"Narconon is the ONLY successful drug rehabilitation program on the planet." L. Ron Hubbard, Founder of Church of Scientology "Narconon was definitely a con. It was bullsh•t. Those guys were forcing guys into Scientology." Narconon graduate St. Cloud Prison, Minnesota [Picture of internal memo: "We are expanding the Scientology drug rehabilitation programs, primarily through NARCONON. During the coming months we plan to get NARCONON programs into many additional prisons, rehabilitation centers and the armed forces. We also have plans to open ...

Eighteen months ago, the U.S.-based Church of Scientology launched a global—and unsuccessful—campaign to prevent publication of a Reader's Digest report called "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult." The church engaged a detective agency to investigate the author, Digest Senior Editor Eugene H. Methvin. Digest offices in a half-dozen nations were picketed or bombarded with nuisance phone calls. In Denmark, South Africa and Australia, the church sued unsuccessfully to prevent publication. In the months since the article appeared, in May 1980, a ...

At the Fort Harrison Hotel in downtown Clearwater, Scientologists are learning to leave their bodies, control other people's thoughts and communicate with plant life. They learn this by reliving a galactic holocaust carried out by space creatures millions of years ago. So say top-secret Scientology documents spelling out the highest level of training available to church members. It is training that costs thousands of dollars and, according to church defectors who provided the documents, amounts to nothing but a swindle dreamed ...

Some of Hollywood's biggest stars have been duped into endorsing a controversial drug rehabilitation program called Narconon, which is actually operated by the bizarre brainwashing cult, the Church of Scientology. More than 170 celebrities' names have been used as "Friends of Narconon." I Although a few are Scientologists — such as Cathy Lee Crosby, Priscilla Presley and Karen Black — others were shocked to learn Narconon was an offshoot of the weird cult. [Picture / Caption: "NARCONON ALL STARS" Gregory Harrison ...

Alberta courts called the bluff of the Church of Scientology which had extended a libel suit against seven former members for four years. The case fizzled out in Edmonton when the church failed to deposit $45,000 as security for costs if it lost the case. The court dismissed a defamation suit launched by the church against Lorna Levett, Brendan Moore, Les Jackman, William Reid, Neil Taylor and David Wallace, all of Calgary, and Betty McCoy of Edmonton. The defendants are now ...

Carol Garrity and Dick and Janie Peterson don't call Scientology a church anymore. After dropping about $40,000 in five years into church courses and training, they left the church three weeks ago disillusioned, angry and humiliated. Is Scientology a church? "No!" they answer. "You never hear mention of God or any praying," Dick Peterson said of the church that won tax-exempt status only after a 19-year court battle with the IRS. "It doesn't operate like a church," Garrity added. "It's run ...

A group of independent psychologists that took a rare inside look at the operations of the Church of Scientology in Toronto is critical of the organization's introductory testing and evaluation methods. The psychologists, hired by Scientology last fall to study its activities, found that the stress is on sales, that staff who interpret personality tests of newcomers aren't experienced, and that staff not only emphasize the negative aspects of the test results but suggest things will get worse without help from ...

[Important broadcast about how Scientology took over the town of Clearwater, Florida.]

The faithful inner core serve as thieves, decoys and spies. The shocking story behind one of the most dangerous “religious cults” operating today IN THE late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Hubbard did start his own religion, calling it the “Church of Scientology,” and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing ...

On Dec. 13, former Scientologist LaVenda Van Schaick filed a $200-million class-action lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in Federal Court in Boston, contending that the church falsely promises to improve the lives of its members. Since then, 10 other ex-Scientologists have filed affidavits in support of the suit, giving a glimpse of life within Scientology. The church has filed a motion to dismiss that case. It also sued Mrs. Van Schaick and others, contending that she is "motivated by malice." ...

''On Dec. 13, former Scientologist LaVenda Van Schaick filed a $200-million class-action lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in Federal Court in Boston, contending that the church falsely promises to improve the lives of its members. Since then, 10 other ex-Scientologists have filed affidavits in support of the suit, giving a glimpse of life within Scientology. The church has files motion to dismiss that case. It also sued Mrs. Van Schaick and others, contending that she is "motivated by malice." Last ...

AFFIDAVIT OF SILVANA GARRITANO I was introduced to Scientology in October, 1977, when I went to the New York Church to take a "Communications Course". The "registrar" (a euphemism for salesman) was Jerry Indursky. He told me that my problem was a lack of assertiveness, that I did not speak up for myself. Indursky promised me Scientology would remedy that problem and I would emerge from the Communications Course a happier, more successful person because I could stand up for myself. ...

AFFIDAVIT OF MARJORIE HANSEN I, Marjorie Hansen of Hanover, Massachusetts depose and state as follows: On or about April 16, 1978, I was walking on Boylston Street in Boston when I was approached by a man named Kevin, who asked me if I would consent to taking a "Personality Survey". Kevin stated that he was working on the survey for some college courses he was taking. He then led me to a building on Beacon Street which I later found out ...

LANSING — The Michigan Department of Corrections paid more than $100,000 during the last three years to a drug treatment program with veiled ties to the controversial Church of Scientology. Leaders of the drug program, known as Narconon, admit it is based on Scientology teachings, but they deny any affiliation with the church. A state corrections official said he was satisfied that Scientology does not run Narconon. Church records obtained by The Detroit News showed, however, that Scientology leaders created Narconon ...

Toronto ON — Toronto Scientologists are in control of a private school offering night and weekend courses in reading and grammar to children and adults using methods that are based on the effective educational techniques fully developed by American educator and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. $200 course for teachers Education Alive, a one-room operation on Spadina Road near Dupont Avenue, charges $100 to teach 6-year-old children how to use a dictionary, $10 an hour to learn to read and $200 for ...

BOSTON — A 29-year-old former member of the Church of Scientology filed a $200-million lawsuit Thursday against the church, charging that the group has cheated thousands of converts by subjecting them to "mind control." Lavenda Van Schaick of Somerville, Mass. contended in the suit filed in U.S. District Court here that the church misled her into divorcing her husband, paying about $13,000 for Scientologist instruction and working for the church without pay for nine years in Clearwater and Las Vegas, Nev. ...

How a Portland jury got a crash course in one of the oddest "religions" ever created and awarded the plaintiff more than $2. million Note: This summer, a jury in Portland spent a month listening to testimony in a $4 million lawsuit over the practices of the Church of Scientology there. The plaintiff: Julie Christofferson, a young Portland woman who was a follower of Scientology in 1975 and 1976. The defendants: three local Scientology organizations and one of their leaders. ''Richard ...

Forgive the digression, but as a child, I had a fool-proof method for falling asleep. If I were lying wide-awake in bed, I would categorize my thoughts, imagining my mind was a room full of filing cabinets. Into each of these files (not unlike the ones where the Mouseketeers kept their cartoons) went one worry or problem. By the time the data was transferred, I would be asleep. The point being that I viewed my mind as something akin to a ...

On May 14, 1951, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard wrote to the U.S. attorney general to plead for help in fending off a Communist conspiracy, dedicated, he averred, to destroying him. "When, when, when," he wrote, "will we have a roundup?" Rambling through seven single-spaced typewritten pages, the letter was, to all appearances, the heartfelt cry of a troubled man. A successful science fiction writer in the 1940s, L. Ron Hubbard, as he signed himself, had gone on to bigger things. ...

One hundred ministers, priests and rabbis in the San Diego area Monday presented a petition to a San Diego newspaper, declaring that "spying or deceitfully obtaining membership in a religious organization is unethical" and violates religious freedom. The petition, launched by the Church of Scientology of San Diego, was prompted by a two-part series on Scientology last month in the San Diego Union by reporter Leigh Fenly. Two Scientologists filed a $10,000 invasion-of-privacy suit in San Diego Superior Court Aug. 9, ...

Opinions about the Church of Scientology run from hot to cold, and from very hot to very cold. In the third segment of a four-part series on the church, the Valley News samples some of those opinions and tells the stories behind them. An accompanying story describes the experience of a young couple who left the church without bitterness despite some disturbing incidents. By BRIAN ALEXANDER The price is high, and the pressure to buy is heavy, but ...

The Church of Scientology offers a free personality evaluation to persons interested in its counseling services. Valley News staff writer Brian Alexander took the test at the Sherman Oaks Scientology center, posing as a college student and using an assumed name. As the second segment of a four-part series on the church, he tells what happened. —– The Church of Scientology's free personality test is like a warm handshake, but the grip is too tight. The counselor who evaluates ...