Course supervisors

[Veda]

When I was first on course in the Scientology Academy, during the early 1970s, Org trainees were returning from the Flag ship.

They left relatively normal people and returned as purple faced fanatics.

"Ruthlessness" and "unreasonableness" were regarded as desirable characteristics.

The giant, gold framed, photo of Hubbard looked down on us. Right now I can't locate that photo, but here's the same photo - slightly altered - that appeared on the cover of the audio book for the 1987 'Messiah or Madman?"

Miscavige later discouraged this "pie face" photo and substituted it with a collection of photos taken late at night by Hubbard, of himself. Hubbard had the good sense to put these in a box and store them away. After Hubbard died, Miscavige found them and used them. (A "wog" PR firm had told Miscavige that the full face Hubbard photo was intimidating.)

Anyway, the course supervisors of 1971 and 1972 in the Manhattan Org would begin each day with, "What are we going today?" to which the (then) packed Academy responded "Produce!"

Great emphasis was placed on "Making those demo kits move!" and Supervisors hovered about with Pink Sheets.

I put up with all that and completed all my courses and auditing.

A few years later I went back on course and found the atmosphere had changed. This was 1975 and was the era of "BTBs" or "Board Technical Bulletins." (Long story.) The Supervisors were laid back (down right limp wristed) and the numbers of students had dwindled.

Oddly enough, as annoying as it sometimes was, I preferred the earlier fanatical approach.

 

[lotus]

I recall too this big frames picture of LRH , in the lobby, the course room, HGC, chapel, and LRH office.

(Also, if memory serves, this picture had been used on a serie of booklets ''celebrating'' his many personas..
Wasn't it Ron the humanitarian though ???

 

[lotus]

I came in after Apollo ship era but clearly recall the mindset and attitude of the TTC returning from Flag..especially those OEC\FEBC

Unreasonableness was the top attitude promoted.
(Goal was to quickly obtain full compliance)

p.s. There are many many many self-portraits of LRH like this...They were certainly not taken by a photographer as the way he poses and the angles are not the best for him. My thought is that he created a collection of LRH portraits , probably certain he would smash his name in history. He did though!

 

[JackStraw]

When I was first on course in the Scientology Academy, during the early 1970s, Org trainees were returning from the Flag ship.

They left relatively normal people and returned as purple faced fanatics.

"Ruthlessness" and "unreasonableness" were regarded as desirable characteristics.

The giant, gold framed, photo of Hubbard looked down on us. Right now I can't locate that photo, but here's the same photo - slightly altered - that appeared on the cover of the audio book for the 1987 'Messiah or Madman?"

Miscavige later discouraged this "pie face" photo and substituted it with a collection of photos taken late at night by Hubbard, of himself. Hubbard had the good sense to put these in a box and store them away. After Hubbard died, Miscavige found them and used them. (A "wog" PR firm had told Miscavige that the full face Hubbard photo was intimidating.)

Anyway, the course supervisors of 1971 and 1972 in the Manhattan Org would begin each day with, "What are we going today?" to which the (then) packed Academy responded "Produce!"

Great emphasis was placed on "Making those demo kits move!" and Supervisors hovered about with Pink Sheets.

I put up with all that and completed all my courses and auditing.

A few years later I went back on course and found the atmosphere had changed. This was 1975 and was the era of "BTBs" or "Board Technical Bulletins." (Long story.) The Supervisors were laid back (down right limp wristed) and the numbers of students had dwindled.

Oddly enough, as annoying as it sometimes was, I preferred the earlier fanatical approach.

I appended a "LOL" to the OP as it occurred to me: This is yet another example of the continually evolving "uniformly workable technology" that Hubbard spoke of (bragged of) in 1965 PL KSW.

How did it go... We have long since passed the point of having a uniformly workable technology. Something about now it is a matter of implementing it, blah, blah, blah.

Add BTBs, kill BTBs, add a Comm. Course, kill the Comm. Course. HARD TRs, soft, fluffy TRs ("How to appear to answer a question, how to steer a comm. cycle, etc.) Survival R/D, SRD is squirrel, re-instate SRD, Change OT levels 4-7, change OT 7, add OT 8, change OT8, re-do all training, turns out Ron didn't know how to make auditors, after all, only an asthmatic dwarf knows the right way.

Uniformly workable technology, my ass!

/rant

Jack

 

[programmer_guy]

Course supervisors were more strict in following the exact words of an HCOB in the SO than at the franchise missions.

Example:

At old ASHO (HPCSC) I could be sent to cramming in Qual for not using the exact word "Flunk!" (with HCOB references on the cramming order).

At Riverside Mission, if a student was offended if I said "Flunk!" then I was sent to cramming in mission Qual with HCOB references about ARC.

Looking back on this, I am laughing.

 

[pineapple]

Course supervisors were more strict in following the exact words of an HCOB in the SO than at the franchise missions.

Example:

At old ASHO (HPCSC) I could be sent to cramming in Qual for not using the exact word "Flunk!" (with HCOB references on the cramming order).

At Riverside Mission, if a student was offended if I said "Flunk!" then I was sent to cramming in mission Qual with HCOB references about ARC.

Looking back on this, I am laughing.

Even with all the WC'ing and study tech there was always a degree of interpretation. The interpretation that was accepted as "standard" varied from place to place. An example:

In CCH's 1-4 it says the auditor should maintain "a solid comm line" with the pc. First time I did CCH's (in Hawaii) this was being interpreted figuratively. "Solid" meant "really in there," i.e. a good comm line. If the pc twitched or otherwise originated, the auditor said "What's happening?" No physical contact. Next time I did them (in Riverside), "solid" was interpreted literally. If the pc twitched, the auditor said "What's happening?" and TOUCHED the pc. Either interpretation is possible. Which one was originally intended? Who knows?

One man's standard is another man's squirrel. (To paraphrase Paul Simon.)

 

[Alien3]

Forgetting a bit over the years. Fortunately I have had a 35 year break.

Who remembers TR0, when you were meant to go for one hour without blinking? One of our students actually did it for one hour, after several attempts. Cant remember any other details, but it was the phase at the time.

 

[JackStraw]

Forgetting a bit over the years. Fortunately I have had a 35 year break.

Who remembers TR0, when you were meant to go for one hour without blinking? One of our students actually did it for one hour, after several attempts. Cant remember any other details, but it was the phase at the time.

Eh, you had it easy! Why, in my day, we had to do it for 2 hours! And if you made it to 1:59 & blinked, well, then you started over, until you did a complete 2 hours. (true story!)

Jack

 

[ThetanExterior]

Eh, you had it easy! Why, in my day, we had to do it for 2 hours! And if you made it to 1:59 & blinked, well, then you started over, until you did a complete 2 hours. (true story!)

Jack

Yes, it was 2 hours. The most common problem I saw was a person would get to about an hour and a half then their eyes would start watering. "Flunk! Confronting with the eyes. Start again."

 

[HelluvaHoax!]

Yes, it was 2 hours. The most common problem I saw was a person would get to about an hour and a half then their eyes would start watering. "Flunk! Confronting with the eyes. Start again."

Insane cult shit! LOL

If they were really standard they would flunk students on TR-0 for breathing too.

Why single out blinking when there were so many other autonomic physiological responses that needed to be flunked?

No wonder those squirrels didn't "make it" to OT like Dr. Hubbard!

 

[F.Bullbait]

Dead-eyed Ron looming over the course room...

Why the watch? Thetans have a perfect sense of time.

 

[Veda]

This was the giant hypno Ron photo that permeated Scientology during its period of greatest expansion.

___________

A smaller version of the hypno Ron photo on display beside a cute Sea Org girl handing out a certificate of validation to a future OT.
​

1970: A new Grade Chart had just been released and at the top of the Grade Chart was OT 8 guaranteeing the ability to be at cause over matter, energy, space, time, form, life, and thought, subjective and objective, on all dynamics - Total Freedom and Total Power.

People who had done OT 3 believed they were only five steps away from Total Power!

Scientologists expected to be traveling to Target 2 by spacecraft in the Space Org by the year 2010!

Scene from the planet Mothar in 2010,
featuring two Space Org members,
from the surface of the 2nd Scientology planet.
Photo and article are from a late 1960s Advance! magazine.
​

Scientology Space Org Success on another planet: 2010

"...There were, of course, a few diehards [sic] - who claimed man couldn't be helped, that all life was basically composed of star dust... Anyway, we sent these pathetic few to a secluded island where they could get special attention... Eventually even they... were rehabilitated..."

"As for myself, I'm now wearing the blue and gold Space Org uniform and I'll be going soon on my fifth mission to bring Scientology and Ron's Bridge to Total Freedom to the lucky beings of yet another galaxy."

___________​

As it turned out, the OT 8 at the top of the (then) Grade Chart never actually existed and would eventually (almost twenty years later) be replaced with a level called "New OT 8" (written by a guy named Ray Mithoff) which has, as its end result, that one knows who he's not but does not know who he is.

Not a morale booster. No wonder membership numbers are down.

People start out not knowing who they are and end up not knowing who they are. What's worse, they're expected to be enthusiastic and delighted about it!

But that's alright. Scientology, most fundamentally, was intended to be mainly a (granite) monument to its founder and that goal has been achieved.

 

[DagwoodGum]

I recall too this big frames picture of LRH , in the lobby, the course room, HGC, chapel, and LRH office.

His bloodline looked exceedingly Howdy Doody to me from the get go.

Here he researches OT3 while disguised as Major Kong.

And thus went Scientology!

 

[Operating DB]

Insane cult shit! LOL

If they were really standard they would flunk students on TR-0 for breathing too.

Why single out blinking when there were so many other autonomic physiological responses that needed to be flunked?

No wonder those squirrels didn't "make it" to OT like Dr. Hubbard!

I know, right? Funny this thread started minutes after an ex scio friend and I were chit chatting at a restaurant after choir practice last night and we got to talking about the insanities of said cult one of which was the TRs - specifically TRO for 2 hours without blinking. Since we'd also been on the subject of passing gas, what if someone ate gas producing foods for dinner and then attempted TRO for 2 hours and was not allowed to pass gas? Would the student suureptioualy fart to relieve themself and then get flunked? What if the other student's eyes started welling up as a result? Would he get flunked for that? What if the student resisted passing gas and got filled up with gas and started floating up into the air? Enquiring minds want to know! We did have a few laughs envisioning such scenarios.

 

[F.Bullbait]

I know, right? Funny this thread started minutes after an ex scio friend and I were chit chatting at a restaurant after choir practice last night and we got to talking about the insanities of said cult one of which was the TRs - specifically TRO for 2 hours without blinking. Since we'd also been on the subject of passing gas, what if someone ate gas producing foods for dinner and then attempted TRO for 2 hours and was not allowed to pass gas? Would the student suureptioualy fart to relieve themself and then get flunked? What if the other student's eyes started welling up as a result? Would he get flunked for that? What if the student resisted passing gas and got filled up with gas and started floating up into the air? Enquiring minds want to know! We did have a few laughs envisioning such scenarios.

If I'm sitting to the left of you, make it go right! You could also as-is it...as it were.

 

[DagwoodGum]

I know, right? Funny this thread started minutes after an ex scio friend and I were chit chatting at a restaurant after choir practice last night and we got to talking about the insanities of said cult one of which was the TRs - specifically TRO for 2 hours without blinking. Since we'd also been on the subject of passing gas, what if someone ate gas producing foods for dinner and then attempted TRO for 2 hours and was not allowed to pass gas? Would the student suureptioualy fart to relieve themself and then get flunked? What if the other student's eyes started welling up as a result? Would he get flunked for that? What if the student resisted passing gas and got filled up with gas and started floating up into the air? Enquiring minds want to know! We did have a few laughs envisioning such scenarios.

I thought that it took more attention away from one's confront to suppress bodily reactions than it allowed for gains from the TR's, what a joke it was.
So many friends I had that did their TR's this way had developed such an unnatural bug eyed confront as a result of such arbitraries that it made them look like maniacs or murderers.

 

[Operating DB]

I thought that it took more attention away from one's confront to suppress bodily reactions than it allowed for gains from the TR's, what a joke it was.
So many friends I had that did their TR's this way had developed such an unnatural bug eyed confront as a result of such arbitraries that it made them look like maniacs or murderers.

Totally! My choir buddy (the ex scio) and I joke a lot about the scientology stare and occasionally without warning one of us will TRO at the other with any number of TRO exaggerated variations of bulging maniacal eyes with vibrating heads and such. We also got to talking about the absurdities of TR8 and I relabled it Military TRs. Last night the choir director told us to "stand up" to sing and my friend looked at each other with a knowing look and I said "sit down on that chair" in a suppressed rage Tone 40 and we laughed.

It's crazy that after 35 years we're still joking about the absurdities of sciontawlogy.

 

[Alien3]

Yes, it was 2 hours. The most common problem I saw was a person would get to about an hour and a half then their eyes would start watering. "Flunk! Confronting with the eyes. Start again."

It might have been 2 hours. I think I have blocked a nmber of things from my mind. I remember thinking at the time. How does this really help a person to confront. As in help a person feel more comfortable and in command of a situation in real life which may be challenging and confrontational.

 

[Alien3]

I thought that it took more attention away from one's confront to suppress bodily reactions than it allowed for gains from the TR's, what a joke it was.
So many friends I had that did their TR's this way had developed such an unnatural bug eyed confront as a result of such arbitraries that it made them look like maniacs or murderers.

I knoiw it was too weird.

 

[DagwoodGum]

This was the giant hypno Ron photo that permeated Scientology during its period of greatest expansion.

___________

A smaller version of the hypno Ron photo on display beside a cute Sea Org girl handing out a certificate of validation to a future OT.
​

1970: A new Grade Chart had just been released and at the top of the Grade Chart was OT 8 guaranteeing the ability to be at cause over matter, energy, space, time, form, life, and thought, subjective and objective, on all dynamics - Total Freedom and Total Power.

People who had done OT 3 believed they were only five steps away from Total Power!

Scientologists expected to be traveling to Target 2 by spacecraft in the Space Org by the year 2010!

Scene from the planet Mothar in 2010,
featuring two Space Org members,
from the surface of the 2nd Scientology planet.
Photo and article are from a late 1960s Advance! magazine.
​

Scientology Space Org Success on another planet: 2010

"...There were, of course, a few diehards [sic] - who claimed man couldn't be helped, that all life was basically composed of star dust... Anyway, we sent these pathetic few to a secluded island where they could get special attention... Eventually even they... were rehabilitated..."

"As for myself, I'm now wearing the blue and gold Space Org uniform and I'll be going soon on my fifth mission to bring Scientology and Ron's Bridge to Total Freedom to the lucky beings of yet another galaxy."

___________​

As it turned out, the OT 8 at the top of the (then) Grade Chart never actually existed and would eventually (almost twenty years later) be replaced with a level called "New OT 8" (written by a guy named Ray Mithoff) which has, as its end result, that one knows who he's not but does not know who he is.

Not a morale booster. No wonder membership numbers are down.

People start out not knowing who they are and end up not knowing who they are. What's worse, they're expected to be enthusiastic and delighted about it!

But that's alright. Scientology, most fundamentally, was intended to be mainly a (granite) monument to its founder and that goal has been achieved.

When I read that old article it occurs to me how devastatingly dark and foreboding it would be to find oneself stuck in that world where one went on missions to far away galaxies to spread the words of L. Ron Hubbard. Fucking YUCK!