But one must realize a few truths about the church if the campaign is going to be successful in the long run. Anonymous may have won the first few battles, but the war is a long way off from victory.

Firstly, the church is a very centralized organization and is to all extents and purposes controlled by one person, David Miscavige. There is much speculation amongst Scientologists outside the church about whether Miscavige is the true controller of church organizations, or whether he is merely a puppet…

Speculation aside, being the leader of the church, Miscavige is the correct target for attack in this campaign. He is the one not following Scientology policy, he is the one altering the tech so it doesn’t work as well (thus people feeling cheated about it), and he is the one who is doing most of the abuse, whether physically to his closest staff at Int, or mentally, to church members at events, with his lies and spin.

Once the person who controls the machine is removed, the machine comes to a halt. Thus victory.

There is a mass of material about Miscavige to use in the attack against him, so I won’t go into this now. I include in this focus of attack the protest of the church’s tax exempt status as being an attack on Miscavige, RTC and the Church of Spiritual Technology (who OWN the copyrights of Scientology materials and license them to RTC/Miscavige).

Another important challenge that Anonymous faces is that of the Church of Scientology members. This needs a bit of a preamble…

There are thousands of church members. And from what I saw at my local church org, and at an advanced org, most of these members had 2 characteristics:

1. They are young, mostly under the age of 50, probably most are between 20-40. I didn’t see many older Scientologists in the church (most of them are in the freezone.)

The fact that most church members are younger than 50 means that they can be members for many decades. They can fight for their organization, grow their organization, and gain a larger influence on society during this time.

2. They KNOW they are spiritual beings who live forever. And they know they are powerful. And they have great motivation and dedication in changing the world using Scientology as their philosophic machine.

This one is quite heavy, and it may go over the top of some people’s heads. The realization that one is a spiritual being and not just a one life body is a deep and powerful one. It’s important that everybody realizes that they are a spiritual being, and that the physical universe is our playground, our videogame. Unfortunately, this game has turned into a Matrix-type situation – people are trapped and they don’t know it.

This is the modus operandi of a Scientologist: realize you are a spiritual being with infinite creative potential and help others do the same. And that’s all a Scientologist is trying to do, including the one’s in the church.

So although it looks like they just want your money, the average church member doesn’t actually benefit financially from people’s donations. They want people to get auditing and training so they can realize their own spiritual nature and potential. For more information about this check out The Philosophy of Scientology.

The people in the church are having out of body experiences and recalling past lives, despite the degradation of the tech. Most of the staff, who are extremely dedicated to the church, are so because of their spiritual gains (although some were born into the organization who haven’t had much spiritual gain).

The combination of their young body age and high spiritual awareness means they have some horsepower as people. Add to that the mental manipulation that goes on in the church, the cult trappings most hate about it, and you’ve got a deadly combination.

The church has been slowly decreasing in numbers since the late 80’s due to internal factors – people getting expelled at the drop of a hat and off-policy and out-tech practices. I doubt Anonymous’ current protests are going to make church members quit the organization, it’s the church that makes people quit the church. I can guarantee that the average CofS member thinks the protests on the church are attacks on Scientology (not helped by signs during protests that read Scientology Sucks etc). So Anonymous probably won’t help shrink the numbers of church members using it’s current strategy.

Generally, members aren’t likely to just up and leave the organization because it means the loss of the tech (they don’t know the tech exists outside the church.) Thus the church will continue to persist, and it’s potential of expansion and a widening influence on society is always going to remain, at least for the next 30-50 years…

Will Anonymous guard the entrances to the church for 50 years?

Will they stay legion for the long haul?

There is another option. There is no need for a long drawn out war. Anonymous needs to win the trust of the church members, whilst at the same time attack the source of the problem – Miscavige, RTC and the Church of Spiritual Technology.

The big question then is how to win over the trust of the members of the Church of Scientology?

The answer is actually very simple: give them a Scientology alternative. This is where the freezone and independent field comes into the equation…

The church members need to be engaged personally about the church and the tech. They need to know that the tech exists outside the church. This can be done by signs that promote this fact, and by engaging with them on a more two-way basis.

Remember, church members won’t use the internet or at least won’t look up anything online about Scientology, and they certainly pay little attention to the mainstream media. So even if anonymous became headline news for the BBC and ABC, chances are, Scientologists in the church wouldn’t find out about it. This means a new type of operation needs to be conducted. A peaceful engagement in conversation with church members as civilians (not masked anonymous protesters.)

Obviously this needs to be done at a different time to protest dates, otherwise it looks suspect in the eyes of the church member (if they know that protests have been going on that day, they are likely to be in high alert mode to people’s behaviour around them.)

Now to engage in conversation with a church member doesn’t mean to stalk them and “accidentally” bump into them at a coffee shop or convenience store. It means that one would have to engage in conversation when they are disseminating – i.e. when they are doing stress tests, or when they are in their orgs and you want a “tour”.

During their dissemination one could engage in a serious conversation about scientology, the church and the freezone. Be sincere, state you think the tech sounds great, but you have your concerns about the church. Be totally positive about the tech, but raise serious, but not hostile reservations about the church…

Ask questions like:

“Is there other places to get auditing?”

“How does the church differ from the freezone?”

“Considering we are dealing with my spiritual freedom, why should I trust you more than Scientologists outside the church?”

Be genuine, non-hostile and sincere in these “innocent” questions and the barrier the CofS member might put up if you are hostile or sound insincere, might not go up, and the communication might penetrate and have an effect on them…

This, to some degree, is an operation of infiltration.

Now I’ve heard rumours that Anonymous plans to infiltrate the church and gain powerful positions in order to try and destroy it from the inside. Well, if this is true, it seems that it would be the second campaign of infiltration the church has suffered from: the first in the 70’s, meant the church got taken over and controlled by the CIA and IRS, and now the second “wave” of infiltration, if there is one, could possibly succeed in destroying the church completely. I personally feel that infiltration of this magnitude is unnecessary and that the following strategy is all that is needed for a successful and fast campaign…

Strategy Summary for a Successful Final Victory Against the Church of Scientology

1. Attack Miscavige, RTC and Church of Spiritual Technology. The material is there and Miscavige should be behind bars. Though he won’t be captured until he loses support from church members, who are his only protection. Remember, get the madman who operates the machine and the machine will come to a halt. Supporting this angle of attack is the fight against the church’s tax exempt status.

2. Win the trust of the church members. They need to know there is a scientology alternative (standard tech of course) for them if they leave the church. The freezone is a safe place for church members, and they will be welcomed with open arms. Signs at protests are one way to get that message across. But actual two-way communication with them when they have their guard down is required, and it needs to be done very subtlety.

Without handling the church members the church will always be a threat, for decades to come.

3. Continue with the campaign of alerting the general public about the dangers of the church of scientology. However, Anonymous needs to tread more carefully than it has done, as the general public is alert to religious intolerance. For example, see the tibet issue across the globe right now. So don’t lose the support of the general public by protesting against the religious beliefs of scientologists. Signs like “Scientology Sucks” negate this important factor.

Generalizations like “Scientology is a cult” and other such things again negate the aims of Anonymous. People are aware that the church is not quite right, but they also realize that the the subject is probably valid in some aspects. Using the word Scientology when referring to the Church of Scientology minimizes the focus of the protest message, and comes across as either ignorant and rude, or “not quite right”.

Additionally, when/if a church member sees that kind of message, they are going to think it’s the tech that’s being attacked, and the chances of winning their trust deteriorates.

Yet another factor about using these anti-scientology messages is that it offends, or least loses the support of freezone scientologists.

The fact of the matter is that there are more Scientologists outside the church than inside. And during the last protest there was even some support and presence from these Scientologists, but what I feel is stopping ALL freezone scientologists from lending a hand in this campaign is that they are not sure whether Anonymous REALLY means what it says when it states that it is NOT against the beliefs or practices of Scientology. There’s been too many signs that contradict that statement.

Thus, Anonymous really needs to clean up this part of their campaign and REALLY focus their message on the CHURCH of scientology.

This ends my discussion on Anonymous’ campaign, and I hope this has proved useful and thought provoking to those interested in Anonymous vs. The Church of Scientology.

Thank You Anonymous! Your promise to concentrate on the church and not protest against scientology is appreciated and leaves me hopeful for what can be accomplished at your next protest in March.

It was Anonymous’ protests on Sunday that spurred me on to start posting my views in this blog. I had already decided to create a blog and bought the domain a few months ago, but the protests gave me the inspiration to act and raise my voice.

I could be overly critical of Anonymous or praise them too much, but my considerations rest somewhere inbetween. I think they’re doing some things correctly and are a positive activist group. But on the other hand I feel that they need to streamline and focus their efforts in a way that will be more effective, and less hypocritical. Let me start at the beginning, when Anonymous started to create some effects…

The first action they did was to take down some of the Church of Scientology’s main websites. Okay, now this isn’t legal, but I see that they’re just displaying their power, and that it’s an act of civil disobedience. A way to kick off their campaign. I personally disagree with this type of action, as it’s illegal and to put it simply, makes them look bad. As far as I’m aware they’ve ceased this illegal action, but it may hurt them in the long term…

So what are Anonymous’ aims and purposes?

They simply state that they want to destroy the Church of Scientology, as per their Youtube videos.

And they give valid reasons why too. Personally, I would like to see the church REFORM back to how it was in the 70’s (before it was taken over), minus the Guardians Office, (I don’t think a church should have an intelligence department and still be able to call itself a church.)

Anonymous arrived with a big purpose and a big threat, and so far they’ve delivered on it. Their protests on the 10th showed they were strong in numbers, about 7,000 protesters. That’s quite impressive and no protests on the church have ever been that big. Well done Anonymous!

But it wasn’t just the numbers that impressed me, it was the energy. These guys and girls seem to be quite young, mostly late teens and early 20’s, and they truly believe in what they’re protesting about. I have no problem with people protesting in the peaceful manner that they did.

But I do have some criticisms to make of their protests…

Firstly, Anonymous state that they want to destroy the Church of Scientology, and have nothing against scientology itself or the belief system. Yet, looking at some of the signs displayed from youtube videos and picture galleries, I did notice a few “Scientology Kills” messages and lots of Xenu type stuff. If Anonymous REALLY believes what they say, then this needs to be avoided in future protests, otherwise it comes across as being a lie, saying one thing, doing another – just what the church often does!

Anonymous needs to focus their protest MESSAGE so that they are more effective in winning over the general public AND having an effect on the CofS members too. They need to remember that the majority of church members are good people, intelligent people, compassionate people, and very driven. It is only a few bad eggs in the management that are causing the troubles. And so the management needs to be addressed…

This requires that Anonymous does the research necessary to understand what happened in the church in the early 80’s, how David Miscavige gained power, and what he’s done with it since.

It also requires, in my view, a look at the US governments interactions with the church since the early 50’s. The church is basically run from the top, by a very few people – and everyone else in the church has to follow their orders, even if they’re non-scientological (otherwise you pretty much have to leave.) I can also recommend Pat Krenik’s book “Scientology(tm) vs. Scientology(tm)” which can be bought from eBay as an eBook.

So what slogans can I recommend that will have an effect on the church members?

“Church of Scientology = CIAology”
“Church of Altered Tech”
“Disconnect From David Miscavige”
“David Miscavige Declared SP”
“Where’s Heber Jentzsch?”
“Get Standard Tech Outside the Church”
“F/N Alteration + GAT + High Prices = Squirrelled Tech & Off Policy”

These messages might stand a chance of affecting church members to look at important questions, questions which if answered will lead them out of the church.

Whilst these slogans have meaning for Scientologists, what about messages for the general public who aren’t scientology literate?

Well, again I don’t recommend attacking the beliefs or tech of scientology, but concentrate on crimes committed by the church, of which there are many.

One last point that’s worthy of mentioning is the association of masked protesters and activists to the Ku Klux Klan. It is very clever of the church to create this association in their statements about Anonymous…

The problem is that by being masked, it does look freaky and scary from an outside perspective. It looks threatening and fear-inducing, which Anonymous obviously has no problems with, but looking scary might backfire in the long term by losing general public support. I’m not sure I have a solution for this…

…But as long as it’s Anonymous’ only weakness in the future, and as long as they focus their protests in a more productive manner, the fact that they look freaky and scary probably won’t make much difference, IMO.