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...]
David Miscavige Leader of Men
Of course, though the STAAD League blocked me from seeing their tweets (though I am the subject of a lot of them...) people send me some of their drivel every now and then. This one came in a little while ago. If you looked up "brown-nosing" in the dictionary you might well find this tweet presented as an example. "Mr." David Miscavige (nobody DARE refer to him as merely "David Miscavige" or heaven forbid, "David" or perish the thought, "Dave") has apparently marked many wayposts on the path to peace (like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant?) and somehow they "pointed" to a better … [Read more...]
Scientology “Facts”
This is a page from the Int Scientology News "New Years" edition where they repeat what was said at the New Years event for the few hundred remaining scientologists who managed to ignore the dozens of phone calls, visits, texts and emails about attending the video showing of the annual spectacle of bullshit. A big feature of every Miscavige Event is numbers. Strange numbers. Weird "factoids" that you cannot wrap your mind around as you sit at the event. Marc Yager ("Cueball" to Miscavige, who loves calling people by derogatory names) is the master of this technique. It's an official … [Read more...]
Scientology Shriveling
With great fanfare, scientology screams "expansion" every time they cut the ribbon on an old org relocated to an expensive new building. Recently we saw one of their upcoming projects, Perth "ideal" org, talking about how they are going to be clearing "Malasia", Singapore and Indonesia. There is no thought of opening ORGS in these countries. Instead, they desperately fundraise to buy a new building for a small, failing org that has ALWAYS been small and failing and proudly proclaim this will herald a new era in countries thousands of miles away. Pure insanity. Remember when … [Read more...]
A Very Scientology Christmas Carol
A special essay from Terra Cognita for the holidays. For any unfamiliar with Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" I include a synopsis from Wikipedia at the end of this post. A Very Scientology Christmas Carol David Miscavige would make the perfect Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dicken’s, A Christmas Carol. L.Ron Hubbard would of course play the part of Jacob Marley, his deceased business partner who comes back to haunt him. I cast Mike Rinder to play the Ghost of Christmas Past; Tony Ortega to play the Ghost of Christmas Present; and Leah Remini to play Ms. Christmas Yet to Be. A … [Read more...]
Ideal Org Failure #47X – San Francisco
SFO is one of the first ideal orgs (the "originals" were Buffalo, Joburg, NY and SFO)... The email accompanying this said "San Francisco is going SH Size". This "ideal org" had it's ribbon yanked by the Chairman of the Bored on 29 Nov 2003. That is almost exactly 14 years ago. FOURTEEN YEARS and this org has not expanded to the "Make-break" point, the size where staff can earn a living wage according to L. Ron Hubbard. Of course, the other "original" "ideal" orgs are also dismal failures. Buffalo has never amounted to anything at all. New York continues to struggle. Joburg, the one … [Read more...]