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 ...

AFFIDAVIT OF SILVANA GARRITANO I was introduced to Scientology in October, 1977, when I went to the New York Church to take a "Communications Course". The "registrar" (a euphemism for salesman) was Jerry Indursky. He told me that my problem was a lack of assertiveness, that I did not speak up for myself. Indursky promised me Scientology would remedy that problem and I would emerge from the Communications Course a happier, more successful person because I could stand up for myself. ...

AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES GERVAIS I, James Gervais, state the following under the pains and penalties of perjury: 1. My introduction to Scientology was in July of 1973, when many representations were made to me concerning the benefits of "auditing" and Scientology. 2. The following representations were made to me relative to benefits allegedly provided by Scientology and "auditing". a) raise my IQ; b) cure diseases and mental illness; c) solve drug problems and other personal problems; d) stabilize and promote familial ...

AFFIDAVIT OF ANNE ROSENBLUM In December, 1972, after my first semester of college (in the state of Washington), I was introduced to Scientology when another Scientologist encouraged me to take a "Personality Test" at the Portland "Org". I was given a poor evaluation on the test. I later learned, however, that it is a customary practice of the "Church" to give one a poor evaluation on the test in order to induce the person into Scientology processing. The Scientologists also told ...

The Church of Scientology says the time has come for The Government of Ontario to let its clergymen perform marriages. ln the past, the church’s applications to have its ministers licenced as marriage officers have been turned down by the office of the registrar general on the grounds that the religion was not in existence for 25 years — one of the signs required by the province that new groups are permanent and serious. In a 262-page submission to the registrar-general, ...

Riverside Mission is Searched for Evidence of False Loan Scheme Sheriff's deputies seized 17 boxes of documents from the Riverside mission of the Church of Scientology Wednesday in a search for evidence that possibly as many as 100 past and current members fraudulently obtained bank loans and then gave the money to Scientology. More than two dozen Riverside County sheriff's deputies spent six hours searching through the offices of the mission for tax, payroll and other records on 20 named individuals ...

Opinions about the Church of Scientology run from hot to cold, and from very hot to very cold. In the third segment of a four-part series on the church, the Valley News samples some of those opinions and tells the stories behind them. An accompanying story describes the experience of a young couple who left the church without bitterness despite some disturbing incidents. By BRIAN ALEXANDER The price is high, and the pressure to buy is heavy, but ...

[...] 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 ...

The former head of a Calgary franchise of the Church of Scientology, who collected more than $300,000 in fees since 1968 says local people "didn't get their money's worth." Lorna Levitt, who resigned from the church April 19, said Wednesday Calgarians paid up to $5,000 apiece for spiritual counselling, "seeking absolute and total freedom" at her urging but said "it didn't do for everyone what it was supposed to." The local mission — a franchise — was incorporated in January, 1970, ...

[Reproduced here with express permission of Paul Krassner — Publisher of The Realist. Thank you! Transcribed from scanned pages at The Realist Project Archive.] Although many people have had some brief acquaintance with Scientology, very few have gotten into the subject far enough to find out what it is really all about. It is a subject which doesn't easily lend itself to study. The courses are many and tend to become quite expensive, not only in terms of money, ...

Whatever else it is, it's a phenomenon, and a controversial and mysterious one at that. Beyond that, it's difficult to say just what Scientology is — except that it is an organization and a way of thinking gaining attention in the Flint area and across the world as it grows rapidly in adherents and publicity. Since Scientology opened a branch here a few months ago in a former pool hall at 2102 Joliet a few months ago, handouts have appeared on ...

DONOVAN BESS Mr. Bess is on the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco This is the year of Apollo 11. It is also the year in which that psychological sophisticate, Richard Alpert, came back from his guru in India to reap a big following of inner-space explorers with his story of spiritual conversion. It is a lime of burgeoning meditation societies on the college campuses, and of passionate rebellion against the amorality of our technology. Thus it ...

Today and tonight hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Californians will sit down in pairs and stare at one another. One of them will give the other commands such as "Tell me something you wouldn't mind forgetting." The one who is commanded will hold two tin cans attached by wires to an E-meter, a device that measures electrical resistance in the body. The commander will watch a needle on the device's circuit board in the belief that it measures emotional charge. ...

The Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. (The AMA News, Sept. 2, 1968 ) has lost its tax-exempt status because a federal court says its activities were too commercial. Donald E. Lane, trial commissioner of the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, ruled that the church received substantial income from its "processing and auditing" services, and that the value of these services was over and above the organization's religious and spiritual aspects. Government officials have indicated the decision would signal ...

Mr Lafayette Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, claimed in a statement issued yesterday that he was owed $13 million dollars by the organisation, and had forgiven it. He had drawn no salary for years. The statement was one of two from Mr Hubbard issued from the cult's headquarters at East Grinstead, Sussex. A spokesman said they were received on Monday night from Tunisia, where Mr Hubbard is believed to be on his yacht. The statement added: "Even my own income has ...

THE first picture of Lafayette Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology movement, on board his 3,300-ton yacht Royal Scotsman. Smiling and wearing a nautical cap, he sits behind a desk in his elegant wood-panelled cabin. This is where he holds court, this man who talks of 'visits' he has made to Heaven, to Mars, and to Venus. This man who is banned from entering Britain. From the yacht, which is lying off Bizerta, Tunisia, Mr Hubbard issued a statement yesterday claiming ...

Mr Lafayette Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, claimed in a statement issued yesterday that he was owed the sum of $13 millions by the organisation, and had forgiven it. He had drawn no salary for years. The statement was one of two from Mr Hubbard issued from Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, Sussex, the cult's headquarters. A spokesman said they were received late on Monday night from Tunisia, where Mr Hubbard is believed to be on his yacht. The statement added: ...

The premises in North-East Thistle Street Lane, Edinburgh, occupied by the Scientology administered Publications Organisation World Wide, have been inspected by the Sanitary Department of Edinburgh Corporation public health authority. A spokesman for the department said they found nothing to report, "except a few minor infringements of the Office, Shops, and Railway Premises Act, which will be attended to. There was no evidence of employees sleeping on the premises." The inspection was carried out after the Sanitary Department had been approached ...

We called at the Thistle Street Lane premises of Scientology last night and interviewed Mrs Judy Ziff, deputy director of Scientology's publications organisation in Edinburgh. The accommodation now occupied there by Scientology comprises former warehouse premises which a have been converted in about five weeks into extensive office accommodation, in which Scientology publications are redistributed to countries in many parts of the world. At 11.30 p.m., when we left, many members of the staff were still at work. We put a ...

An Edinburgh Town Councillor has complained to the public health authorities about the offices in Edinburgh of Scientology — the system of religious philosophy of American origin, which claims to increase a person's ability. Mr I. W. Wintour, Chief Sanitary Inspector for Edinburgh Corporation, said today: "We have received this complaint and are investigating." —– Family find it 'disquieting' Today we give the account of a local girl, Kathleen Riley, of her job as an employee of the organisation Scientology. Councillor ...