The $cn SuperPower project's valuable final product is simply this:
A MEMBERSHIP WHICH IS RECOGNIZED AND HONORED FOR LUCRATIVE DONATIONS.

Starting assumptions:
1) The SP building was almost finished more than 2 years ago
2) Construction hasn't happened in 2 years or more
3) The SP building has been fully funded for quite some time (who knows how long?)

We all know that they continue to advertise and collect money from their membership for the project... but you'll notice that there are a few MAJOR elements missing from their big, beautiful glossy full-color 4-panel poster-like brochures that they send out twice per month or more.

These brochures, and the endless letters begging for more money, never mention:
1) WHEN the $uperPower building will be finished
2) What the TARGET DATE is to open the $uperPower rundowns
3) WHAT has to happen before $uperPower will be ready to BE DELIVERED
4) HOW CLOSE they are to being fully funded
5) HOW MUCH MORE they need to complete the project
6) WHAT the hell they have been doing with ALL THE MONEY

What we DO see in the brochures are:
1) A growing number of Cornerstone members (anyone care to count them? The typeface keeps getting smaller and smaller to fit them all)
2) People's "success stories" of how good it made them feel to part with $35,000 or more

In fact, we'll see that going back all the way to at LEAST the year 2000~2001 (if not earlier), THE PRIMARY STATISTIC of the $uperPower project is the membership status levels and how many people are on them.

The major push $uperPower has always been for a member without any honorary status (less than $35,000 in donations) to "move up" their status to become a Cornerstone Member, because the only way to get your name on the big, beautiful glossy full-color 4-panel poster-like brochure is to give them $35,000 to be in the club.

And so it becomes similar in structure to the IAS membership (International Association of $cientologists), with honorary levels:
SUPERPOWER MEMBERSHIP
CORNERSTONE MEMBERS - $ 35,000
KEY CONTRIBUTORS - $ 100,000
FOUNDING MEMBERS - $ 250,000
LEGION OF HONOR - $1,000,000
LEGION OF OT - $1,000,000+?

Keep in mind that $uperPower donations at this time do NOT count towards the purchase price... oops, I mean donation amount, of the actual SP rundown itself. However, I believe that the higher you are in your honorary membership status, the bigger of a "discount" you are "eligible" for when it comes time to actually purchase your Super Powers, which I've personally heard rumored to cost about $40,000.

I find it amazing that for all of $cientology's devout dedication to Thursday 2pm targets and their statistical measurement and deadline-focus on everything, that they can continue to sell people NOTHINGNESS, repeatedly, over and over and over again, without ever once actually mentioning WHEN it's going to happen, a definitive DATE that they are shooting for, no STATISTICS at all to show for their progress towards the goal ever published, not even a funding goal THERMOMETER to show how close they are!!!! They keep publishing how VITAL IT IS to donate to this project now, and the ONLY thing they have to show for it besides an incomplete building, is a membership which is recognized and honored for their lucrative donations. And yet the membership keeps buying into this blue sky promise!!!

We don't even need to get into the other aspects of $uperPower here, such as how this is another "arbitrary" side-track derailment from "The Bridge," how it's their second-largest money-making scam ever conceived, or how the money is being devoured by lawsuits worldwide, or how anybody is ever going to be able to afford it, or how 10 years after the delivery starts (if it ever actually does), it will fall by the wayside, the way the Key to Life courses did, when they come up with their NEXT BIG THING which is the REAL reason why they just can't seem to get this damn planet Cleared!

Whoa, somebody pass me the bong...

Me to, Pawn, I'm a drug revert and proud of it.

Kweeeejit! (zippo opening noise)
Frit, frit! (flint noises)
KerLop! (zippo shutting)

Fweeeeeeeeeeet! Fweeet, fweeet, hoooooooooooosh!
(well carberated hit noises off a joint)

Kerrhak! Hakka hak keeeeehak, gorschlocht!
(coughing up a lunger)
KerThok! (parting company with lunger)
Fwweeeeeeet! Kerhooosh! (more tokes)

Whooooooooooooo (exhaling)

Good shit, man! (passing virtual joint your way, dude, have a hit!)

Quite frankly, there was nothing quite like that first joint after all those years in Swientology.

Pete

I am stunned. Pawn, is there a way you can link to this brochure? (assuming it is on line somewhere). Or are these mailings you get as an ex scientologist? This seems absolutely ludicrous...now I am off to see what I can find about this.

While researching (Googling) the Super Powers Building I found this. It describes LRH's bill paying "technology" LOL. Man, if *I* did that I'd be on every collection agency's list from here to Timbuktoo...HOW DOES CO$ GET AWAY WITH IT???
http://www.ami.com.au/~bradw/cos/Lisa/project.htm

Hubbard wrote that the church was to use a "Dateline Paying" method of paying bills, which means a date in the past is selected according to how much money the department has, and then any bills due past that date are paid. "Tell Accounts, 'Give me every bill we owe prior to August (three months ago).' Add these up. Let's say the amount exceeds our cash. Cut it back one month. Order 'Write cheques for every bill up to July 1.' (That's four months back.) That we can cover fully with cash." (HCOPL of 28 January 1965, "How to Maintain Credit Standing & Solvency") If important bills are overdue and threats are coming in, "Still try to use the above system. But if you can't, pay it and retard other bills accordingly. And thereafter, don't pay that outfit's bill on any other terms than threatened trouble... Be very proud and haughty about bills. NEVER propitiate." (ibid.) "In the case of a tradesman demanding for a bill only slightly overdue you will usually find they have done poor work or slow work if you're at all solvent and paying your bills. Don't say 'We're too poor and we can only send you a little but we will try.' ... Say properly 'I don't see that your bill is much overdue. It takes a bit of time to pay a bill you know. I will check over your account and see if it is all right. And by the way, people who dun us either have insufficient finance to handle our business or something is wrong with their bill. I am setting your bill aside for audit and if you call again about it, we will sever the account." (HCOPL of 28 March 1965, "Emergencies and Accounts Personnel") "Disbursement NEVER pays from a received bill alone. All bills received are first filed in the Disbursement files. Then the file is reviewed as a whole when the time comes to pay bills. It is forbidden to short circuit this line and pay bills just as they drop into the In basket. They are filed. Then all files are reviewed once a month, summated and the result entered in a statement sheet in the file folder and on a Bills Summary Sheet.... when thereafter requested to do so, the Disbursement Section makes out the cheques as indicated or readies the cash." (HCOPL of 6 May 1964, "Accounts Policies"). It appears that bills must go through a lengthy bureaucratic paper shuffle before payment is finally made.

OK..I did a hit on mapquest and it is approx. 2 hours and 15 minutes from my house to Clearwater. I would be willing to drive out there this weekend and take pictures of the construction site if anyone would be interested in seeing these. I'll only go if there is real interest, otherwise it's kind of a long drive. Let me know what you think.
Kathy

Kathy, Pictures would be awesome, but there are a couple things you should know.

There are cameras everywhere on all the scientology buildings. There are also security guards who will be watching, and will probably confront you.

If you decide to go, don't go alone. Take more than one camera, and if one of you is approached by scientology security, or if they call the Clearwater Police, be sure that one of you takes pictures or videos while the other is being questioned. That would be almost as interesting as seeing the unfinished Super Power building!

Good luck!

ps: If you go, pictures of the scientology busses and the empty, closed down business in Downtown would be good too. Also check out the public library ( it's between the Fort harrison and the Sandcastle, on the hill just above the Sandcastle) and see if you can get any shots of the security guards making sure scientologists do not get on the computers.

Seriously, don't go alone! I was really spooked last time I went there!

(Message edited by tammy on July 15, 2005)

Great Kathy,

I want to encourage you to do it!

Let the people know what did NOT happen with all their money.

And yes: Ladybird is right. You should take someone with you for your personal safety and for taking pictures while you might get hassled.

James

PS: I have someone close to me who had been in FLAG last year. I'm shure she has never seen the back side of the building because she had to be in the course room on time. Would be great to show her this flap.


(Message edited by james on July 15, 2005)

Yes, I receive these brochures in the mail about twice per month (as an ex-Scientologist... hmmm, I haven't been one for very long and I'm still getting used to the ring of it!). It is possible that I could scan one of them in sections, put it all together and post it somewhere.

In addition, the $uperPower Expansion Project In-Charge sends several letters per month, always saying the same old thing that they've been saying for at least four years. Their spiel changed significantly, of course, after 9/11, and started attempting to play even more deeply on our responsibility button by assuring us that this planet is DOOMED and the ONLY THING which can save it now is the $uperPower project. YOU KNOW THIS IS TRUE, SO SEND YOUR MONEY NOW!

And that's all they've ever really got to say. You would think that people would start DEMANDING TO KNOW when the hell it's going to be finished. But, no! Instead, the $uperPower project now brings us NEW NEWS of their CornerStone Membership Expansion Project in other countries, and HOW PROUD THEY ARE, after having depleted the pockets of their American membership, to have found new patsies overseas to start giving them $35,000 or more.

Interestingly enough, when I sent my refund request letters to all the orgs I had ever given money to, I also sent one to the SP project in-charge and the SP Project Treasurer down at Flag. They actually wrote me back and said that the money given was a non-refundable charitable donation which had already been used in the construction of the building. But they kept me on their mailing list and I keep getting their mail. I seriously would have thought that a refund request would have IMPLIED a mail-list ask-off, but I guess not.

And, by the way, the photos of the $uperPower building on these brochures, until just recently, showed the gaping hole where the external emergency escape stairwell is supposed to go - so you could see right inside into the unfinished building right on their brochure!

OK my husband said he would go with me. We are going tomorrow. If anyone else has any requests or advice please let me know. I feel like I'm going on a clandestine mission. Perhaps I should wear all black?

Kathy:

The last time someone did this was 18 months ago... they took pictures of downtown Clearwater, including photos of the incomplete $uperPower building, which you can see here:
Jan. 2004 Photo Tour of Downtown Clearwater

From what I understand, the building still looks today just as it did in January 2004, and June 2003 for that matter.

Here's the thread when this photo tour info was posted on ARS:
A Walk Through Downtown Clearwater

Speculation on ARS from Dec. 2003 may have prompted this photo tour to be posted:
SP building in Clearwater: why so slow?

St. Petersburg Times article from Dec. 2004 said construction stopped in mid-2003 and hasn't started since:
Clearwater edifice sits empty, but why?

QUOTE
As for rumors of lack of funds, [church spokesman Ben] Shaw scoffed. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said. The Flag Building has been fully funded for more than a year, he said.
END QUOTE

Per the St. Petersburg Times article, I would assume that new photos of the building woudn't be much different than the photos taken 18 months ago. I haven't heard anything new in the last 6 months.

But I'm sure there are curious people lurking wondering the same thing.}

(Message edited by cofs_pawn on July 15, 2005)

If it's been "fully funded" for the past year - then why isn't it finished?

My guess:

They are running out of money and the SP building is like a chash cow for Int. management.

As some posters mentionend before there are various problems coming up as soon as they have finished the building:

1) No more money can be extorted from the members.
2) How to bring enough people in the building so that it looks busy?
3) How to maintain it with not enough money?
4) Introduce another wacky tech "SP rundown" and make the people believe that it works and make them pay for it so that the building looks busy (see above).

Another tower of babylon on the surface of the earth.

James

I find it amazing that for all of $cientology's devout dedication to Thursday 2pm targets and their statistical measurement and deadline-focus on everything, that they can continue to sell people NOTHINGNESS, repeatedly, over and over and over again....

Pawn, that was a great post. I get SP solicitations and have for years. Last I heard here at OC, there were exterior stairs on the bottom floor hanging six feet off the ground as no backfill had been done.

Or maybe it is the case that OT's will have to prove their Oatiness by walking on air to get onto these fabled stairs leading into the Bulding of SPness.

I donated $2.00 to SP to become a member of The Legion of Body Thetans. If I can get 17,498 more BT's to donate $2.00 we, as a cluster, can become a Cornerstone member and that is sponsorship plan here at BT's, Inc, manufacturers of Incident II entities as well as a high quality line of Entheta products for the home and workplace. Remember our slogan:

"BT's, Inc: We Are Always On Your Case"

Great slogan, KQE! Have you chosen a corporate logo yet?

If not, how about: [Image no longer available] ?

If it is indeed true that they are continting to ask for donation for a project that is already funded that is FRAUD. If the used money donated to this project for other projects, that if FRAUD.

Isn't this the sort of thing that brought down Jim Bakker? I mean other than the Jessica Hahn bit?