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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Cheering Up Will Smith, and A Survey For You SPs!

You’ve probably heard by now about the brilliant Scientology parody “Cheer Up Will Smith.” Pulled off by (we’d guess) some Times Square stand-up comedians (the place is lousy with ’em), the parody consists of a website, numerous videos, and even some in-real-life fliers posted in Times Square itself.

The stunt appeared in the wake of Will []

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Dianetics Has No Patience for ESP or Telepathy — That’s Pseudoscience!

Welcome to our ongoing project, where we blog a 1950 first edition of Scientology’s bible, Dianetics, with the help of ex-Scientologist, lawyer, and author Vance Woodward. Go here for the first post in the series.

Vance, we’ve reached another marathon chapter in this book, “Mechanisms and Aspects of Therapy.”

We were surprised to see that this chapter []

Just What Oklahoma Tornado Victims Need: Scientology to the Rescue!

Here comes the voodoo!

One of our tipsters forwarded to us an e-mail that will be all too depressingly familiar to our longtime readers.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that Scientology is leaping on the chance to take advantage of another natural disaster to promote itself.

In this case, Texas Scientologists are being urged []

CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT ALLEGING FRAUD FILED AGAINST SCIENTOLOGY AND NARCONON

Attorney Jeff Harris (center) and his partners Stephen Lowry (left) and Darren Penn. Photo by Chris Dunn.

This morning, attorney Jeff Harris filed a blockbuster class-action lawsuit that alleges fraud and civil racketeering endemic to Scientology’s drug rehab program, Narconon.

With seven plaintiffs included and more to come, the lawsuit not only names Narconon Georgia []

Claire Headley Helps Us Get Back in the Good Graces of Scientology

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 []

L. Ron Hubbard Intends to Rid You Of a 43-Trillion-Year-Old Implant. What Was That Like?

Well, we had a very relaxing week-long vacation (what, you didn’t notice?) and now we’re hard at work on some big stories that should be rocking the Bunker in coming days.

In the meantime, we thought we’d serve up a rare treat — a 50-year-old example of what it was actually like to be audited by []

Scientology Sunday Funnies: What Did David Miscavige Tell the Troops Last Night?

On Sundays, we enjoy revealing to you the wacky Scientology mailers and fliers that have come to us during the week.

Several of our tipsters sent us copies of the same mailer, which suggested that the event advertised in them — a shindig that happened last night — was a major one in Scientology-land.

In fact, []

Here’s Some Photographic Proof that Scientology’s “Ideal Orgs” Are Killing the Church

On Saturdays, we like to talk Scientology history with author Jon Atack, but this week he’s been busy with a conference in Copenhagen.

So we thought we’d catch up with some interesting material that our great tipsters have been forwarding to us about how things are going in the Los Angeles area.

For several months now, we’ve []

Is After Earth Will Smith’s Scientology Coming Out Party?

Looks like someone could use a touch assist.

Here in the Underground Bunker, we just received some indication that things are going to heat up again next week with big Scientology news, so for today, please forgive us if we offer a little light fare for our Friday morning post.

Tonight, the movie After Earth []

Word To Your Mother: Dianetics And Its Lack of Boundaries

Welcome to our ongoing project, where we blog a 1950 first edition of Scientology’s bible, Dianetics, with the help of ex-Scientologist, lawyer, and author Vance Woodward. Go here for the first post in the series.

Vance, we’ve now reached another marathon chapter, “Mechanisms and Aspects of Therapy.” It reviews various techniques of dianetic therapy that L. []