Scientology’s plans run into opposition not just from newts, but now also bats!

 
TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Even more bad news for Scientology’s expansion plans for its UK headquarters. Local governments and non-profit organizations are not so amenable to its plans to pave over ground in a place that features ancient woodlands and local fauna. Alex Barnes-Ross has the details! [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

 
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Technology Cocktail

“There is the matter of valence: A person can be himself or he can be under the belief that he is another person or thing entirely. This removes him a step
from being a simple being. Then there is the matter of being in a body. A body is a very complex contrivance, quite remarkable, quite complicated. And it is also quite subject to its own distortions. There are also the entities (as discussed in ‘Dianetics, The Modern Science of Mental Health,’ pages 84-90, and also ‘The History Of Man,’ pages 13-14, 43, 75-77). These follow all the rules and laws and phenomena of single beings. And then there is the matter of influences of other people around this human being. From a single, simple being there is a progressive complication setting in as one adds all these other factors.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1980

 
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Source Code

“The matter of communication is a very serious one. People who are wearing glasses have a break in communication — the communication between the outside world and their minds. It is something which makes it hard for them to see. Myopic astigmatism, unless caused by an accident, is a psychosomatic affair caused by the mind. There is a communication break relating to sight. Those breaks culminate in glasses. Statements in engrams like ‘You just can’t see anything’ will cause the command power to shut off vision. Those people who have achieved optimum personality often drop off the need for glasses.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 14, 1951

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“MOLLY McBRIDE and CLARISSE BARNETT are appointed Commodore’s Messengers. They are cadets in rank and wear a blue lanyard. When they have done their AB, Mission School 2nd Class, SSI and SSII, if they perform duty well, they will be made midshipmen. Anne Tidman as Cmdr’s Messenger I/C will assign their watches and groove them in (Terri Gillham is on Mission). Molly McBride and Clarisse Barnett should turn over any duties they have to the next in line on their posts and groove them in so as not to leave a hole. A poor turnover of former post can drag one back into it as Mr. Warren has learned lately to his sorrow!” — The Commodore, February 14, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“So there is this static potential we call theta. It has no mass, no motion, no space, no time, no wavelength but it has the ability to postulate and perceive. It is a life potential creator that all things you see have been created out of. So from this theta, pieces broke off and pieces of the pieces broke off these pieces, and they became the spirit beings that created this ‘agreed upon universe.’ It is agree upon because we agreed to the laws that it operates, by like for example gravity. Now imagine creating a block of space the size of a swimming pool. This space is NOT a nothing. It appears to be a nothing but it’s NOT. Some of these UFOs travel from one part of the universe to the other by just swapping space. That means take the coordinates of a block of space here and an identical size of space say 10 light years from here and swap spaces. Whatever is in this block of space, (like a space ship), goes to the other block of space and whatever is in that block of space comes to this block of space. The space will vanish the second time we look at it because looking at it twice violates a law that ‘no two identical objects can occupy the same space.’ So we have to trick it somehow to make it persist. We do this by creating another space in the exact same space in an instant later and DON’t LOOK AT THE ORIGINAL SPACE YOU CREATED. In fact lie about it and say someone else created it. By the continuous creation of new space in a new time we have space that persists, a space time continuum. Now we are creating this from the static called theta so we now have to create a viewpoint from the broken pieces (spirits, thetans) to go into this block of space the size of a swimming pool to create and view what we create. We try many different creations over and over again until we got the idea of creating atoms. These atoms are just a new particle created in each new space that is create and had its position in space moved so it can manifest a particle moving in a circle. Over a period of time we make all these combinations of atoms and give them properties we add so eventually over millions of years of experimentation we have finally got a workable model with suns, moons, planets. That is the most basic simple model I can think of.”

 
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Past is Prologue

2001: The San Francisco Chronicle published an article on Astra Woodcraft and her experiences in Scientology “Astra Woodcraft, apostate and defector, is the latest enemy of the Church of Scientology. Woodcraft, 22, never really joined this controversial psycho-spiritual movement, at least not as a free-thinking adult. Astra was born into it. Recruited at age 14 into the movement’s elite ‘Sea Organization,’ Woodcraft describes a brave new world of authoritarianism, greed and spiritual manipulation. Two generations of her family have been torn apart by Scientology. Holding her 2-year-old daughter, Kate, in her arms, Woodcraft vows that there will be no fourth generation in her clan. ‘I don’t want her to have any connection to Scientology,’ said Woodcraft. All cults have problems with apostates, insiders who leave the fold and denounce their former faith. But the Church of Scientology plays hardball with defectors, investigators and others seen as church enemies. ‘They are very hard on apostates,’ said Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara and the author of a recent scholarly study on the Church of Scientology. ‘Scientology is something people feel very, very strongly about,’ said Jeff Quiros, a church spokesman in San Francisco. ‘It’s not a go-to-church-on-Sunday kind of religion. It’s an intense religion. If people get in your way, they need to be dealt with one way or another.’ Two ways the church deals with critics are lawsuits, its own undercover investigations and public denunciations of those attacking the church. ‘Make it rough, rough on attackers all the way,’ Hubbard once advised his troops. ‘Start feeding lurid blood, sex crime, actual evidence on the attack to the press.’ Astra said her formal education stopped at age 9. Over the next few years, she was sent to a series of makeshift schools run by Scientologists. ‘There were no lessons, and hardly any books,’ she said. ‘Mostly, we just hung around.’ ‘We were only getting five or six hours a week,’ Astra said. When she was 14, young Woodcraft was recruited to follow her mother’s footsteps and join the Sea Organization. From age 14 to 19, she said, she was working from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., laboring for
months without a day off, doing administrative work at the church world headquarter building in Hollywood. ‘Every week, you’re supposed to do more than the week before,’ she said. ‘You are in such a state of paranoia. All these kids are running around yelling at you. They’ll come up to you and yell, ‘What are you doing! Your statistics are down! What are your crimes?’ Astra Woodcraft says she was tricked into joining the Sea Org over lunch with Scientology recruiters at a Denny’s restaurant in Hollywood. She was offered a job at Bridge Publications, she said, which publishes books by L. Ron Hubbard. ‘In the regular Sea Org, they only pay you $45 a week, but Bridge is a for-profit company, so they have to pay minimum wage, about $300 a week,’ she said. ‘I thought it would be great. I was 14, and I’d be making $300 a week.’ Astra signed the standard billion-year contract promising loyalty to the Sea Org. ‘They say you join the Sea Org for a billion years, and every time you die you get a 21-year leave of absence between lifetimes,’ she said. ‘It’s ridiculous.’ Once she signed up, however, Astra was told she would be working, not at Bridge Publications, but for Scientology’s international justice chief for $45 a week as a secretary. At age 15, she married a 22-year-old Scientologist who also grew up in the movement. That same year, Woodcraft became an ‘ethics officer’ authorized to mete out punishment to anyone breaking Scientology rules. It’s not uncommon in the Sea Org to have young teenagers supervising and disciplining other members two or three times their age, she said. ‘It’s like in (George Orwell’s novel) ‘1984,’ when they have all the kids spying on their parents,’ she said. In July 1998, Woodcraft received a detailed bill from the Church of Scientology International office in Los Angeles demanding payment for all the ‘free’ training courses and auditing sessions she had received while in the Sea Org. The total amount was $89,526. Today, Astra lives in her father’s Van Nuys home with her 2-year-old daughter and 16-year-old sister, who left the church last year. Her mother and stepbrother remained in the Sea Org, along with her maternal grandmother. According to Astra and Lawrence Woodcraft, their family has spent at least $100,000 of inherited money on Scientology classes. Her mother, Leslie Woodcraft, declined to be interviewed. But in a written statement, she charged that Astra was ‘being conned by people from the Lisa McPherson Trust,’ an anti-Scientology group in Florida that is trying to ‘pry money out of Scientology.'”

 
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Random Howdy

“The idiots show up like clockwork on a Thursday, leave a couple of barely comprehensible comments and scurry away, and they’ve done their job for the week! I think Miscavige is overpaying them.”

 
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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, waiting for 2nd Appellate District court to set a hearing date. 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 (eligible for parole in two to three more years). Awaiting transfer to 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 Feb 2.

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 respondent’s brief is due February 11.
— 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 is on appeal. Appeal fully briefed. Motion to replace Jane Does’ AI-tainted brief denied by court. Awaiting a court hearing date.
— 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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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] White House names Scientology mega-donor to Kennedy Center board
[TWO years ago] Judge’s tentative ruling in Leah Remini lawsuit: David Miscavige, YOU ARE SERVED!
[THREE years ago] Chicago’s big Scientology event looked like a bust: Will this city ever be ‘ideal’?
[FOUR years ago] A day in the life of a pilgrim at Scientology’s spiritual mecca in Florida!
[FIVE years ago] Post-Super Bowl, Scientology is on fire and will soon clear the planet
[SIX years ago] Masterson accusers in court today seek changes to deal with Scientology ‘arbitration’ motions
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology’s street theater in New York: A bid to head off a 4th ‘Aftermath’ season?
[EIGHT years ago] PROSECUTORS PREPARE CHARGES CARRYING LIFE SENTENCE FOR DANNY MASTERSON
[NINE years ago] 25 years ago today: Scientology leader David Miscavige’s ‘Nightline’ appearance
[TEN years ago] Karen de la Carriere: Scientology is smearing me again, and this time is hitting below the belt
[ELEVEN years ago] More secrets from Scientology’s vanished entity, Narconon International
[TWELVE years ago] Scientology’s $100,000 girl records a video promoting a fundraising event in California
[THIRTEEN years ago] Scientology’s Spiffy Golden Era Studios Has Its Own Dentist!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 14, 2026 at 07:00

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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.

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