Once upon a time, there was a rather large and fairly prosperous network of scientology franchises (this is what Hubbard originally called them, until like his use of the word “fees” which was changed “donations”, the word was replaced by “missions” in order to sound less commercial).
The Franchise network was pretty much decimated during the infamous Mission Holder Convention of 1982 where Miscavige first burst into public view as the new Capo of scientology.
Franchises were always supposed to be the “front lines” of scientology. The spearhead both into new areas of the world and to new public in areas around existing organizations. The idea was that there were supposed to be people who wanted to make a living out of scientology who would get a franchise and hang out their shingle. Franchises and “pioneer” scientologists opened many countries to scientology.
Around the same time as the Mission Holder Convention Hubbard also decreed that in order to open a franchise, someone had to purchase a “Mission Starter Package” which was $40,000 (who knows how much it is today) and consisted of some book stocks, promotional materials and the “hat” of how to open a Mission. These two factors put an end to the Mission Network expansion and it has been contracting since. There are less scientology Missions in the world today than there were in the 1990’s. I guess less than 50%.
Miscavige had a bright idea to revitalize the Mission network at some point using Celebrities. He got Anne Archer to open a Mission in Santa Monica. Isaac Hayes and Lisa Marie Presley in Memphis. Jenna Elfman in San Francisco. These lasted for a short time then closed again. Kirstie Alley opened one in Wichita which is still there but has gone through various “Mission Holders”. Same with John Travolta in Ocala. Tom Cruise was never required to open a mission to prove his dedication to the cause. But the failure of these missions even when financed by whales and given the cachet of star power had the opposite effect. If those big beings cannot make a mission work, how could I?
This new promotional item came through from Scientology Missions International and it reminded me of the rapid decline of Scientology as seen through the history of its franchises.
They continue to try to convince people to get on the Mission bandwagon, but it’s a losing cause.
What SMI does NOT promote is how many missions they actually have that are operating. That number continues to shrink. Vast areas of the world have no scientology presence. This is what SMI is supposed to resolve. Even in the United States there are enormous areas where there is no scientology.
SMI is a failure.
Anyone else notice the photo of the two people watching the Orientation video? I’m surprised that video still exists, given host Larry Anderson’s departure from Scientology! Or did Scientology re-do the video with voiceovers only to make it easier in case someone else from Orientation blows?
I’m pretty sure it’s got to be a new version of the video, without the now “bitter defrocked apostate” Anderson – or his bizarre reference to jumping off a bridge (possibly penned by Miscavige). I can’t readily find anything specific about it, but there are reports that Scientology is now hiring outside actors for some of its productions to avoid the problem of having to pull them when members involved “blow.”
“If you leave this room after seeing this film, and walk out and never mention Scientology again, you are perfectly free to do so. It would be stupid, but you can do it. You can also dive off a bridge or blow your brains out.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientation:_A_Scientology_Information_Film
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuyFPkYedZk
Article about Anderson: https://www.tampabay.com/news/scientology/larry-anderson-star-of-scientologys-orientation-film-wants-his-money-back/1067720
When I rediscovered Dianetics, back in 1978, the ED (and owner) of the most important Mission at Mexico was making $6,000 pesos monthly and the upstat staff at most reached $50.00 pesos per week.
A particularly meaty article and comments here but no time to read right now! Just want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!
Blasting Off 🙂
Aqua
A few facts about the big list: http://whyweprotest.wikia.com/wiki/Former_Church_of_Scientology_members_who_have_spoken_out
On November 30, 2015 there were 2659 entries. During 2016 we added 108.
On December 31, 2016 there were 2767 entries. In 2017 we added 66.
On January 1, 2018 there were 2833 entries. In 2018 we added 77.
On January 1, 2019 we have 2910 entries.
Happy New Year everyone!
Thanks TrevAnon for all your work and that of others who’ve created and kept this list going. Here’s to a big jump in names/numbers for 2019!
We could use some help…. 😉
http://www.reasoned.life/2018/02/spotlight-on-anonymous-big-list/
The name “franchise” is particularly ironic when we know that this word, in French, means deductible or openness or honesty or even sincerity… (There is some other translation I let you discover and, of course, clarify!)
Happy New Year to everybody!
Had a chat with a mission guy earlier this year. He said SMI required him to report 92 different stats each week. Didn’t matter that there were less than 4 staff. In the old days missions didn’t get messed with by mgmt. Since SMI it’s a nightmare of oversight. Who wants weekly demands from SO personnel coming down on you? Not many.
It seems to me the mission network was working just fine and feeding new people into the lines before Miscavage the savage smashed it all to bits in 1982. Isn’t it ironic that the very thing that contributed to growth was squashed.
ACTUALLY believeorelse, the # new people onto major services from Missions was DOWN TRENDING by ’92. Their heyday had passed a few years before.
I believe personally that Miscavige is just a LRH projected that the whole thing is just a scam, It just doesn´t work all the theories re OT and NOTS. So the basic problem is LRH. After all we were a lot of serious believers that left the cult at that time, 1982, where we kind of cognited on this!
As the mission holder (franchise is more like it) of the formerly very successful Fresno Mission and having recently moved to Idaho and started an off-the-grid mission I saw the smoke on the horizon, I have to say, as horrible as some people think the SFO Mission Conference was I felt privileged to be there. It was utterly amazing to witness grown men and women willingly destroy their own creations. Many believe the conference was where the mission system was ruined but they’re missing the larger picture. The 1982 conference was just the self-inflicted bullet to the head, end result of a devious infection that had taken hold several years earlier.
The mass sec checks were wild. My counsel to my wife at the time and another former staffer of mine (and mission holder herself) was to lie about everything when they got to the sec check tables in the back. Make things up to confess, bad things that would satisfy the angry sec checkers and then look the right in the face and lie. Of course they had big F/N’s because the e-meter is a joke if you’re a relatively bright person.
Marty got screwed if he only got a half million but so did Dean Stokes, Kingsley Wimbush and a bunch of other people who left the conference — one guy from the San Jose area was a body builder and had his 7 year old daughter with him, the pudgy, lumbering Miscavige Troopers tried to stop him in the middle of the room and he squared off like an MMA cage fighter and asked them who wanted to go to the hospital first. They backed off because they were bullies and weak. I think his name was Bob.
These sorts of things, mass sec checks, flashing camera lights as the attendees were lined up and photographed one by one, demands for checks and money, none of these things happened out of the blue. It was coming for several years. The beginning was the reintroduction of ‘Dianetic Clear’ where all a person had to do was create a bogus F/N while being fed the Clear Cog by a similarly starry-eyed Qual auditor and suddenly, the guy on the Comm Course was magically a Clear and now AOLA and Sea Org property. I tried at the time to get some people involved in protesting and maybe even getting some sanity back into the progression up the Bridge but most Mission Holders were too under the ether themselves to see the wick burning down to nothing. I had sold my Fresno Mission to Kingsley and moved out of California as sort of a desperation ploy to maybe manage to stay in the game and somewhat off the radar. The SFO conference dispelled any ridiculous ideas I had that Scientology might still be a viable profession. I came back here, handed the whole thing over to a couple of enthusiastic people and literally just stopped communicating to anyone connected to Scientology.
They did send me an entire library of rewritten books and CD’s though. It was about 400 pounds of stuff that some moron paid for after being pressured to fork over a big check.
Don’t miss Scientology a bit but I do think Hubbard had the business model down pretty good until the whole Sea Org pathogen infected his brain.
Thanks for sharing. When the New York Mission was hit, it moved from 5th avenue to a slum warehouse. It was massive theft by Scientology management.
Fascinating tales from the trenches with some great insights. If you’re up to it, I for one would love to hear more in the form of an ongoing series on this blog.
Thanks Ms B. I actually did do a blog for a brief time after my mother passed away in 2010. Truth be told I didn’t have enough interest in rehashing old hash to keep it going. I blew off some steam about how I perceived the Sea Org purloined my dying mother’s last few thousand bucks – aided by a close family member of mine, and then got a bit bored.
Sustaining anger is just not something I do well. If interested in some older Scientology history from the 60’s & 70’s here’s the blog link – but there are tons of other stories out there too. 🙂
http://blog.ensifer.com/
Agreed Ms. B-H! These stories, the shift in how people felt about it in general and the long term impact of the demise of the mission network is all very interesting. They also seem absolutely relevant to where Scientology is now.
A thousand yard state of a voice rings with authenticity.
Solidarity.
WHY would anyone even want to open a mission? Even assuming a scientologist is unaware of just how radioactively toxic scientology’s public image is nowadays; what happened to mission holders in the 1980s shows that the church cannot be trusted. They can, and did, destroy the $$$ investment and years of effort of profitable missions in a single day, without any recourse or even warning. If i was one of them, I wouldn’t even consider it unless the church got the SP-in-chief thrown in jail.
I opened a mission in 1988 after even having experienced the great tornado. Why did I do it? Call it brainwashing or whatever. The point is that Scientology gives false hope.
Scientology
The science of taking credit for anything good and blaming others for anything bad
The cult uses many high pressures tactics to get people into buying Mission packages for
$35,000
Now
It is done at Flagg by the MAA for part of your amends if you filed bankruptcy cuz you donated to Scientology or bought your bridge to no where
S-C-A-M
Love that name .
Is Dave still alive ?
Today’s posting is so rich with ‘things that shouldn’t be’ that it is hard to know where to start. I’ll take up something that I haven’t seen anyone else address so far just to mix it up a bit.
Jasmin Renna is listed as Deputy Mission Holder of the Los Feliz Mission. This implies that there is such a huge staff at this mission that the post of Deputy Mission Holder is necessary. I would bet a biscotti that this is not the case. Los Feliz is another failing mission with a scanty ‘org board’ with lots of vacancies. I’m guessing that Jasmin was ‘briefed’ on the necessity of helping out while the real mission holder is perhaps completing yet another set of ‘lowers’ or is off getting some additional ‘training’. Jasmin was probably convinced of the necessity of taking on this ‘game’ with the threat of withholding ‘OT IX & X’ – if they are ever released.
Fun facts about Los Feliz. Los Feliz was the final home of Mary Sue ‘Under the Bus’ Hubbard until she died a few years ago under Sea Org surveillance after completing her jail sentence for her Operation Snow White activities to save the planet. Los Feliz is also the home of Jeffery ‘Awful’ Augustine and Karen ‘de-Classed XII Auditor’ de la Carriere. These are two of the most prolific SPs on the planet. Karen is also the former spouse of Heber ‘Who’ Jentzsch the current president of the Church of Scientology. Back in the 60s the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by the Manson Family took place in Los Feliz. Charlie hisself was said to be involved with scientology at one time and IIRC claimed to attain the state of ‘cleared theta clear’ (from the book Helter Skelter). Maybe Shelly “MIA’ Miscavige could be fired off on an SO mission to confront and shatter all of the suppression that exists in this ‘hood. The interesting thing about all these little tidbits is the fact that ex-scientologists and never-ins know more about them than current cult members and even OSA net nannies (hi FOOL).
Oh, let’s not forget that Jasmin was surprised that they have actually created a ‘clear’ at the Los Feliz Mission. I’m surprised too. Despite the cult’s claims, there is NO SUCH THING AS A ‘CLEAR’. Not even since the appearance of a ‘real clear’ back in the early 50s when Sonia Bianca joined the ol’ grifter L. Ron Hubbard on stage at the Shrine Auditorium (?) just a few miles down the road.
Well given that her last name is Renna I must assume she is Patrick Renna’s wife. He is the mission holder of Los Feliz (anothoer celeb started mission) and of course is going to give his wife the #2 spot.
In 1982 Diana Hubbard told me she was willing to lead a revolution to prevent the destruction of the mission network by “mad dog Miscavige” as she called him. Where is she today? Every important person in management has been illegally removed and replaced by Miscavige. So, how did she stay “in” and is not “out” like us and literally EVERYONE in Hubbard’s family? Chickenshit is the word that comes to mind.
The irony is that it wasn’t lil Davey’s idea, he was just doing her dad’s bidding.
Could it be that Diana Hubbard is under lock and key like Shelley? Maybe that’s why she didn’t run. She certainly has the money to start a new life through her inheritance.
No. She is very visible. Just totally brainwashed. May also be waiting for return of LRH.
According to the IRS Exempt Orginazation database, including SMI itself, there are 60 “Missions” still listed under Group Exemption Number 4167, issued as part of the 1993 Closing Agreement between $cientology and the IRS. Of those, 36 are in California. How many are actually doing anything, beyond holding up a “Mission” sign, is doubtful.
On Tony Ortega’s blog (& I thought Mike featured the final report here) Panopea Abrupta did a comment series on all the missions and it was insane how many were gone (yet still listed on the CO$ website) or operating out of someone’s home or primary business and essentially doing nothing.
I don’t recall the final numbers, but my brain recalls it being somewhere around 35-40% of those listed even being operational currently. (Plz feel free to correct or fact-check, as I’ve got severe Mom-brain and couldn’t quickly find the posts to confirm final numbers.)
I think those numbers are about right. Pan included a number of missions that have died in the last few years, plus there are a couple of zombie missions that have apparently lost their franchise holder and premises, but that local members are trying to keep going out of their homes and that we see promo pieces for here, even though Scientology no longer lists them.
The current list on Scientology’s website shows about 45 missions. But probably fewer than half have a real presence such as a storefront, and some like Boulder are definitely old missions reduced to operating out of the aging franchisee’s residence.
Also, it seems that some of the missions existed because they were based around the practice of a field auditor (or a couple), and some of those hanging on in tiny offices and residences are still probably that sort of operation, serving some remaining clientele.
I had to laugh….you can’t be a “flagrant criminal”…say what??? Also, you can’t be an “active” drug pusher??? Say what??? And you can’t be “psychotic.”??? Who judges that? LOL I like the guys (Joe Theta) comments about being in Bellaire Mission for ten years. I think that’s the truth of the situation.
I was persuaded to open a mission in Sarasota, FL. Started working on it and managed to get some staff and public. Then I was disqualified. For what I know not. What a relief!
This “Promo” is same ol same ol. I started in west coast missions and later in the SO used to manage large section of SMI so have a bit of experience in this area. I can’t believe they haven’t changed their internal marketing at all. Majority of the Starter Package goes to Film system, Finance computer system, yes plenty of basic books etc. Lots of commissions involved at all levels as all the money goes through the book acct at local org or directly through SMI / BPI / NEW Era etc. Highly regulate for last 25 years. Back in 60’s, 70’s when Missions were doing well. It was loosely regulated and individualism was encouraged. Martin Samuels COSMOD (Missions of Davis, Sac, Portland, Sheridan, LA) were going gang busters. many other motivated individuals built the SCS Missions in LA, Santa Barbara county. Riverside mission was over 200 staff and had lots of grass roots auditing and courses going on. It was a happy helping scene compared to the rigid dogmatic control of the Petty Minded Tyrant of the entire known universe. (Actually he only controls by fear in a shrinking sphere internally.) Out for 15 years and grateful to many people that Mike has hosted on this website over the years. Mission Guy
Thanks so much and nice to hear from you!
You too. I really applaud your series – You can not know how much the stories and persistent insistence at telling the truth is shedding the long time burden us Veterans have had to carry with us. Wish I lived in Tampa so I could get my next car from you. (I know off topic – oh well). Have Happy New year. Msn Guy
Mission guy: Was the “cash grab” from missions in early 80’s the result of Miscavige’s reports to LRH that missions were ripping him off or was it because LRH was done with his life (terminal illness he discovered 5 years before his death) and therefore done with bullshitting us and just wanted the cash before he died?
I speculated it could be both, but probably only the dwarf and LRH know for sure?
Robert. I believe it was all orchestrated by MOWW (later SMI) where they did the ridiculous price increases to try to get short term cash. Remember originally it was just $10% to WW and then later when the SMI crackdown started it was huge fees to Int finance police. Basically trying to rip off the earned reserves and decent pay of the Mission holders and their staff. It broke the back of any independence of Mission Holders. Miscavige and his “new management” crushed that and got them back “In line” with “Command intention”. Was it LRH’s – yes I’m sure he had the same control issues that Miscavige has always had. Trained him well, but Miscavige added his own form of deeper insanity and hatreds.
It was a result of Hubbard seeing how much $ the mission holders were bringing in. He wanted more. His appetite for cash, gold and jewels was insatiable.
Robert, the third and most likely answer, is greed on Hubbard’s part. The monthly price increases, cash grabs, and confiscation of successful missions, had all started in the mid-70s, at Hubbard’s instigation and before Miscavige was involved.
The Les Dane “hard sell” was introduced in the very early 70s, and Hubbard was stockpiling pallets of cash in his European banks from the mid-60s on. L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. “Nibs” talked about about his father’s callous greed in the 50s, and as far as I can tell it all goes back at least as far as the Affirmations of the late 1940s – “Material things are yours for the asking. Men are your slaves.”
Wonder how many billion year contracts he had to sign with Crowley to get those affirmations realized.
MG, just curious, but how many missions were actually started compared to the number of ‘mission packages’ sold? It was my experience that many folks bought these packages as a way to get a SO recruiter off their back or a way to just make a reg go away by making it look like they were contributing to the cause.
B. Haven, You are absolutely right. They were used to get the almighty $ and could be used in many ways. Always lucrative for the individual and organization that bought the pkgs. Lots of commission and fees that never went to the value of what they bought. Happy new year to all Mission guy
I’m interested if you know any details of what was actually going on in the 70s with the missions – and the orgs. I saw some of the tail end of that, and definitely had a sense that more was wrong under the surface than was necessarily obvious.
What I’ve picked up from talking to old-timers and reading accounts is that there was a struggle between the missions and orgs over customers as the baby boom youth demographic dropped off (the so-called “baby bust” hit all sorts off organizations and institutions hard), and the social trend toward “seeking” died down. The missions may have been more flexible and done comparatively better, but a lot of what they did to keep stats up seems to foreshadow the sort of high-pressure tactics, staff exploitation and abuses that the orgs are now known for.
The Peter Green “debrief” gets into some of that, including missions that were being taken from their mission holders well before Miscavige and his gang came along:
http://www.xenu.net/archive/go/legal/pgreene.htm
What do you know of what was really going on behind the scenes, and during which period?
Thanks for posting this link. That period has always interested me as one of my best friends was involved back then with his Dad. They did much at the CC (his Dad was a musician, last name Wood) but while my friend was only loosely involved when he visited his Dad, he found it interesting that despite the special treatment @CC they both preferred going to a mission that was further away.
As a former franchisee of another business (not a Scientology mission, thank God), I find it fascinating that LRH originally dubbed these missions as “franchises.” The very definition of a franchise is that it is a “proven business model,” such that the franchisee pays an initial fee as well as continuing fees, a percentage of gross income, to the franchisor. It’s used exclusively in business. Examples of franchises businesses include Subway, Taco Bell, Planet Fitness. Change the name to “mission” and suddenly it’s a religion? Scientology is just jam-packed with contradictions.
Yes, the qualifications are a factor. One of them is “not being a psychotic”.
If this is the case, how come they have a psychotic sociopath as a leader of the cult, sorry, the church?
“Does not have a parent or guardian who is a rabid antagonist of Scientology.” This is code for “Does not have a parent or guardian who disagrees with or speaks out against david miscavige beating his staff.” Or “Does not have a parent or guardian who has read any blog, book or internet site exposing the abuses of LRH or david miscavige.”
Ummmmmmmm………doesn’t Corn COB have ” a parent or guardian who is a rabid antagonist of Scientology.” …????????? Just askin’…….
btw…….WHERE’S SHELLY ?
I’d say one of the deepest omissions on Hubbard’s “stats management” system is the people being managed didn’t have a way to influence the managers.
a solution ought to have been that those managed, always had a weekly report card grading system they could fill out, giving a grade to the helpfulness (1 is poor, 2 somewhat helpful, 3 pretty helpful, 4 definitely caused out stats to go up, 5 I love my manager) grading system, and that grading system lets those managed influence BACK onto the managers.
This is a major omission in the movement.
LOL it’s “an omission.” That made me laugh, thank you.
It is a feature of authoritarian systems that the less powerful lessors are discouraged from criticizing those higher up. The more thin-skinned the superiors are, the less criticism is tolerated. A basically decent person higher up in rank would indeed welcome and build in a critical feedback mechanism (many businesses and university classes feature these) but a very non-self confident higher up might even view anything less than immediate “jump to it!” compliance as rebellion. Even though the management system is for use by non-scientologist businesses, I would guess that LRH didn’t even dare risk implementing critical feedback in it, on the off chance that someone would suggest implementing it in scientology too! Those end-of-course ‘describe your wins with this course’ things you have to write -could have- been for legitimate feedback – but they aren’t. That’s deliberate.
I saw a number of people coerced into buying missions. Everyone one of them produced mission holders who worked out pretty quickly they had been lied to, and of course they all failed – it’s just another method of Cof$ scamming by deceit and outright lies.
I’d love to know how many missions existed prior to the purge in 82 versus how many missions are here now? And another thing to consider is that Flag is stealing not just public from them, but their ability to deliver certain R/D’s. Nowadays you see things being delivered at Flag that used to only be delivered at a mission. How can they make money if the things they can sell and deliver are taken away from them? They are now only left being able to deliver the Purif and Basics and a few other misc things.
Missions up to 82 were about 120, but they were highly producing. Some with 50, 100, 200 staff here in the US. Huge volume of actual auditing some with well over a dozen auditors who worked FULL time and kept busy all the time. Lots of people who wanted to help to the best of their capability. Man different things can be said for the value of auditing, but with someone who listened and the early precepts of basic counseling it did contribute to individuals happiness according to what I saw.
Now the mission have shrunk. I know we got it up over 100 in the US and total of 240 worldwide up until 99, but now the number o mission is less than half and they completely stopped disseminating (recruiting). The purpose was warped and twisted, used to be a method of reaching people in trouble who wanted help in their lives, now it’s just a warped, shrunken cash cow for Management. Their number of FSS (New people starting first intro service) and SPO (Students and PCs to upper orgs) has plummeted to complete unviability. It would be like if a Subway could only sell sandwiches to employees. They would be broke and the employees only paid as volunteers at .50 / hour. Completely insane, isn’t it. The other comments here on management are correct that there is NO actual management of missions just a military disciplinarian with autocratic penalization of their minions (slaves). This just my opinion but I had 30 years in the cult. Not proud of it. Mission Guy
That’s just another way of extorting money from loyal Scientologists or just fools.
There was a report of a new emphasis on missions in an attendee’s account of the New Year’s event over at the Underground Bunker. It will be interesting to see what comes of that, but I doubt that it will result in more than possibly a couple of missions actually opening, though Scientology may make a bit of money as it always does in selling packages that will never ended up being much more than a bunch of materials sitting in a back room.
I think I’ve seen mention of the figure of $80,000 for the current cost of a mission starter package. It seems like the missions that still actually have storefront presences are now funded by rich whales, and often furnished “ideal” style meaning easily as much in additional expenses, and even more in the case of the over 10,000 square foot facility purchased for the franchise labeled as a Life Improvement Center in Seattle (one in Tampa also uses that name).
If there is in fact a new emphasis on pushing missions, then that makes sense. It’s something different, which is good (if you repeat the same old demand incessantly, it’s easier to tune out), but more importantly: a single person buying a ‘mission package’ brings in the same amount of $$$ as 10-20 people buying lower value items like courses (and takes less staff effort). With the shrinking numbers of both scientologists and staff, it’s more important than ever to exsanguinate as much liquid cash possible.
So how has being greedy and not sharing the spoils with others worked for you Little Davey as your equally diminutive and shrinking cult circles the drain?
supporting this blog today, are Roy Wallis’ “The Road to Total Freedom” and separately also the Stephenson early Dianeticist’s story of Stephenson’s successful field dianetic auditing practice being elbowed into by LRH effectively dousing Stephenson’s willingness to be part.
The bureaucracy of multi-echeloned institutionalized organized (all in Hubbard’s decades long bureaucracy running writings/policies) adds continually up to Scientology just naturally raking off the profits of profitable Scientology services selling groups or field audtors or missions.
The earliest shocker to me, was the old London UK most early successful auditors, one in particular, the man who LRH audited to full exterior (one of the long time stories that glued my allegiance and hope that exteriorization was real and worthy of supporting all Scientology groups that did raise people up to soul-flying ability) was the Stephenson UK man whose successful auditing career, LRH elbowed in, forced Stephenson to suffer than same fate that the 1982 successful Mission Holders all suffered.
Hubbard just had to have his cut, and he just institutionalized through policy, and against even I think Dianna’s disagreement, to ride tough and demand the Missions not choke the Bridge movement upwards.
This battle of managing a movement of different echelons: field auditors, groups, Missions, Orgs, Sea Org Orgs, Flag, Freewinds that is just a too spread out bureaucratic pattern.
What the “think tank” managers of the movement ought to be doing is collapsing the echelons a bit.
Missions needed more loose reigns. The movement ought really go back to the old large Missions and Central Orgs patterns, and tiny “CLO” advisors that aren’t pushy controlling, pattern.
And then have yearly gatherings in a major city across the world.
Scientology’s wasted its talents and treasures on glitz, again if one read the ASI advices, you could see Hubbard’s obsession with hype and glitz showiness to the end of his life.
Hubbard wanted too much credit and money from what he overly egotistically thought was his to receive recompense for his Scientology and he never considered relinquishing control, and his policy bureaucracy institutional pattern has wrecked his Golden Goose income sources from selling of the services, over and over in the movement’s history.
Worst, though, is that the Hubbard/Scientology Golden Goose is a fantasy, since exteriorization is a brain hallucination, and no Scientology has ever provenly done any demonstrable soul-flying in real time and kinetically caused anything physical other than some personal hallucinations and group hallucinations/group hypnosis type of mental fantasy that the members see miracles in coincidences, and shared delusion.
If humans could soul fly and do supernatural mind over matter, soul/ghost in the machine, type of abilities after doing the whole stepladder of Scientology services, that’d be something.
It isn’t, so the whole blaming the nasty Golden Goose robbing bureaucracy/dictator-bad-managing of the whole Hubbard operation, misses that there’s in the end no there there.
No “OT” there.
It was the camaraderie and good wishes which everyone freely gave hoping good was happening that held up the bureaucratic system and membership participation.
It really I think comes down to the good personalities of the hoping members and staffers.
Happy New Years.
U rock the house Chuck. Met you in Incomm / ASI and in PAC. Have happy new year. Keep your help to new people who are leaving. You helped me lots when I first got out in 04. Msn Guy
Sorry diabetics, no insulin users allowed! Move along, degraded being!
19 reasons were given to encourage people to open their own missions. 12 of the 19 (63%) reasons given are about the desire to expand scientology. But for true believers, there are many outlets to expand scientology: IES contributions, Volunteer Ministers, etc. What compelling reasons are there to open a mission as opposed to these other pathways? 5 of the 19 reasons mention free training, auditing, courses, and no taxes on income. Only one of the 19 reasons mentions commissions, but this is probably the single reason why people opened missions back in the day- you could make money.
No one wants to open a mission anymore because there is no monopoly protection; you are not given a protected area, and any other franchisee can steal your recruits. The local org can take your volunteers and steal their labor under the guise of “training” them, ostensibly for your benefit.
And the more successful you are as a franchisee, the higher the probability that Miscavige will revoke your license and bring all of your profit-making participants directly under the nearest local company store aka org. He’s done it before and he would do it again in a heartbeat.
For Miscavige to rebuild up the franchise network, he would have to formally promise or grant a monopoly right over a specified geographic area. Doing so would indirectly admit that he stole all the franchise rights in the Bloodbath of ’82. Since he can never admit that what he did was wrong, he will never be able to credibly promise that it won’t happen again. And scientologists will pursue other avenues to success in the church such as IES donations.
Spot on!
katylied, no one wants to start a Mission because no one wants to buy scamology services.
Prior to 1982, mission holders and their staff could make a living wage. That is not possible after 1982. Will all the ‘poaching’ going on between mOrgs, how can any mission deliver any ‘service’ that a mOrg provides? No mission can financially survive in today’s $cientology.
The Buffalo NY mOrg has been ‘Ideal’ since, what 2006? Why is there no mission network in the rest of upstate NY? The only mission I know of is in Albany NY, and it is now in a tiny upstairs office room in a hard to find building in a suburb. Albany is an 8 hour drive from Buffalo. I doubt that any $cientologist in the Albany NY area is driving to Buffalo for services.
I’m going to disagree here Ze. I was on staff at a mission prior to ’82 and was high up on the ‘org board’. The mission was doing fairly well with a staff of about 40-50. Most of us were moonlighting to make ends meet. I think the mission holder did well, but there was no trickle down happening. One thing I remember well was the ‘Senior C/S’ talking to a friend of hers about a particularly good week when she could actually buy paper towels. Both she and her husband were staff members with a single child. For myself, I was collecting UI benefits because it was more than I could make as a staff member even with my ‘stats’ up during a banner week. Scientology has never been a viable gig for the vast majority of staff members. The only exceptions to this was the ‘Wimbush Era’. That was very short lived and a whole ‘nother story…
Right you are, most of the missions even during the glory days in 70s were still very low pay, except Msn Holders, ED’s and sometimes auditors were paid very well. Reges and bookstore people were also paid well. The average staff Low pay. May be $50 – $150 / week. always dependent on the Gross income (GI) for the week. Some missions did lots of things including staff housing, communal kitchens to keep it all on a low budget. I remembered the Hippy Dippy days of the 70s. But yes it was still “Hard Sell” on the sales people. Had to buy now or else….. But it was only for services and books, no extra fund raising like now. Dang it went from a self help deal with people helping others and being willing to work for cheap to ALL MONEY ALL THE TIME. What kind of religion would ever go after the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR??? At the highest levels the DNA is all about control, manipulation and MONEY. Sad to see that twisted betrayal. Happy New year to you and your. Mission guy
zeemoo, that is FALSE. Prior to ’82 NO Mission paid its staff a “living wage”. MAYBE 2-5 people at the top of the Mission.
Wynski, I remember Msn Holder, ED, Reges, Booksellers, Auditors all got well paid, but that was about it. Happy New Year. Mission Guy
Mission Guy, exactly like I said. At BEST a handful of people. AND, for a VERY short period of time.
Wynski ~ Not true. I made decent money as an unskilled reg, receptionist, intro lecturer and course sup working for Alan Walters in Dallas and St. Louis in the 60’s. I also ran Boston for him after Flo Barnett peeled off. I audited for a guy named Don Hill in Omaha and worked for the Santa Clara mission as an auditor. Most staff got paid easily as much as an unskilled worker at another job like McDonald’s.
Marty Samuels paid his people well as did Bent Corydon and the Harrel’s in Vegas where I also audited. The pay abuse was almost entirely the Cl IV Orgs like LA Org and the NY Org. The Sea Org was what it was. Nobody got paid well. I ran the Sac Mission until 73′ when i opened Fresno and anyone trained had all the things an average non-staffer had but nobody was making big bucks. In Fresno everybody full time got $75 to $100 a week base and then every single post had a bonus track. Tech staff were very well paid as far back as when a 12.5 intensive sold for a measly $650. If an hour of auditing sold for $45 at least $20-25 of it went to pay reg, auditor, C/S and Qual.
There were still people who whined about pay and a few who resented the fact that I made more than anybody. Meh. I started the place with my own money, a small truck full of used furniture and a short lease on a crappy building. So when a guy making $600 a month selling Dianetics books bitched that I was greedy I just ignored the natter.
No doubt there were plenty in a portion of missions who did not make decent salaries but remember in 1975 a McDonald’s hamburger was about 15 cents. I bought a house, in California in 1974 and my mortgage payment was $220 a month. Buying it was cheaper than renting. So $75 or $100 a week for unskilled employees was livable and the expectation most people I knew who owned Missions had was that a certain percentage of their staff would rise towards the top, get trained, create more value with the hours worked and the owner would invest in their upper level training at Orgs and AO’s,
California was freaking awesome in the 70’s for Scientology mission staff – not so much for Org and Sea org staff but that’s no surprise.
YMMV, but I was there for the whole decade and can only relate what I experienced.
Yes, DW. I didn’t say that a FEW people made decent money for a short period of time. Reread what I wrote.
So, what was your weekly pay, when and for how long?
Huh. Well I was staff at a variety of Missions and Orgs from 66 until mid 1973 when i opened my own Mission. The worst pay was Saint Hill where I was CC supervisor and got 11 Pounds a week. Prior to that in Dallas and St. Louis I remember something like $50 to as much as $100 depending on bonuses. Alan Walters paid okay. When I came back from the UK I took over Boston for him and averaged between $250-400 a week.
ASHO, from the end of 68 to mid 69 was maybe $80 a week as non-tech staff.
When I audited at Omaha or Vegas I had a contract with a set amount per hour logged so if it was a 25 hour week I was probably getting $10 an hour.
It’s all decent pay but that doesn’t mean everyone got decent pay – I have to say though while I may empathize with people getting $20 and working 80 hours I have no real sympathy. For one I would have never, ever done that. Secondly, if some threat was made I would have told the threatener to go fuck themselves. My take is the bulk of the “we got paid bad” complaining is self inflicted. Maybe not if the person was a child Scn like many on the Remini show, but for a grown adult to submit themselves to that level of abuse is a red flag that there are other factors in play – if a person is willing to be abused they can always find someone willing to do the abusing.
Part of what I perceive as an animus toward Mission Holders — and that Miscavige leveraged well to gain emotional support among his cadre of bullies — was that successful Mission holders were actually successful and the SO seemed to have conducted a 3rd Party effort to brand us as dilettantes and even SP’s. I drove nice cars, had nice motorcycles, owned a nice house and paid full price for Flag services. I had clean suits and felt no guilt whatsoever for the 80-100 hours a week and years of savings I risked in order to start a Mission that generated millions of upline dollars, hundreds of Org and Sea Org staff and made Scientology look excellent locally.
I did have 2 1/2 year contracts when I spent money to train a staffer but every one I contracted got the training.
Looking back and also reading this thread I see that a lot of people felt taken advantage of and I get that pain ensued. But either the staff were individuals with free will in a free nation or they were dogs tied to an Org waiting to be fed their evening gruel. Most Org people at the time were not starving that I saw and while many had BO and didn’t own homes they generally appeared to be industrious, cheerful and driven. So I guess not everything comes down to money.
6-figure personal incomes were not unusual in Missions that sent tons of people up the Bridge and had a thriving Div 6 where new people flooded in and the cherries were separated from the pits.
Also – don’t forget, if a Mission like Fresno generated say $300,000 revenue for ASHO AOLA and Flag then $45,000 came back in the form of FSM commissions. We literally had to compete with the real parasites and vampires, free agent FSM’s haunting the classrooms and HGC’s in Los Angeles looking for people to select for services that they literally had zero influence and zero effort in creating. It was bloody war toward the end of the 80’s and I still loathe those thieves.
Thanks for confirmation DW. $50 – $100 wk was NOT a living wage even then. Considering you would have worked 70+ hours/week you average less than a $1/hr.
I made more in Jr. HS during summer flipping burgers.
Wynski, good point that hours worked needs to be take into consideration as well. That points to another uncomfortable truth: Scientology’s wages and hours for the majority of staff, would have been illegal for any normal business.
For reference, minimum wage in the 1970s went from $58 for a 40 hour week at the beginning of the decade, to $116 at the end, largely due to high inflation:
“The minimum wage went to $1.00 an hour effective February 1967 for newly covered nonfarm workers, $1.15 in February 1968, $1.30 in February 1969, $1.45 in February 1970, and $1.60 in February 1971
….
The minimum wage increased to $2.00 an hour in 1974, $2.10 in 1975, and $2.30 in 1976 for all except farm workers
….
The minimum went to $2.65 an hour in January 1978, $2.90 in January 1979, $3.10 in January 1980, and $3.35 in January 1981. The amendments eased the provisions for establishments permitted to employ students at the lower wage rate and allowed special waivers for children 10 to 11 years old to work in agriculture. The overtime exemption for employees in hotels, motels, and restaurants was eliminated.”
– https://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/coverage.htm
DW, interesting anecdotes. It indeed did seem to depend on where you were, when, and who you were – it sounds like you were lucky to be high up on the food chain.
To add another twist, several of the small missions, like one I had some dealings with, were sort of little cults of their own, with all sorts of dysfunctions and abuses. Some of it was probably illegal sexual misconduct then, and certainly would be now.
By the mid to late 1970s, it seems that even Corydon’s supposedly booming Riverside mission was relying on more Sea Org-like tactics for dealing with staff, and abuses and fraud (including the criminal activity prosecuted by authorities after a raid in 1979). Besides the typical moonlightighting to make ends meet, and there are accounts of staff even having pay docked or being coerced into taking out loans as part of the credit union scam (which several other missions were involved in) when mission GI was down:
http://www.forum.exscn.net/threads/riverside-mission.115/
The dirty details from insiders start on page 2, such as:
“I was at Riverside from around 1977 – 1979 or so.
….
I remember going to treasury to get paid for the week, and walking away with, like, $22 or something. So on weekends we would go out and pull tires from under mobile homes out in the Mojave desert and bring them back to the factory in Hemet to make enough money to make ends meet, so we could afford to work those 12-14 hour days the remainder of the week. You could make $500 in a day if you found a good mobile home park. We’d ignore the “No Soliciting” signs, and when we struck pay dirt, would load up my pickup truck with tires, stringing them over the hood and cab when the bed was full. You’d come back filthy from rooting around in the crawl space under those mobile homes, in all the dirt, bushes, dryer lint, and black widows. I remember Jeff Kovak, or his assistant sitting on the stairs at the Mission on Friday nights, lending cash out to people so they could go pull tires at 10% interest for a weekend.
….
Then the police raid came, on account of the fraudulent loan apps. I remember driving boxes of stuff out of the building. Everyone was in a panic. It was in the papers. People from LA Guardian’s Office came in and took over to clean up the mess. I think the Mission had about 800k in reserves at that time. The fraudulent loans were paid off with that money, as I recall. I didn’t know Bent or Mary well. What little I did know of Bent, he seemed like a nice guy. He talks about some of this in his book. But the true nature of what was going on with the registrars and the loan mess, I’m not so sure he really explains that fully, as I remember it.” http://www.forum.exscn.net/threads/riverside-mission.115/page-2#post-3081
Peacemaker – I started as the reception and letter reg for the Dallas center when I was 16. If that’s high up the food chain then you and I have different food pyramids.
😉
Ending up making good money wasn’t happenstance or good luck – it was the result of almost a decade of never having time off, scrimping, saving and working my ass off to get the money and skill set to start my own Mission. If spending 8 years of 60-90 hours a week busting ass isn’t hard work then I’m not sure what is.
I did hear weird things about some missions but none stuck with me. No doubt there were plenty of folks doing their own thing, just like now and just like the 1950’s. Never heard about sex cults though – did I miss anything?
I recall the whole Riverside credit union deal but don’t have a lot of detail. Bent was (and is) a friend of mine dating back to the UK and no doubt mistakes were made, but that guy is not even close to mean. Opportunistic? Perhaps. I thought the originator of the whole credit union thing was Carl Barney though. Maybe I’m wrong. It was discussed by all of us during meet ups or at Flag and I found a local friendly credit union in the central Valley and used them as a finance tool. Similar to how a car dealership has favored banks and credit unions to send deals to. Nothing illegal happened and while his standards were a bit shaky, his rates were favorable so mostly it was a win-win.
The whole tire thing is fascinating. I think that’s maybe a difference between me and many people I knew. I’d have just left staff and done that. Making a grand a week even in 2019 is decent enough to save a few bucks. No way I’d have stayed anywhere for $20, anytime.
What mission did you work at?
Wow. The qualifications just scream “PARANOIA”!! Lmao
Agreed. The worth of the smart people who can manage good missions get burned. But they are the real valuable elements in Missions, the people and members to Missions were the best things going in the missions.
Hubbard’s bureaucracies over the Missions inevitably failed, and on this main point, of failing to always make number one priority to cherish and help Misisons. (This same Hubbard bureaucracy “help” rather than rake over and blame problem would apply across the board, making it at all times in Scientology’s history probably the most common mistake to target Mission Holders and Mission staff.)
The value of the people in Scientology constantly gets pummeled by the heartless “stats oriented/income oriented” “who is the bad person in house searching and blaming” bureaucracy that Hubbard left the movement with.
A big conclusion of successful good personality field auditors naturally is ditch their ties to the Hubbard money raking bureaucracy.
If the bureaucracy fails to make a mission or field auditor more successful, then the bureaucracy ought not be master over any mission.
(There maybe ought to be a sort of grade report card sheet that Missions and field auditors could fill out weekly grading their managers! And make the managers major stat their grade they get from who they manage!! Since Scientology loves to staticize things, they ought to statisize their managers with report card weekly grades from those managed!)
Because in the end of the day, it’s the good people in a Mission that are making that mission successful mainly and ought never be screwed with.
No good people in the Missions, then no good mission.
And that’d ought be always the primary consideration of any bureaucratic Sea Org managers, to cherish and not blame the missions for failing, but ditch the bad managers.
Anyways, that’d be how the bureaucratic managers ought instead change their ways.
The bigger longer problem still is no “OTs” at the end of the whole Scientology stepladder.
So improved bureaucratic managing is something that could be done, but still, no “OTs” are out and about in the world doing supernatural things as is brazenly promised, so the whole thing is a quack outfit.
I think the smart good Mission people in history, and their camaraderie helping each other do their mission services were the highest good that happened in this whole Hubbard mission raking history.
Wow, right on Chuck B!!
“I think the smart good Mission people in history, and their camaraderie helping each other do their mission services were the highest good that happened in this whole Hubbard mission raking history.”
The Mission Holder Qualifications list is priceless! Ha ha… you can’t be a blown Sea Org member or staffer! You can’t have a parent or guardian who is a “rabid antagonist” of Scientology. What if they DON’T have rabies?
” What if they DON’T have rabies?”
Easily solved, sit through half a dozen of Clive Rabies…oops, Rabey’s speeches and pep talks and you will be well and truly rabid.
Ohhhh my…. I didn’t know the name Clive Rabey until now. So, I found this video.
https://www.davidmiscavige.org/videos/clive-rabey-on-david-miscavige.html
He must have really scrubbed himself well before making the video because I suspect he normally is discolored from being so far up DM’s arse.
Well, i’ve heard that mission starter pack in Russia costed 10000$ 2 years ago. I was reged to buy it. But it consisted of almost nothing except 2 emeters, dozen course packs and maybe 20-30 books.
They were pushing hard many money backgrounders to bye them.
There were many catches 22 in process.
1. You were bound to have at least one course supervisor and class 4 auditor trained in the ideal org or in AOSHEU. As a mission holder you have to pay for their training. At least in 3 separate cases I saw how after 1-2 months in a mission that folks were stolen to the ideal org or recruited to the sea org.
2. You are expected to sent certain amount of public to the ideal org for services. I doesn’t matter if your mission is 3 time zones or 6 hours flight from ideal org (absolutely standard problem in Russia where you need 11 hours flight to cross the country). Of course it doesn’t matter if you have 5 public which make 80% of income to your mission, you should send at least half or them to the org.
3. With a mission you’re on a hook. To close it is a high crime as we all know and sp declaration… or you just need to donate to ias. I was offered to buy a mission pack in the middle of heavy ethic cycle and I know at least one chap who bought it just to end cycle.
4. Even buying a starter pack doesn’t mean to open a mission nowadays. You just need to bye one and wait 3-6 months until they forget about and will have another stat push.
5. Most newly opened missions are in the sleeping mode 3-4 months after there opening. Except maybe 3-4 cases.
I joined staff in 1978 at the Riverside Mission ( Bent Corodon , Mission holder). I was staff member # 127. The place was booming with all new Scientologist. Fast forward to 2018. The Clearwater Mission run by two OT8’S , and one of whom has a trust fund I think. The place was always empty, finally closed down a year ago.
The Bellaire Mission, originally Kathy Fescbachs Mission, she sold it to Addrianna Scarpellini,after the Fescbachs declared personal bankruptcy. The Bellaire Mission relies completely on public not allowed at Flag. Cant afford Flag. Or children of Flag public. I was at the Mission as a volunteer staff for about 10 years. I can tell you that this mission gets zero raw public. Occasionally a new person ventures in ,does a $50 course or two and then leaves.
From what I’ve read, old missions like that were booming due a to high-pressure sales tactics, abuse, and fraud, as much as anything.
In 1979 the Riverside mission was raided by the police for financial and banking crimes, right?
https://androvillans.wordpress.com/2011/11/23/ex-scientologist-story-373-the-riverside-raid-fraud-abuse/
Like several other of the financially successful missions, they’d set up a scheme to help customers get fraudulent loans to pay for services, which were often then defaulted on, and even went so for as to set up their own credit unions so that there would be no oversight at all. Were you one of the staff whose pay they docked, or who they pressured to take out loans when income goals weren’t met?
I’ve also read other accounts of crazy and abusive things experienced by public and staff at Riverside, similar to some of the worst of what has gone on more recently, going back to the mid or even early 1970s. Obviously some people were in protected or privileged positions and didn’t experience so much of the bad side, or consider it a youthful adventure no worse than being drafted into military boot camp and sent into combat in Vietnam, but it hardly looks to me like Scientology was truly doing that well, though there were social trends and a still-ignorant public to be exploited in ways that just no longer work today.
That’s what I saw there too – little to no “raw meat.” When I delivered the Personal Efficiency Course there, I believe that anyone who came in to do it who had never been to Belleaire Mission before (and they could be an OT from Flag or someone from Tampa Org) would be counted as a “new start.” The mission had all sorts of creative was of counting “new starts.”
False reports are the bread and butter that Scientology runs on today. This was created by Whales (and their IRS enablers) who created a criminal organization that did away with “new starts” as an important “stat”. Getting free money and giving nothing in return is all of what Scientology is today.
As a non-scamologist, the Riverside mission deserved to be closed, burned and the ashes scattered in the wind. In 1978 I was stationed at March AFB, and was good friends and worked with a scamologist. She, unfortunately, got a new airman in our work area to take a course. Before he started, he changed his mind,and when he tried to get his money back they told him to pound sand. He enlisted me to try and help him, and when we went there we encountered all these biker goons who were part of the mission, and we were told, not so politely, to go fuck off. Any bad juju that happened to that mission, it’s mission holder, and any mgmt associated with that mission deserves all the karma they might have received. I say goodbye and good riddance to the whole mission system, and hopefully all of scamology.
From an outsider’s POV, any profitability was probably due to scamming, high prices, and coercion.
Sore Tushy, Keeping Scientology Working has an all time escape clause that they failed to apply to you. “If they are going to quit, let them quit fast.” They were supposed to always let newbies quit fast. Had you reported it to someone with authority above them, who knew how to put pressure on them to refund you, no questions asked, and let you “quit fast”, then you might have gotten that man’s money back. But in my 27 years experience, it takes higher up execs who are aware of these types of mistakes to step in when a Mission or Org is blocking giving newbies their money back quick.
Sometimes, there’ve been these ups and downs of trends, where quit refunds to newbies is blocked by ignorance and they don’t even know they are supposed to give Div 6 refunds back “fast”.
Old hand Scientologist staff in positions of authority who know these newbie loopholes are today probably a decades long thing of the past.
Quit fast, and better, never join.
Peace maker , Amblad and Sore Tushy. You completely missed my point . I’m not here to praise the Riverside Mission. The point is 40 years ago that Mission was packed to the rafters with with brand new raw public, wanting Scientology. Now 40 years later right under the shadow of FLAG , and the one mission closes the other gets zero raw public. Go figure ?
Chris, it seems to me you left an open question – and I tried to answer it in a way. It may not have been your intent, but often that’s a setup with the implication that things were somehow much better then, so I tried to address that as well.
40 years ago, there was almost no critical information about Scientology readily available – and Scientology’s organized campaign to suppress the publication of information, and to loot local libraries of any material that might be accessible to the general public, was fairly effective. People who wanted the sort of things that Scientology seemed to offer – and part of the hard-sell mission sales tactics such as “de-dinging” was to promise whatever people wanted, including “unreasonable” false promises such as curing physical ailments and mental illnesses – were more willing to give it a try, while now Scientology is widely known for failed promises, and abusive and fraudulent behavior.
What happened to all those people? They drifted away because neither the CofS nor the indie orgs could give them what they wanted, and fulfill the promises made, in the end. Even the Riverside missionholder, Bent Corydon, became disillusioned and gave up after an attempt to establish an independent version of the “tech.” And Scientology “body routers” at missions and orgs can’t even get “raw meat” new people to come in the door, and do stress and personality tests, the way they once did – there’s little opening anymore to even try to sell Scientology.
40 years ago, traveling circuses like Ringling Brothers were packed to the rafters, and now zero of the famous big old circuses are left – times change.
Peacemaker – Nah. Comparing Scientology of the 90’s and now the 21st Century to the 70’s is completely apples & oranges. Missions were full because they actually delivered a service that most people felt was valuable and they did it at a fair price. You can debate and fret all you want over how bad, ineffective or evil Hubbard and his tech was/is but people weren’t more ignorant then than now. In fact, I’d say it’s the reverse.
The whole “Scientology is awful” thing was way off the public radar and for good reason -most Scientology missions and even some Orgs genuinely liked serving people and doing a good job. I’d say the same about Yugo salesmen 40 years ago – sure, the product was shitty but that doesn’t automatically mean all Yugo’s and people associated with it were shitty.
Mostly, in the Missions, OT abilities and pie-in-the-sky were almost never discussed. We sold Comm Courses, auditing and helped people become better students. We didn’t tell people if they wrote a check they’d become a super thetan.
Bent did a good job as did most of the 60’s and 70’s era mission owners.
You gotta lust love those conditions that must be met to qualify as a Mission Holder!! It’s hard to pick a favorite but they could have condensed it a lot by just saying must have lots and lots of cash, some conditions may apply, must pay up front, money non-refundable pass or fail.
The mission in Dublin closed last year. True, they opened an Ideal Org but they still closed a mission whichever way you look at it.
Not a flagrant criminal? So if you are unflagrant it’s ok?
Yes of course! ☺
However, it’s OK to be a criminal if it benefits Scientology…Danny Masterson and child molestors comes to mind…
The COB says “we don’t discriminate”……hold on a moment. According to the printed material….in order to qualify to open a misison
1) you CANNOT have any past history of being institutionalized for a “psychosis”….or have any kind of treatment for a “mental defect”…..
2) Can’t have a family member who is employed or was employed by an “intelligence agency” (i.e. on unintelligent people can apply apparently).
3) Basically can’t have any heavy prior debts (because they you can’t give US your money)
4) Cannot be connected to any “squirrels (because we want ALL your acorns too!)
HHhmmm….I don’t qualify it seems…THANK GOODNESS.
I see you cannot be an active drug pusher! How about an inactive one? You can’t be related to any squirrels? What is a squirrel in this context? Can’t have a parent who hates Scientology either. I can’t imagine any parent being happy about their child going into this alternate reality. I don’t see how you could be sane and hand over all the dollars to start a mission so it’s kind of a given that you’re a little touched to begin with
In today’s world where truth about the criminal Hubtard and his dangerous mind twisting “religion” is freely available on the interwebtubes, there is ZERO chance of creating financially viable groups.
Even Hubtard trained Indies with NO fees to the mother “church” and free materials (everything exists digitally and everyone has tablets) cannot get people hooked on scamology.