FOLLOW ME ON
Daily Notifications
Sign up for free emails to receive the feature story every morning in your inbox at tonyortega.substack.com

Categories

Scientology in Europe: ‘A scapegoat always had to be found when something went wrong’

 We have a real treat this week in our ongoing ‘Scientology Lit’ series. It’s a full chapter from Robert Dam’s book The Defector: After 20 years in Scientology. Robert gives us a look inside Scientology’s operation in Copenhagen, its headquarters in Europe, where he spent some of his 20 years in Scientology before leaving the []

ADVERTISEMENT

Why did a 26-year-old ‘Clear’ kill herself at Scientology’s spiritual mecca?

[Kristi Bouck went Clear in 2015]

In 2015, our correspondent Rod Keller posted at his own website a photo from Scientology’s South Coast mission in Orange County, California (see above). It featured a young woman named Kristi Bouck showing off a document indicating that she had attested to []

Paulette Cooper turns 76: ‘I found my best friend from the orphanage — from 70 years ago’

[Paulette, right, and her sister Suzy, at a Belgian orphanage]

Paulette Cooper, the “Unbreakable Miss Lovely” herself, turns 76 today, and she has an amazing update for us. We are so in awe of this []

50 years ago today, Scientology was banned in the UK — Here’s why it was a bad move

[Guardian’s Office execs Jane Kember and David Gaiman talk to the BBC in 1968]

We’re thrilled to have another well-researched piece by historian Chris Owen, who today is marking a major milestone in Scientology history on its []

Scientology used an ice cream ‘date’ to run up $20,000 on senior’s credit cards

[Efrem’s ice cream dates]

The day after we reported last week on the ordeal of 75-year-old Efrem Logreira — who says the Church of Scientology ran up charges on his credit cards for courses he would never take, and which cost him thousands in interest payments — he heard from the church in a letter disputing []

SCIENTOLOGY CAVES: MISCAVIGE SETTLES FORCED-ABORTION CASE TO AVOID TRIAL

[Laura D, from her Facebook account]

After nine years of characteristic scorched-earth legal maneuvering which included numerous appeals and delays and long-shot Hail Mary passes, Scientology has finally chickened out of actually going through a trial over the forced-abortion allegations of Laura DeCrescenzo. The two sides hammered out a settlement to end the case before trial []

Eyewitness report: Scientology’s LA orgy of praise for the new TV network

 Last week we published a report from an eyewitness at the third “Maiden Voyage” event held on L. Ron Hubbard Way at Scientology’s “Big Blue” headquarters in Los Angeles. This week, our inside source was once again in attendance Saturday night when the fourth Maiden Voyage event took place. Our source had some pretty interesting []

A tale of two cities: Scientology courts pols and police in one place, acts sneaky in another

 Rod Keller compares Scientology’s approach in two very different places where it plans to “expand” in the near []

From Sands Hall’s excellent ‘Flunk. Start.’ — the paradox of ‘Keeping Scientology Working’

 Our Saturday ‘Scientology Lit’ series continues with a glimpse of Sands Hall’s richly penned memoir, Flunk. Start.: Reclaiming My Lost Decade in Scientology. Sands, a veteran musician and writing instructor, may not have been a Sea Org member or high-ranking Scientology executive, but we found her book to be one of the best for explaining []

Scientology leader David Miscavige will not testify in forced-abortion trial

[Laura DeCrescenzo and David Miscavige]

We have some updates for you from Laura DeCrescenzo’s forced-abortion case as it rapidly approaches its August 13 trial []