PODCAST: Mirriam Francis is thriving since defying Scientology’s code of silence

Earlier this week, we received a surprise. It was a message from someone we haven’t heard from in a few years, and someone we really admired.

It was Mirriam Francis, who made such a strong impression during Leah Remini’s second season of Scientology and the Aftermath, and who also helped us out with a couple of pieces here at the Bunker.

If you haven’t seen her episode of the Aftermath in a while, which was the premiere episode of the second season, you really should reacquaint yourself with it to remember what a brave act it was for her to reveal that she had been abused by her own Sea Org father in Scientology.

She gave us a great piece to publish this week to help us understand what it’s like to come forward with allegations of abuse, in the hopes that helps us understand a little of what Danny Masterson’s accusers are going through as they wait for the trial to begin this week. And even better, she agreed to talk to us from Australia for the podcast.

Today, we’re releasing the sixteenth episode of The Underground Bunker Podcast to our paid subscribers at Substack. You should receive it presently at your email inbox if you’re on the list.

Not a paid subscriber? Well, we have something for you, too. Last week’s episode was with historian Jon Atack who talked with us about Mike Rinder’s new book. In the weeks before, we talked to Mark Bunker, Jesse Prince, Paulette Cooper, Michelle ‘Emma’ Ryan, Jefferson Hawkins, Marc Headley, Patty Moher, Geoff Levin, Pete Griffiths, Sunny Pereira, Jeffrey Augustine, and Claire Headley.

Those first fifteen episodes are now free to all of our subscribers, paid and unpaid. All of our podcast episodes can be found here.

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New York magazine’s ‘curtain raiser’ has one odd mistake

New York magazine’s Vulture blog has the first of what we expect will be a number of “curtain raiser” articles ahead of the Danny Masterson trial, summaries of what has gone on over the last five years.

It’s a well done piece, with one odd error. Our old friend Rick Ross for some reason seems to think that Danny is an OT 7 Scientologist, which would put him near the top of the “Bridge to Total Freedom.”

As we pointed out a couple of years ago, records indicate the opposite, that Danny has hardly done any of the Bridge at all. There’s no indication that he’s OT or even Clear.

This is consistent with the people who know him well, who tell us that he never demonstrated much interest in auditing or courses, and certainly never showed the initiative to go into the higher levels of the Bridge.

We noted that this is somewhat common with celebrities who grew up in the church. As born-in VIPs, they seem to have little incentive to apply themselves to what can be a grueling grind to the upper reaches of Scientology’s arcane “technology.”

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Scientology is on fire, you doubters!

Hey, it’s been a while since we checked in with some Scientology propaganda, but rest assured everything’s still the best ever!

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Thank you for reading today’s story here at Substack. For the full picture of what’s happening today in the world of Scientology, please join the conversation at tonyortega.org, where we’ve been reporting daily on David Miscavige’s cabal since 2012. There you’ll find additional stories, and our popular regular daily features:

Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history

Avast, Ye Mateys: Snapshots from Scientology’s years at sea

Overheard in the Freezone: Indie Hubbardism, one thought at a time

Past is Prologue: From this week in history at alt.religion.scientology

Random Howdy: Your daily dose of the Captain

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