TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Scientology calls itself the world’s fastest growing religion without a shred of evidence. It’s always fun to examine actual facts and figures that expose this lie whenever they’re available. And thanks to some hard work from one of our podcast stalwarts, we have some! [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]
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Technology Cocktail
“Power was once priced against the fact of 50 to 100 hours of auditing. It retained the price and by cutting out all End Phenomena or real gain it was at last being given in 20 minutes. And after just so many years of this economic dishonesty, SHs crashed! They had sold out the real value of the product for a quick buck. The ‘field’ became ‘ARC Broken’ and few takers came to an SH. It is a very long hard road back. And it is very costly one. ‘Quickie Grades,’ instead of making fortunes for one and all, crashed the whole Scientology network.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1980
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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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“In the final run of it, he gets up to a fairly comprehensive idea of what he’s been and done….He gets himself one Godawful amount of time blocked out. Oh, some terrific amount of time blocked out. He gets up to trillions to the eighth power. Time, you know. Oh man, time, you see. First he gets horrified, you see, at the idea of twelve trillion years ago or something like that. He gets finally, up to a point where trillions to the eighth power take him back to some of the earliest implants. And he’s perfectly happy at this level that there’s an awful lot of track….Now, his track goes sizzling back to trillions to the 200th power. Well that’s, of course, one of these ridiculous figures. That’s trillion written two hundred times. Or one with two hundred times you write all the ciphers of a trillion. That gets to be quite a few ciphers and every one of those things is a year. You’re getting into the sweep of time by this time. Well, I myself have had, I just thought I was doing fine when I was doing some research this last summer. I said, ‘Gee, you know we’re getting clear back here.’ Trillions four, you know. Whew, you know? Dizzying. Concepts of time. Trying to date one of these confounded things, you know. Trying to handle these fantastic periods of time with arithmetic, and trying to dream up other methods of going into all this. Rough! Because it just took the auditor too tall, too long to say anything so you got crude rough approximations like, trillions 4.5, see?” — L. Ron Hubbard, December 3, 1963
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“PORT: All is cool. They didn’t even come aboard to clear us in. Customs and police just wrote us down as cleared in. We are now popular here after the attempted attack and our then asserting PRO Area Control. They are honestly glad to see us. We will be here about six days. It has rained so hard here they couldn’t unload ships and the storm drove even more ships in because it made crews nearly 100 percent seasick on other ships. Trust you had a good liberty.” — The Commodore, December 3, 1969
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“For some weeks late in 1982 I remained conscious, even when my body slept. I found that four hours of that kind of sleep was equal to eight of the usual, unconscious sleep, in terms of resting the body. Anyway, one night I was up late, standing nightwatch at Van Org, working on the word ‘postulate.’ When I figured I had it cleared I thought, ‘I want twenty bucks.’ I walked outside onto the street, walked about half a block, and there on the sidewalk were two ten-dollar bills, neatly folded. I picked up the twenty bucks, went back inside and signed off on the word ‘postulate.’ I’m past-life Clear and don’t know what-all I might have had run on me after going Clear way back then, but it was the early ’50s and research was raging ahead. I’m finally getting my Grades now and intend to complete the Bridge, eventually to regain that mastery over unconsciousness that I attained for a short while in the early ’80s. It’ll come in handy next time I want to leave a body for a new one.”
1997: Scientology is filing a motion to place Gerry Armstrong in contempt of court for speaking out against Scientology. “I write to apprise you that I shall appear December 2 at 9:30 a.m. before the Hon. Gary Thomas in Courtroom H of the Marin County Superior Court to seek an order to show cause re contempt arising out of your recent actions in creating and publishing certain documentary works over the internet, in granting interviews to various English and German media and other actions taken by you while in Germany. Very truly yours, Andrew H. Wilson” Gerry’s comments: “This latest effort to have me jailed should put to rest forever Scientology’s claims of persecution. Nobody is seeking to stop Scientologists from speaking freely. It is only the Scientologists who seek to stop free speech. Nobody is trying to suppress the Scientologists from their expression of their religion. It is only the Scientologists who are trying to suppress religious expression. I have absolutely no regrets, as unhappy and as threatened as Miscavige and his Scientologists have at times made my life, for speaking out and offering my help to people this cult has been abusing. It only takes one person to bring to light Scientology’s suppression of speech and religious expression with its criminal ‘contracts’ and their judicial and extrajudicial enforcement.”
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“The really scary thing to me about Carla Moxon is that there are literally millions of others like her in this world that are seriously mentally deluded due to magical thinking and they are among us doing jobs that could cause the rest of us harm if they just go off a tad too much at the wrong time. Anybody keeping track of all the problems going on with members of the ICBM defense system? And that’s not even due to magical thinking.”
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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 August 13.
— ‘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 December 1.
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 Does’ response to Scientology’s appeal brief submitted July 30. Scientology’s reply due October 20.
— 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] Date announced when Scientology leader David Miscavige time-travels to 2025!
[TWO years ago] Mike Rinder exposes Scientology ‘Fair Game’ for Leah Remini’s lawsuit
[THREE years ago] Scientology scolds Valerie Haney for nominating Tom Cruise to be an arbitrator
[FOUR years ago] Scientology wouldn’t pull its ‘Chase Wave’ scam on military veterans, would it?
[FIVE years ago] More Scientology orgs and missions got Covid bailouts than we knew: The detailed breakdown
[SIX years ago] Scientologist says the church is telling Clearwater members not to vote for Mark Bunker
[SEVEN years ago] Thar she blows: The ‘whales’ who are keeping Scientology afloat in 2018
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology loses another outlet for attracting young acting talent in Hollywood
[NINE years ago] In Scientology, dancing in a conga line might end up costing you thousands
[TEN years ago] Augustine: How Scientology changes its story to fit what it’s trying to get away with
[ELEVEN years ago] About that Tom Cruise Scientology ‘co-leader’ nonsense spreading in the media
[TWELVE years ago] Our Experts Prepare Us for the Wall of Fire — Scientology’s Operating Thetan Level Three!
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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 3,466 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 3,970 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 4,476 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 4,026 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 3,016 days.
Klaus Büchele has not seen his daughter Jasmin in 5,402 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 2,897 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 6,201 days.
Marc Headley has not seen his mother Trudy in 4,852 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 4,070 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,624 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,965 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 13,536 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 9,452 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,619 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 5,201 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 5,460 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 4,497 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 4,212 days.
Marie Poulin has not seen her mother June in 3,777 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 2,092 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 3,267 days.
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,949 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 5,286 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 10,139 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 5,255 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,617 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 4,028 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 4,416 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 4,300 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 3,865 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 4,376 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,636 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 15,740 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on December 3, 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, 1995-2024 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2024), 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, 20 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
