Wow, are we excited to launch this new venture with longtime Scientology watcher Rod Keller! Rod goes way back, having kept a meticulous eye on the church since 1992. He’s well known for his indispensable “ARS Week in Review,” which ran for nine years when ARS — the Usenet newsgroup alt.religion.scientology — was the most important daily source for Scientology news.
More recently, Rod has made a specialty of hunting down the odd and wonderful things Scientologists post to social media. If you’ve followed his work, you know he pays close attention to detail and avoids editorializing — Rod is a chronicler who piece by piece builds a highly detailed assessment of what Scientology is doing around the world. Now he’s bringing his expertise to the Underground Bunker, and we’re thrilled.
On February 20, the downtown Los Angeles nightclub Exchange LA was the site of a fundraiser for the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which is the Scientology group responsible for fighting all forms of psychiatry and mental health treatment. Erika Christensen (pictured above) attended. She is best known for her roles in the 2000 film Traffic and the TV show Parenthood.
Vegas Vacation (1997) and The Princess and the Marine (2001) star Marisol Nichols (right) was also in attendance. (On the left is Andrea Doven, who was featured in stories here at the Bunker and at the Village Voice.)
The house at 80 Westmoreland Road in Johannesburg, South Africa has been listed on the popular vacation rental web site Booking.com. For less than US$25 per night you can stay in a genuine staff residence. The house is being rented out by Scientologist David Lurie and marketed to public Scientologists who are doing courses at the nearby Johannesburg Ideal Org. The house was purchased by the now-declared Corbett family as a residence for staff members, many of whom remained in residence even after the Corbetts were declared “suppressive persons” (Scientology’s version of excommunication). The house is no longer owned by the Corbett family.
The Foundation for a Drug-Free World hosted John Redman at its Clearwater headquarters this week. Redman is the Executive Director of Californians for Drug-Free Youth, also known as Coalition for Drug-Free Youth. The event was attended by members of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.
Sterling Management is a company that works with practice-based clients such as dentists to introduce L. Ron Hubbard’s methods of business management. Their help wanted ad in the Razzline web site makes it clear they are only interested in hiring Scientologists.
Sterling 350 West Arden Avenue
Glendale, California 91203We change lives daily with LRH Admin Tech. Be part of one of the most successful and longest standing WISE groups in the world!
POSITIONS AVAILABLE: Sales Assistants, Delivery Staff and Admin Assistants
SALES ASSISTANT
Do you have high ARC and enjoy talking to people and helping them improve their lives? Prepare interested prospects to discuss their needs with our Registrars. Excellent communication skills, high reach and a strong desire to help are a must. Our Sales Assistants are the support system for our Lead Registrars and pave the way to introducing professionals to the works of L. Ron Hubbard. Experience in sales is not required, but a great attitude is! Compensation will range between $12-$20 per hour depending on experience and includes a bonus based on production.PART-TIME OR ON-CALL SUPERVISOR/DELIVERY SPECIALIST
Work with our clients one-on-one in the course room or in their office delivering LRH Tech on administration. Part-time/on-call positions only available at this time. Compensation ranges between $20-$25/hour.ADMIN ASSISTANT/RECEPTIONIST
Responsible, solution-oriented individual with excellent communication skills. Must be computer literate, able to multi-task easily and complete cycles of action quickly. Recompense based on experience and production, ranging $10-$14/hour.
Despite the recent arrest of Ismail Karakas on drug charges, remaining co-Executive Director Dila Tezemir is keeping Narconon Turkey working. Here we see “students,” as the patients are known, in the sauna at the Ankara facility this week in an attempt to remove stored drugs, toxins and radiation from their bodies.
Scientology is set to celebrate the United Nations’ International Day of Happiness on March 20th with the printing and distribution of special editions of the booklet The Way to Happiness by L. Ron Hubbard.
Scientologist Eric Sherman hosted a recent Screenwriter’s Brunch at the Celebrity Centre in Hollywood. He has no credits on the Internet Movie Database as a writer, and he has not won the Peabody Award, as he claims in the flier. He was involved in an uncredited capacity in the documentary series “Futures with Jaime Escalante” on PBS. Escalenta is the subject of the 1988 film Stand and Deliver. “Futures” did win the Peabody for its series of inspirational interviews with Bill Cosby, Teri Garr, Dizzy Gilespie, D.L. Hughley, Joe Piscopo, Paula Poundstone, Paul Rodriguez, and Leonard Nimoy, among others. The series was produced by FASE, the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education. FASE is a subsidiary organization to Scientology, usually promoting the alleged science behind Narconon and the Purification Rundown.
The Foundation for a Drug-Free World distributed literature in chilly Chelyabinsk, Russia and frosty Quebec City, Canada. They ask passers-by to sign a pledge to be drug-free.
The Scientology booth at the Long Beach Comic Expo this week promoted L. Ron Hubbard’s 1982 novel Battlefield Earth. The slogan on the T-shirts comes from this passage in the book, when the Psychlo Terl is observing a man-animal at the zoo…
There was the man-thing crouched down at the far side of the cage, glaring at him. Glaring at him? Yes, it was true. It was the first time Terl had noticed it had emotions.
And what else had it been doing?
It had gotten to the packs — he remembered the thing clutching at them when he had returned to the cage yesterday — and it was now sitting on them. It had been doing something else. It had been looking down at a couple of books. Books? Now where the crap nebula had it gotten books? Didn’t seem possible that it could have gotten into the old Chinko quarters.
The alien “Chinko” race of Asiatic slave workers were not included in the 2000 movie.
[PS: The woman in the middle is Emily Jones. See below about the billboard.]
The Flag World Tour reached Samara, Russia this week. Sea Org members visit orgs and missions around the world to promote going OT and visiting Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.
Scientologists in Prague in the Czech Republic set up stress test tables in a supermarket next to the produce aisle.
Scientologists have paid for this billboard to advertise Dianetics for the next year on the Trans-Canada Highway outside of Hinton, Alberta, Canada.
Scientologists distributed The Way to Happiness to these marchers for the African National Congress party in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Scientology is establishing a mission in Lagos, Nigeria. Mission Holder Sadiq Abubakar and Executive Director Oluwaseyi Adeniyi are trying to find a location to establish the mission, and are distributing copies of Dianetics to Lagos residents.
— Rod Keller
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Phil and Willie Jones are crowdfunding for a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard
Phil Jones, known as “Sid” here at the Bunker, has been kicking up a fuss at Scientology’s Los Angeles facilities lately. He and his wife Willie are former church members who are determined to see their children, Mike and Emily, who are still in Scientology and have disconnected from them. Scientology attorneys recently sent a cease-and-desist order to Phil and Willie after they put up “Missing” posters of Mike around the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and even brought a television film crew with them.
Now, they plan to go really big with their missing person sign. They’re trying to raise $8,200 at a GoFundMe page and website so they can put up a billboard on Hollywood Boulevard. And it will target disconnection in general, so it won’t only be about their two kids.
“I usually don’t like fund raising,” Phil tells us. “But we want to step things up a bit in trying to get the kids back.”
Wow. We wish them luck.
UPDATE: Mike Rinder messaged us to point out that the middle of the three women wearing “Crap Nebula” T-shirts is ASI employee Emily Jones.
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Laying carpet for Xenu
Mark Bunker sent us today’s lost gem from the archives of XENU TV: “When the Lisa McPherson Trust opened at the beginning of 2000, we had new carpeting put into the offices. The workers had also installed carpets for our neighbors, the Church of Scientology, and they shared a couple of stories.”
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 28, 2016 at 07:00
E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated 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 L.A. 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
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | 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 | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | 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
