Bruce Hines | The Underground Bunker

Building a Scientology prison camp meant ducking for cover when planes flew by

[An aerial shot from ‘Missing in Happy Valley’]

“Break time!” These words came to me across the valley with urgency. Then I heard other voices repeating the signal. It was a code. It meant that I should stop what I was doing, drop any tools, and immediately walk, not run, to a place where I would […]

Life in Scientology: Saving the planet and lining your pockets at the same time!

Anyone who has been involved in Scientology likely knows about “FSMing.” FSM stands for Field Staff Member. In the 1960s founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote a policy letter that established this […]

Bruce Hines: Life in Scientology’s Sea Org was brutal, but it could also be absurd

This is a silly little thing about something that happened while I was in Scientology’s Sea Organization. I laugh every time I think about it. I just find it amusing. And it is a little snapshot of the insane existence inside that […]

Bruce Hines: Scientology made David Mayo out to be a villain, but I knew the real man

[David Mayo, 1940-2017]

Something like a dozen years ago I got an email from someone saying that David Mayo had posted on a message board, “I wish I could talk to Bruce Hines about dark matter.” David had started writing some things on one of the anti-Scientology sites, maybe the Ex-Scientologist Message Board or the Operation […]

The time Scientology healing was used on a broken bone at Tom Cruise’s house

The year was 1993 or 1994. It was a brief segment of my 24-year career in Scientology’s “Sea Organization.” The location of my post then was on the “Int Base” (the international headquarters of the entire Scientology network) near Hemet, California. The location of this 500-acre property was top secret in that strange world, known […]

Scientology and statistics: How L. Ron Hubbard’s fetish for bureaucracy lives on

[Still frame from a Scientology video about its Flag Building]

It has been commented many many times that statistics are a really big deal in the nutty world of Scientology. It is part of founder L. Ron Hubbard’s “management […]

Bruce Hines: Scientology has always protected abusers and always will

[Dark secrets in the South Tyrol]

[While we have a day off from deliberations at the Danny Masterson retrial, we have this treat to tide us over, the latest vivid narrative from Bruce […]

Life as a Scientology ‘Flag auditor,’ bending the minds of Neil Gaiman and others

[Bruce Hines and Neil Gaiman, in a time gone by]

What was it like to be a Flag auditor? I imagine that most people would have no interest in finding out. But I figured I’d write something so there can be some record of it, possibly for future historians (tip of the hat to Chuck Beatty). […]

TESTAMENT: When a celeb faced a nasty divorce, and Scientology kept it all under wraps

[Woman in fur coat, the Night Court version]

In February 1987, I was an auditor in the Flag Service Organization in Clearwater, Florida. This org was known as the highest and best place to partake in Scientology services within the sprawling network of that “Church.” There was no better place, supposedly, to get auditing anywhere in […]

What it was like to be an operative in Scientology’s massive spy apparatus

After reading about the death of Scientology’s legendary spymaster Jane Kember here at the Underground Bunker, former standout Scientology auditor Bruce Hines was motivated to write about what it was like to be an operative in the outfit Kember ran, the Guardian’s Office. Once again, Bruce has outdone […]

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