TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Seventy years ago today the unconventional publisher Maurice Girodias published Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’ for the first time. Historian Chris Owen does a deep dive to explain how he then became a target of Scientology’s notorious spy corps. ALSO: The Wall Street Journal takes on the church! [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

Continue reading When Lolita met Xenu: How Scientology targeted Nabokov’s publisher

 
TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: By 1959, L. Ron Hubbard was feeling the pressure. He and Scientology were under investigation in the US, and he was increasingly concerned about breakaway groups. So that year he began to write down policies reflecting his increasing paranoia. The result is fascinating. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

Continue reading The turning point: When paranoia became official Scientology policy

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: L. Ron Hubbard’s earliest attempts to get the Scientology movement going were rocked by a series of booms and busts. And as a science fiction writer trying to enslave his fellow man, Hubbard wrote himself into some continuity problems! We have a great example. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

Continue reading Scientology teaches that your life was ruined by your oversexed parents

 
TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Once again Scientology leader David Miscavige has had a giant tent put up at the church’s UK headquarters for next month’s IAS gala. So today, we’re celebrating Dave’s circus coming to town the best way we know how: With a song from former Scientology celebrity Geoff Levin! [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

Continue reading It’s up! And we have a song to salute Scientology leader David Miscavige’s big tent!

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: Our helper who dives through old newspaper archives hit on another gem recently that we’ve told you about before, but we thought it was worth looking at it again for its great photos, which Scientology doesn’t want you to see. [What is this Substack thing, anyway?]

Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard and the second wife he never had: Photos Scientology suppresses