Scientology and oiliness: More renderings from the Super Power Building

[A fan favorite: The Oiliness Table]

One of our very favorite series of articles that we did at the Village Voice were based on renderings and architectural drawings of Scientology’s “Flag Building” — also known as the Super Power Building — that were leaked to us back in 2012, a year before the building formally opened. If you go look up those stories today at the Voice website, 13 years later, the images are long gone. But we managed to recover them and decided we’d find a place here at the Substack for them. They are still, to this day, the most complete rundown of what this building is like inside and out. Yesterday we posted the first story in the series. This second story was originally published on January 10, 2012.

Yesterday, we made public a leak of major proportions: we obtained hundreds of new renderings and architectural drawings of Scientology’s $100 million “Super Power Building” -- what the church calls “Flag Mecca” — in Clearwater, Florida.

Of all the “perceptics” installations on the building’s “super power” fifth floor that we learned about, one that seems to disturb readers the most is the notion of an “oiliness table.” We’re still not sure what Scientologists will be subjected to when they have their sense of “oiliness” checked, but we found this rendering of the apparatus, and we have additional, never-before-seen images from the building.

Before we show any more images, however, we thought we’d roll credits first. As in, we found this list of who was responsible for turning church leader David Miscavige‘s dreams into reality. As of 2009, these were the firms on board...

Another of the perceptics installations that confounds us is an egg-shaped room with the name “Endocrine States.” We’re still not much closer to understanding what goes on inside it, but going back through our files, we found this cutaway schematic. Can anyone make sense of what’s going on here?

Another of L. Ron Hubbard‘s 57 “perceptics” — human senses — he called “gravitic.” We found this rendering of the fifth floor’s “gravitic elements” installation, and that vertical portion with holes is referred to as a “climbing wall.”

What would a Mecca to Scientology be without acknowledging its various front groups? We found these circular rooms on the first floor, with various tributes to organizations that sometimes play down their connection to the church: Narconon, Criminon, Applied Scholastics (”APS”), and the The Way to Happiness Foundation (”TWTH”). On the other hand, they do seem shoved into a dead-end little room next to the larger, central circle, which pays homage to Scientology’s “orgs” (churches), Volunteer Ministers (who get sent to natural disasters to perform voodoo — “touch assists” — and hand out literature), Scientology’s mini-orgs (Scientology Missions International) and WISE (World of Scientology Enterprises), which tries to convince businesses that L. Ron Hubbard was some kind of organizational genius.

Getting back to oiliness -- we just can’t seem to get enough of it -- let’s put that oiliness table in some context. Here’s an overhead view of one room in the fifth floor “perceptics” section, and you can see that the oiliness table shares space with a “friction table,” as well as four other stations: heat, cold, pressure, and pain. (At the bottom, you can see the doors to the smell and taste walls.)

Wait a minute — a pain station? We looked into that further, and found drawings that indicate that the corner counter will feature multiple “spike plates” which can pivot. Some of them are labeled in this fashion: “Combined Plate” (CP), Hot-Cold-Electric, Hot, and Cold Versions. Are Scientologists going to get shocked with hot electrified spike plates?

Spike plates, oiliness and friction tables, spinning subjects on a gyroscope — that fifth floor is starting to sound more and more like some kind of S&M dungeon for wealthy Scientology celebrities — run, Katie, run!

Let’s go back to the first floor, where there’s a lot of nostalgia going on for L. Ron Hubbard and his days at sea. First, we noticed this grand wall of tributes to the Commodore and his many accomplishments. The wall is so long, we had to snip it into two different scans, first the left portion and then the right, with a grand entrance into the Atrium between them...

And we were a little surprised that readers didn’t seem to have more to say about the small Sea Org museum outside the Commodore’s office, which includes a diorama of what it was like to sail on the Apollo back in the day. The recreation of a deck from the ship includes an actual lifeboat replica, and here’s a schematic…

And finally, we wanted to give a better indication of just how stupendous is the sixth floor dome — which extends into the seventh floor — which is one giant room for running around an illuminated column. First, here’s another look at that artist’s rendering for what the experience is going to be like...

Now, we’re going to reproduce the entire sixth floor’s schematic so you can see just how much space is dedicated to that running dome in a building that takes up a full city block. Those tiny rooms that surround the running space are all auditing chambers. Hundreds of the little rooms are also found on other floors — Miscavige is optimistic about the huge numbers of people he expects to use this facility.

We’re still sifting through architectural drawings in the hundreds of files that were leaked to us, so we may have other surprises soon. But check back often because all hell continues to break loose for Scientology as its membership appears to be in the grip of a crisis in faith. Coming soon: more escapes from the asylum!

Scientology’s Infinite Pit and Water Wall — More Crazy Rooms in the Super Power Building!

This third and final story in the series was originally published on January 17, 2012.

We’ve gone through even more files in the massive leak of plans that describe the soon-to-open “Flag Mecca” in Clearwater, Florida — otherwise known as Scientology’s “Super Power Building” — and we have more things to show you. In the wild “Perceptics” area on the fifth floor, there’s this Heartbeat Wing, for example, which features a treadmill, wall-mounted monitor, and an “anechoic chamber” — because we all know echoes suck when we’re testing the old ticker, so we need a chamber that cancels them out, right? (Click on images to embiggen.) Come inside for even more weirdness.

As we reported last week, the $100 million building — 13 years in the making — is scheduled to open soon, and we were leaked hundreds of renderings and schematics that were made in 2007 and 2009. The seven-story, city-block-sized building will house many different Scientology divisions and literally hundreds of small rooms for “auditing” — the church’s word for counseling. But as we saw in renderings, it’s the fifth floor that looks like a deck from the Starship Enterprise and promises to deliver the building’s real draw — Super Power! It’s there that odd rooms and equipment are planned that will address in some way the 57 senses of perception — called “perceptics” — that Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard described.

On drawings we looked at last night, we noticed something that seemed to be missing on other blueprints. Near the Sound Rooms — a couple of circular chambers — there was something called “Barriers.” Looking around some more, we found this drawing, which was labeled, Solid Barriers, Infinite Pit, and Water Wall.

Wait a minute. Did they say Infinite Pit!

From other drawings, we could see that the pit will have some kind of moving floor — no doubt to give you the impression that you’re about to sink down the Tone Scale like a Marcabian soul pirate! [Disclaimer: I just made that up. There’s no indication that Scientologists would believe something as outlandish as Marcabian soul pirates.]

Here’s another view of the mechanics behind the Water Wall....

And if you’re brave enough to punch through a water wall, how about squeezing into the bizarrely-shaped Joint Position room (this is an overhead view)...

We can only wonder at the nanoriffic wonders awaiting us at the Microscope Station...

OK, we have to admit this next thing kind of scares the crap out of us. What do you have to do to be sent to the Electric Fields Generator? Yikes!

We also looked for other views of some of the equipment that has already puzzled and excited us. Here’s another schematic of the intriguing Endocrine States room, which is looking more and more like the Tilt-a-Whirl we remember from those sketchy carnivals that would come and set up down at the school parking lot once in a while...

Here’s a closer look at the top of the Friction Table...

We’re going to take you back down to the first floor before we leave you today. We managed to spot the hi-tech security room that will no doubt keep a close eye on just about everything happening in the building — and outside it. Which is important, because if federal agents were suddenly to show up with subpoenas, watchful Sea Org members will then only have to run next door to the massive...well, see for yourself...

I, for one, can’t get enough of this place. Come on, Dave, open this thing up already!

[The Flag Building was formally opened in a ceremony that took place November 17, 2013.]

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

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

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