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 We told you it was coming, and yesterday, Scientology’s “Advanced Org” in Copenhagen went “ideal.” (Photo of DM courtesy of Black Rob at WWP.) We’re not really sure what that entailed — maybe a new coat of paint and some fancy TV monitors, perhaps? But we imagine it was quite a party as the Ideal Org program now also is being extended to the small number of places where advanced courses are delivered.
And now we have an e-mail which was leaked to us that suggests another advanced org — in Los Angeles — is going “ideal” in just a week! Boy, someone’s sure in a hurry. We had heard that the Advanced Org facilities in LA — the American Saint Hill Organization (ASHO) and the Advanced Organization of Los Angeles (AOLA) — had been going through renovations. And now, apparently, it’s time for a grand re-opening party! Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology is having a grand re-opening at Big Blue this Saturday!
Last week, a flattering interview with John Travolta showed up in the Telegraph in advance of the actor’s appearance this weekend in London. Since then, numerous media outlets have been making much of one statement Travolta made in the piece about how he coped after the 2009 death of his son Jett… “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t had the support of Scientology. I don’t think I could have got through it. They were with me every day after Jett died. They even travelled with me when I needed to get away. And for a solid two years it was like that. It was only in the second year that I started to take a break of a day or two just to see how I was doing on my own.” If Travolta intended for that to make Scientology look beneficial, it’s had the opposite effect — he seemed to indicate that church handlers were watching him so closely for more than a year, at some point he needed to get away. Continue reading Did John Travolta reveal too much about Scientology?
 On Wednesday, we told you about Quinn Bennett, a 10-year-old girl the Church of Scientology is touting as its “youngest self-made humanitarian,” which is Scientology-speak indicating that young Quinn has personally donated at least $100,000 for the church’s expansion efforts.
(For those of you who keep bringing up an anonymous commenter over at Mike Rinder’s blog who claims that Quinn didn’t donate her own money, we’ll point out that our issue is with the church promoting this young girl as a ‘humanitarian’ in order to set an example for other church members.) Continue reading Scientology’s $100,000 girl records a video promoting a fundraising event in California
 Our video source has a fun item for us this week. It’s another “quote video” made to market another L. Ron Hubbard lecture — in this case, Scientology 8-8008 and the Philadelphia Doctorate Course.
The PDC came early in Scientology’s history — December 1952 — but like everything else Hubbard did, this series of lectures was meant to be taken as gospel (which explains why it’s still on sale and at premium prices). But we like this video in particular because it features a passage by Hubbard which may be among the most nonsensical word salads he ever uttered on tape. Give it a look, and then take a look at our transcription of the second half of it… Continue reading Scientology video: Some of the best L. Ron Hubbard word salad ever
 Yesterday, former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder posted a stunning new flier at his blog.
The flier was part of a series describing the fundraising for a project to replace the Mountain View, California church with a new facility that will be known as the “Silicon Valley Ideal Org.” More than 10 years after it started, Scientology leader David Miscavige’s “Ideal Org” push has put church members under intense pressure to donate huge sums so expensive buildings can be purchased and renovated, in many cases so they can replace normal “orgs” which may not really be deficient or need replacing. Continue reading This is Scientology today: Oregon 10-year-old celebrated for donating $100,000
 Claire Headley and Bruce Hines are taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. Claire spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Bruce was in Scientology for 31 years and spent about half that time as a senior case supervisor. Go here to see the first part in this series.
This week, Bruce is helping us as we soldier on into the strange environs of New Operating Thetan Level Five. We’re now moving into a new realm — New Era Dianetics for OTs, which is usually shortened to NOTs. We’ll have Bruce explain that in a bit. But first, let’s take a look what we ran into as we leafed through the materials for New OT 5. Continue reading It’s time to wake up our space cooties on Scientology’s New Operating Thetan Level Five!
 Hey, we’ve been traveling for several days and just got back to the Bunker. While we try to catch up, we thought we’d point out something we saw in an excellent article about Scientology which Premiere magazine published way back in 1993.
The point of the piece was how Scientology maintained a grip on Hollywood, and about a third of the way into it, writer John H. Richardson paused to survey the landscape of Scientology’s entertainment dominance… Continue reading MEDIA ADVISORY: Stop saying that Scientology is infested with big movie stars already
 Last week, we had a breaking story on Sunday and our weekly Funnies got shorted. So this week we’re making up for it with a cornucopia of goodness.
Our loyal tipsters have forwarded us many examples of Scientology’s wacky fundraising fliers. But first, we have an e-mail that went out this week about the church’s latest TV ad, “Spiritual Technology,” which ran during the Super Bowl. (Once again, Scientology saved money by running the ad only in certain cities rather than nationally.) The church will continue running it during the Sochi Winter Olympics, and during the Academy Awards…. Continue reading Scientology’s continuing plans for its Super Bowl ad, and more Sunday Funnies
 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 on Saturdays he’s helping 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.
Jon, you’ve been exploring numerous ways in which Scientology keeps its members cut off from the world around them. What do you have for us this week? Continue reading Jon Atack on Scientology’s methods of ‘thought stopping’
 Robert MacLean A bombshell this morning from former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder: He claims that a man known nationally as a TSA whistleblower has told others that he was hired to be a security guard to keep Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife Shelly from escaping a remote mountain compound near Lake Arrowhead, California. The vanishing of Shelly Miscavige in 2005 (with a brief reappearance in 2007) has been one of Scientology’s most disturbing mysteries in recent years, and something we’ve been paying considerable attention to. Our sources tell us that Shelly has been living at Scientology’s CST headquarters compound near Lake Arrowhead, and now Rinder, at his blog, is claiming that there’s evidence she was not only there, but that armed security was hired to make sure she didn’t leave. Continue reading REPORT: Man was hired to keep Shelly Miscavige from escaping Scientology base near L.A.
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We told you it was coming, and yesterday, Scientology’s “Advanced Org” in Copenhagen went “ideal.” (Photo of DM courtesy of Black Rob at WWP.) We’re not really sure what that entailed — maybe a new coat of paint and some fancy TV monitors, perhaps? But we imagine it was quite a party as the Ideal Org program now also is being extended to the small number of places where advanced courses are delivered.
