Scientology wants David Miscavige removed from a wrongful death lawsuit. CLEARWATER — Appealing to judges on both sides of Tampa Bay, the Church of Scientology on Tuesday continued its fight to keep its worldwide leader out of the legal fight over the 1995 death of Scientologist Lisa McPherson. The church goes to court this morning to ask a Hillsborough judge to remove David Miscavige as a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit. In a separate action, the church filed a lawsuit ...

Strange Death in a Strange Land The Old Man in the Desert He had achieved success beyond his wildest dreams; wealth, fame and the adulation of thousands of devoted adherents. Yet for the last five years of his life, L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, dwelt, a virtual prisoner of his own paranoia, a recluse in self-imposed exile, on a ranch in the desert of Creston, California. Surrounded by a handful of trusted aides, he handed over the running of his ...

The Scientologists prepare to open a studio in Gilman Hot Springs. Films will be educational and won't star Tom Cruise. Talk of movies and Scientology usually leads to mention of John Travolta and Tom Cruise. But don't expect to see the church's best-known members on the set when its new $7 million film studio in Gilman Hot Springs opens Saturday. Golden Era Productions makes religious training and education films, not blockbusters needing big-name talent to sell tickets, general manager Ken Hoden ...

Harold J. McElhinny (Bar No. 66781) Rachel Krevans (Bar No. 116421) Stephen P. Freccero (Bar No. 131093) Ronald P. Flynn (Bar No. 184 186) Jason A. Crotty (Bar No. 196036) MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP 425 Market Street San Francisco, California 94105-2482 Telephone: (415) 268-7000 Facsimile: (415) 268-7522 Jana G. Gold (Bar No. 154246) MORRISON & FOERSTER LLP 755 Page Mill Road Palo Alto, California 94304-1018 Telephone: (650) 8 13-5600 Facsimile: (650) 494-0792 Attorneys for Defendant DENNIS ERLICH UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ...

footage of hippies; picture of LRH with other Scienos VO: The United States of the early ’60s saw a new generation of Americans, suspicious of traditional authority. The atmosphere was ripe for L. Ron Hubbard, a sci-fi writer gone spiritual leader, to spread his promises of do-it-yourself healing to the people. L. RON HUBBARD (from video): We live in a world where, where, where, where we have governments and we have societies and so forth, who are desperately trying to help ...

BILL KURTIS: Since its emergence in the 1950s, the Church of Scientology has been a source of great fascination. It has spent many of those years at war with the U.S. government, the press, and portions of the public. But behind the headlines are real people who have experienced Scientology firsthand. In this second hour of a special A&E presentation of “Investigative Reports,” we hear directly from those who remain members of the church, and from those who have now left ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Dec 6, 1998 - "I am L. Ron Hubbard," the woman on the hotel room bed announced in a robotic voice. "I created time 3 billion years ago." She rambled on and on, every outburst dutifully scribbled down by those assigned to watch her. "I can't confront force . . . I need my auditor . . . I want to take a toothbrush and brush the floor until I have a cognition." The jargon of Scientology was ...

HEMET, Calif. — Nowhere is Scientology’s trademark self-sufficiency more clearly in evidence than at its $50-million outpost in the arid hills 90 miles east of Los Angeles. Seven hundred Scientology workers put in 60-hour weeks to remaster the scratchy tapes on which the late founder once recorded his lectures; translate his words into more than 30 languages; produce Scientology films, tapes, videos, television commercials, magazines and books; and manufacture e-meters, the electronic devices used in the core Scientology counseling practice called ...

David Miscavige, the seldom-seen leader of the church, comes forth in his first newspaper interview to talk of a more peaceful time for Scientology. LOS ANGELES — When David Miscavige recounts his rise to power in the Church of Scientology — a journey that began when he quit high school at age 16 — it is mostly a story of war. War against renegade Scientologists. War against Scientology’s critics. War against its one-time arch enemy, the IRS. But Scientology’s 38-year-old leader ...

From: jesse_prince@minton.org (Jesse Prince) Subject: What—–Who? Date: 1998/08/04 Message-ID: <35c67b4b.1795322@news.tiac.net> X-Deja-AN: 377691976 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Organization: ARSCC Mime-Version: 1.0 Reply-To: bob@minton.org Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology If you had the unfortunate experience of having had the "privilege" of paying tens of thousands of dollars for Scientology auditing, then you'll have an idea of what I'm about to say here. If not, I'll make it simple for you. When a Scientology victim progresses up to OT3, what do you find out? L. Ron ...

She is one of an estimated 3,300 Scientologists who have migrated to Clearwater in the 1990s, the most dramatic period of growth for the church during its 22 years in Clearwater. In addition, the church has said it is "deadly serious" about its plans for the year 2000, which include tripling the size of its Clearwater staff to more than 3,500; launching a local Scientology "university" that would accommodate more than 10,000 students a week; and having "Clearwater known as the ...

Transcript: Descriptions of video in italics. VO=Voiceover of Lesley Stahl. LESLEY STAHL (in studio): There was a time if you were worried about your son or daughter being in a cult, you could get help from a small, non-profit organization called the Cult Awareness Network, or CAN, for 20 years the nation’s best-known resource for information and advice about groups it considered dangerous. Among them was Scientology, a church not known for turning the other cheek. But church officials say Scientology ...

Type: Tort, intentional infliction of emotion distress, alter ego. Bench decision: Amendment of judgment - $6,025,857 ($4,649,328 renewed judgment plus $1,376,529 accrued interest). Case/Number: Larry Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California / C332027. Court/Date: L.A. Superior Central / Oct. 29, 1997. Judge: John P. Shook. Attorneys: Plaintiff - Craig J. Stein (Gartenberg, Jaffe, Gelfand & Stein, LLP, L.A.); Daniel A. Leipold, Cathy Shipe, Robert F. Donohue (Hagenbaugh & Murphy, Orange); Lita Schlosser (Encino); Ford Greene (Hub Law Offices, San Anselmo). ...

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Late on a November afternoon two years ago, a 36-year-old Scientologist named Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor traffic accident. She was not injured, but she inexplicably stripped off her clothes and began to walk naked down the street. A paramedic rushed her into an ambulance and asked why she had taken off her clothes. Ms. McPherson replied: "I wanted help. I wanted help." She was taken to a nearby hospital for a psychiatric examination, but several ...

VOICES: "We were saving the world, we were convinced that Hubbard was the returned saviour and that his techniques and his knowledge and his majesty would eventually bring all mankind to an enlightened state and that was what we were doing..." "There were some things about him that I do feel were rather dangerous. I felt so much under his spell that I told my room-mate that if ever I told her that I was going to marry this man, she ...

The business-minded Scientology strategists are conquering Russia with psycho-programs and management courses — and they seek access to politics and the military Oh, what a wonderful day, Marina thinks it's great to write up her sins. Anna has learned that aspirin ruins her brain. And Vladimir, an old man with thick glasses, can explain what ethics is by using building blocks. That's how it is with Scientologists, everybody has a little bit of success every day in the evening at 5:30 ...

Lisa McPherson turned to the Church of Scientology in her 20s as she tried to shed the emotional baggage of a rocky youth. By age 36, with a high school education, she was earning a handsome salary as a sales representative in Clearwater. Today, as the church tries to rebut assertions that it caused her sudden death, it also credits Scientology for her successes in life. But McPherson's turnaround came at a financial price. From 1991 until she died in December ...