Seems to me that someone has already thought of documenting all of the violations of the tax exempt status contract between the IRS and scientology. Then feed that information to the media which is great at pissing off everybody. The people, would demand that the IRS take away scientology’s tax exempt status because the people hate it when someone doesn’t pay their “fair” share. That should provide enough pressure for the IRS to take action.

For the same reason they don’t arrest a sadist for beating up a masochist.

Stat, thanks for that bit of insight into what’s actually going on in the orgs. It’s that sort of report that helps me form as accurate as possible an impression of the state of things, and also confirms just how the orgs are suffering in recent years in spite of trying to keep up a brave face and continue on with the “ideal” campaign.

Last I knew, probably around or just a bit after the time of the Debbie Cook e-mail, it seemed as if orgs in larger cities typically had fields of 100 to 150 people who would show up at least once a year such as for major events, with only about half of those, or around 50 to 70, really active. Orgs in the largest cities might have done only slightly better – there seems to be a sort of size limit on orgs, probably due mostly to one facility not really being able to serve a large metro area conveniently* – and so we saw a while back that Chicago (3rd largest city in the country) had just over 130 people confirmed to attend a big holiday event.

It sounds as if those numbers have dropped significantly in recent years. Though maybe the number of really active and committed members hasn’t gone down so much, as overall numbers. This would also help explain the seemingly desperate “recovery” campaigns, trying to get people involved again. It’s also very interesting if the proportion of UTRs attending the major events is that high.

* In a large metro area a single location is really only within convenient travel range of a small portion of the population, particularly when it comes to optional activities other than work and attendance once a week or more frequently. This, incidentally, is a fatal flaw of the “ideal” scheme.

Thanks, total slime from the IAS.

george especially since in ’88 lifetime memberships only cost $2,000 🙂

I understand that using the common Scientology language can speed things up between people who know the terms. I’m not faulting you on that. I just want to caution you that Hubbard coined his own terminology for a reason and that was to shape the possible thought processes of his minions. There are lies hidden in most of those terms, and it can be dangerous to keep using them without stopping to ask yourself what they really mean and whether using them has affected your thought process. Using “thought-terminating cliches” is a common tactic of thought-control cults like Scientology.

This can be true of ordinary language, too, btw. It’s just a special danger for former members of cults. Scientology is particularly pernicious that way. It often takes former members years or even decades to deprogram themselves, and I attribute a big chunk of that difficulty to the fact that the group jargon continues to shape their ability to think clearly and critically about the actual concepts.

I know in the tiny Morgue in our big city – I have friends that go to events just to see who shows up. They are spies for the UTR members who want to know what is happening in the morgues. There are quite a few of us out here.

The morgue here is shrinking like crazy each and every year. Since Debbie Cook’s email – about 1/2 of the members are gone! Vanished into nothingness. The people left are the hard core Scientologists that have simply invested too much money and time and their fragile egos can’t handle being wrong. So they will most likely die to be right

How wrong can a Scientologist BE? DEAD!

How right can a Scientologist be? They may be filled with shame and regret but they will be ALIVE and can heal from the betrayal.

Mike, among the various charge cards, loans, etc., I took out a HELOC (Home Equity Line of Credit). It was completely arranged by the reg with an out of state branch of a savings & loan. I never filled out a loan application, there was no appraisal or inspection. Several months later the S&L fraud dept. called me. They were investigating the loan officer who was no longer with them. It seems he was located in Portland, OR but was making loans on property all over the country. I was able to assure them that I was a real person, but apparently the loan officer was not licensed to operate in my State.

You are so right – you must be an IAS member in order to take a course or get auditing. I have a lifetime membership which I got on a two-for-one special. I kid you not. Only thing missing was a coupon. I split the $5000 with another person I didn’t even know. Such a bargain! Such a racket!

My brother and his wife are two of them. I fear for their well-being.