Friday, April 15, 2022. Chariot, a film described as a “science fiction dark comedy” debuts in theaters. It stars John Malkovich, Thomas Mann, and Rosa Salazar. It is written and directed by Scientologist Adam Sigal, who told the Tampa Bay Times that he had fallen into filmmaking when he was working as a private [...]]]>

Friday, April 15, 2022. Chariot, a film described as a “science fiction dark comedy” debuts in theaters. It stars John Malkovich, Thomas Mann, and Rosa Salazar. It is written and directed by Scientologist Adam Sigal, who told the Tampa Bay Times that he had fallen into filmmaking when he was working as a private investigator in Los Angeles. One of the film’s executive producers is Scientologist OT 6 and Delphian graduate Melissa McPhail.

February 26, 2022. Melissa McPhail dies at 50 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just weeks before. Sigal, the director of Chariot, says at his Instagram account, “My partner is gone. My soul mate. My love. I wish I had a nice poem to post or something but my heart is just broken and I wish you were not dead. We had some incredible adventures together, Melissa.”

March, 2021. At her blog, McPhail tells her readers that she is working on both Book 6 and Book 7 of her successful indie fantasy series, “A Pattern of Shadow and Light.” She’s writing both at the same time, she explains, because the story lines from her previous five books are so complex and intertwined. But she hopes to get Book 6 out in 2022.

February, 2021. Filming for Chariot takes place in Little Rock, Arkansas. McPhail explains at her Instagram account that the last scene they’re shooting is actually the first scene in the movie, and takes place in the 1840s. Chariot, a film written, directed, and produced by Scientologists, uses reincarnation, a Scientology touchstone, as its storytelling technique.

June 15, 2019. The fifth book in McPhail’s fantasy series, The Sixth Strand, is published. “From the dimension of Shadow to the realm of T’khendar, from the Empire of Agasan to the fire deserts of Avatar, Ean, Tanis, Trell, Sebastian and the rest of Bjorn’s Players will be holding their positions against immortal enemies in a game where mortal consequences hang in the balance of every choice,” says the book’s online blurb.

2017-2018. McPhail completes the first six of Scientology’s “Operating Thetan” auditing levels over a period of about a year.

October 27, 2016. The fourth book in McPhail’s fantasy series, Kingdom Blades, is published. “As Bjorn’s game intensifies and wars escalate, those serving the Fifth Vestal must mold themselves into more than mere Players. They must become his Kingdom Blades.”

June, 2015. McPhail completes “Super Power” at Scientology’s Flag Building in Clearwater, Florida.

September 27, 2014. The third book in McPhail’s fantasy series, Paths of Alir, is published. “Along the lush Caladrian coast of Agasan, the truthreader Tanis d’Giverny returns to the place of his birth and finds mysterious and wonderful workings waiting for him. But the zanthyr Phaedor warns Tanis that ominous events lie ahead, and the lad soon wonders if even his mother’s magical lessons will be enough to keep him alive.”

2013. McPhail completes Scientology’s expensive L10, L11, and L12 rundowns at the Flag Land Base in Clearwater, Florida.

October 28, 2012. The second book in McPhail’s fantasy series, The Dagger of Adendigaeth, is published. “At long last, the reason for the blessed Adept race’s decline has been discovered: powerful beings known as Malorin’athgul are disrupting the Balance and preventing Alorin’s Adepts from awakening to their gifts. Who are they? Where are they? And how can they be stopped when they wield a power meant to unmake the universe itself?”

September, 2011. McPhail becomes a Scientology Clear.

September 22, 2010. The first book in McPhail’s fantasy series, Cephrael’s Hand, is self-published, with a front cover that McPhail designs herself with Photoshop. It does so well, the rest of her series will be put out by an indie publisher. “In Alorin…300 years after the genocidal Adept Wars, the realm is dying, and the blessed Adept race dies with it. One man holds the secret to reverting this decline: Bjorn van Gelderan, a dangerous and enigmatic man whose shocking betrayal three centuries past earned him a traitor’s brand.”

Sometime in the mid-1990s. The young woman, we’ll call her Beth, had gotten pregnant. Although she was married, this was still frowned upon: She was in Scientology’s Sea Org, and it’s against the rules for women in the Sea Org to get pregnant and have children. Since the 1970s, Sea Org women who find themselves pregnant have been pressured to get an abortion or face expulsion, which can lead to many other consequences for themselves and their partner.

Beth had been feeling the heat for some time. She was now five months pregnant and definitely showing. She knew a showdown was coming about her condition and what it meant for both her and her husband, who we’ll call Jim. But this night, about midnight at the Big Blue building in Los Angeles, she just knew that she was hungry.

She went to the building’s canteen, found a single-serving box of cereal, opened it along the pre-cut creases, tore open the bag inside, and poured milk into it.

As she began eating, she noticed a figure in the doorway. A woman was standing there, blocking Beth in the small room.

Beth recognized her as a Sea Org official from CMO Gold at the secretive Int Base who was temporarily at PAC Base in Los Angeles on a special mission. Her name was Melissa McPhail.

McPhail was holding a clipboard and completely blocking the doorway, staring at Beth.

“I remember telling myself to refer to her as ‘Sir,'” Beth tells us today. But as she did, McPhail cut her off.

“Don’t speak to me,” Melissa said, and then pointed at Beth’s protruding midsection.

“How dare you,” she said. “How could you do this to Jim? How could you not make it go right?”

In the Sea Org, “make it go right” was a common expression, urging the employees, who worked 112-hour weeks, seven days a week, for pennies an hour, to get things accomplished one way or another.

“What do you mean, ‘make it go right,'” Beth remembers struggling to say with a mouthful of cereal.

“You know, take care of it,” Melissa answered. “You disgust me.”

“She just continued to stand there. I didn’t know what to say,” Beth remembers.

“Do you know how valuable Jim is? Do you know what you’re doing to the Sea Org? How dare you,” McPhail continued.

At this point, Beth remembers starting to cry. But McPhail wasn’t finished.

“I’m not just going to stand here and watch you do this to him,” she said.

“To this day,” Beth tells us, “I’m not really sure if by ‘him’ she meant Jim or if she meant L. Ron Hubbard.”

Beth decided that she’d had enough. She remembers putting one hand on her belly, another out in front of her, and pushing to the door, saying, “Get out of my way! Out of my way!”

“I couldn’t breathe. I went straight out of the building to L. Ron Hubbard Way, but she didn’t follow me,” Beth says.

Beth endured other attempts to enforce Scientology’s policy, but instead she routed out of the Sea Org, split with her husband, and had her child.

But she never forgot Melissa McPhail’s bullying attempt to talk her into ending her pregnancy to save Jim’s Sea Org career.

 
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Scientology private eye found guilty of contempt

In case you didn’t see yesterday afternoon’s breaking news, make sure you see the finding of Judge Sharon Gianelli, who found former NYPD detective and Scientology spy Yanti Mike Greene guilty of both criminal and civil contempt. He’s looking at about $300,000 in total penalties, and that’s just part of the litigation against the private eye firm that was working for David Miscavige.

 
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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.

 
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Source Code

“Sacredity. I think it’s very amusing, if you like to laugh at funerals. I do myself. I do. The last funeral I saw in Kansas, a dead wagon went by, you know, and it was one of these hearses, you know, with the great big plate glass side windows, you know. You could see the coffin in there. Flowers all over it. And here came limousines after it, you know, one after the other. And there were people crying and people sobbing in these limousines. I pulled off to the side of the road, naturally, and I took off my hat. And all this was just automatic, you know, took off my hat. I sat there and watched this thing go by. And car by car my risibility started getting the better of me, you know. I thought here’s this bird, he kicked off, you know, and they shoved this body full of embalming juice, and this bird is sailing around here someplace or another. He probably already picked up somebody in a maternity ward or something of the sort, and he’s long gone, you know, and here’s these birds left with this piece of MEST, you know. And they’re crying and sobbing, you know, and they’re filling it full of flowers and embalming fluid, and going to take it out to the graveyard and erect some stone over the top of it, you know. The unreality of these people and their attitude and what they believed, and what I myself knew for a fact, you see, were so far apart that I’m afraid that by the time the last funeral car had passed, I was just doubled up with laughter. I just can’t take funerals very seriously. I’m sorry. It’s too silly.” — L. Ron Hubbard, April 5, 1962

Avast, Ye Mateys

“TO THOSE LEAVING

Farewell
God Speed
And Early Return

I thank you
The Sea Org thanks you
For your good work
And Contribution

To us all.
I know
The good things you’ve done
And good intent.

And carry away
No bitterness
But only pleasant
Memory of Flag.

In appreciation
Gratitude
And full respect:

Farewell

God Speed
And
Soon Return
Love

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“Several of my high school aged clients have remarked on how auditing has been a game changer in regards to their chosen career paths. The focus is not on the financial gains of MEST, but more towards ‘dealing with the futility postulates’ that many on this planet carry. They have noticed the automaticity of the adults around them leading towards the game of death rather than creating, of a paycheck rather than a purpose, and souls lost in amnesia.”

 
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Past is Prologue

2002: “Cerridwen” reported events at the 2002 L. Ron Hubbard birthday celebration event. “The basic theme of this event was to get Scientologists ‘rehabbed’ on getting back on purpose on the 3rd Dynamic. That means to get them to be more active and especially to get them to join staff. It’s done by ‘enlightening’ and pushing lots of Scn buttons. But it’s pretty much known and unspoken that both Org and Sea Org staff think that anyone that is not on staff is a worthless piece of shit. Throughout the event the cameras panned the crowd and we got to see Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie, Nancy Cartwright, the CO Flag Debbie Cook, Sally and Craig Jensen. Scientology’s Rich and Famous get front row seats at events. David Miscavige starts in with the Wins and Expansion News and talks about ABLE. Narconon Arrowhead is the big news. Per DM Narconon Arrowhead is busting at the seams with public and they have had to build bunk beds to accommodate all the public there. Not only that but Narconon Arrowhead is the place where Narconon staff are sent to train so that they can then go back and start new Narconon’s all over the world. Some accreditation agency had a policy that they would only accredit counselors with ‘college degrees.’ DM stated that the Narconon staff did a presentation to this accreditation board and convinced them that the Narconon/LRH tech was far superior to any college degree and the Accreditation Board was so damn impressed that they certified 22 Narconon Arrowhead counselors. There are twenty new Narconon’s in the world with 2 of them in the US.”

 
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Random Howdy

“It’s ‘nix’ on ESP and telepathy, but ‘ja’ on Telekinesis and Astral Projection? No reason or rhyme to the mind of Mother Hubbard.”

 
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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 pretrial conference May 31. Trial scheduled for August 29.
— ‘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 May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for April 8.
— 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:
— 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. Scientology has said it will file an anti-SLAPP motion.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Third amended complaint filed, trial set for June 28.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Appeal hearing held Aug 23-27. Awaiting a 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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THE PROSECUTION OF DANNY MASTERSON

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.

SCIENTOLOGY: FAIR GAME

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.

LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH

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.

SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z

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] Former Scientology OT gets indicted on $4 million securities fraud
[TWO years ago] Whoopi Goldberg recommends Scientology’s drug rehab Narconon on ‘The View’
[THREE years ago] Scientology gets away with abuses because it has friends like author Orson Scott Card
[FOUR years ago] What do super powers smell like? For around 30 grand, Scientology can help you with that.
[FIVE years ago] Bryan Seymour: Scientology’s sniffer-dog problem is bad timing for Narconon in Australia
[SIX years ago] After their daughter died at Scientology training, a friend makes off with the funeral money
[SEVEN years ago] Saturday Night Live’s genius spoof of Scientology: Lyrics and images
[EIGHT years ago] Jon Atack’s final weekly column for us on Scientology, and it’s a doozy
[NINE years ago] Remembering Diane Colletto, Who Would Have Been 60 Today

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 5, 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.

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, 1995-2021 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)

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 The Daily Beast

In April, Heather Ruggeri celebrated ten years free of Scientology. But a decade isn’t enough to erase the things that she went through as a child growing up in Scientology and working in the Sea Org. She’s put portions of her story on the Internet before, but this is her first attempt [...]]]>

In April, Heather Ruggeri celebrated ten years free of Scientology. But a decade isn’t enough to erase the things that she went through as a child growing up in Scientology and working in the Sea Org. She’s put portions of her story on the Internet before, but this is her first attempt at telling the entire tale. We knew you’d want to see it.

Every day when I ran, it felt like there was a weight in my lower abdomen.

I was 17, and the running was part of the Purification Rundown, a regimen of exercise and spending hours in a sauna that every Scientologist has to go through because it supposedly eliminates toxins in the body from drug use and things you breathe in.

I hadn’t done illegal drugs, and I really hadn’t had any serious health problems, but like everyone else I was still required to do the rundown.

At the time, I was already a veteran member of the Sea Organization — at 14, I signed a billion-year contract promising to serve Scientology lifetime after lifetime. After years of training and being moved from one post to another, I spent some time in the prestigious Commodore’s Messenger Organization before I ran into some trouble.

I had gotten married at 16, which is very common for young Sea Org members to do. We had both gotten into trouble when, during an interrogation, I admitted that we had slept together before our wedding. We were both put on hard physical labor, and I was officially out of the CMO and became a runner at Scientology’s administrative headquarters in Los Angeles.

That’s when I did the “Purif,” subjecting myself to hours in a sauna for days and days, while ingesting insane amounts of vitamins. And exercising, while feeling that weight in my belly.

After completing the regimen, we were visiting my husband’s parents in Clearwater, Florida when I decided to get an examination.

Sure enough, I was pregnant.

My in-laws were elated, but we were all feeling some doubts about what would happen when we returned to Los Angeles and had to share the news with our Sea Org superiors.

When we got back and reported what was going on, my husband and I were pulled into a room with our auditor (Scientology’s equivalent of a counselor). We were shown policies written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard about the effect that the Purification Rundown can have on a pregnancy — that it could result in deformities or other problems.

There was no question about what we were being told — because I’d done the Purif while I was pregnant, our fetus was likely damaged.

“In the case of pregnancy, some of these toxins [released by the Purification Rundown], instead of being eliminated, could be transmitted to the fetus in a flow of fluids from the mother to the unborn child,” Hubbard wrote in the issue we were shown.

When you’re being told that your unborn baby has been harmed in some way and you’re only 17, you’re basically being brainwashed into getting an abortion. My husband and I reluctantly decided that this was what we should do.

I didn’t know I could get an ultrasound to check the health of the fetus. It was only when I got to the clinic and the doctor performed an ultrasound to check the age of the fetus (it was 12 weeks) that I realized it was even possible.

By that time, I had already taken the pill needed for the abortion, and I wasn’t allowed to look at the ultrasound. It was past the point of no return, and only then did I see there was a way to check the fetus. Had I known it was safe, I would have gone through with the pregnancy as there wasn’t anything more that I wanted in the world — and so did my husband.

But we were Sea Org members, and children weren’t allowed.

 
My earliest Scientology recollections are from Palo Alto, California, where my mother was attending Scientology sessions. She had been introduced to it by my stepfather.

From about the age of four I remember going to the local organization with them as they attended a course or lecture. Sometimes there were other kids around and we would play outside.

Over the years, my family became more and more involved in Scientology. We moved a lot, and my half sister came along when I was 10. The biggest shock was when my stepdad went to work for Scientology’s Guardian’s Office on the east coast and took on a minimal salary. Suddenly we had no money for anything. I resented it bitterly.

We got another shock when he decided to join the Sea Org (which paid even less) and moved us into “berthing” in Los Angeles.

I took one look around and told my mom, “I hate it here.” A few hours later we were in our assigned rooms, a cramped apartment with a bathroom and an inoperational kitchen that had been converted into a bedroom for my sister and me. I went from already barely seeing my parents to seeing them only an hour each day at dinner time, known in the Sea Org then as “family time.”

My sister also hated it — and she was only two years old. (I was 12.)

Soon after our arrival, a rule was issued that televisions in berthing needed to be confiscated and gotten rid of, based on an advice from Hubbard and enforced by the CMO.

Now, I wasn’t yet a Sea Org member, and getting rid of my television was not OK with me. I decided to hide it so I could watch it at night after I had done my homework. But my stepfather took it to his office — even though I had bought it with babysitting money.

I felt raped of my rights and I felt that I was under the control of something or someone else.

Shortly after that another rule came out based on a Hubbard advice and enforced by the CMO concerning perfumes. They were no longer allowed, and only unscented soaps and shampoos would be allowed.

We transitioned over to unscented items, but I held onto a powder made from rose petals because it had sentimental value — it had been given to me by a very close friend who lived next door to my maternal grandmother in Pennsylvania. The woman had passed away, so the powder reminded me of her, and I didn’t want to lose it. It was in a very nice casing.

One day I came home and our rooms had been raided to get rid of any scented items. Among the things thrown out was my powder. Man, I was upset.

Still, I managed to create a somewhat normal existence. I was going to school, and in summers I visited my biological father’s parents in Anaheim.

Then, when I turned 14 and we had moved to similar rooms at the Hollwood Inn on Hollywood Boulevard, I became the target of Sea Org recruiters. For weeks I resisted them — I had other things going on that summer.

Then, a few weeks before school started for 9th grade, I was out with my friends when we stumbled upon the ceremony for Sea Org Day. I remember perching myself on the window sill and watching the ceremony and hearing the speech, and I decided right then and there that I was going to join the Sea Org. Something struck a chord with me about helping people. I knew I wanted to help, and this seemed like the best way.

I signed the contract and convinced my mother to give her consent. Then I began the Sea Org’s boot camp, the Estates Project Force. After completing it, I was assigned to the Flag Bureaux, which had just moved to Los Angeles from Florida. I was put on an administrative post as we ran programs to expand Scientology churches around the world.

The days were long, but I managed OK, and soon I was promoted to the CMO, and was prepared to be sent to the international management compound 90 miles east of Los Angeles, Int Base.

I was getting my chance to join the inner circle of Scientology’s most secretive hard core.

But my first impression of Int Base was that I absolutely hated it. After about a month doing manual labor there, I was told that back in Los Angeles my mother had been assigned to the Sea Org’s prison program, the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF). I wasn’t told why she was being punished, but I was told that my communications with her would be limited.

I went on with my duties, which soon involved cleaning the personal rooms and offices of David Miscavige. I was also chosen to clean rooms set aside for Hubbard, but he was in seclusion somewhere else — where, no one seemed to know.

During my time at Int Base, I missed my mom and mentioned it several times. I was told to grow up, that I was not a kid anymore (although I was 15), and that I didn’t need my mommy or daddy in the Sea Org.

This really threw me for a loop. I wanted to get the hell out of there.

Shortly thereafter, I was moved to the CMO unit in Clearwater to handle a steady stream of documents and compiling statistics. My mother was still on the RPF in Los Angeles.

Over the next two years, I dated a few different guys and then got married at 16. Then, I was busted to Los Angeles and came back to Clearwater for a visit when I found out that I was pregnant and had the abortion.

We went back to LA, but my husband began to have doubts about the Sea Org. I related his intent to leave to my superiors, and I was not allowed to communicate with him without supervision. He was put under a 24-hour watch, and he was understandably upset that I had essentially snitched on him.

He left the Sea Org, and I was put under watch and was persuaded to divorce him. I really thought I had made the right decision, but deep down I was so saddened and lost.

My mother, meanwhile, wanted nothing more than for the four of us to be a family. But my stepfather was at Int Base, my sister was in the Cadet Org, and we had very little time together as a family.

After the divorce, I was determined to rebuild my life in the Sea Org as a single person.

I had managed to get back to the Flag Bureaux as a communicator (an executive assistant), and I was introduced to a man in a senior organization, Author Services, Inc., which was L. Ron Hubbard’s literary agency.

The man — I’ll call him M.W. — proposed to me after three weeks of dating. I had only been divorced for about two months, so I was moving fast. However, I was very rebellious and didn’t care about anyone else at the time.

I was 19, and I didn’t need consent from my mom. M.W. convince me to go to Las Vegas with him and get married there. I told him I’d go as long as we could have a normal wedding later on and as long as he rented a red VW convertible. He pulled through with the car but we never had a traditional wedding.

Getting married to M.W. made it possible for him to get a Green Card. I didn’t believe that I was being taken advantage of, but in hindsight I think that was the case.

He was a supportive husband, and he tried to help me out over the next several years as I worked for one abusive boss after another in the Sea Org.

At one point, one of my commanding officers cornered me against the wall of his office near an open window, yelling at me about my work. It was a low window on the 9th floor of the 12-story Hollywood Guaranty Building on Hollywood Boulevard. He had me by the neck, hanging out the window, and he was screaming. he had also yanked the epaulettes off of my shirt, the Lt. Commander bars that indicated my rank. The person doing this was Foster Tompkins, and he was about 6-foot-2, a full foot taller than me.

It wasn’t the first time that I felt I should just die and I’d be better off. But I didn’t know how to go about it.

Shortly after that terrifying incident, toward the end of 1994, I was put under the Scientology justice system and received what is called a Committee of Evidence. This is with a group of four people who review your files, list your “crimes,” and then ask you for a plea. They then make a recommendation, and their recommenation was to send me to the RPF.

I was on the RPF, the Sea Org’s prison detail, for the next five years.

My first days on the RPF were actually a relief — I was able to sleep a good eight hours a night and eat regular food. On the RPF, you are made to run everywhere you go, you’re not allowed to speak to someone unless they speak to you first, and you have to live in dorms with other RPFers. I was allowed to have one night a week with my husband, but only after earning a gold arm band.

The arm bands were part of the RPF uniform, which is all black. You start out with a black arm band, then a white one when you progress in the program, then a gold arm band for good behavior. If you commit a transgression, you get an orange arm band as you’re put on the RPF’s RPF, and you get assigned to scrubbing out dumpsters or places where rats reside. You’re segregated from the rest of the RPF and you only talk to your peers in that group. You are made to make up the damage you caused the rest of the RPF, and then you’re accepted back into the group and start over with a black arm band again.

My first hard labor on the RPF was in electrical. I was given on-the-job training, but I ripped ligaments in my wrists and had to be re-assigned. I still suffer today from this injury.

I was reassigned to housekeeping service for the rest of my time on the RPF, which was considered a position of honor and responsibility. At the time, it meant that I was trusted with handling money to purchase hygiene items for other RPFers. I would have $600 or more on me on these trips to local stores.

Why during this time I didn’t just leave when I was on one of those trips, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have taken the money that didn’t belong to me, I’m not like that. But I didn’t run, and instead simply enjoyed the freedom I had when I was outside the base on my own.

Later, the rules changed and outside purchases were no longer allowed. We were made to purchase everything through the base canteen.

In the fall of 1998, while I was waiting to graduate from the RPF, I learned that my grandmother in Pennsylvania had broken her hip. My mother went to care for her, and I was allowed to spend two weeks with them.

I was expected to keep up the rules of the RPF and avoid TV or movies. Of course I violated those rules and watched TV (with a guilty conscience), even though I knew I’d be interrogated about it when I got back to LA.

While we were in Pennsylvania, both my mother and I considered not going back — but we only found that out later. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving my husband on his own, and I had come so close to graduating from the RPF and being reunited with him.

So I went back.

Preparing for graduation from the RPF required another nine months of reviewing my program for errors and handling anything else that was needed.

Of course I admitted to watching TV while in Pennsylvania.

In December 1999, I was finally allowed to graduate (along with my program “twin,” the person you are paired with in the RPF). I went back to the Flag Bureaux, and I stayed there for the better part of six years, at the American Saint Hill Organization.

It was more long hours, more abuse, and increasingly I was not getting along with the people I worked for.

Things worsened in 2002 when my grandmother in Pennsylvania went into critical condition over a failing heart. My mother was on a project in Australia, and my stepdad and sister were at Int Base.

I went to the hospital right away to see my grandmother. She was in ICU and I was told she wasn’t going to make it. I called my stepdad, and he showed up as soon as he could. He started preparing things for my grandmother’s death, but he told me that we should not call my mom in Australia, as he didn’t want to worry her with uncertainty. He said that if she showed up, it would prolong my grandmother staying alive. He said that she had been in pain and should be allowed to pass.

He convinced me that this was the right thing to do, but I had doubts. He also said he didn’t want my sister to know until after. In hindsight, this was also wrong.

Once my stepdad and I had done what we could at the hospital, I went back to work — and I got in trouble for leaving my post.

A few hours later, I received a phone call from my stepdad, who gave me the news that my grandmother had passed. My stepdad set some of my superiors straight with regards to the situation and it allowed me to grieve for a few hours.

But they put me through hell again when I requested to join my mom in San Francisco, where she wanted to spread her mother’s ashes. I was eventually allowed to go, and it was odd to be reunited with cousins I hadn’t seen since I was a little girl. It was a nice feeling to be with family for the first time in such a long time.

Later on, my mom admitted how upset she was that she hadn’t been called in Australia and told that her mother was dying.

I continued my work as an executive in the Flag Bureaux, which included working very hard to make the San Francisco Ideal Org “Saint Hill Size” in 2004. But everything we put in place fell apart soon after we left as it was done with unrealistic situations that involved getting people to come in for extra time, which involved parishioners rearranging their lives. It was unrealistic to think these public were going to continue that after we left.

Soon after the San Francisco campaign, my husband M.W. decided to separate. We had been married for 17 years.

I came home one night to a note saying he was going to stay somewhere else for a bit. He didn’t give a reason.

Several weeks later, he agreed to meet, and told me that he had decided to get a divorce. Again, there was no reason.

Later, I learned that he was being promoted to the executive director of Author Services, and my level in the organization wasn’t high enough for the wife of such an important person.

I moved into a new building and moved on with my life.

Then, in 2007, The Basics hit.

Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige, had announced something called the Golden Age of Knowledge as a complete re-issuing of L. Ron Hubbard’s technology. And as part of it, a complete new set of books and lectures known as “The Basics” were published in a set that cost about $3,000. Every single Scientology employee was then expected to spend hours each day selling sets of The Basics to Scientology members, and under incredible pressure.

We were calling current and former members, all day, all night, and into the morning. We were calling overseas public during the morning hours, and the east coast in the evening.

I was not having much luck selling sets of books, but my calls tended to turn into therapy sessions. Most of the people I called were struggling with the Golden Age of Knowledge, they admitted to me.

During this time, I was approached about a promotion to Int Base. I was told that somehow, with my regular duties and hours selling books, that I was also supposeed to carve out some time to get enough sleep so that I could be interrogated for the new job.

I made it clear that I wasn’t interested in going back to Int Base, which is why I was failing the interrogation. But they assumed there was something else behind it.

Then, in January 2008, I learned that my mother had walked away from her job.

With the help of my sister, we located her in the San Francisco area, where she was staying with a cousin.

She wouldn’t answer our phone calls. At this point, I was taken off of making contact with her and was told to go back to my duties.

But I was struggling and it was noticeable. I was pulled into ethics.

I was told to disconnect from my mother. I was not OK with that. I went through several days of this, and was put on manual labor, cleaning elevator pits in my uniform. I was also subject to berating by some of my co-workers, who had to show me how bad I was doing. One of them poured ice water down my back as a punishment.

The effort to humiliate me was being led by a teenager in the CMO.

Still, they were trying to get me qualified to go to Int Base, and they told me I couldn’t date a guy I was interested in because he wasn’t qualified to go there.

I’d had enough.

On Thursday morning, April 3, 2008, I woke up late after a long night and got dressed like I was going to work. I got onto the Dash public commuter bus and, not knowing where I was going, headed to the Metro station, watching my back the entire time.

From there I called my grandparents who lived in Corona, about 70 miles away, and got on a metro train with eight dollars to my name.

I never looked back.

Today, I’m celebrating my eighth wedding anniversary to a new husband, and we have a beautiful daughter who is about to turn seven years old. She is my mother’s one and only granddaughter and is her pride and joy.

I have obtained an insurance license and I’ve been working in the industry the last five years. I’m now an agency manager for an independent Farmers agent.

My life, however, is still a work in progress after my escape from Scientology.

 
— Heather Ruggeri

 
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Underground Bunker TV

The programming just keeps coming at Underground Bunker TV. We’ve posted short videos about ABCMouse, Bob Duggan, Scientology attorney Gary Soter, David Miscavige’s position in the church,what Scientology says about Jesus and Christianity, Scientology’s obsession with masturbation, the Ideal Orgs, Narconon deaths, the vile secret buried in Dianetics, and the continuation of Scientology spying. Today we have another short spot that brings up something we’ve covered here before. We hope these vids will draw people back here to the Bunker to seek more information. So please help us get them out into the world!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrites and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise, and Danny Masterson. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; and Bogotá, Colombia.

Today it’s Stanley Clarke and Budapest, Hungary!

 
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 2, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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