The battleground is YouTube and Scientology's weapon is a clip of me losing it in the "Mind Control" section of a gruesome exhibition. Scientology has fought many battles to keep its secrets off the web, now they are using it to attack my investigation into them. Scientology has prepared an attack video, and they have shown the Scientology v Sweeney shouting match to anyone who would watch it. There is talk of 100,000 copies being released. Family 'disconnects' Scientology works. That ...

When the Times told officials at the Church of Scientology in Clearwater about plans to write a story about its suppressive person and disconnection policies, Scientology spokesman Ben Shaw aggressively sought to refute the story and persuade the newspaper not to tell it. Shaw provided numerous articles about the ways other churches deal with apostates, including one in which a Catholic bishop in Nebraska excommunicated every member of one church. "I don't see how you can do a fair article on ...

Karen Pressley of Atlanta and her then-husband Peter Schless — a musician and composer who wrote the hit song On the Wings of Love — became Scientologists and later joined staff. Pressley mostly worked for the church's international organization in Los Angeles, but she spent six months in Clearwater. She said she designed the new uniforms still worn by staffers today. Pressley left Scientology in 1998 and refused to come back for sec checks. She has publicly denounced "substandard" child care ...

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 ...

The faded little downtown area of Clearwater, Florida, has a beauty salon, a pizza parlor and one or two run-down bars, as well as a bunch of withered bungalows and some old storefronts that look as if they haven't seen customers in years. There are few cars and almost no pedestrians. There are, however, buses — a fleet of gleaming white and blue ones that slowly crawl through town, stopping at regular intervals to discharge a small army of tightly organized, ...

COOPER: Well, the other night, we told you about a vault in the New Mexico desert and some mysterious land markings nearby, markings that can only be seen from the sky. Both are part of a compound built by the Church of Scientology. And inside the vault are said to be writings by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the church. Many who live in New Mexico are simply unaware the vault even exists and don't – they have never seen ...

A jury trial is slated to start in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday in a case in which an attorney who failed to secure a written representation agreement is seeking to recover the reasonable value of her services. So far, that probably seems hum drum. What makes this case worthy of note is that the proceeding will take place in Case No. C332027 — which was filed on July 28, 1980. The name of this 25-year-old case will probably sound familiar. ...

Tom cruise calls his religion "extraordinary," but 26-year-old Astra Woodcraft, who grew up in the Church's inner circle, has a different story to tell — about bizarre beliefs, pressured rules and how she finally broke tree to start her life over. On a chilly February evening in 1998, I strode quietly through Los Angeles International Airport, clutching a Virgin Atlantic ticket for London in one hand and a duffel bag stuffed with my clothes in the other. I was drenched, having ...

Posted on Aug 16, 2005 | by Staff ATLANTA (BP)–Karen Pressley has heard it all before. The talk of space aliens having come to earth a millennia ago, the authoritative worldview, the buffed movie star glibly handing out solutions to personal conflicts. Movie star Tom Cruise may be spouting the truth according to the Church of Scientology these days, but Pressley has lived in that world longer than Cruise and knows firsthand the nightmare it entails. “Tom Cruise is doing exactly ...