Apparently taking a page from Oprah Winfrey, Dear Leader has commissioned his own magazine "David Miscavige." The difference is, of course, that Oprah's magazine is actually about things other than Oprah. This would appear to be more like something published by the PDRK PR team about Kim Jong-un than a magazine simply bearing someone's name like Forbes or Oprah. Or perhaps it is really more like a "Ron" mag, the hagiographic publication that purports to detail "Ron's life" but in fact merely presents pictures and articles that try to portray him as a "humanitarian", "yacht captain" or … [Read more...]
Massive International Expansion Lies
From the latest edition of Source magazine, the official magazine of the "international spiritual headquarters" of scientology. You can see they are making a big deal about their new "7.5 foot diameter world map" with "12-sided polygon locator pinpoints." As always, scientology seem to impress themselves by talking about the size of their maps or details of their toys. It's as gauche as someone telling you "I have 7,000 square feet of hand-made silk rugs in the entrance hall of my 40,000 square foot home -- and you paid for it." This magnificent new map is apparently adjacent to "Embassy … [Read more...]
The Final World Class Ideal Org…
This new poster says a lot. This is the "final world class ideal org for America"?? Wow. Scientology of course has no problem making outrageous statements and blustering on through as though everyone will simply agree because they say so. But I wonder how Boston feels about being relegated to the "non-world class" category? Or Philly? Austin? Detroit? There is apparently NEVER going to be any org in Houston, New Orleans or Charlotte, let alone an ideal one. But even more interesting than their stupidity is how much this reveals about the state of scientology in the age of the … [Read more...]
Lies, Lies and More Lies
I had not seen this until perusing the scientology.org website today. Don't focus on the wonderful passage of classic Shermanspeak -- legendary times on the front porch of infinity indeed. No, try to put that out of your mind and note the claim -- apparently in response to the repeated exposure of the dwindling numbers at his events -- that the event was attended by a "record number" pegged at 6700 lost souls from 70 nations. Of course, this is quite a feat, given the capacity of the venue is Ruth Eckerd Hall that seats 2180 (slightly less with all the cameras and sound equipment … [Read more...]
Just When It Could Not Get Weirder…
This is a glimpse behind the smoke and mirrors of ideal org openings from inside the bubble. When Miscavige yanks his ribbon at the Gala Grand Opening of a new building, he expects to see enough staff present to occupy his new palace. But the vast majority of these massively oversized new buildings are in cities where the scientology organization is a small, failing operation with a few staff. Or in the recent case of Dublin, with no staff at all. Can you imagine the CEO of WalMart opening a new Supercenter to replace a lemonade stand and nobody is inside to man the checkouts or stock … [Read more...]
Orlando Ribbon Yanking
The big announcement has come. On Saturday, the Orlando morgue is set to open its doors. Of course, this had to be done in time for Maiden Voyage so there is something to show there. It's pretty much the ONLY thing there is to talk about with regard to scientology, so they orchestrate the funding, work and timing of the yanking event around Chairman of the Bored's schedule and the need for video for his "international events." Wonder how many "ringer" staff members they will have on hand for the "grand opening"? And as is the norm they don’t announce the presence of Dear Leader … [Read more...]
The Boasts of Scientology
I happened to pick up a copy of the new edition of Freedom magazine in downtown Clearwater (there are a number of stores that have an over-abundance of scientology promotional items on display -- not sure if they are hoping to curry favor with the few scientologists that might stop in or if they are intimidated into thinking they will be put on a "blacklist" if they don't accept them). This "special edition" is not the usual "Posse of Lunatics" or Anderson Cooper is a poopy-head or Lawrence Wright’s mother wears army boots. This one crows about the accomplishments of scientology and … [Read more...]
More Ribbon Yankings
Yanking those ribbons has become a staple of scientology internal propaganda. Of course, though this is their proudest moment demonstrating their massive international expansion, no outsiders are ever allowed to attend and there is massive security presence to ensure they cannot. These are often timed to coincide with events -- either a few weeks before in order to include in the upcoming event, or shortly afterwards for the convenience of the Chairman of the Bored (as in Amsterdam, Birmingham and Ireland most recently). Now, with the March 13th standing-ovation-athon done and dusted (one … [Read more...]
Scientology Advertising Fail
My good friend Shel Goldberg sent this to me. I thought it fascinating. Obviously, scientology has been spending a lot lately on TV commercials. The ad is on youtube and has over 1.8M views so far. Of the 1.8M views, only 297 comments and ZERO likes or dislikes. I've never noticed a youtube video that had no likes or dislikes, unless it had 0 views. The church must be so paranoid of dislikes. I can only imagine. So, in the last 24 hours, the video has been seen by 200K+ as it was about 1.6M yesterday when I first started this research. BUT, yesterday there were also 295 … [Read more...]
New Ideal Orgs
Tony Ortega covered the recent openings of Salt Lake and "Silicon Valley" ideal orgs with some interesting on-the-ground reports from observers. I have, as is my wont, a few observations of my own. Salt Lake City: This is the official photo on the scientology.org website. If you had the time or inclination, you could actually count the heads present. My guess would be 350. (Update, a reader counted every head in this photo, the number is 242). But if you read their press release, the gathering consisted of "more than a thousand" in attendance. It's … [Read more...]