One of our favorites joins us this week, Mat Pesch. Mat was formerly in charge of the money-making and money control divisions at the Flag Land Base -- the single largest source of revenue for scientology on earth. Mat joined us on The Aftermath S 2 Ep 9 The Business of Religion. His no nonsense explanations of the inner-workings of the scientology business machine are at times humorous, but always horrifying. We cover a lot of ground in this episode. Mat was the Dissemination Secretary, over the 2nd (of 7) divisions of a scientology organization responsible for marketing, booksales and … [Read more...]
The Hubbard Hall Boondoggle. Enough Already
Here is the latest list of donors suckers for this ridiculous boondoggle. In March of this year Tony Ortega put the latest list on his site along with what each level of crazy cost to reach and how many deluded donators they had snared. Here is an update: And some math to help us understand what is really going on: LRH Hall Member: $25,000 In March this list according to Tony had about 300 suckers. It's now about 350. 350 x $25,000 = $8,750,000 Elite Member: $50,000 In March Tony counted about 75 of these. Today there are 102. 102 x $50,000 = … [Read more...]
Bob Duggan — Still Very Much the Scientologist
The latest edition of the L. Ron Hubbard Hall fundraising propaganda contains a two page spread on Bob Duggan. If you wade your way through the bullshit and spelling and grammar errors, you get to the most incredible statement anyone has ever made about this ridiculous hall. Comparing it to the Taj Mahal and Versailles Palace is the height of foolishness. This theater is planned as a small auditorium (if it ever gets built) -- there are probably 200 of this size around the US, almost every major college and certainly every major city has one. Even Clearwater itself has Ruth … [Read more...]
The Biggest Scientology Boondoggle Of All?
Even in the world of scientology relentless money-grubbing for everything, perhaps the biggest boondoggle ever is the "L. Ron Hubbard Hall." This is a project that is even LESS needed than "ideal" org buildings. Some orgs have resided in shitty premises for decades, so there is some merit in improving their facilities. Though of course not to the extent of moving tiny, failing orgs into 50,000 sq ft buildings in industrial parks replete with custom furniture and carpets. But there is no need whatsoever for an "event facility" dedicated to scientology events. They cannot fill Ruth Eckerd … [Read more...]
The LRH Hall of Mirrors
They’re still trying collect money for this hall, perhaps the greatest boondoggle in scientology history -- and that is saying something. They can't even fill Ruth Eckerd Hall. And they want to build an even larger facility. For what? One event on Hubbard's birthday each year? Or perhaps they will move NY's, and IAS to this facility too and they will have 3 events a year (and the attendance will dwindle even further as the novelty of a single event each year will wear off fast). Even 3 events a year is no reason to build an "event hall." Literally, they have come up with a phony excuse … [Read more...]
The L. Ron Hubbard Hall Money Making Machine
Scientology is still hard at it, raising money for the completely superfluous auditorium they say they are going to construct next to the Super Power building. And they are sending out new promotional pieces about it at an increasing rate. This is a very recent fundraising letter and there is also a whole magazine devoted to the subject: This is the cover of the mag... It is a strain for them to come up with reasons why anyone should be giving money to such a boondoggle. That this is going to be an event hall "large enough to hold every international … [Read more...]
The “LRH Hall”
The L. Ron Hubbard Hall will be "opening soon" as announced by David Miscavige in December 2014. It is absolutely amazing how they can keep coming up with new ways to bamboozle the sheeple into handing over money. Predictably, this "L. Ron Hubbard Hall" is going to be one of the harder pitches to make. Apart from its name, it has NOTHING to do with L. Ron Hubbard. It is simply a forum for David Miscavige to hold his events instead of Ruth Eckerd Hall (the same 2300 seat venue they have been using for 20 years or more despite their "unprecedented growth"). This is even less appealing than … [Read more...]
It Didn’t Take Long
It was clear to everyone this was coming. The SuMP launch is done. Funny, haven't seen any shows broadcast yet on the airwaves - not TV or radio or even anything on the internet?? You can be sure that if someone else "opened" a "broadcast center" it would begin broadcasting. Ideal orgs will continue, but there are too many areas where they already HAVE an empty ideal org or there is absolutely NOTHING happening even when they have a "new" building (Hello Philly? Detroit, New Haven, Chicago etc etc etc). The dead ideal org horse has been beaten to dust in all but a few cities. So what's … [Read more...]