Another report from someone who ventured into a scientology org — this time in Washington, D.C.
I am not sure how long ago the person had this experience, but it was before they moved into the new “ideal org” building, when the org was operating out of the old Frasier Mansion (which is now the “National Affairs Office”). Of course, the great (?) thing about scientology is that nothing ever changes. It could have been yesterday or a decade ago or in the 1980’s and the same things would have happened.
You can read the full article here. As a note for those unfamiliar with the term like me, TA is teaching assistant.
This is yet another take on the “fastest growing religion on earth” which is experiencing “unprecedented demand” — apparent to nobody outside the bubble of scientology who keep telling themselves this to make themselves feel better.
Here are some relevant sections of the piece with some commentary from me in red.
[T]he founding church of Scientology was right around the corner in DC. Ironically, for an organization historically not a fan of queer folx, the church was located in DC’s posh/gay neighborhood DuPont Circle. Tales of terrorizing “suppressive people,” and the horrors of the Sea Org left me a little apprehensive. I enlisted a friend who graciously agreed to come with me. I figured that safety resided in numbers and that, if nothing else, having a second witness would be helpful.
It seems the writer did a modicum of research before venturing through the gates of hell. Interesting that these are the main takeaways from a Google search…
“One thing to keep in mind,” she said with a perfectly warm smile, “is that if you’re in here and want to leave, you have to tell us. If you feel like you can’t leave, it could be construed as kidnapping.” As my friend and I processed this casually tossed-off factoid, she ushered us into the worship space, and the doors closed behind us.
Well, I said nothing ever changes, but I have NEVER heard this disclaimer before!
A woman in an electric red pantsuit strode over to the lectern and took her place as worship leader. Her permed blond hair was piled on top of her head. She began the service, and I was struck by how alike it was to the many Presbyterian services I attended when I was younger: there were community announcements, dates of future events, and even some call-and-response that recalled “peace be with you/and also with you.” There was a defensiveness to the tone and language the worship leader used to describe Scientology as if there was the unspoken assumption that it would all be received poorly. The unexpected cross, with little dovetail splits at the end of each arm, was finally explained: this was not a Christian cross, but a Scientological Cross. The 8 little dovetails were meant to signify different values: the individual self, sex/family/procreation, community/society, survival of humanity, life forms in general, the physical universe, spirits, and infinity. There were near-constant reminders that everyone has the freedom to believe what they wish to believe, a curious reassurance in the context of worship. Curiouser still, there were reminders nearly as often that belief wasn’t required to become a Scientologist. To be a practicing Scientologist, you didn’t need to believe everything they said, but you did have to pay. Perhaps it was a preemptive defense against disbelief of things like their wild creation myth, but when someone has to invest lots of time, energy, and money before they can know it, it shows where their priorities are.
It is interesting that they were encouraged to attend a “Sunday Service” — DESIGNED to make it appear scientology is just like other religions. As any scientologist knows, this is just for show. The REAL scientology doesn’t take place in a “chapel” it occurs in course-rooms and auditing rooms. And I love his take on “belief isn’t required” but you do have to PAY.
As with any Protestant service, there was a sermon. The worship leader opened a book of Hubbard’s essays and read one aloud before expounding on it in a lecture on parenthood and affection. Physical affection from parent to child, Hubbard claimed, was a dicey proposition. He wrote that hugging a child was an attempt to change and mold them into a shape they did not take naturally. A parent may realize this mid-hug and pull away, leaving a child in a difficult no-win situation; a child will feel torn between their desire for freedom from their parent and their desire for their parents’ love. In this moment, the child becomes a future murderer, or a “blood-letter” as Scientological parlance had it. This ominous sermon, which didn’t explain an alternative to hugs so that one may rest assured they haven’t raised a killer, ended elliptically and as my friend and I side-eyed one another, the service wrapped up with an affirmation that we all had the right to believe what we wanted to believe.
Wow, that’s quite a messageto walk away with as to scientology’s beliefs about children. Hubbard DID say a lot of really weird things about “old thetans in young bodies” over the years.
The tour of the founding offices, across the street from the church, was a mini-museum to the myth of L Ron Hubbard. I say “myth” instead of “man” because virtually every claim they make about his life has been thoroughly debunked. The petite Australian woman from earlier was our enthusiastic tour guide and she told us of Hubbard’s status as a best-selling author (he wrote dime-pulps to little acclaim) and of his sparkling career in the Navy as a war hero (he was a reservist who briefly saw action). What especially fascinated me was how easily refuted all these claims were, and yet they stood as gospel for Scientologists. It seemed notable that his followers revered him as a great author of science fiction and yet couldn’t connect that to Scientology’s overtly sci-fantastical creation myth.
This paragraph throws some serious shade on the great man hiimself.
Then came the videos. There were a few, all somewhere between 30 seconds and 2 minutes long, that sought to sell us on Scientology; a sizzle reel, essentially.
Miscavige’s strategy of using videos to sell scientology to new people because staff are incompetent to do so didn’t work here…
The last stop on our tour was the most enlightening. We were taken down into the basement where a working e-meter was stored. Scientology holds that psychology and psychiatry are inherently predatory disciplines and that all practitioners are sexual assailants looking to strike patients when they’re most vulnerable. So, instead of therapy, they have “auditing.” You see, because the alien overlord Xenu created the human race from constructed clone bodies animated by souls he harvested, the human soul lives many lives. These past life experiences manifest as thetans or shards of memory that are to blame for any mental-emotional health issues. The e-meter is meant to measure brain activity and according to Scientology, that activity would flood the whole body with electromagnetic pulses. So when an auditee is asked a question, the e-meter’s paddles held in the auditee’s hands would theoretically communicate brain activity back to the meter and the auditor would have an idea of where to begin work.
I guess they did a little more than a quick Google search! Amazing what you can discover about scientology with a little research these days!
Once again a very informative article. Seeing that people are seeing what Scientology is and not getting sucked in it because of the red flags that they see is always good ot see and hear about hopefully people on the inside are seeing them to and trying to leave.
In the OTIII document itself, Ron never states that just reading it will make you catch pneumonia, keep you from sleeping, die, etc. Those things will only potentially happen if you try to RUN (audit) this particular process in a way that’s not EXACTLY as Ron has laid out in the document.
You can read, know & discuss everything there is to know about Xenu all day long and nothing will happen to you. In fact, Ron wrote a treatment (not a script) for a movie he wanted made, “Revolt in the Stars”, which is the backstory for the OTIII document. So Ron knew that knowledge of these things can’t hurt you.
The only thing that you can’t discuss is what is being run on OTIII (and the other OT Levels) because that is an OT’s case, and Scientologists do not discuss their case. That is a private spiritual matter.
Most Scientologists have never heard of these things anyway. So telling them what’s on the confidential OT levels wouldn’t create the effect you want. In fact, disrespecting anyone’s religious beliefs and practices will never endear you to anyone.
“Most Scientologists have never heard of these things anyway.”
You’d be surprised at how many (public) already know, especially younger members. They just don’t dwell on it.
Very interesting article. The more and more I learn that more I think never go into Scientology. Seeing the red flags are easy enough for most but others not so much.
“Miscavige’s strategy of using videos to sell scientology to new people because staff are incompetent to do so didn’t work here”
In fact, this has turned the divisions 6 (new public) into cemeteries. Occasionally, a tumbleweed rolls through, but nothing else happens. Surely, the fear of people entering with hidden cameras has turned the divisions 6 into an extension of Osa. Luckily, there is a policy called ‘Legal and Dissemination.’ Surely DM has either canceled or suspended it.
Because this isn’t Miscavige’s strategy, it’s Miscavige executing some long extant and never complied with LRH orders which all tie into one another, part of the Hubbard “Handling The Public Individual” overall policy principles, and them when I researched it when I was still in, the Gold Cine strategy of LRH films for the branch new public walking into the orgs, tied into the LRH “registration board” principle, it all “makes sense”, when Miscavige’s every action is lined up against LRH’s policies.
Because the Hubbard policy backbone is there, it will continue as is.
My unspoken, from the 1980s to now, complaint, was the LRH “blue pencil” policy of the mid 1960s, tied with the LRH “Exec Strata” level final LRH private advices traffic, and tie that into the Class 8 “arbitraries” highest level solution to tricky conflicts within the strategies, there NEVER developed the level of “think tank” executives who were capable of doing blue pencil level thinking and ordering “pilot” projects to test out the “think tank” solutions to the LRH strategies that aren’t working.
This said, I then concluded that LRH’s “tech” (the quackery) is the ultimate failure point. Even if better strategies to let Missions do as they will, and let Div 6s tailor their dissemination to local norms, that still will only get more people on the Bridge.
Ultimately, the upper bridge, the exorcism/soul-freeing OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 exorcism steps are NOT making supernaturally improved rejuvenated people. All it is doing is piling up people who have been mentally conditioned to parrot the false claims of the “OT levels” but who have not in fact achieved supernatural “OT” powers one bit.
So NO amount of strategic reform, let’s say use the Way to Happiness and use the Exec Strata traffic, and use the Class 8 all time best LRH solution, “arbitraries”, and use the LRH “pilot” projects for two year stretches in smaller areas to “test” big strategic new shifts, NONE will ultimately solve the quackery nature of the “tech”.
You cannot make a silk purse out of LRH’s sow’s ear “tech.”
No mystical group has won success for this identical reason, humans do not consistently do “OT” supernaturally incredible miracle things in this world, no matter what soul improvement, nor soul exorcism, nor soul freeing, nor soul out of the body “practicing”, it does not add up to legitimate supernatural positive events, which are proven and taken for real.
Coincidental improvements, natural improvements as people “live and learn” and improve in life as they adult educate in life, that will and is happening minus any of the “OT” soul freeing/exorcism of OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
Long answer, but that is the long truth of the Hubbard con quackery cult that enforces the Hubbard penalty regulations on the members to pretend the “tech” is gloriously legit and widespread working to spiritually improve us earthlings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyigdRxPOR4. This song nails it.
Horney!
“The r6 implant is only mental.”LRH
Unsaid by Hubbard is the fact that all the gains are mental also! It’s all mental factually, all in the mind.
The problem, the solution, the achieved resolved state. All is mental.
Just skip it all. Don’t wast your time or money on the Hubbard long runway Xenu R6 implanted body-thetans exorcism/soul-freeing. It’s literally snipe-hunting, er, “body-thetan hunting.”
I think the same.
Big thanks for all this details.
“One thing to keep in mind,” she said with a perfectly warm smile, “is that if you’re in here and want to leave, you have to tell us. If you feel like you can’t leave, it could be construed as kidnapping.” That lie right there kind of shook me up.
I dare anyone who is in Scientology, whether or not you are on staff, to say “I want to leave.” Even in a whispered conversation behind closed doors. If you are so brave, be prepared to say goodbye to your family and all your friends and whip out your checkbook. After countless hours of demeaning “confessionals” demanding to know your crimes, all at your expense, if you are not browbeaten into staying and treated like a pariah, you are pushed out the door with no support group.
Such an innocuous statement so laden with meaning.
Excellent excellent article and posting. Really worth absorbing, and the downsides are so plentiful, the big lesson reading this, is NEVER go further into Scientology. Take all this viewer’s alarm bell warnings seriously and never go further, and do NOT buy a book from the Scientology organizations, instead buy one off Amazon or another outlet, and the reason is remain free from Scientology’s letters and mail they will send you if you buy anything from them. (If you do get on the mailing list, and wish to get off, just say: “I don’t believe Xenu caused the Wall of Fire. I don’t believe us humans are infested with body-thetans requiring OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 exorcism levels you do to one another on upper advanced Scientology at your Advanced Organizations and at Flag in Clearwater. I don’t think Xenu is real, nor are Xenu’s R6 implanted body-thetans which Xenu left on earth to infest all humans, requiring OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 exorcism. Take me permanently off your mailing lists, all of them. Hail Xenu and good day to you all.” CUT AND PASTE THIS QUOTE AND IT REPEAT IT BACK TO ALL CONTACT FROM SCIENTOLOGISTS TO GET THEM TO CEASE CONTACTING YOU.)
Give Scientology Xenu to get them off your back, period. Give ’em Xenu sensibly neutral discussion, and they will stop contacting you. Xenu is the magic word backfiring to Scientology, and this is Hubbard’s fault.
Really great article, thanks so much for the people who suffered into the org Sunday Service to learn this. This article proves Scientology’s self caused in house problems are Hubbard caused. Hubbard is making and will always be making Scientology unpalatable.
Chuck Beatty
ex paperpusher (1975-2003) mainly in the cult bureaucrats Scientology staff training depts in my most productive years in the Scientology cult nonsense fraud fake “religion.” (No joke, give ’em Xenu talk to get them off your back, and be sure to know that OT 3, 4, 5, 6 ,and 7 are all exorcism advanced steps of Scientology to supposedly rid all humans of Xenu’s R6 implanted body-thetans which Hubbard believed to his death infest all us humans.)
And don’t forget, we were told if we read OT3 before we were ready we would get pneumonia. What a way to keep us suckers hooked.
I believe Xenu is the best word to use to unbrainwash the Scientologists out of their “information control” brainwashing/fear of the Xenu word and the body-thetans word.
It’s ludicrous, when you consider what other religion thinks it cannot tell the public the simple facts about their spiritual beliefs.
No one has died from talking Xenu’s R6 implanted body-thetans (body-thetans are the invisible souls Xenu supposedly implanted the R6 implant bad ideas into those souls, and those souls infest all humans today, requiring the Hubbard secret OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 soul-freeing exorcism procedures. Just tell us what you do with your spiritual procedures Hubbard/Scientology.
I mean, that’s all I wanted, was an explanation as simple as I just laid out.
Tell me what you guys believe, sheesh!
Hubbard falsely claims people will possibly die hearing that Xenu mass murdered humanoids he brought to earth from distant civilizations and that after those humanoids were all mass murdered during the “Wall of Fire” part of the 4th Dynamic Engram, then Xenu had the souls implanted with the R6 implants, and then those souls clustered and were let loose to roam earth and infest us humans today. And the spiritual problem supposedly is the R6 implant bad memories leak from those invisible souls over to our minds, even if we achieved “Clear”, we still get those R6 implant bad memories hitting us from our invisible souls. So the five exorcism steps finally supposedly get ALL those invisible souls freed/exorcised off us, and we lose the debilitating effects of the R6 implants, and we are supposed to be really super duper spiritually rejuvenated.
Did you get any consistent OT powers? I’ve not heard of anyone yet who has!
So sad, such a long runway false promising spiritual con this Scientology extensive quackery and exorcism all is.
Oh well.
At least Hubbard left Scientology with this Achilles Heal where they are able to be told Xenu and body-thetans theory from the public.
Word of mouth defeats the Hubbard quackery empire, and it’s all Hubbard’s fault, in the end.
Good old Xenu’s R6 implanted body-thetans to the rescue to deflate and spoiler alert newbies about Scientology’s long runway scam.
On the original OT8.0, Hubbard admits his tech only provides temporary key-outs – and unless a super secret GE implant is audited we’re all going to be enslaved anyway.
Seeing as Hub is still AWOL and not a single emancipated BT has come back to continue their auditing, it’s pretty clear that we’re all fcked. 😂
The EP of “New OT8” is an interest in doing the Enemy condition. I’m sure that’ll come in handy when the Marcabians invade.
If seen from this point of view, then we are really in trouble 😂.
Anyway, after scn I approached Zen meditation and yoga, and what I realized is that one don’t have to discover ‘who you really are’ (and there is no way to do that unless one continues to identify himself with other images endlessly).
The point is simply to understand ‘that you are’ (but not as intended in treason condition, of course).
I thought the one benefit of the Marcabians coming back to keep us prisoner souls back into line, would be we finally vindicate Hubbard’s quackery stuff.
“When Xenu’s Marcabian upper bosses return to earth, Hubbard and Scientology will be Vindicated”
The Marcabian’s will probably super triple implant Xenu himself with the R200 Implants so Xenu becomes the worst “case” human then on earth.
It’ll take Hubbard coming back sometime, to develop the “tech” to even un-implant Xenu.
There are all sorts of sci fi opportunities to riff on Hubbard’s body-thetans “bats in our belfries” theme which Hubbard has started.
So many opportunities for new snipe-hunting scams to sell new dupes born every day.
Thank you for reminding!
As always the OT III material held up to scorn and totally alter-ised.
Can’t anyone in the Independebt Field EVER read and duplicate anything.
I have no love for the COS under control of an asthmatic dwarf with delusions of grandeur, but if you are going to discuss Tech.
PLEASE GET IT RIGHT.
Otherwise you come across as just another bunch of idiots with axes to grind.
Who are you claiming is in the “independent field” and is not duplicating OT III?
Who are you asking to get it right? The writer of this piece?
You seem to the one having trouble duplicating what is going on here.
A change of a few letters in the word ” Independebt” and you can easily sum up the world of $camologists everywhere:
Indeepdebt.
I’m fairly certain that most readers of Mike’s blog are not members of the “Independent Field.” I, for one, left before Hubbard died. I am OTV and am in total agreement with how the OT levels are characterized.
You have every right to believe what you want, but if you haven’t read John Atack’s “A Piece of Blue Sky,” it might be in your best interests to do so. I first read it in 2011. It was an eye opener. It allowed me to look at my past with new eyes.
Logically thinking, how can rote processes done exactly the same way create the exact same effect on two people who are polar opposites?
I don’t intend to get into a tech discussion with you or anyone because the SHSBC was a lot of hot air tbh. Please allow yourself the chance to read Russell Milker’s “Bare Faced Messiah” as well and even read some of my blog posts on how Hubbard “extensively experimented” before releasing processes. Spoiler alert- he didn’t. Mike and I discuss this in our next podcast.
“Mike and I discuss this in our next podcast.”
Sounds great – looking forward to it (or must I say “hearing forward to it” 😉
Hub’s “empirical research” (I think he mentions that in KSW1) is what initially piqued my interest in the subject. By empirical research, I mean work that is based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic. This was what I was searching for when I first arrived at Saint Hill. I thought there would be thousands of research papers or documents by him. To my disappointment, I found … nothing. I then considered that maybe he kept all of that research with him on the Apollo.
The next place I looked was International Management (Int) = Golden Era. But again, I found nothing. It became clear that Int was just about international management. So, my next stop was the “Archives” at the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST). Surely, that must be where all the research was being kept. To my surprise, I only found his tapes and handwritten issues. What a letdown. It became apparent that everything by him was made up out of thin air. And if he wouldn’t have dissed MarySue there probably would have been a lot more OT levels, equally useless but still 🙂