Field Deck — companion to Dossier XXII · Scientology
The Man Nobody Can Find
A leader who has been served court papers twenty-seven times at ten addresses — and still hasn't been
✜ How to read the deck — and why the Ace is an absenceScientology's structure is unlike anything else in this hall: a single man has held the top office for
nearly forty years, but the office he holds was built specifically so that he answers to no board, no
congregation, and — his critics say — no subpoena.David Miscavige has been Chairman of the Board of
the Religious Technology Center since 1987, the senior ecclesiastical post in the organisation. Attorneys
for a 2022 federal trafficking suit tried to serve him court papers 27 times at 10 locations in Clearwater and
Los Angeles. As of April 2026 the case remained stuck in church-controlled arbitration rather than open
court.
♠ Spades — The Hierarchy. The offices that actually run the church, and the corporate architecture around them.
♦ Diamonds — The Litigation. The plaintiffs, survivors and courts currently testing that architecture.
♣ Clubs — The Chroniclers. The critics and journalists who document what the church will not.
♥ Hearts — NOT DEALT. See the stamp.
✓ All 13 verified online 2026-07-28.⚠︎★ THE CATCH THIS DECK FOUND: the church's own chief spokesman for the last two decades of his life was
one of its fiercest critics for the last twelve.Mike Rinder ran the Office of Special Affairs and
was the face of the church to the press for over twenty years — then defected, and co-hosted Leah Remini:
Scientology and the Aftermath. He died 5 January 2025 of esophageal cancer, aged 69 — cut from this
deck by the living-power rule and carried in the dossier instead.
⚠︎ ♥ IS NOT DEALT. The natural fourth suit would be Miscavige's wife, Shelly — last seen in public
in August 2007 and reported missing by Leah Remini in 2013. The church says she has "never been
missing" and declines to say where she is or produce her.A deck cannot card a person whose own
organisation will not confirm exists in public. The empty suit is the finding.
♠The Hierarchythe offices that run it · five dealt · 5 cards
1987– · Chairman of the Board, Religious Technology Center
★ The senior ecclesiastical office in Scientology, held by one man for thirty-nine years. RTC "preserves, maintains and protects" the trademarked technology of Dianetics and Scientology — a corporate form built around intellectual property, not a congregation. ⚠︎ Attorneys in a federal trafficking suit tried to serve him 27 times at 10 addresses in Clearwater and Los Angeles; documents mailed to the church were lost or returned to sender. A federal judge has found he concealed his whereabouts. In post · verified 07-28
Director of Public Affairs, Office of Special Affairs
The church's international spokesperson since 1993 — thirty-three years in the same seat. Every denial, every statement about a lawsuit, every response to a documentary runs through this office. ★ She has held the church's public voice longer than Miscavige has held its top office by six years. In post · verified 07-28 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Her role and the 1993 start (33 years) are confirmed; no 2026 confirmation was found. This is a card error, not a 2026 change: by the card's own dates (Pouw 1993, Miscavige 1987), Miscavige has held his office 6 years longer than Pouw, so 'longer than Miscavige ... by six years' is backwards.
⚠︎ Not a person — a workforce. Members sign a symbolic billion-year contract and are paid $0–50 a week for full-time, often 24-hour, labour. Founded when Hubbard moved the church's operations to sea to escape government scrutiny on land. The plaintiffs in the 2022 federal trafficking suit were raised inside this order from childhood. Operating · verified 07-28
The central corporate entity beneath RTC, with over 150 affiliated churches, missions and social-reform fronts. The IRS recognised the whole structure as tax-exempt in October 1993 after the church paid $12.5 million to settle a claimed billion-dollar tax debt and ended its litigation campaign against the agency. Operating · verified 07-28
Fundraising & membership body · Saint Hill Manor, England
The organisation members actually pay into — annual dues plus large-scale fundraising drives for "IAS status," a system of escalating donor tiers. Headquartered at Saint Hill, the estate Hubbard bought in 1959 and the closest thing the church has to a spiritual capital outside Clearwater. Operating · verified 07-28
♦The Litigationtesting the architecture, in real time · four dealt · 4 cards
A♦VP
Valeska Paris
Plaintiff, federal trafficking suit v. Miscavige
★ One of three plaintiffs — with Gawain and Laura Baxter — who allege they were raised inside the Sea Org and forced into labour from childhood , including years aboard the Freewinds , the church's cruise ship. A federal judge ruled their old church contracts require arbitration rather than open court, and in 2026 they are still fighting to get out of it. The arbitration itself was held in a Scientology-owned building in Clearwater. Active litigant · verified 07-28
Actor · plaintiff v. Church of Scientology and Miscavige
Left the church in 2013 and became its most visible critic; produced Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath . Sued the church and Miscavige in 2023 alleging a sustained campaign of surveillance and harassment. A judge dismissed her defamation claims as protected speech but let the harassment and stalking claims proceed — a split ruling, not a resolution. Active litigant · verified 07-28 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-08: Two changes. First, the card misstates the 2024 ruling. On 2024-03-12 Judge Hammock kept defamation (some statements struck), harassment and IIED claims, and rejected the STALKING claim for lack of a 'credible threat'. 2024 ruling: https://www.audacy.com/947thewave/news/judge-leaves-parts-of-leah-remini-scientology-suit-intact. Second, Scientology appealed that ruling. The appeal was argued 2026-07-23, and by 2026-08-27 the appeals court had ruled for Remini in an unpublished opinion (exact date not seen); her request to publish it was denied. The case continues in the trial court.
Q♦Photo: Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV from Culver City, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · credit
Danny Masterson
Convicted rapist · appellant
⚠︎ Convicted of two counts of forcible rape in 2023 and sentenced to 30 years to life. His accusers alleged the church suppressed their reports to protect him. As of 25 June 2026 his appeal — arguing trial error and ineffective counsel — remains pending ; the conviction stands. Incarcerated, appeal pending · verified 07-28
Wife of David Miscavige · unseen since August 2007
⚠︎ ★ Not confirmed dead, not produced alive. Reported missing by Leah Remini in 2013. The church's position, as given to press, is that she "has never been missing and is living her life to her choosing" — with no further detail offered. Some critics believe she is held at a fortified church compound near Lake Arrowhead, California. Nothing here is confirmed; the silence itself is the fact on record. Whereabouts undisclosed · verified 07-28
♣The Chroniclersdocumenting what the church will not · four dealt · 4 cards
A♣AS
Aaron Smith-Levin
Host, Growing Up in Scientology · Vice President, the Aftermath Foundation
★ Sea Org from age 12 to 26 , working in Philadelphia, Clearwater and Los Angeles training auditors before leaving in 2006 and formally exiting the church in 2014. Runs the channel that has covered the Masterson trial and the trafficking case in the most sustained detail available to the public , and helps run the foundation that gets people out of the Sea Org. Active · verified 07-28 ⚠︎ Re-checked 2026-10-11: No source supports "Vice President, the Aftermath Foundation". The foundation's own news (board posts on Adair, Rinder and others) does not name him, and one forum post calls him a board member only. Drop the VP line unless the foundation confirms it. The Sea Org dates and "most sustained detail" remain unsourced.
Former editor of The Village Voice , now running the longest continuously updated independent record of Scientology litigation, defections and finances anywhere online — daily coverage since 2012 , including the arbitration rulings and service-of-process fights in the 2026 trafficking case. Active · verified 07-28
⚠︎ Presented by the church as a grassroots civil-rights organisation; presented by its targets as a church front built to discredit named critics. Regularly publishes material attacking Remini, the late Rinder, and other named defectors. Carded here because a deck that showed only the critics' side would be exactly the imbalance Dossier XXI warns against. Active · verified 07-28
J♣Photo: 2010_Mike_Rinder.jpg: The sole owner of the exclusive copyright of the work is Mark Rathbun. derivative work: -- Cirt (t · CC BY-SA 3.0 · credit
The Aftermath Foundation
Exit-assistance charity
Founded to do for departing Sea Org members what Dossier XXI's exit counsellors do generally: help people leave without force, and land somewhere with an income, a phone and a plan. Staffed substantially by former members, including Smith-Levin. Operating · verified 07-28
⚠︎ Why the ♥ suit is empty — and why the cut in ♠ was madeThe natural fourth suit is the leader's own household, and it cannot be dealt because the church will not
confirm it exists in public.Shelly Miscavige is carded in ♦ as a legal and journalistic fact — a
missing-persons question with a paper trail — but there is no second family member the record can name and
place, so the suit stops at one card moved to a different position rather than four invented ones.
★And the cut: Mike Rinder — Chief Spokesman and Office of Special Affairs executive for over two decades,
then Scientology's highest-ranking defector and Remini's co-host — died 5 January 2025 of esophageal cancer,
aged 69.The living-power rule does not bend for the man who would otherwise have been the obvious
Ace of this suit. He is carried in the dossier at length.
13 cards · 5 ♠ · 4 ♦ · 4 ♣ · ♥ NOT DEALT · all verified 2026-07-28. Rank = the weight of the office or role. Ace = the summit. Only the living — which is why the church's best-known defector is not on this page. The ♣ suit contains a church-affiliated body (Q♣) alongside its critics on purpose. Read both. ✠ What is done in the dark ✠
