Yeh, you're right, there was an increase for a while between 1990-2000, kind of a resurgence after they got the tax exemption and DM seemed to be doing alright for a bit. Seemed to be, but that whole thing puzzles me. Was the increase mostly just focusing on the big donors and getting more money in from them and then using 2nd and 3rd world countries for slave labor to add to the numbers? It doesn't quite add up. Not sure those statistics are accurate - who knows how much of that info was provided by Scientology or from Internet bots they hired. It could be right, but I have my doubts. <snip>
Well, speaking for my own west coast experiences: I recall a few people leaving in the 90s, but it did not seem common.We had some people from Russia or Latin America come over. There were babies born into the cult. I still recall quite a fe american recruits in the late 90s, even body-routing had some success.
I'd say the defections suddenly grew in number somewhere in late 2003 or early 2004. As ethics, I also delt with more and more people saying they are thinking of leaving, or that they had a friend who left and wanted him/her to come out as well.
This flood continued onwards for the next few years, which was when I myself left. I do not know if it stabilized or the drain goes faster ever on.
Ah, the big question: Reasons.
1. Internet was certainly a factor. Not everyone had internet access and those who had access had filter put on. Due to the nature of my post, the 2000s filter I had was of a "blacklist" not a "whitelist" type, so there were ways (which I'm not gonna describe in public - sorry Smurfs!) to get around it.
Media other than internet... I'd say these were not a factor back in the day. I left before the St Petersburg times articles.
2. The 2000s were a time when many 2nd generation members went into their early 20s and tried to chart their long-term career plans. Quite a few were dissatisfied with what scn could offer with regards to that. Me including.
3. Once the 2004 exodus started, it created an aftershock. "My friends and my mom left, I almost have nobody left inside" type of cases started to appear. Moreover, because of this we had an increase of memebrs who have "recent PTS" and SP connections, which caused an increasing number of sec-checks on the remaining members.
Perhaps it was a death-spiral? More checks lead to more pressure, so more people leave, which cause even more sec-checks...
Plus the fact that sec-checks were not free. A lot of people felt that: "Oh so because Johnny Doe left, now I am being punished?!". People really tried to jump through some hoops just to make the sec-checks last shorter so they would pay less. It was a stupid, self-defeating element of the process, which many times harmed our investigations.
4. I'm not sure if it was just my experience, because this was the time when I changed posts. I became part of the investigation teams, where we did things differently and had more space than in most other teams. But I feel like the "internal culture" of scn changed in the mid 2000s. J&D of Hubbard or of auditing was still entirely taboo, but amongst colleagues people openly engaged in J&D of the administrative process, mocking the inefficiency of it or the ineptness of executives from other branches.
At least we did so within ethics - things go so crazy workload-wise, that mockery of the admin process was a way to stay sane and do your job. I think open criticism of the administrative process led to covert (perhaps sometimes purely introspective) criticism of the fundamentals of scientology itself.
5. Quite a bit of old-timers during sec-checks started to mention regging or the fact that monetizing scientology is bothering them or is going too far. Looking back, I think this was something that was sizzling for a long time and in the mid 2000s it simply started to boil over.