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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Chiropractor in Viral Video Is Posing In Front of His Scientology Certificates

One of our tipsters knew we’d get a kick out of a viral video that is making the rounds of Mashable and other websites today. It’s an unusual video advertisement for a Los Angeles chiropractor named Ryan Lee. Here’s how Mashable describes it, under the headline “Creepy Local Chiropractor Ad Will Make You []

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True Confessions of Ron Miscavige Sr., Father to Scientology’s Ultimate Leader

Last week, we reported the surprising news that Ron Miscavige Sr., father to Scientology leader David Miscavige, had begun to emerge into the public eye in a rather unusual way.

We learned last summer that Ron had escaped from Scientology’s secretive International Base east of Los Angeles after reportedly spending many years of his life there. []

ABC Features 4-Minute Dianetics Infomercial To Illustrate EEOC Lawsuit Involving Scientology (And Now It’s Down!)

Will you be inspired?

[After our commenters showed up at the ABC site in force, the network has now taken down the video!]

Last Thursday, we told you about an interesting new federal lawsuit against a Miami chiropractor who allegedly forced his employees to take Scientology courses. Since then, other news organizations have pointed out []

How to Confront and Shatter Suppression, Scientology Style!

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 []

Will Scientology’s Motion Demolish the Garcias’ Federal Fraud Lawsuit?

On Friday, Scientology filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church. We very rapidly posted the motion and several supporting declarations with only a brief description of their contents.

We’ve had some time now to digest the church’s motion, and we thought we’d take []

Scientology Sunday Funnies: Portland Is Now Cleared, On to the Rest of Earth! UPDATE: PHOTOSHOPPING?

[UPDATE: See our Editor’s Note, below.]

Yesterday’s events in Portland turned out to be a riot here at the blog as we followed the adventures of Mark “Wise Beard Man” Bunker.

Bunker was there to witness David Miscavige (right, on stage) open up the newest “Ideal Org,” the Scientology leader’s program of acquiring and renovating expensive downtown []

PORTLAND LIVE: Mark Bunker at Scientology’s “Ideal Org” Event

Mark Bunker

We’re very disappointed to learn that Mark Bunker was prevented from filming today’s Ideal Org event from what appeared to be the perfect perch.

Yesterday, Bunker sent us a photo from the window he had arranged to film the event. He had secured permission from the owner of the building, which houses the []

Jon Atack Helps Us Remember Scientology’s “Religious Freedom Crusade”

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He now has a new edition of the book out, and on Saturdays he’s helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and []

SCIENTOLOGY FILES TO REMOVE GARCIA ATTORNEYS FROM FRAUD LAWSUIT

Brian Culkin

The Church of Scientology has filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church.

Scientology has a long history of this kind of legal maneuver, and it’s not surprising that they would make a motion like this in a case which has []

Countdown to Portland: Scientology Planning a Rager on Saturday

Portland Mercury photo by Dirk Vanderhart

Scientology leader David Miscavige began opening “Ideal Orgs” about a decade ago. In each case, local church members are pressured to raise huge amounts of money to replace perfectly adequate church facilities with much larger, more elaborate palaces that tend to stand empty. It’s a controversial plan that []