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]
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Scientology’s secret weapon to get its clutches on your children

 You’ve seen us mention Charlie Wakley numerous times.

The product of a Scientology family, Charlie has emerged as a notable fixture at Scientology’s London Ideal Org. He shows up frequently in the org’s promotional materials and videos. It’s his job to give the impression that Scientology is exploding in popularity in London. It isn’t, but []

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Scientology is the coolest religion on earth, video proves

 Copenhagen has done it again.

Just when if feels like it couldn’t get any more miserable in this terrible modern world we live in, and the news is so grim we try not to catch sight of the national news, along come our Danish friends to remind us that things could always be worse: we could []

Scientologist-led anti-vaxx ‘Conscience Coalition’ is off to a humble start

[Coalition member Veronica Rodriguez‎ (in yellow) and friends meet with Assembly member Ed Chau]

The Conscience Coalition is continuing to organize against SB 276, a bill that would require California health officials to monitor doctors and schools that have more than usual rates of medical exemptions from required childhood vaccines. Members are being asked to contact []

Out of sight, out of MIND: How Scientology tried & failed to destroy psychiatry in the UK

[Robert Lindsay, Lord Balniel]

Fifty years ago this summer, Scientology mounted a lengthy and concentrated campaign to take over Britain’s National Association of Mental Health (NAMH). Driven by L. Ron Hubbard’s paranoid belief that he and Scientology were being targeted by a supposed global psychiatric conspiracy, Scientologists attempted to infiltrate the NAMH ahead of its annual []

Scientology finds a friendly physician to help out in its attack on an effective drug

 Scientology front group CCHR recently published an article opposing a new drug to treat tardive dyskinesia (TD). They’re a little late to the party, as Ingrezza was approved by the FDA in 2017 to treat adults for the side effects of some antipsychotic medications. Patients on these medicines may develop TD, involuntary jerking motions of []

Scientologists in Texas neighborhood battle turn out to include Lori Hodgson’s daughter

[Jonathan and Jessica Davitt and their Austin home]

One of the consequences of Scientology’s toxic “disconnection” policy is that the people who are affected can go years between any news at all about the loved ones who have cut them out of their []

‘Strange Angel’ goes there, teases Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard at season end

[Daniel Abeles as the Great Thetan]

As much as we enjoyed George Pendle’s book about Jack Parsons, Strange Angel, we don’t have CBS All Access and so we haven’t been keeping up on the television adaptation. []

Miscavige changes course: All remaining Scientology orgs to go ‘Ideal’ at the same time

[It’s convention season for Scientology!]

“Doing it all simultaneously.” This cryptic slogan showed up at an “Ideal Org Convention” for Canada last week. But it’s becoming clear that this is a message that is being sent to all Scientologists around the world. So what does it []

Driving people away (and begging them back) was built into Scientology from the start

 As the Church of Scientology continues to hemorrhage membership, its losses in income and labor are increasingly hard to replace with new members. As the Bunker has been documenting, the church is spending a lot of its resources not so much on bringing in new people but instead desperately trying to convince former members to []

Scientology uses actor Jason Dohring as bait in what ends up as a false imprisonment case

 Actor Jason Dohring may still be recovering from his Veronica Mars character Logan Echolls being blown up at the end of the show’s recently-released fourth season, but perhaps now the Scientology actor will gain some notoriety for another []