As early as the third grade, students in S.F. and elsewhere are subtly introduced to church's concepts via anti-drug teachings A popular anti-drug program provided free to schools in San Francisco and elsewhere teaches concepts straight out of the Church of Scientology, including medical theories that some addiction experts described as "irresponsible" and "pseudoscience." As a result, students are being introduced to somebeliefs and methods of Scientology without their knowledge. Anyone listening to a classroom talk by Narconon Drug Prevention & ...

Narconon's school program sends students a strong anti-drug message about alcohol, tobacco and marijuana in grades three to 12 and about harder drugs in the upper grades. The program's instructors tell kids that drugs are poison. But here are some other things they tell kids about addiction, which the medical experts interviewed by The Chronicle rejected as not scientifically based: – Drugs – including ecstasy, LSD and marijuana – accumulate indefinitely in body fat, where they cause recurring drug cravings for ...

Hollywood film star Tom Cruise has donated $1500 to an Auckland youth drug programme sponsored by the Church of Scientology. Cruise sent the cheque and a letter after hearing about the work of the Drug-Free Ambassadors group, which encourages young people to adopt a drug-free lifestyle. Mo McLeary, manager for the group, which has been running for three years, said it was thrilled with the donation. Mr McLeary had written to the actor hoping it might receive a photo for publicity ...

DECLARATION OF TERA HATTAWAY I, Tera Hattaway, declare as follows: 1. I am over 18 years of age. —– 2. The statements herein are of my own personal knowledge and if called upon as a witness, I can testify competently thereto. —– 3. When I was involved with the Church of Scientology in Dallas Texas, I had a boyfriend of many months prior to joining staff. This was in 1978. Within several weeks of being on staff I was pressured ...

Astra Woodcraft, apostate and defector, is the latest enemy of the Church of Scientology. Woodcraft, 22, never really joined this controversial psycho-spiritual movement, at least not as a free-thinking adult. Astra was born into it. Founded in the 1950s by L. Ron Hubbard, a prolific science fiction writer and freelance philosopher, Scientology describes itself as "the only major new religion established in the 20th century," as a bridge to increased awareness and spiritual freedom. Woodcraft, a third-generation Scientologist, paints a different ...

PARIS - France has filed for the extradition of a New Zealand woman at the centre of a former religious sect which triggered nationwide controversy for alleged brainwashing of its members and violent abuse of their children. Delwin Johns-Schmidt, aged 34, was arrested in Belfast at the request of French prosecutors who filed an arrest warrant with Interpol, accusing her of kidnapping and illegally detaining her 10-year-old daughter, Victoria. The child, who was one of the sect's victims, was placed with ...

The Church of Scientology is using six-year-olds to hand out leaflets on Sydney streets. The church says the children are members of its Chinese congregation, who are distributing anti-drug fliers outside the George Street cinemas. Sydney Scientologist PR Linda Fitzpatrick says the church is interested in recruiting children as "drug-free ambassadors".

BILL KURTIS: Since its emergence in the 1950s, the Church of Scientology has been a source of great fascination. It has spent many of those years at war with the U.S. government, the press, and portions of the public. But behind the headlines are real people who have experienced Scientology firsthand. In this second hour of a special A&E presentation of “Investigative Reports,” we hear directly from those who remain members of the church, and from those who have now left ...

Clearwater picket 1997–Xenu picketing with sign saying “L. Ron Hubbard: Psychotic CON MAN”, other picketers with signs saying “www.scientology-kills.net” “Xenu Crossing (inside a yellow sign on picket sign)”; Deana Holmes with sign saying “Did Standard Tech kill Lisa?”; lecture at Scientology church VO: While church administration is busy dealing with a steady stream of conflict, individual Scientologists are out among the people, spreading Hubbard’s word at every opportunity. MIKE RINDER: Well, you know, the aims of Scientology are a civilization without ...

Quaint Clarkson, tucked away on the westernmost edge of Mississauga, seems as unlikely a place as any to find L. Ron Hubbard, sci-fi-writer-turned-icon and founder of the much-vilified Church of Scientology. But here, just past the picket fences and over the train tracks where the old post office used to be, the portrait that graces Hubbard's opus Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health – sailor cap, face turned upward, blue sky in the background – hangs in the foyer of ...

The Church of Scientology, stung by a five-part series in the Boston Herald that raised questions about its practices, has hired a private investigator to delve into the Herald reporter's private life. The Rev. Heber Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International, confirmed that the church's Los Angeles law firm hired the private investigative firm to look into the personal life of reporter Joseph Mallia, who wrote the series. "This investigation will have to look at what's riving this" coverage, ...

VOICES: "We were saving the world, we were convinced that Hubbard was the returned saviour and that his techniques and his knowledge and his majesty would eventually bring all mankind to an enlightened state and that was what we were doing..." "There were some things about him that I do feel were rather dangerous. I felt so much under his spell that I told my room-mate that if ever I told her that I was going to marry this man, she ...

When you sit down to read, do you find yourself feeling blank or sort of spinny? Squashed, bent or just not there? Sure you do. And here's why: You've gone past a word you don't understand. In fact, the only reason a person gives up studying or becomes confused or unable to learn is because that person went past a word that was misunderstood. At least that's what the followers of the late Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard want you to ...

The business-minded Scientology strategists are conquering Russia with psycho-programs and management courses — and they seek access to politics and the military Oh, what a wonderful day, Marina thinks it's great to write up her sins. Anna has learned that aspirin ruins her brain. And Vladimir, an old man with thick glasses, can explain what ethics is by using building blocks. That's how it is with Scientologists, everybody has a little bit of success every day in the evening at 5:30 ...

Education: L.A. district officials are concerned that organizer's ties to Scientology could raise 1st Amendment questions. A proposed charter school in the east San Fernando Valley is receiving close scrutiny from Los Angeles Unified School District officials who are concerned about the organizer's ties to the Church of Scientology and are questioning whether church teachings would appear in the new public school. Advocates of the Northwest Charter School acknowledge that they want to employ teaching methods developed by Scientology founder L. ...

Being a native of Harlingen, a member of its school board since 1992, a professional in private dental practice for the last 13 years serving my community, I find it deplorable that my hometown newspaper diminishes the good work of its children while allowing one of its reporters to manufacture controversy where none exists. This letter is to clarify the facts which were incorrectly reported in Kate Mewhinney's article which appeared in Monday's edition of the Valley Morning Star. Those facts ...

A news story on the front-page of today's Star concerns a matter of long-standing debate: What should public schools teach our children, particularly in the realm of morals and values? The current debate focuses on the efforts of two Harlingen dentists, one of whom is a member of the Harlingen school board, to make available to teachers copies of the booklet, The Way to Happiness: A Common Sense Guide to Better Living. The booklet is written by L. Ron Hubbard, founder ...

HCISD board member distributes material with Scientologist links in classrooms A coalition of Harlingen minister has taken a stance against an essay contest for schoolchildren based on a book written by Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The Harlingen Ministerial Alliance, which is made up of representatives from about 12 churches in Harlingen, said it is opposed to the distribution of The Way to Happiness booklets as part of the essay contest. "If this group is permitted in classrooms, then ...

BRITAIN'S newspaper industry watchdog, The Press Complaints Commission has dismissed a complaint by the Scientology movement against the East Grinstead Observer. The cult tried to stop us telling our huge following of readers that an evil sex pervert who preyed on schoolboys at the cult-backed Greenfields school was a Scientology teacher. The cult accused us of inaccurate and misleading reporting following a court case earlier this year, when cultist Mark Kent was jailed for five years for serious sex offences. The ...

JOHN WOOD wants to tell your children the truth about drugs. He is the UK president of an organisation which claims it has been educating young people about the dangers of addiction for 25 years. It claims that message had been successful, and it claims it can also help those who have already fallen to drugs and drink. In fact, Narconon makes rather a lot of claims, and the group has targeted Sussex with literature and glowing tributes from grateful "clients". ...

IT IS portrayed as a typical private school. But the glossy Greenfields brochure, which boasts of academic success and a happy environment for children, does not tell the whole story. One important word is missing from the booklet - Scientology. It is also missing from: * The handbook issued by the Independent Schools Information Service, which describes Greenfields as inter-denominational. * The Independent Schools Yearbook, which it is listed as non-denominational. * The school's 27-page constitution lodged with the Charity Commission. ...

A heartbroken father begged the world's biggest cult yesterday: "Let my daughter go." And Eddie Forsyth wept when he learned that daughter Christine had been subjected to a nightmare ordeal at the hands of the Scientologists. A Mail investigation has discovered that the cult's "thought police" branded her a traitor for talking to an outsider. Blond Christine was hauled before a kangaroo court and convicted of "treason". Beans Experts believe she would have been sentenced to hard labour, ordered to wear ...

BRITAIN is home to more than 500 religious cults with an estimated 500,000 believers, many of whose children are subjected to ritual abuse, a conference was told yesterday. The conference at Hull University, organised in response to the Waco siege in Texas last year, was attended by 150 psychologists alarmed at the effects on children of bizarre teachings by the cults. Ritually abused children are subject to prostitution and pornography in the name of religion, it was claimed. The Cults and ...

A GROUP which runs a national drug rehabilitation programme and gives regular lectures to schools is closely linked to the controversial Church of Scientology. Narconon, which bases its methods on the teachings of the Church's founder L Ron Hubbard, currently treats a small number of private-paying addicts each year. But it is has recently launched a major expansion programme, and Narconon claims that Tower Hamlet's social services department has paid the £500 per week fee for the three month treatment of ...

Special investigation by chief reporter PAUL BRACCHI [A very small picture of Mr. Bracchi is shown.] [A picture of a man in a long military coat with brass buttons is shown. Below the picture is this title: "A Scientologist out on liberty time in a miliary-style greatcoat."] THEY dress like naval officers. But the uniforms, complete with epaulettes and brass buttons, are not what they seem. These men and women do not belong to the armed services...they are Scientologists. Most of ...