Flying fish?
There has got to be a connection between this quote, joining staff and a flying fish… I know I am just not seeing it, but it is probably obvious.
IAS United for Nepal
The ONLY thing they are “united” about is getting as much money out of you as they can.
Money, money, money….
It’s always and only about the money.
Inglewood
Same old pics of the same old white people at this “cultural center in the heart of the African American community.”
Food, glorious food…
But still, it’s all about the money.
Come for the tacos stay for the fleecing.
Moneywinds
Nothing says abundance, prosperity, energy and “moving up the bridge” (the most common scientology euphemisms for money) like the Freewinds. When it comes to the Freewinds, they never talk “OT” they only talk money.
Speaking of money…
Quinn the Eskimo has landed and the crass level instantly goes out the roof.
And status fever is catching on in sleepy Albuquerque. Not only that, he got FOUR times the fun. They used to just announce your highest status. Now is a double twofer. And a rather tired Tom Cruise reference… Wonder if he is destined to become the Royal Governor of the Vast Skies of New Mexico. Quinn seems to love these titles. And more unfortunately, so do the marks that turn over their cash.
Relationships can be better…
So long as you don’t go anywhere near a scientology organization and risk having your family split asunder by the non-existent disconnection non-policy.
Accelerate?
That assumes it is moving.
Congressional Briefing
Maybe someone in DC can trot along and see what sort of turnout they get.
Hooked on heroin
Someone in the CofS is hooked on heroin. It’s the new Prozac.
Seattle ideal org
This is the reality of the “Day” and “Fdn” ideal org in Seattle. About 20 staff each. And they think it is amazing they are in the “top 10” orgs in the world.
Tells you what the other 126 are like…
Seriously?
Michael Roberts is going to lecture people on how to be on top of your game?
He hasn’t even done a VO for a cheesy Fox bomb show.
He does not appear to act at all.
Perhaps his “game” is getting money from others for a commission? And that is what he is going to brief them all on….
Get ’em while they’re young…
Tampa SH Size
I assume from this that Tampa is already well beyond SH Size? And they are a “model ideal org.”
So where are all the Missions, Narconons, Applied Scholastics groups? Where is any evidence they even exist outside the minds of a few scientologists? Never see them on the news? Never see them DOING anything. They are having as much impact on Tampa Bay as Kim Jong Un, but are less well known.
Portland is rocking it…
Really, this is the best they could do?
I wonder if birds swim also?
Posters of happy children brought to you by the church who ordered hundreds of abortions for young sea org women.
Hi Ann, so sad about the Sea Org nursery. It’s pretty disgusting. I see kids who were born into the Sea Org to S.O. parents as a different situation than public. I’m glad that there are no more S.O. nurseries and kiddie orgs today and that people who get pregnant in the S.O. are routed out. It’s the best thing for the children and parents too. It even provides a way for people to get out of the Sea Org, providing that they want to be a parent, of course.
I used to be KA but even then I disliked the underhanded and dishonest tactics used by the SO recruiters. I especially didn’t like the way they would prey on minors and teens. They attach themselves like leeches to the kids and do not leave them alone until they relent. They run guilt trips on them. They lie like a rug to them. It was always immoral and wrong to me, yet so much a part of the culture within the Church of Scientology.
I have no problem with an adult who wants to join the S.O. but a huge one with a minor or even a teen. It’s predatory. It also puts the kid at risk for so many other things too. I could go on and on, and on.
There are a few topics that always get me riled up: Sea Org recruitment of children, Disconnection and estrangement of families, and the IAS Fraud & Scam are probably my top three.
Regarding Suri Cruise, I think that as long as she has her Mom looking out for her, she will come into her adulthood safely and will never go into the Sea Org. Katie Holmes knows very well what she’s dealing with and is making sure that there will not be a repeat of Nicole Kidman losing her two kids, thanks to being in the CoS. Tom will not win on this one.
Hi Pepper, Thank you for your post.You are a wonderful person with a great perspective.Love your posts.XO Ann B.
The current state of Scientology: So jacked up, even the fish know enough to blow.
“Accelerating our drive for planetary clearing”
Well, I’ll give them that one, they really are doing that. But someone really ought to work up enough confront to tell COB the car is in reverse.
Hi Pepper,Your post on SO kids is so chilling.Thank you for pointing out what you did.It is hard for me to wrap my head around drink parties to recruit young teens.When I was in any SO that had kids knew they would go straight to the children’s org I think it was on Melrose but I could be wrong.Mostly tiny babies & kids under 10 there & they went to pumpkin school & apple school.On holidays or their birthdays SO parents would go see them there or on a very special occasion might bring them by Asho d&f.Awhile back I wrote that I spent hours cleaning that org & it was absolutely disgusting.A lot of us with no kids were shocked @ the conditions.We felt really bad for the kids.That is why Jenna’s book & Spanky’s ordeal really opened my eyes.The Commodore’s Messenger Org sent terminals to Asho quite frequently & Mike could tell me if my old brain is correct,but they seemed more on purpose & could laugh & joke about things.But you know I was sucking that Kool Aid so that was distorted into being a good thing as well.I am happy that Katie H got out with Suri,who is cute,but in terms of her upbringing they have never had to worry about $.What bothers me with her is when she turns 18 will TC & David Miscavige come after her to join SO & help them save the few tatters of cos.Creepy.XO Always Ann B
Hi Espiando,Thank goodness you are not leaving! I never know what you will post,you are like my favorite Tobasco Sauce on this blog.XO Ann B.
Freewinds tour: “How do you increase your imagination “muscle”?”
I don’t know, but I do get a lot of spam on that subject.
Hi Rick Mycroft, The one thing that came to me on imagination muscle,was that when I joined the SO my mind & imagination were muscled out of existence & replaced by Kool Aid & bs.Take Care Ann B.
Do fish fly?
Do birds swim?
There is both beauty and ugliness in this world. David Miscavige, you are the ugliest I’ve seen.
Hi John,Thank you for this.He makes anything I thought ugly before seem not so much when compared to him.Beauty is what I strive for.At 63 my priorities change & I let a lot of junk that used to get me before melt away.I’m still working on some reactions from SO but this blog really really helps.XO Ann B.
I think I know how they are going to clear the planet after so many years, promises, spectacles (even if it’s only as splashy flyer) , money spent (shoved down a rat hole), etc. etc. etc. …. world population is declining ( http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762181.html ) soooo if they wait long enough, with their every dwindling staff they might just get there. Of course by that time that flying fish will probably have evolved, having exerted control over themselves and their environment, grown legs, arms, webbed hands. Lungs? who needs lungs they can just built underwater cities (you know, global warming and all – ala Sponge Bob Square Pants), etc.
And as such be rushing to Freewinds begging for tech and orgs and ideal orgs, etc. (of course it will be interesting dealing with an e-meter underwater, I’m sure they’ll figure that one out)
But see Mike . . . it’s easy to figure out!
damn, I think I’m a better science fiction writer than LRH
If you google Dave Childers in Albuquerque, there’s an article about a woman who got bilked out of $90,000 by a phoney contractor named…Dave Childers. I guess we now know where the status came from.
You need more than just a matching name…
I never claimed to be an internet sleuth, and I may have made a rash assumption that the only Dave Childers who popped up in Albuquerque was in this story, but I’ve never met a contractor who talked like this:
“Actually, what you want to do is get the facts straight,” Childers said in a recorded phone call. “I never took anyone’s money so I don’t know where you got that data from, but it’s absolutely false.”
A David Childers also wrote this little jewel to the editor of the Journal News. While no connection to the presumed fraud story,I think you will agree that this is your dude:
“False science of psychiatry hurts vets
I KEEP HEARING that our military are still under treatment years after they were started with a psychiatrist.
Obviously, the psychiatric solution of giving our military personnel psychiatric drugs isn’t working. Instead, there are more and more reports of violence and suicide in the news. The psychiatric drugs’ side effects are horrid enough; how much longer do we put up with this false science of the mind called psychiatry? How many more military lives will end?
DAVID F. CHILDERS Rio Rancho”
The flying fish is symbolic. Flying represents taking control of something and the fish represents spirituality. It’s the spirit or “theta” rising above humanoid considerations. Something a person would have to do in order to join Staff or the Sea Org.
Just my take.
Michael Roberts is such a sleazebag.
He’s doing the IAS tours BECAUSE he doesn’t have any acting work/real job. Wherever he appears, he’s paid all the IAS commissions, including ones for sales done by FSMs and staff. So that greedy fucker is riding the financial backs of a bunch of desperate, broke-ass people, forced to engage in those fucking events to stay in good.
What a reprehensible piece of shit Michael Roberts is. I hope he never works again, and gets declared, thus ending his income via the cult.
So his wife Pamela, and his two sons can suffer? O.K., so he is begging for a living. You think he wants to be doing that? Why would you wish that someone never works again? Because you would be willing to have that happen to you?
You see his name constantly on the Internet. I have never ever, anywhere, read one report from anyone that they were abused in some manner by that guy. He is a devoted husband and father. He is well loved by his friends. If he is begging for a living, it is because at some point he shifted into a workable solution to provide for a woman and her children.
He isn’t running the church. He is not a staff member. You think full time begging isn’t work? It isn’t a “real job”? When is lying for living (acting) a “real job”? Do you have any idea about grant writing and fundraising? Do you know how many registrars died at their desks, dropped dead on the job or died young from exhaustion?
Oracle, I didn’t pick up that Sammy is dissing Michael Roberts because he isn’t a good family man, or because fundraising isn’t hard work, or because he wants dependent children to become destitute, but because the regging and fundraising this man does is for the IAS, which is a fraud and a scam, an organization that rakes in millions with its false claims about greatly helping those in dire need, when in fact it does nothing of the sort. Do you consider regging for this organization to be a decent, honorable profession? In my opinion, its dirty money that’s made from this job, and a bad business.
When did extortion become begging?
So you’re assuming that his wife and two kids are totally dependent on Michael to be the breadwinner and therefore he should be considered some kind of Jean Valjean figure because he’s just trying to “provide for his family”? How very 1950s of you, Oracle. Ever think that his wife Pamela might just be the main breadwinner in the household? It just so happens that this is the case with a lot of actors’ households; one significant other is a civilian and has a job in the real world, which makes up for gaps when the actor has no work. The 97% unemployment rate among actors was the last straw that drove me away from the field when I considered it as a young’un.
We all know that Scientologists’ ideal weltanschauung is the stereotypical 1950s America. Apparently that’s a view that’s pretty difficult to break away from, isn’t it, Oracle?
I met Pamela at Flag and found her to be a very nice, down to earth lady. I never met Michael.
I just can’t agree that being an IAS reg is an honest way to make money though. It may sound good, or look good on paper but it’s really not. Even when I was in the church and a loyal subject I felt that way. It’s wrong to coax people out of their hard earned money all the while making promises on things that simply don’t exist.
Aquamarine said it best.
And Oracle, I understand that you are coming from a good place and that you are not defending the IAS per say. There are always the realities that exist in any given situation, and sometimes these realities are hard to face. Especially when we know and like someone, or when we see how hard people are worked in the church and are then discarded like a used Kleenex.
No, no and no. Just me, being dense. I never got the, “you’ve got to be cruel to be kind” mathematics.
How is Scientology still a thing? I was in CMO PAC and once I left that place I never looked back. It’s hard to believe this racket is still going.
Lovely to see that Miriam “Bright” is still on board as an IA$ reg. Once, when I was living in LA right near PAC, I came out of my bedroom in my apartment to find her standing just outside my door, waiting to pounce on me the second I left my room. My roommate had let her in. Nice going, Miriam.
In technical physics terms, “acceleration” can mean any change in velocity, including slowing down…
And I’m sure they still use English units where mass is measured in slugs.
“…exerting control of one’s environment and moving things effectively …”
That’s a euphemism for slamming ethics in, soaking people for 100K for sec-checking, slamming heads against the floor …
” … the need for Congressional support for effective drug education and prevention programs.”
I guess they missed that part of Mission Earth where LRH says (about drugs): “decriminalize and ignore”
“Michael Roberts is going to lecture people on how to be on top of your game? He hasn’t even done …”
So why not? They got Gavin Potter, a SO member, giving lectures on how to make money. Heck, why stop there? They have a failed auditor unilaterally deciding on all tech matters.
Hey, did anyone else notice all the old people (like me) in the picture of the Seattle Org?
Hi OSD, Now that you mention it,I went back to the photo & realized that.Where did all the young & energy filled staff go? Got smart & got out I hope! Always Ann B.PS I love Arabians rode & jumped horses like the wind when I was young.Now with horrible osteoporosis just looking @ a horse would break all my bones.Ron used to tell me how he went all over Surrey photographing show jumpers.With the stories he made up about himself I see that as a little suspect.He always thought he was the greatest @ anything he ever did or did not do,but told me he did!
Ann B, our top Arabian was Comar Bay Brummel. He had won twice in the western US, which was quite a feat back then. For $25,000, you would get a brood mare and breeding rights to our top Arabian. They were so smart, we had to actually tie the gates together as some the horses could open them with their mouths. I’ve been riding since I was 15. When my wife and I were on Jamaica years ago, we went horseback riding in the interior & on the beach. They, the ranch hands took off the saddles and we rode the horses bareback into the gorgeous Caribbean sea! I’ve never had a better horseback ridding experience. The water temp was about 80 degrees!
Hi OSD,You lucky dog riding in the ocean in Jamaica, Your top Arabian sounds so smart & beautiful.I had a one half Arabian & Quarter Horse palomino for years.We used to beat the pants off the push button children’s hunters in New England. Locket was her name smart as a whip & was so named because she could jump over 4 feet so even if one locked a gate she could jump or open it too.A nice little respite to post with you about good days gone by.Ron is still an sob & anti Christ to me too though.Always Ann B.
Amrapali is gorgeous. According to Google, her background is Indian. I wonder if she’s aware that LRH described India as a “wonderful place … except for its people.”
I would also wonder what Amrapali thinks of the use of the word “Wog.”
Albuquerque needs an ideal org like Shaq needs lifts in his shoes.
Dave Childers should ask what happened to Albuquerque’s first Humanitarian Jim Karnes.
Wonder what they are going to do with the building they bought for 2million in desolated downtown with no parking. It also wasn’t zoned for a church and with Scn popularity there is no possibility of if ever being zone.
I’ve had Gavin Potter in my home (years ago) twice. The first time he got me for 10 days on the Freewinds for my then wife and I. The second time I couldn’t afford another but he got another free meal. I saw him several months later in LA and he wouldn’t speak, just turned away. No surprise really.
He’s looking more like Miscavige’s clone every day.
“I’ve had Gavin Potter in my home (years ago) twice.”
Ron, I hope you used spray disinfectant afterwards…
Yeah, plenty of Lysol Wipes.
You know, Gavin Potter is good at what he does, which is to get people onto the Freewinds, and donate money of course. He’s like the Pied Piper. Watch out if you go to one of his seminars because he will get you out of your seat and standing up in front of the audience pledging your intention/promise to go to the Freewinds. Gavin does this all the time and it even worked on me once. Of course, all of my ‘friends’ were there, egging me and everyone else on. Gavin works with his wife Alexandra, and whoever else is in the Ship office these days and they have the drill down pat.
Once you start turning Gavin down repeatedly to go to the Ship or make donations, he’s done with you and has no clue who you are anymore.
That’s right , once you make it clear that you won’t do what they want, whatever that is, from recruitment to donating money , they have no more interest. That is the single thing I couldn’t get my children to understand when they were going through recruit cycles. The romancing , the love , the specialness , were all pretend for a moment and would disappear as fast as they appeared. what a tough lesson to learn for teenagers!
Which is why Sea Org recruitment of minors and teens with all the Love Bombing is unconscionable. I witnessed it too and it’s so fake and phoney. The trouble is, a 12, 14 or 15 year old has a hard time seeing though this because they lack life experience. This is where parents have to enter the scene, put their foot down and get the recruiters under control.
Recruiters are very unruly and are entitled to ownership of other people’s children, so this can be easier said than done. I kept my kids out of the S.O. but I saw many who just couldn’t. The recruiters would constantly go behind the backs of the parents and get to the kids with all sorts of promises of special work and/or entice them with freedom from their Mom and Dad. What the kids don’t realize is that they will be entering a much more severe, restricted environment than what most parents would ever impose at home.
One of my kids at 15 years old, was told that after 10:30 pm they drink and have dance parties. Now that was bizarre but it came from a “best friend” who joined the S.O. and who was set to work on recruiting fellow friends. When my husband and I were told this, we burst out laughing and offered to take said kid to the org at that time of night to check it out. Each one of my kids who were recruited were all told how beautiful, special, and super-intelligent they were. One was even told that she was a “past-lifer” in the S.O.! Right in front of me. I asked the recruiter how would he know that, and who was he to evaluate what the “past-life” is of someone else.
One of my sons was locked in a room with four adult Sea Org members blocking the door for hours, bullying and yelling at him to sign a Sea Org contract. He did so, and admitted to me that he only did it because he “just wanted to go home.” He was several months short of his 13th birthday.
The recruiters will stop at nothing to recruit a kid into the S.O. They are not to be trusted one iota.
P.S.: If your son or daughter starts talking about “Duty” and has never used this concept before in conversation, know that a Sea Org recruiter is in their ear.
Mike – I love this blog. But on Thursdays, the only reason why I visit your site, is for the pictures of the Scientology food. Makes my mouth water like clockwork, every Thursday AM.
Hi Scientology food journalist in training, Me too! All I have to do is recall no food in the SO & all food looks appealing.Now though I could not & would not ever attend any event that has the remotest connection to cos to taste any.Knowing what an SP I am to that crowd a little something would be slipped in my food or drink so I could quickly attain Infinity Knowledge.I love this blog also.Take Care Ann B.
An Open Letter to Dave:
Hi Dave,
I hope you are doing well today. I truly do. I am writing you to because I keep going back to when you were a young boy.
I do not think anyone else deals with you as I do. I try to understand you from the position of many points of view: all 4 flows
One of those flows is what Ron did to you.
You are now, no doubt in my mind, very stressed. You feel victimized and betrayed by those around you. Betrayed by Marty, Mike and all the countless people who have been harmed by misguided punishment.
As a man in power, you have people around you who try not to upset you as they try to support you. So you never really get authentic expression of the people you count on. A large portion of their energy is in trying not to upset you.
Anger, rage and violence: those are your personal David Miscavige issues
I am not condemning you with this view. It is simply true and you know it.
Truth is simple. The rest is complicated.
THE SINGULAR DATUM THAT IS THE ACCURATE CAUSE FOR HOW SOCIETY SEES SCIENTOLOGY.:
VIOLENCE
Almost all the critics of Scientology: Atak, Ortega, Rinder, Rathbun and countless others support and will defend Scientology’s right to believe, practice and be part of Scientology.
That is very telling.
America is the land of the free. We can believe in any metaphysical doctrine we want without government interference.
But free practice of religion is not the problem here. It is violence.
It is my opinion that the source of Scientology’s problem, and thereby your problem, is that LRH sought destruction of people he disagreed with.
He demonized them just like Hilter did the Jews: wogs, raw meat, homo sap, meat bodies etc.
He trained you, as a young man, to beat people up as a means of “saving the planet and being on Source.”
You can trace the failure of Scientology back to those days when you cognized violence, punishment, shaming, blaming and incarceration as a means to control. That is what you learned from Ron
AND THAT IS WHAT WE ARE ALL PROTESTING! HARMING OTHERS WITH VIOLENT ACTIONS.
There is an unquestionable link of your condition, and thus Scientoloy’s, back to those days when Ron taught you that violence is the way to be successful.
Our culture is reacting and protesting that link.
IT IS YOUR ACTIONS, OF HARMING OTHERS WITH VIOLENCE, THAT WE ARE ALL TRYING TO BRING TO A HALT.
And those actions of violence have their inception in your reading Bolivar, The Family Man is a GE and Fair Game.
It is a boomerang effect. A direct correlation that finds its source in the idea of religiously justified violence.
You owe your anger and frustration to Ron himself.
His philosophy of crushing critics, and your accepting this dogma, and then implementing them…………………………..
IS BASIC BASIC ON THIS PRESENT CONDITION.
1) you were influenced by Ron to be violent
2) you realized to get power all you needed to do is assume it
3) Ron’s writings supported and solidified your means of keeping power
4) you have caused countless pain and suffering for family and friends through Ron’s philosophy.
Dave, LRH, IS the source of this condition.
Accepting and acting on violence as a means of contro:
IS THE WHY, IS THE WHY, IS THE WHY, IS THE WHY
May you have a good day Dave. I am only relating to you as a fellow human being. Not as a role or identity.
Hi Brian,A magnificent post! Forever Ann B.
Thanks Ann:-))) warm regards to you and hubby.
B
Regarding the event in Washington. You say: “Congressional Briefing: Maybe someone in DC can trot along and see what sort of turnout they get.”
I say: Maybe some of us can call their Congressmen and see that they don’t get any turnout at all. I am sure the fundamentalist Christian types would just love to know that the US Government is hosting an event put on by an organization that claims “Christ is an implant.”
Hi John P Capitalist,I love this one!Wonderful observation.Ann B.
Good observation but most Christians won’t see anything past the dental aspect of implant.
Imo Scientology’s “biblical story” so to speak is a very wide stretch for the thinking gear of most religious thinkers especially those basing their truth on Christ and a heavenly father. Scientology is something difficult to grasp at the best of times for most people (a good thing with ‘let him die’ miscavige at the helm). But my observation is that the majority of Christians won’t “get” what a implant is with any ease as defined by LRH. They pretty quickly screw their faces up and stare at you with an incredulous look on their faces, then write you off as weird or something of the sort or just don’t get it but generally they are well mannered about it. Don’t the Orange People have more adherents than Scientology
Organised Scientology was doomed imo from ever being mainstream. It was a dream Hubbard had which a lot of us bought hook line and sinker but if failed miserably. Scientology may have done a hell of a lot better if the SO was never conceived. Getting around ‘gold fever’ for the general good is something man is truly not willing to accept.
Maybe mankind will never rally around any “knowledge of life” cause that doesn’t have a political/military protection system in place, hence bankers running the show. Truth will always suffer where there’s power and money, big money involved!
Any idiot with gun can always upset any show anyway, ask Lincoln or Lennon. World War 1 kicked off with single gunshot (not that the scene wasn’t primed in the first place).
But Hubbard wasn’t far wrong with mu’s.
Ain’t life grand?
“Do a personal Finance Analysis Drill in the seminar!”
Like the regs don’t already have your current financial details at their finger tips. Just copy their answers.
The ‘Drill’ will always have the same answer, you can afford more ‘courses’, ‘purifs’, IAS ‘donations’, and so on and so forth.
Is Michael Chan taking some time off? He has been doing a ‘prosperity’ tour for several years. Inquiring minds want to know. Ok, I don’t really care.
Your question re the connection of: “joining staff and a flying fish” maybe relates to the “other fish to fry” the leaders have exemplified for years.
Portland Org is so bereft of clams that they had to use stick figures in their promo.
And two of them were Photoshopped into it.
Hi John Locke, Great point. I kept looking @ that & all the promo pieces now & thought back in the day Div 6 really knew how to do promo with a big hook them & reel them in. Now it is laughable I love Thurs funnies & RB.Lifts my spirit every time.XO Ann B.
The fascination with this lot just never ends, just when I thought it was all so boring and predicable the RCS takes a dive to new lower levels. They are simply incredible. I really don’t want to discuss the “tech” anymore but it’s non-existence parallels the RCS’s humanitarianism = no results of application in anything – instead it’s just give us your money!
Whether I liked it or not I (as a lot of us were) had all sorts of admin and tech drilled into our heads, did internships, practicals and/or real world application and faced all manner of horrors if our stats weren’t up, plus the quality of our products meant something back in the day, VGIs set the minimum acceptable standard, today it’s fooling the examiner is the ability gained. But looking over what the RCS spews out as advertising and announcements I’m bewildered in how much they have reversed gears into oblivion, and what makes it worse they are proud of it!
There’s no Bridge, not even a shadow of one, it’s just a donation escalator of statuses.
What in the world does a staff member do during their time on post? It must be awful, awful, awful!
They don’t accomplish anything except ask, demand, beg, coerce or in anyway possible try to get your money.
Take the hint RCS people, a flying fish flies away to escape its tormentors.
An appeal to those flirting with the idea of joining staff has a Hubbard quote which makes absolutely no sense if you try to analyze it. But you can easily interpret it if you’re hip to what’s really going on.
Criticism is the way of the sub-species called, “humans” and it is a contemptible lower function. (Criticism invites analysis and Hubbard knew acceptance, not analysis, was the key to realizing his aims). What you should do instead is to join the master race, homo novis and “take control of your environment to create a more ideal scene.” THAT’S THE SCIENTOLOGY WAY! (Regrettably, the best example of doing that was the development of agriculture, an achievement made by the lowly, criticizing human without Ron’s assistance.) The implied meaning is that you should join staff and create an ideal world the scientology way! (real meaning: the orgs are hemorrhaging janitorial staff)
Then the ad offers up, as a form of subliminal inspiration, a flying fish. I’m drawing a blank on that one.
Roger, LRH contradicts himself because there ARE outpoints and pluspoints and spotting the former IS criticism, albeit constructive criticism, and anyone who doesn’t spot pluspoints, i.e., what is RIGHT about what is being done, along with what is being done wrong, is an idiot. However one phrases this, whatever nomenclature one uses, nothing would ever get done, or done correctly, without these observations.
Re. flying fish…
A animal which is escaping predators by entering environment for which it is very badly adapted and will kill it if it spend any prolonged time in it, and exposes it to even more deadly predators it cannot see.
I have a feeling those things sound very familiar to someone who has spent any time on staff…
WOG question incoming- Is the use of the word “game” supposed to be “gain” or are they really putting a truth out there (like a Fruedian slip) and game is a term used by CoS? It seems, I’m not sure how to articulate it, poorly chosen for a religious applied technology. To be fair I don’t have the knowledge of how it is applied or defined in Scientology lingo so I may be making a baseless observation. But since game is used several times (aside from referencing the birthday games etc.,) I assume it is used as game instead of gain.
Can anyone shed some light please? Game of life? Game of the con? What exactly?
The “game” is to take every single dime you have. And for this cult, it’s the only game in town…
In Scn usage, in simplest terms, a game consists of freedoms, barriers, and purposes. Life can be viewed in such terms – “game theory.” I don’t especially like the implied characterizations, either in Scn or in zero-sum, positive sum, negative sum, etc., because to me it mushes the distinctions between something ‘serious’ and something done for no real product-purpose (playing charades, bridge, chess, etc.), and because I get some sense that if life is “a game” then that leaves one somewhat isolated as “playing” against all others for known goals. Typically, that is true in sports (that one plays in some degree of isolation, competitively – you don’t share much, the rules are “made up” and “responsibility” is defined by the rules, you get the penalty box for breaking them). At the end of the game, one returns to “reality.” But the analysis holds true. Vernacular sometimes holds “games” to mean “lies” or “hidden purposes” but that means, in some sense, “breaking the rules” and “not being serious” or playing a minus-sum (lose-lose), or a win-lose (for every win, someone else must lose) outcome. To me the plus-sum game, or win-win seems true in analysis and practice.
“…it mushes the distinctions between something ‘serious’ and something done for no real product-purpose…”
Your post got me to consider the possibility that there is no other product-purpose to life than simply the playing of a game – any kind of game, serious or otherwise. And one game in life is trying to figure out what the best game would be – as LRH tried to do. That was his game. It might be your choice in a game to play too, which would be cool. Anyway, thanks for the thought-provoking comments.
Marildi –
Thank you for that perspective on things. I never really have completely gotten my arms around LRH’s use of “game.” And it’s a full paragraph in even the condensed format of the tech dictionary. “Games condition” is something I intuitively understand as a “can’t win OR lose” both at the same time – just a pointless pursuit, like arguing about whether life really exists, or is imaginary (with someone who is into some “imaginary” theory or is just being as ass). So I’m not entirely sure I get the whole picture of a game.
If I read you correctly, you said a lot in a few words, but I wonder if Aristotle’s discussions in Nicomachean Ethics would extend what you said a bit. It’s a fascinating discussion, highly recommended. He pointed out that “Good, then, would be used in two senses: good as an end in itself, and good as a means.” (J.L. Creed and A.E. Wardman’s translation, Book 1, chpt. 6). Other translators follow Oxford’s lead, and that one sentence does not make nearly a much plain common sense as it does in Creed and Wardman. Playing a game (by the rules) would be the means of good, while discovering knowledge or data about life would be one of a variety, or one on a spectrum, of good ends.
To me the ends or goals of Scn as a body of knowledge, and as an individual study, are the development BY the individual himself of his or her own personal ethics: FOR the individual; an entire set of viable and high-level admin scales, all interrelated amongst themselves as well as with others’ admin scales. When considering it as a complex of many interrelated admin scales … well, it goes all the way ‘down’ to the fundamental ones that deal with handling MEST, which we are all familiar with, be it basketball or engineering projects, and there you have the entire cause over MEST theory. Thought and ethics over MEST. That is also directly visible when one shoves masses around in one’s mind, or focuses intensely on a subject, creating energy. A body can be very well-rested, but on the tenth day of a chess tournament, for example, the mind (or being moving the mind) is simply exhausted – or too bored by the similarity of repetitious thought, and the being is unwilling to create further energy in that direction. It is the notion that a being does NOT create energy, that is ridiculous. And physics relates energy to mass.
Men and women I’ve found do have different perspectives on life and agreements and games, and apparently “philosophy” or “view of life” does vary with gender, but to me it seems obvious that perception and discovery of knowledge is central. One may view that as a “game” I guess, but the freedoms would be freedoms of perception, the barriers would be what could be referred to generally as “subjective prism” (or something like that), the purposes would be higher survival, the goals would be knowledge – and there are no opposition players to play against(?).
Basically, it’s what you said, and maybe I have the “male viewpoint” or the habit of looking for “opposing competitors.” There may be opposition in the form of counter-intentioned people who would prefer that life remain a mystery (for their own personal ‘reasons’ as interpreted in their “subjective prism”). But discounting that irrational opposition, it’s a win-win, and the secondary goal is how to communicate whatever one has discovered, and that communicating comes much closer to a game, as it involves others and their realities, and cajoling them.
Somehow, I have difficulty communicating this, or getting someone to see what I’m talking about for themselves, or to admit they either do see it (but don’t want to admit it), or admit they ‘cannot’ see it (“subjective prism” effect). It seems very obvious to me that whatever happened at “the beginning,” beings were created with knowingness, but not knowledge, as in “knowledge of truth.” It is my view that Scientology is the culmination of many, many, years of searching for knowledge (of the truth).
Certainly no one will (rationally) try to deny that there are entire volumes of writings and books on philosophy, university departments dedicated entirely to philosophy, and entire universities dedicated to theology, and so on. Religion is, to me, philosophy packaged and marketed to the masses, and obedience and ritual and rules are requested in order to learn, not as a goal. Absorption of the truth of the philosophy is the goal. So there must be something to “know” in addition to what beings were created “knowing.” Scn describes it as “knowing that you know.” There is truth, and I don’t see how the discovery of that is the same as playing a game – the way you phrase it, I guess I could see it, but maybe I just have some ‘hang-up’ on the notions of “game.” If there is truth, then there must be a hierarchy of importance (not of pomp, but of genuine merit).
I tried getting this across to an experienced auditor, who replied that to him, the ultimate truth is a static, just as Scn states. Which makes sense, but is not exactly what I was trying to say. Beings did not determine the truth – in all its many levels. And beings cannot change the truth as it is – even if the ultimate truth is a static. Perhaps there is something in the nature of a thetan which makes it difficult for him to admit a causality greater than himself, but to refuse to do so is a questionable stance.
Sorry if I gave you a headache, but you did sum up a lot which has very deep roots. I’m just wordy – maybe a skill developed in college, to bore professors into giving me at least a “B.” But it’s better than what I’ve heard a lot of current-day philosophers discuss and charge money for: e.g. the privilege of hearing whether language is an innate or a learned ability. A discussion of semantics using semantics – and people applaud it. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to listen to a discussion of the goal of communication?
Nickname: “So I’m not entirely sure I get the whole picture of a game.”
What I got from LRH is that a game is something to do that offers interest and challenge. It’s just that simple. Btw, are you confusing “game conditionS” with “gameS condition?. That is not an uncommon confusion, based on my experience as a word clearer, but they are two very different things.
You also wrote: “To me the ends or goals of Scn as a body of knowledge, and as an individual study, are the development BY the individual himself of his or her own personal ethics: FOR the individual; an entire set of viable and high-level admin scales, all interrelated amongst themselves as well as with others’ admin scales.”
That is so well stated. And what you described as “thought and ethics over MEST” – either physical or mental MEST – would be a description of winning in a game, since it has all the basic components – freedoms, barriers, and purposes. Here’s a basic definition of “barrier”:
“space, energy, matter and time – each is only a barrier to knowingness. A barrier is a barrier only in that it impedes knowingness.” (COHA)
There again, we would have to include mental MEST as well as physical – meaning, one’s own mental MEST or that of others. And having “opposition players” or “opponents” in a game would fall under “barriers” because those players would basically be impeding knowingingness in some way that involved matter, energy, space and time – again, either physical or mental MEST, or both.
“Men and women I’ve found do have different perspectives on life and agreements and games, and apparently ‘philosophy’ or ‘view of life’ does vary with gender, but to me it seems obvious that perception and discovery of knowledge is central.”
But if you think about it, you probably have known some men who did not consider that discovery of knowledge was central – and some women who do feel that way. Anyways, I think I understand what you’re saying about knowledge being central. One of my favorite current-day philosophers is Tom Campbell, a physicist and consciousness researcher. He did over 3 decades of research on his own and others’ “out of body” (exteriorization) experiences and then wrote a book titled *My Big TOE” – TOE meaning Theory of Everything and “Big TOE” meaning that it covered both physics and metaphysics.
Tom now has a large following all over the planet because he clarified for many people what we could call universal truths – basically, the kind of knowledge I think you’re referring to. Below is the link for a short (about 10 minutes) youtube vid of his, to give you the general idea. Btw, his word for thetan is “unit of consiousness”, similar to “awareness of awareness unit” meaning that we are all units of a larger consciousness which is a “causality greater than ourselves”. See what you think of his ideas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygyV3nttwWM&feature=youtu.be
I’ve noticed how the scientologists like to mix philosophy and psuedoscience. To try and make the vomit that they are speaking sound more scientific.
Nickname, I liked what you said about being “wordy” and that it’s a skill you developed in college to bore professors into giving you at least a “B”. I graduated university too but I have a short version for it: Bullshitting.
Been there, done that. 🙂
Hi Pepper,Regarding your comment on university I agree.I really don’t bs on this blog I want to tell the truth as it happened to me in the hope that others all in might someday be free, but I’m not starry eyed about that as it seems so many on the ot committee & elsewhere are older than me now.But in ancient days when I was in college I hated grades & tests but when it came to writing essays or anything really I could bs with the best of them.Ron was the best @ that though that was an area where I give him a big very well done! XO to you & your Mom.Ann B.
Pepper, you might be on to something when writing long-winded texts for social science profs, but I know from experience this does not work for science and engineering profs.
I have been drilled by all my profs to write as short as possible and they always without fail find out where it is you are trying to BS them. To encourage you to stay on point, they’d put a length limit to your texts and start subtracting marks when you wrote past it.
The only place I got to use my skills in long winded sentences was in the one mandatory sociology class we had, and by then it had become difficult and uncomfortable for me to do so.
Marildi – Right to the point. I kind of like little kids’ ways of saying it: “You’re really smart.” I got what you said about MEST and games, especially the definition of “barrier” and its applicability. You’re right, I know the difference between “game conditionS” and “gameS condition.” The quote from COHA is spot on – to me the principal opposition or barrier to knowledge is one’s own (which gets into responsibility, integrity, and OW which people are reluctant to talk about, and so we have auditing). Do you know if Tom Campbell has looked into Scn? It’s like a question of Div VI, or Div IV. And the two are different. Org bd translates into admin scales (and vice-versa) so you get people on their admin scales with entirely different goals for their divisions, like Div VI to third-party and Div IV to confuse. Let me know you get this here, then, post something to this thread. http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=41348&start=3300
Hi Nickname. Thanks for the compliment. 🙂 However, this “smart” person wasn’t sure why you wanted me to post something on that link you gave me. To tell you the truth, I’ve been gradually decreasing the time I spend on blogs and forums, so I don’t have much reach for getting involved with another one. 🙁
As for your question about Tom Campbell, I’ve never seen any mention of Scientology – but I’ve seen many parallels between the two philosophies. Tom’s constructs actually broaden the understanding of many things in Scientology, IMO. And Ken Wilber’s Integral theory does so even more. Here’s a link to Wilber’s Integral Life website: https://www.integrallife.com/
Since you seemed to like Tom Campbell, here’s a link to a series of talks he gave in Canada (and there are many others on youtube) that cover his whole Theory of Everything. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1vYHOPFgcg
Cheers!
Nickname, a friend of mine sent me the link to a youtube video where Tom Campbell describes his experience as a child, when several non-physical beings gave him training in how to operate in the non-physical world (or what some people call “the theta universe”) in which there are no physical bodies and beings communicate telepathically etc. Tom said he has been on this journey for many lifetimes. I thought you might be interested and if so, the main part of this story starts at about 11:30: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDeL2wOW5Hs
Hi Kemist, very true! Lucky for me, I studied life sciences so most of the papers I had to write were technical in nature. You can’t get away with writing a bunch of b.s.in microbiology can you? Anyway, Nickname made me recall something of the past. I loved my college years and am very happy that I went.
Ooo, ooo, ooo! Mike, Mike, Mike!!! Call on me, Mike! I know the answer! Call on me!!!! (Mike: Ok, OSD, what’s your take on this?)
The flying fish is the new staff member and he’s exerting his personal control by taking flight. Unfortunately, he’s not aware of the shark (that represents the cult) that’s about to come out of the water to eat him. And so he starts on his is own road to perdition.
Right on OSD! One of the best ways to pull off the rosy sunglasses is to go on staff! Then you really get to see what’s under the kimono and it ain’t pretty.
Hi Raindog, you are so right about this!XO Ann. B.
Truer words were never spoken, Raindog! Being on staff in Hawai’i was like Mao’s Red Guards of the 60s with children spying on their parents and vice versa. Although I set records for bringing in people (I was a body router) & books sold (both soft and hard cover), I still had a B of I done on me. When they let me read my ethics file, I was floored. KR after KR on me. About half way through, a calmness came over me and I realized that I was going to leave this insanity which I did about a month later. Freedom never felt better than when I left staff. I became a bartender making great money and I could finally start surfing Waikiki again. You don’t know what you have until it’s taken away from you. I lost my freedom working on staff…
OSD, where you on staff during the Kent Stryker days? Heard some excellent stories about those days.
Well, I was on staff at the Honolulu Mission. I can’t recall a Kent Stryker. He may have been at the Org.
Nixon started the “war on drugs” in 1971. I would guess the gov’t has spent much more on this “war” than Miscavige has in his coffers. Yet heroin is alive and well and pot is being legalized in some states and medically sanctioned in many others. But the COS has the “truth” about heroin??? They are going to fill us in at a “congressional briefing”? How deep into the mucky quagmire can the COS BS go? They have no idea what they are talking about…..just some rehashed mumbo jumbo about drugs that has been used by many over several decades. They will accomplish nothing in this arena because they won’t follow the money….they are extorting money from well intentioned people under the guise of ridding our society of these harmful drugs.
They are on the bandwagon of profiting from drugs not getting rid of them.
I have to chuckle each time a CO$ ad touts “For a Sane World” or similar phrase. The CO$ definition of “Sanity” is Insane — and what public in their right minds would ever subject themselves to the endless regging, pressure to neglect family, stress from slave work, etc?
lets see the books. what percentage trickles down to anything in Nepal.
How much is diverted to the legal machinery of Scientology ?
How much to the Golden Thong retirement fund?
“What is the ROOT OF EVIL and what can you do about it?” Should I answer that? Everyone knows what my answers will be for those two questions, though, and Aqua and Mike have been getting on my case about laser-guided entheta for those people who haven’t quite broken all of the chains yet. So therefore I will decline to answer in an attempt to avoid addition tsuris being thrown my way.
As for the fish thing, I think it goes a little something like this: the fish, by transitioning from water to air, are “exerting control of one’s environment” and by escaping predators by going airborne, are “moving things effectively toward a more ideal scene” (in other words, somewhere where they won’t be some predator’s lunch). That means that the Scientologists that are being targeted are the flying fish (rather than clams). Okay….
The first layer of irony is that, by joining staff (anywhere), they’re flying right into a predator’s mouth. The second layer of irony is that this is a HAPI pimp. HAPI is helmed by Fearless Leader. Fearless Leader used to be a commercial fisherman. Connect the dots.
One more thing: is Gavin Potter’s forehead expanding? Any more, and he’ll have to declare his race as “Neanderthal” in the next census.
Espiando you can speak your mind. I don’t think you did anything wrong.
Warm & Fuzzy Moment Alert:
Espiando, while your “laser-guided entheta” does sometimes bring me up short, its also true that I enjoy your witty, wicked yet thoughtful posts posts with your onw signature satire. I’d miss you if you went away. Espi.
OMG, look at these typos. That’s what I get for becoming emotional 🙂
I agree with you Aqua. Espi is smart and acerbic. He adds a little spice to the mix. Always a good thing….
No, I’m not planning on leaving. I was just leaving the dead horse quiescent in response to the pimp sheet’s question in order to supply some relief to the Indies who post here. Normal beatings will resume shortly.
Understood, and glad to hear this, Espi. Please know that I have taken advantage of this brief respite in intense suppression so graciously afforded to do the INDIE’s unique PTS ESPI course. As such I am fully prepared to be returned to our regularly scheduled program.
Glad to hear it. 🙂
Relationship advice from scn? By my reckoning the divorce rate of those involved is way higher than the national average, in the small org I was in there are at least 8 couples I can think of who divorced, some more than once.
Look at the example of the illustrious leaders – one married 3 times, several of his children disowned him, the current leader who keeps his wife locked away at a secret location, and spies on his father.
Getting relationship advice from a CoS seminar is something you should steer away from. I also saw a lot of divorces and broken families during my time in the church. The experts on ‘Third Pary Tech’ are also the experts in Third Party when it comes down to dividing spouses on donations, or extended trips away from home to Flag or the Freewinds. They’re also adept at assigning who is the good guy/bad guy in a marriage, and work on “good guy” for all the fundraising schemes going on, thus creating dissension and not giving a damn about it.
Oh, and look at that free “Financial Analysis!” Yeah, I’m gonna show them my financials – I already know what the result will be: “Drain these accounts and give us the money!”
Hi Mike,That flying fish exerted control over the environment & moved effectively to a more ideal state when the Fleecewinds came up behind it.Always Ann B.
The Flying fish knows the Fleecewinds is coming and has reges, he’s just doing what we all should have done sooner….Get the F outta there.
Hi GTBO,Love your post! Take Care Ann B.
“They are having as much impact on Tampa Bay as Kim Jong Un, but are less well known.” ROFL!
Who you gonna call…??? Psych Buster!! (extraordinaire ED CCHR Mexico)
It doesn’t get any better than this people…woo hoo!! Psychs won’t know what hit ’em. Wonder if he wears the back pack thingie configured to zap people’s wallets.
“Moneywinds” hahahaha I like that 😉
Yeah … kind of alludes to this past Monday’s them of 64X expansion ….
The one about “accelerate” is cool – just has all the look and feel of an ice-palace.
Otha’ fish to fly?
I would suspect that they are making Tampa double sized by shaming, cajoling or threatening every single scientologist in the Clearwater/Tampa area to join.
Rooms B-338 & B-339 are rooms in the Rayburn Building that are available to the public for rental. Anyone can rent them. Congressperson not included. 🙂
Noon-1:30 pm. When most members of Congress are out eating lunch.
Nice try Co$. You don’t have any Congress members on board for this. You’ll be in proximity to some of their staff, maybe you can invite them in for some of the $20 cheese tray.
When I discovered your blog, I originally thought that “Thursday Funnies” was hilarious….but I mistakenly thought you were creating all of the cheesy ads about scientology. They were so over the top and comical! Now, I realize that they are ACTUAL ads–and it’s even more hilarious…..and yet so sad, because there are people who actually believe it.
Re: the flying fish poster, it’s probably just someone having done “do fish swim?” “do birds fly?” a bit too many times
It just gets sadder by the day. And when was Michael D. Roberts a success and in what field?
From 1975-78 he had a role in Baretta with Robert Blake on US TV. It’s the only thing he is really known for.
if you IMDB him he has a pretty long, and current, resume. Celebrity, no way, working actor, yes.
Hmmm, a small part in one episode of a TV show nobody has heard of (Girl Meets World) as his entire acting credit in 2014 (nothing in 2015) isn’t an actor “on top of his game” or someone you would turn to in order to “find out the key to his success.”
He is the only African-American they can get to talk at Inglewood. Yes you too can achieve success followed by decades of never being able to reach it again.
…and he played a pimp on Baretta. Same job he has with the IAS, I believe.
Michael D Roberts gave up on himself. I had a talk with him about it. He believed “Reality TV” did him in. Poor sap – he is a fool to do what he is doing. He will go down with the ship.
By the way – Is “Do Fish Fly” a new question on GAT II TR’s?
In Scientology – Fish Fly and Birds Swim.
Scientology is nothing but LIES and has become the OPPOSITE of what is real.
In what seems like a lifetime ago, I was the Sales Manager for Heritage Arabian Stud. We bred and sold pure blood Arabian horses. Our ranch was on 50 acres in Chino, Calif. Michael Roberts, as well as other wealthy scientologists came out to our ranch as it was run by two “OTs” We sold plenty of horses to them. Except one person. Michael Roberts. I believe the year was 1982. He was certainly interested and I figured he could afford it, but it turned out that he just didn’t have the money. This was a very exclusive industry populated by very, very wealthy people. People would buy these horses as a tax shelter and for bragging rights. When Reagan took us out as a tax shelter, it all went to hell in a hand basket.
If you look him up on IMDB you can see he still has a career of some sorts. I thought I saw him in a movie about 5 or 8 years ago – perhaps it was the Bruce Willis flick Hostage. It was a bit part. He’s quite nice in person, but get him up on a stage or in an IAS reg situation, the man pulls out all of the stops.
He and Howard Becker used to hit me up for cash all the time when I was still on lines. As a team, they are deadly. I wish they would both wake up. Lord knows how many millions they have raised for the IASW. You know they get a commission for reging, tight?
Mimsey
I saw Howard Becker coming out of a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. He was literally being supported by Karen (his wife) and is barely capable of walking. He looked to be at death’s door. No idea what if any affliction he may be suffering from, but he looks to be past his days of putting pressure on anyone other than to steady himself so he doesnt fall over….
Good old Howard Becker! He happens to be one of the key players in a continual third party action run on my wife about what a small being I must be to not want to donate funds to the IAS. So he helped convince her that she needed to figure out a way to make the donations and take responsibility for making it OK with me ….. after the fact………multiple times….. from the late 80s into the 2000s.
Needless to say but I will anyway, that sort of activity does not build good will, better friendships nor strengthen the bonds of a marriage. Howard knows this as I told him how I felt about it one time back around 2001 when we were on a refresher. He wrote a KR of course. He also wrote a KR on my wife one time when she did a dono straight to CCHR rather than going through him and the IAS. What a guy. ‘Mess with my income stream and get a KR!’
Sadly for me, I feel no remorse for Howard. Maybe that will change having stated my case. The Cult is full of people like Howard. Look at Louis Schwartz, a great guy who fell into the trap. Now he is a ward of the cult and has dimentia or something similar, lives in LA near the base unless they have offloaded him.
Yo Julian,
Have you visited your Dad lately?
Sorry to hear about Howard Becker. It seems that it came up here before that he had gotten sick or had a stroke or something like that.
The last time I saw Howard Becker I was eight months pregnant. He barricaded the hallway after course one day at lunch and told us that we weren’t allowed to leave. Staff blocked the door to the exit stairwell. I ignored him and proceeded to exit because I was extremely hungry and needed the restroom. Howard yelled at me loudly in front of everyone, “You can’t leave!” I squarely faced him, and said “Look at me.” The other students started laughing. I turned around, passed the staff member blocking the door and left.
Personally I thought Howard should have had a little more sense. He saw me walk by him and you couldn’t miss what I looked like. Who yells at a pregnant woman? Oh, an IAS guy after money $$$$!
Never been a fan of Howard myself. But it’s sad how the vast majority of scientologists neglect their bodies because they glibly think scientology will protect them from a lifetime of poor nutrition and no exercise (because they are OT/cause, won’t go PTS, don’t have overts to pull in motivators, etc). Though people like Howard get commissions from the IAS, I would think they are just regged to give the majority of their commissions back or take out loans that they can pay off with future commissions. Isn’t Howard at the million dollar status in the IAS?