Current Situation

This page provides a current overview of Standard Tech Scientology in the FreeZone. It is editorial in nature and based on about two years of observations.

The two most important facts about Scientology in the FreeZone are that the vast majority of participants are ex-church members and that the Church of Scientology would like FreeZone Scientology to disappear. The fallout is that, in a perpetual danger condition, individual communication is inhibited and attempts to organize are suppressed.

The probable outcome of this is that the present pattern of loose associations, individual auditors and isolated consumers will continue for the foreseeable future.

For Auditors the risks are substantial. Each of those advertising on the Internet has been forced to look to their legal vulnerabilities, (trademarks and copyrights), and take steps to minimize their risks. Those in the United States, and counties with bi-lateral enforcement rules, have been forced to alter their statements of services to the point where the new FreeZone Scientologist is forced to decipher and interpret the underlying meanings in order to find the services or fellowship that they may be searching for.

Most Church exiled Auditors don't audit anymore. Some Auditors maintain a low profile, operate by word of mouth and only audit friends or people they know. A very few are brave enough to disseminate widely and attempt to make a living at it.

In 1950 when Dianetics first caught on, its presentation was as an 'everyman's do it yourself home therapy'. Five years later Auditors were professionals with training certificates and a code of conduct. By the early '60s we had Auditors becoming semi-independent 'franchises' as the grass roots foundation - upon which LRH built a hierarchal structure of HCO offices with lines of communication and growing staffs. Like any enterprise, the Church of Scientology was built upon the foundation of the products of personalized counseling and training services at the bottom, while LRH sat astride the growing pyramid, keeping it strung together by being the ultimate shaper and source of the products that supported the growing hierarchy at its' base.

LRH's sourcing of the tech was the ultimate glue that maintained organizational coherence and direction. Until his death. In his wake he left an organization ill prepared for his passing. He had toyed with pluralization in the form of a Boards of Directors, even going so far as to allow issue authority to such a collective body. But ultimately, LRH back pedaled on this form of handover - opting instead for a narrower ruling body with no technical mandate. The same dictatorship as before, yet now without the 'glue' of being the technical source for the products being delivered at the foundation of the pyramid. Disconnect between the top and the bottom - resulting in duress, loyalty tests and declares. Evaporation of the dream to be more than mortal - for many unfortunate participants.

The FreeZone seems to be going through stages that parallel the early stages of Dianetics, and yet the fundamentals differ to a marked degree. Initially the effort of Mayo and others was to recreate a mature church alternative along the lines of the original. These attempts failed primarily due to governmental interference, (with the exception of Ron's Org, which continues to lead a sort of furtive shadow existence).

Currently the FreeZone consists of a sparse collection of generally atypical service consumers - being serviced by a handful of independent, part and full-time, Auditors. A subset of the afore mentioned Auditors are full-time Auditors, and some of those are just now rising to the level of attempting to establish 'franchise' level organizations built largely on their personal productivity and reputation.

There is a nearly unique to Scientology aspect to this organizing effort, that is moderately analogous to the psychological term of 'transference'. Generally when a PC reveals his deepest secrets to another human being, coming totally clean of all withholds - the result is a mixture of relief, liking, admiration and to some degree loyalty. This is the basis on which current efforts to organize are being based. It is a more limited version of the way LRH did it, in that the FreeZone Auditor is now the source of the Tech - but only for his own flock of PCs. The advantage LRH had of being the organizational 'glue' by virtue of the fact that he was the indirect, yet ultimate, source of the Tech, is philosophically denied to the FreeZone Auditors attempting to organize, beyond his or her own group. Standard Tech, buttressed by 'Keeping Scientology Working', leaves us with Church political leadership, (and only political leadership), in the form of RTC - utilizing duress rather than dreams to motivate. Meanwhile, in the FreeZone, Auditors, (naturally selected and culled for their independence, self-confidence and results), can't motivate with technical authority beyond the bounds of their immediate PCs, and refuse to recognize any technical authority higher than their own. Hence, poor, dictatorial leadership in the Church, and cat herding in the FreeZone.

Conclusion: none. Your next step is available, stop wringing your hands, reading marginal explanations, and just do it.

Updated Feb 14 '04