One of our Special Correspondents in Budapest sent in this report of the sad tale of the failed attempts to create an “Ideal Org” in Budapest (this org was declared SH Size sometime in the 90’s and at that time was one of the fastest growing orgs on earth). Some of the information in here is stunning — the rip off by the Int Landlord Office, the financial irregularities, the utter incompetence — but it is by no means uncommon. Similar stories have come in from many of these “Ideal Org” projects.
The Budapest Ideal Org Story
A bit of a background: Scientology was registered in Hungary as a church (and religion) in 1991. At that time, a religious organization needed 100 members and an official creed to get registered as a church. As the Hungarian Scientology movement had both, it was registered as a recognized religion.
Note: I saved all newsletters and emails originated by the Church to get a timeline together. All dates and figures concerning the ideal org project are coming from official Church communications (except when noted). These are the main source used for this writeup.
The Beginning
Even before the whole ideal org campaign started, the Finance Office of Budapest Org tried to find a solution for purchasing a building for the org. The original idea was to collect around 20% of the asking price of the target building (Budapest, XIII, Váci Str 17, it has been demolished since, now it’s an empty lot), and get a loan from Sea Org reserves to cover the rest. Fundraising started in 2001, and had some initial success.
Vaci Str 17 then…
And now…
The local Sea Org management unit called OTL Hungary also got involved in 2003. Around $500,000 USD was collected and seemingly the Sea Org Reserves Dir was willing to consider the request.
The Ideal Org Campaign
Then came the notorious OT Ambassador briefing in 2005, and everything changed. We were told that we have collect 100% of the money and build an Ideal Org.
To my surprise, we had to study “wog” authors as hatting. Fundraising staff had to read a book from Jerold Panas called “Asking”, the Les Dane books and Sergio Zyman’s The End of Marketing As We Know It.
Extreme pressure was put on getting donations from the field NOW NOW NOW. Sea Org members were ordered to raid the homes of wealthy public in the middle of the night to “invade their comfort zone” (as Walter Kotric put it).
A new building was selected (Budapest VIII, 4 Puskin Street), and the asking price was $3.25 million USD. It is a nice building, located in a small alley near one of the main traffic junctions of Budapest.
The targeted building on Puskin St.:
The crush regging finally got the product (while alienating half the field for good) – the entire sum to purchase the building was collected by 26 August 2005.
The building was purchased a month later (17 Sept 2005).
Renovations(?)
Another month later, the renovation budget was put together: $1.8 million USD was the final sum and surprisingly it was needed yesterday.
In December 2005, the final figure was increased to $2 million.
The next official announcement is from 8 March 2006, where the target date of grand opening was set: 26 September 2006. The reno budget was now $2.2 million, and $1.4 million had reportedly been collected already. The public was given the target: get the remaining $800,000 in one week (the LRH’s birthday gimmick never gets old).
It took a bit longer than that, but at the May 9th event, they reported they had the $2.2 million. But there was a small problem. Another $1.5 million was needed for furniture, e-meters etc.
By 23 August, they had $400,000 for that purpose.
5 days later, a dramatic announcement was made: they had the $2.2m + $1.5m for the renos. The money was there.
But…
There was still one thing left: Space planning.
They said the Int Landlord Office was working on it already, and the org was told to put its CF into order while the plans were completed.
Central Files
So, the enthusiastic call-to-arms went out to the entire field – 60,000 folders had to put into order (52,000 bookbuyers and 8,000 on the trained/processed list). “A few days are enough if enough people come in and help.” – stated the email.
2 months later… (no kidding) on 18 October 2006 – A newsletter is sent stating that the filing backlog has been eliminated and now comes the second phase, where the contents of all folders are sorted into chronological order.
1 year later (seriously, one year later): According to some inside sources, space planning was completed, but Dave did not find the time to approve it and it was sitting in his office. The org somehow could not complete the CF overhaul either.
On 10 December 2007 , they got the order to complete the whole sorting project by the end of the year, accompanied by the usual threats (no fail, or else, no one goes to sleep until etc.)
The next official communication is from 27 January 2008. A new target was set for getting that damn CF into order: 13 March 2008 (what a surprise). The great estimation-of-effort experts at OT Committee estimated that an additional 40,000 man hours are needed to accomplish that – in addition to the 23,000 man hours already spent on the project. This means spending 1 hour with each folder, which sounds an awful lot, but the OTs obviously know better, right?
12 February 2008 is the date of the next newsletter. It gives a new datum: 1 million pages are still to be printed for the project. This means 16 pages / folder. Another puzzling piece of information.
And interestingly, the CF project was indeed completed by 13 March 2008.
The Plans Are Done!
Newsletter of 9 April 2008: Great news! Dave finally got around to approving the plans, so the space planning and 3D renderings are completed and approved! (It only took them 1 year and 8 months.) Now the local authorities had to approve them, too. So, they submitted the plans to the local and national governments.
Here are some of renderings:
[Ed: I recall seeing a video “fly through” of this “Ideal Org” at one of the Miscavige Nuremberg Rallies]
Meanwhile The SPs Attack!
14 March 2009 – The Hungarian Cultural Heritage Protection Office added the building to the list of specially protected properties (of historical significance) which made the approval of any renovations even more difficult…
Well, obviously the renovations are on hold, so what do we do now?
Central Files Project, Part II
You guessed right! On 13 June 2009, a newsletter was sent out to the entire field, stating that “new standards” are to be implemented and there is a filing backlog, so come in and help!
A few months later….
9 Sept 2009: the project is DONE! Again
The Plans Are Still “Being Approved”
The Church in Hungary was trying to get the magnificent plans approved by the wog authorities.
According to the homepage of the Hungarian Chamber of Architects, the Church submitted its complete planning on 1 December 2009, and a revised version of it on 22 December 2009. (Remember, the plans were approved by Dave on 9 April 2008)
2010 – The OT Committee Almost Rebelled
So, basically all the Church accomplished was a rejected plan.
Imagine the look on the faces of the OT Committee members, when the Int Landlord Office sent an invoice for their services, billing a whopping $520,000 USD for the space planning and renderings. At first, they did not want to pay a penny, and QUERIED THE ORDER in writing. The answer came in the form of Monika Aslanis, a CMO EU staff member holding the post of “EU Landlord”, who called a meeting. She used the PR angle (the money is needed for international expansion etc), but the veteran businessmen (quite a few OT Committee members were company owners or CEOs) did not really fall for it, and started to negotiate the sum (!). Finally, they managed to get it down to $450,000 USD, and Monika Aslanis personally made sure that the bank transfer was made.
But that was not the only one unpleasant surprise. The members found out that the Chairman of the OT Committee has submitted selection slips for around $3 million USD and the immediately “donated” her $300,000 USD commission to the local Sea Org unit, OTL (=Operations & Transport Liaison) Hungary, which was transferred to their bank account overnight.
Then came the third surprise: she was not the only one getting commission – apparently over $200,000 USD was paid out as commission to public Scientologists. The OT Committee demanded a clear accounting of income and expenses from the org. And… they couldn’t produce it as there wasn’t any. According to the org execs, there was no central accounting, so all they know is the current bank balance and recorded status levels of the bigger donors.
The Budget Is Increased
Another bombshell came: after the plans were rejected, new plans were done to comply with all requests and requirement, which (according to the project management company contracted by C of S International) added $6 million USD to the total budget.
The new calculation also included $3 million USD for furniture and internal fixtures alone. Some of the items: only Dell computers of a specific model were authorized for purchase. The desk for LRH office had to come from a Los Angeles shop, costing $7000 USD etc.
The OT Committee queried this in writing. All they got back as an answer: “COLLECT THE MONEY.”
It Cannot Be!
The last (and final) submission was in 10 May 2012, and the Hungarian Central Architectural and Technical Council gave a pretty damning opinion of the final plans and did not recommend it (which means that it was effectively killed).
Some of the highlights:
“The building features great internal spaces, yet these would be unnecessarily divided by offices and lecture halls.”
“It is unacceptable to design a series of windowless rooms and offices without adding the necessary number of restrooms. The restrooms are badly planned, insufficient space is allocated to them and would be unusable in their current form.”
“In order to build the proposed underground garage, all the trees will have to be cut down on the property, which is unacceptable. The design of the garage entrance looks phony and hardly acceptable, and the driveway to it is barely accessible from the narrow street. Four parking places at the other end of the garage are simply inaccessible and unusable.”
“Adding a new wing to the building… does not preserve the dignity of the building and does not match the original design of the main building… The undersized restrooms and the windowless offices are a recurring problem”
Looking For A New Solution
Fundraising was still going on but it was evident that there is no way to extract six million dollars from the already depleted field. After 2 years of constant fundraising events, the final reject of the plans forced a compromise: the Church has given up on the Puskin 4 building, and started to look for another building, to be bought from the available funds.
2013 – The New(est) Building
And they found it! It was purchased in August and this modern office building will be the new Budapest Ideal Org, and it is located on 169 Váci Street, Budapest.
Now, there are still some tenants in the building, and according to inside sources, at least one of them (the regional branch office of Hewlett Packard) refuses to move out.
The only other problem is the Puskin 4 building. It can only be sold for a hefty loss and continues to soak up huge sums in maintenance and public utility fees.
[Ed: But at least “COB” will be able to do a whole new “fly through” of CGI renderings of the “latest” Ideal Org. It can go into the Hall of Shame of numerous other “Ideal Orgs” that have been shown in CGI but never materialized in the real world, including Miscavige’s personal favorite imaginary Ideal Org — Harlem].
Funny thing. Ed hasn’t said anything on FB since the 9th. Wonder where he is?
Perhaps we’ll find out tomorrow? Though the last I’d heard, he hadn’t retained counsel. It’ll be interesting to see who shows up at the hearing!
Speaking of Ed Bryan, I think he’s warming up for his court case on the 12th. This is a post on his page from the 9th. I wonder if he knows he’s been named yet…heh heh This man might be whistling past the graveyard.
Ed Bryan
September 9
These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, “Where am I, Cathy?”
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn’t it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn’t know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He’s twenty, much like your IQ.
_______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I’m going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_______________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished.
____________________________________________
And the best for last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.
ROTFL!! My hubby and I had fun with this, thanks!
😀 Hallie!
Ed did post something today but it showed that he posted from Dunedin, Florida, not California. Interesting that too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsuKT7l2nDk#t=17
Will someone please find Martin Samuels and all of the old mission holders who knew how to kick some serious ass and get them to start some Indie missions? Then we can play the birthday game against the orgs and trounce them week after week!!!
Wouldn’t that be the BEST revenge?? Bwahahaha Not kidding. 🙂
Now THAT would be how to build an “Ideal Org”.
Wonderful thought, Indie. I have no doubt that it will come to that in the not-too-distant future.
Thanks, Ronnie. I hope so too.
Remember Scientology Axiom 51 – AXIOM 51. POSTULATES AND LIVE COMMUNICATION NOT BEING MEST AND BEING SENIOR TO MEST CAN ACCOMPLISH CHANGE IN MEST WITHOUT
BRINGING ABOUT A PERSISTENCE OF MEST. THUS AUDITING CAN OCCUR.
Thus, DM can be dethroned.
That’s why we ARE making a difference by talking about things here. “…not being MEST…”
+! My favorite axiom.
Mine too!!!! (oops I guess I’m not fully out. There I go with the multiple exclamation points again. haha)
We have a pretty aligned target here.
But “revenge” is probably not the proper word for it. I’d say winning a game sounds better.
Ron would say Service Facsimile … well, well, these were his words.
I’d rather say that the emotions linked to revenge are like self-destruction.
From a purely selfish point of view let’s try avoiding “revenge” at all.
I have NO interest in stat games ever again. Flourishing and prospering is the best revenge.
You’re right, BFM. I should have put quotes around the word, “revenge”. Ron himself does talk about “forgetting is the best revenge” so I don’t think it’s a wholly negative term, considering the intention behind the revenge and who we are avenging. 🙂
I should say, being a bit more gentile, that they will learn their lesson when the ex-mission holders kick their asses in the birthday game every week. 😀 Is that better?
🙂
Indie,
No disrespect, and not to pile on with the other disagree-ers, but I really don’t like that idea.
I hate the Birthday Game, always have,
Rightly or wrongly, I hold it, and have always held it, as an arbitrary accountable for a great deal of the abuses of the RCS.
The actions of clearing people, of training them to be auditors who can clear people, of helping people onto the Bridge, of working with them to show them that they can do something to improve their own conditions in their own lives on any level of the Bridge, of raising the awareness, self determinism and ability of an individual – these are precious, and almost sacred actions to me because in order to do them properly one needs to be worthy of a a great deal of trust, and this trust should in no way EVER be compromised by having to get it done by Thursday at 2PM. I am SO done with the Birthday Game. Sorry for the rant, people. This is a huge button for me. (takes deep breath). Okay, I’m calm now.
Of course, in order to have stats, one has to have a cut-off time for the week. This is fine with me. But getting the “product” in by a certain time in order to have a high(er) stat should never take precedence over the ARC one has with the public. That’s my opinion.
There ya go, Aquamarine! WITH ARC, WITH everybody playing it AS A GAME.
That whole false stat, “we need to kill the other org or else we all have to lick the bathroom floor”pressure on the staff is NOT what that whole thing is about. Ron just wanted expansion instead of a tie or a great dinner. I like that game. And I especially like it when we’d show what applying REAL Scientology can do and how many people PREFER our (LRH’s) brand of Scientology.
Stats aren’t the bad guy. They are just used to represent. I would love us to represent. 🙂
Aquamarine — the 2 pm cut-off times originally had to do with the location of LRH and what management existed at the time it was implemented – in the 60s I believe. In order to get a running start on the new week (conditions and such), 2 pm Thursday was chosen for stats to be sent in and evaluated. It was strictly a logistical action. Afterwards, IMHO, it became a whip used to motivate people to produce early and often. This was the original fallacy of the not-too-bright execs that populated staff early on – late 60s and early 70s. Hire people that are altruistic and motivated to help, who are compassionate and willing to work for next to nothing to do something needed and important – and then threaten them weekly. Browbeat them into submission by telling them ‘religiously’ that whatever they do, is not enough. This is why Stats became a source of aberration.
The Birthday Game was “soft sell” implemented by LRH or with LRH or through LRH as something to rally the troops behind and have some fun. Who doesn’t like winning the three-legged race at a picnic? Or hitting a home run off the CEO, at the company softball game?
But … the same usual suspects hijacked the concept and altered it. LRH’s image was hoisted up the flagpole and became the constant rallying point to Do More Now. Instead of using word clearing tech, post purpose clearing and horrors of horrors – auditing the staff – to keep staff productive, winning, having fun and most importantly, surviving, they used this game as a barbed horsewhip, to thrash anyone who wasn’t honoring the old man by getting their stats up.
It’s easy to take 98% of what became “visible Scientology Tech” and denigrate it, because it was continually messed with, altered, ignored or used as a carrot to exhort people to compromise their integrity. What’s essential is to separate out the Tech from the Idiots who tried to “apply it.” The Tech works. It’s not perfect, but it sure beats, “Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.”
As far as The Idiots – rest assured that Karma exists and in the not too distant future there will be a sudden spike in the two-headed frog population. There, we’ll hear them croaking themselves to sleep each night. Ah, such sweet, sweet music.
Actually, just to clarify one little point, OT. 🙂 (I just noticed that your initials are OT. haha)
So, when I was first on staff, the cut-off time was Wednesday night. BUT what would happen is that reg’s would be working on cycles in the evening and those would actually belong on that week’s stats but would have to go on the next day’s because the banks were closed at 5.
So they moved it to 2pm on Thursday so that the cycles that were started on Wed. could be completed in that prior week.
Scientology trivia right there.
Right Aqua. I actually really enjoy reviewing stats and applying conditions, but I always do it when it indicates to me, according to MY priorities on MY dynamics, in the way that I feel is correct and in my own time. I’ve had very nice wins and success handling many people this way. It’s all the eval and gross stat pushing for overt products, that’s given so many people hives, when they hear the word stat. Wrong items and wrong indications abound on this subject, especially for staff, who have suffered horrifically from list errors. The captive, solo nots auditors get this too, via the harassing sec checks and out of session eval. That’s not at all what LRH intended and is a perversion, ie, reverse Scn. Scn is a game where everyone wins, and I think if that senior datum, was considered in all actions, Scn would be in a very different place right now. Indie8 was just suggesting applying real Scn to real wins which is a great game. I keep suggesting we get to 10,000 solo nots completions before the RCS so I have my gamey streak too!
🙂 Thanks for duplicating me, Hallie Jane. 🙂
Yes. I’m sure we could have a lot more new people coming in too, not just us old farts finally getting our OT levels and our training because it’s finally affordable again. hahahaha!
I would ROTFL to see our stat graphs, compared to a local org’s. IMAGINE! Beautiful Ideal Morgue there on the outskirts of town, struggling to get 3 to 5 starts a week and we are getting 20! Bwahahahaha!
I am with you 100%. Never saw the sense in all the stat push. You do the best you can, honestly deliver a valuable product then figure out what condition you are in for the week and just apply that condition that you are in..
What drove me nuts was to be constantly forced to be applying some version of the emergency formula all the time when that was not the condition I was in. I mean, what the heck is so wrong with being in a condition of normal?
The birthday game is what made life on staff a living disaster. Where does Ron say that you don’t study on Thursday morning?
OK. So there is my addition to your rant.
Hear, hear, Aqua. You can’t rush any person’s travel time to Understanding. Not if you honestly want them to make it, and to be helped, or to gain the ability to help others.
In my heart of hearts, I cannot believe that LRH ever intended for the delivery of the valuable final products of Scientology to suffer because of the Birthday Game. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the end result the game eventually produced.
Thanks for havin’ my back, Ronnie(!), though I’m not sure if it’s a matter of me not being out long enough. I just think it would be FUN to wipe up the floor with the orgs while happily getting that many more audited and trained (finally) Indies! I think we could 3 to 4 X their production easy and show the world who has the REAL Scientology.
Wouldn’t that be a fun game to play?
Hello Mr Bell,
My viewpoint on the birthday game, and if I recall correctly, was that LRH was asked what he wanted for his birthday at one time. His reply was that all he wanted was for Sceintology to expand.
Thus was born the 5X birthday game.
If that game had been played, as it was in the beginning, with an eye to ‘delivery’ production stats and with ARC, good comm cycles and all the other basic products of Scientology then orgs would have expanded automatically.
The corruption occurred by forcing the attention onto money collecting and rewarding downstats whilst penalising upstats. The result being that real Scientologists, such as your good self, were forced out, and I use the word forced intentionally, whilst those that remained or came in are the less aware type that will happily hand over all their worldly goods to buy the toad a present when he is hauled off to his just deserts.
Personally I believe that his masters will not allow that distance to be run and he will be ‘eliminated’ when he ceases to be of use. A small loss.
Literally on the ‘small’ loss.
Kim Brillon
‘Be aware of the weird trick the Church of Scientology in Buffalo NY does to get you to join”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF4rWdsCiXU
Wow that was quick, user deleted the video, Church still has fangs it seems
I would like to set up a blog in Hungarian language to support this people. I have some articles about how to leave and how to get the mind free from cult indoctrination. I need translators from German or English into Hungarian language. Please get in contact via: lady_viking@web.de.
shit off!!! this my friends is an outrage
It occurred to me, reflecting on the fine examples shared above, just how interest piques especially when celebrities are cornered for interviews. Couldn’t help also thinking about the irony of Scn celeb John Travolta and one of his box office successes: …. remember it? — “GET SHORTY” –(how prophetic!) 🙂
Just a little addendum…
The Puskin St building was sold last week – or perhaps the week before – for the price of 600 million Forints, which is around $2.65M. I know this for a fact as my business partner was involved in the purchase – to turn it into accomodation/hotel.
Another interesting thing to note is that the Puskin building is just one of the buildings the Church of Scientology is selling in Budapest. The Church has a further four (4) buildings on the market.
It seems as though they are desperately trying to offload their property, and fast.
On the downside, I walked past the Dianetics centre here in the VI District, just behind Andrassy on Paulay Ede utca, and I could see at least 3 rooms with people in them – one group session of 6, one smaller group of 3 and another group of 4.
Do you think, DM is aware of the mess he is creating?
Or is he still finding justifications to calm himself down?
He would only sell buildings if he can blame someone, right?
He calms himself doen with the finest most expensive scotch
My ethical feeling tells me that donors should get their money back if not used for the purpose it was given for.
Hmmmm, who has the same feeling?
The whole world
+1
+1
Yeah, they been selling off a lot of buildings lately. Wonder if there is a cash strap … or just downsizing. In any event, the parishioners will not have their monies returned if they had initially funded it. Best real estate scam I’ve heard of yet.
Sorry, donations are non-refundable!
Seee!!!! What did I say just a week or so ago?
When the clock hits the magic hour, someone will either sell those buildings or re-finance them and make off with the cash!!!
Somebody sound the alarm in Hungary! Those parishioners should be paid back if the building isn’t going to be used for the org! WHERE did the money go then? Do you have records of that too? That would be blood on the tracks if it went back to CofS.
I would assume that this would call for a similar law suit to the one about the super power building currently running. Each funder of that building should be part of a class action suit.
Over to you.
The San Diego Not So Ideal Org and the Boston Org sold too.
If they do need cash in a hurry, the Toronto Org on Yonge St sold to condo developers could get him a ton of cash quickly.
/popcorn
Thank you Mike and correspondent for this sobering and important post. One word comes to mind……..OBSCENE!!!! This disgusting, extravagant, rip off of money is absolutely criminal. What a waste of what could have been a thriving org, obviously their public were very dedicated and generous. I saw a comment recently, where someone suggested that various org donaters, come together and sue for fraud, to try to get the buildings, that they personally funded, back from the corp. church. The thing about the org in Haifa, Israel that defected, en masse, is that the building was owned by one of the parishioners, so they were able to continue business, unharrassed by the RCS. I hope a template for this type of legal action can get started, so some of this money can get recouped, for the good of indie orgs. I would like to see justice for the fleeced, who probably just wanted a nice space for auditing to occur.
Here here! We need to pierce the legal veil that this pseudo religious group, is hiding behind, and follow the money. Hundreds of millions have been mishandled. A public company can be gone after, for malfeasance. It’s harder for a Church because of our constitution. No one wants to tread on religious rights. But submissions can be made to the courts to request an audit or a trustee of sorts to be brought in to evaluate claims of fraud and mismanagement. Spearheaded by those who provided the funds, this will have merit. Money misspent speaks louder and more clearly than a disagreement in religious dogma. A donation to a church to help feed the poor, repaint the church or handle any general church function is hard to track. But an organized campaign to raise funds for the purchase of a building, is something that can be enforced. Misappropriation is a wind that blows ecclesiastically as well a secularly. It could happen.
Nice, Odd Thomas. Great ideas. I’m sure that’s what the Garcias are engaging in.
If you know how that procedure works – requesting an investigation into malfeasance and who to request it of, etc. – that would be good for us to know.
This compulsion to create and sell a fantasy that has absolutely NO connection to reality reminds me of something … wait … I’ll find it … it’s like … WAIT! I’ve got it!
Dear Sir,
Having consulted with my colleagues and based on the information gathered from the Nigerian Chambers Of Commerce And Industry, I have the privilege to request your assistance to transfer the sum of $47,500,000.00 (forty seven million, five hundred thousand United States dollars) into your accounts. The above sum resulted from an over-invoiced contract, executed, commissioned and paid for about five years (5) ago by a foreign contractor. This action was however intentional and since then the fund has been in a suspense account at The Central Bank Of Nigeria Apex Bank.
We are now ready to transfer the fund overseas and that is where you come in. It is important to inform you that as civil servants, we are forbidden to operate a foreign account; that is why we require your assistance. The total sum will be shared as follows: 70% for us, 25% for you and 5% for local and international expenses incidental to the transfer.
Etc.
LOL
I hope it was all about money laundering (not that it’s a good thing), because it’s really pathetic otherwise.
That is truly sickening. The cult is a bottomless pit of greed and mismanagement.
So David Miscavige is a better thief and blackmailer than a business man. He throws money around because it really belongs to others and he is used to having an endless supply. I hope it all dries up.
It must be, he seems to be in panic mode trying to wheel in the cash
Very sad waste of money and effort!
The biggest mistakes fall on the Int Landlord Office, and frankly Sea Org Reserves has to make up for the financial losses that the Landlord Office executives made.
The Sea Org failed here. They should pay, not the public Scientologists. .
Rich Scientologists have been screwed over for 40 years, over and over, pouring their money into Scientology only to see Sea Org decision makers botch things.
If the Sea Org cannot dip into the reserves to pay for the damage done by Sea Org members’ mistakes, then the public Scientologists are right to jump ship and go do the independent Scientology route, until the Sea Org idiots shape up.
The new route up the Bridge, until official Scientology shapes up, is to the independent Scientology setups.
If official Sicentology shapes up, someday, fine, there can be some reconciliation, but I wholly agree with rich and all Scientologists in a community like Budapest, all just defecting and setting up their own independent community until the Sea Org PAYS with real money, out of Sea Org Reserves, for its mistakes!
The money hoarded by official Scientology has to be used to pay for the mistakes of top management’s decision makers who have overseen these massive mistakes.
If not, then stay away from putting money into official Scientology that is guaranteed only to waste it!
The SO has has exhibited two of its many weaknesses here:
1. They are arrogant. SO people think that they are the only ones who have “the tech” to do things right. All wogs are idiots.
2. SO people are generally kinda dim-witted. Any highly-skilled people in the SO tend to get RPF’d and eventually they blow – smart, competent people get tired of having idiotic orders screamed at them by teenaged girls (CMO). That leaves the dimwits in charge. It’s been that way for decades.
Arrogance and stupidity are a dangerous mix.
Gus
Gus Cox, I understand you but want to clarify some points:
1. Arrogance is coming from the lack of professionalism and confront. I don’t believe that in the big group there is no professionals at all whatsoever. However arrogant people attracting a lot of attention and creating bad PR to their group.
2. People usually blow the group because of their O/Ws. This is the proven technical fact actually. However sometime it is the overt to stay in the group if you see that your intention and intention of the group that you recently discovered are quite different. I want to stress on “recently discovered”, because pretended intention of group (PR intention) and real intention might be as different as black and white. What I am saying is relevant to any group on the planet earth. The faster person discover the real intention of the group and see whether or not it fits to his intention the better for him. The trick is that intention of any individual will never fully fit to the intention of any group. And sooner or later he will blow from it even by dying. Therefore strongest people are building up their own group with their own intention. But most often it result in Frankenstein Monstro that swallow its creator. Shit happens )))
🙂
The “Church of Scientology:” One reg cycle after another.
Over and over and over again.
sorry i was doing posts on the boards
Please delete, I had been to a party and this wasn’t proper of me to post
My apoligiesv to you Mike and to everybody that posts here.
Neils — I deleted it. Unfortunately, I cannot see videos that are posted when I approved or disapprove comments without going out of the admin mode. It is a quirk of the blog. I was traveling and because you generally don’t post anything inappropriate (not to say I always agree) I simply approved it and didnt go back and look after it was approved. Your apology is appreciated. I sometimes don’t have a lot of time, I dont want people’s communication to disappear into the ether so I try and quickly approve comments even if on my phone. So, in future, don’t send posts after parties 🙂
Understood and “duplicated” Mike I will try to do better by you. I must earn my keep so to say
Thanks for all the time you put in Mike!
Nice etiquette, Cat Daddy. +1
This is one of my favorit songs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AmkmqYEarw
One important point to add to the story: as the result of the unprecedented expansion and demand for Scientology in Hungary, sometime during the same period (was it 2010?) the church in Hungary lost its religious recognition and today Scientology is no longer a recognized religion in that country.
it occurred to me while reading this extremely well written report that in this 16 years of practicing Scientology on lines did I every care for a second what the condition was of my Org’s building and it’s furnishings. In 16 years of having countless life changing cognitions did I ever think or care about the quality of the desk of book shelf that happened to be next to me at that time. This whole ideal org thing rally is laughable.
BINGO!
Sounds like you “got it” Paul. People who experience personal revelation and awareness through the study of Scn become Scnists. And you are correct, environmental trappings have NOTHING to do with the making of Scnists or the delivery of Scn services. Which makes me wonder about those pushing this agenda – Are they Scnists? Or, their concept of what Scn is is so twisted and perverted that it can hardly be called Scn.
No doubt, DM probably considers himself to be the most dedicated Scnist on the planet (followed by TC); working tirelessly to bring about LRH’s vision of a Cleared Planet. But, by numerous accounts and testimonies, he does not appear to apply Scn, use Scn or practice it on himself or others. So, is he a Scnist? Outrageous thought, but it has to asked.
Mike you are one lucky dude
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6w2L1d3eBY
I think he knows that!
And Christie is one lucky gal, too!
What a sad sad tale, what a scam; I feel for the sheeple and at the same time I can only blame them for keeping this a float.
I hope that in 2013 Budapest Church is completely abandoned and forced to disappear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-e-coUDU0c
Perfect and right emotion
One word, WOW!
The church has effectively gone into the valence of the Mob. This is just theft and coercion on a grand scale, and needs to be called what it is — organized crime.
These people aren’t wearing the hats of ecclesiastical religious workers. They’re wearing hats like, Capo, Consigliere, Underboss, Enforcer, Hit Man, Bag Man, etc.
There is something that’s been haunting me for a while. Please correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Hubbard write that Scientology should make more money with Scientology? Selling auditing and training and so on? But from so many recent reports, it really does sound like ‘Scientology” (as it were) is not really being provided.
The way I see it, if Scientology had continued to be practiced as it had in the past, it probably would have kept chugging along, maybe not for a billion years, but a long, long time. Whether that would be a good thing or not is, of course, a matter of debate but I’m sure, as a practice it could have been self-sustaining.
But this, this real estate thing – it’s not self-sustaining, and i’m no expert but it reminds me of something a scammer would do right before they take the money and run. That’s just speculation, yes, but if that’s what happens, I worry what will happen to the true believers still inside. Having one’s faith broken can be devastating. If the church falls apart, I hope there is some way to help the people left behind.
…this real estate thing – it’s not self-sustaining, and i’m no expert but it reminds me of something a scammer would do right before they take the money and run.
Victoria, I think that’s a very prescient thought. In this case, though, I think the criminal is staying put and causing his fleeced flock to run. He gave up on the core work and products of the organization a long time ago, and seeing the coming collapse in the future, decided to focus most of his energy in consolidating material gains and his control over them.
When he’s finally down to a tiny cadre of true believers and henchmen, he’ll liquidate it all and build a new fiefdom in some country that welcomes billionaire kook gurus.
Those who are left behind, dazed and confused, will be well taken care of by the Indies.
Good riddance. It’s worth a billion or two to a) get rid of the suppressive little twerp and b) teach our Kool-Aid drinking friends a lesson in personal integrity.
Thanks for your thoughts. The outcome you predict is at least marginally better than the other.
“He gave up on the core work and products of the organization a long time ago…”
I keep wondering about this too. I mean, if one has a working religion/self-help practice, why let it go that way? From reading hundreds of ex-members stories, it appears that something began to go awry at a certain point, than got so far awry that things became based more on pressure and fear. So many stories have that same trajectory. It’s very distinct.
If people are getting real personal gains from something, they don’t have to be pressured to stay in it.. From my outsiders perspective, it looks like something happened that made the processes not work as well. I do wonder if DM really did make certain changes, and then he couldn’t fix them because he didn’t have the background knowledge that LRH had. And then it began to go out of control…until here is this current situation.
Again, it’s speculation, but I do wonder.
…and what IF, Victoria, the little bastard sold us all down the river with that IRS deal (or some other interaction) and agreed to change things so that it wouldn’t really work to make anyone “OT”?
It’s a well-known fact that there are influences in the world that are trying to dumb us down and make us incapable. This isn’t the subject of this blog so I won’t go into details that most of us know already.
So what if that was the real agenda in the first place? It sure would make a lot of his actions make sense.
What would I do if I wanted to destroy Scientology and it’s expansion capabilities? I’d wipe out all the missions and bankrupt those who put them there so that they were too crippled to restart.
Then I would change the tech so that essential things were taken out that ACTUALLY made OTs. I don’t know but, from what I’ve observed, OT VIII might have been pretty ok in 1987 when it was released but I don’t see the same products in the new OT VIIIs. They seem sort of crippled compared to the original ones.
Anyway, this viewpoint makes the things DM does make a lot more sense.
If we’ve been thinking he’s playing Chutes and Ladders all this time, the moves he’s made have seemed crazy.
If he’s actually been playing monopoly, every move he’s made is accomplishing the goal of His game.
Submitted for your consideration.
+1000
😀
+1
+1 Ronnie. Totally.
See Ed Bryan’s facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Easy.Eddie.B?fref=ts
There is no hope of Scientology making any kind of difference. It has nothing to offer. It is just a hash of stolen bad ideas and sci-fi fantasy bundled up by a con man in the middle of the last century. It is dying, as it deserves. Please wake up and face that reality.
Phil, if I had to guess, I’d say you’ve never done a Scientology course, or read any of Hubbard’s books. Your opinion is about as useful as an uneducated layman bloviating about some technical field he has no training or experience in.
Thanks for wearing the bouncer hat, Ronnie. Phil needed a breath of fresh air.
I don’t know what is worse, COS kool-ade, or whatever Phil is drinking.
Both are nasty brews that result in weird behavior and dizziness.
Philip Arlington, The technology of Dianetics and Scientology works every time and to a wonderful degree.
L Ron Hubbard was exact and correct. When he did make a mistake he was man enough to admit it.
Now go and wash your mouth out.
Hey Phil, and your alternative is exactly what? The number of people you’ve actually helped with their emotional, spiritual aspects, or confusions about life and such? Do enlighten us,. As auditors, we are
trained to listen AND observe! …Oh, just a little pre-requisite first though, unless you’ve walked the talk (have some valid experience with your “talk” ) — then perhaps you should just keep on walking..
+1 Ditto Calvin.
🙂
You need to face and wake up to the reality that you are merely parroting back what you have read someplace you have no first-hand knowledge of.
Like so many things in RCS, things are 180 degrees opposite. Here is a group that:
1) Has exclusive rights to trademarks and copyrights
2) Has a virtual monopoly on The Bridge (though this is eroding)
3) Charges its public 10s or 100s of thousands for its services
4) Is tax-exempt
5) Pays its staff poverty-level wages (in some cases, none at all)
6) Claims to possess the “secrets to the universe”, including superior management technology
7) Has a billion bucks in reserves
How could possibly fuck that up?
Maybe they don’t HAVE to succeed.
The more stories I hear like this the more convinced I am that the whole shooting match needs to be dismantled and terminated, starting with the Sea Org. DM and is paramilitary band of pirates keep the bubble reality going. If disbanded, ordinary good-hearted Scnists (staff and public) would soon destimulate and snap out of it. Only then do we have any hope of Scn making any kind of difference.
May I raise two points, that whilst not directly connected to Budapest, are relevant, and hopefully our Hungarian members here at ‘The Hill’ will read them.
Speaking as a person of much experience in certain matters I notice an apparent correlation between the times when the toad is about to be required to ‘produce the goods’ and an apparent SP leaps into the fray to save his neck. Many a situation has been saved by a short call to the enemy . . .
Secondly, Hungarian Scientologists please note; I know of two very successful missions, one in the UK , has been stable and productive no matter what insanity was occuring elsewhere. As a mission it is possibly now larger than most UK class V orgs.
The other is outside of the UK but I had the pleasure to speak with the mission holder and asked about the mission. His replies were illuminating though not unexpected and simply put.
His staff all receive a livable wage and do not moonlight. They are required to put in their study time, studying. The mission is only just able to cope with the steady expansion and will be able to move into larger premises without the need for fundraising.
How does he do it ? All orders, cross orders, insanities and other standard off policy procedures are ignored. The ‘management’ are very much aware that they could not find a replacement for him.
Hungarians do you understand ?
Which UK mission? As far as I know all the south coast missions were “managed” virtually out of existence.
Miskolc Mission in northern Hungary was doing well till a few years ago – again by getting management of its back. But Drior is the only successful mission model really. That is, disconnect completely with the suppressive “management” and go it alone.
More Boondoggle mindboggling from Miscavige’s “churches” devoid of people, or sheeple! At least going out for a night of affordable entertainment, watching a hypnotist have fun with his volunteer subjects, is stimulating and a genuine “release” with lots of laughter. And the volunteers KNOW beforehand, they’re probably going to make real fools of themselves — unlike the blinded Miscavology “supporters!”
So much of this follows the same exact path of Boston it’s frightening.
And Portland….so sad…and…and…and…
you think you’ve seen it all?, wait till you see the full report on The Valley – after 10 plus years!!
The saddest part about Portland is that it was a RIPPIN’ city in the 70’s but DM and his finance police came in and shot everyone they could find and tore the whole mission network apart. Where would it be now without that suppression from DM? That’s the real loss of Portland.
Are you working on a correspondent report on the Valley Org Steve? I hope so as I’d love to hear the inside story on that.
“It’s like De ja Vu all over again”
The “Moving Goal Posts” stat is straight up and vertical. What a “monumental” waste of time and money.
Exactly. The Moving Goal Posts. Truly criminal.
I only have one question: Can’t we get JUST ONE roll of toilet paper approved in the budget?
There probably is JUST ONE roll of toilet paper in the budget, but it’s reserved for the perp-squeek when he comes to open the org.
LOL Steve, you must be from my local Org. where begging for toilet paper in the ladies room was a daily ritual.
My mom learned to bring her own, way back in the day.
Ronnie and Ms. P,
Yes, bring your own toilet paper and your own materials to course, the original LRH – not “the new and improved” Golden Age of Squirreling Crap that little A-holiness puts out.
The Sheeple are in serious need of A Golden Age of Ideal Toilet Paper to go with all The Crap they’re buying!
Byotp
🙂
Now that is really disturbing!! What a sad tale.
Charging for the Int Landlord’s services—had to be on the order of Miscavige. Doesn’t he hold all control over the Int Landlord finances anyway? May as well get more in there then, huh, Dave? If orgs were left to grow and expand on their own by use of the conditions and a little logic and normal every-day business sense (heaven forbid) they would eventually be in larger quarters anyway and the SO staff wouldn’t have to do months and years of this sort of work. Without sleep, to get design submissions up to sweet Dave when he wants it but can’t find the time to look at it when it reaches his desk. A year later will be fine.The story of this “Ideal” org is just too pathetic for words. The correspondent is pretty good though… 🙂
I’d say this Special Correspondent is more than just “pretty good”! This is one of the best reports I’ve ever read here — right up there with Mike himself in both wit and exactitude:
“Another month later, the renovation budget was put together: $1.8 million USD was the final sum and surprisingly it was needed yesterday.”
If English, as I assume, is just a second or third language for this writer, I bow in admiration.
On another note, what I find really striking about the architectural renderings in all these big-budget COS projects — including and especially Super Power — is the strange coldness of the proposed buildings. There is never any suggestion of a human presence, and never any sense of warmth, comfort, fun, serenity, spiritual solace, or anything else that might make you want to step inside that space. Quite the contrary. Whoever mentioned Albert Speer in a recent comment thread was exactly on target.
yes and it is the story of many more idle morgues. But hey, who’s counting?
🙂
If the locals who fund their Ideal Orgs actually were in charge of their own lives, they could be in charge of ‘their’ org. Opps, Davey is in charge, so sorry. Give us all your money.
Int Landlord Office sent an invoice for their services, billing a whopping $520,000 USD for the space planning and renderings.
I worked for the Sea Org as a hired construction pro for almost a decade (’88 to ’97). During my days with the renovations projects, there was a Sea Org unit of highly skilled people who did all of the space planning, designs, and renderings for the church projects. And a damn fine job they did.
Toward the end of the 90s, the church began to outsource more and more of the work for their projects to established construction firms. Later (so I hear) they also began to farm out the design and planning work.
$520,000 for space planning a single building? Brilliant management of the parishioners’ funds, Dave. You freaking putz.
I’d love to see the Int Landlord Office try to come up with an itemized list of what that $530,000 supposedly paid for. It would be quite an exercise in creative writing!
At year end 2011, Miami org finally reached it’s fundraising target to purchase a building for around $7 million. Big party, blah blah blah. Christmas vacation – then come back to one of first OT committee meetings to hear that the design and planning was a whopping $800,000!!!! After going into apathy, fortunately we left the next month… it is now into year 2 of them dinging away at that $800,000 target, on top of needing to cover yearly property tax bills of $200,000+!!!
Bruce
$800,000??
Our old Sea Org planning and design unit could probably handle that job for under $10,000. Most of that would have gone for blueprinting, drafting supplies, computer related items, reference materials, and rendering supplies.
Exactly. What really sings out for me in this sorry tale too is the way the genuine goodwill and urge to help of the staff and public is abused OVER and OVER and OVER. I mean talk about crushed help flows. It’s gutting. The total betrayal is almost beyond comprehension.
It’s gutting. The total betrayal is almost beyond comprehension.
That’s exactly what I thought, reading this report. The sheer scale of waste and destruction of good will (and people) is almost too much to wrap your wits around.
As far as I remember the Org was only a mission that had reached Saint Hill Size already. Correct?
The ED announced to become an Org on that same event, when they were celebrated. This should not have happened. The Stuttgart field Auditors dealt with it much better. The rumors were that they refused to become an Org in order to grow without being pushed/controlled by the Sea Org.
I am not sure, can somebody confirm this?
Hungary was for a long while an organizational oddity – lots of Missions (about 25) but no Org. I had assumed it was DM who was causing the hold up as very few new Orgs have been approved by him, it’s interesting to see this suggestion that it was the Hungarians themselves who didn’t want one.
Google Translate
http://www.verfassungsschutz-bw.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1196:scientology-plant-weiterhin-neues-so-zentrum-in-stuttgart-intensive-mitarbeiterrekrutierung&catid=201:meldung&Itemid=327
Scientology continues to plan new SO- center in Stuttgart – intensive staff recruitment
S C I E N T O L O G Y 8 | 2013
The ” Church of Scientology ” (SO ) continues to work on the plan, a new representative Scientology center , a so-called ” Ideal Org” to establish in the state capital . For this purpose, it inflates its employee base to formal.
It goes on : . . Scientology still intends to establish an ” Ideal Org ” in Stuttgart as at August 2013, it will have a total of approximately 130 to 140 employees for Stuttgart meanwhile the internal target of 150 ” Staffs ” ( employees ) should therefore be achieved in the foreseeable future – but probably only with great difficulty . The final stage of recruitment seems to run tough. The organization also recruited young people – are children of Scientologists – and pensioners. In addition, staff seems to have been drawn from the local Scientology missions to meet the requirements . The SO plans in their local branch two shifts ( so-called “Day” – and ” Foundation Organization ” ) to introduce .
The remains collected in the course of the internal propaganda assertion Stuttgart is now the largest SO branch of Germany, does not apply to assessment of local . The members of the SO potential centers in Hamburg and Munich can be regarded as something greater , even if the number of employees of these establishments is less. Instead, the impression is that the number of employees in Stuttgart SO – regardless of actual requirements – is formally bloated.
Undoubtedly, the SO will eventually open a new representative as possible in the center of Stuttgart. A new building alone , however, does not solve the problems of Scientology in the Stuttgart area . While suggesting the member-oriented propaganda to members on the basis of just that fact, the name Scientology is notorious but also in Stuttgart. Through their own inhumane methods the organization has sustained serious damage to their reputation over many years , an attractive new building is in turn only a facade and will not change that . De facto would initially be primarily a nuisance to the neighbors , a new SO- center in the city of Stuttgart. However, civil society can also make such attempts at expansion of Scientology come to nothing due attention.
Sad, sad, sad. I guess I know where it is going to end.
Anyway, I hope DM will spend the 6th October 2013 in court rather than on his elevated podium. Karin Super-Pouw-er will have to come up with some explanations. This time verbal … DM obviously cannot write her text when he is tied up telling his lies in court.
Church of Scientology: put life in, get ruin out.
Oh god, what a waste! This church is just a black hole for money. One hell of an annihilator.
UAHU…AMAZING SUMMARY OF THE DISASTER AND LIES PERPETRATED IN ORDER TO “PROMOTE” SOMETHING THAT DOES NOT EXIST. I ASSUME THAT, WHILE ALL THIS WAS GOING ON, NO SERVICES WERE BEING DELIVERED.
AGAIN, WRONG TARGET – GET THE MONEY AND A BUILDING, THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS.
SERVICES? WHO CARES…
Since the building is gone in this case Supressive Authorihy is correct. It being demolished now suggest false play.
“Meanwhile The SPs Attack!
14 March 2009 – The Hungarian Cultural Heritage Protection Office added the building to the list of specially protected properties (of historical significance) which made the approval of any renovations even more difficult…’