What a couple of days we’ve had here in the Underground Bunker, eh? On Wednesday, we took you into the disconnection problems that are splitting apart the most powerful family in Scientology, the Miscaviges. And then yesterday we revealed that those problems had pulled in Lisa Marie Presley, who has gone on the warpath against Scientology leader David Miscavige.
What she’s going to do next, we don’t know. But we surely do look forward to finding out. (Sorry to those readers who for some reason thought yesterday’s story promised a third installment. We have been told by our sources that Lisa Marie is planning more salvos against Miscavige, but we don’t yet know what they are.)
Naturally, stories this big kicked up some interesting conversations in the comments section yesterday (besides the terrible news of Prince’s death), and we wanted to single out one conversation for what we can learn from it.
Lori Hodgson, who has been profiled here numerous times, posted this message expressing her happiness over yesterday’s news…
Reading this article this morning put a big smile on my face! Thank you, Tony Ortega for sharing this with us. With all the recent news exposing more truth about Scientology and David Miscavige, I have much more hope that I will be back with my kids and all the other families reunited again.
Lori is a mother who cannot communicate with her two children, who are in their 20s. Each of them, Jeremy and Jessica, has “disconnected” from her because she left the Church of Scientology and then met with a former top church executive, Mark “Marty” Rathbun, who the church considers an enemy.
She has made several attempts to see her kids, and she will not give up until she makes contact with them again. She is convinced that they are staying away from her only because they are instructed to by Scientology officials, and they fear the consequences if they disobey.
Scientology’s toxic “disconnection” policy has really moved to the fore in media reports in recent years, and we expect it to be featured prominently in next week’s 20/20 episode that will spend a full hour on the church and its controversies.
When reporters ask the church about this policy, Scientology puts out statements about how it’s not behind these forced separations. This has been proved to be untrue time after time. Lori’s is one well known case, but perhaps the most starkly dramatized was Sara Goldberg’s story, complete with documents, that showed up in Alex Gibney’s movie Going Clear.
And here’s another small piece of evidence about how the church encourages the splitting up of families.
A few of our readers noticed yesterday that a cutting comment aimed at Lori Hodgson showed up for a brief time.
One reader managed to flag it before it disappeared.
When a comment is flagged, we, as proprietors of this website, receive an email. It contains a link that when we click on it produces the comment that’s been flagged, along with some information about it. Here’s a visual capture of what yesterday’s message looked like for us as an administrator of the website…
You won’t, Lori. Every action I have seen you doing in the past years has further alienated your kids from you. I would think you know that but you do it anyway. But maybe you don’t see it. So I am telling you. You can’t force them to love you again.
It’s a lovely sentiment, isn’t it?
You can see that we are shown the name of the commenter, “Cash Bolt,” as well as his email address (which we’ve blocked out) and his IP address, which is a unique identifier for the computer he’s using. Various services online will tell you where an IP is located, as well as something general about the service it’s using. In this case, that information was very specific. Here, take a look…
Isn’t it heartwarming to know that someone at the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles is reading this website and telling Lori Hodgson to give up any hope of ever seeing her own children again?
How spiritual.
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Scientology Media Productions to be David Miscavige’s birthday present
Rod Keller noticed chatter online among Scientologists who were talking about coming to Los Angeles for the opening of the Scientology Media Productions facility, which was once the studios of television station KCET. That led him to believe the grand opening might be happening as soon as this weekend.
But now, he tells us that the date is actually going to be Saturday, April 30, which happens to be David Miscavige’s 56th birthday.
What a weekend that’s going to be. On Friday night April 29, Ron Miscavige will be interviewed by ABC’s Dan Harris during a full hour’s 20/20 on Scientology, and then just a few days later, on May 3, his book Ruthless will hit bookshelves.
But in between, David Miscavige will celebrate his birthday by opening a new media center as Scientology continues its takeover of the known world.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 22, 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
