Scientology Critical Information Directory

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Joseph Mallia

Investigative journalist


The Boston Herald: Inside the Church of Scientology

Inside the Church of Scientology: Powerful Church Targets Fortunes, Souls of Recruits

«While high-profile celebrity members, including John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley, Chick Corea, Lisa Marie Presley and others, earn goodwill for the church, ex-members and critics say there is a dark underside to Scientology.

Some of that underside was allegedly laid bare in the 1995 death in Clearwater, Fla., of church member Lisa McPherson, 36, according to Florida state police, who recommended in December that Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe bring criminal charges against the church. The county medical examiner said she died of a blood clot due to dehydration, after being denied water for at least her last five to 10 days.

The church says McPherson died accidentally of a pulmonary embolism and denies that its members caused the death.»

Inside the Church of Scientology: Church Keys Programs to Recruit Blacks

«Church documents and books show that Scientology clearly identifies Study Technology as a religious practice. It is taught at the church's local headquarters on Beacon Street in Boston in the $600 Student Hat program, as a first step into church membership.

This learn-to-read "technology" — or Study Tech as the church calls it — teaches children to distrust their own intelligence and rely passively on what the church teaches, said high-ranking church defector Robert Vaughn Young.

"Study Tech is an extremely dangerous technique," Young said. "Critical thinking? There is no critical thinking. Criticism is the part that is not allowed," said Young, who once directed Scientology's worldwide public relations effort.»

Inside the Church of Scientology: Milton School Shades Ties to Scientology

«A Herald review of the school has found that Delphi Academy:

Used precisely the same "Study Tech" as the Boston Church of Scientology on Beacon Street, where the methods are considered religious scriptures.

Sent up to 10 percent of each child's tuition money to the Association for Better Living and Education, a Scientology organization in Los Angeles, according to its federal tax returns.

Got "referral" income of 10 percent to 15 percent of any Scientology course or book bought by a Delphi Academy parent, according to the school's federal tax returns and ex-members of the church.

Has used an "E-Meter" — a device like a lie detector that measures emotional reactions — on Delphi children, according to a former student, Sabriya Dublin of Jamaica Plain. The E-Meter — the same device used by the church in counseling — sends a mild electric current through the child's body, with fluctuations in a gauge showing emotional reactions, as a child answers questions while holding a shiny metal tube in each hand. A former Delphi student from Oregon, however, said the E-Meter was not used at his school.»

Inside the Church of Scientology: Church, Enemies Wage War on Internet Battlefield; Copyright Laws Used to Silence Online Foes

«Other Internet critics of Scientology had their homes in Virginia, Colorado and California searched and their computer disks seized by the church's lawyers — including prominent Boston attorney Earle C. Cooley. The lawyers sought to stop what a judge ruled was copyright infringement.

"This is mortal combat between two alien cultures a flame war with real guns. A fight that has burst the banks of the Net and into the real world of police, lawyers, and armed search and seizure," Wired magazine said in a 1995 article about the conflict between Scientology and its Internet critics.

It "is the bitterest battle fought across the Internet to date," Wired said.

In Boston, local Scientologists started investigating Rogue Agent, trying to learn his real name and silence him, the church's critics said.

"He is really spooked about all the cult agents trying to find him," said Jim Byrd, another local Internet critic.

"He is afraid for the safety of his family," Byrd said. "Besides tons of lawyers, the cult hires lots of PIs and assorted goons."»

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