Many argue that Scientology is a dying cult. Due to its harsh decline in membership and the scandals made public in recent exposes like Leah Remini’s Aftermath Series and the trial of Danny Masterson, it no longer appears to be a powerful organization. Their success came from its list of powerful celebrities like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, as well as rich donors like Grant Cardone, and Bob Duggan. This powerful core of public Scientologists as well as indentured workers in its Sea Org is growing older, and with recruiting at an all-time low, it would be hard to argue that the cult is not in decline. Today the organization exists primarily as a real estate empire propped up by a few rich folk thanks to the aforementioned exposés, but also activism by groups like Anonymous and the Project Chanology protests of the late 00s. Scientology’s dwindling membership, currently estimated at 30,000 members worldwide or less, is now eclipsed by the anti-scientology movement. While it’s hard to gauge how many are actively organized in resistance to the cult, r/scientology alone, the biggest anti-scientology forum on Reddit, has nearly 40,000 members.
At this point it’s probably good to give a little bit of background on the reason for the unfolding chaos. I’ve gone over this in an article published 1 year ago to the day, and then again on a live stream, which I encourage the readers to check out. Here are the broad strokes of my analysis: Aaron Smith-Levin had no business running a charity. In late summer 2021, after drinking for nearly five hours at a popular bar in Clearwater Florida, Smith-Levin repeatedly used gendered slurs to refer to a woman whom he recognized at the bar. He was overheard discussing her in reference to the “Hot-Crazy Scale.” This wasn’t the first time he harassed her. He had previously sent unwanted Facebook messages to her. Here’s the bodycam video of him talking to the Clearwater PD. He ended up being beaten up by her boyfriend at the time. Smith-Levin said that his behavior was due to stress from having left the cult 7 years prior.
Then, just a couple months later he went on the Rick Wiles White Power Hour to discuss the cult and his run for office, pleading ignorance about Wiles after the fact. This, in conjunction with his association with Alex Stein, led me to call for The Aftermath Foundation to remove Smith-Levin from their board in March of 2023. As a result of my reporting, I was removed from nearly every anti-Scientology group on Facebook, and was unable to get responses from some of my contacts in the movement. I have been accused of working for Scientology’s counter-intelligence group the Office Of Special Affairs dozens, if not over a hundred times. Below are just three examples from my screenshots folder. They are not unlike the people who believe in “chemtrails” who suggest that anyone who isn’t buying what they’re selling must be paid by the government, a “shill”. It’s stupid. These people have lost the plot.
Subsequent to what was outlined in my call for his removal, the retrial of Danny Masterson happened. Smith-Levin was on the scene “reporting” on the trial. During the trial, Smith-Levin had one or more outbursts in the courthouse. Some believe this nearly caused a second mistrial, but obviously we cannot confirm what “almost happened”. Smith-Levin invited his fans to join him during the trial, turning the serious ordeal into a meetup. There, he met a woman who was also covering the Masterson trial and he initiated a fling. The woman alleges she was the victim of an assault by Smith-Levin in the course of their interactions. Smith-Levin denies this allegation. And of course there were allegations that this was an OSA operation.
I tried to track down information about this incident in June 2023 when I was made aware of the allegation via an email from an anonymous tipster.
Names other than mine redacted to protect peoples’ privacy
In the course of trying to investigate this, I had off-the-record discussions with former cult members and other members of the anti-Scientology community. Everyone knew about this, but nobody was saying shit about it. Along the way someone must have spilled the beans, betraying the confidence of our discussions and giving out my contact information because I was contacted by several “people interested in the matter” who would not give me their real names or divulge who they work for, but were very interested in whether or not I had some kind of “smoking gun” evidence about the alleged assault and whether or not I had spoken with the alleged victim. I didn’t tell any of them shit, though I did try to keep them on the phone to try to suss out what they knew or to get them to accidentally give me info on their own identities. At first I thought all of these people were likely involved with the cult of Scientology, but now I have some doubts about one of them, the very last one who contacted me. I think maybe that person was contacting me on behalf of some other person or organization. Maybe on behalf of Smith-Levin? Maybe on behalf of The Aftermath Foundation? Who knows.
As with the cult itself, the ex-Scientology community and the anti-Scientology community are white. Very white. Also the popular creators tend to be heterosexual and from an upper middle class background. This is partially a YouTube problem no doubt as that’s who tends to be popular on the platform more broadly. But this can be cause for concern in activist communities, leaving lots of blind spots. This played out with a moderator of the most popular anti-Scientology YouTube channels who went by Goldie. She was allegedly compensated for her moderation. Goldie had a Gab account that she was using to post hateful things about queer folks, people of color, and other marginalized groups. In addition, she also seems to be a flat earther. Unlike the bigoted stuff, that’s actually kind of funny.
When alerted to this, a few of the creators who had her as a moderator removed her right away, but not everyone. As you might imagine, Aaron Smith-Levin hesitated to cut ties with the right-winger. All of the creators in “SPTV” did eventually remove her, though only a few actually said anything denouncing the hateful commentary or making fun of the flat earth stuff, which again, is kind of funny. Michelle Carpenter released a great video about Goldie, which angered some viewers who interpreted this criticism as an attack on the community.
That was kind of a lot of background info, but I think it’s important and I hope you’ve dug into some of the stuff that I’ve linked to. Now… on to November 2023.
In November 2023, The Aftermath Foundation finally removed Aaron Smith-Levin as VP and from their board of directors entirely. Fairly unceremoniously too– just his name and face as the former VP with a nice message thanking him for his work with the foundation. It was totally normal and inoffensive, and most people coming to the website would hardly take note of this. People leave projects to move on to new projects all the time, and with Smith-Levin dedicating most of his time to YouTube anyways, it would make sense that he wouldn’t have time to carry out duties as VP.
This could have been the end of this matter. This should have been the end of this matter. After all, these are professional people running a reputable charity. And this article would be pretty fuckin boring if that was the case. The title would be a lie, and you’d have just been hoodwinked. NOPE! The two videos were posted on November 20th and 22nd: the first from Aaron Smith-Levin about his removal, the second from members of the board of Aftermath who formally announced the decision.
The chat in both were pretty wild, but you will now only see a filtered version of the chaos. Smith-Levin’s chat replay is still there, but his moderators removed a lot of chat messages, mostly those messages critical of him or speculating about the real reasons for his dismissal. Aftermath removed their chat replay, though you can still see the comments under the video. Smith-Levin’s much larger following more or less declared war on The Aftermath Foundation. Obviously neither side has any kind of military or paramilitary force, and for that we can all be very thankful. While in his “last statement” on the matter, Smith-Levin attempted to nail himself to a cross (figuratively, obviously), the board from Aftermath tried to keep things professional and opted to do a “normal live stream”. No such luck. Their chat was absolutely swarmed with vicious insults and accusations, including references to OSA.
A strange detail that came out in all this is that there was apparently no code of conduct for Aftermath Foundation prior to November 2023. Did those on the board just figure that because they were all pals, such a thing wasn’t necessary? Did everyone just assume that all the board members were going to behave ethically because that’s just how people should behave? Having a code of conduct for a charitable organization’s executives is pretty standard procedure. Upon taking a second look at the board of this charity, it’s notable that everyone’s qualifications seems to be “is a former Scientologist” with one exception: an attorney. Nobody on the board seems to have any experience in the non-profit sector prior to forming the Aftermath Foundation, though you’d think the attorney on their board, Ray Jeffrey, should have known that having a very basic code of conduct is probably a good idea, even if it’s just boilerplate text.
Fast forward to January 19th, 2024. Smith-Levin attended an ongoing protest in front of a Scientology-owned building. I immediately noticed something strange about this protest. Of the dozen or so people who were in attendance, only one person seemed not to be live-streaming this event. The crowd was younger than most of the anti-Scientology creators I am familiar with and they were all streaming the protest toTikTok and YouTube. There were no signs, there was no chanting. It was very disorganized. This was a far cry from the protests I remember during Project Chanology.
About a half hour into Smith-Levin’s video, a man with a cane and a dog walks by. “That’s the guy who used his dog as a weapon against the Squirrel Squad”, Smith-Levin narrates. Smith-Levin confronts the man. The man with the dog rather aggressively tells Smith-Levin to leave him alone. Then a physical confrontation occurs in which Smith-Levin’s phone is knocked out of his hands by the man’s cane. Smith-Levin quickly reaches for his phone, crossing the man’s path again. The man then punches Smith-Levin in the side of the head and walks off. Aaron Smith-Levin calls the police.
After talking to the protest group for a while and complaining that the police are not arriving quickly enough, Smith-Levin and the protesters proceed to follow the man around the area near the Scientology building, surrounding him on a street corner at one point. This goes on for quite some time. Now the “protest” isn’t even really happening in front of the scientology building. It’s all about Aaron Smith-Levin getting into a small tussle on Hollywood Blvd. with a man who it doesn’t appear has anything to do with the cult of Scientology.
The police arrive after some time. Surprisingly, they actually try to de-escalate the situation; not something the LAPD is known for. Their proposal is that both men go their separate ways and leave each other alone. Smith-Levin is having none of it and wants the man arrested. An officer tells Smith-Levin that if one of them is being arrested, both of them are being arrested. So both are arrested. After all, if nobody gets arrested, that’s just not good content. And the “protest” is over.
The cooking begins. Gotta link this guy to Scientology! A YouTuber named Serge posts a photo of another African-American man in a Way To Happiness shirt asking “Could this be him?”
No, Serge, no it’s not. The man in this photo looks almost nothing like the man who assaulted Smith-Levin. He is much younger in appearance and just does not have the same facial features as the assailant.
This community is so paranoid and so desperate for anything bad that happens to anyone in the in-group to be the result of Scientology that the obvious answer in this case doesn’t even seem open for consideration. Hollywood Blvd. is a busy area with a lot of people. Conflict is bound to happen on Hollywood Blvd. It’s the kind of place where you might just get punched in the face if you fuck with people who are walking down the street. It always has been. Probably always will be. This man obviously had previous confrontations with the people attending the ongoing protest. Smith-Levin could have just left the guy alone. But you can’t turn leaving someone alone into content now, can ya?
Over the next few weeks, there are other incidents where the protest group in Los Angeles gets into minor scuffles with random people passing by. You can find examples of this in the r/clubxenu subreddit up to the current time. It doesn’t seem that any of these altercations involve people associated with the cult of Scientology, though that doesn’t stop people from claiming that they are.
On January 29th 2024, one of the many content creators who hosted Smith-Levin to talk about his removal from The Aftermath Foundation wrote Mike Rinder an email, ostensibly on behalf of a former member of Scientology named Mirriam Francis. This email is formatted as questions from Francis, but reads more like a series of accusations that need to be answered. The accusations include claims that Rinder threatened and intimidated Francis, that Rinder was party to an OSA cover-up of sexual battery against children at Flag in Clearwater circa 1994, that Rinder was party to withholding aid resources from Aftermath as retaliation against Francis, covering up sexual abuse perpetrated against Francis from 1997 to 2004, and much more. This letter is signed “Alex The Rabbit”.
Aftermath foundation council sent this letter in response:
Mike Rinder took to his blog on February 8th to write a response to the allegations outlined in the email. He spent a good amount of the article outlining correspondence he had with Francis as well as some correspondence he had with law enforcement regarding crimes committed by Scientology. But he also spent a good amount of time talking about Scientology/OSA tactics used to discredit critics and linking them to the allegations made in the email. On that same day, Rabbit did a live stream with Mirriam Francis, also making reference to OSA tactics. Now everyone is OSA.
And of course, Aaron Smith-Levin went on YouTube Live to respond to what was said in Rinder’s blog post. At the beginning Smith-Levin accidentally tells a funny joke, claiming he likes to stay “above the fray”. In this video, Smith-Levin goes full “debate bro” and suggests that Rinder and Francis have a live discussion to hash this out. There’s a lot of rehashing of old business and personal grievances in this video that have nothing to do with the matter at hand.
I wasn’t going to include this, but it’s quite absurd and illustrative of the larger point here. On Saturday, Feb 24th, just a week before the writing of this article, there was another “protest” in downtown Los Angeles. Before meeting up with the rest of the group, Aaron Smith-Levin and two other people were walking around the area live streaming. They see a woman looking at a box she had picked up off the ground, and offer to “deliver” the box upon finding out that it’s addressed to a Scientology building. Smith-Levin proceeds to show therecipient’s full name and mailing address on live stream upon grabbing the package. The trio then walks up onto Scientology property and approaches a security guard. The guard tells them to leave. Smith-Levin tries to hand the box to the security guard. The guard does not want to take it. Instead of just setting it down, Smith-Levin throws the box (and his own sunglasses) at the security guard. The guard then escorts them off of the property, rudely. None of this had to happen. The trio could have just looked for a door facing the street and dropped the package in front of the door where someone would see it. But that doesn’t generate conflict. This was about conflict. Conflict is content. If you check the chat replay for the live stream, you’ll see one of Smith-Levin’s fans suggesting that the woman who found the package had set them up. Everyone is OSA!
Faithful YouTube viewers might think that the last three to four months have been pure chaos, and they would be correct. But the seeds of this chaos have always been there. The problems with this community are not new. The anti-Scientology space has always been cliquey. If you ask the wrong questions, people will go after you. Famously, Steven Mango alleges that Karen De La Carriere charged him thousands of dollars for independent Scientology auditing services during a tumultuous time in his life where, in my never-humble opinion, he probably should have sought out legitimate mental health services. He was ostracized. People cut ties with him immediately. Obviously, people were speculating that Mango was working for OSA, the tried-and-true knee jerk reaction. Since then, he scarcely makes video content and isn’t involved much in the public sphere, despite his major role in My Scientology Movie (2015).
For many of the names you might know it’s as if they left Scientology but never left it behind. Karen De La Carriere, mentioned above, has been accused of continuing the practice of auditing, allegedly preying on former members as they got out. (At the same time, she appears to be on good terms with a vast chunk of ex-Scientologists.) However, she also makes donations to the same police department which she claims is in the pocket of the cult. Does she think she’s offsetting Scientology’s attempts to influence the cops with these donations? Who knows.
Claire and Marc Headley have been doing interviews about Scientology for years and help run The Aftermath Foundation, which helps people leaving the cult. Mike Rinder has been a whistleblower on Scientology about the cult since leaving in 2007, ending up as a co-star on Leah Remini’s show exposing the cult. Leah Remini’s only well-known TV work since leaving the cult is a show about the fucking cult. Chris Shelton obtained a Master’s Degree in Scientology, now offering consulting services for people who leave the cult.
The rift that began in November between the Aftermath Foundation and Smith-Levin’s dedicated fanbase exploded into a witch hunt, where the latter’s fans hurled accusations at the remaining board members of still being Scientologists and having a conflict of interest due to most of them being married to one another. “SPTV” creators suddenly reorganized into camps, and viewers mass-unsubscribed to Rinder, the Headleys, Amy Scobee and Mat Pesch. Smith-Levin announced that he would create a new foundation, and at the time of writing this, he’s apparently assembled ten people to comprise his new board, and boasted that none of them are married.
Smith-Levin has not only amassed nearly a quarter million subscribers on YouTube, but he’s also been the wind behind the sails of smaller creators attempting to grow their audience. It’s rumored that he’s even purchased equipment for some creators to get started. These creators are loyal to him. So when he went on his post-Aftermath interview tour putting on the waterworks and acting like Scientology destroyed his family, this is where he went. I thought it was strange at first as there was and still is fertile ground in the manosphere and what’s left of the IDW for him to claim he was canceled for being a conservative or speak about how unfair his breakup with his wife had been. I guess my prediction a year ago that Smith-Levin would go on the “I’ve been cancelled” IDW tour was wrong.
No longer leashed by Aftermath Foundation’s non-disparagement clause regarding other ex-Scientologists who do “similar work” to the charity’s, Smith-Levin is free to criticize anyone who gets on his bad side. He has used his platform and others’ to attack creators like Chris Shelton, Mike Rinder, Tony Ortega for the umpteenth time, Claire Headley, Amy Scobee, Michelle Carpenter, and minor figures who chat in a Discord. Though to this point, not a word about Echoplex Media that we can find outside of a few commenters here and there in the live chat.
To keep things fresh and exciting, the remaining content creators have had to do whatever they can to keep the temperature high and the content fresh. If it means turning inward and turning on each other, that’s what many will do. And it’s just getting started. Stay tuned!
Big thanks to everyone who helped me copy edit this and for all the people I was able to reach out to during the process for info and to help me check the facts!
