Scientology scores major success with powerful new publicity effort
We don’t give Scientology enough credit. We never would have thought the church was savvy enough, or that it had such a good sense of humor about itself, that it could convince Second City Television to reunite for a killer satire of all things L. Ron Hubbard.
Wait, you’re telling us this isn’t SCTV? You’re telling us this is an actual show in Toronto, and that Scientology sent someone from the Toronto org to appear on it?
Well, um, that’s really something.
Special Underground Bunker badge to any reader who can actually get through this entire video. And please, tell the rest of us what’s in it. We were cringing so hard, we had to quit just a couple of minutes in.
Meanwhile, another item from one of our great tipsters…
A poignant night at Lowell Observatory
Your proprietor had a very fulfilling experience last night at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. We were part of a discussion about Robert Burnham Jr, as the observatory paid tribute to the man who had spent 21 years there as an astronomer, from 1958 to 1979.
From left to right, speakers included author William Sheehan, Lowell historian Kevin Schindler, Burnham’s niece Donna Courtney, your proprietor, and Lowell astronomer Brian Skiff.
We also got to meet some people who knew Burnham that we hadn’t spoken to before, as well as catching up with old friends like Wayne Johnson and Bernie Sanden.
If you get a chance to visit the observatory, please look for the new Burnham display in the Rotunda. It’s very well done.
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
Here’s the link for today’s post at tonyortega.org
And whatever you do, subscribe to this Substack so you get our breaking stories and daily features right to your email inbox every morning…
Now available: Bonus for our supporters
Episode 8 of the Underground Bunker podcast has been sent out to paid subscribers, and it’s a conversation with Patty Moher about her amazing career as a Scientology spy and then her years leaking great info about the church. Meanwhile, we’ve made episodes 1 through 7 available to everyone, with Geoff Levin on Scientology’s celebrities, Pete Griffiths on running a mission, Sunny Pereira dishing secrets of Scientology’s Hollywood Celebrity Centre, Bruce Hines on the crazy life in the Sea Org, Jeffrey Augustine on recent Scientology court cases, Claire Headley exposing Tom Cruise, and Marc Headley on what it must be like for David Miscavige living in Clearwater, Florida. Go here to get the episodes!
My god that video is dire. The male host wouldn’t stop nodding. The hosts have no idea what they’ve let into their space.
Incredibly satisfying to learn of Tony's decades long efforts to pay tribute to Burnham.
--------------------------
The Canadian Scientologist PR Lady was so boring, it was impossible to get through. I had to skip around to the end of it.
I remember when I finally quit Scientology, I could even as an SP do a better job acting as a Scientology positive PR person than any of the Dept of Special Affairs PR spokespeople who are horribly dull.
Boring PR while feigning Scientology is contributing to a bright shinny future for humanity, is the Scientology schtick.
The truth which I try to simplify every chance I get on their YouTube appearances, is translate the Scientology syllabus (the "Bridge") into pseudo-therapy training and exorcism training, and then their practice of their pseudo-therapy and exorcism. And throw in Xenu to explain why they do their five secret exorcism steps.
Scientology's core wonky practices are simply not summarized well I've concluded. It's spiritual quackery of course, but it's spiritual pseudo-therapy aimed at bad karma, and then the exorcism of upper secret Scientology aims at the surplus souls who are chock full of super bad karma Xenu loaded onto those surplus souls.
Scientology's a supposed soul rejuvenation double whammy subject.