I overheard someone talking about a recent Church of Scientology event in Los Angeles the other day. This was one of the biggest of the six yearly events that David Miscavige puts on for all Scientologists. The Scientologist was quite perplexed, "There are 40,000 Scientologists in Los Angeles, and, at best, we can only get 4,000 to the events. Where are the rest?"

It is well known outside of Scientology that quite a number of these "Scientologists" who do show up at the big events do not consider themselves Scientologists. They show up out of curiosity and slip past the post-event "sales gauntlet" without buying the latest Miscavige release. So even the count of event attendees is inflated -- there are even fewer active Scientologists than event attendance would indicate.

Where are all the Scientologists?

Recently, David Miscavige released "The Basics": A liberal rewrite and repackage of the basic books which were originally authored by L. Ron Hubbard. Based on the "number of Scientologists world wide", Miscavige had a large number of the book and tape sets printed up, ready to be grabbed up by all those faithful Scientologists. "The Basics" were released with great fanfare ... but surprisingly (to Miscavige), very few book sets actually sold! He had tons of books left over. How could this be?

In desperation, Miscavige has now resorted to sending out hit teams of loyal Scientologists, with lists of "Scientologists" who didn't buy the new books -- to force the recalcitrants with threats of dire punishments, to buy Miscavige's new books! But the hit teams are having a lot of trouble. The books just aren't selling!

Where are all the Scientologists?

After a tremendous push, using the heaviest threats over a period of years, the Church of Scientology has managed to purchase a small number of their well publicized "new buildings" but that has been a disaster. The "showcase" buildings bought and renovated years ago at the beginning of the campaign are expensive and empty debacles today. The more recent purchases remain uninhabited shells with no money left to renovate them. The few parishioners who had any money have either been tapped out, have dropped out, or both.

Where are all the Scientologists?

Miscavige's Church of Scientology claims more than eight million members world wide, but book sales and event participation show the numbers, world wide, are in the low tens of thousands. And the numbers keep dropping.

The local churches are empty; course rooms are empty; donations are down; world wide the church's statistics are crashing.

There has been a huge project recently, ordered with the highest priority by Miscavige, to bring all Scientologists' address information up to date -- find out where everybody is! They are using every technique they can think of to track down everyone who ever had any contact with the church -- much to the dismay of those who thought they'd finally managed to stop the junk mail from Scientology. And, again, the results have been a complete catastrophe. What they are coming up with is merely confirming that a vast majority of those "Scientologists" are not, in actual fact, Scientologists. They don't want to have anything to do with the church.

Because of the church's threats of "fair game" and "disconnection", many of those who have left Scientology do not talk about it with other Scientologists. They just stop participating. In this way they can keep contact with friends, family and clients who may still be in Scientology. As a result, the church still thinks these non-Scientologists are "faithful but inactive". They aren't. The number of Scientologists is even smaller than Miscavige thinks.

So, where are all the Scientologists?

Gone. Miscavige's Church of Scientology no longer controls these people. They are free.

• Those few who still wish to practice Hubbard's technology do so as part of the loose association known as the Freezone. Everything is available there.
• Some ex-Scientologists have needed help recovering from bad experiences within the church, especially if they were in the Sea Org. They are recovering.
• But most ex-Scientologists are living good lives, free to look at anything they want, free to think the thoughts they decide to think -- simply living life the way they decide.

If you are still a Scientologist, but are wondering about it, don't worry. The world outside of Miscavige's Church of Scientology is a great place. You will lose nothing of value by stepping away from Miscavige's totalitarian control. Your friends are waiting for you.