It's impressive to read through the posts that have shown up to the article, YOUR OPINION PLEASE. Not a single person vented or dramatized - instead - everyone offered  an excellent collection of ideas, thoughts and analysis' on what we can do about the situation in Scientology.

I think there is more to be said yet, (that's just me talking). A few things I wanted to throw on the table on this open forum -- just to stir the soup a bit more -- and for your consideration...

LRH says in PDC Lecture 10 SPECIFIC PARTS OF SELF DETERMINISM, SPACATION:

"... for a thetan there are two very essential rights: One is the right to his own sanity, and the other is the right to leave a game. And if he has those two rights, you don't get some kind of a big universe slopping all over the edges of everything under the sun. You don't get a theta trap of this magnitude setting up." - LRH

If you are like me, and I know many of you had similar circumstances, you got to a point where your back was against the wall. You were told "it's our way or the highway" and you chose your sanity and right to leave the game over being a slave.  While there are those that would try to peg us as having overts and withholds - we know in truth that we didn't take the bus out because of a few O/Ws. We left because our power of choice and our freedom to decide on OUR lives had been taken away or marginalized to the point of being simply oppressive. Debbie Cook's story, posted on Marty's blog, resonates this exact scenario.

For the purposes of broadening our scope (mine too as I am not tooting any agenda or solution here), in keeping with Data Series Policy Letters - let's go broader. In evaluating anything, one has to find comparable datums that serve to give value or relative comparisons of good or bad.

In the 1600s, England, then under an oppressive and dictatorial monarchy, had all but marginalized people's lives into a slavery to the state. You paid taxes, or you lost your land and went to jail. You toed the line and supported the monarchy or you were declared an enemy and were "fair game". You bowed to the contemporary Church or you were declared heretical and treated as an outcast - or worse. And possibly more important than any factor at all was that the individual could do NOTHING about it as the monarchy was an absolute power - there were no recourses, no one to turn to, no way to change it unless you could organize a bigger army against it. People had two choices - stay as slaves or leave.

So, people left the British Empire in droves, then one of the foremost powers on earth, ventured across the ocean to a new land and started up a new life. When that "tyranny" attempted to impose the same rules on them in the colonies, those colonies revolted and threw the red coats out and declared their independence.

A familiar story because in fact you could superimpose that very scenario on top of the Church of Scientology today and it would be the same general picture covering the last two or more decades.  In the 1600s, given no other choices, people left England to find a new land where they could practice their religious beliefs, and had freedom of voice, choice and government. Today we see the same thing in Scientology. People are leaving the "maintstream" Church because freedom of choice no longer exists. You either march to their tune or not - period, and if that tune is wrong - you have two choices - leave or violate your most basic rights (your sanity and your right to leave the game). We're not talking about KSW when I speak of "tune" - I mean authoritarianism, dictatorial "this is how it is done now buddy" - and the whole concept of "what's true for you is true for YOU" - as LRH said - well that's just "old", "we don't do that anymore" (right out of HCO PL SAFEGUARDING TECHNOLOGY).

If we try to view this problem only within the parameters of Scientology then we are possibly missing the fact that this VERY scenario has happened countless times before and people have solved it in their own way.  I am not suggesting that the best solution is to let the current Church fail -- but in truth -- it already is failing.

The declaration of independence by many Scientologists is not any different than what has happened in recent history on this planet.

Is history simply repeating itself now?

As to the current Church administration - when David Miscavige leaves, fails, blows or whatever he does - there is no guarantee of anything except we hope that his successor is a benign and effective leader, that he or she will engage Scientology again based on real KSW;  but if not, are there protocols that can be installed within the SO to prevent another dictator? Or is this organization simply going to have to trip and fall and find its own way and eventually come to grips with the policies that LRH put there to make it a strong group?

One thing to consider is that David Miscavige calls himself the "Chairman of the Board". Any corporate entity has a Board of Directors who are empowered BY LAW to vote on and displace CEOs and GMs. What "Board" exists in Scientology that has the power to vote on the Chairman? What democratic process exists- in actuality that gives other Sea Org officers the power to vote out its chairman? Or has DM simply re-written all the Board minutes that would permit such? And secondly, isn't David Miscavige violating the very essence of the corporate tax excempt status of the Church by himself "running" Scientology as COB? Where is the Board of Directors for CSI? I'm posing these questions because possibly if there were internal Boards, which actually operated within the structure and laws of the land, maybe they would be the proper checks and balances that could help to avert this situation in the future.  And maybe if those "Boards" issued annual reports (called P&Ls in other corporations (Profit & Loss Reports) to their people (the Scientologists who pay their pay checks) then maybe the corruption would become more transparent and Scientologists could see what was really going on and make a row about it? Is is possible that all the structure is there and just needs to be put back in place and it would have a chance at checking this situation in the future? Or are we just dreaming - in view of the fact that a lot of people (me included) already failed to stop it from happening?

Maybe there needs to be a new religious culture, one which grows out of necessity and which defines itself - wherein  Scientology Independents can use Scientology freely, exactly as intended, and where everyone can afford to get up the Bridge, where no one can dictate and "own" it. Maybe this is a natural evolution of such a movement, following on the footsteps of other religions on this planet?

Again - I'm not advocating any one solution.

It's on the table!

Written by Outside the Box