Mike Rinder's Blog

Something Can Be Done About It

The Impossible Dream

By 77 Comments

Done?

Since Day 1 the target has been 10,000.

Now suddenly they cave and declare victory when they reach 75%?

Let’s not forget this has been going on now for 30 years. Trying to get people “Onto” (“or through” which is absolutely meaningless) Solo NOTs.

In 30 plus years 7500 people on planet earth have reached the top of the Bridge. That is a TINY number of people. A large number of the 7500 are no longer alive or scientologists. A large number started and never completed the endless level.

The entirety of Europe has apparently achieved 800… And they are PROUD of this?

At this rate, they have another decade to go.

And by the way this is taken from a quote by Hubbard about “just 10,000” great thetans could shift the world, when the population of earth was about 3.5 billion… Their target at this point is correctly 20,000. Like everything else in scientology, they are going backwards. Their rate of “clearing” is being outstripped by the population increase by orders of magnitude.

The only place scientology is large and important is in the minds of its members.

Comments

  1. The Scientology Twitter page has only 99k followers, worldwide.

    This makes Lynyrd Skynyrd 60% more popular than Scientology, 160k followers, and most of that band died years ago.

    Reply

  3. *DONE!*

    that’s scientology, alright: DONE. 800 “clears”(however they’ve been redefined recently) in ALL of Europe. In 30+ years? ?? Does that still include St Hill? As an American, I’ve lost track whether the UK is or isn’t in the EU any more. But Ireland IS?? Makes as little sense as scn, lately.

    Reply

    • Zenster gave us:”The Scientology PR machine is very familiar with the old PR maxim:Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”

      Thanks for reminding me to look it up.
      According to Google —or wiki :
      “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”; it was popularized in the United States by Mark Twain and others, who mistakenly attributed it to the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli.

      I like to try to get attribution as right as I can.

      Reply

  5. Next GAT level is the end of endless fake BTs rundown. The cog on this one is, but with emotion, now:  ‘’Damn, I mocked them all up, them fake BTs!’’
    Go to your reg, and get $1,000 off your first 100 hours!

    Reply

    • That’d be closer to “Get $100 off of your first 1000 hours.” Can’t give anyone an honest discount, of course.

      Reply

      • AND, the “End to endless fake BTs R/D” was released long ago, as OT VIII and has since been “New and improved”

        Reply

  7. If /50 idiOT sevens clearing the planet made it bankrupt how can 7500 idiOT sevens make it?

    Human beings dropping their thetans make the world more sane.

    Reply

  8. The impossible Dream?

    I have my own version. In fact, I may have a few versions.

    . A world without Scamatology
    . A world without the evil squirt.
    . A world without any criminal money-grubbing filthy cults.
    . A world where L. Ron. Blubber was never born.
    . A world where the IRS would have the balls to immediately revoke tax exempt status from any scam that pretends to be a religion but is obviously no religion.

    Reply

    • Skyler, I LIKE “The evil squirt”.
      Can I steal it to occasionally mix up what I call the kid?

      Reply

  9. If the trend of this is like it was with OTVIII, there was a huge spike in the late 80s and early 90s, followed by a bust, and then settling in to a small number every year. It looks as if they may have had some additional booms and busts, perhaps the result of “stat pushes,” because they reported 436 completions in 2014, which got them to 6,700, and they apparently expected to then 10X that:

    They Are Completing 10,000 On Solo NOTs in 2015
    https://www.mikerindersblog.org/they-are-completing-10000-on-solo-nots-in-2015/

    But then they’ve only gotten an additional 800 in the last 5 years, or 160 a year – at which rate it would take them about 15 more years to get to 10,000. However I suspect they are working through their stock of aging baby boomer members, and will find it harder and harder to sustain even that diminished rate.

    10,000 may well be an unattainable goal based on the diminishing returns and dimming prospects of their boondoggle. It looks to me like that’s about what their entire truly active membership is right now, and if the photos we see with all the gray haired staff and members are any indication, they’re about to go off a demographic cliff.

    Reply

    • Peacemaker, in the next 15 years, it’s more likely that 10,000 “bitter ender” OTs will die than 2,500 more go onto Solo NOTS. I don’t expect the Feewinds to still be operating then. Dwarfenführer’s liver will most likely have turned to stone and taken the twit off to elsewhere.

      Reply

      • To complete that last thought; By 2035, I don’t expect we’ll be watching scientology, Inc. to be possible, unless the indies start something up.

        Reply

        • OOPs: need to edit before mashing the “send button.

          I don’t expect that watching scientology, Inc will be possible by 2035, as it’ll have shriveled up and blown away like an OSA operative’s conscience.

          Reply

      • Jere, the CofS seems to me like a horror movie character that keeps getting up after it appeared dead. I suspect that money, lawyers and fanatical determination will keep it going in some form far longer than could be reasonably predicted

        My guess is that Miscavige plans to do whatever necessary to keep up the illusion of “expansion” as long as he lives, and that could be 2035 or later. Outside security contractors may be required to man the doors of idle orgs, but I don’t think he will allow the closure of any of the things he has built – and built his reputation, and his hold on power, on.

        I do expect consolidation of operations in the face of shrinkage, to be touted as “expansion,” with much made of some new construction on major campuses – LRH Hall, if it replaced use of the much larger Shrine, could be a sort of example of that. Prime properties like the Freewinds could be kept running by doing things there that are now done elsewhere, while others that most members aren’t aware of could be abandoned.

        Of course game-changing “black swan” events are possible, though unless Scientology somehow loses much of its money my guess is that it’s likely it will long live on in some altered form, such as with Big Blue as a Hubbard research center in a sort of oversized version of a Christian Science Reading Room. The dark and almost Satanic CofS splinter group The Process Church of the Final Judgment, AKA the Process Church, originally British-based, now lives on in Utah as the Best Friends Animal Society.

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    • They were pushing the 10000 number in the early 80s. I helped build the 1st OT VII courseroom on the 10th floor FH in 1980.
      Excuse me, but that was 40 years ago.
      I got a thank you from LRH for my work on it.
      I was declared for ” Having Counter Intention to Command Intention”. We will never really know as I have never seen any issue.
      Mike Napier is in command of the Freewinds and DM is his second in command although neither knows dick about an engine room.
      There was an eval done by Bitty Miscaviage, then WDC Ship in 1987 which ordered Captain Napier to minimumly learn the functions of an Engineer of the Watch.
      This was never done.
      He also told a junior of mine In the Captain’s Office: Straass would lay down his life for this ship”.
      Great plan Capt, but what do you do after Straass is dead?
      What, Straass is still alive? That must be “Fake News”.
      At least declare the bastard That will teach him not to contradict me.

      Reply

      • Bill, I don’t believe DM would be “2nd in command” to ANYone these days. He knows EVERYTHING better than EVERYONE.

        Reply

        • Jere:
          I only said that because (Capt) Napier once screamed at me while pointing to his shoulder boards that “He was the only Right Arm Captain in the SO and that no-one could tell him what to do” but maybe one person could (referring to DM) ” But he would never do it!”.
          So we have 2 primadonnas in the SO who think that they know more than anyone else.
          I can tell you that neither of them know a 1/50 of what I know about the Engine Room but I do not count because I am no longer in the SO.

          Reply

          • Bill, I would have kicked him the nuts while ordering him to bend over.

            So much for no one telling him what to do.

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  13. When OT V was first started at Flag, the idea of getting rid of Body Thetans was new and generated millions of dollars in revenue. You could not even get a slot. What worked for Scientology was the fact that everyone wanted to complete and see if the OT powers emerged. Over the last 35 years everyone on OT VII who completed can attest to the fact that the level changes nothing. All the level did was drain everyone’s wallet. It was a surprise to everyone that the end point of OT VII was established as “No more BT’s”. This degraded the level. Now Scientology is stuck with a completely worthless “bridge”. Only the deeply occult can now have anything to do with Scientology. I wasted thousands of dollars hoping that Hubbard had something of value. In the end, even OT VIII was a failure. Hubbard challenged us to audit implants and reach OT. You can audit every implant he ever mentioned, as I did, and you still get not even a small view of OT powers. You can literally trace all of Hubbard back to Satan in “Paradise Lost”. Even the idea of BT’s is indirectly mentioned in the poem. You see the point that Milton was making was that as a Satanic personality you would generate the idea of BT’s . So Hubbard was Satanic and he would then naturally see BT’s all around him. It is more complicated than all of that but not necessary to cover. So Hubbard died enmeshed in BT’s and it proves Milton’s point.

    Reply

    • “Even the idea of BTs is indirectly mentioned in the poem.”

      Well, George, my friend, you’ve got me going now. I’ll have to read “Paradise Lost”.

      More accurately, re-read it, as I (dimly) recall having to read it for a high school English class and afterward do a write up of my interpretation of what Milton meant, or my interpretation of it, or whatever. God knows what I wrote. After scimming thru it with zero interest and zero comprehension I must have dashed off some bullshit that managed to get a passing grade. But his time I’ll REALLY read it and get back to you. My sophomore high school English teacher, RIP, thanks you 🙂

      Reply

    • I apologize, OSD.
      For 16 years I kept the ship going just so you and others could get fucked over.
      At least I left there in a box.
      Well not really, FP did not have the money for a coffin so they probably figured they could cremate me like they did with Lisa ( McPhereson).

      Reply

    • George, VII was like everything else on the ‘Bridge’: Didn’t do anything particularly good. In my experience, ‘Clear’, as defined in ’78, was a short period of mania followed by a deep depression. Before that, every OT III I got to know had HORRIBLE health: headaches, debilitating body pains, and incipient paranoia in a couple of “cases”. Just my informal observations, of course.

      Reply

      • My own experience was that the lower bridge was helpful.

        Now, based on what I experienced personally with the lower bridge, I had the EXPECTATION that the state of Clear and beyond would have to be really SOMETHING, you know? Extraordinary! That was my assumption. Not too unlogical an assumption, in that I had benefitted from the lower Bridge.

        Well I left before going Clear and OT so I can’t say one way or another.

        Back when I was in there were the glowing, gushing Success Stories from the OTs. “Nothing can strike me down!” “My space is so free!”
        I now know my true power!” You get the idea. Well, this kind of stuff really got me going! I wanted me some of that, you know?

        On the other hand, the OTs I knew were just as problem-riddled as Scientologists on the lower bridge and non-Scientologists.

        Money problems, career problems, frequent job changes, marital problems, divorces, do nothing kids who sponged off of them, etc., and frequently themselves sick with chronic issues like migraines, high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis, thyroid problems and cancer – the OTs I knew had, between them, these problems!

        I was mystified. Not because such problems were in themselves extraodinary, but because THESE PEOPLE WERE OTS!

        Didn’t being OT 7 or 8 HANDLE this kind of stuff?

        And if it didn’t, what the hell was the incentive for me to GO OT?

        The reported wins, the OT PR from them and from the cult was MARVELOUS STUFF and really got me going.

        But it didn’t match the reality of the “OT” LIVES I was able to directly observe!

        I DID want to experience what the OTs WROTE was OT. My imagination would go WILD after reading that stuff, say, in Advance Mag, other places.

        On the other hand, I couldn’t sort out in my own mind how the actual lives of OTs I knew could differ so widely from what was WRITTEN.

        Didn’t being able to operate as an OT HANDLE all this shit?

        Well, I guess I’m never going to know for myself, for sure 🙂

        Reply

  14. Ha Ha! A Flag Reg once told me the 10,000 number came from a precise formula which calculated the amount of free theta required to overcome the entheta on Earth, thus reversing the dwindling spiral.

    Reply

    • Yeah … That’s it … 10,000 … That’s the ticket … And you can see the beautiful Pacific Ocean from your new beach front home in Phoenix … And there’s a special offer on just today if you pay cash … Yeah …

      Reply

  15. I feel sorry for Herr Schaffer.

    A waste of time and money he will not have to devote to something that would truly build value in his life.

    Reply

    • “I feel sorry for Herr Schaffer.” Just think now he can look forward to Der Dwunkendwarfer finding ways to make him and other sheepbots do the whole thing all over again. He’ll discover previously unknown Tub O’Lard brown pearls of shitdom while on a massive bender and drag out his crayons and butchers paper and scrawl them down before he passes out. Then it’s time, after decoding the chicken scratchings on the paper, to unveil a whole new blechnology.

      Reply

  17. And you easily subtract at least 2,000 between the blown, the ill and no auditing, the ethics characters with no ok to continue solo and the purple, who are so sick that can’t solo any longer, plus the ones that died trying to complete it.

    And I am being generous. The data I use is, that around 2,002 there were between 2,000/2,500 Solo NOTs, out of with 850/925 were not soloing at all for whatever reason best known to God or the Devil.

    Reply

    • Sylvia,
      I think the reasons are actually a lot less of a mystery that what it would take god or the devil to figure out.

      So more than a third of those technically ‘on’ were really ‘not on’. Reasons which readily float to the surface are:

      1) FINANCES – can’t afford the time off work to do the drill (the cult calls it a course) – can’t afford the cost of the drill – can’t afford the cost of a sec check every 6 mos. – can’t afford the C/Sing costs.

      2) AGGRIVATION – didn’t like the constant harassment about six sessions /day; being sessionable; attending events; donating for every fucking thing that shows up including bad weather events, crises in the inner cities (especially ones where TWTH was recently distributed) and political upheavals which threaten all mankind ……………………….and so on! Oh yes …. and regging, regging, regging, regging.

      3) FAMILY – declared or not, anyone who was not ‘on bored’ as a cult member was simply not someone to hang with because they lacked the responsibility and understanding needed to salvage the planet. Your ‘friends’ would be $cientologists …………….. everyone else was a Wog, FAMILY OR NOT.

      You could plow along at lower levels without bumping into this very much but rise to the surface with the scum of the cult and it was a big, big deal. I think that caused more internal grief than most care to recognize. Many were happy to have a reason such as finance to ‘turn in their materials’.

      Add a family member in the See Ogre and you can triple everything above except time spent with said family member. That would be measured now in Micro Milly give-a-shits and as such, being very small, might require god or the devil to locate.

      Reply

      • Newcomer, great post but you’re another one who holds back. Don’t do that. Let it OUT. We can handle it.

        Reply

  18. I don’t really understand this business model. It seems like they make most of their money as people go up the bridge and they can charge them for each step along the way. If that’s the case, there is no incentive to get people to get to the top of the bridge. After they become OT VIII, then they have to reg them on other things and not the actual steps of the religion.

    Reply

    • chuckles, Dwarfenführer is getting his bucks for the 6-month sec-checks,etc. because he’s still holding out that carrot of OT levels IX, X, XI, XII, etc., ALL of which will certifiably clean up the mess they’re currently in. Guaranteed, for certain this time. All 100% guaranteed to be more on-source than Tubby (that piker) could accomplish.

      Reply

  19. “Onto OR through”. A very high percentage of those “onto’s” have never and will never complete the level. There are many reasons like , they died, they left Scientology, they ran out of money, they were one of over 100 Flag staff who were taken off the level until they redid their security clearance, while at the same time Miscavige ordered that no Class 9 be allowed to audit staff, etc. I would be surprised if 4,000 completed the level. “Complete” or “Incomplete” who cares. The whole thing is a waste of time that leads to a “house of mirrors” at the bottom of a pit. 7,500 victims of bullshit.

    Reply

    • You are so spot on correct. Even when I was on staff, I was well aware of the sorts of weasel words mgmt used to obfuscate stats into vague and imprecise figures. But we all went along with the charade. Better to have deceptively good looking stats than to have seniors constantly chewing your ass.

      Reply

  20. I know this is off topic, and it’s probably been addressed here before, but has DM completed all the way up the bridge?

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    • Peggy L – the answer to your question is a resounding NO. In fact, he’s not even been Audited in Decades.

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    • From what I’ve heard he drinks, Mcallans single malt scotch every night. So that means he would be “Not Sessionable” for the past 20 years, and unable to receive auditing..

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      • Gadfly, Belynda, Old Surfer Dude, Chris Barane, thank you for your response. I was clueless.

        So, is this common knowledge? Which brings up the big question, if so, why would anyone listen to, give money to, follow someone’s orders, who doesn’t even buy his own product? This is just, I don’t know. DM believes in power and money, not in scientology, only what scientologists can do for him.

        I guess that explains why he doesn’t have the ability to fly on to the stage like Peter Pan and glow brighter every time people applaud.

        (Gadfly, loved your version of impossible dream!)

        Reply

        • Scientologists, in the main, wouldn’t know. I didn’t know. I assumed he had done everything in Scientology.

          Reply

          • Yes, I assumed that too.

            In fact, it never occurred to me that he hadn’t done EVERY course, EVERY auditing action.

            Or else how could he possibly be qualified to be the leader of Scientology AND head of RTC?

            Oh, yeah…

            Just another bad, stupid assumption I made when in the cult!

            Reply

        • Ummm I think it was Tinker Bell that glowed more when the audience clapped – Sr. moment.

          But, I could imaging DM dressed as Tinker Bell’s evil twin.

          Reply

    • AFAICT, Dwarfenführer has elevated hisself to the top of both sides of the Bridge. Earlier, we saw him “correcting” LRH’s choice for Senior C/S Int, and he took it upon hisself to edit the “Basics”, as if LRH couldn’t get it right in 40 years. Meanwhile, it seems he hasn’t done any actual coursework or auditing in 30+ years. Most recently, he seems to be doing the “Macallans R/D”

      Reply

  21. To dream the impossible dream
    To fight Rinder and Tony O
    To lie when the stats are all crashing
    To run when the SPs all show

    This is my quest, to follow that star
    No matter the number of BTs there are
    To know that I’m right without question or pause
    To be willing to take on the psychs in this counterfeit war

    To dream the impossible dream!

    Reply

  22. I think this is an example of what they call “moving the goalposts.” I’ve also heard it said, “Keep the bar low, and you’ll never be disappointed.” And here’s a grim thought: Perhaps at some point the VIIIs will start dying off faster than they can make new ones.

    Reply

    • I think that point (where the VIII’s start dying off faster than they can make new ones) has been reached and passed quite a while ago!

      Reply

      • No Shit.
        A target needs to be both worthwhile and doable. Death is certainly more doable and since I have not done the other, maybe even more worthwhile.
        I had to settle for freaking out the OTVIII Review auditor, Joan Heller, when I ran into her in 2004 at AOLA. She was my last auditor on the ship. The last data she had on me was that I was on my deathbed in 2002. It freaked her out to see me alive in 2004.
        Oh well, they just need a cram on completing cycles of action.

        Reply

  23. They should have a party at the AO. Maybe use a nautical theme. Invite the band that was playing on the deck of the Titanic as it was sinking. Then maybe a fundraiser to buy some more atomic kool-aid for everyone. Ask me if I miss it!!

    Reply

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