|
|
 Just a few days ago we told you that Scientologists in the UK had started archiving their publications on the ‘net. It was a surprising move for an organization that remains very conflicted about the web. Shortly after we pointed out that the magazines were online, they were yanked down.
Now a tipster has pointed us to another interesting and puzzling Internet adventure by another Scientology entity. The Tampa Ideal Org for some reason thinks it’s a good idea to recruit for staff members with a primitive website that presents a series of self-promotional pages. Continue reading Scientology is determined to conquer this Internet thing
 Our tipsters really came through this week with an amazing collection of the latest mailers and fliers that the Church of Scientology has been sending to its members from various divisions around the world.
We love to show them to you in our weekly feature we call Sunday Funnies, and this week the line between comedy and tragedy is especially tenuous. Continue reading Sunday Funnies: What part of ‘rebel’ doesn’t Scientology understand?
During a mesmerizing performance last night in Clearwater, Florida at the Flag Down anti-Scientology conference, Jamie DeWolf made a stunning revelation. He’s authenticated bizarre writings that had been attributed to his grandfather, L. Ron Hubbard Jr., who was the son of Scientology’s founder. They paint a disturbing portrait of the influence of the occult on the Hubbard men as they used Scientology in its early days to further their personal aims. Continue reading Jamie DeWolf: I’ve found the last memoir of the son of Scientology’s founder
 Add Colorado to the states where Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton has filed federal fraud lawsuits against Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon.
Two lawsuits were filed by Hamilton this week against Narconon Colorado, which operates a ‘Narconon Fresh Start’ facility in Fort Collins it calls A Life Worth Saving (pictured). Continue reading Ryan Hamilton adds Colorado in new lawsuits against Scientology’s rehab network
 US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) The Underground Bunker has obtained an e-mail written by Ron Wyden, the senior US Senator from Oregon, who has formally asked the Internal Revenue Service to explain why the Church of Scientology enjoys tax exempt status, 21 years after that exemption was granted in a controversial decision. Wyden’s inquiry comes at the same time that we have also confirmed with a former member of the church that IRS Criminal Investigation special agents sought and held a meeting with him recently to gather background on Scientology’s activities — including hundreds of pages of documents from Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit in Texas and the federal fraud lawsuit brought by Luis and Rocio Garcia in Florida. After two decades of inaction, could the IRS finally be ready to revisit its legendary capitulation to Scientology leader David Miscavige? Continue reading OREGON SENATOR RON WYDEN ASKS IRS FOR SCIENTOLOGY REVIEW
 We had a laugh when Scientology shocked many people in Los Angeles by purchasing the historic studios that had long housed the local public television station KCET. The thought of Scientology operating its own television network led us two years ago to speculate about the fabulous shows the wacky group could put together.
But since then, we’ve heard very little about what Scientology actually plans to do with the facility. We had heard that church leader David Miscavige was shifting some of the work that used to take place at the “Gold” studios on the International Base, which is near Hemet, to the KCET studios. It was part of Miscavige shifting a lot of activity from Int, we were told, which is causing the sprawling compound to become something of a ghost town. Continue reading Scientology’s plans for the KCET studios in Los Angeles finally taking shape?
 We’ve been leaked some exclusive footage of David Miscavige speaking at the opening this weekend of a new “Ideal Org” in Sydney.
The source who provided us the footage estimated the crowd size at 1,500 — and that included people who had arrived from Taiwan, New Zealand, and across Australia. That’s a pretty anemic turnout for such an important occasion, and more evidence that Miscavige is having a tougher time in recent months convincing Scientologists to show up for his events. Continue reading Leaked footage of Scientology leader David Miscavige in Sydney
 We just heard from longtime Scientology critic Mark Bunker, who has just been summarily ejected from the Flag Down 2014 conference in Clearwater by organizer Laura Flynn.
“I just got kicked out and so did Tom Smith,” Bunker told us by telephone. Continue reading Flag Down drama — Mark Bunker kicked out by conference organizer
 If you’ve been hanging out with us for a while, you know that we bounce around from big stories with wide appeal to some things that only the truly obsessive will care about. Today we have a real treat for you obsessive types who love going down the Scientology rabbit hole.
One of our great tipsters let us know that the UK branch of Scientology has been putting a lot of recent church publications online in a growing archive. You longtime church watchers will know how unusual that is — Scientology is still very much stuck in the past and figures the solution to taking over the planet is through books, magazines, and pamphlets, and all on paper (the glossier the better). The Internet? It’s generally a thing to be feared and avoided. So for the UK org to be putting whole copies of Advance! online, for example, is quite a treat. Continue reading Scientology archiving magazines online? Are they nuts?
 On Sundays, we share with you the latest fundraising mailers Scientology has sent out to its beleaguered members, who have been subjected to constant appeals and are generally exhausted.
How do you convince people to keep coming out for events where they’ll be under intense pressure to turn over thousands of dollars they can’t afford to give? In recent years, we’ve seen Scientology organizations get increasingly creative (and cheesy), hoping that a party with a pirate or superhero theme will somehow convince church members to come down for a another fleecing. Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology says, May the Fourth be with you
|
Just a few days ago we told you that Scientologists in the UK had started archiving their publications on the ‘net. It was a surprising move for an organization that remains very conflicted about the web. Shortly after we pointed out that the magazines were online, they were yanked down.
