David Miscavige of the Church of Scientology

In Defense of David Miscavige

David Miscavige of the Church of ScientologyThis is a post sent to me by another very smart commenter on the Post-Scientology Internet named “StatPush”. I think it provides a viewpoint on David Miscavige and the Church of Scientology that you don’t hear very often, and one that is valuable to consider. – Alanzo

Note: “This article originally started out as a response to a recent posting on Mike Rinder’s blog, however, as it grew it became much too large for a comment posting. – Statpush

You can think what you will of David Miscavige, that he is an SP, squirrel, etc. For better or worse, after LRH died, Scn ended up with him. Personally, I would not want to have traded places with him. Why? Because I think he inherited an unsustainable mess of an organization.

Forget for a moment that this is a “religion”, and view it as a business. Imagine inheriting the post of CEO of a company whose products cannot be altered in anyway, nor can you “invent” new products or services. Not only that, but the products and services you DO have, have never successfully delivered on their promoted promises, namely the State of Clear (as defined in Book One) and the State of OT.

In the 50s and 60s you could keep the game going for quite some time, but in the Information Age, and certainly the Digital Age, this information gets propagated instantaneously – and you cannot stop it. Nowadays, word of the latest email scam or virus spreads across the digital world like wildfire. Why should Scn be immune to this? Well, it’s not, nor should it be. Today we find story after story of personal narratives of the abuse meted out by Scn organizations.

Scn pretends to embrace the internet. Scn pretends to support free speech. Just like it pretends to make Clears and OTs. In fact, if you had to pick one word to describe the whole of Scn it would be pretension. Scn supports free speech and the internet provided it does not endanger or threaten the pretence. In other words, any information, whether true or false, that seeks to expose Scn for what it is, is vehemently attacked. A pretence is only effective if people believe it to be true. No longer does the world-at-large believe Scn’s lies. Therefore the pretence is maintained solely for Scnists, the church’s customer base.

So now you have an almost impossible situation:

    1) No new products
    2) The products you do have don’t work (as stated on the tin)
    3) The general public know about your deception, so very few new customers
    4) All you have is your existing loyal customers, but they’re getting old and dying off

What a horrible situation to be faced with. How many executives or CEOs can you think of who would even consider taking this on? Yet, Miscavige stepped up to the plate – that takes balls.

From what I have read and people I know, Miscavige is no dummy. I think he assessed the situation and realized the game was nearly over. You’re either going to close up shop or devise a way to keep the pretense alive. How do you keep the pretense alive?

Miscavige had a few unreleased products, namely KTL and LOC, as well as Super Power (I won’t count the urban legend of OT IX and X). The packaging and release of these products signaled the end of product development authored by the Founder. Additionally he was sitting on a mountain of unreleased audio lectures given by Hubbard.

All the while you keep the plebs all jazzed about going up the Bridge and tell them about all the exciting things on the horizon. Then you take your time releasing the last new products you will ever produce.

On the public front, you simply tell the press that you are the fastest growing religion on the planet and fabricate some big numbers that cannot be verified, talk about all the good things Scn does for the community and if anyone complains you play the religion card and attack the attacker.

You somehow negotiate a settlement with the IRS, thereby legitimizing your organization as a real church (big boost to the pretence), which removes a huge tax burden and offers some protection from outside agencies.

Next I think DM looked at what he DID have to sell. I think he admitted that much of Hubbard’s writings were a fucking mess. He probably was right; from what I’ve heard of LRH’s “research” practices it’s no wonder. Well, here’s an opportunity; let’s clean this up and organize it and slap a “New and Improved” label on it, hence The Golden Age of Tech and The Basics. Then GAT II, rinse, repeat.

Miscavige is awesome.

Now before anyone accuses me of being a Miscavige sympathizer, I do not claim the man did all this with clean hands, quite the contrary. I think he resorted to tactics and techniques he found successful in the past, namely the use of force, domination and intimidation. A thug in a three piece suit.

No man of reason could have kept the game going as long as he has. In short, David Miscavige has pulled off the impossible. The pretence within the church is alive and well, and maybe stronger than ever. No small feat.

This is probably sacrilegious to say, but, I don’t know if Hubbard could have pulled it off any better. While LRH certainly had his talents and quirky charm, which were effective in the 50s and 60s, an age where swagger and bravado had some currency. Today he would be met with a severe reality adjustment.

David Miscavige, on the other hand, has managed to rule the Scn world longer than Hub himself, albeit with an iron fist reminiscent of a banana republic dictator. It is pointless to compare their success. Hubbard, the originator of all things Scn, had achieved demi-god status. Miscavige will likely be remembered (in addition to his Rat Pack, bouffant hairdo) as The Reformer, responsible for The Great Purge, including the most intelligent, free-thinking members.

But, you have to ask – could anyone have done any better?

Personally, I will be eternally grateful to David Miscavige, for without his Command Intention and insistence on complete obedience, I would probably be happily clapping along with the other proud Scnists, in awe at the tremendous impact Scn is having on the world, and knowing my hard earned dollars contributed to the salvation of this sector of the universe.

So, thank you David Miscavige, you are awesome.

StatPush

38 thoughts on “In Defense of David Miscavige”

  1. <blockquote> . . . From what I have read and people I know, Miscavige is no dummy. I think he assessed the situation and realized the game was nearly over. You’re either going to close up shop or devise a way to keep the pretense alive. How do you keep the pretense alive?. . . </blockquote>

     

    Yep, Captain David Miscavige has done very, very well in perpetuating Scientology. L Ron Hubbard would be proud of him. I think the OP covers some of the main earners but there were a few more tweaks not mentioned:

    – gather up then diversify existing cash reserves/bullion into more lucrative portfolios

    – establish corporate house of cards

    – strong arm the IRS into granting tax exemption

    – exploit the celebs to cuddle the politicians and play the victim on the world stage

    – expand the Narconon fraud

    – cobble together a new OT level

    – harvest new, bigger whales

     

  2. It doesn’t matter what I do to manage my subscription, it goes back to suspend.

    I would like to be notified of all responses to this thread or even to this blog. How do I do it.

    NOTE: It is very easy to do that on WordPress.com.

     

     

    • Apparently my website has a 6th or 7th sense about you, Vinaire.

      It is resisting you, fighting you, throwing Dev-T and obstacles in your way.

      You seem to be the only one who it is doing this with.

      My website is smart.

      • OK. So what do I have to do to start receiving via email all comments being posted on your blog, so I can help your blog become more successful?

        Right now I am getting informed via email only the responses to my comments. My intuition fails me when it comes to your blog. I accept defeat.

        .

        • Don’t accept defeat so easily, Vinaire.

          My email notifications occur in the ex-theta universe. And so all you have to do is become more attuned to this community. Permeate the wavelengths of each of the participants here, and as you go about your day, you will get a little ping! that someone has answered you, or answered someone else.

          Then just permeate and know.

  3. David Miscavige spent his youth and formative years at the knee of L. Ron Hubbard.  Depending on each of our predilections, we all learn and take away something different from our time with LRH as well.  With a natural bent toward gangster mentality, I think DM took LRH’s teachings on the cultivation and use of power and ran with it to a degree that surprised even LRH.   During LRH’s last moments, I wonder if LRH understood that he had been usurped and beaten by his own greatest “erstwhile rival” using the tools and attitudes that he had personally taught?

    • I don’t know about that Chris.  I recall on a number of occasions both Marty and Mike stating that DM spent very little time with LRH.  I know many people assume DM was LRH’s protege, but I have nothing to base that on.

      I maintain that DM truly is a Scnist, maybe too much a Scnist for most people’s taste.

  4. “Not only that, but the products and services you DO have, have never successfully delivered on their promoted promises, namely the State of Clear (as defined in Book One) and the State of OT.”

    Pierre Éthiers (http://pierreethier.wordpress.com/), one of the most trained practitioner (“auditor”) in scientology, having helps thousands of peoples with this technology, has clearly stated that he has never noticed any flaw in the technology of scientology if applied has it was originally taught by L. Ron Hubbard himself.

    A continuing growing number of people receiving these services outside of the Church of Scientology, TESTIFIES OF THE WORKABILITY OF THE TECHNOLOGY/

    https://www.facebook.com/AdvancedOrganizationOfTheGreatPlains

    https://pierreethier.wordpress.com/2013/08/07/sustained-affluence-after-l12/

    http://scientolipedia.org/info/Chris_Black_-_Dan_is_Clear

    http://community.freezone-tech.info/success/

    So I mind: what is the “agenda” of the author of this initial post in this blog? …

    • IdealGoal, my comments about the false promises were not meant to apply to the whole of Scn.  Obviously people (myself included) have and do experience something beneficial from the application of parts of Scn.  However, when it comes to Clear and OT, and quite possibly the Ls, the tech has not been proven to deliver those lofty states.   This is not the same as saying they are worthless.  I definitely experienced something positive when I went Clear and had interesting experiences on the OT Levels.  But, none of this came close to the gains, attributes and abilities that Hubbard wrote about.

      Some may find it hard to believe but, I do not have an “agenda”.  The only time I had an agenda was when I was a Scnist.

    • You have not raised the ire of Allah’s blog, so I will answer for him. The original intention of Allah’s blog is to crush puny vermin Scientologists into oblivion.   I hope hell fire does not rain on you! 🙂

  5. WTF are you folks talking about about, some significance forwarded by Hubbard. LOL

     

    It’s all in the Marketing and PR series of HCO PL’s.

     

    Look around and find something to sell, send out promo, make a big deal about it, PR it up,

     

    in the meantime, do the same for the next realize, while doing the first program.

     

    OMG. Haven’t any of you folks read the Marketing and PR series and connected dots?

    • Admiring DM is like admiring a mafia boss. DM is living in grand style. He is taking full advantage of his position to have a more luxurious lifestyle than Hubbard ever had. I think he grabbed that position to have power for himself. I don’t think that he is sweating much. He will just ride the horse hard until it drops dead. Then he will find something else to “ride” or go live in Bulgravia.

      The incident relating to a young DM described in “Going Clear” is quite insightful.

      • I agree Vinaire.

         

        However, Hubbard lived the life style he wanted. He got to “be” a commander, own 3 boats, got a crew of many not only on the ship, but a office in every org. LOL

        • For a while, yes.  But LRH never enjoyed the level of success he dreamed, that of being the “benign” dictator of a large chunk, even if not all of the planet.  LRH gave DM the leg up, yes.  But DM ran with that opportunity like no other.  I tend to agree with the overall OP, and that the relative success of Scientology since 1986 has been due to the ruthless dictatorship of David Miscavige.

        • And, I doubt that “blowing” from Int with the government on his tail was on LRH’s personal admin scale for wrapping up his life on earth.  He failed to apply his own “Simon Bolivar” policy, and in the end, he was brought down from inside, not the outside.

      • A mafia boss now, yes.  But I don’t believe it was always this way.  Like each if us, DM has evolved.  I try to remember that he was once a true believer like the rest of us.  I once purchased a $25,000 Acura Legend for a Christmas present and he made a believable show of saying it was “too much,” etc.  Yes, he took it, but you see, in my own way, I contributed to his corruption.

    • Please see my response below. I didn’t see closely who I was replying to. This is the fault of Alanzo’s blog’s structure, and Alanzo’s…

  6. <i>Statpush: “You can think what you will of David Miscavige, that he is an SP, squirrel, etc. For better or worse, after LRH died, Scn ended up with him. Personally, I would not want to have traded places with him. Why? Because I think he inherited an unsustainable mess of an organization.”</i>

    Before I read this whole article, I would like to question the assumption in this first paragraph.

    </b>”Did David Miscavige “inherit” the command of Scientology, or did he grab it?</b>

    I am sure DM already knew what unsuatainable mess Scientology was at that point, but why did he go for absolute power over it, instead of putting heads together with others on how to resolve it?

    So, I think, whatever viewpoint follows it would be biased by the assumption of “inheriting” Scientology.

     

    • Vinaire, my use of “inherit” was the more generalized,

      “to receive (a position, attitude, property, etc) from a predecessor”

      Details of this transition period are sketchy, but from what I’ve read DM’s assumption of power was closer to a coup than a traditional hat turnover.   Based on my research there is nothing in writing appointing DM as COB of RTC;  I consider him to be self-appointed.

      The fact that LRH did not plan or arrange his successor should raise a few eyebrows.

      To answer your question, or give you my view:

      “but why did he go for absolute power over it, instead of putting heads together with others on how to resolve it?”

      I think there are several factors which may have influenced his decision.

      1) His personality type.  By all accounts, DM is a macho, testosterone-laden, height challenged micro manager.

      2) The Sea Org Culture.  The SO is not a democracy, and much closer to a military dictatorship.  DM began his Scn adventure in his early teens I believe, and had joined the Sea Org by 16.  One could say he became a man in the Sea Org.  I’ve always seen DM as a product of the Sea Org.

      3) Source Material.  I think DM really believes all the stuff that LRH wrote and tries to live it.  We all know how well that turned out for Hubbard.  For whatever reason, DM seems to have latched on to all the bad shit in Scn.

      That’s my 2 cents.

      • I was on “alert” and held in reserve on a security team the night Vicky Aznaran was removed from post.  This was in the event that force was needed if she didn’t go quietly.  It was definitely a coup, no doubt about that.

  7. Statpush,

    Hubbard SP’s characteristics are too broad and incomplete,  he was more on target with his earlier PAB  13 “On Human Behavior”  http://www.mikerindersblog.org/on-david-miscavig-behavior/

    The “Sociopathic Next Door” by Martha Stout is a much better guide.

    The Religion of Scientology is suppressive as an institution and in practice as it is  designed to latch on to  you as a “therapy”, in  the same way Hubbard described in his “Psychopolitics, The Brainwashing Manual”

    http://www.apfn.org/pdf/The_Brainwashing_Manual.pdf

    The best and most succinct expression of the debilitating effects Scientology creates on people that I found, was  in Gabor Mate’s book “When the Body Says No”:
     “Mind and spirit can survive grievous physical injury, but time and again we see that the physical body begins to succumb when psychic integrity and freedom are jeopardized.
    The same influences that the organism is most likely to interpret as emotionally stressful, are not surprisingly, also the most powerful psychic triggers for the HPA axis”
     Psychological factors such as uncertainty, conflict, lack of control, and lack of information, etc. are considered the most stressful stimuli and strongly activate the HPA axis.
     Sense of control and consummatory behavior results in immediate suppression of HPA activity. Consummatory behavior – from the Latin consummare, “to complete”- is behavior that removes the danger or relieves the tension caused by it.”
    Best of luck to you and your family.
     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • I agree Conan, there are numerous resources available, and certainly I do not consider Hubbard to be an authority on the subject.  In fact, there are plenty of instances where Scn has been unable to detect sociopaths within their own organizations.  Regardless of which reference material you may use, any would require careful observation and examination of the individual.

      • And more examples still by 100 or possibly 1000 to 1, when Scientology has been unable to detect social personalities within its ranks.

        • “How can (he, she) be an SP when they were serving so high up for so many years?”

          We’ve all had those thoughts or have heard others express them.  It is often in this area that the first major cognitive dissonance on the subject of Scientology erupts in the minds of many.

          But what might not be understood by anyone having a thought like the above, is that there are two different types of SP!

          The first type is described in HCOBs as the no-case-gain person exhibiting 12 anti-social characteristics. Hubbard claimed that even this type of individual could eventually be sorted out through a lengthy application of his auditing technology.

          It has been pointed out that Hubbard’s “Suppressive Person” is actually an incomplete and somewhat inaccurate description of a Sociopath, described much better by people such as Martha Stout in her book.

          The second type of SP is The Political SP.  This is an SP that may exhibit the 12 anti-social characteristics Hubbard described, but in the vast majority of cases, does not.

          The Political SP can be identified by one major characteristic:  somehow, this person is creating problems for Hubbard or Scientology.

          The vast majority of declared SPs are Political SPs.  Most of us that chronically read these blogs and ALL of us who comment and “contribute” to them are genuine Political SPs.

          After a while, if you see enough SP declares of beloved or long-term staff members, you come to understand this concept of the two types of SP.

          It is not written down by Hubbard or anyone, because it would put Scientology in a bad light amongst everybody, including its own loyal parishioners. Imagine:

          “So-and-so is declared political SP for continuously questioning the motives of David Miscavige. While these questions may be valid, Mr. Miscavige is embarrassed by them and is afraid of the consequences should he answer truthfully. Therefore, So-and-so is separated from the greater Scientology flock until he comes to his senses and learns to shut the fuck up.”

          Doesn’t  sound so good.

          It was Hubbard himself that clouded this very real distinction of the two types of SP. It did so from the very beginning. The first time you read about SPs in the Ethics Book, the title of the chapter says something like, THE ANTI SOCIAL PERSONALITY, THE ANTI SCIENTOLOGIST.

          When you read the list of crimes and high crimes in Scientology, the majority of them are for things like “squirreling” or “power push against a senior”

          These type of  “high crimes” are committed by PSPs, not necessarily by regular SPs. What about a crime such as “Scamming an 88 year-old widow out of her life savings?” That is the type of crime not uncommon for a real sociopath who lacks any kind of conscience, yet that type of crime gets scarcely mentioned in scientology’s list.

          It is my opinion that Hubbard may have failed to fully make the distinction himself, narcissist that he was, because criticism or attacks against him or his perfect creation, Scientology, were obviously launched by the most vicious enemies of mankind ever.

          However, Hubbard gives a clue to this idea of the two types of SP being mashed together and obfuscated in the very term PTS.

          “Potential Trouble Source”. Really?

          What about “Victim of Suppression”? Or “Oppressed Person”? Something that more accurately describes a person weakened by his or her association with a sociopath.

          Instead it’s Potential Trouble Source.  Someone who MIGHT make trouble for Hubbard or the organization. 

          It is my hope that this little rant might help to clear this up for people who’ve been gobsmacked by reading that someone was declared SP whom they knew was not an SP.

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

           

          • Spot on, John. Few things in Scn generate more confusion. They have had decades to rectify this, but haven’t. So, we have to assume this is intentional.

            Scn ethics and justice exist solely to protect the organization and it’s interests. The unsuspecting, good-willed individual believes it is for them, so they can survive better – HA! It is nothing more than a protection apparatus for Hubbard’s operation.

            Easy to test, just go up to the MAA and start asking questions about DM, LRH or management and note what kind of reaction you get. YOU will be investigated. And if you don’t shut the fuck up, you will be considered an enemy and eventually declared.

  8. An interesting view point, one of the other skills not listed is his ability to keep his true nature a closely guarded secret for so long. It only came out when high profile people started going public with their first hand experiences. The majority of the scn staff and public are still convinced he is perhaps the greatest humanitarian since lrh himself.

    • I would add to this that the Scn culture both SO/Staff and public contribute to this.  In general, staff are not permitted to criticize, evaluate or speak freely about their seniors; doing so makes one a target for the MAA and/or OSA.  So, without much effort DM could quite easily run his campaign of terror without much being said.

      I can still remember when I heard a rumor about a well known public Scnist in our field, that they thought DM was an SP.  I immediately rejected it as unbelievable…impossible.  And even today I cannot tell you whether he is a textbook Suppressive Person (Anti-Social Personality), since the only way to do that would be to run through the list of characteristics (both Social and Anti-Social). But the only way to do that would be to actually get to know him, spend time with him, work with him, socialize with him, and we all know that isn’t going to happen.

      For all I know, DM could very well be the most dedicated, the most hardcore of the hardcores, cold chrome steel, tough sonabitch, literal-minded, fixed dedicated glare, religious warrior that is the inevitable result of 100% KSW.

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