Scientology, why your days are numbered....

[Xenu's Boyfriend]

I was about to comment in another thread (the one about James Barbour assaulting a young woman) when I took a second look at the photographs from the event where Barbour performed.

I noticed, and not for the first time, the absence of truly young faces (people in the early twenties) in the Scientology photographs.

I know it has been mentioned before when people have posted promotional materials here - the issue of age. Despite the cult's efforts to recruit younger people with their "hip" commercials and ads, realistically: do young people really give a shit about Scientology?

I'm not trying to be an ageist, but with the issues going on with the economy, unemployment, and just how expensive it is to be a young person starting out these days, are twenty-somethings even attracted to Scientology anymore? Is it possible that Scientology will die out because it just isn't feasible for this generation? I would argue, and I won't be the first to say it, that the internet may be what permanently undermined Scientology - by taking the "mystery" out of it at the OT levels. Also, with social media, it may be harder to isolate members, deprive them of crucial information. While Scientology pathetically tries to keep up with the times, there are limitations on what they can do with Twitter, Facebook, etc, and still maintain their level of secrecy. And anyone who has a television that broadcasts one of the major news channels has seem some kind of exposé or report on the evils of Scientology, and millions of people under thirty watched the notorious "Xenu Revealed" South Park episode.

Bottom line: young people today may just not have the money to climb the bridge when an inordinate amount of them are living with their parents out of college because they can't find work in their field. I'm not saying that an organization has to be "young" to be relevant, but I feel these photos smack of desperation and fear.

I guess my question is, through some kind of bizarre "survival of the fittest" will Scientology die out on its own because (with the exception of those born into Scientology) the adherence to Hubbard's every thought and deed means that CoS cannot change and thus Scientology will one day no longer be relevant.

In other words, Scientology grew from a very particular soil that just doesn't exist anymore. For example, Jim Jones People's Temple movement thrived and grew out of a very specific mixture of the civil-rights movement, the later disillusionment and rage that people were feeling over the assassinations at that time, watergate and the crisis of leadership and cynicism that was occurring in the U.S. in the late sixties, early seventies. Without the assassination of Dr. King, Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, and the feelings of being adrift politically and spirituality, there could never have been a Jim Jones/People's Temple. It fed a need for those who believed in change and dreamed of an interracial, class-free utopia where they could come together, love one another. Then the dream spiraled into a waking nightmare.

I would argue that Scientology comes from a paradigm that was popular during the 50's and saw a resurgence in the 80's. But because it won't adapt, because young people are lot more savvy and cynical and unable to be be lured to their destruction because of a couple of cool videos, ultimately CoS will eventually die of extinction. It isn't clear if something happened to David Miscavige there there is a clear next in line. No one has replaced Tommy Davis as an official spokesperson. Clearly the people in the photos in the previously mentioned thread are doing their best to reveal the bright future of Scientology. But the same members that get hit up for money over and over are now just looking tired and sad.

 

[oneonewasaracecar]

You have a good point. The demographics are their problem.

Essentially, the profile of a Scientologist now is:

- a person who has been a Scientologist for some time.
- a person who is absent of a desire to research the truth about a topic online.
- a person who has difficulty with change.

Young people don't have that. I noticed the Sydney orgs were full of middle aged public.

Essentially, they have a net loss of public that far outweighs the very small numbers of raw meat. This sets a clock on how long it can last.

Another clock is David Miscaviges age. An asthmatic former smoker with who probably still drinks heavily. It's not just a matter of him staying alive, he has to have a sharp enough mind to run things.

I would put a clock of 20 years on both of these as a maximum and I suspect both together will have an effect much sooner.

My suspicion is that the last stand of Scientology will be in the courtroom and it will be sooner.

 

[Sindy]

I hear ya. Unfortunately sweet, pristine idealism without enough life experience, coupled with troubled times is a recipe for entrapment in cults. I hope you're right but I have been dumbfounded that the cult has been able to attract anyone at all with all the information on the Internet and how it's the laughing stock of the world and yet it still does.

One thing I do see, though, is that those who get in now don't seem to last long.

 

[Boson Wog Stark]

It could also be that some of the younger people are avoiding the events where they know they'll get regged, which is half way there to getting out. But, yeah, I would agree that it appears to be an aging groupand for all the reasons you stated so well.

Pre-Internet, a lot of young people probably used to get involved with Scientology without telling their parents and friends. Now with social media, email, even cheap/free phone calls, that becomes less likely. The relative/friends factor being informed about what CoS has to be a big factor, in addition to the person aspiring to be their thetan.

Because of the Internet, I've considered that there's got to be that moment of a person taking the first or second class, where they are curious about the expense involved as they go further, but too shy to ask. They've got to be looking on the Internet now to see how much it will cost to learn about Xenu.

One shift in my thinking about the power of CoS to snag people was when Luke and Eric came out. I had no idea that all these people were being steered to Narconon through online individuals posing as a unbiased referral services. Of course, if Narconon collapses under lawsuits, that will be gone. What that made me think though, was how many other ways is CoS luring in people that most of us don't even know about.

So my reservation is that perhaps Scientology, with its money, figuring out new ways to reach its target audience. The Craig's list ads spring to mind, and they don't even need money for that.

Young people who would still become attracted to CoS may be what Wright calls the "contrarian" -- people who love going against the grain. They'd love to adopt a set of practices or ideas that drive their parents or others up the wall, for the adventure or the shock value. These are people who won't believe anything until they try it themselves. And they really get into the contrarian aspect of it, with the prime example of that being Paul Haggis.

One of the things that kept him in so long was that he loved being in this fringe group which he undoubtedly considered to be about seeking what was true for him, that seemingly pissed so many people off and was ridiculed. Even though CoS is a cult, it attracts a lot of people who are individualists, I think more so than most other cults. And CoS is a group which promotes itself that way, of allowing individualism, seeing what is true for you. That is one element that frees it, a little bit, from the environment in which is was brewed and grew. But, still, they are saddled with a huge amount of Source, meaning meandering and contradictory BS from the 50s, including policies that exert a lot of control, squeeze money. Their Bible (Dianutty), is unreadable.

And then there's the increasing problem of Hubbard's colorful and well documented life as a liar.

One of the advantages of CoS today, compared to Hubbard's time, is the way it has morphed into all these other organizations, which sometimes catch people unaware that they are Scientology. The woman who has a religious blog, and did several pieces on aspects of Scientology, admitted that she had heard "very good things" about Applied Scholastics. This was before she knew anything about it or CoS. In my own family, I had a relative who thought Scientology couldn't be all that bad because Tom Cruise found it helpful. Then I showed him the Tom Cruise video. That fixed that. He thought it was insane. Nothing I said before that could convince him though.

CoS is very abstract for a lot of people because it has had nothing or little to do with their lives personally. One of its advantages of appearing to be so many different things is that people can pinpoint what it is, or classify it, and if one idea of Tom Cruise resonates with them, like there are too many children on Ritalin, they extrapolate that to the rest of the the ideas and behavior in Scientology. For others it may be the basic idea of getting people off drugs, teaching children how to study, or providing a simple and practical guideline for people to find the way to happiness (barf).

One thing I expected to see which I haven't seen is more short-term people coming out online. I can understand why they don't though -- it's more embarrassing than ever to admit you got sucked into this cult. My favorite of the short-term people was a woman who while taking her first course, discovered they wouldn't let her quit the course. They wanted to have her finish that class before she decided anything about CoS. So she stood up on her chair in class, and told everyone what they were doing to her. Maybe she wanted her money back. I forget. It was in The Post.

Really, I thought the people who took one course, saw something screwy, then went online, and ultimately decided to make a YouTube video about it would number in the hundreds by now. I can't think of any who have done that, although there been maybe a dozen who were in for around a year or so.

I understand why people don't. They don't want to deal with the repercussions. They want to be rid of it and that's all.

 

[Lone Star]

Young people today spend almost their entire waking moments online it seems. They look everything up. Not only that but Black PR is all over social media, which is where they spend the most of their internet time.

They have ready, fast access to the truth about Scientology that we didn't have. And yes, most of them do not have the money to "go up the Bridge" due to the lack of good jobs right now, and being saddled with college debt. Their route would be to join the SO, but again, they know what that's all about now thanks to the internet.

Tick, tock Davey.....

 

[Another Thought]

Those are good points. I was going to add that the younger generation is wholly an internet generation, here in the US, and Europe. Don't know much about the rest of the world but the money is US and Europe. Staff can apparently be recruited in countries where that is not such a big deal (South America, Mexico, 3rd world countries overseas), but there is going to be a very hard time getting public. I sincerely doubt I would have gotten into Scn. if I had access to internet resources then like I do now. I suspect anyone with half a mind will likely research online prior getting too serious, and would be more likely to walk when things got too weird or too similar to what they've read, even if they did start some service.

Historically, the 20 through 30-something set had been the prime area of staffing and leadership during the 60's, 70's and 80's from what I can tell. It would be interesting to see the data on recruitment. I have a hard time seeing that they wouldn't be losing more than they recruit at any moment. I'd love to see that as a graphic.

 

[prosecco]

There has definitely been a change in attitude over the last 5 years or so as far as the perception of Scientology. Some of that can be attributed to journalists not be afraid of litigation, but also lots more people who were at the top of the organisation speaking out, although those inside would't be affected as they would simply compartmentalise them as, 'SPs...'

Seems to me scn used to attract idealistic people, the type of people who would go on political marches, and had a healthy disregard for authority. So when there was the FBI raid, and various investigations and high profile legal cases, it was this, 'us v them' mentality. There was this incredible feeling that you were part of something big, especially when words like, 'Crusade' were being used....

But now, there is this feeling that it's just another corporate organisation wanting to sell its services where things are being judged with online reviews, and other objective criteria. So in that respect the corporate veil has been pierced to a certain extent, but most people aren't impressed by promises or the mystery that the OT levels used to carry.

The PR and marketing strategy seems to be based entirely on Tom Cruise, and at least most of the people I know think he's a total tosser.

I agree that Scn cannot withstand the information age, but am wondering whether it will go in a whimper by losing more and more members, or people vocally leaving after a dramatic event?

 

[Another Thought]

It would seem to me with all the push for books, real estate and services that don't require much overhead (Purif, Objectives), including specialty guys (e.g. auditors), that a big push is being made to hit the existing field for every dime it's worth. Apparently the vast majority of cash is getting saved. To what end or in preparation for what I don't know. I would suspect dwindling membership plays a role.

 

[Commander Birdsong]

of course, while the essentials i've decanted and used so well so long are timeless much of it is presented with topical context which is now quite dated. the world we live in is vastly different (and ironically it would be my own contention that the work of of hubbard and his colleagues immensely influensed the changes) and hubbard himself can only be understood in the context of his times. yeah, i'm sure polly and sara exagerated but i'm also sure hubs slapped 'em around some as men commonly did. neither was a battered woman; there are no recorded trips to ER's. hey, ava gardner was one of the most fantastically desirable females to walk the earth and artie shaw famously tossed her down a flight of stairs. homosexuality was not decommissioned as a psychiatric disease until 1967. lucien carr along with cassidy, kerouac and ginsburg was one of the original beatniks. he was a very handsome man and liked girls but he was getting unwanted advances from a fag who just would not back off. one night in 1949 lucien shot and killed him, went and told jack and the two of them went and got drunk. he turned himself in the next day and got a year in prison. when i was i down in dc in '93 lucien was head of the UPI office in town

the zeitgeist today is sooooooo different than the sixties and seventies. and CoS is way off base from the core virtues of the work...

 

[arcxcauseblows]

Yes many reasons I think their days are numbered

Too expensive
Secrets are not only out but even if you learn them they are still vague, mysterious and incomplete
By policy they cannot change and have to declare and harass critics and the list of critics will only grow

So their demo is old rich people who want to be delusional elite sheep for a ufo religion, that's not a large group

I hope the independent squirrels can put something more fun and effective together for the new generations

 

[Gizmo]

of course, while the essentials i've decanted and used so well so long are timeless much of it is presented with topical context which is now quite dated. the world we live in is vastly different (and ironically it would be my own contention that the work of of hubbard and his colleagues immensely influensed the changes) and hubbard himself can only be understood in the context of his times. yeah, i'm sure polly and sara exagerated but i'm also sure hubs slapped 'em around some as men commonly did. neither was a battered woman; there are no recorded trips to ER's. hey, ava gardner was one of the most fantastically desirable females to walk the earth and artie shaw famously tossed her down a flight of stairs. homosexuality was not decommissioned as a psychiatric disease until 1967. lucien carr along with cassidy, kerouac and ginsburg was one of the original beatniks. he was a very handsome man and liked girls but he was getting unwanted advances from a fag who just would not back off. one night in 1949 lucien shot and killed him, went and told jack and the two of them went and got drunk. he turned himself in the next day and got a year in prison. when i was i down in dc in '93 lucien was head of the UPI office in town

the zeitgeist today is sooooooo different than the sixties and seventies. and CoS is way off base from the core virtues of the work...

In the 1940's & 1950's you maintain " slapped 'em around as man commonly did ". Maybe that was true in the house - or neighborhood - where you grew up.

As a child in the 40's & 50's we were taught - and observed - there are no circumstances under which a man lays a hand on a woman in anger.
Do it happen here & there ? Yep. But it wasn't tolerated by the other men in the community. I think the phrase was only a cowardly man would strike a woman.

But, hey, you defend Hubbard no matter what he did or whom he did it to & in that you are showing yourself in a not so favorable light.

 

[La La Lou Lou]

When I was young we didn't think about futures much, the atom bombs were going to wipe out most of mankind any minute, so why stay in University, build a career, pay a mortgage or eat a healthy diet?

You could go and work for a few months and have enough money to pay for wads of services or to travel the world, things were cheap, you could moonlight one day a week and afford to live the rest of the week sleeping in a friends crash pad, which is where most org staff slept. Jobs were easy to find. People these days are more materialistic and have higher self esteem, they won't put up with the crap we had to in the seventies.

Circumstances are very very different now.

 

[Xenu's Boyfriend]

Post Script: I would also argue that the soil that created a lot of the Scientology "stars" also doesn't exist anymore. In other words, there was a generation of people who worked directly with LRH or who met him personally like Miscavige, Jentzsch, Yaeger, Mithoff, Rathbun, Pat and Annie Broeker (we know the names of those who were directly connected to his vision, as corrupt as it was) who believed in Scientology enough that they completely dedicated their lives to it. It was their enthusiasm and hard work that helped keep the illusion of Scientology intact in the early years.

Then there is what I consider the second generation Scientologists like Mark and Claire Headley, Amy Scobee, Hawkins, Many, Cook. There may be some overlap with the names and generations, but my point is, I don't think Scientology is creating any new stars, period. And if so, where are they?

The earlier people coasted for a long time on LRH's charisma (Yes the guy was as ugly as sin on Sunday but he had something magnetic going on somehow and he was deeply persuasive) and the newness of Scientology, the sense of discovery in the early years. Even when things went wrong, there was a still a belief that they could be made right. The second group costed on the energy of the first group, and even after LRH went completely mad, they were protected from his madness by the devotion and dedication of first group.

The problem as I see it is when D.M. took power, he created an environment that has been so punitive, so damaging - it was like he took all the cruelty of LRH, without any of the vision or insight. In other words, Sea Org members and people who could have developed into stars like Tommy Davis and a few others have been treated so brutally, there is no room for any kind of growth, change, etc, which gets back to the "what happened to the youth in Scientology" argument, not just new recruits. Even within the organization, the people who could have offered insight and guidance to the younger generation of Sea Org Scientologists have been either ex-communicated, have blown for good, or have been declared SP's and are in the hole somewhere. There is no elderly Scientology wisdom on the structural level, like other religions have. Because of CoB's sociopathology, a whole generation of Scientology elders has been wiped out.

People have talked about how complicated Shelley Miscavige has been as the wife of a despotic leader, and she's definitely committed her crimes. But like Mary Sue Hubbard, and Marceline Jones (Jim Jones) these women have also played a role in softening or "mothering" the group, and providing a more nurturing, feminine balance or occasionally a more gentle alternative (not always) to their husbands absolute testosterone-driven macho power. With Shelley Miscavige, Scientology's first lady, missing-in-action, that is no longer possible, which means that young female Sea Org members don't have her as an archetype of female leadership to follow.

The way I see it, there can never be another Mike Rinder, Marty Rathbun, Jesse Prince, Hana Eltringham Whitfield, Stacy Brooks. They are as antiquated to modern Scientology and new Scientologists as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Judy Garland, and Dean Martin are to Lady Gaga. It's just another time and another place. And Miscavige doesn't have the leadership or vision to create the environment to nurture the Scientology "Lady Gaga" if you know what I mean, so there is a gap. There are no new public Scientology artists.

Perhaps Scientology years should be designated by B.L.M and P.LM (Before and Post Lisa McPherson), because maybe that was the true point of no return. Call it Lisa's Revenge, but in my opinion, Lisa was the last Scientology innocent and she took any possibility of Scientology truly being a religion to the grave with her.

Just some thoughts.

 

[Udarnik]

Speaking of soil, the generation that made Scientology boom was the Baby Boomers. They were seeking spirituality on a grander scale than any other generation since the Third Great Awakening. As a Gen Xer, I tend to look on the failure of that with the generational 20/20 hindsight that gives my cohort such a reputation for cynicism.

Those days will never return, not even for the Boomers themselves. There are more open atheists and skeptics in society now, salting the Earth for gurus in a larger and larger circle of their acquaintances.

David Foster Wallace perhaps expressed the Gen X (and likely Gen Y) perspective on all that groovy 60s shit as well as anyone could:

I'm guessing that for the young educated adults of the 60s and 70s, for whom the ultimate horror was the hypocritical conformity and repression of their own parents' generation, Mr. Updike's evocation of the libidinous self appeared redemptive and even heroic. But the young educated adults of the 90s -- who were, of course, the children of the same impassioned infidelities and divorces Mr. Updike wrote about so beautifully -- got to watch all this brave new individualism and self-expression and sexual freedom deteriorate into the joyless and anomic self-indulgence of the Me Generation. Today's sub-40s have different horrors, prominent among which are anomie and solipsism and a peculiarly American loneliness: the prospect of dying without once having loved something more than yourself.

 

[Uncult]

of course, while the essentials i've decanted and used so well so long are timeless much of it is presented with topical context which is now quite dated. the world we live in is vastly different (and ironically it would be my own contention that the work of of hubbard and his colleagues immensely influensed the changes) and hubbard himself can only be understood in the context of his times. yeah, i'm sure polly and sara exagerated but i'm also sure hubs slapped 'em around some as men commonly did. neither was a battered woman; there are no recorded trips to ER's. hey, ava gardner was one of the most fantastically desirable females to walk the earth and artie shaw famously tossed her down a flight of stairs. homosexuality was not decommissioned as a psychiatric disease until 1967. lucien carr along with cassidy, kerouac and ginsburg was one of the original beatniks. he was a very handsome man and liked girls but he was getting unwanted advances from a fag who just would not back off. one night in 1949 lucien shot and killed him, went and told jack and the two of them went and got drunk. he turned himself in the next day and got a year in prison. when i was i down in dc in '93 lucien was head of the UPI office in town

the zeitgeist today is sooooooo different than the sixties and seventies. and CoS is way off base from the core virtues of the work...

There is no honor accrued defending evil.


“One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle was between 2 wolves inside us all. One was Evil. It was anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other was Good. It was joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed.”
― Cherokee Indian

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

...

The Internet is Scientology's Tech Singularity.

As usual, the authorities on "knowing how to know" are the last to know about this.

The Technological singularity, or simply the singularity, is a hypothetical moment in time when artificial intelligence, human biological enhancement, or brain-computer interfaces will have progressed to the point of a greater-than-human intelligence, radically changing civilization, and perhaps human nature.[SUP][1][/SUP] Because the capabilities of such an intelligence may be difficult for a human to comprehend, the technological singularity is often seen as an occurrence (akin to a gravitational singularity) beyond which the future course of human history is unpredictable or even unfathomable.

Scientologists cannot comprehend the idea that free communication can occur that is entirely immune to their threats, oppression & terrorism. Worse yet, their fair-gaming declares and disconnections are met with scorn and ridicule--things that Hubbard never figured out how to handle without sociopathically striking out with felonies.

Scientologists are still trying to disconnect people on the internet (e.g. "unfriending" on Facebook). Even Scientology celebrities are openly attacking other celebrities (e.g. Kirstie Alley vs Leah, Kirstie Alley vs. Maks, etc). It's desperation time and they know they don't have any tech to solve the Internet. It's worse than psychiatry! And it's EVERYWHERE! LOL

The Internet fairly flushed Scientology into oblivion, even though we can still see some VFPs (valuable fecal products) valiantly yet making their final circles around the toilet bowl just moments from being sucked down into the sewerage nether regions.

All things considered, the Internet has been a very shitty experience for the sector salvagers.

 

[Sindy]

Post Script: I would also argue that the soil that created a lot of the Scientology "stars" also doesn't exist anymore. In other words, there was a generation of people who worked directly with LRH or who met him personally like Miscavige, Jentzsch, Yaeger, Mithoff, Rathbun, Pat and Annie Broeker (we know the names of those who were directly connected to his vision, as corrupt as it was) who believed in Scientology enough that they completely dedicated their lives to it. It was their enthusiasm and hard work that helped keep the illusion of Scientology intact in the early years.

Then there is what I consider the second generation Scientologists like Mark and Claire Headley, Amy Scobee, Hawkins, Many, Cook. There may be some overlap with the names and generations, but my point is, I don't think Scientology is creating any new stars, period. And if so, where are they?

The earlier people costed for a long time on LRH's charisma (Yes the guy was as ugly as sin on Sunday but he had something magnetic going on somehow and he was deeply persuasive) and the newness of Scientology, the sense of discovery in the early years. Even when things went wrong, there was a still a belief that they could be made right. The second group costed on the energy of the first group, and even after LRH went completely mad, they were protected from his madness by the devotion and dedication of first group.

The problem as I see it is when D.M. took power, he created an environment that has been so punitive, so damaging - it was like he took all the cruelty of LRH, without any of the vision or insight. In other words, Sea Org members and people who could have developed into stars like Tommy Davis and a few others have been treated so brutally, there is no room for any kind of growth, change, etc, which gets back to the "what happened to the youth in Scientology" argument, not just new recruits. Even within the organization, the people who could have offered insight and guidance to the younger generation of Sea Org Scientologists have been either ex-communicated, have blown for good, or have been declared SP's and are in the hole somewhere. There is no elderly Scientology wisdom on the structural level, like other religions have. Because of CoB's sociopathology, a whole generation of Scientology elders has been wiped out.

People have talked about how complicated Shelley Miscavige has been as the wife of a despotic leader, and she's definitely committed her crimes. But like Mary Sue Hubbard, and Marceline Jones (Jim Jones) these women have also played a role in softening or "mothering" the group, and providing a more nurturing, feminine balance or occasionally a more gentle alternative (not always) to their husbands absolute testosterone-driven macho power. With Shelley Miscavige, Scientology's first lady, missing-in-action, that is no longer possible, which means that young female Sea Org members don't have her as an archetype of female leadership to follow.

The way I see it, there can never be another Mike Rinder, Marty Rathbun, Jesse Prince, Hana Eltringham Whitfield, Stacy Brooks. They are as antiquated to modern Scientology and new Scientologists as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Judy Garland, and Dean Martin are to Lady Gaga. It's just another time and another place. And Miscavige doesn't have the leadership or vision to create the environment to nature the Scientology "Lady Gaga" if you know what I mean, so there is a gap. There are no new public Scientology artists.

Perhaps Scientology years should be designated by B.L.M and P.LM (Before and Post Lisa McPherson), because maybe that was the true point of no return. Call it Lisa's Revenge, but in my opinion, Lisa was the last Scientology innocent and she took any possibility of Scientology truly being a religion to the grave with her.

Just some thoughts.

Excellent post. You're right. No one will replace those people. It's all downhill from here.

 

[Lone Star]

of course, while the essentials i've decanted and used so well so long are timeless much of it is presented with topical context which is now quite dated. the world we live in is vastly different (and ironically it would be my own contention that the work of of hubbard and his colleagues immensely influensed the changes) and hubbard himself can only be understood in the context of his times. yeah, i'm sure polly and sara exagerated but i'm also sure hubs slapped 'em around some as men commonly did. neither was a battered woman; there are no recorded trips to ER's. hey, ava gardner was one of the most fantastically desirable females to walk the earth and artie shaw famously tossed her down a flight of stairs. homosexuality was not decommissioned as a psychiatric disease until 1967. lucien carr along with cassidy, kerouac and ginsburg was one of the original beatniks. he was a very handsome man and liked girls but he was getting unwanted advances from a fag who just would not back off. one night in 1949 lucien shot and killed him, went and told jack and the two of them went and got drunk. he turned himself in the next day and got a year in prison. when i was i down in dc in '93 lucien was head of the UPI office in town

the zeitgeist today is sooooooo different than the sixties and seventies. and CoS is way off base from the core virtues of the work...

 

[lotus]

Pre-Internet, a lot of young people probably used to get involved with Scientology without telling their parents and friends. Now with social media, email, even cheap/free phone calls, that becomes less likely. The relative/friends factor being informed about what CoS has to be a big factor, in addition to the person aspiring to be their thetan.

Because of the Internet, I've considered that there's got to be that moment of a person taking the first or second class, where they are curious about the expense involved as they go further, but too shy to ask. They've got to be looking on the Internet now to see how much it will cost to learn about Xenu.

-snip-

I agree with you, and my thoughts are that Internet has been the killer - the main threat.

Without internet I wouldn't know about Gerry armstrong, the admissions, the truth about David Mayo , Arni Lerma data base, Lisa Mac Pherson, the court cases, the order of magnitude of physical, mental, emotional, financial abuse, the RPF conditions....

Young people are the internet and social media generation.

Just write on facebook

Hey, I registered on a $cientology course to improve myself and get the knowledge of thruth


5 minutes later - a dozen of reply


Hey you retard, how stupid you are , they will take all your money & enroll you in a labour camp! get your feet out of there idiot. That's a scam





I wonder why they didn't yet declared the internet - facebook and also google

Poor Ron, he thought his LRH communication office with 3 basket system , telex, + (what he wanted to be) a bunch of hitlerian youth messengers added with Intell dept pseudo-spies could control the planetary communications.

 

[lotus]

Hubbard\$cientology prepare taking over the planetary cummunications!​

This is pretty much the communications office set up, some upper managements stratas had in the 80's!

My college was already fully equiped with faxes, computers, modem communications for + 5 years and I was myself good basic and pascal programmer.

$cientology was the middle age of communications , I had never seen a telex in a wog company!