TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: You never know what someone who spent decades in Scientology and worked at its highest, most secret echelons might still have stored away. In this case, it turns out, a super-rare photo of one of the most notorious and reclusive super-spies the church ever produced. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]
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Technology Cocktail
“When a pc has not done well on Dianetics and when no other reason can be found the C/S should suspect some listing error and order an L4BRA to be done ‘On Dianetic lists’ at the start of each question. Each read obtained on the list is carried earlier similar to F/N as per HCOB 14 Mar 71 ‘F/N Everything’ or, preferably the list is found in the folder and properly handled in accordance with what read on L4BRA. Dianetic lists can be carried to an item that blows down and F/Ns.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1978
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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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“I had an example of this. I had a couple of words on a line plot, when I was auditing, and they didn’t make much sense, and I let them go by! They didn’t make any sense to me and by George, we had a wrong item! And as soon as we got the thing straightened out and they did make sense, and so forth, they rocket read, and we went ahead beautifully. The point I’m stressing here is even though you have those forms, don’t try to gobbledygook it. Because gobbledygook won’t work. But sometimes it looks a little gobbledygooky, let’s get the idea of ‘to be Catholic.’ Let’s say that somebody had a goal like that. Got it down in the Vatican or somewhere, they got implanted, and ‘to be Catholic,’ you know. And you get down to the ‘-ness’ form of the goal. And you say, well that’s obviously the beingness of a Catholic. But by George, that doesn’t work! And you finally find out that it’s ‘Catholicness.’ Makes sense, doesn’t it? Catholicness. It isn’t an English word, but it’s a perfectly decent concept. It’s the ‘-ness’ ness of being a Catholic. See? And Catholicness, you’ll find out will fire right at that point, very nice.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 18, 1963
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“NAME CHANGE: The harbour recognized the ship but not the flag or name and were curious. So you better know why so you can explain it. The Hubbard Exploration Co Ltd was the original owner. It was a British Company. Because of currency restrictions the ships were sold to me, then to Operation and Transport Corporation of Panama, a Panama Company so the flag and name had to be changed. We run student cruises and came from Cadiz and will eventually be returning there. We cruise on the coasts of the Western Med.” — The Commodore, April 18, 1969
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“OT 20 is superstatic rundown. It allows you to go outside source itself and re-enter the MEST universe at any other point in time. 900 years into the future the entire galaxy was taken over by the aliens that created mind control on this planet during this time period. Those aliens have been removed from the planet now and we can now start to repair the damage. The sleeper children were created by the dark forces 900 years in the future to try to prevent Scientology from being created. INT Management has been run by alien implanted entity manipulation. That is why we can’t get CoS repaired until we get the government out of CoS. The government is using CoS to extort money out of the public to line their own pockets. We advanced Scientology in the future to a point where we could go back into the static source where all things is created from and operate in any time period we choose. We came back to this period of time to remove the alien influence and stop the future chaos from happening. If you listen to The Time Track of Theta tapes you will learn a thetan can run more than one body. Not unusual to run 20 or more other Bodies.”
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2000: From Ifuse.com: “Crew members working on the latest John Travolta movie say they can’t wait to wrap, citing a ‘creepy’ level of Scientologist fervor surrounding the set of potential summer sci-fi blockbuster ‘Battlefield Earth.’ The movie is about a futuristic battle for Earth between opposing political movements. The ‘good’ that wins out is supposed to represent the ideology of Scientology. ‘It’s weird man,’ said a member of the camera crew, interviewed by iFUSE on the set Tuesday. ‘Half these people are Scientologists. Travolta’s hired all of them to be here. It’s like this weird, religious epic. ‘It’s creepy, man.’ Some crew members went so far as to call their Scientologist co-workers ‘freaks,’ saying they constantly speak wistfully of founder Hubbard and how wonderful their faith is. Others — who happen to be Scientologists — said they were fine with the atmosphere. ‘This is a film that I wanted to work on,’ said a Scientologist member of the production. ‘Hubbard just knew so many secrets about what really goes on, and his books made those ideas come to life entertainingly, so it’s great to be making this into a movie that, hopefully, a lot of people will see.'”
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“It would be fun if there were real monsters, but the only real monsters on this planet are us.”
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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 May 14.
— ‘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 April 25.
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, convicted of fraud. Pre-sentencing conference was held April 4. Sentencing hearing scheduled for May 5.
Civil litigation:
— 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. Trial has been set for January 10, 2028.
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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] Rebecca Minkoff’s Scientology involvement in the news, thanks to ‘RHONY’
[TWO years ago] Day one at the Danny Masterson retrial was wild, what’s in store for day two?
[THREE years ago] How it went down: Transcript of Judge Olmedo denying Danny Masterson’s latest subpoenas
[FOUR years ago] Scientology social media: Taking the planet higher than it’s ever been
[FIVE years ago] Scientology denied: Watch Clearwater church members calling Mark Bunker a bigot
[SIX years ago] When Scientology is caught spying, it always pretends it was the victim
[SEVEN years ago] Spinning cars, self-healing cuts — more ‘OT’ ghost stories from Scientologists
[EIGHT years ago] DOX: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s nutty scheme to strong-arm America’s psychologists
[NINE years ago] Louis Theroux’s ‘My Scientology Movie’ premieres at Tribeca: Our on-scene report
[TEN years ago] Scientology hit with another federal lawsuit over refunds — but with a twist
[ELEVEN years ago] The rising business star, his mother, and Scientology’s attempt to rip them apart
[TWELVE years ago] Hysterical Hyper-Sight, and Other Lost Concepts of Dianetics
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Joe Reaiche (1958-2024) did not see his daughter Alanna Masterson in his final 6,999 days.
Mike Rinder (1955-2025) did not see his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in his final 7,589 days.
Tammy Synovec has not seen her daughter Julia in 3,238 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 3,733 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 4,248 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,798 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,788 days.
Klaus Büchele has not seen his daughter Jasmin in 5,174 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,669 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,973 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,842 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,396 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,737 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 13,304 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 9,223 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,391 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,973 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 5,232 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 4,269 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,985 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 3,549 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,864 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 3,039 days.
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,721 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 5,058 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,912 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 5,027 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,389 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,798 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 4,196 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 4,072 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,637 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 4,148 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,404 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 15,512 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 18, 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
