Living Bridge?
Just figured it out: In order to expand or overcome an obstacle like air or water, some critters like ants connect with each other and form a bridge like a platoon bridge on which the other critters can safely cross over to the other side. The fate of the lower layer of critters isn’t necessarily a good one…….
That would fit with the percentages of people who die prematurely on this ‘bridge’, toll to pay for the others to get over.
Calling it a “Deathly Bridge” might be more appropriate…..
Greta
The stuff getting spewed from active Scientologists (Staff and Public alike) is truly from the Twilight Zone and defies rational thought. I got an email today from David Wilson at Valley Org that has a terrible drawing of Alexander the Great and then proceeds to explain that Alexander the Great’s success was the result of “Command Intention” and then we make the leap to how because 10 years ago C.O.B. laid out the Ideal Org Strategy. Apparently the reader of the email is then suppose to connect the dots that D.M. is just like Alexander the Great and instead of conquering mest he’s conquering Theta Goals with command intention. The absurdness of this is completely lost on those who live in this fantasy reality where D.M.is this visionary leader instead of a psychopathic puke.
Off Topic: From ABC News “Several more current and former National Security Agency insiders, inspired by American fugitive Edward Snowden, have come forward as whistleblowers with details of the shadowy agency’s operations, according to an attorney at a whistleblower protection organization.”
Just a message to davey boy…this headline mirrors what’s happening to YOU. More whistleblowers on the way.
Hey, come on guys. EVERYBODY KNOWS and has heard of the “Living Bridge”.
It is explained right there in the first characteristic of an antisocial personality as described by Ron:
“He or she speaks only in very broad generalities. “They say…” “Everybody thinks” “Everone knows…” and such expressions are in continual use, particularly when imparting rumor.”….
NOW does it make sense? 🙂
Precisely.
The Constitution is a document that was written down in words. When someone refers to the US Constitution as being a “living Constitution” they usually do so to justify “interpreting” it without regard to the actual definitions of those words at the time it was written. This opens the door to all manner opinions and decisions based upon opinions and prejudice that are out of agreement with what the document actually says. Getting people to believe that it is a “living document” in this sense is used to justify bypassing the rigorous process which exists in the Constitution for amending it.
Scientology Tech also consists of “documents” written down or spoken in words. We may believe and/or apply this Tech if it is true for us as individuals. However, Scientologists have agreed that only LRH may amend or change the actual “documents” if they are to be called Scientology.
Perhaps “Living Bridge” concept is the first step in brainwashing Scientologists into accepting more overt alterations by David Mi$cavige to go along with the covert alterations which he has already made.
Will we someday see “MCOBs” and “MCOPLs” replacing HCOBs and HCOPLs? I know this sounds far fetched, but I also think that he would do this “yesterday” if he thought that he could get away with it.
“IT’S ALIVE!!!!!!!” (Screams Dr. Frankenstein in the 1930’s movie) Yes folks…it’s a living org board all right….and to live, it needs. …………MONEY!!!!!! (you weren’t expecting anything else, were you?) DONATE! The org board and bridge need repairs asap.
I guess the irony for me is they don’t even make reference to moving up the bridge. Its just a plain and simply rude MAKE YOUR DONATION. Heres mine. I donated a large cow turd on your doorsteps. Smell the bullshit?
I’ve been a Scientologist for 40 years, and have never once heard that term. Sounds like someone’s attempting to insert the term into the consciousness of the faithful so that they’ll begin to accept the idea of a changing Bridge. That’s a concept which is completely verboten in Scientology.
Sorta like that subversive ,undermining and I might add treasonous “living Constitution” rhetoric. Something that could only be conceived by some commie mole.
(Oh that’s right communism doesn’t exist ’cause ya know the Berlin Wall came down.
Sure, sure.
Tell that to the Chinese Politburo.
Anyhoo..)
Hey Ronnie remember when Ron rhetorically asked “where are all the clears?” in the original Dianetic Clear RED?
Same sorta thing but instead the question could be “where are all the moles?”
Syntax in the second line was too contorted, didn’t really get it. Don’t care about the International and American spelling. One is type, the other is an embedded image, and of course they don’t have a localised version. The world revolves around America. Anyway, people make these kind of mistakes all the time. What are consistency errors when the content is just gibberish? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
ok, i am off topic tonight but i just have to say that i am very disappointed with halloween. it seems that all of the creeps in this world have killed the holiday that i so enjoy. the real treat to me is seeing the various kids costumes and their faces as they get to dig into the bowl of candy that i have, and it is freakin’ HUGE 🙂 but nowadays, i barely get more than a dozen people for trick or treating, and that includes about 4 to 5 teenagers. parents now take their kids to rec centers and even around their work offices for trick or treating to keep their kids safe. and i absolutely cannot blame them. people really do suck. but this has killed one of my favorite holidays. i feel like kicking a pedophile square in the nuts right now…
Sorry to hear that your Halloween was a bummer. In my neck of the woods it was just like it’s always been. Tons of kids up and down the streets, wearing costumes, and all of them having a grand old time. My four kids came home with a ton of goodies, and there were no weird incidents of any kind. And my neighborhood is nothing to write home about. Guess it all depends on where you live.
Yep, and we were really scarce of kids here too. I’m sorry one of your favorite holiday has been messed with. And…I can’t belieeeeeve you took this acronym! It’s absolutely charming. LOL….
WTF?? “If you ever heard the phrase ‘A Living Bridge’…” No, can’t say I have. And I think it’s funny you act as though everyone has. But, since this is coming from the Int Landlord Office, I’m not too surprised that they would come up this squirrely shit.
Some time ago they sent out a similar promo piece, which stated “The goal is no longer about clearing the individual, but clearing whole cities by exporting our social betterment programs through Ideal Orgs” (paraphrased).
The Int Landlord Office stands out as a real subverting force within the corporate umbrella. These guys run the Ideal Org madness and push the out-exchange fundraising on org staff and public. Their stock and trade is MEST, and if it means redefining the purpose of orgs, or twisting LRHs words and ideas…well, so be it.
+1 and WTF does “exporting our social betterment programs” even mean. The unique thing about Scn was that people could have personal, spiritual gains with some prediction. Social betterment is some other business not to mention the fact, that it’s an out right lie.
Last comment before Party.
David Miscavige is a very, very sick person. A psychopath not easily
diagnosed. But he is enormously jealous of successful people who are upstat,
(that drives him crazy).Consequently he surrounds himself with the trappings of wealth, he dramatizes wealth. The Miscavige Bridge is rigged and perverted to murder in order to
satisfy David Miscaviges sick mind..
The idea of entering an org at Div 1, etc comes from the LRH lecture “Org Board and Livingness.” The transcript of this lecture was often bootlegged to LOC students at CCI in the mid 90s. Per the lecture, after the Public Divisions the flow continues in circular fashion back to Div 1. The concept of a “living org” has been being pushed by Int Landlord in their design of Ideal Orgs at least since the early 2000s. They even wanted to do this with Narconon Arrowhead but it was SO inappropriate they backed off.
Yes–the org board moves with the awareness levels, not the grades or the training levels. Since the awareness levels are also written in there on the grade chart, I guess that they think that means that the org board follows (or whatever…) the grade chart. Another misduplication. You can have the awareness levels without the grade chart, and they have been published separately.
Off topic but I just read the comments on the Tampa Bay Times KSW banner article wherein someone states that per Tony O the Gat II event will occur starting next Friday the 8th. Now, I don’t think Tony stated this definitivelyt but perhaps I’ve missed something? Is it possible that this could be correct? If so, I would think they would have to give at least a week’s notice, right? Which would mean tomorrow for the announcement.
In the old days I would have thought that there was an ascending spiral going through different levels of awareness and the path of the individual through the bridge, would match the divisions and departments of the organisation. Now the way to do this, would be to both become a competent auditor and to receive auditing, which would improve your understanding of life and would make you go up on the tone scale. A document like the one above would end with “call today to start your training” not “call today to make a donation”. Making a donation is the best way to take people off the bridge and to make sure they’ll get neither training nor auditing. When Scientology was expanding, it was available at a reasonable price. All sorts of people would start their training and co-audit up to SHSBC and clear. In the days of the ultra secret “Sea Project” the main criteria to go into this adventure was having done clear and the SHSBC. In those days auditors were considered to be the most valuable beings. Unfortunately an untrained high-school drop-out with no experience in life, no know how, no trace of kindness, took the rains and killed the spirit of adventure, the spirit of play. It all became so serious, so oppressive and off the tracks to such an extent, that there is no possible reformation from within. What a waste!
Yeah, yeah each person has an org board why not just say it So living bridge meaning existing to donate money, so by donating money your moving up the bridge. Part of the new non-Hubbard PR tech.
“If you knew David Holt – he has passed away – see below. He was on New York Org staff, LA Org staff, and had a maintenance company here in LA. He was a sweet person – good people as we used to say. Good by David – I’ll miss you. Mimsey”
Yes, David Holt is a good person. I saw the email his wife sent out to announce it, and one thing stuck in my craw. She says that they tried all sorts of chiropractic and the like to handle the pain in his back before they went to a doctor. She implies that she was a “good little Scientologist” to try all the chiro stuff BEFORE ever resorting as a last resort to the “medicos” as LRH refers to medical doctors. I’ve noticed that in the Scn culture, a healthy dislike and distrust of medical doctors ranks just under their rabid dislike of psychiatrists. Yet there are cases where only a medical doctor and medical science can save a person. But to hear church members talk, you’re a “good Scn” if you do alternative medicine, muscle testing, chiro, vitamins, etc, and you’re a “bad Scn” if you go to a medical doctor instead. And this robotic black or white logic and thinking has cost many Scns their lives.
One big example that comes to mind if Peter Gillham. I was told by a good friend of his years ago that when his wife went into labor, they were doing the alternative home birth thing by a midwife who had no medical credentials. Some complications came up and the mother should have been taken to the hospital immediately, but wasn’t because he scorned doctors per his Scn culture. As a result either the mother or the baby died and it absolutely could have been prevented if they’d just rushed her to the hospital when the problem became pronounced. This friend of his says he blames Peter Gillham for that death because he was the one who refused to get her medical help.
I’ve even heard Scns say that they will never buy health or life insurance because “I’m not PTS and I want all my money to go to the Bridge instead.” They cite that they are healthy. Well that’s how it always works: you’re healthy right up until the minute you have that heart attack, or you’re not PTS right up until the minute you have that car accident. Wake up people!
Jane,
I agree with you that there seems to be a weird idea about doctors in the scn community however it is NOT a correct one consistent with the tech. As a Snr C/S I ALWAYS made sure that the reference titled PHYSICALLY ILL PCS AND PRE-OTs was applied! and that meant that people who had symptoms were TO SEE a medical doctor. The whole idea that “medicos” are bad is NOT part of the technology. It just isn’t. I studied long and hard to be good at what I do with the tech and I say that with 100% certainty. So this idea that a “good scientologist” doesn’t see a doctor if they can find an herb or a tincture or a tea that they heard from someone in the HGC while waiting for a session has it’s origin elsewhere than the tech but like I said it is true that this weird think exists within the walls.
I agree TroubleShooter…..LOTS of false data in this area. I think it stems from the creed, “The thetan alone can heal the body” and from general confusion about the body itself and it’s relationship to the being. I also think a lot a other valid body practices have matured over the last 2 decades, so people understand better which one to apply to which problem. It’s no longer auditing/vs/medicos, it’s I’ll have auditing and a massage and some physical therapy. As independents, we’re free to choose.
Spelling the word that way, in the UK at least, is a sure sign of one of two things. Either
A) the author is French, or
B) the author is English, and by spelling the word with a ‘s’ rather than a ‘z’ is a sure sign that he/she is a pompous know-it-all, likely with no friends.
Man, they are really having to streeeeeeeeeetch their assumed identities to make miscavige’s abortion of the “ideal org program” align with anything LRH ever said.
So glad I don’t have to play the twisted logic game to justify out-points anymore.
David Miscavige has raised the Bar of insanity so high, new meaning to cringe worthy.
In this way you use “It’s a Living Bridge” as the excuse to micro manage a guy to the poorhouse. Lame excuses are on my watch list to determine a sociopath.This is a good example. You may not think you are micro managed from the Top, but you are.
Read Jefferson Hawkins “Counterfeit Dreams”
On Vol 0 I learned that the Scientology Org Board mirrored the Bridge in its progression of Divisions but I have to date never heard the term, “Living Bridge” applied to this.
I would agree that this (squirrel) term is part of the RCS’s pre-conditioning plan for public to accept GAT II, (and possibly all the GATs yet to come) because somehow the Bridge is now “living” thing, a changing, growing thing – which infers that prior to the GAT I it was dead. And, as for KSW, well, the Dwarf just slapped a huge KSW banner over the top of His tent, so that issue is handled, LOL. KSW is whatever He says it is, and he’s got the big banner up there to prove it! The Bridge changes, and change is good, and change is KSW. You gotta problem with that?
I’m a “never-in” but a close follower of Scientology trying to make sense of the stuff I read. I usually do OK at figuring stuff out. But I am having a tough time with this one.
If I understand it correctly, they’re saying “send us your money because we are now re-drawing our organization chart (‘org board’) so that it resembles the Scientology grade chart that sits on the wall.” Why on earth would the organization chart, showing which groups work for which ones have to correspond to all the different ways to “go up the Bridge?” I know there is a lot of mystical significance attached to the “org board” in Scientology, but I have read the appropriate notes in the Green Volumes and, as a former management consultant, I don’t see any brilliance there at all.
It seems to me like this is exactly equal to suggesting a baseball team should change around the management structure so that its organization chart looks like a baseball field. How would that help them make better decisions?
I’m truly mystified by this one. Any of you guys who have any insight in what this actually means and why they think it will help them “boom” the Idle Morgue would be very much appreciated.
JPC — this is some fine arcanery (?) from the vaults of Scientology speak.
The theory here is that the organizing board of a Scientology org follows the same pattern as the Grade Chart — meaning it moves one UP the awareness characteristics as you move through the org board, starting at Division One and ending at Division Seven whereby the ascending spiral somehow begins at 1 again and keeps going “up.” THere are “awareness characteristics” assigned to each of the 3 Departments of each of the 7 (or 98) Divisions. They follow in sequence. And they match the awareness characteristics found in the center of the Grade Chart representing the awareness levels associated with each level of training or auditing. This are things that are simply accepted as true within the bubble — though there are holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through in the theories that are set forth on this subject.
Of course, like everyone else here (and apparently unlike the author of this poster) I have NOT ever heard of the “living bridge” — but in Scientology if someone in “authority” says it, then it must be true, especially if they ascribe it (even unspoken) to L. Ron Hubbard. Of course, then if you havent heard of it, you are “off source” or insufficiently dedicated. The people that see this inside the bubble are going to read it and pretend it makes total sense.
Mike, thanks for the perspective. Still trying to figure this “org board” stuff out.
So the “awareness” of the division is a function of the number that was assigned to that division? In other words, Division 7 is more “aware” than Division 1? Does that mean that the people assigned to work in Division 1 are morons and the smart ones are reserved for the higher number divisions? Doesn’t it make more sense to have the right people for the right jobs in different divisions, rather than concentrating all the “unaware” people in the lower divisions? Same question applies if you substitute “OT VIII”s for “smart ones” and “Grade 0 pre-clears” for “morons.”
Or does this refer to the amount of “secret stuff” that each division knows (i.e., upper management is the highest numbered division)? That sounds like a scheme that might have been useful in the world of the WW2 Navy, where it was impossible for everybody to remember how to keep stuff a secret. But it doesn’t sound all that sensible today, where you can say that documents are restricted to certain individuals or people with different levels of security clearance that are authorized for specific compartments.
Like I say, this is really hard to figure out for a guy like me who has spent plenty of time trying to fix companies — I can’t imagine a real-world company would talk about organization this way. In fact, in large companies, while you need an organization chart to answer some general questions about your approach to managing a large, complex company, they are treated as a joke; people who spend too much time worrying about memorizing the layout of the org chart are seen as idiots who are too focused on rules and not enough on getting things done.
JPC — Sorry, as I said this is arcane. You are trying to make sense out of something that doesnt really make any sense. It is merely an asserted “truth” and I could poke a lot of holes in it. It doesnt mean Division 6 staff are more aware than Dibv 1 staff — though one can understand why you would think that. The Awareness characteristics sort of reflect the function performed (supposedly but that does not always make any sense) and the intended raising of awareness of people as they move “through” the org board, though they dont start at Division One — they actually start at Division 6 then go to Div 2.
My recommendation is that you don’t spend a lot of time trying to make sense of it. If you approach it from a purely logical standpoint you will spin around in circles for a long time. It requires faith to make it make any sense.
Hi John P. There is a taped lecture Hubbard did long ago which I found interesting when I first heard the lecture in 1972. The lecture is titled “Org Board and Livingness” and Hubbard explains a lot of this Org Board stuff. I don’t know where people find these lectures these days but it’s probably easy to get.
@ JP Capitalist (not sure if this will end up under your comment…) The thing you are spinning around with, and understandably so, is that the tech and policy has been SO messed with and altered that now you CANNOT make sense of it anymore. You used to be able to.
It’s like if you learned math, and knew in your own mind that 35 divided by 5 equalled 7, and then some “learned professor” came along and said “divided by” REALLY meant that you divided only half of it and if it was an even number you added it and if it was an odd number you subtracted it…..yikes. Now if you were trying to learn that what would you think of the subject of math? That it’s nuts. Then your uncle comes by and said “That’s not the way you do it..somebody changed it…math is actually pretty cool and you can use it for a lot of things. I have no idea what this thing is here that you’re reading.”
The old lectures on the organizing board and the grade chart are the ones you should try to get a hold of and make your way through. Then you’ll see that the comparison being made in that promo is not true at all. Don’t sweat it.
JPC – to follow-up what Mike said, if you ignore that fact that the very first services a person does in SCN are in Division 6 (the Public divisions)…once could rationalize it this way:
A public enters an org in Div 1 (Div 1, Dept 1 has reception in it).
Technically a BRAND NEW public, there is supposed to be a separate entrance for them. That entrance e is supposed to be directly into the PUBLIC divisions (Div 6) where there are no advanced SCN words or services promoted. But maybe 5% of orgs have that.
So just ignore any idea that public ENTER the org board in Div 6.
Just think about how a “real” Scientologist enters the org board.
A “real” Scientologist enters the org at Reception (Div 1). They get signed up for their “major” SCN services by the registrar (Div 2). They get invoiced for the service at Treasury (Div 3). The course or auditing in delivered by the Tech personnel (Div 4). The student or pc is verified as having “made the grade” by Qualifications personnel (Div 5). Then they are appointed as a “field staff member” and are encouraged to bring more people into the org by the Public Division personnel (Div 6)…and then in a perfect world, these new and improved SCNs go out into the field and become the executives of new groups (Div 7 = Executive Division)…and then the process starts over at Div 1.
The SCN Bridge has words going up the center of it, which are called “awareness characteristics”. The meaning of these words are quite philosophical on one hand, but rather meaningless on the other. Further, each DEPARTMENT of the SCN org board has an awareness characteristic (which is just a single word) written right above the name of the Department, on the actual org board. The sequence of the awareness characteristics assigned to the departments (1 to 21) match the sequence of the awareness characteristics as they appear in the center of the printed bridge, from bottom of the bridge to the top.
Example: The awareness characteristic of the Department of Income (Dept 7) is “Energy”. Money is the energy that keeps SCN going. I”m sure you’ve noticed that SCN’s like to use the word “energy” as euphemism for cash.
Example: The awareness characteristic of the Department of Publications (Dept 5, where books are sold) is “Understandings”. Well, LRH always said that getting books into the hands of the public was the best way to get them to understand SCN.
Example: The awareness characteristic of Dept 21, The Office of LRH is “Source”. Your probably know “Source” is another term used for “LRH”.
These terms don’t mean anything practical. After all, the departments already have NAMES. Who cares what the awareness characteristic is? It has no real USE. But the fact that the awareness characteristics are plastered on the org board, is part of why the org board is called a “philosophical tool”. Because LRH created the Bridge, and developed the “awareness characteristics” which are on the Bridge. So there is an argument made that the research LRH did to discover Bridge is also what led to the development of the Org Board. It’s kind of like “See? There are awareness characteristics on both, so these things are somehow married together”. But they really are not married together at all.
Like Mike, I have NEVER heard the phrase “living bridge”. But I guarantee you it’s a phrase that came from some event, or some success story, where Flag was being described. Flag is the big Church is Clearwater where OT 6 and OT 7 are delivered. Flag is where everything is promoted as being so “standard” and “just as LRH said it should be” that being at Flag is just like a “living Bridge”.
No one in their right mind would describe a normal org (called a Class V org, because they can only train up to Class V auditors) as a “living bridge”. Only Flag is supposed to be worthy enough of such adjectives.
Excellent explanation. Thanks for taking the time to lay this out. I often wondered how some of these things are “awareness characteristics” — and if they DO in fact relate to the service being delivered then these OT VIIIs who are WAAAAY above “source” are ebing put back into the awareness characteristic of -2 “Hope” for the Purif and -1 “help” for TR’s and Objectives. New Era Dianetics for example is “Ability,” “Correction” and “Result” all in one? And if you are familiar with the various iterations of the org board, Qual has changed a dozen times asd to its functions and rarely have the functions matched up to the awareness characteristics (which happen to be these 3 — WTF?) The “awareness characteristic of Grade O (Communications Release) is “Recognition”. One of the “awareness characteristics” of Grade 1 (Problems Release) is “Communication”? Make sense out of that? Or that Sunshine Rundown gets the awareness characteristic of “conditions” (whatever that means?). Meanwhile the awareness characteristics of Dept 20 (OSA) is “existence” which matches up with OT 1 on the Grade Chart??
As I said earlier — these assertions are taken as fact only based on faith. LRH said it is so, so therefore it is. Even if it doesnt stand up to logical scrutiny. And there is nothing wrong with faith. ALL religions rely to some extent on faith — the Eastern far less than the Western. What is wrong here is when faithful believers attempt to assert there is no faith — it is all empirical, scientific and provable. This is fundamentalism at its core.
Exactly as you’ve said. SCN says there is no faith involved.
Any hardcore SO member would say without any feeling of guilt, “(wink wink), We’re not THAT kind of religion”. In fact, that is a direct quote from COB from an event shortly after the ’93 IAS event. Scientologists do not believe there is ANY FAITH involved in the subject of Scientology. Any SCN who knows what they are talking about will say SCN is a religion because the subject deals with man as a spirit, and not because of anything to do with God, or anything to do with Faith or belief or anything that “normal” religions are.
Do you remember how all auditors used to have to do The Ministers Course because SCN auditors are the “ministers” of Scientology? It was said that if auditors did not do the ministers course before doing their Class IV internship, there was some legal problem with the “priest / penitent” protection, and it could be a problem for the Church legally.
Well in the last 10 to 15 years, this has completely dropped out. I know of maybe only FIVE auditors trained in LA in the last 15 years who ever did the minsters course as part of their training. And even then, it was usually because they had nothing to do between sessions, and not because any one gave a crap whether the course got done or not.
If “priest / penitent” applies only to ministers (and I’m not sure that’s true) I wonder if the fact that 9d5% of auditors are not ministers could mean anything for PC-folder rights??
(Oh no, there DM goes again!!! On his knees at Hollywood and Vine…)
The Org Board is a JOKE! I ran a small company for years long before I was introduced to the shenanigans of the Org Board and made millions with just a few people…it is designed so that NO ONE KNOWS what anyone else is doing and there is NO responsibility!! Just take the REG and his job. If stats are not up from last week – he/she is in trouble…so that is how they turn the good intentioned Scientologist’s into CRIMINALS! Once the REG is done fleecing the person dry of all money – he moves on to the next victim and does not know how the guy is doing…not his “hat”.
It is a mafia type of system! Intended to confuse and keep everyone in the dark! It works on that level but to run a small business with it is a complete waste of time!
What I realized is that every post in an org is actually a sales job.
Even the DofP and C/S.
Even the janitor.
If one reads the PL’s, while still under the influence, LRH writes the PL’s like anybody from their post can boom the org. And one feels motivated to produce. Gung Ho like.
Board flow was designed to mirror a bridge? The mixed metaphors are getting painful. No wonder the rats are deserting the sinking train wreck like chickens with their heads cut off.
I don’t claim to understand a lot of what Scientologists do, but I do know that everything will become clear to me once everyone has an opportunity to use the oiliness table.
A ‘Living Bridge” that is already falling by the alterations of ‘dear leader”? Hum… does not parallel the real scene, but we all know they live in delusions, so, we leave it at that.
Well, from my experience, very tired, under-nourished over-harassed staff make mistakes. Especially if it’s been going on for weeks or months or years. No one caught it all the way up and down “the lines.” When I escaped I had to sleep for a couple days straight through in a motel to get my bearings and to get my body settled down and feeling the slightest bit normal again. It’s a very psycho state of affairs that lies beneath that one little mistake. Tip of the iceberg.
My experience is that it seems more like the church of Scientology Inc has a Death Bridge. Why are so many people dying or committing suicide in the upper levels? Doesn’t that seem like a problem that needs resolving? Or is Miscavige waiting for GAT VIII before he addresses it?
POT, I’ve thought the same thing for years! So many suicides and strange deaths. Especially on the upper levels. But, of course, if you bring it up to someone still in, they’ll deny it. Their reputation is just a shade above Jonestown…and falling!
getting that high on the bridge costs a lot of money. so by the time they reach those levels many are very much in debt, in ruin or on the edge of it, they have no where else to turn……..but they still believe in the tech, in the whole origin story….that they come back lifetime after lifetime…..so they figure “hey this has all gone to shit, i pulled it in, i fucked this up….might as well just start over….i’ll drop my body, go to the between lives area, pick up a new zygote and i’ll be good to go. just start a new life…plus with the tech i’ll be able to recall this life and not make the same mistakes”. and off the bridge they jump.
i read about a scientology suicide where words to that effect were mentioned.
i’ll try to research it but it might be hard because it was a long ways back and from a mainstream news source that was primarily reporting a suicide and mentioned the scientology connection secondarily. i vaguely remember it was a somewhat middle aged male who jumped out of a building, leaving a note alluding to the reasons.
but i’ll see what i can do.
here is a link to a story that mentions a guy from Scotland who killed himself.
and a quote from his mother. it’s actually a transcription of a TV segment done on CoS.
not sure if this is the one i was thinking about but it supports the notion of why some might kill themselves.
John Buchanan , a Scottish landscape gardener working in Germany, was recruited by the Munich org 3 years ago, accrued huge debts to several Munich banks to buy courses and materials, and committed suicide in May 1994 to escape his debts.
His mother quoted a letter claiming he would be re-incarnated and come back to Scotland Closing shot of his headstone “He did return to Scotland”
OSD, I’ve wondered if we should compile a list of Scns who died before their time or committed suicide and publish it on some site. I think I read on Steve Hall’s site somewhere a list of all the Class XII auditors that were trained by LRH himself and what happened with each of them. Seems like most were declared SP’s along the way and only a few Class XII’s remain. We should do same with a list of who has died and how, and what their case level was. Then we have proof to show the ones still in.
That’s the answer. I never heard of any death bridge situations with tech used pre-Hubbard disappearance/death/murder. Death bridge tech kind of like anti-venom or coffee. A little bit strengthens the immune system or in coffee’s case a little wakes you up and a lot kills. My opinion
I’ve been doing some digging on the question of why so many Scientologists seem to end up with cancer. I know of at least forty who have died of cancer in the last ten years. The statistics seem abnormally out of whack considering the group size. I ran across this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dont-take-your-vitamins.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0. My reading continues, but it’s looking like there are some solid links between massive vitamin intake (how many OTs have re-done the Purif for the 3rd or 4th time?) and damage on a cellular level causing cancer.
Who knows what they meant by that. I said above IMO they are just using it to sound cool and different. It’s BS. You don’t need a word like “living” to describe the Bridge. As a matter of fact it alters the concept of the Bridge. It doesn’t need any adjectives at all if you understand what it is. I’m not belittling your question. It’s a darn good question! Why the heck did they do that other than to show how off the rails they all are.
I did an International reverse look up and it came up as a number in Moscow, Russia.
To quote Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”:
(A book all Scientologists should know by heart 😉 )
“Curiouser and curiouser!”
I mean if this is so then why isn’t this promo piece written in cyrillic?
A bigger question is why is the Church of Scientology sending out promo in English (well actually some AngloAmerican hybrid) with a number that’ll possibly more than likely (since the Church of Scientology in the FSU is being monitored by the FSB) pass all calls through Dzerzhinsky Center?
Maybe I’m just being paranoid.
One who according to a well known writer and former Scientologist:
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.”
who also said:
“Sometimes paranoia’s just having all the facts.”
Anyhoo….
Moving on with this eldritch as in weird and sinister “promo piece” is that aside from the other outpoints noted is the obvious omission of an actual quote by the Ol’man.
(Those who are not Scientologists should understand that anything written by Ron…
(as many of us still call him because that is the way he wanted to be addressed according to the HCOPL “Doctor Title Abolished” back in the days when everybody in the Orgs went on a first name basis even the highest execs.
A much more friendlier and informal place back then compared to now where everyone wearing scrambled eggs there is now addressed as “Sir” or “Mr.” Whatever like as if in some elementary or private school or paramilitary organization.
My how things change.)
But I digress…
Anyhoo…as I was saying …anything written by Ron is considered “scripture” (which is actually the word used by the Church of Spiritual Technology in their articles of incorporation) and is supposed to be quoted word for word with the date and title of the exact quote.
Just as a Christian would quote chapter and verse from the Bible. So parishioner can look it up for themselves if they consider themselves a Christian but are somewhat distrustful of the current Hierarchy.)
Instead we have the following unattributed bloviation:
“If you have ever heard the phrase a ‘a living Bridge’.
Honestly folks I’ve been involved with Scientology since I was lil’ bigger than knee high to a grasshopper trained on all the levels, did the briefing course, did all the required Statuses and Hatting for any post I’ve worked on, even read the OEC and the Management series, read all kinds of GOD’s when I audited GO Staff and FO’s when I worked in SO Orgs. Not to mention all the REDs or LRHEDs and listened to hundreds of Ron’s lectures not once have I ever seen such a phrase mentioned or uttered by the Ol’man nor heard such a phrase uttered in any Scientology organization I have ever been in.
Also even when I was “in” I was an avid reader and hung around with all kinds of people in high and low places yet I’ve never heard that phrase uttered once unless it was in reference to the NVA and NLF who used to create human bridges to cross streams and rivers when the USAF bombed the bridges on Hồ Chí Minh trail.
Maybe I missed something.
So being completely stumped I googled the phrase and the only thing I found was a reference to some actual “living bridges” in Meghalaya India but no such idiomatic expression.
Anyhoo…
“this is it!”
You know like Holmes shouting to Watson who is muttering to himself:
“Where have I heard that phrase….”
As if this is a shocking revelation of some kind that Holmes knows the source of this phrase that is supposedly as “common as air” which I must have missed somehow.
Moving on from the “Living Bridge” an allegedly common phrase which I admit with some chagrin that I was completely ignorant of:
“Just as one ascends the Grade Chart our Org Board flow was designed by LRH to mirror that Bridge one Division after the other.”
Again no where does the Ol’man say that the Org Board “mirrors” the Grade Chart.
I believe he says that it “parallels” the Grade Chart which it does but no where does he say or imply that it is a mirror image.
If this were so then there wouldn’t be any level beyond Level VII which is the Clearing Course.
Nor would there be any level below Grade 1 since as you may have noticed there is no Division 0 (or maybe that is what they are working toward?) or any of what are called the “sub zero levels” such as life repair, what was formerly Dianetics and now includes the Purif and Objectives.
This is the reductio absurdum of what I heard many untrained (meaning having very little or no tech training) Execs assert a while back when I was still “in” that they were as highly trained as any Class VIII or even Class XII because they did the OEC, FEBC and a whole bunch of “Exec Status” course which gave them the god given right tell us Techies what to do.
You know like some MBA who was completely ignorant of computers telling IT how to program their servers.
That sorta of thing.
“Dog’s breakfast” a phrase I’ve actually heard once or twice doesn’t even begin to describe what happens when you allow some technically ignorant yet “know it all” Exec into IT.
Crashed computers and servers, all kinds of viruses eating up the Data Bases etc.
(Actually many employees looked forward to Mr. Luddite getting hold of the network because it always led to a paid “vacation” known as “down time”.)
Kinda like the same thing when untrained Execs try to “C/S” cases.
Case go know where because the Exec knows this person is a “plant” because his great grand daddy worked for the OSS or worse was former GO yet demands that the auditors audit FIO’s because they’re “former” intelligence officers doncha know and he checked them out himself at a dinner party over in McLean and his wife who was a “former” spook herself vouched for whoever…
Or so what if she belongs to a major media organization she happens to be a personal friend of mine.
Or who cares if the guy runs guns for a living for the CIA and his name is mentioned in a Congressional Committee investigating BCCI doncha know he has enough money to buy this whole organization…etc.
Yeah so he’s a Psyche Case had a buncha shock treatment but he’s an upright guy and his brother is on the intelligence Committee which will give us an in with the senate….
Sorry for rambling on…
What wanted to say was that comparing tech training to admin training or the Grade Chart to the Org is like comparing apples to oranges….
Sorry if this is off thread here, but I googled myself to see what would come up and Scientology comes up. And courses and auditing I’ve done comes up. And what really embarrassed me is that way back all those years ago when we were all told to put up a web site of the church’s for ourselves saying “I’m a Scientologist” and then they had your favorite quote, your little bio story, wins of applying Scn etc. I think this was the cover for putting in the nanny cams into your computer which blocked out anti Scn sites. But now I find I am in there bloviating about Scn when I drank the Kool Aid, and it even lists “favorite links” and you open that and it’s all these corporate church sites, none of which I put up there, yet it looks like I did. I am mortified and embarrassed. Anyone who looks there will run the other way. I never listed those favorite links, and I didn’t pick the quote and I no longer agree with anything that the corporate church says. I tried to get this site down and erase it but it won’t come down and won’t erase. Are there any techies out there that can get me taken off this site? If you’re job hunting this will ensure you don’t get a job. Or if you’re dating, this will ensure no dates. In fact, if you mention Scientology to anyone, they go downtone immediately and just walk away from you shaking their head — that is how bad Scn PR is in the real world.
Any techies who know how to get this stuff off the internet?
Damn. I am so sorry for you, Jane. I remember being pressured to build one of those personal Scientology internet pages, but I just Q&A’d until they left me alone. I just wasn’t winning enough to feel honest about doing that, so I didn’t. Glad they didn’t catch me at a weaker moment. The internet is forever.
I remember being pressured in the 90’s at CCI to sign up. When I checked it out they said that one had to load s/w onto your home PC. I said, “Not on your life without seeing the source code.” So, I never put up a page. Thank god for that.
That lil’ cookie cutter website is from the old “Scientologists On-Line” which is a total waste of cyberspace.
I don’t even know if they even have a webmaster for that website any more.
The thing hasn’t been updated since the last century (really no joke) and even declared SPs and people who have moved on from their mortal coils still show up which is macabre.
(You know the guy died of cancer while on New GAT OT VII years ago and there he is promoting the wonders of Scientology with a happy smiley face.
Reminds me of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.
Or some internet chamber of horrors.
Anyhoo….)
How to get yourself off?
Wow that’s a toughie.
You could send an RFC (request for comment) to the webmaster if they got one to retire the site which might get ya some bushy tailed management type asking if yer disaffected?
Or you could get covert about it and ask them to transfer it to your server or host so you can…er…”update” it and then when its safely on your server nuke the sucker or if you have a host ask them to nuke it.
Failing that you can get some hacker in Anonymous to DOS the site meaning sending so much traffic to that site that it eventually goes down.
Sorry that’s the best I could do Jane.
Just got your email so I’ll go over some more points there.
That’s funny, “I feel your pain,” Bill Clinton says, and Monica answers, “funny but I thought that was my thigh you were feeling…” (drum ba boom noise here.)
Yep, I read it and went “Huuuhhhh…???” Where did they get that. I think putting “living” in there is another attempt to appear with the times. They are so out of it because they can’t get involved with pop culture or tv or internet or too much with magazines and newspapers that they can’t put it together. They think that’s Cooool. If you can make it sound cool and hip why try to adhere to any tech or policy? Everyone knows THAT doesn’t work anymore, so we gotta think of new things. Barf.
Probably some implant or engram and guy thinks it’s cool ’cause the voices in his head tell him it’s cool or whatever and thinks everybody’s heard it ya know cause he keeps hearing it.
Or maybe he’s stuck in an incident when he was galactic ruler of some kind and he made his subjects form living bridges so he could get to his Pagoda or wherever possibly his copper rods buried in the ground to calm hisself down.
Or it could just be he’s a delusional whack job like those neo-cons who believe they are the master’s of reality and all he has to do is say it exists and therefore it exists for everybody else.
I mean if you think like that.
Why bother gathering intel from your environment or predicting how cat’s are going to jump because all you gotta tell ’em is how high or so he thinks.
Which sorta shows how introverted into themselves people in the Church have become.
Instead of being three feet back of society’s head they’ve interiorized into its anus.
Scientology aside if the U.S. didn’t have a living constitution then black people would still be considered 2/3 rds a human and women wouldn’t have the right to vote… Many could say one of the problems with Scientology is it is stagnant, still stuck in 1950s thinking and cold war mentality. DM has only increased those problems. Evolution is necessary, as nature has proved, but Scientology refuses to evolve.
It only “lives” via the Amendment process. I think 2briancox was alluding to the illegal practices of changing the Constitution via statute & Judicial ruling…
I for one am glad they do otherwise there would still be segregation in this country. The Constitution was drafted in a different era when many of the framers owned slaves. A lot of brilliant minds and brave men put the Constitution and Bill of Rights together, but they were not seers who could predict centuries into the future. The laws of the land have to fit the scene. Being an adherent of strict constructionism doesnt make much sense to me. Some of the wording must be interpreted. The Third Amendment is virtually meaningless. But I do not intend to turn my blog into a political debate about liberals and conservatives and commies and nazis.
right, Scientology is stuck with the “smoking is good for you” errors of its past, whereas psychiatry and pharmocology can always take in new information and ideas and progress. With Davey, there will never be progress, just denial. Even their website has not been updated in 2 years.
freebeeing says
Hmm, looks like a rundown factory in a waste-land. Great aesthetics!
Zephyr says
Living Bridge?
Just figured it out: In order to expand or overcome an obstacle like air or water, some critters like ants connect with each other and form a bridge like a platoon bridge on which the other critters can safely cross over to the other side. The fate of the lower layer of critters isn’t necessarily a good one…….
That would fit with the percentages of people who die prematurely on this ‘bridge’, toll to pay for the others to get over.
Calling it a “Deathly Bridge” might be more appropriate…..
Greta
Cat Daddy says
Tech Time 1 of 6
Phil Spickler – World of 1950 when Dianetics was released
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCI6KjadHCk
ThetaPotata says
The stuff getting spewed from active Scientologists (Staff and Public alike) is truly from the Twilight Zone and defies rational thought. I got an email today from David Wilson at Valley Org that has a terrible drawing of Alexander the Great and then proceeds to explain that Alexander the Great’s success was the result of “Command Intention” and then we make the leap to how because 10 years ago C.O.B. laid out the Ideal Org Strategy. Apparently the reader of the email is then suppose to connect the dots that D.M. is just like Alexander the Great and instead of conquering mest he’s conquering Theta Goals with command intention. The absurdness of this is completely lost on those who live in this fantasy reality where D.M.is this visionary leader instead of a psychopathic puke.
LDW says
Off Topic: From ABC News “Several more current and former National Security Agency insiders, inspired by American fugitive Edward Snowden, have come forward as whistleblowers with details of the shadowy agency’s operations, according to an attorney at a whistleblower protection organization.”
Just a message to davey boy…this headline mirrors what’s happening to YOU. More whistleblowers on the way.
Ronnie Bell says
Anyone else notice the wall around the org in the picture? Ironic bit of imagery there.
Hallie Jane says
Indeed…….no razor wire??
Espiritu says
Hey, come on guys. EVERYBODY KNOWS and has heard of the “Living Bridge”.
It is explained right there in the first characteristic of an antisocial personality as described by Ron:
“He or she speaks only in very broad generalities. “They say…” “Everybody thinks” “Everone knows…” and such expressions are in continual use, particularly when imparting rumor.”….
NOW does it make sense? 🙂
remoteviewed says
Good catch Esp!
Espiritu says
Precisely.
The Constitution is a document that was written down in words. When someone refers to the US Constitution as being a “living Constitution” they usually do so to justify “interpreting” it without regard to the actual definitions of those words at the time it was written. This opens the door to all manner opinions and decisions based upon opinions and prejudice that are out of agreement with what the document actually says. Getting people to believe that it is a “living document” in this sense is used to justify bypassing the rigorous process which exists in the Constitution for amending it.
Scientology Tech also consists of “documents” written down or spoken in words. We may believe and/or apply this Tech if it is true for us as individuals. However, Scientologists have agreed that only LRH may amend or change the actual “documents” if they are to be called Scientology.
Perhaps “Living Bridge” concept is the first step in brainwashing Scientologists into accepting more overt alterations by David Mi$cavige to go along with the covert alterations which he has already made.
Will we someday see “MCOBs” and “MCOPLs” replacing HCOBs and HCOPLs? I know this sounds far fetched, but I also think that he would do this “yesterday” if he thought that he could get away with it.
DollarMorgue says
I thought he’s been issuing Flag Directives for years.
Joe Pendleton says
“IT’S ALIVE!!!!!!!” (Screams Dr. Frankenstein in the 1930’s movie) Yes folks…it’s a living org board all right….and to live, it needs. …………MONEY!!!!!! (you weren’t expecting anything else, were you?) DONATE! The org board and bridge need repairs asap.
remoteviewed says
Joe,
That’s just too funny!
RFLMAO!!!!!!
Richard Roberts says
I guess the irony for me is they don’t even make reference to moving up the bridge. Its just a plain and simply rude MAKE YOUR DONATION. Heres mine. I donated a large cow turd on your doorsteps. Smell the bullshit?
Ronnie Bell says
“Living Bridge” ?
I’ve been a Scientologist for 40 years, and have never once heard that term. Sounds like someone’s attempting to insert the term into the consciousness of the faithful so that they’ll begin to accept the idea of a changing Bridge. That’s a concept which is completely verboten in Scientology.
Hallie Jane says
Sneaky…….they are “pretending” the church is alive when really, it has died. I wouldn’t put subliminal commands past them.
remoteviewed says
Roger that Ronnie,
Sorta like that subversive ,undermining and I might add treasonous “living Constitution” rhetoric. Something that could only be conceived by some commie mole.
(Oh that’s right communism doesn’t exist ’cause ya know the Berlin Wall came down.
Sure, sure.
Tell that to the Chinese Politburo.
Anyhoo..)
Hey Ronnie remember when Ron rhetorically asked “where are all the clears?” in the original Dianetic Clear RED?
Same sorta thing but instead the question could be “where are all the moles?”
DollarMorgue says
Syntax in the second line was too contorted, didn’t really get it. Don’t care about the International and American spelling. One is type, the other is an embedded image, and of course they don’t have a localised version. The world revolves around America. Anyway, people make these kind of mistakes all the time. What are consistency errors when the content is just gibberish? Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.
DMSCOHB says
dollarmorgue, neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit. n’est-ce pas? lol
DMSCOHB says
ok, i am off topic tonight but i just have to say that i am very disappointed with halloween. it seems that all of the creeps in this world have killed the holiday that i so enjoy. the real treat to me is seeing the various kids costumes and their faces as they get to dig into the bowl of candy that i have, and it is freakin’ HUGE 🙂 but nowadays, i barely get more than a dozen people for trick or treating, and that includes about 4 to 5 teenagers. parents now take their kids to rec centers and even around their work offices for trick or treating to keep their kids safe. and i absolutely cannot blame them. people really do suck. but this has killed one of my favorite holidays. i feel like kicking a pedophile square in the nuts right now…
Ronnie Bell says
Sorry to hear that your Halloween was a bummer. In my neck of the woods it was just like it’s always been. Tons of kids up and down the streets, wearing costumes, and all of them having a grand old time. My four kids came home with a ton of goodies, and there were no weird incidents of any kind. And my neighborhood is nothing to write home about. Guess it all depends on where you live.
gato rojo says
Yep, and we were really scarce of kids here too. I’m sorry one of your favorite holiday has been messed with. And…I can’t belieeeeeve you took this acronym! It’s absolutely charming. LOL….
statpush says
WTF?? “If you ever heard the phrase ‘A Living Bridge’…” No, can’t say I have. And I think it’s funny you act as though everyone has. But, since this is coming from the Int Landlord Office, I’m not too surprised that they would come up this squirrely shit.
Some time ago they sent out a similar promo piece, which stated “The goal is no longer about clearing the individual, but clearing whole cities by exporting our social betterment programs through Ideal Orgs” (paraphrased).
The Int Landlord Office stands out as a real subverting force within the corporate umbrella. These guys run the Ideal Org madness and push the out-exchange fundraising on org staff and public. Their stock and trade is MEST, and if it means redefining the purpose of orgs, or twisting LRHs words and ideas…well, so be it.
gato rojo says
Just goes to show ya who, in actuality, really runs the Int Landlord Office. Definitely isn’t the Int Landlord….!
Hallie Jane says
+1 and WTF does “exporting our social betterment programs” even mean. The unique thing about Scn was that people could have personal, spiritual gains with some prediction. Social betterment is some other business not to mention the fact, that it’s an out right lie.
remoteviewed says
“The goal is no longer about clearing the individual, but clearing whole cities by exporting our social betterment programs through Ideal Orgs”
Now that you mention it.
I vaguely remember that piece of promo getting a double take before I dutifully chucked in the recycle bin.
Another WTF??? moment.
I guess they don’t bother reading policy over there any more since probably easier to make shit up.
Sheeesh
Jose Chung says
Last comment before Party.
David Miscavige is a very, very sick person. A psychopath not easily
diagnosed. But he is enormously jealous of successful people who are upstat,
(that drives him crazy).Consequently he surrounds himself with the trappings of wealth, he dramatizes wealth. The Miscavige Bridge is rigged and perverted to murder in order to
satisfy David Miscaviges sick mind..
knatherthomas says
The idea of entering an org at Div 1, etc comes from the LRH lecture “Org Board and Livingness.” The transcript of this lecture was often bootlegged to LOC students at CCI in the mid 90s. Per the lecture, after the Public Divisions the flow continues in circular fashion back to Div 1. The concept of a “living org” has been being pushed by Int Landlord in their design of Ideal Orgs at least since the early 2000s. They even wanted to do this with Narconon Arrowhead but it was SO inappropriate they backed off.
gato rojo says
Yes–the org board moves with the awareness levels, not the grades or the training levels. Since the awareness levels are also written in there on the grade chart, I guess that they think that means that the org board follows (or whatever…) the grade chart. Another misduplication. You can have the awareness levels without the grade chart, and they have been published separately.
Aquamarine says
Off topic but I just read the comments on the Tampa Bay Times KSW banner article wherein someone states that per Tony O the Gat II event will occur starting next Friday the 8th. Now, I don’t think Tony stated this definitivelyt but perhaps I’ve missed something? Is it possible that this could be correct? If so, I would think they would have to give at least a week’s notice, right? Which would mean tomorrow for the announcement.
Mike Rinder says
Tony said it was a “rumor” he had heard.
Aquamarine says
Just a rumor, ok, thanks Mike.
Ookpik says
The “living bridge” has been on life “support” for decades. Will somebody please pull the plug..
Sejanus says
So it is living as in sweaty and soiling itself, waiting on someone to come clean the mess.
No matter how much polish you put on it, it is still a turd.
Tony DePhillips says
The irony of an Ideal promo spelling Organization two different ways is not lost. It sort of epitomizes the grand buffoonery of it all.
Alex de Valera says
In the old days I would have thought that there was an ascending spiral going through different levels of awareness and the path of the individual through the bridge, would match the divisions and departments of the organisation. Now the way to do this, would be to both become a competent auditor and to receive auditing, which would improve your understanding of life and would make you go up on the tone scale. A document like the one above would end with “call today to start your training” not “call today to make a donation”. Making a donation is the best way to take people off the bridge and to make sure they’ll get neither training nor auditing. When Scientology was expanding, it was available at a reasonable price. All sorts of people would start their training and co-audit up to SHSBC and clear. In the days of the ultra secret “Sea Project” the main criteria to go into this adventure was having done clear and the SHSBC. In those days auditors were considered to be the most valuable beings. Unfortunately an untrained high-school drop-out with no experience in life, no know how, no trace of kindness, took the rains and killed the spirit of adventure, the spirit of play. It all became so serious, so oppressive and off the tracks to such an extent, that there is no possible reformation from within. What a waste!
Hallie Jane says
+1
Flexible Flyer says
Yeah, yeah each person has an org board why not just say it So living bridge meaning existing to donate money, so by donating money your moving up the bridge. Part of the new non-Hubbard PR tech.
Cat Daddy says
ESMB: David Holt passed away
“If you knew David Holt – he has passed away – see below. He was on New York Org staff, LA Org staff, and had a maintenance company here in LA. He was a sweet person – good people as we used to say. Good by David – I’ll miss you. Mimsey”
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?33674-David-Holt-passed-away&p=869425#post869425
Jane Doe says
Yes, David Holt is a good person. I saw the email his wife sent out to announce it, and one thing stuck in my craw. She says that they tried all sorts of chiropractic and the like to handle the pain in his back before they went to a doctor. She implies that she was a “good little Scientologist” to try all the chiro stuff BEFORE ever resorting as a last resort to the “medicos” as LRH refers to medical doctors. I’ve noticed that in the Scn culture, a healthy dislike and distrust of medical doctors ranks just under their rabid dislike of psychiatrists. Yet there are cases where only a medical doctor and medical science can save a person. But to hear church members talk, you’re a “good Scn” if you do alternative medicine, muscle testing, chiro, vitamins, etc, and you’re a “bad Scn” if you go to a medical doctor instead. And this robotic black or white logic and thinking has cost many Scns their lives.
One big example that comes to mind if Peter Gillham. I was told by a good friend of his years ago that when his wife went into labor, they were doing the alternative home birth thing by a midwife who had no medical credentials. Some complications came up and the mother should have been taken to the hospital immediately, but wasn’t because he scorned doctors per his Scn culture. As a result either the mother or the baby died and it absolutely could have been prevented if they’d just rushed her to the hospital when the problem became pronounced. This friend of his says he blames Peter Gillham for that death because he was the one who refused to get her medical help.
I’ve even heard Scns say that they will never buy health or life insurance because “I’m not PTS and I want all my money to go to the Bridge instead.” They cite that they are healthy. Well that’s how it always works: you’re healthy right up until the minute you have that heart attack, or you’re not PTS right up until the minute you have that car accident. Wake up people!
TroubleShooter says
Jane,
I agree with you that there seems to be a weird idea about doctors in the scn community however it is NOT a correct one consistent with the tech. As a Snr C/S I ALWAYS made sure that the reference titled PHYSICALLY ILL PCS AND PRE-OTs was applied! and that meant that people who had symptoms were TO SEE a medical doctor. The whole idea that “medicos” are bad is NOT part of the technology. It just isn’t. I studied long and hard to be good at what I do with the tech and I say that with 100% certainty. So this idea that a “good scientologist” doesn’t see a doctor if they can find an herb or a tincture or a tea that they heard from someone in the HGC while waiting for a session has it’s origin elsewhere than the tech but like I said it is true that this weird think exists within the walls.
Hallie Jane says
I agree TroubleShooter…..LOTS of false data in this area. I think it stems from the creed, “The thetan alone can heal the body” and from general confusion about the body itself and it’s relationship to the being. I also think a lot a other valid body practices have matured over the last 2 decades, so people understand better which one to apply to which problem. It’s no longer auditing/vs/medicos, it’s I’ll have auditing and a massage and some physical therapy. As independents, we’re free to choose.
Markthehungarian says
The phone number is in the UK.
Spelling the word that way, in the UK at least, is a sure sign of one of two things. Either
A) the author is French, or
B) the author is English, and by spelling the word with a ‘s’ rather than a ‘z’ is a sure sign that he/she is a pompous know-it-all, likely with no friends.
Or in yobbo, Billy No Mates.
WTF, Scientology. WTF.
DollarMorgue says
I find B a weird perspective. I know plenty of people who spell with an s and still have friends 😉
LDW says
Man, they are really having to streeeeeeeeeetch their assumed identities to make miscavige’s abortion of the “ideal org program” align with anything LRH ever said.
So glad I don’t have to play the twisted logic game to justify out-points anymore.
Jose Chung says
David Miscavige has raised the Bar of insanity so high, new meaning to cringe worthy.
In this way you use “It’s a Living Bridge” as the excuse to micro manage a guy to the poorhouse. Lame excuses are on my watch list to determine a sociopath.This is a good example. You may not think you are micro managed from the Top, but you are.
Read Jefferson Hawkins “Counterfeit Dreams”
Aquamarine says
On Vol 0 I learned that the Scientology Org Board mirrored the Bridge in its progression of Divisions but I have to date never heard the term, “Living Bridge” applied to this.
I would agree that this (squirrel) term is part of the RCS’s pre-conditioning plan for public to accept GAT II, (and possibly all the GATs yet to come) because somehow the Bridge is now “living” thing, a changing, growing thing – which infers that prior to the GAT I it was dead. And, as for KSW, well, the Dwarf just slapped a huge KSW banner over the top of His tent, so that issue is handled, LOL. KSW is whatever He says it is, and he’s got the big banner up there to prove it! The Bridge changes, and change is good, and change is KSW. You gotta problem with that?
DollarMorgue says
I think you captured the intention perfectly.
remoteviewed says
+1
richardgrant says
“A new era of central organizations.”
There’s an old saw in the journo biz that the worst possible headline is “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative.” I think we have a promising new contender.
remoteviewed says
🙂
Martin Padfield says
Whatever it means just call this mobile number to make your donation today!
John P. Capitalist says
I’m a “never-in” but a close follower of Scientology trying to make sense of the stuff I read. I usually do OK at figuring stuff out. But I am having a tough time with this one.
If I understand it correctly, they’re saying “send us your money because we are now re-drawing our organization chart (‘org board’) so that it resembles the Scientology grade chart that sits on the wall.” Why on earth would the organization chart, showing which groups work for which ones have to correspond to all the different ways to “go up the Bridge?” I know there is a lot of mystical significance attached to the “org board” in Scientology, but I have read the appropriate notes in the Green Volumes and, as a former management consultant, I don’t see any brilliance there at all.
It seems to me like this is exactly equal to suggesting a baseball team should change around the management structure so that its organization chart looks like a baseball field. How would that help them make better decisions?
I’m truly mystified by this one. Any of you guys who have any insight in what this actually means and why they think it will help them “boom” the Idle Morgue would be very much appreciated.
Mike Rinder says
JPC — this is some fine arcanery (?) from the vaults of Scientology speak.
The theory here is that the organizing board of a Scientology org follows the same pattern as the Grade Chart — meaning it moves one UP the awareness characteristics as you move through the org board, starting at Division One and ending at Division Seven whereby the ascending spiral somehow begins at 1 again and keeps going “up.” THere are “awareness characteristics” assigned to each of the 3 Departments of each of the 7 (or 98) Divisions. They follow in sequence. And they match the awareness characteristics found in the center of the Grade Chart representing the awareness levels associated with each level of training or auditing. This are things that are simply accepted as true within the bubble — though there are holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through in the theories that are set forth on this subject.
Of course, like everyone else here (and apparently unlike the author of this poster) I have NOT ever heard of the “living bridge” — but in Scientology if someone in “authority” says it, then it must be true, especially if they ascribe it (even unspoken) to L. Ron Hubbard. Of course, then if you havent heard of it, you are “off source” or insufficiently dedicated. The people that see this inside the bubble are going to read it and pretend it makes total sense.
It’s just bananas.
John P. Capitalist says
Mike, thanks for the perspective. Still trying to figure this “org board” stuff out.
So the “awareness” of the division is a function of the number that was assigned to that division? In other words, Division 7 is more “aware” than Division 1? Does that mean that the people assigned to work in Division 1 are morons and the smart ones are reserved for the higher number divisions? Doesn’t it make more sense to have the right people for the right jobs in different divisions, rather than concentrating all the “unaware” people in the lower divisions? Same question applies if you substitute “OT VIII”s for “smart ones” and “Grade 0 pre-clears” for “morons.”
Or does this refer to the amount of “secret stuff” that each division knows (i.e., upper management is the highest numbered division)? That sounds like a scheme that might have been useful in the world of the WW2 Navy, where it was impossible for everybody to remember how to keep stuff a secret. But it doesn’t sound all that sensible today, where you can say that documents are restricted to certain individuals or people with different levels of security clearance that are authorized for specific compartments.
Like I say, this is really hard to figure out for a guy like me who has spent plenty of time trying to fix companies — I can’t imagine a real-world company would talk about organization this way. In fact, in large companies, while you need an organization chart to answer some general questions about your approach to managing a large, complex company, they are treated as a joke; people who spend too much time worrying about memorizing the layout of the org chart are seen as idiots who are too focused on rules and not enough on getting things done.
Mike Rinder says
JPC — Sorry, as I said this is arcane. You are trying to make sense out of something that doesnt really make any sense. It is merely an asserted “truth” and I could poke a lot of holes in it. It doesnt mean Division 6 staff are more aware than Dibv 1 staff — though one can understand why you would think that. The Awareness characteristics sort of reflect the function performed (supposedly but that does not always make any sense) and the intended raising of awareness of people as they move “through” the org board, though they dont start at Division One — they actually start at Division 6 then go to Div 2.
My recommendation is that you don’t spend a lot of time trying to make sense of it. If you approach it from a purely logical standpoint you will spin around in circles for a long time. It requires faith to make it make any sense.
Al Brown says
Hi John P. There is a taped lecture Hubbard did long ago which I found interesting when I first heard the lecture in 1972. The lecture is titled “Org Board and Livingness” and Hubbard explains a lot of this Org Board stuff. I don’t know where people find these lectures these days but it’s probably easy to get.
sets guy says
I fucking love you! 🙂 Don’t worry it doesn’t make sense and never did.
Moonshot says
They must assert “living” here, becuase the “church” is in fact, the walking “dead.” Its a Freudian thing…
gato rojo says
@ JP Capitalist (not sure if this will end up under your comment…) The thing you are spinning around with, and understandably so, is that the tech and policy has been SO messed with and altered that now you CANNOT make sense of it anymore. You used to be able to.
It’s like if you learned math, and knew in your own mind that 35 divided by 5 equalled 7, and then some “learned professor” came along and said “divided by” REALLY meant that you divided only half of it and if it was an even number you added it and if it was an odd number you subtracted it…..yikes. Now if you were trying to learn that what would you think of the subject of math? That it’s nuts. Then your uncle comes by and said “That’s not the way you do it..somebody changed it…math is actually pretty cool and you can use it for a lot of things. I have no idea what this thing is here that you’re reading.”
The old lectures on the organizing board and the grade chart are the ones you should try to get a hold of and make your way through. Then you’ll see that the comparison being made in that promo is not true at all. Don’t sweat it.
DM Sucks Cock On Hollywood Blvd says
JPC – to follow-up what Mike said, if you ignore that fact that the very first services a person does in SCN are in Division 6 (the Public divisions)…once could rationalize it this way:
A public enters an org in Div 1 (Div 1, Dept 1 has reception in it).
Technically a BRAND NEW public, there is supposed to be a separate entrance for them. That entrance e is supposed to be directly into the PUBLIC divisions (Div 6) where there are no advanced SCN words or services promoted. But maybe 5% of orgs have that.
So just ignore any idea that public ENTER the org board in Div 6.
Just think about how a “real” Scientologist enters the org board.
A “real” Scientologist enters the org at Reception (Div 1). They get signed up for their “major” SCN services by the registrar (Div 2). They get invoiced for the service at Treasury (Div 3). The course or auditing in delivered by the Tech personnel (Div 4). The student or pc is verified as having “made the grade” by Qualifications personnel (Div 5). Then they are appointed as a “field staff member” and are encouraged to bring more people into the org by the Public Division personnel (Div 6)…and then in a perfect world, these new and improved SCNs go out into the field and become the executives of new groups (Div 7 = Executive Division)…and then the process starts over at Div 1.
The SCN Bridge has words going up the center of it, which are called “awareness characteristics”. The meaning of these words are quite philosophical on one hand, but rather meaningless on the other. Further, each DEPARTMENT of the SCN org board has an awareness characteristic (which is just a single word) written right above the name of the Department, on the actual org board. The sequence of the awareness characteristics assigned to the departments (1 to 21) match the sequence of the awareness characteristics as they appear in the center of the printed bridge, from bottom of the bridge to the top.
Example: The awareness characteristic of the Department of Income (Dept 7) is “Energy”. Money is the energy that keeps SCN going. I”m sure you’ve noticed that SCN’s like to use the word “energy” as euphemism for cash.
Example: The awareness characteristic of the Department of Publications (Dept 5, where books are sold) is “Understandings”. Well, LRH always said that getting books into the hands of the public was the best way to get them to understand SCN.
Example: The awareness characteristic of Dept 21, The Office of LRH is “Source”. Your probably know “Source” is another term used for “LRH”.
These terms don’t mean anything practical. After all, the departments already have NAMES. Who cares what the awareness characteristic is? It has no real USE. But the fact that the awareness characteristics are plastered on the org board, is part of why the org board is called a “philosophical tool”. Because LRH created the Bridge, and developed the “awareness characteristics” which are on the Bridge. So there is an argument made that the research LRH did to discover Bridge is also what led to the development of the Org Board. It’s kind of like “See? There are awareness characteristics on both, so these things are somehow married together”. But they really are not married together at all.
Like Mike, I have NEVER heard the phrase “living bridge”. But I guarantee you it’s a phrase that came from some event, or some success story, where Flag was being described. Flag is the big Church is Clearwater where OT 6 and OT 7 are delivered. Flag is where everything is promoted as being so “standard” and “just as LRH said it should be” that being at Flag is just like a “living Bridge”.
No one in their right mind would describe a normal org (called a Class V org, because they can only train up to Class V auditors) as a “living bridge”. Only Flag is supposed to be worthy enough of such adjectives.
Mike Rinder says
Excellent explanation. Thanks for taking the time to lay this out. I often wondered how some of these things are “awareness characteristics” — and if they DO in fact relate to the service being delivered then these OT VIIIs who are WAAAAY above “source” are ebing put back into the awareness characteristic of -2 “Hope” for the Purif and -1 “help” for TR’s and Objectives. New Era Dianetics for example is “Ability,” “Correction” and “Result” all in one? And if you are familiar with the various iterations of the org board, Qual has changed a dozen times asd to its functions and rarely have the functions matched up to the awareness characteristics (which happen to be these 3 — WTF?) The “awareness characteristic of Grade O (Communications Release) is “Recognition”. One of the “awareness characteristics” of Grade 1 (Problems Release) is “Communication”? Make sense out of that? Or that Sunshine Rundown gets the awareness characteristic of “conditions” (whatever that means?). Meanwhile the awareness characteristics of Dept 20 (OSA) is “existence” which matches up with OT 1 on the Grade Chart??
As I said earlier — these assertions are taken as fact only based on faith. LRH said it is so, so therefore it is. Even if it doesnt stand up to logical scrutiny. And there is nothing wrong with faith. ALL religions rely to some extent on faith — the Eastern far less than the Western. What is wrong here is when faithful believers attempt to assert there is no faith — it is all empirical, scientific and provable. This is fundamentalism at its core.
DM sucks cock on Hollywood Blvd says
Exactly as you’ve said. SCN says there is no faith involved.
Any hardcore SO member would say without any feeling of guilt, “(wink wink), We’re not THAT kind of religion”. In fact, that is a direct quote from COB from an event shortly after the ’93 IAS event. Scientologists do not believe there is ANY FAITH involved in the subject of Scientology. Any SCN who knows what they are talking about will say SCN is a religion because the subject deals with man as a spirit, and not because of anything to do with God, or anything to do with Faith or belief or anything that “normal” religions are.
Do you remember how all auditors used to have to do The Ministers Course because SCN auditors are the “ministers” of Scientology? It was said that if auditors did not do the ministers course before doing their Class IV internship, there was some legal problem with the “priest / penitent” protection, and it could be a problem for the Church legally.
Well in the last 10 to 15 years, this has completely dropped out. I know of maybe only FIVE auditors trained in LA in the last 15 years who ever did the minsters course as part of their training. And even then, it was usually because they had nothing to do between sessions, and not because any one gave a crap whether the course got done or not.
If “priest / penitent” applies only to ministers (and I’m not sure that’s true) I wonder if the fact that 9d5% of auditors are not ministers could mean anything for PC-folder rights??
(Oh no, there DM goes again!!! On his knees at Hollywood and Vine…)
sets guy says
🙂
Idle Morgue says
The Org Board is a JOKE! I ran a small company for years long before I was introduced to the shenanigans of the Org Board and made millions with just a few people…it is designed so that NO ONE KNOWS what anyone else is doing and there is NO responsibility!! Just take the REG and his job. If stats are not up from last week – he/she is in trouble…so that is how they turn the good intentioned Scientologist’s into CRIMINALS! Once the REG is done fleecing the person dry of all money – he moves on to the next victim and does not know how the guy is doing…not his “hat”.
It is a mafia type of system! Intended to confuse and keep everyone in the dark! It works on that level but to run a small business with it is a complete waste of time!
Markthehungarian says
Damn straight.
singanddanceall says
so well said.
What I realized is that every post in an org is actually a sales job.
Even the DofP and C/S.
Even the janitor.
If one reads the PL’s, while still under the influence, LRH writes the PL’s like anybody from their post can boom the org. And one feels motivated to produce. Gung Ho like.
He was really quite the salesman, wordsmith.
Robert Eckert says
Board flow was designed to mirror a bridge? The mixed metaphors are getting painful. No wonder the rats are deserting the sinking train wreck like chickens with their heads cut off.
shannon says
I don’t claim to understand a lot of what Scientologists do, but I do know that everything will become clear to me once everyone has an opportunity to use the oiliness table.
SILVIA says
A ‘Living Bridge” that is already falling by the alterations of ‘dear leader”? Hum… does not parallel the real scene, but we all know they live in delusions, so, we leave it at that.
Cooper Kessel says
This is what the real scene is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw
Total collapse!!!!
Pericles says
Oh, c’mon, you can’t expect these guys to spell check their text! That would be expecting way too much,
gato rojo says
Well, from my experience, very tired, under-nourished over-harassed staff make mistakes. Especially if it’s been going on for weeks or months or years. No one caught it all the way up and down “the lines.” When I escaped I had to sleep for a couple days straight through in a motel to get my bearings and to get my body settled down and feeling the slightest bit normal again. It’s a very psycho state of affairs that lies beneath that one little mistake. Tip of the iceberg.
plainoldthetan says
My experience is that it seems more like the church of Scientology Inc has a Death Bridge. Why are so many people dying or committing suicide in the upper levels? Doesn’t that seem like a problem that needs resolving? Or is Miscavige waiting for GAT VIII before he addresses it?
Old Surfer Dude says
POT, I’ve thought the same thing for years! So many suicides and strange deaths. Especially on the upper levels. But, of course, if you bring it up to someone still in, they’ll deny it. Their reputation is just a shade above Jonestown…and falling!
remoteviewed says
I agree there are a lot of parallels almost “mirroring” the Peoples Temple.
The main difference is that Int Base is on US soil and not Guyana.
And Dave doesn’t seem interested in moving to what was once the Soviet Union.
Though if he asked I’d hope the DoS would have the good sense to let him go.
Please let him go!
Maybe they could move him to Siberia.
WhiteStar says
getting that high on the bridge costs a lot of money. so by the time they reach those levels many are very much in debt, in ruin or on the edge of it, they have no where else to turn……..but they still believe in the tech, in the whole origin story….that they come back lifetime after lifetime…..so they figure “hey this has all gone to shit, i pulled it in, i fucked this up….might as well just start over….i’ll drop my body, go to the between lives area, pick up a new zygote and i’ll be good to go. just start a new life…plus with the tech i’ll be able to recall this life and not make the same mistakes”. and off the bridge they jump.
i read about a scientology suicide where words to that effect were mentioned.
lives destroyed.
Bob Dobbs says
WhiteStar, please let us know where you read about the scientology suicide with the particulars that you mentioned. Thanks.
WhiteStar says
@bob dobbs.
i’ll try to research it but it might be hard because it was a long ways back and from a mainstream news source that was primarily reporting a suicide and mentioned the scientology connection secondarily. i vaguely remember it was a somewhat middle aged male who jumped out of a building, leaving a note alluding to the reasons.
but i’ll see what i can do.
WhiteStar says
@bob dobbs.
here is a link to a story that mentions a guy from Scotland who killed himself.
and a quote from his mother. it’s actually a transcription of a TV segment done on CoS.
not sure if this is the one i was thinking about but it supports the notion of why some might kill themselves.
http://www.holysmoke.org/cos/debt.htm
scroll to the bottom of the page, you will find the following quote:
John Buchanan , a Scottish landscape gardener working in Germany, was recruited by the Munich org 3 years ago, accrued huge debts to several Munich banks to buy courses and materials, and committed suicide in May 1994 to escape his debts.
His mother quoted a letter claiming he would be re-incarnated and come back to Scotland Closing shot of his headstone “He did return to Scotland”
Jane Doe says
OSD, I’ve wondered if we should compile a list of Scns who died before their time or committed suicide and publish it on some site. I think I read on Steve Hall’s site somewhere a list of all the Class XII auditors that were trained by LRH himself and what happened with each of them. Seems like most were declared SP’s along the way and only a few Class XII’s remain. We should do same with a list of who has died and how, and what their case level was. Then we have proof to show the ones still in.
Flexible Flyer says
That’s the answer. I never heard of any death bridge situations with tech used pre-Hubbard disappearance/death/murder. Death bridge tech kind of like anti-venom or coffee. A little bit strengthens the immune system or in coffee’s case a little wakes you up and a lot kills. My opinion
Natasha Boris says
I’ve been doing some digging on the question of why so many Scientologists seem to end up with cancer. I know of at least forty who have died of cancer in the last ten years. The statistics seem abnormally out of whack considering the group size. I ran across this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/dont-take-your-vitamins.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0. My reading continues, but it’s looking like there are some solid links between massive vitamin intake (how many OTs have re-done the Purif for the 3rd or 4th time?) and damage on a cellular level causing cancer.
War Horse says
Clearly, when “organization” is made plural, the z becomes an s.
Anything else I can help anybody rationalize?
(It’s easy if you try)
freespirit says
They are getting more and more delusional. Just like him. Contagion of aberration.
Madora Pennington says
Does “living” mean it keeps growing and changing?
statpush says
I think we would have to include: Birth, Growth and Decay. We all know where Ideal Orgs are on that cycle.
gato rojo says
Who knows what they meant by that. I said above IMO they are just using it to sound cool and different. It’s BS. You don’t need a word like “living” to describe the Bridge. As a matter of fact it alters the concept of the Bridge. It doesn’t need any adjectives at all if you understand what it is. I’m not belittling your question. It’s a darn good question! Why the heck did they do that other than to show how off the rails they all are.
Axiom says
Ummmm …
Please show me the LRH reference on the above quote.
remoteviewed says
There is none.
See my long tedious earlier comment.
TroubleShooter says
Ohthere was NOTHING tedious OR long about your comment to me. It was a great comment I read with admiration and gratitude.
remoteviewed says
Thanks TS you made my night 🙂
Wish you the best.
LR
Just Me says
Awww, cheap shot. You want them to proofread, too?
Bela says
What is up with that phone number? Which org sent this?
Definitely weird.
Aurora says
According to Google, it is a mobile phone in the UK.
Bela says
Thanks, Aurora.
remoteviewed says
I did an International reverse look up and it came up as a number in Moscow, Russia.
To quote Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”:
(A book all Scientologists should know by heart 😉 )
“Curiouser and curiouser!”
I mean if this is so then why isn’t this promo piece written in cyrillic?
A bigger question is why is the Church of Scientology sending out promo in English (well actually some AngloAmerican hybrid) with a number that’ll possibly more than likely (since the Church of Scientology in the FSU is being monitored by the FSB) pass all calls through Dzerzhinsky Center?
Maybe I’m just being paranoid.
One who according to a well known writer and former Scientologist:
“A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.”
who also said:
“Sometimes paranoia’s just having all the facts.”
Anyhoo….
Moving on with this eldritch as in weird and sinister “promo piece” is that aside from the other outpoints noted is the obvious omission of an actual quote by the Ol’man.
(Those who are not Scientologists should understand that anything written by Ron…
(as many of us still call him because that is the way he wanted to be addressed according to the HCOPL “Doctor Title Abolished” back in the days when everybody in the Orgs went on a first name basis even the highest execs.
A much more friendlier and informal place back then compared to now where everyone wearing scrambled eggs there is now addressed as “Sir” or “Mr.” Whatever like as if in some elementary or private school or paramilitary organization.
My how things change.)
But I digress…
Anyhoo…as I was saying …anything written by Ron is considered “scripture” (which is actually the word used by the Church of Spiritual Technology in their articles of incorporation) and is supposed to be quoted word for word with the date and title of the exact quote.
Just as a Christian would quote chapter and verse from the Bible. So parishioner can look it up for themselves if they consider themselves a Christian but are somewhat distrustful of the current Hierarchy.)
Instead we have the following unattributed bloviation:
“If you have ever heard the phrase a ‘a living Bridge’.
Honestly folks I’ve been involved with Scientology since I was lil’ bigger than knee high to a grasshopper trained on all the levels, did the briefing course, did all the required Statuses and Hatting for any post I’ve worked on, even read the OEC and the Management series, read all kinds of GOD’s when I audited GO Staff and FO’s when I worked in SO Orgs. Not to mention all the REDs or LRHEDs and listened to hundreds of Ron’s lectures not once have I ever seen such a phrase mentioned or uttered by the Ol’man nor heard such a phrase uttered in any Scientology organization I have ever been in.
Also even when I was “in” I was an avid reader and hung around with all kinds of people in high and low places yet I’ve never heard that phrase uttered once unless it was in reference to the NVA and NLF who used to create human bridges to cross streams and rivers when the USAF bombed the bridges on Hồ Chí Minh trail.
Maybe I missed something.
So being completely stumped I googled the phrase and the only thing I found was a reference to some actual “living bridges” in Meghalaya India but no such idiomatic expression.
Anyhoo…
“this is it!”
You know like Holmes shouting to Watson who is muttering to himself:
“Where have I heard that phrase….”
As if this is a shocking revelation of some kind that Holmes knows the source of this phrase that is supposedly as “common as air” which I must have missed somehow.
Moving on from the “Living Bridge” an allegedly common phrase which I admit with some chagrin that I was completely ignorant of:
“Just as one ascends the Grade Chart our Org Board flow was designed by LRH to mirror that Bridge one Division after the other.”
Again no where does the Ol’man say that the Org Board “mirrors” the Grade Chart.
I believe he says that it “parallels” the Grade Chart which it does but no where does he say or imply that it is a mirror image.
If this were so then there wouldn’t be any level beyond Level VII which is the Clearing Course.
Nor would there be any level below Grade 1 since as you may have noticed there is no Division 0 (or maybe that is what they are working toward?) or any of what are called the “sub zero levels” such as life repair, what was formerly Dianetics and now includes the Purif and Objectives.
This is the reductio absurdum of what I heard many untrained (meaning having very little or no tech training) Execs assert a while back when I was still “in” that they were as highly trained as any Class VIII or even Class XII because they did the OEC, FEBC and a whole bunch of “Exec Status” course which gave them the god given right tell us Techies what to do.
You know like some MBA who was completely ignorant of computers telling IT how to program their servers.
That sorta of thing.
“Dog’s breakfast” a phrase I’ve actually heard once or twice doesn’t even begin to describe what happens when you allow some technically ignorant yet “know it all” Exec into IT.
Crashed computers and servers, all kinds of viruses eating up the Data Bases etc.
(Actually many employees looked forward to Mr. Luddite getting hold of the network because it always led to a paid “vacation” known as “down time”.)
Kinda like the same thing when untrained Execs try to “C/S” cases.
Case go know where because the Exec knows this person is a “plant” because his great grand daddy worked for the OSS or worse was former GO yet demands that the auditors audit FIO’s because they’re “former” intelligence officers doncha know and he checked them out himself at a dinner party over in McLean and his wife who was a “former” spook herself vouched for whoever…
Or so what if she belongs to a major media organization she happens to be a personal friend of mine.
Or who cares if the guy runs guns for a living for the CIA and his name is mentioned in a Congressional Committee investigating BCCI doncha know he has enough money to buy this whole organization…etc.
Yeah so he’s a Psyche Case had a buncha shock treatment but he’s an upright guy and his brother is on the intelligence Committee which will give us an in with the senate….
Sorry for rambling on…
What wanted to say was that comparing tech training to admin training or the Grade Chart to the Org is like comparing apples to oranges….
Another phrase I’m familiar with.
Jane Doe says
Sorry if this is off thread here, but I googled myself to see what would come up and Scientology comes up. And courses and auditing I’ve done comes up. And what really embarrassed me is that way back all those years ago when we were all told to put up a web site of the church’s for ourselves saying “I’m a Scientologist” and then they had your favorite quote, your little bio story, wins of applying Scn etc. I think this was the cover for putting in the nanny cams into your computer which blocked out anti Scn sites. But now I find I am in there bloviating about Scn when I drank the Kool Aid, and it even lists “favorite links” and you open that and it’s all these corporate church sites, none of which I put up there, yet it looks like I did. I am mortified and embarrassed. Anyone who looks there will run the other way. I never listed those favorite links, and I didn’t pick the quote and I no longer agree with anything that the corporate church says. I tried to get this site down and erase it but it won’t come down and won’t erase. Are there any techies out there that can get me taken off this site? If you’re job hunting this will ensure you don’t get a job. Or if you’re dating, this will ensure no dates. In fact, if you mention Scientology to anyone, they go downtone immediately and just walk away from you shaking their head — that is how bad Scn PR is in the real world.
Any techies who know how to get this stuff off the internet?
Ronnie Bell says
Damn. I am so sorry for you, Jane. I remember being pressured to build one of those personal Scientology internet pages, but I just Q&A’d until they left me alone. I just wasn’t winning enough to feel honest about doing that, so I didn’t. Glad they didn’t catch me at a weaker moment. The internet is forever.
Ilbye says
I remember being pressured in the 90’s at CCI to sign up. When I checked it out they said that one had to load s/w onto your home PC. I said, “Not on your life without seeing the source code.” So, I never put up a page. Thank god for that.
remoteviewed says
Jane,
That lil’ cookie cutter website is from the old “Scientologists On-Line” which is a total waste of cyberspace.
I don’t even know if they even have a webmaster for that website any more.
The thing hasn’t been updated since the last century (really no joke) and even declared SPs and people who have moved on from their mortal coils still show up which is macabre.
(You know the guy died of cancer while on New GAT OT VII years ago and there he is promoting the wonders of Scientology with a happy smiley face.
Reminds me of Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.
Or some internet chamber of horrors.
Anyhoo….)
How to get yourself off?
Wow that’s a toughie.
You could send an RFC (request for comment) to the webmaster if they got one to retire the site which might get ya some bushy tailed management type asking if yer disaffected?
Or you could get covert about it and ask them to transfer it to your server or host so you can…er…”update” it and then when its safely on your server nuke the sucker or if you have a host ask them to nuke it.
Failing that you can get some hacker in Anonymous to DOS the site meaning sending so much traffic to that site that it eventually goes down.
Sorry that’s the best I could do Jane.
Just got your email so I’ll go over some more points there.
Good luck.
And as good ol’ Bill Clinton used to say:
“I feel your pain”
LR
Jane Doe says
That’s funny, “I feel your pain,” Bill Clinton says, and Monica answers, “funny but I thought that was my thigh you were feeling…” (drum ba boom noise here.)
Carcha says
Go to WWP (WhyWeProtest) and post the above. Someone will take it down for you in a flash.
Jane Doe says
Thanks Carcha!
gato rojo says
Yep, I read it and went “Huuuhhhh…???” Where did they get that. I think putting “living” in there is another attempt to appear with the times. They are so out of it because they can’t get involved with pop culture or tv or internet or too much with magazines and newspapers that they can’t put it together. They think that’s Cooool. If you can make it sound cool and hip why try to adhere to any tech or policy? Everyone knows THAT doesn’t work anymore, so we gotta think of new things. Barf.
remoteviewed says
Yeah I agree gato babe.
It’s like some phrase from who knows where????
Probably some implant or engram and guy thinks it’s cool ’cause the voices in his head tell him it’s cool or whatever and thinks everybody’s heard it ya know cause he keeps hearing it.
Or maybe he’s stuck in an incident when he was galactic ruler of some kind and he made his subjects form living bridges so he could get to his Pagoda or wherever possibly his copper rods buried in the ground to calm hisself down.
Or it could just be he’s a delusional whack job like those neo-cons who believe they are the master’s of reality and all he has to do is say it exists and therefore it exists for everybody else.
I mean if you think like that.
Why bother gathering intel from your environment or predicting how cat’s are going to jump because all you gotta tell ’em is how high or so he thinks.
Which sorta shows how introverted into themselves people in the Church have become.
Instead of being three feet back of society’s head they’ve interiorized into its anus.
gato rojo says
Whaddya mean how cats are going to jump?? Pardon me but I prancercize.
Cat Daddy says
Mike it’s a sign of them being International. American English and British English.
go Scientology !
2briancox says
It reminds me of the phrase “Living Constitution”. It’s a nomenclature tailored to justify alter-is’ing.
Cat Daddy says
We have one of those and I am glad we didn’t got stuck in 1848
one of those who see says
excellent analogy!
SunnyV says
Scientology aside if the U.S. didn’t have a living constitution then black people would still be considered 2/3 rds a human and women wouldn’t have the right to vote… Many could say one of the problems with Scientology is it is stagnant, still stuck in 1950s thinking and cold war mentality. DM has only increased those problems. Evolution is necessary, as nature has proved, but Scientology refuses to evolve.
Ilbye says
It only “lives” via the Amendment process. I think 2briancox was alluding to the illegal practices of changing the Constitution via statute & Judicial ruling…
2briancox says
Exactly. It wasn’t a political point. It was a comparison of two propaganda tools used to incrementally change something illegitimately.
Ilbye says
Yes. Most people really don’t understand the US Constitution and believe that the Supreme Court has the power to interpret and thus, change it.
Mike Rinder says
I for one am glad they do otherwise there would still be segregation in this country. The Constitution was drafted in a different era when many of the framers owned slaves. A lot of brilliant minds and brave men put the Constitution and Bill of Rights together, but they were not seers who could predict centuries into the future. The laws of the land have to fit the scene. Being an adherent of strict constructionism doesnt make much sense to me. Some of the wording must be interpreted. The Third Amendment is virtually meaningless. But I do not intend to turn my blog into a political debate about liberals and conservatives and commies and nazis.
jgg2012 says
right, Scientology is stuck with the “smoking is good for you” errors of its past, whereas psychiatry and pharmocology can always take in new information and ideas and progress. With Davey, there will never be progress, just denial. Even their website has not been updated in 2 years.