L. Ron Hubbard in exile: When Scientology’s leader ran things while on the lam

In February 1980 in Hemet, California, Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard sat down on a mattress that his driver, John Brousseau, had put in the back of a van. Hubbard reached out his hand and shook Brousseau’s and said goodbye as a young couple, Pat and Annie Broeker, got into the van and then drove it away.

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How Scientology plans to take over the world: By boring us to death, apparently

Rod Keller is on assignment this week, but we’re grateful that Underground Bunker contributor Jeffrey Augustine has a fun and illuminating Sunday feature for us. Thanks, Jeff, for this look at Scientology public relations…

The Church of Scientology is challenged daily by the continuing negative exposure of its egregious and ongoing human rights abuses, unchecked greed, outright lies, and its Fair Game smear campaigns directed against its former members and critics. Rather than forthrightly addressing the very serious and abusive practices that are crippling and destroying the Church, Scientology has instead settled into a very predictable and rather boring PR strategy.

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Atack: Scientology advocates serenity, so why are so many Scientologists angry jerks?

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 three years he’s been helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet.

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When L. Ron Hubbard briefly let down his guard and admitted Scientology was all a con

We’re very happy to see that Steve Cannane’s book, Fair Game: The Incredible Untold Story of Scientology in Australia has been getting a lot of press since it was released on September 19. Naturally, media reports have tended to focus on celebrity hijinks in the book, as well as recent stories of abuse in Scientology that Steve uncovered.

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‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ audiobook on sale, and we’re doing a Reddit AMA at noon

[The lovely Paulette Cooper joins us at Reddit today to answer your questions]

One of the reasons this website exists is to support our project, started four years ago, to learn everything we could about the incredible adventures of Paulette Cooper, one of the first journalists who exposed the abuses of the Church of Scientology and who nearly paid for it with her life. For decades, Scientology’s shadowy spy corps, which referred to Paulette by the code name “Miss Lovely,” tried to destroy her career, her family, and her sanity with multiple elaborate operations, and by making her the target of 19 separate lawsuits. She survived it all.

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DRONE FLYOVER: First images of Scientology’s Gold Rush mine in California

Another Wednesday brings us more unique footage from an anonymous drone pilot who has flown over some of Scientology’s most secretive sites.

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‘Horrifying’ autism ‘cure’ exposed by BBC turns out to be Scientology: Now, the inventor speaks

Yesterday, we heard from a number of people who were alarmed by a disturbing report that aired on the BBC about autistic people in England being subjected to a frightening “treatment” of intimidation and bullying.

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SCIENTOLOGY’S TOP 20 CELEBRITIES — in order of those most likely to defect

Now that Jason Lee has confirmed what we’ve suspected for a long time — that he’s out of Scientology — we’re naturally getting questions from readers wondering who among the church’s glittering celebrities will be next to jump ship.

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Scientology in Ireland is nearly dead: Here’s how Tom Cruise & the gang plan to bring it back

Rod Keller keeps an eye on Scientology social media for us, and on Sundays he dives into the latest happenings with the organization’s many front groups. This time, he’s taking us to Ireland, where a new strategy is unfolding. Take it away, Rod…

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Flirt with Scientology, and its dogged letter writers will hound you forever

We don’t know if this is a record, but it sure impresses the heck out of us.

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