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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
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.
Return to The Skeptic Tank's main Index page.
Subject: Bridge to Total Freedom Question
[Which means: Here, I'll try the lie my cult masters programmed me with
and let's see if you swallow it - flr]
[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."
[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]
[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.
[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.
[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.
[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.
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