Last month I spent some time in Florida in order to spend some time with a couple of friends of mine who live there. While in Florida, one of my friends and I spent an afternoon in Clearwater, walking around and looking at all of the CO$-related stuff that's all over that town.

When I approached the Flag building, it was about 12:30 in the afternoon and all of the Sea Org members were breaking for lunch. They were all herding into what looked like charter buses with the word "Flag" written in fancy lettering on the sides. It looked like a conference of flight attendants in training, as they were all in their Sea Org uniforms and all of this.

One fellow, a security guard (and Sea Org member) in a suit, stopped me as I stepped on to the property and approached the building and asked me who I was and why I was there. I told him the truth: that I am a tourist, I have heard all kinds of things about Scientology, and that I thought that I'd stop in Clearwater and check it out for myself. He was cool with that, and told me that I was free to take some pictures, but that I could not enter into the building. So I walked around, off of their property, and took pictures of stuff. The Sea Org man with whom I spoke had a good sense of humor. He told me that they only wear the tinfoil hats at night. We parted ways with a handshake and a smile from both of us. That's a true story.

It was a bit like visiting a military base, going to look at Flag.

I am posting a picture of Flag, and also one of the Ft. Harrison Hotel. I took a bunch of other photos, but these are the ones in which no faces are visible and/or recognizable. More about Flag (aka "The Super Power Building") and the Ft. Harrison can be found here:

[tonyortega.org]

[en.wikipedia.org]

Hmmm...it looks as if the uploading did not work. I'll have to work on that later.

I also remember that the Sea Org man with whom I was speaking asked me if I'd ever read Dianetics or any of their other books. I told him that yes, I have read parts of Dianetics and other stuff that CO$ has published. I then told him that I have also read OT3 in its entirety, and that I am obviously not dead yet, nor do I think that I have lost my mind. He acted as if he had not heard what I had said and scurried off to go get me some free DVDs. I thought that odd.