Marty Rathbun’s latest book comes out this time next week, and we’ve got a review copy that we’ll be writing about next Wednesday.
Rathbun was once the second-highest ranking official in Scientology before his defection in 2004. He then disappeared so thoroughly, many people assumed he had died. But then he not only resurfaced, he started a blog in 2009 that quickly became Scientology leader David Miscavige’s biggest headache.
Rahbun’s blog has changed substantially in recent months, but he’s been focusing more on writing books about Scientology. We were fairly harsh with our reading of the first, found a lot more to like about the second, and we’ll give the latest one a thorough read before we give you our thoughts.
In Rathbun’s first book, What is Wrong with Scientology? Healing Through Understanding, the former church executive was attempting a sort of manifesto for how he felt independent Scientology might differentiate itself from Miscavige’s church. In the second book, The Scientology Reformation: What Every Scientologist Should Know, Rathbun focused more on recent changes in Scientology brought on by Miscavige, and it included fascinating new material about such scandals as Tom Cruise’s involvement with actress Nazanin Boniadi.
Now, Rathbun appears to be writing about his own life from his earliest days, and we’re hoping to get a lot more about his involvement in Scientology as its “enforcer” in Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior. We’ll let you know.
Gary Richardson Calls Oklahoma Sheriff’s Investigation a “Whitewash”
Last night, David Love revealed that he received an e-mail from Gary Richardson, the attorney who is handling the wrongful death lawsuits of three patients who died at Scientology’s drug rehab facility in Oklahoma, as well as several other lawsuits against the facility.
In the e-mail, Richardson complained that Pittsburg County Sheriff Joel Kerns wasn’t contacting witnesses he knew had information about the deaths. He characterized Kerns’ investigation as a “whitewash.”
We’re putting in calls to Kerns to get his reaction to that this morning, and we’re talking to Richardson for more details on his allegations. We’re hoping to get a story up this afternoon.
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Scientology’s Backing Revealed in Illinois Bill That Gets Torpedoed
We’ve also put in calls to Illinois state representative Ed Sullivan Jr., who became the subject of news stories yesterday when he helped kill a Scientology-backed bill that would have probed the relationship between Illinois law and psychiatry.
Reading a description of the bill, it sounded like a bit of a fishing expedition inspired by the publication of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), which has caused some controversy.
Illinois representative Mary Flowers had proposed the bill, saying she wanted to “propose a conversation about psychiatry.” But then, reported WUIS Radio, Sullivan spoke up…
Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-Mundelein, told fellow lawmakers one of the groups supporting the effort is backed by the Church of Scientology.
“I bring this up because my family has some issues — has had some exposure — with the church of Scientology,” Sullivan says. “And without getting into details, it hasn’t been very good.”
The House then defeated the bill, 92-22.
We’d like to know more about Sullivan and what prompted his words. We’ll let you know if he gets back to us.
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Meet The New Tech, Same As The Old Tech
Last summer, we broke the news that Scientology leader David Miscavige was going to be releasing a new take on L. Ron Hubbard’s “technology” that he was going to call “Golden Age of Tech II.”
The first version of the Golden Age of Tech, which Miscavige revealed in 1996, was a controversial release that forced members to redo expensive levels of coursework. So what’s Golden Age of Tech II all about? Mike Rinder received an update about the new materials that is filled with arcane Scientology lingo. For a translation of it, we asked Marc Headley to help us out. Here’s what he sent us…
This re-release routine has been done by David Miscavige since the 1980’s and he has pretty much mastered repackaging stuff and making people re-buy it all over again.
The irony is that a bulk of the items made “on source” are things that he had revised years ago. Now he is putting them back the way they were before he tinkered with them and re-releasing them as new.
Wow, that’s clever. According to Rinder, expect Miscavige to formally release the material at this year’s Auditor’s Day celebration, which usually occurs in September.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 24, 2013 at 07:00
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