Apparently, this is the latest thing to “ignite” in scientology (their pants have been on fire for a LONG time).
How is it that now, months AFTER the SuMP was launched, there is something else that is needed to make the Golden Age of Dissemination a reality? They told everyone that the SuMP was IT. All by itself the SuMP would reach the billions on every airwave and launch a new era of massive, epic, watershed growth as the Golden Age of Dissemination was heading straight up and vertical blah blah blah
But now it seems that was yesterday’s news. The REAL “ignition” is the sale of “The Basics Leatherbounds OMG.”
There have been enough “leatherbounds” hawked by scientology in the last 50 years to head bovines for the endangered species list. They just keep coming. Every “ideal” org gets a special leatherbound DMSMH to “fund” their big promotional campaign to “get out of Non Existence” – yet not a one of them has done so. There are leatherbound WTH used for “fundraising.” Leatherbound fiction books. Pretty soon they are going to be pitching leatherbound emeters.
And then, there is this.
“Exclusive briefing” is scientolospeak for “we want your money – right now.”
Money is really what will “ignite” the Golden Shower of Dissemination — turn over all your money and we will then be able to get started. It is the reason nobody has seen anything from SuMP yet — other than an 11 minute PR suck up about Miscavige that was promoted on Facebook and some “Dead Agent” videos “exposing” some “evil SP’s.” They have not yet collected money to produce anything, and can keep dangling the carrot of what “will happen” (providing you hand over enough cash).
The motto of scientology today – we are incapable of doing anything without your money first. And then we will think of something else to get you to hand over your money. And still, we will do NOTHING but tell you we are “Clearing the Planet.” And that we need your money to be able to do what needs to be done.
yes, 66 years of nonsensical selling of a frauid, that’s the golden age of selling and trying to get more money, and getrting otehrs to make more money!
Just want to say Mike, that your blog is the sanest of the critics-of-Scientology blogs that I read. Marty sounds unhinged sometimes. Tony does a pretty good job but he’s a never-in and comes at things the way a journalist would. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just different if you’ve been in. Anyway, thanks for being there
As Napoleon said of Talleyrand, “An elegant silk stocking, filled with shit.”
Aaaah! THE WAY TO HAVINGNESS for Davey, is THE WAY TO HAVING LESS for the clams!!!
I just had a quick look on ebay and found a set of the earlier limited 2,500 leatherbound editions for $359.99 (no doubt about a sixth of the original price) and the end papers where French marbled. Maybe that set was a test run for the new set?
Any idea what the sheepbots are going to be gouged for the new purtier set and does it come with a drooling regge?
Even as a former Scio of many years, it’s getting more and more difficult to duplicate, much less understand the mindset of today’s members. Sure, there’s a cult mentality in play. That’s a given. But the mental processes that are taking place nowadays sometimes make my head spin. I like to think I have a pretty good understanding of people. But Scios today seem to have a deep-rooted perspective that is bizarre at best. I’ve been there, but damn, these people have gotten hard to figure. Though I’m no psychologist, I daresay that the COS has descended to a level of delusional group psychosis that rivals the followers of Manson, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and that creepy looking guy who ran Heaven’s Gate. Is that an over-the-top comparison? I’m far from convinced.
Right you are. They’re burying themselves in their delusions. They can’t confront the truth, so they twist and turn, they dub in, they explain, excuse, then twist and turn away again, then explain some more, excuse further, etc.on and on in a downward spiral. This is the path to madness, to insanity for real. The more they bury themselves like this, the deeper and deeper they go into the delusion, the more they keep lying to themselves and allowing themselves to be lied to, the more complex their traps become, and the more difficult it will be for them to extricate themselves when the time comes when they have no other viable choice other than to do so. When that time comes, some of them may have lives so incredibly complex because of this that they will not be able to get out of their self-created mental traps and they’ll choose to stay there. Then they’ll be insane for real. I’m not joking.
I do not understand how clearly intelligent people like Mike and Chris Shelton and Leah Remini can have been involved in Scientology. They are now so normal. Of course, they were all raised in it and had to break free.
Jonathan, You are not alone there. Probably most of us wonder how we could have not seen. It is a very carefully constructed, multi-faceted brainwashing.
The enigma of it is that you can get some benefit from it. It is some truth mixed with many lies.
L Ron was a very effective pathological liar. We wanted to believe him, but he betrayed us, as well as his own.
One outa 2 ain’t bad. Have a great day Mike. Love your blog.
🙂
Hey, Mike! Are you and the family hunkering down for Mathew?
Not yet. Prediction is for some wind and rain. But we have thunderstorms almost every day this time of year so it’s not that odd. Luckily we are on the Gulf Coast side of the state. Would not be so calm if we were on the other coast.
We have to have before we doo doo? What, they ran out of toilet paper again?
Speaking of watershed, I see that they are evacuating Broward County. Are you guys safe on the other side of the peninsula?
This is a waste of money.
Dear Mike,
I feel something coming. It’s coming and neither you nor I can stop it. I know I said The Basics were going to change everything. I know I said the opening of the Super Power Building was the final piece of the puzzle. I know I said GAT 1 and 2 were going to revolutionize the world of Scientology and the planet…..but this time I really feel it. I have a total certainty and knowingness that these leather bound books are going to drop a real theta bomb on the entire planet…..I just know it….I can really feel it coming….It’s coming I can’t stop it……
Oops! Never mind I just pooped.
His Midgetness,
Dave
How about a leather bound Miscavige?
We’d all go blind…
Thanks to Tanning Bed Tech Miscavige will always be leather bound.
Mike……you wrote….There are leatherbound WTH used for “fundraising”. Lol. Last Christmas….I gave my sister a LRH book as a gag gift……we read some of it…..and labeled it. We called it the WTF edition.
His idleness will be astonished watching scn? secret places at Tony Ortega!
Now, even the freewhims can not escape the drone technology!
tock tock tooock
My husband was involved with this group for quite some time before I met him. So happy he left all of that behind. I don’t know what I’d do if my kids ever got involved later on.
If your husband is from Philly and has an exceptional memory, he may remember me. I would visit Philly org often in the 80’s and we’d talk. A very good guy. Please give him my hello as ask him to contact me through FB.
Recently someone posted about the dream world Scientologists are in that they truly believe that by some magic wave of the hand or some secret formula suddenly coming into play that “everyone” will cognite about the wonders of the tech and flood into the Orgs to go free. That is so true it stings the eyes, it’s all complete and utter bs! Didn’t someone say something about in-ethics and hard work? What a joke!
Scientology propaganda is all so very much a played out fantasy of the imagination. They do nothing but nothing itself, they give and give again, vast amounts of money and wait expectantly but say nothing about those hyped up ventures when they fail, sure as the tide comes in they will fail, one after the other. It’s been going on for decades. None of them in the Orgs ever finish anything now apart from the things they’re already done, over and over. It’s sickening to have family still in there pitching away, poor as Church mice – there’s a thought! Church mice, seems to fit the Scio’s profile.
So much money, so many lives wasted and believing so completely in their religious criminal enterprise it’s heartbreaking, especially at Christmas, which is coming up soon.
I remember all my continuing contribution was based on that continuing faith that Int Management was actually planning well, yet not informing us of many components of what was REALLY in the works (some sort of need to keep their planning secret).
But the problem is that there’s always been an arrogant dictatorial presence at the top of the management heap. I think much of the mid 60’s policy letters had brilliance in them, but they were so badly alloyed with the LRH-designed Sea Org “management” system that their intrinsic ARC was just carved out of them and trampled out of existence.
There’s probably been brilliant managers at Int and mid management but their best intentions and skills were nullified by enforcing strict adherence to the frantic demands of “Command Intention”.
I think that there’s a lot of people who have benefitted greatly through Scientology but the arrogance of the Church’s management has always made it nearly impossible for any manager of good will and intelligence and initiative to get anything actually done. There were a lot of ED Ints and Staff Captains and CO CMOs and on and on who were good people but were groomed into a culture where “unreasonableness” was the highest virtue. So many things that could have been accomplished well, if high ARC were to be attempted, were instead brought to ruin by unthinking emergency-drive managers.
Throughout the 30 plus years that I was on staff and in the SO there were only a few examples of sanity in organizations on a long term basis that I was able to witness. Yvonne’s CCLA, and a handful of missions. I did not know Yvonne well at all, but I knew many of her friends and staff members, and I could tell from my visits to CCLA that it was a thriving, high ARC place. (I am imagining that I might hear now some stories about how it was pretty rough there as well, but I am thinking, if Yvonne – or any other caring, intelligent manager at the time – were able to run the org without any upper management intervention, it would have been an even more amazing place.)
The other examples I can think of were the Carl Barney missions and the COSMOD missions. Once again – they had their problems and injustices as well, but I think that these would have evened out and would have eventually disappeared if their SO managers had used “An Essay on Management” as their guiding light rather than the FOs of the Sea Org.
Thanks for your comment. It reminded me of a weird situation witnessing an unfathomable management decision while in the army. Our regiment was issued with new vehicles, trucks etc. We had about 2 or 3 sedan vehicles issued for administrative use They were all sent back for some defect. We were never informed what was wrong with them officially but when they were returned they were without their standard issue radio/cassette units. It seems the management didn’t want the soldiers to have the opportunity of listening to the radio while they drove around doing army admin stuff. It really did create lots of negative rumors and a “to hell with them” attitude within the group as word got around (embellished of course). Morale actually suffered and hence discipline got more strict, along with harsher penalties.
The intention to wipe out any ARC in the flow of command structure and replace it with harshness is a reflection of the command attitude to govern those below them. Scientology is particularly nasty in that regard. I sure know what I saw and experienced and in my mind there was never any need for it to be that way. They killed off any loyalty they had with me by eliminating any opportunity of understanding why they did what they did, not to mention the vast number of well intentioned, capable & caring people they threw under the bus for what appeared to be for no other reason than they could. It really is just a form of human cruelty. It could be explained with all sorts of tech and policy violations etc but in the end it’s just plain mean.
“French marbled end papers” …. I was pooh – poohing this until I saw that … NOW I HAVE TO HAVE A SET!!!!! (of course I’m kidding … where would I put them? … it wasn’t easy getting rid of the two sets of Basics I had before leaving the USA … had to drop them off at the back of a small suburban Southern California library … any guesses as what they did with them? … but MARBLED end papers … and FRENCH yet! – there’s just got to be some extra spiritual advancement in that)
I would be more impressed if the end papers were made of Shamwow. They’re made in Germany, so you know they’re good. plus, you can read the book in a pool, then use the book to dry off afterward.
Super Power and SUMP are bigger problems than the Ideal Org Program. People in the vicinity of a failing Ideal Org can continue to believe the problem is a local one, but Super Power and SUMP are supposed to fix everything everywhere and it’s obvious that nothing has happened as a result of either.
Scientologists have the greatest difficulty piecing together what they see with they are told. They simply believe and then forget what they see. Their shrinking numbers are a prime example.
I hope you are right tho, the spotlight on them just got turned up by their claims of fixing everything with SUMP. Super Power is more or less forgotten about already imo.
Well, Mark Twain said it, I think. Something like: Its easier to be a fool than to admit that you’ve been fooled. True, that. I’ve been there.
When they run out of bovines they will cover the books with human skin like the Marquis de Sade. Maybe they will even claim that it is LRHs skin, saved for this purpose. WOW, that would be a special edition.
LRH’s skin? Ewwwwwwww!
I am sure they will iron out all the creases first.
Yeah, but still…ewwwwwwwwwww.
Yeah, a “Special Edition” alright… of complete insanity.
Speaking of books, Bill Strauss, I still want to urge you to write a book of your experiences in and out of the SO. It would be a best seller I’m sure.
Dear Cindy, I have been thinking of doing exactly that. I dont know to do it though. Just write the whole thing and send it to publishers? I dont know if most people can handle my warped sense of humor. You and some others handle it just fine. I could easily write a thousand pages from what i have seen in the Church. I have a few bizzare personal stories which may not be relevant to the blog. I could put them in the book. They will no doubt entertain someone.
You could always self-publish on Amazon, but you might contact the publishers who handled the spate of recent anti-scn books. You don’t need a finished product to start negotiating if you can get one interested.
Thank you for the information
Good to hear, Bill. You could self publish with Lulu Press or Amazon, or you could find a publisher to take it, maybe one who published for some of the others. And as for help and editing, Dan Koon did a good job.
I don’t know if I am worthy of being assisted by someone as accomplished as Mr Koon. In the event that his help was offered, I would be honored and would do anything I could to make the project a success. My story is similar to others I have read on the blogs but is also some what unique. I know of no other Sea Org members who were terminated from employment due to testing positive with HIV and then denied proper medical care (which violates both Federal and State laws.) The cult should be brought to account for it’s illegal and overt flouting of laws and common decency.
Dare I say it?
SHOW ME THE MONEY!
Good imitation of Tom Cruise…
BIg Being Conference coming up soon I hear, chairs placed for two only. One couch for warm up exercises tho.
I have some leatherbounds my grandmother owned. They are valuable to me because she owned them and they are beautiful. The value of the words inside them did not increase by putting them inside leather.
The cost of a word has never had anything to do with its value, especially when offered by a group who put so little value on the price of true integrity.
Toxic books need to be destroyed
It is bait for an innocent soul dealing with human vulnerabilities
Get rid of everything LRH
He was a criminal con artist duping thousands of people
Stop Scientology from Scamming!
+1! Shit can it all…
The leatherbounds are Robert Louis Stevenson, not LRH, I didn’t make that clear. All of my LRH was trashed in the ’80s. My grandmother, bless her soul was deceased before I got into scientology so never had to suffer with seeing me in it.
That reminds me I have a leather bound, signed copy of Scn 8-8008 somewhere in the storage boxes lost in antiquity. Geezers, I can’t bring myself to recollect how much I must have paid for it. What makes me really cringe is that it’s more than likely not even LRH’s signature. One of the many faces of Miscavige, all of them bad!
Be nice if it was provably fake, I’d donate it as evidence.
I’ll give my leather if you give me your lace…
Sure, meet you in the oily table room… don’t forget to bring your own pole to run around.
🙂
You’re making my head spin, Cindy!!! LOL Then, again, much of what scio currently does makes me dizzy, too!
Gawd…don’t these people get sick and tired of this? I mean – I can’t believe they put up with the constant carnival barking begging for nothing and giving absolutely NOTHING back of any lasting value in exchange.
Scientology – the Science of Carrot on a Stick for 65 fricken years.
This activity is otherwise known as the condition of beggary or was it buggery?
If it’s buggery…Ewwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!
Basics Leatherbound: wait a few months and these will be on EBay. The sellers would be lucky to get $10, as nobody wants this junk anymore.
$cientology: it’s all about MONEY!!
I cecked Ebay.3090 scientology items for sale.Collectbles(?),fiction,autographs.Lots of exclamation point after the offerings:Rare!Unique!One of a kind!GuessHow many bids on 3090 items?
0.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=l+ron+hubbard&_pgn=16&_skc=3000&rt=nc
I looked at that, even a couple of the Mission Earth books are there. Despite my opinion of Scientology I have to admit I thought the Mission Earth series was perhaps the most entertaining fiction I have ever read.
Nothing wrong with fiction Doug, when you know that’s what it is, enjoy away on whatever floats your boat. It’s when Scn spreads the bs around and calls it truth. Then its problems intensify considerably and people get duped and are severely ripped off.
Also their motto: “We have to have before we an DO, so give us your money so we can have your money.”
Excellent!
Thanks, I like that, Cindy. I’m going to put that on my new business cards.