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 On Sunday, we reviewed Marty Rathbun’s new book, which makes some startling claims about the relationship between Scientology leader David Miscavige and actor Tom Cruise.
Rathbun is in a unique position to talk about that relationship, since he acted as Cruise’s Scientology auditor during a campaign by Miscavige to reinforce Cruise’s commitment to the church following the breakup of his marriage to Nicole Kidman in 2001. Through 2004, Rathbun watched up close as Cruise and Miscavige formed a strong and unusual bond. In his new book, Scientology Reformation: What Every Scientologist Should Know, Rathbun provides a disturbing new wrinkle: the two men were so close, he writes, Cruise aped Miscavige’s increasing irrationality and even violence toward underlings. Over the last two days, however, the tabloids have been promoting a very different story: that Cruise is fed up with Scientology after losing Katie Holmes. So we went back to Rathbun to ask him which is true: is Cruise still Miscavige’s pal, or are they quits? Continue reading Rumors That Tom Cruise is Breaking with Scientology: “Bullshit With a Capital B”
 Former high-ranking Church of Scientology official Mark “Marty” Rathbun has released a book that condemns current church leader David Miscavige for taking Scientology away from the concepts of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and blasts Miscavige and his best friend Tom Cruise for a litany of malfeasance and corruption.
In Scientology Reformation: What Every Scientologist Should Know, Rathbun argues that since the death of Hubbard in 1986, Miscavige has damaged the church he took over by placing an emphasis on fundraising for projects that have little do with what Hubbard wanted. Along the way, Rathbun says, Miscavige has discarded Hubbard’s plans for expansion in favor of raising huge sums that he can spend on himself and his friend Cruise, while imprisoning and violently assaulting his underlings. Much of what Rathbun covers in this book we have heard about in news stories over the last few years. But Rathbun also provides startling new information about what he witnessed working closely with Miscavige, and also includes details of the Nazanin Boniadi/Tom Cruise story that seem as if they could have only one possible source — Boniadi herself. Continue reading Marty Rathbun Reveals New Details in Nazanin Boniadi Story, Other Scientology Bombshells in New Book
 On Sunday mornings, we love to reveal the latest Scientology fundraising mailers that tipsters have forwarded to us over the past week. And this week, our sources have not let us down.
On tap in this installment of Sunday Funnies: Jim Meskimen wants to party with you, librarians are going crazy for Ron’s new encyclopedia, and you really need to get to Flag to discover the abilities you’ve had for billions of years! Oh, where do we sign up. Continue reading Scientology Wants You to Party With a Purpose!
 Now safely ensconced in the bunker again, we’re going to make good on yesterday’s promise and deliver our weekly helping of ‘Scientology on the High Seas’ a day later than usual.
Nearly a year ago, we started excerpting L. Ron Hubbard’s “Orders of the Day,” which he mimeographed and distributed to the crew of his yacht, the Apollo, as he ran Scientology from the ship from 1967 to 1975. Our copies of his “OODs” (and yes, Scientologists actually pronounce it that way, “oods”) cover the period from late 1968 to the end of 1971. And soon, we’ll finish up our year-long project. The OODs turned out to be very popular with our readers, and we think you’re going to find this week’s installment pretty interesting. Hubbard, for example, reveals what his own daily “stat” is! Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard Whines (Again) About His Scientology Workload
We’ve been away from the bunker this week, and we apologize that we don’t have this week’s installment of Scientology on the High Seas. We will make it up to our readers later. In the meantime, we’ll follow up yesterday’s amazing output by our commenting community by posing what we hope will be a provocative and productive question… How does a thetan pick up a new meat body, really? Continue reading Scientology Metaphysics: How Do Thetans Work?
 We have a treat for you today from a new copy of Advance! magazine. Yes, the same magazine whose issues from the 1970s we’ve been mining for their excellent “OT Phenomena” testimonials. We’re happy to say that Advance! is still ticking along in 2012, and virtually in the exact format as it was 30 to 40 years ago, bringing exciting news about the OT life for upper-level Scientologists.
As in the past, Advance! issue 213 features a fascinating piece by L. Ron Hubbard himself — an excerpt from a 1952 lecture — and we found it quite illuminating. We thought we’d summarize it for you, and provide a few direct quotes (under the “fair use” doctrine) to give you its flavor. Now, before we do that, we want to first deal with the heartburn that our independent Scientologist readers are probably already feeling. Continue reading L. Ron Hubbard Explains Your Life “Before Earth”
 There’s been some reporting in the tabloid press recently that Tom Cruise has been behaving a bit strangely while filming a new movie in London: he’s been seen out late at night, and with people who aren’t usually around him. He’s seen little of his daughter Suri. He’s been showing up places sometimes completely alone and without his usual tribe of handlers.
Based on that, plus some anonymous quotes from “insiders,” the tabs have wondered if his recent divorce has caused Tom to split from Scientology, certainly a juicy notion, since the actor seemed to have placed his loyalty to church leader David Miscavige above all else, even his wife and child. But is Tom really rejecting Miscavige and the church? Continue reading Why Tom Cruise Can’t Quit Scientology
 Just time this morning for a quick question we wanted to put to our excellent commenting community: as we’ve established in the past, Paul Thomas Anderson researched Scientology’s history deeply before writing the script for his film The Master. There’s just no question that his characters Lancaster, Peggy, and Val Dodd are based on their real-life counterparts: L. Ron, Mary Sue, and L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
But what about the star of the movie? It’s Joaquin Phoenix’s character Freddie Quell who is the main focus of The Master, and we have to wonder, is he based on a real-life counterpart as well? Continue reading Your Thoughts on The Master: Who Was Freddie Quell?
 Scientology’s drug rehab program, Narconon, is now being sued by a whole bunch of folks because, well, people keep dropping dead at its clinics.
We figure Narconon could use some help paying for all that legal cheddar they’re going to have to fork out. But then we found out that there’s a really fun way to raise money for its coffers, and it’s coming up in a couple of months. Turns out there’s a very popular couple of races in December, and there’s plenty of time for you to register. On December 2 in the Los Angeles area there’s the Say No To Drugs Race Holiday Classic, and a couple of weeks later, on December 15, in Clearwater, Florida there’s the Say No To Drugs Holiday Classic. Continue reading How You Can Help Raise Money for Narconon’s Legal Defense!
 Stacy Dawn Murphy Friday turned out to be an incredibly busy day for Scientology watchers. After putting up our morning post about the church’s troubles in Atlanta, where its drug rehab program, Narconon, is being investigated by the state of Georgia, we then had to scramble when we received an e-mail from a state agency in Oregon. That e-mail contained the 69-page order that requires Bend dentist Andrew Engel to pay nearly $348,000 to his former dental hygienist, Susan Muhleman, for religious harassment because she felt forced to quit her job when he kept insisting that she attend a three-day Scientology symposium. At the same time we were jamming to get that story up, however, we were aware that the Murphy family in Oklahoma was making public that it had filed a lawsuit against Narconon’s flagship operation in that state, where their daughter Stacy Murphy, 20, died in July. And much more was happening. So let’s catch up this morning with some links… Continue reading Another Narconon Lawsuit, Oregon Dentist to Fight Order, and More Scientology Links
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On Sunday, we reviewed Marty Rathbun’s new book, which makes some startling claims about the relationship between Scientology leader David Miscavige and actor Tom Cruise.
