Notice: Fredric Rice may have removed segments of the replies given to questions if they contained copoyrighted materials. After a very short while, Scientology "experts" refused to answer questions and started cut-and-pasting copyrighted cult propaganda. Additionally I removed URLs in some of the replies, and left them in others. And it's also important to note that eventually the unfortunate "Greg Churilov" cultist was ejected from askme.com for his typical Scientological behavior.

Anonymous asked this question on 4/17/2000:

It seems my local Church of Scientology doesn't seem to have at least a basic answer to this when I call and ask them... how much does it cost to go across the Bridge to Total Freedom?

I understand there's got to be some variance to this, of course, but a basic ballpark figure would be nice.

Thanks in advance.

Greg Churilov gave this paranoid answer on 4/18/2000:

It occurs to me that your question was not answered because it was perceived as passive-aggressive.

Even I have doubts about your motives. Are you interested in taking courses for self-betterment? Are you personally interested in going all the way up the Bridge?

Or are you seeking to find something to badmouth Scientology with?

I WILL answer your question, though.

But I will answer it on my terms.

[Which means: Here, I'll try the lie my cult masters programmed me with and let's see if you swallow it - flr]

Courses in Sciento CHARGE to several thousands of dollars. A small course to better your communication skills would cost a couple of hundred dollars, and well worth it.

[That's one of the cult's traditional lies. The criminal cult uses this "communication course" to sucker people into the cult. The "course" consists of a cultist asking the rube the same questions over and over again until the rube answers the questions "correctly."

Example: "Who can you talk to?" -- The rube has to answer that he or she can talk to anyone they want otherwise the cultist keeps repeating the question.

Example: "What can you talk about?" -- The rube has to answer that he or she can talk about anything they want otherwise the cultist will keep repeating that question.

You can easilly guess what the other questions are. The process is specifically designed to make the subject pliable and open to suggestion. Specifically, it is brainwashing - flr]

A complete career education as a professional Scientology Counselor (over three years of intensive 40 hours a week training) can cost over 20K - comarative to any college career.

Auditing is compensated per "intensive". Each intensive is 12.5 hours. A technical person decides roughly how many intensives will take to get somewhere with each case. It may be two, it may be four.

["Auditing" is a form of hypnotic brainwashing that employs hypnotism and mental imagry that most often results in the implantation of false memories -- the False Memory Syndrome. The ritual makes the cult victim pliable and open to the cult's suggestions. The typical brainwashing session includes the implantation of false memories that the cult victim is told are memories from a past life - flr]

An intensive (12.5 hours) of professional Scientology auditing costs around 4,000 dollars at any large center. That works out to be about 380 per hour. That covers the costs of the counselor's time, the administrative personnel, the case supervisor and the whole infrastructure.

There are scholarships and sponsorships available, and if one is a good contributor to Society and has a record of good works (volunteer work at rehab centers, literay projects, etc) one can get a lot of services free of charge.

[And that's a common cult master lie. The cult doesn't do anything for free. Hubbard had a notion where he called the giving away of anything for free "rewarding the downstat." The Scientology crooks will invest in things that they think will bring "more bodies into the shop" in the cult's jargon. Yet all of what they do is predicated upon selling a non-existant disease to their rubes so that they can then sell them their non-existant cures - flr]

Some people take a few courses and that is all they feel they need out of Scientology. Some people follow the whole path towards a higher spiritual state.

[That's an amusing whopper. And in fact most people are smart enough to twigg to the scams that this criminal cult try to pull, and they twigg early.

Fortunately, an extremely small percentage of the cult's rubes buy into them fully, letting themselves in for ever more brainwashing to the point where, after years, they're utterly and totally "brainwashed and broke" as Time Magazine put it - flr]

The total combined cost for the whole journey to Total Freedom as a being is a VERY relative figure, considering how much it is influenced by the individual's personal responsibility level, ethical level and the amount of hand-holding he'll need.

[Anyway, what this cultist is trying hard not to mention is the fact that the fraud costs somewhere around $360,000 to reach the state of "clear." After the rube gets proclaimed "clear," however, the cult pulls a bait-and-switch bunko scam and the cultist finds that he or she must purchase ever more "auditing" and "TRs" to attain the promised results of all these frauds and scams.

See, the cult tells its victims that once one becomes "clear," their intelligence increases, their memories become perfect, and they acquire superhuman paranormal powers that, according to Hubbard, would allow them to "knock the hats off of people at 50 yards."

Since no cultist has ever acquired these magical powers, the crooks have to continually blame their cult followers for their inability to achieve them -- of course. In Scientology, Hubbard is never wrong. And since these frauds and scams are all lies, the fault is placed with the cult victim, never Hubbard. It's all about money - flr]

But I believe it would be fair to say that in the course of a lifetime one would invest about the price of a house.

[That's an extremely low estimate unless one's purchasing a house that costs $360,000. Most people twigg to the fraud and get out with something like $70,000 to the smarter. The small percentage of rubes that stick with the insane cult dedicate every dime they can beg, borrow, or steal to try to achieve the promised magical powers that Hubbard claimed would be theirs.

A half a million bucks is extremely typical. The cult's leaders order their followers to max out every credit card, and they even help their rubes get the maximums on their cards raised even higher so that they can purchase these expensive frauds. It's all about money.

Those who are good for it, however, have also reported getting suckered for a million bucks. Refunds are extremely rare even though the IRS dictated that the cult had to provide refunds immediately upon being asked for them - flr]

Of course, that may seem like a lot or like too little, depending on the value one puts on Spiritual improvement and a better life.

I imagine that without a good understanding of what is the VALUE and BENEFIT of Scientology services, the cost might seem high to you.

If that is the case, it is your free choice not to pursue Scientology that far.

If your need is to overcome a compulsion, or gain an ability, or better you marriage, and you are committed enough to invest some money and time, then you can easily benefit from Scientology with an investment of a few hundred to a couple of thousand US dollars.

And most who do are VERY satisfied with the result. Best,

[And that's utter nonsense. There are anywhere from 75,000 to 100,000 cult followers currently all over the world. The crooks like to demand they have 8 million followers, amusingly enough, though lately the crooks have tried the 9 million figure to see how that floats.

In fact 99.99% of the cult's victims get out with only a little money lost and much the wiser for it. And no, looking at the poor suckers that are still trying to "make it go right" in the jargon of the cult, hardly look at all happy about their mad messiah's failures - flr]

Further facts about this criminal empire may be found at Operation Clambake and FACTNet.

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