Valerie Ross | The Underground Bunker

For an outfit that sells immortality, Scientology really sucks about death

[Yvonne Gillham Jentzsch, center, and the early Celebrity Centre community]

In June 1976, my grandmother died in my little sister’s bed. She was 80. She was my last living grandparent. After her husband, my grandpa, had died in 1968, I spent several summers at her house with her, just the two of us, staying up late […]

How I trained to be a Scientology spy in order to save L. Ron Hubbard from SMERSH

The minute you start Scientology’s very first course, the Communications Course, you are told they are going to teach you to be a master […]

Scientology in the ‘good’ old days: Prison of belief just as confining as today

[Heber Jentzsch at a protest over the 1977 FBI raid of Scientology]

People talk about how the old timers say it was fun in the “good old days,” back when L. Ron Hubbard ran Scientology. And it did seem like it was more fun than it would be these […]

Giving birth (shhhh, silently!) in Scientology: What is that really like?

One of the accepted beliefs in Scientology is that founder L. Ron Hubbard knew everything about everything, no exceptions. Honestly, I’m not sure why that was accepted. I don’t call my orthopedic surgeon’s office or my attorney’s office and ask questions about why my eye hurts, I don’t call my attorney to ask him what […]

PODCAST: She spied on the FBI for Scientology and lived to tell about it

Readers have been raving about the pieces that Val Ross has been writing for us lately, so we thought it would be fun to have a conversation with her for our latest podcast […]

Val Ross: Scientology draws you in so you don’t realize what it’s about until it’s too late

[Val at her desk back in the day, the Grade Chart on the wall]

The spring of 1972, I was 17 and in my senior year of high school. The school was in Grants, New Mexico, 12 miles away from where we lived. I only had one class to finish to graduate, and was taking courses […]

Scientology, abuse, and forgiveness: Val Ross on the men who did her wrong

[Valerie Ross’s story last week created such a reaction we asked her for another one, and we’re glad we did.]

When I was growing up, we used to rotate our summer vacations between Salt Lake City, where my mom’s family lived, and St. George, where my dad’s family lived. I loved my dad’s brother, Bert. We […]

Scientology’s legacy: A look back from a remarkable new perspective

Val Ross, we can say now, has been a big help to the Underground Bunker for several years. So when she sent us this remembrance of her Scientology past, we didn’t hesitate to show it to you. We think you’ll be as impressed by it as we […]

Search