Scientology, six degrees of separation, and Miss Lovely — author Paulette Cooper

[Paulette Cooper aboard the Leonardo da Vinci in 1970.]

We are continuing to make use of material we learned as we researched the amazing life of author Paulette Cooper, but which, for one reason or another, we were not able to use in our book about her, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, which was published last month. In this case, we have a parable of time and space.

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Listen to Jim Jones root for Scientology against Paulette Cooper in a 1978 Jonestown address

Now that we’re into a new month and our book, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely, is taking us on tours around the country (and soon across the pond), we’re going to begin posting material here that supplements our story about Paulette Cooper.

Miss Lovely is a book that looks at Paulette’s entire life, from her survival of the Holocaust as a small child to her more recent years as an author in Florida. But she’s most well known, of course, for her 1971 book, The Scandal of Scientology, which resulted in the most legendary campaign of retaliation and ruination in the history of Scientology’s spy wing, the Guardian’s Office. That campaign even included a plot to frame Paulette for a felony which resulted in her being indicted in 1973 and facing 15 years in federal prison.

Continue reading Listen to Jim Jones root for Scientology against Paulette Cooper in a 1978 Jonestown address

What happened when an actual scientist of the mind checked out L. Ron Hubbard in 1950

Marvin Minsky is a major figure in artificial intelligence — he founded MIT’s AI laboratory, and in 1951 he built the first neural network simulator. Which means that he was doing actual science of the mind when a certain pulp fiction writer was pretending that he’d made a discovery about the human mind that was “a milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire.”

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Jon Atack: Auditing and recovered memory — why do Scientologists accept it as fact?

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet. He was kind enough to send us a new post.

Jon surprised us with yet another piece, and once again we are so glad he did. One of the things about Scientology that’s rarely discussed (because Scientologists are under strict instructions not to talk about it) are their “memories” of past life events.

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20 questions about Scientology — with answers that get to the center of a dying movement

Contributor Jeffrey Augustine has put together another list for us, and this one gets to the heart of the matter — what, legally, is the Church of Scientology, and how is it still a thing?

We think you’ll enjoy this exegesis as Jeff takes us step by step through this examination of how the church exists, on paper at least, as it goes through one of its most difficult periods.

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Former Scientologist found guilty of defrauding other exes — ALSO: 1998 film re-release

On Tuesday, a federal jury convicted Frank Pate, 47, of two counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud after a five-day trial in Sherman, Texas. He is in custody and will be sentenced at a future date.

Previously, we told you about Pate, a former Scientologist who, according to some of his former clients, used their connections as former church members to convince them to invest with him.

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John Coale, Greta Van Susteren, and the miracle of Scientology drug technology: A meditation

We’ve posted here a remarkable photograph of a man named John Coale, who was one of the few human beings in the stands at a notorious baseball game held recently in Baltimore, Maryland.

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Scientology denied: Karen de la Carriere stops a takedown attempt on videos at her channel

Karen de la Carriere has been keeping us updated on a situation she’s been facing with the Church of Scientology, and now that she’s resolved it, she’s ready to go public.

Some time ago, she received notices from Scientology attorney Gary Soter that she was in some kind of violation of some sort because of videos she had posted at her YouTube. She says that she receives threat letters from Soter about once a year, and so she passed it on to her attorney without even reading it this time.

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On Memorial Day, some new revelations from L. Ron Hubbard’s military record

Recently, we heard from Chris Owen, the preeminent historian of L. Ron Hubbard’s war record. We had contacted Chris after a news story appeared that had a hard time making heads or tails of Hubbard’s convoluted war record, and ended up making some conclusions that were a bit off.

Chris helped us set the record straight on that, and we’re grateful to him for it. He acknowledged that Hubbard’s war record is complex, but it really isn’t “mysterious,” as the press account had it, and it is possible to draw some solid conclusions about Hubbard’s war service based on a 1979 review that was compiled.

Continue reading On Memorial Day, some new revelations from L. Ron Hubbard’s military record

Paulette Cooper has a surprise for Scientology and the residents of a certain Florida town

Your proprietor spent Saturday recovering from the twisted Friday night put on by L. Ron Hubbard’s great-grandson, Jamie DeWolf, which included a three-hour circus at Chez Poulet in San Francisco.

Continue reading Paulette Cooper has a surprise for Scientology and the residents of a certain Florida town

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