Val Ross: Midnight terror in the career of a Scientology spy

[Valerie Ross continues her series about working for the ‘Guardian’s Office,’ which included her infiltration of the FBI. Now, after the 1977 FBI raid of the church, she’s getting used to a new role in Scientology.]

A Guardian’s Office “celebrity liaison” was a catch-all title. I was the face of Scientology for anyone who was even slightly famous and who needed some TLC. I helped plan events, and I was a quasi-recruiter for getting new celebrities into Scientology.

This meant that I spent a lot of time carrying my daughter around in her Gerry aluminum frame backpack (cool for the time) that was given to me at my baby shower thrown by my FBI coworkers. (You can see the top of the backpack and a piece of the aluminum frame in the photo where I’m picketing the FBI.)

Part of my job included organizing celebrity events for the public to attend, and part of it included going places where there were celebrities and checking to see if any of them expressed an interest in Scientology and, if so, herding them subtly in the right direction. I was also the person who ran random errands for celebrities who were busy on course or in session so they wouldn’t be distracted,

I can’t imagine recruiting celebrities these days, but back then, with Milton Katselas one of the main acting teachers at the time and a Scientologist himself, celebrities were more apt to at least poke their heads in the door of a Scientology building. It also helped that there was no Internet to spread the word if someone was disaffected.

My husband was becoming increasingly jealous of every moment I spent out of the home. He was drinking every night and he loved his Scotch, never one for just a beer.

Mary Sue Hubbard was not in great shape, spending more and more time behind closed doors. I took in typing at home to supplement our meager income, and I was lucky enough to have an IBM Selectric typewriter. So with a choice of fonts, I built up quite a clientele. This gave Mark all the reason he needed to become a full time student during the day, though I never understood how he could get blackout drunk at night then show up on course in the morning.

Rather than being upset that he did that, it was a relief. It meant that there were hours every day when my time was my own. Since I was a fast typist and my rate was by the word or the page depending on the job, I could whip out my work in no time flat and still have time to clean, cook, and do my Guardian’s Office duties, and even get a solo auditing session in during my daughter’s nap time.

The Operating Thetan (“OT”) levels were a huge disappointment to me. I got through OT I and OT II and was not even sure I wanted to go on, but the hype was so big I jumped into OT III. Opening the briefcase and reading the material was a real what-the-hell moment for me. The first thing I wanted to do was talk to someone, anyone, about what I had read. But founder L. Ron Hubbard had that covered two ways. He made sure your case wasn’t supposed to be discussed with anyone, and he emphasized that the OT materials were highly confidential. So I started auditing on them, but I certainly wasn’t thrilled with it.

Being in the OT levels meant in Scientology terminology that I was in the middle of “the non interference zone.” That meant I was to be treated with kid gloves and have the least amount of distraction in my life possible. This zone applies from Clear through OT III. During that time in my life, I was spied on the FBI, the FBI raided Scientology, I had a baby, and now my life was descending into barely controlled chaos. I audited quietly, turned in my sessions to the case supervisor (“C/S”) and continued with the hell that was my life.

The basement at the Manor (the Hollywood Celebrity Centre) was no longer fun. It was a place where I spent as little time as possible. For most people who have worked anywhere, you know who your co-workers were. You have developed a relationship of sorts with most of them. Scientology workplaces are different. You may not know the names of people in the same department as you. You know nothing of their families, they probably don’t know much about their own family. Their dreams? The common dream was clearing the planet. No one was allowed to have any other dream than that.

There were a few high-profile people I knew by name, like Arte Maren, but for every face I recognized, there were two dozen faces that were now foreign to me. I would type my mission reports at home and spend the few minutes necessary to drop them off, and get new orders then book it out of there.

I missed my friend Diana Hubbard, daughter of the founder, but as Leah Remini later learned you don’t ask after people who disappear in Scientology. I would have loved to talk to her again, to play piano duets, to see how she felt, but it was not in my very limited purview to ask questions about people who weren’t there.

I didn’t even realize it until 2012 when Mark Plummer told me about it, but the extreme irony of what I was doing — dealing with the founder’s wife (Mary Sue), the president of the Church of Scientology (Heber Jentzsch), and high-profile celebrities — was that I had a Suppressive Person declare sitting there in the files at ASHO under my maiden name. I had not been told I was declared, but my students and former co-workers thought I was. It shows just how much secrecy the entire organization is shrouded in that I was in the same town as I had been, just another department, and I was a high level Scientologist while a few miles away it was believed I was a disgrace. And those two worlds did not collide.

Meanwhile, in my high-profile not declared life, Midnight Special was in full swing, and by early 1978 I had been given a permanent backstage pass to the tapings. It sounds like kind of a glam life and to be honest, I’m not sure who got that for me, but it was my only ticket to sanity during those dark days.

I became really close with a girl named Marda. She was not a Scientologist and I didn’t ever tell her I was one. I met her at a taping. She was funny and outspoken. She was also blind. Her mother had instilled a sense of independence in her that was breathtaking to observe. With her cane and her attitude, she took on the world. I would call her and pick her up to take her with me to the tapings. I learned early on how important self esteem was in her house. One day I told her mom “it’s just Val” when I called to talk to Marda. Her mother responded. “No one is just anything. Do not do that to yourself.”

The problem was that this woman didn’t realize I was no longer looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I had been beaten down by both Scientology and my husband to the point where my goal was to just escape each encounter with the world with the fewest scars possible.

Mark’s twin sisters were home from Delphi by then. At 16 they were old enough to drop out of school, and they joined the rest of their brothers and sisters in not getting a high school education. With his mom going back and forth between Flag on her upper OT levels, it became my responsibility to take care of two belligerent teenagers for months at a time. I managed to get one of them to get a job in fast food, so I chauffeured her to and from her job as well. Her other sister would accompany me on shopping trips.

I was breastfeeding and wow, I had never been endowed before but I was while breastfeeding. I kept getting leers while I was out even when carrying my child in my arms. I had a T-shirt that I wore a lot, with really fancy script embroidered right across the chest. It said Phuque U. It embodied my feelings on life at the time.

We learned to work with a minuscule budget for celebrity events. Mark’s little sister became my right hand shopper. After a crash course in creative bargaining from Amanda Ambrose, Mark’s sister and I would shop at the farmers market and use fruits vegetables and cheese in creative ways to make it look posh. We came up with ways to set up the Shrine Auditorium for each event in a unique way that put a different spotlight on that celebrity. The Shrine, balconies and all, was packed in those days for Stanley Clarke, Chick Correa, Amanda Ambrose, and half a dozen others.

Hubbard had grand ideas for a new record as well, and we were advertising in the Auditor for musicians.

As long as one of sisters was with me when I did things, Mark was fine. However I couldn’t take them to the tapings, they were underage, so they stayed home in our crowded two bedroom apartment with the baby. Mark was not the type to babysit even if he was available.

In early February, 1978 I went to a taping with Marda. Natalie Cole was the host and she was my target for the night. KC & The Sunshine Band were back performing again, either their second or third appearance.

During the taping, as KC & the Sunshine Band were performing, I told Marda the lead singer was really cute. We were right there on the front row. She said “mess with them,” so I hollered out, “hey, my friend is making eyes at you” all the guys looked at me, I pointed at Marda with her cane and dark glasses laughing hysterically. It was a moment of pure joy. After it was over that night, I dropped Marda off and went home. The present me really wishes I knew where she was now. I’d love for her to be in my life again.

Arriving home, Mark was waiting for me in the dark when I walked in the door. He immediately accused me of cheating on him, told me I was screwing around, called me a whore, and began pummeling me. Welp. There went that joy. His rage woke up his sister, who called the police. They showed up about the time I lost consciousness. My next memory is waking up in the emergency room. The cops were there and people from the GO walked in the door towards me. The cops saw them and left. I was convinced to sign out AMA with no pain pills. This was the first time he broke my nose, and I’m fairly certain a rib or two, though I didn’t get x-ray confirmation and continued to carry my baby, because no one else was there to depend on.

The next morning I was called to appear in front of the Sergeant-at-Arms to write up my overts for enturbulating Mark. Yes, I got in trouble for him beating me up. This despite the fact that I was auditing on OT III and Hubbard specifically stated: “A pre-OT who is running well and making case gain should not be interrupted. And, where a person in the Non-interference Zone does need O/Ws pulled, the auditor must first obtain a C/S OK”

I just had to deal with it. I had no way of appealing to logic, either with the ethics officer or Mark. I was on a job assignment for the GO at the taping, and Natalie Cole was on the top 10 list at that time of people targeted for recruiting into Scientology. With a three-month-old child I was certainly not out looking for someone to screw. But I had a choice. I could make up some “crimes” and get through it, or I could stomp and yell and get punished worse. In Scientology you learn to breathe deep and surrender if you want to stay in. At that point I guess I still did.

As soon as the black eyes had healed, Mark snapped this photo of me (or as he put it “your fat bitchy ass”) doing dishes. I weighed 120 lbs. at 5’10” in that photo. I was not allowed even aspirin for the pain. We didn’t have it in the house. I just had to soldier on.

I felt as empty as that photo looked. Even my blue eyes had gone grey.

The next few months were pure chaos, I went where I was told when I was told, wrote up my reports, and did my best to avoid Mark’s wrath. Midnight Special was the place to be back then. No matter who was scheduled to appear, there were various artists who would show up just to chat, jam, or warm up the audience. Willie Nelson came by three times in the eight months I was there. I got a photo of him once and he autographed it on his next fly-by. I learned that if I took my camera gear, Mark was less likely to explode.

Since I was still baking bread and Art the landlord was a regular customer, I worked a deal with him to turn one of the studio apartments on the first floor into my darkroom. I would take my 8-year-old goddaughter Tracey in with me to develop the photos and she’d hold the baby and learn techniques. Seriously. No one cared if their children were in school. School was for wogs.

I got really good at traversing LA. With my trusty Thomas Brothers map in hand and usually one or both of Mark’s sisters and sometimes my goddaughter in the car too, I grew very acquainted with LA County as I ran errands for the rich and famous or scouted venues. I got so acquainted with LA that in 1987 when I took my kids and then foster daughter on a vacation to Disney, Universal Studios, Sea World, and San Diego Wild Animal Park, I was napping, my foster daughter was driving, she woke me from a dead sleep and said “I’m lost.” I looked around and said “we are in Venice Beach, PCH is 2 blocks that way, turn left and head for San Diego.”

During this chaos, I finished up OT III, OT IV and OT V, I was really trying to think of excuses not to go on because I really couldn’t figure out how any of this was helping me. The decision was made for me in an avalanche of events.

First, the indictments came down. The day they came down, Heber was on my doorstep. It was August 15, 1978 and he needed my help organizing a protest. In the real world, if you see someone for the first time just over six months after their wife’s death, the first order of business is condolences, sympathy, and then business. Yvonne’s name was not mentioned. That’s not how you do it in Scientology. She had ceased to exist.

We quickly organized a protest, and there I was protesting the same building and the same people who had given me a baby shower several months earlier. Yes, it had come to that. I had turned on the ones who had treated me with kindness at the order of my group. I do not recall feeling remorse at the time. I still felt like I was helping the good guys. The protest went off without a hitch. This was back in the day when Heber had a large group of pastors and preachers eating out of his hands. Several religious leaders showed up and we spent the day protesting. Then we packed up and went home.

The next day Mark’s sister and I went shopping for the next celebrity event at the Shrine. While we were out I told her I was pregnant again. She asked if I wanted to be. I said “does it matter?”

We came back to the apartment to find Mark in bed with a girl around his sister’s age. He went ballistic. Of course it was our fault for coming back and finding him committing statutory rape. The girl grabbed her clothes and ran out, his sister grabbed the baby and barricaded herself in a bedroom to call the police and I was left there with him.

The floor was covered in blood and I was unconscious by the time the cops arrived. This time I was admitted because I was miscarrying and hemorrhaging, and all of my fingers in my right hand and my right wrist were broken. I actually got pain meds while I was in the hospital, despite my GO handler stating “if she was conscious she would tell you not to give her those.” I heard that, but did not let on that I did as my care provider protected me.

Mark’s sister told her mother what had happened. His mother responded, “well, she must have done something to deserve it.”

My GO handler checked me out as soon as they got the hemorrhaging under control, once again with no pain meds, and a promise (a lie) that I would get follow-up care. I had a cast that a guy at the Bellevue Mission cut off with a hacksaw a few weeks later. That was the extent of my follow-up care. No police report was filed, but I was in ethics trouble again. This time, I was considered a liability to the organization because my husband kept getting me hospitalized and that was bad PR for Scientology. It was decided that we should move on.

Heber brought my ethics and pc files over and we burned them in the hibachi on the balcony. That’s how they destroyed evidence back then. This has worked out well for me because Scientology only has trace records of me in their files. They have my clear number but don’t have evidence that I was in the Sea Org although I have ex-students and ex-co-workers who know I was there. Their secrecy works both ways. They destroyed their blackmail files on me years ago in their attempt to conceal just how huge Snow White was. The government really didn’t arrest the majority of the players, but they did shut down the operation. And, Scientology pretended to dismantle their spy ring too. That was when we were sent “on extended mission.” I was still unofficially GO, but the GO was in tatters, so I’m not sure it mattered.

I was only one of the people in the organization who were let go at that time. I was given $2,500 in what I considered hush money, though no one came right out and said that. I understood that I was still at their beck and call if needed, but no longer would I receive a weekly paycheck. Basically I got just under a years’ pay to get out of their sight.

Looking back, I find it horrifying that no one even attempted to offer me an escape from Mark. But then it got worse because no Scientologist would believe me over him … ever. But we were now on our road trip to our destination. First stop: Bellevue Mission Washington.

— Valerie Ross

 
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Technology Cocktail

“The new auditor does not realize how serious it is to flub a command. The pc is “down the track” and not in present time. He looks like he is there. When he fails to get the next command or gets a wrong command he becomes alarmed, comes into Present Time as best he can and the auditor loses control. Anytime a pc is made to wait, whether by a wrong command or no command or an auditor writing too much on his work sheet, a Dianetic session crashes.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1969

 
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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 as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.

 
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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane [39] Fredrick Brennan [40] Clarissa Adams [41] Louise Shekter [42] John Sweeney [43] Tory Christman [44] Kate Bornstein [45] Christian Stolte [46] Mark Bunker [47] Jon Atack [48] Luke Y. Thompson [49] Mark Ebner [50] Bruce Hines [51] Spanky Taylor and Karen Pressley [51] Geoff and Robbie Levin [52] Sands Hall [53] Jonny Jacobsen [54] Sandy Holeman [55] Mark Bunker [56] Trish and Liz Conley [57] Trish Conley [58] Alex Barnes-Ross [59] Alex Barnes-Ross [60] Alex Barnes-Ross [61] Alex Barnes-Ross [62] Alex Barnes-Ross [63] Alex Barnes-Ross [64] Tory Christman [65] Tammy Synovec [66] Dennis Erlich [67] Alex Barnes-Ross [68] Valerie Ross [69] Kat in Austin [70] Mark Bunker [71] Phil Jones

 
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Source Code

“We find our people, as we process them, further and further along on this curve of create, through survive, to destroy. And when we get well past survive, we get to an individual who can think in no terms but suicide. He tries to kill himself and those around him. He would not even dream of getting, you might say, out of the body. All he can think of is being in the body and destroying things. He has bought the physical universe. Well, we try to process this individual. We normally find him in sanitariums, and so forth, because he’s no longer able to promote the biological line; and we find his anxiety on the subject of sex very, very great, but it’s very destructive. It’s not the type of sexual activity that would lead to an unending stream of protoplasm. Quite on the contrary, it would be a type of sexual activity which said ‘The unending stream of protoplasm must now end,’ which is to say homosexuality, other misconducts. And we’d find him over on the physical universe side of the ledger over here. And he would be very involved with rocks and solid masses of various things. He’s really left the biological line.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 22, 1954

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“The VIP Party was a huge success, Governor, Lord Mayor and all. Div VI must receive full cooperation on set ups and drills, however. We are at our best in Billing and Drilling. It’s been an awful long time since I heard the rush and pound of feet getting a drill drilled. Guest drill is just another drill. The Supercargo is reponsible for having a well drilled ship. The smartest ships ever were the heavily drilled Enchanter, Avon River and the pre-Melilla RSM! So WE DRILL 1700 to 1800 DAILY HEREAFTER, at sea or in port Supercargo and Ship LRH Comm Take note please.” — The Commodore, April 22, 1970

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“Over the last 10 years I have been on a structured, methodical, examination of my past. I do positive work as well to stay well and fully in PT, but discovering and understanding my experiences has been the bulk of my activity. With over 10,000 hours of looking, I have built up a fair understanding of my timeline with a pretty good knowledge of the key eras of our existence. These major eras seem to have the greatest affect on who we have become, with additional various incidents acting as locks, solidifying the primary postulates, decisions. For example, most recently the rise of large, common universes and how we were drawn into, then locked into this system of existence.”

 
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Past is Prologue

1995: Bob Penny distributed a monograph, “Things That Can Be Said To Work…”. It’s a description of the tactics and internal logic of Scientology. An excerpt: “The wonder is that I wasted 13 years of my life and more than $100,000 before learning to handle the false loyalties and other tricks in which I was enmeshed for so long. Clearly, something was going on that my basic “street education” had not prepared me to deal with. Rationalizations such as, “it’s the best thing we’ve got,” and “at least it’s moving in the right direction” (neither of which is true) helped perpetuate the stasis. Even afterwards, it was hard to avoid rationalizations like “but I learned a lot,” or “the organization sucks but the tech is good” which were attempts to minimize and not really face the harm which had occurred and from which I had yet to recover. The habits of self-censorship, loaded language, avoidance of contrary data, and other thought-stopping mechanisms took a long time to go away if, indeed, they are gone even now. Scientology was not a beneficial experience for me. I avoid the word fraud because it connotes a deliberate and knowing deception which is rare among the misled, but I do believe the organizations practices are based on fraud. The “tech” is certainly fraudulent. But as regards most individual Scientologists, I suggest instead the word trip, in the sense of a self-justifying system of thought which, once entered, leads only into itself.”

 
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Random Howdy

“At least two thirds of the people who showed up on the top five anti-Scientology vids on YouTube from 2008-2010 representing themselves as Scientologists were in fact FAKE. And I was usually the person who busted them.”

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Found guilty on two counts on May 31, remanded to custody. Sentenced to 30 years to life on Sep 7.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing May 17, 2024.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud.

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Some defamation claims were removed by Judge Hammock. Leah seeking to amend her complaint.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration. Plaintiffs allowed interlocutory appeal to Eleventh Circuit.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: motion to file new complaint, hearing on May 29.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration, hearing on April 16.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Ordered to mediation.

 
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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] A warrior’s journey in and out of Scientology
[TWO years ago] When L. Ron Hubbard assigns you to the deep: A slice of Scientology in new book
[THREE years ago] Why Danny Masterson’s attacks on Leah Remini aren’t helping him in court
[FOUR years ago] Even a pandemic can’t stop Scientology from tracking you down, apostate!
[FIVE years ago] Where is Scientology dying most Ideally? Could it be our neighbor to the north?
[SIX years ago] Everything — even Scientology — is up to date in Kansas City, and here’s who’s responsible!
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology denied twice in wrongful death lawsuit as parents grieve for Tabatha Fauteux
[EIGHT years ago] Another depressing piece of evidence that Scientology advocates splitting apart families
[NINE years ago] Scientology: Making fools of your local elected lunkheads since 1952
[TEN years ago] The Garcias take one more shot at Scientology before their fraud suit will live or die
[ELEVEN years ago] GARCIAS RESPOND TO SCIENTOLOGY: YOU’RE A BIG RIPOFF

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 22, 2024 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, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2022), 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

 

Tony Ortega at Rolling Stone