Six years ago, when I was a reporter at New Times LA, ''I’d written several stories about Scientology (Los Angeles is one of its headquarters), and I was about to uncork the longest one yet—a 7,000 word piece about an embarrassing, $8 million defeat Scientology had just suffered, when the weekly paper suddenly folded. That unpublished story has been sitting in storage ever since. Fast forward to 2008, and the world of reporting on Scientology has changed radically, thanks in part ...

It was a warm August day in 1986. I was in my office on the third floor of the main building in the PAC Scientology complex in LA — "Big Blue." We had the windows open and the fans running, to try to suck in any vestige of a breeze that we could. Out the open window, I could see Fountain Avenue below me, and across the street, New York George’s, where I sometimes had a bowl of chili. A simmering ...

Bruce Livesey investigates how former inner-sanctum member Gerry Armstrong became the Salman Rushdie of Scientology. The first time I met Gerry Armstrong, I thought he was paranoid. I’d driven down from Vancouver, summer 2007, into the verdant Fraser Valley to Chilliwack, BC, a somnolent, wind-blown town surrounded by jagged mountain ranges. A place as far removed from Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Scientology’s loopiness as one can possibly get. Armstrong and his third wife Caroline live in a walk-up, one-bedroom apartment ...

This past weekend, members of the anti-Scientology group Anonymous gathered in a bunch of different cities to protest Sea Org, the elite rank of Scientology which makes it possible for members to cruise around on a gigantic carcinogenic cruise liner in exchange for signing a one billion year service contract. Accounts from the event in Boston and from Orange County are up; despite claims from the Church that members of Anonymous are essentially terrorists hell-bent on destroying the Church by any ...

Foster and I were in a state of semi-panic as we waited for Julia to get off the phone. We were in an isolated corridor in the American Saint Hill Organization, part of the Scientology Complex – the big blue building in LA. Julia, my de facto senior at Author Services, was huddled in one of the public phone booths, talking quietly, her back to us. Foster and I kept a respectful distance across the corridor, where we looked down at ...

It was well after midnight and the Tampa airport terminal was almost empty. Just a few late-night travelers sitting on the benches, reading, trying to sleep or, like me, watching the movie on the screen hanging above the waiting area. They were showing Pancho Villa, the 1972 Eugenio Martin film with Telly Savalas as Villa. I was identifying with Villa – his betrayal and imprisonment, his escape, his revolt against his enemy, Huerta. I could feel Villa’s hot outrage. ''¡Viva la ...

Three women—including a top church leader's niece–are helping others leave the controversial faith. In September 2006 Kendra Wiseman, 25, was reading an old issue of Glamour when she came across a story by Astra Woodcraft titled "Why I Fled Scientology." Like Astra, Kendra had grown up in the secretive religion and made the agonizing decision to abandon it. She wrote to Astra, thanking her for the story. A year and a half later, Kendra heard another shocker: Jenna Miscavige Hill, the ...

Astra and Lawrence Woodcraft will be joining Dawn Olsen of Glosslip Radio for a special show to discuss their experiences inside the Church of Scientology, including their life inside the Sea Org, which has been exposed recently as forcing abortions on members, prison work camps and an asbestos cover-up on the CoS Freewinds cruise ship.

He's one of the biggest box-office draws in history, but in recent years Tom Cruise has become more than just the face of his films. He has also become the face of his religion – Scientology. A recent video of Cruise – made for a Scientology event and leaked online – showed the star's unbridled passion for his religion and piqued the public's interest in a belief system that has long been surrounded by controversy. "I think it's a privilege to ...

[Picture / Caption: Science friction ... former high-ranking Scientologist David Graham has gone public with his concerns about the religion and what he considers a denial of human rights Helen Nezdropa Photo: Helen Nezdropa] AN AUSTRALIAN man who was a former high-ranking member of the Church of Scientology is calling for the religion to be "totally dismantled" because of the human rights abuses he says it inflicts on its followers. David Graham has gone public after years of keeping quiet when ...

Cult Friction After an embarrassing string of high-profile defection and leaked videos, Scientology is under attack from a faceless cabal of online activists. Has America's most controversial religion finally met its match? By John Cook [Picture] Masked hackers have declared war on Scientology. Could the celebrity-friendly religion be in its final days? (Photo: Sam Comen) This article is from the April issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here Clearwater is prepared for its enemies. It's a warm, if ...

Following on from my own experiences and analysis on the Scientology cult, I came across this. It is absolutely par for course as to how this 'religion' separates people from their families and creates horrendous distress in forwarding their own agenda. I hope this story creates the sense of revulsion with readers that this cult truly deserves. I am simply placing Mrs. Lentsch's story here, with no editing, it speaks for itself. Portland, Oregon - March 11, 2008 Portland resident Susan ...

PRESS RELEASE Portland, Oregon - March 11, 2008 – For Immediate Release – Portland, OR resident Susan Lentsch is issuing a public statement on March 15 at the Scientology Headquarters Los Angeles, CA, calling on her daughter's employer, the Church of Scientology, to permit her daughter, Katherine "Kate" Olson, to come home from Los Angeles to Portland to visit her family. Ms. Lentsch has seen Kate for only six days during the past 15 years and reports that the Church of ...

A new demand for transparency and justice from netzins... In late January, news media across the world picked up on a phenomenal development on the Internet. A virtual civil rights movement had arisen from a most unlikely source: Internet gamers. It all kicked off when an in-house video of Tom Cruise preaching to members of his faith, the controversial Church of Scientology, was leaked onto the Youtube internet video sharing site. Indeed, Cruise is a frightening spectacle and his incoherent rant ...

In this article, we argue that Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, likely presented a personality disorder known as malignant narcissism, and then we establish that this disorder probably contributed to his creation of organizational policies against perceived enemies that reflected his narcissistic rage. We illustrate our argument by discussing Hubbard’s creation of an internal Scientology organization called the Guardian’s Office, which carried out a sustained and covert attack against a Scientology critic, Paulette Cooper. This attack, and the Scientology policies that ...

I spent a few days with Prof. Stephen Kent, of the Sociology Department of the University of Alberta, a couple of months ago. He is one of the few really brave academics willing to face up to mind control cults of the Scientology ilk, study, and expose what they really are and the damage they do the people they control. I spent many hours with Steve, describing my 20-year experiences within the cult’s fanatical, militant and secretive inner circle, an organization ...