Editor: I was in Scientology for 12 years. Now I face being jailed because I am talking to the public about the real story of Scientology — that it involves hypnosis, brainwashing, and satanism. All because I am trying to prevent what happened to me from happening to other people. It may seem by my violations of the court order not to speak publicly about Scientology that I have no respect for the law. Such is not the case. In fact ...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A former member of the Church of Scientology is defying church lawyers and a federal judge by publicly alleging that the church held her captive and committed fraud by promising to cure her mental illness. Margery Wakefield, 41, is prohibited under a 1986 federal court settlement from speaking out against the cult, which has its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. But she says she is ignoring the gag order so she can expose church practices and warn potential ...

Claims that the Church of Scientology is a religion are false, a former member charged. The church is an intelligence and information agency that uses mind manipulation, hypnotism and other methods to gradually turn members into agents to financially enhance the organization, said Larry Wollersheim, a former salesman and touring spokesman for the Church of Scientology. After spending 11 years as an active member in the church Wollersheim, 40, a native of Milwaukee, sued the organization In 1980 for intentional and ...

TAMPA — You shouldn't be reading this story. The tale of Margery Wakefield vs. the Church of Scientology is supposed to be a secret. Church officials say so. So does a federal judge. In fact, Wakefield could go to jail for talking about the 12 years she spent as a member of the cult, which has its spiritual headquarters in Clearwater. Wakefield, 41, is talking anyway, braving the threats of Scientology lawyers and testing the patience of a U.S. district judge. ...

Margery Wakefield got $200,000 for settling a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology in 1986. In return, Scientology thought it had bought Ms. Wakefield's perpetual silence. She wasn't supposed to disclose the $200,000 figure. She wasn't supposed to talk about Scientology's lop-secret training techniques. And she wasn't supposed to make claims about alleged hypnosis and Satanism in the church. But Ms. Wakefield's been talking, going on Tampa Bay radio twice recently to discuss just these things. In so doing, she's testing ...

[...] Wakefield now repudiates the agreement, claiming she was pressured into signing it, and aggressively seeks forums — in the press, on radio shows, in churches — to denounce Scientology. "I don't care what the legal repercussions are at this point," she told the Tribune recently. "I want people in this area to know what Scientology is about. I want them to know it's a satanic cult." The church has been the center of controversy since it was founded by science ...

Some extremist religious sects and a number of related self-help therapies employ communication techniques that may over time "alter or impair fundamental information-processing abilities" and may result in severe physical, emotional and mental disorders, a team of University researchers announced at a press conference Tuesday. Authors and research associates Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman released a study titled "Information Disease," presenting findings of a nationwide study on the effects of covert induction and deprogramming. These results are the culmination of four ...