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Destruction Is in Its DNA the Church of Scientology Is Imploding at What

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Destruction Is in Its DNA the Church of Scientology Is Imploding at What Scientology: Destruction Is In Its DNA The Church of Scientology is imploding at what any outside spectator would call an alarming rate. While its leader, David Miscavige, stands before enthralled devotees several times a year claiming highest-ever membership figures and off-the-top production figures, the truth from inside is quite the opposite. Since the late 1960s, Scientology has claimed membership in the millions. Yet those un-named millions have never been tallied from any official membership rolls nor validated in any way. In fact, it's been reported by those who were actually there that the reports of "millions of members" were literally created out of thin air as nothing but PR fluff to satisfy some demanding senior Scientology executive who wouldn't settle for anything less. While the Church may lie to its public and the world in general, inside the organization they keep tight tally every single week of how many parishioners are actually attending services in every one of their organizations as well as how many attendees they have at their yearly event gatherings. And insiders have reported that these figures are an ever dwindling spiral, now down to as low as 25 - 30,000 worldwide. Included in those figures are those who actually work for the organizations as well, meaning that public membership could be as low as 20,000. One recent credible source even estimates it as low as 10,000. L. Ron Hubbard wrote many volumes of policies governing the purposes and activities of every single part of the organization, from its highest management echelons down to how cleaning personnel are to wash windows. No matter was too small for his personal attention. Within the Scientology world, Hubbard's word is law, so there is no real doubt as to where these policies originated. When things have gone wildy wrong in the execution of these policies, blame has sometimes shifted to those who carried out the orders or even to its intended victims. But Hubbard himself clearly and repeatedly stated that the source of all of Scientology was Hubbard himself and that remains church doctrine today, no matter how corrupted or altered Hubbard’s writings have become. The belief system of Scientology, what its adherents call "the technology" is not the problem. Like any other religion or cult, Scientology has its own unique set of ideas as to where the universe comes from, what Man's relationship is with God and life, and its own codes and rules for happy living. None of these beliefs are really so very different from other belief systems, certainly not enough to call Scientology's adherents crazy just for believing in them. Very few get away with calling Catholics insane for believing that they are imbibing the blood and flesh of Jesus Christ in Mass, and so it is with the Scientologists and their belief in the galactic ruler Xenu, Invader Forces conquering our solar system over the past many millennia and spiritual entities called thetans being the single source of all life anywhere. No, the belief system of Scientology has nothing whatsoever to do with why it is imploding. A review of Scientology's policies and activities shows why this world-wide implosion is occurring. While this also gives the answers as to what the organization must do if it is to survive into any kind of realistic future, it also shows why the Church will never execute the needed changes. The truth is that the Church is its own worst enemy. Here are the five aspects of Scientology organizational policy and activities which it must change to survive yet it is part of its very DNA to continue these practices until the very end: (1) Incessant demands for money with no accountability or exchange Because Scientology is currently classified as a religion and not a for-profit business, it thrives and survives on the "donations" of its parishioners. While Hubbard himself categorically stated that these donations were only to be accepted for actual services rendered and materials delivered, beginning in the late 70s, donations started being sought for non-service and material-related activities. Initially this was for legal defense when many of the Church's highest members found themselves behind bars as part of the infamous "Operation Snow White". Finding this lucrative, this practice was ramped up enormously with the founding of the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) in the 1984, ostensibly a membership fund with different classes of membership dependent upon how much money was donated. Many millions of dollars have been collected over the years by Scientologists claiming that this money was needed for the IAS to fund legal defenses and grant monies for special Scientology projects. This has been such a lucrative activity for the Church that they have continental offices for the IAS with full-time solicitors who do nothing except spread tales of doom and gloom to alarm Scientologists that their hard-earned monies are needed immediately to avert some deadly crises plaguing all of Mankind, a crisis which only Scientology can handle. Never is any proof given as to where any of these IAS funds actually go. If Scientologists ask about this, or for any degree of transparency at all, they are hounded by the Church’s Ethics Officers (people who enforce Church discipline and its justice actions) as to their lack of faith in the organization and its highest executives. The internal membership rolls of the IAS, listing its actual number of current and expired memberships, is one of the most closely guarded secrets in all of the church. Over the past few years, since about 2004, further fundraising has been being carried out to the tune of many more hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase and renovate new church buildings. These fundraising activities are carried out with a fervor and vehemence not often seen anywhere else, with parishioners cashing out trust funds and IRAs, giving up their children's college funds and borrowing money from each other to give even more. All so the Church can buy unnecessarily large quarters for each church building in the world and then renovate them at vastly unnecessary costs. The end result is church buildings which stand nearly empty all around the world. Again, the Church provides zero transparency or accountability as to where the funds that were collected actually were spent. There is plenty of evidence that parishioner funds are being mis-used, and there is even a legal case of fraud brought against the Church right now in Florida by Luis Garcia over this kind of abuse. In many cases, non-Scientology contractors have gone unpaid for months or even years after these buildings were opened, dunning the local church for the unpaid bills incurred by the international Church headquarters which arranged for these contractors to actually do their work. The IAS and building fundraising activities have far exceeded the amount of money the Church's local organizations raise for actual services delivered and materials purchased. So basically, the Church is making a great deal of money and delivering absolutely nothing in return. This practice has been going on for so many years that it is expected and routine for IAS fundraisers to visit every one to two months to dish out a new round of bad news and then demand the parishioners give more to solve the trumped- up crises. No world catastrophe or incident is beyond the reach of the IAS fundraisers. If there is a typhoon in Malaysia, funds are needed to supposedly send Scientology Volunteer Ministers to provide relief. If there is war in the Ukraine, funds are needed to allegedly print pamphlet-sized booklets that will somehow be distributed in the region and magically create an aura of calm and goodwill. Whether these Volunteer Minsters ever arrive or whether these books are ever distributed is rarely reported on. The Church of Scientology is a church, but it is definitely not a charity. The lack of accountability and transparency is a very large red flag in regards to its finances. Its incessant demand for more and more money with no exchange to its parishioners is causing ripple effects throughout its membership, who are more and more dissatisfied with the lack of any actual results despite the fundraising propaganda. Empty churches, a shrinking membership and no change in society as a result of Scientology's efforts are not what these parishioners have been donating towards for all these years, but it is what they are seeing. (2) A complete failure to acknowledge or correct its errors Fundamental to Scientology's core beliefs is its inherent infallibility. The key policy letter in all of Scientology is titled "Keeping Scientology Working" (written February 7, 1965) and its first line is "We have sometimes since passed the point of achieving uniformly workable technology." Hubbard then goes on to describe in some detail how Scientology is a methodology that produces results 100% of the time on 100% of the people to whom it is applied. This claim is absurd from the outset, as easily proven by the numerous and varied reports around the world of Scientology not able to produce the results it promises no matter who is doing the applying or under what conditions. However, within the Scientology world this claim of uniform workability is an absolute truth. Interestingly, just two months after writing Keeping Scientology Working, Hubbard quietly backpedaled and wrote some more policies to explain why there are some people that Scientology just doesn't work on. Rather than admit that Scientology might not be for everyone, or that some people are just harder to handle with his brand of psychotherapy, instead he writes this: "Does their [the parishioner’s] history of routine auditing reveal any gains? If the answer is NO then there is your Suppressive Person....one only uses this one fact – no case gain by routine auditing over a longish period." "One hears a whine about 'process didn’t work' or sees an alter-is [illegal change] of tech.
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