Sorry for my delay in responding. The “yourself” I am referring to is – hard working, sold on Scientology, Sea Org workers. Is this the first crack in the foundation? And when you ask about the sec check and being fearful to think negative, I guess that answers the question of “do they dare think about blowing from the MOST ETHICAL blah blah”. Again, I am a never in – its just that those that have left and talk about blowing and/or blow drills seem to talk so nonchalant about it like it is no big deal. Even though blowing and blow drills are not the “norm” anywhere else.

Buddhists and Hindus were probably discussing their out of body experiences thousands of years ago. Nothing new about that.

Peacemaker – I agree. I should have omitted the “Nah” at the beginning of my comment. I just meant to say that there are numerous other explanations and speculations regarding the general category OBE, Out of Body Experience, existing in numerous venues long before the internet.

Funny how transformational experiences are sometimes generated and sometimes just appear out of the blue.

While I’m at it here’s a definition from a 1981 tech dictionary while noting there have been numerous revisions of the dictionary over the years. Hubbard sure wanted everyone to believe he had discovered the key to life or maybe the Fountain of Youth? lol

exteriorization: 1. The state of the thetan, the individual himself, being outside his body. When this is done, the person achieves a certainty that he is himself and not his body. 2. Exteriorization is defined as the act of moving out of the body with or without full perception. It is the fact of this act which proves that the individual is not a body but an individual. This discovery in 1952 proved beyond any question the existence of a thetan, that the individual was a thetan, not a body, and disproved that Man was an animal, and that he was a spiritual being, timeless and deathless.

Peacemaker, I get what you’re saying and have to agree.

You’re right; most staff likely wouldn’t have observed any of the hot-button abuses that would or could open DM’s pockets to a departing staff member.

And, yes, these long term staff , their loyalty, their hard work and persistence, renewing their staff contracts every 2 1/2 or 5 years, decade after decade, in their 60s and 70s now; and then the Sea Org members who labor unceasingly all their adult lives and then when they get too old and no longer “useful” unceremoniously offloaded – my head swims at the out-exchange, the injustice of it all.

1. CA-79 – Isn’t State Route 79 west of Int Base by almost 1 mile, and isn’t Gilman Springs Road the road that bisects the property, not State Route 79?

2. Nearest city – Isn’t the City of San Jacinto the nearest city, not Hemet?

I think that the City of San Jacinto deserves that mention also because it has held at least one public hearing about closing Gilman Springs Road apparently at the behest of Scientology, even though Int Base and Gilman Springs Road there are not within San Jacinto’s jurisdiction. (I learned this from Tony Ortega’s website.)

The soccer field doesn’t appear to be pristine anymore, in my opinion after viewing aerial photos on Google Maps (https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8299545,-116.987878,182m/data=!3m1!1e3).

Thank you for the great work that you do, particularly in this episode (as in previous podcast and TV episodes) with the emphasis on empathy and psychological explanations of what traps those inside the base more than any fence ever could. It helps me as a wog understand better this pernicious organization and others of its ilk.

Richard, I don’t think there’s necessaryily a contradiction or conflict there. As I see it, scientology seeks to consistently, or at least somewhat more regularly, produce the sort of phenomenon that is otherwise sporadic or random, using the sorts of techniques that that the author of the paper outlines. I don’t see the excerpt claiming that is the only way to achieve them, though to be more certain it would be necessary of course to scrutinize the full chapter or paper.

I’ve had some extraordinary if not even transformational experiences, first outside and then inside of environments intended to generate them, and I have no issue with the way it’s put, at least from the perspective I expressed.

Aqua, I presume any such deals are framed as “retirement”. But I doubt local org Class V staff would qualify except in cases where someone at that level happened to know about something really critical, or very scandalous.

I don’t think DM is concerned about more of the typical tales of poor pay, long hours, fudged statistics, teetering finances, psychological abuse, etc. that is chronic at local orgs and long reported on. What I assume he doesn’t want is someone to expose the inner workings of international management, tell stories of the worst abuses including physical violence he himself has committed, broadcast detailed information about just how dismal scientology’s critical “stats” like actual auditing hours delivered are, and so on.

It’s one of the great tragedies of scientology, that so many people who worked so long and hard, and sacrified so much, toiling at the lower levels including the Sea Org rank and file, have no benefits at all in their golden years, and no recourse.

By whose definition or standards does that constitute “total freedom”?

What have our donations been propping up and supporting?

I am so glad for the team who founded and operate The Aftermath Foundation to support the reversal and un-doing of these ill effects on human lives and the human psyche.

Some one has written excellent comment about the ” material” on Tony Ortega’s blog ,yesterday.
It worth reading and very relevant to the topic under discussion.

“Scientology is the religion of the nameless.
No one wrote their many books, magazines and other literature.
The text must have appeared by magic or perhaps a room full of monkeys.
No one worked on any of their TV shows either.
They have no actors, camera operators, editors, writers or producers. Not even a solitary gaffer or best boy.
No one built the sets. It must all be the work of invisible thetans or ghosts.
I prefer ghosts.

Julia. These drills are mainly for the SO.
According to hubbard, the reason a person runs away from a place is because they have overts (sins). So although scn is the top of what one might want, if he has overts (or will) everyone will know that he ran away for that reason (and not maybe because he was mistreated or not what he thought it was or because he was living like a prisoner, or what else).
This is one of the basic control tricks the cult uses, any thought not aligned to it mean one has overts/sins. It acts and feeds the sense of guilt.