14 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving, Tony!

Expand full comment

That cover art HAHAHAHA!

Thanks guys!

Expand full comment

Observer is famed for her photoshopped ("shooped") Scientology images :)

Expand full comment

Scientology: the festering boil in Los Angeles, lol!

Expand full comment

Just finished the book from Audible. Excellent book, excellent narration. Tony thank you for the daily posts even on a holiday. Love the Substack format. The read to me feature is welcome despite the pronunciation errors.

Expand full comment

Happy Thanksgiving to Tony and all his Substack readers!

Expand full comment

Happy Thanksgiving, Gentlemen! I'm thankful for a cool surprise, a Tony Ortega & Mike Rinder podcast, Heck Yeah! I listened to "A Billion Years", as a fascinated scientology observer and it was, for real, all I hoped it would be...Fantastic! I've been missing Mike & Leah's Fair Game podcast like crazy But their absence has lead me to the Underground Bunker and I'm digging it. Thanks Tony, for giving me a little M.R. fix today. I appreciate the work you both do to expose this cult...scientology is Batshit Crazy!

Expand full comment

Astonishing, really, hearing these two titans on the one podcast.

There’s so much good news at the moment for suppressives like me who seek Scientology’s destruction. When I was in Scientology, we would get excited about reverse news, like a critic being sued.

Expand full comment

Nice interview to listen to. I wish there would have been some discussion about Paul Haggis ... since both Mike Rinder and Leah Remini testified, there has not been a peep. Nobody asking or saying anything or even mentioning Paul Haggis' name ...

Expand full comment

Great surprise! Thanks so much to you both

Expand full comment

Hard to read Marty's "review" which isn't a normal writing. It's more like reading Marty's speaking his thoughts to please Miscavige. His mind's turned into dumping on others he's mentally self brainwashed himself into these disparaging thoughts which only David Miscavige would understand.

I wonder of the hours Marty and Miscavige spoke to each other, their conversations must be like Marty's "review" writing is. Dumping on others to please some other horribly messed up mind, as is Miscavige's mind.

Expand full comment

I can only imagine how hard it is to escape Scientology and deal with the daily harassment they put the survivors through for the rest of their lives. It's a living hell for some and it takes a lot of strength, patience, courage, balls, whatever you want to call it to live like that. I'm guessing for the Rathbuns it was easier just to give in, pretend to go back to believing what Marty Rathbun has already made infinitely clear (no pun intended) he knows is BS, all while smiling and nodding in agreement while listening to Scientology spew its gorge and have him regurgitate it. I actually feel sorry for the guy. What a way to live. But a deal with the devil is sometimes all a person thinks (s)he has.

Expand full comment

I'm reading the late Paul Morantz's book, "Escape" which Tony mentions in Tony's article when Paul passed away.

In Paul's "Escape" he touches upon all the key issues going on why people get into cults, and then why cults are cults, and Paul cites all the books and main authors who've written already on all the ins and outs.

In one single, "one stop shop" book, Paul Morantz's book, "Escape" gets to all the key things wrong with Scientology and then with an ex senior official to Scientology, like Marty's swing to attack and attack with the language Marty has used to attack, superfically and wrongly, as Marty has done.

It's part of Marty's unique mental problems, in a nutshell, on top of Marty's strengths and accomplishments while he was, as Marty calls himself a warrior, in his book title: "Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior".

Marty is trying to put himself above all others, and do what priorly was his niche skill, in doing smearing mischaracterizations of others, like he did in his years in the topmost ranks of the movement, which is why I wondered what his conversations when he sat around and heard Miscavige banter about what was wrong with others who were "enemies" to the Scientologists.

Marty has probably listened to so much disparaging language and mentality of Misavige's, he just slipped back into that world of thinking and criticizing others.

I read all of Marty's books, and I think one has to suffer through them, as for sure the final of the three books from Marty gives important history that despite Marty's personal flaws, what Marty tells still is very important material. The Sarge Pfauth info to me is the most important info in all three of Marty's books.

the subject, behind all this Scientology and ex Scientology discussion, is Hubbard.

Sarge's info on Hubbard, which is given in Marty's book three, "Memoirs of a Scientology Warrior" is the most important. Then second most are the legal years Marty was attempting for achieving the Hubbard "all clear."

Marty also gets into crazy Hubbard's final conundrum behaviors which were preventing achieving the "all clear" for Hubbard. That is the ultimate predicament, that Hubbard needed to die, for these top Hubbard lieutenants (Marty, Miscavige) to comply with Hubbard's ordered wishes.

That is the ultimate cult top entourage members' double bind.

Paul Morantz' book, "Escape" has all the dynamics of the predicaments for cult staffers' trying to do their cult boss's ultimate wishes.

I highly recommend Paul's "Escape."

Expand full comment

Chuck, I appreciate your thoughtful and detailed comments and will definitely read Escape. I am about to finish Tony Ortega's book on Paulette Cooper on Audible tonight and will order Paul Morantz's book asap.

Expand full comment