Scn is by its nature a continuous source of ARC breaks (breakages on affinity, reality or communication).
In fact, when one leaves the reason is not the overts but rather the accumulated ARC breaks.
When I was in the RPF and decided to leave I was put on the RPF’s RPF. I’ve done almost three (3!) months of leaving sec check. Then I realized that it had lasted so long because in the meantime they were trying in vain to get a SP declare about me approved.
In those months I said all the possible overts of this life and moved on to the previous one (or whatever I thought it was).
In the end, however, I was more convinced than ever to leave. The reason was certainly not the overts I had done. In the back of my mind I had begun to realize that it was just a scam that had never accomplished anything about what it preached, in which I had spent the very best years of my life.
Inurement. Theft. Fraud. Deceit. Perpetrating crimes against humanity.
So many crimes…
What has your church done for you, or for your community, Mr and Mrs Scrooge R. A. Scilon, besides demanding your time, money, and silence? Have you become a tool of an uneducated thug, perpetrating Disconnection at his orders, as he tries to silence critics of the cherch? Do you even know that for years Scientology was not a religion? Do you even know that Scientology once easily obtained religious tax exemption, then lost it for quite some time when Hubbard’s inurement was revealed? Were you, or your parents or grandparents, party to any of the 2500+ frivolous lawsuits that forced the IRS to hand back the cherch’s undeserved tax exemption?
The time is coming for the Ghosts of Disconnection Past, Present, and Future to haunt the dreams of ordinary Scientologists. The Truth will set you free, if only you let it.
And when the wife wakes up, which i feel she is so close to doing, she can still use the air fryer to make yummy treats when she has WOG friends over for dinners. The ring she would have to take to a pawn shop. The pawned ring would be limited to purchase by someone with the initials ARC.
I have been thinking about the podcast with Kate Bornstein and gathered my thoughts on the subject (always a dangerous thing, I admit) and written my take on the subject of why Kate was treated in such an abominable way after the incident with the foreign banking executive.
I would love to hear the thoughts of Mike Rinder and Leah Remini on this and Kate Bornstein, if possible and anyone else who has an opinion.
Scientology’s Most Obvious and Overlooked Crime – Inurement
I am going to quote an article by Jeramie Fortenberry to explain the legal term inurement.
Non-profit organizations are subject to what is known as the nondistribution constraint. Simply stated, this means that non-profit organizations cannot distribute profits to those who control it. The nondistribution constraint is the fundamental distinction between non-profit organizations from for-profit organizations.
In the Internal Revenue Code, the nondistribution constraint is embodied in the prohibition against inurement. “Inurement” is an arcane term for “benefit.” The inurement prohibition forbids the use of the income or assets of a tax-exempt organization to directly or indirectly unduly benefit an individual or other person that has a close relationship with the organization or is able to exercise significant control over the organization.
The essence of the inurement proscription is found in the language of Code § 501(c)(3), which provides that no part of a 501(c)(3) organization’s net earnings can inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. Although this would clearly prohibit the distribution of dividends to those in control of the organization, the inurement prohibition is much broader than that in application. Most exempt organizations – including 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) organizations – are subject to the inurement prohibition.
The goal of the inurement prohibition is to prevent siphoning off of an exempt organization’s assets by insiders – those in control of the organization. In this context, “control” may be direct (as in the case of formal directors) or indirect (such as control over others who are officers or directors). Any time assets of the organization flow through to benefit the organization’s insiders, whether directly or directly, inurement is an issue.
The inurement restriction is absolute: An organization that violates this prohibition will not qualify (or will cease to qualify) for tax exemption regardless of whether it otherwise meets the appropriate statutory requirements for exemption. Because of the harsh nature of this rule, it has historically been enforced only in the most egregious circumstances.
Because the inurement prohibition was rarely used, Congress enacted a related set of rules that would provide an “intermediate” sanction. The intermediate sanction rules are “intermediate” in the sense that it is not as severe as outright revocation of tax exemption but does penalize the organization. The intermediate sanction regime is discussed in our section on excess benefit transactions.
In cases involving inurement, the IRS may impose the intermediate sanction penalties in lieu of or in addition to the revocation of tax exempt status. The IRS has published standards to determine how it will decide whether to revoke the 501(c)(3) status of an organization that has engaged in a transaction that constitutes both inurement and excess benefit. These standards provide that the IRS will consider all relevant facts and circumstances in making a determination of whether to revoke the tax exempt status of an organization that engages in an excess benefit transaction that constitutes inurement. Factors the IRS will consider include:
The size and scope of the organization’s regular and ongoing activities that further exempt purposes before and after one or more excess benefit transactions occurred;
The size and scope of one or more excess benefit transactions relative to the size and scope of the organization’s regular and ongoing exempt functions;
Whether the organization has been involved in repeated excess benefit transactions,
Whether the organization has implemented safeguards that are reasonably calculated to prevent future violations, and
Whether the excess benefit transaction has been corrected or the organization has made a good faith effort to seek correction from the disqualified person or persons who benefited from the excess benefit transaction.
This system effectively gives the IRS two options to enforce the nondistribution constraint. In blatant violations of the inurement prohibition, the IRS can both revoke tax exemption and impose monetary penalties under the intermediate sanction regimes. In less severe cases, the IRS may seek to correct the situation through intermediate sanctions alone.
Jeramie Fortenberry
Jeramie Fortenberry is an attorney with a practice focused on meeting the needs of business founders. End quote
That’s a legal explanation of inurement, the CRIME of a person who controls a charity BENEFITING PERSONALLY from the charity, in the United States.
I recently listened to an episode of the Fair Game podcast with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder. Their guest was Kate Bornstein. Kate was formerly a person under a different name while in Scientology but I am not going to use that name as I am going to avoid deadnaming. If Kate or someone else chooses to use that name that is their choice, but I am simply going to make the note that Kate had a different name earlier and identified as male and now no longer identifies as male or uses that name.
So, the story goes that Kate was sent on a trip by Scientology executives to a foreign bank and a bank executive mistook Kate (who at the time could pass for male, in other words most people would assume Kate was a biological male, meaning born with male sex organs) for Ronald Hubbard and remarked that it was an honor to have Ronald Hubbard in their bank in person.
Kate Bornstein reportedly felt this was odd and after leaving the bank immediately called Scientology executives in the United States and reported that the banker had mistaken Kate (who, again probably looked like a man to the banker) for Hubbard and said it.
The reaction of the Scientology executives was reported as having Kate return to the United States and go to a Sea Org organization and get grilled by numerous executives. Kate was reportedly given the two options of either going to the RPF or being eternally expelled from Scientology. Kate was told that for eternity Scientology would be unavailable, how this could be enforced in future lives in different bodies with different names is beyond my understanding, but that is the punishment offered. Someone really wanted Kate to submit to the RPF. Kate, incidentally did not and left Scientology.
The RPF is essentially a gulag and reeducation program in which one becomes a prisoner doing hard labor, is literally fed scraps, forced to get by on four hours sleep, treated as less than human, subjected to the most overt attempt at brainwashing available in Scientology.
This is the Truth Rundown in which they are subjected to hundreds or thousands of hours of being indoctrinated with the central idea that whenever they have seen Scientology executives, particularly David Miscavige, do anything wrong, they were hallucinating and in fact the “truth” is that they have hidden crimes that cause these hallucinations!
I can’t overstate the extreme control used to brainwash the subject into not believing their own eyes and ears and to readjust their minds to see Scientology and David Miscavige as ALWAYS right and anyone else who disagrees, including themselves and their own memories as WRONG if they hold any criticism of David Miscavige or Scientology or any information that David Miscavige doesn’t want shared!
Now, understanding that the RPF and specifically the Truth Rundown brainwashing program have the purpose of burying and hiding or erasing and replacing information that is harmful or dangerous to Scientology as an organization is in my opinion the key to understanding WHY the fact that Kate Bornstein was mistaken for Ronald Hubbard when interacting with the foreign banking executive was something that inspired such a panic and extreme reaction.
I believe that the foreign banking executive had the evidence that Ronald Hubbard benefited personally from the vast majority of donations to Scientology and that if this was revealed then Scientology would face tremendous legal and public relations consequences.
Most people in Scientology thought that Scientology was benefiting the world and still do today. If they knew the real way the funds were and are allocated most people would stop donating money and leave simply based on this one fact.
And the results would be catastrophic for the survival of the Scientology organization on a national and international level.
Here’s a quote to put the issue in context historically:
“Vicki Aznaran, who was one of Scientology’s six key leaders until she bolted from the church in 1987: “This is a criminal organization, day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy [Bakker] look like kindergarten.” To explore Scientology’s reach, TIME conducted more than 150 interviews and reviewed hundreds of court records and internal Scientology documents. Church officials refused to be interviewed. The investigation paints a picture of a depraved yet thriving enterprise. Most cults fail to outlast their founder, but Scientology has prospered since Hubbard’s death in 1986. In a court filing, one of the cult’s many entities — the Church of Spiritual Technology — listed $503 million in income just for 1987. High-level defectors say the parent organization has squirreled away an estimated $400 million in bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Cyprus.” End quote.
From Time Magazine, The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power by Richard Behar 1991
Additionally we have a quote from the historian and top expert on Scientology author Jon Atack. This is from an article entitled What Motivated L. Ron Hubbard? Historian Jon Atack Follows the Clues published at The Underground Bunker blog on August 26, 2013 by Tony Ortega.
“When Hubbard dropped his body, almost fifty years later, he had failed to spend $648 million of the monies he’d extracted from the Dev-OTs. A paltry million went to the wife who had endured prison to protect him, far less to his surviving children. But half a billion dollars went to the Church of Spiritual Technology, which lists as its corporate purpose, “To perpetuate the name L. Ron Hubbard.” Not the “technology,” just the name, please note.” Jon Atack
Jon Atack pointed out that Hubbard had amassed a fortune of six hundred and forty eight million dollars back in 1986 and his Sea Org slaves often worked a hundred hours a week or more, maybe once or twice a year had a day off, were frequently not paid or paid pennies an hour, literally making perhaps thirty dollars a week on the weeks in which they were paid, often packed into filthy, cramped communal living in bunk beds jammed into crowded rooms and often fed rice and beans and given the cheapest possible living conditions including a lack of toilet paper and being encouraged to take quick showers to save money on water.
Hubbard also had a very extensive camera collection and lived a lifestyle quite different from the Sea Org members and the staff of his local organizations. David Miscavige reportedly lives a lavish lifestyle as well. His meals, clothes, living conditions and on and on are in an entirely different stratosphere from those of the vast majority of Sea Org members.
So, my ultimate point is that in my opinion, the reason that the Scientology executives panicked and wanted the fact that Kate Bornstein spoke with the foreign bank executive, however slightly and briefly, was because Kate could potentially have been a link in a chain of EVIDENCE. Evidence that is damning for Scientology regarding the inurement that Ronald Hubbard and now his successor David Miscavige engage in.
I have been around Scientology a long time, having been a Scientologist myself for twenty five years and left the group in 2014 and studied and written about the group since then.
I have seen that the Scientology organization has an odd habit of hiding and burying and subjecting people to the RPF and Truth Rundown brainwashing program. By odd I mean that ONLY SOME PEOPLE are treated this way.
I have been in orgs including Sea Org orgs in Los Angeles and New York City and seen for myself that when some people try to leave Scientology or the Sea Org they are chased after, monitored, pursued and strongly discouraged, even coerced into staying. But some are just told “If you want to leave, just leave.”
Some get the blow drill (blow means unauthorized departure in Scientology) and staff drop everything and in a mad panic try to find, catch, and regain physical control over a person.
It has been described by many people in accounts of escaping Scientology.
But the weird thing is that some people don’t get that. In fact some are just told to sign a couple forms and they leave, get assigned a condition of doubt or something like that and told to pay a freeloader debt and go about their lives. No RPF or lengthy process to get out.
We can see that people who have been discouraged from leaving sometimes could embarrass David Miscavige, like Jenna Miscavige Hill, who was hidden, or his father Ron Miscavige who had to escape and was monitored by private investigators for years.
Debbie Cook was sued by Scientology, then when she began testifying in courtas to the actual conditions under which she was held as a prisoner in the Scientology gulag, the RPF as a prisoner and she said she was guilty (during her Scientology imprisonment on video) for the Scientology interrogation to be released from the RPF in court, Scientology immediately dropped the lawsuit and reportedly paid her a huge sum (estimates are in the six to seven figures range) and had her sign a non disclosure agreement, where just days earlier they were suing her!
Scientology (meaning the executives, Ronald Hubbard, and now in his turn David Miscavige) is willing to do just about anything to hide damaging secrets! That’s well established!
I think if we look at the people hidden or imprisoned and subjected to reeducation in Scientology the pattern becomes clear. When we add the ones that a lot of time, effort, and money are used on and contrast them against the ones who are allowed to just walk away the fact that they have two or three kinds of treatment becomes obvious. The ones who have no information, no connection to the leaders, no knowledge of crimes, no fame or anything that is a threat to Scientology organizations or David Miscavige can be turned loose without a second thought, the ones who know what could be damaging information or were connected to the upper echelon in Scientology or could embarrass or humiliate David Miscavige or know the crimes of Scientology or even bits of information that could be combined to form a threat? Those people have to be controlled by Scientology!
I think Kate Bornstein was such a threat by having knowledge that could expose the inurement committed by Ronald Hubbard and that lots of people who were in Scientology have information, sometimes without even realizing it, that if it were to be combined with other information by good investigators, attorneys, and possibly law enforcement officers or ex officers, could lead to severe consequences for Scientology as an organization and David Miscavige as an individual
I think that’s the reason that David Miscavige has the internet monitored and OSA works endlessly to disrupt critics of Scientology and to cut our communication with each other.
I think David Miscavige KNOWS that lots of us have bits of information that alone, and without knowledge of the law and how law enforcement proceeds, are not effective, especially if we don’t share them or just make an isolated post or comment without context or supporting evidence, but that he has millions of bits of evidence for thousands and thousands of crimes that are out in the world, in the memories of thousands of ex Scientologists, that could if the right combination of pieces ever were put together in the right way, whether by a journalist or a FBI agent or attorney or prosecutor or official in the IRS or someone else, could result in the end of life as he knows it, it could take him to a new condition defined by the revelation of information and the subsequent actions that a government takes.
I don’t think he is worried about losing individual parishioners or Scientology shrinking or the technology not being applied. I think the whole ideal org program is designed to prevent charges of inurement and simultaneously fool people in Scientology into thinking it is expanding. It is meant to con two different groups of people.
I think Kate Bornstein has exposed what David Miscavige fears and is actually all about. I also think that a group of people who want the crimes and abuses of Scientology to be reduced or ended should devote some of their time, attention, and resources to gathering the bits and pieces of evidence available that David Miscavige, Hubbard, and other Scientology executives have worked to keep hidden, and having qualified experts in the appropriate fields, including forensic accounting, law enforcement, fraud, human trafficking and on and on be involved in collecting and evaluating the evidence. I think this effort could pay tremendous dividends.
IF we, collectively, have the proof of DM and Tubby’s inurement and other crimes, He who is dictating to the enterprise calling itself scientology has cause to shit his child-sized pants as we ARE out to get his ass in jail for MANY diverse crimes, it’s up to us to stay in comm with each other and remind him —through the OSA toadies monitoring our assembly places — of how much we know and how much we can attest to in courts of law or whatever it takes. I don’t know nothing that isn’t in the public domain, so I’m no threat in that way, but I definitely support the death watch of the enterprise calling itself scientology while the current “management” drives it into obscurity and its members into bankruptcy.
I think this information has multiple uses with different publics, different types of people as described in Scientology public relations!
It serves to simply explain to non members how Scientology is not a genuine religion and certainly not a bona fide charity! You don’t have to read the policy letters and bulletins and books and listen to thousands of lectures and decipher tens of thousands of new terms! You can be a regular old person who never was in a cult and just see that Scientology is designed to make one person who has total power get the vast, vast, vast majority of financial benefits from this enterprise! Not a charity!
It also helps ex Scientologists to see what the leaders in Ronald Hubbard and David Miscavige have really been up to and what their true priorities are! Namely total power and enriching themselves and screwing over everyone else!
It also helps CURRENT Scientologists very often to start to see the truth!
I am sure that the real financial history of Scientology is a major threat to the viability of Scientology! I know that David Miscavige is not focused on growing Scientology but he must know that if it shrinks to less than a couple thousand members total and he can’t even put skeleton crews in orgs or man the most essential few Sea Org orgs like Flag Service Org and some international management, Scientology may implode as it simply shrinks to a point where every day almost every single remaining Sea Org member is presented with the unpleasant reality that Scientology is almost non-existent!
If enough of these people get the right information it will lead to thousands of people being out of Scientology and thousands of families having a far better chance to reconnect and possibly reconcile!
We also have the public of influential people in the media, celebrities, appointed and elected officials. These people can simply see the fact that this occurred and decide to do something.
A filmmaker, documentarian, director, producer, or perhaps prosecutor, investigator, member of congress or IRS official, or reporter or journalist could look at this, understand it, investigate it, confirm it, and present it to someone who has influence.
They could make a movie, a TV series, or a presentation to an elected body or government agency and it may persuade the general public or a politician looking to be re-elected, either way it would be a major blow to Scientology and David Miscavige personally.
I think inurement is a great potential vulnerable point for David Miscavige that he simply can’t ever get rid of because the evidence is abundant and easy to see and share. He can’t use fancy Scientology terms or confuse people with Scientology claiming to be a genuine religion because the religious beliefs people have don’t matter on this issue. Plenty of people who are Christian in America understand that lots of corrupt preachers are benefiting in an unethical manner, even though they themselves have the same religion!
I think that Scientology has a huge supply of people who hold bits of the evidence, and they often don’t even know the significance of the information, legally!
I think an effort to get these people in communication and to compile this information and sort it by the legal relevance is long overdue!
It would certainly give David Miscavige something to entertain himself! Think about it! Using the universal solvent communication to improve conditions for everyone!
People who are more hip than me could come up with a hashtag or something!
It would be great if people like Mike Rinder, Leah Remini, Jon Atack, Jeffrey Augustine, Tony Ortega and Chris Shelton were involved obviously, but the contributions of everybody and anybody would be welcome!
Sorry Mockingbird, I will be happy to do what I can but all I have direct evidence of is what a great course the Route to Infinity course is.
As Freewinds crew I was required to get into my white uniform and go to Friday Night Graduation where I heard with my own ears a lady tell what a great course it was.
She said, and I quote, that the Route to Infinity Course was “Almost” as good as taking LSD. “. If it is “Almost” as good as LSD it seems that if anyone really wants to go OT; they should just drop some acid. Certainly cheaper than doing the course and a little better, too according to one of their better products. I would think that only their better Graduates would be afforded the Honor to stand on the stage in the Starlight Cabaret and give their heartfelt wins about it.
And I apologize Captain Napier, for reminding you that though you told my wife 19 years ago that my death was imminent; I am still alive.
Sadly, the only CURRENT scns who can/will read these posts are the OSA agents assigned to monitor the scientology-watchers’ sites. They’re the least likely to read and understand the posts as their “church’s” most obvious failings, but only label them as “entheta”: upsetting the applecart with is based wholly upon lies from Day 1: Page 1 of Book 1.
Tens of thousands of people in Scientology do read things outside of Scientology as part of their route out of Scientology!
We have a lot of evidence for this as the Posse of Lunatics story, endless false and broken promises, torture, human trafficking, and abuse and innumerable alterations of Scientology doctrine and practices by David Miscavige, on top of the lies and abuse from Ronald Hubbard himself have prompted the waves and waves of people who look outside of Scientology for answers!
We of course also have the literature on cults to back this up!
Remember the man who infiltrated a doomsday cult to see what happens when the cult fails?
Leon Festinger studied a doomsday cult in his book, When Prophecy Fails and detailed how we tend to seek information that agrees with our own beliefs but can switch to seeking information that disconfirms our beliefs when we have too much contradictory information, particularly about something important to us.
I already wrote a post on the book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger.
Festinger went on to say:
The presence or absence of dissonance in some particular content area will have important effects on the degree of information seeking and on the selectivity of such information seeking. (Page 126)
Relative absence of dissonance. If little or no dissonance exists, there would be no motivation ( considering this source of motivation alone ) to seek out new and additional information. (Page 127)
The presence of moderate amounts of dissonance. The existence of appreciable dissonance and the consequent pressure to reduce it will lead to the seeking out of information which will introduce consonances and to the avoidance of information which will increase the already existing dissonance. (Page 128)
The presence of extremely large amounts of dissonance. Under such circumstances a person may actively seek out, and expose himself to, dissonance-increasing information. If he can increase the dissonance to the point where it is greater than the resistance to change of one or another cluster of cognitions, he will then change the cognitive elements involved, thus markedly reducing or perhaps even wholly eliminating the dissonance which now is so great. (Page 129)
Festinger here gives us crucial information. If the internal conflict over an idea or behavior is entirely absent a person has no reason to gain information. There are some things a person doesn’t care about. A concept may not have any supporting or opposing content in one’s mind. So you just don’t care.
If you have moderate dissonance, meaning a bit of discouraging information but not too much you avoid disagreeing evidence and seek agreeing evidence. So you might avoid TV shows that disagree with your political views, as an example, and watch ones likely to agree.
For millions of Americans an extreme polarization and self censorship is observable. With as an example Fox news millions of people either agree and only watch Fox news for national political information or strongly disagree and never watch Fox news for national political information.
One could say many of these people have moderate dissonance and seek to reduce it by finding agreement from Fox while avoiding disagreement from others. Now one might say “Why is the dissonance continuing if he only seeks agreement ?”, Well he runs into people who don’t follow his beliefs or other evidence. So he can stay in moderate dissonance for decades if he doesn’t change his routine or get new information of significant influence relevant to the dissonant cognition.
Here is the goldilocks zone of any subject, you care and are not unbiased and open to any information. But you are seeking more proof you are already right and avoiding proof you are wrong. The conditions are just right to keep you close minded and biased towards your beliefs and behaviors. And to keep finding evidence you are right while avoiding evidence you are wrong.
The Scientology cult is built to get a person here subtly, covertly and keep them there.
Now when dissonance is near the absolute limit possible a person changes dramatically. They can seek dissonant information to examine. Why ? Because the way they have been thinking and doing things isn’t comfortable and finding small bits of consonant information doesn’t relieve the dissonance.
As a simple way to describe this say you get a job at a company and for a while like the pay, work and work environment. It is highly consonant. You don’t look for evidence against your job. Simple, then say you find out your company pollutes extensively and uses slave labor in other countries and other unethical practices. Say that is highly troubling to you and you feel tremendously conflicted. It generates high dissonance. You are very concerned on a deep personal level.
At that point just seeing the company logo or motto won’t comfort you. A manager just trying to mildly compliment the company won’t work. It will merely frustrate you.
In this situation seeking more evidence against your old behaviors and ideas may actually be sought and feel right. Even though you face admitting having been wrong you can dismiss much or all the dissonance involved by changing your mind. All the dissonant elements can be resorted as consonant and the formerly consonant ones as dissonant. So you can entirely switch sides on an issue. For a job you might quit.
Well for Scientologists this has special meaning. When dissonance escalates to explosive proportions the Scientologist can start seeking neutral or critical information on Scientology. Normally Scientologists never do that.
But eventually hearing the same ideas from Hubbard or getting auditing may not relieve doubts about Scientology. So this is the origin of lurkers – the people who secretly look outside the cult and examine the internet at sites like the Underground Bunker and read books critical of Scientology.
In social psychology the three factors of emotions , behaviors and ideas interact. In theory all three are connected and can influence each other. Hubbard stole all three for his methods and renamed and redefined each. He called emotions affinity, ideas reality and behaviors communication. He recognized that manipulating any one could control the other two. I explored that in ARC and KRC.
Cognitive dissonance theory has the concept that with enough dissonance, which for my example can be seen as equivalent to an emotion, one can affect behavior and subsequently beliefs which are ideas. With no concern for something no behavior regarding it is inspired, with slight concern a little reassurance is sought and accepted and with tremendous unrelenting discomfort, even anxiety , internal conflict and worry a person can be driven to look for disagreeing information to settle the issue. They can become open, even slightly, to accepting the criticism of their formerly held beliefs. In this way emotions that in the past trapped a person can turn and compel them towards freedom. This level is called explosive dissonance.
The lurkers moved outside the goldilocks zone. Some sadly are so overwhelmed and confused they stop and go back into the cult. So the information they run into is important.
Fortunately many keep up looking outside the cult and begin recovery in earnest. I hope this post has offered an explanation that will help people understand why people stay and why they leave. And to help them recover.
Excellent points, MB. Of course the issue of Hubbard’s crimes even before the current form of the tax exemption existed is pretty much moot at this point.
Dave Miscavige is another story altogether. I think I’ve heard he has a “salary” of $100,000 a year, but he lives like a billionaire. Shouldn’t he be declaring all those private jet flights, John Loeb shoes and extravagant hair implants as income? He hasn’t done an international event for over a year, so he can’t even say he does it to look good on camera.
Nobody with more than a hundred personal servants on three continents can really be said to be living on $100,000 a year. Even if they are all “volunteers” working for room, board and allowance it still accrues to him as a benefit. I am not talking about the Sea Org members in general, just those that literally only have the one job of keeping his personal effects and living quarters pristine. Serving his air-lifted lobster and tuning up his air-bearing-ed turntable.
Take all the extravagant money laundering out of it and Scientology collapses very rapidly. A prosecutor, just one, my kingdom for a prosecutor who takes it seriously. Eliot Ness and the Untouchables are needed again!
From a legal perspective the secret agreement with the IRS might include something saying they will not investigate or prosecute past misconduct. But the information has tremendous value at, well, frankly exposing Hubbard as an utter fraud and selfish conman. That has a value unto itself!
On top of that, imagine if a hit documentary or television show made the inurement in Scientology a household word!
Imagine if tens of millions of people who now know little about Scientology came to see Scientology and inurement as one and the same! And they saw inaction by the government and law enforcement as proof they deserve no respect or support! Someone, somewhere who wants to get or keep political power or an appointed position would likely take advantage of this OPPORTUNITY!
Sometimes the government goes after something and rapidly gets results. They have sometimes used their power for good and sometimes for harm and sometimes in downright silly ways.
A motivated Senator or Congress member could make a lot happen. So could a president or high government official.
Someone looking for good press is always in office or trying to get in office.
Going after Scientology should appeal to Republicans who want law and order and Democrats who want the disenfranchised and exploited to get justice and so it can make a politician from either party improve their general reputation! It is custom built for a message that appeals to a very wide range of people in the public!
So, the undeniable and rock solid evidence for the history of inurement by Hubbard is a precursor to the continued tradition of criminal personal benefits from a false fraudulent charity by David Miscavige!
Simply put, the outrageous history of exploitation and abuse by Hubbard with the eye popping jarring juxtaposition of the conditions that Sea Org members endured under the tyranny of Hubbard viewed against the lavish lifestyle Hubbard enjoyed including his hundreds of millions he made, benefited from, and controlled is a slam dunk demonstration that has all the mass anyone would ever need to understand that Scientology is set up to be controlled by and benefit one man!
And then it’s a piece of cake to see that David Miscavige fills this criminal role now!
So, I think that the idea that Scientology is based on inurement and in no fact a charity is a clear winner and Hubbard made it a very easy idea to explain, demonstrate, and prove.
That contribution to exposing Scientology is the real legacy of Hubbard. We should share it!
Inurement is a $cieno sacrament and has always been treated as such. The boss gets the untaxed perks and the hell with everyone else. Not even the top Regs get the big bucks any more.
I totally agree. I wish I had information that would help in this endeavor. Unfortunately, I was only a lowly CS/Auditor on the mission level so was not privy to the financials involved.
I was “Mission Auditor of the Year” once, and had the chance to clock that little bastard in the head with my lion trophy and hurl him off the stage when he went to shake my hand but, like George, I passed on the opportunity.
You and many, many other people have useful information, even if it doesn’t seem that way.
Imagine a documentary or Senate hearing that features staff and Sea Org members describing the actual financial history of Scientology! Even just the “we didn’t get paid for months and I made two hundred dollars a year and worked full-time, forty or more hours on staff or a hundred plus hours a week in the Sea Org” testimony as the person running the proceedings gets parishioners to testify as to their donations!
The government and general public can figure out that Scientology made millions and billions of dollars and paid out diddly squat!
See, the truth is on our side! Having people talk about the charitable efforts of Scientology would just make it worse! Having volunteers to hand out Way To Happiness books and pay for their own transportation and food and lodging is not a good look, nor is having local whales finance the ideal orgs is likewise a bad look.
Joe Sgroi was described by some Sea Org members as donating somewhere in the three to five million dollars range for the ideal org in Buffalo New York and this is consistent with Scientology getting these big empty buildings and the wealth that has been built up by Hubbard and then David Miscavige playing no part in the effort.
If the fact that a few whales give millions to Scientology then give millions more to finance the ideal org scam then it becomes apparent that the billions in Scientology donations that are for services and the IAS are unaccounted for and in no way used for a charitable purpose is exposed.
I could go on, but my point is that Hubbard set the pattern of running a con by having different people in different roles only knowing enough to do their jobs and not aware of what the overall scheme was, so they didn’t realize they were part of a fraud and criminal enterprise.
David Miscavige just kept it up.
It’s like the guy who has a girlfriend in one store he visits as a vendor and another in another, when they get together and see each other at the company softball league and compare notes they realize they are both dating Pete from Pepsi! (true story about a guy I worked with!)
When enough people compare notes the financial irregularity in Scientology is exposed and that’s the real threat that Kate Bornstein brought back from the trip to a foreign bank!
It think that the past as prologue is why the financial history of Scientology is ALWAYS a threat to current Scientology! People just understand it so well when it’s laid out!
If I am wrong David Miscavige can present a special video and expose the inurement of Hubbard and say it has nothing to do with him! He can make me look so silly!
The ball is in his court! Maybe the next time he talks to the Clearwater business community he can present this information! I hope someone brings it up!
We didn’t know then what he really was. It’s a shame we don’t have a TARDIS so we can go back and “kill Hitler”. NOT that *I* could do such a thing. I’m a born-again pacifist a/k/a coward.
Very well thought out post Mockingbird Says and really raises some good questions. Hope it triggers some further investigative journalism and encourages the authorities around the world to review some of the tax exemption rules, (and breeches in human rights) this BUSINESS flaunts.
There’s a turning tide against Scientology and more people are questioning what is really going on. Scientology numbers are dwindling fast so their fair game tactics will not be so effective especially as so many publicly question and challenge the ethics of this scamology business. As the saying goes, give them enough rope and they will hang them selves! The noose is tightening.
True, Mike and Leah are doing such a great job, but it’s the Dwarfenführer® who’s got straight up and vertical stats in his efforts to destroy what’s calling itself scientology, and sucking the lifeblood out of what little is left
I’d buy four of them to wear on each finger if it meant I got to punch Midget McPompadour in his head leaving an imprint of that stupid symbol on his forehead.
So funny! I think you have perfectly expressed the thoughts of many of us.
Furthermore, 14k gold contains not even 60% gold and in general it is for more popular choices. I say this because they could also do them at 18k which gave more value to the whole. Then the price is a steal since you can see that they are not handmade, it is not high jewelery and at most this crap cost them less than 10% of the price they ask for.
If they don’t make considerably more than 90% markup on manufacturing costs, it wouldn’t be deemed sufficiently profitable for the tiny Tyrant, Dwarfenführer®. Most of his recent scams have been 100% “profit”: nothing in exchange except meaningless statuses only significant to others who have been duped by his reptilian “charms” or mafia-like tactics.
TBH, the jewelry scams have been around since the early ’70s, by my recollection.It was awful UGLY even then.
If possible, their finest jewelry pieces would be “gold dusted”, I believe. I expect it’ll be only months before the “plating” wore and flaked off —it it were thick enough to flake. (unlikely, IMO).
I’m sure his wife will love the industrial kitchenware that feeds an OT committee!
Scn is by its nature a continuous source of ARC breaks (breakages on affinity, reality or communication).
In fact, when one leaves the reason is not the overts but rather the accumulated ARC breaks.
When I was in the RPF and decided to leave I was put on the RPF’s RPF. I’ve done almost three (3!) months of leaving sec check. Then I realized that it had lasted so long because in the meantime they were trying in vain to get a SP declare about me approved.
In those months I said all the possible overts of this life and moved on to the previous one (or whatever I thought it was).
In the end, however, I was more convinced than ever to leave. The reason was certainly not the overts I had done. In the back of my mind I had begun to realize that it was just a scam that had never accomplished anything about what it preached, in which I had spent the very best years of my life.
Inurement. Theft. Fraud. Deceit. Perpetrating crimes against humanity.
So many crimes…
What has your church done for you, or for your community, Mr and Mrs Scrooge R. A. Scilon, besides demanding your time, money, and silence? Have you become a tool of an uneducated thug, perpetrating Disconnection at his orders, as he tries to silence critics of the cherch? Do you even know that for years Scientology was not a religion? Do you even know that Scientology once easily obtained religious tax exemption, then lost it for quite some time when Hubbard’s inurement was revealed? Were you, or your parents or grandparents, party to any of the 2500+ frivolous lawsuits that forced the IRS to hand back the cherch’s undeserved tax exemption?
The time is coming for the Ghosts of Disconnection Past, Present, and Future to haunt the dreams of ordinary Scientologists. The Truth will set you free, if only you let it.
RB, you kicked my funny bone in the bone. An ‘air fryer’ for a 3k ring? Giggle….
The “air fryer” was the more valuable item, and it has a USE.
And when the wife wakes up, which i feel she is so close to doing, she can still use the air fryer to make yummy treats when she has WOG friends over for dinners. The ring she would have to take to a pawn shop. The pawned ring would be limited to purchase by someone with the initials ARC.
I have been thinking about the podcast with Kate Bornstein and gathered my thoughts on the subject (always a dangerous thing, I admit) and written my take on the subject of why Kate was treated in such an abominable way after the incident with the foreign banking executive.
I would love to hear the thoughts of Mike Rinder and Leah Remini on this and Kate Bornstein, if possible and anyone else who has an opinion.
Scientology’s Most Obvious and Overlooked Crime – Inurement
I am going to quote an article by Jeramie Fortenberry to explain the legal term inurement.
Non-profit organizations are subject to what is known as the nondistribution constraint. Simply stated, this means that non-profit organizations cannot distribute profits to those who control it. The nondistribution constraint is the fundamental distinction between non-profit organizations from for-profit organizations.
In the Internal Revenue Code, the nondistribution constraint is embodied in the prohibition against inurement. “Inurement” is an arcane term for “benefit.” The inurement prohibition forbids the use of the income or assets of a tax-exempt organization to directly or indirectly unduly benefit an individual or other person that has a close relationship with the organization or is able to exercise significant control over the organization.
The essence of the inurement proscription is found in the language of Code § 501(c)(3), which provides that no part of a 501(c)(3) organization’s net earnings can inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual. Although this would clearly prohibit the distribution of dividends to those in control of the organization, the inurement prohibition is much broader than that in application. Most exempt organizations – including 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(6) organizations – are subject to the inurement prohibition.
The goal of the inurement prohibition is to prevent siphoning off of an exempt organization’s assets by insiders – those in control of the organization. In this context, “control” may be direct (as in the case of formal directors) or indirect (such as control over others who are officers or directors). Any time assets of the organization flow through to benefit the organization’s insiders, whether directly or directly, inurement is an issue.
The inurement restriction is absolute: An organization that violates this prohibition will not qualify (or will cease to qualify) for tax exemption regardless of whether it otherwise meets the appropriate statutory requirements for exemption. Because of the harsh nature of this rule, it has historically been enforced only in the most egregious circumstances.
Because the inurement prohibition was rarely used, Congress enacted a related set of rules that would provide an “intermediate” sanction. The intermediate sanction rules are “intermediate” in the sense that it is not as severe as outright revocation of tax exemption but does penalize the organization. The intermediate sanction regime is discussed in our section on excess benefit transactions.
In cases involving inurement, the IRS may impose the intermediate sanction penalties in lieu of or in addition to the revocation of tax exempt status. The IRS has published standards to determine how it will decide whether to revoke the 501(c)(3) status of an organization that has engaged in a transaction that constitutes both inurement and excess benefit. These standards provide that the IRS will consider all relevant facts and circumstances in making a determination of whether to revoke the tax exempt status of an organization that engages in an excess benefit transaction that constitutes inurement. Factors the IRS will consider include:
The size and scope of the organization’s regular and ongoing activities that further exempt purposes before and after one or more excess benefit transactions occurred;
The size and scope of one or more excess benefit transactions relative to the size and scope of the organization’s regular and ongoing exempt functions;
Whether the organization has been involved in repeated excess benefit transactions,
Whether the organization has implemented safeguards that are reasonably calculated to prevent future violations, and
Whether the excess benefit transaction has been corrected or the organization has made a good faith effort to seek correction from the disqualified person or persons who benefited from the excess benefit transaction.
This system effectively gives the IRS two options to enforce the nondistribution constraint. In blatant violations of the inurement prohibition, the IRS can both revoke tax exemption and impose monetary penalties under the intermediate sanction regimes. In less severe cases, the IRS may seek to correct the situation through intermediate sanctions alone.
Next: Excess Benefit Transactions & Nonprofit Organizations
Jeramie Fortenberry
Jeramie Fortenberry is an attorney with a practice focused on meeting the needs of business founders. End quote
That’s a legal explanation of inurement, the CRIME of a person who controls a charity BENEFITING PERSONALLY from the charity, in the United States.
I recently listened to an episode of the Fair Game podcast with Leah Remini and Mike Rinder. Their guest was Kate Bornstein. Kate was formerly a person under a different name while in Scientology but I am not going to use that name as I am going to avoid deadnaming. If Kate or someone else chooses to use that name that is their choice, but I am simply going to make the note that Kate had a different name earlier and identified as male and now no longer identifies as male or uses that name.
So, the story goes that Kate was sent on a trip by Scientology executives to a foreign bank and a bank executive mistook Kate (who at the time could pass for male, in other words most people would assume Kate was a biological male, meaning born with male sex organs) for Ronald Hubbard and remarked that it was an honor to have Ronald Hubbard in their bank in person.
Kate Bornstein reportedly felt this was odd and after leaving the bank immediately called Scientology executives in the United States and reported that the banker had mistaken Kate (who, again probably looked like a man to the banker) for Hubbard and said it.
The reaction of the Scientology executives was reported as having Kate return to the United States and go to a Sea Org organization and get grilled by numerous executives. Kate was reportedly given the two options of either going to the RPF or being eternally expelled from Scientology. Kate was told that for eternity Scientology would be unavailable, how this could be enforced in future lives in different bodies with different names is beyond my understanding, but that is the punishment offered. Someone really wanted Kate to submit to the RPF. Kate, incidentally did not and left Scientology.
The RPF is essentially a gulag and reeducation program in which one becomes a prisoner doing hard labor, is literally fed scraps, forced to get by on four hours sleep, treated as less than human, subjected to the most overt attempt at brainwashing available in Scientology.
This is the Truth Rundown in which they are subjected to hundreds or thousands of hours of being indoctrinated with the central idea that whenever they have seen Scientology executives, particularly David Miscavige, do anything wrong, they were hallucinating and in fact the “truth” is that they have hidden crimes that cause these hallucinations!
I can’t overstate the extreme control used to brainwash the subject into not believing their own eyes and ears and to readjust their minds to see Scientology and David Miscavige as ALWAYS right and anyone else who disagrees, including themselves and their own memories as WRONG if they hold any criticism of David Miscavige or Scientology or any information that David Miscavige doesn’t want shared!
Now, understanding that the RPF and specifically the Truth Rundown brainwashing program have the purpose of burying and hiding or erasing and replacing information that is harmful or dangerous to Scientology as an organization is in my opinion the key to understanding WHY the fact that Kate Bornstein was mistaken for Ronald Hubbard when interacting with the foreign banking executive was something that inspired such a panic and extreme reaction.
I believe that the foreign banking executive had the evidence that Ronald Hubbard benefited personally from the vast majority of donations to Scientology and that if this was revealed then Scientology would face tremendous legal and public relations consequences.
Most people in Scientology thought that Scientology was benefiting the world and still do today. If they knew the real way the funds were and are allocated most people would stop donating money and leave simply based on this one fact.
And the results would be catastrophic for the survival of the Scientology organization on a national and international level.
Here’s a quote to put the issue in context historically:
“Vicki Aznaran, who was one of Scientology’s six key leaders until she bolted from the church in 1987: “This is a criminal organization, day in and day out. It makes Jim and Tammy [Bakker] look like kindergarten.” To explore Scientology’s reach, TIME conducted more than 150 interviews and reviewed hundreds of court records and internal Scientology documents. Church officials refused to be interviewed. The investigation paints a picture of a depraved yet thriving enterprise. Most cults fail to outlast their founder, but Scientology has prospered since Hubbard’s death in 1986. In a court filing, one of the cult’s many entities — the Church of Spiritual Technology — listed $503 million in income just for 1987. High-level defectors say the parent organization has squirreled away an estimated $400 million in bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Cyprus.” End quote.
From Time Magazine, The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power by Richard Behar 1991
Additionally we have a quote from the historian and top expert on Scientology author Jon Atack. This is from an article entitled What Motivated L. Ron Hubbard? Historian Jon Atack Follows the Clues published at The Underground Bunker blog on August 26, 2013 by Tony Ortega.
“When Hubbard dropped his body, almost fifty years later, he had failed to spend $648 million of the monies he’d extracted from the Dev-OTs. A paltry million went to the wife who had endured prison to protect him, far less to his surviving children. But half a billion dollars went to the Church of Spiritual Technology, which lists as its corporate purpose, “To perpetuate the name L. Ron Hubbard.” Not the “technology,” just the name, please note.” Jon Atack
Jon Atack pointed out that Hubbard had amassed a fortune of six hundred and forty eight million dollars back in 1986 and his Sea Org slaves often worked a hundred hours a week or more, maybe once or twice a year had a day off, were frequently not paid or paid pennies an hour, literally making perhaps thirty dollars a week on the weeks in which they were paid, often packed into filthy, cramped communal living in bunk beds jammed into crowded rooms and often fed rice and beans and given the cheapest possible living conditions including a lack of toilet paper and being encouraged to take quick showers to save money on water.
Hubbard also had a very extensive camera collection and lived a lifestyle quite different from the Sea Org members and the staff of his local organizations. David Miscavige reportedly lives a lavish lifestyle as well. His meals, clothes, living conditions and on and on are in an entirely different stratosphere from those of the vast majority of Sea Org members.
So, my ultimate point is that in my opinion, the reason that the Scientology executives panicked and wanted the fact that Kate Bornstein spoke with the foreign bank executive, however slightly and briefly, was because Kate could potentially have been a link in a chain of EVIDENCE. Evidence that is damning for Scientology regarding the inurement that Ronald Hubbard and now his successor David Miscavige engage in.
I have been around Scientology a long time, having been a Scientologist myself for twenty five years and left the group in 2014 and studied and written about the group since then.
I have seen that the Scientology organization has an odd habit of hiding and burying and subjecting people to the RPF and Truth Rundown brainwashing program. By odd I mean that ONLY SOME PEOPLE are treated this way.
I have been in orgs including Sea Org orgs in Los Angeles and New York City and seen for myself that when some people try to leave Scientology or the Sea Org they are chased after, monitored, pursued and strongly discouraged, even coerced into staying. But some are just told “If you want to leave, just leave.”
Some get the blow drill (blow means unauthorized departure in Scientology) and staff drop everything and in a mad panic try to find, catch, and regain physical control over a person.
It has been described by many people in accounts of escaping Scientology.
But the weird thing is that some people don’t get that. In fact some are just told to sign a couple forms and they leave, get assigned a condition of doubt or something like that and told to pay a freeloader debt and go about their lives. No RPF or lengthy process to get out.
We can see that people who have been discouraged from leaving sometimes could embarrass David Miscavige, like Jenna Miscavige Hill, who was hidden, or his father Ron Miscavige who had to escape and was monitored by private investigators for years.
Debbie Cook was sued by Scientology, then when she began testifying in courtas to the actual conditions under which she was held as a prisoner in the Scientology gulag, the RPF as a prisoner and she said she was guilty (during her Scientology imprisonment on video) for the Scientology interrogation to be released from the RPF in court, Scientology immediately dropped the lawsuit and reportedly paid her a huge sum (estimates are in the six to seven figures range) and had her sign a non disclosure agreement, where just days earlier they were suing her!
Scientology (meaning the executives, Ronald Hubbard, and now in his turn David Miscavige) is willing to do just about anything to hide damaging secrets! That’s well established!
I think if we look at the people hidden or imprisoned and subjected to reeducation in Scientology the pattern becomes clear. When we add the ones that a lot of time, effort, and money are used on and contrast them against the ones who are allowed to just walk away the fact that they have two or three kinds of treatment becomes obvious. The ones who have no information, no connection to the leaders, no knowledge of crimes, no fame or anything that is a threat to Scientology organizations or David Miscavige can be turned loose without a second thought, the ones who know what could be damaging information or were connected to the upper echelon in Scientology or could embarrass or humiliate David Miscavige or know the crimes of Scientology or even bits of information that could be combined to form a threat? Those people have to be controlled by Scientology!
I think Kate Bornstein was such a threat by having knowledge that could expose the inurement committed by Ronald Hubbard and that lots of people who were in Scientology have information, sometimes without even realizing it, that if it were to be combined with other information by good investigators, attorneys, and possibly law enforcement officers or ex officers, could lead to severe consequences for Scientology as an organization and David Miscavige as an individual
I think that’s the reason that David Miscavige has the internet monitored and OSA works endlessly to disrupt critics of Scientology and to cut our communication with each other.
I think David Miscavige KNOWS that lots of us have bits of information that alone, and without knowledge of the law and how law enforcement proceeds, are not effective, especially if we don’t share them or just make an isolated post or comment without context or supporting evidence, but that he has millions of bits of evidence for thousands and thousands of crimes that are out in the world, in the memories of thousands of ex Scientologists, that could if the right combination of pieces ever were put together in the right way, whether by a journalist or a FBI agent or attorney or prosecutor or official in the IRS or someone else, could result in the end of life as he knows it, it could take him to a new condition defined by the revelation of information and the subsequent actions that a government takes.
I don’t think he is worried about losing individual parishioners or Scientology shrinking or the technology not being applied. I think the whole ideal org program is designed to prevent charges of inurement and simultaneously fool people in Scientology into thinking it is expanding. It is meant to con two different groups of people.
I think Kate Bornstein has exposed what David Miscavige fears and is actually all about. I also think that a group of people who want the crimes and abuses of Scientology to be reduced or ended should devote some of their time, attention, and resources to gathering the bits and pieces of evidence available that David Miscavige, Hubbard, and other Scientology executives have worked to keep hidden, and having qualified experts in the appropriate fields, including forensic accounting, law enforcement, fraud, human trafficking and on and on be involved in collecting and evaluating the evidence. I think this effort could pay tremendous dividends.
What do you think?
IF we, collectively, have the proof of DM and Tubby’s inurement and other crimes, He who is dictating to the enterprise calling itself scientology has cause to shit his child-sized pants as we ARE out to get his ass in jail for MANY diverse crimes, it’s up to us to stay in comm with each other and remind him —through the OSA toadies monitoring our assembly places — of how much we know and how much we can attest to in courts of law or whatever it takes. I don’t know nothing that isn’t in the public domain, so I’m no threat in that way, but I definitely support the death watch of the enterprise calling itself scientology while the current “management” drives it into obscurity and its members into bankruptcy.
Thanks for your answer.
I think this information has multiple uses with different publics, different types of people as described in Scientology public relations!
It serves to simply explain to non members how Scientology is not a genuine religion and certainly not a bona fide charity! You don’t have to read the policy letters and bulletins and books and listen to thousands of lectures and decipher tens of thousands of new terms! You can be a regular old person who never was in a cult and just see that Scientology is designed to make one person who has total power get the vast, vast, vast majority of financial benefits from this enterprise! Not a charity!
It also helps ex Scientologists to see what the leaders in Ronald Hubbard and David Miscavige have really been up to and what their true priorities are! Namely total power and enriching themselves and screwing over everyone else!
It also helps CURRENT Scientologists very often to start to see the truth!
I am sure that the real financial history of Scientology is a major threat to the viability of Scientology! I know that David Miscavige is not focused on growing Scientology but he must know that if it shrinks to less than a couple thousand members total and he can’t even put skeleton crews in orgs or man the most essential few Sea Org orgs like Flag Service Org and some international management, Scientology may implode as it simply shrinks to a point where every day almost every single remaining Sea Org member is presented with the unpleasant reality that Scientology is almost non-existent!
If enough of these people get the right information it will lead to thousands of people being out of Scientology and thousands of families having a far better chance to reconnect and possibly reconcile!
We also have the public of influential people in the media, celebrities, appointed and elected officials. These people can simply see the fact that this occurred and decide to do something.
A filmmaker, documentarian, director, producer, or perhaps prosecutor, investigator, member of congress or IRS official, or reporter or journalist could look at this, understand it, investigate it, confirm it, and present it to someone who has influence.
They could make a movie, a TV series, or a presentation to an elected body or government agency and it may persuade the general public or a politician looking to be re-elected, either way it would be a major blow to Scientology and David Miscavige personally.
I think inurement is a great potential vulnerable point for David Miscavige that he simply can’t ever get rid of because the evidence is abundant and easy to see and share. He can’t use fancy Scientology terms or confuse people with Scientology claiming to be a genuine religion because the religious beliefs people have don’t matter on this issue. Plenty of people who are Christian in America understand that lots of corrupt preachers are benefiting in an unethical manner, even though they themselves have the same religion!
I think that Scientology has a huge supply of people who hold bits of the evidence, and they often don’t even know the significance of the information, legally!
I think an effort to get these people in communication and to compile this information and sort it by the legal relevance is long overdue!
It would certainly give David Miscavige something to entertain himself! Think about it! Using the universal solvent communication to improve conditions for everyone!
People who are more hip than me could come up with a hashtag or something!
It would be great if people like Mike Rinder, Leah Remini, Jon Atack, Jeffrey Augustine, Tony Ortega and Chris Shelton were involved obviously, but the contributions of everybody and anybody would be welcome!
Sorry Mockingbird, I will be happy to do what I can but all I have direct evidence of is what a great course the Route to Infinity course is.
As Freewinds crew I was required to get into my white uniform and go to Friday Night Graduation where I heard with my own ears a lady tell what a great course it was.
She said, and I quote, that the Route to Infinity Course was “Almost” as good as taking LSD. “. If it is “Almost” as good as LSD it seems that if anyone really wants to go OT; they should just drop some acid. Certainly cheaper than doing the course and a little better, too according to one of their better products. I would think that only their better Graduates would be afforded the Honor to stand on the stage in the Starlight Cabaret and give their heartfelt wins about it.
And I apologize Captain Napier, for reminding you that though you told my wife 19 years ago that my death was imminent; I am still alive.
Sadly, the only CURRENT scns who can/will read these posts are the OSA agents assigned to monitor the scientology-watchers’ sites. They’re the least likely to read and understand the posts as their “church’s” most obvious failings, but only label them as “entheta”: upsetting the applecart with is based wholly upon lies from Day 1: Page 1 of Book 1.
Ah, but we have the past as prologue.
Tens of thousands of people in Scientology do read things outside of Scientology as part of their route out of Scientology!
We have a lot of evidence for this as the Posse of Lunatics story, endless false and broken promises, torture, human trafficking, and abuse and innumerable alterations of Scientology doctrine and practices by David Miscavige, on top of the lies and abuse from Ronald Hubbard himself have prompted the waves and waves of people who look outside of Scientology for answers!
We of course also have the literature on cults to back this up!
Remember the man who infiltrated a doomsday cult to see what happens when the cult fails?
Leon Festinger studied a doomsday cult in his book, When Prophecy Fails and detailed how we tend to seek information that agrees with our own beliefs but can switch to seeking information that disconfirms our beliefs when we have too much contradictory information, particularly about something important to us.
I already wrote a post on the book A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance by Leon Festinger.
Festinger went on to say:
The presence or absence of dissonance in some particular content area will have important effects on the degree of information seeking and on the selectivity of such information seeking. (Page 126)
Relative absence of dissonance. If little or no dissonance exists, there would be no motivation ( considering this source of motivation alone ) to seek out new and additional information. (Page 127)
The presence of moderate amounts of dissonance. The existence of appreciable dissonance and the consequent pressure to reduce it will lead to the seeking out of information which will introduce consonances and to the avoidance of information which will increase the already existing dissonance. (Page 128)
The presence of extremely large amounts of dissonance. Under such circumstances a person may actively seek out, and expose himself to, dissonance-increasing information. If he can increase the dissonance to the point where it is greater than the resistance to change of one or another cluster of cognitions, he will then change the cognitive elements involved, thus markedly reducing or perhaps even wholly eliminating the dissonance which now is so great. (Page 129)
Festinger here gives us crucial information. If the internal conflict over an idea or behavior is entirely absent a person has no reason to gain information. There are some things a person doesn’t care about. A concept may not have any supporting or opposing content in one’s mind. So you just don’t care.
If you have moderate dissonance, meaning a bit of discouraging information but not too much you avoid disagreeing evidence and seek agreeing evidence. So you might avoid TV shows that disagree with your political views, as an example, and watch ones likely to agree.
For millions of Americans an extreme polarization and self censorship is observable. With as an example Fox news millions of people either agree and only watch Fox news for national political information or strongly disagree and never watch Fox news for national political information.
One could say many of these people have moderate dissonance and seek to reduce it by finding agreement from Fox while avoiding disagreement from others. Now one might say “Why is the dissonance continuing if he only seeks agreement ?”, Well he runs into people who don’t follow his beliefs or other evidence. So he can stay in moderate dissonance for decades if he doesn’t change his routine or get new information of significant influence relevant to the dissonant cognition.
Here is the goldilocks zone of any subject, you care and are not unbiased and open to any information. But you are seeking more proof you are already right and avoiding proof you are wrong. The conditions are just right to keep you close minded and biased towards your beliefs and behaviors. And to keep finding evidence you are right while avoiding evidence you are wrong.
The Scientology cult is built to get a person here subtly, covertly and keep them there.
Now when dissonance is near the absolute limit possible a person changes dramatically. They can seek dissonant information to examine. Why ? Because the way they have been thinking and doing things isn’t comfortable and finding small bits of consonant information doesn’t relieve the dissonance.
As a simple way to describe this say you get a job at a company and for a while like the pay, work and work environment. It is highly consonant. You don’t look for evidence against your job. Simple, then say you find out your company pollutes extensively and uses slave labor in other countries and other unethical practices. Say that is highly troubling to you and you feel tremendously conflicted. It generates high dissonance. You are very concerned on a deep personal level.
At that point just seeing the company logo or motto won’t comfort you. A manager just trying to mildly compliment the company won’t work. It will merely frustrate you.
In this situation seeking more evidence against your old behaviors and ideas may actually be sought and feel right. Even though you face admitting having been wrong you can dismiss much or all the dissonance involved by changing your mind. All the dissonant elements can be resorted as consonant and the formerly consonant ones as dissonant. So you can entirely switch sides on an issue. For a job you might quit.
Well for Scientologists this has special meaning. When dissonance escalates to explosive proportions the Scientologist can start seeking neutral or critical information on Scientology. Normally Scientologists never do that.
But eventually hearing the same ideas from Hubbard or getting auditing may not relieve doubts about Scientology. So this is the origin of lurkers – the people who secretly look outside the cult and examine the internet at sites like the Underground Bunker and read books critical of Scientology.
In social psychology the three factors of emotions , behaviors and ideas interact. In theory all three are connected and can influence each other. Hubbard stole all three for his methods and renamed and redefined each. He called emotions affinity, ideas reality and behaviors communication. He recognized that manipulating any one could control the other two. I explored that in ARC and KRC.
Cognitive dissonance theory has the concept that with enough dissonance, which for my example can be seen as equivalent to an emotion, one can affect behavior and subsequently beliefs which are ideas. With no concern for something no behavior regarding it is inspired, with slight concern a little reassurance is sought and accepted and with tremendous unrelenting discomfort, even anxiety , internal conflict and worry a person can be driven to look for disagreeing information to settle the issue. They can become open, even slightly, to accepting the criticism of their formerly held beliefs. In this way emotions that in the past trapped a person can turn and compel them towards freedom. This level is called explosive dissonance.
The lurkers moved outside the goldilocks zone. Some sadly are so overwhelmed and confused they stop and go back into the cult. So the information they run into is important.
Fortunately many keep up looking outside the cult and begin recovery in earnest. I hope this post has offered an explanation that will help people understand why people stay and why they leave. And to help them recover.
From
http://mbnest.blogspot.com/2017/09/scientology-and-cognitive-dissonance.html?m=1
Excellent points, MB. Of course the issue of Hubbard’s crimes even before the current form of the tax exemption existed is pretty much moot at this point.
Dave Miscavige is another story altogether. I think I’ve heard he has a “salary” of $100,000 a year, but he lives like a billionaire. Shouldn’t he be declaring all those private jet flights, John Loeb shoes and extravagant hair implants as income? He hasn’t done an international event for over a year, so he can’t even say he does it to look good on camera.
Nobody with more than a hundred personal servants on three continents can really be said to be living on $100,000 a year. Even if they are all “volunteers” working for room, board and allowance it still accrues to him as a benefit. I am not talking about the Sea Org members in general, just those that literally only have the one job of keeping his personal effects and living quarters pristine. Serving his air-lifted lobster and tuning up his air-bearing-ed turntable.
Take all the extravagant money laundering out of it and Scientology collapses very rapidly. A prosecutor, just one, my kingdom for a prosecutor who takes it seriously. Eliot Ness and the Untouchables are needed again!
You raise good points.
From a legal perspective the secret agreement with the IRS might include something saying they will not investigate or prosecute past misconduct. But the information has tremendous value at, well, frankly exposing Hubbard as an utter fraud and selfish conman. That has a value unto itself!
On top of that, imagine if a hit documentary or television show made the inurement in Scientology a household word!
Imagine if tens of millions of people who now know little about Scientology came to see Scientology and inurement as one and the same! And they saw inaction by the government and law enforcement as proof they deserve no respect or support! Someone, somewhere who wants to get or keep political power or an appointed position would likely take advantage of this OPPORTUNITY!
Sometimes the government goes after something and rapidly gets results. They have sometimes used their power for good and sometimes for harm and sometimes in downright silly ways.
A motivated Senator or Congress member could make a lot happen. So could a president or high government official.
Someone looking for good press is always in office or trying to get in office.
Going after Scientology should appeal to Republicans who want law and order and Democrats who want the disenfranchised and exploited to get justice and so it can make a politician from either party improve their general reputation! It is custom built for a message that appeals to a very wide range of people in the public!
So, the undeniable and rock solid evidence for the history of inurement by Hubbard is a precursor to the continued tradition of criminal personal benefits from a false fraudulent charity by David Miscavige!
Simply put, the outrageous history of exploitation and abuse by Hubbard with the eye popping jarring juxtaposition of the conditions that Sea Org members endured under the tyranny of Hubbard viewed against the lavish lifestyle Hubbard enjoyed including his hundreds of millions he made, benefited from, and controlled is a slam dunk demonstration that has all the mass anyone would ever need to understand that Scientology is set up to be controlled by and benefit one man!
And then it’s a piece of cake to see that David Miscavige fills this criminal role now!
So, I think that the idea that Scientology is based on inurement and in no fact a charity is a clear winner and Hubbard made it a very easy idea to explain, demonstrate, and prove.
That contribution to exposing Scientology is the real legacy of Hubbard. We should share it!
Inurement is a $cieno sacrament and has always been treated as such. The boss gets the untaxed perks and the hell with everyone else. Not even the top Regs get the big bucks any more.
I totally agree. I wish I had information that would help in this endeavor. Unfortunately, I was only a lowly CS/Auditor on the mission level so was not privy to the financials involved.
I was “Mission Auditor of the Year” once, and had the chance to clock that little bastard in the head with my lion trophy and hurl him off the stage when he went to shake my hand but, like George, I passed on the opportunity.
“Regrets….I have a few……”
You and many, many other people have useful information, even if it doesn’t seem that way.
Imagine a documentary or Senate hearing that features staff and Sea Org members describing the actual financial history of Scientology! Even just the “we didn’t get paid for months and I made two hundred dollars a year and worked full-time, forty or more hours on staff or a hundred plus hours a week in the Sea Org” testimony as the person running the proceedings gets parishioners to testify as to their donations!
The government and general public can figure out that Scientology made millions and billions of dollars and paid out diddly squat!
See, the truth is on our side! Having people talk about the charitable efforts of Scientology would just make it worse! Having volunteers to hand out Way To Happiness books and pay for their own transportation and food and lodging is not a good look, nor is having local whales finance the ideal orgs is likewise a bad look.
Joe Sgroi was described by some Sea Org members as donating somewhere in the three to five million dollars range for the ideal org in Buffalo New York and this is consistent with Scientology getting these big empty buildings and the wealth that has been built up by Hubbard and then David Miscavige playing no part in the effort.
If the fact that a few whales give millions to Scientology then give millions more to finance the ideal org scam then it becomes apparent that the billions in Scientology donations that are for services and the IAS are unaccounted for and in no way used for a charitable purpose is exposed.
I could go on, but my point is that Hubbard set the pattern of running a con by having different people in different roles only knowing enough to do their jobs and not aware of what the overall scheme was, so they didn’t realize they were part of a fraud and criminal enterprise.
David Miscavige just kept it up.
It’s like the guy who has a girlfriend in one store he visits as a vendor and another in another, when they get together and see each other at the company softball league and compare notes they realize they are both dating Pete from Pepsi! (true story about a guy I worked with!)
When enough people compare notes the financial irregularity in Scientology is exposed and that’s the real threat that Kate Bornstein brought back from the trip to a foreign bank!
It think that the past as prologue is why the financial history of Scientology is ALWAYS a threat to current Scientology! People just understand it so well when it’s laid out!
If I am wrong David Miscavige can present a special video and expose the inurement of Hubbard and say it has nothing to do with him! He can make me look so silly!
The ball is in his court! Maybe the next time he talks to the Clearwater business community he can present this information! I hope someone brings it up!
We didn’t know then what he really was. It’s a shame we don’t have a TARDIS so we can go back and “kill Hitler”. NOT that *I* could do such a thing. I’m a born-again pacifist a/k/a coward.
Very well thought out post Mockingbird Says and really raises some good questions. Hope it triggers some further investigative journalism and encourages the authorities around the world to review some of the tax exemption rules, (and breeches in human rights) this BUSINESS flaunts.
There’s a turning tide against Scientology and more people are questioning what is really going on. Scientology numbers are dwindling fast so their fair game tactics will not be so effective especially as so many publicly question and challenge the ethics of this scamology business. As the saying goes, give them enough rope and they will hang them selves! The noose is tightening.
Keep up the great work Mike and Leah.
True, Mike and Leah are doing such a great job, but it’s the Dwarfenführer® who’s got straight up and vertical stats in his efforts to destroy what’s calling itself scientology, and sucking the lifeblood out of what little is left
You have to be kidding me. *face plant*
You beat me to it.
This. Is. Awesome.
I’d buy four of them to wear on each finger if it meant I got to punch Midget McPompadour in his head leaving an imprint of that stupid symbol on his forehead.
So funny! I think you have perfectly expressed the thoughts of many of us.
Furthermore, 14k gold contains not even 60% gold and in general it is for more popular choices. I say this because they could also do them at 18k which gave more value to the whole. Then the price is a steal since you can see that they are not handmade, it is not high jewelery and at most this crap cost them less than 10% of the price they ask for.
If they don’t make considerably more than 90% markup on manufacturing costs, it wouldn’t be deemed sufficiently profitable for the tiny Tyrant, Dwarfenführer®. Most of his recent scams have been 100% “profit”: nothing in exchange except meaningless statuses only significant to others who have been duped by his reptilian “charms” or mafia-like tactics.
TBH, the jewelry scams have been around since the early ’70s, by my recollection.It was awful UGLY even then.
Jere right. I meant they make more than a 900% markup on that superfine “jewelery”.
I’m not even sure these pieces of “jewelry” are even 14k gold. Seems like they are actually “gold plated.”
Laughing. Maybe it’s really as you say. Or at most 8k (30% gold and the rest alloys).
Being a true 8k would be in keeping with the scientology ethic.🤬
If possible, their finest jewelry pieces would be “gold dusted”, I believe. I expect it’ll be only months before the “plating” wore and flaked off —it it were thick enough to flake. (unlikely, IMO).