Destruction is in Its DNA
I want to talk to you about the Church of Scientology. I worked in the Church 27 years, 15 of them in the Sea Organization, which is the highest level of the Church. I have literally decades of experience with how Scientology operates, both publicly and behind closed doors.
If you are involved with Scientology right now, or if you are thinking about getting involved with it, you really need to hear this.
Now let me blunt and get right to the point: Scientology is dying. The bad news with these guys has been going on for years and there’s no indication right now that it’s going to stop. In fact, I believe this disintegration is picking up speed. What I want to tell you about is why this happening and why no matter what happens from this point forward, it’s pretty inevitable where it’s going to end up.
Let’s start from the top. David Miscavige is the leader of the Church. He likes to tell his followers that things have never been better, and that every year they are seeing church expansion at higher and higher levels. But if you actually LOOK at the statistics and see what’s in the media and how many people are coming forward and telling their stories, things have never been worse.
Miscavige is actually lying to his parishioners almost every single time he talks to them.
Let’s look at the membership figures. Since the 1970s, Scientology has claimed a membership of millions. But look a little closer. Just who are these millions?
Well, the truth is that there never have been millions of Scientologists. Ever. These numbers were literally made up out of thin air by church officials for the sake of good press.
Let’s look at at some indpendent, impartial assessments of the Church’s membership. In 2001, a survey was conducted by the City University of New York and they found only 55,000 Scientologists in all of the United States.
More recently, the American Religious Identification Survey was done in 2008 and it found the number had dropped to 25,000.
Even J. Gordon Melton, a religious scholar who has written favorable pieces for Scientology, has said that the Church significantly exaggerates its membership numbers.
When Scientology gives the media its membership data, no one really does any fact checking. They just repeat the Church’s lies, so this fantasy about 8, 10 or even 12 million members continues to be reported, even though these inflated numbers are actually easy to disprove.
Alright, here’s some insider information for you: if there is one thing in Scientology that Church executives go absolutely ga-ga over, it’s statistics. These days, they actually know how many Scientologists there are almost exactly. The way they know this is because they keep files and weekly reports from every single one of their churches of how many parishioners attend classes or receive counselling every single weekl
They also keep close track on how many attendees they have at all the different events they have each year.
The dirty secret is that these figures have been spiraling down for years and are now as low as 35 – 40,000 worldwide, including the Church’s own staff members. That means that public membership could now be as low as 25,000 people. Some estimates being done right now are coming up with even lower figures.
The list they keep of active members is one of their most closely guarded secrets, accessible to only a handful of Sea Org members at the highest levels of the Church, so getting truly accurate figures even if you are inside the organization is pretty much impossible.
The only reason I can talk about this is because when I worked in the Church, I happened to have that list of active members in my hands one day. I also happened to see those graphs of how many people were attending Church events every year. Now I wasn’t supposed to see either one of these things. But I did and I can tell you that the list of members didn’t even have 100,000 members on it, much less 10 million.
L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1954. Over the years he wrote literally volumes of policies governing the purposes and activities of every single part of the organization, from its highest management levels down to how the janitors are supposed to wash windows. Nothing was too trivial for his personal attention.
In the world of Scientology, Hubbard’s directions are law. Whenever things have gone wrong in the execution of his policies, blame is always shifted to those who carried out the orders or to those who it is intended to victimize. It is NEVER the fault of Hubbard’s policies.
Church doctrine on this is clear. Hubbard is the single source of its policies and the policies are infallible.
In this series of videos, I’m going to break down what is actually behind Scientology’s destruction. And I want to make it clear from the beginning that it has nothing to do with Scientology’s belief system. The dogma of Scientology, what they call the “technology,” is NOT the problem.
Like any other religion, Scientology has its own unique set of ideas as to origins of the universe, what Man’s relationship is with God, and it has codes and rules for happy living.
I don’t subscribe to Scientology’s beliefs anymore and I’m not a Scientology apologist. But if I’m going to talk truth here, it’s no stretch of the imagination to say that their beliefs are not really so different or any stranger than those of say Catholics or Hindus.
No religious beliefs stands up too well under the cold light of logic and reason. That’s why they call it faith. And nothing I’m going to talk about has anything to do with Scientology’s faith or beliefs.
I’m not here to call every Scientologist crazy. People can believe whatever they want. It’s what they DO with that belief that counts in the real world.
Critics, ex-Scientologists and media pundits talk about Scientology and highlight its weaknesses and abuses. But contrary to what Scientology tells its parishioners, these critics are NOT the source of the problem. They are just reporting on it. It is the Church of Scientology itself which is its own worst enemy.
It is the Church’s operating policies and how those policies are carried out, that is bringing about its destruction. No amount of shiny commercials, brilliant marketing or new PR firms are going to be able to cover up the rotten core of Scientology. It is what it is.
Its obsession with money, the harsh way it deals with members who have doubts, its toxic disconnection policies which rip apart families – these are not issues of faith. They are issues of control and domination.
Because Hubbard’s word is law and because the policies I’m going to talk about cannot be changed without changing the fundamental nature of Scientology itself, it’s actually in Scientology’s very DNA to destroy itself.
I’m not saying that Scientology is going to be gone tomorrow. The church is well-funded and organized enough that it probably still has many years left in it.
My point is that no matter what happens from this point forward, unless the Church were to completely reform and change its very nature, it’s demise is simply inevitable.
In part 2, I’ll begin breaking down these toxic policies in detail and show how each one is helping to destroy Scientology from within.
Thank you for watching.
Looking forward to in-depth analysis of the management by someone who was there. It always looked nutty from the outside. Jefferson Hawkin’s book was a great read about the inner workings.
Excellent! Thank you Chris.
Hi Chris
Over at The Bunker you said . . .
. . . this appears to be a false dichotomy. Scientology’s actions and operational policies are driven by its belief system. Were it not for the belief system there would not be endless and precise instructions for carrying out disconnection and the stifling of free speech. In fact, a belief in Xenu is, largely, dependent on disconnection because a person working their way towards OTIII may well be dissuaded by someone deemed to be PTS or an SP. Tgis further dilineates the false dichotomy in that the PTS/SP Doctrine which drives disconnection is an essential aspect of the belief system. Take the PTS/SP Doctrine away and you no longer have Scientology.
I understand your premise but I disagree. I don’t see how any of Scientology’s “tech” is dependent upon its disconnection policy. In fact, Scientology existed for 15 years before Hubbard even came up with “SPs” and vast world conspiracies and enforced disconnection. One could pick up a Scientology text, practice the auditing procedure on someone else and perhaps get gain with it. That “technical” procedure doesn’t depend on forcing your family to stop talking to you forever or stalking you if you disagree with whether it works or not.
It is true that at first, the idea of an “SP” was a technical thing which was supposed to be able to be handled by technical means (Power Processes). And it was asserted that only a very small number of people were even SP to begin with. But that quickly morphed into something else entirely with the whole invention of Scientology Ethics and the policies behind the Ethics system. It’s now become more of what we might call a “political tool” to quell dissent and punish free speech. These things were not inherent in Scientology’s tech before 1966. There were shades of it in some of Hubbard’s earlier policies, but not the blatant disregard for human rights and free speech that came in the mid-to-late 60s.
This is no effort on my part to save any the organization or give them advice. But I believe that if you removed entirely the whole of the ethics/justice system from Scientology (all of the conditions and courts and comm evs and, most importantly, the disconnection policies and fair gaming practices) and if OSA were truly dismantled entirely, that the organization would have a fighting chance for survival. People would still be able to do auditing and training without these policies in place. It is those policies and the rampant abuses of power which have been carried out in the name of those policies which is ensuring that Scientology meets an early death.
Perhaps one other point I should make is that I’m talking here about the demise of the organization of Scientology, not the subject of Scientology. They are two different things.
(Note from admin: I moderated your comment simply due to its length. Your points are well taken, even if not fully agreed with. Thank you for taking the time to reply.)
Ahhhh . . . I get where you are coming from now. My position is quite different. As I see it, a person operating outside of the official organisation cannot be a Scientologist and the “differentiation” between Scientology the subject and Scientology the organisation is another false dichotomy. The fulcrum I use to maintain that position is the simple fact that it is what L Ron Hubbard said and, when it comes to Scientology, what L Ron Hubbard said shall be the law and the whole law (cf: KSW). Sure, people outside the cult can call themselves Scientologists, just as I can call myself a Venusian train driver, but neither label escapes capture as a misnomer. At this stage, the possibility of Scientology having a fighting chance at survival is an anathema. I remain opposed to Scientology as it is defined by L Ron Hubbard and until such time as the cult has been destroyed, its assets taken from it, and its criminals brought to justice. On that happy day I will reconsider my position with a view to the idea that Scientology is anything other than a fraud and what ever bits and pieces of this and that aspects of it can be constituted into some sort coherent and benign subject.
After some consideration and reading your comments, I now regret slinging out the “apologist” label: sorry about that. It seems to me now that you are actually taking a “softly-softly” approach and, while we do disagree on somethings, we agree, by far, on most. IMHO.
All these toxic policies come from Hubbard’s dark side and his paranoia. You only need retaliation, disconnection and fair game if you don’t deliver what you’ve promised. BMW does not need such policies because they make good cars and they are guaranteed. In Scientology the Organisation or its leader are not liable, not responsible. You sign weavers and documents in which you declare that you are the only person liable for your spiritual condition. They do not guarantee any results. The regges do of course but it’s just wind.
I really enjoyed that chris.
You are an excellent speaker and I look forward to hearing more from you with these videos.
I always say that the cult is excellent at creating enemies. I think they made a BIG mistake pissing you off. 🙂
Would love to have you on my podcast to share what you present here, and what you’ve presented at Skeptics in the pub. I’ll hunt you down next Thursday and discuss if we’re both there.
-Maddy Love
Excellent video, Chris. I look forward to more.
Thanks, I enjoyed this very straightforward video
The ARIS numbers have been discussed elsewhere and there is a serious caveat that should accompany them – they are highly inaccurate. The 25,000 figure is +/- 106%.
It would thus be statistically better to quote ARIS 2008 as showing that there are less than 50,000 Scientologists in the USA, that being as accurate as a political poll.
It’s generally assumed that since around half of Scientology branches are outside the USA that applies to worldwide membership also, so “less than 100,000 members” would be correct.
And yes that was in 2008, before Anonymous had settled in for the long haul, before Mike and Marty and the rest had spoken up, before the fear had gone.
Not for Publication.
Your TRs are so good in the videos, I suspect you AT LEAST did PRO TRs as your first course to get some chicks eh?
RE:Alteration of LRH tapes proof. For the good of the public RTC cleverly altered PURE LRH TECH in most of the Study Tapes. I heard the current Study Tapes while reading along with my OLD early ’80s tape transcripts circling all the edits and rearrangements. They DO make sense, BUT SHOWS that THEY are fully willing to edit what “HE” says to make it better! WHO KNOWS what was removed from ALL the OTHER RELEASES! All the juicy Whole Track and UFO, Doll body stuff! Like the Golden Era productions ‘THE OT TAPES’, 6 in series, in the ’70s where he goes into paper thin hull UFO discs and their doll body inhabitants. All missing no doubt.
One old time Scien. complained to the supervisor that Negro was turned to Black in one tape and both were UP IN ARMS at that little alteration! This evidence is big. Please download..no links to track back. Tony Ortega does not see the import.
Later Chris
I just wanted to say thank you very much for putting together this series. Your cadence and the clear concise way you presented this information made it a very refreshing take on the crumbling CoS system and the reasons behind it. This will also make an excellent series to show to people as a beginner series to help them understand what some of the more major issues people have with the CoS.
Although I personally think the tech end of scientology is useless too I do like that you managed to separate the 2. It lets this hit a broader audience especially the still-ins who may stumble across it without dismissing the positives they might have gotten from Scientology.
In summary awesome job!