Adrian Vanegas was 17 years old and had just graduated high school in his hometown of Bogota. He had been attracted to Scientology by its study technology. He quickly signed a 2.5 year staff contract and was appointed as the Director of Communications for the Bogota Org. Located in a private home in an upscale neighborhood, it would be twenty-five years before David Miscavige would pull a rope to open the big new 8-story Scientology Org in downtown Bogota. Adrian recounts many interesting stories of his time on staff in Colombia and gives us a look into Scientology in Latin America. Adrian left Scientology in 2005 and did a slow fade out from the organization.

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Shastina Sandman is running in the GOP primary to nominate the Republican candidate for Congress in the 48th District of California. As part of her platform, Shastina opposes the widespread psychiatric drugging of children. Upon learning of her position on psychiatric medications, Scientology sent in an operative from its notorious front group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). The CCHR agent met Shastina at a political meeting and gave her a CCHR package of materials.

The agent never told CCHR was a part of the Church of Scientology. Rather, the CCHR agent played upon Shastina’s opposition to drugging children and got her to support CCHR on her podcast. In the podcast, Shastina and Jeffrey also discuss Scientologist Joy Villa and her foray into politics. Of note is Joy Villa’s insistence that she is a Christian and a Scientologist when, in fact, Scientology does not allow its members to engage in other practices and considers all other religions to be implants.

Article on Shastina on the Scientology Money Project.

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On this podcast Dr. Jeff Wasel and Jeffrey Augustine discuss the Scientology Refund-Repayment Fraud Survey. To view and/or complete the survey please go here: Wasel-Augustine Scientology Refund-Repayment Fraud Survey

The Wasel-Augustine Scientology Refunds-Repayment Survey represents the first ever formal attempt to quantify a specific institutional behavior of Scientology. In this instance, the legitimacy of Scientology’s claims of having a transparent refund/repayments policy, as well as the human cost of Scientology’s problematic financial behavior in this regard.

The survey will extrapolate data from a variety of key indicators, such as the amount a member has/had on account, their time in Scientology, their level of success in attempting to obtain a refund or repayment from Scientology, as well as if they experienced undue levels of aggressive “regging”. It also asks if they were coerced into exceeding their credit limit or pressured into opening new accounts to fund Scientology services, and lastly, the extent of any negative lifestyle outcomes that may have arisen from their financial relationship with Scientology.

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