On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. “For ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,” Haggis wrote. Before the 2008 elections, a staff member at Scientology’s San Diego church had signed its name to an online petition supporting Proposition 8, which asserted that ...

Union public schools will not participate in a crime prevention program due to its link to the Church of Scientology. Crime Free Missouri, founded by Union veterinarian Dr. Ava Frick, is an anti-drug campaign with the intent to "educate about the hazards and pitfalls and misconceptions around drugs; street drugs, alcohol, inhalants, and prescriptions." The program includes literature and drug take-back programs associated with Crime Free America. Union High School Principal Dennis Lottmann said Union Police school resource officers (SROs), and ...

Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal Journal Staff Writer The Second Chance drug rehab program was pitched to lawmakers and the judiciary as the missing link in a broken system that recycled non-violent drug offenders between jails, prisons and the streets. The past year, it has struggled through money problems and accusations that it is housing ineligible inmates. On Saturday, faced with a city-delivered Jan. 31 deadline to vacate, Second Chance officials moved the last of its inmates out. But throughout the ...

Cult Friction After an embarrassing string of high-profile defection and leaked videos, Scientology is under attack from a faceless cabal of online activists. Has America's most controversial religion finally met its match? By John Cook [Picture] Masked hackers have declared war on Scientology. Could the celebrity-friendly religion be in its final days? (Photo: Sam Comen) This article is from the April issue of Radar Magazine. For a risk-free issue, click here Clearwater is prepared for its enemies. It's a warm, if ...

Hollywood, Tel Aviv is right behind you: Artists, businesspeople and middle-class seekers are filling the classrooms of local Scientology centers, hoping to rid themselves of excess spiritual baggage. Opera singer Gaby Sade used to have a very short fuse. If someone cut him off, he was capable of getting out of the car and giving the offending driver more than a piece of his mind. If if did not come to blows, he would at least tell him, in choice language, ...

Tessa Mayes is the first reporter to have gone undercover in the London Celebrity Centre of the Church of Scientology. It is, she finds, like a pious version of Pop Idol. The adherents want to be celebrities at least as much as Scientologists ‘A culture is only as great as its dreams and its dreams are dreamed by artists,’ wrote L. Ron Hubbard, who founded the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre in 1969, 15 years after he formed the church itself. ...

***image2*** A new drug treatment center uses saunas, vitamins and, some say, Scientology to rehab inmates. Now they have state money to do it. Julio, a 30-year-old Clovis native with big brown eyes and close-cropped hair, used to be a paint sniffer. These days he sees himself differently. "You don't enter rehab because you're healthy and stable," he says. "And the last six months haven't been easy." Julio has spent the last six months at the Second Chance Center, a new ...

It boasts an 80 per cent success rate, the rock star Beck is a fan, and schools are inviting the Narconon centre into the classroom. So why are some people worried? Jamie Doward reports The following clarification was printed in the Observer's For the record column, Sunday April 3 2005 In the article below we state that 'The use of ear [auricular] acupuncture in treating acute drug withdrawal began in Hong Kong in 1972.' We should clarify that in 1972 surgeons ...

For obvious reasons, the lauding of religious leaders isn’t supposed to be practiced in U.S. public schools, at least not as a class activity. Yet one widely used school program concludes by having students applaud Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The program is called Narconon, and it has notable Scientology links. The state of California is now in the midst of a three-month investigation of the Narconon Drug Prevention and Education program with an eye to possibly barring it from the ...

As early as the third grade, students in S.F. and elsewhere are subtly introduced to church's concepts via anti-drug teachings A popular anti-drug program provided free to schools in San Francisco and elsewhere teaches concepts straight out of the Church of Scientology, including medical theories that some addiction experts described as "irresponsible" and "pseudoscience." As a result, students are being introduced to somebeliefs and methods of Scientology without their knowledge. Anyone listening to a classroom talk by Narconon Drug Prevention & ...

The business-minded Scientology strategists are conquering Russia with psycho-programs and management courses — and they seek access to politics and the military Oh, what a wonderful day, Marina thinks it's great to write up her sins. Anna has learned that aspirin ruins her brain. And Vladimir, an old man with thick glasses, can explain what ethics is by using building blocks. That's how it is with Scientologists, everybody has a little bit of success every day in the evening at 5:30 ...

Emerging from years of internal strife and public scandal, the Scientology movement has embarked on a sweeping and sophisticated campaign to gain new influence in America. The goal is to refurbish the tarnished image of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and elevate him to the ranks of history's great humanitarians and thinkers. By so doing, the church hopes to broaden the acceptability of Hubbard's Scientology teachings and attract millions of new members. The campaign relies on official church programs and a ...

A Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma calls it "pure unadulterated 'cow pies"'. A Doctor of Internal Medicine in Ponca City says it is "filled with ...many false generalizations, internal inconsistencies, outright lies, and potentially dangerous treatments." They are talking about the Purification part of the Narconon drug rehabilitation program that will be offered at Chilocco. According to a document called the Narconon Technical Line-Up copyrighted 1984 by Narconon, their rehabilitation program consists of several steps: First, ...