Recent Scientology defector: ‘I did the Purif with SNL’s Chloe Fineman’

Last week we first revealed that Saturday Night Live’s sophomore sensation Chloe Fineman is the child of Scientology Clears, she has her own record of taking Scientology courses, and halfway through her first SNL season she provided tickets for a taping to a hardcore Scientology celebrity, actress Denice Duff.

We pointed out how interesting this was because in 2015 SNL produced maybe the best parody of Scientology of all time, its brilliant music video “Neurotology.” Not only did the video poke fun at Scientology’s strange beliefs, but it also brought up the serious controversies surrounding the organization. SNL’s skewering of Scientology was both hilarious and damning.

But that didn’t stop the show from hiring Fineman in 2019, and she’s on her second season now and gaining steam as one of the cast’s better performers.

For our story last week we had sent detailed messages to Fineman through her Twitter DMs (which were open), but by the morning that our story came out she had deleted her entire Twitter account. The next night, she was featured in the “cold open” of a new SNL episode, with another brilliant impression of Britney Spears in a skit that also featured Kate McKinnon as Pepe LePew (McKinnon was a prominent part of the “Neurotology” video).

And now this week we’ve talked to Adam Pires, 35, a Navy veteran who spent several years in Scientology until he left in disgust in 2018 and has been going public recently as a vocal defector.

He wanted us to know that he had spent a few years doing Scientology courses at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, and did the “Purification Rundown” there in 2015. The “Purif” is something that all Scientologists are required to undergo, sometimes more than once, and with its quack sauna-and-vitamins regimen it is supposed to detoxify the body and spirit. It’s a grueling process that can last a month or two, with hours every day in the sauna, often with the same people, day after day.

Pires tells us that he got to know well the other people who were doing the Purif with him, which included some wealthy Scientology donors and several people involved in the entertainment industry. And one of them was Chloe Fineman.

He got to know her so well, he ended up buying her car a couple of years later when she told him she was moving to New York in 2017.

 
Pires first joined Scientology in 2005 after reading about Tom Cruise in a Reader’s Digest article.

“He said it put him in the driver’s seat of life,” Pires tells us. “Cruise was one of my idols, and I thought, that must be the secret! I went on Scientology’s website and did a personality test.”

In western Massachusetts at the time, he began to be inundated by calls from the Boston “Org,” but the mission in Albany was closer to him, so he ended up going there to begin taking some introductory courses.

But after that initial interest, he moved away from the church, joining the Navy for a four-year stint. But even during his deployment, he says, he was constantly getting calls from Scientology asking him to come back.

“When I got out of the Navy, I was looking for a group to be a part of,” he says. And after talking to Scientologists at the Hollywood Celebrity Centre, he decided to drive out there in 2013. “My main points of contact were Eric Meyersfield, a musician who had joined the Sea Org. And Joey Collewijn, a soccer player from Britain who gave it up to join the Sea Org to be a recruiter.”

Two years later, he started on the Purif, and got to know the other people at the Celebrity Centre who were going through the sauna-and-vitamins regimen.

There was Nancy and Robert Daley, wealthy donors and OT 8s who wanted everyone to know it. Miles Vedder, a boom operator who wanted to make it as an actor. There was Brie Shaffer, Michael Peña’s wife and Danny Masterson’s assistant. And there was Chloe Fineman.

Pires sat with them in the sauna day after day, getting to know them.

“I remember Chloe was talking about looking for a new place, and she got Miles’ number, because he was also looking for a roommate, and I got her number too,” he says. They stayed in touch, he says, and she sold him her car a couple of years later.

All of his Purif companions were longtime, dedicated Scientologists, Adam says. None of them were simply going through a course or two. And that was certainly true in Chloe’s case, he says.

“She was second generation, she grew up in it. She had done her Purif before and she was going through it again,” he says. She also did her “SRD” at the same time he did, he remembers.

The Survival Rundown was a new course that church leader David Miscavige had put together from previous offerings (replacing “TRs and Objectives”), and there was heavy pressure on Scientologists to go through it as part of the new “Golden Age of Technology Part 2”. And Chloe was pushing through those do-overs at the time. “She went Clear, too. I remember when she did that.”

Pires eventually left Scientology in 2018, unhappy with the way he had been treated. He recently began going public about what he experienced, such as a podcast he did last week.

But even though he’s been out of Scientology for a couple of years and hasn’t heard from Fineman lately, he says it’s likely that she is still a dedicated Scientologist.

“Her parents are hardcore old school Scientologists. I wouldn’t be surprised if her success at SNL she attributes to Scientology.”

 
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Jon Atack interviews Mike Rinder, part 3

Says Jon: “Mike Rinder continues his account of his life in Scientology, focusing this week on the first years ashore in Florida, when Scientology began buying property in Clearwater, posing as the fictitious “Southern Land Development Corporation.” In between some fascinating tangents and comparisons to Clearwater’s more current experiences with Scientology, Mike descdribes the organization’s legal battles of that era, particularly with Clearwater mayor Gabe Cazares and other early critics. As always, it’s a wild ride, and an amazing, must-listen conversation.”

Source Code

“Under this particular zone in Scientology right now, we have, oddly enough, culminated — and this is hard to believe, because it is such a wildly embracive figure — we have culminated in anything that was desirable in the fields of religion, mysticism, spiritualism, or mental sciences. Anything desirable in those particular fields have been discovered and culminated in the field of Scientology right now. That’s why I say it’s rather hard to believe, but you look at it, that’s true. So we do have valuable subject materials. Now, that job is complete. And so, number one of these, course management, as far as we’re concerned, on a Scientology course, that is complete. We’re even throwing away material now which would have been enough to have made a complete science and revolutionized middle Europe, you know, two hundred years ago.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 10, 1959

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“WOG WORLD: If you were puzzled about my ‘now in the WOG world’ jokes in yesterdays OOD — that was the way certain people were 3rd partying us. Making a horrible false impression between us and elsewhere. ‘Now in the Wog world — ” Or how great the beach is compared to the ship. At least we’re trying to get it to survive and that’s more than you can say for the ‘Wog World’.” — The Commodore, April 10, 1969

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“Hubbardian Scientological-like tricks to trap, contain, and eliminate or ameliorate the developing infidel-illogicals of humanity while promoting an advancing ‘expanding’ HS-elite gradient of Theta Clears going forward has been part of Man’s social engineering constructivities since the Golden Dawn of Civilizations. We can do better. And I suspect Hubbard thought so too with a KSW: always, eternally and forevermore.”

 
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Past is Prologue

2000: Berliner Zeitung reported on the release of Battlefield Earth. “For John Travolta, this film is the fulfillment of a dream long cherished. 15 years ago, when the Hollywood actor started out to film the novel, ‘Battlefield Earth,’ he had wanted to play the young hero, Jonnie Goodboy Tyler. Now it has taken so long to put it together that he took over the part of Tyler’s aging opponent. There is a reason that production has taken so long and that renowned film studios like MGM, and later 20th Century Fox, first bought the rights then later gave them up for the book published in 1982: its name is L. Ron Hubbard and he was the founder of the Scientology sect. Intertainment chief Ruediger Baeres said that he had hesitated, because of Hubbard, when the film was first offered as part of a package of 60 productions for Europe-wide licensing: ‘Scientology doesn’t make any difference to me.’ He said he only wanted to earn money.”

 
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Random Howdy

“I wear shorts and combat boots to the beach. Who am I kidding, I never go to the beach even though I live right near it. It’s full of gangbangers, junkies, alkies and crackheads.”

 
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Masterson arraigned Jan 20. Discovery hearing on April 20, prelim set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay’s sentencing delayed to April 13.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Charged in Brooklyn federal court on Feb 4. Arraigned on Feb 9. Pretrial conference set for Apr 29.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.

Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.

 
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks

The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.

SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

 
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. 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 a weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Eleventh Circuit will hear oral arguments in key Scientology ‘religious arbitration’ case
[TWO years ago] LEAKED: Scientology’s secret playbook for world domination!
[THREE years ago] Before Scientology was a ‘church,’ L. Ron Hubbard said religion controlled people with lies
[FOUR years ago] Why Scientology’s Erika Christensen can play a Christian convert on the big screen
[FIVE years ago] Spider-Man goes drug-free for Scientology, and more in our weekly social media review!
[SIX years ago] L. Ron Hubbard’s Navy record: Chris Owen critiques the ‘Business Insider’ story
[SEVEN years ago] Is a Scientology front group among those fighting a European effort against ‘sects’?
[EIGHT years ago] Brit Writer’s 27 Years in Scientology is Suddenly News in France — Our Man in Paris Explains Why
[NINE years ago] Is Lisa Marie Presley Telling Off Scientology in a Song?

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 10, 2021 at 07:00

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The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), 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, 15 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

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