Underground Bunker

DOX: Scientology’s pricey Florida ‘spiritual mecca’ keeps up its value in latest tax records

(This piece was published on Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker on 12.2.2017. It is republished here for archival purposes)

Jeffrey Augustine is once again keeping us up to date on Scientology’s financial documents. In this case, he has new figures on how much just one of many Scientology’s entities is worth, according to newly available tax documents.

In 2006, a change in the law required all non-profit organizations — even churches — to submit tax returns known as 990-T forms if they generated what is known as “unrelated business income.” A few years ago, I began finding and turning over to the Underground Bunker the 990-Ts for Scientology’s various entities.

Often, that income is fairly modest. But what’s more important for our purposes is that on each 990-T form there’s a box to fill out for “book value.” In other words, these organizations are asked to estimate their value in assets.

That requirement has led to a rare window into Scientology’s riches, and we like to keep up on the latest changes in those values.

In this case, I’ve found new documents related to the Flag Service Organization (FSO), the entity that runs Scientology’s Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida. This is where wealthy Scientologists from around the world come for expensive high-level auditing and other services. And keep in mind, FSO is just one of many entities that make up the Scientology movement, but it’s one of the more important ones.

So let’s see how the value of FSO has changed:

2008: $234.8 million
2009: $246.5 million
2010: $251.9 million
2011: $210.1 million
2012: $290.7 million
2013: $218.2 million
2014: $241.1 million
2015: $257.5 million

And here’s what that change in value looks like…

FSO is not the most valuable entity in the Scientology orbit. When we first began gathering these tax returns, for the year 2011, the Church of Scientology International was worth $790.8 million and the Church of Spiritual Technology listed a value of $434.4 million, for a total of $1.2 billion just for those two entities.

But even if it’s a distant third, the Flag Service Organization is steadily increasing in value.

This is consistent with what the newest defector from Flag told the Bunker recently. Peter Nyiri, who made a dramatic escape to freedom several months ago, said that the Flag Land Base is still bringing in huge income, of $2 million to $4 million a week — by starving the “outer orgs” and pressuring Scientology’s shrinking membership to come to Flag as often as they can for services.

Looking more carefully at recent returns by the FSO with the help of financial expert Dr. Jeff Wasel, we found a few noteworthy items…

In Part V of Flag’s 990-T returns filed in the period 2008-2013, FSO checked “Yes” on question 1 to indicate that it had an “interest in or other authority over a financial account (bank, securities, or other) in a foreign country.” Flag filled in the line to inform the IRS that it has financial interests in the United Kingdom and Australia. What are Flag’s financial interests in the United Kingdom and Australia? More importantly, how are they moving this money, and declaring these movements to the appropriate authorities, given these movements are between foreign entities?

In Part V of Flag’s 2014 and 2015, Flag checked “No,” indicating that it no longer had an “interest in or other authority over a financial account (bank, securities, or other) in a foreign country.” What happened to Flag’s financial interests in the United Kingdom and Australia?

In examining the 2013-2015 990-T’s, my personal view is that Flag’s stated costs for building improvements are either padded or excessive. For example, NOVA HRC is the firm that does the actual renovations on Scientology’s buildings (as well as many other clients). In the NOVA portfolio we have two hard data points:

1. Nova gives a project cost of $18,000,000 to renovate 393 guest rooms at the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California. This is $45,801 per guest room.

2. Nova gives a project cost of $27,000,000 to renovate 220 guest rooms Flag’s Fort Harrison hotel. This is $122,727 per guest room. This seems utterly absurd and suggests, in my opinion, that the IRS should open an inquiry into why Scientology spends so lavishly on parishioner guest rooms. Scientology orders its parishioners to stay at Flag hotels and does not have to compete with secular hotels, so why the excessive spending?

In the Flag tax returns we see approximately $80,000 spent on exercise equipment for two properties. Additionally, their 2013 990-T form states that they spent some $14,296,680 on “improving” the Sandcastle Restaurant, used for public dining. For this money, it better be “Nobu” quality in food and atmosphere! The price mark-up on restaurant fixtures, as well as the same convoluted permitting process as that of the construction industry, are rife with the same potential for what seems to be excessive spending. What exactly is going on inside of Scientology and Nova that seems to be driving up renovation costs as compared to lower costs in the secular marketplace?

On a final note, even with the opening of the Super Power building on November 17, 2013 the Flag Land Base does not appear to have “boomed” whatsoever as a result of this edifice. Valued at $80,000,000, the Church of Scientology raised $145,000,000 for the project. Where did all the extra money go?

— Jeffrey Augustine

Flag Service Organization IRS 990-T forms 2008-2015

FSO Book Value 2015 $257,506,278

FSO Book Value 2014 $241,134,104

FSO Book Value 2013 $218,154,319

FSO Book Value 2012 $290,655,686

FSO Book Value 2011 $210,075,914

FSO Book Value 2010 $251,896,300

FSO Book Value 2009 $246,516,017

FSO Book Value 2008 $234,764,273

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?

Scientology rips apart families with its ‘disconnection’ policy — but why?

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

billboard8-e1460694760877

[Scientology’s ‘disconnection’ policy takes center stage]

From Phil and Willie Jones to Brian Sheen to Lori Hodgson to the Headley’s to so many others. We’re hearing from more and more people who have been affected by Scientology’s policy of “disconnection” that is ripping families apart. Our friend and frequent contributor Jeffrey Augustine has been looking into Scientology’s documents, as he does, and has been thinking about disconnection. Jeff, where should we start?

Jeffrey: Understanding disconnection, you first have to put it within the context of L. Ron Hubbard’s system of ethics. According to Hubbard, disconnection is part of the “PTS/SP” model.

The Bunker: “PTS” is Scientology shorthand for “potential trouble source.” And an “SP” is a “suppressive person.” How does that work?

Jeffrey: A Scientologist becomes PTS when they become associated with someone antagonistic to Scientology. Wrote Hubbard:

In order to resolve the PTS condition, he either HANDLES the other person’s antagonism (as covered in the materials on PTS handling) or, as a last resort when all attempts to handle have failed, he disconnects from the person. He is simply exercising his right to communicate or not to communicate with a particular person.

To “go PTS” means the Scientologist will become unconsciously self-destructive and therefore “pull in” sickness, injuries, accidents, financial loss, relationship problems, make bad decisions, and incur a host of other troubles. The key Scientology notion to understand is this: A Scientologist goes PTS when they are connected to an SP, a person who is antagonistic to Scientology.

The Bunker: So the SP turns Scientologists PTS by being connected to them?

Jeffrey: That’s right. Here’s how the Technical Dictionary puts it: “A person…who suppresses other people in his vicinity…[who] become PTS.” An SP “actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by suppressive acts.”

The Bunker: And what happens when the Church of Scientology decides that someone is an SP?

Jeffrey: The church issues an “SP Declare.” And once someone has been declared SP, all other Scientologists must “disconnect” from that person. This includes family and friends — everyone has to cut the SP out of their lives.

The Bunker: Everything we’ve seen in the last few years suggests that Scientology leader David Miscavige is declaring people SP and ordering disconnection with more frequency than ever, and for seemingly trivial reasons. Why is Scientology so aggressive demanding that Scientologists disconnect from SPs?

Jeffrey The answer is really interesting. According to the church itself, it’s because L. Ron Hubbard considered SPs to be Scientology’s kryptonite. Here, look at what Scientology says about disconnection at its website:

disconnection-e1460684260254

There you have one of the Scientology’s big secrets: Hubbard and his church admit, rather incredibly, that, “all spiritual advancement gained from Scientology may well be lost because one is continually invalidated by an antagonistic person who wants nothing more than to do harm to the person.” According to Hubbard’s logic, then, SP’s are infinitely more powerful than Scientologists; The mere presence of an SP can destroy all of a Scientologist’s Bridge progress and spiritual advancement. Hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on Scientology can go down the drain if the Scientologist goes PTS because of a proximity to an SP. Hubbard characterized spiritual advancement in Scientology as a delicate hothouse flower, a frail object that cannot tolerate any suppression, antagonism, or opposition whatsoever.

The Bunker: They dare not hear any criticism. It apparently ruins everything.

Jeffrey: David Miscavige, the current leader of Scientology, said as much in 2001, quoted in this church publication:

miscavigequote2-e1460734511383

Hubbard said this about suppression in 1966: “Suppression is a harmful intention or action against which one cannot fight back.” (HCO PL 26 Dec 66) This is why suppression is so dangerous to Scientologists: They cannot fight back against suppression and will, in fact, lose all of their Bridge progress to it.

The Bunker: The poor things!

Jeffrey: Fortunately, every problem in Scientology has an exact solution that can be purchased. In the case of handling PTS/SP situations, David Miscavige introduced and heavily promoted the PTS/SP course in 2001. This course was designed to teach the Scientologist how to “confront and shatter” suppression:

ptssp-e1460684937516

The course reiterates Hubbard’s policy that Scientologists “handle or disconnect” from those who are suppressive towards Scientology. “Handle or disconnect” means that the Scientologist must get the person to stop being critical. Hubbard argued that most people who are antagonistic simply do not have the correct data about Scientology. So the solution is to give the antagonistic person the correct data. In the 1990s, Scientology created the cassette tape and booklet “Can We Ever Be Friends?” to handle family and friends who were antagonistic to Scientology.

canweeverbefriends-e1460685390611

If that “handling” doesn’t work, then the Scientologist disconnects.

The Bunker: Hubbard came up with disconnection and other “ethics” ideas — such as Fair Game — in the mid-1960s, when he was really unhappy about breakaway groups. And there’s been a controversy over whether he changed his mind about it, isn’t there?

Jeffrey: Hubbard issued orders that cancelled some of these ethics policies, including disconnection and Fair Game, in 1968. But it’s clear that he did that specifically as a reaction to investigations of Scientology in Commonwealth countries and especially in New Zealand. This was done as a part of Hubbard’s disingenuous “Reform Code of 1968.″ However, none of these policies were ever actually cancelled in practice and continue to this day.

The Bunker: In fact, as we saw in documents from the Garcia federal fraud lawsuit that were made public yesterday, Scientology’s current “International Justice Chief” Mike Ellis cited a 1983 policy on Suppressive Persons to tell the Garcias that no current church members in good standing can have anything to do with them. There it is, in black and white — Scientologists today must disconnect, and it’s based on a 1983 official church policy.

Jeffrey: Exactly! Those documents made public yesterday were pretty amazing. And they were official communications from Scientology’s top justice official.

The Bunker: Well, prepare yourself, Jeff, because as soon as you cite that 1983 policy, some former church members who still revere Hubbard will tell you that there’s a problem with it. Hubbard went into permanent hiding in February 1980, and Dan Koon and others who were around then tell us that Hubbard actually had nothing to do with that policy (even if the church today relies on it to force disconnection). Koon and others insist that Hubbard cancelled disconnection in 1968, and the evil David Miscavige brought it back, against Hubbard’s wishes.

However, we showed Dan that, in fact, a 1973 policy, written by Hubbard, endorses disconnection. And when we asked readers if they knew of any acts of disconnection that occurred between 1968, when it was supposedly cancelled, and 1980, when Hubbard went into hiding, we received dozens of responses. The “indies” might have rosy memories of the 1970s, but based on what we heard from our readers, disconnection was definitely part of the Scientology 1970s experience, and with Hubbard fully in control, even if it’s more prevalent today under Miscavige.

Jeffrey: There’s no doubt Hubbard endorsed disconnection. And his warning that the Scientologist can lose all spiritual advancement to an SP plays right into the “me, me, me” egocentricism of the Scientologist. In the thinking of the Scientologist, disconnection is a “pro-survival” act in which the Scientologist is declaring that his or her spiritual progress is infinitely more important than any family relationship or friendship. This was made abundantly clear in the disconnection letter that Cindy Plahuta received from a friend, which you published here in 2013:

Dear Cindy: After our conversation today I went to the MAA to get ethics handling because I had some attention on what we had discussed concerning the people that have left the Church. The MAA informed me that you have a connection to a known SP in Denver, that you are no longer in good standing with the Church, and you are pending a justice action. I found this out after I left a message on your phone that I had good news. You and I have been close friends for so long Cindy that this is very difficult for me. However, I don’t want to jeopardize my standing with the Church and eligibility for Solo NOTS, or my relationship with my children and friends, and definitely don’t agree with the people that have left our Church. Therefore, I have no choice but to follow LRH Policy, which is very specific concerning this, and can no longer communicate with you until you get this situation handled. I hope you will please contact OSA or the MAA here at Flag to get this resolved as soon as possible.

[MAA = Master at Arms; Solo NOTs = New Era Dianetics for Operating Thetans, high-level church processing that is done alone on the e-meter; LRH = L. Ron Hubbard; OSA = Office of Special Affairs, Scientology’s intelligence wing.]

The writer of this disconnection letter makes it clear that she will not be allowed onto SOLO NOTs if she stays friends with Cindy. Worse, the writer states that her relationship with her family or friends in the Church would be at risk if she stayed connected to Cindy.

Hubbard feared PTS Scientologists because they were capable of suppressive acts. In 1965 he wrote: “Until the environment is handled, nothing beneficial can happen. Quite the contrary. In the most flagrant of such cases, the Scientologist’s case worsened and the suppressive person or group sent endless distorted or false reports to press, police, authorities and the public in general.”

We now begin to zero in on Hubbard’s real fear and that of his Church: The PTS Scientologist is likely to tell an “SP” what is really going on inside the organization, which then can get out to the press and the public. Hubbard additionally makes it a “high crime” for any Scientologist to report the church to police or the courts.

The Bunker: Heaven forbid.

Jeffrey: Disconnection — it’s information control.

The Bunker: Of course it is. And that’s why the firehose of information that is the Internet has proved to be such a disastrous calamity for Scientology.

Jeffrey: And the more Scientologists are exposed to it, the more they’re voting with their feet and leaving.

The Bunker: Thank you for digging into these idea for us, Jeffrey. We really feel for the families that have been torn apart by this toxic policy — many of whom never speak up for fear of retaliation. For them, we’ll keep exposing these practices for what they are.

Note: Bunker community member Vistaril had some heated responses to my article in the comments section. We republish them here along with my reply to his allegations; we also include Douglas D. Douglas’ comments:

Vistaril • 12 hours ago

Hubbard issued orders that cancelled some of these ethics policies, including disconnection and Fair Game, in 1968 . . .

Not so.

The policy of Disconnection was NEVER cancelled. What L Ron Hubbard did was switch the requirement for Disconnection from the Cult to the person. Previously, it was Scientology itself which ordered and required Disconnection but, after the New Zealand enquiry, it became the responsibility of the individual Scientologist(s) concerned to disconnect. This allowed Scientology to say Disconnection was the “choice” of the person concerned. The fact that if a person did not Disconnect their “eternity” would be entirely compromised and they, along with anyone they remained connected to would be hammered for defiantly remaining in a PTS state, was not made apparent to people not in Scientology. As for “Fair Game”, the policies and practises of Fair Game were also NEVER cancelled. What was cancelled was the use of the term “Fair Game”; everything else was okay so long as it was not called “Fair Game”.

C’mon, dude, you know this. Why repeat Free Indie Dependent Zone myths?

Douglas D. Douglas Vistaril • 12 hours ago
C’mon, dude, and don’t quote people out of context. Here’s what he said:
Hubbard issued orders that cancelled some of these ethics policies, including disconnection and Fair Game, in 1968. But it’s clear that he did that specifically as a reaction to investigations of Scientology in Commonwealth countries and especially in New Zealand. This was done as a part of Hubbard’s disingenuous “Reform Code of 1968.″ However, none of these policies were ever actually cancelled in practice and continue to this day.

Vistaril Douglas D. Douglas • 12 hours ago

Augustine says the policies were never cancelled “in practise”. They were never cancelled at all.

Douglas D. Douglas Vistaril • 11 hours ago

I cannot understand your insistence on parsing the semantics of what he is saying. LRH did cancel “some of these ethics policies” in 1968. For Indies who want to believe in LRH and his Tech, this is as much as they want to know. But as Augustine (and others) have pointed out, it was a sham: “none of these policies were ever actually cancelled in practice and continue to this day.”

To criticize Augustine by quoting him out of context is just as absurd as quoting LRH out of context in order to confirm that the Tech was pure before Miscavige sullied it.

Vistaril Douglas D. Douglas • 11 hours ago

Augustine says the policies “were cancelled”. They were not, and he knows it. Its hardly semantics when Augustine’s statement is demonstrably false. Here, you are playing semantics and cherry picking from Augustine’s statement when you quote “some of these ethics policies”. The full statement, and the one which I am pointing out is false is: “Hubbard issued orders that cancelled some of these ethics policies, including disconnection and Fair Game, in 1968.” Emphasis mine. I couldn’t give a flying fling at a rolling doughnut what the Indie Dependents want to believe. I’m more interested in the truth being discussed, that’s the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
- - Douglas D. Douglas Vistaril • 11 hours ago
    
    I included Augustine’s complete statement, and it is readily available for anyone reading the article accompanying this discussion thread. If it is your intention to foster disagreement, then you are succeeding admirably.
  - J. Swift Vistaril • 2 hours ago
    
    Vistaril, you apparently have no competence as a researcher.
    
    If you are able to to locate an extremely obscure website called “Google” you could find these things out for yourself. As I stated in my article, Hubbard cancelled Fair Game, Disconnection, and Security Checks as PR measures during the intensive official investigations of Scn in the Commonwealth countries. As I also stated, these practices were never actually cancelled in the Church of Scientology. I don’t know what you’re carping about.
    
    The Code of Reform was published on 29 November 1968:
    
    THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA
    THE HUBBARD SCIENTOLOGY ORGANISATION IN AUCKLAND
    Founder: L. Ron Hubbard
    Cable: Scientology
    Telephone: 362-921-xxxx
    
    150 Hobson Street, Auckland, New Zealand.
    
    CODE OF REFORM
    
    1. Cancellation of disconnection as a relief to those suffering from familial suppression.
    
    2. Cancellation of security checking as a form of confession.
    
    3. Prohibition of any confessional materials being written down.
    
    4. Cancellation of declaring people Fair Game.
    
    If you yourself have observed any further aspect of this Church’s activities that you feel calls for reform, please let us know.
    
    29 November 1968
    
    THE ACADEMY OF SCIENTOLOGY
    THE HUBBARD GUIDANCE CENTRE
    Board of Directors:
    Leaka Marenkovich, President
    Julia Lewis Salmen (U.S.A.), President for U.S.A.
    Anthony John Dunleavy, Vice-President
    Kenneth Milton Salmen (U.S.A.), Vice-President
    Kenneth Eric Urquart, Secretary
    Denny Louise Fields (U.S.A.), Secretary
    Resident Agent (N.Z.), Eunice Henley-Smith
    (A non-profit corporation in U.S.A. Registered in New Zealand)
    
    *****
    In the Dumbleton-Powles Report (New Zealand 1969), the commissioners wrote that Hubbard had cancelled his Fair Game Law in HCO PL 7 March 1969:
    
    in his [Hubbard’s] HCO policy direction of 7 March 1969, has this to say:
    
    We are going in the direction of mild ethics and involvement with the Society…. The policy which cancels the condition of disconnection, the cancellation of the fair game law, cancellation of Sec. checks and no records allowed of confessional materials plus the new Code of a Scientologist have accomplished every reform suggested to us.
    
    Let’s get the show on the road.
    
    Dumbleton-Powles Report: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cow…
J. Swift Vistaril • 4 hours ago

Vistaril, Hubbard did in fact cancel Disconnection as a policy; albeit Disconnection was never cancelled in practice. Two documents from 1968 and 1969 written by Hubbard establish this fact.

1. HCO PL 15 March 1968:

2. Hubbard’s letter to New Zealand authorities investigating Scientology:

In the same year Hubbard “cancelled: Fair Game and Sec Checking as policies. However, neither were cancelled in actual practice. Below is the PL where Hubbard abolished sec checking. Hubbard’s workaround here was to rename sec checks “integrity processing.”

HUBBARD COMMUNICATIONS OFFICE
Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex

HCO POLICY LETTER OF 26 AUGUST 1968
BPI
Auditor

SECURITY CHECKS ABOLISHED

The practice of security checking from security check lists like the “Joburg” has been abolished.

There are several reasons for this:

1. We have no interest in the secrets and crimes of people and no use for them.

2. Security checking is often done without regard to the point where the person feels better and so became overrun.

3. Security checking is often done in disregard of the state of a person’s case.

4. Low level cases do not react on actual crimes and so the “security” furnished is often a false security.

5. There is public criticism of security checking as a practice.

6. The existence of lists of crimes in folders often makes it necessary to destroy the folders which may contain other technical data which is constructive and valuable.

7. If a person is a criminal or has overt acts which affect his case, and speaks of them to an auditor of his own volition, the auditor is bound by the Auditor’s Code not to publish, use or reveal them.

Nothing in this policy letter alters standard grade processing or rudiments.

L. RON HUBBARD
Founder
LRH:js.cden
Copyright © 1968
by L. Ron Hubbard
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Why the Church of Scientology Gets Away with Flagrantly Abusing and Harming its Own Members and How to Stop It

(Note: This article was originally published at Tony Ortega’s Underground Bunker and is republished here with a new title)

inquisition-wheel

Jeffrey Augustine is back, continuing on his investigation of Scientology’s governing documents and what they mean for members and ex-members. This time, Jeff tells us about the thing every ex-member of Scientology should do as soon as he or she has decided to leave…

In America, freedom of religion is typically considered in positive terms: Americans are free to embrace or reject religion as they please. Monotheism, polytheism, pantheism, animism, and every other religious form under the sun are allowed to be practiced in America without any interference from the government.

Churches, temples, mosques, and ashrams are free to determine their own internal form of government, rules, and discipline. The government is prohibited from intruding into these ecclesiastical matters. The First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution guarantees these rights. In the legal case Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese, Etc. v. Milivojevich, the Court stated:

“…the First and Fourteenth Amendments permit hierarchical religious organizations to establish their own rules and regulations for internal discipline and government, and to create tribunals for adjudicating disputes over these matters. When this choice is exercised and ecclesiastical tribunals are created to decide disputes over the government and direction of subordinate bodies, the Constitution requires that civil courts accept their decisions as binding upon them.”

So long as the “rules and regulations for internal discipline and government” do not violate US law, the members of a religious group can be subjected to harsh ecclesiastical tribunals, severe punishments, and even the humiliating public disclosure of their sins and the US courts cannot do anything about it. This is the dark side of “freedom of religion.”

A really clear example of this is a court case that I think has a lot of relevance for Scientology. It was the 1984 dispute known as Guinn v. Church of Christ of Collinsville, which was ultimately decided by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

Marian Guinn joined the Church of Christ in 1974 in the small community of Collinsville, Oklahoma, where up to five percent of the local population belonged to the church. Several years into her membership in the church, Guinn, a single woman, began dating the town’s mayor. The mayor was a divorced man, and according to the Church of Christ, the only form of divorce condoned by the Bible was one caused by adultery, which was not the situation in the mayor’s case. So the church considered Guinn’s relationship with the mayor to be “unbiblical,” and the church elders demanded a meeting with her.

In that meeting, Guinn admitted that she was sleeping with the mayor, compounding the problem in the eyes of the elders. They told her to end the relationship, and she promised to repent. In a second meeting, the elders demanded that Guinn appear before the assembled church membership and publicly confess to the sin of fornication. Instead, she stopped attending the church.

So the elders then drove to her house for a third confrontation, and again demanded that she make a public pronouncement of her sin. They then sent her a letter warning that if she didn’t do what she was told, she would be withdrawn from the fellowship, and she realized that the elders intended to inform the congregation of her deeds. She sought legal advice, and her lawyer sent the elders a letter advising the not to discuss her private life with the congregation. Guinn also sent a letter making it clear that she had left the church and had rescinded her consent to be governed by its rules. This turned out to be crucial.

A few days later, the elders ignored her request to respect her privacy and read out a letter about her involvement with the mayor to the congregation. They also encouraged the church members to contact Guinn and ask her to repent. When Guinn met with one of the elders and again asked that her privacy be respected, he told her that her attempt to withdraw herself from the congregation was “doctrinally impossible” — as far as they were concerned, they still governed her and she could never leave on her own.

Guinn’s private life was not only discussed at her church, but the facts of her “sin” were also sent to four other local Church of Christ congregations to be read aloud to the members.

Marian Guinn then filed suit against the church for invasion of privacy and emotional distress. The Church of Christ argued in court that because its rules do not permit its members to ever resign or depart from the Church, the Church’s rules applied to Guinn even after she resigned. (A jury eventually awarded her $390,000.)

The Church of Christ, like the Church of Scientology, would like its members to think of it as the Hotel California: You can check out any time you want but you can never leave. However, this is simply not correct. The Guinn court offered an instructional and highly valuable ruling:

Just as freedom to worship is protected by the First Amendment, so also is the liberty to recede from one’s religious allegiance. In Torcaso v. Watkins the Court reaffirmed that neither a state nor the federal government can force or influence a person to go or to remain away from church against one’s will or to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. The First Amendment clearly safeguards the freedom to worship as well as the freedom not to worship.

As an aside, what this tells us is that the Scientologist who wishes to resign from the Church in order to escape its oppression and abuse is free to do so by sending the Church a written statement of resignation that includes a specific withdrawal of one’s consent to be governed by Scientology’s doctrinal rules. (And please note that I am not an attorney; this article may not be relied upon for legal advice. Please consult a licensed attorney in your state for specific legal advice about your particular situation.)

The point here is that anyone desiring to resign from a church and withdraw their consent to be governed by the rules of that church must make a positive act. This means writing a letter to appropriate church officials specifically stating one’s resignation and withdrawal of consent. In the case of the Church of Scientology one needs to resign from the IAS, the Church of Scientology International, and all Orgs where one has signed membership services contracts and had services; the positive act should be as broad and sweeping as possible.

The court record in Guinn is specific on the point of withdrawing consent (emphasis mine):

The Elders had never been confronted with a member who chose to withdraw from the church. Because disciplinary proceedings against Parishioner had already commenced when she withdrew her membership, the Elders concluded their actions could not be hindered by her withdrawal and would be protected by the First Amendment. Parishioner relies on her September 24, 1981 handwritten letter to the Elders in which she unequivocally stated that she withdrew her membership and terminated her consent to being treated as a member of the Church of Christ communion. By common-law standards we find her communication was an effective withdrawal of her membership and of her consent to religious discipline.

Consent is the crux of the matter in terms of religion in America. Once an individual consents to be governed by a church’s rules, that individual is fully subject to the rules and the punishments, however harsh they may be, for breaking those rules.

Once an individual resigns from their church and withdraws their consent to be governed by church rules, however, the church no longer has any rights to punish them. As the Church Discipline blog wrote of the Guinn matter:

This bears repeating. Once a withdraw has occurred the First Amendment protections don’t belong to the church, rather they belong to the individual. All religious activity in the United States is consensual, a person who publicly claims not to be a member of a church is legally not a member of that church and church discipline cannot continue without consent. A church attempting to discipline a person that has withdrawn can be found to be engaging in a form of harassment.

Where the Church of Scientology radically differs from every other church in America is that it has a malicious intake system in which new members are systematically stripped of their civil rights when they sign a series of waivers.

In a previous article in the Bunker, I laid out the four basic contracts the Church of Scientology uses to legally assert its First and Fourteenth Amendment religious protections against its own members.

In business terminology, the Church of Scientology “front loads” its membership terms and conditions. What this means is that Scientology ensures that it is legally protected at the outset from any potential or conceivable future legal consequences from new members by using secular contract law against new members. These contracts legally position the Church deeply behind the religious protections of the US Constitution.

The brutally honest answer as to why the Church of Scientology has gotten away with what it does to its members is simple: Scientologists consented to it. Even if that consent was coerced, not understood, given under compulsion or the threat of an SP Declare and disconnection, that consent allowed the Church to become the beast it is today. When Scientologists no longer consent to the Church’s brutality and abuse they leave by their positive acts of resignation or escape.

The Church of Scientology is like a rigged casino: Thanks to its Constitutional protections, the odds are absolutely and irrevocably stacked in favor of the house. Like all rigged casinos, people will have some wins in Scientology; but over time the house takes everything. That is how the game is designed. The only way out is to resign from the Church and to withdraw one’s consent to be governed by the Church of Scientology’s rules.

Beyond withdrawing your personal consent, the larger solution is to demand that the IRS and Congress act to revoke Scientology’s 501(c)3 tax exemption. Once Scientology loses its tax exemption — and this will happen — Scientology will be a business subject to civil and criminal penalties. As it now stands, Scientology is an evil Cult that gets away with murder. This must stop.

— Jeffrey Augustine

Scientology-Based Compton scam rehab and ‘literacy crusade’ have vanished since raid

(Note: authored by Jeffrey Augustine this piece was originally published on the Underground Bunker and is reposted here for archival purposes)

[Isaac Hayes (1942-2008) tells an audience about becoming the international spokesman for the World Literacy Crusade]

Tony Ortega: “We could not have broken the big story of felony charges against Scientologists operating a Scientology drug rehab clinic in Compton without the help of our sources. We’ve had invaluable help here in New York with the Underground Bunker’s man on the scene, Jeffrey Augustine, who lives in Los Angeles.”

“This week, he volunteered to get some looks at the venues we’ve been talking about. The story we revealed on Thursday was that several Scientologists are accused of running a Narconon clinic out of the World Literacy Crusade, a longtime Scientology front in Compton. Arrangements were made with three prominent local educators (since fired) to provide high school kids to the “clinic,” where they were put through Scientology exercises, and the clinic then billed Medi-Cal as if the students had been treated for drug addictions. According to court documents, this scam was running at least from 2010 to 2013 (but we found evidence that it had been using foster children as early as 2005). The clinic was raided by a state law enforcement agency in March 2014. But what’s happened to the clinic, and the World Literacy Crusade, since then? Jeffrey Augustine is our man on the scene.”

With the news of Dr. Hanan Islam being criminally charged for Medi-Cal fraud, I decided to drive over to Compton to visit the two Scientology-related entities where she worked, with Rev. Alfreddie Johnson Jr. (who has not been arrested or charged with a crime): World Literacy Crusade (3209 N. Alameda St, Suite B) and American Health and Education Clinics (3209 N. Alameda St, Suite B, sometimes listed as Suite C).

3209 N. Alameda Street is located in a well-maintained, single-story industrial park. Designed for light manufacturing, industrial distribution, or service and repair companies, this is not a location one would associate with a rehab clinic, church, or literacy crusade. I mention this point because, as a sales engineer, I called on manufacturers and distributors for 30 years and had many small clients in these sorts of industrial parks in Los Angeles. The choice of location seemed odd to me. It is what Scientologists would call an “out point.” Adding to this out point is the fact that Rev. Johnson’s “True Faith Christian Center” is also, according to online records, located in Suite B. However, in 2013 the Reverend Johnson announced on Facebook that he had moved his church to the Hubbard Dianetics Community Center attached to the new Scientology “Ideal Org” in Inglewood:

Despite being listed at the N. Alameda address in Internet searches, Rev. Johnson’s World Literacy Crusade is also no longer located at the Compton address. The California Secretary of State website shows World Literacy Crusade to be a suspended entity:

A search of IRS 990 forms shows that the World Literacy Crusade today is a “doing business as” (dba) of Scientologist Holly Haggerty’s nonprofit Community Learning Center Inc. located in Clearwater, Florida (EIN 59-3521809).

At some point, Rev. Johnson’s World Literacy Crusade was subsumed into the Community Learning Center Inc. But in that organization’s latest tax return, for 2014, there is no mention of Rev. Johnson or the Crusade.

World Literacy Crusade has essentially vanished legally. Despite this, the official Church of Scientology website makes this claim for Johnson’s group:

Today, World Literacy Crusade operates programs in schools, community tutoring centers and juvenile detention facilities. It has grown into an international movement, with volunteers from lands as far-flung as Australia, Greece and Africa providing individuals with the basic tools to become literate, responsible, self-sufficient and employable. After completing the literacy program, 87 percent of teens involved in gangs and drug use made the decision to relinquish their former lifestyle and embark on a productive and ethical path.

While Scientology makes that confident claim about Rev. Johnson’s Crusade, the reverend himself has apparently moved on to a new enterprise — doing business in the United Arab Emirates:

While World Literacy Crusade has vanished from Compton, I also found, on my visit, that Hanan Islam’s American Health and Education Clinics is no longer located at the N. Alameda facility. I spoke to the gentleman who today rents Suite B. He is an industrial distributor who moved in about six months ago and told me Suite B was unoccupied when he moved in. I have blurred the name of his company in this photo of Suite B:

Suite C, which also was listed as an address for American Health and Education Clinics, is empty and the signage has been removed.

A peek inside the window at the former location of American Health and Education Clinics reveals nothing more than a lonely wall socket:

As with most things Scientology, the seedy reality belies the PR: Behold the former global headquarters of the World Literacy Crusade and American Health and Education Clinics:

And here’s what it looked like in better times, from a WLC video…

American Health and Education Clinics’ website has also been taken down, and the California Secretary of State website shows American Health and Education Clinics LLC to be a Delaware corporation whose California status is, apparently, forfeited:

The California data reveals American Health and Education Clinics LLC to be a Delaware corporation with a very impressive address in prestigious Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. This Chadds Ford address is also that of The Brandywine Companies, a real estate brokerage and financial services company. Brandywine’s “People” webpage shows the founder, chairman, and the CEO of Brandywine to be Scientologist Bruce E. Moore; Moore’s Scientology service completions are extensive. Moore and his Brandywine Company are listed as members of Scientology’s business front, WISE, in 2001 and 2004.

What is Bruce Moore’s tie to Hanan Islam? It’s not clear. One thing is certain when dealing with the Church of Scientology: Things are never as they seem.

A revealing look inside the warped ‘kingdom’ of Scientology leader David Miscavige

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

A revealing look inside the warped ‘kingdom’ of Scientology leader David Miscavige

Frequent contributor Jeffrey Augustine is back with another fun dive into Scientology’s own publications and documents to show us what Scientology promises, and what it actually delivers…

Issue 149 of Scientology’s Impact magazine, the official magazine of the International Association of Scientologists (IAS), repeats a hackneyed old IAS cliché: The IAS is “Guaranteeing Mankind’s Freedom.” As the leading IAS member, David Miscavige is given the cover of Impact and is shown doing his best at a recent event to guarantee that freedom for mankind.

Inside, we learn that the IAS is a “kingdom,” which makes Miscavige its mighty king…

In addition to guaranteeing mankind’s freedom, what else does IAS King Miscavige and his legions stand for? What do they represent?

We turn to additional pages of this recent Impact magazine for answers.

We learn that the IAS claims to be upholding human rights:

And yet what does Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard say about rights?

“In any event, 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.” – L. Ron Hubbard, Science of Survival, 1989 Ed., p. 145

“Perhaps at some distant date only the unaberrated person will be granted civil rights before law. Perhaps the goal will be reached at some future time when only the unaberrated person can attain to and benefit from citizenship. These are desirable goals…” – L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health (1987 edition, p.534)

“Somebody some day will say ‘this is illegal.’ By then be sure the orgs [Scientology organizations] say what is legal or not.” – L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 4 January 1966, “LRH Relationship to Orgs”

“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… 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.” – Lecture by L. Ron Hubbard, “Future Org Trends” delivered January 9th 1962.

Also, in terms of upholding the civil and legal rights of Scientologists, we have amply documented the ways in which the Church uses malicious contracts to strip Scientologists of their fundamental rights. This is Hubbard policy as we saw in a previous article, How L. Ron Hubbard devised Scientology’s most diabolical legal mechanisms.

Next, we notice that The Kingdom of the IAS claims to be “ending abuse:”

And yet, despite the IAS’ claim to be “ending abuses,” our article last week on why no one should ever join the Sea Org, showed how Scientology’s lawyers are even now defending the Sea Org’s forced abortion policy – and the rest of the Church’s atrocious conduct — by citing a chilling judicial ruling that protects barbarous ecclesiastical discipline:

The Kingdom of the IAS also claims to be fighting “legal kidnapping:”

But the Church of Scientology uses an infamous “kidnap contract” to legally kidnap and indefinitely imprison Scientologists who become psychotic (Type III):

The Church of Scientology also makes Sea Org members sign the same waivers of human and legal rights before legally kidnapping them into the RPF for years or decades of imprisonment:

The Kingdom of the IAS says it is opposed to people being experimented on without their consent…

But the Church of Scientology makes people sign waivers and contracts so it can avoid any responsibility whatsoever for giving Scientologists informed consent about anything. The Church of Scientology routinely orders and conducts brutal “sec checks” (interrogations) without the consent of Scientologists. The Church’s Office of Special Affairs culls preclear folders for blackmail and dirt without the consent, permission or knowledge of those whose folders are culled. Essentially, Scientology are not given informed consent about the risks and dangers to their person, sanity, finances, or families in the Church.

We also learn that the Kingdom of the IAS protest slave wages in Bangladesh:

Members of Scientology’s Sea Org are supposed to be paid about $50 per week for 112-hour, seven-day work weeks. But if gross income (GI) is down in an Org, Sea Org members are lucky to get half pay. It is not uncommon for Sea Org members to go for weeks without any pay at all. IAS King Miscavige needs to clean up his own house before decrying slave wages in Bangladesh or anywhere else.

Finally, the Kingdom of the IAS says it knows the “Dark Secret” of American schools:

Meanwhile, the Dark Secret of the Church of Scientology is that it considers itself a master race group called Homo Novis.

The Dark Secret is that the Hubbard’s writings call for genocide against those who are 2.0 or lower on the tone scale:

Despite the master race agenda of the Church of Scientology to take over the planet by processing “homo saps” into Homo Novi and destroying all those lower than 2.0, the Kingdom of the IAS assures readers in issue 149 it is “Reviving Humanity.”

This claim that the IAS is “Reviving Humanity” fundamentally contradicts L. Ron Hubbard’s view that people are:

— Hypnotized zombies

— Unaware of the 75 million-year-old catastrophe whose effects still enslave humanity

— Crippled by hundreds of thousands or millions of body thetans

— Controlled by alien mental implants

— Aberrated by their reactive minds

— Unable to read, study, or learn properly

— Unable to confront and handle the MEST (physical) universe

— Victimized and secretly controlled by the evil race of “whole track” (trillion-year-old) evil Psychiatrists

— Overwhelmed by their own Human Emotion and Reaction (HE & R)

In Hubbard’s view, humanity is defective and beyond redemption without Scientology. This is why Hubbard wrote that Scientology must process humans into Homo Novi, the new and superior Scientology Übermensch who suffer none of the human liabilities and, in fact, are Operating Thetans possessed of the extraordinary superhuman powers promised by Hubbard and his Church of Scientology.

Issue 149 ends with what could be considered squirreling (unauthorized changes to Hubbard’s words) by David Miscavige and company. This occurs when it announced that Scientologists are in dire peril and that the IAS is the only safe road out:

This claim that the IAS is the only safe road out stands in sharp contradistinction to Founder Hubbard’s words in Safeguarding Technology (HCO PL 14 February 1965) that the only way out of the labyrinth is to follow the “closely taped path of Scientology.” It can be argued from this HCO PL that David Miscavige is squirreling by taking Scientologists down a tunnel called the IAS:

Does it matter if a Scientologist still in the Church is going down Hubbard’s closely taped path or is following Miscavige’s IAS status tunnel? Not really, for both paths produce the exact same result:

View post on imgur.com

— Jeffrey Augustine

If the Sea Org doesn’t legally exist, how does it run Scientology?

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

Last week, Underground Bunker contributor Jeffrey Augustine began explaining to us the essential structure of the fiction known as “the Church of Scientology.” This week, he dives even deeper, examining how the Sea Org really runs things even though it doesn’t exist, legally. Confused? That’s exactly the point. Scientology’s byzantine internal structure was intended to make it difficult to follow lines of responsibility as a defense against lawsuits or government investigations. But sense can be made of things, and we’re fortunate that Jeffrey has this stuff down cold…

Nothing in the Church of Scientology is as it seems. As we covered last week, there is no single entity known as the “Church of Scientology.” Rather, as the Church told the IRS in 1992, the term “Church of Scientology” is one of convenience:

The Church of Scientology describes itself as consisting of an “ecclesiastical hierarchy of churches” in which all of its churches are legally separate religious corporations. So who exactly manages and operates this transnational, multibillion dollar ecclesiastical hierarchy of Scientology churches on a daily basis? We focus this week on the Church of Scientology’s Sea Organization – the Sea Org — and its central role in Scientology. While the Church of Scientology likes to call the Sea Org its clergy, we will see that the Sea Org is not what it seems to be.

The Church of Scientology, tax exemption, and Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s ongoing pattern of financial misconduct, megalomania, spying on his enemies, and Scientology’s internal culture of brutality are intrinsic to the creation of the Sea Org. From Scientology’s founding in 1952 until 1967, the movement was managed and operated by staff members and volunteers. These people received very little in the way of pay, worked long hours, and often had to “moonlight” by working a second job to make ends meet. After Hubbard purchased Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, Sussex, England in 1959, he took up residence there with his family and quickly expanded it to be the global center of Scientology’s growing international operations and the destination of massive cash flow.

The Hubbard Communications Office Worldwide was established at Saint Hill in 1959. This operation was proof of Scientology’s growth and burgeoning financial power. Telexes were sent and received around the clock from Saint Hill to an expanding global network of Scientology orgs, operatives, lawyers, and private investigators. In this period, it became apparent to Hubbard that he needed an inner circle of Scientology careerists, people who would devote their lives to Scientology and to him and have no other purposes. An inner circle of permanent and trusted Scientology careerists was needed to give the movement stability and provide standardization of Scientology’s technology and management policy amid international growth. Scientology careerists were also needed to manage and supervise the growing cadre of non-Scientology lawyers and private investigators needed to counter the rising tide of criticism from the media, lawsuits from former members, and investigations from governments in those countries where Scientology operated.

The IRS revoked the Church of Scientology’s tax exemption in 1967 after finding the Church of Scientology of California (CSC) – the original Mother Church – existed for the private financial benefit (inurement) of Founder L. Ron Hubbard. The IRS objected to Hubbard ordering the church pay him lavish royalties on the sale of his books, tapes, and auditing services. The IRS further took exception to Hubbard and his family living aboard a church-financed private yacht that sailed the Mediterranean at Hubbard’s will and pleasure, this while Ron and Mary Sue Hubbard were waited upon hand and foot by church staff.

Hubbard could have cleaned up his finances and those of the church in a way that would have allowed the church to file a new application for tax exemption. However, Hubbard chose not to clean things up financially or morally. Rather, in 1966 Hubbard created the Sea Project and purchased a small flotilla of ships. In 1967 L. Ron Hubbard morphed the Sea Project into the Sea Org and appointed himself Commodore of the Sea Org. Hubbard took to international waters to avoid lawsuits, the service of summons, and the scrutiny of the taxing authorities in those countries where Scientology operated. Hubbard used the Sea Org and a global system of land and sea based telexes to run his empire.

Sea Org members signed billion-year contracts to serve Scientology and devote themselves to L. Ron Hubbard. Sea Org members had no other purpose than to serve where needed. No case on post was allowed. The Sea Org embodied the unquestioning fanaticism and the wanton disregard for “wog laws and customs” Hubbard required.

To fortify his Scientology empire, Commodore Hubbard additionally created the Guardian’s Office on March 1, 1966 and appointed his wife Mary Sue as the First Guardian. In her role as Guardian, Mary Sue was in charge of the Guardian’s Office and second in command of Scientology, subordinate only to Executive Director L. Ron Hubbard. In November of 1968, Hubbard issued the following policy letter: “The Intelligence Section has been formed and placed in Division 7, Dept 21, Office of the Guardian. It is under the direction of the Guardian WW [worldwide].” The GO became the in-house intelligence bureau of Scientology. As such, the GO was tasked by Hubbard with investigating and silencing Scientology’s enemies. Failing to silence them, the GO was tasked with destroying them per Hubbard’s imperious diktat of Fair Game.

The Snow White Program (1973-1977) was a Guardian’s Office intelligence operation that became the largest infiltration of the US federal government in its history. The Church was the subject of a massive multi-location FBI raid on July 8, 1977. Mary Sue Hubbard went to prison along with ten others in the Guardian’s Office. The years long fallout from the Snow White Program allowed Sea Org member David Miscavige and his clique to destroy the Guardian’s Office, drive Mary Sue Hubbard into exile, and push L. Ron Hubbard further into hiding and isolation.

As “Action Chief” David Miscavige’s job was to get things done for the Commodore; Miscavige’s ability to operate on an unimpeded basis both inside and outside of the Sea Org showed that “Scientology command channels” had no meaning or relevance to Miscavige; he was a law unto himself in the Church and reported only to Hubbard. Moreover, as the GO had been morphed into the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) and merged into the Sea Org, Miscavige now controlled Scientology’s nefarious intelligence apparatus.

In the early 1980’s, Scientology’s attorneys created the CST-RTC-CSI franchise system that exists today. After the Commodore died in seclusion on January 24, 1986, Sea Org Captain David Miscavige emerged in a very public way as Chairman of the Board, Religious Technology Center. At the time of Hubbard’s death, the vast majority of public Scientologists had never heard of David Miscavige or RTC. If anything, Sea Org member David Miscavige was notorious for his role in the infamous Mission Holder Massacre of 1982.

In his Last Will and Testament, Hubbard left the bulk of his personal fortune and his vast and financially lucrative intellectual properties – books, tapes, trademarks, copyrights, service marks, signature, etc. – to the Church of Scientology. However, Hubbard stipulated in his Will that his intellectual property could only be owned by tax exempt Scientology churches.

Thus, David Miscavige’s main focus was to a) use whatever means were necessary to secure and consolidate his power as the new and unchallenged Scientology Dictator, and b) gain tax exemption for CST-RTC-CSI and all other Scientology churches. Assisting Miscavige were some of the best tax lawyers in the US; his dedicated clique of loyal Sea Org members; an army of private investigators; and an unlimited budget.

November 1992, Washington DC: Secret and intense negotiations between Church of Scientology officials and IRS officials bogged down over many issues. The IRS wanted far more precise answers from the church concerning the question of inurement and what exactly the Sea Org is. The IRS asked Question 3-a:

Source: Church of Scientology, Nov. 23, 1992: Third Set of Responses to the IRS — page 19 ¶ 1ff

The Church of Scientology replied:

op. cit. page 19 ¶ 3-4

The Church of Scientology thus characterized the Sea Org as:
— A religious commitment, specifically a commitment of one billion years.
— A religious order.
— A religious order having no corporate form, no property, no assets, and no personnel who administer the Sea Org.

Quite possibly fearing that the IRS would go past a word it did not understand and thus suffer from a deadly “misunderstood word” – a phenomena Hubbard warned of as being the root cause of failing to understand his invented Scientology terminology or anything else — the Church of Scientology became typically pedantic in elaborating upon its use of the word “organization”:

op. cit. page 19 ¶ 6

This clarification offered the IRS even more information about the Sea Org:
— The Sea Org does not have an org board.
— The Sea Org does not have a command channels chart.
— The Sea Org has no secular existence and is neither incorporated nor unincorporated.

Poised precariously on the edge of a nightmarish abyss one billion dollars deep, the church next, and very uncharacteristically so, told the IRS the actual truth about the Sea Org. And keep in mind that the church expected a secret agreement with the IRS. It never expected that Scientologists or the general public would ever read the following words:

In 1992, therefore, the Church secretly admitted to the IRS “there is no such ‘organization’ as the Sea Organization.”

Sea Org members are, in legal terms, nothing more than Scientology staff members who have elected to become Scientology careerists for various reasons. Rather than signing a 2.5- or 5-year contract like regular staff members, Sea Org members sign a symbolic billion year pledge. In practical terms these days, however, Sea Org members sign five-year staff contracts at five year intervals. In exchange for their labor, Sea Org members receive a meager weekly stipend and subsistence-level room and board. For legal reasons, the Church classifies both the Sea Org and Staff as religious orders. The legal net effect of this classification is that workers in religious orders are exempt from minimum wage, overtime pay, and other worker protections.

The obvious question: Why does the Church of Scientology pretend that the Sea Org exists when there is no such organization as the Sea Organization?

While David Miscavige and his lawyers were secretly telling the IRS in 1992 that there is no such “organization” as the Sea Organization, the US Claims Court ruled in that same year in Church of Spiritual Technology v. The United States:

“…After carefully examining the record and attempting to understand the nominal corporate structure of Scientology it is apparent to the court that it is something of a deceptis visus. Real control is exercised less formally, but more tangibly, through an unincorporated association, the Sea Organization, more commonly referred to as the Sea Org. This group, in the nature of a fraternity or clan, began with Scientologists who pledged themselves eternally to Scientology and who accompanied LRH in his sea-going spiritual research in the Mediterranean. In 1967, LRH and other Scientology staff moved onto a yacht, the Apollo, ‘to pursue [LRH’s] research of the upper levels of spiritual awareness.’ LRH and his Apollo staff performed Scientology services, managed the Scientology organization, and conducted spiritual research. If LRH could have been compared to Achilles, members of the Sea Org would have been his Myrmidons.

“The Sea Org appellation survives in Scientology as a distinction afforded to those Scientologists who have dedicated themselves to serving Scientology for the next billion years. It is described by CST as a way to distinguish Scientologists worthy of great deference and respect. Sea Org members are initiates into the highest levels of Scientology, and bear concomitant responsibilities.

“CST staff and officers are required to be members of the Sea Org, which gives CST the distinction of being a Sea Org Church. CSI, RTC, the Flag Service Org (which employs over 900 Sea Org members), the Saint Hill Churches, in short, all high ranking organizations are Sea Org Churches. Being a ‘Sea Org Church’ means that the church’s function is important enough to Scientology to warrant the attention of a significant number of Sea Org members.

“Sea Org rank nominally carries with it no ecclesiastical authority in the sense that Sea Org members still take orders from the ecclesiastical leaders of whichever Scientology organization they join. Upon closer analysis, however, this appears to be a distinction without a difference because in a Sea Org church the ecclesiastical authority necessarily resides in a Sea Org member.”

As mentioned in our previous essay, the Church of Scientology is composed of legally separate religious corporations. Ostensibly, each corporation is independent and responsible for its own affairs. This is stated in contracts Scientologists sign to receive services from these legally separate churches:

The deceptis visus cited by the US Claims Court in 1992 thus becomes apparent: In order to achieve a unity of command over the legally separate and independent Scientology religious corporations and their employees, the Sea Org exists as the secret governing body of the Church of Scientology. Therefore, whoever commands the Sea Org commands the Church of Scientology. This person, at present, is Captain David Miscavige.

The Sea Org is like the Mafia: It exists and it operates and controls the Church of Scientology, However, Scientology and its lawyers have made it virtually impossible to prove that Sea Org members derive any power whatsoever from their ceremonial ranks in a symbolic and legally nonexistent religious order. Again, to reiterate what we discussed in our last essay, David Miscavige’s attorney Wallace Jefferson declared in 2014 in Rathbun v. Miscavige et. al.:

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. The evidence Mrs. Rathbun has submitted fails to establish a prima facie basis for an alter ego finding, because none of it involves the defendants’ purported contacts relating to this suit, nor does any of it speak to the organizations’ current practices.

— Per David Miscavige and his attorneys, there is no such organization as the Sea Organization.
— Per David Miscavige’s attorney Wallace Jefferson, the Sea Org cannot have any members or volunteers.
— There can be no “religious commitment” to the Sea Org because the Sea Org does not exist to be committed to.
— The Sea Org cannot have volunteers as the Sea Org does not exist to volunteer for.
— The Sea Org has no address and does not exist anywhere. Neither you or I nor anyone else can mail a letter to the Sea Org.
— Sea Org members sign a “religious commitment” that is craftily worded so as to say nothing about the Sea Org being an actual organization:

The real details of the Sea Org are found in the staff contract Sea Org members sign:

The Sea Org controls the Church of Scientology and yet there is no such organization as the Sea Organization. If this seems contradictory and confusing it is because it was designed to be so. The only way any of this legal tissue of lies begins to make any possible sense is when considered in terms of L. Ron Hubbard’s words about the design and construction of the Church of Scientology:

“If anybody tried to attack a Scientology organization and pick it up and move it out of the perimeter or go over the hills with it today — this happened to us once — why, they would find themselves involved in the most confounded weird mass of legal — well, it is just like quicksand. Quicksand. It’s an interesting trick. Every time they shoot at you on the right side of a horse, you’re on the left side of the horse; and then they prove conclusively you’re on the left side of the horse, you prove conclusively that you’re on the right side of the horse. They go mad after a while. This is what the basic legal structure is.”

Marty Rathbun’s affidavit in Miscavige vs. Miscavige et. al. is very instructive in this regard. See the Underground Bunker’s in depth coverage: THE MARTY RATHBUN AFFIDAVIT: Scientology Leader David Miscavige Lied To Texas Court

— Jeffrey Augustine

Thank you, Jeff! Back in 2002, former Scientology spokesman Robert Vaughn Young, while he was battling cancer, put together an affidavit that comes to many of the same conclusions about how David Miscavige wields control of the church through his captain position in the Sea Org. That affidavit was to be submitted in a May 2002 court hearing in Lawrence Wollersheim’s long attempt to collect money he’d won in a judgment from Scientology. The morning Vaughn Young’s affidavit was to be heard in open court, the church showed up with a check for nearly $9 million to keep the hearing from happening and end the Wollersheim saga — many years after it had vowed never to pay “one thin dime to Wollersheim.” We wrote up that dramatic story for the Village Voice in 2008.

Could There Be a Jonestown Mass Suicide Inside the Church of Scientology?

In his post today at the Underground Bunker today, Tony Ortega posted a chilling audio clip of Jonestown leader Jim Jones talking about Scientology and Paulette Cooper. I repost the audio below. Please see the Underground Bunker for the article and comments.

The question “Could there be a Jonestown mass suicide inside the Church of Scientology?” has been asked repeatedly over the years. Some former members have said yes, some have said no, and some have said it could only happen at the International Base.

The Scientology Cult blog explored this question in 2010; the article is well worth reading.

My answer is congruent with the theme of the Scientology Money Project and is posted below the YT video.

There has already been a financial Jonestown in the Church of Scientology. News of the devastating financial mass suicide has largely been covered up by OSA’s use of threats, binding contracts, and disconnection against the victims.

The perpetrators and beneficiaries of the financial mass suicide are Scientology FSM’s, registrars, outside lawyers and PI’s, and anyone else who receives commissions or paychecks for their help in enabling the financial rape and slaughter and shuddering the victims into silence.

The Kool Aid used to effect the financial mass suicide is a sweet and lethal mixture of propaganda, lies, false promises of power and salvation, threats, gang bang regging, and a sense of false urgency that Scientology is under threat of immediate danger or destruction at the hands of the Psychs and various outside forces.

The tyrant and architect of the mass financial suicide is the true Scientology Cult leader whose name is Stats and whose scorched earth greed for money is insatiable.

Sacrifices must be made to the Scientology false idol named Stats every Thursday at 2:00 PM. Acceptable sacrifices are money, labor, and slavery, particularly young people sacrificed to the Sea Org.

Scientology’s human leaders live and die but Stats — a wily, calculating, and devastatingly efficient financial predator — will never die so long as he maintains his camouflage as a religion and is protected by IRS tax exemption.

The financial Jonestown mass suicide in Scientology is a propaganda-based slaughter that uses coercive and manipulative psycho-mechanics against its victims. The victims are led to believe they will obtain breathtaking results in this life and reincarnate into a better future life if they are willing to commit financial suicide right now by giving every last penny to the Church of Scientology, the IAS, and other greedy entities. This financial suicide is irreversible as the victims sign malicious contracts ensuring that all monies are nonrefundable and agreeing to never sue the Church.

The Church of Scientology induces its members to commit financial suicide even as it withholds from them the fact that it has billions of dollars in cash and hard assets, is not broke, and is not in any sort of imminent financial danger.

Stats is now using the IAS to systematically mop up the few remaining financially solvent status-seeking survivors by use of trophies and other pseudo-insouciant flatteries.

Surviving Scientology Radio Podcast With Mike Rinder Referenced in Garcia v. Scientology

10 February 2015: Tony Ortega today covered Church of Scientology attorney Bert Deixler’s deposition of Mike Rinder in Garcia v. Scientology. Deixler asked Mike Rinder about the most recent interview he did with me on Surviving Scientology Radio.

Because this interview is of such intense interest to Scientology’s notorious Office of Special Affairs and its $1000-per-hour attorneys, it certainly bears reposting here in the public interest — particularly in terms of what Mike Rinder noted about his deposition over at his blog, “It is not especially enlightening as it was aimed at seeking dead agent material for the HBO Documentary and little about the case. But some may be interested in reading it.”

Mike Rinder Interview Podcast link: http://www.survivingscientologyradio.com/podcast/surviving-scientology-episode-27-with-mike-rinder

YouTube format:

Part of the exchange between Deixler and Rinder:

Deixler: Did you give — did you give a podcast or participate in a podcast recently?
Rinder: A podcast? Is that — is that Jeffrey Augustine, you mean?
Deixler: Yes.
Rinder: Yeah, I participated in that.
Deixler: And am I correct to say that in the course of that podcast you encouraged people to leave the Church of Scientology?
Rinder: I don’t know. You have a transcript there? I don’t know. Maybe I did. I don’t know.
Deixler: You don’t remember?
Rinder: No, I don’t remember.
Deixler: Do you remember participating in the podcast with Mr. Augustine?
Rinder: Yes. I just told you I did.
Deixler: And how — how long ago was that?
Rinder: Two weeks ago.
Deixler: OK. Sometime in the end of 2014?
Rinder: Uh-huh.
Deixler: Yes?
Rinder: Yes.
Deixler: And you don’t recall whether you encouraged people to leave the Church of Scientology —
Rinder: No, I don’t.
Deixler: — is that fair? OK. Do you remember saying anything like “you’ll get a lot further for a lot less money with a lot less pain and suffering if you left the Church of Scientology”?
Rinder: Yes, I do recall something like that.
Deixler: OK. And the reason for your saying that was to discourage people from remaining in the Church of Scientology, correct?
Rinder: No. I think that the reason for saying that was to let people know that there was an alternative.
Deixler: And the alternative is this Independent Church of Scientology?
Rinder: No. The alternative is whatever someone is looking for to resolve their spiritual needs.
Deixler: You encourage people to leave the Church of Scientology and look elsewhere for satisfaction of their spiritual needs; is that fair?
Rinder: That’s fair.
Deixler: And that’s something you’ve undertaken over a considerable period of time since you yourself left the Church of Scientology, correct?
Rinder: Yes, that’s correct.
Deixler: In fact, that’s been one of your principal both occupations and hobbies since you’ve left the Church of Scientology; is that fair?
Rinder: I would neither call it an occupation nor a hobby.