We welcome back our old friend Marc Headley to talk about Scientology and the internet, including covering the bonkers domain names scientology has registered, and how they have unsuccessfully attempted to control access to information on the World Wide Web. Marc's wonderful book: Blown For Good The Audiobook version The Scientology Money Project blog article listing many of the scientology owned domains: A YouTube video listing some of the troll domains registered by scientology: The Jokers & Degraders PL/HCOB: … [Read more...]
Episode 19: Christie Collbran Rinder
This week Leah and I speak with my wife, Christie. I will add the link as soon as it is live. While there is always a lot of interest in me, Christie has her own story. She is much more than simply my other half. Her entire immediate family, just like mine, disconnected from her when she began to question things and tried to communicate this to them. When our son, Jack, was 6 months old we visited LA and tried to see Christie's parents to introduce them to their grandson. Her mother was sent away to the Freewinds. Her father, who I have never met, is a former pro-linebacker … [Read more...]
Blog Problems — Update
As you may have noticed, there have been some issues in the last couple of days with the blog. They may continue for a bit while things are sorted out. Please have patience. Taking the lead from Miscavige, I declare this to be a cyberspace bullbait. Here is what I know. While the number of visits to this site has increased steadily following the Netflix airings of The Aftermath it did not create an issue until a few days ago when things started to ramp up with bots putting a lot of demand on the site, and then seeking to login (none succeeded). This is not uncommon in the … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Tax Exemption
I happened to pull up this posting from April 2015 and in re-reading it I thought it important enough to repost here today. With The Aftermath on Netflix, many new people are being exposed to the horrifying truth about scientology for the first time. And many have the same question as those who have been in the know for some time. How is it that scientology can be tax exempt? This is a pretty good essay that explains in some detail why it should NOT. And it addresses a bit why it hasn’t changed. Unfortunately, with a conservative majority now firmly entrenched in the US Supreme Court, … [Read more...]
Episode 18: Mary Kahn from The Aftermath
Leah and I were very happy to welcome Mary Kahn to the podcast this week. Hers was one of the most compelling episodes on The Aftermath - telling the story of her breaking away from scientology after completing OT VIII and the fallout with her family. The airing on Netflix has put her in the spotlight once again. We went into further detail about her story and covered some other topics I am sure everyone will find fascinating. I will include a link to the episode as soon as it is available. We mention a few items I am including here. First, the reporting about Hy … [Read more...]
Leah Remini: Scientology And The Aftermath Now on Netflix
As of today, 3 seasons of The Aftermath are now available on Netflix... Hoping this will generate a new wave of interest in ending the abuses of scientology. … [Read more...]
Cults Explained
I watched an interesting show on Netflix last night -- the episode of the "Explained" series entitled "Cults." Each of these shows addresses a different topic and tries to give an objective view to explain it to people who are curious or just don't know. It's only 25 minutes, and it is by no means comprehensive. It does not mention scientology and includes cult apologist Reza Aslan (among others) but nevertheless, anyone who has been involved with scientology will find plenty here that parallels our experiences. And it gives some perspective that there are lots of cults and they each … [Read more...]