Next in the ongoing series of essays by Terra Cognita. See earlier posts here: A Story, Auditing: a PC’s Quest for the Holy Grail, The Knowledge Report, Integrity, The Almighty Stat, The Reg, The Horrors of Wordclearing, Why Scientologists Don’t FSM, Respect, The Survival Rundown – The Latest Scam, Communication in Scientology… Or Not, Am I Still A Thetan?, To Be Or Not To Be, An Evaluation of Scientology, Fear: That Which Drives Scientology and Justification and Rationalization.
The Way to Happiness – Really?
Ron Hubbard compiled twenty-one precepts into a book called The Way to Happiness. Primarily printed as a pocket-sized pamphlet, TWTH is given away as means of enticing people into Scientology.
Dissemination
Luring new people into Scientology with free pamphlets is dumbed-down dissemination at best. Unfortunately for the church, it’s the best they can do these days.
LRH said books made booms. Selling copies of Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health might have gotten people excited forty or fifty years ago, but today, the church can barely give away the book. The average young person in the 21st century would no sooner read DMSMH as he would sell his Mac Book Pro for $19.95. Unless your name is J K Rowling, books from Bridge do not make booms.
Parishioners have been leery of disseminating to their family, friends, or co-workers for quite some time. There are lots of reasons for this which I won’t go into now. Suffice it to say, FSMing (being a Field Staff Member) has died.
Pulling new people in off the street for a Test Eval (via the famous 200 hundred question Oxford Capacity Analysis) is another method of dissemination that seems to have fallen on hard times. I remember when a good Div 6 reg could pull a guy’s ruin from an OCA graph in the afternoon and have him doing TR’s on the Comm Course that evening. The last staff member at my local org any good at this left long ago.
David Miscavige’s solution to dissemination was to create “ideal orgs,” in which new people would wander in off the streets, watch inspiring videos, and sign up for courses. Since DM is actually afraid of people (per standard, LRH SP tech) he designed a system of dissemination that removed human beings from the equation. We all know how that’s going. From orgs to morgues.
Effective dissemination takes hard work and lots of confront. Staff and public can be counted on for the hard work. As for the “lots of confront,” not so much. The more people learn the truth about Scientology, the harder it’s become to convince the public that the tech works. And because the church’s reputation has become so tarnished, the words Dianetics and Scientology have been omitted from the book. Deceptive practices?
If Scientologists really believed Dianetics made Clears, they’d be passing out copies of DMSMH. But since they don’t, and since their confront level has fallen so low, handing out free pamphlets is about all they can face.
Hard Sell, Soft Sell
LRH was all about hard selling Scientology. If a reg didn’t have a wad of cash in her hand by the end of the reg cycle, she was a failure—or at least a downstat. TWTH is the complete opposite of the hard sell. TWTH is the milquetoast of dissemination.
There is no softer method of pushing Scientology than handing a person an innocuous, nameless pamphlet and wishing him a good day. Giving away TWTH is only slightly higher on the scale of selling than a Christian Science Reading Room. Sad.
Not All Bad
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing inherently wrong with TWTH. Its precepts are straightforward and easy to understand. They make sense. Everyone agrees that taking care of oneself, and loving and helping children are worthwhile endeavors. It’s usually a good idea to “not murder,” and there’s nothing wrong with “flourishing and prospering.”
Nothing is groundbreaking about TWTH. Nothing is the least bit controversial. Its message is practical and sound—if not slightly insipid. It’s almost impossible to disagree with any of the precepts.
I’m not suggesting TWTH doesn’t have a purpose and can’t be used constructively. But what does it have to do with the reactive mind and ruins and spiritual development and getting to the root of what’s holding a person back in life?
TWTH is better suited as a primer for kids than for adults trying to make sense of their lives.
Stats
At most of his events, David Miscavige proudly boasts to the number of TWTH pamphlets passed out in third world countries and storm-ravaged cities (or as Degraded Being, wrote, nuked ones). We never hear, though, about what percentage of these people later walk into a Scientology church and buy something—or much less, make it upstairs to Division 4. The percentage must be staggeringly low.
In the over three decades TWTH has been out, not a single person ever crossed the threshold of my local org and started a service due to having read the booklet.
There are no hard, verifiable stats backing up the claim that TWTH makes a difference in personal lives, communities, or Colombia.
For Free?
I seem to recall LRH wrote that people didn’t value things that were free, and thus, should always be charged good money for books and services. I was taught to never give away Scientology books to friends, but to charge them full price. Apparently, a person will read a book he’s paid for, but not necessarily one he receives for free. Really?
I never embraced the concept of having to pay money for something to appreciate its value. I don’t have to own a Van Gogh or Monet to take pleasure in their brilliance. I saw both in a museum recently. Beautiful. People have passed on lots of books to me over the years that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed.
So what does this have to do with TWTH being free? Except for LRH turning over in his grave, I don’t know.
Its Own Organization
The church has distanced itself from TWTH by creating a separate organization: The Way to Happiness Foundation. As well as the negative connotations associated with Scientology, I’m sure there are legal and financial reasons for the separation.
Whatever the excuse, a person should be wary of any organization or company that’s afraid to display their name and logo in big bold letters on their products and services. Groups that have to create “back doors” into their organizations should be avoided.
Bottom Line
As a dissemination tool, The Way to Happiness is useless and is just another indicator of how far the church has fallen.
Still not Declared,
Terra Cognita
I liked The Way to Happiness booklet and I can say it helped me to some extent.
Though, I’ll admin it’s not the best tool for dissemination. It’s not tech, just a moral code with some reasoning to close you for the precepts.
Too bad LRH flunked so many of them.
But in retrospect, this booklet really was of some use for me. Regardless of who wrote it, there are some good pro-survival concepts in there.
I remember some other aspects of scientology that have been worthwhile… but I don’t believe in the Church anymore or that it will (or should for that matter) recover from its current downward spiral.
Independends will only survive if they’re willing to open their eyes to the fact how much the world has changed since the 50s, 60s and 70s. How much spiritual practice and psychotherapy (some branches of it) has evolved since then — also the field of management and administration. If the come into PT and compare their doctrines to what is “on the market” in present time they will have better chances to reach people and help them discharge, evolve and grow spiritually.
There are so many people today with a good spiritual approach. There is no need for a corporation or something like this to reach another and take him in session. Just do it if you feel like it. Leave the cult behind. You’re free.
I have difficulty following a moral code created and promoted by people or organizations that don’t follow it themselves.
Free. LRH believes no one appreciates anything that is free.
This is an interesting feedback loop. If one achieves total freedom, they are free. But then unappreciated, and so never really free.
Lines up.
In 1980, after Mary Sue Hubbard went to prison and Scientology’s reputation was at its pre-internet nadir as a result of the spectacular unraveling of the Snow White Program, L. Ron Hubbard dreamed up his little booklet of obvious maxims as the way to restore his lifelong project’s reputation. Indeed, a better name for “The Way to Happiness” might be “The Way to Make People Think Scientology is Not a Totally Creepy and Criminal Cult”.
It was a curious time for the Founder, after he went into hiding and began communicating exclusively through a few trusted contacts, a process that allowed a certain young and ambitious man named David Miscavige to exert greater and greater control over the increasingly senile and demented Hubbard. Despite the Old Man’s failing health and increasing paranoia, he still managed to pound out an astounding output of millions of more words, of which the Way to Happiness is likely the best written part. (Anyone who has had the misfortune to read Hubbard’s dreadful Mission Earth books would be familiar with the worst written part.) He also wrote some of Scientology’s most brutal policies and engraved his conspiratorial paranoia as a motivating force of his religion. The Knowledge Report policy is a product of this period, for example, along with his infamous “Pain and Sex” diatribe.
Hubbard’s writing was always hit or miss. (For me, of course, it was mostly a miss.) I find it somewhat diverting to consider some of the subtext of this anodyne little booklet. Since Christianity (and Islam) had a mere ten commandments, then obviously his better religion would have to have twenty-one, even if several of his tenets were restatements or refinements of previous ones. “Don’t Murder” and “Don’t Do Anything Illegal” apparently deserve separate treatments. The Golden Rule is the most annoying one. Only L. Ron Hubbard’s ego would justify stating it twice, as “do” and then “don’t”. We get it, Ron. Really, we do.
There are also those tenets which belie Hubbard’s true intentions, where he tried so hard to make it seem like a self-evident truth by which Good Men live. And yet, he failed. For example, “Support a good government” pretty much gives Scientologists an excuse not to support any government the management of Scientology doesn’t like. “Seek to Live with the Truth” is actually an unsubtle guide to ignore critics of Scientology. “Respect the Religious Beliefs of Others” is almost amusing in its barely concealed disdain for “men of other faiths”. Hubbard literally says, “Men without faith are a pretty sorry lot. They can even be given something to have faith in. But when they have religious beliefs, respect them.”
Just follow that through: 1) Men without faith are losers. 2) Even losers can believe in something. 3) So when they do, (**sigh**) go ahead and respect those losers and their loser beliefs.
Thanks, Ron!
Thank you from my heart for a great post.❤️
Thanks, Ann! ☺❤
Post the young Boomer era (after ’75) none of the methods listed above resulted in anything but an insignificant % of marks going on a course, much less becoming scamologists. The subject was just NEVER popular. For reasons all too obvious. TWTH was just El Cons attempt to poach lapsed Christians. Didn’t werk.
Mike, on this planet no subject trying to actually liberate people spiritually can ever become widely popular, due to the left-for-dead condition that 99% of people are in here. Socrates, for example, was executed by the world’s first democracy.
Even a fabulously effective spiritual practice would be followed by only a very small percent of the population. Every one of the major religions has esoteric practices that are searched for, found, studied, and applied by only a relative handful of its followers.
But pre-1975 Scientology WAS fairly popular among spiritually aware seekers. It wasn’t a perfect path, and didn’t totally deliver on its fantastic claims. But it DID gave large, worthwhile gains to many of us, and as a result grew organically by word-of-mouth, especially in missions. Then organizational control was emphasized over actually helping people, and that’s what brought about the subject’s decline.
Nothing in life is all good or all bad, even though bypassed charge can make it seem so.
ROFLMAO!
Spoken like the TRUEST Rob Bot.
“Take care of yourself”. One out of how many precepts that Hubbs didn’t set an example? Nice teeth buddy. Family? fucking hypocrite! TWTH is nothing but another scam to bring in marks.
Hubbard: “Smoking doesn’t cause cancer….not smoking ENOUGH causes.”
One of THE most egregious quotes I’ve ever run across. Telling people to smoke more. What a fucked thing to tell members…
Most of us already knew TWTH precepts by the time we entered grade school but sometimes it takes hearing that stuff with the full authority of a propaganda pamphlet to make it gel. If you read it on a pamphlet it must be true, right?
If “scientology” isn’t written somewhere in the material how will people know where they can go for more of that high knowledge? Of course I’m just kidding because not only are the precepts as elementary as you can get but the pamphlet offers up nothing witty, cleaver or though-provoking. Not so much as a wink. Pizazz arouses interest but there’s no pizazz in TWTH. It’s a condescending and dull read. It came out with great fanfare when I was still drinking the Kool Aid with gusto. It was very disappointing to me even then.
What we have left in scientology after the brain-drain initiated by the Finance Police, are very slow-witted people and people who are addicted to abusing others with impunity. The very stupid and the very mean. Those are the ones in whose hands a sterile little booklet is tasked with rekindling a bonfire of interest in scientology. They are the last hope for mankind. It reminds me of an ending to a Twilight Zone episode.
RIP Scientology, but would someone please bury the body. It really smells!
I’ve been trying for years to do just that…
Sometimes you can only leave out for the crows to feast upon.
Think of OSD as Super Kitty that found a giant turd on his fav beach. Bury it DEEP!
What do you think could save the Church at this point? Ideal Orgs and TWTH have failed. DM rewriting tech has failed. Are they doomed? What if DM completely disappeared, there was a complete change in leadership, and they rescinded their controversial policies like disconnection and banishment to the RPF? Do you think it would appeal to anyone then? Would any of you ex-members consider going back if they were willing to “wipe the slate clean”? I’m just curious. This is interesting to watch unfold because it’s not like a small mom & pop store going out of business. It’s more like Microsoft fighting for it’s life. It reminds me of that quote in Angels & Demons when the Catholic Cardinal said, “The church will not fall in a day”.
No and fuck no.
And really fuck no!
No not even if they paid me!
Naw… the Cof$ deserves it’s fate and needs to be disbanded and if it was an ideal world the criminal element in it would be brought to justice. The sooner it’s just a memory the better. As far as the tech goes, it’s splattered across the internet anyway, but it’s been altered and abused with lots of make believe thrown in for good measure. I have good reason to believe there are a few people out there who will keep it around more or less in it’s original form but organizationally it has failed miserably and with it’s PR history it’ll stay that way in the present and foreseeable future.
Scientology has had its day in the limelight but turned more and more criminal as time went on and shot itself in the foot as often as it could. It’s up to you what you want to do with it, if anything, take it, it’s yours. Life will mess it up if it organizes itself as a group again imo. It’s only possible lifeline is underground in small groups, get too big and it’ll implode. Whether Hubbard was ever right or wrong is beside the point, it’s completely insane and develops into a long term self destructive goal to insist all humans can be salvaged “standardly” by a single system (a money or power induced monopoly comes to mind as a reason, like other religions and politics dream of as well). The greater majority of humans don’t want to be salvaged and will fight you, bury you, then spit on your grave to prove it!
I believe you, Yawnalot. I’m just trying to wrap my head around something that HUGE failing completely. From everything I have read about CoS and DM it would seem to me that he would keep it going even if he got down to the last 10 hardcore members. I think it would take him being completely gone for it to actually go away forever. DM doesn’t strike me (no pun intended) as the personality type who would “go gently into that good night”. He is a tenacious little ankle biter with a “win at all costs” attitude
And what would happen with all that beautiful real estate they own around the world? Where would the money go if the Church was dissolved? And all of those vaults with LRH’s materials in them. Are those set in perpetuity or would they go also? And who the hell would want to buy them?
Lots of questions this issue creates.
Lawyers are circling that sinking ship biding their time, waiting with eager excitement.
Miscavige will be Miscavige as long as he has a bunker to run/hide in and mindless minions to beat up and say yes to whatever he asks/demands. But out in the real world he’s too sacred to even grab a burger at Hungry Jacks without a mountain of personal security and even then he wouldn’t do it, snipers are not only in his dreams. Pay him no due as being any sort of man. He’d shit himself if he ever go lost by himself!
If Hubbard came back today, he would jettison Scientology like frozen urine from a jet liner.
Look around at the psychics, mystics (Deepak Chopra), televangelists, rolling in dough. A keen grifter would immediately see that’s the modern way to quick riches.
Scientology has poisoned itself and Hubbard would spot that in an instant.
He had no attachment to “the tech” or “the church”, only to the money and power it brought him.
He would create something anew, which would make him scads of money, get others to do his dirty work, hypnotize his new followers, and institute a secret police with “high crimes”, snitching and revenge against real and imagined enemies.
IMO, if Hubbard came back today, he would re-write Scientology as a religion of wizards and vampires.
Because that is ‘hip’ in today’s culture.
Hubbard was a product of his time. What was popular back in the 50s and 60s? Space…..men from Mars, astronauts, the space race, putting a man on the moon.
Today we have Harry Potter, zombies and vampires (the living dead). No doubt Hubbard’s Bridge to Total Freedom would include auditing in order to survive the zombie apocalypse and instead of an E-meter you would use a wand.
A special wand that only the Co$ can sell; spells you can cast (only $5,000 per spell!), vitamins to take in case you are bitten by a vampire and/or zombie
The (monetary) possibilities are endless!
I would never go back because 1. I do not agree with all of LRH’s writings, especially policy and 2. I would never pay for religion again. 3. I would never agree to cede control over my life again to a church.
Now IF the Church of Scientology had NO control over anyone’s life and cancelled ALL ethics orders and you could just walk into a CoS with NO regging for money or interrogation on who you are, would I attend a lecture occasionally? Or sit down in their library and listen to an LRH CD? Possibly. (of course I do not live in a country with an org and probably not even a mission anymore, but I do visit countries with orgs every now and then).
But do I expect the above conditions to ever present themselves? Ha ha. GET REAL.
I cannot go back either Joe.When my heart got torn out twisted and put back inside me with the caveat: KSW at all costs.Ethics heavy handed fair game rock slam hunting make wrong endless conditions and finally brutal treatment,no I will not pass through the doors of this cult again.In another time with another person as founder it might have worked.As it is now let it all go down the drain! Miss Ann is grumpy about the entire cult today! ❤️❤️
I agree with you completely. I have gotten auditing with an independent auditor (Trey Lotz ) and it is much better the Church without all of the other baggage and extortion. LRH said that Scn would only go as far as it worked. Well, in the Church it doesn’t work any more and no one needs or wants their bullshit.
Thank you Bill for your sincere post and thank you for telling your story.All our stories form into a beautiful weave that cannot be broken.I you and many many others have had it up to here with Scientology!And really what a money sucking thetan vampire the Cult is.❤️?
Good point and I concur.
Well, let’s be fair here. Personally, I would look through the materials of both Dianetics and Scientology to see what actually worked. I would keep that and trash can all the rest. For those of you who maintain that none of it works, let me tell you that, despite the Dwarfenfuhrer and his minions, I have gotten great gains with Dianetics Book One auditing and will testify to my dying day that Dianetics does actually work. My beef is with the church and how it’s being run, not with the tech itself. I believe that, in the right hands, the tech, well, that part of it that actually works, can be of benefit to mankind.
No need to testify alcoboy. And that is completely useless anyway. Dianetics is perfectly worded to undergo real scientific testing. Now, El Con COULD have done that and IF it REALLY worked it would be being used today out side of scamology.
However, it wouldn’t stand up to such tests…
Like I said , in my case, it DID work! Boy, Mike! You are the ultimate in axe grinders!
A personal story is not considered scientific proof. I want scientific proof that it works. You can’t provide me with anything more than anecdotal evidence.
Dianetics and Scientology need to end up on the trash heap of history.
I take it that you also want scientific proof for the existence of God. Keep waiting cause it ain’t going to happen. God doesn’t work that way. The point being is that sometimes knowledge comes through personal experience. You can’t always sit around and wait for the scientists to pronounce something unless that is whom you put your trust in. In that case, science becomes like religion.
As a scientist and an atheist, yes, I would want scientific proof. I had enough of the other stuff growing up Catholic.
Your argument still falls apart. Scientology wants it both ways. It wants to be a religion with scientific certainty (“Standard Tech works 100% of the time when applied standardly”, a statement which does NOT incorporate “personal experience” into its platitudes). Therefore, it must meet the standards of both science and religion. It fails miserably on both. I prefer to concentrate on the scientific failures, not only because it provides many more lulz, but because I don’t believe that humans are spiritual beings.
And you’ve proven you have no experience of a scientific education. Why don’t you get your ass into a lab and participate in an experiment proving something you’ve only seen presented mathematically, like I did in college? That’s knowledge through personal experience, not your idiotic “I HAD WINZ” crap that you shovel out.
alcoboy, what “worked”? It did what? The old scamology phrase, “it werked” is meaningless. Per El Con, the end result of Dianetics is a “clear” that has all those super human abilities he listed over the years. So, “it werked” would mean you gained those abilities. Otherwise, “it DIDN’T werk.”
So, show those abilities or expect rational people to look at you like a turd in the ballroom.
Mike, LRH did oversell the results he was getting from 1947 on. But that doesn’t mean that people weren’t helped. Scientology was and (outside of the Church) still is a subject under research and development. Condemning it because it hasn’t yet fully attained its postulated goals is ridiculous. Was Henry Ford a failure because 1925 Model T’s weren’t 2016 Ferrari’s?
Was Henry Ford a failure because his 1925 Model T wasn’t a Ferrari? Hopefully you won’t hesitate to acknowledge the false analogy you’re offering. Mr. Ford never claimed his car was anything other than what it was. Nor was it sold on false promises. It isn’t that scientology didn’t work quite as well as Hubbard claimed, it is that the claims were deliberate LIES. They were reported as actual observed results! They were no such thing.
I’m perfectly willing to explore the possibility metered interview therapy can have positive effects particularly in people who have debilitating memories of a traumatic event. I often hear people talk about their scientology “wins” and that they’ve been helped and that the ‘tech’ worked for them. What I never hear is exactly HOW they were helped and exactly what they got out of it that makes them think it ‘works’. Instead people allude to “gains” but shy away from stating explicitly what those gains are. The reason for this I think is when described, those gains sound at lot like the natural process of growing wiser with age and navigating more skillfully through life.
Something I find disheartening is how educated adults in technologically advanced societies can continue to think the man who said, “Energy consists of postulated particles in space” is a reliable source of information.
Honestly,I am really happy Dianetics worked for you.If all my auditing in SO had been properly done,perhaps I would feel differently.Yet even today when I read or hear pick up the cans I am filled with dread.Sec-checking will do that to a girl!Thank you for your posts.❤️
I’m sorry to hear that, Ann. I do agree that there is something rotten in the Denmark known as the Church of Scientology. I really feel bad thatbyou had that experience. Thanks for your posting.
You are very welcome.Thank you for your response.❤
If they paid me damages I might make a showing, scoop up my kids and run. That’d be fun ♥
Go back to an insane, damaging mind control regimen (the bridge)? Are you F’ING out of your gord Skorp?
It depends on who you ask, Mike W. LOL
I was just wondering because I have been reading stories from ex-members for years. You have people that hate it, some say the Tech works but the Church doesn’t, and some sound as if they really miss it. If the Church was to completely refurbish itself (including leadership) it sounds like some would consider going back.
Of course Skorp. P.T. Barnum was correct so a certain % would go back.
If TWTH was published by anybody else it would be credible
The Christians gave it a pretty good shot way before the ‘tech’.
Post o’ the Day I Yawn
I’d like to know the backstory on how TWTH came about. I’m sure it wasn’t “LRH was inspired to write a moral code”.
Chances are that it was the result of some eval that indicated Scn or LRH needed a boost or to counter the (accurate) public perception that it was/is an immoral operation.
I think someone mentioned to LRH that he should have taken care of his teeth when he was younger as they suck now and it made him realize that everyone should brush their teeth.
He didn’t write it but just approved it and no doubt made a few changes.
I wish they would abide by it though. Like respecting your parents. Maybe we wouldn’t have disconnection.
If someone wanted to disseminate today, it would seem to make sense to use the techniques that worked the best when Scientology was expanding the fastest, which was the late 60’s and early 70’s.
In those days many people did come in after reading DMSMH. And the Personality Test did work pretty well when “evals” were done with the Auditor’s Code in.
But by far the most successful technique was simply to give wins quickly to people already “in the shop” on the original Comm Course (real TRs 0-4 not STCC) and/or intro auditing (Life Repair). They’d naturally share their wins with their friends, who’d then come in to get similar gains for themselves. Most winning pc’s would also get on auditor training to save money through co-auditing.
This was very simple and straightforward, and worked well. Volume outflow of some sort was also essential, but no gimmicks were required — just basic tech and a sincere desire to help others.
Today the field is fatally muddied, and Dianetics and Scientology are “broken brands,” due to the accumulation of bypassed charge from decades of out-tech auditing that didn’t give wins, and low-toned “handlings” of that by organizations.
This, of course, raises the question of how well “standard tech” actually works. There is a whole spectrum of opinions on this issue. My own opinion is that (a) the basic principles on which the tech is based are true, (b) LRH didn’t finish perfecting the application of those principles through the tech, (c) he erred in not letting certain other important researchers help him, and (d) the potential workability of any tech is limited by the tone level of the auditor, C/S, MAA, etc. delivering it.
Our real challenge is sorting this out so we can move forward once again giving people wins on a broad scale. Then dissemination will solve itself.
Two Cents … my two cents on Scientology “rising again” as it did in the late 60s and 70s (I was body routed in in Aug of 1970 when I was 19 and joined staff and stayed for 35 years) is that there are two viable possibilities: (but in NO way in the way it did 45 years ago)
1) There is always Asia where half the population of Earth is and hardly anyone has ever heard of Scientology and is not affected by the current PR scene. If the right cultural approaches are made in the various nations of Asia and it is made affordable, who knows.
BUT the more likely possibility is (if there indeed even IS a possibility):
2) Somewhere between 100 – 200 years from now (when the current CoS is essentially gone, and that includes almost all the real estate as well as no parishioners) … when there is no longer any real existing fallout from the PR of today … and some very respected and greatly admired world wide celebrity discovers SOME LRH stuff that he/she really likes and has had some huge wins and begins to disseminate … and people start to look into it and maybe co-audit on SA lists or do TRs or really get into the ARC Triangle … and there are NO orgs to enforce ANY LRH “policy” …. then I think what we think of as “scientology” would have a chance to be studied and applied, in a very free way for people to use as they wish and have whatever wins they might have. Heck, in 150 years, you might get 20 – 50 million people or more to get interested in it and use it IF the above opinion leader actually appears as I note.
Joe, I basically agree with you, but I also think there will be lineages of individual practitioners who take on apprentices. Most of those lineages will die out over time, but hopefully some will keep going long enough to be there when your opinion leader messiah appears.
The story of Hui-neng is instructive. He was an illiterate janitor in the monastery of Hongren, the 5th Patriarch of Zen Buddhism in China around 600 AD. Hongren surprised everyone by choosing this janitor to be the 6th Patriarch, over Shen-hsui, the head monk who ran the monastery administratively and who everyone had assumed would be Hongren’s successor in tech as well. But even though Hui-neng wasn’t even officially a monk, he’d somehow “gotten it” about the essence of Hongren’s teaching. Zen in China split into two branches over this, with the Emperor backing Shen-hsui. But within three generations all the lineages emanating from Shen-hsui died out, while those emanating from Hui-neng flourished. Today 100% of Zen in the world can be traced back to janitor Hui-neng.
Scientology got in trouble when admin was elevated above tech, and tech was degraded from a path to enlightenment to a path to mest-being power and success.
My 2 Cents, that would ONLY work if you have the SAME demographic to dissem to. Young Boomers. You don’t so it would be a complete bust. The same reason why it STOPPED working by the mid-70’s. Boomers were growing up,
Mike, I agree that the 1965-1975 environment of the Young Boomers was very conducive to the emergence and growth of alternative religious, philosophical, and psychotherapeutic paths. But Scientology’s slowdown was also date-coincident with Sea Org admin dominating and suppressing high-toned tech delivery in several important ways. See the story of Hui-neng in my answer to Joe above.
No 2 cents. SO missions were running rampant by the late 60’s early 70’s. The slow down happened later.
But hey, if you want to provide the extraordinary proof for an extraordinary claim/theory it is “easy”. Just start an org/group/mission (don’t worry, the church doesn’t care anymore) and it should boom if you do what you say. And, per EL Con, you’ll be providing a good living to lots of staff.
NO ONE today has been able to do that. When I’ve asked Indies across the US about this lack they have one name they can point to. And that is a lone field auditor with a hand full of PC’s after 40 years in practice.
Let me know when done.
Mike, I personally experienced both the tech and the organization from 1968 on. In those early days most people got in through missions, not orgs, and Sea Org influence on missions was next to nonexistent before 1975. After that it ramped up rapidly and destructively.
I agree that Scientology’s terrible PR image would be a fatal obstacle today. Therefore the subject would have to be corrected and repackaged under a new name. Even then it would grow very slowly.
But plenty of people today participate in psychotherapy, new age practices, and the search for enlightenment. A post-Scientology corrected and re-organized subject that gave real wins could be made to appeal to them.
That’s not to say that it would ever save the whole planet. But it could be help a lot of us.
And by the way, there are a lot more viable Indie and post-Indie field auditors than just one.
Yes, yes, yes. Like I said, Let me know when done.
So if all religions–including Buddhism–are false doesn’t that disqualify LRH from being the reincarnation of The Buddha?
He was the new and improved Buddah…you know, the one who smoked constantly…
How Kool.
FOTFLMAO! You are sooooooo clever!
It’s impossible for anyone to be the reincarnation of the historical Buddha. When the Buddha reached Enlightenment the cycle of birth and death (Samsara) ended for him. It’s the same for any Buddhas (enlightened beings). The best LRH could hope for is to come back as a reincarnated Pope. LOL
Lebates,
You could be correct. All religions are an implant played on 20 foot tape on an endless loop.
I want to know who did that and what they believed in which for sure was not on the 20 foot tape
Lots of people claim to be Buddha,Jesus, the Devil and on and on. What is one to do.
TWTH is window dressing – lipstick on a pig. When I was offered one outside an org a poor inmate pointed out an introductory dedication that said something like “we are giving this to you because we love you”. I pointed out that if they lived up to 10% of this credo I would respect them, but it is nothing more than a cheap recruitment tool. I asked her to think of a page number and I opened it up to that page and started reading. It is never difficult to pick a spot where the COS just doesn’t “walk the walk”. When I point out the irony they are shocked that I would think that way about one of their sacred cows.
The famous video of Marty Rathbun being “greeted” by Scio-goofs in LAX and being asked by the worst of the goofs — the camera-fumbling Squirrel Chaser — “where is your way to happiness program Marty”. The SC has a mean and very unhappy look of hatred in his face that tells it all. Speaking of Marty I feel sorry for him and wish him real peace and happiness in whatever he is going through.
Thank you tony-b for a descriptive image of how TWTH gets those bodies in the shop in under 10 seconds all around the earth and reduces crime to zero! I do not want any person to suffer their demons or whatever is chasing them.But I also believe in the truth and I know what my truth means after giving it up to Ron.My truth now is what keeps me going each day.I wanted to tell my Sea Org story and help others along their path if I could.I have found true friends here and elsewhere.For that my heart will always be thankful ang grateful.❤️
Edit,and grateful.
Ann B. Watson, Your warm welcome and comments with love make you such a welcome voice at this table of the curious and previously damned.
Having been previously damned and now having discovered that total freedom means leaving the cherch, I am grateful to be here.
I always liked TWTH. Having co-audited it and it being my first free auditing, I luxuriated in it. I poked along, rarely had an out rud, and ignored or laughed at the squirrelly mid question which asked if a withhold had been missed.
Me and my twin knew it was BS without ever saying it to each other out loud. We also had no compunction about running, jumping etc to get our metabolism read. Or a strategic squiggly body motion or laughter to get that blow down and F/N. If the meter didn’t give us what we needed when that cognition had been given, we’d have unspoken secret code, like “anything else on that?” Body motion, blow down, indicate the F/N. Everybody happy.
If we’d been video taped, we’d have gotten busted. As it was we had fun, got listened to and acknowledged and reflected on good ideas, like not killing people as a solution.
I wouldn’t throw that baby out with the bathwater, but I don’t think it is amazing either.
What’s amazing is the Internet and daily conversations with like minded, or interestingly argumentative people who share the Way to Happiness which is the Way Out of the Cherch!
I love love your words.Yup I am a previously damned and I am really pleased to be such.To me it means we are hitting a main nerve.Thank you so for your kind words.Does me a ton of Good.❤️❤️❤️
Oh really? Then how do you explain the 80% drop in crime rate in Columbia after TWTH booklets were widely distributed? I rest my case.
Strangely this was only ever reported by scientology, no one else seemed to notice this massive drop in crime, I’d be interested to see what evidence there is for this claim.
I’m guessing none…
Actually I just got some promo hot off the presses from Flag. My figure of 80% was incorrect. Please note that TWTH has incredibly been responsible for a 137% decrease of the crime rate as of this date in Columbia.
Dave though is not satisfied. And why should he be? He’s going for 200%! Go Dave go!
Wow! The Tech really does work!
The evidence is confidential, scribed on titanium plates and buried in New Mexico. But for a couple of mil we’ll arrange a viewing but you can’t touch it. OK?
The death of Pablo Escobar. I rest my case.
LOL –
in Cities across the Globe – the very rare and few Scientologist’s left in the “Church” have tens of thousands of WTH booklets clogging up their basements, garages and torage areas …sitting there…rotting and collecting dust and yet…
Crime is all around them and especially rampant within their own CHURCH!
They are so “clear” they can’t see.
“They are so clear they can’t see.” I like it!
Thank you Terra again for deconstructing TWTH.I think that pamphlet came in a little before I blew or just after in 78.I so agree that handing this masterpiece to a never in is not exactly regging as I knew it.Some of the little sayings in that missive have value,I guess many religions or systems can print up sayings that make sense.What still gets me in a snit big time is that underneath all cos’s help for mankind etc lies the three very thick and wide planks titanium carved with the words,disconnection,fair gaming and KSW are the foundation of the cult.Those mindsets can only disappear when one breaks free and sees.Thank you from my heart for your pieces.❤️?❤️
What has crashed the stats of Scientology is knowledge. Knowledge of its true nature. Knowledge of the true nature of the OT levels. Knowledge of the true nature of L Ron Hubbard.
And for that we can thank Madman or Messiah, Piece of the Blue Sky and Barefaced Messiah.
But the crown goes to the Internet. The Internet is the great equalizer that eats secrets for breakfast.
It is possible that David Miscavige is not the source of the destruction of Scientology.
He is just a symptom of a philosophy that worships power and money.
What has killed Scientology is that the Internet has pulled back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz; directly perceiving Scientology’s true nature.
With the Internet, we can all do private research. So it is knowledge that is and has killed Scientology.
The names L Ron Hubbard and Scientology are forever identified with infamy because they deserve to be.
Deception and manipulation to acquire money and power will always be equated with evil, no matter the stated intention of doing good.
To sum it up simply:
L Ron Hubbard destroyed Scientology. He did it by:
1) lying to us
2) lying to the public
3) teaching about the value of the 2d and then betraying every friend and family member that was close to him; being a hypocrite
4) teaching about not being promiscuous then hitting on women on the Apollo; being a hypocrite
5) wanting to own and take over the entire planet; meglomania
6) saying being motivated by money was a low motive then having suite cases of cash to secret off shore accounts while Sea Org lived in squalor; being a hypocrite.
7) OT 3………………… the revelation of this on the Internet is probably one of the greatest PR disasters for Scientology; the truth will set you free.
8) Fair Game, Bolivar, The GE is a Family Man, The Fourth Invaders, time dating from trillions of years down to seconds but can’t remember what we ate a month ago, Marcabs, Farsec, make an E-Meter hooked up to line current so I can kill myself, The Role of Earth, Mars implant stations, Venus implant stations, Ron’s trip to Heaven, Ron on the Van Allen Belt, Ron as Buddha but is a mood swinging angry asshole, against drugs but has a cabinet full of drugs per Otto Roose, lies about his naval career, lies about making movies in Hollywood etc etc etc etc etc etc
What has killed Scientology is the truth.
David Miscavige could have been Mother Theresa and the downfall would still have happened.
That is because Scientology is L Ron Hubbard.
HIs mind, his deception, his motive, his delusive and insightful writings, his energy, his creation.
On some level it was fitting that David Miscavige took over.
If L Ron Hubbard really cared about the future of the planet and the well being of its inhabitants he would have spent the last years of his life preparing for his leaving the body.
He would have worked day and night to secure a fitting successor.
He would have written something for us to cherish when he did die. Something, anything to encapsulate our common purpose and hard work.
What he did at the end was write another book and obsess over BTs and died in seclusion as a madman.
Think about it.
David Miscavige could have been ( ~~Mother Theresa~~ ) incredibly good and kind and the downfall would still have happened.
FTFY. It seems like you were trying to say that if DM was good it still would have went bad. Just to clarify since Mother Theresa was most definitely not a good person.
That said, i agree with the rest of what you wrote. DM is an appropriate leader for LRH’s work. In fact, i would not be the least bit surprised if it turned out that Ron made a video confession that he made it all up and was just trying to get $$$ and that DM saw it. It would explain why he doesn’t practice it himself.
Well, ok, i would be somewhat surprised. The honesty such a confession would entail is something the dear leader lost the capability for long, long ago.
jmsr
“…Parishioners have been leery of disseminating to their family, friends, or co-workers for quite some time…”
It’s all Hubbard’s fault.
He made the Scientology close-mouthedness rules.
So the outsiders have to explain the Xenu story and the “body thetan” problem all earthlings suffer.
Hubbard’s rules cause these continuing countless major problems that the Scientologists are stuck with.
The outside world bypasses Scientology’s followers lack of telling the full story of Scientology theory.
Scientology is a LIE so to blame it on anyone is more delusion
Blaming a lie on a liar is reasonable. Don’t you think?
Lies don’t happen by themselves.
Agree Brian. Scientology is a lie – told by liars. No one in has ever met a clear but they are so blinded by their own faith – they believe their own lies.
So much for the “science” of Scientology
It is “FAITH” just like every other religion
With the horrible PR that SCN has created for itself, Scientologists are about as motivated to inform their friends that they are part of this “church” as someone from The FLDS would. I believe that DM understands this and doesn’t even care anymore as they are no longer about “new people in” or WDAH, the church is only about draining its existing public of every cent they have to buy buildings. SCN has transformed into a large real estate investment firm.
I often wondered why the church aren’t seriously going after its critics like they used to in the past. I get the feeling that DM doesn’t really care that the word Scientology is toxic and the ideal mOrgs are empty. As long as their real estate holdings are increasing in value. It’s hard to sue a building or put it behind bars.
CPO, even back in the early 80s, all staff & public were told NOT to use the word, Scientology, because it had become so toxic. We were told to say, “SCN.” Imagine casually bringing up Scientology now!
Ironic that Hubbard’s innocuous, if insipid “moral precepts” are not part of Scientology.
There’s more wisdom to be found in a fortune cookie, though.
Far more wisdom in a fortune cookie. You could go clear just reading your fortune…
The Cookie Monster might have something to say about that!
Oh, I’d share, but not the fortune…
$cientology does not help people find the way to happiness. Instead, it is:
THE WAY TO BANKRUPTCY
and other unpleasant things.
How right you are, I still shudder at how close we came to this unhappy end while I was involved with scientology.
visitor – well said. Scientology is also “the way to divorce, foreclosure and shattered lives”
“…the way to divorce, foreclosure & shattered lives.”
And death by lung cancer…
Just like I never had any interest in LRH’s fiction, I completely ignored TWTH. OK, not really COMPLETELY. When I was at ASHO doing conditions and the MAA couldn’t think something to do on some of steps on liability for certain dynamics, it was to buy some TWTH and pass them out on Hollywood Blvd to people who look down and out (I guess some perceived risk involved).
Honestly, TWTH seemed pretty much like a nothing to me. But I guess there might be countries in Africa or Asia (where I live) where it might resonate and get some people a wee bit interested enough to come into the org. Who knows. But basically, who in the West is gonna come into a Church of Scientology off of a TWTH? I bet just a handful over the years, if that many.
Joe if you didn’t have any interest in any of hubs fiction then Scientology itself wouldn’t hold any interest because it is definitely fiction. LOL
I think that TWTH is one of those fundamental things that has a lot of value. As a dissemination tool, probably not, but I was told that the renowned basketball coach, Phil Jackson would give it to his Lakers players at the beginning of each season (could be BS). While its precepts to many of us seem obvious, I was surprised by the reaction of some Crimanon students, some years ago. They found these life changing. With the Scientology body of material in general, we have to be cautious about throwing the baby out with the bath water. I wish there was a Scientology “editor in the sky”, who would distill out those things like the ARC triangle, tone scale, dynamics, etc, which have constructive value and remove them from a Scientology connection, because regardless of the true source of these things they are great stuff.
I totally see your point. Personally after reading the precept: DO NOT MURDER and BRUSH YOUR TEETH my life was totally changed. The murder rate went down dramatically in my neighborhood after having this revelation and my teeth are no longer falling out. Thanks Ron!
Oh I forgot. Yes I would want others to have the wisdom I’ve gained.
You mean the, “Walking out the door” tech?
The baby is dead and the bath water is rancid. Throw it out – baby and all!!
Hi Dave R,
“…..because regardless of the true source of these things they are great stuff”
The true source of TWTH = 10 Commandments. For some of them, Hubbard did not even bother to change the number (5 for example, Honor your Mother and Father in the 10 Commandments version)
Hubbard was not the first to discuss any of the ‘good’ stuff so there is no need to edit his work. You can just go back to the original.
Xenu, the supreme ROO-lah is all Hubbard’s. He can keep that one.
Love you Chee,thank you for a sunny comment for Sunday!?❤️
I remember, after watching the Hollywood Christmas Parade one year, seeing Hollywood Blvd as a slip-and-fall hazard zone, due to the terrazzo sidewalk being strewn with discarded way to happiness booklets.
Perhaps a new stat should be created: “Average number of seconds WTH booklets that are handed out are kept in the hands of passers by.”
That said, I think the booklet is great as a stand-alone work, a statement of moral values that most people learn from their parents and the culture in which they grow up.
Yet not everyone learns these things. Of The Ten Commandments, the first three are irrelevant to non Christians and the rest are fine but incomplete as far as getting along in our modern world. So the WTH does have a value to many people who simply weren’t taught these things or never had the subject all pulled together for them.
It’s ironic that the purpose of TWTH was always as a route into the church, and as a PR move by LRH in the wake of the FBI raids and trials, yet this otherwise fine little book has been devalued to near zero in the minds of so many due to its not-so-easy-to-hide association with Scientology, a thoroughly destroyed brand. The WTH was supposed to make people think better of Scientology but its that association that makes people think poorly of TWTH without actually reading it.
Going to my dictionary to make sure I understand the word. Got it!
????????: /inˈsanədē/
noun
doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result. For more details, see ????? ?????????
insanity is defined as a mental illness and disease of the mind. It isn’t insane to do the same thing over and over, or it would be insane for scientists to repeat experiments multiple times, or an athlete to keep attempting the same action over and over and over again without success until finally, he succeeds. No dictionary has that as the definition. I’ve heard that saying attributed to Einstein at times, but that’s been debunked, he did not say that, it’s an internet saying that for some silly reason has caught on. Please don’t take this personally, I’m not attacking you, just the “definition” of insanity.
As for Miscavige, he probably doesn’t really care if people practice Scientology, as long as the flow of money keeps coming in.
I found the Way to happiness publication very off putting, it was exactly the sort of thing you would expect a crackpot organization to be handing out and very much reminds me of the free publications given to you by Jehovah’s Witnesses if you are stupid enough to answer the door to them in the first place.
The booklet was a fantastic excuse to screw the public out of even more money as they charged you about $1 a copy, I did ask one time why we were expected to pay for something which is printed in house and given away to unwiling recipients, needless to say no answer was forthcoming.
Another factor of this ridiculous publication I found deeply disappointing was the ‘happiness rundown’ though skeptical I did approach this with the idea it might genuinely improve something in my life, it didn’t and was just another nail in the scientology coffin for me. If you could apply advertising standards of practice to scientology I’m not sure much, if any of it, would pass as it always falls short of the hype.
Good observation. I know the story of about 2000 people who came into scientology.
Not saying it is 0 but in my sample it was an absolute full flat 0.And I was looking out to find one.
About 15% came from tests although that started dropping off badly in the end seventies and really went south in the eighties.
From my memory in a well-run div6 it took 200 evaluated tests to produce 10 signups. Of the 10 signups 1 or maximum 2 continued.
The fsm line was incomparably better. Especially partners and family worked fabulously.
Friends too.
If the person had heard bad things about scientology it was in my opinion close to impossible to get them to move. Family and partners being an exception.
As a scientologist in 2016 it is suicidal to disseminate. People do not even have to Google it anymore. So being a disseminating scientologist is a total loser game these days.
You dissem, they laugh at you and start asking all kinds of uncomfortable questions.
The imagine if you take someone in they get robotic indifferent arrogant service in an empty course room. Nothing gets young people to disappear faster than not seeing other young people.
The frantic regges and recruiters jump on the fresh meat like vultures further freaking the person out.
The old OT geezers instead of blasting trough the universe moving planets out of their orbit are moving into wheelchairs and assisted living facilities.
Stick a fork in it.Scientology is done.
Space Cootie, you had me laughing about the old OT geezers in their wheelchairs. How true.
SCN public has indeed turned into OT geezers and 2nd and 3rd generation Kool-Aid drinkers. One has to feel sorry for both groups being led around by their noses with DM tugging away and regges picking their pockets and retirement/inheritance money.
The last time I was ever in an Ideal Org or Mission (it was an Ideal Mission actually in the year 2000 in Elizabeth, NJ) someone told me about the place, I went there ONLY to pick up a book from whoever was there that I had seen on TV, rather than travel all the way to Barnes and Noble. The mission hold called me up, invited me to an open house to first see a video and then listen to a guest speaker. 3 people (public) including myself showed up, the rest of the people (5 at most) were all Org staff/public. I never got the book I ordered. The mission holder called me on the phone at home to tell me he wasn’t delivering it to me. 3 Years later he came out to my house, with another Scientologist, to disrupt the peace at my address. I had to call the police to remove him, which they did, and later filed a complaint against him in court and to my knowledge I have never seen or heard from him since. Someone at Bridge Publications in Los Angeles had to send me a copy of the book I bought because the mission holder in Elizabeth (Bruce Dobin – OT VIII) refused saying that I was a “f*****g a*****e” as the reason why. He was later threatened by Bridge over why he did not send me my book. After I got the copy from Bridge, he sent me the copy I ordered from him 6 weeks before with a threatening letter attached to it stating I must return the extra copy I got from Bridge of the book because of his actions to him in Elizabeth through the mail at my expense and that in addition I was never welcome at his mission again or to communicate with anyone there.
Most people would find this hard to believe, but the Way To Happiness is living with the truth is it not? I ordered a book for $35.00 from the Mission via the Mission holder Bruce Dobin and the above is the result of that sale. Not a thing transpired other than my making a phone call to leave a message regarding the status of my book delivery after I had not received it around the 3rd week. What would be the point in lying. That Mission is now closed, forcibly shut down by Int Base Finance Police. It never re-opened.
Is that the Way to Happiness?
OMG Lawrence.. These are the stories that sound so unbelievable that you don’t doubt for one second.. thanks for sharing.. Baby
It is almost too good to be true for anyone looking for facts to communicate about the church:
Step 1: Buy a book from a mission holder.
Step 2. Mission holder starts fist fight.
Step 3. Call police on the mission holder.
Step 4. Shut down the mission.
Did anybody miss anything here? 🙂
Nope! Sign me up!
Believe every word you just said, Bruce Dobin has always been an a**hole. I guess now he is more of one being an “OT VIII” and all, hmmmm.
This is a BOOK we’re talking about here, right? In what kind of nutso-turvy world does all this mishugas transpire over buying a book? If I want a book, I go to Amazon for 2 minutes, and 2 days later it’s in my mailbox. Scientology has so much to give, by way of side-splitting laughter.
Thank you, good points Terra Cognita.
To use TWT as a ‘dissemination tool’ was the front lie, with all the fan fare and PR that could be used, so it would be accepted by parishioners and staff.
But, with Scn dissemination one has to look behind the PR, so it seems that TWT was another way to get money. As you well noted ,if Scn leaders were really dedicated to do something good for another individual, this booklet could be given away for free to 1,000s and 1,000s.
Creating a Foundation is like the tunnels El Chapo (big Narco guy) deviced between Mexico and USA to funnel millions of dollars, and so does Scn leader, use any menas of ‘dissemination’ to funnel his millions towards himself.