The biggest problem confronting scientology is the statistic they are using to make their latest pitch for money. 8 new people on the internet every second.
Who knows if this is true or not, but the number is really irrelevant. It could be one per second or 800 per second.
Not a single one of those 1 or 8 or 800 people will ever find the PR about scientology they attempt to spread on the internet without ALSO finding the truth about scientology, which is far more prevalent.
It’s the ultimate Catch 22.
Scientology is like a bunch of starving villagers in an isolated village. They know they have nothing to eat inside the village. The only food is beyond the village walls, but that food is also being stalked by hungry tigers. Every night a new villager volunteers to go out to catch them something to eat, and every night another villager becomes dinner for the hungry tigers. Every foray scientology makes into the jungle of the internet is another disaster, but they keep on trying because they are dying a slow death and instinctively know that outside their bubble walls is their only hope.
Scientology: the telex machine religion of the 21st century.
Back in the very early days of ARS someone posted on there that the internet would be Scientology’s “Vietnam” and they were right. From the ludicrous RMGroup attempt to the “MyScientologyPage” juvenile crap the internet has proven to just be a large inter connected tangle of freedom of speech that Scientology has NEVER understood because to understand and embrace free speech means abandoning scientology.
Thanks Mick. RVY made that observation famous, but he may not have been the originator. Nice to see you here.
God, I miss Vaughn Young. What a brilliant, honorable, brave guy.
Declaring good guys as suppressive guys is the most failure the church went into .. it is visible, because also per LRH data it is one of the greatest failure to give a wrong item .. last it is a suppressive act to not handle it immediately .. but unfortunately the still ins are going with this degration and do not realise that they degrade themselves ..
But for LRH was true that very seldom a real suppressive will find his way into Scientology .. a real SP is visible with his actions and doing .. so it is not complicated to spot one .. if you are unable to spot one, you yourself has to be PTS .. following in the valence of a SP .. and with this you are suppressive too ..
About asia: I think you cannot sell such stuff to asian people .. looks impossible to me .. they have they own way to handle suppressive persons .. they simply trust another or do not trust them .. it is not so much an affair as in LRH teachings .. it means finally that they give them a chance to change their minds .. it is easy to stop a SP basically .. not always, but it belongs how weak the people around are .. if the environment is very weak .. you will see that everybody can call everyone around as a SP .. but this says only, and that means a lot, that they to have a lot of fear too ..
There is a problem with DM running an expansion campaign into Asia. He can’t send Sea Org members over to effectively supervise their orgs when they do not speak the local language. They’ll have to go through local staff as translators, and I suspect when they do this they’ll have a South African experience and piss off all the locals. Davey is also culturally speaking a bull in a china shop. Adjust scientology and the scientology message to make it more adoptable in a buddist/confusian country? He’d have to get a brain transplant first.
So to quote the famed author Wally Lamb, I’m “wishin and hopin” that Co$ does not get above replacement level in Tapai and even falls below this level.
Yeah. Of course a large part of the upper middle class in Asia is now learning English (it is not only a huge aid for doing business internationally, but also a sign of status and higher education). And many Asians look toward Western ideas as well as their own. And remember … I’m just talking about recruiting a few hundred a year out of billions of people, not making Scientology any type of large movement in Asia. And by the way, many ideas in Scientology are in synch with Asian religions.
The internet would have hurt Scientology, even with a good leader, as Scientology already had plenty of baggage before the departure of LRH. But the dwarf has virtually ended delivery of auditing and training, and ruined what little good PR the Church had left by using disconnection, the RPF, and verbal and physical abuse of staff,
Yes, of course, this promo piece like the new tv ad, is primarily for internal consumption so that the sheeple remain somewhat excited and thus are able to be squeezed for more money. Obviously, not many (if any) potential public will go to the internet and then get involved in Scientology.
Miscavige’s “business plan” in my opinion is one of the most brilliant in world history. Keep your customer base small and “handle-able” but a customer base that is middle class to upper middle class (with a few VERY rich folk who are status conscious and love to donate tons) and keep bleeding them dry over a few decades with racket after racket after racket. And this plan includes isolating from the customer base anyone who can “infect” this base with any negative attitudes toward being fleeced of their cash. In Earth totalitarian regimes, this isolation was done with gulags, concentration camps and mass executions. In Scientology, it is done with declares and vicious black pr to keep the customer base “pure” and ready to be regged.
I live in Asia and what many of you might not always look at it is that half the world’s population is here (about 3.5 billion people). I only speak English, but I can tell you that when I mention my Scientology background to a Westerner, I always get a bad response. The few times I have mentioned it to an Asian (admittedly a small sample) I have never found someone who even knew what I was talking about. This is virgin territory in an area of the world that is economically on the rise. (yes, I have been to India and China as well as all the other countries here).
All Miscavige has to do is over the next decade, is to get a few hundred middle class Asians into Scientology each year. Really VERY do-able. There is a whole potential pot of gold here of folks coming into money who are ready for “self improvement.” I’m talking Taiwan, China, India, Japan and many more countries. Just get a few hundred a year and you’re talking TENS OF MILLIONS OF BUCKS A YEAR if not hundreds of millions. Build a “Flag #2” in Asia/Anzo and start movin’ ’em in and getting them on routing forms. Then add Eastern Europe to fatten the numbers AND as fertile ground for young SO staff.
This is why I think the end is nowhere in sight for the CoS. I think Davey will reach 50 plus years in charge and keep the game going as long as he wants. Of course, the scenario we bought into in the 70s of millions of people in Scientology and “clearing the planet” is an absurd idea now, BUT … to quote Mr. Vito Corleone … “it’s business” and the little guy is a business genius of the first order.
As a never in, I stumbled upon the subject of Scientology by way of a snippet of a disjointed text forwarded to me, and a comment from friend in LA whose intellect I adore. He forwarded the nonsensical rant, and wrote beneath: “Show this to any Scientologist, and they will be forced to agree that Mental Illness is REAL, and drugs are GOOD…”
I didn’t know anything about Scientology, but considering my friend is one of the brightest and most astute observers I know, I decided to look it up. (Who knew I could “word clear” without Hubbard teaching me to do so?)
First up was BBC John Sweeney follow up with Mike Rinder, and footage of Tommy Davis. This kid was PR? Espionage and blackmail? Posting fliers of that kid Sean (?) and his past? Why is this “church” behaving like a psychotic ex-girlfriend? I had to know more. I watched the interviews on Surviving Scientology, and some really great ones by Chris Shelton. I read Mike Rinder and Tony Ortega and even pro-scientology trying to get a clear picture. The end result was a thread of consistency woven into every story from the ex-members, world wide. The same experiences. The same details even in five languages. From Scientology, was the same reply: these are bitter defrocked apostates who ran amok in the church causing havoc and destruction. So the question as a never in was this: why is this “Church” churning out a gushing river of bitter defrocked apostates at such an alarming rate? But no such stream of “Clears”? Something’s not right here…
What shocked me was the stories about the RFP. Having seen Large Group Awareness Therapy in its fully abusive form (Straight, Inc) and having come out the other side, (alive but disorientied) I became invested in watching Scientology The Orgnization meet some form of justice. Subsidized abuse of the underage, and vulnerable over 65 needs to end.
It’s rare to see the birth and death of a recognized “religion” happen during one persons living memory. It seems possible in this case that this might happen. Plenty of never ins are watching and learning beyond just the South Park parody, which is funny, but not the most important aspect. Understanding Fair Game, and watching the Orgnization finally get Fair Gamed is poetic, almost Greek in its reversal of fortune.
This blog is a daily go-to for me now. Mike’s breakdown of the inner workings of the organization is always a fascinating read. I truly hope the people who want out of the org, but are trapped, can find a way to land their plane in the Hudson. For the Miscaviage crew, I don’t want to say what I hope for.
Stepping off soap box now. Wishing you all luck.
Thanks for commenting 🙂
As a born in (second generation), I am both thrilled and fascinated to hear never-ins’ stories of how they came to learn about and get interested in scientology. It’s truly heart warming to know how many people in the real world care.
Hubbard came up with a few gems that I still really like and use daily. One of these was, “the degree of complexity is directly proportional to the degree of non-confront.”
Every public scientologist lives in a community. In most communities there are literally thousands of people within walking distance. All any scientologist needs to do is knock on the doors of their neighbors and tell them the truth about scientology. All they need to say, face to face, is that whatever problem they are having in life, scientology has the answers. When a person tells them their problem, the scientologist ( who absolutely knows with total certainty how to handle it) sits down with the person and effectively handles that person’s problem to a great success. The word of mouth spreads across the community and the incredibly capable scientologist has more people on his lines than he knows what to do with. At this point they start sending people into the orgs where the staff are even more spectacular at helping people handle their problems, since staff are the upper 10% of the upper 10% of the upper 10% of able beings on planet earth, or any other planet with sentient beings on it.
Simple. Effective. Got tens of thousands of people involved in the subject in the past..
Where this breaks down is in two areas:
1. Most scientologists don’t know dick shit about how to help people.
2. Most scientologists naievly believe that some other scientologist does know how to help people.
The horrible truth is that some auditors can help some people with some of their problems. A very few auditors can help a lot of people with many problems (but most of those have, of course, left the cult).
The truth is that the 100% workability line is simply not borne out in the real world.
Scientologists can’t afford to confront these truths.
The vast majority of scientologists really can’t confront the folks in their own community so they “go global” on the internet to maintain the pretense they are really doing something about it.
Not to mention those scientologists who know it’s 100% workable and brilliant tech, but just haven’t had any themselves yet. Also, let’s not forget those scientologists who can, at least, confront enough of the current scene to intuit that, although they know the tech “works” (from hearsay or experience), they would never commit the overt of subjecting a new, happy-go-lucky innocent person to that hateful bloodsucking culture.
That’s very astute LDW. A generality of confront from a concealed position about a subject they cannot apply, yeah that’s $cn.
Excellent analysis, Les. This really IS the “why” for the cherch’s failure.
Most Scientologists don’t practice Scientology and can’t truly communicate face to face with the human beings who are their neighbors. Many tend to display a contrived haughty aloofness, do not feel a natural kinship with other people and so never really connect with anyone. This is not just a matter of “PR”, it is a basic of practicing Scientology which has to be there before any “tech” is applied to help someone in the first place. When someone is truly able to and is interested in communicating with another person face to face, this is something that people can sense. People also sense when this is missing.
Behold the “Ideal Internet”. Yet another scam from crime boss David Miscavige.
I think it’s great they are promoting Internet – it will encourage the still-in to check out the great 47X $cientology revival on Internet. When they do that, they will encounter the truth about the criminal cult, and even more will leave. Yet another Miscavige footbullet! 47X contraction of the cult!
All I know is if I’m looking for information about the internet, I immediately call people who are not allowed to watch television.
Or have a day off. Or have children. Or go to the dentist.
The Sea Org is a lovely mix between the Eisenhower Era and a nineteenth century Dickensian workhouse. “Please sir, can I have some gruel? I like Ike!”
Please, please, please Tiny Dick-Tator, keep promoting the Internet as a way for people to find out about scientology! We can’t do it alone. We need help ! Do we have to do everything ?
Brilliant Steph! Absolutely Brilliant!
Has anyone actually written to these consultants. I would love to see what would happen…
Don’t they write off everything on the internet as lies from psychs?
$cientology has done a complete inversion and literally only communicates to itself. An internal game obviously exists where they compete with themselves who can come up with the next ‘ideal’ dissemination add, flyer, jingle or whatever. They blindly hope and dream whatever they put forth think will strike a chord with the public and result in them gushing through their doors to justify their existence. But the opposite is occurring and they can’t even see their own orgs are empty and their made up statistics cover everything but bodies in the shop and results of bridge services and completions. The original stats of Saint Hill must give them the hibbie gibbees and are quickly forgotten or ignored.
They crave acceptance only from dear leader or internally from themselves that what they put forth to the world is acceptable, results obviously have got nothing to do with it. Even the smallest iota of common sense would tell them something is terribly wrong but they haven’t got that – all they crave is self-acceptance, no matter how small the bubble is contracting.Their sadly noble stat must be in screaming affluence.
What’s next I wonder… breath on a mirror = Scientology is winning?
Dave,
The tigers are having a Sundance and a sit down in the village of Park City on January 25th. Will you be there with Tom? BTW, ‘we come back’, ‘only the tigers survive’.
So you got eaten by a tiger? Well what did you do to pull that in? Let me show you a reference…
The thing is, every organization faces a similar issue. For every official company website touting its preferred message, there are message boards and blogs giving unofficial, unfiltered opinions of said company and its products. Some are good, some are bad. The good companies are aware of this, and try to fix their product or messaging where they can. But Scientology is completely un-selfaware. People hate Scientology because they read it breaks up families and friends. They still do it. People hate Scientology because they read it is a monkey-making scam. They still do it. People hate Scientology because they read about how it harasses critics and journalists. They still do it and get caught on tape doing it. People hate Scientology because the most public people Scientology uses as pitch-people are seen as jerks. They still trot out David Miscavige, Tom Cruise, Kristie Alley and Grant Cardone as examples of their heroes.
Inside the bubble, there is no introspection that the internet might be right and that Scientology is bad and needs to change if it is to survive. Merely having that opinion is a bad thing. They just tell people to avoid it and trot out the next villager to be eaten alive.
How do you reach everyone with your message? Postulate it! It’s worked great so far. I can’t believe you’re even asking.
Anyway, that new-Internet-user-every-8-seconds talk is emblematic of how meaningless the things Scientologists say to each other is in the real world. Every time they spout statistics, not only is that blather flawed for being made-up BS, but also for being so utterly irrelevant to any worthwhile concern. Even if that’s the true rate of new Internet users, what’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?
The question they ask: “If 8 new people log on to the Internet for the first time every second, how do we reach them?”
Is the premise true? Perhaps. But these days, about 20 years after the Web took over the world, I’d bet almost all of those newly wired folks are in some odd corner of the world, and are probably getting hooked up via a smart phone. The number of people that don’t have some form of ready Interent access in the G-8 economies is pretty small, and most of those probably aren’t spending their days thinking, “Gee, I wonder how I can get on the internet and start searching The Google for topics like ‘spiritual freedom.'” They’re probably in a rest home, in jail or other marginal players who know something about the Internet and either aren’t able to or aren’t interested in getting wired.
But the best part of this ad is Scientology’s answer to the question of “what do we do to get our message out to the 8 people every second in rural corners of the developing world who are getting on the Internet for the first time?”
It’s obvious! Build more Ideal Orgs! That’s the solution to every problem, according to Miscavige. And that’s why finishing the Ideal Org strategy in Africa, in particular, matters so much. When a cocoa bean farmer in Ghana gets his first smartphone, discovers the ability to search on Google, and types in “spiritual freedom” for the first time, he’ll get an ad inviting him to come in to the Ideal Org Johannesburg, only a quick 3,000 mile journey. Miscavige’s brilliant Ideal Org strategy will be vindicated by the new Internet recruitment strategy, just you wait!
In true Scn “know-best” style, Scn is suddenly the experts on the internet. Then again, Scn claims to be expert at any area they operate (e.g. film/video, audio, computers, etc), and never do they have to produce any evidence of this superiority. Their arrogance knows no bounds.
The church claims any area LRH ventured into he mastered, and discovered the real underlying secrets which govern that area. What I find humorous is that both LRH and the church have never managed to leverage these “ultimate truths” to produce a product that was superior in any way. Think about the early tech films, or LRH’s music albums…good gawd man…cringe.
Or the Computer Series…anyone have a look at the super-duper advanced Org Computer System? Or how it attempted to somehow mesh core admin tech principles? What a dog’s breakfast that was.
But all this really follows suit with the rest of Scn’s technology. They’ve got ultimate truths coming out their ears and by god, nobody can seem to make it work.
They only time they’ve managed to produce a product (certainly media related) is when they’ve contracted outside professionals to show them how its really done.
I love the starving village analogy, Mike…But anyone getting on the Internet for the first time is either a Scoentologist, or someone of an ineffective age to swindle..like 12 or 72.
Mike,
Wonderful analogy, and really it is about time to get the gloves off on this subject. Scientology has gone the way of the Amish, by its literalism and fundamentalism.
Knowledge is not gained ONLY by perpetually going into a trance in auditing or listening to LRH lectures for 3500 hours. What about studying the allied subjects, like Comparative Religion, Mythology, Psychology, etc.?
Here is on link to a wonderful scholar Acharya S. She has amassed a wealth of information on Religion gone wrong and had deconstructed the main monotheistic cults for over thirty years.
http://www.truthbeknown.com/osiris.htm
Believe me she had gotten more flak from the True Believers, than the indies ever had.
The similarities between the Scientology faithful throwing tantrums at deconstructing the subject to the Christians apologists are outstanding!
This is knowledge that Hubbard was familiar with when he started Dianetics and Scientology, but has not become mainstream until very recently, so Scientologists were given a handful in addition to the “Tech”, as Religion is an art, and there is an architecture to it.
Planetary Dissemination Consultant…..hmmm…..oh I see….they are the
Village Elders….they are the ones who tell the villagers it is okay to go out
at night to hunt for food…..nothing out there no problem. Just give us one of
your children in exchange for safe passage. We will of course return them when
you get back.
The year is 2027, two former Co$-Fighters sit together on the patio of their retirement home, sharing a cold glass of lemonade.
“Remember when Scientology took on the Internet?”
*gales of laughter*
“Boy did they get their asses kicked!”
How is it that LRH with his perfect and unlimited whole-track memory could not foresee this problem looming over the horizon? It makes me think that he never had a whole-track memory and there isn’t such a thing.
NO’leans.. OMG Hilarious.. I snorted my hookah out of my nose with spit flying.. Great post!
The earlier beginning for Scientology is that “Scientology” is a destroyed brand. In the minds of the general populace, Scientology is positioned somewhere above “Hitler” and somewhere below “Communism”. Ok, I take that back. It’s probably about even with Communism.
Its only hope is to drop the name and try to reimerge as a reformed Some-Other-Name. But it can’t do that, because it would then have to declare itself suppressive for calling itself something else, and would then have to disconnect from itself.
It’s in the middle of a Catch-44, which is twice as bad as a Catch-22.
Worrying about how it can use the internet effectively is way too late on the chain for Scientology.
In Four Feet Thirteen’s world, it’s a Catch-47X.
Wait, I’m so confused. I thought the internet was the Earth’s reactive mind. So they want to recruit new people from this virtual snake pit of DBs and SPs now? Wow… they must be completely desperate.
I’m trying to imagine anyone reading this flier and being motivated to call “one of our Planetary Dissemination consultants.” Is there anybody, even in the depths of the bubble, who doesn’t realize that the answer to any question that begins “How do we…” is always “Give us money”? Will any functionally sane person actually respond to this?
“Will any functionally sane person actually respond to this?” No. The person will then be contacted by a consultant from PDO.
I never replied to emails from the C of S asking for money.
CCHR caught on and by phone threatened me with
“for every dollar I put on the Bridge I give a dollar to CCHR, matching Bridge money otherwise they would make sure I did not progress Up the Bridge” This was from CarrieAlkins who I already had given $10,000.to, so I decided screw it, this is extortion and Blackmail. When Carrie called I said NO to any money.
Witin one year the criminal Carrie Alkins dropped dead !!!!.
I was a good friend of Carries and am flabbergasted by what you have said Jose. She was sick for a very very long time with many different problems and had an awful time with her senior at CCHR but that she would say something like this? I am speechless…..
To JAG,
Me too !
I gave her $10,000.for CCHR over several years and once I became Flag Public she changed her tune big time, more angry, like I was wrong.. She went to Flag herself and was audited on a Ultra OT 8 e meter in a Quantum case came home with rave stellar wins and was dead within months.
True story
What Jag said…sheesh…
I just found out on GOOGLE that there are between 5 and 7 babies born each second. Now just because someone discovers the internet it doesn’t mean they’ll get anywhere near one of the Scientology web sites. But I’ll bet that the parents or other relatives of these babies will likely visit a maternity section of a store or a maternity related web site one or more times during that baby’s first year. So……….If we could get Scientology placed with maternity products throughout the world……POW!!!! Can you imagine???? Instant 47X expansion!!!!!!!!!!!!
They could advertise on disposable diapers. Appropriate , isn’t it?
OMG Yes.. and they could use my picture of baby Ronnie smoking for advertisement!
And a little too late, won’t you say? Internet has been available for many years now and the only thing this group has done is snail advances in using it before. No Sea Org member has access to internet, only e-mails in/out, supervised by HCO, and on a generic account.
Higher execs and black heart are ‘different’ and they seemed to have full access to internet, but I guess not for promoting the subject, rather to find data about the ‘enemies of the church’ and how to attack them; this being just my assumption.
Right.
Here’s the church of scientology: “Log onto the internet and find out about Scientology, but do NOT log onto the internet and find out about Scientology.”
“Scientology: the telex machine religion of the 21st century.”
I was going to reply with the same quote but add “lol.”
Exactly! I only became interested in the church when they began harassing my family, because my daughter has the same name as an Ex. I did a Google search & found Tony Ortega’s site & Mike’s blog… The rest is history.
If things weren’t bad enough, many of the tigers are coming over the walls. Some of the tigers want their children and family members back. Some of the tigers were tricked or hurt earlier by the villagers. Some of the tigers have never interacted with the villagers but recognize the need to take action to protect the rest of the jungle. Tick, tock, tick, tock, ……
I am one who saw only the abuses and cons while surfing online. I honestly just was looking at different human rights abuse stories and there it was, endless stories of disconnection,physical and mental abuse,kidnapping,racketeering,human trafficking,slave labor,mind control,food deprivation,lack of proper housing,medical care,nutrition,and education for children,murder,harrassment,intimidation,government infiltration,embezzlement…the list goes on and on..and on. I have been reading and watching videos online for over a year now and feel I have only scratched the surface. So, Scientology, good luck trying to convince people to join your flock…too many red flags out there. Thank goodness.
One of your best works Mike… the tigers and the village is bound to be a classic in helping people (both in and out) understand the rise and fall of Scientology.
I agree Robert. I love the analogy.
My thoughts exactly. That was the best analogy I’ve heard for it. The village and tiger story should be repeated often to get the concept understood. Great post, Mike!
Then they will disguise themselves and hide themselves as they seek out new victinms — and they are doing just that. But it won’t take long for people to see through the disguise. And all along, you clams better give, give, give if you want to Clear the planet!!
what makes them think just because someone logs on the internet they want to find out about scientology??? I know I am a never in…but half of the crap I see these people say or do makes me scratch my head!!! but I guess desperate times calls for extreme desperate measures.
To a scientologist, everyone needs scientology. Seriously, whether you want to find out about it or not is irrelevant.
I Laughed when I saw this. It proves they look at Mr. Rinders blog. They finally found a way to come up with numbers that Rinder could not dispute or prove were outright lies. They just count things that have nothing to do with scientology and that way they can use real numbers .. next on scientology advertising .. EXAMPLES :
1. Everyday around the world there are 400 apple trees planted, and people who eat apples are good candidates for scientology .. 400 apple trees a day ( lets see mike rinder argue true numbers for a change)
2.Tomorrow will consist of 24 hours .. 24 hours to disseminate scientology …
3. 789,528 books will be printed around the world tomorrow, that is almost a million people a day who read something new.. (I don’t know how to link this one with scientology, but hey they are talking about people getting on the internet … lmao )
🙂