Yesterday, Tony Ortega reported the news out of Australia concerning the perpetrator of the tragic murder at the Advanced Organization in Sydney.
Stefani Hutchinson weighed in with her always cogent and fact driven take on things like this, I recommend reading her blog on the subject.
While there is much to be said about what happened, the tragic circumstances, the scientology refusal to acknowledge real mental illness and other things, there is a singular point I want to make. Scientology seized on this tragedy to make baseless and despicable allegations about Leah Remini and me. They claimed we had “blood on our hands” and had “instigated the murder” (not to ignore the lesser lie that the show was not canceled by Disney or anyone else).
They went even further and spread their hate to the executives at A&E, falsely claiming — based on absolutely nothing other than their desire to destroy their enemies at any cost — they also had responsibility for this horrific tragedy that happened inside their organization, by the mentally ill son of one of their members upset with what someone in the organization had done.
Karin Pouw didn’t write this letter. David Miscavige dictated it. He doesn’t put his name on things that have blowback potential like this. That is what flunkies like Karin Pouw are for. Of course, if this ever became an issue — for example if Paul Buccieri or A&E sued them — Miscavige would claim he knew nothing about it and Karen Pouw would be thrown under the bus as the sacrificial goat.
You can be sure that now their absurd theories have been disproven, they will not retract anything they said. They never do. And just as when this happened, they will have nothing to say about the victims or the circumstances of what happened and why. In fact, they have gone one step beyond that and have already doubled down on their lie, falsely claiming the decision from the Supreme Court somehow “confirms” that we “prey on” the weak. They have absolutely no shame.
My point is a broader one though.
This example should be held up as Exhibit 1 any time scientology says anything negative about someone they don’t like.
If they are willing to accuse high profile people of inciting murder with not a shred of evidence, it proves without doubt they will say ANYTHING about ANYBODY. They are not careful, nor are they concerned with facts or the truth. They have a singular objective. Destroy their enemies (those who speak the truth about them) at any cost. They will literally INVENT stories and allegations to try to make people look bad. All the claims they make about the terrible things former scientologists, journalists, politicians, government officials or upset family members of scientologists have done are uniformly lies. Accusing people of theft, sexual misconduct, bigotry, stealing, child abuse, beating their wives or any of the other things they say is small potatoes compared to accusing people of inciting murder. There is no greater crime in society. And they toss that out with a yawn.
This is scientology modus operandi. Always has been and always will be.
Don’t ever give their claims about their enemies any credence whatsoever.
I just realized that DM is only 5’3″, WTH. That little sawed off shit should have been sqashed like the vermin that he is. I would have put a stiletto in his eye if I would have been there. This whole thing is so much worse than I thought. The IRS needs to start raiding these properties that have no one in them. DHS needs to go in these locations and get these kids in school. What is wrong with the organizations on the outside and why don’t they act on it. If I was a parent of a minor child, I would call the authorities and get my child out.
I haven’t read the comments yet because I’m in a rush to post my own. If it duplicates what someone else has just said I apologize.
Here’s what I never understood when I was in; needless to say I still don’t understand it after 10 years out:
Scientology’s purpose is to make the “able” MORE able.
Per Hubbard and many of his HCOPLs and HCOBs, Scientology does NOT handle the mentally ill. Curing mental illness is NOT Scientology’s responsibility.
Ok, got it.
But then, if Hubbard’s tech is NOT intended for the mentally ill, then why RAIL about psychiatry’s solutions for mental illness?
After all, Scientology has no solutions for schizophrenia and psychotic behavior, for people who are serious dangers to themselves and society. Scientology does not DEAL with the mentally ill – only with the “able” as it defines its public.
Ergo, Scientology is NOT in competition with psychiatry and psychology. The latter purports to handle and manage mental illness – mentally ill people are their market share; the former wants only the “able” which presumably means those who might have mental and emotional hangups but who are not raging lunatics endangering themselves or society.
Different market shares, no?
Where is the completition?
Why doesn’t Scientology just let psychiatry do what it does, and concentrate on clearing and training people, which is what Scientology is SUPPOSED to do?
But no, instead, Scientology declared WAR on psychiatry! Why?
Really, why?
It makes no sense from a TECH perspective.
Of course from a fundraising perspective it makes sense!
But then, when I came in and for many years afterwards the focus was on TECH, on “going Saint Hill Size”, on making Clears, on training Auditors. Yet even THEN there was this huge hoo-ha, this indefatigable grandstanding about psychiatry, about ending psychiatry. What if Scientology had succeeded? What would be THEIR solutions to the mentally ill, the truly mentally ill who MUST be isolated from society at large because they ARE dangerous?
I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now.
Of course it makes no sense, Aqua, as scientology is based upon lies and has always seen itself as the “savior to mankind”, curing any and all mental illness or sub-optimal condition with one discredited treatment option which psychiatry had abandoned years previously. Hubbard wanted to control it ALL, rake in ALL the MONEY, be the most important personage, never mind that his version of the ‘tech’ didn’t do anything near what he asserted, promised. He FAILED! Completely and absolutely. He didn’t make all men his slaves; didn’t even get a miserly little harem of women who were his slaves (discounting the messengers as all accounts point to his disinterest in them in that way — he probably had “dope dick”, eventually unable to hold up his end of the transaction, in addition to his walrus-like proportions and fetid breath. As I think, the only area which he succeeded in was making lots and lots of MONEY — more than even HE could squander away in his lifetime.
Aquamarine: When I was in, I similarly and privately wondered–What is the Scientology end game with psychiatry and psychology? I think for the same reasons as you. A Church of Scientology org is well within Policy to not accept a person onto service who has had even a small amount of exposure to psychiatry. For instance, a person who did an outpatient treatment program and took an antidepressant for six months, or a person whose aunt, uncle or cousin is a psychiatrist.
Beyond such a “low bar” to clear (for rejection), any org will have zero capacity or interest in accepting a difficult mental health case. That is part of the irony, a person has to show up in good mental and emotional condition for Scientology to accept them.
In addition, your observations and remarks here make me think of a passage in the terrific memoir by Jeff Hawkins, “Counterfeit Dreams.” During his time heading up marketing for Scientology and Dianetics, he commissioned an extensive survey “of the public” by a well-regarded PR firm in New York City. After some months of effort and rigor, the agency provided an insightful set of recommendations. Chief among them was to discard the religion angle. Focus on the self-help attributes and results of the offering. Leave it at that, go forth and conquer (your intended market).
Interesting results (and recommendation), since so many enjoy the Life Improvement courses and “grade chart” actions covering communication, problems, and how to manage change–basically the “lower Bridge” actions done leading up to “Clear.”
Those things, affordably priced, positioned and sold as “self-help” may have done just fine. But it’s the profound over-reach of “I am the reincarnated Buddha” and “This is a religion” which derails the offering and renders it, ultimately, pretty godawful narcissistic and crazy (as many routinely attest here). Not to mention the cognitive dissonance of insisting on being a church and having tax exempt status, but rejecting the idea of IN ANY WAY helping the less fortunate.
Peridot, I read your comment with interest and agree with everything you’ve said and every point you’ve made. I didn’t get into Scientology because I was looking for a RELIGION. In fact, in my heart of hearts, I never agreed that Scientology WAS a religion. How amazing to hear that Jeff Hawkins had that survey done recommending that Scientology not be a church but instead self-help and therapy. That survey results certainly resonates with me – I’ve always thought so! The lower bridge – the auditing and the courses – helped me a great deal and continue to do so. I would recommend the courses I did and the auditing I had to everyone. I did benefit a great deal from them. However! I always had a problem recommending the ORGANIZATION that is COS and I never brought anyone in because of the back off I had about the organization. Certainly, that survey Mr. Hawkins commissioned was worth its weight in gold. Its a shame it got ignored.
Aquamarine, The Jeff Hawkins’ book “Counterfeit Dreams” is chockful of wise revelations, such as that illuminating survey. Like you, I had meaningful results from auditing. Like you, I kept the “weirdness” of the “Church” of Scientology close to the vest. Like you, this inhibited me from disseminating much. It’s a dysfunctional super-family with the irony that this group imagines itself to be set up to teach and model sanity.
Agree with you that it is a shame the survey got ignored; and it’s a shame that ANY useful, bright thinking continues to get ignored.
As LRH was fond of saying in at least one lecture: We may be witnessing a group that is getting “hoisted with its own petard.”
[“Hoist with his own petard” is a phrase from a speech in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, meaning that a bomb-maker is lifted (“hoist”) off the ground with his own bomb (a “petard” is a small explosive device), and indicates an ironic reversal, or poetic justice.]
As $camology continues to shrink it gets more rabid and fanatical as do most cults that are basically on their last legs. Dinky McMidget, meanwhile, will keep on shifting cash and real estate portfolios off shore in preparation for the day he needs to skip out of the country and leave the rusted-on sheepbots to take the fall.
I left Scientology after 37 years and soon began a blog in which I reported on just how much of a money grubbing, uncaring cult they really are. A judge soon issued a Restraining Order against me as Scientology falsely claimed that I had been stalking a Sea Org member. Just imagine: they got one of their own to lie to a judge about me. Luckily they balked and the case never went to court.
It’s interesting to see just how nasty Scientology was to me. All of my Scientology friends, former co-workers, former bosses, my loved ones — all of the people who are still a “Scientologist in Good Standing” have no idea what Scientology did to me, just for speaking out about the injustices.
In the meanwhile, even the crickets are getting lonely in the idle morgues.
In the words of a long-gone event fundraising registrar, “We’ve never been this close!!!”
We are heading to the magic moment. No one will officially know when, but there will be a moment when staff exceeds public. Both numbers dwindling.
These are holy words Atlanta Guy.
“We’ve never been this close!!!” …
Close to complete extinction, that is. Davie Boy is succeeding in ways we couldn’t have imagined when his series of coups gave him the crown, throne and keys to the treasury.
I think anyone with even a passing knowledge of this cult realizes that lying is their first tenet of faith.
Safetyguy:
Recognizing Davey’s tiny little fiefdom as a *cult* would be a “nice” thing to say, as it’s a step or two up from what the enterprise is, a blatant, never-ending push for MONEY, nothing offered in return other than status levels only recognized as interesting or valuable by other sheep. “cult” implies that the guy in the middle of the web getting fat is somehow a charming or persuasive speaker. Lil’ Davey ain’t that. He just orders and his minions beat things* out of the lower-downs. *’Mostly money, of course.
All DM did was orchestrate a series of coups to put him in the seat of power (such as it is) of scientology.
I was never “in” but I know you are correct. I was trying not to say what I really think of it.
All of Karin Pouw’s missives are directly from Dave Miscaviges mouth and should be taken at no face value. Let’s hope that DM doesn’t find a ‘Kyle Rittenhouse’ who thinks that some ASCer is threatening him/her.
At least LRH wasn’t a televangelist.
He might as well been a televangelist; as any tapes of his drivel we had to suffer through.
Hubbard was for sure a: lecturvangelist, policyvangelist, and kakavangelist, and ethervangelist.
“kakavangelist” is a polite way of putting it.
I’d like to know which violent, pornographic novel they were so concerned about him reading, and seemed to be the catalyst.
One of the Mission Earth books perhaps!
Hope that nice bit of irony doesn’t get lost on them, but it would.
NOTHING with the great big one’s name on it could EVER be banned/forbidden. Instead, “Mission Earth” would be held up as the ideal civilization’s description, to be studied and star-rated multiple times.😇
Can you IMAGINE having to slog through all that dreck more than once?
I find it sort of fitting that this “religion” (I’m being nice there) is saying that A&E was only in it for the money. Really? Really? That is what companies do. They make money. Religions, however, are suppose to be in it to help people live a better life and connect spiritually but this “religion” is only in it for the money. How fitting.
As Mr. Rinder said the other day, Pot, Kettle, black.