My Time in Church and in the SO

[Happy Aberree]

Hello all, I promised to give you a story so here it is.

I didn't think it would be a very long affair and just wanted to let people know what my background was. But I soon found that once I started writing it down I couldn't stop. It's amazing when you have so much stuff held inside and no one to communicate it to, that once you do start telling it, it just floods out. Anyway, I'll do it in sections because its turned out quite long.

---Everything stated by me here on this site by the way, is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or even both).

My first taste of c0$ was in a small org in ANZO in the 80's. I had heard about it from a friend and listened to a Dianetics tape. I was still pretty young and had been looking for something worthwhile to do with my life. So when she said to go into the org, I did. I went through the battery of tests and started on the HQS. I also got a few hours of book one which were pretty far out. The auditor, I think now, thought he was a hypnotist. Or at least he had watched a lot of hypnotists because he definitely had the eyes and the voice for it. So I cured my hay-fever (just like in the tape I listened to) and told everybody about it. It's funny though that I still get hay-fever, but that's beside the point. I definitely wanted it to be true.

Within a few months, I had found out about the AO from some of the staff at the Class V org (they were actually class IV orgs at the time). They had told me that the AO (AOSH ANZO) was awesome and everything there was unreal and the staff there were in uniform. You have to understand that at the ripe old age of 21, I was still very impressionable (I mean more impressionable than I am now). So I checked the AO out. I talked to a staff member there and asked him what the Sea Org was. He told me, 'It just means you're a fully-dedicated Scientologist".

That was enough for me. I was trying to prove myself at something and this was going to be it. But I had some things to handle first (like my job and my mum-- who thought scientology was a health club). I thought it would take me 3-6 months to smooth everything out and save up some money to have in the bank when I joined. I told the SO member, I think it was John Willoughby, and he said something like, "Once you make up your mind to do something, then just do it. If you wait then the bank (sub-conscious) will key-in and you'll never do anything" Needless to say, he wanted me to join on the spot (or at least before Thursday 2pm when the stats ended each week).

I joined three days later (quit my job and family and friends). Looking back now it seems like I threw my life away -- it's a good analogy. Though I have had some great times in the c0$ and met some really cool people, I lost a lot too. The good times, I later realised, were really to do with the good people I met. You never admit that you lose anything when YOU'RE IN. You never admit to yourself that joining may have been a mistake.

--more to come
HAB

 

[Tim Skog]

Great first post HAB, can't wait to hear more.

 

[Happy Aberree]

thanks Tim

Great first post HAB, can't wait to hear more.

Cheers Tim here's some more:

--Everything stated by me here on this site by the way, is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or even both).

Anyway the first few months in the SO were quite an experience. On the EPF (Estates Project Force) new crew are trained and groomed into being good SO members. You did mostly manual work from about 7am-9pm. You also set up for lunch and dinner and cleaned up after. In there somewhere you got 2.5 hrs study each day (which we all got) and which is what actually gets you through the EPF. Once you finish the 5 courses, you're done.

Very experienced scns joining the SO were only on the EPF for a day or two because they could study much faster or had done the full version of the courses already. The study on the EPF was every day but that changed once you got on crew (in uniform). The courses were SS 0, Study Tech, SO Tapes, Ethics, and Personal Grooming I think was the last one. Anyway it took me a few weeks to get through.

I was assigned to Div 6 which is the public divisions. So there, you were either dealing with public in the shop (in the org) or going out on tour to see public in lower orgs. That consisted of mainly reg/arrival tours (reg=registrar=sales, and arrival=arrive at the AO), so in other words these were tours to generate income for the org and people arriving to be audited. Div 6 is the feeder lines into the org; it gets new people in. For a lower org, that means going on the street and body-routing them in. For the AO, Div 6 goes to the lower orgs to get people (I should say other org's fields -- their areas) so that means tours.

Now you have to realise that even though there are a lot of people who swear that money is the primary purpose of the c0$ (which may well be true), to your average staff member there is only one thing of any importance -- STATS.

Stats are your life as a staff member and as an SO crew member, they are the air you breathe.

Stats up = happy (because your senior doesn't have anything to yell at you about);

Stats down = not happy (because you get no liberties [time off] and your senior yells at you). The same applies of course to your senior who is experiencing his/her own yelling-fest higher up the food chain.

Stats WAY DOWN = you don't want to know (basically this is where you get assigned lower conditions, which is likened to getting broken down psychologically over the period of days/weeks/months until you are ready to get producing again with enthusiasm i.e. 'make it go right'). They called it 'the decks' back then (tough but not the RPF by a long shot).

--more to come
HAB

 

[Panda Termint]

Thanks for writing this HAB.
Your story is important and will help others.
You're quite correct about the difficulty of admitting to having "made a mistake" by becoming involved with CofS, we all experience that to some degree, but you must realise that you were also flattered, conned and led into that mistake by others who actually knew what that decision really entailed.
For myself; one sunny day I just admitted to myself that I'd been wrong about the CofS and the healing began.
Keep telling your story.

 

[Happy Aberree]

thanks Panda

Thanks for writing this HAB.
Your story is important and will help others.
You're quite correct about the difficulty of admitting to having "made a mistake" by becoming involved with CofS, we all experience that to some degree, but you must realise that you were also flattered, conned and led into that mistake by others who actually knew what that decision really entailed.
For myself; one sunny day I just admitted to myself that I'd been wrong about the CofS and the healing began.
Keep telling your story.

Thanks for the support Panda, here's some more:

--Everything stated by me here on this site by the way, is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or even both).

Here's a little smidgeon of what I had to do in lower conditions: Go down to the garage to the dumpster (the four foot high, five foot wide, three foot deep rubbish bin that is FULL of kitchen scraps and slops) and 'WHITE GLOVE' THE DUMPSTER.

Now, to explain, 'white glove' refers to cleaning (something) to the degree that a white glove can be rubbed anywhere on it and not become marked by any dirt.

Naturally the first time I was given this 'task' as part of my lower conditions I assumed that I was to 'White Glove' the exterior of the bin. Assume again. 'White Gloving' the dumpster meant: empty out all the rubbish, 'white glove' the INTERIOR, then replace the rubbish. hooray for ethics -- I'm so happy

I did that $hit on 3 different occasions. And others I knew did it many more times than that.

So back to stats. What many non-scientologists looking in have no idea about is the importance on stats. Most public (scientologists) would have a pretty good picture though, as many of them would run stats in their own business or job. Its common in ethics tech.

In the SO each staff member has at least 1 stat (for example NBSTI: Number of Books Sold To Public Individuals) which is recorded weekly. Most staff members have 2 or 3. If you have the honour of being a department head (Director) there is a good chance you will have half a dozen and for the Division Head (Secretary) you will commonly have as many as twenty which will include the main division's stats e.g. Gross Income or GI, Well Done Auditing Hours or WDAHs, Student Points or STPs and so on. Stats are run for blood.

So when I first got on post and being in a new group and a new environment, I soon learnt the rules. Stats talk -- bullshit walks. Everybody was TALKING about policy and purpose and saving the planet etc but everybody was DOING stats. It is in fact probably one of the c0$ main weaknesses across the boards in orgs in that it ties up so many hours in admin and keeps staff fixated on one little thing instead of the bigger picture. Its good food for robots though.

-- more to come
HAB

 

[Feral]

Good to have you here HAB,

Thanks for writing up your story.

I'm dying to know what led you to come to ESMB!

 

[Happy Aberree]

thanks Feral

Good to have you here HAB,

Thanks for writing up your story.

I'm dying to know what led you to come to ESMB!

Cheers Feral, here's the next installment:

---Everything stated by me here on this site by the way, is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or even both).

My stat on tour was Appointments Made (to see the registrar). Now I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, $cn was going to save the planet and I was part of its highest order -- the $ea Org. I commanded respect even though I was still new on post. I had my class A uniform and cap and I was going to change the world. My senior was an awesome reg and 10-year Sea Org veteran. All the staff at the class V org called us 'sir' and looked at us with awe. My senior sat me down and handed me the call-in list and said 'Go to it!'

I picked up the phone, brimming with pride, and called the first number on the list of Clears and OTs in the field. And the guy said, "$cientology? Hey don't fu#king call here again, you got that?"

Whoops, must have been a wrong number.

Next call, "Yeah, yeah, look I told the last guy: I got no money and I'm not coming in. And why can't Rob call me himself?"

I had a list of hundreds of names. I imagined i would fill my boss' day with back-to-back appointments and even have to help reg some of the public myself. I thought that the people would be so happy to hear from a $ea Org member that they would all want to come in straight away and I would have to console them because they would have to wait until tomorrow. We were selling $cientology right? And not only that but the upper levels!

After talking all day to 'clears' and OTs in the field I was utterly spent. I had made about 4 appointments for about 100 calls. The best call I had was a sympathetic OT who tried to explain to me how things really were but she was very careful not to burst my bubble. She took her time and she could see that I was new. Rather than just give me an earful like so many had, she told me that I had to build up my relationships with people. Regging wasn't automatic -- you still had to be a salesman.

It was a small consolation. I couldn't believe how disaffected so many people were. I had to fight every inch on the phone to get every appointment -- and these were OTs. I dreamed of being OT!

Anyway, my stats sucked, and after a few tours they didn't improve very much. I also noticed that the staff at the class V orgs didn't look at me in awe -- I noticed they could see that I was green. The initial aura of the $ea Org was wearing off.

Later I found out that many people you call in the field are actually ex-$ea Org members. Many of the public at the AO were too. Maybe that had something to do with it; maybe not.

Over the years I got much better at call-in and regging too. And I had my fair share of face-rips for downstats (face-rip = when a senior removes the skin from your face through yelling alone). Compared to the guys and gals I've read about in higher management orgs though, my time in the SO was a walk in the park and it's not the main point of my story.

One of the last incidents I remember was getting back to the AO one day and the whole reception area was covered in petrol. Some guy had come in looking for his son weilding a knife and a can of petrol (which he proceeded to empty all over the place and then pull a lighter out of his pocket). He sliced the ethics officer's nose open before he got subdued by the crew. It was really far out. The police had already arrived by the time I got there. Still, it didn't sit easy in my mind -- people popping up and doing stuff like that in a church.

I eventually routed out -- I wasn't going anywhere in the SO, and seriously wasn't cut out for the strict discipline in that place. And back then, the discipline was far less than today. For example, out 2-D was fairly common in the ranks in those days (out 2-D means out-second dynamic and in the SO refers to sexual relations without being married).

It still wasn't 'okay' but you didn't go to the RPF or get off-loaded for it like now. And if you were a supervisor or auditor (or other key post) you wouldn't be in ethics for more than a day. Some of the repeat offenders back then got through ethics in one afternoon. From what I've seen nowadays out 2-D is like you beat up the Captain or something (although there were a few fights back then).

I had a small to average sized freeloader which I paid off after a year or two and pretty soon I was on service lines and working in Sydney (the city not the org). Now I'm going to explain what I saw over the next few years that led me onto The Bridge To Total Flee-dom -- rather than the details so much. For one thing my anonymity is quite comforting and the main point of my story is to help anyone who is right on that edge of wondering about the possibility of not being in $cn anymore.

-- more soon
HAB

 

[Iknowtoomuch]

Great, thanks for your story. Looking forward to more!

 

[Wisened One]

H Ab!

Just launching into your stories, thanks so much for writing them up, we LOVE stories! (gotta finish mine one of these days!).

Michelle

 

[FoTi]

Welcome

Glad you're here HAB.

Enjoying your story so far. Looking forward to more.

 

[AnonyMary]

Glad you're here HAB.

Enjoying your story so far. Looking forward to more.

^^^^^^
THIS!!!!

Mary McConnell

 

[cantsay]

Keep going hun! I love hearing stories from fellow ANZOites. What year did you start in the SeaArrgh? Can you say which city you were from originally (we might know some of the same people)?

 

[Happy Aberree]

Cheers all

Thanks everyone, there will be more very soon

Great, thanks for your story. Looking forward to more!

Cheers IKTM

H Ab!

Just launching into your stories, thanks so much for writing them up, we LOVE stories! (gotta finish mine one of these days!).

Michelle

Cheers Michelle, I wasn't intending to write this much believe me, but there's more.

Glad you're here HAB.

Enjoying your story so far. Looking forward to more.

Thank you Foti

^^^^^^
THIS!!!!

Mary McConnell

Thanks Mary

Keep going hun! I love hearing stories from fellow ANZOites. What year did you start in the SeaArrgh? Can you say which city you were from originally (we might know some of the same people)?

Hey thanks cantsay, thanks for the support. I've left the details pretty broad in some parts on purpose. PM me if you think you know me (also there's at least another 3 episodes coming)
HAB

 

[Happy Aberree]

The Bridge to Total Flee-dom

Here's the next installment:

--Everything stated by me here on this site by the way, is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or even both).

THE BRIDGE TO TOTAL FLEE-DOM

The first thing I noticed in the orgs that got me thinking questioning thoughts was the Golden Age of Tech (aka training in memory and not competence). Everything I had learned about tech revolved a lot around good communication yet the GAT seemed to short circuit that. Also they weren't written by anybody (or at least they weren't signed) so no one was responsible for them. Seeing Ron's name signed on every single piece of tech or policy was taken for granted and the GAT references were very unsettling in that respect.

Another thing that I thought was quite callous was that so many auditors who were great auditors but getting on in years had to re-do their entire training (and many of them couldn't) in order to retain their certs. So fabulous auditors and c/ses like Maureen and Dot ended up working in treasury or other non-tech divisions. Not to mention the public who had to re-train and pay for it.

I brought it up casually with a staff member and later more seriously with a supervisor. They basically just parroted some Int mgmt patter-response back at me expecting me to just suddenly realise that, no way could GAT be any sort of out-KSW (KSW#1 is a policy referring to keeping the tech of $cn totally standard i.e. unchanged). I was definitely doubting the staff in local orgs and especially the internal management that were overseeing this questionable GAT evolution. Without realising it, I had taken my very first step on The Bridge to Total Flee-dom.

I had done the DIM RD (Doubt Internal Management Rundown).

I was pretty indignant over the whole thing because the thought occurred to me that it was not LRH and people weren't even in an uproar -- they were happy about it.

At this stage I was hardly thinking of giving up on $cn but I was somewhat disaffected with the inconsistency between policy and what actually happened in orgs. I do remember a friend telling me that the highest number of tech trained staff had routed out of orgs in the history of $cn immediately following the GAT evolution. This only fueled my disaffection. It seemed that the smarter staff had left. The staff that stayed on in orgs seemed to be idiots. They would just do whatever their senior or management told them to do and their senior would do likewise.

Because I had been on staff myself I knew what boat they were in and how much sheer pressure can be brought to bear on you as a staff member -- even the execs get it from their higher org seniors. Even though I knew what they were going through I decided from then on to no longer take what staff said as gospel. That was my next step on the Flee-dom Bridge:

The DIS RD (Doubt Idiot Staff Rundown)

Though I was becoming more disaffected with the org staff, it indirectly increased my admiration of Ron. I would defend his legacy even though idiot-staff couldn't see what was happening.

The next thing that happened was purely by accident. I was getting quite interested and awed with Hubbard and his achievements and had collected most of the 'Ron' booklets (Ron the blah, etc). I tried piecing together a timeline to make up a kind of biography but I found there were a few gaps in his history. I remember getting quite anxious about finding out, so I innocently went on the internet and googled his name. Holy Messiah!

Now understand here that I viewed this man as the saviour of the planet and arguably the greatest man that ever lived. He did in his lifetime what 5 great men combined would be proud to have done. I was expecting to find all these independent sources praising him just like the c0$ did but for new stuff that I hadn't heard about. I read about his educational history; I read about his son, Quentin; I read about his personal comments on various things; and I read about his war history. In comparison to what I have since learned, it was only a fraction of the information out there on Ron, but it was too much for me.

I didn't feel well. In fact I felt quite ill for about 3 days. I couldn't believe the lengths people would go to to spread lies about a truly great man. And even though I justified it off, I was definitely having more questions. I mentioned it to a $cn friend at the time and she helped me re-focus. But I still didn't doubt $cn in any way.

--more soon
HAB

 

[Carmel]

I'm just loving your story, HAB - you are just telling it how it simply was/is from a sane standpoint.

It's refreshing, and I'm giggling.

Cheers Boyo,
Carmel

 

[scooter]

Moar moar !!!!!

 

[Happy Aberree]

thanks a lot Carmel

I'm just loving your story, HAB - you are just telling it how it simply was/is from a sane standpoint.

It's refreshing, and I'm giggling.

Cheers Boyo,
Carmel

Thanks a lot Carmel, and I'm glad you like it. Here's the next bit:

--Everything stated by me here on this site by the way, is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or even both).

I had not been going to events around this time and when I got the usual 20 calls, for some reason I decided to go. There were the same people as the last time plus a few new faces (about 5) and I got seated next to someone I knew. I noticed one thing was different: there was a small group of SO members in the front rows and every time the audience on the video applauded, the SO members would give a standing ovation which of course would get the rest of the 'real' audience joining in. I still remember the aghast looks when I didn't stand up.

I took this rather personally. A standing ovation was an audience-origination as far as I was concerned and it was also usually reserved for applauding Ron. I thought that if you used it for everything then it degraded the standing ovation for the old man -- like selling 10 dianetics books in Fiji was as important as Ron? I don't think so. So I endured the looks for the rest of the night. I didn't even like events anyway -- the idea of clapping to a friggin' video screen was ridiculous! We were clapping a video!!! And now we were being prompted to do it!

And that voice-over!! it was like an infomercial.

Events were the next thing that got me to thinking. Over the last few years there had definitely been a prevalence of events. And each one seemed to have a new release -- a CD about something or a Passport to map your bridge progress, some new previously undiscovered chapter in a book, or a revised edition with the correct sequence of chapters. How could it take thirty years to find a chapter in a book that was supposed to be treated like the Bible is in Christianity?

And there were more events now. There were regular IAS events and there were Maiden Voyage events. Knowing from my years on crew about the purpose of events (basically to reg people) I started to wonder, 'Was the church now using events as a primary source of GI?' and if so, why?

I would rate things by how many calls I got as to their importance within the church. Out of thirty phone calls roughly 20 would be for the next event (or to come to the org and watch the VIDEO of the VIDEO EVENT...I can't wait), 5 or 6 calls would be for donations to IAS or similar and the remaining 4 or 5 calls would be about going up the bridge. Big shift in importance there. On went my mental notes. So events were definitely important now.

This was the next step that I took on the Bridge to Total Flee-dom. I was doubting org events and it was getting me thinking about more questions. Not all was as it should be. Events were being given priority importance over moving up the bridge (the $cn bridge).

I had very soon done the DOE RD (Doubt Org Events Rundown) -- can also be pronounced: Doh! (like Homer)

Around this time, I noticed what can only be described as a 'charity-fest'. Suddenly I and others were getting more calls for IAS donations. I noticed that CCHR, Athena School and ABLE were jumping on too. All these $cn units seemed to now need donations from public to do their job. Or, now they were planning projects that required large donations from the public. Cannibalising was nothing new to me (this refers to over-regging of a stagnant or non-expanding field i.e. repeat regging the same people) and I had seen it done for years in ANZO but at least before it was for services!

This was amazing -- not only could you just reg whatever amount of money you wanted, there was now no product. You see before, the heavy regging was for auditing/training and when a person went through that reg cycle and paid the money, the org then had the responsibility (in order to complete the entire cycle) of SERVICING HIM. But this new charity regging didn't need that -- the product was the money! I'm not saying that regging for auditing stopped, but it just got less important, like you could be an active $cn'ist just by contributing money (rather than moving on the bridge).

--more soon
HAB

 

[Happy Aberree]

thanks Scooter

Moar moar !!!!!

Cheers Scooter, here are the next comedy of errors:



--Everything stated by me here on this site is of course totally my own opinion and thus could be true, false or neither (or chocolate biscuits).

Okay so charity donations were in fashion big-time.

Even the AO was getting donations to help people join the SO (you would get asked to put weekly or monthly contributions to pay a person's bills so that they could join NOW). It was amazing. I couldn't help but think that for an organisation that was in possession of the only technology that could produce miracles to do 'fundraising' of any sort was ludicrous. And I was seeing less and less miracles.

Even the idea that the orgs were not all booming and bustling hives of activity was remarkable. Actually at that time Syd org was I think around 40 staff on Fdn and less on Day which was far smaller than it had been in the late 80s early 90s. Melbourne and Brisbane were about the same and Canberra was Canberra. It didn't matter. Even if they were slightly bigger than they had been, they should have been huge! How can you have all the answers to human nature and all the answers on how to administer its facilitation into society and yet not succeed at a stupidly-stellar level? And now it was charities. More food for thought.

It was around '03 or '04 that a friend of mine said that he had just come back from the AO -- and he was livid. Now this guy had been Clear for as long as I'd known him and he was a genuinely logical person. But he told me that he apparently wasn't Clear anymore. What made it worse was how he found out: in an un-metered interview with the D of P that took about 5 mins. Within a few weeks I discovered a few more friends who had been given the same r-factor (story) and learned from one staff member that it was a world-wide thing. Apparently there was no past-life clear thing anymore and practically all Clears were being told the same thing (not clear, sorry about that).

This was really getting me thinking. The first thought that popped into my head was the Y2K bug and although the computer company involved did furnish everyone worldwide with updated software and saved a potential worldwide cataclysm, they must have made a megaton of money out of it. Brilliant from a marketing point of view.

I was noticing how many of the big 'advances' made in the c0$ worldwide were continually resulting in public having to invest further dollars into their religion. Each big advance seemed to produce a very high-necessity to do some next level, review, donation, repair, etc. In other words, if there was any really big news coming out -- YOU'RE GONNA PAY BIG!

I also remember being told about a tech bulletin that discussed the point of invalidation of the state of Clear, and how to do so was highly suppressive (I haven't read it so technically this is verbal tech -- unlike everything else in this story). But I thought, 'What did that make the person or people who just originated this world-wide 're-call' of Clears?'

I saw people I had known for years who were devastated in one fell interview. They got hit so hard it was like a flash flood and they watched as the house that they had spent years to build took off down the street. I wasn't a happy camper. I was definitely doubting the management of the technology but now also the source of its application. Where was this coming from?

For me this was the DTs RD (Doubt Technology Source Rundown) note: I have also done the delirium tremens Rundown which is also called the DTs RD but is not relevant to this story. Thank you.

A major step toward flee-dom for me was when the Ideal Org Pgm came out. Now based on the phone calls I got, this thing was 5 times as important as any event or other donations. In fact the IAS seemed to totally disappear shortly after the onset of this pgm. I don't mean they closed down, I just mean they were knocked down on the regging pecking order. I remember you could say that you were being regged for the ideal org and any other reg would leave you alone.

So my first experience face to face with an Ideal Org pgm reg had me asking many questions.

You see the way I figured it, if most of the phone calls I was getting, were about the ideal org then you would expect a rather large amount of policy to be written on this activity. You know green-on-white telling you to go and buy new buildings and then build the organisation up later. How about 1 policy? How about none? At least I couldn't find one. And I will stand to be corrected on this but I'm not holding my breath. The policies referred to by the regges for this pgm have nothing whatsoever to do with buying real estate. It doesn't matter what the next 50 steps are going to be after you buy the building. Step one is off.

I had never seen a more ridiculous action done in my history in $cn.

It would be like an accountant working for himself for 20 years without getting anywhere, suddenly saying, 'Before I can expand my business the first thing I need to do is spend $500,000 to buy a new office and equipment (he already has an office and equipment by the way), and I don't have the money so I'll get it donated from my regular customers'. Now that might be a slight exaggeration but not by much. And if that isn't nutty enough, to complete the analogy HIS CUSTOMERS WOULD ACTUALLY GIVE HIM THE MONEY!

So I asked questions about 'show me the reference' and 'why can't the org afford it themselves' and 'you've got to be kidding' but I didn't get many answers. I did notice though that on the reg's project orders, some of the references were real estate books -- great. The actual $cn references listed (org pgm #1 and Ideal Org P/L) have nothing whatsoever to do with buying buildings. The most common reaction to my queries was an utter surprise that I was not jumping at the chance to save my org. This reg firmly believed that this pgm was the ONLY thing that would save the org.

--more soon
HAB

 

[Carmel]

<snip>
It was around '03 or '04 that a friend of mine said that he had just come back from the AO -- and he was livid. Now this guy had been Clear for as long as I'd known him and he was a genuinely logical person. But he told me that he apparently wasn't Clear anymore. What made it worse was how he found out: in an un-metered interview with the D of P that took about 5 mins. Within a few weeks I discovered a few more friends who had been given the same r-factor (story) and learned from one staff member that it was a world-wide thing. Apparently there was no past-life clear thing anymore and practically all Clears were being told the same thing (not clear, sorry about that).
<snip>

Oh my! Shit oh dear! I didn't hear about this.

Whether the state of "clear" is real or not, is irrelevant. LRH said it was, in (and prior to) 1950 when he wrote Dianetics, and proclaimed loud and clear that one could achieve the state through book one. He also validated past lives and past life experiences. Now people are buying that this couldn't be so?

Something similar to this caper was tried in the earlier eighties, but it went down like a lead balloon, and got retracted in short order. Not now obviously! KSW could have its plus points - if those still in had some balls, they could bring up that policy and say no (it's all covered in points 1-10). Sadly though, they take on board the shit from that policy, and negate or ignore that which could be used, and that which could have at least saved some sanity within the ranks.

Bloody hell, what a joke! "Group think" is a shocker.

Thanks for the info, HAB

 

[Happy Aberree]

Oh my! Shit oh dear! I didn't hear about this.

Whether the state of "clear" is real or not, is irrelevant. LRH said it was, in (and prior to) 1950 when he wrote Dianetics, and proclaimed loud and clear that one could achieve the state through book one. He also validated past lives and past life experiences. Now people are buying that this couldn't be so?

Something similar to this caper was tried in the earlier eighties, but it went down like a lead balloon, and got retracted in short order. Not now obviously! KSW could have its plus points - if those still in had some balls, they could bring up that policy and say no (it's all covered in points 1-10). Sadly though, they take on board the shit from that policy, and negate or ignore that which could be used, and that which could have at least saved some sanity within the ranks.

Bloody hell, what a joke! "Group think" is a shocker.

Thanks for the info, HAB

No worries Carmel,

the info on this I got from an ex-SO tech crew member, a class V staff member and the 4 people who I knew that it happened to. The staffers said that's what was happening but I don't know if it was actually issued as a management directive -- I definitely got the feeling that it had. All I remember is that many people were pissed. I was also told that it affected OTs as they would have to re-do lower bridge steps.

Basically anyone who had originated Clear and not done all their grades etc would have to do them. This was a few years back now.

HAB