Chris Owen | The Underground Bunker

Scientology in Russia: Historian Chris Owen does the deep dive we’ve been waiting for

[Scientology’s 2011 Moscow Ideal Org grand opening, a photo no longer on its website]

For some time now we’ve been nudging historian Chris Owen to help us understand what is going on with Scientology in Russia. We’ve seen news reports about numerous police raids of orgs there, and we’ve read about a prosecution involving some real […]

On Memorial Day, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘stolen valor’: His bogus war injuries

A big part of Scientology’s allure for its members is their ardent belief in founder L. Ron Hubbard as a man who was larger than life. And part of his legend were the tall tales he told about his experiences in the Second World War. Historian Chris Owen, a regular contributor here at the Bunker, […]

Hiding in plain sight: how Scientology nearly got away with its 1970s espionage campaign

[Mary Sue Hubbard leaving court during the Snow White prosecution in 1978. AP Photo.]

[A note from Chris: Many thanks to the benefactors whose generosity has been essential in covering the cost of the research visit that enabled me to write this article (and much more besides). If readers would like to help contribute towards further […]

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 and the FDA: The conspiracy that never was

[The FDA raid of Scientology in 1963]

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays an outsized role in Scientology’s roster of villains. On January 4, 1963, five US Federal Marshals, accompanied by an FDA inspector and an officer of the Washington, DC police department, raided the downtown row house of the Washington Scientology org, […]

Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, ‘Provost Marshal’: Another apologist claim debunked

I’m a guyA guy who seems calm but plays when he playsA guy who goes completely crazy when the right time comesA guy who has bulging ideas rather than musclesAdvertisement (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); That kind of guy

South Korean K-pop star Psy’s 2012 megahit Gangnam Style satirises posers and wannabes who put on airs […]

‘Scientology is Security for South Africa’: How L. Ron Hubbard sought to prop up apartheid

[Hubbard and his Rhodesian staff]

South Africa is a country of extraordinary contrasts: Fertile savannahs and teeming cities, immense wealth and terrible poverty, multiracial idealism and ethnic violence. It’s also a place of striking contrasts in Scientology’s history. In the past few weeks, I’ve been traveling in this vast country and consulting state archives to piece […]

Behind enemy li(n)es: Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s secret mission that never was

[The USS Edsall, sunk in 1942]

For our ‘Scientology Lit’ series this week, we’re posting another excerpt from Chris Owen’s monumental updated ‘Ron the War Hero,’ which was released a couple of weeks ago. We asked, and Chris generously agreed to give us another peek inside this very important […]

Death in the Timor Sea: The darkest war secret of Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard

[Lt. L. Ron Hubbard and the ill-fated Don Isidro]

Chris Owen’s book ‘Ron the War Hero’ is now for sale, and he’s giving us a look today at one of the best things in it — absolutely stunning material, previously unpublished, about the most ignominious of L. Ron Hubbard’s blunders during a disastrous World War II […]

Spyentology: For Scientology, operating as an intelligence agency is a religious mandate

Chris Owen is back with another insightful dive into Scientology […]

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