Ed McMahon sent me a letter stating that I may
already be a winner in the Publisher's
Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.

What a coincidence. He sent one to a good friend of mine.

Here's a true story about Ed McMahon. He used to be a lackey for Arthur Godfrey, a sort of corny, ukelele-playing variety show host. Once my dad was in the city on business, with some time to kill, so he sat in on an Arthur Godfrey show. He knew a guy who was a real fan, so he decided to stay afterwards and ask Godfrey for his autograph.

Well, Ed was assigned crowd control, so when my dad followed the line toward where autographs were being signed, Ed asked him what he wanted. Dad handed him his program and said, "An autograph." So Ed said "Sure." But instead of taking the program to Godfrey, he promptly signed the program himself! With his own name!

What audacity... Well, the ironic thing is that
most folks in the US know who Ed McMahon is, but
few people remember who Arthur Godfrey is.

Oh, we oldies remember him well!

Well, of course I've heard of Arthur Godfrey, but
Ed McMahon, after all, had "Star Search."(Which ended
up being like the Gong Show, sans gong)

I never heard of Star Search, and didn't know Ed McMahon had his own show. But Arthur Godfrey's show was a little like that, in that he often brought young and/or unknown people onto his show, hoping to help their careers take off. I think this happened at least several times, but I can't think of anyone specifically. I didn't watch his show much. Didn't watch TV much back then, either.

Now that I think about it, LRH shared some of those McMahonisms! He wanted the credit, and he wanted it under a bright limelight. Never mind that Piltdown Man and some of the volcanoes didn't exist.

Everyone wanted to be Ed Sullivan and wanted to
discover Elvis, the Beatles, the Stones, and the
Doors. Too bad... So sad...

The Piltdown Man existed: It was L. Ron Hubbard's
alter-ego. The volcanoes existed: Just look at the
craters on Hubba-Bubba's face. The rest of that
poisonous shit existed and was born out of the
poison that resided in the black, craven, and lying
heart of L. Ron Hubbard. L. Ron Hubbard, Jim Jones,
Charlie Manson, Sun Myung Moon, Shoko Asahara... All
of them wanted much more than to be Ed Sullivan. They
wanted to be Christ, and even convinced themselves that
they were. And it doesn't matter how many people they
have to lie to, kill, or coerce into believing. The
ends justifies the means to these kinds of people.

It's been a long time since anyone wrote here. Thought you all would appreciate a more recent story. I got my money back recently after a 3 month rig-a-ma-role. But I did get it back. I didn't ask for a refund of any classes I had already taken, just for what I had paid in advance for and wouldn't be taking. Thanks to reading this first and other web sites, I got out without a ruckus. I'm afraid if I say too much about how I got it to come to pass, I will end up being identified. I didn't even try to get IAS membership $ back. Strangely, my phone has been awfully quiet recently, thank God! I'm not getting solicited anymore. The websites exposing Scientology and LRH have saved my life. Thanks to those of you who bravely have told your stories so that people like me could learn the truth. I had my suspicions, but once I read your stories and the websites, I listened to myself and departed. I never got swallowed up like so many others I've read about, but I still blew a tidy sum of money and a number of years, time and attention. I didn't go on staff because I could never quite justify the low pay and long hours plus maniac devotion. My intuition served me well, and you folks that much better. I am most grateful.

Nice to hear from you Judith and congratulations on getting your money back.

Good for you Judith.

Please post your whole story when you are ready. We'd love to hear it.

Welcome to posting on Clambake!

Welcome, Judith! Congratulations on getting your money back. It's good to know that people ARE being helped by this message board. As Galileo said, please post your whole story if you have the time and inclination. Nice to meet you.

Maybe time for a re-post of the policy - see below.

Welcome, Judith! So glad you are free.

Below is the Church of Scientology's refund policy as stated to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service during negotiations for tax-exempt status. According to this policy, former members can obtain refunds easily and quickly.

If you want a refund, I suggest that you write a letter to your CoS org and request one. Include a copy of this policy if you wish. Be sure to keep copies of all correspondence with the org and make notes of any phone conversations.

If you don't receive a refund promptly, I recommend that you seek the help of an attorney, who can write a letter on your behalf to encourage action.

Also, if you don't receive a speedy refund, please write a letter (including copies of your correspondence with CoS) to the House Ways & Means Committee. This is the congressional committee that oversees IRS operations, and committee members would want to know whether an organization granted tax-exempt status by the IRS is or is not adhering to its stated policy. That address is:

Committee on Ways and Means
U.S. House of Representatives
1102 Longworth House Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20515
Attn: Hon. Bill Thomas, Chairman.

The following is the Church of Scientology's written response to IRS questions as part of Form 1023 filing. This information can be verified at the Exempt Organizations Reading Room in the IRS office in Washington, D.C. This document was created specifically to answer IRS questions on CoS public policy and is available for public viewing and reproduction; there is no indication that any of the wording is copyrighted material. However, in the event that some portions of the document may contain material copyrighted by the Church of Scientology or its affiliated organizations, I hereby assert that the following quotation is Fair Use because: (1) The purpose is criticism and comment. (2) I do not conduct commerce of any kind in connection with this quoted material. (3) The portion of text quoted is brief. (4) My quoting this excerpt does not supplant demand for the original work nor affect marketability of CoS copyrighted materials.

If the Church of Scientology attempts to use legal threats to silence this Fair Use, those attempts will be publicized to the media, to EFF's Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, anti-SLAPP organizations, the GILC, IFEA and DFC.

BEGIN FAIR USE QUOTE:
It has been a long-standing policy of the Church that if someone is dissatisfied with their Scientology services and asks to have their contributions returned within a three month period, these amounts will be returned. Likewise, if the person asks for return of contributions for which no services were received (i.e. an advance payment), there is no three month limitation period. Anyone newly enrolling in services at a Church of Scientology is informed of the policies and signs an agreement to abide by them. As a further condition of receiving a refund or repayment, the person understands that they may not again receive services from the Church.

Within the Church, there are two separate terms: A "refund" refers to a return of contributions to a parishioner within 90 days of participating in religious services while a "repayment" refers to a return of a parishioner's advance payment before he or she has participated in religious services. For simplicity, the following discussion will use the term "refund" to describe both types of transactions, because both involve a return of parishioner contributions.

The Church's refund policy is exceedingly fair. If someone isn't happy with Scientology -- which is a very small minority of people -- he simply has to make a proper request for his donations back, agree to forego further services and his donations will be returned. For the Church, in addition to the fact that this policy aligns with Scientology principles of exchange, it also serves the purpose of allowing our churches and the parishioners who are very happy with Scientology, to carry on without the unhappy few in their midst.
END FAIR USE QUOTE.

- Mary Ann Bosnos

My father got his money back. It was "A/P" money and not for services already rendered/taken, but he did get it back.

Had to do some nagging.

Policies state supposed to be easy to get it back, don't drag it out but those are disregarded.

One reason is that the Org or Mission where the money was on account has to refund it and gets no help from "uplines".

Still, that is no reason to give people a hard time about it but there you are.

People- I think Tory may be one (I know Greg Barnes is) - have gotten IAS money back,too.

Songbird, what a great reference to have! This is something that should be posted on the front page of Clambake.

Thanks!

raised 11th

Thanks, Friend! Maybe I'll ask Andreas if he would like to post it there.

It is posted on Kristi Wachter's website:

http://scientology-lies.com

in the "Need Help?"section.