Mike Rinder's Blog

Something Can Be Done About It

Denver “Ideal” Org – The Lie of “Expansion”

By 135 Comments

Denver “ideal org” parking lot

Here is the REAL story about an “Ideal Org.” These buildings are what scientology inform the world is “proof” of their massive international expansion.

The hype is that “ideal orgs” “expand 10X”.

They are STILL circulating this poster.

Denver had its ribbon yanked in 2012. Nearly 5 YEARS ago now.
Miscavige claims that THIS is the strategy to make all orgs the size of old St Hill. First they have to be made “ideal.” And then their “straight up and vertical” “10X” expansion begins. And they never look back.
Oops — Denver just let the cat out of the bag.
Five years later, they have THIRTY STAFF in the Day Org and TWENTY TWO on Foundation (and you know this is an exaggeration because they NEVER tell the truth). According to their OWN email, they need 125 for each.
They are less than 20% of the size of “Old St Hill.” And that also means the staff are being paid next to nothing.
Let’s not forget this earlier post where an analysis of their org magazine showed:

Zero Processing Completions

Zero Academy Completions

Zero Congress Course Completions

Zero Golden Age of Knowledge Course Completions

Zero Extension Course Completions

THIS is the reality of buying and renovating a $2o million building. It changes NOTHING.

Anyone still falling for the idea that the “new churches” (they are not, they have not opened an actual NEW church in decades) Miscavige yanks ribbons on is “proof” of scientology expansion is as gullible as they come.

 

Comments

  1. I just moved to Portland Oregon, where it was brought to my attention they have a center here. Not sure what kind. I am going on there ASAP. We never had these back in Michigan. I am so stoked, can’t wait. Keep you posted on the outcome.

    Reply

  2. I just saw this. I was there yesterday and told the local news that they “had about 30 people in there.” We did the live interview right in front of the Org in the middle of the day and the parking lot was pretty empty. Their lot is usually empty unless they have sold the spots for a Rockies game.

    I have been “safepointing” Denver as an SP (special people) heavy town and I think we are having great success. We have spoken to quite a few people that “used to be” scientologists here in Denver. I am afraid that some of these folks might not have informed the local org. I think we might have at least 20 SPs (officially declared) that live here and we are always welcoming more.

    If anyone has any other intel on the Denver Org, I’d love to hear about it.

    Here is the interview I did yesterday and more people commented on it than there are Scilons in the area!
    https://www.facebook.com/ilike9news/videos/vb.263743636076/10154625417626077/?type=2&theater&notif_t=video_comment&notif_id=1485222101410455

    Reply

    • I am afraid that some of these folks might not have informed the local org.

      Oopsie…

      Love your interviews always Marc.

      Reply

    • Been out for 32 years and, golly, I did forget to tell them. Well, unless you count politely requesting to the HCO sec that he stick scientology up his fucking ass as telling them. Oops! And still live in Denver area. Still waiting for my goldenrod….

      Reply

    • I just watched the whole interview, it was really good. I’m glad you are doing well and are still speaking out. Were you guys in a van outside the Scientology building? And one thing was bizarre… who was that man about halfway through that came up to you guys with a recording device (or what was that)?

      Reply

    • What do you know about Portland center. They have a giant ass building right downtown. It’s got to be 10 million in property. Going to check it out on my day off. Get some free auditing, talk some LRH. Dude so fucking stoked. Haha. Btw. Marc. Your book was awesome. And that James bond escape! Rad.

      Reply

  3. I don’t know. I think it’s kinda cute that there are Scientologists in Denver who think they can get Denver Org to St. Hill Size. BE TONE 40! Be at cause! Make it go right! Postulate! I don’t know, I just have an overwhelming urge to buy donuts for the whole crew. They try so hard.

    Reply

  6. This post sent me browsing through the online photo gallery for the Denver org and I noticed this: “Our Chapel, lined with the Codes and Creed of the Church of Scientology, provides for all congregational ceremonies and services—including Sunday Services, Weddings and Naming Ceremonies.”

    Apologies for such a basic question, but I’ve never seen Sunday services mentioned before. Is that just more PR flackery?

    Reply

    • Pretty much. “Sunday Service,” on the occasions it is actually held, usually consists of playing one of the Fatman’s taped lectures.

      Reply

      • And don’t forget Gus, they like to be followed by a reg cycle. Failing that, sec checks can be done in the late afternoon to ‘tune up’ the faithful followers of the Kool juice!

        Reply

    • Back in the Toronto org, in 1973, we had a Sunday service a few times. Usually there was a speaker. Nice at the time.

      Reply

  7. This scene in Denver reminds of other orgs.

    I happened to cross paths with a friend in London who has recently completed a 2 and a half year staff contract. I asked all kinds of questions. Long story short, she made one new scientologist in that period and the org she worked for sold zero academy level packages, in that same period.

    Academy levels are a series of auditor training levels where you learn to become a professional auditor, one the the main reasons for the existence of an org in the first place. Quite telling.

    She pointed at one main contributing factor, in her mind, for this state of affairs, and it was that her direct continental management were either kids or woefully incompetent or both.

    Reply

  9. I have personal knowledge of an interesting incident involving the CO of the Denver Org blowing off someone who was quite interested in the tech.

    This public had started a basic intro course, and was very interested in it, but took a leave to handle some personal cycles. This public received emails and phone calls, the usual, and responded to all of them in a very positive way, then received a very, very snarky email from the CO, a comm that was 100% make wrong, as if it were deliberately designed to destroy the comm line. If so, it succeeded.

    Reply

    • Perfect. The CO should write a success story.

      Our success from bitter defrocked apostate land………….” Thanks dickhead! You saved another soul from the anguish of $cientology. Take a bow.”

      Reply

  10. Two things come to mind in reading this post.

    First, the size of the staff is obviously an exaggeration, given the handful of cars in the parking lot. They are claiming 52 total staff, but if they had 15, that would probably be a surprise. But even 15 staff are too many for the number of Scientologists in Denver.

    To see what I mean, follow the math: a reasonable estimate is that there are only about 9,000 participating Scientologists who are not on staff in the United States. Since most Scientologists are urban dwellers, consider the size of the Denver metropolitan area versus the urban (not total) population of the United States. You get about 1.5% of the urban population of the US lives in Denver. So applying that to the 9,000 Scientologists, we can estimate that there are something like 135 Scientologists in Denver, including the 15 staff. That ties reasonably well to what I recall of a completions list that Mike published a year or two ago, showing all the completions for a couple of years after the new Idle Morgue opened.

    This means that there is absently no way that the all-powerful CMO missionaires can find 200 Scientologists to put on staff — that’s even more than the total of Scientology population in the city, even if every single one of those people were foolish enough to want to impoverish themselves and deplete their savings by signing up for this thankless and pointless job.

    And what if the CMO mission actually somehow succeeded in bulking the staff up to 250 people? One of the things you have to do in managing the business is to manage your revenue-per-employee figure. You can’t go hiring without revenue sufficient to support the payroll costs.

    Based on various data that has been published for Valley Org and other Scientology orcs throughout the country, it seems reasonable to estimate that the Denver org is taking in perhaps $600,000 per year ($50,000 per month). A payroll of $50 a week times 250 people times four weeks per month works out to $50,000 a month in payroll expenses, even at slave labor wage rates, for a St. Hill-sized org. So the Denver org would be massively in the red if they ever actually hired all of those bodies that they fantasize about hiring, after you add in all the other ordinary expenses that they have to pay to open the doors for business (electricity, water, garbage, etc). No money would be flowing up lines and that would certainly make little Davey a wee bit irate.

    So the reality is that they don’t actually want to be Saint Hill-sized because they would be losing money. And they have to know it. Just another one of those bizarre contradictions that you have to work so hard to try to smooth over in order to stay in the cult and to keep believing that you’re doing good for society.

    Reply

    • John, I think that most of your numbers are about right, but that Denver might be able to pull in a few more part-time and retired staff candidates from North of them in Boulder. That town has a fertile West Coast-like culture epitomized by the presence of what is sometimes jokingly referred to as the “University of California at Boulder,” and I think that at one point there was a fairly strong community of scientologists and a mission there.

      As for the economics of staffing, I think that at this point most added staff would effectively be volunteers and so actual increases in variable costs would be minimal while the items that you cite like utilities are largely fixed for org operations. It looks to me like they can often ramp up staffing at little cost and then inevitably produced at least enough new revenue for a short-term net gain, now including through what seems to increased recruiting of retired older (and possibly inactive) members who then sometimes end up paying for courses and getting “regged” for donations.

      I would agree that it is an effort doomed to fall short and ultimately fail. But historically these pushes are reported to have produced temporary boosts in revenue, often through finding yet some new angle to exploit, though they are increasingly exhausting the public members and probably getting diminishing returns from each new campaign.

      I think that business models work well for gauging the larger picture of Scientology, but at the micro level these are non-profit organizations that have different economics. I have even seen struggling small businesses start to operate more like non-profits, where loyal employees will do things like take trash home to their residential trash collection to help keep expenses down.

      Reply

    • Based on the list of people that attend the seminars there are about 60-70 regulars including all the children at most. Then there are 30-40 more that sometimes attend. So the number is about 100 for the Denver org. They just got a 81 year old whose wife died a few years back and he wants to help people. So sweet and so sad.

      Reply

      • ” Based on the list of people that attend the seminars there are about 60-70 regulars including all the children at most. ”

        I wonder if they can find two spare nickels between them to rub together for a dono cycle? Probably not …………… of course there are always the ever present credit cards and Dave can help them get a credit limit bump-up for the really hard sell IAS stooges.

        Reply

      • Mary, thanks for the reporting of those numbers, which I credited in another comment.

        That’s sad to see about the elderly man, since other reports I’m seeing indicate that this is becoming more common as Scientology’s orgs become desperate for recruits and staff, and that they then “reg” these people for donations that may leave them destitute. Scammers have long known that the elderly are fertile targets, as they tend to be charitable and to have trouble saying “no,” and may also have diminished capacity and so be more easy to manipulate. I think that elder abuse is going to be the next big heart-wrenching scandal to hit Scientology, as their membership and staff age and yet are one of the few remaining sources for fundraising and labor.

        Reply

    • Do you really think they are bringing in $50,000 a month? I can’t imagine that unless there are some whales in the Denver region.

      Reply

  11. Sorry, totally off topic. The last show scheduled with Leah Remini, a stand-alone (?) has been removed from the listings. Is this a surprise or did Leah expect it? Have you any idea why it was canceled? She announced the show herself at the end of Reddit ll, so obviously as close as last week someone expected this filming to be aired. It concerns me.

    Reply

    • The newtwork wanted that show, Leah was never excited about it. Not sure what happened, but no need for concern.

      Reply

      • That’s good to know. I’m pretty sure that Leah was happier about the episodes that did go out (I thought they were pretty excellent!).

        Looking forward to second season 🙂

        Reply

  12. Must be hard for the Denver Org October – April when they don’t have that stream of income from Rockies game parking.

    Reply

  14. An Ideal Org indeed Denver – EMPTY! Just how we like them.

    Heh – wondering if we need to send this to the FBI, CIA, IRS – Here is Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs CONFIDENTIAL AND HIGHLY CLASSIFIED (no more…LOL)
    “dirty tricks department’s guide to spying and private investigation etc.

    http://www.xenu.net/archive/go/man_just.htm

    What do you think Mike Rinder? Should this be part of the evidence that we can send to prove we were part of a group using mind control tactics and fear to control us?

    Check out the part where Hubbard says people die that hurt Scientology. What a crock of lies.

    I actually have never been healthier now that I am not being suppressed and oppressed and getting more and more depressed as I ascended up the bridge to Scientology’s HELL.

    I would love to hear what you have to say about this Mike and could it help us?

    Reply

  16. Mike, speaking of gullible, what does the organization say about Mary Sue Hubbard’s death of metastatic breast cancer after being touted as having reached Clear? I know they say LRH was able to choose to shed his body rather than saying he died of medical issues but what about Mary Sue? How is her death addressed. It seems to me as though it needs to be explained somehow since my understanding of being Clear is that you can cure cancer with your mind.

    Reply

    • Ah well. She was just a mere mortal. And they have bodies. And they get sick. And they die. Only L. Ron Hubbard transcends the need for a body and “discards” it.

      Reply

        • azhlynne, I do not recall seeing any reports of Miscavige suffering from asthma in recent years – are you referring to some particular evidence? Childhood asthma can go into remission on its own in some cases – which is just the sort of thing that can lead people to falsely attribute “miracle cures” to something that they happened to be doing at the time (Scientology, prayer, voodoo, etc.). Diet may also help with asthma, and it’s known that DM sticks to a very specific (and very expensive) diet. There are also newer medications that can help keep asthma symptoms at bay, and it wouldn’t be out of character for the leader of Scientology to be availing himself of such medicine even if the group would seem to have an anti-medical stance.

          As for Mary Sue Hubbard, she was studiously ignored after her fall from grace and subsequent imprisonment, though Scientology took care to keep her happy – and quiet. She was conveniently forgotten, and I think that if you brought her up to a Scientologist they would dismiss her example with the unspoken assumption that perhaps she had turned suppressive and “pulled in” her illness. Which begs the question of how Hubbard’s wife and confidante could have turned suppressive, but there is all manner of excuse-making and thought-stopping in the mind of a true believer in something like Scientology.

          Reply

  18. Wasn’t there some initial staffing requirement for the “ideal” org, in the ballpark of 100? To begin with, they have obviously contracted significantly from that.

    Could they be counting the same people as both “day” and “foundation” staff these days? If I recall correctly other orgs have reportedly just collapsed both of those into one, which an ideal org may not be able to get away with, but counting people who work a full day in both would effectively be the same.

    Then, aren’t a lot of staff actually part time these days? That would also make the numbers much less than they seem, and easier to boost.

    There also seems to be a trend these days to get retired people to go on staff. That may also be an underhanded way to get inactive old-timers members back into the orgs.

    Denver seems to have always been a small and weak org, which is partly documented in some of the older posts here about them. As far as I can tell, they never had a typical downtown org in an area with lots of foot traffic for “body routing” unless there was one way back in the 1960s that collapsed. This new location reportedly is mostly active at night due to nearby bars, and in a hip place like Denver that sort of crowd is going to be young people more likely to picket the org than to sign up for services.

    It appears to me like an impossible task to reach their stated goals unless they do things like bringing in a lot of people from out of the area. It would be an interesting window into what is going on inside Scientology these days, to get further inside details of exactly what happens with this push for staffing.

    Reply

    • Most small orgs can’t manage a day and foundation staff so the people they do have work the whole time, it is therefore entirely feasible that the figures quoted are double counting several people.
      When the ideal orgs open they pretty much force public to join staff to boost the numbers reported, these will drop off very quickly because being on staff is impossible unless you have outside financial support. Back when I was in they had recruitment rallies where they asked for new volunteers to go to the front of the room, anyone who didn’t willingly go was then worked on by two member of staff until they caved in. I remember agreeing to sign a contract on several occasions, I never ‘arrived’ for staff though, having experienced it in my early scn career I was not going to willingly go back to that nightmare, being a public scion was bad enough.

      Reply

      • Gimpy, thanks for confirming that about staff working (and counted in) both Day and Foundation orgs.

        Your anecdotes about staffing and contracts are similar to an example I had intended to cite, that of Steven Mango (which can be found online) who twice was recruited to sign staff contracts that he couldn’t realistically fulfill, in one case after intense and relentless personal pressure as part of an “ideal” org campaign, but who only showed up maybe for a bit of the initial training. It sounds like it may be common these days to push to sign staff up to meet some quota and deadline for recruitment, and once that is met just completely drop the ball about actually getting people on the job.

        Also thanks to Mary Smith, who confirmed my recollection of Denver member numbers in the 75 – 125 range. That shows how far-fetched the goals of the “Saint Hill” size campaign are, even if they counted the same staff in both orgs and only need 125 total.

        Reply

    • Denver had a booming mission in the early 70s. When the Denver org came in, that was the beginning of the end. If I recall, the org stats never came close to the mission’s, which was dissolved around 1976. My first comment on this blog, or any blog, was after I saw a completions list for the Denver ideal org. I was shocked to see the names of people I had known back in the mission. These were all lovely people and it makes me so sad that they are still tilting at the windmills.

      Reply

  19. Thankfully, baseball season is near and that empty parking lot can again earn money by renting spaces to Rockies fans. If that’s not ‘ideal’, what is?

    The Buffalo NY mOrg got some advertising money for a billboard and special paint job on some city buses 2 years ago. That billboard now advertises Red’s Brake Service and the buses have been repainted to some other color scheme. And the Buffalo mOrg is still empty. If that is not the EP of good advertising, what is?

    Nothing can resurrect the reputation of $cientology. Nothing. The turd will continue to circle the drain for a little while longer. But not much longer…

    Reply

  20. Dave,

    Not even Amazon or White Elephant Self Storage has a use for your mortuaries. As for you, your atrocious PR is hastening an FBI investigation and IRS reversal of your exemption. The long arm of the law is about to give you a televised prostate exam before shoving you into the slammer.

    Reply

    • White Elephant Self Storage! Perfect. Those org buildings are pretty much useless to anyone else the way they are configured, so they have less value when they eventually get sold. Self storage would be an, ahem, Ideal, way to repurpose them. Someone could just gut the places and then install fencing and lockers. I like it.

      Reply

  22. Scientology Still Exactly Where They Have Always Been.In a nightmare of the cult’s own making.Only now they are so blinded by the lies,the truth of the Ideal Org World of dm totally ceases to exist for them.And another ribbon is yanked and another Org tanks.?

    Reply

    • Hello Ann. I’ve worked in the medical field for most of my life. I chose a job that kept me moving almost the entire shift. It astounds me that no matter how many staff the ideal org claims, it’s still way more than the public coming in the door. WHAT THE HECK DO THEY DO ALL DAY/NIGHT?!?! I’d go right out of my tiny little mind if I wasn’t busy. How many times can one re-read the propaganda disguised as scripture?

      Reply

  23. The CMO mission may increase staff by a few, but the numbers will dwindle afterwards. It ends with a whimper, a slow death, as no one else can be recruited and no one is interested in the scam. This is the fate of each Ideal Org.

    Reply

    • Yes, these same sort of missions have been in most, if not all, of the “ideal” orgs. They promise people they can go onto FT training in the TTC, that the staff pay will be magnificent and that the “Universe Corps” will be along in short order to get them to OT for free! None of them happen.

      Reply

      • I was being recruited by the CMO Int Mission I/C, who told me that all Ideal Orgs have a CMO Int Mission until they reach St. Hill Size. I found that hard to believe, but she insisted she would be there until they were St. Hill Sized.

        At the time, she was offering OTV as a “signing bonus”, and could get me started the following Saturday. I pointed out the HCO PL that prohibits the offer of free processing for recruitment purposes. She merely shrugged her shoulders and said that “these are unusual times…if orgs don’t go Ideal, and expand, then we’re doomed.” In the back of my mind I thought, “SHE may be doomed.” I’m certain she’s on the RPF now, or possibly OUT. 

        All of the missionaries that I have met have ZERO org staff experience. They were simply “following policy.” God help them.

        Reply

        • ““these are unusual times…if orgs don’t go Ideal, and expand, then we’re doomed.”

          Well then BAM, so be it! I just love it when $cilons cut to the chase and tell it like it is. It’s a very rare thing to see because that kind of truth telling will get you ratted out by your fellow cultists and sent to ethics for regrooving before you can even say, “Ron IS Xenu!”

          Reply

        • statpush, thanks for that, it’s interesting to see the specific rationalization of “these are unusual times” being used for going against Hubbard policy or “scripture.” While it’s been clear for a long time that international management has been using “the end justifies the means” type thinking when it suits them to change Hubbard’s policy, I’m wondering if this is a sign that willingness to break Hubbard’s policies when expedient is becoming more widespread and seeping into the lower levels of the organization.

          Reply

          • Dunno about org staff. To me, they are the “real” Scnists, KSW to the core. Middle and upper management have departed long ago.

            Reply

        • Statpush: “I was being recruited by the CMO Int Mission I/C, who told me that all Ideal Orgs have a CMO Int Mission until they reach St. Hill Size. I found that hard to believe, but she insisted she would be there until they were St. Hill Sized.”

          The outcomes for such missionaires will be grim. Has even one of these missions succeeded?

          Reply

    • A Hubbard FEBC term for the ups and downs of orgs, in history, are “booms and depressions”.

      The Hubbard green hard back dictionary, the hundreds of pages of selected management words from Hubbard, is illuminating of Hubbard’s management pragmatism. (It’s all blue sky sales to me now, but Hubbard’s management policies and principles were very engaging, but Hubbard never faulted his “tech” and his ideas, but only faulted others’ failures, so long range, all the management tech can’t produce what can’t be produced, Scientology is guilty of the fable: you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear—instead all you get is people conditioned to claim they are big beings and “OT” superpeople, but they are not what they claim and Scientology conditions them to play along as model “OT 8” superpeople when they really are nothing but possibly slightly more ethical, hopefully, human beings, a lot of money and time for something that adult education would far better have resulted in for them.)

      Reply

  24. I see that the PR company that was hired by the PRC this month is touting that China is ready to assume the mantle of “World Leader: if others are retreating from it.

    Oh great, another bunch of self-appointed psychopaths. News Flash to PRC…..we don’t need or want your “leadership”..Deal with Kim Jong-un first…..and then we have some “Ideal Orgs” we can sell you…..

    Reply

  25. Sorry if this was mentioned elsewhere, but I don’t see Leah’s episode of Aftermath on my program guide. Is it not showing this week? I see there’s a marathon today/tonight of previous episodes, but nothing showing for the final one that was supposed to air.

    Reply

    • The airing of this final show has been cancelled. I am fairly certain, and Mike Rinder can confirm this, that the final episode “The Apostate” was pulled, because the subject was Leah Remini herself, and I think her attorneys and A&E decided that since Leah, in her partnership with Mike, should not expose too much about herself and potentially make herself more of a scilon fair game target than she already is. Plus I think Leah’s under a ton of pressue and she is actually humbled by this and doesn’t want to be the center of attention given she lived a “privileged” life while in the criminal syndicate masquerading as a religion. Just my gut feeling……..Mike can comment maybe if I”m on the right track.
      .

      Reply

      • Frankly, as of the time of writing this, I do not know, other than to say Leah was not really enthused about a show ABOUT her. She wanted the show to be about exposing abuses, not talking about her. She did that already in her book.

        Reply

        • That’s a wise move for a number of different reasons. First, if you’re planning on suing the cult, then the last thing that you want to do is to show your hand at this early stage of the legal game. Second, as you mention, she’s already told her story in a book-length format. Third, she was once part of the $cn celeb petting zoo and didn’t have to endure the same kinds of criminal abuse and human/civil rights violations that manay less privileged $cilons are often faced with. Fourth, she was smart enough to exit the cult and take her family with her so there would be no opportunity for them to coerce and exploit her, based on the threat of disconnection.

          Reply

          • Thanks for all the comments and for confirming it was pulled. I’m disappointed, but I can see how an episode focusing on Leah could send an unintended message. Maybe we’ll be lucky and they’ll put together an episode of some “previously unseen” footage. (Which reminds me, I still need to go to the website to see what they put up there…)

            Reply

            • Chris, in my region (east coast) there is a showing of 20/20 called Trouble Maker. It’s on A&E tomorrow evening and repeated in the wee hours of Wednesday. In case you missed it, there’s also the episode of 20/20 War Without Guns shown a few weeks ago.

              Reply

  26. To be fair, if zero is the baseline, then their claims of 10X growth could be possible. After all, 10X of zero (where they were in your earlier post) is still zero, so theoretically they could mathematically make this claim (hell, they could even claim 1 billion X growth and still be officially accurate).

    Maybe the 10X is referring to money that the church (correction, their regged parishioners) spent or something…..I can’t figure out their logic, but then again, I’m just a lowly never-in “wog”, so what the hell do I know?

    Reply

    • Don’t bother trying to figure out their logic. You never will. Plus, you may risk losing your mind on account of all the utter bullshit they tell their parishioners in terms of “stats” and everything else.

      Reply

    • Mick. As someone in for way too long, I have also often thought about the zero times anything equals zero computation. Their 10x pitch is pulled out of their whatsits. No logic discernible at all.

      As a never-in you are smart and astute and I appreciate alll your comments.

      Reply

  27. So many empty buildings. Would they be willing to rent any of them out on BnB? I travel sometimes and instead of staying in another Hilton, I think it would be fun to run around one of those big, empty places….sort of like Jack Nicholson in the Shining.

    Reply

  28. “Outflow equals inflow”, one of the laws of the universe discovered by Hubbard, suggests the Org isn’t making enough phone calls and distributing enough flyers, sending enough emails, etc. Flunk! Conditions need to be assigned and worked out. Sec checks need to be administered. There’s an SP in the ranks, they need to be identified and declared. Just follow the system Ron laid out. It works you know.

    Reply

    • RogerH, what Scientology orgs don’t realize is that Scientology is already VERY well known, and not in a good way. The org staff, for the most part don’t know how truly awful their PR is. Their name is mud and they don’t know it because they don’t read the internet! Then a mission comes in and berates them for not outflowing enough. The missionaires may or may not themselves know that the Scientology brand is incredibly tarnished either. In Scientology lingo, they are cluelessly applying the condition of Non Existence while in actuality their PR condition is Enemy, or, at the highest, Doubt, and the Missionaires are “helping” them do this. Its a doomed effort. Imagine moving into a neighborhood and innocently going around and introducing yourself to all and sundry when in fact everyone in the neighb already knows you and all about you and already can’t stand you and want nothing to do with you before they’ve even met you! Doomed.

      Reply

      • On the one hand, I do feel badly for the clueless staff who totally swallow that its their fault that their org is not expanding. On the other hand, each of us has a responsibility in life to inform oneself, to think for oneself, to look, to decide based on evidence and facts and so forth, and if one does not, the punishment that life doles out can be severe. I’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of punishment and it is the worst. Now, looking at inconvenient truths is also painful but not as bad as being clueless because the pain of the former, as searing and intense and disrupting as it can be, is temporary, but the pain of the latter creates horrible, ongoing, painful, life draining complexities and problems. So, its really better to know, confront, handle and get the pain over with as quickly as possible. In my today not so humble opinion.

        Reply

  29. There are 52 staff at the Denver Org? I don’t believe that for one second. Are there over 50 Scientologists in all of Colorado?

    Reply

      • But no one actually said 52. They document says 30 Day and 22 Foundation. I fed the data into my handy dandy Kray supercomputer, and the slip of paper popped out that said 52. But wait! If the 30 and 22 are dyslexic-ally analyzed, that’s 03 and 22, which does add up to 25! Holy guacamole! Fun with math!

        Now… please give me the two prime factors of 2701. Hint: they are palindromic.

        Reply

    • You get 52 if you add the 30 staff claimed for Day Org to the 22 claimed for Foundation Org. Besides the oddities of that technical division between what are effectively day and evening shifts, and which I think some orgs have abolished though “ideal” orgs probably have to keep up, I suspect that people who work a full day (possibly 12 – 18 hours) are counted in both. Then, that number has to cover 7 days a week, and probably includes part-timers. The count of individuals involved is probably somewhere between those two numbers, with only a few actually in the building at any one time, and some of those likely on training courses. If I recall correctly, it seemed that in the past Denver had somewhere around 75 active public members (maybe a peak of 125), and claimed about 25 individuals on staff a couple of years ago.

      Also, just maintaining the central files for an org that covers such a large geographic area could be a half-time to full-time job. If it’s been being done at all that could account for the work of 5 – 10 part time staff, and if hasn’t been being done then it would take putting a lot of new recruits on it for several months to catch it up.

      Denver is also the sort of place that may have more scientologists than is average across the US population, particularly if you include Boulder, so the member numbers I cited above seem plausible, plus they could draw part-time staff from places like Boulder. But I doubt that they have even 250 people in Colorado who have taken services in recent years, much less that many who would go on staff.

      Reply

  30. I found it interesting that the quotes you have chosen to put up on your “Important quotes” sidebar seem to be the philosophical underpinning of your actual actions, Mike.

    “Personal integrity is knowing what you know. What you know is what you know and to have the courage to know and say what you have observed”.- LRH from Personal Integrity

    “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world would do this, it would change the earth.” William Faulkner

    And these two are so relevant to your post today:

    “We own a tremendous amount of property. We own a tremendous amount of material and so forth, and it keeps growing. But that’s not important. When buildings get important to us, for God sakes, some of you born revolutionists will you please blow up central headquarters”. L Ron Hubbard Lecture 31 Dec 1960

    If the org slumps during this transition period, don’t engage in “fund raising” or “selling postcards” or borrowing money. Just make more income with Scientology. L Ron Hubbard From HCOPL URGENT ORG PROGRAMMING

    There just isn’t anything spiritually liberating in the Co$ today. “Spiritual freedom” was supposed to be the goal, I thought. I’ve personally found there are many processes that do help a person regain his own sense of self and can help them achieve an inner harmony. But the goal needs to be to help the person live his own life.

    Reply

    • Aye, to live your own life… there is no other goal that means anything at the end of the day. How you go about that is why some of us post here, others just want to tear everything down, and yet others just wait & watch until something seems real to them, while some others just wonder about everything and can’t decide on anything. Spiritual Freedom – I believe there is such thing but boy, hasn’t it been confusing as well as dangerous to trust another in it’s pursuit?
      Hubbard resorted to desperate and what is now obviously unworkable measures in an attempt to protect his path to it, & in that lies the problems of Scientology. Miscavige doesn’t give a shit about spiritual freedom, he’s just an asshole who hates everyone who doesn’t give him money or their life!

      Reply

  31. Hey, fun fact everyone:

    I went in to the Atlanta Org bright and early today and overheard the staff congratulating each other over a very recent completion. Upon further listening, I heard them mention how it was a Student Hat completion and how it was the third in this ideal org’s history.

    REALLY?!??!?

    This supposed “beacon of source”ideal org has only made 3 student hat completions in 9 months! On such a basic course that all staff are expected to do!

    Reply

    • Another fun fact: a friend UTR in New York Org just told me that the last Clear made there was in May of 2016. Whoo hoo! This is the Ideal M’org in Times Square that has all that “foot traffic”. “Crossroads of the World”, don’tcha know. Great stats, guys!

      Reply

  32. Further evidence of their lack of expansion in Denver is the fact that last year they postulated the Broncos winning the Super Bowl and this year they apparently could not even postulate them into the playoffs.

    Reply

    • I’d say its time for Dave to fire off another CMO Mission to get to the bottom of this. Time to sec check the lot of em and expose their counter intentions and bad thoughts for all to see.

      Yo Dave,
      Show them what you are made of good buddy. Bring Tom along, slam in ethics …. HARD……… make it go right and force the stats into the stratosphere. You can do it……you are the ONLY ONE who can …………Dave.

      Reply

    • That’s a shame the Broncos didn’t make the playoffs, that’s the Denver Org’s main source of income for the year – the parking for the fans attending the games.

      Reply

      • They’ve got their fingers crossed for the Rockies. They aren’t really near the Broncos stadium, but they are almost across the street from Coors Field

        Reply

  33. From my perspective, the progress toward ideal orgs is coming along nicely. Because, to my mind, an “ideal” org is empty.

    Reply

    • “Our’ stats are definitely in power 14!

      No new public, no completions, no pay, no nuthin!!!!!!!!!!!! And without the playoffs, no income from renting out the parking lot. Perfect way to start the new year!

      Reply

  34. 52staff at Denver Org? What a COMPLETE lie. But, then again the USA NEVER had even one viable Class IV/V org in the entire history of scamology. The % of people in any given area who could be fooled into paying $ for L Wrong’s crap being too low to permit any viable enterprise.

    Reply

  35. Maybe when the whole thing implodes these could be refurbished to make nice job training facilities with live in options for the displaced sea Org and staff while they learn about the real world. Perhaps the super power building could be a retirement home? At least they could mitigate some of their damages that way. Ahhh a girl can dream can’t she?

    Reply

    • If they’re older people, they can just walk the Super Power course. Of course they would need plenty of stops to catch their breath.

      Reply

  38. I walked in to the Denver org a few years ago. Told the has who I was. I was contacted by a cmo mission that was in Denver at the time. I was given a full tour of the org and even given a copy of the war is over. The cmo mission wanted to met with me. I met with them a week later and laid out everything on the table. The mission personnel seemed to be genuine said they would get everything up lines and get back to me. Crickets.

    I told some local exes about this and soon after Marc Headley did the same thing. I’m not sure how his tour turned out.

    Reply

  39. …and the REALLY sad news (especially for those of us who still have friends and loved ones in this group, cult, organization, church, religion), is that those still in DO NOT CARE.

    Reply

    • Why would they care? They’ve been beaten down for so long, they hardly know what to think anymore. But, I guess, doing the Student Hat, the purif & the SRD for the fifth time isn’t so bad.

      Reply

      • Number of times over equals bankruptcy and stupidity at a level never dreamed of before.
        Ain’t apathy just great!

        Reply

        • …”stupidity at a level never dreamed of before.”

          Their stupidity takes my breath away! But…I know they can still go lower if they put their heart in it….

          Reply

  40. Once a small and failing org, always a smail and failing org..

    …eventually all of the orgs tend to reduce to small and failing org status….

    Hubbard’s solution was hype, marketing, have the members do Hubbard’s policies on autopilot and keep selling blue sky.

    It’s futile.

    Scientologists have still so long to go to absorb the info that Ron quit his own medicine, and chose (so Ron said to Sarge Steven Pfauth) to go do large circles around Arcturus the star, to rehab his soul.

    The “Going Clear….” book is such vital new information the members need to read. And the HBO documentary which has the Sarge interview with Lawrence Wright right in the movie.

    Scientologists are slow to learn their own movement’s details.

    Reply

    • Chuck remember being a OFO? You’re given some org (small and failing as they all were even WAY back then) and you are trying to help them apply “policy” and become upstat?

      That REALLY drove it home for me while at the same time watching all the “OT’s” (staff & public) walking around being more psycho than the wogs they denigrated. It was then that I figured out it was probably a scam.

      Reply

      • I loved OFO Duty and have written extensively in comments about how much it gives you the real scene in the orgs.

        Org Flag Officer duty, see the Admin dictionary for definition, all the OFO Hatting issues, and David Harley was the uncomparable all time original and best OFO Chief to help each new Org Flag Officer learn the minimum to even doing one’s “OFO duty”.

        I loved OFO duty, and it really made Flag staff take responsibility for their org, and help the Programs Chief for that sector, and the Programs Chiefs I knew were some of my favorite realistic staff who got the real full scene of their orgs, and it “made sense” to me, what “we” were doing, and OFO duty ought to really be something revitalized by the movement today, and I suppose it’s always the same.

        Most staff at Flag hated that duty, I loved it though.

        That’s where you learn of the OFO common org designation, “small and failing org”.

        OFOs (Org Flag Officers) who had OFO small and failing orgs, sometimes the best OFOs would have 4 or more small and failing orgs as their “OFO orgs.”

        I had 3 Canadian small and failing orgs for a while, and then I took on AOSH EU. I loved all that though.

        I had faith that the Scientology “upper levels”, the OT levels, were really real and that upper level Scientologists were indeed turning into super-souled persons.

        So duty as an OFO, helping Class 4/5 orgs, per LRH’s Central Bureaux Order all time important issue, called “Flag’s Relative Importances,’ helping orgs by being an OFO was just the supreme strategy and Hubbard never changed “Flag’s relative importances” and Orgs were top of the list.

        Healthy orgs and all.

        But it was futile, and is futile, due to Hubbard’s “tech” being blue sky soul improvement, and Scientology’s pseudo-talk therapy is at best, placebo.

        But placebo con soul blue sky improvement hyped and wrapped in Hubbard’s pulp prolific grandeur cheap writing style is good enough to have this whole group of people suckered into the operation.

        Me too, I hated to have to face that our “OT” superpeople were sadly NOT high principled and magically wisened big beings, who I presumed and desperately hoped all could soul-fly at will (exteriorization is Scientology’s soul-flying, but no one does it, since earlier-similar to soul-flying being bogus, I had to accept that the soul is a big human Santa Claus thing also, ugh, the letdowns one has to face being a dupe in Scientology).

        Reply

        • Yes, David Heartless. I remember going on a mission one time and he docked my pay for not doing OFO while off base. I had to get Janet Light to ring his bell for being robotic. But one could NOT fault him for his constant vigilance in getting people to their OFO duty and training them for it.

          It WAS a fascinating experience as you DID get to see what REALLY went on in the orgs. I must have dealt with some crappy Pgms Chiefs. They wouldn’t budge to get even REALLY basic stuff done in the orgs I monitored like call-in of fully paid public to get production moving.

          Reply

      • Mike,

        Scientology can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

        Hot air marketing of blue sky.

        If the soul could eject out of a human body, that’d be scientific news.

        I saw a YouTube video of Russell Targ the other day, the guy is a nutter.

        The truth of Scientology’s soul fantasy ideas is such a letdown.

        Reply

      • We had 2 Sea Ogers land at our org around that time. They had committed the ‘crime’ of having a kid.They installed themselves as ‘IAS regges” And they were “dramatizing psychos” in that regard. If they happened across a person in our field that was ‘ex-SO’ the dramatization would start up……”Anyone who leaves the Sea Org is a Degraded Being! PER LRH!!!” while waving some tattered copy of an old O.O.D about a specific (and long gone person). If that was the insanity at the top of the org board….whew! And this was the late 80’s – early 90’s. Thankfully my contract soon expired. And I did not re-up.

        And I have to thank Richard Owseley for the righteous LSD he made. I had absolute certainty it was LSD, much to the chagrin of many SO recruiters who sought to convince me otherwise….:)

        Reply

    • There’s now a term for the hype and the lies: “alternate facts”. Brought to trending by none other than the new administration in DC. Seems to me that the leader of said administration, his spokeswoman, LRH, and DM would all get along famously, and Gods help the world if any of the first two read LRH and/or if 1 and 4, 2 and 4, or 1, 2, and 4 should ever meet. This is an anti-postulate!

      Reply

      • Alternative facts mixed with rage & a fixation about the ‘largest audience ever… both in person and around the globe’ sent chills down my spine. Additionally the threat to ‘rethink’ the administrations relationship with the press if they don’t do as they are told is simply terrifying. Me thinks these spokespeople fear the wrath of their leader.

        Reply

Leave a Reply to Mike Wynski Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *