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 Maria Bustillos contacted us recently, telling us that she was working on a review of Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, and she wanted to ask us a question, which turned out to be quite good.
We were familiar with Maria’s work because of a story she did at The Awl in 2011 lauding the work of Los Angeles Times reporters Joel Sappell and Robert Welkos, who wrote about Scientology in a number of stories in the 1980s, culminating in a huge series in 1990. She also referred to earlier work done by Pulitzer-prize winners Charles Stafford and Bette Orsini at the St. Petersburg Times. Continue reading ‘Going Clear’ fallout: Imagining the fate of Scientology and David Miscavige
 Another day, another treat here at the Underground Bunker. We have another previously unseen interview that was recorded for Channel 4’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard.
This time, we get a glimpse of a time period that rarely gets much treatment — Hubbard’s first marriage, to Margaret “Polly” Grubb, as witnessed by a neighbor who got to know the Hubbards pretty well. Continue reading Another ‘Secret Lives’ outtake: The neighbor who knew L. Ron Hubbard and his first wife
 We’re back with more documents that have been released recently by the FDA that illuminate Scientology’s early years. Thanks to a researcher who is a friend to the Underground Bunker and her work with the Muckrock website, we have yet more investigative records that have never before been online.
In this case, we’re looking at an early Dianeticist and Scientologist who was among the first to be targeted by the “ethics” procedures that L. Ron Hubbard put into place in 1965 as he became more concerned about splinter groups. After 1965, Hubbard and Scientology became much more openly about control and interrogation, declaring enemies “suppressive” and subjecting former members and critics to “Fair Game.” Continue reading More proof that Scientology used the ‘R2-45’ method to intimidate enemies
 Jeffrey Augustine is back with another podcast, this time his second interview with Mareka Brousseau.
Mareka, the daughter of Haydn and Lucy James, gives us more glimpses of the hardships of Sea Org life in Scientology. Her eyewitness testimony is hard-hitting, as usual. Continue reading Mareka Brousseau on the degradations of Scientology’s Sea Org life
 Tom DeVocht We’ve been telling you that Scientology’s reaction to Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear has been a burst of “Fair Game” activity that’s affecting numerous people involved with the film. This is behind-the-scenes stuff that isn’t obvious from what’s getting more attention from the press — the silly letters and videos Scientology has been posting to its Freedom magazine website. One of the people feeling the heat has been Tom DeVocht, who is featured prominently in the film. Sure, he’s getting smeared at the Freedom website, but they’re the same old slanders that have been thrown at him for years, some of it aimed at him previously on anonymous attack websites that we always assumed the church was secretly running. Continue reading ‘Going Clear’ subject Tom DeVocht gets a lesson in Scientology’s social media surveillance
 We have another treat for you today as we continue to get leaked original interviews that were filmed for the excellent 1997 Channel 4 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard.
Up to this point, we’ve provided you with extended interviews of a number of people who showed up in the Channel 4 film. But now, we have an interview that was never included at all. Continue reading Outtakes from the 1997 ‘Secret Lives’ doc — an eyewitness at the Jack Parsons house
 Judge James D. Whittemore Federal Judge James D. Whittemore ended the Luis and Rocio Garcia fraud lawsuit against the Church of Scientology today by finding that Scientology can enforce contracts signed by the Garcias which require them to take their disputes to the church’s internal arbitration. Whittemore made that decision while acknowledging that never, in the more than 60-year history of Scientology, had there ever been an arbitration, and that testimony indicated that there were no actual procedures set up for handling such a procedure. Continue reading GARCIA FRAUD CASE ENDED AS JUDGE GRANTS SCIENTOLOGY ARBITRATION MOTION
 Hey, it’s the Commodore’s 104th birthday! And what better way to celebrate the Great OT’s March 13, 1911 birth in Tilden, Nebraska than to welcome the theatrical release of Alex Gibney’s documentary about Scientology, Going Clear, which opens today in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York.
Speaking of the film’s release, let’s get this out of the way first, because we’re getting a lot of questions that suggest some people are really confused about this movie and how they get to see it. Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard and ‘Going Clear’ — a reading list to celebrate Scientology’s birthday boy!
 This week has been all about the excitement of Going Clear hitting theaters, and we expect a big burst of activity when the documentary by Alex Gibney and Larry Wright opens in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for limited runs starting tomorrow. But we also want to keep up on our other subjects here at the Underground Bunker, including our ongoing project to mine through some great new government documents that a researcher and friend to the Bunker tracked down with the help of the Muckrock website.
Continue reading DOX: Two early Dianetics supporters, including the E-meter inventor, turn against Hubbard
Our reader Vaquera admits that she felt a bit fanatical to purchase a membership to the Austin Film Society just so she could get her hands on two tickets to last night’s screening of Going Clear, but she says it was all worth it. Here’s her report, and photos that she took… Continue reading The ‘Going Clear’ screening in Austin, featuring Marty Rathbun and other familiar faces
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Maria Bustillos contacted us recently, telling us that she was working on a review of Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, and she wanted to ask us a question, which turned out to be quite good.
