The Scientology “Information Center”
Scientology is having a tough time getting any sort of positive coverage in the media.
But they are scoring well on the negative side.
When you measure the ratio in terms of column inches/minutes of entheta vs theta media, things are looking grim.
So, in the face of that, they BUY press releases — these particular ones go out on “GlobeNewswire” from the spiritual headquarters of scientology in Clearwater. They are pretty amusing.
Check out this first one — they are pleased to announce the addition of 100 new videos illustrating different aspect of scientology. Turns out they are the “Grand Opening” ribbon yanking videos from the ideal orgs…. You can bet the citizens of Clearwater have been on the edge of their seats waiting for these videos to be available locally (tip, if you are REALLY interested, you can watch them in comfort on their website without someone standing over you to try and get a “success” out of you).
And to top off the big news they have a quote from Mark “a frequent Information Center visitor.” This guy is either a homeless person or the child of scientologists who dump him off there as a convenient babysitting venue.
This, quite lliterally, reads like a droll Onion article they are so famous for — headlines and hype about the absolutely mundane and unremarkable.
A week later, they put out another one.
Oh, what a coincidence, they are both sent out on THURSDAY before 2pm!
This one is extra strange. One would imagine from reading it that “Blast Friday Concert” was something put on by scientology — it’s NOT. It is something done by the City of Clearwater to try to attract people downtown despite the “elephant in the room” as a Clearwater City Commissioner recently described scientology. Given the wording, you could be forgiven for thinking that “several thousand people” of “all ethnic backgrounds”(you mean this was not a “whites only” event?) came into the “information center”. They didn’t. Maybe two or three unsuspecting people went in — the vast majority of Clearwater residents and even out of town visitors know to stay away from the scientology buildings.
They claim their visitors were from “all faiths.” I wonder how they knew that? Did they really ask them “Are you a Christian or a Protestant or a Baptist?” (I guess the Public Information Director isn’t much of a religious scholar – I didn’t know they were 3 separate categories…). Just plain weird — if not offensive.
And really desperate. They actually have NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT AT ALL.
There is no real outreach into the community. No public benefit being demonstrated. Instead, they are buying press releases to talk about one or two random people watching some of their corny videos. Wow.
Meanwhile, this article in the Tampa Bay Times:
I’ve just noticed on Leah’s co$ hate site, they cite one of your videos that was took whilst you were still in, of proof that ex-$ are lying. Yet, they have a hate site about you saying you lie. Make your mind us co$, are you using him to support your claims or oppose? You can’t have both!
YEs, I have made this point before. Virtually everyone who was ever at Int has been accused of lying by Miscavige. And in doing “lower conditions” or “A-E” (Yes, many people in International Management were “declared” and told their only steps were A-E, myself included 4 different times, including when I was on stage at events and being the spokesperson for scientology) one has to “confess” to lying. It goes something like this: An order to do something is ussed by Miscavige. You comply. The net result is some catastrophe. You are then accused of lying in various ways: either you didn’t inform Dear Leader of all the facts needed to make clear to him he should not issue the order and therefore lied, or you executed the order wrongly and lied about what you REALLY did or have hidden Counter Intention and are lying about it.
So, you have plenty of instances of admissions, in people’s own handwriting, that they “lied to COB” or “lied to protect themselves” or “lied to cover up a situation” or “lied about their intentions” etc etc etc
Not a single person who has spoken out has EVER said they lied SINCE LEAVING SCIENTOLOGY. Not a one (because they have not).
So, scientology then says everyone is an “admitted liar” to try to discredit what is being said now.
As I noted in an earlier blog post, EVERY scientologist lies. The closer you get to the top, the bigger and more frequent the lies are.
See this posting: Why Do Scientologists Lie?
Just a thought……maybe those submarines that L. Ron sunk were really space ships that sunk?
Did anyone else notice the Brooke Shields commercials during the 20/20 broadcast? I wonder if that was done on purpose, but it made me laugh out loud.
Was I mistaken or did the woman making the glittering comments have the same last name of the center manager? It seemed a bit odd.
Agreed. Be much better off, holding a presser on the ground in Flint Michigan, offering to replace water pipes, relocating families, and maybe even using all their litigious skills for good for once, and attack state legislators not addressing the issue.
Simply put Mr. 4’13” should be highly commended for rapidly bringing about the objectives of $cientology–a cleared planet. It’s not that everyone obtains the state of clear, but when the scale tips in the direction of more positive energy vs negative energy in the world (theta vs entheta ratio). Therefore, all his actions have indeed contributed to removing the ‘church’ and $cientology from existence and all the negative energy (entheta) associated with it. As a result Society just on its own and naturally does much better where the rapid decrease of his created negativity simply rapidly increases the overall positive energy out in Society.
TIL During WWII, L Ron Hubbard once led a 68 hour battle against two Japanese submarines which he claimed “definitely sunk, beyond doubt”. An analysis later concluded that there were never any submarines in the area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_PC-815
It wasn’t just analysis, the records of the Imperial Japanese Navy showed that they hadn’t lost any submarines in that are at that time – much less a particular one that Hubbard specified in one of his later retellings. I love how that Wikipedia piece succinctly but completely debunks and even skewers Hubbard’s account, and shows him up as incompetent but self-promoting.
Doesn’t the L in his name stand for Liar?
I’m surprised they don’t use more of those supernatural powers that L.Ron Hubbard always promised. And by “supernatural powers”, I of course mean Benzedrine induced psychosis and delusions of grandeur..
“Patty O’Furniture”. My laugh of the day 🙂
This is scary for us “never in” people. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_Capacity_Analysis
What is that Mike Wynski ?
Godzilla dressed up like Bo-Peep, that’s what scientology is in Clearwater. It does its impersonation of benevolence in order to insinuate itself into the warm-blooded populations. But there’s a problem with that more than ever: scientology looks like ‘Godzilla dressed up like Bo-Peep’. The cat is so out of the bag at this point, it has become the elephant in the room of the community. Amusingly, the media is referring to it as such! That must weigh sourly on Godzilla Bo-Peep’s mind at night after a few snorts of scotch.
I finally got around to reading the Tampa Bay Times article, and it occurred to me that probably at least at some level, Scientology doesn’t want “wogs” downtown. If Sea Org members were to see lots of people going about normal lives and enjoying themselves, it might make at least a few start to think about what they are doing with their lives. Crowds of people would also make it easier for any escaping Sea Org members to evade pursuit, and make it harder for Scientology’s surveillance system to keep tabs on everything.
I suspect we will see Scientology retrench to a group of the most closely clustered properties Clearwater, which with decreasing numbers will make the uniformed staff a less obvious presence downtown. I think we are already seeing this, with reports such as that the rather isolated Oak Cove property is now largely empty if not abandoned.
As a Tampa resident……I can honestly say that with the new bridge over to the beaches bypassing downtown Clearwater…was the beginning of the end.. It is a dead zone. Granted, it was a weekend….but that’s when you’d be out walking around….and enjoying what downtown Clearwater has to offer right? No. I saw only Sea Org members and several homeless people.
It was creepy…..I knew I was being watched….cameras everywhere….making sure I didn’t walk out of line.
Might as well have built a wall around downtown…..and with all the negative press….everyone knows what goes on behind those doors….Forget it.
No one wants to go near it.
I live in palm harbor. It’s creepy going to downtown Clearwater. I’ve thought for 35 years the scientologists are like ants going in and out of those buildings like ant hills. All of their buildings have shades covering their windows so you can’t see what they’re doing. I would love to see Clearwater revitalized but it’s not going to happen as long as the city government cow tows to that cult. Residents won’t go down there as long as the cameras and cockroaches are there
Were the Sea Org people kicking the homeless out?
Is the town Mayor a Scientologist & I’d might like to see the town but what dose the town sell except this promises & there’s prob few places to eat but aside that,rather go see the Keys said that for years….
Hilarious! The Clearwater spokesperson should have said that they’re trying to draw people downtown, regardless of Xenu and the hordes of disembodied space alien spirits in the room 😉
Why not just cede all of downtown Clearwater to the cult, built a Trumpian wall and charge the tourists a dollar and a half just to see’m? (“ooo, bop, bop, bop…they paved paradise and put up a BT parking lot…”
with sincere apologies to Joni Mitchell)
Yea, agreed.
If Scientologists in Clearwater want friendly reactions to Scientology, they gotta do something business friendly to the community way more.
Like have free pizza night, paid for some fake front group that gives Free Pizza Night, paid for by the Downtown Blah Blah Citizens Group, and get donations from the rich Scientologists to fund some freebie stuff that gets spread around to help the businesss get tourists and foot traffic from locals.
What might actually work, would be a Xenu Gift Shop.
The locals might just come visit the Xenu Gift Shop, and sell all sorts of tacky tourist stuff. Have a photo book, with cardboard cutouts for the head, and the body is a Man and Woman in Flag Uniforms, and some catchy sayings.
I mean gag stuff would get more positive local foot traffic, compared to Scientology’s non-existent business contributions.
Don’t leave Clearwater without your Xenu toy and a sprinkle of “body-thetans”.
A BTs Tshirt is just dying to be made and sold.
Bobble head dolls
Yeah some levity and good will would go a long way with their image. Are these people completely humorless? Come to think of it, I have never met a scientologist in person
The Stupid Power Building will be a fantastic Hard Rock Casino someday. The Seminole Tribe of Florida will gladly take over downtown Clearwater and make it a true “Mecca”…for blackjack.
Or ask miscavage to fund the damn thing with all his billions that way He keeps KSW by donating his personal funds keeping it from the IRS and other WOG orgs.
Just sayin……
Mike this may have been asked but did anyone else see the Scientology commercial during the Super Bowl? I think it was during the third quarter. Ive never seen that before I wonder if it has anything to do with the bad press they have been receiving…
Read Tony Ortega’s blog. Extensively covered there…
Thank you. Will do
What’s funny is I was expecting it and looking for it, but I missed it! A buddy of mine texted me after it came on – he said it was probably better I didn’t see it lol
“They claim their visitors were from “all faiths.” I wonder how they knew that?”
Maybe it was a dress-up event…something like “Come as your favorite prophet”?
Tee Hee.
“For example, people want to know what our basic core beliefs are. Well, there’s a video that covers that.”
Uh huh. I bet. Is there a video that covers Wall if Fire? Body thetans? BT clusters? Volcanoes? Xenu and the tax audits? Implanted images? I didn’t think so. I am shocked to find gambling in this establishment!
What about a video that covers Fair Gaming, Disconnection, forced abortions, RPF, the Hole, beating your juniors – you know – all that neat stuff the cult does.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt that those aren’t core beliefs, but rather just the sacred rituals of religious practice. All depends on what you mean by core. A Scilon apologist might claim that OT3 is not core belief. For myself, I couldn’t care less what’s a core belief, since it’s the behavior that matters.
Dave,
Media Mess Update:
Unlike the billboard on the side of your Information Center on Hollywood Boulevard, this is not called the ‘age of answers’ , rather the ‘age of information’. People are arriving at their own answers and conclusions. Your lame Super Bowl ad shows that you can’t shoot your wad if you want to.
Lou must be feeling like she is upstaging the most cheated woman on the planet; after also recently watching you shoot dust at an imported sparse audience while yanking a ribbon in New Zealand.
They may be celebrating more today given that DeVos was just passed as Education Secretary. While she is essentially a Dominionist (a sect of evangelical Christians devoted to remaking the government into a biblical theocracy) and basically wants to destroy public education, she also believes that all schools should be run as for-profit institutions and receive government funding regardless of the curriculum. She has already made it that way in Michigan where nearly anybody can hang out a shingle and claim to be a “school”. Her Amway family is notorious for using their influence that way – I used to live in Grand Rapids, their corporate headquarters and know people who have worked closely for them. They have stories about that family that almost rival the totalitarian control of Co$.
Giving parochial schools more government funding and lessening the restrictions on them is bound to be something that will benefit Co$ immediately. If they are able to peddle their schools more widely to the general public with little or no oversight, that will certainly be a revenue stream, at least in the short run (eventually I’m sure she and her cronies will squeeze it so that only certain religions receive preference).
Yes, along with you all I’m shocked that these people don’t know that Baptists are a Protestant denomination and that Catholics are the original Western European Christian church. That’s what happens when you don’t spend a lot of time doing anything more than dismissing world religions and their origin. (To be fair, many WASPs are ignorant as well of the genealogical tree of their own religion. We tend to grow up in bubbles.).
“she also believes that all schools should be run as for-profit institutions and receive government funding regardless of the curriculum.”
Seems logical cecebeans. Some Public schools get gov funding for teaching kids how to use sex toys but refusing to teach the Constitution and refusing to require physical sciences classes.
Last comment on this subject. It is so dangerous to allow anything even remotely political to be posted here as it turns into the usual back and forth.
Oh, beans!!!
The meltdown continues. Even in the Peoples Republic of Coastal California the School Voucher System has PROVEN to get far better test results in education that the CORRUPT Teachers Unions. The US has fallen to 25th in rank, internationally; in math, science and reading. The next few years will show the US climbing back toward a #1 ranking (mark your calendar).
Does Amway sell pacifiers?
I just moved from Michigan to Oregon. The DeVos clan and the rest of those religious West side wackos have ruined the state. Unreal.
It appears that all Tampa Bay residents have written off Clearwater. They are just waiting for the clam to be boiled and get drenched in hot sauce. With the local cops working part time at the ‘spiritual center of $cientology’, no member of the general public expects anything but harassment if they go near the stupor powerz building. The locals are wise to the ways of the clampire.
The actual government of Clearwater is ignoring them too. They don’t play nice with others nor do they clean up their messes. They are best known for chopping down healthy trees. There is a metaphor there somewhere.
$cientology has relied on prweb and other paid for ‘press release’ web sites for a long time. No one reprints them and no one reads them. They are but farts in the wind. Just like Lron’s wit and wisdom.
I’m guessing that Flag in Clearwater and CCI in Hollywood will be the last bastions of Scientology as it finishes circling the drain. It’ll be a looooong time before the Ft. Harrison and the Chateau Elyse will be sold 🙁
As somebody here once humorously noted, Scientology will be officially over when the last two Scientologists left write KRs on each other.
Mike-I stumbled across this info while researching ‘the Clearwater elephant’. In my view, one of the best ways to bring CoS to justice, is to get their tax exemption revoked. If I lived in Florida, I would be livid that CoS can own their vast holdings of real estate and not pay property tax. This puts a larger portion of the tax burden on individual residents. Someone willing to take them on, might find this interesting reading.
Author is Sarah A. Lindquist. The comparisons she makes of a religious facility to an amusement park may have some parallels to scientology .
http://heinonline.org/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/flsulr33§ion=55
So you know, they do pay property tax on facilities that are not used for religious purposes (like hotel rooms). And they are fast to proclaim they are the “largest property tax payer” in Clearwater. Of course they omit to mention that if they paid property taxes on ALL their property it would be 3 or 4 times what they currently pay which would make them the LARGEST property tax payer. One time someone should add up the property taxes they DONT pay to see how much revenue the city is losing on their properties. It is substantial.
It appears Jeffrey Augustine has already done the work. See the April 8 2015 article “How much does Scientology pocket from its tax exempt status?” at http://fortune.com/2015/04/08/scientology-tax-exempt Scroll down to paragraph #10 where it is estimated the cult avoids approximately 20 million in prop tax a year.
The oddest part of the whole thing is the line in the Tampa Bay Times article that described Scientology as “an international institution with a $917 million economic impact locally, according to one study.”
What study is that? What planet were the authors from, and did they actually visit Earth when they came up with that figure?
We in Global Capitalism HQ are all about a) understanding economic impact and b) being able to call bullshit on bogus numbers. And this one is certainly bullshit. The $900 million number *might* be correct if you take into account all the money the cult has spent on acquiring buildings and on construction in the 45 years since their front company bought up the Fort Harrison Hotel and began the invasion of Clearwater and add it to the relatively little amount of money that the cult injects annually into the local economy.
But if you look for annual spend in the economy, that’s laughable. First, assuming they have 2,000 Sea Org and staff in the area, and assuming they pay each of them the maximum $50 per week, that’s a total payroll of about $5 million. Assume other direct expenses such as food for the slaves, transport expenses to take them to and from their “berthing” to their work site, purchases such as food and liquor for the various restaurants at the facilities, etc. and you get perhaps another $10 million in spend injected into the economy. You also get no government revenue from this as there’s no property tax or income tax generated by the cult.
By comparison, a typical McDonald’s restaurant in the US generates around $2.5 million in annual revenue. A quick Google Maps scan shows about 8 McDonald’s units within 3 miles of the Fort Harrison. So the 8 nearby McDonald’s stores have a larger annual economic impact on the Clearwater economy than the pre-eminent facility of the World’s Fastest Growing Religion(tm).
I answered this earlier. It was the FSU Economic Impact Study.
I wrote about this at the time it came out, pointing out the sources of many of their “facts” were scientology and thus their conclusions were astonishingly flawed.
Scientology Takes Clearwater For Suckers
When I wandered around downtown Clearwater I was appalled by the ghost town atmosphere. It was like aliens had landed and the earthlings had fled, oh wait… yes!
Ah, I see you know about the alien landing. We aliens took all the people to Target 2. And there’s some fat guy here too. Very bloated and ugly.
Maybe you should burst his bubble.
From the looks of him, a slime bubble burst…
As surfers know; dead, beached, bloated whale removal can present some potential serious health problems. Get some professionals from the OC.
Fred’s Cantina is rising on the to-do list. Would be good to have Dave out of the picture for that beach party.
Is that what that smell is?
Every since they re-routed traffic off of Cleveland Ave. due to the new bridge that area of the downtown looks even more deserted. There is very little traffic there either in cars or on foot. The empty stores have that hang-dog atmosphere that goes will with the reputation of this dreary cult. .
So it was a typical ‘urban planning’ study? You get the answer you bought. Sometimes the ‘urban planners’ actually use real facts. Most often, not.
Nice work! You blew the Co$ and FSU out of the water. And it places the Scn “population” at around 10,000 – not 20,000 – if I read it correctly. As to the FSU “study”, if I wrote just a paper for a class like that, I’d get an “F” and probably a place of the prof’s black list of “at best ‘D’ students”. But to publish it as an FSU study? Whoa. As to the Co$ (ahem) “numbers”, if I tried something like that professionally, I might end up meeting folks like Madoff, chatting over lunch, a regular thing. There are people who take numbers seriously, and can see through v-e-r-y complicated contrivances with ease. Maybe with the new U.S. government administration some “hold investigations” will be lifted. I somehow doubt that President Trump would be taken in by church celebrities (facetious: even if they are from California, from Southern CA, from L.A., from Hollywood). Letters to Congressmen time?
If you took all of the Scientologists in the Tampa Bay area what would you have? About 4,000 and that would include the Sea Snots who live in the hive. I could be wrong but I doubt it.
Well, Pam Bondi, Florida’s Attorney General sure was taken in by them…or their money. They did a good job of safe pointing her.
That’s true. And a short time ago I read that she’s under consideration for a White House position of some sort. If that’s true, then, via Bondi, Co$ could have an opportunity to influence government policy. Man oh man, I can see a fathead like him being putty in their hands. They’d know just how to play him. I bet they’re salivating at the concept of a “comm line” into the Tweeter of the Free World.
The BS detector will go off during vetting, just as it did when they dropped Tommy’s old boss from Colony Capital for Treasury Secretary.
You are discounting the vast sums of money spent on those little tubes of toothpaste and packs of Newports (BTW,what brand is the most popular now among the Scio “masses”?) that the Church members buy in the community.
Mike
How many Scientologists in say the Clearwater area would you estimate are in the Cult and are fully aware of it’s Cancer but have silently decided to stay as they don’t want to experience Disconnection or lose their Job that pays their bills?
Form what I’ve read Nicole Kidmans adopted childten with Tom Cruise do not visit with her. And Katie Holmes escape when Cruise was away at a Movie Set was secretly planned as she didn’t want to lose her child as Nicole did. Is this accurate?
I’d like to Note on your final episodes Aftermath when the gentleman spoke of how fearful he had been of you in the past. I wanted you to know I saw, we saw, your Amazing Grace….it was elloquent truly! Having been a transformed man knowing hed been afraid of Scientologys Mike you were so kind to him. I think that those who are still in and have managed to view this one scene could be Very Impactful.
How many Scientologists in say the Clearwater area would you estimate are in the Cult and are fully aware of it’s Cancer but have silently decided to stay as they don’t want to experience Disconnection or lose their Job that pays their bills?
The majority. I would estimate there are perhaps 3000 “scientologists” (not including SO members) in the area. Less than half are active and the rest stay quiet as they don’t want to be disconnected from.
It’s me again – never been in – I’ve never read where LRH watched TV or movies…did he enjoy anything else besides reading periodicals, etc? He apparently had a sense of humor once but did he go out dining, theatre or plays, anything?
Lois should actually answer this but from talking extensively to her (my wife), while on the Apollo, Daytona, La Quinta and Hemet LRH did not go to movies or watch TV. He also didn’t go out dining, theatre or plays. He played the part of a founder of a cult perfectly and conned himself into believing the technology he created therefore everything he did was to forward this cause.
I’ve read in the book Fair Game that when LRH went to New York to hide out, he sat around and watched TV most of the time. Highly unusual for him.
When my wife was with him between ’73 and around ’80 when he disappeared for the last time, he lived a very simple and thrift lifestyle unlike the current leader, DM.
Scientology : ” We don’t do that , We have never done that in fact We will stop doing it in future ”
Big hello from LRHs Bulgravia.
What are you replying to Koki when you say we dom do that?
But, what if they can’t stop in the future? Do they go to rehab?
To OSD-
They stand tall!!!!
Big hello from LRHs Bulgravia.
The term, “straight as a dog’s hind leg,” comes to mind with anything the Cof$ issues to the media. I do feel sorry for any hard working Clearwater City Commissioner’s Office worker trying to make career out of that area. Don’t want to be too crude, but those ‘polished turds’ of Scientology owned buildings may as well be immigration detention centers, which when you understand what Scientology actually does there – they are! My guess is that there would be virtually zero locally born and raised Clearwater residents gracing the hallways of Flag or any of those buildings.
I’ll never go back there again, that’s for sure, that area is poisoned with lies, false hope and penguin uniforms!
Just curious. If Clearwater wants nothing to do with “the elephant in the room”, why did they give Scientology the Okay to set up shop? Another case of being duped by them? Please don’t tell me that they have an outrageously long lease agreement in place or something as ludicrous? Can’t Clearwater do anything to get rid of them? Or is it a case of Scientology “hiding” behind the cloak of religion; they can do as they please?
Did I just answer my own question?
Google the history of scientology in CLearwater. They OWN all their properties. And yes, you answered your own question — though they got all the property by buying it, often paying premium price.
SB, in the USA a city cannot just kick people off of private property because they don’t like them. This isn’t a dictatorship. A government can purchase property via eminent domain but they have to PAY for it.
Even the government must demonstrate the case for Eminent Domain. They can’t just decide they’d like to own your building, house, farm ect.
This is a path that Clearwater could pursue.
Eminent Domain has been used to fight commercial or local blight. If Clearwater could get someone like Amazon (with deep pockets) to convert the SP Building (and other cult buildings) into a distribution center to revitalize the Clearwater economy, it COULD be done. It has been done in other cities with far less evidence of blight. Busting scientology for TRAFFICKING would also hasten their demise, and repurposing of Miscavige’s Real Estate White Elephants.
threefeet back, I think it would be impossible to classify new construction with ongoing supposedly “religious” activity going on, like the SP building, as “blighted”. And, remember, Scientology would put up a bitter legal fight and probably subject everyone involved to “fair game” harassment.
As I wrote in another comment, I suspect that Scientology will start to shrink to a central core of operations in buildings that are in close proximity for its own reasons, and there are reports that some of its properties have already essentially emptied. Anything that hastens the organization’s demise, will speed up that process. At some point Scientology may be decide to let some of their less central properties go, or be amenable to efforts to get them to do so.
I think that if Clearwater’s officials are smart, they will come up with a plan to do something like “help” Scientology consolidate around the Ft. Harrison and SP building into what I will call a Scientology sector (reminiscent of the sectors of divided Berlin during the Cold War), and if necessary even do some land swaps to facilitate that. They could then effectively clear other areas of downtown to create tourism and business sectors, perhaps even using the threat of eminent domain to get some transactions to go through, and redevelop those sectors attractively. Scientology would then be corralled into its sector and could be left to whatever is its fate, on whatever time scale that occurs.
I suspect that some of what we’re seeing from Clearwater government and business organizations, are signs of planning based on a realization that Scientology is likely on its way down if not even heading to collapse, and that they had better get ahead of that.
Also, just as we’ve seen formerly separate local orgs and celebrity centers combined into a single new “ideal” org in several cities, I think we will also start to see consolidation of Scientology properties in LA into renovated new facilities with the process being declared as a “win”.
I think any approach to the decline of Scientology, has to involve well thought out and patient strategy, though indeed a few dramatic and even watershed events may occur.
True Barb. As threefeetback points out (and I forgot) a case could be made using the tool/restriction you mentioned.
The unfortunate aspect of the Church of Scientology is their ability to extract vast amounts of money preying upon people’s hopes and dreams of a better life and future for all mankind. Those buildings “owned” by Scientology stand as testament to the flip side of a freedom of individual action country such as the US, founded on such a remarkable but at times religiously manipulated document such as their constitution. The money used to purchase that real estate and fill their coffers is an interesting study with many facets of criminally orientated deception involved. Exposing that deception is what this blog is all about and the consequence of the human abuses thus created by the Cof$. Money talks and it’s getting harder and harder every day for the Cof$ to shut the damn stuff up, no matter how hard they try to cover it up with false and misleading claims and selective silence. For all its legally and constitutionally obtained arrogance it has an Achilles heel – correctly placed truth. Scientology as an organisation is solely dependent upon lies for its continued existence. I’m not an American but that’s my take on it.
There are different denominations and so to ask if the person is baptist, etc is logical. I am Mormon and I doubt I would make a good scientologist. I love my savior and I’m not good at this whole mind control thing. My agency is just too important. Disconnection from my family would not happen. Family is the everything, unconditional love is essential to a healthy mind.
I have depression, and I take medication to control it. I have cerebral palsy, and take medication to manage that. If a member told me I had to disconnect from my family, I would tell him to drop dead and walk away.
Dear Sister May:
I am also a member of the church (lds) who also happens to be a Scientologist. There’s not enough space here to explain how I reconcile these two bodies of knowledge but I will say that LRH did speak of free agency. His term for it was self-determinism. Due to the leadership of David Miscavige, this is frowned upon in the current Church of Scientology.
At least the visitors can walk in, and then walk OUT, with their family and money still intact. I remember Clearwater from decades ago….it was a great place to visit and have a really great vacation……….as it stands now, I would not go near the place.
Then again, I might want to see the “reception building”……and a few others to see where all the money the “organization” spends on these buildings……
Will then “let me take photographs”……….(I thin I already know the answer to that)
I do have one question however, several have posted that “they LEFT Scientology”…..seemingly voluntarirly to start families or whatever……..others like Mike and Aaron and others say they had to “blow” (escape), some being followed, chased after, or captured and returned to “the fold”.
Does “the organization” LET people leave voluntarily, since it seems either way you will get declared as an SP for abandoning COS, and disconnected from your family either way?
For many years people looked upon Nicole Kidman badly for not having contact with the two children she adopted with TC….no one KNEW why she seemed to have abandoned her son and daughter….that is , until the COS disconnection policy was revealed to the public. I feel so sad for her, she must have gone through terrible sadness not to be able to see her adopted children because of “disconnection” and being criticized for it in the eyes of some of the public. Disconnection Policy is just too disgusting..
If there were “1000 in attendence” it would have been in the news! They would have made sure of that.
Wow – a Christian, a Protestant, and a Baptist? So one person?
Yeah… “waiting”, a Christian, a Protestant and a Baptist went into a pub and…
And I notice still …”with millions of members in 167 countries …” MILLIONS!! (probably less than 15,000 non-SO, if that) And there you go. The religion founded on the fundamental axiom of locating the ACTUAL TRUTH of something and viewing it exactly has morphed over the decades into an activity that is almost a COMPLETE LIE ABOUT FREAKIN’ EVERYTHING (literally, there is NOTHING that the CoS does not lie about … it is almost a fascinating study of some bizarre form of insanity … Lie about EVERYTHING …. EVERY SINGLE THING)
You would think that with MILLIONS of members, enough people would show up to get the dang filing finally done.
*the lying does remind me of a famous literary feud in the 1970s when the author Mary McCarthy said of her nemesis author Lillian Hellman … “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’ “
I was raised in a Baptist church. You could call us Christian, or Protestant, or Baptist, but they’re not different “religions”. They also mention the “Catholic religion” in addition to the others. The religion for all of them is just Christianity, so the members of four of those categories were simply Christian. But I guess having a list of five descriptions is better than two when trying to show that “all faiths” were representative of the visitors.
And even though I was raised as a Baptist/Protestant/Christian, to respond to Mike’s suggestion that it might be offensive to separate those into 3 different categories….to be honest, as a Christian (though now in the United Methodist denomination), I’m not really offended at all by this personally.
What I am offended by is the absolute corruption of truth by how this so-called “church” tries to “fluff up” their statistics to make themselves sound better by listing these three descriptions (plus Catholicism) separately, or by how they tell partial or “alternative” truths to convince their members that they are growing rapidly and that they are doing “so many great things” in the world.
I am offended by how they claim to make families stronger, yet seek to divide and conquer and destroy the family unit when someone disagrees with them or doesn’t “toe the line”.
I am offended by their thin-skinned mentality when someone questions their beliefs, and how they attempt to utterly destroy the life of anyone who disagrees with or criticizes their beliefs and/or practices.
I am offended by their gradual, systematic, manipulative, and covert practices of slowly turning the mind of a well-intentioned individual into an unthinking and irrational entity, which ends up trapping those victims in a mental prison with very little ability to rationally discern what’s really “true for them” as an individual.
I am offended by how they practice a form of modern-day slavery while hiding behind the First Amendment to continue with their abusive practices, all the while ripping off us tax-payers, just so that egotistical Dear Leader can continue with his lavish lifestyle and absolute power & control over the lives of others.
I am offended by the coercive tactics of disconnection, implied abortion, and using one’s own humanity and good intentions against them in order to keep their members active in the “church”……all so they can continue to siphon off time and/or money from the lives of these individuals.
I am offended by the growing number of logical fallacies and outright hypocrisy in the dictates and actions of the founder of this so-called “church” that I’ve already learned about (which my knowledge of all of this is still a very small percentage of the information available) and am continuing to learn about as I’m now reading through Lawrence Wright’s “Going Clear” book.
I am offended by how it seems that no one in any of our “powerful agencies” has the balls to stand up to this group and actually do something about these abuses against their fellow citizens.
That’s what offends me, not the “Christian or Protestant or Baptist” separation. And this is only a partial list I could come up with, but this comment is already long enough as it is, so probably best for me to just simmer down and leave it right here for now.
My comment about the offense of this was not the ignorance of separating Christian/Protestant/Baptist but in inquiring about anyone’s religious belief in the first place! People do NOT volunteer this information — they had to be ASKED. That is offensive. Wonder what the Public Information Director would think if she walked into the Clearwater Aquarium and was asked what her religion was (she would probably answer “christian”…)?
Ahh, gotcha. I misunderstood when reading it. Thanks for the clarification. And yes, it is offensive that they would ask visitors questions about their personal faith……yet another line item to add to my above list…..
What are the chances they even asked? Like everything else, they may have pulled it out of their bottoms
Just as an aside to the discussion of Christian/Protestant/Baptist and then Catholic…really shows ignorance to, first, discuss a visitor’s faith and then, to separate them out into categories that are actually sub-groups of the first. I note that quite a few of the Scientologist publications are like this…not well written, incorrect use of grammar and punctuation, not-quite-right word choices…always makes me think that if they can’t get something simple like this right, why would I turn over my spiritual well-being to them. I wouldn’t…
And, by the way, as a student of world religions back in the day, and of not any particular denomination myself, I can tell you that Catholics are Christians, and, as a matter of fact, are the original Christians and the genesis of all other current Christian sects, regardless of whether they wish to acknowledge that. Catholicism was the only Christian religion for centuries, until other groups splintered off for a variety of reasons. They all had their beginnings in Catholicism.
Typical stat pushing. Just like when they announced translation of Hubbard books into “Brazilian”. Did they not realize… clearly not.
Are you telling me they didn’t know Brazilians speak Portuguese?
It’s a stat push. They do a Portuguese version and a Brazilian Portuguese version….
Do they not realize that Protestants, Baptists and Catholics are all Christian?
Does Miscavige have to approve each and every press release? (in your experience)
It’s hilarious that the Co$ is referred to as the ‘elephant in the room’. Lurkers – open your eyes!
Mike — I’m curious; …” $917 million economic impact locally, according to one study.” Is CoS claiming they bring in that money for the local community benefit and what was the study?
It was a study that I reported on last year or maybe the year before. They hired some people from Florida State University who simply took information PROVIDED BY SCIENTOLOGY as to the number of members and scientology run businesses in the community and extrapolated out the “economic impact”. As with all other figures scientology uses, they were “alternative facts” so the conclusions were too.
Thx for clarifying. I wondered about that too. Seems like The Tampa Bay Times has a history of publishing critical Scientology oriented articles so seems odd they’d be better at not taking something like that at face value.
I live in Pinellas County and have not been to any event or store/restaurant in downtown Clearwater in nearly 10 years. Why? To avoid the hordes of blank faced automatons scurrying through the streets. I get a distinct “you’re not wanted here” vibe.
“Blank faced automatons”…………. the outcome of doing TRs (Scientology training routines) for many. Maybe Scientologists become the Moon Child of Babylon. (Reference to Tony’s blog today)
Scientology is creepy. Ron was creepy.
Add to that, sleep deprivation, crappy diet, constant harassment over stats and using your ‘spare time’ to look over files of people who bought a book a half century ago ………………you get a real zombie apocalypse brew!
And the biggest crime of them all:
The destruction of self reliance. Self reliance comes from freedom to reason, freedom to think, freedom to investigate, freedom to disagree, freedom to draw independent conclusions,
Becoming a Scientologist is like the slowly boiled frog. The take over of our sovereign capacity to reason is insidious.
The power of INFERENCE is harmed greatly by Ron’s school of darkness.
If I were to claim one word that describes Scientology it would be:
INSIDIOUS adjective
Proceeding in a gradual, subtle way, but with harmful effects.
-treacherous; crafty.
Title for an essay:
L Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Hypnotic Operator
Ooo….. that’s it.
“…a zombie apocalypse brew.” 🙂
Mary, since they opened the “Superpower Building” they no longer have to walk to the Clearwater Bank Building for meals. There is a dining room (called a Galley) in the new building, right across the street from the Ft Harrison Hotel. And I think they even moved out of the Coachman, someone correct me if that’s wrong. And they mostly travel by bus wherever they go these days.
So the likelihood that you will meet one downtown is much less than it used to be. But even if you do, just look them in the eyes and say “Call your folks!” or “Did you see Leah’s new show?” They will scurry like rabbits.
Do they really call it a ‘galley’? That’s funny. 🙂 I think a galley is a term for kitchen facilities in a ship or airplane. But then again, they do use a lot of specific terms that are not in common usage.
This is a Sea Org “base” and carries on the traditions of the Sea Org, including naval terms. The kitchen is the galley. You sleep in “berthing” and go to “the head” rather than the bathroom. Etc
When I did the EPF in around 2006 or so, the rule was that no one walked on the street in the day or night and that you took the SO busses everywhere you went. The reason for this was so as not to freak out the locals that their town had been taken over by the C of S. So no one gets any sunshine or exercise if they can’t walk from building to building. It was ridiculous that you could not walk a few blocks to the place you were going. Fascistic actually.
yes, and they still have the idiotic rules for public, you can’t walk alone anywhere at night. You HAVE to have “an escort”. You’re only allowed to walk with someone else, another public is fine, and the rule applied to both males and females.
I never followed this rule. .. and never once did it come up on my sec checks!
I hear you, secretfornow. But just to go a few blocks from one org building to the place where meals are served, it has to be by bus. And if the bus is not there, you have to wait for it rather than walk. Talk about the tone level of “Controlling Bodies.”
Maybe one day Co$ will set up intravenous feeding tubes at each desk and dispense with outside meal breaks altogether. They could even design special work stations that convert to beds, each with attached washbasin and bedpan. Then they’d never have to leave their posts. Sounds extreme but hey, I’m just trying to think outside the box so as increase “speed of particle flow” on all dynamics, OK?
Well. Desperation is really setting in. Davy boy must be getting ready to run for the border soon. I really don’t think it will be long before the whole structure crumbles . It’s rotten to the very foundations. If this is the best they can do to prop themselves up then our job is nearly done.
Well, Scientology cleared Clearwater of wanting Scientology, having Scientology or doing Scientology.
Clearwater does not want to BE Scientology.
Perhaps the Scientologist’s have an MU on “Clearing”
They certainly know how to Clear bank accounts
Clear members of having anything
Clear members of a rational, sane mind
Clear members of personal integrity
Clear members of thinking for themselves
Clear members of ethical behavior
Clear members of their goals and dreams
Clear members of healthy lives
Clear members of life
Clear members of homes
Clear members of Stock Portfolios
Scientology – the extreme, radical and precise science of clearing
Scientology clears people from scientology.
The next press release for the Information Center will be that they have added new mutoscopes for your viewing pleasure.
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