TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Former Scientology film director Mitch Brisker has more eye-opening photos for us that he took on the church’s movie sets, and wow, do these have a backstory — involving two of the 20th century’s most infamous characters. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]
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Technology Cocktail
“One little boy was almost completely inaccessible at the beginning of processing. He was very noncommittal about anything connected with his past life and completely silent in regard to his parents. Knowing that this behavior was not natural to a child, his auditor asked suddenly, ‘Which one of your parents told you they’d lick you if you told about their quarrels?’ The little boy looked startled, and then burst into tears. Subsequent investigation proved that both parents had threatened him if he told anything about their fights. The auditor who deals with children needs to understand that there may be artificial barriers to the building of affinity with the child. In many cases the child can best be processed by dealing with the parents.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1950
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“Instead of running him on CCHs or something like this, or trying to straighten up something, nah! let’s go for broke; let’s clear him! Not take too many hours at it, either. All right. Now, that’s possible. That can be done. But, let me call this to your attention, it is — this is the controverting fact. It is not being done. Now, you can’t argue with that, can you? Now, I could get down and scream and howl and beat the floor, and Hitlerize the room. But let me tell you something, that isn’t going to do any good. That isn’t going to do any good at all. That’s in the line of reason, or something like this mounts up. If you looked at it very broadly you could say, ‘Well, nobody can audit.’ I mean, that’s the first thing you’d say. ‘Nobody can run a session in the whole world, except just this little handful or maybe five,’ you know. Something like that. But that’s an unacceptable datum that isn’t true, see. So it must be that there were some great big broad bugs on this, and the biggest bug — and I finally located what it was, a very simple bug — it’s just the fact that the goal and the terminal easily disappear in the face of an out-rudiment.” — L. Ron Hubbard, August 24, 1961
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“Any real emergency is chaotic. The drilling of sequences of actions is a stable series of data that prevents the chaos from overwhelming one. Interesting bit of history here. I developed the theory and practice of ‘Battle Conditioning’ used in WW II. I did a paper on it for the Navy before the war and was sent over to the Army G2 with it and Army G2 got it in practice, training by crawling under machine fire and all that. Must have saved a few hundred thousand lives! Nobody even ever said thank you but that’s all right.” — The Commodore, August 24, 1970
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“How come the more we’ve done to make it easier to survive, the harder it has become to survive?”
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1995: Scientology raided the homes of Larry Wollersheim and Bob Bingham, founders of FACTNet, this week. An excerpt from a Scientology press release: “Armed with a federal court order, United States Marshals today raided residences in Boulder and Longmont seizing computer software, hardware and other equipment and documents to halt copyright infringements of Scientology religious scriptures.” A poster summarized a report from The Rocky Mountain News: “‘Denver U.S. District Judge Lewis T. Babcock signed an order authorizing the raids’. According to Wollersheim, ‘They took us off line’. A picture accompanying the article shows Warren McShane, ‘president of the Religious Technology Center in Los Angeles, carr[ying] documents from the apartment of … Wollersheim. At left is U.S. marshal Steve Bush.’ According to the RMN, he ‘charges that the church practices secret rituals in which officials claim they are aliens from outer space whose purpose is to take over the Earth’. The raid started at 9a.m Tuesday morning and lasted for 8 hours, Scientology officials were present at the raid and took away material (see above). A 7 hour raid was made in Niwot. Karin Pouw of the Co$ ‘questioned why Wollersheim’s bulletin board should have non-profit, tax-exempt status’. Wollersheim hopes that he will be represented by the ACLU.”
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“I’m the Dennis Hopper of the ‘Down with Scientology’ club.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Sentenced to 30 years to life on Sep 7, 2023. Appeal now fully briefed, oral arguments scheduled for June 25. Masterson has also submitted a habeas corpus petition.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Pleaded guilty on Nov 10 to a 17-year prison sentence. Now serving time in state prison.
— Aaron Matthes charged for SA of child under 12 years old: OT Scientologist facing multiple mandatory life sentences. Next pretrial court hearing set for June 19.
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, which is now fully briefed. Oral arguments hearing set for July 23.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ 15 days of arbitration completed, Val waiting for further word from the IJC.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson. Judge Upindra Kalra’s ruling denying Scientology’s motion to strike upheld on appeal. Scientology expected to file additional petitions before case can return to Kalra’s court.
— Jane Doe 1 v. Scientology, David Miscavige, and Gavin Potter: Case unsealed and second amended complaint filed. Scientology moves for religious arbitration. Trial has been set for January 10, 2028.
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Other links: The prosecution of Danny Masterson. Leah Remini’s Fair Game Podcast. Leah Remini’s A&E Series. Scientology’s Celebrities, from A to Z. Bryan Seymour’s suppressed series, 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] Scientology critic obtains documents of church plot against him
[TWO years ago] Scientology school loses crucial ability to host foreign students after inspection
[THREE years ago] ‘Harass and discourage’: The role of lawyers and journalists in Scientology’s attack plans
[FOUR years ago] The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see, Episode 3: Carol Nyburg
[FIVE years ago] Leah Remini podcast: Ian Rafalko talks about his father, chiropractor Eric Berg
[SIX years ago] Danny Masterson changes his tune about criminal case in new civil brief
[SEVEN years ago] Paging Graham Berry: Another Scientology horror story of credit fraud targeting retirees
[EIGHT years ago] The Scientology pamphlet that has finally convinced us this planet is theirs
[NINE years ago] What’s at stake in Tuesday’s San Antonio court hearing with Scientology’s former enforcer
[TEN years ago] Ken Dandar’s courtroom nightmare is finally over (unless Scientology starts it over from scratch)
[ELEVEN years ago] Tonight, it’s Boston! And that has us thinking about Beantown’s connections to ‘Miss Lovely’
[TWELVE years ago] Scientology claims credit for solving the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri
[THIRTEEN years ago] LA Sheriff Lee Baca to Grace Scientology Gala, Days after “Celebrity Center” Employee Arrested for Planning to Kill a Cop
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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 3,730 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 4,234 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 4,740 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 4,290 days.
Klaus Büchele has not seen his daughter Jasmin in 5,666 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 3,161 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 6,467 days.
Marc Headley has not seen his mother Trudy in 5,116 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 4,334 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,888 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 5,229 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 13,800 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 9,716 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,883 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 5,469 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 5,728 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 4,476 days.
Marie Poulin has not seen her mother June in 4,045 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 2,356 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 3,531 days.
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 5,213 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 5,550 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 10,403 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 5,519 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,881 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 4,680 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 4,564 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 4,139 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 4,640 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,900 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 16,004 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 24, 2026 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter.
Our book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is 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, 1995-2025 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)
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Tony Ortega at The Daily Beast
