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This is your brain on L. Ron Hubbard: Watergate, Scientology, and late-night radio

[Jim Dincalci says he took this photo of L. Ron Hubbard in Queens in 1973 — or did he?]

We thought we’d toss off a bonus post this evening to let you know about something happening late tonight. Alabama resident and former Church of Scientology member Randy McDonald, who was once the editor of Scientology’s Celebrity []

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Sailing with L. Ron Hubbard: A Scientology saga of Sea Org dedication

 While Rod Keller was doing his usual rounds looking for Scientology’s footprint in social media this week, he ran across a flier that made him do a double take. And we’re glad he did, because he sent over this entertaining look at a slice of Scientology history we thought you’d want to []

CLEARWATER DONE DEAL — Couple seeks big crowd for Scientology ‘disconnection’ billboard

 After the readers of this website once again came through for former Scientologists Phil and Willie Jones, contributing several thousand dollars for another “Call Me” billboard to raise awareness of Scientology’s “disconnection” policy, the Las Vegas couple are announcing that they have signed a contract for a billboard in Clearwater, []

Nearly four years after Stacy Murphy’s death, Scientology files motion to kill much of lawsuit

 It’s been nearly four years since Stacy Dawn Murphy, 20, was found dead at Scientology’s flagship drug rehab center, Narconon Arrowhead, in Oklahoma. Two other patients at the clinic had died in just the previous nine months, but it was Stacy’s death that particularly shocked local and national media, leading to a new focus on []

Scientology is holding this Kazakh 20-year-old prisoner, says her media-grabbing mom

 We turn to the Underground Bunker’s Russian-language wing to help us with a story developing in Kazakhstan that has generated some excitement over at WhyWeProtest.net and elsewhere. And even with expert translation assistance, this story is a bit batty and we’d like to get it more completely sorted []

Scientology goes big with Barnes & Noble and with the Euro 2016 football tournament

 It’s time again for Rod Keller’s Scientology Social Media Review. He’s made a specialty of hunting down the odd and wonderful things Scientologists post to the ‘net. He’s a chronicler who piece by piece builds a highly detailed assessment of what Scientology is doing around the world, and this is what he found for us []

When you postulate upon a star: L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology’s funny made-up words

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than three years he’s been helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend []

Maryland county explains why (don’t call it Scientology) can take a hike

 The county council in Frederick County, Maryland, is fighting the Church of Scientology in court to keep the church from putting one of its quack drug rehab centers in a former fish camp known as Trout Run.

Readers know we’ve been following this dispute for some time, and that it’s a bit technical. But it’s another []

Our money maverick dives into Scientology’s latest financial house of horrors

This week, documents became available that had been submitted by Narconon Holland, the Scientology drug rehab center in the Netherlands. At a quick glance, they indicated that the place was in serious trouble. And now, Underground Bunker regular “John P.” — who enjoys telling us about his luxurious life in high finance — has broken []

Wacky scenes from Scientology’s ‘Battlefield Earth’ launch on Hollywood Boulevard

[Phil Jones, right, is told what a failure he is by Scientologists at yesterday’s event]

Hit by another tsunami of bad press, this time over the May publication of Ron Miscavige’s bestselling book Ruthless, Ron’s son, Scientology leader David Miscavige, is hitting back with his own grab for media attention — by bringing out a 34-year-old []