This announcement is so typical of scientology.
“We are officially open…” BUT… Not really.
Nobody has ever had auditing without making an appointment (so no need to bold that).
And you can’t do courses.
And it’s not like some huge rush of people is going to be pouring into this mission. They might as well have been on Covid lockdown before there was a Covid lockdown. Nothing really changed.
“We wish we could accommodate you all back at once…” is just wishful thinking. “All” is probably 3 or 4 paying public. If that.
Scientology’s pretense that there are floods of people breaking down the doors to get services in the orgs and missions is farcical. They don’t have people anywhere. They are funneling as many as they can to flag, but even there, it’s dark buildings, empty parking lots and no people in
many beautiful news in the world 0f scientology
https://www.cultcity.us/cult-city-super-tours-coming-soon/
thank you Mike Rinder! and Christie Collbran
https://buddhabellybirth.com/single-post/2021/03/10/let-children-think-for-themselves
Mike, I don’t get this one. California is just starting to open, it is not like Florida. I get that they don’t have new sign-ups, as was said recently on the Fair Game podcast. I don’t understand why the appointment only requirement is bad? It’s a mission and they are probably not staffed, so it is the mission holder or someone the mission holder can get temporarily to cover.
Here’s a thought – Maybe they need to send out these notices to maintain their covid relief business payments and, more than likely, maintain their OT committee or humanitarian status requirements for ‘outflow’ of Scientology (you know all those upper grades have to prove they can ‘create, create, create’ on a gradient higher than the rest). Don’t get me started on these, or I won’t stop.
GAP, Foothills is a particularly active, or at least ambitious, mission, as we’ve seen from the promo pieces that they churn out including for activities not obviously tied to Scientology (but probaby covert recruiting) like dances at the studio in the same building complex. So they’re an interesting case to watch. For example:
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/making-an-ideal-world/
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/tag/foothills-msn/
They apparently have a very energetic mission holder, who I’m guessing may even have deep enough pockets to help things going. Since they seem to occupy a relatively large space but have minimal clientele, I thought they might be one of the locations that wouldn’t survive the pandemic – and it still remains to be seen what the fallout from that is. They are a bit of a bellweather, whose attempts to reopen are worth keeping an eye on as a gauge of what might be going on elsewhere in Scientology.
PM – Well, first off, it is a mission. From experience, once they get a new person, the vultures come-a-flocking to drag the newbie to an Org. These FSMs feed off the missions in a parasitic fashion, and that type of abuse goes all the way up the chain with Orgs getting poached for staff and public for Sea Org and Flag respectively. It’s one big feeding frenzy in Scientology, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that a failing mission is indicative of the health of the overall Church. The fish eat each other in this Game, where nobody ever wins because their Dynamic is marginalized for the ‘greater good’, which is not some abstract idea but the greedy nickname of the Chairman of the Board himself.
This is what happens when a Game is mocked up based on Survival. A loser take all phenomena, and by loser I mean greedy bastard.
I urge people when they receive Scientology promotional material, to insert some translations into the promo, and it then is hilarious:
“auditing”. translate to “quackery pseudo=therapy”
“courses”. translate to “quackery training”
“Scientology”. translate to “Cosmic Science Ficionesque Soul Pseudo-therapy/high-volume-Exorcism”.
“HGC”. “Hubbard Quackery Delivery Center”.
Have fun translating Scientology words, to the above meanings.
The “Mission” level Scientology is so boring. You won’t learn the Xenu story there. You won’t learn you are infested with “body-thetans” at a “Mission.”
Only the “Advanced Orgs” of Scientology, and it takes years, to learn that all humans are infested with “body-thetans” and that it takes FIVE exorcism levels (OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7)) of “upper level” Scientology to finally learn how to do the exorcism of yourself, so you can finally get rid of all the “body-thetans’ infesting your own body!
What a long long con! “Missions” are just a whole lot of hoopla, but they never will tell you the Xenu story, nor tell you how much exorcism (OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are lengthy, costly, and take years) you will still have to do.
Scientology is just a huge long strung out con, faux “religion.” it’s quackery to end all secret quackery, parading as a “religion,”
And never expect a Scientologist to tell you this, they aren’t sufficiently unbrainwashed to even define all their practices of their faux religion.
“Auditing” is pseudo-therapy.
“Auditor” is a pseudo-therapist
“Xenu” caused the Wall of Fire/4th Dynamic Engram
“Xenu” earth dumped zillions of “body-thetans” (surplus bodiless souls implanted by Xenu with the “R6 implants” onto earth, and these R6 implanted “body-thetans” (surplus souls) infest all humans today, AND it takes Scientology’s FIVE exorcism “upper levels” OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, to finally exorcise (supposedly) all of a person’s “body-thetans” off of themselves.
This is just a grand majestic con. Snipe-hunting exorcism faux religion.
And the kicker is Hubbard admitted he’d failed and told Sarge at Creston Ranch, near his death, that he did not plan to return to earth.
Scientologists dare not read “Going Clear…” and learn LRH’s final admission and LRH’s treasonous statement that he was not coming back to earth!
LRH quit Scientology. Scientologists should do the same.
You are a hero, Mike. So many of us appreciate your dedication and integrity. Thank you.
Bravo! Yes indeed!
Chained in the cave (Plato) they live out their lives in ignorance and illusion (delusion).
Does anyone know what the BIS was at Foothills Mission prior to the lockdown?
The local org here where we are has been reopened and from what I hear from the staff calling us trying to get us in, even some of the old “usual suspects” are missing and won’t “get in comm.”
I am almost certain there are some new “UTR’s” that we don’t know about, and most of the UTR’s aren’t very vocal for a reason, like we are, we’re covert!
I have been there and it is pretty dumpy. The entrance is in an alleyway, all the kiosks were covered with plastic, and electrical wires hang from the ceiling!
All that seems to be missing from Angry Gay Pope’s description is the smell of urine pervading the air.
And the smell of fear and paranoia… among other things.
Dotey, thanks for the skinny about your local org. I think a lot of us were suspicious that the pandemic would break the hold of Scientology on some of their members, and it’s particularly interesting to hear that seems to be happening with regulars and not just some of the more tenuous hangers-on.
Hopefully we will get more insider reports about what’s going on at various orgs. I’m particularly curious about just what is causing people to drop away, and while it seems obvious that quite a few members would just have time and breathing room to reflect on their involvement, I’m curious about whether some have gotten caught up in other involvements like Qanon.
Less than ten cents on the dollar is the only move to sell Dianetics. They need to pay people $100n per hour to study Scientology
Is farcical some sort of bike? Just wondering…
OSD. Approximately. It’s a new system to try to drive people into the orgs.
But it is impractical and risky as each wheel goes on its own and it makes anyone who sees it die laughing. .
Well… at least we can die laughing!!!
No. It’s a lovely, delicious, frozen Scientology treat that turns into a carrot once you start eating it.
You’d think, with all the extra space in the Ideal orgs, they COULD comply with health recommendations, but instead I’m sure they’re doing the minimum possible to SEEM like they’re complying with WOG regulations externally, while treating as “planetary bullbait” in real life and packing everyone in like sardines, continuing to drill TRs as usual.
I think it’s some kind of supposed $camology health drink. Two cups of water with a heaped tablespoon of Farce mixed in with a teaspoon of calcium and four crushed 250mg niacin tablets.
Put in a blender for thirty seconds.
Look at the foaming bubbling noxious green goo.
Tip down sink.
Go and buy a cup of coffee and a toasted ham and cheese sandwich.
As I I understand it, “Farcical” is a new religion being contemplated by the TWERP to replace this cult if and when it finally collapses.
He may decide to just finally fold and declare bankruptcy to avoid the lawsuits and then he can start a new cult called “Farcical” and try to run the scam all over again.
We all must be ready to squawk like Hell over the Net and places like Reddit to make sure the public understands that it will just be the same old scam in a new wrapper.
Kronomex, that toasted ham and cheese sandwich sounds GOOD!
It’s Ezekiel’s Wheel or the Mother Plane as referred to in the NOI. From the wiki article on the NOI:
The Mother Plane and Ezekiel’s Wheel
Elijah Muhammad taught his followers about a Mother Plane or Wheel, a UFO that was seen and described in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel in the “Book of Ezekiel”, in the Hebrew Bible.
Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.
— Ezekiel 1:15–18 (ESV)
Farrakhan, commenting on his teacher’s description in 1996, said the following:
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us of a giant Mother Plane that is made like the universe, spheres within spheres. White people call them unidentified flying objects (UFOs). . . . . . . .
The other day I was sitting in the reception of an organization and they had a social distancing notice, all creatively written in different size fonts and colors. I only got as far as “Remember TO keep TWO METERS” and I was immediately swept back to OT7 and had a panic attack at having to have two E-meters. Then I saw the final word (really small) ‘apart’ and I heaved a sigh of relief. It was only the virus, not scientology.
O/T. New academic paper: Seeing “Apostates” Clearly: Reconsidering the Legitimacy of Ex-Member Testimony in Documentary Representations of Scientology, by Michael Thorn
Journal of Media and Religion
Seeing “Apostates” Clearly: Reconsidering the Legitimacy of Ex-Member Testimony in Documentary Representations of Scientology
Michael Thorn
Published online: 09 Mar 2021
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/15348423.2021.1875661?scroll=top&needAccess=true
https://doi.org/10.1080/15348423.2021.1875661
* * * * * BEGIN EXCERPT * * * * *
ABSTRACT
This article analyzes popular and academic reviews of the book and film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief in relation to scholarly debates over the status of “apostate” testimony in the study of New Religious Movements (NRMs). Using a Foucauldian discourse analysis – an examination of contested statements of “truth” – it accounts for the significance of ex-member testimony in recent Scientology exposés and argues the tendency to dismiss such testimony as automatically unreliable needs to be reassessed. Using these exposés and the debate surrounding them as a case study, we can see that considering ex-member testimony as disputed but productive discourse, documentary and journalistic representations of controversial new religions can operate as important sources of information, helping us better map a larger discursive domain wherein allegations of harm intermix with claims of benefit in remarkably complicated ways.
* * * * * END EXCERPT * * * * *
This is the second recent academic paper that argues against the unthinking and automatic rejection of so-called “apostate” testimony by New Religious Movement (NRM) scholars. The first was “Apostate Memoirs and the Study of Scientology in the Twenty-First Century,” by Carole M. Cusack in Implicit Religion, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2020), published online on 5 Mar 2021.
/
I wonder how many people who “blow” scn consider themselves Apostates.
Who if anyone pays people to write these papers? On the other hand a while back I did a bit of internet research and was surprised to see that even with the world continuing to go more secular there are still numerous opportunities to get a PhD in philosophy and religion with a continuing interest from many people.
I was once a certified “Minister of The Church of Scientology” but the certificate is probably cancelled by now. I probably need to start over if I want a PhD. Oh well.
The best I can figure is that the religion academics want to appear objective and neutral in their papers so they place scn in the category of New Religious Movements. Sometimes they examine one on its own and other times they make comparisons to other religions or delve into some of the roots of an NRM.
In scn I had to read a book on “The World’s Great Religions” or some such title, read over some other scn “religious services” and then go attest and get a certificate to hang on the wall. It was not too difficult to become a man of the cloth. 😇
I may have answered my own question about who pays. I looked at the website and if I’m reading it correctly it looks like you can rent the article for $45 or buy it for $192. Ouch
I already know enough about scn so I’m not interested.
I wonder if these academics buy each others articles and charge it to their institutions which sounds like a scam but that’s just a guess.
There were notices on the website mentioning “Institutional Purchases”. Now that the institutions have raked in a couple trillion dollars from free and easy government student loans some legislators want to forgive student debt and let the taxpayers pay it off or add it to the national debt. That’s big government and politics.
Richard, I’m “out”, but hardly an apostate; for instance, I believe I care more about KSW than those who are currently Dave’s followers.
Jere – That reminded me of a quip someone once made, “Scientology will persist until the last two Scientologists write Knowledge Reports on each other.”
Reading this makes me keep flashing on the cartoon of a cobweb covered skeleton sitting at a desk with a phone on it waiting for a call back.
A wooden e-meter with soup cans completes the picture.
Corona is a suppressive viruse to be harrased, attacked, lied to and sued by critics, psychs and communists.
When I read these things I actually feel a bit of pity.
They are immersed in the illusion that everything will be okay in the end because they are the scientologists and they will clear the planet. One day they will raise their eyes to the sky and the sun will shine for them. How sad can be their delusion.
The image that always comes to mind is the Titanic sinking, people running all over the place while the orchestra continues to play as if nothing was happening.
Have I said that the lockdown sucks?
otherles quipped:
“Have I said that the lockdown sucks?”
— You don’t have to; we’ve all been there.
Thank Xenu for stimulating conversations on blogs.