Blown for Good: Scientology Exposed
Marc Headley worked at Scientology’s secret desert compound, which houses all Scientology management, for 15 years. The 500-acre property is located deep in the California desert. The local townspeople were told lectures and films were made there. But is that all that was happening? It is the location of a multi-million dollar home for L. Ron Hubbard, built two decades after his death. It is the home of Scientology’s current leader, David Miscavige. So what really happens at the Int Base? Are the stories on the internet true? How does Scientology conduct management of its day-to-day operations? Could stories of armed guards, weapons, staff beatings, and razor wire fences be true? If so, how could a facility like this exist in modern-day America? Hundreds of staff tried to escape over the years. Some succeeded but were never seen or heard of again, and most failed. Why were people kept here? What really went on at the headquarters of Scientology? This is the story of what happened behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology.
Blown for Good: Scientology Exposed
The Aftermath Foundation is fighting back with billboards all across Los Angeles - Scientology Stories #54
A team of ex-Scientologists has launched 20 strategic billboards across Los Angeles offering help to Sea Org members trying to leave Scientology, following last year's attempt when Scientology quickly shut down a single billboard.
• Billboards feature three designs with memorable phone number 888-300-2002
• Strategic placement ensures Sea Org members will see them on bus routes, near facilities
• Scientology cannot block these billboards as they don't own adjacent properties
• Aftermath Foundation provides comprehensive support for those leaving
• Crisis line is staffed 24/7 to help people safely exit the organization
• Campaign estimated to reach nearly 2 million people weekly
• Billboards placed near PAC base, Scientology Media Productions, and throughout Hollywood
• Mike Rinder quote featured: "The difference between a religion and a cult is what happens when you try to leave"
• Former members collaborated on campaign design, locations, and strategy
• Billboard campaign funded by donations to the Aftermath Foundation
Visit theaftermathfoundation.org to sign up for our newsletter, volunteer, or donate specifically to the billboard campaign. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to help us reach 10,000 subscribers.
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Hey guys, welcome back to the channel, welcome to another episode of Blown for Good. We have a whole bunch of special guests here today. We have my wife, claire, and then we have two new guests that we've not ever had on the channel at the same time before, and that is Alex apostate Alex and Phil Jones. And here they all are, hey guys.
Speaker 2:Bt is activate.
Speaker 3:Awesome, I know we're mixing it up, we pulled a fast one on all of our viewers. So sorry, it's been a very long work week, but we have some amazing news to talk about. So you know, we kind of just dropped everything last minute and flew news. The Aftermath Foundation put up some more billboards all over.
Speaker 1:Los Angeles, and it's 13 that are up right now.
Speaker 4:right, and then another seven that are no, there were 13 yesterday. Five more went up this morning early, early, and then there's two more that should go up tomorrow. So we're at 18 right now. Be 20 by tomorrow morning before 8am.
Speaker 3:Amazing and so so let's just give a the two minute overview while we allow people the time to show up for this unannounced stream. Last year, right in time for L Ron Hubbard's birthday, on March 11th 2024, we put up a billboard, with Phil's help, right next to the PAC-based complex in Los Angeles, and within what Phil I think, two hours.
Speaker 4:Well, it's a little longer than that, but it came down in the middle of the night.
Speaker 3:1 am I think it was yes, but I mean within two hours they had blocked it.
Speaker 4:Right, right, yes, yeah, they put up a scissor lift in front of it.
Speaker 3:Yes, Scientology's response was to immediately erect a scissor lift that blocked the entire billboard from their Sea Org members, which it was the exact intended targeted audience that we knew needed to hear our message, and it wasn't. It was simply need help, leaving Scientology call the aftermath. Anyway, yeah, so within two hours they had put up a scissor lift. They then went hard and heavy on the billboard company and within I think, three days, if I'm not mistaken, they succeeded in taking it down. However, as we are have committed to this cause of exposing Scientology abuses, we did not let it go at that, and we've had many, many efforts ongoing behind the scenes, and thus this announcement today, and both phil and apostate, alex and katherine olsen um have been all very instrumental in making this happen, so let me just pause to say thank you to all involved.
Speaker 4:Yeah, also, if we can give a shout out to kernan coleman for the for doing the graphic arts on these.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:Brilliant graphic artist and he's almost stepped up. He's the one who did the Call Me billboards back in 2016 and the one from last year. One point on the one last year, the reason they were able to put up those scissor lifts is they owned the property right in front of where the billboard was. But this year, with those 20, they don't own any of the property in front of any of those billboards. There's no scissor lifts coming.
Speaker 2:Yes, and, by the way, go ahead, alex. I was going to say, phil, your comment on Tony Ortega's blog was that Scientology is going to need more scissor lifts. It made me laugh so much. There's no way, there's no hiding this campaign. It's big enough that there's nothing they can do about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, exactly, and thank you to Catherine Olsen for her hours poring over the LA maps to find exactly which billboards would have the most exposure, specifically to current members of the C organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, catherine spent a very long time looking at there was.
Speaker 2:This project has been in the works for months, I think off the back of Phil's original one, the one you guys did last year, and it got taken down.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, thinking with my marketing hat on, how do we stop this happening again?
Speaker 2:And the way of doing it in my mind was let's just do more billboards if we get slightly smaller ones, but they're really strategically placed and they all go up at the same time. It's going to be really hard for Scientology to pull a scissor lift trick or to try, and even if they were to succeed in you know, threatening lawsuits and getting them taken down, it's going to take time to get rid of 20 billboards, even if the decision was made on the same day. So it was kind of a fail safe, get the message heard thing. And Catherine spent hours and hours looking at the bus routes that the sealed members take from birthing to the pack base and to SMP, and also the the food delivery routes that they use to deliver the food for the staff and things like the Sunday market where people hang out on their time off, on their CSP, and it was like let's make sure we've got billboards in all of those locations. So whatever happens, they will see the message.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's no way that the buses or that the staff are going to be able to pick a route that's not going to see 20 billboards.
Speaker 4:And if they're up long enough time, they're going to see them. And that phone number that you got Claire was brilliant because it's so easy to remember that they don't need to write it down. So if they get caught looking at it and remembering it, what's the Scientology going to do? No, you need to forget that number. If it's in their head, it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 3:Right, and we know one thing for sure what's that?
Speaker 1:I was going to say I'm going to pull up Tony Ortega's blog and see if I can put that up so we can show the pictures of the billboards too.
Speaker 3:Yes, perfect, yeah, but if there's one thing we know for sure is that sea organization members are very adept at committing things to memory especially if you're clear and you have total recall right once you've seen it, you're going to remember it forever, apparently yes, completely, I totally, and I did want to mention, too, why this is so very important to the work that the Michael J Rinder Aftermath Foundation does is the one thing that members of the Sea Organization do not have by virtue of the isolation and the lives that they live currently. They have no hope of life outside of Scientology, and so this is a message of hope and a message of hey, listen, we know you're in a bad spot. There is a life outside of this world, and there are many different families and people we're working with currently through the work the foundation does, who had they known years ago that there was resources outside of the sea organization, they would have left years ago yeah, here let me put up the um.
Speaker 1:Can you guys see that?
Speaker 4:yeah, yes, 888-3002, that's like you look at it once and you've got it in your head. Yes, brilliant, there's three different billboards.
Speaker 3:You contributed to that. Yes, I found it, but we were both 100% on the same page that we needed something easy to remember and just at a glance, you'd have it yeah.
Speaker 1:This is the second one.
Speaker 3:And these newer designs, by the way, were inspired by alex. So brilliant, alex, thank you. And this is a offshoot of the curious uh billboard scientology has been running in the london underground.
Speaker 2:Alex, want to talk about that and your inspiration on this oh yeah, I mean they ran these billboards that said I'm a Scientologist curious, and it just links to a page on the Scientology website with video testimonials of people talking about their time in Scientology and I kind of, as a joke, made like a little I'm an ex-Scientologist curious, like a little banner and posted on social media and people were like, hey, you should like, you should make that happen.
Speaker 2:And so it's like, ok, maybe, maybe there's something in that, what can we do with it? And it was a bit of fun. But it's also like no Scientology have had a chance to inform the public of what life is like inside Scientology, allegedly. And so I think it's only fair that you know we run some billboards that say I'm an ex Scientologist, you know, and here are some stories of what life is like for other people and maybe get some exposure of the abusive stuff that perhaps sealed members don't, don't recognize mic story and be like, hey, that happened to me or I recognize something like that that's similar to what happened to me, and not realize you know, they're not alone in their suffering and there is a community here of people to support them yes, absolutely yes go ahead.
Speaker 3:no, I was just going to say, and, phil, you're having your experience and input on these billboards just from the call me billboards and everything else has been amazing, so thank you so much for that.
Speaker 4:You're welcome. I'm always happy to help. It's a worthwhile cause. And you know, I've always had this thought that you know somebody in the Sea Org. I've never been in the Sea Org. I've got two kids in the Sea Org and they're still there. And you kind of I have this idea that somebody might want to walk out the door. But where do they go? They step out the door, they go left. Do they go right? They got no money in their pocket. They have maybe no contacts, no relatives. What do they do? They end up not walking out the door because they have nowhere to go. But if they have that phone number in their head, they just need to find a phone and help is there. So I think that having those billboards out there, I think, is just really important to give them an escape route.
Speaker 1:Totally, and also I wanted to show the map, so this is again. This is on the underground bunker Tony Ortega sub stack. But you can see, there's so many of them.
Speaker 1:I love it. There's so many locations Now and also Scientology. They have properties all over Hollywood. I want to say they probably have between 15 and 20 different properties between the big blue complex that's down on a fountain, and I want to say Edgemont is kind of where the main um like between sunset and fountain avenues in Hollywood, but then they've got multiple properties on Hollywood Boulevard. Um, they've got multiple properties, uh, at the end of Hollywood Boulevard and then kind of strewn throughout it and, yeah, they've got that studio that's on the kind of like the eastern side of Hollywood. So these are everywhere. There is no way for them to avoid this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly what are they going to tell the Sea Org members? Don't look up.
Speaker 4:One of the locations. I had a friend of mine go down and take a picture of one of the billboards and it's just almost right across the street from Scientology Media Production Sea Org facility. So I mean you can see the building from the billboard.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 3:Love it, absolutely love it.
Speaker 2:I wonder if you can see it from David Miscavige's office at SMP.
Speaker 1:That would be amazing yeah.
Speaker 4:But the people got to drive out of there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we did talk to somebody who could see exactly where David Miscavige's office window was from a nearby bar that he was going to, and I think I don't know if we lost claire or not she was having a weird connection up there. Um, let's, uh, there's some great comments that are coming up here. I'll put these up. Necessary trouble, says alex is so good with ideas for signage. Very clever thank you.
Speaker 2:I mean, look, it was a team effort, and I think this is another thing that made me feel so passionate about this is like Scientology like to divide and conquer and pit people against each other. You know, osa are full of lots of trickery and bad faith acting and that sort of thing. One of the strongest things, in my opinion, is to unite together as a community and work together, and teamwork really is, you know, makes a dream work, and this is such an example of different people pitching in with their ideas and working together, collaborating on this, and it's something that will reach SEAL members, you know, without a doubt, there's no way they can miss it. Yes, and exactly to.
Speaker 1:Phil's point. Sorry, we're walking all over each other because there's a bit of a delay, so we're all kind of hearing each other right as we start talking. When you are in the Sea Org, one of the biggest things is who can you turn to if you escape? And that is a giant barrier to Sea Org members getting out is their family is usually not in the same state or even involved in Scientology. They have no way to get a hold of those people. They have no way to warn them that they want to come or find out if they could come.
Speaker 1:None of these things can really take place until after the person's escaped. So if they see something that says, oh, those guys will help me and they can help me get out of here, then they can call us and they can get all that arranging done while they're still in the C organization. And this is a key, key thing. And we help them with the communication thing. We help them with figuring out where they can go and we can also do research on their behalf to talk to their family members and talk to these other people to kind of suss out what the situation is and then help them figure out exactly what the best idea is. So this is why we do this, and the Aftermath Foundation has been doing this for several years now, and in this last year did you mention the newsletter. If people want to sign up to get the newsletter, yes.
Speaker 3:So two things. First of all, if you go to the Aftermath Foundation website, theaftermathfoundationorg, you can sign up there for our newsletter. We sent out our first newsletter in a very long time. I don't think we've done a newsletter since 2018, if I'm not mistaken but the idea we're at least going to try to do two to three, to hopefully even eventually quarterly newsletters with dates and news. So if you haven't signed up for that, please go to the aftermath foundationorg and you can sign up there to receive our newsletters.
Speaker 1:We can put a link to the newsletter in the description of the video so people can go to it, and then, once they have a link, they can just sign up on the website if they just want to get it whenever we release it.
Speaker 4:Is there a way to get?
Speaker 3:access to previous newsletters. To what sorry?
Speaker 4:Is there a way? To get access to previous yeah.
Speaker 3:That's a great thought and I will talk with our team about that. I'm sure there is, so we'll work on that and fortunately Clara is here, so she's probably going to be most helpful with that. We'll get that taken care of. But I did also want to mention too specifically about the crisis line and the number that is on that billboard. We worked very extensively to find a company that would answer that phone 24 seven, and the way that it works is there's a very carefully scripted um patter that gets used.
Speaker 3:When somebody calls in, first of all, make sure are you in a safe place and if they're not in a safe place, immediately take care of that first, and then this company will then connect the person directly to an Aftermath Foundation staff member or volunteer to help who has the knowledge needed to have a conversation with the person and provide the assistance that they need. So sometimes it's pressing, but it's not always. But nonetheless, the billboards have absolutely spread that number and we've been getting a lot more calls and a lot more active people interested in the foundation services and how we're able to assist them in getting out. So it's just amazing, and I would like to say also too, we covered this in our newsletter, but now we even have one of these phone numbers. Am I frozen?
Speaker 1:You are, but we can hear you.
Speaker 3:And hear you, oh okay. Well then I'll just finish that thought. Um, we have another dedicated line solely for law enforcement, as requested by law enforcement, so that if someone in law enforcement runs into someone trying to exit scientology, they can also make that connection that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is um. This is we're trying, we're learning over the years, we're learning all the ways, kind of not to do it, and then we're learning the ways to do it and which ones are working.
Speaker 1:and, um, even when that one billboard went up um, originally the one by the complex and got taken down, the aftermath got in enough donations that we could do multiple billboard campaigns over and over again. So hopefully, in addition to reaching out to Sea Org members, we'll also reach people that are willing to donate to the cause and support the Aftermath Foundation so that we can better help the people that are leaving and then we can just keep this going.
Speaker 3:Yes, In fact, on the foundation website you can actually select. If you'd like to support the billboard campaign, you can make a donation and mark that it's specifically for this purpose.
Speaker 2:So I think the key thing as well with billboards and this is why I love this idea so much is how do you reach somebody in this organization? Because Scientology controls every aspect of your life. It controls your access to the outside world. It senses your Internet.
Speaker 2:You know it's very rare for a SEAL member, especially in LA, to have free Internet access, for example. So it's really hard to reach these people with a message. So they may not even be aware that there's support available to them. But the good thing about a billboard is there's nothing you can do about it. You just have to walk down the street and you see this message and there's nothing Scientology can do to prevent a sealed member from seeing it, especially when you have so many and they're on every corner of the route that you could take to any of the Scientology buildings. Like it's not. Like they can just change their route and go a different way to work because they'll see another billboard, right, that's the whole idea is that you can't miss it and the message will get through to the Seals staff there.
Speaker 3:Yep, 100%, and it's amazing to me too, by the way you know we've talked about it numerous times. I'm sure all of us have, individually and collectively that it's obviously Scientology has such a litigious reputation that they will go after and squash any efforts to get out any message of hope or help for life after Scientology. I think it's important to recognize, though, that, particularly since HBO is going clear, and then, of course, the three seasons of Leah Remini, scientology in the aftermath, with Leah and Mike Rinder that the public perception and awareness of the abuses Scientology commits have has been so dramatically increased that now the, the companies that we work with, nine times out of 10, or maybe even 100 percent I'm sure Phil could comment on this they were like we, 100 percent support the work that you do.
Speaker 4:As far as billboard companies, I mean, the one we used last year was Clear Channel, but the one that stuck with us back in 2016,. We got shut down several times before we ended up being able to get those Call Me billboards up. And it was the same company that we're using now, lamar and they stuck with us. And back in 2016, it went all the way up to the owners of the company who approved it. And also back then we had the word Scientology on those billboards twice. It's only on our billboards once now.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:The URL. Obviously there's the one that says call me with the phone number or call us, sorry, but the other two the the one with mike rinder on it and the one with yourself claire that the urls are scientology abuse and scientology stories and they redirect to a page on the aftermath um website where it just tells personal stories, right? So there's not really anything to sue about because it's just personal people telling their personal stories of what happened to them in this organization, and I think that's really, really powerful in itself. You know it's not saying we're accusing you of this or you know we're not putting anything libelous or slander or anything on these billboards. It's just saying I'm an ex-lantologist, here's a link to a story about what happened to me, right, and then you're able to see other people's stories too. Happened to me, right.
Speaker 3:And then, you'll be able. You're able to see other people's stories too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the other great thing is on the aftermath website there's also testimonials, and in the newsletter there's testimonials of people that we've helped. So if a seer member was going to go to the site, they'd be able to see those testimonials, and the things that the people are saying they need help with are the exact things that they know they need help with finding a vehicle or getting a job, or even getting a place to stay, yeah, or just stay for a little bit, or a plane ticket or all of the logistical thing that I realized when I was looking through the newsletter is SeaWorld members think very they attach significances to logistical things.
Speaker 1:It's not like I need a place to go, it's I need a ticket, I need a car, I need transport, I need these things in order to get away from here, and they don't even really think about all the other things that they're going to need once they get to the place. So it's just we kind of. I mean, we've talked about this before, but Claire and I were doing this many, many years before there was an Aftermath Foundation.
Speaker 1:We were doing this in our own and a lot of the people that are part of the Aftermath Foundation board have been doing this for over a decade on our own and helping people with jobs or helping people kind of get get going and get on their feet again, and so over the years we have learned a lot of tips and tricks on how to get these people sort of.
Speaker 1:You know you have to get their feet running and then put them onto the treadmill of life, so we know how to do that now so they can get up to speed really quickly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oftentimes their mind gets there and then the other pieces fall into place, like they learn to shed the language and they learn to shed the, the false expectations that have been set for them by Scientology. Like, oh, you'll only ever flip burgers the rest of your life or you know you'll you'll end up on the streets with nowhere to go. You know, that's what. That's what Scientology wants those sea Organization members to believe to keep them there and keep them doing the work of staying there. It's absolutely as we know. We've many, many times seen people and helped people get out and then completely flourish, turn their lives around and truly inspire other people to leave as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and billboards as well. Sorry to keep harping on about this, but I think the fact that it will reach sealed members, whether they like it or not is, is really powerful, because if you've been told that there's no support out there, you'll just be flipping burgers, you know, and that's what you've been conditioned to believe. When you're walking around between you know different offices or whatever in LA, just doing your job and you're thinking about leaving and you see a billboard one, two, three, hey, 20 times, right that sends us like a message to that person that hold on. There's a united effort here. There's clearly a group of people who have resources to put billboards up. Maybe there is support out there, maybe there is some sort of help that I can get and the resources that I need. It almost doesn't matter what the billboard says. Just the fact that there is a message of hope there sends a really important message, and then throw in there the crisis helpline and the URL to the stories and it's just a winner all round, in my opinion.
Speaker 3:Yes, completely Completely.
Speaker 4:It's nice to hear that you're getting more calls too. If you're getting more calls, that means more people are walking out the door.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:That's nice.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 4:And so many orgs are so empty now and like even that's just not Sea Org Orgs, but they're so empty, they're going to eventually, they're going to run out of people. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3:That's the idea, that is the idea.
Speaker 2:Sunderland Ork in the UK has three staff members.
Speaker 3:Sunderland Wow.
Speaker 4:I mean, you see these pictures of academies where people are studying one person, maybe two or three at most. I remember back when we were in and our academy would have 60 people on the weekend You'd be bringing in extra chairs to seat the rest you know people and then that's just the academy. Downstairs, basic courses would have another 50, 60 people as on a regular basis, and now they're lucky to get three people in a in a course room. So they're definitely shrinking in a big way.
Speaker 3:Completely, and I did. I did want to take a moment to give a shout out and just thank literally every single person who has ever donated to the foundation to support our work. We would not be able to do the work we do, and especially not on the scale that we've been growing into, without your support. It means so, so much to us. Literally this is you know, every board member is volunteer. This is a passion project, definitely for Mark and I, and I know the other board members. It means so much to us that those trapped in a cult have the option of hope and help outside of that world.
Speaker 1:Totally, totally. The other thing that Phil made me think is that if there are Sea Org members that live in Los Angeles, there's a lot of those Sea Org members their parents or their family also live and work in Los Angeles. So there's also a good chance that just public Scientologists are going to see these billboards and then a lot of Scientologists, I don't know. I mean Phil could probably speak better to this as a public or a civilian Scientologist, but I don't think a lot of Scientologists know the depth of abuse that occurs inside Scientology's C organization. I think they know that they work long hours and I think they know they get crew meals and a mess and all that, but I don't think they know about the horror stories. What do you think about?
Speaker 4:that.
Speaker 1:Phil.
Speaker 4:You know, when our kids were in the C org, you know what we would say on a regular basis Well, at least they're in a safe place. That was our thought, that at least they're not going to be in a criminal environment. That was the abuses that were going on. You know, that was the whole thing. It's like, yeah, well, you know, okay, they might not be doing this or that, but you know, at least they're safe where they are.
Speaker 1:We had no idea that it was just so horrible, yeah, and in a lot of cases, dangerous. I mean there's SEERB members that have lost fingers and printing equipment, choppers and saws.
Speaker 4:Elevators, yeah, elevators.
Speaker 3:I came a hair away from losing my foot, as we all know. Thank goodness that didn't happen.
Speaker 1:Anyway. But yeah, I think, so that I think that if there are family members seeing billboards that are offering to help somebody escape from Scientology, then even the, even the family members and the relatives of them, might kind of be like I need to, I might need a light on the Sea Organization. They start letting them go on liberties. They start letting them go to weddings and family funerals and other family reunions and stuff like that also helps plant the seeds. When they do get away from the Sea Org and they see how happy their families are or their relatives outside of Scientology, and then they go like wait a minute, I thought everybody were like criminals and drug addicts and like the whole world was horrible. These guys don't seem like they're having that bad of a time at all.
Speaker 4:You know that was a good point you made with the those the two, the one with Mike and one with Claire, with those domain names on there. If I was still in and I would have seen that as a public I would have gone to one of those sites and looked. I would have. I ended up getting out. I saw the newspaper the Tampa Bay or the St Pete Times back then and you know the truth's run down. But I would have looked. I would have seen that on a billboard. I wouldn't have said anything to anybody because you know you don't want to get reported, but I would have gone on the Internet and looked and I'm sure there will be some people who do, for sure there will be some people who do, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what?
Speaker 2:I'm willing to bet money that there are more scientologists curious about life outside of scientology than there are never ends who are curious about getting into scientology that's true just the point of, like you know, the fact that there needs to be billboards that say if you need help leaving, there's resources and support here, like just the fact that there needs to be that message indicates hold on. You know, maybe this organization is doing some bad stuff here, like why would I need help leaving or why would anyone need help leaving an organization unless they were doing some shady stuff?
Speaker 4:you know organization, unless they were doing some shady stuff. You know, yeah, when we were originally, when we were originally designing that billboard, we were going to use the word escaping instead of leaving. We thought it's a little bit too harsh, we thought leaving would probably be a little bit better totally and just to the point that these billboards do plant the seed.
Speaker 1:Catherine just said that she saw one of the Call Me billboards when she was still in the seaboard. I've talked to a few people who have said that.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have too.
Speaker 4:But you know, actually somebody brought that up recently, I think it was Alex. It was you that mentioned that you'd seen or you'd heard about them. I went back and I looked through all my notes and I had all these messages from all these people who had seen the billboard and written to us. A 10-year-old girl was disconnected from her parents Where's a 10-year-old girl going to go? And she had written to us having seen the Call Me Billboards. Amazing number of people that wrote to us from that Incredible.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, just for anybody who's just joining in. I just want to show the billboards again. So these are the billboards. There's three of them so far, and this is the first one, and this is the second one with Claire there, and what an amazing quote from Mike Rinder, by the way.
Speaker 3:The difference between a religion and a cult is what happens when you try to leave.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I love that quote Because Scientology will try and tell you when you're in that these big bad SPs will try and change your mind and convince you of things. And they've just got their own agenda and Mike Rinder's post here, like that quote it literally just plants the seed. It says, hey, the difference between a religion and a cult is what happens when it tries, when you try to leave. It doesn't try and say you should leave scientology or scientology is it. It just makes a very good point that's going to plant a seed of doubt and people are going to start thinking, well, hold on. No, scientology is Scientology is a religion. I can leave anytime I want, or can I yep, you know?
Speaker 3:because every, every, every member of the sea organization knows what's going to happen if they try to leave. That's why that rings. So so true, um and yes, and there's the map, and I saw someone oh, here's one of the photos that's actually, yeah that a friend of mine went around and took that picture.
Speaker 4:20 billboards, yeah, that one, um, oh no, no, this one actually a picture from lamar. They took that picture, oh, the other. There's a the uh. The other picture, the one of the uh need help leaving. That was. That's the one that's near uh the scientology media productions nice that was in the comments. I think I posted that one in the comments at the bunker, so if you sort by best, um, yes, definitely the best comment, phil, good job well, picture the billboard.
Speaker 2:That's supposed no no I'm trying to click on the screen not the uh, I think it's in the comments on the bunker rather than the sub stack. Oh, I get it.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fine sorry right, right, okay, good um the other thing I wanted to say oh look, we got, we got osa office of spoofed affairs nice thank you that's very generous of you office of spoofed affairs. Um, I just saw there was some nice comments there. Mike's legacy lives on.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely it is nice to see mike's picture up there, it really is I know and we actually that goes by, that I don't miss mike yeah, we just did that for you there, uh, that the ed's mom, um, the uh, we just so. Everybody knows this whole campaign started when Mike was still with us and that's when we worked all of this out, so it was even when Mike was still on the board. Um, so this has been going on for many, many months and, um, probably actually even over a year now, because we had, um that we had that other billboard thing happened, where they took it down right away and Scientology pressured the billboard company.
Speaker 3:And then we also had about four contracts between then and now. That that were we, were, you know, on the home stretch, and then, for one reason or another, scientology bullied them or they got cold feet because of their legal department, whatever, we just kept at it. Like you know, keep going, exactly.
Speaker 4:I think people might not realize just how much work is involved in getting billboards up. There's a lot of logistics to it and bits and pieces. Alex knows that, catherine knows that she's the one who went around, looked at all those billboards on the ground and Alex setting all that. I mean it is a lot of back and forth, a lot of bits and pieces until they finally get a contract up. But it's nice that they're now up and you know it took a bit but it's actually rewarding to see it.
Speaker 3:It really is. I know.
Speaker 2:So many hours went into this from everybody involved. You know it wasn't just researching the billboards, it was also researching, like you know, some of the original ones we wanted to go for are all in sort of long-term contracts with specific clients, and so there was a lot of negotiation around which ones are coming available soon, how long are they, you know, reserved for, which ones can we put up fairly quickly and easily, and you know which ones have longer contracts and shorter contracts. And then, obviously, working out the different routes this is what Catherine did is like okay, this is the way they normally go on the bus from birthing to to work. Um, and so if we put a billboard there, what route are they going to take to divert around it? Okay, well, can we put a billboard here? Well then, which way do they have to go to avoid that one?
Speaker 2:And that's how this campaign all came about. It's like where can we strategically place them? Where they literally cannot be missed. There's no escaping them. So it was a lot of work putting in all of that so many spreadsheets, lots of liaison between the mar and everybody else around, like which ones we want to go for, and we were talking about different locations as well. Um. So yeah, I'm so glad that we all work together as a team to get it done, and I'm really proud of it, and I hope you guys are too.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, 100%. No, absolutely. Collaborations like this are the best and most effective. When we work together to say you know what? Let's keep our eye on the mountain. We want we want Scientologists and Sea Org members to know that there's life outside of Scientology, and we want people who have never been in Scientology to be aware that this is an abusive and dangerous organization. When we all work together to accomplish that, amazing things happen 100% yeah and thanks for putting my link up there, mark.
Speaker 3:Oh, mark, you're muted, mark that's rare oh sorry, I muted myselflex got my joke only an english only an english man appreciates uh english humor I just put up alex's link.
Speaker 1:Where can people find you if they want to find out more stuff?
Speaker 4:Phil. Well, I've got some videos on YouTube. I haven't posted that much recently, but I've got a bunch of videos up there. People are welcome to go there. It's just youtubecom slash phildoggo. P-h-i-l-d-o-g-g-o.
Speaker 1:Awesome. We'll put a link in the description below in the video, All right, and we'll put Alex's in there too. And then people were asking if they wanted to just support the Aftermath Foundation. You could just go to the aftermathfoundationorg. That's where you can sign up for the newsletter. That's where you can list yourself as a volunteer. That's where you can donate directly to the Aftermath Foundation.
Speaker 3:Oh and let me add. Let me add something it would be super, super helpful just to do one single thing go to the Aftermath Foundation YouTube channel and subscribe. Our goal is to get to 10,000 subscribers at the Aftermath Foundation channel, which is a requirement so that we can officially, just every once in a while, do fundraisers through YouTube. Youtube covers all the fees and every any donation made goes directly to the aftermath foundation. So our goal is to have it so that we can host them on the aftermath foundation channel and then any other YouTube channels that want to contribute to that fundraiser can do so. It's an amazing feature. So there you go, One easy thing that everybody could do.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and I'll put a link in the description to the Aftermath YouTube page as well. And then also we have Big Navy Davy Dolls Bobbleheads. We have a Mike Bobblehead, mike Rinder bobblehead, we have a Leah bobblehead and we have a set of them that are they have signed headshots from Leah and Mike, and then we also just have a signed one of Leah and a signed one of Mike. But all of the proceeds from all of the things at the spshopcom, all of those proceeds go to the Aftermath Foundation to support.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we should mention thank you very much. Rest in peace, mike. We miss you every day. Mike, in September of last year, signed these set number of photos. So it is while supplies last obviously goes without saying. But there you have it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was trying to find if I had a. It's just bobbleheads, whatever it's the spshopcom. We'll put all these links down below. Then I figured before we got out of here we could take a little bit of comments. Love my mic.
Speaker 3:You want me to read them, honey?
Speaker 1:Yes, please.
Speaker 3:I'll get my glasses on.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Me and my glasses. Okay, catherine Olson, at Jay, they all went up within 24 hours. No secret anymore. There you go, but we have lots of secret things in the work. So, as we mentioned, go to the aftermathfoundationorg. Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on social media. Subscribe to the aftermath foundationorg. Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on social media. Subscribe to the youtube channel. We have so many announcements coming. Daniel, danielle chamberlain so good to see you here, danielle. Thank you for the super sticker. We appreciate it. Betsy, sue, just call me betsy. Bravo, I'm in tears. Thank you for all you do, absolutely, and thank you for Everyone here for supporting the work that the Michael J Rinder Aftermath Foundation does. It's deeply moving to know that there are so many people out there that support this cause. Necessary trouble, the courage and perseverance you all have shown in fighting this cult is mind blowing.
Speaker 1:Kudos to all of you, thank you have shown in fighting this cult is mind-blowing. Kudos to all of you, thank you, yes, and thanks for phil and alex for uh joining in and and helping it's. It's always amazing when um people that are have all left can work together and we can kind of, you know, use uh our, our talents to help uh other others do get to where we're at, sort of thing.
Speaker 3:Yes, because everyone knows we have a very wide set of talents. Transfer of Madness, any plans for other billboards in different cities? Many yes, stay tuned, kristen.
Speaker 2:H. We're only just getting started.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, there's one thing I think we've all proven we cannot be shut down. What Scientology cannot take away from us is hope and persistence. Kristen H, thank you all. I'm in SoCal near Gold but told the hubby I want to drive any photos to social at the aftermath foundationorg of any photos of these billboards. We would love to post your photos on the foundation's social media awesome love it. Wow, I never considered how much work goes into these fantastic job all you know, last year there was one up and they shut us down.
Speaker 4:What do we do? We came back with 20.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, Lupita, I really admire the work you all do. Your message is clear and it's obvious. You're in it for the right reasons. All that hard work doesn't go unnoticed. Thank you so much and again I can never say it enough Thank you to everybody who supports the work that we do. We could not do it without you.
Speaker 2:And I don't want to speak on your behalf or anything but for me if these billboards just get one person to come out, if we have one person reach out and contact the Aftermath Foundation and say, hey, I saw the billboard and that was my trigger to leave. For me that makes it all worth it. Just one person, right?
Speaker 3:you, you and me, and all of us, we are absolutely 100 that this is, this is the message that we need to get to the people trapped in this cult. For sure, gilles jakeilles, jacques, you should make bumper stickers with them. Okay, yes, Good idea.
Speaker 1:I haven't been able to figure out how to do that on fourth wall, but I think when I saw that comment I actually just thought of a way that we can do it.
Speaker 3:Glenda Stevenson question. Has there been any backlash yet from the cult about the billboards?
Speaker 4:Not yet Haven't heard yet Well. I've been kind of keeping an ear to the ground on that, but I haven't heard any anything negative come back yet.
Speaker 3:Yes, and shout out to everybody who has helped us to get the word out about this campaign, including all the work you've been doing Phil, you, alex, tony Ortega put up a whole big article, as we've shown here today. So to everybody that has helped, we appreciate it. We could not do this work without you, melanie Johnson. Bravo to Lamar, too, for not backing down to bullies 100%. Oh my gosh, I think between all of us we have stories for days about people who back down to bullies Coffee, milk, dude. Good to see you here. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you, that's very generous. One or two last ones here.
Speaker 3:Glenda Stevenson, it's wonderful that you've posted the billboards again. Thank you so much. It's nice to get back to what was the original purpose of ex-Scientologists coming forward? Yes, indeed. Well, we've always been doing it, but yes, agreed.
Speaker 2:It's such a strong signal that we're here. We stand united, ready and willing to help and they can't take that away from us, no matter what they try, what legal threats they throw at us, what you know backlash, having my door kicked in and all this other fair game stuff no matter what, they cannot change that. We are going to work together as a team, collaborate and help people get out.
Speaker 3:Completely, and that has always, by the way, been Scientology's biggest beef with Mark and I since 2006 is that we just wouldn't stop connecting people, talking to people, holding SP parties, bringing people together. They just literally we drive them nuts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for a little while we were doing this thing in Los Angeles, where we would go to a lake that was about maybe an hour and a half north of Los Angeles and we had jet skis and we'd have SP jet ski parties and I would just invite any and all ex-Seahawk members or Scientology people that we knew.
Speaker 3:Even Anonymous came to those too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anonymous came. I think some OSA people came to a few parties. I mean, we let everybody go to these parties and we'd go jet skiing at Lake Pyramid for the day and we did them. I want to say that we did those for a few years. Like at least one summer we were going like almost every single weekend when it was hot and I'd go up on Friday night the night before and get in line with the jet skis at the lake.
Speaker 3:Sleep in the back of the car waiting in line the jet skis at the lake. Sleep in the back of the car waiting in the car.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was wild. Yeah, anyway, this is uh, this is a little uh, this is a little less gas money doing billboards like this than uh running for two skis all day long. Okay, few last comments and then we'll get out of here, guys, thank you. Thanks for sticking in there till the end of year.
Speaker 3:Yes, melanie Johnson, I can only imagine the scrambling Scientology is doing right now. Yes, exactly, exactly, rebecca. The billboards also continue to remind the public that Scientology is so crazy that people in the cult need help. Exactly, and that is what's most important, by the way, to me personally and I know to everyone most important, by the way, to me personally and I know to everyone, you know, mark Phil Alex, is that the abuses stop and that innocent people stop being hurt. That's what is at the top of my priority list 100%.
Speaker 4:It also helps prevent people from going in because people see that kind of message. And if I look at I got in back in 1969, my brother, my sister, then they've got kids, they've got grandkids. I mean there's like 15 people behind me that got in just after I did. So one person getting in could bring in family members. So if you prevent one person coming in it can be a big deal of not bringing in an entire family.
Speaker 2:Totally Part of this billboard campaign as well is you get the statistics of the footfall and the vehicle traffic that goes past the billboards. This campaign is estimated to reach just under 2 million people every single week. That it's up right and, like I said, if just one of those is a SEAL member, fantastic. But that's a whole bunch of just members of the public that are now informed. Scientology is an organization you need help leaving from, and I think that's huge.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 3:I agree completely, Terry Ray. You all make such a good team. I'm so proud of you all. Thank you. As we've been saying, teamwork makes a dream work. Todd Johnson, more billboards need fundraising for this. Yes, agreed, and, as we mentioned, you can go to the aftermathfoundationorg. We do have billboards there as a campaign that you can specifically support. So if you choose to do that, those funds are restricted for use in the billboard campaign. And again, thank you. Scientology Money Project OSA Anti-Aftermath Foundation Billboard. Ot Emergency Committee Meeting at PAC, donations being raised.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right, jeff, there you, you go these billboards the dev t right completely developed traffic, so we don't give anyone a misunderstood word.
Speaker 1:My apology I can just imagine scientology assigning an ot from the ot committee. Okay, you're like they have to. They basically have to farm these out like they're. Somebody has to be responsible for covering or getting rid of, or uh doing something, even just going to find them.
Speaker 4:Initially. You go out and find out where they all are.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right oh, that's the other thing if anybody watching this lives in LA and sees one take a selfie or take a picture and send it to us. We'd love to see them all. We're not in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3:Yeah, send it to social at the aftermath foundationorg and we will share that. I wanted to answer this question from Betsy Sue. Well, they put up curtains on the inside of the vans so the people being transported can't see out. Yes, there is a possibility they might do that, but even then it plants the seed to the people inside the van what can't I see outside that window, and it will plant a seed of curiosity that may take root. And so there you have it.
Speaker 2:And also people will walk between buildings as well. Right, it's like you won't get a car from one side of the street to the other and yes, we know there are some tunnels in some of the buildings, but like there are so many of them, like it's going to be impossible to restrict the view of every single one of them for every single seal member. It's. It's frankly impossible, and that's the point totally, completely awesome guys.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, um, I think we got all of them. They got, uh, we got that last one there. Um, as we normally do here at the end, here, um again, I'll put up the link to the aftermath foundation store where we basically sell all the merch. There's Mike Rinder bobbleheads, leah bobbleheads and signed headshots. You can get all that stuff there. We also have SP bracelets. Those are still selling. We've got all kinds of signs through those.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let me add too, at the spshopcom and also from the Aftermath Foundation website, you can also get the printed cards. If you'd like to hand those out and share them with people, all that we ask is that you cover the cost of shipping. We print them and ship them to you. Anyway, yes, those have also proven very effective. Which cards are those?
Speaker 2:It's the Aftermath.
Speaker 3:Foundation cards and there's curious ones. We have curious, curious, you know, yeah.
Speaker 4:I had some printed up with the Need Help, Leaving artwork on it. I had some cards printed up and sent to a friend of mine in LA who goes around the buildings and he's going to hand them out to any Sea Org members he sees.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we have those. They all have the phone number on it. Yes, perfect. We have stocks of all the different designs of those cards, including the billboard one.
Speaker 4:Oh great, okay, so for future, then I'll have them.
Speaker 1:We can just send them to you, we have boxes and boxes.
Speaker 2:And I've got bunches of the ones with the UK phone number on as well. So if anyone in the UK wants the UK number, let me know and I can send you a bunch from here.
Speaker 1:Awesome Teamwork makes the dream work. Thanks guys, we really appreciate you joining us for this. And yeah, we do have some fundraising stuff for the Aftermath that's coming up in the next few weeks. So if you sign up at theaftermathfoundationorg you can be alerted to that and then otherwise, we'll put all the links of all the different stuff we talked about we'll put all of that down below in the video description.
Speaker 2:Anybody got anything else. I meant it when.
Speaker 3:I said I'm not messing around, we're only just getting started, right? Yes, 100%.
Speaker 4:Yes, stay tuned until next time bye guys, thanks a lot.
Speaker 1:Thanks for watching. If you'd like to help support the channel, feel free to check out the merch store link in the description. We have hail xenu xenu is my homeboy and bft branded mouse pads, shirts, mugs, all sorts of other stuff in there that helps us to bring you new content on a regular basis. You can also pick up a copy of my book Blown for Good Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology in hardback, kindle and audible versions as well. There's also a link to our podcast and you can get that on Apple, spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you'd like to watch another video, you can click on this link right here, or you can click on this one here, or you can click on the subscribe button right here. Thanks a lot, until next time.
