[Reproduced here with express permission of author Paul Krassner. Thank you!] What I really wanted to do was publish something that would top “The Parts Left Out of the Kennedy Book.” I had observed a disturbing element being imposed upon the counterculture — various groups all trying to rip off the search for consciousness — and I felt challenged to write a satirical piece about this phenomenon. Scientology was one of the scariest of these organizations, if only because its ...

Samara, November 20, Interfax – The Samara city court has banned work of Dianetics Center as its staff-members worked without license and practiced hypnotherapy and Ron Hubbard teaching. The Samara Region Prosecutor’s Office reported that staff-members of the Dianetics Center lectured at seminars and courses on dianetics and scientology without having special licenses. “These educational courses allegedly aimed at forming world outlook and life style based on priority of human values. They tried to reach it by applying philosophy of improving ...

Tessa Mayes is the first reporter to have gone undercover in the London Celebrity Centre of the Church of Scientology. It is, she finds, like a pious version of Pop Idol. The adherents want to be celebrities at least as much as Scientologists ‘A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists,’ wrote L. Ron Hubbard, who founded the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in 1969, 15 years after he formed the church itself. ...

CINCINNATI — It is a church that critics believe is dangerous, but members say it's completely misunderstood. You may not realize it, but during this holiday season, a visit to the mall may come with an invitation to a religion that sparks passion and controversy. Sylvia Stanard/Scientology Spokeswoman: "It's really the religion of religions." To those who believe, it's both a church and a lifestyle. Worker #1: "I know that this works." To critics, it's a money machine and mind-controlling cult. ...

TOM CRUISE's leap of faith into Scientology is a visible example of the religion's hold on its followers — but the Church of Scientology already has a multimillion-dollar grip on Manhattan. The controversial group, now blitzing the media after Cruise became its most outspoken advocate, has a massive city empire used by tens of thousands of devotees. And New York's church president the Rev. John Carmichael said, "Interest is increasing markedly." Its huge seven-story city headquarters was opened last year at ...

L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics" is a fantastically dull, terribly written, crackpot rant — it's also the founding text of Scientology. So, what does it actually say? Most of us respond instinctively to "Dianetics." We glimpse the covers (for some reason, you only see this book in battalions of copies), with their lurid pictures of spouting volcanoes emblazoned with screaming, foil-stamp lettering, and as if by reflex, our steps quicken, our eyes avert and our faces compose themselves into the expression of ...