One of Scientology’s most secretive temples is offering a rare look inside on Monday

 
Scientology may be shrinking, and it may be having a harder time finding new celebrity members, but there’s one thing that the church is still the undisputed champion of.

Printing.

Whole forests are denuded on a regular basis so Scientology leader David Miscavige can slap founder L. Ron Hubbard’s name on piles of new pamphlets and fliers and books, manufactured at a dizzying rate in a 185,000-square-foot plant in Commerce, California that the church says is the largest all-digital printing facility in the entire world.

And who are we to quibble? This place is obviously massive and state of the art, with a 121-ton press that can output 55,000 pages per hour, and with a myriad of other machines pumping out publications and design elements for all of the new Ideal Orgs Miscavige has been opening around the world.

Wouldn’t you love to get inside and sneak a peek? Well, you’ll get a chance this Monday.

The Southern California Postal Customer Council is holding an open house in the facility on Monday that will include tours.

 
If we were in town, we’d love to go. One of the things we’d like to hear more about is that the facility puts out so much mail, it has an assigned US Postal Service employee working inside the plant!

 
That makes us all kinds of curious about what that relationship is like. Is the postal employee, for example, aware that all of the young people feeding those machines are Sea Org members who have signed billion-year contracts, and work for pennies an hour, when they’re paid at all?

Maybe one of our readers can get inside and let us know what the place is like.

 
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Kuba Ka, the God of Pop, has an announcement

We had a lot of fun in March talking with Kuba Ka, “the God of Pop” — otherwise known as Polish entertainer Jakub Stepniak, who is either 31 or 26 years old and has so far eluded fame and fortune, despite the really over-the-top way he pursues it.

Kuba got on our radar because for a short while he was promoting himself as Scientology’s next top celebrity, and the church’s Celebrity Centre actually seemed to be going along with it. Kuba’s involvement was brief — he became a Celebrity Centre fixture in October, and by March he split with the church when it told him he couldn’t hold a birthday party at the Hollywood landmark because he wanted to bring in some ill children as part of his fundraiser.

We spoke first with a member of his entourage — which he called “Kuba Ka Empire” — a woman named Vikki Lizzi who was known previously as Jeff Conaway’s enabling companion. She told us she had warned Kuba about Scientology, and she predicted that the cancelled birthday party would result in a lawsuit. We had to admit that sounded like a lot of fun to us.

But then we talked directly to Kuba himself, as well as his mother and other members of his “Empire” in a two-hour Skype conversation that was simply delicious. Kuba told us that he got to meet Scientology leader David Miscavige twice, which was astounding in itself for someone with such a short involvement in the church — most Scientologists, even those in forty years, never get the privilege. It was another sign that for some reason, the Church of Scientology really did seem to consider Kuba Ka to be a budding star.

Anyway, we really enjoyed talking with Kuba, whom we found to be an intelligent and polite young man who maybe simply needed some better career advice. But then, shortly after that interview, Kuba made yet another monumental announcement on social media — he was “retiring.”

We weren’t sure how a 26/31-year-old retires from a career that hadn’t actually, you know, got going, but it appeared that what Stepniak was retiring from was being Kuba Ka. We sent an email and heard back from his cousin, Patrick, who told us that the empire had suffered a major setback, and Vikki Lizzi was now turned against them. (Lizzi didn’t respond to our text asking if that was true.) And then yesterday, Patrick asked us if we’d post a statement from the former God of Pop about his retirement, and we told him we would of course be happy to do so. So here goes.

At this Closure of KUBA Ka, I want to say: Scientology Celebrity Centre did WELCOME me and helped me to recover the huge Trauma. They did clean my Life from terrible People and Things. I left the Church, and referring to my Interview with very kind Tony Ortega. I want to confirm that I have no position regarding Scientology, I am just Neutral. I refused all other Interviews, and even big financial TV Appearance offer to talk about it. We all need to UNITE, there is enough of Segregation in the World. Also, if some of my own Ex Team Members would not fight over me at Scientology Celebrity Centre, I would still proceed with Plans I had for KUBA Ka, with Scientology. It was Grand Plan, but we all moved on. This way ALL of that is a completely closed Book.

I wish Very Best to Church of Scientology, I wish the Very Best to Ex Members of Scientology like Leah Remini, and to Those who witness any Problems inside or outside of ANY Church. Please understand, I just want to remain a “Peacekeeping Soldier.”

Peace & Love to All,

Muhammad Amir/ known for his acting Character of KUBA Ka

AMIR Corp

(formerly known as KUBA Ka Empire Inc.)

 
Muhammad/Kuba Ka/Jakub, thank you for thinking of us, and we wish you the best of luck. We can hardly wait to see where you go next.

 
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Countdown to Denver!

 
HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25 at the Residence Inn Denver City Center. Go here to start making your plans, and book your room soon!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 12, 2017 at 07:00

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Our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. 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.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

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