Scientology | The Underground Bunker

PODCAST: Jon Atack has some things to say about Mike Rinder’s new book on Scientology

The big news this week of course is that former Scientology spokesman and Leah Remini’s costar Mike Rinder has released his really terrific book about his experience in the church, A Billion Years: My Escape from a Life in the Highest Ranks of […]

Dr. Eric Berg gaming YouTube? Ian Rafalko with more revelations about his Scientologist dad

It was great to hear from Ian Rafalko again this week. If you remember, we were first blown away by his viral announcement on TikTok, explaining that he was the son of Dr. Eric Berg, the YouTube phenom with 8 million subscribers who dispenses a lot of diet […]

Double storms hit Scientology: Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Mike Rinder

With all of their purported super powers, the OTs of Scientology were unable to fend off a double-bullseye yesterday as the church was rocked by two very different kinds of […]

Mike Rinder’s ‘A Billion Years’: A gripping takedown of Scientology and its leader

There are many books about Scientology now, including some put out by major publishers. If you wanted a robust history of where Scientology has been over many decades, you could turn to Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear, or the earlier, deeply researched investigations by Russell Miller (Bare-Faced Messiah) or Jon Atack (A Piece of Blue […]

In Los Angeles, shilling for Scientology becomes issue in mayor’s race

[Karen Bass and Rick Caruso]

We’ve said it many times over the years: Scientology tries to convince local politicians to come to its events, and some of them do, not bothering to research Scientology’s long history of scandals and […]

Watching Scientology lie to foreigners about ‘religious’ visas: A very personal account

[The Hollywood Celebrity Centre]

A thorough new piece in New York magazine about Scientology’s abuse of R-1 visas not only reminded us of research by RM Seibert for the Bunker that we published in 2016. It also inspired Sunny Pereira to send us this memory of what the R-1 visa abuse actually looked like at the […]

How Scientology manufactured New York Times bestsellers for L. Ron Hubbard

We’ve received another account from a former Scientology manager who previously told us about the development of contracts in the church after the death of Lisa McPherson. This time, they gave us another timely look into Scientology’s […]

PODCAST: Mark Bunker on Scientology’s sabotage of progress in Clearwater

Thanks to the intrepid work of Tampa Bay Times reporter Tracey McManus, we learned this past week that Scientology continues its old tricks in Clearwater, the Florida city whose downtown was taken over by the church in a surreptitious takeover 45 years […]

Scientology’s Flag Land Base lost money in 2020? We beg to differ.

Six years ago we wrote about government data that researcher RM Seibert uncovered showing without a doubt that Scientology was abusing “R-1” religious visas in order to bring indentured servants to its “Sea Org” […]

Scientology is fuming about Mike Rinder, Valeska Paris testimony in trafficking case

[Mike Rinder and Valeska Paris]

Scientology was so incensed by the responses to its attempt to derail a new labor trafficking lawsuit in Tampa, it asked for the chance to make a special […]

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