Ann – I don’t see it that way. She’s just a cute little girl striking a feminine pose. Little girls like to play dress up. Dressing up in a burka wouldn’t be much fun. I used to dress up like Hopalong Cassidy if anyone remembers that 1950’s cowboy show. Even Mr. Hubbard liked to play dress up.

As I understand it, when you astral plane or astral project you remain attached to your body with a silver thread or something. Scn talked about exteriorization which would be out of the body with no attachment at all which might be scary. I’d prefer to remain attached to my body with the silver thread and the e-meter cans so I could get back between my ears when the exploration was over.
(thursday funnies)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_plane

I’ll bet that it’s the cell number of a sea org ” missionaire ” from L.A.

Brought to you by scientology.

Just think about that for a minute.

This is just so fucking WRONG on every fucking level.

I love ‘ya scientology.

You make me laugh out loud almost every day, from your sociopathic COB, to your empty gilded buildings, please keep on bringing the comedy gold!

Ha Ha Ha!

unelected – Me too. The guy in the Super Power ad looks like he’s getting ready to use his e-meter to go astral planing around the universe. That’s some cool subliminal advertising.

PM – I LIKED the OT Success Stories back then! It gave me something to shoot for. I recall being annoyed when they came out with new rundowns. They cost a fortune and you could only get them at Flag. I was hoping that OT8 was the end of the road or top of the bridge and I would BE THERE in full OT-ness! Exterior with full perception seemed radical but I thought I might pick up an extrasensory perception or two along the way. Thanks for the memories.

The Hubbard quote that “Ethics are the factors of survival” is indicative of how he redefined the term and took a bizarrely Darwinian, survival-of-the-fittest approach to spirituality. That goes hand-in-hand with his and Scientology’s egoistic, ends-justifies-the-means thinking.

The Columbus OTC seem to be the only people left they can really count on to volunteer at the org, according to that chart, which is probably indicative of how they’re shrinking and struggling – and yet being put in a massive new facility.

p.s. Tony Ortega has a piece today showing just what sorry shape the Albuquerque org is in – my guess is that they have taken down their signs in preparation for a typical move to even cheaper space on a month-to-month lease, while they

https://tonyortega.org/2019/04/26/scientology-breaking-bad-signs-of-desperation-in-both-hemispheres/

Richard, remember that in Hubbard’s time there were publications with goofy things like OT stories, plus Ron’s Journals and other public issues from him telling tall tales and making outlandish promises. If you look at the old magazines, newsletters, and promo pieces, they definitely look strange in their own way, though when Hubbard was still alive they focused more on new tech – introduced to supposedly finally do what had been previously been promised, and failed – and the need to save the planet from some imminent apocalypse, or at least to avoid the monthly price increases (Hubbard’s response to the inflation of the 1970s, and his growing avarice).

The current regime doesn’t have Hubbard’s personality or the ability to continually introduce new “tech,” so they have to work somewhat different different angles. It’s reached a pretty mundane level of money-grubbing, but it’s also not entirely without precedent.

I did a quick check, and here for instance Tony Ortega has some of those cheesy old OT “phenomena”:

https://tonyortega.org/2018/04/18/spinning-cars-self-healing-cuts-more-ot-ghost-stories-from-scientologists/

Jeffrey Augustine has an old piece promoting OT III (not VIII, IX or X) as the “Breakthrough to the Spirit World”:

https://scientologymoneyproject.com/2015/09/13/scientology-church-spokesman-karin-pouw-destroys-scientology-ot3-ot8/

Part of the problem is that they seem to be making fewer ads for high-level services, and more ads for outright regging.

I loved those mysterious ads that at least promised to let you peek behind the curtain of immortality, or made the e-meter seem like a science fiction instrument.

I don’t go the details of the promotion pieces. In my pre DM days I don’t recall any such goofy advertising but it probably existed to some extent, mostly advertising the latest and greatest new rundowns being offered. I guess with current printing tech it’s easy to print glossy promo and send it out if that’s what is done. I don’t know where these promo pieces appear. Magazines? Mail outs?

Somehow I inadvertently ended up on Ken Wilber’s “Integral Life” email list. About once a week I get a promo piece from them. Maybe the CoS currently doesn’t try to keep members off the internet and does likewise, assuming true believers won’t bother looking at internet entheta.