Squirrel!

If you love a good comedy, especially one with a hefty dose of irony, then you will be loving the accusations all the various flavors of Scientologists are slinging at each other.

It really is quite wonderful.

Squirreling: The act of using Scientology techniques in a form different than originally described by Hubbard is referred to within Scientology as "squirreling", and is said by Scientologists to be a "high crime".

According to the Church of Scientology, every single person who practices any form of Scientology outside of the church is a squirrel -- unless, of course, they pay a licensing fee to the church.

So the Church of Scientology is crying that, well, everyone else is a squirrel.

Oh, this is a terrible insult!.

One of the earlier breakaway groups was the rather large Ron's Org groups established by "Captain" Bill Robertson.  Robertson established his Ron's Org because, in his words, the Church of Scientology was squirreling the tech.

Other individuals and groups have broken away from the Church of Scientology before and since.  Many of them have also accused the Church of Scientology of squirreling.   However, these other individuals and groups avoided joining Ron's Orgs because, they said, Ron's Orgs were squirreling.

David Mayo, kicked out of the Church of Scientology for protesting David Miscavige's squirreling of the tech, established his AAC (Advanced Ability Center) group to deliver "standard Scientology".  He was, of course, condemned by the church for squirreling the tech.

And so it goes.  Each new breakaway accuses both the Church of Scientology and all previous breakaway groups of squirreling!

So, today, you have all the newest Scientologists who have left the Church of Scientology, but who still believe in Scientology, eschewing the Freezone and all other non-church groups and calling themselves "Independent Scientologists" -- although they are, truly, no different than those who have gone before.  Of course, all the older breakaway groups will undoubtedly accuse these newest ex-churchies of being squirrels, since they are tainted by Miscavige's squirreling!

So, it appears that everybody practicing any form of Scientology, inside or outside the church, are, in fact, all squirrels.

Well, I have something to add to all this.  Since L. Ron Hubbard knowingly used the "Ls" and "NOTS", both of which are proven to be authored by David Mayo (not Hubbard), not to mention Hubbard adopting into Scientology various techniques from many other people, I'd like to add to this universal list of squirrels the name L. Ron Hubbard.

There, the list is now complete.  Might as well call it Squirrelology, everybody is doing it!

Look, a squirrel!
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The Scientology Conundrum: What Are Lies?

It is quite interesting to me that Scientologists who are now waking up to the fact that David Miscavige has been doing bad things and is a liar, still believe almost everything Miscavige and the Church of Scientology had said in the past.

For instance, while finally seeing that David Miscavige has been corrupting and destroying Scientology, some Scientologists still believe that the criticisms and protests against the church are “unfounded”, “anti-religious” and “a conspiracy”.  They believe that Anonymous is a "terrorist, hate group" in the pay of big drug companies.  They believe that all critics are "suppressive persons".  They believe that the Freezone is filled with squirrels.  They believe these things because David Miscavige said so.

You would think that, seeing with their own eyes some of the blatant and profound falsehoods that Miscavige has been spreading, Scientologists would automatically question everything the Church of Scientology has been claiming. Now, it isn’t necessarily that everything was lies, it is just that the source of all the church’s proclamations, David Miscavige, has been proven to be a destructive, corrupt, habitual liar – so, really, you have to be suspicious of everything Miscavige or the church has said.

You’d think so. But many Scientologists, while rejecting a few, isolated and obviously false statements by Miscavige, still accept, without question, just about everything else.  This really doesn’t make any sense.

Well, the problem is that most Scientologists don’t realize what they are doing.  They have been trained to always completely trust all information coming from the Church of Scientology leaders.  Always.  And they have been trained to always reject all negative information about Scientology coming from any source.  Always.

This has become so automatic that it ends up operating below the conscious awareness for many Scientologists.  They “know” something is true, but they don’t realize their only criteria for “truth” is that the source was the Church of Scientology.  They also “know” that anything at all negative about Scientology “is false”, but they don’t realize their only criteria for that judgement is that the church said it was “false”.  Even when a Scientologist sees and thinks negative things about Scientology, they still reject such negative information from elsewhere as "false".

The simple concept that the Church of Scientology might be lying simply cannot be contemplated by true Scientologists.  It isn’t that they considered it, evaluated it and rejected it; it is that they cannot even consider it.

And most don’t know they have this blind spot.  They actually believe they are being intelligent, logical and observant.  They will get quite upset with the idea that they are not in full command of their thoughts and conclusions.

This makes it difficult for these Scientologists to come to terms with, and effectively handle, what is and has been going on in their church and in the world.  It is quite difficult to reconcile a church that is “always right” and “superior to the rest of the world” with the obvious and consistent failures Miscavige and the Church of Scientology have created.

So what to do?  How does anyone talk to a Scientologist about this stuff?  What does a Scientologist do to inform themselves?  What is true?  What are lies?

Simply listing list all the “facts” from Miscavige and the church that have been proven false, with all their associated links to documents, evidence and other proof simply does not work.  Scientologists, after all, have been trained to automatically reject such information – Scientologists are probably not going to suddenly throw off all that Scientology training in a day.

But they will.  Most Scientologists actually want to know the truth; the problem is that they are only used to accepting “truth” from the church.  It will take awhile for Scientologists to break that habit.

I have one piece of advice for newly-awakened Scientologists.  You do have one piece of information you can be sure of, because it is obvious now: David Miscavige is a liar and has been for decades.  This is what you know.  As for everything else, you can now find out for yourself.
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Ask a Question

The old Ask a Question thread has gotten quite large and unwieldy.  It's still there and has some great questions, but please put any new questions into this thread.

I'm serious.  All questions and suggestions are welcome.
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The Church of Scientology Loves Disasters

This really is the most disgusting thing I've seen recently about the Church of Scientology: Their reaction to the Haiti earthquake.

The actions of the Church of Scientology are dispicable, in the extreme.

The Church of Scientology provides no money towards the victims in Haiti.  None.  Not one penny.  The church supplies no food, no water, no medicine, no building materials, no personnel, no expertise, nothing for Haiti.

But they claim, in their press releases, that their Volunteer Ministers are "a major relief agency" helping in Haiti.  If they do nothing, how can they claim this?

John Travolta supplied an airplane, not the church.  Individual Scientologists volunteered to go using their own money.  As usual, the Church of Scientology did nothing.

Along with a few untrained Scientology "Volunteer Ministers", Travolta offered a lift to health-care workers from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad and from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Those other non-Scientology groups were sending trained medical personnel and the Scientologists were completely untrained.  And yet, in a most disgusting bit of lying, the Church of Scientology is actually claiming they sent the medical personnel!

As is usual, the Church of Scientology volunteers showed up at the disaster without food, without medicine, without supplies, without equipment, without shelter, without expertise -- so they are a burden on resources already stretched very, very thin.  As is usual, the Volunteer Ministers make the situation worse by requiring food and shelter that should be going to the victims!

But they have bright yellow t shirts that show up well for the Church of Scientology photographer!  Yes, while the Volunteer Ministers are useless to real relief agencies, they are very useful to the Church of Scientology's PR department.

But, as disgusting as all this is, the Church of Scientology's response to this disaster is much, much worse.

The Church of Scientology is officially urging all Scientologists to "help Haiti by giving to the IAS (International Association of Scientologists)".  Not to any legitimate relief agency.  No, Scientologists must help Haiti by "giving to the IAS".

And the IAS has not ever given a penny to any disaster relief effort.  The IAS will never give a penny to any disaster relief.  The money goes to David Miscavige.  Period.  Last I checked, David Miscavige wasn't in Haiti and didn't need any assistance.

Yes, the Church of Scientology is using the Haiti disaster to make money!  They are profiting on human suffering!

But wait, there is more!

Bridge Publications, the publisher of Scientology books, is urging Scientologists to buy Scientology books to "send to Haiti"!  Scientologists are not being urged to pay for food or water or medicine or shelter for Haiti.  No, they are being urged to pay for Scientology books to Haiti!

But get this:  Bridge Publications is charging full price for these donated books, meaning Bridge Publications is making full profit on all the books.  They are profiting on human suffering!

Further, judging by how Bridge Publications handles donated books (Library Program, Mission Starter Program), those donated books will never be shipped.  Of course the books are useless to Haitians, but it is highly likely that Bridge Publications will simply keep all the money.  Profit!

Yes, the Church of Scientology has reacted quickly and decisively on the Haitian disaster -- they are making millions of dollars of profit, generating many nice press releases for the church, without having to spend a single penny, nor actually help anyone.

All decent people, including Scientologists, should add their voice to absolutely condemn the Church of Scientology for their disgusting greed in the face of such human suffering.
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What Does Being "Pro-Scientology" Mean?

When I started this blog, my motivation was to clear up much of the misinformation and misunderstandings about Scientology and the Church of Scientology that were rampant at that time.  The bad information came not only from the church itself, but even a lot of the negative information about Scientology was incorrect as well.

I knew a lot, and I was in touch with many Scientologists and ex-Scientologists, so I felt compelled to clear up the confusion.

All I have endeavored to do was get the truth better known and to expose the lies.

Obviously, this would cause the Church of Scientology to consider me an Enemy.  The church is built on lies, misinformation and exaggeration and they didn't appreciate what so many, many people were doing.

Today there are many people who have left the church but who still firmly believe in the Scientology belief system.  One would think that, free from the systemic lies of the Church of Scientology, these people would seek to discover and live with the truth.  One would hope that Scientologists would seek to root out all lies from their lives.  After all, they are on the "Road to Truth".

So it is with considerable surprise that I find that my blog, Ask the Scientologist, is considered, by some true believers, to be "anti-Scientology".  I read that "true" Scientologists are being warned to avoid this blog at all costs.

Let me be very clear about this, I am not anti- the Scientology belief system.  Never have been.

However, I am pro-truth.

All I have asked from believers of Scientology is honesty.  It's a simple request: If a Scientology process, formula or procedure does not deliver what was promised for that process, formula or procedure, then don't claim that "it works"!  That's all.

This isn't about whether "Scientology works".  Whether it does work, or should work, or might work is not the point.  The point is whether or not the explicit promises made for various Grades, Rundowns, Levels, courses are actually delivered.

And, for a large majority of the services delivered by Scientology, the promised results are not delivered.

I experienced some good things in the early days.  But I can see -- anyone can see -- that the grandiose claims of Scientology on its Grade Chart, in its promotions, in conversations with Scientologists, are not happening.  I've listed many of these things before.  The actual results from public school students using the "Hubbard Study Method" have been analyzed and the technology does not detectably improve student results.  The actual results from Narconon show worse results than other methods.  Grade 0 Releases are not able to "talk to anyone on any subject".  Grade I Releases still have problems.  Graduates from the PTS/SP course can't handle antagonistic people or situations.  Clears and OTs do not have the promised abilities and powers. And so on and so on.  Whether Scientology could, possibly, produce those results is not the point.  The point is that it hasn't.

The Church of Scientology does something quite evil about this.  When a Scientologist does not receive the promised results from a Grade, Level, course or Rundown, the church says it is the Scientologist's fault, and has them pay for their own "correction".  When the Scientologist still does not receive the results promised by the church, the church again blames the Scientologist and has them pay to redo everything.  This goes on and on with the church forcing Scientologists to pay and pay and pay and never delivering what was promised.  And all the time blaming the Scientologist for the missing results.

Finally, when it becomes obvious that the church will never deliver what was promised, and the Scientologist has run out of money, the church blames the Scientologist, saying the Scientologist is "too out-ethics" and kicks them out.

This policy of the Church of Scientology of blaming their customers for the church's failures ultimately destroys Scientologists.  Many Scientologists end up firmly believing that they are evil, they are the cause of the failures, they are "degraded beings" and "suppressive".

This is so very wrong.

All I'm asking of the true believers of Scientology who wish to practice and promote the Scientology belief system outside of the church is that they don't do that.

If those who believe in the Scientology technology want to stop destroying people, then they need to promise only results that they can actually, provably and consistently produce.  They need to actually deliver every result promised -- and if they don't deliver it they must not blame the customer.  And they need to stop claiming results for Scientology that Scientology has not delivered.

Believe what you want but only promise what you can, for certain, deliver.  And then always deliver what you promised.

That is living with the truth.  That is honesty.

Now, if that request is "anti-Scientology", then you Scientology true believers have major problems -- because all I'm asking for is honesty and truth.  If that's unacceptable to Scientologists, then that says worse things about Scientology than any real anti-Scientology blog or site ever did.
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The Hubbard Scale of Formulas and Procedures

(Many Scientologists would take that title seriously and expect this post to be about something called "The Hubbard Scale of Formulas and Procedures".  But it's just a joke.)

L. Ron Hubbard was compulsive about putting everything into some kind of scale.  He developed the Tone Scale, the Communication Scale, the Behavior and Physiology Scale, the Cycle of Action Scale, the Admin Scale, the Scale of Conditions, the Tone Scale of Decisions, the Scale of Whosits and Whatsits, dozens and dozens of scales, lists and codes.

And he was compulsive about creating very exact procedures for everything.  Every condition, problem, situation had an exact Hubbard-written procedure for solving it or changing it.  Thousands and thousands of procedures.

Scientology is all about Hubbard's scales and his procedures, processes and formulas.  And Scientologists are supposed to know and follow all the key Hubbard formulas and procedures.

As a Scientologist, you are not allowed to just "work things out".  You can't ignore things.  You can't think for yourself.  You are always, always, always in a specific "condition" and you are always, always, always supposed to follow Hubbard's "condition formulas" to improve your condition.  Before taking any action, Scientologists must first check these formulas to see what Hubbard said to do.

[sarcasm]That's why you see so many successful Scientologists [/sarcasm]

This is what Hubbard did.  Everything had to be plotted against some kind of scale and every situation had to be solved via one of his procedures.  He just didn't trust "humaniods" to do things the "right" (meaning Hubbard) way, so he wrote procedures to ensure everyone would do everything "correctly".

And they must be followed, even when they don't work, as is often the case.  Even when the formulas don't fit the situation.  Even when those scales don't make any sense.

Of course, public Scientologists are not strictly held to these standards.  They are expected to do all that, but the Church of Scientology doesn't have that kind of absolute control, so many Scientologists go on with their lives mostly ignoring all that stuff.

But on staff, and in the Sea Org, under David Miscavige, all these procedures, checklists, formulas, scales and whatnot must be adhered to religiously (pardon the pun).  As a result, this usually brings everything to a grinding halt.  There are factually more people "ensuring compliance" than there are people doing actual work.  There is absolutely tons of paperwork, requests for authorization, proof of compliance, formula write-ups, programs written, filled out, verified, checked, rejected, redone, and on and on.

It is micro-management gone insane.  You can't do anything in the Sea Org without a massive amount of paperwork, with all the associated time wasted in writing these things up and verifying and authorizing and rejecting.

And this is all because this is the way Hubbard said to do it. 

You can't, according to Hubbard, just go out and get something done.  That is wrong.  You have to work out what condition you are in, what formula to apply, what is your Admin Scale, what policy are you applying, what are the Hubbard-specified procedures? And this must be all analyzed (using Hubbard procedures) and written up in a program, with all the "proper" policies and procedures noted.

And then it must be authorized.

And, of course, it is never, ever authorized.  The people who are supposed to authorize your program never will.  You see, they must forward everything they authorize up to David Miscavige, who is the ultimate approval for everything, and they know that David Miscavige will hate it and he will assign everybody in that hierarchy some low condition for approving such a "horrible, f**ked up program".  So every program gets rejected and rejected and rejected.

Eventually, the program probably will get approved by the middle managers and sent up to Miscavige, who does hate it and does assign everyone some lower condition.  Then Miscavige will "write it himself," which usually means copying the original program as written, with a few insignificant changes.

And then the program must be complied with, exact step by exact step.

Now, you understand this program was written before any work was done and before anything was investigated, so the steps of the program are, invariably, completely bogus and don't fit the actual situation once real work starts.

But the program steps cannot be altered and must be complied with, no matter how ridiculous they become.  It was approved, it was "written by David Miscavige!"

So, as the situation changes, and as the changes multiply, you have the ridiculous situation where people are being forced to comply with steps that have become meaningless and forced to ignore new conditions and problems that have popped up.

You can blame Miscavige for making it so horrible, but, actually, that's what Hubbard created.  That's all strictly according to Hubbard's policy letters and his tech.

That's the inside view as to why pretty much nothing gets done in the Church of Scientology and why, if something ever does get done, it is such a mess.   Hubbard built it that way.
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Happy New Year

Just a note to wish everyone a happy New Year.

In the Ask a Question thread, I made a few predictions for 2010, and I'll paraphrase them here, since it is appropriate.

I'm thinking that 2010 will contain a lot more of what we've already seen in 2009: More major media stories around the world exposing more and more of the Church of Scientology's crimes, abuses and fraud. There will be more investigations and legal actions against the church from governments and individuals.  Who knows, there even may be a class action lawsuit.

There will, of course, be a lot more people leaving the Church of Scientology.  It is collapsing and even hard-core Scientologists are well aware of that.

As Miscavige drops farther and farther into insanity, the church's actions, under his close supervision, will make less and less sense, which will only increase the exodus of Scientologists and will engender even more major media stories -- all of which, in turn, will cause Miscavige to go even more insane.

It just isn't going to stop.

Note to David Miscavige:  You know how you really hated 2008 and hoped 2009 would be better?  You know how 2009 was a lot, lot worse?  Are you hoping that 2010 will be better?  It won't be.

I made a few other predictions, such as that we'd see a local Scientology Org declare its independence from the Church of Scientology, and that David Miscavige would run-run-run away in abject fear of prosecution.  Those are more speculative.  We'll see.

In any case, it will be another interesting year in the wacky world of Scientology.
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