Scientologists into the breach! A fundraising juggernaut, with eyewitness testimony!

If there’s one thing all Scientologists experience, it’s neverending, heavy pressure to donate money so church leader David Miscavige can open up new “Ideal Orgs.” We’ve seen him open those buildings recently in places like Chicago and Paris. But there’s also pressure to open multimillion-dollar cathedrals in much smaller places. How are the Scientologists there supposed to come up with the cash for that? Through enthusiasm, pressure, and marketing, apparently. And all of it came together for a pretty interesting experience this week in England, and the Underground Bunker was on the scene thanks to longtime reader Once Born, who sent us this detailed report…

 
On Saturday, July 13, Plymouth Org (in the UK) held an ‘Ideal Org’ event. We knew in advance it was happening because Mike Rinder published a leaked poster on his blog.

This was the second such event in three months. The previous one was held on April 27 (Mike again)…

…in Devonport Market Hall. This is an extraordinary venue offering a Virtual Reality Dome and a variety of high-tech community resources. It’s close to their Ideal Org building, of which more later.

I missed the April event due to medical issues, but thought I’d take an interest in the July follow-up, held in their modest org.

This is situated in a small island of old buildings that survived the WW2 blitzkrieg bombing that literally levelled the city centre. It’s adjacent to a new shopping mall, a multiplex cinema, an extraordinary new university building, and an art college. It’s rather out of character.

There’s a back door to the org.

Unable to watch two places at once, I went all 007, slipped a folded piece of cardboard into the gap and photographed the state of the weeds. The following morning, nothing had been disturbed, so that door had not been opened. All visitors came in the front.

Here’s the Org’s reception area the day before.

They weren’t pushing the boat out. A whiteboard at the back shows that a grand total of 23 named individuals had ‘confirmed’.

We know that these figures are often aspirational — exaggerated for pre-event hype and ‘stats,’ so they likely represent an upper bound.

It’s maybe an indication of active membership. Since Miscavige opened all those Ideal Orgs, culminating in Paris, there’s been international pressure on Scientologists to donate towards the completion of the project. If you don’t attend these events, you’re not serious (or maybe you’re thinking of leaving).

Plymouth Org covers the counties of Devon and Cornwall, at least. That’s quite an area and they can only confirm 23 people for a major ‘event’?

Activities were supposed to get underway at 15:00. I was in town for 12:00. The weather was warm and sunny with a brief very gentle shower. Some of the shops had got into the spirit of summer…

The English football team having made the final of the European cup competition on Sunday there were few people about. Some shops were closing early and opening late tomorrow, pragmatically accepting that, if they didn’t, staff would go sick anyway. Scientologists had no excuses for not turning up.

I walked by the Org at 13:00. The reception area was empty. They had removed the table in the corner, and erased the whiteboard. That’s it.

I returned to continuously watch the place from a distance at 14:00, expecting everyone to ‘muster’ before 15:00 for a group presentation. By then, only one person was visible inside. A younger man whose white shirt and slacks marked him as probably Sea Org.

Everyone who turned up was immediately ushered around the back. The reception area is the largest space in this curious old building. It’s long and narrow, like a submarine, with three stories of small rooms. Either they weren’t expecting many to be there all at once, or people were worked on individually (‘the reg will see you now’).

At 14:19 they had their first visitor, who had to ring the doorbell and wait to be admitted, as everyone subsequently had to.

I took no photographs from this point, just out of respect for their privacy.

At 14:30 members of a hen party left a cocktail bar just down the road, and paused outside the org, while others caught up. They made some noise. This inspired the Sea Org guy to stand in the window looking disapproving. They waved to him, inviting him to join them. He went away. After all, he had to save the planet. He might now be a happier man had he joined them.

At 14:34 one male entered, casually dressed as if straight from work

At 14:46 a couple entered, more formally dressed, followed by a chap carrying a supermarket carrier bag and sipping from a can of Coke.

At 15:00 it was showtime, and five people have entered. Between 15:11 and 16:00 two more people came in.

Yes. I know: Many of the hoped-for 23 members who confirmed may have already been in there, or could only come after work.

I had visited the building they hope to renovate the previous day.

Scientology bought it in 2010 as a failed hotel, with 50 bedrooms, two ballrooms, kitchens, management apartments, a games room, and probably more. It’s hard up against the security wall around the largest military dockyard in Western Europe (Devonport).

The state of the interior, with rotten floors and damp due to the leaky roof, is shown in a video from a group of ‘urban explorers.’

The only recent changes are the galvanised panels added to secure the place.

These were added after the local MP responded to complaints about the state of the place.

He thought the rear of the premises was being used by residents to dump rubbish. Some of it was actually from inside the building, and more waste from repairs to the occupied org, five miles away.

Here’s how it looked before…

The MP was reported urging Scientology to either renovate the building, as promised, or sell it to someone who would.

However, this happened just before a local council election, and then the matter seems to have been dropped. That MP was re-elected in the recent general election. Maybe I’ll write to him (although I’m not a constituent).

This is the city from which the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’ set sail for the new world, and there’s only one chance of that building being restored — If Dave takes it into his head that this will make a good ‘Religious Freedom’ speech. The situation really does seems to be that crazy.

However, if he feels the need to keep up the illusion of ‘expansion,’ who knows?

In conclusion, nothing much happened — but that’s now typical of UK orgs.

— Once Born

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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

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