From: plmlp@mail.bris.ac.uk (Martin Poulter)
Subject: PICKET REPORT: Poole, 2nd August
Date: 1997/08/03
Message-ID: <EEC7yu.Mvy@fsa.bris.ac.uk>#1/1
Organization: University of Bristol, England
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,uk.local.southwest,solent.general

[Follow-ups set to ARS only]

Yesterday from 1pm to 4pm, six people staged a peaceful protest in Poole High Street about the aggressive and deceptive recruiting used by the Scientology/Dianetics organisation. This was part of an international series of Internet-organised protests. Unlike previous such protests, the two sides mostly kept apart from each other and the protestors were able to make their point to the public without being harassed or abused by the scientologists. The public response was very enthusiastic and supportive as always.

To see why people are angry at the Scientology organisation, see
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/mpoulter/scum.html

For previous picket reports from the UK (including Poole), see
http://www.demon.co.uk/castle/scientology.html#Pickets

The protest involved Dave B, Jens T, myself (Martin P), two friends who had attended the other Poole pickets, and an older lady, also a veteran picketer, who has a family member in the cult. We had with us Duke, the toy dog with water-wings (in honour of dog which was allegedly drowned by the Scientologists when its owner, Judge Swearinger, found against them in an important case). Jens was dressed as Xemu the space alien (from the Scientology confidential scripture, which they claim to be a "religious trade secret") and we had plenty of Xemu balloons. Handing out free balloons to children was definitely a pleasurable aspect of the day.

The previous picket at Poole was *very* confrontational, with one of the Scientologists getting very angry at me and snatching all my leaflets out of my hand. The previous UK picket was at Brighton, where the protestors spent the majority of their time talking to the scientologists themselves rather than to the public. I'm pleased to say that yesterday's protest was very different from both of these. The most unpleasant scientologists from last time were not around, and those that were on the street mostly avoided us. We were photographed, of course, but I've never known a time where Scientology *didn't* take lots of photographs of picketers.

A couple of scientologists' reactions are worth reporting. One bloke with short hair and sunglasses walked by in a Dianetics t-shirt, slowing to a stunned halt as he saw us. He eventually came up to us and asked "WHAT are you DOING???" "We're protesting against Scientology." "What have you got against freedom?" I tried to explain that no matter what it *says*, Scientology vigorously opposes freedom by its *actions*. "Getting thousands of people off drugs? Freeing people from crime?" (Scientology has no independent evidence for these claimed achievements, which seem to be just a disgustingly cynical PR effort). As I tried to reply, he shouted "You people are CRIMINALS!" and stormed off, obviously upset.

The other reaction? Well, we've noticed that the Scientologists are on the whole, very, *very* reluctant- almost *scared*- to look at our leaflets. One bloke, seemingly a recent Scientology recruit, took one and was shouted at by another not to read it. He handed it over to a more senior scieno.

The star protestor of the day was our senior friend, who asked passers-by for signatures on a petition, collecting 139 signatures in less than three hours. Smart, polite and approachable, she had more success with the public than the rest of us could have (great streaks of human wreckage that we are. ;-> ) We were hampered a little by the fact that, standing on the High Street with a clipboard, she looked like a scieno herself.

People were keen to sign the petition, and gave us enthusiastic encouragement. Some of them told us their stories of how they had been affected by Scientology. One person had left years ago but was still getting regular hand-written letters begging her to return. Another claimed that Scientology had ruined her life, and that when she left she had been told not to talk about what she had experienced "or we'll kill you". Again and again, people expressed amazement that the authorities do not do something about such an abusive and deceptive organisation.

I'd like to thank my colleagues for putting the time and effort in to make this another successful picket, and I'd like to thank the scieno's (no, really!) for giving up the more childish tactics they have used on the previous occasions. We're always looking for more people to come along to these events: they are fun, but they have a serious message- Stop Scientology Ruining Lives. Also, if you like debating with people and want to talk to the most smug, closed-minded people anywhere, this is how to find them.

=====
From: jensting@imaginet.fr (Jens Tingleff)
Subject: Picket report: Poole, UK, Sat. Aug. 2nd [Xenu]
Date: 1997/08/03
Message-ID: <jensting-ya02408000R0308971114130001@snews2.zippo.com>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology

Greetings from one of Xemu's little fans!

Having recovered from my arduous train journey (wake up at 5:30 - ugh!), I arrived in Poole, ready for some serious enturbulation.

We had four out of the five "usual suspects" plus one senior FUSS lady (she's also on the 'net though - does that qualify her for most senior Internet based protester?).

With balloons in hand, Duke in tow and Xemu costume in place, we arrived at the usual body-routing hot-spot. This was a doubly positive event, as there was a guitaist playing some nice music and no clams in sight. [To the guitarist: I'm sorry we felt compelled to shout over the music - sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do..]

The first clam response was a young fellow we hadn't seen before (blond crew-cut, shades) who kept his comm short and sour: "You're just a bunch of criminals", he ended.. Somehow, this didn't dissuade us, and we carried right on, distributing Xemu leaflets and "$cientology in Poole" leaflets, as well as getting a nice steady stream of petition signatures. The petition is against "aggressive selling/recruiting techniques in the street, of commercial or religious nature".

When the clams finally started showing up en masse, they were pretty mellow. Also, they didn't try to mount an extensive "counter-protest" like they had the two last times in Poole. Some clams passed by our demo and went into the shop next to the body-routing plaza, but quite a few wouldn't ack our presence. [Common guys, we're always polite, ignoring us won't make us stay away ;-)]

As Roland was otherwise occupied, I wore the Xemu outfit, complete with the rubber mask looking like the very image of a Roswell-incident type alien. The mask is all-enclosing, and I was steaming up pretty badly after 10-15 minutes, and had to stop when my glasses steamed over completely. Also, the mask pretty much prevents you from seing out (except a very small oval veritical slit), so there was a serious problem with avoiding bumping into other pedistrians, what with no peripherial vision and all.

One group of kids thought I was trying to look like Batman, and found that the outfit was cool (they had cyan streaks in their hair, so they were obviously kindred spirits ;-) ). A Xemu leaflet was duly handed out, and they should be giggling all the way to the bank when they do not get entrapped by the $cieno sales pitch..

We got uniformly positive reactions from those members of the public who actually caught on to the fact that we wre "protesting A-GAINST! $cientology". The few people who mumbled obscenities at us were going past so fast that we have no reason to believe that they actually figured out that we weren't clams.

One local person stopped by to thank us and talked about how the clams had ruined this person's life seven years ago. After two years of membership, the person finally got out, but not until after having signed a piece of paper (after having stared into someone's eyes for 20 minutes without blinking..) which was later used to get 8.000 pounds out of the bank account of said ex-member.. This person had quit a high-paying job to join the clams, and was now working a seriously dead-end job, and had gone though three months of "deprogramming". We were told that many young people stayed in the Co$, although they really wanted out, because they didn't have anywhere else to go. Truly a sad description of the organisation which claims to "make the able more able". We learned tha the High Street was known as 'Ambush Alley' because one would get cornered by the clams, sooner or later ;-)

The last hour (or so), I was talking to a $cientologist who had come up and taken a Xemu leaflet. He waited some time before he said he was one of them, but the breezy appearance and eye-contact had tipped me off right from the start.. He carefully studied the front page of the Xemu leaflet, and giggled at the funny names ("who thinks up all this stuff?"). He had not wanted to say that he was a $cientologist, because he wanted our conversation to proceed withut any prejudice. I told him that I ususally have long discussion with $cientologists, and the duscussion don't get nasty through any initiaitive on my side. [I have to admit that this is more true now than it used to be..] We yakked about the Internet, and he said he was thinking about getting it at home, but he was worried about how dificult it was and how addictive it was. I said that sometimes it proves to be difficult, but lots of people have no problems, and I agreed that there is a danger of addiction ;-) I talked about how the Internet allows distribution of information outside the reach of the normal (self) censorship of the media. I also mentioned that $cientology, since its initial violent reaction against Internet based critics, had had its "trade secrets" spread to the winds. and how judges ruled that public interest was more important than ownership. [Maybe I was going a bit far there, is it only one decision, the one in the Netherlands, which states this??]

He claimed to be near to going clear, and Dave and I studiously avoided telling him the clear cog. I like to think I was trying to be nice, but I suspect I was being condenscending (oh well, so are they ;-) ). He talked about how all the stuff in $cientology was "scientific", and how the Hubbard method was to make a prediction and observe the expected result. I almost succeeded in telling him how I think the scientific method works (you have a theory, you design an experiment which is aimed at *dis*-proving the theory, and if the experiment fails, you have to admit that the theory has not yet been disproven - that's as good as itgets, in Real Life[tm]). I told him that I didn't know of *any* available evidence, like case notes etc, which supported book 1. He did manage to avoid some of the issues I raised, but I was equally guilty of stearing his conversation down side-tracks, so I guess we came out equally bad ;-) I ended up stressing that I didn't think that his anecdotal (positive) evidence was any stronger than my anecdotal (negative) evidence, and why did he think so? He didn't have an answer to that...

He came across as having bought the claims in $cientology, hook line and sinker. When we started talking about the tone scale, he also said that the "dispose of quietly and without sorrow" of low-tone individuals was obviously an example of the famout Hubbard toungue-in-cheek writing style, like the remark about "running off to Bulgravia". When he said that one could judge a person by their action, and used that in a long drawn-out discussion of the tone-scale, I asked about how he would describe an un-diagnoed manic-depressive who, in the manic phases, is observed by everyone to be "all right" - in fact, even more active and positive than usual. I thought that sounded like haviong a nice high tone level, while at the same time being part of an illness which has a very dramatic down-side. He started talking about how "one could have a manic engram", at which point I had to say that I didn't think there was any such thing as an engram, and described the 50's experiment aimed at finding the engram (which failed, although some Hubbard Dianetics association was co-operating..). He also said he believed that humans were made up of three parts: the body, the mind and the thetan. I had to admit, that to me, all thee is a body (and thinking is just some more-or-less random chemical processes).

We talked about the RJ67 tape, and I asked if the Govenor of England was still one of the 12 men running to world, and if the position in the ruling body followed the peron, or the position. He grinned, and said it would be nice with an updated version of rj67..

I talked about the many stories we hear about harmful effects of $cientology processing, including people not getting medical assistance for cancers, etc. He said he had an OT8 lodging with him who had suspected a cancer, and been to a doctor for examination. I countered with NOT 34, about how physical illness was a problem with Body Thetans. He said that there was a plague down at he Dianetics center talking about how one should see a doctor about a physial problem, and how OT5 addressed the mind rather than the body. I do not myself know if NOT 34 is in new OT5, but if it is, it seems like an interesting thing for someone who isn't even clear to know..

All in all, like with the Brighton protest, either the clams have a ready supply of high-level people with brilliant TRs, or there are some normal people who can hold a conversation and to some extend exchange information. In the former case, it doesn't really buy them anything (he did guess that I was from Denmark, but I didn't tell him my name - "it's on the Internet" is what I usually (correctly) say to that question). They *do* tie us up from yelling at the general public, but just in case these people are not hard-core OSA, one just might sow some seeds of doubt. Anyway, they have to put new people on us every time (they spent two of their guys, this time), and if it's an op, they'll run out of vetted staff before we stop protesting...

There were quite a few clams I had not seen before, and I tried to get good pictures of all of them. Images on my Web-pages (off the
http://www.imaginet.fr/~jensting/muslinger/protest-map.html
entry page) in a few days.

There's no such thing as a bad demo, and we'll be even better when we get our picket-sign act together. We'll be back!

Much suppression (to the Co$) Jens

=====
From: Dave Bird---St Hippo of Augustine <dave@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Subject: POOLE(UK) picket report, Sat 2nd Aug 1997
Date: 1997/08/03
Message-ID: <5oFqUhASq94zEwho@xemu.demon.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology,solent.general,uk.local.southwest

THIRD PICKET OF SCIENTOLOGY IN POOLE.

This is the third picket of the Scientology cult in Poole, all during the spring and summer of 1997. The first time was all very new for both sides. The second we had introduced stuff like a guy costumed as the space tyrant XEMU from their expensive secret scriptures, and 100 "XEMU Loves You" helium balloons to hand out for the kids. The third time both sides were getting a little weary.

I rose in the very early hours of Saturday morning, and packed up the alien costume etc which I'd fetched from Roland last week (he was away in France); I forgot to grab the megaphone, as I had a fair weight of stuff already. Arrived in Poole around noon, and was met by Martin Poulter. There were a mighty half dozen of us: Martin plus two down from Bristol, Jens from Paris, a FUSS lady, and myself. The Bristol people lugged the cylinder out of the car and inflated about 60 of the 100 balloons to walk down with us---with only a few of us they didn't bother taking it down to site in the car.

We marched off through the precinct and down the pedestrianised high street to "old market". Big surprise --- no clams in sight! Usually there are at least five recruiters with clipboards and more turn out to greet us. A quick recce showed all three of their buildings very quiet and inactive. After a while they turned up in a rather dilatory way, eventually equalling our numbers but hardly or presence: they were very subdued.

Eventually they turned out the three female body routers skinny, grumpy and curly, plus another guy I call "porrige" as he's thick bland and grey. There was also a new one, the crewcut astronut, who was definitely not of this world. He accused the big fella from Bristol of invading his bit of outer space, and ordered him to depart ("what does he think I am -- an ashtray?"). The astronut wore a rather fetching dianetics tee-shirt. It's possible he may be an outside import.

The tall thin guy sat on the bench watching us, and a short tubby woman with a brown pigtail -- looks bit like their former reg Andrea -- later joined him. Somebody said she was supposed to be the new head of the mission: has Cancer Man (Malcolm), holder of the world speed smoking record, been displaced? I think they have lost one or two auditors over "the golden age of tech", and are in bad shape....the course rooms are *not* busy.

We were fairly quiet. I was tired from the early start and without the megaphone, so was mostly back to Jens who did most of the sloganising -- "we are protesting AGAINST scientology" -- and wore the space alien costume. The FUSS lady did sterling work on petitions and got abour 150 signatures in two hours. It was a nice mellow picket; we had a busker playing mostly classical stuff (bagatelle fur elise) on electric guitar, which gave it a nice mood. There was a big airshow up the road at Swannage, and a couple of classic jets -- a Venom(?) and a Meteor--did one or two flypasts over the town. The clams were very much at effect; with a couple more people and a bit more assertiveness, we could have walked all over them completely. Near the beginning, one public Scn was quite engaged with us, when the astronut ordered him away: "you don't want to read that, Dave" (the Xemu leaflet). But he put it in his pocket and did not hand it over.

The clams *did* try to keep up body routing despite opposition. I was amazed that they managed to get someone to go with them despite a heckler--me--nearby saying "this is Scientology, they want your money, they are trying to sign you up for a #1500 course," etc, and trying to hand the punters XEMU leaflets. The clams are very good at manipulating social conventions, making it appear they own the street and are in private conversation "ignore him". Well, after all, they've trained and drilled at dissem, whicle I was newly trying intervention. With one couple, she wanted to go up to the shop but he had the XEMU leaflet; curly tired to get him to hand it over, I suggested he should keep it and he did. In another, they got this truck driver to go along, but I follwed them right to the door of the precinct and hit the right button: "they want your money, fifteen hundred quid, mate!" "Money? they'll get no money out of *me*". Ten minutes later he came back past the protest: "that didn't last long" he said.

One guy appeared (probably OSA) and tied Jens up in conversation, but otherwise they didn't really try to confront. The public were very supportive as usual. I tried to swap one of my leaflets for one of theirs but they wouldn't do it; so I got one from the rubbish bin, where theirs were in plentiful supply. Only one clam leaflet was in use, a standard 1/4 length of A4 strip advertising the Dianetics book. They were very downstat and didn't use of the weight of their numbers at all, quite often they would wander off and leave only one or two people facing the six of us. All in all, not a bad day out at all....