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. ...

The Church of Scientology has purchased the former Science Museum of Minnesota building in downtown St. Paul Eric Rapp, a Welsh Cos. broker who marketed the space, said the church plans a major renovation of the building that once housed exhibits and has since been the home of the failed Minnesota Business Academy. Rapp wouldn't disclose the sale price of the 80,000-square-foot west building of the former museum complex. The sale closed Friday. A number of financial institutions had come to ...

Pasadena – Before work has even started on the Church of Scientology's new complex in Old Pasadena, members have clashed with the city over sidewalk tables used to distribute church literature and sign up passers-by for "stress tests." Eden Stein, president of the Scientologists' Pasadena branch, said Tuesday that a church lawyer has written to City Attorney Michele Beale Bagneris and the Police Department to complain that code-enforcement officials were "out of line" in citing them for using the sidewalk for ...

The controversial Church of Scientology is planning to target students at Scottish universities and colleges in a new recruitment drive. Leaders of the church, which is largely regarded as a cult and believes humans descended from aliens, have revealed they intend to send workers into campuses to seek out impressionable youngsters. Ironically, they believe recent bad publicity after the movement featured on the BBC's Panorama programme has helped attract new converts. Following the programme screening two weeks ago, which featured presenter ...

Hilliker Corp. and Hagen Properties represented Vernon Holliday, Richard Maheu and Neal Josehart in the sale of a 60,000-square-foot institutional building at 2345 Lafayette Avenue, St. Louis, to Church of Scientology of Missouri, represented by St. Louis Premier Realtors Inc. Solon Gershman Inc. represented parties in these leases: 18,311 square feet of office space at 1350 Timberlake Manor Parkway, Timberlake Corporate Center III, Chesterfield, from Franklin Street Properties Corp. to AB Mauri Food Inc. d/b/a Fleischmann's Yeast, represented by Grubb & ...

Lafayette Ron Hubbard wrote a book in 1950 that sold 20 million copies in 50 languages and introduced what is arguably the fastest growing religion on Earth: scientology. Scientology translates to "the study of truth." Scientologists can practice other religions and are asked not to believe anything based solely on faith. "The truth" is what each person discovers to be true, said Mike Klagenberg, Northern California director for the Church of Scientology based in Sacramento. Most people don't know what scientology ...