By Ruth Lorenzen
The Church of Scientology has a policy called "the dead file". This does NOT mean that the person is dead! They put people into the dead file if they think someone is communicating in an upsetting way; this could be letters or phone calls or whatever. After a person is labelled as "dead filed", any communications received from the dead-filed person are put into a special folder and not read by anyone. This is to protect the CofS staff members from getting upset by reading something bad written by these dead-filed persons. The other half of the policy is that the Church of Scientology is supposed to NEVER send out anything to the dead-filed person -- no magazines, no letters, no promotional pieces, no phone calls, nothing. Oh... and they're not supposed to tell you you're on the deadfile list. How do you get OUT of the deadfile? You do some Scientology auditing (counseling) and complete it.
You are also supposed to be "deadfiled" if the CofS declares you an SP (suppressive person).
That's the simplicity of the CofS's dead file policy. You can read more about the CofS deadfile policy here.
Of course, the Church of Scientology doesn't follow its own policy and the various organizations. The CofS believes in sending out promotional brochures and mailers in huge quantities and more likely than not, you'll still get the CofS advertising even if you are on their deadfile list.
I was allegedly placed on the CofS deadfile list years before I left the CofS. Lili Braun, the FSO MAA, told me in December 2004 that I had been deadfiled. I told her she was wrong because I was still getting gobs and gobs of mail and magazines from about 12 different Churches of Scientology... including FSO! Within a month, those mailings stopped. A friend of mine was able to find out from Lili Braun that the "reason" I was deadfiled was for some incident back in 1999. Of course, that had to be a lie, because they didn't deadfile me for five years (off policy), didn't really deadfile me until I reminded Lili about the mailings, and I'd had several auditing rundowns since 1999 which would have meant I should be OFF the deadfile. Of course, one shouldn't make the mistake of accusing the Church of Scientology staff of following their own policy. That will only trip you up by causing confusion. [sarcastic dig]
Later, when I was declared suppressive (December 2007) I should have been added to any other deadfile lists the CofS may have in their entire network of organizations. After all, the declare itself is issued with the distribution of "To: All churches and missions".
Not following their own policies, I still get communications from the CofS on occasion. It's really annoying. I decided to NOT be a Scientologist, I asked for my money back, I can NEVER be a Scientologist ever again, and yet they are still advertising to me. What a waste of money, printing costs and postage. For what? For some staff member's statistic. "I mailed out 2,000 brochures this week! I'm upstat!" Whoop-dee-do.
Each mailing the CofS sends to me, I send it right back to them to get off their mailing lists. Does it help? I'm not sure yet if it gets me off their mailing lists, but it sure makes me feel better.
Below are some samples of the crap they keep sending me... me the person deadfiled for years and now declared suppressive.
02/09/2008 From Belleair Mission. These guys actually refunded me some money months ago. Why are they still mailing me?
02/09/2008 I asked off.
03/21/2008 Postcard from Church of Scientology Mission of Belleair. Buy the DVD interview "An Introduction to Scientology".
02/19/2008 & 03/06/2008 "The Problems of Work" and "Personal Efficiency Course" brochures from Church of Scientology of Baton Rouge LA. The second one was mailed after the end of the course. What a waste of postage. Both times I asked off immediately.
04/10/2008 Flyer to recruit people for Class VIII course and status (from Celebrity Centre International). So I ask off, but get more anyway.
04/28/2008 "Complete your Basics Library" brochure from Celebrity Centre International. Has full price list.
05/09/2008 "Celebrity" magazine from Celebrity Centre International. Includes insert with Calendar of Events. Celebrity interview article is Jason Dohring. I remember him from a Flag/FSO graduation where he talked -- he had come to do a CCRD and instead they got him to do the very expensive L's Rundowns. Or was that the other way around? Anyway, I recall vividly him talking to the audience how he had gone to Flag for one thing, and they gave him something else. He was quite young at the time and I wondered how he could afford it... until I found out his family had lots of money.
05/21/2008 CONNECT, the FSM newsletter.
05/21/2008 They invited me to stay at the Manor Hotel.
05/21/2008 CC Int sent me their order form to complete my library.
06/06/2008 CC Int sent me their glossy magazine Celebrity.
P.S. The funny thing is, I used to work at CC Int in the Sea Org. They HATE MY GUTS. If they could put two-and-two together, they would NEVER mail me anything.
04/22/2008 CCHR Citizens Commission on Human Rights of Florida. I haven't received anything from them in years. What? Did they add me to their list now that I'm declared? This mailing shows CCHR's beliefs re "drugging children" and asks for pledges of ongoing donations.
04/22/2008 I asked off their list, but it didn't do any good.
06/03/2008 I got another one.
07/01/2008 And another.
05/08/2008 Huge twelve page glossy about the Super Power Building in downtown Clearwater Florida, complete with a list of all Cornerstone Members (those who have donated over $35,000 each) and a fantasy drawing of "The New Clearwater". I say "fantasy" because these two buildings are not aligned in the same manner as they appear in the drawing. They have "re-drawn" Clearwater.
05/21/2008 More solicitation for the Super Power project.
06/03/2008 Solicitation for the Super Power Expansion Project -- that building where the Church of Scientology has solicited donations and received over $300 million dollars for a building they haven't been able to complete in 10 years. So much for "OT (super) Powers". Ha ha ha. Oh! They called me a Scientologist, too. Don't they know I'm declared? They're delusional.
06/03/2008 Here's my reply to them.
06/10/2008 I guess they thought I needed TWO of these one week apart, because I got another mailing on 06/10/2008 with more pretty glossy promo.
07/02/2008 (sigh) I suppose they want to waste money on postage. Here's another one.
08/30/2008 Oh goodie. Another 12-page glossy newsletter about their Stupor Power Building listing all the wonderful donors. Lah Dee Dah!
09/02/2008 They still haven't taken me off their mailing list. Maybe this one will do it.
P.S. None of these mailings can be returned to the sender directly through the mails by noting "refused delivery" or "return to sender". Since they are all mailed with special "Non Profit Org" postage rates, and not mailed as First Class Mail, the US Post Office will simply throw it away and will NOT return it to sender. One needs to expend far more effort to notify the Church of Scientology to "stop mailing me!" than most other organizations in the USA. Usually I fax their promo back to them via my computer (that's why it gets scanned in the first place).
P.P.S. An update from April 2009: This method seems to have worked. Sending back the mail, calling them, faxing them, sending letters to their lawyer, seems to have had little effect of stopping the mailings. However, posting this webpage seems to have done the trick across the board -- across all the Scientology organizations. (And they claim these corporations are separate and not connected. Hah!). I haven't seen any Scientology or associated mailings in months. Yay!!!!!! Maybe they figured out that if they mailed me any more stuff, it too would show up on the Internet along with my nasty comments.
Copyright 2008 Ruth Lorenzen. You may freely link to this article on my website, but may not reproduce it on your own website or a message board. Permission is granted to download and print this article for the purpose of viewing, reading and retaining for reference. Any other copying, distribution, retransmission or modification of this article, whether in electronic or hard-copy form, without express prior written permission by me is strictly prohibited.