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Magazine article: Rekindling the Russian Spirit (2011)

From one handwritten copy of Dianetics to a glorious IAS-sponsored Ideal Org and a whole new future for spiritual freedom in Russia.

Once Russians were free to worship openly again after decades of religious suppression, they began to restore their ruined churches to their former glory—and Moscow abounds with them. Framed by an arched entrance is St. Basil’s Cathedral.

In December 192, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in Russian. 210,00 copies were sold out within weeks.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 merely replaced one form of oppression for another. The Tsarist regime was put down by revolutionaries who claimed to be fighting for freedom, but who themselves became the oppressors inflicting torture and death on millions.

For more than 70 years, 286 million marched to the drum beat of Soviet Russia, applauding the speeches on cue and taking their state-appointed places in the factories or collective farms. Slavery to the state and loss of personal freedom became the norm and freedom of speech was a sure road to execution or banishment.

To further enslave their citizens, the state even wiped out religion from the face of the land. The government owned the individual, dictating to him what to say and think and destroying any personal initiative and self-determinism he may have had. These were the darkest years of Russian history.

But, in 1985, the more benign policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) were introduced in an attempt to modernize the country and make it more democratic.

In this climate, with communication finally possible between east and west, Europeans began visiting Russia, bringing with them some cherished books—one of them a copy of  Dianetics, in German. And so, Dianetics had arrived in Russia. Wanting to share the miracles of Dianetics with new friends, they translated the book into Russian and copies were soon passed between friends. One of these books made it into the hands of a St. Petersburg student, Galina Shurinova: “We came upon a translation of the book and started to audit each other.” And in this manner, the first pioneer groups sprung up. (Galina is now the Executive Director of St. Petersburg Org and was awarded the IAS Freedom Medal in 2000 for her pioneering work in disseminating Dianetics and Scientology in Russia.)

With the opening of the lines with the West, Russian publishers were eagerly looking to introduce classic books to their public, none more so than Dianetics, which had topped bestseller lists for decades.

In 1991, twenty top Russian press editors and journalists attended a week-long conference in Copenhagen where they were presented with the broad spectrum of LRH’s works.

Just a few days after the editors arrived back in Russia the coup against the USSR’s communist regime began—a coup which led to the collapse of communism and the break up of the Soviet empire. At that point, things began to move very fast.

Dozens of articles about LRH technology appeared in major daily and weekly papers and on radio and TV shows reaching over a billion people. Russian publishers signed contracts for the publication of LRH’s books in Russian. In December 1992, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was released. The first run of 210,000 copies sold out in weeks and a reprint had to be ordered to fill the demand.

What followed was a true Dianetics boom in Russia. Dianetics seminars, attended by 300-400 people each, were delivered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Within a year more than 2,000 people had started their first service and thousands of hours of Book One auditing had been delivered. Dianetics Counseling Groups started up in 5 different cities in Russia, and by June 1993, the first missions were established in Moscow and St. Petersburg, forerunners of the great orgs they are today.

[Image caption: Following the publication of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, 300-400 people packed Dianetics seminars in Moscow and St. Petersburg every week.]

In August of that same year the first Sea Organization Base was established in Moscow to create a strong point from which LRH technology could be brought to Russian people fast enough to supply the demand. Within a short time people were arriving from all over Russia for training either as supervisors or auditors so they could return to their areas and form groups. Each week, between 200 and 300 students were studying basic administrative courses, Life Improvement courses and the Hubbard Dianetics Auditor Course.

In its first year and a half, the Moscow mission grew to more than 100 staff under the direction of Flag-trained Executive Director Vladimir Kuropiatnik (who was later awarded the IAS Freedom Medal in 1996). The inflow became so great that with every square foot packed, students were spilling out into local apartments.

In January 1994 the Church of Scientology of Moscow was registered as a religious organization. This launched even greater expansion and success. Vladimir held packed-out seminars in the church every single weekend, then, in a bigger space outside the mission, he and his team gave lectures every Sunday to over 300 attendees. At the same time the Church was delivering up to 600 hours of Book One auditing each week. The successes mounted throughout 1995 and 1996, with more TV shows, huge seminars and for the first time anywhere, a new method of dissemination: selling Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health on Russian trains with staff moving from car to car giving lectures on Dianetics and selling up to 1,000 books per week.

Of course, this much success and expansion would not go unnoticed. While millions of Russians were discovering for themselves the long denied truth about the human spirit, others had a different idea: there should only be one church in Russia and that was not Scientology.

The blow was struck in 1997 when the Russian Duma (Parliament) passed a suppressive religious law channeling power to the “traditional” religions in Russia (most specifically the Russian Orthodox Church) and to eliminate the “new” religions that had been springing up in the country since 1990 when the freedom of belief had been constitutionally restored to the Russian people.

What followed were a series of attempts to stop Scientology in Russia from expanding, but in spite of all the ongoing attacks, the Moscow Church flourished and prospered, expanding more than ever before. In June 2002, it became a Class V org and just one year later reached Saint Hill size.

On 5 April 2007, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a landmark judgment in the case of the Church of Scientology of Moscow, maintaining that what had ensued was a violation of fundamental rights guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

But this judgment went much further than guaranteeing protection for Russian Scientologists— it also established new standards of religious freedom for not only every Russian citizen, but for the 800 million Europeans residing in the other 45 member states of the Council of Europe.

Since then, outgrowing its premises, Moscow org moved six times from smaller, to larger and even larger facilities between 1999 and 2011. Until at last, the final move took place on 26 February 2011 when the new Ideal Org of Moscow was opened—thanks to IAS members’ support world over.

[Image captions: On 26 February 2011, a new era dawned for Russia as the IAS-sponsored Ideal Org in Moscow was officially opened. Despite freezing temperatures, thousands of Russian Scientologists attended the opening ceremony celebrating the first Ideal Church of Scientology in Russia.

Traditional Russian dancers performed at the Grand Opening of the Moscow Ideal Org.]

Though the outside temperature was well below freezing, 2,000 people gathered outside the building at 9, Taganskaya Street, exhilarated, awestruck and overjoyed at the spectacular opening of their new Ideal Org.

This singular event in the history of Scientology in Russia was recognized by several distinguished guests who spoke of not just the local importance but the global impact of the opening of the Moscow Church.

After the ribbon was cut and the balloons flew upwards, the throng of attendees crowded their way through the entrance of their new Church.

A prominent building with its unique shape and exterior design, the new Moscow Ideal Org is housed in a 65,010 square feet building located in the center of the city only 1.7 miles from the Kremlin.

On this historic occasion many Russian Scientologists were eager to say what they thought of their new Ideal Org, which they considered a gift from the IAS and Scientologists from all around the world.

Vladislav Nikolaevich Tomashov was born in the city of Riga, then a part of the USSR—now Latvia. He started his Scientology route in St. Petersburg Org where he studied the Student Hat and The Basics. Now he lives and works in Moscow and is a Sponsor of the IAS.

“I was at the opening and I saw lots of people all so inspired, all so happy. I think the potential is just huge, particularly because the building is right in the center of the city.

“I am so proud that I did at least something to make this building a reality, and now I see that it is not something somewhere else, not theoretical, not in some other country, but here, in reality, in present time, something we can use. This is just superb. Thank you to the LAS. I can say only the warmest words.

“I want to say thank you very much to everyone who contributes to the IAS. Now I know how significant they are. One of the best possible investments is to help the IAS. The new Ideal Org is such an exchange in abundance that I have no words to describe it. I want to motivate everybody, inspire them to do their next step for the IAS.

[Image caption: On the day of the grand opening thousands of Russian Scientologists and friends toured their new Ideal Org.]

“There is a better future for Russia now and for the people who live here. I hope that Russia will again prosper and that people will say that ‘Russia is a cool place’, ‘It is so good that I was born here’, ‘It is so good that I live and work here and that I get auditing or training here’, ‘It is good that I found Scientology here’, and so on. The point is that, thanks to the IAS, we are doing a lot for Russia.”

For Anton Lychkin, Executive Director of the Church of Scientology of Moscow and an IAS Sponsor, the opening of the new Ideal Org represented a dream come true.

“We’ve been going toward this goal for a very long time and finally it has happened,” Anton said, “For me this represents an entirely new stage of the life of Scientology here in Moscow. If we take a little broader look, it affects not only Moscow, and Russia, but also the planet, because how things are going in Moscow determines to a large degree stability in the world.

“When you are on the front ranks of planetary clearing, when you know that the destiny of millions of people on this planet depends on you, on one hand it is a big responsibility, but on the other hand it is a matter of great pride. When I come to my post I feel that the org is my home. It is the best place to be. It is another day, we have things to do, let’s move ahead, full steam. The public feels this, too.

“For Russia the opening of an Ideal Org denotes an entirely new future. Yes, we are here; yes, we are serious; yes, we are here for a long time, and we want to clear everyone, now and forever.

“When I became a staff member 18 years ago we had just started our work. All we had was a few staff members and our own translation of one course. Now we have everything we need for uninhibited future expansion.”

For Alexander Tkachenko, an IAS Silver Meritorious from Moscow, the opening of this Ideal Org signified a new stable datum. “We are not alone in Russia and Scientology is here forever,” he said.

[Image captions: With its twenty auditing rooms and spacious lounge, the HGC rapidly filled up with preclears while the Chapel hosted its first Sunday Service.

The new Ideal Org of Moscow is located in the very center of the city, where Russian Scientologists are now moving up The Bridge to Total Freedom.]1

The new Moscow Org with its large Public Information Center is ideally located near two major metro stations, making it readily accessible for all Muscovites.]

“Some time ago I made my newborn baby an IAS Patron at Flag. Before that I made my elder daughter a Patron. Today I have two daughters who have a chance to be free, to live in a free country, free from oppression, free with all their rights.

“So I consider any donation to IAS is one more step to freedom. My wish is that every Scientologist today, tomorrow and each day, will go up and up in status. Each one, each time is a new step taken toward our freedom.

“IT IS THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF IAS MEMBERS THAT HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR THIS IDEAL ORG TO BE BORN IN RUSSIA.” –Alexander Neverchanny, IAS Member

“The IAS is the future for my children and great-grandchildren to be free and happy,” he concluded.

A new IAS Member from Moscow, Alexander Neverchanny expressed his excitement: “What this opening really means is an ideal future for me and for all people who are living in Russia. It is a good future in which people are going to find out about Scientology.

“It is the contributions of IAS members that have made it possible for this Ideal Org to be born in Russia,” Alexander explained. “This is what my friends and I have been waiting for, for a long time.

“An historical event has just happened, of the same magnitude as the discovery of fire or electricity, but even that is not enough to describe it. It is the beginning, I am absolutely sure, of a huge positive future for the whole country and for the whole Commonwealth of Independent States.”

The true spirit of Russia is a constant striving for freedom–a striving that will continue at a whole new order of magnitude in their new Ideal Org, a rock-solid stable datum, for all Russian Scientologists. This is what the IAS has made possible.2

Notes

  1.   See Chart: Bridge to Total Freedom ↩
  2. Impact 126, (pp. 34-49) PDF download. ↩

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Magazine article: Ending the Reign of Abuse in Russia (2011)

IAS FREEDOM MEDAL
WINNERS

Ending the REIGN OF ABUSE in Russia

IAS Freedom Medal Winners 2011, AZGAR ISHKILDIN and TATYANA MALCHIKOVA have exposed the horrors of psychiatric abuse in Russia and protected the civil rights of every Russian citizen through legislative reforms

With the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain came sweeping changes in Russia. But behind the facade of the “new Russia” was a legacy of the former state with roots so steeped in Soviet ideology it couldn’t change: Russian psychiatry. Having witnessed the lawlessness and degradation of rights in the field of psychiatry, IAS members Azgar Ishkildin and Tatyana Malchikova decided to take effective action to expose the human rights abuses and bring Russian psychiatry under the law.

A graduate of chemistry, physics and political economics from the Saint Petersburg State Technology University, Azgar worked as an engineer and had long been a journalist in the field of human rights. In 1999, he found Scientology and a year later began volunteering for CCHR. Realizing the best way to educate Russians on psychiatry was to provide them the truth,  Azgar set about translating and editing key texts such as The Ultimate Betrayal, The Men Behind Hitler, Dr. Thomas Szaz’s classic book Manufacture of Madness and the full series of IAS-sponsored CCHR booklets. In 2004 he joined CCHR staff and within two years had risen to the post of Executive Director.

Tatyana was born in Samara, a city on the Volga River, and found Scientology in 1999 while studying aircraft construction engineering at the State Aerospace University. After moving to Moscow, she participated in CCHR protest marches, petition signings and handout distributions. By 2005, she was CCHR staff and quickly moved up the ranks to President.

All too aware that psychiatry was still using methods to control people just as it had in times of communism, Azgar and Tatyana set about finding the hidden secrets that lay behind the asylum walls. They began with strategic distribution of psych abuse literature around the asylums, where the chances were higher of finding someone who would step forward and break the silence. That silence was finally broken when a woman named Oksana came to CCHR with a chilling personal tale. While a patient at Moscow Psycho-Neurology Asylum #5, doctors had forced her to undergo sterilization.

CCHR checked and found that the signature on Oksana’s sterilization agreement wasn’t hers. When the prosecutor’s office wouldn’t take the case, CCHR moved higher and provided evidence to the Moscow Ombudsman. He authorized an official inspection and approved CCHR staff to be a part of it. The subsequent investigation would turn up even more victims as Azgar had organized a raid that exposed ten cases of coercive sterilization documented by CCHR in private video interviews with patients.

Using this data, Azgar authored a white paper and sent it to government ombudsmen in all 90 regions of Russia requesting they check for this abuse in their respective zones. After conducting their own investigations the ombudsman’s results were conclusive: forced sterilizations extended well beyond Asylum #5. Officials in the Perm region, for example, uncovered forced sterilizations of 15 asylum women. Several officials and doctors were prosecuted and the head of the Ozersky Asylum was convicted, sentenced and dismissed. Tatyana and CCHR then broke the story on three national television shows, including on the largest station in the nation, Channel One. Forced sterilization exploded in the media with banner headlines exposing this psychiatric atrocity, ending it once and for all.

[Image caption: Behind asylum walls, psychiatric crimes were being hidden; Azgar and Tatyana set out to find someone who would make them known. Finally, a woman came forward with a chilling personal tale about forced sterilization.]

[Image caption: Tatyana and CCHR broke the story of forced sterilization in asylums on three national television shows, with banner headlines in the Moscow Times, Novaya Gazeta and in regional press across the nation. As part of an official investigation, CCHR uncovered ten cases of coercive sterilization in Moscow Psycho Neurology Asylum #5.]

[Image caption: Azgar and Tatyana set out to expose the horror of psychiatric abuse and not only derailed the “new” brand of psychiatry in Russia, but through legislative reforms protected the civil rights of every Russian citizen.]

Forced sterilization was, however, only one atrocity under the catalog of horrors known in Russia as “punitive psychiatry.” Here was a whole suppressive machine enabling psychiatrists to cause anyone to be involuntarily committed, declared incompetent and denied all their rights under law. While punitive psychiatry had long been used to sweep dissidents off the streets and silence them with “treatment”, those seeking to misappropriate property from a family member or relative found punitive psychiatry a willing bedfellow. Victims were summarily labeled and committed by psychiatrists, thereby losing their rights so that those holding “guardianship” could feast on their estate.

As a first decisive step to end punitive psychiatry, CCHR organized traveling Industry of Death exhibits in key cities and locations across Russia. Tatyana toured hundreds of the country’s opinion leaders through the exhibit, including representatives from the Federal Parliament. With the CCHR exhibits fueling a continuous stream of negative media on psychiatry—over 30 TV and radio shows and 100 print and Internet articles—public opinion on psychiatry began to turn against it. This set the stage for Azgar’s next mission: drafting new statutes to guarantee fair hearings and to bring psychiatric commitment procedures under the law. These statutes were designed to guarantee basic rights to involuntarily committed patients, such as the right to an attorney, the right to defend oneself and the right to an appeal. They were forwarded to members of parliament, the Ministry of Justice and to the Kremlin.

Azgar and Tatyana next took the message against punitive psychiatry to the Russian people through nonstop media exposure. With every media article generating still more momentum on 6 April 2011, the bill giving rights to involuntarily committed patients was signed into law by the President of Russia—thereby abolishing Cold War punitive psychiatry forever.

[Image caption: Through constant traveling exhibitions, CCHR documentary distribution and TV and radio shows, Azgar, Tatyana and the CCHR team changed the public perception of psychiatry in Russia.]

But with CCHR exposing one abuse after another and the psychs losing ground at every turn, Russian psychiatry had to reinvent itself to stay alive. Working closely with foreign psycho-pharmaceutical companies, psychiatrists hatched a plan, dubbed the “Psychiatric Reformation.” The main scheme was to empty 750,000 patients out of asylums and back into society—with one catch: psychiatrists would continue to drug them in outpatient community care centers with Western psycho-pharmaceutical drugs—pocketing 7.5 billion rubles from public coffers in the process. Azgar and Tatyana met with deputies of the State Duma, briefed them on the dangers of this campaign and sent packages of signed petitions every week to MPs and state officials. Azgar and allied professionals next spoke at a public hearing at the Community Chamber of Russia, held to brief the president on matters of public concern. The transcripts and documents were passed straight to President Medvedev. Not stopping there, they distributed 1,000 information packages with the Making a Killing documentary to key decision makers, the Russian Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) and across the health care system. The news soon broke of federal agents storming the Moscow offices of Western pharmaceutical manufacturers, including Swiss drug-maker Novartis, Israeli Teva and others. Numerous abuses were uncovered including under-the-table bribes to regulators and kickbacks to doctors to generate psychotropic prescriptions. The Russian Government responded by freezing foreign drug prices and stopping direct-to-consumer psycho-pharmaceutical ads on TV and in magazines, thereby wiping out the psychiatric “reformation” before it had even begun.

Having set out to expose the horror of psychiatric abuse, Azgar and Tatyana derailed the “new” brand of psychiatry, and protected the civil rights of every Russian citizen.1

Notes

  1. Impact 129 (pp. 32-39). PDF format. ↩

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Web article: Today’s Terrorism (n.d.)

I well recall a conversation I had with a Dr. Center in Savannah,* Georgia, in 1949. It well expresses the arrogance and complete contempt for law and order of the psychiatrist. A man had just called to inquire after his wife who was “under treatment” in Center’s hospital. Center asked him, “Do you have the money…? That’s right, thirty thousand…well you better get it or I’ll have to send your dear wife to the state institution and you know what will happen then!”

I was there doing work on charity patients the local psychiatrists wouldn’t touch. Center had forgotten I was in the room.

He looked at me and shrugged, “He’s sold his house, car and business already and he isn’t good for any more. So over she goes to the operating room. It’s just as well. The attendants got her pregnant and we’ll have to abort her anyway. So we may as well wash her out. Hell of a business to be in for some quick bucks and a few kicks.”

Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law every week over the “free” world, tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of  “mental health.”

Terrorists never operated more effectively in any land with less interference and less outcry.

The evil is so great the public won’t confront it. 1984 here we come!1

—

* LRH is specifically referencing Dr. Abraham Center of the Savannah, Georgia mental asylum where much early Dianetics research was conducted in the late 1940s. Center was also noted for his utterly dismayed response to the miracles Dianetics worked on Savannah patients. In point of fact, the whole of the Savannah “charity list,” some twenty men and women in all, were eventually discharged from the asylum following LRH employment of Dianetics procedures. —Editor.

Notes

  1. Hubbard, L. R., (n.d.). Today’s Terrorism. freedom.lronhubbard.org. Retrieved 28 April 2010 from http://freedom.lronhubbard.org/page063.htm ↩

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Promo: “I don’t have to do what my reactive mind says!” (2009)

“I don’t have to do what my reactive mind says!”

“It made me have a big smile on my face! My reactive mind is getting pushed out of my head. I can’t stop thinking of how happy I am!

“Sessions can actually HELP you! It helps your reactive mind go down instead of up. Having this auditing was very nice and I never have to worry about anything. I don’t have to do what my reactive mind says!”
–R.M. 7 years old

Another Success from Mace-Kingsley1

Notes

  1. “I don’t have to do what my reactive mind says!” (2009). (Advertisement). Mace-Kingsley Family Center. PDF format. ↩

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Web article: What is the purpose of the OT® Committee? (2008)

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE OT® COMMITTEE?

The OT Committee is set up to help organize and channel OT forces, interests and resources for the greatest good for Scientology®. Currently, our objective as delineated by International Management as the greatest good for Scientology is two-fold: 1) 10,000 solo auditors on OT VII; and 2) creating an Ideal Central Org in the (San Fernando) Valley.

From 18 December 1952 lecture How to Talk to Friends about Scientology, LRH says, “…At any one time on Earth there were not more than 10,000 people of a caliber that was sufficient to do a little steering or leading. …There are only about 10,000 of them, really.”

From Scientology News # 27 “The answer to planetary clearing is to make each one of our orgs a central organization, responsible for every sector of Scientology activity across an entire geographic zone.”

WHAT DOES THE OT COMMITTEE DO?

Lots of good things. We put on events and seminars of many different kinds, both for new public and for established Scientologists™. We introduce new people to Scientology and Dianetics® through LRH books and introductory seminars and services. We help the org with establishment projects such as organizing and cleaning up central files. We contact other Scientologists individually and help them move up the bridge to OT. We drive forward the creation of an Ideal Org for the Valley by raising funds for the new 50,000 sq. foot ideal org building which will be acquired and renovated; by helping to recruit new staff, and by activating the entire Valley field in a shoulder to shoulder effort to help the org deliver all of LRH’s solutions so that the people of the Valley can achieve freedom.

And just incidentally… we have a lot of fun!

WHAT DOES THE OT COMMITTEE EXPECT TO ACHIEVE?

Our biggest targets right now are pushing Clears and OT s up to VII and the creation of an Ideal Org for the Valley.

Addressing the first target, we work with Flag ® and the Flag OT Committee on specific projects (like OT enlightenment events and individual consultations) to help Clears and OT s move up and through OT VII. This work is in fact the production focus of our Production Division Four, Department 12 and the personal responsibility of every OT Ambassador and OT.

Addressing the latter target, the San Fernando Valley is the “Media Capital” of the world and therefore we are essentially three feet behind the comm lines of the world. Factually, the amount of comm lines and messages generated from the San Fernando Valley is staggering. Raising the tone level of those comm lines and communications would impact not only the Valley, but also the rest of the planet. Consider this quote from LRH: “The mere proximity of a considerable quantity of theta, apparently, to an area of entheta causes the entheta to change wavelength, vibration rate or polarity, and either to become theta or to discharge and leave an area into which fresh theta can penetrate.” LRH, Science of Survival, Book Two, Chapter 19.

An ideal org is a Theta generation plant putting out auditors and Clears into the community. We also help create and work with the Scientology missions and field and volunteer minister groups connected with our local org, and the various secular groups such as Applied Scholastics, Criminon, Narconon, and The Way to Happiness; and, the various betterment groups such as WISE, CCHR, International Human Rights Foundation auditors, etc. LRH said in LRH Ed 102 Int, The Ideal Org “The end product is not just an ideal org but a new civilization already on its way.” So…that’s what we expect to achieve—a new civilization.

HOW CAN I HELP?

Come to a meeting and join us. There are almost innumerable ways to help on an OT Committee. For all of the activities mentioned above, there are many different hats to be worn. You might take charge of a whole area or project, or contribute in an area already being managed. There are various kinds of admin needed; you could also do call-in, e-mail promotion, copywriting, public speaking, data entry, driving, shopping, renovations at the org, event preparation, community relations, book selling and Book One auditing, fundraising, graphic design, planning, project tracking. You could host a town party and help us enlighten individuals from one of the 48 communities that comprise our parish. There are dozens of things, really. Just tell us what you enjoy doing.

WHAT IF I’M INVOLVED OR TAKING SERVICES AT ANOTHER ORG?

There’s nothing wrong with being connected to different orgs or being on more than one OT committee. But if you live in the Valley area—which extends from Glendale all the way across the valley to the Ventura county border, and from the Santa Clarita valley to the Santa Monica Mountains—you should be connected to YOUR local org.

DO I HAVE TO BE OT TO JOIN?

There is a definition of OT found in the policy letter OT Orgs, HCOPL 14 January 1969, Issue I “Let us look at the definition of OT—cause over thought, life, form, matter, energy, space and time….As one falls away from that one becomes a SPECTATOR. Then one becomes an effect. Then one is gone…One causes things by action. Not by thinking dim thoughts…Thus there is a gradient scale of OT. It’s not an absolute. One is as OT as he can CAUSE things.” LRH This definition applies to our membership, who may be in progress on any part of the Bridge.

WHEN AND WHERE DOES THE OT COMMITTEE MEET?

We meet each Tuesday evening at 7:30 PM at the Valley Org at 15643 Sherman Way Suite 120 in Van Nuys, CA. The meeting lasts an hour with the bulk of it comprised of production.

DO I HAVE TO ATTEND EACH MEETING?

In order to coordinate the actions of our many members it is most optimum, but not mandatory, to have members attend weekly meetings. We realize there are times when you may have to miss a meeting. We know you understand that it is impossible to produce as a team if we are not in tight coordination as team members.

HOW DO WE COMMUNICATE AMONGST THE GROUP?

We use e-mail for the most part, and will be also using this website. There is more to see on the website if you are a member. We have an organizing board with posted members and general members on projects. We have an up to date directory of our membership (like a phone book). We have a Communications Department that sees to the distribution of promotional and production oriented dispatches for both posted and general members. As the Valley parish is comprised of 48 separate communities across many square miles, email is the fastest, most economic and effective method of communicating with all of our members.

IS THERE AN AGE REQUIREMENT?

We welcome teenager and adults.

DOES IT COST MONEY TO JOIN?

We pass a collection bag at every meeting and most people put in a few dollars. This supports the administrative and production costs of our activities.

HOW MUCH TIME WOULD I HAVE TO CONTRIBUTE?

The weekly meeting is about an hour. The time you put into whatever you volunteer to do will vary widely and is up to you. Commendations are issued for members’ contributions beyond the meetings.

There are general members who choose projects, and there are posted members who also work on projects.

[…]1

Notes

  1. Retrieved from http://www.valleyotc.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=42&Itemid=39. (2008-12-20) ↩