Hmm. I guess there was a real SMERSH, but I think it stood for Специальные Методы Разоблaчения Шпионов (Spetsyalnye MEtody Razoblacheniya SHpyonov; Special Methods of Spy Detection).

Hubbard saw SMERSHs and SPs everywhere. His motto should have been “Just because I am paranoid does not mean they are not really out to get me.”

I think that the term ‘ SMERSH’ is quite descriptive in the image that it invokes.
Dianetics was being infiltrated by govt agencies from 1950 and onwards. Ron was trained in spy-ops in WWII, by the US navy.
You can argue these 2 points, and Ron’s subsequent policy solutions, but one could also argue an effort to due-diligence.
The net result is that once started, policy evolved (or devolved), and resulted in the current mess.
It is too easy to critique something out of context, and will not resolve much. And this subject does tend to persist.

Doloras, there was such a thing as SMERSH. SMERSH is an abbreviation for “smert shpionem”, Russian for “destroy spies”. It was an amalgamation of Red Army and Soviet intelligence agency counter-intelligence units formed during WWII to streamline anti-Nazi counter-intelligence activity. It was broken apart after the war. Ian Fleming later used the abbreviation for his books.

The point here is that when Hubbard was talking about them, it didn’t exist. It was just as much a fantasy as his persecution complex regarding psychs.

“I know, I know – It does not have to make sense – IT’S SCIENTOLOGY!”

Well there ya go IM 😉

Chicago-area big whale Randy Kretchmar was able to stay on staff for years as wife Sheryl Berman brought home the bacon while working at large advertising agency. When Eli Lilly moved their business to this same agency while said wife was senior executive, she stayed right where she was, while Greg Bashaw quit and began his downward spiral ending in his suicide. Noted in this blog earlier with OTC status by org, Randy had retreaded OT8 and Sheryl completed OT7. See, shilling for big pharma isn’t always so bad….

I watched this video too (and countless others when I got out).

It struck me that LRH lied about his marriages and I thought “Why?” I wondered if he was ashamed about it because even though divorce wasn’t commonly practiced in his generation it did happen.

It then made me wonder what else he was or could be lying about. Who knows?

As for the condition of his teeth, it’s not a big surprise to me that they didn’t look so good. Ron was a smoker, which discolors the teeth. Dentistry was not advanced in the cosmetic area then. Even in general practice it wasn’t so great and many people born in his era commonly had dentures around their middle age, since root canals and crowns were not the routine treatment to save teeth as they are today and implants didn’t exist either.

We are used to seeing better looking teeth these days with all the advances in technology. Also, people are more enlightened on going to the dentist regularly for preventive care which goes a long way in health and appearance.

Re remoteviewed — I see your points. And I wonder if _Scientology_ was in charge of the world, what atrocities would have been committed against supposed “SPs,” anyone saying anything positive about “psychs” and so on.

After all, we’d rather have you dead than unable. And never fear to hurt another in a just cause. And its win or die in the attempt.

If Scientology never committed comparable overts to some of the abuses you rightly name, it may because they never got to the point that Hubbard wanted of having it be Scientologists in the courts and government to say what was right or wrong.

Yea, that’s been going on for years; “Oh yea, well it was screwed up back then, but it’s all fixed now” If I had a nickel for every time I’ve heard that….. Well I’d almost be able to buy an intensive.

Another example of how the church is not following its own policies as set forth by LRH.

They get new staff off the high of the new org, coercion of OTs, or a naive young person who’s had a win or two. Then, because they pay no living wage, life gets more and more difficult to sustain and the staff drifts away. It’s a classic roller coaster caused by good old fashioned suppression, aka, someone’s stupid idea that humans don’t need food or shelter.