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[Jim Dincalci says he took this photo of L. Ron Hubbard in Queens in 1973 — or did he?]We thought we’d toss off a bonus post this evening to let you know about something happening late tonight. Alabama resident and former Church of Scientology member Randy McDonald, who was once the editor of Scientology’s Celebrity magazine and a Sea Org worker from 1971 to 1983, will be appearing on the “Coast to Coast” radio program from 1 am to 3 am, Eastern time. We plan to be sleeping soundly by that time, but we thought we’d alert our west coast readers that they might tune in and catch what should be a fun treat. Continue reading This is your brain on L. Ron Hubbard: Watergate, Scientology, and late-night radio
While Rod Keller was doing his usual rounds looking for Scientology’s footprint in social media this week, he ran across a flier that made him do a double take. And we’re glad he did, because he sent over this entertaining look at a slice of Scientology history we thought you’d want to see.
Continue reading Sailing with L. Ron Hubbard: A Scientology saga of Sea Org dedication
After the readers of this website once again came through for former Scientologists Phil and Willie Jones, contributing several thousand dollars for another “Call Me” billboard to raise awareness of Scientology’s “disconnection” policy, the Las Vegas couple are announcing that they have signed a contract for a billboard in Clearwater, Florida. Continue reading CLEARWATER DONE DEAL — Couple seeks big crowd for Scientology ‘disconnection’ billboard
It’s been nearly four years since Stacy Dawn Murphy, 20, was found dead at Scientology’s flagship drug rehab center, Narconon Arrowhead, in Oklahoma. Two other patients at the clinic had died in just the previous nine months, but it was Stacy’s death that particularly shocked local and national media, leading to a new focus on the problems at Scientology’s rehabs. Continue reading Nearly four years after Stacy Murphy’s death, Scientology files motion to kill much of lawsuit
We turn to the Underground Bunker’s Russian-language wing to help us with a story developing in Kazakhstan that has generated some excitement over at WhyWeProtest.net and elsewhere. And even with expert translation assistance, this story is a bit batty and we’d like to get it more completely sorted out. Continue reading Scientology is holding this Kazakh 20-year-old prisoner, says her media-grabbing mom
It’s time again for Rod Keller’s Scientology Social Media Review. He’s made a specialty of hunting down the odd and wonderful things Scientologists post to the ‘net. He’s a chronicler who piece by piece builds a highly detailed assessment of what Scientology is doing around the world, and this is what he found for us this week…
Scientology followed its dramatic Hollywood Boulevard book launch last week with promotions at individual Barnes & Noble bookstores yesterday. Phil Jones, of “Call Me” billboard fame, showed up at one store, where a life-sized cutout of Terl, the book’s villain, invited people to purchase the 34-year-old novel. Continue reading Scientology goes big with Barnes & Noble and with the Euro 2016 football tournament Advertisement
 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.
Ron Hubbard surely understood the importance of words: While Shakespeare added over a thousand new definitions to the English language, Hubbard left two 500-page dictionaries. However, where Shakespeare’s language is insightful, poetic, and beautiful, Hubbard’s is more usually obfuscating, awkward, and ugly. Continue reading When you postulate upon a star: L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology’s funny made-up words
The county council in Frederick County, Maryland, is fighting the Church of Scientology in court to keep the church from putting one of its quack drug rehab centers in a former fish camp known as Trout Run. Readers know we’ve been following this dispute for some time, and that it’s a bit technical. But it’s another great example of how Scientology tries to run roughshod over local government officials and local courts, and so we’ve been keeping an eye on the case, step by step. And now, we think there’s an interesting new wrinkle you’d want to hear about. Continue reading Maryland county explains why (don’t call it Scientology) can take a hike
This week, documents became available that had been submitted by Narconon Holland, the Scientology drug rehab center in the Netherlands. At a quick glance, they indicated that the place was in serious trouble. And now, Underground Bunker regular “John P.” — who enjoys telling us about his luxurious life in high finance — has broken down those documents in more detail, as only he can. For our newer readers, you will sense that John P. is having fun with his reports about himself, but when he dives into a financial report like this, he’s all business. We hope you enjoy his analysis…
School’s out, and at Global Capitalism HQ, that means one thing: lots of cheap, talented and well-meaning but inept interns to burden with menial tasks. I’m not one of those cruel, sadistic traders who sends an intern out to stand in the hot sun for hours to be first in line at Shake Shack to put in their lunch orders. Instead, I assign Harvard and Yale B-students intellectually tedious research that most people wouldn’t assign to high school kids. At least, people wouldn’t assign this stuff to any high school students they actually liked. Continue reading Our money maverick dives into Scientology’s latest financial house of horrors
[Phil Jones, right, is told what a failure he is by Scientologists at yesterday’s event]Hit by another tsunami of bad press, this time over the May publication of Ron Miscavige’s bestselling book Ruthless, Ron’s son, Scientology leader David Miscavige, is hitting back with his own grab for media attention — by bringing out a 34-year-old science fiction novel, L. Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth. Continue reading Wacky scenes from Scientology’s ‘Battlefield Earth’ launch on Hollywood Boulevard
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