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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?
 It’s time for another installment of Sunday Funnies, as we turn over to our readers the Scientology fundraising fliers that we’ve been forwarded by our great tipsters during the week.
We’re always amazed to see how many interesting things our sharp readers are able to pull out of these church mailers. They’ve provided us a pretty detailed record of Scientology’s fortunes over the past few years. Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology needs your money more than ever!
 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.
Thanks again for another guest post, Jon. What are you looking into this time? Continue reading Jon Atack: Scientology and hypnotism — even some ex-members can’t admit its central role
 Jonny Jacobsen Remember when Scientology’s fraud conviction in France was upheld by that country’s highest court just over a year ago? Our man in Paris, Jonny Jacobsen, worked feverishly that day to bring us several dispatches about it. Jonny had been covering the fraud prosecution for years, and he helped us understand just how important it was that the Cour de Cassation upheld the 2009 convictions. As one French legislator explained to him, another conviction could result in Scientology getting kicked out of the country. Continue reading Scientology got another legal spanking in France months ago and we’re just now finding out
 Ryan Hamilton Since January, we’ve been reporting on the 24 lawsuits filed by Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton against Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon. And in that time, Hamilton’s batting average has been remarkably high — in some cases, defendants Narconon International and the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) have thrown in the towel, settling to get out of the lawsuits as Hamilton has fended off the usual tactics by Scientology’s attorneys. Continue reading Ryan Hamilton hit with setback as Narconon motion to dismiss prevails on some issues
 Forrest Ackerman In Russell Miller’s 1987 book Bare-Faced Messiah — the best book ever written about Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard — there’s a letter that Hubbard wrote to his friend Forrest Ackerman that Miller mentions briefly. It was only recently, however, that we looked at the entire letter and realized how much Miller had left out of his book about it. In some ways, the 1949 letter is one of the most remarkable windows into what kind of a man Hubbard was, and we’re surprised it isn’t quoted more often. Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard explains to a friend the real reason he wrote ‘Dianetics’
 A week ago, we told you that in their fraud lawsuit, Luis and Rocio Garcia had filed an affidavit by former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder to convince Tampa federal Judge James D. Whittemore that the church’s internal arbitration rules were a sham.
It turns out Scientology wasn’t very happy about that. Continue reading Scientology wants Mike Rinder’s affidavit struck from the record
 On Saturday night, just before midnight, we published a story about a remarkable photo of Tom Cruise that had been posted to Instagram. The photo had been put there by Luis Bascaran, a Venezuelan talent manager whose stable of actors includes a woman named Ruddy Rodriguez.
On Saturday afternoon Bascaran posted the photo of Ruddy and Tom Cruise, and Bascaran indicated that the location was London, and that the actors were there for a “spectacular celebration.” But what really caught our eye was the large medal around Tom’s neck — we recognized it immediately. Continue reading Tom Cruise and his Freedom Medal of Valor: Where’s the tabloid press?
 We’ll give him this — Vance Woodward is a fighter. The attorney, who spent more than 20 years in Scientology, then dropped out of it, wrote a book about his experiences in the church (which he later pulled from circulation), helped us read Dianetics cover to cover in one of our favorite series here at the Bunker, and moved to Los Angeles to restart his legal career, is not giving up on his lawsuit over the $200,000 he says he still has on account at Scientology.
Continue reading Vance Woodward files motion to reconsider his dismissed lawsuit against Scientology
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