Blown for Good: Scientology Exposed

Send us Fan Mail July 4th is loud, messy, joyful, and full of little traditions most people barely think about. That’s exactly why it hits so hard to realize we didn’t celebrate it at all while we were in the Scientology Sea Org. For us, it was just another workday, sometimes with a strange twist like being told to wear civilian clothes so the public wouldn’t suspect we were still on the clock. Wh...

Send us Fan Mail Some organizations fear bad press. Scientology fears a curious member with a browser and a calculator. We sit down together and answer the questions Scientologists are trained not to ask, especially the ones that can trigger ethics trouble, security checking, or sudden social isolation. From our years at Scientology’s International Headquarters, we explain why “criticism” gets lab...

Send us Fan Mail One day you’re “clearing the planet.” The next, you’re staring at a rental car door asking yourself if you can really walk away from everything you’ve been trained to fear. Claire Headley sits down with Ann Gollert Hill for part two of Scientology Stories, and Ann lays out the chain of events that turns long-term disillusionment into a real escape from the Sea Org. We dig into wha...

Send us Fan Mail The scariest part about talking openly isn’t the haters, it’s how many people still inside quietly listen because they can’t safely ask questions where they are. Marc and I share the kinds of messages we get from “under the radar” Scientologists: what their local orgs look like right now, how empty things feel, and how the constant push to buy updated materials turns belief into a...

Send us Fan Mail One phone call can change your life, and not always in the way you think. My friend Anne Gollert Hill joined Scientology at 27, because she was in a raw, vulnerable stretch of life where she wanted answers fast. We talk honestly about how grief, shame, and big dreams can make a “helpful” promise feel like a lifeline, and how Scientology recruitment often works by timing, not theol...

Send us Fan Mail The “most modern” Scientology e-meter looks slick on the outside, but once we open it up, the story gets a lot less mystical and a lot more revealing. We power up the Mark VIII (Hubbard Professional Mark Ultra VIII), walk through what auditors focus on, and then show what’s actually inside, including a detail you can’t unsee once you hear it: the circuit boards are dated 2004, eve...

Send us Fan Mail You’re told the Scientology e-meter is a “religious artifact” and a precision guide for spiritual counseling, but nobody ever wants you to look inside it. So we do the one thing Scientologists are NOT allowed to do: we open an e-meter on camera, read Scientology’s own technical definitions, and then compare the mythology to the wiring, boards, connectors, and the policies that kee...

Send us Fan Mail One email. Three weeks. A lawsuit. That’s the timeline Debbie Cook triggered when she quietly hit “send” to a list of high-level Scientologists on New Year’s Eve 2011. Debbie wasn’t a random critic. She spent decades inside the Sea Org, ran Scientology’s Flag operation in Clearwater for years, and knew exactly how to write in a way that Scientologists would actually keep reading....

Send us Fan Mail A “private religious process” sounds harmless until you see what it looks like on paper. We dig into newly public court documents describing Scientology’s so-called arbitration system and why experts say it’s not arbitration at all. From the Freewinds case involving former Sea Org members to the mechanics of how these clauses get signed today, we lay out what’s being used to keep...

Send us Fan Mail The moment you realize “this could happen to anyone” is the moment you start getting your power back. We’re kicking off our Cult Survivor Series with two of the most important voices in the cult recovery space: Sarah Edmondson and Nippy Ames, co-hosts of A Little Bit Culty, to talk about their new book A Little Bit Culty: Navigating Cults, Control, and Coercion. We get into what m...

Send us Fan Mail A cult doesn’t feel like a cult on day one. It feels like answers, belonging, and a plan for your life. Then the rules tighten, your world shrinks, and leaving starts to look unthinkable. We sit down for a candid Q&A about what people get wrong about cults, how we each ended up inside Scientology, and why “I’d never join one” ignores how recruitment and coercive control actual...

Send us Fan Mail Scientology doesn’t need to say “join us” when it can start with cartoon books, “communication” drills, and a Saturday activity that looks like harmless family fun. We dig into newly promoted Scientology kids’ courses tied to Clearwater’s Flag Land Base and shared by reporters like Tony Ortega, and we explain why this kind of soft launch can be one of the most effective forms of c...

Send us Fan Mail A comedy club might be the last place you’d expect to hear real escape logistics, but that’s exactly why Comedy For A Cause worked. Claire and I recap our first in-person fundraiser at Comedy Works South in Denver, including a quick walkthrough of the venue, how the silent auction came together, and why this mission matters for people leaving Scientology who suddenly face lost com...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wonder how a shrinking movement projects strength? We pull back the curtain on Scientology’s donor engine—where empty orgs are overshadowed by glossy Impact magazine spreads, 70-pound trophies, and staged photo ops that turn giving into a competitive sport. We trace the journey from simple IAS memberships to a stratified status ladder—Patron, Meritorious, Gold, Platinum, Diam...

Send us Fan Mail A “rehabilitation” program that feels like prison. A forgiveness ritual that ends at a paint shed. A Christmas day so rare that 60 people sprint down Hollywood Boulevard to seize it before it’s canceled. We take you inside Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force through Amy and Mat’s first-hand stories—four RPF assignments, the even harsher RPF’s RPF, and the daily grind of seg...

Send us Fan Mail Secrets don’t just hide in the shadows at Scientology’s international headquarters—they’re baked into the rules. We open the door on life at Gold Base: the mail opened before you read it, the addresses laundered through Hollywood to disguise location, and an internet “filter” that blocks anything critical while flagging your clicks for review. From the first days on the EPF, auton...

Send us Fan Mail The first days of freedom don’t come with instructions. We walked out with a suitcase, a borrowed car, and a head full of rules to unlearn—then found a pizza shop with a Help Wanted sign and realized the world outside wasn’t the barren wasteland we’d been promised. That small win set the tone: get a job, get an apartment, build credit from zero, and discover that time—afternoons,...

Send us Fan Mail Step inside Scientology’s balance sheet and the picture changes fast: small, friendly intro courses up front, a steep climb of costly counseling and training behind the curtain, and one Florida powerhouse quietly bankrolling the whole machine. We break down how local orgs pitch low‑cost classes, enforce nightly study quotas, and celebrate tiny wins, even as their course rooms sit...

Send us Fan Mail A “rehabilitation” unit that looks like a labor camp, a policy that promises rest and study while people lie on foam pads after all-nighters, and a workforce that builds studios, refaces Big Blue, and even handles VIP logistics—this is the RPF as told by those who lived it. Marc and Mat pull apart Flag Order 3434RB line by line, then hold it up to the light of real conditions: bla...

Send us Fan Mail Freedom doesn’t always announce itself with trumpets. Sometimes it looks like a quiet walk past an optometrist’s office, a cab ride that feels like a lifetime, and a choice that will cost you every family tie the group controls. We’re marking Claire’s 21st anniversary of leaving Scientology’s International Headquarters—a date that, by eerie symmetry, lands on the 40th anniversary...

Send us Fan Mail Grief and grit can share the same room. We open with a tough roll call—Mike Rinder, Jeff Hawkins, and Heber—names that shaped how the world understands Scientology from the inside. Their stories invite a wider look at power, control, and the tactics used to keep people quiet, from humiliation and bullying to PR games that promise access and deliver nothing. We revisit the surreal...

Send us Fan Mail A year of relentless help and louder hope. We open the doors on how the Michael J. Rinder Aftermath Foundation turned complaint campaigns into fuel, scaled a 24/7 crisis line, and put bold billboards across Los Angeles and London so Sea Org members know a safe exit exists. With Claire, Mark, Phil Jones, Matt Pesch, Amy Scobee, and mental health coordinator Jeff Beaumont, we walk t...

Send us Fan Mail A ship. A hotel turned school. A childhood taught to keep secrets. Pamela Nicole Williams joins us to trace a rare, ground-level history of Scientology—from her parents’ early work around Hubbard in D.C. and training at St. Hill to life aboard the Royal Scotman before the Sea Org took full shape. Her memoir, Clearly Lies Are True, threads vivid scenes with careful research to show...

Send us Fan Mail The glossy reels say “global help.” The insiders tell a different story. We sit down with director Mitch Brisker to map how Scientology reengineered Narconon after multiple deaths, shifted operations from the secretive International Base to Los Angeles, and used a made-for-TV sheen to mask liability and control. Mitch was there through the rewrites, the SMP launch, and the clampdo...

Send us Fan Mail A holiday shouldn’t require a stopwatch. We open up about what Thanksgiving and Christmas looked like inside Scientology’s Sea Org—15-minute meals stretched to 45, staged fireplace photos mailed home as “proof of life,” and a steady drumbeat that family time was off-purpose. While most people are baking pies and booking flights, we were filing petitions, dodging “PTS” labels, and...