Joel Beaton, Address Management Director for the Church of Scientology International states in an interview that the Church’s active mailing list contains “about 3.5 million active names.” This video is posted at What They Think, a premiere printing industry website. The article is dated June 26, 2019.
Mr. Beaton does not state how one gets their name removed from Scientology’s mailing list.
Scientology leader Captain David Miscavige had much bolder targets than 3.5 million names on the mailing list for Scientology in 1992. Miscavige projected the following when the 50th anniversary of the Sea Org occurred in 2017:
Categories: The Scientology Money Project
That’s some Explosive™ growth!
But wait….if it’s ONLY 3.5 million, didn’t he just throw Miscavige under the bus?
Foolproof advice to get removed from Scientology’s mailings:
Write them back:
“I don’t believe Xenu caused the Wall of Fire, nor do I believe humans earthwide are each infested with the “body-thetans” which Xenu dumped onto earth, nor do I ever wish to do Scientology’s secret OT levels 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, where you Scientologists do massive amounts of exorcism of your “body-thetans” which you believe infest your bodies. Please remove me from all mailing lists.”
Please cut and paste the above. It will work.
Explanation: The words “Xenu” and “body-thetans” are taboo words and you must use those taboo words in understandable fashion and all Scientologist dissemination personnel will react by removing you from their mailings lists. It works!
Chuck Beatty
former Scientology cult bureaucrat training staffer, 1975-2003
“Mr. Beaton does not state how one gets their name removed from Scientology’s mailing list.”
To be honest, that was not the purpose of the interview.
But the question is indeed a very real question.
This is illuminating information which lends even more credibility to the number leaks and generous estimates former members, reporters and watchers of CoS have made regarding membership, or lack thereof.
And while it seems quite apparent this gentleman has inadvertently given away membership (or, again, lack thereof) numbers due to the ability to extrapolate and make educated estimations based solely on his disclosure (not taking into account the emptiness of orgs, census results, pictures from events and the like) I still can’t help feel sorry for the huge amount of trouble and repercussions he’s likely to face.
It appears he’s directly contracted numbers released in various CoS statements over the years and Miscaviage himself.
I hope the CoS watching community can keep their ears peeled and eyes out for him/his name to see if he disappears (RPF).
After letting the implications of what his numbers meant sank in, I immediately started worrying about his health, safety and what may happen to him. What an absolute shame that is an immediate thought and a potential, and quite probable, reality. I sure hope I’m wrong about him facing trouble but I’m not naive.
Great reporting as always Jeffery.
Thank you Brave Blogger. I too hope Mr. Beaton does not get in trouble. The 3.5 million number of active names simply means these are people to whom Scientology mails its literature. IMO, active Scientologists are about ~.6% of this number, somewhere around 20,000 Sea Org and publics combined.
Scientology has several different magazines and newsletters. Thus, if seven magazines are sent to one person does this count as seven active names on the mailing list? The real number, and I hope it gets leaked, is the number of actives IAS members in good standing with CSI. This is the actual real number.
Chuck Beatty with the exact data at the correct orders of magnitude 🙂
The Xenu reply will get a person dead-filed and removed from the CSI mailing list.
Jeffrey, you had me laughing out loud with that “Mr. Beaton does not state how one gets their name removed from Scientology’s mailing list.”. Then I looked at it again, and laughed even harder. And a third time! I don’t know why, but the style and dryness of delivery just has me smiling even now. Not exaggerating to say that’s the most I’ve laughed in weeks at least.
Add to that, this is actually a big, big story, laughter aside. Aaron Smith-Levin pointed out in a YouTube video about this that Joel Beaton is almost certainly already in the RPF. I hope that he’s wrong, and the only way he could be wrong is that Joel Beaton had a realisation – sorry, “cognition” – that he was going to be hardcore RPF’d, and decided it was high time to take a page from Mike Rinder’s book and haul ass outta there. (hope you’ll pardon my language).
Thanks so much for all that you do in this avenue. I don’t think I’ve ever sent you a message before, but I’ve been gratefully and hungrily devouring your articles and videos for several years now. My huge, sincere thanks is so long overdue. From a never-in who – as far as I know – has never even MET a Scientologist but who is bizarrely fascinated by the subject: THANK YOU!
Joshua, I understand your fascination with Scientology. Scientology is interesting on many levels. The lies Scientology tells are pathological and compulsive. As I’ve long said, Scientology lies even when it doesn’t need to lie. The greed, fake Scientologists online, celebrity members, and the violent narcissistic Dictator David Miscavige are all part of what is at times a complete clown show mixed in with horror. Scientology is, by turns, both pathetic and horrific.
I use INFORMED DELIVERY personally and I have also done the EDDM for business (Every Door Direct Mail).
Joel confuses me when he says they are using the automation to know when things get into a home. How? How do they use Informed Delivery? What “technology” is he using that isn’t made known to the general public?
Is the USPS giving businesses back end information? Or are they (Scientology) guessing?
When I use EDDM the only way I could find out that my item got there was to ask some of my customers if they got it…and they went to their mailbox and confirmed. USPS didn’t offer any follow up, tracking or automation.
This guy revealing any numbers at all freaks me out. I also wondered how old he was. Where he might have joined the Sea Org. Does he know about CHUG? Does INCOMM still exist? Could he survive the RPF?
What building do they hold the addresses of these millions of identities? Is there a large mother ship computer that keeps it all?
To get to this number I am assuming they are including the people all the way through every single front group on top of their “church” structure.
Jeffrey, Do you know where the 47X claim comes from – is it from Miscavige? Could you post it if you do? Thanks!
Chuck Beatty’s reply might work some of the time but not all of the time. Why? The vast majority of scientologists know nothing about Xenu or Body Thetans or any of the “confidential” materials the cult sells. Mention of this would just be gibberish to them. Often times these lowly positions in central files and letter regging are filled by newbie staff members who have very little training or auditing so these concepts are completely foreign to them.
However, there are often more senior scientologists who are often relegated to central files and letter regging as a result of being assigned ‘lower conditions’. Then Chuck’s approach will be effective.
To fully engage ANY letter reg’s ‘reality’, try a gentler approach. Ask some probing questions like,
“what’s it like to be on staff?”, “how is your pay?”, “are you making any progress up the Bridge?”,
“do you have possession of your passport?”, “are you getting enough sleep and food?”, “how busy is your org/mission?”, how do you feel every Thursday right before 2:00?”, etc.
Also list several websites that might be of help in planting seeds of doubt. This site, Ortega’s, Rinder’s, Shelton’s, ESMB, Aftermath, etc.
And since this website is the Scientology Money Project, make sure that your efforts don’t cost you one thin dime. When you receive the cult’s mailings, be sure to use the free business reply envelopes that are often included in the mailings. Write in red ink so that your message is clearly visible and stuff all of their literature in the envelope so that it doesn’t clutter your personal space and constantly remind you of your cult experience.
This is what worked for me. I was once on the mailing lists of 12 different orgs. It took a while, but now I am cult mail free, and have been for at least 2 years.
The 47x was made up by Scientology’s critics to lampoon the various growth numbers made by L. Ron Hubbard.
The 47x claim didn’t come from the critics.
Brandy Harrison, Building Expansion Director Int, made the claim in 2014,
“The difference between an ideal org and a non-ideal org is night and day. While I know the Valley Ideal Org has been many years in the making. The truth is, you are becoming an ideal org at exactly the right time. For since the release of Golden Age of Tech Phase II, Scientology has expanded by 47 times.”
https://tonyortega.org/2014/09/16/scientology-says-its-received-5-7-million-from-google-in-advertising-grants/
And then Mike Rinder said, “47x is a fact because Dear Leader said so at the Silver Anniversary 26th MV event and then it was reprinted in the Int Scn News, so now it is verified in writing. Nobody has yet explained 47X what?”
https://www.mikerindersblog.org/experts-on-everything/
I haven’t been able to find a copy of that issue on line. Hopefully someone can post a scan of the relevant quote.
The 47x came from Scn, not the critics.
Thank you for the clarification nomnom. I’ve seen the 47x number in use at the Underground Bunker for long where it has become a meme. I didn’t realize it came from Scientology itself. 47x is a ridiculously funny number for Scientology to use. I also like Anonymous’ “Over 9000” statistic.
Hope you can find that Int Scn News Issue and scan Miscavige’s quote if it’s in there.