Now What? A New Model for Scientology

by Joe Howard

Sherlock Holmes and Dr, Watson are on a camping trip. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Watson a nudge.

“Watson,” he says, “look up in the sky and tell me what you see.”

“I see millions of stars, Holmes,” says Watson.

“And what do you conclude from that, Watson?”

Watson thinks for a moment. “Well,” he says, “astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter to three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what does it tell you, Holmes?”

“Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”

The recent KR by T. Paine elsewhere on this site (not to mention nearly every other article) should lead anyone to induce that indeed, someone has stolen Scientology as originally developed by LRH.

Moreover, the business model has devolved into the worst perversion of “money for nothin' “ that one can imagine. Now, maybe Scientology didn't have the greatest business model in the first place as developed by LRH. LRH himself never claimed perfection. Someone else has touted that. LRH only claimed workability. The system worked to one degree or another. People bought DMSMH. They came into an org or mission. Did the old TRs Course. Then the old HQS Course. At some point they went exterior and that was basically that.

Of course it was flawed, and deeply, in some respects. Especially when you think that if LRH had gotten just ONE person interested in Dianetics in 1950 and then in 1951 he and that other person each got one more person interested and those four in 1952 each got one and so on and so on and scooby-dooby-doo. By 1982, everyone on the planet would have been in Scientology. Do the arithmetic if you don't believe me. That's not written to make LRH wrong. Had someone started the same progression in 1970, the same result would have been attained by 2002.

Since LRH dropped his body in 1986, the business model for Scientology was essentially cremated along with his earthly remains. At the very least it was allowed to ossify and become hardened into today's  flashy MEST buildings courtesy of the Ideal Org program. Nobody likes the way that is going. Not the public, not the staff and certainly not DM despite what you hear at events. It is inevitable that one day the whole mess is going to come crashing in on itself. Where will Scientology be then? Scientology, the subject, not what currently passes as the organization.

The subject is still the subject, an applied religious philosophy. The mechanisms of the mind and the means to change conditions outlined in Scientology will still exist even if every org closes or DM absconds with all the money in the coffers. As an analogy, the periodic table and chemistry still exist  and are workable despite Alfred Nobel's use of them to invent dynamite and kill millions of people. (At least he had an ethics change and set up a perpetual amends project at the end of his life.)

The point here, of course, is that Scientology has not moved into the Information Age and yet, the technologies available today that were not developed when LRH was alive, have the potential to transform institutional Scientology into something that COULD spread the subject far and wide as well as fast and free.

Imagine, then, being able to read LRH books and bulletins and listen to LRH lectures sitting at home or at Starbucks. Imagine not having to race home after work, wolf down a meal to make it to roll call at 7:00, but doing your course on-line on your own schedule. (Maybe you can only devote a hour tonight because American Idol comes on at 8:00.) Even your TR and metering courses. Web cams, anyone? Cut your video and email it to the Supe in the org. Or send it to me. After you've watched the Tech Film that you had downloaded and watched earlier.

Basically all of Scientology could be studied and learned on-line and probably could be made available for free. Even the haters might listen to a lecture or two if they were free.

Okay, where does that leave the orgs? Well, you would still need a brick and mortar location for certain things like Qual. People would have to go in and demonstrate that they really could assess a prepared list in order to be certified by the organization. Co-auditors might need C/Sing or cramming and the Review Auditors would probably be busy as hell from pcs having been chopped up in the field learning to audit in such a half-assed manner as I'm proposing here. These services are valuable services and deserve to be exchanged for. The auditors in the orgs probably would be the best tech terminals in the area and the field would want their help. The brick and mortar org would also be the central meeting place for all the Scientologists in that community. That's where everyone would congregate for parties and Bingo night, etc.

Now, how many more people would be learning and applying Scientology under an arrangement such as described here? Basically free, or very low cost, progress at your own pace on your own schedule, contact someone in the org when you need help or want to get your cert.

A shadow of this new model for Scientology currently exists in the Freezone but it's only a shadow. How standard would the tech be under such an arrangement? Probably about as standard as LRH said it would be in the field. And that was good enough for him. There are auditors in the Freezone doing all kinds of riffs on LRH tech. Well, that's what goes on in the field. The sad truth is that it's more than is going on at Flag, where auditors and everybody else is regging IAS donos full time.

One huge advantage of this new model for Scientology is that it takes a ton of MEST off  the comm lines and that's a good thing. As Scientology is currently organized, it is basically all MEST—big buildings, book and lecture packages and money. No real auditing or training going on, which is supposed to be the entire activity of Scientology. Not donos. The huge CD production facility built several years ago at Gold was obsolete even before the first CD came off the line. The iPod already existed and Apple would have been more than happy to custom produce a special Scientology version that could have held all LRH materials. (All the books, green vols and red vols already fit easily on a single CD, by the way.) Or Gold could have made them available for download for 99 cents apiece like iTunes does with songs. The point is that when you take all the MEST off the line, the price of anything drops to near zero!

Another huge advantage is that it lets anyone who downloads a book or lecture be responsible for their own duplication, understanding and judgment with respect to the materials. The fact is that everyone who has ever had an interest in Scientology has had a direct line with LRH. After all, he is the one who cobbled the subject together out of everything that came before plus added his own breakthroughs about the mind and life, not to mention auditing tech. Over the years some individuals have allowed other people to stand between themselves and LRH and cut the line. It might have been a bad Reg or a bad Ethics Officer or a bad COB RTC. If you are sitting in an upset with the org, you've let your line with LRH be cut. A new model for Scientology such as being proposed here makes that line to LRH accessible to basically everyone with a computer. From there someone could sort out for themselves whether there is anything of value in the subject. Right now that's not really possible because of 1) economic reasons and 2) the horrendous PR about the subject. A lot of people don't know the first thing about the subject and don't want to because the PR is so God awful.

The purpose for writing this is to let readers know that plans are afoot to bring about such a new model for Scientology, to make it a truly free subject, just as LRH said it was meant to be. With a new, Internet based business model people could do Scientology bit without the hassle of dealing with the red and black caped crusaders in orgs as they currently exist.

The other purpose for writing this is to begin a discussion about the future of the organization. Because the current one is a relic of another age. Comments and suggestions are encouraged. [Note: We will soon be launching a new section on this website exactly for this purpose. Coming soon! - Thoughtful]

Written by Joe Howard