We want to thank the tipster who sent us a flier out of the Tampa org. It definitely interested us, because it featured a really stunning price for going “Clear.”
Now, first of all, if you’ve been hanging around this website for a considerable time, and you’ve seen the hundreds of Scientology ads and fliers we’ve posted over the years, you know that it’s not really common for fliers to post a price for courses (other than for seminar packages on the Freewinds, for example).
And on top of that, this price was pretty stunning. Stunning, that is, for how low it is, and for offering an entire ride from beginner to Clear in one package.
Previously, we did a series with Claire Headley (“Up the Bridge”), where we went step by step through Scientology’s many courses, totalling up the cost along the way. According to that method, we came up with a price of about $180,000 to go Clear.
But just look at what the Tampa Org is willing to take for you to achieve that mythic level of spiritual satisfaction…
We thought that was pretty remarkable, so we turned to Chris Shelton, a former Sea Org employee who has been helping us with a series we’re doing on a leaked audiotape and what it tells us about the state of Scientology’s “technology” right now.
Fortunately for us, Chris had a lot to say about this flier…
That is significantly less than what people used to pay to get to Clear. Miscavige has changed things up significantly with this Golden Age of Tech II thing. From what I can see, he hasn’t cut down the amount of time it takes to get to Clear, but he has significantly changed where that time is spent. He has everyone down doing the Purification Rundown and Objective processing and he’s made it so that it takes months and months to get through them. And as we went over in yesterday’s posting, people are not going to be in very good mental shape when they are done with those Objectives the way they are being run now. More than anything else, sending everyone back down the line and making them spin around and around down there has bought Miscavige time. It’s been years now that this has been going on, time he’s needed since he hasn’t had a lot else to offer them.
Now here’s another interesting thing: the Lower Grades, which used to take 3-4 intensives to get through for each one, now only take 1 intensive each or less so you don’t have to spend as much on that auditing as you used to. (Scientology auditing is purchased in 12.5-hour blocks known as “intensives.”) There’s certainly money being made in droves by sending everyone (including OTs) back down to the bottom of the Bridge, but those OTs don’t generally re-do these Lower Grades. They re-do a Purif, they do some Objectives and then, if they are deemed to have not actually made Clear, they have to do more NED auditing. According to the Snr C/S WUS briefing we’ve been looking at, NED is also taking just a couple of intensives now, whereas it used to take 5-6 intensives.
So from an old-school Scientology viewpoint, Miscavige has really altered things so that we are back into the days of Quickie Grades, something Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard was death on and even talks about in the Keeping Scientology Working policy letter. In the late 60s they did these Quickie Grades where each one was being done in just a few hours. Hubbard heard about this and didn’t just have a cow, he had a whole herd. One of the reasons that he called a bunch of people on to the ship in 1968 and did the whole Class VIII course was to put an end to the Quickie Grades thing and get in “Standard Tech” as he thought it should be done. Just a little historical data there.
However, in thinking about this a bit, I have an idea on what is going on and why Miscavige would appear to be “losing money” on the Lower Grades by making them so much faster. After a person does Lower Grades and NED, their next steps are at a Sea Org org (An organization, or Scientology facility, run by the Sea Organization) to do a Clear Certainty Rundown and then get on with the OT levels (or do Power and Power Plus and other services if they didn’t go Clear). The prices at Sea Org orgs are always more expensive the higher you go. Prices at Saint Hills (such as the American Saint Hill Organization — ASHO — in Los Angeles) are more than Class V orgs; prices at Advanced Orgs are higher than Saint Hills; prices at Flag are higher than anywhere else. So what Miscavige has done is he has set it up so people spend less time on professional auditing at Class V orgs and they therefore get “flowed up” to the Sea Org orgs faster. The Sea Org orgs are where the real money has always been made anyway, especially at the Advanced Orgs and at the Flag Service Org in Florida.
Who knows, it might even be part of his plan to have them so screwed up case-wise by the time they get to the Sea Org orgs (headaches, chronic stress and problems, etc) that it will be easier to coax them out of more money for “repair/review” auditing at the Sea Org orgs. One of the functions of Sea Org orgs is to “crack cases”and “handle out-tech from the lower orgs” so it’s not really that much of a stretch that this could be his strategy. Get them to the upper orgs and keep them under the control of the Sea Org for as long as possible, shelling out money for repairs, sec checking (security interrogations, in other words), “Flag only auditing” like the L Rundowns, and the OT Levels.
Also, it is far preferable to have people at the Sea Org bases because most of their public come from out of town and they are “captive audiences” while they are there, which means it’s easier for the IAS guys to get hold of them for hours on end to get them to make donations to the IAS — Scientology’s slush fund.
This makes a lot of sense to us, Chris. There’s a lot of church jargon here, but we think the message comes through pretty plainly: Scientology is advertising low rates and speed, speed, speed, because Miscavige wants to get people more quickly to the higher-level facilities that take in more money. That’s fascinating.
We love hearing alternative viewpoints from our excellent commenting community. Chris’s analyses of the recent changes in Scientology’s “Bridge” have really brought out some interesting opinions from some very experienced ex-Scientologists. We love hearing what you have to say!
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Bonus photos from our tipsters
It’s the Nation of Islam Dianetics Social of 2015! Good times in Orlando (we think)….
One sketchy religious organization welcomes another — David Tidman of Youth for Human Rights (right) gives a stealth-Scientology presentation to the Salvation Army’s after-school program in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Tidman works with the glamorous Meghan Fialkoff and her dad, Bernie.
Tampa’s student of the week gets the inflatable crown!
The Fort Harrison Hotel has a gym…
Doing the Survival Rundown at the Fort Harrison! Actual caption: “Awesome course! Survival rundown!!!! So much wins from it! I am more myself and also more able to have good control to living. Real help and action!”
Yolanda Pecoraro is on the Freewinds with some friends. You remember Yolanda — she was briefly connected with Tom Cruise and was his date at the IAS Gala in 2004 when he was awarded his Freedom Medal of Valor. She posted this photo from the ship…
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BOOK NOTES
On May 14, you will be able to purchase ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ from Amazon in either electronic or print format, and simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
The book will not be available for pre-order before that date. It is going live for sale on Thursday, May 14, and not a moment earlier. And hey, that’s just a few weeks away, so you won’t have to wait long.
Our appearances…
May 16: Santa Barbara Humanist Society (with Paulette Cooper), 3:00 pm
May 17: Center for Inquiry-West Los Angeles, 4773 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, 11 am (with Paulette Cooper)
May 17: CFI Orange County (Costa Mesa), 4:30 pm (with Paulette Cooper)
May 20, San Diego We’re getting some help from locals trying to assist the San Diego Association for Rational Inquiry (SDARI) find a venue for us (appearance with Paulette Cooper)
May 22: San Francisco (with Jamie DeWolf and Paulette Cooper)
(Finalizing a New York City event in early June)
June 20: Chicago
June 22/23: Toronto (with Paulette Cooper)
June 27/28: Florida (with Paulette Cooper)
July 12: Washington DC, Center for Inquiry
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 29, 2015 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
