Subject: Establishing True Membership Figures
From: "Safe"
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 14:57:44 -0700

Hi Fellow Scientologists,

For some reason, our church apparently doesn't want to release our official membership figures. But I feel we really need these stats to determine our growth and where we're really headed. So I'm forced to try to extrapolate what those figures REALLY are by the vague statistics given to us in the new 98 edition of "What is Scientology."

Doesn't it behoove all us Scientologists to know how we're really growing in terms of REAL membership figures?

The PR "shore story" has been said between 8-10 MILLION. But I can't find any truth in that given figure.

My best calculations can only be judged on the figures of volume of dissemination material the church sends out. So my figures are only estimates for lack of any other better way ... besides us being told the honest truth.

If the figure were true that we really had 8 million active Scientologists, then we would have SOME monthly publication that the church would send out to all membership on a MONTHLY basis to stay in communication. That would mean we'd have a total yearly distribution of 96 million of a SINGLE publication.

But we don't. We don't have any single publication anywhere near a 96 million circulation.

By far, the highest circulating monthly publication listed in the WiS book is THE AUDITOR "Journal" which has a total ANNUAL circulation of .....

1990 - 460,000 1997 - 2,210,000

Dividing this 2,210,000 annual figure by 12 months, this would bring our real membership down to only ...

184,167 members

That's hardly anything close to the "8 million" figure we've been given. (It's interesting to note that the "world's fastest growing religion" on the outside front cover page on the 93 edition of WiS has been dropped from the 98 edition.)

Even if we go by the International Scientology Magazine Circulation Figure of ...

1990 - 3,418,000 1997 - 6,630,000

... it' s hard to extrapolate an accurate figure from this stat because it lumps the circulation of International Scientology News, Freewinds, and Cause all together in one stat instead of separately. It is also not clear whether these are monthly publications or not.

It is a shame that I have to grope in the dark to get our real membership figures. These things should be told to us straight and VERIFIED by some criteria and evidence.

We need hard evidence. But data is being hidden from us.

Other REAL stats we NEED but not listed in WiS either are;

BODIES IN THE SHOP (How many are ACTIVELY "on lines" in churches) GROSS INCOME NET INCOME ASSETS AND LIABILITIES # of IAS MEMBERSHIP # of SERVICE DELIVERY ORGS # of CLEARS # of AUDITORS TRAINED # of ACTIVE AUDITORS

The APPARENT statistics we got in "What is Scientology" are not really meaningful at all. Getting the above stats would give us the REAL picture of Scientology.

So come on, why can't we see them? Anybody who has these figures, would you please post them here?

184,167 members is my extrapolated figure 8-10 million members is the PR figure

So who's figure do you think is more accurate? And based on WHAT?

It's time we stop getting fooled by false PR stats and see the REAL stats, don't you think? Let's stop getting our leg pulled.

"Propaganda vs Truth", that earlier subject heading really applies here too, doesn't it.

Yours for being honest, Safe

-- "Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us."

-- Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas (Justice for 36 years)

David Miscavige, Ban Church of Scientology Censorship Software now!

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