I want to wish everyone a wonderful day of peace, happiness and goodwill. Whether you are Christian or not, everyone can share in the holiday spirit. I hope each of you has the opportunity to spend a day with family and friends (especially children - for whom this is a magical day of excitement) as we will be. The only sour note note to be heard among the caroling is the fact that many readers here are cut off from some family members and friends because of the cruel scientology practice of disconnection. My wish is that you can enjoy and be thankful for what you DO have today and try … [Read more...]
Fast Eddie is Losing His Mind — “Big Pharma Whores”
Fortunately, Fast Eddie Parkin, the head of STAAD League and OSA International old-timer (he used to be Heber Jentzsch's assistant back before Heber was "disappeared") cannot block everyone on Twitter. Fast Eddie makes a habit of sliming people scientology doesn't like with his STAAD League account (@EPStandLeague). But everyone he targets is blocked from seeing his Tweets, and anyone who ever responds to him with anything less than fawning agreement of his assessment of himself as a genius is instantly blocked. This is such a cowardly way of doing things -- but is a typical scientology … [Read more...]
Janis Gillham-Grady
One of my oldest and dearest friends, Janis appeared on The Aftermath last week to help shed light on the life and disappearance of Shelly Miscavige. Her fantastic, almost photographic memory is a treasure that should not be taken for granted. And she has put her gift to excellent use in the two books she has published so far chronicling her life which also serve as the definitive history of the Sea Organization. If you want to know what life was like with L. Ron Hubbard in the formative years of the Sea Org, the first two volumes of Janis' story are the only place to go. Her extensive … [Read more...]
Detroit Ideal Org Fail
Ok, this is an “ideal” org. According to scientology this means instant “10x expansion.” This is the promotional piece they put together to let everyone know what a great job they are doing. Notice anything missing? The biggest crowd they can apparently manage is 10 people in the chapel -- staff and public combined. And always great to see a kid looking at the pictures of the fake people in the org mag... This is the REAL result of the ideal org program. Same people. More real estate holding. … [Read more...]
Regraded Being
Thursday Funnies
Wait, you are a Cause Resurged Super Powerful Being... And you need to go on Facebook to find a job? Do it for Ron! Venue to be announced... Target 2 perhaps? The real magic of Christmas... Apparently to be unveiled in a concrete parking lot? Experience the Truth of Your Existence Does anyone have ANY idea what this means? Perhaps this is being delivered on the front porch to infinity... The Art of Living? Pay $25 to hear the lead singer of the Jive Asses (an SO Member) tell you all about how to live life? Put you kids … [Read more...]
Where Is Shelly? Aftermath
As always, interested to hear your feedback on the show tonight. And as is their pattern, scientology's response to the show is both predictable and quite bizarre. They are hanging their hat on the fact that this is all a publicity stunt, but now they have gone a step further, claiming it is "intended to incite violence" and that Leah is back like Jason from Friday the 13th (a trademark Miscavigeism -- certainly not a line that any reputable lawyer would include in a letter). Of course they ignore the fact there would be NO INTEREST if Shelly was NOT MISSING from the public … [Read more...]
Thoughts on the Tone Scale
Frequent commenter Brian Thomas Lambert put together some thoughts about the Tone Scale and forwarded them to me. I asked him to write an introduction to himself: I’ve been blogging for a few years now. I started Scientology in 1971. The Incredible Stringband, an all Scientology music group, influenced my joining as I was a fan. I ended up marrying one of the ladies in the group named Likky. How the church treated her with callous abuse while she was going crazy on OT3x was instrumental in my leaving in 82. I was a Sea Org member at FOLOEUS, started at the Geltman mission in NYC with Chick Co … [Read more...]
Fast Eddie Parkin Strikes Out Again
Leader of the STAAD League and Westworld extra hopeful "Fast Eddie" Parkin has dropped another foot-nuke in his desperation to smear Leah Remini and me. In late November we aired an episode about the Jehovah's Witnesses. In mid-December an arsonist burned down a Kingdom Hall in Washington State. Ever fast on the draw, Eddie got busy on Twitter, posing the not-so-subtle question whether this could be the latest "A&E and Leah Remini product"? It seems even Fast Eddie was a little worried about what he was saying -- it's an old trick to accuse by posing a question, like if I asked "Does … [Read more...]
Christmas Party Break
Due to circumstances beyond my control -- just returned from NY and our annual Christmas Party tonight, I will not have a new post for today or tomorrow other than this note. Comments may take a while to review. Tomorrow we participate in the annual Aaron Smith-Levin, Sheldon Goldberg, Don McClintock, Mike Rinder very amateur golf tournament (unfortunately Don is unable to make it)... Always a lot of fun. Best wishes to everyone. We will all be enjoying ourselves, I hope you are too. … [Read more...]
Regraded Being
Second Act – Go See It
I attended the premiere of Second Act last night and it is a movie worth seeing. It's also why there are no Thursday Funnies this morning. Second Act is funny, touching and uplifting without being corny. Leah of course brings the laugh out loud humor that is her trademark. Spontaneous, plenty of ad-libbed moments and yet always her heart shines through. Watching her in the movie is a lot like hanging out with her when she is not on screen. Fun, funny and endearing. But there is more to the movie than Leah. A great performance by Charlyne Yi was a standout for me - she is really … [Read more...]
Scientology and Nazi Germany
Most of you likely saw the clip of Leah reading the letter from scientology before last night's show: https://twitter.com/i/status/1072634441669971970 This is the transcript of the statement: The Church states that it supports religious freedom for all and respects the religious beliefs of others, for all faiths, as enshrined in its Creed. The Church accuses Remini of spreading vitriolic religious hate and bigotry that instigates violence. The Church also insists that this disgustingly bigoted show spreads lies and foments discrimination, as was done in Germany in the 1930s. The Church … [Read more...]
STAAD Gives Itself a Pat on the Back
Here we have an example of classic scientology spin. Like they claim the IAS was founded with the Portland Crusade to "defend the rights of scientologists" (when it was actually a way of keeping money outside the purview of the IRS), so too STAAD has a "creation myth" that it came about as a response to "requests by scientology parishioners for a platform to speak out against discrimination." That is of course "utter bullshit" to quote David Miscavige in his last official statement to the press. The STAAD League was a bright idea to "combat" the negative PR generated by The Aftermath … [Read more...]
Ron Miscavige and Robert Almblad Life After Scientology Podcast
Robert, who was featured on last week's episode of The Aftermath, joined Ron Miscavige for his podcast on Sunday. Give it a listen. You will hear stories about his early years on the Apollo, his interactions with Diana Hubbard and David Miscavige that are pretty astonishing. Things we could not focus on in the limited time we had on the show. It is not what you might be expecting! Robert, Ron and Dave Richards have been close friends for many years. Dave unfortunately passed away a few months ago. I have known Ron since our families met at St Hill in the early 70's, and I met Dave … [Read more...]