We love our tipsters. They are constantly alerting us to interesting stuff about Scientology. Some of it is just strange, like this rabbit hole we went down yesterday. Is it important? Probably not. But we thought readers might find it amusing. So here we go.
On Sunday, a couple of pages appeared online from a recent issue of The Comm Line, a newsletter that’s printed for Scientologists and can be picked up in some shops in Clearwater, Florida.
One of the pages contained a curious ad…
We thought that was a pretty remarkable ad for a publication put out by Scientologists. In 2007, Scientology leader David Miscavige pushed hard for every church member to buy multiple sets of “The Basics,” a $3,000 set of books and lectures that he’d republished in new editions. Many people who have left the organization in recent years say their disillusion with Scientology began with the Basics push, and we’ve heard many stories about boxes of books being stacked up in the garages of people who felt forced to buy them.
A tipster pointed out to us who “Randall” happened to be, so we called the number in the ad.
We confirmed with the person who picked up the phone that he was Randy Rotter, a longtime Scientologist in the Clearwater area.
We told him that we were interested in his ad. What, we wondered, was he doing with the boxes of Basics that he was taking in?
He told us that he sells Scientology books on eBay, where he’s been a seller for 16 years.
“Why? Do you want to get in the business of buying and selling Basics?” he asked us.
We wondered what it pays.
“I get $2 or $3 a book,” he said.
Don’t church members have to buy these books from the church, at their full prices?
“The church gave me their blessing,” he said. Then, more aggressively, “The church gave me their blessing, so feel free to report me to the church.”
And then he hung up.
Hey, we aren’t David Miscavige’s cop! We don’t care that he’s selling Basics on eBay. What we really wanted to ask Randy, what he didn’t give us a chance to ask, were questions about the other stuff he sells on eBay and other sites along with Scientology books. Here’s a sampling!
Oh, and of course…
Now, we just want to go on the record and say that the Underground Bunker totally endorses the idea of selling Scientology’s essential texts at a deep discount along with classic porn and other titillating material.
If there’s one thing that Scientology sorely lacks, it’s a sense of fun. So far be it for us to rain on Randy’s parade. If you want to go through his wares, you might start out with his Amazon offerings.
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Watch Scientology claim that it solved the crime problem in St. Louis
Thanks to Scientology411 for spotting this gem. We told you yesterday that Scientologists were seen handing out copies of L. Ron Hubbard’s goofy book of bland life advice, The Way to Happiness, that had special covers benefiting a local group working out of a Nation of Islam mosque.
Well, it turns out that last year, the St. Louis chapter of The Way to Happiness Foundation put together a short film about the miracle that handing out the slim booklets was producing in the city.
And it has special meaning to us because the couple featured are Barry and Claire Coziahr — who just happen to be the parents of the young woman who was marred to Jeremy Powers. You remember Jeremy. He recently decided to leave Scientology and was reunited with his mother, Meshell Little.
This video was made last September, and we think we catch a glimpse of Jeremy at the 2:57 mark, walking behind his in-laws…
Given what’s happened in Ferguson over the past several days, the Coziahrs are going to have work even harder to get that crime rate down!
Two final items: We enjoyed this BBC piece about an Ideal Org that’s gone to seed. How are you going to raise millions from only 62 Scientologists?
And Jon Atack wanted us to let you know that he’s going to be part of a press conference this Friday in London leading into an invitation-only weekend confab. Details are here.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 19, 2014 at 07:00
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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, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48
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, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
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