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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Happy Birthday, Church of Scientology!

 Sixty years ago on this date in Camden, New Jersey, the first “Church of Scientology” corporation came into existence with the signing of a document by six individuals, including L. Ron Hubbard and his son Nibs (L. Ron Hubbard Jr.).

In fact, three entities were born on that day: the Church of American Science, the Church []

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At OT 3, you learn you have space cooties — how do you get rid of them? Scientology exorcism!

Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. She and her husband Marc were Sea Org workers who escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2005. She spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Go here to see the first part in this []

EXCLUSIVE: Roslyn Cohn’s one-woman show skewering Scientology — complete!

The Underground Bunker is thrilled to have the chance to premiere the video of Roslyn Cohn’s recent one-time-only, one-woman performance, “DiffiCULT to Leave.”

From 1985 to 2008, Roz was a member of the Church of Scientology, and like many others she left the church during a period that’s seen a lot of longtime members break away. []

Sunday Funnies: Scientology celebrates the holidays!

While Boing Boing recently went bananas over a single piece of Scientology mail (which itself consisted of only a single line of writing), our loyal readers here at the Underground Bunker know that week in and week out, we bring you a mother lode of wacky Scientology mailers that we call Sunday Funnies.

And this week, []

Jon Atack: What we have here — in Scientology — is a failure to communicate

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 []

TEXAS JUDGE ORDERS DEPOSITION OF SCIENTOLOGY LEADER DAVID MISCAVIGE

Ray Jeffrey

We talked to Ray Jeffrey, attorney for Monique Rathbun, who confirmed that Judge Dib Waldrip has granted Monique’s motion for a continuance in her harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology so she can have the time to depose its leader, David Miscavige.

And although Scientology attorneys asked that it be a written []

Monique Rathbun back in court today: DAVID MISCAVIGE WILL BE DEPOSED, JUDGE DECIDES

UPDATE: Judge Dib Waldrip has decided that Scientology leader David Miscavige will be deposed in Monique’s lawsuit. See our new story for the latest updates.

Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit against Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, resumes today in the Comal County courthouse in New Braunfels, Texas, and we should be getting dispatches from both Mike []

Judge Whittemore grants Luis Garcia discovery of Scientology’s murky trusts in fraud lawsuit

If you’ve been following our coverage of Luis and Rocio Garcia’s federal fraud lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, you know the suit recently hit a strange snag.

Ten months after the lawsuit was filed in January, Scientology suddenly announced that the Garcias had chosen the wrong venue for their complaint, because several of the defendants []

TEXAS SKIRMISH: Mike Bennitt is on the scene as Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit is back in court

We couldn’t leave the Bunker today for the big hearing in New Braunfels, Texas, but our man Mike Bennitt is on the scene, and we expect to get numerous dispatches from him, as well as video.

On the docket today are two big issues in Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit against Scientology leader David Miscavige. Issue one: []

The big reveal: What you actually learn on Scientology’s Operating Thetan Level Three

Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. She and her husband Marc were Sea Org workers who escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2005. She spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Go here to see the first part in this []