How Scientology lured a Sci-Fi fan, but drove him away with its lack of imagination

[Ron Kasman, young Scientologist SF artist]

I first heard about Scientology from a cousin at my mother’s kitchen table. From that introduction, I entered the Church of Scientology on Sunday, December 27, 1970 to attend a Sunday service. I wrote about that experience here previously. That story was written fifty years to the day after that first visit.

Continue reading How Scientology lured a Sci-Fi fan, but drove him away with its lack of imagination

Hey, everybody, Scientology’s sneaky school front, Applied Scholastics, is hiring!

While Scientology leader David Miscavige is evading process servers and trying to convince the federal government to keep its legislation out of his E-meters, he also has sneaky front groups to operate!

Continue reading Hey, everybody, Scientology’s sneaky school front, Applied Scholastics, is hiring!

RIFFER MADNESS: Scientology’s David Miscavige says he’s not been served Jane Doe 1 lawsuit

[David Miscavige and his attorney, Jeffrey Riffer]

Here we go again.

On July 31, we told you about the efforts that attorney Graham Berry and some process servers were making to serve Jane Doe 1’s new lawsuit against Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige.

Continue reading RIFFER MADNESS: Scientology’s David Miscavige says he’s not been served Jane Doe 1 lawsuit

PODCAST: Apollo crew member Sandy Holeman on serving L. Ron Hubbard and fleeing Scientology

We’ve been talking to Sandy Holeman for years, and we should have introduced you to her long ago. And when she told us that she had attended the San Jose world premiere of ‘Brothers Broken’ last month, we decided to make up for lost time.

Continue reading PODCAST: Apollo crew member Sandy Holeman on serving L. Ron Hubbard and fleeing Scientology

Los Angeles gets its premiere of the Scientology documentary ‘Brothers Broken’

[Reunited: Robbie and Geoff Levin]

We received this statement from Geoff Levin, and we’re happy to post it here…

It’s been a long journey getting out and speaking out and Tony’s been there from the very beginning of my deprogramming in September 2011, when I read my first article in the Village Voice.

Continue reading Los Angeles gets its premiere of the Scientology documentary ‘Brothers Broken’

Liz Gale: How she grew up in Scientology, and then smartly traded it for being a pothead

In 2016, our old friend Mark Ebner had a suggestion for us.

More than a decade earlier, Ebner had written a terrific story for New Times Los Angeles (where we worked from 1999-2002) about the suicide of Philip Gale, a math prodigy who had grown up in Scientology and threw himself from a building at MIT on the night of L. Ron Hubbard’s birthday, March 13, 1998. (The story was later republished by Gawker, and you can see it here.)

Continue reading Liz Gale: How she grew up in Scientology, and then smartly traded it for being a pothead

A 2017 flight suggests that Scientology leader is still canoodling with his ‘communicator’

[Dave, Lou, and a private jet cabin]

It’s one of the most important and telling details from Leah Remini’s bestselling memoir, Troublemaker, a moment that helped begin her journey out of Scientology.

Continue reading A 2017 flight suggests that Scientology leader is still canoodling with his ‘communicator’

Before Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard wanted to be thought of like one of his pulp fiction heroes

In 1938, L. Ron Hubbard was a 27-year-old budding celebrity living in Bremerton, Washington, across the Puget Sound from Seattle, and in relative obscurity.

Continue reading Before Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard wanted to be thought of like one of his pulp fiction heroes

Is this the lamest tabloid ‘Tom Cruise has left Scientology’ speculation ever?

You’ll have to forgive us that we didn’t get to this sooner, because we were just out of surgery and lying rather helpless in a hospital bed last week when the Daily Mail’s entertainment gossip columnist Alison Boshoff “reported” that Tom Cruise has stopped going to Scientology’s UK headquarters for the past three years.

Continue reading Is this the lamest tabloid ‘Tom Cruise has left Scientology’ speculation ever?

PODCAST: Jonny Jacobsen, our man in Paris, was on Scientology’s abuses before most

We’ve had a lot of fun recently talking to great reporters who have covered Scientology like John Sweeney, Mark Ebner, and Steve Cannane. So of course we wanted to check in with our man in Paris, one of the very best journalists we know, Jonny Jacobsen.

Continue reading PODCAST: Jonny Jacobsen, our man in Paris, was on Scientology’s abuses before most

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