Scientology insider at the center of White House Ukraine/Russia negotiation

 
TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Yesterday, we told you about President Trump naming Scientology’s wealthiest donor to the board at the Kennedy Center. But there’s also a major Scientology figure involved in the Munich Russia/Ukraine talks. Yikes! ALSO: A new class-action against Scientology in California [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

 
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Technology Cocktail

“One Rockslam doesn’t make a psychotic. Or a total menace to everyone. But it does mean there could be more and it might in rare cases mean you have, seeing enough of these R/Ses, a very dangerous person on your hands and in your vicinity. And that person must be handled by Expanded Dianetics. You won’t see a great many Rockslams in auditing people so you could be totally thrown off by surprise when you see one. And mess it all up because you are surprised. So know what it is and don’t get all quivery and make mistakes and blow your confront. Just carry on.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1976

 
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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

“Greece, in its Golden Age, could be said to have been at Tone 4. Perhaps in the first days of this country, when we were searching out a wilderness and building the nation, we could be said to have been at Tone 4. A nation follows in its cycles the same tone scale as individuals. A person can be as high as Greece was, or in a state of apathy as were the American Indians when they were destroyed as a nation. You can tell just what the mental health of a nation is by observing its actions. A country like Russia that is always angry is at 1.5 or 2. It is either angry or in a state of war. If a human being were in this band he would be titled insane. A state in this band could not help being a police state. The United States for a while was rather bored but getting along. However, this last war reduced us to around 2.1, which is rather overtly hostile — ready to fight. We are drifting back down the tone scale. Between here and death is totalitarianism.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 15, 1951

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“The actual value of a trained SO member is very high, yet is not being assigned a value. The wogworld tends to impress on people that the individual has no value. Welfare states deplore having people. Yet we run on and because of people. The value is actually too high to be calculated easily. Because value to self is all the wide world thinks of. Value to the group is discounted. Yet the whole value of a being is to his group and not to himself at all. The aberrated think of modern times says one has no real value to the group. Yet that is a being’s greatest value. We should work more on these lines in a practical sense.” — The Commodore, February 15, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“Whenever Scientology doesn’t work it gets blamed on out-tech. Sometimes it might be the case, but Scientology itself is faulty. Hubbard never mentioned when things didn’t work from day one, for example in the Dianetics book he didn’t mention how some people can’t find engrams. They just can’t. He made out it was super easy to learn and works amazingly, but in the real world Dianetics didn’t pan out that way and Clear kinda doesn’t even exist.”

Past is Prologue

2001: The San Francisco Chronicle published an article on February 12th on Astra Woodcraft and her experiences in Scientology “Astra Woodcraft, apostate and defector, is the latest enemy of the Church of Scientology. Woodcraft, 22, never really joined this controversial psycho-spiritual movement, at least not as a free-thinking adult. Astra was born into it. Recruited at age 14 into the movement’s elite ‘Sea Organization,’ Woodcraft describes a brave new world of authoritarianism, greed and spiritual manipulation. Two generations of her family have been torn apart by Scientology. Holding her 2-year-old daughter, Kate, in her arms, Woodcraft vows that there will be no fourth generation in her clan. ‘I don’t want her to have any connection to Scientology,’ said Woodcraft. All cults have problems with apostates, insiders who leave the fold and denounce their former faith. But the Church of Scientology plays hardball with defectors, investigators and others seen as church enemies. ‘They are very hard on apostates,’ said Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara and the author of a recent scholarly study on the Church of Scientology. ‘Scientology is something people feel very, very strongly about,’ said Jeff Quiros, a church spokesman in San Francisco. ‘It’s not a go-to-church-on-Sunday kind of religion. It’s an intense religion. If people get in your way, they need to be dealt with one way or another.’ Two ways the church deals with critics are lawsuits, its own undercover investigations and public denunciations of those attacking the church. ‘Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way,’ Hubbard once advised his troops. ‘Start feeding lurid blood, sex crime, actual evidence on the attack to the press.’ Astra said her formal education stopped at age 9. Over the next few years, she was sent to a series of makeshift schools run by Scientologists. ‘There were no lessons, and hardly any books,’ she said. ‘Mostly, we just hung around.’ ‘We were only getting five or six hours a week,’ Astra said. When she was 14, young Woodcraft was recruited to follow her mother’s footsteps and join the Sea Organization. From age 14 to 19, she said, she was working from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., laboring for months without a day off, doing administrative work at the church world headquarter building in Hollywood. ‘Every week, you’re supposed to do more than the week before,’ she said. ‘You are in such a state of paranoia. All these kids are running around yelling at you. They’ll come up to you and yell, ‘What are you doing! Your statistics are down! What are your crimes?’ Astra Woodcraft says she was tricked into joining the Sea Org over lunch with Scientology recruiters at a Denny’s restaurant in Hollywood. She was offered a job at Bridge Publications, she said, which publishes books by L. Ron Hubbard. ‘In the regular Sea Org, they only pay you $45 a week, but Bridge is a for- profit company, so they have to pay minimum wage, about $300 a week,’ she said. ‘I thought it would be great. I was 14, and I’d be making $300 a week.’ Astra signed the standard billion-year contract promising loyalty to the Sea Org. ‘They say you join the Sea Org for a billion years, and every time you die you get a 21-year leave of absence between lifetimes,’ she said. ‘It’s ridiculous.’ Once she signed up, however, Astra was told she would be working, not at Bridge Publications, but for Scientology’s international justice chief for $45 a week as a secretary. At age 15, she married a 22-year-old Scientologist who also grew up in the movement. That same year, Woodcraft became an ‘ethics officer’ authorized to mete out punishment to anyone breaking Scientology rules. It’s not uncommon in the Sea Org to have young teenagers supervising and disciplining other members two or three times their age, she said. ‘It’s like in (George Orwell’s novel) ‘1984,’ when they have all the kids spying on their parents,’ she said. In July 1998, Woodcraft received a detailed bill from the Church of Scientology International office in Los Angeles demanding payment for all the ‘free’ training courses and auditing sessions she had received while in the Sea Org. The total amount was $89,526. Today, Astra lives in her father’s Van Nuys home with her 2-year-old daughter and 16-year-old sister, who left the church last year. Her mother and stepbrother remained in the Sea Org, along with her maternal grandmother. According to Astra and Lawrence Woodcraft, their family has spent at least $100,000 of inherited money on Scientology classes. Her mother, Leslie Woodcraft, declined to be interviewed. But in a written statement, she charged that Astra was ‘being conned by people from the Lisa McPherson Trust,’ an anti-Scientology group in Florida that is trying to ‘pry money out of Scientology.'”

 
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Random Howdy

“Jenna Elfman is jihadi-level crazy. She wouldn’t hesitate to go on a martyr mission if D.M. ordered her to.”

 
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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, 2023. DA’s response to appeal brief due April 15.
— ‘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 February 24.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, convicted of fraud, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Leah Remini v. Scientology, alleging ‘Fair Game’ harassment and defamation: Some defamation claims were removed by Judge Hammock. Judge Hammock’s ruling is on appeal.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to arbitration.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson. Judge Upindra Kalra’s ruling denying Scientology’s motion to strike is on appeal.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration, gets ruling to depose Jane Doe 1.

 
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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] Mark Bunker makes the case for why Clearwater needs him to keep fighting Scientology
[TWO years ago] So David Miscavige is now a defendant: But can the trafficking lawsuit avoid arbitration?
[THREE years ago] How Scientology kills without pulling a trigger: The story of a sister who was loved
[FOUR years ago] Scientology spying on Anonymous: Leaked from the files of a church private eye
[FIVE years ago] DRONE FLYOVER: First look at Scientology’s drug rehab at Larry Hagman’s estate
[SIX years ago] The Axioms of Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard’s science-y foundation of Scientology ‘tech’
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology mag: Why aren’t you in Florida already dumping all that sweet cash?
[EIGHT years ago] Federal judge once again finds for Scientology’s nonexistent and Orwellian ‘arbitration’
[NINE years ago] Chuck Beatty is right: L. Ron Hubbard lofted culty cosmic ideas a decade before ‘Dianetics’
[TEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: New ‘Continental’ Narconons opening soon?
[ELEVEN years ago] Did John Travolta reveal too much about Scientology?
[TWELVE years ago] Blogging Dianetics, Part 7: The Hard Cell

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 15, 2025 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, 1995-2023 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2023), 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