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 We have another video for you that wasn’t supposed to be seen outside the Church of Scientology. This one is a recruitment pitch for young Scientologists to join the Sea Organization — the church’s hardcore elite, who sign billion-year contracts and work 110-hour weeks for pennies an hour, with never a day off or a chance to spend time with their families. Sea Org members can’t have children, and live in dormitory settings with no privacy. Their existence is spartan and tough and, as we’re told in the video, it’s a lot of fun!
Continue reading Scientology has a new recruitment video to get you to sign up for a billion years!
 Jasja Barendsen Former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder has a disturbing story at his blog today that helps illustrate just how upside down Scientology’s system of “ethics” is. In order to maintain control, Scientology encourages its members to snitch on each other, even asking children to turn in their parents if they express any doubts about the church. Families are ripped apart when members are instructed to “disconnect” from a parent or child or sibling who has run afoul of church management. Continue reading Mike Rinder takes on Scientology’s uneven ‘Disconnection’ rules
George White on the Freewinds to do OT 8 in July 1988More than a year ago, we started a project — ‘Up the Bridge’ — which we thought would be very useful for our readers, particularly those who had never been members of Scientology. With the help of experts — Claire Headley, Bruce Hines, and others — we ventured step by step up Scientology’s legendary “Bridge to Total Freedom.” Continue reading UP THE BRIDGE: We finally reach ‘OT 8’ — but was its first version really a hoax?
Grand opening of the Las Vegas Ideal Org in 2010I’m in Las Vegas for a convention, so after the event closed for the day I met up with a friend and he said that the new Scientology Ideal Org was a short trip through the slummier part of Las Vegas. Maybe I could go over there and get a photo? Continue reading Marc Headley continues his Scientology tour, and Steve Hall describes his defection
 It’s that time of the week again, when we share with you some of the great Scientology mailers and fliers that were forwarded to us by our worldwide tipsters.
You’ll find some of our comments a bit less cheery this week. We can’t help it. These Scientology fliers are getting so desperate, it’s really becoming embarrassing. Continue reading Sunday Funnies: The desperation in Scientology fliers is getting worse. Much worse.
 Our legal helpers have been working overtime as it gets tougher and tougher to keep an eye on everything going on in Scientology litigation around the country.
Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton keeps plowing away, and has filed yet another federal fraud lawsuit against Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon. Continue reading Ryan Hamilton files lawsuit 14 against Scientology’s drug rehab, and other updates
In New York this week, Tony Ortega asked me what my favorite coverage of Scientology was so far this year. Frankly, it’s all his. Tony is relentless, dogged and brave — all that one could hope for in an investigative reporter. Here are some of my favorite pieces of his so far this year. I tried to cut it down to five and failed.
—Paul Haggis Continue reading Paul Haggis tells us his favorite Scientology stories of 2014
 With his new film, Third Person, opening on Friday night, Paul Haggis is on a media blitz, and he’s being asked, naturally, about his defection from Scientology.
He provided a particularly interesting answer during an interview at HuffPost Live yesterday, which we’ve posted below. Haggis had predicted, in a Rock Center segment more than a year ago, that he might be smeared by Scientology. That hasn’t happened, but Haggis mentioned that it’s been happening to other people he knows — and he uses Jason Beghe as an example. Continue reading Paul Haggis, Chill EB, and more Scientology fun in an all-video post!
 Lots to catch up on today in the legal arena, with Scientology making several counterpunches in lawsuits around the country.
The Luis and Rocio Garcia federal fraud lawsuit regarding fundraising for Scientology’s “Super Power Building.” When we last checked in, the Garcias had won an important victory, surviving a challenge to the lawsuit over its “diversity jurisdiction” and the fact that this California couple had filed its lawsuit in a Tampa federal court. In order to get past a problem of jurisdiction, the Garcias dropped three defendants and were allowed to file an amended complaint. Continue reading Scientology fires legal salvoes at the Garcias, and Vance Woodward fires back
 The Underground Bunker has been leaked a rare 1952 L. Ron Hubbard recording that surfaced online only briefly five years ago. When it did, some longtime Scientology researchers were astonished, saying they thought it was mere legend.
Despite the secrets it unlocks about the formation of Scientology’s beginnings, you won’t see a mention of this recording in any of the most important books on Scientology — not in Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear, not in Russell Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah, or even in Jon Atack’s A Piece of Blue Sky. Even Arnie Lerma’s vast online archive contains only a very short portion of the full transcript of what you are about to hear. Continue reading LISTEN: Rare tape reveals how L. Ron Hubbard really came up with Scientology’s space cooties
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We have another video for you that wasn’t supposed to be seen outside the Church of Scientology. This one is a recruitment pitch for young Scientologists to join the Sea Organization — the church’s hardcore elite, who sign billion-year contracts and work 110-hour weeks for pennies an hour, with never a day off or a chance to spend time with their families. Sea Org members can’t have children, and live in dormitory settings with no privacy. Their existence is spartan and tough and, as we’re told in the video, it’s a lot of fun!
