UPDATE: Prepon says she’s out. See update below.
Current lifetime: Born March 7, 1980 in New Jersey
Most famous for: Roles in That 70s Show (1998-2006) and Orange is the New Black (2013-present)
Fun Scientology completion: The Route to Infinity, 2005
Laura shattering suppression: “When I have huge wins in session, and when you really cognite that you are a thetan and you have a mind and body, and that the MEST universe does not control you — it puts things into perspective.”
Prepon is rare among the younger celebs in that she didn’t grow up in the church but was lured in by her television co-stars at That ’70s Show. The show may be long gone, but Prepon is still very dedicated to Scientology.
“She’s so in the sway of the Mastersons, and that family is so tight and stuck inside Scientology,” says our source. We asked him about the mini-controversy of Laura playing a lesbian character on Orange is the New Black. He agreed that it wasn’t really an issue for Scientology — despite the organization’s legendary homophobia, the number one rule in Scientology is always that celebrities can break all the rules. Laura spoke out at one point, denying that Scientology is homophobic. “In Scientology, she’s seen as a hero for that,” our source says.
June 12, 2014: Laura Prepon lies like a rug…
Laura Prepon appeared on the nascent Fusion network and engaged in some of the most blatant dishonesty we’ve seen from a celebrity in a long time.
Prepon was dogged with questions when it was announced that she’d be largely absent from the second season of the wildly successful series Orange Is The New Black. Because she was portraying a lesbian on the show, the entertainment media wondered if Prepon was reducing her involvement because of Scientology’s well-known homophobia.
In the interview, it’s made clear that Prepon’s reduced involvement in the show was caused by a scheduling conflict. OK, fair enough. But then Prepon goes on to utter this canard…
“I’ve been a Scientologist since 1999 and I’ve never come across any piece of information that remotely is negative or derogatory in any way towards the LGBT community.”
It’s a shame her interviewer didn’t know even the most basic information about Scientology, because then she might have asked…
Ms. Prepon, how could you be a 15-year member of Scientology and not have read its most basic text — the Bible of Scientology, as it were — L. Ron Hubbard’s 1950 bestseller, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health? Here’s what Hubbard had to say about “perversion” in that book…
“The sexual pervert (and by this term dianetics, to be brief, includes any and all forms of deviation in Dynamic II such as homosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc. and all down the catalogue of Ellis and Krafft-Ebing) is actually quite ill physically. Perversion as an illness has so many manifestations that it must be spread through the entire gamut of classes from (1) to (5) above. Overdevelopment of sexual organs, underdevelopment, seminal inhibition or magnification, etc. are found in one pervert, some in another. And the sum of it is that the pervert is always a very ill person in one way or another, whether he is conscious of it or not.”
Soon after publishing Dianetics, Hubbard then more fully developed something he called the “Tone Scale,” which measures the state of human emotions, with a score of 40 at the top (“Serenity of Beingness”) and -40 at the bottom (“Total Failure”).
He assigned the score of 1.1 to “Covert Hostility,” which included “perversion.” Said Hubbard in his 1951 book Science of Survival, “A 1.1 is the most dangerously insane person in society, and is likely to cause the most damage.”
To this day, Scientologists refer to people who are gay or lesbian as “1.1,” and they are considered to be damaged people who need to “handle” their homosexuality if they want to remain in the church.
We have talked to many former Scientologists, some who were in the church’s highest positions, who confirm that Scientology teaching held that the goal of counseling — “auditing” — is to raise a person’s tone scale level, and so a homosexual could escape being “1.1” by paying for courses. It is, in other words, a purported “gay cure.”
Previously, we’ve written at length about recent examples of Scientology’s homophobia. We wrote about Keith Relkin, an active Scientologist in West Hollywood who tried to make the church more gay-friendly, but admitted to friends that he had failed miserably. And we wrote about Derek Bloch, a young man who was kicked out of Scientology’s “Sea Org” once he admitted that he was gay, and then was disowned by his family after he expressed doubts about the church.
Any 15-year member of Scientology would be thoroughly familiar with Dianetics, Science of Survival, the Tone Scale, and the notion of gay and lesbian members “handling” their homosexuality through auditing.
Laura Prepon is a liar.
UPDATE, Aug 18, 2021: Prepon says she’s out? Some of our sources are skeptical, but Mike Rinder says it’s “catastrophic” for Scientology.
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The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…
BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. 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
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