Secret Lives – The Underground Bunker

See ‘Going Clear’ star Hana Whitfield describe L. Ron Hubbard in a leaked 1997 interview

Tony Ortega — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:00:03 +0000

Hana Eltringham Whitfield was one of the stars of Alex Gibney’s documentary about Scientology, Going Clear. Her memories as the captain of L. Ron Hubbard’s flagship as he ran Scientology from sea in late 1960s and early 1970s was one of the highlights of the film. Now, we have a leak from a previous documentary, UK Channel 4’s excellent 1997 Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard, which featured Hana prominently.

Here, for the first time, is a much more complete version of her interview, just one of many outtakes from the 1997 documentary that a source has been making available for us.

Previous segments that we’ve released from the Secret Lives files have featured Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman; his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden; one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox; the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares; Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci; archivist Gerry Armstrong; former Los Angeles Times reporter and postwar Hubbard roommate, Nieson Himmel; Washington State Representative Robert MacDonald Ford, who knew Hubbard and his first wife well; Robert Vaughn Young, who had been Scientology’s spokesman; and Mike Goldstein, who had been appointed Hubbard’s finance “dictator.”

Hana’s memories of Hubbard are always so illuminating. We love the observation, for example, that “He had an outfit for every occasion.” And that he was looking for an island to purchase that would become his own principality.

But if Hubbard comes off a little ridiculous, Hana is also sure to include his darker side. In 1974, after a motorcycle accident made Hubbard a crying mess, he introduced the Rehabilitation Project Force — the Sea Organization’s prison detail. Hana describes the horrifying conditions she saw some crew members subjected to while they were in the RPF.

“I thought I was seeing something out of medieval history,” she says.

And she points out that some brutal punishments had actually started earlier — in 1968, while the ship was docked in Corfu, Greece, Hubbard had begun tossing people overboard for making mistakes during his Class VIII technical training classes.

Hana says she was shocked to see people tossed from the deck of the Apollo into stagnant, oily water of the harbor, and sometimes blindfolded and with their hands and feet tied.

She also describes some of the details from the mission to come back ashore in Florida in 1975, and she talks about the days-long paranoid rages Hubbard would go into.

And we were pleased when she came back to his costumes. He was such a dandy.

Take a listen and let us know what you find interesting in Hana’s interview.

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BOOK NEWS

OK, things are set, and here’s the deal. On May 14, you will be able to purchase ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ from Amazon in either electronic or print format, and simultaneously in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

The book will not be available for pre-order before that date. It is going live for sale on Thursday, May 14, and not a moment earlier. And hey, that’s just a few weeks away, so you won’t have to wait long.

Our appearances…

May 16, Santa Barbara Humanist Society (with Paulette Cooper), 3:00 pm
May 17, Center for Inquiry-West Los Angeles, 4773 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, 11 am; ALSO: CFI Orange County (Costa Mesa), 4:30 pm (with Paulette Cooper)
May 20, San Diego (tentative)
May 22, San Francisco (with Jamie DeWolf and Paulette Cooper)

(Finalizing a New York City event in early June)

July 12, Washington DC, Center for Inquiry

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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 23, 2015 at 07:00

E-mail your tips and story ideas to tonyo94@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes updates at our Facebook author page. Here at the Bunker we try to have a post up every morning at 7 AM Eastern (Noon GMT), and on some days we post an afternoon story at around 2 PM. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
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

Another leak of outtakes from 1997’s ‘Secret Lives’ — Scientology’s finance ‘dictator’

Tony Ortega — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 11:00:32 +0000

We have another leak of a lengthy interview that’s never been made available in full before. It’s a talk with Mike Goldstein, who had been a member of Scientology’s Sea Organization in the 1970s and had been L. Ron Hubbard’s financial controller.

Portions of the interview appeared in Channel 4 UK’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard. Over the last couple of months we’ve been posting outtakes and uncut interviews from the documentary that are appearing for the first time. Goldstein, for example, is someone who isn’t talked about a lot today, but he was at one time a key official in the Scientology superstructure.

He joined the Sea Org in 1971 and joined Hubbard at sea as Scientology was run from a small armada that plied the Mediterranean and Atlantic. By 1973, Goldstein had become the Finances “dictator” as Hubbard gave him a lot of responsibility over the movement’s financial lines.

Previous segments that we’ve released from the Secret Lives files have featured Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox, the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares, Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci, archivist Gerry Armstrong, former Los Angeles Times reporter and postwar Hubbard roommate, Nieson Himmel, Washington State Representative Robert MacDonald Ford, who knew Hubbard and his first wife well, and Robert Vaughn Young, who had been Scientology’s spokesman.

Goldstein moved to Denver to promote Scientology there in 1974, went to Clearwater, Florida in 1978 to work in the headquarters there for a while before returning to Colorado, where he was “declared” a suppressive person in the early 1980s. He was briefly “undeclared” a few years later, but then left the church and began promoting an alternative version of Scientology that was called Idenics.

Let us know which of his observations about L. Ron Hubbard you find most interesting.

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DOX: Emergency calls to Scientology’s flagship drug rehab center

Here’s another fun find from a friend to the Underground Bunker who has been digging up gems with the help of the Muckrock website. It’s a collection of emergency calls that brought Pittsburg County sheriff’s deputies to Narconon Arrowhead, Scientology’s flagship drug rehab center in Oklahoma, over a period of several years. Most of them were made between 2010 and 2015, but some are older, and they cover the period when three patients died at the facility from late 2011 to the middle of 2012.

We’ve pulled out a few examples here, and you can see the full Muckrock embedded file below.

8/1/12 Reporting Party advised that he was working there and was scared after the death of a patient there. He left Narconon and went to a friend’s house. He would like a deputy to go with him to pick up his clothes and personal things.
8/10/12 Employee terminated after they tested positive for meth and alcohol. They will be leaving Narconon property in 10 to 15 minutes in a maroon Chrysler Pacifica. Will be two white females and one white male.
10/27/12 Received drugs through the mail.
12/14/12 Reporting Party advised her 24-year-old son [redacted] is there and wants to leave. She lives in Louisiana on the Gulf Coast…Advised RP we could not provide transportation to Tulsa.
1/9/13 Reporting Party says she dropped her son off at Narconon on Thursday and she just found out about the deaths that has happened there. She said he called her tonight complaining he wasn’t feeling good. She told him to stop taking the meds they are giving him and she would come get him. She wants us to go get him and put him in jail until she gets here. She wants him in protective custody. I advised her we couldn’t put him in jail because he hasn’t committed a crime. If he was sick I could call her an ambulance for him. She doesn’t wan that.
7/27/13 Reporting Party took son to Narconon and then she read up about the things that happened there and she wants to get him on a plane out of there.
9/24/14 Reporting Party advised he’s trying to leave Narconon and they won’t give him his personal belongings. RP advised he has walked to the state park and is using their phone. He’s going to stand by there until a deputy shows up…Narconon stated if he returns they will give him his belongings.
1/27/15 Narconon cabins…Burglary…stolen gun…handled by deputy.
3/9/15 Assault and battery…Reporting Party advised that they have an individual names [redacted] that was assaulted at Narconon and he wants to press charges…Security guard from Narconon brought in individual, spoke with him, and they advised that they would handle it within themselves.

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TONIGHT: Marty Rathbun gets the ID treatment

Two years ago, we live-blogged the ID Network’s treatment of the Nancy Many story. The episode was drawn from Nancy’s book, My Billion-Year Contract, and it consisted of Nancy narrating her own story while recreated scenes played on screen. We thought it was a good show.

Tonight, the ID Network is back, this time giving former Scientology executive Mark “Marty” Rathbun the treatment. We gather that it will draw from his book Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior. We expect that it will be an interesting exploration of Rathbun’s background and dramatic escape from the Sea Org.

Rathbun has already gotten a lot of exposure, most recently from Alex Gibney’s HBO documentary Going Clear and the press avalanche that came with it, but also in an excellent Channel 4 UK film, Scientologists at War.

It will be interesting to see how those treatments differ from tonight’s show, which should be told more from Marty’s own view of his involvement in Scientology.

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

From our tipster: “Creepy photo from Source magazine of the PC folder vault at Flag. It says that it has folders on every PC who ever received auditing at Flag since the days of The Apollo in the ‘60s and it’s all barcoded now. In other words, this is where they keep all the shit on everyone and can pull it out at the drop of a hat.”

Caption from actress Marisol Nichols: “Yesterday. So proud to host and celebrate Youth for Human Rights Day event in the Rayburn building. #DC”

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 15, 2015 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

Robert Vaughn Young on L. Ron Hubbard’s final days — another ‘Secret Lives’ video outtake

Tony Ortega — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:35:37 +0000

Robert Vaughn Young was a national spokesman for Scientology, and he had the unenviable task of editing L. Ron Hubbard’s ten-part science fiction mess Mission Earth, which came out between 1985 and 1987. (Hubbard died in January 1986).

RVY, as he was known, left Scientology in 1989, and eight years later he was featured in the excellent Channel 4 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard. For several weeks now, we’ve been bringing you original footage and outtakes from the documentary for the very first time. And today, we have Robert Vaughn Young, talking primarily about Hubbard’s final days.

Previous segments that we’ve released from the Secret Lives files have featured Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox, the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares, Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci, archivist Gerry Armstrong, former Los Angeles Times reporter and postwar Hubbard roommate, Nieson Himmel, and Washington State Representative Robert MacDonald Ford, who knew Hubbard and his first wife well.

The Secret Lives interviewer wants to hear about Hubbard’s final week at his hiding place on a ranch in Creston, California. RVY describes a broken man who was afraid of the world, and who had retreated into his place of seclusion.

“He was a storyteller caught up in his own stories,” Young says. “He was frightened to meet people…He was disappearing down into this world he had created.”

Young says that Hubbard was hiding and disheveled, and he compares the aging writer to Howard Hughes. At the ranch with him were Pat Broeker and his wife Annie, Hubbard’s physician, Gene Denk, and a ranch caretaker, Steve “Sarge” Pfauth.

Young relates an anecdote that Denk went gambling in Reno when Hubbard had his final stroke, and the doctor had to come rushing back to treat him. Young says that Hubbard’s mind had already been deteriorating, and after the stroke he was completely debilitated. But the day before he died, Hubbard supposedly signed a new will. “The coroner was wondering, was he even capable of understanding that last will?” Young asks.

Hubbard had been taking a psychiatric drug, Vistaril, for anxiety, which was pretty scandalous for an organization that hates psychiatry and its pharmaceuticals so much. But that was just one of the things that had to be covered over about Hubbard’s death for the Scientology membership.

RVY says death caught Hubbard by surprise. “In my opinion Hubbard never believed he would die. He just thought he could beat it all the way.”

The last thing Scientology could have, he added, was for Hubbard to be mortal. So the story was told that he’d voluntarily left his body to do research in another part of the galaxy. “They had to portray this man as in control of his life.”

Let us know what you find most interesting or startling about RVY’s description of Hubbard and his final days.

One additional note. Before he died of cancer in 2003, RVY worked on an epic affidavit which helped Lawrence Wollersheim finally win his thin dimes. If you’re not sure what we mean, you might look at our very lengthy 2008 story about the Wollersheim saga and the part Robert Vaughn Young played in it.

UPDATE: And another additional note. Robert Vaughn Young was a very knowledgeable expert about Scientology and his involvement in it. The interviewer here, however, keeps asking him about things he knows only second hand. More recently, we have better information about Hubbard’s final days from a direct eyewitness. Lawrence Wright’s interview in his book Going Clear of Sarge Pfauth is illuminating, but the really definitive version, we feel, is Marty Rathbun’s lengthy discussion with Pfauth in his book, Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior.

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Travolta in Clearwater — reporters, here’s your chance!

Since Alex Gibney’s movie Going Clear aired on HBO for the first time Sunday, there’s been a lot of press coverage of it and questions about how the media might treat Scientology’s celebrities in the future.

Well, we now know about an opportunity for reporters to ask John Travolta about the movie, and it’s right in Scientology’s spiritual headquarters, Clearwater, Florida!

On April 18, he’ll be at the premiere of his new movie, The Forger, at Clearwater’s Capitol Theater. Early indications suggest that the movie might not be any great shakes, but we’d like to see some reporters get a good question or two to Scientology’s favorite Qantas spokesman!

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Warren Olney tackles Scientology

Speaking of fun, it was a thrill for this native Angeleno to appear on KCRW (our favorite radio station ever) on Which Way LA?, the show of the legendary Warren Olney. He had us on with Tom DeVocht and Kim Masters as we talked about Going Clear. If you’d like to hear it follow this link. Near the end of the segment, we think we landed a pretty good one about the IRS.

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To our Canadian friends, some news about Going Clear

It looks like Canada’s unfavorable libel laws are not going to keep Alex Gibney’s film out of that country (even if you still can’t buy Larry Wright’s book that it’s based on there). The documentary will apparently debut at the TIFF Bell Lightbox theater in Toronto on May 8. You lucky Canucks!

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Seems legit.

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on April 2, 2015 at 07:35

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

Another ‘Secret Lives’ outtake: The neighbor who knew L. Ron Hubbard and his first wife

Tony Ortega — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 11:00:21 +0000

Another day, another treat here at the Underground Bunker. We have another previously unseen interview that was recorded for Channel 4’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard.

This time, we get a glimpse of a time period that rarely gets much treatment — Hubbard’s first marriage, to Margaret “Polly” Grubb, as witnessed by a neighbor who got to know the Hubbards pretty well.

Previous segments that we’ve released from the Secret Lives files have featured Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox, the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares, Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci, archivist Gerry Armstrong, and former Los Angeles Times reporter and postwar Hubbard roommate, Nieson Himmel.

Now, we have another interview that was filmed for the documentary, but never aired. Meet Washington State Representative Robert MacDonald Ford, who represented the Bremerton area in the 1940s.

In 1938, he met Hubbard’s mother, May, when he sold her some insurance, and that led him to getting to know Ron and Polly. He describes helping Hubbard put together some bags of gravel as ballast for the new boat he’d just bought.

“He was a very charismatic and interesting person to talk to,” Ford says about Hubbard. “We’d play chess until 3 in the morning. Drink some of the whiskey he’d gotten from the Blackfeet Indians.”

Ford says that Hubbard had a little writer’s studio, and they’d go there to play chess or shoot air pistols and generally blow off steam. “We just hit it off very well,” he says. “He told lots of tales. Some of which you believed, some of which you discounted considerably, and some you didn’t believe at all.”

Ford says that Hubbard wrote stories “when he had to, when the grocer got really demanding.”

Ford then describes a really significant episode, one he also described to journalist Russell Miller for his book Bare-Faced Messiah. Miller says that Hubbard had been trying to get a commission in the US armed forces for years, and what finally helped him get one in 1941 was a letter of recommendation that Ford wrote. But Ford admitted that he handed Hubbard a piece of official state letterhead and said, you’re the writer, write it yourself.

Ford also got to know Polly well too. “Polly was a great girl. She cooked and she gardened,” he says. But Hubbard left her alone for months at a time as he went to New York for work. Hubbard had a couple of girlfriends there, and one time, he says, Polly found in their mailbox a couple of letters that Hubbard had written to them. So she exchanged the names on the two envelopes.

“Then she told him after the mail got picked up,” Ford says. It caused a row.

Ford says that he didn’t see Ron for several years, and then after the war found that he was married to a second wife, Sara Northrup. “I think he was a bigamist at that time. It wasn’t my business,” Ford says.

As for the war, Ford doubted that Hubbard had been injured. “He was complaining about a lot of things that were wrong with him.”

At one point, Ford and his wife drove down after the war to Los Angeles with Polly. Ron drove up from San Diego to meet them.

“He was never wounded. He might have had some complaints. He was trying to tie down a pension,” Ford says.

The interviewer asks him if it was true that Hubbard complained that Polly wouldn’t take him back after the war because of his wounds. Was that true? “Probably not,” Ford says.

“He was a fascinating fellow to know, but you had to use your discretion, and just don’t take everything (you’re) told true,” he sums up.

Ford is especially interesting because he never really had a falling out with Hubbard, and has no axe to grind. What’s your impression of the man Ford describes? Let us know in the comments.

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

The gang’s all here! (Is that the lobby of the Super Power Building?)

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 18, 2015 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

Outtakes from the 1997 ‘Secret Lives’ doc — an eyewitness at the Jack Parsons house

Tony Ortega — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 11:00:59 +0000

We have another treat for you today as we continue to get leaked original interviews that were filmed for the excellent 1997 Channel 4 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard.

Up to this point, we’ve provided you with extended interviews of a number of people who showed up in the Channel 4 film. But now, we have an interview that was never included at all.

Previous segments have featured Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox, the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares, Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci, and archivist Gerry Armstrong.

Now we have for you a relatively brief interview with someone who not only didn’t get into the film, he also isn’t named. (But our commenters, naturally, tracked him down immediately — he’s former Los Angeles Times reporter Nieson Himmel.) He’s only identified in the video clip as a “resident” of the house in Pasadena owned by legendary rocket engineer and occultist Jack Parsons. Himmel claims to be an eyewitness to the arrival of L. Ron Hubbard in 1945.

Parsons is a fascinating figure. He not only helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and was associated with Caltech, he was deeply into the occult ideas of English eccentric Aleister Crowley. With Hubbard’s help, Parsons tried to create the antichrist on earth by performing sex magick rituals with a woman named Marjorie Cameron. (Parsons later died in an explosion in his home lab in 1952.)

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Our witness today, Himmel, says he was there when Hubbard arrived and then promptly stole away Jack’s girlfriend, Sara Northrup. That little triangle put the house in an uproar, and at that point, he says, Parsons decided to bring in a bunch of other renters to fill more rooms of his large house. When Jack put out an ad for his rooms, he said in the ad that potential renters “must not believe in God, or something like that.”

“Thousands of people applied who were not religious,” Himmel says.

As for Hubbard, Himmel says he was already well known as a science fiction writer. He also was a tall tale teller, and regaled the house with unlikely tales from his war experiences, like one about a polar bear on a destroyer.

“He would always adapt other people’s stories as his own,” Himmel says.

Himmel adds that Hubbard and Sara were both curious about local metaphysical or religious groups, and they would visit them, like they were doing research. (We found this particularly interesting.)

As for the sex magick rituals that Parsons and Hubbard got up to, Himmel says he only glimpsed a few of the goings on. He says that people wore long robes and wore “dunce caps” — wizard caps, apparently.

Asked for his opinion of Hubbard, Himmel says that he didn’t like him. “I didn’t believe a word he said.”

Here, watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think…

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‘Going Clear’ and your proprietor

We want to thank our readers who have been posting their thoughts about ‘Going Clear’ after seeing the film in LA, SF, and New York.

Yesterday, producer Kristen Vaurio was kind enough to invite us to take part in the Q&A following the 7 pm showing at the Francesca Beale Theater at Lincoln Center, which also featured editor Andy Grieve, who did such an amazing job piecing together the film. We really enjoyed helping to answer the questions of audience members, which were great. And hey, somehow it got us on Page Six! Now that’s sort of mindblowing.

Afterwards, we discovered that Kate Bornstein and Barbara Carrellas were in the audience, and we shared a cab with them back home. We also got to meet some interesting former church members, and we’re sorry we had to skeedaddle so quickly. Drop us a line — we’d like to hear more about your experiences.

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Mike Rinder answers Scientology’s smears

Our readers know that we have a policy of not helping Scientology spread its smears by writing about its slanted slams against the people in Going Clear and other supposed enemies of the church. But we know that our readers are generally aware of the clownish smears that Scientology posts at its Freedom magazine website. Some of it, particularly the material aimed at Mike Rinder, Marty Rathbun, Paul Haggis and some others, is very old material that the church had previously posted on anonymous attack websites. By moving that material over to its Freedom pages, Scientology dropped all pretenses that it wasn’t behind those slanderous sites. Of course it was.

Anyway, Mike Rinder has decided to provide a detailed response to the “lady killer” slander that Scientology continually aims at him. He has done so with facts, and in great volume. It’s a shame that Rinder has to do this at all, but he’s done it with humility and class. Give it a look.

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

LRH birthday madness tonight in Clearwater! Here’s Grant Cardone, ready for action at the Fort Harrison Hotel today…

Photographer Thorsten Overgaard is rocking a pirate look for the Commodore!

Joy Villa is ready for the red carpet treatment outside the Fort Harrison!

Portland is hoping it wins another of these tonight at the Birthday Game!

Let the party begin!

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on March 14, 2015 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

Gerry Armstrong’s full 1997 ‘Secret Lives’ interview about L. Ron Hubbard

Tony Ortega — Fri, 27 Feb 2015 12:00:22 +0000

We have a special treat for you today. It’s another full interview leaked for the first time from Channel 4’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard, and this time with Gerry Armstrong, who is probably very well known to most readers of this website.

The documentary is one of the better ones made about Scientology, and it contains numerous short clips of people who knew Hubbard. A source is releasing to us the uncut segments with these participants for the first time. So far, we’ve seen interviews with Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox, the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares, and Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci.

Gerry Armstrong is a special figure indeed. We’ve told his story before, and you might want to look at those pieces (one, two) before watching him here. But what’s important to know is that Gerry worked closely with Hubbard in the 1970s, and he came across and preserved a vast collection of Hubbard’s personal papers, which later became the subject of a nasty lawsuit as Scientology demanded that Armstrong return them.

Gerry won that battle, ensuring that Hubbard’s actual history (or at least a large part of it) was preserved and helped journalists writing books about Hubbard get accurate material.

In the video, you’ll see that Gerry’s interview picks up with events in 1975, when Hubbard was ending several years of running Scientology from sea and moved to land in Florida. But after just a few months, Hubbard had to flee when a tailor recognized him in the town of Dunedin.

Hubbard went to Washington DC, but then sent Armstrong to California to prepare for his move there. In La Quinta Gerry got to see Hubbard making films with his Sea Org crew, which included a young David Miscavige.

An interesting detail: Gerry says he was sent to the RPF (the Sea Org’s prison detail) for joking. And it lasted eight months.

Gerry has some really interesting insights into Hubbard and his behavior. Dig in, and tell us what you found most interesting…

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Another full page ad in London, where the advertising standards are stricter, right?

Handing out The Way to Happiness in St. Petersberg, Russia!

Those Venezuelans love to get The Way to Happiness in schools!

The Clearwater Academy calls this “10th grade Community Service.” Working central files is community service? If you say so.

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 27, 2015 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

The paranoid, depressed L. Ron Hubbard: Jim Dincalci’s 1997 ‘Secret Lives’ TV interview

Tony Ortega — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 12:00:48 +0000

We have another uncut interview leaked for the first time from Channel 4’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard, this time with Hubbard’s former medical officer, Jim Dincalci.

The documentary is one of the better ones made about Scientology, and it contains numerous short clips of people who knew Hubbard. A source is releasing to us the uncut segments with these participants for the first time. So far, we’ve seen interviews with Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox, and the former mayor of Clearwater, Florida, Gabe Cazares.

Jim Dincalci has continued to be a valuable resource. We talk to him on occasion, and he provided Russell Miller with key information for his great biography of Hubbard, Bare-Faced Messiah. And it’s interesting to see him here, talking in particular about what it was like to live with Hubbard while the man was hiding out in Queens, New York from December 1972 to October 1973 while the yacht Apollo was in drydock back in Lisbon.

In the video, Dincalci talks about something Hubbard’s son Nibs had told him — that his father had hopped him up on amphetamines for a bizarre counseling session that ended up being the basis for the wild claims in Hubbard’s strangest book, A History of Man.

Dincalci gave up medical school to join Scientology, and ended up serving as Hubbard’s assistant medical officer on the Apollo as Hubbard ran Scientology from the ship in the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Caribbean.

He relates a couple of Hubbard’s medical situations — and how it surprised him that the “enlightened being” who was master of “mass, energy, space, and time” needed painkillers and other medicines.

Like others, Dincalci found himself being screamed at by Hubbard, and he said that the man had a serious lack of self-esteem and assumed that everyone else was out to attack him.

Dincalci describes the December 1972 arrival in New York, which is also described in Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah. Hubbard was stopped in customs with about $100,000 in various currencies. In the book, Dincalci explained that a customs agent who recognized Hubbard was a fan of his fiction and let him enter the country with the money.

Hubbard had been convicted of fraud in France, and while French agents were looking for him in Morocco and Portugal, he hid out with Dincalci and a bodyguard in Queens, spending most of his time watching television. (He hadn’t been in the US in about 14 years, and he was fascinated by how much had changed between 1959 and 1973.)

Dincalci says on a typical day, Hubbard would tell stories from his past lives, or told tall tales from his war years. And there was the fun canard that his pre-Dianetics manuscript, “Excalibur,” had been stolen by the Russians. Dincalci seems to get a kick out of that one.

The most important thing Hubbard got done during his months in Queens was writing up the plan for the Snow White Program, which he finished in April. Within a few years, his “Guardian’s Office,” following those instructions, would be well into the single largest infiltration of the US federal government in this country’s history.

But Dincalci says that Hubbard was depressed, and paranoid, and he never exhibited the traits of being “Clear.” Hubbard admitted to him that he’d never been exteriorized — out of his body, the hallmark of an upper-level Scientologist — during the nine years they knew each other.

He also describes Hubbard’s 1974 motorcycle accident in the Canary Islands after returning to the ship. Hubbard cracked a couple of ribs, and other witnesses, like Kima Douglas, his nurse, say Hubbard was never the same after that.

Give it a look and let us know what other details you find interesting…

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Kate Bornstein donates a pair of tickets for Disconnection

Our friend Kate Bornstein had to cancel a trip to the west coast, and that left her with two tickets she can’t use for the final night’s performance of Allen Barton’s play Disconnection in Los Angeles on March 1.

Kate generously donated the tickets to the Underground Bunker, and now we’re left to figure out how to get them to someone who would like to go.

We’re not sure how to give them out. Let us know if you’re interested.

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Scientology in Moscow

We told you earlier that our man in Europe, Jonny Jacobsen, would be giving us an update on what’s been happening with Scientology in Moscow, where the org was raided by police last month. Jonny, however, has been tied up with some family matters and apologized that he couldn’t dig into the matter for us now.

Over at WWP, however, the excellent translator mnql1 put together a transcript for a video of Russian television reporting on the raid.

We want to caution you, however, that in the past Jacobsen has told us that Russia’s dealings with Scientology have been rather heavy-handed and have not been supported by the European Court of Human Rights. The current raid involves a real estate fraud investigation involving Scientologists which may or may not implicate the org itself.

As for Russian television, what organizations that Russian president Vladimir Putin allows to exist have very little credibility. Your proprietor was victimized by a Russian television network last year, when it interviewed us and then made us appear to be saying the exact opposite of what we meant. So just keep that in mind before you cheer on Russian law enforcement and Russian television going after a Scientology outfit.

Program: Vesti, January 30, 2015
News anchorman: In Moscow today, searches were conducted at the offices of the Scientology sect. A criminal case of large-scale fraud is under investigation. [NOTE: The anchorman should have said “yesterday.”]
News anchorwoman: The case concerns money of housing shareholders in St. Petersburg that was funneled to Scientologists. More about this from Alexey Petrov.
Reporter (Alexey Petrov): Agents rush into a building on Taganskaya Street. At first glance, this looks like a business center. In fact, these are the lavish premises of the Church of Scientology. The purpose of this search is to perform a detailed analysis of financial documents. This operation stems from an investigation that began last September in St. Petersburg regarding the preconstruction sale of housing units. The president of one of the consumer and housing co-operatives is under suspicion. She collected money from persons and promised housing in new buildings. 9 million rubles vanished.
Vyacheslav Stepchenko (Public relations officer, Ministry of Internal Affairs): Detectives in Saint Petersburg found that some of the stolen funds had been transferred to the account of this religious organization in Moscow. The suspect is a member of this organization. The investigation does not exclude possible involvement in this crime on the part of officials and coordinators of this religious organization.
Reporter: According to police, the church received about 17 million rubles through the commercial entity. It was also found that the suspect repeatedly withdrew cash from the fund using false documents. Searches were conducted in St. Petersburg, as well as in Moscow and in the Moscow region. The Scientologists insist that they have nothing to do with this.
Natalia Alexeeva (Director of public relations, Church of Scientology of Moscow): This search was related to a business that is located in St. Petersburg and this matter has no connection with the Church of Scientology of Moscow. They obtained all the information they were seeking. They were looking for some sort of accounting documents.
Reporter: The Moscow church is only one of 11,000 in 184 countries. Scientology is famous because of Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta. But experts on religion assert that, behind its controversial doctrine, lurks a dangerous organization.
Igor Ivanishko (Member of the justice ministry expert committee on religion, Professor, Russian Orthodox University): This is a rigidly structured and hierarchical organization. According to some sources, it’s a big financial corporation whose daily revenue exceeds 4 million dollars and its total revenue is comparable to that of the largest multinational financial corporations.
Reporter: This church does look like the office of a large company: masses of documents, suitcases of equipment, an impressive collection of files. Thus far, attempts to build a formal case for closing the church in Russia have failed. Its status outside Russia is also a patchwork. In the United States and Great Britain, Scientologists are recognized as a religious organization, but not in many other countries, for example: Germany, Belgium, France, Ireland, and Israel. It now appears that Russian Scientologists will have to explain not just their views of the world, but where the money came from.
Today, the Moscow Scientology center is operating as usual. The store that sells books is open and passers-by are again invited to take a free test. Meanwhile, the investigation continues into the case of large-scale fraud.
Alexey Petrov, Maria Zelentsova, Viktor Vinogradov, and Dmitri Ermolenko, Vesti.

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Scientology handed out The Way to Happiness pamphlets in ~~Moscow~~ Sevastapol Saturday, and it was a huge success!

You think it’s dawning on these folks at Narconon Turkey that these Narconon booklets are all just Scientology training?

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 16, 2015 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Scientology vs. the mayor: The full Gabe Cazares interview from 1997’s Secret Lives

Tony Ortega — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:00:42 +0000

We have another leak of raw footage from Channel 4’s excellent 1997 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard, this time with former Clearwater mayor Gabe Cazares.

The film, one of the better ones made about Scientology, contained numerous short clips from interviews of people who knew Hubbard. A source is releasing to us the full interviews with these participants for the first time. So far, we’ve seen interviews with Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, and one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox.

In this 15-minute video, Gabe Cazares remembers what it was like to be mayor of Clearwater, Florida when Scientology invaded in 1975.

In 1966, forced to leave the US and England ahead of investigations and process servers, Hubbard had prepared his “Sea Project” which would result in a small armada — including his flagship, the yacht eventually named the Apollo — plying the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and then the Caribbean. But by 1975 Hubbard was tired of running Scientology from sea, and after docking in the Bahamas, he began a massive and covert invasion of Clearwater.

As Cazares says, they called themselves “United Churches of Florida” as they began to buy up prominent locations like the Fort Harrison Hotel. “I had never heard of them,” Gabe says, which made him suspicious. But then he learned — the whole town learned — that it was really Scientology and they were following invasion orders.

By 1997, when the interview takes place, the invasion was complete, downtown Clearwater had become a Scientology ghost town, and the church had begun construction on its biggest project so far — something they said would be their “Super Power” Building.

Cazares called it “the biggest brainwashing factory in the world.” (After fundraising of over $200 million, the facility was finally opened up in November 2013.)

Cazares talks about how Scientology would use out of town attorneys to purchase property so people in Clearwater didn’t know it was going to the church. And if anyone objected, “they’ll sue anyone at the drop of a hat,” he says.

He also talks about the Snow White Project, Scientology’s infiltration of government offices by its “Guardian’s Office” spy corps, which resulted in a 1977 raid that was the biggest in the FBI’s history. Eleven top Scientology officials were ultimately convicted and sent to prison in what was the largest infiltration of the federal government in American history.

“It’s unbelievable that after this court case the Scientologists have bounced back,” Cazares says, and he adds that it’s incredible that the IRS, in 1993, gave Scientology the tax exemption it had so desperately wanted even after what happened in Snow White.

We are disappointed, however that the interviewer doesn’t ask Gabe about how he was targeted by the Guardian’s Office once he became a vocal critic of Scientology’s expansion in Clearwater. Cazares was targeted in a number of ways, but just to mention one example, in 1976 he made a trip to Washington DC. There to greet him was a Scientology operative posing as a local reporter who introduced Cazares to a young woman (also a Guardian’s Office spy) who offered to drive him around town for a tour. When she drove through Rock Creek Park, she swerved and appeared to hit a pedestrian — who was also a Guardian’s Office operative. She then sped off, and GO records show that Scientology discussed how it could use Cazares’ involvement in the fake hit-and-run to destroy his political career.

Enjoy this short talk with Gabe Cazares, one of the few who stood up to Scientology when it was at its most underhanded…

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Live-Stream of Dublin anti-Scientology conference

Jon Atack, John Sweeney, Russell Miller and more will be speaking at Pete Griffith’s latest conference in Dublin. We’re counting on our commenters to give the play by play as this video goes live at 1:30 pm Eastern time…

Live streaming video by Ustream

The Dublin Scientology mission put out a hilarious press release about some of the participants in today’s conference. Here are some excerpts…

Pete Griffiths is an organiser of the hacktivist group known as “Anonymous”, well known for wearing intimidating masks. People purporting to be part of Anonymous have been responsible for hacking the website of Fine Gael and stealing documents containing details of thousands of subscribers and giving them to the Evening Herald; crashing the websites of Irish banks; crashing the Australian Government’s website after the Government brought out legislation restricting online porn including child porn; assaulting epileptic sufferers via websites; and many more. Anonymous members have been arrested and jailed around the world…
When Church staff first toured John Sweeney through some of our buildings in England we showed him what we do and gave him considerable access. What did he do? He abused and harangued every single Scientologist interviewee, including well-known ones, arrogantly dismissing any statements they made about the benefits they had experienced in Scientology with a cursory “well you would say that, wouldn’t you?” He was not interested in anything positive, he was (in his words) “only looking for the negative”…
Russell Miller is the author of a 1987 unauthorized biography of L. Ron Hubbard called Bare Faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard. The book was a cheap attempt to capitalize on Mr. Hubbard’s name following his death in January of 1986. Miller relied on a handful of disaffected ex-members for his book. These people comprise a miniscule fraction of the millions of successful men and women who apply Mr. Hubbard’s discoveries to their lives with excellent results. Yet such people and their many successes are not mentioned in this book.

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George White turns his OT 8 experience into a book

As part of our “Up the Bridge” series, we reached a milestone when we talked to George White about his experiences with “original” OT 8.

That’s the nearly mythic and short-lived course capping the “Bridge to Total Freedom” which the Church of Scientology today says is really a hoax. But George was the first person to come out publicly and say that he had been in the small class of Scientologists who experienced original OT 8 on the cruise ship Freewinds in the summer of 1988 (and he had the certificate to prove it). And, more importantly, he had convincing testimony that he did receive, in fact, the controversial issue which has L. Ron Hubbard describing himself as the antichrist, and in which Hubbard calls Jesus a “lover of young boys.”

Now, George — under his original name, George Witek — has written a self-published book recounting that experience, but also explaining his ideas about L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology’s “technology.” Lucifer’s Bridge (available at Amazon) is a lengthy personal take and harsh critique of Hubbard’s creation considered against the long history of human ideas. In the latter parts of the book George talks about his experience on the Freewinds.

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Bryan Seymour on the Warburton surprise

Our friend, the excellent Australian television journalist Bryan Seymour, has the first interview with the remarkable organizers in Warburton, who fended off Scientology’s attempts to place a drug rehab center in their town…

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Blimey, can you spare a dime for a billboard?

Would Scientology, with all of its piles of wealth, use a London billboard campaign to extract even more donations from its members? Of course it would!

Thanks to our tipster who forwarded to us this latest push for Scientologists to open their wallets…

There is exciting IAS news that I wanted to write you about personally. The How We Help ads have now started playing across London on electronic billboards in 16 prime locations across the city!
Some of the areas are Edgeware Rd, Tottenham Court Rd, Elephant and Castle Shopping Centre, New Kings Rd in Hammersmith, Wandsworth Rd in Vauxhall Cross, and the Marriott Hotel in SW5. See the attached picture of one location.
You helped make this occur – THANK YOU!
Now in order to continue to do these huge dissemination actions — continued support of the IAS is needed. If you know of someone who could donate, pass the word and get them to help. And if you could see yourself doing a donation now please do so!
Thanks again, and remember – every donation makes a difference.
Love, Ginger

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Actual Facebook caption from the Belleair (Florida) mission: “Happy kids after their Group Processing with their auditor! Join us every Sunday at 1pm. Call Sarah at 727-501-9996 to reserve your spot!”

Comment from our tipster: “The hardware in Samara, Russia isn’t nearly as nice as the whale trophies at Flag.”

“Each generation decides what kind of world it wants,” says this Facebook post from The Way To Happiness association in the Baltics

Scientologists, in ur Kiwi Culture Day at Rotorua Ngongotaha Railway Park, messing up ur booze…

Teacher training at Drug-Free Pakistan…

It’s Super Power Guy!

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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Posted by Tony Ortega on February 6, 2015 at 07:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

Another Secret Lives leak: L. Ron Hubbard enjoyed humiliating people under hypnosis

Tony Ortega — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:00:24 +0000

While we’ve been bowled over by the response to Alex Gibney’s film ‘Going Clear’ — and it’s only going to get more intense as its HBO air date of March 16 nears — we’re still in the process here at the Underground Bunker of releasing rare video from another Scientology documentary altogether.

Today, we have our third leak of original, raw footage from Channel 4’s excellent 1997 program, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard.

The movie contains short clips from numerous people who knew Hubbard, but now a source is releasing to us the full interviews with these participants for the first time. We’ve already heard from Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, and his press assistant and lover, Barbara Klowden, and today we hear from one of Hubbard’s fellow science fiction colleagues, Arthur Jean Cox.

Cox describes meeting Hubbard for the first time in 1947, when Hubbard was already a big name. But asked to describe what Hubbard was like, Cox says it was pretty obvious that he was “putting people on.”

Hubbard said that in 1938, during a dental procedure with nitrous oxide, he’d “died” for eight minutes, and had experienced visions of the world’s philosophies and eternal truths. He used that vision to write a book he called “Excalibur.” Four of the readers at publishing houses that had read the manuscript had gone insane, Hubbard claimed. So Hubbard locked the manuscript in a bank vault. Later, when Hubbard came out with Dianetics in 1950, he said it was based on only one chapter of “Excalibur.”

Like Ackerman, Cox said that knowing Hubbard in those days meant being a part of his hypnotism act. Cox says Hubbard was unable to hypnotize him, and Cox quickly grew impatient with the humiliating things Hubbard put others through under hypnosis.

Cox also remembers that in 1948, Hubbard had gotten into trouble for writing a bad check, and so the science fiction writer wouldn’t let himself be photographed for a while.

Another science fiction writer in their circle, a big name who became an early Dianetics champion, was A.E. Van Vogt, Cox remembers. Van Vogt was a fan of Hubbard’s “science of the mind,” but Cox also remembers “Van” complaining that Hubbard was sleeping with the wives of the men in their circle.

Van Vogt and Cox were present in August 1950, when Hubbard held an event at the Shrine Auditorium to present the world’s first Clear, a woman named Sonia Bianca.

The event started out, Cox remembered, with Van Vogt and Hubbard on stage, making claims for Dianetics. They then brought out Sonia, who was a student at an eastern college. Hubbard announced that because of her Dianetics training, she now had perfect recall, but a few questions later and it became obvious that the woman had no better memory than average. The event was a bust, and Hubbard wouldn’t announce another “Clear” for 16 years.

Cox relates more memories of Hubbard and hypnotism, and he says he found it distasteful the way Hubbard used his stage tricks to make people miserable.

“He was not reluctant to humiliate people just to demonstrate his power over them,” Cox says.

Watch it for yourself and let us know what sticks out to you…

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Allen Barton has a hit

Allen Barton’s play Disconnection has been selling out its shows and is getting some strong reviews. Here’s an excerpt from what LAist had to say about the play…

Barton’s criticism of Scientology in Disconnection has nothing to do with its theology (no snarky references here to thetans or Xenu) or its celebrity promoters (no snarky allusions to Tom Cruise or John Travolta, either). His primary focus is on the Church’s mistreatment of its own adherents and its policy of enforced separation of members from any friends or family who try to challenge its authority or credibility….Scenes at the beginning and end of the play also suggest that the culture of Scientology may be more enticing to a susceptible person in a vulnerable position than most people recognize: “Don’t be too comfortable in your judgment,” one character directly advises the audience. “More of you would sign on than you think—trust me.” Premiering just as Alex Gibney’s new documentary film based on Going Clear receives accolades at the Sundance Film Festival, Disconnection rides in on a wave of critical examinations of the Church and its activities. Thanks in large part to a very strong cast, Disconnection merits a look as well.

We sure hope Allen’s play has a chance to get out here to New York!

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Talking ‘Going Clear’ with Lori and Julia

We always enjoy talking with Lori and Julia at their MyTalk 107.1 afternoon radio show in the Twin Cities. They are Bunker readers and stay up on what’s happening in Scientology.

We were on yesterday — go to the 33 minute-mark on this mp3 to hear your proprietor.

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

Foundation for a Drug-Free World may be running into some problems here in New York, but here they are in Pakistan, which could use a little Scientology in its heady mix of religious fervor, right?

And Scientology is using the same anti-drugs method to sneak its way into South Africa’s schools: “The programme is in great demand by Principals. Learners respond positively to the programme. A number of learners have asked for help in Sithembiso high and Parkside Primary. Plans are being made with SANCA and their parents for assistance.”

Meanwhile, things are getting steamy in Stevens Creek…

Telenovela actress, radio host, and Scientologist Sandra Santiago (first woman on the left) attended a rally today at LA County Superior Court to support Kerri Kasem’s anti-elder abuse efforts. Kerri herself is much more involved in Scientology than she lets on, or that was reflected in a recent GQ profile by Amy Wallace. (Though we agree with Amy’s overall point that Jean Kasem, Casey’s widow, has not explained herself well.)

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

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ALERT: We have an all-points bulletin for Bunker readers

Please take a good look at this face…

On Fox News Radio today, host Tom Sullivan told a guest who said she had bipolar disorder that it was “something made up by the mental health business” and just “the latest fad.”

Later in the same show he said that bipolar disorder was “something made up by the mental health business just to be able to give people prescriptions and keep them coming in, and keeping you — paying them money.”

Sullivan is also a frequent guest and guest anchor at Fox Business News, and it looks like he’s defended Scientology’s ideas about mental health during his radio show.

Is Sullivan a Scientologist? We note that the name “Thomas Sullivan” was included in a 2006 list of Clears put out by Scientology itself. Is it the same person?

We’re hoping one of our many former church members reading this might be able to identify him. Let us know.

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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 30, 2015 at 08:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ

First time in full: 1997 interview of Barbara Klowden, L. Ron Hubbard’s PR agent and lover

Tony Ortega — Sat, 24 Jan 2015 11:00:53 +0000

Here’s the second leak of raw footage from the excellent 1997 Channel 4 documentary, Secret Lives — L. Ron Hubbard. The film was made up of numerous interviews from people who had known Hubbard personally. But only a few minutes of each made it into the final documentary.

Jon Atack hooked us up with a source who is now making the full, uncut interviews from Secret Lives available. Last time, we got to see Hubbard’s literary agent, Forrest Ackerman, reminisce about the man. And this time, another rare treat: A 28-minute interview with Barbara Klowden, who worked as Hubbard’s PR assistant but was also his lover. (In Russell Miller’s 1987 biography of Hubbard, Bare-Faced Messiah, Barbara is given the pseudonym “Barbara Kaye.”)

In 1950, with the success of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, Hubbard interviewed Barbara and hired her to work public relations for the newly opened Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Los Angeles. As she explains in the clip, it was her job to fire off responses to columnists who said negative things about Hubbard or his book. She was 23 and had been a college psychology major (not, apparently, only 20 years old as previous accounts have it). Hubbard was 39, and his marriage to his second wife, Sara Northrup, was strained. Hubbard and Sara were already living apart.

Meanwhile, Hubbard had taken a liking to his young PR assistant, and they began sleeping together and then Hubbard wanted them to move in together. But that became dicey when Sara, baby Alexis in tow, showed up on the scene again.

The interviewer asks Barbara what attracted her to Hubbard, and she acknowledges that the founder of Scientology was not a physical specimen. “It’s the mind of the man that is most sexy,” she explains. “I felt so much under his spell.”

She says that at the time, she didn’t know about Hubbard’s first marriage and the two children he’d had with Polly Grubb. And because Hubbard was separated from Sara, Barbara didn’t think it was unusual that he asked her to move in with him — at the Chateau Marmont. But Sara soon arrived, and Barbara found the things she’d put in the apartment back on her desk at the Foundation.

Amazingly, Hubbard asked her to join him and Sara at dinner that night, and he told her later that Sara had made a suicide attempt. Barbara says she then received a telegram from Hubbard firing her.

Some other highlights from the interview: Hubbard told her that before he wrote Dianetics, he’d taken just one book out of the library to learn about psychology.

— “He talked about smashing his way into history, and starting a religion,” she says. “I saw him as a very unstable individual.”

— When she saw him in Palm Springs in 1951, he was depressed and suffering from a terrible case of writer’s block. She told him to write how he was feeling, and Hubbard wrote a single word: “apathy.” That seemed to inspire him, and he used “apathy” as a condition on what became the Tone Scale and then developed into his book Science of Survival.

— Hubbard discovered that while he was having an affair with Barbara, his wife Sara was sleeping with Miles Hollister (who she later married), and the two of them, Hubbard said, were plotting to have him committed to a mental institution. It was at that point that Hubbard absconded with Alexis and spent some time hiding out in Havana while Sara told the press about how unstable her famous husband was. Eventually she got Alexis back as she and Hubbard hammered out a divorce.

— After that mess, Barbara met Hubbard again in Wichita, where she says he was in another depressive state, with hair down to his shoulders and “fingernails like talons.”

— In Wichita, Hubbard was living with Don Purcell, a wealthy oil man, who was keeping Dianetics afloat. Hubbard proposed to Barbara, and paid cash for an engagement ring. But Barbara didn’t marry him. “I saw that I had a man there who had no prospects. He had psychiatric difficulties,” she says.

And how would she sum him up? Aware of the controversies that later swirled around the man and his organization, she says, “He was not a demon and he wasn’t a deity. He was a man with some psychiatric problems which led him to try to find some kind of way of dealing with his problems without going to a psychiatrist. And because of his quest to help himself, he was able to help many people.”

After her adventures with Hubbard, Barbara Jane Klowden (born January 23, 1927 and originally from Chicago) married Robert M. Snader, who was Hubbard’s age and had been born in 1911. In 1960 the Snaders had a daughter, Amy Beth, who went on to get a degree in computer science at UC Santa Cruz in 1983. Eight years later, in 1991, Amy Beth Snader accidentally fell to her death from a cliff in Kauai while on a biology field trip with a group from Cabrillo College. Her parents established a scholarship fund in her name at UCSC, and after Barbara died of cancer on November 25, 2002, her estate donated $1 million to the Amy Beth Snader scholarship fund, which goes to women in engineering at UCSC.

There’s one other detail about Barbara’s life that’s a little fascinating — just weeks after her death, a story in the Los Angeles Times called her a “former paramour” of the popular astrologer Sydney Omarr. (At some point Barbara and Robert Snader had divorced, according to an online record. Omarr dedicated a chapter to Barbara in a 1992 astrology book.) One thing’s for certain, Barbara Jane Klowden Snader lived a fascinating life, tinged with tragedy, and left behind a legacy that continues to benefit women in engineering today. She, at least, made a lasting contribution to science. (And yes, that’s a swipe at a certain science fiction hack.)

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L. Ron Hubbard, Still Surfing the Galaxy

Twenty-nine years ago today, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard decided to leave behind his hale and healthy 74-year-old body in order to pursue indescribably advanced research into the “whole track” of existence, and has been surfing the galaxy ever since.

It then fell to Scientology naval space cadets David Miscavige and Pat Broeker, and attorney Earle Cooley to try and convince a crowd of Scientologists at the Hollywood Palladium three days later that Ron didn’t die, he’d gone full Operating Thetan.

We never get tired of watching this.

Wherever you are, L. Ron, we thank you at least for putting David Miscavige in the position to make that speech.

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Bonus photos from our tipsters

One of our readers went to the USA Today website yesterday, and found that its home page was taken over entirely by Scientology’s new ad, about its social betterment front groups. Now that’s gotta cost a pretty penny. We still think this is the ad Scientology will show in some markets during the Super Bowl, but if you spot something new at the church’s YouTube channel, let us know!

A little J&D between auditing sessions in the Italian town of Cervia, under the watchful eyes of Aslan! Oh wait, that’s another feline deity altogether.

This is not the first time this has been brought to our attention — that there’s a room at George Washington University dedicated to L. Ron Hubbard, an “alumnus” who dropped out his sophomore year after failing a class in “molecular and atomic physics” (which didn’t prevent him from claiming to be one of the country’s first “nuclear physicists”). Maybe someone at GWU could look into how much cold cash the Church of Scientology had to pay for this little geegaw.

The poster! We gotta snag one of these while we’re here in Park City…

“I just spent about $180,000 to get to the state of Clear, and it makes this pastry at the Fort Harrison Hotel so worth it!”

Scientologists are using social media more than ever. Drop us a line if you spot them posting images to Instagram or Facebook!

OUR COUNTDOWN

1 day until Alex Gibney’s film Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief opens at the Sundance Film Festival at 2:30 pm on Sunday, January 25 in Park City, Utah

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Posted by Tony Ortega on January 24, 2015 at 06:00

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of LA attorney and former church member Vance Woodward

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

PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | Scientology’s Private Dancer
The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ