And now, the next Walt Disney Studios— the Church of Scientology! That is, if entrepreneurs connected with the Hollywood based cult can muscle into the film business with their proposal to homogenize films by tailoring them to the tastes of the unwashed masses. It all began last July, when Future Films, a new, eccentric studio, began running ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter touting its revolutionary ideas. No one knew what to make of it all. The grand concept, to ...

Parents may be powerless to help their children once they're "trapped" in a cult, but alert parents can help steer kids clear before it's too late, a spokesman for the Manitoba Cult Awareness Centre says. "Once the kids get into a cult, get trapped in a cult, they can't get out," Gerd Gillespie said. And he said the Church of Scientology is the toughest cult to get people out of once they're hooked. The church is so aggressive in "going after" ...

A Winnipeg company is winding down a fund-raising campaign for Narconon — a drug rehabilitation program affiliated with the Church of Scientology — after The Sun exposed Naroconon's connection to the cult last week. But about 35 teenagers selling pepperoni and T-shirts for Mr. Pepperette, a division of Wellington Food Service formed July 1, will work only until the end of the summer — and are continuing at their own request, manager Al Pringle said yesterday. "They want to stick with ...

The Church of Scientology is a "church like any other church," a Vancouver politician said yesterday. Social Credit MLA John Reynolds said he doesn't understand why there is so much fuss over Narconon's links to Scientology. "They (Narconon) have operated here in B.C for many years, and I think they have a reputation of doing a good job," Reynolds said. Reynolds recently wrote a letter to Narconon praising the program on its silver anniversary. The letter was included in a package ...

Top management in a Winnipeg company operating a fund-raising campaign for Narconon — a drug rehabiliation program with ties to the Church of Scientology — have been involved with the church for years, former employees allege. Wellington Food Service partners Brian Knowles and Al Pringle Jr. have been cult members for at least three years, and have tried to convince company employees to join the cult, three men who worked for the company claim. "They were all into it really heavy. ...

The phone's been ringing off the hook at a the Winnipeg branch of Narcotics Anonymous since Sun stories on the connection between an unrelated group, Narconon, and the controversial Church of Scientology. "People have been calling ... but one of the differences is we are self-supporting — we don't solicit funds or contributions," said NA volunteer Bob R., a seven-year member who first heard of Narconon this week. "We've had people calling us up, questioning whether we're affiliated or related. We're ...

Two local teenagers who raised money for Narconon — a drug rehabilitation program linked to the Church of Scientology — say they were told they'd make more money fund-raising than going to school this fall. Adam Blackburn and Dale Fairfax, who are no longer fund-raising for Narconon, said their supervisor told them they likely wouldn't want to go back to school if they continued to work as salesmen. "He said 'You won't be going back to school after you see the ...

A Vancouver man whose testimonial is used by Narconon in its promotional material says the organization is "extremely suspect" because of its links to the Church of Scientology. "They (Narconon) are definitely a part of the Scientology operation," Tom Perry said yesterday in an interview from B.C. "I know they rehabilitated my son, I know they rehabilitated his wife, but I wouldn't trust them as far as I can throw them." Although Perry doesn't deny writing the 1987 testimontial praising Narconon, ...

About 30 teenagers hired to raise funds for Narconon — a drug rehabilitation program linked to the Church of Scientology — picketed The Sun's offices yesterday to protest news reports on Narconon and the church last week. Several teenagers — accompanied by an adult spokesman bearing press kits — complained a recent Sun story linking Narconon to the alleged cult left the perception the teen salespeople are linked to the cult as well. "All we were trying to do was get ...

The Church of Scientology has a long and undistinguished history of harassing its detractors — but that shouldn't stop the media or anyone else from speaking out against it, cult experts say. The church commonly threatens lawsuits, tries to have detractors arrested, and harasses sources and individual reporters, said Cynthia Kisser of the Cult Awareness Network in Chicago. And recent Sun stories linking the church — alleged by experts to be a dangerous, mind-control cult — to Narconon, a drug rehabilitation ...

If you have a drug problem, Narconon isn't the answer, some experts say. "As far as I'm concerned, it's bad news, and I would not advise anyone to go near it," says UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Louis West, who has studied the church since 1950, when it was L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics, and not a recognized religion. "If someone needs help, they (Narconon) are taking the time and money away from a program that could actually help them," West said yesterday. ...

The Church of Scientology is a cult interested in making money, claims a local cult expert. Gordon Gillespie of the Manitoba Cult Awareness Centre calls Scientology — which is linked to the drug-rehabilitation program Narconon, currently fund-raising in the city — the "daddy" of cults. Gillespie said Scientology's church status gives it tax breaks, but it doesn't have churches and services like other religions. "I'd like to say 'No, they're not successful,' but they're still here and they're persistent." Winnipeggers who ...

The director of public affairs for the Church of Scientology in Western Canada denied yesterday it misled about 60 Winnipeg teenagers, hired to raise funds for a drug rehabilitation program linked to the church. "I just think it's very much a tempest in a teapot. This (project) employed a lot of kids," Robbie Hepburn, who flew in to Winnipeg from British Columbia, said. "Yes, there's a connection, but it's not some kind of covert or bad connection." Just because Narconon uses ...

Winnipeggers should steer clear of the Church of Scientology and its many organizations, which include a drug rehabilitation program called Narconon, a U.S cult expert said yesterday. "There are far safer programs," Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Cult Awareness Network, said in an interview from Chicago. "Narconon is more likely to do harm than good." The Sun reported Sunday about 60 Winnipeg teenagers have been hired to sell pepperoni and T-shirts door-to-door to raise money for Narconon. However, a Narconon ...

Dozens of Winnipeg teenagers have been hired to raise funds for a drug rehabilitation program which critics charge is nothing more than a recruiting front for a "mind-control cult." About 60 teenagers who answered newspaper advertisements for summer jobs are selling pepperoni and T-shirts door-to-door to raise money for Narconon — a drug rehab organization linked to the Church of Scientology. And while officials from the program and the man behind the drive say it's all above board, it has sparked ...

When Narconon comes to town, the Church of Scientology — and trouble — follows, residents of Newkirk, Okla. warned yesterday. Newkirk civic leaders were threatened and harassed by the controversial church and its private investigators after they opposed a Narconon treatment centre set up on Indian territory near the small, rural town in 1989, Mayor Gary Bilger said. "We had three investigators in our little town of 2,300 off and on for weeks," he said. "My little boy was 11 years ...

Look, all you have to do is pull out your checkbook and write a check for $200,000. Oh, and make it out to me. No strings attached. That should give you the inner peace you have been searching for. In return for your donation, you'll receive absolutely nothing, and I'll never ask you for a donation again. True, if you do this, I will lose my job. However, if only five of you send the money, I'll be able to retire. ...

By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to claim his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief. The young Russian-studies scholar had jumped from a 10th-floor window of the Milford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the hood of a stretch limousine. When the police arrived, his fingers were still clutching $171 in ...

Originally printed in "The Southern California Psychiatrist," May 1991, pp. 6-13. Dr. West has granted permission to upload this article to computer networks and bulletin boards In a previous article (SCPS Newsletter, July, 1990) I provided an historical account of the Church of Scientology. It is a pseudo-scientific healing cult that was formed in the 1950s, and has grown, with the help of extravagant lies and deliberate deception, into a multimillion dollar, international enterprise. Through its many publications, but especially through ...

Efforts to license a Kay County substance abuse center operating without state approval were brought to a halt Thursday. The State Mental Health Board, scheduled to act Thursday on certifying the Narconon Chilocco New Life Center, found itself crippled by a court ruling. The ruling blocked the board from using material prepared by Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services staff on the 75-bed facility. Mental health department officials said it was the first time a court tossed out a ...

Results are proof MY interest in writing to you is humanitarian. I am a founding member of Narconon in England and have worked with young people on the Narconon programme. I have also assisted in the writing of an authoritative book on the subject called Drugs and Drug Rehabilitation. Possibly your article on Narconon last week failed in one respect, which was to delineate the difference between advice and total freedom from the effects of drugs on young lives. It is ...

YOUNGSTERS and traders have been alerted to an anti-drugs charity based in East Grinstead, which is run according to the principles of L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Church of Scientology. The alert follows an appeal to companies in Crawley to contribute £1,000 towards the charity Narconon which provides a drug rehabilitation programme. The programme, which can cost up to £5,000 and last for two to three months, uses nutritional supplements as well as exercise and saunas to rid the body ...

The Church of Scientology began as a pseudo-scientific healing cult, Dianetics, described by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, in his best-selling book "Dianetics: The Modern science of Mental Health" (1950). At first, Dianetics attracted followers by promising to cure psychiatric and psychosomatic disorders through a procedure called "dianetic auditing," based on pop-psychology, hypnosis, and cybernetics. Hubbard's theory as based on the principle that people can achieve health through abolishing ("clearing") negative influences ("engrams") from their minds by going back ...

"Never treat a war like a skirmish. Treat all skirmishes like wars." —L. Ron Hubbard The Church of Scientology does not turn the other cheek. Ministers mingle with private detectives. "Sacred scriptures" counsel the virtues of combativeness. Parishioners double as paralegals for litigious church attorneys. Consider the passage that a prominent Scientology minister selected from the religion's scriptures, authored by the late L. Ron Hubbard, to inspire the faithful during a gala church event. "People attack Scientology," the minister quoted Hubbard ...

OKLA. CITY — The National Chilocco Alumni Association unanimously approved a resolution on Saturday, June 9, strongly opposing the establishment of Scientology's front organization Narconon on the old Chilocco Indian Agricultural School just north of Newkirk. The resolution, presented to the membership during the business meeting at the annual Chilocco Reunion in Oklahoma City, was overwhelmingly approved following about 30 minutes of discussion. Copies of the resolution were to be forwarded to all of the members of the Chilocco Development Authority, ...

Emerging from years of internal strife and public scandal, the Scientology movement has embarked on a sweeping and sophisticated campaign to gain new influence in America. The goal is to refurbish the tarnished image of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and elevate him to the ranks of history's great humanitarians and thinkers. By so doing, the church hopes to broaden the acceptability of Hubbard's Scientology teachings and attract millions of new members. The campaign relies on official church programs and a ...