This was sent to me for publication by a personal friend. I have not published anything quite like this on my blog before — it is a declaration by someone who doesn’t give his name (though anyone who knows him knows who he is and a lot of others will be able to figure it out). I think it is good food for thought. And I especially like his views of what a real friend is. I too know Dave and Sindy Fagen. Dave’s write up of his story is probably the calmest, most intelligent and devastating indictment of the current state of the “church of scientology” that has yet been published. Read it here — though it will take you a little time, its worth it.
I am going to use a code name to write this open letter to people who call themselves to whatever degree, “scientologists”.
There is one reason for this and that is because I have tons of friends who are not scientologists and I don’t want them to think that I am in any way connected with the mess that this subject has become. Nobody outside of this small group of people who would call themselves or maybe once called themselves “scientologists” gives a shit anyways.
I have told nobody that I am doing this. So nobody can disconnect from me for what I write here.
Outside of that effort to protect my identity, I have completely nothing to hide.
If you continue reading, and you know me, (and I know lots of you) you will know exactly who I am. And you will have to decide several things about what should be done with what you read here.
I am writing this now with the purpose of demanding that David Miscavige resign from his position of “leader” of Scientology. The idea that someone can be a leader of a subject is folly. More on that later.
The following are facts about me;
As of this date Monday August 12 2013, I am in good standing with “the church” I am not a declared SP or anything of the sort. I am known as a wild guy, so you may know some stories about me. I have 567 friends on Facebook. I have many more real life friends. Most are not “scientologists”
This paragraph exists only because if any of my friends think I will allow them to disconnect from me based on anything I write here, they then fall into 2 categories. 1. is Facebook friends which is the same as “friends only because we’re supposed be on the same scientology team” If you would “unfriend me” because of what I write here then I don’t really respect you enough to call you my friend anyways.
However, since I am not using my name, I am not really going public to attack scientology. And remember, scientology is a subject. And nobody owns a subject.
Category 2 is people who I love and care about so much that I will never allow them to disconnect from me. Read this. If you are a member of OSA reading this (and I hope and assume that you are) you will not ever dream of declaring me for what I write here. And you if you’re thinking about it, you’re already in treason on your post.
(This message is to OSA: Please feel free to publish websites detailing the contents of my confidential PC folders. Put up websites when you figure out who I am. You can say I looked at a bunch of porn, I left my wife in a really shitty way, I routed off staff without completing my contract, I hurt my friend who I worked for at his construction company and took a bigger bonus than I earned, on and on you can go about all the bad things I’ve done. And I did do them. And I am not proud of any of it. But I know in my heart that I am a good person who cares about people. My friends have no question of who I really am. And this disconnection thing is over right here and right now. Everyone reading this knows that you start whispering campaigns through ethics officer leaks or you brief some idiot to contact everyone on Facebook connected to ____ and make problems for people. These are the actions of a church? Get real. Read, do not think you can fuck with me or my friends)
A couple of other facts about me so you in the church and those reading this can figure out who I am and I can get to my story.
I am a Class V Auditor. Interned Class IV. I’m a trained Div 6 Course Supervisor, a Purif I/C and C/S Lots of specialist courses, HRD, DRD auditor. I did this training in San Francisco. I was on staff in Chicago for over 10 years and held the posts of PES, D/ED and Exec Esto. I got good products on all those posts.
I was responsible for establishing scientology at Ground Zero on 9/11 I drove straight to NYC, went to CLO EUS and got 2 Sea Org member executive friends of mine (both who are out of Scientology as far as I can tell) and the 3 of us went down to the site and I took charge. It was fun.
I play drums in a successful rock band and we currently sell out 1200 seat theaters all over the country.
You should know me from that. But now I’m going to tell a couple of stories that drive the point home that it is time right now to act and end this era of the subject called scientology.
I was Dave Fagens best man in his wedding to Sindy. If you ask them to tell the beautiful story of how they started dating, I hope they tell you that I had something to do with pushing them together. More on this story in a bit. I just wanted to make sure you definitely know who I am.
I was on my NED Internship getting great results on my PC’s as of December 2010. I had been observing non standard actions inside the church for years and sending up reports and doing what I could to correct these based on whatever post I was holding. I was married to a great person who I didn’t really want to be married to. This caused me a great deal of grief over many years as I tried to reconcile staying married to someone who I admired greatly and had huge respect for but was not romantically interested in. After living in Chicago and not doing well, I decided to split from her and move to San Francisco and get trained as an auditor, which was all I really wanted to do when I got into Scientology. This is known to anyone who knows me.
I was making $20 a week on staff and but I was getting trained as an auditor and in the process the subject of scientology became my own. It became totally simple. The tools of auditing are not complicated. They don’t require golden ages of technology version 1 or 2 to work. You read some books, you practice some drills, you sit down with another person who you care about. You get into good communication with them and you use the tools to help them. That’s all there is to scientology. Sorry it really is that simple.
While I was training and on staff I was also starting to tour pretty heavily with my band which was getting bigger and bigger. They were in Chicago and I was now flying back and forth for shows. Then putting on my auditor hat and auditing.
At the time I lived with the Senior C/S San Francisco and his wife the Tech C/S. The Tech C/S is the daughter of my best friend who is a field auditor. He and his wife had moved to the Bay Area to be closer to their family and me. His wife is dead as a result of this. You know her and you know him. She finished OT VIII and she got cancer and died. I love her so much and miss her so bad. It’s actually too painful to include that story in here.
Now, get that. I lived with the Senior C/S. A supposed Class VIII. He was supposed to be my friend. He was not. (His success story for completing OT VIII was sent to me recently. He doesn’t thank his family for financially supporting him for his whole life and he doesn’t thank his wife or kids. But he sure thanks David Miscavige. Treason.
At this point I started hearing that something was happening in Chicago with Dave Fagen. And since I was going to be heading there for some shows I told some people in San Francisco that I was going to sit down with him when I went there.
We went to the bar next to my house and shot the shit. To make a long story short, I tried to find out where Dave was coming from. Dave, basically refused to tell me anything. He only said in so many words “you can find out on the internet”
So I started telling Dave what I assumed he was upset about. I said things like “The IAS is a fundraising machine? Ideal Orgs are bullshit? David Miscavige punches people? How bad can it be Dave??”
You know where I got all this data? From the church. The Freedom Mag with Miscavige on the cover was the most glutz piece of failed PR I had ever seen. And it was given to me to read by the Senior C/S San Francisco.
Simple conclusion. If the church is doing this much work to discredit all these good people, they must have a ton more to hide. I already knew that the church under Miscavige was almost 100% off policy. Nobody was making any auditors. Which is supposed to be the only thing it DOES do. This is not complicated.
Now I’m going to skip over a lot in order to get to the point.
Point number one is directed to everyone in Chicago. You all know Dave Fagen is THE BEST PERSON YOU KNOW!!!!!!
There is not a nicer more gentle person in the world than Dave Fagen. If you live in Chicago and you are an auditor, then Dave had a hand in training you. If you were ever supervised by him, you KNOW 100% that he cares and that he cares about helping you and making sure you get what you came there for.
He is one of the most dedicated and sweet people I have ever known. He’s way sweeter than I am, for sure.
He chose me to be his best man and I want to tell you its an honor. This man dedicated his life to helping others. He’s so kind and funny and awesome that it actually blows my mind.
And you’re going to let him get declared? No.
This is not whatever you think scientology is. This is betrayal of a good person. And good person is the biggest understatement I can make. And you know it in your heart. And your unloyalty to someone as dedicated as Dave is not something you will forget. I know I wont. I love Dave. He is my friend.
So, I went back to San Francisco and re read this Freedom Mag and started to realize how really far the group had gone from what I thought it was. We weren’t even defending Ron. We weren’t even talking about policy or statistics or org boards or even making auditors. Here was a whole magazine dedicated to making David Miscavige look good for a failing program. Ideal Orgs? I was making $20 a week and the place was empty. What is ideal about that?
So, I went on the internet to see what all the noise was about. I went to the church sponsored Freedom mag site and it had a bunch of stuff about Anderson Cooper.
I went to you tube and searched for Anderson Cooper on Scientology.
I watched another one of my friends telling how her family had disconnected from her because she had been declared a Suppressive Person. That person was Christie Collbran (now Rinder, congratulations guys).
When I was Exec Esto Chicago, she was my senior. And she was the most competent and caring executive I had anything to do with in Scientology. I would have problems on my post trying to establish the Chicago org and put in policy and I’d have the ED throwing books at my head (literally, but not the current ED). Christie always supported and encouraged me to look for myself and to make my own conclusions of what policy needed to be set straight. She was super competent and caring. I would go to New York for correction and she worked with me to make sure I felt I could do my job better. She literally was the best senior I had in scientology. She tells the truth. She’s a great person.
And now the church had declared her Supressive. She’s not. She’s amazing. How dare you say these things about my friends.
I had some serious decisions to make about my future in scientology.
And then I went on a big rock tour for 2 months. And I met a girl. And I fell instantly in love and realized that I liked Love. And I went back to Chicago and told my wife I was filing for divorce and leaving staff. I then flew to San Francisco and routed off staff. Sec Checks and all.
And it’s been over 2 years and I’ve had less than 5 calls from the church. I had a Comm Ev, which I did over the phone. It was pretty sad.
And so I’ve watched and contemplated what to make of all this. I read the websites just like all the public do. I see Leah Remini walk out.
The other day at work, a guy fell in the parking lot and hit his head and was basically dead. I heard it over the radio and ran out there and ordered him to get back into his body right this second!!! He did. I brought a dead guy back to life while 20 people stood there speechless. I love the subject called Scientology.
But I want to point out a couple of things. It’s small. You know it is. Has anybody ever been in a packed Class V org? The biggest it gets is at the big international events. I play to that many people in my band a couple of times a month. It’s NOT big. And maybe it’s not supposed to be this big organized religion monster that it’s grown into.
It is being done by a little man. David Miscavidge has zero power except the power that you are giving him. And by giving him the power he is destroying a subject called scientology.
What do you think Ron would do if here were around? You think he’d have Miscavidge in charge? Not on your life. And let’s stop pretending that this subject is about Ron.
Scientology will go as far as it works. And no further. It is being destroyed. Management is not based on statistics. Tony Ortega is a better evaluator than Miscavige any day of the week. And he has something in common with Miscavige, He doesn’t audit.
Remember, the first definition of a scientologist is “an auditor” And the most basic definition of an auditor is “one who listens”
How can we help the world around us if we cant listen? If OSA really cared about doing it’s job then they would read these blogs every day and evaluate the scene and find out where this is coming from and handle it. It is coming from the top.
And that top is there by a big illusion. David Miscavige is NOT the leader of the worlds fastest growing religion. He is a little man who weaseled himself into a position where he is setting the course of what is to be done with a body of data that was researched and developed by someone else.
I had hoped that scientology was capable of helping humanity raise to higher heights, but when I look at the group called “the Church” or “The Sea Org” they look the same as every corrupt government and business monopoly on earth.
There is no such thing as planetary clearing. It will never happen. Sorry, Tom Cruise.
Keep in mind that all those lectures Ron gave were to auditors. A small handful of guys and girls trying to make sense of some pretty amazing implications that evolved out of some powerful tools.
The only planetary clearing that will ever occur will only happen if one person audits one other person at a time.
I’ve been 100% outside of my own body. I’ve looked down on it from outside of it and I know for myself that I am not mortal.
I had a new friend tell me the other day that he knew he would live forever. He said nothing about scientology.
If every person reading this looked around at their circle of friends and said “no more” Miscavige would be out tomorrow.
The world does need these kind of tools. But the world will never accept them in the way they’ve been offered. Its time to step back and look at what we’ve become.
I decided to finally write this because Sindy Fagen had the courage to expose the actions of the church and its disconnection practices. She put a message from our mutual friend> it broke my heart.
I saw a comment on a thread where Dave Fagen said the Bay Area people need to speak out. I know he was talking to me.
I don’t want to try and tell you what I think should be done with the subject of scientology. It’s all available. Its all in books. You can find a person who’s done the OT levels to evaluate the materials and gather them up and you can go in session and decide if this that stuff is real to you.
The simple truth is that I got involved in Scientology because I care about other people. I don’t care about making them scientologists or making them believe what I believe. I care about what they believe. And how they are doing. And are they happy? I care.
And if you have any inclination that scientology could make a better world or should make a better world then you need to look at the resources you have.
The only resource which we really have is each other caring. Everyone reading this is literally connected to other people who can simply band together and demand Miscavige step down. It will only get worse if he doesn’t. The statistics show its failing.
Simply stop going into the org and stop taking calls. Cant we learn from Martin Luther King? Non-violent civil disobedience. Combine that with confront and he’s gone.
We can go the route of just letting if all fall apart waiting for someone else to fix it, or we can ban together as a group and demand he step down and then figure out what to do.
Certainly we could help the subject gain some credibility by doing so.
My ass is now on the line here and I have written this out the best I can to force the issue. The church has nothing over me that I cant handle.
The church says it has no disconnection policy. Let’s put it to the test.
All of these things are conditional. People can change and maybe scientology can be salvaged as a subject. It wont be able to hide behind the scrutiny of the public. The world is heading towards either a total police state or total transparency. My vote is transparency.
The way I see it is that the first step to any kind of future is demanding the resignation of David Miscavige. So I, as a member in good standing am hereby publicly demanding it.
Tell someone else to demand it. Demand it yourself. In a couple of days everyone in this small group would have spoken up. Then we can figure out how to work together to regroup.
I feel we owe that to Dave and Sindy and Christie and Debbie Cook and Mike and Marty and Dan and Steve and and and and….. you owe it to your friends and family to make sure they know that you will never disconnect from them no matter who tells you to.
I’m glad Hubbard did the research he did and developed what he did. He was not perfect and neither am I, and neither are you.
Look at Edward Snowden, Look at Bradley Manning. These are people who risked their whole lives to confront the biggest government on earth in order to do what is right. Scientology is heading the same way as the great governments who rule by force and secrecy.
David wasn’t elected by you or me.
I don’t need a leader. I am one. Ask my circle of friends. If you can figure out who I am. Or better yet, don’t and just be your own leader of your own circle of friends and make a great life in your environment.
The Thinker
Read the next chapter of this journey here
Would things REALLY improve if David Miscavige stepped down? Wouldn’t there be a dozen other monkeys in suits lined up to take his place and do the same things? Afterall, he worked closely with Hubbard and was one of his most ardent pupils. Isn’t he doing exactly what his master taught him?
Regarding Real Estate:
This is the only thing that makes sense to me.
The public invests their hard-earned money to “support Global Clearing” into real estate for the Church.
No one offers them any part of the profit for their investment.
Once the building is purchased, this same public is regged for the renos, thus increasing the property value.
So a 5 Million dollar building becomes a 7 Million dollar building.
Yes, there is the rent paid by the org but watch this –
What if DM takes all of those properties, when he’s ready to roll out of town and refi’s every single one?
NO ONE would know! The org will still go on paying their rent and, if Davey sets it up somewhat ethically (cough cough), the rents will pay the refi.
If he’s not ethical (not possible, of course), he just lets all of those buildings go into default as he runs away to his own private island, next to Richard Branson’s, for example.
See, from this viewpoint, he’s not crazy. He’s just playing another game than we think he’s playing.
Suddenly, it all makes sense.
Stop giving him your money. It’s not going to the dream that you have and the game you’re playing. It’s going to a modern dictator’s secret agenda to finance his own escape.
LOOK.
These orgs are not paying rent — they cannot afford the electricity bills for these palaces. Their phones are shut off. Elevators closed. No maintenance being done. Certainly the property portfolio has increased in value, but if this was simply a real estate scam hundreds of millions of dollars would not have been invested in elaborate renovations that will see NO return if the building is sold. Nor would they increase the value of the property to obtain a mortgage. Nobody puts any value on the elaborate renovations of course rooms and auditing rooms. They are useless as a property investment. The reason for Ideal Orgs is so Miscavige has something to SHOW that he can claim PROVES he is lording over massive expansion. Without that he cannot keep himself in power. These Ideal Orgs are like the elaborate and expensive stages constructed for his events. They are strictly a facade. The ONE thing Miscavige has is money at his disposal. So, he tries to BUY the appearance of success. Being in power and not “losing” is more important to him than having money. The money only serves the purpose of enabling him to construct a worldwide set.
Thanks for that, Mike. I kept hearing that the orgs were paying rent and I didn’t know how they were doing it either. Yours’ sounds way more real ie: not being able to pay the light bill, etc.
Funny about him buying position and just putting up newer and newer “sets”.
Sounds like the boy never left Gold and is still playing in that dream world. Stuck in a pleasure moment, maybe?
Just plain old psycho? “I’m ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille.”
Wow.
On the human being side of things, what a dreadful, awful world he must live in with himself to feel so inadequate that MEST, and so much of it, is needed for him to feel real and accepted by other decent human beings, while degrading them all the while. It’s really pathetic, honestly.
My God Mike! I never saw it so clearly as now when you posted what you did about why he builds Ideal Orgs. It all makes sense now. “…They are strictly a facade. The ONE thing Miscavige has is money at his disposal. So, he tries to BUY the appearance of success. Being in power and not “losing” is more important to him than having money. The money only serves the purpose of enabling him to construct a worldwide set.” Well said Mike.
And notice whenever the media or anyone questions “how many members does Scn have?” then Miscavige via his sock puppet Pouw says that we are the fastest expanding religion on earth, why just look at all the latest churches opening…. and he directs them with smoke and mirrors to view not the real numbers, but the newest glittering jewel in the crown of Ideal Orgs. Those same reporters should come back a year later and look inside the same buildings he touted to them and see the cob webs, the empty course rooms, the haggard and small staff, or worse yet see if the place is boarded up.
Thank you for this post. I can not go back to the church because, among other reasons, they are running a concentration camp down in Hemet. and I am Jewish……DM would have to step down and there would have to be a total clean-up….Jill Rappaport
The Doer, succinct comment again! As for DM’s quote on “assuming power”; — “power in my estimation is if people will listen to you.” — The thing to stop him dead in his tracks,( pronto) — is just STOP listening!
YES! Encourage your friends still “in” to stop picking up the phone, stop calling back the org, stop going to events, etc. And stop the money flow. That’s the biggest, “no ack” ever for this guy. And, for God’s sake, don’t let anyone join the Sea Org.
If we don’t put any wood on the fire, it will soon go out. [Now where’s that water bucket…?]
Thanks for the additional pointers, Indie8Million! BTW, love the postulate behind the name!
You’re welcome, Calvin. You and I think alike, it seems. 🙂
So glad you got my intention behind the name, Indie8Million. “The 8 millionth Scientologist has just gone Indie.” Evolution over – next target, please. 😀
Yes instead of 10,000 on SN in the church, how about 10,000 on SN outside the church in the Indie world. Better yet, how about 8 MIllion Indies! Good postulates.
Hey Jane Doe!
Thanks for that! Yes, the 8 millionth Scientologist has left the building. 😉
Isn’t that the amount of Scientologists that Heber used to say were in?
Not any more. :
Indie8Million
Hey all.
Thanks for all the cool comments and viewpoints.
I’m on tour reading them between living the rock and roll life.
Thanks Mike for posting my article. I wasn’t sure when I wrote it if I would want to comment or respond to various comments. As an auditor, I prefer to listen and observe before I decide if I need to or want to act.
So in that light I’d just like to clarify a couple of viewpoints I’m throwing into the mix.
First point. I wrote the article the way I did only to set the parameters for executing something I feel should be done. Miscavige out. Fine.
Now, because I think he needs to be taken ot now doesn’t not mean I think there is any big importance on saving Scientology or reforming the church or anything. None of that is my point.
More food for thought:
I don’t see that man has developed a workable pattern of administrating living beings. For the most part, governments, business, churches and even small groups like a marriage require that people make compromises with their reality in order to keep things in motion.
My point is that the big significance of staff members and THE Sea Org and A “church of Scientology with its Chairman of the Board are nothing more than agreed upon bullshit that amounts to nothing. It’s only there because we agree its there and to the degree we grant it power or importance. And I want to point out that fighting it grants it some beingness since its a part of a dichotomy.
The opposite of independence is dependence. Assuming a position inherently acknowledges an opposite position. Marty has covered this concept on his blog quite well. But that doesn’t mean that he’s now some kind of leader for anything except for the game he’s choosing to play with his life which belongs 100% to him. (This is just an example which I’m using to make my point, not to single out or assume or imply anything about Marty. )
Now, I recognize (as should we all) that we are living in a time stream. I recognize that the term independence is a method of communicating a state that is different from a prior state. But remember, it’s a label. It’s an identity and any identity beyond just “you” has liabilities inherent in it.
And that’s one reason I got involved in studying Scientology. I recognized that people can get stuck in being too fixed in their own viewpoint and it seemed like Scientology would allow me to see all viewpoints while maintaining my own power of choice over my own viewpoint.
Now, for me, this is where the failure of “group technology on earth” lies. How do you maintain an orderly action of a group without impeding the self determinism of the individual? That’s something which I had hoped was written into Hubbards administrative tech. And to a large degree I do think the tools are there to accomplish this.
Mike made a great comment on it in the original posting.
But that doesn’t mean that that’s set in stone either.
And this brings me to my reasoning for demanding Miscavige be taken out now.
He evolves out of the time stream of whatever Scientology is. By the time Ron dropped it maybe he was making some shitty policy’s. Maybe he got embroiled in trying to keep some some idea going of an organized group which had outlived its workability. Maybe if scientology came along today it would be in a free iPhone app. Maybe Miscavige was a necessary step in the evolution towards a free state for mankind.
Now, the I don’t think the Scientology iPhone app idea would work because I observe the deterioration of affinity between people is coincident with the increase of computer technology. I can cite examples and refer to axioms to make my point, but my point is I’m willing to be wrong on All of it.
But I do think Scientology is the important puzzle piece that is needed on earth to move things along toward a more free state for man.
And the reason I demand basically that we just pull together and take him out and demand he resign or demand he audit 100 new people to Clear as an amends or whatever is to drive the point home that he is irrelevant to the survival of the subject or the survival of you and I.
With that said, he IS there now and he HAS sent it off of what I feel is its inherent purpose. And progress is marked by presidencies being set. People thought the world was flat once you know.
He needs to be taken out so we can learn the next set of lessons in working together as mankind. We saw a tyrant and we pulled together and confronted him and now we are going to move forward and figure out what to do tomorrow to learn more about how to love each other and help each other and be better neighbors and friends.
To help without trapping is a puzzle that nobody has ever solved in an organized and practical way. But I do believe in using tools and I can confront. And I can communicate and so can you.
Ron tried to predict what could or would be done with the subject of Scientology and to his credit he pushed forward a group of people who understood enough of what he was trying to do and gave us tools that were at least founded in some pretty solid axioms. Perfect, no. Empowering, yes. Capable of being subverted, obviously.
The final point I want to clarify is that the Internet is a tool. It is a communication tool and therefore is rigged with the trappings of communication. These are also the trappings of Scientology. Cause and effect.
Right now I’m cause and you’re effect. I’m writing , you’re reading. Its an illusion too. Just like Miscavige and all his fake cause.
I’m not interested in making anybody effect of what I have to say beyond their own inspection of what I am saying and their conclusions about whether it fits their truth. It doesn’t make me the source of their live in the process.
I’ve been effect of John Lennon saying “imagine” for years and I still know I’m cause over my own life.
I didn’t write my name I the post because I want to remove myself from any equation. If we agree that Miscavige should be gone. Lets take him out. Tomorrow.
Enough of the blogs. I own 20 domain names on the subject of Scientology but I for one am kind of tired of this level of action of reading blogs and theorizing what could or might happen or if some other idiot would take over.
Lets evolve. Mark this era as done and get on with whatever is next. Practice on your own. Or build a new group or however you want to do it. But let’s set a date and stop pussyfooting around.
Lets trust ourselves enough to take action and get rid of some cancer. He’s cancer regardless, so lets set an example for mankind that you don’t have to just “put up with the way things are” let’s prove that you can work together to confront people who are making things go wrong.
Our world needs these kind of examples. The name of this blog is “something can be done about it”
I gotta go hit some drums.
Lets rock
The Doer formerly known as The Thinker
I love your writing and your thought process, Artist formerly known as The Thinker. 🙂
I was discussing this with another under-the-radar today and he made a very interesting point. He said, “Let’s all mentally go back in time to before DM took over, back to before 1965 and decide to “be” LRH and change our minds. Decide that, as LRH, we didn’t have to op term with the people who left and decide that Scientologists didn’t need to be clubbed over the head to have their ethics in.
By doing this, before little Davey, really little at only 2 years old at the time, wouldn’t have the petri dish of hostility to ferment in when he reached the ripe old age of 18.
Interesting. If we all decided that He had never been and had never come into power, that could diminish part of his power.
On more of a nuts and bolts level, if we deny that he is the leader of Scientology, by voting him out by public opinion, how can he stay there? If we can prove that he has fraudulently taken over for all these years (easier said than done, but just an idea) then everything that he has spent has been fraud, stealing and embezzlement.
Somebody help me with the reference on this. What is it that Ron says about the best revenge is forgetting?
You know how it is when someone isn’t welcome at a party and when they try to get into a conversation, people loudly ignore them, they get the idea really quickly? How could we do something like this?
What kind of petition can we make, and to whom, (maybe the counsel of Churches, Mike?) to take His shortness off of his throne and have him thrown out?
Again, thanks for your thoughts, Thinker who does. Would love to connect. Mike has my contact info.
I love your post thinker. I met you in Chicago in 2001. I was married to Tina Thomas ( now Pace). I still use use your “I’ll permanently stop your time track” line. I am glad you are out. I thought you were one of the coolest people I met in that org. I hope Dan Maas wises up.
I’m sending a $400,000,000.00 freeloader debt to “You know Who.”
Thinker, I count myself lucky not only to know who you are, but I believe we met last year and it was a real pleasure. You’ve really outdone yourself with this piece. Very well spoken and very VERY well aimed. I’m glad you opened up with the machine guns. You play them well. Anyone caught in that cross-fire melody would be dead meat. Though to be fair, you wouldn’t even be firing if the target wasn’t already dead. Thanks for giving a good demonstration of the Bring Back to Life assist for a group.
I heard David is stepping down and giving his post to a teen.
Thinker,
You are awesome.
You have the tech, it works, don’t get caught up with the squirrel sp that is altering what we know. Scn will still be surviving even if every building is empty.
Religion does not require organization. In fact, tightly controlled hierarchical organizations are pretty much inherently anti-spiritual.
Things would probably be easier if every org and mission simply separated from the central “church” and became independent. At least then you might see some healthy changes.
Veritas — agreed. And those that produced products would survive and those that didnt would not. I am not saying some organization is not required — obviously if you are going to train people you need a course room with supervisors and word clearers and some administrative functions etc etc By definition that is “organization”. That IS what those earlier successful missions were. They got NO “management”. They did things their own way. Some of them also got into serious trouble. That’s the way of the free market. Hierarchical churches of any denomination have ultimately ended up abusing their followers (or others). In the end the power/status of those in charge takes precedence over providing help and good. It has happened throughout history too often to be a mere coincidence.
Point taken, Mike.
Once they do, naturally get big, however, more order has to go in so it doesn’t spiral out like a blown out tire, is my thought on it.
But the solution might be to have a better system of controlling the leaders. An easier method to depose someone who isn’t healthy for the group or who is taking on megalomaniacal tendencies.
http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/israel-goes-independent/
I agree with Aurora – this is indeed the champagne of posts. One of the all-time best I have read. Love the view, love the sanity. Way to express the reality and what friendship is all about, Thinker. Code of Honor all the way. Hope one day we can meet.
ARC,
Chris Black
Class VIII C/S
+100
Mike:
Would you tell me the etics handling now and then, perhaps 15 years ago?
This is rather a briljant post, It invites those in to LOOK for themselves by figuring out who he is, Even the 12 year olds that seem to run OSA these Days.
Read the story of Rumpelstiltskin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumpelstiltskin
„A rumpelstilt or rumpelstilz was the name of a type of goblin, also called a pophart or poppart that makes noises by rattling posts and rapping on planks.“
Find his „name“ and he disappears.
About time the people in the church start to do something. The only people fighting DM, are the SP’s and people outside of the church. If you want DM gone, you are going to have to do it internally, in my opinion. I fail to see how scientology can recruit new members. Scientology is the butt of jokes right now.
Thanks for standing by your friend! I have never disconnected from anyone, declared or not. That is like an ORDER to go into an ENEMY CONDITION, a LOWER CONDITION. You don’t owe it to let people order you to go SOUTH into an enemy condition towards someone! Anyone insisting that you disconnect or withdraw support or allegience (once granted) is asking you to go out honor code or to drop into a lower condition.
Nice to hear you fell in LOVE! The “can’t haves” on LOVE are THICK in the Scientology culture. Good on you for your CAN HAVE too!
Thanks for keeping the faith. In spite of the Church of Scientology and what David has morphed it into, whatever that is now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ph7oZnBH05s
T.O.
This is another wave lapping at the CoS sand castle. I believe it will inspire more.
Civil disobedience. Quietly or openly withdraw support. Take as few calls as you can, appear at as few events as possible (be ‘busy’ or arrange other important appointments). Cease financial support of any kind. Stay in touch with your declared friends, publicly or privately. DISAGREE.
Keep and open mind and an open heart, get as many outside (exterior) viewpoints on CoS and the tech as you can. Keep reading and deepening your understanding. You will find it brings relief and reduces any remaining fear to nothing.
Dear Thinker,
Love your write up, your style. Awesome! THANK YOU!!!
It’s been my experience that if one wants something one has to ask for it and one has to really want it.
If one does NOT ask why should it be given?
Thus I shout into the universe that my request to remove DM be granted.
I give a damn about the petty details how this takes place.
Bravo. That was the champagne of blogs.
Thank you Thinker, for this genuine, real, compassionate, honest and theta communication. I understand and support your desire to stay partly private. As independents, I think we should all do what indicates to us personally, in our own way, according to our own priorities, in our own time. After what I can only classify as spiritual rape at Flag in 2006-7, taking back my inalienable right to privacy, endowed by my creator, was extremely important to me. It was/is something I needed for my healing. The RCS practices collapsed dynamics by making every nook and cranny or your life everyone’s business. That disorder is actually insane, out ethics and the antithesis of an OT environment. I’m out and open, just a little private. Scn is about FREEDOM……..freedom of thought, word, deed and association and that includes not doing those things, according to our own integrity.
I too, call for the resignation of Miscavige. He’s a squirrel and a failure.
Hey, you little “Thinker”!
Bravo!
Ask people around here. I’ve been saying that we should concentrate on Miscavige for a long time. Attacking the generality of Scientology doesn’t give a who or a why. Besides. REAL Scientology, like that which is delivered in the field, is in no way suppressive so let’s not let the people do this a=a computation.
Scientology is worth saving. Miscagive can run away with the boat, the cars, the girls and a few million dollars. Via Con Dios, you little suppressive. Go on now, get out of here.
Nice to hear from you, Thinker. Sometimes staying “in” is a good vantage point.
What a fabulous post, by an incredibly honest individual. Man, you are so comfortable in being who you are, that it radiates for all to see. ‘Nuff said! Miscavige? — Get the F–K out of the way, cretin!
Well done, Thinker!
You just helped others wake up and step into the light. Great write-up!
Luis
Thank you for stepping up to the plate and lend a hand to those of us who have gone through a lot to expose the suppression coming from the top (some more than others), I hope a lot of others follow in your footsteps.
We in RTC can see that “Thinker” is just another part of the orchestrated and well-funded effort to attack COB and the Church of Scientology..
This plot includes the NSA front group known as Google.
Dr. Eldon Weiner of Freedom Magazine discovered the shocking truth: The entire purpose of Google is to push the lies about Scientology to the top of its phony so-called search engine! Dr. Weiner’s hard-hitting journalistic expose on Google is here: http://otviiiisgrrr8.com/2013/08/14/google-exposed-as-an-nsa-front-group-designed-to-attack-the-church-of-scientology/
Bravo on your courage, integrity, honesty and wonderful ability to communicate. And i loved your comments regarding the simplicity of just delivering straight Scientology! Blew charge. So glad your Band is doing well! Hope to meet you sometime. I’ve been writing on the blogs under the radar since 2010 because of family. But communication is going in gently and the threat of disconnection is loosing it’s power. Not completely there yet. This stuff is complicated, but getting there. I’ve been in comm with my declared friends for years, but privately in order to not risk the break up of my family. But even that helps too. People saying no to enforced disconnection in what ever way they can.
One of Those Who See, I would like to have a private comm with you. Can you please give Mike permission to send me your email address?
Thanks, Jane Doe
Will do. Also Christie has my facebook info so you can private message me there too.
It’s great to see someone still in the Church speaking out like this.
I had similar feelings when I resigned last year. But you have to ask yourself what would happen if Dave did get the message, resigned and went away. What would change then?
I think the answer is not much. The Church is tightly run by a group that is insane, happily running an enforced can’t have on all other members of the group and the world. The saner members of the group have been bypassed into non-existence. Anyone with the guts to communicate has been struck down by misguided justice actions. There are no democratic mechanisms to allow the relatively sane to recover control. Worst of all, there is no mechanism to differentiate between the sane and insane policies of the Church. If Scientology remains under the control of the Church, the best outcome we could hope for would be a hopeless argument about which LRH poicies should or should not be followed. The whole subject would go down in the controversy – good with the bad.
No, I think it best that Dave remains in control of the Church so he can finish the job of steering it off the cliff. Individuals will then take the good from the subject and integrate it into our culture without the continual interference from a jealous Church that thinks it owns truth.
Yup, Church is a “dead-horse” item. Indieland is where it’s at.
Ahhh, I don’t know. You take the suppression off and things happen. Unless it’s all suppressives at the top, which I don’t think is the case. Not that I’m holding my breath, I just don’t think you can rule anything out. Remember the old horse that comes up from the rear to win the race. Thing is, as Thinker says, we’ll figure it out at the right time once DM is gone.
Ahhh, I don’t know. You take the suppression off and things happen.
Agreed, Chris. People betting on this or that final outcome may as well be playing the lotto to see if their number hits. There’s no easy way to predict what those left behind are going to do after the wicked witch is dead.
Consider this: When DM is finally gone, what would another Joe Bananas do with the smoking ruin he’s left behind? More of the same? He’d be fired within the week. Would a successor attempt to address the bleeding, hurt, and destruction by declaring a new ‘Golden Age of Management’? Possibly, but that successor had better put forth a plan that really addresses and remedies the actual problems with the organization, or the people are going to reject it and keep on stepping.
I have a strong suspicion that the thing is going to behave like a fluid which seeks its own balance after being disturbed. No one can precisely predict where the water will lie when a deluge comes to rest. But it will find that balance and rest at some point.
It remains to be seen if there will even be a mother church when we get there.
I just think at this stage we’ve hit a point of no return. Perhaps they could turn the tide for new people coming in, although I consider that doubtful too, but too many near irremediable issues exist for those who have left … I mean way too many issues. I just don’t see it.
You can oust Miscavige and another Joe Bananas-type character will take his place. I think the best thing to do–keep exposing the religious and tax facade as a weird form of Scientology,
I think I figured out who wrote this.
Just like that one Christmas season at the org when I figured out who my KK (Kris Kringle) was before anyone else figured out who theirs was, because of the daily trips to my comm center basket where I kept finding memorabilia of Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Metallica, Rush, Van Halen, etc etc.
The best man becomes the even better and better man.
Spoken from the heart and so true.
If every Scientologist demanded his resignation and refused to play his game, he would have no game.
The subject is far far to important to let a small time criminal pike run the show.
Someone needs to go up there and kick his dirty little arse out of that office and down the street. Then we can all get on with the job at hand.
Good one Thinker. Resign is the call! There are a lot of people out there that have HUGE contributions to the fact that many of us are leaving. Some loudly, some not. You add your voice to them all, and as Tony said above, thanks to all those who came before as well. I like your style and your attitude. Keep at it man!
I read Dave Fagen’s blog and was impressed by the straightforward presentation of irrefutable logic. I left the CofS back in 1982 when I saw the shades of night descending as did many others. Independent Scientology has a long history spanning back over 30 years of tech delivery of all levels of the Bridge outside the CofS. DM and his cohorts have done their utmost to conceal this fact from their public.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emKvMPGSc0s
Thanks for the reference, Cat daddy, best PR film on Scientology I ever saw!
Marcel Wenger
I like it because it is with a (now former) comedian who mocks things by profession and it is a non-scientology production. I am not in to it, just like to post alternitives. Tought this had relevancy.
Knowledge is Free
I got into Scientology in the summer of 1982. I went on staff and the int finance police showed up and closed the mission. I was brand new. All i knew was some people left to go with a guy name Mayo. Finally 25 years later, when I left the Church I started filling in the blanks of my early Scientology days. And how nervous I was when I first typed in David Mayo. I downloaded the journals – possibly from your blog. and listened to his Sunday Talks online. So theta. A key out. Obviously, not the monster lol. Watched videos of Mary & Frankie Freeman. Learned about the AAC etc… I wish I would have gone to Santa Barbara back then, but I just followed the directions at the time and went to the Org. I was brand new. I find I have so much ARC for those who left in the first Exodus. You have lived and keep alive the magic of Scientology.
Just had a funny thought: Many of you were the generation that went to Woodstock when I was only old enough to get the album. So you already had the Cool Factor.
http://davefagen.wordpress.com/
Excellent write up! The best thing is it comes from an auditor and this is what is the most important. Trained people can see and observe things faster.
Miscavige, the noose around your neck is coming. More and more agree to the Obvious. It doesn’t matter if it took some years for some to look and see it. Still they did now and saw it. And you know what. They couldn’t anymore put up with their conscience. Because that is something that you don’t have, it doesn’t mean others don’t either. More and more Scientologists are pointing at you and you are loosing once loyal staff and people. it’s your destiny to lose now. How fast? Well.. the war is not over, David. We resurrect from our ashes like a Phoenix.
Thinker, First off I want to that you for your write-up. You honesty comes through loud and clear.
On another note I wish I could agree with you that all we have to do is pull our support from DM and he’ll be finished. The reality as I see it is that DM has replaced every long term sane exec with his minions that have no idea anymore what is actual Sceintology. Even if he were gone you can’t anymore expect this mess to fix itself. Also, tyrants like DM have a way of hanging on for years and years no matter how much damage they do.
I think the answer is to forget about the Church and to create Independent Scientology. All the real experienced Scientologists are practicing Scientology here. It’s the future. If the church comes around great, but it’s got to be on Independent Scientology’s terms.
Like!
Even if they fixed it, Indie Scientology is here to stay.
Even if they fixed it, Indie Scientology is here to stay.
Shout it to the rooftops, my friend. That can’t be emphasized enough, in my opinion. The new paradigm of Scientology is already upon us. The church is already dead, but is too low toned to even notice. The theta and the data have left the building for good.
Yes, all the real experienced Scns are in the Indie field creating it here. Let the church die of natural or unnatural causes, and let us have a Renaissance in the field.
I’m speechless. Applauding!!!! Many thoughts are reeling in my head, but I’m sure everyone else’s comments conveyed most of my thoughts exactly!
I do have a comment that might get me in “hot water” with those who feel the problems all relate to David Miscavige. My family has been devastated by the (non-existent, rolling my eyes) Disconnection Policy/Ethics Tech —– and I have to say that disconnection practices have been going on well before Miscavige took over. I find no good explanation of this one. It’s evil, it’s wrong and I consider that Scientology destroys families! Period.
I examined my 22+ years involved and all I had “gained” and realized that it was not worth the trade-off. Losing my son, future grandchildren, and all that goes with that as a family unit WAS NOT WORTH anything I gained with my involvement.
This group needs fixed. Enough pressure needs to come on them for disconnection practices that they have no choice but to reverse it within.
And it CAN be reversed, with just a directive from Suppressive Miscavige. You might remember this as well, but back in the early 90’s it was announced that orgs had a big MU where it came to who was an illegal PC and all of a sudden tons of folks who had previously not been allowed on auditing lines were allowed —- and I honestly believe the only reason for this was because 60% or more of the public coming into the orgs were falling into the “illegal PC” bracket with the current policy, so staff were all told they had misapplied the policy (at least at the class 5 org level). —– if we collectively bring about enough pressure I believe they would have to do something similar. It needs to stay in mainstream media constantly. Scientology Destroys Families.
Let them realize damage control is needed because the public at large now KNOW them by this —- SCIENTOLOGY DESTROYS FAMILIES!!! (whatever benefit one might have got, it is not worth the loss of loved ones!).
I also think the WORLD of Sindy and Dave Fagen and it warms my heart to read your post speaking so kindly of them! Applaud!!
I’m a former Chicago public. It took me a few minutes but I figured out who you are. 🙂 Thanks for being brave and speaking out. One of my children is still in, so I’m not very vocal (don’t want to be subjected to the non-existent disconnection policy). I would love to be able to communicate freely with him and others I know who are still in about what is really going on, and encourage them to look. However, they are grasping at the eternity they think exists for them if they stay in, even though they are not getting results. At all. Cheers to you, I wish you all the best.
Awesome!!!!! Hope to meet you someday!!
You have the no nonsense attitude which will spark debate and more importantly action. Without a doubt Miscavige should hit the road. The abuses must end. Take back the power he seized and end the terror.
Fucking amazing letter. Just fucking brilliant. Civil disobedience, yes! Open source, yes! I guess it took a musician to say it like this.
For the last 25 years David Miscavige and corporate Scientologists have fooled themselves into believing the Church of Scientology was some gilded Louis XIV, 1980s, Republican mashup. That enterprise is already so fucking disrupted. It is already dead.
If you’re still sitting there beside the the rotting corpse — out of fear or loyalty or exhaustion — stand up now. Walk away. You will find the power you lost outside the Church of Scientology.
So long as the robots in scientology believe that the mental midget is KSW, they will continue to support him. Mike uses the term clubbed seals to describe corporate scientologists. That’s the best analogy I’ve ever heard. Most of them know something is amiss, about half know it’s Miscavige, but very few have the courage to stand up to him. Over time the cult will die of cash starvation as long time members die off or just disappear. The effort to fund-raise is at a frenzy level because Miscabbage knows that time is running out. Like the oil baron shieks knowing their oil wells are drying up and raise the prices, de midget is focusing on IAS fundraising to keep the ship from sinking. Too late, Davey.
“It is being done by a little man. David Miscavidge has zero power except the power that you are giving him. And by giving him the power he is destroying a subject called scientology.” I disagree with this one statement–it is already destroyed.
Otherwise I enjoyed the game of trying to figure out who this is, but I have no idea. Wasn’t in these circles of staff and friends. A great write-up for sure, resonating with me and to me very true in its observations.
And oh yeah…David Miscavige, let me be clear…your intentions and purposes and actions taken for maintaining your title and position in the “Church” are nothing that LRH would accept or tolerate for one second. You have taken a beautiful, workable philosophy and technology developed by a non-perfect man and brought further to the surface the imperfections and use only those to hold your position. You can’t audit, you refuse auditing yourself, you can’t communicate without scowling and flinging cruelty everywhere or reading an elaborately scripted speech. You are no example at all of an OT (not that you even attempted to do any of the levels yet you rewrite the materials), you’re a thief using donations to fund your luxurious lifestyle, you are pretty darn aberrated on the 2D, and you are unbelievably insecure and incompetent in your position and existence so that you have to dispose of anyone who is or was ever anyone in Scn administration. You are not the leader of Scientology except by your own consideration in your dark little mind and by agreement of a quickly dwindling number of “scn public” and imprisoned SO members.
There is only one thing to do now, and that is to Resign. Done. Gone. Without you ar the helm the subject will put itself back together with people who care and know something about the actual subject and will apply it correctly. Take a load off your shoulders and Resign. Want to get the stats up? Then remove yourself, stop your suppression of the entire operation and let them get the show on the road.
I add myself to the growing list of people calling for your resignation immediately.
My husband got “Facebook Policied” this week. A friend, a very introverted and mentally dispersed OT, sent him harassing e-mails about who is “connected to” on social media. We felt very sorry for the guy – what’s a middle-aged man doing, talking to my husband like he’s a 9 year old girl on the dangerous internet? Wow, dude, come to your senses!!
You know you’re in a cult when you have to harass others into being good cult members ….. Jeezus, wake up!!!!!!!!
Thanks Mike. Thanks Thinker. Kudos.
I find myself without words. (I’m sure that won’t last long 🙂 )
You are a true friend. Thank you for your courage and integrity — for speaking out.
In addition to all of the truth you have communicated, I so much appreciate you calling out those who allowed themselves to look the other way when Dave Fagen was declared in our field. I was declared too but it’s not the same. Dave selflessly devoted his every waking moment to helping others and they all know it and yet they allowed this to happen.
I agree that the lack of loyalty demanded of these people has surely darkened their collective and individual conscience. It would be inhumane not to call it out for what it is — maybe, just maybe, someone or some others will break down in tears for allowing this subjugation of their hearts and minds. Maybe they will demand others stop this insanity.
David Miscavige’s hold over you and are your life is all in your own mind. Stop the manipulation. Stop playing the game. It’s both sadistic and masochistic at the same time. It is slowly (or not so slowly) destroying you. Don’t let the sweet taste of the poison fool you.
To Mr. Thinker…I fell in love with you all over again. Thanks for your honesty (and you know what I mean).
Love, Sindy
THANK YOU!
This is so direct, so brilliantly stated and absolutely true.
I actually don’t know who you are per se, but, whoever it is you had me at pretty much every line of that remarkable and impassioned write up. I can at least see what kind of person you are and your words sum up what I though the subject should be about and how it should be being practised, ie: with honesty, care and courage. Something pretty much redundant inside the C of S these days but which you are exemplifying in spades. Well done for doing this. I bumped into a Class V staff auditor the other day who I was on staff with for many years and who, despite being fully aware of my status, was sane enough to indulge me in a lengthy conversation. I came away with the very clear impression that there are many doubts, uncertainties and possibly disaffections within and that they are very badly informed. Your write up will no doubt edge a few more closer to jumping off that fence and regaining some integrity. Give us a holla if you’re ever playing in London. Love to shake your hand! 🙂 .
Direct. To the point. Brutal.
Well done Nameless.
I haven’t considered myself a scientologist for a long time, but have tried to keep my minimal connections to scientologist in tack. Thus, while I’ve followed the whole slow motion train wreck avidly for years, I’ve kept low profile name-wise to not invite overt declare or disconnection.
I haven’t had any hope for the organization of scientology for a long time. While the subject itself has some major pitfalls, it also has a lot of useful and even wonderful tools. I’ve despaired of those tools having any broad use, due to the route the organization seemed destined to take. Mainly, though, I have watched as a lot of really wonderful people dedicate themselves to the good, but be tangled up in wrong-headedness by that very dedication.
This particular post inspires me. Especially the reference to Snowden and Manning. The handlings by OSA/Miscaviage of anyone who should have the nerve to question the tyrannical seat of power is exactly parallel to the broader march of totalitarianism.
I don’t have any great secrets to disclose, though long experience as public, staff and sea org tells me that these and other disclosures are completely credible and the utterances of “the church” are not. The only secret I can share is my name. If I didn’t follow so avidly and had been able to leave my scientology past in the dust, I wouldn’t bother. But I haven’t been able to let go. I’m still vested somehow. I put in too much of myself. I’ve had too many friends. A lot of my heart still belongs to my ex-wife whom I had to leave years ago because I couldn’t stay in the sea org, and she couldn’t leave.
In many ways, I’ve got no regrets. Life goes on, and I’ve learned so much, as a result of that track, that I wouldn’t have had the perspective to learn otherwise. In other ways, my scientology history is full of regrets, so fulled it is with broken trust (my own not the least) and bull-headed arrogance (again, mine not the least); if not, I’d probably be able to just let it go, which I haven’t been able to do.
I believe The Thinker is right. It’s time for the great reveal.
So, for whatever it’s worth, I remain:
Yours truly,
John Ferguson
Bless you, John Ferguson, and thank you.
You’ve touched me. Thank you so much.
Thanks for that John. Thanks for your contribution. Thanks for your stint in the SO and on staff.
Thank you for all you once did to help, John. I really mean that.
John,
Thank you. A very powerful yet subtle exercise of your will to speak up. It didn’t go unnoticed here.
Thanks for all you did.
No regrets is right. Life goes on and we must make the best of it.
Would I do some things differently? Sure! Hindsight is 20/20. But no regrets.
Luis
Luis, How is your lawsuit going? We’re rooting for you man! Keep up the pressure on them. Let us know anything you need to win that lawsuit.
Dear John,
This is the REVERSE of a “Dear John Letter”!
Thank you for sharing what you could still share. It is VERY appreciated.
Sure, part of our hearts are still over there with all of the time and efforts expended to make a better planet.
From our lives in the boiler room stripping endless copper wire to creating real lives outside. It has been a hell of a trip from being afraid to get declared to ‘bring it on, who cares’?
What I like the best though is, that we are still great friends no matter how much we disagree at times.
Greta
Thank you all.
Thank you John.
John,
I remember you and Judy very well. You two consistently seemed so close. I’m sad to think of the two of you being apart and yet glad that you did what you felt you needed to do to take care of yourself. I remember you struggling and it was hard to see.
I liked what you wrote.
You always came across to me as keeping in touch with what mattered, caring for those around you. We all know the messed up situation we were in. (Although I think we only saw the tip of the iceberg at the time.) I found respite in little chats with you. Times to just be a person in amongst all the pressure.
I always worked in personnel enhancement and I loved what I did. You helped me carry on and thus be a caring support to our staff as well as I could.
Thanks John.
Wishing you all the best,
Paula Fair
PS: I hope you don’t mind me being personal on an open forum. I don’t know if I will ever have a way to contact you personally. So I just wanted you to know you helped people more than you imagined.
You may never see this… I don’t know.
Dear Paula,
Thank you so much. What you said means a lot to me. talking to you was always a bright spot for me.
I’d love to make a connection.
Email contact info to bezotemp@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you.
Wow. One of the very best statements I’ve read on the Miscavige era and the need to end it soon. And most remarkably, a statement that leaves one hoping and believing — or at least willing to believe — that the end could really come soon, that such a thing can happen if people really want it. And surely at this point most people do, both inside and outside the organization.
I hope this way of thinking proves contagious.
The destruction of Scientology in the COS is being orchestrated since the early 1980ies. It has now progressed to the deepest levels of degeneration. (Although Mike is convinced they can sink even deeper. 🙂 ) The Church and their brand of Scientology are worthless although harmful to one’s spiritual health and financial stability.
Why bother if somebody is declared by this entity? Why bother with this entity at all other than preventing people from getting harmed?
They are at best useless and worthless and assigning them any importance at all is just giving them power they do not deserve.
Mike, Marty, Tony Ortega and others are doing a great public service to inform about the COS and thus protecting others from falling into the trap.
DM is not going to resign, no sociopath from Hitler to Stalin ever did resign and they all were made to resign in one form or another, – after they spilled the blood of their last follower.
The issue are a few often kind but delusional souls believing in the COS and its leader. Stripped of all power of observation, courage and with no ability to think straight they are prisoners of their own choosing. Their support for the COS and DM and their overts of abandoning their friends based on third party drives them only deeper into their prison. They will carry on until some of them are being abused themselves and have to fight back to survive. At that point the necessity level will pry their eyes open. Others may one day wake up, gather their entire courage start dare to observe and look and take action.
It can be heartbreaking to see a friend or family member lock themselves into a prison, but to be free completely oneself from it one has to stop assigning importance to the COS.
Two strong women showed us: Katie Holmes and more recently Leah Rimini: make a plan, safe-point important family and friends as much as possible and then sever the ties decisively.
Gerhard, I respect your point about historical monsters like Hitler and Stalin, but there is another model to consider: the peaceful, almost anticlimactic collapse of repressive institutions including the Communist Party in the USSR and DDR (East Germany) and the apartheid regime in South Africa.
These events seem to happen suddenly, to nearly universal relief — though upon analysis they can be seen to have been building for a long time, as internal conditions gradually become unsustainable. The COS may stand now in an analogous situation.
Your point is well founded. However, i dont think there will be a sudden collapse (after years of gradual decay) in the DM regime.
The reason? the Billlions socked away in the IAS’s nevis bank accounts. DM has dedicated his life to suppressing those arround him, if not the entire SCN membership, and one must assume he enjoys this power. He controls this pot of lucre and the power it gives him and he will simply never willingly give it up.
As membership declines and churches decline, he will simply squeeze those who remain, deepen the levels of his bunker, thicken and harden the walls, shoot those who show the slightest hint of backbone, and continue on until the day he dies.
That is his game.
But one day, sooner or later he will be gone. Either his succesors will dust themselves off and reach out to the indie community to bring the tech, if not the membership, back into the church, or they won’t. In either event, it is in the indie field where real SCN tech will continue on.
That’s the way I see it too.
I don’t think DM will ever resign. He is status-driven with a huge ego and the only survival he can probably see for himself is clinging to his position, even if he knows he is trapped in a golden cage of his own construction. Can you imagine DM accepting an RPF assignment? I didn’t think so. Can you imagine him getting a job outside the church? I didn’t think so either. So his only chance of personal survival is to hold on to his status as long as he can. My prediction is that he will either die as COB or be removed from his position by force. He will never let it go on his own volition.
Hey Globetrotter – you mean like a parasite? Won’t let go of its host because it knows that it’s all cold out there?
Should this be the new portrait that we see in the IAS mags and in promotions for the events? Maybe the Anons can use this for a poster. 😉
Yeah. I think, like a parasite.
http://www.wnyc.org/i/raw/photologue/photos/Parasite_Schistosome_SEM.jpg
Hi Richard, I understand what you are saying, but for example the collapse of the communistic Eastern Block is not comparable to dictatorships of any sociopath. Mikhail Gorbachev was not a sociopath, quite the opposite, and communistic ideology is not as devilish as McCarthy told the Americans. And the same applies to the Russian leadership after Stalin. A lot of them were more moderate and reasonable than some American cold war politicians. I do not know much about the transition in South Africa, but I doubt the displaced leaders were irresponsible hardcore sociopaths.
With DM we are dealing with a full blown sociopath in power and I cannot think of any occurrence when something like this ended in a peaceful transition or collapse. If under pressure these people hold on to power until the last one of their followers is destroyed, because they have no consciousness.
Thank you for your communication. Yes, Scientology will go as far as it works. I am an auditor and will keep auditing; there are many around doing it and there is nothing best than to see someone do better and choose his or her path after the services he/she received. That is what is all about-let someone get better and choose his path. While reading this and idea came to my mind; somehow we could design a demand for resignation of DM and then sign it, I can almost guarantee you we could gather 1,000s of signatures internationally. Once done we publish it wherever it can be seen by the many. Just an idea, besides that do what you mentioned-stop going to the church, stop taking calls and so on. I do believe we can do something about it. This is my view.
” Nobody was making any auditors. Which is supposed to be the only thing it DOES do. This is not complicated.”
Hello anon.
Good words here. I don’t need a leader either. I don’t care what anyone believes. I like to help.
Maybe you are right, why must the purpose be to convert everyone to scientology?
Why must there be huge, shiny scientology churches?
Scientology is as alive as we all practice it.
“Scientology is as alive as we practice it”. Bullseye!
Well written, well taken…well done! I hope this was sent out to all your friends directly as well. I’m in the same boat. I would NEVER allow ANYONE to tell me who I can and can not communicate with. However, the kool aid drinkers on the inside will disconnect for fear of losing their eternity and it’s shameful…and it includes my children whom I love dearly and can’t even deal with the idea of them being forced to disconnect from me. That is why many of us are lying low and staying under the radar…and there ARE many of us (and we’re not “bad people” or “SPs” OSA, so get that through your heads and do the RIGHT THING for once and oust this lunatic Miscavige. Confront what is happening and HANDLE IT! LRH would be ashamed of you right now for sticking up for him when he’s ruining the church with his ridiculous number of off-policy and out-tech actions. He’s your SP…SHOOT HIM FROM GUNS!!!
Amazing write-up.
Thanks for being a good guy and thanks to all those that came before you.
Here’s hoping there will be many more coming out soon.
Wow, I was bowled over by this incredibly heartfelt and well thought out coming out story. Although I don’t know who you are, I would be honored to count you as my friend. The points you make are done well. I love your thoughts on disconnection and how dishonorable that is. Yes, the real test will be to see if a whispering campaign starts up on you once OSA Bots report you from reading this. Keep us informed on that. And again, well done on a most incredibly theta story and your high confront of evil and your huge care factor! Welcome to the sunshine!
What a heartfelt and enlightening write up! I don’t know you but feel your beautiful essay with create profound and positive effects exponentially. Loved your condition assignments, insights and your in your face honesty.
Thrilling! Thank you.
Wow, Mike. Quite a write up. I have a lot of understanding where this guy is coming from. I was allegedly declared an “SP” for communicating with “SPs” like Marty. Whether that was the real reason or not is actually immaterial to me now as, after 35 years of working in Scientology, I have lost all my desire to be part of the CoS and no longer identify myself as part of any one religion.
I don’t know who this gentleman is, I just know he’s the type of being I would like being connected to and would be honored to call a friend. I would like to mention one slightly different point of view from his that I have. This is in regards to friends. I’ve had a number of people disconnect from me these past few months. Many were people I worked with and knew for over 40 years! Some I trained as auditors and CS’s, some were my pc’s, some I knew since the day they were born and are now well into their 30s, some I performed their marraiges for or the naming ceremonies of their children, some worked side by side with me during tough times and became very close friends of mine, there were even a couple I never especially liked. The only people from the “old days” I’m still in comm with are the few friends, who like me, are themselves are now out of the CoS. My reaction to all my decades long friends who disconnected from has gone from disbelief, to anger, to heartbreak, to feeling degraded and not worth their comm, to sadness, and back and forth through many of these and other tones. BUT … I never once thought “oh, they were never really my friends” or “now I’ll find out who my true friends are.” Many of them WERE indeed true friends, many who I went through much of life with, on more than one dynamic, many who I even lived with in the same house.
I’m not going to make this too long, but I do think that there are deep seated reasons why Scientologists treat each other this way. I do indeed think that there are such penalties in the CoS for not toeing the line, that most people just compute on the basis of “what’s the consequences for me?”, that is to say, “what kind of shit will I get if I comm to this person or I stand up for friendship or loyalty or honor or integrity?” and the answer is almost ALWAYS on the side of taking the path of least resistance. In my case, most of my former friends hadn’t actually seen me in person in many years so we are just talking about facebook or occasional email comm or maybe or visits every few years, but it still hurt me very much. You see, in a “doubt formula” there would no contest. They’d get tons of shit if they didn’t disconnect and only a stand for honor and loyalty for their troubles if they stayed in comm. The least shit would be an ethics cycle, lots of stress and dev-t, ow write-ups and quite probably sec checks, causing huge dev-t for them and many even tens of thousands of dollars. As I say, no contest, for just a “friend.” But, the real tragedy as we know is that people even throw their own children, sisters, brothers and parents under the bus. And I think they actually convince themselves that the person they disconnect from is actually a degraded being and IS actually working against the salvation of mankind, so they are doing a righteous thing by disconnecting. To justify this overt, they will almost instantly believe the most vicious rumors or black PR or dead agenting.
But I think there are other reasons too. What has happened to the Sr. CS SFO that was menitioned? I mean, as a being? What condition are these people in that have been in Scientology for many decades and are so high on the grade chart, YET they obviously cannot observe what is happening in their space, they believe whatever they are told about people they have known closely for decades even though it clashes with what they personally have experienced, they are EXTREMELY low on the scale of responsibility, in fact despite what they have convinced themselves of, they ACTUALLY are taking virtually NO responsibility for their third dynamics, yet if you look at some of the facebook posts they write (I have my ways), they are “super” enthusiastic in an almost manic, giddy way, with nothing but LOTS of GREAT and EXCITING news on the 3D. See, they can’t observe anymore, they are frozen emotionally in re: to abandoning old friends and even family, they are incapable of taking true responsibility, they have little honor, AND they are delusional. But they are “clear” and “OT”??????? And to top it all off, many are extremely unhealthy, dying at relatively young ages of cancer and heart attacks (almost all of us know who I am talking about).
So THESE are the beings who “used to be friends.” I can hardly “blame” them for their actions towards me, or feel too resentful towards them because they are NO LONGER FULLY FUNCTIONING BEINGS ANYMORE.
Of course, when you are talking about the world of Scientology, you always come against the group culture, mores, ethic, values, etc that impinge upon the beings who remain in the CoS ….. AND … like it or not, these come from LRH. Ron had few friends in his life that lasted for any time. He threw three wives under the bus, abandoned them all, had disastrous relations with most of his children, one killed himself after working closely with his father, one who became a sworn enemy of his father and actively worked against him, one daughter he fully abandoned and refused to acknowledge and otherchildren who got away from him just as soon as they could. He threw his two most trusted auditors under the bus (Roos and Mayo) and ultimately got rid of almost every person who was close to him on the 3rd dynamic and supported him through the decades. Only his death probably saved the few that were still in his inner circle at the end. I mention this ONLY to show that there is a SOURCE for the ethic and values found in the CoS re: personal relationships. We saw this in the Sea Org from the earliest days re:the importance (virtually none) put on keeping together marraiges, families and close friendships. And so, all of these values found their incarnation “on steroids” in Miscavige and so we have OT7s and 8s who MUST know deep down that it is CRAZY, NUTSO, INSANE to be declaring whole bunches accomplished auditors, supes, CSs and OTs, but in their culture, they are in such bad condition that they choose to “not know”, but stand up and cheer at events in this “most exciting age of expansion in Scientology’s history.” Who knows? Maybe it is “true for them” that this is indeed the Golden Age and so that makes it “true.” I’m no longer able to wrap my head around that idea of truth any more.
And so we get a “church” such as your correspondent is describing.
And by the way, there at the end of my rant,I didn’t mean to demean the idea of the right to have a personal reality and one’s own truth and the right to stand up for one’s integrity and the right to have those personal truths (so long as that “truth” doesn’t include enslaving others or limiting others’ liberty to have THEIR truths).
But often groups dramatise the most delusional of “realities” and the most horrendous of “truths.” Y’all can come up with many examples of this in history I am sure.
Hi Joe,
I just want to say that I really enjoy your posts. You lose me a bit though when you go off on Ron however. It’s not because I don’t already know that he had outpoints; it’s not that I haven’t discovered all kinds of conflicting data or exaggerations or outright lies…I have found these things on the internet and yet I don’t feel the need to dwell on it. Why? Because as a fellow auditor and CS who has seen what the tech he DID give us can do for a person; from correctly applied ethics tech to well run product conferences to the big purpose for any of it in the first place which is “This is the session.” I’ve seen results from the tech he did give us to use to express that desire within to HELP people. That’s what actually matters not whether he ever went PTS or had MWHs or ever went in to a lower condition or needed RPECs…
At the end of the day I could give a damn what potential dramatizations evolved in Ron’s life as he pushed through it anyway and provided a means to help people. Anyone who has CSed a brand new person through Life Repair and kept them progressing up the Grade Chart, who made auditors, who cleared people – they know the workability of the tech objectively AND subjectively.
I’m sure you have an audience for your upsets or observations of Ron being the source for the bad stuff and somehow for cob and his own black hearted soul’s crimes of the last few decades. But, Ron was no saint to me, never was never will be. His work was brilliant in more ways than it wasn’t. His progress was made with himself as the first and biggest guinea pig. He had case. It’s why he too got auditing.
I just wanted to say this not to make you wrong but to say my piece. There are those who only make Ron wrong and who rail at the mere mention of anything bad about him. I’m neither. I’m just an individual who understands the tech, can apply it and get results like I’ve always wanted the ability to do and so found with this tech as a means. Ron was a friend and it’s kinda like letting you know that my affinity for him won’t be alloyed. It reminds me of Let he who lives in a glass house cast the first stone…Ron is not the who for me regarding cob’s anti-social personality.
Gayle,. I agree. Thank you for saying what I’d been thinking all along and you expressed it beautifully. The WHO for COB’s dramatizations and SP actions is not LRH.
Brilliant thread. And the variety of comments re LRH were and are true. He was a very complex being. I knew more than a few of his major lies during the 60s, took most of what he said about himself personally from that time forward with a major grain of sand. However, I was also having enormous wins from my auditing and moving up the bridge rapidly. About that I couldn’t argue. Didn’t/don’t care what anyone else thinks or believes.
Out of all the stuff he wrote, the ones on Personal Integrity and Code of a Scientologist struck me strongly and, frankly, I pretty much just ignored all the rest. “To thine own self be true” really sums it all up. When I was in a position of authority, the only policy I stuck to without fail was “We always deliver what we promise.” (And, if we really worked at it, sometimes more!”) Nothing else but common sense was needed.
When one of my dearest friends blew the SO, she did not let me know because she did not want me to get in trouble. I tracked her down nevertheless and told her that my friendship was for life, without question. I cared not if she’d blown nor if she’d been declared. (She has since said that when it comes to friendship, I’m a pit bull! LOL) It took awhile, but she’s now my wife and still the best friend I’ve ever had.
I’m still “in” as far as the czerch is concerned and I remain close to several friends with whom I don’t discuss the current miserable state of what Messcavige has created. He’ll destroy the organized portion, but auditors will still sit down with pcs (or whatever other name they’ll be called” and will produce results. Cleaning up the world has always been a “one at a time” situation and that’s unlikely to change. Trying to do it enmasse is always pushing the river and always results in failure and attracts the power hungry.
So many thanks, Nameless One, for your cogent thoughts and comments. And thanks to you, too, Mike for giving him this platform. I would be honoured to know him.
Gayle, thanks for your comments. I always appreciate AND am interested in reading other peoples’ feedbacks and thoughts to my viewpoints. I have to say I think we’re talking apples and oranges here, really about two different things. Just on Mike’s last post, I once again for the umpteenth time (so that my viewpoint is not misduplicated) acknowledged LRH’s genius in developing auditing processes and procedure (and I would also have to include many of his other startlingly original ideas like the ARC Triangle, definition of responsibility, the comm cycle, and many, many other things we could each identigy). I’m not talking about these things on these points we’re discussing.
I’m also not talking about any of Ron’s “outpoints” or him being a saint or any such stuff. No one’s a saint, we all have outpoints (which hopefully we learn about and aim to correct towards living a more in-ARC life). What I’m talking about is GROUP CULTURE, VALUES, ETHIC and where they come from in Scientology’s case – and group culture and values generally exist in some degree in every third dynamic, in every country, in every religion. I think that if you want to CHANGE a culture, improve a third dynamic, then you need to be EXTREMELY HONEST and willing to confront anything in that culture’s past. There are ALWAYS roots to what is occurring currently in any group. There are usually current factors and there are past cultural ones. You will find that almost every “bad” thing that is occurring in the CoS today as having occurred (though on a much smaller scale of course and not in such an insane manner) way back in 1970-75, my first few years on staff.
The authoritarian culture, the dis-empowering of individuals vs. management, the arbitrariness of the Scientology “justice” system, etc all occurred back in the good old days. Sea Org arrogance, ignoring “policy” – I remember an SO mission into my org in 1973 run by Ensign Rae Thacker – she plowed through the org dismissing people from any post she wanted to, she was the “designated power” … for a while, of course…. she eventually had to leave town and we could breathe a sigh of relief until the next SO “mission.”
And the roots of the authoritarianism are all in LRH policy of the mid and late 60s. Why CAN’T people petition as a group? Why CAN’T people sometimes just refuse to follow orders when a senior is kinda nuts and won’t respond to a “query”? Well, see the LRH “policy” against such (“mutiny” is a crime as I recall). Try questioning anything a Sea Org mission did in the 70s! LRH did NOT like being questioned or countered and that’s the way he set up CoS values about people in charge. Of course, there are also modifying factors mentioned in LRH’s policy and corrective actions as well. Unfortunately I have very rarely seen these applied in my 35 plus years in the CoS (and when applied, it was always AFTER the fact, when the offending individuals were THEMSELVES in bad, so that it was now safe to call them on it, when there was NO risk to the caller).
This is why independent Scientology groups, such as they are, will pick and choose which LRH policy they will be applying and which they will simply ignore and pretend was never written.
I’ll mercifully end off here, but this is my essential interest that I explore in my posts (maybe sometimes not in the most literate or well expressed way), – how did the Scientology third dynamic culture develop over the years in the 50s – 70s to the point where it is today. That includes Ron’s actions, Davey’s actions, Heber’s actions, my OWN actions, which I am doing my best to take more and more responsibility for.
Joe — thanks for this. Well stated. I think Marty’s books have really dissected this pretty well. There is a “hive mind” culture in the Sea Org/Org/Church of Scientology that ALWAYS puts the 3rd dynamic first and this is absolutely inculcated through the policies that became increasingly strident and harsh after the mid-60’s. Of course the Flag Orders and CBO’s and Guardian Orders continue this pattern. And this permeates all Scientology organizations. My objection to “third dynamic tech” is that there are no proven RESULTS. You cannot point to a single continuously expanding Scientology organization over 60 years. The closest thing is the FSO, but it has been artificially propped up for many years. But even if it wasn’t, only ONE is NOT enough evidence of workability. Thus, it has to be considered a failure. You cannot keep saying for 60 years “it doesnt work because nobody applies it” — if it is THAT hard to apply then it doesnt work.
The biggest question for me is… how can all these capable, highly trained, executive Scientologists just allow an SP like this to squirrel the tech? Even before I stepped back — I had very little training… but I could see that DM was not doing any auditing. Wouldn’t anybody ask about that? Why isn’t the head of the church doing any auditing? Practicing what he preaches. Anyway… I think there are some spectacular things about the tech. I’m not ready to throw out all my books and tapes yet… however, there is No Love in Scientology. and what is a life without Love? Nothing much. You miss Love, you miss the whole thing.
Thank you for the post Gayle. Beautifully said.
Peter what a beautiful story, the kind to base a novel on I think. I also loved the analogy of trying to push the river, I agree completely.
Joe, It’s not so apples/oranges for me. The reason I like your posts is that I get your sincerity of what you’ve expressed about the tech. You and Mike both make very accurate observations about the admin tech reflecting what I’ve seen and lived through and observed myself. I spent 18 on the Class V (Class IV for many of you) org lines and lived it every day.
What I also saw was ONE OEC/FEBC ED in my 18 years at Philly, ONE. Though our org went through a dozen ED changes. What I learned is that cob hadn’t done his OEC/FEBC. I also saw how unbelievable abused the prereqs were for those who were sent for that training; people who had no staff experience, people who weren’t auditors first, people whose cases were mis-programmed to recieve FPRD to get in” the Exec 28 quals, doing that training without M-1s, an org off/prod off system NEVER put in, enforced violations from management to violate policy on how to man up an org from the top down but instead making network head postings senior, a huge and successful mission network that was crushed causing an huge 3D engram and which has never been cleaned up as the truth on all that has never been run out. Qual functions not being worn especially the Qual Snr Datum of taking orders from NO ONE on what to do with a student or pc and which would have resulted in some out-ethics detected and HANDLED if this hat had been worn at the top of our command channel. I could go on and on with my observations of what has been CAUSED from leadership corruption at the top of the Scn org board.
I remember my son telling me that when he left our org and went in the SO how he found the ethics level at ASHO to be sooo much lower than it was in our own org. That was because IMHO off policy had trickled down and was sickening the entire organization under it.
There has BEEN no OEC/FEBC training of any magnitude since even the 70s when the era at Flag which failed miserably and produced angry, arrogant militant valences as I’ve learned it. So if the very basic datums of who gets trained (auditors, experienced staff) and HOW they need to be processed as pcs to actually BE products of exec 28 quals aren’t being kept and haven’t been for over 30 years…I suggest that a possible focus on the policy “not working” be directed to the fact that it’s never been handled at the roots of it’s diversion and has been HELD down.
If you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result?…If you don’t get to the basic on a chain,..? The basic on “policy not working” has not been reached within the cofs because there were people who ordered this chain of policy violations who themselves didn’t understand the breadth of data in it and who themselves NOT experienced auditors, not cared for by Qual because there was a missing or suppressed Qual AND HCO. Scn management has been nothing but an arbitrary factory for nearly 4 decades and that’s how I see it. If it NOT held down from within then who knows where we’d be today. I do know that the missions who did have financial crimes or off-policy stuff going on should have been handled MUCH differently than SMASHING it and that this 3D engram has NOT been run out. Of that I’m certain. So if and when that happens and only then will a clean slate be available to make another run at seeing if we can put together a structure that can and will follow it.
Of course that is my viewpoint, I could be wrong, but it’s the viewpoint of someone who did have a long term view of the effects from the top and several years now of getting to put puzzle pieces together for myself. If a true leader is to be able to do everything on the org board under him then lets get to step 1. I am however so flattened myself by the whole experience over 28 years that I”m quite happy in my small group and big create with no interest in a command channel structure either.
Joe. I have started losing interest in your comments. You just nail LRH constantly. Your comments are the same, longer or shorter but the same. “LRH was bad”. But this is your forum too and I respect your right to still be at it, commenting away, after all those years. It is my forum too and I felt it time to say to you what I have been thinking for a while.
I met LRH. I liked him. He helped me personally and at a time when he was unbelievably busy and did not actually need to take the time and find me and help me. I respect that immensely as I do in others that do the same thing. Just help. It seems he did not help you. Am I right? That is sad and I am sorry about that.
We can focus on what he left behind that can be used to help others. Lets do that. Take what we can use and help others.
That is the main gist of what I see In these comments. People who know there is something to this subject, who are pissed at this maniac who controls the subject he did not create, did not organize, has not trained in, has never run an org or a mission. They are pissed and so am I.
That’s my rant Joe, for the month.
VSB
VSB, thanks for the comments.
Actually, I got tremendous wins from my training and processing, which I apply every day of my life in my effort to keep making life better. Actually the focus of this blog has never been what gains we all got from LRH’s work (though that certainly comes up now and then) The focus, day after day, is what has become of the CoS and its current leader and how he and his supporters run the CoS. I’m all for that. I love this blog and how Mike exposes this and I think it’s great and important that he keeps getting this stuff out there for the public at large and for any on lines Scios to see. I have never said “LRH was bad.” I simply am looking at the attitudes he had and the actions he did that were the roots of the current CoS (including his complete support and affinity for Miscavige in the early part of Davey’s reign). Marty has chronicled the relationship between Miscavige and LRH fairly thoroughly in his latest book, though I have read about it from other sources as well.
This is about your comment about Third Dynamic de-aberration tech, Mike.
This is a very interesting question you ask but one thing has to be considered when you say, “My objection to “third dynamic tech” is that there are no proven RESULTS. You cannot point to a single continuously expanding Scientology organization over 60 years.”
The mission network WAS booming throughout the 70’s with this tech in place. Samuels’ mission staff were pretty hard core about applying policy and they were consistently the biggest mission chain for years. The only other mission that came close was Steven’s Creek.
My point is that it’s a little unfair to say that no org continuously expanded for 60 years with it because all of these mission chains experienced, “Policius Interruptus” and had “Finance Police” arbitrary and suppressive policies forced upon them.
The Portland Mission, for example – the Finance Police didn’t “put a head on a pike” to get ethics in. They just lined everybody up for a firing squad and fired freely. Whoever wasn’t dead at the end of it all could go back on post. WTF?
So it wasn’t policy that failed that ship, it was a virus getting into the machine, IMHO.
So, I’m not sure that it’s right to say it doesn’t work. I believe that each org has been sabotaged by the little Hitler so that people lose faith in LRH policy and will only follow the miniture leader in HIS policies.
I’ve always wondered what those missions would have been like if they’d been left along to expand out into their full potential. Heartbreaking, really.
You cite a few missions as proof of its workability. WISE has existed for decades also. If some Missions that got destroyed by outside forces and then never recovered are the best demonstrations of the workability of this technology then it makes my point. And I would contend that the evidence would show that a lot of things that went on in those missions was “off policy”. But it is sort of academic — I have no intention of trying to resurrect the organizations as I don’t consider a hierarchical church to be anything other than a vehicle for abuse. That’s my opinion. Doesnt make it right. But I believe there is plenty of evidence to support it.
Mike, I think you touched upon the core issue – the inherent unworkability of an hierarchical church. Hierarchical organization of any type has historically led ultimately to abuse of power. In my four decades of involvement, I’ve seen the organization morph from an egalitarian grassroots movement when it was “the fastest growing religion on Earth” to a hive-minded autocracy in its death throes. Just as one example of this metamorphosis, compare the old policy on staff meetings with the extant one. The former provided for an egalitarian, staff member-“owned” organization managed by weekly consensus under Roberts Rules of Order. (In conjunction with Ad Council and Exec Council procedures pursuant to the policy on Conference Hat, orgs were effectively self-governed virtually autonomous democratic republics, which did just fine unless and until misguided remote “senior management” intervened – the absence of which is where Missions had the edge.) The latter, extant policy on staff meetings provides for little more than a tedious one-by-one public accounting by each staff member of their stats, for which they are either half-ack’d or publicly pilloried, and a briefing on the latest edicts from on high.
The governance model pendulum, due to repeated impacts with the 4th Dynamic case, swung from a federation of bottom-up membership organizations to one of top-down corporate command and control with a defensive “fortress” mentality. With insularity came loss of autonomy, individual initiative, flexibility and self-correction despite the mechanisms for same remaining in place. It was therefore the cumulative culture of arbitrarily adopted expedients, including the inability to purge same, that defeated the otherwise workable, if albeit imperfect, architecture.
Accordingly, whether a given autocrat stays are goes is actually irrelevant if the hierarchical monastic fortress culture remains because another will simply arise to fill his place, as a review of any historical hierarchical entity from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union or Wall Street, etc. will verify. Moreover, there is a point at which ‘tis better to allow an organism, a species, a device or a culture to complete its life cycle than attempt to tweak something that’s already a dog’s breakfast. As the rigidly encysted culture of arbitraries completes its natural implosion, the pendulum is swinging back externally to the bottom-up grassroots movement that made it great, taking with it all the treasures and lessons learned along the way and leaving behind that which does not serve the objectives of theta. Natural evolution is an effective catharsis and there are workable governance models with a long track record of success to draw from (e.g. see http://www.boogles.com/local/papers/CooperativeBusiness.html).
“Hierarchical patterns are so prevalent in our society and so deeply ingrained in our mind the we are almost incapable of looking objectively at the available evidence and admit that democracy in business and in other types of organization is indeed an economically — and certainly humanely — superior structure” (Seibel and Damachi 1982, p. 129)
Wow. Well done, Graduated. Loved what you wrote.
Indie8Million
I used to think like Mike, too.
In fact, in a speech to international mission holders (with Martin Samuels and Diana Hubbard in the front row), I said, that I didn’t apply Policy in my Mission, that I’d rather send staff for Academy training instead.
But I’ve been wondering since…
If we consider Scientology is here to stay, and the S.O. contract’s billion years not a symbolic
figure, but an estimation of the effort (which I believe it is meant to be!), then, wouldn’t that mean, we still have time to come to grips with Policy, that, some day, up the line, we’ll be able to understand and apply it intelligently?
As I said, just wondering…
Marcel Wenger
Hi Marcel,
Yes, that IS an interesting point you make. I would love to talk with you about that mission holder’s meeting, if you wouldn’t mind giving Mike the ok to connect us. To me, that was the death knell of the old guard and the ringing in the new, right there. Enormously destructive. It tore apart so much of what, up to that point, had taken 32 years to build up through the blood, sweat and tears of so many good and honest people; including myself and many of you reading this.
THAT pisses me off; working 24/7 to build up the org so many, many people can go free, only to come back 5 years later to see the ruins of the destruction, like coming home to London after the bombing.
If LRH’s tech of handling the human mind was so valuable and correct, why wouldn’t his “technology” of groups be the same?
What I observed was that one of Martin’s missions went from 12 staff to 90 staff in only 5 years. The place was so packed that you had to get there early to find a seat in both the comm course and the Academy. All 4 or 5 of the auditing rooms were usually busy. Staff were treated respectfully. When staff meetings were conducted, there were creative ways of giving their target for the week and people were actually in comm and laughing. Oh, and people actually got paid enough to run on an SO schedule and still eat and pay a reasonable rent.
What would have happened if Miscavige hadn’t have gone in, cutting off the heads of our strongest knights? How big would just THAT mission be today? Would policy have continued to work IF someone who was squirreling policy hadn’t come in and killed the organism? To me, it’s the squirreling of policy and/or applying of made up policy (with a counter-intention to the original purpose of the group) that has killed orgs and missions, not the correct application of policy meant for expanding this endeavor.
IMHO
As I see it, we
Sorry for the, “As I see it, we”. Leftover from an earlier thought I forgot to erase. Sure wish we could edit these, once we post. haha.
The great think about auditors is that they have the ability and care to listen. What I have also noticed is that they can communicate and speak from the heart.
What an honest a stunning communication. I don’t know who you are but I can see why you have so many friends.
We have all been witness to the greatest rip-off imaginable –the theft of Scientology and its repurposing by David Miscavige to the acquisition of money and pretence of his power.
My circle of friends is rather small and I Iost a number of them once I voiced opposition to Miscavige. I really couldn’t afford to lose them.
I agree with you and demand that David Miscavige be removed from the C of Scientology. OSA, I have a special affair for you-open the doors to the Hole and remove Miscavige!
+1
Fantastic
“The way I see it is that the first step to any kind of future is demanding the resignation of David Miscavige. So I, as a member in good standing am hereby publicly demanding it.”
I’ll second that although I am no longer a member in good standing!
Dear Dave,
Please resign from your self appointed post more commonly known as COB. And also resign from the post Mike assigned to you known as POB.
Then report to San Antonio and start your program. Mosey can likely get you pointed in the right direction.
Yes, Davey is a pre-clear.
Fucking-A that is a great read. Major props you you, Thinker. We will definitely meet this fall.
+1
A very powerful speech, written with love and conviction. This man is absolutely right. If the sheeple would grow a back-bone, Miscavige would be gone. It is truly heart-breaking to watch good people being smeared by the ‘church’, but let’s face it. This kind of thing has been going on in Scientology since it’s inception. The subject of auditing or helping people through scientology is a completely different subject. It’s debatable whether it produces psychic phenomena. What is rotten-to-the-core with scientology is Hubbard’s policy of disconection and fair-game that continues to be practiced by the ‘church’ today. Miscavige didn’t write these policies, Hubbard did. In order for scientology to change it’s public image and become a real religion they have to start to give without exchange. But Hubbard never believed in giving something for nothing. That would be degrading. In order for scientology to change for the good would be to abandon most of Hubbard’s oppressive administrative policies, cancel disconnection/fair-game(for real this time), disband the sea org, pay the staff minimum wage, etc. But I can never see this happening. Scientology is Hubbard and Hubbard is Scientology. Hubbard’s writings are scripture. These robots in the ‘church’ will never abandon his scripture. They’ve been ruled by fear under that sociopath tyrant, Miscavige for far too long. I feel it’s too late. Scientology as a subject will survive. No one can kill an idea. But the organization will eventually collapse, the orgs will close down one by one until there is nothing left. The legacy of Hubbard will be real estate sold to the highest bidder.
I couldn’t agree more. The paradox is that policies like KSW are responsible for the public staying away in droves. Scientology needs to rise above its origins and toss out aggressive/paranoid policies if it is to thrive.
Thank you for the nod to Tony Ortega 🙂
I wish you so much luck in the coming days, weeks and months.
Poetic, Simple & Brilliant — Well Said!
Wow, awesome write-up.
I was once friends with Steve and Jennifer. I knew that Steve’s whole life has been financed by his parents. As long as he was on staff he had no worries about money. I heard recently that he completed VII. Too bad that his brother didn’t hold the line and continue to speak out against the church. That was something that pulled Steve off of VII, blocked his parents from the ship and was used to “threaten their eternity” if they didn’t handle him to stfu. Steve used to have a backbone. He could have been a contender in the world of putting the tech back on track. Instead he chose the path of least resistance and sold his soul to the devil. So did Amy, so did Nathalie, so did Louise, so did Dan and so did others who I thought were made of the stuff a Snr CS was expected to be.
Now Eric from Chicago, he was put through some pretty gross “justice” via the CLOEUS where they haven’t bothered to put a Cont Snr CS on post for over 98% of the last 28 years. How gross. How telling of the overall attitude toward the tech. I’m sure that Dave and you Thinker knew Eric. He too was a sweet guy but just a kid when he was at Flag training and I guess he didn’t find the ground to dig his feet in and hold a position in space either.
I don’t know you Thinker but we know a lot of the same people it seems. Dave and Sindy are luchy to have you as a friend, the true friend that you’ve shown yourself to be. My friends up in Philly know who they are. I’m not going to out anyone but lets just say that the apparency is not always the reality eh?
Former DSA Philly org now in the SO and sporting his new Ducati (ummm, yeah if the valence fits wear it, and he does he wears it like armour) knew for a fact that the kangaroo justice cycle’s conclusions on me were bogus but he dutifully did nothing despite the fact that OSA was supposed to be the great protectors of people like me, trusted tech personnel. HA! my ass. Bruce showed his cowardice and TIm Lomas, CO OSAEUS showed his disloyalties to LRH, by standing by and watching the destruction of their org. Talk about being infiltrated! cob and his osa band of theives who love the 007 mock ups ARE the biggest band of infiltrators and how slick is it to indoctrinate them in to believing that cannibalizing Scn staff and public WAS the greatest good…
Thank you The Thinker. I look forward to meeting you.
The years that I knew that Sr C/S, I can say not once did I see a drop of real ARC there.
Arrogance, yes.
Gayle, and what is Steve Latch supposed to do? Buck management and GAT? Give up his relationship with his parents? Risk an inheritance of whatever millions his father still has left in the bank, which Steve will very much need in the following decades to support three children under 6 years old? Create an upheaval for his whole family, wife and children, also putting his wife’s business at risk as well? Give up his vaunted and no doubt thoroughly enjoyable position as his orgs’ “senior being” with all the adulation admiration and compliance that go along with it?
Is there even ONE case supervisor who has stood up “for the tech” or countered Miscavige in ANY way WHO IS STILL IN THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY in the entire world? (Anyone with “backbone” leaves – you can look up the stories that the husband of the past Sr. CS of Cincinnati org tells about what she went though these past five years).
Steve’s just a guy with all the foibles and failings that most of us have in spades. He is no better off at being rational or ethical or “OT” than any ten people that can be picked out at random walking down the street of any major city in the world. (If he actually WAS rational or OT, he would be able to see clearly that his org had a ton of auditors being trained when he started out as a kid auditor in the late 70s and he would then actually analyze the situation accurately and then intelligently come up with a handling – in fact, he might start with LRH’s main dictum – “what were the successful actions” and see how they differ from the current scene)
Steve’s just trying to have as good a life as he can, and in the world he is living in, integrity and loyalty and independence are definitely NOT admired values in his world and so he doesn’t “do” those things. He looks out for his interests. In another environment he.would probably be a very sterling individual and his actions would be quite different.
Joe,
I stood up and bucked DM and GAT. I wrote it up as a Tech Degrade as the Class VIII Snr C/S of my org. It got me declared, but it didn’t kill me nor my drive in Scientology (the subject). I’m still here. I’m still “fighting the good fight”, meaning, helping people live better lives in their own estimation through Scientology technology. And that’s not going to stop.
But we all make our own decisions. And we all lie in the beds we make. And if it’s a hard bed, one needs not look too far to find out why. It’s like the Matrix – remember that scene where that guy sells Neo out for a “life” in the Matrix where he’s rich, can eat steak, etc?
Anyway, in my opinion, it’s whether or not one takes a stand that is right or does nothing, aka MLK.
Chris
Thank you Chris,
I took my stands as well in similar ways and was extracted as Snr CS of my org as well. I am of the breed that couldn’t live or breath if I knew I was violating my own integrity. I had to be the best friend to the person I saw looking back at me in the mirror. I just didn’t know at the time how far down the rabbit hole I had to go to find the truth.
Now my viewpoint is certainly one that comes from a place that included a lot of living in the “real world” having been on my own for several years before I got in to Scn. I also never had a silver spoon, mine was stainless steel.
I know that the only way Scn will survive is with the recognition that the tech resources are the most valuable assets to that group. They aren’t the help, they aren’t the worker bees, they aren’t the slaves to the slave masters, they ARE who makes or breaks the whole thing. I took my role as Snr CS as the sacred trust that it was to the big picture of creating a world that I envisioned before I ever went in to an org.
I don’t consider my viewpoint even after 28 years of life as a tech trained individual as naive; it’s not it’s just the simple truth.
Let’s just say that I intended for all those who made it to the hat of a Snr CS to have a similar viewpoint as of course one HAD to have in order to BE a Snr CS. Though I can acknowledge that isn’t the reality around me is not going to dissuade me from my continued intention for there to BE such a group of individuals who can stand up and be those people. I guess Joe that I’m voicing that Steve is definitively not one of those people. That doesn’t mean I hate him at all, I can’t actually make myself go there because it’s not a destination on my map if you will. I can say that he’s not who a Snr CS needs to be in order for this corruption to end. It’s people who walk the walk who will do that.
One has to own the Aims of Scn in whatever their own words for it are and it’s been a new level of confront for me to reconcilet that there are fewer of us who really owned it inside the cofs than I’d thought.
Right on Chris,
The bed may be hard for a while but at least from then on it goes UP!
You know, I have a theory too on Steve Latch. Here is a kid that was raised from day one, in a wealthy Scn. family. The Latches were privileged always, because they had money. No one messed with them, doors were always open. Steve blew through a few marriages. The one I remember was waiting at home for him while he was training at Flag. He met his future wife there while training and it was bye bye first wife. There were no real repercussions for his out 2D like there would have been for “Joe staff member”. But I digress…here is my point….Steve has NEVER lived outside SCN. Never held a real job, had to pay rent, had to deal with the real world outside of an org, EVER. David Miscaviage would fall under the same category. HOW can you possibly operate in logic when ALL your reference points are so limited? It baffles me how he relates to other staff and PCs and students at all. Same with most of upper management. HOW in the world do people, who do not understand the environment in which their little organization exists, affect ANY change at all? Straight application, one on one, C/S to case, ok, but even then, it takes an army of clever D of P’s, E/Os, Regges, etc. to get one person through the pitfalls of going free. THEY have to understand and think with what the PC or Student is dealing with and act intelligently and accordingly and from what I understand…no real humans are really even involved in the front lines any more, it is all films. As the Sea Org and Scn grew more and more insular in the 80’s and 90’s the ARC triangle just went….missing. I don’t condone any of the bad behavior….it is just heartbreaking that I understand it. The most basic of all Scn. tenents, ARC, has been violated for so long.
I didn’t step foot in an org for 10 years after routing off staff (after 15 years on SFOF staff) and it took me that long to risk looking. I was convinced all the crap would blow over and didn’t want to jeopardize my bridge. Finally I looked. Then I understood.
Thanks Joe Pendleton, Greybiscuit, and Thinker. I bet we’ve met. It’s an SFO reunion! I used be friends with Steve and jam with him in his folk’s basement in an inpromptu band that played at events, the Spontanes. This might seem trivial, but to me was a turning point in our relationship. My last communication with Steve proceeded as follows. I was attending an event at SF Org, filling my plate at the buffet table just before the video began. Behind me was Yuri, also filling his plate. I said to him, “We better sit down before they come and get us.” Steve overheard this and stormed in, “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!” and stomped off. Weird, disconnected. — Any other SF Org ex-members, feel free to contact me at quietguy130411@hushmail.com.
Steve’s a good guy, so is da wife.
Knew her mom for a very brief period, but when I was a noob and didn’t know shit. Gendoza period..
Whatever, the Hugh outpoint is as per LRH a Class 8 auditor or C/s will boom a org, standard tech, 100%.
Plus we got a OT8 C/S.
So this dude, Steve Latch has gone up the entire bridge, and is a Class 8 C/S.
What’s the outpoint?
Why isn’t SFO booming?
and on another similar topic,
I was on staff at the SF Mission during it’s boom years under Lynn Irons as MH & Robert Reifer as ED. With lots of staff, bigger than the SFO at the time. We were producing more the the SFO at the time. And the Mission actually looked down on the SFO as it sucked.
Too funny.
The SF Mission had at it’s time the goal to become a Celebrity Center in SF, and that’s why I joined staff. LOL
The god damn Mission hired field auditors at something like 50 bucks an hour to audit the docs, while the staff got paid shit compared to that. It was a constant struggle internally to justify paying the field auditors vs contracted staff.
Oh, we had a Class 8 C/S too – BL.
I remember when it first opened. We probably know each other, singanddanceall.
Isn’t it funny that the groups (missions) who weren’t under the direct control of management (or were managed in a lesser degree) did much bigger than the orgs? Nothing against the staff. I think their hands were tied.
Dear Singanddanceall: I can’t name the single outpoint behind all problems at the SF orgs, but can name the main outpoint blocking my Bridge progress at SFOF. For a stretch of several years, SFOF had HCO personnel Angela and Kirk who seemed devoted to fanning the flames of conflict between parishioners. While I was on staff I worked very hard to resolve a couple such conflicts and in the end found that Angela and Kirk were themselves the Third Party preventing resolution.
…and then there was Jack Spears, RIP.
He always talked about LRH and how they knew each other back in the early 50s. He said that LRH was always cracking inside jokes that only the staff would get. They’d be back in the back, trying not to laugh while the rest of the Congress was enthralled. 🙂
People asked Jack if LRH ever audited him and he usually answered “no”. But the more he thought about it, thought about this one story.
One day, Ron was really mad at everybody on staff in DC. Some big goof up. So he told everybody they were fired and to go home.
The next day, out of habit, Jack went to the org and was, as he said, “feeling pretty sorry for myself” while he sat out and had a cigarette on the stairs.
Ron came out of the org and sat next to Jack. They didn’t say a word.
Then Ron opened his mouth and said, “Poor Jack. Poor, POOR Jack.”
They looked at each other and lauuughed.
After telling that story, Jack looked at me and said, “Well, I guess I was audited by Ron, after all!” And then he laughed that hissing, open mouthed laugh that Jack had, bow tie moving and all. Part of our history, old Jack. I’m sure he’s back, chasing skirts again. 🙂
Thanks Indie8million, I could listen to Jack Spears stories all day! He was the “real deal” before they called it the “real deal.”
You’re welcome, Quiet Guy.
Oh man. Jack was one of a kind.
I’d love to hear some of your stories about Jack too. That ol’ character.
Last I saw him, he was in LA, trying to get through hit OT III at 83 years old. Really hard for him to metab so I think he only got through OT II. That should be a lesson to all of us who are still working on our Bridge in the Indie Field. Do it sooner rather than later. These bodies need to be cooperative to have this all work.
But back to Jack, I would love to hear more about him from people who were around him more than I.
Hey, I just thought of another Jack story.
We were talking about what he called, “Returnees” one day.
I was commenting about how these young ones were so reverent about Ron and how they didn’t really get that he was a pirate and a bum himself. 🙂 I mentioned that, if a person was around last lifetime, they knew how Ron really operated and how he ran things.
Jack is so funny. He says, “Yeahhhh, that’s one thing about returnees. They got really good bullshit detectors!”
I laughed. 🙂
He also said, “What is amazing to me is that this group of Scientology is made up of a bunch of barbarians and still, we manage to get along and we all agree to not be barbarians to each other so that we can get this show on the road.”
Loved that guy.
Nice to hear from you, Quiet Guy.
Dear Singanddanceall, on your comment above, “Steve’s a good guy,” a great deal of my heavy work as an auditor had to do with cleaning up NOT Steve’s C/Sing, but my pc’s DIRECT PERSONAL CONTACT with Steve. This pc was left in such a state of fear that they could not leave their house for weeks and after Steve came banging on their door and peering in their window late at night, they hid under a bed shivering for 3 days and would not come out. This required a massive recovery cycle and more than a year of auditing to handle. Sorry to disappoint you.
“HOW can you possibly operate in logic when ALL your reference points are so limited?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96pwp7eQD64
Glad to see some release and a turn in a better direction. A lot of us took a while to distimulate…… everyone in his own way and own viewpoint.
Very Well Done Sir,
David Miscavige Should resign immediately
I would give him the Freewind’s and all the IAS money he keeps
in his offshore accounts thrown in as a part of the deal. Just walk away Davey !
The winners would be the mest- ass- trophy called scientology.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are beautiful rebuilt cities after they were Atomic bombed
so Scientology will also rise from the ashes of David Miscavige.
The San Fran Org was great in the 1970’s but after the Miscavige takeover
it became a toilet bowl of lies.
The sooner the better D.M. bails out.
What a clear and well written letter. 100%. it is up to everyone to stand-up and speak their mind with no fear of repercussions. I have been saying for years that scientology is a philosophy of the mind. until now my uncle had been the only one to speak the same words as you here re: auditing cycle.
thanks for being a great friend. I’m sure the people that are in your circle value that above all else. People could and should take a lesson from this. This is how people are supposed to act. This is what personnel integrity is. Thanks for being you and showing others another option that is both creative and filled with love.
Thank you Thinker for sharing! Great post!
I have said this many times and I will say it again to honor one of the best essays about what is wrong with the Church of Scientology and its corrupt leader written by The Thinker. ( know most of the folks you write about but I don’t know you. Would love to shake your hand someday.)
I DEMAND the resignation of David Miscavige.
Jack Airey
Yes. I demand his resignation too.
I don’t know the person who wrote this post
(wish I did he/she sounds amazing).
But the post has a lot of intention
in it. This is what we need to somehow
accomplish the resignation.
Fabulous post. I, too, demand the resignation of David Miscavige.
Davey’s not going anywhere. I see absolutely no movement at ALL in the current church of scientology to depose him. Who are the “OTs” in the sea org who will remove him or get him to resign? He has got a totally compliant, submissive group that does everything he bids. Not ONE person has ever stood up to him personally in 30 plus years. What a sad commentary on the case state of these beings. That’s the level of confront and case gain we are talking about when we talk about people who stay in the sea org. Anyone with ANY independence or guts leaves. The church of scientology belongs to dave miscavige. Of course, he could always “pull a Feschbach”, but he looks pretty healthy to me. Maybe Shelly has actually been setting up house in Tahiti these past few years and handling the moolah for Davey, and one day Davey will just not be having fun anymore and he’ll take off and leave it all behind. So, who takes over the CoS then? Maybe John Travolta and Leah Remini will run it as the Reform CoS, cancel all ethics orders and give peoples’ IAS donations back and any other money for services not delivered. And give people in the SO a guaranteed day off each week no matter what their stats are and let them live like actual beinsg in the 21st century with rights, you know – they can read what they want, have a phone, a computer, actually live as somewhat free people.
I foresee the day when COB is in prison.
In prison is choice #1 in my book. But I would settle for him being a fugitive for the rest of his life, trying to make the next big deal with all the money he steals.
He’ll be having a fit before he leaves though – “I can’t take all the cars with me!!! And the BIKE!!! Damn it, Rinder, you God d@mn, c*%k sucking, piece of s^&t! It’s all your fault!! Report back here immediately to lick the floor in the HOLE (that doesn’t exist!!)!!”
I think he’s gonna extract that copper pipe right out of the wall.