In June we shot our series finale of The Aftermath, which will air in the next couple of weeks. A&E will announce the date soon. It will be our last show on A&E. When we began this journey, we did not anticipate more than a single season. But the response was so overwhelming and we felt strongly that the people who stepped forward deserved to be heard. We were not previously aware of some of the abuses that came to light, and we felt they compelled further episodes. And of course, Scientology’s response to the series played a role too. Scientology is a formidable opponent with … [Read more...]
Podcast With Ron Miscavige
This morning at 11am EST, Ron and I are doing Part 3 of the interview that began a few weeks ago. We plan to talk a bit about tax exemption and disconnection, but who knows, when Ron and I get together, anything can happen... You can tune in here: If you missed the earlier episodes, you can watch them here: Part 1 Part 2 … [Read more...]
The (Not Tom) Cruise Debrief and An Announcement
My apologies for being remiss. A few have asked how the vacation was as I made no mention of it here... It was amazing. I have waited to post this until we were ready with a special announcement. It's at the end of this short report on the cruise. We all had such a good time. A cruise is an excuse to eat and drink too much. Check. Do silly things -- like build a device to drop a raw egg 8 stories to the ship's atrium floor without it breaking -- we did! Visit interesting locations. Check. Do things we had never done before. Check. Spend time with friends (adults together while the 8 … [Read more...]
Mike Rinder – A Scientology “Nobody”
I happened across this old card the other day. I didn't know I had it. It was in my wallet the day I walked out of L. Ron Hubbard's old office in Fitzroy St., London. It was my final day in scientology. I had been sent to London to deal with the BBC Panorama program being done by John Sweeney. As the card states, I was on the Board of Directors of Church of Scientology International and acting at the time as the International Spokesperson for scientology. Of course, scientology has sought to rewrite history. On their websites about me, they claim that I held no position of … [Read more...]
A Cruise – But Not Tom
Things may be a bit slow on the blog for the next week. The Rinder's, Headley's and Smith-Levin's are going on a cruise together starting today. On a real ship ON the crossroads of the world. The man behind the scenes of this blog who is way smarter than me when it comes to computers and the internet, will be putting up new postings and monitoring the comments While we are crising the high seas. I have prepared posts in advance, at least one of which should keep people commenting for a while. Depending on the ability to connect to the interwebs while on the cruise, I may chime in … [Read more...]
Happy New Year
Happy 2019 to all who come here to participate in this community whether just as a reader or a commenter. We start the New Year with a new episode of The Aftermath tonight, which I believe is a good omen for things to come in 2019. Meanwhile David Miscavige, the one True Leader jetted off to Joburg to cut the ribbon on an absolutely pointless building -- the new "AO Africa". It is staffed with SO Members from Flag (they couldn't get any from Africa apparently) to serve a few small and failing orgs -- less orgs than any AO in history. They are offering "cheap prices" because the Rand is so … [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...]
Concerning Paul Haggis
There is plenty of reason to worry about defending anyone accused of sexual assault in today’s climate. But the fear of consequences for speaking our truth has not held us back in the past and isn’t about to start now. We have supported victims of sexual abuse who have reached out to us and have worked with them and law enforcement to ensure justice is done for both victims and the accused. We have avoided trial by media. In this time of heightened awareness of sexual predators, it is easy to remain quiet when an injustice is being perpetrated for fear of being tarred as politically … [Read more...]
Scientology Aftermath Episode 2 Aftermath
The show has aired, my laundry has been hung out for all to see, and now it's on to Episode 3. As always, I am interested in your views - including criticisms and things you think might be better explained or covered (and I will try not to respond to everything with "it's in a later episode.") I also suspect there are quite a number of new people who are coming to this blog for the first time. To all of you, welcome. I thought you might find it instructive to be directed to some earlier postings I have done that may help explain some things if you just watched the show … [Read more...]
Scientology The Aftermath Episode 2
Tonight's show focuses on me and addresses the subject of Fair Game. There is a short teaser for the show on the A&E Facebook page. Tony Ortega has a review of the episode on his blog today. Obviously there is a huge amount of territory to cover and it's SO difficult trying to figure out what to include and what to explain and how. You don't really understand this until you try to do it. And it is especially difficult to have perspective on a program that focuses on you. Obviously there are many things I have spoken about during the filming of this series that won't ever see airtime. … [Read more...]