scientology-reviews-logo

NOTICE: This non-commercial website is NOT affiliated with the Church of Scientology (link).

homeWHERE TO GET HELP: There are now two avenues for Scientology services. Find out what to expect and what...
Flag and Freewinds Flag Service Org (FSO)

Flag Service Org (FSO) Hot

October 15, 2012    
 
1.3 (6)
3096   0   0   0   0   0
Write Review

The Church of Scientology, Flag Service Organization (or "Flag" for short) located in Clearwater, Florida is called the "Scientology Mecca." L. Ron Hubbard said it was the mecca for those who seek technical perfection. The highest-trained auditors in the world, Class XII, are trained only at Flag. Flag serves as the last port of call for bugged cases and for many years took pride in their reputation for being able to crack any case. Unfortunately, those days are long gone and today Flag creates many more bogged cases than they repair. Flag was also once the top training organization in the world, but after implementation of practices instituted by David Miscavige, Flag auditing resulted in the deaths of many people including Greg Bashaw and Lisa McPherson to name only two. Today Flag is responsible for re-instituting "Quickie Grades" in the field and their written marketing does something L. Ron Hubbard specifically forbid: bragging as to speed of delivery time. Quickie Grades are acting to shorten time of delivery by simply omitting vital rundowns and procedures. The L Rundowns are Flag's big money maker and rates for this auditing (alloyed with the technical ideas of David Miscavige) go upwards of $3,000 an hour. Flag is the only Church of Scientology where New OT VI and VIII are delivered. The former 17-year Commanding Officer of the Flag Service Organization, Debbie Cook, was sued by the Church of Scientology in San Antonio, Texas and her sworn testimony reveals beatings and torture by order of David Miscavige.

User reviews

Average user rating from: 6 user(s)

Overall rating 
 
1.3
Friendly 
 
1.8  (6)
Inviting 
 
1.2  (6)
Service 
 
1.3  (6)
Ethical 
 
1.0  (6)
Already have an account? or Create an account
My experience in Scientology before coming to Flag was that there were a lot of people trying hard to keep Scientology pure, as it was designed by L. Ron Hubbard.

When I came to Flag, as a trainee from St. Louis Org, I was very impressed by the dedication and discipline of the staff members. They denied themselves many freedoms in pursuit of their crusade. But I soon learned that their crusade was not to further the purity of Scientology, but to follow the orders of David Miscavige, no matter what they were.

With no policy justification of it, outer-Org-Trainees as we were called, were treated under all of the policies of members of the Flag staff themselves. Without agreeing to their policies, we were forced into no liberties -- against policy. Our agreed to training programs were being changed -- against policy. And "new technologies" to make "perfect" auditors were being experimented upon us. Scientology is a workable technology. Ron never said it had to be perfect, as absolutes are unattainable, but that it had to be workable. And it is. So this sort of experimentation is completely against policy. But it IS the policy of the David Miscavige "Church".

I saw lots of violation of standard tech and policy at Flag. Celebrities are treated with different rules -- against policy. And of course the public is squeezed for every penny possible with nothing in exchange -- COMPLETELY against any policy.

It's a sad comment on what it COULD be. But Flag, to me, is the clear example of what has happened to the entire Corporate Scientology under the control of David Miscavige.
Overall rating 
 
2.0
Friendly 
 
3.0
Inviting 
 
1.0
Service 
 
3.0
Ethical 
 
1.0
Reviewed by 2briancox November 11, 2012
Top 50 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (8)

Everything I need to know about Corporate Scientology I learned at FSO.

My experience in Scientology before coming to Flag was that there were a lot of people trying hard to keep Scientology pure, as it was designed by L. Ron Hubbard.

When I came to Flag, as a trainee from St. Louis Org, I was very impressed by the dedication and discipline of the staff members. They denied themselves many freedoms in pursuit of their crusade. But I soon learned that their crusade was not to further the purity of Scientology, but to follow the orders of David Miscavige, no matter what they were.

With no policy justification of it, outer-Org-Trainees as we were called, were treated under all of the policies of members of the Flag staff themselves. Without agreeing to their policies, we were forced into no liberties -- against policy. Our agreed to training programs were being changed -- against policy. And "new technologies" to make "perfect" auditors were being experimented upon us. Scientology is a workable technology. Ron never said it had to be perfect, as absolutes are unattainable, but that it had to be workable. And it is. So this sort of experimentation is completely against policy. But it IS the policy of the David Miscavige "Church".

I saw lots of violation of standard tech and policy at Flag. Celebrities are treated with different rules -- against policy. And of course the public is squeezed for every penny possible with nothing in exchange -- COMPLETELY against any policy.

It's a sad comment on what it COULD be. But Flag, to me, is the clear example of what has happened to the entire Corporate Scientology under the control of David Miscavige.

Where I stand on key issues

I am a
Independent Scientologist
The leader of the Church of Scientology, David Miscavige, is a...
Suppressive person (sociopath)

Pros and Cons (optional)

Pros
Flag has kept hidden within its control the very top of the levels of Scientology, if you restrict yourself only to the corporate world.
Cons
Flag has become the poster child of Miscavige-ology; changing the tech to his liking, enforcing policies that destroy families and squeezing every single public for every dollar they can.

Bottom line...

Recommend it to a friend?
No
Was this review helpful to you? 
none
Overall rating 
 
1.3
Friendly 
 
2.0
Inviting 
 
1.0
Service 
 
1.0
Ethical 
 
1.0
Reviewed by ul2106 November 10, 2012
Top 10 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (24)

Never come back to Flag

none

Where I stand on key issues

I am a
Independent Scientologist

Pros and Cons (optional)

Pros
none
Cons
In 2005 on my OT preps while on OT 6A, we consumed endless hours to get the Rudiment´s in. Terrible feeling. Great problems to get a F/N at the examiner. Did not know about the F/N definition change at that time, but decided to never come back to this place.

Bottom line...

Recommend it to a friend?
No
Was this review helpful to you? 
It has become criminal. All tech terminals know it is wrong. Their stats are up because it is a forced stat. Last trip I was forced to audit with enough food or sleep. They love thought overts, ie 'thinking of session between sessions' = 14 hours of amends. . I have lost many clients over the years due to having to stay there too long. My needle was getting so tight you almost could no longer see reads.
Overall rating 
 
1.3
Friendly 
 
2.0
Inviting 
 
1.0
Service 
 
1.0
Ethical 
 
1.0
Reviewed by mkmrmny November 10, 2012
Top 10 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (34)

Flag makes it almost impossible to do the bridge

It has become criminal. All tech terminals know it is wrong. Their stats are up because it is a forced stat. Last trip I was forced to audit with enough food or sleep. They love thought overts, ie 'thinking of session between sessions' = 14 hours of amends. . I have lost many clients over the years due to having to stay there too long. My needle was getting so tight you almost could no longer see reads.

Where I stand on key issues

I am a
Independent Scientologist

Pros and Cons (optional)

Pros
Flag seems to be inviting but it is not.
Cons
Last year alone it cost me $58,000 to be on OT VII. Flag makes you keep doing things calling them advance programs, i.e. Clear, FPRD, OT IV, etc. I have seen people doing objectives. Flag does not allow anyone to leave until they say you can leave. The Sec checks are not nice. I believe Flag is getting an ARCX needle at exams. Also one gets yelled at behind closed doors a lot for various reasons, like not donating enough.

Bottom line...

Recommend it to a friend?
No
Was this review helpful to you? 
At one time, FSO was a pleasurable place to work and to come to for services. Yes, it was hard work, but the rewards were there, too. Now there are no rewards for anyone or anything, especially not for honest and straight technology delivered be it auditing or administration or ethics. It has not been that place for a very long time and I do not recommend it to anyone who values their spiritual and mental well-being and integrity, nor will it do your bank account any good.
Overall rating 
 
1.0
Friendly 
 
1.0
Inviting 
 
1.0
Service 
 
1.0
Ethical 
 
1.0
Reviewed by eileenclark101 November 09, 2012
Top 50 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (2)

Once it was the friendliest place in the world...

At one time, FSO was a pleasurable place to work and to come to for services. Yes, it was hard work, but the rewards were there, too. Now there are no rewards for anyone or anything, especially not for honest and straight technology delivered be it auditing or administration or ethics. It has not been that place for a very long time and I do not recommend it to anyone who values their spiritual and mental well-being and integrity, nor will it do your bank account any good.

Where I stand on key issues

I am a
Independent Scientologist

Pros and Cons (optional)

Pros
Currently, I cannot honestly recommend Flag as a place to go for standard Scientology. When I first began my 16 year career at Flag in Oct 1986 it was a mixed bag, it was still very standard in many ways and esteemed technical terminals were more or less treated well. This started to change for the worst in 1988 with the launch of the Freewinds and the release of non-standard and incomplete New OT VIII. Prior to this time, one could go to Flag and get good treatment and results; with the release of the half-baked New OT VIII began the downward slide of technical results that could be relied on and this also began the pervasive degrading treatment of excellent technically trained Sea Org Members and then Class V staff and Mission staff who came to Flag for training, both technical and administrative training.

Working under Debbie Cook, until the arrival of David Miscavige with his personal agenda in 1983, was one of the highlights in my 25 year career in the Sea Org. She is number one on my list of ten individuals whom I had the utmost admiration and respect for as Sea Org Officers.

The physical premises are beautiful, the accommodations and service were superlative when I was there and it probably remains so in the main. It is quite expensive, however, if you can afford to stay in such a place it is quite enjoyable as long as you do not take services and you are allowed past the Security Guards.
Cons
As covered in "Pros", currently there are no dependably high standards of technical deliver. Per information from highly regarded technical and administrative staff who left Flag within the past five years, it is necessary to violate group agreements in order to attempt giving good service to a public person.

During my time at Flag, I held different executive and departmental positions and worked in the Office of The Captain FSO, Debbie Cook from Feb 1982 to Dec 1984. When David Miscavige arrived with about 1/3 of the entire Hemet Base, including RTC Reps and most of WDC and CMOI, life at the Flag Land Base became a reign of terror, literally and no exaggeration. People were being taken off post, sent to the RPF, demoted and publicly pilloried on a daily basis. One exec, The Chief Officer Don Jason, was publicly smeared and humiliated, Declared SP and sent secretly to the Freewinds where he was held prisoner until he managed to escape years later. Although I worked in the Captain's Office and was privy to quite a lot of data, I did not know this had happened until about 15 years later. He simply disappeared, vanished into thin air, never to be heard from again. Other executives were only smeared publicly and removed from post or sent to the RPF. The other debacle which destroyed all the carefully planned and carried out standard programs done by Debbie Cook to expand the FSO, was to remove all the other veteran officers and executives by sending them all out, with wives or husbands, to the other Sea Org Bases around the world. Half of them are either dead or no longer in the Sea Org.

There is more, much more, I can write about, however, this is all I can stomach for one review.

Ah, one more thing. The slogan of "Flag, The Mecca of Technical Perfection" was coined by David Miscavige at the onset of his campaign to destroy the FSO as Ron's Org. LRH called it the "Friendliest Place in the World", and that is what was most important to all staff until the arrival of David Miscavige.

Bottom line...

Recommend it to a friend?
No
Was this review helpful to you? 
Let me share a short story about when I was at Flag getting auditing on New OT V: In 2005 I routed myself from New OT V into Flag Qual because my understanding of auditing had suddenly turned upside down… instead of having a wonderful, enlightening time in session, (as I had for the past 30 years), I was grinding and grinding with overrun after overrun and then repair of overrun, etc.. on and on endlessly (I had no idea at the time that the reason for this was because DM had changed LRH’s definition of F/N and EP. I think this was done just so everyone would overrun and make “no gains” just like himself….)

Anyway, when I got to Qual and said: “hey guys, you know auditing to EP is NOT that hard to do. Why is it so difficult NOW? I have been doing this for 30 years and something has changed. Can anyone show me any bulletin that can explain what has changed here?? No one could answer me directly, but I could see the Cramming Officer and Qual Sec “knew something” but were not telling me and they seemed afraid to do so. The Qual Sec left me reading basic advanced course materials (comparable to KSW or other similar basic materials) and then they scurried off to their offices like frightened rabbits not wanting to deal with me. Every now and then one of these rabbits would peer around the corner to see if I was gone or not. No one wanted to talk with me because I was trying to find out what happened and they all KNEW the answer but were afraid to answer.

The bottom line is that Qual KNEW that auditing was getting royally screwed up, but they were afraid that RTC would also send them to the RPF for questioning DM’s squirrel rendition of LRH’s F/N and EP technology. (Flag Qual was decimated and the top tech terminals were in the RPF, as I learned later.) So, DM’s case, the RTC’s implementation of DM’s case and the ultimate destruction of Qual (so only rabbits were left) is why the Church is dead today and the only safe place to get auditing is in the independent field.

So, if you have gotten auditing after this squirrel F/N & EP tech was introduced into the advanced courses (or any other level, I am sure) you need to get back into session with an Independent auditor. I assure you, your life will change. And change quickly. It did for me.

Call an independent auditor and get back into session! Real auditing has been missing for years and thanks to Marty running interference, there are lots of places to get auditing today. See

http://www.iscientology.org/
Overall rating 
 
1.0
Friendly 
 
1.0
Inviting 
 
1.0
Service 
 
1.0
Ethical 
 
1.0
Reviewed by Robert Almblad November 09, 2012
Top 10 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (19)

My "New OT V" auditng at Flag in 2005

Let me share a short story about when I was at Flag getting auditing on New OT V: In 2005 I routed myself from New OT V into Flag Qual because my understanding of auditing had suddenly turned upside down… instead of having a wonderful, enlightening time in session, (as I had for the past 30 years), I was grinding and grinding with overrun after overrun and then repair of overrun, etc.. on and on endlessly (I had no idea at the time that the reason for this was because DM had changed LRH’s definition of F/N and EP. I think this was done just so everyone would overrun and make “no gains” just like himself….)

Anyway, when I got to Qual and said: “hey guys, you know auditing to EP is NOT that hard to do. Why is it so difficult NOW? I have been doing this for 30 years and something has changed. Can anyone show me any bulletin that can explain what has changed here?? No one could answer me directly, but I could see the Cramming Officer and Qual Sec “knew something” but were not telling me and they seemed afraid to do so. The Qual Sec left me reading basic advanced course materials (comparable to KSW or other similar basic materials) and then they scurried off to their offices like frightened rabbits not wanting to deal with me. Every now and then one of these rabbits would peer around the corner to see if I was gone or not. No one wanted to talk with me because I was trying to find out what happened and they all KNEW the answer but were afraid to answer.

The bottom line is that Qual KNEW that auditing was getting royally screwed up, but they were afraid that RTC would also send them to the RPF for questioning DM’s squirrel rendition of LRH’s F/N and EP technology. (Flag Qual was decimated and the top tech terminals were in the RPF, as I learned later.) So, DM’s case, the RTC’s implementation of DM’s case and the ultimate destruction of Qual (so only rabbits were left) is why the Church is dead today and the only safe place to get auditing is in the independent field.

So, if you have gotten auditing after this squirrel F/N & EP tech was introduced into the advanced courses (or any other level, I am sure) you need to get back into session with an Independent auditor. I assure you, your life will change. And change quickly. It did for me.

Call an independent auditor and get back into session! Real auditing has been missing for years and thanks to Marty running interference, there are lots of places to get auditing today. See

http://www.iscientology.org/

Where I stand on key issues

I am a
Independent Scientologist

Pros and Cons (optional)

Pros
It used to be a great place! Completed OT III and NED for OT's in 1979.
Cons
Flag lost it's purpose as the technical mecca for Scientology. I left in 2005 after completing New OT V and decided never to return again. My happiest moment in 2005 was getting off the Flag property without being declared a suppressive person or tackled and dragged back as I walked out of the building for the last time. I escaped! See comment about my auditing below.

Bottom line...

Recommend it to a friend?
No
Was this review helpful to you? 
See my comments above in the Cons section. I could go on and on...
Overall rating 
 
1.5
Friendly 
 
2.0
Inviting 
 
2.0
Service 
 
1.0
Ethical 
 
1.0
Reviewed by Bazookajoe November 09, 2012
Top 50 Reviewer  -   View all my reviews (4)

Not the friendliest place in the world!!

See my comments above in the Cons section. I could go on and on...

Where I stand on key issues

I am a
Other

Pros and Cons (optional)

Pros
Flag has nice rooms. At least some of them. some of the rooms I stayed in were moldy and old looking. Some were modern and upstat.

The food was usually good. Some of the auditors were caring.
Cons
I recieved a lot of out tech at Flag for top dollar. They charge a FORTUNE !! While on Solo Nots they gouge you for every cent they can get. Expensive security checks which in my opinion are just excuses to milk you out of cash. While on Solo Nots these security checks get in the way of your gains on the level and actually start to act as suppression, because that is exactly what it is.

Whenever you finish any action there and are ready to go home, (you can't wait to leave) you must then run the gauntlet of regges routing form. A yellow routing form where you have to see about 12 different regges trying to manipulate you out of your cash. WISE, I-HELP, IAS, Plantary dissemination, Super power, it goes on and on to where you are ready to blow the place becasue you know they will never let you leave. It is truly a implant station. If you want the tech I recommend that you find an Indie auditor and go that route. It will be MUCH better service WAY MORE STANDARD and no suppression like you get from the most UNFRIENDLY PLACE ON EARTH!!!

Bottom line...

Recommend it to a friend?
No
Was this review helpful to you? 
 
Powered by JReviews