Yes!

In a word: Shitty.

Interesting. Flag’s Potemkin Village thriving, chock full of public ripped off from skeleton – staffed Class V orgs so empty that whatever voices can be heard echo in the hallways. Yes, that sounds one of Miscavige’s supreme Command Intentions, alright!

Good point. I had heard the story that Flag in desperation had been stealing public from the lower orgs because David Miscavige wanted the wealthy and famous people who do Flag to believe that Scientology is booming, even if their local org is not doing well.

I think that a great project for a Scientology historian or investigative journalist would be to get the facts on the history of Dianetics and Scientology particularly regarding the expansion and eventual shrinkage of membership.

I don’t know how many of the die hard members are going to leave if they see this. I know that some under the radar types know this but sharing the facts with strong documentation can convince some people to finally take a good hard look at Scientology and some will leave.

Yes! L. Ron Blowhard: a shitty writer; a shitty poet; too shitty at music to even be labeled a “bad musician”; a shitty commode door(😉); a shitty lecturer; a shitty administrator…and a consistently evil, shitty human being.
He gets full marks for consistency, I’ll acknowledge that…

Very good points.

You highlight what is a vital key to understanding cults and abusive groups in my opinion. The parallel paths of other groups are essential for this endeavor.

I have looked at other groups and human predators, criminals and so on to see the underlying and reoccurring aspects of the psychology of individuals and how relationships are the n different circumstances.

We can learn a lot by examining the various things that these groups do and that individuals go through in every role in these relationships from cult leader to inner circle members to family members to devoted fanatics to the people who barely interact with the group and usually do not have a true cultic relationship with the leader or group and may just purchase a basic book or course.

Christian Science in their long history of decline and their other similarities to Scientology may be showing us a glimpse of a possible, even potentially likely, future for Scientology.

Sure, it would be interesting. On one side, someone who has defeated his ego and on the other, someone who has instead exalted it.

What would it be like if Siddhartha Gautama himself were to meet LRH? Talk about a clash of personalities! Yet what we have is Buddha in an enlightened afterlife and LRH somewhere on Target Two.

As to Scientology becoming like Christian Science, bear in mind that the Mother Church of Christ, Scientist has sold off many of its prominent buildings in major cities like New York. They are also combining church buildings with reading rooms, closing the stand alone rooms that often were a person’s introduction to Christian Science. When we see Miscavige closing down his Ideal Orgs is when we begin to really see the demise of Scientology.

Thank you and I agree with you.
hubbard was as enlightened as a weak led dot, as long as there was some electricity feeding it.
He stayed well away from meditation or anything else that could be buddhist. In fact he always criticized it.
Also the concept of ‘past lives’ is perhaps broader than what he simply wanted to represent for his purposes and does not capture or convey the sense, but actually It builds a trap in the person’s mind.
In my humble opinion the best explanation of what meditation really is (and all that comes with it) was described by Jiddu Krishnamurti.

All VERY well away from the ‘acrobatic spirituality’ of scn.