The key to understand the Scientology controversy is to realize that there are TWO Scientology.Scientology 1 is a rather cogent, original, and far-reaching system.
Scientology 2 is a cultish trap, a network of us-vs-them concepts that actually prevents Scientology 1 of ever becoming potent.
The two Scientology are separate but closely inter-linked. One reason for this is because both come from the same source, namely, L. Ron Hubbard.
In effect, what Hubbard did was to "squirrel" his own tech. First he came up with something remarkable, then "added" things like "the only hope for humanity", and "SPs", that made it in effect impracticable in society.
Of course Scientologists do not usually see the other Scientology (Scientology 2), just Scientology 1, and if they do they dismiss its meaning.
Critics do the reverse, they focus on the Scientology 2 and don't really see Scientology 1. If they do, they will likewise dismiss its meaning.
Both are wrong and right at the same time. They just get a partial view of what is in fact a complex reality.
It's a little bit (though not quite) like the optical trick in the picture above.
People will either see a beautiful young girl or an old ugly woman. Usually, if they see the young girl, they will have a very hard time to see the old woman, and reversely. If they finally succeed to see the other face, they may not get to see the first face again...
Then take into account that mental illusions are considerably more difficult to see and get rid of than optical ones...
3 comments:
At first I wanted very much to grant Hubbard the benefit of the doubt, and find the diamonds amidst his muck. Gradually I've been forced to conclude that he invented nothing of consequence except for a few clever and unusual indoctrination techniques.
There are of course positive elements and ideas in Scientology, but the world is not such a terrible dark place that we are thirsty for any idea that's not outright bad. In order to be worthwhile, an idea must be not only good, but interesting and unique enough to make it noteworthy against the tremendous sea that is human knowledge.
When I was young and had little experience with the many religions and philosophies which human history has accumulated, I read Dianetics and thought it seemed worthwhile and sensible. Now that I am more well read, the taste of Hubbard's writing is very sour. It contains truth, but far less than even other quack philosophies, and embedded in this constant morass of foolishness, darkness, indoctrination, deception and outright lies.
We need not drink such a trickle of truth, from such a tainted well. There are many who have labored in love and obscurity to create far greater visions. There are many philosophies long loved by many, whole rivers of unadulterated truth to swim in. Better to let Hubbard's words lie deep in the depths of our collective memory, for they can only be wisely used as an omen of danger, not a guide toward truth.
There definitely is a Scientology 1 and 2. Scientology, like all things, is neither all good, nor all bad. It is a blend of very, very good and very, very bad. The bad needs to be weeded out and ended. And the good, preserved.
The Church of Scientology that Scientologists believe exists, is gone. David Miscavige is a fake. He practices psychological warfare not Scientology and his speeches and videos are laced with lies. I speak from personal experience, having worked shoulder to shoulder with Scientology’s top executives as a high-ranking member of International Management.
I spent 25 years on staff, including a span of approximately 20 years in Scientology's secret headquarters in Gilman Hot Springs.
Recently, I decided to route out. The last straw came when David Miscavige physically assaulted and violently battered 3 individuals in my presence: Mark Yager, Guillaume Leserve and Mike Rinder (three of the highest ranking Scientologists on earth). I was not only in the same room, in one case I was standing right next to the victim when Miscavige attacked. All this transpired within a few weeks. I had endured incredible suppression in the hopes it might get better, but when Miscavige sweetened the deal by meting out potential concussions, I finally said enough.
Many dedicated Scientologists at the highest levels have known David Miscavige was a lunatic -- a textbook “suppressive person.” And we tried our hardest to make things go right. But in each case, our hopeful plans were demolished by the one person who with a remark could and did banish hundreds of us from Scientology, one by one.
Many of us stayed on for years hoping it would get better under the delusion that “it couldn’t get worse.” We were wrong. Scientology’s Int Management has been decimated. It literally doesn’t exist. It went from some 1,400 staff in 1988, down to about 300 people today -- and true enough, all those with any kind of spine or spark of independence are long gone. And now Miscavige is hard at work destroying lower organizations such as the FSO in Clearwater and local orgs with his “heavy ethics” which are really a cover so he can walk in and demolish the lives of staff.
And where are those staff now? All over the world, uniformly doing well, but having to rebuild their lives from scratch. Those of us who routed out standardly from Int Management were given $500 and a declare order which which to start over. Many of us have spent our whole adult lives in the Church. Which means when you leave, you also leave behind any family and every friend you know. Those of us who started with the Church at an early age, had no college degree. So just imagine starting over in your 40s or 50s, with $500, no friends, no place to live, no car, no credit, nothing. It keeps one busy for a few years.
But besides the challenge of starting over, those of us now on the outside all share something else, an abiding hatred for this total failure named David Miscavige. And one by one, we are starting to do something about it.
And don’t forget to follow the money. Miscavige has been making a great deal of money from parishioner donations for years. Millions! That is why his “best friend” is Tom Cruise. By subsidizing Scientology with donations, wealthy Scientologists are unintentionally and unknowingly bank rolling Miscavige himself and thereby contributing to the destruction of thousands of lives of honest Sea Org staff.
For example, through his destructive policies Miscavige forced hundreds of female Sea Org members at International Management to get abortions when they got pregnant. When people started to blow the whistle on that, he came up with the solution: he ordered nearly every husband and wife at International Management to get divorced.
Miscavige has a specific tactic that he has used for years to mow down anyone in his way. When someone is doing well, he at first rewards them and holds them up as an example. Then a few weeks later he loudly accuses them of “out-ethics” (Scientology-speak for unethical behavior). That of course is a generality, but this one-two knockout punch weakens his target greatly, because whoever he condemns is then pounced on by a legion of dupes, boot-lickers and sycophants who either A) hope to get in good with Miscavige or B) hope to buy off a similar fate by being on Miscavige’s side of the law. Since Miscavige’s allegations are always generalities, they are difficult if not impossible to disprove. Any flaw or minor failure can be re-spun as “out-ethics.”
Miscavige is a master spin doctor. With threats and inhuman treatment, such as intense sleep deprivation, the threat of banishment (and thus divorce and disconnection from friends and family) and psychiatric warfare he beats people senseless until they are willing to make up facts and statistics for his videos and speeches. If you’ve ever been to a Scientology event, you know what I mean. If you add up all the people “reached” by a handful of IAS Medal Winners it is more than all the people who exist.
Someone goes to visit their sister in another country, and that gets turned into someone set out to “rescue a nation” devastated by a natural disaster. Video crews literally hire “rent-a-crowds,” get a few people holding Dianetics books, and that is turned into an incredible saga of epic proportions. In some cases, the people with the smiling faces on video have never even heard of Scientology. Stories are invented. Motives are invented. Production graphs are invented.
Here’s the truth about Scientology’s “international events”:
LRH held one “international event” in 1977. After that, he put out an issue in the Sea Org that there were to be NO MORE INTERNATIONAL EVENTS. He forbade them! Why? Because they suppress org stats and expansion... because everyone in Div 6 is ripped off post to prepare for the event.
So after LRH died what did Miscavige do? He launched an unending stream of events that take not only everyone in Div 6 off post, but all of International Management off post. Scientology became a hype machine, racing from even to event, instead of a salvage operation. The mission of orgs became “to prepare for the next event.” The business of management became, “to write the next round of speeches and videos.” And if you think top “management” has done anything else for years, you are uninformed. They’re just glorified speech writers and performers -- and bad ones at that since they all are forced to write in Miscavige’s own trademark (and horribly cheesy) “brag and boast” style. Miscavige personally micro-manages, rewrites, re-edits and approves every single speech and video.
Every international event that has ever been held in Scientology violates explicit LRH orders. Miscavige’s international events are the propaganda machine that he uses to generate the large donations that go into his personal pocket.
All the leaders of the Church of Scientology are officially declared (suppressives) and have been for years. Like Mark Yager. And Ray Mithoff. And dozens more. Guillaume Leserve (Executive Director International, Janet Light (President of the IAS), top staff from OSA -- they’re all in the “SP Hall” -- two office trailers which once housed CMO Int. (“SP” means suppressive person or “anti-social”).
Even the term “International Management” is an oxymoron (“international mob” is more truthful since they have lacked any org board for years. There is no WDC, no Exec Strata, no CMO Int, and not even any RTC anymore. It’s all been dismantled by David Miscavige). There is only “COB’s Office.” Even Miscavige’s own wife, Shelley, a person whom he wiped his feet on constantly is, last I heard, “under watch” in New Mexico -- at the secret Archives location -- the Church of Spiritual Technology -- because apparently she suggested Miscavige was having an affair with his assistant.
When you send a report to Tech Reports Off RTC, there is no one there to read it.
Of course there’s much more. Did you know how Miscavige got IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg to grant tax exempt status to the Church of Scientology? Miscavige personally collared the IRS Commissioner Fred Goldberg in the hallway outside his IRS office and threatened to expose him. Miscavige had his people in OSA (Office of Special Affairs) hire private investigators to trail and video Fred and they had caught him in some unethical activity. Miscavige told Fred if he didn’t cooperate, he’d immediately expose him in full-page ads in USA Today. That is what Miscavige told us at Int Management one night in 1993. He bragged about it.
Since the 1980s, Miscavige’s income has been well over $100,000 a year. While the rest of us in the Sea Org made somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 cents a hour. A friend of mine who used to work in RTC told me that when she started, she received a Christmas bonus of $9,000. She felt guilty about it since regular Sea Org members only make $2,300 a year if they are lucky. When she tried to return it, she was told it had to be that big or else Miscavige’s bonus would look "out of proportion to the IRS." She was told, if you don't want to do it for yourself, do it for Miscavige.
But Miscavige doesn’t just get paid in cash. He receives tremendous volumes of camera equipment, motorcycles, cars and buildings for his personal use. He himself built a gigantic building “for RTC” costing millions that today stands empty in Gilman Hot Springs.
Financial crimes are old hand to Miscavige. In the early 1980s when L. Ron Hubbard was still alive, Miscavige secretly took over the management of LRH assets and promptly lost $30,000,000 on bad investments in the oil industry. LRH never knew. Miscavige’s solution was to invent a series of “collectible prints” -- paintings by Frank Frazetta, etc., of semi-nude women with huge breasts -- and he had Author Services Inc. (ASI) sell these to Scientologists. In other words, Miscavige tricked Scientologists across the world and literally made them pay for his mistake. LRH never knew.
Isn’t it kind of odd when the de-facto leader of a church starts peddling soft-core porn in lieu of Church services?
Is this the leader of a church? Or is this a lunatic on a warpath to destroy Scientology? The fact is, David Miscavige has done more to unmock Scientology than all past enemies combined.
When LRH was around, the Church sold services to generate money. Now it simply demands donations from Scientologists. In other words, there’s no exchange any more. It’s just outright extortion.
It’s time for Scientologists to open their eyes and confront.
David Miscavige is the Tony Montana of Scientology. Power drunk, paranoid and consumed by greed, this high-school drop out has spent most of his career snorting up not only huge piles of parishioner money but the very lives of those dedicated to helping mankind. From the start his only real skill was intimidation. He developed it to a high art, as did others of his kind: Al Capone for example.
Wow, Thoughtful - that's quite a summary. I must know you quite well as I too worked in that same hell-hole for 20 years called "Int Management". I can confirm what you've written here so well, having been an eye witness to all of it, including the physical and verbal/mental abuse dished out routinely by Miscavige. Yes, many are coming together to make the information known and hopefully this will help to bring about the needed change...
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