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 ...

Violence and abuse in Scientology can be traced right back to the founder, L. Ron Hubbard, said a former Sea Org veteran who worked alongside him. At a conference in Hamburg Friday a former veteran Scientologist who worked directly with L. Ron Hubbard painted a devastating picture of the movement’s founder. [...]

Scientology parishioners learned this week of a milestone in Scientology history when Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center, announced the acquisition of a 159,400 square feet, 190 acre facility for the future home of the Advanced Organization of Canada. Not only will this provide the advanced training and counseling services for all Canadian parishioners, it will also house the Canadian Scientology national offices that coordinate Scientology expansion and social betterment programs for the country. First announced by ...

Last week we learned that Amazon.co.uk has bowed to pressure to stop selling a book by a former senior Irish Scientologist. The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of the Church of Scientology (Merlin Publishing, Dublin) describes John Duignan's 21 years in the religion, not all of it a happy tale. According to Amazon, "Unfortunately, we have had to withdraw The Complex by John Duignan in the UK because we received a specific allegation that a passage in the book ...

The Complex: An Insider Exposes the Covert World of The Church of Scientology by John Duignan with Nicola Tallant, Merlin Publishing, Dublin. The Scientologists have been doing their damnedest to stop the international publication of John Duignan’s memoir The Complex. Following legal representations, it is no longer possible to buy the book, published in Ireland by Merlin, from Amazon.co.uk. That made me curious, so I had a copy sent direct from Dublin. Here’s my review. In places, Duignan – a former ...

A TOP Scientologist who escaped the cult has given the most explosive insight yet into the shady "celebrity religion". A-list followers including Tom Cruise, Kirstie Alley and John Travolta believe their faith is the secret of their success. But for John Duignan it cost him everything and everyone he held dear after he become a leading figure in the church's British branch. John says he was so brainwashed that he would have killed for Scientology. And he claims another member was ...

BILL KURTIS: Since its emergence in the 1950s, the Church of Scientology has been a source of great fascination. It has spent many of those years at war with the U.S. government, the press, and portions of the public. But behind the headlines are real people who have experienced Scientology firsthand. In this second hour of a special A&E presentation of “Investigative Reports,” we hear directly from those who remain members of the church, and from those who have now left ...

Special investigation by chief reporter PAUL BRACCHI [A very small picture of Mr. Bracchi is shown.] [A picture of a man in a long military coat with brass buttons is shown. Below the picture is this title: "A Scientologist out on liberty time in a miliary-style greatcoat."] THEY dress like naval officers. But the uniforms, complete with epaulettes and brass buttons, are not what they seem. These men and women do not belong to the armed services...they are Scientologists. Most of ...

Ideological Totalism? Juliann Savage is a clinical social worker in the Cult Clinic, six years a non-sectarian affiliate of Jewish Family Services operating out of the United Way building in Van Nuys. Savage has treated more than 70 victims of mind control, from Hare Krishnas to Moonies, in her two and a half years on staff. She insists the 10 former Scientologists with whom she has worked have been her most difficult assignments. "These people have given their entire lives over ...

The Government's War Against SCIENTOLOGY Scientologists say the church is engaged in "a war for the human spirit" against a global conspiracy, involving psychiatrists, the Rockefeller family, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and the U.S. government (including the FBI, CIA and IRS). According to Ken Hoden, Scientologists feel that although each of these diverse entities have different reasons for attacking the church, their enemies have banded together as one to achieve a common end — "destroying the Church of Scientology." ...

Therapy as Religion Though the Berendo Street headquarters is the hub of Scientology activity in Los Angeles, the church's showplace is its Celebrity Center at Franklin and Bronson. A grand gothic chateau built for William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s, this complex of Scientology offices and apartments has retained much of its charm, replete with garden grounds and flowing fountains The idyllic setting is reinforced as you enter the mansion's foyer. The walls are lined with original art, and music from ...

"Theseus and his comrade Pirithous in their descent to Hades . . . sat down to rest for a while, only to find that they had grown to the rocks and could not rise." — Carl Jung, Modern Man In Search Of A Soul Ford and Andrea Schwartz are a typical American couple, perhaps. They're 33 and 28 years old, respectively, and they live in a middle-class apartment in Concord. A Volkswagen van rests in the carport. Their three-year-old son likes ...

Yes... The Church of Scientology (which was founded by L. Ron Hubbard and operates a mission in Santa Rosa) is often charged with using mind control techniques to obtain and maintain the loyalty and resources of its members. Scientology officials, as well as many Scientology church members, scoff at these charges, insisting their practices and teachings are designed to liberate the mind, not enslave it. But Ford Schwartz, a longtime Scientologist and later a "deprogrammer" for the Freedom Counseling Center in ...