LOS ANGELES — The Church of Scientology secretly teaches that 75 million years ago Earth was called Teegeeach and was among 90 planets ruled by Xemu, who spread his evil by thermonuclear bombs, according to court documents that sect members tried to prevent the public from seeing. Xemu, attempting to solve overpopulation problems, destroyed selected inhabitants of the planets and implanted the seeds of aberrant behavior in their spirits to affect future generations of mankind, according to the documents briefly placed ...

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Church of Scientology on Wednesday ended four weeks of mass rallies protesting a $39 million court award to a former member who claimed the organization defrauded her with false promises. However, Scientology president Heber Jentzch said a small contingent of followers, would remain in Portland to monitor an appeal of the verdict.

BOSTON (AP) — A former Church of Scientology member has dropped her $200 million harassment claim against the organization, and group leaders say she settled for $150,000. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday in U.S. District Court when Judge W. Arthur Garrity announced that attorneys for La Venda Van Schaick, 35, asked for a dismissal, which he granted. Garrity then cleared the courtroom, which was filled with Scientologist members, after denying requests from attorney Harvey Silverglate and the group's president, ...

Why a Portland jury awarded $39 million in damages against one of the world's most profitable cults. ONE SUNNY AFTERNOON last week, an elderly man, who looked as though he had probably spent the past few nights sleeping under the stars, stood in the southeast corner of Lownsdale Square in downtown Portland gazing in bewilderment at the scene before him. Several hundred people, many wearing T-shirts proclaiming something about a crusade for religious freedom, gathered around a large stage in the ...

Three years after publishing a best-selling book in 1950 about his theories for improving mental health, L. Ron Hubbard, 42, was living in Spain and worrying about money. An idea struck him. Why not present Scientology as a religion, he suggested in a letter written to Helen O'Brien, then the head of an organization for marketing his mental health concepts known as the Hubbard Association of Scientologists. This was the formative stage of the Church of Scientology. Over the next 30 ...

CLEARWATER — Clearwater Scientologists marched again Tuesday night. Some 400 church members held a 10 p.m., hour-long candlelight procession through the downtown area and out onto Memorial Causeway. A church spokesman said the action was part of a coordinated worldwide protest against a May 17 Oregon court decision awarding $39 million to ex-church member Julie Titchbourne, who claimed the church had failed to make good on promises to improve her eyesight and intelligence. "A similar march began at 7 p.m. in ...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Thousands of Scientologists, including actor John Travolta and jazz musician Chick Corea, showed, up in Portland yesterday to rally behind their beleaguered church. Members of the Church of Scientology flew to Portland from all over the United States and as far away as Europe and South America. In Seattle, about 80 Scientologists singing "We Shall Overcome" and protesting what they called an assault on religious freedom gathered last night at the Flag Pavilion in Seattle Center. The Scientologists, ...

PORTLAND, Ore.—Members of the Church of Scientology converged on Portland on Sunday to protest a $39 million fraud judgment which one church leader called "a slap in the face of the First Amendment." The Rev. John Carmichael, head of the church in Oregon, predicted Sunday morning that the Multnomah County Circuit Court jury award will not stand on appeal. "Major disasters in which hundreds of people are killed don't get $39 million judgments," Carmichael said. In Clearwater, Scientology midday followers gathered ...

An estimated 500 members of the Church of Scientology rallied in downtown Portland late into the night Sunday, anticipating the early morning arrival of film star John Travolta. Travolta, flying his private plane from Los Angeles for a quick stop in Portland to show solidarity with other Scientology members, arrived at Portland International Airport shortly after midnight. He was greeted by more than 200 supporters who had been bused to the airport after a day of protest against a $39 million ...

Pushing a baby stroller towering with blankets, Jennifer Decker of Eagle Rock was among hundreds of Church of Scientology members who boarded buses, planes and trains Saturday bound for Portland, Ore., to protest a $39 million court judgment against the international church. An Oregon jury awarded the multimillion-dollar judgment on Friday to a woman who claimed the church defrauded her, which prompted church president the Rev. Heber Jentzsch to organize the pilgrimage to Portland. Decker was among 200 people who filled ...

Several thousand members of the Church of Scientology are planning to converge on Portland, Ore., today and Monday to protest a jury's $39-million damage award to a former church member who claimed that she was defrauded out of $3,253 by the group. The Rev. Kathleen Gorgon, president of the Church of Scientology of California, said that several hundred members left Saturday from the church's Hollywood headquarters by car, bus, train and plane to join others from around the world in a ...

After winning a $39 million judgment against the Church of Scientology late Friday afternoon, Julie Christofferson Titchbourne said she hoped to establish a foundation to help other victims of thought-control organizations. Titchbourne, a soft-spoken civil engineer who hugged her mother, husband and lawyers after hearing the jury's decision, said she hoped her experience could be turned to an advantage for others whose lives need rebuilding. During a brief appearance before reporters outside the courtroom door, neither Titchbourne nor one of her ...

PORTLAND, Ore.—A jury Friday awarded $39 million to a woman who says the Church of Scientology defrauded her with claims it would improve her eyesight and make her more intelligent. The Multnomah Circuit Court jury, after a 10-week trial and 2½ days of deliberations, found the church defrauded Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, a church member for nine months, in 1975 and 1976. "This is a ridiculous decision. The Constitution is in serious trouble in the state of Oregon and we will appeal," ...

A Los Angeles federal judge dismissed Monday a $2-million libel suit by the Church of Scientology of California against a Boston lawyer because of the failure of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard to appear at a court-ordered deposition. Lawyers for the Church of Scientology had argued that they had no way of contacting Hubbard, who was last seen in public in 1980 while living in the Hemet area. Hubbard, 74, had been ordered to appear for a deposition in Los Angeles ...

CLEARWATER—Possibly the highest-ranking, most influential Scientologist to defect from the Clearwater-based, international sect has sued Church of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard for more than $225 million. Citing physical abuse, the intentional infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and the violation of his civil rights, Howard D. "Homer" Schomer, the 49-year-old former treasury secretary of the sect's Author Services Inc. branch, is demanding a jury trial and damages of $226,528,200. Schomer's claims, if proved true, offer a dark view of the ...

"Corrupt, sinister and dangerous" were the words used to describe the Church of Scientology in a judgment given by Mr Justice Latey this summer. He also referred to it as "immoral and socially obnoxious". But who controls the Church now? A major Sunday Times Magazine investigation into the activities of the cult in America and Britain has uncovered a disturbing and extraordinary story — the takeover of the organisation by a small band of youthful fanatics following the disappearance of the ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A $20 million-plus lawsuit has been filed by two branches of the Church of Scientology accusing a Boston lawyer, his brother, his law partner and a former Scientologist of violating the civil rights of church members. The federal lawsuit claims attorneys Michael Flynn and Thomas Hoffman, Washington, D.C. restaurateur Kevin Flynn and former Scientologist Laurel Sullivan conspired to violate the church members civil rights by a campaign of lies that led to government investigations and adverse publicity. ...

He may be the most highly visible "invisible" man on earth — Mr. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard. Although not seen publicly since 1980, the reclusive founder of the controversial Clearwater-based Church of Scientology is constantly the subject of newspaper stories, court testimony and television [?] around the world. L. Ron Hubbard, a flamboyant millionaire philosopher, adventurer and explorer, mystic and messiah, has become the Howard Hughes of our time. For no one knows — at least no one is saying — where ...