Scientology is apparently hell bent on turning Alex Gibney's upcoming documentary into a major hit. More power to them. The New York Times reports the church is taking out full page ads to denounce a film they have not seen. This is every PR man's dream. The HBO PR Team should send them a thank you basket. With The Interview so fresh in everyone's mind, the chances of scientology convincing anyone this is a "UVA/Rolling Stone redux" are slim to none. The take away is more likely to be persuading/intriguing people to see the film because scientology hates it with such … [Read more...]
Another Conversation With A Scientologist
Another in the series where an interested "wog" communicates to a staff member of an "ideal" org, inquiring about a service they offer on the internet. These conversations provide some fascinating insight into the bubble world of scientology.... My snarky comments are in red. --- Subject: communication classes Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 20:25:53 -0600 I got your e-mail from a friend who did this communication course and liked it. Can you tell me more? Xxxx On 12/20/2014 at 9:31 PM Sure, Xxxx, This is a non-profit organization, and we have classes … [Read more...]
Scientology And The Internet
The biggest problem confronting scientology is the statistic they are using to make their latest pitch for money. 8 new people on the internet every second. Who knows if this is true or not, but the number is really irrelevant. It could be one per second or 800 per second. Not a single one of those 1 or 8 or 800 people will ever find the PR about scientology they attempt to spread on the internet without ALSO finding the truth about scientology, which is far more prevalent. It's the ultimate Catch 22. Scientology is like a bunch of starving villagers in an isolated village. They k … [Read more...]
Disconnection — The Play
2015 is kicking off in grand style. Allen Barton's new play opens on 24 January, the evening before the premiere of Alex Gibney's documentary at Sundance. Anyone who does not know Allen, he is a highly acclaimed playwright (I include at the end of this posting some of the many kudos for his last play). You may recognize his name from this story on Tony Ortega's blog about Mario Fenninger. Allen has translated his experience into a new play which promises to be a tour de force. This is what Allen has to say about it: DISCONNECTION was inspired directly by my experience w … [Read more...]
Scientology’s PR Trainwreck
The Scientology PR machine is rolling... Like a runaway train on a toboggan ride down the Matterhorn (to steal some shermanspeak). They not only have the international news of the announcement of Alex Gibney's scientology film premiering at Sundance next month, (and a tongue in cheek statement from HBO about having 160 lawyers being picked up internationally to set the mood and get a LOT of people wanting to watch it to see what the noise is all about), now they have a new video of bizarre bubble behavior leaking out into the real world with Cathy Fraser and Co "confronting and shattering" … [Read more...]
How Big Is Scientology? Lies Exposed
Quote from Karin Pouw letter to Tampa Bay Times June 2012 : The last three years tell you all you need to know: The Church has doubled in size since your sources left and, since your opening articles in 2009, Church expansion has only accelerated, contrary to the predictions of both the Times and your sources. It's but one example. Virtually every media who has written anything about scientology in the last decade or more have received similar communications from the church or its lawyers. But the facts are very different. There is NOTHING that supports their lies. To make it VERY … [Read more...]
Scientology Shriveling. Media Take Note: They Lie To You.
This is the page listing the scientology orgs in the August 1976 reprint of Scientology A New Slant On Life. This presents the perfect opportunity to make a comparison to the list published in What Is Scientology? in 1992 and then the CURRENT list on scientology.org. This is convenient breakdown into three periods. I. From 1954 (the first church in Los Angeles) to 1976 (22 years). II. From 1976 to 1992 (16 years). III. From 1992 to 2014 (22 years). You could call the first era the LRH Era, II is the Transition Era and III is the Miscavige Era. This review … [Read more...]
Lying and Fundamentalist Scientology — Sunday Redux
This was originally posted on 29 December 2013. It has only gotten worse.... Is the "Church of Scientology" a fundamentalist organization? In my view, it is. And if you read the criteria for fundamentalism above, there is not much doubt that the hard core members of the church fit right in to these 5 points. I was prompted to write this by an interesting post on Marty's blog a little while ago entitled Trained To Lie. I posted a comment in response which I repeat here: Marty — the corollary to this is the fact that these people will do anything to “protect the church” and bel … [Read more...]
Bob Keenan/Rob Swan
Bob Keenan was formerly posted as the LRH PPRO UK, but was David Miscavige's "go to guy" in the UK. He had a relatively short career as one of Dear Leader's pets. When Miscavige was in the UK for the IAS event or any other activities, Keenan was "the man". He picked up Miscavige from Farnborough Business Jet Airport when he arrived in Cruise's Gulfstream with a little convoy of rented Range Rovers and BMWs. He arranged special food. He oversaw "security" and acted as a personal "bodyguard." As LRH PPRO he worked in the Manor, just downstairs from the private office suite of the great m … [Read more...]
Has Scientology Finally Changed Its Tune On Gays?
An eagle eyed Special Correspondent spotted something in Tony Ortega’s Sunday Funnies on 19 Oct. From there he dug a little more and some interesting things emerged. It is well known that Scientology is notoriously homophobic. L. Ron Hubbard was extremely anti-gay in his early writings, most notably in his 1951 book Science Of Survival. Unfortunately, it is fundamental and unalterable dogma in scientology that the words of L. Ron Hubbard must be followed to the letter and without deviation. So, things change VERY slowly, if at all. The church's stance against gay rights was brought int … [Read more...]