TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: With Tom Cruise and John Travolta in the front row cheering him on in March, church leader David Miscavige announced a new attempt to make it look like Scientology is still taking over the world: A new focus on kids. And now, here’s the payoff. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]
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Technology Cocktail
“There is a vicious adoption market going on in which a thousand dollars buys a child. This has something to do with law-breaking, etc. But consider what the purchaser is getting — a rough prenatal engram bank. This history of adopted children is not as good as it might be; but even so, the child has been done an enormous favor. The dramatizations which are in the prenatal bank aren’t duplicated in the postnatal bank, leaving the words for the most part unrestimulated. Occasionally, however, the person has had enough material keyed in at the time of his adoption to make his case pretty difficult.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1951
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“People look all the way through books of philosophers, the Bible, life, to find something that will agree with them. At first glance, they’re trying to look for something to agree with. Nah, they’re not looking for something to agree with, they’re looking for something on which they have sufficient experience to establish a certainty. And you go down and you get a book — old Will Durant’s book The Story of Philosophy — whenever you get it out of the library you’ll find page after page, underscore, underscore and an underscore here and an underscore there and exclamation points over in the borders and it’s all marked up, old copies of it. Libraries have to replace it every time they turn around. Because people in their great enthusiasm will underscore ‘God is good.’ Here these rather clever statements one way or the other which are quite profound and quite interesting of which somebody could be certain and then they pick all the way through. The thing they find ‘God is good.’ Fine.” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 3, 1953
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“ETHICS: Fair Game for current week for no report of stats are, Annabelle Buchanan, Jo Albert, Donna Tidman, Clarisse Barnett, Ron Stone.” — Lt. Jeff Walker, I&R, November 3, 1970
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1996: Tilman Hausherr posted news from Russia that the org in St. Petersburg was recently raided for not paying its taxes. “The org has been raided by the Russian tax police. They found only about $200 in the safe, but took computers, TV sets, VCRs and other office equipment. The reason for the raid is that the org had declared over $100,000 for courses as ‘membership fees’, and had not declared monies from the sales of books. ITAR-TASS called scientology a ‘totalitarian religious organisation’.”
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“Opus Dei wields more political influence around the world than the Church of Scientology could ever dream of.”
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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 heard and submitted, waiting for ruling. 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. Scientology’s attempt to gut the case failed, and appeals court upheld. Back to trial court in December.
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ 17 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. Case returning 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. Hearing on arbitration motion set for March, 2027.
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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] Tom Cruise spotted flying in and out of Scientology’s big UK three-day party
[TWO years ago] Prime premieres ‘The Pasta Queen,’ who happens to be a major Scientology donor
[THREE years ago] David Miscavige says Leah Remini hasn’t served him (but Dave’s not here and you don’t see him)
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s favorite LAPD shill now in hot water over Les Moonves ‘allegiance’
[FIVE years ago] Scientology had an historic day in court yesterday, and the experts weigh in
[SIX years ago] Luke Catton still being ‘Fair Gamed’ years after he exposed Scientology’s rehab racket
[SEVEN years ago] Add ‘The Last Samurai’ to Tom Cruise movies Scientology uses for themed fundraising
[EIGHT years ago] Never public: L. Ron Hubbard Jr.’s devastating 1972 takedown of his father and Scientology
[NINE years ago] EXCLUSIVE: DA’s office asked Leah Remini not to air episode about Danny Masterson
[TEN years ago] Scientology strikes back at Leah Remini as publicity for her upcoming series explodes
[ELEVEN years ago] Ten years ago, ‘South Park’ rocked Scientology in a way it’s never recovered from
[TWELVE years ago] Dani Lemberger, who led a breakaway Israel mission, sues Scientology for libel and fraud
[THIRTEEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Roslyn Cohn’s One-Woman Show Set to Skewer Scientology
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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 3,801 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 4,305 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 4,811 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 4,361 days.
Klaus Büchele has not seen his daughter Jasmin in 5,737 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 3,232 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 6,538 days.
Marc Headley has not seen his mother Trudy in 5,187 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 4,405 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 5,959 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 5,300 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 13,870 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 9,787 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 5,954 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 5,540 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 5,799 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 4,547 days.
Marie Poulin has not seen her mother June in 4,116 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 2,427 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 3,602 days.
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 5,284 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 5,621 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 10,474 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 5,590 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 3,952 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 4,751 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 4,595 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 4,210 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 4,711 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 4,971 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 16,075 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 3, 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
