Some extremist religious sects and a number of related self-help therapies employ communication techniques that may over time "alter or impair fundamental information-processing abilities" and may result in severe physical, emotional and mental disorders, a team of University researchers announced at a press conference Tuesday. Authors and research associates Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman released a study titled "Information Disease," presenting findings of a nationwide study on the effects of covert induction and deprogramming. These results are the culmination of four ...

I'm out a Scientologist, but I find the recent $39 million jury verdict in Portland against the Church el Scientology deeply disturbing. Last year Rev. Sun Myung Moon was jailed for doing what Catholic archbishops do all the time — holding church property in his own name — and now Scientology loses a court case for practicing its pastoral counseling technique. These attacks on controversial religions must stop. Plaintiff Julie Christofferson Titchbourne, 27, was awarded the $39 million judgment on claims ...