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 We have another Underground Bunker exclusive this morning, and it’s fun!
We’ve learned that in 2005, Scientology leader David Miscavige asked his personal tailor, Claudio Lugli, to dress up everyone at the Religious Technology Center like they were from the 1999 film The Matrix. RTC is the controlling entity of Scientology, the inner sanctum of power among an alphabet soup of organizations with names like CSI, ASI, and CST. It’s RTC that really wields the power in the church, and its chairman of the board is David Miscavige (hence his title, COB). Continue reading Scientology Sunday Funnies: When David Miscavige Made RTC Look Like The Matrix
 Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He now has a new edition of the book out, 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.
When L. Ron Hubbard introduced Dianetics in 1950, and then reorganized his movement as Scientology in 1952, the goal of his therapy was “clear” — a state that promised higher IQ, total recall, and immunity from disease. But it wasn’t until 1966 that he said the first true clear had been produced, a man named John McMaster. Continue reading OT Powers: Jon Atack on Scientology’s Promise to Make You Superhuman
 Karen de la Carriere has a new video, and this one is about the woman behind the Ex-Scientologist Message Board, Melbourne’s Michelle Sterling.
Otherwise known by her nom de guerre, “Emma,” Michelle started up ESMB in 2007, and it’s still a hive of activity for people who have left the church. But in November 2010, Sterling found herself being put into handcuffs after five police detectives interrupted her while taking her daughter to school. Continue reading The Fair-Gaming of ESMB’s Michelle “Emma” Sterling
 Yuliya Keaton tells us that she had lost her three children — ages 9, 11, and 13 — to foster care and felt helpless and depressed. She figured she would never get them back, and didn’t want to just sit around the house. She wanted to do something meaningful.
So she decided to infiltrate the Church of Scientology. Yesterday, Keaton put a series of five short videos on YouTube explaining her spy mission and what happened once she was caught. This morning, we called her up to ask her some things she didn’t address in those video segments. Why, for example, did she think it was worth her time to try such a stunt? Continue reading Yuliya Keaton Tells Us Why She Infiltrated Scientology’s Sea Org
 Welcome to our ongoing project, where we blog a 1950 first edition of Scientology’s bible, Dianetics, with the help of ex-Scientologist, lawyer, and author Vance Woodward. Go here for the first post in the series.
Vance, as we near the latter stages of this book, we’re still plowing through this lengthy chapter, “Mechanisms and Aspects of Therapy.” As we said last week, Hubbard tends to get into a groove as he describes dianetic techniques for troublesome engrams, which come in flavors like “denyers,” “holders,” “bouncers,” and “groupers.” For whatever your father or mother uttered while you were in the womb and now holds you back as an adult, Hubbard has the cure for what ails you. Continue reading This is Your Dianetics on Drugs: The Nitrous Engram
 The last we heard in Laura DeCrescenzo’s four-year lawsuit against the Church of Scientology, the church lost an appeal to the California Supreme Court and had until July 2 to turn over Laura’s confidential confessional files — thousands of pages that she believes will bolster her case that she suffered abuse (including a forced abortion) as an employee of Scientology’s “Sea Org.”
Now, the church has filed a new motion, saying that it intends to appeal yet again — this time to the US Supreme Court — and even if it does ultimately give up Laura’s documents, it wants a protective order to keep Laura or her attorneys from sharing them with us — the public. Continue reading Scientology Doesn’t Want You to See Documents in Laura DeCrescenzo’s Forced-Abortion Lawsuit
 We hear it all the time — what happened to Tommy Davis and Jessica Feshbach?
There still seems to be a huge fascination for the two former Scientology media handlers, and why not? Take Tommy — he’s the good-looking son of actress Anne Archer, and for a few years he was thrust into prominence as the church’s main mouthpiece. He tangled with the likes of BBC reporter John Sweeney and New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright, and was the last Scientology official who would brave live television to do battle on behalf of the church. Jessica, meanwhile, gained her own notoriety as the shadow of Katie Holmes. The two became good friends, and Jessica was with Katie around the clock in part to shield the actress from nosy reporters and their impertinent questions about Tom Cruise and e-meters. And then, suddenly, the two vanished. What happened? Continue reading Tommy Davis & Jessica Feshbach: New Jobs and New Lives for Scientology’s Former Mouthpieces
 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.
After several weeks on the formidable PTS/SP course, we’re now moving on as Claire takes us into the sauna for a steaming. Claire, tell us about the “Purification Rundown.” CLAIRE: I did the Purif when I was 14 at the Beverly Hills mission. The first part of it is studying the theory behind it. And the “EP” — end phenomena, or result of the course — is “freedom from the harmful lasting effects of drugs and toxins.” Continue reading Precious Bodily Fluids: Scientology and the Purification Rundown
 Yuliya Keaton, from her Facebook account Scientology Watching is never dull, particularly when things get really weird, as they did this past week. Details are still sketchy, but apparently, in April a Florida woman named Yuliya Keaton who had once served in Scientology’s elite Sea Organization rejoined the group at its Los Angeles headquarters, but didn’t tell the church her real aim was to smuggle in recording devices to capture examples of abuse. On May 30, her plan was discovered. She has claimed in e-mails and Internet postings that she was held in a hotel room and interrogated by church officials for several days. On June 4, the church sent out legal threat letters by e-mail to at least two church critics, accusing them of being in cahoots with Keaton. One of those accused was prominent ex-church member Karen de la Carriere. We have the letter the church sent her, as well as her response. Continue reading Scientology Goes After Critics With Legal Threat Letters Following Strange Infiltration
 Back in March, we had fun talking with historian Jon Atack about L. Ron Hubbard’s 1977 screenplay, Revolt in the Stars. At the time he wrote it, Hubbard was hiding out in Nevada after the FBI had raided Scientology in Los Angeles and Washington. We figure it must have irked him that Star Wars was raking in the big cash while being an homage to the throwback space opera that had once been Hubbard’s bread and butter. How could he not want to cash in?
Anyway, when we discussed the screenplay earlier, the only version of it we could find on line was in treatment form, not a proper script. Well, now we’ve managed to get our hands on the full screenplay itself (that’s the title page to the right), and it’s a real hoot. Continue reading Scientology Sunday Funnies, Revolt in the Stars Edition!
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We have another Underground Bunker exclusive this morning, and it’s fun!
