Scientology routinely claims it has the ONLY workable method of teaching someone how to learn.
They proclaim they bring literacy to millions around the world — here are just a few excerpts from the scientology.org website. These are not even the hype statements they dish up at “international events”:
But their own promotional pieces put these claims to the sword.
Their promotional pieces routinely contain so many grammatical errors, spelling errors and typos that it boggles the mind. Especially in this age of spellcheckers on every computer.
One might be able to brush this off as merely errors due to lack of sleep or the stress and pressure that every staff member of scientology is subjected to. But they are so often and are so common that one must conclude that these people are not really literate.
The champions of the scientology illiteracy race are the Pirates of Plymouth in the UK. These come in routinely and I have often commented on them in the Thursday Funnies.
But over the past few days I was sent two separate items from the Pirates. The first was familiar. Promotion about how much money people suckers have given them, with all the same typos we have seen many times before — but now a new category that is also a typo (Bucaneers) — along with the usual hodgepodge of fonts and type sizes.
But then I got a second one, and this was just too much to ignore::
I am not even commenting on the grammar or delusory illogic.
I am assuming Mark Goddard is some scientology “executive”. I would also assume he has done the “Student Hat” as it is the most fundamental course in scientology and by this time most people have done it at least twice.
The tech is NOT working. Perhaps he is PTS? Or an SP?
Or maybe these claims of literacy are just like the claims of becoming full cause over Matter, Energy, Space and Time.
I passionately encourage ex-scientologists, especially those who were in for decades, to READ! Especially when it comes to believing in the veracity and usefulness of the so-called ” study tech ” of scientology! There are tons and tons of well-written books, blogs,and articles about learning, studying, and cognitive development. They outline myriad effective strategies and methodologies that have been tested in different countries and cultures, some over long periods of time. The scientific research underscoring them is multi-disciplinary.
In my opinion, it takes persistent, conscious effort to cleanse one’s mind of scientology’s emotional and intellectual pollution and corruption…
Hubbard was not your friend. He was selling pieces of blue sky-and knew it. He was a con man and a criminal. Only a fool would NOT question everything Hubbard did, said, and created. And, upon close examination, it’s patently obvious that the whole Hubbardian edifice is a sham. He even takes the piss in the early fifties, in the PDC lectures, and tells you so!
This makes me so sad for the people who are producing them. Denied a real education. Denied sleep and nutrition. No mercy for mistakes. They will most likely endure a punishment for their errors. Finally, the tech for which they have traded their life, does not work.
Wif tha fait of the wurld iz at stake we caint be wurried bout liturasee. Wut is nedeed and whantid is NOO monee ech weak
Keep up the heat, Mike. It’s working…
🙂
Mike – typo missed in last flyer. Should be UK’s, not UKs.
Mark Goddard has been bleating on about this building for almost a decade. The original goal was to open by Hub’s “100th birthday.” Oops.
Can’t really blame him for not using a spellcheck – he knows no one reads this guff anymore. He must be bored shitless.
The staff can’t use ( I mean aren’t allowed) to use the internet spell check. They just might Google something about the cult.
On the “honour roll”
“Tutoring for Children and Adults”
Would that be a company? Is it publicly declaring its support for the criminal organisation known as the “church” of $cientology?
Jens, local critic “Once Born” has written extensively about how a tutoring scam run by several members, is apparently one of the major sources of income that keeps the struggling org going, as I referenced in an earlier comment. Yes, they may be more or less propping up the tottering facade, and its illiterates!
Plus, we don’t know how many names on the donor list are spelled wrong.
Mike,
All the spelling errors are simply a result of all the nonstop expansion the church is having. It’s just so exhausting and stressful for them all. It’s beyond the capability of our sp and wog brains to comprehend.
OMG, scientology professing to “improve” literacy! Don’t tell all those kids like Miscavige who have been told for decades that a “wog” education is useless. My brother’s’ kids were the ONLY 2nd generation scns I observed who not only finished High school. but college. Most, like Miscavige, blew at least by grade 10 or age 16, the legal minimums.
Every time I see one of these, I scream, “Key to Life!”
Hubbard knew his grammar. I put this down to his writing career. So I respect the grammar of KTL (although he couldn’t help himself and combined the concepts of “adjective” and “adverb” into “modifier”). As I like to immediately indicate, the small common words and grammar are what’s good about that course, but they’re not religious. These staff will never do that course.
All this promotion needs a copy editor, because even literate people will make mistakes, mistype, etc. These guys can’t afford a copy editor.
They are also probably not computer-literate. As Mike indicates, computer-aided spellcheck exists. They must be ignoring this when an error is highlighted.
When I edited a small newsletter, I discovered that EVERYONE should have an editor. Almost no writer is truly capable of critiquing his own work. Even though most of us on this blog are fairly literate, how often do we all wish we could have the “edit” command for comments we’ve just pressed “post” for? I’d hazard it’s at least one of us each day. In my case, it’s about once a day, just for my own posts. folks like FOOLproof need active editing by a “disinterested” editor: one which doesn’t have a ‘dog in the fight’ other than clarity. Having done it, it’s a tough job.
Hubbard’s understanding of and use of language was pretty bad. He used words sideways — in ways that were usually technically correct, but contextually nonsense. Like someone who learned language from a dictionary, rather than from actual communication.
Scientology is the cruelest, er, coolest religion on Earth.
Well, then again you’d think that with 70 (SEVENTY) years to do so they would have demonstrated at least 1 (ONE) “Clear” by now. Let alone an OT of ANY level. Surely, that would give them something to crow about, in the face of adversity, shrinking interest and mushrooming entheta!
Alas, the first–and last–time Hubbard, or anyone else for that matter, tried to demonstrate even a garden-variety clear–something they claim to have made 100s (HUNDREDS) of–well, we all know what happened…
Todd Cray:
“Well, then again you’d think that with 70 (SEVENTY) years to do so they would have demonstrated at least 1 (ONE) “Clear” by now. Let alone an OT of ANY level. Surely, that would give them something to crow about, in the face of adversity, shrinking interest and mushrooming entheta!”
That presupposes Hubbard both was capable of delivering on his promises and wanted to. I don’t believe either proposition was try for him. Dwarfenführer? That kid’s only in it for the money and power. Nothing he does has any other purpose. He doesn’t even fake it otherwise except when preaching to his choir of clapping seals, where he promises the moon and stars and just delivers the same ol’, same ol’ or perhaps an even MORE punishing version of it.
OOps, I don’t believe either proposition was TRUE for Tubby.
No surprise that this is what a cult founded by a bad writer churns out. Making people define words by rote repeatedly, and keeping them from reading widely, is a great way to keep them illiterate.
Yep: Hookt on Foniks reelie werkt 4 mee.
Meryl: “Hooked on
phonics” was actually a good start on things. I was taught phonics by my mom, a contemporary of Tubby’s, but one who graduated from High School her first try, without getting special tutoring from a “prep” school. Nor was her mom a certified teacher, which Hubs’ mother was.
I know, Jere, I remember Hooked on Phonics quite well. The Hookt on Foniks thing was a tee-shirt joke decades ago.
I think what I saw was that line on the promo for fundraising had to he fast fast fast. I was in until fairly recently and they were producing stuff for the next event, sometimes once each week. I think they dropped out normal IA lines, I think they just had to. But still, the basic problem here shines through, doesn’t it?
Wow, you were in until fairly recently? Well congrats on the getting the hell out. Good for you… really.
I was never involved with $cientology but I’ve been reading about it and researching it for many years now. I have such contempt for that organization and the way they treat their members, ex-members, critics, etc., and how they destroy families through disconnection. The things they’ve done to people are indefensible.
Again, good on you for getting out!
Also, from an authoritarian standpoint, the MU is genius. If you read something written by Hubbard, and it doesn’t make sense, then it’s not the nonsensical idea Hubbard concocted that’s at fault, it’s your faulty understanding of it. In this way, any and all dissent can be dismissed as the result of an MU somewhere.
J.T. Marsh nailed it.
To reiterate: ” study tech ” does NOT address studying, learning, comprehending, or being literate; it is a process of indoctrination that tends to make its staunchest adherents stupid and literal-minded when subjected to it continuously for a long period of time. In scientology, the student is a passive receptacle for Hubbard’s perfect pronouncements and ” discoveries ” that are beyond doubt, critical analysis, discussion, or verification; ” study ” consists of memorizing and regurgitating what Hubbard says, while ignoring the contradictions, lies, unsubstantiated assertions, and downright boring verbosity found in his writing. The foundation of this so-called tech is the lie of the ” m.u. ” being the primary cause of “someone giving up a course of study”. There is a huge body of scientific research on learning and memory that utterly eviscerates Hubbard’s bullshit about ” how to study “. Hubbard, per his affirmations and statements about ” games ” in the PDC lectures, was NOT interested in helping and empowering people to be independent thinkers, but WAS committed to manipulating,degrading, and fleecing his followers and used ” study tech ” as one of several tools to do so.
For any ex-scientologist who wants to learn how to study effectively, I highly recommend an online class offered by Coursera entitled LEARNJNG HOW TO LEARN.
It’s based on decades of actual scientific research and includes tons of optional, auxiliary reading that is engrossing and informative. It’s an excellent post-cult palette cleanser…
Also, check out a blog by an ex-scientologist at mbnest.blogspot.com He exhaustively breaks down the mind-fuckery of study tech…among other things scientological that are sketchy and manipulative…
How do they spell the same word two different ways on the same flyer?
They don’t even LOOK. Anything they toss out is “good ’nuff” and Dwarfenführer is too overworked to give it a critical look-over. Heck, editing, even proofreading, is serious work. Editor-friends of mine invite groups of folks over to give their newsletters a look-see each month before they’re sent to the printers. Even then, mistakes sometime sneak in.[“Murphy was an optimist.”]
We all can see how capable Tubby was as a self-editor. (NOT)
First, it’s particularly ironic that the pilloried Plymouth org gets by such as it does, in good part due to a tutoring scam run by its members!
Half a century ago it might have been plausible to claim that study tech was “cutting edge” – even though it was a dubious claim then, as it is arguably really based on ideas that were already half a century or more old:
“Always note a new word, with a view to ascertaining its precise meaning and use.”
“Make constant use of a dictionary. It is a practice of many great scholars never to allow a word to pass without an examination, if there is the least doubt about its origin,pronunciation, meaning or spelling.”
– Elements of Composition and Rhetoric, Virginia Waddy, 1889
What’s more the case is that even by the standards of two decades ago, it was hardly “cutting edge” – and of course since Hubbard’s work can never be altered, it can never take into account further advances and research:
“Johanna Lemlech, a professor of education at USC specializing in
curriculum and teaching, calls the books ‘awful.’ They ‘violate
everything we know about how children learn, and appropriate
pedagogy,'” – LA Weekly on November 12, 1997
“‘there is a whole other aspect of the reading process that is
ignored,’ added Ms. Vogt, who is a former president of the California
Reading Association and a past board member of the International
Reading Association.” – September 17, 1997 article in Education
Week
– both above from http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/StudyTech/
The principles of LRH’s study tech are not new. What he did was codify principles that already existed. Hate LRH if you want, disagree with him in full or in part, but it happens to be 100% true that if you’re reading a sentence where there’s a word that you don’t understand, or that you don’t fully understand because it has several meanings and you’re not sure which one applies, then you’re not going to fully grasp what is being communicated. Letters make up words; words make up sentences. Letters and words are not the THINGS themselves, they are SYMBOLS for the things. Just like if you’re driving and you don’t know that a red light at an intersection means “Stop”. Symbols – they’re not the things themselves; they symbolize the things. This becomes obvious when you try to learn another language! Anyway, back to the point; Hubbard says look up words you don’t fully understand and your reading perception will improve tremendously. What’s the big deal? Its pretty much common sense. I don’t get why people go nuts over this. Can you read Chinese without knowing the symbols that are the Chinese language? Ok, so neither can you fully comprehend what you’re reading in English if you don’t understand the (English) words you are reading! End of rant, feel free to pile on.
Aqua, the problem is that Hubbard’s inaccurate and inflexible implementation of those old ideas, is far enough off the mark that it can be ineffective or even harmful. Here for instance is another expert opinion from the source I previously cited:
“For older readers, we sometimes say, ‘Skip a word you don’t
understand and try to gain comprehension from the whole context,'” she
said. “We don’t say that for young readers. But for older readers, it
is extremely cumbersome to try to attend to every word.”
– September 17, 1997 article in Education Week
That’s actually how we acquire language to begin with – infants, babies and toddlers can’t reference a dictionary, they learn in context! The same thing happens if you have to learn a new language in a foreign country (something Hubbard had no experience with), you can’t be using a dictionary all the time, you actually have to figure out how to learn as you go and cope with many un-understood words!
Peacemaker, thanks for your response. I understand your points but don’t agree. “Cumbersome” it may well be to look up all the words one does NOT understand, but it is the road to literacy. Allowing anyone, young or old to “skip over” misunderstood words and then try to figure out what they mean via the context might work sometimes but its a bad habit and in the end creates more confusion and wastes more time than simply stopping and looking up the word. Figure-figuring the meaning of any word is hit or miss. Why bother? Knowing what a word actually means in the sense its used is worth the time spent. PARTICULARLY if you’re learning another language. This is my opinion and based on my own experience. Looking up words I don’t fully understand works for me. To each his own.
Aqua, reading comprehension is not simply and ONLY contingent upon understanding every single word in a sentence or a paragraph or essay.
There is a TON of current data, based on decades of multi-disciplinary scientific study around the world, that addresses how we learn, how we acquire new skills, and how we remember. In another comment, I recommended an online course entitled LEARNING HOW TO LEARN, offered by Coursera that addresses these issues. The concept of ” the misunderstood word “, as it is presented in scientology, is patently false.
https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn/
Cheers!
On their own, they are decent concepts. In scientology, however, they are taken to such absurd extremes that reason and critical thinking become obsolete.
Aqua…Another thought:
In English, we uses a variety of words to communicate nuances and subtlety of meaning, whereas, in Spanish, the type of GRAMMAR used communicates
nuances and subtlety of meaning much more than it does in English, meaning that one could suss out a subtle twist in a statement in Spanish with sufficient grasp of grammar, even while missing the meanings of some words in the statement. It’s a weird phenomenon that I have had tons of personal experience with…
Stuff to ponder…
Peacemaker, “study tech” NEVER was ‘cutting edge’. It was never a “cure” for anyone’s illiteracy other than Hubbard’s, where he was trying to make up for a lifetime of failing to study by taking a magical shortcut designed to rehabilitate HIS scholastic failures. He took an obvious truth, that failure to understand KEY words in a subject could hamper one’s understanding, and stretched it all out of shape to say that failure to “understand” ALL the words used in every article caused a student to fail to understand the whole subject. Then he redefined “understand” to create a ‘game’ with so many different ways to declare the student didn’t understand some word in the material. Though I’d already qualified for Mensa, scoring highly in English comprehension, Any experienced (in scn) “twin” could easily trip me up on a checkout as I tend to speak slowly and deliberately, which was deemed a “comm-lag”. The experience left me a poorer student as I didn’t trust my demonstrated skills after scientology’s indoctrination. I STILL have to consciously “turn off” that garbage to read for pleasure or study. It’s not an easy task, sadly.
jere, the particularly irony is that the origin of study tech was Hubbard’s own bad habit of confusing his students (or, given what we can now see of the use of “confusion technique, perhaps it was deliberate).
Ava Berner said that she and her then-husband Charles suggested that Hubbard start a program of educating his students in the particular neologisms and re-defined words that he used, because they observed that his students at Saint Hill were having difficulty understanding what he was talking about given the many peculiar terms whose meaning they did not understand. It ultimately morphed into a more broad-based tool of indoctrination, in which any failure is blamed on the followers’ failure to understand.
Peacemaker,
“…any failure is blamed on the followers’ failure to understand.”
Here’s where I agree with you 100%. This maxim, applied in handlings involving every instance of failure, is flat out nuts.
It is entirely possible to fully understand something and disagree with it.
I had this experience with “Leaving And Leaves” – one of LRH’s HCOPLs forbidding a staff member (pr anyone, a student, a public, etc. ) to tell anyone except an Ethics terminal that he or she is leaving. To do so is, I believe, a High Crime.
Well, I thought this was nuts. Here’s a Supervisor one has known for years, liked, etc., and one day – POOF – gone. No prior explanation, no heads up., no goodbye, it was nice knowing you, etc.,.. Just gone. Forbidden by policy to say “Goodbye” Nuts!
And I told them so. (Not in those words.)
So of course, I then had to find and my MU’s 🙂 So I re-read the thing, cleared some words, to appease them, went back.
No MUs, I told them. Still disagree, 100%. Starrate me on this or put me on the meter and check me that way, I told them. I understood the freaking PL! Why was precisely why I thought it wrong, silly, harmful and unnecessary.
Long story, but by that time I was UTR and on my way out anyway.
And when I left I followed policy and didn’t tell anyone and didn’t say, “Goodbye”. 🙂
Typos, sorry. Too emotional to edit 🙂
The misunderstood word or symbol, too steep a gradient (too much information all at once), and absence of mass (no physical object being studied) are valid concepts if one is studying a subject in order to apply it. So what if it’s nothing new or could have been learned elsewhere?
I’m not alone 🙂 Thank you, Richard. You said it better than I just did.
A defense of poor grammar and spelling might be that READING and understanding something is different than being able to WRITE something intelligible and grammatically correct.
Scientology always says it’s methodology is the bestest of all.
I blew scientology in 1982 and now live on the east coast. The other day I got a letter from the Salt Lake City, Utah mOrg. It read,
“Hi! I see you are an auditor. Do you still audit? It looks like it’s been a long time since you’ve done anything at an Org or Mission, how come?”
So at least the letter was chatty if not grammatically correct – haha
Richard, did you write them back?
It occurs to me, you could explain your dissatisfaction with the turn things took in 1982 – at tell them that you would consider coming back if they offered an amnesty like Hubbard used to periodically, even if that doesn’t apply to you personally (though presumably it would to people you knew). Those are bits a bit of Scientology history that most staff nowadays probably don’t know about, and bringing up amnesty would throw in a subtle point that Hubbard’s practices are being followed, and it’s something to which they would have no good comeback.
I can imagine some staff newbie going to a grizzled old-timer, and asking if it’s true that they used to offer amnesties – in fact I can see that in my mind’s eye as an RB cartoon….
PeaceMaker – I didn’t consider writing them back but now that you mention it maybe I will. Since I was once an auditor maybe I’m high on the “recovery” list. They even included a postage paid return envelope! Also a full color glossy about the Purification Rundown. Since I disappeared over 40 years ago before it was up and running maybe they figured I hadn’t heard about it and would be tempted. Booking the next flight to Vegas!
It’s kind of creepy that an unknown person was reading about what I was doing 40 years ago, but on the other hand it’s nice that someone was thinking about me. Another entry into the Akashic Record.
Richard, the same thing happened to me: A Letter Reg asking if I Am proud to be one of the first NED auditors ‘in the 80s’
They must have already scraped the bottom of the barrel clean if they’re coming after ME 4 decades later, blissfully unaware of the ‘beauties’ of GAT, GAT II, GAK, and all the other squirreling DM has introduced. As part of my story, I indicated some of the sources of my current info and demanded to be deadfiled, with notes to that effect to go to the half-dozen orgs I recalled who evidently believe me to be a PROSPECT after all this time. AFAICT, when they threw me off of the Flag Land Base, they also tossed me out of scn, so I’ve acted that way since and celebrate each August by adding one to my “years recovering” signature.
Richard,
No, the concepts of study technology, as they are presented in scientology, are not valid.
The ” misunderstood word ” ( that is, ANY misunderstood word, as opposed to a contextually significant or key word)is not the primary cause of a person abandoning the study of a subject, nor is it the root of ” overts and withholds “( which is another bit of cult loaded language put to use in its mind-fuck ). There are many subjects that have more than one possible sequence of study, so insisting that violating an arbitrary sequence of study AUTOMATICALLY creates a confusion or misunderstanding or a failure of application is also false. I could go on and on about it, but I’ll cut to the chase and say this: ” study tech ” was not designed for the study of anything; it WAS designed to indoctrinate people in SCIENTOLOGY. Again, the scientific evidence is out there about how we learn and assimilate information and how we learn new skills.
Mark – I totally agree about the MIS-use of study tek within scientology. I was referring to some possible usefulness outside of scientology. Other study methodologies have been mentioned on the blogs. Just because Hubbard’s name was on something doesn’t automatically make it invalid in my opinion.
Richard:
“Just because Hubbard’s name was on something doesn’t automatically make it invalid in my opinion.”
Fine, I can go along with that, except that now that I’m out and operating in the real world, starting from an assumption that a piece of Hubbard’s “stuff” is likely to be false has proven to be the proper approach. In other words, he has to PROVE validity to me instead of his words being assumed to be intelligible and an accurate portrayal of the Universe.
Richard, I believe you missed my points, which were that ” study technology ” is not about studying, but about indoctrination, and that it is based on utterly false premises, hence its lack of usefulness for ” studying ” anything.
And, because Hubbard didn’t originate ANYTHING, but DID appropriate old ideas and concepts( e.g. abreactive therapy, the concept of the engram, the use of a tool based on the wheatstone bridge, etc.) for the expressed purpose (Affirmations )of controlling, manipulating, and discarding others in his quest for power and riches, I would argue that his own record of criminal intent( in writing ),criminal acts,failure to prove the veracity of his claims, and failure to produce the results he promised does effectively and conclusively damn everything with his name on it.
But…I do understand the idea that we can learn valuable lessons from being totally scammed by an amoral, narcissistic con man…
That’s just my take on it. I understand that you may not view him and his so-called ” tech ” that way. The cool thing is that we can publicly discuss and debate the issues, which is expressly forbidden in the cult.
Thanks for expressing your views. Respect!😎
The Fatman’s study “tech” is one of his greatest frauds. Calling “Study Tech” new or revolutionary is bullshit.
Look up words: My little wog public elementary school had dictionaries in every classroom and I learned to look up words there. Including how to read the pronunciation keys and derivations.
“Lack of Mass” That’s what chem labs, wood shops, etc. are for. Nothing new.
Gradients: Jeezus, what did that fat bastard think grades K through 12 were?
But nooooo, Hubbard’s “discoveries” revolutionized the field of education!
And then here comes Applied Scholastics and charges licensing fees to clam schools for organizing classes by level, supplementing book learning with hands-on time, and teaching kids to look up words. What a bloody fraud.
Gus, You and I are on the same page.
Study ‘tech’ is a complete fraud. AFAICT, it’s a punishment for good students for DARING to be able to study more easily than Tubby could.
Jere, you’re wrong.
When I was in school I had a really good memory. I could memorize whole paragraphs. Up to 8th grade I was a very good student. I loved school; loved homework if you can believe that. Then something happened and I became very upset, inside. My whole attitude about school and studying changed. I didn’t see the point. I stopped studying, stopped participating. All I wanted was to graduate from high school while at the same time, doing as little as possible.
I knew I couldn’t be flunked if I did well on the tests. And I had this very good memory. I could memorize whole paragraphs, word for word, very easily back then.
The night before a major test in anything I’d stay up all night and cram.
I’d absorb the information, and then spew it back out on the test the next day, getting a decent grade. (This didn’t work too well for algebra and geometry so I forced myself to pay enough attention in those classes to scrape by.) In most subjects I got an A or B+ on tests, lifting up my day to day grades (dismal) so that I had to be passed.
After taking these tests my mind emptied out as regards these subjects. This material was not learned by me. I crammed and I memorized and parroted back the right answers on tests. That is NOT learning and my teachers knew it. I was continually being called into guidance sessions so that I could be reached in order to “live up to my potential”. I’d agree with them and yes them to death and they’d let me out. I knew exactly what I was doing and so did they. But they couldn’t flunk me and I graduated.
Now as regards WHY I had this horrible attitude toward schoolwork starting around age 15, after having loved school since kindergarten, is not the point. What is the point is that I scored marvelously on tests, and learned practically nothing.
Hubbard was spot on about what learning really IS. I personally don’t care from WHERE he got this information. I don’t care if he originated it or took it from others and made it his own. He spelled out what learning really is, which is the ability to also apply what one has learned, THINK with what one has learned.
Learning is NOT memorizing and spewing back. A parrot can do that. Just saying.
Aqua,
In scientology, one does not learn. One absorbs, obediently, and parrots. Scientology and Dianetics- and ” study tech” is a key component in making both hustles stick- are grounded in Hubbard’s intention to confuse, deceive, and manipulate his followers.
No discussions, no debates, no lively discourses, no comparisons and verifications, just mimicry of the loaded language about made-up shit that can’t be altered or improved, which conditions one to follow the cult rules and…get the weenie of “spiritual freedom” by NOT thinking independently or questioning, or, God forbid,having a conversation about the merits of what you are reading with fellow ” students ” while in the courseroom. This is NOT about learning and thinking independently. “Study tech”, as it is presented in scientology, is, at BEST, pseudo-science
Remember, there are no ” teachers ” in a scientology courseroom, only “supervisors” ( like there are on a factory assembly line )…who will robotically ask you ” What do your materials state? ” when you read some utterly verbose, self-contradicting shit by Hubbard and ask what, innocently, ” WHAT is he saying?” Anyway…No, Hubbard was NOT spot on about ” what learning is ” and gave zero fucks about it, both personally, and for the dupes who bought into his ” study tech “.
Check this out and see what you think:
https://mbnest.blogspot.com/2016/08/scientology-study-technology-1-hubbards.html
Aqua, you and I were on opposite sides of the coin. I couldn’t memorize for beans (still can’t) though I had an enormous vocabulary which allowed me to skate through the standardized tests — which,IIRC, was where I got the “not living up to my potential” label, which bugged the living daylights out of me. By 4th grade, I started “throwing” those standardized tests and “dropped” my IQ considerably. Worked fine until about 11th grade when we HAD to do well on the tests (PSAT, SAT, etc.) for college placement & scholarships. My only slip-up was in 5th grade, when they gave us a language comprehension test. Only one student in the district scored higher, and I heard about my “potential” again. [bummer!] THEN, I fell afoul of the scn ‘checkout’ and suddenly couldn’t ‘properly’ define any words, so was told I couldn’t understand the material.
Have you seen the press releases from the White House? And they are from someone who knows the best words.
Chuckles:
“Have you seen the press releases from the White House? And they are from someone who knows the best words.”
As I have said, editing is a demanding job ; all writers need one.
In addition, writing is a bit like programming in age-old LISP programming language: If the copy’s more than a screen (24 lines) long, there’s assuredly a mistake in there. Keeping it short, sweet, and to the (one) point is best. Sadly, I don’t always follow my own advice. Typically, when I’m writing off-line, my articles’ first draft tends to be 3 times longer than it should have been. Subsequent edits are tearing words, phrases, and paragraphs out. That *might* be from reading too much of Tubby’s stuff
All writers need editors; those of us who are the editors need them more than most.
Eye thot eye wuz rong oncz bud eye wuz rong……kno spil chak 4 me oar u
I recall being in grade school & kids asking the teachers how to spell a word…..they’d tell you to “look it up in the dictionary…..WTF??? HOW can you look up a word you can’t spell……scheez.
When I taught Special Ed…I had a student ask me how to spell a word….the word he was asking about was “I”……..
O/T. Nation of Islam Sister Nayyirah Tivica Muhammad says: “Dianetics and Scientology does not seek to change ones religion!”
The Church of Scientology said the opposite to the IRS.
Tweet: https://twitter.com/ISNOINews/status/1158779466631372803
ESMB Post: http://www.forum.exscn.net/threads/members-of-the-nation-of-islam-are-practicing-the-religion-of-scientology.43362/page-47#post-1218078
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Hm, well i must be only kinda literate myself, since the magazine pages looked fine. Were those grammar errors there? Apart from the use of “embracive” where “all-encompassing” may have made the sentence flow better, i think that word was still technically correct. Did they put commas in the wrong spots or something?
I did catch the spelling mistakes in the two flyers though. “Bucaneers” lol.
There are two issues at work here: “study tech” and the shortage of trained staff. Study tech will take anyone and make them less literate, as I note below. But the shortage of staff as the cult implodes is likely what drives these typos. As educated native-speaking adults stop joining Scientology, so too are they unavailable to be on staff. As near as I can figure, all the staffers are either kids of Scientologists who were press-ganged into the Sea Org in junior high school, or they’re non-native English speakers who were grabbed from some foreign country and who don’t get time to practice their English skills once they’re putting in 20-hour days at some menial Sea Org task.
To understand just how illiterate Scientology’s “Study Tech” can make people, don’t forget the Life Force Academy, practically in the shadow of Clearwater. This is the school that Alfreddie Johnson and Hanan Islam took over and pillaged financially while introducing “Study Tech.” In two short years, the reading scores went from middle-of-the-pack for Pinellas County to second-worst, beating only a school for severely developmentally disabled kids. The kids would probably have scored better on tests if they had no reading instruction during those two years and had just used what they already learned.
John, wow I am stunned by this revelation. Thank you for researching out these facts and presenting them to us. It’s too bad the bubble dwellers can’t read and understand these same facts. There are non so blind…
Many of the kids who join the Sea Org are second generation kids who went to Scientology based schools. Most of them failed to graduate high school. They had no life skills and not much experience with the outside world. The Sea Org was standing there with recruiters and lots of these kids really had not many other choices.
Its true; these kids, from infancy, were put on the fast track to get nowhere. Pretty much programmed from Day One to be losers. If they weren’t so smug and obnoxious (many of them) I’d feel sorry for them. But I don’t because they think they’re superior beings. Well, that would be a matter of opinion, certainly. Without a doubt though, they are a unique amalgamation of ignorance and arrogance.
I have two relatives (siblings), one in, one out.
Both parents ex-SO. Grandparents — one in, one semi-squirrel.
“Out”is a wonderfully humble father and totally family oriented.
“In” is disconnected from some of the family but not smug or obnoxious as far as I’ve encountered. They may be ignorant of many things but certainly not arrogant.
You painted VERY broad strokes with your comment.
They had a very rough early life but have definitely grown up to be far better than that of which you opine.
Yes, you’re right, Anon. Although I wrote what I did based on my own personal experiences over a 25 year period, effectively what was communicated was far too broad a generalization with no clause acknowledging that this opinion of mine was based on my experiences, solely. There are other realities, other truths. My apologies to you, Anon. You’re right to point this out.
Wow Mike. Some extras maybe?
Plymouth promo:
Not now new news, is a cumbersome alliteration.
Pilgrim Fathers, should both be capitalized.
That The local Media, includes incorrect capital letter in media.
IMO the general flow of the language seems to be stressed or a struggle.
I was thinking this morning about all the ways we were screamed at and ripped off posts or thrown into ethics or lower conditions by frothing execs or Missionaires..
And I just smiled….
“Sorry Sir! It appears we’re working for a tiny cult of nonsense and people just ain’t buying it!”
….
It just struck me as sooo funny, all that duress and pressure, all that screaming, pushing,
“severe reality adjustment” had its own initialism, SRA
“face ripping”
“bait & badger”
all that ethics and admin tek … all the insanity that went with the goal to bamboozle new meat.
When all along… the problem was…
“sorry! It’s hard to get people into a cult!”
Xenu’s Son proves his lineage with this statement:
“35 years ago though most SeaOrg staff was a lot smarter and more literate mere Wogs.”
Corrections:
“35 years ago though” should be “35 years ago, though,”
‘Sea Org’ is two words, not “SeaOrg” one word.
“…staff was a lot…” should be “…staff were a lot…”
Wogs should be wogs, not capitalized, though some might disagree.
“…and even they have a hard time.,” only a period is required at the end of a sentence.
I have a hard time editing my own work. I am as likely as anyone to make mistakes of this sort.
However, the biggest mistake is the assumption-without-evidence that “35 years ago though most SeaOrg staff was a lot smarter and more literate mere Wogs.” That sounds like the kind of arrogance that would have been indoctrinated into a Sea Org member in 1984, or in any era.
Off topic.
Call comes in: “someone is following me.”
Two units respond
Cops determine perpetrator is PI for scientology
Cops tell victim “this is like Leah Remini’s show.”
Cops go back to station and tell EVERYONE, (fact.).
Those people at the station tell at minimum 5 people (a guess but probably accurate).
Those people tell at minimum 5 people, that tell at minimum 5 people, and so on (a guess, probably more).
They (scientology) are proving everything said against them.
True story.
Wow.
David, good true story. I’m glad word is getting out and Scn is proving everything bad said against them.
The hubris of imagined cult superiority eventually has a price to pay. Otherwise known as “pride before fall.” $cientology now is akin to a ghost town with tumbling tumbleweeds but with a few old clueless souls left walking the streets in stunned disbelief at their rapid waning existence.
How about that? Wogs DID get a lot smarter than clams, and better informed about the pitfalls of cults, now laid open bare thanks to the Internet and media. Join only if you wish to waste your precious life on sheer unadulterated illiterate and frivolous nonsense.
In my time in the cult I was required to do the Primary Rundown two times. That involved looking up and demoing every word used in the Student Hat audio tapes. Upon completing this, we were designated “Superliterate.” I still can’t spell worth a darn and am notorious for my typos. 😛
I did the Primary Rundown in the 1970s. It was optional and it wasn’t required to demo every word. I certainly “demoed” a lot of words which were troublesome. It was a great course and to this day a misunderstood word rarely escapes my notice.
You would also think that they might actually spell the names of their “supporters” correctly. Brain Wordie is, presumably, an affectionate nickname for long term staff Brian Wordie.
Speaking as the “King of Typos” I must admit that I have met my match in Mrak Goddrad who seems to have learned his copy writing and editing skills working at The Grauniad
Mark Goddard, you spelled Psiritual wrong, correct spelling is Psyritule.
Back in the 70s, I was sitting in the local GO office (predecessor to the OSA) talking to the head honcho. Behind her, of course, was a bookcase full of the green volumes. She glanced at them, then remarked to me, “What’s with all these III’s and V’s and X’s on these books anyway?” I was stunned into silence. “Illeteracy” is in the DNA of this cult. (It’s a wog construct, after all.)
Okay, that one took my breath away. I am trying to remember when I learned Roman Numerals. It was, I think, sometime in early grade school. Wow.
The problem with Roman Numerals is that it’s difficult to do arithmetic. Impossible with no zero.
EXAMPLE: IX – IX = ?
Roman numerals are a additive system as opposed to our positional system. No zero is needed for doing math. Hence the incredible engineering feats accomplished by doing math with that system.
Peabody: I’ve yet to see anyone who could do even addition in Roman numerals . Most translate into decimal before calculations, then back to Roman numerals afterwards if appropriate.
jere, that is because you are too young. Back in the day when I was in grammar school we had to learn to do math in Roman numerals. We had tests and could not convert back and forth. Education has degraded much since then…
Suzette,
I recently did my physical and got the ‘senior citizen’ 3 testing questions. They are trying to detect dementia folks. One test question was a blank sheet of paper and I was to create a clock with numbers: I did the circle with roman numerals mirror backwards and held it up backside to the nurse. She did a long pause and started laughing. She said that I would stump any highschooer with that. I told her that cursive is now a secret code that only seniors understand.
I find the “Mr. Hubbard” humorous.
The ch$rch can’t get him a posthumous doctorate for all of his ‘research’ in Scientology?
Surely the founder of the worlds fastest growing religion and the creator of the only tech that can save the planet from utter annihilation deserves better than a mere “Mr.”
It will be an interesting book to read in the future: The Decline and Fall of the Scientology Empire.
“IN the twenty first century of the Christian era, the Empire of L. Ron Hubbard saw itself as the savior of the earth, and the most intelligent and wise portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive ecclesiastical dominion were large empty buildings filled with the demented ravings of a mad man. But when the beginning of its undoing first revealed itself, it appeared to all as a rash of poor grammar, bad punctuation and pervasive spelling errors. Thus began the irrevocable undoing of this once mighty empire.”
Well, the beginning was probably GAT, but your point is well taken. LOL!
Mike, I ddon’t thinks you beeing real fare hear. The tek iz greeat!
With such a large percentage of staff and SO coming from non-English speaking countries now, this doesn’t seem all that surprising.
Walk into your local org, be it in Massachusetts or Minnesota or Missouri, will you hear local accents? Not likely. You’ll likely meet people from eastern Europe, Taiwan, etc though.
One wonders if the reason for this, other than Scientology being completely dead in the US outside of the LA and Tampa enclaves, is that there isn’t enough entheta in these other languages on the internet. Sure, there’s enough English language debunking of LRH and CoS online to last a lifetime, but in many other language there probably isn’t.
“PSIRITUAL” Freedom.
I’m speakless and in awghe.
(Also lack required wit & talent to do justice to this fantaaaaastic spelling episode.
Anyone, please?)
Hello AnaF. I do not recall ever seeing you post here before and so I’d like to say, “Welcome” to you.
It’s really not my place to welcome newcomers here and many people may think it’s none of my business. After all, I am just an ordinary person who posts to this blog and who actively seethes at the thought of this horrible criminal scam that has caused so much harm to so many people for so many years and that continues to do the same thing today despite all the negative publicity they have received. I do not have any kind of ownership rights to this blog. But I love to do whatever I can to participate in the eventual destruction of this horrible criminal scam.
Now to answer your question because you asked, “Anyone, please?” and I am confident that I certainly qualify as an “anyone”.
To answer your question, IMHO, the person who contributes to this blog who has the best level of wit and talent is “Scribe”. In addition to all that wit and talent, Scribe seems to be a very friendly and understanding person and if you ever require any help to compose (Heh heh! I almost wrote “compost”), a good stinging barb to aim at this scam – be it a poem or a song or even a sonnet – Scribe is definitely the best person for you to ask.
Skyler, agreeing with you 6 days later: Scribe’s posts here are consistently witty!
“Psi” is used to mean psychic ability, so perhaps he’s coining a word to encompass how the spirituality of Scientologists increases their psi abilities? [joking! You asked for any suggestions.]
Pressure: pounds per square inch
“Allways chek for speling erors.”
Well … someone is getting better. The word “for” is spelled correctly. I wonder if this is a sign that things will improve.
Give them a little time and they’ll celebrate this as a HUGE win!
That spells disaster.
Hubtard was always WAY behind the times and half-baked too. His “orgs” were 20 years late on adopting computers. He NEVER had them stop using paper files for EVERYTHING. The “dianetics” tech was simply a ripped off and mangled version of a then outdated therapy from the dreaded “phychs”. His COMPLETELY inefficient management tech with an insanely bloated exec structure remains a bad joke to this day.
All this because Hubtard BARELY was able to squeak through High School with very low grades. He completely splattered against the wall when attempting college as he wasn’t really able to preform as a student at High School level.
Just a poorly educated Flim-Flam Man and it is reflected in what he created.
Wynski, I hope you won’t mind if I suggest an addition to your post. But when you refer to that asshole as “a poorly educated Flim-Flam man”, I cannot resist the urge to suggest you might add the following:
The one thing that made him so destructive and continues to make this criminal scam so destructive and the main reason it needs to be destroyed and the evil rat who leads it needs to be imprisoned is:
This scam has no problem destroying the lives of the people who come seeking help. Even worse, it has no qualms about destroying the families of those people. In order to perpetuate this scam, it is perfectly willing to oversee the destruction of entire families by employing the technique called, “disconnection” which prevents people from having any contact with their family members. It uses this technique in a ridiculous and often vain attempt to prevent people from escaping its clutches.
Wynski,
Sorry, but in a blog post about poor grammar and illiteracy, I couldn’t help but notice PREFORM. Oops! Again, sorry! You can take the woman out of the classroom but you can’t take the teacher out of the woman (retired teacher here). Also, though Scientologists probably spell it the way you did, the word is spelled PSYCHS, not PHYCHS.
That aside, I agree with the content of your post.
Miss Dutch. Apples & Oranges. This is a post about grammar and illiteracy in commercial COPY. NOT when banging out replies on a blog. I can ASSURE you that when I have written for commercial purposes my copy is FLAWLESS. Just as my grammar and speech is when addressing millions of viewers on TV.
Mystery-lover that I am, I am now wholly intrigued, Wynski! This last sentence of yours has pressed every button on the console! No worries, though. If and/or when I figure out who you are, please know that I am just as careful of others’ privacy as I am of my own – which is a great deal. You have my word on that.
Great Comment
“Just a poorly educated Flim-Flam man.” And that sums up fatso. Just a lying piece of shit.
Wynski, you nailed it.
From what I can tell, the orgs are run based in good part based on what Hubbard saw when he was in the Navy – when they were often being incredibly inefficient because they had do-or-die tasks to accomplish in short measure and vast resources to squander as necessary. That in turn was based on early 20th century industrial management techniques, which eventually led industries like steel and automobile manufacturing to go bankrupt in the late 20th century when they fell behind the advance of technology and developments in more agile and quality-focused management.
Also, I think Chris Owens’ pieces about Hubbards travels in the East suggest that he was asked to leave high school, and the voyages provided an opportunity for his mother to tutor him instead.
35 years ago though most SeaOrg staff was a lot smarter and more literate mere Wogs.
Fast forward 2019. Most Wogs this age smarter and more literate than the Sea Org kids. The current Sea Org kids sound like Best Buy “junior sales associates”
Apparently, only the robots survive and even they have a hard time.,
Very accurate
Thirty five years ago, the Sea bOrg kids had gone to at least grammar and middle school. The 3 R’s were taught. If someone skipped out in 9th or 10th grade, they at least knew the fundamentals of grammar and math.
Now the bOrg come from $cieno homes and were signed over to servitude when they were 10-14 years old. And all education stopped then. Throw in a lot of non-native English speakers and you should expect misspellings and grammar chaos.
I just can’t believe that anyone would send out literature with the word spelled correctly in one place and incorrectly elsewhere.
Scientology sending out promo advocating Study Tech replete with spelling errors is ludicrous and pretty funny, actually. That someone in charge doesn’t spot and correct these errors in the text before it goes to print is an indication that that something is seriously wrong. What would be even worse is the possibility that no one is even AWARE that the spelling is so “out”.
Looks like somebody responsible for this promo needs a sec check to uncover their Evil Purposes!
Yo Dave!
Wassup wicha bad, study-techin’ self, man?
You be seein’ what little us on the fringes be seein’?
Looks like you gots to be checkin’ this promo yo’self ‘fore it goes out!
Looks like you gots to be wearin’ one mo hat, Dave!
You down with that?
Say what?
Oh, yeah! Oh, yeah!
Ah HEAR you, man!’
Like, you gots to do EVERTHIN’ by yo’self!
I hear you, man!
Much love,
Aqua
Davey don’t kneed to study nuttin! He already NOs it all.
🙂
David, good true story. I’m glad word is getting out and Scn is proving everything bad said against them.
Xenu’s son, I vote your comment for the Comment of the Week prize! “… only the robots survive and even they have a hard time.”
These errors prove it all. Scientology is on a serious decline.
I dunt tink so.
You needs to improves your grammar dude.
Spelling, dude :o)
Yeah, dat to.
The bad spelling is good news. It means the Sea Org members writing this stuff are mostly ESL. That the SO members writing this shit are mostly ESL means that American kids are mostly not joining the Sea Org More good news: that the typos stay uncorrected, that texts GET PRINTED with mis-spellings means the SO doesn’t have the (literate, English-speaking) man-power to proofread this stuff!
Your write!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Aqua:
“that texts GET PRINTED with mis-spellings means the SO doesn’t have the (literate, English-speaking) man-power to proofread this stuff!”
could also be a lack of interest to get it write.
I’ve found that I’ve lost much of my proofreading ability from reading so much on the InterWebz.
Scientology compounds things by Tubby being so free and loose with alternative meanings and spellings.