At last, a measure of justice for the victims of Danny Masterson. It has been too long coming. And these women have had to endure WAY too much to get to this point. Each of them are strong beyond comprehension to have survived the ordeal they were put through: first by Masterson, then by scientology, then by law enforcement and finally having to relive the horrendous events in not just one, but two trials. If you think you have any idea the emotional, mental and physical toll this sort of experience exacts, unless you have endured it personally, you cannot know. I hope these 3 victims, … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Scheme to Use Rape Victims for “Positive Press”
More scientology sickness hiding in plain sight. This is one of Hubbard's most important edicts on dealing with the media. It lays out scientology's policy on how to "control the press." It is the first policy in the "hat pack" of every scientology PR person. This is not "historical" or "we cancelled that" (like they claim about the Fair Game policy). They proudly stand behind this and even more proudly follow exactly what it says in their day to day actions. If you want to read the whole thing, you can do so here: Scientology Five Press Policies I … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Disdain for Law Enforcement
This is an earlier post I am updating, along with a new YouTube video today. In the wake of the Danny Masterson rape trial (soon to be retried after the jury ended up hung), many are curious about scientology's position with respect to reporting crimes to law enforcement. Scientology responded to reports they forbid this in typical fashion -- quoting the LA Times: The Church of Scientology declined to comment on the pending criminal matter, but said the religion has no policy against reporting crimes committed by Scientologists to law enforcement. “Church policy explicitly demands … [Read more...]
Podcast with Jon Atack
Jon and I recorded a new episode of his excellent podcast. Enjoy. … [Read more...]
A Billion Years Event: Scientology is Losing Its Mind
On Wednesday November 30th I am doing an event at the University of Pennsylvania with Professor Marci Hamilton. This is causing great consternation in the hallways of OSA/Stand League. They tweeted about it using my daughter's account and even created a new video where she whines how she just got a "copy and paste" reply to her form-letter complaint to UPenn. Seriously, only scientology could come up with something like this -- a whineTweet for Thanksgiving. I thought Thanksgiving was supposed to be a day when you remember what you are thankful for, not an excuse to circulate the … [Read more...]
“What Did You Do To Pull It In?”
In the face of the Danny Masterson trial, I have spent quite a bit of time recently explaining this Hubbard concept and how it relates to treating victims in scientology. Every scientologist knows and uses this phrase, "What did you do to pull it in?" as a pat response to those on the receiving end of something harmful or upsetting to them. It is the go-to answer for a broad spectrum of things: from being criticized unfairly by your boss, to being run over by a car or mugged on the street. The basic concept is that you are "at cause" and create everything in your life. In … [Read more...]
Reality Check: Scientologists and Law Enforcement
With the ongoing rape trial of Danny Masterson, a lot of people are curious about scientology's position with respect to reporting crimes to law enforcement. Scientology responded to reports they forbid this in typical fashion -- quoting the LA Times: The Church of Scientology declined to comment on the pending criminal matter, but said the religion has no policy against reporting crimes committed by Scientologists to law enforcement. “Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land,” spokeswoman Karin Pouw said. Though most people reject scientology's … [Read more...]
Court TV
Monday night I appeared on Court TV's Closing Arguments show with Vinnie Politan discussing the Danny Masterson case. If you missed the piece you can watch it here: … [Read more...]
Scientology: Trying to Buy Their Way Out of Disaster
Things are really not going well in the shrinking world of scientology. First, the release of A Billion Years. The scientology response? Buying Google ads to promote their smear sites which have a flurry of new content. A blizzard of legal threats letters and delegations of lawyers and scientology officials sent across the country to "handle the flap." Then the upcoming vote in Clearwater for a development plan that David Miscavige must HATE -- it will result in two large condo towers right in front of the Ft Harrison, and a huge increase in the number of prying eyes in downtown … [Read more...]
The 2009/2010 FBI Scientology Investigation: New Details
More documents from the 2010 FBI investigation have become available through an FOIA request made many years ago. While there is a great deal of redacted information and many documents withheld in their entirety, there is a lot of information contained in this disclosure that I had not been previously aware of. The full documents can be found here. There were a lot of documents released by the FBI back in 2017 which Tony O covered on his blog. Those docs (many of them witness interviews) are included in this new release -- though the redactions are very different. This is common with … [Read more...]