So, I've realised there's a limit to my interest in scientology.
Do I read the books? Yes.
Did I watch Going Clear? Yes.
Do I come here every day? Yes.
Do I want to listen to this Rodriguez guy drone on and on? No.

I can't listen to Hubbard either. My eyes glaze over; I would rather shave my head with a cheese grater. lol

Dee, you win the Internet for today in the category of verbal imagery that causes a major sphincter clench.

Super agreed, also intense jaw grinding!

Same here. I'm a never-in, but I have a feeling I wouldn't have made it far in Scientology if it required learning anything from the tapes...

He is quite dull, despite his training.

He's quite dull BECAUSE of his training.

Ha ! Hey ! I spent a lot of time in Scientology training...uh oh...

As long as it was TRAINING, not PROCESSING.

Well....they both mess you up somethin' fierce .

I'm so glad Chris gives us a translation, and also a summary of what the REAL point of the talks are. In this one the worst seem to be that 1) Everyone needs to take the training over again because their past training (and past money spent) were all wrong, so they'd better spend more money and get the real "on-source" stuff now; and 2) They should be happy to take weeks off from their jobs or come in every night after a full day's work to do all this.

In other words, give Co$ your money AND endanger the source of your money.

Andres, in spite of his imitation-LRH screaming and repetition, always sounds over-taxed trying to make all this sound as though it makes sense. I wonder if, in the very back of his head, there isn't a tiny bit of resentment about having to deliver this to public members and also a tiny bit of questioning about why DM hasn't gotten everything on-Source in the last 3 or 4 expensive versions.

Exactly.

I pity the ones in that class listening to him. I know there was a stampede to get out when he finished.

They can attend his speech for free but have to pay to leave .

Welcome to the Hotel California...

Arrrrgggghhh ! The hotel Scientology !

Which speaks to the efficacy of said training, or lack thereof.

He is cause over communication ! Via yelling like a three year old throwing a temper tantrum !

Oh yes, I will have to wait until later in the day to listen to his monotonous droning on and on. Thanks for Chris's crib notes to translate! I have to wonder though...how many hours of sec checking has he done since these tapes appeared? Has he been locked away on RPF for punishment?

I've listened to the first 2.5 minutes of this. Twice. Basically, all the guy has said is that you have to have an "Academy" to train auditors, and it has to be a special room. He sounds like he's sort of implying that if you teach high school material in a third grade classroom, people will get stupid or something. I'm not sure why this is even relevant. As a set up to the real selling proposition, this fails pretty miserably.

Edited to add: Took me a while to realize why this is so laughable: given that Scientologists have "cause over MEST," it ought not to matter whether you deliver auditor training in a special "Academy," in a "regular Div 6 classroom," or in a dumpster. Super-beings ought to be able to learn effectively anywhere, especially when auditing is supposed to raise your IQ one point every hour, as Hubbard claimed. End addition.

In the next two minutes, he says that they have to train a bunch of auditors to get ready for the flood of people coming in the door when Scientology Media Productions opens. I find that fascinating -- the cult has been killing off auditors for the last 20 years; these are the people who deliver the main "product" of Scientology, the self-help that keeps most of the rank-and-file types involved despite all the evil in the organization. So now after all the stupid stuff they've done to alienate the auditors, he's saying that it's really important for people to be trained.

Given that everyone in (undoubtedly small) audience has been in the cult for decades and hasn't decided to take the plunge and get trained as an auditor, I wonder what Rodriguez thinks will get people motivated to become auditors now. Yet another claim that the next big thing is going to open the floodgates for expansion? Everyone in that room has got to be recalling the stories that their "field auditor" friends have told about how the changes Miscavige has wrought on "the tech" and all the "ethics handling" abuse they got when they tried to do things made being an auditor a miserable experience. Based on my conversations with a number of people who were Class XII auditors, I can't believe anyone is falling for this setup that everyone in the audience should become an auditor.

He then says that everyone should be able to do what LA has done, or go to LA for auditor training. Not sure I understood that part. But in LA they have 13 MAA's roving the halls. Most orgs at this point have one part-time MAA, or maybe a full-time person in that role. But I suspect everyone in the audience understands that having a whole crew of MAA's is not a good thing for them. They all know about the pressure the staff is under to make their "stats" every week. MAA's are no exception. So they know that when you have that many "policemen" running around under pressure to "arrest" people, they will all be competing with each other to hand out the most punishment. In other words, people know they'll be under a microscope and they'll be punished for all kinds of stuff that they wouldn't get in trouble for back in their home org.

So they already know that involvement in LA Org is going to be a deathtrap. So if this is an attempt to fill the course rooms -- excuse me -- the Academies at LA Org, they would have to be insane to take part in that. If the average Scientologist from Portland is pressured enough to take classes in Sacramento to boost Sacramento's stats they'll probably do it after they've been "regged" enough is probably not going to be much worse than staying in Portland, because there aren't any more ethics people to make their lives miserable. But if people didn't already know they should avoid LA like the plague, the news that there are 13 MAAs will be sufficient to make them firm up their plans to be anywhere but in LA.

He then says that auditor traininees who go to LA have to spend 3-4 months redoing everything from "Student Hat" (a really basic class) on up to get re-trained as a Purification Rundown ("Purif") specialist. He then says that's so you can review people's records from when they did the Purif last time. And the point of doing that is to find a way to convince them that they did it wrong before so they have to do it again. In other words, the people who go to LA to get trained are going to be responsible for telling people they have to spend thousands of dollars and many weeks of their time melting their skin off in a sauna while consuming toxic liver-killing doses of medicine in a quack cure for the non-existent problem of drug "residue" from every pill you've ever taken, including aspirin and all the drugs your invisible dead space alien cootie "body thetans" have taken, being released into your bloodstream to give you flashbacks. Even if the audience believes that the "Purif" actually does anything useful, they will immediately pick up on the fact that they get to make people miserable by getting them to redo stuff, instead of actually helping them.

At this point, the press of Global Capitalism HQ takes over and I have to give up on the recording with a few minutes left. But between this guy's inept speaking style and the "shit sandwich" (not "mystery sandwich") he's trying to sell, I have to believe that even the most die-hard Scientologist in the very small audience is going to avoid this like the plague.

No wonder the cult is going down the tubes. I hope Rodriguez gets out there and does a thousand more briefings like this to hasten their demise.

Thanks for listening to this. I couldn't handle the guys voice myself.

This will make you laugh. I remember the build up to Battlefield Earth. IT WAS THE SAME HOGWASH. Seriously. We had to get ready for the flood of people who would be coming int. They were going to be coming in in droves. I kid you not.The movie was supposed to awaken the public's interest in Scientology and the Suppressive People were going to go screaming into the sunset never to be seen again. The worst movie ever! A humiliating flop. No one came rushing in. A few may have left.

Ok, compadres, one week until the book madness starts up again. Besides the party here in NYC, some of you might have noticed that we've been invited to appear in Hartford at the Twain House. As a lifelong Sam Clemens freak, your proprietor had to pinch himself. But we're also starting to think about a Texas run, as well as a Pacific Northwest scramble. And we sure would like to see folks we know in Minneapolis and Denver. And something tells us a night out in Vegas with Mark Fisher would be worth a trip. Not to mention we have friends in the Big Easy we'd like to see. And old friends in Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, and Cleveland. Boston is almost set. We are with a small publisher, so we're having to set up and pay for all this ourselves. But so far, the generosity of our subscribers is making things happen. For these upcoming trips to Texas, etc, we could use help with venues, etc. We'll let you know more when we can.

Suggestion for Bunkeroos. Bring some self-adhesive name tags and a pen so if people want to, they can identify themselves to other Bunkaroos. Nobody should be outed unless they want to.

Remember to buy the book for yourself and get it autographed. If you buy another one there, you can donate your old copy to friends or a library.

NOLAgirl - he said The Big Easy.

Maybe you can have that local 12 layer cake as a treat.

That or NOLAHubby and I will have to take him out to one of the fab restaurants. :)

It may be June, but I think a late king cake might be in order, for the King and Queen of Entheta!

...wouldn't that be a great krewe? Krewe of Entheta! Wouldn't Tony and Paulette head up the court perfectly? How would their float be decorated?

I mean, I'm already a Knight of Marcab, but as long as they parade on different days, and hold balls on different nights, I'm willing to serve double duty :-)

Give me a chance to wake up L.C. and I'll get back to you on that one. The are some funny possibilities with that one. :) Krewe of Entheta...you've got the krewe name. It's perfect. :)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Lucky you.

Cleveland you say? OMX! That would be so awesome.

Time for another donation to the Bunker. It's on my "to do" list for tomorrow. Let's do it, Bunkerites.

Ha! Already did :-)

Oh Wow!!!

It would be fun to come to something in the PNW. Portland, say.

How about Seattle?
A bit less costly to fly from the east to Seattle and all you adorable Portlanders can take the train or the Bolt bus up there...Just saying

IIRC there are a number of Mark Bunker-friendly establishments near the Portland Org that would happily host some SPs

Oooh, Oooh, Detroit or Cleveland. Yes!

A visit to Minneapolis...

Depending on when, I might attend that one too.

I knew it was a question of you getting the logistics to work.

It would be cool to meet you and other people from the great state of Minnesota.

PS I feel VERY lucky to have that ticket.

Perhaps the varsity theater for minneapolis? Man I'd love to see a minneapolis date!

I hope it is held/hosted by whomever now owns the beautiful stately brownstown in Back Bay that the Boston Org of Scilons sold so they could move to a second-floor walk-up a half hour outside the city in glamorous Quincy.

I think The Dude is close by the Quincy office (can't even call it an org!), so I'm hoping he snaps Miss Lovely lurking there.

I'm North Shore but grew up on the South Shore, so I sorta know where the Quincy org is. I remember the old Back Bay building when I worked in Boston years ago (before I knew what scientology really is). But the South End? Nope! Captain Howdy described the area, and I'm not going there.

I did, indeed! I will be there. You?