[Picture / Caption: Linda Hostetler, with her husband, Dan, is battling the Church of Scientology.] ROYAL OAK — At first glance, Linda Hostetler appears the vibrant, independent woman who answered a personal ad eight years ago, beckoning her to join the Church of Scientology. But a closer look reveals a puzzled 29-year-old woman, emotionally scarred by years of what she termed "psychological torture," and financially ruined by a much-maligned yet resilient and powerful empire into which she said she not only ...

"We believe that all men have inalienable rights to think freely, to talk freely, to write freely their own opinions and to counter or utter or write upon the opinions of others." — From "The Creed of the Church of Scientology" IT WAS A GLORIOUS DAY FOR A PICNIC, WARM, CLEAR and bright. Even that old cynic, Sunset Boulevard, looked young and innocent under the sun's radiant benevolence. All around the parking lot of the Church of Scientology's, "Big Blue" headquarters, ...

Scientologists and their critics are colliding in cyberspace. The critics started the fight, creating an electronic bulletin board dubbed alt.religion.scientology on the Internet, a worldwide web of computer networks with an audience pushing 25-million. Then they downloaded their knowledge and opinions in e-mail messages that just about anyone with a computer, a little money and a modem can view. "As you will see, Scientology is astronomically prohibitive," one anonymous writer said on a.r.s in a message that reprinted the church's price ...

[Transcribed by Anonymous <nowhere@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> 21 May 1995 07:35:27 +0100] The Church of Scientology may call itself a religion, but it does not have a reputation for turning the other cheek. For a week last month Jon Atack and his family were subjected to scenes like this outside their home in Cranston Road, East Grinstead. Why? The placard-carrying demonstrators are Scientologists, and they do not like Mr. Atack because he is an outspoken critic of the cult. The police were twice called ...

Special investigation by chief reporter PAUL BRACCHI [A very small picture of Mr. Bracchi is shown.] [A picture of a man in a long military coat with brass buttons is shown. Below the picture is this title: "A Scientologist out on liberty time in a miliary-style greatcoat."] THEY dress like naval officers. But the uniforms, complete with epaulettes and brass buttons, are not what they seem. These men and women do not belong to the armed services...they are Scientologists. Most of ...

GRAHAM E. BERRY, State Bar No. 128503 GORDON J. CALHOUN, State Bar No. 84509 LEWIS, D'AMATO, BRISBOIS & BISGAARD 221 N. Figueroa Street, Suite 1200 Los Angeles, California 90012 Telephone: (213) 250-1800 Attorneys for Defendants UWE GEERTZ, PH.D. UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT CENTRAL DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA No. CV 91-6426 HLH (Tx) DECLARATION OF VICKI AZNARAN RE: MOTION FOR COSTS Date: APRIL 4, 1994 Time: 10:00 a.m. Courtroom: 7 CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Plaintiff, VS. STEVEN FISHMAN and UWE GEERTZ, Defendants. —– ...

[This appears to be an OCR'ed version of a paper document. I wish to find a copy of the original document in order to fix the typos troughout.] —– To Whom It May Concern To the best of my memory - I, Lorna Levett was a Scientologist from 1961 to 1974, from 1966 to 1974 full time, from 1968 to 1974 a franchise holder and received rewards for being the top recruiter on the planet 1969 to 1970. In late 1969/early ...

There is a story that Steve Tisch, producer of the 1983 coming-of-age classic Risky Business, the film that would eventually vault Tom Cruise into the warm aerie of megastardom, likes to tell. After a tough day of shooting, Cruise approached Tisch, his partner Jon Avnet and the film's director, Paul Brickman. It seemed Cruise was concerned: He felt that his costar, Rebecca DeMornay, a newcomer who had snatched the part of sexy hooker Lana from Michelle Pfeiffer, was miscast. Things just ...

Pinning our hopes on Old Doll Body I READ with interest Denise Harrison's statement of incredulity that a new religion could be the work of a science fiction writer. According to the saying, truth is stranger than fiction, so what about this one? In his early lectures, Ron Hubbard mentioned "Old Doll Body", a mythical figure from the past, who travelled freely in the universe in his flying saucer. In 1964, I was driving up the Turners Hill Road one night ...

Glen entered the trap willingly and, for a while, he didn't even realise that he'd been caught Glen McClelland has the look of hate in his eyes as he remembers what he's just been through. Now 28, Glen spent four years as a convert to the Church of Scientology. For him, this wasn't so much a religion as a way of life. And it nearly cost him his family and girlfriend, his sanity — and bank balance, too. The story starts ...

[Picture / Caption: Kristi, left, and Beth Erlich grew up in the Church of Scientology, but eventually left. In the top photo, taken by their mother when Kristi and Beth were children, the two girls perform TR-Zero, Scientology drill that calls for two people to stare at each other "without any compulsions todo anything." The routine is designed to improve communication skills.] When Beth Erlich was 11, she signed her first contract. A billion-year contract. Beth didn't understand it too well. ...

Scientologists believe they are saving the world from insanity, war and crime. "Saving the world is an understatement," said former member Kenneth Wasserman. "Saving the universe" is more like it, he said. This intense sense of purpose explains why some Scientologists are willing to work 12-hour days for $30 a week. Others pay up to $800 for an hour of counseling, and one couple brought a $35,000 counseling package. Critics say this sense of mission has another consequence: Next to saving ...

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. ...

Two American cult-busters recently flew to Australia to try to reclaim a young man from Scientology. JACQUI MACDONALD watched as they tried to unlock his mind, hour by hour, inch by inch. The names of the family and the cult-busters have been changed. FOR TWO days Peter Nolan has rehearsed how to greet his son. Peter and his wife Mary have planned how they will open the flywire front door and smile at the son they have not seen for several ...

Internal documents from the Church of Scientology, the parent organisation of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, indicate that behind the church's public battle to expose abuses of psychiatric patients lies a hidden plan of retribution. The documents contain evidence that some Australian Scientologists apparently have remained committed to a 30-year-old doctrine of revenge and intimidation against people the church describes as enemies. And while church members in Australia have been speaking out against psychiatric abuse, courts in the United States ...

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 ...

NEWKIRK, OK – A proposed drug treatment and rehabilitation center which could be in operation on Indian land at the former Chilocco Indian School north of Newkirk by June 15th may be part of a notorious religious cult. Narconon was approved for a 75-bed facility by the State Health Planning Commission in January of this year as part of The Chilocco Development Authority. The projected cost is $400,000 for renovation and the five Indian tribes involved are projected to receive $16,000,000 ...

THE recent news reports concerning the Church of Scientology have been so damning, and the defence by members of the Church has been so unconvincing, that readers may be left wondering how some one could be so gullible as to ever become involved with such an apparently unsavory organisation in the first place. Or, once involved, how could they be deceived for so long? But the truth is not so simple and the process is more elaborate that it seems. Some ...

The 'Big League Sales' Church AS the perpetrator of the supposed 'hooligan antics' against the Concerned Businessman's Association at the May Fayre, could I reply to the Scientology Public Relations officer's allegations? Worried by the Courier's recent story on the tactic of luring children into Scientology via front groups, I stopped by at the Concerned Businessman's Association stand to find whether they admitted any link to Scientology. Asked the question, one of the scientologists on the stand said 'yes', the other ...

Description of video is in italics. VO=VOICEOVER shot of Church of Scientology, Los Angeles; apparently group of ex-members VOICEOVER: The Church of Scientology, one of the largest and richest new religious movements, is being sued for a billion dollars by former members for fraud and breach of trust. They regard Scientology as a dangerous cult. group of Scientologists VO: Yet the church goes on expanding, making converts and claiming it is "The Road to Total Freedom". ''"Panorama" opening credits; while music ...

Ideological Totalism? Juliann Savage is a clinical social worker in the Cult Clinic, six years a non-sectarian affiliate of Jewish Family Services operating out of the United Way building in Van Nuys. Savage has treated more than 70 victims of mind control, from Hare Krishnas to Moonies, in her two and a half years on staff. She insists the 10 former Scientologists with whom she has worked have been her most difficult assignments. "These people have given their entire lives over ...