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Do Scientology's new buildings really signal expansion?

KnightVision

Gold Meritorious Patron
http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/3965


Do Scientology's new buildings really signal expansion?
Mon, 2008-10-06 17:01 — gargy
You have undoubtedly heard the Church of Scientology bragging about their various "new buildings" around the world. There haven't actually been very many, but the few that there have been get pointed to by the church as "evidence" of Scientology's tremendous expansion.

That's the spin they put on it.

One look inside the new buildings is enough to disprove the "expansion" story. The buildings are empty, or nearly so. The old quarters were empty before all the hoopla, so the new ones were obviously not the result of a demand for more space. So why is the church working so hard, buying all these new, larger buildings?

The obvious explanation is that the church is doing it so they can give the apparency of expansion. Of course this is one reason and is certainly a benefit from the scheme. But, like all things related to the church, the story behind it is much more twisted, much darker. It is actually brilliant, in a dark, twisted way.

It's all about money.

First, of course, is the PR benefit of being able to point to these buildings and say, "See, expansion!"

Second, it is yet another, clever way to suck even more money from their parishioners. These buildings are purchased using only parishioner's donations, no church funds are used. Yet another urgent "project" needing their every last nickel and dime.

Third, as pure donations, no one can ask for their money back. You see, when Scientology services are paid for in advance, the church is supposed to return the money, if asked. With these donations, however, there is no return possible.

Aside: In actual fact, the Church of Scientology spent all the "advance payments"! Yes, indeed, if a majority of Scientologists asked for only their advance payments back, which the church is legally required to return, it wouldn't be able to! It is violating the law, right now, and is in deep trouble. This is the reason they concentrate on "pure donations" for their money now. That's all money in, with none of those pesky legal requirements not to spend it all!

So far so good, as far as the church is concerned, but the "best" is yet to come.

The local parishioners think they are buying the building for their local branch of the church. But they're not. No one tells them this. They think the local church will own the new building and never have to pay rent again.

And they are very, very wrong. They have been intentionally misled.

The building, purchased with parishioner's funds, becomes owned by the International Management, or, essentially, David Miscavige. International Management, in turn, leases the buildings back to the local church at (we assume) inflated rates. And the local church continues to pay rent forever.

You see the beauty of this scam? International Management gets the valuable property for nothing, purchased and fully renovated using parishioner's funds, parishioner's volunteer hours and the church's RPF slave labor and, on top of that, they collect nice fat monthly rent checks on the same property from, essentially, the same people. Double bonus!

The local parishioners have been conned out of millions of dollars under the misapprehension they were helping their local church. Instead, they've greatly increased Miscavige's wealth, while burdening their local church with more expenses--not only the increased rent, but the new buildings cost substantially more to maintain! The end result of all the parishioner's hard work is that the local church's struggle for survival becomes much harder.

But that's not all! Understand the magnitude of this betrayal: International Management can sell the building right out from under the local church, take the money and run, and the local church, and the parishioners who paid for that building could do nothing to stop them.

And the Church of Scientology has the unmitigated gall to point to this twisted bit of double-dealing as a "sign of expansion"! Yeah, expansion of Miscavige's bank account!

I point to these new buildings as a perfect example of what kind of evil, twisted machinations this "church" goes through to chivvy every last penny from their trusting marks parishioners. Instead of "expansion", these new buildings are just one more nail in the coffin of the Church of Scientology.
 

Iknowtoomuch

Gold Meritorious Patron
Very sad.
Anyone remember the huge project to get all orgs and even some Scientology companies incorporated under the "church"?:duh:
 

cinamingrl

Patron Meritorious
no

Without even thinking about this, I'd have to say no. And with the huge financial crisis happening and our bad economy, I can bet it's taken it's toll on the c of s too. And other countries are affected by it also.
 

Carmel

Crusader
Yep, an unbelievable (almost laughable) scam! Sadly, because it is so, most who donate don't even see a smigen of what DM is up to on this one and what would eventually pan out.

On the plus side though, in the likes of our area where the pressure is really on (on such few shoulders) to donate to the 'Ideal Org', many people are getting really jack of it, and it's opening their eyes somewhat to the fact that something just isn't right. It's a foot bullet that's certainly working in our favour!
 

alexm

Patron with Honors
Has anyone here worked for an Ideal Org?

It is pretty tough because you are expected to make 50 plus thousand dollars or Euros per week when you can only make 2 or 3 or at most maybe 10 or 15. It is because where I was, there was no field, no FSM's, staff member had to commit 5 to 10 hours per week aside from their post duties to sell books and other things like this. It is a joke to say that missions and groups will appear just because the Org is there. It is not true and it is harder to get good loyal public in their door then to pull teeth out of a cute looking puppy and I mean that as literal as possible. People are also pretty well educated and researched about Scientology which makes things difficult.

This article is amazing. I am going to disseminate the tar out of it.

AlexM
 

HappyGirl

Gold Meritorious Patron
Aside: In actual fact, the Church of Scientology spent all the "advance payments"! Yes, indeed, if a majority of Scientologists asked for only their advance payments back, which the church is legally required to return, it wouldn't be able to!
Uh... anyone up for bankrupting the church? I haven't asked for my advance payments back yet...

Has anyone here worked for an Ideal Org?

It is pretty tough because you are expected to make 50 plus thousand dollars or Euros per week when you can only make 2 or 3 or at most maybe 10 or 15. It is because where I was, there was no field, no FSM's, staff member had to commit 5 to 10 hours per week aside from their post duties to sell books and other things like this. It is a joke to say that missions and groups will appear just because the Org is there. It is not true and it is harder to get good loyal public in their door then to pull teeth out of a cute looking puppy and I mean that as literal as possible. People are also pretty well educated and researched about Scientology which makes things difficult.

This article is amazing. I am going to disseminate the tar out of it.

AlexM
Wow. Any data on Buffalo Org anyone? My daughter is pretty much the only staff member single-handedly getting public in. They have a huge 6-story building, hardly any staff. They answer the phone "Good morning, the next St. Hill Size Org..." but the building is pretty much empty. I'm terrified they're going to grab her for the SO...
 

Human Again

Silver Meritorious Patron
NO they do not. They indicate that COB is moving his funds into real estate. By owning the buildings, he wins, whether the orgs collapse or not.
 

ScudMuffin

Silver Meritorious Patron
Gonna agree the AH, also it gets them out of rental costs for premesis meaning that they can cut overheads. There's a property crash in the US, that means cheap buildings. That means you can buy them and then flog them when the prices pick up and make a profit, or use them as a part exchange on another building.

In actuality all these orgs will "become" ideal orgs. They won't be additional orgs, instead the existing orgs will move to the new premesis. Bigger buildings gives the impression of more people.

Illusion
 

Panda Termint

Cabal Of One
And... just to put this into perspective; there is a specific Consultant (LRH) Advice to The Building Investment Committee stating, in effect, that CofS is to never sell off a building unless that building is proven to be unsuitable for CofS' use (zoning restrictions, building code violations etc) in which case the person(s) who purchased the building must re-sell it at a profit to CofS or reimburse CofS for any losses.
It'll be interesting to see if that Advice gets "lost" in the crash! :D
 

thetanic

Gold Meritorious Patron
Aside: In actual fact, the Church of Scientology spent all the "advance payments"! Yes, indeed, if a majority of Scientologists asked for only their advance payments back, which the church is legally required to return, it wouldn't be able to! It is violating the law, right now, and is in deep trouble. This is the reason they concentrate on "pure donations" for their money now. That's all money in, with none of those pesky legal requirements not to spend it all!

Except they are "donations" for a service and thus not donations at all, really.

Standard accounting practice would require these not to be recognized as income, but instead set aside in an escrow account for when they could be recognized. I remember querying that at one point, because it is a HUGE outpoint with org finances.
 

Wisened One

Crusader
:puke: :puke2:

God, I have GOT to get my friends OUT!!! If only they would really read this article, I would send it to them, I really, really would!!! :grouch:

http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/3965


Do Scientology's new buildings really signal expansion?
Mon, 2008-10-06 17:01 — gargy
You have undoubtedly heard the Church of Scientology bragging about their various "new buildings" around the world. There haven't actually been very many, but the few that there have been get pointed to by the church as "evidence" of Scientology's tremendous expansion.

That's the spin they put on it.

One look inside the new buildings is enough to disprove the "expansion" story. The buildings are empty, or nearly so. The old quarters were empty before all the hoopla, so the new ones were obviously not the result of a demand for more space. So why is the church working so hard, buying all these new, larger buildings?

The obvious explanation is that the church is doing it so they can give the apparency of expansion. Of course this is one reason and is certainly a benefit from the scheme. But, like all things related to the church, the story behind it is much more twisted, much darker. It is actually brilliant, in a dark, twisted way.

It's all about money.

First, of course, is the PR benefit of being able to point to these buildings and say, "See, expansion!"

Second, it is yet another, clever way to suck even more money from their parishioners. These buildings are purchased using only parishioner's donations, no church funds are used. Yet another urgent "project" needing their every last nickel and dime.

Third, as pure donations, no one can ask for their money back. You see, when Scientology services are paid for in advance, the church is supposed to return the money, if asked. With these donations, however, there is no return possible.

Aside: In actual fact, the Church of Scientology spent all the "advance payments"! Yes, indeed, if a majority of Scientologists asked for only their advance payments back, which the church is legally required to return, it wouldn't be able to! It is violating the law, right now, and is in deep trouble. This is the reason they concentrate on "pure donations" for their money now. That's all money in, with none of those pesky legal requirements not to spend it all!

So far so good, as far as the church is concerned, but the "best" is yet to come.

The local parishioners think they are buying the building for their local branch of the church. But they're not. No one tells them this. They think the local church will own the new building and never have to pay rent again.

And they are very, very wrong. They have been intentionally misled.

The building, purchased with parishioner's funds, becomes owned by the International Management, or, essentially, David Miscavige. International Management, in turn, leases the buildings back to the local church at (we assume) inflated rates. And the local church continues to pay rent forever.

You see the beauty of this scam? International Management gets the valuable property for nothing, purchased and fully renovated using parishioner's funds, parishioner's volunteer hours and the church's RPF slave labor and, on top of that, they collect nice fat monthly rent checks on the same property from, essentially, the same people. Double bonus!

The local parishioners have been conned out of millions of dollars under the misapprehension they were helping their local church. Instead, they've greatly increased Miscavige's wealth, while burdening their local church with more expenses--not only the increased rent, but the new buildings cost substantially more to maintain! The end result of all the parishioner's hard work is that the local church's struggle for survival becomes much harder.

But that's not all! Understand the magnitude of this betrayal: International Management can sell the building right out from under the local church, take the money and run, and the local church, and the parishioners who paid for that building could do nothing to stop them.

And the Church of Scientology has the unmitigated gall to point to this twisted bit of double-dealing as a "sign of expansion"! Yeah, expansion of Miscavige's bank account!

I point to these new buildings as a perfect example of what kind of evil, twisted machinations this "church" goes through to chivvy every last penny from their trusting marks parishioners. Instead of "expansion", these new buildings are just one more nail in the coffin of the Church of Scientology.
 

HappyGirl

Gold Meritorious Patron
HappyGirl, if you read the following post, it explains how to go about it. It is written for a Melbourne public, but the same process applies to any org, just the names would be different, obviously.

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=7903

Neo
Great info! Thanks. I like your new avatar.


:puke: :puke2:

God, I have GOT to get my friends OUT!!! If only they would really read this article, I would send it to them, I really, really would!!! :grouch:
Me too. It's really frustrating, because I know how they think. It's the same way I thought just a mere 2 months ago! :omg:
 

Lermanet_com

Gold Meritorious Patron
My mother (Gora Lerma) was once the ED for DC foundation in the late 60's, as "HCO ES", she left scientology around the same time I did...her last words to me about scientology before she passed away in 2000, were quite memorable:


"Arnie, get money out of those bastards while they still have some"
 

Telepathetic

Gold Meritorious Patron
Dear Knight,

Very interesting and very sad indeed! I know a number of people who are now in deep shit(credit card debt) because of the donations they've given the "church."

Have you hear the tape "Creating a New Civilization" by LRH were he talks about buildings? Even this SOB was against it! He even advised (in a joking manner?) that if buildings became too important that the most revolutionay amongst Scientolgist should bomb the place. Don't sue me, I'm paraphrasing here.
 

Good twin

Floater
Dear Knight,

Very interesting and very sad indeed! I know a number of people who are now in deep shit(credit card debt) because of the donations they've given the "church."

Have you hear the tape "Creating a New Civilization" by LRH were he talks about buildings? Even this SOB was against it! He even advised (in a joking manner?) that if buildings became too important that the most revolutionay amongst Scientolgist should bomb the place. Don't sue me, I'm paraphrasing here.
Ut oh..........................................................
 

FoTi

Crusader
Telepathic...

That's interesting what LRH had to say about buildings. I remember the emphasis on the buildings began after LRH died. I was living at the Manor Hotel in Hollywood and all of a sudden there was this push to renovate the Manor into a Celebrity Palace. I couldn't understand why all the importance on the mest. Wouldn't it just suffice to have it just cleaned up instead of having to make it so fancy dancy? Wouldn't it be better to spend the staff's time on getting trained and auditing others and really clearing the planet? I guess Mr Cabbage had to get LRH out of the way before he could launch his real estate scam.
 

Stan D'Teque

Patron with Honors
I reckon you've hit the nail on the head there, FoTi. There was no push for upgrading the buildings except as neccesary while Ron was still around. Nor was there a big push on events - they used to be fun casual parties where we all got together and talked. It's all been downhill for Co$ since then as far as I can see. Go Davey Boy you good thing - keep up those successful actions and you'll be out of a job within the year. You'll have all that real estate to fall back on tho".
 

Lermanet_com

Gold Meritorious Patron
There was a big article in the tampa tribune two years ago about the scientologists acquisition of a historic building for their "expansion" in plant city Florida..

LINK
 
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