May 18 in Scientology history

(UPDATE: See our reports from the courtroom below, after the victim descriptions.) We're on the scene this morning in Los Angeles, bringing you coverage at Los Angeles Superior Court as Danny Masterson faces a preliminary hearing on charges that he raped three different women. A "prelim" is an important step that asks a prosecutor to convince a judge that enough evidence exists to justify scheduling a criminal trial later in the year, at which Masterson would be facing 45 years to life in prison if he's convicted.

Tags: 1965, 1971, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2016, 2017, 2019, A&E, Alanna Masterson, Alfreddie Johnson, AOLA, Bill Robertson, Brie Shaffer, Celebrity Centre, Clear, Clearwater, Criminal, Danny Masterson, David Miscavige, E-meter, Ethics, Ethics Order, Florida, Free Zone, Germany, Graham Berry, Heber Jentzsch, Hollywood, International Justice Chief, Jackie Lacey, Jenni Weinman, Judge Charlaine Olmedo, Julian Swartz, Knowledge Report, LAPD, Leah Remini, Lisa Marie Presley, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Superior Court, Luke Watson, Mike Ellis, Mike Rinder, Netflix, New York, OT, OT VII, Private investigator, Purification Rundown, Quicky, Reinhold Mueller, Scientology and the Aftermath, Sea Org, Sexual assault, Sharon Appelbaum, Suppressive Person, Susan Watson, Switzerland, Tom Mesereau, Utah, Xenu

(Valeska Paris and Criceida Leon) We're still knocked out by the amazing leaked conference call that Rod Keller brought us yesterday. Sharron Weber, commanding officer of Scientology's private cruise ship the Freewinds, was recorded giving marching orders to Australian "Field Staff Members," exhorting them to sell more Scientology courses amid the obstacles of the coronavirus pandemic. It's not every day that we get such a vivid, unfiltered glimpse inside the real world of Scientology and hear for ourselves the bizarre jargon, the paramilitary mindset, and the batshit orders. Once again, an audio recording confirms that life inside Scientology is exactly the way defectors have been telling us for decades.

Tags: 1965, 1996, 2007, Andres Rodriguez, Australia, Case Supervisor, Chris Shelton, Coronavirus, David Miscavige, Debbie Cook, E-meter, Field Staff Member, Flag Land Base, Freewinds, Lurie Belotte, Mat Pesch, New Orleans, OT, OT 8, Quicky, Rod Keller, Scientology executive, Sea Org, Sharron Weber, Sue Price, Suppressive Person, The Secret, Tone Scale, Valeska Paris, Venezuela, Wikipedia

There have been numerous stories posted on Tony Ortega's blog of elderly people being scammed by scientology registrars (here is the most recent example). One of our commenters recently sent me this, from December 2018. It is a write up that 82 year-old Margaret Williams did to be converted into an affidavit. The commenter does not know what happened to Margaret and if she got her money back as she has not been in touch. Hopefully, she was made whole and is happily getting on with her life. If not, she should probably contact Graham Berry and ask for his help.

Tags: 2018, Advanced Org, AOLA, Bridge to Total Freedom, California, Chad Lane, Chase Bank, David Miscavige, Facebook, Graham Berry, High Crime, IRS, L. Ron Hubbard, Los Angeles, Margaret Williams, Quicky, Registrar, Sea Org, Suppressive Person, Tax exempt, Tony Ortega, Twitter

The Underground Bunker has learned that on Friday, the same day that she learned the Clearwater Police Department was closing a criminal investigation of her allegations against the Church of Scientology, the woman going by the name Jane Doe instructed her attorneys to drop her lawsuit that was based on the same allegations against the church and its leader David Miscavige. On Friday evening, we heard from Doe, who told us that she had spent an emotional five and a half hours at the police station, trying to cope with the news that the investigation was being closed. Two years earlier she had come forward, alleging that as a young child she had been sexually molested while a student at Scientology's Clearwater Academy kindergarten, and then had also been sexually abused as a child worker for the church in Venezuela and Clearwater. But after two years, she says the police told her they had faced an onslaught of affidavits and denials from Scientology, and although they were sympathetic to her, they were closing the case without recommending charges.

Tags: 1965, Catholic Church, Clearwater, Clearwater Academy, Clearwater Police Department, Danny Masterson, David Miscavige, E-meter, Leah Remini, Los Angeles, Miami, Valerie Haney, Venezuela

Scientology's newest billboard in Clearwater is an obvious admission of something everyone knows — but scientology almost never acknowledges — their reputation is horrendous. This is clearly a reaction to The Aftermath tv series and the enormous volume of media coverage over the last few years. Unlike many years previously, today's media is not intimidated like it was and no longer just accepts the scientology PR line "we are the fastest growing religion on earth" blah blah. Scientology is hurting. They usually don't acknowledge it, pretending they are "clearing the planet" and "expanding like never before." The pain must be intense.

Tags: Chairman of the Board, Clearwater, Facebook, OT, Quicky, Scientology and the Aftermath, Twitter

As I reported last year, nothing did more to elect Donald Trump than the belief in America as a "Christian nation." By that measure, nothing could be more timely than a book that takes that myth head on and fundamentally destroys it. Such a book has just been published: "The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American" by Andrew L. Seidel, a constitutional attorney who works for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Seidel is far from the first author to address the historical myths and confusions of political philosophy that sustain Christian nationalism. But no one has written a book quite like this before, because of its sweep, its depth, its viewpoint and its tone. "The Founding Myth" goes far beyond debunking the false history that Christian nationalists advance to a detailed examination of how biblical principles are fundamentally at odds with our constitutional order. The rare exceptions at the time of our founding — biblical support for slavery and the subjugation of women — do not reflect how we view the Constitution today. In addition, the fact that the Constitution has evolved, and was designed to do so, points to another sharp contrast with the unchanging edicts of the Bible, many of which simply go ignored today in order to preserve the mythic appeal. Seidel also examines how linguistic trappings — "In God We Trust" on our currency, "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. — do not reflect deep principles of national political philosophy, but rather episodes of national weakness and political opportunism that cloud and obscure our true heritage.

Tags: 1950, 2016, Alt-Right, Christian, Donald Trump, England, First Amendment, Freedom From Religion Foundation, In God We Trust, Jesus, Jewish, LGBTQ, Quicky, Washington

Once again, Graham Berry has helped a victim of Scientology in desperate straits. Like others we've told you about recently, Louis Stephen, 69, was targeted by Church of Scientology employees who ran up stunning debts on credit cards he didn't even want to open in order to purchase expensive Scientology courses he had no interest in taking. Previously, we told you about 75-year-old Efrem Logreira, who was targeted in a similar scheme. Also, an 82-year-old woman in the Midwest who said she had to escape in the middle of the night from a Los Angeles hotel after being hounded by Scientology employees. And in April we told you about Sean Henderson, another client similarly abused. All three were made whole by Berry after he took their cases. Another person was refunded money before he could even get Berry involved, that's how quickly Scientology reacts now when they know Berry is on a case. "Mr. Stephen was made whole after I submitted my Pre-Litigation Demand letter," Graham says. "During the past six months I have resolved four of these credit card cases directly. Another one was repaid immediately after I had agreed to represent the claimant. A sixth claimant has a response due on May 25. Three of the claimants were also alleging Elder Abuse."

Tags: 2008, 2016, 2017, 2018, Abuse, AMA, Amazon, Arizona, Auditing, Basics, Bridge Publications, Brittany Mann, California, Clear, Credit card fraud, Dion Arnow, Doctor, Don Arnow, Efrem Logreira, Extension Course, Graham Berry, IRS, Kelyn Hubbard, Legal, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Org, Louis Stephen, Natalia Ricketts, OT, PayPal, PC folders, Phoenix, Scientology organization, Sean Henderson, Social Security

It's a happy headline at the San Francisco Chronicle: "Jehovah's Witness who posted criticisms on Reddit can remain anonymous, judge rules." But dig into the story and you find that the result is actually almost opposite of that headline, and it also reflects a judge who truly doesn't understand who she's dealing with. Last month we brought up the legal case of an anonymous Jehovah's Witness who calls him or herself "Darkspilver," who is not a resident of the US, but who is being hunted down by the Jehovah's Witnesses organization, known as Watchtower, because of some criticisms they posted at Reddit. As we've said before, these were very minor criticisms, essentially embarrassing Watchtower with some of its own published items. But Watchtower has taken the extraordinary step of using the federal courts in an attempt to get Darkspilver's identity.

Tags: Darkspilver, David Miscavige, Jehovah's Witnesses, Judge Sallie Kim, Kendrick Moxon, Lloyd Evans, Reddit, San Francisco Chronicle

CLEARWATER - The third time was the charm for the city to close a long-debated real estate deal with the Church of Scientology. After two previous deals were scuttled over more than a year of negotiations, the City Council voted 3-1 on Thursday night to give Scientology three small downtown properties in exchange for a vacant parking lot on Cleveland Street. City Council member Hoyt Hamilton voted in opposition and Vice Mayor Doreen Caudell was absent.

Tags: Amanda Thompson, Ben Shaw, Bill Jonson, Bob Cundiff, Clearwater, Cleveland Street, Community Redevelopment Agency, David Allbritton, Doreen Caudell, Hoyt Hamilton, L. Ron Hubbard Hall, Quicky, Tracey McManus

Tags: Quicky, Regraded Being

Taryn Teutsch spoke at the Leila Grace Foundation. This foundation is a, "is a non-profit organization that provides sexual assault awareness for college students across the country. It's main focus is to provide education, which can reduce the risk of sexual assaults on college campuses." Taryn's eight year old "fake news Fair Game story" has nothing to do with rape or sexual assault. Why is Taryn trying to exploit the Leila Grace Foundation? Scientology leader David Miscavige spent $100 million dollars and took seven years to launch Scientology TV. Miscavige boasted that his pricey television network would serve as the Church of Scientology's "uncorrupted communication line to the billions." Despite having Scientology TV at his command, David Miscavige has kept Mike Rinder's daughter Taryn Teutsch off the $100 million network.

Tags: 1948, 1949, 2001, 2010, 2014, Affirmations, BBC, Catherine Bernardini, Christie Collbran, Cult, David Miscavige, Dianetics, Fair Game, Forrest Ackerman, John Sweeney, LAPD, Leah Remini, Mike Rinder, Office of Special Affairs, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, Quicky, Rape, Scientology TV, Sexual assault, Taryn Rinder, Tony Ortega, Twitter

"Made in 1967, this is one of the earliest UK TV programmes to seriously examine Scientology. It was made by Granada TV, a long defunct regional commercial television company – and proved so popular that they followed it up, only a year later, with, "The Shrinking World of L Ron Hubbard", a classic programme which included an extended interview with Hubbard, on the flagship of the Sea Org. These were the days when there were only three UK television stations (two run by the BBC, financed by a TV licence fee, and one commercial station, financed by an effective monopoly on TV advertising). There was money to spend on investigative journalism, and programmes like this were very thoroughly researched.

Tags: 1967, 2014, BBC, Disconnection, Granada Television, L. Ron Hubbard, Quicky, Sea Org, UK

A 1948 letter written by L. Ron Hubbard that Lawrence Wright quotes in his 2013 history of Scientology, Going Clear, is going on the auction block in New York on June 14, and it's really fun to see it in its entirety on the Christie's website. The auction features two letters written by Hubbard to the man he considered his best friend at the time, another pulp writer, Russell Hays, who was from Kansas but who Hubbard met while on holiday with his first wife, Polly, in Encinitas, California in 1934. By 1948 and the first of the two letters to Hays, Hubbard was married to his second wife, Sara Northrup, and he was working on what would become his 1950 bestseller, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, the foundational text of the Scientology movement.

Tags: 1934, 1948, 1949, 1950, 2012, 2013, Bay Head, Birthday Event, California, Catholic, Chicago, Dan Sherman, Dianetics, Dianetics Foundation, Explorers Club, Forrest Ackerman, France, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, Hollywood, Kansas, Lawrence Wright, Mental Health, New York, Russell Hays, Sara Northrup, Squirrel, TIME, Twelve Against the Gods, Washington

Today we're going to talk about emotions and logic and critical thinking. There are lots of videos and talks out there about logic vs emotion and how these are two different kinds of thinking, or how emotions mess up critical thinking and make it difficult for people to make good decisions or form accurate opinions. I disagree with that analysis because let's be real: emotions are not something you can separate out or take away from people. Despite having very strong feelings on lots of different topics, people have been able to make perfectly valid and reasonable decisions about all kinds of things. Even Mr. Spock from Star Trek, the ultimate logical thinker, experienced a full range of emotions. He just suppressed the crap out of them because his people adopted a philosophy that emotions were bad. They had good reasons to think so, but as I think any psychologist would tell you, suppressing or denying how we feel only gets us into some real psychological messes and is not much of a solution for critical thinking. Emotion, information, logic and our implicit and explicit biases all work in partnership to drive our thinking. In human beings, these are inseparable components. If you are going to talk about practical critical thinking, you need to take all of these things into account, otherwise you're going to fail since we are not purely logical computers and not purely emotional or instinctual animals. Emotions get a bad rap in critical thinking, but there's nothing wrong with having them, and there's nothing wrong with acting on them. If we didn't act on our emotions, many of us would never have relationships, would never have children or wouldn't try to push the envelope of innovation. Believe me, you can think of hundreds of very logical reasons to not do almost anything but we do them anyway because despite the odds, we just feel we can pull it off. We owe a lot of our forward progress in history to people who had very strong emotions driving them to do what they did.

Tags: Critic, Quicky

Due to time constraints, I have not been able to put together Thursday Funnies yet. But Regraded Being, always one step ahead of the game, has this week's cartoon ready. I am sure nobody will mind it being a day early. I will try to get Thursday Funnies done by tomorrow.

Tags: Quicky, Regraded Being, Thursday Funnies

Leah Remini and Mike Rinder are hard at work preparing season 2 of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. But in the meantime, A&E wanted to tide you over, and so the team has put together a 2-hour special that will look back at where Scientology has been and how it's been exposed in the past. We weren't involved in the making of this particular special, but we've heard some names of some people who might be appearing in it. We're hoping to confirm that soon. You can fit quite a bit into a two-hour show! As soon as we hear more about what's in it, we'll let you know. The so far untitled episode is scheduled to air on A&E at 9 pm on Monday, May 29, after a marathon airing of Leah's first season...

Tags: 2008, 2012, A&E, Alexandria, Australia, Battlefield Earth, Bryan Seymour, California, Debbie Cook, Ford Greene, Gabriel Graves, Gary Richardson, Greg Arnold, Guardian's Office, Hillary Holten, Janet Reitman, Jeff Harris, L. Ron Hubbard, Leah Remini, Len Zinberg, Mark Ebner, Mike Rinder, Narconon, Narconon Arrowhead, Narconon Georgia, NBC, Oklahoma, Patrick Desmond, Paul Marrick, Paulette Cooper, Pittsburgh, Quicky, Ray Jeffrey, Registrar, Robert Murphy, Rock Center, Rolling Stone, Scientology and the Aftermath, Settlement, Stacy Murphy, Stephen Kent, Tampa, Texas, Tonya White, University of Alberta

A new piece from the author of the recent post "An Evaluation of Scientology." Fear: That Which Drives the Church of Scientology Religions go through cycles. They begin as seemingly benevolent and benign organizations with the intention of improving conditions and answering the basic questions of life. After a while, though, many—some would say all—devolve into strictly controlled practices ruled by fear in order to control their members and solidify their power base.

Tags: Auditing, Blackmail, Class V, Committee of Evidence, David Miscavige, Disconnection, Ethics, Ethics Officer, Fair Game, Field Staff Member, Hemet, Hubbard Communications Office Bulletin, Int Base, Keep Scientology Working, L. Ron Hubbard, Leaving Scientology, Master at Arms, Office of Special Affairs, OT, Paris, Quicky, Rehabilitation Project Force, Review, Ruin, Scientology staff, Sea Org, Student Hat, Study Tech, The Hole

Scientology has responded to the new accusations by Luis and Rocio Garcia that the church has made it impossible for the couple to abide by federal Judge James Whittemore's order that they take their accusations of fraud to Scientology's internal arbitration. Scientology has never conducted an internal arbitration, and Judge Whittemore acknowledged, when he put a stay on the Garcias' 2013 lawsuit, that there are no actual procedures in place for such an arbitration. But Whittemore agreed with the church's argument that because arbitration was called for in the contracts the Garcias had signed, that was something he couldn't meddle in for fear of violating Scientology's First Amendment religious rights. The Garcias have come back to court, however, and are trying to convince Judge Whittemore that Scientology has made it impossible for them to even attempt such an arbitration. According to the church and its "International Justice Chief," Mike Ellis, the Garcias' complaints will be heard by a three-person panel made up of Scientologists in good standing: One that the Garcias choose, one that the church chooses, and a third chosen by the other two arbitrators. But every time the Garcias have tried to get a list of Scientologists to choose from, or have suggested Scientologists they know for their arbitrator, Scientology has refused to turn over a complete list of names or has dismissed the Garcias' choices as people not in good standing. The Garcias say the situation is impossible, the church is not serious about conducting an arbitration, and they want Judge Whittemore to lift the stay in the case and re-activate the lawsuit.

Tags: 2013, 2014, Christian, Congress, Daily News, DC, Facebook, First Amendment, Garcia v. Scientology, International Justice Chief, Judge James Whittemore, Luis and Rocio Garcia, Mike Ellis, Mike Webb, Mission Impossible, Orange County, Personality test, Quicky, Suppressive Person, Tony DePhillips, Virginia, Washington

After selling his Beverly Hills mansion for a whopping $40 million, Tom Cruise is looking toward the Sunshine State for his next home. The Mission Impossible star's Los Angeles compound, which he shared with Katie Holmes during their six-year marriage, is currently in escrow after selling for $40 million, a real estate source tells PEOPLE. Cruise bought the property in 2007 for $30.5 million. For his next home, the globetrotting actor is looking to continue planting roots in Florida, specifically in the city of Clearwater where Scientology's headquarters are located.

Tags: 2007, 2013, Beverly Hills, Clearwater, Coin, Colorado, Florida, Hollywood, Katie Holmes, Los Angeles, Mission Impossible, New York, New York City, Quicky, Telluride, TMZ, Tom Cruise, Variety

The soft-spoken Jamie Carmichael has become an expert at selling controversial fare to international buyers — including Alex Gibney's documentary Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, which has caused waves with its damning portrayal of Scientology and high-ranking members such as Tom Cruise. The British-born foreign sales agent is president of L.A.-based Content Film, whose parent company, Content Media, has a 50 percent stake in Gibney's production company, Jigsaw Productions. Carmichael, who lives in Pacific Palisades, Calif., with his wife and two sons, has succeeded in selling Going Clear to buyers around the globe. He also handled Gibney's Catholic Church exposé Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God internationally. The 49-year-old, who is in Cannes with a slate of films including a Maria Callas biopic starring Noomi Rapace, the doc Steve McQueen, The Man & Le Mans and The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, produced by and starring Jessica Biel with a score composed by her husband, Justin Timberlake, sat down with THR to discuss how the church won't be able to stop Going Clear from being seen, the challenges of selling films in Cannes, and how he once went on a global trek that included a tour of a weapons factory in Pakistan.

Tags: 1991, Alex Gibney, Berlin, Cairo, Catholic Church, Content Media, Egypt, Europe, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, Iran, Italy, Jigsaw Productions, London, Pakistan, Pope, Quicky, Review, Spain, Sundance, Syria, Tom Cruise

As the Church of Scientology touts a plan to convert its prominent Yonge St. location into a flagship facility, the city says its owes over $100,000 in property taxes and penalties. Critics of the controversial organization say similar renovation projects have languished in other cities. The Church of Scientology of Toronto, which owns 696 Yonge St., owes more than $61,000 in property taxes and penalties for 2014, out of a total of just under $112,000. The organization made only partial payments of its 2014 property taxes, according to Supervisor of Collections Stephen Franceschini. It also owes $57,348.15 in taxes and penalties on the interim 2015 property tax bill, according to Franceschini.

Tags: Christabelle Crichlow, David Miscavige, Erin Banks, Ideal Org, Linda Wieland, Mario Angelucci, Marty Rathbun, Montreal, Property tax, Rotting building, Tony Ortega, Toronto

There are SO many things wrong with this latest email — though the huge elephant in the room is that in order to "clear the planet" she is proud of the fact that they "[re]make a Clear every 3 hours." That is 8 per day. Or about 50 per week... For 150 orgs that is about 1 per MONTH on average. But worse, she is apparently oblivious to the fact that the population of this planet increases by 8561 people per hour. If you were asserting you were creating a room full of white sand by adding 3 grains every hour, but failed to mention 8561 black grains were being poured into that same room each hour, you would be classified as insane. Obviously, the room is NEVER going to be filled with white sand. In fact, you won't even SEE any white sand because it is obliterated by the black sand....

Tags: 1970, Bridge to Total Freedom, Clear, Golden Age of Tech, L. Ron Hubbard, New Era Publications, OT VII, OT VIII, Quicky, Scientology Media Productions

Sunday was a blur. We want to thank the many people who came out to our two appearances with Paulette Cooper in support of our book 'The Unbreakable Miss Lovely,' at CFI-West's Steve Allen Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in the morning and at CFI Orange County's venue in Costa Mesa in the afternoon. In LA, our old friend James Underdown really set us up with an electrifying introduction, and we had to admit to the crowd that our body thetans were tingling as we took the stage. The Steve Allen theater has seats for 150 people, but paid attendance, Jim told us, was 175, plus there were some additional folks bringing the place near 200. And it wasn't just standing-room only, it was an eager crowd who ate up Paulette's anecdotes and even laughed at our jokes. We got smart questions from the audience, and a couple of questioners challenged us about the efficacy of Scientology, which really made things fun.

Tags: Costa Mesa, Deedee O'Malley, Derek Bloch, Egypt Reale, Facebook, Graham Berry, Guy Fawkes, Hollywood Boulevard, L. Ron Hubbard, Mark Ebner, Orange County, Paulette Cooper, Steve Allen, Steve Allen Theater, Texas, The Unbreakable Miss Lovely

The RTC building — "COB's Wing" is half the second floor facing the camera A Special Correspondent alerted me to this website that has photos of the work they did on the RTC Building at the Int Base, otherwise known as "Building 50". To give you a little more detail on what you see, and what you don't see in these photos, I pulled together some information from a number of sources who worked on this building and this a compilation of that information. There are many more details and stories about this building that I may get to at a later date.

Tags: 2001, Africa, Auditing, Bitty Miscavige, Building 50, Chairman of the Board, David Miscavige, FBI, Hollywood Guaranty Building, Int Base, International Management, L. Ron Hubbard, Maria Starkey, Norman Starkey, OT, Quicky, Rehabilitation Project Force, Religious Technology Center, Tom Cruise, Tom DeVocht

Note: Because of the length of this article, I never intended to post it online. I broke it down into six parts and made videos out of each one, which are here on my blog and on my YouTube channel. Once I completed those videos, I made it known that they came from this article and more than a couple of people wanted to see the article itself. So, here it is! I've also included download links for a PDF version of this, in case you want to read it off-line or send it to someone else. That link is here. The Church of Scientology is imploding at what any outside spectator would call an alarming rate. While its leader, David Miscavige, stands before enthralled devotees several times a year claiming highest-ever membership figures and off-the-top production figures, the truth from inside is quite the opposite. Since the late 1960s, Scientology has claimed membership in the millions. Yet those un-named millions have never been tallied from any official membership rolls nor validated in any way. In fact, it's been reported by those who were actually there that the reports of "millions of members" were literally created out of thin air as nothing but PR fluff to satisfy some demanding senior Scientology executive who wouldn't settle for anything less.

Tags: 1950, 1959, 1960, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1984, 1986, 1990, 2004, 2008, Anonymous, Auditing, Catholic, Comal County, Conditions, David Miscavige, Dianetics, Disconnection, E-meter, Ethics Officer, Fair Game, First Amendment, Florida, Greg Arnold, Guardian's Office, International Association of Scientologists, Jesus Christ, Keep Scientology Working, Luis Garcia, Malaysia, Manual of Justice, Marty Rathbun, Mental Health, Office of Special Affairs, OT, OT VIII, Pat Broeker, Paul Marrick, Potential Trouble Source, Quicky, Ruin, Scientology executive, Scientology organization, Sea Org, Snow White Program, Squirrel Busters, Suppressive Person, Texas, Ukraine, Volunteer Ministers, Westboro Baptist Church, Xenu, YouTube

It's that time of the week again, when we reveal the fliers and mailers and other items that our great tipsters have forwarded to us during the week. Before we get into the glossy fundraising appeals that pour in each week, we have a stark reminder that as much as Scientology wants to give the impression that it's expanding in leaps and bounds, the opposite is the truth. It's dying. And week after week, there's more evidence provided here and at Mike Rinder's blog and at forums like WWP and ESMB that document the church's inexorable slide. We've heard about missions drying up and disappearing, for example. Over at ESMB, there was a lengthy discussion about the long decline of the mission in Tucson. And now, a tipster has sent us some photographic evidence that the mission is now dead...

Tags: 2011, ANZO, Canada, Cass Mapother, Criminon, Freedom Medal, Greg Capazorio, Holocaust, Ideal Org, IRS, Kim O'Brien, Kirstie Alley, Laura DeCrescenzo, Los Angeles, Miami, Mike Rinder, Monique Rathbun, Nancy Cartwright, New Zealand, OT, Quicky, Sacramento, San Diego, San Fernando Valley, Scotland, Sunday Funnies, Sydney, Tom Cruise, Tucson, Valley Ideal Org, Village Voice, WhyWeProtest

Jon Atack is the author of A Piece of Blue Sky, one of the very best books on L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology. He now has a new edition of the book out, and on Saturdays he's helping us sift through the legends, myths, and contested facts about Scientology that tend to get hashed and rehashed in books, articles, and especially on the Internet. Jon, we recently pointed out in our reading of a first-edition copy of Dianetics that L. Ron Hubbard's description of a "dianetic reverie" sounded an awful lot like hypnosis. We got an earful from independent Scientologists who didn't appreciate that comparison — Hubbard himself insisted that auditing was not hypnosis. You've done some research on the relationship of the two. What can you tell us?

Tags: 1949, 1950, 1979, A Piece of Blue Sky, Alphia Hart, American Psychiatric Association, Auditing, CCHR, Clear, Dianetics, False Data Stripping, Hypnosis, Jon Atack, Mental Health, Never Believe a Hypnotist, OT, OT III, Quicky, Research & Discovery, San Francisco, Science of Survival

References: David Miscavige Violates Tom Cruise's Confessional You Were Put On Notice in August 2009

Tags: 2009, David Miscavige, Guy Adams, Ingleside, Inspector General, National Enquirer, New York, Quicky, Texas, The Independent, Tom Cruise, UK

On Sunday, we broke the news that the lyrics to Lisa Marie Presley's song "So Long" -- from her new album Storm and Grace -- contained an even more obvious message that she was leaving Scientology than the one we perceived in the single she released in advance of the album a month ago, "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet." (Above is Lisa Marie's video for the single, and our thanks to Skip Press for making us aware of it.) All week, Lisa Marie has been on a publicity blitz for the album, and we've been waiting patiently for a reporter to ask her about these lyrics, which seem to quite plainly reveal that she's breaking away after her long association with the church. Now, one has. And he happens to be on the other side of the planet.

Tags: 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1975, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, Advance!, Africa, Anonymous, AOSHUK, Apollo, Auckland, Australia, Black Propaganda, Clear, Committee of Evidence, Cuba, David Miscavige, Debbie Cook, E-meter, Facebook, FBI, Florida, Jason Beghe, John Travolta, Katie Holmes, Kirstie Alley, L. Ron Hubbard, Lisa Marie Presley, Lisbon, London, Marty Rathbun, Matt Lauer, Mediterranean, National Enquirer, New Zealand Herald, Orders of the Day, OT, OT Phenomena, Quicky, Review, Russell Baillie, Scientology executive, Skip Press, Tom Cruise, UK

Firefighters were called to a fire at Brisbane's Church of Scientology in the city's inner-south this morning. It is understood a discarded cigarette sparked the fire in a pile of rubbish in the courtyard of the church about 2am.

Tags: Australia, Fire

A FIRE broke out at The Church of Scientology of Brisbane at Annerley overnight. Emergency services said material in a courtyard caught fire and affected a couple of air-conditioning units.

Tags: Australia, Fire

Protests by members of the Church of Scientology outside APA annual meetings are the latest manifestations of a veritable war that the organization declared against psychiatry over a half century ago. Inside the Honolulu Convention Center during this week's annual meeting in Honolulu, a panel discussed the war's origins and tactics. "War" is no mere metaphor, said Nancy Many, a former Scientology member who addressed a packed meeting room. Many belonged to the "paramilitary wing" of the organization and ran an espionage operation that placed agents in every psychiatric hospital in the Boston area, for instance. Other agents broke into psychiatrists' offices to steal and photocopy patient records, and infiltrated local professional psychiatric societies, she said.

Tags: American Psychiatric Association, Boston, Burglary, Food and Drug Administration, Hawaii, Honolulu, Infiltration, L. Ron Hubbard, Nancy Many, Stephen Wiseman

Did anyone notice how the AO MAA Julian, OSA Ext Security, the local DSA Steven's Creek - the whole lot of the staffers - ultimately dealt with their little problem with Susie Lewis? They shunted her to the self-described "stand-up guy" Rick Manning, Susie's boss at Wise-licensed dental consultants "Pacific Management Consultants." Who better to do the bidding of the money-motivated, real estate "religion" than the boss - who writes the checks - of the mark being handled? One little problem with this handling, it is illegal and unconstitutional in the United States of America. I have learned over the past two years that the potential financial loss of disconnected business connections is as suppressive - if not more so - than the potential friends and family losses threatened. In many cases it is so.

Tags: David Miscavige, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Haydn James, Independent, Juan Villareal, Lucy James, Master at Arms, Office of Special Affairs, OT, OT VIII, Pacific Management Consultants, Quicky, Rick Manning, Suppressive Person, Susie Lewis, US Department of Justice

Benicio saw this one coming Things have been a little quiet stateside for Scientology watchers (where's that next part of the Leiby saga, Marty?), but over in Israel, all hell has broken loose. For the last couple of weeks, we've been writing about what happens in the U.S. if Scientology considers you an enemy: you get surveilled, your trash is sifted for clues about you, and "eyes only" documents record your every move. In Israel, apparently, you just get blown to Kingdom Come.

Tags: David Miscavige, Gur Finkelstein, Haaretz, Israel, Jaffa, Jerusalem Post, Jewish, Office of Special Affairs, OT, Quicky, Tel Aviv

It ended seconds after takeoff Sunday in a fiery crash that, somehow, left pilot Ernesto Gonzalez, 48, and passengers Charles Uslander, 54, and Daisy Schneider, 16, alive, and those in the neighborhood where the plane went down unscathed.

Tags: Charles Uslander, Clearwater, Clearwater Police Department, Daisy Schneider, Dutch, Ernesto Barrientos, Ernesto Gonzalez, Haiti, Medical, Mexico, Pilar Uslander, Tampa

Scarlett Hanna is the daughter of Australia's head of Scientology, Vicki Dunstan. An interesting trend here as the son of the founder (L. Ron Hubbard) of scientology, Ron DeWolfe (changed his name!), as well as the brother and niece of the current international leader (David Miscavige) have also all escaped and denounced the cult.

Tags: Australia, David Miscavige, Quicky, Ron DeWolf, Scarlett Hanna, Vicki Dunstan

In an exclusive interview on ABC 1's Lateline, Scarlett Hanna has detailed life growing up in the former Cadet Org: a group set up for the children of Scientology's elite unit, the Sea Org. "The best way I can describe it is cattle," Ms Hanna said of their treatment. We were property of the organisation." Ms Hanna is the only child of Vicki Dunstan, president of the Church of Scientology in Australia, and Mark Hanna, a former Asian/Pacific director of public affairs for the church.

Tags: Australia, Cadet Org, Mark Hanna, New South Wales, Rehabilitation Project Force, Sarah McClintock, Scarlett Hanna, Sea Org, Sheila Huber, Sydney, Vicki Dunstan, Virginia Stewart

The daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology in Australia has spoken out against the organisation.

Tags: Australia, Quicky, Scarlett Hanna

Some people have difficulty understanding Scientology promotion, press releases or event speeches. I've found that this is because the Church often uses common English words and phrases to mean something entirely different from the usual "wog" definition of that word or phrase. So, in the interest of clarity, I have compiled the following glossary of terms to assist in understanding Scientology's literature and spokespeople. acceptable truth: lie "advance your IAS status": pay more and more money to the IAS.

Tags: Applied Scholastics, Christian, Criminon, Ideal Org, International Association of Scientologists, Narconon, OT IX, OT VIII, Quicky, Saint Hill, Sec Check, Squirrel, The Way to Happiness, Tom Cruise, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

About three dozen downtown business owners are upset with a group of anti-Scientology protesters and want the City Council to do something about them. But city leaders Tuesday said there's little they can do. "Suspending the First Amendment is something we shouldn't spend a whole lot of time on," council member Paul Gibson said.

Tags: 9/11, Anonymous, Clearwater, Cleveland Street, First Amendment, Palm Harbor, Paul Gibson, Real estate

In his piece, Gipps referred to both as "nutters", before moving quickly to a scene from a Scientology documentary. "Now for the first time the real story, the video John Sweeney left out of his report," Gipps said, cutting to a church-shot scene of Sweeney yelling at celebrity Scientologist John Travolta at a movie premiere last year.

Tags: Howard Gipps, James Packer, John Sweeney, John Travolta, Kate Ceberano, Peter Meakin, Tommy Davis

For the record, I've met families who say their lives have been wrecked. Many people who have since left the Church say they now see it, in the words of a High Court judge back in the Eighties, as "corrupt, sinister and dangerous". His words, not mine. We didn't fake the demo by anti-Scientology protesters. We're not terrorists, I'm not a bigot and I don't take kindly to being compared to Hitler. Why did I lose it? I had had enough. During seven days on the road with Scientologists and ex-Scientologists I had been followed by creepy strangers, followed by cars, shouted at, called a bigot countless times, had my hotel invaded by top Scientologist Tommy Davis plus camera crew and had an interview with a critic of Scientology -- who they call a "sex pervert" -- interrupted by Davis.

Tags: Disconnection, Fair Game, Nazi labelling, Russell Miller, Tommy Davis, Xenu

I WATCHED COOPER'S interview with interest, after my own run-in with the Scientologists a few weeks ago. I wrote a blog post about the new "Hairspray" film being released in July that stars prominent Scientologist John Travolta and urged gays to boycott the movie. The tongue-in-cheek nature of the post was lost on Scientologists.

Tags: John Travolta, LGBTQ, Michael Pattinson

ST. PETERSBURG -- Scientology critic Robert Minton has funneled $10-million into a global anti-Scientology crusade, financing lawsuits against the church and supporting some of Scientology's most strident opponents. The staggering total of Minton's largesse over the past seven years was revealed for the first time in court Friday as Minton, 55, testified in a hearing on whether a civil wrongful death lawsuit against the church should be dismissed. No one has ever orchestrated such a campaign against the church, said Scientology spokesman Ben Shaw.

Tags: 1995, Ben Shaw, Bruce Howie, California, Clearwater, England, France, Germany, Judge Susan Schaeffer, Ken Dandar, Lawrence Wollersheim, Lisa McPherson, Lisa McPherson Trust, NBC, New York Times, Pinellas County, Quicky, Robert Minton, Scientology organization, St. Petersburg, Stacy Brooks, Tampa, The Profit

Arrowhead Lodge on Lake Eufaula will soon become the home of a drug and alcohol abuse treatment center with ties to the Church of Scientology. The nonprofit Association for Better Living and Education plans to pay the Choctaw Nation about $1.9 million for the 256 acre resort, said Gary Smith, executive director of the Narconon Chilocco New Life Center in Newkirk. The group will then lease the property near Canadian, in Pittsburg County, to the Narconon treatment center.

Tags: ABLE, Arrowhead Estates, Arrowhead Lodge, Bud Shaw, Choctaw, Gary Smith, Narconon, Narconon Arrowhead, Narconon Chilocco, Oklahoma Tourism & Recreation Department

Depending on whom you ask, last week's verdict in Religious Technology Center v. Keith Henson is either a vote for intellectual property rights or a vote against freedom of information. But regardless of whom you ask, Henson is in an unenviable position: He faces a US$75,000 fine for violating the Church of Scientology's copyright. And this Friday, the Palo Alto, California, electrical engineer must tell the judge in the case why he should not be held in contempt of court for the Web posting of sealed testimony in the San Jose, California, US District Court trial.

Tags: Graham Berry, Helena Kobrin, Judge Whyte, Keith Henson, Religious Technology Center

A jury today awarded $39 million to a woman who says the Church of Scientology defrauded her with claims it would improve her eyesight and make her more intelligent. The Multnomah Circuit Court jury, after a 10-week trial and two and a half days of deliberations, found that the church defrauded the woman, Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, who had been a church member for nine months.

Tags: Earle Cooley, Garry McMurry, Julie Titchbourne, Legal

Church of Scientology officials say they'll appeal a $39 million fraud judgment awarded a 27-year-old woman in a decision her lawyer says "will be heard around the world." A Multnomah County Circuit Court jury on Friday awarded Julie Christofferson Titchbourne punitive damages of $1.5 million from the Church of Scientology Davis Mission, a Portland branch; $17.5 million from the Church of Scientology of California; and $20 million from church founder L. Ron Hubbard. The jury also awarded Ms. Titchbourne $3,203 in general damages from each of the defendants.

Tags: 1975, 1976, 1979, 1982, Appeal, Church of Scientology International, Church of Scientology of California, Garry McMurry, Heber Jentzsch, IRS, Judge Donald Londer, Julie Titchbourne, L. Ron Hubbard, Mission, Multnomah County Circuit Court, Oregon Court of Appeals, Portland