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 Ah, 1954, the days of wine and word salad. Our source has come through with another “quote video” that you normally can only see inside a Scientology “org.” In this case, it’s a segment of an L. Ron Hubbard lecture from the “Phoenix Lectures” of 1954, and it’s meant to encourage members to pay $350 to Bridge Publications for the full lecture set.
Before we show it to you, here’s how Bridge describes this exciting breakthrough in midcentury literary sleight of hand… Continue reading 60 years ago and today: Scientology in its heyday, and now not so much
 In March, the Church of Scientology was sued by former member Vance Woodward, an attorney in the Los Angeles area. Readers at the Underground Bunker were familiar with Vance — he helped us do a comprehensive and fun series, reading L. Ron Hubbard’s essential text, Dianetics, cover to cover. Over his 22-year career in the church, Vance estimated that he’d spent about $600,000 and about a third of that was for services he never received.
As part of its 1993 agreement with the IRS that gained Scientology tax-exempt status, the church is required to give refunds to members who qualify for them. But Vance is one of many former members who say Scientology’s refund process is a sham. He’s suing because he says there’s no way to get his money back through the church’s own procedures. Continue reading OY VEY: Scientology invokes Jewish Law to answer lawsuit by attorney Vance Woodward
 Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington Once again, Federal District Judge Virginia M. Hernandez Covington has declined to intervene on behalf of Florida attorney Ken Dandar after he was hit by a $1 million judgment in state court awarded to the Church of Scientology. Dandar had alleged that the $1 million judgment would not only ruin him, but that it was the result of a conspiracy by Scientology that had corrupted local courts in the Clearwater area, where one of Scientology’s headquarters is located. Covington previously had denied Dandar’s request that the federal court intervene, but he had appealed, and an appellate court had asked Covington to reconsider his lawsuit in light of a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading Federal judge again declines to intervene for Ken Dandar, but leaves a door open
 Ryan Hamilton Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton isn’t slowing down. He’s filed another federal fraud lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehab facility in Nevada — Rainbow Canyon Retreat in the remote town of Caliente — bringing to eleven the suits he’s filed in recent months against similar centers in California and Colorado. Once again, the details are similar to the other suits. For years, the “Narconon” rehab network has been telling people that it delivers drug counseling when it actually has patients go through Scientology training and also subjects them to an unscientific sauna-and-vitamins regimen. Continue reading Ryan Hamilton files lawsuit number eleven against Scientology’s drug rehab network
 Our thanks to the night crew for live-blogging our appearance last night on Above Top Secret radio. We appreciated the kind words, and had a blast doing the show. They tell us an archived streaming copy should be posted by mid-week.
And now, it’s that time of the week when we reveal the Scientology mailers and fliers that our great tipsters have sent us during the week. This time, we’re going to start with a couple of fun videos that should get everyone amped to turn over their money to David Miscavige! Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology’s latest attempts to get you amped up!
This is a strange one, folks. For a couple of years, we’ve been telling you that Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon, has been in real trouble, particularly after the deaths of three patients at its flagship facility in Oklahoma over a nine-month period. Gabriel Graves, Hillary Holten, and Stacy Dawn Murphy each died at Narconon Arrowhead between October 2011 and July 2012, and those deaths sparked multiple government investigations as well as numerous civil lawsuits. Of those three, the death of Graves was the most mysterious — to this day, there has been no cause of death assigned by the medical examiner. How and why did Gabriel Graves, a 32-year-old father of two, die while a patient at Narconon in October 2011? The person who found Gabriel’s lifeless body was his roommate at Arrowhead, a fellow patient named Beau Griffis (pictured). Continue reading Apparent suicide of witness to a mysterious Scientology drug rehab death Advertisement
 Our video sources came through again this Friday, and we have a collection of fun things to watch.
First up, we have another “quote video” that you normally can’t see outside of a Scientology ‘org.’ It dramatizes a segment from L. Ron Hubbard’s 1957 “Freedom Congress,” and the video’s intention is to get you to shell out for the full set of lectures, at $200.00 Continue reading Three videos the Church of Scientology would rather you not watch
 In 1978, the Church of Scientology paid $2.7 million to acquire a fading resort in the California desert known as Gilman Hot Springs. The 550-acre parcel included a relatively modest house named “Bonnie View” that founder L. Ron Hubbard intended to live in, once it was renovated. But he never got the chance. By the end of February 1980 Hubbard went into permanent hiding elsewhere until his death in 1986.
In Hubbard’s absence, the parcel at Gilman Hot Springs became Scientology’s secretive “Gold Base,” also called “Int Base” because it was the location of Scientology’s international ‘exec strata’ — the top officials of the worldwide organization. And over the past couple of decades, the man who succeeded Hubbard as the church’s leader, David Miscavige, has renovated and rebuilt the place primarily as a lavish monument to himself. Continue reading Hey, IRS: Stunning photos inside the lavish personal offices of Scientology’s leader
 Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton has filed his tenth federal fraud lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon. Filed in Nevada, the lawsuit alleges that the Scientology rehab center in that state, Rainbow Canyon Retreat, promised effective drug counseling delivered by licensed medical personnel, and instead delivered Scientology training from former addicts.
Continue reading Scientology’s drug rehab system hit with tenth federal fraud lawsuit by Las Vegas attorney
 Yesterday, we mentioned that there’s been something of a baby boom among former Scientology officials who left the church in a small wave in the last several years.
We thought we’d follow up on that by pointing out that leaving the Church of Scientology appears to be very beneficial for the people who accomplish it. Not that it’s easy. Marc Headley explained in his escape narrative Blown for Good that one of the ways the church controls ‘Sea Org’ workers — who sign billion-year contracts and work for pennies an hour — is by convincing them that if they leave the quasi-naval organization, they’d soon perish in a cruel outside world, bereft of skills or money. Fear of that outside world, or of being ‘disconnected’ by family members who remain in the church, can keep a person from leaving, or convince them to return even if they manage to get away. Continue reading Life after Scientology: The post-Sea Org baby boom
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Ah, 1954, the days of wine and word salad. Our source has come through with another “quote video” that you normally can only see inside a Scientology “org.” In this case, it’s a segment of an L. Ron Hubbard lecture from the “Phoenix Lectures” of 1954, and it’s meant to encourage members to pay $350 to Bridge Publications for the full lecture set.
