Previously, Phil Jones revealed the location of his newest “Call Me” anti-disconnection billboard in Los Angeles that will call attention to the Church of Scientology’s practice of splitting up families.
Phil and his wife Willie can’t see their own two grown children, Mike and Emily Jones, because they are Sea Org workers and their parents were “declared suppressive persons,” which is Scientology’s way of saying that they’ve been named enemies of the church and must be avoided by other Scientologists, even their own kids, who have “disconnected” from them. Last year, Phil and Willie raised money to put up billboards asking Scientologists to defy disconnection and call their loved ones — one in Los Angeles, the other in Largo, Florida near Scientology compounds.
Phil and Willie once again have crowdfunded enough money that they’re going to post their billboard just blocks from two key Scientology facilities in Los Angeles. And now we have a date — Phil says the contract he’s signed is for February 13, but it usually takes a day or two for the sign to go up.
So think of it as a sweet Valentine to Scientology leader David Miscavige. Here’s what Phil told us about it…
We’ve been in LA for a few days and paid a visit to the new billboard site. It’s going to be great. Our contract starts on Feb. 13 but it sometimes takes a day or so for the installation to get done. Once we’ve got a firm date we’ll arrange to get down there with some people for an official launch.
While we were in LA we did an on-camera interview that should come out in the next few weeks. Once I get an air date I’ll get out the details on it.
You can literally see the Scientology Media Productions (SMP) complex from the billboard, and we’re just a stone’s throw from the Scientology Big Blue complex. We did a little driving around there and Celebrity Center — with magnetic Call Me signs on the car, of course.
I hope this billboard plays into the interest and momentum in Scientology watching that is going on right now. The more we can expose their abuses then maybe the closer it will bring them to an end.
Here’s a short clip filmed by Phil that shows just how close the billboard is from the SMP, Scientology’s brand new renovation of the old KCET studios on Sunset Blvd.
Wow, that’s close. If you can get there, start making your plans to be there for the dedication. As soon as Phil has a more exact date and time, we’ll let you know.
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A new form of Scientology gaslighting?
We wanted to note a troubling new development happening to a family we know very well. File it under new and disturbing Office of Special Affairs tactics.
You may remember our numerous stories about the Lugli family. Claudio and Renata Lugli live in Brescia, Italy. They’re a lovely couple, longtime Scientologists who for years were personal tailors and style mavens for Scientology leader David Miscavige and his wife Shelly. When we visited Claudio and Renata a few years ago, they showed us photographs they had taken of Shelly trying on their clothes, taken around the year 1990. We brought those photos back with us, and you’ve seen them all over the place since.
It was also Claudio who we asked about fitting David Miscavige for clothes — how tall is he, exactly? Claudio told us, “1,55 max,” which translates to 5-feet 1-inch.
You’ve probably also heard of Claudio and Renata’s son, Tiziano Lugli, who lives in Los Angeles and numerous times has been mistaken for Tom Cruise when he zips around Hollywood on his Ducati motorcycle. Tiziano was responsible for some very entertaining videos about how Scientologists talk to each other, and how they feel about leaving the church.
Tiziano has a brother, Flavio, who joined the Sea Org in 1997, and who disconnected from the rest of the family when, in 2009 and 2010, the Luglis, like so many other Scientology families, began having doubts about David Miscavige and the direction the church was taking. Renata wrote at length in 2010 about how devastated she was that Flavio had turned them in for looking up “entheta” on the Internet (negative publicity about the church) and they’ve heard nothing from him since then.
But now, they tell us, something new has popped up: Flavio has started a blog.
It features a few posts that have been put up over ten days, and right from the start, it was making excuses — Flavio writes that he’s really too busy, as a Sea Org auditor, to be writing a blog, but that he was getting help from a friend putting it together. Most of the posts are a bit frivolous, but one is clearly aimed at his parents. Here’s a selection from it…
What I do is offer religious services to the parishioners that come here from all over the world. Some of them come here and want to be handled only by me because I became very expert in my duties and I know how to spiritually assist each one of them….People rediscover their spiritual nature, they become saner and happier. They free themselves from evil. I have seen people cry from happiness thanks to the help I gave them and the practice of Scientology. Here, in this organization called Flag, the biggest community of Scientology in the world, there are hundreds of people that are dedicated to this endeavor and it’s constantly growing. Some of them are my dearest friends with whom I shared lots of years of this experience. This is my life. I consider myself a fortunate person. I am very busy; yes, I am always busy from morning to night. Yes, I have dedicated my life to Scientology in an unconditional way. But I am doing what I always have dreamed doing, in the place that is at the maximum level doing this, with great people and extraordinary results. I live in decent quarters, I have medical assistance when I need it, I have enough money, food in abundance. And most of all a lot of friends…
As a family, we have not always been a model one. There have been hard times when — well, there is no reason now for me to rub my parents’ sins in their faces. Even if they are serious ones. They perfectly know what they did against other people and they know what needs to be done to make up the damage. The only thing I do not understand is why they decided to abandon me!
…At the end, my father and my mother with their behavior practically destroyed our family. But despite what they have done, I have forgiven them. I have no resentment. There is no reason why I should hate them. I just would like that they would return to be what they were a few years ago. My parents, my mom Renata and my dad Claudio.
L. Ron Hubbard wrote in 1960: “The day when we will trust each other there will be peace on earth.” I constantly work to reach this goal. I like to think that sooner or later also my parents will go back to believe this is not only a dream.
Flavio Lugli
“That’s not my brother,” Tiziano Lugli told us when we called him to ask about the blog. “I know my brother. This isn’t him writing this. These aren’t his words.”
Tiziano says it’s very clear to him that the blog is being written and coded by a well-known local member of Scientology’s Office of Special Affairs who has posted other attacks on the Lugli family. We sent a message through the blog’s contact page, asking to speak with Flavio or whoever is running the site. We’ll let you know if they get back to us.
“He looks like shit, my God,” Tiziano said about his brother, who is hitting 40 and doesn’t look much like the lothario who Kirstie Alley at one point was infatuated with.
“This is definitely OSA doing something on my parents. They’re trying to hit my mom’s vulnerability here,” Tiziano says.
Claudio says that he and Renata are busy translating Leah Remini and Ron Miscavige interviews for Italian audiences. He says Flavio’s website is only the latest online salvo aimed at them, and he shared with us some links to sites in Italian that make various accusations about the Luglis. They suspect that it’s all coming from one OSA operative in Brescia.
“Now this new one is very strange,” he says. “A son who has disconnected from us is writing a blog? A Sea Org member? Someone who can’t even have a cell phone?”
We’ll keep an eye on it to see if Flavio starts dishing anything interesting from Flag Land Base. (Though we doubt it.)
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Chris Shelton on ‘Scientology’
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Drive-by shooting at Int Base results in four arrests
We just heard about this, and we have no doubt that the Church of Scientology will soon be making a lot of noise about it. On Monday afternoon, someone discharged a firearm from a car on Gilman Springs Rd where it bisects Scientology’s “Int Base.” Also known as Gold Base, the 500-acre international management compound has been made famous by reporting which revealed that Scientology leader David Miscavige had kept up to about 100 top church executives in a locked office known as “The Hole” from 2004 to 2009.
Four people were later arrested after the incident, and one, a juvenile, was charged with possessing a stolen firearm, which suggests he might have been the person who fired a weapon out of the car. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
We’re hoping this is just a case of some stupid and irresponsible jerks who randomly fired a weapon for the thrill of it, and that they were not targeting the Scientologists at the base.
We want to make this perfectly clear: Although we are critical of the Scientology movement here at the Underground Bunker, we condemn and disavow anyone who would target Scientologists for harassment or harm, and we won’t tolerate statements of violence against David Miscavige or any other Scientologists here at our website. Our aim is to help Scientologists get out of the trap they’re in; if you think the answer is to damage their property or physically threaten them, we want nothing to do with you and we ask you to stop reading this website.
Here’s the press release put out by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office…
On January 23, 2017, at 2:34 PM, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department received a report of a black compact sedan, traveling in the 19600 block of Gilman Springs Road, in the unincorporated area of Hemet, occupied by four subjects, who discharged a firearm from the moving vehicle. A license plate number was provided and the San Jacinto Police Department located the vehicle traveling southbound on San Jacinto Avenue, south of 7th Street. A vehicle stop was performed near San Jacinto Avenue and Esplanade Avenue. A firearm was located inside the vehicle that was possibly used in the above incident.
Alondra Gutierrez, Phillip Rivera, Sam Skipper, and one Hispanic 17-year-old male juvenile were later arrested for willfully and maliciously discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle. The juvenile was also charged with Possession of a Stolen Firearm. The three above adults were booked into the Southwest Detention Center for the above charges. The juvenile was booked into juvenile hall. No injuries resulted from this incident.
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HowdyCon 2017: Denver, June 23-25. Go here to start making your plans.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 26, 2017 at 07:00
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Our book, 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 about the book, and our 2015 book tour, can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2016 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2016), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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
Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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 | Scientology’s Private Dancer | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | Scientology boasts about assistance from Google | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Our Guide to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear,’ and our pages about its principal figures…
Jason Beghe | Tom DeVocht | Sara Goldberg | Paul Haggis | Mark “Marty” Rathbun | Mike Rinder | Spanky Taylor | Hana Whitfield
