A former official of the Church of Scientology, testifying at the trial of his suit charging the church with fraud, says church staff members engaged in a pattern of lies, tricks and deception in efforts to keep him from disclosing how the organization operates. The former official, Larry Wollersheim, who says the church should pay him $25 million in damages because it ruined him financially and emotionally, has spent three weeks testifying before a Superior Court jury here. For its part, ...

It is ironic that the Church of Scientology has stepped forward to object to the spending of $832,000 by the Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) in Tampa to study child molesters. A Scientology-sponsored group — the Citizens Commission on Human Rights — says that child molesters are criminals, not sick people. Representatives of the commission's Clearwater chapter said the pedophiles should be placed behind high walls where they can no longer rape or molest children. Well, the commission may have a ...

Scientologists and opponents of cults waged a war of leaflets last night as more than 100 angry parents confronted two representatives of a Park Ridge Montessori school that fired five teachers in a furor over teaching materials. Claiming their children had been traumatized by the abrupt firings, some parents threatened a breach-of-contract lawsuit. Parents said two-thirds of the more than 200 students at the school were withdrawn because the teachers were fired when they refused to use books designed by the ...

There and Back Again Dear Editor: Re: "Scientology: The Other Side of the Looking Glass" [L.A. Weekly, April 4-10]. I guess it's too much to expect a difficult thing like total truth to be approached in your newspaper. You do pretty well with the movie schedules, not bad with the nightclub billings either. But why do you have to mess up with something that counts, something that has saved lives, salvaged marriages, made people happier and more able — something ...

Susan and Robert Volenec were out of work and their two children were out of school yesterday after an uproar at a Park Ridge Montessori facility over books designed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The parents were among six teachers fired Wednesday by Janet Bowes, founder and director of Children's Learning World, 2703 W. Sibley, after they refused to use books designed by Hubbard. The school had nine teachers and one of the fired teachers returned yesterday, a ...

Six teachers at a Park Ridge Montessori school were fired yesterday after refusing to use books designed by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, school officials said. Janet Bowes, founder and director of the Children's Learning World, 2703 W. Sibley, said the teachers were dismissed "strictly" because they violated their contracts. She said the school, which has 215 students, was not introducing any religious studies to the curriculum. "This is strictly a secular matter," Bowes said. "I'm the leader of ...

A History of Controversy As anyone who follows the news knows, Scientology has been involved in a series of controversial cases, many of them involving vengeful church actions against its critics. (More on this below.) Although the church always paints itself as the victim, its critics suggest that Scientology hasn't been persecuted from the outside, but rather is the victim of warped and misplaced priorities inside the church. The critics — and there are more than the church is willing to ...

Breach of Faith? One particular church policy has been partially at the root of the fear and anger: Scientology's alleged use of personal information in members' "confidential" Pre-Clear (PC) folders information confessed during auditing. There is substantial evidence that this information has been culled, perhaps to pressure members either into staying in the church or into not criticizing the church if they do leave. Although Hoden denies such practices ("In all my years here, I have never known of any such ...

[Picture / Caption: Commander Hubbard] ''[L. Ron Hubbard] has now moved on to his next level of ... research. This level is beyond anything any of us has ever imagined. It is a level, in fact, done in an exterior state, completely exterior from the body. In this level ... the body is nothing more than an impediment, an encumbrance to any further gain. ... Thus, at 2000 hours, Friday, the 24th of January, A.D. [1986], L. Ron Hubbard discarded the ...

Ideological Totalism? Juliann Savage is a clinical social worker in the Cult Clinic, six years a non-sectarian affiliate of Jewish Family Services operating out of the United Way building in Van Nuys. Savage has treated more than 70 victims of mind control, from Hare Krishnas to Moonies, in her two and a half years on staff. She insists the 10 former Scientologists with whom she has worked have been her most difficult assignments. "These people have given their entire lives over ...

L.A.'s Most Conspicuous "Cult"? Scientology is certainly no stranger to attention, and when the reclusive L. Ron Hubbard died of a stroke at his San Luis Obispo ranch, the bright light of public scrutiny was again cast upon his progeny. But despite the walls of defense evident at Scientology headquarters, the church has, ironically, done everything in its power to keep its product, if not its parishioners, in the public eye. For in the 35 years since Hubbard founded Scientology, basing ...

MONEY PROBLEMS AS NOTED IN THE MAIN ARTICLE, the one subject church leaders would not discuss in detail is money — notably, how much the church takes in and where it specifically goes. With 40,000 members in L.A alone, some of them spending tens of thousands on auditing, the sums can clearly be large. A 1974 internal memo indicated the church grossed $24 million that year; former Scientologists have put the current gross at $100 million, a figure that cannot be ...

Payment Before Enlightenment "Total freedom" through Scientology does not come cheap. With registered trademarks affixed to every Scientology term and title, Hubbard's religion sometimes more closely resembles K-mart than, say, Catholicism. Scientology's policy of payment before enlightenment is perhaps the leading cause of questions concerning the church's credibility as an altruistic institution. Although Ken Hoden initially dragged his feet in supplying a promised list of auditing fees because, as he put it, "when you walk into a Baptist church or any ...

The Government's War Against SCIENTOLOGY Scientologists say the church is engaged in "a war for the human spirit" against a global conspiracy, involving psychiatrists, the Rockefeller family, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and the U.S. government (including the FBI, CIA and IRS). According to Ken Hoden, Scientologists feel that although each of these diverse entities have different reasons for attacking the church, their enemies have banded together as one to achieve a common end — "destroying the Church of Scientology." ...

The Minutemen at the Ready [A 'suppressive person' is] Fair Game. May be deprived of property or injured by any means by a Scientologist without discipline of the Scientologist [sic]. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed. —L. Ron Hubbard [Picture / Caption: "Minutemen" line courthouse halls.] On February 15, six police officers stood near the door of Leo Baeck Temple, awaiting the confrontation. They had been called by leaders of Freedom for All in Religion (FAIR), a group ...

Therapy as Religion Though the Berendo Street headquarters is the hub of Scientology activity in Los Angeles, the church's showplace is its Celebrity Center at Franklin and Bronson. A grand gothic chateau built for William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s, this complex of Scientology offices and apartments has retained much of its charm, replete with garden grounds and flowing fountains The idyllic setting is reinforced as you enter the mansion's foyer. The walls are lined with original art, and music from ...