New Business Model Discussion | | Print | |
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 10:06 |
Welcome to the discussion area. Please suggest subjects you would like to discuss pertaining to a new business model for Scientology. The lines are open. You may provide your opinion. Thoughtful and Joe Howard have volunteered to be your moderators. Security briefing: You can post on this website confidently, we are protected by the best security software money can buy: SecureLive (see icon at bottom of page). Although we offer outstanding security protection if you are really concerned, you can further increase security by leaving off your email address, etc. But let's say you're really fanatical about security. Well, in that case you can sign up with Anonymizer.com or some other similar company that offers "anonymous surfing" -- it's cheap. This enables you to surf the net via their servers in Europe so your computer's IP Address (fingerprint) is NOT recorded anywhere you go. It's a little slower, but utterly safe. |
Comments
I think we should start by auditing out the 3D engram per the instructions given in 'Notes on the Lectures' Chapter on Group Dianetics pg 133.
In my opinion it is already starting. Here, on other sites, in conversations that Scientologists are beginning to have with one another in private. People are feeling freer to talk about what is on their minds and this thing is going to mushroom. Glad you're in on the conversation.
Joe
Something along the lines of "this was scientology under DM this is scientology present time".
That and giving back the parishioner's money back from all the out exchange they've been subjected too would be a nice start.
And a reinstatement of an honest GO(being that the corruption and overbearing actions by said organization baited DM to go into SP valence)would also help.
I could honestly come up with hundreds of these.
By all means, come up with as many ideas as you have. And post them here. These you have here would be useful. Yes, the PR for Scientology right now stinks. Hence the "campaign" Scientology: Crazy Ideas, Crazy Wins. People think we're crazy because we "believe" in all this wild stuff. They have no idea that "belief" really plays no part in it.
Church or no church, reformed or not, the philosophy exists, the materials exist and people are going to use them. That's the real goal. It kind of seems that in a year from now the organized CoS is going to be playing catch-up to the movement that exists outside its perimeter.
Joe
Joe
How about group processing on tv to familiarize the public at large with scientology?
How about the creation of of an internet based world wide SIR(Source Information Material) available to any member of the public at large?
How about(after the fall of DM of course) "survivors" of DM's fascism go around the world telling their stories to the general public similiar to Holocaust survivors.Freedom from fascism is a nice concept after all.
How about the creation of an Independant Chaplain Corps that brings ARC and KRC primarily to the Orgs and the Field(it'd be a nice counter balance to the power of the ED,the Ethics Officer,or the Uniformed restimulative Sea Org member) :-)
How about events by local orgs to actually GET TO KNOW their local communities and see them as more than "raw meat".
Things like free food days or photography books done for tourist cities(all of this coming with proper exhange of course as done in the past).
How about rekindling the questioning yearning Early Dianeticist spirit that spawned groups and discussion all around the world?
God knows(pun intended) as the theistic religions start to "wear off" on a more skpetical,scientific,inquiring society they'd be more inclined to a spirituality that LOVES skepticism and thought rather than dogma and obediance(such as Scientology of course).
How about getting rid of those outdated ridiculous looking crosses that make people mistake us as Bloody Christians!!!
How about open forums at St Hill orgs or the like where discussion about the tech and further research can be done?
How about hiring a PR firm (or even using our own initiative) to make scientology "hip" in the general public's eyes?(If Apple could do it we should be able to) :-)
Celebrities would actually be able to get off their DOA status and help out on that.
How about a name change from the obviously "Christianized" Church to something like "Spiritual College"?
How about getting all the closeted scientologists out of the closet and into the light?
How about a truly independent and free field ALONG with a Freezone ALONG with a standard Spiritual College to propagate the free expression thereof ?
WHEW.
I told you I had lots of ideas!!!
What do you think?
Joe
Keep it up buddy!!!
:-)
It was a crime of passion!!!
Thanks,
Chris.
Absolutely agreed. Any administrative advance died with LRH in the mid-80s. The Internet changed everything and social tools now exist that could make the brick and mortar buildings almost superfluous in many respects. Those tools would require a whole new organizational structure to integrate them. Then again, it might even render the organization as we tend to think of it a moot subject. An org board that no one's even thought of yet for Scn is probably waiting to be written up.
Joe
Perhaps we could all organize a Mass Media Campaign of sorts?It would be incredibly efficient,fix black PR,spread beingness,disseminate en masse,and in general just mess with DM's head(though that would be a joy in itself).Any takers on this?
It would be initialed WINS.
Any acks qould be thanked.
UNTIL NOW.
Ever since Marty Rathbun heroically came out in support of his thetantual freedom,a plethora of sites have sprung out to hop on the train to freedom.
One of these sites in particular I really enjoy,would if advertised as such;prove to be a nice antithesis to the Natter on ESMB.
It's called the Pro LRH Tech Community and as the worldwide network of free scientologists gets off the ground I cant help but postulate that this website will be up there at the forefront uniting all of us together.
Being that this post deals with a "New Business Model" for the subject of scientology I can't help but "advertise" this site as the lucrative uniting resource that it is.
The funniest thing to all this is that I don't even post there,I just Lurk!!!!!!!!!!!
Link here.
http://lrhtech.hostoi.com/index.php
Thanks.
True that given the "Stalinism" inherent in current Miscavology damns the current COS to MASSIVE inefficiencies and out-tech.
As a former trotskyist myself I can't help but call it "Bureacratic Collectivism" of the highest thetantual caliber!!! :-)
Still,just because the internet and New media exists doesn't mean we should throw away the BODY MIND THETAN Admin tech or the "Manage from 3 feet behind society's head" Sea Org theory.You wouldn't want to piss of the Old Man if he ever does come back do you? :-)
Besides,a strong Field and Franchise Network along with a Freezone delivering OT levels on their own would do FAR more to give independance it's own thetantual space than a mere reactive "revising" of the Admin Board to the prevailing winds of society.
Thanks.
The fact of the matter is that the administrative system currently in use, written by LRH, is based on the method called Scientific Management and is proven excellent when dealing with physical objects. Case in point, the same type of organization and administration method is used by UPS and McDonalds who have as products quickly and accurately delivered parcels and quickly rendered consistent food respectively.
Although in theory the Scn organization has people, or thetans, as moving and changing particles, the fact that all people are different with different lives and circumstances creates an almost limitless number of variations of how people could be helped. Since the organization and administration deals in fixed terminals, line terminals and lines which are inherently rigid there tends to be too much red tape. I've been frustrated for many years on admin posts at how clunky the system really is in real life. On paper admin tech is fascinating and I've even spent hours studying the org board alone.
There have been many breakthroughs in organization and administration, particularly over the last two decades that address service and customer relations and to simply write off change as following a reactive action or a fad could really overlook the basic overhaul that could make thriving organizations instead of the clunky, broken and flappy orgs in existence. Also, who needs the old volatile work environment present in the Sea Org Orgs. I hated it personally.
In the end, service is still the watchword and any organization needs to be dynamic enough to keep that the priority and that includes being able to deliver what was promised in speed. Simply doing line drills until into infinity doesn't make for an efficient organization to service people.
There is also no need to cease the thetan, mind, body aspect of operation. The same concept is at play in any basic organization.
This would of course take in the field and what not. Simply bandaging up relations between the field and orgs and having new marketing campaigns or just focusing on grass roots won't be enough and is not enough to change the current scene. Public perception of Scn is mostly through the orgs and commercials. Orgs are supposed to be the bedrock of Scn.
Honestly, I don't care either way. This topic is about a new business model for Scn so I thought I'd offer my two cents to suggest a direction toward an actual new business model since I've had admin posts in the SO for 10 years and have taken up the study of business over the past year.
I like all that! My experience has always been that there are nearly no persons who are not interested in scientology. Dissemination is in fact a piece of cake when the person knows and trusts you. To achieve this is in fact nothing difficult for a Scientologist, with the auditors code in and TRs. But I stopped disseminating as the orgs are psycho and not delivering services.
The main point is that no services were delivered and this has been the main why for the last 28 years. And the main reason for that has been unqualified staffs delivering those services or qualified staffs that were on a stat push and so had no time to care for the person.
The COS should not be allowed to accept people with low test scores or IQs on staff, or kids with no proper schooling or adults that are illiterate. Any person that has study problems should be immediately routed off staff, also people with a dubious past shouldn't be accepted. On full time training only staff should be sent that have high production and no study problems. The FEBC should be delivered the way LRH intended it - that means a FEBC graduate is only one if he has gotten all 3 L's - And last but not least only people with high IQ and some educational background can become a staff auditor. The "Free Scientology Center" becomes reinstated. Any public that was ever online the last 40 years receives 4 Intensives of auditing for free (this is an amends from the church).
And there should be something like a truth commission that should find out what all happened in the last 30 years in scientology, publish its findings with all data so that history is transparent - something like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa. Anybody could go to this commission and tell his story and be helped to understand what really happened (could be on the internet instead of ESMB or XSO that have other purposes).
While I was writing the above it just came to mind that the independent Scientologists should already have a website where one can tell his story and receive understanding. This website and the data can be used to find out the whole truth of what all happened. I think it would be flooded with people wanting to tell their story and get rid of their BPC. But mandatory would be a bunch of very good moderators that really want to help!
If one calculates the amount of people that have had wins in scientology in the last 50 years you'll probably come up with a figure that goes into millions. So if you really deliver Scientology in the orgs you probably will have a boom never seen before (LRH's job of building a better bridge was only completed in 1986 or somewhere around this time,we didn't have the chance of applying it because Miscavige took over and changed it). I don't think we have to reinvent the wheel, but do what LRH said in the first place and then we can develop new ideas! I've seen HGCs and course rooms that were delivering tech, they were packed full and the people had huge wins, and the staffs earned a good living. We didn't care about the mest and didn't need a cathedral, but were co-auditing in the bathroom when there was no space left or under the stairs. LET'S JUST GO BACK to the BASICS!
It's a piece of cake!
Your post is inspiring. The 'run out the 3D engram' site is a wonderful idea. One or more of us of the Worldwide Independent Network of Scientologists will be on this. In the meantime of course, this site and various others are doing just what you say. More would be more better.
I post there and just put one up on Scn policy. It's aimed at freeing up thetans to 'think with' Scn policy, just like LRH did and says to do in the 11 April 70 issue Third Dynamic Tech:"“In its present state of development, like early auditing material, Third Dynamic Tech is used to think with, and only the bright mind will achieve its full potential in action.”
This is totally right. The "bright minds" were thrown out in 1982 or left COS on their own in the following years up to now. I hope they come back and COS employs only "bright minds", or people that have the potential for it.
Right now books are very expensive (especially when you consider the labor costs involved) and constantly need to be replaced when new versions are released. This causes a problem of finance/distribution as every Scientologist, group, mission, org, library, etc. is expected to have the latest.
One solution (of probably many) is to use the digital versions of the LRH Library and put them online. They could be made available on a very inexpensive subscription basis per year, to cover the servers, bandwidth, development work, etc.
This would allow the full library (audio, visual as well as text) to be available. All of the indexes, glossaries, etc. could be used with a purpose built search engine (think SIR [Scientology Information Retrieval for those not in the know] but with today's technology it could be VERY smart).
With everything being chronological it would be very easy to cross reference other applicable references and see them in a timeline of references (picturing a time stream where you could drag/drop references that you're using).
This would accomplish so many things.
1) It would really put LRH "books" into everyone's hands -- not just those with a small fortune and a private library in their house to store them all.
2) It would completely eradicate the problem of versions. The latest and greatest would be made available at the top tier. Earlier versions could be made available (I can see this being a point of disagreement, so it's just an idea at this point) for comparison, false data stripping, etc.
3) False stats would be crushed. No longer would we hear the chants of "eleventy billion books were sold!" when in actuality it was 84 people buying massive amounts to stay out of trouble.
4) Labor/Storage/Production would all be eased up and valuable work time could be spent on more fruitful areas of dissemination. Sure, you'd always want hard copies available, but orgs would no longer need to buy so many of everything -- requiring a place to store them.
You'd make the basics free for everyone. Why not? The purpose isn't to make dough, it's to make a Scientologist, right? By just making it so people could read/listen to LRH it would take much mystery out of the subject. And with the cost being taken away -- seriously, who pays $25 or $30 for a book on something they're barely curious about? -- it would open the doors for way more people.
No need to ramble on here. This would take some thought to work out fully, but the basic idea is to take what we already have digitally (everything, in every language) and expose it to the masses. Finances and technology would need to be sensible, but this is very feasible with a few months of work...
Thanks for your suggestion. It's smart.
Joe, I'm curious if there's a way to contact you without making a public post. I have something that has been bugging me for years and I think you might just have the answer(s) I'm looking for.
Totally understood if that doesn't work for you. I'll poke around a bit more and see if there's a Private Message function on this board...
LRH was a man ahead of his time, and though the world has changed dramatically since his death, the fundamentals of the tech are timeless.
Miscavige on the other hand, has caused so much damage, that in many respects, this is rebuilding from scratch.
Given all of the above, surely it goes without saying that we should stick to the playbook that we've been given: the one that's tried and true.
It's fascinating to know the background to the 'scientific management' model, but what may seem "clunky" (when being mismanaged in the wrong hands), will likely produce very different results, once that's finally changed.
Joe
1) Rent a hall and demonstrate the powers that LRH promised we would gain when becoming clear and OT. Show someone with perfect memory, a computer like mind, the ability to gain thirty pounds by thinking, to say nothing of control knowingly and at will over matter, energy, space, time, life and thought. Get an OT to go tone 40 on an ashtray and levitate it. Word would spread and we would have 100,000,000 converts within a year.
or
2) Reissue the books with annotations where L.Ron Hubbard was wrong. Come clean. People will respect that there are some things that we can do, even if we can't do everything that LRH claimed.
whats needed is an online.org, where all HCOPL-based stats are recorded and available, online, fully 100%, and let people log in wearing whatever hat they want, have forms appropriate to the routing-form policies, reference database and so on.
a few weeks with django and all the OEC's, and we might have The Solution.
You couldn't start your auditing with a better book than Self Analysis. Half an hour a day for a couple weeks would give you enough subjective reality on the value of the tech. Many of the haters never even gave that elementary a look into themselves to see if there was something of value to be gained from the subject. And by the way, there are good auditors out there in the independent field who would be happy to audit you once you feel ready.
Good luck with it.
Joe
You're advocating a sensible plan. Right now the tech is under a monopoly but the independent field is pushing it into more of a free market situation. (Truthfully, the freezone has been doing this for years.) With mass defections about to occur in the next several months, people are going to still want to progress up the Bridge. There will be a huge demand for good auditors and C/Ses.
Joe
DM carefully guided the trademarks away from the church under the guise of "protecting them". They're now not owned by us. More on that in a different topic -- it makes for some good reading.
The upshot is, there's a lot of things we wouldn't have. So while I support the sentiment 100%, there's a practicality that has to be faced. Things like E-meters, films, etc. we just won't have. And then there are things like Key To Life where I highly doubt the materials have been "leaked" like so many of the OT materials have (albeit incomplete).
And then there's the case of me not trusting an awful lot of things I read that have been "corrected" by RTRC. The only way to solve that doubt is to get back to the actual written items and start from there (a new compilations project in a sense).
I'm not trying to be impositive -- just confronting the effort(s) and barriers.
To me a more likely scenario is with massive defections, big PR flaps, lawsuits, class action suits, criminal investigation, etc. the current leadership of the church will crumble.
I think if the true owners of the church were targeted and called out, shining a light on them concurrently, we might be able to wrest our tech/philosophy back and have a true reformation.
One of the basic problems with Scientology is that its final product, a free being, is not really wanted by anyone. The goal of creating a self-determined (or pan-determined) individual who can think for themselves, be causative and has strong intention is a noble one. Many individuals would like to achieve such a state. However, there are virtually NO groups on this entire planet (including the current “church of scientology”) who actually want such people around. Free beings are always causing problems, asking questions and getting in the way of whatever nefarious scheme the group is up to and so no one wants them. This point is really very important. Free beings do what ever the hell they want to, when ever and how ever they feel like doing it. Any manager, for example is usually terrified of having “free” employees. Most companies wont even allow employees make decisions about how to compensate an irate customer for fear that the employee will give away the store. The point is that you must be prepared for a shit load of plus randomity when you start freeing beings.
Because scientology in its current form frowns on people who ask too many goddamned questions or in any way don’t toe the company line it is now in the rather strange condition of enemy to itself. One of scientology’s past marketing campaigns was “Scientology: Think for yourself!” Now the “church” has a new (unannounced) slogan: “Scientology: Do what you’re told and don’t ask any god-damned questions!”
In order to rectify this and get back to the greatest game of creating clears, theta clears, and OTs: freeing beings and having FUN!
There are many scientologists who are pretty smart and capable. We really need a group. We tend to be individualistic; we don’t always want to be told what to do. The whole thing on leading and where the group is going needs to be a two way street, not a one-way dictatorship. We need to have a “scientologist staff meeting” and discuss where are we going. How can we clear earth? What does that mean? How do we get the tech out there, being used? What does a clear planet look like? Lets all talk and really envision the ideal scene. What’s the strategy? The entire group should have some say in what were trying to do and how were trying to do it.
If were going to really BE leaders, and have a 21st century OT group, then we had better create a real group and set an example to the world.
Setting an example
What kind of an example are we setting now? Scientology is NOT looked up to as an ideal group that every other group wants to emulate. Scientology is seen as secretive and antagonistic, they attack any critics, indulge in a constant “us against them” games condition, treat employees poorly and the list goes on. How are we going to clear earth if we can’t lead by example? Scientology should really be the game where everyone wins, very theta, fun, hopeful.
Right now the way scientology is run sucks. It’s a military type dictatorship. Who would want that? If we are going to make any headway in clearing people, clearing earth then we had better set an AWESOME example. People should want to have a group like ours. Does anyone (in their right mind want to have a group like scientology is now? NO!
What’s ideal? Well,
One thing we better face up to is that our current admin system sucks. We need a new command structure, a completely new way to choose leaders. We need to abandon the game of “get the stats UP no matter what!”
Scientology is supposed to be about arc, not enforcement. It’s not about having contempt for anyone below you on the pecking order.
If you take a look at the most progressive and respected companies out there today many have and use some pretty cool ideas. In some companies the entire group of employees chooses ALL the executives. The finances of the group and who gets paid what are completely transparent. Employees are treated like the most valuable commodity.
And you wind up with a GROUP! A group held together by common purpose AND ARC, not by a false purpose and enforcement.
This point of the admin tech we have being insufficient is an important one! We need to be growing and evolving as a group. We need to find new technology that helps us achieve our overall purpose and use it.
We now use the internet as a tool in scientology as a way to achieve our goal. In like manner we need to find and use new technology related to management, personnel, marketing.
We need to get over the idea that creating new tech ended when LRH left.
We need to acknowledge that he was not perfect. We need to acknowledge that not all the admin and ethics “technology” is fantastic and infallible. These two “technologies” and their misapplication have just about killed the entire subject.
We need to come to grips with the idea that we may need to jettison some of these “old” ideas and come up with fresh, new, innovative ideas that actually help us achieve our goals and purpose.
One new idea we must adopt is a policy of complete transparency. No more secrets. All stats out in the open, not filtered. Any scientologist should be able to see the stats on any org or mission, continent and WW any time. We have been lied to too long!
Transparency is one of these new fangled management ideas. And it works. If you want a True Group then all the cards need to be on the table. The finances need to be transparent as well. How much money is taken in and where does it go?
The overall strategy of what were doing needs to be available for group members to see, and contribute to. Not some weird sort of enforced contribution, but contributed to as in you can contribute in coming up with the strategy creation.
Since LRH left DM has been covertly “wearing the hat”. I say covertly as he has not come out and said that he was revising LRH tech or creating his own new tech, but he has done both, while trying to pretend he wasn’t.
The game of “whose gonna be the next LRH?” has got to be answered. If it is left unanswered then we will wind up with another covert lunatic running things!
Some one, or some group of people, needs to have the hat.
What really needs to be done is that each and every policy or procedure needs to be reevaluated from the view of does it help achieve our overall purpose or goal?
Purpose is senior to policy. Now, if the purpose is to free beings, then we can see that there are many extant policies inside the “church” that need serious review!
From another angle, if you look at the extant actions of the church, the Ideal Org strategy, the supremacy of the IAS, the lack of Div 6, heavy pressure and psycho ethics, well its clear that these policies, actions, procedures, are NOT helping achieve the goal of free beings. Then we can assume that there must be another different purpose that is being sought. The people in charge have changed the goal and purpose of scientology to something completely different. They have not announced what that new purpose is, but it is clear from their actions that the purpose has changed.
So, simply put we need to go back to the basic purpose, review all and I mean ALL past actions, ideas, assumptions, and see what help achieve the goal and what doesn’t.
There is the hat of reviewing all extant, released tech, per the above yardstick. The there is the release of previously unreleased tech. Then there is continued research to develop new tech.
The use of PR
Currently the overall PR of scientology is abysmal. If you think about it, this is really quite an outpoint. If any group should have good PR, it’s the church of scientology! We have the most workable tech on the planet to help people, so if we are helping people we should be the most popular group there is! We have the PR and Marketing series of policies, we have a LOT of tools. So why have we failed so badly?
Well to start with we are not following or using our own technology. One the first laws of PR is DON’T LIE! The reasons for this are obvious. If you lie publicly about anything and it comes out that you lied (which it has a way of doing) then you are always worse off then if you told the truth. But the current church lies all the time. The statistics of scientology’s great expansion are mostly lies, the wonderful PR and dissemination wins are also altered and/or exaggerated.
The church attacks all critics, even if what they say is true, or partly true. This is stupid and only creates more of a ridge.
Ironically LRH says that one of the wonders of the scientology org board is the qualifications division. The idea is that qual is where the organization and its products gets corrected. He makes a big deal of how important this discovery is and how NOT having a qual has crashed many organizations in the past. Yet that’s what happened to scientology, it has no way to correct itself.
Lrh says that if scientology fails it wont be because of external forces, it will be because of our own failure to apply our own technology.
Any sane person or group when criticized (or “attacked”) should first have a very close look to see if any of what’s being said or criticized is true. If you have a business and a customer complains about slow service or a lousy product do you immediately assume the customer is an enemy and attack them? NO! if you have any brains you go look and see what exactly happened. If you find any errors made on the side of the company than you rectify them. And thank the customer for bringing the problem to your attention! Any and all complaints are simply an opportunity for improvement, not an invitation for a psychotic rampage.
But in scientology as it is practiced this is not often the case. Any one who is critical “must have overts”, no one should complain, they should simply be grateful that we “took an interest in them in the first place” and shut the hell up. scientology is always right because we have the most noble goal. Scientology has itself become rather suppressive! I mean these are suppressive qualities, are they not?
Have you ever known a person like this, one who “is never wrong”, a person who can never look at them self to see where they have gone wrong, but always attacks anyone who tries to point out their errors? Have you ever their to live with such a person? It is not easy! Because they are crazy!
The cycle for the last 20 to 30 years has been: a blindness to the need for any reform, arc breaking people at an increasing rate, a total belligerence towards other groups, horrible PR, and lack of any effective method to attract new public (due in part to horrible PR) a fixation on money, more and more pressure on fewer and fewer people to pay these huge sums of money, more arc broken people, worse PR, less new public and more and more demand and pressure etc etc.
Disband the Sea Org.
Part of starting of getting a fresh start is doing away with any vestiges of the not so good past. I would jettison the Sea Org, and if there is a need and interest start a new “religious order” inside the church. There is already a precedent in Scientology, when the old Guardians Office was disbanded and replaced with OSA. Create a new order, one a little ( a lot!) more friendly! Any reorganization of the existing order or new one would do away with the RPF, revise how Sea Org (or new order) freeloader debts are calculated and recognize that its ARC that gets things done, not threats and duress. Having a religious order, where one commits their life to the cause is fine, as long as it is a completely volunteer activity. This has not been the case with the Sea Org. In most cases when a person wanted to leave it was quite a flap, for the person leaving! The emotional and mental duress levied to prevent people from leaving was (is!) extreme. All of that has to go. I am sure some would argue that the Sea Org should not be dissolved, after all it was LRH who started it! And that’s fine, to keep it as long as it is reorganized from top to bottom. There is a LOT of negative now associated with the SO, the RPF, the abortion issue, the way children were handled, etc that it probably would be best to scrap it and start a new religious order.
Revision of Ethics and Administrative Policies
Disconnection is a right of any individual, that’s true. Anyone has the right to communicate or not communicate with anyone they want to, when they want to. But the way it has used in the church is a huge mess. Of all the things the current church is attacked for the number one item on the list is and has been, “splitting up families”.
The entire subject of PTS handling and disconnecting needs to be reviewed. As an example, if you have a college student, say in their second year of the university, they discover scientology and then call mom and dad to say that they want to quit college and join staff at the org, what does anyone expect the folks to say? Labeling the parent s SPs because they don’t want their child to quit the university and join staff is insane. Over the years there have been so many of these basically stupid handlings.
The attitude of: “Were the most ethical group on earth and if anyone says anything against us then they are suppressive” is so self centered I am not entirely sure where to start on where to handle this. The idea that Scientology is great and that anyone who doesn’t like it is bad, has crimes, is an SP, etc etc ad nauseum, is ingrained deeply into Scientology.
The situation where someone is a scientologist and is connected to another person who is against it is sort of our own making! Maybe if the overall PR of the church was better, maybe if we, as a church, didn’t create so much antagonism, there would be less “PTS” people around and all of this would be easier.
Let anyone leave. Anyone who want to “leave” either leave staff or leave the org or the mission, or leave any part of Scientology should be able to leave at any time for any reason. If a staff member decides to leave staff, give the person a gold watch and a going away party for their years of service. The current system of belittling the person, treating them as some sort of evil person is all wrong. The current system is to treat anyone “leaving” as some sort of criminal, treat them with contempt and as some sort of scum bag. This is wrong on so many levels there too many to catalog. Trying to hold on to people who don’t want to be there is totally against all that scientology is (supposed to) stand for.
Issue a complete amnesty
The amnesty would be for anyone and everyone ever declared or routed off or denied service. All squirrel groups, independent groups, everyone. The idea is to make friends and start over. If Scientology were ever to make any headway in achieving the goals of Scientology we have to all work at it together. As I recall, with the last amnesty, you had to write up your overts, disclosing your actions that you wanted to receive amnesty for. My idea is to simply forgive any and all transgressions, no matter what, push the reset button. Sort of an “Ollie, ollie, in come free”. Get everyone back in, back in ARC, get rid of the past make wrongs and crap, and get started on planning how to help people and apply standard scientology to help people and make free beings by the droves!
Ethics is personal, justice is by the group.
The current use of ethics and justice inside the church is a complete screwed up mish-mash . Ethics is supposed to be personal, about the choices an individual make related their survival and the survival of those around them. Justice is supposed to be about the actions a group takes when an individual fails to maintain his or her own ethical conduct. One example of how this is wrongly applied currently is the eligibility sec checks. A person shows up and goes in session for a sec check, gets off overts and then gets sent to ethics to handle the overts. There are many levels where this is wrong. First, any overt the pc gets off in session should never be written up or used to make the person wrong, or be used against the person in any way, ever!
Second when you go to the MAA after the sec check and the MAA goes over your list of overts right there the MAA is bypassing you on your ethics. You cant just go in there and say, “Well, that was some great sec checking, feel better now, don’t need any more handling, …!” They wont let you do that. Instead the MAA’S viewpoint is enforced on you. You MUST do as told, (conditions, amends, what ever ethics program they make for you, etc) they get you to do conditions, amends, etc because of your overts. They are doing a justice cycle on the pc. I know that they will say that its up to the person to do or not do the conditions/amends, etc, but that’s really a lie. You are told that this is what you need to do to continue in session, or on the level. Really it is all a form on extortion and control. If the true goal is to make FREE beings, then this is clearly NOT the way. Sure you can disagree and not do the “ethics” cycle, but then you’re done receiving services. So in reality, they are enforcing on the person their own ideas of what’s right, what’s wrong, and how to make amends for it. This is all crazy. It violates the idea that the person is doing what their doing on their own determinism, second it is a way to get the thetan to conform to some written or unwritten code of right and wrong. In scientology we are trying to get the person to be cause. Not good. Just cause. The general idea is that is the person is cause, if they are up tone then they will make the best decisions.
There exists in scientology a code of what’s good and bad. There are a lot of enforced realities I have run into. For example: I have heard I said that watching TV is bad. Looking at “porno” or masturbating is bad. I was told that selling stock in a company is bad. Not contributing (as much as anyone feels you should) is bad. In scientology now a days there are a zillion things that are considered by someone bad. And most of them are totally bullshit. All of these arbitrary ideas of good and bad behavior must be jettisoned.
And fast. For ever.
The real goal is to make the person CAUSE, not “good” (what ever that means).
Good is too subject to opinion. Trying to get some one to be good is just a control mechanism.
Rehabilitating a beings ability to be cause is the goal. Of course a being will make mistakes and be “bad” sometimes. So what?
Fixating on getting the person to be “good”, and not do “bad” things is insane. Its introverting, it does not result in a free being.
Sure we can have some rules, you can’t murder someone, or rob them. That’s fine, but bypassing the person to make them be “good” is not scientology. In fact, it’s suppressive!
If there is going to be any sort of confessional used as part of the ot levels or really any use of confessionals at all the way they must be done is that the pc goes in session, and any overts disclosed to the auditior never go any further. They are not written up for the ethics folder, the person is not sent to ethics, there is no justice action. You simply get off the overt, recognize that you were cause and move on. To handle it any other way is to invite all manner of insanities.
No Dissemination
If the goal is true expansion then one can see that what’s missing is any effective effort at broad dissemination of Scientology. If there are not hordes of new people starting their first step in Scientology each week there will be trouble.
Lack of any effective dissemination program is killing Scientology. In any Org or Mission there needs to be 10, 20, 50, 100 new people starting a new course each week. Lets say there are 100 first service starts. Of course not all of that 100 will complete their course. Some will move, or decide they don’t like it etc. But a percent will have wins and decide to continue. These people will make this decision on their own based on their wins and reach for the next step. The registrar will be more like a cashier, not a sales person. The Org or Mission will have money and everyone is happy and its fun.
And what if there are only 5 or 2 or 1 new persons starting their first service each week? Then things get desperate. There is no one to buy auditing or courses or books. The plan becomes how to get people who already bought to buy more. If this continues, no new people starting services, then the demand becomes stronger on the existing public to buy. As the pressure becomes greater and greater more of these existing public become unhappy and leave. The pressure becomes heavier on those who remain. New methods of pressure and leverage must be resorted to. Life in the Church becomes very serious! The word of mouth suffers. As people leave, disenchanted with how they were pressured, they tell others and so the likelihood of new people becoming interested drops.
One really has to ask if this is a mistake or if there is an intention to kill the church from within. Because none of this is very hard to see. If the PR and reputation of the Church is bad it will be harder to attract new people. No or few new people creates this version of cannibalism.
Broad dissemination
Next a new era of broad dissemination needs to start. ALL of the materials of Scientology should be released for free. Every book, course, etc, all openly published on the internet. If anyone wants help, there it is. If a person is depressed and needs help, there is a course on the Tone Scale or Suppression, or communication. If a parent has trouble with their children, or a student has trouble with study, well there is the technology, easy to find with any search engine, set up in an easy to study format. The internet provides a perfect platform for getting all the tech out there.
If anyone decides to do any of the free on line courses and gets stuck there would be a free on-line chat service where they could get help understanding the tech and how to use it. Of course there would be plenty of other ads on the site promoting getting auditing, doing professional courses at an Org or Mission. There would be lots of links on the web site promoting if you need help click here and they would be someone to chat with or email, or even speak to now and get your questions answered. If people can have this line to get some basic tech many will reach and come into an org or mission.
Another problem that is created by lack of new people starting services is a games condition between orgs, missions and groups. If there are floods of new people then there is no conflict, everyone is trying to keep up with demand. If there is a dire lack, like now, then there is internal bickering and other attacks between scientology centers. This is, of course, stupid. Lack of new people coming in on a regular basis only creates more pressure on the existing public. LRH calls it cannibalization. People are over regged and pressured. This is counter productive, in the least! It drives people away, creates bad word of mouth and more PR nightmares.
New command structure
System for choosing leaders. This is a tough question, who chooses the leaders? Is it a vote? Who votes? Can the group recall a leader that they feel is leading poorly? I think that there should be some system where the group, the scientologists can have a voice in who is leading, and have a say in what direction things are going. As far as I know LRH did not leave any system for this, so one would need to be created.
Transparency: financial and statistics. If we are to have a True Group, then there should be a way to ensure that the group is up to date on the real picture. The idea that we can only be told part of what is happening, the truth is what’s needed, especially inside the group. PR is fine for the general non scientology public, (as long as its all completely factual). The stats of the church should be available, the orgs, missions, groups, international, all should be available on line for scientologists to see. I also believe that there should be some way to have the financial status of the church also be available in some regard.
Review of materials.
Someone is going to have to have the hat of review of materials. This (and the next point, continued research) are very touchy points in Scientology. But they really need to be addressed. Who can be trusted to review LRH materials? The fact is that times change. If any of the above changes are going to be made, like revising the application of sec checking, ethics handlings, the Sea org, etc etc. then someone is going to have to write the new policies. The idea that we have been operating on, that ALL LRH tech is completely 100% correct, perfect and always works is really quite silly. Especially when it comes to the admin tech. So I don’t know if we need a board of highly classed auditiors to make the needed changes, or one person, or what but there needs to be someone who acts in the best interests of the group, and that person (or group) should also be them selves reviewed by others as to their performance. The current system where one person has complete control is an invitation for disaster. Revisions need to be made based on
Continued research. I don’t know if the general idea is that we are all waiting for LRH to come back to continue the research. I think that this is not a very good plan. I saw what happened when they found the “new” LRH on SouthPark!
Internal attitudes
Anyone who has studied Scientology, or been a staff member has asked (and been asked) this question many times: If the Technology of Scientology is so good, why is there so much negative written about it?
The answer from a Scientologists point of view is: It’s attacked BECAUSE it works; the vested interests see it as a threat. Drug companies don’t like it because it will cut profits, psychiatrists don’t like us because we DO have a workable technology to help people, and they don’t, they only make people worse… the government doesn’t like Scientology because it makes people smarter, people who are free and who will questions things, etc, etc. there are many reasons like this. But they all tend to along the line of we are doing good and anyone who doesn’t like us MUST be doing BAD, or have bad intentions.
In answering this question there is never any concept that Scientology may have ever done anything to invite criticism or attack. It’s ALWAYS the line of anyone who criticizes or attacks is evil. They are terrorists, suppressive, evil.
This line of thinking eventually leads only one direction, down. There is never (really: NEVER) any introspection; “Are WE doing anything wrong?” No criticism is allowed. No self-reflection is entertained. This way of thinking creates an unmatched level of arrogance. We are great and helping people and anyone who says that we are doing ANYTHING wrong only wants to make people worse.
This concept is so ingrained into anyone in Scientology that as soon as you think a thought that something might possibly be wrong in the Church you automatically think that YOU must be bad. Scientologists are carefully trained to think that if they have ANY critical thoughts about Scientology Management then they must have committed their OWN harmful acts. In this way the power of observation is suppressed, any thought of need for change inside the church is turned back inward and the person is now introverted, worrying about “What sort of harmful act must I have committed to make me think a negative thought about Scientology?” Its an automatic mechanism: Think a negative thought about Scientology Management (this includes ANY observation that something is wrong) and one IMMEDIATELY starts to think what bad act have I done? What is wrong with me? Immediate introversion.
Obviously this is all completely nuts!
If an individual or group cannot correct itself it is doomed. The persons or groups demise may not take place right away, but there will be a steep downward slide eventually ending in demise. Have you ever known a person who is ALWAYS right? Someone who does not EVER admit error no matter how obvious? It’s the same with a government, a company, any individual or group: Ability to be successful and survive is dependent upon the ability to step back and evaluate what you are doing and make any needed changes based on what really works. Works here would mean achieving your goals.
How can there be any improvements in Scientology? The communication line is completely suppressed. You can’t talk to your friends about what’s wrong inside Scientology. They will probably feel the need to write a report about you. What is apparently supposed to happen is that we are all supposed to wait until our fearless leader tells us what needs to be changed. If David Miscavige decides change is needed then that’s fine, but no one inside the Church is supposed to think about it.
Statistics
The system of management by statistics is flawed. Its not that tracking stats is in itself bad, in fact its stupid not to track them. But some of the stats in scientology are actually destructive. For example, driving course completions is insane. Here we have a person who has paid for a course, whether it is the student hat, key to life, auditor training, or an admin course. The length of time the person takes is of no matter. If the student wants to listen to the tapes several times, so what? Pushing a person to complete for the sake of some supervisors stats is wrong. This creates a focus on speed. Who cares how long it rakes to complete the course? What’s important is did the person get it? Can they do it? Are they happy with the course? At least in auditing there is no pressure to complete, due in part to the fact that the PC is always paying more money if the grade or level takes longer!
Customer Service!
The entire concept of customer service is MISSING. As an example I have gotten about a dozen phone calls from the church recently about some events.
Now in a NORMAL business, lets say you work at any type of business and you call a person to promote a service or product and the customer says, “Well, I have already been called about this…”, the sane person will say, Well, I am sorry that we have called you so many times, I apologize. I will make sure that your file is noted and we wont be bugging you any more!’
Or the person who REALLY understood people and customer service would say: “Wow! That’s not right! I am sooo sorry we have kept calling you, I would guess that you are starting to feel harassed, and that you wish you’d never filled in the more info card! Well, I REALLY apologize for the mix up on our part, and I would like to send you a gift certificate for $25 to Starbucks to make up for our stupid mistake! If you ever decide that you’re interested in our services, please give me a call directly and I will be sure to help you”
I doubt that you will ever in a million years get that “handling” from the church.
Well, why not? Where does this hard assed, fascist attitude towards the public come from? I don’t have all the answers, but I can tell you that we need to root out every last part of that stupid rotten attitude.
ANYONE who has been in scientology for even a few weeks has seen some aspect of this. And from the first we learned to accept it, to not question it.
thanks! Sarah :D
Enjoy!
Thoughtful
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