Scientology Money Project

Scientology Media Productions: Panhandling on the Streets of Hollywood!

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Imagine telling the entire world you are purchasing an ultra-luxury state-of-the-art $100,000,000 private 757 business jet. As the interior of your jet is designed and built with the most opulent of appointments, you boast to the entire world and show off the spacious interior:

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The big day arrives as your magnificent $100,000,000 private jet is rolled out of the hangar to great applause and fanfare. However, there is only one problem: You have no money for jet fuel, pilots and crew, ramp fees, landing fees, maintenance, or any other operating costs. In other words, you are so broke that you can’t actually fly your new plane unless people donate money to you for operating expenses. And so your shiny new jet remains parked on the tarmac like a giant useless paperweight.

This, apparently, is exactly what has happened with the recently opened Scientology Media Productions (SMP) facility in Hollywood. As reported by Mike Rinder, the Church of Scientology is now claiming that it needs to raise money in order to fund productions at its $100,000,000 studio. SMP is all set to fly but, alas, has no gas money. Hence, the “Panhandling on the Streets of Hollywood” begging letter from SMP posted by Mike Rinder:

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Of course, this is all nonsense and is simply more Scientology greed at work. Scientology has plenty of money to fund SMP operating expenses. The IAS could write a big fat check from its billion dollar plus cash reserves and be done with it. After all, the IAS slush fund exists, it is claimed, to advance the aims and purposes of the Scientology religion, right? Seriously, though, Scientology will never fund anything when it can take in “new money” from credulous status-happy Scientologists and hang onto its “old money.”

As Mike Rinder has pointed out many times, the Church of Scientology already has a giant state of the art television, film, and music production facility at its Gold Base in San Jacinto, California that does not operate at anywhere near capacity. It’s not like Scientology actually needs a second underutilized production facility.

Variation on a Scam: The SMP fundraising scam reminds me of the old Super Power building scam. David Miscavige gave endless excuses for years as to why he couldn’t open the Super Power Building. One of Miscavige’s lamest excuses came in 2010 when he said he needed “1,000 more” Scientologists to join the Sea Org before he could open the Super Power building — and this is really no different than Miscavige saying Scientology Media Productions needs operating funds before it can produce content:

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David Miscavige’s next excuse was that he needed the “Final 300” Sea Org members before he could open Super Power:

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Having failed to get all of the “Final 300” Sea Org members, David Miscavige was down to needing 110 new Sea Org members:

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There are always excuses in Scientology for why the planet cannot cleared, buildings cannot be opened, or content cannot be produced in a new $100,000,000 studio. The usual excuses are that more more money has to be raised; more Sea Org members are needed; there has to 10,000 on Solo NOTs; all Orgs must be St. Hill size; all Orgs must be Ideal, etc. It really doesn’t matter so long as an excuse is provided.

I don’t know if Flag ever recruited the 1,000 Sea Org members. What I do know is that the Super Power building remained the most profitable empty building in the world from 1998 until it opened on November 17, 2013. As Ashley Collman of the Daily Mail wrote at the time:

The group broke ground on the Mediterranean Revival-style building in 1998, but stopped work after finishing the shell.

For three years, the group ceased construction on the project until the city started imposing $250-a-day fines for code violations.

Scientology defectors have explained that the building’s slow construction is due to church leader’s who have allegedly used the project as a fundraising cash cow.

An analysis by the Tampa Bay Times discovered that the church had raised $145million for the building, much higher than the $100million it was estimated to cost.

Who knows? David Miscavige and Scientology may need to postpone production at Scientology Media Productions indefinitely until more money is raised, more Sea Org members are recruited, or until the Commodore returns from Target 2.

To whimsically add to our excursion through one of Scientology’s Scams of the Past, former Sea Org member Aaron Saxton made a very humorous and prescient comment on ESMB during the 2010 “1,000 Sea Org are needed for Super Power!” campaign:

It just occured to me that this statement by DM [that 1,000 Sea Org members are needed for Super Power] will be sending the jitters through the SO, especially within Los Angeles.

They know they will not have a hope in hell of getting this many recruits.

So what they will do is start doing “utilization” surveys on SO members around the world. They will give CMO quotas in each continent to find people “under utilized” and send them to Flag.

Following this they will empty out their RPF’s to get crew to the FSO to get the numbers up.

A similar incident happened in 1995 when DM went nutty at the FSO and we ended up sending over 150 missionaires to FLB.

None of them bar a very select few, ever made it back. They all ended up getting posted down there.

I can see DM doing a similar thing.

It is apparent that DM is going to keep command teams in the continental liaison offices to run things directly as I think DM can see the end of IMO/HGB middle management on the horizon.

Why run things on a via when he thinks he is so great at running it directly?

1000 recruits…LOL, I would pay a dollar to see that!

Hey, should I send in my billion year contract? Perhaps they will re-hire me? I soooo want to be part of the biggest failure in Scn history. Please please please!

In related news, Scientology fundraising in now under way for the L. Ron Hubbard Hall and park in Clearwater, Florida. As gushing Scientology coverage of the recent LRH birthday celebration enthused:

There was also the momentous announcement of the future L. Ron Hubbard Hall in Clearwater, a magnificent auditorium designed to seat thousands with convention and banquet conversion capability, complemented by a beautifully-appointed L. Ron Hubbard Park.

Scientology likes to brag about its accomplishments. I have to give Scientology credit for this: It has amassed the world’s largest irrelevant and non-performing real estate portfolio ever and continues to do. We have the IRS to thank for giving this deviant and real-estate-obsessed group its wholly unmerited tax exemption.

Taking a hard look at Scientology’s slush fund, the unlicensed and unregulated IAS

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In our last article, we showed that the word “Scientologist” is a collective membership mark used by members of the affiliated churches and missions of Scientology:

This statement is found in the fine print of Impact, the official magazine of the International Association of Scientologists. Curiously enough, and as documented last week, the IAS itself is not a part of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Scientology churches and missions:

Given the autonomy of the IAS from the Church of Scientology, we are left to ask by what right or privilege is the IAS able to use the word “Scientologist.” The Scientology weasel answer is contained in the correspondence between the Church and the IRS in 1992:

Let’s look at the Scientological sleight of hand here:

— The IAS is the official membership organization of the Church of Scientology.

— The purpose of the IAS is quite lofty and soaring:
Despite the IAS’ overarching purpose and centrality to the Scientology religion itself, the Church’s trademark counsel has advised all of us that the IAS engages in only “mere references” to Scientology’s trademarks and service marks.

One of those trademarks, by the way, is the word “scientologist” itself, which is owned by the RTC.

From the US Patent and Trademark Office:

So, Scientology is so anal, it trademarks the very use of the word “Scientologist,” and yet it somehow leaves unlicensed its massive slush fund, IAS. What gives?

An unlicensed IAS would seem to be a breach of David Miscavige’s duty to protect the ecclesiastical purity of the Scientology trademarks. Indeed, as we read in the Command Channels of Scientology, RTC is a policing function:

Why does David Miscavige apparently abrogate his primary duty to safeguard the “proper use of the trademarks” when it comes to the IAS? This most curious omission is “hats, not wearing” in the language of Scientology. “Hats, not wearing” means that one is not performing their assigned duties or not carrying out their assigned responsibilities. This is a very serious crime in the Church. L. Ron Hubbard warned against “hats, not wearing” in this policy letter:

Likewise, the IAS is not licensed by the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST). Instead, the IAS merely offers grateful acknowledgement to the Church of Spiritual Technology dba L. Ron Hubbard Library. This acknowledgement is also contained in the fine print of Impact Magazine:
The unlicensed IAS stands in stark contrast to the RTC-licensed Church of Scientology international (CSI) and all of its sub-licensees who must at all times operate under the strict licensure of RTC. And to be clear, all Scientology operations are done under licensure, i.e. they require a license from RTC, or from CST via RTC. In this sense, RTC could be viewed as the operating arm of CST. Thus, the “hats, not wearing” policy letter is relevant as it shows David Miscavige is not doing his duty by allowing the IAS to exist as an unlicensed Scientology entity.

One of the main lessons I have learned through many years of Scientology watching is this: Scientology never does anything legally without a reason, and, this reason is almost always hidden or not obvious. Therefore, even though it violates Miscavige’s duties and the stated functions of RTC, there is a reason David Miscavige and his attorneys did not want to license the IAS.

My thinking here is that IAS-IASA-US IAS Members Trust is a cabal that embodies a gigantic pool of unrestricted cash donations exceeding one billion dollars. Miscavige himself said of the IAS in 2014 “this is the year we went stratospheric.” I personally took this as Miscavige cryptically boasting that the IAS had crossed over some enormous target for cash holdings. It is fashionable these days for corporations to have large cash holdings and so the IAS would be no different.

Thus, in m my view, the IAS must be so completely autonomous legally that it cannot be sued as a licensee of RTC or CST. In the dismissed legal case Rathbun v. Miscavige et. al., Miscavige’s lawyers worked feverishly to prevent Rathbun from piercing the CSI and RTC corporate veils by proving that Miscavige is actually the managing agent of the Church. As presently constructed, Miscavige can secretly control the IAS money while being legally untouchable in any lawsuit.

As we mentioned previously, the invisible hand of the Sea Org is at work: As Captain David Miscavige controls the Sea Org, he therefore controls the IAS, the IASA, and the big fat piggy bank known as the US IAS Members Trust.

Therefore, the IAS must have the freedom to use RTC trademarks and CST copyrights on an unrestricted and unlicensed basis under the rubric of “mere references” in order for Miscavige to remain at arm’s length legally.

Still, one of my long-held suspicions is that David Miscavige has a personal services contract with the IAS and is paid for making speeches at IAS events. Perhaps Miscavige even receives 10% commission on his fundraising activities for the IAS? I say this because Scientology’s doctrine of exchange would demand the IAS compensate Miscavige for his appearances and not expect “something for nothing” as, per LRH, “something for nothing” is criminal:

“First consider a group which takes in money but does not deliver anything in exchange. This is called rip-off. It is the ‘exchange’ condition of robbers, tax men, governments and other criminal elements.” – L. Ron Hubbard, HCO PL 10 Sep 82 – Exchange, Org Income and Staff Pay.

(In the Church Scientology the one exception to the criminal condition of out exchange, of wanting “something for nothing” is the phony Claims Verification Board (CVB). The CVB is a scam; it is a criminal entity that is fully allowed by RTC and CSI to deny repayments of “monies on account” and thus effectively steal “Advanced Payment” money for services that were never delivered and will never be delivered. See my article: Scientology: Refunds and Repayments of Monies on Account.)

All of this Church of Scientology conduct reflects badly upon the IRS. Why the IRS allowed such contradictions from the Church of Scientology is beyond the intellectual grasp of your humble correspondent. Had I been the IRS Commissioner, I would have thrown these chattering Scientology jackdaws and their lawyers out of my office. Nevertheless, as the Proprietor of the Underground Bunker maintains, the Church caved in the IRS. This would explain why the IRS chose to ignore contradictions that should otherwise throw up red flags.

For the IRS to have allowed the IAS, an autonomous fundraising organization (and one that pays fundraising commissions no less), to exist within the Church of Scientology seems very questionable.

But then, it was the IRS that didn’t flinch at the plans of the Church of Spiritual Technology to spend tens of millions of dollars to build twelve Scientology obelisks engraved with The Way to Happiness on each of them:

What a shame they were never built. Instead, Miscavige built his monument out of hard, unlicensed cash.

(This article was originally published on the Underground Bunker and is reprinted here for archival purposes,)

How Scientology’s smears of Ron Miscavige could end up a bigger problem for his son Dave

(Note: This was originally posted on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker and is reposted here for archival purposes.)

Contributor Jeffrey Augustine has taken a close look at Scientology’s over-the-top attacks on Ron Miscavige for this piece today. We think you’re going to find that he unearthed some really eye-opening stuff!

On May 3, Ron Miscavige published a book about his son, Scientology leader David Miscavige. Titled Ruthless, the book is an unsparing account of how Ron watched his son take over Scientology and became a pitiless dictator.

David struck back with a typical Scientology “Fair Game” retaliation scheme. In this case, it was in the form of an anonymous smear website attacking his own father, as well as a concerted effort to market that website in online ads and in emails. Here at the Bunker, we’ve already looked at some of the claims being made on that website.

After my own close look at that material the church has thrown at Ron Miscavige, one thing stood out to me: The glaring contradictions between what David Miscavige said under oath in a 1994 court declaration, and what’s being said about him in the church’s attacks on his father.

In 1994, David Miscavige gave a sworn declaration in a lawsuit that grew out of the 1991 TIME magazine cover story that called Scientology “a thriving cult of greed and power.” The person who wrote that story was Richard Behar, who, like other journalists, described David Miscavige as the man who ran Scientology with an iron fist, and controlled everything down to the smallest detail.

In his court declaration, Miscavige denied that he exerted that level of control:

Since March of 1987, I have been Chairman of the Board of Religious Technology Center (“RTC”), a California non-profit religious corporation recognized as tax exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. RTC is not part of Church management, nor is it involved in the daily affairs of various Church of Scientology organizations or missions. RTC ensures that the trademarks of Dianetics and Scientology, and the technology they represent, are properly used around the world. It exists to see that Dianetics and Scientology technology is safeguarded, is in good hands, and is properly used.

This is the typical line that the church usually takes: That David Miscavige is the “ecclesiastical leader” of Scientology, the chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center (COB of RTC) and is not involved in the Church of Scientology and its day to day activities — and certainly not in its notorious retaliatory schemes against the church’s perceived enemies.

But here’s the irony. David Miscavige and Scientology are so anxious to discredit David’s father Ron on its smear website about him, the church has provided video testimony from workers at the International Base — also known as “Gold Base” for Golden Era Productions, the studios at the base where Scientology music and videos are produced — as a way to claim that Ron was not the person he describes in his book. But the unintended consequence of that is, many of these base workers have provided testimony that completely contradicts what David Miscavige said in that 1994 court declaration!

Statements from the executives and musicians who are featured at the smear website claim that David Miscavige is intimately involved in the daily affairs of the most detailed activities inside Scientology. These executives speak of David Miscavige being involved in the minute details of planning and building kitchens, studios, apartment complexes, and even the laundry rooms.

Remember, Miscavige claimed in his court declaration that his only job was to safeguard Scientology technology from his perch at RTC. So what is he doing planning kitchens and designing apartments at Gold Base?

Here, listen to Jennifer Alpers, Director of Domestic Services at Golden Era Productions: “So in 2005, Mr. Miscavige directed the redesign and replanning of our kitchen. And he had the vision that it would be a model kitchen.”

In a video at the smear website, Jennifer Alpers takes us on a tour of the Church of Scientology’s Golden Era kitchen. And here’s what she has to say:

It was Ron’s son, Mr. David Miscavige, who made sure that the planning and design was done for the kitchen and dining room and everything taken care of so we have a state-of-the-art kitchen and an exquisite dining room facility. Ron was able to use and enjoy both facilities and knew that his own son was behind the entire thing. For Ron to badmouth him in any way is outrageous considering what he did for Ron and all of the staff living at Golden Era Productions to ensure we have the nicest environment possible to live and work…

Alpers further elaborates David Miscavige’s involvement in the daily affairs of the church…

Ron [Miscavige] lived in the most beautiful staff apartment facility that I have seen. This facility was again established and put here by Ron’s son. And by this I mean he oversaw the design of the rooms and the buildings down to every single detail. The apartment complex for the staff includes a separate laundry and dry cleaning plant which washes all of the bed and table linens for the staff and does all of the dry cleaning on site. Ron never had to wash his own sheets or towels. He was provided with a laundromat in his apartment building and given all of the supplies to care for his room. While Ron was given all of this, thanks to his son who he now thinks he can criticize, Ron didn’t do his part to keep his room clean…About 4-5 years ago, once again Ron’s son made sure that Golden Era Productions got a new fleet of cars and vans for the property.

Let’s take another look at that 1994 declaration by David Miscavige. Repeatedly, he talks about how disconnected he is from the daily management of the church itself: “In the course of my duties I travel widely. I often appear at Church events and briefings which serve to keep Scientologists around the world aware of the widespread application of Mr. Hubbard’s writings. In all such appearances, my position as Chairman of the Board of RTC is known, as is its distinction from actual Church management officials of CSI.”

Over at the Ron Miscavige smear site, however, the people at Gold Base sure seem to have a hard time keeping that distinction in mind. For example, there’s this testimony from Chris Maio, a Golden Era guitarist…

“At Golden Era Productions…we were even given the most beautiful and professional studio in the world to use to create musical scores in, by Mr. (David) Miscavige, who made sure that every detail of the studio — the equipment, the designs, the renovations, and even down to little audio technical details — was perfect for us to produce in. No other leader that I am aware of personally goes down to those details to make sure staffs have everything they need to do their jobs.”

Whoops. And back to David in his 1994 declaration: “Neither RTC nor I has any corporate authority over any Scientology church, including [the Church of Scientology International]. CSI is the Mother Church of the Scientology religion and has been since its inception in 1981. As such, CSI is responsible for the activities commensurate with such a role, including the ecclesiastical management of Churches, dissemination and propagation of the faith and defense of its activities, including external and legal affairs. All of the foregoing facts were submitted to and thoroughly reviewed by the Internal Revenue Service prior to the recent recognition of the tax-exempt status of CSI, RTC and a host of other Church corporations and entities.”

Did you get that? Miscavige is acknowledging here in his declaration that his “shore story” about being a lofty ecclesiastical figure with no involvement in the daily details of church management was crucial to Scientology getting tax exempt status from the IRS in 1993.

So maybe the IRS ought to take a look at the Ron Miscavige smear site, where it would find these statements about how involved David Miscavige really is, like this one from Eve Stumbke, Deputy CEO for Golden Era Productions…

Eve Stumbke…works with Mr. [David] Miscavige in maintaining the spectacular condition of Golden Era Productions, from the kitchen area and staff housing, to recreational areas and film production facilities… “To give you some idea, you should know that we have the most beautiful and breathtaking facilities for the staff. This includes a full dining facility and state of the art kitchen, where fresh & organic food is prepared for the staff daily. We have stunning 5-star accommodations with full laundry & dry cleaning facilities. The Music Studio where Ron worked is truly state of the art with nowhere like it in the industry. We have state-of-the-art exercise facilities, including a swimming pool, football field, tennis court, volley ball courts, golf course, par course and a fully decked out gym. And you should know, this was ALL put here by the leader of our religion, Mr. David Miscavige specifically for the staff that work at Golden Era Productions.”

Once again, let’s take a look at the language from Miscavige’s 1994 declaration, where he continued to insist that he and RTC simply have nothing to do with managing church facilities: “RTC was formed with the specific purpose of seeing that the religion of Scientology was kept pure and true to the source materials of the religion. In fact, a major reason for its formation was to have such a Church organization that performed these functions in a capacity entirely separate from the actual management of the various Churches and Missions of Scientology. Not only is RTC not involved in the management of the international hierarchy of Scientology churches, but its very existence and performance of its true functions depends on the fact that it is NOT part of Church management.”

For such an above-it-all religious leader focusing on the “purity” of Scientology teachings, Mr. Miscavige sure seems to roll up his sleeves when it comes to new churches being built. At the Ron Miscavige smear site, Ciara Rogers, Scientology’s “International Landlord,” provides this glowing account of her boss and his involvement in Scientology’s “Ideal Org” program…

Mr. [David] Miscavige looked at it as something that could be achieved and he actually laid out the exact strategy and organization within the Landlord Office to achieve this. So the genius of what Mr. Miscavige has actually laid out in the strategy is that he was looking at how do we…how can every parishioner in every local area and field and zone, how are they able to obtain and get an Ideal Church of Scientology for themselves. And how is that even possible? If all of them were to individually try and do it themselves it would be impossible. It wouldn’t be possible to get it done. And it really was Mr. Miscavige who, you know, came up with the entire, you know, layout of how are we going to actually achieve this, and he’s directed that…that we are, you know, in correspondence with those parishioners and that they are creating their own Ideal Churches of Scientology. So, through the planning, through the design, and through everything that the International Landlord Office is…is doing and accomplishing, you know, those parishioners know that their Ideal Church of Scientology is going to be for their town and exactly as they want and as L. Ron Hubbard intended. He then came up with what is that organization that needs to go in place and how do we establish a machine at a global level to achieve, you know, getting every single Ideal Church of Scientology completed. And, you know, he apprenticed and trained myself and many others on exactly how that process is done and how…how we can actually achieve it to the standards that L. Ron Hubbard has already set in those policy letters.

OK, you may be asking, perhaps David Miscavige’s job has changed since he made that 1994 court declaration. Perhaps in 1994, Miscavige saw himself as a philosophical leader who was divorced from the details of church management, but that over time he has become more hands-on.

Once again, however, the Ron Miscavige smear website delivers some pure gold. Rick Cruzen, another Golden Era musician, describes how, in 1990, after an epic 100-year flood damaged Gold Base (something that was described as a significant turning point in Ron’s book), David Miscavige rolled up his sleeves and oversaw every detail of rebuilding…

At this critical juncture, Mr. David Miscavige intervened to restore the entire property, so that it would never happen again. This included a full-scale drainage system, silt basins and reinforcement of the nearby river levee, as well as complete planning of all production facilities and full training of the staff as experts at flood, earthquake and fire prevention. At the completion of the training program, he awarded the staff with a huge party. And subsequently, based on his planning, the property was built into one of the most valuable, functional and beautiful studio facilities in the world, safe from any natural disaster.

Hang on a minute. David Miscavige did all that detail work in 1990, four years before the 1994 court declaration in which Miscavige claimed he was only an ecclesiastical leader and had nothing to do with daily management? Wow. That’s some admission, and on Scientology’s own smear website.

We really have to thank Scientology for making all this so plain with its attack on Ron Miscavige. We’ve learned that David Miscavige will say one thing in court, but that his own employees say something very different about him now that Ron Miscavige’s book has exposed him as a tyrant.

We can only wonder if, when they were putting together this attack on Ron, they realized what interesting evidence they were supplying the IRS.

Now, will the IRS pay it any mind?

Leah Remini on ABC 20/20

Leah Remini’s new book Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology is available here.

“The outspoken actress, talk show host, and reality television star offers up a no-holds-barred memoir, including an eye-opening insider account of her tumultuous and heart-wrenching thirty-year-plus association with the Church of Scientology.”

“Leah Remini has never been the type to hold her tongue. That willingness to speak her mind, stand her ground, and rattle the occasional cage has enabled this tough-talking girl from Brooklyn to forge an enduring and successful career in Hollywood. But being a troublemaker has come at a cost.”

“That was never more evident than in 2013, when Remini loudly and publicly broke with the Church of Scientology. Now, in this frank, funny, poignant memoir, the former King of Queens star opens up about that experience for the first time, revealing the in-depth details of her painful split with the church and its controversial practices.”

Proposal to Mike Godwin: Creating a “Church of Scientology Exception” to Godwin’s Law

A proposal submitted to Mike Godwin for his consideration: Make a “Church of Scientology” exception to Godwin’s Law.

Why? I argue that it is not incorrect to compare the nature, structure, and operations of the Church of Scientology to the Nazis. As I will show in this essay, the Church of Scientology is a multi-billion dollar transnational Master Race group which has a call for genocide embedded in the writings of L. Ron Hubbard.

Secretly operated and managed by a legally non-existent paramilitary organization called the Sea Org, the Church of Scientology finances and operates a psycho-terrorism, propaganda, and intelligence gathering agency called the Office of Special Affairs. While the Church presently lacks the means to conduct a genocide, its decades-long malicious conduct of “Fair Game” argues that it would do so if it had the means.

The Church of Scientology’s fanatical paramilitary is called the Sea Org.

My request in no way trivializes the Holocaust. Indeed, my proposal for an exception to Godwin’s Law is based upon the following very serious and frightening facts concerning the Church of Scientology:

1. L. Ron Hubbard declared the Church of Scientology to be a Master Race group called Homo Novis:

[Re: “Homo Scientologicus”] : “Man had to cease to be Homo Sapiens and had to become Homo Scientologicus in order to accomplish any action that was anywhere near efficient in South Africa.” — L. Ron Hubbard, PAB 119 1 September 1957 The Big Auditing Problem

Hubbard elaborated upon his notion of Scientologists as a master race in 1965:

“HOMO NOVIS, 1. Homo man, novis, new. (BCR, p. 12) 2. a theta-animated mest body possessed of new and desirable attributes; a mest clear, a good, sane rational mest being about a skyscraper higher than Homo sapiens. (HOM, p. 40) 3. the Second Stage Release is definitely Homo novis. The person ceases to respond like Homo sapiens and has fantastic capability to learn and act. (HCOB 28 Jun 65)” — L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary

2. The Church of Scientology is a multibillion dollar transnational series of corporations that owns and operates a shadowy and malign psycho-terrorism organization called the Office of Special Affairs (OSA). OSA is an intelligence-gathering, propaganda, dirty tricks, and harassment agency The job of OSA is to silence or destroy Free Speech by threat, character assassination, and even blackmail. OSA operations target Scientology’s critics and former members. OSA typically hires retired FBI, Secret Service, and police officers to conduct covert surveillance operations and overt psycho-terrorism on its behalf.

3. L. Ron Hubbard called for a genocide against what he called Suppressive Persons, i.e those who publicly oppose the Church of Scientology. Using his own scale as a metric to judge the value of a person, Hubbard decreed that all persons who were 2.0 or lower on his scale had only two options in a Scientology World. From the pen of L. Ron Hubbard in his infamous book Science of Survival:

“The reasonable man quite ordinarily overlooks the fact that people from 2.0 down have no traffic with reason and cannot be reasoned with as one would reason with a 3.0. There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the tone scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts.

The first is to raise them on the tone scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes . The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow.

Adders are safe bedmates compared to people on the lower bands of the tone scale. Not all the beauty nor the handsomeness nor artificial social value nor property can atone for the vicious damage such people do to sane men and women.

The sudden and abrupt deletion of all individuals occupying the lower bands of the tone scale from the social order would result in an almost instant rise in the cultural tone and would interrupt the dwindling spiral into which any society may have entered. It is not necessary to produce a world of clears in order to have a reasonable and worthwhile social order; it is only necessary to delete those individuals who range from 2.0 down, either by processing them enough to get their tone level above the 2.0 line — a task which, indeed, is not very great, since the amount of processing in many cases might be under fifty hours, although it might also in others be in excess of two hundred — or simply quarantining them from the society.

A Venezuelan dictator once decided to stop leprosy. He saw that most lepers in his country were also beggars. By the simple expedient of collecting and destroying all the beggars in Venezuela an end was put to leprosy in that country” — Science of Survival: Prediction of Human Behavior by L. Ron Hubbard.

4. Just how many people would Scientology execute in a genocide if it ruled the world? We can make on determination based upon Hubbard’s own writings. Hubbard created and described the antisocial personality, or Suppressive Person. Hubbard said that SP’s comprised 2.5% of the global population:

“In the fields of government, police activities and mental health, to name a few, we see that it is important to be able to detect and isolate this personality type so as to protect society and individuals from the destructive consequences upon letting such have free rein to injure others. As they only comprise 20% of the population and as only 2.5% of this 20% are truly dangerous, we see that with a very small amount of effort we could considerably better the state of society.” — From HCOPL 27 Sept 1966

In a world of 6.7 billion people, Hubbard’s numbers would mean that 1,235,600,000 people (20%) have anti-social personalities. This means that Scientology would first conduct a genocide against the 2.5% of the most dangerous anti-social personalities, which would be 169,500,000 people. Hubbard deemed SP’s to be non-producers and therefore inherently inferior.

5. The Scientology term Planetary Clearing takes on a chilling meaning when considered in terms of the genocide contemplated in the Church of Scientology’s venomous ideology. L. Ron Hubbard:

“You want to know what happens when you clear everybody in that neighborhood, the only thing that [Scientology] center can become used for is a political center. Because by the time you’ve done all this, you are the government…” — L. Ron Hubbard. Taped Lecture – 9 January 1962: Future Org Trends.

“Once the world is Clear – a nation, a state, a city or a village – the Scientology-organization in the area becomes its government! And once this has taken place the only policy accepted as valid is Scientology policy.” — L. Ron Hubbard. Taped Lecture – 9 January 1962: Future Org Trends.

6. One of L. Ron Hubbard’s stated goals for the Church of Scientology is “to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology.” Reference: HCO PL 15 Aug 1960, “Department of Governmental Affairs”:

In the face of danger from government or courts, there are only two errors one can make: (a) do nothing and (b) defend. The right things to do with any threat are to (1) find out if we want to play the offered game or not (2) if not, to derail the offered game with a feint or attack upon the most vulnerable point which can be disclosed in the enemy ranks (3) make enough threat or clamor to cause the enemy to quail (4) don’t try to get any money out of it (5) make every attack by us also sell Scientology and (6) win. If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace. Peace is bought with an exchange of advantage, so make the advantage and then settle. Don’t ever defend. Always attack. Don’t ever do nothing. Unexpected attacks in the rear of the enemy’s front ranks work best.
…
The goal of the department is to bring the government and hostile philosophies or societies into a state of complete compliance with the goals of Scientology. This is done by high-level ability to control and in its absence by low-level ability to overwhelm. Introvert such agencies. Control such agencies. Scientology is the only game on Earth where everybody wins.

An example of Scientology's stated goal of Social Engineering: Conduct a genocide against SP's and make Scientology the law. This is what Scientology means when it uses codespeak and refers to "Reshaping the Destiny of Earth."

A photograph of a Scientology Nuremberg-rally style meeting shown on the cover of a glossy Scientology magazine. This magazine cover embodies Scientology’s overt and covert goals of Social Engineering: Conduct a genocide against SP’s; destroy Psychiatry and take over mental health; take over education and drug treatment; and make Scientology the global law. This is what the Church Scientology actually means when it uses codespeak to chillingly refer to “Reshaping the Destiny of Earth.”

7. What judges have said about the Church of Scientology.

8. The malicious contracts the Church of Scientology uses to legally cripple its own members.

9. The “Kidnap Contract” the Church of Scientology makes its own members sign.

10. Like the Nazis, the Church of Scientology has opposed freedom of speech and freedom of the press since its inception. Recently, the Church unleashed a multimillion dollar campaign attacking HBO’s Going Clear and Alex Gibney. Past efforts have seen the Church stop the publication of critical books in the UK. The Church even stopped the broadcast of South Park episode 912 in England. The Church filed a $416,000,000 lawsuit against Time Magazine in 1991 over Richard Behar’s seminal article Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power. The Church viciously attacked the early internet and got take downs of dozens of critical websites.

11. Like Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Maoist China, or contemporary North Korea, the Church of Scientology has an internal policing apparatus. Supervised by Sea Org Captain David Miscavige’s Religious Technology Center (RTC) acting in concert with OSA, Scientology’s internal policing includes brutal interrogations called “sec checks” and a culture of snitching. Scientologists must write Knowledge Reports (KR’s) on each other and submit these to OSA. The goal of Scientology’s internal policing is to create milieu control and thought stopping in its members, i.e. fearful Scientologists become their own jailers. Scientologists will not read critical information (entheta) online and will “disconnect” from family or friends who are critical of the Church.

12. The Church of Scientology runs a series of gulags, or prisons, for Sea Org members called the RPF. This prison system consists of forced heavy manual labor, extensive interrogations, and sleep deprivation. The RPF is designed to break down Sea Org members and reduce them to mindless and compliant slaves. The Church is able to engage in this atrocious human rights abuse by calling it “religious rehabilitation” and having Sea Org members sign contracts stating they are doing the RPF on a voluntary basis. RPF’ers are guarded 24/7 to prevent their escape. The brutal labor in the RPF is disturbingly reminiscent of the Nazi’s sign over the gate of Auschwitz:

Arbeit macht frei

13. The Church of Scientology calls for the destruction of Psychiatry and Psychology as one its key goals. Specifically, the Church works to get psychiatrists arrested and imprisoned and to get psychiatric drugs outlawed. The Church of Scientology seeks a monopoly on the field of mental health and thus argues that Scientology is the only workable answer to humanity’s problems. The Church of Scientology’s attacks on mental health are ideological and based, in part, upon L. Ron’s Hubbard’s hatred of the 1950’s US Psychiatric establishment that rejected Dianetics as pseudoscience.

14. The Church of Scientology uses its IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt status as both a sword and shield to attack its enemies while fending off charges of human trafficking, slave labor; the financial rape of its members; its system of unconscionable contracts: forced abortions; and the breaking up of families by its toxic policy of Disconnection.

Mr. Godwin, for the foregoing reasons and more, I am requesting that you consider making a “Church of Scientology” exception to Godwin’s Law when proper context and references are cited in online discussions.

20 questions about Scientology — with answers that get to the center of a dying movement

(Authored by Jeffrey Augustine, this essay was originally published by Tony Ortega at the Underground Bunker and is reprinted here for archival purposes)

1: What is the Church of Scientology?

Technically speaking, there is no single entity known as the “Church of Scientology.” As the organization told the IRS, the term “Church of Scientology” is one of convenience referring to all of the churches in the Scientology hierarchy:

“Flag” (the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida) is a separate Scientology church, as is the Religious Technology Center, the Church of Spiritual Technology, and so on. All Scientology churches are legally separate.

2: Why are all the churches in the Scientology hierarchy legally separate?

In order to mitigate the dangers posed by lawsuits, all of the “churches” in the Scientology hierarchy were set up to be legally separate. Before beginning any service sold by Scientology, a Scientologist must sign one contract for one service with one church. The legally separate nature of all churches is stated in each of the contracts Scientologists must sign before receiving services:

3: If there is no “Church of Scientology” then how does a person become a member of the Church of Scientology?

Legally speaking, the Church of Scientology is a “term of convenience” and therefore can have no members. So what do Scientologists actually join and belong to? Scientologists must join the “official Scientology membership association” known as the “International Association of Scientologists.” In order to receive services from any Scientology church, a Scientologist must be a member of the IAS. There may be exceptions for introductory courses, but as a general statement Scientologists must be IAS members to progress up the Bridge.

4: What is the IAS?

According to Scientology’s own website, “The International Association of Scientologists (IAS) is an unincorporated membership organization open to all Scientologists from all nations.”

5: What is an unincorporated membership association?

An unincorporated membership association has no legal existence apart from its members. The IAS cannot legally do anything in and of itself.

6: If the IAS cannot do anything then how does it get anything done?

The IAS has an operating arm called the International Association of Scientologists Administrations (IASA). From the IASA website: “IAS Administrations is a non-profit foundation contracted to provide services to members of the IAS — the International Association of Scientologists.”

7: Scientologists are prevailed upon frequently to donate money to the IAS for various IAS statuses; what are IAS statuses?

IAS statuses are essentially meaningless honors having no real world value. For example, apart from the IAS, it means nothing to be an IAS Patron Meritorious. IAS statuses merely indicate how much money a Scientologist has donated. IAS statuses confer status upon a person in the Church of Scientology and nowhere else.

8: Where do IAS donations actually go?

The IAS offers virtually no financial accountability to Scientologists for how IAS donations are spent. There are occasional PR announcements made by the IAS concerning grants it has made for Scientology Volunteer Ministers or other Scientology-related efforts. However, these efforts appear to be wholly geared towards PR for Scientology and nothing else. (Members were told, for example, that recent Super Bowl ads were paid for with IAS “grants.”) In legal terms, donations to the IAS are “unrestricted,” meaning donations can be spent in any way the IAS deems necessary. Former Scientologists have said that IAS donations effectively constitute David Miscavige’s personal slush fund and that he does not have to account to anyone for how he spends it. The ever increasing emphasis on IAS donations in the past fifteen years tends to support the view that David Miscavige places a very high value on having an unrestricted source of funds at his disposal. Moreover, every dollar donated to the IAS is a dollar for which the Church does not have to deliver any corresponding services such as auditing.

9: The Church of Scientology makes a great fuss about the Sea Org and how the Sea Org is clearing the planet. But what exactly is the Sea Org?

The Sea Org appears to be a legal fiction. As David Miscavige’s attorney Wallace Jefferson has argued in Rathbun v. Miscavige: “Plaintiff asserts that Mr. Miscavige exercised control because he leads the Sea Organization, a religious order within Scientology. But the ‘Sea Org’ is not a corporate entity; it has no physical or legal existence. It is not incorporated or established pursuant to legal formalities. It has no constitution, charter or bylaws, and no formal or informal ecclesiastical, corporate, or other management structure. It has no directors, officers, managing agents, or other executives; no employees, staff members, or volunteers; no income; no disbursements, no bank accounts or other assets; no liabilities; no stationery; no office, home, address, or telephone number. It does not create or maintain any financial, personnel, or other records. It can neither give nor receive orders because it has no one to either give or receive them or to carry them out. It cannot sue or be sued.”

10: If the Sea Org does not have employees, staff members, or volunteers, and does not exist in any meaningful way, then why does the Church of Scientology International have the Sea Org?

The Church of Scientology needs a labor pool even though the Church does not want the liabilities of employees, paying minimum wage, overtime, or offering other worker protections or benefits. Therefore, the Church of Scientology created a “religious order” and named it the Sea Org. In America and other Western countries, religious workers are exempt from minimum wage, overtime, and other worker protections that employees receive. In the scenario presented by the Church, then, members of the fundamentally non-existent Sea Org religious order sign billion-year contracts as a pledge of their devotion to L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. Thereafter, these Sea Org members are assigned to individual churches and sign five year staff contracts. Religious worker status also allows the Church of Scientology to conduct its notorious prison-like Rehabilitation Project Force program under the guise of “spiritual rehabilitation.”

11: Given that the Sea Org does not legally exist, who actually recruits Sea Org members; manages their training and indoctrination into the Sea Org; gives them a meager weekly stipend; administers the RPF; and assigns them jobs in the Church of Scientology?

The Church of Scientology International does.

12: What is the Church of Scientology International?

The Church of Scientology International is the “administrative Scientology church,” also called the “Mother Church” which had been previously assigned to a now defunct entity, the Church of Scientology of California. CSI does not deliver auditing or other Scientology services. Rather, CSI licenses and manages the legally separate Scientology churches (Orgs) beneath it. In return for its services, CSI collects management fees and a percentage of Org income.

13: CSI licenses the churches beneath it. Who licenses CSI?

The Religious Technology Center (RTC) licenses CSI to sell and deliver Scientology goods and services. In exchange, CSI pays RTC licensing fees and a percentage of CSI’s income. RTC’s purported task is to ensure the ecclesiastical purity of the Scientology religion. David Miscavige is the Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center, which is why he is known as “C.O.B.” to the Scientology membership.

14: Who licenses RTC?

This is an interesting question. RTC owns the “Advanced Materials” of Scientology, i.e. the OT levels. The rest of the Scientology’s intellectual property is owned by the Church of Spiritual Technology (CST). CST licenses this intellectual property to RTC who sub-licenses it to CSI.

15: This sounds like a franchise system.

The easiest way to think of the Church of Scientology is as a franchise system, the legal design of which is evasive and constructed to fend off lawsuits, discovery, and court trials. We covered this in our last installment in the Underground Bunker where the Church of Scientology’s system of unconscionable contracts was discussed. Essentially, no one in the Church of Scientology – Sea Org, Staff, or Public – has any power whatsoever. Only David Miscavige has any power and his power is that of a Dictator.

16: Who actually owns the Church of Scientology?

The Church of Scientology is nothing more than a predatory intellectual property-based business engaged in selling and delivering personal psychotherapy services. The Church is therefore owned by the two corporations that own and license the intellectual property and the rights to deliver its personal psychotherapy services: The Church of Spiritual Technology and the Religious Technology Center. Given that CST is, by charter, a passive entity, the effective and active owner can only be RTC. Thus, whoever controls RTC effectively owns and controls the Church of Scientology. At present, this person is David Miscavige.

17: Given that the Church of Scientology is an IP-based personal services business, it logically follows that a management and sales force is needed to administer, sell, deliver, and collect the revenues deriving from this intellectual property. Is this the real purpose of the Sea Org?

In my opinion yes. The “Church of Scientology” is fundamentally a predatory business that does not want the financial liabilities associated with employees. Said another way, the Church of Scientology is designed to extract the maximum amount of money from its client base while reducing its cost of operations to the bare minimum. From this perspective, the IAS is far more lucrative than operating the Sea Org to deliver personal services. Based upon this assessment, it is easy to see why the Church of Scientology’s main business these days is focused in the pure sophistry of selling IAS statuses.

18: Given that selling IAS statuses is so central to the Church of Scientology, why does the Church bother with the expense of staffing and maintaining its existing Orgs and purchasing and renovating new Orgs?

The answer is multifaceted: The IRS does not allow 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations to endlessly hoard wealth. The IRS instead requires tax exempt groups to spend a portion of monies collected for the public benefit. Scientology must spend some of its wealth and real estate – in the form or “new Ideal Orgs” — is one of the few things the Church can easily justify to the IRS as being a public benefit.

New Ideal Orgs serve to create the appearance to Scientologists that their Church is expanding and growing. Actually, the Church is contracting and losing membership. Nevertheless, because the Church must spend some its cash hoard and the interest it generates, Scientology will, predictively, continue to purchase and open buildings — although at a reduced pace as we are seeing. IAS donations act to offset any financial losses associated with purchasing empty and financially non-performing Orgs. In the long run, the Church of Scientology will continue to accumulate a vast real estate portfolio as a function of its tax exemption.

Referring back to Scientology as a franchise system, the Orgs are the only RTC-authorized locations where Scientology auditing services may be delivered. This is really no different than saying that Goodyear tires may only be purchased and mounted at authorized Goodyear dealers by Goodyear trained service technicians.

Orgs are a place where a member of an unincorporated membership organization called the IAS meets a member of a non-existent Sea Org to receive auditing. The money moves through the Org and uplines to CSI, RTC, and CST. The poor Sea Org members get virtually nothing.

If the Church of Scientology began closing Orgs it could cause a calamitous “run on the bank” in which Scientologists lined up by the thousands for refunds in fear that Scientology was going out of business. The purchase of Orgs creates a confidence factor that Scientology is not going out of business.

19: How do you see the Church of Scientology in 2015?

The Church of Scientology has become about accumulating MEST (physical property) while substituting IAS statuses for any claimed form of spiritual enlightenment. Indeed, it seems any pretense to spiritual enlightenment in Scientology has gone out the window in favor of celebrating IAS statuses and raising money endlessly for buildings.

20: Do you have one of your charts?

Intended to be read from bottom to top, the chart below is the latest attempt in my series of wall charts that attempt to explain the Church of Scientology.

Brainwashing in Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF)

Brainwashing in Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF)

Stephen A. Kent, PhD
Department of Sociology
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H4
— Published in 2002 by Minister Ursula Caberta of the Hamburg Interior Ministry (see PDF below)

Clickable links to Dr. Kent’s paper hosted on solitarytrees.net