This story is worth republishing. Obviously the reporter was not intending to write a puff piece — but regardless of his snide tone, his PHOTOS are amazing. A COMPLETELY EMPTY course room. Nobody visible on the ground floor except a receptionist. And he says there was only ONE person in the org that was not a staff member — someone who he found dozing off in the course room.
Compare this to the hype the church puts out to induce the sheeple into a coma of warm and fuzzy good feelings that their $14 million actually bought something other than MEST. (See recent article Sydney Is Smoking…)
INSIDE THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY’S NEW $14 MILLION COMPOUND
May 28 2014
This month the Australian Church of Scientology opened their renovated headquarters. It’s located in downtown Sydney in a heritage building dating back to 1908. The $14 million project has birthed an array of new and exorbitant facilities, with its sole purpose being to lure new acolytes.
Historially, Scientology spread failry quickly in the land down under. After officially starting in America in 1952, there was enough of a following to hold a Scientology Congress in Melbourne by 1954. The Australian branch of the Church even became the regional headquarters of the entire Asia-Pacific region. But like in America, reports of the macabre have long overshadowed the church, and it now seems these are starting to catch up.
The group has always been optimistic when expressing their numbers. They claim to have150,000 members in Australia, despite census numbers putting the figure at fewer than 3,000. To put that in perspective, its less than the number of Aussie Satanists and witches. What’s more, it was shown in 2011 that these numbers are dwindling. Jim Lippard believes we can credit this to the internet, which has robbed the churches power to sweep things under the rug.
The former chief spokesperson for Scientology in Australia Mike Rinder was candid in his explanation of why the Australian brand of Scientology is potentially at risk: “Australians tend to be pretty down-to-earth, and and bullshit don’t fly.” Case in point: the church’s recently rejected rehab center.
The optimistic membership figures are consistent with the decision to pimp out the headquarters. But as Mark Rinder goes on to explain, the money spent on construction could be doing more harm than good. “Too much money goes to international management, and they’re buying buildings, so they can’t use that money for staff.” Hence why they might be forced to spend truckloads of money on employee back payments.
In order to make my own mind up, I decided to see the headquarters for myself. I called the church’s head office, and after several days of deliberation, they agreed to give me a tour. I suspect it wasn’t a coincidence that this was arranged for a peak period of business, the 5 PM rush hour.
The outside of the building melds surprisingly well with its surroundings. However, this all changes when you walk inside. As soon as you step through the entrance, the vibrant lighting and futuristic decor make you feel like you’re on set of the latest terrible sci-fi dystopian flick. It’s prompt validation that this is not your average church.
I was soon acquainted with my guides, Carolyn and Colin. Both were dressed in Navy-esque uniforms, which are intended to honor Hubbard’s time spent in the Navy. The first stop of the tour was in a similarly honorary vein: the L Ron Hubbard memorial office, fitted with a library of his very own books. I was told this was “a mark of thanks to Hubbard.” I suppose the $600 million he acquired through the church wasn’t enough.
After this, the led me upstairs to see the new chapel and café. I should note at this stage how bizarrely flaccid the tour was—if these were their peak hours, it’s safe to say that business ain’t booming.
Inside the chapel, there were tiled murals and a bronze bust of the big homie Hubbard (the dude is never further than arm’s reach in any part of the church).
I was informed that the time had come for me to discharge my emotional baggage, so we got in an elevator and made our way up to the auditing section. Auditing is the central process of Scientology, where subjects are purportedly cleared of negative influences in order to reach a state of Zen. It involves a practitioner and a divisive machine known as an e-meter. Author Paulette Cooper believes that in the eyes of church members, auditing puts the science in scientology.
We passed a reception desk manned by some brain-dead employees and made our way down a long corridor of identically vacant offices.
“These are all new rooms. In here, this one has the best view.”
I stepped inside with great reluctance. In the center of the room was a desk and chairs, both adorned with scientology symbols. It was my first encounter with an e-meter (electro-psychometer for those who prefer redundancies).
The machine, which scientologist’s claim will diagnose emotional ills, looks like a prop from the original season of Star Trek. It “works” by sending a small electrical current through wires that are attached to dual cans held by the user. The cans measures resistance, i.e., to what degree a body opposes the passage of the electric current.
According to the church, when subjects using an e-meter recall traumatic memories, their mind produces a charge that triggers the dial on the machine to move around. And in 1971, it was ruled in a US District Court, that e-meters had to present the following warning label:
“The e-meter is not medically or scientifically useful for the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of any disease. It is not medically or scientifically capable of improving the health or bodily functions of anyone.”
It’s been argued that the belief in an e-meter’s ability to read one’s soul, despite the lack of any serious science to vouch for this at all, is the greatest testament to scientology being a religion.
“Go ahead; hold on to these.”
My guides watched with flashing eyes as I grasped the cans. It was a profoundly unnerving scenario.
“Think of a time that was very stressful for you,” said Carolyn. “The e-meter helps to identify trauma.”
Having prepared for this all beforehand, I decided to do the reverse and focus on a deeply relaxing memory instead—namely, getting high on a beach in Barcelona. I had also read that the movements in the dial can also be attributed to hand moisture, which was thick in my palms.
“There it goes! There it goes again!” exclaimed my guides.
Sure enough, the dial was faintly stirring up and down, the alleged response to a distressing memory. Meanwhile, I was just reflecting on Catalonian chronic.
I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell this to my wide-eyed tour guides, though, who were staring at me, apparently free from any instinctual need to blink.
Having supposedly been cured of my supposed trauma, I was escorted to what appeared to be a classroom. Colin told me this was where members learned to become auditors. According toAlternativeReligions.com, this costs approximately $50,000. It was no surprise then that these rooms were also empty.
My guides explained that the church is primarily kept afloat from the study fees, which go for up to $1,400 per subject. Anyone is free to take up the studies, which involve working throug the prolific content of Hubbard under a supervisor’s guidance. They range from introductory courses to advanced ones. The broader study sections were stocked with a myriad of material.
One student was slumbering on a desk. When we drew near, he spotted our trio, shot upright, and apologized frantically. I don’t blame him—I’ve never been a fan of science fiction books myself.
When I left, around 7 PM, the multimillion-dollar compound was still open for business—with no actual members present save for the staff and the lone student desperately trying to stay awake.
I did auditor training and auditing/co-auditing to clear, in the original building, decades ago. I got great, lasting changes to myself and life and it was, when you were left alone, a wonderful place to be. However, this hulk, this slick cosmetic resurrection of the body without any of the original theta is a nothing more than a zombiesome creation from the living dead.
It has as much to do with the spirit and reality of the religion as a modern lavish, ornate cathedral has to do with the teachings and life of Saint Francis or even of Christ himself.
The spirit, the theta, left a long time ago…
I understand completely why people would mock. But if they really could ‘see’ what it was that was lost and what it could have been, I think they would honestly weep…
I now know why you deleted my comment that this article proves that the E=meter is bullshit. You bat crazy indies still believe in the 1950’s technology. I guess that is because you still get thousands of dollars for an auditing session.If you are thinking about anything but what the auditor asks you and still get a complete false reading, I think that is all you need to know.
Well jeb, you would be mistaken. You don’t know diddly it seems, but assume some comment was “deleted” because I “get thousands of dollars for an auditing session” — never happened. Never will. You conclude that the article “proves” the e-meter is bullshit. That’s quite an conclusion to arrive at without any facts to support it. But your comment does prove you are bullshit. NOt because you have your opinion, but because you ascribe motives to others that you have no clue about.
I guess they don’t bother with “free lectures” any longer or starter courses for $100 – $400 – then gradually charge more with longer courses The auditing must be outrageously expensive by now. It seems the cheapest courses are online, so why would anyone need to go in for a course?
Scn is just simply TOO EXPENSIVE for what you get. Its pretty obvious that staff is doing the exact right thing to NOT get customers/clients. Well done CoS.
First of all, reallty bad e-meter demo! Flunk! Methinks someone in Australia is doing lower conditions as I write this…
Whatever happened to the pinch test? Did COB, alleged finder of lost tech, remove that too?? Asking about a “stressful” time won’t locate an engram (physical pain) or even a secondary (loss/emotional pain), yet the reporter is under the false impression that he had just received an auditing session. He should ask for his money back.
If this reporter’s visit is representative of the sort of Div 6 activities that occur at an org these days, then no wonder C of S has crashing stats! As I recall, with the FART displays, staff members are not supposed to even talk to new people who walk into the org; they are supposed to just stand around with their thumbs up their butts and do nothing. Whatever happened to caring for someone? Not going to happen in a Miscavige Mausoleum.
However, the biggest outpoint of them all is that IDEAL ORGS ARE NOT IDEAL! An “Ideal Org” is supposed to be a busy, happening place with lots of auditing and training occuring. Now days these places are more like empty museums with bored, untrained curators, aka “Idle Morgues”. The reporter correctly raises the question – why is the MEST so nice when the place is so dead? How did they afford it? Did they fleece all existing members to the bone to pay for it? (YES)
I would also agree with Mike’s statement that the reporter’s lack of familiarity with the tech of Scientology should not be used against him. In some ways, this is an advantage for the reporter, as the reporter won’t be blinded by the same false data that prevents bubble dwellers from making accurate, unbiased observations about the current state of affairs. Common sense is common sense.
Sheeple have been repeatedly conditioned to explain away all the outpoints of idle morgues. Sheeple have indeed become very “reasonable” about idle morgues, mainly due to Miscavige and his six annual brainwashing “events”, that include:
false stats,
false reports,
exaggerated PR/hyperbole,
propaganda films/snippets about how great everything is,
ostentatious/gaudy stage designs,
computer-generated imagery,
sound effects,
painfully loud volume,
Sherman-speak speeches,
COB brown-nosing,
presentation of honor statuses for the most heavily conned/fleeced parishioners,
etc.
Sheeple are living in a Truman Show and they don’t even know it.
Yes, I’ll bet those SOs are being nicely toasted now. Well, the more injustice they experience, the more personal reality they get on the harshness and unfairness of this criminal organization, the sooner – hopefully – they’ll blow.
Haha. OMG. Things are really looking down for the ANZO.
“What is “Catalonian Chronic”?”
Spanish marijuana.
Yes, the writers tone is snide and even mean. Referring to the staff at the reception desk as “brain-dead” isn’t very cool. I also got the idea that he knew plenty about Scientology before he walked into the Sydney Ideal Org and already had his mind made up about it. I’m also surprised that he was let in and given a tour by Sea Org staff (the writer said they were in naval-esque uniform), who I think were given the task of “handling the journalist”.
However, the pictures say it all. The Ideal Org of Sydney is dead, period. Along with all the other Ideal Orgs. I hope that Colin and Carolyn don’t end up in the RPF, getting blamed for that article resulting from taking the guy on the tour in the first place. That would not be fair.
Pepper, you beat me to saying everything I was going to say, except that I’m amazed that these Sea Org allowed this journalist take these pictures.
Also, I’m curious about what that needle reaction actually was to his deliberate and pre-planned willing of himself to think of something pleasant instead of something traumatic, disturbing, etc. I’m not an auditor but wouldn’t this show up on the meter as a kind of resistance all its own?
Have to say, though, all things considered, the Cherch deserves this hatchet job. They “pulled it in”, by gum.
Yes Aqua, I was amazed that they allowed the photography too. It shows how desperate the staff (and the CoS in general) is for ANY attention from the public because they are getting zero.
I thought that Sydney was their largest org.
“I suspect it wasn’t a coincidence that this was arranged for a peak period of business, the 5 PM rush hour.” Priceless. 😀
I forgot to mention…wow that building is empty!
I have been in SO orgs late at night….even at 3:00 am
and none of them were as empty as those pics show.
I have been in non SO orgs that were still bustling
with staff and students (keyed out from being on
training and pc’s blown out from their recent sessions) at midnight.
Hell they had to be asked to leave so the org could close for the day!
Yes, yes I know that isn’t the true goals of current management….big sigh.
Maybe that one person on course is on the grid doing
an all nighter…..he was just catching a wink so he
will be fresh and studentable at 3:00 am as he pushed
on to meet his target.
One statement in the article caught my eye……
“There it goes! There it goes again!” exclaimed my guides
Seems both of them were enthusiastically indicating needle
movement as if it was the first time they saw one too.
As Mike said, the reporter gave a decent description of how
the meter works…..I would think if there was a person with
TR’s and meter experience, properly inquiring on any reads
they saw after the question and understanding two way
comm, the reporter would have walked,away more thoughtful and
impressed that it was taken down to his thinking of Catalonian chronic.
Yes I know, that really isn’t the goal these days…..sigh.
Take a look at Marty Rathbun with John Sweeney on the meter in the Panorama show. That was being filmed for broadcast and it is so far superior to whatever these people in Sydney tried to do it is not funny.
I remember that one. Yes, it was excellent. I was so impressed with Marty’s natural handling of that meter demonstration.
http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/bbc-panorama-the-secrets-of-scientology/
Maybe a bigger Org would make things go right :p
As for me I’ll be looking into airfare to Catalonia 😉
Be, Do, Have all F’d up…
The way I look at this – empty buildings, zero delivery, obviously no expansion – occurs because the so called leader has been attempting to intentionally destroy the subject and technology for over 20 years.
Original tech altered over and over, field auditors forbidden to audit unless the re-do all GAT-GAT II Courses and on and on.
If you build this massive Orgs it is obvious they won’t be filled with public but, on the other hand, is another property under whatever corporation thus more assets, thus more money.
But the Ideal Org. is intended to fail from the beginning; add this to the no training, the over and over audited parishioners, no Orgs, insane fundraising, disconnection, etc, etc. all of which makes Black Heart’s intention clear.
That the blind insiders still believe Black Heart is what is perpetuating the scam and abuses. So, this and any other postings in this blog are valuable to the degree that the abuses and lies continue to be made known. Thank you Mike.
+!
Could you imagine touring some beautiful collage and seeing that all the course rooms were empty? Wouldn’t you be just a bit suspicious? Maybe a bit hesitant to pay for what no one else wants. Maybe nervous about having the goon, waiting at the door, tour you any deeper into such a weird, empty, place.
Personally, I recommend the “ideal” orgs get moved into even BIGGER and more EXPENSIVE buildings.
Miscavige doesn’t have the wrong “why”. It just hasn’t been done BIG enough due to SPs with counter intention.
Does seem a bit empty
I would bet on two things:
1. No money to pay the staff.
2. Any staff dumb enough to hang out at the org are themselves asked to help pay the bills.
Bring toilet paper and paper towel.
That’s right Mat. I would also like to add one more item: Parishioners, in particular those on OTVII are being asked to pay for FUEL FOR THE FREEWINDS. Yes, that’s true.
During my husbands last trip to FLAG, an executive had a meeting with him dressed in full Sea Org regalia, and told him that he needed him to put more money on account towards his OTVIII and accommodations because fuel was too expensive and the Ship had to sail. This executive told him that the cost per week for the Freewinds to sail was 70Gs.
My husband told me that this executive was “very PTP’d” and looked really serious and disturbed. I wonder if he ‘s aware of the excesses of Miscavige and the billions in the coffers of the CoS?
Why is a Sea Org executive making the problem of paying for fuel for the Freewinds, an individual public’s?
Ruhroh! Somebody fooled the religious artifact!I need to decimate this information failry quickly!
i bet they black out most of those windows and glass within a month or two.
too much witness to empty not to.
See it positive! There is less to clean … just some dust 😉
The writer would be a good one to someday tour the Superpower Building and notice how Walt Disneyesque it is at Flag.
On all the money, me, I think it should go back to the customers who felt bilked then any leftovers to the staff waylayed into Hubbard’s organizations for their backpay never received.
Aggressive intruding “Supervisors” who haven’t go a clue as to how to really supervise, coupled with crush regging of off-policy donations and weird schedules and extra course rooms for those not on “standard” (from a 1990 non-LRH HCO PL) schedules has emptied the course rooms worldwide. Plus of course harsh unnecessary Ethics actions inspired by a madman’s engram bank and whole track history and of course, misunderstood words.If you are on course you are immediate “donations bait” – which is also of course “interfering with students”. Ah! Well! Until this changes they haven’t got a hope in hell of filling up course rooms as was the case (filled course rooms that is) until the early or mid 1980s. Date co-incidence? of course!
Wow – that was brutal. The church’s reputation is so shot to shit, they spend many millions and no one comes.
Sheldon, that’s where the word exponential comes into play. Their reputation, as you stated, it truly “shot to shit.” And, it’s getting worse exponentially.
“their mind produces a charge that triggers the dial on the machine to move around”
Sorry mate that is not how an e-meter actually works.
Mike, if this guy is going to rubbish Scientology he should get his fact correct.
It’s obvious he has yet to run an Engram and erase it, if he did that he might understand 0.1% of the Tech.
The report on the building is very interesting though, how sad that such a wonderful piece of MEST is going to absolute waste.
The dwarf really is totally insane.
Hmmm, that’s an interesting comment.
First, for a complete neophyte, I would not rank that as a bad description of an e-meter. There are a lot of “scientologists” that couldnt do better than that.
To dismiss anyone’s viewpoint because “they havent run an engram” is what the church specializes in. Yet that is the overwhelmingly vast majority of people and EVERYONE they are supposedly trying to reach. But the impression they create on those people is unimportant to them because “the person doesnt understand the tech.” Of course they don’t, they just walked into the building. If it isnt understandable and they are not given correct information to give them any real grip on the subject, then its a massive fail.
And that IS what the church is, a massive fail.
And its partly because of this sort of thinking.
+1!!
Bingo! Well put Mike.
Roger that Mike,
I don’t know what’s wrong with me today but I finding myself in total agreement once again.
(I’m just checking my cigarette and coffee to make sure they are not laced with some psychotropic substance…. but anyway)
Of course you are right on this point though I will add that if this reporter was anything but a hack he would have done some research on Scientology before he set foot in the Org and did a piece.
Just my opinion.
That said it doesn’t excuse the Church’s the completely idiotic approach being used.
Mike, I think the problem with current Scientology is the totalistic “if you don’t understand it or don’t see the benefit of it, it’s your fault” mentality, instead of “try it, and use however much of it works for you” mentality.
Thanks for reprinting this, Mike.
It’s not an especially well-written piece, but the reporter does get his point across — and of course the pictures tell a whole story by themselves. His description of the bright-eyed, unblinking staffers is pretty sharp. And he seems to have a flash of unwitting insight when he compares the new e-meter to a prop from the *original* Star Trek series — i.e., about half a century old. Not a bad estimate of the age of the tech, or of the era when it must have felt fresh and exciting to a science-enamored public, stoked by the race to the moon and spooked by the shadow of the Bomb.
I wonder if this is the last time any reporter is EVER allowed to tour one of the ideal orgs. And I wonder if whoever approved it this time is now feeling the pain.
“the sheeple”
Oh God mike that was so funny, I am laughing too much to write a comment.
There is just tumbleweed blowing down the corridors of Davie’s empty Cathedrals. I seem to recall some line about no results or poor results, and public stay away in droves. By now the Duke of Chug would have had Davie exiled to somewhere in Arcturus – that is if he had let INCOMM keep Chug in operation!
NP,
Doncha ya know that INCOM’s purpose these days is to scan in KRs on all us disaffected types.
Holy smoke! Yep, it is a scam.
Actually too snide to be given any credence.
You often present some truly good pieces, Mike. This was not one of them.
Do you think the photos should not be given any credence?
Actually I agree with you Mike which again should be duly noted on some calendar.
If a picture tells a thousand words these ones give a million reason why each dollar spent on this so called “Ideal Org” was totally wasted.
Also I can’t get over the idea of some student snoozing at his desk and being woken up by a reporter instead of a “Course Supervisor”.
Best advertising you can get for GAT II.
Also the writer reveals the stupidity of these so called “stress tests”. I mean Ron says the best way to show the effectiveness of the meter is by doing a *pinch test* or in the case of a nosey reporter running them on a recent car accident but who really cares what Ron says as long as the “big homie” is represented they can pretend that they really give a damn.
Also I agree with the reporter to a certain extent on the Sci Fi aspect.
In fact they should change name to the Church of Science Fiction.
Because the tone of the whole text is excessively biased and drips with slime, I do wonder when the photos were actually taken.
I don’t think this is Mike’s point of view. He is however presenting a point of view that I think is mostly main stream for “wogs”. This point of view is a result of the pr the cos has created. And then of course presenting the real ep of this Ideal org, with pictures, is a true view of what is presently occurring. This post paints a picture that we shouldn’t be blind to.
That in itself proves something though. If everything these ideal orgs are touted as being able to do was true, and the abilities the tech has given the staff works then all the writers preconceived contempt and snideness would have been blown away. He would have come away impressed and unable to write such a piece.
As it was his preconceived thought were probably deepened with each little step through the morgue, fuelling his snideness and firing his pen up to 11! (Or his typing fingers lol)
It’s amazing how the ideal orgs are being flooded with new people! Oh, wait… Never mind.
You know, most stores get more people just asking to use the restroom.
What the writer lacks in skill and nuance, he more than makes up for in chutzpah and humor.
“Big homie Hubbard”. It will be hard for me to get this phrase out of my head. My new go-to description.
Amazing that Sydney let him in. Sign of desperation. The end is near. Please let it be soon, I’ve got better things to do.
Big homie! Don’t you know me?
This in interesting on several levels. First, why were Sea Org members apparently doing his tour. Secondly, didn’t it occur to them that a near empty Org wasn’t going to look good when there are “150,000 members” in Australia? Thirdly the journalist inadvertently makes the best case against Ideal Orgs. He looks at the bling MEST and thinks “this is going to be expensive” having just been told it’s all paid for with the customer’s money. If I was new public walking in that’s exactly what I would be thinking. Presumably that’s why Hubbard said that building big flashy buildings was precisely NOT the way to expand and why Idle Orgs is a billion dollar fiasco.
Priceless.
Dave, You have always been good at blowing smoke.
“Meanwhile, I was just reflecting on Catalonian chronic.”
Man, now that’s just priceless!
Well now I’m reflecting on Catalonian Chronic….
Never Clear, I’m way, way ahead of you! In fact I’m…huh?
What is “Catalonian Chronic”?
Cindy: “What is ‘Catalonian Chronic’?”
It’s the Chronic Care Plan of Catalonia (an autonomous community of Spain). The care plan involves strategies in patient self-care. The idea of this is that a patient with one chronic illness takes responsibility for their own recovery, to produce ‘Expert Patients’.