The land of the thetans

Woke up in the Crowne Plaza at Felbridge last week to a fine buffet breakfast. Not only did they have quite decent bacon, they also had supplies of quite decent bread. Quite probably the sort of half cooked baguettes you buy in frozen, but they cooked up pretty well, and broken into appropriately small pieces did pretty well for bacon sandwiches. Streets ahead of any hotel bread I have had for a long time.

Into the car and retraced our steps south, back to Ron's place. Ron Hubbard that is, the writer of science fiction who went onto to be a missionary for all the thetans floating around the universe, hopping from galaxy to galaxy, from planet to planet as the solar winds and gravitational waves carry them. I believe that if you join the his church, the Official Church of Scientology, you can aspire to become a thetan yourself.

Captain Ron

We overshot slightly, finding ourselves outside the old main entrance to Saint Hill Manor, a serious bit of heritage, once owned by a Maharajah, now owned by the Official Church. Retraced our steps to the new main entrance, the one with a car park, to be accosted by a pleasant lady security guard who said it was OK to park up and take a look around and who then raised the gate for us. We learned that both she and her mother were members, so the Official Church is sufficiently thriving and on the ball to staff up the peripheries with its own people, rather than taking a chance with locals. The sort of things that Embassies in places unruly or otherwise hostile try to do but usually fail. Can't get home grown menials out there for the money on offer.

New castle from car park

From the car park, having admired the new castle, we looped around towards the old castle.

Cedar one

We came across a very large and handsome cedar tree, unfortunately of a shape and position that I quite failed to get a decent snap. But the old castle can be glimpsed through the lower branches.

Cedar two

The same cedar from the other side.

Sign

A interesting sign concerning the older buildings which provide something of a bridge between the old castle and the new castle. Planetary dissemination? What about galactic dissemination?

Then back up the hill to the new castle, presumably some sort of European training centre, to be greeted by a statue of Captain Ron, as illustrated above, in his younger days, modelling a thetan. Various people wandering about clutching loads of papers and binders. Quite a few people smoking and one older chap actually preparing a roll-up cigarette. Perhaps the sort of people that go in for this sort of thing are the same sort of people who go in for substances. With Ron's rule maybe being that tobacco is OK but anything else is not. We did not come across any tinnies in the well kept bushes.

Green flower

A strange green flower in the sub-tropical part of the garden, on our way back to the car park from the old castle. We had decided against taking tea or coffee with them, although I believe that was an option. I was a bit nervous about being made to pay by being taken in charge by an enthusiastic apprentice thetan.

Something else sub-tropical

Ash tray

And not far from the sub-tropical section, a pond followed by the finest outdoor ashtray I have ever come across.

Out to marvel at the huge amount of money that this enterprise must generate to run to such a fancy headquarters and training operation. Just keeping the splendid garden in good condition must be costing a fortune. And even if you are using defaulters for the work (like in the army), you still have to feed, clothe and house the defaulters. Never mind the costs of materials.

We also wondered how high up the hierarchy you had to climb to get an office in the old building. Perhaps an office with all kinds of interesting facilities: human resources, substance resources and otherwise?

Reference 1: https://www.scientology.org.uk/. The view from the horse's mouth.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology. A view from outside.

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