Scientology Lit | The Underground Bunker

Academic goes ‘Among the Scientologists’ to bring back what we already knew

[Westbrook appeared on Reza Aslan’s ill-fated CNN series]

Your proprietor spent a lot of time in academia and has a huge respect for the scholar who wants to advance knowledge in a particular area by doing the scholarly thing — investigating, listening, measuring, while trying to be as objective as […]

Xenu’s first public outing: Robert Kaufman’s stunning 1972 testament, ‘Inside Scientology’

Robert Kaufman, a talented Broadway piano player, ditched his life as a musician to chase ‘Clear’ and beyond in Scientology, leaving Manhattan for what was then the newly opened ‘Advanced Org’ in Edinburgh, Scotland. He came home a broken man, checked himself into a mental hospital, and then began writing about his experience in Scientology […]

Cyril Vosper: The mind-bending illogic of Scientology’s upper levels

[Cyril Vosper]

This week in our ‘Scientology Lit’ series we’re looking back at a real classic and one of the most fun reads in the genre, 1971’s The Mind Benders by Cyril Vosper (1934-2004). It was the first book by a former Scientologist to expose the organization, beating Robert Kaufman’s Inside Scientology, which came out the […]

Bent Corydon on Scientology’s Sunday night massacre: ‘We all clapped at the right places’

[Homer Schomer, Mike Rinder, and Bent Corydon at a recent get-together in Los Angeles]

We have another classic for you this week in our ‘Scientology Lit’ series — a chapter from Bent Corydon’s landmark 1987 book, L. Ron Hubbard, Messiah or Madman? Bent was a mission holder in Riverside, California who lost his mission but fought […]

Never public: L. Ron Hubbard Jr.’s devastating 1972 takedown of his father and Scientology

[Nibs and his Dad]

We were inspired last week when author Alec Nevala-Lee chose the date of his book release to make public for the first time a really amazing document from Scientology’s early history. And since we had a book of our own come out this week, we thought we’d do the […]

Russell Miller’s 1987 biography of Scientology’s founder is still astonishingly good

Our Saturday ‘Scientology Lit’ series has been coming to this — still the best biography of Scientology’s founder and perhaps the best book about Scientology of them all, Russell Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. Difficult to find in this country for a long time, the book is back in print […]

Scientology’s astounding pre-history in a new book you really need to read

In June, we were very fortunate to have author Alec Nevala-Lee with us in Chicago for our annual small gathering, HowdyCon. He was there so we could get to know him ahead of the publication of his exciting new book, Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden […]

A queer story about Scientology, gender, and L. Ron Hubbard’s sweet pile of Swiss cash

[The fabulous Kate Bornstein]

One of our favorite stories at the Village Voice was the chance we got to write about Kate Bornstein’s unique journey in Scientology and later as a well-known New York transgender performance artist, captured in the 2012 memoir, A Queer and Pleasant Danger. Kate has had an amazing year with a run […]

In the Sea Org, under suspicion: ‘I accepted that I was, in Scientology terms, an ethics particle’

[Our man in Hungary, Péter Bonyai]

This week in our Scientology book series, we have a bonus for you — not one, but two excerpts from Péter Bonyai’s book about his life in the Sea Org, Money, Power, Servitude: Adventures in the Wonderland of Scientology. In the first, he gives us a glimpse about what it’s […]

Jesse Prince talks about the grieving after L. Ron Hubbard’s death — and the partying

[Jesse Prince at the 2015 Toronto conference]

You’ve seen the excerpt and read our review of Jesse Prince’s book, The Expert Witness. Now it’s Jeffrey Augustine’s turn to get in on the fun, with his podcast interview with Jesse. […]

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