Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet. He was kind enough to send us a new post.
Jon, we regret that we could only attend the first two days of your conference in Toronto. But we’ve been looking forward to your post-game analysis. How did things go for you last week?
JON: Our Toronto seminar really did turn out to be a blessing. I arrived back home on Monday and thought I’d wade through the jet lag to sum up our wonderful conference, on this the hottest day of the year so far in merry old England.
We hope to have separate sessions available on Vimeo Pro soon for a few bucks a shot. My job was to prepare my own presentations and muster a dream team, so Professor Jim Beverley was landed with organizing the seminar. High definition filming – with a four man crew – and expenses for hotel, travel, food and so forth, left us seriously cash depleted. We are working on ways to recover those monies so will offer sessions as pay per view. There are 28 separate sessions and we have almost 29 hours of HD film.
Before we can publish, we must have the consent of all parties, and we intend to offer a royalty to all concerned. I am new to this field, so please bear with me while I sort out the details. If any of our readers has professional knowledge in this field, please be in touch. Donations are also gratefully received (and your name can be added to the Patrons Meretricious list posted on telegraph poles around the Blue Buildings).
After Jim’s introduction – he said he was in heaven – I opened the seminar with a Powerpoint show of some of Hubbard’s inflated claims about his youth. It is remarkable that enough material exists to show that Hubbard was a fabulist without turning to the extensive records. For instance, although he frequently claimed to be a “nuclear physicist,” a “scientist” and an “engineer” there is a telling passage in a recorded lecture, still published by the cult. In Introduction to Dianetics of 23 September 1950 (republished in 2007), Hubbard said: “The people were very impressed with atomic and molecular phenomena. And I took the course and of course flunked it.” This is exactly in accord with the transcripts of his studies released by George Washington University. Far from being a civil engineer or a nuclear physicist, Hubbard actually failed to graduate.
In the same lecture, Hubbard explained the reality of his purported studies with gurus in India, China, Tibet, and China as a youth: “I was in the Orient when I was very young. Of course, I was a harum-scarum kid; I wasn’t thinking about deep philosophic problems.”
Hubbard would casually remark in his later years that his were the only discoveries in the fields of the mind and spirit in “50,000 years,” however, in the lecture he says of the notion of “unconscious recordings,” which is pivotal to Dianetics, that a “psychiatrist in 1914 did some experiments upon an unconscious person and recovered the content of that period of unconsciousness through hypnosis.” Later he says that he had met a biologist who “was doing a paper which was duplicating my work, but he was basing it on some work done in 1925.”
It was a boon that Gerry Armstrong was in the front row, correcting any error of fact on my part. He asked me to point out that the Sub-Chaser in which Hubbard had fought his valiant 55-hour battle with a magnetic deposit off the Oregon coast was actually the PC-815, not the YP-422 of which I showed a slide. Phew, imagine how my reputation would have sunk had this mistake been perpetuated! But it was genuinely helpful to be corrected. In my defense, it is 20 years since I was last engaged with the small print of Hubbard’s life, but there is no excuse for error and I have duly sent myself to Ethics.
We showed a new interview with the legendary Russell Miller, whose biography Bare-Faced Messiah is a classic (and thanks to Steve Jones for making the video. We hope to put the full version on line soon).
Gerry joined me on the stage to explain his own time in the cult up to the discovery of the 21 boxes of original material that were the beginning of the Hubbard Biography Project. Those boxes had followed Hubbard around the world, and included his baby boots and a whole heap of discreditable material.
Gerry also told us that he and Hubbard’s official biographer, Omar Garrison, restyled the Old Man of the Sea Org “Johnny Goodbugger,” conflating his fictional hero, Johnny Goodboy Tyler, with the evidence of his teenage appetite for gay sex. Hubbard’s homophobia is in stark contrast to the evidence of his own bisexual nature. The ritual to bring about the End Days, with Jack Parsons is a gay ceremony, and Robert Heinlein’s journals show that they too engaged in man-on-man sex.
We moved on to a brief history of Dianetics and Scientology. I described the emergence of Dianetics; Hubbard’s flight to Cuba after kidnapping his own daughter (and his threats to his bigamous second wife to murder the poor infant); the return and rescue by Don Purcell, who bought the rights to Dianetics to save Hubbard from liability for practising medicine without a license; and the bankruptcy of the Dianetics Foundations (Hubbard had gleefully blown all the money).
Hubbard attacked Purcell in a series of 31 letters sent to the stolen mailing list of the Wichita Foundation, so had to come up with a new subject out of whole cloth. He turned to the work of his “very good friend” — Aleister Crowley — and Scientology was born, using the visualization techniques of Magick in Theory and Practice, along with Crowley’s “past lives” and a few dollops of “space opera.” Hubbard had already borrowed the notion of the trauma of birth from Crowley for Dianetics (see my Possible Origins for Dianetics and Scientology for 120 detailed examples of Hubbard’s plagiarism).
Scientology languished – there were only 38 students at the Philadelphia “Doctorate” Course – until the Anderson Enquiry, in Victoria, Australia, in 1963, which led to a series of Enquiries (we failed to mention the one in Ontario) and tremendous publicity. Hana Whitfield joined me to talk about the origin of the Sea Org and her own often bizarre experiences.
John McLean gave an account of the use of ‘security checking’ by the Moroccan military, which resulted in the executions of at least ten officers. He carries the guilt for following Hubbard’s orders to this day, and I hope that his public statement helped to bring him relief. Such a charming and gentle man. The remarkable Nancy Many followed him onto the stage and told us something of her various high-ranking positions in Scientology.
Jesse Prince gave a hilarious and moving account of his own time as head of Scientology’s technology, including the content of the highest level of Scientology, OT VIII. I am helping Jesse with the redrafting of his astonishing memoir. After seeing him at Toronto, I would very much like to see a complete performance, because he is such a compelling and charismatic man with a hilarious and horrifying account of his time at the top of the Technology. We can look forward to his revelations from the confessionals Hubbard ordered him to give to David Miscavige (who cried before admitting skimming Hubbard’s money to use on gambling and whoring in Las Vegas, according to Jesse).
In the evening session, Nancy Many showed the compelling and terrifying docudrama of her own time in Scientology, Brainwashed. The last session was a Q&A (though not in any of the various conflicting senses given by Hubbard).
Day two began with a brief introduction to the Guardian’s Office. Let me emphasize that we were fairly careful not to stray into Ronspeak, so the seminar should be intelligible, and will be helpful as “paralleling” for members of other groups and the incredulous “never ins” who have adopted Scientology as a hobby.
I was then able to introduce two remarkable journalists. It has been my pleasure to know Paulette Cooper for many years, though we had only met in the flesh once before. She told us some tales that did not make it into Tony Ortega’s brilliant book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely. A Toronto exclusive, with poor Tony anxiously looking on so that the guilty and potentially litigious would not be named.
After two years of blogging on the Bunker, with Tony’s superb editorship, it was a tremendous pleasure to meet him and share the stage. The book has already progressed into its second printing, because sales have been so rapid. It joins the half dozen truly remarkable books written on this awful subject.
The first afternoon session was devoted to celebrities in Scientology. I made brief mention of Aldous Huxley – who lasted for just one Dianetics session under Hubbard’s direction (his daughter, Faith was not quite so lucky). The star of silent films, and Billy Wilder’s great Sunset Boulevard, Gloria Swanson, was also briefly involved. We hear about Cruise and Travolta, but it is worth remembering that for every star Scientologist, there are a dozen who have departed the fold, including Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison.
The delightful Spanky Taylor told us about her close relationship with “Johnny” Travolta. Nancy Many talked about her “post” running the Celebrity Centres. There were many kind words about Yvonne Gilham-Jentsch, who charmed so many into Scientology and always side-stepped Hubbard’s abusive policies. The charming Nora Crest told us about her time at CC with amusing anecdotes and the inevitable doublethink instilled by Hubbard’s directions.
We then had a quick crack at the “religion angle” with insights from Professor Jim (who has written 14 books, so should know). The consensus seemed to be that if the believers treat it as a religion, then it is one. However, it is a bad religion. I take Professor Urban’s view, that it has taken on the form of religion deliberately. Ron Hubbard did not have a religious bone in his body. When the great Lord Denning ruled against Scientology’s religious status in England, in the 60s, he pointed out that there is no act of worship, unless you include the worship of Hubbard; and we have all seen examples of that. He certainly wanted to be viewed as a god, as the original (and hastily withdrawn) OT VIII demonstrates. In his last years, the only statistic that really interested Hubbard was how many minutes the faithful applauded his photograph at the end of an “event.”
I missed the evening sessions. For some reason, there was a queue of people who wanted to talk to me, throughout the seminar, so every day began at breakfast and wasn’t done until my head hit the pillow. Almost Sea Org hours, but worth every minute.
Wednesday began with a model of undue influence presented by the eminent Steven Hassan. Steve and I have been friends since first we met in 1989. More recently, we’ve helped to create the Open Minds Foundation to foster research and education into the broad impacts of undue influence on society. I have moved the focus of my work back from Scientology to these broader impacts – gangs, radicalization, human trafficking and other cults – which I’ve been researching for 20 years now, but will continue to use Scientology to exemplify all that is worst in social influence.
This was only the second time that we have worked together, but, as Steve has said in the new edition of his classic Combating Cult Mind Control, it is the beginning of a long collaboration. No one knows more about hypnosis and suggestion than Steve (even more than Hubbard!).
After Steve’s excellent presentation we moved to a demonstration of Scientology training routines and auditing, to show Hubbard’s deliberate use of hypnosis and influence (if you haven’t read my Never Believe a Hypnotist, this would be a good moment to dash off and find it). We were gamely assisted by Chris Shelton – as the coach and auditor – and also eminent Christian Szurko – as the victim. Both added their own comments. There was much amusement as Christian tamed an ashtray for Training Routine 8.
The afternoon began with accounts of second generation membership from Nora Crest and Chris Shelton. Unfortunately, we were not able to find a volunteer who had been brought up in the Sea Org. I’ve interviewed many over the years, and been horrified at the neglect all have suffered. Nora and Chris each had at least one sensible parent, so have recovered more easily. Many children were simply abandoned in the Sea Org, so had no real model of care-giving and exhibit induced Asperger’s Syndrome in later life. It is still remarkable how well most have coped, denied compassion throughout childhood, and one of the dearest people I’ve ever met was a second generation Sea Org member.
Tory Christman – the rock star of ex-Scientology – spoke of the cult’s attempt to stop her from taking her life-saving anti-epilepsy medication. Back at the first Advanced Org, in Edinburgh, in 1968, James Stewart was not so lucky. He was assigned lower conditions after a grand mal seizure, and committed suicide. Fortunately for us all, Tory refused the cult’s idiotic demand. It is worth remembering that neither Hubbard nor Miscavige ever stopped taking their anti-asthma medication (and that both smoked).
The afternoon closed with a new video presentation by the great Lawrence Wollersheim, who created a legal precedent after over 20 years in court and collected millions in “thin dimes” from the cult, despite Miscavige’s solemn promise that he would never be paid (so much for his “Tone 40 intention”). To his immense credit, Wollersheim has poured most of his resources into the remarkable FACTnet, the very first online database of applied coercive psychology (I had the honour of its presidency, back in 1993, and mention the remarkable creator of the database, Bob Penny, at every opportunity).
The evening began with a show by Hubbard’s great-grandson, the celebrated Jamie DeWolf. With the first line, I was already reminded of Raymond Chandler, and there were resonances of Tom Waits, Spalding Grey, and Bill Hicks in his truly magnificent performance. Go out and see him if ever you can. He is a genius. I wish I’d seen his Holy Shit! Show in honor of Paulette Cooper and Tony Ortega in San Francisco on May 22, which was superlative by all accounts.
Gerry Armstrong wound up the third day. Sadly, I was once again called away, so I’ll have to wait until the editing is done to find out what he said. I’m sure it was measured and relevant, however, given my 30-year friendship with this delightful man.
Thursday began with my dear friend, Professor Alexander Dvorkin. We met 20 years ago, when Scientology had contracted to train personnel in a Russian nuclear silo (so much for Hubbard’s Soviet phobia!). It may be that we all owe our lives to the good professor’s intervention. While harassment has diminished in the West, it continues in the old school style in eastern Europe, where Professor Dvorkin has countered cults for 23 years. I hope that the seminar will lead to greater interest in the turmoil created by Scientology in those vast territories.
Steve Cannane contacted me a few years ago. He is an ABC TV journalist who became fascinated by Scientology after interviewing victims of the cult. He gave my favourite interview of me when we met at the FECRIS conference in May, 2013.
Steve’s fascination led him to research a book on Scientology in Australia. Long ago, I read the Anderson Report, but Steve has sifted through the extensive testimony and dug out records from far and wide. He read a chapter from his upcoming book, which shows that Hubbard’s refusal to make a trivial refund led to the Scientology ban in three of Australia’s six states. Such lack of judgment is a commonplace for the great OT. Steve also showed us a letter from Hubbard to a local police chief, where he claimed to have been the “Provost Marshall of Korea.” The man really had no shame.
I’ve known Jonny Jacobsen since 1992, when he wrote his first article about the dread cult. Although we’ve become good friends, we had not met before, and he is every bit as delightful in person as he is by email and on the phone. I find this is often the case with Social Personalities or “SPs” (as opposed to Anti-Social Personalities, or “ASPs” like Hubbard).
Jonny works on an international news desk in Paris, but spends his few idle hours hosting Infinite Complacency and keeping abreast of the scene in continental Europe. He explained something of the complexities of the French actions against the cult. One day, we hope to see his book about the cult.
In the afternoon, I gave a brief preamble about front groups, starting with the wonderful Hubbard quotation: “Remember, CHURCHES ARE LOOKED UPON AS REFORM GROUPS. Therefore we must act like a reform group.” After all, as he said, to become anything, all you have to do is assume the “beingness” (play pretend, in simple English). As we all know by now, he assumed the “beingness” of a great philosopher and liberator of mankind without actually contributing anything by catastrophe to his followers (unless you count the hypnotic euphoria that trapped so many of us, and our “cognitions” that his half-baked ideas were credible).
I showed the Bridge to the Bridge, which defies all of Narconon’s claims to separation from the cult, along with Lt Col Mark Jones’s declaration showing that he ran Narconon on behalf of the Guardian’s Office of the Church of Scientology (Hubbard even awarded him a free course). I also pointed out that the “founder” of Narconon, William Benitez, returned to prison for heroin possession after his supposed release from addiction.
This introduced David Miller, Jon Little, and Katherine Villanueva who are determinedly bringing the activities of Narconon to the courts, ably assisted by Mary McConnell. Ryan Hamilton sent his best wishes, but was too busy with depositions to attend.
The second session was given to a patient deconstruction of Hubbard’s patently unscientific claims for the Purification Rundown by toxicologist, Angela Harris, PhD. There simply is no evidence to support Hubbard’s claims and no attempt at scientific verification has been made in the almost 40 years since they were first presented. We do not know how many lives have been devastated by this pseudo-science, but I have it on good authority that two people died on the first Purification Rundown at Saint Hill. A chap I knew, who was a black belt in two martial arts and had a sharp wit was reduced to a wheelchair and incapable of forming a sentence when I saw him after the Rundown, when I was still a member.
We then showed a video by Arnaud Palisson, an advisor to the French establishment and author of a book about the cult. Palison explained the approach taken by legal authorities in France and suggested that existing fraud laws could better be used to halt the cult. It was a measured and detailed presentation.
Simonetta Po has been the scourge of Scientology in Italy. She spoke on video about her courageous work. Although she was only briefly involved with the cult, she was horrified at its activities. In the early 1980s, Milan Org alone had 200 staff members, Scientology is now in ruins in Italy, and Simonetta had much to do with this. Sadly, she is now under attack from a counter-cult group, and it was good to hear from board member, Professor Dvorkin, that he will investigate her complaint that this group is still part of the FECRIS network.
We recently published Simonetta’s fine translation of my Let’s sell these people A Piece of Blue Sky – Vendiamogli un pezzo di cielo blu. I’m open to offers from other translators, too.
We finished the day with Gerry Armstrong’s rebuttal of defamatory material given to Professor Beverley only a week before the seminar opened by representative of the Guardian’s Office of Special Affairs (GOSA). Gerry then admonished me from the stage for refusing to treat my own stand against the cult as a “war.” I thought about responding from the podium, but instead spent half an hour the next morning explaining that however foolish my determination not to have enemies may be, it has served me well these last three decades. I imagine that we shall have to agree to differ on this point, but we will likely remain good friends, despite our different conceptualisation.
Our final day began with a discussion of violence in Scientology, focusing on David Miscavige’s frequent brutality. Nora Crest and Chris Shelton gave accounts of physical attacks visited upon them while they were on staff (though not by Miscavige, whose activities are detailed in excellent books by Jefferson Hawkins and Marc Headley). This behaviour has become endemic. Hubbard too was known to take a swing at people when enraged, but, despite his purported supernatural powers, he was a puny weakling, so did little harm. Miscavige is more of a Philadelphia street tough, and, like Hubbard, can strike his juniors with impunity. Professor Beverley made some insightful comments about the nature of the cult during this session.
I showed the assembly some excerpts from Scientology’s favoured sales manual, Big League Sales Closing Techniques, along with a few Hubbard quotes (all can be found in my last publication, on Amazon, Scientology: the Cult of Greed, along with some of the juiciest anti-religious statements. Buy Now!). Nora Crest then told us about recruiting and the hard sell philosophy.
The afternoon began with a session on recovery. Hana Whitfield spoke about her extensive experience of exit-counseling, with her remarkable husband, Jerry. Hana is currently working on her own biography, which will be a must read, where she will explain their highly successful approach.
The redoubtable Nan McLean shared some of her experiences, including an especially dreadful encounter with deprogrammer Ted Patrick. Nan left the cult before I had even joined (and that was over 40 years ago, despite my youthful good looks). She stood up resolutely and at a time of maximum harassment. I cannot overstate the admiration that I feel for this courageous woman.
Christian Szurko has been helping cult members for almost four decades and shared his superb model with us. I have known Christian since 1987 and we are close friends. I have always been impressed by his gentle nature, his intelligence and the sheer concern that he emanates for others. So very different from the average Scientology auditor (he doesn’t “confront” people, either). Christian is one of the most experienced counselors in the known universe. He is also a founder member of the Open Minds Foundation, and I will be interviewing him for our soon to be launched website.
I made my own comments about post-exit recovery. As readers at the Bunker know, I place emphasis upon examining the tenets of the cult: Which of the beliefs bear scrutiny? All too often, ex-members simply prune away the Hubbard redefinitions, leaving the concepts in place, which is like cutting away the shaft of the arrow, but leaving the barb implanted. It is necessary not only to shed the loaded language (including Hubbard’s own preferred terms for himself, such as “LRH”) but to examine the concepts and decide which have value and which do not.
Gerry Armstrong has taken issue, on his website, with my statement that we had “killed” Scientology with the seminar. Let me clarify: the Borg still exists and Miscavige is still breathing (with the help of his inhaler); however no-one who watches the full footage of our seminar will be able to maintain any belief in the pseudo-science of Scientology. The spirit of Scientology is dead. It has “gone exterior.” The body may take centuries to follow, but the “Age of Expansion” has been succeeded by the “Age of Contraction”. I said that in terms of Hubbard’s “cycle of action” the clut is now beyond “conservation” and in “decay”. I was asked how I knew this and pointed out the bad smell. I sincerely believe that if Gerry, Lawrence Wollersheim and I had not intervened the cult might have swelled considerably in size. It is now at its least since the mid-60s – at around 25,000 – and it will continue to shrink around its raging leader.
The seminar closed with some words from David Pike, administrator at FACTnet, about his own membership of the dreadful Twelve Tribes, including a plea from a former member of that group; and a statement by Andreas Heldal-Lund, who has done so very much to help former members with Operation Clambake at Xenu.net.
The evening before, Andreas was eulogising former Scientologists, saying we are the best people he has ever met. It was easy to return the compliment, given the stalwart work of Tilman Hausherr, Karin Spaink, the webmasters at Dialog Centre Berlin and Andreas – none of whom had any skin in the game, but all of whom stood up to the depredations of the cult. It is worth mentioning former members Bob Penny, Lawrence Wollersheim, Dennis Erlich and Arnie Lerma in this same breath, all of whom have shown remarkable valour.
I think Nora Crest best summed up the seminar by saying that she had healed more in five days than in the last five years, and had at last had a good night’s sleep. We banished demons (or perhaps body-satans), and the overall mood was of relief and even exultation. I met many new friends. One good looking woman even came up and told me that I’m much more handsome than my photos on the Bunker (you must stop putting that toad by my blogs, Tony), but I was distracted by Jamie DeWolf’s praise before I could grab her contact details.
The amazing Spike Robinson flew in (leaving her passport behind her) and managed the conference, ensuring that sessions ran on time and that we all did as we were told. She was indefatigable and a constant source of support and encouragement. I think she slept even less than I did. The only disappointment during the whole week was the hotel’s inability to turn off the muzak, so Spike was unable to perform her wicked satires on the cult. Luckily, many can be found on line. She is incredibly talented and a truly sweet, caring person. The best of the best.
It was a great privilege to join the company of so many heroic people. I’d also like to thank Len Zinberg for first editions of two Hubbard novels, including Triton, where he boasted of his love of hypnotism on the dust sheet. Len is such a sweet person. Betsy from the Bunker also provided great support (including ironing and free grub) and intelligent and amusing conversation. It was a pleasure to meet Pierre and so many others, too: quite wonderful.
Students, members from other groups, never ins – a splendid time was had by all; so much so that we have decided to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Operation Clambake in Stavanger, next year.
And, finally, Jim Beverley has spent the 15 months since I agreed to speak regaling me with his various proofs of God (for instance, that we have 7 miles of blood vessels in every pound of fat; though he originally offered 7,000). Although I am an unbeliever (at least in the conventional sense – don’t ask!), if there was ever a proof of God it is the calm cheerfulness with which this truly gentle man meets every circumstance. We owe him a great debt, and he, in turn, owes the bank a great debt. I, for one, will do everything I can to ensure that he at least breaks even for offering us the great boon that was the Toronto blessing.
In the words of our Founder and Source: Thank-you for listening!
THE BUNKER: Thank you, Jon. And here’s a little Toronto bonus for everyone. Organizers tell us that this gentlemen was filming things with a mini-camera, raising the suspicions of one of the journalists attending the event. When the reporter followed the man out, he attempted to double back and get a photo of the journo. So it appeared to be pretty classic Scientology private investigator behavior. Anyone recognize the man?
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Miss Lovely on parade
Cindy Plahuta took Miss Lovely on a hike in Colorado! And it’s less than two weeks before we finally get to meet Cindy — and Claire Headley, who took this photo!
Miss Lovely at the beach!
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Tell us about your Independence Day
Former members of the Church of Scientology, we love hearing about how you broke free. Let’s resurrect a July 4 tradition and hear about how long ago you walked away from the church and how you managed to do it. Let freedom ring!
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Live reports from Colombia
We’ve hooked up with a local journalist in Bogotá, and we’ll be getting some live reports from the newest Ideal Org opening there tomorrow after about 1 pm Eastern. Will Tom Cruise actually show up to help David Miscavige open Scientology’s newest cathedral, as they did together in Madrid way back in 2004? We’ll soon find out.
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BOOK NOTES
We didn’t get a chance to include photos in our book, so we’ve posted them at a dedicated page. Reader Sookie put together a complete index and we’re hosting it here on the website. Copies of the paperback version of ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ are on sale at Amazon. The Kindle edition is also available, and shipping instantly.
Our upcoming appearances (and check out the interactive map to our ongoing tour)…
July 12: Washington DC, Center for Inquiry (with Paulette Cooper)
July 14: Hartford, MARK TWAIN HOUSE (with Tom Tomorrow)
July 17: Denver, The Secular Hub, 7 pm (with Chris Shelton)
July 20: Dallas, Times Ten Cellar, 7 pm (with Robert Wilonsky)
July 22: Houston, Fox and Hound, 11470 Westheimer Road, sponsored by Humanists of Houston
July 24: San Antonio, Folc Restaurant/Park Social, 6 pm
July 25: Austin
July 29: Paris, Le Bistrot Landais, 19:00 (with Jonny Jacobsen)
August 4: London, Conway Hall, (with John Sweeney)
August 24: Boston, Boston Skeptics in the Pub, 7 pm (with Gregg Housh)
Sept 15: Arizona State University
Sept 23: Cleveland
Sept 24: Minneapolis
Sept 27: Portland
Sept 28: Seattle
Sept 30: Vancouver, BC
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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 4, 2015 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 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 mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
