The “ideal” nuttiness is seeping into every corner of scientology. After 16 years of the “ideal org” program being pushed as the “solution” (and the carrot for release of “OT IX and X”), “ideal” has become a scientology catchphrase. Of cpurse, it is a successful means of getting cash, so why not? There are now ideal orgs, ideal AOs, ideal Narconons, ideal Missions, ideal accommodations and even ideal families…
Still, idealiness notwithstanding, it seems life in the scientology bubble is not all unicorns and butterflies. The ideal org program has ground to a slow and painful state of bedridden terminal illness. The ideal Narconon plan has been a complete flop. Ideal missions have had a few flash in the pans like Ocala (now deserted) and South Coast but very little news on this front at all.
Apparently the Foothills Mission is not making enough money to buy carpets from their dance, art, baking or their first lessons. So, they are back trying out playing the “ideal” card again. They don’t seem to do much scientology — if only they could get someone interested in that stuff it is highly profitable. $500 an hour for a person in a room with an emeter is easy money. Alas, they don’t seem able to pull that off.
But it would appear they have another problem. They are not “thinking big” — hell, ideal orgs need tens of millions to buy massive new buildings, and pay architects and buy fancy furniture. They go for over-the-top grandiose. These guys are pitching 20 grand for some new carpet… And they did this small think before when they did a GoFundMe to get some money for new ceilings and tables to make an “ideal courseroom”…
Foothills Mission has a hard time duplicating the successful actions.
This is what happens when the Key To Life course is retired as squirrel tech.
They are also asking for workers — perhaps they could request some RPFers to be sent over from Big Blue?
In an ideal world are thieves thieves and orginators orginators. Psychs regard Pavlov as a hero and Hubbard as a thief. We have all arrived to the world through a mother a father made it into and we are all the owner of a planet to do the best of in our common interest. In an ideal world are people true instead of unworthy.
L. Ron Hubbard’s personal message to San Diego, 1978 – Ron’s Journal 28 which is probably no longer available from any org because it would shine a light on miscavige squirrelling.
LRH’s original idea of an ideal Golden Age. The lecture includes his amazing past and predictions for the future of scientology. “San Diego is going to take off like a rocket.” Fortune teller he was not. The video begins with Ron’s rendition of “Zarathustra” on his organ. Musician he was not.
He boasted that he introduced surfing to San Diego beaches from Hawaii and that Playboy had stated that drug use was down because of scientology.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=574&v=g4yDU6MbkM8
Since Mike covers a lot of $ci.. stuff does that mean that this place will be proclaimed an IDEAL BLOG?
Of course since there’s no quantifiable benchmark that needs to be attained, I’m guessing we may go IDEAL around here at just about any time. Maybe OSD or someone else can fire off a firecracker and make it happen.
Also, I know I’m a week late, but a big Congrats to Mike for taking us to St Hill Size. (Based on the July 3rd Headline.) I’m sure we’re all bursting with pride having reached this magical perch on the wagon cart of a random Wednesday.
Scientology is technically, a form of idealism – along with communism and its Marxist-Leninist variants. The believe in creating an ideal world, and even a new man, but as history shows that does not work out, and instead fails so badly that it results in totalitarian nightmares instead.
From the “before” pictures of the Foothills mission that were published a while back of what their office was like, they could definitely use $20,000 to try to make things not look so dated and shabby, that people in the 21st century aren’t actually turned off. The problem is, almost no one in the 21st century is turned on by Scientology, so it won’t do them any good.
Hubbard adopted abreaction, which was already on its way out, and called it Auditing. As a therapy abreaction had too many pitfalls, too many real psychological dangers to the patient, especially when the so-called therapist was ill-trained and under-educated – like Hubbard and everyone who followed in his footsteps. His fancy spacey cosmology had to dig deep into past lives for him to square his circle, and without any formal education he could do nothing but wing it, to the eventual detriment of the Auditing processes he created. He invented one conundrum after another, one false memory after another – hoping to eventually make sense of something, anything. Dianetics was for the body, Scientology for the soul, Russell Miller opined, but both always crashed against Hubbard’s primal failure: it was about the money, first and always. Nothing could make a Bridge out of his slime pit. Starry-eyed people followed him with a fervor born of the age. But at the first big criticism, The Anderson Report of 1964-65, written by a man with as much bombast as Hubbard himself, things changed. Within a year Hubbard, with some creepy input from Mary Sue, wrote up his strange Orwellian punishment routine that went by the inappropriate name of Ethics. The stage was set for everything that came after. The bloom was off the tomato. The blight began.
In auditing you had several so called therapists as you “went up the bridge”. I never met a so called therapist I didn’t like and none of the “patients” I audited disliked me. (Or at least they didn’t say so – haha) At least they all got to the examiner with a floating needle, cognition, and good indicators.
As an auditor I was dealing with a person’s innermost thoughts and feelings and I took my job seriously. There was a demand for excellence. It was an experiment in training ordinary people to counsel each other with mixed results. Like everyone else I didn’t know then what I know now.
Chris shugart:”Always, the push was to call your friends, family, and “off-line” Scios and get them started on a service.”
Yeah, those were the days, when they TRIED to DELIVER services and fervently hoped that would deliver the promised RESULTS. These days, they don’t seem to have delivery of anything as a goal. It’s all “donate”, with perhaps a book or course in exchange, but with the IAS, the donations simply go to the IAS and the clapping seals MIGHT get a trophy or status bump meaningful ONLY to others who value those statuses. They might SAY that the IAS “supports” the front groups, but they don’t say HOW they do that. It could well be the type of support I give to my local sports teams: yelling at the TV when it’s showing their games.
Danged b and N keys are too close. That should have been “In my case” since I stand as little as I can get away with these days.
$20,000 just for CARPET? What is it? hand knotted gold lamé by slaves in Saudi Arabia?
“$20,000 just for CARPET?”
Totally nuts. What Hubbard called, in the Data Series, an “altered importance”. An outpoint.
That’s about what an auditor training package cost shortly before I left.
When I was in and before I went UTR, still utterly ignorant, I suggested that instead of wealthy or well off Scientologists paying money for “statuses” they could donate to a scholarship program for good students to become HGC auditors.
In other words, any Scientologist who wanted to auditor train could apply for a free scholarship. There would be certain standards, certain requirements that would have to be met. Nothing too onerous though, because LOTS of auditors were needed!
And anyone who wanted to or could afford to could be encouraged to donate to this fund in order to pay for someone’s auditor training.
It made sense to me at the time (forgive me, I was ignorant and naive back then) because, after all, we had a PLANET to clear, and how could we even THINK about doing that without FIRST getting very busy training lots and lots of auditors?
As I saw it, turning out well trained auditors IN VOLUME was our org’s TOP priority – way above all other goals. There were students who WANTED to be auditors, really wanted to, but didn’t have the 20-22K to do it. So, let’s help them, you know?
(Now, I hope you’re chuckling at this point because I certainly am.)
To continue:
Very earnestly, I spoke to the ED of my org, and a few other execs who were long time staff, and shared my Auditor Training Scholarship Fund concept with them. I wrote it up as a Program and even inserted it into an Admin Scale with the “Goal” at the top being “__________Class IV Auditors Trained by ___________.”
I was very passionate about this 🙂
I thought it was a swell idea 🙂
I’ll let you guess how well it went over 🙂
Not chuckling Aquamarine- it’s exactly the thought process I went through and later my wife. But it would only make sense if the actual objective of Scientology was to benefit individuals and the wider society. Another one was “10,000 Solo Nots PCs and the planet more or less clears itself.” Really? Good, so let’s get 10,000 eager hard working Scns through. Come on let’s do it! Oh. I see.
Thanks for your response, Martin, and yes! We actually BELIEVED that the goal was to clear the planet…you know, dippy us 🙂
“Navigating to an Ideal World”??
You can’t even get one small ship full (and the COB’s favorite slogan won’t help).
The Scn staff and public must be so fed up with the “Ideal-this” and “Ideal-that” when I’m tired of it here at the fringes of the Internet.
But who would dare to say anything or complain when it is the pet project of the Ideal-Leader. Or maybe they have reached already the Ideal cognitive dissonance in their Ideal bubble.
Dear UTR scientologists. If you are reading this post, please read the Debbie Cook email.
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/new-years-email-from-debbie-cook/
If you think you are still in scientology because you are doing what LRH would have you do, remember this ideal org insaneness is so off policy that it flies right in the face of everything LRH wanted.
So, if you still believe in scientology in any way, please understand that ideal orgs have nothing to do with practicing scientology.
I will not state my beliefs pro or con regarding scientology, anyone who knows me know how I feel, but ideal orgs and fundraising in general are off policy. Period. Please ignore the carrot dangled in front of your nose and start questioning like Debbie did.
Superb comment, ValR. Nails on the head all over the place.
There’s nails all over the place? That’s an accident just waiting to happen!
I can see the ED/CO briefing his crew now….. “Okay, listen up! It’s all hands until noon to beg up enough money to have something to eat and hopefully get the lights back on. After that it’s back onto saving this planet and making this an Ideal Universe! GO BIG THINK!!!! Hip, Hip, Hurrayyyyy!!!
PickAnotherID, even though it’s NOT a private home where a private homeowner can do his own work somewhat isolated from local codes, it IS a “church” which considers it can do whatever the heck it wants. An old friend who was an electrical contractor AND a local inspector LOVED doing work for churches because the could pay what he charged to do, re-do, then rip it out and do it correctly the way they WANTED it, not what they initially asked for. He’d have gotten along famously with Miscavige — as long as the beer and cash-flow held out.
The “Missions” problem is they are renting space in a commercial building owned by someone else. They’ll be opening themselves up for all kinds of grief with the real owners if the work is not done to code and in compliance with all pertinent laws and regulations. Especially if there’s any damage to the structure, or personal injury.
Remember, Drinking rum before lunch makes you a PIRATE, not an alcoholic. Ron certainly was a pirate by that measure, then.
OSD:”Wow! These Scientology folks sure need a lot of money.”
No, it’s not scientology folks, it’s DM and his rapacious cronies.
I stand corrected.
OSD:”Stand corrected”
?? I’m not a surfer, though I’ve seen a few surfer flicks. Wouldn’t that be Hang 10 or something? Ib my case, I’d SIT corrected in my comfy office chair.
I’m sorry, jere, you don’t surf? And yes, we do like to hang 10. But a lot of people want 12.
Hang 11 if you aren’t wearing any clothes?
Is there a “Surfing For Dummies” book I can buy so that I can look up all these terms?
For women?
Peter Blood:”The best state of “clear” is when you control your own life and don’t let others do it for you.”
AIN’T THAT THE TRUTH!? After attesting to ‘clear’, I was on top of the world. Soon after, the actual S.O. world interfered with my “floating TA” and I crashed … HARD. since scientology has no interest in dealing with real problems of their staff, I got sentenced to the RPF, (as if continual degradation and mistreatment was going to ease my depression. ) Well, it DID, since the wimps didn’t KNOW what real work was and couldn’t run to catch the bus. It turned into pretty much a vacation for me, and then then they threw me away like a used Kleenex and told me to go away, which I did — to re-establish my real life. finally, I got paid something near what I was worth to do what I’d always wanted to do: Beat computers into submission so they did what we wanted them to do. Such JOY! getting paid to play games against computers all day. JUST the thing for a repressed nerd.
Jere,
I’m happy for you that after all those years IN you found something you enjoy doing and for which you get paid!
“The Miscavige dunk tank would be very popular.”
PARTICULARLY if,those of us who REMEMBER what KSW pertains to can come and dunk the twit, preferably including holding him under to give him another time going down without all that SCUBA gear doubling his weight.
Ms. B. Haven: ” a glacier in reverse” I can’t imagine HOW that could happen, but I like the imagery.
Chris shugart:”I think I need another beer.”
Agreement, but make mine a double shot of rum. I need to catch up.
Chris Shugart:”Ah, those were the days when we were cranking out real Scientologists.”
I somewhat agree. Nowadays, it’s Davey’s cult, turning out … nothing ..
Just polishing a turd endlessly and calling it a golden egg.
Mike, Could you elaborate on why the KTL was cancelled.
I hadn’t heard about it being called “squirrel”.
Miscavige one day decreed it was “out tech”. No idea why.
I heard that the course that Key to Life is a prerequiside to, is Live Orientation Course and on that course you find out your real purpose in life and go work on your purpose line. Too many SO members were finding out their real purpose was NOT to be in the SO and too many wer leaving the SO. I wonder if that had something to do with why he suddenly nixed Key to Life?
Cindy, as of 2005 the Life Orientation Course and the Key to Life Course were found to be ‘not entirely LRH’. I think that the end result of LOC was not what was desired by miscavige since many who finished had no desire to join the SO. Perhaps to open a bowling alley was one result.
Anecdotal experiences here: http://www.forum.exscn.net/threads/key-to-life-life-orientation-course-changes.664/
I know a lot about this. I did the KTL/LOC training.
I loved the KTL. It struck hard with my nerdiness, because precision of grammar appealed to me. I maintain that KTL was a good course, with these caveats: the valuable parts were clearing the small common words and the grammar. Very good to dive deep on these, and what I thought should happen in school. However, that’s not religious! The rest of the course is spiritual hokum.
The LOC is adapted from policies on hatting. This is a much more humdrum subject. Because we had all felt a spiritual boost from KTL, we thought LOC was on the same lines. The end of the course was identifying your post and some work on identifying what to do to make a success of it (Product Clearing). We were coming up with general “beingnesses”, like “a healer”, “a commander of men”, when it should have been “MLO”, “Public Exec Sec”. A few months after we completed the training in LA, we all had to redo that final step because we hadn’t done it literally. It was a big comedown to learn that it should have been such a mundane, real-world post.
I’ve not heard before that KTL/LOC was announced as squirrel. There’s a wonderful KTL bulletin where Hubbard outlines that, because KTL addresses basic understanding, other staff who have not done it will attempt to stop it and destroy the team.
Imaberrated – Is KTL the study course where you look up every word in the course from a to z? I did that course and it was well worth the effort. To this day a misunderstood word rarely escapes my notice. Depending on what I’m reading I just identify the word as an MU and keep on reading without going blank or falling asleep. Nonsense is still nonsense which should have been mentioned in the course.
If you come upon a word that its meaning is unknown and you acknowledge that to yourself then that probably won’t put you to sleep. If you find that you continue to read the same thing over and over, it might help to look up the word.
Try this, start reading a non-simple dictionary word by word, page by page, without looking anything up. An Oxford dictionary would be good.
I find it’s better than sleeping pills.
One of the KTL modules (6A) was to clear the definitions of all the small common words of the English language. It’s not the same as what you mentioned.
These days, like you, I don’t always clear a misunderstood word, but I often do a web search to get an idea about it.
Richard, the course where you look up every word is the Primary Rundown. After I did KTL and LOC I REALLY wanted to do the Primary Rundown.but they had ceased delivering it. KTL helped me a great deal with regard to being able to immediately spot words I didn’t fully understand but I wanted MORE of that because I actually LIKE looking up words in a dictionary. ( OK, ok, my friends, I HEAR your groans, i FEEL your pain, but what can I tell you;? We all have our things! I have a woman friend who enjoys doing LAUNDRY. Wash. iron, fluff and fold – she likes it. Think about THAT for a while :).
Aqua, Imaberrated and Peabody – Thank you for the feedback. Maybe the next time the “Primary Rundown” gets mentioned I’ll go into detail about it. Scientology trivia. On completing the course you were awarded the status of “Super Literate” and escaped most if not all future word clearing. Hallelujah!
I never did KTL nor LOC. The only experience I have is that I overheard a “session” in a course room not designated for KTL. I overheard the word clearer accepted a completely wrong definition of a word and got a pass. The link I provided gives many opinions on KTL and LOC.
As to word clearing, I’m all for it. I use it almost every day. Television, media, movies, crossword puzzles, blogs, you name it, words that I don’t know the meaning I look up.
I loved KTL also, for the very same reasons. I also loved LOC but for different reasons. I was shocked when I learned that the course wasn’t being delivered anymore. Of course having learned what I learned since, it makes perfect sense that Miscavige would yank it.
Edit: “CoursES.” Plural.
When we all thought that LOC was product clearing and hatting for generalized beingnesses, like “an artist”, “a helper’, it was great. It felt validating, and we felt that we had contacted purposes in our lives.
When we were told that we’d done it wrong because it was literally product-clearing on your current hat or job, it was extremely deflating, and, come to think of it, it marked the start of the decline of the delivery of the two courses.
The funny thing is that the procedure applied, whether it was literal or one of our airy-fairy ideas.
My guess now would be … Look to those who compiled it or was instrumental in its creation and release. Someone on high, now fallen from Grace and must be discredited?
…
All changes in Scientology are released or proclaimed on an intricate stage built of lies.
Here’s a little anecdotal evidence that continual asking for money results in the wrong result. I belong to a local program that does a fundraiser every year. That money lasts the program for the whole year. In the last few years, the treasurer and her husband have been “borrowing” funds from the program. A close friend of hers told us that – but “they always pay them back” he said. Each year, we have been told there is not enough money for certain things and each year the financials get less and less transparent.
When it came time to send the children in the program to State this year, the program all of a sudden was short $20,000 for this. The treasurer let us know 2 days before we were supposed to go. For 6 years, parents, grandparents and friends have been stepping up and handling the shortfalls, questioning where the money went. This time, they refused to step up until the treasurer stepped down. The treasurer is now under investigation by the DCI (at least $180,000 is unaccounted for).
People get weary of continuous donating when they see nothing in return for their donations. Despite what Miscavige believes, a status increase, recognition, a cute bowling trophy, those mean nothing, what they want to see is where their money went.
Perhaps the ideal whatever is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It all depends on what people see as the ideal scene. Those of us who come to this blog generally agree that the ideal scene would be to have corporate scientology dismantled and the people who are disconnected from family members reconnected.
The longer and harder the push for money, the more likely that ideal will be reached.
Any program that does not have checks and balances, including two-signature checks , outside auditing, or whatever the standard accounting practices are for such an organization is begging for the money to get “borrowed” on a regular basis. People are just people, and temptation weighs heavy. There are few who can resist what looks like free money, especially if they are basically honest people who intend to pay the money back.
@ammo, I can see where you are coming from but I beg to differ, First off, basically honest people, in my experience do not “borrow” funds to which they are not entitled, especially in youth programs. Also, the letter of the law states that if you take money from an account over which you have fiduciary control, it is embezzlement.
Two attorneys have been disbarred in our small state this year for that crime.
I agree with the two signature checks, and the outside audits, we have been fighting management to implement those controls for three years now. That is how long it has been since we discovered that there had never been an audit and the checks were not two signature.
However, in this situation it would have been a laughable control at best because the Treasurer’s husband was president for 4 of the six years in question so he could have just signed the checks too.
I do believe that they probably did, at least at the start, pay some of the money back. It just became too easy because people didn’t raise a stink.
That’s what I think is happening with Miscavige, people are leaving and raising a stink and he keeps having to adjust to pretend he’s got it under control.
I sincerely hope the stink is becoming more than he can control.
The Ideal Prison for David Miscavige would be Attica Correctional Facility.
That’s it!!! That’s fucking IT. Attica, Attica, Attica, Attica.
I think ADX Florence, a supermax prison in the United States federal system in Florence, Colorado would be more just.
It houses several inmates who have a history of violent behavior in other prisons, with the goal of moving them from solitary confinement for 23 hours a day to a less restrictive prison within three years where he can play musical chairs with Bubba.
After years of chugging along like a glacier in reverse, the Cult should really start thinking big. Really BIG. Why not just cut to the chase and go for an Ideal Guh-lax-ee? Target Two might be a little behind since Hubbard is AWOL from the Sea Org and hasn’t reported in on his “unencumbered by the body” research. Notwithstanding, bubble dwellers here can still get with the program and get this job done. Ironically an Ideal Guh-lax-ee is more achievable than a Cleared Planet. So far the Cult hasn’t been able to produce a single Clear but they do have some impressive sheet rock square footage stats. Now that’s the road to Ideal. Some OT is going to have to write a Success Story for Advance Magazine about the fact that they have used their OT Abilities and discovered a gypsum planet.
Ideal, Ideal
Won’t be just any deal
Ideal is how we’re raising the bar
Ideal, Ideal
We’ll make it a big deal
And for us, stats will rise to the stars
Today
The staff was rather naughty
And though DM is haughty
He is our guiding light
Hear our appeal
And make this shitty Org
Go Ideal, Ideal!
Sung to the tune of Tonight from West Side Story.
This is their big project? Carpeting? Is this what’s going to bring about “a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper?” I hate to say it, but I may be on the verge of going over the edge, and becoming just another pathetic old guy, waxing nostalgic and crying into his beer lamenting about the way it used to be. But really, how times have changed. Alot.
Veteran Scios know as well as I do that orgs and missions used to kick-start their churches with pep rallies designed to galvanize their public into action. The general attitude attitude was “You’re all FSMs whether you like it or not.” It wasn’t a threat, just the reality of what it was going to take to expand Scn.
Always, the push was to call your friends, family, and “off-line” Scios and get them started on a service. The carpeting may have been faded and frayed, but nobody seemed to notice or care. There was a time when any org’s single most important VFP (Valuable Final Product) was Value of Services Delivered, or VSD. It was a weekly stat based on total auditing hours delivered, total student points, and major service completions. Ah, those were the days when we were cranking out real Scientologists.
And now it’s come to this. It’s no longer about auditing or training, it’s about nylon or polyester. No longer is it a question of sending a struggling student to Ethics or Qual. Smooth or Shag is now the important issue of the day.
Oh well, I guess I’ll have to learn to live with it. The local Burger Pit is long gone. They closed the neighborhood bowling alley and will be tearing it down to make way for a housing complex. And don’t get me started about that cool music store with all the bitchin’ guitars, amps, and drum sets in the storefront window. Nothing but a vague memory now. I think I need another beer.
We are laying brick paving in our front yard, it will be the ideal walkway. I guess I need to start fundraising for more bricks (although the 4 pallets of bricks currently in our driveway are more than enough). Perhaps I can get volunteers to help lay the bricks? I must start thinking more ideally.
It would seem to me in reality that if they needed new carpeting they would just deliver enough services (you know those things like training and auditing all that stuff scientology used to do), they could just use some of that money to upgrade the premises.
Bricks lay
Weeds grow
Up they sprout
Give ‘em a mow
Burma Shave
I salute you, ammo. Being able to recite Burma Shave signpost slogans is rare talent and perhaps even a lost art.
Val, absolutely, you have to start fundraising RIGHT AWAY for this brick walkway!
It is the ONLY way to expand your business.
“Brick it and they will come”.
Now, Val, you just go on and round up ALL of your business customers/clients/vendors and brief them on the importance of completing this brick walkway and why they should, each of them, invest HEAVILY in getting this DONE.
Offer light refreshments.
Once they’re on board, as they assuredly will be, let them know that they’ll be expected every other Saturday evening, twice a month, for Pot Luck Fundraisers at your house.
Show them VIDEOS of what the walkway will look like once its done.
Get them REALLY excited!
Also them know there will be different THEMES to these fundraisers in which they’ll get to DRESS UP. Pirates, Cowboys, Camelot, etc., make it FUN for them, Valerie! If you make it FUN, your clients, customers and vendors will ENJOY contributing big money for your home improvements! Always make it FUN!
But while you’re all having a blast, be sure to ding in the importance of them understanding that the more improvements you make to your home, the better your business will produce and the better off THEY will be.
Its important that you get across the irrefutable LOGIC of this datum to them.
Once they really get it, their hearts will open, and withal their purses and wallets. It is pure magic!
And, once that brick walkway is down in place, new public will start FLOODING into your business!
Down the road you can introduce Status’s for the donations you receive. You can give out tee shirts, pins, plaques, trophies…you might need a new washing machine, let’s say. A big donor could get a Maytag Meritorious…or higher, Maytag Meritorious With Honors, Platinum Meritorious, etc., – that sort of thing. People LOVE to be acknowledged this way and it makes them want to give you more and more. These are indeed provenly successful actions for Ideal Home Improvement Fundraising, but we’ll get to them later!
For now, take your first step on the road to expansion!
Much love,
Aqua.
@Aqua, damnit, you waited too long to post. We finished the walkway last night. Oh well, we can always brick over the back yard….
I obviously need to be “hatted” on how to do this “Ideal” stuff. Way to short of a runway there.
Chris, I can relate to your sadness for a bygone world that you miss, but I can’t share it specifically regarding Scientology. Scientology would be much more dangerous and damaging if it still had all those enthusiastic people, and if it was still doing it in a less obviously abusive way. I think abuse is baked into Scientology. An abusive con is Scientology’s essence. So the better Scientology’s managers behave, the more damage it will ultimately do. Better for it to be screamingly obvious how delusional this belief system is. Then even the people still in only have to make the slightest shift to perceiving reality as it is in order to perceive that delusion. If it was like those good ole days, it would be much more difficult to recognize how empty and false Scientology’s promises are.
Still, I can relate, because there are other bygone days I sometimes miss that are also better off gone.
What Cat said!
Toxic bullshit wrapped in a piece of blue sky and delivered with a smile
is still toxic bullshit. Lies, lies, lies. Money, money, money.
Same shit, different century. There is no kind and gentle scientology; there never was. A ” friendly ” scam is still a scam. The ” modern science of mental health ” was and is devoid of science and has never produced mental health; it was designed to produce, at the bare minimum, confused and disassociated euphoria addicts(even Freud finally recognized that abreactive therapy makes the client too dependent on the therapist ) who could be manipulated and controlled, first by Hubbard, and then by Captain Homunculus. Cha ching!
Please, y’all, stop lamenting slight changes in the style of criminality that the cult exhibits😎
Mark, you’re taking this much more seriously than the author intended. I’m not proud of my past, but neither am I ashamed or bitter. I know that my Dave Barry approach to some things doesn’t always connect. But sometimes you gotta lighten up, Francis.
And Cat, don’t worry about me. I’m not really that broken up over a past I can never revisit. Not sadness, but more like wistful nostalgia.
I hear ya, Chris; point acknowledged
It’s a subject I can joke about. It’s a subject that still brings up mixed emotions for me. Nostalgia definitely ain’t in the mix for me…
It is what it is…
Chris: Don’t let anyone take away good memories! I was in for 16 years, mostly had a wonderful time with terrific friends, enthusiasm, WINS! (I don’t give a damn who thinks otherwise!) I was helped, I helped others. The crap was fairly minimal back then. Then the SO and GO really got rolling and the fun went out of it. Many of us took what was offered, did the inner work needed, and soared in our lives. More than a few realized that it was THEMSELVES who had done the work and didn’t assign our changes to Hubbard. Were there things out of whack? Sure. I don’t know of any organization, group, company or organization that is somehow PERFECT. That’s not what life is all about.
And remember, folks, any good con has to have SOME truth to work at all. I found some, used it, added my own “take” to it and did what I could to better myself.
And for those struggling to remove scio from their lives, it can’t be done. It was part of my life. How can I deny that?
And the very best thing I got out of it was the woman to whom I’m married. Fabulous! As well, we have many friends from those older days whom we love and cherish. They, too, are part of our lives…and worth whatever we had to go through in order to have them.
With due respect to all exes who talk about the “good old days”, try as I might, I just can’t wrap my never-in mind around the notion that once-upon-a-time there was something of value to be had in scientology. The few paragraphs I’ve read of “Dianetics” are just so convoluted and poorly written that I’ve never wanted to read more. Maybe I “hadda be there” for all the love-bombing and youthful enthusiasm in the beginning, but I just can’t see it.
One look at Hubbard’s portrait photo seals it for me. Even Hitler could put on his “martyred” look at times, and Stalin with his pipe and mustache projected a “wise Uncle Joe” look, but Hubbard? He just looks malevolent, every pore of his countenance exhuding evil. It obviously takes a massive amount of self-deception not to see that. My two cents.
Bix: I tried reading that Dn book three times…and could never get past Chapter 1! LOL
And you are right: “you had to be there.” LOL
bixntram – The simplistic reactive mind/engram theory in DMSMH might appeal to some people. Erase your engrams and you’re “Clear” with newfound abilities.
Reading Dianetics is only one way people got interested in scientology. Here is the 1970 scientology “Classification Gradation and Awareness Chart” which was posted in all scientology missions and orgs.
https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~288971~90060483:Text–Classification-Gradation-and-
A lifelong friend always thought my participation in scientology was a bit odd. Now that he’s watched the “Going Clear” movie he’s sure of it – haha. No sense trying to convince him there was anything of value.
I have said this before, “The never-in will never understand why us old-timers got in in the first place.” Furthermore, there is no way to explain it to a never-in.
The hook was an experience above any other. It was personal. It also cannot be explained to a never-in because a never-in wouldn’t have any idea of what we’re talking about. Neither would young scientologists using miscavige tek probably.
Once upon a time we saw a future
That we all were so devoted to
Remember how we laughed away the hours?
And spoke of all the great things we would do!
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d play Ron’s game forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and yet to be betrayed
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la
Then the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
If by chance I’d see you at a party
We’d smile at one another and we’d say
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d play Ron’s game forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and yet to be betrayed
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la
Just tonight I thought about a memory
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In my mind I saw a strange reflection
Was that naive person really me?
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d play Ron’s game forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and yet to be betrayed
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la
la la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la
Through the door there came familiar laughter
I saw your face and heard you call my name
Oh my friend we’re older but much wiser
For in our hearts our dreams are still the same
Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d play Ron’s game forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and yet to be betrayed
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la La la la la la la
That’s pretty good, Scribe. I think I’d like to take that on as a music project one of these days. Somewhere down the road. I have a a song in progress, and a couple more waiting in the wings.
Be my guest Chris!
The Smothers Brothers had their own version of this song. This video from 2008:
https://youtu.be/8jg04ExeQ0E
Maybe the Mission could hold a bake sale and a carnival? The Miscavige dunk tank would be very popular.
Especially if he doesn’t come up.
Think of how stupid the average scientologist is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
I give you the Ideal Stupidy Cult
I give you the Ideal Stupidy Cult! Wynski, I think you’re on to something! Something BIG! Keep it up!
OSD, Now I just need some Ideal Whales to hunt… Just call me Queequeg.
Cap’n Dave is Ahab chasing the whales!
George Carlin
Carlin was in scamology?
The closest he came was eating peanut clusters. 😂
No. George Carlin said, “Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.”
I should have been a comedian. NOT.
Actually, if you came up with that all on your own, you may be on a par with Carlin :o)
It was just a logical statement based on knowledge of normal distribution. Less comedy than mathematics. Thanks though
“Mission of the Foothills” is located in a commercial building, right next to an ‘Arthur Murray Dance Studio’. So they better have the correct permits for the work, and the “Electrical Work” and “Light Installation” they want done has to be done by, or under the direct supervision of, a licensed electician. Such work must also meet all current California and National Electrical Code standards, and be done in compliance with OSHA standards. And they also better be in comliance with all OSHA standards when it comes to the “Demolition”, “Drywall”, and “Painting” work. This isn’t like a house, where the owner can do the work his/her self, as long as it’s up to code and passes inspection.
Hopefully, the local inspectors will keep an eye one this.
Really just being “in” with $cientology as a member or SO slave you effectively have put your life in the miserable RPF until you wake up and leave. The true glories of life await you when you do. The best state of “clear” is when you control your own life and don’t let others do it for you.
I just don’t see the church of scientology on any level as anything but dead but maybe there’s still “breath on the mirror.” Like everything else about the church of scientology I don’t trust even that. I’ll believe it’s dead when friends, families and loved ones can see each other without interference or game-playing by the church of scientology, when even the “still-ins” recognize that the “Ideal Org” (and everything else) program was a scam and when david miscavige is recognized as the snake oil salesman (and worse) that he is. Oh what a day that will be. Awe, one can dream….
Hard to pull in raw meat when you’re dead meat.
LOL!
Wow! These Scientology folks sure need a lot of money.
Davy’s got to maintain his lavish lifestyle.
But, at some point he’s going to trip (no, not the trip you’re thinking about) and fall on his face. Seriously, Scientology is slowly grinding to a halt.
It’s like oxygen to them OSD…they can’t get enough, and they need it ALL THE TIME.
Oooooooo…addicts. Old Surfer Dude
Hubbard based his entire religion on invalid assumptions. He talked about a thetan and then presented theories about how that thetan would behave. It worked while he was alive because he could talk endlessly about his theories. Take, for example, his Philadelphia Doctorate Tapes. More than sixty hours of words with no scientific proof. So now Miscavige is over the idea of the thetan. The new false assumption is the ideal org. It fits perfectly into the Scientology mind set. Here is another set of ideas with no proof. A certain percentage of every population is Occult oriented. These are the people gravitating towards Scientology. Thanks to the “Aftermath” , only a small percentage of these are active.
Before the internet nobody knew it was venturing into the mystical and the Occult. It was Western science applied to Eastern philosophy with maybe some groovy stuff happening like Nirvana or Enlightenment. (Are will still in The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius?)
Its been a rough, very busy, high pressure work week for me and when i read this article I mentally shuddered.
I’d like to reach out to each of you.
Humor me, please!
Can we please link hands for a Kumbaya moment in cyberspace, saying a prayer of thanks together that we are OUT OF THIS CRAZINESS!
Aqua, I’m there with ya. 8 years out of the kool-aid zone and still recovering my ability to think and feel and relate to others and simply breathe and BE. Very grateful to be away from that nasty, soul-crushing cult.
Cheers to all of you who have truly left that shit behind! Enjoy your lives and your loved ones!
You too!
“Cheers to all of you who have truly left that shit behind! Enjoy your lives and your loved ones”.
Amen to that, Mark.
But for those out who believe they can’t enjoy their lives because their loved ones are still inside the cult and disconnected from them, this will not resonate.
On the other hand, if the people posting here, who decided to be true to themselves, the people who had the courage to know what they knew, the integrity to tel the truth and not lie; those who believe that a person’s integrity to himself comes FIRST – to those people here on Mike’s blog and elsewhere, I offer this:
You could have stayed, and remained connected to your loved ones. You could have made that decision. And if you had, you’d still have your loved ones around.
But would you be happy? Would YOU be happy?
Lying to yourself. Lying to others. PRETENDING that you SEE what you don’t see. PRETENDING that you DON’T see what you DO see. You entire life – your work life, home life, finances, relationships, your entire beingness, your actions, interactions with others, speech, thoughts, not under your control, but under cult’s control.
And you could enjoy or endure all of the above in the company of your loved ones. You could see them whenever you wanted. You would not be suffering the pain and longing and aching of missing them so. You would not have that particular pain, which has to be agony, at times. Paying the cult’s price would save you from that pain.
Yet, would you be happy?
And, look, I get it. Sophie’s Choice. I get it.
I still have panic attacks from time to time that include visions of what happened in Scn, or just the background concept of Scn.
I’m with you on celebrating being out of this.
I sure hope not!
Don’t see much of Aquarius these days.