This is the latest “org mag” from the “Ideal” org in Jobur (the sign above and the invitation below explain the reference to Jobur — we had some fun with this a few years ago when the storm troopers arrived in South Africa and declared the most prominent scientologists – of course things just rocketed following that stroke of genius).
Don’t forget, this is one of the ORIGINAL “ideal orgs” – now in operation for 12+ years. Miscavige made grand pronouncements about the future of the continent of Africa based on the brilliance of his ideal org strategy. And Jobur would lead the way. It was not just Jobur that would soon be cleared, not just South Africa, but it would launch the clearing of an entire continent the likes of which had never been seen before.
Somehow, his grand plan to Make Africa Great Again has not come to pass. Must be all the SP’s who have sabotaged his every move. Or lack of dedication by the staff. Or dilettante public. Or something.
Below is EVERY PAGE of the latest Jobur Ideal Org mag.
A few thoughts accompany some of these pages.
Wonder if they are applying their own “tech” to reaching their goals? They are not much of an advertisement for what they are selling.
“Continual momentum for progress up the Bridge” – seriously? You know that today most people on “extension courses” use them as a justification for not showing up at the org right? “Oh, I am on my Handbook for Preclears Extension Course and doing great, I am flying and want to enjoy my wins…”
Yeah, interesting article. But it really doesn’t hold up to scrutiny when you put it side by side with Keeping Scientology Working.
Not sure if these people are Jobur public or just generic people from anywhere in the world. I suspect the latter.
Whoever they are, this is pretty underwhelming.
Now these ones are definitely NOT Jobur public. They clearly say they are not.
Why? There are no successes from Jobur?
And more that has NOTHING to do with Jobur… Come on, there has to be SOMETHING from Jobur. This is their magazine….
This guy appears to be the same Jay Evans listed in numerous completion lists beginning in 1996. He lives in the US. Again, no Jobur.
And that is ALL.
There is NO COMPLETIONS LIST for Jobur in their entire magazine. One can only assume they complete no courses and no auditing. Or the number is so small they are embarrassed to include it. But there is NO news of ANY kind. Nothing, no events. No births or marriages. No sign of an actual org — let alone one that is “leading the charge for a new civilization in Africa.”
This place is deader than a doornail.
So much for the 10X expansion and the Clearing of Africa and Missions and Field groups springing up all over the place that then become Orgs. So much for the “AO Africa” — the building has been sitting there since shortly after the Jobur Ideal Org was opened.
More proof that the “straight up and vertical” international expansion of scientology is pure imagination.
A bit OT (though it sort of follows on some continued comments by Nickname on the old cancer topic), but I went and read through that piece from Hubbard on Differences Between Scientology and Other Philosophies. As Mike pointed out, it’s hard to reconcile that with seemingly opposing policies like KSW.
The conclusion that I’m coming to is that Hubbard said and wrote things like that realizing it appealed to the ideals of a large number of people who would then contribute their energy and money, but intended it to actually apply to only a small number of people with the extremely high perceptiveness, self-determinism and will to see through policies like KSW and overcome the organizational pressure to submit to them. That fits with L. Ron “Nibs” Hubbard, Jr. said about his father’s real motivations, and could be considered a more sophisticated version of the typical conman’s (or strongman’s) justification, that people who get taken advantage of deserve it for being gullible and feeble-minded. Or else I think you have to figure that Hubbard was some sort of schizophrenic Jekyll and Hyde personality type, who on the one hand could write like he does above and who seems to have put enormous work into some of his work like developing auditing, and on the other hand could be cruel and exploitative in ways that are well documented from the beginning to the end of his leadership of Dianetics and Scientology.
I recall a long time Class V staff member at my org speaking about her mother, then well into her 90s. This staff member lived with her mother who apparently cooked, cleaned and grocery shopped. What stood out for me in this brief conversation was how the staff member characterized her mother. “She is still useful”.
This comment of mine is non-sequitur here; it belongs much further down as a response to other comments about Scientology’s treatment of whomever they can’t use.
I don’t know Aqua. Seems like a valuable comment as long as the topic involves scientology. It really struck me when I read it.
Wow, I actually made it through the Hubbard article entitled “The difference between Scientology and other philosophies” and it was just a bunch of convoluted crap with absolutely no point! This must’ve been a speaking “off the cuff” sort of thing because it’s not organized, it’s just a stream of consciousness….and then he acts like he just said something so important and explained something of great significance, but it was just gobblety goop. He must’ve had such a magnetic personality and/or powerful presence to get away with passing this off as “scripture” don’t you think? It is just beyond bad.
My sentiments exactly. Circular logic with no real reference to any other actual philosophies (other than his own delivered in a lofty “philosophical” tone – although maybe later on in his lecture there were actual comparisons). The kind of rambling that a demagogue engages in when going off script. Polysyllabic word salad.
The perfect definition of solipsism in philosophy. Belongs in a glass case with a plaque.
There is no way in which kittens can or should be used to advertise the CoS. A wolverine might be an appropriate mascot if they are in need of one. And they have not yet invaded Antarctica. That is I have yet to read of an Ideal Org opening in say Rothera Research Station. Even that isn’t far enough not to know about the Scientology flap/crap. Crap-flap.
And I think Joburg is a local nick name for Johannesburg rater than saying the whole name,
LRH’s book, “How to Get Motivated” teaches you ‘how to AVOID procrastination’ (emphasis is mine). I’ve been trying to avoid procrastination, you know, put it off, but it’s usually the first thing I do. It’s a good thing the book also tells you how to get motivated because that’s me totally: I’m not motivated to do anything about my procrastinating, so maybe the book will help me.
Unfortunately I don’t have the motivation to get the book or even read it. Now, if somebody wants to read it to me, then maybe…but otherwise I’m just going to have to go on being the way I am which is to say I’m fine with me the way I am. Admittedly, I’ve set the bar comfortably low. As I told that girl from ASHO on the phone a couple years ago, “scientology doesn’t have anything I need or want”. That’s how it is when you’re okay with who you are.
Roger, if you ever saw the prices of some of the books this church has for sale ON SALE you might faint.
Do you remember when a Dianetics book was $3.99? Plus, it has been changed from it’s original text. There were several copies of Dianetics in our family’s house years ago, even one with bold black Helvetica type face on the front cover. Just because a church charges more money for things than other people do, does mean one is really getting what one is paying for. 🙂
Ah Roger. Since we’re friends I can’t let you down. I’m going to help you with your motivational skills by indeed reading to you the bible of of bibles on this subject. I’ll get the book gloss over it and I’ll call you for a good time to start. I’m gonna get right on this…..tomorrow….. or maybe not until next week. Wait, I might have to put it off for a bit, I have a dentist’s app next month. I know, I’ll get back to you.
Thank you Barbara, when it comes to dealing with something as serious as procrastination you don’t want to act hastily.
Roger, I feel the same way – I don’t even care that I don’t care…
Was listening to talk radio today and it seems Alec Baldwin was a radio talk host on a local radio (?) and he questions his audience if they believe Sean Hannity is a Scientologist? Then he reads from the CoS book….pretty funny.
Well, Greta Van Sustern is, so its possible that Sean Hannity could be also. He’s certainly illogical, fanatical and stupid enough.
Sean Hannity is a Catholic. He had said so on his show.
HOLY COW
I had NO IDEA of all that stuff that went on in Joburg – all those declares…I just read “Here is their story: Ernest & Gaye Corbett”
I’m so blown away I’m sitting on my eyebrows.
I have much googling to do. Is there a story for the whole she-bang? That covers all the connections and story of all 18?
Talk about massive. I’m just…….. stunned.
And meanwhile… when you’re in the bubble you hear NOTHING of this.
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
You can piece a lot of it together on the now inactive back in comm blog. Earlier posts have the most info. https://backincomm.wordpress.com
Secretfornow: “It ain’t just Apartheid anymore!” 🙂
This reminds me of a pattern that I have seen in the business and commercial world. One example that comes to mind is that of veterinary clinics.
First you have your local office with the people you know, and who know you. They send out their own newsletter.
Then you start getting a newsletter that is obviously professionally produced by some large operation, which may or may not have some pieces in it tailored to the local office that you know.
Ultimately your friendly local office gets consolidated with several others into some bland corporate operation, with few if any of the people you knew still there. You may even find out by word of mouth that some of the people you knew, presumably disillusioned with the corporate takeover and forbidden to contact you directly by the terms of their sell-out, are once again trying to run their own friendly little local operation.
This is sometimes followed by further corporate name changes and consolidations, and even the ultimate demise of the operation because corporate management has eliminated the personal service and atmosphere that attracted people in the first place.
It’s curious, though not entirely surprising, that Scientology is following a similar path of corporatization.
Underwhelming indeed.
Of the 4 “success” stories, I recognise two of the names – both old time public one of whom I know well – and she’s an OT. If one considers what she wrote about how sucky her life was prior to doing a Div6 course, this is not a success story at all but rather a pretty damning indictment of the OT levels.
I’m surprised the church doesn’t see the irony of OTs raving about basic entry-level courses for $20 a pop when they’ve already paid how many $$$$ to reach the exalted OT levels.
Jobur? What’s with this “Jobur” nonsense? It’s obviously called “OHANNESBUG” in reality.
Tee Hee.
The only kind of clearing that appears to be going on in all of Africa is the letter-by-letter “clearing” of the entry sign at the Joburg Idle Morgue of it’s capital “J” and lower case “r”.
Now, if someone could please graffiti in a line drawing of Xenu peering over that sign’s script, with the caption “Xenu was here,” then that would be just perfect!
$cn is like an ultra-low budget Hollywood movie set facade for a cheesy horror show after its been abandoned to the weather for decades and the squirrels have taken over whatever parts of it that have remained standing.
In South Africa metal signs are often stolen to be sold as scrap. It’s heartening to know that some enterprising poor South African (who being hard-up would never be invited into the Morgue) actually made some money from Scientology – I bet that’s a first!!
Well… got to hand it to ’em, they really know how to clear an area. Clean as a whistle it is, not one single Scientologist completing anything! It takes lots of hard dedicated pressure to hold that 7 down and make it count where it’s noticed most with nobody doing anything.
The ultimate holiday from anything working at all. Scientology – always shimmering in the distance with wonderful 4 color glossy perfection, the mirage of religious contentment.
“Well… got to hand it to ’em, they really know how to clear an area. Clean as a whistle it is, not one single Scientologist completing anything!”
Hahaha! Lol!
Same mag, different titles? Uh oh.
One foot in the coffin and the other on a banana peel.
I haven’t been getting anything from them, and there are only two ways to get off the mailing list.
Legal action, or you have to croak.
You mean entheta letters in longer work?
Even dying doesn’t get you pulled from the mailing list. The relatives or next occupants of the address might benefit from the mailing…. and outflow (to ANYthing) EQUALS inflow, don’t ya know.(talk about A=A) ‘struth from 40 years ago.
I got the same booklets from Boston & NY. No completions or local news in either.
Ya know Mike, how you describe DM blaming everyone else’s incompetence for the reason why his plans always fail is eerily similar to how Rob bots blame the utter failure of L Wrongs “tek” on everyone else being too incompetent to apply it correctly.
Similar insane mind set.
“During the Purification Program, all of those chemicals were running out.” Well, they don’t let a lack of scientific reality stop them, do they? I also love the example of how much good they are doing in the world — handing out books at a Washington rally. And the way they try to suck you into Scientology with messages such as “Turning Dreams to Reality” and “Improving Your Life.” Sounds like Disney’s slogan, “Where Dreams Come True.” They need to add a fairy character to their logo and it would be perfect.
Name the fairy character after the Sea Org and call it “Orgy.”
Good one!
Or call it “Ogre.”
Mike, why did you spell it “Jobur” and leave off the “g” at the end? Were you being funny because there were two letters missing from the Scn sign out front of that org?
Also, a SO member ‘in the know’ told me that Ron picked Joburg to be a key org because if anyone detonated the atomic bomb, the winds would carry nuclear fallout to all parts of the world and we’d all die from the toxic winds. BUT, she said that Ron had studied the wind patterns and water patterns and figured out that the only safe place on earth in case of a nuclear attack would be South Africa and he had a plan in place to move all of the SO and public to South Africa so that Scn could continue after a nuclear attack. They were dead serious about that.
Did you read the invitation to their 10 year anniversary?
YEah, all that stuff about atomic bombs etc was a phase he went through. The attraction of SA also coincided with his idea that he had been Cecil Rhodes and was going to return and reclaim the land that was “his.”
Yeah, Cecil Rhodes and Buddha and then there was coming back as a politician in the West to save everyone.
And a red-haired politician, no less. Uh oh…
Oh, wait, phew! He was born before 1986!
lol, that’s as political as I’ll ever get 😀
He audited someone who “was Hitler” in his past life, too. And he said “Hitler” was sorry for what he’d done.
Heaven help us! Please deliver us from lunacy.
Do not forget iceberg monitoring. Hasn’t been one fatality of anyone being hit by an iceberg in Jobur either, such is the power of securing safe destinations for the only tech that works 100% to whatever it is applied to. There isn’t that isn’t covered, buried, as-ised or frozen in Scientology, they have taken on the responsibly of explaining everything.
“Hasn’t been one fatality of anyone being hit by an iceberg in Jobur either…”
Brilliant and hilarious; and true!
I live in Joburg, and regarding the comment of Joburg being a safe place it isn’t wrong. You may be mugged, robbed, raped or run over, but you won’t drown in floods, get earthquaked or freeze to death. ‘Acts of God’ stay the hell away from this place.
I like it! Now that’s how you get people in the org!
how about Lafe the Leprechaun?
So, just to get some clarification, is the “Jobur” in the headline of the 10th anniversary event at the top of this post actually a typo? I’m guessing so unless I’ve not had enough coffee yet this morning to understand some joke.
Yes it is a major typo
I must admit that this scene is not exactly what I envisioned when I wrote to a South African government official warning of an expected attack by foreigners and or Sea Org scientology operatives in South Africa. I named the expected targets.
Of course I never received a reply. However, while I cannot claim said communique had any affect, I can say I am happy to know how the affiliated Jobur organization is announcing its part in the oppression of South Africans. Apparently crickets!
As one of your posters mentioned a couple of weeks ago, four or so of the most highly trained staff were poached by Tampa (one way of getting a green card I suppose as I know one of them has already married a local girl). I don’t think there were too many highly trained staff at Jobur in the first place. I imagine by now, there’s only regges left and a few old timers who really couldn’t find a job elsewhere and just no longer have the imagination to try.
Speaking of poaching staff at Flog, I had the non-honor of being at the cult’s Mucca for technical imperfection during the late 70’s for some auditor & C/S training as an outer org staff member from California. In my training cohort were some very cute young girls from such far-flung locales as Hawaii, France, Germany and Scandinavia. The young, male, unmarried and very low-ranking new $ea Org recruits at Flog were constantly swarming these young international $cilon beauties in the hopes of starting a whirl-wind romance which would lead in very short order (in their fevered imaginations) to a marriage proposal and, best of all, to semi-private married couples berthing! None succeeded that I was aware of, but it sure wasn’t from want of them trying.
But of all the many, many oddities that I observed during my brief stint at Flog, one of the most lastingly memorable was my very first encounter with the dark boiler-suited EPF/RPF work crews who slow-trotted everywhere and maintained an eerie silence as a group wherever they went. What I felt for them – and quickly suppressed at the time – was the same thing that I feel for all enslaved individuals who have been forced to perform hard physical labor under poor conditions and with inadequate nutrition and rest, which is compassion for them as victimized individuals and righteous indignation that this set of criminal/abusive employment practices have been allowed to persist.
Just another cross-check on the names of people mentioned: “Griselda Stein” is a staff member at Applied Scholastics in the US. The only “Jeanine Sandler” I could find lives in Texas.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about the aftermath of when they “fired a mission” to declare all those longtime members is that the “indie” community in South Africa died as well. Remember that “Back in Comm” blog that was very active for a while? Crickets for the last year and a half — nothing posted since August 2015, and the high-volume posting slowed to a trickle in May of that year.
By the way, I had said on several occasions that Joburg and the mass declaration in 2013 was the litmus test to determine whether the “Independent Scientology” movement was viable (along with Israel). You had seemingly perfect conditions for an independent organization to thrive: it’s a long ways from an over-controlling meddling headquarters operation, they all got kicked out rather than left of their own volition, and they quickly moved to set up a community to take advantage of the circumstance.
However, the fact that this community fell apart relatively quickly suggests that people in South Africa were falling completely away from the church fairly quickly, perhaps because of the same independence from a highly punitive headquarters operation that might have enabled them to flourish in the first place. Again, it seems that a very small percentage of the people leaving Scientology at this point want anything to do with their former religion, and even those that think there’s something worth saving in “the tech” generally drift away from Scientology reasonably quickly. There are only a few people left still trying to hang on to the “indie” dream at this point.
Just as a note, that “Back in Comm” blog was a reaction to the assault on the field there — and the “indie field” grew out of that too.
Seems like everything about scientology has just sort disappeared off the map down there….
But you are right, it was a test tube as to whether this could succeed out of the clutches of the central hierarchy and it seems to have failed. Israel carries on as ever, but I do not know that it is growing greatly, and maybe they don’t want it to grow beyond a very personal experience. The strength of that group is the Lembergers — it has ALWAYS been true in scientology that the only really successful organizations of any kind, whether groups, missions or orgs have been led by charismatic individuals who have made them work. And as soon as those individuals leave, they fall apart.
I think that is what LRH detested the most – charismatic individuals! They are naturally so far removed from his “standard” approach to the human condition he went out of his way to CS them to be re-stimulated back to the norm. The Bridge took on a re-correction mode in the mid 60s imo. There just had to be breakthrough after breakthrough (especially correction lists) to keep the flock in line with expectation and introversion of past technology being ineffective (KSW or no KSW). The redefining of the state of Clear and a top of the Bridge firmly rewritten and introduced coupled with a process that doesn’t do anything like it says it does leveled the playing field and steadied the income. The term, “Prison of Belief” is a good term, only inmates of the system were permitted to remain. It’s taken sometime to reach this conclusion but the only free thinking people concerning Scientology technology are ex-Scientologists (if they can be bothered).
I think he was jealous / worried about competition for leadership from people who could connect better than him.
Honestly, nearly any ideology can be workable with decent, dedicated people, some just make it much harder to do so.
Yes… you hit the nail right on the head..Hubbard had no confront whatsoever of leadership based on ARC!
Mike there are a few idiots still in the bubble in Johannesburg. But they are very much a tiny bunch of a few die-hard families. One famous Joburg export to the US is Sea Orger Morgan Habib who went viral when he sent the ‘douchebag’ letter to a parishioner last month – I believe Leah commented about it on her twitter feed. Anyway 2 Habib brothers are in US abusing and harassing citizens. There is a ‘big push’ to open the 2nd ideal org – Joburg North (The Force of the North) which no doubt will be as empty as Joburg And Pretoria Ideal Orgs but in a much more affluent part of Joburg! It’s obviously a cunning plan!
There is also a curious Scientology home school called Kensington Kids where an odd assortment of small children (some as young as 3) and teens hang out together with crayons and glue and wash cars to raise funds for latest ideal org and deliver Scientology leaflets to unsuspecting neighbours. They have a Facebook page. Check it out it’s quite disturbing.
There is virtually very little of anything going on in SA in relation to “the tec”. Any smattering of “tec” being administered is just that, a smattering.
As for Back in Comm, the South Africans had their say, moved off to newer, better things; while the blog was hijacked by exes from other countries fighting each other about who was right about what and who wasn’t; and about who was being nasty about Hubbard and therefore was banned from the blog. “Redacted” became a frequently used buzz word.
What was glaring about Back in Comm was that freedom of speech was limited to being nice about Hubbard and “the tec” – or else! One couldn’t be “disagreeable”.
It often felt like the culture in the church!
Yeah I think that’s just because at that time most of the people there were still in that phase of coming out….the phase where they hadn’t yet discovered Ron was an @sshole…they were still thinking the problem was only with Miscarriage and not with the technology itself…Unfortunately I think that a lot of them haven’t moved much beyond that point still…
You’re right, Randomness. There’s a group auditing on OT 9, 10 and 11!
Many more, however, have seen the light and have moved on, I’m pleased to report.
Many of us don’t care anymore, more of us don’t even follow the latest events outside the church. If you tell them anything that is happening they may exclaim, Wow, Gee, Really? But there is ends for them. They won’t even try to see it on YouTube or buy any book.
It’s heartening.
“… it seems that a very small percentage of the people leaving Scientology at this point want anything to do with their former religion, and even those that think there’s something worth saving in “the tech” generally drift away from Scientology reasonably quickly.”
Without the duress, coercion, threat and extortion that binds the central corporate cherch together and marching in lockstep to Moonchild Miscavige’s tune, $cn seems to become a progressively less attractive option as a guiding system of personal belief and religious philosophy over time for those who’ve escaped the official cherch.
In fact, it appears that, for most of the recovering $cilons in whom the Kool-Aid once ran deep, identifying as a Indie for awhile after escaping the corporate cherch is merely a transitional phase of decompression leading to complete freedom from $cn and total cause over your own mind once again.
Harpoona, I think that several additional interesting phenomenon are at work, including that once people are no longer under the pressure of the Scientology social bubble to produce and share “wins,” the old wins may even start to lose some of their aura, and any independent auditing is unlikely to seem quite so rewarding and compelling.
Correct Harpoona. I know or have communicated with quite a few ex’es. Probably almost what would pass for a representative sampling, stats wise for a 5% margin of error & 95% confidence level. None lasted as “indies” more than a couple of years, if at all.
So, it is safe and scientifically accurate to say that >95% that leave stop being scientologists within a a few years of leaving the church.
There’s sooth to your words Harpoona. The only discrepancy in your logic is the physical ability to gather sufficient information to validate your assertions. There are many more ex’s out there who can’t be bothered to comment on Scientology and left it all behind them as a bad experience but at an educated guess and that includes my personal input, you are certainly on the right track.
It could also be suggested with the direction this thread is going that the technology available and practiced in the Indie Field is just as defective in the long run as what the Church delivers, except without the domination & suppression of course (one hopes/assumes). If there ever was a Bridge that worked or at least one that made people feel happy buying a product involving auditing where did it go? I have no doubts certain things can be addressed in auditing ie rudiments and some other easily handled maladies of the mind can be put at ease but a direction involving Total Freedom?? Don’t know about that. I’ve played around with a fair bit of it and reckon whatever the reason KSW1 was written, it masked a booby trap of some magnitude and introduced a direction of which there is little to no chance of it ever correcting itself. The more one tries to make it work the more it doesn’t, a Chinese finger puzzle of the mind one might say.
I personally much prefer the approach of valences or identities, at least one can see them in operation to a fair degree in the behavior of people. Space cooties… ??? yeah right!! May as well trust Tiny Tim in that direction, “Tip toe, through the tulips, with meeeee…”
Poor scientology has been strapped with a job it could never ever hope to do: bring a person to a state of “total freedom” which is, incidentally, NEVER described in detail. What the heck is “total freedom”??? What is TOTAL ARC? Hubbard never says what it is or how to know when you’ve attained it.
In processing there is without a doubt a point of diminishing returns. It is my opinion you can’t get anything better out of auditing than getting your rudes flown. Get your present time problems resolved and you are as happy as you can be. Beyond that it’s a matter of repairing the damage caused by the auditing itself from digging for stuff that isn’t there.
You get yourself dirty in session then session cleans you up and you think, “Wow! I got rid of a lot of shit”! Beyond the initial relief, scientology processing becomes like a mother who slaps her child so she can comfort him with love.
roger, the reason Hubbard promoted total freedom can be found in the talk where he states that promising total freedom is a perfect way to trap people. There is no need to define it in order to activate the trap, so he didn’t bother.
I Yawnalot, I think you’re right, one thing that we can observe with a high degree of confidence, is that no one ever has been able to deliver Dianetics or Scientology auditing outside of Hubbard’s organizations in a way that either produced truly outstanding results or that was somehow compelling enough to draw a lot of public interest. And there have been independent Dianetics groups from the very beginning, and independent Scientology groups going back at least 50 years, forming a significant body of “data” that we can look at.
That’s not to say that people may not have had “wins” or even gotten better psychologically from auditing inside or outside of official Dianetics and Scientology, just that it hasn’t produced results that overall stand out as somehow noticeably more effective compared to mainstream psychiatric/psychological therapies or the wide range of alternative therapies available (hypnotherapy, biofeedback, primal scream, etc.). And the whole premise of Dianetics and Scientology is that they can provide something far more effective than, not more or less the same as, mainstream therapy or any other practice available.
I think that much can be validated by looking at the presence of the independent community on the internet. They have always been active in electronic media, first on the old bulletin boards and then on e-mail and internet groups. Even if there was significant offline or underground activity, there would be some anonymous postings about it. And yet there’s not much evidence of vitality, though there seems to have been a temporary uptick in activity a couple of years ago, in the years following the Debbie Cook e-mail (though other factors may have been involved as well).
I certainly wish that there were better data, but thanks to the oppressive presence of corporate Scientology it’s not possible to get any real information about organized Scientology, like members’ attitudes (and actual numbers), nor about those who left the CofS. We at least have a pretty good idea, from multiple sources that all point towards the same numbers, as to what membership numbers are and how they have been declining, from which we can make a reasonable estimate of how many people have left in recent years.
Mike, this is not exclusively the magazine from Joburg. I recently received the same exact thing only from LA org. Page for page and word for word. So someone is pulling a fast one.
Oh, but the title is different.
YEah, that’s so every org has their “own” mag. Tricky eh?
And don’t they pay Int Management a hefty fee to “do all the work” for them?
Tricky? Why, it’s downright deceitful!
Well… it’s corporate Scientology isn’t it? They may be a lot of things to different people but deceitful is always at the head of their camouflaged, ‘to do’ list. Their scheming is endless, has no remorse and gives no benefit to consumers, just a potential dollar value overseen by a coercive managerial system.
So I’ve personally experienced.
Yeah — they produce their magazines centrally now at the International Dissemination Center — which a few years ago was the “milestone” that would make Planetary CLearing a reality, but is now just another piece of wasted real estate. The thing is, they are supposed to insert their OWN news into the generic framework of the centrally written magazine. It was another of Miscavige’s brilliant ideas to “circumvent” the incompetence of orgs (like the FART Div 6). The result is a sterile piece of generic fluff promo that sends one message to any Jobur public: there is NOTHING going on here.
Reusing “global” content and mixing it with local content to make a much better local publication is not a bad idea. Walter Annenberg, the billionaire founder of the US “TV Guide” publication did exactly that, combining national interviews with stars with local program listings and local interest articles. He sold that business 30 years ago for $3 billion, proving the worth of the concept. Of course, for the concept to work you actually have to have local content, an idea that seems to have escaped Miscavige.
The problem with this approach is when you have poor execution combined with the disaster of Central Files you described a couple weeks ago, you are likely to a) waste a ton of money — it costs a lot to produce and mail a 16-page glossy magazine, and when you send 10-12 copies to the same person you’ve needlessly thrown away a lot of cash, and b) risk members getting magazines from orgs in every city they’ve ever lived in and discovering that there’s not any actual happenings in those cities, and thus potentially starting to wonder why there’s nothing actually happening in the World’s Fastest Growing Religion(tm).
This methodology is currently being used by USA Today as it takes over struggling local newspapers.
Miscavige has always been tone deaf to advertising vibe; just ask Jeff Hawkins.
The trend to have a common, global magazine and have orgs add their own local news started in the 1980’s.
YEs, it did. But magazines devoid of ANYTHING local — especially an IDEAL org — is a really sorry state of affairs.
It occurred to me the other day that of all the orgs that have been declared “Ideal” by the punching pontiff, the ones that went Ideal first should be the best benchmark by which to measure the success of lil davey’s off-policy gamble that turning the corporate cherch into a huge holder of pricey real estate would result in huge growth in those local regions surrounding these Ideal orgs and, over time, lead to those Ideal orgs becoming Saint Hill size.
Since the Joburg Ideal org was made “ideal” so long ago, you’d think that they’d have reached that goal by now, if lil davey’s hypothesis had been correct. Since it’s actually on the cult’s list of critically endangered countries (actually, continents), instead of super-sizing $cn in South Africa, you’d think that lil davey the squirrel would at least be blaming someone/something for that negative outcome. But instead, it looks like he’s hoping that no one will notice or hold his dainty feet to the fire about that abysmal failure and just putting up false propaganda literature to maintain the flimsy facade that , “Hey girl, $cn is HAPPENING in S. Africa!
I wish that more South African Indies and exes would speak out, here on this blog and in Tony O. Land, concerning the exact timeline and circumstances of the events that put a chilling effect on the Indie movement there and, as an unintended consequence, put the corporate cherch there on life support as well.
Thanks – yes. The first ideal orgs were Buffalo, NY, SFO, Joburg, Madrid and Tampa — all of them abject failures with the exception of Tampa. Tampa is propped up by being the Flag reject catcher and employment locale for local scientologists children and “Flag public” who need to demonstrate their “eligibility” for OT VII. But even Tampa has not grown in size other than square footage with a new building that is now virtually empty at all times. There in the center of the restaurant and entertainment center of Tampa, the “Public Information Center” never has anyone in it.
What started the declarations in SA was the Debbie Cook email which started some of the “now declared” people doing their own research and then once they felt they had sufficiently researched they built up packs of the research and started going around to people in the field showing it to them to wake them up as they were following the code of honour “Never desert a comrade in need, in danger or in trouble”.
This had massive effects through the south african public as some of the declared persons were highly influential in the SA scientology world and many scientologists worked for them. This resulted in a lot of people being disaffected and technically being unofficially out (flying under the radar).
The reasons the backincomm group went silent is because a. The admins got on with their lives and b. My personal opinion is that no one is saying anything because certain of the declared people are currently being sued by the church and fair gamed.
Sorry but I have been waiting a long time to say this: F#@k you OSA! And F#@k you Ron! And especially F#@k you poison dwarf!
Mike, I think I would substitute “lies” for imagination. I suspect “imagination” is long gone from the scio armory.
Off topic but does SoC mistreat members who are old, sick (cancer) & such because “All sick persons are PTS.” – Hubbard, HCOB 20 April 1972″? Thank you
No. If a member was old and sick, but had lots of money they would still be members in good standing and not mistreated, until the money was gone.
Also you don’t have to be old and sick to be mistreated by the c of s.
The c of s is suppressive therefore they mistreat people, who then become PTS.
Therefore the handling per the tech is to “disconnect or handle” from the SP group. Then the person is no longer PTS.
Barbet, I don’t think they discriminate on which members are mistreated other than to check on how long it has been since their last donation. That matters.
More than a week ……….. hammer em into submission! Remember the creed … ‘Never fear to harm another for a just cause’ ……. or some such drivel. $cientology is the numero uno ‘just cause’.
Yes. In the bubble, sickness = being PTS. To be PTS one has to have underlying out ethics. That means the person is not just a victim of the situation but actually causing it. In the Sea Org if you get sick you get labeled “PTS” which has a derogatory flavor like being labeled as having a venereal disease. You are not allowed to drive a vehicle until the PTSness is handled. I have even seen someone assigned to the RPF for not being willing to disconnect from their entire family and thus their “PTSness”. If one is “PTS” they are considered a “down stat” which is basically a loser. It is just one of MANY labels assigned to make one appear to be less than they are expected to be. There is no sympathy felt for a sick person in the Sea Org. It is considered harmful and insulting to give sympathy to someone. It is “low toned” and a harmonic close to death on the scale of survival. The perfect Sea Org member would be “The Terminator” played by Arnold.
I know someone who had their OT 8 mother in bed and dying of cancer. In an effort to save her life the son demanded to know what her out ethics was. He felt she was causing her own death by withholding something bad she had done.
I cared for my dying mom and moved back home to a different state to take care of her for almost a year. I did everything I could to help her and make things better for her. After her death I moved back home. I was at LA Org and saw the head honcho of the org, Missy Schleih (can’t spell the last name. Her maiden name was Henderson), tried to recruit me to staff, and told me it was out ethics for me to care for my dying mom and that I should have done what she did, which was conveniently put her mom in a nursing home so that she would be free to Clear the Planet and handle and save way more than one person. She held herself up as doing the “greatest good for the greatest number” by shoving her mom in an old folks’ home.
And the sad thing is I actually knew and was friends with her lovely mom. I felt so bad that her daughter coldly and callously shoved her into a cheap state run nursing home. Diane Henderson was a good lady who deserved better.
Thank you for your comment Mat. Unfortunately there is a constant stream of labeling,still I imagine used in the Sea Org. I got caught in that endless loop where I was told to do the conditions over and over and when I needed a sign off on a certain condition I had just competed somehow the sign off paper was ” lost ” & I had to start all over again. And it was always my fault ! ❤️
Barbet … The answer to that is no. That ‘s not the reason. I was in for 35 years and my experience is that the reason they mistreat those folks is that they simply really don’t give a shit about them … and that’s the sad truth if it.