FOLLOW ME ON
Daily Notifications
Sign up for free emails to receive the feature story every morning in your inbox at tonyortega.substack.com

Categories

The Church of Scientology of Latter-Day Dolts: Video evidence of the fall

 For a few years, we’ve been telling you that Scientology is in a poorly way. Many different sources of evidence suggest that the 65-year-old movement has been suffering from a mass exodus of longtime, loyal members. Many others remain in the group but hold back from participating as they react to leader David Miscavige’s ever-increasing []

ADVERTISEMENT

When the feds tracked down L. Ron Hubbard’s boast about getting rich by creating a religion

 We’re nearing another big anniversary — 30 years since the Great Thetan, L. Ron Hubbard, dropped his material body — and so we’ve been looking through our files for material about the man that isn’t already picked over. We have something pretty nice and never posted online for the anniversary itself. But along the way []

A business executive looks at Scientology as a (poorly run) business

[Blue states contain active Scientology orgs.]

Jeffrey Augustine is back, this time with a new look at Scientology’s current strength in the United States. We think he’s got a unique perspective in this []

AUDIO: Hear Scientology boast about the $5.7 million it got from Google in free ads

 In September 2014, we published a story that we expected would get more attention. We reported that at a gala celebration in the San Fernando Valley, a gathering of about 500 Scientologists who had paid $100 each to attend were told that the Church of Scientology had benefited from its relationship with Google, which had []

Scientology becoming a ghost town; ALSO: Illinois man arrested for threatening Miscavige

 The “L. Ron Hubbard Golden Age” theater troupe visited a middle school in St. Petersburg, Florida recently in order to bring back to life the words of the pulp fiction writer. Having actors read the corn-pone tales that Hubbard cranked out in the 1930s is just one of a dizzying number of stealthy ways that []

Scientology posts the new ad that will likely be its Super Bowl entry this year

 The new ad that Scientology uploaded to its website right around midnight on New Year’s Eve is now on Scientology’s YouTube page, and so we can embed it, []

Scientology’s state of the union, 2016: Former spokesman Mike Rinder predicts ‘more pain’

 A year ago, Jeffrey Augustine interviewed former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder for his predictions about Scientology’s 2015. It went so well, they’re back again this year. Jeff leads Rinder through the highlights of what happened to Scientology in the last year, with observations about what David Miscavige is likely to do in the []

On Boxing Day, we remember the last time Scientology tried to knock out the press

 While we’re recovering from Christmas here in New York, in other parts of the world our readers are celebrating Boxing Day, a holiday which is generally a complete mystery to us Americans. (And yes, we know it has nothing to do with the sport of boxing.) Well, whatever it is you all get up to []

Australian media outs Scientologist behind ‘super city’ plans near Melbourne

 We want to thank our friends Down Under, who sent us news early this morning about an intriguing story breaking in Melbourne. Aussie publication The Age has revealed that there are plans for a “super city” development in a suburb west of town known as East Werribee, a massive development that will include huge residential []

Jon Atack: Scientology’s notion of ‘case gain,’ and how it reinforces the prison of belief

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 a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that []