Scientology’s Suspect Surge

Scientology’s insecurities are showing.

Apropos of absolutely nothing, the “world’s fastest growing religion” has found it necessary to issue a press release from the center of the ghost town they’ve created announcing a recent “surge of visitors”.

Downtown Clearwater, Florida has, thanks to the creeping spread of David Miscavige’s narcissistic avarice, become an empty shell instead of what it could be. Visitors and locals shun the area and local businesses suffer because of Scientology’s paranoid, secretive presence.

What should be a vibrant tourist center generating millions in revenue instead sits detrimentally underused.

From this cocoon of hostility and tension, Amber Skjelset, Manager of the Scientology’s Clearwater Information Center, happily announces, “From Thanksgiving 2020 to the New Year’s weekend 2021, 400 guests from Clearwater and around the U.S. stopped by to learn about Scientology and its beliefs. Many had heard about the Center from friends and family who had visited in the past and recommended it as an interesting ‘thing-to-do'”.

Why would anyone living in Clearwater who is not already a Scientologist decide to visit Scientology’s Information Center?

Perhaps the aquarium was closed.

Clearwater is home to a community of Scientologists who all utilize the various buildings for study, courses, advancement up their Bridge to Nowhere and honing their nonexistent Super Powers. Is it newsworthy that one of their buildings is visited a couple hundred times by staff and members over the course of 5 weeks?

Information Center is only part of what this historic building houses. Unless Scientology has moved everything, OSA Flag is/was upstairs above the Information Center. Flag Central Files and the Letter Registrars were also housed at this location, though it is not certain whether they’ve been moved.

In any case, there is every reason to suspect that this monumental upsurge in visitors is in fact nothing more than normal Scientology traffic.

Scientology is infamous for twisting truth and manipulating facts. It is not outside the realm of possibility that the 80 people per week who visited this building “from Clearwater and around the U.S.” were all Scientologists. Why else would friends and family be discussing this particular location?

Is it really feasible that non-Scientologist out of State visitors would decide to add Scientology’s Information Center to their “things-to-do” list?

How does Skjelset know this number of visitors? Is there a counter on the door or does a Sea Org member, dedicated to clearing the planet, sit at a video monitor and count each body that routs through the entrance?

That 400 people over a five week period is considered a “Surge” worth issuing a press release over is rather sad and very, very telling.