THE Church of Scientology has lost its grip on James Packer. The billionaire's closest friends have revealed that he has quietly distanced himself from Scientology, labelled a cult by some former members, as it faces international controversy about its anti-psychiatry stance. Members of Mr Packer's inner circle have confirmed that the billionaire, who had ranked as Scientology's wealthiest member in the world, was no longer undertaking Scientology courses and had slowly moved away from the religion, telling his closest friends he ...

They've become the sworn enemies of a controversial religion, famous for unsettling online video attacks and protesting en masse in creepy masks. But the elusive internet group known as Anonymous didn't start out with a concrete plan to bring down Scientology. Before they got serious, Anonymous members say, they were only in it for laughs. In the years before "declaring war", the group's stock-in-trade was the creation of internet jokes revolving around, for instance, kitsch 1980s singer Rick Astley. Anonymous's transformation ...

It is quite immoral for taxes to be extracted compulsorily from citizens to subsidise extensive concessions for religious bodies. OUR constitution makes it clear Australia is to be a secular society. In particular, section 116 provides that "The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion or for imposing any religious observation …" Yet the spirit — even if not the letter — of that section is breached by the Commonwealth Government and all state governments in many tax ...

THE Church of Scientology has spent more than $7 million on a new Victorian headquarters and prayer facility in northern Melbourne. The controversial church has also quietly put out the feelers on selling its landmark five-storey Russell St building, which is expected to fetch about $7.5 million. Scientology officials would not comment on claims that James Packer - who allegedly has links to the church through his friendship with movie star and Scientologist Tom Cruise - had helped finance the new ...

The Church of Scientology made it clear from its first contacts with "Nightline" that it would not publicly discuss the ecclesiastical circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Mrs. Hill from Church staff, regardless of the nature of her allegations. The Church will not discuss matters surrounding Mrs. Hill, because given the thrust of her claims, she has used her name to make an otherwise ecclesiastical issue into a family matter and a personal attack on a family member. The Church will not ...

[Picture / Caption: Science friction ... former high-ranking Scientologist David Graham has gone public with his concerns about the religion and what he considers a denial of human rights Helen Nezdropa Photo: Helen Nezdropa] AN AUSTRALIAN man who was a former high-ranking member of the Church of Scientology is calling for the religion to be "totally dismantled" because of the human rights abuses he says it inflicts on its followers. David Graham has gone public after years of keeping quiet when ...

A Sydney woman has been ordered to stand trial after pleading not guilty to the stabbing murders of her father and sister. The 26-year-old will also defend a charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to murder her mother. The attack allegedly happened at the family's Revesby home in Sydney's south-west in July last year. The Supreme Court was told mental health will be an issue at the trial, which will start in July. It is alleged that the woman ...

The controversial group has been labeled secretive, inspirational, dangerous and misunderstood. The Church of Scientology? [Picture]Disguised members of an internet-based group called Anonymous protest near buildings associated with the Church of Scientology on Saturday, March 15, 2008, in Los Angeles. (Chris Weeks/AP Photo) No, it's a mysterious group of masked men and computer hackers called Anonymous who say are committed to dismantling the powerful religious organization renowned for its celebrity members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Over the past ...

Watch Tom Cruise goes Missing [G, 2:51min.] (Help): Play The video But there are some people whose tender feelings receive a lot more consideration from the News Ltd empire. On the same day that News's website carried a link to The Australian's piece about Carey's childhood, it carried another story right next door. Global Scientology protests begin in Australia. — News.com.au website, Global Scientology protests begin in Australia But what's this? A pixelated poster? What can it have ...

A Sydney woman will stand trial on charges of murdering her Scientologist father and teenage sister. The 25-year-old, who cannot be named, is facing two counts of murder and a third of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to murder over a frenzied stabbing at her southwestern Sydney home in July last year. It is alleged that the woman, who has been diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, fatally stabbed her 53-year-old father and 15-year-old sister in a psychotic rage at the ...

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 ...

A hacking group calling itself Anonymous has posted a chilling video on the internet, announcing that it plans to dismantle the Church of Scientology. A hacking group calling itself "Anonymous" has posted a chilling video on the internet, announcing that it plans to "dismantle" the Church of Scientology. Wired.com reports that Anonymous has flooded Scientology servers with a distributed denial of service attack, is choking the Church's phone lines with prank calls and sending looped faxes of solid black pages. "Over ...

THE new Andrew Morton biography of Tom Cruise has it wrong: Tom is definitely not gay. He is, however, quite bonkers and whatever it is that's driving him is clearly much weirder than being merely gay. I'm thinking something along the lines of that episode of The Simpsons in which Selma marries Troy McClure only to discover that he has a fish fetish. To paraphrase a quote: Gay? I wish! Yes, Tom Cruise is strange. Stranger still, however, is the fact ...