Chris Shelton &#8211; The Underground Bunker

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links as Danny faces a potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison. NOW WITH TRIAL INDEX.

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

[1] Marc Headley [2] Claire Headley [3] Jeffrey Augustine [4] Bruce Hines [5] Sunny Pereira [6] Pete Griffiths [7] Geoff Levin [8] Patty Moher [9] Marc Headley [10] Jefferson Hawkins [11] Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan [12] Paulette Cooper [13] Jesse Prince [14] Mark Bunker [15] Jon Atack [16] Mirriam Francis [17] Bruce Hines on MSH

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— The first Danny Masterson trial and beyond

[18] Trial special with Chris Shelton [19] Trial week one [20] Marc Headley on the spy in the hallway [21] Trial week two [22] Trial week three [23] Trial week four [24] Leah Remini on LAPD Corruption [25] Mike Rinder 2022 Thanksgiving Special [26] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part One [27] Jane Doe 4 (Tricia Vessey), Part Two [28] Claire Headley on the trial [29] Tory Christman [30] Bruce Hines on spying [31] Karen de la Carriere [32] Ron Miscavige on Shelly Miscavige [33] Karen de la Carriere on the L’s [34] Mark Bunker on Miscavige hiding [35] Mark Plummer [36] Mark Ebner [37] Karen Pressley [38] Steve Cannane [39] Fredrick Brennan [40] Clarissa Adams [41] Louise Shekter [42] John Sweeney

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“There are lines of force in a galaxy. And these cookies had actually found how to detach matter along a line of force. And so they’d set a Magellanic Cloud loose along one of these lines of force and it would swing out of balance and move on out and engulf a system, and then swinging out further would engulf another system, and would spend an awful long time hanging around the system as it went by, you see? And frankly, these clouds would get to systems which they didn’t come near for maybe thousands and thousands of years. They didn’t direct these clouds intimately, they just set them loose and they would drift out through space. And these wise professors — I’ve never trusted a professor since — would sit around stroking their diplomas saying, ‘Well, this is the natural consequences of the disintegration of a galaxy. A certain period in the life of a galaxy, the Magellanic radioactive masses at the interior of the hub begin to disperse themselves out toward the rim. And this is known as the Keplin-Spreplin law and the Booplum-Booplin law, and the calculations are M to the gup-gup squared or the rippety-rip-bop to the tenth power.’” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 23, 1963

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“Psychology and psychiatry have been traced as the direct authors of Fascism and today propound the Fascist message of violence and death across the world. This tangled web is being laid out like a carpet from documents being unearthed from the Nuremberg trials of war criminals and other sources. We always knew they were bad. We did not know Psychologists and Psychiatrists were the men behind Hitler and the gas chambers. By documents unearthed there is no difference whatever between psychiatric doctrine now being voiced in the East and West and Nazi doctrines so abhorred by all the world. ‘Racial Purity,’ ‘eradicated minorities,’ ‘genes,’ the lot. So it all begins to fit into a pattern. We had to be fought, for the appearance of real mental tech on the planet spelled the end of Fascist usage of false mental tech to politically dominate the world. Until we came along they were winning very nicely. So that’s one reason it’s so important to establish Scientology in Europe and England. And we’re making it.” — The Commodore, May 23, 1971

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“There was a guy who said he was audited and found out he was Jesus Christ. I was new in Scientology and we are not supposed to evaluate or invalidate, but he was telling me that the marks of the crucifixion were on his hands. And then he flashes and says, ‘You were one of the criminals on the cross, and the other criminal was LRH and on those crosses we decided to salvage this planet.’ Well I couldn’t get that out of my head and I was afraid to report him because he was in data division and I had no idea what would happen if I did report him. So I took the chance in session to go back and and look, and I stepped in both criminals and knew I had nothing to do with them. But then I went into Christ’s body and it felt like some huge piece of concrete was slamming up against me — not me a body but me a spirit, and that is a lot different feeling. So my cognition was they were trying to stop Christ from finishing what he wanted to do, some kind of spiritual awaking or something. And this UFO was cloaked in gold and I saw they were radiating something out to the crowds, which at first made me think that Christ was sending some kind of light, spiritual awareness of some kind. But no, that UFO was implanting the area. So I yelled, it was a trick.”

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1996: A summary of Scientology’s event in Los Angeles was anonymously posted this week. “1. 40+ packs of various technical drills (a bit similar in structure to the Tiger Drill of the 60’s) That was the main release. 2. Corresponding updates to the Student Hat, levels 0-IV, NED course, VGrad course and SHSBC. Also there are Auditor Certainty Courses for already trained auditors. 3. Mark VII Quantum E-meter (with an automatic sensitivity adjustment for Hi/Lo TA cases) 4. E-Meter reads electronic emulator. basically you plug in the E-Meter, push a button and it produces a corresponding read. 5. E-Metering course. It’s much like the Flag Metering Course minus FDS (False data Stripping procedure) and M9 (method 9 word clearing). 6. Flag-Trained Word Clearers and Course Supervisors were put in every Class V and above Org.” requested relief ‘will fundamentally alter the functioning of the world’s largest electronic public library and potentially expose each of its millions of users to unlimited tort liability.'”

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“I love churches, cathedrals, mosques and I’ve visited more than few of them. I just don’t like what’s being taught in a lot of them.”

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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Mistrial declared November 30. Retrial scheduled, jury selection begins March 29. Next pretrial hearing: Feb 16.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Next pretrial hearing Feb 13.
— Rizza Islam, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for March 1 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next status conference Feb 13.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs filed amended complaint on August 2. Hearing November 17 to argue the arbitration motions, awaiting ruling.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: March 15, 2023.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through February 7.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

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After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.

An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Other links: SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks. Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?

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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] How I know your Scientology files weren’t confidential: It was my job to dig through them
[TWO years ago] How Scientology can make a tragedy worse, and then even worse again
[THREE years ago] AUDIO: Scientology recruiter says wrecked families small price for salvaged planet
[FOUR years ago] Scientology tries stealthy opening of new drug rehab in Canada and gets stuffed
[FIVE years ago] Scientology asks court to freeze Laura D’s forced-abortion case for a long-shot appeal
[SIX years ago] When a Scientology ‘body-router’ turns out to be the father you haven’t seen in 7 years
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology’s newest attack on Ron Miscavige: Could his son David be any whinier?
[EIGHT years ago] Jon Atack: Stop making excuses for L. Ron Hubbard and the Snow White Program!
[NINE years ago] Richard Teague speaks out after his horrific ordeal at a Scientology rehab center
[TEN years ago] A Womb With a View: More Dianetics Just-So Stories

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 3,038 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,543 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 3,093 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 2,083 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,974 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,278 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,149 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,254 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,701 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 4,043 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,609 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,528 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,696 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,277 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,538 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,574 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,290 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,854 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,169 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,344 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,895 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 4,026 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,364 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,219 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,338 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,694 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,997 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 3,103 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,501 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,377 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,960 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,455 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,709 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,818 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 23, 2023 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2022 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2022), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele

Tony Ortega at Rolling Stone

Chris Shelton talks again to the Masterson trial jury foreman — and his daughter

Chris Shelton — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 12:00:43 +0000

I first heard from a woman in Los Angeles named Nina in 2019.

On Facebook, I was getting questions about Scientology leader David Miscavige’s Sea Org uniform, and Nina pointed out that Tony had, with the help of a reader, decoded them at the Underground Bunker, and the result was pretty funny.

Nina thought it was funny too. “Wtf is the battle of Portland in 1985?”

It was the start of an occasional conversation that Nina and I kept up over the next couple of years. We talked about things like QAnon, independent Scientology, John Travolta and Kelly Preston, and of course Scientology itself.

And then, in October, the craziest thing happened. Nina’s father Earl, a former cop and grandfather, found himself on the Danny Masterson jury.

As the trial progressed, Nina and I traded excited messages, blown away that we had this personal connection to the trial — even though we both knew that she couldn’t talk about it with her dad.

On the second day of deliberations, November 17, I messaged Nina that I was anxious for a verdict, and whatever the outcome it would be interesting to hear from the jury. She responded, speaking of her dad, “He’s a former cop and like very straight laced. Very intelligent and a very strong sense of right and wrong. So him on this case…He’s a facts guy.” We were already talking about the possibility that Earl might be interested in an interview, even though neither of us could approach him yet. “I’m going to needle him into it, lol” Nina messaged.

On November 30, a mistrial was declared when it turned out the jury couldn’t reach unanimous verdicts on all three counts. It was a huge disappointment, but I still wanted to know what the jury had thought of the case. And Nina wanted her dad to talk to me.

“For me the important takeaway from this is what went wrong so we can do everything we can to prevent this in the future,” I texted her as we both hoped her father would be interested in an interview on my YouTube channel. And Nina was as good as her word, convincing him to give me that interview.

I asked Tony to join us. He had not only been in the courtroom and could positively identify Earl as the jury foreman, but he also knew the case much better than I did, and I was glad to let him ask most of the questions. I knew we needed to get as much information as we could in a short time.

We recorded the interview on December 6, which was six days after the mistrial was declared. I then had to edit it so Earl’s face didn’t show (and Nina was sitting right next to him throughout it). We posted it on Thursday, December 8.

Since then, questions have been raised about Earl, about Nina, and about our reasons for conducting the interview. Some of those questions are legitimate. Others are ludicrous, and some are even racist.

I decided the best thing I could do was to speak again to both Nina and her father to see if we could address the questions being asked. I spoke to both of them yesterday in phone calls, and took these exchanges from those calls.

Chris: Some claims were made in regards to your reporting on the jury questionnaire about the conviction of your son in regards to a sexual assault or child assault. Were you asked in the jury process on the form about previous convictions of family members? And if so, did you report about that?

Earl: No, I wasn’t asked that question. And no, I didn’t say anything about it. But I was not asked.

Chris: OK, so it was not on the jury form?

Earl: No.

[After my initial discussion with Earl, I obtained a copy of the actual jury questionnaire that was used in the Masterson case. And as you can see, there were three questions — numbers 10 through 12 — that should have required Earl to divulge that he had a son with a conviction for a sex crime. I called him back and asked him about that.]

Chris: Did you feel those questions didn’t apply to you?

Earl: Going with Earl, I last lived with him in 1996. And the things that were told to me [about his case], were hearsay. I never talked to my son about it, and I’ve never been to anything related to anything going on with him legally. I have heard about the things with Earl, but I answered the questions on the form to the best of my ability. I didn’t know that first hand. I heard the stories, I knew what people had told me. But my son has never talked to me about that, ever. I think that’s part of the reason he doesn’t talk to me. I’ve been as honest as possible about everything.

[Back to my original conversation with him.]

Chris: When did the defense team contact you about the affidavit that you submitted?

Earl: You mean, the conversation I had with him?

Chris: Yeah, the affidavit you signed, stating that you felt that the case should not be retried and the defense used that to try to get the case dismissed.

Earl: That was done about two weeks or so after the trial was over.

Chris: OK. And can you tell me exactly what happened?

Earl: On the day the trial ended, we were a hung jury. The defense and prosecution asked if they could come back and talk to the jurors who wanted to talk. And all 13 of us said yes, we would stay there and talk to them…So all four of them came back and were asking questions. And Cohen asked about Scientology — he called it the elephant in the room. Mueller asked about some of the main points that we were talking about, as far as how we deliberated, what was important for this particular jury. We talked about the evidence that was presented versus what was said in their first statements and what they said in court, and it really came down to their own credibility by the differences in their stories. We went through all of that. And then at the end, [defense attorney Karen Goldstein] asked me if I would be willing to talk to them about the jury deliberations. And I said, sure, no problem. And then about a week later, they called me and we talked a little bit, and a week after that — because we couldn’t do it all at one time — they called again, we talked. And then she finally emailed me the affidavit and I sent it back to her.

Chris: OK, so that was all done via email. And that was arranged via phone calls, after they met with you in the jury room after the trial.

Earl: Correct.

Chris: And can you tell me what was it that compelled you to do that affidavit? I mean, did they try to get all the jurors to do that?

Earl: They did. They asked all the jurors. And they told me in the conversation, they reached out to all the jurors, but it’s not often that they get all jurors to respond. But I knew they had talked to others because we were talking about one juror in particular who was stuck on guilty no matter what. And they knew his name. I never told them his name, but they knew his name and I said, well, you got it right. So obviously, they were talking to other people. They said, we’ve talked to other jurors, and we’re reaching out to everyone to see who we’ll get responses from. I was not the only one.

Chris: The question that is basically being raised, bluntly, is your credibility because of a failure to report the thing with your son? You know, in a sexually charged case like this, how could there not be a conflict of interest there? What are your thoughts about that?

Earl: Whatever questions I answered, I answered truthfully. I didn’t omit or add anything. There was even one question they asked, do I have any friends or family in law enforcement? I had one friend in the CBP. And that was that, that was true. They never asked me if I was a former police officer or not, which I was, but they didn’t ask me that. But on the one that I answered, it asked me if I had any contact with police, prior convictions, arrests, whatever. And I gave them an instance in 1996 where I had contact with police and during voir dire the judge asked me about it, I said what it was. And she goes, OK, we’re fine. And they moved on. So that was it.

Chris: Did it ever occur to you that that could come up as a potential conflict of interest?

Earl: What part?

Chris: Apparently the fact that your son is convicted of a sexual crime?

Earl: No, because I don’t have that kind of relationship with him. He and I haven’t spoken in a very long time. We don’t say happy birthday or Merry Christmas or anything like that.

Chris: And would you mind telling me what happened? Because the reason I ask is because Nina mentioned to me last night when this first was coming up that you in fact, or you and your wife had in fact, taken action to have him turned in.

Earl: It wasn’t me. That was all my ex-wife. I had nothing to do with that.

Chris: Would you be willing to tell me briefly what happened?

Earl: With Earl, or with the situation?

Chris: Well, with your son and what happened there. Because I’m in total mystery. All I know is there’s a conviction on record. And I don’t have any specifics of what actually occurred.

Earl: I don’t mind. If you did the research you’d find it. But what happened, so my ex-wife was married to a guy named David and he had children, so all of them live together. My kids — Earl, my son — lived with his mom, and my other son, Adam and David and his children. One of the kids was a young girl, she was about 12 or 13 at the time. And I think Earl might have been 18. Something happened where he touched her and they called the police and they made this case. I wasn’t living with them. I had contact with my kids. But at that time, Earl, after that, for some reason, and I really don’t know why, I’ve got a text message I sent to him like a year or so ago just asking him what was going on. I didn’t really ask him why he doesn’t call or stay in touch, you know? He used to be really good about keeping in touch with everyone, but then he didn’t even start keeping in touch with his kids. I’m taking care of them, my grandsons, so I do know that he got accused of touching this girl and then he admitted to it. So yeah, he admitted to it. And he was arrested. And after being arrested he admitted that he did it. So, that’s what happened.

Chris: OK, got it. So he went guilty and then he got his punishment and that was that.

Earl: Yeah.

Chris: OK, fair enough. And so when was the last time that you’ve actually spoken with him then?

Earl: I’ve got it on my phone, hold on for a second. Oh it looks like I cleared that out. But I’m going to guess and say the last time I talked to him was probably April or May last year. I’ve tried to talk to him, but I don’t know. And I haven’t really investigated why he has responded the way he has. I’ve always been reasonable with him even after the things that he’s gone through. I extended an olive branch, taking his kids shopping for school, my grandkids, but something happened, where he just believes, for some reason he has something against me. I don’t know what, but I never really tried to follow up on it.

Chris: So would you classify this is an estranged relationship?

Earl: Oh absolutely. I sent him last year, whenever Father’s Day was, I sent him a message happy Father’s Day. And even on his birthday, happy birthday. His birthday is in August. No response on Father’s Day. No response on birthday. No response to Merry Christmas. So I just, I just left it alone.

Chris: Were you ever or are you aware of ever having been contacted by anybody connected with the Church of Scientology in regards to this case? Or otherwise?

Earl: No. I’ve talked to you, and the other guy who was on the interview with us the first time. And I’ve talked to those folks on the defense team. Other than that, about this case I haven’t talked to anyone.

I also spoke with Nina. I have been proud to consider her a friend for a few years now, and those raising questions about why a young black woman in Los Angeles might watch my videos, well, it was painful to think that we still have people who think like that.

Nina: My intention for reaching out was, you know, let’s have a celebration. You know, we’re going to get this guy. And for it to go sideways, like…

Chris: Yeah, that’s exactly how I remember it.

Nina: People are going to say, why didn’t the daughter tell him? But I couldn’t tell him anything the minute that he was on that jury. It was like I can’t say anything to you. I can’t talk to you about anything. I wasn’t in a position to say, like, Dad, you gotta look at this video. Let me show you this. He didn’t know my obsession with Scientology or North Korea or, you know, Heaven’s Gate and all these different cults. There was no way that conversation could happen in that time frame.

Chris: That’s why we’re talking, because I want to get the facts.

Nina: You know, Chris, I’ve talked to you for years. There’s no way I, like, set this up in 2019. You know, like, let me butter up Chris, like that’s crazy. I mean, I have a past history of talking to you about random things as far as Scientology and other stuff. Your videos are more thorough, a lot more cerebral, the type I like, you know. Like, there’s a type of journalism there that was more in line with the way I think. So that’s why I reached out to you.

Chris: It’s quite something to be misrepresented this way. I wish I could say this is the first time this has happened to me, but it’s not.

Nina: For someone to go, look at Chris’s numbers, how is this black woman going to be reaching out. Excuse me? Like what the fuck. Yeah, black people can’t be smart enough to like, follow something this complex, like we have to have myopic interests? Fucking bizarre.

Chris: I was appalled at that language. I was just like, holy shit. I have followers in New Zealand, Spain, Germany. The fact that you’re following me in Los Angeles is not a surprise at all.

Nina: It’s an interest. You know, there’s so much history here in LA. I’ve been to Florida twice in my life, both times visiting my boyfriend. And there’s no way I’m coming to Florida, to Bradenton, this close to fucking Clearwater and I was like, I want to drive through there. It’s a macabre, tight interest, whatever.

Chris: That you as a young black woman in Los Angeles is interested in Scientology, and that it’s being called a statistical improbability has definitely got racist overtones.

Nina: Definitely. If the Aftermath Foundation checks their roster, they sent me a package because at the time I was going to Kaiser all the time right there on Sunset, and I was, like, hey, send me a pack of those little cards. And every time I would go over there, I would put those little cards where they would stand out there. I mean, that’s what’s really offensive. It’s like, I’ve reached out to that foundation.

Chris: The one thing that could have been easily fact checked with a phone call would have been the simple question, when did she reach out to you? No one asked me that. No one asked me anything.

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Technology Cocktail

“We have been going with Dianetics and Scientology for a very long time now according to our time continuum. Actually we have been going only a tiny fraction of man’s scientific time continuum. The progress which we have made in the past few years is apparently greater than any combined progress of the preceding ages. This may be due to our ability to capitalize on what is known. It may be due to having been educated in both the Eastern and Western philosophies. It may be due to being born with a lucky slide rule in the mouth. It may be due to the brightness and interest of everyone connected. It may be due to a lot of things, but to whatever it is due, it is true.” — L. Ron Hubbard, 1956

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THE PODCAST: How many have you heard?

— The Underground Bunker Podcast

— SPECIAL: The best TV show on Scientology you never got to see

[1] Phil Jones [2] Derek Bloch [3] Carol Nyburg [4] Katrina Reyes [5] Jamie DeWolf

— SPECIAL: Your Proprietor’s updates on the Danny Masterson trial

[1] Sep 21 [2] Sep 28 [3] Oct 4 [4] Oct 10 [5] Oct 11: Day One [6] Oct 12: Day Two [7] Oct 13: Day Three [8] Oct 17: Day Four [9] Oct 18: Day Five [10] Oct 19: Day Six [11] Special interview with Chris Shelton, Oct 19 [12] Oct 20: Day Seven [13] Oct 21: Day Eight [14] First week in review, with Jeffrey Augustine [15] Oct 24: Day Nine [16] Oct 25: Day Ten [17] Oct 27: Day Eleven [18] Oct 28: Day Twelve [19] Second week in review, with Jeffrey Augustine [20] Halloween special [21] Nov 2: Day Thirteen [22] Nov 3: Day Fourteen [23] Nov 4: Day Fifteen [24] Third week in review [25] Nov 5, Saturday special [26] Nov 6, Sunday special [27] Nov 7, Day Sixteen [28] Lisa Marie Presley breaking news [29] Nov 8, Day Seventeen [30] Nov 9, Day Eighteen [31] Nov 10, Day Nineteen

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“If anybody ever sends you to jail, by all means, go to Alcatraz. They’re tearing it down. I’m just thinking of the Federal government. Even their prisons are going to pieces. Have you, did you know that? We’ve got to audit those people, that’s all there is to it, you know, because they’re in a violent ARC break. Somebody’s missed an item on the US government. I think, personally, they missed it with a no-auditing situation. We haven’t had any plan for auditing the government. We got one president audited. That was Truman. We ain’t had anybody else audited. Now, I just think they’re suffering from no auditing. Course, so of course, that leaves all items missed. And that’s another way of missing items. But it isn’t to a violent state. Somebody must have missed a list or something on the FDA. They must have. They must have. ‘What crumb are you?’ or something like that, something. ‘What type of insect egg did you come out of?’ You know?” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 15, 1963

——————–

“Thank you for answering my questionaire on what we should be doing. I can announce as a result of this that we are now doing what the whole crew wants us to be doing. We’re now getting operational so we can accomplish these things. We had a lot to catch up just so we could begin. All right, we’re obviously in agreement. So let’s get the show on the road and get done what we all want to do. Thank you for your help on the Questionnaire and on the ship.” — The Commodore, January 15, 1969

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“Wonder why there is a forced vaccination agenda, forced lockdowns and the United Nations agenda to reduce the population of Earth? Why there are scienos or ex-scienos voting and supporting Joe Biden and his human enslavement agenda of forced vaccinations, more Income Tax and LGBT perversions? LRH explains it all on the taped lecture: The Free Being. He explains that at the beginning, spiritual beings created their puppet societies. Then those spiritual beings taught their puppet societies how to entrap other spiritual beings. At the end those puppet societies ended up entrapping all the free beings, including the ones that created them (you). And finally LRH describes the method to reverse this cycle of entrapment and recover the Free Beings. He also describes the structure of the new society that is going to incorporate the Free Beings in harmony with the puppet societies.”

——————–

2001: The Marin Independent Journal reported that a California court has found Gerry Armstrong in contempt for speaking out against Scientology. “Marin Superior Court Judge Vernon Smith ruled that Armstrong, a former Scientology archivist, violated an earlier settlement agreement that he stop criticizing the church and discussing the experiences he had within
the organization. Smith also issued an arrest warrant for Armstrong, who did not attend yesterday’s court hearing. Reached at his home in British Columbia, Armstrong said he intentionally stayed away from court for fear he would be thrown in jail. Armstrong said he also has no intention of curbing his criticism, which most often takes the form of writings he posts in Internet discussion groups. ‘This is about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, the whole gamut. I will fight this to the ends of the Earth.’ In making their case for a contempt order against Armstrong, attorneys for the church submitted a sheaf of messages Armstrong had posted on the Internet between March 1998 and last July. Quiros, the Scientology spokesman, said ‘We’ll probably never see a dime from Mr. Armstrong,’ he said. ‘And I doubt he’ll do any jail time because he will probably never come back to California.'”

——————–

“You don’t have to go up the Bridge to achieve a position of power in Scientology. All you have to do is be a wily, conniving, ruthless asshole. Just like every other totalitarian organization in history.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Mistrial declared November 30. Status conference scheduled January 10, retrial scheduled March 27.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Grand jury indictments include charges from an assault while in custody. Plea deadline scheduled for December 16.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff scheduled to time served with three years supervised release, restitution of $9.7 million.
— Rizza Islam, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for March 1 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial hearing December 9.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court, Scientology moving to compel arbitration. Plaintiffs filed amended complaint on August 2. Hearing November 17 to argue the arbitration motions, awaiting ruling.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Selection of arbitrators underway. Next court hearing: February 2, 2023.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Stay in place at least through February 7.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Case settled ahead of scheduled Dec 6 trial.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

——————–

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Neil Sarfati on the perils of telling mainstream media about Scientology’s abuses
[TWO years ago] Judge denies Scientology’s motion for $160,000 in sanctions against Valerie Haney
[THREE years ago] Woman named in Danny Masterson lawsuit denies she’s smearing his victims for Scientology
[FOUR years ago] LEAH REMINI WILL AIR EPISODE WITH DANNY MASTERSON’S ACCUSERS ON FEBRUARY 18
[FIVE years ago] Joy Villa’s former manager: ‘Scientology destroyed everything’
[SIX years ago] On the ‘Leah Remini’ Reddit special this week: A powerful Texas duo
[SEVEN years ago] Explain your vote, judge tells Maryland county that denied Scientology rehab
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology takes out full-page ad in the New York Times to attack Alex Gibney
[NINE years ago] Leah Remini talks briefly about Scientology on Access Hollywood, says very little
[TEN years ago] Buzzfeed Takes a Close Look at Scientology’s “Ideal Org” Financing
[ELEVEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Get Your Harem On!

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,910 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,415 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,965 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,955 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,846 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 5,151 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 3,021 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 2,126 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,599 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,915 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,481 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,400 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,568 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 4,149 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,410 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,447 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 3,162 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,726 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 1,041 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 2,216 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,767 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,898 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,236 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 9,091 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 4,210 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,566 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,869 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,975 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,373 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,249 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,832 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,327 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,581 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,690 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 15, 2023 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2021 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2021), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

The Insider speaks: Scientology’s recent crises, now in a podcast with Chris Shelton

Tony Ortega — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 11:00:00 +0000

Late last year, we got some eye-opening reports on how hard the pandemic has been on Scientology from someone inside the organization. We dubbed them The Insider, and they told us about chaos caused by Covid, new details on the ‘Chase Wave’ financial debacle, a detailed description of the Ideal Org scam, and even told us about the new ‘Golden Age of Admin’ that was on the way.

We’ve really enjoyed talking to this new source, and now they’ve decided to provide even more detail by talking to Chris Shelton. Here’s Chris’s description of today’s video…

“For everyone anticipating part two of my interview with Katherine Olson, that will be coming next week. Instead, I have an interview with yet another Scientology insider. In fact, my guest this week is the very same Insider who has been providing all of us information on this very blog. He contacted me and we set up interviewing him on my podcast and here is our first effort. We go into detail on how the Church of Scientology has been dealing with Covid, conspiracy theories and how decisions being made at every level of Scientology are making members so angry, they are apparently leaving in higher numbers than ever. It’s entirely possible all of this could change, but right now Miscavige is making some pretty surprisingly poor choices.”

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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

Did you know you can get an email every morning when we post our daily Scientology story? We know some of the folks who come to the Underground Bunker aren’t here to talk about the politics of the day, and that’s why we created a daily politics feature over at our other blog, The Lowdown, and we ask readers to take their political discussions over there. And if you drop us a line at tonyo94 AT gmail, we’ll put you on the list so you get a morning reminder that a new Scientology story has been posted — and only for our Scientology stories.

——————–

“I call to your attention something that every motorist has noted and no motorist had quite understood: that when he failed to drive his car it went to pieces. Have you ever noticed that? You park it in the garage the battery goes down, the tires go flat. Maybe it was up on blocks, maybe the battery was taken over to the service station and put on continuous charge and all of this was done. That’s some small prevention of the situation. But then three months later you put the battery back in, you take it down off the blocks and oil smoke goes out the rear end, won’t steer. That’s an oddity. The only reason it stayed there at all is because Earth is going around and it was being changed in space, at least to some degree. If it were not being changed in space at all, it would not be there; it would cease to persist. Now this is a great oddity. I don’t call upon your superstition in this regard, I merely call upon you to observe in its crude form something else.” — L. Ron Hubbard, June 4, 1955

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“Did you see in the news where Nelson (Smersh) Rockefeller was asked NOT to visit Venezuela? One smart country. Nelson’s National Health Foundation money finances Smersh. He also runs Stockades in NY where youth who MIGHT become delinquent are sent. (They really are called stockades). His oil companies also exploit Venezuela and drain off her natural resources. He’s touring Latin America with 26 top advisors (psychiatrists) at Nixon’s request to ‘find out what they want”. He stopped a whole 8 hours in one country. He has now found they don’t want Rockefeller. We have a personal note to one Central American Country’s No. 2 man. The area is too hot politically just now. We avoid such areas as political heat brings in the KGB of Russia, CIA of US and the British Intelligence and they file false reports with each other. Makes anyone in the area subject to hammering.” — The Commodore, June 4, 1969

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“Andy never got a standard ethics handling on his wog ethics cycle (defacing Eurydice Dixon’s memorial) and faking a change of sex. After Andy said he was a student at the AO-GP, he began to promote the use of drugs to ‘go up the bridge’ (increase awareness). The AO-GP never handled Andy’s out-ethics case, with the consequence that he is now in jail, not as an expelled member of the Freezone but as a student at the AO-GP. Andy Nolch and the Advanced Organization of the Great Plains should be applied standard ethics to handle this Public Relations flap.”

——————–

1999: Keith Henson reported that he lost the appeal of Scientology’s judgment against him. Scientology was awarded $75,000 for copyright violation when Keith posted the secret NOTS 34 level. “Just got word from the 9th after almost three months. Flat lost.”

——————–

“They do what’s called in Scientology ‘off-loading’ which is when some elderly staff member can no longer perform on the most basic level they throw their meager belongings into a garbage bag and drive them what they consider to be a safe distance from the org and they stop and open the door and tell them to get out. And I’m not joking.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next pretrial conference June 30. Trial scheduled for October 11.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Last hearing was on January 18, referred to grand jury. Additional charges also referred to grand jury after January 5 assault while in jail.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference June 9 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 2.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.
— Yanti Mike Greene, Scientology private eye accused of contempt of court: Found guilty of criminal and civil contempt.

Civil litigation:
— Baxter, Baxter, and Paris v. Scientology, alleging labor trafficking: Complaint filed April 28 in Tampa federal court.
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Eleventh Circuit affirmed ruling granting Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Garcias considering next move.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Valerie’s motion for reconsideration denied on March 15.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Appellate court removes requirement of arbitration on January 19, case remanded back to Superior Court. Next hearing scheduled for June 29.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for December 6.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: New trial ordered after appeals court overturned prior ruling.
— Chiropractors Steve Peyroux and Brent Detelich, stem cell fraud: Lawsuit filed by the FTC and state of Georgia in August, now in discovery phase.

——————–

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology veterans fend off attack in vicious new Clone Wars offensive
[TWO years ago] Which of the Masterson brothers profited from their Scientology stepdad’s Ponzi scheme?
[THREE years ago] Why is the YMCA helping spread Scientology to kids?
[FOUR years ago] Why don’t Scientologists go to authorities about the abuses they have seen or experienced?
[FIVE years ago] Around the globe, Scientology relies on guys like this to promote L. Ron Hubbard to your kids
[SIX years ago] That time Muhammad Ali got blindsided by the Church of Scientology
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology’s plan to take over the planet: All Ideal Orgs ‘Saint Hill size’ by 2016!
[EIGHT years ago] OY VEY: Scientology invokes Jewish Law to answer lawsuit by attorney Vance Woodward
[NINE years ago] Claire Headley Helps Us Get Back in the Good Graces of Scientology

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,685 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,190 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,740 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,730 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,621 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,927 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,796 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,570 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,901 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,374 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,690 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,256 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 8,175 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,343 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,923 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 4,185 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,221 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,936 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,461 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 816 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,991 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,542 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,691 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 4,011 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,866 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,985 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,341 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,644 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,750 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 3,148 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 3,024 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,607 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 3,102 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,356 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,465 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on June 4, 2022 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Scientology’s academic champion: An eager copyright attorney who shills with alacrity

Chris Shelton — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:00:29 +0000

[Scientology’s loving portrait of Introvigne, from Freedom magazine]

Today I am wrapping up my series of articles responding to Implicit Religion: The Journal for the Critical Study of Religion and the series of articles advocating for a new, more “enlightened” approach to studying Scientology in academia. In this week’s analysis, I am taking on the king of NRM scholarship, Massimo Introvigne. The paper he wrote for Implicit Religion is called “Scientology Studies 2.0, Utopia or Opportunity.”

First, let me remind the reader that this is not a topic which is reserved only for the hallowed halls of the over-intellectual since it is these same academics and religious studies scholars who testify in court cases as expert witnesses. I cannot even begin to describe how much financial and psychological damage these so-called scholars have wrought against victims of destructive cults like Scientology, the Jehovah’s Witnesses or Twelve Tribes by waltzing into court rooms to eagerly testify in favor of authoritarian, abusive systems of control and domination.

Having been a high-level Scientologist for decades of my life, I experienced the kind of “freedom” that Scientology offers, and I’d describe it as something more akin to waterboarding than spiritual enlightenment. It’s both infuriating and tragic to me to watch serious scholars throw their professional credibility and careers down the toilet, wasted as unwitting (or, in some cases, quite witting) shills for these groups. If that sounds like I’m taking a biased, un-objective view of them and this topic, you’re right. As a former Scientologist, it’s impossible for me to be objective on this topic. I was abused for too long to simply forget all that, so I simply try to use my knowledge, experience, and intellect to describe and warn others about destructive cults.

Introvigne is the founder and managing director of the Center for Studies of New Religions (CESNUR), started back in 1988 and based in Turin, Italy. Professor Stephen Kent described CESNUR as follows:

In the context, therefore, of the debate over Scientology in France and Germany, CESNUR is a think-tank and lobbying group, attempting to advance Scientology’s legitimation goals by influencing European and American governmental policies toward it. It is not a neutral academic association, even less so because on its web page Introvigne intermingles ideological positions within solid research and information. On issues, however, that are key to the religious human rights debates — apostates, brainwashing, undue influence, compromised academic research, ‘sect’ membership and the potential for harm, critical information exchange on the Internet, etc. — he advocates doctrinaire positions that favour groups like Scientology.

Unlike many in the NRM world, Introvigne is not a religious studies scholar nor a trained sociologist (although he is referred to as one). He got his degree in philosophy in 1975 and a law degree specializing in intellectual property. In other words, he’s a copyright attorney but he has such a tunnel vision on “religious freedom” that he decided at some point this was so important he would make it his life’s work to defend destructive cults. He claims that by defending criminal enterprises such as Scientology, he is a “religious freedom advocate” which only corrupts the entire concept and lends yet another lie to the long line of lies Massimo has told.

That all being said, Introvigne’s piece is a fascinating exercise in using logical fallacies and deceptive language to construct an alternate reality, one in which Scientology is cast as the victim of evil “anti-cultists.” According to Introvigne, it’s only due to the resolute (and, dare I say, dauntless and defiant?) NRM scholars that these cults have a chance to survive the onslaught of vicious lies and abominable atrocity tales us greedy, self-serving, and wholly dishonest ex-members and journalists such as Tony Ortega (who is mentioned by name in his article) flood the media channels with. If it weren’t for the heroic efforts of Introvigne and his coterie of apologists, what would these poor NRMs do? How would they ever get along in the world with their billions of dollars; hundreds of thousands of acres of real estate; TV, radio, and internet channels; publication houses; government lobbyists and corporate ownership (Washington Times, anyone)? To read Introvigne is to read a very different version of reality. So let’s take this apart.

First off, I have tried very hard to not engage in what is called ad hominem (personal attacks) in these responses I’ve been writing to Implicit Religion. Other than stating the name and credentials of the authors, I have tried to make my criticism about the work and the claims the authors make, not their personalities or personal proclivities. With Introvigne I must make an exception to comment on the ego-fest he gratuitously engages in for the first third of his paper. In a nine-page paper (not including references), Introvigne dedicates a full third of it to describing his supposed long and illustrious career as a religious studies scholar, despite not having any degree or credentials that justify that title. No other scholar I’ve read in all the years I’ve been reading academic work has ever used so much verbiage to praise themselves as their opening argument. Clearly Introvigne feels he has something to prove and he uses flowery and glowing self-praise to do so. In my opinion, this is in very poor taste, but the huffery and puffery also tells me he’s perfectly aware of the fact he has no real legitimacy.

Just to make sure I wasn’t being overly critical or making my views too personal, I checked with some other published, peer-reviewed scholars in the field and each of them had the same reaction I did. Massimo is mainly about promoting Massimo and his work reflects that. This fact doesn’t invalidate the other arguments he makes, but it does cast them in a doubtful light, because when the primary reason you are doing scholarly work is to pimp yourself, the reader is forced to question the integrity and value of whatever else the author is saying. For example, in this paper Introvigne references his own work more than the work of any other author. Self-referencing isn’t a crime (see this article for more details about what a problem this is in certain fields) but when a relatively small number of scholars are only citing each other (which is the case in the NRM scholarship), what you have is not science but a prejudicial clique pretending to do science. That’s the NRM world in a nutshell.

There are some disturbing points Introvigne makes in the middle of his ego-inspired monologue which bear further scrutiny, starting with his views on freedom of speech and the freedom to critique. As a copyright lawyer, he states that he has a unique understanding of Scientology’s perspective in using copyright law to keep critics from writing about the more controversial aspects of Scientology’s beliefs, such as the confidential, copyrighted OT levels. While that may be true, he then writes, “…I did not find Scientology’s use of copyright laws to restrict what critics can legally publish as objectionable or unusual. Actually, large international corporations behave very much in the same way…” Given his take on apostates, it’s clear that Introvigne has a real problem with the idea of freedom of speech when it’s applied to critics of the groups that are paying Massimo’s way in the world. I consider this an Orwellian level of hypocrisy in that it demonstrates the swinish maxim “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Massimo has made it abundantly clear he firmly believes he is a more equal pig than anyone else.

One of the few points of common cause that Introvigne and I share are concerns over the human rights abuses of Scientologists in Russia, yet he rides others’ coattails in terms of what he’s actually done about it. He cites the work of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) as though he had anything directly to do with that work, but I find it nearly contemptible that he goes out of his way to say it was “the same USCIRF published in 2020 the first document by a government body identifying both anti-cultism as an ideology and the anti-cult movement as a main problem for religious liberty and human rights, both in Russia and internationally.” So even here, when he brings up an opportunity to critically discuss why destructive cults like Scientology would be targeted by authoritarian governments such as Russia’s, he instead pivots to how it is the “anti-cult” movement of victims speaking out about their abusers that is the actual problem, and is, in fact, the real source of human rights violations around the world.

That is kind of nuts, so I went and checked the 2020 USCIRF report to see what it actually said. True enough, policy analyst Jason Morton has written a piece that the NRM crowd probably salivated over while reading because it’s based 100 percent on their decades of disinformation and fake news. It would be impossible for me here to reduce the complex arguments necessary to talk about destructive cults being “oppressed” by authoritarian governments, because it really is a case of two wrongs making a right, but that is a level of nuance completely alien to Introvigne’s way of thinking. The bottom line is that the US government has fallen for the idea that Scientology and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are martyrs for the cause of religious freedom in Russia. From the perspective of the cults, that’s a true statement but there is more to be considered in this picture than the viewpoint of the cults. And that is where Introvigne and his crowd totally miss the boat. They simply ignore the victims and believe they, the NRM scholars, are the good guys in the white hats riding in to save the world from oppression. When the US government backs that play, it only means that these cults will get away with victimizing that many more thousands of people, and it will be the NRM scholars who share a direct responsibility for that abuse.

Introvigne goes on to claim he is an advocate for religious freedom in China and I can only imagine the deadly consequences his advocacy will bring to that oppressed nation. He claims his magazine, Bitter Winter “has become a main source for information about religion from inside China, thanks to our extended network of both professional and citizen reporters there – for example, in the section on China of the yearly report on religious liberty by the U.S. Department of State it was the most quoted source…” So as with Russia, Introvigne is working very hard with his “network” to make sure religious oppression will continue to be alive and well in China too and he has convinced the State Department that his organization is the authority on this matter. That terrifies me.

The next section of his essay goes in to “Scientology Studies 2.0” and he cites an example of studying Hubbard’s turgid prose about artists and creating art. He begins by uttering a bold-faced lie and then proceeds to tell more lies. “While it is well-known that Scientology has attracted several prominent actors and musicians, from Tom Cruise to the late Chick Corea, it is less known that it also includes among its members several hundred internationally reputed painters, sculptors, and photographers.” Like the Church of Scientology itself, Introvigne has a serious problem with reality when it comes to Scientology’s numbers. There are not and never have been “several hundred internationally reputed” artists in Scientology. I checked his sources and couldn’t find any hard evidence for his claim, because of course it’s a false one. Perhaps he based it on the number of people who completed Scientology’s Art Course (as reported, of course, by Scientology) but that would be like gauging Scientology’s total membership by how many people have ever purchased a copy of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Because such “facts” help bolster Intorvigne’s lame arguments about Scientology’s growth and importance, he doesn’t bother to fact check them and instead, actively contributes to Scientology’s lies by creating more of his own.

Introvigne does love his strawmen and he brings them up repeatedly in this article. A strawman is a logical fallacy (erroneous thinking) where your opponent over-simplifies or misrepresents your argument to make it easier to attack or refute. Instead of fully addressing your actual argument, they fight the strawman as though that is what you really said or meant. It is a dishonest trick that Hubbard engaged in constantly in his lectures. When people know they don’t have the facts on their side, they resort to strawmen to make their points and argue against things you never said or meant.

“’Scientology Studies 2.0’ are possible,” he writes, “but not if one starts with the assumption that Scientology is inherently evil, and anything it does should perforce serve some malignant purpose.” There are very few people that believe everything about it is evil and must be destroyed. That kind of black-and-white thinking is what cults foster and is not something I have ever said, nor is it something I’ve read by any of the “anti-cult” scholars who have written on the topic. Kent, Urban and many others have written critical pieces about Scientology and its abuses but not once have any of them advocated for Scientology’s destruction or called it “evil.” But that’s Introvigne for you. If you didn’t say it, he’ll say you said it and he’ll push back against you as though you said it, and to those who read his nonsense, they then start believing that’s what you said too.

Dishonesty and strawmen in academia matter. Peer review is supposed to ferret this sort of thing out, but when the people doing the peer review are on the same page you are and no one is challenging anyone else, you get cliques like the New Religious Movement gang. The consequences of that lack of integrity are blatant dishonesty leading to eventually becoming useless shills who are just paid spokespeople for the cults.

Near the end, Introvigne makes claims that he is an advocate for open dialog between scholars who disagree over NRM ideas and cites a recent answer professor Stephen Kent wrote to Massimo’s nonsense in his Journal of CESNUR. It was not beyond Massimo’s notice that Tony Ortega saw and reported on Kent’s answer.

Introvigne writes “Ortega stated that ‘CESNUR has long been a joke and so we rarely pay it any mind,’ that our journal is ‘a pathetic excuse for an academic journal’ covered with ‘the fake patina of academic uprightness,’ and that thanks to Kent’s article CESNUR now ‘squeals after being so cleanly stuck on a spit.’” Massimo did not like that reporting enough to comment that “…any attempt at a dialogue between scholars of different persuasions is immediately compromised by the screaming reactions of professional anti-Scientologists, whose strategy corresponds to what sociologists call gatekeeping. Anything that calls into question the black-and-white dichotomy between ‘evil cults’ and ‘brave ex-members’…should be stopped at the gates before entering the citadel of the righteous anti-Scientology indignation by the likes of Ortega.”

My jaw practically hit the ground when I read this for the first time. The balls this man has to hypocritically call what Tony does “gatekeeping” when his entire group of so-called scholars blatantly refuse to listen to anyone who doesn’t already agree with their dogmatic pro-cult ideology is beyond disgusting. Introvigne’s scholarship is morally and intellectually bankrupt. He actually prides himself on being a shill to a degree that puts the likes of Gordon Melton and James R. Lewis to shame (and those were the idiots who did the press conference advocating for Aum Shinrikyo).

Considering my earlier analogy of Scientology to the Mafia, I laughed at the final lines of Introvigne’s essay when he wrote:

I do not see why attending a Scientology event should be regarded as more problematic than participating in conferences organized by the Chinese or the Russian government with the clear aim of supporting their persecution of minority religions, or by anti-cult movements, or by mainline religions – unless one assumes that Scientology is so inherently evil that any association with it taints the scholars involved, and it can only be studied adversarially, as one would study the Mafia. With those maintaining this position, however, I believe no meaningful dialogue is possible – or at least I am not interested in it.

That’s his mic drop: another strawman, another disingenuous logical fallacy dropped like a dead fish on the table and his arrogance on display for all to see. No one ever said that Scientology should be studied “adversarially.” I don’t even know what that is supposed to mean, since academics and scholars ideally park their opinions at the door when they engage in the objective study of their field. Sure, one assumes certain things once they are established as fact, with things like evidence, but scholarship is not supposed to be advocacy nor is it supposed to be adversarial. If I could believe for even a moment that Introvigne shares this view, I’d be more than happy to reach out to him and attempt a dialogue. But he’s already poisoned his own well with his blatantly biased journal and receipt of untold sums of cash from the destructive cults he advocates for.

Let me end this with making one final and crucial point: bias and personal views do not have to taint a scholar’s work. We have seen fantastic, even great, scholarship done by Jewish scholars on the activities of the Nazi regime in World War II Germany. Hannah Arendt most famously described the “banality of evil” and analyzed the slow encroachment of systems of oppression without allowing her personal bias to get in the way of objectively analyzing how and why Nazis got away with what they did. Jewish philosopher Erich Fromm (who was one of the first to write about the phenomenon of narcissism and coined the term ‘malignant narcissist’) fled Germany before the Nazi atrocities and wrote extensively on the causes and attitudes of evil behavior yet his work was rigorous and maintained academic integrity and stands up to this day because of that fact.

When we compare the work of NRM scholars with the deep and insightful analyses offered by the likes of an Arendt or a Fromm, we can see immediately how shallow and biased the NRM work is. I have yet to see any deep analysis of Scientology’s philosophy or attitudes from any NRM scholar, and I can now say I’ve read extensively of their work. I hope that by responding publicly to their more egregious mistakes and logical fallacies, that perhaps one or two of them might start seeing that their positions are not really that great and their ideas aren’t that grand. Carole Cusack started to turn away from the NRM ideology when she suggested perhaps ex-member testimonials should be taken seriously. That’s a start. It’s going to take more of us former members entering into this fray to push back against the decades of misinformation these NRM scholars have been publishing. I want to encourage anyone who is interested in this work to join in the fight. We are going to need all the help we can get.

— Chris Shelton

See Chris’s earlier installments in this series on Implicit Religion: First, second, third, fourth, and fifth.

Additional note by the proprietor: The dispute Chris refers to that still has Introvigne throwing a fit about this website is this: His “journal” made the bold claim that L. Ron Hubbard had never, not once, claimed falsely to have a college engineering degree, and that this was a central piece of evidence that Scientology journalists and critics were derelict in making such bogus accusations about the Scientology founder. We subsequently published a letter showing precisely that — Hubbard claiming falsely to have a college engineering degree, and with his own signature and without any ambiguity — and Introvigne’s journal to this day refuses to acknowledge that we proved its attack on “critics” to be embarrassingly without merit. But we find his continued upsets about this website to be kind of entertaining.

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“Every thetan is, unless he’s knocked flat out — you know, unless he’s been eating some of the recent food preservatives — this fellow is operating to some degree, even if he’s just an effect. You see, he’s, he still can put out an impulse. See, he’s mostly effect, but he can put out a little bit of an impulse, see? Well, actually that would be an interiorized thetan who was very wog. And the word ‘wog,’ of course, is in essence a ‘worthy oriental gentleman’ as been defined by the Royal Air Force. There’s nothing derogatory in being called a wog. As a matter of fact, that was the source of a general order issued in Egypt on the complaint of the Egyptian government. The air force officers were calling Egyptians wogs. So the commanding officer defined it. And he said, well, wog, that means ‘worthy oriental gentleman,’ and insisted his officers use it. Those were in the days when the Empire wasn’t dead! Anyway, this means a common, ordinary, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety humanoid. And a garden-variety humanoid means a person who has human characteristics. By which we define not that he is human in his treatment of things, he isn’t. It’s simply that he is a body, he is a body.” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 29, 1966

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“DARBY: The DARBY started at midnight last night. See ED 11 Flag for the thrilling details of this race. You too can be a winner.” — The Commodore, November 29, 1971

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“Understanding how theta works in a MEST universe on a continuous basis is reversing the downhill spiral. You can never learn it enough. If you don’t audit thetans you end up alone with unconscious beings. And no comm lines. Scientology is a breakdown of MEST universe into its most basic components. If you even clear a planet that would be like wow, utopia. That’s why I haven’t given up on Scientology like others, just in case it can change. It has the structure there, just needs to get rid of the paranoia. Or run grade 4 on Miscavige so he stops running his 3rd dynamic surfacs.”

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2001: A letter to the editor of the St. Petersburg Times blamed Scientology for the demise of Club More, which once hosted a benefit concert for the Lisa McPherson Trust. “I am amazed at what downtown Clearwater considers vitality. The fact that Lee Arnold is going to build luxury condominiums downtown is a joke. Once the Scientology ‘super power’ building is complete, Clearwater will be even more of a destination (and second home) for none other than wealthy Scientologists. The luxury condominiums will be needed for those who are above living 10 to a room in one of the many hotel and apartment complexes occupied by the lesser-ranking Scientologists. If you speak out against Scientology, not only can you be refused service at many establishments in downtown Clearwater, but the same folks who are promoting downtown may take away your business. I am talking about the city lot that we at Club More used for our customers to park in the four years we were open. A letter from the city engineer in January confirmed the plans for a paved, metered lot. This is one of the major reasons we opened our kitchen at Club More. But no, sorry, not only can you no longer use the parking lot, now you won’t have any parking for a lunchtime business; and you’ve just wasted $50,000 putting in a kitchen. I believe it’s because I have continually spoken out against Scientology. Then Club More hosted a benefit for the Lisa McPherson Trust. – F. Charles Gordon, Clearwater”

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“Scientology is a racist philosophy. It’s anti homo sapiens.”

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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for February 8. Trial scheduled for August 29, 2022.
— ‘Lafayette Ronald Hubbard’ (a/k/a Justin Craig), false imprisonment, aggravated assault, plus drug charges: Hearing scheduled for November 30.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference December 17 in Los Angeles

— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for February 11.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Eleventh Circuit affirmed ruling granting Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Garcias considering next move.
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments held November 2, awaiting a ruling.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9, 2020 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

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We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Another social media harvest that reveals Scientology’s planetary takeover
[TWO years ago] Scientology moves to dismiss the ‘Jane Doe’ lawsuit in Miami, and we have the docs
[THREE years ago] While Leah Remini asks for government action, the government covers for Scientology overseas
[FOUR years ago] DOX: Sworn testimony that a U.S. state was too afraid to take on the Church of Scientology
[FIVE years ago] As you watch Leah Remini’s show tonight, keep these people disappeared by Scientology in mind
[SIX years ago] Jonny Jacobsen: Why the Moscow ban on Scientology may be built on shaky foundations
[SEVEN years ago] Jon Atack excavates the Scientology mind for L. Ron Hubbard’s most harmful implants
[EIGHT years ago] Tonight: Scientology Gets Its IAS Gala On — Let’s Get Dauntless, Defiant, and Resolute!
[TEN years ago] Scientology’s Cruise Ship as Prison: The Voice Interviews Valeska Paris

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,499 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 3,004 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,524 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,544 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,435 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,742 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,610 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,384 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,714 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,188 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,504 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,070 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,989 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,157 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,738 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,999 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,035 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,750 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,275 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 630 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,805 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,356 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,505 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,825 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,680 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,799 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,155 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,458 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,564 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,962 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,838 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,421 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,916 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,170 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,279 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on November 29, 2021 at 07:00

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The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

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Even apologist professors can’t ignore the recent tidal wave of ex-Scientologist memoirs

Chris Shelton — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 12:00:49 +0000

[Just some of the many memoirs published in recent years]

Chris Shelton continues his look at the state of ‘religious studies’ attitudes about Scientology by working through a new issue of the journal Implicit Religion. Go here for his first, second, third, and fourth installments.

Today we continue our look at the academic articles posted in Implicit Religion, the Journal for the Critical Study of Religion, published in 2020 and covering Scientology exclusively.

Most of the articles are from self-described New Religious Movement scholars: Sociologists and religious studies scholars who have been vocally supportive of groups such as Scientology, the Unification Church (the “Moonies”) and Aum Shinrikyo, and have even given expert testimony in courts on the side of these and many other cults. This, even though Aum Shinrikyo is a proven terrorist organization which attempted to mass murder hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens, a fact that was denied in press conferences by James R. Lewis and Gordon Melton, two of the most vocal of the NRM group, just hours before the police raided the group’s labs and arrested its leader.

This was one of the most spectacular of their mistakes (and it was publicly humiliating) but the so-called Cult Wars have been fueled by mistakes of this kind, even if not this volume, with so many other groups, including the Church of Scientology. So it is with a little bit of happiness that in today’s article we see a glimmer of hope in the otherwise bleak picture I have painted. Today we hear from Carole Cusack, an Australian professor of religious studies at the University of Sydney in a paper titled “Apostate Memoirs and the Study of Scientology in the Twenty-First Century.”

Cusack is someone I have taken to task in the past for a paper she had written about Scientology celebrities, but this time I am going to give credit where it is due. While I’ve been very critical of NRM scholarship, I think we have to look for and find common ground if we are ever going to resolve or hope to get beyond the Cult Wars. I don’t know that is possible with the more entrenched of these scholars, but I think a newer wave is coming up in academia who may be more receptive to a truly objective approach to destructive cults in a religious context, so scholars don’t feel they have to be apologists for the subjects they are studying.

In earlier posts, I’ve called out the NRM attitude towards us “bitter defrocked apostates on the fringes of the Internet” – in other words, ex-members of destructive cults. The dogma as instituted in the 1970s by sectarian sociologists Bryan R. Wilson was that former members were wholly unreliable as a group because they only wanted revenge on their former groups and made up “atrocity tales” to attract attention and even money. This all-or-nothing approach has dominated the fields of sociology and religious studies ever since. That is a real shame, because this very unscientific prejudice is what has turned the NRM academics into mouthpieces for the cults.

If the only information they are receiving are glowing testimonials and public-relations-like photos and records from the cult leadership, then of course they are only going to get a positive picture of the group. For any group with an agenda, of course that’s going to be true because they are always going to want the best possible picture of their group presented to the world at large, whether it’s in public media or academic publications. And let’s not forget, the cults are extremely motivated to get these academics on their side, because it is these same academics who will then provide expert testimony for the cults in court cases. There is nothing more valuable to destructive cults than the allies they create outside their groups, in normal society, who can be their unwitting mouthpieces. Some NRM scholars acknowledge this is a reality, yet fail to see how they have actually created that problem in the first place through their self-created bias against all former members of any group these academics deem “blessed.”

Cusack, though, breaks with tradition in her very short paper and makes a case that with the explosion of “apostate memoirs” from 2008 forward (following the Anonymous campaign), it is high time that these resources be utilized to gain a more balanced perspective of these groups. While I noted that not once did Cusack ever let herself go so far as to say these groups can be abusive or violent, she made the case that critical testimonials from former members, properly fact checked and taken in context with the rest of the available information, could help inform scholars as to the full picture of what they are dealing with and what some, if not all, of the members may experience. In fact, she stands out as someone in the NRM world who has actually tried to engage with the material us ex-members have produced, as she writes here:

The net impact of 2008 on CoS, which began in January with a video of Tom Cruise accepting the Freedom Medal of Valor and progressed in February via hacktivist group Anonymous launching Project Chanology, which threatened to expel Scientology from the Internet, was entirely negative….In 2009 apostate Scientologists were interviewed in various media, and more memoirs appeared. In the next decade: a range of tell-all reminiscences of varying levels of sophistication were issued; two quality journalistic treatments, Janet Reitman’s Inside Scientology: The Story of America’s Most Secretive Religion (2011) and Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2013) were published; two documentary films, Going Clear (2015) directed by Alex Gibney and Louis Theroux’s My Scientology Movie (2015)…were released; a feature film, The Master (2012) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman as Lancaster Dodd of the Cause, an L. Ron Hubbard-type figure was made….

Cusack goes on to list many of the individual titles we are familiar with which were published after 2008 such as Marc Headley’s Blown for Good, Nancy Many’s My Billion Year Contract, Luke Catton’s Have You Told All? and others. She then confirms what I have been saying when she writes “To date, the apostate memoirs have attracted little scholarly attention: Don Jolly’s study of how Miscavige-Hill, Bornstein and Lawrence Wright – who is not a memoirist but foregrounds the experiences of screenwriter Paul Haggis, who left CoS ‘due to its treatment of gays and lesbians’ – explore issues of sexuality in Scientology is directly focused on them; my own article on L. Ron Hubbard and sex and chapter on ‘Leaving New Religious Movements’ discuss them in passing.”

At least one thing Cusack proves, though, is that NRM academics have access and awareness of anti-Scientology material and thus far, they’ve really only ignored it. Given that fact, it was nice to see someone in the NRM camp is getting the message, but it appears she really did. She notes “Whistle-Blowers and Apostates, who are critical and perhaps hostile, may be pursued by religious organizations and experience difficulties. Does this invalidate their memories? Benjamin Zablocki argued that ‘there is very little difference between the reliability (that is, stability over time) of accounts from believers and ex-believers (or apostates).’ The validity of such memoirs is harder to determine, as members give positive accounts while apostates typically provide negative accounts (not only of NRMs but of all religions). To build new knowledge scholars use member and ex-member sources, testing them against each other, adding fieldwork, observations, previous academic research, and accounts by outsiders, including journalists, to round out the picture.”

Cusack is right, in that scholars do use member and ex-member accounts, whereas shills are the ones who only listen to one side of the story and then write their articles and monographs, as we’ve seen time and again with the likes of Melton, etc. We still have a long way to go, as the influence peddling these groups have engaged in since the 1960s all the way to now is significant and it matters. It matters in the court cases that are happening right now and which we have been recently gnashing our teeth over because Scientology seems to be handed victory after victory when the truth of the situation is so obvious to us. We lose sight of the fact that the truth is not so obvious to everyone else, and the truth is even being clouded and confused by these NRM scholars and their propaganda disguised as scholarship. So, I applaud Cusack for her paper and I hope that other NRM scholars can see sense in what she is saying. Perhaps we’ll see more scholarship and less shilling as a result.

— Chris Shelton

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Austin is on fire!

Come on, you know you want to help mankind!

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“I couldn’t tell you where I lived in 1102 A.D. My memory on the earlier track wasn’t so bad, but they — in spots — but I realized there was practically nothing on the early, early track at all. Nothing! What was this? There were great big chunks like twenty years missing out of the track, see….During the war I remember vividly thinking about the Phoenician navy and how different our administrative system was than the Phoenician navy’s administrative system and so on. And of course I’d been in my same rank for so long, that I was getting moldy. That was true of anybody who went out to the combat areas. And I mentioned this to somebody. I didn’t tell them, I didn’t tell them I was remembering and so forth. I got dreamily reminiscent about the Phoenician navy and the good old days, you know. They printed me up a certificate on the ship and they printed me up a commission, feeling sorry for me for being in grade for so long, you see. And gave me my original commission back as a lieutenant in the Phoenician navy with the date of rank, 1003 B.C. printed on it. Only it didn’t seem very funny to me. Only they didn’t have lieutenants. Well, we won’t go off into that. There was another way of designating rank and grade. What all this comes down to was how willing I was to create the early track or to create the memory of an early track, which is all memory is. Now you have a reality on it because you know it is-was.” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 17, 1959

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“WEBSPREAD: Today Colonel Webspread begins an amazing fantastic and horrifying new adventure. All those who are not Grade – 47 are cautioned not to follow his auditing experiences as they will be found far too restimulative. The management takes no responsibility for heart failures or lost chewing gum while following the Colonel’s Adventures.” — The Commodore, November 17, 1970

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“Thetans until recently have kept only getting worse, losing their far superior innate abilities and instead buying into MEST livelihoods, MEST ‘solutions,’ bigger computers, AI and now 5G. It’s IT vs PSI. Which will win, and what direction are we Independent Scientologists pursuing, I wonder.”

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1996: An anonymous web searcher reported that they were sent Scientology material after browsing their web site. Apparently, Scientology is tracking the users of the site and, in some cases, sending targeted email to users. “I was doing some research on the Church of Scientology for an English paper. I visit their web site once from my Unix Box using Netscape. Not less than a week after I did the search, I have started to receive literature from one of their front groups that wishes to ban the practice of Psychiatry (The Citizen’s Coalition for Human Rights.) The only file that I knew of that I read from the official Scientology Website was the one that contained all the trademark information. (The names of all their Gods, Teachings, and Sacraments are all copyright information.) So all I had to is visit one web site and somehow they got enough info on me to start sending me mailings. I am NOT amused as they have been reported in the news as a dangerous cult. I guess they got enough information now to get my phone number too. So, as a reminder, if you are researching something on the net that you don’t want to be involved in, be sure to blank out your name and email address. Those cookie files and Java scripts can give stuff that you don’t want out.”

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“Scientology came into existence in the 50s, which saw the advent of the beatniks and new ageism followed by the hippies and a rampant world wide interest in the supernatural, occult, and paranormal. It’s fitting to me that Scientology peaked in the 80s with the rise of the yuppie.”

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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for February 8. Trial scheduled for August 29, 2022.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference December 17 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for November 19.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

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We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Valerie Haney to state supremes: Scientology abuses less real than deadlines in a pandemic?
[TWO years ago] Scientology’s sleep cures are enough to keep you up at night
[THREE years ago] Cyril Vosper: The mind-bending illogic of Scientology’s upper levels
[FOUR years ago] Days before jumping to his death, actor Brad Bufanda credited Scientology with saving his life
[FIVE years ago] San Diego’s new Scientology ‘Ideal Org’ looks like it’s ready for its close-up
[SIX years ago] Our Scientology tech experts review Lisa McPherson’s grim cycle of guilt and self-blame
[SEVEN years ago] More L. Ron Hubbard history that Scientology has done its best to disappear
[EIGHT years ago] LIVE OVER CLEARWATER: Watching Scientology from an Eye in the Sky
[NINE years ago] Scientology Accused of Spending Millions to Influence Florida Judges
[TEN years ago] Scientology Chillin’ With Hip Hop! A Video That Cannot Be Unseen

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,487 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,992 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,512 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,532 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,423 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,730 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,598 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,372 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,702 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,176 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,492 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,058 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,977 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,145 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,726 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,987 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,023 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,738 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,263 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 618 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,793 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,344 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,493 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,813 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,668 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,787 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,143 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,446 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,552 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,950 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,826 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,409 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,904 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,158 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,267 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on November 17, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Profs looking at tiny groups of American ‘indies’ miss Scientology’s big issues

Chris Shelton — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 12:00:25 +0000

The Church of Scientology dominated my mind and my life for the first forty years of my life. That’s a long time and in that time, I experienced all the good and all of the bad that membership had to offer, with an emphasis on the bad because that is, in the main, what Scientology delivers. The clouds of lies that filled my thinking after I left Scientology was like a plague of locusts buzzing relentlessly around my head, always noisy and always at the forefront of my attention. It’s taken years to isolate each of those damn buzzing lies and debunk them.

I wonder sometimes if I’ll ever get them all. It’s always a little difficult for me to maintain perspective about this group since, in the end, it was my abuser. How does one ever become truly “objective” towards the primary source of one’s trauma and guilt? I can’t and I doubt I ever will, and I’ve had to conclude for myself, that is just how it is. But perhaps my lack of objectivity and the sense of mission I feel about exposing Scientology’s abuses to the world is the kind of counterfoil needed to push back against those who are, perhaps, too “objective” about Scientology. And of course, I’m referring to the self-described New Religious Movement academics, professionals in the fields of sociology and religious studies who have decided that groups like Scientology or the Unification Church (the “Moonies”) or the Jehovah’s Witnesses are credible, legitimate religious activities worthy of deep research and to stand on an equal footing with Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. I have a different take and this week, I get to talk a bit more about that in critiquing another NRM scholar’s work.

This week, we are looking at “Toward a Study of ‘Scientologies’” by Aled Thomas, published in the collection of mainly pro-Scientology articles in Implicit Religion, volume 23.2. According to his bio, Thomas is a PhD candidate at the Open University in the UK, and he is fascinated by the existence of the Free Zone and spends a great deal of his research time looking into this, such as his earlier paper “Scientology Beyond the Church: The Practice of Auditing in the Free Zone.” Thomas starts off by commenting on the podcast and earlier articles in the Implicit Religion journal (which I’ve written about here in the last few weeks), picking up on the suggestions that Doherty proposed for future studies of Scientology. Thomas agrees with Doherty’s “urging of scholars to move beyond the NRM/Cultic debate that has previously dominated the field, and move towards a collaborative research programme.”

Personally, I’d like to see a multi-disciplinary and more objective approach to Scientology, but I don’t know that it’s possible to move it beyond the “NRM/Cultic” debate, as Thomas describes. As I wrote in my last article, Scientology is analogous to the Mafia and pretending otherwise is not engaging with the truth of the situation no matter what metric you care to use to measure the Church of Scientology. At the end of the day, it’s a criminal enterprise disguised as a religious movement.

However, Thomas has an interesting proposal in his article which is worth talking about. Instead of arguing endlessly about whether the official Church of Scientology is a destructive cult or whether it has social or cultural value, he instead suggests that the study of Scientology should expand and “…scholars moving forward in research on Scientology should carefully engage with the notion of ‘Scientologies,’ including both the Church of Scientology (CoS) and Free Zone/Independent Scientology (Scientology outside the CoS) and integrate it within their research.”

Of course, some might wonder why we need more than one Scientology since we can’t even seem to agree much about the one we do have. I think there’s validity to that argument. However, Thomas brings up an intriguing and quite factual point: Scientology as a subject is not defined solely by what L. Ron Hubbard and Church of Scientology have to say about it. This is readily apparent in any Reddit or Facebook group where Independent Scientologists show up and start talking about what they think Scientology is, what it means to them and how they practice it. One quickly finds that Hubbard’s notions about Standard Tech and Keeping Scientology Working are just fantasies that more than a couple of his followers never really subscribed to, if they even understood them in the first place. Thomas’s view of the Indie/Free Zone experience is that it is important, as he writes here:

“…it becomes clear that the Free Zone has become a significant voice in contemporary Scientology in the digital age, particularly in its use of the Internet to make its presence known….we must avoid top-down institutional dictations of ‘what Scientology is’ in favour of a bottom-up approach that considers the realities of everyday life for Scientologists across Scientologies – an approach which can extend to the use of Hubbard’s tech in non-Scientologist spaces.”

It is certainly true that Scientology could be broken down in lots of different ways. One could consider the “philosophy” of Scientology as separate from how the official Church or the Free Zoners practice it, i.e. what do the actual “Source materials” say, what can be inferred from Hubbard’s truth claims and what do these things tell us about him, his group and other philosophies? These and hundreds of other research questions could be formulated, and quite intensive studies could be done. Given the scores of contradictions and inconsistencies baked into every level of Scientology, I doubt that any of these studies would be very useful to the world at large, but they could be done. It would be very difficult, at the end of the day, to pin Hubbard down to a core set of unalterable ideas about Scientology because he truly was all over the map. Even his “axioms” (self-evident truths) are far from self-evident or true.

One could separately study the performance or practice of Scientology and compare/contrast that with what Hubbard wrote or how the lived experience of Scientologists differs from the lived experience of a Christian or a Muslim. One could look into the lifestyle and daily or routine practices Scientologists engage in, i.e. how do they do Scientology and what does it mean for them in their own individual lives? What’s it like living a life striving to walk a definite but financially costly path to achieve “spiritual freedom?” What do they really hope to gain?

These could be interesting studies but, as Thomas and other NRM scholars have wistfully and only half-heartedly acknowledged, the Church of Scientology is not transparent or open and will not provide researchers with Scientologists to talk with or interview without first “preparing” those Scientologists to carefully express only what the Church wants them to say. Yes, the NRM scholars do know that the Church of Scientology is blatantly dishonest with them and openly tries to deceive them yet still refuse to consider that there might possibly be something deeper and more nefarious going on with this group than religious studies. I constantly wonder how they could be so naïve, but I digress.

My primary critique with Thomas’ approach of breaking this subject down into “Scientologies” is that this topic is not quite the simple binary Thomas supposes it is. He proposes that there are two “real” Scientologies to study: the official Church and the Free Zone/Indie movement. Even though other NRM scholars have advised Thomas that the FZ is a tiny, fringe thing and really just a kind of curiosa rather than a separate subject of study. Yet, I would point out to Thomas that the FZ/Indie movement represent just the latest schism in Scientology and his idea is, as usual, hopelessly naive.

You see, there are many groups over the years which have taken some or even most of Scientology, given it new labelling or changed some of the concepts around and then renamed it something new. If you’ve ever heard of Werner Erhard and his brainchild EST, then you have seen at least one such example of Scientology being ripped off and a whole new group started using some of its pieces. EST evolved into Landmark, then Landmark Forum and now Landmark Worldwide. That’s just the trajectory of one squirrel group. We have seen a host of such groups, many of which the Hubbard himself officially identified and labelled starting in the early 50s. He even implemented “Project Squirrel” on December 2, 1966, to get the Guardian’s Office to ‘investigate every SP engaged in Squirrel actions or anti-Scientology actions’ and turn them in to the police when any criminal activity was found or bring suits against them in court to cease their squirrel activities.

How many of these groups does Thomas want to study? Also, how are scholars going to study how Scientology is utilized in “non-Scientology spaces”? Is any classroom where a teacher tells a student to look up a word in a dictionary an instance of “Hubbard’s tech in non-Scientologist spaces”? I’m curious what Thomas imagines this kind of study is supposed to look like given that almost all of Scientology was derived, if not outright copied, from earlier sources in psychology and the occult.

I will resist the temptation to go into detail about how “squirrels” in Scientology are tantamount to religious heretics and even apostates from the point of view of Scientologists. That may draw too many unwelcome comparisons to how NRM scholars such as Thomas are totally okay with interviewing, surveying, or studying “squirrels” but they won’t give us former Scientologists (apostates) the time of day or listen to a word we have to say. I will just say I find Thomas to be as hypocritical as every other NRM scholar on this point and leave it at that.

In essence, that is all Thomas had to offer and, as you can tell, I don’t think much of his proposal. But I want to be clear that the reason for this is not because I have a chip on my shoulder about Scientology or even about NRM scholars. It’s because I have a thing for the truth.

The truth is that the Church of Scientology is a money-making scam, not a valid or credible religious movement. Treating it with the same degree of importance and legitimacy as mainstream religions is a huge mistake and one that I think these NRM scholars will continue making for many years to come. My battle with them is only just beginning. The victims of Scientology deserve to be heard and their stories taken seriously, especially by those in the halls of academia. It is time the tide turns in our favor and I hope that my work on this will help accomplish that.

— Chris Shelton

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Leah Remini podcast: Aaron Kaufman

Says Mike: “This week we talk to filmmaker Aaron Kaufman. He is known for producing Robert Rodriguez films, and more recently for directing the documentary on Jehovah’s Witnesses for Vice TV Crusaders. Aaron was raised a JW and his doc focuses on the data base of sex abusers the JW’s have which they have refused to make public. Plenty of scientology parallels in this discussion.” Listen to the episode right here!

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Derek Lambert and Karen de la Carriere

Marking the death of Lisa McPherson, 26 years ago on December 5.

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Bonus items from our tipsters

This new Ideal Org is going to rock!

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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

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“Auditing itself depends to some degree on miracle healing. And the longer you sit back waiting for the process to do it, and the longer you sit back waiting for Ron to do it, the less it’s going to happen. You’re not going to make Clears waiting for something else to do it. You’re going to do it. If you don’t do it — look, who else is there! There’s the pc and he’s been an aberree for the last 15 trillion, squillion years, hasn’t he? He’s been spinning ever since they pulled his last temple down on his head or whatever happened. Well, if he could get out of the bank just at a whoooo, he wouldn’t be your pc, so he can’t do it. And when you’re in an auditing room all by yourself with just the pc, you know, and a couple of chairs or couch or something, you look around real carefully and find out who else in that room is going to do it! Nobody going to do it but you.” — L. Ron Hubbard, November 9, 1959

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“THIS PORT: This is a very upstat area and our general relations with the shore are very good. We will be here for 15 days or more, at this or some other dock, as we are getting heat into the tween decks and holds and having some other repairs done. So if you have any extensive work or actions that need doing, now is the time to do them. As the World Health Organization is not all that good in restricting epidemics and although there is nothing particular wrong here, you are warned not to eat fresh fruits without peeling them and fresh uncooked foods ashore. Also do not drink any fresh water that has not been chlorinated.” — The Commodore, November 9, 1971

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“Apparently, and there’s evidence for this in my researches, aliens or beings from outside this dimension abduct people and tinker with their DNA, giving them DNA that makes them more prone to certain actions like enslaving others. Then these aliens don’t have to physically invade a planet, they just tinker with the locals’ DNA and these guys then go setting up a New World Order and they are Earthlings who are doing it to their own planet! Hubbard seems to be talking about this sort of stuff in the OT 8 Truth Revealed Briefing. He refers to beings exterior to time and how they work through others in order to take over certain areas of the MEST universe. This is my best guess as to what he is trying to explain in that document.”

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1995: David Milligan continues his battle for the Internet domain “dianetics.com.” “I will continue to use dianetics.com for the next 90 days, during that time I will be offering mail service for a flat fee of $90.00 CANADIAN for the set-up of a E-Mail account and an aliases such as ‘lron@dianetics.com’ or ‘brainwash@dianetics.com’ this will be an actual valid return address for your E-Mail. The funds will go to pay the provider of the E-Mail service and to start a legal fund to fight the attempt to take this domain from me, if I win I will continue to provide the mail service to all Net users. My stand on this is, if RTC chooses not to negotiate a resolution to this dispute I would like to challenge the Trademark rights in court, I believe that the current Trademark laws do not effectively deal with the use of a name as a address on the Internet.”

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“How long did it take for the Shakers to cease to exist? As far as I’m concerned that’s the basic scenario we’re looking at here. The feds aren’t going to do anything about Scientology ever and there’s not going to be any Jonestown event (thank gawd) so what does that leave except a fade out to non-existence?”

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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for November 10. Trial tentatively scheduled for February.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference December 17 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for November 19.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30, 2020 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments held November 2, awaiting a ruling.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9, 2020 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

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We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] How Scientology can prove us wrong about L. Ron Hubbard’s ‘sheep-dipped’ valor
[TWO years ago] The Scientology-‘Ancient Aliens’ tie-in we just know you were waiting for
[THREE years ago] Someone is faking Lawrence Wright emails — and this one is about the Underground Bunker
[FOUR years ago] French-kissing Wilt Chamberlain: Adventures of a teenager in the skeezy world of Scientology
[FIVE years ago] How a new independent ‘church’ is trying to wrestle away control over the word ‘Scientology’
[SIX years ago] Scientology on the high seas: When L. Ron Hubbard was still making tech ‘breakthroughs’
[SEVEN years ago] Scientology Sunday Funnies: Kirstie Alley is now Super Powered!
[EIGHT years ago] Luis Garcia Responds to Scientology’s Arbitration Scheme
[NINE years ago] SHOCKER: Court Punishes Scientology For Acting Like…Scientology

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,479 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,984 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,504 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,524 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,415 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,722 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,590 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,364 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,694 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,168 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,484 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,050 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,969 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,137 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,718 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,979 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,015 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,730 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,255 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 610 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,785 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,336 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,485 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,805 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,660 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,779 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,135 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,438 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,544 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,942 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,818 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,401 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,896 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,150 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,259 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on November 9, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Religion professor complains that no one wants to hear the good news about Scientology

Chris Shelton — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 11:00:05 +0000

This week we are examining “Researching and Teaching Scientology: Perception and Performance of a New Religion” by Stephen E. Gregg of the University of Wolverhampton in the UK. Gregg is a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and the Hon. Secretary of the British Association for the Study of Religions and as I’ve mentioned in other articles, he has no credentials or apparent understanding of psychology, sociology, or the subject of coercive control, so his views are informed strictly through a lens of religious studies.

His conclusions about studying groups like Scientology suffer from his ignorance. Gregg was one of the four participants of the podcast I commented on in our first article and this article is his follow-up to that. I will focus on only one point he makes. The rest of his article is the usual, almost boiler-plate nonsense about how rough religious scholars have it studying groups like Scientology.

“New Religious Movement” is the euphemism that academics like Gregg have adopted so they can stay away from the more “problematic” words and concepts surrounding destructive cults, and they can then ignore the more flagrant human and civil rights abuses these groups engage in. I wish this were not actually the case, but I’ve read their papers (and critiqued them publicly) and they really do have their heads buried in the sand that deeply. They continually lament that the media and “apostate” stories dominate the conversation when it comes to groups like the Church of Scientology or the Moonies.

What is fascinating is the lack of self-awareness by NRM scholars toward their own field. Each article in Implicit Religion which I have examined so far (and this is the third) all share a theme that if only the media and former members hadn’t polluted the subject, they could do real academic work and not be impeded by all these nonsensical horror stories from the “cult narrative.”

One wonders what they could possibly mean by “real” academic work, since there is a great deal of valid research that could be done on this subject; it just seems to me that these academics refuse to do it.

In writing about the history of NRM apologetics Gregg writes, “The rise of Anti-cultic approaches to NRMs created a two-fold problem; firstly, that NRMs were often misrepresented and demonized, and secondly, that NRMs were treated as somehow different to other (often ‘mainstream’) religions. This propensity has continued throughout the decades since, despite the best efforts of NRM scholars who, although oft labelled ‘cult-apologists’ by their detractors, have simply sought to understand NRM communities as-lived and on their own terms, rather than through the reductive theological lens of anti-cultic commentators.”

I’m one of those detractors and I have labelled Gregg and others as cult apologists because that is, in effect, what their work is utilized for, even if that is not what they intended. I think in my earlier articles and videos pertaining to religious scholars, I’ve made the counterargument enough times to this NRM approach that I don’t have to repeat it here. Instead, Gregg brings up another point in his article which I wanted to highlight because it indicates there may be a sea change in academia on this subject.

In a rare bit of self-assessment about his career, Gregg writes: “It is apparent in my experience, however, that an undervaluing of the study of New Religions is still prevalent in the wider Study of Religions. Anecdotal evidence borne out of experiences at academic conferences, where ‘NRM panels’ often struggle for attendees, despite high profile speakers, may be little more than a reflection of the stretched obligations of attendees at large parallel-panel events, but Ben Zeller tellingly noted at the INFORM 25TH Anniversary Conference of 2013 that, in a trawl of the previous decades’ North American job listings in Religious Studies, not one position sought a specialist in NRMs. He concluded that colleagues were only keeping the area of study going by having other specialisms that allowed us to be employable, after which we may undertake research into NRMs when in post. This is certainly true of my own academic career to date.”

All of that to simply say that no one is particularly interested in the bullshit that NRM scholars are shoveling these days and it appears this ‘area of research’ is finally dying the death it deserves. Don’t get me wrong because I feel very strongly that there is a valid subject of study in new religious movements but notice the lack of capitalized letters there. ‘New Religious Movement’ amongst this lot is simply code for a destructive cult which the academics don’t want to admit is such. There are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is that by bringing such a strong and blatant bias to their research, these academics have discredited themselves and, to a degree, their field.

I’ve been thinking about how to talk about how ridiculous this whole NRM thing is and here’s the best analogy I could make: imagine if you had a faction of economists who argued vigorously that the Mafia should be studied from the perspective that they are a legitimate business enterprise. They assert that this entire idea of “the Mafia” is just a fantasy dreamed up by an insatiable, controversy-hungry media and sour, disinherited family members who are just out to tarnish the good name of the Corleone or Randazzo families. According to these economists, these families aren’t engaged in a massive criminal conspiracy but are just good, hard-working immigrants who are trying to make their way in the world by utilizing traditional family values and methods from the Old Country.

It wouldn’t be hard in this age of conflicting social and ethnic values to even make this argument stick and gain some degree of agreement and before you know it, papers are being written and presented at economic conferences singing the praises of this “New Business Model.” The NBM economists, as they become known, meet and form groups and write more papers and try very hard for decades to pass themselves off as a legitimate form of study, research and discussion.

Meanwhile, law enforcement and the actual victims of the Mafia as well as the media look at what the NBM economists are saying and think to themselves that they’re just a bunch of nutters. And that, of course, is how I have thought of NRM scholars from the first paper I read by them. So, it put a bit of a smile on my face that Gregg is openly wondering about the future of his apologist profession. I hope that does the same for you. That was the most positive and comment-worthy aspect of Gregg’s paper and so that’s all I’m going to write about this week on it.

— Chris Shelton

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Austin still needs help staffing up for its grand opening. Houston to the rescue!

James is on his way to gain the knowledge of life!

Emma parts with more body thetans on OT 5 and is in tears!

Patty re-signed her staff contract!

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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

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“You know, a fellow’s walking down the street and a thought flashes through his mind that maybe some of his behavior is not entirely masculine, maybe it is slightly effeminate. In other words, the datum is there ‘Maybe I’m a girl.’ Well, it’s, you see, it’s very nebulous. You know, maybe he’s just playing a game with himself of worry, something. We come along, we pat him on the shoulder, he tells us what he’s worried about. We don’t even have to tell him ‘You’re not a girl,’ see? I mean, he just tells us what he was worried about, he — boom! See, it’s gone that quick.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 25, 1956

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“In the exact place Christopher Columbus, returning from his first voyage, got blown off that bay just like we did. He had anchored and half the crew went ashore to give thanks in a church-hermitage at that place and were seized by the islanders. Columbus, still aboard the Nina, his smallest ship, lost both his anchors and with only 3 sailors and some ships boys had to get out of there as a gale struck. He came up to where we are now, rode out the gale, went back, PRed his crew out of the goal, recovered an anchor and sailed on to Lisbon and into history.” — The Commodore, October 25, 1970

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“You know, with more and more of us dying and coming back (Revenimus?), I wonder if you could actually get away with a business catering to this need? Somebody’d have to store your crap for a couple of decades, and then you’d have to give your passphrase to get it back. ‘Theta-Store Inc.’ Motto: ‘We got your crap. Come get it back.’ Yeah, I’m definitely on to something here!”

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2001: Bob Minton was awarded the Leo J. Ryan award at the Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation conference. Some excerpts from the address by Bob Minton and introduction by Priscilla Coates: “The first Leo J. Ryan award was given in 1981. Leo J. Ryan was a congressman from the Bay area of California, who became concerned about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. He investigated. He became more concerned. He became so concerned about his constituents and their families that he went to Jonestown, Guyana. He thought, I believe, that he was protected by the press. The press, I believe, thought they were protected by a U.S. congressman. Instead, both press and Congressman Leo J. Ryan were assassinated in Jonestown, Guyana, November 18, 1978. The individual who receives the Leo J. Ryan award is one who has demonstrated the courage and commitment that Congressman Ryan showed in the extreme; that individual who feels a duty as a human being to preserve and protect our most basic human rights. This year we are proud, and Congressman Ryan would be proud to present the award to Mr. Robert Minton.”

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“I’ll have you know I read each and every comment very carefully and that there are a myriad of reasons for why I may upvote them…or not.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:

— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for November 10. Trial tentatively scheduled for February.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference December 17 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for November 19.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30, 2020 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments scheduled for November 2.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9, 2020 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

——————–

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Leaked from Scientology social media: Incredible beings joining the winning team!
[TWO years ago] We have a Scientology document (we think) Priscilla Presley doesn’t want us to show you
[THREE years ago] A Scientology ‘Fair Game’ tactic from way back: Sexually degrading harassment
[FOUR years ago] Chris Owen: How one country, at least, is savaging Scientology’s privacy nightmare
[FIVE years ago] Until the spaceships arrive, Scientologists measure cosmic success in framed glory
[SIX years ago] Jon Atack: Scientology’s ‘past lives’ don’t pass the giggle test
[SEVEN years ago] Jon Atack: Scientology and hypnotism — even some ex-members can’t admit its central role
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology Moves to Dismiss Garcia Fraud Lawsuit On a Question of Jurisdiction
[NINE years ago] Tom Cruise Sues, UK Scientologists Sue, Narconon Is Sued: It’s a Legal Free-For-All!!
[TEN years ago] Scientology Responds in Typical Fashion to South Park Investigation Documents
[TWELVE years ago] ‘Crash’ Director Paul Haggis Ditches Scientology

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,464 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,969 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,489 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,509 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,400 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,707 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,575 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,349 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,679 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,153 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,469 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,035 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,954 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,122 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,703 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,964 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 3,000 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,715 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,240 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 595 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,770 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,321 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,470 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,790 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,645 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,764 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,120 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,423 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,529 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,927 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,803 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,386 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,881 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,135 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,244 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 25, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Is it really possible to study Scientology and ignore the people who were damaged by it?

Chris Shelton — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 11:00:09 +0000

Chris Shelton continues his look into a new academic volume, an issue of the journal Implicit Religion dedicated to Scientology. Here’s his previous piece.

Today we are examining the second article of the recent special edition of Implicit Religion, this one penned by Dr. Bernard Doherty of Charles Sturt University in Australia. He is a religious studies scholar who has published on Christianity and whose interests (according to the university website) are “wide-ranging and include New Religious Movements, Patristics, Australian religious history, Church and State issues, religion and the media.” I’ll note as I did in my article last week that this man has no qualifications or apparent understanding of psychology or even sociology, and thus is approaching the analysis and criticism of Scientology purely from a religious studies perspective.

This article is interesting because it’s an effort to “highlight some of the internal and external factors which work to make the study of Scientology a potential minefield for scholars of New Religions.”

Doherty has some suggestions for how this might be more effectively done, and I thought I’d offer my thoughts as a former Scientologist on what he had to say.

Doherty begins by citing the increasing body of work about Scientology by former members and journalists (he even mentioned Tony by name) as well as recent academic articles on the topic. He
seemed particularly taken with a 2018 publication by Donald Westbrook called Among the Scientologists, which he claims is proof that scholars no longer need to be afraid of Scientology, “though considerable challenges remain, both within and outside of the academy.” He got that much right.

He then makes four “modest proposals” as to how Scientology research might be advanced in the future, while acknowledging that these are more idealistic goals than they are achievable ends.

“Firstly, scholarly discussion must take place without fear or favour among scholars according to scholarly convention and unimpeded, so far as is realistically possible, by unreasonable attempts at moral suasion regarding publication and research by outside stakeholders from Scientology or from ex-members and critics.”

Here Doherty is simply suggesting that academics not take sides, but that ship has already sailed and personally, I don’t see any way of getting it to come back to port. Early and continuing scholarship by supposedly “objective” scholars has been shown (by me and others) to be nothing more than pro-cult propaganda pieces where the words of the cult leader’s PR department are uncritically repeated in academic prose and offered as the “truth” of what these groups are about. This led, naturally, to protests from former members, media outlets and some other scholars who weren’t blinded by their own biases to refute the pro-cult scholarship and thus began the “Cult Wars” which continue to this day.

“Second, a generational transition and willingness to work to put to rest past conflicts between scholars and scholarly paradigms in a spirit of mutual academic endeavor.”

Doherty acknowledges the problems presented by the Cult Wars and suggests a solution: “Rather than extending such conflicts into the future, however, I believe a younger generation of scholars who have not been directly party to these controversies need to open doors for dialogue here and take up the baton of scholarship rather than crying foul over perceived past injustices or perpetuating mistrust.”

Unfortunately to my eyes, this kumbaya message is nice, but highly unrealistic. Why? Well, how am I as an “apostate” supposed to fit into this respectful dialogue that Doherty proposes is supposed to occur?

The majority of New Religious Movement (NRM) scholars outright refuse to listen to former members or even consider they have anything relevant to add to the discussion. That’s not only unhelpful, but it’s also outright punitive and frankly, only serves to reinforce the trauma of the former members and empowers groups like Scientology to continue to get away with human and civil rights violations because the victims not only aren’t believed, they aren’t even listened to. This hardly presents a well-balanced or fair marketplace of ideas since all the critical and firsthand experiences of these former members are left out of the scholarly analyses of these groups. When this is done with malice aforethought, which it most certainly is when one considers the Church of Scientology’s attitude towards its critics, all this does is serve to help cults like Scientology continue to pull the wool over the eyes of said scholars. So, there is simply no way that this or any of Doherty’s goals can be achieved until this gross imbalance is settled within academia itself.

It should be noted that one of the reasons so many former members such as myself and others have written our own first-hand accounts or published our own video testimonials of our experiences was because we have been so ignored and insulted by NRM scholars. It was clear no one in academia cared to listen to us or take what we had to say seriously, and this not only didn’t make any sense, but it made it abundantly clear that NRM scholars were grossly biased in favor of traumatizing cultic groups like Scientology. They readily repeated Scientology’s lies but refused to consider we were telling the truth, and then those scholars had the nerve to say we were the ones muddying the waters and making objective research of these groups impossible. You have to give it to some of these guys; they really have some very big balls to say some of the things they say and expect to be taken seriously.

“Third, a more coherent and organized research program which draws on multiple fields of expertise and recognizes the contribution of all serious and rigorous research.”

I have made this same suggestion myself, but I sense a degree of disingenuousness in Doherty here. He suggests giving voice to “different perspectives and not to allow academic processes to be subtly hijacked to silence ‘dissent.’” Well, that’s fine and it sounds like he might be open to now hearing from us ex-members, for example, but then he follows with a diatribe lamenting the problem with “heavy-handed attempts at moral suasion.” I can’t tell for sure as he doesn’t tackle the question directly, but it appears from his language that Doherty wants to retain the status quo when it comes to accepting any input from those of us who understand these groups better than these NRM scholars ever will. I think that’s a real shame.

“Fourth, increased reflexivity and moral accountability amongst scholars whereby we acknowledge our individual blind-spots and embrace some kind of scholarly common good model.”

This basically calls for NRM scholars to eat a little humble pie and not take themselves or their views quite as seriously (or perhaps egocentrically) as some of them have done. I would certainly agree with this approach as it is abundantly clear in reading the literature on Scientology from my own well-informed perspective that most of these people are utterly clueless what Scientology is or how it is done, even after they have done their own literature reviews and published peer-reviewed papers. The plain fact is that most of those papers do little or nothing at all to forward or increase understanding of the Church of Scientology and its practices.

Personally, I believe the reason why NRM scholars miss on Scientology is because they, like all of us former members did and like many in the media do, they actually believe it is a religious movement. It’s not and it never was that. This can be read as just another biased view of an angry former member with an axe to grind, but I’ve actually been contemplating this problem for the last nine years and given it a great deal of study and discussion. Is Scientology a valid religion and should it be studied as such?

The answer, as far as I’m concerned, is a resounding “No.” It’s a con job that is disguising itself as a religion, using what Jeffrey Augustine so rightly described as “religious cloaking” to hide its true purpose: to bilk as many marks as possible of as much money as possible while chewing them up psychologically so they are not fit to fight back or even recognize what is being done to them.

Scientology is a traumatizing, mind altering practice with uniformly negative long-term results using almost any metric you care to bring to the table: finances, psychology, interpersonal relationships, or professional life. All of these areas and more are negatively impacted the longer a person remains a Scientologist. The exceptions are few and far between, even though many faux- exceptions are trotted out from time to time to make it appear Scientology is a legitimate, spiritually focused and charitable movement. It is none of those things and the sooner NRM scholars and other academics realize that and stop giving it the legitimacy it never deserved, the sooner we will see honest and objective scholarship of Scientology.

— Chris Shelton

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Derek Lambert and Karen de la Carriere

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Proof that Scientology works!

The hardest working celeb in Scientology!

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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

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“We have learned that it does no good in America to advertise. It doesn’t do any good to advertise. We get everybody we get by word of mouth. You understand, I’m merely talking on percentiles. Something like three out of fifty or three out of twenty-five come in because of ads. That is our average for all over the country.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 18, 1956

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“Talks: Thanks for the thanks I get on the talks. These Tapes (last 3 and onward) are to be copied and sent to other ships and added to AB Checksheet as the first items. LECTURE: THERE WILL BE NO LECTURE TONIGHT, Saturday or Sunday. They will resume Monday night. Two more are scheduled in the series — Monday and Tuesday.” — The Commodore, October 18, 1969

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“In one’s own subjective universe, anything is literally possible and time does not have to go forward and many universes can occur together — as many as a mind can invent. But that is not how the Eighth Dynamic and its visible physical Universe of the 6th Dynamic works. Therefore I am wary of the science fiction and intelligence agency campaigns to mess with our minds and entice us into doubting that we are at cause and in control to some small but significant extent, of our own reality in this larger Reality.”

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2001: John and Claire Swazey posted their Suppressive Person Declare this week. They have been Scientologists and contributors to the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup. “John and Claire have been associating with SPs for more than 2 years and have continued to do so despite clear Church policy. They have not been availing themselves of the true source data but have been getting false data from the SPs they have been associating with. As of May 2001 they went beyond associating with them and started assisting them in their attempts to attack the Church by spreading Black PR. They have publicly disavowed Scientology and Church management using a broad public medium and have violated the trademarks of the church and the laws of the land. Claire has broadcast entheta about Church management and Scientology, and associated with SPs using a broad public medium for more than 2 years. On the 29th of April 2001 she publicly disavowed the Church of Scientology and Church Management using a broad public medium, as well as giving enemy lines about Senior Management terminals. Claire has also been associating with a Church staff member feeding him entheta and false data about the Church resulting in his no longer wanting to work as a staff member in the Church.”

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“I asked vaLLarrr the Sci troll one time if any new OT levels were released, and they didn’t include Hubbard’s handwriting on some level, would s/he consider them genuine and s/he said ‘no’.”

——————–

Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30, 2020 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ US Supreme Court denied Valerie’s petition Oct 4.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments scheduled for November 2.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9, 2020 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

——————–

We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] The Top 25 People Enabling Scientology, No. 11: Gary Soter
[TWO years ago] Duggans abandon scheme, give $48.8 million in AbbVie stock directly to Scientology
[THREE years ago] Read the ‘disconnection letter’ from a brother telling his sis — Sylvia DeWall — so long forever
[FOUR years ago] Scientology slut-shames Mimi Faust after destroying her family because … it’s a church!
[FIVE years ago] Trademark lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehab network settles weeks before trial
[SIX years ago] Countdown to Friday: ‘Scientology’s Dirty Tricks’ on the menu in Sydney
[SEVEN years ago] Jon Atack: The question Scientologists aren’t allowed to ask each other
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology Drug Rehab: New Evidence in the Disturbing Case of Richard Teague
[NINE years ago] A Yoga Master’s Question For Scientology OT 8’s: Can You Show Cause Over Matter?
[TEN years ago] Scientology Petition Going to the Wire: Will Obama Be Forced to Say Something?

——————–

Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,457 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,962 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,482 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,502 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,393 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,700 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,568 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,342 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,672 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,146 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,462 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,028 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,947 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,115 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,696 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,957 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,993 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,708 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,233 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 588 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,763 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,314 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,463 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,783 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,638 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,757 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,113 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,416 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,522 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,920 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,796 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,379 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,874 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,128 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,237 days.

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 18, 2021 at 07:00

E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…

Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

Academics who ignore defectors as ‘apostates’ will never see Scientology for what it is

Chris Shelton — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 11:00:13 +0000

The Underground Bunker asked former Sea Org official Chris Shelton to dig into a new academic paperback about Scientology, which is the latest issue of a journal called Implicit Religion. We think you’ll find Chris’s take in this first piece, which he comes at admitting his own personal biases, fascinating.

In my limited experience with the “Cult Wars” that have been waged for a few decades now in the world of academia, I’ve perceived that there are three groups of scholars from varying disciplines feuding over the idea of coercive control, what new religious groups are and aren’t, and whether or not a group can actually be “destructive” or not.

The first group is the smallest: those who can see the general threat to public health and safety that is represented by destructive cults, whether those groups are operating under the guise of a religion or a self-help group or a business consulting service. You know by name some of these scholars, such as Stephen Kent, Hugh Urban, and James Beverley. This group tends to acknowledge that their work is done in an effort to expose the abuses that destructive cults engage in.

The next group are those academics, many from the field of religious studies, who seem to believe that any group which calls itself a religion and conducts itself “religiously” should be granted the freedom to believe and practice those ideas without interference. Such scholars view themselves as defenders of what they term “New Religious Movements” and push back hard against any ideas put forward by psychologists and cult scholars about “mind control” or “brainwashing.” Many in this group outright reject the claims of former members of cults, labelling them “apostates” and ignore anything these defectors have to say no matter how many years they were involved or how much knowledge they bring to the discussion. Quotes and stories about these academics are few and far between in the big wide world but you may recognize some of their names: James R. Lewis, J. Gordon Melton, William Bainbridge, and David Bromley are some of the more infamous ones. These academics have written papers speaking in glowing terms not only about Scientology, but also the Moonies and Aum Shinryko (a Japanese cult which almost succeeded in killing hundreds of thousands of people by leaking sarin gas into the underground metro system).

Finally there is the third and largest group: scholars who really don’t have a dog in the “cult” fight one way or the other, but who are interested in the study of groups, religions, and cults and who want to objectively examine some aspect of these groups such as how they form, what draws people to them, how long does the average member stick around and what kind of factors cause them to leave, etc.

While attending a November 2018 British Association for the Study of Religions conference, four religious studies scholars who I would describe as firmly in the “New Religious Movements” camp did a podcast about the difficulties they experience in studying Scientology. They were David G. Robertson, lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University and co-founder of the Religious Studies Project; Carole M. Cusack, professor in Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney; Stephen Gregg, senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton; and Aled Thomas, a PhD candidate at the Open University. The transcript of this podcast was published as the first of nine articles dedicated to Scientology in the latest edition of “Implicit Religion.”

Here is how they described their talk: “How can we move the study of Scientology forward? Academic work is largely stuck in a ‘cultic’ paradigm, focused on charismatic leadership, ‘anti-social’ and criminal activity and even brain-washing narratives. Scientology seems almost exclusively to be considered fair game (pun intended) for ridicule and criticism among New Religious Movements, and this may have much to tell us about the theoretical models scholars are using, and the institutional factors at play in the legitimisation of particular traditions in the academic and popular discourse. We discuss insider scholarship and the control of information; the Free Zone and the Church; strategic use of the category ‘religion’; and how we see scholarship developing in the post-Hubbard era.”

One thing to keep in mind with these scholars is that none of them are psychologists. In fact, there is no evidence in how they talk about high control groups like Scientology that they have ever even opened a book on thought reform (Lifton), influence (Cialdini), power differentials, dominant/submissive identity and manipulation (Zimbardo) or high control groups (Singer, Lalich, Hassan). Academic “siloing” is unfortunately the default position in academia, at least according to my experience with it. What I mean by this is specialists in one field or area of study completely ignore the work of anyone outside of their “silo” and thus lack an interdisciplinary approach or a more well-rounded understanding of what they are analyzing. The field of cult research would be much better served by religious scholars who recognize that their field of specialization is useful but is only part of the overall picture when examining what the likes of L. Ron Hubbard are up to.

So while religious scholarship is a very wide and rich field with a long history and a great many fascinating roads of inquiry, what it is not is a field that pays any attention to the psychological consequences of being involved in a fanatical religious mindset. Religious scholars simply note that some people get heavily involved with some religious groups, presumably because they lack some degree of common sense or because they have personalities that are extreme or some other goofy, invented reason which has nothing to do with the psychological realities of thought reform and coercive control.

In fact, these scholars are so ignorant of the concepts surrounding mind control that they treat any claims of “brainwashing” as wild-eyed, conspiratorial nonsense or salacious rumormongering made up by second-rate journalists and apostates as clickbait. They write these claims off as “terror narratives” which they can safely ignore because they choose to believe people are fully rational actors who make decisions based on logic and reason.

I wish I were joking but that is the prevailing attitude among “New Religious Movement” scholarship and they outright reject any claims of undue influence. I believe this is a kind of willful ignorance, and as an academic myself now I feel fully justified in heavily criticizing this stance as overtly biased, unprofessional, and even condescending. It’s appalling that there are religious scholars and sociologists who purposefully ignore the testimony of former group members when studying those groups and refuse to consider that anything they have to say has any use or value.

In the discussion, they made a few claims I thought I would address directly.

Robertson: “…the cliched ideas of Scientology as a sort of cult maybe start to break down. And we can start to measure out some of theee fault lines in the idea.”

Gregg: “…you mentioned the dreaded C-word there David! And I think part of the perpetuation of that problem is that we have a dominant narrative from ex-members. I’ve used the term ‘apostate’ in a chapter recently and I know that’s a contested term. But if we use the more general ‘ex-members’ then, of course, their relational identity is often against the established Church. So it perpetuates this domination of the Church as this cult-like figure or organization, because of the noisy apostates, who often — and Bromley wrote about career apostates (Bromley 1998) — who often made a career out of this…I can’t keep up with the number of apostate testimonies now. I used to read them all…. It’s a mini-industry of ex-member testimonies coming out of Scientology now. That’s [a] huge area of research in itself. But of course that perpetuates the public discourse on this sort of bad religion/negative religion/cult dynamic that of course, in NRM studies, we’ve tried to reject for a number of years now.”

As one of these self-publishing “apostates” whom Gregg seems to hold in such contempt, it is absolutely mind-blowing to me that this man is aware of the fact that there is a growing body of writing and video testimony from people who escaped Scientology but his only real response is to lament that this somehow prevents his idea of honest conversation about Scientology as a valid religious movement. As a former Scientologist, I have to acknowledge my bias and live with it in everything I write about the subject, but dishonest academics like this guy honestly believe they are being objective in saying such nonsense. In my mind, it’s like someone staring at a tidal wave and insisting calmly that there is no problem and no one is in any danger at all and why are all these people running away?

As to the “dreaded C-word” (he’s referring to the word ‘cult’), this is an unpopular and admittedly controversial word but that doesn’t mean it should be avoided in academia. However, I’ll infer that Gregg’s issue with the word is not its difficult usage, it’s that he doesn’t even believe in the concept of a destructive, high control group. I’m sure he imagines that religions evolve in stages and some of those stages are more extreme than others and if people enter in to an early-stage religion like Scientology, they are going to, by necessity, be in a more extreme and insular culture which could have certain individual negative consequences, but that’s just part of signing up and taking the ride.

I have a different idea. Maybe the fact that Hubbard used deceptive thought reform techniques to grow a religion in order to avoid bankruptcy, tax liens, and angry creditors calls into question the very legitimacy of Scientology’s religious status. Did you know that in all the reading I’ve done about Scientology in the academic world (and there’s not a lot of it to begin with), there has never been any discussion in any academic forum around this question? It is simply assumed because Scientology has tax exemption and religious recognition that it must be valid, even though there are four countries which official designate Scientology as a cult or secte: Argentina, Chile, France and Israel. Australia banned the practice of Scientology for a brief period and Russia has all but banned it in the present. Somehow these facts are brushed under the rug when discussions about the word ‘cult’ come up and instead, as you can see from the quote above, it is simply assumed anyone who disagrees with the NRM narrative simply doesn’t know what they are talking about. I interpret this as the equivalent of arrogant snobbery, but of course I’m biased so I would.

Next They are discussing why it is that so few academic books or literature exist on Scientology.

Cusack: “Well, there are two things again…. One is that…Scientology kept very close control on any academic that was anywhere near them. And the academics were aware that they could be not only sued, but personally harassed and that their families, and people that they cared about, could get into trouble. So very little was ever published, because even people who did projects on Scientology generally didn’t want to risk putting them in the public eye…. But the second thing, which I think is equally important, is that some of the noisy ex-members actually did a great service themselves by publishing: Jon Atack is the obvious example since ‘A Piece of Blue Sky’ came out very, very early in the conversation, really. But he is part of, now, a kind of global network of ex-members who accuse New Religious Movement scholars of being cult apologists if they say anything good about any religion.”

There is an odd attitude displayed here and in other comments around this where they openly acknowledge that the Church of Scientology will not be open or transparent about its operations and in fact, has been known to even stalk and harass reporters and academics who try to pierce the veil of secrecy, yet somehow despite this, it’s us ex-members who are the problem. They even note at one point that ex-Scientologists exist openly in greater numbers than ever before because more and more of us are writing books or giving testimonials to the media. So while their conversation is littered with complaints about the lack of candid information from the Church, they ignore every single former member who can give them in-depth, highly “confidential” and very informed raw facts about how the Church conducts itself.

One can only stand in awe at the gaping stupidity of this situation. Until these scholars get their heads on straight about what they are dealing with and decide to start looking at all the data available to them, they will continue to sit around in cerebral masturbation sessions wondering why they aren’t moving forward with any real discoveries or forward progress in the studying destructive cults like Scientology. They have framed the situation in terms that are a complete fantasy, accept Scientology’s information as factual while former members are all lying and they cannot consider a religious group of any kind could be destructive to anyone’s health or sanity. Those few of us pushing back against this nonsense are going to need a lot of help to right this course but I’m hopeful we can do it.

— Chris Shelton

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Bonus items from our tipsters

Join Ron’s team!

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Jon Atack and Karen de la Carriere

Don Jason’s escape to freedom.

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Sign up for a daily email when we post a new story on Scientology.

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“‘Be three feet back of your head.’ Please tell me why nobody ever said this in the last ump-thousand years. This is fantastic. Because 50 percent, at least, of the people who come in and sit down, I don’t care what their age is — something like this — you say, ‘Be three feet back of your head.’ Sometimes you get the reaction, ‘Why?’ ‘Well, it might be more comfortable outside.’ ‘Might be more comfortable outside! You mean people are inside their heads!’ You would be just amazed how often one gets that reaction. One girl I know was given 125 electric shocks because the psychiatrist found she was outside of her head. Too sane for him.” — L. Ron Hubbard, October 2, 1953

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“This evening there will be a cocktail party aboard and 100+ top VIPs are expected as well as one very, very VIP person. The cocktail will be held in the main dining room and will as usual extend into the B Deck Foyer. Therefore body traffic into this area is to be kept to an absolute minimum. Male & Female occupants of B deck cabins are asked NOT to wander up the passageways and into toilets clad only in a towel during cocktail time. Remember that the VIPs will be using these heads. LAST REQUEST: Please try not to hang around the aft quarter deck or Prom decks during the cocktail — many of the guests will be taking a tour to the bridge at some time during the evening. As these requirements have been made publically known in the OODay, there will be no excuse for offenders, and I will take very strong action on any I find. Remember we are TOP EXECS of an INT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT CORP.” — Lt. N.F. Starkey, Captain, October 2, 1971

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“I aligned myself with LRH directly after I read, Scientology: A New Slant on Life. It made such sense. But why it made such sense is explained in that I am a part of a vanguard group of beings who knew that Earth is a very sick planet that will likely spread its contagious illness elsewhere if not stopped here.”

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1999: Officials in Belgium raided Scientology locations, seizing documents related to fraud and abuse. From Agence France Presse: “The controversial Church of Scientology was again under the gun in western Europe Friday after simultaneous raids and seizures of its documents in Belgium and France, the Brussels prosecutor said Friday. Jos Colpin, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, told AFP Belgian police with warrants swooped on 25 locations Thursday, searching premises, seizing bookkeeping documents and temporarily detaining people for questioning. He said two such searches were also carried out in Paris at the request of Belgian authorities, but added that no charges were yet pending against the church in either country, and that all those questioned had been released. The seizures resulted from a fraud and abuse complaint filed in Brussels in 1997 by a former member of the church seeking recovery of money she had paid.”

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“I’ve been in a ‘Is that all there is to Scientology?’ mood lately. It comes with the territory.”

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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker

Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Next hearing set for November 10. Trial tentatively scheduled for February.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference October 7 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for November 19.
— Joseph ‘Ben’ Barton, Medicare fraud: Pleaded guilty, awaiting sentencing.

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30, 2020 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition to US Supreme Court submitted on May 26. Scientology responded on June 25.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: California Supreme Court granted review on May 26 and asked the Second Appellate Division to direct Judge Steven Kleifield to show cause why he granted Scientology’s motion for arbitration. Oral arguments scheduled for November 2.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28, 2022.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 23. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a ruling.

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We first broke the news of the LAPD’s investigation of Scientology celebrity Danny Masterson on rape allegations in 2017, and we’ve been covering the story every step of the way since then. At this page we’ve collected our most important links, including our four days in Los Angeles covering the preliminary hearing and its ruling, which has Danny facing trial and the potential sentence of 45 years to life in prison.

Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] New in court docs: Scientology bashes victims’ rights group, trashes Mike Rinder
[TWO years ago] Scientologists led away in handcuffs after stunning evidence of fraud heard in L.A. court
[THREE years ago] Clear body, wiped mind: Another woman comes forward about forced abortion in Scientology
[FOUR years ago] Another Scientologist becomes instant star with Trump supporters, this time in Puerto Rico
[FIVE years ago] How Scientology plans to take over the world: By boring us to death, apparently
[SIX years ago] An email that demonstrates how much Scientology loves going after the ‘evil psychs’
[SEVEN years ago] Q&A with Mike Rinder: Understanding the sudden changes at Scientology’s LA complex
[EIGHT years ago] FORMER SCIENTOLOGY SPOKESMAN TOMMY DAVIS SUBPOENAED BY MONIQUE RATHBUN
[NINE years ago] Scientology’s Georgia Drug Rehab Hit with Double-Barreled Media Onslaught

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Scientology disconnection, a reminder

Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,441 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,946 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,466 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,486 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,377 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,684 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,552 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,326 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,656 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 4,130 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,446 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 12,012 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,931 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 4,099 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,680 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,941 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,978 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,692 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,217 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 572 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,747 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,298 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,447 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,767 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,622 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,741 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 2,097 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,400 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,506 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,904 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,780 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,363 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,858 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 3,112 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,221 days.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 2, 2021 at 07:00

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