Another idle Ideal Org
In keeping with the Ideal Orgs theme one of our correspondents recently visited NY Org. Last time she was there was 2 years ago.
Another of the first “Ideal Orgs” – its been nearly a decade since David Miscavige grandly cut the ribbon and promised a new era for Scientology in NY. It should be bustling, there is more traffic within 200 feet of its front door than any org on earth.
Correspondent’s Report
The last time I walked in – pretending to be raw public – was about 2 years ago. At that time, the receptionist was very cold and wanted to know why I was there.
The reception area isn’t really a reception, no place to sit or anything. Just a front desk and stairway to my left facing the receptionist.
The Div 6 class room is on a visible lower level … last time there was 1 person.
Last time, I was escorted upstairs to a very rigid good looking woman about 25-30 – who had been born into Scientology and was obviously Sea Org – had black pants, white shirt and blazer. She was very unpleasant and when she realized I wasn’t going to take the OCA OR buy the DMSMH package for $100.00 you could feel her disdain. “It’s ONLY $100.00”
This time — the receptionist was a young (30-40) black woman missing plenty of teeth when she smiled. But she was friendly and warm.
She told me to just go upstairs.
I met a young man (about 22-25) named Franco, He is from the Dominican Republic. He’s been involved in Scientology for 4 years.
He had me sign in to their “individual interested” sheet — but originated I didn’t have to fill out the address or anything… Then there are a series of boxes to check what am I interested in learning about Dianetics and/or Scientology, the life of L. Ron Hubbard, Purification, Volunteer Ministers, etc
I said just LRH — so I was brought to the LRH video and he showed me how to work the video machine.
I had arrived at 12:45 so I figured I would see the staff arrive and head up the elevators to their posts after lunch — there are 8 floors with the purif on 6
While I was sitting about 7 staff went by me to the elevators. I didn’t recognize anyone but most were older — way older.
I asked him if he had seen The Master. He had no idea what I was talking about so I explained it was loosely based on the early days of Dianetics — in fact, and I pointed to a picture they had of LRH auditing someone on a coach (famous shot) I told him this shot was in the movie. He said “Wow – I really want to see it.” I told him he shouldn’t tell anyone here that you are going to see it as they won’t let you.
Then we walked over to the snack bar – which is very nice – lots of good food, smoothies etc. I asked Franco how many staff are there?
INSTANTLY he said 200 — wow I said — where do you put them all? Then a public or possibly staff from the Long Island Org who was having a snack piped up and said — it’s 100 on Foundation and 100 on Day.
Playing dumb I had them explain that to me. The guy sitting having a snack said he worked during the day but in the evening he worked at the Long Island Org – which he was clear to explain was not YET an ideal org but they were working on it “because now smaller orgs can become ideal.”
I noticed “The Chapel” and said — oh, do you hold Services there? He said – yes, but now there was a staff meeting and he couldn’t let me in. Almost immediately the door opened and the staff “streamed” out. I’m being GENEROUS if there were 15 people TOTAL. One of them was Vic Scelza — long time IAS reg. He is VERY VERY overweight with a shirt that looks like the buttons are going to pop.
My guess is that the staff are briefed to tell everyone EVEN themselves that they have 200 staff — 100 day and foundation since that is the requirement .. and when even THEY can tell there aren’t 200 staff — they are told they are on training – or on loan to another ideal org to be.
There were between 4 and 6 public in the div 6 course rooms. I was the ONLY person watching any of the display “intro videos.”
The place was empty.
I walked out with 8 DVDs on various things that Franco had given me.
Agent 99 — Field Correspondent
Miscavige Policy
Apart from the moribund state of the Idle Morgue, this report highlights one of the most destructive aspects of David Micavige’s Ideal Org Strategy. The complete negation of Div 6 policy – now superseded by Command Intention (Miscavige Policy) that new public be shown DVDs.
Div 6 staff are NOT ALLOWED TO COMMUNICATE TO NEW PUBLIC. They cannot even ASK them what they are “interested in” – they simply hand them a form and based on boxes checked walk them to a DVD machine, show them how to operate it and walk away (they are not supposed to afford the person the opportunity to engage with them – they are supposed to watch the video and that will answer their questions).
This was David Miscavige’s brilliant solution to “bypass” incompetent/untrained Div 6 staff. Rather than selecting Public Reg personnel and training them, his “just add water and mix” solution – another one that has MEST as its central element – has completely severed the comm line with the public.
The end result is new public walk out with a handful of DVDs they will never watch – a total waste of money – because Div 6 staff are now so indoctrinated into “the DVDs will answer the person’s questions.”
It would probably be a more cost efficient and effective method of dissemination to just put stacks of books on a table and anyone who comes in to the org could just be handed a book FOR FREE. At least they would walk out with something that they might find useful and it would save the expense of the “displays” and handing out videos and it would even be a means of getting rid of the millions of copies of “The Basics” that have been bought, sent to libraries and returned or trashed or are sitting in people’s garages gathering dust.
Mike Rinder
Exactly, Paul. Dissem drill with an OCA eval takes a fair amount of training and lots of ARC.
I came in through NY Org in the 70s having read many books and having done quite a bit of
book auditing before arriving. You couldn’t chase me out with that grounding. Part of the current problem is the absolute prohibition on any Div 6 reach-out outside of the failed model in use. There were many lines of reach into the public back then, books being a main one and most successful.
I’m not far from the org now and encounter no reach out activity.
Good point M T. Back in those days whenever the flow of public into the org would slow down. I would take 4 or 5 staff with boxes of promo in my van to hit all the movie lines and and crowded areas in Manhattan, the next day the flow would pick up. Of course we would do this off the production time in the Org. We never felt the need to have fancy buildings. WhEn we did move to the upper west side on Manhattan we did so with no donations from the public. In fact if the public did want to help we let them assist us in the painting and cleaning but ALL of their dollars went to training and processing.
I’ve made the following comment on Marty’s blog, but I think it’s worth repeating here.
Back in the 80’s I volunteered as a public reg at the OC Org. During that time I became very good at evaluating personality tests. We averaged 40 – 50 FSS per week and the org was booming. I can tell you that, without question, just watching a video isn’t going to get a person to reach. You have to find their ruin and that takes good TR’s. Learning these skills didn’t just get more people on lines, it also was a major part of my progress in Scientology.
WOW!!!!
I have read many stories and lots of posts but I would like to commend everyone on this one as this one was the very best! What amazing comments from everyone on here. Keep up the good work Mike and my friends who enlighten me everyday with their words of wisdom. My sincere thanks to all on here. 🙂
Keep up the good work Mike!
DM knows the Internet is his enemy, so he figures its a waste of time to train Div 6 staff to be in good 2WC with high ARC with raw public just to have them sign up, and then, when they get home, do a search, get turned off, and come right back with their reasons why for their refund…oh dear…Yeah, yeah, lets forget about this “caring for the being in front of you”, LRH B/S, that won’t work. What we need are panels and plenty of DVD;s to shove into their hands so at least we can get 20 bucks out of the sons-of-bitches before they go onto their freakin’ computers.
Mike, this is amazing. This is an “ideal” org????!!!!!
Let me set everybody straight about NY. In the 1970’s the NY Org had 4 or 5 Class VIII’s on staff.
…..and I’m talking contracted staff, not volunteers. The ED was Class VIII as well as FEBC, and an original OTVII. The Tech Sec/S, the senior C and Qual Sec were Class VIIIs. All staff who wanted to be on post were required to be on TECH training. There were more trained auditors and OTs on staff than you could shake a stick at. Staff were going up the Bridge and being sent off for upper level training and auditing. Just as public did. I don’t even know how many friggin’ staff members they had but it was a LOT. Public walked in and they could FEEL the theta. They signed up for courses and auditing. The academy and Public course rooms were packed. The HGC was like an assembly line. They went on to upper level orgs. Lots of celebrities as well as “ordinary” folks passed through those lines. Actually, there were no “ordinary” folks because everyone soon discovered their extraordinary selves. 🙂
This was a REAL ideal org, built the way LRH said to do it from the inside out.
They rented about 3-4 floors in an old hotel a couple of blocks from the Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden. There was plenty of foot traffic and plenty made its way into the Org. The tone level of the place was cheerfulness. It was a magnet for theta people.
And so, if I may be permitted to descend to the stereotypical tone level of a New Yorker for a moment in order to deliver a message to David Miscavige:
“THIS IS HOW IT’S DONE, MORON. YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?'” :-//
🙂
I have vague yet fond memories of the NY Org from the early-1970s. I was pretty young at the time. There *were* a lot of people there, including a lot of great musicians and artists.
My family went to parties there a couple of times – I think they might have been New Year’s parties, and man, the musicians who played there were amazing. I remember Amanda Ambrose from then, and her kids who we hung out with. It really was something. It was a social center in addition to being a Scientology center. Just the way a real church is often a social center.
I definitly need to start do a write up on this…I went Long Island Org..with the Flag Tour and I meet severals FSO Reges..old timers…..I meet Charlies Bills I am sure you know him…that Org is basically empthy…I did an event there with around 25 people…and I also was in New York Org…yes…your post is completly right..and I a long story regarding Flag World Tour New York…2011…..when mister..mini boss……give some orders…long story…but I will start prepare what happen with New York Event….Mike your blog is completly great!
Thanks Mike! for the good work and your always brilliant writing!
200 but then laughed and said “I wish”. So I imagine that the 200 number is the line they are told to give.
Last year we were filming in Montrose and base camped in the Montrose Mission parking lot. I had a great chat with the mission holder regarding al the various donations. He expressed his displeasure and told me it is nothing like it used to be when he was at the Mission of Davis.
last summer I stopped at the Malibu Mission. The woman who runs it was some one I trained with in LA years ago. She was very closed minded about talking about all the donations
Tom — how nice to see you here old friend. Thanks for dropping in to add your voice to the choir. I hope you will do so often. Mike
She was clearly upset and told me I really wanted to help then I could them some public into the mission.
They have since gone onto a schedule where they are only open two nights during and most of a weekend day.
When I passed by the Mission of the Northwest Valley in Chatsworth CA yesterday it was vacated. Clearly all is not going well under the Micavage regime .
Sorry for the breaks in this post as I am trying to post this at work and I accidentally hit the “post comment” bottom.
Tom, the only way there would even be 200 Scientologists within the city limits of Pasadena is if a bus crammed with SO members (probably on the way to a new RPF locale) was passing through town.
I was surprised to hear that there is a different ED for NY FDN. Back in the mid 70’s I helped recruit Jerry and Debbie Indursky. He became the ED and she was the CS. If anyone knows what became of them I would love to hear.
Back then I was the course sup for the academy. We had a fairly full course room compared to today’s standards. If you were around during that period you will recall that the Org was in mid town at the rundown Hotel Martinique.. In the winter the academy was so cold that the clay could not be molded. Then in the summer it was so hot that the clay became so sticky and soft to the point where your hands would be covered in the stuff.
It was simple times than and yes it was fun. back then the public could only buy a book, training or Auditing.
We had course packs in three ring binders so new issues could be inserted as they came out. The HGC was busy and 3 of the bedrooms in my apartment were used as additional rooms by the org as we lived nearby. The Div 6 had George Goodrich who was OT 7 at the time getting new public interested in taking a course.
Those days are gone and will never return. On a visit to Pasadena Idle org I asked a staff member in the empty video room how many staff there were and he said
Hi Mike,
I think I see how the Dept One (personnel) stats work now. An org gets “100 staff” of which 50 get “loaned out” immediately to other orgs and most of the rest are either “on training” (blown) or they’re “on training” (terminally ill) or “on training” (working outside jobs to get money for food). That leaves 12 actual people on staff—6 full time, 3 part time, and 3 wogs who will promptly quit at the end of the week when they receive their first $0.27 pay check.
Of the 50 people who were loaned out to other Ideal Toilet Bowls, each of those orgs also count them as part of their “100 staff”… even after they are again “loaned out” to yet another org. So, what we really have is about 50 staff currently being turned into 500 staff. Poof!
Viola! The Staff Member Bubble by the Master Ponzi King.
Steve,
You had me on the floor with this one! It just couldn’t get anymore ridicules than this! But of course we all know, IT WILL!
As an earlier poster said, NO ONE WOULD BELIEVE IT!
So, you can cry about it or laugh about it. Thanks Steve, for making me laugh about it.
Now that sounds like the banking system – that is, the reserve banking system. A bank maintains a percent of it’s deposits (10%) and loans out the rest. Not only is DM the “Master Ponzi King” but the ultimate money changer!
Next perhaps, if he could, he’d be “printing” more money (staff) to further inflate the bubble. Oh wait, he already does with the false stats on everything under the sun.
I think the numbers just speak for themselves. 4-6 students in the Div 6 area in a metro area of about 19M people with 50M national and international visitors per year. That is the definition of Idle Org! The NY Morgue probably has more bodies in the shop.
LAUGHTER! WE COULD DO A TALLY FROM CITY TO CITY ON A WEEKLY BASIS. Who has more bodies in the shop? The local Org or the local morgue? The new “birthday game” is between the Org and the Morgue.
We could do challenge capers, like sneak into the funerals as the first person and place a Dianetics book in the hands of the deceased. As the others arrive for the viewing, they glance into the casket to find their dearly departed clutching a Dianetics book.
When I went in to FCDC a month and a half ago there were 3 doing training. Two doing TRs and one doing metering. At first I figured I would not tell them I had been a scientologist in the past so I asked questions first. I was brought into the org by the single person that was outside trying to get public inside. There was one girl at reception that also ran the projector, a test girl, one at the D of T desk and one girl I assumed was SO because of the black and white outfit. When I would not buy anything I had a frosty reception but then I told them I was an old guy from the early 70s and they warmed up a bit. For six or so floors it was pretty empty for the middle of the day. I told the girl who sold materials that I much preferred the two previous orgs and their atmospheres because even if the present org was finished in the most luxurious of materials the org felt sterile. Actually she was the most friendly. Since my TRs were in I had no problems putting off the reg attack and left the org of my own volition. ARC Bill Dupree
DM’s ‘streamlining’ reminds me of my business studies that focused on the successful actions of franchises, like McDonald’s. Specifically the ‘dumbing down’ of all operations to create push button automatons for consistant experiences in terms of food, beverage or what have you. McJobs. Employees no longer had to think, they just had to execute simple actions and presto whizzo, you had a product and no matter where you went in the world the product would be the same. In fact because the ability to read was declining, the actions were broken down into pictures that could be uniformly understood with a minimal number of language used.
This is creepy similar.
Exactly justthisgal. What you are witnessing is the corporatization and commericalization of a religious philosophy. Fascinating. Doesn’t happen too often.
It’s a bizarre hybrid: take LRH’s incredible insight and workable technology and marry it up with Henry Ford-style mechanistic assembly line workflow, a dash of Orwell’s 1984, a sprinkle of Hollywood gliz and glamour and a good dose of Stasi-like control and you’ve got the “New and Improved Scientology”, Scientology 2.0.
Yuck.
Nice work Agent 99. This is Agent 86 here. I was wondering about those FART video machines in Div 6 that they made you use. I forget what FART stands for, but Mike Rinder knows. I think it’s horrible the way they treat people coming in to find out about LRH as you demonstrated. But I’m glad you survived and completed your mission and got debriefed.
Fully Automated Robot TV Div 6
Thanks!
DM is smart to mechanize the dissemination of Scientology. Most staff are good people and as they start to wake up to the true nature of the Co$ it begins to to feel like bringing raw public into the church is an overt and they put the breaks on.
Thanks for that Mike.
It could be that the “no comm with public” policy kills two birds with one stone. Prevents untrained staff from “mishandling” the public AND possibly stops the staff from hearing about the “black PR” from the public. In other words, for dm, it’s better for people to be out of comm as communication causes too many problems for him. The connection between surviving and being able to communicate was obviously lost on little davie mis-manage.
ARC and 2WC have been carefully removed — A concept like ARC doesn’t mean anything to a sociopath. They can’t feel ARC (love) like a real person, not even love for their parents, spouse or children – I would bet a dollar that their understanding of affinity is “that’s like magnets”.
All people are utilitarian to the sociopath – they don’t love anyone so they are only obsessed with “winning” which really for them is manipulation and domination over others. People are tolerated to the degree that they do not frustrate that objective. Thus a focus on KRC not ARC.
DM is probably smart to mechanize his dissemination efforts; Deep down most staff suspect that bringing people into the church is an overt.
Deep down most staff suspect that bringing people into the church is an overt.
I know that to be true for a fact, because I’ve felt it myself. I was only able to withstand the insanity for as long as I did because of my pre-DM track with Scientology. The wins and sense of group theta I experienced in those early years became my stable data, and gave me a sort of armor against the encroaching darkness of the DM era. I stopped even thinking of disseminating Scientology to new people, knowing that they didn’t have that armor.
Like a fly stuck on flypaper. Does he tell the other flies that are flying by how great it is to land here?
An OT VIII Karin Beatty with previously NO admin training was posted on demand as Executive Director of NY Org a few years ago. She is still on post. And then dually as ED NY Foundation ! She is a DM pet.. her very wealthy husband Richard Beatty (trust fund baby) is a high high roller for the “church”
He donated to the IAS 2 million or 2.5 million within the last 6 months…..
Who cares if NY Org cannot pay utilities ?
IAS scoops it in !
Though Karen, I have to say I don’t think “admin training” in the CoS is any positive. My old org had about 30 people tained on OEC/FEBC over a 30 year period and I don’t recall any of them having much effect at all (most wound up on low posts eventually like receptionist or Dir Comm to use a couple of examples, then left staff). Also the ultimate failure of Scientology on the old timers is refelected in how many are still on staff and go along with all this quietly. The “OS’s” – the Opeating Sheeple.
I don’t think “admin training” in the CoS is any positive. My old org had about 30 people tained on OEC/FEBC over a 30 year period and I don’t recall any of them having much effect at all…
Joe, the staff aren’t allowed to utilize the tech or admin training they’ve received. They’re forced to operate on ‘command intention’ and fear – not policy, personal experience, logic and reason, or even bright ideas. That’s why you never saw any appreciable effects from their admin training.
Ronnie Bell, I think you make a good point. I just want to add that the bulk of the returning FEBC grads I’m talking about were from 1971 – mid 80s when LRH was still alive. My point is that as a SYSTEM, CoS policy/admin system is not very workable. It is bloated, top heavy and authoritarian, replete with orders, compliance reports, red tape, tons of useless communication AND many useless and counter productive posts (there’s not enough staff to do this nowadays, but in the early to mid 70s, you should have seen our ED walking around shadowed by the Flag Rep and the LRH Comm (and sometimes the OES and Tech Sec), all with clipboards, monitoring the PDCs on an hourly basis, harassing the poor D of T who was actually trying to get some WORK done, which he could have done if he didn’t have to answer questions to all these folks about the progress of every freaking student who was on the grid to comp (eery freaking hour, going over the checksheets with the above group).. And yes, sometimes the Org Officer was in on the mix too. I could write a book really. Just review, as I did recently, SSII and look look at all the PLs that complain about juniors’ dev-t and non compliance, warning seniors about stats being HELD down and that they had better rachet up their ethics presence and put down the hammer. IT’S AN UNWORKABLE SYSTEM (just re-read HCO PL Order Board and Time Machine, it encapsulates all the wackiness and absurdity of this admin system – people enmeshed in TONS of intricate admin cycles – had they just been sent out to dissem in large numbers- like at the Davis missions, – now THERE was a workable admin system that Martin Samuels developed). And, oh by the way, exchange, valuable products, quality, service, tracking production, etc etc etc …. all those ideas pre-dated LRH writing about them. They’e been part of successful businesses for decades before Scientology ever came on the scene (you know, like the Ford Motor Company as one example). The Scientology system not being “allowed” to work by some ogres? That’s what QUAL is supposed to be for!!!! And HCO!!! They’re supposed to root out these guys and handle them. That’s what the LRH COMM is supposed to do (make Ron’s postulates stick). So NONE of these folks can do it I guess. Managment system put together by LRH is ultimately a dismal failure, none of intricate and confusing checks and balances actually work in the REAL world (the proof of the pudding is in the eating as the saying goes).
My point is that as a SYSTEM, CoS policy/admin system is not very workable. It is bloated, top heavy and authoritarian, replete with orders, compliance reports, red tape, tons of useless communication AND many useless and counter productive posts…
Point taken, Joe. I don’t completely disagree with the idea that CofS policy/admin is overly complex, bloated, and top heavy. I can only comment here as a layman, as I’m not OEC/FEBC trained, but having been on staff in a Sea Org org for nearly a decade, and having rubbed elbows with the Green on White throughout my Scn career, I do tend to agree that a simpler, more streamlined body of organization tech would probably be of great benefit.
In my own business, we’ve used the Model of Admin Know-How book as our organization bible, and it’s all we’ve ever needed. We’re also a very small business, and don’t require a seven division org board with tons of hats to get the job done. When it comes right down to it, there are only a few vitally important actions (or functions) that we need to keep in on a consistent basis to keep the machine humming. I don’t think a Scn delivery org is all that different, really. Promote to the broad public. Show them that what you offer is of benefit to them and close the sale. Route them onto courses or auditing services and truly deliver the goods to them. Rinse and repeat all the way up the line.
Remember that Job One is delivering auditing and training. Every other job in the org must directly support that activity. If delivery stats begin to falter, begin pulling staff closer to the base products of the org. Take people off pencil pushing activities and get them working on the vital functions of the org. In short, Keep It Simple, Stupid.
If I walked into an org, interested, but was told to “watch these videos”, I would feel insulted – in effect, being told, “You’re not important enough to have a conversation with”.
Sure, you and I can easily assume the viewpoint of a new person and see how they’d be offended by being sat in front of a video monitor, but DM is incapable of assuming any viewpoint except his own. As was mentioned upthread, his solution is to take the theta out of the equation, so the staff don’t ‘mess it up’. As a consequence, those who do arrive to find out what Scientology is, walk out the door wondering why no one would talk to them. I can tell you, that upon my first time walking into an org, if I’d been sat down at an automated information center, I would probably have walked away baffled. Doubt if I ever would have returned.
I wonder how many of those DVDs end up being tossed into the first trash receptacle the person passes after leaving the org? After such an impersonal contact, my first thought after leaving would be “Wait, why am I carrying these?”
If is wasn’t for the CO$’s horrible policy of disconnection, I believe a lot more people would be leaving the church. The tearing up of families really breaks my heart! DM’s policy of declaring everybody who wants to leave the church an SP without any of the hearings and procedures that LRH had in place is a crime. I sure hope DM’s fall comes soon.
Hugs
There is no way someone working as a day staff member could finish, and get out to Long Island to work foundation hours. In rush hour that would a two hour commute. Very sad that they have to lie as part of their hat.
David shut down the mission network in 1982 and made sure the New York Org would fold. In it’s hay day with 300 students in the academy at night there were roughly 30 staff day and foundation roughly 50.
You see that single block long street the Org is on? People are selling joints, nickel bags of dope, and slices of pizza like there is no tomorrow. But David can’t get a fucking Dianetics book to move off the shelf! And that was his purpose! On the scale he sees everyone as “menacing particles”. That is why he travels among his own group with body guards. That is why he physically assaults Church “members”.
From ORG series 23.
(HCO PL 16 February 1971,
Lines and Terminals)
There is a scale concerning Lines and Terminals.
ASSOCIATED TERMINALS
…/…
SIGNIFICANCES
FALSE TERMINALS
MISDIRECTED LINES
WRONG PARTICLES
FALSE SIGNIFICANCES
(Rumors)
MYSTERIOUS TERMINALS
CHAOTIC LINES
MENACING PARTICLES
DANGEROUS IMPRESSIONS
NON-EXISTENT TERMINALS
NON-EXISTENT LINES
NON-EXISTENT PARTICLES
UNCONSCIOUS IMPULSES
THE CHAOS OF UNHAPPY NOTHINGNESS
Anyone entering an Org these days probably comes of as a “dangerous impression” otherwise they wouldn’t be greeted with lies as their first service.
Hard to believe that they cannot communicate to a new person, but understandable, in that it is so risky and they can’t afford to have them hear anything negative. Are they that weak? Wow.
Truth is so beautiful! Like this series of idle morgues.
OMG Mike, If LRH was spot on ( which of course, he was ) with his formulating of Scn AXIOM 51:
“POSTULATES AND LIVE COMMUNICATION NOT BEING MEST AND BEING SENIOR TO MEST CAN ACCOMPLISH CHANGE IN MEST WITHOUT BRINGING ABOUT A PERSISTENCE IN MEST.
THUS AUDITING CAN OCCUR.”Just one of the amazing observations leading to Auditing Tech.
As we know, he called his breakthrough field of discovery —” SCIENTOLOGY.”
Fast track to the New Era of the self appointed ” COB ” ( Chairman Of Buildings )—DM ( Demon Mestcavige ) and we find this “Super Bright spark” attempted to surpass the staggering legacy of LRH with a typically ” superior breakthrough to lightning fast gains ” — edified as ” GAT ” ( Golden Age of Tech .) Note too, the heavy fixation of “GOLD” in everything Mestcavige does!
What is made abundantly clear from your Correspondent’s Report, is that no matter how much
DM thinks he can stop life’s ponderous pendulum from coming back to boot him up the ass,
— he just can’t! What makes me so sure? Check out AXIOM 52 subsequent to the one above!
Scn AXIOM 52; MEST PERSISTS AND SOLIDIFIES TO THE DEGREE IT IS NOT GRANTED LIFE.
So, end result of DM’s ” Ideal Org “Programs ?– An embarrassing glut of empty ” Idle Morgues.”
It doesn’t get any more SOLID —( or cold, creepy or cuckoo, come to think of it! )— than that!
Another thought — After the inevitable complete collapse and selling off of the real estate, as
John P. mooted earlier, what or how could these buildings be realistically re- configured for an
alternate usage? The stink that would come with any association to the CO$ would certainly
put a damper on any prospective investors, me thinks.
DM, —ultimately— will have his “power” collapse on him via his stupidity and insanity! Any bets?
calvin b. duffield: I don’t like your post as it is badly formatted, pompously worded and doesn’t make sense. If you aren’t trolling, let me suggest that you keep it simple, keep it short, and keep to the point.
David Miscavige has isolated the most important fundamentals of Scientology and painstakingly removed them from the dissemination of Scientology. It is quite an achievement really. He had to go right down to the very foundation of Scientology philosophy and way down there he found things like “auditor plus pc is greater than the bank” and the definition of an auditor as “one who listens and acknowledges” and communication as the universal solvent. He carefully isolated them all and then devised a way that Scientology orgs could be made to throw them all out the window. Then, when new public inflow lines all across the world crashed into oblivion, he just said -“It that $%% Marty Rathbun spreading all those lies about me that’s driving people away”. like the man on the street even knows who he is or cares. nope, this is vintage David Miscavige evil purps in action. And vintage dupes and dummys sucking it up and telling themselves they love it! The whole ideal orgs program is based on MEST being senior to theta. Think about it. One of the most powerful concepts in the Scientology religion is the concept that the spirit is senior to the physical world around him. David Miscavige constantly beats the drum that MEST (pyhysical) is more important that theta (spiritual). But all that is happening is that Miscavige is burning away the bright, the self determined, and the strong. The core of Scientology support now rests with the dull, the robotic and the weak. Every day one of the stronger and more intelligent Scientologists steps away, routes off service, stops coming to events. As long as t he brightest and smartest of us keep communicating, keep acting, keep at it, well then David Miscaviges days keep getting shorter and shorter.
Roy, so true. I’m really looking at what you’re saying here and the truth of it makes me very sad. But its better to confront it, that much I know. Better to be in grief or anger because of confronting the truth, then “uptone” in a false paradise. The truth will ultimately free us. I would always rather know than not know.
I got into Scientology because a staff person was INTERESTED in me and, wonder of wonders, DUPLICATED my originations and ACKNOWLEDGED me in such a way that I felt, for the first time in many years, UNDERSTOOD. I had read the Dianetics book – back then it was in paperback and under $5.00 – and I was reaching, yet at the same time, sceptical. What worked both on me and for me was high ARC from someone who had the patience to be with me and LISTEN to me, as well as the ability to understand and acknowledge me properly. I got that this person CARED. This Class V org staff person Scientology had EXCELLENT communication skills which came across as a sincere yet relaxed desire to HELP ME. Not knowing much except what I had read in DMSMH, I allowed myself to be helped because this person was just THERE with me, listening, understanding, and acknowledging, and this had such a good effect on me that, inside, despite my scepticism, I said to myself, “OK, go for it”.
What a concept, huh?
What I’ve just described is what LRH means by the dictum, “Don’t overwhelm – PENETRATE”.
That’s a great story Aquamarine. I love stories like yours. My story is that in the very early 1970’s I took my only $25 and went an “sold” the registrar in an org on allowing me to do the Comm Course. I laid the money down on the table in front of the registrar just to make sure I was making my point. (Hey, money talks, right?) After the registrar wrapped up that paperwork, I then proceeded to “sell” the registrar on allowing me to work there also. My theory was that the registrar would view me favorably as someone buying the comm course so would be more inclined to allow me to work there also. And, believe it or not, I succeeded! I closed the deal!!! And I had read the Dianetics book so I knew what the Church was about.
Thanks, Regular Dog. I like yours too. You had quite a reach!
Thanks, Regular Dog. I love yours too. You had quite a reach!! Amazing story!
I think DM has the right policy if Scientology is supposed to be just a front for a Real Estate empire.
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22.1 million people in the New York metropolitan area and they have 30 employees and a handful of public at any one time. I wonder how many public are actively engaged with the Church of Scientology in the New York area at this minute. Perhaps only a couple of hundred? Talk about epic fail!
I particularly love how the staff are not allowed to actually talk to people coming in for the first time because they’ll screw it up. Way to get people excited about the possibility of Scientology! If I walked into the office at Saint Patrick’s on Fifth Avenue, a couple blocks from the Ideal Org, and told them I had just moved into the neighborhood, and wanted to talk to someone about whether that would be a good church for me to attend for regular Sunday mass, I bet they would find a priest to spend a half hour answering my questions, even though that’s the most famous (and tourist-overrun) Catholic church in the US. Even though they are really busy, they would actually make some sort of reasonable effort to “win my business” instead of handing me a DVD with the most recent Easter Sunday address of the Pope from the Vatican.
From the standpoint of a business strategy expert, I am still shaking my head when I read this. The staff undoubtedly was berated in their meeting to sign up more public, but when a new public is sitting right there in front of them, they’re ignored. Unbelievable.
John P.—-You are completely correct. Ignoring new people like that is unbelievable. I realize you probably weren’t involved in Scientology in the 1970’s. But I was there in the early 1970’s and this hard, cold, uncaring attitude was not part of Scientology. It is something that was interjected into Scientology churches by David Miscavige beginning in the mid-1980’s. It’s a foreign thing to Scientology.
This may not interest everyone, but it reminds of big corporate retail. McDonalds, Harley-Davidson (even more so), Macy’s, Ford, etc etc. They all require a certain minimum similar look and ambiance. Harley for example, maybe a decade or a bit more ago required of all their dealers to upgrade the premises to Ideal Harley, costing many hundreds of thousands if not millions in some areas. Extravagant inventory on display. Suddenly many dozens of these cozy and cool old school biker shops were turned into “world class” displays, if they wanted to keep their franchise, and all quite similar and all cold and uninviting.
Perhaps Miscabitch considers himself a captain of industry. It’s a thought.
I am a Wall Street money manager, so I have ready access to a lot of data more easily than the average person. So I took a quick look at Harley Davidson. It should be noted that the company’s total sales in 1995 were about $1.25 billion. They peaked at about $6 billion in 2006, and, in the wake of the credit crunch where far fewer people had $20,000+ to spend on a bike, settled back to around $5 billion in each of the last few years. That ten-year run of expansion from 1995-2006 is pretty impressive in a relatively mature market like motorcycles. Some of that wave of growth was fueled by cheap credit to take out loans to buy bikes. Some of that was also fueled by international expansion, since Harley is an iconic American brand that is instantly recognizable and appreciated globally like Coke or Levi’s. But a big part of that phenomenal growth was reaching customers who had never considered buying a Harley before.
I would be willing to bet you that if you surveyed US dealers, while they may have complained bitterly about the cost of upgrading the “box” of the dealership back when, they would tell you today that it was worth it. The refurb was critical to attracting customers who (like me) would never consider setting foot in a grungy old dealership that looked (and smelled) like Sonny Barger and the rest of the original Hell’s Angels could come strolling in at any minute. Those new customers are used to clean shiny car dealerships, and expected the same in a motorcycle dealer, especially one selling products that cost as much as a car. So Harley had to do the refurb as a defensive measure, so prospective customers weren’t afraid to walk in there. And the results in terms of revenue growth show that it worked.
If you’re an old-time customer who has been riding Harleys for 40 years, it is understandable to be nostalgic for the old style dealerships. But those customers are now only a small part of the customers that Harley sells to these days. Time marches on, unfortunately.
But a new class of customers to check out Scientology would not care at all about the fancy office space. They’re not looking for cars, they’re looking for inner peace, self confidence, better communication skills, etc. And when they look for those things, they’re looking for someone that they think they can trust, and who appears to know what they’re doing. And it’s harder to look like you know what you’re doing in inner peace, self confidence and better communication skills than it is to know how many horsepower a given motorcycle puts out.
Miscavige doesn’t consider himself a captain of industry. He thinks he’s way smarter than ordinary “wogs” like that. I’ve met plenty of “captains of industry,” including many famous CEO’s. I can assure you that Miscavige is nothing like any successful CEO I have ever met and that I respect. He’s also way worse than any CEO I don’t respect, either. That’s because CEOs of publicly traded companies have to go through a long period to learn the job, and they have to be accountable to a board of directors. Miscavige didn’t. He just jumped in and grabbed power when everyone else blinked, and he promptly got rid of anybody who disagreed with him. If you showed any Fortune 500 CEO some of the decisions Miscavige has made, and showed them any of the memos he sends out to staff, they would all be appalled and wouldn’t believe that the RCS is still in business.
I like your analysis. I agree with you the Franchise aspect is less the problem. With the RCS you have an Organization that is run by someone with a deep seeded belief that everyone except for him and Tom Cruise are “degraded beings.” This attitude trickles down to the div 6 people where they walk around with an “out of touch” feeling.
John P., I have enjoyed your comments on Marty’s blog for years and now here on Mike’s. As a money manager, do you think things would be better or worse economically for Americans (and Europeans for that matter) if the money supply was publicly owned? I am not trying to trick you or anything but I would be fascinated to have the viewpoint of someone intimately connected with the financial sector. I have the notion that about 99% of the world’s problems relate somehow to the money supply and I wonder if the people on Wall St. see it that way or not. Thanks in advance.
Best line to me: “they’re looking for inner peace, self confidence, better communication skills, etc”.
When I was in Scientology (San Francisco Org / New York Org / Miami Org) a common denominator of lower level staff was being in the condition of very low self esteem, very likely caused by an un-accomplishments filled life.
To many, being on staff was the security blanket that shielded them from having to face life and its demands for self-sufficiency and skills.
The reason, to me, for their involvement in being on staff was to be free from the heavy insecurities they were unwilling to recognize within themselves so as to stop following their destructive dictates of what to do and not do.
And so, it would be natural that higher ups, being aware of the failure of the staff to emanate self confidence, inner peace, an intelligence guiding their communications, would ban them from creating a bad impression.
I think that the another reason may be so that a conversation about XENU or Tony Ortega’s postings 🙂 is not begun.
Dan, I’m not a macroeconomics guru, so I don’t think I would have a definitive comment. I’m a stock picker, focusing on stocks in a very narrow range of industries (I would have no idea of which railroad stock somebody should buy, for instance). But I have a couple of thoughts. I’m going to assume you meant having the money supply “publicly set” rather than “publicly owned,” which it is in a sense already (i.e., the economy including corporations ultimately belong to the people). Essentially, you’re talking about letting individuals or certain groups print their own money, if I understand the question correctly.
Perhaps the biggest example of a problem with this would be the “free banking era” (from the 1830s until the Civil War) when just about anybody could form a bank and then print their own money, supposedly guaranteed against the gold and silver on deposit against the bank. With minimal banking supervision, this essentially meant people could lie and increase the money supply. What happened was rampant inflation and, ultimately, a major depression. The “national bank” period, which began in the Civil War and continued until the creation of the Fed about a century ago, was not much of an improvement, because private state banks could still print money, even though there was a two-tier system in place to keep it from getting out of hand.
A more modern experiment is Bitcoin, which has a private entity controlling the “money supply,” causing a pretty sizable bubble in the value of a bitcoin, driven by external events but also by the restrictions on growth of the money supply. This is likely to lead to a speculative bubble, and that typically won’t end well.
Another scenario: China is trying to make the yuan a “reserve currency” like the dollar. But they have a bank system loaded with non-performing loans that were mandated politically rather than being enabled by managed growth in the money supply. China’s financial infrastructure also lacks significant regulatory oversight and the rule of law in many aspects. So it’s impossible to look at the numbers and to figure out what’s really going on in the Chinese economy. The upshot of it is that the money supply numbers the government provides are presumed to be bogus, as are most of the economic statistics that they issue. When the economy crashes, and crash it most certainly will, things are going to get ugly fast in China and they are going to stay ugly for a very long time. All because the government’s under-the-radar attempts to game the money supply will have saddled the economy with too much non-performing debt to build worthless cities, apartments, steel mills, dams, etc.
So while having an independent central bank determine the money supply has more than a few problems, when you consider the alternatives, they are all significantly worse. Worst of all is returning to the gold standard. Read anything by a credible academic economist on what would happen to the global economy if we went back on the gold standard. Gold bugs tend to have an irrational fear of money they can’t touch or that doesn’t have “tangible value” (yet many of them still use debit cards, oddly enough). And this seems to be a result of significant fear of inflation. We don’t seem to have significant inflation right now (even though I agree that official stats underreport consumer price inflation somewhat) even with interest rates near zero. The Fed could crush any inflation by raising rates even a point or so. And returning to the gold standard could result in a significant period of deflation, which would be far more destructive than inflation ever was.
Final point: one of the key benefits of a central bank’s control over the money supply is its predictability. Bernanke gives Humphrey-Hawkins testimony every 8 weeks to Congress, which macroeconomic geeks pore over with a fine toothed comb. That is the main way that the central bank gives predictability to its future decisions on the money supply. That is something that is essential to managing speculative volatility in the US economy and the currency markets, which results in more efficient growth. You would not get any predictability with either a gold standard, other commodity-based currencies, or the ability of interested actors (i.e., private banks) to determine the money supply.
JohnP
Your comments and analysis on given subjects are very enlightening
I agree Karen. I really like the perspective JPC brings. He is clearly very intelligent and he sees things from a different viewpoint.
John P., I appreciate your cursory look through the eyes of Wall St., however the old cool Harley shops I was referring to were not Hell’s Angels biker hang outs, not by a long stretch. They were clean, friendly, knowledgeable tech and of individual spirit and perhaps local character.
If you look over a long term trend in their stock prices, what shares you bought 10 years ago would be worth about exactly that today, not exactly an affluence condition. In the last 2-3 years alone many long established family franchises have closed their doors bankrupt.
I think you might have left a few of these details out of your analysis. One of the main reasons Harley-Davidson, Inc. made more money, during a 5 or 6 year run up to about 2006 on the backs of their dealer financed IDEAL infrastructure and expanded production – to the point of over saturation. Used bikes are now a dime a dozen, whereas 15 years ago a Harley lost little if any value, used bikes routinely sell for half or less original retail today.
Luis Agostini, in attempting to decipher the Miscavige’s rationale with the “video Div 6es” mentioned that he had observed that “a common denominator of lower level staff was being in the condition of very low self esteem, very likely caused by an un-accomplishments filled life,” and that, “to many, being on staff was the security blanket that shielded them from having to face life and its demands for self-sufficiency and skills.”
He also mentions “the failure of the staff to emanate self confidence, inner peace, an intelligence guiding their communications.”
I’d just like to mention that a good dose of Scientology lower grades, for many, resolves much or all of that, and the reason most of those low self esteem individuals joined staff was to get these things resolved as they were pitching in to help others with those same or very similar problems.
The hope, the belief, the idea that “the basic individual is not a buried unknown or a different person, but an intensity of all that is best and most able in the person”* is what got everyone to sign their contracts or write their checks. Most of the public (those who wrote the checks), at least in the earlier days, got to find out if that would be true, in full or part, as, usually, auditing would be delivered.
The staff generally don’t ever find that out. Most staff finish their contracts (or fail to) with little or no auditing and leave staff with failed, rather than realized purposes.
(*Dianetics, the Original Thesis, pp. 36-37)
Great series. I think you’ve really spotted a big issue with the new div 6 approach. Even the Mormons have their div 6 guys out there talking to public. One of the changes I noticed back in the late 90’s is newer staff (especially S.O.) didn’t seem to have much of grasp I’ve the ARC Triangle. Like it had been replaced with “command intention.”
Oops – “of” not “I’ve”
Heartbreaking.