This week, Leah and I had a wonderful time talking with my old and very dear friend Marc Headley —The BFG — on our Fair Game Podcast. Marc not only has a phenomenal memory, he possesses a great sense of humor. Anyone who has read his book knows both of these things to be true. We covered plenty of ground -- talking about the Int base and David Miscavige, the infamous musical chairs incident depicted in Going Clear and even how the Rinder bobblehead came to be. Throughout I mentioned including links, you will find them below. This is definitely an episode you don't want to mis … [Read more...]
Mike Rinder on Mormon Stories Podcast
On Friday, I had the pleasure of joining John Dehlin on his Mormon Stories podcast. We had a terrific discussion about cults and differences and similarities between Mormonism and scientology. He is very well informed and articulate. This is the oldest and I dare say most popular blog on the subject of the problems with the LDS church. It's worth a listen for a bit of a different perspective. … [Read more...]
White Bread Scientology Does Black History Month
The virtually whites-only country club that is scientology is trying to seem woke by holding a Black History Month Event. Hosted by the very white Beth Akiyama, they have to bring in some little known outsiders to talk on the subject. About the only people of color you will find in scientology organizations are members of the Nation of Islam who seem to have lost their way and ended up in the wrong building. The overwhelming whiteness of scientology caused great concern to the one real celebrity scientology has had from the African American community -- Isaac Hayes. He spoke … [Read more...]
Regraded Being
Why Is Chris Latvala Supporting Scientology and What is a “Safepoint”?
Please see the article on Tony Ortega's website yesterday about the crazy Twitter war FL State Congressman Chris Latvala started -- first with Tracey McManus of the Tampa Bay Times, then with Tony Ortega and subsequently with me. I tweeted about this after Tony' story was up, and the Congressman responded to me in a similar fashion: As you can see my last offer is to meet with him to help provide the education he needs. I hope he takes me up. He said he was unaware of the scientology connections to the books that were offered. Maybe that is the case, but … [Read more...]
Lords of Ideal
These people are losing their shit. They come up with the stupidest crap to make everything a "game". Funny how it's not a "game" when it comes to handing over cash, and very much not a game when they have maxed out your credit cards, you’ve gotten a second mortgage and now you have declared bankruptcy after giving in to their very unfunny demands. Think about this. At this point, every org in WUS except Albuquerque and Hawaii are "ideal." They pretty much have an "ideal Continent" -- they HAVE an "ideal" California, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. This is what they say i … [Read more...]
Episode 29: Journalist Tony Ortega
Leah and I talk to our old friend Tony Ortega this week. Tony has been reporting on scientology for decades and as anyone who reads this blog likely knows, he writes pieces every day relating to scientology at the Underground Bunker. This is the most complete repository of reporting on scientology anywhere. It is an invaluable source of accurate information about scientology. Though never a scientologist, over the years, Tony has become extremely well-versed in the all things scientology and Hubbard, beyond a surface understanding, he grasps the nuances and makes use of his … [Read more...]
More on the OEC
This is a follow up to the earlier posting I did concerning the apparent upcoming release of the "new" OEC (The Next Big Thing -- The Miscavige OEC). The OEC volumes have not been sold in scientology orgs or from the Pubs Orgs for more than a decade. Miscavige has declared them to be squirrel. Like the Briefing Course -- and oddly, the Briefing course consists primarily of a few hundred recorded lectures by Hubbard himself. It is quite amazing to see how utterly bamboozled scientologists have been by Miscavige. He has done what most old-time scientologists thought was … [Read more...]
The Official Scientology Bubble — Now No Need for COVID Measures
I have often said that scientologists live in a bubble of delusion. But now it's official. Scientology have declared their ultimate "spiritual retreat" is now an official "bubble." It could not be more fitting that the Freewinds now has the stamp of approval from "Church Management" as an "official bubble." Anyone who has ever been to the Freewinds knows this is the most hermetically sealed bubble in all of scientology. Once you are in it, the outside world no longer exists and the only reality is the dream world of scientology. No contact with the outside world. Not even a way of … [Read more...]
Regraded Being
How Did This Get Made Podcast with Leah and Mike
For those who may have missed it on social media, Leah and I joined June Diane Raphael and her husband Paul Scheer for an episode of their popular podcast. June Diane had commented on social media about The Aftermath. I thanked her for speaking up and that began an exchange that resulted in us joining them for a talk about scientology and Hollywood. I think readers of this blog will enjoy it. You can hear the episode here: … [Read more...]
Auditing Scientology: Reexamining Tax Exemption Eligibility
One of our commenters (ISNOINews) forward me a link to a wonderful piece by Taylor Holley, a Juris Doctorate candidate at Texas Tech University Law School written for the Law Review. It is titled Auditing Scientology: Reexamining the Church's 501(c)3 Tax Exemption Eligibility. If you click on the link above, you can download the full paper -- it is 27 pages long and summarizes all the facts and legal arguments as to why scientology should NOT enjoy tax exempt status. Below I include her abstract summarizing the paper: Abstract The Church of Scientology is one of the most discussed … [Read more...]
Episode 28: Cultbusting Attorney Ford Greene
Leah and I talk with attorney Ford Greene this week. Both fun and informative. Ford appeared on one of the Aftermath Specials with 9 or 10 other people and unfortunately didn’t get much airtime… I will add the link to the podcast when it becomes available: Ford has fascinating insight into litigating with cults, and especially scientology. He went into the Moonies in 1974 to rescue his sister, but ended up brainwashed himself, staying for 8 months before walking out. He said it took a year after walking out to deprogram himself at which point he resolved he had a personal resp … [Read more...]
First 5,000 OT VIII’s
OK, so they have not been able to get 10,000 onto or through Solo NOTs in 40 years, so they have come up with a new plan. Half as many through OT VIII. The 10,000 is derived from some obscure Hubbard statement about 10,000 people being able to control the destiny of earth. Here is how Clive Rabey put it back in 2014: ORIGIN OF THE 10,000 TARGETThis campaign was primarily based on the following LRH quote:"At any one time on Earth there were not more than about 10,000 people of a caliber that was sufficient to do a little steering or leading. There's only about 10,000 of them, really." - … [Read more...]
Another Ideal Org Fail
So much to unpack here. This is an "Ideal Org" -- Miscavige flew in and yanked his ribbon in January 2017. An "ideal org" that in 4 years, like all the rest of them, has gone nowhere, let alone St. Hill Size. According to Hubbard, they should have attained St. Hill Size in a "matter of weeks" and there should be a Universe Corps team there getting all the staff through their OT levels. Instead, the ED and OES have just now completed their Objectives! Yes, the course that comes right after the introductory TR's course and before any metered auditing takes place. And they are … [Read more...]