The Underground Bunker is very happy that we could play a small role in bringing together one of our favorite people — Claire Headley — with David Pakman, who is doing some very good work interviewing former Scientologists about their experiences.
Claire explains how she grew up in Scientology, what it meant to be a young member of the Sea Org — and signing a contract for a billion years at only eight years of age — and what it was like to dedicate your entire life to L. Ron Hubbard.
Her story should be pretty familiar to readers here, but it’s always amazing to hear her explain just what she went through. A few years ago, we wrote about how she found herself working as the “examiner” when Tom Cruise had been audited by Marty Rathbun. It was Claire’s job to sign off on that auditing, and Tom wasn’t happy when Claire decided he didn’t have a “floating needle.”
She and Marc also sued Scientology, but they got some questionable advice about what law to sue under and the case was dismissed. Afterwards, Scientology hit them with legal costs of about $40,000 and offered to forgive the debt if Marc and Claire agreed to spy for the organization. They refused, went into hock to pay the bill, and then our readers were among those who raised money to make them whole.
We’re also grateful to Claire for helping us explain to readers what kind of courses and training Scientologists actually go through, as she helped us with our series, Up the Bridge.
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Speaking of the Sea Org…
This one is disturbing, folks, especially as it was posted right about the same time as Claire’s interview about escaping from the Sea Org. Here’s the caption posted by SarahEhrlich1: “My baby is starting a new journey today. #SeaOrg”
This photo was taken at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and Arthur Ehrlich is all of 16 years old.
His parents, David and Sarah Ehrlich, are wealthy Scientologists who live in a Beverly Hills mansion they bought for $8.5 million in 2008. David’s an investor, Sarah runs something called HelpForOrphans.org. If you know something about them, let us know.
Here are the reactions so far to their news about their son, which Sarah also posted to her Facebook page…
All right, we’ve learned a lot more about this young man, and we’re going to reveal some of it now. (And it’s late, so we’ll say now that we’re going to keep this post on top in the morning.)
Here we go. Back in April, we had one of our most moving stories of the year. It was about Gayle Smith and how she made a decision to “disconnect” from her own son, Collin, as Scientology instructed her to. Collin was later killed in a car accident, and when we first met Gayle in Clearwater, she wanted us to know how much it hurt that once she left the Church of Scientology, it was too late for her to reunite with her son. (The story was also about Collin’s twin brother, Aaron Smith-Levin, who was under intense pressure to disconnect from Gayle after she left the organization, but they defied those orders and Aaron and Gayle made sure she could still see her grandkids.)
Anyway, what we did not say in that story is that when Collin was 18 years old, he had a son with 22-year-old woman named Sarah. They named the boy Arthur.
Because Collin was so young, he really wasn’t ready for a family, and so from birth or near abouts, young Arthur was adopted by another Scientology couple, Dennis and Bunny Dubin.
It’s Dennis Dubin who is seen in the photograph that Arthur posted recently from 2001…
Dennis Dubin died of cancer on October 24, 2007, but by then, we’re told, Sarah was back in Arthur’s life. She then married David Ehrlich, a wealthy Beverly Hills investor. (Sarah and David then had three children of their own.)
So Arthur Ehrlich has a complex family history, and he’s always been around Scientology. And now, just today, he joined the Sea Org. We’ve talked to family members and friends who predict that he won’t get through the Sea Org’s boot camp, the Estates Project Force, and he may be back home within a month.
Perhaps. But it’s still arresting to see a 16-year-old sign a billion-year contract with the Church of Scientology.
Imagine how proud David and Sarah Ehrlich are today…
Meanwhile, it looks like Arthur has some experience swabbing decks and exteriorizing, judging from his star turn in this music video by the Ocala, Florida band A Day to Remember and its song, “End of Me”…
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Bonus photos from our tipsters
As our tipster says, “A man who fought for freedom for all. A church that advocates freedom for only those who agree with them.”
And in London, “Our Public Servicing Secretary, Leah with the latest completion of our Personal Values & Integrity Life Improvement Course.” Oh goodie.
More theta flowing in Tampa!
Picture caption: “Here is our Sunday School gang, making Happiness Help Coupon Books to demonstrate the Way to Happiness precept ‘Honor and Help Your Parents'”
Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!
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OUR COUNTDOWN
11 days until Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief opens at the Sundance Film Festival at 2:30 pm on Sunday, January 25 in Park City, Utah
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 13, 2015 at 20:00
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 cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists
GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice
SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts
PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
