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 Last week, we had a breaking story on Sunday and our weekly Funnies got shorted. So this week we’re making up for it with a cornucopia of goodness.
Our loyal tipsters have forwarded us many examples of Scientology’s wacky fundraising fliers. But first, we have an e-mail that went out this week about the church’s latest TV ad, “Spiritual Technology,” which ran during the Super Bowl. (Once again, Scientology saved money by running the ad only in certain cities rather than nationally.) The church will continue running it during the Sochi Winter Olympics, and during the Academy Awards…. Continue reading Scientology’s continuing plans for its Super Bowl ad, and more Sunday Funnies
 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 on Saturdays he’s helping 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.
Jon, you’ve been exploring numerous ways in which Scientology keeps its members cut off from the world around them. What do you have for us this week? Continue reading Jon Atack on Scientology’s methods of ‘thought stopping’
 Robert MacLean A bombshell this morning from former Scientology spokesman Mike Rinder: He claims that a man known nationally as a TSA whistleblower has told others that he was hired to be a security guard to keep Scientology leader David Miscavige’s wife Shelly from escaping a remote mountain compound near Lake Arrowhead, California. The vanishing of Shelly Miscavige in 2005 (with a brief reappearance in 2007) has been one of Scientology’s most disturbing mysteries in recent years, and something we’ve been paying considerable attention to. Our sources tell us that Shelly has been living at Scientology’s CST headquarters compound near Lake Arrowhead, and now Rinder, at his blog, is claiming that there’s evidence she was not only there, but that armed security was hired to make sure she didn’t leave. Continue reading REPORT: Man was hired to keep Shelly Miscavige from escaping Scientology base near L.A.
 During hearings this week in a lawsuit about Scientology spying and harassment, a 2010 video was played in a courtroom that showed the church’s hired operatives following Monique Rathbun to her south Texas home.
The video had nothing to do with a free-speech protest, and Monique has never been a member of the church itself. It appeared to be solid evidence that Scientology was tailing and filming her for no other reason than an ongoing campaign of intimidation and harassment. But the church explained the video in an interesting way. Although it looked pretty plainly like a film crew stalking Monique, Scientology attorney Ricardo Cedillo claimed that it was actually footage from a church documentary about someone else entirely — BBC journalist John Sweeney. Continue reading The BBC’s John Sweeney gives us another glimpse of creepy Scientology intimidation
Ned Zeman has a great overview of the missing First Lady of Scientology, church leader David Miscavige’s wife Shelly, someone whose disappearance we’ve been writing about for a long time.
Continue reading The Vanity Fair story on Shelly Miscavige: ‘Scientology’s Vanished Queen’
 Claire Headley and Bruce Hines are taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. Claire spent years working with Scientology’s “tech,” and was trusted to oversee the auditing of Tom Cruise. Bruce was in Scientology for 31 years and spent about half that time as a senior case supervisor. Go here to see the first part in this series.
This week, as we move on up to Original Operating Thetan Level Five (OT 5), Claire told us she never had any experience with it. But Bruce was ready to help us get another step up the Bridge to Total Freedom. Continue reading The secret of everything? It’s time for Scientology’s Original Operating Thetan Level Five!
 Judge Dib Waldrip makes a fist during yesterday’s hearing. Photo: Mike Bennitt On January 8, Scientology attorney Ricardo Cedillo presented lengthy arguments for the ‘anti-SLAPP’ motion that his client hopes will destroy Monique Rathbun’s harassment lawsuit against the church and its leader, David Miscavige. Today, Monique’s legal team has to outdo that argument if her lawsuit is going to continue. Yesterday, Marc Wiegand began his presentation of that case, detailing the kind of surveillance and harassment that Monique and her husband, Mark ‘Marty’ Rathbun, went through after 2009, when Marty began publicly criticizing Miscavige, his former boss. For years, the Rathbuns were followed, photographed, confronted, protested, and denounced on their porch and on the Internet. The Church of Scientology has admitted to paying for that extraordinary effort, involving a small army of attorneys, private investigators, videographers, and other operatives. But in its motion, the church is claiming that it’s Monique who is doing the harassing by filing her lawsuit. What the church was doing with its spying operation was simply sticking up for its religious beliefs and is protected free speech, Scientology argues. The church says Marty Rathbun picked a fight with Scientology by writing a critical blog and by conducting unsanctioned counseling at his home. Scientology sent private eyes, it argues, because it needed to protect its trademarks in a religious dispute that a civil court has no business getting involved in. Continue reading It’s a make-or-break day for Monique Rathbun vs Scientology in a Texas courtroom
 We’re expecting another eventful day in New Braunfels, Texas, where Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit against the Church of Scientology and its leader David Miscavige is back in the Comal County courthouse for another hearing this morning.
On January 8, Scientology’s attorneys presented their arguments supporting an ‘anti-SLAPP’ motion against Monique’s lawsuit, accusing her of filing a harassing suit that infringes on the church’s free speech rights. After the church turned over new evidence last week, Monique is scheduled today to present her argument against the motion. Continue reading Monique Rathbun tries to slap down Scientology’s ‘anti-SLAPP’ motion in court today
 Philip Seymour Hoffman, the supremely talented actor who played a character based on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 2012’s The Master, was found dead in his apartment today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon.
Hoffman received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the Hubbard analog Lancaster Dodd, his fourth nomination. He won an Academy Award for his portray of Truman Capote in 2005’s Capote. He was 46 years old. Continue reading Philip Seymour Hoffman found dead in New York, reports the Wall Street Journal
 Ryan Hamilton Last year, as Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon, was sinking deeper and deeper into trouble, we noticed that an attorney in Las Vegas, Ryan Hamilton, had begun advertising online for Narconon victims. It was another sign of just how bad things were getting for Scientology’s rehab facilities, which were being sued and investigated in several states. Well, Hamilton’s ad apparently paid off, because this week he filed a federal lawsuit against Scientology’s Narconon facility in Nevada, and the lawsuit’s complaint is one of the best written and most thorough that we’ve ever read. Continue reading Scientology’s drug rehab facility in Nevada sued over the usual litany of deceptions
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Last week, we had a breaking story on Sunday and our weekly Funnies got shorted. So this week we’re making up for it with a cornucopia of goodness.
