Blown for Good: Scientology Exposed

From Crisis Calls To New Beginnings, We Show How Leaving Scientology Becomes Possible

Send us a textA 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 through what real support looks like when disconnection has burned bridges and erased lifelines.You’ll hear how law enforcement partnerships now include an anonymous reporting portal and a dedicated agency hotline, making it easier for investigators to understand Scientology’s control tactics and move cases forward. We dig into the support groups led by cult-recovery therapist Rachel Bernstein, why anonymity matters for new escapees, and how a peer buddy system helps during holidays and tough nights. Then we get practical: education grants, GED pathways, and a 2026 push into vocational training so survivors can land steady work fast. Career counselors translate “Sea Org” experience into civilian resumes, replace paper systems with modern tools, and rebuild confidence step by step.We also celebrate momentum: recurring donors are up, total donations jumped, and aid requests more than doubled. Testimonials—kept anonymous to protect safety—show lives stabilized, apartments secured, classes started, and families holding onto hope despite disconnection. Along the way, we share powerful cultural moments: a teaser for Brothers Broken, which lays bare the cruelty of disconnection, and John C. Christensen’s Pain to Promise, a frontline look at how help becomes a new life. The takeaway is simple and stubborn: when a high-control group tries to silence help, the answer is to grow that help, register everywhere, document everything, and keep picking up the phone.Want more people to find this work? Subscribe, share this episode with someone who needs it, and leave a review telling us what you learned or what you’re still curious about. Your voice helps someone else hear the lifeline.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rss YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS: Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-e...

Shipboard Childhoods And Buried Memories - Scientology Secrets #24

Send us a textA 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 how a movement’s promises filtered into family routines, language, and choices that shaped a child’s sense of safety.We explore the practices that defined those years: touch assists, TRs, personality tests, and the sales script built around “ruins.” Pamela explains how teens get “voluntold” into service, why labels like suppressive person keep people in line, and how sincere belief can coexist with control and abuse. She brings us into the moment repressed memories resurfaced—what it means to question your own mind, how secrecy trained in a high-control group amplifies silence, and why naming sexual abuse is both terrifying and liberating. Along the way, we connect personal timelines to Scientology milestones: early clears, St. Hill culture, the Royal Scotman’s shortages, and the pivot to the Sea Org.This is also a story about repair. Pamela shares how writing became a tool for healing, how she told her adult daughters the truth to break generational silence, and why forgiveness—without forgetting—was the only way out of lifelong anger. We talk practical support too: she donates a portion of book proceeds to the Aftermath Foundation to help people who leave Scientology rebuild with housing, jobs, and community. If you care about cult recovery, childhood trauma, or the mechanics of indoctrination, you’ll find hard truths, clear language, and real hope here.Listen, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help others find the show. Subscribe for more survivor stories, deep dives into high-control groups, and tools for healing and rebuilding.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rss YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS: Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-e...

From Gold Base To LA: Mitch Brisker On Narconon, Vaults, And Control - Scientology Secrets #23

Send us a textThe 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 clampdowns—and he explains how the organization manufactures impact with paid “PSAs,” inflated statistics, and a media pipeline that looks impressive but rarely reaches real audiences.We pull back the curtain on the Hole and the daily mechanics of punishment: segregated meal times, frog-marched lines of staff, and the phrase “PTS to the middle class” used to shame normal life choices. Mitch charts the rise and fall of key enforcers, including leaders who went from running a 300-person studio to sewing buttons in a laundry building. He also walks us through the film lab that out-resolved Hollywood with Kodak’s help, yet sat underused because it served only in-house projects—a perfect metaphor for a system obsessed with control over outcomes.Then there’s the archive project: CST vaults sealing Hubbard’s writings on etched plates and lectures on gold records, complete with a hand-cranked, solar-capable player. The goal was legitimacy and permanence; the result feels like doomsday optics. Meanwhile, AI models learn from what the world actually watches, which means critical reporting increasingly shapes public understanding while official channels stagnate. If you’ve wondered how Scientology really works—from Narconon lawsuits to SMP’s internal culture and those mountain vaults—this conversation connects the dots with first-hand detail.Enjoy the episode, share it with someone curious about high-control groups, and leave a review to help others find the show. Subscribe for more deep dives into the stories mainstream PR won’t tell.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rss YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS: Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-e...

Holiday Realities Inside Scientology - Scientology Secrets #22

Send us a textA 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 watching “important” church holidays turn into sales marathons dressed up as celebrations.We break down the difference between civilian Scientologists and Sea Org life, from catalog-driven “gifting” and CD Walkmans to the annual wave of winter illness used to justify investigations and denied leave. You’ll hear how “beer and cheese parties” shrank into warm soda and crackers, why big events like Hubbard’s birthday and the IAS anniversary outranked Thanksgiving and Christmas by design, and what it does to your sense of money when a $100 bonus feels like oxygen and disappears in a single sweater at an outlet mall.Then we pivot to rebuilding: hosting sprawling Thanksgivings, creating photo books full of candid chaos, teaching our kids that dinner together is normal, and finding joy in small traditions that don’t need permission. We also share practical, low-drama ways to reach relatives still inside—letters that avoid triggers, steady updates, standing invitations—plus why consistency matters even when you get no reply. If you’re navigating disconnection or planning your own exit, you’re not alone. The Aftermath Foundation and survivor networks have your back.Listen to reflect, learn, and maybe rethink what you want your holidays to mean. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help more people find the show. Your support helps us keep telling the stories others try to hide.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rss YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS: Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-e...

We Answer Your Big Questions About Xenu, OT Levels, Shelly, And Life After Escaping Scientology - Scientology Secrets #21

Send us a textWhat happens when you strip the mystique from Scientology and just answer the hard questions? We open the inbox and go straight at the topics most people tiptoe around: where Shelly Miscavige is likely being held, why so few members ever reach OT 3, what really happens to body thetans, and why OT 9 and 10 never seem to materialize. No hedging, no euphemisms—just clarity from people who lived inside the system for years.We start by framing how control works at the top: pressure, punishment, and a culture that rewards obedience over truth. That lens makes sense of everything from CST properties and remote placements to the constant delays on new OT levels. If leadership could invent scriptures, why hasn’t it? Because making up higher levels risks exposure if originals surface, which explains the obsessive surveillance of Pat Broeker and the endless “preservation” campaigns that raise money while keeping access scarce. We connect those dots to everyday experiences at Int Base, the few who actually reached OT 3, and why Xenu all but disappears after that—while BT cleanup becomes a life’s work.We also talk about laughter as a pressure valve: South Park’s “pneumonia” myth, The Simpsons’ broadside, and the futility of gagging a culture built on parody. The point isn’t to dunk; it’s to show how public humor punctures private fear. Along the way, we share humane memories—cruise dinners with Ron Miscavige Sr., a trumpet rendition of Happy Birthday, the quiet rituals of parenting after indoctrination. Rebuilding happens in small, consistent choices: therapy, books, united decisions, and the stubborn act of asking better questions.If you’re curious about Scientology, or you left and need language for what you saw, this Q&A is built to be useful. You’ll hear how “religious proprietary secrets” function like trade secrets, why digital access threatened the money machine, and how secrecy keeps the illusion alive. Press play, then tell us the question you most want answered next. And if this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review so others can find it.Support the showBFG Store - http://blownforgood-shop.fourthwall.com/Blown For Good on Audible - https://www.amazon.com/Blown-for-Good-Marc-Headley-audiobook/dp/B07GC6ZKGQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=Blown For Good Website: http://blownforgood.com/PODCAST INFO:Podcast website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2131160 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blown-for-good-behind-the-iron-curtain-of-scientology/id1671284503 RSS: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2131160.rss YOUTUBE PLAYLISTS: Spy Files Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWtJfniWLwq4cA-e...