As always, thanks to everyone for your amazing support. Most heartfelt thanks to Marie Bilheimer and Lauren Haggis -- two beautiful, courageous and caring women. Without contributors like them who are willing to stand up and bravely tell their stories, there would be no show at all. The purpose of this program is to provide a venue for the real, painful stories of life in scientology to be told. It cannot happen without those who will sit down before the camera. Every contributor knows that any remaining scientology friends they may have had will instantly disconnect (even though "that … [Read more...]
The Anti-Aftermath
It seems to be all hands panic stations inside the scientology bubble. In violation of Hubbard policy and all earlier practices, they are now "spreading the flap" by announcing it to all scientologists and "encouraging" them to write letters and sign a petition to shut down The Aftermath. This really is an unprecedented action in the annals of "attack the attacker" history. Scientology usually does its best not to make their public aware of "bad media", knowing most of them will not look at it anyway. Standard practice is to pretend it doesn't exist. They must be deluged with reports … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Latest Whinesmear
Scientology, in their zeal to sling mud and smear anyone they don't agree with, have created a new whinesmear site about Pastor Willy Rice of the Clearwater Calvary Baptist church. It is a typical scientology effort -- long on adjectives and pejoratives, short on facts and dripping with hypocrisy. Let's address the most obvious point first. Pastor Rice's stance on gays. I do not agree with his position. I FULLY support the rights of everyone in the LBGTQA community to be treated as equals in all things. But, to be honest, there are plenty of things I disagree with about teachings … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Response to Episode 1
Though I commented on this in my post of yesterday, I wanted to highlight the insanity of the scientology response to the new season's first episode while it is hot off the press (Thursday Funnies are on hiatus for a week). In a word. Lame. Their "defense" for child abuse is: We found three people who knew Saina when she was a child and she didnt mention she had been sexually molested -- yes and I found 5 people who knew Jeffrey Dahmer and they said he never told them he had killed and eaten people. So it didn't happen apparently. What they DIDN'T "find" was Mirriam or Saina's mother … [Read more...]
Scientology The Aftermath S2 Ep 1: the Aftermath
Thanks to everyone for supporting the show last night. There were too many tweets, messages, FB posts, blog comments here and at the Underground Bunker to possibly keep up, or respond to all the expressions of support and outrage. So let this be a general thanks to everyone. But thanks beyond all thanks goes to two incredible, brave women, Mirriam Francis and Saina Kamula who stood up, spoke up and gave voice to every victim of similar abuse in scientology. There is MUCH more to their stories as you might imagine. Only so much can fit in the minutes available for the show. I wish we … [Read more...]
The Aftermath Season 2
It begins tonight. A&E 9pm EDT. Looking forward to hearing your reactions tomorrow. … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Aftermath Part 2
See previous blog post Scientology's Aftermath. this is the second new PR spin to tumble out of Scientology in the last 24 hours. Responding to an article in Rolling Stone, headlined Leah Remini Wants Federal Investigation Into Scientology, Dear Leader Miscavige offered up further butt hurt whining: Regarding Remini calling for an "investigation," it is pure balderdash. The Church is a religious institution committed to our religious, social and humanitarian missions. The Church says Remini and her "sources" have continuously filed false reports with law enforcement that have been … [Read more...]
Scientology’s Aftermath
While Miscavige is busy telling scientologists to watch his 1993 IRS Event (see earlier post today When the Going Gets Tough...) in order to combat the new tidal wave of negative publicity flooding his dinghy, he is also rolling out a new external PR line. The cry from scientology has been that The Aftermath is just a means for Leah Remini to "make money" (they cleverly called it "Leah Remini; After Cash") -- but that line is kind of dead in the water as Leah is now filming Kevin Can Wait. Even Miscavige knows that a network sitcom is a far more lucrative gig than any form of "reality TV." … [Read more...]
When the Going Gets Tough…
When Miscavige feels most threatened, he invariably pulls the 1993 IAS event out of mothballs for re-airing in all orgs. This is Miscavige's crowning achievement and when he feels his PR is being assaulted, in his mind this is the antidote. Getting people to come into an org to watch this video yet again is a Sisyphean task. There is no current scientologist who has not seen it numerous times. And there are no NEW scientologists. So it's a tough sell. Miscavige is convinced this is the best reputation damage control he can do. Not come out in public and actually answer questions or make … [Read more...]
Old Scientology Allies — the LAPD
Here they go again. The LAPD has a long history of cozying up to scientology. Wonder why they didn't say this was IN THE PARKING LOT OF LA ORG? They just list it at the bottom as one of the sponsors. But you have to love the copyright notice "protecting" the Dianetics symbol and "scientology cross" that do not even appear on the piece... … [Read more...]