(Article By Special Correspondent)
Recently I received a copy of the Scientology Seattle Ideal Org Building Fundraising Hat Write-Up By Mark Arnold, the Executive Director for Seattle Day. You can see the full write up here. Most of it is a detailed and complex structure for milking every possible penny from Scientologists in the local area.
He confirms that 10% commissions are paid on funds raised and also makes it clear that materials written by L Ron Hubbard are not the important references – the core reference for the fundraising is a book called ASKING by Jerold Panas which he refers to over and over. He also talks about “dinging” in his audiences with COB quotes (David Miscavige lies actually). L Ron Hubbard quotes have nothing to do with this because L Ron Hubbard despised the idea of asking for donations without giving back valuable services in return, a subject he covered vigorously in a series of letters loosely called the Safe Environment Fund Advices, or “SEF advices”. So not much from L Ron Hubbard in the whole discussion except to try and find “inspirational LRH quotes” of a generic nature to forward an activity that would have enraged LRH mightily.
Interestingly, Mark Arnold also confirms that Ideal Orgs have full video recording in all auditing rooms and how they boast about this being a step towards “increasing technical quality”. Not to mention increasing parishioner control by having your deepest confessions recorded for OSA use should you ever step out of line.
He also gives a detailed explanation of the use of “shills” (“A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization.”- Wikipedia).
It really makes the point that deception is an important part of Scientology fundraising.
Also very interesting is what Mark Arnold does NOT mention. He talks in his intro about what an exciting and rewarding project it was to help execute David Miscavige’s “stroke of genius” and says
“This hat write up describes how we in Seattle were able to raise $3,000,000 to purchase our building through fundraising from an average size field, including a world record $1.42 million in a single week!!”
There is no mention of the fact that after the “ideal” building had been purchased it took seven years to raise an additional eleven million dollars for a test center plus renovations of both buildings. I wonder if he still felt as honored and excited about the whole thing seven years and fourteen million dollars later. Especially after Jason Rosauer, a senior vice president and partner at Kidder Matthews, one of Seattle’s largest commercial real estate firms, took a look at the main building and estimated that it would cost “between eight and nine million to put up brand new.”
Here are some quotes from Mark Arnold (the boldfaces are mine);
There is a text book (more a large pamphlet really) to study on Fundraising that is the equivalent of Les Dane’s “Big League Sales” for the subject of “Sales”. This text is called “ASKING” and is by a guy named Jerold Panas. Study this text. It pretty much tells you what you need to know about Fundraising through doing individual interviews or visits. Someone wishing to do Fundraising should do this as the first step. It takes maybe an hour to read but it explains volumes and it does constitute the hatting on doing fundraising by visits and interviews. “Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
L Ron Hubbard’s writings are clearly not a factor in this activity. All that “exchange” and “conditions of exchange” gets in the way. Most hated by fundraisers is where LRH says that “something for nothing” is the exchange level of governments and criminals. So no LRH references for this hat write up.
…the Fundraiser must be enthusiastic about the Building cycle and have no reservations about it. The best tool to accomplish this, as well as to enlighten a prospective donator on the project is to have your self and your Fundraisers watch the 2004 LRH Bday event section (sections13-18 on the DVD) as many times as is needed to fully grasp what COB is saying here. In this section he totally covers why the Org Buildings must be big and why we must do this in a “Straight up and Vertical” fashion. He covers “The Why” for why we have been struggling up to this point (“Trying to do to little”) and shows features of our new Ideal Org Div 6es. Your Fundraisers should watch this until they have no more Questions about it and the necessity of it. This is crucially important.”- Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
This method of hanlding peoples questions is really interesting. People charged with doing the fundraising simply watch the COB video over and over and over and over until they have no more questions. You probably wondered about the robotic and illogical way that Scientlogy fundraisers conduct themselves – the answer may very well be right there.
So making the appointment is obviously very important. We tried to stick to the guidelines in the book as much as possible. We always tried to make an appointment and keep it. Only if we could not reach the person or he would not call us back did we use the option of “just showing up” at his house or business. ” Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
A very modern approach to getting interviews. You ask nicely once, then simply barge in on the person uninvited.
Through this and your presentation you get your prospect to the point where he agrees with the project and sees it must be done. Make liberal use of LRH. Pull the string on any BIs and ensure they are handled and the root disagreement handled. This is best accomplished by asking questions and listening to what the person has to say. As an example, one of our key public brought up that he thought Tech Quality was more important than a building and that we should be putting more into that. This we handled by enlightening him on the many aspects that are essential to tech Quality, like videos systems in every auditing room etc. ” Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
I love the “make liberal use of LRH” recommendation. However the point here is the written confirmation that all auditing rooms in these expensive new org buildings are indeed equiped with hidden cameras and microphones. So go ahead, unburden yourself- we just suggest you speak really, really softly
Pre-Regging: The next thing to cover as regards the Fundraising event is that in order to have a successful event it is very smart to have people handled ahead of time to donate at the event…. Pre-regging is a potent factor behind having a successful Fundraiser. Handle it that these pre-regged donations do not happen all at once at the event but are done when needed. Also, someone who has agreed to donate $20.000 can use his donation to play a game. Something like “I will do $1000 if 10 others do $1,000” can generate a lot of dough. A larger donator can do this several times through the course of an event. So your “Shills” (The technical term for someone who has agreed to donate in advance but appears to be doing it spontaneously) should be made aware they have a responsibility to use their donation to get others to donate as much as possible. Plan in advance to ensure your event is a success by having as much pre-regged as possible and used as above.” – Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
So glad to learn that “shill” is a technical term. I think “rube” and “mark” are a couple of other technical terms that are in use, but Mark omitted to mention them in this write up.
At the start of the fundraising session a good thing to do is to acknowledge those who have donated already by status, saving the biggest for last. Then just launch into asking for donations. We usually had one of our “shills” ready to go with a sizable donation, like $5000, to get things off on the right foot. You do not want your first donation to be $20 or some low amount. These do have their, place but not at the beginning of an event that you need to make $200K at. You want people thinking big.
So for those of you that went to a fundraiser and were shocked to see it immediately kicked off with a “spontaneous” and large donation, this explaination makes a lot more sense. People are not enthusiastic. They have to be pounded on for hours before the event to get them to agree to lead the madness.
Also, very important is that you get across to the crowd the full COB briefing in LRH Birthday 2004 event. This can be done by showing that portion of the event prior to Fundraising (Its about 40 minutes long.) but also should be done during your fundraising. I had the main points of this written up as a briefing that people could read and at events I would “Ding in” parts of it, like the “Why” of “Trying to do too little” over and over again. “Ding in” the “straight up and vertical” concept using the analogy of a session and the need to have the full Ideal Org or we don’t have the society around us “in-session”. We got to a point where, at an event, I could just ask for the “Why” and the audience would tell me “Trying to do too little.” Do this again and again over 5 or 6 events and it starts to sink in.” -Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
“Dinging” is another highly technical term that Mark Arnold is bandying around here. Similar to how those doing the fundraising get their questions handled, so it is that the public get their questions handled. Mark Arnold, as Lead Dinger, simply pounds insane statements over and over to attendees of his meetings. “The reason you can’t do enough is that you are not doing all of it immediately” and “the only way to expand is straight up and vertical” and other kooky statements are pounded into the “Dingees” (or perhaps they should be referred to as ding-dongs).
As you are moving through a Fundraising event you will inevitably hit slow points. …. 3. Have your “Shills” prepared to inject one of their donations or games, should they see things dragging. Your “Shills” should not be used all at once but instead throughout the event to get maximum effect to get others to contribute.” –Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
More technical stuff from Mark about how to keep the event moving. Notable that shills are used to kick the event off and to keep it moving.
The Deputy Fundraiser IC must therefore be a dogged, persistent type who has no back off on asking for money. She was authorized to get a 5% commission on money she followed up and collected. The other 5% (10% commission is authorized per the EDs on the subject) went to the other person who got the pledge in the first place or just was not paid. But cycles the Deputy Fundraiser had to reel in she got this 5%.- Mark Arnold Executive Director, Church of Scientology Seattle
I just have to wonder how many people who have stressed and strained to come up with some hefty donation were then surprised to learn that the guy beating on them to “go the extra mile for LRH” was actually going to be grabbing 10% of the take. Personally it makes my blood boil, because the big push on these donations is “do it for the cause”, but the guy saying that is actually doing it for the money.
In summary, the Scientology fundraising formula would include a combination of forcefully repeating the lies over and over and then creating deceptive events with fake spontaneous enthusiasm while paying hefty commissions for squeezing donations out of a small and very over-regged field. Then you get to feel good about yourself for paying roughly twelve million dollars to buy and renovate a building that would have cost eight million to build new. Not to mention spending another couple of million on a test center because the building you purchased for your main church has no foot traffic at all and is hopelessly mis-located. All done while pounding LRH references about “pupose” while kicking the other references about exchange and building policies under the carpet.
LDW said:
“My only remaining regret, that I’ve not fully as-ised yet, is that I didn’t have the courage to call out these 1.1 assholes much, much sooner. I saw it, but pretended I didn’t.”
Yeah, man. I smelled a rat the first time DM introduced himself at an event and it was apparent that he was going to be the new leader of the Church. My way of evaluating a Scientology executive has always been to ask myself, “How would I imagine it would be to be audited by this person?” When I did the test, the result was “Oh shit”. …But then I figured that since there were a lot of Class VIIIs around him up lines and he would get lots of auditing and training and get handled.
But I admit that the real reason I did not confront what I was seeing was that I didn’t want it to be true.
I didn’t want to lose the wonderful organization I was a part of, which LRH had so persistently built up to forward the subject of Scientology, by opening up my mouth.
I didn’t want to lose all of my wonderful friends who share this common purpose.
But despite that and the present situation, it actually does feel better to have come up to present time.
Espiritu, Well done for coming up to present time and you are welcomed in this new and better group. You are KSW by only giving your energy to the group that practices standard tech. Carry on!
A person of conscience will not normally steal, bankrupt others, or lie to others. A person of conscience will normally avoid harming others. It takes AUTHORITY constantly issuing destructive ORDERS to override a person’s conscience.
In order to get a person of conscience to harm others, to lie to others, to steal, they must also somehow consider their victims as deserving of mistreatment or must totally lack conscience.
People of conscience usually wake up after a while and realize they’ve been harming others. Eventually, the only ones surviving in a criminal activity are those who have no conscience – sociopaths – and those unable to question AUTHORITY.
Fundraising in the Church of Scientology is directed by a sociopath – David Miscavige – so naturally the results are dehumanization, financial ruin and the making of criminals.
Mark Arnold fancies himself a writer. No, seriously, he does. Mark once boasted that he writes like LRH said to “just write”. Using the word donator instead of donor is just one example of his style, this Prince of Words, and an excellent example of why real writers utilize the skills of proofreaders and editors.
In the very early stages of Seattle’s fundraising, before the “polished” use of shill tech, I volunteered to help with the ideal org campaign monthly newsletter. My achievement and heartburn was making Mark Arnold sound human and at least somewhat educated in English.
Mark Arnold is bloated from decades of complete submersion in the Kool-aid tank, a legendary nobody big fish in a small pond. A comic/tragic mofo.
At some point, if/when the fundraising tactics hit the fan, this write-up and those of others who were love bombed into writing them will serve as evidence of their wrong doing and the authors will be used as heads on pikes.
Round and round we go.
From my reading I do not think Mike is big on anti-LRH comments either.
WG, just a few days ago I pointed out in broad strokes that an E-meter is equivalent to and Ohm meter. The Acting Mod allowed the posting and I actually think whoever it may be is doing a good job.
If anyone wished to follow the teachings of Scientology it is their right to believe and practice as they choose.
I think if someone has the writings (they are all over the web). A meter older Mark5 or even an Ohm meter and someone schooled in using the device. Then so be it some people feel the tools are useful, then please use them.
I think this site is more about how David Miscavige has destroyed whatever organized movement was left after LRH died.
So I think the Moderator has been quite good and while this posting may be controversial I believe it will make it to the blog.
Penny,
Your experience and the scene described in this “Hat Write Up” have one thing in common…..Criminal out-exchange.
I have observed over the decades that many many staff members, expecially SO, who seem to be “doing well” as staff members have actually had some sort of outside means of support. Others who did not have outside support often do not appear to be as “upstat” in comparison and often remained in the lower positions. Often those who accepted such help have perhaps been too embarrassed or for other reasons did not acknowledge their benefactor’s help in maintaining their “upstat” image. This perpetuated a lie and devalued those who were actually important members of the “team”.
Once at a fundraising event I experienced an OT 8 telling me and others at the event that he would double any amount that I or anyone else donated. Now I just wonder, if this was even true, or if it was just another scam to make people donate?
The deceit and the tricks and the lies that are deliberately used to make poeple part with their money reveal a church in TREASON to its principles and its parishioners.
This obviously has nothing whatsoever to do with FREEDOM or “spiritual enlightenment”.
I´m mad about having been deceived like this!
The censoring of posts that are critical of Scientology/LRH is highly disappointing. Mike has cultivated a blog that allows a variety of views (views that he does not necessarily agree with), and with him on vacation the rules seem to have completely changed.
Temper your beliefs in the furnace of adversarial debate!
WG- I personally don’t like anti-LRH venting without referencing some specific event that occured or policy he wrote. And not all of us are as gifted as Mike. Good news is that he will back in a few days.
Hey AM, I dont like seeing generalized LRH bashing either, so much of it is false, such as the attempt to discredit his war record. I wouldnt check in here if this blog did that. Keep up the good work!
Mike has has indicated on a number of occasions if you want to bash LRH or Scientology to take it over to ESMB or similar toilets.
This “hat write up” is disgusting. Simply betrayal after trust. Mark Arnold has become a criminal and the sooner those that have been bilked for huge sums of money start legal proceedings against him or those of his ilk, for any and all crimes committed, the sooner these building scams will be over. Once upon a time I was married to the FDN DED at Seattle org, it was around 93-94. He was in the org 7 days a week, paid nothing and allowed the other staff members to third party me as I was not on staff which basically ruined my marriage. No one seemed to notice at the time, I was supporting this person and doing everything possible to assist his survival. Anyway, I lived. Water under the bridge:) Luckily, I’ve always been a great swimmer.
There’s other types of fundraisers, too. I was on ethics lines at AOLA. I got worked over hard by that “super girl” squad. I’d love to see their hat write-up ups. They work off the “eligibility” factor and your desire to once again be audited. I had an 18 year harridan on my lines who was absolutely relentless. She got thousands out of me I changed my phone number when I got a new phone to stop her calls
(She probably got 10% too, despite being SO and on staff. She probably drives a better car an than I do.)
I’m so sorry to delay my comment on this. Mark Arnold shame on you, you treasonous bastard. As a friend in the trenches with you since 79, now I know why you avoided me when I visited Seattle/Tacoma in 2008 with my other long time friend that was the other ED in Seattle. Now here we are you got busted as the ED in 2013 of this total bullshit idle org that is not what “COB” enviosioned, right. I like you Mark but your hat write up is full of shit (false reports).
As horrible and embarrassing as it is to admit, we were often used as “shills” in fundraisers. It was all set up before an event – an agreed amount we would “play” with for the evening. Whenever a lull in the fundraiser occurred, a reg would signal to us, and we would enthusiastically get the ball rolling again with another pledge. Another tactic was to play “challenge games” like “we will do $1000 if 5 other people in the room do the same…….. and so it went. God, I feel terrible about this now.
Don’t beat up on yourself BP. A lot of skillful manipulation was done to get people involved in fundraising. There were a lot of lies told, a lot buttons pushed. So you briefly believed something that was a lie. You at least saw through the pretense and stepped free. Do what you can to free others.
+1
So true, Roy.
I think Black Panther is doing great things. His brave voice is one big reason the African blog is so powerful. Dave M could hardly have chosen a more formidable team of opponents over there if he had cherry-picked the field from the top down, chosen the strongest players, and declared them en masse.
Actually, I think that’s pretty much what just happened.
Thanks for telling. I had suspected as much at local reg events, but of course, inquiring about it was out of the question. What was your reasoning for going along with it at the time?
Putting it simply, Mark Arnold is a POS.
Oh, the pain……
I’m sure you experienced first hand Mark Arnold working this regging technology. Pretty disheartening that he referred to the Seattle field as “Shills.”
Off thread a bit, but go to Tony Ortega’s site today. A KA drinking OT in LA had her daughter just commit suicide. It’s very sad. The daughter was talking out about the church’s abuses on her FB site and then committed suicide and the mom makes sure to say it had “nothing to do with Scientology.” Also a friend close to the family told me today that the mother called one of her daughter’s friends and told that person to disconnect from her daughter. So yes it had everything to do with Scientology. After the mom read the disaffected comments about Scn on her daughter’s FB, she then calls one of the friends (maybe more than one?) and tells that friend to disconnect from her daughter.
Imagine the betrayal you would feel from the friend disconnecting but even more so from knowing that it was your mom who told that friend to disconnect! Yes, it had everything to do with Scn. And the slap in the face is at the end of the article, the mom is quoted as saying, “I am at peace with my daughter’s suicide.” What?! Who in their right mind would be “at peace” over something like that???!!! Read it at Tony Ortega’s site.
I saw this too, and it seemed to me an incredible case of a young woman experiencing the hopelessness and despair of Scientology DIsconnection and taking her life as a result. Any information you can get about this event Jane Doe would be incredibly valuable. This is the kind of sad event that draws attention to the vicious practice of disconnection and trail of broken lives it leaves in its path.
More Fraud. That’s all. Using shills. Hope this gets entered as evidence in the trial for fraud in Florida.
My one nagging thought while reading all this: With everything that’s now known about these fundraising events– the deception, the duplicity, the unbridled greed, the pre-planned “spontaneity”, the utter disregard for everything our group is SUPPOSED to stand for–what kind of public would still attend one?
It’s like agreeing to take a shower at Auschwitz.
I feel guilty about laughing at that. War Horse, you are so wicked!
To me, it seems more like one of those tragic instances of an abused spouse who keeps going back again and again, forgiving the abuser, accepting (maybe unconsciously) that further abuse is inevitable and even that she deserves it, somehow. Blogs like this, and brave anti-cult activists, are like the friends and loved ones who try to intervene, always hoping that someday the victim will wake up and find the courage to walk away.
I hate to point out the big pink elephant in the room.
Here is an organization that sells the highest awareness levels available on this planet; – from enlightenment to cause over MEST. And yet at the same time they use methods of manipulation, repetitive indoctrination techniques and plain deception and trickery to extort money from the “enlightened”.
That makes me think the only true valid certificate of any higher awareness state given out by that organization would be the SP declare.
At least somebody with an SP declare has demonstrated the awareness and ability to perceive truth and look through the curtain of deceit and the courage to say so.(In most cases)
Everybody else (with certificates from Clear to OTVIII) not having achieved the state of “SP” is still so gullible to fall for the oldest tricks in the book and unable to see the truth or do not dare to speak it.
I think I am going to frame my SP declare.
“Here is an organization that sells the highest awareness levels available on this planet;”
Yea right!!! Pass the Kool Aide please and put some of that stuff they are peddling in it.
+1000
Oh please do, Gerhard!
Put track lighting all around it in a prominent place above your mantel, rope it off with red velvet, and take a picture of it for all of us here on the Internet!!!
Be proud, be VERY proud of your SP Declare from the Church of Scientology!!
Alanzo (:>
Waaaaaaa! I want my SP declare! It hasn’t been sent to me as yet. :-). At least I got my money back.
Right on, Gerhard! Great perception. Truly funny.
Gerhard, that is a very insightful point: an SP declare at this point seems almost to be a badge of honor. And this attitude is spreading, I think.
Just a couple of years ago, people who had been declared were likely to describe their experience in terms of injustice (which was true, of course). But lately, it seems that people are more likely to wave their goldenrods proudly, and to post comments like, “I worked hard for this declare, and I wanted it in writing!”
It’s another sign that the COS has lost the long war, even if there are battles still to be fought. Not only has the label SP become almost meaningless through overuse, it has paradoxically flipped around to mean something admirable — just as you say here. And we see this even in places like the South Africa blog, where most of the posters strongly identify themselves as Scientologists and supporters of LRH and the tech. They’ve just lost their fear. And that is something the little captain should be very worried about.
From “cold chrome steel” to “1.1 huckster in the blink of eye. Welcome to the new world of scientology.
Won’t you come and join us. After all, we’re the most ethical group on the planet and the only ones who can help.
Personally, for many years I never asked where the money was going. I never even thought to ask where the money was going. I trusted the execs. I trusted the IAS regges. I trusted the Co$. After all, I’d had great wins.
My only remaining regret, that I’ve not fully as-ised yet, is that I didn’t have the courage to call out these 1.1 assholes much, much sooner. I saw it, but pretended I didn’t.
I hope some of the fence-sitters reading this will up their confront. The sooner they do, the quicker the recovery time and the fewer people get ripped off.
You’re not the only one. I knew something was very, very wrong but didn’t do a thing. I’m glad I found you guys on the net. (Now I know there’s others who hated those goddamn events as much as I did.)
Shill = Judas goat
From Wikipedia,
A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared. Judas goats are also used to lead other animals to specific pens and onto trucks. They have fallen out of use in recent times, but can still be found in various smaller slaughterhouses in some parts of the world.
This is a great one for the TSI’s (those still in) to read.
They are all *fooled* into giving up their money. None of that contributing would happen if this high-class lying and smoke and mirrors wasn’t employed.
Yay for that guy who thought technical quality was more important, but it looks like they got him anyway.
Especially love the quotes about knowingly denying LRH policy so leave it out. There ya go you guys….STOP CONTRIBUTING TO THIS TOTAL SCAM!!!!
I’m trying to reply to Bonnie here but there was no reply thing on it. There is actual LRH reference that makes regging staff for money off policy and illegal. It is an internal reference on blue paper for SO members that I read while on the EPF. It says that since staff give of their time, they are not to be regged for money. Ha! I’ve seen staff woken up at 1 a.m. to reg them cuz the SO knew that they had a small inheritance.
I was told when I joined SO to give up ALL my money to the IAS so that I would not have money and thus would not have “a back door” to exit the SO. (in other words, I’d have no money with which to leave the SO). “You’ll be happier knowing that all the doors are closed and you’ll make it go right to stay in the SO and be successful if you give up all your money.” I am not kidding. I’m so glad I never followed that advice.
Cece – I agree on learning the expensive lesson. I think everyone who has been in the RCS or still is must learn that one.
Regarding Bridget in IAS (at PAC Base), I have dealt with that woman and have observed her on many occasions. Personally, I think she has an evil streak. I have seen her nasty attitude on display more times than I care to.
The worst thing I saw Bridget do was talk to an obviously low income public (outside the canteen where I was eating lunch) into gifting her pension plan to the IAS. The poor woman’s body language said it all: fear. She was huddled into herself, her face was white and her eyes were popping out of her head. I didn’t want to overhear this conversation, but from where I was sitting it couldn’t be helped. I felt sick listening to this and wanted to intervene on the woman’s behalf. Of course, that would have looked like I was being insane, out-ethics, evil purposed, etc. I just hoped that the woman would have the strength to say no. Bridget was in her best form, telling the woman how she “was such a good person” and so on. It still sickens me now, just thinking about it.
That is horrifying. !! The fact that someone would ask another person to do that is horrifying. I hope the woman had enough sense to not sign her pension away. Whew.
This explains a lot about people I met in the “Church”. Some were OK, but some were not. It also explains all those BMWs and Porsches in the parking lot. (I’m sure a lot of folks are honest and worked hard and bought a fancy car. No big deal. But others. . . I don’t know. Too bad I won’t go near the ORG or an Ideal Org event. It would make an interesting study figuring out who’s pitching the Ideal Org to line their own pockets.)
i once saw regges ganging up on a middle-aged woman SO member to convince her to bust open a trust fund of hers to buy a Patron status. Luckily I don’t think she did it, but the pressure was unmerciful and manipulative in the extreme.
I thought that one of the most despicable practices was regging staff. For one, they all make sh*t wages and barely make it from month to month. For another, they’re a captive audience. Easy prey.
Not only that, but they’re ordered to attend those damn fund raisers (you know, “show your support, you don’t actually have to give anything”), but had to set through the entire event. Couldn’t have staff get up and leave.
The sad part is that staff did contribute financially at each one of those events.
The regges also did show up at my house, to make sure I wasn’t sitting on some money that was clearly “theirs”.
When I got out of Scientology one of my biggest realizations was that my money actually DID belong to me and they couldn’t touch it.
The IAS uses the same tech. I’ve been a “shill” for the IAS a time or two.
I remember remember being upset once and talking to the sup about all this out-exchange, and off policy crap.
She said” I would be upset,too if I thought all that money went for personal gain.”
Sweet gal, good sup, too, as she struggles to raise her kids on staff pay (She’s totally into it. She wants to donate enough to get her name on a brick or some such at the new ORG.)
Yes, the IAS(International Association of Suppressives) has been using the same pattern since the mid 1980s, when I went to a couple of “special IAS briefings”. Sounds like it has been refined and extended into a real fundraising juggernaut.
I know! My first IAS reg cycle was in the 80’s. After the OLD MAN died, these people spawned like cockroaches.
Yup, and have become more overt about it. Same deal really, was primarily IAS then, now anything they can dream up for a fundraising scam will be generated around it.
What I find fascinating is the free use of the word “shill” by Mark Arnold, but I guess it is the perfect word for what they are doing!
shill | sh il| informal
noun
an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others.
What is Tom Cruise if not a shill?
I remember way back in the 70s the celebs on lines at the Geltman Mission in NYC being used the same way.
Yes, that free use of the word shill is shocking. Maybe he did not word clear it? It is a frank admission of manipulating people and promoting unethical fundraising practices.
It is also incredibly stupid to then do a write up of your manipulation of people and your unethical practices for the world to see.
Appalling is also the fact that there is NO MENTION whatsoever in training auditors, boosting up the Academy, auditing people, making Clears…he is so monumentally never in history seen Off Hat that, I am sure, he is not even aware of it.
Also, he is scrambling the Org Board by using some of his staff onto only doing collections of donations activities. No wonder the Idle Orgs are doing so, so, so poorly.
+1!
Church of Scientology may have a legal problem here. I hope if someone with resources agrees, he/she will follow up.
There are strict IRS rules on how one can deduct donations to a church (see http://www.irs.gov/publications/p526/ar02.html#en_US_2013_publink1000229649).
Say I donated $1,000 to the Seattle efforts, and then deducted $1,000 for federal tax purposes when I filed. But it turns out, only $900 actually went to the church — the other $100 was paid to specific people as a commission — and that is not a charitable donation, so cannot be deducted.
If the donor knew about the 10% commission, okay, if the person then only claimed a $900 deduction — but what a rube! Put on a bigger scale, what kind of fool would donate $1,000,000 knowing that one or two people — people, not the organization — are taking $100,000 off the top!
So if Scientology is telling the donors that a 10% commission is being taken off the top, and the donor only deducts 90% of the donation, then the donor is probably okay — but it does not sound like Scientology discloses this to the donor. In that case, Scientology may arguably be encouraging donors to commit income tax fraud.
Scientology probably does year-end tax notices to its donors so they have documentation of their deductible donations. If those documents show the full 100% of the donation, rather than 90% (to factor out the commission), then Scientology itself may be creating fraudulent tax records.
Then from another angle, what about the people receiving the commissions? Are they reporting the commission as taxable income to themselves personally? The 10% commission could hardly be argued to be the administrative cost allowance of the charitable organization since the money is not going to the organization at all. Are the individuals getting the commissions also at risk of violating tax regulations? (On small donations, hence small commissions, probably not an issue since staff get paid little to nothing anyway and so would not be likely to owe any taxes. But on a big donation from a “whale” — that could be $100,000 of income if the commission went to one person for a donation of $1,000,000.)
I’ve worked with 503(c) regulations, charities, and non-profit organizations. The whole fundraising “hat” described above stinks to high heaven. It is unethical and possibly leads to multiple violations or IRS regulations by donors, people getting commissions, and the Church.
And what kind of idiot, acting so irresponsibly, actually writes it down!
Here is a possible course of action:
1. Publish the whole Arnold letter in the major Seattle newspapers under the heading “Informational Notice to Donors to the Church of Scientology” — and put in his full text. Might go in the public and legal announcements section.
2. Get a tax attorney’s input.
3. If an attorney indeed feels there may be IRS code violations here, alert the IRS and ask for an investigation.
Different aspect of all this:
When wondering if donors are told about the commissions, I found myself also wondering if PCs are told they are being audio- and video-recorded? This is another potential legal problem for Scientology. In some states, you do not have to disclose that you are recording someone — but for a church to do so is an incredible breach of trust. In other states, I believe even a church would have to fully disclose that the PC is being recorded. And who would want to open up deeply in that kind of setting?
I can think of how well this would go over in the Catholic church.
(Penitent) Forgive me father, for I have sinned.
(Priest) Before we begin, I want you to be aware that your confession is being videotaped.
(Penitent) What?
(Priest) Yes. It is for quality control to ensure that all of us priests are delivering standard confession.
(Penitent) … Well, I don’t know …
(Priest) You have faith in God and the church, don’t you?
(Penitent) Well, yes.
(Priest) Then nothing to worry about. Let’s proceed. You wer saying you have sinned.
(Penitent) But who all will see my confession? Where will it be stored? How long will it be kept?
(Priest) Well, a number of people might see it — but just for quality control and training purposes. As church property, it will be kept forever.
(Penitent) I just realized I have a bus to catch … Gotta go.
Not the case. The donation is made to the Church, then the Church pays the commission as income to the individual who by law must claim it as income and pay any taxes on it. Same as FSM commissions. It’s frightening how broad the organizational protections are once an entity is declared tax-exempt.
Thanks Innocent Bystander. At the very least this is still sleight of hand. If not unlawful, it is still unethical. And not just my opinion. Here is a quote from one item of the Code of Ethics from the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP):
“24. Members shall not pay finder’s fees, commissions or percentage compensation based on contributions, and shall take care to discourage their organizations from making such payments.”
(from http://www.afpnet.org/Ethics/EnforcementDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=3261)
In another place, the Council of Nonprofit Organizations does not mince words:
“”Can we pay our fundraiser a commission?” One frequently asked question about ethics and fundraising is whether it is appropriate for a nonprofit to compensate a fundraising professional based on a percentage of the money raised. The ethical code adopted by the AFP answers that question with an unequivocal ‘No.’ – See more at: http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/resources/ethics-in-fundraising#sthash.gg1Ke1Qr.dpuf
(from http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/resources/ethics-in-fundraising)
As you point out, a commission system is also used for Field Staff Members.
I consider that to be further unethical behavior from “the most ethical group on the planet.”
Even if the Seattle use of shills and commissions is not illegal, it is fundamentally unethical by the broad standards of fundraising professionals. That really should be exposed.
I therefore amend my suggestion above to publish the Arnold letter in major Seattle newspapers, to (a) publish it in major Washington and national newspapers and (b) publish it along with the ethical standards of national fundraising professionals for a contrast. To be professional and courteous, it would be good to consult with Council of Nonprofits and Association of Fundraising Professionals before getting them tangled in the muck of Scientology out-ethics. They might have a better idea on how to approach this.
Great post FOTF! You are correct in noting the FRAUD. If the donor is unaware of the KICKBACKS. If the person taking commissions has withheld this data. Love the Catholic Church analogy!
Thanks Oracle!
I do sometimes wonder where everyone’s videotaped sessions end up, Or for that matter, paper folders. In a Catholic confession you have an unwritten discussion with the priest (and God, I guess), You can let go of it afterward. It becomes part of your past.
In Scientology, the written, audio, and video “confessions” never go away, you never know if the written parts are correct or not, you do not see the C/S or auditor or DofP comments, and so on. In other words, your past becomes part of your present and your future, forever, and ever.
Rather than erase your “bank,” (reactive mind for some readers) you have simply transcribed it onto a permanent record.
To me it seems the videotaping of auditing sessions is absolutely not primarily about quality control: it is about control over the PC, forever and ever.
That too, from “the most ethical group on the planet.”
Not only are the auditing sessions recorded, but at Flag the MAA sessions with public are recorded, without the public’s knowledge. And they have look in capability where someone on the other end sees and hears your MAA cycle and tells the MAA things in their ear to tell you what to do etc
Back in the ’80s,while on the SHSBC ,I did a lot a session recordings. I used a big vhs recorder and a tripod. Before the session, I would make very, very certain the PC was ok with it. If not I’d turn the camera off or pull the recording rig out of the auditing room. After session, my twin and the Sup were the ones who watched it, and we made sure no one else did. Afterwards the tape was erased. I don’t recall if there is any LRH on the subject. it seems like we just used The Auditors Code and common sense. Video is a good tool if handled correctly. (Now, with micro-technology and DM at the helm, I don’t want to think about it . . .)
Top notch article, Special Correspondent.
How nice for the affluent donors who think they are “humanitarians” for giving to Ideal Orgs are openly referred to as “Shills”. Do they think of themselves that way?
All the other poor souls attending the fundraising events are just marks or rubes. If only the faithful public had a clue as to how they are looked at!
Using the option of “just showing up at his house or business”. Oh yes, I know that one; by Way to Happiness coming to my house at 8pm on a Sunday night and refusing to leave until I wrote a $25,000 check (which I didn’t). I wouldn’t let the two guys in my house, since they immediately announced their intention. One was from CMO and one from TWTH. It was cold that night and when they told me they would not leave, I told them “I hope you guys have blankets, cuz it’s going to be a long cold night.”
After two hours of haggling in the cold, I wrote them a check for $400 and they were on their way to their next mark.
There were visits from the IAS, Super Power, Sea Org recruiters (MANY of those). Here’s a tip: When they ask you if they can come in to use your bathroom, don’t let them in. Tell them there’s a gas station or Denny’s down the road and they can use the restroom there. If you let them in to “use the bathroom”, they will NOT leave and will harrass you for hours. It’s hard to get them out without being forceful or being what I consider socially rude. Sea Org recruiters always use the “bathroom” plea to get inside your home. Don’t fall for it.
Scientology has become a living, breathing Giant Sponge, for money and humans for use.
Pepper,
I moved to South Carolina about 9 years ago. When they were trying to get the Nashville CC up and running I had a visit from two sea org Members. Its amazing how far and wide these vultures will travel to get what they want. Luckily we lived at the end of a long dark lane and they never came back. Probably scared the crap out of them.
Richard – it seems that long dark lane has served you well!
I have mentioned this before… even so, it seems to apply:
I put my local police on speed dial. Then I called the police and told them that I was trying to get away from Scientologists and that Scientologists would stalk me for money at odd times late at night and would they, the police, come if I more Scientologists showed up at my door? The policeman on the other end of the phone said, “Absolutely.”
The next time a group of Scientologists showed up at my door (it was late evening) I spoke to them through the window and said that I have the police on speed dial and unless they leave right now, I will call the police. The little Band of Leeches was shocked. I had to repeat myself. Told them that if they don’t leave right now I will be calling the police and they can explain to the police what they are doing there and what they want. I had the phone in my hand.
They just turned and left. I never got another visit like that.
Zana, so did they then KR you for “being rude to the SO”? They did KR me and my friend. The irony is they are the rude ones coming uninvited at all hours and refusing to leave, but if you dare write them up for rudeness, you’d probably get declared!
This is stalking, trespassing and extortion. Just call the police. There is no “carrot” worth this degradation.
dmslappyface, Saint Jude’s Hospital comes to mind. Red Cross. Around this last Christmas season I was in a Wall*Mart bathroom and next stall was a gal on a phone with obviously her senior. She was under great duress to fill her bucket with donations and must have been doing poorly. She gave excuses as she was being compared to another bucket a few miles away having no problems filling his bucket. She responded saying well he is playing a trumpet – I can’t play trumpet. Anyway, I got to thinking about how I never hear on the news about the Salvation Army helping anyone but I have not checked that out. I decided to check before donating. I could not find what I wanted at that Wall*Mart so I traveled to another on my way home. There the lad was playing the trumpet (as an exchange)and was getting donations.
A couple gals around here who knew their unemployment benefits were being cut off in the new year, collected mistletoe from the trees and bagged it and made 40$ one day and 60$ another that I know of just selling these little bags by the local store.
Donations with nothing in return except cobs lies will not last long. I don’t in anyway feel sorry for the donors as that is their lesson to learn. It takes what it takes to come to an understanding that the church and religion you cherished has betrayed you at your cost. I paid for my patron at a time 2003? when I returned from a trip to find in my pile of scientology mail, a flyer that promoted the help the IAS was providing some recent catastrophe. I had plenty of credit and knew my house was selling so I donated the 40K thinking I was helping those persons effected. Well the house didn’t sell for another year so I ended up paying an additional 20K in interest to the credit cards and then to find out the money most likely went to dms extravagant lifestyle and possibly also tom cruse’s – what could I do? Regret doesn’t get a product.
Us communicating the truth does.
Oh the really rude awakening on this was a month after I donated I was scheduled the next day to start NOTS. Well, Bridget thought I should instead of getting sessionable donate more money and after she failed to get more money she ‘tagged’ with a guy Ben Elkington? who had survived 2 lightning strikes and was a big donor and ‘always made more money every time he donated’. I didn’t want more money so that didn’t work. She tried to keep me past the time I needed to go home and be sessionable with no care at all about me getting my first session in some 8 years or the auditor scheduling etc. I insisted on leaving and she attempted to get in my car to go home with me!
I filed it as an expensive lesson. These guys still in obviously need their lesson too.
Cece, what you went through! I’m sorry. But you’re right that each Sheeple will have to have their own expensive lesson. I have had similar things happen to me too.
Quite a story Cece. It really is sickening to hear people’s desire to help and contribute turned into betrayal. Have faith in your good karma. This degrading and disrespectful treatment of decent people is truly disgusting.
It’s hard to read this without feeling physically ill. Reminds me of way too many of these horrific events I attended by the likes of Jeff Pomerantz who did indeed trouser 10% of all takings. No doubt Mark Arnold was once a decent guy but there is another technical term to describe his ilk; total twat. When he does finally wake up the magnitude of his “overts” will be hard to confront.
Mike wrote:
L Ron Hubbard quotes have nothing to do with this because L Ron Hubbard despised the idea of asking for donations without giving back valuable services in return, a subject he covered vigorously in a series of letters loosely called the Safe Environment Fund Advices, or “SEF advices”.
Since you have obviously read these LRH Advices, and probably many more than these SEF Advices from LRH, I need to ask you a question. Please don;t be offended because I mean no offense. I just want to understand better.
You’ve read “The Hidden Data Line” where L Ron Hubbard assures every Scientologists that there was no hidden data line from Scientologists, and that they had all the policies and tech (besides the confidential OT levels) at their disposal, and they could tell when someone in “authority” was operating on standard Scientology.
So as you read these secret advices, and operated on them from your post at Int management, how did you justify this?
What orders were you under to keep these LRG Advices secret from Scientologists?
How was this secrecy justified?
Did you ever run into an instance where an LRH Advice contradicted a published LRH policy? Which were you supposed to apply? And how was that justified?
Just need a little reality here, because it certainly appears that LRH lied to Scientologists wen he said there was no hidden data line. And a lot of the crazy, seemingly off policy and out tech actions that I witnessed by management as a low level mission staff member could be explained by this kind of lying by LRH.
So set me straight, will you please?
How did this secret LRH Advice line work, exactly?
Anyone from Int can jump in here and answer for Mike, if this is the kind of question that he does not want on his lines.
Alanzo
Alanzo, this post was written by a Special Correspondent – Mike is on well earned vacation. Your question is very broad. I can answer on the SEF letters. When Mary Sue was facing jail time for the Snow White fiasco, someone had the bight idea to call on public Scientologists to make donations for her legal defense. Thus the Safe Environment Fund was born. At that time many of the same fundraising activities that DM started after LRH died were done. They held special events and closed door briefings and asked public Scientologists to contribute to this fund which would cover legal fees. When LRH heard that this was being done he wrote a series of letters to management at that time telling them to shut it down fast and explained that in HIS Scientology one does not ask for donations without giving some service or materials in retiurn. I think because he was royally pissed off these letters are classified as highly confidential. It’s the old problem that LRH did not specifically forbid every stupid ass thing that people can come up with. There is tons of policy on the subject of donations and how they work which covers the subject specifically. There is tons of policy on overall finances of an org and how orgs support themselves. There is tons of policy on org buildings and how one pays for them. This is all specific policy that says how you actually do things. There is also tons of policy on exchange which covers the subject generally. But there is no policy that lists every stupid, greedy way to do it wrong. That is not how policy works. L Ron Hubbard said – handle this subject in this way. He did not then list every possible wrong way. On the subject of LRH letters (called advices) there are tons of these. LRH wanted to be able to write letters to the people he worked with without having to publish every last word. But LRH also addressed this potential problem when he laid out a “seniority” of his writings. All his PUBLISHED works carry seniority. A great example of this is LRH’s famous pissed-of letter where he says that people routing out of the Int Base during some emergency should be automatically declared. That was grabbed and used for decades despite the fact that it contridicted reams of published policy. Every person who left staff at the int base for whatever reason was automatically declared, because “LRH ordered it”. There is even a policy that explains this nuttiness. Guy walks in and sees that all the typewriters are on the floor and asks why. Gets the answer- but you ordered that sir, last week when we were cleaning. Anyhow Alanzo, big subject, lots of opinions, those are a few to let rattle around.
Great job of explaining. Thank you.
Thank you very much Acting Moderator (if that’s your real name! )
(:>).
You provided history about the SEF Advices that I did not know, and this has helped me put those particular set of secret LRH Advices into better perspective.
This is the trouble with hidden data lines, which LRH also wrote about in “The Hidden Data Line” and elsewhere.
I have run into decision-making by management from LRH Advices before, which violated “Senior Policy” even, and was told that I could not see the Advice and would just have to accept that the promise of delivery that was broken was based on an LRH Advice.
It reminded me of a Franz Kafka book I read once.
So thanks for your up-front explanation of a secret LRH practice. It would be great to have a lot more of how this worked out in the open and explained to everyone.
Alanzo
‘It’s the old problem that LRH did not specifically forbid every stupid ass thing that people can come up with.”
Or vice versa
“‘It’s the old problem that LRH did not specifically forbid every stupid ass thing that people can come up with.”
And of course, LRH’s expressed disdain for “wog law”? [Edited by Moderator]
Mooser42001- comments that are harshly critical of LRH belong over on Tony Ortegas blog, or some other blog. There are plenty of places where you can vent your anger. If you want to list some specific thing that LRH wrote that relates to this thread and complain about it that would probably work. Or you can just bottle it up till Mike is back from vacation. It’s only a few days.
LRH was a stickler about people following his policies. Writing a quiet note with very limited distribution supporting existing policy re: exchange is NOT a hidden data line. But you already know that. Underlying all this is that LRH saw the Snow White debacle blow back on the Church as a personal betrayal of him by Mary Sue. He had no intention of EVER setting foot in a court room again so targeted her for the fall. And fall she did. Hard. Interestingly enough she never uttered a single word against him even when she knew he had abandoned her.
knatherthomas —
“…LRH saw the Snow White debacle blow back on the Church as a personal betrayal of him by Mary Sue.”
You’re not the first person on this blog to mention betrayal, LRH and Mary Sue in the same sentence. I’m still at a loss, after all these years, to understand why LRH looked to MSH as someone who betrayed him specifically in regards to this program
I was at GO WW when the proverbial shit hit the fan, i.e. summer of 1977, moments after the US raid took place. I got a crash-course indoctrination into what Snow White was about by having to dive in and redact hundreds of documents. My opinion – I am absolutely certain, based on what I personally read, what I heard 2nd and 3rd hand from 20 different sources at WW, and what I could extrapolate from all of the above — that LRH had a direct hand in and/or knew about Snow White and its aims from the very beginning.
Did it evolve beyond what he wrote, said, advised, suggested — perhaps. I have no data to confirm or refute this. All I know is what I personally observed, and in my opinion he was the driving force behind a program designed to find the source(s) of the false data, third party, malicious rumors, and should-be-suppressed truths about SCN.
For years I had problems with this piece of my time track and how it affected my view of SCN, LRH and everyone at GO WW at that time. I recently started to unravel what my attention was actually on.
Please keep in mind, I saw some of the documents coming in from the IRS, Interpol and other sources at that time 1976-1978. Some of this stuff was purely works of fiction. Reports depicting SCN rituals involving copious amount of LSD, sex orgies and animal sacrifices – I kid you not. So I understand why they generated such emotions. But I am certain there were accurate reports as well. Hell, some ended up as evidence in the Trials.
But all of this came to a head for me after watching a recent episode of GPS (Global Public Square) on Sunday mornings, CBS. The host had on a high-level former NSA head and he articulated an idea I had rattling around for years. Of Course he used recent examples of the NSA’s data gathering programs that targeted ally governments, like Britain, Germany, and others.
If you are a President, Prime Minister, or Chancellor, and specifically ask for very detailed information, very detailed information about a certain person, agency or activity, you MUST take into account and consider HOW that information is REALISTICALLY going to be attained.
In other words, you cannot ask for specific information about highly confidential subjects, that are restricted to just a very few possible sources, (including bugged phones) and then be completely shocked when that information is revealed to have been attained through questionable means.
Yes, there is plausible deniability, but is that what we are discussing here with LRH and Snow White? Whoever put Snow White into effect, who thought copies of restricted documents could be obtained, current confidential information could be gathered, all by simply asking the gov’t for it, (in Pre-Freedom of Information Act days), well, those persons were delusional. If you want a copy of a document or information that is NOT available in public records and you get it, then it came from someone’s file cabinet, computer or briefcase. To think otherwise is dangerously naive.
Snow White was a ticking time bomb that blew Scientology completely off course and started 35 years of a dwindling spiral within the Church. It sent LRH into exile, David Miscavige into power and relegated thousands of auditors and quality people into the Gulags.
MSH, in my opinion, was the heroine in this whole affair. She protected LRH so, because she was protecting Scientology and its future. She fell on her own sword and was ostracized by DM and his clones for doing it.
Anyway, didn’t intend to ramble on so — it just happened.
Odd
“MSH, in my opinion, was the heroine in this whole affair. She protected LRH so, because she was protecting Scientology and its future. She fell on her own sword and was ostracized by DM and his clones for doing it.” Yes Odd Thomas, Mary Sue Hubard was a heroine. She was only applying the Simon Bolivar policy that her husband wrote and doing what he said to do to flow power to power and to save Scientology. And for that she got nothing but heartache. It’s so sad what happened to her. DM had a big hand in it as he controlled the comm into and from LRH and he wouldn’t let any of MSH’s letters get to LRH. And LRH was stupid to blame it all on her and not realize she was trying to save him and the church.
I had routed out of the SO and had only been out three weeks. I had managed to find a job at a Scientologist-owned company. But, at that point I literally did not have a pot to piss in. I did not yet have a car, and got a ride to work daily with another Scientologist, who was a donor (both Ideal Orgs and Basic Packages). Riding to work one day he got a call from the ED of the local org and had it on speaker in his car. The ED, who did not know I was in the car, asked the other guy, if “your new friend” was ready to start making donations. Not one word or question about how I was doing, did I need anything. No. It was: is the guy ready to start being exploited as our cash cow? Well, there was a silver lining in all this, since it was a very graphic revelation about the state of mind of the org/loyal public and so settled for me that I would never become one of their public, never donate to their Ideal org, and stay as far away from the place as possible. So — thanks to that ED for showing me their true colors up front, even if they did not know they were doing it.
And actually it is even worse than that. I subsequently found out that this same ED who was trying to grab my money before I even earned it, had also advised the Scientologist owner of the company to not hire me (even though the owner did hire me despite the helpful advice).
To SadState
What a boon for you that you happened to be riding in the car at the moment of that ED’s call. What a low-life that he didn’t want to see you gainfully employed.
I would say a very bright silver lining in it all and am very happy for you.
Why is it that I feel sick to my stomach reading this?
Yeah!
Darn, I’ve misplace my barf bags…
Greta
Know what this reminds me of? I bet somewhere in old Nazi documents there’s a “hat write-up” for how to remove the most posible gold fillings from concentration camp prisoners’ corpses. I’m sure some Nazi got a fucking award for achieving a “gold fillings retrieval world record. ”
This document will appear in future court records, I guaran-damn-tee you! Thanks to those who helped it see the light of day here.
Keep doing what you’re doing, Church of Scientology. Don’t change a thing!
I HOPE this document ends up in future court records!! This is truly disgusting. A nightmare. Whew.
“But the donator isn’t giving “something for nothing.” He’s getting a big, beautiful building in exchange. It’s 3rd dynamic exchange, you see, like how the Christians get big churches. And we have to have big buildings, too. Why? Well, people know us by our MEST. And Scientology doesn’t work unless it’s in a big, expensive building. COB RTC says so.
It’s why our buildings are empty. Spiritual people won’t walk into a building unless it’s big and expensive. And if the current field are going broke because of donating too much, they need to raise their necessity level and make more money. Really, they just need to get their ethics in on that point, because big beings could make it go right. It’s their choice if they don’t.”
I’ve heard it all. But the thing that’s missing here is those donors for those “big, Christian churches” you see at every other corner in the south US, donate what they can. Those churches have thousands of REAL parishioners. And the ones that don’t, stay in a small building until they do.
Even the Christian churches of the south are applying the conditions. The tech that’s supposed to be part of the Scientology scriptures.
I don’t know about the US but those massive cathedrals in Europe that Scn often tries to make comparisons to took sometimes a century to build – and that is with the entire population being Christian.
The relationship the church has with LRH at this point is simply parasitic. They use him when it is convenient and then kick him to the curb when what he stated about criminal exchange becomes uncomfortable.
These folks who traffic in this travesty are only able to do so at this point because they are all sharing in the crime. At some point this stopped being a crime for them and turned into, “this is how it is done now”.
When this sick show finally comes to a stop there are going to be a lot of very embarrassed and shame filled folks who will have to live with what they did to their fellow parishioners.
11. DO NOT HARM A PERSON OF GOOD WILL
“Such people are easy to attack: their very decency prevents them from overprotecting themselves. Yet the survival of most of the individuals in a society depends upon them” LRH
+1
Spot on K Francis! You are so right. I hate to see what is happening.
So true KFrancis.
This use of shills is blatantly defrauding people out of their money. When money is collected with nothing in exchange (no auditing or training) it transforms any organization into a criminal organization. Today they view their members as “marks” to be plucked and then discarded. The Bridge to total freedom is not delivered. Instead the “idea” of the Bridge is used as bait to get fresh new “marks” to pluck. And, the Basics, Objectives, re-doing everything, etc… are designed to keep old marks within reach. Poor bastards.
Thank God I went off the Reservation some years back.
I did sit through De Dinging brief at SFO . An export of Stevens Creek Org that was created by two psychiatrists that sold it to Kingsley Wimbush.The money they raked in went to expensive cars,fancy homes, expensive art,expensive furniture,Gold coins,jewelry, in sort nothing about making a Clear Planet for everyone was TOTAL CRAP.
The FIX was the Financial Police which took the battle to the source.The Financial Police rented stretch limos to go around to Orgs to beat up staff for “THE MONEY”
(not a metaphor)
This all smacks of a sanitary version of this Psych crap.
JC — I would like to know more about the “source” of the de-dinging at Stevens Creek. I was in SFO in 1983 when the Finance Police stormed in and shredded everything that didn’t have a “Made in Scientology” label on it. As I recall this de-ding process came from an eval done by Wimbush, when his staff were taking hits for being on staff, or invalidated for various and sundry things, like making too much money. Didn’t hear too much beyond that.
I was on staff at the time and on finance lines and knew that Stevens Creek staff made good money – I was happy about it. I felt at least somebody was. Didn’t hear about jewelry and expensive cars – but again, I felt this mission and others in the area were actually demonstrating what LRH had been saying for decades – people could survive delivering SCN.
Of course that spirit was dutifully stomped out by the storm troopers and while they chanted Mission Accomplished, they left behind a “slashed & burned” field that never recovered. A truly successful mission by Flag Management.
Odd
After reading Mark’s write up I think I need a de-dinging session. Calling public donators “shills” is definitely a “ding.”
The Stevens Creek Mission was making in GI 80 X more than all other missions. This caught upper mgmt’s attention.
( of course)
The money went that went to Wimbush was split with the two psychs who spent it like water on anything shiny and cost a lot of money.On the way to the 1982 SF Mission Holders conference Wimbush was summarily RPF’d.
You no longer see ships Bells in halls of Orgs to ring when staff gets money from public or fish bowls on supes desks to bribe to supe for a word clearer
because it was too blatant and overt. De Dinging was promoted as”All LRH”
but was in fact an invention of two psychs.( truth revealed)
None of this was lost on David Miscavige who put the “Pig” in a tuxedo and called the way LRH intended it to be. Look on the internet under David Miscaviges lifestyle.
All started with Stevens Creek and Wimbushs Psych pals.
Lets see the Financial books of the IAS and Scientology, where the money really goes.
De Dinging at Stevens Creek Org used a Bell system of Bells mounted in the
Org for staff to use ( all staff were made regs and given financial targets)
If the staff did not make a target they would ring the bell once.When they made a target they would ring the bell twice. This came from Pavlov’s
experiments with dogs. Pavlov would ring a bell and feed the dogs conditioning them such that just ringing the bell caused the dog to drool and slobber.
This worked at Steven’s Creek with separating public from their money so well that GI was 80 times higher than all other Orgs.
San Francisco was slated to become a model of Russian Psychiatry until the true source of De Dinging was discovered (Pavlov Institute) and the bells were removed at Steven’s Creek,etc.
Today all staff are reg’s and given financial targets which is a hold over from Russian Psychiatry on the lines ( De Dinging) Levels of status have replaced the bells and are presented in an ever increasing “Reward” system to entice the public to keep on giving for the next higher status. SHILL’S are employed
to promote competition within the group.
Jose, were you actually there and had personal knowledge of this? Did you meet a psychologist who was involved? I heard a lot about this and was in Scientology at the time but I never heard about pyschs. Just about the money, and frankly I could care less if people make a lot of money selling scientology courses or or auditing as long as they deliver what they promised.
Here is an article by Bernie Wimbush on that whole de-dinging thing. Very interesting, read the follow up comments too! http://www.iscientology.org/scientology-blog/384-what-de-dinging-actually-was
It all smacks of the mob putting the squeeze on you and hurting you if you didn’t contribute. But at least the mob had some kind of exchange. They “protected” you if you gave them money. The church doesn’t even do that. They then accumulate nice real estate that the real donors don’t even own a share of…. it all is owned by DM and the church. Nice assets that can be liquidated when he needs money. Again, his exchange level is criminal. These 1.1 tricks to get money make me sick.
WOW, takes me right back to the whole ugly affair of fundraising. I was in the middle of ALL this shit from 2008 to 2011. It did start earlier than that, say 2005, but heated up to the level mentioned above from 2008-2011. Ended then because we left Feb 2012! 🙂
When we were asked to buy that book, The Asking Book (can’t find mine I must have thrown it out in my purge), I was quite surprised that we were to read a NON-LRH book on fundraising. That SHOULD have been a serious red flag.
Yes, I have sufficient personal experience to affirm what is said in this blog post. I’ve been asked to do many of those things. I’ve been pre-regged many times. We were asked to show up at peoples’ houses unannounced. My wife and I quite resisted doing that. Overall we were quite ineffective at fundraising, mainly because I couldn’t hard sell someone who couldn’t afford it! Unfortunately my ability to resist some fundraising didn’t come until much later. Once I did it was quite interesting how the SO mission,and OTC fundraisers “treated” us like we didn’t exist – 1.1 friendliness was about all they could muster.
I also fell into the post of sending out the promo – LRH quotes are used for one purpose, FUNDRAISE! Most of the time taken grossly out of context, to the point of where they were taken almost meant the opposite of what they were used for.
Bruce
Stop the madness of Scientology …really!
All of these donors are looking for a long-term return on their investment of “a world without war, crime and insanity” (the official goals of SCN). That’s noble, they just need to be aware that there are real organizations out their donations would better serve to achieve this end.
I would like to hear from others here about good organizations for people to donate to that are actually helping achieve the goals of “a world without war, crime and insanity.” I know there are many…
dmslappyface,
Please see my notes below about “good organizations.”
I am a professional fundraiser who has worked for several ‘real’ nonprofit organizations. I would never work for an organization that approaches fundraising the way Scientology does; however, there are several clarifications I’d like to make:
1. I have worked with Jerry Panas, and know him as a very very respected fundraiser of the highest (wog) ethics. I think he’s going to be horrified to learn that his book is being used to augment and perhaps even legitimize Scientology’s fundraising plan.
2. The use of ‘shills’ and ‘pre-regging’ is not unique or frowned upon in real-world fundraising. However, most who agree to help jump-start a fundraiser don’t pretend to be suddenly overcome with the desire to support a project or cause, but instead announce a matching gift or leadership gift that was carefully designed ahead of time to help expand the impact of the donor’s intended support.
3. The Association of Fundraising Professionals, Grant Professionals Association, and other professional industry groups do NOT advocate using a percentage of raised funds to pay a professional fundraiser. This practice is misleading to the donor and does not demonstrate transparency in stewardship of funds. It is against widely accepted professional ethics in the field.
GOOD ORGANIZATIONS:
My personal advice would be that you don’t give to any organization that you aren’t personally familiar with. Do your research – nonprofits (but not churches) are required to have financial information available for public inspection; you can also find 990 forms for many charities on Guidestar.
Don’t give to any organization that doesn’t follow the Donor Bill of Rights:
To be informed of the organization’s mission, of the way the organization intends to use donated resources, and of its capacity to use donations effectively for their intended purposes.
To be informed of the identity of those serving on the organization’s governing board, and to expect the board to exercise prudent judgment in its stewardship responsibilities.
To have access to the organization’s most recent financial statements.
To be assured their gifts will be used for the purposes for which they were given.
To receive appropriate acknowledgement and recognition.
To be assured that information about their donation is handled with respect and with confidentiality to the extent provided by law.
To expect that all relationships with individuals representing organizations of interest to the donor will be professional in nature.
To be informed whether those seeking donations are volunteers, employees of the organization or hired solicitors.
To have the opportunity for their names to be deleted from mailing lists that an organization may intend to share.
To feel free to ask questions when making a donation and to receive prompt, truthful and forthright answers.
Jesus, what a nightmare.
Showing a 40-minute COB briefing before AND during a fundraiser?
“Do this again and again over 5 or 6 events and it starts to sink in.”
I’m quite sure SOMETHING starts to sink in. Maybe a cognition along the lines of “I will avoid these events for the rest of my whole track.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgyiDZggmtI