The basic premise of the Church of Scientology is that humans can realize their full potential only if they clear away negative memories. The means of doing so were presented by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard in the best-selling book "Dianencs," which he wrote in 1950. Hubbard argued that by a process of counseling ("auditing"), negative memories ("engrams") could be erased. Auditing involves the use of an E-meter, a sort of lie detector on which, the subject holds two tin ...

THE CHURCH of Scientology has obtained a High Court order against a fourth person for the return of documents which it says have been taken from its European headquarters in Denmark. But local independent Scientologists are hoping that the civil actions will be dropped as a result of the verdict of a Copenhagen court last Wednesday. The order, issued by the High Court, London, on Friday (April 13), is against Mr Steven Bisbey, a former member of the Church of Scientology, ...

Clearwater City Manager Anthony Shoemaker has said thanks, but no thanks to a Church of Scientology request to declare May "Dianetics Month" in honor of sect founder L. Ron Hubbard. "I am most appreciative of your letter concerning Mr. L. Ron Hubbard and your request that the city honor Mr. Hubbard with Dianetics Month," Shoemaker wrote this week to Pamela Schwartz of the Los Angeles-based "L. Ron Hubbard Office of Public Relations." "I must, however, respectfully decline on behalf of the ...

In a newish sort of castle in Sussex a suite of rooms, with private bar, an electric organ, and an elegant writing desk complete with pens and an unopened pack of his favorite cigarettes, await one of the world's most prolific and richest authors. Yet the rooms, cleaned regularly, remain unused; the chair behind the desk has not been sat upon for over fifteen years, though the man for whom all this is carefully — even lovingly maintained — has sold ...

L. Ron Hubbard wrote his most important books and articles, the foundation of the Church of Scientology and his psycho-therapeutic treatment, Dianetics, while "saturated" with cocaine and other drugs, according to his son. Ronald E. DeWolf, the oldest of Hubbard's six children, contends his father distorted his military record to create cult devotion to his budding church. And, the son maintains, his father lied about his physical health, maintaining that Dianetics had made him well, when in fact he was severely ...

The year was 1950. The book was Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, written by a 39-year-old "pulp" writer of science fiction, L. Ron Hubbard. A few months earlier, Hubbard had outlined the book's tenets in a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction. And a year before that, at a lecture for science fiction writers, Hubbard had mused, "Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way would be ...

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin has a reputation for being easygoing, tolerant of different lifestyles and friendly to just about anybody who likes beanless chili, ribs and beer in longneck bottles. So hardly an eyebrow was raised when Austin Mayor Carole McClellan signed an official proclamation designating this week as Dianetics Week in Austin, in honor of the 32nd anniversary of the publishing of Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. The proclamation is short ...

A 17-year veteran of the Church of Scientology told Clearwater city commissioners Thursday she lived through "horror" while staying at the former Fort Harrison Hotel three years ago. Lori Taverna, who said she broke with the sect two months ago, was asked by Mayor Charles LeCher to describe a "normal day" while she worked as a Scientology trainer. "Most of it was horror, so I don't know," said Mrs. Taverna, 39. But in about three hours of testimony during the second ...

What they said: [Picture / Caption: Attorney Michael J. Flynn promised that Wednesday's testimony "is just laying the foundation" for revelations concerning Clearwater.] [Picture / Caption: "If Hubbard decides to leave this planet, he will take these people with him," said former Scientologist Edward Walters, drawing a comparison to the late Rev. Jim Jones.] [Picture / Caption: "My father only knew how to do one thing and that was to destroy people," said the former L. Ron Hubbard Jr., now known ...

Eighteen months ago, the U.S.-based Church of Scientology launched a global—and unsuccessful—campaign to prevent publication of a Reader's Digest report called "Scientology: Anatomy of a Frightening Cult." The church engaged a detective agency to investigate the author, Digest Senior Editor Eugene H. Methvin. Digest offices in a half-dozen nations were picketed or bombarded with nuisance phone calls. In Denmark, South Africa and Australia, the church sued unsuccessfully to prevent publication. In the months since the article appeared, in May 1980, a ...

Carol Garrity and Dick and Janie Peterson don't call Scientology a church anymore. After dropping about $40,000 in five years into church courses and training, they left the church three weeks ago disillusioned, angry and humiliated. Is Scientology a church? "No!" they answer. "You never hear mention of God or any praying," Dick Peterson said of the church that won tax-exempt status only after a 19-year court battle with the IRS. "It doesn't operate like a church," Garrity added. "It's run ...

The faithful inner core serve as thieves, decoys and spies. The shocking story behind one of the most dangerous “religious cults” operating today IN THE late 1940s, pulp writer L. Ron Hubbard declared, “Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wants to make a million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Hubbard did start his own religion, calling it the “Church of Scientology,” and it has grown into an enterprise today grossing ...

How a Portland jury got a crash course in one of the oddest "religions" ever created and awarded the plaintiff more than $2. million Note: This summer, a jury in Portland spent a month listening to testimony in a $4 million lawsuit over the practices of the Church of Scientology there. The plaintiff: Julie Christofferson, a young Portland woman who was a follower of Scientology in 1975 and 1976. The defendants: three local Scientology organizations and one of their leaders. ''Richard ...

Forgive the digression, but as a child, I had a fool-proof method for falling asleep. If I were lying wide-awake in bed, I would categorize my thoughts, imagining my mind was a room full of filing cabinets. Into each of these files (not unlike the ones where the Mouseketeers kept their cartoons) went one worry or problem. By the time the data was transferred, I would be asleep. The point being that I viewed my mind as something akin to a ...

On May 14, 1951, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard wrote to the U.S. attorney general to plead for help in fending off a Communist conspiracy, dedicated, he averred, to destroying him. "When, when, when," he wrote, "will we have a roundup?" Rambling through seven single-spaced typewritten pages, the letter was, to all appearances, the heartfelt cry of a troubled man. A successful science fiction writer in the 1940s, L. Ron Hubbard, as he signed himself, had gone on to bigger things. ...

Having discovered that there is nothing quite like advertising for keeping an idea alive, the Churches of Scientology in 21 markets will begin on Monday a TV ad campaign for "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," a 28-year-old book written by the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Collectively they will be spending about $650,000 during the remainder of the year, on the TV and on radio and magazine advertising, according to George Chelekis, public relations director of the New York ...

The sociology of marginal medicine is a neglected field of endeavor. There exist only a mere handful of brief accounts of unorthodox therapeutic practices and their development in Western societies. I shall seek, therefore, to provide a contribution to this scant literature, in the belief that such studies are not only of intrinsic interest but also provide insight into a number of strains and tensions generated by advanced industrial societies and into some of the less orthodox methods of coping with ...

The mystery began to unfold last fall in sleepy, sun-drenched Clearwater, Fla. The Southern Land Development and Leasing Corp. decided to buy the 270-room Fort Harrison Hotel, a downtown landmark, and a nearby bank building. Southern Land stated that the hotel would stay open, but another spokesman announced that it would become a center for the United Churches of Florida, a new ecumenical outfit that soon won endorsement from twelve local clergymen. When 200 tight-lipped strangers moved into the hotel, rumors ...

"Writing for a penny a word is ridiculous. If a man really wanted to make a million dollars, the best way to do it would be to start his own religion." - L. Ron Hubbard Founder of the Church of Scientology Lafayette Ronald Hubbard tossed off this remark at a lecture in Newark N.J., in 1949. At the time Hubbard was 38 years old, a prolific science fiction writer advising science fiction buffs on the tricks of his trade. The audience ...

Despite a 10-year running battle with the Food and Drug Administration and the American Medical Assn., Scientology appears to have finally arrived on the West Side. Aided by a 1971 federal district court decision, the Church of Scientology is not only a recognized religious science but the largest and fastest-growing pandenominational church in this area. And the greatest concentration of its members may well be here. There are 75,000 Scientologists in Los Angeles, according to the Rev. Glenn A. Malkin, executive ...