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I LOL’d.
He mentioned the Chicaco org, where the members bought the building, and it has been standing there, undeveloped. I had to look it up on Google Streetview. The Scientology supplied photos (to the left) do not exactly match the actual streetview, which is current as per writing (August 2025): Scientology org, streetmap view
Here’s a screenshot, showing how they windows are covered with paper, and there is seemingly no activity:
I’m glad it’s doing so bad. It’s been a source of torment for a lot of people. It’s like some evil experiment to see just how much idiotic stuff you can get people to believe. Of course that can be said of all religions.
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I’ve worked for a Scientologist and who ran the business on Scientology “principles.”
It really is batshit crazy stuff. I lasted less than 6 months before leaving and requesting nobody there contact me again. It also seemed very much like the owner determined other people’s worth exclusively by the assignment of a dollar value. Nauseating.
That cult and all of its leadership can eat a bag of dicks and fade out.
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I’m given to understand that the Scientologists were the only religious organization to have their tax-exempt status revoked and then reinstated – they were so good at legal maneuvering that they cowed the IRS into backing off, although it took them 25 years to pull it off.
Their tax exempt status (granted in 1957) was revoked in 1967 because the IRS saw that church funds were used for the personal benefit of founder L. Ron Hubbard, who famously lived for a long time on a boat in international waters to avoid tax collectors.
Their tax exempt status was reinstated in 1993 when the Church of Scientology offered to drop 2,500 pending lawsuits against the government in exchange for tax-exempt status being restored. In addition, a 25 year old billion dollar tax bill was settled for $12.5 million.
Much of Scientology’s wealth today is in real estate, where it is more shielded from taxes. Fortune magazine estimated that if they were to lose their exempt status today, their tax bill would be at least $20 million a year.
I have no idea how good they actually are/were at the legal maneuvering, but they certainly have determination and stamina and are ruthless at harassing, drowning their opponent in allegations and paperwork. After all, one of their central tenets regarding opposition is “Don’t ever defend, always attack”. Hubbard himself instated the following policy:
This is correct procedure:
(1) Spot who is attacking us.
(2) Start Investigating them promptly for FELONIES or worse using our own professionals, not outside agencies.
(3) Double curve our reply by saying we welcome an investigation of them.
(4) Start feeding lurid, blood, sex, crime actual evidence on the attackers to the press.L. Ron Hubbard, Attacks on Scientology, 25 February 1966
Source. There are probably better sources out there, but this came up on the top my net search.
Edit: Oh, and if Scientology implodes, good riddance.
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In order to understand the current situation of Scientology, you first need to understand the structure of the church; which is divided into three tiers:
- The Public
They are the customers of Scientology: they buy the courses, they buy the audits session, they buy the books; you know, just like customers. - The staff
They are the people who work in the missions, the orgs and in the social services (narconon, criminon etc…) along all those corporations that provide movies and leaflets; they also work in the front organizations (CCHR, YFHR etc…) and the volunteer ministries. - The Sea Org
The paramilitary monastic order that serves as the administrative wing of the church, every single person that wants to be in the administration of Scientology must be in the Sea Org; mind you they are the administration, not the leadership: they don’t give the orders, they just transmit them and make sure they are followed through and “handle” the members of the staff who don’t meet the expectations. - The Commodore Messengers Organization
It’s a body inside the Sea Org that makes sure that the Sea Org members respect Hubbard’s dogma, their members must never be protested or contraddicted because when they speak they do it in the name of Hubbard; if you are a Sea Org member last thing you want is make them angry. - The Watchdog Committee
Another group inside the Sea Org that makes sure the Commodore Messenger Organization does its work properly, it also monitors on high level scientologists. - The Religious Technology Center
The organ that controls the Church of Scientology and gives the orders, the religious technology center is the corporation that controls and directs the church**;** sure, officially they claim that the COS int. is the “mother church” and that they just manage the copyrights and the licenses of some products, but it’s not true: the religious technology center is the brain of the whole organization and controls everything.
This is the body that gives orders, period. David Miscavige is the leader of the church because he is the head of the religious technology center.
Now, why is the church membership decreasing? It’s simple: a vicious circle of abuse is bleeding members.
- Membership decreases
- statistics worsen
- Sea Org members are abused because of this
- staff members are abused because of this
- Sea Org and staff members quit
- Membership decreases
And it repeats over and over, in order to stop their membership decline they would need to stop the abuse and do a lot of PR cleanup, lots and lots of charities and apologies; but, let’s be real, that’s never going to happen and even if it happened there’s no guarantee that it’s going to work as the point of no return might have passed on the point of view of the public image the church has.
One scandals, two scandals… It happens to every religion to have some controversy, but at the 100th time it’s not a scandal anymore: it’s normality for the group and it becomes associated with it.
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Another item: Their bizarre secrets about the space alien tyrant Xenu leaked on the Internet in the 1990s. The whole world got access to the content of their upper level material. Since every Joe Schmoe and his cousin now have easy access to these bizarre space tyrant opera teachings, as well as the truth about their personality test scam, it of course affects the recruitment. Every so often I read stories on the internet about people ridiculing Scientologists whenever they dare go outside the front doors of their orgs, so it seems to be pretty common knowledge as well. So if their most secret teachings are more or less public knowledge, the masses who they can recruit dwindle, fast.
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It was a court case in California that forced the release of the hitherto secret, released only to those who had studied ( read paid) OT3 and up….
My ex scientology partner still does not believe that is the real thing LOL….and her son only joined the Sea Org because he was desperate for carnal knowledge with an existing member (even greater LOLS)
My partner was relentlessly pursued by phone calls and mail for a few years after we got together which did distress her, and I had the distinction of being pronounced a “Suppressive” (anyone who can see the stupidity of the whole nonsense.)
I did put an end to that nonsense by reading parts of OT3 over the phone to the poor interns calling…unsurprisingly they stopped after that….
So happy Thetans to you all…
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Yeah, I’ve made Scientology staff at street stands[1] freeze mid-sentence by mentioning Xenu. After they composed themselves again, they pretended they’d never heard anything about him. Lousy liars! 
Back when they still did such things. Haven’t really seen or heard anything from them in a couple of decades or so. ↩︎
Like Zappa said, “Their stupidity does not amaze me, it’s when they’re smart that amazes me.”
I believe Mrs Gump nailed this one for us. I have seen very intelligent people do and say the stupidest things, and never more so than when they try to champion a deity they want to imagine exists.
Hi! I’m not sorry for it going under to tell you the honest truth.
Because “smart people” defend dumb ideas smartly? I put it in quotes because, IMO, a truly smart person would realise there’s more to gain from truth than lies. My assumption is that such “smart people” have something to gain from defending what is obviously complete and utter bollocks.
Even though I quite liked “Battlefield Earth” (book not film), Hubbard was a really shit science fiction writer and my guess is he never made enough money at it so he switched to conning people instead.
UK Atheist