We hope you had a relaxing Labor Day weekend. We combined our holiday with a little work, and the whole thing left us exhausted. But thankfully, our friend Karen de la Carriere came through for us yet again.
She let us know that she received the newest copy of Advance! magazine, and she thought we might want to help the Church of Scientology get the word out about all the expansion that is happening for the organization. We’ve decided to share with you just one success story from the magazine, about the booming business Scientology is doing in Los Angeles. This church is on fire!
You know, it’s a funny thing. As more and more evidence emerges that Scientology is actually shrinking (take a look at Mike Rinder’s blog on a regular basis, for example), Scientology’s claims for how fast it’s growing have never been more grandiose.
It was six years ago, in 2009, that former Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis was secretly recorded and uttered a really catchy statement about how Scientology was booming: “…the church having grown more in the last year than in the last five years combined, and more in the last five years than in the last five decades combined.”
Wow! If Scientology had just kept up that pace, in the last six years it would have taken over half the country by now. Or, here’s another measure to consider. In February 2012, Scientology aired an ad on network television claiming that it was gaining 4.4 million new people every year. At that pace, it would have gained nearly 16 million new people just since then! When you consider that there are only about 14 million members of the Jewish faith in the entire world, it makes you appreciate how quickly Scientology has become one of the world’s biggest religions!
Well, OK, that might be a slight exaggeration. In fact, it’s probably more likely that you’d be hit by lightning than to actually run into a Scientologist in the street. But just because the church — and the facilities at its Los Angeles “Big Blue” complex — seem deserted isn’t a reason that we can’t still enjoy Scientology’s claims for immense growth. Sure, one of those Los Angeles facilities — ASHO, the American Saint Hill Organization — was in such dire shape, Miscavige replaced its Commanding Officer, combined its day and night staff, and replaced the entire staff at LA Org with a Sea Org crew that was flown in. (We talked to Mike Rinder about those changes earlier.) But that obvious sign of slow business hasn’t infected the happy writers at Advance!…
Expansion Like Never Before
The Pacifica Bridge, is expanding at unexpected orders of magnitude
Every single day AOLA holds a variety of events for the entirety of the Pacifica Bridge. In addition to this, there are other events at the Model Ideal Org of Los Angeles, as well as ASHO.
Recently AOLA hosted the first Quarter FSM Awards Dinner, with over one hundred Pacifica Bridge FSMs in attendance.
The attendees were briefed on the expansion occurring at the Pacifica Bridge Orgs, and the Quarter Awards were given out to the top producing FSMs, field groups, staff members, Missions and Orgs, who shared their successful actions with the rest of the attendees.
ASHO recently held an Auditor’s Night event, where all people who would like to get trained were briefed on the training side of the Bridge, and also got to see a live recording of a session in play, seeing the auditor work with the Mark Ultra VIII E-Meter.
Every Friday night there is Graduation, and there are weekly Source nights where there are LRH lectures played and you can get connected to Source.
The Pacifica Cafe regularly has entertainment available for all family and friends. There are regular musicians, singers, movie nights, and so forth happening almost every single day.
The purpose of all of these events is to unite all Scientologists in the Greater Los Angeles area and get them activated in disseminating Dianetics and Scientology and moving up the Bridge to Total Freedom. Additionally, a lot of these events can be used to activate other Scientologists otherwise not active on the Bridge, and help them generate the wherewithal to move up the Bridge themselves.
With further expansion on the horizon with Golden Age of Tech for OTs, now is the best time to unite with other Scientologists on the Pacifica Bridge and become part of one of the largest movements ever in the history of Scientology.
Everything at the Pacifica Bridge is tailored for unparalleled speed up the Bridge. With the entire Bridge laid out on one street, exactly as LRH envisioned, as well as with the Ideal Orgs of Los Angeles, ASHO and the Advanced Organization of Los Angeles, it is all here for one purpose: to rapidly move and service Scientologists on their ascent up the Bridge for training and processing.
The final element needed to make it all a working package is you.
We look forward to your observations about this fascinating article. What we found most interesting was the “Golden Age of Tech for OTs,” which we’re sure must be monumental releases. Just think how much fun it’s going to be for your OT friends to redo their OT levels at about 10 grand per level. It’s only money, and there’s no better investment than to invest in yourself! Hip, hip, hooray!
——————–
BOOK NOTES
We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.
Tony Ortega’s upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…
Sept 15: Phoenix, Barrett the Honors College, Arizona State University, ASU in Downtown Phoenix campus, Walter Cronkite Theater, 5:30 pm
Sept 23: Cleveland, Parma Heights Library, 7pm sponsored by Center for Inquiry – Northeast Ohio
Sept 24: Minneapolis, Grumpy’s Bar & Grill, 2801 Snelling Ave, Roseville, 7 pm, sponsored by Minnesota Atheists
Sept 27: Portland, Friendly House, 1737 NW 26th Ave, 12:45 pm, sponsored by Humanists of Portland
Sept 28: Seattle, Razzi’s Pizzeria, 7 pm, with Seattle Skeptics and Seattle Atheists
Sept 29: Vancouver, BC, Seven Dining Lounge, 7 pm
Oct 14: London, premiere of Louis Theroux film, ‘My Scientology Movie’
Oct 23: Sydney, Giant Dwarf Theatre (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)
Oct 25: Melbourne, venue secured (announcement coming later)
Oct 28: Adelaide (with Sen. Nick Xenophon)
Oct 30: Perth
Past dates: Santa Barbara (5/16), Hollywood (5/17), Orange County (5/17), San Diego (5/20), San Francisco (5/22), New York (6/11), Chicago (6/20), Toronto (6/22), Clearwater (6/28), Washington DC (7/12), Hartford (7/14), Denver (7/17), Dallas (7/20), Houston (7/22), San Antonio (7/24), Austin (7/25), Paris (7/29), London (8/4), Boston (8/24)
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on September 8, 2015 at 07:00
E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT 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
