In 2017, we told you the devastating disconnection story of Clarissa Adams, a woman who had grown up in Scientology and then was cut off by both of her parents when she decided to leave the church. She hasn’t seen or spoken to her mother, Irmin Huber, since 2014, when [...]]]>

In 2017, we told you the devastating disconnection story of Clarissa Adams, a woman who had grown up in Scientology and then was cut off by both of her parents when she decided to leave the church. She hasn’t seen or spoken to her mother, Irmin Huber, since 2014, when Irmin cited a Scientology policy at her while they were both visiting Austria, where the family is originally from. Clarissa sent this account of what it was like to see her mother featured so prominently in the Reckless Ben videos, shot by a couple of young men who wore spy glasses into the Los Angeles Ideal Org several weeks ago.

 
Of all the people at PAC [the Pacific Area Command, Scientology’s “Big Blue” headquarters in Los Angeles], it’s a little wild that this video series features my mom as Ben’s auditor. Seeing how intensely dedicated she remains is not surprising but makes me sad nonetheless.

It’s tough to watch her as an auditor knowing she fully, 100 percent believes she’s helping Ben. The idea that she was brainwashing him would appall her. Her entire goal in life is to help people. She loves everyone, unless you turn to the dark side of course, and she wants to help everyone she meets. Unfortunately for her (and all of us kids, really) she picked the wrong group to do that with.

When she was younger, my mom rebelled against the idea that because she was female, she wasn’t able to do what men could do. From what she told me, her mother and father were strict and she wasn’t allowed to do certain things, even cut her hair, because she was a girl. So as soon as she was of age, she rebelled.

 
The day she came of age (I can’t remember if it was 16, 18 or 20) she cut her crazy-long hair to above her shoulders and later bought a motorbike and joined a biker group full of men. Sometime later she found Scientology and learned that we are all Thetans, and that Thetans are non-gendered beings. So we are all just as able as the person next to us, male or female.

She was hooked. She made it up the Bridge to OT 3 (yes, she definitely knows about Xenu), joined staff at the Vienna org, met my dad there and had my brother and me. In 1985 she flew to Portland for the Portland Crusade to fight for Scientology’s rights, and then in 1986 we all flew from Austria to LA so mom and dad could join the Sea Organization.

My mom was pregnant with my little sister when we came over and she completed the EPF [Estates Project Force, the Sea Org’s boot camp] while pregnant. She figured that dedicating herself to being a Sea Org member was the best way to help save this planet. I’m pretty sure she’s never wavered in that dedication.

Side note: she was even the OT3 Supervisor at the FLO/ILO for many years so again, Xenu. I will say that in her defense, although she lied through her teeth to Ben, if she had told him the truth or encouraged him to look online and read about Xenu then he might actually have died because he’s not ready for that kind of truth yet. Scientologists believe that if she told him the truth then he would have caught life-threatening pneumonia. (Writing that last sentence, it’s astonishing to me that I fully believed it and gave myself no reason to question it for way too long. Brainwashing sucks.)

 
That “I love you” moment she had with Ben was a little strange, but I think she was being genuine at the time — though she may have needed to force it some after all that squirrely Purif talk. She really admires people who do amazing and daring things and finds them fascinating (she even went skydiving for the first time in her late 50s; she’s definitely into thrills). She thinks of Scientology books and pamphlets as gifts of golden knowledge so her gift was also genuine. I’m not sure that she still loves him though…

Early last year she stopped talking to her family in Austria who, for the past 35 years she always made a point to stay in touch with and even made time to visit despite her being in the Sea Org. To me that’s a bad sign because it means she is isolating herself even more than usual.

I think it’s inevitable that she’ll be in trouble for all of this and I just hope that it’s uncomfortable enough that she feels the need to leave. I do realize that this is total wishful thinking on my part.

Overall, my assessment is that she doesn’t look very happy. And while I miss my mom, I don’t miss her intense dedication to, and belief in Scientology because right now she’s in that fire truck and my sister and I are just some of those damn barking dogs that she’s intently ignoring.

— Clarissa Adams

 
——————–

Source Code

“Nineteen fifty-one, I rolled up my sleeves and started to investigate the Whole Track. Because in late 1950 it had started to raise its ugly and unseemly head. And auditors who would run into it and try to audit it and pcs who dare bring it up, of course, ran into a considerable social ostracism of one character or another. That was not done. The first Foundation board tried to pass a regulation, a board ruling to the effect that nobody would ever look at, believe in or investigate past lives, and so forth. And yet auditors in auditing them kept running into them, you see? So that probably was the basic split-up of the first Foundation. The first Foundation wanted to sit there comfortably and just grind on and on in present-life engrams and consider that we had it all made and they wanted no further research or investigation of any kind whatsoever. Well, that wouldn’t go and that was that, because auditors were not turning out the results they should have turned out if one had only lived one life. So in 1951 this — I didn’t fly in the teeth of this. I would have investigated anything. I mean, there’s no real resistance on my part. You show me something, tell me I can’t investigate it, I’m liable to investigate it. You show me something and tell me I can investigate it, I’m liable to investigate it. I mean, there is no influence in that line. I, just down through the trillennia, I have not paid attention to and/or paid no attention to people who have told me not to look. I just have not paid any attention to this one way or the other. This, of course, adds up to a total neglect of the ‘finer sensibilities,’ I think they’re called, of other people. The finer sensibilities, I think, is another way of expressing the idea ‘he’s too yellow to look.'” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 25, 1962

 
——————–

Overheard in the FreeZone

“If no one trains to be an auditor then Scientology will be dead in the future. There are two major ‘stops’ to training, time and money. There are people who might want to train who believe they can’t afford it. If someone would start a fund raising campaign and collect funds that could be given as grants for studying that might help. For example if there was a grant available for training, I could advertise for someone who would be willing to become and auditor if he/she had financial help. Just a thought.”

 
——————–

Random Howdy

“People say to me, ‘So, have you met a Scientologist?’ And I laugh and think to myself, ‘What a beautiful thing,’ because maybe one day it will be like that, you know? You know what I’m saying. Maybe one day it will be that ‘Wow, Scientologists, they just read about those in the history books.’ You know?”

 
——————–

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?

 
——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology’s ‘grass roots’ social media effort is actually led by its most mediocre spokesman
[TWO years ago] The Battle of Portland, part 2: Pressuring a court by surrounding it with Scientologists and celebs
[THREE years ago] Brandon Reisdorf: Scientology complained to probation dept. over ‘Leah Remini’ appearance
[FOUR years ago] For a class-action lawsuit against Scientology’s rehab network, a setback in California
[FIVE years ago] ‘Going Clear’ premieres at Sundance, and we watched in awe with the celebs
[SIX years ago] Jon Atack: Do Scientology’s training routines turn you into a sociopath?
[SEVEN years ago] Newsweek Confirms It: L. Ron Hubbard Was a Blowhard
[EIGHT years ago] The Strange Death of Flo Barnett, Mother-in-Law to Scientology Leader David Miscavige

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 25, 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’re premiering another video by the “Reckless Ben” team today, their fifth installment of short films about the infiltration of Scientology they recently pulled off.

This time, they’re trolling their Scientology auditor by asking her about Xenu (the galactic overlord Scientologists are told about in the advanced auditing level of Operating Thetan [...]]]>

We’re premiering another video by the “Reckless Ben” team today, their fifth installment of short films about the infiltration of Scientology they recently pulled off.

This time, they’re trolling their Scientology auditor by asking her about Xenu (the galactic overlord Scientologists are told about in the advanced auditing level of Operating Thetan Level Three, OT 3), and it’s fun to watch her do the “I never heard that word before” routine.

They also tell her they’re doing their own version of a Purification Rundown at Planet Fitness. These guys are such cards. Later they get the hard sell about signing up for a lifetime of commitment working for the church.

Ben Schneider, 24, and his friend Michael Fortner, 23, moved from Ohio to Los Angeles where Ben was pursuing opportunities as a professional slackliner. By chance, they happened to rent a house very close to Scientology’s LA headquarters, the “Big Blue” complex on Fountain Avenue.

Out of curiosity, the duo decided to find out what they could manage to film with spy glasses at the Scientology facility, and the result has been a very funny and illuminating series of videos.

In the first, Schneider and Fortner got pretty amazing footage of a nutty Scientology Sunday Service…

 
Infiltrating Scientology Ep 1: Sunday Church Service

 
In the second video, they showed the paranoia of Scientology staffers, as well as their dubious ethics…

 
Infiltrating Scientology Ep. 2: Scientology “Logic”

 
The third installment took aim at Scientology’s quack detox treatment, the Purification Rundown…

 
Infiltrating Scientology Ep. 3: The Cleanse

 
Video number four was a brilliant look inside Scientology auditing…

 
And now here’s video five, debuting here at the Underground Bunker this morning. We look forward to your reactions!

 
——————–

Source Code

“Let’s go back to this problem and see if there isn’t a little bit more to be known then about an individual who will not exteriorize. We’ve got the DEI cycle — desire, enforce, inhibit. At first he desired to mobilize MEST, and then MEST began to enforce its mobilization upon him, and then he started to inhibit it. We will find this for instance between a man and a woman who are ill-matched sexually. We will find a woman who is tremendously demanding sexually, may at first attract some fellow who is fairly normal, and there will be a period there when he is perfectly willing to satisfy her. This passes rapidly into a period of where he begins to believe it is being enforced upon him, and this will pass rapidly into his refusal. And so you’ve got desire, enforce, inhibit. And he will not only inhibit his sexual outflow toward her, he will simply start inhibiting it toward all women. He does it by classes, non-specific. And so we find him then becoming sexually impotent in ratio to the amount of sexual performance which has been demanded of him. Rather sad thing, isn’t it?” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 20, 1954

 
——————–

Overheard in the FreeZone

“Best to step out of theta/mind in order to observe whether you’re Saturnian or Adamite soul. In between lives information is not in the mind. It is felt by the soul that has had to live the torture over and over. Also helpful is to know who the Matrix rulers are from the top ruler all the way down to their lowliest; who they really are. They are big on hierarchies. Best to see them rulers (highly advanced evil beings) when they are not wearing their stolen garments, residing in their residence of stolen aspects which makes their place look beautiful. Take away their stolen garments and aspects and they and their place is an ugly hell-hole only them Saturnian souls can tolerate. You can work with theta and the mind till the end of time and this understanding will never show up. Only the live being, he or she, carries this understanding, not androgynous theta, and not beehive mind. Intentionally, to keep souls imprisoned here, these pictures were not downloaded into the mind.”

 
——————–

Random Howdy

“Clear Cognition: You mocked up your reactive mind. OT8 Cognition: You mocked up the Space Opera, your past lives and your BT infestation. The trigger for the OT8 cognition is the line ‘the Pilot says: I’m mocking this up.’ The desired End Phenomena is ‘Now that I know what I am not, I am ready to find out what I am’.”

 
——————–

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?

 
——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] Scientology uses celebrities and police as props — military veterans, it’s your turn!
[TWO years ago] Garcias decry Scientology kangaroo ‘arbitration’ and ask judge to reinstate fraud lawsuit
[THREE years ago] What Scientology can tell us about a 20th of January like no other
[FOUR years ago] The Church of Scientology of Latter-Day Dolts: Video evidence of the fall
[FIVE years ago] Scientology’s first ‘Clear’: L. Ron Hubbard intended to return as his daughter Diana’s son
[SIX years ago] Tales from Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre: A new film, and a new death
[SEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Scientology Says It Bought a SUPER BOWL Ad!

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 20, 2020 at 09:45

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’re premiering another video by the “Reckless Ben” team today, their fourth installment of short films about the infiltration of Scientology they recently pulled off.

Ben Schneider, 24, and his friend Michael Fortner, 23, moved from Ohio to Los Angeles where Ben was pursuing opportunities as a professional slackliner. By chance, they happened to rent a [...]]]>

 
We’re premiering another video by the “Reckless Ben” team today, their fourth installment of short films about the infiltration of Scientology they recently pulled off.

Ben Schneider, 24, and his friend Michael Fortner, 23, moved from Ohio to Los Angeles where Ben was pursuing opportunities as a professional slackliner. By chance, they happened to rent a house very close to Scientology’s LA headquarters, the “Big Blue” complex on Fountain Avenue.

Out of curiosity, the duo decided to find out what they could manage to film with spy glasses at the Scientology facility, and the result has been a very funny and illuminating series of videos.

In the first, Schneider and Fortner got pretty amazing footage of a nutty Scientology Sunday Service…

 
Infiltrating Scientology Ep 1: Sunday Church Service

 
In the second video, they showed the paranoia of Scientology staffers, as well as their dubious ethics…

 
Infiltrating Scientology Ep. 2: Scientology “Logic”

 
The third installment took aim at Scientology’s quack detox treatment, the Purification Rundown…

 
Infiltrating Scientology Ep. 3: The Cleanse

 
And now here’s video number four, debuting here at the Underground Bunker this morning. It’s really pretty brilliant. This time, Ben recorded his auditing session, and it demonstrates pretty perfectly how L. Ron Hubbard’s repetitive, hypnotic technique has been convincing people to rely on faulty memories they dream up after hours and hours of processing.

In this case, Ben is asked about a traumatic experience — breaking his neck after over-rotating on a double somersault, which had happened to him some two and a half years before. He can explain the experience in complete detail in about five minutes, he says. But he’s asked to go over every possible detail of it again and again — for ten hours. And during that time, pressured to come up with even more details, he can’t help but invent things in order to please the auditor.

By the end of the ten-hour session, he now “remembers” the event in significantly different ways (and he’s woozy and disoriented too, which is key). But when he gets home and tells this new version to Michael, he gets called on it. Michael was actually there that day when Ben broke his neck, and knows that the new version is incorrect.

But objective reality — i.e. facts — have no place in the Hubbard universe, as Ben further learns when he’s pressed to follow up that session with a $15 class called “enchantment processing” which involves watching a short Hubbard lecture and then repeating phrases from it to a wall.

Yes, Scientology is just as nonsensical, manipulative, and mind-altering as you expected. And the Reckless Ben team has done a great service getting it all down on audio and video.

Take a look, and let us know what you think…

 
——————–

Bonus items from our tipsters

We only hope we get to see the finished product…

 
——————–

Source Code

“Orgs are in the very new, for this universe, business of setting people free. SPs will find all manner of reasons not to, for this is what they, with their own crimes, fear. Thus it follows that they cut dissem lines, corrupt tech, suppress and confuse orgs, persuade people to be inactive and resort to other shifts, all quite ‘reasonable’ and ‘logical’ as to why this must be the way it is; so be alert to this and go ahead and set people free. It’s done with org services well delivered, on-policy, with standard tech. So just do it, man, do it!” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 13, 1983

 
——————–

Overheard in the FreeZone

“I’m not indicating this is what happened to LRH. I am just indicating that LRH’s data on Theta Lines is confirmed, and that there can be several reincarnations of LRH on this planet. So far, only Justin Craig has come so far. There was a teenager that claimed she also was the reincarnation of LRH, but didn’t go too far.”

 
——————–

Random Howdy

“I’m still waiting for someone to do the obvious KFC shoop with the KSW and L Ron as the Colonel. Preferably on a bucket.”

 
——————–

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?

 
——————–

THE WHOLE TRACK

[ONE year ago] How businesses that run on Scientology principles find Scientologist employees
[TWO years ago] Ten years ago, all hell broke loose for Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology
[THREE years ago] DONE DEAL: Billboard contract signed for site near Scientology’s Los Angeles ‘Big Blue’ HQ
[FOUR years ago] DOX: Government disclosure shows extent of Scientology’s reliance on cheap foreign labor
[FIVE years ago] Claire Headley explains her amazing Scientology experience as Tom Cruise’s ‘examiner’
[SIX years ago] New criminal case for Scientology in France could shut it down permanently in that country
[SEVEN years ago] Did the Headleys And Their Lawsuit Torpedo the FBI Investigation of Scientology?
[EIGHT years ago] How Scientology Spied on Tom Cruise

 
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——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on January 13, 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

Who are these guys? That was one of the reactions we had when we saw the dynamite first two videos put out by a couple of young infiltrators who have brought out some of the most fascinating (and hilarious) undercover video from inside Scientology in a long time.

It [...]]]>

Who are these guys? That was one of the reactions we had when we saw the dynamite first two videos put out by a couple of young infiltrators who have brought out some of the most fascinating (and hilarious) undercover video from inside Scientology in a long time.

It turns out they’re “Reckless” Ben Schneider, 24, and his friend Michael Fortner, 23, who both recently moved to Los Angeles from Ohio.

Ben’s a professional slackliner with a YouTube channel that hosts videos of his balancing exploits and also some prankish setups. The channel has a few thousand subscribers, and so far the two Scientology videos they’ve put out have amassed views of a few thousand.

If they’re not exactly going viral, it’s not for a lack of quality. The Sunday Service they filmed secretly at the LA Org in part one is glorious fun. And the way Ben gets Scientology staffers to encourage him to commit a theft in order to pay for his copy of “Dianetics” in part two is truly inspired.

The first thing we asked them, though, was about the date on the videos, which appear to have been shot three years ago.

“The date on the spy glasses is wrong and we didn’t know how to take them off,” Ben said. The videos were actually filmed just a couple of weeks ago.

Ben tells us that he moved out to LA to help Tik Tok recruit other athletes to the video platform, which he gets paid for. And they just happened to end up in a house right by the Big Blue Scientology complex in Los Angeles.

“We were kind of curious. We knew they were kind of crazy, lunatic people. We had these spy glasses so we said, hey let’s go in there,” Ben says. “It sucks that nobody has ever heard what is going on there.”

We pointed out that, actually, there’s been quite a bit about Scientology’s practices on television and the Internet in recent years, but we understand what he means.

“Your typical person on the street doesn’t know what’s going on in there. So we wanted to make people see what’s happening there. We wanted to make a documentary that your average person would want to watch,” he says.

Well, they certainly achieved that. After a short intro with some of the staff they talked with, the first episode gets to a “Sunday Service” they attended at the LA Org.

It was just a few weeks ago that we were marveling at a 1954 audio recording of L. Ron Hubbard doing “group processing,” asking an audience to respond to rather ridiculous set of questions, like if they had hands or a head. Sunny Pereira told us that this kind of activity today was relegated to Sunday Service, which is largely a sop to an unknowing public that expects a “church” to have a weekly service. (Scientology is actually about auditing, which takes place between a “preclear” and an auditor, and can happen any time of the day or night or day of the week.)

Ben and Mike caught a mindblowing Sunday Service activity of group processing that yes, the general public should really see. It’s almost a perfect inoculation for people who might be curious about joining Scientology. Here, take a look…

 
The duo say they were eventually made by the church, which told them they were no longer welcome. Since then they’ve been shooting additional footage and editing like mad to keep up their weekly schedule, pulling several all-nighters. The editing really helps make the videos fun to watch.

In the second video, which is longer, Ben keeps several staffers dangling as he comes up with excuses for why he doesn’t have the $25 for a copy of ‘Dianetics,’ which he needs in order to get his progress in Scientology really going. Meanwhile, they keep interrogating him to find out if he’s actually a spy trying to infiltrate the church.

He suggests to a young woman staffer that he plans to steal a game console from a friend and pawn it for enough money to pay for the book and more. He then puts her on the spot about how she feels about it, and it’s really quite stunning television, we have to say. Of course the Scientology staffer, part of the “most ethical people on earth,” is fine with Ben’s proposed idea of using his ill-gotten cash to pay for the Hubbard book.

 
We also very much enjoyed the graphic illustration of just how small Scientology actually is. Loved the drone shot of the football field. Yes, Scientology really is tiny!

The duo are planning on five episodes in total, and tell us they haven’t heard any reaction to the first two episodes from the church itself.

They say they were surprised to get an invite to the December 31 New Year’s Eve celebration for the LA Org. By then, they figured, they’d been made.

Ben says he took precautions anyway, getting a haircut and hoping they wouldn’t be recognized. But it didn’t work.

“They told us that we were no longer allowed in,” Ben says.

“We’re banned,” Michael adds.

It was their last attempt to get into a Scientology facility.

So they’ve been focusing on putting together the footage they have. And they tell us they’ve been shooting additional scenes this weekend for their third episode, which they say will focus on the Purif, Scientology’s “detox” regimen.

They planned to pull another all-nighter, and hope to get us the link to their video as this story is going to print this morning.

We told them that if we have to wait a little longer for it to be ready, we’ll manage.

And here it is…

 
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Scenes from the climate apocalypse

We’re heartsick about the horrific news about the young couple who drowned in an elevator in flooded Tel Aviv. The scenes coming out of Israel from recent heavy weather are really frightening.

A reader wanted us to know that the Jaffa Ideal Org hasn’t been spared and sent us this photo showing signs that the staff there has been trying to keep water out of the building.

The Jaffa Org is already being inconvenienced by the street it’s on being ripped up for major reconstruction that will last a couple of years. It’s a grim scene.

 
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Source Code

“Now, I have actually seen auditors get jealous of their preclears simply because the preclear did so well. And the auditor couldn’t rest till he dropped a vase on the preclear’s foot or upset the ashtray or did something. I know of one case — very, very remarkable — of a guy very highly connected, and in fact the source of trouble in the Wichita Foundation, who had a blind man with his sight on and who forcefully and violently kicked the foot of the bed on which he was auditing this blind man. You know, the sight came on and he kicked the foot of the bed. And the shock was considerable there and it took the blind man’s sight off. Nobody else processed the blind man, either. As far as I know he’s blind to this moment.” — L. Ron Hubbard, January 6, 1955

 
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Overheard in the FreeZone

“I was audited by a class 8 auditor. Further processing something else, I took over the session using her and her meter to guide me to answer some questions I had. I went to the days of the crucifixion and went inside Christ body and some very heavy forces was hitting the spirit of me, not the body. I left the body, looked from a distance, and saw an oval of gold light in front of him and this oval went up into the sky and it was a UFO implanting the area and running beams on the being of Christ. I yelled, it was a trick. Whoever was in that ship tricked Christ into doing that crucifixion for what reasons I don’t know, but the being in me knows.”

 
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Random Howdy

“Scientologists have had a King Arthur fetish going back to day one. LRH moving to England buying a ‘castle,’ very expected and cliched to say the least. Knights of the Three Card Monte Table, here to save the world.”

 
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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] Scientologists told to seize on Australian stabbing death as a recruiting opportunity
[TWO years ago] Scientology actress Jenna Elfman fully stoked by church’s new expansion push!
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s disgusting secret: Young teens used to interrogate adults about their sex lives
[FOUR years ago] Scientology becoming a ghost town; ALSO: Illinois man arrested for threatening Miscavige
[FIVE years ago] Ryan Hamilton makes it 26 lawsuits against Scientology’s drug rehab scheme
[SIX years ago] VIDEO LEAK: Scientology’s November IAS Gala, featuring a slimmed-down David Miscavige
[SEVEN years ago] Sunday Funnies: Scientology Finds a Better Use for ‘Dianetics’!
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology in Turmoil: Debbie Cook’s E-Mail, Annotated

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 6, 2020 at 07:00

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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

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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