After success in England, Scientology planning major end-of-year blowout in LA
We want to thank the tipster who forwarded to us a flier from Scientology that really has us doing a double-take.
After many years of looking at hundreds of Scientology promotions, we don’t remember a year-end event in Los Angeles being marketed quite like this before, and we can’t help wondering if Scientology leader David Miscavige is trying to capitalize on what Scientologists must consider a successful revival of the IAS gala in England.
Is it LA’s time to shine next?
Traditionally, around the middle of December, Scientologists would be summoned to a “New Year’s” event to be filmed at the Shrine Auditorium. They would be obliged to pretend that it was New Year’s Eve, with a big countdown at midnight, and a big David Miscavige speech, so that videos of the event could be shown on December 31 at Scientology orgs around the world.
Like with the IAS in England, however, that was shut down by the pandemic, and Miscavige has been presiding over the last few New Year’s events on December 31 itself at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida, Scientology’s most holy site in the world.
This flier seems to suggest that a return to tradition is in order, and that Scientologists are being summoned to Los Angeles in the middle of December. But it doesn’t specifically refer to the Shrine Auditorium or to a New Year’s-style taping.
Also, we’re struck by the moniker “The Scientology Capital of the World” for a couple of reasons. First, we’ve been saying for several years now that LA’s star has been falling as Clearwater’s has risen in the world of Scientology. Also, we don’t remember Los Angeles being sold that way before. Have you seen that specific tag in the past? Maybe we’re just forgetting it.
Well, at any rate, this begging of Scientologists to come spend their holidays in California seems like more of the kind of restoration that they were just pushing at Saint Hill. Hip, hip, hooray?
Here’s the email that went out to Scientologists…
Hello!
I want to extend an invitation to you to join us over the weekend of December 15-17th for the ultimate end-of-year events!
That is, you can prepare for the greatest gathering of Scientologists in Los Angeles on Saturday, Dec 16th at the most iconic Scientology event site in Los Angeles! Official promotion will be sent to you soon. For now, just know that this IS the event you have been waiting for…😉
Please reply with any questions you may have and to reserve your seat!
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I can see tiny T-Rex's flailing arms now. He personally built up the entire PAC Base LA area and the staff have done nothing with it for decades! Now it’s up to him AGAIN to put on an event to get LA back with it.
The whole promotion is just lines, lines, lines to lure people back.
Pandemic is over, get back to work LA!
It reeks of desperation. I would be surprised if it’s very busy. The first major line talks about learning to get people into Scientology. “Hey everybody, get your a$$e$ back here and fill up our orgs!!!!
The only thing iconic about Scientology in LA is Big Blue, so I'm guessing the big event will be on the street outside the building. For those who've been in for a while (old friends I still miss), the descriptions of the activities — drill with top FSMs, drill on dissemination, sell books like a pro, see Scientology buildings around LA — are a veiled way of saying "come get regged for services you don't need using money you don't have because you've already done all this, probably more than once". I wonder how many dreaded finding this in their inbox.