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The Unbreakable Miss Lovely Book Tour!

thewritegoddess

Patron with Honors
The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles, at the Steve Allen Theater, was a memorable stop in the tour, at least for attendees!

Some strong anti-Scientology sentiment was stirred in LA on Sunday, when journalists and authors Tony Ortega and Paulette Cooper presented Mr. Ortega's newly published book of Ms. Cooper's amazing life and bizarre and deadly encounter with Scientology.

Paulette Cooper wrote "The Scandal of Scientology," a great book that can be found on-line through any search engine. As part of an agreement with the COS, Ms. Cooper no longer owns copyrights to the material, so it would seem sure that no new editions of her book will ever be produced. During the writing of and after the publishing of her book, Ms. Cooper endured possibly the most vicious "Fair Game" attacks any "never-in" critic has ever experienced.

Scientology went as far as to frame Ms. Cooper for federal offenses, going to extreme lengths to intrude into her life in order to manufacture evidence to convict her of crimes she never even would have thought of committing. That isn't nearly the most dramatic event of Ms. Cooper's life, as attendees learned how she was saved, as a baby, during the Holocaust, and how she was adopted and through researching for Mr. Ortega's new book, she learned more than she ever knew about her family history.

The initial presentation was fantastic, with Mr. Ortega taking the lead and directing questions to Ms. Cooper for elaboration. The question and answer session afterward was rather amusing. A bald gentleman standing in the back attempted to make a rebuttal in Scientology's favor (didn't work). An older gentleman in the second row was the most entertaining (and frustrating, and sad) questioner, as he wanted Tony Ortega to acknowledge how important Scientology was during the anti-war movement of the late 60s, early 70s. Mr. Ortega was much nicer than he could have been, and merely gently pointed out that the same thing could be said of MANY groups at that time period. As a "ha ha" for us watchers, the same gentleman bragged about his stats... to an audience of people who don't believe in Scientology. He believes sooooo hard in his old age, that he thinks wogs care about auditing stats (from fifty years ago, no less).

Many of us got our books autographed after the session, and both Mr. Ortega and Ms. Cooper were pleasant, delightful, and happy to meet so many new (and long-time) fans of their work. Another big bonus for the day was the fact that many of us already "knew" each other online through sites like this or TonyOrtega.org. Missionary Kid from the Bunker was smart enough to bring NAMETAGS, and that was helpful. Certain people didn't need name tags. We all know Tori, and now Spanky, and Karen, and Jeff, and it was so lovely to be able to thank them in person for what they do.




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Here is The Unbreakable Miss Lovely in the patio of The Steven Allen Theater, where the CFI has an amazing sculpture that seems to incorporate every religious belief into its structure. No, I didn't take a picture from the side with the Scientology "S."

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Loads of people have MUCH better images, I'm sure. I'm not a photo person, so I'm probably not in any except for quite a few I think I'm in the background of, trying to pretend I don't know a camera is there. Would love to see people put up their photos here or at the Underground Bunker!


 

Udarnik

Gold Meritorious Patron
The question and answer session afterward was rather amusing. A bald gentleman standing in the back attempted to make a rebuttal in Scientology's favor (didn't work). An older gentleman in the second row was the most entertaining (and frustrating, and sad) questioner, as he wanted Tony Ortega to acknowledge how important Scientology was during the anti-war movement of the late 60s, early 70s. Mr. Ortega was much nicer than he could have been, and merely gently pointed out that the same thing could be said of MANY groups at that time period. As a "ha ha" for us watchers, the same gentleman bragged about his stats... to an audience of people who don't believe in Scientology. He believes sooooo hard in his old age, that he thinks wogs care about auditing stats (from fifty years ago, no less).

This dovetails with jennyatlax's account:

Question (asked more like a comment): “Scientology inspired a generation of people in the 1960s to actually do something about society.” (The commentator also cited Highest Ever Technical Delivery statistics in his division at a Scientology org, stats that have never been matched.) Included in Tony’s response (“A Scientologist will cite their stats,” Tony adds) is this statement: that while Scientology inspired a generation of young people, Scientology, at the same time, broke into government offices, forced young women to get an abortion, and broke up families with their Disconnect policy.

Seriously?!? Fleazoners and UTRs and maybe ancient OSAbots want to take credit for the 1960s?

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

Scientology didn't inspire people to "actually do something about society". It didn't inspire people to protest the war. It took people who were already inspired to do such things and ensnared them. It grabbed them by their naiveté and glommed on to their neck in order to suck all the creativity, vitality and humanity out of them, just like an old school vampire. And these victims we're talking about here were nowhere near a significant fraction of the total counterculture in the 60s. This is stat inflation at its most blatant.

Was this some ancient Missionaire or power FSM trying to assuage the pangs of conscience for suckering so many into Laffy's trap? :confused2:

Sad.
 

Terril park

Sponsor

This dovetails with jennyatlax's account:



Seriously?!? Fleazoners and UTRs and maybe ancient OSAbots want to take credit for the 1960s?

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

Scientology didn't inspire people to "actually do something about society". It didn't inspire people to protest the war. It took people who were already inspired to do such things and ensnared them. It grabbed them by their naiveté and glommed on to their neck in order to suck all the creativity, vitality and humanity out of them, just like an old school vampire. And these victims we're talking about here were nowhere near a significant fraction of the total counterculture in the 60s. This is stat inflation at its most blatant.

Was this some ancient Missionaire or power FSM trying to assuage the pangs of conscience for suckering so many into Laffy's trap? :confused2:

Sad.

I got in in the sixties. Not aware of those wanting to inflate stats. Or it passed
over my head. Its always an Scn mission to make a better world. Back in the sixties
they may have been able to make a case. Now the world hates them. Karma!
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on

This dovetails with jennyatlax's account:



Seriously?!? Fleazoners and UTRs and maybe ancient OSAbots want to take credit for the 1960s?

What. The. Actual. Fuck?

Scientology didn't inspire people to "actually do something about society". It didn't inspire people to protest the war. It took people who were already inspired to do such things and ensnared them. It grabbed them by their naiveté and glommed on to their neck in order to suck all the creativity, vitality and humanity out of them, just like an old school vampire. And these victims we're talking about here were nowhere near a significant fraction of the total counterculture in the 60s. This is stat inflation at its most blatant.

Was this some ancient Missionaire or power FSM trying to assuage the pangs of conscience for suckering so many into Laffy's trap? :confused2:

Sad.


What the hell did you do? Time Travel back to the late '60s? LOL.

Your uncannily accurate "eyewitness" account of the ANTI-WAR-MOVEMENT being entirely unrelated to any activity whatsoever within the CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY is quite perfect.

I know. Really know. First hand.

Because I did time travel too. But, in the opposite direction. I was there--and later time-traveled up to 2015. And now I'm here! LOL.

By the way, if any War-Protesting hippie made their way into a Scientology mission or org (circa '68 or '69) nobody would have given a damn about politics. The single and only solution within the Hubbard bubble had NOTHING to do with civil demonstrations or anti-war politics. The "source" of all mankind's aberrations (war, violence, criminality, insanity....) were found in DMSMH (engrams) and highly confidential scripture surrounding "Clear" and "OT III".

If anyone even suggested that people in the mission/org get involved in an anti-Vietnam movement/event, it would have been summarily laughed off--with a prompt rejoinder that would begin with words such as: "The LRH reference on war is........."

Scientology, as conceived by Hubbard, has as its goal "...a world without war." However, when the unsuspecting new Scientologist joins, they are promptly drafted into fighting an ever-expanding series of conflicts, skirmishes, hostilities and theaters of battle that describe Hubbard's epic personal wars (e.g. psychiatry, FDA, IRS, Squirrels, Paulette Cooper, et al). Thus, anyone even suggesting that in the 60's Scientology supported the "anti war" movement against the US government is ludicrous--Scientologists could not even stop the viral proliferation of wars within Scientology! LOL
 

Little David

Gold Meritorious Patron
Santa Barbara media coverage:

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Here are all photos of the event.


Paulette Cooper wanted to be a writer from age eight. At age 15 she read Martin Gardner's "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science" and was intrigued by the Scientology section. He wrote about it the year it came out as "Dianetics".

Many years later famed magician and debunker James Randi told her how much Gardner admired her courage. She had no idea how much courage she would need when it all started.

She was never a member of Scientology, but attended one of their main "Orgs" (training classes) to see what was going on. She chose the Hotel Martinique Org in Manhattan. Many famous people came there and it seemed to be a major center to check out.

She had been working on Madison Avenue in advertising, so she chose the name Paula Madison as her alias.

The "class" involved "bulbating". It consisted of people face-to-face shouting and trying to get each other to react.

They stared into each others' eyes, daring not to blink. It went on for hours. She was hallucinating, which was the point.

Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard claimed to have discovered the nature of the human mind and this was a way to get to it.

The idea was to focus on some weak spot. In her case the men described terrible perversions they would do to her. She was used to obscene phone calls, just never in person.

Then one said, "We think you are a writer." She wondered if it was real. She imagined kissing him. Just revolting enough to distract her, but not enough to "Flunk".

She managed to lift several documents in their offices, including a list of some students.

Eventually she was called to their "ethics office". She said OK, but first she has to go to the bathroom. They refused. She threatened to pee on the floor so they let her go. She managed to escape from the bathroom and never went back.

In 1969 she published an article. It came out in England. She only found out because she started getting death threats.

The Guardians Office of Scientology formed in 1966 to harass anyone they saw as a threat. Paulette received their full force.

The scale of that force was so enormous, some of it was only realized when Tony Ortega researched her case for his book. Ortega, a former editor of the Village Voice, is a formidable researcher, having reported on the brutal Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona.

In 1972 two half-illiterate letters came out threatening to bomb the Scientology offices. They blamed Paulette. They found her fingerprint on one and an expert testified it had been typed on her typewriter.

She was indicted in May 1973 with an October trial date. She was faced with 15 years in jail. She considered suicide.

The public did not know what Scientology was capable of, so her credibility was in question.

She was single and attractive, traveling the world.

Paulette's parents had been killed at Auschwitz and she was later adopted. She was horrified that her adoptive parents would have to deal with her trial. And it would be the end of her career.

Her boyfriend left her because she was so down. She knew Scientology needed exposure. Everything she suspected was true.

She had saved Valiums and one night she started taking them and getting drunk. A friend from her college days at Brandeis called by chance and talked her through it.

One mystery: How did Scientology have so much detailed information on her?

It turned out she had a room mate Jerry Levin for four months who turned out to be a Scientology spy!He would relay to other Scientology agents what she would be wearing that day so they could follow her. He had access to all of her things.

So, who was he? They determined he was also called Don Alverzo. But who was he? Even the FBI did not know. It took Tony's diligent research to find out his real identity. A former helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

He used to go on the roof of her building to relay information back to Scientology. He would also try to get Paulette to come up on the roof, but she had a moderate fear of heights.

It was 33 stories up and he would try to get her to go out on a ledge. He would dance around on it. She realize how easy it would have been to have her "accidentally" fall. That did give her a real fear of heights when she realized this later.

She managed to get out of the prosecution in 1975. She took truth serum and gathered evidence.

Years later they found the Scientology documents about their framing of her. It was called "Operation Dynamite". In 1976 they tried again, having someone make threats in her name. Against Kissinger and others.

They had found her diary from age 17 where she wrote "I hate my parents". They copied that and gave it to Len Zinberg to put on her father's office desk.

Zinberg was not supposed to look, but he did. He is one of the few who later apologized to her.

They sent a letter to each of the 300 residents of her apartment building. Claiming she had VD and had molested a 2 year old girl.F Lee Bailey almost took her case. Scientology sent a letter to Bailey's wife saying they had an affair.

She published "Scandal of Scientology". One Scientologist's job was to steal all the copies from the libraries in Michigan and elsewhere.

During questions, she explained that everyone who joins Scientology is "audited". This includes recorded "confessions". Scientology does not need to blackmail anyone. The possibility of blackmail is enough to keep people quiet, even if they leave.
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Scientology claims membership as high as ten million. She claims their peak was around 100,000 worldwide in 1990. It is now 40,000.

It does have an appeal that older religions lack. It is not about a larger than life figure of thousands of years ago. It is all about you.

In 1985 it was finally over for her. She settled with them. They claimed they had changed. But she continued to hear about others. But there were also others to carry on the story.

Thanks to her courage, others could now speak out, too.

http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?nid=153280
 

CommunicatorIC

@IndieScieNews on Twitter
Tampa Bay Times: Scientology critics bringing book tour to Clearwater



http://www.tampabay.com/news/scient...tics-bringing-book-tour-to-clearwater/2235111



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Mike Brassfield

Thursday, June 25, 2015 6:09pm

CLEARWATER — Paulette Cooper is a legendary name among people who watch the Church of Scientology.
Related News/Archive

After she wrote a book in the 1970s that was critical of Scientology, the church's security agents framed her for bomb threats.

Now Tony Ortega, a journalist who runs a blog criticizing Scientology, has written a book about Cooper. The two are on a book tour, and on Sunday, they will come to Scientology Central — the city of Clearwater.

They're appearing at 2 p.m. at the Clearwater Main Library at 100 N Osceola Ave. in downtown Clearwater, a stone's throw from the church's spiritual headquarters.



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