Pricing Scientology out of reach| Pricing Scientology out of reach | | Print | |
| Tuesday, 30 August 2011 21:23 |
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In 1990, while I was directing marketing for the Dianetics Route, I attended a SMI convention (Scientology Missions International) in Clearwater with MEI (Marketing Exec Int, which was Ronnie Miscavige). Also attending were a large number of people from what were called “pioneer areas.” They told Ronnie and I that they had a terrible problem: book pricing was out of hand. A single book in many countries such as Equator and Columbia — in places where Dianetics was popular — cost the equivalent of month’s wages for the average worker. One book. Made of paper! How could it be? Needless to say, dissemination was totally blocked. So I jumped all over this and put together a comprehensive pricing submission to reprice these books according to the LRH formula. When COB saw it, the reaction was so bad you would have thought I had proposed to burn down the Int base and soaked the submission in gasoline. He said I was proposing to denigrate the tech and create a price engram. What worse denigration of the tech than to price it out of reach? What worse price engram? I found myself confronting a situation so evil it was nearly unfathomable. What and who could possibly WANT to price LRH books completely out of reach? It was so suppressive, it made me sick. Literally. A week later I started to speak out about it since a formal submission didn’t work. Suddenly I was assigned to the RPF. The reason: I was told a mysterious interrogatory found me as an “enturbulative source.” Really? I was quite close to everyone in Central Marketing Unit, which at the time was part of Exec Strata. I had no enemies there. The interrog was executed by CMO Int. ED Int himself, plus two others came to get me and escorted me to HCO where minutes later I was hustled into a van and deposited 90 miles away in Los Angeles without even the chance to tell my wife goodbye or grab my tooth brush. I had no money and had to borrow soap and shampoo from other RPFers in LA. Who ordered the “interog”? Why was everyone in such a hell fire hurry to get rid of me? I never knew. But now I know. What David Miscavige is doing is falsely pricing things so high in the name of “quality” that no one can afford to buy them. And for the latest insight on that subject, here is Tom Martiniano. ~ Thoughtful Pricing Scientology out of reach
The Policy from LRH regarding orgs is: HCO PL 27 September, 1957 (No Title) OEC Vol II Pg 401: “Anyone doing this mistakes our basic mission, which is not the charging of high prices, but the dissemination of Scientology to the end goal of bringing a new and better culture to Earth.”
Student Hat Course = $ 600 Pro TRs Course = $1,860 Upper Indoc TR Course = $460 Pro Metering Course = $2,160 Method 1 Co-Audit Course = $600 Acad Levels 0-IV @$2,160 ea or $10,800 Quantum Meter = $4,185 (all auditors are to have 2 meters = $8,370 but we’re only going to count 1 here. Course Pack = $75 x 5 = $375 Total Cost for a prospective trainee to become an Auditor = $24,290. If the prospective trainee purchases an IAS Lifetime Membership he can add $5,000 on top of that $24,290 = $29,290. Now minus IAS Membership Discount of $4,850 (20%) = $24,432 + IAS Membership of $5K = $29,432 to become an auditor in a Class V Org - if - one is an IAS member (and this is if he makes it through the IAS, Superpower and Ideal Org gauntlets on his routing form without paying there and if he has to purchase just one Basics Package – all of which are very unlikely). According to the US Census Bureau the 2009 United States average household income is $49,777. To train to be an auditor is more than half of the average yearly income of an American household which makes training out of reach for people wanting to co-audit or just become an auditor. It took me five minutes to find the average income for the American Household on the Internet. This means it was within reach of David Miscavige who approves all pricing for all Scientology services and LRH books. This means the pricing was done purposely in order to keep training out of reach of the average income maker in order to keep Scientology small and the tech unavailable. The "Who" is COB David Miscavige. I might include GI Exec Int, but there hasn’t really been anyone on that post for years... scratch that: decades. In fact, for all of Int management, no one has been on post for decades. What has been there are robots, all controlled by the micro-mis-managment of David "Disaster" Miscavige. The handling, of course, is to get in ethics on David Miscavige (which would require him going to jail) and to start delivery of Scientology all over again using pricing that would allow the natural expansion of Scientology. So there it is; proof that orgs are designed to fail. Written by Tom Martiniano |
"Scientology has been taken over by a self-appointed dictator, David Miscavige, who has turned the Creed of the Church of Scientology, the Code of a Scientologist, and the Credo of a True Group Member on their heads and instituted the virtual practice of Reverse (Black) Dianetics..." 
Comments
FWIW there is a growing collection of research materials gathered here on this subject: (newer stuff on the later pages & listed in full in historical index document)
http://www.scribd.com/collections/2731355/Scientology-Fee-Schedules
Thus I find this comment extremely poignant:
"This means the pricing was done purposely in order to keep training out of reach of the average income maker in order to keep Scientology small and the tech unavailable."
Thks for this insight... I always thought the extreme pricing increasing I've been documenting was just plain old greed run wild. I never thought to put an actual self-destructive reason behind it.
"Greed has taken the whole universe, and nobody is worried about their soul." -- Little Richard
Hey guys who donated - look at what your millions bought. Failure.
The price engram is only part of the problem. The out tech and non standard delivery is the other side. So disgusting!
When in Santa Barbara, a man came in with his two kids (aged 6 and 8 or so). The dad picked up the books "Study Skills for Life" and "Learning How to Learn". The kids were reachng for them as well. Dad looked at me and said "how much?". I said $31.75. Dad looked at the kids and said: "Put it down, honey".
When Dissem Sec STL in the 70s (their BOOM years), I sold Academy levels, HSDC, both internships and all materials including a Mark V e-meter for less than $2,000.00. I recall is was just over $1,950.00.) These were standard prices for all (then) CL IV orgs. And those Academies were PACKED (see "What Happened to Training on the Friends of LRH Website for evidence of these booming orgs).
Fast forward to PT and..................
Linda
a) "average income for the american household" is not the money available for materials and service, as there are costs for housing and food, etc. The amount available is in many cases only a tenth or twentieth of that,
b) "household" may include more than one person, so this sum may need to be broken down before it can be compared to the prices given, as these are per person, not per "household".
I have personally met people who's postulate wasn't anymore "DOING the Bridge", they had changed it into "MAKING MONEY FOR the Bridge". And after many years found out that they had gotten exactly what they had postulated: The did not move up the Bridge; they made money for doing the Bridge - all that time. AND THAT WAS ALL!
All the pricing is quite good for the training, and hasn't gone up drastically over the last decade. In terms of purchasing power vs. inflation it's quite OK.
What I do find offensive here is the Basic Book Package Requirements and all the Donation requests thrown into one's path up the bridge.
It's the incessant regging harassment and it's accompanying Used Car Salesman Environment that makes my stomach turn.
The cost of services these days is more than the average person can afford.
Prices should be set according to HCOPL 23 Sept 1964 which is actually based on "the average lower class of lower middle class pay scale" which at this time is way less than 49000 and probably around 24 to 30000.
Also for some reason the Scholarship program was dropped out.
Probably an oversight....yeah right.
Since at one time those who wanted to train as auditors were considered "upstat and important people".
Now its patrons of the IAS.
Thus you can see where the definition of "upstat and important" has been totally *perverted* within the organization and redefined by agitprop to the contrary.
However like you I don't fully agree with with Tom's assessment.
Correct Miscavige is a "who" but this according to the DS means your eval is incomplete.
The question is why would anyone throw out good policy and follow such a psychotic (obviously psychotic per the definition of psychosis as given in the HCOB of that title also known as C/S series 22) moron's simple simon arbitrary orders.
It's almost like at the highest echelons of Scientology no one there ever heard of a job endangerment chit or an orders query!
Secondly the training stats started falling like the proverbial "shot duck" long before the lunatic came up with the "bright idea" of "Ideal Orgs" with the introduction of the "Golden Arbitrary of Tech" and continued to spiral downward after the "Basics".
As you can see.
The student not only has to jump the hurdle of out gradient meter drills.
(By the way accurate meter dating is not a requirement for Levels 0-IV)
But now has to weed their way through a course of "Basics" that rivals the SHSBC in size and complexity.
Worse!
Its all nothing but *theory*.
We see right here there is no real intention to make auditors.
To make a Class IV back in the dark ol' days when the "blind were (supposedly) leading the blind" it took 6 weeks.
Now it takes 6 years!
And it is not just the "Basics" but all those stupid useless "drill" which totally violate HCOPL 16 April AD 15 Issue II "Drills Allowed"!
Training has been totally and completely sabotaged!
By turning it into a virtually endless runway.
The fact is even if they reduced the price of training auditors.
The process of training has been so bottle necked by arbitrary courses and actions that most people would lose heart since it is so long and involved!
Ron writes in the RED Orders to Divisions For Immediate Compliance point 11 for Div IV:
"Courses should be fast, auditing drawn out. This is the exact reverse to what has been happening. *SLOW COURSES AND FAST AUDITING DESTROY THE SUBJECTS OF DNS AND SCN* (emphasis added). Fast courses and long long hours of auditing are the route to real gains and solvency."
An arbitrary can be said to be something
which actually violates natural law
and which becomes, when held in place, an
enforced lie. This causes endless board or governing body trouble whenever it occurs. (HCO PL 20 Oct 66 II) -adj. (a) derived from mere opinion or preference; not based on the nature of things;hence, capricious, uncertain, varying. (b) unrestrained in the exercise of will; of uncontrolled power or authority, absolute; hence, despotic, tyrannical.
Usual forms of arbitrary are: disagreement, counter-policy, cross-order,other - intentionedness, counterintention, no reality. (BPL 10 Nov 73 II)
Frankly, I can't think of anything in the current church of miscavology which is anything other than an ARBITRARY.
That these arbitraries are crashing the place is pretty darn obvious.
Les
However, according to Census data for Inglewood, which has an African-American population of over 47%,"the median household income in the community at the time of the last survey was $34,269."
How is this community going to support this org? The cost of training ONE auditor is over 85% of median household income!! Is there going to be a "special" price for NOI members or members of their families?
How do people write ten thousand dollar checks to support this Inglewood project without even thinking about these questions?
Is it just me or do those people pictured on the cover of the mag look like crash test dummies to anyone else?
In the case of the Church, it is a matter of misalignment.
You can't place a value on the tech — the number is astronomical. Of course one can't actually charge that because then no one can afford services but the very wealthy. Which is idiocy because the mission of Scientology, and the purpose is, to create millions of auditors.
Well, dumb-ass Miscavige has this priced so he is making maybe 10 auditors internationally per week. Even if it were 10,000 auditors a week, it would still be infinitesimal compared to 6 billion.
10K auditors a week is 500,000 auditors a year, which is still .000083 compared to 6 billion people; i.e., infinitesimal.
These sports of calculations are not new. I did the math in 1990 when I was putting together my revision of book pricing.
So the purpose is profoundly off. Miscavige says in his tinker-toy brain, "the value is astronomical, so all prices must be astronomical." And snap — no one can afford Scientology.
I said Miscavige is "stupid" but from the quote at the beginning of Tom's article, it's evident it's really evil purposes, and lots of them.
You are right Miscavige is *stooopid".
(I had him pinned as a complete moron back when I saw him on Nightline.)
But he is *evil* as well and part of a conspiracy to destroy Scientology.
I'm sure there is someone up lines who knows damn well that if you make training so onerous and drawn out forever you will eventually wreck the subject that is advising the little simpleton.
Pricing is part of it but also there has been this false datum that has been prevalent for quite a number of years that training "takes as long as it takes" which is a datum that only applies to auditing.
Training is supposed to be *fast*.
In fact there is an HCOB entitled "Fast Courses" that has basically been totally thrown out.
It shouldn't take more than a year to train a Class VIII under a good supervisor from the bottom up.
Also there is some weird think that the Organization should be like some college or university and take years to train someone.
In the meantime they are intentionally speeding up read encouraging *quickie* (particularly on the lower levels) auditing and discouraging co-auditing.
Why spend months or even weeks training so you can co-audit if all your grades can be done in several days or in 20 minutes?
Also you can no longer co-audit preps and Eligibility even if you are a Saint Hill grad because the HCOBs are limited dist to SO personal only.
Not only that but you can no longer Co-audit OT IV on Class VIII despite a HCOPL written specifically by Ron that said you could.
In fact any Class VIII currently being "trained" is no longer allowed to audit, repair or review Advanced Courses which is now restricted to SO personnel.
So what is the point of doing Class VIII anymore?
Funny thing is that with all upper level auditing including NOTs limited to SO they take longer to do because the usual Pre OT now is pretty much a bypassed case.
And guess who makes a percentage on all this?
Aside from the fact that someone who is manifesting out lower grades and who lacks actual *training* per the HCOB Training and OT is not really going to make it to OT.
So here you have a combination of greed, stupidity and evil intent.
I recall those halcyon days when the Levels were sold as a package, and if they were, the Student Hat was part of it and the works were $2000. The EXACT same LRH tech, the exact right drills needed on each Level to DO that auditing and it took an average of 2 weeks per. The intention was to make auditors so auditors were made.
It's as simple as that.
That was back in the days when training was fun!
Last time I was there to do my BC *un* certainty it was like being a Galley slave.
The aqverage cost of a house in 1975 was $28 sq ft. Now it is $95 sq ft. (4X)
The average cost of a car was $5,000 in 1975. Now it is $22,000 (4X)
So if Jimmy and Steve paid $2,000 for their levels in the 70's then it should be 4X of that now ($8,000) including the metering and TRs.
ML Tom
Actually the Acads 0-IV back in '75 were 250 each or 1000 for the package so if you 4xed them they'd be 4 grand making them 2 grand with a full scholarship.
But even at 8 grand they're still a deal compared to what they're selling for now.
Also back in the old days the Student Hat and M1 Coaudit course were freebes (what are they now 10 grand?)
And you did the basic books while doing the levels.
Mimsey
This in my opinion has been the Church's strategy ever since regaining coveted 501ciii and why they now concentrate on IAS *donations* since they are tax deductable and non-refundable.
I say if you want Scientology then forget about the Church of Scientology :)
Real Scientology exists as an independent movement.
In 1976 missions were booming. Auditing
was $35.00 an hour ($437.50) per
intensive. Books were inexpensive and
training was too.
Then came: 'LRH ED 284 Int', 16 Sep 76
“The Solution to Inflation.” This
mandated a 5% per month price raise.
This helped at first, and became a
standard regging tool...
HOWEVER...
This was allowed to go on until 1981 despite the one year time limit of one
year for LRH ED's. By this time auditing
was over ten times the original amount,
and premium auditing like at FLAG was
even higher.
The number of auditing hours and the
number of people getting trained began
to decline.
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