Questions about current cult audio-visual tech

[Rmack]

At the risk of dating myself, when I was in the cult, and the S.O. till I left in around '82, when you had to listen to a Laffy lecture, it was on a reel to reel tape player. If I recall, they sort of had the ones for the courses being taught in that course room already loaded with the associated tapes.

I'd be interested in the evolution of the A/V tech used for this over the history of the cult. I'm sure it's videos now, but all the 'LRH' tapes must be on hard drives now. Or, are they? CD's?

I was in Qual, and they were just starting to use black and white video cameras to record training sessions and such, for later review. They didn't record actual auditing sessions, as far as I knew.

And, calling the E-meter a 'religious artifact' is getting more true...at least the 'artifact' part. The electronics are ancient, if they still make them the same way. Imagine how hog-wild they could go if they were able to branch out to thermal imaging, or at least a video display of e-meter info. Time synced to an audio recording of the session? It would greatly simplify the work load of the auditor. Especially with a fast-talking PC!

Of course they have advanced some, I was just curious at how much, because I figured it would be retarded behind the rest of the world because of their carved-in-stone policies.

 

[A.K. Myers]

This reminds me of my old briefing course days at the
old ASHO. The course room was full of the bulky old reel
to reel tape players. These old beasts would eat tape
from time to time and tapes would break, sometimes
crunching several inches of tape. In order to keep things
rolling, most of us were instructed into how to splice the
tape back together. Of course, over the years, large
amounts of Hubbards ramblings disappeared. I'm sure
that these tapes were recorded from master copies, but
imagine the number of MUs students got from all these
dropped out moments.

And... just talking about this brought to mind another
old B.C. thought. On some machines Ron's voice was
higher pitched, like he was breathing helium. Inspection
of the machines revealed that tape had been wrapped
around the driver capstan, making the tape run faster.
Since points were awarded for minutes of tape listened
to, some students had found a way to get extra student
points. (Not that I ever took advantage of this myself.)

 

[CO2]

This reminds me of my old briefing course days at the
old ASHO. The course room was full of the bulky old reel
to reel tape players. These old beasts would eat tape
from time to time and tapes would break, sometimes
crunching several inches of tape. In order to keep things
rolling, most of us were instructed into how to splice the
tape back together. Of course, over the years, large
amounts of Hubbards ramblings disappeared. I'm sure
that these tapes were recorded from master copies, but
imagine the number of MUs students got from all these
dropped out moments.

And... just talking about this brought to mind another
old B.C. thought. On some machines Ron's voice was
higher pitched, like he was breathing helium. Inspection
of the machines revealed that tape had been wrapped
around the driver capstan, making the tape run faster.
Since points were awarded for minutes of tape listened
to, some students had found a way to get extra student
points. (Not that I ever took advantage of this myself.)

[video=youtube;SjbPi00k_ME]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjbPi00k_ME[/video]

Well, duh. Listening to him talk sloooowly, and dawdle was not on my first priority list.

 

[Veda]

There were several speed settings on some old reel to reel tape recorders.

Some students, discreetly, adjusted the setting to a higher speed, and listened to Hubbard ("Source") that way.

This was kept private.

It probably wouldn't have qualified as thinking "unkind thoughts about L. Ron Hubbard" (which was taboo), or some such, but it did tiptoe around the edges of not being properly respectful. At least, there were some who would have thought so.

Notably, the gung ho course supervisor who had just returned from the mysterious Flagship.​

All the words were there, to be "duplicated," just as "Ron" intended, except that "Source" sounded like Alvin the chipmunk:

 

[Dulloldfart]

Interesting question. I would *guess* that most of the the audio lectures for courses are available on audio CDs or DVDs. With a few obscure ones still only available on cassette tapes.

Hard drives? My opinion is no, because THEY wouldn't like the relative ease of copying digital files as opposed to audio files.

-----

But it would be interesting to hear from someone with recent experience at a real org, assuming they do still deliver training.

Paul

 

[Terril park]

Interesting question. I would *guess* that most of the the audio lectures for courses are available on audio CDs or DVDs. With a few obscure ones still only available on cassette tapes.

Hard drives? My opinion is no, because THEY wouldn't like the relative ease of copying digital files as opposed to audio files.

-----

But it would be interesting to hear from someone with recent experience at a real org, assuming they do still deliver training.

Paul

Freewinds 2012 completions not one auditing course. Mostly basics and tape courses.

http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/fw/freewinds089.html


AOLA Training stats 1994-2004. Not one single auditing course completion in 2004. And almost certainly in decline since.

http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/advance/2004/training_stats_thru_2004.html

 

[omnom]

Hard drives? My opinion is no, because THEY wouldn't like the relative ease of copying digital files as opposed to audio files.

-----

But it would be interesting to hear from someone with recent experience at a real org, assuming they do still deliver training. l

This might be a good question for Marc Headley. I seem to recall he goes into this in the BFG book, and maybe some of his online writing. Some of it, at least, is stored on hard drives, but likely under drive encryption - it prevents a hard drive that is removed or inadvertently recycled or being thrown away from being read outside of the environment. Who knows if this has made it into the courserooms, but the digital displays in "public" areas are digital files of some sort.

If you think about it, which format has produced the numerous leaks online? The analog audio, not the digital bits.

 

[Terril park]

Duplicate post

 

[Rmack]

OK, thanks.

What about the rumors of the 'tech' (I'm trying not to laugh so hard I can't type!) being stored on nuclear war proof mediums in a vault somewhere in the U.S. southwest?

Surely the true fanatics are considering all the latest technology to preserve their guru's ramblings. Has anyone did this with Hitler's speeches? I know they sort of tried, but it was limited tech they were working with, lol. These guys have a lot more to work with, so I suspect they are on it.

It's not going to work guys. Because it's dated bullshit. You can either realize this the easy way, or the hard way.

 

[Dulloldfart]

This might be a good question for Marc Headley. I seem to recall he goes into this in the BFG book, and maybe some of his online writing. Some of it, at least, is stored on hard drives, but likely under drive encryption - it prevents a hard drive that is removed or inadvertently recycled or being thrown away from being read outside of the environment.

The SIR [Source Information Retrieval] application from INCOMM available to many at middle-management and up, and possibly some libraries [HCOBs = a library; HCO PLs = a library etc.] lower down the food chain is obviously stored on hard drives etc. When I last saw it in 1995 at ITO my access included PLs, HCOBs, LRHEDs, SO issues, various tech and admin lecture series, books etc but excluded Int-level libraries. Only text and no audio. But I would be very surprised if hard drives containing audios were available to academies.

Paul

 

[Helena Handbasket]

I'd be interested in the evolution of the A/V tech used for this over the history of the cult. I'm sure it's videos now, but all the 'LRH' tapes must be on hard drives now. Or, are they? CD's?

Other than the lecture CD series being sold by the church now, you can always try www.stss.nl .

Helena

 

[Helena Handbasket]

And... just talking about this brought to mind another old B.C. thought. On some machines Ron's voice was higher pitched, like he was breathing helium. Inspection of the machines revealed that tape had been wrapped around the driver capstan, making the tape run faster.
Since points were awarded for minutes of tape listened to, some students had found a way to get extra student points. (Not that I ever took advantage of this myself.)

For a while I was listening to tapes with the volume turned all the way DOWN, just reading the transcript rather than listening. To keep the supervisors happy, I would occaisionally stop the tape, rewind it a bit, then start it up again as if I didn't get something and had to listen to it over again.

Helena