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Boston - Part 2

NoIdea

Patron with Honors
I think I'm a witness to the final gurglings of the Church of Scientology of Boston.

We were in, we left, we saw the light, we complained and now we feel better. And now there's not as much to say. I'm not as angry as I was. I'm a LOT more compassionate and even sympathetic to the folks who were in who acted foolishly.

I think the COS was a solution we embraced because what we were doing wasn't working that well. That's not to say we were losers but I would say that we were searching for something better and Scn seemed like a really good idea. (it's taken me 40 years to admit that I was looking for something better, I wasn't doing that bad but that doesn't mean things couldn't have gotten better.) Unfortunately, Scn didn't deliver but was VERY good at controlling the narrative. We were broke-ass broke helping very few people and exerting incredible amounts of effort. We glorified the auditors, the upper level execs, and the OT's. Looking back, we were playing a VERY small game with a massively puffed up sense of importance.

I think the "tech" of Scn had a lot to offer but only in the right hands. The admin tech had some workability. The TR's had some workability. The Berner's "study tech" (ripped off by LRH) changed my life in a good way. Two way comm IS a good thing. Getting off OW can be a good thing. IN THE RIGHT HANDS. LRH could come up with lovely ideas and good plans and a detailed framework but his narcissism and paranoia and sadistic needs derailed what could have been a very helpful organization. This is a bit like saying that Hitler was a great guy except for the Holocaust.

Life is complex. Hopefully, I can take my Scn experience as a great adventure that allowed me to grow where others failed to tread.

The COS is slowing becoming irrelevant. It's a joke. Literally. Folks won't be getting condition assignments for failing to get their stats up by Thursday at 2, and I think that's a good thing.
This pretty much describes my viewpoint to a T. I think almost everyone in Scn thinks they are doing something good for themselves, others and humanity. I even think that about DM and LRH. But egos kick in and humans are fucked up things and you wind up with some crazy 1984-like logic like people must all be controlled to be free. I know myself that I did some fucked up things in the name of "clearing the planet". I like to think I learned a lot from the experience. I question myself a lot more these days, especially when I am really convinced about the rightness of something.
 

Boojuum

Silver Meritorious Patron
Much of the tech was developed by people other than LRH, like the "study tech" you mentioned, and bits and pieces of that have helped some people to a degree. [bcolor=#ffffff]Yes! Careers were destroyed. Families destroyed. Bank accounts looted. The best years of our lives were robbed from us. [/bcolor]

While I like bits and pieces of the "admin tech" and found them useful, I've seen Scientologists who studied ALL the Admin tech (the FEBC Course) and I didn't observe ANY increase in their competence as an executive.

[bcolor=#ffffff]I couldn't agree more. Actually, I think the "Admin tech" hurt expansion. The "highly trained execs" that I knew were mostly total assholes striving to abuse their staff into a frantic state of overworked, outrageous devotion. If you were unwilling to be an asshole ['unreasonable"], you weren't going to be an Scn exec. The asshole nature was sometimes buried under an outward face of understanding but the stats had to go up or else.[/bcolor]

[bcolor=#ffffff]On the other hand, the missions, for example, typically did quite well and had the least admin trained people[/bcolor].

[bcolor=#ffffff]My thinking is that the admin tech was so brutally applied that it was in the end quite destructive. However, managing by statistics can be a good thing as opposed to simply assuming an area is doing well or not. The idea of hatting is a good thing. The concept of correction is a good thing. I'm not defending Scientology or LRH. I'm saying that we can take some of the ideas and use them to our advantage. The concept of acknowledging someone (TR2) is a good thing. I understand that many of us are so jaded by our experience that virtually ALL of Scientology is considered evil and we're not that far off. Perhaps I'm trying to salvage a great deal of effort on my part to justify my involvement. I suspect most of us exes really learned a great deal. We may not have learned how to rid someone of their inner demons or make them go exterior with full perception. We certainly didn't make someone an executive simply by putting them through the FEBC/OEC training [what a joke]. On the other hand, I saw a lot of young people who were just sort of floating along become quite capable at getting things done. Yes, the awakened enthusiasm was exploited to the max but it did tend to put people in a state of action.[/bcolor]
[bcolor=#ffffff] [/bcolor]
All in all, Scientology doesn't come anywhere close to delivering what was promised. [bcolor=#ffffff] Ain't that the truth! [/bcolor] The difference between what is promised and what is delivered is vast, so despite some people being helped the CoS has effectively been engaging in marketing fraud from day 1, and LRH was a con artist. Had LRH opened up a car dealership instead of a "church" he'd of been selling Mercedes-Benz Maybach Exelero's (which cost millions) but then delivering Ford Pintos . Surely the Pintos will help some people, but just like with Scientology, that's not what they paid for nor were expecting.

The biggest benefits I got from my years of Scientology and the years since (while working to understand WTF happened to me) was to increase my understanding and awareness of how our beliefs are formed, the effect those beliefs have on us, how we become blind to those beliefs, and the difference between certainty and real knowledge.

[bcolor=#ffffff]Cool! and would that happened without the Scn experience?[/bcolor]
 

Type4_PTS

Diamond Invictus SP
@Boojuum

"...managing by statistics can be a good thing as opposed to simply assuming an area is doing well or not. The idea of hatting is a good thing. The concept of correction is a good thing. I'm not defending Scientology or LRH. I'm saying that we can take some of the ideas and use them to our advantage."
Sure, we can take some of those concepts and use them to our advantage. But did Hubbard really invent ANY of those things?

His modus operandi was to take ideas from a multitude of sources and claim them as his own, writing HCO PL's or HCOB's, thereby making them part of Scientology.

I love the concept behind CSW's (Completed Staff Work) and the policy he wrote on that, but he lifted that right out of the military. It's not as though he recalled that policy from his previous experience in the Galactic Confederacy (as he did with the Org Board). :D

"I understand that many of us are so jaded by our experience that virtually ALL of Scientology is considered evil and we're not that far off."
Clearly the CoS IS evil as the LRH policies & advices with which it runs on require marketing fraud, abuse, and exploitation of its own members, and many other evils that are documented on this forum and elsewhere. LRH used enemy tactics on not just those he characterized as "SP's", but on Scientology public and staff members as well.

While some of the "tech" in the right hands has helped some people, it is not based upon any scientific research, and has also harmed many.
Hubbard intentionally created mental illness in his members, implanting phobias (such as fear of psychs), and used other enemy tactics against us.

For anyone who has mental issues they want help with, or wishes to improve their abilities as a spiritual being, there is plenty of non-Scientology "tech" which is far superior IMO.

"Perhaps I'm trying to salvage a great deal of effort on my part to justify my involvement. I suspect most of us exes really learned a great deal. "
Sure, we learned some things. But what have we failed to learn by not investing all those years into other things?

I don't think you need to justify your involvement though.

Hubbard was a professional con artist and created an organization which furthered his purposes. Some very sharp people fell for it, including some who were at Boston Org. At least one of the staff members I worked with there went to school at M.I.T. Many other very intelligent people were there on staff and as public.

One thing I believe is very important for EX'es and is often overlooked (including by myself until recently), it's necessary to forgive ourselves for getting sucked into the cult. I long ago forgave many who got me involved or did harmful things that negatively impacted me while I was in, but only relatively recently did I actually forgive myself for getting in.


"Cool! and would that happened without the Scn experience?"

Some of the benefits I got from the experience of getting sucked into a cult and then eventually later getting away, learning about how individuals and organizations can negatively manipulate you, etc., I probably never would have gotten had I not gotten involved with Scientology.

They were hard lessons and I wish that I had learned them in a different way. :D

But they are useful lessons just the same, and ones that I trust will serve me going forward.
 
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Boojuum

Silver Meritorious Patron
Great post!

I would add this one point and it only popped up to my wee brain yesterday.

My involvement in the COS was originally only to help me to further MY OWN GOALS. I enjoyed the comm course and the HQS courses very much. Tons of fun and a certain amount of enlightenment. Subsequent courses were fairly brutal but I felt well worth the effort.

Only after a GREAT DEAL OF COERSION, LOVE BOMBING and EGO BOOSTING did I decide to join staff and from that point eventually become a true Kool Aid drinker, impoverishing myself while working ridiculous hours under a fair amount of stress for years. Staff life is bad for one's health. It's extroverting, which is good but full of craziness that doesn't easily go away.

I just wanted to point up that the COS manipulated me into giving up my goals and adopting those of LRH.

I think this single point is one of the most abusive bits of Scientology. Reading Leah Remini's book allowed me to see that even the royalty of Scientology have to submit their one personal goals to the CoS. That's simply horrible.
 

lotus

stubborn rebel sheep!
One thing I believe is very important for EX'es and is often overlooked (including by myself until recently), it's necessary to forgive ourselves for getting sucked into the cult. I long ago forgave many who got me involved or did harmful things that negatively impacted me while I was in, but only relatively recently did I actually forgive myself
Very true!
Major step in true recovery: forgive ourselve For getting sucked into this cult!
Only then, healing can take place.
 
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myrklix

Patron with Honors
Hey @bambino, it's now been a full year since we got an update from you on the latest at the Boston Quincy Org. Wondering if there's all sorts of excitement about Davey's latest strategy of all orgs going "Idle" simultaneously. That new, potential Idle Org building sitting idly overlooking the Mass Pike is ripe for a big Scn sign for the thousands of cars driving by each day for its occupants to see. What's up with that?
Give us an update, please.
 

myrklix

Patron with Honors
@bambino !!! You only have 2 more days to put an update about the org on ESMB. Please, don't let us down.
Besides, think of what an update will do to your weekly stats. C'mon out of non-E. :)
 

Red Valiant

Patron with Honors
Anybody here know the current whereabouts of Frank Ofman, the once OSA station chief at the Boston Org?

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"[Scientology] … the greatest anti-intellectual movement of our times." ~ Alex Beam, The Boston Globe
 

freethinker

Sponsor
Anybody here know the current whereabouts of Frank Ofman, the once OSA station chief at the Boston Org?

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"[Scientology] … the greatest anti-intellectual movement of our times." ~ Alex Beam, The Boston Globe
No, but I heard he joined the SO and divorced his wife.
 

Red Valiant

Patron with Honors
I know who Frank Ofman is, spoken to him face to face, if you think the above is inaccurate then state why.
I haven't had any interaction with OSA Ofman since 2002 or 03. I would have no reason to believe what you say is inaccurate. Wow S.O., that's like jumping out the fire into the frying pan. His divorce doesn't surprise me.
 
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