L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard and the Zen of Org Economics

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While compiling information on the economic model of Scientology, I found a fascinating 1970 HCO PL (scroll down) in which L. Ron Hubbard emphasized that the economic viability of an Org trumped posh quarters. Wanting to wring the maximum amount of cash out of Scientology’s Orgs, Hubbard was a pragmatist when it came to the matter of dwellings. This is why Hubbard could live in a rented house in Elizabeth, New Jersey; his manor at St. Hill; on a ship; in nondescript apartments in Queens, Culver City, or Hemet; or in a Bluebird motorhome. Hubbard was also quite willing for Scientology’s facilities to be merely adequate.

In Miscavige era Scientology, this policy has been reversed. Thus, while the Ideal Orgs are posh, they are essentially empty, nonviable, money-losing operations. As such, the Ideal Orgs are not financially sustainable or even justifiable; particularly as these Orgs must increasingly rely upon IAS subsidies or simply begging public Scientologists for subsistence money to pay their utility bills.

Beginning in 2002, David Miscavige bet hundreds of millions of dollars on his Ideal Org strategy. This strategy has proven to be a staggering failure insofar as Scientology membership and the reputation of the Church of Scientology continues to plummet in a free fall. Scientology’s psycho-terrorism of Fair Game and the enslavement and utter exploitation of Sea Org members are mutually contradictory with its goals of growth and expansion and “good PR.”

The Church of Scientology is hopelessly mired in a series of conflicting goals. Scientology cannot possibly hope to create a world without war, crime, or insanity when it is perpetually at war with Culture and governments; engaged in the criminality of financially raping its own members; and perpetually behaving in an insane manner. This self-destructive operating basis is unworkable and cannot possibly be called a technology.

And as membership and cash flow continues to exponentially diminish, the IAS reserves will be increasingly relied upon to fund daily operations, i.e. OSA’s disastrous campaigns of psycho-terrorist Fair Game; endless lawyers; damage control; creating hate websites; the dissemination of the usual PR lies; the enslavement and utter exploitation of Sea Org members; and the subsidizing of both new and existing empty Ideal Orgs.

Bottom Line: Given the Church of Scientology’s system of cruelty and greed created by Founder L. Ron Hubbard it really doesn’t matter if Scientology is ensconced in palaces or housed in decaying strip malls. The System of Scientology itself is doomed to failure and is in a state of decay, stagnation, and collapse. This collapse is dramatically accentuated by staggering revelations of Scientology’s enormous depravity and cruelty.

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, Bast Grinstead, Sussex
HCO POLICY LETTER OF 23 SEPTEMBER 1970

Remimeo
Estate Bureau
LRH Comm Hat
OES Hat
ED Hat
CO Hat

QUARTERS, POLICY REGARDING
HISTORICAL

In twenty years an enormous amount of experience has been gained regarding the quarters and housing of orgs.

From this experience there are only a few clear-cut lessons. These follow:

A. VIABILITY of the org (its economic survival including its security from political-enemy-motivated attack) is the first and foremost consideration. In terms of quarters an org can afford just so much expense. Therefore, viability is the first consideration—not how posh or what repute or what image. Thus, we have the policy that:

THE FIRST CONSIDERATION IN PROCURING QUARTERS IS THE VIABILITY OF THE ORG.

Example: Stockholm took very posh, fancy quarters. Up to that time it has been viable. The overload of expense rapidly upset the salary sum, the staff began to moonlight (work on other jobs), and the org all but collapsed until cheaper quarters were found.

Example: Phoenix 1955. A beautiful, big building at small expense was found. It was very prominent. Enemy local attack was stepped up in the area including door-to-door black propaganda by psychiatrists and a campaign by commie newspaper reporters. The full reserves of the org went into furnishing these quarters. The area had to be abandoned,
losing all reserves. Elizabeth, New Jersey, 1950. The shabby quarters there made lots of money. Beautiful country quarters were under survey for purchase. The psychiatric block, much stronger then, began action in Trenton, New Jersey to invoke a law against medical schools. If the better quarters had been purchased, they would have been lost. The org foolishly moved to New York City across the river where the New York Org owned a building.

CONCLUSION: Viability of economics must not exceed the income of the org. The SAFE figure for rent and mortgage payments must not exceed 15 percent to 17 percent of the gross income of the org.

Political security must be attained by counterattack and if not attained or is risky, no heavy property investment or renovation should be programed.

If a country itself is liable to fall, property investment and renovation should be held to a minimum as viability is under the general political threat to the country itself.

B. Quarters must be close to ample and cheap student and pc housing, restaurants and transport.

Example: Abellund in Denmark, 1969, was a lovely place. The org there failed because it was 42 kilometers in the country without transport or taxis or buses, had no student housing nearby and had no restaurants. It was lovely but hated by students and pcs. Its isolation and general atmosphere promoted idleness and the org was down to half rations and no pay when forcefully moved by Flag into Copenhagen where in very bad quarters and bad housing it became viable. Student housing and feeding is very expensive and facilities scarce even so and still hurts the org income greatly.

Example: Elizabeth, New Jersey 1950. The org was located amid square blocks full of rooming houses and at the city center of three railways and bus lines. The students’ own rooms were used for auditing which permitted org expansion. Nothing was posh. Everything noisy. The org was very viable and had streams of people.

Example: SH 1960-1968. The presence of lots of rooms for students in the town and cheap living despite the lousiness of the quarters gave SH in England its greatest periods of affluence. Political attack barred out foreign students, and the town people came at length to petition the government to remove the ban. (The closure of the 1955 Phoenix org also caused 35 small-town businesses to close in the org vicinity.)

CONCLUSION: The presence of ample, cheap housing and restaurants and general and local transport is a main factor in the viability of an org.

C. Image is a secondary consideration.

Example: Hotel Reycar Alicante Spain was relatively cheap. It was quite posh. Students complained as it cost a bit more than they were willing to pay. Image in this case worked against the org,

Example: Johannesburg’s three old buildings foolishly sold and the money squandered has yet to attain the income it made in its “old, horrible quarters” despite its newer image.

Example: The beauty of Saint Hill in England is secondary to its viability and student housing.

CONCLUSION: One does all he can by staff work to improve the image. If image is the reason why one must move from an area where the org was viable or had student housing, forget it. Polish up what you have already, Image is gratifying. If A and B exist, one can think about image. Image of the outer building does not much affect A and B. Cleanliness and order of what you have is the image to concentrate upon. Staff pay and food and cheap student housing do more for an org than a posh building.

D. DON’T SELL IN ORDER TO RENT IF YOU’RE VIABLE.

Example: London about 1965 agreed to sell its buildings. Three years later by agreement it had to vacate. It squandered its money so made and has rented quarters and has not done well since.

Example; Johannesburg sold its buildings in the late 60s for a profit, blew the profit on old bills instead of making the money and has been on a struggle ever since.

Example: Reversely, Washington, DC has paid for its buildings in rent several times over and has nothing and is in sporadic trouble, probably exceeding its 17 percent of gross for quarters.

CONCLUSION: Purchase is superior to renting unless political viability is very bad. And when an org owns quarters and is viable, it is not clever to sell and rent.

E. Expensive office equipment is not a first priority.

Example: Camden, New Jersey 1954 bought beautiful desks and chairs and cabinets. When it moved they were seized on a landlord pretext. All its reserves were tied up in furniture which can’t be resold anyway.

CONCLUSION: Enough desks and chairs and furnishings is far superior to top-grade office furniture. Reserves tied up in furniture is never recoverable. Furniture quality does not influence production. Furniture lack does reduce production.

F. Renovations are destructive if extensive.

Example: London 1958-59 rented 7 Fitzroy. Contrary to orders which were to hire a man and do one room at a time, it went all out with contractors and even rewired the place and went broke on renovation bills. It took three rough years to get the org out of debt. Then when the building was given back to the owners (Church of England), they charged huge building damages which had to be paid although they had a new, sleek building in return for an old wreck it had been.

Example: Phoenix 1955 cost all the org reserves to renovate a building then lost.

Example: A ship was fully renovated before use and wound up costing more than a huge, usable ship.

CONCLUSION: Don’t renovate at vast expense. Use and make it better as you can with your own people.

G. Other businesses or rentals to support an org wind up very costly.

Example: Hickstead Garage was bought to support Saint Hill. Was a horrible drag and distraction and supported nothing, not even itself. Saint Hill Special Briefing Course supported Saint Hill.

CONCLUSION: Schemes to use other than Scientology actions or partial rentals, etc., can be a bad nuisance. Scientology supports Scientology orgs and we learn this over and over.

H. Depending on political viability, it is better to buy than rent. If political viability is shaky, it is better to rent than buy.

Example: Spain’s Hotel Reycar was a great success as a rental, getting org quarters so students would rent rooms. However, the Spanish government was worked on by the South African ambassador who was worked on by the World Federation of Mental Health stooge Stander, a commie in South Africa. The org was subjected to surveillance and upset and moved. It could not have moved easily had it owned.

CONCLUSION: In politically troubled areas use a downstat hotel and promise student room rentals. One can move in hours. Or one can stay. This would apply to the Middle East or to any country, like Spain, subjected to political menace. (Spain is intolerant of religions, and its officials are bought easily and is caving in to Russian pressures and
probably won’t live as a government beyond Franco’s death.)

I. Where possible, don’t split up units of the same org unless you have to.

Example: Notting Hill Gate 1955 was rented. Half the org stayed a bus ride away at 163 Holland Park, London. Denied some of the services of an org, each part had a rough time.

Examples: The HGC Los Angeles from 1956 for some time was separate. This was not too bad and it paralleled an earlier 1955 separate building HGC in Washington. But the secret here was the personal competence of the HGC D of P and when that person was promoted to Los Angeles the HGC did much less well. The separate HGC in LA got
into out-tech.

CONCLUSION: The functioning public line units (Academy, HGC) should not be in separate buildings from the org. However, working units such as Mimeo or even Div 2, except the Body Reg, have sometimes been separate from an org and no trouble was experienced. Housing and food for a staff can of course be separate and should be.

SUMMARY

The above are the major policies relating to obtaining and situating quarters.

A and B are much more important than the remainder.

An org which adventures more than 15 percent of its current gross income
for rent or purchase payments can get into far more serious trouble than an org
with a poor building image. Hopeful thinking contrary to these policies, especially
A and B, can smash an org,

The switch of address alone can cost an org a great deal unless loudly remedied.

One maxim is, if you have a going concern with enough income and pay,
don’t monkey with it until you can realize a total purchase price with A and B
in mind.

L. RON HUBBARD
Founder

Why is it so hard to find a Scientologist in good standing?

(Note: This article was first published at Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker)

On Wednesday, Tony Ortega wrote that a Tampa federal judge continues to uphold his ruling that a California couple, Louis and Rocio Garcia, must submit their allegations of fraud to Scientology’s internal arbitration scheme — which doesn’t, actually, exist. And part of their frustration, the Garcia’s allege, is that every time they select a Scientologist they want to make an arbitrator in the Orwellian scheme, Scientology finds a way to declare that person “not in good standing.” Even the judge admitted it was pretty impossible to figure out who is and who isn’t in “good standing” in the church.

What is a Scientologist in good standing anyway?

It ought to be easy to decide who a Scientologist in good standing is. After all, there are millions of ’em, right?

For many years, Scientology officials openly claimed that the church had about eight million members.

In the ABC Nightline episode of February 14, 1992 Forest Sawyer was able to get church president Heber Jentzsch to clarify Scientology’s eight-million-member claim:

Sawyer: How do you get to call them members?
Jentzsch: Because they joined and they came in and they studied Scientology.
Sawyer: They took one course, maybe.
Jentzsch: Well, that’s how valuable the course is. Eight million people, yes, over a period of the last – since 1954.

In 1997, Mike Rinder, then the organization’s spokesman, invoked the same number. Criticizing what defectors from the church were saying, he told a press conference, “If any of the things these people say are true, there would not be eight million Scientologists in the world today.”

And as recently as 2004, the church told the Deseret News that it had eight million members.

In more recent years, as Tony has pointed out, Scientology is a lot less specific about its size. Scientology spokespeople are careful only to refer to “millions.” And here’s what the church’s website today says about Scientology’s growth:

With Scientology, millions know life can be a worthwhile proposition, that Man can live a fulfilled life in harmony with others and that the world can be a happier place. Scientologists work to create such a world every day, joined by others who share this dream. The undeniable relevance of Scientology to the lives of these millions assures its permanence in our society. Millions upon millions more will follow in this quest to create a better world.

Pretty vague, right?

In fact, in 1999 Jentzsch gave a deposition, and under oath he admitted that the “eight million” figure was arrived at not by estimating current active membership, but by adding up all of the people who had ever, in the church’s entire history, ever so much as bought a single book or took a single course.

But even if we take Jentzsch at his word, that eight million people had interacted in some way with Scientology since things began with the publication of ‘Dianetics’ in 1950, it would mean that over the period 1950 to 1999, when Jentzsch made that claim, it would represent about 163,000 new people joining every year. And if you know something about the size and number of Scientology’s “orgs” over the years, you know that number is pure fantasy. (For a more realistic assessment of Scientology’s current size, see the Bunker’s report from recent defector Paul Burkhart.)

But, for the sake of argument, let’s say that there are millions of Scientologists, and it’s just some kind of miracle that you never actually bump into any in your daily life. What does Scientology itself say about what defines a Scientologist?

The membership organization for Scientology, known as the International Association of Scientologists (IAS), has a very loose definition of a Scientologist on its website:

A Scientologist is defined as “essentially one who betters the conditions of himself and the conditions of others by using Scientology technology.”

Hey, that sounds easy. As long as we’re using Scientology tech, and we’re bettering ourselves, we’re Scientologists in good standing!

Well, not quite. The IAS isn’t going to make it that easy. In order to be considered in good standing by the IAS, you actually need to be a member of it. Lifetime IAS memberships cost $5,000 and Scientologists are constantly under a lot of pressure to donate even bigger amounts.

It seems pretty clear that to be considered “in good standing” by Scientology’s leaders, you’ll need to be an active donor and participant in the IAS.

But hang on. How big is the IAS?

Not anything close to millions. Former church executives will tell you that IAS numbers are in the tens of thousands, not millions. (And here’s the latest solid estimate for overall membership in this rapidly shrinking movement.)

But OK, let’s say you cut the check and join the IAS. Then that means you’re officially a part of the Church of Scientology, right?

Well, hold on. While the IAS is the “official membership organization” of Scientology, the IAS, legally speaking, isn’t part of the “Church of Scientology” itself…

In fact, according to what Scientology told the IRS in its 1992 application for 501(c)3 tax exemption, there’s actually no single thing known as the “Church of Scientology”….
And to add to the confusion, also according to the IRS application you don’t have to belong to the IAS to be in good standing with “a church of Scientology.”

Lost yet?

But see, that’s the beauty of Scientology’s rules for “in good standing.” They can say it’s whatever they want it to be!

Despite L. Ron Hubbard’s millions of words about everything from Scientology baptisms to Scientology funerals and how to clean windows and how to use a vibrator (we’re not kidding), and despite all the books and checksheets and pamphlets and fliers that current leader David Miscavige has killed whole forests to put out, the Church of Scientology really has no definitive policy stating what constitutes a Scientologist in good standing.

Who or what is a Scientologist? The answer is that it all depends on the circumstances, which Scientology uses to its best advantage in court. For decades Scientologists have smugly said to each other, “Everyone is a Scientologist; they just don’t know it yet.”

But for the purposes of arbitration? Scientologists “in good standing” are only whatever handful of people the church can count on to rule precisely the way church wants them to.
__

My comments over at the Bunker to expand on this article:

As the funnel of “millions of Scientologists” dramatically narrows down to a tiny handful of Scientologists in good standing, here’s how, according to court documents, it works: Mike Ellis, the 315 pound Scientology International Justice Chief with health problems is supposedly the only guy in the world who can decide who is in good standing or not. Here is what Scientology told the court about Scientology IJC Mike Ellis:

Mr. Ellis weighs 315 pounds, suffers from high blood pressure, fatigue and tightness in his chest. He was seen by a cardiologist on January 16, 2015. The cardiologist obtained a history, conducted an examination, diagnosed “angina pectoris” and told Mr. Ellis that he was “unable to travel.” http://tonyortega.org/2015/01/…

Scientology would have us believe that some guy on a bike with health problems is the only person who gets to decide which Scientologists are in good standing with the Church:

Scientology International Justice Chief Mike Ellis.

But in reality, the guy on the bike with health problems actually gets told who is in good standing by another guy in a fake navy uniform with a bad temper who likes to hit people and is Tom Cruise’s best friend:

David Miscavige

That is how it really works in Scientology.

On a related note: In 2015, Scientology IJC Mike Ellis had an earache, high blood pressure, angina, and weighed 315 pounds. PTS much? And why does Mr. Ellis have these problems if Scientology is supposed to handle the underlying spiritual causes of physical disease? It is our sincere hope that the Church of Scientology gets IJC Mike Ellis the medical help he needs. It is also our hope that Mike Ellis comes to his senses and stops breaking up families via Scientology’s toxic policy of Disconnection. On a scale of Scientology evil, Mike Ellis is extremely evil as he is the Cult Enforcer of Disconnection.

Mike Ellis is also the man who refuses legitimate repayment requests and thus enables the Church to go into a criminal ripoff condition that Mr. Hubbard called “out exchange.” Hubbard wrote, “A criminal is a person who wants something for nothing” and Mike Ellis is enabling the criminality of Scientology when he denies repayment requests of “monies on account.” What this means is that most Scientologists pay the Church money for future services. This is called “monies on account” and creates the impression in Scientologist that these monies belong to them and are in their account. Scientology actively pressures Scientologists to put monies on account. Many Scientology have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars “on account.”

However, when many of these Scientologists decide to leave the Church and do not want future services, the Church keeps their “monies on account” and will not give it back. This is called theft. Scientology, of course, uses sleazy contracts in order to claim the monies were donations and that Scientology does not have to give the money back. This “monies on account” fraud is aided and abetted by Scientology’s phony “Claims Verification Board” and is one of the many demonstrable reasons why Scientology is considered a criminal organization masquerading as a religion. David Miscavige really does belong in prison.

Mike Ellis does not apply policy justly and is therefore not wearing his hat. He is out ethics, off policy, and a disgrace as a Sea Org member. This bad Karma is all on Mike Ellis and perhaps explains his health problems.

What happens when Scientology helps you reach ‘your full potential’

(Note: This article originally appeared on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker)

Jeffrey Augustine is back to help us think about the message in Scientology’s newest ad…

This year’s Scientology Super Bowl commercial was pretty much like the previous four: It looked like those slick Apple ads from a decade ago, and it tries to give you the warm and fuzzies about learning things about yourself.

This year’s ad concluded with these lines…

…Through all of life’s journey
There’s no language adequate to describe
The ultimate heights you can attain…
Your full potential

Those lines are heard as images of a young woman is taking the sensors for the Scientology E-meter — she’s about to unleash her full potential because she’s engaging in Scientology. That’s the point, right? And now, at Scientology’s website, you can see the same slogan…

Like its previous ads, Scientology’s commercial really doesn’t tell you anything about how Scientology works or what you’ll be asked to accept if you join. So what does it mean that Scientology will help you reach “your full potential”?

In its early history, Scientology made a lot of exorbitant claims about what it could do. L. Ron Hubbard claimed that his “technology” could cure diabetes, allergies, cancer, and other diseases, as well teach people how to “go exterior with full perception” — leave your body at will. In other words, reaching your full potential meant becoming a superhuman with amazing powers.

But is that what Scientology delivers? Seeing this new slogan made us think about some famous cases in Scientology history. Did these people reach their “full potential”?

Lisa McPherson tried to reach her full potential in Scientology. She was from Dallas and had moved to Florida to be at Scientology’s “spiritual mecca,” the Flag Land Base. Scientology leader David Miscavige himself decided in the summer of 1995 that she had gone “Clear,” a major step for a Scientologist. But then what happened over the next few months is a tragic story that this website has told in real time, on the 20th anniversary of Lisa’s death.

Steve Brackett, the one-time fiancé of The Simpsons voice actress Nancy Cartwright and a high-level “OT” Scientologist, never reached his full potential in Scientology because, facing bankruptcy and financial ruin in a church where money is everything, he jumped off the Highway 1 Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur coast of California and plunged nearly 200 feet to his death sometime in the darkness of the very early morning hours of May 28, 2009.

Sons of Anarchy actor Johnny Lewis never reached his full potential in Scientology. He murdered his landlady, killed her cat, and then fell or jumped to his death from a roof in darkness in 2012.

Jenny Linson, Marc Yager, and Dave Bloomberg, three high-ranking Scientology officials, are seen acting like lunatics at Los Angeles International Airport. Is this the full potential they were aiming for?

William “Rex” Fowler never reached his full potential in Scientology. Following a bitter dispute over Fowler’s large donation of company funds to Scientology, Fowler shot and killed his business partner in cold blood and then turned his 9mm Glock pistol on himself. Fowler’s suicide attempt failed, and he was prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison. As police were still investigating the crime scene, Fowler’s Scientologist wife arrived and insisted to police that she be allowed to take her husband’s briefcase as it contained classified Scientology OT materials. The police refused her demand. The briefcase was later returned.

Heber Jentzsch, President of the Church of Scientology International, never realized his full potential in Scientology because he’s been imprisoned in “The Hole” since 2004, let out only occasionally for a few appearances.

Charles Manson spent some of the 1960s at the federal penitentiary on McNeil Island in Washington State. During that time, he got into Scientology and did quite a bit of auditing — his warden at the time even said it was good to see that Charlie was applying himself to something. But Charlie didn’t reach his full potential with Scientology. When he got out of prison he put together his own amalgamation of ideas as he gathered The Family around him and committed some of the most famous murders of all time.

Reed Slatkin never reached his full potential in Scientology. Instead, he was caught swindling $593 million in a Ponzi scheme and was sent to prison. Slatkin was very generous with his stolen money and donated a great deal of it to the Church of Scientology. After his arrest and conviction, the Church of Scientology was forced to give back some of the money Slatkin had donated, although the church fought having to return the funds. Slatkin died of a heart attack in 2015, two years after being released from incarceration.

A legendary auditor and “Tech Wizard” in Scientology, Class XII Case Supervisor David Mayo was the Senior Case Supervisor International (C/S INT) for all of Scientology. Mayo had been widely credited with having saved L. Ron Hubbard from death in 1978 by using a special program of auditing that later became the basis of NED for OT’s. Mayo was regarded as Hubbard’s successor on the Tech lines of the Church. However, David Mayo fell on the wrong side of things politically in the aftermath of Snow White Program and the widespread paranoia it created inside of Scientology. Hubbard turned on Mayo and declared him an SP. Mayo infuriated Hubbard and Scientology when he defied them by opening his acclaimed Advanced Ability Center in Santa Barbara in 1983. Countless Scientologists left the Church to receive services from Mayo and his team at the AAC. David Mayo quickly became the target of Scientology’s wrath and an incredible program of Fair Game ensued. In a 2013 interview with Tony Ortega, Jon Atack said of David Mayo:

David Mayo was harassed for years. He was the subject of at least one murder attempt. I spent a month in Palo Alto in 1986, where I first interviewed Mayo and I was impressed by his sober grasp. He described without rancor the horrors of his own treatment -– for instance, being forced to run round a pole planted in the desert for hours on end –- and he was very precise. I was most impressed by his obvious distress when adulated, which happened a few times during my stays in Palo Alto. He very obviously didn’t want to assume Hubbard’s narcissistic mantle. I’m very glad that he didn’t take Scientology over, because I might have been tempted to stay in the fold. Wherever he is now, I wish him peace and fulfillment. He deserves it.

Music legend Isaac Hayes had won an Academy award, a Golden Globe, and three Grammys but he had declared bankruptcy in 1977, beset by financial and legal problems. He became a Scientologist in the early 1990s, and then enjoyed a profitable second career when he became the voice of “Chef” on a new animated cable show South Park. Chef proved to be a lucrative role for Hayes and allowed him to support his fourth wife and their young child. Following South Park’s airing of its Scientology parody “Trapped in the Closet” on November 16, 2005, Hayes was heavily pressured by Scientology to resign from the show. Hayes subsequently suffered a debilitating stroke in January 2006. Hayes’ son Isaac Hayes III said in a 2016 interview that someone in Scientology quit the South Park job on his father’s behalf in March 2006. Having lost his substantial South Park income, the post-stroke Hayes was forced to relearn the piano and return to the grueling life of touring on the road in order to earn a living. Hayes collapsed on a treadmill in his Memphis home and died at age 65 on August 10, 2008.

Declared the “World’s First Clear” on March 9, 1966 by L. Ron Hubbard, John McMaster was a celebrated and charismatic Scientology goodwill ambassador. McMaster traveled the world for many years on speaking tours, television appearance, and radio interviews where he extolled Hubbard and Scientology’s tech. A closeted gay man in a homophobic Church, McMaster was routinely punished by L. Ron Hubbard, who ordered him overboarded on the flagship Apollo numerous times. On one trip over the side of the ship, McMaster’s shoulder was seriously injured and was temporarily paralyzed. After years of faithful service while enduring abusive treatment and being paid slave wages, John McMaster left Scientology in November 1969 after being excommunicated by Hubbard. Hubbard’s hateful order read in part, “John McMaster is assigned a condition of Treason for rendering himself liable to blackmail by reason of his homosexual activities.”

Born in 1956, Annie Tidman was an original Commodore’s Messenger who served L. Ron Hubbard aboard the Apollo. Annie married Pat Broeker in 1978, and Hubbard left Hemet in 1980 to go into permanent hiding, he took his trusted aides Pat and Annie with him. Hubbard eventually settled in at his secret ranch in Creston, California in 1983. Pat and Annie lived on the ranch and took care of Hubbard in his final years. After Hubbard’s death in January 1986, Pat and Annie were thought to be potential successors because Hubbard had anointed them with the special title “Loyal Officers.” But David Miscavige pushed them out of the way to take over control of the church. Pat and Annie divorced, and Annie lived at Scientology’s secretive “Int Base” near Hemet, California as a loyal Sea Org member. She was later moved to an apartment in Hollywood to suffer the final stages of cancer. Her own family didn’t learn of her 2011 death at 55 until about six months later.

Is Shelly Miscavige reaching her full potential? It’s hard to know, because since 2005 she’s been kept at a super-secretive Scientology base in the mountains near Lake Arrowhead, California. At one time, the wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige was a major church executive in her own right, but since her banishment Shelly has been seen in public only once, at her father’s 2007 funeral in the presence of a Scientology “handler.” A new sighting of Shelly suggests that she’s still at the mountain compound, and in frail health.

Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of L. Ron Hubbard, never reached her full potential in Scientology because she was sent to prison for her part in the Snow White Program, which she oversaw. After her release from prison, Mary Sue was pushed out of her role as a church executive by David Miscavige, and she lived in Los Feliz with Scientology handlers watching her. She died from breast cancer and COPD on November 25, 2002 at the age of 71.

L. Ron Hubbard never exhibited the potential that he promised for others that would come from Scientology. He was not clairvoyant, did not have total recall, and he was certainly not impervious to disease. On January 24, 1986, he died of a stroke while in hiding, estranged from his wife Mary Sue and their children, and with the psychiatric drug Vistaril in his blood.
— Jeffrey Augustine

February 2017: Notes and Observations on Scientology

February 2017: Here are some notes and observations on how I watch and look at Scientology:

1. So many things constellate around The Underground Bunker that this place is mandatory daily reading. Tony Ortega understands context, story, and significance in a way that utterly eludes Scientology, David Miscavige, Freedom Rag, and the no-show-no-stats SMP.

2. Mike Rinder’s blog is the Tiffany’s of documenting Scientology’s ongoing failures, deceits, and decline. Mike provides an outstanding daily journal of real-time Scientology decline. Mike’s valuable insights into Scientology as an organization are possible due to his decades of managing the Office of Special Affairs on a daily basis. Mike understands Scientology and David Miscavige at a profound level. That Mike’s jovial and robust sense of humor is mated to his ferocious intellect makes reading his analysis of the situation that much more enjoyable.

3. Disconnection and Fair Game are non-negotiable and must go. To the degree that Scientology practices and enforces Disconnection and Fair Game, Scientology’s self-destruction will persist. No one out here in the real world will stand for Scientology’s breaking up of families and its programs of character assassination.

4. Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath was a devastating expose of the Church of Scientology and its brutality. If it is not already in the works, season two will spontaneously appear as an act of Creation Ex Nihilo; the metaphysics of television dictate that this must happen.

4. Twitter and Facebook are extremely important to watch. The sum of message traffic on these platforms provides invaluable existential information about Scientology and Culture. Social media shows Scientology’s inherent inability to interact with Culture. This ineptitude is traceable to L. Ron Hubbard who called for Scientology to use blatantly phony and dishonest PR in the place of apologetics or other forms of meaningful interaction with Culture.

5. Scientology’s hate websites are very important to watch. These incriminating sites constitute damning and irrefutable forensic evidence which shows that Scientology’s programs of Fair Game have an unlimited budget of tax-free dollars. These websites also offer a penetrating insight into the psyche of Miscavige and OSA in a way that betrays both of them. Like a Cold War era Sovietologist would note, a good analyst must study the propaganda operations and party line rhetoric of the other side. IMO, our side needs more analysts who are willing to monitor, document, analyze, and write about Scientology’s websites.

6. Scientology’s cash position, cash surplus, and real estate acquisitions are almost completely meaningless as significant metrics. Any organization with a cash surplus can buy and amass a real estate portfolio. In most cases, Scientology’s real estate acquisitions of decrepit old buildings in need of millions of dollars in renovations are designed to stall and buy time for David Miscavige. From my perspective, Miscavige is obviously using these empty buildings to buy time and create some semblance of hope for the future of Scientology. However, no one is fooled. Example: The San Fernando Valley Ideal Org is a complete waste of time and money. There is no excuse for Miscavige to leave that eyesore unfinished given the IAS cash pile. The PR damage done to Scientology by leaving buildings empty for years or decades, particularly when there is plenty of money available to open these buildings within 12-18 months, is inexcusable. Conversely, Scientology will cherry pick top properties. This was the case with SMP here in Hollywood or Larry Hagman’s place in Ojai. But then the Cult will not actually do anything with these premier properties except use them for PR.

7. David Miscavige needs to reverse the massive and long-term statcrash in Scientology and does not know how to do it because he refuses to understand the nature and essence of the problems facing Scientology. Understanding the real problems would require critical self-reflection on his part wherein he would conclude that he must resign and step aside. He has zero capabilities in this regard and believes himself to be indispensable to Scientology. Compounding this is the long term structural damage to Scientology wrought by Miscavige’s execution of Hubbard’s bad policies and Miscavige’s own failed programs in the period 2001 to the present day is irreversible. Miscavige massively overreached with his frenzied money grab in the Basics, selling IAS statuses, and the failed Ideal Org strategy. GAT I and GAT II were, and are, failures in ways Miscavige does not understand.

8. Scientology’s contradictory policies of greed-driven inhumanity place it at war with itself and all the parts of its own existence. To use an analogy, Scientology is like a raging alcoholic with serious self-created problems who denies they are an alcoholic and blames others for their problems. Everyone else can see the problems except Scientology. The Church of Scientology is an embarrassment to itself and does not see it.

9. The real numbers a good leaker could give are these:
A. Attendance at events: publics and SO.
B. The number of SO members over the past ten years.
C. The total number of IAS members in good standing with the Church.
D. Total membership losses of publics and SO over the past ten years.
E. Number of SO senior execs paid off to sign nondisclosure agreements in the past ten years.

10. One of the real things to watch is the covert consolidation of Scientology Orgs. Miscavige can call it whatever he wants, but consolidation is contraction and Scientology is contracting inwards upon itself with great force. The acquisition of real estate is a red herring. Purchasing buildings is meaningless in the face of Scientology’s uncontrollable and accelerating membership losses. The way out is through the nearest door.

11. The petard upon which Scientology is hanging itself is Disconnection and Fair Game.

False Advertising: What Scientology’s Super Bowl Ad Won’t Tell You

Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most exciting days of the year in America. The “big game” drew 112,000,000 viewers in 2016. Advertisers lined up to pay $5,000,000 for a 30 second spot, which works out to $166,666 per second.

The Scientology Cult spends tax exempt dollars on a Super Bowl ad each year. However, the Cult only runs its ad in regional markets and spends perhaps $1,000,000. As reported by Tony Ortega, the Scientology Super Bowl has, in past years, contained text that claims various spiritual benefits for Scientology:

…There’s no language adequate to describe
The ultimate heights you can attain…
Your full potential

Seriously? The Scientology Cult actually claims that one can reach their full potential by becoming a Scientologist? This is not only a lie, but it is false advertising. If anything, the Scientology Cult devastates its own members by legally, financially, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually crippling them to the greatest extent possible. Facts:

* Scientologists must sign a series of contracts that strip them of their legal rights to sue the Church of Scientology for damages of any kind — up to and including death.

* Scientologists must sign a contract that allows their “Church” to literally kidnap them and hold them captive if they experience a severe psychiatric breakdown, or what Scientology calls a “Psych Break.” This contract states that as Scientology does not believe in psychiatry or mental illness, the Scientologist gives his or her fellow Scientologists legal permission to remove them from any psychiatric facility and relocate them to a Scientology facility. This contract is what killed Scientologist Lisa McPherson after she was removed from a hospital following her psychiatric breakdown in which she stripped herself naked on a public street and begged for help.

*Scientology flagrantly lied to the IRS when it said it gave refunds and repayments of “monies on account for future services” to Scientologists who were unhappy and wanted their money back. The fact is that the greedy and deceptive Scientology Cult refuses refund and repayment requests by stating that there is no law requiring it to give any money back to anyone. This is Scientology’s bait and switch: Scientology salespeople will tell any lie or make any promise to separate its members from their money — and once Scientology gets that money Scientologists will never get it back despite what Scientology policy says or what Scientologist told the IRS.

* Scientology Cult leader David Miscavige is so terrified of the public that he has not given an interview on television since his 1992 interview with Ted Koppel on ABC’s Nightline. The interview did not go well.

* Why David Miscavige is not the legitimate successor of L. Ron Hubbard. Rather, Miscavige rose to power in a series of coups in which he purged anyone who opposed him. This included Hubbard’s wife Mary Sue Hubbard who was the co-founder of the Church of Scientology.

* Why David Miscavige’s wife Shelly Miscavige is missing and has not been seen in public for over ten years. Vanity Fair’s outstanding article on Scientology’s Vanished Queen.

* Scientology’s secret teaching about Jesus Christ is a disgrace.

* Scientology’s secret Master Race doctrine embodies a call for a genocide against a certain class of people who comprise 2.5% of the world’s population.

* Stolen Valor: Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s fake war medals — Hubbard never served one day in combat and yet he claimed a Bronze Star and two Purple Heart’s and many other combat medals.

* The great big lie Scientology tells about the death of L. Ron Hubbard.

The most incredible lie Scientology attorney Monique Yingling told ABC ’20/20′

Monique Yingling, Esq.

Preface: My article below originally appeared on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker. It is reprinted here with additional material added. I republish the article here because the Church of Scientology has used tens of millions of tax exempt dollars, or more, to pay Monique Yingling (and the law firm for which she works) for her four decades of legal services to Scientology. And yet Yingling had the shamelessness on her recent interview with ABC 20/20’s Dan Harris to criticize Leah Remini for making money to produce and appear in the A&E show Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. Monique Yingling’s hypocrisy is staggering: She is a financial beneficiary of the human suffering that occurs in Scientology, and, Yingling helps to enable that suffering by defending it as an attorney for Scientology. Yingling also made a point to ABC’s Dan Harris that she raised her children in the Catholic faith; it is unfortunate that none of the love, compassion, or mercy of the Catholic faith seems to have affected Monique Yingling in her professional work.

Following the sudden departure of Tommy Davis as the Church of Scientology’s spokesman in 2011, the organization no longer has an actual Scientologist to represent it on television or in documentaries. Seemingly by default, Scientology leader David Miscavige’s attorney Monique Yingling — a non-Scientologist – has found herself cast in the unlikely role as the international spokeswoman for the church.

During ABC 20/20’s recent episode, “Scientology: A War Without Guns,” Yingling appeared to speak on behalf of Miscavige at the last minute. Like her previous appearance in April in an episode about Ron Miscavige’s book Ruthless, Yingling was given a lot of airtime to present the church’s side of things. And this time, at one point ABC’s Dan Harris asked her a very straightforward question, and her reply was stunning:

Harris: Scientology has described psychiatry as an “industry of death.” Why is that?

Yingling: Well, I think that’s a catchphrase. But what Scientology has worked hard against are abusive practices of psychiatry. Not psychiatry in general.

Harris: You say, “not psychiatry in general,” but an “industry of death” sounds pretty general.

Yingling: Well because unfortunately there have been a lot of abuses, and psychiatry has caused a lot of deaths.

Right there on national television, this was a pretty spectacular lie.

ABC 20/20’s Dan Harris interviewing Monique Yingling

If you know much about Scientology at all, you know that founder L. Ron Hubbard considered all of psychiatry an abomination that has plagued mankind for trillions — yes trillions of years. Hubbard even claimed that the “evil psychs” were a special race, traceable to the planet “Farsec.” The goal of the psychs, according to Hubbard, is to implant, enslave, and kill humans.

From 1950 until his death in 1986, Hubbard created, expanded, and sustained Scientology’s attack upon psychiatry that continues to this day.

As part of Hubbard’s efforts to expose psychiatry, Scientology created the Citizens Commission on Human Rights in 1969 as a “mental health industry watchdog whose mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health.” But what does CCHR actually do? One thing CCHR does is work to get psychiatrists arrested, tried, and imprisoned for abuses.

CCHR’s Psychiatric Crime Database, yet another typically exaggerated and bizarre Scientology PR effort, puts the lie to Monique Yingling’s claims that “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” is merely a catchphrase:

CCHR also markets and sells the book “Psychiatrists – the Men Behind Hitler” on its website. This tawdry book blames psychiatry for the Holocaust:

In 2005, CCHR opened its “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death Museum” in Hollywood. This was the same year Tom Cruise launched into his hostile attack against psychiatry and psychiatric drugs during his interview with Matt Lauer. And then at the 2007 New Year’s event at the Shrine auditorium in Los Angeles, David Miscavige infamously used animated exploding hand grenades to call for the global obliteration of Psychiatry:

I was in the audience that night and was appalled to see the way in which the gathered Scientologists jumped to their feet to scream wildly and applaud Miscavige’s violent call for the global obliteration of Psychiatry and the mass arrest and imprisonment of psychiatrists. Miscavige further bragged at this event that CCHR had a “smart bomb” that “sniffs out Psych fuel lines and blows the funding mechanism. And in that way, to put it bluntly, we booby-trapped the whole psychiatric ecosystem.”

David Miscavige’s violent 2007 rant against psychiatry was nothing new. In October 1995, Miscavige promised Scientologists that psychiatry would be destroyed in five years:

“There are a lot of opinions out there as to what is wrong with Earth, 1995. But if you really want to eliminate those problems all you have to do is work for the objectives that we, as members of the IAS, have set for the year 2000: Objective One – place Scientology at the absolute forefront of Society. Objective Two – eliminate psychiatry in all its forms. Let’s get rid of psychiatry, and let’s bring Scientology to every man, woman and child on this planet.”

Finally, and here we arrive at the crux of the matter, L. Ron Hubbard was infuriated that psychiatry had obtained what he thought was a fraudulent monopoly on mental health treatment. To Hubbard’s way of thinking, psychiatry was rigged because it required an eight-year medical degree plus a four-year psychiatric residency to become a psychiatrist. This conspiracy to require medical degrees and residencies effectively locked Hubbard and his e-meter out of the tens of billions dollars per year in government funding spent on mental health treatment.

Hubbard wanted that money. He wanted Scientology to have an exclusive global monopoly on mental health treatment and the billions of government dollars pouring into psychiatric and mental health programs. As Hubbard wrote in his confidential 1969 memo Intelligence Actions:

Our war has been forced to become to take over absolutely the field of mental healing on this planet in all forms… Our total victory will come when we run his (the enemy’s) organization, perform his functions and obtain his financing and appropriations.

Monique Yingling was prevaricating when she told Dan Harris that “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” was a catchphrase. Yingling knows that, per its own policies, Scientology will not accept anyone as a member who has been suicidal or has been treated with psychiatric drugs. In a paradoxical coda to this article, we note that these two prohibitions disqualify L. Ron Hubbard from Scientology.

In 1947, L. Ron Hubbard wrote to the US Veterans Administration complaining of suicidal ideations and moroseness, or what we would today call depression. Hubbard asked the Veterans Administration to provide him with psychiatric treatment.

And at the end of his life, in January 1986, L. Ron Hubbard suffered a stroke and was treated with the psychiatric tranquilizer Vistaril.

Hubbard’s intense hatred of psychiatry was most curiously book-ended between his request for psychiatric help in 1947 and his use of a doctor-prescribed psychiatric tranquilizer at the end of his life. I wonder how Monique Yingling would spin that?

— Jeffrey Augustine

When I was doing research for this article I thoroughly examined many CCHR websites. While it feels like internet dumpster diving, the fact is that one has to study Scientology websites in detail in order to be a good researcher. Scientology websites are a gold mine of the Cult’s paranoid mindset and CCHR has the most gruesome and weird of all Scientology websites.

As to “Industry of Death” being a catchphrase, one CCHR website has a CGI reproduction of the actual Industry of Death museum in Hollywood. I toured the museum after it opened many years ago. The decor reminded me of a Marie Calender’s restaurant, sort of a French farmhouse motif, festooned with photos of Nazis and ghastly photos of lobotomies and ECT. There are also psychiatric appliances. The net effect led me to conclude that CCHR itself is in dire need of psychiatric treatment.

On one wall there is a big sign that reads: Psychiatry. Torture & Death Sold as Miracle Cure. When I saw this, I realized Scientology was projecting what it does onto Psychiatry:

There is also a Eugenics display. Curiously, it has never occured to Scientology that its goal to create a master race of Homo Novis and to “dispose of quietly and without sorrow” all those 2.0 or below on the Tone Scale is a form of both Scientology eugenics and genocide.

The Industry of Death museum has a strange display that features a collage of images that is weird and creepy:

On a final note, one CCHR website shows a Mr. Lage Vitus correctly condemning the South African philosopher, psychologist, and Prime Minister Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd (1901-1966) as the architect of apartheid. However, Scientology then uses a non-sequitur to blame Dr. Verwoerd’s work in psychology — and by extension psychiatry — for apartheid. Mr. Vitus is incorrect for apartheid was rooted in racism, segregation, and the goal to keep Black South Africans in a perpetual state of poverty and illiteracy. Apartheid did not occur due to psychiatry.

Moreover, as the Daily Mail noted, L. Ron Hubbard wrote to Prime Minister Verwoerd to praise Verwoerd’s slum clearance projects. In doing so, Hubbard effectively praised and condoned apartheid.

In a letter written in November 1960 to Hendrik Verwoerd, a former president considered the architect of apartheid, Hubbard praises the devastating practice of forced resettlement of non-white South Africans.

‘Having viewed slum clearance projects in most major cities of the world may I state that you have conceived and created in the Johannesburg townships what is probably the most impressive and adequate resettlement activity in existence,’ says the letter, which was brought up during South Africa’s 1972 Commission of Inquiry into Scientology.

While in South Africa, Hubbard developed Scientology’s toughest test: a confessional-style list of probing questions, asked of followers while they hold the tin can electrodes of a lie detector-type device known as an ‘e-meter.’

The Wiki page on Verwoerd describes the brutal tactics he used against opponents of his apartheid policies. If one substitutes “Scientology” for “apartheid” in this quote, the parallels between L. Ron Hubbard and Verwoerd are eerie:

Verwoerd rigidly enforced Apartheid policies through further introducing oppressive laws, which diminished the rights of ordinary individuals… Verwoerd empowered the police, Secret Police and Army to extraordinary levels. During his time in office he ordered a secret all-out offensive against those opposed to apartheid policies….

L. Ron Hubbard created a fascist system of Scientology apartheid in which, if he had his way, only Scientologists would have rights. As Hubbard wrote in Science of Survival:

…any person from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale should not have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind, because by abusing those rights he brings into being arduous and strenuous laws which are oppressive to those who need no such restraints.