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Scientology archiving magazines online? Are they nuts?

PowerOfLookingIf you’ve been hanging out with us for a while, you know that we bounce around from big stories with wide appeal to some things that only the truly obsessive will care about. Today we have a real treat for you obsessive types who love going down the Scientology rabbit hole.

One of our great tipsters let us know that the UK branch of Scientology has been putting a lot of recent church publications online in a growing archive. You longtime church watchers will know how unusual that is — Scientology is still very much stuck in the past and figures the solution to taking over the planet is through books, magazines, and pamphlets, and all on paper (the glossier the better). The Internet? It’s generally a thing to be feared and avoided. So for the UK org to be putting whole copies of Advance! online, for example, is quite a treat.

Head on over to this archive, and have at it. Let us know if you dig up anything really remarkable. You might also look here and here. (We took today’s illustration from the latest copy of Advance! )

And you British Scientologists, thanks for the access!

Still on our theme of limited appeal, we figure only a few folks will want to hear your proprietor drone on for two whole hours. It’s funny, isn’t it, that it took a couple of UFO radio shows to give us so much time to waste? (And our thanks to Rex Bear for putting up with us.)

 

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Another treat this morning: We thought J. Swift was onto something here. It’s a fun diagram that packs some of the basics of Scientology’s structure into a tiny space…

 
JSwiftScientology

 
Yet more fun. Mark “Warrior” Plummer posted this image on his Facebook page last night with this notation: “A little gem from my FSM pack from around 34 years ago.” If only Scientology were as honest today about how it sees the world!

 
FSMPack

 
Also, we actually have a little celebrity news for once. One of our commenters pointed out that Michelle Stafford has joined the cast of General Hospital. Why is that important? Well, Michelle’s a very dedicated Scientologist, and there was some speculation that she left a prominent role at The Young and the Restless because fellow cast member Michael Fairman had defected from the church and has been vocal about it. (We made some calls, and we think there’s something to that speculation, or we wouldn’t bother with it.)

After she left the show, Michelle put together a few episodes of a web series, and Roger Friedman pointed out that everyone else working on it were also Scientologists. (Which might explain why they were wooden and unfunny, for the most part.)

But now Michelle is back to a paying gig at GH, and good for her. Except, oops, we brought you news last year that the writers at General Hospital had come up with a great running gag, bestowing the name “Miscavige Hospital for the Criminally Insane” on a mental health facility in the show.

Now, according to the U.S. Census, there are only 118 people in all of the United States with the last name “Miscavige.” For comparison, there are 303 Rinders, 956 Scobees, 7,590 Rathbuns, and 10,411 Headleys. (Gosh, Census data is fun!)

Of the tiny number of Miscaviges in America, who could the writers at General Hospital have had in mind when they named their hospital for the criminally insane? Any guesses?

 
MiscavigeTwins

 
(Actually, maybe it’s a toss-up.)

We have asked our elves over at ABC to let us know what happens when the writers who came up with the hospital name (who are based in New York) collide with the well-known actress when she begins filming in Los Angeles. Something’s gotta give!

 
Hey, one additional note this morning: If we have any correspondents at the conference in Clearwater this evening, drop us a line and let us know! We might put you to work.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 5, 2014 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS (We read Scientology’s founding text) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25

UP THE BRIDGE (Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43

GETTING OUR ETHICS IN (Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING (Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer

 

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