A world without…people
I got a kick out of the Church’s latest PR effort; a video entitled “Workers Paradise,” showing the beautiful, lush, opulent facilities at Golden Era Productions.
In the first place – don’t you just love that title? When I first saw it, I thought it was an Anon gag, but no, that’s what the Church PR geniuses actually called it, “Workers Paradise.” Of course, to anyone but the isolated and brain-dead staff at the Int Base, that calls up images of Stalin’s slave labor gulags and purges. Exactly.
The heavily sarcasm-laden announcer voice drones on, saying things like “Does this look like a slave labor camp?” And he asks, “Who wouldn’t want to work in a place like this?” Well, apparently no one wants to work there, as the vast Base facilities are shown as entirely devoid of human life. It’s decidedly creepy.
Of course, we know the difficulties Miscavige has in showing actual people. The Base staff tend to be pale, stressed and unhealthy-looking. The only ones with nice tans are the deckies who have been working in the Swamp or out in the leach fields (septic drainage ponds). And if you show someone’s face on camera, they might blow the next day and appear on Nightline or AC 360 saying it was all lies. Of course you could hire actors to play the parts of happy staff, but then, think of Jason Beghe or Larry Anderson – they could show up on YouTube denouncing the Church.
So I guess it’s best for Miscavige to show no people. But, even beyond that, I realized it’s his ideal scene – a world without people. Just take a look at his glossy “Ideal Org” spreads in Impact Magazine or International Scientology News – page after page of beautiful, empty spaces.
And when I worked at the Base, that certainly seemed to be the direction it was going. When I arrived at the Base, there were nearly 1000 people there. When I left, there were less than 350. When Central Marketing was in LA, before we moved to the Base, there were 54 staff. By the time I left, in 2005, there were six people left in marketing.
I also saw this in Miscavige’s handling of Division 6es and Org public spaces. Used to be that there were actual people there in Div 6. When I got into Scientology, there were some brilliant intro lecturers, basic course sups, FSMs. An org used to take pride in having their best, most charismatic people on the public lines. But if there’s one thing Miscavige can’t stand, it’s sharing the spotlight with anyone. He doesn’t want charismatic people in org or mission public spaces. He doesn’t want people at all. He wants video screens. That’s Miscavige’s ideal scene, a Div 6 public area filled with video screens (with, preferably, his face on them). And if you go into one of his “Ideal Orgs,” that’s what you see. Video screens. No staff. And no public.
A friend of mine pointed out that Miscavige doesn’t really see people as individuals. He sees a mass, a blob. He always walked around the Base with an entourage of executives, a blob, to serve as his audience and Greek chorus. If he singled people out, it was as a target, someone to belittle, degrade, or attack. You did not want to be singled out by Miscavige, you wanted to try to blend in to the blob.
When things went wrong at the Base, it was the blob that got punished. If there was a major flap, it was all of Gold, or all of the Base that got punished. When he got pissed off at Management, he declared the whole management “blob” SP and put them in the Hole. When the Base flooded, he punished everyone.
In my entire time at the Base, 15 years, I only had two private meetings with Miscagive, one on one, with no blob present. I described these in Counterfeit Dreams. Interestingly, these were the times when it seemed that might actually be seeing me as a person. There were no threats, no violence, no banty-rooster posturing to the crowd. He seemed…almost human.
But that was the exception. The more usual scenario was Dave and his Blob Chorus against some targeted individual, or Dave against the Blob.
And of course, Miscavige is most comfortable playing to the Big Blob – the international event audiences.
It is my opinion that David Miscavige finds it difficult – and possibly frightening – to deal with an individual person. I think that he fears any challenge, he fears disagreement, and, most of all, he fears that his own incompetence and corruption will be discovered and exposed. So it’s safest to deal with the Blob if one has to deal with people at all. And the Blob is either your Greek chorus or a generalized enemy to be punished.
And the “ideal” scene? Big, impressive, opulent facilities – with no troublesome people in them at all.
One wonders what Dave’s definition of “clearing the planet” is.
Comments are closed.
Leaving Scientology 
Very insightful. A bully with a posse.
Yes. I was kinda creeped-out by those empty spaces. It was like the last few minutes of that Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner movie, “On the Beach,” which was about the last days in Australia as they wait for the nuclear radiation cloud from a northern hemisphere nuclear exchange to drift into the southern hemisphere and kill them, too. Eerie movie, and an eerie way to show a “worker’s paradise.” A world without people.
Can’t wait for your book!!
Jeff, the last line of your article hits me squarely in the solar plexus.
It also reminds me that someone on – I think it was Marty’s blog – recently took exception to a few other commentators comparing dm and his minions to the Nazis.
I don’t think it is at all extreme to draw parallels here. This “quirk” of dm’s ( no people in his shots of pretty new orgs, or the “Worker’s Paradise”), combined with his campaign of violence and humiliation against those over whom he has power, is a huge red flag (with a big, black swastika, IMO).
How hard is it to convincingly draw parallels between dm, a sociopath whose ideal scene seems to be a world without “other people,” and Hitler, a sociopath whose ideal scene was a world without intellectuals, artists, homosexuals, gypsies, Jews, communists, resistance fighters, political opponents, the handicapped, the mentally retarded, trade unionists, anti-Nazi clergy, psychiatric patients, Soviet prisoners of war, dissenting Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses … all of which he was responsible for killing en masse while in power.
While reading that list of groups that Hitler considered his enemies, I thought about how dm views any one of those groups. He seems threatened by, or seems to feel naturally superior to and thus entitled to exert his power over, whole groups of people. He appears to be reactive on the subject of homosexuals, for instance and clearly thinks of them as a generality rather than as individuals. I could hazard a guess as to how he would view most of the other groups on the list. So could other readers, probably.
So a question comes to mind for the people who have seen dm’s dramatizations in action:
Given near absolute power (as was Hitler),and having to answer to no outside authority, do you
believe that dm would be capable of directly and purposefully causing the deaths of others?
I do.
lunamoth,
I was in Germany last lifetime. I was a Nazi. Seemed like such a noble cause at the time, rising from absolute poverty, re-establishing the nation, creating a perfect world. And then the reality set in.
Makes me shudder to think of what a man of this character would do if unfettered by law. “Kill” would be an understatement.
Once Upon a Time,
Your essay on KSW the other day was pure. As clean as a wolf’s tooth.
I love the fact you were a Nazi. Nietzsche’s supermen. Consummate and such cool clothes.
We are different now aren’t we. Finally, the way to new that you and I have looked for.
I am honored to share with you.
Once
Yes, the nobility of the cause is what pulls most beings in, not the eventual, and IMO, inevitable evil that the absolute power of fascism results in. I know others who had
been involved in that particular dramatization, last time, and you would not be able
to pick them out from others in this life. Because, I believe, they are not fundamentally different from others around them.
And that’s a corollary to my point: The Nazi’s were responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity, but were not essentially different from anyone of us. Rather, they were manipulated by a psychotic, under dire life circumstances, made to believe
that their best survival (and that of the “race” ) could be achieved according to his game plan. And to not realize the ordinariness of the people who went on to perpetrate those crimes against their fellows is to set oneself up for a repeat of the same scenario.
Dm is constrained by the insular nature of his world. He is surrounded by a society at large that sees him mostly as unbalanced and violent, and by governments of law, however imperfect. Circumstances are different, and at his worst dm has never approached the horror of Hitler and the Nazis, but the potential is there.
Jim,
Dancing to the oldies. The beat goes on, brother. Hope we get it right this time. As-ising the GPM as we march forward.
I was looking at thetans and age. Old thetans. New thetans. How without time, does a thetan age? Seems with experience. Some thetans build a universe, play around for its length, come out with experience and “wisdom”–or not. Those who didn’t enter a time continuum didn’t age, didn’t get the experience. Just a thought.
Once,
I suppose ‘age’ would be an awareness of time by memory, facsimile. Facsimile being a life energy impression of something experienced, that is, a moment of time. No time, no age. Time being the persistence of some initial points in space. It only seems the thetan is aging. Following this through, if you dumped all facsimiles you could get younger. Retention of the wisdom would have to be some other way than memory, as that is subject to ‘age’. That would be knowingness or however you want to describe it, depending on which discipline you favor.
I will take credit for posting the ‘Nazi’ term disagreement on Marty’s blog. My point was that using the ‘Nazi’ epithet, at every instance where one disagrees with another’s actions, cheapens and lessens the actual genocide the Nazis committed.
Let me give you a comparison. I was in downtown LA on May 1 when there was a huge marching demonstration protesting the immigrant policy recently passed in Arizona. Groups marched with banners substituting the Nazi swastika for the ‘z’ in the Arizona name. And there were lots of references to Nazi stormtroopers in Arizona stopping illegal immigrants, etc.
This post has nothing to do with the immigration policies in Arizona, whether you agree or disagree with them. But if people really want to assert that the Arizona police are going to start frying Hispanics in the ovens, then they have totally lost all credibility with me, and I think with many Americans. And it terribly cheapens the true atrocities that the Nazis did commit, which should never be forgotten.
Same with the current Church of Scn and DM. If you call their actions ‘Nazi’ then you will have lost all credibility with me. That term is not something to be thrown around to prove one’s righteous indignation at another’s actions. It should be reserved only for the mass genocide that was committed under the most depraved group of people in our immediate track history.
Undisturbed
I am actually in agreement with you here. You wrote :
“That term is not something to be thrown around to prove one’s righteous indignation at another’s actions. It should be reserved only for the mass genocide that was committed under the most depraved group of people in our immediate track history.”
What I am saying, though, is that dm and his minions are of the same mind as Hitler and the Nazis, and given the right circumstances (severe and long-term economic depression,
absolute political and military power) could easily become what the Nazi’s became.
I think it’s very important to see that potential, because if we can only see the real magnitude of the evil once it is in full-blown dramatization, as it was in Germany, when they’re marching people off to the death camps, it’s really too late.
I agree that the “Nazi” comparison is way, way overused these days to try to villify one’s political opponents. It does cheapen it into a glib “positioning”: “You is a Nazi!”
What is valuable is to study the history of the Nazi movement, particularly how they came to power and how they generated vast public support. As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Lunamoth I still don’t agree with you on a lot of things but I think I was too harsh a couple months back. You have redeeming qualities.
LOL Boyd, that is the sweetest thing you have ever said to me.
lunamoth
Brilliant !
ROFLLLLLLLL
“I think that he fears any challenge, he fears disagreement, and, most of all, he fears that his own incompetence and corruption will be discovered and exposed.”
I agree. And if he manned up and faced the music, by changing, he’d have the honorable distinction of digging himself out of a deeper pit then anyone’s ever gotten themselves into. In that light, the future for DM could be an incredible opportunity and not a hell.
Wow! I just watched the video. Nice MEST! Who is the golf course, park for picknicks and BBQ by the pool for? Do the staff actually use these spaces?
Good PR move, but it would of been more effective to actually see people using these spaces with their families and enjoying them, oh wait!, there are no families.
Really, does anyone use these spaces or are they just another waste of our donations? Can someone give me data?
The sports facilities used to be used once a year, on Sea Org Day. But they haven’t had SO Day since 2000, so no, they are not used. If you are on the Purif, you can run around the par course. The lake and pool are only used for throwing people in fully clothed as punishment, period. Miscavige, of course, uses whatever facilities he wants. The Golf Course is outside the razor wire fence and never, never gets used by Base staff.
Jeff,
Does the base actually maintain the pool? Chemicals and cleaning? We’ve got one and it’s expensive to maintain. Especially if no one is swimming in it.
Oh this just keep getting better! Sometimes I am just lost for words on this guy.
So I will quote part of HCOB 28 November 1970 because it says what I think better than I ever say:
C/S Series 22
PSYCHOSIS
“Under apparent social behavior, the continual crimes knowingly committed by the insane are much more vicious than ever has been cataloged in psychiatric texts.
The actions of the insane are not “unconsicious.” They are completely aware of what they are doing.
All insane actions are entirely justified and seem wholly rational to them. As they have no reality on the harmful an irrational nature of their conduct, it does not
often register on an E-Meter.
The product of their post duties is destructive but is excused as ignorance or errors.
As cases in normal processing they roller-coaster continually.
They nearly always have a fixed emotional tone. It does not vary in nearly all insane people. In a very few it is cyclic, high the low.
All characteristics classified as those of the “suppressive person” are in fact those of an insane person.”
I don’t know DM,(other than he likes to confront with his eyeballs) but this is what I am getting from the sites.
If anyone who knows him has a better Technical Definition of him, I would be interested to hear.
Jeff,
I was on the ship, with the musicians, and I was coming down a back stair way one night. Hopping along down this rather wide steel stair, turning its corners and came around one and there was Dave and Shelly. I swear to anyone who will listen, Dave actually shrunk back behind Shelly. It was so noticeable to me that I actually forced myself to be ‘smaller’, and gave as light a particle in communication as I could, and still be saying something. I was concerned that he was going to behave ‘un-COB’ like, you know, do a George Costanza in a fire or something. I didn’t want to have that on my hands frankly so I eased up a bit on my general style. It was one of the few times he was sans ‘blob’ and he was clearly very frightened. It struck me, thoroughly. I think if I had said ‘boo!’ he would have…well, we’ll leave that to speculation.
Man, I would like to permeate this guy’s (DM) soul, his beingness to see what makes him tick, to understand him and his nature. I’ve studied the stuff on suppressives and anti-social personalities. But actually knowing him, experiencing so that I could understand and clean him up. It’s all well and good to decry his actions and cast aspersions. “He’s just a turd.” But in the end, we’re all linked, we’re all in this swimming pool together and having a turd floating around just won’t do. If we are immortal. And he is immortal. We will all meet again. We will all continue to be connected and will continue to interact. See my point?
Once,
I see your point. I don’t know if this blog is the appropriate place to go too far into this though. For me, it is becoming much easier to see how a being can ‘become’ an idea. It’s so similar to the being, at his wavelength so to speak, that it’s easy to identify oneself with this idea. Take evil, it’s just an idea after all. Beings become the idea and they act evilly.
Trick is to separate the being from the idea and that IS tricky because they’ve identified with it. There is NO separation they = it. So they can’t separate. They have no real viewpoint to see that they aren’t the idea, because they are the idea. It’s like looking at tree, when you ARE the tree.
Jim, I believe it. A friend who was on the Freewinds (as public) described how they were enjoying the night air on the deck one night when several messengers arrived and told her she had to leave as these spaces were “reserved for COB.” I think he is petrified at the thought of casually meeting people without his entourage and his buffers.
Jeff,
You’ve nailed it. He is petrified. He won’t likely be sharing the cold ones with us anytime soon. Pathetic really, when you actually look at the abject terror that guy lives.
What a sad and dangerous man he is. Even though I would like to see him punished til it hurt, I know that what would be better would be for him to get help — real help. Perhaps both will happen. Someone someday will hold his feet to the fire.
Martin,
I totally get your anger and frustration but, without going all righteous on you, I really believe that a part — certainly not the whole — but a part of dealing with this situation and avoiding this kind of thing in the future will be our manifested willingness to forgo punishment in favor of, if not help, at least understanding.
And please don’t take this as a criticism. I point this out as much as anything to remind myself. My wife has adopted a phrase that we are both trying to incorporate more and more into our lives: “what’s the loving thing to do?”
We try to answer that question before taking action on any challenging situation that arises. It’s not always our first reaction by any means, but even if we turn to it after the “flare-up” we have found that it smooths the road and calms the waters, so to speak. Anyway, just figured I’d pass the idea along.
Craig (and Suzanne),
“What’s the loving thing to do?” is a very useful question for me to consider.
Thanks to both of you for asking it and passing it along.
Just Me
A WORLD WITHOUT PEOPLE
In the CNN negotiations, Anderson Cooper was invited to be dazzled by the Taj Mahals of the Int/Gold Base.
Cooper was only addressing the David Miscavige Abuse, and gawky flashy buildings were irrelevant and non-sequitur.
Apparently CNN crew and Cooper did agree to visit the INT BASE if Anderson could talk to anyone on the Base with no stipulations, no rules.
DM, like Jim Jones of Guayana was too scared to let direct communication occur.
Heck, they could have asked Anderson Cooper for RESCUE.
We were slaves. Most of us escaped and awoke from the insanity enforced upon us. We were brainwashed.
Yes, the pool is meticulously maintained as are the square miles of grass and shrubs and trees, lakes and pavement. It is all maintained and run by slave labor. Jeff’s website is no joke – I was there.
Another very damning thing about all of the opulence is that we’re talking about a church – what kind of self-respecting church has state of the art movie editing bays, music studio, mixing rooms, avid bay, a huge movie studio that looks like a massive castle (this may be the biggest “castle” in the US, a state-of-the-art film lab! Rushes theatre, I could go on but in itself it is pretty damning that in a period of about 30 years they have gotten all of this stuff.
REVENIMUS !
Now Now NOW !
It is time for you to toddle off to the MAA who will escort you to Old Gilman House for lockdown.
SLAVES ?? ABUSE at INT BASE ???
ENEMY LINES !!! EXTERNAL INFLUENCES !!!
A Gang Bang Sec check will find out where you get this from !
Perhaps you are on the PAYROLL of the Big Pharmaceutical Companies ?
Is ELI LILLI sending you secret $$$$$ ?????
You will only FN each sec check question with 3 RYTHMIC swings of the needle even though you are in lock down with the GANG BANG Sec checks.
To hell with your ruds.
We are in a GOLDEN AGE of TECHNICAL BULLSHIT…….
YOU are to get 3 swings of the needle to FN each Sec check question even in lockdown.
Do I make myself clear ?
Thanks Jeff and your observations are spot on in my opinion.
I have mentioned several times that DM never goes anywhere without taking someone or a group with him. I worked directly for him for almost 7 years and I did have personal one on one moments with him, but they too were rare. Shelly would normally be there too.
He would never take liberty or go out to dinner without taking others with him. I don’t remember him and Shelly even going out to dinner alone.
My opinion is that he always needs to be on stage and have other people around him who would agree with everything he said. The Greek Chorus as you mention. It also served to protect him in those days, because when he was sneaking off the base in the middle of the day to go to a movie or do something other than his job, he was including others with him who would have the same break in schedule, thus protecting himself. There would always be someone else to blame. This was during the time when LRH was still alive but in hiding.
When I did see him in quiet moments, just him and me at the end of the night or the end of a long day, you are correct. He could be a very warm person. However you were a fool if you let y0ur guard down for even one second because you never knew when he would pounce.
One time I remember, Jason Bennick, Shelly and I were in his office in the villas at the end of the night joking around and having some fun and Jason made some comment that DM took the wrong way and the next thing I knew, DM’s hands were around Jason’s throat and we had to break it up.
It’s hard to be friends or close to a rattlesnake. You never know when it will bite you.
Mark Fisher
Speaking of Jason Bennick. He’s out you know. Funny thing is, he blew when he was on the final leg of the RPF. One does FPRD on 8 dynamics. Because of all the out-tech and arbitraries, it takes many years to do the program. I don’t know how long Jason was on, but the 8th dyanmic form is the last form. After that, you get what is called a final assessment. If you get through that, you graduate! But during the 8D form, he was so trusted, be talked the RPF MAAs into giving him his credit card, and he escaped. Of course the RPFers were shocked that someone would do the program for YEARS and “throw it all away” at the last moment. Godspeed Jason.
Linda
Jason and I got to be good friends when we were on the decks together. When I heard he was out, I tried to contact him, but he never replied. I wish him well and hope that someday he decides to stop toeing the party line of a suppressive church.
I am going to look at this from another point of view. I am going to ask for data here.
1. If you are in the SO do you have to file a tax return if you make enough money in a year?
2. Does anyone know if DM buys things for himself with his staff pay or does he buy it as a Church expense out of another fund?
3. If the IAS is buying some of these things for DM, on the side and is not keeping correct books, has anyone thought going this route? I saw somewhere that the IAS used money to hold a diving boat for DM when he came to the Freewinds and they use IAS money for personal fun while on Islands. Any truth to that?
4. I know he must spend a lot of money to retain attorney’s, but does anyone think the books are being cooked to cover up expenses that the IRS would not considered Church related?
5. How was the Tom Cruz party paid for, what account?
6. Who pays for his motorcycle’s? Does he pay with it out of staff pay or shows it as a Church expense some how?
7. Same questions with his skiing trips, trips with Tom, etc.
It’s me,
All pertinent questions. As many tax attorneys and others that he has on the payroll, you’d think they would be careful with this sort of thing. They are. However, these questions point out ‘it stinks’ somewhere in there. That stink leaves a trail. That trail is being followed.
No doubt DM figures he’s covered. Well that’s true. Not the way he thinks though.
I guess DM hasn’t discovered he can use a software program like “Poser” to fill in the vast, empty spaces with computer generated preclears and students. But, of course, it would be as subtle as an anvil.
I think that’s the next step for Scientology films – computer-generated people.
Jeff – yet another excellent article!!
I was completely flabbergasted that these dm videos would say — over and over — worker’s paradise.
Shows the illiteracy of the scriptwriter and everyone who approved the vids.
My step-daughter (who is college educated and very well read) was born into scn. Many of her friends have zero formal education, all having gone to scn schools. And not continuing. She said they THINK they are well educated because they know the 2 sentence definition of the “Soviet Union” — for example.
She said there is NO intellectual curiosity to find out MORE. To flesh out this wholly inadequate definition. Everything is spoon fed.
Animal Farm should be required reading of EVERYONE currently IN the church, everyone who has left, and to everyone who hasn’t read it in the last 15 years. My brother mentioned it to me when I was still IN the SO — it planted the seed …
which grew until it became a large tree, uprooting my deeply fixed viewpoints.
I thank him everyday. Oh and George too!
Love,
WH
Jeff, you were wondering what Dave’s definition was of a cleared planet? Those shots of the base are a clue. They’ve been cleared all right, of anything with a face.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.! That’s it! The cleared planet. Kinda circles back to Lunamoth’s observation above.
Hello,
I am wondering if anyone who has been in the SO knows the answer to my questions?
I will re-phrase:
Do you get a 1099 at the end of the year or are your taxes withheld by the Church?
Does anyone know how DM pays for all his play things or how much he pays himself?
Does anyone know if DM said that the Tom Cruz party was paid for my himself or if it was taken out of Church funds?
The Church has a 503C with the IRS. This is non-profit, but still a corporation and follows the same IRS rules has a corporation. All financial books must be open to the members of the Church.
I am sure that the lawyers have this all under control on the books, but I want to look into the financial issues of the IAS and DM.
Please, if anyone knows anything, I would really like some data.
Thanks
I can only answer a little, and this data is from over 2 decades ago:
1. Taxes were withheld, technically, as you were an employee. But because the amount we were paid was so far below the poverty line, no taxes actually were taken out of our allowances. That’s what they called it back then, “allowance” like you were an eight year old.
No other data, other than that it always seemed that the messengers had nice cloths and sometimes nice cars and I always wondered where they got the money.
Allowances!!!! Unbelievable!
Usually, an “employee” has to have a percentage of their pay go towards their social security benefits and Medical benefits and the “employer” pays a percentage also so when then the employee is old enough to retire, they have some type of retirement income and health care benefits……So I am guessing here that nothing was taken out of your pay to cover this and you have no social security benefits coming. ( If you do get social security benefits at retirement and you didn’t make enough money for taxes to be taken out, I am guessing that means the Church paid their percentage of your income).
As for the messengers, I can think of a few things. They were paid a very good “allowance”…or They had a lot of money of their own when they came into the SO or they drove cars and wore clothes that where purchased and “owned” by the Church. If these things were given to the messengers, that would of been taxable income.
I don’t know SO polices on how someone gets paid, but people with high income like DM should be paying personal income taxes and anything that is”given” to him and not owned by the Church is also considered income.
It sounds like DM has very good attorney’s and they know exactly how to get around things on the finance lines. There must be something on calling your pay an “allowance” that gets around the employee rules. I am guessing, not sure.
This is interesting.
Thanks for the data!
If you haven’t already read his stuff, google Larry Brennan.
Ok Martin, well do.
W & P seriously I’ve been on watch at the OGH and had the gang bang second checks with Gerald watching on the other end of the video camera and my overts read out at staff meeting – no thanks brother, I don’t think I want another second check ever again!
And Jason Bennick – was never nice to me. I have little affinity for him. I’m glad to hear you got along with him, but he was an ass to a whole lot of people. I hope he’s changed…
Revenimus
Old Gilman House (OGH) Detention/Prison building.
These were DARK days. DAYS of overwhelm, persecution,
deliberate Black Dianetics and Reverse Scientology.
Then to have the confessional data read out to the crew and
MOCKED in an effort to publicly HUMILIATE was no walk in the park.
Perhaps we were in OGH together ?
I apologize if I was too lighthearted and blithe about such blackness and suppression.
Oh yeah ole Gerald Duncan. Wonder if he is still Dir I & R GOLD?
That post is hot seat.
I never said I got along with Jason Bennick……perhaps this was addressed to another poster ? But I am delighted that he FLED the suppression.
There are so many EX-SO that lurk on these sites for a very long time before posting.
Error in my comment above:
501 (c) 3
Additional Comment:
I have surfed the web for reports to “Whistle Blowing & Reporting”gov.fraud, about potential abuse of donation monies made to the church…nothing….nor can I find any complaints of Abuse of Charitable Organization in regards to the Church.
Does anyone know of a site that already has a complaint in with the IRS or Department of Justice in regarding donation abuses or is at least looking in to it?
Here is an example of what I am looking for: Birthday Party given to Tom Cruz on Church property, paid for by IAS or another Church Fund then reported by Church as “Staff Meeting” on their Profit and Loss statement.
I don’t see how a $150,000.00, plus, surprise birthday party for a church member could be listed in the books as a qualified tax exemption.
I don’t think that any Church member would mind that the Int. Base looks so nice and has all the facilities it has if the SO members were being treated right and actually got to use them. If the church is not using our donation money on things they promoted they were going to use it for and is using ANY of that money for the personal self -interest for some, then all church members need to know and so does the IRS. (Hopefully the IRS doesn’t have something going on with management).
I have come to these sites late on the chain, so if this has already been looked into and has gone nowhere, please let me know so I don’t waste my time.
As I understand it most of the IAS donations go into an offshore account in the Dutch Antilles, or to a bank in Luxembourg, so there would no paper trail for the IRS to follow that connects your donation to a big party on the Freewinds. For that matter, there’s probably no way for the IRS to track anything on the Freewinds. It’s not a US-registered vessel.
Very smart! Good point. Thank you.
Aeolus,
Yet, the IAS DOES have offices registered in Florida, for one. There is a trail. There is jurisdiction. There is, as evident here today on this blog, attention being directed just where it needs to be. DM don’t much care for that which accounts for the recent visit by that high profile DC lawyer. Monique Yingling’s husband works at the firm the lawyer is associated with.
I have an abiding faith that ‘murder will out’.
Jim, I think you are right that “murder will out”. Don’t know that the IRS will do it, but the IAS is such an obvious fraud when you look closely, we need to get as many people as we can looking closely.
You may have some data on this, where I only have a hunch, but I suspect the Justice Dept. is already aware of much of the Church’s malfeasance but has been reluctant to “stir the hornets nest”. Once enough of us hornets are out here, they’ll be willing to act.
A,
Recently, on this very discussion topic, the IAS, a link was posted to data on ‘intermediate sanctions’. http://www2.guidestar.org/rxa/news/articles/2003/about-intermediate-sanctions.aspx.
One purpose of these sanctions is to respect the valid hard work, sincere efforts, and religious rights of the body of parishioners while correctly targetting those who would abuse the privelege afforded by Section 501 (c) (3).
It is a testament to the power of the US Constitution to guarantee rights, as in the First Amendment, and yet, when persons of such anti-social tendencies abuse those rights, and seek the protection of them for nefarious aims, even then, the spirit of reason and decency that framed the original Constitution is manifest in Congress even today. That being, that they formulate ‘intermediate sanctions’ on the correct target and continue to guarantee the rest of us can enjoy the wonderful freedom we do.
Thanks, Jim. This bit of the tax law was a new one on me. If I read it right, Cruise as a ‘substantial contributor’ could be fined for that misuse of IAS funds for his personal benefit, and DM would also be fined for authorizing it.
A,
You read it right.
A,
Let me add something, it’s a bit ‘sudden’ as Sarge would say, but not only did you read it right, and not only is DM ‘vulnerable’, but, we’re gonna toast this fucker’s balls on a campfire.
Note: for any reading my ‘sudden’ comment, yes, if that one reads it will be taken up. (For those unfamiliar with the False Purpose Rundown, the above ‘to toast this f$#!er’s …’ is potentially, depending on meter read, an expression of a less than survival purpose. Depends on the guy, the purpose and it’s read. And not some squirrelly DM version of metering either.)
On the other hand, maybe it’s just some good ol’ fashion fun 🙂 Pro-survival, good for the dynamics, that sort of thing.
Sorry, ItsMeAgain, I have no information on this.
Lunamoth, Thank you anyways…me
Very Good Jim Logan. Thanks for the article and other data. I am glad some are on top of this.
Best, ME
Keen insight Jeff.
The Real Estate ~~ glitzy Real Estate seems to have becoming a higher and higher priority these days. The Fort Harrison has been done and re done and redone. The cost must be staggering. But there is no charity from the Church given in an outbound sense. No free schools, no helping the needy (considered “downstat”) not a thing given in terms of Charity.
Even the photo op Haiti incident, and all use of Volunteer Ministers is on their own dime, The Church does not pay. The VMs must pay their own way and pay their own food and lodgings.
The Church prints and publishes the LRH books, shown in that video of their publishing area but does it donate sets to Libraries in the effort to get the books out there ? No, it fraudulently charges Parishioners for the library scam. I was one of those suckers.
I just read Marty’s posting on what was done to Yager. I had a very pleasant chat with him on a Freewinds Maiden Voyage in the early 1990s. I was impressed with him as part of INT Management. I am horrified as to what happened to him in recent years. HORRIFIED.
“(considered downstat)” That is an interesting statement.
In the past, it has always been their church’s who helped the needy with the agreement and donations of their member’s. It is human compassion to want to help their fellow man in times of need and most will give time or money (in the name of what they believe and with what they can afford) to do so.
In the CoS, ABLE, WAY TO HAPPINESS, CRIMMINON, VOLUNTEER MISISTERS, etc. are suppose to be there to help people who want help but are not necessary members of the Church. Even people who are downstat can become upstat when they are given the correct data to work with and apply to themselves.
There are a lot of good people in the CofS who will do these things on their own dime and time, not thinking, wait a minute, why am I paying for this?, what is happening to all those donations being given to the IAS in the name of help? But it is not the nature of charity to think like that, so most don’t.
It is my understanding that 501 (c) 3 corporations cannot stock pile money because is an indication to the IRS that a corporation doing so is actually making money for profit. The 501 (c) 3 could be taken away from the Church if it is determined it is a “for profit” group. So the church needs to spend or hide that extra money somewhere. It looks like they are spending it on MEST (and themselves covertly) since that is a better investment than helping. I am guessing that in their minds (and their attorney’s) that MEST is a better investment risk.
How they might hide or unlawfully use this extra money, well, that would be a tangled web to unfold, but an interesting one.
One of the hardest things to confront is Evil….if it wasn’t so hard to confront, DM ( other’s like him) would of been handled by their groups years before things ever got out control.
Money is only the means to actually have what these types of people want: Some perverted idea of “having to have Power and Control” over their fellow human beings.
We are dealing with a very well running machine and those types of machines are hard to stop. All that one has to do is put a little piece of metal into one of the cogs of that machine to find out if that is the right place to stop it. If not, put another piece of metal in another cog. I am not hear to stop Scientology, just that machine that has taken over.
I brought this up on Marty’s blog but it is more appropriate to this article. You state:
“The heavily sarcasm-laden announcer voice drones on, saying things like “Does this look like a slave labor camp?” And he asks, “Who wouldn’t want to work in a place like this?” Well, apparently no one wants to work there, as the vast Base facilities are shown as entirely devoid of human life. It’s decidedly creepy.”
This announcer is the announcer for many, many, Scientology videos. He does the entire voiceover for the 4 hour long, new, Dianetics video. He does the voice over for almost all if not all of the videos on the churchs main website, scientology.org.
This is horrible positioning. The DN videos are actually excellent but as soon as I heard this guy on the video in question here, I no longer wanted to listen to those videos. Why would they do that?
I am always surprised, at every event, how much uncreative “sameness” there is and how they never change it up. One event sort of melds into the next. It’s hypnotic but, I digress. The point I am making is I think it was a mistake to use this very recognizable voice within the church for a nattery piece like this and I see it as yet another footbullet action, similar to the Freedom Mag. They never learn.
Uh … wait a minute … what did you say? Did you say there’s a new Dianetics video that is four hours long?
FOUR HOURS LONG?
God bless America!
This is only a rhetorical question, but does anybody down there ever survey their prospects and customers? (Yes, Jeff, I know. They don’t.)
Just Me
Just Me,
Yep, but it is in very usable “sections” and covers the entire book and I believe it is quite well done, however, then they go and use the same voiceover for this other piece of garbage. That was my point. This DN DVD is for training purposes and the fact that it is that long doesn’t bother me (this time!). The events on the ohter hand…..Sheeeeeesh, they do get surveyed at the end, the public tell them the same thing everytime “please make the events shorter” and those surveys are dutifully ignored on each and every occasion. 🙂
Synthia
Sindy,
I can envision the day when trauma is handled by one and all with first-aid, and then run out. Just as a matter of course with no ‘religion’, no race, no creed, no color. Just help.
After watching the new 4 hour AND 23 MINUTE Dianetics video, my cognition was that the video is an M-7-ish approach to replacing the book DMSMH. In other words (and this is from experience at Book-a-thons) people who are illiterate look at the hardback copy of DMSMH and totally reject it as “it’s too thick”.
“Too thick” means a piece of reading material thicker than People magazine these days.
Two decades ago, we would have put DMSMH out as an audio book. But people don’t listen to books on tape these days unless they want to fall asleep in bed. I know. I gave my father a DMSMH audio book on CD and it’s what he turns on when he wants to fall asleep faster for his afternoon nap.
The “solution” is to put DMSMH on video since people watch videos these days.
Or so goes the think.
As Synthia says, the DMSMH video is in palatable “sections” that aren’t 4 hours and 23 minutes long and are arranged in a manner to assist with the study of the material.
I still keep copies of the illegal, inexpensive, watchable, disposable, 40-minute DIANETICS A VISUAL GUIDEBOOK TO THE MIND video around for dissemination purposes. Go figure.
Jeff: Thanks for pointing me at the video. I have a few things I gotta say:
(1) the video attacks Anderson Cooper for a comment made by Marty Rathbun. Huh?
(2) David Miscavige…the subject of the investigation was invited to appear and be interviewed, yet wasn’t.
(3) The wonderfulness of the facilities was NOT the subject of the investigation. It’s a diversion.
(4) Marty said that DM treats other SO members like slaves. The video doesn’t show any of the SO members, so the video doesn’t prove squat.
(5) If a person gets fed a shit sandwich, you can always use a video of him eating it to prove that you’re not starving him. Yum Yum.
Most importantly, though:
38. The expensive and lush facilities (golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, barbecues, staff lounges, libraries, ad nauseum)
39. The fact that the indentured servants on Int Base are conscripted into maintaining the expensive and lush facilities rather than getting people up the Bridge.
40. The fact that the indentured servants on the Int Base are denied the use of the facilities for R&R.
41. That fact that my Church of Scientology donations contributed to the creation of the expensive and lush facilities WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.
42. The fact that my Church of Scientology donations contributed to the maintenance of the expense and lush facilities WITHOUT MY PERMISSION.
43. THe fact that my Church of Scientology donations contributed to the audio-visual production of this giant lie.
(The latest six reasons on my list of Why I Will Never Give Another Cent To The Church of Scientology.)
Plain old Thetan,
Thanks for pointing on all the OUT points in a precise and well written comment. And it is unfortunate that the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx is in vogue today around the world.
“From each according to his ability TO each according to his needs”.
The people at Int have been used for their abilities and have had the life sucked out of them by a madman…he took it further than Marx’s insanity, if that is even possible.
Oh, yeah, I forgot:
” In the workers’ paradise, everyone must live like monks. ”
— Karl Marx
“The Communist Manifesto”
Can’t anyone at Int use Google?
PlainOldThetan: “Can’t anyone at Int use Google?”
LOL – you are so funny! Of course they can’t use Google, because Google’s corporate motto, “Don’t be evil,” means they’re evil.
BTW, Google just returned these top-three three links to a “David Miscavige” search:
1. Wikipedia’s entry on “David Miscavige” — it ain’t pretty. Interestingly, the last (and longest) section is about the May 2010 allegations DM laughed at Tom Cruise auditing transcripts.
At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Miscavige
2. A 41-page affidavit Miscavige submitted in the CoS v. Fishman litigation
At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Declaration_David_Miscavige_1994.pdf
3. An article about Miscavige beating aides
At http://www.lermanet.com/exit/miscavige.htm
Yup, there’s your David Miscavige obituary headline when he shuffles off this mortal coil: Slimeball, Litigation and Beatings.
Just Me
I hate to be pedantic, but ” In the workers’ paradise, everyone must live like monks. ”
is not a quote from the Communist Manifesto, but from a non-Marxist economist’s website (www.futurecasts.com) giving his interpetation of “Das Kapital”.
Mid you, pictures of Int Base and Pyongyang do have a weird similarity.
thanks
It seems like all these videos are done for DM’s own amusement. I think he watches them and thinks how clever he is and what fools he’s made of those the video is attacking. I’ll bet he’s ROFL about calling Marty “Rathbone”. I’m sure he thought that was pure genius. Yup, bring that man another scotch. Party up!
I am looking at something else here and I am hoping to get not only a response, but that someone is reading between the lines:
You sign a Contract with the Sea Organization. In doing so, you have an EXPECTATION, that the Church follows the Technology of LRH and that you and others will be treated in a way that is consistent with the Technology, without alteration or change.
Is this correct so far?
Then after time, you see many violations of this agreement within the Church and because of your own dedication to the teachings, you over look them until you reach a point where you realize that what the contract you signed is being violated by the Church.
Then you decide to leave and terminate the agreement because the Sea Organization has not kept it’s agreement to follow LRH’s technology per KSW.
When you say, I want to leave NOW and I want no routing form and no handling, since the SO has broken the contract making all agreements to route out or to sign anything null and void…. are you allowed to walk out right then or even ask for an attorney? If not, what happens?
Are you forced to stay, held captive and forced to work under a null and void contract?
Are you forced to sign and be taped upon leaving with no contract in place?
The only question is, exactly when did it become unenforceable in the eyes of the law? Once the contract is null and void and a person is forced to stay and work against their will, isn’t that being held hostage or even worse, a form of kidnapping in the law books?
I am just kicking some things around. I am sure this can be written more accurately, but is someone following what I am saying?
Hitler’s paintings had a similar theme. It seemed a bit strange to many observers –but apparently not to Hitler himself– to paint scenes of busy city streets devoid of people.