Just when Tom Cruise was starting to look good again, we hear from the New York Daily News that Cruise's pregnant fiance, Katie Holmes, is supposed to sign on for a "silent birth," without screams or painkillers. Ouch. But is "Quit yellin', it's only childbirth," as the News headline so succinctly put it, the true position of the Church of Scientology, of which Cruise is a member? Not according to Greg LaClaire, vice president of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre ...

Greg Bashaw's father respected him and trusted him to make wise choices. Even after he chose to devote his life to Scientology. While the shock and grief of his son's suicide were still fresh, Bob Bashaw read back through their decades-long correspondence, looking in particular for references to Scientology. "I wanted to see what there was here I missed," he says. His son Greg had been a member of the Church of Scientology for more than 20 years. During that time ...

BERLIN — “Historically inaccurate and totally distasteful." Strong words from Madeleine Albright, who had good reason to apply them. America's new secretary of State was referring to the widely publicized statement by Oliver Stone, Dustin Hoffman and other Hollywood celebrities equating Germany's current treatment of the Church of Scientology with the Holocaust. When she met with German Chancellor Helmut Kohl last week, Albright was committed to bringing up U.S. "concerns" about Germany's treatment of Scientologists. At the same time, she clearly ...

And now, the next Walt Disney Studios— the Church of Scientology! That is, if entrepreneurs connected with the Hollywood based cult can muscle into the film business with their proposal to homogenize films by tailoring them to the tastes of the unwashed masses. It all began last July, when Future Films, a new, eccentric studio, began running ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter touting its revolutionary ideas. No one knew what to make of it all. The grand concept, to ...

Testimonials of the famous are prominent in the church's push for acceptability. John Travolta and Kirstie Alley are the current headliners. The Church of Scientology uses celebrity spokesmen to endorse L. Ron Hubbard's teachings and give Scientology greater acceptability in mainstream America. As far back as 1955, Hubbard recognized the value of famous people to his fledgling, off-beat church when he inaugurated "Project Celebrity." According to Hubbard, Scientologists should target prominent individuals as their "quarry" and bring them back like trophies ...

Secret letters and memos from the personal files of St. Petersburg Times editors and its attorneys were obtained and analyzed by members of the Church of Scientology shortly after the church moved to Clearwater four years ago. The letters and memos were used by the church in calculating its response to news media reports revealing its purchase through a front organization of the Fort Harrison Hotel. How the Church of Scientology or its agents got access to the locked filing cabinets ...

In the beginning there was Xenn, god of the Galactic Federation, a 76-planet union formed some 95 million years ago. The Federation, whose planets averaged 178 billion inhabitants each, had something of a population problem. Xenn solved it by "implanting" the excess to Teegeeack (earth) and dumping them into volcanos. These beings were somehow fused into humans when hydrogen bombs were dropped on the volcanos. After the radioactive dust cleared, the new humans were confused by being shown religious pictures of ...