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 We told you previously that one of the announcements Scientology leader David Miscavige made at an October 17 gala in front of a few thousand people under a giant tent in England was that he had plans for a new “Advanced Org” in Australia.
It’s a fascinating study in Scientology hubris. At a time when the church is shrinking, unable to attract people to the “Ideal Orgs” it already has, and with its drug rehab program Narconon increasingly under fire, Scientology doubles down by announcing plans for “Ideal Narconons” and new Advanced Orgs. Continue reading Scientology’s own plans show it paid $37 million for a building to serve only 87 people
We just spoke with Dani Lemberger, who let us know that he’s filed suit against the Church of Scientology in Tel Aviv.
“We’ve been working hard at it the last two years,” Dani told us by telephone from Haifa. “It wasn’t easy. It took time to find the right lawyer.” Dani and his wife Tami are suing Scientology for 3 million shekels, about $820,000. Continue reading Dani Lemberger, who led a breakaway Israel mission, sues Scientology for libel and fraud
 Just Saturday, Jon Atack was complaining about social scientists and their inability to understand how Scientology works. But there are academics who know their stuff, and at the top of that list is University of Alberta professor Stephen Kent.
Not only has Kent spent decades exposing Scientology’s abuses, he has one of the best collections of Scientology material in the world — and he uses it to educate the next generation of scholars. Among them is Susan Raine, who studied under Kent and has done significant work of her own. Continue reading Scientology and space opera: A new scholarly approach by Susan Raine
 Hey, it’s another Sunday and we have another set of Scientology fundraising fliers that our great tipsters have forwarded to us. We just love to share these items with our readers, who do such a great job of pulling out details and clues to what the church is really up to.
Over time, these fliers have given us a great chance to watch Scientology sink into its mad obsession with its “Ideal” projects as its membership dwindles. And this week is no different! Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology is finger lickin’ good!
 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 a year on Saturdays he helped 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. He was kind enough to send us a new post.
We really have a treat for our readers today. It’s a major new piece by Jon Atack that discusses undue influence in Scientology, a controversial topic in social science that, as Jon says, some scholars resist. With extremism on the rise around the planet, we think it’s time for this idea to get more currency. And we’re thrilled that Jon chose the Underground Bunker to reveal his hard work in this new article. Take it away, Jon… Continue reading Jon Atack: Are cult members — like those in Scientology — unduly influenced?
 We hope you enjoy this momentous date on the calendar with lots of parties and costumes and treats.
We wanted to take this time to remind you about a person we admire greatly. Her name is Kate Bornstein, and we wrote a cover story at the Village Voice about her in 2012 when she published her masterful memoir, A Queer and Pleasant Danger. If you aren’t familiar with Kate, you owe it to yourself to read her book, and to see the new movie about her by filmmaker Sam Feder. It’s playing the festival circuit right now, and we found it to be a compelling and accurate portrait. Continue reading A reminder, this Halloween, that Scientology’s tricks tear families apart
 Mark Bunker has sent us another interesting clip from the many interviews he’s conducted for his upcoming documentary, “Knowledge Report.”
One of the things Bunker is documenting is the exodus of people who have left the Church of Scientology in recent years, many of whom grew disillusioned with church leader David Miscavige, but not with the ideas of Scientology itself and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Continue reading Scientology outside the official church: ‘I’m quite happy with the world the way it is’
 We have some fun odds and ends for you today while we nail down more big stories for you from the world of Scientology.
We’re chasing down all sorts of things — follow-ups to our previous stories, as well as big legal happenings on the horizon. But we can’t say too much just yet. We don’t want to spoil things. In the meantime, we’ve been meaning to share with you the latest newsletter from the Fort Harrison Hotel, Scientology’s ‘Mecca’ in Clearwater, Florida. We always love to read the things our sharp-eyed readers pull out of these slick publications put out by Scientology. Continue reading Scientology’s ‘Mecca’ awaits: More tantalizing glimpses of Hubbardian Heaven on Earth
 SEE UPDATE, BELOW
If you’ve been with us a long while, you may look back fondly, as we do, on our series about “OT Phenomena” from old issues of Advance! magazine. Once a week on Fridays, as part of our regular feature “This Week Aboard the Apollo,” we’d pull out the most fun tall tales that Scientologists told each other as they tried to convince the newbies that if they could only get up into the expensive “Operating Thetan” levels, they would experience superhuman and otherwordly powers they called “OT Phenomena.” Jeff Hawkins, who at one time edited Advance!, tells us these were always the most popular feature in the publication. Scientologists just couldn’t get enough of these eerie tales of metaphysical derring-do. Continue reading Finally, Scientology has an answer for last year’s Super Bowl power outage
 Our old friend and fellow Scientology aficionado Mark Ebner tells us that on Saturday he and his lovely wife, Michelle Scott, enjoyed a brief repast at HMS Bounty, an old-timey bar and restaurant on Wilshire Boulevard in LA’s Koreatown section.
Afterward, they walked west on Wilshire, when Ebner spotted something unusual. It was a collection of what appeared to be discarded items, like someone had hastily cleaned out an office and had piled a few things — including a drawer from a desk, and some other items — in a pile on the ground. But what caught his eye, Mark says, was the glint of metal on a couple of wall plaques. Continue reading Gay Ribisi, our friend Mark Ebner has your Scientology plaques — want ’em back?
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We told you previously that one of the announcements Scientology leader David Miscavige made at an October 17 gala in front of a few thousand people under a giant tent in England was that he had plans for a new “Advanced Org” in Australia.
