This is the latest list of the best missions in the world.
There is not a single Mission on the list from Russia. It was formerly the stronghold of Missions for scientology.
The largest representation is 7 in Taiwan. It appears to be the only place on earth where scientology might be expanding.
The US is badly under-represented with only 4 of the top 25 Missions in the world. The rest of the English speaking world has 0. Canada, UK, Australia, NZ, S. Africa…
Just for fun I did some quick searches on the top US Mission — Boulder County — to see what the BEST the USA has to offer looks like. If this is the best then things are really bad.
They have a Facebook page. Check out the questions in the “Ask Boulder County Scientology”…
They don’t have a website. Google them and the only link you can find takes you to the main scientoogy.org site:
Click on that and this is the page you get. Check out their hours!
But you have to call ahead to schedule an appointment.
And because I happen to know the area, this is in the middle of NOWHERE. Semi-rural/ex-urban. Boulder is a University town, but while it may be in Boulder county, it’s a long way from the city.
Here it is in all its glory.
This is the BEST Mission in the US.
Stick a fork in the Mission network.
Just so all the comments are not negative, they have LOTS of parking!!!
Hey Mike, First, let me say that I love the work you & Leah put into exposing COS for what they are-a cult. But, I want to stray off the topic for a moment with a question, has Miscavige’s wife ever resurfaced? This has troubled me since you & Leah revealed that she disappeared as one of the topic points during your documentary. It’s mind-boggling that a high-profile person as she is/was could simply vanish into thin air without COS or the authorities presenting some sort of verifiable/ visual proof of her being alive & well even if the only reason is to squash rumors about this mystery and then send her back to obscurity. I think if she was aware of this concern then she most likely would’ve insisted on making a public appearance. The flip side of why she hasn’t is a little disconcerting.
There is a “Church Of Scientology Mission Of Dorset” in the UK https://www.facebook.com/scientologydorset/
It seems to have been set up by an enthusiast with their own money, in a rented bulding. However, for all intents and purposes its a characteristicaly modest UK org with a small membership. It’s only distinctive feature is that it tries harder.
There are 7 orgs listed on the official site (if you don’t count Saint Hill, which the CofS obviously do).
It doesn’t include the mission or the second faciity in London.
If you Google Church of Scientology Fort Lauderdale it indicates there is a mission in Fort Lauderdale. But I’ve driven to the address and it is a building that does not mention Scientology at all. A couple of years ago there was a number listed for the mission in Fort Lauderdale but when I dialed it the number had been disconnected.
Noticeably absent is Belleair Mission located near Flag. It always was in the running for top mission. It would get Flag’s rejects plus anyone who “wanted” to do a course and get a special schedule and not be hounded by Flag’s various blood hounds. But Flag isn’t rejecting anyone anymore. In fact, Belleair Mission would probably be put in lowers these days if it had anyone who COULD be at Flag but is at Belleair Mission.
The recent promo at Flag has as one of its perks “complimentary quarantine in The Oak Cove retreat” for anyone receiving ANY major Flag service (which now includes the whole Bridge.) I’m sure there are other perks involved; I hear “things have changed at Flag; it’s so much better now.” Yes, I’m sure they are.
Over the years I was saddened to see Flag rip off services to offer that were typically the ones that Missions offered. Then Flag did tech degrades by implying in its promo that you can do your lower Bridge at Fla where you will get “standard tech” as though the Missions weren’t also offering standard tech. The missions were always supposed to feed into Flag on a gradient. People come to a Mission, do lower bridge and then graduate up to Flag for upper Bridge. But Flag’s greed and need for money made the predators like a snake eating it’s own tail.
Interesting. That inspired me to look in my town, which used to have one downtown. The one listed in my town is actually about 25 miles away. Open 10 hours a week… Hours Tue-Thu 7:00pm – 9:30pm Sat 1:00pm – 6:00pm. Truly pathetic .
“best at falsifying/manipulating their numbers”.
That’s the system Tubby cooked up to make EVERYone fail. No matter how great this week was, next week it won’t be good enough, so you FAILED. The only way to keep ahead of impending doom is to falsify the stats.
Sounds like Tub O’Lards version of life in Stalin’s Russia.
Speaking of empty buildings or the exact opposite, Grant Cardone Canada seems to be doing well. Of all the damn places to stumble on when getting counselings for Scientology stuff. My counsellor informed me that they are a real nuisance at times and that he had no clue that it was a Scientology business working a few floors above. This is in Port Coquitlam, BC.
It’s the damn money that’s the problem; and the office is in a pretty good location so they are making money and that trickles back to the church.
There is supposed to be a Portland Mission, but the address they give is an empty building, and the only signage says that it’s a “Chess Club.” Yes, many Missions were bigger than Orgs at that time, and were the main feeders into Scientology. But they were also making more money than the Orgs, which Miscavige (and Hubbard) couldn’t stand. So they shut down the Mission network, one of the stupidest moves ever made. And that was just one of a series of stupid decisions that shut Scientology down. Miscavige absolutely HATES anyone who is more capable or smarter than he is, so of course he hates most people. So anyone who could actually expand Scientology has been shot from guns and only the stupid incompetents remain.
Jefferson, it was only a stupid move IF his intention was to at least maintain scientology at the level it’d been at. As scn’s most successful squirrel and SP, it was a BRILLIANT first action to destroy scientology from within.
Yep, Hubbo nailed it. SP’s can’t make a good decision, it’s always the wrong target. Too bad when he was writing about SP’s he was actually writing about how he operates.
👌
To sum up, a mad man obsession can only be carry forward by like wise.
If we look at the history of Cults , they were destroyed, either by the founders or some one like them.
Right Jefferson! Rather than figure out what the successful Franchisees were doing right, he kept on hammering the same old policies that made the orgs fail. Only a few orgs weren’t/aren’t failing horribly, and even those are outliers with special circumstances: St Hill was Ron’s home and the only place to study Class 6, Flag was where “top” of the Bridge started, OT 4,5,6 7 & the Ls. Fleecewinds is failing even though it’s the ONLY place within the enterprise to get OT 8. There’s no reason that they couldn’t move 8 to Clearwater; it’s nearly as isolated as the rust bucket in dry dock and a more theta space, anyway.
Jefferson, it is all very true. In the 80’s and even a little 90’s there were guys who toured orgs and missions giving lectures for new people. They were famous, they had charisma, they were seen as stars. Certainly not like Chen and others like him who are just too pathetic.
Well now they’ve all been gone for decades. Who is left is just a clone of those faded figures that represent today’s scn, very low voltage personalities.
“Miscavige absolutely HATES anyone who is more capable or smarter than he is, so of course he hates most people. So anyone who could actually expand Scientology has been shot from guns and only the stupid incompetents remain.” TRUTH
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It wouldn’t have mattered. By the time Hubtard attacked the missions, inflow into scamology was already falling fast. Actually by ~’79 it hit its peak. But it DID drive many existing peole out of the CoS so that was a GOOD side effect.
I understand Boulder belongs to an old-time field auditor, who was probably forced to buy a mission package in order to keep his practice – and may be required to keep it open to remain in good standing, plus be eligible for FSM commissions. Quite a few old missions seem to have come about that way, though most have vanished as their mission holders moved on or aged out.
Decades ago it had a classic walk-up location in an old downtown retail block, a block or two off the famous Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, and not far from the university campus. Boulder was a hotbed of the counter-culture and new age movements, exactly the sort of place where Scientology could have been expected to have once been popular – but where people have now moved on to other things like yoga and meditation, and are plugged in enough to be quite familiar with Scientology’s current un-hip reputation.
Yes, it’s now in an ignominious strip mall in an outlying more affordable bedroom community. I haven’t noticed it registering in years and years, and my guess is that it is showing up now because some sort of “stat push” is on, some local is having to do amends and is buying up lots of materials, or something else artificial like that.
((Crickets))
Oh, the memories. I was a member of Mission of the Southwest in the early 80s in Dallas and it was busy. I experienced the fall of the Mission Holder Conference that brought the whole thing down… so sad. Dean Stokes, the Mission Holder, once told me that the whole idea of being OT was not to get “superpowers”, it was to be more “me”. He gave so much and was destroyed by the “theta” anger and ill-treatment of those above. It was the first crack in the story of what I saw as Scientology
Gasp! There has been a huge change in the Launceston $camology Mission…shock…news at 9…
They put a new bottle of water on the table at the back of the crypt, I mean shop.
In scn the mission network is perhaps the one freest from the toxic influences of management and closest to that pioneering sense that was at the beginning. They can act more easily.
Here in Italy Bergamo has been one of the strongest missions for more than 30 years, a great FSM (who sends people) for Milan org and is located in one of the richest areas in Italy.
While potentially well above several Italian class 5 orgs, they have always avoided being promoted and become class 5 themselves.
This would put them in the hands of ‘management’ and imprisoned them in a loop of “expansion” programs – going nowhere – and new posts impossible to be file. Not to mention all the other interferences that can arise based on priorities that suddenly arrive from above.
Canada has at least one, though perhaps in name only. It is located at 308 Broadview Ave. right across from a Chinese restaurant I often dine in. It is experiencing infinite growth. By that I mean after not seeing anyone go in or out of the building for about twenty years, and never seeing anyone through the doors or windows, I saw two people there about a week ago. That is definitely infinite growth.
I have no idea what their mission is. It is probably there so that someone can claim that there is a Toronto mission. It may be a personal or a cult owned real estate investment trying to avoid or reduce taxation. The whole thing makes no sense.
Hubbard drowned his followers with fiddle-faddle concerns, overshadowing the content nuts and bolts of Scientology.
Scientology is auditing and then exorcism.
You get auditing to rid yourself of your own “case”.
Then you do upper OT levels 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 to exorcise the surplus souls infesting and making up your human body and surround you, which is your “OT case” that you alleviate yourself when you finally get all your “body-thetans” exorcised off you.
Scientology’s a “case” subject. It’s supposedly your spiritual “case” you address with auditing and then the exorcism levels.
Hubbard never allowed Scientology to be bite sized explained.
So there will be forever the members and quitters unfortunately repeating Hubbard’s mislabeling of the subject and never getting down to what Scientology is, which is auditing and exorcism.
Scientology Missions are stuck spouting Hubbard’s introductory mislabeling false claims which the public today have too much word of mouth and books and TV and movies that detail more accurately the mess and flaws of Hubbard and Scientology.
Scientology is forever stuck now facing reality. It’s the problem that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and Scientology MIssions continue to sell silk purses, but the public knows Scientology is sow’s ear material.
Not that I want $cientology to get successful in any way, but at a time weren’t the top-performing Missions more successful than the Orgs? I got the impression that up until the early 80s they were kindler and gentler ways to get into Scientology, and you don’t need to be more than a bird-brain to realise that this will always be more likely to gain converts.
There’s an old article on xenu.net titled “The 1982 US Mission Holders’ Conference, San Francisco”. This is fascinating, though I’m sure many or most who frequent this blog will have already read it. Scientology self-destructs again, and it’s interesting that even at this early date “The Master of Ceremonies was twenty-two-year old David Miscavige, a Sea Org “Commander,” and, unbeknownst to the attendees, Chairman of the Board of Author Services Incorporated”. It’s such a perplexing notion to come up with his plan to destroy a big money-maker and replace it with nothing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m GLAD this happened, but Scientology never ceases to amaze me with how jaw-droppingly stupid they can be with this stuff. Oh, you’re sending us a bunch of money for which we have to do basically nothing? You’re now the enemy! What the hell…?
If the Missions hadn’t been wrecked, is there any chance those numbers might look at least a LITTLE better today? I’m kind of excited about the idea of a boneheaded play by Miscavige even before he took over is still wreaking havoc on Scientology’s income to this very day. And I guess a related question is: does anyone think that ONE OF the reasons the Missions might be more successful the farther away they are from the US is less oversight, and hence, maybe less militaristic treatment of Public, a bit more rule-bending on the strict stuff?
Joshua, from what I’ve been reading the old missions also refined some of the abusive, manipulative and even fraudulent tactics that the orgs are now known for. For some reason we seem to get a rather nostalgic version of what they were like, perhaps because many who had bad experiences, long ago just decided to put it out of their minds.
The missions were probably better at starting to adapt to changing times – but also must then have been starting to diverge from Hubbard’s orthodox Scientology, helping trigger the crackdown. I doubt they really could have successfuly carried Hubbard’s 1950s-60s cult of personality into the 21st century, and instead would have had to go in very different directions.
Examples of development and evolution may even be seen with TIR (which never really caught on), Avatar (a modestly succesful, and also controversial, LGAT), and various other former mission holders’ attempts that are largely forgotten. But perhaps the best reality check is the indie or freezone movement, which had all the advantages of freedom plus inheriting some of the best and brighest defectors, and still has failed to navigate the transition into the 21st century. I think this all constitutes a rather extensive track record demontrating that the ‘subject’ is a dead end with no real prospects.
Yes, in the ’70s, IIRC, the more successful franchises were larger than most of the class IV orgs; heck, some of the smaller franchises were larger than many/most of the orgs. It didn’t take much to surpass the orgs as they were hobbled completely by Hubbard’s “management” policies and were subject to being invaded by Sea Org “missions” out to put heads on pikes (a/k/a “witch hunts”). These days, the “missions” (franchises) are hobbled identically to orgs and forbidden to grow larger by decree.
The beliefs and practices of Scientology are central to its popularity, or lack of.
It’s a losing battle. Too much of the actual details of Scientology’s practices and behaviours have become permanently public, to warn and caution new people from joining.
The biggest problem I think were I to rejoin and wish to engage in Scientology ,which would prevent me from finding the details and doing Scientology, are Scientology’s beliefs.
Here is what would keep me today from joining Scientology:
—————————-
a) You have to believe in the soul, that you are a soul in your human body, and you will have future lives, and that you have lived past lives
b) On the upper levels of Scientology, you have to buy into the idea that surplus souls (body-thetans deposited on earth by Xenu) infest and surround your human body and that these surplus souls leak their negative “case” material onto you.
c) You have to believe that through the Hubbard “case” elimination therapy (auditing) and then the exorcism telepathic commands you learn on OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, you exorcise your individual load of “body-thetans” off yourself, and you thus get rid of your “OT case”. The “Clear” step is getting rid of your own case, and then OT levels 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 rid yourself of your “OT case” which is simply your surplus souls are evicted off you and you lose any effects of them on you.
Scientology is a past life therapy and a surplus souls exorcism practice.
That’s what I wished would have been frankly spoken to me when I walked into Scientology in 1975.
I could have thought more carefully about the upper Scientology massive amount of exorcism (OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) that all that exorcism was an unlikely really real activity.
It certainly is a huge supernatural activity, all this band of exorcism, OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, that’s a whole lot of exorcism that goes on for years. It seems very unlikely to be real, and so difficult to prove the existence of body-thetans to the amounts that Scientologists seem to be finding and alleviating from themselves.
Scientology Missions cannot deal with the word of mouth understanding of Scientology that’s been gained by the public worldwide, versus the actual beliefs and believability of Scientology’s spiritual practices.
Would “quacksorcism” be a better phrase?
“quacksorcism” works for ME!
The most recent post on this mission’s FB page is from 6-26-21. And most of the posts are just lame LRH platitudes with a couple of “likes” at most with no comments. That, and a couple of those publicly renowned semi-literate editorials from STAND.
From what I’ve observed, this is typical of many US missions. They start out with enthusiastic goals and expectations that last a few months. Then reality sets in. No public. No income. And then the thrill is gone, leaving an empty shell that was once filled with nothing more than delusional dreams and false promises. Pathetic.
Pathetic it is, and that seems to be exactly as Davey-Boy wants it.
Thanks Mike for the update. This is not surprising that the Scientology mission system in the US has dried up. And this is another massive indication of how the cult is shrinking. The mission system was the roots of the cherch and did so much to help Scientology grow. When Hubbard disenfranchised the mission holders, it was inevitable that the organization would start dying. It’s taken almost 40 years for it to come to this. Thank god it is here.
Mike you and Leah and so many others have achieved the kind of exposure of truth needed to shut down Hubbards massive scam. I would say this news about the Mission system shows a major breakthrough in the on going movement to eradicate Scientology. Rock on Mike.
Did you notice that the Boulder Mission is open for 1 hour only on Sunday. Why bother to open if it is only for an hour? Just save the heating and light bill and close for that day.
Most likely they still have to do a Sunday Service in order to maintain the image of being a religion and church. No other reason. It’s strictly to serve some purpose along that line.
“Stick a fork in the Mission network” lol – Maybe it’s VWD, Very Well Done to the point of being burned up and useless. Keep an eye on your Thanksgiving turkey. We certainly don’t want that situation to occur.
What’s true for me is that there’s a lot of OT’s at that place considering all the empty parking spaces,:-)
Now that’s funny! 🙂
There’s never a problem finding a parking space at THAT micro-org.
I’m so happy to see that there is no more my country, Switzerland, in the list!
Looks like soon there won’t be any listed for the USA.
VWD, Dwarfenführer®!
Hi Mike.
This is the problem with COS dissemination charts. Confusing. Can you decipher what the numbers are?
Ex. 1. Kyiv, Ukraine, 123? Mission of week
1. Kyiv, Ukraine, 6848? Cumulative
What are these numbers? # of Scientologist, missionaries, disseminated Scientologist, # of members per, # of missions, # of parishioners?
Curious. Or is it just a how lotta BS?
Fact: Did you know it’s famous for its ChicKen Kiev?
Arbitrary points awarded each week based on the trend of their stat graphs. The winners usually are the best at falsifying/manipulating their numbers.