It is now well understood and accepted that freedom of speech does not include the freedom to malign others, because hate propaganda and vicious smears in public have a destructive effect on excitable individuals (witness the effect Nazi propaganda had on the Germans in the 1930s and 40s). The recent publication of a book written by Louise Samways entitled 'Dangerous Persuaders: An expose of gurus, personal development courses and cults, and how they operate in Australia' and the ensuing publicity for ...

Exclusive A former cult security guard blows apart the star's squeaky clean image with claims of shocking abuse HOLLYWOOD megastar Tom Cruise has been sensationally named in a multi-million dollar lawsuit in the United States alleging receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of illicit perks from the controversial Scientology religious cult. The 32-year-old Oscar winner is alleged to have turned a blind eye to the use of slave labour to build him a gym, an apartment and other gifts ...

CULTS: Article ignored other side of the story from the Reverend Mary Anderson, director of public affairs, Church of Scientology I write to express my amazement and concern that 'The Sunday Age' (3/10) published an article on Louise Samways and her book 'Dangerous Persuaders' without presenting the other side of the story. Scientology is an applied religious philosophy which contains solutions to the problems of living. Its end result is increased awareness and freedom for the individual and rehabilitation of his ...

Louise Samways has spent the past decade investigating the many mind-control techniques of Australia's cults, gurus and personal development courses. She is also familiar with their tactics to keep critics quiet. The brick that slammed through the psychologist's car windscreen recently was a reminder that there are other, older methods of persuasion. She was frightened: "I'd like to hope it was just schoolkids playing stupid games, but when these things come one on top of the other, I don't think I'm ...

[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 ...

Rick Ross, self-confessed "cult deprogrammer" and ATF advisor in the Waco holocaust has been charged, in the United States, with the 1991 abduction of a Christian teenage boy. Ross and his accomplices, Mark Workman and Charles Simpson, were charged in July with unlawful imprisonment in the abduction of Jason Scott. If convicted they face a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. The charges against the three were the most recent in a string of legal actions brought against deprogrammers by ...

Kate Ceberano and Nicole Kidman join Scientology, the fastest-growing religion in the world - and one of the weirdest Showbiz types find religion - in a church founded by sci-fi writer by Terry Bourke Two showbiz babies are the latest celebrity recruits to the strange Scientology sect. And one is the centre of anger among Elvis Presley fans. The innocent babies know nothing of the controversial cult which will rule their lives - but their parents do. Partners Tom Cruise and ...

A Sydney Scientologist has sought a restraining order against one of two American "consultants" who visited WA to counsel a woman out of the ET Earth Mission sect. The order was sought in a Sydney court by Sarah Harrison, 19, who said she feared Patrick Ryan, of Philadelphia would try to "deprogram" her against her will. Mr Ryan, who went to Sydney from Perth, received the summons at his hotel room at 4.30pm on Tuesday last week. He was booked to ...

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 ...

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 ...

THE church of Scientology defines deprogramming as "forcibly deconverting a person from their chosen faith". Scientology's Melbourne spokesman, Mr Chris Campbell, said the practice involved forcibly making a person change their beliefs. "It resembles a psychiatric depersonalisation mind-control kind of mechanism, similar to what you would have seen used by the Koreans and Vietcong on American soldiers to deconvert them from their beliefs," he said. "It's a similar type of practice where you continually batter a person on a mental level ...

IN the early 1970s, a manual titled 'Deprogramming — The Constructive Destruction of Belief' was distributed in Australia and Britain to groups including politicians and journalists. It circulated under the guise of legitimate practices used to retrieve believers from the clutches of various cults. But two American ex-cult members, recently in Australia, have claimed that the document is a Scientology plot in the United States to discredit deprogrammers. The Scientology church denies that it put out the manual. The Americans, Joe ...

The Church of Scientology used contacts in the police and media to gather information on the chairman of Neighborhood Watch in Victoria, Mr David Lentin, according to an internal church report. The report, a copy of which has been obtained by 'The Age', shows that Mr Lentin is regarded as a dangerous opponent whose opposition to sects had to be curbed. Mr Lentin is a private investigator and leading "cult-buster" who has counselled people seeking to leave the church and other ...

A telex sent in April 1987 to Scientology's Melbourne Office of Special Affairs from its Australian-New Zealand headquarters tracks the church's defensive strategy in response to an investigation by the former television program 'Willesee'. The program was looking at a woman's claim that her trip into the Russell Street headquarters had almost cost her $43,000. The telex spelt out a seven-step program for defusing the story. One course of action was to loudly brand the investigation a "set up". "(The) Church ...

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 ...

WHEN a royal commission last year exposed atrocities at Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights scored dual victories: one public, one private. The first came with the release of Mr Justice Slattery's 12-volume report into the nightmarish "cuckoo's nest" of Chelmsford — a private hospital where the commission found that at least 24 people died as a result of deep-sleep therapy. Another 24 patients survived the treatment but later took their own lives, 19 ...