That sounds like an “earlier, similar” for the “ideal” orgs program.
Apparently a lot of really interesting early and historical materials are going to be posted to ESMB2
Could some shoop-savvy person please doctor the Chicago Org staff photo so that instead of their index fingers raised they’re flipping the bird? God, that would be funny!
Google locates Scientology Austin in a strip mall.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Church+of+Scientology+of+Texas/@30.3277639,-97.750859,195m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0xf2415114add8c2d1!8m2!3d30.327651!4d-97.7505798
Is there another location with a stand alone building?
Austin is one of the cases where the org is renovating their existing facility to make it “ideal” rather than buying a new one, and moved into temporary quarters in the meantime. I think San Diego may be the only other one that actually succeeded at that, while Toronto infamously moved out of their building around a decade ago but then never started work and has bounced around temporary locations ever since.
If I recall correctly, Austin moved out to that strip mall location around the beginning of last year, but then construction didn’t appear to begin for over a year, early this year. Scientology seems to do these projects on a sort of last-minute basis, and there were signs they didn’t have permitting and contractors lined up in the very busy Austin construction market, when they moved out.
The building shown in that rendering, their old one being renovated to look like that, is at 2200 Guadalupe St.
Thanks, Peace Maker!
It will be entertaining to watch all these Ideal Orgs getting auctioned off when Scientology has to start paying out boatloads of money for all the lawsuits piling up. Hopefully that will be the last straw for the still ins who in turn will sue for the fraudulent use of their extorted donations
That will be good. Hopefully, lots of people will be jumping ship and gaining their freedom.
YES x 1000!
My take is that Miscavige hopes to die without having had to close any orgs, which could push that out decades if he can use his cash reserves and army of lawyers to fight off the day of reckoning. Even failing businesses – take Sears, for example – often hang on far longer than might be expected, especially when they have lots of assets (retail properties, in Sears’ case), though sudden collapses can also occur.
Gotta love the no-product-on-post, do-nothing, downstat Austin staff mugging for the cameras, doing their best to look cool, rocking the tough expressions and crossed arms. Talk about Much Ado About Nothing! Across the street from 40 thousand bright young people and still they can’t make it. They’re giving New York Org, a block away from Time Square, the ultimate in foot traffic, a run for their money. But Mike’s right; no one in their 20s does anything or buys any product or service without first doing an internet search. My New York friend tells me that NY Org explains their dismal stats by saying, “Half the people who walk in here are illegal PCs”. What’s Austin Org’s excuse, I wonder?
Same excuse I bet, “they’re illegal pcs, so what can we do?” Always someone else’s fault. Unless you have something bad happen and then it’s your own fault for pulling it in. But never ever Scn’s fault.
Yes, funny how that works. Everyone else “pulls it in” but not them! Come to think of it, nowhere in anything LRH wrote have I ever read something wherein he acknowledges “pulling something in” – possibly some humorous stuff, but never any serious stuff.
Austin is adding a third story to their existing building, but I wonder if Miscavige has been involved since it has turned into much more of a brutalist monstrosity than what was originally promised. They’re also enclosing areas of the first story that had been overhung by the second – and, as in Toronto, kicking out tenants who had probably contributed much to Scientology being able to afford the building.
At least now they are showing a rendering that reflects what is actually being built. This much airier version is what initially envisioned, and is still the cover photo on the org’s Facebook page:
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/austin.jpg
The ugly mess they are ending up with would be very hard to ever sell.
My first glance of the picture of Austin Idle morg, I thought “Gas station!”
UGLY just begins to describe that loathsome brick of a building.
“Texas Tough Executives”…. try
bAnD of FrEaKs
I mean, just *look* at each one of those WHACKJOBS. Sad!
Went to the Climate Justice protest in Sydney with my 16yo daughter on Friday. Had a great time with 80,000 others there, mostly kids. Singing, dancing, laughing, chanting protest lines. Lots of fun.
Stopped by the Idle Morgue in Castlereagh Street on the way there. Total contrast to the protest. Building had blinds on every window so you couldn’t see in, receptionist sat working on admin the entire time we watched and chatted, no-one went in nor out.
Had spent 1/2 hour the day before talking to one of my daughter’s friends about the kult. She only knew Tom Cruise was a kultie and nothing more So I educated her. She’s not the only one I’ve met who have never been blighted by the kult here. Most peeps know just that it’s some abusive scam and that’s it.
The Ideal Org strategy is working, but not the way the Faithful believe it is.
They’re dying. But they sure are doing it in expensive coffins.
“They’re dying. But they sure are doing it in expensive coffins.”
Great line, Scooter.
scientology always works the way it was DESIGNED, not how it’s promoted.
+1
How many college students have a couple hundred bucks to spare even for introductory courses, let alone the high cost of auditing and other services – to say nothing of all the regging?
They might try hitting up people who don’t live on instant coffee and ramen noodles…
Are you kidding? If a cult staff member knew poor struggling college students have instant coffee and ramen they would be asking if they need an additional roommate. Throw in Mtn Dew, Pop Tarts, roll your own fags along with an occasional kegger and they would rocket up the ‘tone scale’ to ‘serenity of beingness’! If they end up in ‘ethics’ for kyping their roomie’s groceries, they could simply plead ‘greatest good of the greatest number of dynamics’. Works every time.
I don’t know that introductory courses are relatively more expensive than during Scientology’s heyday, it’s more that the college demographic is interested in other things. Scientology did relatively well when there was a generation that had read Siddhartha, was considering “tuning in and dropping out” – and was interested in the possibility of easily becoming a “minister” in order to get a draft exemption.
If Scientology had continued to be able to draw in large numbers of people, I think they’d have kept prices low and stuck to a mass market high volume approach. But recruiting declined in the 1970s as the boomers were replaced by a generation that rejected pretentious pseudo-spirituality, and even under Hubbard they began to shift to the strategy of getting larger amounts of money out of a smaller number of people in order to keep overall revenues up.
Austin is one of the few orgs that has maintained a building near a college campus, though quite a few others (like St. Louis), missions that became orgs (such as Ann Arbor – Battle Creek) or defunct missions once did. And we can see how little good it does them – and note that those that once positioned themselves for college recruitment, and now among the sorriest of the small and failing orgs.
Peacemaker, is there ANY org, real or Ideal, which is NOT sorry, small, and failing?(whether they’re in a humongous building or not?)
Jere, from what I can tell there a few orgs, like Tampa (in part because it get cast-off traffic from Flag), LA and maybe Valley that aren’t doing so badly, though that’s relative; I’d guess some like those are more than breaking even, while the worst off are completely insolvent and only kept open by subsidies of various sorts (not to mention which, probably all would be deeply in the hole if not for the effective subsidy of virtually free staff labor).
But there’s probably no org even as large and active as the biggest missions of the 1970s and early 1980s. Orgs are the new missions, as I like to say.
And their posters are very revealing…the largest crowd shown is Chicago with about 40 people, Austin has 7 staff members, and this my friend, says a lot about their expansion and size.
Let’s hope that this hype and “intensity” – to keep people unsuspecting and busy – never becomes a hype to “drop the body”, in order to do OTIX or to “move on to target II” or whatever bullshit it is that Davey will preach to a certain circle, ultimately in order to get rid of witnesses and make off to a country with no extradition treaty with the USA…
Nonsense? Load of crap? Horseshit*?
Well I sure hope so!
And the irony is that I wouldn’t even mind Davey escaping for good, as long as subsequently this parasitic organization collapses, but preferably that should go down without a trailer full of dead bodies. Seriously, that’d be easier for everyone. Including Davey.
Because what Davey might not be able to realize, left to his own (prefrontally inadequate) devices, is HOW WANTED he will be after being determined as the cause of that mess.
Those psychopaths are sometimes a little slow with certain realizations, not?
I sure hope his lawyers told him in unambiguous words that being a mass murderer can be bad for your personal safety and wellbeing and might even cause some stress. And over that, any psychopath should lose his shit. Because for them, it’s all “me, me, me”. Reliably so.
Take care, Davey.
Do it like the big beings (well, at least they’re powerful). Hold some uplifting speeches, tell everyone how classy they are. Party hard. Give everyone a bonus. Have a nice vacation. Do some diving.
And if you want to, who not doing that forever?
Think about it, Davey.
* Absolutely no offense intended to horseshit. That’s where mushrooms are coming from.
While those new or remodeled mOrgs are sure to be just crammed with ‘students’, they remain just another real estate investment for International Landlord and therefore, the CO$.
When I went away to college in 1973, the student paper had a big spread on scams to avoid. They listed the Children of God, the Nation of Islam, Hare Krishnas and $cientology as cults to avoid. The CO$ still enjoys that bad boy reputation and thanks to search engines, anyone can look up $cientology and see what is going on. I can’t see any college centered mOrg doing much more that flirty ‘witnessing’.
If any one who has contributed to their local mOrg complains that their money was sent elsewhere, a state level criminal investigation should ensue. I think that is why everyone has go ‘ideal’ at the same time now. Covering your ass is another Lron sacrament.
The other “mainstream cult” to avoid at the time was the Moonies. Coming in just a bit after that time period was Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s cult. If anyone wants to see a good documentary regarding them check out ‘Wild Wild Country’ on Netflix. TM is also right up there with them.
Here’s the takeaway: just say no to cults.
That Austin pile is so ugly that I suspect that when it has to be sold off down the road, it will go for just the value of the land for something more suitable to be built. Scientology already owned the property, so they have just thrown money away.
I checked, and in Chicago they have been lucky to have received a tax exemption for the building, and to have maintained it in spite of leaving it unused for “religious” purposes. In other cities like Boston and St. Louis, they have had exemptions denied or revoked, and gotten stuck with tax bills approaching $1 million for years of sitting on derelict properties, that they have let decline to the point that they now can’t even sell them for what they paid for them.
John P. Capitalist has classified the ideal org project as one of wealth destruction, not wealth creation. Scientology’s international landlord probably comes out a bit ahead on most of the projects, but most would probably only resell for the value of the gutted shell or just the land, nowhere near what was put into all the specialized renovations that no future buyer would want or pay for. However, I bet Miscavige’s personal “stats” of total assets managed keep going up the entire amount spent on each project, even though that doesn’t reflect the market value of the properties.
I was reading through the brouchure for the Chicago Ideal Org and I read the caption below the guy kneeling with a green welders smock on. It said he was installing some mechanical pipping. Try as I might I couldn’t come up with an appropriate definition for pipping so I started getting a little woozy and unconscious. I guess I’m doomed. My eternity is just fucked because I went by a misunderstood word and read the next couple of captions. I developed some hidden standards because I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why an Ideal Org would need the extra expense of fire sprinklers with so many ‘OTs’ available to extinguish any fire that may start and threaten to destroy the ‘tech’ and create a ‘downstat’ situation. I guess this is what Ronnie would call the downward spiral.
I really wish FOOLproof was still around to bail me out of this with some of his trademark ‘M7 word clearing’. He’s probably keeping himself busy with his OSA duties of maintaining scientology’s stellar area PR control whilst sipping his KSW flavored Kool-Aid.
Ms. B Haven, the fact that you went past a mis-understood says you don’t give a damn! How can do this! You’re not playing the game! But, you’re probably going to Hell because of that mis-understood word!!! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!!!
Ms. B, you’re going to have pick up the cans.
Wow kind of rough?
No shit!!! OSD must be feeling a bit cranky today. It will be one awfully cold day in hell before I ever pick up the cult’s cans again. Once you’ve tasted snake oil it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Even worse than a shot of All-Blend Oil washed down the hatch with a tall cold glass of Cal-Gag.
Peacemaker, is there ANY org, real or Ideal, which is NOT sorry, small, and failing?(whether they’re in a humongous building or not?)`
Ms. M: Cal-Gag”; I LOVE it.
‘Rough’ is my middle name!
But did your face feel smooshed? Since that’s apparently a thing that happens when one misunderstands a word. I guess I’ve always understood all words I’ve ever read, including in other languages, since that’s never happened to me.
When I saw the person laying pipping, I thought about how they must be using union workers in the City of Chicago. No one messes with the unions in Chicago. It must be costing them a fortune.
I love the present and future empty Idle Morgue classrooms. Who will be the last to turn out the money-making cult lights for good? When will little davey mismanage get his “Deaths-Head Revisited” Twilight Zone treatment?
Ah, yes, the Twilight Zone treatment. I’ve heard of that. Wouldn’t want to go through that!
Peter:”Who will be the last to turn out the money-making cult lights for good? ”
The electric company, for failure to pay their bill.