We hope you remember our podcast episode with Patty Moher, who told us about her history spying for Scientology, as well as her subsequent fun visit to Scientology’s moribund New Haven “Ideal Org” project. We had so much fun with that excursion, she went on another!
Bruno and I got up real early and drove to Boston to see how the Boston Ideal Org was doing.
In 2013, Scientology sold the Boston Org’s beautiful building at 448 Beacon Street and moved into a temporary office space in Quincy while they waited for their Ideal Org to be set up.
They had purchased the historic Hotel Alexandra five years earlier, but they eventually decided it wasn’t big enough to become “Ideal,” and in 2015 they settled for more of a business-park looking thing in Allston, a neighborhood of Boston.
It’s been sitting empty ever since.
I visited there, but let me tell you first about my visit to the temporary org, which also got moved from Quincy to Allston, and is just a mile away from the future Ideal Org at a place called Packard’s Corner.
Bruno and I got there about 10 minutes before 8 AM. I read that the org was supposed to be open from 8:30 AM to 10:00 PM, so I wanted to get there before most if not all of the staff arrived.
We pulled up right to their front door and parked. The org is on the second floor and I was under the impression from someone’s reporting earlier that Scientology had the entire second floor, which is big. (That turned out not to be the case.)
It turned out that there was another company up on the second floor called the Computer Systems Institute, and as it turns out this is a very successful company.
So as I’m sitting there in my car waiting for people to arrive I see two guys arrive around a minute apart and they look like mid-30s average white guys.
Each guy goes to the right and up a flight of stairs. The first one straightens up the Scientology display on the stair wall.
Then a 40-plus, heavy-set, poorly dressed, white woman arrives. Next, a 40-plus white guy wearing a black IAS jacket. His clothes were dirty. He looked like he had slept in them and then rolled around on a dusty floor.
After that two 30ish Asian guys arrived separately. You have to realize that at this point I didn’t know about another company being upstairs, and when I see these very nicely dressed Asian guys arrive I’m like, WTF? This, in Scientology lingo, is an outpoint. Seeing two upstat Asian guys going into a complete shithole of an org early in the morning just doesn’t fit.
Minutes later two Sea Org guys arrive and they are not wearing jackets. It’s 15 degrees with the windchill. The two SO guys are carrying takeout bags of food. One guy is very heavy set, they look slovenly, unwashed, and wrinkled.
Next came another 30ish average looking white guy and then came this late 50’s, silver-haired white guy dressed all in black and wearing a long black coat and I only saw his face for a second as he was moving fast. He looked familiar but I couldn’t place him. My first thought was this guy is OSA and he is really into it.
Over the next 10 minutes, I see three more average looking guys in their 30s and nothing about them stands out, and then a black guy with a very stylish Rastafarian look. He was another one that just didn’t fit going into a Scientology org.
From 8:42 am to 9:00 am, nobody showed up.
At that point, I decided to go upstairs and look around. When I got into the lobby I saw an elevator to the left and a door labeled “Central Files Downstairs.”
I’m thinking this damn cold weather is causing the arthritis in my knees to really hurt so I’m gonna take that elevator. Boy, was that a mistake. About halfway up to the second floor, the elevator started doing a very serious shimmy. The thing was shaking and rattling and I’m thinking, “Shit, I’m gonna fucking die in a Scientology building while spying on them.” The elevator stopped and the door opened.
The first thing I saw to my left was a large glass wall with modern looking interior design: bright lights and the business name Computer Systems Institute in huge silver letters. This was the point when I realized I’d been given bad information, and that Scientology does share the floor with someone else.
In all, I had seen 14 people go inside. After looking over my notes, I would say that 8 of them were headed to the Scientology org and the other six to Computer Systems Institute.
If I’m right, that’s eight people — and two of them on a Sea Org mission — for the entire Boston org. It has one foot in the grave. And I can’t imagine anything they can do to expand.
Across the hall from the sleek-looking computer outfit, you have this dingy-looking place with solid doors except for one, the one that leads you to Reception.
I didn’t think to look for cameras, not that I care, I’ve posted under my name for almost 20 years.
So I had enough of that and decided to go visit the building where the New Ideal Org is supposed to happen. I took the stairs down.
The new org was only a few blocks away from the current one so I plugged in the address to Google Maps and thanked Xenu for GPS!
Unfortunately, I got so busy looking at things I forgot to take pictures. I know, I know! I did take a video but for some reason, the audio is super slow and I sound like Jabba the Hutt. All I can say is that it’s monstrously huge. 70,000 square feet. As I was standing in their large parking lot looking at it I started laughing. There is no way Scientology could fill a couple of rooms in this gargantuan building, never mind a place of this size. They’re completely delusional. I honestly don’t think, with the size of this thing, that the Boston Ideal Org will ever happen. I’m betting the ranch that within 10 years the Boston org won’t exist.
I hope that one day the building will be sold and proceeds go to the victims. That would be so nice.
— Patty Moher
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Definitely above and beyond the call of duty.
And what a cute dog!!!
"slovenly, unwashed, and wrinkled....." Sounds like me on laundry day. Thank you Patty, your 'raid' was enlightening. How many Clams are actually doing auditing in Boston? It can't be very many, but if every staff member has 3 or more 'hats', maybe the 'Org Chart' is filled. It is nice that 'Central Files' has its own sign and that it is in the basement. That way it will be so much easier to fix the files for the Ideal orgasm.
What are two Sea Orgers doing there? If past is prologue, they are 'keeping ethics in' or running some special program. What mischief are they getting into? Or are they just trying to keep the mOrg open? Given the population density in the Boston area, how many active $cienoes are there?
Good boy Bruno, keep Patty safe and look fierce when the bad guys come around. And look cute if a parking police person comes around.