PM – Well, first off, it is a mission. From experience, once they get a new person, the vultures come-a-flocking to drag the newbie to an Org. These FSMs feed off the missions in a parasitic fashion, and that type of abuse goes all the way up the chain with Orgs getting poached for staff and public for Sea Org and Flag respectively. It’s one big feeding frenzy in Scientology, and I wouldn’t necessarily say that a failing mission is indicative of the health of the overall Church. The fish eat each other in this Game, where nobody ever wins because their Dynamic is marginalized for the ‘greater good’, which is not some abstract idea but the greedy nickname of the Chairman of the Board himself.

This is what happens when a Game is mocked up based on Survival. A loser take all phenomena, and by loser I mean greedy bastard.

And the smell of fear and paranoia… among other things.

Dotey, thanks for the skinny about your local org. I think a lot of us were suspicious that the pandemic would break the hold of Scientology on some of their members, and it’s particularly interesting to hear that seems to be happening with regulars and not just some of the more tenuous hangers-on.

Hopefully we will get more insider reports about what’s going on at various orgs. I’m particularly curious about just what is causing people to drop away, and while it seems obvious that quite a few members would just have time and breathing room to reflect on their involvement, I’m curious about whether some have gotten caught up in other involvements like Qanon.

GAP, Foothills is a particularly active, or at least ambitious, mission, as we’ve seen from the promo pieces that they churn out including for activities not obviously tied to Scientology (but probaby covert recruiting) like dances at the studio in the same building complex. So they’re an interesting case to watch. For example:

https://www.mikerindersblog.org/making-an-ideal-world/

https://www.mikerindersblog.org/tag/foothills-msn/

They apparently have a very energetic mission holder, who I’m guessing may even have deep enough pockets to help things going. Since they seem to occupy a relatively large space but have minimal clientele, I thought they might be one of the locations that wouldn’t survive the pandemic – and it still remains to be seen what the fallout from that is. They are a bit of a bellweather, whose attempts to reopen are worth keeping an eye on as a gauge of what might be going on elsewhere in Scientology.

https://buddhabellybirth.com/single-post/2021/03/10/let-children-think-for-themselves

There were notices on the website mentioning “Institutional Purchases”. Now that the institutions have raked in a couple trillion dollars from free and easy government student loans some legislators want to forgive student debt and let the taxpayers pay it off or add it to the national debt. That’s big government and politics.

Jere – That reminded me of a quip someone once made, “Scientology will persist until the last two Scientologists write Knowledge Reports on each other.”

Thank Xenu for stimulating conversations on blogs.

It’s Ezekiel’s Wheel or the Mother Plane as referred to in the NOI. From the wiki article on the NOI:

The Mother Plane and Ezekiel’s Wheel

Elijah Muhammad taught his followers about a Mother Plane or Wheel, a UFO that was seen and described in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel in the “Book of Ezekiel”, in the Hebrew Bible.

Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of beryl. And the four had the same likeness, their appearance and construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went. And their rims were tall and awesome, and the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.

— Ezekiel 1:15–18 (ESV)

Farrakhan, commenting on his teacher’s description in 1996, said the following:
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us of a giant Mother Plane that is made like the universe, spheres within spheres. White people call them unidentified flying objects (UFOs). . . . . . . .

Kronomex, that toasted ham and cheese sandwich sounds GOOD!