It’s SaTerraDay again.
Promotion in Scientology, “Outflow Equals Inflow”
One of the pillars of “stable data” drilled into every Scientology staff member is: Outflow equals inflow. Leave it to the church to completely misinterpret and misapply this simple phrase.
Terra Math
First off, outflow does not equal inflow. Outflow equals outflow, and inflow equals inflow. The two aren’t identical.
We might say, the former leads to the latter. Or that intelligent outflow of energy and production by individuals may result in a similar volume of inflow. But not necessarily; lots of factors influence this equation. We can’t expect that mere outflow will result in any inflow at all.
We have to take into account the quality of the outflow. Quantity over time play large roles, as does the target audience. Significance to the recipient is important. In other words, a company can’t mail out random flyers to random addressees and expect a response—unless you’re a Scientologist working at Bridge Publications—that branch of the church responsible for creating and printing promotion.
Scientology concentrates on quantity. At the height of my involvement inside the church, I received ten to twelve articles of promotion per day. I’m down to a quarter of that now that their love affair with me has waned.
Snail Mail
Scientology is notorious for mailing magazines, flyers, brochures, and letters that should never have left Bridge.
Perhaps Scientology is most famous for mailing duplicate promo pieces to the same person at the same address. Sometimes the names are the same; sometimes they’re slightly different. Oftentimes, each member of a household receives identical magazines. Frequently, promotion has nothing to do with where the recipient is on the Bridge—or anywhere else in life.
For example, I received a brochure promoting going “Clear” from Buffalo Org even though I was an “OT” living in California. A friend of mine who’s been “declared” still receives FSM newsletters and flyers promoting Scientology events.
Hand-written letters from recent Eastern European émigré “letter regs” with poor penmanship and deficient command of the English language have me shaking my head. Inevitably, they ask what I’ve been up to since I finished my first Purification Rundown back in the early eighties. Their signatures are always illegible.
Newsletters from ASHO UK promoting their services when ASHO LA lies just down the road make good fire starters when we go camping.
Monthly statements from Flag reminding me I have $137.23 on account are useful in helping me calculate how much more I’ll need to route onto to OT 6 and 7. I’m almost there!
I always enjoy skimming through the magazines from advanced orgs to see if I recognize any faces or know any names on their completions lists.
Once again, it’s not the relevance of the promotional piece that counts in Scientology; it’s the quantity dropped off at the post office before Thursday at two.
Because e-mail is virtually free, the church has embraced this form of outflow ad nauseum. At the height of my illustrious Scientology public career, I regularly received a half dozen or more messages per day. Since I’ve been spiritually downgraded, those numbers have fallen.
There is always an e-mail from the OT Committee boasting of their latest achievements (Joan sold a book to her neighbor next door! And in Central Files, “we’re up to the letter ‘G’!”).
E-mails promoting epic events “you don’t want to miss” arrive daily; there’s always another gala affair happening in the next week or two. (“RSVP Joan!”)
Since fundraising events have replaced courses and auditing as the primary way to finance Scientology, e-mails promoting the next fundraising extravaganza have become as regular as kale at a farmer’s market.
On the other hand, e-mails from supervisors promoting their courses, or messages from Directors of Processing and auditors promoting one’s next Bridge level, hardly show up anymore.
TV/Radio/SUMP
Still waiting.
Body Routing
A) All staff hate body routing.
B) Body routing doesn’t work. (I know, I know. There was that that guy in Cincinnati who Silvia got in back in ’01).
C) All staff hate body routing.
D) Since most new “ideal” orgs have been relocated to the outskirts of towns in low foot-traffic areas, body routing has become as successful as a hot dog vender at a vegan convention.
E) All staff hate body routing.
F) Staff find body routing degrading.
G) All staff hate body routing.
“Ideal” Orgs
Plastering the planet (outflow) with massive new buildings are supposed to have caused a massive influx of new people.
From the three I’ve visited and from the reports of others, something must be plugging up the inflow valve. Church leader, David Miscavige, needs to call a plumber.
Books
If “outflow equals inflow” is one of LRH’s most famous organizational axioms, “books make booms,” is right up there in the top ten.
Everyone in Scientology—both staff and public alike—know that pushing Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health, has never resulted in a significant “inflow” of new people. Never. Not in sixty-plus years.
As for getting LRH’s other books in the hands of the public…(Terra shaking head) no luck with those, either.
Where Outflow Does Approach Inflow
There are a couple of areas in the world of Scientology where outflow does seem to have created an inflow.
More and more books not written by LRH about Scientology have been published in the last couple of decades—none too flattering.
The Internet has given rise to an explosion of anti-Scientology sentiment. One need but Google “Scientology” to see the thousands of pages devoted to exposing the truth about the church.
HBO’s Going Clear broadcast Scientology practices to a whole new audience.
And finally, A&E renewed Mike and Leah’s Aftermath series for a second season because it was obviously attracting viewers. Every week, more and more people are finding out the truth about what really goes on inside Scientology.
Last Words
If outflow has any chance of equaling inflow, you gotta put something out that’s valuable and worthwhile.
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
Hi, Mike !
Here’s a thought . . .
The greater the INFLOW of MONEY into Scientology, the greater the OUTFLOW of EVIL from Miscavige !
God Bless you. Mike & all the victims of Scientology !
Change you email. Problem = Solution. Or are you not changing your email because you’re simply waiting to hear news of L Ron Hubbard’s return in an illustrious young body?
Look, it’s been 30-plus years since LRH ‘dropped body’. He’d be in his early 30s now, ready for a fresh start.
His Orgs all have his personal office ready for the trumpet-blaring return to body, right? right?! right…
What is the SIRS system?
I think that body routing is probably LESS successful than a hot dog vendor at a vegan convention. At least the hot dog guy is going to get a few covert customers who are craving a little meat. That’s the difference. People crave hot dogs, even the occasional non-meat eater, because hot dogs provide nutrition and no one doesn’t already know what they taste like. On the other hand, nobody, and I mean NOBODY, craves Scientology. It does’t fill any biological need. It doesn’t satiate a craving. It doesn’t come with ketchup and mustard on top.
I would use a different analogy. How about, body routing is as successful as a sand merchant at the beach?
And what is more American than a freakin hot dog!
What is “body routing”?
standing on the street in front of the org saying, “come in for a free personality test!” and getting people in to do the test, get it evaluated, then sold an introductory service. If your org is not on a busy street you have to go other places and try to do it and haul the person back to the org. That would be hell. My org had high foot traffic, so it was fun!
“You come with me!” underlines all what a Scientology staff member says and does on the street to entice new people into Scientology.
Funny that Tone 40 doesn’t work on SPs.
It’s the walk of shame for Staff. They think ‘I wanted to join this intellectual group, find out some life mysteries, audit to clear, and possibly meet some like-minded people’, to find out that they had to promote sales to non-scientologist public. Most staff try to get stuck with recovering instead of body-routing because then atleast you don’t have to explain the outlandish doctrine to an outsider.
Sat around tonight at a dinner party and shared with friends L Ron Hubbard’s central myth about Teejeack, the DC-9’s, the volcanoes, Body Thetan’s, Xenu et al ad nauseam (coming out of his Wall Of Fire crock of BS) and then played a couple of archived audio clips of him spewing his insane crap back in the early 60’s to some of his brainwashed brain dead sychopants.
My dinner guests were aghast. ??
This is the best preventative “intro-lecture” I’ve ever heard of! Wow!
If people were to hear what’s comin’, right from the “source”, there’s nothing a tricky reg could say to undo it.?
It’s awful and devastating to realize that everything you believed for decades was a lie, I find this blog to be very helpful to a hope of recovery.
You do realize that when you call us ” brainwashed brain dead sychopants.” you’re insulting every person on this board who was a victim of this liar and his lying machine, including your host?
It’s a small thing… in that what I’m dealing with is a damn sight bigger than wading through such slings as I reach for the cool hand on my brow which is this lifeline of a blog site.
….
if one were able to lean back in a casual remote fashion and muse, it might be funny to think of how people can be sucked in and believe and follow the craziest of things. Sometimes it can get so crazy that deluded masses can be convinced to elect such loathsome men to high office.
Many loving, kind, sweet, generous people are gullible because they NEVER THINK that there ARE indeed the evilest people just waiting to suck them into a really bad deal. I myself am one of those people who often didn’t seen the evil in people & I was taken advantage of a few times in my life through helping another person.
We just do NOT want to believe that others are out to hurt us…or that they simply want to achieve a benefit or gain/goal through using us. Afterwards we are cast aside like yesterday’s trash after they get what they want out of us
What we CAN change is that those people are now out of our lives, we see them for who & what they really are & we now will think a little longer about signing up or joining anything as quickly as we once did before. The saddest part of it however, is that it leaves us with a bad taste in our mouth, as in “trust issues”.
Nothing hurts more than to feel like we’ve been made a fool of. It’s something one has a hard time getting past…….& then we think over & over again the scenario of “if only”……but it’s a done deal & we can’t change what happens.
As noted, this blog & Tony’s blog can & DO help begin the healing process. You’ve “met” several former “in’s” who although decades out, still carry the scars of abuse with them, & can speak out & begin to release & unburden themselves. The information they provide is VALIDATED by others who suffered the same fate, & by those appearing on the Aftermath Series.
I really do hope & pray that Mr. Michael Rinder & Mr. Tony Ortega realize what these open format blogs have given those former in’s & never in’s…..a wealth of knowledge, advice, support, friendship, & most of all COMPASSION.
Secretfornow….I’ve said it before……you are braver than you think you are…..xoxoxo
I am a never in but can see that kind hearted people who want to help others were eager to join a group that claimed they could get rid if war, disease etc. These kind hearted people only wanted to help others so it is not for us to criticize those that only wanted to do good deeds, Unfortunately scientology makes it difficult for those to leave. They have really had little hope of life outside Scientology. That is why Aftermath with Leah and Mike plus these many supportive blogs are so important. Thanks so much to Leah, Mike, Tony and the other brave souls who tell their stories of surviving this scientology cult.
There is a radio show that airs on my local NPR station on Sundays, called Interfaith Voices. It is usually very interesting, but this morning even more so. They were discussing the radicalisation of young people into the Islamic State. A Mother, an Imam and a US Researcher were on the show. I found the Imam’s input to be the most enlightening.
Imam Mohammed Magid spoke about how violent, radical Islam uses the same recruiting tools as a cult or a gang. “First, they give them a sense of purpose. They try to have them to feel that they are in a mission larger than themself.” And they use a narrative that “there is a lot of injustice”.
One of the ways the radical recruiter gains entry is when someone is seeking information about their faith; on a spiritual search. They connect them with a group that wants to teach them Islam. They build a sense of connection with the group.
Then they tell the person not to talk to their parents or family, because they cannot be trusted. They urge them to stay away from their friends because they would not understand. They are told not talk to their local Imam or scholars because they don’t know the ‘real’ faith or they would be doing something about all the injustices in the world. They effectively remove the person’s social safety net. (Sound familiar?)
I was struck by how similar this is to entry into Scientology. It happens slowly and carefully, as does radicalization into violent radical Islam. Listening to the Mother of Damian Boudreaux talk about how her son was a compassionate person who stood up to bullies as a child and how there were warning signs of his slowly slipping away from his family, but they didn’t understand them – was painful but so real to the SCN experience.
Ms. Boudreaux spoke of how the family was later stigmatized for what her son had done – labeling them as if they were at fault for what had happened, not unlike SecretForNow’s objection to labeling those who were brainwashed as sycophants.
We need to remain mindful as we discuss our experiences and our leaving that we don’t throw our fellow human beings and former members out with the bath water. We were all drinkers of the Kool-aid at some point. And we all returned to reality because of one realization or another. There is hope, for us and for those still in.
One huge takeaway, for me, from the Imam’s discussion was that there must be a counter-narrative that informs and warns those away from the cult or radical group. Leah and Mike’s show, Tony’s blog, Mike’s blog, the many, many books and films, all serve to bring the truth to light. It IS the counter-narrative and it will not be silenced by SCN or Miscavidge.
Kurt Braddock, researcher of communication, terrorism and radicalization at Penn State University, talked about a video campaign to promote non-violence between Shiites and Sunis in Iraq. A group of people linked arms and surrounded radical terrorists in a marketplace, simply joining together in non-violent opposition. We, who contribute to this blog, who watch and share Aftermath, who share the many books, who speak about our experiences – we ARE the non-violent opposition. We stand together against scientology.
No matter how many false claims of death threats against SCN are spouted, we remain steadfast, non-violent and in firm opposition to the furtherance and continuation of this evil cult.
Secretfornow
??
You’re absolutely right, S4N, the much more accurate description would be something like, “mind controlled, morally/cognitively comatose sycophants”.
If ex-members actually were “brain dead,” then they wouldn’t be posting here or, umm, doing much of anything else either 😉
However, out here in the real world, folks use hyperbole all the time to emphasize their points, with the assumption in mind that no one will be so literal-minded as to misperceive their words.
For example, when I refer to Elron as a “mega-evil, douche weasel,” I know full well that he was born as a member of our species.
How would you characterize the state of mind of still-in, true believer Scilons? It’s very difficult to do so without reaching for some sort of hyperbolic metaphor, yet still capture the levels of delusion, denial and insanity which pervade every aspect of the cult culture, but I’m totally open to hearing your preferred description.
I like, “impervious to simple logic and categorically dismissive of any and all authorities, except the Holy Word of Elron.” Does that work any better for you, sir?
my friends are in. All the people I knew, loved, sweated bullets with. …. all the people who shared every step of my life for decades… are in.
I met people on course, I did a drill with a fella and never saw him again after that course, I had that great Sup, that sweet auditor, I met that lovely little receptionist gal and joshed about with her. That funny old guy, the old lady examiner, artists in the HGC lounge, cowboys in the course room, a word clearer always friendly and happy to see me…..
Over decades, my fellow staff who came and went and joined and moved away… the new staff, the juniors, the seniors, they’re in.
Those are my people.
My people are still in, and still brainwashed and wasting every moment of their lives. They’re still sacrificing, still sweating bullets, and I’d bet, many are hiding doubts in fear.
That’s what I call them… my friends.
The assholes who KNOW there are not more OT levels, who KNOW how Hubbard died? Who KNOW it’s all bullshit?
Those folks I have harsher words for.
But as far as anyone knows, I’M STILL IN. I can go to events, I could go on course. Flag wants me back. I’m still MARRIED to IN.
I don’t call them names because it was me just about yesterday. and coming out has been painful and has almost done me in.
I want them all out, but I know how hard it can be. I also don’t know how to help them.
…and as an aside….
I found another area the other day to peel away and …for now, just be aware of because it’s going to take some long days peeling…….
the other day I was voicing a snark and used the words, “Walmart people” and then suddenly brought myself up short.
“where did I become so judgmental?” “Where is this arrogance coming from and who the hell do I think I am?” I started looking at all the ways I categorize and peg people, how I group, lump, and label them … it’s AWFUL.
This is a big layer. I know that others in the world may also do this, put people in classes and so forth, but it’s all, “I’m better than you because…..” and it’s AWFUL.
A long domino snake line fell in my mind as I rattled through all the ways scn taught me to judge others and label what “they needed” or what was wrong with them: PTS, out ethics, casey, ARCXy, Withholdy, Low toned, DB, Type III, dilettante, other fish to fry, low responsibility, out-order-vs-disorder, downstat, criminal, out-exchange, has crashing MUs, Evil Purps, in Lower Conditions, WOGS, dead in the heads, Psychs, Medicos, …
on and on and on.
I am trained to evaluate what is wrong with a person and what needs to be done. Like Aaron said in one of his vids, I was RIGHT. I was ALWAYS RIGHT. I knew the tech.
I often fell short of all of this and simply let people BE and accepted them as they were. It was a shameful secret. Now I get to try to make this a mindset.
This blog and the vids from Chris, Aaron and Mike help me peel and think and say out loud so many things.
secretfornow, I don’t get insulted when I read wholesale, broadbrush pejorative generalizations.
All I see are people most likely in pain who are unable to make distinctions between things. Nothing, but nothing, can ever be ALL bad, or ALL good. But some people need to communicate this way, I suppose.
As re Scientology, this could be for any number of reasons.
Just off the top of my head: 1) intense personal betrayal and disappointment, i.e, the tech did not do what the person was paying for and counting on it to do, 2) Disconnection and all the pain and suffering sustained because of it, 3) Fair Game, and all the pain and suffering sustained because of it, or 4) Any of the above, 5) All of the above. 6) Other.
Don’t get upset, secret. You can’t be invalidated without your permission.
Screw what other people think of you if you know its not true. Whether to your face, or behind your back.
People can make up all kinds of stories about you and insult you to your face or behind your back to make themselves feel better about their own lives. Just observe it and pity them. They were never your friends, nor would they ever be.
They can’t see you because they’re not looking at you or listening to you. You’re not real for them. They’re not dangerous.
secret, I’ll eval without your permission by saying I think you’re in pain because there is so much you cannot say to people about whom you care a great deal. This is a particular type of torture. You know what you know, they’re not looking. You love them. You’re unable to freely and honestly communicate with loved ones. And they get bashed here. I bash them and so do many of us. I’m sorry, secret. I’m a Monday evening quarterback. (Is that the term?). Possibly what I feel is shared by others here. We’re looking at them, watching them do themselves in, over and over. I have to keep in mind that I did myself in too, over and over. But I did get a lot of good out of the tech and the good I got I use every day and it makes me happy and it makes others happy. I didn’t get hurt the way others got hurt – not even close. Well, I’m rambling now so I’d better stop. I’ll just end by saying that for me, observing these Still Ins doing themselves in over and over is like watching someone do heroin. Its like being around a drug addict, a self destructive person you want to help and can’t seem to reach.
thanks for all of this.
I’m not really upset, when I read the line, it just hit me that it insulted every ex on the site, including Mike, the host. It seemed a bit thoughtless. I DO come here for that cool hand on my brow, and I do have to wade through things that are not helpful.
I try not to be a weenie, but the fact is that I’m pretty fragile in many ways. I left all my strength behind and I’m just grappling and grasping. I was at war with myself for even coming here, “am I rubbing salt in the wounds? should I try to just never think of any of it and hide from it until I’m stronger?” “am I just wallowing in victimhood?”
And then I suddenly remember that it’s been my whole life and all that I went through coming out and things (so many things!) and I remind myself of how much benefit I’m getting from the 2 blogs, the show, and the videos. All the things that are helping.
It’s so darn hard to know what is right and what I should do. So I muddle along and cut myself a break as often as I can.
I always appreciate this group on the board. In general this is good for me I think.
Thanks.
Got it on everything, secret, and you’re welcome. Its obvious that you want to do what’s right on all dynamics. As you said, you love people and are in communication with them (on their terms, assuredly, if they’re Still Ins and you’re UTR).and you don’t know how to help them.
Its a strain; I get it. But this is a process for you. The truth is coming out. Its already set you free and you’re in the process of finding out what that means for you.
For some, it means wholesale rejection of the entire Scientology experience. For others, its a sorting thru to find what to keep and what to jettison.
As for your friends and loved ones, all you can do for them is support them getting the truth in ways that they can have and just by being here on this blog you are doing that.
Great battles have always been won by the pen, not the sword.
It was the Declaration of Independence that gave us a country, not how many Brits we killed.
The pen! Powerful stuff.
You’re in the right place, secret. Truth is coming out. Your loved ones will have their own processes and will have to make their own decisions based on true data in place of all the lies they’v been fed for so long.
We’re not barbarians. We’re civilized. We don’t force people. We don’t use brute force to make people accept truth. We persuade by penetrating, gently.
Eventually, without force, with caring, truth penetrates, , to even the most stubborn.
Patience! You’re doing the right thing, the ONLY thing you can do, at this time. The truth will out.
Thanks. This is great.
…and though I can’t really do much directly – we know where any type of disaffected comm gets us – just backing away from the bridge and sitting out here doing nothing ever again, helps place niggles in the minds of others.
I know, because it was one of the things I had to play whack-a-mole with, “if they’re now OT and so big and magical now, how come he/she is sitting out there doing nothing?”
It was always an “outpoint”. We came up with reasons that blamed the person and whether or not they had “actually made it” (false attests/MUs) but when the field stacks up with too many of them, or the more OLs (opinion leaders) drift away, the harder it is to explain it away that way.
Thanks for responding with so much positivity.
outflow = inflow that works how out of the mind of a madman & lil wonder ppl stay in so long gotta take a long time to try & make sense of certain things & Never for the rest,so if I overflow my gas tank or generator it dose Not inflow least to where I wanted it to go & But that only sorta worked when there was an Overflow & I got Preg but can’t think of the reasoning but then again no matter how much I hear it’s very confusing too bad he wasn’t a Sci Fi writer oh wait he was & no clue if he sold many or if they were good but he can always create a faux Church wait he did that to & break family’s apart,done that & became Rich & help do what to help the world & last I knew there lots of trash floating in the Ocean you’d think they could Clear that up but Nope to bad to…
Great article….perhaps these strategies worked early on and, like many of their OP, doesn’t change with the times. Today, the average person (namely, me!) is unindated with promotional sales crap via several phone calls a week, regardless that I am listed on the national “do not call list”, mailboxes are full of sales crap from solar panels to “you won a prize or 3 free nights if you come listen to our 2-hour seminar about…..”, email “junk boxes” and “unsubscribe” is a standard procedure everyday for most….with all of this in our faces every day, I, personally, have no patience for anyone (router) approaching me with the “newest” bullshit that is for my “benefit”… So, outflows will likely be met with little patience by most.
Terra – you make a great point here. I still get a tree worth of mail per week and most letters are nasty and antagonistic as if this will instantly get me to route on course. Stupidity at its best. So yes, I guess the mind set is “outflow = inflow”. Hmmm, yeah right.
Ms. P,
You get mostly nasty, antagonist letters from Scientology orgs?
Wow! This is gobsmack-worthy information!
This tells me “The End” is much nearer than I thought!
Aqua, yes and I kept a recent one. I kid you not this is the first sentence – “This must be your scientology PO Box that you just pick up and toss once a month or so”. The second sentence made no sense.
I love your point that “the end is nearer”, let’s all pray for that!
Wow,again!
ARC out the roof – NOT!
TRs in – NOT!
Snarky make-wrong from the get-go.
Sounds to me like 1) the writer’s in apathy, 2) doesn’t give a damn, 3 is him/herself exiting the cult, 4) any of the above 5) all of the above
Prayer? Hell fuckin’ yeah! 🙂 Let us bow our heads.
(Disclaimer: No disrespect intended.)
“There are a couple of areas in the world of Scientology where outflow does seem to have created an inflow.
More and more books not written by LRH about Scientology have been published in the last couple of decades—none too flattering.
The Internet has given rise to an explosion of anti-Scientology sentiment. One need but Google “Scientology” to see the thousands of pages devoted to exposing the truth about the church.”
Classic! And as the fat man put it (as usual, not broaching any disagreement as well as offering no evidence): “There is no arguing with this datum.”
It is indeed interesting to note how obsessed the cult is with quantity To be sure, this is NOT to be confused with empirical evidence though!
The “church” claims that Hubbard “mastered” 28 (or perhaps it was 29, or maybe 38–I can’t find the reference at the moment but the ballpark is right) professions. Never mind that fact that he did not acquire the usual journeyman’s credentials, degrees or anything of that nature for even ONE of them.
Hubbard threw around a plethora of academic titles while being unable to even pass his freshman year.
When it came to stolen valor he certainly was no slouch.
His literary fame is the quantity of his output, never the quality. The cult also managed to dupe the Guinness Book of Records into listing him the most translated author ever. The latter claim is patently absurd!
The organization’s sale practices would have gotten any late-night infomercial product NOT protected by the subterfuge of “religion” sued out of existence by now. But, hey, if it doesn’t work blame the consumer and sell it to them over again. And over again.
And of course, the self-appointed Hubbard Jr, the phony “captain” has kept up the tradition with numbers of books resold, square miles of empty buildings, running footage of ribbons yanked, scores of coerced abortions and destroyed families as well as numbers of beat-downs administered to underlings.
Statistics to make a “church” proud!
Mea culpa! LRH may never have said the exact words, “outflow equals inflow.” My bad.
But like Spike said in one of his replies, this phrase used to be a ‘thing’ back in the 70s in the orgs. It was often said in staff meetings like a mantra.
I do think, though, that this thinking extends well beyond the 70s.
Hi Terra – please note for the record – Spike is a ‘she’.
Oops.
LOL!
That’s o.k. but from now on it’s Sir Spike to you.
?
LOLOL!
I think the policy reference you are looking for is on page 307 to 310 in OEC vol. 1.
“You can tell if good promotion is being done by examining this outflow-inflow ratio of mail.
Poor promotion gives you a ratio of maybe 98% outflow and 2% inflow, meaning that for 90 pieces of mail (of all kinds) mailed and 2 pieces of mail (of all kinds) received.
Fair promotion would perhaps consists of 90% outflow and 10% inflow.
Fantastically wonderful promotion would consist of 50% outflow, 50% inflow.
A miracle would be 10% outflow and 90% inflow.
No exact index or chart of this has ever been made. But the above is an educated guesstimate. The figures
are given to make the following point:
The better the promotion, the higher the inflow rises in proportion to the outflow.”
LRH
“A miracle would be 10% outflow and 90% inflow.”
And if Clear and OT levels actually ever produced the promised results, the ratio would be something like 0.5% outflow, 99.5% inflow. Sadly, they don’t.
Terra – I’m almost positive he DID say it, but I couldn’t tell you where. I mentioned it on a another comment – he had the “holier, more moral, more remunerative” line in the Outflow PL, but somewhere I DID see it. I recall because the line always seemed to me to be verbal data of alter-ised writings, then one day I did see it in a Reg pack or something … It satisfied the irritation at the time.
Too bad John Joseph isn’t around. He was such a love and go-to-guy for where it is and what it said. *sigh.
But just so you know, I don’t think you’re just mouthing a botched local catch-phrase.
Absolutely Terra. It was a regular mantra. As a young person working for my father’s janitorial company I knew for certain that outflow equalled inflow. I knew that it didn’t matter where I promoted the business, just that I promoted it was enough to bring business in and it didn’t have to come from exactly where I’d promoted. I learned this from Scientology.
Loren Troescher had a phone bank full of people promoting his janitorial services and they were measured on outflow and the more massive the outflow, the better.
I can share one observation with regard to this “axiom”: if one out-flows negativity one will receive (in-flow) negativity as well. Simple stimulus response. To that end, all of the horrible things out-flowed by SCN…should be catching up and in-flowing soon!
Outflow does not equal inflow. Closer to the truth is, if you outflow something, you’re more likely to get a result from what you’re putting out.
Excellent point you made about negative outflow creating negative inflow, #1 son. And when you flow affinity, you get it back too. This is just me but I believe this is the true definition of the Christian datum of Jesus that “A soft answer turneth away wrath”.
Geezers… isn’t that article a trip down the Scientology memory lane! How many times was that the subject of morning musters, Chinese schooled or the subject of the multitude of stuff in your inbox? Remember those letter out stats you had to maintain? You’ve got the drop on ’em with this one Terra, the insanity of Scientology’s marketing strategy exposed nicely.
Nothing is more fluid and capricious than marketing strategies. You’ve got to have your finger on the pulse and be really clever and attentive to market anything successfully I reckon, plus it’s very expensive. Scientology on the other hand has their “stable datum’s” courtesy of Hubbard, the only one who knew everything about anything. And just how’s that working out for them?
I think there should be a “trees against Scientology” movement! (it could have many branches).
Someone would have to turn a new leaf.
And be willing to get to the root of the problem.
(Sorry. Had to be said.) ?
Oh yes, Letters Out quota. I remember shooting craps with a fellow staff member, and the “winnings” were having the other guy write your letters!
our “all staff” letter quota: standard 20. Yours?
aaaaahhh….morning musters and chinese school….. don’t you just love to NOT miss it? ha!
and…arriving a *%!%# hour early on Sunday when the clocks got moved back and nobody warned you beforehand.
grrrrrrrr.
The time change…man. Demonstrates just how out of touch with the real world we all were.
Outflow equals inflow…
Does anyone else remember those old Star Trek episodes, or similar shows, where there is inevitably an episode where some diabolical computer or robot gets outsmarted by a guy like Captain Kirk? I think I’ve seen this theme on several shows or cartoons while growing up.
Kirk, or whomever is the protagonist, starts throwing illogical statements at the robot until the robot starts smoking and short-circuiting, while a robotic but distressed voice says, “d-o-e-s— n-o-t— c-o-m-p-u-t-e— … d-o-e-s— n-o-t— c-o-m-p-u-t-e— …”.
And then the thing is fried or explodes, thus saving the planet or whatever.
I think the same thing happens in a lot of the minds of scientologists. Some ridiculous foolishness was belched out of the mouth of LRH back in the sixties, written down, given a bullshit naval style directive number, and then taken as an infallible truth by the members. Trying to rationalize and consolidate such illogical concepts with reality would make anyone’s brain melt.
“Outflow equals inflow” may not be directly attributable to LRH, but there are many LRH statements and outrageous concepts that just make no sense at all.
WhatAreYourCrimes: I could be wrong, but I think that robot was the one in Lost in Space who was also famous for saying, “Danger Will Robinson. Danger.”
I loved that robot!
You are not wrong Terra, the robot did say that and it waved it’s arms about when it said it.
Hubbard had a lot in common with Zackary Smith when you think about it.
It was on Star Trek 1960’s. This alien robot that levitates to get around the ship. It has a directive to destroy anyone impeding it. Spock told Capt. Kirk to talk irrationally at it and it did say” IT DOES NOT COMPUTE” a bunch of times. Then the poor little robot self destructs with smoke and fire. Great episode. And Terra,Robinson family did have very tall robot and yes it would say ” PROTECT THE ROBINSONS “. Gee I think I just dated myself.
Funny enough, as common as that phrase is used in the Scientology world, Hubbard never wrote “outflow equals inflow”. He wrote a lot of stuff about outflow and inflow and more holier, etc, but never those exact words. I had it check on the SIRS system once. Nothing. I used to correct people for verbal tech on it back in the day and bet them $10 if they could find the reference. They all swore up and down they’d seen it personally. None ever found it, ever. (None ever paid me the $10 either. Ha!)
Phillip, what org were you at when on SIR?
I had a very similar opinion as you, but I swear I finally did see it somewhere. I think I saw it in an issue included in a reg pack. I have no clue where, but I really do think it was said and written. I know I saw it once somewhere, because I recall putting the irritation of the “verbal tech alteration” to rest in my mind.
The Bellaire Mission for the past eight years or so has a small economy car with the Dianetics ad wrap. Featiring the volcano ,the word Dianetics ,B. Mission. Etc.The car is driven by an OT8 staff member. I recently spotted the car with a new wrap. All blue colors promoting ” Clear Body,Clear Mind” and a phone #. That’s it !
No mention of Scientology,The Purification RD,The B Mission. ,or even the address.
Now there’s a challenge for a marketing expert. How do I promote my brand that is so toxic,I can’t even say the brand in my ads.
That “high volume of outflow is essential to high volume of inflow” – which is correlative and not causal, I might point out, is a tired old chestnut of many different fields. Like flood plain science. And high pressure sales. Of course for fast-close type phone sales, high output increases your chances of any kind of input (they are never EQUAL, output simply improves the odds), and it is a very rudimentary yardstick for productivity. However, sophisticated sales mantras are more like – “don’t just work hard – work smart”. I used to tell my sales reps and agents that when I had to start looking at call volume, it meant they were in trouble. It’s what you use for newbies only to measure productivity. After you ramp up and get a good network going you are not cold-calling all damned day. You don’t waste your time. It’s referrals. It’s relationships. Not raw meat.
This sounds like it comes out of some low-level sweatshop telemarketing outfit. And “body routing” is a nasty term that makes selling encyclopedias door to door sound positively pleasant.
There’s another, possibly more appropriate, business saying from the world of programming – “garbage in, garbage out”. LRH is such a freaking hack!
In addition to all the exposes of their organization’s abuses – I think one reason CoS is losing its luster is that everything LRH said sounds like some That 70’s Show version of reality. It just comes across as really outdated and irrelevant, in a pre-AOL kinda way. I’m OLD and I can see that. These people are being forced to sell the 8-track tape version of religion in a world of streaming content.
Great comments Cecy. Scientology is truly the religion of steak knives and sales quotas. It’s like the character Gil from the Simpson’s (boycott Bart). Pathetic and unkempt.
Haha – or “coffee is for closers” from Glengarry Glen Ross.
“First prize is a new Cadillac. Second prize is: a set of steak knives. Third prize is you’re fired.”
Elron was a grand master at coming up with simplistic, all-encompassing, supposedly universal “laws,” which he very skillfully implanted into the heads of his followers through a vast array of mind control techniques.
However, once you take them out of the realm of theory and attempt to apply them in practical situations — like letter regging and book sales — the results rarely support the grand assertions. But instead of $cilons noting the slippage between theory and reality, then relegating this completely unworkable “law” to its proper status, they’re required to “get stupid” by believing something that, right before their very eyes, can be easily seen to be inaccurate.
Elron’s evil magic in getting folks to not only believe in such nonsense, but to proudly promote it as ultimate wisdom, derives in large part from his assertion of “altitude authority” and reference to “exact studies,” both of which are false.
For example, here’s a quote from the March 7, 1964 HCOPL that Mike referenced below: “The lesson has been learned in Scientology Orgs, and proven many times in exact studies, that regardless of Promotion quality in Scientology, a high volume of outflow is vital to return any inflow. So regardless of the Promotion, high volume of outflow must be maintained. There is no arguing with this datum.”
I’m hear to argue with it, Elron, because it doesn’t accord with my direct perception of reality and because I know with certainty that no “exact studies” were ever performed to empirically support this, or any, of your “stable datums” or “axioms”.
I’d love to be able to have a free and open discussion with your followers, but your legacy of group mind control lives on in the cult you created, so that any kind of critical reasoning or differing opinions concerning your idiotic grand pronouncements is completely forbidden, which leaves your poor, morally and cognitively comatose sheeple as defenseless as babies!
You touch on something here I wish I could explain but I don’t think it would come across as adequately or with any degree of sanity as I would like, it’s simply too subjective. Plus Scientology is far, far from ever being anything like a completed subject or a subject with a destination as Hubbard said it was. Maybe if he took his own advice back in 1963/5 he would have seen how silly KSW was to implement, but instead he went dancing with the jack booted fairies instead.
I studied the Professional course lectures of the early 50s as a sort of hobby. Hubbard basically imo said well, here’s the Q’s, Logics & Axioms, learn them verbatim, get your SOP historical sequence known cold and go sic ’em cowboy, Scn 8-8008 (PDCs) was the next great leap forward and solves it all. At that time I tried hard to fathom where he was coming from, it didn’t quite gel for me but I did get a sense of “logic” to his fundamentals as I had received quite a lot of more recent auditing procedures and was learning to audit others with some ‘success’, that is, people seemed happy with the results. I could see sort of a path through something. Here’s the tricky bit, that “something” is very subjective and to be honest from my perspective the abilities gained from auditing, ie Bridge stated abilities are very short lived imo past the cognition stage. Applicability in the real world was folly and a reliance blossomed upon the Cof$ to create a fictitious environment where it all worked became paramount for the organisation to create and maintain. Which of course evolved rapidly into the reliance on the disconnection and heavy ethics tech to maintain such beliefs in the workability of Scientology, ie get rid of the dead wood and dissenters asap. The real spanner in the works for me was the later Bridge of the 80s onward (prior to that it made a lot more sense, kind of) – it didn’t follow the earlier directions and for the life of me I couldn’t see it ever getting past first base apart from the CS and auditor working like crazy not to get red tags more or less regularly. The amount of reviews increased exponentially and PC self created manipulation became more and more prevalent in the auditing session to get “though this stuff,” especially NOTs. After so much investment in time & money it became a causative PC bullshitting there way through or probably better stated “there’s got to be pony around here somewhere in all this horse shit?”
What I am trying to say is that in hindsight with all the stuff I read and listened to Hubbard he never really tested what he said he did, he lied. He commanded from the saddle and lived in a world of theory riding on the back of anything that created an FN. It is disheartening to say in the least and to accept personally, but it was all motivated by money.
Hubbard’s treatment of his own shipmates sealed it for me… nothing is more despicable in my estimation than a lousy, self centred and selfish officer.
“…he went dancing with the jack booted fairies instead.”
Love that line! Purrfect description of the kinds of clowns, doofii (plural of doofus) and sadistic bullies who’re attracted to his hokey gibberish and Stalinesque leadership style.
One more thing I’d like to add is that there are two distinct aspects of Scientology/Dianetics imo. There’s the story of existence as told by Hubbard, his axioms, the Factors etc and there’s the technology or the applied religious technology as he called it to fix things up in life , or as he markets it, to go free. Those two are for most people inextricably inseparable as I see it, and that’s a shame and leads to all sorts of problems in itself. It blinds people into accept orders without thinking as they have no idea of the story in the background of what they are basing their actions upon.
I don’t mind the mind the story so much, still don’t really, bs or not one doesn’t have to believe it, nor shove it down another’s throat. Many religions have pretty wacky stories they base their treatment of people on. But and it’s a BIG BUT with Scientology, is the bickering and bs that developed with being “on source” or what’s the reference to that, if it isn’t written it isn’t true, KSW series and on and on and on. It whipped up a fanaticism that I still see today even on this forum/blog when two or more two commenters go at it. This back and forth with relation to source reference to such a degree is to me a Scientology phenomenon or a brain washing extravaganza for a better explanation. It leads to robotism or a very lazy way to use information. It’s kind of like saying medical science will now be frozen, no more thinking allowed and out with the big stick to enforce compliance!
A comment Mike said the other day in a reply to someone, Foolproof I think it was about glycol (no offence intended if it wasn’t Foolproof), concerning he had to know all this stuff in case he had to use it in a legal scenario, that made my butt go tight. Geezers Mike, condolences mate. To have to be that accurate with all that stuff (and there’s heaps of it) and knowing what you now know and seeing better than most the broad effects of that organisation as it wheels and deals with it for profit and power. Plus the growing casualty list of emotional and financial carnage being exposed in its wake. OUCH!
It’s a sea of contradictions Scientology and to ply its waters can be like being fully awake in a nightmare.
It’s a tough ask of oneself to fully wake up from the lingering effects of fully applied Scientological indoctrination.
“It’s a sea of contradictions Scientology…”
Is that why they call it the Sea Org?
I Yawn, in science you cannot separate the theory from the practical. Hubbtard claimed science for his theories and creation so that is what you get. They are NOT separable.
That’s true. Practical application bearing out the validity of a theory is what MAKES it science, and not, say, an art form, or an accident.
Better said than I did Aqua!
Praise indeed, Wynski 🙂
So a science is a known thing only due to its workability? (judged by who?)Is that what you’re saying?
So there’s no science involved with invention then? Or of the human mind from any source? Necessity in other words could never be scientifically examined – it’s all hit and miss you think.
I know there’s a science to fly fishing, but I have to reinvent it every time the weather changes, or the fish behavior changes or the insects do something I didn’t predict. Am I wrong to call it a science?
Geezers, talk about taking the fun out of life!
Yawn, I’ll help you out on this as I’m writing my doctoral dissertation on the logical ramifications and implications of The Marx Brothers comedies and the science behind Harry Ritz’s body language and facial contortions.
I Yawn. No one judges. (judging requires opinion) It is self evidence during testing or it is false. The apple accelerates at 9.8 meters per second/second in a vacuum or it does not.
A person has perfect memory recall (by testing) or they don’t.
So gravity is science only in a vacuum? In the world I live in it has air pressure/density systems and all sorts of stuff like cross winds, height above sea level etc? As soon as one employs that “apple science” it makes “atmospheres not scientific!” Sniper training doesn’t use the science of the apple falling as an exact, I’ve never had the circumstances of ever having to shoot in a vacuum, it’s only a rough reference that things drop downwards on a planet. Science depends on your use of the information, blatant unusable facts are domain of the ivory tower.Your opinion of science in this circumstance is your personal judgement enforced into a scenario where is it not exact at all. Who’s opinionated and judgemental now?
Oh, this is boring!
I Yawn, you’re drunk, go home. You REALLY don’t know why I said “in a vacuum”? That is 6th grade level physical science material. I refuse to believe that you are THAT uneducated and are an adult.
Without knowing about the “vacuum” the people who CREATED the material for a sniper to follow could NOT have done so. smh
Oh I don’t know about that. Medical science is full of practicalities you can separate out from the known supposed scientific theory. It kills people on a daily basis. Why do they get you to sign a waiver before surgery for example or issue warning on drug labels? The whole scientific field of medical science and its history is a study of examining and extracting the practical from the theoretical, the two are separatable until given a go to confirm whether it succeeds or to what degree it succeeds. It does a lot of good too of course. Your generality is full of holes in my opinion. Mathematics is a field closely associated with science and lots of theoretical stuff in there doesn’t work out in name of a practical science, ballistics being one of them. Many a soldier and civilian has been lost in friendly fire, yet the math was correct at the time, discarding human error of course. Yet the teacher in artillery class is certain of his science, but will also admit with casualty reports, shit happens. Science isn’t perfect in all things, depends how you define science I suppose. Not everything I say is Hubbard based Mike, it’s me. I think you have developed a situation on this blog where you slant just about everything you read in such a way so as to attack Scientology and Hubtard as you call him.
Predictability could also be a branch of science I suppose if the same result occurs again and again and again from the same source.
No, I Yawn. What you see in the medical field is that MUCH of it is NOT based on any actual scientific theory. If one follows a medical scientific theory and it kills then that theory (if it was purported to lead to healing) has now been falsified and is no longer a theory nor as a result, science.
thanks for all this – just smashing.
for me, “The Research Lie” is a very big deal and fundamental in pulling down the Hubbard Idol.
Indeed, he lied a LOT about his claim of “research,” but it put us back in the box all nice and neat like to believe it was scientifically researched. Hubbard said he had the proof! Well… for awhile anyways.
Harpoona, I think it’s also important to take into account that Hubbard developed Scientology’s approaches during a heyday in which the wave of Baby Boomer spiritual seekers just happened to be virtually breaking down Scientology’s doors – and so for a time, his simplistic pronouncements seemed to work. I think it may have been his contemporary and competitor Werner Erhard (of est, and later Landmark) who said that it’s like standing on a beach as the tide is coming in, and commanding the waves to reach higher and higher – you may appear in the moment to be correct, but it’s really larger forces that are driving what is going on.
Yep, I was one of those baby boom seekers who followed a cute young woman into the cult. Sure, I got laid, but they tried to steal my soul and implant Elron’s vile valence in its place!
Magical thinking is magical stinkin’…and I’m still waiting for one of those Tone 40-commanded ashtrays to “Stand UP!” 😉
Flunk, you blinked and thereby missed it. ?
Terra, I was the exception to the rule regarding body routing. I’m very outgoing so I flooded the Honolulu mission with people. And, boy, could I bring ’em in! I remember the ‘waiting area’ being filled with people. This was back in ’75.
I also sold more books, on the street, than anyone, including hard cover books.
Now, all I can hope for is, those people never sighed up.
With the Pasadena Model Idle Morgue, body routers stand in front of the cult building. A 30 second walk would put them on Colorado Bl., where hundreds of people walk by every day. I guess they don’t have the confront that they need to actually talk to someone. Handing out tickets to the intro film is probably the best they can do. Bunch of sissies…
Old Surfer Dude: Admit it. You just liked body routing as a method of picking up girls!
Yep! Eventually I slept with 3 female members. Hey! I was only 21!
Damn, that beats my accomplishments – you’re my hero!
The army… well… that’s another matter. You know, the uniform and all…
Yes, Terra my thoughts exactly and I have a suspicion that OSD is some hot lookin surfer dude that can’t help but charm the ladies and the guys.
Hopefully not the guys!
🙂
Inflow = outflow only when the reservoir is full. By Lroon’s definition, the reservoir is never full. So like King Canute, flogging the masses is the only recourse.
I hate Kale, I don’t care what anyone says.
Joel Osteen finally noticed that he is despised by the larger Christian community and he ‘retired’. Where is the larger $cieno community who can act as a brake on Miscavage? They aren’t allowed to use their own minds and interpret the will of Lron in their own way. This disconnect is what has always driven the minions to escape.
Nothing will every change in $cientology, only King Canute will order more floggings until the last whale gives up its last dollar.
zemooo,
“Nothing will every change in $cientology…”
Seems to me CoS is constantly changing. Not in the way they want, yet irreversibly. I can easily imagine it not existing in the not too distant future (the church institutions, I mean — the beliefs overlap with a lot of New Age, occult, and fringe psychology beliefs and will continue in different ways). I don’t mean that’s a given, but it seems the most plausible outcome to me. Once CoS lost its control of the press, it was pretty much doomed. (It could have reformed itself, but that was ruled out by LRH policy.) Then it also lost control of its internet presence. (Gone are the days when it could completely destroy the Cult Awareness Network.) As many point out, it’s losing members and staff and donors in droves. It relies on punishment policies that are publicly reviled and that ultimately cost it more than it can possibly gain from continuing to implement them.
CoS could lose its ability to bring over foreign “workers”/indentured servants. It could lose its tax exempt status. It could be sued like the Catholic church for knowingly covering up child abuse and sexual abuse and enabling it to continue. Consider the possible damages there and across the board with an organization that deliberately enslaves its own believers. It already looks desperate with this empty building strategy. So what’s Plan B, when that inevitably fails to improve its organizational health? DM doesn’t seem like the kind of captain who plans on going down with his ship. You don’t suppose he would name a successor and turn over the reins, do you? I figure he’s already planning his exit strategy, probably involving the embezzlement of many millions of dollars and moving to a country without an extradition agreement with the US. Either way (he resigns and someone else tries to deal with the wreck of an organization or he skips town with all the money), what happens to CoS then? It closes its doors, and whatever funds remain go to its creditors.
I definitely think CoS as an institution is CHANGING. The change is called dying.
I think in general it’s important to outflow the correct stuff to your audience. You have about two seconds to catch someone’s attention or not. If you’re promoting yourself e.g. networking to get work, your message must be concise and targeted to whomever is in front of you. You need to have your 30 second elevator statement ready (the answer to, what are you looking for or, what do you do?) For a business to spend resources by pushing out promo such as what is described by Terra is truly a waste. The concept of getting off your butt and doing lots of networking is valid (outflow) but again, it needs to be relevant and targeted.
Spike: You’re right. Especially with regards to the Internet, companies have but seconds to get visitors to read beyond the first inch or two of their websites.
Very true – in a word of click-or-miss, all “advertisers” have a lot less time to catch anyone’s attention in any format or media. But all that inflow outflow stuff is always predicated on the fact that the product is relevant and the message is cohesive. Otherwise it’s an immediate “swipe left”.
People can also smell insincerity, and nothing kills an elevator speech faster than false motives. The public is bombarded by scams these days. They are getting a whole lot warier of promises. We all know if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. It’s a little harder to get laid in this millennium too than it was in the 60s and 70s. People automatically Google. Everybody and everything.
El Ron was the perfect Con,
but you can’t beat that
with Automatons.
DM needs to face it – the sleep serum is wearing off and the ones grown in test tubes are showing resistance to the virus. Also we have had decades of movies now of alien lizards trying to take over the planet that don’t sound quite normal or of watching over our shoulders for the zombie apocalypse. The viewing public has become more sophisticated.
Time for the ninjas to come in and clean house. I’d like to see asset liquidation and mass returns of donors “investments”.
“Ron is Gone but The Con Lives on.”
haha – perfect – I’m sure somebody needs to write a rap song or something!
Scientology creates it’s own enemies. By it’s own principle of outflow-equals-inflow Scientology is experiencing the delayed blow-back of decades of abuse and injustice and insanity. Had David Mayo been given opportunity to guide the organization in a different direction perhaps there would be no Aftermath, no league of disgruntled former members demanding for justice. It could have just gone on about’s its business, regarded widely as a fringe group. It could have cleaned up it’s act. It could have fit right in alongside EST and Landmark and Tony Robbins etc etc, re-branded itself eventually as a “New Age” approach to higher conscience. It could have cashed in on the growing sector of Americans that profess no belief in a higher power, exploit a growing atheism. E-Meter=bio feedback system, a concept that is not alien to those who are into Reiki. There is a growing movement away from religion and towards science. Scientology could have exploited that to it’s benefit. But no. We have disconnected families, victims of rape and sexual abuse coming forward, confinement, physical and mental abuse, financial and personal disaster..all associated with the words Scientology, L Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige. Hubbard’s transgressions sealed it’s fate. It failed to come clean and reform after Hubbard died of a stroke. It lacked the ability to raise good sense and rational thinking above it’s compulsion to make Hubbard perpetually right. In this wise, I think that the law of outflow/inflow plays out. Chickens/Roost.
Doug Parent, wow, what you said, especially agreed about David Mayo. What a lost opportunity.
+1000000 Doug Parent
Doug I think you absolutely hit the nail on the head. And because they did not – arguably because LRH’s claims did not hold up in court – and kept it a closed system – they put the financial burden squarely on its own members – not only to support the fiscal health of the entire organization, but to physically be responsible for all its efforts to expand.
At least all those other “science-based” outfits are able to use traditional advertising, and don’t have to keep a low profile in the way some pyramid – down level marketing schemes like Amway do. But that also gives consumers certain protections as well – many of them have been successfully sued for false claims, fraud, not giving refunds to unhappy customers. And if their “COB’s” or leaders mishandle or misappropriate funds, then the organization also has recourse to throw them out for mismanagement (unless they can claim banana republic dictator status like DM).
Doing it this way and placing survival squarely on the backs of practitioners, is not efficient and is not a successful business model. When you basically are having to “body-slam” recruits out on the street, you are not going to be able to be wildly successful. It’s too labor intensive to ever be profitable (and that’s with low/no cost labor!). Having to hide all your huge profits by laundering them in real estate also shows mismanagement of funds. This place operates more like a Ponzi scheme though – particularly after it allowed DM at the helm – , and for that reason might not have ever been as successful as some of the entrepreneurs you mentioned above.
I was left wondering how staff feel about body routing? lmao
If you’ve ever done it, you wonder nothing about it – it’s horrible!
The volume of critical thinking on Scientology is directly proportional to the amount of funds withheld.
Terra, “Leave it to the church to completely misinterpret and misapply this simple phrase.”
Terra the church didn’t misinterpret this. They are exactly following Hubbard’s insane instructions.
Wynski: Point taken.
Love these articles! 🙂
I’m surprised they don’t show up in person ringing doorbells, I guess their just not that dedicated.
I believe many here can attest they have in fact done so.
we used to have to go door to door selling books. It was hell. I didn’t mind selling them on the street and I really enjoyed body routing. These days, it would be rather different I believe.
Way, WAY different…
I didn’t mind a little body-routing, back when I was 19 years old. Seemed like a good way to meet new people and get out into the world at the time.
I was a devout chipper little thing. I’d go up to anybody and say anything. ha! I was Queen of the Sidewalk.
“Queen of the Sidewalk”…this is cracking me up. Because I was so bad at body-routing and had to get drilled so much on it, and once, in a bullbait (to raise my confront on approaching strangers, especially male strangers) my twin started ranting about how I would have a huge cognition causing me to “OWN the sidewalk” – hilarious!…or, maybe not….guess you had to be there…:)
that IS funny. You should’ve teamed up with me. By the end of a long Saturday on the sidewalk with me, you’d’ve owned the street and picked up a couple fans to boot.
Stats are up, the org is full, and we Own this Town.
Believe me, I REALLY wish you’d been with me B/Ring, back in the day. You would have made it fun.
You have a terrific point there. The Church of the Latter Day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses, the latter sent a well dressed pair of men up my formidable 300′ driveway which runs through a lengthy stand of trees in the Hallowe’en twilight, go door to door with some success. With a former employee of mine in the direct mail business, a recent conversation revealed that replies to this expensive outreach run ca. 5%, a rather low rate of return vis a vis the marketing cost. Perhaps the Scientology hard sell, always be closing, proselytizing angle might work best, though I’m not endorsing it by any means. It certainly appears that, despite Comrade Dave’s ham fisted centralized control, that IAS communications are fractured.
Great article Terra.
Instead of its stated goals, Scientology was designed and intended to capture and enslave the people of this planet at all costs. “At all costs” includes destroying the “Scientology brand” by denying any wrong doing and trashing the 1,000’s of people that accuse them of evil deeds. From a “marketing point of view” they have changed a relatively unknown Scientology brand into a well known, but poisonous, Scientology brand.
Their marketing “out-flow” of Scientology is something like this: “Tylenol with extra cyanide” * Hahahaha…
*The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide.
I would agree with much of what you say. The quality of the promo and letters is typically a joke. I have to laugh at some of the crap I saw go out. On the other hand, I recall a 6 week lag between a huge # pieces mail out and a raised GI stat. This relationship seemed fairly consistent in the late 70’s and early 80’s. Of course, the org embraced this bit of “magic” as proof of LRH’s deep wisdom. I tried to emulate this in my personal life and can’t say that I had a lot of luck. In my businesses, occasionally, it seemed quite evident that promoting my products via mail was a great idea. HOWEVER, this notion of tying OUTFLOW to GI to the exclusion of everything else is just shortsighted, thought-stopping, slavish devotion to quack idea. When an org enjoyed high income, it was the result of fierce promotion, crush-regging, love bombing, cult-ish information control, ego-stroking and some successful tech that was like none other. All supported by slave labor.
Body routing and shotgun mail promotion are based on the “blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again” sales philosophy–sometimes it works; and when you’re too stupid to promote your business otherwise and you’ve got free labor…why not.
(The best body routers were generally the best looking women.)
Ah yes, “The tech works 100% of the time.”
JustLook!: Thanks for reminding me about the six week lag. It’d be interesting to see if this correlation would stand the test of a real scientific experiment.
yah, all those different staff meetings where the graphs were held up and the lines paraded about showing the effects of the promo.
A nice pep talk to put you in the right frame of mind for another give-up-your-Saturday-night-all-night-all-hands getting the Mag out.
Back in the 60s, I rarely recommended LRH books. However, I was enormously successful with the books of Ruth Minshull. She not only fully understood what she was talking about, she was a master a communicating both simply and concisely. I earned more FSM commissions using her books than any other piece of scio books or tapes.
Response from the czerch? Her books were banned. Doesn’t that sound about right?
I don’t know if she is still “in”, but a simple google search showed her book, “How To Choose Your People” still sells well at Amazon and her general book ratings are excellent. Certainly far better than LRH’s output!
I still have the little book of LRH qoutes,published by Ruth M.
Peter Norton: I still have her books, too. I love em!
Peter – I loved her books, didn’t know they were still available.
“Response from the czerch? Her books were banned. Doesn’t that sound about right?” Exactly, that’s because the czerch wasn’t making $$$ on them. I was told to get rid of mine because they were squirrel.
Ms. P – I remember when Ruth Minschell’s and other people’s books were banned from being sold in orgs, as they were not ‘source’.
….an early small voice of disagreement with management born in a corner of my mind….
Garbage In = Garbage out!
Python: Or in Scientology’s case: Garbage out = Garbage in.
Is there a specific reference by Hubbard which states that outflow equals inflow?
There are a few references:
HCOPL 7 March 64
The lesson has been learned in Scientology Orgs, and proven many times in exact studies, that regardless of Promotion quality in Scientology, a high volume of outflow is vital to return any inflow. So regardless of the Promotion, high volume of outflow must be maintained. There is no arguing with this datum. If you want activity and income you must have a high volume of outflow. And the point of what is said does not enter that datum at all at all. So, given volume, one now begins to consider what is being said in that volume and one gets Promotion. And all Promotion does is change the outflow-inflow ratio and prevent a fixed outflow-inflow ratio.
HCOB 12 April 1960:
The stable datum that the Registrar’s outflow monitors income
HCOPL 30 July 1968
THE SIZE NOT THE QUALITY OF AN ORG’S MAILING LIST AND THE NUMBER OF MAILINGS AND LETTERS TO IT DETERMINES THE GROSS INCOME OF AN ORG. IF THIS IS NOT KNOWN AS A SENIOR DATUM TO EXEC SECS AND KEPT IN BY THEM THEIR CONDITION IS TREASON.
Thanks for the references. I don’t see Hubbard saying “outflow equals inflow” – not trying to nitpick – just like being accurate.
YEah, don’t have time to look further
I had it checked on the SIRS system once. No such exact quote.
‘Outflow equals inflow’ used to be a ‘thing’ back in the 70s in the orgs. It was often said in staff meetings like a mantra.
It carried on into the 80’s. Was pushed hard at flag while on staff
I couldn’t find an Lrh ref in the green or blue vols. It would be interesting to know the actual origin, and if it means ‘you get equal inflow of what you outflow’ or ‘outflow determins inflow’ which seems to be what Lrh says.
I got sick of hearing, outfloe equals inflow. Mainly because it doesn’t.
Pretty much anyone disagreeing with Ron is routed to Qual or Ethics.
No, OSD, not in the way the cherch does it (massive amounts of untargeted crap literature). Now, on another note, I get to enjoy my brand new 9-week-old puppy!
How lovely! Congratulations, Spike.
Thanks, Aqua, it was a fun weekend with Smokey!
Awww. Smokey sounds like a cutie.
Smokey is very cute, Aqua! A black poodle puppy …
Debunker, Hubbard put it in a PL somewhere. I read it several times. There are THOUSANDS of polices on how to run orgs written by Hubbard. After you have read them all, and after decades, it is sometimes difficult to remember the exact name/date of the issue.
Here is a so-called “LRH Advice” or “Ron Advice” from 1976. It does not contain the above-mentioned catch-phrase but it carries its idea:
https://whyweprotest.net/threads/yes-reg-the-rich-but-also-other-guys-with-money-too.107199/#post-2236945
“Outflow is holier, more moral, more remunerative and more effective than inflow.”
From HCOPL “Outflow” (maybe)
I don’t have my vols anymore but this is the line I recall, and it used to bug me when people said, “outflow equals inflow” as it was a alteration. It seems to me that sometime later I DID find where Hubbard actually did say it.
thanks for the references. Always good to hang ’em with exact references.
Mike, thanks for that LRH reference. He wasn’t saying anything new. Isn’t there an old advertising maxim to the effect that “The only bad publicity is no publicity”…I’m paraphrasing, but that’s the gist.
Terra, I loved your article. I do believe that properly used with the correct venue, outflow creates inflow. Not sure about “equals” but outflow can and does generate inflow, of that I have no doubt. The question is I always deal with is HOW MUCH outflow is needed to get HOW MUCH inflow.
As to body routing, OMG, I always dreaded it. I do like people, all kinds of people, mostly, and I’m interested in them and enjoy meeting new people, but I’m not naturally outgoing, plus, I was brought up in a socially conservative milieu wherein I was taught that its not “nice” to approach strangers on the street to strike up conversations – a request for directions would be OK – but anything else was just not “done”, in particular, selling them something, or God forbid, talking to strangers on the street about religion or asking them anything “personal”. Body routing was something I’d avoid whenever possible and I considered this a serious character flaw in myself that no amount of drilling on how to do it could ever made me comfortable. I’d always be cringing inside. Iin particular was it difficult for me to approach anyone male. So I mostly stuck to buttonholing old ladies because I considered them “safe”.
An Edit Button! I am Thrilled. Thank you??
Yes ma’am……some of uz due make meztekes, myzteeks, matakes, oooooo krap…..errors!
I’m famous for my typpoos
Me too, even with an edit button. The eyes deceive……seems with age, for some of us, it takes longer for the message to get to the brain & even then…..well, we won’t go there will we?
Thank you so much Terra, Good Post. The day I escaped the Sea Org was one enormous wave of outflow & what a wave it was. As for inflow yes when I joined SO I was Inflowing but I hit the Black Heart Rocks by the Cracked Heart Lake & my inflow Stuck! I do enjoy all your concise informative posts.?