This is Photojournalist Fred G. Haseney with his eye on scientology. Today, I’m reporting from the Pacific Area Command Base (“PAC Base” or “Big Blue”), the so-called “church” of scientology’s West Coast headquarters.

It’s June 2, 2016, before 2:00 PM, a very important day of the week for scientologists and Sea Org (“SO”) members worldwide. The scientology work week ends each and every Thursday at 2:00 PM. It’s a crazy cycle of scrambling like mad to make sure your statistics (“stats”) this week are up over last. What are scientology stats? Well, if you’re a public scientologist and are on a scientology course, your course supervisor assigns you “points” for every aspect of the course checksheet that you do. Let’s say you’re doing their “Communication Course.” Every time you do a drill, you get a certain number of points. A drill is often done during the “practical” part of the checksheet, where you’ll go out of the course room and actually apply what you’re learned. Let’s say you did one drill this week before Thursday at 2:00 PM, and you earned 50 points. Well, the course room supervisor would expect you to do two drills next week before that week’s Thursday at 2:00 PM. And if you did that, you’d have an “up” statistic. You’d be an “upstat.” If, for some reason, you aren’t able to do two drills next week, but only one (or, God forbid, none), you’d be considered a “downstat.”

Statistics apply whether you’re a public person or a SO member, and taken much more seriously by non-Sea Org and Sea Org staff alike (even more so with the SO). Let’s say you’re a SO member at the Los Angeles Organization (“LA Org”) and your post is Body Router (“BR”). As a BR, it’s your job to entice a person new to scientology (sometimes called “fresh meat” or “wogs”) to go to LA Org. It’s a BR’s job to get a wog to go to LA Org. LA Org often uses pretty women BRs to attract male wogs; they also use good-looking male BRs to attract female wogs. I would assume that if you’re a woman who prefers women romantically, then a woman BR could entice you; likewise for the male persuasion.

Let’s say you’re a wog. A BR will try to interest you in either a “free” dianetics film or Oxford Capacity Analysis (“OCA”) Personality Test. If you fall for their scam, you’ll’ll be handed a ticket which “entitles” you to either see the film or do the test. None of those tickets makes it very obvious that you’ll soon be inside a church of scientology, a place you won’t be able to escape from until you given them what they want: your name, address, phone number, email address and money. You will be hounded by more than one staff member until you fork over your time and money. They might want to sell you a book for “only” $5.00, so, in order to get rid of them, you give them the money. To process that purchase, they will want to write you an invoice, and that’s when scientology gets you. Once you give them your personal information, they will share it with other scientology orgs worldwide and you’ll never stop hearing from them (by snail mail letters, emails, telephone calls, etc.) until the day you die.

At LA Org, a BR’s weekly stat is something like “Number of New Bodies into the Shop,” which means that if you’re a wog, and they’ve managed to take you to LA Org, then a BR can count you as one stat. If all of LA Org’s Body Routers brought 10 new people to their org last week, then they would be upstat if they were to bring at least 11 new people into their org before today, Thursday, at 2:00 PM.

By all appearances, Body Routing stats at LA Org are down. That org sent BRs to the intersection of Sunset Blvd. and Vermont Ave. before 8:25 AM today. In addition, it appears that the supervisor or senior over the BR area has been sent out of the org to supervise his juniors at that intersection. LA Org’s BRs have also have a game plan that I’ve never noticed before: they aggressively approach Metro buses as they pull up to bus stops. As a Metro rider disembarks the bus, they’re confronted by one or two BRs, who attempt to give them one of those “free” tickets and drag take them to LA Org.

Photo Caption: In the left photo in this composite, we see a female BR standing at the southeast corner of L. Ron Hubbard Way and Sunset Blvd. Notice the “free” tickets she holds. It’s not even 8:45 AM, and it looks like she could use another cup of coffee.

Photo Caption: In this composite, we see a male BR standing at the southeast corner of Sunset and Vermont (that’s the guy on the left in both photos). He has just tried to get people walking by interested in seeing a “free” dianetics film or take a “free” Personality Test. The other SO member pictured, the one on the right in each photo, is not, by all appearances, a BR. That SO member wears a name tag, while a BR doesn’t appear to wear one. The guy with the name tag is, most likely, the BR’s supervisor or senior, and is at the intersection to make sure his juniors are doing their job.

Photo Caption: I would say that this BR’s good looks would help getting a female wog to return to LA Org with him. Olé!

Photo Caption: Two BRs, dressed in dark pants, long-sleeved white shirts and vests, greet passengers as they disembark from a Metro bus #754. Notice that the bus is colored red; it’s a Metro Rapid bus, and will stop at only major intersections (not like a regular Metro bus, which is colored orange, and stops at every intersection). In this picture, I’m on the northeast corner of Sunset and Vermont, looking north along Vermont. A Metro “Red Line” subway stop is to the right, off camera (the “Vermont/Sunset Station”).

Photo Caption: In my coverage of the grand opening of Scientology Media Productions, I awarded this BR the “Best Dressed” award. Here he stands near the southeast corner of Vermont and Sunset. Actually, he’s not at that intersection, and has actually walked eastward along Sunset Blvd. in order to greet passengers as they disembark from Metro’s buses. In this photo, the BR attempts to interest a woman as she gets off the bus. Notice that she is heavy with child and has most likely arrived for a doctor’s appointment, not to face a BR and be taken to LA Org.

Photo Caption: In this photo, the BR continues to interest bus passengers in attending a “free” dianetics film or take an OCA Personality Test.

While I took photos, another bus pulled up from which even more passengers disembarked. As the BR tried to hand out his “free” tickets, I declared, “Run away from scientology,” “Run away from dianetics,” and “Don’t take those tickets.” Later, as I walked westward with those same passengers to the street corner, I thanked them for not doing it, for not falling for scientology’s tricks. As a result, I got a nice, understanding smile from one of them.

At one point, as I stood on Sunset Blvd., looking at LA Org, I observed a BR on the east side of LRH Way attempt to give two people “free” tickets. The BR handled one of those people a “free” OCA Test ticket, and as they walked by me, I thanked them for not going with the BR. Their names are Dee Dee and Taylor, and we spoke at length about what scientology really wants for them. Dee Dee’s purpose for being in the area was to get her eye treated; she had a big bandage over it. The church of scientology, so intent on hoisting dianetics off on an unsuspecting public, should think twice about attempting to get someone like Dee Dee interested in going to LA Org. The book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, by L. Ron Hubbard, deals with the pain and misfortune associated with physical injuries; the book suggests that we should be quiet around a person who is injured. Dianetics claims that if you’re not quiet around an injured person, what you say can be recorded in the injured person’s “reactive” mind. That is not optimum; dianetics claims that such an action can create adverse conditions in the injured person mentally. If that’s the case, then scientology should follow its own policy. They should be quiet around injured people and leave them alone.

The church of scientology should also leave Metro bus, train and subway riders alone, no matter the intersection. Metro’s Customer Relations telephone number is 213-922-6235, a number that one might use to report if scientology is making a Metro rider uncomfortable. Customer complaints or comments about their experience with Metro can be done online.

All images (unless noted otherwise) © 2015—2016 Fred G. Haseney. All rights reserved.

Links:

Metro.

Sources:

Loonapix Photo Editor (“Famous Enough for Train Ads”).