SAN FRANCISCO — In a major ruling on the separation of church and state, the California Supreme Court held Monday that a religious organization may be sued for fraud for allegedly "brainwashing" unknowing recruits into joining the church. The justices ruled 6 to 1 that two former members of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church can proceed to trial with claims that they were tricked by recruiters who denied they were church members and then used subtle "mind-control" techniques to ...

Scientology grew out of the ashes of L Ron Hubbard's 'new science' of Dianetics, which enjoyed a brief vogue in the America of the 1950s then faded to bring its founder close to bankruptcy. In this second extract from the book the Church of Scientology tried to ban, RUSSELL MILLER describes the bizarre, science-fiction basis of the new, highly profitable religion and Hubbard's self-appointed mission to 'save the world' —– L RON HUBBARD had often said: "If a man really wanted ...

The Supreme Court on Monday rebuffed pleas by the Church of Scientology of California for relief from having to post a bond of up to $60 million to guard its assets against seizure while it appeals a huge Los Angeles jury award. Scientology lawyers have argued that payment of the bond would plunge the church into bankruptcy. But the state court judge who presided over the jury trial contends that the controversial organization's claims of poverty are untrue. The Supreme Court's ...

The Church of Scientology has reached out-of-court settlements in four multimillion-dollar civil suits, but details were ordered sealed by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich. Settlements were reached with former Clearwater Mayor Gabe Cazares, a Democratic candidate for Congress; Tanja Burden of Las Vegas; Nancy McLean of Ontario, Canada; and Margery Wakefield, no address available. Tampa attorney Walt Logan, who represented plaintiffs in all four cases, said the files were sealed Thursday over our objections. The Cazareses sued the church for $1.5 ...

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded $30 million to a former Scientologist, who claimed the church's religious practice of "auditing" caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown. Larry Wollersheim, 37, who was a member of the church for 11 years, was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages by the 12-member jury. The trial started last February. "It's a tremendous verdict for human rights," said Leta Schlosser, Wollersheim's attorney. The Church of Scientology, she added, ...

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury Tuesday awarded $30 million in damages to a former member of the Church of Scientology who said the organization intentionally drove him to the edge of insanity and ruined him financially for criticizing the group. The 12-0 verdict in favor of Larry Wollersheim brought gasps from the Scientologists who packed Judge Ronald Swearinger's court-room, as they had throughout the bitterly contested five-month-long trial. Some sobbed. Wollersheim was awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $25 ...

Testimony in a civil fraud trial against the Church of Scientology and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, ended Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court near the end of the ninth week of trial. Circuit Judge Donald H. Londer scheduled closing arguments to begin Monday and indicated that they would last at least two days. Loader and attorneys in the case plan to spend most of Friday discussing legal instructions to be delivered to the jury at the close of arguments. The ...

A Flint-area physician who once had a promising career is now in a Colorado rehabilitation center, unable to take care of herself or communicate, the result of a suicide attempt. Her doctors report she may have suffered permanent brain damage from a self-administered overdose of insulin. Family members, her psychologist and her associates say she had been emotionally unstable for some time. They contend the local Church of Scientology and the Michigan Purification Project, a detoxification program, aggravated her condition. Glenn ...

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 ...

At the Fort Harrison Hotel in downtown Clearwater, Scientologists are learning to leave their bodies, control other people's thoughts and communicate with plant life. They learn this by reliving a galactic holocaust carried out by space creatures millions of years ago. So say top-secret Scientology documents spelling out the highest level of training available to church members. It is training that costs thousands of dollars and, according to church defectors who provided the documents, amounts to nothing but a swindle dreamed ...

A downtown Clearwater businessman who last year joined the Church of Scientology was committed to a Mental hospital Monday after a psychiatrist testified that Scientology apparently contributed to the man's insanity. Francis G. Diamond, 45, a successful antique dealer before his breakdown, told Circuit Judge William Walker that other Scientologists' "thetans," or spirits, had invaded his body during counseling sessions and now control him. "It's not something out of Star Trek-it happens," insisted Diamond, who brought a book by Scientology founder ...

A former follower of the controversial Church of Scientology has filed suit claiming she was harassed and shamed into contributing more than $7,000 to the church. Saundra Haynes, in a fraud suit filed Thursday by attorney Hiram M. Martin, claimed that she went along with the urgings because she hoped the church's "auditing" procedures would enable her to "go clear," as the church calls it, and "rid her of her deep depressions and suicidal attempts." At one point, she claimed in ...

The former head of the Church of Scientology in Calgary said Thursday she has been used by the organization to talk Calgarians out of more than $200,000 — perhaps as much as $350,000. Rev. Lorna Levitt, who resigned from the church April 19, said: "I was being used by the organization to exploit people by promising then in tangibles that I had been indoctrinated into believing Scientology could and would deliver for a price." The price currently varies from $50 per ...

In reply to a written question in the of Commons a few days ago, the Secretary of State for Social Services, Sir Keith Joseph, declared that he would be making an announcement about the publication of the Foster Report on Scientology "soon". However soon "soon" may be, he has certainly taken time about it. For the report, which was commissioned by his predecessor, Mr Richard Crossman, in January, 1969, has now been in his hands for the best part of ...

Two Scientologists, one a psychiatrist the other a lawyer, unleashed a scathing attack on "institutional psychiatry" Saturday calling for an all-out war against "suppressive psychiatric abuse." Both men drew thunderous applause and standing ovations from some 3,000 Scientology followers when they made their tirades during the controversial group's three-day annual convention in the Long Beach Arena. AND THEIR exhortations were quickly transferred into action as scores of the L. Ron Hubbard disciples signed petitions after the talk demanding to know from ...

How profitable Scientology has become is one of the organization's most closely guarded secrets, but estimates of the personal worth of founder L. Ron Hubbard have ranged up to $7 million. In 1963 the Internal Revenue Service claimed the church earned more than $750,000 in the United States from 1955 through 1959, the year Hubbard moved international headquarters from Washington, D.C., to England. There, according to the Los Angeles Times, world receipts rose to $140,000 weekly in 1968. —– In New ...