FOLLOW ME ON
Daily Notifications
Sign up for free emails to receive the feature story every morning in your inbox at tonyortega.substack.com

Categories

Scientology failed to destroy Sylvia DeWall, but its latest letter to her is simply bizarre

[Sylvia and Tim DeWall]

We hope you remember the stunning tale of Sylvia DeWall’s exit from Scientology, a story we’ve told a couple of times. “Declared” — excommunicated — because she dared to watch Leah Remini and Lawrence Wright on television, her expulsion was caught on an audio recording, which we think is one of the most remarkable things ever to come out of the church.

Continue reading Scientology failed to destroy Sylvia DeWall, but its latest letter to her is simply bizarre

Fans feeling conflicted about Tom Cruise and Scientology after seeing Top Gun 2 trailer

[He’s feeling the need, again]

Twitter lit up yesterday with people agonizing over the new Top Gun 2 trailer showing Tom Cruise playing his old character Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, some 34 years after the first film was released.

Continue reading Fans feeling conflicted about Tom Cruise and Scientology after seeing Top Gun 2 trailer

Miss New York organization changes course, ditches Scientology front group

[Meghan Fialkoff, right, with a then-current and former Miss New York]

We have some stunning news for you. Yesterday, we received an email that really took us by surprise. Former Miss Kansas Sloane Lewis, who co-chairs the Miss New York organization, sent us an email to inform us that Miss New York would no longer be associating with the Fialkoffs and their Scientology front group, Foundation for a Drug-Free World.

Um, wow!

Continue reading Miss New York organization changes course, ditches Scientology front group

Leah Remini’s ‘Aftermath’ nominated for another Emmy: Tell her your favorite scenes

[More honors for our dynamic duo]

The only problem with another Emmy nomination being announced yesterday for Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath is that the news comes several months after the end of the third season, which seems like a long time ago.

Continue reading Leah Remini’s ‘Aftermath’ nominated for another Emmy: Tell her your favorite scenes

It’s not hard to figure out where L. Ron Hubbard came up with Scientology’s space cooties

[A couple of Burks covers]

After Ron Hubbard had sold the rights to Dianetics to Don Purcell in 1952, he had to create a new subject from whole cloth. Much of the “new” material that he now called “Scientology” came from Aleister Crowley — including the notion of “entities.” But entities proved unpopular, and would only re-emerge in 1967 with the release of the secret Section Three of the Operating Thetan Course (more commonly known as OT III).

Continue reading It’s not hard to figure out where L. Ron Hubbard came up with Scientology’s space cooties

Jokes aside, has Scientology ‘Clear’ Joy Villa managed to ‘safepoint’ the White House?

 
Our longtime readers know that we’ve watched for years (at least as far back as 2013) as ‘Princess Joy Villa’ went from Scientology Celebrity Centre wannabe to Make America Great Again icon, Congressional maybe-candidate, and then fell from political grace almost as quickly as she arrived.

Continue reading Jokes aside, has Scientology ‘Clear’ Joy Villa managed to ‘safepoint’ the White House?

Is it time for Scientology to replace its cruise ship? If so, we’ve done the shopping.

[MV Freewinds]

With the opening of additional ‘Ideal Orgs’ in recent years Scientology claims to be experiencing rapid expansion. They have expanded their facilities at Advanced Orgs in Copenhagen and Sydney, and opened a new AO in South Africa. If this expansion in buildings is being met by an expansion in membership they should consider adding to the fleet to provide space for all the new members who want to experience the distraction-free environment offered on their cruise ship, the Freewinds.

Continue reading Is it time for Scientology to replace its cruise ship? If so, we’ve done the shopping.

Scientology’s targeting of children is only getting more blatant as the church struggles

 
This photo was posted very publicly on Facebook by the Scientology ‘Ideal Org’ in Sacramento, with the following caption:

Continue reading Scientology’s targeting of children is only getting more blatant as the church struggles

Scientology front group claims it fed an anti-psychiatry story to the L.A. Times

[Kenneth Kramer]

We’ve told you about Kenneth Kramer before. He’s a Scientologist and private investigator who operates PsychSearch.net, part of Scientology’s “psych busting” activities aimed at utterly destroying the psychiatric profession so it can be replaced by L. Ron Hubbard’s mental health ideas.

Continue reading Scientology front group claims it fed an anti-psychiatry story to the L.A. Times

Scientology and the FDA: The conspiracy that never was

[The FDA raid of Scientology in 1963]

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plays an outsized role in Scientology’s roster of villains. On January 4, 1963, five US Federal Marshals, accompanied by an FDA inspector and an officer of the Washington, DC police department, raided the downtown row house of the Washington Scientology org, as well as two other Scientology facilities in Maryland. The raiders seized three truckloads of books and papers and around a hundred E-meters. Newspaper reporters were there to witness it. The following day’s press showed photographs of grim-faced US Marshals carrying out piles of books and E-meters.

Continue reading Scientology and the FDA: The conspiracy that never was