Let me do an analysis of this letter. First here is the body of it.
There is this thing in Scientology called central files. It is a dissemination division two thing. Central files (singular) is a collection of folders. Each folder has in it, the name and contact information of a person who has bought something from Scientology. No matter how much pressure, deception, subterfuge, and undue influence that was used to get that sale, the person who has bought something has "made a reach" for Scientology. Scientology will send that person mail that will accumulate hundreds and thousands of times the price of what they bought, forever. According to Hubbard if enough communication is sent to a person they will come into the org for services. He was wrong. Every folder in central files has the receipt for the thing purchase in the folder and copies of all communication sent and received from the person. Most folders don't have any communication from the person.Dear Karen,
Hello! How are you doing? I am contacting you because I would like for you to come in for a briefing on
the expansion of our org. I'm sure you've heard a tidbit here and there, but there is a lot of valuable data
that I feel will benefit you and the rest of the universe in the next couple of weeks and for the rest of the
endless years to come. I'm talking BIG, BIG news! Come on down and see what it's all about.
Please respond using the enclosed envelope or feel free to call me at (323) 718-6916.
Best regards,
Dora Herrera, PPO FDN
The way this works is a staff member goes to central files and asks for however many folders they need to write letters for their statistic. If there's no one there, which is usually the case, they just take some folders. Then they take them to a place where they can sit and write letters. Hubbard has a lecture in which he instructs staff members to write to people with reality, the R in ARC. This is all fine and wonderful until one opens one of these folders. There is a high probability that there will be nothing in a folder to tell the person writing their letter out anything at all about the person in the folder they are using to write their letter. So it turns out, as is often the case, that L. Ron Hubbard's personal advice on this task is no help at all.
A letter must be written because the letters out statistic must be higher than it was the week before and something must be written. A letter written to get a letters out statistic is easy to identify. It is always extremely brief. This letter sent to Karen is a letters out statistic letter.
The person who wrote this letter has no clue who Karen is. If they did they would not have written to her. So you get this wishy washy salutaion. "Hello!" with an exclamation mark. Who does that? "How are you doing?" That phrase, "How are you doing?" is Scientologese. Asking, "How are you?" is considered an identity type question and possibly restimulative, whereas the greeting, "How are you doing?" is less associative and involves the "do" of the "be-do-have" group used in Scientology. Keep in mind this is a statistic letter and the writer doesn't care how Karen is doing.
The following statement is an ARC break. "I am contacting you because I would like for you to come in for a briefing on the expansion of our org." In Scientology this is called, "no reality." They are contacting Karen because they want her to come into the org (the bodies in the shop statistic) for a briefing on the expansion of the org. There is nothing in this for Karen so far. The letter writer is assuming that Karen has been involved in Scientology and knows the language. How they would know that and not know that Karen is persona non grata in Scientology is beyond me.
"I'm sure you've heard a tidbit here and there . . ." I have a feeling the word 'tidbit' has come up as a button from Scientology doing surveys with Scientology public. "Valuable data" and "benefit" are also Scientology buzz words.
Then the person gets into space opera and whole track with "universe" and "endless years to come." Oh well, even if Karen's reality is unknown and unadressed, at least we have the writer's reality in this letter. As they conclude the letter they are baiting Karen with mystery, and it's "BIG, BIG news!" Hubbard and the Scientologists emulating him really like hyperbole.
The "come in and get important data" ploy is used over and over again. Almost always the big important little known data turns out to be a disappointing anti-climax. "Come on down" is the letter's command phrase and the writer's attempt at being folksy. If the writer of the letter has spent any significant time in Scientology they do not expect a reply. Getting their letters out statistic is what matters.
If a letter out does get a response that isn't "get me off your mailing list and stop sending me things" then it will go to a staff member in division two whose post is called "letter registrar." Their job will be to engage the person with correspondence with the intention of selling them something more.
There is a high turnover in Scientology. When the letter registrar fails to get their quotas and their statistic eventually goes down they will be taken from that post and replaced. When I was on staff I had a correspondence going with a letter registrar at the Advanced Org Los Angeles (AOLA) In a year's time the person on that post changed five times. Every time that happens it's an ARC-break. In Scientology terms it's a lowering of affinity. The public person communicating with the letter registrar is, at the very least, left wondering what happened with the person with whom they were exchanging letters. In any other organization the turnover would be announced in advance. "I am moving on and Keith will be taking over." More often than not this doesn't happen in Scientology.
At the end there's another Scientology no-no: "PPO FDN" The writer has included the acronym for their post title and the acronym for the foundation org. I have no idea what PPO stands for. The post title and org type are of no consequence to a public person. In addition to that there is a high probability that the person receiving the letter will not understand what the acronyms mean. In effect this is giving misunderstood words to a public person. In Scientology that's out ethics.
I hope my analysis of this letter has been interesting and entertaining. For Scientology staff members it would be instructive though the vast majority of them will never read this while they remain in Scientology.
