Actor Will Smith is funding his own private school that will teach youngsters using an educational system devised in part by the Scientology cult. The curriculum at Smith's New Village Academy of Calabasas, on which he has spent nearly £500,000, uses different educational theories including "study technology" – a learning method developed by L Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology. Websites dedicated to monitoring Scientologist activity are also claiming that at least six members of staff employed at ...

OREM, UTAH - Officer Terry Sparks says he feels like he was beaten with a sledgehammer. The pounding headache was bad enough, but the surging nausea made it almost unbearable. He gathered his energy and once again entered the nondescript clinic in this rural community south of Salt Lake City. The side effects of his treatment there are a price he is willing to pay to purge his body of toxins he believes have built up in his system after years ...

Hollywood star Kelly Preston took time out of filming new comedy Old Dogs with her husband John Travolta, to support a Scientology charity concert in West Sussex. The 45-year-old actress was master of ceremonies at the 11th annual Gala Charity Concert at Saint Hill, home of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard and headquarters for the Church of Scientology UK. Kelly said: "It was a great day. What we were doing with the concert is perpetuating what L Ron Hubbard started in ...

THE Church of Scientology is preparing to expand its creed to the north of England by opening a centre in Manchester next year. The church, which has been criticised as a cult, has paid £3.6m for a disused distillery in the city. It plans to turn the five-storey building, near Old Trafford, into “a place of worship and religious instruction”. The move is part of a world-wide expansion strategy by the American organisation, which was founded by L Ron Hubbard, a ...

THE CHURCH of Scientology is pressing ahead with plans to convert a Trafford distillery into a "place of worship" for hundreds of followers. The controversial group - whose celebrity members include Tom Cruise and John Travolta - bought the Grade II-listed building on Chester Road for a reported £3.6m. Plans to convert it into a "place of worship and religious instruction" were withdrawn earlier this year when the Trafford council expressed concerns about parking. But the Church of Scientology is planning ...

She was open-minded enough about Scientology, if a bit dubious about some aspects of the life of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Imagine Carol Tobin's surprise, then, when her hopes of a private jet and a Hollywood career with Tom Cruise were dashed as its adherents appeared to reject her Is it just cynical old me or is Scientology a load of old cobblers or, as we would say here in Ringsend, a load of bullshit? Oh, I can hear the ...

The Church of Scientology has bought the former Duckworth Mills in Trafford, Greater Manchester. The church, which counts celebrities including Tom Cruise, pictured, and John Travolta among its followers, has paid Merseyside-based Maghull Group £3.65m for the 51,000 sq ft Victorian building. Maghull, which bought the property from Cargill Flavor Systems for £2.1m last year, had planned to redevelop the building as 42 flats and 20,000 sq ft of offices. The Church of Scientology has already submitted plans to turn the ...

Scientology is trying to transform its image from that of a shadowy cult When Scientology officially opened its spectacular new British church in the Square Mile, the movement was given an unusually warm embrace by the Establishment. Ian Luder, an Alderman of the Corporation of London and a magistrate, lauded the organisation’s anti-drugs efforts. “The work which you do in this area is greatly to be welcomed,” he said, “and I wish you growing success.” It was a satisfying moment for ...

With A-list celebrities among its followers and a string of unsavoury allegations from former members, the Church of Scientology is rarely far from the headlines. But newly released government files from the National Archives at Kew show controversy surrounding the church in the UK is nothing new. In the 1960s and 1970s officials debated whether or not to lift a ban on foreigners entering the UK to work or study at the church. In the documents, high-ranking mandarins referred to the ...

BBC reporter John Sweeney apologises for losing his temper on tonight's Panorama programme on Scientology. He talks about the 6 months of intensive research behind the film and what it was exactly that drove him to lose it This was a disaster. I feel ashamed and, although I've been kicked around the Panorama office by the BBC, no one is more embarrassed about me losing it than me. I let my team down and I apologised when it happened and I ...

Panorama reporter's outburst at Hollywood star's son is captured on video A Journalist at Panorama, the BBC's flagship current affairs series, has been reprimanded for losing his temper and screaming with rage during the making of an investigation into the Church of Scientology. John Sweeney has apologised for the outburst against a scientologist which was filmed and then put on the video-sharing website YouTube, prompting criticism of the corporation. The BBC held an internal inquiry but said Sweeney had not breached ...

Scientology could be officially recognised as a religion in the UK following a ruling in the European Court of Human Rights. The decision, won by a law team led from East Grinstead, could mean the Charity Commission will have to recognise the controversial Church of Scientology as a bona fide religious group. This would give it access to a series of tax breaks and potentially hundreds of thousands of pounds in taxpayers' money through Gift Aid. The European Court ruled the ...

ST. PETERSBURG - Just weeks after opening their first facility in St. Petersburg, Scientologists have irked two of the city's most respected institutions - the Holocaust and Dali museums. Representatives of both museums say they were misled when asked to support a human rights march but not told that the organizers are a rights advocacy group affiliated with the Church of Scientology. The Florida Holocaust Museum has withdrawn its sponsorship of the Human Rights Walkathon scheduled for today in Straub Park ...

A HUMAN rights youth forum at Parliament House in Sydney promoted the views of the Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and was organised by a group linked to the Church of Scientology. In a kit given to students, Hubbard's photograph was more prominent than those of the human rights activists Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Thomas Jefferson. Hubbard's quotes were littered through the material. The Church of Scientology is the major sponsor of Youth for Human Rights Australia, ...

Scientology Moves On Languishing Flagship Posted Feb 1, 2007 by Vidisha Priyanka Updated Feb 1, 2007 at 03:37 PM By BAIRD HELGESON The Tampa Tribune CLEARWATER - The Church of Scientology’s mammoth new spiritual shrine has stood vacant and unfinished for years, its dusty Mediterranean-style shell surrounded by patches of scrubby grass and “no trespassing” signs. Now church officials say they are ready to resume work on the building as it has racked up more than $55,000 in fines for not ...

Religions have always penalized those who betray the cause. Catholics excommunicate, barring the wayward from church rites. The Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses and some orthodox Jewish sects shun their nonconformists. In the Tampa Bay area's burgeoning Scientology community, members abide by a policy considered by some religious experts extreme: Scientologists declare their outcasts "suppressive persons." Another Scientology policy — called "disconnection" — forbids Scientologists from interacting with a suppressive person. No calls, no letters, no contact. An SP is a pariah. Anyone ...

Jackson Wyan, a young Tom Cruise look-alike with short black hair and a black button-down shirt, greets people with laser-focused eye contact, a fixed smile and solid handshake at the Founding Church of Scientology of D.C. in Dupont Circle. His mission not-so-impossible: Recruit more members. Would-be Scientologists approach the landmark red building, also known as Fraser Mansion, at 20th and R streets NW, with regularity. Wyan, who's been with the D.C. church six years, gives tours that include a sweep through ...

Tom Cruise says Katie Holmes is now a fully-fledged follower of L Ron Hubbard. So what is it about the sci-fi writer's 'religion' that exerts such a hold? Sara Lawrence goes undercover to find out Sitting on a red velvet chair in the middle of a majestic, oak-panelled hall in East Grinstead, I have rarely felt more fearful for my sanity. On the wall in front of me, a creepy, larger-than-life-sized portrait of an old man seems to be staring straight ...

A councillor in East Sussex has asked for Scientologists in his town to be stopped from working for the council. Councillor Michael Murphy has had his proposal seconded by councillor Paul Scott, but other members of Crowborough Town Council have raised objections. He suggests the council "refrains from using the voluntary services of the Scientologists until a full investigation has been carried out". A Scientology centre in nearby Saint Hill has invited Mr Murphy for a visit. His motion was supposed ...

When the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre moved to Far East Dallas, the neighbors were nervous. Visions of traffic clogging the tree-lined streets and rumors about religious rituals had some homeowners on edge. Now, after spending five years in a salmon-colored mansion at Buckner Boulevard and Dixie Lane, the Scientologists are moving to the suburbs. And many of their neighbors are sorry to see them go. "They've been very friendly," said Jim Depetris, who lives next door to the Celebrity Centre. ...