What's new

DM Vicious?

Bea Kiddo

Crusader
What happened to this PMD guy? Did he already take over Int Management? I thought he was in Peru or conquering South America somewhere first. Anyone?
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
What happened to this PMD guy? Did he already take over Int Management? I thought he was in Peru or conquering South America somewhere first. Anyone?

As the self-appointed Golden Age of Tech Ethics Specialist for ESMB, I got his ethics in and he blew.

I used my whole body as a weapon.
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
Alanzo::police:

PMD::drool:

Result: :yikes: :jawdrop: :giveup: :runaway:

You have to use enough force to restrain the force that the bank is using to force them to do what they're doing.

Yeah, that's right. All in a day's work.

Me and Barney Fife.

Move along now. Get back to posting everybody.

We've got a planet to get to Patron Meritorious!
 

svonhatten

Patron with Honors
You have to use enough force to restrain the force that the bank is using to force them to do what they're doing.

Yeah, that's right. All in a day's work.

Me and Barney Fife.

Move along now. Get back to posting everybody.

We've got a planet to get to Patron Meritorious!

And here's one step closer. :D
 

Little Bear Victor

Silver Meritorious Patron
What is DM like?

Does anybody actually know what DM is like?

That's an interesting question. I don't know that he can be personally, as a human being, be known. He is a "homo Novis" of Hubbard manufacture. I believe he basically works on the Hubbard principle that the more dangerous you are to your environment the better you survive. And he is getting more dangerous to people around his near and far every day. Yes, he has total distrust in people; he can only see traitors around him, witness the fact he has now SP declared most every ex exec, and does not even dare to offload them but keeps them at Int so they can't go out, find out how little support Scientology actually has, or find out the truth about it, band together and cause his immediate demise. So he tries to continue the Hubbard tactics (although he has reinterpreted what declaring someone an SP means -- usually you're supposed to disconnect from them and their only comm line is IJC, etc, etc.) BTW, he does intimidate the "SPs" by the fact that he has their declares all written and that if he needs to get rid of them (i.e. they don't turn around to become his loyal and unquestioning supporters) he will destroy their reputation and sue them back to the stone ages, and other pleasant encouragement of that sort. So how is he? In the probably 40-50 COB meetings I was present, he was pleasant once that I recall. That was a small meeting with only four people present and he was addressing one of his (back then) favorite staff members in the world. In all other cases, the meetings have followed the predictable pattern of toasting one person after another, telling them he has to do all the work they are supposed to, that they are incompetent, out-ethics, counter-intentioned a*holes (his language is very descriptive and one of the worst of anyone I've ever known, in internal meetings). By several eye-witness reports, the meetings have escalated to frequent physical attacks on people, although I personally witnessed only one such occurrence. It was enough for me.

On the other side, he is a brilliant strategist, an enormously fast thinker and has very good public presentation (when he wants it). He clearly thinks he is about 1000X better, smarter, in-ethics and on-source than anyone he works with. He generally boasts that he does all the production at Int and Gold anyways, so he has no need for people. This is somewhat contrary to the fact that his ending part at virtually every event is a recruitment speech. From his viewpoint, which I have a hard time getting into (but try to by guessing at what LRH policies he views as the key ones to apply), he is probably doing that constant weeding process for those few loyal staff members who (are like him?) and "do what LRH would do." My current take is that he really believes he is doing everything possible to expand Scientology and apply LRH tech, the only contrary fact to which is the report that he has not himself gone in session since 1992 except for occasional ruds sessions. (No wonder his ruds are constantly out!)

There are many things similar between him and LRH, for the simple reason that he is trying to emulate the "what would LRH do in this situation" policy. One other key aspect is that he is definitely a "Do as I say, not as I do" personality, like LRH was. I would go as far as daring to suspect LRH imposed his personality on DM so strongly he has taken on the "valence" of his mentor. I would not be surprised if LRH had actually personally hypnotized DM to believe he was the chosen all-powerful leader of Scn. Maybe, maybe not. The close association, methods of handling people and lifestyle which by themselves amount to brain washing may have done it as well.

Also, he cannot take one blink of criticism on himself while doling out virtual death threats on others. Really. In meetings you may factually get declared and off-loaded on the spot if you do something that pisses him off really good, such as forget to acknowledge him after he has called you a motherf*ing a*hole, or say you didn't hear or understand what he said, don't have an answer, have a comm lag, look away, "lie" to him (he can "see through" any lies), or any of various other major offenses that classify as Suppressive Acts when done in His presence. To say that the meetings are intense is an understatement. To say that you are happy to make it through (another) one is much closer to truth.

And it is true that Scientology has given him everything he has: Money, power, name and fame. So he will do anything to "keep Scientology working." In recent years he has started to lose perspective at an increasing rate. He really thinks he can do it all by himself and doesn't need all the people that are doing all the work for him. One day, not so far in the future he will wake up to find himself dying in the ditch, forgotten or despised, just like his greatest role model, Simon Bolivar. And he will blame it all on the "people" who did not understand greatness.

No, Dave, we don't. Not greatness like this.

Victor

(PS. "Responsibilities of Leaders" is actually a pretty good policy to judge him by. You can predict what he will do if you know that policy. "The power has the right to shoot its enemies until such time as comes a golden age," "what pink legs?" He just hasn't realized his fate is about to become the same as Bolivars did.)
 

Alanzo

Bardo Tulpa
That's an interesting question. I don't know that he can be personally, as a human being, be known. He is a "homo Novis" of Hubbard manufacture. I believe he basically works on the Hubbard principle that the more dangerous you are to your environment the better you survive. And he is getting more dangerous to people around his near and far every day. Yes, he has total distrust in people; he can only see traitors around him, witness the fact he has now SP declared most every ex exec, and does not even dare to offload them but keeps them at Int so they can't go out, find out how little support Scientology actually has, or find out the truth about it, band together and cause his immediate demise. So he tries to continue the Hubbard tactics (although he has reinterpreted what declaring someone an SP means -- usually you're supposed to disconnect from them and their only comm line is IJC, etc, etc.) BTW, he does intimidate the "SPs" by the fact that he has their declares all written and that if he needs to get rid of them (i.e. they don't turn around to become his loyal and unquestioning supporters) he will destroy their reputation and sue them back to the stone ages, and other pleasant encouragement of that sort. So how is he? In the probably 40-50 COB meetings I was present, he was pleasant once that I recall. That was a small meeting with only four people present and he was addressing one of his (back then) favorite staff members in the world. In all other cases, the meetings have followed the predictable pattern of toasting one person after another, telling them he has to do all the work they are supposed to, that they are incompetent, out-ethics, counter-intentioned a*holes (his language is very descriptive and one of the worst of anyone I've ever known, in internal meetings). By several eye-witness reports, the meetings have escalated to frequent physical attacks on people, although I personally witnessed only one such occurrence. It was enough for me.

On the other side, he is a brilliant strategist, an enormously fast thinker and has very good public presentation (when he wants it). He clearly thinks he is about 1000X better, smarter, in-ethics and on-source than anyone he works with. He generally boasts that he does all the production at Int and Gold anyways, so he has no need for people. This is somewhat contrary to the fact that his ending part at virtually every event is a recruitment speech. From his viewpoint, which I have a hard time getting into (but try to by guessing at what LRH policies he views as the key ones to apply), he is probably doing that constant weeding process for those few loyal staff members who (are like him?) and "do what LRH would do." My current take is that he really believes he is doing everything possible to expand Scientology and apply LRH tech, the only contrary fact to which is the report that he has not himself gone in session since 1992 except for occasional ruds sessions. (No wonder his ruds are constantly out!)

There are many things similar between him and LRH, for the simple reason that he is trying to emulate the "what would LRH do in this situation" policy. One other key aspect is that he is definitely a "Do as I say, not as I do" personality, like LRH was. I would go as far as daring to suspect LRH imposed his personality on DM so strongly he has taken on the "valence" of his mentor. I would not be surprised if LRH had actually personally hypnotized DM to believe he was the chosen all-powerful leader of Scn. Maybe, maybe not. The close association, methods of handling people and lifestyle which by themselves amount to brain washing may have done it as well.

Also, he cannot take one blink of criticism on himself while doling out virtual death threats on others. Really. In meetings you may factually get declared and off-loaded on the spot if you do something that pisses him off really good, such as forget to acknowledge him after he has called you a motherf*ing a*hole, or say you didn't hear or understand what he said, don't have an answer, have a comm lag, look away, "lie" to him (he can "see through" any lies), or any of various other major offenses that classify as Suppressive Acts when done in His presence. To say that the meetings are intense is an understatement. To say that you are happy to make it through (another) one is much closer to truth.

And it is true that Scientology has given him everything he has: Money, power, name and fame. So he will do anything to "keep Scientology working." In recent years he has started to lose perspective at an increasing rate. He really thinks he can do it all by himself and doesn't need all the people that are doing all the work for him. One day, not so far in the future he will wake up to find himself dying in the ditch, forgotten or despised, just like his greatest role model, Simon Bolivar. And he will blame it all on the "people" who did not understand greatness.

No, Dave, we don't. Not greatness like this.

Victor

(PS. "Responsibilities of Leaders" is actually a pretty good policy to judge him by. You can predict what he will do if you know that policy. "The power has the right to shoot its enemies until such time as comes a golden age," "what pink legs?" He just hasn't realized his fate is about to become the same as Bolivars did.)

ALL RIGHT, LBV!!!

Excellent info. Great post!
 

Romuva

Patron Meritorious
How does he maintain the loyalty of his inner circle?

Is it as simple as your eternal salvation depends on it?

and is there any point this circle could just say screw it and turn on him?
 

svonhatten

Patron with Honors
How does he maintain the loyalty of his inner circle?

Is it as simple as your eternal salvation depends on it?

and is there any point this circle could just say screw it and turn on him?

That would be way... waaaaaaaaay to bloody when you think about it. It would be a crisis for the church. Think about it. Staff says, "Screw you." DM says, "Don't think so SP's. That's right! You're declared now." Staff says, "Oh yeah? Well, we declare you an SP."

What would happen next? Each side would reveal their darkest secrets to the public? Staff would leave? Because I'm almost positive DM wouldn't leave the church.
 

svonhatten

Patron with Honors
That's an interesting question. I don't know that he can be personally, as a human being, be known. He is a "homo Novis" of Hubbard manufacture. I believe he basically works on the Hubbard principle that the more dangerous you are to your environment the better you survive. And he is getting more dangerous to people around his near and far every day. Yes, he has total distrust in people; he can only see traitors around him, witness the fact he has now SP declared most every ex exec, and does not even dare to offload them but keeps them at Int so they can't go out, find out how little support Scientology actually has, or find out the truth about it, band together and cause his immediate demise. So he tries to continue the Hubbard tactics (although he has reinterpreted what declaring someone an SP means -- usually you're supposed to disconnect from them and their only comm line is IJC, etc, etc.) BTW, he does intimidate the "SPs" by the fact that he has their declares all written and that if he needs to get rid of them (i.e. they don't turn around to become his loyal and unquestioning supporters) he will destroy their reputation and sue them back to the stone ages, and other pleasant encouragement of that sort. So how is he? In the probably 40-50 COB meetings I was present, he was pleasant once that I recall. That was a small meeting with only four people present and he was addressing one of his (back then) favorite staff members in the world. In all other cases, the meetings have followed the predictable pattern of toasting one person after another, telling them he has to do all the work they are supposed to, that they are incompetent, out-ethics, counter-intentioned a*holes (his language is very descriptive and one of the worst of anyone I've ever known, in internal meetings). By several eye-witness reports, the meetings have escalated to frequent physical attacks on people, although I personally witnessed only one such occurrence. It was enough for me.

On the other side, he is a brilliant strategist, an enormously fast thinker and has very good public presentation (when he wants it). He clearly thinks he is about 1000X better, smarter, in-ethics and on-source than anyone he works with. He generally boasts that he does all the production at Int and Gold anyways, so he has no need for people. This is somewhat contrary to the fact that his ending part at virtually every event is a recruitment speech. From his viewpoint, which I have a hard time getting into (but try to by guessing at what LRH policies he views as the key ones to apply), he is probably doing that constant weeding process for those few loyal staff members who (are like him?) and "do what LRH would do." My current take is that he really believes he is doing everything possible to expand Scientology and apply LRH tech, the only contrary fact to which is the report that he has not himself gone in session since 1992 except for occasional ruds sessions. (No wonder his ruds are constantly out!)

There are many things similar between him and LRH, for the simple reason that he is trying to emulate the "what would LRH do in this situation" policy. One other key aspect is that he is definitely a "Do as I say, not as I do" personality, like LRH was. I would go as far as daring to suspect LRH imposed his personality on DM so strongly he has taken on the "valence" of his mentor. I would not be surprised if LRH had actually personally hypnotized DM to believe he was the chosen all-powerful leader of Scn. Maybe, maybe not. The close association, methods of handling people and lifestyle which by themselves amount to brain washing may have done it as well.

Also, he cannot take one blink of criticism on himself while doling out virtual death threats on others. Really. In meetings you may factually get declared and off-loaded on the spot if you do something that pisses him off really good, such as forget to acknowledge him after he has called you a motherf*ing a*hole, or say you didn't hear or understand what he said, don't have an answer, have a comm lag, look away, "lie" to him (he can "see through" any lies), or any of various other major offenses that classify as Suppressive Acts when done in His presence. To say that the meetings are intense is an understatement. To say that you are happy to make it through (another) one is much closer to truth.

And it is true that Scientology has given him everything he has: Money, power, name and fame. So he will do anything to "keep Scientology working." In recent years he has started to lose perspective at an increasing rate. He really thinks he can do it all by himself and doesn't need all the people that are doing all the work for him. One day, not so far in the future he will wake up to find himself dying in the ditch, forgotten or despised, just like his greatest role model, Simon Bolivar. And he will blame it all on the "people" who did not understand greatness.

No, Dave, we don't. Not greatness like this.

Victor

(PS. "Responsibilities of Leaders" is actually a pretty good policy to judge him by. You can predict what he will do if you know that policy. "The power has the right to shoot its enemies until such time as comes a golden age," "what pink legs?" He just hasn't realized his fate is about to become the same as Bolivars did.)

I know this is going to sound really odd, but I seem to get along with those kinds of people the best for some reason. Fortunately, they aren't as extreme as harassing critics 'n stuff.
 

Romuva

Patron Meritorious
Well that structure is interesting and I'm interested in the chain of command,
who is delegated out certain powers etc.


It's interesting non related to Scientology what I learned a little about how
the power structure collapsed in the soviet union and how top bosses
for years had some ideas of what would happen and how it would play out.
Just who knew who and who was really in charge as opposed to who
appeared to be etc.

Is the highest levels of management in CofS so disillusioned and thinks
it's total bullshit that they are ready to collapse the system,so to speak.

or are they really a small core of fanatics,that would never dream of
betraying DM or Scientology's goals ,which they may or may not really
believe in.

Maybe the question is their beliefs?

of course maybe there are safeguards in place to assure that never
happens.Such as just buying off potential trouble or other means.
DM has plenty of time to think about it I'm sure.

and even if DM is a good strategist,can he anticipate all the scenarios
and unknowns?

and how much is really show or appearance for lack of?

It seems like CofS uses a similar soviet strategy of presenting a perception
as really a deception.The truth is perhaps is something different.

I'm just curious if DM is really such an egomaniac he really believes that his power
will never be contested or challenged.
and could he have a whole plot planned under him and never know it because he actually
believes he can control every possible situation.

He seems like he has a good handle on it..viewing peoples expressions,,doling out certain punishments
etc..very tight grip of control.

but eventually even what that ,somebody could exploit that or counter it cleverly.
He could be done in by somebody more clever than him.
 
Last edited:

Little Bear Victor

Silver Meritorious Patron
How does he maintain the loyalty of his inner circle?

Is it as simple as your eternal salvation depends on it?

and is there any point this circle could just say screw it and turn on him?

His inner circle is not the ex Int Execs. He has a handful of trusted (currently) people who make up the COB Office Staff. They are mostly secretaries and communicators.

It is high discipline all the way and he simply picks those who don't defect no matter what he does. They do believe he is the most on-source and dedicated Scientologist in the universe and does what LRH would. He has the repute to have been (and to still be) LRH's best friend. He appears, as long as you believe he is right and you are wrong, quite brilliant in many ways. While the greatest bulk of the respect he has gained among his staff comes about from flat out (mild description) ethics pressure, it's not like he's just an "anybody." As I mentioned, he does think extremely fast and he chosen to follow a single goal that has molded his life into what it is: Expand Scientology despite anyone or anything. How much that goal is colored by the fact he is pretty much the only one who is gaining in that deal is hard for me to estimate. It is undoubtedly a factor, but it's significance may have been overstated. Personally I think he has gone blind from power and sees himself as surrounded by people trying to take him down, which postulate is one that is now becoming a reality.

The circle as a group will never turn on him. It will be on an individual basis. LRH policy makes sure of the fact that you can never have a mutiny, white of otherwise and get away with it. Any suspected disaffection is reported immediately as per Knowledge Reports and dealt with harshly as an ethics matter. It rarely gets past the point of a few individual indicators which are dealt with. It's pretty brutal. And it is very easy to believe you're the only one having critical thoughts, which per Scn tech means you are the one that has overts against your target of criticism. So you can never express them to anyone around you while in Scientology.

Besides, as you say, LRH does tells us that your eternal salvation depends upon you having no secrets, no overts, no withholds. So either tell the ethics officer or the auditor and take the consequences or forever forgo spiritual improvement, at which point you have lost all hope and the reason you came into Scientology.

That's the way the game is rigged.

Victor
 

Romuva

Patron Meritorious
Victor,I'm curious.

If there is any valid argument to DM screwing around ,changing or
altering some of what LRH wrote.Do you feel this could have any
consequences?

After all,LRH is the final authority on everything,if I'm not mistaken.


I'm curious how DM gets around this?

answer ,if you feel comfortable with these questions.
I find it interesting to talk to scientologists that were in the organization
a long time.

I was only involved briefly with it and sort of saw through it,so to speak
and left.
 

Zinjifar

Silver Meritorious Sponsor
Victor,I'm curious.

If there is any valid argument to DM screwing around ,changing or
altering some of what LRH wrote.Do you feel this could have any
consequences?

After all,LRH is the final authority on everything,if I'm not mistaken.


I'm curious how DM gets around this?

While not Victor, this is a question I've seen as answered for years. As Victor says, DM is seen by his inner circle (and himself) as the closest thing to Ron they've got, and, the excuse for DM 'altering' Tech is that *Ron* altered Tech.

Davey is Ron's 'vicar on earth' and Ron set the precedent for arbitrary and opportunistic alteration of 'Tech'.

There is nothing that Davey does that Ron didn't do before him.

Unfortunately, for those near him, while Ron was capable of geniality and even mercy (when it suited His purposes), Davey is a humorless martinet and vicious weasle. So there's little 'saving grace'.

Zinj
 

Tanstaafl

Crusader
Victor,I'm curious.

If there is any valid argument to DM screwing around ,changing or
altering some of what LRH wrote.Do you feel this could have any
consequences?

After all,LRH is the final authority on everything,if I'm not mistaken.


I'm curious how DM gets around this?

answer ,if you feel comfortable with these questions.
I find it interesting to talk to scientologists that were in the organization
a long time.

I was only involved briefly with it and sort of saw through it,so to speak
and left.


I'm not Victor and neither is my wife. :)

I've got no time for DM, but there are things that crop up that LRH didn't appear to leave handlings for. If you look at the accounts of those who have left during OTVII saying that LRH stated there should be no sec checks during OTVII you have an interesting situation. I have it from a reliable source that some of those on this level are still intent on creating thick ethics files. DM may have brought in the sec checking as a money-earner but there is still a tech point here.
 

Tanstaafl

Crusader
Davey is a humorless martinet and vicious weasle. So there's little 'saving grace'.

I don't take kindly to this comparison. :mad:

Weasels are cute little fellers. Wind in the Willows and Zappa's "Weasels ripped my flesh" have created a general prejudice against our little furry friends. They've had a bad press and it's time someone put the record straight.

Cheers

tanstaafl
 

Little Bear Victor

Silver Meritorious Patron
Victor,I'm curious.

If there is any valid argument to DM screwing around ,changing or
altering some of what LRH wrote.Do you feel this could have any
consequences?

After all,LRH is the final authority on everything,if I'm not mistaken.


I'm curious how DM gets around this?

answer ,if you feel comfortable with these questions.
I find it interesting to talk to scientologists that were in the organization
a long time.

I was only involved briefly with it and sort of saw through it,so to speak
and left.

It's not a question of comfort, it is a question of what really goes on.

DM's purpose -- at least from his viewpoint -- was to get the books back on-source. It's not like he tries to alter-is them or something. He is highly opinionated as to what he thinks people do and don't understand and why, which bears little to no resemblance to actual problems people are having (or not) studying the materials. It is his view that the books had been suppressed (like everything else in Scientology) from the first day, that they had been edited and otherwise handled by incompetent people.

The alterations that he may have introduced are more insignificant than the basis upon which he thinks anything should be changed at all, and the resultant confusion.

The following changes cover a bulk of it (with DM being the final authority at each step as to what was correct):

1) Verification of original manuscript: Dubious, as it was hard to tell whether research ever found all versions and traffic on a given book. Many revisions to revert to an earlier LRH manuscript were based on the fact that no evidence was found that LRH himself ordered the change. There were some sections that had been omitted from the books due to sloppy proofreading in the early years (or so DM concluded), which were put back in, if no eveidence was found that LRH took them out.

2) Sequence: Dm really felt that this was seriously messed up in some books and made them incomprehensible. He came up with unbeforeseen and heard ideas of what could be a problem to a reader and in some cases changed the sequencing of the chapters of the book drastically.

3) Editing: Similarly, the books had for the most part been recorded, not typed, and had not been edited to be comprehensible. With new paragraphing (where a paragraph starts and ends), this was apparently vastly improved. Also, where book parts, sections or chapters start and end was modified to taste and he came up with (or had someone else work out) new chapter titles, etc.

4) Punctuation: This is where it gets pretty ridiculous. DM personally punctuated most books! He even said he is no expert on the matter. Yet any and all punctuation experts who worked on the books, Sea Org or professional, were deemed incompetent jerks one after the other and he "had to" do it himself. For some insight into this, he originally punctuated the books to make the typesetting look better (that's a new punctuation rule no one in the universe has ever heard of). To clarify, if he thought the words were too far apart on a specific line of typeset page, he would introduce a comma or a dash or some other punctuation mark to "fill it up." Literally. This was a long story, but the essential outcome is that the punctuation you now have in the books is for the most part his, based on the original dictation recordings and his amazing ability to punctuate better than any professional although he was no expert (Don't ask me how that is possible).

5) Footnotes. These were replaced by a glossary entry where possible. The glossaries were greatly extended in the bargain.

6) Typographic errors. Obviously, although only a few were drastic. I still want to say that I don't believe that that the sentence containing "...tricked by a dentist," although it was verified to be "what LRH said" is likely to be what he meant. Usually people are treated by a dentist. (But LRH liked to trick people, so I let it slide.)

7) Out-PR statements. If LRH originally said something that would be out-PR today, the wording might have been changed. The example that comes to mind is a quote about the abilities of the "yellow and black races" which has been used on the net to point out how racist LRH actually was. This was reworded with a more "modern" choice of words (and probably a different significance). He must spend a lot of his time reading critic sites as it sounded like he was trying to change anything that had come up as a "point of attack" (on the net or in legal cases) to something more palatable by the general public. Here may lie one of the greatest alterations to LRH's originals. Yes, this one would be particularly worthy of a scholarly investigation between the new and the previous editions.

Now, all of that may sound minor. It really wasn't, as you can rather easily verify by a comparison study yourself. The edits and punctuation changes were generally anywhere from 5 to 25 per page during that phase. All apparently minor, but the combined statistics would boggle anyone, and someone with the time ans resources to count up the number of changes should do it. It is hundreds if not thousands of little changes in some books.

Since I a not privy to what really goes on in this man's head, I cannot say how much intent to consciously alter, if any, there was. I doubt that it was much. Most of it was his insistence that he knows exactly what people have trouble with (while dubbing it in) and coming up with handling heretofore unseen in this universe, while calling it "standard tech." (Hm... That methodology has a familiar ring to it...)

But I can also imagine how well the changes will be received by readers who have possibly spent hours "word clearing" the exact reason why that comma is in that place in the sentence, to find out it is now a dash, a semicolon, a period or no longer there. Stability? Comprehension? Certainty? Clarity? Cognitions? :no: I'm afraid not. Queries? :confused: Think so.

He gets around it by selectively omitting data in release speeches. He gets around it by saying the books were suppressed, even in their last edit and that he has finally personaly made sure they are on-source. And most people believe him -- enough to fork out another million dollars at release night for books they already have.

Of course, they do have nice new covers and better design and typesetting.

And it would be too "entheta" to tell the public what really went on and that he had to bust about 30-40 people to get through the counter-intention the Int Base has to getting LRH tech out. Oh well, you can only fit so much in a 3-hour speech. :melodramatic:

V

PS. If that doesn't earn me a letter from OSA, I don't know what will. (I'll post it when I get it, for your enlightenment.)
 

Royal Prince Xenu

Trust the Psi Corps.
4) Punctuation: This is where it gets pretty ridiculous. DM personally punctuated most books! He even said he is no expert on the matter. Yet any and all punctuation experts who worked on the books, Sea Org or professional, were deemed incompetent jerks one after the other and he "had to" do it himself. For some insight into this, he originally punctuated the books to make the typesetting look better (that's a new punctuation rule no one in the universe has ever heard of). To clarify, if he thought the words were too far apart on a specific line of typeset page, he would introduce a comma or a dash or some other punctuation mark to "fill it up." Literally. This was a long story, but the essential outcome is that the punctuation you now have in the books is for the most part his, based on the original dictation recordings and his amazing ability to punctuate better than any professional although he was no expert (Don't ask me how that is possible).

I'm no "expert" either, but I can certainly claim to be an authority. There are many cheats in typesetting that don't get used in typography, such as the deliberate mispelling of a word to make a printed line look better, and you can reliably predict that only 1 in 1000 will pick up the mispelled word. Typesetters were known to rearrange words in sentences to make a line of type look better. It is where we got the "put every other symbol inside the quotes" rule, which is grammatically disastrous--it just looks better.

LRH said I was a "prick". Prick is not a sentence. It stays in quotes on its own followed by the stop, although a traditional typesetter would move the stop inside the quotes.

LRH said "I was a prick." This is quoting a full sentence, so the stop is moved inside the quote mark.

Same with interogatives: LRH asked was I a "prick". LRH asked "Was I a prick?"

I had a huge argument about this in the academy over the word "above" stating that the sentence as a whole did not make sense and spent something like 3/4 hour word-clearing. Once I figured out what was meant, I said in total disgust "One comma placed right there [pointing] would have saved 45 minutes!"

As for lines where the words are too widely spaced, that's when you hyphenate the following word to bring part of back to the offending line. (This should be done cautiously--I have seen "professional" typesetting where three lines in a row ended with hyphenated words...)
 
Top