This recent article appears to spell trouble for scientology's Sea Org recruitment efforts. For decades, scientology has exploited the immigration laws to bring foreigners into the country under the guise of them being "religious workers." In fact, the vast majority of those so brought in ended up doing menial jobs (housekeepers, gardeners, filers etc etc) that are NOT what this sort of visa is for. It has been a tremendously valuable "hook" to get people from Eastern Europe and Central and South America -- offering them a visa to get into the United States. It is a pretty attractive … [Read more...]
Flag Christmas J&D Sing Along
Christi Gordon sent me copies of these pages which were created at Flag, Christmas 1976. They are the lyrics for a musical performance that was part of the annual Bosun's party (I wrote about the infamous first Bosun's Party at Flag in 1975 in my book). The lyrics would be considered horrendous "J&D" now -- Hubbard had not yet invented that term which was announced in his Bulletin Jokers and Degraders in February 1977 (maybe he got a report about this performance?). Some of the notable lines: No need to panic, it's just another bomb threat The citizens of Clearwater … [Read more...]
Chicago Being Manned With SO Members
This has become the new norm in scientology. Spend tens of millions of dollars to buy and renovate a building in a city with few scientologists. The inability to find staff to man the organization results in Sea Org members being sent to do so (Sea Org members can be ordered around to go wherever, much as they would like to be able to do so, they cannot order people to join staff). Dave Parker was the ED of Chicago org for many years. He started the org. Today he is not on staff. If it is SO important and the greatest thing ever, why not? Sadly, Sea Org members sent to these outer … [Read more...]
Scientology: the Child Friendly Religion
From the recent FBI release, a letter sent to the St Petersburg Times in 2010. This may have been put on the SP Times website back then, and may not be something new, but I had not seen it before. It's a doozie. It is a compilation of lies, nestled in the usual "other religions have practices like ours" and repeated "anyone who tells you something different than what we say is a liar." The numerous, heartbreaking, independent yet similar stories of Sea Org members being coerced/forced to have abortions is addressed with the flimsiest response "we don't advocate abortion" and anyone … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Ridiculous Claims of “Expansion”
Captain Miscavige regales his sheeple with over-the-top claims of "unprecedented expansion" at every event he holds. The flowery Shermanspeak pours forth and the adoring crowds eat it up. They don't ever seem to remember what was said in the previous event, let alone last year or 5 years ago. If they kept track of the claims they would quickly realize they are utterly ridiculous. Over the years, numerous countries have "fully adopted LRH tech" and the military of literally dozens of nations have "embraced the Way to Happiness" and international corporations are "now operating on the LRH … [Read more...]
How Many Sea Org Members Are There?
This promotional item claims there are 6,600 Sea Org members. That is the absolute best case scenario -- any figures ever put out by scientology are exaggerated, if not completely made up. It's probably a thousand or more less than that, but we will take them at their word. 1,200,000 people for each SO member to clear is a pretty tall order. Especially as in the entire history of scientology, they have not yet cleared 10% of that number. Yes, in 70 years they aren't even close to 120,000 clears. They continue to hover around half that number. There were this many SO members in … [Read more...]
What is the Political Affiliation of Scientologists?
Over the years, many people have asked about the political views and affiliations of scientologists. Every time I ask for questions for a listener Q and A episode of the Fair Game Podcast, this question comes up. Of course, while there can be no blanket generalization about the politics of a group composed of individuals, individualism is not encouraged in scientology. One is expected to toe the party line. So you tend to see a lot of people subscribing to the same views about everything. Thanks to Aaron Smith-Levin taking the time to count voters registered at scientology buildings in … [Read more...]
Thursday Funnies
An International Top Executive Not top enough to be named... But this is going to "blow you away" Never heard that before. Wonder what happened? The WTH "movement" in 2014 seems to have petered out Kiddie Corner Sad 13,000 scientology staff in the world? Not a chance -- but even if there was, each one is responsible for clearing 573,709 people? You want to advertise this? Sounds exciting Not really. Maybe the only way... ...they can pretend they are "allied" with a legitimate … [Read more...]
Recruitment Day
My old friend Andy Porter sent in another article, and some more of magnificent photography (The last one I published is here) Recruitment Day It was late 1980 and I had been in Scientology for a few months, I’d completed the Communication Course and the Purification Rundown at the Bellevue Mission and I was doing auditor training when a FLAG World Tour came to town. They were looking for people to work in the Universe Corps! Here was an opportunity to get right to the top of the Bridge. The coolest thing you could do, on the WHOLE planet was to be an auditor, and they were … [Read more...]
Episode 63: Former SO Member Nora Ames
This week we welcome Nora Ames, former SO member and outspoken whistleblower concerning the hypocrisy of scientology's rampant homophobia. She has one of the most incredible and harrowing escape from the Sea Org stories. We cover it in some detail, as well as what she did to get her mother out of scientology. Both her father and mother were scientology Guardian Office workers. Nora's video from 2016 on Tony Ortega's Underground Bunker. Direct link to video on YouTube: In the episode, Leah says to Google the Guardian's Office. These days, the Wikipedia … [Read more...]