The Mission network, once the front line of scientology dissemination, is a broken down, tiny shadow of its former self.
Back in the bad old days, Missions were large, prosperous and brought in the majority of new people to scientology.
In his infinite wisdom (really his growing paranoia), L. Ron Hubbard decided the Missions were seeking to rip off “his” orgs. They were “stealing” public and making too much money, so the infamous Mission Holder Convention of October 1982 in San Francisco was the beginning of the end. Some think this was all the work of Miscavige. They would be incorrect. In fact, when an audio recording of the SFO Mission Holder convention was sent to Hubbard he was so thrilled that the Sea Org had “put in ethics” on the Mission Network that he ordered a transcript be published and distributed as an ethics gradient for all the other missions.
The Mission Network was subsequently raped and pillaged by the “Finance Police” and it has all been downhill from there. (See article here if you are unfamiliar)
There was a small effort to revive the dying breed by persuading celebrities to open Missions. Anne Archer opened one in Santa Monica. It soon closed. Same with Lisa Marie Presley and Isaac Hayes in Memphis. Jenna Elfman opened one in San Francisco, I think it still exists but it’s a non-entity these days. John Travolta bought a building and opened one in Ocala. It’s an “ideal” Mission — and in keeping with the Ideal Orgs tradition it is completely empty. I went in there once, the Ukrainian receptionist had no idea who I was, and invited me to come back on Tuesday when someone would be there who could explain Dianetics to me (there wasn’t anyone else in the place on a Saturday afternoon).
Now we see this from one of the few missions remaining in the LA Area — the largest concentration of scientologists anywhere on earth.
They are proud of the fact they are open 3 days a week! For 2 hours on 2 days and 3 hours on the third.
This is not what you would call “flourishing and prospering.”
If it is like this in Los Angeles, imagine what the Missions are like in other states countries — where they still exist.
The good news — the feeder line of new people onto the Bridge is kaput.
I worked for the Palo Alto Mission and left after the Financial Police and all the strange events of the 80’s took place. And then I left Scientology.
I just googled to see if the mission even exists and it looks like the Feshbacks started one again in 96 that no long exists. And there is only an org in Mountain View, no missions.
As strange as that time was, I’m so grateful that it was the beginning of my exit.
So where is this Foothills Mission that the poster is from? (I thought Bay Area at first, but there are foothills everywhere).
The insane eat their own and thus snuff themselves out of existence.
I infiltrated the foothills mission but have not done a video yet. The place is in an ALLEYWAY. Inside it was half baked with wires hanging out of the lighting and all the video kiosks turned on but covered in plastic. They have not been able to finish fixing the place for what, decades? I was shown a room full of construction junk at the main entrance by the lady working there. She basically said “look how pathetic this is we need your money.” I was shocked as it was the first time a Scientologist admitted to me things were not perfect. But this was only because she did not know I was an SP.
PHOTO: https://angrygaypope.com/images/places/scientology_montrose_mission_lobby.jpg
The problems fundamentally come back to the Hubbard failure to be upfront and accept the comparisons that Scientology procedures would inevitably be correctly compared to therapy and exoricism.
Scientology is pseudo-therapy, and exorcism.
Missions and all Scientology have this information control problem, that’s Hubbard’s mistake.
He didn’t realise the world would catch up and find out what Scientology really is, and that this info would undercut popular attraction to Scientology someday.
Scientology is a wacky alternative pseudo-therapy/exorcism practice.
No amount of administrative setup really overcomes the fact that in Scientology, the key practitioners are the “auditors” and the auditors are really this alternative type of pseudo-therapist, and exorcists (OT 4, 5 the Class 9 exorcists do their exorcising, and on OT 3, 6 and 7, the Scientologists do their solo exorcism on themselves).
No amount of lower level hornswoggling really can dodge the public in the world today finding out that Scientology is fundamentally a pseudo-therapist/exorcism practice.
It’s hard to paper over what the world can easily understand of what the Scientology thing is all about, today.
You can’t put the genie back into the bottle.
The truth of what Scientology is doing to the followers, that cat is out of the bag, the world knows about Xenu, knows that the earth population today is supposedly infested with “body-thetans” and the Scientology stepladder of pseudo-therapy leads up to the five levels of exorcism where the Scientologists get taught about Xenu’s dumping these surplus souls into earth, which get exorcised on OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
That “tech” (quackery) cat is out of the bag.
How can Missions, or Ideal Orgs, dodge this knowledge that the public can learn, of what this whole Hubbard stepladder is all about.
The only hope if letting the truth blow over, and future generations of humans not hearing of the details of the Scientology quackery and the simpler comparisons of Scientology main practices compared to other human practices (pseudo-therapy and exorcism).
But the key practices of Scientology are clearly too simply compared, to fail from now on, to somehow keep dodging and reframing what they are, as Hubbard did and has gotten the ongoing members to keep misdefining who they are and what they are doing.
Hubbard built Scientology thinking the public could be lead along.
But the world has caught up with knowing the whole stepladder of Scientology is a long drawn out quackery pseudo-therapy and exorcism practice.
“What Is Scientology” book is forever trying to bamboozle and hornswoggle the public into the Hubbard snipe hunting operation.
When I was a scientologist in the 1970’s someone asked me if scn was Satanic which of course I vigorously denied. Nobody asked me if I believed in Xenu since nobody myself included knew about that rapscallion back then.
The Belleair Bluffs mission seems to be comparatively better off than most missions. It lives off Flag rejects and people afraid of Flag regges getting their claws into them. Having Kathy Feshbach as the mission holder can’t hurt either.
It’s true missions are closing.
I have family in North Carolina. The missions in Charlotte & Greensboro are long gone…. Thank Xenu!! 🙏
O/T
I read that LM Presley went to Narcanon when she relapsed after the death of her son. Did that pull her back in?
Jacquelin davis, Where di you read tis about Lisa Marie?
Oh gosh, it’s been awhile. But, I think I heard it on a youtube video, maybe Chris Shelton (I apologize to him if I’m incorrect). The point is I’m not sure. It might even have been the Bunker. I know he wrote about her going to Narcanon. But, I went to his celebrity blog and it hadn’t been updated in awhile.
Have you heard anything about it?
No I haven’t. This is a huge deal if it’s true. That’s why I’d love to know the source of this info. Lisa Marie Presley left the church in 2014 or 2016. She even wrote a song that many thought was critical of the church, kind of her F—you farewell. But if you’re or saying she later checked into Narconon to get off drugs, then that is big and it means she possibly went back to the church. I don’t think Narconon would let in an ex Scn who had been declared SP, which she was. So for Narconon to accept her into the rehab program, she had to NOT be an SP. That is how I understood the rules to work, however, I know that rules are broken for celebrities and Lisa Marie is considered a celebrity. So maybe they let her in anyway. If anyone on this blog knows anything about all this please let us know and let us know if she really did do rehab at Narconon after leaving Scn?
She has bounced in and out of scientology, she returns to do the Purif to “cleanse” the drugs from her system as she believes this gives her a “fresh start.” Last word was she was back in the fold… They dont declare people like her. They didn’t declare Nicole Kidman or Katie Holmes or even Jason Lee.
Thanks for the info, Mike. I feel bad for Lisa Marie being in their clutches again.
She can’t go to a Narconon Facility because of bad PR matters but for sure OSA ask for Narconon international to cordinate a top secret private handling with network staff like Medal Winner (OT VII) Bobby Wiggins or Class VIII (OTVIII) Phil Embick
Is Phil still selling Narconon to the parents of drug addicts who want their kids off drugs? He was doing that back in early 2000 or earlier.
Thanks for the insider view, Mike. But what about the actual abuses and exploitation, like Riverside being busted for running a fraudulent credit union, where not only were public pressured into and then given loans they weren’t qualified for, but staff were made to take out loans in lieu of pay? Something similar happened at at least one other of the gung-ho missions as well, and yet that rather sensational history coming on the heels of the Snow White raids, that must have involved and affected hundreds of people, has somehow been almost lost and forgotten:
Scientology unit raided in fraud probe
> http://www.xenu-directory.net/news/library-item.php?iid=2200
Digging deep, I find accounts confirming for instance that quite a few missions did keep two sets of books – though perhaps as a dysfunctional response to Hubbard’s increasingly greedy demands for payments. Besides coercion and fraud relating to credit, missions seem to have pioneered the use of easedropping on auditing sessions to feed information to regges, “crush regging” and “gang bang” tactics, and other outrages now associated with the abuses of the orgs.
I’ve seen it suggested that we hear mostly from people who have a “good old days” view of the missions, and that a large number of people who were exploited and abused turned their backs forever on Scientology and don’t want to revisit their disappointment and victimization at the franchises in forums like this. So from what I can tell there’s relatively more substance to the accusations made against the missions than is often recognized and exposed, even if the missionolder massacre turned into a witch hunt and a power grab.
Also, as I’ve essentially noted in other comments, I think at the heart of it was a struggle over a shrinking pie as the baby boom turned into a “baby bust” (a term used in the 1970s) and the counterculture movement ended, and Scientology’s recruiting pool and member base shrunk inevitably (demonstrated by successful missionholders who left, never thereafter being able to find enough new customers to make a go of it*). Hubbard couldn’t confront the fact that he was constrained by the limits of external reality, and typically tried to blame and scapegoat people instead, creating a “wrong why” that still persists in some ways.
* One possible exception is Harry Palmer’s Avatar, which succeeded as far as it did only by introducing radical alterations sometimes referred to as “Scientology-Lite”, and eventually completely diverging into the then newly popular LGAT (Large Group Awareness Training) format.
There’s PLENTY of evidence of criminality in the old Mission network. Probably more than will ever be known. Hubbard in his early days even wrote a policy letter about it saying ethics should take a light hand because these people were front lines “pioneer” types and to slam in ethics on them would shut off the flow onto the Bridge.
The point wasn’t to laud the missions but point out the insanity of killing the golden goose — and “stealing” from Hubbard and orgs is an absolutely insane concept. If everyone wants to Clear the planet, you cannot “steal” because every person who is moved up the Bridge, no matter where or how or who is collecting the money is irrelevant.
At this rate, the world will soon be CLEAR, — of scientology.
WELL DONE, Captain McSavage.
ITS A FINAL COUNTDOWN
A third phase in Cults life : Age of paranoia
After first two phases
1) Age of enlightenment , where the Cults hide it’s core beliefs and try to get it blend on contemporary issues to increase its audience, with ” every body welcome” slogan.
The Cult leader claims know all a.k.a prophet
2) age of control : when crore belief is strictly followed while the Cult is cutting itself from real world for Utopia .
The Cult leader decenteralised the organisation to take all matters ranging from financial to Donors in his hand ,out of fear of losing control.
3,) Age of Paranoia : things falling apart , core brief failed to glued followers for long .
Questions raised on the authenticity and validity of beliefs .
Cult leader faces doubts from his inner circle which makes him mad.
It’s the time he ask his followers to wait for a miracle : reincarnation of heavenly dities to famous men in human history amongst them : Pharaoh of Egypt, Alexander the Great , Abraham Lincoln , Elvis Presley etc etc
It leads to the final stage : Age of Decay .
some time systematic like a Montreal base cult but mostly tragic ending .
In history some cults did took U-Turn before final stage and saved it self by getting itself isolated to rural , agrarian community for 50 to 100 years.
Not a bad choice ,rather then getting lost for ever.
I know Hubbard was jealous of the Missions but was the 1981-1982 destruction of the network based on lies he was fed by Miscavige or was it Hubbard’s own thing?
I’m pretty sure it was DM feeding into Ron’s existing greed with carefully chosen lies. At that time, Ron’s only contact with the outside world was through Davey and his minions who had vested interests
Jere, there was a fair bit of truth to the accusations leveled against the missions, as noted in a new post I’ve just made. You may not have experienced or witnessed it, but scouring accounts I’ve found plenty of corroboration that some missions were doing things like hiding money from Hubbard, and engaged in the same sorts of exploitation and abuse now associated with the orgs – not to mention sexual misconduct, sometimes by the mission holders themselves.
DM might have exaggerated the situation — though, possibly, only because like Hubbard himself, he had a paranoid and overly dramatic way of looking at things — but what would have been an absolute lie?
None of the successful missionholders and top insiders who left or were declared at that time was ever again able to really promote any version of the “tech” or anything related (and Dr. Serge Gerbode, in particular, tried very hard to come up with something distilled enough to avoid intellectual property issues and be scientifically verifiable), which I think points to the reality that the market for Scientology simply was going the way of tie-dye and love-ins.
Where is your post at? As a former Riverside Mission Staff 76 -78, having been recruited for a G.O. Mission that I messed up, which may have caused the Org Mission Sec Check of all the staff that soon followed. At that time Bent offered me up to the OP-Z recruitment Flag Mission happening in LA and I was gone overnight to LA, and later to Flag. I had taken a loan at the Credit Union which I had to borrow money to pay back before I left.
Staff were regged for services to boost the GI on a regular basis until the CU was taken over by some legal financial entity. The assets were seized and some type of legal battle was started.
The Swiss accounts of the Riverside Mission were not general knowledge, but at times Mark Lutofski, the Treasury Sec would yell something in the Treasury office without checking to see if someone else was there.
Peacemaker: Was the operation of the CU returned to the control of Mark and the Mission chosen Board of Directors?
While I wouldn’t put it past someone in Treasury to take out a CU loan to cover payroll while waiting for a Reg payment to clear, I did not hear of anyone doing that on a person to person basis. Of course DR was the acknowledged deep throat, but as I recall he was blown before I left.
It seems that right from the start with the Dianetic groups Elron always had problems with splinter groups popping up and profiting from “his stuff”. Without going into a debate about whether the subject had any intrinsic value, the law rightfully protects intellectual property with copyright laws. He signed his own name to the bottom of everything and could sue or threaten to sue competing groups for copyright infringement and put them out of business. As often mentioned on this blog the C of S no longer sues anyone and people can use any scn materials they want with impunity.
As scn prospered in the 1970’s Hubbard built up the Sea Org and eventually had enough of a paramilitary force to go out and enforce his wishes and maintain dictatorial control over his organization. The stage was set for DM to take over.
An exception to the C of S not suing anyone might be the case of a fellow by the name of Justin Craig who about two years ago proclaimed himself to be reincarnated Hubbard. He had his name legally changed to L. Ron Hubbard and wrote a book which was listed on Amazon for a short while under the name of L. Ron Hubbard. I guess that was a bit too much for the C of S and they took steps to get him kicked off of Amazon. Lol
I haven’t heard anything from Justin, aka Lafayette Ronald lately. Lol
Richard, Hubbard plagiarized so much, and relied so heavily on others around him to actually come up with the “tech,” that it would be very hard to say what is really “his stuff,” except for specific materials that actually have his copyrights and trademarks on them. I don’t know that there has ever been a case directly related to the underlying intellectual property of auditing, OT levels, and so on, or at least not one pursued to the end — probably because Hubbard and his heirs would have trouble proving that the fundamental underlying ideas were actually his to begin with.
Ava Berner, who along with her then-husband Charles were part of an insider group at Saint Hill and whose “study tech” and clay demo concepts Hubbard plagiarized, said he came up with nothing, it was all others’ ideas. The image of him as “source” may be just a clever propaganda mythology, that was so thoroughly indoctrinated into people that it has persisted.
PeaceMaker – Regardless of Hubbard’s own sources, if a splinter group was using books, lectures and course materials with Hubbard’s name on them I guess he could sue them. The purpose was not to win but to put the competition out of business through costly litigation. Competition for Scientology customers would not be a factor today now that the overall picture is known.
Just as an aside and without defending Hubbard/Scn, if I spent most of my adult life developing some type of “therapy” (or scam as the case might be) I wouldn’t be happy of someone came along using the same materials and went into competition with me.
In policy and his books,, Hubbard said both that he was Source, and that nobody really ever discovered anything.
I thought Student Hat and the PTS/SP courses were Academy courses and if so, why would they be available in a mission?
Also, Mike is completely correct about the mission/field network barely extant. I had taken courses and services at 4 different Scn organizations, three of them were missions and/or field groups, none exist any longer. One of them in particular was a very popular Div 6 type course room that introduced many people to Scn/Dianetics and has been gone for a long time.
You verify the demise of the franchises: “gone for a long time.”
franchises that were sorta working were “promoted” to Orgs, field groups banned as “squirrel”.
You are correct that Student Hat and PTS/SP courses are Academy courses but they are the only two that were allowed to be delivered by missions. I was Course Supervisor at a mission (University Way Mission in Seattle) before becoming Academy Supervisor at Seattle Foundation Org. I had supervised both courses before I became Acad Supe because they are the two exceptions.
The mission of Elizabeth, NJ was of the map before it even had it first real customer. Nobody ever went there. It was right in the middle of an 80% Spanish speaking community. Total failure across the board for the Church of Scientology as the materials at the mission (when and if there were any) were all in English. It opened in 2000 and closed in 2005. It moved twice in that time period.
At this writing Scientology centers in New Jersey consist of a call-in number at a dental office in Elizabeth. People with questions about Dianetics or Scientology call there and are referred to a church or mission near them (the closest one being in New York City at this time).
Lawrence, thanks for the information. I’ve wondered about that New Jersey mission since it does still exist by all appearances, and has a physical location – though one that seemed slightly suspicious, in an old house used as a dental office building.
It’s interesting to get confirmation that it’s just another back room operation located on the mission holders’ premises. I wonder how many more out there are mere shells – or have turned into such, in the last year or two.
There are more. This one in Elizabeth is officially listed on the Church of Scientology’s “find a Church of Scientology near you” part of their website. So, they believe it is real.
Lawrence, that one interests me because it is one of the few still shown on the CofS website. They seem mostly now just to list those that actually still have their own dedicated space; there are others that I call “zombies” like the Sunland-Tujunga Mission that lost its storefront (and probably its mission holder) and is now run out of someone’s home, that still promote and have an online presence to be found but are no longer officially listed.
There used to be quite a few that turned out to be co-located with the mission holders’ primary business (an old trick was to try to hide that by giving the “mission” a separate suite or street address), but those mostly are at least no longer officially listed.
Of course not. Who is going to go there and come out with a story for the world of how fantastic Scientology is?
If Scientology was so true and so fantastic, I would be there right now maybe with you and we would be co-auditing each other. The religion would not boil down to Charter Missions (i.e. missions that “exist” on paper but have no staff, no academy, no HGC, no C/S). Just a space affiliated with Scientology.
Being around forever does not mean that I am willing to work 120 hours a week for less than $0.10 per hour with no sleep.
The biggest win I ever had in life, was not from doing OT levels. It was realizing how corrupt Scientology is.
Mike, your article today is spot on. I and my band and the numerous people we introduced to Scientology were through the Santa Clara mission. We did not want to go into an Org. The Org and it’s staff scared us.
The missions then were staffed with warm real human beings. The missions now are tiny compared to the booming 1968 mission that got us into Scientology. By 1982 Hubbard was over the edge. And he destroyed his best real chance to keep the cult going.
Thanks, Geoff, I think you confirm that the missions had advantages over the orgs when it came to recruiting. That may actually have roots as a reflection of Hubbard’s cold character – and increasing authoritarianism — in the orgs, but then became a sort of paranoiac’s self-fulfilling prophecy as he grew to believe the mission franchises were deviously stealing customers.
1968 was just after the summer of love, the peak of the counterculture movement. By 1970 or 71 Hubbard was complaining of a dropoff in business, and I think that was mostly due to changing times and demographics. You seem to have been in the thick of it; do you think Scientology really had much more of a chance than so many other movements, groups and cults of the era that dwindled and vanished?
Thanks for that list of celebrity missions, I didn’t realize there had been so many. Elfman’s in San Franciso must have been put in someone else’s hands though it still appears to exist, and Travolta’s in Ocala is on at least its second subsequent franchisee. Celebs get to walk away from missions, unsurprisingly; in other cases I’ve followed, it appears the owners have been threatened with SP declares if they didn’t continue to prop the missions up (most are probably net drains at this point), though I think some have closed because the franchisee was declared or blew over larger disputes.
Plus there’s also Kirstie Alley’s mission in Wichita. It can’t be doing any better than those others, and must cost her a pretty penny to keep open, or else international management is shelling out to keep her coddled.
Foothills seems to be the Energizer Bunny of missions. Their PR pieces show up frequently, always trying some new angle to generate excitement. Clearly the mission holder is very enthusiastic; I wonder if they succeed in attracting enough real business, or still end up subsidizing keeping the place open.
I live walking distance to Foothill mish and I promise you it is deader than a doornail. Their handbills used to be litter everywhere but no longer……
I was a part of the Mission of the Southwest in Dallas during this time. It was horrible. The Scientology bubble busted when I saw that all these “highly theta” and “powerful beings” only used brute force to get their work done. I hated what happened to Dean Stokes, the mission holder. He was a great man that did so much good and got thrown under the bus. I am sorry to say that I held on hoping for hope…. to no avail.
My recollection from about ’80 was that the big missions often were bigger and usually were more productive in bringing new people into scn than the orgs. When the franchisees were thrown out, it’s no wonder that the organization calling itself scientology has dwindled to nearly nothing in the intervening 40 years.
Miscavige has been doing a bang-up job as chief squirrel.
I pass by the San Antonio mission while getting groceries, and I’ve only seen one car (usually the same one each time) about half the time. Not exactly booming for one of the biggest cities in the U.S.
“Hannah Arendt, in her study of totalitarianism, borrowed from Immanuel Kant the concept of radical evil: evil that’s so evil that in the end it destroys itself; it’s so committed to evil and it’s so committed to hatred and cruelty that it becomes suicidal. My definition of it is the surplus value that’s generated by totalitarianism. It means you do more violence, more cruelty than you absolutely have to to stay in power. You’ve already made your point, you’ve done everything you need to do to make people realise that you’re in power but you somehow can’t stop. There must be the desire to see how far you can go. And even if you know this will in the end bring retribution, it’s worth it in some sense, for its own sake.” — Christopher Hitchens
The more I see of Christopher Hitchens, the more I admire him. Such a powerful voice against unreason.
Totally.
He was one of a kind.
RIP Hitch. 🚬🥃
Happy July 4th
Scientology is dying
It’s just happening so slow
The feeder line is kaput as you stated Mike
But so slow and it make it so painful to watch.
Ps: Today is my birthday. And I listened to Jon Atack podcast with you and I laughed throughout much of it. I appreciate how you both took something so ridiculous and in so many ways very hurtful yet you both made the topic funny and thought provoking. I know it was an unintentional birthday gift but it was a wonderful birthday surprise!
Thank You
O/T. Far from major news, but I like to keep track of these things.
Church of Scientology National Affairs Office joins letter in support of the Medicaid Reentry Act (S.285).
The Medicaid Reentry Act would allow Medicaid to cover health services thirty days before an individual is released from prison or jail.
https://www.naco.org/resources/stakeholder-letter-support-medicaid-reentry-act-s285
/
Thanks for the chuckle: In part, the letter was from Mike CRAPO. What an unfortunate name!
Can those released from scientology servitude get in on that action, somehow?
Here is a link to the C of S National Affairs Office in Washington DC which was dedicated in 2012. They got a couple of Washington DC dignitaries to attend. There was probably a lot less internet exposure of scn back then so maybe they get a pass.
There are some pictures of the inside and outside of the building and it’s mentioned as being historic so hopefully the C of S will maintain it.
https://www.scientology.org/churches/national-affairs-office-dc/
Off topic but maybe worth mentioning since it’s Independence Day weekend, a lifelong friend of mine spent his working career in government agencies working on preserving historic buildings. Americans have a tendency to tear down “old stuff” and rebuild new which would cause much of the historic architecture of America to disappear. A program called “Main Street America” (I believe without checking) was started in 1976. The idea was that rather than tearing down old buildings which had received many repairs and false fronts put on them over decades or even more years in some cases, the false fronts could be removed and the face of the building restored to the way it looked when it was originally built.
The buildings would originally have had a different use from what they now have, but a person could walk down Main Street and see and enjoy the different styles of architecture as they evolved over the years.
While the mission network was destroyed in ’82, the volcano TV ad brought in enough marks to keep the numbers up. The missions became just a low morale entrance to the mOrgs.
The only advertising $cientology gets these days is on the gossip magazine rack at the grocery store. None of that ‘advertising’ is good. Miscavige has led the Clampire into its current downward spiral. It will just take another flush to get this turd on its way.
Right, Zee! MustSavage has been doing a bang-up job dismantling what Ron’s efforts created.
What does the current recruitment pipeline look like now, anyway? Just trying to press Scientology TV cards into people’s hands and hoping they get curious enough to go through the hurdles of scanning them and watching a half-hour video about the history of Big Blue or something?
It seems the only feeders into what remains of scientology are from the scn businesses subservient to “WISE”, and the marks don’t even hear about scientology, per se, until they’re well and truly indoctrinated.
They can’t even communicate about SP’s? How the mighty have fallen.
they can’t even THINK about such things, otherles.
Scientology really WAS expanding in the early 70s. I know cause I was a staff member then in a huge packed org surrounded by thriving missions.
Then LRH himself “screwed the pooch” and sent Scientology on its downward slide.
How? First by opening the Flag Land Base, which quickly PUBLICLY degraded Org services as not being the best. Remember Ron’s OWN PR line? “There are no absolutes except Flag auditing” … Really? … And Scientology high rollers started to abandon orgs to go to Flag not just for auditing, but for the status title of being “Flag trained” on courses.
Then he destroyed the hugely successful mission system as Mike describes it . In the two actions above, LRH only ignored/misapplied the most repeated point in all of his OWN policy (part of at least four conditions formulas) which is that you find the successful actions and keep doing them.
Mix in the monthly nutso price increases, the insane “operation snow white” and the even truly crazier RS witch hunt in the SO, and you now see how “the genius, the great man himself” ACTIVELY worked to destroy his own creation. Wonder how Scientology doctrine explains THAT? (Those of you who are familiar with said doctrine already know the answer to that question).
Joe, it seems to me it was the times – the generation’s idealism – as much as anything.
Scientology boomed, as the baby boom counter-culture youth movement rose and peaked.
Then starting in the 70s it all went bust. Every organization and business dependent on youth demographics started to suffer as the number of teens and young adults dropped as precipitiously as it had risen – almost 10% of US colleges closed, for example. Groups, including cults, that depended on6 recruiting idealistic ‘seekers’ were hit especially hard because the generation that followed was more materialistic, plus the adults who had been young hippies started to turn into yuppies – as another example, the Jesus (Freaks) Movement, once larger than Scientology, virtually vanished. Hitchiking went the way of beanie caps, and fear of STDs replaced free love.
Hubbard declared a financial emergency in the early 1970s as that dropoff hit, but I don’t think he understood or could confront the actual external reality he faced, and the decade saw increasingly desperate attempts at a lot of short-term attempts to keep stats (and cash flow) up, from monthly price increases to ‘quickie clears’. A few of the more savvy missionholders reportedly understood the demographic problem and were able to adapt initially, though I think that as indie efforts (lead by some of the most successful missionholders, and former top leaders) demonstrate, a changing world doomed all attempts to failure after about the 1980s.
Typically for Hubbard and Scientology, there were witch hunts to scapegoat people according to “SP theory, rather than a rational search for root causes – and an acknowledgement of realities beyond Hubbard’s control. That “wrong why” seems to persist among those who were there in the thick of it, understandably. But what similar organization or group of the same era, isn’t also virtually extinct these days?
What do ex-participants and observers think, taking those factors into account?
Many cults/sects/NRMs emerged or boomed during the counterculture period of the 60s and 70s. Others dated back to a far earlier period. Most have adapted themselves to changing circumstances, to some extent or another – but Scientology hasn’t and has gone to greater lengths than any organisation I know to disguise its decline.
Scientology’s reliance on money and manpower may be its undoing, especially the latter. Many cults/sects/NRMs may have a similar or smaller membership base, but far less in a way of financial resources, but paradoxically have a better chances of survival not least because they’ve not attracted the same notoriety or have the built-in criminality. Perhaps the mere existence of Scientology has compelled them to a trouble avoidance strategy?
Peace Maker, you make some great points. Of course, we’ll never REALLY know what would have happened if there was no Flag Land Base, no price increases, no crazy LRH ethics insanity (his obsession with overts and evil intentions ). How would a kinder Scientology have operated … Would it have expanded? Probably Ron was incapable of operating suCuban organization. There’s where LRH missed the boat because eventually the 1960s counter culture turned away from the oppressive religions of the past and didn’t want that in a new one (though it took some decades for that to play out, there were certainly repressive “new age” religions and Scientology turned out to be one of them ).
I was only 19 when I joined staff in 1970. Yeah, San Francisco was a very different city then. And as you said, it was a very different time and culture too .
SUCH an organization!
How did Cuba get in there? Like to visit there one day. But it had nothing to do with my comment!
That would include such groups as the Children of God (now known as The Family), Unification Church (“Moonies”), Transcendental Meditation, Hare Krishna, Eckankar (founded by an ex-Scientologist), Worldwide Church of God, et al.
All of these are still around, either splintered, with a reduced profile and means, but still surviving and as mentioned above, may have fewer problems surviving in the longer term than Scientology.
EST ( now Landmark) is still operational in some cities as well. Just the name change to protect income.
This is all correct.
After OT VIII I even believed that Hubbard wrote the famous “Student Briefing ” 0f 1980 to actually destroy Scientology. He becomes the anti Christ , for example, and trashes the current Scientology Orgs. When I posted this about twelve years or more ago on the Scientology Message Board, they shut me and the thread down because of the backflash. Truth be told Hubbard was destructive of Scientology.
Perhaps by then, he’d started twigging that the ‘tech’ didn’t work, that it was worse than useless.
Joe, Flas WAS a result of his most profitable scheme: First, go someplace somewhat inaccessible, like Saint Hill, then the “Apollo”, charge an arm and a leg to be in his shadow, and he pockets all the proceeds. The “Hubbard Research centers”: Elizabeth City, Phoenix, Wichita, even the Philadelphia “Doctorate” series, were all of that kind.
I haven’t been by the St Louis mission for 3-4 weeks but their front doors haven’t been open for 15 months+-. 9-14 cars in the parking lot in the afternoons. The place has seen better days.
As I see it, there are NO missions these days, only mini-Morgs which are further crippled by many, many policy alterations which don’t allow them to make a decent living delivering the products they are qualified to deliver.
I doubt they can even get FSM commissions from the public they send to *real* orgs. They MUST subject themselves to being orgs in all but name and what they can offer. The ones which HAD been limping along in the new regime were elevated to full org status and all the chains that brought; few flourished, a couple have died or merged with others.
Ron set it up that any trained auditor was *obligated* to deliver processing up through their training level, and left the management hierarchy loose enough that they could KEEP delivering — as long as they didn’t squirrel about. The money they made was theirs to keep and use to improve their ability to DELIVER.
Thanks for the intel Gordon. St Louis Morgue is dead. Most of the people left and moved to Cultwaters Florida
cuz they had some SP’s on staff
I heard it is what the 20 Scientologists still active in St Louis believe is the “why” the morgue stays a morgue.
Watch out, Gordon, or you might contribute to their “bodies in the shop” stat. You might have, already.
Hubbard was a ‘rollercoaster’ paranoic.
That old shack gives exactly the idea of how things really are – and always were. .
HEY, At least that “shack” has a roof….
Laughing loud!
It’s like watching one of my plants die. When the end of the vine starts to yellow, I know that soon the whole vine will die and without proper care, eventually the whole plant will be dead. This is the way of the church of scientology except it’s hard to keep alive something that is rotten at its core.
Happy Independence Day Mike and all of you who left this toxic group.
Historically accurate presentation, The 5th Avenue New York City Mission was raided. They moved from 5th Avenue in the City to a slum in south manhattan. They moved into an abandoned warehouse. It fell apart.
That is incorrect. I used to work at the 5th Avenue Mission. It was franchised by Mr. and Mrs. Howard and Mary Rower (New York realtors).
It was on 5th Avenue. It moved to the 2nd floor of 434 6th Avenue. It expanded and moved to 1 Hudson Street in Tribeca. But, Howard Rower was declared and lost the franchise. His wife Mary struggled with the mission and it eventually shutdown.
I am still friends with one of the former staff of the mission that works not too far from where I live. It was never located in a south Manhattan slum or abandoned warehouse.
I probably know you. All I can say is that up till that time, I lived in high class neighborhoods. When they sent me to 6th avenue, it was a big SLUM to me and I was not from New York. I fully remember the space. It was horrible. I personally knew Mary and Howard Rower. I gave them a ton of money.
Howard and I were friends. We communicated with each other right up until his death in November 2000. We exchanged letters. He invited me to his office. Our relationship was not financial.
His wife Mary had her life turned upside down after RTC expelled Howard from the church.
Howard was having an affair with Class IV auditor Cathy Boyle at his mission but he was still married to Mary. She never told anyone until she went to Flag and got her Happiness Rundown there. The information was sent to ethics terminals and up the line to RTC and goodbye Howard. So, nothing in a person’s PC or Pre-OT folders is guaranteed to be treated as confidential.
After Cathy Boyle’s disgrace, she got a job at a mission in Teaneck, New Jersey that subsequently was closed by RTC.
One of the other things Howard was accused of was paying his staff (mostly OT’s) to work there, rather than permitting them to make money through the sale of Dianetics and Scientology. This is why the mission was always empty, but the staff were “rolling in dough” so to speak. Which I know went on because I worked there and knew the staff.
Some of the staff have died (like Pat Leu Fan). Some are wanted by law enforcement (like George Chelekis). Some went to the NY Org (like Wendy who is now the registrar there). Some got public jobs (like Larry Brancato who works a few blocks away from where I do in New Jersey).
Mary Calder Rower died in 2011. I saw her on 6th Avenue once with her friend before she died.
Any info on the Teaneck org? I visited it several times when I was about 20 years old. Seemed to be doing well. Then they moved at some point to Hawthorne NJ and closed shortly after that.