Look, all you have to do is pull out your checkbook and write a check for $200,000. Oh, and make it out to me. No strings attached. That should give you the inner peace you have been searching for. In return for your donation, you'll receive absolutely nothing, and I'll never ask you for a donation again. True, if you do this, I will lose my job. However, if only five of you send the money, I'll be able to retire. ...

The June 1 letter on Prozac by Doug Johnston is another example of the campaign of misinformation that Scientologists are spreading on Prozac and other treatments prescribed by psychiatrists. Johnston refers to research carried out by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology. Hubbard initiated his "research" with the premises that all psychiatric treatment is damaging to all patients and that psychological problems can be dealt with only by training the mind to forget, using a form of self-hypnosis. He conveniently ...

By all appearances, Noah Lottick of Kingston, Pa., had been a normal, happy 24-year-old who was looking for his place in the world. On the day last June when his parents drove to New York City to claim his body, they were nearly catatonic with grief. The young Russian-studies scholar had jumped from a 10th-floor window of the Milford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the hood of a stretch limousine. When the police arrived, his fingers were still clutching $171 in ...

On a 3,000-acre ranch in rural Humboldt County, devotees of Church of Scientology-founder L. Ron Hubbard are building a 375-foot-long underground vault. The vault is being built on the Sunset View Ranch in Petrolia, a small town located about 20 miles south of Ferndale, by the Church of Spiritual Technology (COST). COST is linked to the controversial Church of Scientology, whose operations, according to court documents, include a lack of financial records, public policy violations, deceptive practices and the maintenance of ...

Scientologists Claim Prozac Induces Murder or Suicide, Though Evidence Is Scant Campaign Dismays Doctors INDIANAPOLIS—L. Ron Hubbard, the late founder of the Church of Scientology, long harbored a profound and obsessive hatred for psychiatrists, who, he declared, were "chosen as a vehicle to undermine and destroy the West!" Five years after Mr. Hubbard's death, Scientologists are still waging war on psychiatry. The quasi-religious/ business/ paramilitary organization's latest target is Prozac, the nation's top-selling medicine for severe depression. The group is calling ...

TAMPA — Scientologists filed 11 federal lawsuits Wednesday against the Internal Revenue Service seeking information about agency audits of them. The group claims the IRS has ignored its requests to obtain the records filed under the federal Freedom of Information Act and is asking the court to force the agency to turn over the documents. Among the things the lawsuits are seeking are the IRS audits and any instructions, memorandums or directives by the agency relating to the treatment of Scientologists. ...

A defunct Clearwater rare coin, bullion and currency exchange, along with three former employees, pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal money-laundering charges. The business, Bernstein, McCaffrey & Lee, was at 601 Cleveland St. in downtown Clearwater, but has been closed since authorities raided the office and confiscated inventory in December 1989. Ronald W. Bernstein, who founded the business, and former salesmen Grant Boshoff, 20, and Lawrence Spencer, 44, each face a maximum of 20 years in prison, but likely will receive much ...