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The first days of freedom don’t come with instructions. We walked out with a suitcase, a borrowed car, and a head full of rules to unlearn—then found a pizza shop with a Help Wanted sign and realized the world outside wasn’t the barren wasteland we’d been promised. That small win set the tone: get a job, get an apartment, build credit from zero, and discover that time—afternoons, dinners, holidays—is a muscle you have to stretch back to life.

We open up about the invisible work of recovery: nightmares that mirror the hallways we left, the guilt that lingers when control is gone, and the way old messages echo when you try something new. We compare the myths we were told—leave and your marriage will collapse; the outside world is hostile; you’ll never make it—to what actually happened. With humor and candor, we share the joys and stumbles of starting over, from forgetting to ask a wage at an interview to navigating rent with no credit. We talk about boundaries too: why we refused “routing out,” what gray-rocking looks like when harassment ramps up, and how to protect energy for the life you’re building.

Along the way, we map the broader system: digitized files, “connections lists,” surveillance habits that turn people into case numbers. We explain how information—books, documented histories, survivor accounts—became sunlight, dissolving fear and restoring judgment. Most of all, we highlight the power of community and therapy for former members: common language, solved mysteries, and practical support that accelerates healing. If you’re rebuilding after a high-control group, or helping someone who is, this conversation offers tools, hope, and a reminder that ordinary life is a radical act of freedom.

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Step inside Scientology’s balance sheet and the picture changes fast: small, friendly intro courses up front, a steep climb of costly counseling and training behind the curtain, and one Florida powerhouse quietly bankrolling the whole machine. We break down how local orgs pitch low‑cost classes, enforce nightly study quotas, and celebrate tiny wins, even as their course rooms sit empty. Then we follow the cash to Clearwater, where Flag Land Base concentrates services, pressure, and status to pull in one to two million dollars a week, covering international management, massive events, and a constant burn of promo and mailings.

We unpack the franchise‑style setup that sends rent back to an “International Landlord,” the weekly finance policy that slices income into rigid buckets, and the pivot from service delivery to pure fundraising for buildings and the IAS war chest. You’ll hear how prepaid “up to Clear” packages become a revenue trap, why commissioned recruiters have powerful incentives to push harder, and how the 1996 Golden Age rollout coincided with deep declines across key stats. We also compare glossy claims of “unprecedented expansion” with a striking data point: an ideal org’s two‑month completion list that could fit at a single table.

The human story runs just as deep. We revisit Heber Jentzsch’s final years, allegations of isolation at the international base, and a death certificate listing “Golden Era Homes-Hospice” at the very address of the Hole—raising urgent questions about elder care, licensing, and transparency. Along the way, we talk Sea Org labor at Flag, foreign recruitment, and the day‑to‑day grind that keeps the flagship humming while local orgs scrape by.

If you value clear, sourced, and candid reporting on high‑control organizations, hit follow, share this episode with a friend, and leave a review with the one question you want answered next. Your support helps more people find these stories and make informed choices.

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Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/

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A “rehabilitation” unit that looks like a labor camp, a policy that promises rest and study while people lie on foam pads after all-nighters, and a workforce that builds studios, refaces Big Blue, and even handles VIP logistics—this is the RPF as told by those who lived it. Marc and Mat pull apart Flag Order 3434RB line by line, then hold it up to the light of real conditions: black uniforms, isolation from crew, silence rules, and the RPF’s RPF—punishment inside punishment. If you’ve ever wondered how a religious order justifies a prison within its walls, this conversation connects the policy to the practice.

Mat spent 27 years in the Sea Org and served on the RPF twice, eventually running the LA unit. He describes being flown, traded, and repurposed as a “coin” to satisfy manpower demands. We walk through assignment triggers like “rock slams” on the e-meter, and the wave of faulty devices that sent dozens at a time to the program. We look at twinning—where your fate is bound to someone else’s—and how transfers or escapes reset hard-won progress. And we dig into the ledger: quarter pay that sometimes became zero, weaponized reports, and meals scavenged after the main crew ate first.

The episode traces major moments: the International Base construction push, the Portland Crusade where RPFers slipped into suits to run logistics and PR, and an “impossible” Christmas deadline to water blast, reglaze, and polish the vast Big Blue complex—met anyway. Along the way, we talk about minors on the RPF, family separation, security checks, and the relentless information control that keeps each base in the dark. On paper, Hubbard’s policy lists rights. In practice, the system harvested labor and obedience while calling it redemption.

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Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160

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