Mike Rinder's Blog

Something Can Be Done About It

Mission Fundraising Failing

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Things are desperate in the scientology world.

A mission in the heart of scientology’s only real stronghold — Clearwater is confined strictly to Flag while there are numerous orgs in the SoCal area and more scientologists there than anywhere in the world — this Mission is halfway between Valley and Pasadena ideal orgs and a few miles from “dissemination central” at SuMP and Big Blue. If they cannot survive living off auditing and training there, it’s not going to happen anywhere.

And a second one came in from Brand Blvd Msn which has got to be a little bit embarrassing when you read them together:

The people that are running any abysmally unsuccessful “fundraiser” to try to keep their mission alive (in direct violation of LRH policy to “solve it with scientology”) are going to provide everyone with a briefing about “OT Power Now”?

Mitch Talevi is an OT VIII, highly trained auditor. But is unable to “make it go right” and be “cause over the MEST universe”?

What a complete fail…

Comments

  1. The safest place to practice “social distancing” is a Scientology Mission as they are always empty. That is if you can get past the locked doors.

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  2. However, with the lockdown, we have seen the real situation in which scn nw is facing.
    Orgs and missions that ask for charity to stay open or survive show exactly the condition of management and that they have other fish to fry (use orgs and missions just as pools to raise money for IAS and other stupid things) instead of really expanding them.
    A great deception and rip-off for all the staff.

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  5. There have long been reports of missions and even orgs going hat in hand to local members and “whales” behind the scenes for money to pay overdue bills and keep the doors open, and even the occasional advertised fundraiser for extraordinary expenses like mission renovations (the Foothills mission is in a space that looks like something out of the 1970s). I suspect that a lot of remaining missions with their own spaces rely on missionholders to cover the rent, not to mention all the ones that are located on the premises of, or in an auxiliary space next to, members’ business (usually hidden by use of different addresses or suite numbers) and so effectively getting their space costs subsidized – plus then the ones that are just in spare rooms of members’ homes.

    The “Brand Blvd” mission turns out to no longer even be on that prestigious street, but rather 4 blocks off of it in a multi-story office building where they have no outside signage – and have to use a suite number in their address, something Scientology long seemed to try to avoid in order to keep up the pretext that all their locations at were at least substantial enough to have street frontage.

    It’s new for a mission to be going online to beg for money to cover operating expenses – and I wouldn’t be surprised if this appeal vanishes now that it’s been publicized. It’s likely modeled on what some normally viable but now struggling businesses and organizations are doing on social media. And it’s possible this is one of the missions that is actually viable under normal circumstances – though they don’t apparently have any reserves, like the thriving missions of Scientology’s heyday did (often large amounts, that were confiscated as part of the infamous actions around the missionholder massacre).

    The current situation can only have made the slow-motion crisis with the missions all the more dire. Some of the missionholders subsidizing their remaining opening must no longer have the cashflow to do so, and others who have just been tiring of doing so may see this as the time to finally cut their losses.

    And speaking of dying missions, someone reported recently that the Pittsbugh “city office” lost its space and has has apparently vanished. That was really an operation run by the Cincinnati org (that’s actually across the river in Kentucky) to keep a presence in the area after a string of several missions went belly-up, though it apparently relied on a member in an outlying town who must have been willing to share a business space (there’s that angle again). Pittsburgh never had an org, so that’s apparently the end of Scientology in a major US city, one that had been recovering economically and has become attractive to students (with about 100,000 betwen 2 major universities, and many smaller ones plus colleges) and knowledge workers.

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  6. Near as I can figure, the Brand Blvd. Mission is almost within walking distance of Craig Jensen’s software company, the formerly named Executive Software, which employed tons of Scientologists. It’s also close to the former site of the bankrupt Survival Insurance. With that many Scientology employees to draw from, you’d think it would be thriving. After all, what could be better than doing auditing at a mission so you don’t have to fend off the piranha-like regges at one of the LA orgs? So the fact that it’s always been a joke in the midst of hundreds of Scientologist employees is even more embarrassing than the fact that it’s a joke today.

    By the way, speaking of Craig Jensen, whom I haven’t thought of for a while, I am enjoying the fact that Craig, who’s presumably on an upper OT level, failed to have enough mastery of the whole track to see just how fast the world moved 25 years ago from local hard disks that needed the optimization that he could provide to storage arrays that automatically did all the stuff his software did, and did it in real time. Then, 10 years ago, things started to move to the cloud, which needs disk optimization software even less than storage arrays did. It’s hard to believe that somewhere on the whole track in the last however many trillions of years, nobody ever invented disk storage for him to remember why solid state cloud storage is so much better, and thus to anticipate the same thing happening on little ol’ prison planet Teegeack.

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    • Any reg worth their salt at a mission can be just as ruthless as an upper org reg. It reminds me of a joke that a mission reg once told me.

      There was a guy in a bar hunched over an almost empty pint wearing a spaghetti stained tee shirt. Clearly in need of a refill but having no money, he tells the bar keep that he can squeeze a cup of lemon juice out of one of the lemons sitting on the bar for a refilled pint. The bar keep takes him up on it. After considerable grunting, groaning, moaning and much heavy breathing spaghetti stain produces a cup of lemon juice for the bar keep. After consuming that pint, ol’ spaghetti stains says that for a pitcher of ale he could produce another cup of juice from the same lemon. The bar keep eagerly takes him up on the challenge. After a couple of hours of intense effort, a cup of lemon juice is produced from the same lemon. Incredulous, the bar keep asks him the secret of his success. Ol’ spaghetti stains confesses that he used to be a ASHO reg.

      Although the lemon analogy is a stretch, I have witnessed several times when a scientology mark has been drained of far more than they can ever hope to repay. Bankruptcy, financial ruin and worse soon follow. What’s worse? Losing friends and family you “borrowed” money from promising quick repayment that can’t be made. And still the regges are after more if you’re stupid enough to fall for their pleas again.

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  7. “Solve it with Scientology”. This is one of those datums that have a core of truth and workability. That’s what always tricked me into continuing Scientology. That’s the only workability in Scientology, and I always say it’s not original.

    This one breaks down because Scientology has zero workability, but I didn’t realise that.

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    • Ms. B., the missions seem to have pioneered some of the brutal sales techniques – or at least helped pilot them. A while back I decided to research what actually went on in the missions in the 1970s and early 1980s, and found accounts of all sorts of hard core practices including relentless exploitation of people’s “ruin” followed up by unjustifiable over-promising of results, pile-on “gang bang” style techniques and use of hidden microphones, plus mis-use of credit including fraudulent loans – very reminiscent of what we now hear complaints of Scientology orgs doing in more recent times.

      I don’t know why the missions of that era get seen through rose-colored glasses and treated with such nostalgia, except that a few of the smaller ones must have been more friendly places, and those former members still around commenting must have been lucky to have avoided much of the worst of the rip-offs and abuse. One or two of the missions were even running their own fraudulent credit unions, where not only members but under-paid staff were taking out loans, and eventually it resulted in a law enforcement raid and criminal case – a bit of inconvenient history that’s apparently mostly been swept under the rug.

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  8. I’m surprised that DM lets them do a Go Fund Me thing on line, because this reflects badly on DM too.

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  9. Things looking bad for old Mitch
    Needs money or he’s in the ditch
    To hell with exchange
    That concept is strange
    The wog world can be a real bitch!

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  10. Vaughn Young was correct when he stated that the Internet was Scientology’s Waterloo.

    To get new members, Scientology depends on controlling the narrative starting from the point you walk into take your Free Personality Test.

    Google has obliterated Scientology’s ability to do that.

    The Pandemic has created unprecedented stresses in Scientology that they don’t have any solutions for. (There’s that favorite word of yours, Mister Danny Sherman—unprecedented.)

    I’ve noticed that during the last few months, major businesses have gone under, declaring bankruptcy. Hertz, JC Penny, 24 hour fitness and Gold’s gym, Chuck E Cheese’s, on and on.

    In the above cases, these businesses were either already in severe trouble, or they had no ability to adapt their business models to the Pandemic reality, or both.

    Scientology has both. It’s been in decline for 30 years and has been on the ropes for at least the last ten years. And the only way it has found to be able to “adapt” is to push low-cost extension courses done at home.

    Scientology doubtless thinks that “as soon as the economy opens up”, things will get back to normal for them.

    Oh no no no, Scientology. What few parishioners you have left have been saddled with unsustainable debt. Not all of them are able to even pay rent now that they have no jobs like everyone else.

    They’ve been home, bored, and reading bad shit on the Internet.

    They’ve taken A Great Pause like everyone else, and have learned what it feels like to not have to be on your hamster wheel—of Mandatory Briefings, Events, trips to ethics, turning in their student points, and countless other now-they’re-supposed-tos.

    I have no illusions that Scientology is about to immediately disappear. But it is going to take a severe body blow from this pandemic that will surely hasten its inevitable demise.

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    • To be become a Scientologist, one enrolls in the Hubbard Academy of Hypnotic Acceptance or Haha.

      In this training, you learn the importance of never questioning Hubbard and suppressing your ability to think for yourself. When it’s proven that you are in total agreement with him and are giving the majority of your time and money to Scientology, you are a Scientologist.

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      • But thinking for myself is perhaps the only thing I was born with that is mine and can never be taken away from me so long as I live and I refuse to join any cult. I like to think for myself and refuse to give up the right to do that.

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    • Mr. Doe, your assessment is dead on, literally for them. I’ve known Mitch for years and know the Brand Mission. He is one of the die hards. He should have stuck with his music as he is a good guitar player. Of course pursuing music is a dilettante’s pastime. selling Scientology is the only relevant vocation. That’s why Michael Duff is only playing for cult events now, and he is a webmaster as his day job.
      The virus is a definite severe blow to the cult. It won’t be long till even dedicated members will start to wake up. I’ll be there for that day.

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  12. I knew Mitch and his wife Dori, ( dark hair purple jacket ). My buddy was his selectee. The 3 of us would frequently go out to dinner. Mitch is a very likable guy. He is OT8, highly trained. He knows the tech forward , backward. Yet despite all of this he still cant make the Mission viable by simply selling Scientology. The overhead on a mission must be very low. Rent, lights , water, staff not paid. How much could all that be ? Yet he still has to ask for a handout ? PATHETIC.

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    • This failing mission has been failing for a LONG TIME. I remember back in the 90’s or early 2000’s Mitch being at Flag for a long time waiting around. I asked him why he was always just waiting around and was not going in session? He said he was on the OT VII check to see if he was going to be allowed to complete OT VII. I said what’s the hold up? HE wouldn’t talk about it. So I asked a good friend, Divona Lewis, who knew everything since she was a Power FSM, and she said that Flag finally sent him home UNattested to VII because they told him he needed to get the MIssion in a higher condition before they would let him attest to OT VII completion. I was aghast. I said, but it’s a technical CS point. If he has reached the EP, they can’t force him to keep auditing on it. She said yes they can and they did and he was not completing until he got the stats up at the Msn.

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      • Cyndi, I wonder how much that sort of pressure has been the only thing keeping more mission holders from throwing in the towel completely in the last couple of decades. I’ve seen reports that a couple of members who were mission holders have gotten into trouble in recent years, and been declared or at least replaced under some sort of cloud, and I wonder if a lot of it doesn’t have to deal with the near impossibility of “making it go right” when it comes to mission stats, along with missionholders no longer being willing or able to actually subsidize money-losing operations.

        Thanks for the interesting report about the inside machinations. The CofS wouldn’t care if all the time someone was spending on Scientology, especially OT7’s strenuous requirements, was hurting their regular business – but when it’s a CofS mission then it’s an important “ethical” matter or whatever. I actually had some dealings with someone who was on OT7 and having that and other Scientology demands causing financial problems in their business, which a couple of years later turned into one of the infamous cases where things went tragically wrong.

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        • PeaceMaker the ONLY things keeping Mission holders in place is threatening to take away “OT eligibility” and forced disconnection from family and or income sources. A Mission is supposed to be a franchise and a FOR profit center for the Mission Holder. That ceased to be at the now infamous Mission Holder conference Hubtard ordered because HE wanted all the money for himself. After that mission holders were declared if they didn’t keep the mission open and flow all money to Hubtard via the CoS.

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          • Wynski, I know of an old mission being kept open by an aging franchisee who completed OTVIII a few years ago. I think he’s an old field auditor who may well still have a profitable practice given the high-income, alternative-minded area where he’s located – and, come to think of it, he probably gets FSM commissions off of his flock as well. So it’s quite possible that his income from Scientology more than covers the expense of keeping the mission open, even though paying for it to be in high-visibility commercial space is now almost totally superfluous to his actual operations.

            Come to think of it, he may be one of what were once the standalone field auditors who I’ve read were virtually required to buy mission packagages when Scientology was making a push for that decades ago. I know for certain that some of the missions that disappeared in decades past were really just small office or home-based field auditing practices. So I think it’s pretty likely that some of the small remaining missions are actually more private field auditing practices, forced by Scientology requirements to bear the cost of maintaining unnecessarily large publicly-accessible locations, cutting into income but still not necessarily putting them in the red.

            But I agree, a lot of missions now must operate at a loss as far as Scientology goes, supported by mission holders who have other sources of income, and pay to keep them open as one of their forms of obeisance to the CofS.

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            • So true, Peacemaker and Wynski. And to add to that, the Sunland Mission of Sunland, CA for many years had an OT or two paying the electrical bill on the place and the rent too because they were so downstat they couldn’t cover any of that. I think when the OT ran out of money is when the Sunland Mission closed its doors completely. (This is not the same one as the Foothills Msn which is still in biz.) I got this insider bit of into from my daughter who was on staff and knew all the behind the scenes things at that time.

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              • Right Cindy. The mission in Montrose on that shop filled street with tons of foot traffic was the last scamology thing standing in that area. Sunland had no real traffic as far back as the 90’s.

              • Cyndi, thanks for confirming another case of missions being subsidized – I forgot to mention that in some case “whales” or local members are roped in to help pay the bills, too (and reportedly sometimes at orgs, as well).

                I’d love to know how Foothills gets by. We see them quite often here in promo pieces, so they obviously have an energetic mission holder, but I suspect that’s also someone who’s propping them up financially – or maybe they just do a good job of hiding the fact that they really run another businessout of the commercial/industrial space that they’re in, allowing them to host the mission.

                Foothills is also on my list of missions to check on eventually and see how they’ve weathered the current crisis. I’m guessing that it will be the nail in the coffin for a lot of struggling ones – and provide missionholders who’ve been carrying them, with an excuse to get out from under the financial burden. Though it would be typical that first missions would nominally continue to exist, and just switch their address to a mail drop or the missionholder’s home.

                I just checked the CofS official list, and two of the missions that were obviously on their last legs, bouncing around between low rent spaces, Milwaukee and Cleveland, no longer even have addresses. Also, it was recently reported that the New Orleans mission moved into the missionholder’s home. That’s the wave of the future in Scientology’s “expansion”….

            • Most likely true Peace. I don’t of an OT 8 “mission holder” in Spain that has a similar set up. Or at least he did when I lived over there about 16 years ago.

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              • Wynski that mission in Foothills is on a busy shop-filled street, BUT there is no door to get in on the high traffic street. The door is around back in the parking lot. So you have to know where it is to go in. There is no signage on the busy street side. In the parking lot they have covered their big window with posters etc so as to keep people from looking in and taking pictures. There was an ex Scn in the area who used to take pics of the empty Msn and send the pics to Mike and they didn’t like that!

  13. The sad thing is that they all look so happy, like this is a good thing. At least they don’t look undernourished.

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  14. I am surprised that we haven’t seen more go fund mes or straight out begging in the streets for the mission and mOrg network. I suppose that many if not most if not all of the staff at all of the mOrgs filed for unemployment insurance during the shutdown. But I have to wonder if they were really entitled to those payments. Hell, they probably made more on the dole then they did on commissions.

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  15. Asking for charity. Such a pity.
    Where is all the tech to clear and fix planet Earth?
    What the hell are you asking for if you can’t deliver anything?
    What do you ask for donations to pay for what?
    Where does this money go?
    How are they invoiced?

    Closing is much more decent than being there between the feet and asking others to keep you alive against natural laws.

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  16. They say “OT power Now”.
    After seventy years of Hubbard’s “tech” never creating a real OT, that is a very bold lie.
    I did review the grade chart the other day and OT VIII was listed as “handle amnesia on the whole track”. The other OT levels up to XV were marked “Not yet released’. I learned on OT VIII that Hubbard was basically Zoroastrian. Whey didn’t you tell me up front that you were chasing the evil entities of an ancient religion that you only mentioned once? Now that is amnesia. On OT VIII you listed yourself as the anti-Christ, a politician, and a savior. Hey bud, that is Zoroastrian. Get it straight.

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  17. Funny how the concept of ‘no free services’ and ‘out exchange’ does not apply when scientology asks you to ‘donate’ your money to them.
    When are they ever not asking for money?

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  19. Don’t know this Mitch Talevi fellow, but he sounds like a real unhatted loser, can’t even apply conditions formulas to get his mission into affluence, so has to beg for handouts and welfare. And don’t you DARE give me any “why is God” shit, either as an excuse. Sorry, Mitch, you’re failing at the Supreme Test … That’s the OPPOSITE of being an operating thetan … You appear to be a False Attest … That’s Treason, buddy … You’re a disgrace to the wonderful city of Burbank …

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    • The date was sometime in the early ninetys and Flog was pushing the ‘Come do your bridge’ at the friendliest place in the world’ bs.

      Having arrived at Flog for a ‘booster’ so to speak to speed progress I settled into my room after arrival. About 9:30 pm I got a call about a briefing that was being given only to very important people and I should make it go right and attend. Seemed a bit odd because I was NOT some sort of VIP in or out of $cn.

      I arrived in a small room and Mitch Talevi introduced himself and then introduced me to Charmagne Rogers. It was about 10:00pm. Holy shit. After the love bombing about how important I was to the future of all mankind they got down to business. A small donation was needed to avert total disaster and I was one of only a handful who could possible make that happen.

      By the time I had said no for the thousandth time ……. they had the wrong guy and so on …… I said look, it’s 3:00am and I’m going to bed. That was when Mitch informed me that NO ONE was leaving the room until this was done. It was that important.

      I said no, there would be one person leaving immediately and he could open “THE FUCKING DOOR NOW!!!!!!!!” or we would go physical …… MITCH! Whats it gonna be? Mitch is not that big and I was already so pissed I had blood in my eye. I think he sensed I was willing to go to the mat. Charmagne rattled on about how I was dashing my eternity and this would become an ethics matter.

      I said it already is because this is NOT THE FRIENDLIEST PLACE and I’m outta here tomorrow.

      I guess they spent the next few days on some sort of handling and I got more “sorry there has been a mistake” and “can we get you a free arc break session” and so on. I should have walked then but no, I fell for the ‘mistake’ and “they are being handled” crap.

      Glad to see Mitch doing so well winning as a reg again.

      Yo Dave,
      Whadayathink about yer good buddy Mitch and his dialing fer dollars campain? I say get him to twin with the feckless Howard Becker and do a full blown co audit to find their why. Try “why am I such a loser?” to full LFBD item with Eff EN and Vee Gee Eyes. And make em buy new meters for gawds sake.

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      • Wow I loved reading your story, Coop. And so glad you stood up to those two. Not many do. Thanks for sharing it.

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      • Nice story Coop. I have had many similar stories and your’s brought back some nasty memories. I guess in cult lingo I underwent a bit of ‘restim’. For me these things usually started out one on one with a reg. If there was too much resistance it turned into a tag team or gang bang style shake down. Gang bang style is the more appropriate terminology. You ALWAYS walk away feeling like you’ve just been royally fucked in the ass even though you sometimes come out ahead financially by standing your ground.

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  20. These people just can’t give up. Also, the only things coming are: The Purif, the Survival rundown, and, of course, I can’t remember third one. Maybe I need Scientology!

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    • OSD. I read what you said.
      I don’t know if you (or anybody else) really needs Scn.
      But in case can I be your FSM? I would be an honor.
      Thank you.

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    • NO NO NO OSD, you don’t need scientology, You need to be happy that you can’t remember the whole nightmare and better yet would be if don’t really care.

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  21. CAP … IN … HAND …All Brand Blvd staff to M4,5,7,9,*rate, HCO PL Bean Theory of Finance and do EACH paragraph in clay …

    Then full OW write ups on the subjects of out exchange and rewarding a down stat …

    What a bunch of non productive down stat lower condition bozos!

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    • Joe I am laughing loud. I have been an Fbo for a while and I understand. I would like to suggest adding to the cramming something about creating income sources.

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