It was last August 12, a Saturday morning, and Earle Cooley did not seem happy. Cooley was among several lawyers for the Church of Scientology who, accompanied by federal agents, had just raided the Arlington, Virginia, home of Arnaldo Lerma, a former church member who'd become a harsh critic. The lawyers took quite a haul: Lerma's computer, disks, a scanner, and other materials they thought he may have used to post secret, copyrighted Scientology documents on the Internet. The success of ...

YOU ARE PERHAPS SICK OF HEARING that Kate Ceberano, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, John Travolta and various other luminaries owe their glittering fame and wealth to Scientology. You may also have noticed that Scientology is taking ads on buses. The days of the kids with clipboards eyeballing you on the street to ask if you would like to do a personality test are fading. Scientology is moving to big business and the Internet. The Church of Scientology tends to live by ...

Scientology is the religion everyone loves to hate. So how come so many movie stars are devout followers? Moves into the church's Celebrity Centre for an exclusive look at the starway to heaven. AT FRANKLIN AND BRONSON A LOGJAM OF LIMousines crawls toward the mock-French Normandy Chateau. At the grand doorway, celebrities, lawyers, producers, and the children of the well-heeled of the entertainment industry step onto the crimson-carpeted tarmac, chattering through the pink-and-gold lounge to the lawns and fairy-lit trees beyond, ...

When computers are seized because they contain allegedly stolen intellectual property, and police pierce the security anonymous remailers,the days of the Net as a cozy, cocktail party are over. Welcome to a flame war with real bullets. When computers are seized because they contain allegedly stolen intellectual property, or the security of anonymous remailers is pierced by police, alt.scientology.war the days of the Internet as a cozy, private, intellectual cocktail party are over. Welcome to mortal combat between two alien cultures ...

At 6:30 on the morning of July 26, a contingent of off-duty U.S. marshals and officials from software maker Novell Inc. rang the doorbell at Joseph and Miki Casalino's home outside Salt Lake City. Thinking her husband had forgotten something when he left for work, Miki padded to the door in her robe and was shocked to find a marshal flashing his badge. They were there, they told her, to search and seize any and all computer bulletin board (bbs) equipment ...

IN THE ONLINE BRAWL OVER SCIENTOLOGY, INTERNET USERS DISCOVER THAT VIRTUAL REALITY BITES BACK.SHOWDOWN IN CYBERSPACE THE BATTLE OVER SCIENTOLOGY'S SECRETS IGNITES A HOLY WAR ON THE INTERNET. Lawrence Wollersheim's hands shake as he reads his notes, ticking off the damage done to his computers. Surrounding the 46-year-old Boulder resident is a cluster of reporters and, beyond that, a ring of glowering, dark-suited men (and one woman wearing a clerical collar), all packed into a hallway of the federal courthouse in ...

[A classic: Heber Jentzsch going nuts to prevent Dennis Erlich from disclosing information about Scientology's secret levels]

The following message was posted on the Internet. The author, Lawrence Wollersheim recently won a $4 million judgment against the Church of Scientology. The church is extremely concerned about the numerous defections and a number of successful lawsuits and criminal proceedings against it, particularly in Europe. Subject: Emergency message to Internet users interested In protecting the freedom of information in the Internet. From Lawrence Wollersheim, co-director of FACTNet. For those of you unfamiliar with me I am a co-director of the ...

"We believe that all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others." — From "The Creed of the Church of Scientology" IT WAS A GLORIOUS DAY FOR A PICNIC, WARM, CLEAR and bright. Even that old cynic, Sunset Boulevard, looked young and innocent under the sun's radiant benevolence. All around the parking lot of the Church of Scientology's, "Big Blue" headquarters, ...

SAN JOSE - A Glendale critic of the Church of Scientology lost a round in federal court Tuesday as a judge declined to lift an order barring him from transmitting copyrighted religious texts onto the Internet. The order remains in effect against Dennis L. Erlich, a former church member. But U. S. District Judge Ronald M. Whyte rejected arguments by church lawyers and lifted restraining orders against a North Hollywood computer bulletin board operator and a San Jose-based Internet access supplier, ...

The Church of Scientology last week filed suit in a bitter dispute over Internet postings that raises questions about the responsibility of network managers for policing their end users. The church sued former member Dennis Erlich, a North Hollywood, Calif., bulletin board system (BBS), and Internet provider Netcom On-Line Services, Inc. for copyright violations. The church alleges that Erlich used the bulletin board, which relies on Netcom for Usenet connectivity, to post copyrighted church teachings. The church is seeking monetary damages ...

Glendale: Church representatives with court order remove files allegedly containing copyrighted texts from home of outspoken critic. BYLINE: ALAN ABRAHAMSON and NICHOLAS RICCARDI TIMES STAFF WRITERS GLENDALE – Led by a lawyer brandishing a federal court order and backed up by a pair of off-duty police officers, a handful of Church of Scientology representatives searched a Glendale house Monday and seized hundreds of computer disks and files allegedly containing copyrighted religious texts. In the latest twist to a fractious dispute that ...

[Picture / Caption: Kristi, left, and Beth Erlich grew up in the Church of Scientology, but eventually left. In the top photo, taken by their mother when Kristi and Beth were children, the two girls perform TR-Zero, Scientology drill that calls for two people to stare at each other "without any compulsions todo anything." The routine is designed to improve communication skills.] When Beth Erlich was 11, she signed her first contract. A billion-year contract. Beth didn't understand it too well. ...

The Church of Scientology says that Dennis Erlich cannot be considered a reliable source of information about the church. Erlich, wrote church of Scientology spokesman Richard Haworth, is nothing more than a disgruntled former member who blames the church "for his troubled life." "Ten years ago he was asked to leave the church following complaints from his wife that he was physically abusing her. . . . Erlich was also violent and abusive to other staff." Haworth labeled Erlich a "hate ...

The June 1 letter on Prozac by Doug Johnston is another example of the campaign of misinformation that Scientologists are spreading on Prozac and other treatments prescribed by psychiatrists. Johnston refers to research carried out by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Hubbard initiated his "research" with the premises that all psychiatric treatment is damaging to all patients and that psychological problems can be dealt with only by training the mind to forget, using a form of self-hypnosis. He conveniently ...

Scientologists Claim Prozac Induces Murder or Suicide, Though Evidence Is Scant Campaign Dismays Doctors INDIANAPOLIS—L. Ron Hubbard, the late founder of the Church of Scientology, long harbored a profound and obsessive hatred for psychiatrists, who, he declared, were "chosen as a vehicle to undermine and destroy the West!" Five years after Mr. Hubbard's death, Scientologists are still waging war on psychiatry. The quasi-religious/ business/ paramilitary organization's latest target is Prozac, the nation's top-selling medicine for severe depression. The group is calling ...

DENNIS ERLICH, WHO writes about religious cults, has some expertise on the subject. Erlich, 37, born in New York City, says he spent 15 years in a cult in California, rising to leadership positions. He left it two years ago, and says it has taken most of that time to "decondition" himself. He now lives in Omaha, where he describes himself as "an analyst, consultant and troubleshooter." He's writing a book about his cult experiences, and on Page 15 we carry ...