November 16-21, 2004, yellow tents were set up on The Strip, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Volunteer Minister Cavalcade.

Now what will follow is long. Personally, I've been fascinated by these yellow tents since they were introduced, which I believe was a few years back somewhere in Europe. (possibly)

Today I understand them a lot better, and this report covers my first time ever inside one of these tents. You will notice in the pictures supplied that I had actually taken pictures inside the tent. Not pictures from outside looking in, but actual pictures taken from the inside, and taken in a calm and leisurely manner. And you might wonder how I had accomplished this. To be in one of their tents, while they were there also, and to calmly take pictures of *their* tent. Well, I am one of those OT 1.1's you sometimes hear about, and doing the impossible is what we do. :)

Some hard facts: Tents seem to be standard in sizes of 30' x 30' and 15' x 15'. The 15 x's have a special name, runner tent or something, I just don't remember. This particular setup was three 30 x's connected to form a circle on the inside. They can also be connected in a straight line.

The big org here has a 30x and a 15x. The little org has only a 15x, and, a van. The big org has no van it seems, but that is explainable as one of the vehicle pictures I have webbed, think it is webbed, shows a small trailer against the wall. And I've often though that this sporadically appearing trailer was for a yellow tent.

Setup I don't know. But breakdown I learned, can be done in about 2.5 hours with 10 males working. But typically they only have 8 males for the breakdown and then it takes about 5 hours.

The materials for sale, books, are supplied by the local orgs for this traveling tent show. And this particular set up here was a traveling tent show, and not the local tents. The emeters are also supplied by the local org.

Well pretty much these are the hard facts, now we enter the world of both theory and actual observations. And somewhere in here is a too long account of a 17 year old male sea org telling me he can kick my ass. And to not blow this out of proportion, I'm partially responsible for him saying that, I kind of led him into that, and then used that remark to turn everything around. And it all worked out well as I ended up, with permission, inside the tent. Remember, I am OT 1.1, and I use TR's that they have no numbers for. :)

With all that will follow, there is a question I have no answer for, and maybe together we can find this answer. The question: What do they hope to accomplish with the tent?

And now, submitted for your approval:

They sit there and wait, they do not use body routers, and least not on this day that I watched them. They have the tables set up, they had 4 of them, and each table has an emeter. And close to the table a sign for a 'free stress test'. They sit there waiting. But it is not that they sit one of them to a table and patiently wait, it is more that they move around, sit down, move around. Any one of them will sit down to the emeter when customers stop, and they don't each have their own table/meter, but rather whoever is closest to the customer(s) that have stopped, sits at the meter/table and services the customer. This part is casual. And effective IMO, it lends to a relaxed atmosphere.

They sit slightly hypnotized though, and this from being in a cult of course, but more than that, from hours and days of dealing with nameless people that come and go without end. For this is The Strip, a lovely day, and lot's of people walking past the tent.

They had two women, and about 4 men. Only one of the women worked the tables though. I know both of these women, at one time I had walked next to each of them at different times, close to them, and neither of them recognized me, I was just another pile of meat standing there. One woman is about 50 maybe, at least late 40's, certainly attractive enough, leaning more towards handsome. The other a woman about 60 I would guess, and she has something wrong with her face, always has had this problem, a cancer or something, she always wears a large bandage on her face. Understandable that she would not work the tables. The males all had yellow VM jackets on, and pretty much walked around with an air of Authority, bordering on a macho act. I suspect these were sea org that traveled with the truck, did set up and break down, and were kind of pissed at having to deal with raw meat. That was my impression.

The women were in casual clothes, much too casual. It did not look good, by good I mean impressive, it was sloppy in fact. They looked like they were regular sellers at a swap meet, and dressed to get dirty. All the men had sneakers and nasty looking unpressed jeans, and the VM jackets on all of them were wrinkled and dirty. They looked like the kind of guys that work the rides in a traveling carnival.

Tourists pretty much move in crowds of 2 and more, not too many lone people walking the Strip, usually families or couples, or a few friends. When a group would stop at an emeter, that would make for a crowd around the small table. And then that crowd inevitably would attract another crowd. And a flurry of excitement would occur, it didn't seem to last long, and I need to do this Stress Test myself one of these times to learn what the routine actually is. I had seen a crowd of up to 8 people form and dissipate within 2-3 minutes at least twice. So I don't know what goes on there.

Now, back to an earlier mention of a theory. I figure it goes like this... the tent sets up on that first day at a new location with a burst of energy and excitement. Members from both orgs would be there in abundance, so many of them they are probably tripping over each other. Everyone would be dressed nicely for this first day, rested, fed, all that good stuff. And this might carry to part of day two, but by day three, fatigue has set in. The day is long, the people, nameless and without end keep walking by. And rejection is starting to take a toll on the members doing long shifts on a noisy and smelly street. Remember, this is The Strip, traffic never stops coming by, all day long it is noisy and smelly. And mainly this is about rejection. Scores and scores of people walk by, some few of them stop for the Stress Test or to ask a question. And of those few that stop, not many of those would be interested enough to go inside the tent. And even when they do get in the tent, only a small fraction of those will buy a book or pamphlet and have some major cognition about how wonderful scientology actually is. And we need remember, these are tourists walking by. All of us have been tourists somewhere at some time, we know what the deal is. We are not where we are to conduct business or join something, we are there, well, not there to conduct business. Add to this that the people walking by, naturally, are on foot, walking, not driving. And in no hurry whatsoever to pick up materials that have to carried to wherever they are walking to. And so the whole thing is rejection.

And I come along, as I did, on day five. And the rejection shows, and it is obvious. Those members working the tent are tired, bored, lifeless. No enthusiasm whatsoever. No joy, no life, they are in fact depressing people to look at. And they sit there and they go through the motions, and they don't have their hearts in what they are doing. This attitude of course creates an ambience, best seen on the inside of tent.

INSIDE: There is no problem with smell, the tent is open enough. The lighting is eerie, it is the sunlight filtered though the yellow tent. The pictures of the inside show this a little. And when you are in the tent long enough, as I was, you start to really see the thing. Boxes stacked haphazardly here and there. Piles of stuff here and there. And the dirt on the inside walls of the tent is noticeable. Places where tape is being used because of a rip in the tent, is not really noticeable from the outside, but from the inside looking up, the tape shows up like a picture on a museum wall. The tape just jumps right out at you, with the yellow tent and you are looking up into the sun so to speak.

You notice as you look around, the cheap folding chairs, and you know just by looking at them that they are uncomfortable. And then you realize that standing there is uncomfortable. You look down and notice that you are standing in a parking lot, directly on a parking lot. Uneven, cracked, and oil stained ever so slightly. And you see a few stirps of runner carpet here and there on the floor. And you wonder, why did they put a strip of carpet in that one spot? Why only there? And then if you are me, you realize that a wog operation would have 'astro turf' or something on the floor, that it would not be a bare parking lot that you are standing on.

There is a small screen plasma? tv set up, I don't know, maybe 20" wide??? And it is not turned on. And it is so bright in there, you wonder would you even be able to see it if it were turned on? My guide, and I'll get to him soon, tells me the tv is for the Dianetics (something) video, and that the tv is not working. And I think it was a dvd set up, but I wasn't close enough to tell for sure.

A quick digression here for a soapbox speech. I still say the tents should be left alone, never bothered. Another argument is that those low vehicles counts of 5 at the big org, are due to these tents. They can't be everywhere at once those local members. They are at the org, or at the tent. Better that they spin their wheels on a busy street in a squalid tent doing a useless activity, then that they are at the orgs.

So, my predictions about these tents that I made some months ago have turned out accurate. And I can also juggle. They look bad up close, but I wasn't ready for how the operation actually worked. When you stand there in the streets, doing something like this, and you wait for people to walk up to you, that is hard to do. We forget just how hard that is to accomplish. I've done things like this, and you can't scratch between your legs or pick your nose or anything because you are in public view all the time. And the noise never stops and the hours pass slowly. But you watch them like I did, and you see them staring into space, or wandering in a circle, and they come alive when a human walks up. The human leaves, and they stare into space again. And everything is dirty, and they are dirty. I tell you, it is actually worse than I thought. I worked a carnival once, and we were loud and aggressive and had some fun. But these people/members were dejected, beaten down, and lifeless. Interesting to witness.

OK now, macho time. Teddy and the Monkey do a Dance: (this was written earlier)

My plan was to show up that Saturday wearing slacks with a crease in them, and a clean shirt that looks like it was ironed. I had planned to pass myself off as a typical tourist, and allow them to "snare" me into a presentation, or whatever it is that they actually do. I had learned of this yellow tent event though email. It had started on a Tuesday, and ended that coming Sunday. But the first time I ever saw it was on a Saturday.

My plans fell apart though, my sleep schedule was all wrong, and I went there about 11:30am, which was past my bedtime already. I was sleepy, cynical, bored, and testy. Dressed sloppy and having no patience.

I park the car, and basically storm the tent. Already I have no patience for this silliness. Some kid makes me immediately, this fires up my blood, I pull cover-maneuvers and fool the kid for a while. Now I'm taking the pictures of the sides of the tents, the kid is gone. To get a good picture of the front I have to cross the street, which is a dangerous and time consuming affair on the Las Vegas Strip. And the kid makes me once again. And this time there is no doubt.

He looks at me, I look at him, looks at me... He crosses the street and asks me what I'm doing. "Taking pictures." "Well I see you standing here and looking at our tent." "Taking pictures." "well I see you taking pictures of our tent." "Is there a problem Officer?" "well you are taking pictures." "Is there a problem Officer?"

OK, so I don't know what I say eventually, but I have all the pictures I need. The kid is now telling me I cannot take pictures. I tell him he is pulling a stupid bluff, that he doesn't know if I'm part of a swat team or a sting operation, that he has no idea, can't risk anything, and that he is pulling a stupid bluff. This slows him down a bit :) I then tell him I'm done here with the pictures and let's cross the street now because there is a break in the traffic.

As we are crossing the street the kid blesses me with the following statement, "I can kick your ass." Now I'm trying to cross a street without getting hit by a car, and protecting this kid from getting hit by a car, and this nimrod wants to tell me he can kick my ass! We are at the center median by now, by the time we crossed the second part of the street I had him totally calmed down. Led him to a spot right in front of the tent, and then tore into him fast and heavy with talk and questions. Turns out he is 17 years old, sea org. I ask him, "why are you wasting your time with this stuff, why aren't you out chasing pussy, why do you waste your time with this?"

And this was the proper approach at the time. He is totally confused, and talking in Tongues, if you catch my drift. He tells me he likes doing what he does and etc. And now I start talking Monkey. This gets him lit up! Well anyway, I could almost type forever, but this poor kid, oh my, it was no contest, I owned him totally.

And now, a most glorious thing happens. He asks me if I want to go inside the tent. woo hoo! I lit up myself and sprang into the entrance way. And then I stop and smile, and wave him in also. I tell him he has to walk with me, to follow me around, to make sure I don't take anything or bother anything. He complies (of course).

And this was how I got inside the tent.

As I was being chaperoned by this 17 year old, none of the other members paid us any attention. And now the kid is overcompensating, he is talking a mile a minute, feeding me all kinds of information. It was too much for me to remember (used to have a memory). He just keeps talking and talking and following me around as I walk all over that tent just looking at things. And I took some leisurely pictures, and he never questioned that, nor did any of the other members.

He stops talking somewhere, remembering the tech and all no doubt. I ask him will he be attending the New Years Event this year? "yes". I tell him I have heard a few of the announcements that will be mentioned this year, would he like to hear them? "yes". I then go into my patented yearly post about 'this year more people than ever before have reached for the lrh technology' and etc. The poor child, his eyes were crossed when he understood what I meant :)

I see I'm losing him, he is rebounding, and I have overstayed my welcome anyway. I zap him with the filthy condition of the tent, ask him how dare he call himself the master of MEST and the tent looks like this. I tell him wogs would never work in filth like this, what is wrong with you?

I'm close to an entranceway now, leading him there, and a wog comes up heading for an emeter. He uses that as an excuse to end this affair, but does ask me my name. I tell him 'they' all know me in the orgs, that I am the biggest SP in Vegas. His eyes cross again. So I repeat it, the biggest SP in Vegas. He asks again my name, and I give it to him, my real name, we shake hands, his idea, and I am out of there for the day.

Sunday is a day of pure rain, and oddity here in Vegas to have an almost entire day of rain. I go by that afternoon and they have one entrance way open, and nothing set up outside of course. Go back again and it is still raining, and now both entrance ways are closed.

I'm confused by the logistics of it all. What will they do? Will they take the tent down in the rain, or wait until the next day? this was about 5pm. I go back 9:30pm because I CAN'T STAND IT, I have to know what they are doing with that tent! The tent is gone, truck is gone, everything is gone, like they were never there.

oops, almost forgot, when I went by about 3am that first time on Saturday morning, the generator was running. It made no sense to me, I couldn't figure it out. But then I understood, another riddle was solved, and this is sad. They don't sleep in the truck, nope, they sleep in the tent. And the generator was running at night, because it was cold, and they probably had a heater in the tent.

But I sat in the car that Sunday evening, looking at the spot where the tents used to be. And then I realized what a perfect org a tent is. It owns no property, it only sets up with permission. It causes no harm, and then it leaves, and you don't even know it was ever there to begin with.

-- Ted Mayett OT 1.1 http://www.solitarytrees.net/pickets/links.htm

<p><hr><p> From: Ted Mayett <tedmayett@despammed.com>
Subject: Re: Vegas, yellow tents, November, full report
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 07:12:28 -0800
Message-ID: <b2sbq0liiebn4db877nm83qb4052vdtqqk@4ax.com>

OK, a Major Cognition on these tents. It was that realpeach post that made me think of this.

And it's funny, I stand there looking at them, and I never noticed...

The support mechanism for the central cone(s) on this tent being discussed, is actually quite different than the support mechanism found on that tent set up behind the big org. And the difference is extreme, and I figured out why.

This particular tent here, I don't think it could be called the 'grand daddy' tent, I don't think that. But this I would call, 'the big tent' or 'traveling tent'. It is pretty much an entirely different construction than the local tent used here in Vegas. Although I suspect the "little" 30x's here can connect to this 'big tent'. I believe that part is standard.

Here is the thing about this, and pictures:

Notice here that there are no ropes being used: http://www.solitarytrees.net/lvorgs/lv8a.htm

And in these pictures we can see that ropes are used: http://www.solitarytrees.net/lvorgs/lv4a.htm

So in the pecking order of things, the 'big tent' or 'traveling tent' is the showpiece. Little local orgs have their flimsy tents that require rope to hold them to the ground. But not the traveling tent, that one needs no rope! It is heavier, and a more solid construction.

The traveling tent is the real thing, not a local imitation. This is the ONE, the top of the food chain (possibly), it is WOW, the OFFICIAL VOLUNTEER MINISTER CAVALCADE TENT.

It doesn't get any better than this, this is the upper heights of it all where yellow tents are concerned. And already, the tent is starting to look like a piece of shit.

Now I don't know about you, but the little things in life make me happy. :)

-- Ted Mayett OT 1.1 http://www.solitarytrees.net/pickets/links.htm

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