Chiropractor in Viral Video Is Posing In Front of His Scientology Certificates

One of our tipsters knew we’d get a kick out of a viral video that is making the rounds of Mashable and other websites today. It’s an unusual video advertisement for a Los Angeles chiropractor named Ryan Lee. Here’s how Mashable describes it, under the headline “Creepy Local Chiropractor Ad Will Make You Wince”…

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True Confessions of Ron Miscavige Sr., Father to Scientology’s Ultimate Leader

Last week, we reported the surprising news that Ron Miscavige Sr., father to Scientology leader David Miscavige, had begun to emerge into the public eye in a rather unusual way.

We learned last summer that Ron had escaped from Scientology’s secretive International Base east of Los Angeles after reportedly spending many years of his life there. And “escaped” was the word that Ron himself was using to describe it, we were told. We hoped that he would soon talk publicly about what made him run away from the organization his son lords over, and also how he managed to get away from Int Base, with all of its layers of security.

But for now, Ron has written a short book about his childhood experiences, and he’s also been posting videos demonstrating exercise equipment that he markets through the Internet.

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ABC Features 4-Minute Dianetics Infomercial To Illustrate EEOC Lawsuit Involving Scientology (And Now It’s Down!)

Will you be inspired?

[After our commenters showed up at the ABC site in force, the network has now taken down the video!]

Last Thursday, we told you about an interesting new federal lawsuit against a Miami chiropractor who allegedly forced his employees to take Scientology courses. Since then, other news organizations have pointed out the fun parts of the really remarkable press release that the EEOC put together…

“According to the EEOC’s suit, the company required…employees to spend at least half their work days in courses that involved Scientology religious practices, such as screaming at ashtrays or staring at someone for eight hours without moving.”

Continue reading ABC Features 4-Minute Dianetics Infomercial To Illustrate EEOC Lawsuit Involving Scientology (And Now It’s Down!)

How to Confront and Shatter Suppression, Scientology Style!

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.

Claire, last time you got us through Method One Word Clearing. And now we’re moving on to something really fascinating — the PTS/SP course?

CLAIRE: That’s right. I did PTS/SP course in 1989 at the Beverly Hills mission.

This is where you get down deep and personal with PTS/SP Tech — How to “Confront and Shatter Suppression” as it is heralded in the world of Scientology.

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Will Scientology’s Motion Demolish the Garcias’ Federal Fraud Lawsuit?

On Friday, Scientology filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church. We very rapidly posted the motion and several supporting declarations with only a brief description of their contents.

We’ve had some time now to digest the church’s motion, and we thought we’d take a closer look at its argument and whether it has a chance to disqualify attorney Ted Babbitt from this case, which would seem to be a devastating blow to the Garcias.

In the motion, the church argues that Babbitt has inappropriately relied on the help of Robert Johnson, an attorney who represented the church in numerous actions between 1983 and 1999. Johnson’s apparent conflict taints Babbitt, the motion says, and should disqualify him. We asked attorney Scott Pilutik to give us his thoughts about the motion. We also have more information about Brian Culkin, whose declaration the church believes supplies the key evidence for its position. And we’ve heard from Ted Babbitt himself, whose comments follow Pilutik’s.

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Scientology Sunday Funnies: Portland Is Now Cleared, On to the Rest of Earth! UPDATE: PHOTOSHOPPING?

[UPDATE: See our Editor’s Note, below.]

Yesterday’s events in Portland turned out to be a riot here at the blog as we followed the adventures of Mark “Wise Beard Man” Bunker.

Bunker was there to witness David Miscavige (right, on stage) open up the newest “Ideal Org,” the Scientology leader’s program of acquiring and renovating expensive downtown landmarks even as the church is suffering internal schisms and dwindling membership.

We have more photos of yesterday’s event, and then our usual Sunday collection of wacky Scientology mailers and fliers sent in to us by our network of tipsters.

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PORTLAND LIVE: Mark Bunker at Scientology’s “Ideal Org” Event

Mark Bunker

We’re very disappointed to learn that Mark Bunker was prevented from filming today’s Ideal Org event from what appeared to be the perfect perch.

Yesterday, Bunker sent us a photo from the window he had arranged to film the event. He had secured permission from the owner of the building, which houses the outdoors goods store across the street from the Scientology building.

But today, as he arrived with his equipment, he was greeted by Scientology operatives and a number of Portland police officers. The officers told Bunker he had every right to film from the location — but the owner, Bunker says, had been so intimidated by Scientology employees, he had rescinded Bunker’s permission.

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Jon Atack Helps Us Remember Scientology’s “Religious Freedom Crusade”

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.

Yesterday, we pointed out that Scientology is pulling out all the stops for today’s grand opening of a new “Ideal Org” in Portland, Oregon. For some reason, church leader David Miscavige seems to believe that these manufactured events somehow can help Scientology with its miserable public relations problem. (They won’t.) But there’s something about Portland that Miscavige would like to capitalize on — it does have a special place in church history. We decided to ask Jon Atack to help us understand that.

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SCIENTOLOGY FILES TO REMOVE GARCIA ATTORNEYS FROM FRAUD LAWSUIT

Brian Culkin

The Church of Scientology has filed a motion to disqualify the attorneys for Luis and Rocio Garcia in their federal fraud lawsuit against the church.

Scientology has a long history of this kind of legal maneuver, and it’s not surprising that they would make a motion like this in a case which has not gone their way to this point. (At any moment, we were expecting a ruling from federal Judge James Whittemore about the church’s argument that the case go to its internal arbitration and be dismissed from federal court. Whittemore hadn’t given away which way he was leaning, but the church may have felt it was about to be denied.)

In its motion, the church says that Garcia’s counsel — led by Ted Babbitt — has improperly relied on the help of an attorney who formerly represented the church, Robert Johnson, and two former church executives, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder.

And the church’s star witness in this motion? Brian Culkin, a former church member who until just a few weeks ago was telling us he was trying to get his own refund from the church.

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Countdown to Portland: Scientology Planning a Rager on Saturday

Portland Mercury photo by Dirk Vanderhart

Scientology leader David Miscavige began opening “Ideal Orgs” about a decade ago. In each case, local church members are pressured to raise huge amounts of money to replace perfectly adequate church facilities with much larger, more elaborate palaces that tend to stand empty. It’s a controversial plan that has exacerbated splits in the church membership — there’s lots of evidence that founder L. Ron Hubbard actually preferred more modest facilities and always stressed the need for new members, not new buildings.

But for whatever reason, Miscavige has banked the future of the church on his Ideal program, and seems to think tomorrow’s grand opening in Portland is the most important one yet. We’ve been marveling recently at the effort going into tomorrow’s big show, and we have some more updates for those thinking of stopping by for a gander.

Continue reading Countdown to Portland: Scientology Planning a Rager on Saturday

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