Because of various problems with Blogger, I've copied everything as of November 26, 2012 over to WordPress. The new location is Ask the Scientologist. I am not deleting this blog and will still accept comments and answer questions here too, but any new articles will appear at the WordPress location. I apologize if this causes any problems.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Scientologist Bill of Rights

Obviously, "good" Scientologists can't visit a site like this, but I'm hoping someone will copy this document to a forum they can visit.

For distribution to all Scientologists (anyone who wishes to duplicate this document for such distribution has full permission):



Scientologist Bill of Rights

L. Ron Hubbard charged every Scientologist with the duty of “Keeping Scientology Working.” In the past, when LRH was off the lines for brief periods, things sometimes went off the rails. Then, LRH himself had to step back in and straighten things up, to keep the tech standard and churches and management straight. In each case, Scientologists who should have seen what was wrong, and reported or corrected the wrongness, did not. In fact, the off-policy and out-tech activities were, to some extent, hidden from the rank and file Scientologist. The average Scientologist knew little of the workings of Scientology management, exactly who was running the Church, and what actions they were taking. When LRH was visibly in charge, the average Scientologist trusted that actions being taken were correct, and for the benefit of Scientology’s future.

With LRH off the lines, the practice of rigorous secrecy as regards Church operations has become outmoded, and, in fact, a hindrance to every Scientologist truly fulfilling LRH’s charge to ensure the integrity of the technology and its application in organizations The fact is, Scientologists in general do not know, by name, those who are running their Church: RTC executives, Watchdog Committee Members, and the International Executive Strata. There is no notification to the general membership of who is on these posts, when they are promoted, removed or demoted, and for what reasons.

LRH stresses the importance of statistics. Yet the long-range statistics of Scientology are hidden. The long-term statistics of Clears, OTs and auditors made since LRH departed are not published.

LRH materials have been and are being recompiled and edited. Yet there is no way for the average Scientologist to clearly see what was changed or verify that what was done is correct.

To promote transparency and accountability in Scientology, the following Scientologist Bill of Rights is offered for consideration.

All Scientologists have the following rights:

Transparency in Church management.

Scientologists have the right to know exactly who is in charge of the Church of Scientology, by name. This includes the executives (Division heads and above) of RTC, the membership of the International Watchdog Committee, and the membership of the International Executive Strata

The displaying of org boards in public spaces is a Scientology tradition. The Org Board of each of the above organizations should be on public display in every Church world-wide, with the key executives, as above, listed with name, training and case level, updated as needed to remain current at all times.

This is our church, and we have the right to know who is running things; who to contact to get questions and concerns answered.

Scientologists have the right to be informed when any one of these upper management executives is removed or demoted, and to know the reason for the dismissal or demotion. This information should be posted in a timely manner in every church. Such actions affect the entire Church and should be seen by the entire Church membership.

Accountability in Church management.

Scientologists should be able to view key statistics of upper management so that the efficiency of Church management is clearly seen and management can be held publicly accountable for their actions. Statistics such as the number of Clears made, the number of OTs made, the number of Auditors made of each class, the number of books sold, the total number of Scientologists, are the concern of every Scientologist and should be known. Scientologists should be able to view such statistics going back at least 25 years, from the time when LRH was on the lines.

It is our church and these executives are working for us. We should be able to find out, without PR or filtering, exactly how well they are doing their jobs.

Verification of duplication of LRH.

A Scientologist has the right to be able to independently verify that an HCOPL, HCOB, book and/or lecture from LRH is, in fact, a duplicate of the original as created by Ron.

This must be verifiable in some way and not just assumed, because it is the most important aspect of our religion—that Ron's technology has not been altered.

Where a book or lecture has been edited or changed in any way, a Scientologist should be able to get a full verification and explanation of each change As any such change would already have been heavily documented, supplying such documentation on request should pose no hardship on the staff concerned.

Financial Accountability.

Over and above service donations, Scientologists contribute generously to Church building funds, the new Superpower building and the International Association of Scientologists (IAS). The use of such donations should be subject to an “Annual Report” from each, showing where and how the funds were spent, specifically how much went to dissemination campaigns, building expenses, VM Crusades and so forth. As required by any charity, an accounting should be provided of how much went to overhead/administrative expenses.



None of this should be construed to infer that there is anything currently wrong. However, all of this is designed to help see that things do not go wrong. These rights are the rights of all Scientologists per Keeping Scientology Working, and do enable any and all Scientologists to assume responsibility, as mandated by LRH, for their Church's integrity and survival. These steps can only make the Church stronger.

Such openness, transparency and accountability benefits all honest beings.


Sunday, February 3, 2008

Understanding How the Trap Works

I see a lot of comments about Scientology lately. There is a lot of mis-information and a lot of confusion. The primary confusion is the difference between the belief system "Scientology" and the corporation "Church of Scientology".

The second confusion (related to the first) is what kind of a person the average Scientologist is: Evil? Stupid? Gullible? Are they in on the scam? Do they know?

The strange answer to the first confusion is that the church of Scientology does not actually use Scientology. The leaders have cherry-picked a few draconian control-methods out of Hubbard's writings, but have discarded anything else. The leader of the church hasn't received any Scientology training or counseling himself in over 20 years -- obviously doesn't believe in it.

Also note that there are people who believe and practice the belief system "Scientology" outside of the church. They believe in Scientology but hate the "church".

So, what kind of people are the members of the church of Scientology? How come people fall for the church of Scientology recruitment?

Here is how the trap is initially set:
The basic techniques (as presented to new prospects) actually work, at least for a number of people. I'm not going to go into specifics, but this is how they pull people in. They don't talk about "space aliens", they present some very simple, and fairly workable things.

New people try these things and some of them see improvement. This is not surprising, as these techniques and advices are selected for that.

If a person sees that this initial "Scientology tech" helps them, they assume that other Scientology stuff will also help.

They take the bait.

How the hook is set:
Once the new person has bought the idea that "Scientology works", they take more courses to learn more stuff.

But along with learning this stuff, they are also taught Scientology dogma like "Ron is always right", "Scientology is the only road out", and "Evil people are trying to stop us."

If they buy this, they are well on their way to culthood.

The door is shut:
Once they have learned those lessons, they then must shut out the rest of the world and accept only what the church of Scientology says. The rest of the world is infested with evil, horrible people trying to stop the church.

At this point they will give up all their money, all their time and their family to "save" and/or "protect" the church -- the "only road out".

They are closed off from "outside" information sources. They won't hear about church abuses. They won't hear about deaths. They won't even hear about the space aliens.

At this point, these average parishioners of the church are not in on the scam. They think they are helping in this great endeavor to "save the planet".

Understand the average Scientologist:
They may be gullible, but the majority of Scientologists are good people who originally bought the line because they thought they could help others. The majority of Scientologists are not evil and should not be treated badly.

Bottom line: All people should be allowed to believe what they want, as long as they don't harm others.

BUT:
This should not be construed, in any way, to imply that the church of Scientology is good. It is not! The church of Scientology is evil because it is run by truly evil people. The leaders of the church do not believe, at any time, that they are helping anyone but themselves. They know their technology does not work. They know their church is a sham. They are trying to squeeze the last dime out of the last true believer before the cops show up at the door.

I don't wish that Scientologists cease believing in Scientology. They should be free to believe whatever they want. I just think they should stop believing all the lies the church of Scientology is spinning.