| The Underground Bunker

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]

Never forget: Scientology calls exes liars, but spells out its own abuses in documents

[An update to one of our saddest stories ever.]

We know that if you read this website and watch Leah Remini’s A&E series, sooner or later the advertising algorithms are going to track you down and swamp you with a lot of Scientology propaganda on your social media feeds or in the form of web ads. […]

Government comes down hard on Scientology — in Canada, where worker abuse matters

Breaking news out of Quebec, where journalist Gaétan Pouliot has been covering an investigation by the government into workers at Scientology facilities being paid less than minimum […]

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 […]

First person: In Scientology, children are punished for being kids

[Sunny Pereira at 15]

Once again, our technical expert Sunny Pereira has supplied us with a remarkable glimpse into growing up in Scientology and serving in the Sea Org. We learn that when you have a planet to clear, terrorizing children is just an unavoidable feature of the […]

When Scientology keeps a mother from her child in the ER: Lori Hodgson’s story

We’re continuing our series with another book excerpt, this time a wrenching anecdote from Lori Hodgson’s recently published memoir, A Mother’s Heartbreak: How Scientology Destroyed My Family. Lori’s story is pretty familiar to our readers, but if you’re new, what you need to know before reading this chapter excerpt is that Lori’s children, Jessica and […]

Why don’t Scientologists go to authorities about the abuses they have seen or experienced?

We hear it all the time — why can’t law enforcement do something about the abuses in Scientology? There are a number of ways to answer that question, but one of the simplest is that Scientologists themselves know they cannot report the abuses they see to […]

Scientology’s elaborate use of child labor for pennies an hour, spelled out in black and white

[Sunny Pereira, 15]

Sunny Pereira has become a very effective technical expert here at the Bunker, helping us understand Scientology’s arcane ideas. And lately, she’s been going back over some of her own career in the church, and digging out some documents, the sort you don’t see every […]

On Day One, 2018’s Writers of the Future party betrays its connection to Scientology’s abuses

[Contest winners greeted on their first day at this week’s festivities.]

Sunday night, Scientology will put on its annual gala to celebrate the winners of the L. Ron Hubbard Writers and Illustrators of the Future Contest. As in past years, we’ll take a peek at some of the annual broadcast to see how many of the […]

Joy Villa’s ex talks about her domestic violence arrest and the child she put up for adoption

Cory Duncan first contacted us several months ago when he saw our articles about his ex-girlfriend Joy Villa, and how the Scientology “celebrity” was skyrocketing to fame because she’d worn a “Trump” dress at the Grammy Awards last […]

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