High-five moment: The former Scientology staffer and Suri Noelle in Edinburgh

 
TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: We’ve enjoyed getting to know Amir Essalhi, a recent Scientology defector who had worked on staff in Edinburgh. Last night, he sent us an intriguing message about running into Suri Noelle there. ALSO: Is this an endurance test, 11 straight days with Elena Cardone? Yikes. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

 
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Technology Cocktail

“In a child, returning is a simple and natural mechanism, and the technique of blowing locks is to use a combination of memory and recall. Ask the child, for instance, if his mother ever bawled him out. If so, try to get him to remember a specific incident. At this point many children will close their eyes and return to the event. If the child can remember the exact words his mother used, and the words of any other people in the incident, allow him to run through it as often as it interests him. Most locks will blow with a single recounting, and will cease to have any aberrative effect on the child. Grief can be contacted in a child as easily as in an adult. The chief point of difference is that the grief will be on moments which seem not very important to an adult. A child will have a definite sense of loss when, for instance, his mother did not allow him to sail his boat on a rainy day. The discharge over this type of grief engram will be small when compared to the grief occasioned by the leaving of a favorite nurse, or the loss of a pet, but any moment of grief which can be discharged will improve the health and well-being of the child.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1950

 
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Source Code

“We come along to this bird and we say, ‘Hey, bud, you’re a convict. You live on a planet called Earth; it’s part of the Marcab Confederacy….Now, is there some other planetary system, is there some other empire system which is deeper in to the heart of this galaxy which is going to backfire against this one? I would say probably yes. Probably yes. There, probably this is coming right up over the hill. I mean it probably is not long. Maybe this confederacy or this activity right now is in trouble. But conquerors nearly always spare the jails. Did you realize that? The Allied troops going in — Auschwitz, Belsen, places like that — they didn’t knock those apart. They knocked apart the belligerents’ property, but they didn’t knock apart their jails. All kinds of political situations complicate this picture.” — L. Ron Hubbard, August 22, 1963

 
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Avast, Ye Mateys

“I’ve just okayed the recommendation to sell the Commodore Queen as unsuitable and too costly to repair. They need the Apollo and we need a new ship.” — The Commodore, August 22, 1971

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“I suspect that the majority should spend time at the level of mission or field group before becoming actual Scientologists and working up the Bridge. Directly working with people on life repair services should be the #1 program for anyone and everyone. It is so obvious that the collapse of real Div 6 in the 80’s is the only reason we have failed as a group to achieve what we should have. Rectifying this is now harder but completely doable.”

 
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Past is Prologue

2000: Karin Spaink and Zenon Panoussis reported a multi-day protest at the Scientology exhibit in Amsterdam. “The scienos rented a conference room in the American hotel, fairly posh, very central, for a one-week exhibition. Got demo permits for the entire week, produced fliers in the very last minute. We got it all wrong, the exhibition was starting Monday. In four hours, six of us handed out about 700 fliers to the afternoon shoppers, tourists, saunterers and early evening out-goers. Monday afternoon we met outside the hotel to celebrate the real opening of the exhibition. The scienos knew we had been there on Friday, yet appeared to be taken by surprise when we arrived today. They made some attempts at handling us (surrounding, questioning, insulting, distracting). I called the police, who arrived half an hour later and told them off. In the meanwhile, a couple of tone-40 ‘FUCK THE HELL OUT OF MY FACE!’ at about 120 db proved to be most efficient, since they can’t very well have scenes like this in front of their posh exhibition, with press invited and all. Even the hotel manager came out and told them off. We moved away from the hotel entrance, which is on a side-street to the main street where all the pedestrian traffic is. Some 500 within two hours, we ran out and I had to go make another 800. In the meanwhile the scienos got their counter-picketters ready and came out to apply their usual tactics again, surrounding us, barring us from view, standing in front of us. They came out with balloons and carnations and started distributing them to passers-by. That won them momentary sympathy, which often only lasted until they proceeded to offer an invitation card for their exhibition. Handing out our fliers to the people that got the invitations with the words ‘the other side of the story’ was no problem at all. The Jive Aces took to playing at the nearby square. The people formed a wide ring around them and were given flowers, balloons and invitations. This made it extremely easy for us to walk inside that circle and serve each and every member of that audience with one of our own fliers, while the scienos could hardly disturb their show by trying to handle us inside the circle in full view of everybody. The Jive Disasters broke up and left. They snatch the critics’ flyers out of people’s hands. It tends to irritate people to no end. You see their faces go from stunned to annoyed. But more often, the Scienos try to prevent us from handing out folders. Getting ‘inadvertently’ in our way or downright blocking us. I was in my wheelchair, a huge cardboard sign standing against one of my wheels. An elderly Scieno approached, pushing an old woman in a wheelchair. She parked her right next to me. After some time I moved, wanting more of a view and a better approach to passers-by. The woman was pushed right next to me again. I moved. She was moved. I got out of my chair and used my stick to support myself. The old woman couldn’t. I moved my cardboard sign to the opposite side of the chair, where it wouldn’t be blocked by the old woman. She was wheeled around and parked to block it again. I lifted the sign and moved it back. The old woman was shoved around once more. This lasted some twenty minutes. The woman in the chair was Ms. Van Loon, an IAS Patron With Honours [$100,000]. The woman pushing her was another Ms Van Loon, also an IAS Patron With Honours [$100,000]. I gave somebody a flyer while the scieno was telling him ‘find out for yourself’. The scieno snatched it immediately. I asked ‘really now, is this what you mean by find out for yourself?’ and gave the raw meat guy another flyer. The scieno started moving to snatch it too, so I said ‘put it in your pocket, or she’ll take it too.’ By this time the guy was dying to read my flyer and had no interest whatsoever in going to the exhibition
where they were trying to drag him. We placed one huge poster 85×120 cm with the text ‘Scientology is a fraud. See here how they trick you’ on each corner in front of the hotel, so that it was impossible to get to the exhibition without seeing them. It could refer equally well to our OCA table as to the scienos’ own exhibition. The scienos were notably furious. The posters definitely resolved all the confusions on who is who, and it became even easier for us to hand out our flyers without being mistaken for scienos. The hotel was completely surrounded by entheta and the exhibition was under siege. As a result, the scienos moved all their body routing away from the hotel, to the nearby square and elsewhere. One of the posters was tied to a pole, the other was just leaned against one. Within 15 minutes the scienos had stolen it. The police arrived. They had had a constant stream of complaints from ‘annoyed citizens’ all week about our ‘aggressive leafleting’ and our ‘harassing of passers-by’. They had also received complaints from the CoS officials about our ‘offending flyers’ and our ‘disruption of their peaceful exhibition’. It took the police very short time to figure the real situation and the real source of the complaints. They dismissed the ‘aggressive leafleting’ as bullshit, the ‘offending flyers’ as freedom of speech and the ‘disruption of a peaceful exhibition’ as a properly carried out demonstration with proper permits and all. This done, we begun to wonder about the leafleting of the scienos: did they have a permit for it? ‘Right’, said the police to the OSA, ‘can we see your permits now?’ The scienos were ordered to stop leafleting at once, leave the area in front of their own exhibition and not get close to us any more.”

 
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Random Howdy

“You should have seen me on stage. I could move, baby!”

 
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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] Fed up with Scientology’s court delays, Leah Remini puts her foot down
[TWO years ago] Alex Barnes-Ross on his win for East Grinstead records regarding Scientology
[THREE years ago] The delightful result when Scientology was infiltrated by a reporter — in Hawaii
[FOUR years ago] Academics line up to help Scientology gaslight the US Supreme Court
[FIVE years ago] Tom Cruise’s Scientology superpowers, No. 8: Recovering unspeakable acts from the past
[SIX years ago] The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 20: Gensler
[SEVEN years ago] The FBI wants recent cases of Scientology fraud? We’ve got them right here, for crissakes
[EIGHT years ago] Colombian senator cites Xenu, ‘the Hole,’ in wild televised hearing about Scientology scandal
[NINE years ago] Tonight on ‘Aftermath’: Suicide in Scientology, where sympathy and compassion are outlawed
[TEN years ago] Trump is drawing comparisons to L. Ron, but will Hillary favor Scientology as much as Bill did?
[ELEVEN years ago] A revealing look inside the warped ‘kingdom’ of Scientology leader David Miscavige
[TWELVE years ago] Scientology graduation videos from the UK? Even better!
[THIRTEEN years ago] Report From the Fringe: Underground Bunker Night at The TomKat Project

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on August 22, 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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