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Scientology staffers: Putting up with chaos and hardships as they hope for promised OT powers

 David Miscavige announced recently that the new “Advanced Org” in South Africa has been deemed “Saint Hill Size.” That made us think of a piece Sunny Pereira wrote for us about her stint in the “Universe Corps,” the special troops that were the promised reward for taking your org to that mythic level. We thought []

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Brad Pitt’s Scientology adventure: The sauna, the auditing, the… lizard?

[Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt in 1991]

Sunny Pereira asks how we’re going to angle this story, and we tell her that it’s really up to her. It’s something she experienced — how would she angle []

Leaving Scientology’s ‘Sea Org’ isn’t easy, and some turn to desperate measures

 Why do people do extreme things to disqualify themselves from the Sea Org? You’ve heard harrowing stories about Sea Org members making suicide threats and suicide attempts, making hazardous attempts to run away, and some have even threatened to go to the press just to get themselves out of the Sea Org. A Sea Org []

Scientology, naturally, is trying to capitalize on the New Zealand mosque massacre

[Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wearing a hijab at a memorial service for Christchurch victims]

Rod Keller has another example of Scientology mobilizing to take advantage of human []

A letter of surrender, written from the basement of Scientology’s ‘Big Blue’ HQ

[Three floors down from that entrance door]

Last time, Sunny Pereira described how she was declared a “suppressive person” because she had briefly dated another woman in the Sea Org. (Homosexuality is considered a “perversion” in Scientology.) Sunny’s punishment? Four months being held in the basement of Scientology’s “Big Blue” headquarters in Los Angeles, three floors []

In homophobic Scientology, you are required to write up your sins or else

 Sunny Pereira was going through some old things recently when she came upon a bit of a goldmine — some handwritten letters she had been required to pen while she was being punished in Scientology’s ‘Sea Org.’ We asked her to explain the significance of one forced confessional letter which we found particularly []

When the person who certified Scientology ‘Clears’ discovered that there were no Clears

[Sunny and a Clear]

We have a very special item for you today, one of Sunny Pereira’s best pieces yet. There were few people in a better position to raise these questions about one of Scientology’s central mysteries — the []

Growing up in Scientology, and growing together outside of it: An appeal

 I wanted to open up a bit more about my experiences since leaving Scientology, and adjustments, some rather large adjustments, I’ve had to make. I hope this hits a note with other second and third generation Scientologists, and helps others better understand us.

I grew up in Scientology and spent many years working in the Sea []

Scientology ‘disconnection’ and the incalculable damage it does to children

 This photo shows the day my mom disconnected from me. []

Why Scientology is a haven for sexual abusers — it’s the way L. Ron Hubbard designed it

 After yesterday’s disturbing report about a convicted child molester being a featured performer at Scientology’s exclusive “Maiden Voyage” celebrations, we received this sobering report from former Sea Org member and Scientology “technology” expert Sunny Pereira. We think it pairs pretty well with what we learned in yesterday’s []