This is the story of what happened to someone who went into the New York “Ideal Org” this week.
Not only was the place empty, he found out where they are getting “Sea Org recruits” from these days….
Captain Miscavige should be mighty proud of this, one of his most important “Ideal Orgs” (most important because Tom Cruise has an apartment in NY City, so might need to come in for something someday….)
Hey Mr. Rinder,
This past Monday, I visited the Times Square Church of Scientology org which is located near the Paramount Hotel on West 46th Street in Midtown Manhattan.
I went in there under the pretense of having wanted to partake in their “IQ” test to uncover my potential. While in actuality, my IQ is 116, according to the woman who administered the test, I had an IQ of 76 and was given the routine that they (CofS) could make me smarter and then proceeded to act interested in my well being all in the meanwhile look at me like I was “the prize game hen” she had been looking for.
I told her that at the moment, I was under-employed and living paycheck to paycheck. She then suggested that I should join the Sea Org and that I wouldn’t have anything to worry about while I was in the Sea Org (I did my time in the US Navy and by what I have read about the Sea Org, you couldn’t pay me a million dollars to join).
Then, when I informed her of the fact that I had a job and that I was a standup comedian, she proceeded to lie, said she saw me at a local club (which would in essence be a lie because of what I understand regarding the Sea Org pay, $30 a week doesn’t cover admission and a two drink minimum at most clubs in NYC), loved my act, and when I proceeded to inform her that I have Parkinsons Disease, she said and I quote, “for $14,500, I could get training leading to the OT levels, courses that would make me a better standup, a cure for Parkinsons (apparently Vitamins and Saunas can cure a debilitating neurological disorder along with reading Dianetics), all I need is your mothers maiden name!”
And when I heard that, I left and said I was insulted by the thought that goons like you would charge someone coming to you for help such a large sum of money after only meeting them for an hour.
While inside the org, I saw 20 staff members, under utilized office space, a few black kids handing out flyers for a movie called “Intro to Dianetics” and a dude handing out flyers who had no teeth in his head claiming to be an OT8.
Also they were throwing out boxes filled with booklets on how to disseminate Dianetics and Scientology into schools and public arenas if that helps.
Please do what you will with this information Mr Rinder and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best Regards,
Special Correspondent
Scientologists who are quick to call others “wogs” tell me a lot about themselves. The correct usage is only for those who are known for certain to not be trying.
To call a non-Scn a wog without even knowing them is destroying a chance to make a new Scn. The correct action is to raise ARC, exchange some comm, sell them a book at a fair price, just plain be nice and honestly accepting them as they are.
It seems a sort of intolerance. “I have done the Comm Course therefore I am better than THEM.”
I don’t think that is quite what was meant here. Wog is used too loosely by many.
General contempt for outsiders does not bring expansion.
I really don’t care how the word wog is usually used. Established bad usage is still bad.
🙂 That joke was in bad taste FF
I would like to know the financial scene in Scientology. It looks like those orgs don’t make much GI. Does anybody have any data on such stuff?
I am sorry for the gentleman who walked in the org and got such a treatment. It really shows how arrogant and frustrated they are.
Scientology org staff and SO staff have most definitely been individuated, on a cumulatively increasing basis, from the rest of the world. Everything going on over the past couple decades could be viewed from the tape on Individuation. Miscavige is just about the most individuated person I could every imagine, and he has succeeded in progressively individuating SO, staff, and the remaining public. Their “reality” has been fatally divorced from the reality of the general public as is evidenced in the correspondent reports like this, that show staff have become clueless concerning the outside world. Miscavige has even individuated from LRH tech and policy and individuated his followers from it to the point where, whatever criticisms one can make of LRH tech or policy, Miscavige’s individuated version has diverged to the point where it is becoming unreconcilable in the Church.
The MMN was a dead give away
No Anon. It goes like this:
Oh, you don’t have any room on your credit card?
Let me see that card. We will raise the limit for you – you are at the top of the universe after all.
Having had about 13 years experience in the NYO I can confirm that the best Div 6 route by far was books, intro lectures and FSMs followed by well run Basic Courses (TRs and HQS). The org was packed, Academy was full. (Any new indies in the NY area? Give a shout).
Class VIII LRH trained Indie newly moved to WNY, near Buffalo, shouting out!
First winter snow today…brrr!
Go woolen Candy!
True story,
About 1990 was on OT3 at AOLA living in sardine can berthing across the street.
One of the other sardines was offloaded Flag Banking Officer(FBO) from the New York Org.
His story was that they sent him on a mission to the West Coast that took some time to solve, some financial debacle. Upon his return to NYC according to him,the execs got his temporary replacement to authorize selling the Org. Which they then paid all of the Org’s Bills and bought a car. Of course since he was the FBO and clueless to this transaction took all the blame and was offloaded. ( Selling the Org is a no, no) NYC, you got to love it but have your skivvies welded on just in case.
The Special Correspondent’s report begs for a law enforcement sting operation at a dozen Idle Morgues all on the same day.
TWO CLEARED CANNIBALS WALK INTO AN IAS FUNDRAISER and sit beside a reg dressed as a clown. The reg boldly demands a large donation or else! The cannibals whack the clown on the head and after awhile they both start eating him. Suddenly, the second cleared cannibal looks up and says to the first, “Hey, do you taste something funny?”
Report Card
Mr. Swift, Instructor
Religious Facilities 101
The NYC Org reminds me of the library at a very small junior college. A bland facility and the staff ranges from semi-professional clerks to functional illiterates.
This religious facility is not anywhere near the level of a professionally operated church.
B for Appearance
F for Execution
This Ideal Org needs improvement and is placed on academic probation for the next two semesters.
If improvement is not seen, this facility will be sold at auction to the highest bidder and it’s staff sent over to the Mormons for remedial assistance in religious manners and grooming.
They have a similar story in the Buffalo Morgue. Days at a time with no people going in to it.
ITS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the NYO used to be a hopping org. In the late 60’s early 70’s it was packed to the gills, lots of staff, public, many getting trained, processed. Fdn out produced day, which was no slouch either. Things started going down hill when they moved out of the Martinique Hotel. Perhaps they thought the why was because it was tuning into a “DB” hotel – and for good reason – a welfare hotel collapsed further down in Manhatten and the city moved it’s residents into the Martinique. They would toss garbage out their windows, and the place felt and looked like a dump.
I think the move to uptown to get the theater walk by traffic was a mistake. Why spend your effort trying to interest the transient tourists instead of the locals who will come back, time and again when the vacationers won’t? They just don’t realize – handing out tickets to free lectures on the street to passers by is a huge waste – people join Scientology by word of mouth. Where does word of mouth come from? Results, not some A/V display in the div 6 area.
Mimsey
Part of any expense getting involved with CO$ may include moving & relocation costs as well as new unlisted phone numbers. After 10 years or so you most likely won’t hear from them again.
Best to have a mail service, disposable Cel phone and give false name before walking into any CO$. Change the second/third letter of the last name … that’s often enough to make a lookup fruitless. In this wise one can get their intro sessions, and walk away afterwards. Also, leave your wallet elsewhere and go in with only a couple bucks in pocket for bus fare home.
We are here to help mankind! If you pay, us, of course. And the reason for this is we want to set a good example by providing you with equal exchange and in doing so we’ll not make you a criminal. If you pay us less than $14,500, then we would make you have overts against good people, and we wouldn’t want to harm you that way because, see, we care.
See, this is workable technology, and we work hard to bring it to you. So therefore, you must pay us for that hard work so you’ll appreciate what you receive. See?
Oh, you can’t afford our prices? Well see, we’ve researched them thoroughly and know the average person should be able to pay $14,500 (unless you are on staff, of course, because we are exchanging with TIME not money), cause that’s the average cost of a psychologist, right? And they never helped you, right, otherwise you wouldn’t be here?
Oh, you don’t have any room on your credit card? Okay, that’s fine. We’ll be here no matter what to help you when you come up with the money and in the mean time, come to our next event!
Yes, according to Miscavige, $14,500 is the average weekly take home pay of the average white collar worker in the U.S., and there are 40 million members of the Sea Org alone. He also will have anyone who misquotes him arrested and sent to jail because he is an expert on U.S. law. (By the way, all OTVIIIs will soon have no teeth because their brains are expanding and the teeth are in the way).
Hey Dave, Your reverse Dianetics and Scientology has made it possible for someone loose 40 points on their IQ, just by walking in the door.
Heck, I know someone who lost 40 points, on the church’s test, between the time they came in and the time they finished OTV! See my post about IQ problems in the church at: http://possiblyhelpfuladvice.com/?p=15137
When the British established the word ‘wog’ during the Opium Wars to describe a Worthy Oriental Gentleman, it seems to have had a vast turn-around to become the derogatory name for a non-Scientoloigist, regardless of descent or race. Funny, having worked on the Excal Renos(New York staff housing at 349 West 49th Street, Hells Kitchen) in 1988, I don’t remember ever having much fun when there. Though we did spend 2.8 mil on the renos which was considerably more than the 250K budget, it was no cake walk. I was more than eager to escape from NEW YORK CITY!
Respectfully, the British Empire’s “WOG” was a slur that crossed racial divides – you can find it in historical documents referring to Indians, Arabs and Asians all – the key component being brown-skinned and living in a country that the Brits were keen to conquer. In TE Lawrence’s memoir, the Brits used “WOG” as nearly the equivalent of the “N” word to refer to the Arabs among whom they lived.
Any attempt LRH made to disguish it as a “light hearted” term of “affection” was absolutely disingenuous. It was a racial slur, and he knew full well it was a racial slur.
Poor Wog doesn’t know how lucky he is.I really hate that word. Very sad to have lost all the fun, discovery and adventure that was once the New York Org. What could be ideal about no spirit of play. Lies are not freedom.
As I am the special correspondent who Mike Rinder is speaking of, I am not a WOG. The reason as to why I even agreed to participate in such an endeavor was because I have read “Blown for Good” by Marc Headley and I was visibly moved by Mike Rinder’s story about losing his family to the CofS, which denotes a sense of altruism I acquired when crossing the equator on a US Naval ship.
The term WOG is used in the US Navy as a derogatory term for someone who hasn’t crossed the equator on a Naval Vessel. After a 6 hour initiation, the ship I was stationed on crossed the equator and after all was said and done, I became a shellback and earned the respect of my fellow brethren.
To “hurdy gurdy man”, please do not refer to me or anyone EVER as a WOG, because a WOG in the Navy has to eat a lot of guff and endure the most insulting behavior of his fellows in order to become a shellback.
Balls of steel, bro.
The slur was certainly not necessary. One of the scn. slang definitions of wog is “someone who isn’t even trying”, ie. someone who puts out no effort in life. I think your excellent post is the antithesis of this and I appreciate your efforts very much. Thank you. Would you mind defining shellback for me?
20 staff? NYC area has 1/20 of the whole country’s population, so that means there are about 400 staff nationwide (plus another 400 part-timers). How many public can they serve? 10,000? I really don’t think Scientology is much bigger than that now.
What were the numbers like 20 years ago? I’ll bet there were far more.
And even if your correspondent had signed up for training, he would have to do it all over again in about 17 years…..
Wow – New York City Ideal Org has given a whole new meaning to “Ideal”! LOL
Offering a cure for Parkinson’s? Isn’t that illegal inside and outside the CoS?
Even worse, it sounded like a guarantee…and on Book One, too, to an unhatted preclear!
I heared it can cure blindness and give you a perfect memory, oh and It seems that OT 8 clears your mouth of those PTS teeth you have from what the special correspondent writes.
I wonder why they were throwing out those boxes of booklets, you know they got people to donate to pay their printing. And gee, how quickly she changed her tactics as soon as he changed his. Desperate isn’t even the word for it. I do feel bad for the Sea Org who are essentially trapped there and I hope they some day (soon) are FREE.
Too bad the gung ho $cientologists can’t see the true state of affairs at these orgs. Idle Orgs is the absolute true name for them.
This is pretty raw. Not the exception to the norm but widespread.
Could be worse, try a dirt lot in Joburg South Africa as an Ideal Org.
Excuse me, my cringe meter alarm is going off again.
Was there an “extras only” sign above any of the doors?
LOL!
Talking to a completely new person about the Sea Org? How clueless and arrogant can you get? What ever happened to selling someone a book?
Give it a few weeks…
Oh hello, I saw the poster outside about Dianetics and I wanted to know what it is.
Pfft! No one cares about that old crock anymore. What you need is STATUS!!
Status?
Yes! IAS, Ideal Orgs, Super Power! Forget moving up an old creaky Bridge! You need to be moving up in status! I’m going to need $50,000 right now.
Excuse me?
You want to clear the planet don’t you?!?
Do the whatnow??
Just give me the fucking money, you csmf!!!
I’m sorry but I need to be going.
You CI sonofabitch!!! It’s command intention, you csmf!! Give me the fucking money!! We have to put the future there!
Where?
YOU DB FUCKER!!! You squirrel-fucking, SP wog.mf!! You’re not leaving here without giving me fifty fucking grand, you low-toned csmfsob!!!!
I’m outta here!
YOU FUCKING SP C**T!! Jake!! Take this wog-loving, csmf meatfucker to the RPF! I’M SICK OF HIS CI BULLSHIT!!!!!
Wtf? No, I’m leaving! Get your hands off me! No, no!!! SOMEBODY!!! HEEELLLLPPP MEEEEE!!!!
Mike Rinder ( and Marc Headley , and any others who can shed light…)
To the best of your knowledge, is it really possible in 2013 that Scientology is getting any significant walk-in business – anywhere? It seems there has been so much media exposure that it must have reached a level that has penetrated to just about everyone, right?
If that is true – that there’s really no way the COS can expect any significant waves of new business – do they know that themselves? Am I wrong in assuming there’s a significant difference between the way Scientology was marketed in the 1980s (late night commercials pushing Dianetics to the general public, targeting new business) and now (re-packaging the same product for the already existing customers)?
Am I missing something here? It really seems like the grass-roots effort to draw new people in is just window dressing now, and the real effort is targeted at old, existing customers.
If that is the case, does Miscavige understand that that can only result in an ever-dwindling customer base and he knows it’s just a matter of time- or is he deluded? I’m guessing the former, but you guys should have a much more educated guess than mine!
Thanks, congrats on your chopper ride – can’t wait for you to write a book (and Marc Headly, if you are reading this, congrats on your amazing book!).
JPB,
There hasn’t been any serious promotion to new public since they busted Jeff Hawkins out of CMU (Central Marketing Unit) and disappeared Diana.
What they are doing is cannibalizing their existing public what they accused the Mission Holders of doing.
Funny how the criminal mind works.
Anyhoo theres really been no Div 6 activity because they don’t really have a Div 6 since its all been automated.
I mean all “raw meat” gotta do these days is supposedly just push play on some AV implant station and cognite or whatever like Pavlov’s dog or something.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they have tried using subliminals or something like that.
Anyhoo…
That’s the sorry state of Div 6 these days. Other than playing boring movies like that stupid (Dis)Orientation Film that have been remade probably a half a dozen times because the actors in ’em turned out to be “SPs” and their idiotic website that’s really nothing but an ode to that moron Miscavige and his stupid “Ideal Org” Program.
Like if I was a new public I’d really be impressed with how many square feet “ideal orgs” are or that David Miscavige is supposedly the second coming.
Yeah sure.
Anyway JPB there are probably others on this blog who have a better grasp of the scene than I.
But as that old TV series used to say:
“You asked for it.” 🙂
Just a reminder: Remember one of the Marketing mottos from a few years ago?
“Press play. Cognite.”
Why, it’s positively BRILLIANT!
Is that a post-hypnotic suggestion, or what?
Yeah I almost hurled when I heard it.
So dismissive and evaluative of any one reaching for Scientology. Treating them like mindless idiots who have no personal goals or aspirations.
But this is how they now treat the public in general these days whether you’re a veteran or a newby.
With typical elitist arrogance of the average SO member these days.
You know some guy who has never trained on the subject but has done a Product 0 and thinks he or she knows what’s best for everyone.
Your typical social engineer by any other name.
If you can’t “reason” with the masses, use force except where force is prohibited like say a democratic state where the only alternative is by lies, suggestions and implants.
Once they got ’em hooked and part of the group it turns into a Fascist State.
JPB, I’ve pondered the same questions myself and have concluded Miscavige must be fully aware that the cults PR is toast and is intentionally bleeding the existing flock dry for all it’s worth. In short, the only thing that makes any sense is that he does not care about Scientology or the goals of the founder and is operating on his own agenda. The rest is a facade. It’s an all out money grab and from his perspective he’s got nothing to lose because he’s hijacked the whole deal and eventually plans to parachute out of the plane before it hits the ground.
It was empty when me, Geir and Brendan visited in June. We smelled apathy. Their auto-response “tour” led us to their FART system and we toured ourselves through a couple of The Way to Happiness videos. We saw just a couple of publics there.
Not exactly the friendliest place we visited on our US tour.
Uahu…what a sad scene, empty, desperate while the “leader’ claims straight up and vertical. But yes, the staff around the world must be desperate in trying to get someone in and they seem to have the habit of lying no matter what.
This just leads to the fact that “ideal morgues’ products are ZERO.
It must be NY Ideal Org infiltration week!
http://columbialion.com/blog/visit-ny-scientology-church-get-harassed-for-the-rest-of-your-life/
🙂 I guess shit happens when you tell the world you want everyone to “come in and find out about us” (unless of course they realize you are an “undesirable” then we spare no cost or effort to ensure you CANNOT get in).
Anti Scientology activists can retire. The “church” is doing a great job of alienating the general public all on its own. 🙂
That’s the decoys done. Excellent!