Tony Ortega's Blog, page 327
May 17, 2021
Scientology hits on the perfect theme for its Chicago fundraising: Blues Brothers!
Scientology is always hunting around for new themes to use in its fundraising, from Star Wars to The Last Samurai. And we didn’t think it could get more on-the-nose than Caribbean pirates and 30’s gangsters asking for your dough.
Hand over yer booty, me lovelies!
But the folks in Chicago have really come through, and with an Ideal Org grand opening only weeks away (we think). In their latest gambit, to get folks amped up for a big fundraising event this weekend, they’ve hit on some Windy City gold: Jake and Elwood Blues!
What a brilliant way to get Scientologists in Illinois ready and willing to go on a mission from Ron!
We only wish we could attend the big event. Sure would be fun if someone could get us a report after attending…
— The Proprietor
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In Scientology, hypocrisy in the worship of money is a sacrament
Last year, Grant Cardone posted to his Twitter account a short video of himself answering a question from an admirer who admitted that his career aspirations had been hurt by his weed habit.
“Imagine,” Cardone wrote, “what this guy would be like without the kush.”
For years we’ve followed Cardone’s antics here at the Bunker. An OT Scientologist and major donor, Cardone has done David Miscavige’s dirty work, he’s squired Scientology’s most wealthy backers, and he’s also proved he can fill a Scientology org with admirers.
But when it comes to drugs, Cardone is not consistent.
Scientology is opposed to the use of recreational drugs, most medically-prescribed drugs, and is violently opposed to all psychiatric drugs. Scientology has two anti-drug front groups:
1. Citizens Commission on Human Rights: CCHR is an unhinged front group created to destroy psychiatry and outlaw the use of all psychiatric drugs. L. Ron Hubbard taught that psychiatrists are an evil alien race of extraterrestrials that have existed for trillions of years. Hubbard said that psychiatrists come from the planet Farsec.
2. Foundation for a Drug Free World: Created to oppose the use of street drugs. This includes marijuana.
When a person first begins in Scientology, he or she must do the Purification Rundown, a grueling monthlong regimen of sauna use and increasing vitamins intake. This dangerous pseudoscience claims it flushes all stored drugs toxins and residues from past drug use from the body.
Hubbard taught the body must be clean and free of the drug toxins before Scientology auditing (called processing) can be effective. As we have previously revealed, Hubbard wrote in the formerly confidential OT materials that the real secret of the Purification Rundown is that it drops a person’s body thetans out of chronic restimulation from the person’s drug use.
Scientology’s front group Drug Free World prints a series of booklets warning of the dangers of drugs:
This Scientology booklet says of marijuana:
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});When a person inhales the smoke from a joint or a pipe, he usually feels its effect within minutes. The immediate sensations — increased heart rate, lessened coordination and balance, and a “dreamy,” unreal state of mind—peak within the first 30 minutes… it has been found that smoking one joint gives as much exposure to cancer-producing chemicals as smoking four to five cigarettes. The mental consequences of marijuana use are equally severe. Marijuana smokers have poorer memories and mental aptitude than do non-users. Recent studies on young adults that smoke marijuana, found abnormalities in the brain related to emotion, motivation and decision-making.
As a high-level Scientologist, Cardone would be expected to forward the drug-free line and oppose any promotion or endorsement of marijuana use.
However…
Cardone hired international superstar Snoop Dogg to make personal appearances at his 2019 and 2020 “10X” events. Snoop Dogg is practically synonymous with marijuana use, and he is not a Scientologist.
Is Cardone a Scientology hypocrite for hiring Snoop Dogg?
Strictly speaking, yes. Cardone makes a farce out of Scientology’s Narconon drug treatment program, Foundation for a Drug Free World, and Scientology’s efforts to fight drug use.
Cardone also betrays L. Ron Hubbard who wrote:
It should be noted especially that the goal of Scientology is better self-determinism for the preclear. This rules out at once hypnotism, drugs, alcohol or other control mechanisms used by other and older therapies. It will be found that such things are not only not necessary, but they are in direct opposition to the goals of greater ability for the preclear. — L. Ron Hubbard, Fundamentals of Thought.
According to Hubbard, Snoop Dogg’s use of marijuana is in direct opposition to Scientology’s core goal to make a person self-determined. In Scientology, a person cannot use drugs and be self-determined. The two things are antithetical.
Grant Cardone’s 10X events are designed to push people to take charge of their lives, to become self-determined, and to motivate them to 10X their goals. As a Scientologist, and in his own life, Cardone is deeply committed to Hubbard’s teaching that self-determinism, which is the basis of success, and drug use do not go together.
Cardone talks a great deal about how drug use destroyed his life from age 17 to 25. He has many times shared how he was beaten and pistol-whipped in the face and head as a result of drug use and associating with drug users. Cardone needed 70 stitches as a result of the savage pistol-whipping. He still bears scars in his face from the brutal incident.
Cardone is sending a mixed message at his 10X events. If you’re a celebrity and Cardone wants to hire you to make a personal appearance then smoking marijuana is not a big deal.
— Jeffrey Augustine
“Power of choice, when that is too badly thrown aside, people object to this thing. That is why slavery has gotten a bad name as a practice. In actual fact you look at the economics of it and you find a lot of things about a slave society which are quite interesting. You find a society which is, has no objection to this sort of thing and which can free slaves rather easily and you find a lot of people walking up and saying, ‘I want to be a slave.’ But slavery itself is this thing of a beingness, an enforced beingness over which an individual has no power of choice and therefore it gets a bad name.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 17, 1962
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“The activity called ‘Black Propaganda’ consists of spreading lies by hidden sources. It inevitably results in injustices being done by those who operate without verifying the truth. For instance all the attacks on Scientology were Black Propaganda from hidden Fascist groups. This has caused injustice. Black Propaganda was a Nazi specialty. But injustice recoills on those who deal in it. Thus a hidden lying source can cause authority to act. Thus authority can be undermined by being made to commit injustices….If the world were honest, justice and the need for it would vanish. The road out is the Road to Truth.” — The Commodore, May 17, 1971
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“Scientology was the use of science, in the 20th century, to explain the material phenomena created by the spirit. The previous case to explain material phenomena created by the spirit was the book Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton. Science as practiced by Newton was attacked by the Inquisition. Similarly, Scientology or the study of knowledge was attacked by the inquisition of the 20th century, namely, psychology (APA), psychiatry (WFMH) and medicine (AMA). Newton was protected from the Inquisition by being at a distance from Spain and by residing in a country with a separate branch of the Catholic Church, the Church of England. Scientology had as protection the Fair Game policy, that could be described as a policy to destroy its enemies after they are defined as enemy by a list of destructive actions and a publication.”
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2001: Entertainment Tonight aired an interview with Scientology celebrities Jenna Elfman and Kirstie Alley. “Kirstie said ‘nothing great on this planet goes unattacked.’ Kirstie says about her marriage counselor role on Dharma & Greg: ‘No. I’m a flake. I don’t like marriage counselors, so it’s fun to play these. I’m not a big shrink advocate or counselor advocate, so I like playing them when they’re idiots…You know what, here’s the thing. People can attack my religion if they want, they are showing that they are not very bright. Because if they actually investigated it, and read one of the books, they would see that it’s very beautiful.'”
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“Sherbet, if you saw ‘Heavenly Creatures’ — the best film Peter Jackson ever did — you would understand the similarities between the folie à deux world the girls live in and that of Scientologists. Plus it’s got clay modeling as well as Kate Winslet and ‘Rose’ from ‘Two and a Half Men’.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Preliminary hearing set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 18.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Leaked audio of Scientology ship commander giving marching orders during the pandemic
[TWO years ago] Once again, Scientology celebrates a Nation of Islam bigot tonight in Los Angeles
[THREE years ago] Living with Scientology ‘disconnection’: ‘It’s important to never give up hope’
[FOUR years ago] San Diego on Saturday: Psych-busting and Scientology hip hop!
[FIVE years ago] Judge Doyle: I have Scientologists in the family, but I can be impartial in forced-abortion case
[SIX years ago] ‘The Unbreakable Miss Lovely’ goes on the road — and so does Paulette Cooper!
[SEVEN years ago] L. Ron Hubbard describes infiltrating a veterans’ hospital in a lecture only for Scientologists
[EIGHT years ago] About that Scientology “Photoshopped” Image…
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,304 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,808 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,328 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,348 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,239 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,546 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,414 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,188 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,518 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,992 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,308 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,874 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,793 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,961 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,542 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,803 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,841 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,554 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,079 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 434 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,609 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,160 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,309 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,629 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,484 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,603 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,959 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,262 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,368 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,770 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,642 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,225 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,720 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,974 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,083 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 17, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
May 16, 2021
AZ Republican election official calls latest Trump rant about audit ‘unhinged,’ ‘insane’
Some links to Q-related items today…
Elvis was the tip of the spear, y’all.
“Lin Wood, a vocal conspiracy theorist who publicly claims former President Donald Trump won the November presidential election, was beaten Saturday .. in his bid to lead the South Carolina Republican Party.”
(via @politico) https://t.co/joeP0KVtu7
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) May 15, 2021
Meanwhile, in Arizona…
Declaring "Biden will never be president" four months into Biden's presidency is the kind of bold, saucy claim that Q promoters love to make, because they will never be asked to prove or explain it. https://t.co/2OdmDC08w3
— Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) May 15, 2021
Truly, Arizona is a marvel.
Wow. The Republican who took over Maricopa County elections *after* the 2020 vote is now calling Trump "unhinged" and saying that his party needs to call out the former president's "insane lies." https://t.co/LpWQvdyBR6
— Nick Martin (@nickmartin) May 15, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 15, 2021 at 8:00
Inside a PR mutiny: How Scientology’s war on Prozac backfired in spectacular fashion
(A note from Chris: Many thanks to the benefactors whose generosity has been essential in covering the cost of the research subscriptions that enabled me to write this article (and much more besides). If readers would like to help contribute towards further research, please see my Patreon page. Thank you for your continued support!)
Scientology’s public image has taken a beating in recent years with revelations of abuse at every level of the organization. It’s not the first time, however, that it’s had to deal with a shattered image. Thirty years ago this month in May 1991, its efforts to rebuild its reputation were derailed by the publication of Richard Behar’s classic exposé of Scientology, “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power”.
By the mid-1980s, the church’s image was in ruins due to the exposure of the Guardian’s Office in 1977, and the subsequent jailing of 11 top Scientology officials — including L. Ron Hubbard’s wife. It suffered further damage from the years of internal turmoil that accompanied the rise of David Miscavige.
The church had relied for decades on Hubbard’s own ‘PR tech,’ which he claimed was superior to any ‘wog’ alternatives. The disastrous coverage that had accompanied the trials of the indicted GO officials led Hubbard to admit privately that ’wog’ assistance was needed after all. He secretly advised the new leadership around Miscavige that a small and “hungry” PR company should be brought in to assist Scientology.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});A Santa Monica man named Bill Widder, who owned a company called Dateline Communications, was hired by Miscavige’s Author Services, Inc. (ASI). He worked to promote Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth and other Scientology properties. However, his small-scale work does not seem to have had much impact, and Widder later ended up on a list of “Suppressive Persons.”
After Hubbard’s death, Miscavige decided to approach a ‘wog’ public relations firm on the advice of Gerald Feffer, one of the church’s leading lawyers. In late 1987, Scientology hired Hill & Knowlton (H&K), a famous Washington, D.C.-based firm that was part of the giant British-owned media group WPP — now the world’s largest advertising company.
H&K was not a large company but it was extremely well-connected politically. Scientology had long sought to lobby the US government to advance its interests, particularly in its ongoing battle for tax exemption, which had become increasingly urgent due to the need to dispose of Hubbard’s estate. H&K’s connections with the then-governing Republican Party gave it considerable political clout in addition to its PR expertise.
H&K agreed to help Scientology to “neutralize negative media coverage; … [build] a new and positive public platform for the Church; and promote the many positive aspects of Scientology,” along with contributing to recruitment activities and retention of the church’s existing members.
The firm believed that it well understood the difficulties of working with Scientology. It had a long reputation of dealing with what it called “highly controversial clients,” such as dictators and authoritarian governments, that it helped to burnish their reputations overseas. “Principled clients conducting honest operations toward laudable and legitimate ends,” H&K wrote, “come to us when they are much misunderstood and maligned in the marketplace.”
The company was nonetheless very cautious about engaging with Scientology. “It’s potentially a very dangerous account,” one senior executive warned. Its chairman, Bob Gray, reportedly hit upon a remarkable solution: While agreeing to represent Scientology on a provisional basis, H&K would secretly investigate the church with its own private investigators, infiltrate it and satisfy itself that Scientology was no longer engaged in illegal activities.
Gray’s own background as a former CIA officer may have inspired him to take such an unconventional intelligence-based approach. The results evidently gave him the confidence to go ahead with agreeing a contract with the Church of Scientology International (CSI). H&K nonetheless approached it cautiously. CSI agreed to pay a $90,000 “controversy premium” to secure the firm’s services, as a way of compensating it in advance for any loss of business that might result from taking on Scientology as a client. It paid H&K up to $100,000 a month to provide a range of PR services. The relationship initially appeared to pay off for both sides: Scientology became H&K’s third biggest client.
Under H&K’s tutelage, Scientology aimed to reposition itself as a friendly, socially conscious organization focused on education, the environment, and social well-being. Its in-house advertising became much slicker and more professional, in contrast to the somewhat amateurish output of previous years. The church took out high-profile advertisements in newspapers, magazines and on television, and sponsored public events where its brand shared the limelight with corporate leaders such as Sony and Pepsi.
Behind the scenes, however, tensions were emerging between Scientology and H&K. The reason, as usual, was the Scientology leadership’s fanatical adherence to Hubbard’s policies. Scientology still suffered from bad media coverage, which it sought to neutralize not only through PR but through its well-established playbook of using private investigators to intimidate and ‘expose’ reporters. Gray objected to this approach, advising Scientology to be more patient and conciliatory. “They would attract more flies with honey,” as one of Gray’s executives put it.
This, however, was literally anathema to Scientology. Although the church gave H&K a supposedly “full library” of Scientology materials to inform its approach to PR, it almost certainly did not share Hubbard’s numerous secret instructions on how to deal with critics and other ‘enemies’ of Scientology.
H&K also almost certainly did not fully appreciate the depth of Scientology’s adherence to conspiracy theories about psychiatry. This was particularly problematic as one of H&K’s sister companies represented Eli Lilly, one of the world’s largest producers of psychiatric medications, including the recently-launched ‘wonder drug’ Prozac.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Not long after Prozac was launched, Scientology’s anti-psychiatry front group, the Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights, started a campaign against “psychiatric drugging” that focused on the drugs Ritalin and Prozac in particular. It was a local initiative that attracted little attention from the media — or support from Scientology’s leadership — until a mass shooting in September 1989. A Kentucky printing operator suffering from manic depression shot 20 of his fellow employees, killing eight of them. Subsequent analysis of his blood disclosed that he had been taking Prozac and other psychiatric medications.
In the media frenzy that followed, CCHR’s spokespeople acquired a high media profile by repeating a simple but false explanation for the massacre: Prozac had driven the shooter to commit mass murder. A CCHR representative testified at the inquest and convinced the coroner to endorse its claim that the drug might have been a contributing factor. Although medical experts discounted this, victims and grieving relatives soon began to file lawsuits against Eli Lilly, further fueling the controversy. (Lilly later settled the lawsuits out of court.)
The tragedy offered Scientology an unprecedented opportunity to achieve long-sought public acceptance as a leading campaigner on mental health. Decades earlier, Hubbard had ordered that Scientology was to take a lead in “cleaning up” and ultimately taking over the field of mental health care. According to Marty Rathbun, then the Inspector General of Scientology’s Religious Technology Center (RTC), Miscavige ordered that CCHR was to “mobilize on Eli Lilly and Prozac.” RTC officials coordinated with counterparts from the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) and CCHR to work up a “full scale attack.”
Over the following two years, CCHR and Scientology mounted a ferocious attack on Eli Lilly and Prozac, spending millions of dollars on anti-Prozac advertisements and disseminating lurid anti-psychiatric propaganda. Doctors reported patients stopping their Prozac treatments, potentially endangering their health. Scientology unsuccessfully petitioned the US government to withdraw the drug’s license, which would have had a devastating effect on Lilly’s profits had it succeeded.
The company tried initially to ignore the campaign but found its share price and sales dropping alarmingly as a result of the attacks. Alarmed and angered, Lilly executives condemned Scientology’s actions: “Take the nastiest negative campaign in politics you have ever seen and cube it,” Lilly executive — and later governor of Indiana — Mitch Daniels commented.
Even as CCHR was hammering Eli Lilly, OSA learned in late 1990 that Richard Behar, a journalist for Time magazine, was researching a major story on Scientology. Four years earlier, Behar had written a scathing piece for Forbes magazine exposing Scientology’s business dealings and L. Ron Hubbard’s wealth. He subsequently compiled a file of tips and news cuttings that grew steadily as people around the world had reached out to him. By 1990, the file had grown to such proportions that Behar decided it was time for a more in-depth article on Scientology.
The Scientology leadership had good reason to be worried when OSA learned of the planned article. Behar was a formidable investigative reporter with extensive contacts among ex-Scientologists. His publication, Time, was one of America’s most prestigious media properties and had a worldwide audience. A blockbuster story on Scientology would likely have a bigger impact than a similar effort from almost any other US outlet. It also came at a delicate moment for Scientology’s long-running battle with the IRS. With a billion-dollar tax bill hanging over it, a Time magazine exposé was the last thing that the church needed.
Scientology’s response to Behar’s previous article had been relatively muted, with a token number of legal threats and nudges from private investigators. This time, the church did not hold back. Ten church attorneys and six PIs were assigned to “threaten, harass and discredit” Behar, as he put it. Scientology refused his requests for interviews, claiming that it would like “sending out Saddam Hussein to do an interview on Jews.”
Despite the efforts of Scientology’s investigators, it was nonetheless taken by surprise at the extraordinarily damaging nature of the article when it was published on May 6, 1991. Behar had pulled no punches. “The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power” depicted Scientology as “a hugely profitable global racket that survives by intimidating members and critics in a Mafia-like manner.”
Its publication – and its later worldwide reissue in condensed form by Reader’s Digest – caused an immediate crisis for Scientology, due to its huge reach, around 6 million readers in Time and a further 100 million in the Reader’s Digest. It attracted a massive response from readers and prompted around 1,200 letters to Time’s editor – a record for the magazine.
The story’s publication was fortuitous for Eli Lilly. The company seized the opportunity to print a reported 250,000 copies of Behar’s story and distributed them to doctors throughout the US, aiming to inoculate them against Scientology’s anti-Prozac claims. A nearly simultaneous article in the Wall Street Journal also highlighted Scientology’s role in the campaign; Lilly reportedly reprinted 750,000 copies of the article for redistribution. The media coverage certainly had an effect. Doctors and patients took note of it and began prescribing and requesting the drug again. As the Harvard physician Joseph Glenmullen puts it, “the link between the Church of Scientology and the scare greatly reduced its credibility”.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});The article also prompted the collapse of Scientology’s relationship with H&K. Miscavige’s decision to launch a war against Lilly had put its PR advisors in a very difficult position. Lilly’s PR was being handled by one subsidiary of the WPP marketing group while another WPP subsidiary, H&K, was working with Scientology, though not participating directly in the attack on Prozac. In effect, one WPP client was using PR to attack another WPP client. Such a clear conflict of interest could not be sustained.
Well before the Time article was published, Lilly put pressure on WPP to terminate H&K’s contract with Scientology. The pharmaceutical giant was a far bigger client than the church, and the potential loss of the Lilly contract would cause much more financial pain than terminating that of Scientology.
To add to the risks, H&K’s relationship with Scientology hurt other parts of its business and jeopardized its relationship with European pharma companies. The British firm SmithKline Beecham (SKB) signed a $1.5 million contract with H&K just before Behar’s Time article publicized the PR firm’s link with Scientology. SKB summarily terminated the contract on learning about the Scientology connection. It had not previously known about the link and was angered by H&K’s failure to disclose it.
The 48 hours following the Time article’s publication saw senior OSA official Kurt Weiland frantically making conference calls with H&K to work out how to respond. H&K’s Bob Gray initially sought to dissuade Scientology from taking its usual scorched-earth approach, pitching the idea of a running a response in Time’s rival Newsweek.
However, the relationship between Scientology and H&K was no longer sustainable. The potential damage was severe: H&K had already lost SKB and Lilly let it be known that it would cancel its own contract with H&K if the latter continued to keep Scientology on as a client.
The news galvanized the group’s head, Martin Sorrell, to order H&K to end its relationship with Scientology. Five days after the publication of Behar’s article, Gray called Miscavige to tell him that he was terminating the Scientology contract. H&K chief executive Robert Dilenschneider said publicly that the firm had not known about the upcoming Time article, had “never felt comfortable” about representing Scientology and “felt uneasy about some of their methods.”
The decision was met with fury among the Scientology leadership, which saw it as a betrayal. The intemperate and vengeful Scientology campaign that followed drew on the familiar playbook of the “noisy investigation.” Convinced that there was a conspiracy between Lilly, Time and WPP, the church used private investigators to personally target Lilly executives. Some executives received harassing phone calls at home and hoax calls at work, while advocates of psychiatric pharmaceuticals also reported sustained harassment. Jeffrey M. Jonas, the author of a book about Prozac, received at least six bogus calls a day for several weeks, while a mental health group received calls from people posing as reporters.
Two private investigators hired by the church, Paul Marrick and Greg Arnold, systematically spied on Mitch Daniels in a futile effort to find dirt on him. They staked out his home in Indianapolis, surveilled his domestic activities and monitored his visitors. “We saw him watching TV through his front window,” Arnold later said. “We watched his … daughters. They were young then. It was everyday living. Nothing came of the investigation.”
Time bore the brunt of the church’s assault. Scientology sued the magazine’s publisher, Time Warner, and Behar personally for $416 million in libel damages. It also sued Reader’s Digest in multiple countries, filing at least 20 lawsuits. At the same time, it launched a multi-million dollar advertising blitz, running an expensive series of full-page color adverts in USA Today to denounce Time. It also invested heavily in private investigators to target those involved with the article. In all, Scientology reportedly spent $25 million (about $48 million at 2020 prices) on its campaign against Time and Behar.
A church press release claimed darkly that “vested interests” – Scientology’s usual term for psychiatrists – “used their power to force Time to print their article on Scientology.” The church promoted a conspiracy theory that Lilly had instigated the Time article. As Miscavige put it in an interview a year later, “It was done at the behest of Eli Lilly. They were upset because of the damage we had caused to their killer drug Prozac. They set up that article. They used their advertising dollar to force it to run, and that’s the facts.”
Scientology produced 2.2 million copies of a 28-page publication called “The Story Time Couldn’t Tell,” which was inserted into Friday editions of USA Today. The church accused Time of being a “four-bit news magazine wield[ing] unabashed Nazi-style hate propaganda” and claimed to expose the “mafia-like tactics” of the “cabal behind this vitriolic attack.” It portrayed Time as having a history of supporting fascism, of being under the thumb of Eli Lilly and of being a puppet of psychiatry.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Rather than boosting Scientology’s case, however, the church’s denunciations came across as unhinged and only served to support Behar’s narrative. As H&K’s Robert Dilenschneider noted, it was bad PR tactics. “You make your case and step away,” he said. “Otherwise you run the risk of possibly reinforcing the initial negative image.”
Behar was closely surveilled by private investigators, prompting Time to hire its own PIs to tail Scientology’s. The Scientology PIs sought to obtain information about his health and finances from acquaintances and family members, and also posed as people trying to get friends or relatives out of Scientology in an apparent effort to link him to anti-cult groups. According to Marty Rathbun, an apartment was hired on Behar’s block to serve as a centre for the operations against him. His personal credit record was acquired under a pretext by a “sham company” linked to Scientology.
When Behar was given the prestigious Gerald Loeb Award for his work on the article, extra security had to be hired for the award ceremony to prevent it being disrupted by Scientologists or their PIs. Earle Cooley, the church’s lead attorney, justified the surveillance on the grounds that Behar “consistently has manifested hatred toward the church…. If you do not investigate a person who’s doing that to you, you’re derelict in your own duty”.
The church’s lawsuit against Time ultimately failed after ten years of litigation, but not before incurring at least $7 million in legal fees for the magazine (though much of Time Warner’s costs were covered by insurance). A parallel $40 million lawsuit against H&K and Eli Lilly was eventually settled in 1994. According to church insiders, Scientology was given a few million dollars as compensation for the termination of the H&K contract. In return, it agreed to cease attacking Eli Lilly and Prozac.
Scientology’s campaign had aimed to get Prozac removed from the marketplace, but it failed utterly. In 2001, Eli Lilly’s patent expired on the Prozac drug – fluoxetine hydrochloride – which now began to be made by generic pharmaceutical producers. Ironically, though, some of CCHR’s concerns have since been verified by medical researchers and fluoxetine is now subject to additional regulations and warnings over its usage.
In the meantime, Scientology has not only failed to end “psychiatric drugging” but has shrunk to a fraction of its 1991 size. For all the noise and controversy, its anti-Prozac campaign turned out to be little more than a bump in the road: the drug has become the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the world, despite all of Scientology’s efforts.
— Chris Owen
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Bonus items from our tipsters
Chicago is ramping up!
“I found out that it makes it tremendously easier to run the bank and that on a very few PCs you will be unable to run the bank unless you get an early engramic incident out of the road. And I also found out that if you can run the overt engram that relates to these GPMs just as an engram, that a fantastic amount of charge will come off the implants themselves, naturally, and therefore they run very much like hot butter. I had a little bulletin for you. Found a datum here you might be interested in. That particular outfit was down toward the center of this particular galaxy and was founded at 52 trillion, 863 billion, 10 million, 654 thousand, 79 years (52,863,010,654,079), and I can’t give you a much closer than that, because when place get founded is, more or less becomes part of their lies. But it was founded at that time, and it was destroyed on the date 38 trillion, 932 billion, 690 million, 862 thousand, 933 years ago (38,932,690,862,933), by the 79th wing of the 43rd battle squadron of the galactic fleet. It was not the, part of the galaxy. It was a wildcat activity sitting there. They used to drag Magellanic Clouds out of the center hub of the galaxy, let them follow the lines of force and just let them come over a system. Then when they got around to it, they’d send planes in with speakers, and so forth, and give the place the business. But the place very often was totally caved in for thousands of years by these Magellanic radioactive clouds which would just engulf the particular system. You got the idea? I just give you that in brief, just as a matter of interest, because these dates we’re getting are accurate. I have now compared them up the track and squared them around. These are the dates.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 16, 1963
——————–
“Logic (The Data Series) is written up to Data – 4 now. Occurred to me what if CIA’s multi-billion facts in computers were properly analyzed, WOW, what a different answer they’d get! I realized that as it is ‘analyzed’ they can only decide to go to war with everybody! And do. I can see a conference now at ‘high level.’ ‘What’s the situation on Hamfatia?’ ‘Threatening.’ ‘What’s the situation on Sphagettiville?’ ‘Threatening.’ ‘What’s the situation on the world?’ ‘Threatening.’ ‘Then it’s all threatening?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Good hit the war button!’ They didn’t notice the ‘Threatening’ button had gotten leaned on by the cleaning lady’s mop the night before. And that’s the way the world went. Point is, if one can’t analyze data he winds up hating everybody — as it’s just one big generality. We’re into real 3rd dynamic tech!” — The Commodore, May 16, 1970
——————–
“The R2-45 process is valid (as far as I understand) in the Sea Org. Governments have not forbidden it, why? Because life has the right to kill its enemies. Governments do that all the time. The peace you enjoy in society is due in part thanks to the people in governments who kill subversives, silently and without sorrow.”
——————–
2000: Battlefield Earth was released in the U.S. this week. From Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times: “‘Battlefield Earth’ is like taking a bus trip with someone who has needed a bath for a long time. It’s not merely bad; it’s unpleasant in a hostile way. The visuals are grubby and drab. The characters are unkempt and have rotten teeth. Breathing tubes hang from their noses like ropes of snot. The soundtrack sounds like the boom mike is being slammed against the inside of a 55-gallon drum. This movie is awful in so many different ways. Even the opening titles are cheesy. The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why. I watched it in mounting gloom, realizing I was witnessing something historic, a film that for decades to come will be the punch line of jokes about bad movies. There is a moment here when the Psychlos’ entire planet (home office and all) is blown to smithereens, without the slightest impact on any member of the audience (or, for that matter, the cast). If the film had been destroyed in a similar cataclysm, there might have been a standing ovation.”
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“I’m on drugs.”
——————–
Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Preliminary hearing set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Pretrial conference May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 18.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
——————–
SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] He was the drummer in a rock ‘n’ roll band: Eddie Stratton’s Scientology story
[TWO years ago] Beyond the quarantine: Signs that Scientology is getting involved in anti-vaxx panic
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s smear campaign against Mike Rinder takes a more disturbing turn than usual
[FOUR years ago] As Leah Remini’s next season approaches, Scientology posts more videos saying she’s rude
[FIVE years ago] Did L. Ron Hubbard believe his own rap? Here’s what he admitted about Scientology in 1952
[SIX years ago] Jon Atack: When the militant Scientologist falters, you find a cowering 12-year-old inside
[SEVEN years ago] Hiding L. Ron Hubbard’s control of Scientology in the 1980s
[EIGHT years ago] Scientology Now Has Until July 2 to Turn Over Evidence in Forced-Abortion Lawsuit
[NINE years ago] Scientology, “Disconnection,” and Homophobia: Derek Bloch’s Story
——————–
Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,303 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,807 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,327 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,347 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,238 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,545 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,413 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,187 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,517 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,991 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,307 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,873 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,792 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,960 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,541 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,802 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,840 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,553 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,078 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 433 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,608 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,159 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,308 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,628 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,483 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,602 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,958 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,261 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,367 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,769 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,641 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,224 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,719 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,973 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,082 days.
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 16, 2021 at 06:30
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
May 15, 2021
Trump wants credit for success of Covid vaccines, and Q patriots are not happy about it
Some links to Q-related items today…
Trump wants credit for the success of Covid vaccines, and Q patriots are not happy about it.
The insurrectionists can’t help themselves.
“Can’t be you”
“It’s me.”
New Hartford resident Eric Bochene arrested after appearing in viral Capitol photos alongside the QAnon Shaman. pic.twitter.com/bgv2Q3iahP
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) May 14, 2021
Now this is an interesting twist.
I had assumed that the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C. spiked room prices on March 4th in order to gouge QAnon followers.
But the hotel told the police that they raised prices as a "security tactic" in order to keep QAnon followers away. https://t.co/0II1OrJo3u pic.twitter.com/hp0lvqcJP5
— Travis View (@travis_view) May 14, 2021
Did MTG think she could live in two places at once?
Marjorie Taylor Greene filed homestead exemptions on 2 homes, violating Georgia state law https://t.co/OM3rfm1F5p
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 14, 2021
Curioser and curioser.
We can place Matt Gaetz in a hotel room snorting cocaine with an escort, according to two sources.
A source also says Joel Greenberg will testify that she’s one of 15+ women that Gaetz paid for sex.https://t.co/Gaffy2jibz
— Matt Fuller (@MEPFuller) May 14, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
————-
THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 15, 2021 at 8:15
Scientology chiropractor Eric Berg called out by son in viral TikTok video
Last night, a man named Ian Rafalko posted a TikTok video which has quickly blown up, with more than 90,000 likes by this morning.
Here’s what he says in it:
So after I make this video and it goes public my life will be over. That uh… my life’s been over for a while, so. I thought I might at least go out with a bang.
Some of you might know this guy. He has a few thousand videos on YouTube. He’s pretty popular at this point. He gives a lot of health advice. He’s a chirpractor, as you can see, so…
Not only is this man a Scientologist but he donates copious amounts. His profit margins are insane, they’re through the roof. So he’s donated probably around 7 plus million dollars to Scientology?
And every product of his that you buy, you donate to Scientology as well, because he has a separate savings account just for that.
He’s an incredibly selfish and void-of-empathy human being. And the reason I know is because he’s my fucking father.
Behind him, you can see an image of Dr. Eric Berg, a chiropractor and Scientology donor that we’ve mentioned here at the Bunker before.
This is Eric Berg, an OT 8, as he appeared in Scientology Impact magazine issue 156, which reported in 2017 that he had reached the “Silver Meritorious” level for donating $500,000 to the International Association of Scientologists, Scientology’s membership organization.
We’re attempting to reach Mr. Rafalko, and we definitely want to hear more about his relationship with his father and the fallout from this video.
——————–
Want a vaccine in LA? First dodge the Scientologists
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Jeffrey Augustine was out on the street yesterday after he realized that after some months of inactivity, Scientology “body routers” are back out in force.
He snapped some photos for us, and watched as Scientology recruiters pestered people who were on their way to Kaiser Permanente for vaccines.
“Instead of opening up their facilities for vaccinations, they are sending people out to disseminate to people coming to the medical center for vaccines,” Jeffrey says. “It’s offensive.”
——————–
Jon Atack’s latest
Says Jon: “Counselor Jessica Terwiel explains that insights often don’t lead to behavioral change. We need to look at our behaviors and change them, rather than hoping that understanding will automatically change how we behave. As she says, knowing why it rains won’t protect you, but an umbrella will.”
——————–
“As far as publicity is concerned the general public has been slammed around about Dianetics and they don’t know whether Dianetics is a cough drop or a new cult down in Arizona. Nobody really knows very much about it. Out in the general public they ask you if it is a cult, or if it is this or if it is that. I suddenly woke up to the fact that I was under-evaluating it. I was trying to tell people ‘Well, this is sort of a psychotherapy and it does this and that,’ rather apologetically. And I said to somebody bluntly the other day, ‘Why, Dianetics is the science of handling life; you know, handling life forces!’ They looked at me and blinked and I said, ‘Yes, you know, a fellow starts downhill and starts down toward death. Well, Dianetics picks him back up again.’ They went away in a trance! Actually, isn’t that what we are doing? The new theta-MEST theory makes that so apparent, and the results you get follow in so closely that, actually, we are doing just that.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 15, 1951
——————–
“US STATS HAVE JUST GONE OVER THE MILLION MARK!!! AOSHUK IS OVER $47,000!” — The Commodore, May 15, 1971
——————–
“The first goal when working with OMNI processing is to reach the OMNI state (to make contact with the original Statics). If there is no extension and contact, then further correct actions are impossible. We should get in contact with those 10*10^40 players who create this universe.”
——————–
1999: Hearings were held in Clearwater, Florida this week in the criminal case against Scientology in the death of Lisa McPherson in 1995. From the St. Petersburg Times: “At a pretrial hearing Thursday, defense attorney Morris Weinberg said charging a church with criminal conduct, the first time it has happened in Florida, raised serious constitutional issues. ‘We’re dealing with conduct that is protected conduct. We are dealing with a fundamental (Scientology) belief that mental problems are spiritual in nature and should be dealt with spiritually in a religious way,’ Weinberg told Pinellas Circuit Court Judge Susan Schaeffer. But Assistant State Attorney Douglas Crow called McPherson’s treatment ‘bizarre and disturbing’ and said she probably would not have died if she had been given proper medical treatment. ‘There is nothing in the tenets of Scientology that authorizes this kind of conduct without the consent of the person involved,’ Crow said.”
——————–
“Eva Gabor was awesome in Green Acres, which was one of the most underrated, surrealist shows of all time. It’s worthy of Lynch or Buñuel.”
——————–
Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Preliminary hearing set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 18.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
——————–
SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
——————–
THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Scientology’s center specializing in auditing your infant is back open in Florida!
[TWO years ago] John Travolta’s daughter makes her own Scientology splash at awards ceremony
[THREE years ago] Scientology files notice of appeal in time-wasting federal court attack on forced-abortion case
[FOUR years ago] DRONE FLYOVER: An even closer look at where Scientology is keeping Shelly Miscavige
[FIVE years ago] Scientology takes on the evil psychs at the APA, and more in our weekly social media review!
[SIX years ago] Las Vegas attorney Ryan Hamilton makes it 29 lawsuits against Scientology’s drug rehab
[SEVEN years ago] TIZIANO LUGLI: A new short film about Scientology and ‘slavery’
[EIGHT years ago] CALIFORNIA SUPREME COURT DENIES SCIENTOLOGY PETITION IN FORCED-ABORTION CASE
——————–
Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,302 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,806 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,326 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,346 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,237 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,544 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,412 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,186 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,516 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,990 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,306 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,872 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,791 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,959 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,540 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,801 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,839 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,552 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,077 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 432 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,607 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,158 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,307 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,627 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,482 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,601 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,957 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,260 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,366 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,768 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,640 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,223 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,718 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,972 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,081 days.
——————–
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 15, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
May 14, 2021
Q patriots still fighting the 2020 election don’t want to hear about Trump rallies for 2024
Some links to Q-related items today…
Patriots still fighting the 2020 election are not thrilled by the idea of Trump running for 2024.
Fucking magnets, how do they work?
The Arizona sinkhole.
No one could—or would—tell me how much the #ArizonaAudit will cost, so I did some calculations
And it looks like Cyber Ninjas will need ALL the millions being funnelled into the audit from conspiracy-loving millionaires like Patrick Byrne & Mike Lindell https://t.co/dDsOQYlgYJ
— David Gilbert (@daithaigilbert) May 13, 2021
Spooky.
Exclusive: A network of conservative activists, aided by a British former spy, mounted a campaign during the Trump administration to discredit perceived enemies of Donald Trump in government, according to documents and people involved in the operations. https://t.co/jntYHAflww
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 13, 2021
Sidney keeps the grift going.
The nonprofit of Sidney Powell, who previously denied knowing what QAnon was yet went on QAnon shows (where she was asked about "Q") & amplified QAnon influencers & claims from QAnon supporters in her election fraud lawsuits, will get part of the ticket sales from a QAnon event. https://t.co/EGewAfpbZi
— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) May 13, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 14, 2021 at 8:00
Why is Scientology desperate for a tiny plot in Clearwater? Let us draw you a picture.
This week five secret proposals for Clearwater downtown development were made public by the city, and Tracey McManus gave a summary of them at the Tampa Bay Times.
The city called for developers to pitch them on what to do with three plots of land that are each between 1.2 and 2.6 acres in size and make up key parts of the Imagine Clearwater redevelopment plan to revive downtown. Five developers submitted plans that involved one or all three parcels.
Two of the projects were selected as finalists, McManus reported, but all five will be presented to the city council.
We were most curious, of course, to see the Church of Scientology’s proposal, which once again is to offer way more money than the appraised value for one of the parcels, the smallest one at 1.23 acres along Pierce Street, which Scientology is offering $7.5 million for, even though it’s only assessed at $5.5 million.
If you remember, Scientology leader David Miscavige at one point offered to pay $15 million for that small plot of land to the previous owner, the Clearwater Aquarium, and we explained why the Aquarium was in no mood to sell to Scientology, even at that price. (Scientology had wrecked the Aquarium’s plans to develop the parcel, and then picked a fight with a dolphin.) Instead, the Aquarium spurned Miscavige and took the city’s offer of $4.25 million.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});Why is David Miscavige still so desperate to obtain that small piece of land that he’s still offering a couple of million more than its assessed value, and about three million more than his competitors?
We thought we’d show you the answer to that question in graphic form.
First, here’s the rendering of their plan for the Pierce Street parcel from finalist City Center Development…
And here’s the proposal from the other finalist, SROA Capital.
The city council will also consider this pitch from Elevate Clearwater…
Beginning to see the picture?
David Miscavige is making no proposal for the other two parcels, he just wants the Pierce Street location. Why? Because it’s right next to the Oak Cove hotel, which the church owns, and more importantly, across Osceola Avenue from the bungalows of the Fort Harrison Hotel.
The Fort Harrison is the holiest place in the Scientology universe, the center of its “mecca” of technical perfection. And the bungalows out back? In one of those, room 174, is where Lisa McPherson was held for the final 17 days of her life while undergoing quack mental health care spelled out by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.
As Mike Rinder has explained repeatedly, the last thing David Miscavige wants is a lot of non-Scientologists spending time and enjoying themselves just feet away from Scientology’s spiritual mecca, where wealthy church members from around the world fly in to be fleeced at the Fort Harrison Hotel, the Flag Building, the Sandcastle, and other Flag Land Base landmarks.
The less the outside world actually sees what’s going on at Flag, the better, and the thought of a hotel or brewpub or, hey, just look at that big walking plaza being proposed by SROA Capital, right across from the Fort Harrison bungalows, what a nightmare!
We’re glad to see that SROA project chosen as one of the finalists, and we look forward to the day that tourists can enjoy that spot, and from their hotel rooms or a restaurant patio look across the street, gawk at Scientology, and maybe even raise a glass to the memory of Lisa McPherson.
McManus reported that the city council members will be interviewing the two finalists, City Center Development and SROA Capital, on Monday.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
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“You ever been on the Pacific Ocean? You look an awful long distance on the Pacific Ocean and you’ll find space, you know. The speculative horizon is like that. It’s way out, man. Boy, I mean we’ve collided with data which is highly debatable as to whether it will be popular or unpopular. And I’m afraid I have to go along with the first foundation decision I made, back in 1950 when they had that board meeting and told me I wasn’t to research on any more past lives. I don’t think they ever did get that end of the building back together again. The bricks are still cracked. And I said, well, psychology and other activities in the field of the mind have always had a large eye on popularity. And they would actually throw away materials which didn’t agree with things. They’d throw away the things which didn’t agree. And that’s why they’ve not come up with any answers. They consult this thing of the popularity of a datum, the acceptability of a datum and have therefore compromised truth. So you either accept truth or popularity.” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 14, 1963
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“Smersh operates on false data and has not changed his Situation Analysis in a whole score of years and does not vary tactics to fit new situations. That is valuable information. A general who fought that way would be busy fighting the 151st Bavarian Light Infantry as they were deployed at Niems in 1870! Since then they’ve been disbanded, forgotten, and that trench has been empty for 80 years. Yet such a general would have his whole army concentrating on it! Viewing national governments through this developed logic tech applied to their data and their idea of the situation reveals them to be crazy. And gives one the reason for both war and failing societies. No wonder they end up shooting people.” — The Commodore, May 14, 1970
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“I’m not sure if LRH agrees with the CIA and IRS running Scientology after 1982. There was a takeover. That’s a turning point. That’s not real Scientology after 1982 and I no longer ‘felt’ LRH on lines after that. Of course I could grow my own food, but why be forced to grow food just because a fucking pack of R6 zombies don’t see the poison in their diet? And more, they follow R6 commands to lynch you if you happen to ‘open their eyes’ to see. Sorry, but it’s some three years now I can’t get my body clean of this fucking R6 zombie food. Nice you have your own RPF (mest work). You won’t be running to LA to climb the barbed wire at Hemet to pound on ‘The Hole’ to meet Heber to share some rice and beans.”
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1998: Downtown Clearwater, Florida is preparing for the construction of the Super Power building. From the St. Petersburg Times: “If the Church of Scientology builds its 300,000 square-foot building and 3,500-seat auditorium, as it says it will, the church will have accomplished something city leaders have so far failed to do: formulate, refine and execute a complex development plan. For that, even Scientology’s harshest critics would have to give grudging credit to the church. Can both sides — Scientology and the city — work together for the benefit of all downtown on parking and other issues that are sure to come up? To be a trusted partner in downtown planning, the church should do two things: open the veil of secrecy it wraps around all of its activities and stop its irresponsible attacks on police Chief Sid Klein. Scientology bashers, on the other hand, should admit two facts: the Church of Scientology is here to stay, and it is in the city’s best interest not to abandon downtown but to put money and effort into its redevelopment. The church says the new buildings will bring 3,000 to 5,000 parishioners a week to downtown Clearwater and double the staff size to 2,000. Even if those numbers are exaggerated, it is almost certain that more Scientologists would be coming to downtown. It is the beginning of a promising plan, and Clearwater residents should eagerly await details. The Scientology office/counseling building will take two years to complete, church officials say.”
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“The FDA could have busted Scientology a thousand times over for medical fraud if they simply sent in undercover agents wired for sound and vision to sign up for courses. Scientology registrars will promise any and all medical cures as long as you show them the money. The government is an ass.”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Preliminary hearing set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 18.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] A look inside a Scientology org as it prepares to reopen for the public
[TWO years ago] Why the quarantine is such a fail: Scientology ship was set up as an interrogation factory
[THREE years ago] Scientology’s reclusive ‘president,’ 82-year-old Heber Jentzsch, tells a niece he’s doing fine
[FOUR years ago] With its Mexico City project halted, Scientology fans out across town to promote its pablum
[FIVE years ago] Ron Miscavige shakes off Scientology smears, rockets to #1 in ebooks
[SIX years ago] Guest post: Five extreme examples of hypocrisy in Scientology’s ‘Freedom’ magazine
[SEVEN years ago] Falling death of a Russian Scientologist in Clearwater: The police investigation
[EIGHT years ago] How to Confront and Shatter Suppression, Scientology Style!
[NINE years ago] Lisa Marie Presley Removes All Mention of Scientology From Her Official Website
[THIRTEEN years ago] Jason Beghe to Scientology Mouthpiece Tommy Davis: ‘You’re Losing Your Soul’
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,301 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,805 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,325 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,345 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,236 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,543 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,411 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,185 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,515 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,989 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,305 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,871 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,790 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,958 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,539 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,800 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,838 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,551 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,076 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 431 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,606 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,157 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,306 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,626 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,481 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,600 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,956 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,259 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,365 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,767 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,639 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,222 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,717 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,971 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,080 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 14, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
May 13, 2021
He’s back and he’s angry: JFK Jr puts out press release about which Q channel he prefers
Some links to Q-related items today…
Libtards on the move is not the storm we were anticipating.
[image error]
It’s in the stars.
late last year, a QAnon astrology blog predicted that due to a Gemini sun in the 11th house, Trump would win the election and Democrats would be punished.
as typical of astrologers and right wing influencers this predictive failure seems to have not impacted their business much. pic.twitter.com/jx1yYzcb49
— allie mezei (@pinealdecalcify) May 12, 2021
He is risen!
Wow, Gander’s not wrong. CBKNEWS is a channel with about 110K subscribers, mostly notable because it’s gone full Mole Children this week.
HSretoucher is a famous JFK Junior truther.
Apparently they’ve combined forces to LARP *as* JFK Junior. Let’s see how this plays out, kids! https://t.co/nsc7GNlvGC
— The Q Origins Project (@QOrigins) May 12, 2021
An open letter.
New: My look at a bizarre open letter, signed by 124 retired generals & admirals, pushing lies abt 2020 election, among other pro-Trump talking points.
The letter, @mccauslj said, is an "example of the erosion of civil-military relations in America." https://t.co/4sa1tuaILH
— Christopher Mathias (@letsgomathias) May 12, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
————-
THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 13, 2021 at 8:20
Tom Cruise said he needed only an hour to sell Scientology: What would he do in that hour?
[image error]
[Tom Cruise and Judd Apatow]On Tuesday, we showed you a couple of pages from Seth Rogen’s new book which included a bizarre 2006 encounter with actor Tom Cruise. Among the strange things Cruise claimed, according to Rogen, was that he needed just an hour to convince Rogen and Judd Apatow that everything they thought they knew about Scientology was wrong.
We asked former Sea Org member Chris Shelton, what would Cruise have done if he’d been given that hour to sell Scientology to Rogen and Apatow? Here’s the fascinating response he sent us.
Tom Cruise is a “Standard Tech” nut so he would want to do it all by the book and follow Hubbard’s instructions to the letter. That means he needs to apply two different “dissemination” formulas Hubbard instructed all Scientologists to use to get new members in. These are the “fool proof” methods that will supposedly lure anyone in.
First there are the Presession Processes, which Hubbard introduced in 1960 as a tool to “get into session…a stranger who isn’t receiving well” and “a person antagonistic to Scientology.” There are four points that need to be checked over: Help, Control, Communication, and Interest. Hubbard called these the Deadly Quartet.
Advertisement(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});To start, he might say “Don’t you think people can be helped?” or some other question on the subject of Help which would try to get the person talking and open up about their ideas, disagreements, confusions, or past upsets on the subject of Help, whether it’s being helped, helping others, others helping others, etc. The goal is to get the person to admit that help is possible or real or that he or she could be helped.
Then Cruise might try to do something to check and handle Control, such as simply giving the person a command or direction and seeing how they handle it. This could be done subtly, without any real attention paid or without making it a big deal. If they bristle at being controlled or refuse to cooperate, they obviously have some problem with the subject of Control and that could be talked about or brought up. This isn’t about doing the “yell at the ashtray” with the person or forcing them to stand up and move their body around the room like in the TRs. It’s more lowkey, with the goal being to make sure the person is not wildly reactive whenever someone tries to control them.
Next is Communication and this would be addressed by simply asking the person how they feel about it. If Cruise knows the person has a button or problem in communicating, has trust issues or something like that, he might try to get them to open up or ask what it would take for them to be willing to communicate with other people. Light conversation on this point until the person concedes they might be willing to communicate with Cruise about things they wouldn’t normally talk to other people about.
Finally, the person should now be somewhat Interested in what Cruise has to say and he can then go into the second formula for dissemination, which also has four steps: Contact, Handle, Salvage, and Bring to Understanding.
Hopefully the Presessions didn’t take forever because these steps probably will.
Contact is easy as it’s just getting in touch with someone. Cruise would already have done this just by talking to the person.
The second step is Handle, which means to ferret out any bad data or rumors or “black PR” (Scientology for negative public relations), i.e. the truth, the person might have heard about Scientology, then show how each thing they heard was actually nonsense. This is where the “dead agent (DA) packs” come into play as the idea with critics is to show how they are liars and can’t be believed. Cruise believes that if he can show that Leah Remini, for example, is telling just one lie using his DA pack of OSA lies and nonsense about her, then Leah will no longer be a valid source of information to this person and they’ll reject her narrative about Scientology.
This Handle step can go in lots of different directions and is one of the most touchy parts of this because it’s where a Scientologist, even Cruise, opens themselves up to hear things about Scientology that are not favorable. But Cruise and other Scientologists only do this knowing that whatever the person says is going to be nonsense as far as they’re concerned, and Cruise won’t take any of it seriously. The thought-stopping clichés really kick in here, such as “Oh Leah, yeah, she’s just in it for the money” or “Forget anything that Rinder guy said — we kicked him OUT of the Church for a reason!” It’s cute that Scientologists think this kind of “handling” is really going to convince anyone to not listen to Leah or Mike or any of us critics, but they think Hubbard knows what he’s talking about so they’ll actually try this approach.
After Cruise has satisfied himself that the person is no longer affected by or thinking with the bad news about Scientology, he’d proceed to Salvage which is where he would try to find the person’s “ruin” — the thing the person believes is their biggest personal issue or problem. Cruise would ask questions like “So if you could change anything about yourself right now, what would it be?” or “Is there something you secretly hate about yourself but you don’t know how to ever change it?” or “What do you think is holding you back more than anything else?” There could be an infinite number of ways to find out, but Cruise won’t be shy at this point and he’ll be angling to get the person to give up whatever personal information Cruise wants to know. He’ll be looking for anything the person says that they feel strongly about and which they really don’t know how to handle, whether it’s shyness, introversion, can’t speak up for themselves, do bad things and don’t know why, etc. The beauty of Scientology is, whatever it is, Cruise will then proclaim: Scientology can help you with that.
And that’s the final step: Bring to Understanding, where Cruise would lay in hard on the person using the “ruin” they gave over and show them how Scientology has some course or some auditing service that will address that and make it go away forever. This is the point that he would really dive in for the close of the sale and not take any reason the person might give for not wanting to do a Scientology service.
If it didn’t seem to be going anywhere, Cruise might backtrack to the Salvage step and see if that “ruin” was actually the real deal or just something the person said. In order for this to work, the ruin has to be something the person is truly worried about and wants to change.
And those are the steps Cruise would want to do, at least if he were following Hubbard’s directions. It’s a bit ridiculous that he might try to get all that done in just one hour, so he might go for a more “impinging” talk with the person by going in on psych drugs and the conspiracy theories that Scientologists love to gab on about. Cruise has a real thing about psychiatry and I am quite sure he hasn’t changed any of his views since he ranted on the Today show all those years ago. If he thought he had a friendly audience for that, he’d go right back in again on how Big Pharma and psychiatry have it in for everyone, not just the Scientologists. But that approach is usually used more for recruiting staff than it is for making new Scientologists.
— Chris Shelton
“A special story I wrote was taken to the NY Times Reporter and she was very pleased. It was about the Marines and Corfu. Remember? We have to get the 19 crew members who wrote affidavits in this up to the US Embassy to get them notarized. They go to the US Congress and assist in the Life suit. (We have to get Life sued fast. The Sat Eve Post has gone out of business and Time-Life is fading. Like the Daily Mail, newspapers who attack us fail, strange coincidence.)” — L. Ron Hubbard, May 13, 1969
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“GROUP CONFESSION is group confession. It is done with the whole group present. It is not done divisionally and it is not done by unit. Try this and you’ll see it work. This is a team and not individuated.” — Lt. Cmdr. Diana Hubbard, CS 1, May 13, 1969
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“I tell myself if I had cancer I wouldn’t do their chemo but would try free people chemo: Chlorine DiOxide aka MMS and aka CDS. People report oxidation of cancer tumors and remission of that and many other ailments. It works fast so if you know what you are doing and do it right you could tell within days. No joke. You got nothing to lose! I know about it for years it is SAFE and is NOT bleach! Ask any chemistry student!”
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1997: Scientology’s Freedom magazine is calling for information on any misdeeds by executives of the St. Petersburg Times. The information will likely be used in future “dead agent” attacks against the paper. “Under Investigation: Readers with information about crimes or misconduct by executives at the ‘St. Petersburg Times’ should send full details in writing to ‘Freedom’, 503 Cleveland Street, Clearwater, FL 34616. This includes information regarding racial and gender bias or discrimination, sexual harassment, employee abuse or any violation of exisisting laws.”
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“I have seen the dark energy and dark matter. I have seen the other side of this universe, my hearing ability was magnified just before this happened. A thetan is capable of doing anything and can exist in the absence of MEST or in the dark form of it or in between. I am not sure if dark is the right word to use, however, this is magical indeed. Thank you Master LRH for your return. I wish I can express my gratitude for you in all the world alphabets, master, as you are the alpha (α) and omega (Ω).”
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Full Court Press: What we’re watching at the Underground Bunker
Criminal prosecutions:
— Danny Masterson charged for raping three women: Preliminary hearing set for May 18.
— Jay and Jeff Spina, Medicare fraud: Jay sentenced to 9 years in prison. Jeff’s sentencing to be scheduled.
— Hanan and Rizza Islam and other family members, Medi-Cal fraud: Trial scheduled for May 20 in Los Angeles
— David Gentile, GPB Capital, fraud: Next pretrial conference set for June 18.
Civil litigation:
— Luis and Rocio Garcia v. Scientology: Oral arguments were heard on July 30 at the Eleventh Circuit
— Valerie Haney v. Scientology: Forced to ‘religious arbitration.’ Petition for writ of mandate denied Oct 22 by Cal 2nd Appellate District. Petition for review by state supreme court denied Dec 11.
— Chrissie Bixler et al. v. Scientology and Danny Masterson: Dec 30, Judge Kleifield granted Scientology’s motions to compel arbitration. June 7: Status conference.
— Matt and Kathy Feschbach tax debt: Eleventh Circuit ruled on Sept 9 that Feshbachs can’t discharge IRS debt in bankruptcy. Dec 17: Feshbachs sign court judgment obliging them to pay entire $3.674 million tax debt, plus interest from Nov 19.
— Brian Statler Sr v. City of Inglewood: Second amended complaint filed, trial set for Nov 9, 2021.
— Author Steve Cannane defamation trial: Trial concluded, Cannane victorious, awarded court costs. Case appealed on Dec 24.
Concluded litigation:
— Dennis Nobbe, Medicare fraud, PPP loan fraud: Charged July 29. Bond revoked Sep 14. Nobbe dead, Sep 14.
— Jane Doe v. Scientology (in Miami): Jane Doe dismissed the lawsuit on May 15 after the Clearwater Police dropped their criminal investigation of her allegations.
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SCIENTOLOGY BLACK OPS: Tom Cruise and dirty tricks
The Australian Seven News network cancelled a 10-part investigation of Scientology and its history of dirty tricks. Read the transcripts of the episodes and judge for yourself why Tom Cruise and Tommy Davis might not have wanted viewers to see this hard-hitting series by journalist Bryan Seymour.
After the success of their double-Emmy-winning, three-season A&E series ‘Scientology and the Aftermath,’ Leah Remini and Mike Rinder continue the conversation on their podcast, ‘Scientology: Fair Game.’ We’ve created a landing page where you can hear all of the episodes so far.
LEAH REMINI: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE AFTERMATH
An episode-by-episode guide to Leah Remini’s three-season, double-Emmy winning series that changed everything for Scientology watching. Originally aired from 2016 to 2019 on the A&E network, and now on Netflix.
SCIENTOLOGY’S CELEBRITIES, from A to Z
Find your favorite Hubbardite celeb at this index page — or suggest someone to add to the list!
Other links: Scientology’s Ideal Orgs, from one end of the planet to the other. Scientology’s sneaky front groups, spreading the good news about L. Ron Hubbard while pretending to benefit society. Scientology Lit: Books reviewed or excerpted in a weekly series. How many have you read?
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THE WHOLE TRACK
[ONE year ago] Scientology trying to sell Irish reporters on the idea that interest is booming there
[TWO years ago] Scientology admits it’s selling ‘magic’ at its Florida spiritual mecca
[THREE years ago] We have the detailed specs for your dream job: Public Relations officer in Scientology
[FOUR years ago] Scientology’s casting calls get nuttier all the time. Who would you hire to fill them?
[FIVE years ago] Document leak: How Scientology freaked out over losing Lori Hodgson and her mom
[SIX years ago] Hand out L. Ron Hubbard literature and score a date with a Scientology sweetheart!
[SEVEN years ago] DOX: The appeal to restore the class-action lawsuit against Scientology’s rehab network
[EIGHT years ago] Will Scientology’s Motion Demolish the Garcias’ Federal Fraud Lawsuit?
[NINE years ago] Lisa Marie Presley Says “So Long” to Scientology
[TEN years ago] Scientology Thunderdome: Commenters of the Week!
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Bernie Headley (1952-2019) did not see his daughter Stephanie in his final 5,667 days.
Valerie Haney has not seen her mother Lynne in 2,300 days.
Katrina Reyes has not seen her mother Yelena in 2,804 days
Sylvia Wagner DeWall has not seen her brother Randy in 2,324 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his grandson Leo in 1,344 days.
Geoff Levin has not seen his son Collin and daughter Savannah in 1,235 days.
Christie Collbran has not seen her mother Liz King in 4,542 days.
Clarissa Adams has not seen her parents Walter and Irmin Huber in 2,410 days.
Carol Nyburg has not seen her daughter Nancy in 3,184 days.
Doug Kramer has not seen his parents Linda and Norm in 1,514 days.
Jamie Sorrentini Lugli has not seen her father Irving in 3,988 days.
Quailynn McDaniel has not seen her brother Sean in 3,304 days.
Dylan Gill has not seen his father Russell in 11,870 days.
Melissa Paris has not seen her father Jean-Francois in 7,789 days.
Valeska Paris has not seen her brother Raphael in 3,957 days.
Mirriam Francis has not seen her brother Ben in 3,538 days.
Claudio and Renata Lugli have not seen their son Flavio in 3,799 days.
Sara Goldberg has not seen her daughter Ashley in 2,837 days.
Lori Hodgson has not seen her son Jeremy and daughter Jessica in 2,550 days.
Marie Bilheimer has not seen her mother June in 2,075 days.
Julian Wain has not seen his brother Joseph or mother Susan in 430 days.
Charley Updegrove has not seen his son Toby in 1,605 days.
Joe Reaiche has not seen his daughter Alanna Masterson in 6,156 days
Derek Bloch has not seen his father Darren in 3,305 days.
Cindy Plahuta has not seen her daughter Kara in 3,625 days.
Roger Weller has not seen his daughter Alyssa in 8,480 days.
Claire Headley has not seen her mother Gen in 3,599 days.
Ramana Dienes-Browning has not seen her mother Jancis in 1,955 days.
Mike Rinder has not seen his son Benjamin and daughter Taryn in 6,258 days.
Brian Sheen has not seen his daughter Spring in 2,364 days.
Skip Young has not seen his daughters Megan and Alexis in 2,766 days.
Mary Kahn has not seen her son Sammy in 2,638 days.
Lois Reisdorf has not seen her son Craig in 2,221 days.
Phil and Willie Jones have not seen their son Mike and daughter Emily in 2,716 days.
Mary Jane Barry has not seen her daughter Samantha in 2,970 days.
Kate Bornstein has not seen her daughter Jessica in 14,079 days.
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Posted by Tony Ortega on May 13, 2021 at 07:00
E-mail tips to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We also post updates at our Facebook author page. After every new story we send out an alert to our e-mail list and our FB page.
Our new book with Paulette Cooper, Battlefield Scientology: Exposing L. Ron Hubbard’s dangerous ‘religion’ is now on sale at Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats. Our book about Paulette, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely: How the Church of Scientology tried to destroy Paulette Cooper, is on sale at Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions. We’ve posted photographs of Paulette and scenes from her life at a separate location. Reader Sookie put together a complete index. More information can also be found at the book’s dedicated page.
The Best of the Underground Bunker, 1995-2020 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Underground Bunker (2012-2020), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)
Other links: BLOGGING DIANETICS: Reading Scientology’s founding text cover to cover | UP THE BRIDGE: Claire Headley and Bruce Hines train us as Scientologists | GETTING OUR ETHICS IN: Jefferson Hawkins explains Scientology’s system of justice | SCIENTOLOGY MYTHBUSTING: Historian Jon Atack discusses key Scientology concepts | Shelly Miscavige, 15 years gone | The Lisa McPherson story told in real time | The Cathriona White stories | The Leah Remini ‘Knowledge Reports’ | Hear audio of a Scientology excommunication | Scientology’s little day care of horrors | Whatever happened to Steve Fishman? | Felony charges for Scientology’s drug rehab scam | Why Scientology digs bomb-proof vaults in the desert | PZ Myers reads L. Ron Hubbard’s “A History of Man” | Scientology’s Master Spies | The mystery of the richest Scientologist and his wayward sons | Scientology’s shocking mistreatment of the mentally ill | The Underground Bunker’s Official Theme Song | The Underground Bunker FAQ
Watch our short videos that explain Scientology’s controversies in three minutes or less…
Check your whale level at our dedicated page for status updates, or join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.
Our non-Scientology stories: Robert Burnham Jr., the man who inscribed the universe | Notorious alt-right inspiration Kevin MacDonald and his theories about Jewish DNA | The selling of the “Phoenix Lights” | Astronomer Harlow Shapley‘s FBI file | Sex, spies, and local TV news | Battling Babe-Hounds: Ross Jeffries v. R. Don Steele
May 12, 2021
While Q patriots struggle to keep their families together, the grift must go on
Some links to Q-related items today…
Let’s reflect on the heady days of 2018, when Q urged everyone to prepare for the coming storm. How’s everyone doing now?
OK, so people are suffering. But the grift must go on!
More grift for the mill.
My latest for @dailydot: It's gematria meets "The Secret" as we look at the viral trend of using "Grabovoy numbers" to manifest health and wealth. https://t.co/8eVtQ5ORZX
— Mike Rothschild (@rothschildmd) May 11, 2021
Arizona energizes.
Joe M, one of the biggest and most extreme QAnon influencers, is back after nearly four months of silence, reinvigorated by the Arizona ballot recount.
Joe M's last post before "going dark" was on Inauguration Day, when he raged about a radical communist takeover of the US. pic.twitter.com/IrMmK9sqys
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) May 11, 2021
The Q-antivaxx axis exposed.
New from me: Multiple anti-vax influencers in recent months have been going on QAnon shows, where they have spread misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. https://t.co/yogvCeMr7L
— Alex Kaplan (@AlKapDC) May 11, 2021
Not good.
Actually, Facebook-owned Instagram is (still!) *promoting* anti-vax content.
These two accounts only have a couple hundred followers each, yet they’re ranked among the top search results for “vaccines.” https://t.co/VXpAFJ3zVw pic.twitter.com/AEt03ofBLr
— Jesselyn Cook (@JessReports) May 11, 2021
Looking for some background on the QAnon movement? We recommend Travis View’s excellent recent article at New York magazine as a place to start.
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THE LOWDOWN is our blog for news, the QAnon phenomenon, and other subjects not related to our coverage of the Church of Scientology. If it’s our Scientology coverage you’re looking for, please use this bookmark for our latest stories.
Posted by Tony Ortega on May 12, 2021 at 8:00
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