On Saturday, Scientology held another grand opening of a new “Ideal Org,” this time in Ventura, California, and angered local officials by releasing hundreds of helium balloons into the sky.

As we pointed out on Tuesday, Ventura mayor Matt LaVere called it “forbidden activity” in an angry posting on Facebook, and claimed that the city council [...]]]>

 
On Saturday, Scientology held another grand opening of a new “Ideal Org,” this time in Ventura, California, and angered local officials by releasing hundreds of helium balloons into the sky.

As we pointed out on Tuesday, Ventura mayor Matt LaVere called it “forbidden activity” in an angry posting on Facebook, and claimed that the city council had told Scientology not to release balloons.

Scientology initially was defiant, saying that it had a permit for the balloon release, but then yesterday apologized, claiming that there had been a communication mixup with the council.

CNN has now picked up the story and has it on its front page, and so we expect it will metastasize and become a story of the day in the rest of the media.

And while we are concerned about California marine life and hope that the balloons won’t end up causing too much damage, we wish CNN and the mayor of Ventura would pay a little more attention to the damage that Scientology does not only for a few minutes at a grand opening ceremony, but day in and day out, 365 days a year, in communities around the country and around the world.

Yes, it’s fun to see Scientology publicly apologize, which is something it almost never does. But we hope LaVere and others in Ventura start asking some questions about what Scientology really ought to apologize for. Here are just a few.

Ripping apart families. Scientology’s toxic ‘disconnection’ policy requires its members to cut off all ties to people the church has deemed “suppressive” because they left the organization or spoke out about it. That’s required even if the suppressive is a family member. And so children will turn their backs on parents who have left the church, parents will cut off their own kids, and countless marriages get ripped apart. We’ve covered many stories of disconnection here at the Bunker, and every morning we publish an updated list of some former Scientologists who have spent years unable to communicate with their loved ones because of Scientology’s heartless policy.

Financial extortion. Scientologists are under incredible pressure not only to pay for increasingly expensive courses as they go up the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” but also to donate increasing amounts to various fundraising initiatives for David Miscavige’s new Ideal Orgs and the enormous costs of his litigation expenses and retaliation schemes. We’ve covered some outrageous stories in the last couple of years describing how new people, especially if they’re older, can be overwhelmed with Scientology’s hard-sell tactics, saddling them with stunning amounts of debt nearly overnight. People often ask, if Scientology is a church, what does it worship? The answer is money.

Abuse of Sea Org workers. Scientology recruits the children of its members for its Sea Org ranks beginning when they’re 12 or 13 years old. We’ve personally spoken with a few former Sea Org workers who signed its infamous billion-year contract when they were only five or six years old. Once they actually go to work in Sea Org posts, the hours are incredible. At only 12, Laura DeCrescenzo was working 90 hours a week, she testified in her court case. When she turned 13, she was moved to the adult schedule at 112 hours a week. Sea Org staff work 365 days a year and may go years without seeing their other family members. And their pay? It’s typically $50 a week, when they’re paid at all. Also, the culture in the Sea Org is a paramilitary organization where humiliation and abuse is the norm, and punishments are insane. We’ve talked to former members who were stuck in the Sea Org’s internal prison programs for years at a time.

Forced abortions. Since the 1970s, women in the Sea Org have been told they can’t have children in order to keep up its 112-hour weeks of work. When they do get pregnant, they are heavily pressured to have abortions. In 2009, Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis admitted that the church had a ban on having children, but denied that women were coerced into abortions. But a recent defector from the Sea Org tells us that it’s still going on. Several women have come forward telling of being forced into abortions, and Scientology in 2018 spent millions settling a lawsuit in order to keep Laura DeCrescenzo’s story of a forced abortion from being heard at trial.

Smears and retaliation. Scientology has a well-earned reputation for smearing, stalking, and trying to destroy people who leave the organization and then speak out, as well as targeting journalists and even judges who try to expose the truth about the church. Scientology spends insane amounts of money employing a small army of private investigators, former journalists, and lawyers in order to compile dossiers on its supposed enemies, and then targeting them with online attacks, visits to family and neighbors, and other dirty tricks intended to intimidate and frighten people into silence.

Passing off pseudoscience as mental health treatment. Since 1950, L. Ron Hubbard and his followers have been selling a cheap parlor trick as a “science” of the mind, and today convince the gullible to fork over huge amounts of money in the pursuit of past-life memories and the promise of god-like powers. As early as the 1960s, governments were pointing out that Scientology was essentially passing itself off as a mental health provider and foisting quack ideas on vulnerable people in order to reap huge profits. We’ve shown that the US government has been clearly aware of this scam for decades, and yet year after year does nothing about it.

OK, so we put it to our very knowledgeable commenting community: What else should Scientology be apologizing for? And what should the good people of Ventura (and elsewhere) understand about what actually goes on at an Ideal Org?

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

Criminal prosecutions:
— Jay Spina: Sentencing set for April 3 in White Plains

Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Waiting for an appellate decision from the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ (Valerie’s options.)
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology: March 11 (plaintiff attorneys pro hac vice, defense motions to quash), March 20 (demurrers by Masterson and Scientology), March 27 (motions to compel arbitration)
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe’s attorneys have asked for discovery, April 20 hearing set (motion to compel arbitration)
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach bankruptcy appeal: Oral arguments on March 11 in Jacksonville

 
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Source Code

“Look at the laudable withholds of a lady. She withholds herself from drinking. She withholds herself from swearing. She withholds herself from rowdy companions. She withholds herself from dirt, you know, and getting dirty. Withholds herself from getting sweaty. See, all the things a lady withholds herself from. Withholds herself from sex, from pleasure, from pleasurable excitement. This starts to look like a very interesting series of withholds. And we finally find out that a lady’s primary mission was to hold herself from living. Not that that’s — things I have mentioned are the total composite of living.” — L. Ron Hubbard, February 27, 1962

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“I have much track with Ron, as I’ve run out in my prior auditing, including my participation in what Ron called the OT III incident. It is good to search out a matter, and also good to be aware of the technology that can produce what is colloquially called a ‘chiphead,’ which is of course a degrade of the mind after it is scanned and copied onto a chip. Has anyone come across this?”

 
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Random Howdy

“The ‘church’ had to admit to TR-L in the Canadian trial when they questioned the veracity of the prosecution’s ex-Scientologist witnesses by stating to the judge their testimony couldn’t be trusted because they had been specifically trained to lie while in the church.”

 
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Start making your plans…

 
Head over to the convention website and meet us in St. Louis!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

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 our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] A letter of surrender, written from the basement of Scientology’s ‘Big Blue’ HQ
[TWO years ago] New memoir ‘Flunk. Start.’ richly illuminates the appeal — and betrayal — of Scientology
[THREE years ago] Keep your Oscars, we won a Scientology ‘bigot’ award!
[FOUR years ago] Augustine: How Scientology makes it so hard to get your money back
[FIVE years ago] Gerry Armstrong’s full 1997 ‘Secret Lives’ interview about L. Ron Hubbard
[SIX years ago] Is Ukraine’s proposed new prime minister a Scientologist? Says his niece: ‘That’s crap’
[SEVEN years ago] Lori Hodgson Appeals to Scientology’s “Spin Doctor,” Michael Sitrick
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology’s Secret Behind “Ideal Orgs” Revealed At Last

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 27, 2020 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, 1995-2018 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2018), 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, 14 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

 Is it really too much to expect a police department to enter the words “Foundation for a Drug-Free World” into a search engine and get a clue that this is one of Scientology’s sneaky front groups looking to rook law enforcement into its L. Ron Hubbard-burnishing, quack anti-drugs schemes?

The South Florida chapter posted this photo [...]]]>

 
Is it really too much to expect a police department to enter the words “Foundation for a Drug-Free World” into a search engine and get a clue that this is one of Scientology’s sneaky front groups looking to rook law enforcement into its L. Ron Hubbard-burnishing, quack anti-drugs schemes?

The South Florida chapter posted this photo to its Facebook page yesterday with this caption: “Honored to partner with Miami’s Police Department for our 2020 Super Bowl program.”

Oh for fuck’s sake.

Sure, we expect Drug-Free World to try and take advantage of the big game, which takes place a week from today. They’ll round up some volunteers and hand out a bazillion pamphlets outside the stadium like they do at so many other events in a mostly ineffective attempt to rope a few people into Scientology itself.

They’ve already started asking for church members to step up and help bring in the raw meat…

 
But they must have some real geniuses there wearing badges down at Miami’s cop shop. Oh hey, free anti-drugs pamphlets! That’s just what we need to keep that Super Bowl party in bounds!

If they’d bothered to make even the most meager attempt at checking out this group before “partnering” with it, the Miami police might have discovered that for decades Scientology has claimed to be the “the expert” on getting people off of drugs, when actually they’re spreading L. Ron Hubbard’s nonsense about how drugs work in the body.

In 2017, when a small school district in Pulaski County, Missouri fell for Drug-Free World’s scam, our Rod Keller laid out some of the bogus statements in Scientology’s “Truth About Drugs” pamphlets:

— Small amounts of drugs stored in fat are released at a later time causing the person to re-experience the drug effect and desire to use again
— Drugs are poisons
— The amount of a drug determines if it acts as a stimulant or as a sedative
— Drugs ruin creativity and dull senses

And what most people tend to miss about the mission of this “Drug-Free World” front is that it’s not dreaming of a world free of drug abuse, but a world free of all drugs altogether. That’s right, because these are Scientologists operating on the delusion that L. Ron Hubbard’s “technology” of the mind can take care of any ailment and that drugs — even the useful disease-fighting ones — are superfluous.

The year before Rod’s story about the Missouri school district, Jeffrey Augustine had discovered for us that Foundation for a Drug-Free World’s address was really just a mail drop in Los Angeles, and its registered agent was Kendrick Moxon, a Scientology attorney who was named an unindicted co-conspirator in Scientology’s notorious Snow White Program, this country’s biggest infiltration of the federal government, resulting in the largest FBI raid in that agency’s history up to that time.

And we also had a success story: In 2017 we profiled the police chief of a small Minnesota city who was flown by Scientology to Washington DC once they found out he was falling for the Drug-Free World come-on, but after our story, he told us that he’d changed his mind and his town wouldn’t be using Scientology’s materials.

So if a small-town police chief could figure that out, what’s Miami’s excuse?

 
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Source Code

“So you’re looking for a process which will clear somebody in five minutes, huh? [Audience: Yes.] Well there is one. Forty-five caliber applied to the roof of the mouth. And there’s where memory goes, because there’s where reality goes on past lives. It’s a shift of the rate of havingness. Remarkable, fast shift. When you find somebody actually remembering a life, he’s remembering a death. Well, he’s sort of stuck on the whole thing and it gets real and unreal and so forth, it couldn’t have been a very violent death. There are much more violent deaths there, and they are utterly submerged because the change of the rate of havingness was fantastically fast.” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 26, 1954

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“I popped completely out of this universe to a void of complete nothing. It would be like going from all noise to complete silence on EVERYTHING. Can’t feel body weight or the matter energy space and time of any part of the physical universe. An instant after being in the void I pop back into the physical universe around 750 AD and everything turns on again with the exception is I am out of body in that lifetime looking down at castle in France or England. Took a look and popped completely out of that time back into the void of nothing and then back into the full MATTER ENERGY SPACE AND TIME IMPACT to PT, (present time). It is like nothing you can imagine unless you did it. turning everything off completely and then everything on completely.”

 
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Random Howdy

“Miscavige is downsizing the corporation, cutting his overhead to the barest minimum and consolidating his forces in his last two strongholds, L.A and Clearwater. It makes sense. In Pyongyang most of the office buildings and hotels are empty except for a skeleton staff to make it look good for the occasional tourist or journalist they let in. They’re also there to turn the faucets on occasionally and keep the boiler running. It makes the Generals and the Kims happy, and that’s all that really matters.”

 
——————–

Start making your plans…

 
Head over to the convention website and meet us in St. Louis!

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities, ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and more!

We’ve been building landing pages about David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, including celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs,’ and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them. Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments.

Scientology’s celebrities, from A to Z! Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!

Scientology’s ‘Ideal Orgs,’ from one end of the planet to the other! Help us build up pages about each these worldwide locations!

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 our weekly series. How many have you read?

 
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THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Lucas Catton: ‘Narconon and the Church of Scientology are committing fraud daily’
[TWO years ago] Clearwater city council candidate gets ringing endorsement from a Scientology front
[THREE years ago] The new ‘disconnection’ billboard on Sunset Blvd is going to be a Valentine to Scientology
[FOUR years ago] Bryan Seymour challenges Scientology’s ‘Freedom’ magazine to show itself
[FIVE years ago] Scientology hits back at Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear’ with predictable smears
[SIX years ago] Sunday Funnies: CCHR’s annual gala — time, place, form, and event!
[SEVEN years ago] Kima Douglas, 1942-2013
[EIGHT years ago] The Decline and Fall of Scientology? Skeptic Magazine Makes the Case

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 26, 2020 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, 1995-2018 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2018), 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, 14 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

We want to thank the tipster who sent to us a new pamphlet put out by Scientology in Italy which has finally convinced us that David Miscavige’s troops are truly going to clear the planet.

Published by Scientology’s European headquarters — the Advanced Organization Saint Hill (AOSH) located in Copenhagen — the pamphlet features 20 Italian [...]]]>

We want to thank the tipster who sent to us a new pamphlet put out by Scientology in Italy which has finally convinced us that David Miscavige’s troops are truly going to clear the planet.

Published by Scientology’s European headquarters — the Advanced Organization Saint Hill (AOSH) located in Copenhagen — the pamphlet features 20 Italian Scientologists who level with you about why Hubbardism is going to conquer Earth.

Give it up, folks. It’s over. With these “Operating Thetans” attesting to their hard-won superpowers, all the critics and television series and journalistic exposes are for naught.

Hubbard wins. Every time.

(Yes, these are the actual captions from the pamphlet, translated with help by our tipster in Italy.)

“On the Solo levels, I sorted out distant areas of my life simply using consideration.” — VINCENZO TIRELLA

“What I experienced on this level is incredible, every session restored powers which I had blurred out and now I have got back my beingness.” — ALESSANDRO BILLECI

“I feel an overall calmness that I have never felt before, I can be more myself, more who I want to be.” — MARCO FORNARI

“I have the feeling that nothing can stop me any more, my ability to confront has gone up enormously. Now, neither the past nor the future worry or frighten me any more.” — CARLA DUCCI

“I have seen my life change. Day after day my responsibility, my ability to control and my causativeness level have gone up.” — ROSELLA FRANZETTI

“This level really made me understand the power that we have as a Thetan! I have had so many successes during this journey, my space is full of ARC!” — ANTONELLA BIANCHI

“This level was truly wonderful, I don’t have the words to describe it. Now I understand how vital it is that everyone goes up the Bridge and does the OT levels.” — NOEMI ANDRETTA

“OT II changed my life. I am a new person, the person that I always wanted to be, MYSELF.” — GIULIA VENTURA

“I can feel a calmness in my universe that I have never felt before… I am really happy.” — FIORELLA CERCHIARA

“Now I am me, only myself — self determined and free from defeat. I feel I am in communication with every being.” — FRANCESCO VENTURA

“Now I know, now I understand, now I am. I can truly live and love others as I love myself.” — HANY SAYEDHOM

“I rediscovered who I am with an absolute certainty in my power and in my causativeness.” — FRANCESCO DA ROS

“Everything in life is going well, and when something doesn’t go well, you figure it out with some Theta. This is the magic of OT.” — SIMONE FALCINI

“Now my life has completely changed, a new start. My desire to create has grown and my self determinism is at 100 percent.” — MENDY CECCONELLO

“On this level the secrets of who I am and the infinite power I possess have been revealed.” — ANDREA MANTEGNA

“The awareness that you reach, the level of responsibility and the love towards everyone and everything that is around you… This is a life that you can live.” — ROSANNA CREPALDI

“Every day I operate as an OT with a satisfaction that I have never experienced before.” — PAOLA CAPOCCHI

“I have never felt so powerful, strong and…so OT.” — DORA D’AVANZO

“OT III was the gift that I didn’t expect. My life and my dynamics seemed completely changed in about 5 minutes.” — DONATELLA ERROI

“Now I really feel I am able to confront my whole track.” — MONIA COLNAGO

 
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In case you missed it

Your proprietor’s recent observation…

 
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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 August 24, 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

We are shocked to learn that a public relations stunt involving the leader of the Church of Scientology and a retired Colombian national police general which took place earlier this year on the island of Barbados turns out be a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of [...]]]>

We are shocked to learn that a public relations stunt involving the leader of the Church of Scientology and a retired Colombian national police general which took place earlier this year on the island of Barbados turns out be a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.

For several years, Colombia has been playing straight man to Scientology leader David Miscavige’s neverending practical jokes that he runs on his own followers. One of the biggest canards he requires his acolytes to swallow is that Scientology is actually having some beneficial effect on that troubled South American country, and we’ve seen numerous Colombian police figures dutifully pose for photos and accept shiny medals and slick commendations as their part in the production.

But now, retired general Carlos Ramiro Mena has reportedly gotten himself into some hot water not for accepting a medal from Miscavige, but for pinning one on the diminutive ecclesiastical honcho in the name of the country’s national police, which he was not authorized to do.

The ceremony came at the end of this year’s “Maiden Voyage” celebration, a week long tribute to Scientology’s private cruise ship, the Freewinds, which is where wealthy longtime church members go to be subjected to Scientology’s ultimate prank, the auditing level Operating Thetan Level Eight (OT 8), during which participants learn that the estimated half a million to two million dollars they spent getting there has put them right back where they started, and with none of the superhuman powers they had been promised.

OT 8 and the Freewinds is always good for shaking down the rubes, but this year Miscavige had to raise the bar because this was the 30th anniversary of Maiden Voyage. So, for a capper on the week’s events, he had Mena pin a medal on him at the Bridgetown dock supposedly from the Colombian police for, get this, “transparency.” Here, this is what the public relations spin was at Miscavige’s site…

The National Colombian Police honored Mr. David Miscavige with one of their most prestigious awards — the Brigadier General Jaime Ramírez Gómez Inspector General Transparency Medal — in recognition of his leadership in helping bring about social change within the nation through the work of the Church of Scientology.

You will be stunned to learn that we paid very little attention to this display of quasi-military log-rolling at the time when it first became public because, well, it was almost as if we knew it had to be utter bullshit.

And now, multiple reports are coming from the Colombian press that the actual national police are not happy about having their name used in this fashion. Said one article…

The chief of the National Police, however, said in a press release that the institution never decorated the controversial Scientology leader and knew nothing about the pompous ceremony in Barbados in which retired General Carlos Mena took part.

According to newspaper El Espectador, National Police chief Jorge Hernando Nieto said he knew nothing of Mena’s trip to Barbados and was not authorized to represent the police or give away medals without institutional permission.

“Pompous?” Hey now, southern hemisphere homies, you might want to get a grip on those adjectives. This is the pope of an expanding worldwide clearing operation we’re talking about here.

Anyway, we know you’re on tenterhooks to learn if Mena will be punished in some way or if Miscavige will have to send the award back.

So far, the church has put out a statement that the award was authorized by national police director Jorge Hernando Nieto in December, and that Mena brought it to Barbados because Miscavige was unable to pick it up in Colombia itself.

At this point, we’re less interested in the squabble over an obscure medal than the intense interest of the Colombian media. Is it a sign that Scientology’s persistent gladhanding of low-level public officials — known as “safepointing” in the church — is finally starting to backfire as the notorious dishonesty of the Church of Scientology becomes more widely known?

We hope the Colombian press keeps after this story and starts asking other questions as well. Why, for example, has Miscavige put so much effort into cultivating Colombian officials?

We’d point to the Freewinds for an answer. One of the reasons that the ship stops at the Caribbean islands that it does is because they are notoriously corrupt, and Miscavige can’t afford too many questions about what’s happening on his barge. Last year, it came out that one island on the ship’s usual itinerary, Bonaire, was preparing an investigation of the vessel. The Freewinds has not been back to that island since.

If a port visit to a watchful island is a risk, how much more vulnerable is Scientology’s scow when it’s propped up out of the water for several weeks, unable to sail away? In recent years, when the vessel requires a stay in drydock for repairs, it has done so in Cartagena, Colombia. Before that, it was getting drydock repairs in Willemstad, Curaçao, but an ugly lawsuit there may have contributed to the location change.

After this current flap, it will be interesting to see if Scientology continues to drydock the
Freewinds in Colombia, where friendly relations with the police prevented too many questions. Cartagena may have just lost a lucrative client.

Colombian radio is trying to arrange us appearing on air tonight, if we can solve some logistical issues. If we get the chance, we’ll have as many questions for the hosts as they have for us, we have a feeling.

 
——————–

Rachel Bernstein quizzes your proprietor

We had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Rachel Bernstein, who has been such a help to people coming out of controlling groups.

Her podcast, IndoctriNation, is available on iTunes, but we also found this link on SoundCloud…

https://m.soundcloud.com/indoctrinationshow/episode-15-scientologys-belly-of-the-beast-w-tony-ortega

 
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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 August 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

Laura DeCrescenzo’s legal team has answered Scientology’s latest delaying tactic in her 2009 forced-abortion lawsuit, and attorneys John Blumberg and Ave Buchwald state up front what’s really at stake as Scientology asks for a stay in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Scientology wants Laura’s nine-year state lawsuit put on hold as [...]]]>

Laura DeCrescenzo’s legal team has answered Scientology’s latest delaying tactic in her 2009 forced-abortion lawsuit, and attorneys John Blumberg and Ave Buchwald state up front what’s really at stake as Scientology asks for a stay in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Scientology wants Laura’s nine-year state lawsuit put on hold as the church pursues a long-shot appeal of a long-shot federal lawsuit it filed in order to throw up a roadblock before Laura’s scheduled August trial. That federal suit was dismissed, but the church wants to pursue its appeal even though that might delay Laura’s trial for years.

“The federal court dismissed the action and [Scientology] appealed, triggering a process that can take years before final resolution. The issue is whether [Scientology]’s use of the federal system, after many years of voluntary participation in the Superior Court, is a subterfuge whose purpose is to further delay plaintiff from her day in court,” Laura’s attorneys write.

Well, that’s exactly what it feels like — simply a way of preventing Laura from finally getting her day in court, the latest cynical Hail Mary from Scientology’s unlimited legal budget.

Laura’s legal odyssey is long and complex, and her attorneys go through its details pretty quickly in this document, which we have for you below. But in summing up, they explain best why the Los Angeles court should ignore Scientology’s request for a stay after it has already spent so much time trying to deny Laura her day in court…

Plaintiff [Laura] filed her complaint in 2009, seeking justice for defendants’ abuses that occurred from 1991, when she was 12-years-old, through 2004. After nine years of litigation, plaintiff finally had a firm trial date. CSI [Scientology] seeks further delay during the years that it will pursue a meritless appeal, undoubtedly to be followed by a request for en banc hearing and then a petition for a writ of certiarari [an appeal to the US Supreme Court]. CSI contends a stay will not prejudice plaintiff. But the prejudice to plaintiff is best expressed by the well-known axiom that justice delayed is justice denied. Further delaying this case will deny plaintiff the justice she seeks.

We asked attorney Scott Pilutik for his thoughts on the filing.

I’ve spoken about this case a bit and not much has changed since it first moved to state court except for the myriad delays Scientology has created from thin air. There’s a concept called laches, more common to state law than federal law, which is a bit like an informal statute of limitations. Basically it means that even if you had an argument at date x, waiting so long to raise it means you don’t get to raise it if it means the other party is prejudiced. I don’t believe Scientology had an argument to begin with, but this opposition to Scientology’s motion does a good job of reminding the court that Scientology could have brought this argument years ago. And it’s true — there’s no element in Scientology’s motion that precluded it from being brought many years ago. The only reasonable conclusion, as Laura’s trial date draws near, is that this is a doomed Hail Mary pass. Ultimately, the standard Scientology needs to meet to succeed on its motion is whether the federal district court judge (Judge Wu) abused his discretion despite that judge’s well-reasoned opinion, dismissing Scientology’s nonsense with prejudice. That’s all that matters here and the California Superior court isn’t about to find, years ago and many hundreds of thousands of dollars later, that it should have dismissed the entire thing on a tortured legal argument.

 
Here’s the document. Look it over and give us your thoughts…

DeCrescenzo v. Scientology: Opposition to Motion for Stay by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
——————–

Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Wow, only a few weeks now before this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee Chalker is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 29, 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

We told you that Bert Deixler, Scientology’s top-flight attorney, had filed a notice that the church planned to appeal a federal court ruling even after getting shot down in its latest attempt to throw up a roadblock before Laura DeCrescenzo finally gets her day in court this August on her 9-year [...]]]>

We told you that Bert Deixler, Scientology’s top-flight attorney, had filed a notice that the church planned to appeal a federal court ruling even after getting shot down in its latest attempt to throw up a roadblock before Laura DeCrescenzo finally gets her day in court this August on her 9-year forced-abortion lawsuit.

Now, we have the actual argument that Deixler is making to the Los Angeles Superior Court that it should put a stay on Laura’s case while the church pursues a long-shot appeal even after its Hail Mary federal lawsuit was stomped by a judge who killed it “with prejudice” to keep it from coming back.

As a sign of the church’s desperation, Deixler uses some pretty intimidating-sounding language in this motion for a stay to convince the state court in Los Angeles that it should hold things up since the church’s federal appeal could win the day and make everything go away…

“This Court should not proceed to trial in the matter when there is a real possibility that trial will be unnecessary or, worse, that trial would go forward in a case later enjoined by the federal courts, thus wasting both the parties’ and the Court’s resources,” Deixler writes.

Wow. Let’s remember how we got here so you can get some sense of how obnoxious that statement is.

Laura was just 12 years old when she signed the billion-year contract of the Sea Org and began working 90-hour weeks until she turned 13, when she was put on the 112-hour adult schedule. When she was 17, she’s testified, she was coerced into having an abortion because that’s been Scientology policy since at least the 1970s, that its Sea Org women end their pregnancies so they can keep up the grueling schedule. The policy was supposedly ended in 2010, but we’ve seen some evidence that it’s still continuing today. Laura escaped the Sea Org in 2004 after getting so desperate to leave she drank bleach and was kicked out. She stayed in the church itself for four more years, but then filed her lawsuit in 2009 once she realized that it was an option. That delay — she was supposed to have filed it by 2008 — has been in part why the case has dragged on so long, but it’s also because she had to defeat two separate motions for summary judgment filed by the church, and numerous times the case changed judges.

She finally has a trial set for August, but in December Scientology filed its long-shot lawsuit in federal court, trying to argue that a federal judge should step in and wipe out Laura’s state court lawsuit, even though Scientology has been litigating it there for years.

That federal judge, George Wu, saw through Scientology’s gambit, and he granted Laura’s motion to dismiss on May 3, with prejudice, preventing the church from refiling the case with some changed language. It was about as much a slam-dunk as Laura could hope for, and the way seemed clear for her state trial.

But now Deixler is arguing that Laura’s case should be put on hold so Scientology can pursue a long-shot appeal of its long-shot federal gambit.

We hope the state court can see through this dishonesty. A hearing in the matter has been set for June 8.

We asked attorney Scott Pilutik, who has followed this case for years, for his thoughts on this motion…

Scientology is asking the California court to hit the pause button on the looming trial date while its federal appeal is heard by the Ninth Circuit. They’re right that a successful appeal would moot the need for a trial, but they’re misrepresenting their appeal’s chances for success, which is a key factor in determining whether to allow the stay. An appeal based on a hail-Mary motion brought years after it could have conceivably been brought, and that was rejected “with prejudice,” isn’t likely to find a friendly ear.

I’m unsure of the particular interplay between federal and state court concerns here but I don’t believe Scientology even can appeal the federal court decision by right, given how they’re attempting to use it to stay a trial. To the extent this can be viewed as an interlocutory appeal, such appeals have to clear a higher bar because they’re naturally regarded as potential delay tactics. Except it’s not a true interlocutory appeal–Scientology is playing federal and state courts off each other.

Recall that this case started out, many years ago, in federal court until Scientology successfully got one of the federal causes of action dismissed on statute of limitations grounds, thus robbing federal court of jurisdiction, which is why we’re now in state court.

Scientology’s argument here appears to be that the California courts, in deciding that Laura’s claims weren’t time-barred (despite that the statute of limitations had run) due to Laura’s credible claim that Scientology’s misconduct caused her to delay filing, got it wrong in that they should have applied federal law instead of California law to that question. And, the argument goes, that federal analysis would have resulted in granting preclusive effect to that original federal dismissal, resulting in the dismissal of all of Laura’s claims.

Scientology’s argument raises too many questions it can’t answer straight-faced, such as why California would be required to analyze a state-claim statute of limitations question under federal law principles, and why Scientology waited years to bring the federal action it now claims implicates dire federal state comity issues.

 
Here’s the document filed by Deixler…

DeCrescenzo v. Scientology: Motion for stay during appeal by Tony Ortega on Scribd

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Narconon Ojai is back in business!

 
——————–

Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Hey, we’re only a month away from this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee Chalker is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 23, 2018 at 06:25

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

Sunny Pereira has become a very effective technical expert here at the Bunker, helping us understand Scientology’s arcane ideas. And lately, she’s been going back over some of her own career in the church, and digging out some documents, the sort you don’t see every day.

Sunny joined the Sea Org in 1985 when [...]]]>

Sunny Pereira has become a very effective technical expert here at the Bunker, helping us understand Scientology’s arcane ideas. And lately, she’s been going back over some of her own career in the church, and digging out some documents, the sort you don’t see every day.

Sunny joined the Sea Org in 1985 when she was only 12 years old. She left 19 years later, in 2004, and then was presented with this invoice that November. It’s asking her to pay for the job training she got as a 12-year-old. (See the “all the above courses are with the minor rate” notation.)

We asked her to explain what we’re looking at, and to help us understand why, nearly 20 years later, Scientology would be billing someone for the job training they got as a pre-teen.

 
The Bunker: Tell us about that first course, “Welcome to the Sea Org.”

Sunny: That course is listening to L. Ron Hubbard blather on for five lectures. They were recorded on the ship Apollo, I believe, in the early days of the Sea Org. They are LRH explaining what the Sea Org is, what is expected of a person in the Sea Org, some etiquette in the Sea Org (which is basically to call everyone “Sir” whether male or female, stay the hell out of everyone’s way, you swamper), and anyone can move up just by showing they can be the best and do what is required on them, no questions asked. The tougher you are, better your chances of moving up in the Sea Org. The course, back then, was on reel to reel, not cassette and I hated setting up that thing. Ugh. I wonder if they have at least moved up to CD. I have no idea.

The Bunker: And the others?

Sunny: Basic Sea Org Member Hat is a very short course (one or two days). It covers things like more Sea Org Etiquette, basics on grooming in the Sea Org (no scented products! We WILL sniff you out!), expectations on uniform, how to white glove clean your room, overall Sea Org schedule.

Staff Status I and II: This course is for staff at any org (not just billion-year contract staff in the Sea Org. It’s also for 2 1/2-year and 5-year contracted staff out in the world). These two courses teach the basics of the organizing board. It tells you about the seven division org board, Hubbards pride and joy:
Division 7 – Executive Division (always listed first on the left side when posted on a wall).
Division 1 – Hubbard Communication Office – oversees recruitment, communication (mail sorting, phone lines, etc) and ethics department
Division 2 – Dissemination, including marketing. This is where the registrars are who leech people for all their money
Division 3 – Treasury and collections
Division 4 – Production Division. Most orgs this is where courses and auditing sessions are done
Division 5 – Qualifications Division (Hubbards major discovery of what has been missing from the Whole Track… I kid you not). This division is validity. Does testing and verification of completion of everything from Division 4 above.
Division 6- Has three parts: 6A Division procures new meat. Prices for services here are low to entice. 6B – This is where introductory courses and auditing are delivered. New students are not (supposed to be) mixed with grooved in public of Division 4 (where the meaty stuff is). 6C – This is where Field Staff Members are at… Persons who have done Scn services and are expected to get more people in. They are not actually on staff. They get people in and get commissions on the payments made from the people they get in.

Personal Grooming Course: This kind of self explanatory, except that it has Sea Org standards on grooming and explains everything from teeth brushing to polishing shoes and how to wear the uniforms, and which uniforms are for what.

How to Make Work Easier Course: All Sea Org members are required to do this course. It is actually an introductory course in Scientology and is also delivered to public in Div 6B above. The course takes you through the “Problems of Work” book chapter by chapter with examples and demonstrations throughout.

Success Through Communication Course is also an Introductory course in 6B, required by Sea Org members. It teaches the basic of TR’s. These are not the tough and hard TR’s that you hear about. This one is at an introductory level. (But you do get to sit and stare at another person for a few hours, and you still get to be bullbaited on whatever strange or perverted things your training partner may throw at you).

Keys to Competence Course – Sea Org only course teaches you how to get things done in the Sea Org. Basically by learning to be a bully and telling yourself and everyone else “MAKE IT GO RIGHT!!!!” no matter how impossible or insane your goals are, figure it out.

Student Hat Course – Not part of the training line up for Sea Org members, but I guess I did it anyway at that point. This course has Hubbard study tech lectures (about 12 I think) and lots and lots of bulletins to read to learn all the Hubbard methods for training and learning. Teaches about misunderstood words, teaches about how to do a demo if you are lacking mass on something (can’t picture how it could be? Work it out with some paperclips and rubber bands on the table…. don’t look at the thing itself… just imagine it with these clips and bands), and how skipped gradients can make you unable to learn a subject until you back up to something more basic.

The Bunker: Thank you for that thorough breakdown. People are always really curious about the specifics of the Sea Org life. And looking back on this invoice now, what are you thoughts?

Sunny: Seeing this invoice brings back a lot of memories. I did not join the Sea Org to save the world, which is why most join the Sea Org. My mother was already in the Sea Org, and it seemed the obvious place I would end up. It was what I had been being groomed for, essentially from a very young age. At the time that I joined the Sea Org at 12, I had been stuck on the Children’s RPF for 8 months with no way to get out of it. I was not allowed to talk to anyone else, listen to music, play, or anything and spent my entire days cleaning the childcare building. I had no future at all. It was like I had been left there to fend for myself. A Sea Org recruiter came through looking for another kid to put into the Sea Org. The kid they came for refused to go, so I volunteered. I would have done anything to get off the Children’s RPF. And so, I signed the billion-year contract so I could listen to music again.

When my mother found out I was joining the Sea Org, she was ecstatic. She was extremely proud that I was following in her footsteps. Though the invoice shows a date of Nov 2004, that’s just the billing date — I actually did those courses in July 85, when I was 12. Back in those days, it was common to have such young Sea Org members, and seemed to be actually encouraged.

The courses were difficult for me at that age. Normally the courses on the Sea Org’s boot camp, the Estates Project Force (EPF) take a couple of weeks, three at most. I remember being on the EPF for around 6 months. Studying these courses took some time for me to get through. Another part of the EPF requirement is that you have to show that you are able to handle anything that gets handed to you. I did not like to clean the grease traps in the galley and I was held back and made to repeatedly clean them until I stopped complaining about them. Anyone who has opened and cleaned a grease trap has an idea how horrible they are. They are the drain system for the kitchen/galley and build up all kinds of old and nasty food. We were required to open them, skim the tops of build up and clean the lid and replace. Sounds simple enough, but it was beyond disgusting for this 12-year-old. I am pretty sure I ended up extending my EPF by a couple of weeks because I hated doing it.

On-the-job training is a common thing in the world, but here you have, in the Sea Org, invoicing people for the courses (whether children or not), offering them as “free,” but if you break your (billion-year) contract, you are expected to pay for the on-the-job training you did. Consider the fact that you are forced to clean any nasty condition they offer you, and have to smile about it and thank them for letting you do it, just so you can complete the EPF and get out of there.

Then I spent a couple of decades of my life working long hours, sometimes in horrible conditions, poor food, low sleep, heavy work, and for basically no pay. But when I was ready to leave, they give me this invoice, telling me what I owe. Something is way, way, way off about that.

Then you find out the Sea Org is all a scam (and for many, Scientology too) and you want out. And you get slapped with a bill for over $3,000. That is just the tip of the iceberg.

When you see my earnings next to what is only two years of training at Flag, plus the EPF courses, its clear something is so far off balance.

Scientology and Sea Org, I owe you nothing. We are beyond even. You have taken decades of my life and seem to think you have done me a favor.

The Bunker: And this invoice for $3,000 was only a small part of what the church ultimately tried to bill you after you left the Sea Org in 2004. Here’s another part of what they asked for as your “freeloader bill” for some specific training at the Flag Land Base…

 
The Bunker: In total, the church asked Sunny to pay about half a million dollars because she dared to leave her job. Meanwhile, here is an indication of what the church was paying Sunny over those years in the Sea Org. She started in 1985 at age 12, and notice the sudden reporting of income after Scientology’s agreement with the IRS in 1993.

 
Sunny: These reported earnings clearly show how impossible it is to save up in any way in case someday you decide the Sea Org is not for you. I’ve seen many cases of people wanting to leave but not doing so because they didn’t have the outside support or financial resources to make it work. While room and board are covered by the Sea Org, and while this money is supposed to be to cover necessities, for many it was not enough to cover basic essentials. Where is the logic in having a person dedicate their lives, full time, 24/7 to a cause that pays pennies, then when you decide you have had enough, the response is never a “thank you for your work.” No, it’s getting slapped with a huge bill for “freeloading.” In what world does that make any sense?

The Bunker: And how much of the half million dollars they asked for did they convince you to pay back?

Sunny: Not one thin dime.

 
——————–

Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Hey, we’re only a month away from this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee Chalker is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on May 21, 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

Well-regarded California attorney Bert Deixler has once again genuflected to his client, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, filing a notice of appeal after the church got roundly defeated in a calculated move to slow down a lawsuit that scares the bejeesus out of Miscavige.

We’re talking about the forced-abortion lawsuit filed [...]]]>

Well-regarded California attorney Bert Deixler has once again genuflected to his client, Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, filing a notice of appeal after the church got roundly defeated in a calculated move to slow down a lawsuit that scares the bejeesus out of Miscavige.

We’re talking about the forced-abortion lawsuit filed nine years ago by former Scientology employee Laura DeCrescenzo who was but 12 years old when she indentured herself to the servitude known as the Sea Organization, which requires signing a billion-year contract and, in her case, working 90-hour weeks until she turned 13, when she was put on the 112-hour adult schedule.

When she was 17, she’s testified, she was coerced into having an abortion because that’s been Scientology policy since at least the 1970s, that its Sea Org women end their pregnancies so they can keep up the grueling schedule. The policy was supposedly ended in 2010, but we’ve seen some evidence that it’s still continuing today.

Bert Deixler, Scientology’s expensive legal hired gun, is trying everything he can to keep Laura from having her day in court, when her trial is finally scheduled to begin in August. In December, Deixler filed a long-shot lawsuit in federal court, trying to argue that a federal judge should step in and wipe out Laura’s state court lawsuit, even though Scientology has been litigating it there for years.

That federal judge, George Wu, saw through Scientology’s gambit, and he granted Laura’s motion to dismiss on May 3, with prejudice, preventing the church from refiling the case with some changed language. It was about as much a slam-dunk as Laura could hope for, and the way seemed clear for her state trial.

But now Deixler has filed a notice of appeal with the US Ninth Circuit, and we have no doubt it’s because Miscavige threw a temper tantrum and demanded that it be done, even with Judge Wu slamming their cynical ploy so hard.

 
The church will have to file a motion asking the appeals court to stay Laura’s state lawsuit while the appeal is heard. But our legal experts tell us this is unlikely to be granted.

Let us remind you once again that it was Deixler, bookstore owner, pillar of the community, who fought hard on behalf of the church when Laura won a court ruling ordering the church to turn over her private folders — her own files, mind you — and Deixler told both the California Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States that what was in Laura’s folders was so “religious” in nature it would violate Scientology’s religious freedom rights to force the church to turn them over.

Well, both courts ignored that argument and Laura did finally get her folders, and they contained vile material showing how a church manipulated a 12-year-old girl who merely wanted to communicate with her own mother.

This is the “religious” content that Deixler didn’t want the world to see.

And now, he’s going to argue that a federal judge screwed up when he knocked down Scientology’s latest ploy to throw a road block in front of Laura — when, if there was any real justice in this country, the church should be sanctioned for all of the ways it’s trying to keep Laura from her day in court.

And not only that. We have another beef. Deixler has shamed himself time and again, but he’s just a hired gun working for a bad actor. What really puzzles us is this…

When the hell is the Los Angeles fricking Times going to start paying attention to this monumental court case in its own effing backyard?

The Times is going through a big transition right now, with a new owner who is moving the newsroom out of the city center itself. The Times will be undergoing something of an identity crisis. What better way to show its readers that it’s serious about local news than to get rid of its near-total aversion to Scientology stories and start digging into Laura’s case? Or another case we wish we could have explored further if we weren’t just one dude in New York with a laptop* — a Scientology front group’s felonious behavior that ruined the careers of three local African-American educators, a story the Times entirely, completely ignored? Or how about this — a Calabasas attorney writing on behalf of his Los Angeles client, the Church of Scientology, trying to derail a Los Angeles-based television show, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, by arguing that a 14-year-old girl was the sexual agressor in her rape by a Scientology employee, a document that we posted here at the Bunker and which has never been mentioned by any other news organization, despite the document being made fully available through our Scribd account? Or hey, the Times “Calendar” section pretends that it is an important voice in LA entertainment — when is it going to pay attention to LA-based rocker Cedric Bixler Zavala’s allegations that Scientology has been harassing him and his wife, Danny Masterson accuser Chrissie Bixler, including the shocking evidence that their goddamn dog was killed by being kicked in the neck by Scientology thugs? Or one of LA’s biggest mysteries — how Scientology leader David Miscavige is getting away with banishing his wife to a small compound in the mountains northeast of the city? You think the Times might spare a reporter or two to look into that little controversy, which is one of the things we get asked about most?

What the hell gives?

We’ll put it to you, our loyal readers: How can we get the Times to start giving a crap about some of the biggest stories in its own damn patch of earth?

 
*ps: For some reason Scientology thinks this admission — that the Bunker is put out by a single person on a laptop computer — is somehow a slam on us. We’ll just remind the church that this modest website gets more traffic (ranked #23,057 in the US on Alexa) than the church’s official website (Scientology.org, which is at #31,688). And that’s even after two solid months of a 24/7 Scientology television station on DirecTV trying to get people to visit the damn thing. So there.

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

The London org gets a bit fresh with Jessica Chastain…

 
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Make your plans now!

HOWDYCON UPDATE

Wow, we’re now less than two months out, and Chee Chalker is working hard to make sure things are going to run smoothly at this year’s HowdyCon in Chicago, June 21-23. As in past years, we’re looking forward to meeting readers of the Bunker, culminating in Saturday night’s main event.

The biggest difference this year is that our Saturday night event is separate from that evening’s dinner. Chee is setting up an inexpensive pizza dinner that you don’t need to pay for ahead of time, after which we’ll walk over to the theater where our event, hosted by Chicago Fire star Christian Stolte, will take place. Because it’s a separate event, we’re asking that you pay $10 each to get into the Saturday night event, which will help us recoup what the Bunker paid for the venue. (We have never made a penny on our HowdyCon meetups, we only try to break even.)

Please email your proprietor (tonyo94 AT gmail) in order to reserve your spot for Saturday night’s main event. Seating is limited, and we’re going to have some really interesting people on stage and they may make a few announcements that you don’t want to miss.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 15, 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