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 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.
This week, Jon answers a question we get maybe more than any other. Scientology has so many outlandish concepts and makes so many unfulfillable promises, how is it that smart people get involved in it and then spend years chasing its impossible goals? Jon sent us this response, and we think it’s the best one we’ve seen yet on the subject. Continue reading Jon Atack Answers The Question: How Do Smart People Fall for Scientology?
We’re going through some changes here at the Underground Bunker. Some of you may have heard our news yesterday that we’re starting a new job on Tuesday. We know that’s left some of you with questions, and we don’t blame you for wondering what’s going to happen around here.
And that’s why today, as we soldier on here at the Bunker for the foreseeable future, we’re going to finally answer one of the great mysteries of this website. It’s something that we’ve heard often from the days even before this website breathed life and we were still toiling at the Village Voice. It was a mystery that bedeviled our readers and, we can say now, bedeviled those assigned to watch this blog over at the Church of Scientology. Who, we’ve been asked more times than we can count, WHO is OTVIIIisGrrr8!? Advertisement
Continue reading Scientology Surprise: An Interview With OTVIIIisGrrr8!
 What are your crimes? Counterfeit Dreams and Leaving Scientology , and he’s helping us understand the upside-down world of Scientology “ethics.”Last week you eased us into the dynamics as we continued to read into Introduction to Scientology Ethics. What’s next for us, Jefferson? JEFFERSON: This week we’re looking at Chapter 2, innocently titled “Honesty,” which introduces some of the main concepts of Scientology Ethics: overts, withholds and motivators. THE BUNKER: Let’s define those terms for the newcomers. Continue reading Honesty in Scientology: Jefferson Hawkins Helps Us With Another Ethical Quandary Advertisement
Charlie Frago of the Tampa Bay Times is keeping the Church of Scientology’s plans in Clearwater, Florida under a microscope as church leader David Miscavige prepares for a series of large events. Yesterday, Frago was like a cat on a hot tin-colored tent with at least three versions of a news story showing up at the Tampa Bay Times website. He reported that the giant “KSW” mural [“Keep Scientology Working”] on Scientology’s massive event pavilion had fallen afoul of Clearwater’s fire marshal, but then said Scientology had managed to mollify the fire department that its draping met fire codes. But then he said the city’s strict signage codes had been violated, and the church was told it would be fined up to $250 a day until it took down the mural. Continue reading Clearwater Tent Showdown: Scientology Reportedly Getting Ready for Events Next Week
 Going Solo: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.” Claire, you’ve taken us on a great journey of adventure up Scientology’s “Bridge to Total Freedom.” We’ve gone Clear, and we did our Preps before we start the Operating Thetan levels. But you tell us there’s even more we have to do before we can do those levels. We need to do some training as auditors — and learn to audit ourselves in Solo Auditing? CLAIRE: We have to do this first because OT 1, 2, and 3 are all solo audited levels. So that means you will be delivering those levels to yourself. For which you must be trained as a solo auditor. Continue reading Claire Headley Gets Us Ready to Go Solo: More Prep for Scientology OT!
 We don’t know yet how Luis and Rocio Garcia will respond to Scientology’s attempt to have their fraud lawsuit against the church thrown out of court based on jurisdictional issues. But while we wait for their attorneys Ted Babbitt and Ron Weil to try and save the lawsuit, we asked our own attorney, Scott Pilutik, to look more deeply into the issues the Garcias face.
As Scott explained to us last week, Scientology claims in a new motion to dismiss that the Garcias chose an improper venue — federal court in Tampa, Florida — to bring their lawsuit which alleges that they were duped fraudulently into giving donations to the church totaling about $400,000. Citing a very basic legal concept of “diversity jurisdiction,” the church pointed out that three of its entities being sued by the Garcias are actually based in California, where the Garcias are — and that makes it a mistake to sue them in Florida. Continue reading Scientology’s Trust Issues: A Possible Garcia Legal Strategy?
 A year ago, the Church of Scientology held a grand opening for its new “National Affairs Office” in Washington DC. And hey, why not? If only a few more world leaders could be exposed to L. Ron Hubbard’s books and maybe get some past-life auditing, Scientology could take over the world that much faster!
Now that a year’s gone by, it was time for the folks at the National Affairs Office to cut loose with some wild celebrations. They then put together a newsletter about all the fun they were having, and it was forwarded to us by one of our great tipsters, just in time for this week’s installment of Scientology Sunday Funnies. Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology Is In Your Capital, Working Your Jenna Elfman
 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 previously made some references to L. Ron Hubbard and drug use. But this week you wanted to take a closer look at what the man had to say about mind-altering substances and relate it to his development of Scientology. We figure we’re in for another wild ride, so take it away. JON: Scientology promotes itself as utterly anti-drug, yet this was by no means the attitude of the Founder, who was much more in line with current, progressive “harm reduction” ideas. In 2010, the prestigious medical journal The Lancet published the largest survey of the social and individual harms of drugs to date, which concluded that the most dangerous drug in our society is alcohol. No one at Narconon or Say No to Drugs jumped up to point out that this reflected their own ideologue’s policy, but here it is, as stated in his 1950 work, Dianetics: the Modern Science of Mental Health: Continue reading Jon Atack Considers L. Ron Hubbard’s Tangled Relationship With Mind-Altering Substances
 Could Luis Garcia’s lawsuit be in trouble? Yesterday, the Church of Scientology was required by Judge James Whittemore to come up with a 5-page description of its internal arbitration system as the latest step in the federal fraud lawsuit brought against the church by Luis and Rocio Garcia. But on Monday, the church filed a surprising new motion in the case, asking the lawsuit to be dismissed because a Florida federal courtroom is not the proper venue for it. Almost eleven months after the lawsuit was first filed in Tampa, Scientology is saying that it just recently got around to noticing that three of the individual church entities which are being sued are based in California, where the Garcias live, and therefore those three entities should be dismissed from the case — they should never have been sued in a Florida federal court. Continue reading Scientology Moves to Dismiss Garcia Fraud Lawsuit On a Question of Jurisdiction
 Jefferson Hawkins was once the top marketing executive for the Church of Scientology and helped it reach its greatest extent with the famous “volcano” TV ads in the 1980s. He’s told his tale of getting into and out of the church with his excellent books Counterfeit Dreams and Leaving Scientology, and he’s helping us understand the upside-down world of Scientology “ethics.”
Last week you really started this series off with a bang, Jefferson. We can’t wait to see what you have for us in this second installment as we read Introduction to Scientology Ethics. JEFFERSON: This week, I thought we’d take up the next three sections of the book, up to the end of Chapter One. These all kind of hang together and serve to introduce a major lynchpin of Hubbard’s ethics system, “the greatest good for the greatest number of dynamics.” Continue reading Jefferson Hawkins on Scientology Ethics: Let’s Get Utilitarian!
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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.
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