Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. In 2005, Claire and her husband Marc escaped from Scientology’s International Base after many years as “Sea Org” workers. 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, we’re glad you’re back after a little time off. Last time we were talking about overt and withholds. Where are you taking us next?
CLAIRE: Next up is the Basic Study Manual. It’s another beginning course and a person’s first introduction to “study tech.”
Before Brandon Ogborn’s play The TomKat Project blows up even bigger than it already has, we thought we better get to know him a little — before he becomes so famous he won’t return our phone calls.
Fortunately for us, Synthia Fagen caught the Chicago production and first clued us in that it was a riot. So we asked her if she would interview Ogborn for the Underground Bunker.
The idea behind The TomKat Project is deceptively simple: Ogborn took all the insane media coverage of Katie Holmes’s split with Tom Cruise last summer and constructed from it a parody of our obsessions with celebrity (with Scientology getting a skewering along the way). With a small cast that has actors playing numerous roles each, the play weaves together actual language from media coverage with lines invented by Ogborn. The result is a smash, say critics, and the small production is sold out in Chicago through April, with hopes for bigger things soon.
The great Jim Brown, struggling to understand what he’s doing here.
On Sundays here at the Bunker, we like to bring you the latest Scientology mailers and fliers that our tipsters have forwarded to us. We call it Sunday Funnies, and we have another set of items that we think you’ll find interesting.
But first, we wanted to bring a little context to the explosion of stories we’ve been posting about Scientology’s drug rehab network, Narconon.
As is becoming crystal clear, there’s strong evidence that just about every step in Narconon’s business practice involves a level of deceit. From generic websites that pretend to be impartial but actually push potential clients to Narconon for hefty bounties, to the way Narconon hides its connection to Scientology and its lack of medical oversight.
But it’s also important to note that Narconon’s controversies are not limited to its Oklahoma flagship or its Atlanta facility, which are each caught up in government probes and civil lawsuits.
As we mentioned this morning, yet another lawsuit was filed yesterday against Narconon Arrowhead, Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility in eastern Oklahoma which was featured last night on NBC’s Rock Center for its many controversies.
We have the complaint now, which we’ve posted below, and we’ll run down some of the interesting details. This makes the eleventh lawsuit filed recently against Narconon Arrowhead, but what makes this one somewhat unique is that it was filed by a local newspaper reporter who says she was harmed when she went through the program in 2009 and 2010.
And like others, she says she saw employees of Narconon trading drugs for sex.
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.
[ALSO TODAY: Another new lawsuit against Narconon Arrowhead; Scientology buys Larry Hagman’s Ojai palace; a big victory for blogging in Austria; and more!]
Jon, we know that Scientology relies on its celebrities to burnish its image. But in at least one case, there’s someone very famous whose involvement the church would rather keep under wraps. We’re talking about Charles Manson, diminutive cult leader and ward of the state of California. What do we know about Charlie’s time in Scientology?
Join us as we watch NBC’s Rock Center talk to two Scientology whistle blowers who are well known here in the Underground Bunker. The show begins at 10 pm Eastern.
Luke Catton and Eric Tenorio have not only come forward with damning allegations about the business practices that they saw while they each worked at multiple Scientology drug rehab facilities, but the former Narconon executives have also been releasing stunning documentation to back up their claims.
Spanky Taylor asked The Bunker to observe a special anniversary today.
She and another former Sea Org friend, author Ira Chaleff, sent us a brief remembrance of Diane Colletto, who would have turned 60 today.
For readers of Lawrence Wright’s excellent book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, you may remember Colletto’s appearance. It’s a short and sad tale. Diane Colletto was the editor of The Auditor and held other responsibilities in the church’s publications division. Although she was only 25, she was going places. Until, that is, the night of August 19, 1978, when she was brutally murdered right outside Scientology’s big headquarters in Los Angeles. But even today, nearly 35 years later, Colletto is still remembered fondly by those who knew her well.
Welcome to our ongoing project, where we blog a 1950 first edition of Scientology’s bible, Dianetics, with the help of ex-Scientologist, Bay Area lawyer, blogger, and author Vance Woodward. Go here for the first post in the series.
[ALSO TODAY: A federal judge tells Narconon to go fish; an update on the Oklahoma drug rehab bill; more American press outrage about Scientology in Vietnam; and Irish protest against Tom Cruise!]
Vance, now we begin Book Three, “Therapy,” and switch gears.
First, there’s a brief chapter in which Hubbard assures us that what we’re about to learn is worthwhile and effective. And also, he points out, it’s something for the masses.
To emphasize that notion, Hubbard engages in some very characteristic anti-intellectual grousing. If it were up to the professional classes, he complains, nothing as complex and useful as Dianetics would go unlegislated into nonexistence.
We can hardly keep up with the documents that former Narconon officials Luke Catton and Eric Tenorio have been making public. The most recent is a stunning e-mail that Catton released yesterday, showing how much Scientology’s flagship drug rehab facility, Narconon Arrowhead in Oklahoma, has turned to revenue from insurance companies to bolster its bottom line.
Catton gave us a copy of the e-mail, which he says he received from Narconon Arrowhead CEO Gary Smith early in 2010. Catton himself was once the president of Narconon Arrowhead, but he had left by this time and was operating numerous websites that directed new clients to Smith’s facility. It was important for Catton to be kept up on what was happening at the rehab center, he says, and Smith’s update was a crucial one.
In it, Smith explains that after Narconon Arrowhead had figured out ways to charge insurance companies for parts of its Scientology-based treatment program, revenue had gone through the roof.
We just spoke with Robert Murphy, whose daughter Stacy died last July at Scientology’s flagship drug rehab center in Oklahoma, known as Narconon Arrowhead. Murphy had just come out of a legislative meeting in Oklahoma City to tell us that the House’s Public Health Committee had passed an amended Senate Bill which should put the Narconon center in some jeopardy.
“It’s a good day,” Murphy told us.
The bill’s sponsors told us they were hoping to fend off any amendments so it could quickly get House approval and then get to Oklahoma’s governor, Mary Fallin, for signing into law. But the bill was amended today, which means it will, after House approval, go back to the state Senate, where it originated.
But Murphy tells us the extra step is worth it. He says the amendment tightens up restrictions, and will force Narconon to be more up front about its ties to the Church of Scientology.
Claire Headley is taking us on our journey to train as Scientologists. In 2005, Claire and her husband Marc escaped from Scientology’s International Base after many years as “Sea Org” workers. 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.
