TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Historian Chris Owen has been writing about #Scientology in places like Greece for us for years, so when we saw that the Greek church had put out a statement denouncing Hubbardism, we knew Chris […]

[Vanity Fair reporter John Connolly, right]

In the third and final part of a deep dive by historian Chris Owen into Scientology’s machinery for attacking its critics and gaining influence, we’ll look at the role of lawyers and the Office of Special Affairs in litigation and lobbying. See part one here and part two […]

[David Miscavige and, farthest to the left, Marty Rathbun, back in the day]

This is the first of a three-part series by historian Chris Owen taking a deep dive into the mechanisms and structures by which Scientology carries out harassment, surveillance, litigation and influence operations to suppress its perceived enemies and gain influence worldwide. In this […]

The South China Morning Post has published a lengthy piece by Paul French on L. Ron Hubbard’s trips to Asia as a teenager in the late 1920s. While much about this time in Hubbard’s life is already known and recapitulated in the article, it does a good job of highlighting one of the more mysterious […]

 Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine has had drastic consequences for millions of people, most obviously the ten million Ukrainians who are now refugees. The Russian people also face imminent hardship as Western sanctions take effect. Scientology’s Volunteer Ministers have already ‘mobilised’ in Ukraine’s westerly neighbour to aid (or exploit) the wave of refugees fleeing the […]