Scientology never gives up. We have pointed this out to you countless times, and now more than ever we can demonstrate how true it is.

Sure, the press for Scientology is as miserable as ever, and we see plenty of signs that the organization is still shrinking, is having [...]]]>

Scientology never gives up. We have pointed this out to you countless times, and now more than ever we can demonstrate how true it is.

Sure, the press for Scientology is as miserable as ever, and we see plenty of signs that the organization is still shrinking, is having staffing problems, and is getting a good look from various government investigating agencies during what has turned out to be quite a long lull between Leah Remini’s season two and three.

Leah’s looming new set of episodes apparently begins with a special on Jehovah’s Witnesses on November 13, but if that should give Miscavige pause, he isn’t letting it slow him down.

We’re barely keeping up with all of his launches and premieres and events, so imagine how his put-upon followers must feel as they try to figure out which direction they need to do their latest bowing and scraping and writing of checks.

Tonight, specifically, they’ll all be expected to be glued to their televisions and other devices — or better yet, to be in attendance for watch parties — for the premiere of Scientology TV’s new fall “season” as Miscavige rolls out another set of propaganda programs to put on repeat 24 hours a day…

 
As you can see from sneak peeks of the upcoming new shows, it’s the same slick and frenetic stuff that Miscavige has paid top dollar for over the last decade or so, but from what we can tell, the public at large has no use for it.

DirecTV isn’t talking about how many people are tuning into Scientology TV, but there are still signs that it isn’t catching on as Miscavige might have hoped, despite the huge amounts of cash he’s pouring into it.

When we want to take a peek at what’s airing, we check in at Scientology.tv, where you can pretty easily scan the current schedule without having to actually, you know, watch any of it. Admittedly, Scientology.tv is only one way of many that viewers can tune into Miscavige’s hype, but we find it interesting that after an initial spike in viewership — purely out of curiosity after a huge and expensive advertising campaign — traffic to Scientology.tv pretty quickly settled back into a negligible stream…

That’s an Alexa graph, and it’s not a measure of direct traffic — it measures rank against other websites — but it does suggest pretty strongly what sort of neighborhood Dave’s enterprise is in. It’s showing a current ranking for Scientology.tv as the 217,043rd most visited website in the United States.

To give you some idea, the website you’re currently reading is around the 27,000th most visited, and that’s in the middle of a valley we’re experiencing between Leah Remini seasons and heavy competition from the lovely political reality show we’re living in. (Scientology.org, the church’s main website, is around 50,000th most visited, lagging well behind us.)

Still, Dave is doing his best to pretend that Scientology TV is a thing, and his latest brainstorm is to rope in some new shills, like he does at Ideal Org grand openings or those prominent science fiction writers who act as judges in his Writers of the Future contest.

In this case, we’re talking about Scientology TV’s new “Documentary Showcase” that will feature independent (read, “desperate”) filmmakers who can’t get their movies shown elsewhere.

The first documentary to be featured airs on Friday, and it’s a 2014 film about remarkable women titled The Empowerment Project, made by director Sarah Moshman.

Several days ago, we emailed Moshman to ask her why in the world she would want her movie shown on Scientology TV — is she a Scientologist?

She hasn’t responded, but as reader ISN showed last night in the comments, Moshman has appeared in a preview of her film specifically for Scientology, without using the word “Scientology” itself…

 
“You can watch it here on Documentary Showcase,” she says sunnily, and we hope she understands the notoriety that comes with being such a prominent shill for Miscavige. Maybe Leah Remini will fill her in on that at some point.

Sigh.

As we said, this is something of a moment for Miscavige. Not only is his TV network having its big new season premiere tonight, but this weekend was the biggest three-day shindig of the year, with the annual IAS hoopla going on in East Grinstead, England.

 
On Friday night, Miscavige appeared under the big tent they set up for this annual shitshow, and he droned through another two-hour stemwinder about what a great year it’s been before handing out new Freedom Medals. Saturday night, it was the Patron’s Ball, and Miscavige gave out gaudy new trophies to the whales — we’ll find out who took home the hardware in a new issue of Impact magazine that will show up in a few months. Some glimpses of the proceedings have been showing up already, but no sign yet whether Tom Cruise made the scene with his bigass medal, as he does some years.

We did find it interesting that a couple of brothers from the Mexico City Agami clan, Ari and Daniel, seen here with Hungarian actress, Timea Vojtilla, received Freedom Medals Friday night…

The Agami brothers run a Scientology-based education program in Mexico, Intelligens, but we can’t help wondering if reader Intergalactic Walrus is right that their selection had something to do with the Agami family building Tom Cruise’s new condo building in Clearwater.

Also this weekend, photos finally showed up at Scientology’s website of something that happened nearly a month ago in Germany.

For some time now, Miscavige has been doing what he can to keep his Ideal Org grand openings secret from outside observers. (We can’t help wondering if it has something to do with this coup scored by a few of our enterprising readers, who managed to stake out a spot to film Miscavige during the grand opening for the Atlanta Ideal Org in 2016.)

That secrecy has reached such a level, last month Miscavige held a grand opening in Stuttgart, Germany and not only successfully kept any word of it from leaking ahead of time, he didn’t even post any evidence of it for almost a month at the Scientology.org website, which is unprecedented.

But now we can see that it was a pretty standard opening, with Miscavige himself officiating, along with the usual local shills…

Actual Scientology caption: “MR. DAVID MISCAVIGE WITH (LEFT TO RIGHT): Alexander Petz, Human Rights Attorney; Dr. Elke Preusser-Franke, President of the Jewish Women’s Association of Germany; Mr. Samir El Midani, Advisor to the Stuttgart Interfaith Center; and Ms. Jirina Hlasivcova, youth drug education counselor, Center for Drug Prevention and Therapy.”

Scientology continues to shrink, but somehow its leader is getting taller, judging by this photograph — how do they find such short shills in a place like Stuttgart?

Miscavige may not be a tall man, but he sure has been busy, you have to give him that.

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrities and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise Danny Masterson, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter, Alanna Masterson, Billy Sheehan, Judy Norton-Taylor, and Terry Jastrow. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; Bogotá, Colombia; Budapest, Hungary; Phoenix, Arizona; London, England; Orange County, California; Atlanta, Georgia; and Auckland, New Zealand.

Today it’s Eddie Deezen and Miami, Florida!

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 8, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

Rod Keller has a couple of different dispatches from correspondents for us this week…

There are many demands on a Scientologist’s time, even those that are not on staff at an org or mission. They need to come in for processing and training, there are big events such as this week’s IAS Anniversary in [...]]]>

Rod Keller has a couple of different dispatches from correspondents for us this week…

There are many demands on a Scientologist’s time, even those that are not on staff at an org or mission. They need to come in for processing and training, there are big events such as this week’s IAS Anniversary in England, but also smaller events such as fundraisers or when representatives of the Freewinds or Flag Land Base come to visit. Far down the list are the “fourth dynamic” events involving information tents or protests against psychiatry. They vary in size and we have firsthand reports on two of them.

 
M.C. Mayo noticed this flyer for a planned protest in Toronto and reports from the scene.

Suppose Scientology gave a protest and nobody came.

This week the 68th annual conference of the Canadian Psychiatric Association was held at a Toronto waterfront hotel and conference centre. CCHR put a call out to the troops to meet at 10 am. The “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” van pulled up and a few people milled about. We figured there’d by a busload of Sea Orgers from the Guelph and Cambridge offices, but no. There were 10 people at most. They pulled on some special T-shirts, posed for pictures beside the van with their signs, then handed out little cards to the few passersby. One pedestrian tossed the card on the ground and Denis Simard bent over to retrieve it.

 

 
The protest signs were never used. The throngs of Scientologists never showed. Three middle-aged men handed out their little cards for an hour or so over at the ferry docks and had their photographer capture it for posterity. They went over to use the bathroom at Starbucks in the Toronto Star building and gave some little cards to the barista, who later told me that no, they weren’t to be handed out to customers.

 

 
There was a group of officers on bikes from the Toronto Police Community Response Unit at the meeting place at the corner of Yonge & Queens Quay. We assumed that it had been arranged by CCHR, but found later that they had no permit, and hadn’t alerted the police of their plan. Area businesses heard of the planned protest through social media, and had hired extra security and Toronto Police duty officers just in case.

We received a tip that the London org was planning a Scientology Volunteer Ministers event in Romford with the Scientology swing band Jive Aces and asked Mark Parry-Maddocks to pay a visit for this report.

The VM tent was tucked right away at the end of the main drag in Romford, a market-town just beyond the eastern edge of London. There were six or seven volunteers – a couple handing out leaflets while the rest lurked inside the tent. None of them seemed genuinely bursting to pass the Scientology gospel on to the few passers-by, and as there was no sign of the Jive Aces. I had a look at the book-table, which had a small selection of their “how-to” booklets and one copy of the big hardback Scientology Handbook from which they’re extracted, as well as flyers for the IAS gala charity concert. A pleasant if rather vague girl VM in her twenties with a slight French accent said the booklets were £5 each, the Handbook £75.

 

 
“Or would you like an Assist? that’s free” she asked, before making the oxymoronic statement that touch assists don’t work on the body but the nerves. When I said I had an aching back, she invited me to remove my shoes and coat and lie down on one of the two massage-tables provided, and then announced “I’m now starting the Assist.” I can’t say the Assist was very relaxing, as it involved a fairly firm massage of the spine, sides, and shoulders with much turning face-up and face-down.

I was just taking a final look round when a lively West Indian lady VM I hadn’t spotted before called me over, not realising I’d already had my Assist. She was full of effusive praise for LRH, and asked if I’d ever read Dianetics. She started extolling the virtues of the Scientology Handbook and boasted that she had sent a presentation copy of it to the prime minister of her Caribbean homeland, and that this was all part of her mission as a newly-promoted “New Civilization Officer” at the London Org.

I almost forgot to ask about the Jive Aces before I left but a third VM claimed they had indeed put in a brief appearance earlier on. Where? There was not enough space for even a small stage that I could see. They had to dash because they’d only stopped off in Romford en route from London to Saint Hill, where they would be rehearsing for the IAS gala.

 
Having a well-attended street event seems to require two ingredients – a large number of local Scientologists and a celebrity. Last Saturday when Scientologist rapper Chill EB came to Mexico City for a CCHR protest at the International Congress of Psychology meeting Scientology delivered the numbers with at least 100 attendees. Scientology is growing in Mexico, unlike in Toronto and London.

 
Scientologists held signs blaming psychiatry for the suicide deaths of TV chef Anthony Bourdain, Cranberries singer Dolores O’Riordan and Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington.

 
How many Scientologists can we expect to attend the upcoming CCHR protest in Orlando? They have a large number of locals, with Tampa and Clearwater both within driving distance to support this recently opened Ideal Org. If they bring in a celebrity this could be a large protest. We’ll let you know how this event turns out.

 
— Rod Keller

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrities and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise Danny Masterson, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter, Alanna Masterson, Billy Sheehan, and Judy Norton-Taylor. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; Bogotá, Colombia; Budapest, Hungary; Phoenix, Arizona; London, England; Orange County, California; and Atlanta, Georgia.

Today it’s Terry Jastrow and Auckland, New Zealand!

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 7, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

This week in our Scientology book series, we have a bonus for you — not one, but two excerpts from Péter Bonyai’s book about his life in the Sea Org, Money, Power, Servitude: Adventures in the Wonderland of Scientology. In the first, he gives us a glimpse about what [...]]]>

This week in our Scientology book series, we have a bonus for you — not one, but two excerpts from Péter Bonyai’s book about his life in the Sea Org, Money, Power, Servitude: Adventures in the Wonderland of Scientology. In the first, he gives us a glimpse about what it’s like to be the target of Scientology’s secret police, OSA. And in the second, he has some great insights about the start of the ‘Ideal Org’ program, the special obsession of Scientology leader David Miscavige…

 
Three Church security guards were waiting for me at the airport. They escorted me to a car and I was brought directly to the European OSA office. Two female Sea Org officers were awaiting me.

They introduced themselves as Wahida Hickey, investigations director of OSA Europe and Natália Nemes (a young Hungarian lady of my age), who was the senior investigations and reports officer for Scientology in Europe. I knew I was in bigger trouble than I had expected. The presence of these two senior executives confirmed this was not just a misunderstood situation to clear up.

They told me briefly that I was considered to be a covert informant, sent by the National Security Office of Hungary. Wahida added that the game was over as a Scientologist had recognized me as one of the students of Dr. András Veér, the No.1. enemy of Scientology in Hungary. According to their theory, Dr. Veér had joined forces with the National Security Office and they sent in one of his best students (i.e. me) to spy on the church. In their view, the “destructive actions” I supposedly committed on the translations mission and my “suspicious behavior” (I was caught a few times reading communications addressed to other people, when my curiosity got the better of me) confirmed the accusation.

Therefore they were conducting a full and thorough investigation. At this point Natália took over. She called in a security guard (a young Hungarian named József ) and informed me that from now on, József would escort me everywhere and I would be under 24-hour watch until all my security checks and interrogations were complete. Also, we were to move in together in a separate room in one of the crew berthing buildings. I was forbidden to go anywhere alone; a security guard had to accompany me wherever I went. Note: security personnel had additional duties in the Church, not just the safeguarding of assets and personnel. They were also supposed to watch whether crew members were working hard and send back to work anyone they found loafing or taking unauthorized breaks. If someone slept in, it was security that sent a guard to get him out of the bed and drag him into work.

Natália also told me that I would receive a very long, e-metered Security Check called the “Germany Sec Check.” It was originally developed for Germany, where infiltration attempts by their national security agency were supposedly common. A specialist was flown in from Germany – a man trained by Miscavige’s direct underlings to conduct such special interrogations. The questions were not limited to suspected espionage activities – I had to confess every harmful act or transgression that sprang to mind during the sessions, even if these had nothing to do with the main line of questioning. Priest-penitent privilege did not apply, so they could use anything I said against me. Finally, the sessions were videotaped.

I was also told that the whole procedure might take several months because a) my auditor had other suspects to interrogate, so he had maximum 2-3 hours per day for me; b) all questions had to be fully cleared, i.e. the auditor asks the question repeatedly and extracts every associated harmful act of commission or omission until the question fails to produce any reaction on the E-meter; and c) the so-called Case Supervisor reviews the notes and worksheets of the auditor each night and if he made a mistake, then he had to restudy and/or drill certain procedures. In other words, they really wanted to make sure that nothing was missed.

Natália left the worst for last: as I was officially a suspicious individual who had caused a lot of problems for the Church and because they were being forced to provide food and shelter for such scum, I had to work in exchange for their generosity. For such untrustworthy lowlifes, heavy manual labor was the only option. The security guards were the appointed taskmasters and they were always briefed what I should do next.

The first major task was the construction of the new security office, scheduled to begin in the next three to four days. I had a fleeting thought that it was like forcing the inmates to build a new prison, but I dispelled this ill-intentioned idea from my mind at once.

It was already late, so József escorted me to our room. I already accepted the fact that I was now, in Scientology terms, an ethics/security particle [in Scientology, everything is considered a “particle” that travels on communication lines (including people) – Peter Bonyai], so I had no illusions regarding the quality of the berthing space I was being assigned. When I first entered the room, I knew instantly that I was considered a very dangerous operative. It was likely the worst room in the worst of the Sea Org hotels. The room was clearly targeted for renovation. All the plaster had been removed and the resultant debris was lying all over the floor, along with and a bag of cement, a bucket of paint etc. The solitary light source was a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The room was otherwise empty. József brought me to the attic to look for mattresses. We found two mouse-chewed mattresses and two sleeping bags, which were probably World War II vintage (or perhaps earlier). It was better than sleeping directly on the floor. Then I learnt the bathroom/shower usage rules for people like me. When I used the bathroom or shower, József waited outside until I finished; when he had to use the facilities, he called another guard to watch me until he was done.

So, I cleaned up the room a bit and prepared my mattress and sleeping bag. It turned out József had special nighttime orders: he had to place his mattress right in front of the door, then lock it and place the key carefully under his mattress.

I gave some thought to this whole new situation I found myself in. I was still a true believer, so I reluctantly accepted my fate and decided to fully cooperate.I thought that I now had a chance to fully clear my name and I would not have any barriers later to progress on the Bridge and achieving total spiritual freedom. I did not want to lose this opportunity, thus I had no other option.

 
The Buffalo Project

In July 2004, Miscavige found the underlying Why for all of our problems. It was now the second time he has done that – the first was the “Golden Age of Tech” in 1996, which according to the promises at the time should have solved the majority of our problems by then. European management sent two people, who showed us a video of a three-hour briefing that Miscavige had given aboard the Freewinds to OT VIIIs gathered from around the world.

We also received the transcription of the briefing for translation. Accidentally, Golden Era Productions sent the unedited version of the speech at first, which they hastily corrected by sending an “approved” transcript. My curiosity got the better of me, so I secretly copied both files and compared the two versions in my office. I found out that he had his speech censored. Two sentences were cut from the final version.

The first was a complaint about an org building where “pimps and prostitutes” were around and “people were fornicating” in its vicinity. The second was about Buffalo Org, and he made a remark that “he was sick of only hearing bad news from there.” It was not hard to guess why these were removed. His use of the word “pimp” was probably an image-related problem, and he did not want to confirm to staff members that there were indeed certain orgs in the world which were not doing well. I also suspected that the first version we received had already been edited once.

The briefing itself was centered on two new major international campaigns. The first was the “ideal org” campaign. Every org in the world (there were still around 150) was supposed to purchase a large (at least 3,000 square meters in size) building in a good location. The money was to be collected from local Scientologists by fundraising. He mentioned that a few locations of strategic importance (Washington D.C., London, Berlin etc.) would be financed centrally, but every other org had to solve this problem on its own. Budapest was not considered important, so we had to gather the full sum locally.

His explanation was simple. First, he told us what we already knew deep down – though Scientology did go through a great deal of expansion since L. Ron Hubbard had founded it, in terms of planetary Clearing, “we barely scratched the surface.” His “Ideal Org Program” was created to resolve this – he wanted huge org buildings in each major city in the world, and their effect on society would kickstart the creation of a new civilization and ultimately, a Cleared planet.

The second big announcement was the impending re-release of the fully “on-Source” versions of all the 18 Hubbard books on Dianetics and Scientology (called “Basics” in Scientologese), and the Congresses Hubbard had conducted for Scientologists (which we were already translating). Miscavige wanted all these materials released in one month. (Note: the Congresses were published in October, and the Basics were released two years later.)

We were required to watch the briefing three times, so we would not miss anything. A day or two later, the implementation order from Walter arrived – we had to restart fundraising for the building with a bang, and we had to find a building, get the money together and purchase it this year, and it had to be fully renovated and opened by 13th March, 2005. Additionally, we had to get as many dignitaries and celebrities to the grand opening as possible, and we were to convince the Mayor of Budapest to be one of the speakers and say a few good words about Scientology.

We also got instructions on how to proceed with fundraising. The write-up was primarily based on the experiences of a successfully completed building acquisition project in Buffalo. The key point was the recruitment of a head for the project. According to the write-up, it had to be one of the wealthiest local Scientologists (the richest one if possible). We were to convince the targeted person by telling him that taking responsibility for this project was totally in full adherence with the writings of L. Ron Hubbard (the self-appointed “Source” of Scientology) or written or authorized exclusively by him his best interests, as this way he could make sure that he would not be the only one making big donations. Also, the more he collected from others, the less he would have to donate himself.

There was also an ulterior motive – this prospective fundraising in-charge would have do a lot of convincing about the importance of donating for the purchase of the building, so he would also inadvertently convince himself to give much more than he originally planned. Somewhat surprisingly, the Church turned to an external source for the “technology” of fundraising. As part of our crash training to be fundraisers, we had to read a book called “Asking: A 59-Minute Guide to Everything Board Members, Volunteers, and Staff Must Know to Secure the Gift” by a top American fundraiser named Jerold Panas. According to the write-up, the most important rule in that book was the following: 90% of the donations come from 10% of the donors. So, the idea that we would need a large base of donors for a big project was false – which essentially meant that we were trying to do it the wrong way. Ganging up on the whales was preferred to getting everyone involved and contributing.

These short instructions were accompanied by an order – we were to fire a mission which would collect the money needed (around 2.5 million USD), find a suitable building and purchase it for the Church. It was not hard to guess who would get the job. I was not too happy about it, though. I knew the financial situation of most of the Hungarian Scientologists pretty well. It was not impossible to collect that much money, but a select few would have to make extraordinary sacrifices in order to make it happen. Additionally, these people were already contacted and “regged” numerous times for the building and had already given a lot of money.

There was one solution, though – mercilessly invading the privacy of the wealthiest people and ruthless and consistent use of high pressure tactics and manipulation techniques. I simply did not feel that I could do this for a prolonged time. There was always a line in fundraising I never had the inner strength to cross – when I felt that pressuring the subject further would cause too much distress or hardship for that individual. I think despite the conditioning I got in Scientology and its utilitarian ethics, I was still too empathetic to completely ignore other’s feelings. I knew this “blind spot” would be my downfall, but as a good Sea Org member I had no choice but to accept the mission. I felt it was my duty, and I had to put my personal feelings aside.

As a part of the briefing and preparation process, I have finished reading the book by Jerold Panas. In the previous eight years 100% of the materials I studied for training purposes was either written by Hubbard or directly recommended by him, so it was a strange feeling to read a book from a “wog” author.

Hubbard dedicated a separate policy letter to “false data” and the dangers associated with it. He even devised a procedure called “false data stripping” to nullify the effect so-called “false data” (i.e. anything that was not in alignment with Hubbard’s writings). So, as a good Scientologist, I tried to steer clear of “wog” textbooks to avoid any contact with all that dangerous false data floating around in society.

The Asking book was really good though. Unlike the writings of Hubbard, it was easy to understand, was not full of supposedly funny anecdotes which had nothing to do with the subject matter and it contained rather useful information.

As I already had some experience with fundraising, I could relate it to the contents of the book. I was in a bit better mood after reading it, but the goal still looked very distant and very hard to attain. I secretly hoped that Miscavige would present this plan to the general Scientology public in one of the upcoming events and sell them the idea so they would really fork over all their money.

I followed the instructions and started to interview and push the richest Scientologists to recruit a suitable leader for the project. Our sustained efforts were successful – eventually the three key people in the Scientology field (the CEO of the largest WISE management consulting company and the two wealthiest Scientologists) agreed to form a committee to raise the money. Cooperation was not always smooth in the beginning, as the enormity of the sum we needed made most of the members a bit tense. For example, one of the big supporters came to visit the org on a Wednesday afternoon (needless to say, this project was also subject to the “Thursday 14:00” rule) and brought 13,000 USD in cash with him. As “no one asked him to donate,” he went back to his hometown without giving the money, so I had to drive to his house Thursday morning to pick it up. As Scientologists were afraid to lose the “only path to spiritual freedom,” they rarely dared to do anything more drastic; that was about the most extreme level of passive resistance they put up.

 
— Péter Bonyai

 
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Under the big tent in England

Some images from last night’s IAS gala in East Grinstead have started coming in…

 
Tonight it’s the Patron’s Ball, and the whales will get their trophies. Will Tom Cruise show up wearing his Freedom Medal of Valor? Tipsters, send us your snapshots!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrities and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise Danny Masterson, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter, Alanna Masterson, and Billy Sheehan. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; Bogotá, Colombia; Budapest, Hungary; Phoenix, Arizona; London, England; and Orange County, California.

Today it’s Judy Norton-Taylor and Atlanta, Georgia!

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 6, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

It’s another red-letter day here in the Underground Bunker, thanks to the tireless work of researcher R.M. Seibert. After years of persistence, she coaxed another eye-opening release out of the US government about Scientology, in this case a collection of documents from the US Justice Department that have never been made [...]]]>

It’s another red-letter day here in the Underground Bunker, thanks to the tireless work of researcher R.M. Seibert. After years of persistence, she coaxed another eye-opening release out of the US government about Scientology, in this case a collection of documents from the US Justice Department that have never been made public before.

They capture a moment in 1983 when several US government agencies were considering a legal settlement with Scientology over a lawsuit that had gone on for six years. Some agencies were in favor of the proposed settlement, others were bitterly opposed to it. One memo in particular, written by the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Stanley S. Harris, stands out as a stunning indictment of Scientology after years of litigation over its dirty tricks against the government. We knew you’d want to see it, and we have Harris’s memo in full below. We’ve also taken out some choice excerpts from it that should be framed and put on government office walls for future reference.

But before we get into those details, we shared the release with historian Chris Owen, who was good enough to provide this background on these documents to help us all understand their significance. We’ll also point out that much of this background is spelled out in our book about these years, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely. Take it away, Chris…

This is a very interesting document release from the agencies targeted by one of Scientology’s most infamous campaigns – the Snow White Program, often dubbed “Operation Snow White.”

On April 28, 1973, L. Ron Hubbard wrote Guardian Order 732, the Snow White Program, under which scores of government agencies in the US and abroad were targeted for espionage, infiltration, and litigation. Snow White was subdivided into a series of country-focused projects named after characters from the 1937 Disney film.

Snow White’s goals were to purge government files around the world of “false reports” (i.e. unflattering information) on Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard, to enable Scientology to operate freely in countries where it faced bans or legal pressures, and to build evidence to sue opponents for “suppressing” Scientology. Ludicrously, this even included suing critics for genocide.

The goals of Project HUNTER, the portion of Snow White targeting the US government, were only slightly less modest. Scientology sought to obtain records from government agencies and compel the government to “correct” its files, inform any recipients of that its previous reports had been false, and provide compensation for “incredible” damages caused by the files. It stole vast quantities of documents from the government to assist its campaign of litigation under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), with the aim of proving the existence of a government conspiracy against Scientology.

In February 1977, Scientology filed a $750 million lawsuit against the FBI, CIA, NSA, Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of the Treasury, Department of the Army, US Postal Service and Interpol, alleging that they had engaged in a conspiracy against Scientology since 1955. Drawing on the documents that it had acquired through the FOIA and its campaign of theft, the church claimed that Scientology had been subjected to infiltration, illegal surveillance, and disinformation, and its members had been harassed, blackmailed, and spied upon. Only six months later, the FBI raided Scientology’s Guardian’s Office (GO) and found evidence that the GO’s spies had done to the government all of the things that it claimed the government had done to Scientology. (The Snow White Program was mandated by Hubbard and so survived the demise of the GO, lasting at least into the early 1990s.)

It appears from these new documents obtained by R.M. Seibert that the government made a serious effort to settle the $750 million lawsuit in 1983. The agencies targeted by the lawsuit had suffered years of expensive and futile litigation, and with no apparent end in sight most of them were evidently willing to throw in the towel and give Scientology at least some of what it wanted.

The DOJ’s Civil and Criminal Divisions took opposing views, with the Civil Division recommending settlement and the Criminal Division and FBI – which had spent four and a half years prosecuting the GO leadership – opposed. Ironically, the Civil Division had been one of the arms of the DOJ that had been raided by the GO’s spies. The GO had claimed that its actions had been justified as self-defense against a government conspiracy. As the Criminal Division pointed out, the proposed settlement implicitly conceded Scientology’s conspiracy theory, handing the church an undeserved propaganda victory.

More importantly, the terms of the settlement required the government to set up a mechanism that would effectively allow Scientology to screen and approve or disapprove any new information that the government held about it. The Criminal Division pointed out that not only was this hugely onerous but it would seriously hinder investigations – at the time, Scientology’s tax affairs were under investigation – and facilitate even more litigation.

The settlement seems to have fallen through, as I’ve not found any evidence that it was ever enacted. The lawsuit fell apart in April 1985 when Hubbard was ordered to appear for a deposition but failed to show up. Scientology attorneys argued that they could not produce Hubbard for depositions and had no way of contacting him.

In fact, Hubbard was living in hiding on a ranch in Creston, California and was in no shape for a deposition. As Jesse Prince’s recent book has revealed, Scientology’s leadership was well aware that Hubbard was not only in poor physical health, but his mental health had degraded to the point that he would come across as “crazy” to outsiders. Ironically, Scientology’s aim of achieving Project HUNTER’s goals was sunk by the very man who had devised the Snow White Project in the first place.

Thank you for that rundown, Chris. So again, here’s the situation: Although the government had put in prison 11 top Scientology officials for burglarizing, infiltrating, and otherwise spying on the government, the church was suing the government claiming that it was the real victim. Isn’t that classic Scientology?

After years of grinding litigation, the Civil Division of the Department of Justice, US Customs, and other branches were ready to throw in the towel. They had agreed to a settlement that, while somewhat neutral, would certainly give the impression that the government was admitting to treating Scientology badly, and that would put an onerous burden on the government going forward regarding what was kept in files about Scientology.

The Criminal Division was appalled. They had just spent more than four years putting Scientology’s Mary Sue Hubbard and her lieutenants in prison for what the church was now accusing the government of doing. Why would the US throw in the towel when they were happy to go through with a trial and prove that it was Scientology which had acted badly?

In the documents, there are a number of memos going back and forth between departments arguing over the proposed settlement. But one of them stands out. It was written by DC’s chief federal prosecutor, Harris.

Stanley Sutherland Harris turns 91 this month, and we’ve begun to reach out to his family to see if he’d be interested in talking about his memo and his relatively brief stint as the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. (And our thanks also to Eivol Ekdal for additional invaluable help with research for this story.)

Stan, as he’s known (he also grew up with the nickname Salty Harris, according to his high school yearbook), was the son of a famous baseball player and manager. Bucky Harris was inducted in the baseball Hall of Fame in 1975 after he had spent years managing the Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and the World Series-winning 1947 New York Yankees.

But he’s mostly remembered for being the 2nd baseman and player-manager for the only Washington Senators team to win the World Series, in 1924, which featured an extra-inning 7th game that was won by pitcher Walter Johnson against the John McGraw-managed New York Giants. Bucky homered in the game.

He and his wife Mary had their son Stanley three years later, in 1927, and Stan talked about the sometimes chaotic life of a child being raised by a baseball manager who, like all the rest, tended to get fired every couple of years.

That detail comes courtesy of an oral history that Stan Harris provided in 1996, near the end of his long career as a federal judge in DC. In that very helpful history, Judge Harris describes how he went from high school directly to the Army in 1945 for the tail end of the war, then law school at the University of Virginia before spending more than a decade as a lawyer in the field of radio and television. He then had a long career as a jurist, on the DC Court of Appeals and then as a senior judge of the US District Court.

Between those two appointments, for 18 months in 1982 and 1983, he was DC’s US Attorney.

“Greatest, most fun job I have ever had. Never before or since have I been a part of an organization where everybody was approaching their jobs with the same sort of an attitude and same sort of effort and it was great in the kind of teamwork that I was a part of. The most notable case, of course, was the John Hinckley case when he was prosecuted for his attempted assassination of President Reagan,” Judge Harris said in the oral history.

But we’re interested in something else Harris handled in that job. At the time, Mary Sue Hubbard’s appeals were still going on after the 1979 Snow White prosecution, and Harris’s name can be found on court cases being handled by his assistant district attorneys. In other words, although his tenure as a prosecutor was brief, he had knowledge of, and employed prosecutors with a much more expansive knowledge of, the entire Snow White matter.

And Harris was not happy that the government was about to capitulate to Scientology in court.

The “proposed settlement would substantially hamper effective law enforcement, vitiate the accomplishments of the criminal prosecutions of Scientology officials (and indeed rewrite history), impose enormous administrative burdens upon the government, and, rather than terminate litigation, spawn more litigation than can be imagined. Scientology has shown in its past and present conduct that it is one of the most litigious organizations,” Harris wrote in the memo, which was sent to the assistant US Attorney General handling the case, J. Paul McGrath.

“In October 1979, the nine highest officials of the Church in the United States — including Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of Scientology founder and leader L. Ron Hubbard — were convicted of either conspiracy to burglarize government offices in order to steal government documents, bug high level government meetings, and forge government identification credentials, or conspiracy to obstruct justice by hiding fugitives from justice, soliciting and committing perjury before a federal grand jury, and submitting false evidence to that grand jury,” he reminded McGrath.

Then Harris summarized some of the nefarious activities Scientologists had been up to during Snow White…

“Among the criminal activities outlined in that Stipulation and the subsequent sentencing memoranda filed by the Government were: infiltration by the Church of Scientology of numerous government agencies and departments including, inter alia, the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the United States Coast Guard Intelligence…burglaries of numerous government offices in the above agencies as well as others; infiltration of the California Attorney General’s office, and projects to infiltrate the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, and the United States Attorney’s Offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.; infiltration and theft of documents from the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, the Better Business Bureau, various anti-cult groups, the law firms of Sidley and Austin, Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin, and Kahn (in Washington, D.C.) and West-Girardi (in Los Angeles); newspapers such as the St. Petersburg Times, Clearwater Sun and the Washington Post; directives to infiltrate the Public Health Service, the Food and Drug Administration, Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration; operations to discredit and destroy individuals who had been critical of Scientology, including Department of Justice and Internal Revenue Service attorneys, and other private persons including authors, reporters, at least two mayors (including Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Clearwater, Florida Mayor Gabriel Cazares, against whom a hit and run operation was conducted); an operation to falsely link United States Senator Dennis DeConcini with organized crime; an operation to discredit former California governors Edmund Brown and Edmund Brown, Jr.”

And so much more — Harris didn’t mention one of the worst cases of “Fair Game” harassment, against author Paulette Cooper, probably because it wasn’t an example of Scientology targeting a government office or official.

Anyway, given that pretty incredible record of determined subterfuge and amoral and vicious behavior, Scientology would be the last organization you’d want to hand such a gift that was incorporated in the proposed settlement…

“These provisions will undoubtedly be employed by Scientology to intimidate, harass, and threaten the signatory government agency and its employees, chilling legitimate investigative activities at their inception and curbing the disseminations to the public of information about Scientology’s past criminal activities.”

Scientology wanted desperately to smother the shocking news about what it had really been up to.

“Ever since the convictions, Scientology has been seeking a way to put a lid on dissemination of information about its criminal activities and to shift the focus from its own criminal conduct to allegations of government improprieties.”

But the government should never forget that Scientology is never sincere about its actions, that it first and foremost wants to hide the truth about itself to the public.

“Scientology has a track record of deceit, the dissemination of false information and obstruction of the flow of accurate information,” he wrote. “Thus, the history of Scientology has been that truth is its enemy, and that it is opposed to the accuracy of information where correct information may hurt Scientology.”

Let’s repeat that. Maybe put it on a billboard.

“THE HISTORY OF SCIENTOLOGY HAS BEEN THAT TRUTH IS ITS ENEMY, AND THAT IT IS OPPOSED TO THE ACCURACY OF INFORMATION WHERE CORRECT INFORMATION MAY HURT SCIENTOLOGY.”

Damn, judge. Move over, Bucky: Salty Harris just made the Hall of Fame.

“The Scientologists have reason to fear a trial in this case; the government does not. It would be a defense to Scientology’s charges of harassment to show that Scientology’s activities were a matter of legitimate concern to law enforcement agencies. Therefore, in a trial, it would be appropriate for the government to display the entire sorry record of Scientology’s criminal activities. This is what Scientology fears most,” he concluded, urging the government to dump the proposed settlement.

As Chris points out, the settlement wasn’t adopted, and the lawsuit fell apart when L. Ron Hubbard couldn’t appear for a deposition.

But then, just a few years later, the US government gave Scientology everything it wanted in this settlement and much, much more.

After a study was launched by the IRS commissioner under President George H.W. Bush in 1991, it was concluded two years later and signed by President Bill Clinton, granting Scientology tax exempt status as a church.

Everything Judge Harris predicted — that Scientology would use government complacency to bully its enemies, litigate cases endlessly, and hide the truth of what Scientology is really all about — came true, and remains the case today.

The US government forgot the lessons it had learned from Snow White, and turned its back on people like Harris and his assistant US attorneys and the FBI, handing Scientology a shield to use against prying eyes.

It’s a shameful legacy, and we can only salute Judge Stanley S. Harris for trying to stem the tide.

 
Here’s the memo itself…

Stanley Harris Memo regardi… by on Scribd

 
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Underground Bunker TV

The programming just keeps coming at Underground Bunker TV. We’ve posted short videos about how ABCMouse and Humira are helping to keep Scientology in business, about Scientology attorney Gary Soter’s attempt to stop Leah Remini, David Miscavige’s position in the church (and why he’s shy about it), what Scientology says about Jesus and Christianity, Scientology’s obsession with masturbation, the reason Miscavige is obsessed with “Ideal Orgs,” why nothing was done about Narconon deaths, the vile secret buried in Dianetics, the continuation of Scientology spying, why Tom Cruise doesn’t see Suri, Where Is Shelly? and how many Scientologists are there, anyway. Today we have another short spot that brings up something we’ve covered here before. We hope these vids will draw people back here to the Bunker to seek more information. So please help us get them out into the world!

 
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Hey, who moved my cetacean?

Looking for your meritorious status level? We’re maintaining our whales over at this site, which will be continously updated.

 
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrities and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise Danny Masterson, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter, and Alanna Masterson. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; Bogotá, Colombia; Budapest, Hungary; Phoenix, Arizona; and London, England.

Today it’s Billy Sheehan and Orange County, California!

 
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 5, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

We learned recently that Scientologists can not only become “patrons” and “laureates” and “meritorious” based on how much money they give to the IAS (Scientology’s main slush fund), but they can also become “ambassadors” and “luminaries” if they help pay for book dissemination campaigns.

There are so many ways Scientologists [...]]]>

We learned recently that Scientologists can not only become “patrons” and “laureates” and “meritorious” based on how much money they give to the IAS (Scientology’s main slush fund), but they can also become “ambassadors” and “luminaries” if they help pay for book dissemination campaigns.

There are so many ways Scientologists can get fancy trophies and certificates and swag! Why should they have all the fun?

We decided it was about time we started awarding statuses to our amazing commenters, who have been in the trenches with us in this absurd pursuit for many years now.

In this case, the coin of the realm is upvotes, a rough guide to how useful or funny or poignant a comment is. And some of our readers have amassed some pretty huge piles of them. As an incentive for their participation, we’re rewarding our whales with some awfully fun status levels.

Here’s the deal: We did our best to tease out your upvote numbers from the Disqus backend, a process fraught with inconsistency. So please, if you don’t see yourself on the list, let us know so we can add you.

And for heaven’s sake, when you reach a new level of awesomeness, tell us so we can recognize you for it. It’s time your hard work paid off here in the Bunker, and heck, if you come to HowdyCon, we’ll hand out some certs or something. Just don’t expect giant trophies handed out by a coiffed little guy in a tux.

 
UPDATE: This post is no longer being updated — for the latest status levels, please go to this updated page.
 
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Underground Bunker TV

The programming just keeps coming at Underground Bunker TV. We’ve posted short videos about how ABCMouse and Humira are helping to keep Scientology in business, about Scientology attorney Gary Soter’s attempt to stop Leah Remini, David Miscavige’s position in the church (and why he’s shy about it), what Scientology says about Jesus and Christianity, Scientology’s obsession with masturbation, the reason Miscavige is obsessed with “Ideal Orgs,” why nothing was done about Narconon deaths, the vile secret buried in Dianetics, the continuation of Scientology spying, why Tom Cruise doesn’t see Suri and Where Is Shelly? Today we have another short spot that brings up something we’ve covered here before. We hope these vids will draw people back here to the Bunker to seek more information. So please help us get them out into the world!

 
——————–

Chris Shelton on why smart people fall for dumb things

Says Chris: “This last weekend, I was happy to give a talk at the Secular Hub here in Denver about the psychology of the cult mentality, what cognitive mechanisms are involved and a Q&A session addressing various aspects of cult behavior. While the title is similar to earlier public speaking I’ve done, this time I dived in even deeper on the psychology involved (kind of ironic for me as a former Scientologist, but there has been some very good work done in this field over the past 40 years which really helps explain how and why we think the way we do). I used Scientology in some of the various examples and spoke about it a bit more in the Q&A section as well as citing examples from other cults too such as NXIVM and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since ‘cult’ is a controversial term, I took care to define in the talk exactly what I was talking about, but I think most people here at the Bunker will completely understand this already. Enjoy!”

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrities and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise Danny Masterson, Stanley Clarke, and Edgar Winter. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; Bogotá, Colombia; Budapest, Hungary; and Phoenix, Arizona.

Today it’s Alanna Masterson and London, England!

 
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 4, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

You’ve seen the excerpt and read our review of Jesse Prince’s book, The Expert Witness. Now it’s Jeffrey Augustine’s turn to get in on the fun, with his podcast interview with Jesse.

Says Jeffrey: “Jesse Prince describes the events in RTC surrounding the death of L. Ron [...]]]>

You’ve seen the excerpt and read our review of Jesse Prince’s book, The Expert Witness. Now it’s Jeffrey Augustine’s turn to get in on the fun, with his podcast interview with Jesse.

Says Jeffrey: “Jesse Prince describes the events in RTC surrounding the death of L. Ron Hubbard. As Hubbard lay dying at his ranch, David Miscavige and Vicki Aznaran at Int Base called the ranch hourly to ask if Hubbard had died. Hubbard left no succession plan so what happened after his death was what Jesse calls a ‘dumpster fire and train wreck.’ RTC put on the super-serious LRH Death event at the Palladium followed by a secret invitation-only party at a home in Hollywood once owned by Liberace. There was great relief that Hubbard was dead, Jesse says, and the party featured lots of premium alcohol and heavy drinking.”

 
——————–

Head’s up in LA

Hey, employers, we have a hot tip for you…

 
——————–

Underground Bunker TV

The programming just keeps coming at Underground Bunker TV. We’ve posted short videos about ABCMouse, Bob Duggan, Scientology attorney Gary Soter’s attempt to stop Leah Remini, David Miscavige’s position in the church,what Scientology says about Jesus and Christianity, Scientology’s obsession with masturbation, the Ideal Orgs, Narconon deaths, the vile secret buried in Dianetics the continuation of Scientology spying, and why Tom Cruise doesn’t see Suri. Today we have another short spot that brings up something we’ve covered here before. We hope these vids will draw people back here to the Bunker to seek more information. So please help us get them out into the world!

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrities and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise Danny Masterson, and Stanley Clarke. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; Bogotá, Colombia; and Budapest, Hungary.

Today it’s Edgar Winter and Phoenix, Arizona!

 
——————–

A&E begins advertising for Leah’s JW special, November 13

Well, this is the change of direction they’ve been hinting at…

 
——————–

MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 3, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

In April, Heather Ruggeri celebrated ten years free of Scientology. But a decade isn’t enough to erase the things that she went through as a child growing up in Scientology and working in the Sea Org. She’s put portions of her story on the Internet before, but this is her first [...]]]>

In April, Heather Ruggeri celebrated ten years free of Scientology. But a decade isn’t enough to erase the things that she went through as a child growing up in Scientology and working in the Sea Org. She’s put portions of her story on the Internet before, but this is her first attempt at telling the entire tale. We knew you’d want to see it.

Every day when I ran, it felt like there was a weight in my lower abdomen.

I was 17, and the running was part of the Purification Rundown, a regimen of exercise and spending hours in a sauna that every Scientologist has to go through because it supposedly eliminates toxins in the body from drug use and things you breathe in.

I hadn’t done illegal drugs, and I really hadn’t had any serious health problems, but like everyone else I was still required to do the rundown.

At the time, I was already a veteran member of the Sea Organization — at 14, I signed a billion-year contract promising to serve Scientology lifetime after lifetime. After years of training and being moved from one post to another, I spent some time in the prestigious Commodore’s Messenger Organization before I ran into some trouble.

I had gotten married at 16, which is very common for young Sea Org members to do. We had both gotten into trouble when, during an interrogation, I admitted that we had slept together before our wedding. We were both put on hard physical labor, and I was officially out of the CMO and became a runner at Scientology’s administrative headquarters in Los Angeles.

That’s when I did the “Purif,” subjecting myself to hours in a sauna for days and days, while ingesting insane amounts of vitamins. And exercising, while feeling that weight in my belly.

After completing the regimen, we were visiting my husband’s parents in Clearwater, Florida when I decided to get an examination.

Sure enough, I was pregnant.

My in-laws were elated, but we were all feeling some doubts about what would happen when we returned to Los Angeles and had to share the news with our Sea Org superiors.

When we got back and reported what was going on, my husband and I were pulled into a room with our auditor (Scientology’s equivalent of a counselor). We were shown policies written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard about the effect that the Purification Rundown can have on a pregnancy — that it could result in deformities or other problems.

There was no question about what we were being told — because I’d done the Purif while I was pregnant, our fetus was likely damaged.

“In the case of pregnancy, some of these toxins [released by the Purification Rundown], instead of being eliminated, could be transmitted to the fetus in a flow of fluids from the mother to the unborn child,” Hubbard wrote in the issue we were shown.

When you’re being told that your unborn baby has been harmed in some way and you’re only 17, you’re basically being brainwashed into getting an abortion. My husband and I reluctantly decided that this was what we should do.

I didn’t know I could get an ultrasound to check the health of the fetus. It was only when I got to the clinic and the doctor performed an ultrasound to check the age of the fetus (it was 12 weeks) that I realized it was even possible.

By that time, I had already taken the pill needed for the abortion, and I wasn’t allowed to look at the ultrasound. It was past the point of no return, and only then did I see there was a way to check the fetus. Had I known it was safe, I would have gone through with the pregnancy as there wasn’t anything more that I wanted in the world — and so did my husband.

But we were Sea Org members, and children weren’t allowed.

 
My earliest Scientology recollections are from Palo Alto, California, where my mother was attending Scientology sessions. She had been introduced to it by my stepfather.

From about the age of four I remember going to the local organization with them as they attended a course or lecture. Sometimes there were other kids around and we would play outside.

Over the years, my family became more and more involved in Scientology. We moved a lot, and my half sister came along when I was 10. The biggest shock was when my stepdad went to work for Scientology’s Guardian’s Office on the east coast and took on a minimal salary. Suddenly we had no money for anything. I resented it bitterly.

We got another shock when he decided to join the Sea Org (which paid even less) and moved us into “berthing” in Los Angeles.

I took one look around and told my mom, “I hate it here.” A few hours later we were in our assigned rooms, a cramped apartment with a bathroom and an inoperational kitchen that had been converted into a bedroom for my sister and me. I went from already barely seeing my parents to seeing them only an hour each day at dinner time, known in the Sea Org then as “family time.”

My sister also hated it — and she was only two years old. (I was 12.)

Soon after our arrival, a rule was issued that televisions in berthing needed to be confiscated and gotten rid of, based on an advice from Hubbard and enforced by the CMO.

Now, I wasn’t yet a Sea Org member, and getting rid of my television was not OK with me. I decided to hide it so I could watch it at night after I had done my homework. But my stepfather took it to his office — even though I had bought it with babysitting money.

I felt raped of my rights and I felt that I was under the control of something or someone else.

Shortly after that another rule came out based on a Hubbard advice and enforced by the CMO concerning perfumes. They were no longer allowed, and only unscented soaps and shampoos would be allowed.

We transitioned over to unscented items, but I held onto a powder made from rose petals because it had sentimental value — it had been given to me by a very close friend who lived next door to my maternal grandmother in Pennsylvania. The woman had passed away, so the powder reminded me of her, and I didn’t want to lose it. It was in a very nice casing.

One day I came home and our rooms had been raided to get rid of any scented items. Among the things thrown out was my powder. Man, I was upset.

Still, I managed to create a somewhat normal existence. I was going to school, and in summers I visited my biological father’s parents in Anaheim.

Then, when I turned 14 and we had moved to similar rooms at the Hollwood Inn on Hollywood Boulevard, I became the target of Sea Org recruiters. For weeks I resisted them — I had other things going on that summer.

Then, a few weeks before school started for 9th grade, I was out with my friends when we stumbled upon the ceremony for Sea Org Day. I remember perching myself on the window sill and watching the ceremony and hearing the speech, and I decided right then and there that I was going to join the Sea Org. Something struck a chord with me about helping people. I knew I wanted to help, and this seemed like the best way.

I signed the contract and convinced my mother to give her consent. Then I began the Sea Org’s boot camp, the Estates Project Force. After completing it, I was assigned to the Flag Bureaux, which had just moved to Los Angeles from Florida. I was put on an administrative post as we ran programs to expand Scientology churches around the world.

The days were long, but I managed OK, and soon I was promoted to the CMO, and was prepared to be sent to the international management compound 90 miles east of Los Angeles, Int Base.

I was getting my chance to join the inner circle of Scientology’s most secretive hard core.

But my first impression of Int Base was that I absolutely hated it. After about a month doing manual labor there, I was told that back in Los Angeles my mother had been assigned to the Sea Org’s prison program, the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF). I wasn’t told why she was being punished, but I was told that my communications with her would be limited.

I went on with my duties, which soon involved cleaning the personal rooms and offices of David Miscavige. I was also chosen to clean rooms set aside for Hubbard, but he was in seclusion somewhere else — where, no one seemed to know.

During my time at Int Base, I missed my mom and mentioned it several times. I was told to grow up, that I was not a kid anymore (although I was 15), and that I didn’t need my mommy or daddy in the Sea Org.

This really threw me for a loop. I wanted to get the hell out of there.

Shortly thereafter, I was moved to the CMO unit in Clearwater to handle a steady stream of documents and compiling statistics. My mother was still on the RPF in Los Angeles.

Over the next two years, I dated a few different guys and then got married at 16. Then, I was busted to Los Angeles and came back to Clearwater for a visit when I found out that I was pregnant and had the abortion.

We went back to LA, but my husband began to have doubts about the Sea Org. I related his intent to leave to my superiors, and I was not allowed to communicate with him without supervision. He was put under a 24-hour watch, and he was understandably upset that I had essentially snitched on him.

He left the Sea Org, and I was put under watch and was persuaded to divorce him. I really thought I had made the right decision, but deep down I was so saddened and lost.

My mother, meanwhile, wanted nothing more than for the four of us to be a family. But my stepfather was at Int Base, my sister was in the Cadet Org, and we had very little time together as a family.

After the divorce, I was determined to rebuild my life in the Sea Org as a single person.

I had managed to get back to the Flag Bureaux as a communicator (an executive assistant), and I was introduced to a man in a senior organization, Author Services, Inc., which was L. Ron Hubbard’s literary agency.

The man — I’ll call him M.W. — proposed to me after three weeks of dating. I had only been divorced for about two months, so I was moving fast. However, I was very rebellious and didn’t care about anyone else at the time.

I was 19, and I didn’t need consent from my mom. M.W. convince me to go to Las Vegas with him and get married there. I told him I’d go as long as we could have a normal wedding later on and as long as he rented a red VW convertible. He pulled through with the car but we never had a traditional wedding.

Getting married to M.W. made it possible for him to get a Green Card. I didn’t believe that I was being taken advantage of, but in hindsight I think that was the case.

He was a supportive husband, and he tried to help me out over the next several years as I worked for one abusive boss after another in the Sea Org.

At one point, one of my commanding officers cornered me against the wall of his office near an open window, yelling at me about my work. It was a low window on the 9th floor of the 12-story Hollywood Guaranty Building on Hollywood Boulevard. He had me by the neck, hanging out the window, and he was screaming. he had also yanked the epaulettes off of my shirt, the Lt. Commander bars that indicated my rank. The person doing this was Foster Tompkins, and he was about 6-foot-2, a full foot taller than me.

It wasn’t the first time that I felt I should just die and I’d be better off. But I didn’t know how to go about it.

Shortly after that terrifying incident, toward the end of 1994, I was put under the Scientology justice system and received what is called a Committee of Evidence. This is with a group of four people who review your files, list your “crimes,” and then ask you for a plea. They then make a recommendation, and their recommenation was to send me to the RPF.

I was on the RPF, the Sea Org’s prison detail, for the next five years.

My first days on the RPF were actually a relief — I was able to sleep a good eight hours a night and eat regular food. On the RPF, you are made to run everywhere you go, you’re not allowed to speak to someone unless they speak to you first, and you have to live in dorms with other RPFers. I was allowed to have one night a week with my husband, but only after earning a gold arm band.

The arm bands were part of the RPF uniform, which is all black. You start out with a black arm band, then a white one when you progress in the program, then a gold arm band for good behavior. If you commit a transgression, you get an orange arm band as you’re put on the RPF’s RPF, and you get assigned to scrubbing out dumpsters or places where rats reside. You’re segregated from the rest of the RPF and you only talk to your peers in that group. You are made to make up the damage you caused the rest of the RPF, and then you’re accepted back into the group and start over with a black arm band again.

My first hard labor on the RPF was in electrical. I was given on-the-job training, but I ripped ligaments in my wrists and had to be re-assigned. I still suffer today from this injury.

I was reassigned to housekeeping service for the rest of my time on the RPF, which was considered a position of honor and responsibility. At the time, it meant that I was trusted with handling money to purchase hygiene items for other RPFers. I would have $600 or more on me on these trips to local stores.

Why during this time I didn’t just leave when I was on one of those trips, I don’t know. I wouldn’t have taken the money that didn’t belong to me, I’m not like that. But I didn’t run, and instead simply enjoyed the freedom I had when I was outside the base on my own.

Later, the rules changed and outside purchases were no longer allowed. We were made to purchase everything through the base canteen.

In the fall of 1998, while I was waiting to graduate from the RPF, I learned that my grandmother in Pennsylvania had broken her hip. My mother went to care for her, and I was allowed to spend two weeks with them.

I was expected to keep up the rules of the RPF and avoid TV or movies. Of course I violated those rules and watched TV (with a guilty conscience), even though I knew I’d be interrogated about it when I got back to LA.

While we were in Pennsylvania, both my mother and I considered not going back — but we only found that out later. I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving my husband on his own, and I had come so close to graduating from the RPF and being reunited with him.

So I went back.

Preparing for graduation from the RPF required another nine months of reviewing my program for errors and handling anything else that was needed.

Of course I admitted to watching TV while in Pennsylvania.

In December 1999, I was finally allowed to graduate (along with my program “twin,” the person you are paired with in the RPF). I went back to the Flag Bureaux, and I stayed there for the better part of six years, at the American Saint Hill Organization.

It was more long hours, more abuse, and increasingly I was not getting along with the people I worked for.

Things worsened in 2002 when my grandmother in Pennsylvania went into critical condition over a failing heart. My mother was on a project in Australia, and my stepdad and sister were at Int Base.

I went to the hospital right away to see my grandmother. She was in ICU and I was told she wasn’t going to make it. I called my stepdad, and he showed up as soon as he could. He started preparing things for my grandmother’s death, but he told me that we should not call my mom in Australia, as he didn’t want to worry her with uncertainty. He said that if she showed up, it would prolong my grandmother staying alive. He said that she had been in pain and should be allowed to pass.

He convinced me that this was the right thing to do, but I had doubts. He also said he didn’t want my sister to know until after. In hindsight, this was also wrong.

Once my stepdad and I had done what we could at the hospital, I went back to work — and I got in trouble for leaving my post.

A few hours later, I received a phone call from my stepdad, who gave me the news that my grandmother had passed. My stepdad set some of my superiors straight with regards to the situation and it allowed me to grieve for a few hours.

But they put me through hell again when I requested to join my mom in San Francisco, where she wanted to spread her mother’s ashes. I was eventually allowed to go, and it was odd to be reunited with cousins I hadn’t seen since I was a little girl. It was a nice feeling to be with family for the first time in such a long time.

Later on, my mom admitted how upset she was that she hadn’t been called in Australia and told that her mother was dying.

I continued my work as an executive in the Flag Bureaux, which included working very hard to make the San Francisco Ideal Org “Saint Hill Size” in 2004. But everything we put in place fell apart soon after we left as it was done with unrealistic situations that involved getting people to come in for extra time, which involved parishioners rearranging their lives. It was unrealistic to think these public were going to continue that after we left.

Soon after the San Francisco campaign, my husband M.W. decided to separate. We had been married for 17 years.

I came home one night to a note saying he was going to stay somewhere else for a bit. He didn’t give a reason.

Several weeks later, he agreed to meet, and told me that he had decided to get a divorce. Again, there was no reason.

Later, I learned that he was being promoted to the executive director of Author Services, and my level in the organization wasn’t high enough for the wife of such an important person.

I moved into a new building and moved on with my life.

Then, in 2007, The Basics hit.

Scientology’s leader, David Miscavige, had announced something called the Golden Age of Knowledge as a complete re-issuing of L. Ron Hubbard’s technology. And as part of it, a complete new set of books and lectures known as “The Basics” were published in a set that cost about $3,000. Every single Scientology employee was then expected to spend hours each day selling sets of The Basics to Scientology members, and under incredible pressure.

We were calling current and former members, all day, all night, and into the morning. We were calling overseas public during the morning hours, and the east coast in the evening.

I was not having much luck selling sets of books, but my calls tended to turn into therapy sessions. Most of the people I called were struggling with the Golden Age of Knowledge, they admitted to me.

During this time, I was approached about a promotion to Int Base. I was told that somehow, with my regular duties and hours selling books, that I was also supposeed to carve out some time to get enough sleep so that I could be interrogated for the new job.

I made it clear that I wasn’t interested in going back to Int Base, which is why I was failing the interrogation. But they assumed there was something else behind it.

Then, in January 2008, I learned that my mother had walked away from her job.

With the help of my sister, we located her in the San Francisco area, where she was staying with a cousin.

She wouldn’t answer our phone calls. At this point, I was taken off of making contact with her and was told to go back to my duties.

But I was struggling and it was noticeable. I was pulled into ethics.

I was told to disconnect from my mother. I was not OK with that. I went through several days of this, and was put on manual labor, cleaning elevator pits in my uniform. I was also subject to berating by some of my co-workers, who had to show me how bad I was doing. One of them poured ice water down my back as a punishment.

The effort to humiliate me was being led by a teenager in the CMO.

Still, they were trying to get me qualified to go to Int Base, and they told me I couldn’t date a guy I was interested in because he wasn’t qualified to go there.

I’d had enough.

On Thursday morning, April 3, 2008, I woke up late after a long night and got dressed like I was going to work. I got onto the Dash public commuter bus and, not knowing where I was going, headed to the Metro station, watching my back the entire time.

From there I called my grandparents who lived in Corona, about 70 miles away, and got on a metro train with eight dollars to my name.

I never looked back.

Today, I’m celebrating my eighth wedding anniversary to a new husband, and we have a beautiful daughter who is about to turn seven years old. She is my mother’s one and only granddaughter and is her pride and joy.

I have obtained an insurance license and I’ve been working in the industry the last five years. I’m now an agency manager for an independent Farmers agent.

My life, however, is still a work in progress after my escape from Scientology.

 
— Heather Ruggeri

 
——————–

Underground Bunker TV

The programming just keeps coming at Underground Bunker TV. We’ve posted short videos about ABCMouse, Bob Duggan, Scientology attorney Gary Soter, David Miscavige’s position in the church,what Scientology says about Jesus and Christianity, Scientology’s obsession with masturbation, the Ideal Orgs, Narconon deaths, the vile secret buried in Dianetics, and the continuation of Scientology spying. Today we have another short spot that brings up something we’ve covered here before. We hope these vids will draw people back here to the Bunker to seek more information. So please help us get them out into the world!

 
——————–

Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrites and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, Tom Cruise, and Danny Masterson. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; Pasadena, California; and Bogotá, Colombia.

Today it’s Stanley Clarke and Budapest, Hungary!

 
——————–

MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on October 2, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

We were super fortunate to have reports come in this weekend from two of our great correspondents. In England, Graham updated us on the Birmingham org, and in California, Erin Hodges Plumb had another of her upstart adventures. We hope you enjoy them both…

It was nearly a year ago, on [...]]]>

We were super fortunate to have reports come in this weekend from two of our great correspondents. In England, Graham updated us on the Birmingham org, and in California, Erin Hodges Plumb had another of her upstart adventures. We hope you enjoy them both…

It was nearly a year ago, on October 22, 2017, that Scientology leader Chairman of the Board David Miscavige opened the Birmingham Ideal Org in the English Midlands; an event I managed to blag my way into, and reported on for the Bunker.

Passing though again last Saturday I thought I’d stop off and see how things were going. Well, 12 cars in the car park on a Saturday afternoon might seem quite healthy for an organisation that only had 88 members in the region according to the 2011 Census. But compared to the size of the car park and the size of the massive T-shaped former insurance HQ building, 12 is possibly not that great. And for an organisation promising prosperity, one Audi plus one Tesla alongside ten down-market vehicles is not so impressive either.

And there all alone stands the compulsory yellow van; 10 years old, the paint fading badly and no identifying signage. Can you see it, lurking at the back of the car park? According to publicly available records it’s only done 10,000 miles, and 8,000 of those were done in the last year. This is an unbelievably low mileage for a commercial vehicle. Could it be that Birmingham Org has owned this vehicle from new, standing idle just to comply with some head office diktat?

I deliberately stepped back to take a general photo of the building, so you could see it as passers-by see it.

 
The road in front is the one they managed to get closed last year, and fill chock-full of coaches to obscure the view. If you have a magnifying glass you might be able to make out a small blue ‘free exhibition’ sign right by the front entrance to the building. If they were serious about inviting people in why is the sign so tiny? Why is there no sign at the entrance gate?

Possibly one reason is that there are no passers-by. Well, plenty in cars. A constant flow of people in cars going about their Saturday business, going too fast to notice a tiny sign a hundred yards inside the entrance gate. But people on foot? I was there for 20 minutes overall. Mostly sitting on the wall enjoying the sunshine; ideal weather for a stroll you’d think. But in all that time I counted one couple and one lone jogger. Equates to about ten people an hour at the most walk-friendly time of the day.

Both the lone blue sign, and the faded yellow van seem like symptoms of an organisation that’s just ‘going through the motions.’ The Volunteer Ministers van and the ‘free exhibition’ have morphed into ritual objects, tokens standing in place of real action. An organisation degenerating into some kind of cargo cult where ‘having a yellow van’ stands in for ‘having an effective rescue organisation’ and ‘having a sign and some display screens’ is the closest to dissemination we can be bothered to undertake, or have the resources to undertake.

The building, originally constructed as the HQ of the Ideal Benefit Society and currently a hollow, fake Ideal Org. will surely someday be sold and will make ideal hotel. Roll on that day.

 
— Graham

 
Meanwhile, in Southern California…

 
I keep seeing organizations that use Scientology’s facilities at Int Base for charity events, even when those groups stand for everything the Church of Scientology is against. Are they clueless? Or complicit?

I have no issues with the charities themselves — in fact I fully support them and their efforts in our community. I assume they simply have no knowledge of the abuses happening at Int Base, the things we’ve learned about through Leah’s show and Tony’s articles, and the books by former members about workers being confined, families ripped apart, and degrading treatment of people making almost no money for long hours of work.

Last year I attended a tea party at the Golden Era Golf Course out of curiosity. This led to a mixer behind the fences at the clipper ship Star of California where I took Karen Pressley’s book along and was asked to leave. I began noticing postings of other events at the golf course as fundraisers for local charities. I tried to go to a pancake breakfast and was blocked from even leaving my car by Scientology’s Linda Greilich and Danny Dunnigan. I do not know what they were telling people but it was something about me bringing anti-Scientology literature on base.

Since I’ve been blocked from attending events, I began contacting charities holding their fundraisers there, asking if they knew that the Sea Org members helping out at their functions worked for pennies an hour and worked around the clock. Groups like the Kiwanis have told me they don’t know about abuse, and they claim it’s a free community center and nothing to do with Scientology.

CASA’s Human Trafficking division claimed they used their own employees to work the events, but they canceled their event anyway. NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness, scheduled an event. I wrote and asked if they had seen Scientology’s museum in Los Angeles attacking psychiatry. They didn’t respond, but the event was cancelled.

Recently I was told of an event planned for the Star of California that would benefit Valley Restart, a homeless shelter in Hemet. Tickets cost $75, but I decided to try to get in and talk to Sea Org members working it. The flier said nothing about who was providing the food or entertainment, so I figured it must be the Sea Org. I paid my cash and got my ticket. I used my own name; I don’t hide behind disguises. The next day I received a call from Linda at Valley Restart, who said that I was being refunded my money and would not be allowed to attend. I asked why and was just told to get my refund. I asked if they support Scientology and was told that had nothing to do with the event. I shared with them that if Scientology was controlling the event and approving the guest list, it really isn’t free.

I’m glad these charities are able to make so much money for their organizations. If the Sea Org members were paid a decent wage, allowed to come and go off the base, and treated well, it could be an excellent facility to use. But we know that’s not the case, and the charities are being used for propaganda to try to put a nice face on the organization to hide behind.

I went to the event anyway, not actually driving on to the property, but near the gate. I asked Linda Greilich and Muriel if Scientology had refunded the money or was it Valley Restart? Muriel kept telling me she didn’t have time for my questions, and asked me to leave. I repeated the question several times. She finally said Valley Restart had given me my money back. So it was costing the charity money they would have made if Scientology wasn’t controlling their guests.

I have also tried to contact Linda Greilich about setting up a fundraiser for the Aftermath Foundation. All the advertisements for use of the golf course and clubhouse claim they are available for all non-profits. I will continue to push until we either have our fundraiser, or they change the literature.

Make calls, send emails, ask questions. One person can make a difference, or at least really piss off some Scientologists.

As the security guard came up to my car, hired as private security for the event, I heard on the radio that there was a disturbance at the gate by “That Erin Plumb girl.”

 
— Erin Hodges Plumb

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Our thanks to the tipster who sent us the latest issue of Planetary Dissemination, a newsletter put out by Scientology’s publishing arm, Bridge Publications. In it, we learn that Scientology is spreading the good word about L. Ron Hubbard in digital editions of his books, and audiobooks, but we also learn that there’s a special way that Scientology’s whales — big donors — can give donations specifically for this effort.

And what’s a donation without a donation status? Yes, not only can you become “meritorious” with your IAS donations, but if you give to the publishing dissemination campaigns, you can become an “ambassador” or even better, a “luminary”! Here’s the list of dissemination bigwigs, and we’re sure you’ll recognize the usual lumbering cetaceans…

 
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Underground Bunker TV

The programming just keeps coming at Underground Bunker TV. We’ve posted short videos about ABCMouse, Bob Duggan, Scientology attorney Gary Soter, David Miscavige’s position in the church,what Scientology says about Jesus and Christianity, Scientology’s obsession with masturbation, the Ideal Orgs, Narconon deaths and the vile secret buried in Dianetics. Today we have another short spot that brings up something we’ve covered here before. We hope these vids will draw people back here to the Bunker to seek more information. So please help us get them out into the world!

 
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’re building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ We’re posting pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrites and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, Nancy Cartwright, and Tom Cruise. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; San Fernando Valley, California; and Pasadena, California.

Today it’s Danny Masterson and Bogotá, Colombia!

 
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
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Posted by Tony Ortega on October 1, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

For a couple of years we’ve been keeping an eye on the ailing Narconon rehab in the Netherlands, which has served only three patients in two years. Rod Keller tells us that Scientology has plans for a new clinic there.

Joanna Kluessien retired as the Executive Director of Narconon Zutphen in July. The [...]]]>

For a couple of years we’ve been keeping an eye on the ailing Narconon rehab in the Netherlands, which has served only three patients in two years. Rod Keller tells us that Scientology has plans for a new clinic there.

Joanna Kluessien retired as the Executive Director of Narconon Zutphen in July. The facility is located over 100 Km east of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. This Narconon’s future has been in question since 2013 when the Dutch Inspectorate for Health Care (IGZ) put it on “enhanced supervision” following a finding that none of the staff had any medical training, and the patients were being put in danger with unscientific methods based on Scientology. The facility’s finances have been unsteady since then and Kluessien’s departure could have been the last straw.

 
Scientology is investing instead in what will be known as Narconon Netherlands, a new name and a new identity as an “Ideal” Narconon. Staff is being recruited to be trained at the Continental Narconon in Helsinge, Denmark. All positions are included, from Executive Director down to Estates, which handles sanitation and repairs.

Of particular interest is the position of Withdrawal Specialist. Following the 2013 assessment by the IGZ, Narconon Zutphen was prohibited from admitting patients who had not first seen a doctor, and also from admitting those with physical withdrawal symptoms. With enhanced supervision lifted long ago, this Narconon is going back to its old ways.

Scientology intends to treat patients in English and German, but the ad doesn’t mention Dutch. Despite opening several Ideal Orgs in Germany and Switzerland, Scientology has been unable to open any Narconons in German-speaking countries. All Ideal Orgs are expected to operate a series of facilities to demonstrate the effectiveness of L. Ron Hubbard’s technology. For now, this will be the Narconon where German, Swiss and Austrian addicts can be brought.

 
We expect Narconon Netherlands to re-open in 2019. Unlike staff members at missions and orgs, Scientologists can receive a living wage at Narconon. The Ojai facility in California is offering between $42,000 and $52,000 plus room and board, and we think something similar will be offered in the Netherlands. There shouldn’t be a problem recruiting Scientologists to join staff.

 
Narconon is big in Europe, and this investment may pay off for Scientology. Rather than one or two patients at a time, Narconon Netherlands hopes to expand to the same degree as other facilities, such as Narconon Balkan in Macedonia, which recently received recognition for its highest ever on the course.

 
— Rod Keller

 
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Bonus items from our tipsters

Looks like New York’s Celebrity Centre went “Ideal” last night. We’d love to see some photos.

 
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’ve started a new project, building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ For the next several weeks, we’ll post a couple of pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about each of them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrites and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, Michael Peña, and Nancy Cartwright. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; Melbourne, Australia; and San Fernando Valley, California.

Today it’s Tom Cruise and Pasadena, California!

 
——————–

MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 30, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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

  We told you a couple of weeks ago how much we enjoyed Jesse Prince’s book The Expert Witness: My Life At The Top Of Scientology, and now it’s your turn to get a glimpse of it for yourself. Our thanks to Jesse for allowing us to reproduce this excerpt. It takes place a [...]]]>

 
We told you a couple of weeks ago how much we enjoyed Jesse Prince’s book The Expert Witness: My Life At The Top Of Scientology, and now it’s your turn to get a glimpse of it for yourself. Our thanks to Jesse for allowing us to reproduce this excerpt. It takes place a couple of years after Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard had gone into permanent seclusion in February 1980. After that, as Jesse explains in his book, Scientology was run by Hubbard through “advices” he sent out from his hiding place to his lieutenants Pat Broeker and David Miscavige, who were gaining power because of their control of information.

 

I had been David Miscavige’s Auditor for most of 1982. We established that relationship at the behest of Annie Broeker, presumably by order of L Ron. We had gone out and accomplished a mission together that was an instant financial success. This was accomplished by summoning all Scientology and Dianetics Mission Holders doing business on the US west coast to a meeting at an expensive hotel located in downtown San Francisco. They were told to make sure they traveled with their main business bank account checkbooks. These were people of means and had made a successful career of getting new people into Scientology and extracting their money for Scientology courses and auditing.

Instead of appreciating the work these Mission Holders were doing and the money they were sending to our reserves, we robbed them on sight, and that’s a fact. We even videotaped our gangster activity as proof to show L Ron we did as he instructed. We brought L Ron’s lawyer Larry Heller to scare the crap out of the Mission Holders to make them think they were going to jail for criminal negligence of our trademarks! We robbed the Mission Holders using our E-meters instead of guns.

Each Mission Holder was connected to an E-meter, interrogated, and intimidated with yelling and threats. Then they were ordered to take out their checkbooks and write checks that emptied their bank accounts. We robbed these people using our own police force. We called our police force the International Finance Police, and they acted with authority and efficiency over the Mission Holders’ bank accounts. There was little to no resistance. The Mission Holders acted like this was all predestined, and they had no will to change anything that was happening to them. In a strange way, it seemed like the Mission Holders had expected they’d be robbed. When the taking was done, they quietly and without resistance accepted the fact they had been robbed. On their way out the door, when they were allowed to leave, a representative from the International Finance Police informed the Mission Holders that their organizations could be searched for hidden bank accounts at a later date, and a few were excommunicated from the Church (declared Suppressive Persons) on the spot as an example for the rest.

All of this was new to me, and I followed the safe route and did as I was told. L Ron directed our activities via Annie and Pat Broeker. When we got back to the Gold Base, a video was quickly edited to show in detail what we had done to take all of the money we could find from the West Coast Mission Holders. L Ron was pleased with the level of carnage we were able to accomplish in the Bay Area after the money we were able to bring home was counted and verified.

Right around this time I was tested again. L Ron was made aware of the fact that his oldest daughter Diana had requested to leave the Sea Org to pursue a career outside of Scientology. The problem with this was that she was taking his only granddaughter with her. L Ron wanted to keep his granddaughter within the confines of Scientology. He had devised a personal program for her called the Princess Program. The grandchild’s name was Roanne, and her father is Jon Horwich. Besides being L Ron’s son-in-law, Jon was his personal audiophile person. Jon was very much a committed Sea Org member.

L Ron didn’t seem to mind the fact that his daughter was leaving the Sea Org, but he preferred she turn over custody of her child to her husband, whom she was divorcing. Diana refused this request. Dave Miscavige was told to handle Diana and get her to relinquish custody of her child, but she refused. Both Vicki and Marc Yeager attempted to get Diana to relinquish custody of her child, and they had also failed to accomplish the task. This was something that bothered L Ron, and he ordered through Annie Broeker that another attempt be made to get Diana to turn over custody.

David told Vicki to send me on a mission to the Flag Land Base to confront Diana and persuade her to turn over custody of her only child to a husband she was divorcing. Vicki briefed me on the situation, and the previous attempts to persuade her. Diana was described as being totally unreasonable and uncooperative. Because of my training, it was expected of me to go and do what the others had failed to do. This confused me because it seemed like I was just being sent on a suicide mission. I was already told that if I failed to accomplish the task, there was a very high probability that I would be sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force. Of course, there was no mention of what would happen if I accomplished the mission.

I read previous information collected about the situation in my briefing. I was interrogated to make sure I did not have any other intention concerning getting the project done. Finally, I was given a package of legal documents that I was to have Diana sign to relinquished custody of her only child.

The following day I left California and flew to Florida to the Flag Land Base. When I arrived in Florida, I was met by L Ron’s Messengers and set up with the room to meet Diana. I had no real expectations for what I was there to accomplish.

 
Diana lived at the Fort Harrison hotel at the very top in a penthouse that was on the 11th floor. For some years I ran an internship located on the balcony of a ballroom located on the 10th floor. Only a few times I had seen Diana coming and going. I always thought she was beautiful. She had long red hair and full lips that she kept nice and red. She also had a bit of a British accent, and I always thought she was a nice person.

Anyway, Diana was summoned to the room. I was there as she approached; I stood up shook her hand and smiled. She smiled at me and shook my hand, we began to chat. I told her who I was, and I told her I had worked at Flag for years before. She mentioned that she had seen me working on the balcony, training Scientology auditors. Then we discussed briefly the internship and the people that I had trained at Flag. I told her I had always admired her but never had the courage actually to talk to her, and I told her I thought she was beautiful. It seems like we made small talk for as long as we could, but it was time to get down to business. I briefly explained to her why I was there. She replied that she completely understood, and she asked me to give her the papers and she would just sign.

All of the papers had a big X to mark where her signature was required. She seemed totally familiar with the process, and she signed and dated where her signature was required. As she signed the papers, tears began to roll down her cheeks. She brushed the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hands then wiped her eyes with her fingers. Diana rapidly regained her composure. Now her expression was perfectly stoic as she passed me the signed documents. For some reason, I experienced pain in my chest area as I took the papers from her, and I was unable to speak for a second or two. She looked at me and said “It’s OK, at least this is done now.” The moment passed, and she asked me if there was anything else. I told her no. She stood, I stood, we shook hands, and she left. I don’t think I ever saw her again. The whole incident took less than an hour.

There were one or two Messengers standing by the door in case we needed anything. After Diana had left, I asked one of the messengers to bring me a phone. Before leaving Gold, I’d been given a phone number to call when I finished the meeting with Diana. This number connected to Vicki’s office at Golden Era. I told her that I had completed the mission and all the documents were signed, and I requested to come home. Vicki was shocked that I was calling her to tell her the documents were actually signed. She asked me if I was sure the papers were correctly signed, which meant all the places where there was an X. When she asked me the question, I thought about Diana’s attitude about what had happened, and I was stoic too. As politely as I could, I answered with a simple yes. I didn’t offer any further explanation. The line went silent, and she asked me to hold the line. The next voice I heard was David Miscavige, and he sounded like he might have been slightly out of breath. He asked, “Are you 100 percent sure you have all the signatures you need on all the documents you were given?” I was stoic with him as well, and he got the same simple yes answer. He didn’t threaten me directly, but he said, “you better be fucking sure because if you fuck this up…” Whatever he was saying didn’t matter because I gave him a one-word answer again. I simply said OK.

I was on a plane on my way back to Golden Era from Florida within a couple of hours after that phone conversation. When I arrived at LAX, I was met by a Scientology courier who brought me from the airport directly to the Gold Base. When I arrived at the Base, I was directed to go straight to David’s office where he and Vicki were waiting. I walked in, handed Vicki the papers, smiled and sat down.

David grabbed the papers and carefully went through them, and then he looked at me with the craziest look. He said “Motherfucker, how did you get her to sign this these papers?” I put on my best Clint Eastwood stoic face, and I said “I just did the mission.”

Dave understood what I was doing he just smiled; he said “Jesse, you’re a bad motherfucker. Good job.” He stood up and shook my hand and hugged me, and we had a good laugh. He said “Jesse, that was very well done. That was excellent. Seriously, thank you.”

I just smiled, and we changed the subject. I wanted to know what was going on at the Base since I left. “Don’t worry,” he said, “You’ll find out all about it later. Make sure you get some fluids to deal with the dehydration from flying.”

Maybe a week or so later I received a dispatch from L Ron personally thanking me for handling his daughter to turn over custody. I was also gifted with a gold necklace and a black Members Only jacket. I also received either $500 or $700 as well. This incident was a game changer as far as my recognition among my peers. I had personally done something that pleased L Ron, and he recognized me. Not to mention the fact that no one else had been able to accomplish the task.

 
— Jesse Prince

 
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Scientology’s celebrities and ‘Ideal Orgs’ — now with comments!

We’ve started a new project, building landing pages about two of David Miscavige’s favorite playthings, his celebrities and his ‘Ideal Orgs.’ For the next several weeks, we’ll post a couple of pages each day, and we’re hoping you’ll join in and help us gather as much information as we can about each of them, in order to build a record and maintain a watch as Scientology continues its inexorable decline — and yes, we finally have comments working on these new pages! Head on over and help us with links and photos and comments about all of your favorite celebrites and failing Ideal Orgs

Previously, we posted pages for celebrities Anne Archer, Beck Hansen, Catherine Bell, Chick Corea, Elisabeth Moss, Erika Christensen, Ethan Suplee, Giovanni Ribisi, Greta Van Susteren, Jenna Elfman, John Travolta, Juliette Lewis, Kelly Preston, Kirstie Alley, Laura Prepon, Marisol Nichols, and Michael Peña. And for the Ideal Orgs of Portland, Oregon; Sydney, Australia; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Perth, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Sacramento, California; Las Vegas, Nevada; Silicon Valley, California; Rome, Italy; Orlando, Florida; Moscow, Russia; and Amsterdam, Netherlands; Seattle, Washington; Dallas, Texas; and Melbourne Ideal Org.

Today it’s Nancy Cartwright and the San Fernando Valley Ideal Org!

 
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MEANWHILE, AT FACEBOOK…

 
Please join us at the Underground Bunker’s Facebook discussion group for more frivolity.

 
——————–

——————–

Posted by Tony Ortega on September 29, 2018 at 07:00

E-mail tips and story ideas to tonyo94 AT gmail DOT com or follow us on Twitter. We post behind-the-scenes 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 book, 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, 1995-2017 Just starting out here? We’ve picked out the most important stories we’ve covered here at the Undergound Bunker (2012-2017), The Village Voice (2008-2012), New Times Los Angeles (1999-2002) and the Phoenix New Times (1995-1999)

Learn about Scientology with our numerous series with experts…

BLOGGING DIANETICS: We read Scientology’s founding text cover to cover with the help of L.A. attorney and former church member Vance Woodward
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

Other links: Shelly Miscavige, ten 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

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