We’re premiering another video by the “Reckless Ben” team today, their fourth installment of short films about the infiltration of Scientology they recently pulled off.
Ben Schneider, 24, and his friend Michael Fortner, 23, moved from Ohio to Los Angeles where Ben was pursuing opportunities as a professional slackliner. By chance, they happened to rent a house very close to Scientology’s LA headquarters, the “Big Blue” complex on Fountain Avenue.
Out of curiosity, the duo decided to find out what they could manage to film with spy glasses at the Scientology facility, and the result has been a very funny and illuminating series of videos.
In the first, Schneider and Fortner got pretty amazing footage of a nutty Scientology Sunday Service…
Infiltrating Scientology Ep 1: Sunday Church Service
In the second video, they showed the paranoia of Scientology staffers, as well as their dubious ethics…
Infiltrating Scientology Ep. 2: Scientology “Logic”
The third installment took aim at Scientology’s quack detox treatment, the Purification Rundown…
Infiltrating Scientology Ep. 3: The Cleanse
And now here’s video number four, debuting here at the Underground Bunker this morning. It’s really pretty brilliant. This time, Ben recorded his auditing session, and it demonstrates pretty perfectly how L. Ron Hubbard’s repetitive, hypnotic technique has been convincing people to rely on faulty memories they dream up after hours and hours of processing.
In this case, Ben is asked about a traumatic experience — breaking his neck after over-rotating on a double somersault, which had happened to him some two and a half years before. He can explain the experience in complete detail in about five minutes, he says. But he’s asked to go over every possible detail of it again and again — for ten hours. And during that time, pressured to come up with even more details, he can’t help but invent things in order to please the auditor.
By the end of the ten-hour session, he now “remembers” the event in significantly different ways (and he’s woozy and disoriented too, which is key). But when he gets home and tells this new version to Michael, he gets called on it. Michael was actually there that day when Ben broke his neck, and knows that the new version is incorrect.
But objective reality — i.e. facts — have no place in the Hubbard universe, as Ben further learns when he’s pressed to follow up that session with a $15 class called “enchantment processing” which involves watching a short Hubbard lecture and then repeating phrases from it to a wall.
Yes, Scientology is just as nonsensical, manipulative, and mind-altering as you expected. And the Reckless Ben team has done a great service getting it all down on audio and video.
Take a look, and let us know what you think…
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Bonus items from our tipsters
We only hope we get to see the finished product…
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“Orgs are in the very new, for this universe, business of setting people free. SPs will find all manner of reasons not to, for this is what they, with their own crimes, fear. Thus it follows that they cut dissem lines, corrupt tech, suppress and confuse orgs, persuade people to be inactive and resort to other shifts, all quite ‘reasonable’ and ‘logical’ as to why this must be the way it is; so be alert to this and go ahead and set people free. It’s done with org services well delivered, on-policy, with standard tech. So just do it, man, do it!” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 13, 1983
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“I’m not indicating this is what happened to LRH. I am just indicating that LRH’s data on Theta Lines is confirmed, and that there can be several reincarnations of LRH on this planet. So far, only Justin Craig has come so far. There was a teenager that claimed she also was the reincarnation of LRH, but didn’t go too far.”
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“I’m still waiting for someone to do the obvious KFC shoop with the KSW and L Ron as the Colonel. Preferably on a bucket.”
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Start making your plans…
Head over to the convention website and meet us in St. Louis!
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!
We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.
Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!
Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society!
Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in our weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] How businesses that run on Scientology principles find Scientologist employees
[TWO years ago] Ten years ago, all hell broke loose for Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology
[THREE years ago] DONE DEAL: Billboard contract signed for site near Scientology’s Los Angeles ‘Big Blue’ HQ
[FOUR years ago] DOX: Government disclosure shows extent of Scientology’s reliance on cheap foreign labor
[FIVE years ago] Claire Headley explains her amazing Scientology experience as Tom Cruise’s ‘examiner’
[SIX years ago] New criminal case for Scientology in France could shut it down permanently in that country
[SEVEN years ago] Did the Headleys And Their Lawsuit Torpedo the FBI Investigation of Scientology?
[EIGHT years ago] How Scientology Spied on Tom Cruise
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 1,816 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,320 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 1,840 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 860 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 751 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,058 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 1,926 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 2,700 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,474 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 2,820 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,386 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,305 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,473 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,054 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,315 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,353 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,066 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 1,591 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,118 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 5,681 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 2,821 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,141 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 7,997 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,116 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,471 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 5,774 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 1,880 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,282 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,154 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 1,737 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,232 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,486 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 13,595 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 13, 2020 at 07:00
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Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, 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 can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2018 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2018), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | 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 | Shelly Miscavige, 14 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 | 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
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
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Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
