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Scientology founder’s breathless promotion of his ability to ‘endow another body with life!’

[Hubbard in Arizona in 1954]

Several days ago we dipped into the Scientology publications archive and brought you a rather bombastic boast by founder L. Ron Hubbard that he had, for the first time in history, sussed out how arthritis actually works, and said that with his Dianetic processes it was a cinch to []

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Jon Atack and Chris Shelton answer the question: Are cult members stupid?

 Jon Atack and Chris Shelton teamed up for a new video this week. Jon’s helper Spike Robinson describes what’s in []

L. Ron Hubbard 2.0 surprises us yet again with his latest venture: Sitting in a Tennessee jail

 Oldtimers tell us that it’s not unusual since the death of L. Ron Hubbard in 1986 for claimants to show up saying they’re the reincarnation of the Scientology founder. But a couple of years ago, one very unlikely figure generated a surprising amount of buzz and attention when he asserted that he was “LRH 2.0” []

Evidence that Scientology is still taking Sea Org women to clinics for forced abortions

[Peter Mansell]

One of the most shocking revelations about Scientology abuses, and one of the best documented, was Tom Tobin’s masterful reporting in 2010 about the church’s decades-long policy of forcing women in the Sea Org to undergo unwanted []

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

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

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

How do we know the ‘Chase Wave’ happened? ‘Aftermath’ guest Mark Fladd: ‘I was part of it’

[Mark and Stephanie Fladd on ‘Aftermath’]

On Sunday, we told you about a document that had been leaked to us: It purported to be directions for Scientology’s registrars to follow as they were pressuring members to open up multiple Chase Bank credit cards in order to saddle those members with huge debts. The process was called []

Scientology at a crossroads: When the ruthless upstarts pushed out the less compliant

[Alan Walter and Dean Stokes]

Our proprietor has asked me to make some comment on his splendid, corrected transcript of the Mission Holders’ Conference of 1982. I’ve long regarded this conference as the fatal turning point in Scientology, where any pretense at compassion was rejected by David Miscavige – at this time not the leader but []

DOCUMENT LEAK: Did the ‘Chase Wave’ cause a blacklisting of Scientology?

 An “under the radar” Scientologist — someone who is considered an active member by the church, but who is actually reading “entheta” websites like this one — reached out to us with a startling []

Betrayed by L. Ron Hubbard, and stuck in a desert prison: A Scientology horror story

 Janis Gillham Grady has sent us a real treat today: It’s an account taken from her first book, ‘Commodore’s Messenger,‘ along with some photos never before seen, which she plans to include in her third volume, still in progress. If you don’t have her two books, we hope this thrilling excerpt will convince you to []

Lest we forget: Scientology started out as quack cure-all, selling electronic snake oil

 On occasion, we like to remind readers that Scientology’s troubles did not begin with current leader David Miscavige. []