Scientology’s magic and mysticism, as told by L. Ron Hubbard’s blogging son Arthur

Eight years ago here at the Bunker, we asked historian Jon Atack to talk with us about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s occult years (1945-46) and the strange rituals he got up to with early rocket scientist Jack Parsons in Pasadena.

In particular, we were curious about something Hubbard referred to as The Blood Ritual, and Jon explained that it had something to do with Egyptian myth and the Tarot. It was wild stuff. Also in that article we brought the story forward by pointing out that Hubbard’s youngest son, Arthur, was promoting his own Blood Ritual.

Arthur is an artist in Los Angeles, and in his latest show he was exhibiting images of naked, voluptuous women that he had painted in pigment mixed with his own blood. It was weird and kinky, and we thought it was a fun echo of his dad’s own occult history.

Anyway, since then we haven’t heard a lot about Arthur. We talk to some people who know him, and they told us he wasn’t interested in publicity about his famous family.

But more recently, Arthur has begun speaking out on a personal blog that he started in 2019. And now that he’s put up his tenth post, we thought it might be a good time to take a look at what he’s been going on about.

We are reminded of Marty Rathbun at the apotheosis of his blog, around 2011 to 2013, when he was arguing that Scientology in its purest (pre-Miscavige) form had a lot in common with Eastern philosophy and quantum physics. We are kind of thrilled to see a Hubbard family member defending early Scientology, his father’s creative output, and sort of (mildly) slagging David Miscavige by inference.

But we wonder how closely Arthur has studied early Scientology history when he makes claims like this: “Did he [L. Ron Hubbard] say that thing about creating his own religion (no).”

As we showed some five years ago thanks to the research skills of R.M. Seibert, FDA investigators did indeed, in 1970, track down one of the science fiction enthusiasts who, at a 1948 sci-fi club gathering in Newark, heard Hubbard utter his infamous proclamation that “the only way to make a million dollars was to form your own religion.”

Again, that was in 1948, ten years before the birth of a certain Arthur Ronald Conway Hubbard.

Anyway, here are some fun highlights from what we think is a lively blog.

 
From the website introduction, October 18, 2019

I am not officially involved with the Church of Scientology, I do not in any way represent the institution or am in any capacity a spokesperson for it. I should add that I am in no way remunerated or paid or supported, financially – or by any form of subsidy – by the Church or any of its members or affiliates, official or unofficial….I also am not a member or affiliated with any independent Scientology group….

What of it I did do and study today [of Scientology] I have found helpful and interesting and, in many ways, expansive because, at its core, it deals with a subject that is of the utmost interest to me and many, many people like me and that is: What are we all doing here. Not, Why are we here on Earth or in the Universe but rather that we are here and up to something and that something is the subject of a vast array of philosophies and religions and sects since the beginning of time.

 
1st post, “Scientology 1.0.0 (1952),” October 18, 2019

As far as Scientology goes, let’s look first at what some people think they know or, at least what you might find out from mass media or the internet:

You find a group that believes in space aliens and past lives and lots of other utter nonsense and likes to dress in strange uniforms. Their founder was a bad Science Fiction writer turned messianic charlatan who apparently announced one day that the way to get rich is to start one’s own religion, which then he did. These people are xenophobic, are extraordinarily litigious, they break up families and friends and businesses over matters of faith or practice. They demand huge amounts of money from their followers in the form of donations or in exchange for the bizarre and obscure services laid out as something called The Bridge and this money seems to flow into buying up an ever increasing portfolio of real estate. Their seriously underpaid employees must sign a billion year contract and, if you try to leave, you will be under a cloud for all eternity. And when you do leave, because of old age or illness, then you’re turfed out to defend for yourself without a job or a resumé, health insurance or a pension…

I am not specifically building a narrative to refute what you can find out about Scientology, nor am I arguing in favour of religious belief systems particularly, what I really want to get at is: The current, easily accessed story, all the stories really, are way, way too two-dimensional, too simplistic and, to be perfectly honest, childish….

What worries me about the pop-media story of Scientology is its two-dimensionality. Same thing worries me about most everything in the world of infotainment: it’s designed to distract people who are tired, maybe a little discouraged and just want some mindlessness thus it needs to be punchy, simple and, above all, controversial. I’m not against entertainment but if it’s parading as information then I think that’s a real problem for our society.

I’m also trying to say, let us try to construct a philosophy that’s not too complicated but is mostly, and most importantly, useful. That’s not an easy thing to do, nearly impossible maybe, but it’s vital that everyone eventually learn how to try to do that. And that, right there, is the actual and true origin of Scientology. Scientology version 1.0.0. that is.

So maybe some of the stuff about Scientology is true. Was L. Ron Hubbard a bad Science Fiction writer (depends on your taste in reading material, up to you). Was he a charlatan (time will tell but maybe it’s a little too early to pass that judgement). Did he say that thing about creating his own religion (no).

 
2nd post, “Scientology 1.0.0 (1952) continued – part 2,” Dec 4, 2019

The goal of Scientology 1.0.0 is something called Pan-Determinism, the Pan-Determined individual. In Scientology 1.0.0 there are three basic determinisms: Other-Determinism, Self-Determinism and, the brass ring, Pan-Determinism. This is the sate of being where you can finally connect all the dots of all the things everywhere and find no fault. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

Pan-Determinism is represented in Scientology as the infinity symbol, the figure eight on its side, sort of a Möbius strip with a twist. As any mathematician will tell you, mess with 0 enough and you get to the inevitable infinity equations. Infinity doesn’t go forever, by the way, or is just really big like the whole universe, it’s an idea that stands outside of time and space, it can only be indicated in equations, can’t be thought about, it’s an experience….

Possibly now you are thinking that this guy, me, is just another Scientology stooge and apologist and maybe you’re right, I am the son of it’s creator after all, but if you read my earlier blog you’d know that I’m not telling you that it works or that it’s true, I’m making an argument for a closer inspection instead of the extant write off because seeing God saves us all no matter how we get there just so long as we get there, so long as it’s under our own steam.

 
3rd post, “Space, Emotion and Well-being,” Jan 20, 2020

In dianetic therapy you helped guide a patient “back” into various past moments of upset or trauma or whatever and this gradually allowed the patient by gradients to unlock themselves from this “past” and eventually experience the “present”, a present possibly completely devoid of upsets and trauma and therefore potentially quite pleasant, maybe even exhilarating. This, in a nutshell, is the whole point of dianetics, to help an individual up this scale to live permanently at 4.0. which is called Clear….

My dad’s dream in 1950 was for Man to get involved in exploring Outer-Space rather than building rockets to deliver atomic bombs to Russia. What we have now is a government somewhere between 1.1 and 2.0 per this scale, a pretty miserable state of affairs which is why so many people are upset about it; WWIII could yet still happen….

So, to sum up. You are a viewpoint viewing dimension points (0s looking at 1s). You (0) looking at dimension points either as created by you (imagine a dot or whatever, a duck maybe, on the floor or a spot in the air and look at it) or objectively, any object or dimension around you (such as actual points or ducks) that you can perceive. The distances between the viewpoint and the subjective dimension points must be able to be shortened or lengthened and moved around at will for there to be well being.

Thetan was coined out of the word “theta” which is the eighth (8) letter of the greek alphabet. This term has often been thought to be synonymous with spirit or soul but what it means is all these eight dynamics. Somehow, due to the limitations of language, the individual got called a “thetan” which immediately brings to mind some sort of separateness. This unfortunately leads to discussing the whole topic as if it were all material alone as you can divide the material world up any way you like but “0”, the 7th dynamic and infinity, the 8th dynamic are not divisible….

You don’t exist without all these parts including spirit and infinity, this is true even for all those people who think that there should only be 6 dynamics because dynamic 7 includes things like penultimate consciousness, meaning and inspiration and art and dynamic 8, infinity is the idea that all things are possible (which makes life even more interesting).

 
5th post, “Pan-determinism at last,” April 11, 2020

Now obviously most people would agree that things in the world could stand some improvement. Nearly every day there are various situations or even dangerous crises that present themselves where one could ask, “what would the most enlightened approach to this problem be?” In Scientology 1.0.0 the answer to that question starts with pan-determinism….

The 8 dynamics can be used to work out all the vectors in a problem. Where an individual or a group gets into trouble is when they don’t take into account enough of these dynamics, usually those vectors between 6 and 1 but especially 8 and 7, as in the modern corporation that is responsible only to its bottom line and its shareholders and neglects wider social considerations – too simplistic! (I’m not arguing against corporations or capitalism here, I’m commenting on one reason they can get into trouble.)….

When you get to see the “Big Picture”, or merge with “the All” or “see God” (not to be confused with the phenomenon of collapse into “the all” – that’s a whole other thing), you get a look at all eight dynamics at once and discover that everything is working to survive in one fashion or another; that bizarrely no one and nothing is entirely “wrong” in what it is doing. After the experience is passed and you’re back on Earth you are of course still faced with a million complicated choices. Hopefully now, with this new perspective and eventually, with getting cleaned up and the right education, you can gain an improved ability to understand this new perspective allowing you to make better choices, all starting with the pan-determined view….

The project of Scientology 1.0.0, indeed the whole course of Man’s search for truth and meaning, is a big one and fraught with danger – as all important undertakings are – so to go on criticising the currently existing institution, its leaders and membership, or religion in general, without some of this background is to possibly miss out on the Big Picture, the pan-determined view.

 
6th post, “Infinity-Valued Logic,” Jan 26, 2021

I’ve been working on writing down a comprehensive description of what I know about the evolution of the Church of Scientology separating it into two basic epochs: Scientology 1.0.0, 1947 to 1980, and Scientology 2.0.0, 1981 to the present. The first being the developmental stage, the discoveries and the creation of the processes, the therapies. The second being the institutional and self-protection, legal, stage….

What I’m going to do with this article is lay out “binary thinking” versus “gradient scale logic,” also known as infinity-valued logic, as necessary groundwork to be laid out before going on to build arguments about other matters; the kind of thinking I think is necessary to get at all complex and thorny issues. For those readers that are familiar with this way of thinking I hope you will bear with me (or just skip it), for those who aren’t, I hope you may find this interesting, maybe even useful….

When you look up “political spectrum” you get all sorts of diagrams in terms of circles or squares plotting out things like “Plutocratic Nationalist” and “Archy vs anarchy.” Well, scrub all that, I say. What’s needed instead is an hierarchical scale that goes from one form of organising groups at the bottom to another form at the top with ascending steps from bottom to top that reflects the type of government best suited to the conditions that people find themselves in and that condition as based on a workable philosophy of organisation…The scale would go from the top, systems that favour individualism, down into systems of government that rely on collectivism.

 
7th post, “What Can Possibly Go Wrong?” July 6, 2021

During the past year or so of this SARS-CoV-2 situation I did a lot of research to discover what the problem really consisted of. As I observed my fellow citizens here in Los Angeles, California, though, I was not very encouraged to discover that, as usual, quite a few of them were just doing what they were told, despite the fact that vast amounts of contrary information was easily available (this was before all the censorship by the media, et al) thus challenging such draconian measures as extended “lockdown.” Just doing what you are told only applies to extreme emergencies where time is very short (“man the guns!” or “abandon ship!”) and not to situations that actually allow time to consider the problem at hand. The sort of compliance demonstrated during the SARS thing runs in the opposite direction of self-determinism and because of this leads to finite games where they don’t apply. Ultimately, continuing on this course and given enough time, this sort of misbehaviour leads inevitably to gulags and death camps, no joke.

This catastrophically normal sheep-like behaviour is what motivated, in part, my father to embark on his adventure with Dianetics and Scientology. But when one goes up against the status-quo then the self-appointed custodians of society get angry, the sheep can become wolves and so one is bound to get into trouble. It’s this part of the story I hope to assist in telling….

The idea behind dianetics as applied to groups is they won’t repeat past errors and make things worse if you get the story straight and get it known to all members of the group, especially after emergencies (engrams)….

The citizens of the United States would probably be shocked to learn that many of our current woes go back to another court case, Brown Vs. Board of Education, a 1954 Supreme Court decision that, while laudably striking a massive blow against Jim Crow and racial segregation in the southern states yet also destroyed the right of free association, a fundamental aspect to the ownership of property. Ownership of property, as most of you know, starts with owning your own body, extends to ownership of one’s labour and must include, also, freedom of association with others (amongst other things). These are actual Rights rather than privileges and which are absolutely fundamental to the United State’s monumental experiment that holds individual rights as paramount. Jim Crow = group engram. Brown Vs. Board of Education = another group engram. B Vs. BA led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which, whilst probably well intended (remember those paving stones that lead to Hell), is arguably the greatest redistribution of private property, monetarily speaking, in history! The U.S. has been spiralling downward ever since, though not only for that one reason. And so it goes….

Group dianetics is generally not taught nor practiced in Scientology 2.0 because if it were it would it probably evolve into Scientology 3.0. This process could potentially open the door to multiple suits against 2.0 and so is unlikely to happen. But if group dianetics were applied and version 3.0 did result then that could be equally disruptive for change is always hard and is rarely what you’d expect it to be….

My hope is that Scientology 2.0 does eventually figure out a way to get with it, one way or another, and then perhaps Scientology 3.0 actually could come into existence and that it would be more accessible to the world at large. But for that to happen there would need to be a rigorous application of group dianetics.

 
8th post, “The Wild Mind – Part I,” Aug 26, 2021

My dad suggested that since he had a lot of art books I should just teach myself with his help; he was a lifelong autodidact after all so why not carry on the tradition? There were drawing exercises and painting exercises and all those books about art, artists and art history: prehistoric art forward to the present.

I really cannot stress enough how useful and interesting studying art history is, especially the way I did it. Because, along with politics, economics, war and technology you have to include all the topics I listed at the beginning of this article. History is important and art is a great way to get at it….

What I am saying is that most of the work that was being heavily promoted by the Art World ultimately got us to 2021 discussing such nonsense as whether men can have babies and pushing Critical Race Theory (that all white people are racists because they are white) and other such rot. All the while the State, laughing down its sleeve, is going more and more insane and authoritarian as the loudest most strident voices amongst the proletariat (always the loudest, never the majority) clamour for flatland on social media and at the polls.

How magic works and then becomes confused with superstition, has been getting people and groups into trouble all through history. Then there’s a middle ground where magic seems to be just weird. However it’s viewed, ideas about magic played an important, possibly accidental, role in the popularisation of Scientology 1.0.0 in the 1960s. Later, magic would play one of the key roles in the development and eventual establishment of Scientology 2.0 (1981)….

I admit I actually don’t know much about magic, but I do know it’s been a driving force, for good and ill, since the dawn of time. Things like shamanism, divination, various healing practices and so on, all ways and forms of doing magic. So I’m guessing that these complex arrangements with invisible dimensions and forces, the myriad ways of working with them, were a key factor in achieving group success….

So when you’ve got a pretty good therapy going, as per Scientology 1.0.0, you’re apparently going to have the best success by treating the viewpoint of the patient, wherever it’s located, rather than the brain – too many variables there, otherwise. What does the viewpoint – the you – think is going on? What’s your view of your life? The better the patient is guided or helped to discover for themselves whatever the truth of the matter is, for them as well as the actual reality of their situation (confusing the subjective with the objective is what’s wrong with most of us in the first place) the more successful the therapy is going to be….

So one day during dinner with my dad (just the two of us), I complained about this by blurting out grumpily, “Where’s all this magic everybody keeps on about?!” He looked astonished and then asked me, “What magic?” I explained. Then he asked, “You don’t see the magic?” and I said “No!” “Well, come on now!” he said, “What magic are you talking about?” I thought for a second and said, “Such as seeing through walls and levitating things, I guess” He said, looking even more surprised, “You can’t levitate things?!” and I said “No!” He looked further perplexed and asked, “You can’t levitate those?” indicating the salt and pepper cellars on the table between us. I indignantly and emphatically said, “No!” “Really?” he said, “You can’t levitate those salt and pepper shakers?!” Harrumphing, I got up out of my chair at the end of the table and made a great show: “Well, not unless I get up like this, go over to them like this and grab them with my hands and do this!” jerking the shakers dramatically up in the air. Dad looked at me smiling then and said, “And that’s not magic?” We had a really good laugh.

Now, he was just having a bit of fun there but the truth was his point, what’s magic after all? What’s the ultimate source, as in cause, of anything? After that exchange I began experimenting a lot with movement and thought: you move your arm up, how did that happen, where did that come from? The idea, thought, to move your arm, where did that come from? Think of a rose… why a rose? It could have been, say, think of a chair or the colour blue… on and on. I was only a teenager, after all, but still. I came to see eventually that it’s a deep, deep mystery where anything comes from, that there is a lot more to attention and reality and its direction than what I had been assuming….

The really, really, important thing I’d like to say about magic however is in reference to the real deal, that magicians can gesture or wave a hand and something at a distance can appear (without mirrors or invisible strings), or speak to the spirits and have them speak back, or walk through walls or levitate salt cellars and so on. Well, this I’ve personally never experienced nor seen but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t or can’t happen. Where the discussion really needs to be right now, in my view, especially as it concerns Scientology, is the reality – or unreality, the applicability – or inapplicability – of that sort of magic; in other words: responsible magic vis-à-vis irresponsible attempts at magic…What I mean by responsible magic could be exemplified by the imagination, blood and sweat plus skill that goes into art and inventions as just a couple of examples….

I have always preferred a small republic form of government over any kind of democracy because the majority of us just can’t reason as well as we might, especially at that level; not yet anyway. I say this because of the propensity for the majority of voters to support regimes that offer them “free” stuff like food and money and there are few better examples of magical thinking than that….

It’s possible it may be too late for many adults today, but if we get around to properly restructuring education, we might stop crushing magical thinking (along with their vital imaginations) in our children, with all its attendant wonder and amazement, and try instead incorporating it into all the more sophisticated types of thought that came after the hunter-gatherers. And then, who knows what might be accomplished?….

In Scientology 1.0.0 not knowing that is called – not surprisingly – a Confusion. Confusion is the bottom of a spectrum consisting of 12 delineated levels, or conditions, as they pertain to existence (more on this in a later article). Confusion, in Scientology 1.0.0, means: un-located in time and space; a total, or near total, failure to recognise any pattern(s). (It is surprising, when you investigate people from this standpoint, how many of us really don’t know where and when we are. For instance, a lot of what is happening politically right now in the U.S. is perpetrated by activists who think it’s Selma in the 1960s.)…

The Hero idea has been under siege to the point that the word is now pretty meaningless. I mean, today anyone who can put a little mist on a pocket mirror is a “hero”; it’s like the worst kind of suffocating, smothering mommy archetype has taken over the world.

 
10th post, “The Wild Mind – Part III,” Nov 7, 2021

It may seem strange to some people but our family, by the mid to late1960s, had been more or less absorbed into the larger goings on of the slowly forming Scientology 2.0 – the institution. By the time we all moved aboard the Royal Scotsman in 1967, we had effectively become more a part of the crew than a family although we had special privileges such as our own living quarters and, for a short while, a tutor. I tell you this because it wasn’t until that move to La Quinta that circumstances contributed to my forming a much more personal relationship between myself and my parents, if not the other members of the family. The result being that over the course of two and a half years, 1976 to 1979, I got to spend a great deal of time with my dad.

In terms of timing, I was 18, and in terms of experience it was a real windfall and would set me permanently on a completely different course than I might have otherwise taken. I’ll get into more detail about this in a later article but for now I am mentioning it because this is when my dad told me that Scientology was, in fact, a mysticism….

Scientology, it was decided, was to be both an applied philosophy, as far as its membership was concerned, and a religion, as far as the world was concerned. My dad never guessed what the consequences of those early decisions were going to be (as I shall be later discussing), not the least of which his son, me, would apparently develop no real interest in the subject – so it seemed at that time anyway.

All I knew was I was swept up in something I didn’t know what it was and I was not very interested in it; in part because I was mainly interested in other things (art) and because the people in the group, mostly, had made a choice to be there and I hadn’t. I was there by default, you see, and any path towards changing one’s life spiritually must be chosen by those undertaking the journey or it just won’t work. These people had been outside, then read a book or met someone and joined. People who join and people who are, say, born into this sort of group are having two very, very different kinds of experience, so much so that, when they meet, they might find themselves staring at each other across an unbridgeable gulf. Such was the case with me….

So I was greatly surprised and intrigued by this idea that Scientology was a mysticism because I was beginning to understand how mysticism, like religion (as I was learning), is inextricable from art and art was what I was really interested in. The connexions were finally being made in my callow little brain and thus began my own journey into the thoughts and ideas of Scientology 1.0.0….

It is my firm belief that achieving and living the mystic life by as many people as possible as soon as possible is ultimately the only way forward. Unfortunately though, many people are disappointed in their efforts at attaining this either because they haven’t been shown how to properly achieve the experience or, if they got a whiff of it (usually by means of chemicals), they are not trained in how to hold on to the experience by learning the inevitable new rules that come with it (new to them, the rules have always been the same since the very beginning).

To sum up, art, ritual, magic, myth and mysticism are steps toward how we got here. Like all such foundational rungs in the ladder of progress, they are not dropped but incorporated into the rungs above. Civilisation though, being very much more complicated than what preceded it, sometimes breeds people who attempt to cut away these rungs and then finds itself collapsing very quickly, such as happened with Rome in the first century B.C. and such as we are doing right now with postmodernism (the “Woke” movement, CRT: critical race theory, BLM, etc.), Covid mandates, printing money like toilet paper and so on.

But wait! Here’s the good news.

After that time I spent with my father I continued looking into mysticism. I began to study Scientology 1.0.0 in earnest and I began to study more and more all the subjects connected to it such as art, religion, philosophy, logic, ethics, physics, psychology, on and on…

In the past seven years, since 2014 – and the acceleration of ideas designed to wreck Western civilisation – there are now new voices who, though almost entirely ignored by mainstream media channels, are rapidly putting many of the pieces together and giving out their ideas and sources in a way that one needn’t waste a lot of time getting them.

 
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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

Did you know you can get an email every morning when we post our daily Scientology story? We know some of the folks who come to the Underground Bunker aren’t here to talk about the politics of the day, and that’s why we created a daily politics feature over at our other blog, The Lowdown, and we ask readers to take their political discussions over there. And if you drop us a line at tonyo94 AT gmail, we’ll put you on the list so you get a morning reminder that a new Scientology story has been posted — and only for our Scientology stories.

 
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Source Code

“Down in Arizona they put an H-bomb nine feet below the ground and blew it up. Why? To find out if it’d lift dust? Well, it certainly did!….In 1947 it was very easy to run an engram. Even in early 1950 it was still fairly easy to run an engram, but it was a little harder. By the end of ’50 it was getting difficult to run engrams. In 1951 we had to beef up our processes like mad in order to run an engram cleanly. By 1952 we were beginning to run into nothing but whole track. 1953, we just had to look for other processes than engram running. And we had to look hard, and we looked into exteriorization. In ’54, in ’55 and in ’56 we have actually been researching further and further, into more and more powerful techniques. Why?….People haven’t changed, have they? Not at all. We even see a difference of techniques which, run two or three years ago, don’t work very well today. This fascinating panorama has just unfolded before my view as a distinct possibility. And it may or may not be true, but it is certainly a distinct possibility, and there is a coordination here between the amount of radiation in the atmosphere and the difficulty of auditing a preclear.” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 8, 1956

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“BEEF: Not all the meat on a haunch of beef can be used for steak. If you want steak you have to have two or three haunches and plan what to do with the rest. Roundsteak has to be floured and pounded, peppered and salted before frying. If not pounded it will be tough.” — The Commodore, November 8, 1969

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“No wonder advance beings don’t say who they were after they reincarnate; so many of us are such extreme doubters; we very much want to hold onto our cushy positions as opinion leaders. To these kind, in their secretly held needs, their very self survival depends upon not having spiritual leaders other than themselves and their friends. This is how PTSs and SPs treat people who do good deeds. I say leave this Lafayette Hubbard alone, becoming silent in your doubts, unless you actually have evidence of tech fraud. Hubbard could have returned WITHOUT reveal but so many of us very much needed and wanted him to return, if for no other reason than we Scientologists are the scientists of the Science of Reincarnation and we ought to be able to publicly demonstrate a successful return that continues where he left off.”

Past is Prologue

2001: MSNBC reported that the family of actress Penelope Cruz is upset about her possible engagement to Scientology celebrity Tom Cruise. “Cruz’s parents ‘are very upset’ about the prospect of their daughter marrying the world’s biggest movie star, says a well-placed insider, because of Cruise’s religion. Cruise is a devout Scientologist and the religion is highly controversial in Spain. Spanish government prosecutors have been waging a legal war against the church for years. They have charged church officials with a variety of misdeeds, including kidnapping, tax fraud and damaging public health. In September, prosecutors asked the government to dissolve the church, which is not recognized as a religion in Spain. A lawyer for the church has called the charges ‘religious prejudice.’ ‘Penelope’s parents are devout Catholics,’ says the source. ‘There is no way that Tom Cruise is going to marry Penelope if she’s not a
Scientologist. Penelope has always been somewhat independent in her thoughts and actions, and the word is that she’s taking Scientology courses on an almost daily basis. Her parents are not happy.'”

 
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Random Howdy

“Monsanto made everybody fat, TV made everybody stupid, and the Internet made everybody crazy.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for November 10. Trial tentatively scheduled for February.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference December 17 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for November 19.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30, 2020 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments held November 2, awaiting a ruling.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9, 2020 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: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

 
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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

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 BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. 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] John Travolta crashes the Scientology social media feed as we dip back in for a look
[TWO years ago] Columbus going Ideal! David Miscavige to open 2nd Scientology cathedral in a week
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s weirdly detailed shrine to L. Ron Hubbard in Florida even has ocean sounds
[FOUR years ago] Scientology plan to shut road through its secretive ‘Int Base’ in California foiled again
[FIVE years ago] It’s Election Day, but screw that — Chick Corea is finally superhuman thanks to Scientology!
[SIX years ago] Up next for Scientology: Sending out Tom Cruise to put on a grand performance?
[SEVEN years ago] The Heinlein Letters: What L. Ron Hubbard’s close friends really thought of him
[EIGHT years ago] The Tom Cruise Smear Machine: Accusations From His Deposition You Haven’t Heard
[NINE years ago] Scientology Excommunication: Documents the Church Usually Keeps Under Wraps
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology: The Now Religion!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 8, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post 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 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, 1995-2020 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

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

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

 

Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast