TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: You know Scientology is gearing up for a serious fight when it pulls out the language of righteous religious indignation. It’s getting biblical in the fight between the church and the city of Clearwater over leader David Miscavige’s plans for completion of his Florida Vatican! [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]
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Technology Cocktail
“Rough auditing, bad TRs, ‘letting the pc itsa,’ etc., can swallow up free needles. Also a totally ARC Broke meter that won’t read at all with bad indicators all over the place won’t record a read, looks sometimes like a floating needle, the difference being the pc has total bad indicators—sour, mean, sad, etc. A free needle occurs most often after a big cognition and the unskilled auditor looks at the pc who is being bright and interesting and just doesn’t see the needle float, asks more questions and overruns. and the free needle vanishes—when a pc is cogniting, look at the meter not the pc. And the instant the TA starts up and the needle goes sticky suspect an overrun and check. As for doing something else rather than standard procedure for rehab, plain ignorance can cause it. The auditor’s desire to help the pc if unaccompanied by solid tech background leads to wild efforts, new processes and anything but cool standard procedure.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1979
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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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“You’re going up against a problem here, if you deal with the medico, of a person who monkeys. He doesn’t have any very precise answers. When he immediately gets out of the field of the broken leg, when he gets out of the field of putting on a tourniquet or some other type of action and he gets into a field where he himself does not have very good answers and so he monkeys. And they will do some very interesting and wild things. They will get some kind of a suspicion that there might be a growth in somebody’s chest and start removing tissue. And they’ll do exploratories and they will do all kinds of wild things. They will go into a tumor and take a small slice of it and so forth, thus activating it and aggravating it so that now the person practically is dying whereas before they weren’t bad off. In other words there’s a lot of monkey business. And I say that very advisedly. I could think of much more high school words than monkey business, but I think it rather fits, so forth. Man descended from monkeys and those that didn’t descend much became doctors. Bitter, huh?” — L. Ron Hubbard, July 30, 1964
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“LOCAL ARC: On arrival we were met with much local ARC here. Officials and people were offended we were only staying a week so we have extended to two. Townspeople do know of ‘the incident’ in last port and are sympathetic to us. No reason to discuss it further. Just ack and thank them. Don’t try to deny it. Recent political events have left this area untouched.” — The Commodore, July 30, 1971
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“The Church of Scientology is an MKUltra testing cage. LRH failed to crack the Circuit/3rdParty/PTS/SP Case. The ‘Bridge’ and the subject completely omits the KRCx Case and the route to OT. The public version of Scientology is a subject which has been systematically undermined into a severely reduced version throughout its history and since its inception. Unravelling the timeline is useful only as a historical analysis. Time is the primary source of untruth. What is actually required is a thorough PT technical analysis and handling with a clearly defined purpose. The reasons why the subject and organization is in such a mess reduce to a handful of omissions, inversions, reversals, sacrifices and substitutions. Each reduces to a single gross outpoint. Principles are senior to processes. When the basic principles of the subject as delineated by LRH are actually studied and applied in present time, the subject is self-correcting.”
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1997: Scientology’s Poole, England location was again the site of street protests. Martin Poulter, Dave Bird and Jens Tingleff provided reports on the action. “Six people staged a peaceful protest in Poole High Street about the aggressive and deceptive recruiting used by the Scientology/Dianetics organisation. Unlike previous such protests, the two sides mostly kept apart from each other and the protesters were able to make their point to the public without being harassed or abused by the scientologists. The public response was very enthusiastic and supportive as always. The most unpleasant scientologists from last time were not around, and those that were on the street mostly avoided us. A couple of scientologists’ reactions are worth reporting. One bloke with short hair and sunglasses walked by in a Dianetics t-shirt, slowing to a stunned halt as he saw us. He eventually came up to us and asked ‘WHAT are you DOING???’ ‘We’re protesting against Scientology.’ ‘What have you got against freedom?’ As I tried to reply, he shouted ‘You people are CRIMINALS!’ and stormed off, obviously upset. The star protester of the day was our senior friend, who asked passers-by for signatures on a petition, collecting 139 signatures in less than three hours. Smart, polite and approachable, she had more success with the public than the rest of us could have. People were keen to sign the petition, and gave us enthusiastic encouragement ” The clams did try to keep up body routing despite opposition. I was amazed that they managed to get someone to go with them despite a heckler–me–nearby saying ‘this is Scientology, they want your money, they are trying to sign you up for a #1500 course,’ etc, and trying to hand the punters XEMU leaflets. The clams are very good at manipulating social conventions, making it appear they own the street and are in private conversation ‘ignore him’. With one couple, she wanted to go up to the shop but he had the XEMU leaflet; curly tried to get him to hand it over, I suggested he should keep it and he did. In another, they got this truck driver to go along, but I followed them right to the door of the precinct and hit the right button: ‘they want your money, fifteen hundred quid, mate!’ ‘Money? they’ll get no money out of me’. Ten minutes later he came back past the protest: ‘that didn’t last long’ he said. With balloons in hand, Duke in tow and Xemu costume in place, we arrived at the usual body-routing hot-spot. When the clams finally started showing up en masse, they were pretty mellow. Also, they didn’t try to mount an extensive ‘counter-protest’ like they had the two last times in Poole. Some clams passed by our demo and went into the shop next to the body-routing plaza, but quite a few wouldn’t ack our presence. As Roland was otherwise occupied, I wore the Xemu outfit, complete with the rubber mask looking like the very image of a Roswell-incident type alien. One group of kids thought I was trying to look like Batman, and found that the outfit was cool. A Xemu leaflet was duly handed out, and they should be giggling all the way to the bank when they do not get entrapped by the $cieno sales pitch. All in all, like with the Brighton protest, either the clams have a ready supply of high-level people with brilliant TRs, or there are some normal people who can hold a conversation and to some extend exchange information. They have to put new people on us every time (they spent two of their guys, this time).”
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“Scientology is in the same category as Christian Science and the Jehovah’s Witnesses as far as being a ‘spiritual’ practice that has caused the deaths of its adherents in the past through the denial of legitimate medical treatment. These crimes need to be stopped.”
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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 July 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 July 7.
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. Leah’s appeal brief was filed June 3. Oral arguments are probably next.
— 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 Does’ response to Scientology’s appeal brief is due July 3.
— 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] Tom Cruise: The politics behind the Scientology celeb’s French knighthood
[TWO years ago] Scientology’s Austin grand opening finally set for sizzling August afternoon
[THREE years ago] PODCAST: Pete Griffiths, the SP who ran a Scientology mission
[FOUR years ago] What kind of technical perfection can you expect at Scientology’s mecca, space pilgrim?
[FIVE years ago] The Church of Scientology wants feedback about starting a podcast. Oh, pretty please?
[SIX years ago] Miscavige changes course: All remaining Scientology orgs to go ‘Ideal’ at the same time
[SEVEN years ago] Here it is, your passport to Scientology godhood: Next stop, infinity!
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology ‘dead agents’ our own Rod Keller as it pursues more illegal activity in Mexico City
[NINE years ago] L. Ron Hubbard as sad, oversexed schlub: The very personal writings his admirers never discuss
[TEN years ago] The Church of Scientology’s forgotten president: Karen de la Carriere on Heber Jentzsch
[ELEVEN years ago] Arlene Cordova needs your help: Where is Scientology keeping her daughter Barbara?
[TWELVE years ago] Scientology’s Needle Exchange: When David Miscavige Got Technical
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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 3,340 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 3,844 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 4,350 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,900 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,890 days.
Klaus Büchele has not seen his daughter Jasmin in 5,276 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,771 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 6,075 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,944 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,498 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,839 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 13,410 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 9,326 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,493 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 5,075 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 5,334 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 4,371 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 4,087 days.
Marie Poulin has not seen her mother June in 3,651 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,966 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 3,141 days.
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,823 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 5,160 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 10,014 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 5,129 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,491 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,900 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 4,290 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 4,174 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,739 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 4,250 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,510 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 15,614 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on July 30, 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