Scientology and Oiliness: More Renderings from the Super Power Building

by Tony Ortega

January 10, 2012

Yesterday, we made public a leak of major proportions: we obtained hundreds of new renderings and architectural drawings of Scientology’s $100 million “Super Power Building” — what the church calls “Flag Mecca” — in Clearwater, Florida.

Of all the “perceptics” installations on the building’s “super power” fifth floor that we learned about, one that seems to disturb readers the most is the notion of an “oiliness table.” We’re still not sure what Scientologists will be subjected to when they have their sense of “oiliness” checked, but we found this rendering of the apparatus, and we have additional, never-before-seen images from the building after the jump…

Before we show any more images, however, we thought we’d roll credits first. As in, we found this list of who was responsible for turning church leader David Miscavige‘s dreams into reality. As of 2009, these were the firms on board…

Another of the perceptics installations that confounds us is an egg-shaped room with the name “Endocrine States.” We’re still not much closer to understanding what goes on inside it, but going back through our files, we found this cutaway schematic. Can anyone make sense of what’s going on here?

Another of L. Ron Hubbard‘s 57 “perceptics” — human senses — he called “gravitic.” We found this rendering of the fifth floor’s “gravitic elements” installation, and that vertical portion with holes is referred to as a “climbing wall.”

What would a Mecca to Scientology be without acknowledging its various front groups? We found these circular rooms on the first floor, with various tributes to organizations that sometimes play down their connection to the church: Narconon, Criminon, Applied Scholastics (“APS”), and the The Way to Happiness Foundation (“TWTH”). On the other hand, they do seem shoved into a dead-end little room next to the larger, central circle, which pays homage to Scientology’s “orgs” (churches), Volunteer Ministers (who get sent to natural disasters to perform voodoo — “touch assists” — and hand out literature), Scientology’s mini-orgs (Scientology Missions International) and WISE (World of Scientology Enterprises), which tries to convince businesses that L. Ron Hubbard was some kind of organizational genius.

Getting back to oiliness — we just can’t seem to get enough of it — let’s put that oiliness table in some context. Here’s an overhead view of one room in the fifth floor “perceptics” section, and you can see that the oiliness table shares space with a “friction table,” as well as four other stations: heat, cold, pressure, and pain. (At the bottom, you can see the doors to the smell and taste walls.)

Wait a minute — a pain station? We looked into that further, and found drawings that indicate that the corner counter will feature multiple “spike plates” which can pivot. Some of them are labeled in this fashion: “Combined Plate” (CP), Hot-Cold-Electric, Hot, and Cold Versions. Are Scientologists going to get shocked with hot electrified spike plates?

Spike plates, oiliness and friction tables, spinning subjects on a gyroscope — that fifth floor is starting to sound more and more like some kind of S&M dungeon for wealthy Scientology celebrities — run, Katie, run!

Let’s go back to the first floor, where there’s a lot of nostalgia going on for L. Ron Hubbard and his days at sea. First, we noticed this grand wall of tributes to the Commodore and his many accomplishments. The wall is so long, we had to snip it into two different scans, first the left portion and then the right, with a grand entrance into the Atrium between them…

And we were a little surprised that readers didn’t seem to have more to say about the small Sea Org museum outside the Commodore’s office, which includes a diorama of what it was like to sail on the Apollo back in the day. The recreation of a deck from the ship includes an actual lifeboat replica, and here’s a schematic…

And finally, we wanted to give a better indication of just how stupendous is the sixth floor dome — which extends into the seventh floor — which is one giant room for running around an illuminated column. First, here’s another look at that artist’s rendering for what the experience is going to be like…

Now, we’re going to reproduce the entire sixth floor’s schematic so you can see just how much space is dedicated to that running dome in a building that takes up a full city block. Those tiny rooms that surround the running space are all auditing chambers. Hundreds of the little rooms are also found on other floors — Miscavige is optimistic about the huge numbers of people he expects to use this facility.

We’re still sifting through architectural drawings in the hundreds of files that were leaked to us, so we may have other surprises soon. But check back often because all hell continues to break loose for Scientology as its membership appears to be in the grip of a crisis in faith. Coming soon: more escapes from the asylum!

Tony Ortega is the editor-in-chief of The Village Voice. Since 1995, he’s been writing about Scientology at several publications.

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