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 We recently reached out to David Wills, author of a book on William S. Burroughs titled Scientologist!, telling him that we hadn’t noticed when it first hit bookshelves earlier this year, but it sounded like the kind of thing our readers might find fascinating.
He said he was interested in what we thought of the book, and after we read it, we had a conversation, which we’ve included below. In Scientologist!, Wills is very clear about his mission. Burroughs (1914-1997) is best known for his involvement in Scientology because of his denunciation of it in the early 1970s. By then, he was fed up with L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology’s layers of control. But Wills says that although Burroughs’ disaffection with Scientology is well known, there’s been a real misunderstanding of just how deeply into Hubbard’s ideas Burroughs had become, and how much it was reflected in some of his best-known work. Continue reading William S. Burroughs and Scientology: Setting the Record Straight
 The U.S. Supreme Court has denied the Church of Scientology’s final appeal that would have kept Laura DeCrescenzo (pictured at right) from using evidence from her employment files in her lawsuit against the church that alleges disturbing abuse, including forcing her to have an abortion at 17.
Scientology had wanted the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of California’s clergy-penitent privilege statute, under which the church was forced to turn over 18,000 pages of documents from Laura’s files compiled during the years she worked for the church. The church’s petition was not among the small number selected by the Court from approximately 900 petitions that had been submitted for its October term. And so with the final appeal cleared away, DeCrescenzo can now make use of the evidence the church turned over earlier this year. But now she faces another daunting challenge in her four-year legal odyssey: the church’s motion for summary judgment, scheduled to be heard in Los Angeles Superior Court on October 23. Continue reading U.S. SUPREME COURT DENIES SCIENTOLOGY IN FORCED-ABORTION LAWSUIT
 We want to thank Bunker regulars Bury The Nuts and Dee “DeElizabethan” Findlay for tracking down a copy of the new “Florida Edition” of Freedom magazine for us yesterday.
We’ve been curious about the relaunched publication since it was taken over by new editor John Sugg. And it is very different than previous editions of the magazine, which had been taking such comical shots at Scientology’s perceived enemies. Now, it’s more earnest, more narrowly focused, more professionally edited, slickly art directed, and… …Oh who are we kidding. This thing would put Ambien out of business if it actually reached anyone. Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Scientology’s Shiny New Freedom Magazine!
 Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. She and her husband Marc were Sea Org workers who escaped from Scientology’s International Base in 2005. She spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Go here to see the first part in this series.
We’re really getting excited now on our journey up the Bridge to Total Freedom. Claire has led us through the grades and New Era Dianetics so that we’ve gone Clear and then had that certified with the Clear Certainty Rundown. Now, we can’t wait to get to the vaunted Operating Thetan (OT) levels! But first, we have some preparations to do, and possibly some travel, isn’t that right, Claire? CLAIRE: Yes, you can’t start the OT levels until you’ve done OT Preps. This is where you’ll be programmed for any number of things to prepare you for the OT levels. Continue reading Claire Headley Gets Us Prepped for Scientology’s OT Levels!
 The Underground Bunker is privileged to debut a new video by Los Angeles music producer and ex-Scientologist Tiziano Lugli. We’ve shown some of his previous efforts that feature ex-church members talking about Scientology. But none of them have quite had the impact of this four-minute film.
We expect that regular readers of this website will recognize most of the people who appear. Some of them are less familiar. All of them are telling their own stories. One face that we haven’t seen in Tiziano’s previous films is the one you see to the right. That’s Yannus Sufandi, the only person who appears in the video who was never a Scientologist. But if you read our story last month, you know that his nine-year relationship with dancer Manuela Oliveira ended when she decided to join Scientology’s “Sea Org” after spending only a few months in the church. The Sea Org takes total dedication. After Manuela signed its billion-year contract, she moved out, leaving Yannus wondering what he’d done wrong. Continue reading WORLD PREMIERE: The Shrinking Cult of Scientology, A Video By Tiziano Lugli
 Greetings from Tampa, Florida, where we’re on the scene for an unusual and potentially very entertaining evidentiary hearing in a fraud lawsuit that’s been derailed by accusations of unethical conduct.
We’re anticipating that it will be a fairly grueling day for former Scientologist Brian Culkin as he’s probably going to be something of a hostile witness to both sides that want to question him today. And there’s a lot at stake — Scientology is asking the court to disqualify Ted Babbitt and Ron Weil, the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their lawsuit that accuses the church of fraudulent behavior. Continue reading LIVE FROM TAMPA: The Garcia v. Scientology Federal Fraud Lawsuit Mini-Trial!
 Leah Remini and dancer Tony Dovolani on Dancing With the Stars The Underground Bunker has learned that King of Queens actress Leah Remini has agreed to give a deposition in Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit against the Church of Scientology. The deposition will take place in Los Angeles on October 15, we were able to confirm today with Monique’s attorney, Ray Jeffrey. Scientology leader David Miscavige is trying to extricate himself from the lawsuit, which alleges that he masterminded a four-year campaign of surveillance and harassment of Monique and her husband, Mark “Marty” Rathbun, who was once Miscavige’s top lieutenant in the church. Miscavige has argued that he has only a limited role as ecclesiastical leader of Scientology, does not care about the Rathbuns, and has no connection to the state of Texas, where the lawsuit was filed. But Jeffrey tells us that Leah Remini has agreed to testify that David Miscavige actually does rule every aspect of Scientology, and that he is obsessed with Marty Rathbun, who defected from the church in 2004. Continue reading LEAH REMINI AGREES TO TESTIFY IN SCIENTOLOGY HARASSMENT LAWSUIT
 The Monique Rathbun harassment lawsuit against Scientology is really heating up, with a judge’s order yesterday that denied the church’s attempt to bounce Monique’s attorneys from the case and now, we’ve learned, former Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis is being dragged into the case to press him under oath about his years working with church leader David Miscavige.
Davis was served with a subpoena Saturday in Austin, and we expect that he’ll be deposed rather soon — at least before the next hearing date in the case, which is scheduled for October 18. The son of actress Anne Archer, Davis was the handsome spokesman who became the face of Scientology from about 2006 to 2010, and made many memorable television appearances. But then, he seemed to vanish, and “What happened to Tommy Davis?” became one of the most frequent questions we were asked by readers and other journalists. We’ve answered that question in the past, but now, Tommy may find himself back in the spotlight, and in a very different role than during his days running interference for David Miscavige. Continue reading FORMER SCIENTOLOGY SPOKESMAN TOMMY DAVIS SUBPOENAED BY MONIQUE RATHBUN
 Ray Jeffrey Comal County Judge Dib Waldrip has denied the Church of Scientology’s motion to disqualify Ray Jeffrey, Marc Wiegand, and Elliott Cappuccio, the legal team representing Monique Rathbun in her harassment lawsuit against the church and its leader, David Miscavige. We expect to get a copy of the order itself a little later this afternoon, but we’ve confirmed that Judge Waldrip was not swayed by the arguments made by Church of Scientology International lawyer George Spencer, which we witnessed two weeks ago at the county courthouse in New Braunfels, Texas. Disqualification motions are common in Scientology litigation, but rare otherwise. After an afternoon of argument by the church that Jeffrey and his team were unethical clowns who deserved to be kicked off the case, we heard attorney Marc Wiegand respond when Tampa Bay Times journalist Joe Childs asked him if he’d ever been the subject of a similar motion. “Never. Not in 32 years as a lawyer,” he said, shaking his head. Continue reading RAY JEFFREY 1, SCIENTOLOGY 0: Disqualify Motion Denied in Harassment Lawsuit
 As Scientology’s big November 8 annual IAS gala nears, curiosity about the church’s tent party rises.
We’ve been reporting about unusual things happening lately in Clearwater, Florida, the spiritual headquarters of the worldwide organization. Normally, the October gala of the International Association of Scientologists is held under a big tent in East Grinstead, England. But this year, with no explanation why, Scientology leader David Miscavige decided to move the event to Florida, and had the tent shipped to Clearwater. Some of our readers have kept us current on the state of the tent with photos like those at right, and we were even given a peek inside the empty tent when it first went up. But that was before work had begun on the elaborate staging. And now, we have some pretty remarkable looks inside at what’s going on. Continue reading LEAKED: A Peek Inside Scientology’s Big Tent As Its Gala Nears
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We recently reached out to David Wills, author of a book on William S. Burroughs titled Scientologist!, telling him that we hadn’t noticed when it first hit bookshelves earlier this year, but it sounded like the kind of thing our readers might find fascinating.
