The Rev. Enid Vien, former director of the Church of Scientology's Flint mission, has resigned from the church. Her letter of resignation is strongly critical of the church's operation. Her letter, submitted after nearly 18 years as a Scientologist and a minister since 1967, says in part: "I can no longer support a church that bleeds its parishioners, abuses its staff, uses fear tactics to insure everyone at least pretends to agree and engages upon coercive tactics to sew its missions ...

Yes... The Church of Scientology (which was founded by L. Ron Hubbard and operates a mission in Santa Rosa) is often charged with using mind control techniques to obtain and maintain the loyalty and resources of its members. Scientology officials, as well as many Scientology church members, scoff at these charges, insisting their practices and teachings are designed to liberate the mind, not enslave it. But Ford Schwartz, a longtime Scientologist and later a "deprogrammer" for the Freedom Counseling Center in ...

I sat in a stiff-backed chair. I had no thoughts, no fears, no hopes — or at least I tried to feel that way. I didn't look at the room around me, or hear the other people talking, or notice the roar of traffic floating through the window. I simply stared deep into the eyes of the young man who sat facing me. I stared at him, motionless, and was there, and confronted him, and didn't react — just as I'd ...

CLEARWATER — He hates exercise but loves to watch football games on television and to tinker with a 1971 Volkswagen. He "consumes" literature to the point of leading the labels on Campbell soup cans, is practicing Episcopalian, chain smokes and answers to the nickname Nibs. He watched his father try to perform an abortion on his mother. He practiced black magic, spoke in the jargon of Scientology until he was 25 years old and used to be known as "the great ...

CLEARWATER — Life at the Church of Scientology's Fort Harrison Hotel was so miserable, Lori Taverna remembered Thursday, that "I felt that I was in . . . an insane asylum." Casey Kelly recalled being distressed by the hard work and low pay. "Here I was, working 70 to 80 hours a week, and I was making $20," Kelly said. "This did not jive." Eventually both Kelly, 23, and Ms. Taverna, 39, quit Scientology. Thursday they testified before Clearwater city commissioners ...

[Picture / Caption: FOUNDER — L. Ron Hubbard bust in lobby of Scientology administrative building.] Like the Romanesque bronze busts of L. Ron Hubbard displayed in churches of Scientology, the official biographies of Scientology's founder seem larger than life. Born in Tilden, Neb., on March 13, 1911, to Navy Comdr. Harry Ross Hubbard and his wife, Dora May, he is said to have spent his early childhood on the Montana cattle ranch of his maternal grandfather, "where long days were spent ...

[...] 16. RECOMMENDATIONS AND/OR CONDITIONS FOR CONTINUED STATE FUNDING a. Detoxification procedures should be stopped on the premises since their procedures are without proper medical supervision and may be dangerous. b. Three evaluation team members recommend cessations of State funding. c. One evaluation team member recommends continued funding if the following conditions are met: 1) Program must operate a facility that specifically and exclusively deals with the rehabilitation of narcotic addicted persons as required by their contract. Such condition should be ...

Mr. Steinman is a free-lance writer living in New York. Like all true believers, the members of the young Church of Scientology (or Dianetics as it is sometimes known) believe they have found the answers. A visit to their New York headquarters in the Hotel Martinique shows that Scientology has at least put smiles on a few faces and seems to have solved many of the existential problems of the members who work and study there. According to the recent U. ...

Offices of the American Psychiatric Association are located in the seventeen hundred block of Eighteenth Street Northwest, Washington, D.C. The Founding Church of Scientology is at 1812 Nineteenth Street, one block farther out. Figuratively speaking, the world's largest mental-health organization is considerably farther out than that.Even its members will concede that it is far out. After a hurried interview with Miss Anne Ursprung, top executive of the Founding Church, I managed an extension of time by driving her and fellow staff ...

RELIGION OR BUSINESS? Practices of Scientology Being Investigated Again By John Dart Times Religion Writer [Picture / Caption: YOUNG INITIATES — The Rev. Robert Bobo talks with two children who are taking Scientology courses. The photo on the wall is of the founder of the worldwide group, L. Ron Hubbard.] The mimeographed notice looked more like a secret police communique than a church message. It informed "those concerned" that a certain 20-year-old girl "is hereby declared a Suppressive Person and assigned ...

Sirs: "Scientology—a Growing Cult Reaches Dangerously into the Mind" (Nov. 15) is the most frightening article or story I ever read! Poe should wither away in his grave. Jan Fortune North Hollywood, Calif. —– Sirs: Alan Levy entered Scientology ("A True-Life Nightmare") with the concealed intention of writing a suppressive (or exposing) story afterward. He wonders why he got to feeling guiltier and guiltier and developed headaches. I think I would have felt mighty uncomfortable in his shoes too. Is ...

A BOY and a girl told last night of what happened to them in while they worked at the Scottish headquarters of the Scientologists. THE GIRL, Kathleen Riley, said it was a bit frightening at first when she was given a kind of lie-detector test. THE BOY, lain Thomson, 20, claimed he was told to work for more than 15 hours — then sleep on a wooden floor. Kathleen, of 31 Niddrie Marischal Place, Edinburgh, said she was linked to an ...

"Change no man's religion, change no man's politics, interrupt the sovereignty of no nation. Instead teach man to use what he has and what he knows to the factual creation, within any political reference, a civilization on earth for the first time." [Signed L Ron. Hubbard] Many people interested in Scientology often ask whether or not processing or training would affect their religious beliefs. The article on the following pages by Father Peter Haskins, O.M.I., Ph.L., S.T.L. gives the Roman Catholic ...