Scientology Studies | The Underground Bunker

Scientology’s founder in 1948: Dianetics was ‘unfrigidizing’ women into ‘nymphos’

[Hubbard in 1948]

A 1948 letter written by L. Ron Hubbard that Lawrence Wright quotes in his 2013 history of Scientology, Going Clear, is going on the auction block in New York on June 14, and it’s really fun to see it in its entirety on the Christie’s […]

How much do the Don Rogers letters shake up early Dianetics history? Two experts weigh in.

Over the last two days, we’ve seen some fascinating letters made public for the first time which were written by Donald H. Rogers, an eyewitness to the earliest days of Dianetics. Rogers wrote the letters in 1984-85 to Jon Atack, who was researching his book, A Piece of Blue Sky, and who generously shared the […]

Early witness Don Rogers on Hubbard and ‘prior lives’: ‘Nothing but a parlor hypnosis trick’

Today we have the second and third letters sent in the mid-1980s by Don Rogers, an early witness to Dianetics, to author Jon Atack, who has generously allowed us to make them public for the first time. Please see historian Chris Owen’s introduction to these letters in yesterday’s first […]

Witness to Dianetics: For the first time, the letters of key Hubbard ally Donald H. Rogers

Jon Atack has provided us a marvelous exclusive. He’s provided us with copies of letters he received from a man name Don Rogers in the mid-1980s. And we’ve asked historian Chris Owen to help us understand just how valuable these letters are and what’s in them, followed by the first of three Rogers letters in […]

Hana Whitfield’s book excerpt: L. Ron Hubbard’s amidships meltdown over ‘Xemu’ and OT 3

[Hana Whitfield, from her appearance in ‘Going Clear’]

We sure have a treat for you today. On Thursday, after we posted excerpts from L. Ron Hubbard’s most notorious lecture, his 1968 lesson about Xenu/Xemu and a 75 million-year-old genocide, we heard from someone who served with Hubbard at the time, Hana Whitfield! We hope you remember […]

Scientology’s greatest lecture of all: It’s finally time we look closer at Xenu in all his glory

[L. Ron Hubbard, surrounded by the crew of the Apollo]

Over the last few months, we’ve made an occasional series out of bringing you Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in his own words. On its new television network, Scientology itself has a program it calls “L. Ron Hubbard: In His Own Voice,” but that’s the safe […]

Spinning cars, self-healing cuts — more ‘OT’ ghost stories from Scientologists

Every once in a while, we like to remind readers what it is that keeps Scientologists committed to going up the “Bridge to Total Freedom,” a pursuit that takes years of expensive auditing, brutal interrogations, and extortionate pricing. […]

More proof that L. Ron Hubbard really did want Scientologists to consider him the Antichrist

Last night, we heard from our old friend Steve Hall after he read our interview with Justin Craig, who claims to be the returned L. Ron Hubbard. During our interview, Craig/LRH denied that the infamous “Original OT 8” materials were […]

Returning to Clearwater with a Miscavige cutout and memories of the Lisa McPherson Trust

[Jeff brought a life-size cutout with him, that card]

Way back in 1999, we wrote a story for the Phoenix New Times about a local resident who was getting the full “Fair Game” treatment from the Church of Scientology. Jeff Jacobsen was a knowledgeable church critic who had alerted the world to the plight of a […]

Why Scientology has no business pontificating on mental health — a discussion

Whether it’s about the shocking way people have been treated at a remote Tennessee facility, or the infamous death of a woman in Florida, for years we’ve been writing about Scientology’s poor record of handling the needs of the mentally ill. Now, Chris Shelton and Sunny Pereira are beginning a series of discussions specifically about […]

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