The evidence of the sorry state of the once flourishing scientology mission network keeps rolling in.
This is not speculation — it is stuff they are sending out that announce just what a pathetic show it is.
This latest is from the Sunland Mission. In the center of the largest concentration of scientologists on earth.
Here is a very recent email. My notes are in red.
Hi Friends,
I would like to share the recent wins we have had with Sunland Mission!
Maybe you have already seen a recent one that we are very proud of. It is a 6’ by 12’ (it’s YUUUUGE) Dianetics billboard on Foothill Blvd at Oro Vista in Sunland. You will see it easily at the 7-11 store parking lot. (the 7-11 store parking lot is a hotbed for raw meat). This billboard made the front page of the Scientology Missions International News! (Tells you how much news they have to report on from around the world, a single, tiny billboard made the FRONT PAGE!) Thank you George Collins of Collins Media for designing and producing this brilliant product!
More exciting Sunland Mission news is the recent signing of a lease on our new public contact expansion space at 9913 Commerce Ave! Ideal location in Tujunga with great signage and visual presence. (Note that this photo shows temporary banner signage while under renovation.)
We are grateful to have Tom Schian and Allison Lorch at the helm of renovations and design of this project. This expansion space will provide two new auditing rooms for Book One and metered auditing. It also has a larger space for Intro Lectures, Personal Efficiency Courses and 4D Campaigns as well as a Bookstore. (Gosh, what expansion — two new Book 1 auditing rooms)
In addition, we are very fortunate and grateful to have George and Debbie Collins of Collins Media doing our signage for the new space as well as the Dianetics billboard.
Undercutting (?) our wins, I have to say, is our fantastic Way To Happiness Campaign in Sunland-Tujunga that is leading the way in Los Angeles. At a recent graduation at PAC base, Caroline Veach, Lydia Hopwood and Lallah Rowe (amongst others) were acknowledged for our local campaign that is putting TWTH book into every home and business in Sunland-Tujunga. EVERY MAILBOX!! (Note, the “is putting” rather than “has put”… and a not completed project to distribute some WTH booklets is worthy of recognition at PAC base graduation? Not even Pasadena or Valley)
This project alone has not only spread LRH theta to every household, it has reduced counter intention on Scientology and has united our community in ways that we are still experiencing. It is truly helping Scientology to flourish and expand in Sunland-Tujunga. (Counter intention to scientology? No way.)
Even our LAPD Senior Lead Officer commented on a 15% reduction in crimes in the Sunland-Tujunga area over the past 6 months, which is the time period we have been putting out the booklets!! I can’t stress the value and palpable products this Way To Happiness campaign has produced. (Cause and effect? I think she is actually serious)
Our Div 6 line is on fire with Lydia Hopwood building an amazing attendance at our “online meetup” Zoom Intro Lecture which I am personally delivering twice a week every Tuesday and Friday evening at 7 PM. (On fire! With an online dating service!) We are averaging 2 to 3 raw Dianetics book sales a week and growing fast. (2 to 3 a week — how amazing is that?) Lydia is also successfully locating and activating FSMs to assist us in our expansion and join the fun, including her husband Ghislain Viau (former SO member from Gold) who is helping us by starting up his own Meetup groups to flow (always a good word to describe when nothing is actually happening) to our lectures.
Will Andrews is our Professional Book One Auditor and available for free Book One Introductory sessions as well as Professional Book One auditing. (They have AN auditor)
Our course room is continuing to boom at our 10700 Hillrose Circle location with our 2 GAT II Supervisors, Alden Smith and Kari Shaw. Alden is also a Flag trained GAT II Word Clearer. We not only deliver all the Div 6 courses, but also PTS/ SP Course, Student Hat and all the Books and Lectures, Congresses and ACCs.
Our Class VI Auditor and OES Jay Clitheroe is at the tag end of his GAT II Class V Internship and will soon be delivering everything from Life Repair to Grades, as well as PTS Rundown and NED. (Their single auditor is a “Class VI” that doesn’t exist any longer, but actually hasn’t finished Class V yet — but he will be able to deliver some stuff SOON. BTW he is ALSO the OES. But we are BOOMING!)
All to say, Sunland Mission is EXPANDING and we do need your help! (Translation: we need your MONEY)
For the renovations of our new expansion space on Commerce Ave, we are asking all Scientologists in the area to pitch in $400.00 to help cover the renos, furnishings and our monthly billboard expense. Many of you have already helped Sunland Mission in the past in so many ways…your continued support is invaluable. You can simply Zelle your donation to susanbstewart@ca.rr.com with a message on the transaction stating its purpose and including your home address for ease of accounting and sending you a commendation and receipt.
And the most valuable help of all is to come join staff with us. We have everything from Receptionist to Executive positions available for you to come play with us. This is the big push. (Seriously? Where have we heard this before?) We are going all in. United together. (Such new thoughts) We will continue to lead the way in expansion with your help.
Please call Richard Stewart at 818-321-5912 to make a donation or join staff.
Please call Lydia Hopwood at 818-298-5615 to help volunteer in our expanding Division 6 and other volunteer needs.
ARC,
Richard Stewart, Mission Holder Sunland Mission
I just got off the phone w/Richard. I told him I wanted to make a donation. He was thrilled “You should see the smile on my wife’s face!” Then I asked where Shelly is and it didn’t go well. The building looks like a bail bonds office.
2 of your photos at the end of this post are broken links.
Thanks for alert. Links were phantoms. Now deleted…
Sarcasm, re the Potemkin Outposts of Hubbardian Puffery:
Cult Pustulates. Enthusiastic Effluvia. Theta Emetics.Oaty Offal.
Come “play” in our vast field of delusions, lies, feverishly manufactured certainties, and space opera cosplay. Waste your time and money on toxic mind fuck.
Experience the skilled delivery of the Dreck by a Swamp-trained, Level 47 Turd Dispenser and Golden Sage of Suck Jargon Juggler.
Planetary Smearing is HAPPENING!!! At the speed of cosmic constipation!
Come spin, er…WIN…with us!
Hip, hip, shit spray!
Hmmm. Bars on the doors. That would be an indication to me exactly what I was getting into. But that is just me.
Lol – The bars on the door are necessary. The smash and grab looters might look inside and see an e-meter or two and think they are new fangled computers and want to steal them. Waste of time and effort on their part.
Looks more like a prison.
A former Scientology mission holder even branched off to start his own group – Harry Palmer with the Avatar Course.
I get my fish from that river. Not sure which one I am close to, though, now I am confused.
I lived in Tujunga once. This all makes sense. I once walked through the Delphi Academy grounds and nobody said anything.
The continuing Mission failure has nothing to do with management “suppression” of them. It is the WILD unpopularity of scamology with the citizenry.
Real, exactly – and I think the indies, in all their forms and variety but uniform insignificance, confirm that there’s just no longer any real interest in anything to do with scientology.
Correct PeaceMaker. Indies cannot get new “raw meat” to save their lives.
Sunland is the mission that lost its storefront space years ago, and folded into local members’ homes where it has been kept on life support – the course room “location” is the Stewarts’ ranch style house in a suburban cul-de-sac.
Why is it called ‘public contact expansion space’ rather than a new mission location? Because they can’t afford a full-sized space with a course room – like they once had?
And why is the signage for Dianetics rather than Scientology? Are they trying to use the old ruse of pretending the two are separate, because they haven’t effectively “reduced counter intention on Scientology” and dare not speak its name?
Good ol’ Jay Clitheroe appears to be hanging in there, still guzzling the Kool-Aid after all these years. Even though he is a Class VI pre-GAT II) auditor and now working on his Class V internship I can guarantee you that he was much busier back in the day when he was a mere course supervisor. If he is working on that internship that means that he is still connected to one of the LA orgs, probably Valley org. I’m wondering if his sister Lee is still on staff at LA Day. Hard to believe she would be, but it’s hard to believe Jay is still hanging in there too. Very sad indeed.
“Our course room is continuing to boom at our 10700 Hillrose Circle location with our 2 GAT II Supervisors, Alden Smith and Kari Shaw.”
That’s pronounced CAHR-EE, not CARE-EE and don’t ever forget it.
I handled the office for Scientologists Mike and Kari Shaw about a decade ago. They ran a construction company, which included pools and spas. He also did pool inspections for those interested in buying a home.
Mike audited daily on one of the Oat Tee levels. What a troubled individual. Productive yet troubled. Without warning, Mike would go into fits of rage. Whenever that happened, look out. Pray you’re nowhere near when that happened.
Mike also had a nasty habit of making a person wrong, especially on the phone. He did this to me a number of times, during some of his calls from the Flag Land Base during his 6 Month checks. I think he favored the phone as a device to direct his make wrongs because no one else but me could hear him.
Unless they’ve changed the law, it’s against federal law to put anything in a mailbox unless you’re an official agent of the USPS. When I was on mission staff, our Div 6 senior wouldn’t allow us to distribute OCAs that way for that reason. So we put them on car windshields in public parking structures and parking lots of private businesses. Even then, we always got chased off the premises by security guards (trespassing, you see).
It’s a tough job, but some schmucks have to do it.
That was also my first thought when I heard they were getting WTH into every mail box. That is against the law to put things in mailboxes that are not stamped regular mail.
The Sunland / Tujunga area has the largest concentration of Scns in the US, even larger than at Flag, according to a staff member I spoke to some 9 or 10 years ago. It is amazing that with the largest numbers of Scns that they are now celebrating selling 2 or 3 books per weekend. When the Sunland Mission was last active (before this new iteration of it), that same staff member told me that donations from OT’s in the area were what kept the light bill paid at the Mission. So not exactly what I”d call thriving. But the best news of all is that I”m no longer there to be leaned on for donations for all this!
Cindy, I can only guess that there must be a lot of people who once bought a book or did a course in Sunland-Tujunga, because the state of the failing mission doesn’t indicate more than a handful of active members in the area. They may have some OTs who are doing advanced courses elsewhere, but it doesn’t seem as if there are even enough of those to support much activity at the mission.
That or it shows how much scientology is on the decline, that Sunland-Tujunga is as good as it gets. Perhaps the area is one of those now suffering from the recent exodus of diehards of means to Clearwater. And maybe even one of the things driving people to move, is getting hit up for money to keep failing local missions and orgs open.
It’s also interesting to hear another report of a mission requiring subsidies to keep the lights and the doors on, and from a decade ago. And apparently they somehow lost that support, and after knocking around for years now only have enough financial backing (or “postulates”) to open a minimal location several notches below what they once had (scroll down to see their location in 2013).
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/scientology-contraction/
And I wonder if they’re possibly planning (or “postulating”) to actually send the booklets through the mail, which would only add marginally to the total cost if the CofS charges as much for them as has been reported (around $1 each, I believe).
PeaceMaker , thanks for the pics and info. I clicked the link to the other article and it shows the Sunland Mission in a respectable location next to Panda Express and across the parking lot from Starbucks. Well that is long gone now. In the Mission’s place is an H and R Tax business. I’ve been in there and there are the tax consultants doing taxes. So where did the failing mission move to?
It moved to Scn Richard Stewart’s house which was a small little place owned by a regular mainstream church on Hillrose Ave in Sunland. That house was small and ws built to house the caretaker for the regular church there. Richard paints houses for a living. I’m not sure if the mission is open by appointment only nowadays.
The same names are showing up as supporters of the Mission in Sunland. Just a handfull of Scns who live there. The Foothills Mission is different from the Sunland Mission. The Foothills Mission moved to the Sunland / La Crescenta area and faces a large parking lot. They keep their picture window covered with posters and things to block people’s views inside. This was done after a local ex-Scientologist took pictures inside it and posted it on line to show how dead the Foothills Mission was. So now they do have a Scn sign and operate but their big window is covered up. God forbid anyone should see inside.
Cyndi, I’ve seen another address for the mission, 11112 Oro Vista Ave., that appears associated with a (real) church, and which I assume is outdated. It now appears that the mission is located in the Stewart’s home on Hillrose Circle, in a single-family neighborhood. Did they move?
They periodically host events there that we see promo pieces for, and I’m sure that otherwise it must be open by appointment only. I assume their new space will have limited regular hours, but I’ve seen small locations that were appointment-only (and I think it would follow a pattern if they went to that, after an initial period of making the effort to staff the place consistently).
Peacrmaker, The mission closed down years ago at the Oro Vista address. It moved to Richard’s small caretaker house on Hillrose Circle. Richard works full time and they live in the space, so I assume it is by appointment only. I seem to recall one of their promos saying that.
Cyndi, it looks to me like the old Oro Vista address was the caretaker house by a church, and the Hillrose Circle address that the mission currently uses is in an entirely residential area:
> https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/10700-Hillrose-Cir_Sunland_CA_91040_M26846-03910
Have I got something wrong?
And from what I can tell the property hasn’t been sold in over 20 years, but was transferred to a trust around a decade ago, and then listed for rent about 5 years ago. My guess is that they’re renters, and there have been some signs that they may have had other members as tenants.
Peacemaker, There was no reply on your last comm on this but judging from the great pic you found of the one of the houses., and the back story you were able to get on it, I do think you’re right. I just didn’t have time to drive over there and check addresses. So that means the Sunland mission is no longer in the care taker’s house by the church and has moved to a regular house in a regular residential neighborhood which is being rented and probably rented prior to this, by Scns. So the point again, is that they don’t have a big enough flock and not enough money to have a real building and regular services. Thanks for your work sussing all this out.
Cindy, no problem. I appreciate your being able to confirm some things from local experience, and understand it’s hard to take time away from real life and go out of your way just to verify what’s going on at some more or less dead location. (I travel a fair bit, and often just don’t get around to checking out whatever scientology locations are there, often, rather tellingly, because they’re rather inconveniently far off the beaten path).
And, yes, it seems like it’s a familiar, small group of diehards – but very committed, and doggedly energetic. I still don’t get how Sunland-Tujunga could be much of a concentration of members at this point, if there are no signs of broader involvement, unless there are lots of OTs who don’t want to touch the mission with a ten foot pole (I suppose they could be afraid of being roped into subsidizing it).
The Foothills mission seems to have someone who is a virtual Energizer bunny, always putting out promo pieces about something or other. I get the impression they are a bit younger than most of the rest of those in the area, who seem to be largely longtime diehards – the Stewarts show up as being in their early 70s, around the age all too many scientologists seem to succumb to bad health (it’s about the average lifespan of a heavy smoker).
Looking for scn mission locations seems to be like looking for rare dinosaur 🦕 fossils. Some people may unearth a few of them. Good luck to the mission hunters.
In the mid 1970’s I don’t recall Book One, DMSMH auditing with people co-auditing each other using whatever techniques there are in that book being taught but maybe it was. Metered dianetic auditing with its 11 or 12 standard questions and commands was the standard. Maybe they hope some people will get some “wins and cognitions” and buy scn auditing which costs over $100 per hour. Buyer beware.
Probably almost all of the thousands of hours of auditing claimed to be delivered by the Nation Of Islam would be Book One auditing.
Denial isn’t just a river in East Africa anymore.