Martin Luther Blog

Below is a list of some of the blogs and sites in the Independent Field, and my evaluation of them. "My evaluation" is my opinions. You may or may not agree with my opinions, but hopefully this will serve as a handy guide for those who wish to pursue the continuing stories of the Church of Scientology and the Independent Field. The list isn't in any particular order, nor is it exhaustive. And these sites are not recommended unless I specifically say so.

Marty Rathbun's Blog. Marty bills himself as having been "Number 2" in Scientology, beneath David Miscavige, before he left the Church. He started his blog a few years back, and it came to be the place to post "coming-out/escape" stories, and exposes of the Church's crimes. It was at one time the most popular of the Independent Field blog sites. However, over time, Marty has restricted his content to more and more essays about his personal philosophy and the promotion of his books. The problem is that Marty has completely abandoned the title "Scientologist", and his philosophy is a mish-mash of Eastern philosophy, psychology, quantum physics (no kidding) and Scientology. That is, Marty is an unapologetic squirrel. He is relatively intolerant of arguments against his ideas, and is quite willing to block those who disagree with him loudly in comments. His moving further and further away from Scientology has thankfully lessened his following in the field, but he still has quite a few sycophants. Visit at your own risk.
Mike Rinder's blog. Mike, like Marty Rathbun, was at one time the number two man on the Church totem pole. Therefore, his crimes should be obvious. This blog was only recently started (March 2013) and takes up where Marty Rathbun's blog used to go. It is supposed to feature the three types of content Marty has seemingly abandoned: 1) I'm out and here's my story; 2) The Church/Miscavige is bad and here's why; and 3) Insider exits Church and reveals secrets. Mike and Marty were at one time best friends, but have now fallen out, predictably. Mike has turned into a tool for hire to anyone who needs his assistance in running down Scientology and LRH. As before, visit at your own risk.
Dave Fagen's Blog. This site is little-known, but one of the most fair-minded and even-handed in its analysis of the current Church of Scientology. Dave was a staff member at Chicago Org for 25 years. He will readily admit (as do I) when he has not witnessed events which others in the Independent Field testify to. And he tells you to decide for yourself. I highly recommend this site for its fairness and objectivity.
iScientology. This is a site from Steve Hall, a former high level marketing executive in the Church, who posts to other blogs (and his own) under the moniker "Thoughtful". Steve actually has a whole "suite" of sites, and this is his latest (as of this date). It not only serves as a gateway to his other sites, but as a repository of content on its own. It answers many questions about the Independent Field movement, and your possible place in it as a Scientologist. It also serves to market Steve himself, as a "bright light" (my words not his) in the Field. This makes sense, since Steve is a marketing guy. It is an attractive and well-organized site. I personally don't trust Steve's allegiances. Personal opinion.
Scientology-Cult. Scary name. Good site. (The name is a product of marketing; Steve Hall found that "Scientology cult" was the number two search term with respect to Scientology.) Primarily this is the home of Steve Hall's blog, but there are many other authors on the site. Steve was a senior marketing executive for the Church for many years before he left the Church. The site is similar to Marty's in the sense that there a lot of "I'm out" and "The Church is bad" postings. New postings are rare. The site is also home to the Indie 500, a list of the first 500 people who have resigned the Church and are willing to do so with their real names publicly. It generally promotes standard Scientology. However, some of the people promoted on this site are not "with LRH" Scientologists, like Karen De La Carriere. Steve's loyalty to Scientology and LRH is a big question in my mind. My opinion.
Friends of LRH. This site is hard to characterize. It's very plain. It's not a blog. It's a site that contrasts LRH with David Miscavige, and asks what happened to training in the Church. It advertises upcoming content but is rarely updated. It's not clear who the site belongs to, but it includes a lot of LRH quotes.
Wise Old Goat. This is actually the site of a Michel Snoeck. I don't know who this is. I'm guessing he was at one time a Scientologist. The specific link I give here is to the part of the site where he spends considerable effort detailing research he's done into various aspects of Scientology and the Church. There are sections on all kinds of subjects, like how the Grade Chart changed over time, how fast flow training came about, you name it. He's probably done some research on it. Very thorough. If you're doing research on something regarding Scientology, this is an excellent place to go, because Michel has done some quite thorough research. One caveat: Michel analyzes the content and signatures of LRH works with a virtual microscope and frequently comes to the conclusion that Ron didn't write many of the things he wrote, or was deranged when he did. Take with a grain of salt. Or a full shaker.
Oasis for Personal Freedom. This was at one time the blog site of an excellent OT auditor in LA, Ingrid Smith. It appears she let the registration lapse, and the Church has captured the domain and forced it to redirect to scientology.org. I bookmark just to show the lengths to which the Church will go to sabotage the Independent Field.
The Association of Professional Independent Scientologists. This is a site started by an Australian fellow named Michael Moore. He has set this site up as his personal fiefdom. He is the self-selected leader forever of a loosely affiliated group of Field Scientologists. You can pay a nominal yearly fee to be a member of this group, which has bylaws written by Moore. The site contains a wealth of LRH quotes and articles. I once took Moore to task for promoting a follower of Marty Rathbun, Karen De La Carriere. He removed her name from his site, but it points up that Moore doesn't check his group members very closely. For what it's worth, it appears Moore support "standard" Scientology.
Possibly Helpful Advice. This site now redirects to a site titled Spiritual Rescue Technology. The site's authors are David St. Lawrence and another fellow known only by the moniker "Plain Old Thetan". St. Lawrence was at one time an auditor. He has apparently morphed his field auditing practice into some squirrel entity. I don't know much about it, but I'll leave you with some quotes from him:
This website represents my effort to contribute to the reformation of the Church of Scientology and to improving the workability of the technology assembled by Ron Hubbard.

My goal is to help create a stable future for the development of workable technology and a network for the delivery of that technology.

I deliver auditing over the Internet.
Fair warning: David objects to my viewpoint.
Scientology Lies. This is a site by a person who "dabbled" in Scientology at one point for about a month. She is extremely critical of Scientology. I include it here because it may be cited elsewhere as a place to go for information.
Standard Tech Academy. This site represents what the owners call "Advanced Organization Of The Great Plains". They had plans originally to redo the tech films and export some radio programs. Currently, the site promotes online course supervision. It's anyone's guess how this might work, or how this could possible mate up with standard course supervision. This alone makes me suspicious of the people running this site/group.
Leaving Scientology. This is the website of Jeff Hawkins, a former high-ranking marketing guy in the Church for decades. It has ads for some expose-type books on the Church, Jeff's blog entries (rarely added to these days), and other assorted content. It also contains advice on how to leave the Church or the Sea Org. As of this date the site was last updated in January of 2015, over four years ago.
Pierre Ethier's site. This fellow is one of a few Class XIIs who is "out" and the site is a sort of rough compendium of notes he has compiled on various subjects. Pierre travels the world delivering auditing and talks. He claims to be the only Field auditor in the world who has the full materials for the L Rundowns (recovered from his incredible memory), which he has decided he will not release until he is good and ready. Pierre is very impressed with himself and brags quite a bit about his abilities and accomplishments. He claims to know a great deal more about the upper Bridge (OT VIII and beyond) than anyone else I've ever encountered. I'm personally skeptical about a lot of his claims. And I personally doubt he's as good as he thinks he is. For you to decide. Interesting site, though. Rarely updated.
Save Scientology. This site claims to be run by some individuals who are in good standing with the Church. It has the occasional blog entry critical of the Church. But what's most interesting about it is that it pulls back the curtain from the corporate structures and safeguards LRH left behind to protect the Church from the destruction which has now taken place to those very safeguards. Unless you were a very high ranking Church official, you have never read about or heard of this material before. I can't vouch for its veracity, as I was never high ranking. But it's worth reading about. You'll have to decide for yourself whether it's all true or not. Very interesting reading. Similarly, the blog on the site, while its posts are infrequent, contains insightful essays. Recommended. Incidentally, these folks, rather than following in the footsteps of Rathbun, Rinder and others in exposing the crimes of Miscavige, and expecting that to do the trick, are attempting to reorganize the upper echelon of the Church in order to topple the Miscavige Administration. Update: The original creator of this site has come forward and revealed himself as Merrell Vannier, one-time high-ranking Guardian's Office lawyer and at one time, the Church's "Number one spy". He has now written a book entitled Arrows In The Dark which details many of the events and intrigues which ultimately culminated in David Miscavige's rise to power. This book is based on Merrell's personal recollections and is well worth reading. Merrell's intent with this site is to try to encourage those still legally capable of effecting reform within the Church to do so. Merrell is not some cranky reformer in the Field, but a "with-LRH" lawyer and Scientologist who has been through the ringer in the Church. His strategy for reforming the Church is probably the only one which actually has a chance to work. Recommended.
Free And Able. This is another of the Steve Hall suite of websites. It is a lot like "Craig's List" for people who are "out". In fact, some of the verbiage is lifted directly from Craig's List. You can buy, sell, trade or whatever. The listings appear to be a little sparse, and I'm not sure how popular the site is. One outpoint: the site promotes Karen De La Carriere, a follower of Marty Rathbun.
Ex Scn. It's hard to characterize this site. It's a collection of articles and a forum for people who are "out". But it also appears to have garnered a significant number of members who were never "in". And the tone is generally negative, not only about the Church but about Scientology itself. There are a lot of stories here about how Ron was really a bad guy, and how a lot of the stuff he did was wrong, etc. If you consider yourself a real Scientologist (regardless of your position on the Church), I would avoid this site, except to note its existence. By the way, when you see the abbreviation "ESMB" out in the Field, this is the site they're talking about. ESMB stands for Ex-Scientologist Message Board, the forum on this site.
Ron's Org. Let's be clear: these people are squirrels. At one time there was a high-ranking officer in the Sea Org known as "Cap'n Bill" (Bill Robertson) who worked off and on with LRH, but left in the early 1980s when Ron came off of direct management lines. Bill subsequently opened his own field practice(s) and proceeded to do his own research into the OT levels, eschewing Ron's OT levels in favor of his own. Bill died some years ago, but various field practices adhering to his doctrines still exist, all of them in Europe and former Soviet Union countries. This site is the umbrella site (in English) for those entities. It is worth knowing what "Ron's Org" means in this context, but not worth spending any time on this site, unless you want to verify what I've just written about.
True Source Scientology Foundation. Another odd site. These people appear to want to preserve the materials of Scientology, as written/spoken by LRH for the world to use. There is some discussion on the main site about the actual status of the LRH copyrights, but to gain any significant use from the site (or the group), you must register with them. However, it appears that payments to this entity may be made via a Ron's Org location in Germany. This links this site with Ron's Org, which is a squirrel organization.
Scientilopedia. This site appears to be primarily a "wiki" to tell stories about the history of Scientology, Ron, the Church, and discuss various aspects of Scientology. The problem with this concept is the same one Wikipedia suffers from: some people tell the truth and some people don't. And sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Some of the entries in this wiki are fairly entertaining. Whether their recountings of historical events are true or not is another matter. Many of the subpages appear to take forever or just never load. Also this site has links with Ron's Org.
Reform Scientology. This site is supposedly a collection of items the author found while trying to find out what happened to Scientology. It is a WordPress site, and every link to further content on the site is dead.
Life Enhancement Center of Coeur d’Alene. This appears to be the site of a field practice in Idaho. However, among the statements they make on their home page is this:
In their counseling, they often use pastoral counseling techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard.
They claim to be members of Traumatic Incident Reduction Association (TIRA). A casual glance over TIRA's website makes it look like they deliver something like Dianetic and some elementary Scientology auditing, with the terminology all changed around. If they are willing to completely abandon, "Scientology" and its terminology this way, I can only imagine to what extent they've remained true to the actual technology.
Pierre Ethier's Blog. Pierre is mentioned earlier in this post. This is his blog site.
Xenu.net. This is the original and number one site of Scientology critics everywhere. I believe it contains all the OT materials and probably every lie ever told about Scientology, as well as some truths. I include it here so that you're aware of it when it comes up in your travels. But I do not recommend it. If you are not OT III, I recommend you avoid it completely, since its owners are quite casual about this material where it appears on their site.
From Ashes Born. This is my wife's blog on the subject of Scientology. She is very smart and highly admin trained. We mostly agree on things, but not always. So don't expect an echo of what you see here. She has her own unique perspective and voice. Highly recommended, obviously.
Lana Mitchell's Blog. Lana Mitchell is the founder of Milestone Two (see above), and this is her blog. She is an on-source Scientologist, delivering Scientology services Down Under. Her blog entries are uptone and on Source, with the occasional guest post. Well worth tracking.
Shawn Nagano's Blog. Shawn Nagano is a Class IV Clear auditor who writes a variety of articles, frequently citing and quoting LRH source material. He even has a Data Series evaluation he did on the current Church. The writing is concise and well-reasoned. But rarely updated. Worth following.
Scientology South Africa. Scientology South Africa is apparently a very tight-knit community, and this blog talks a lot about the goings-on in that area. Interestingly, the tone of the blog is similar to early Texans or perhaps Australians. The South Africans want to take back their church from Miscavige and others. The blog urges resistance to off-policy, out-tech and out-ethics actions. Postings are rare. It has recently gone off the rails a bit, and allowed in various malcontents.
Robin Adair's Blog. Robin Adair, at one time a high-ranking executive in the Church, weighs in with his view of what's happened to the Church and Scientology. Heavy on conspiracy theories and covert actions. Relatively infrequent postings. Don't expect to see LRH run down here. Robin is "with LRH".
The Scientology History Project. This relatively new site (April 2014) hopes to be a central repository of the unbiased history of Scientology. It follows the chronology of Scientology from 1938 to present day. There is a full glossary and eventually it will have a listing of all the books of Scientology in chronological order. Content is light so far. Readers are encouraged to contribute their own details to events in our history. Access is free, and content is available for use on an unrestricted basis. Recommended.
Religious Liberty League. Merrell Vannier, author of this site, wrote a book (Arrows in the Dark) about his experiences as a lawyer in the Guardian's Office's Information Bureau, which drew the curtain back on much of the corruption going on inside the Church of Scientology. Now he has put up a website/blog which is concerned with the free practice of Scientology outside the Church, and his strategy to reform it. Highly recommended.

There are likely other sites I've missed. If you can think of some worthy of mention, please let me know. There are probably blog sites for any number of other active Field practitioners. I don't have much interest in these, though you may. There are lots of websites critical of Scientology which were put up by non-Scientologists and outright critics. For the most part, they aren't worth mentioning and I won't put them with this collection. They aren't worth visiting. If you are a non-Scientologist and want content with that slant, use Google. Also note that the Church has been very busy putting up anti-Marty-Rathbun and anti-high-level-ex-Scientologist sites all over the internet. These are not to be confused with the real sites by the real ex-Scientologists. If you want to know what someone thinks, just go to their site, not to some site the Church has put up to smear them. Most of the people who are "out" are not the SPs the Church claims they are, and the lies the Church tells mostly dead-agent the Church.