Scientology Lit | The Underground Bunker

Liz Gale: How she grew up in Scientology, and then smartly traded it for being a pothead

In 2016, our old friend Mark Ebner had a suggestion for us.

More than a decade earlier, Ebner had written a terrific story for New Times Los Angeles (where we worked from 1999-2002) about the suicide of Philip Gale, a math prodigy who had grown up in Scientology and threw himself from a building at MIT […]

Steve Cannane’s statement as publisher settles ‘Deep Sleep’ lawsuit over his book ‘Fair Game’

We were stunned to see the news in the Guardian that Steve Cannane’s publisher, HarperCollins, had not only settled the six-year lawsuit over his book Fair Game, but that it was issuing an apology, and according to the Guardian, Cannane himself would be required not to say […]

The Bad Cadet: New book looks at Scientology in a coming-of-age story

We first heard from Katherine Spallino several years ago, and we’re happy to see that the book she’s been working on, The Bad Cadet: Growing Up in the Church of Scientology’s Sea Organization, is now available for you to buy at […]

Tonight: Our conversation with Mike Rinder on ‘A Billion Years’ for Mark Twain House

Our first trip to the Mark Twain House in Hartford was with our friend Dan Perkins, the man behind Tom Tomorrow and the This Modern World comic strip. We got a special tour, and at one point found ourselves in Twain’s upstairs billiards room where his writing desk was tucked away in a corner. It […]

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 […]

When L. Ron Hubbard assigns you to the deep: A slice of Scientology in new book

Debbie Norwitz reached out to us last year with some questions about Paulette Cooper and Scientology’s Snow White caper, telling us that she was working on putting together a memoir. […]

Scientology’s legendary ‘Liability Cruise,’ including color photos, like it was yesterday

Janis Gillham Grady has graciously sent us an excerpt from Commodore’s Messenger, the first of her three-part history in the Sea Org as a child. (Part three is coming.) And we were pretty happy that she sent along some great color photos — they’re black and white in the book. Still looking for a gift […]

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 […]

More proof that governments are aware of how Scientology abuses its own members

[Attila Péterfalvi, still on the case in Hungary]

In 2017 Chris Owen wrote a story for the Bunker about the efforts by Hungary’s government to investigate Scientology’s abuse of the information its members are required to hand […]

A new book about escaping Scientology has already made waves overseas

[Diana Dudas]

Péter Bonyai is a name that should be familiar to readers of the Bunker. He’s been a correspondent for us in Hungary, and we’ve covered his own book about his experience in Scientology. For some time now he’s been telling us about a new book by a woman named Diana Dudas that has made […]

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