Tony Ortega is a journalist who was formerly the editor of The Village Voice. He's written about Scientology since 1995, and in May 2015 released a book about Scientology's harassment of Paulette Cooper titled 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely.' He continues to monitor breaking developments in the Scientology world from an undisclosed location in an underground bunker he shares with four cats and one of them wrinkly Shar Pei dogs. Despite his super-secret security protections, you can still reach him pretty easily by sending him a message at tonyo94 AT gmail.com (Drop him a line if you'd like to get an e-mail whenever a new story is posted.) [Header image courtesy John Rickard]
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Jon Atack: The best thing ever written about the language traps in Scientology’s Bible, ‘Dianetics’

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He has a new edition of the book for sale, and for more than a year on Saturdays he helped us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that []

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Another Scientology video you aren’t supposed to see: ‘The Command of Theta’

A couple of weeks ago we started a new series here featuring Scientology videos that a source is making available to us which demonstrate some of the nuttiness of L. Ron Hubbard and his “technology.”

This week’s offering should also get you scratching your head. It’s titled “The Command of Theta,” and it involves some []

A video Scientology doesn’t want you to see: “Boots in the Sky”

Starting today, we’re beginning a new weekly feature that we think is going to impinge. (That’s Scientology talk for “have a big effect.”)

The Underground Bunker has heard from a source who has access to a large number of Scientology’s internal videos. We believe that some of the videos have never been online before. Others, like []

Scientology Legal Roundup: Per Wickstrom’s Fine Whine, And More!

As our readers can probably imagine, we’re pretty excited here in the Underground Bunker after getting yesterday’s news about Monique Rathbun’s hearing date for a temporary injunction on September 12. Scientology legal matters are definitely heating up, and so we thought it was time for a general roundup of the major cases being litigated around []

Precious Bodily Fluids: Scientology and the Purification Rundown

Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. She and her husband Marc were Sea Org workers who escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2005. She spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Go here to see the first part in this []

Is After Earth Will Smith’s Scientology Coming Out Party?

Looks like someone could use a touch assist.

Here in the Underground Bunker, we just received some indication that things are going to heat up again next week with big Scientology news, so for today, please forgive us if we offer a little light fare for our Friday morning post.

Tonight, the movie After Earth []

Former Scientology Enforcer Marty Rathbun Examines His Past as the Church’s “Warrior”

Full warrior mode, circa 1990

Last week, Mark “Marty” Rathbun sent us a review copy of his newest book, Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior. We’re grateful that he did. After all, we weren’t gentle with our review of his first book, a sort of manifesto for the Independent Scientology community that he’s such a []

Jon Atack on the Hypnotic History of Scientology Auditing

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He now has a new edition of the book out, and on Saturdays he’s helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and []

Xenu the The Movie Star! When Scientology Almost Revealed Its Secrets on the Big Screen

Last week, we asked Scientology historian Jon Atack about OT III, the most important step on L. Ron Hubbard’s “Bridge to Total Freedom.” That got us talking about Xenu the Galactic Overlord, and Atack confirmed for us that this wild space opera tale was always meant to be taken literally by church members (at least, []

Scientology Mythbusting with Jon Atack: Xenu the Galactic Overlord, Part 1!

In 1990, author Jon Atack published what is still one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, A Piece of Blue Sky. Atack now has a new edition of the book out, and it reminded us what an encyclopedic resource he is. So join us as we rely on Jon’s expertise []