Lance Hoskins joined the church in the 1970's, and then worked for the Sea Org - the church's management body in the US. (duration: 44?58?)

The controversial Church of Scientology has donated £50,000 to the Sussex Air Ambulance Service at a glitzy gala hosted by a Hollywood star. Actress Kelly Preston, wife of John Travolta, compered the event at the church’s headquarters in Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, in front of 1,500 people. Ms Preston is a keen supporter of the religion, which was founded by L Ron Hubbard in 1953. Sussex Air Ambulance Service provides helicopter cover for the county, as well as for Kent ...

As many people know, Omar Garrison was working on a biography of L. Ron Hubbard back in the early 1980s that was completely sanctioned by Hubbard and by organized scientology. In fact Gerry Armstrong was actually assigned to and working with Omar back then with the approval of both Hubbard and organized scientology. And, Gerry was part of that Mission Corporate Category Sortout (MCCS) mission that was run by [David Miscavige] with Gerry’s primary part of it being ...

Do your kids prefer adventure stories to doctrinal tomes? Skip Dianetics. Have them read Hubbard's pulp fiction. Before L. Ron Hubbard published Dianetics in 1950 and founded Scientology two years later he penned adventure, mystery and sci-fi stories for pulp magazines. Now, Galaxy Press, a for-profit publisher that is owned by the Church of Scientology International in Los Angeles, is releasing those "Stories from the Golden Age" in a series of 80 paperback books—accompanied by a $1.9 million marketing blitz aimed ...

When talking about the Church of Scientology, the township of Tuolumne probably doesn't immediately come to mind. But the small town might as well be mentioned in the same breath as Los Angeles, the religion's mecca, and movie star adherents like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Tuolumne is home to an archive of the religion's relics, and has been so for the past decade, according to Jane McNairn, a representative of the Scientology-affiliated Church of Spiritual Technology. According to published reports, ...

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 ...

Tribal members are getting advice, free trips—and perhaps a new rehab program—from their connection with L. Ron Hubbard's church. Is this the help they need? In 1964, when Rayola Running Crane was just 13, her parents sent her away from her home in Browning on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. She and her friends were drinking alcohol on a regular basis, and she had already been in an alcohol-related car accident that caused her permanent back injuries. She says her parents gave ...

L. Ron Hubbard, the pulp fiction writer who gave the world Battlefield Earth, as well as a nuisance known as Scientology, would have turned 97 years old this Thursday, March 13. Ron’s been worm food for more than a score of years now, so it probably won’t matter to him that the best birthday party being held in his name will take place a couple of days late. On Saturday, March 15, the surprisingly upstart, leaderless movement known as “Anonymous” will ...

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 ...

[Picture]'All lies': Cruise is considering a lawsuit Star's fury over claims by Diana author Andrew Morton: • Daughter by Katie Holmes "conceived like Rosemary's Baby" • Nicole Kidman "feared blackmail" over sex tapes made with Scientologists • Scientologists "planted meadown of flowers for Tom and Nicole to run through" • Cruise's next mission is to recruit David Beckham Tom Cruise has become the de-facto second in command of the Church of Scientology, according to a new biography - which makes an ...

Hollywood star Kelly Preston took time out of filming new comedy Old Dogs with her husband John Travolta, to support a Scientology charity concert in West Sussex. The 45-year-old actress was master of ceremonies at the 11th annual Gala Charity Concert at Saint Hill, home of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard and headquarters for the Church of Scientology UK. Kelly said: "It was a great day. What we were doing with the concert is perpetuating what L Ron Hubbard started in ...

She was open-minded enough about Scientology, if a bit dubious about some aspects of the life of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. Imagine Carol Tobin's surprise, then, when her hopes of a private jet and a Hollywood career with Tom Cruise were dashed as its adherents appeared to reject her Is it just cynical old me or is Scientology a load of old cobblers or, as we would say here in Ringsend, a load of bullshit? Oh, I can hear the ...

There are moments in life, coincidences, which have the potential to utterly change the direction and meaning of your existence. Of these I have had several; they have all marked me in various ways, but none more so than that fateful late afternoon in Stuttgart, Germany, when an attractive and rather aggressive young woman blocked my path and accosted me with the interrogative; "Do you have a good memory"? This story aims to serve a dual function: Enlighten those who may ...

In the pantheon of D.C. area weird religious places to go and gawk, you’ve got the George Washington Masonic Memorial, the Oz-like LDS Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center and now L. Ron Hubbard’s house. A bold, swanky sign went up less than a week ago in front of 1812 19th Street NW in Dupont, site of the “founding church” of Scientology that Hubbard set up in 1955. The house belonged to the church until the mid-’70s, when it was sold and ...

The optometrist wants to hear about my most painful memories. This is an auditing session, an important component of a religion called Scientology. The optometrist is the auditor. His name is Steve Sasala. He is skinny. And tall. His face is long and narrow. I can make out the shape of his skull. We sit across from each other, on opposite sides of a tiny desk inside a claustrophobic room at the back of some historic building in Parma Heights. The ...

WITH the Packer wedding over — and guest Tom Cruise embrolied in a "religious" controversy — Scientology is once again on the agenda, writes Jill Singer. SCIENTOLOGY is being talked about again because of certain prominent supporters. Germany is reluctant to have Scientology's most famous adherent, Tom Cruise, play one of its country's greatest heroes. Valkyrie, the planned film, centres on Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's heroic role in attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler. The problem for Cruise is that Germany is ...

Scientology is trying to transform its image from that of a shadowy cult When Scientology officially opened its spectacular new British church in the Square Mile, the movement was given an unusually warm embrace by the Establishment. Ian Luder, an Alderman of the Corporation of London and a magistrate, lauded the organisation’s anti-drugs efforts. “The work which you do in this area is greatly to be welcomed,” he said, “and I wish you growing success.” It was a satisfying moment for ...

The show is about karma and redemption, but could there be a deeper message? James Donaghy examines the influence of the Church of Scientology on hit comedy My Name Is Earl Do good things and good things will happen to you. Do bad things and it will come back to haunt you". Why can't all TV have a simple message like that at its heart? The brilliantly slick My Name Is Earl carries the karmic principle through to its logical/absurd conclusion ...