| The Underground Bunker

Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]

Scientology lessening the Disconnection madness? Our readers are skeptical

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Yesterday’s dispatch from one of our correspondents, suggesting that Scientology leader David Miscavige might be softening the church’s notorious ‘Disconnection’ policy, turned out to be pretty controversial with our ex-Scientologist readers, and they let […]

Family forced disconnection: A wound Scientology won’t stop pouring salt into

[Sunny Pereira and her brother]

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Sunny Pereira is back with another gut-wrenching experience for us: When Scientology not only rips your family apart, but then keeps shoving it in your face, year after year. [What […]

On Mother’s Day 2024, the moms who suffer and defy Scientology’s cruel ‘disconnection’ policy

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Is there a day more counter to Scientology’s outlook than Mother’s Day? We talked to moms who have suffered from Scientology’s anti-family ‘disconnection’ policy who are not only standing strong, but who are also […]

How Scientology makes forced disconnection even worse than the separation

[Sunny and her mother]

“She knows what she has to do.”

It was a matter-of-fact statement to my husband from my mother. I was pregnant with our second child and we wanted to let my Sea Org mother know about it. She had never met my children or my husband. We had thought he could call her […]

Scientology at San Diego Comic-Con: Toxic ‘disconnection’ on display again this year

It’s not all fun and games at the San Diego Comic-Con as far as the Underground Bunker is […]

A fight against Scientology ‘disconnection’ now a remarkable illustrated book

We first told you about Brian Sheen’s struggle to reconnect with his grown daughter Springsong in 2015. […]

AUDIO: Tommy Davis, as Scientology spokesman, secretly recorded discussing ‘disconnection’

We noticed recently that one of the most important stories we published at the Village Voice is missing a series of audio recordings that go with it. They come from a secretly-recorded tape that captures then-Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis intimidating a church member with the threat of ‘disconnection,’ Scientology’s toxic control mechanism that Davis had […]

On Mother’s Day, the moms who suffer and defy Scientology’s cruel ‘disconnection’ policy

There may be no other holiday which is more anathema to Scientology than Mother’s […]

Scientology, disconnection, and the worst Christmas ever

[Skip Young and his daughters]

One of our favorite stories of 2016 was the lengthy piece we wrote about Skip Young. At one point, he had worked as an operator for the Church of Scientology while he was a police officer, and he became a footnote in the Snow White Program of the 1970s. Years later, […]

Bernie Headley, 1952-2019: A man who fought against Scientology’s ‘disconnection’

Bernie Headley died today, aged 67. Here’s what Marc Headley posted this evening at his Facebook […]

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