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‘Scientology is evil; its techniques evil; its practice a serious threat to the community, medically, morally and socially; and its adherents sadly deluded and often mentally ill.”

The above statement was not made by Nick Xenophon under the privilege of the Senate this week, but by a Victorian barrister, Kevin Anderson, QC, who had led a two-year government inquiry into the Church of Scientology in the 1960s. Then, as now, former Scientologists alleged that ”mind control”, physical and emotional abuse, and financial deception were standard practices, not exceptions, and integral to the church’s ”brainwashing” of its parishioners.
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Dangerous dismissal of psychiatry and mental health problems must be part of a Senate inquiry into the Church of Scientology, a Melbourne cult-counsellor said yesterday

Cult Counselling Australia director Raphael Aron said Scientologists put vulnerable people at risk by taking them off psychiatric drugs and treatment, instead treating them with vitamins and E-meter readings.
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Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd raised concerns about the Church of Scientology yesterday, as police began investigating complaints from seven former Scientologists.

As highlighted by senator Nick Xenophon, the former cult members allege abuses including coerced abortions, assault, imprisonment, the covering up of sexual abuse, the embezzlement of church funds and blackmail. [video]
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A New Jersey man will serve a 366-day federal prison term for conducting a cyber attack on Church of Scientology Web sites in January 2008, Associated Press reports.

At a hearing Wednesday in Newark 19-year-old Dmitriy Guzner of Verona also was sentenced to two years’ probation after his release from prison.
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The Australian Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has used a speech in Parliament to raise allegations of widespread criminal conduct within the Church of Scientology.

Senator Xenophon says he’s received letters from former followers of the religion detailing claims of crimes and abuses. [video]
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The arrest of a member of an anti-Scientology group on terrorism-related charges last month thrust Las Vegas into the forefront of a worldwide dispute between the group and the celebrity-laden church.

Authorities say they believed acts of violence were about to be committed against the Las Vegas Scientology church, which is creating a new 36,845-square-foot center on Eastern Avenue to cater to celebrities.
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I knew Scientology was in trouble when the media moved on from the usual silly gossip about its celebrity members to much darker, disturbing issues at the heart of the movement – issues, as I have come personally to understand, that actually matter, Jonny Jacobsen writes in Herald Scotland.

After a Paris court last month convicted several Scientologists and two organisations associated with the movement in France of organised fraud, and amid other investigations in France looking at a suicide and an alleged abduction, Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis, a long-time member, quit Scientology.

Haggis, who wrote and directed Crash, denounced the practice of “disconnection“, which sees members forced to cut off contact with anyone – even their loved ones – if they are deemed an enemy of Scientology.

In Edinburgh in the early 1990s, I found out just what the practice of disconnection could do to ordinary people when a close friend became involved in Scientology. It was an experience which marked me so profoundly that I have been tracking the movement ever since…
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The family of Winston Churchill has asked the Church of Scientology to stop using images of the former prime minister in its recruitment literature, The Times reports.

The controversial religious organisation has been circulating promotional material to recruit staff in the UK which includes photographs of Churchill along with quotes from some of his most famous speeches.

It has also used Churchill’s image to promote speaking engagements by its members and campaigns to raise money to create new Scientology facilities in Britain.

The church defended its use of Churchill in its materials and accused detractors of “trying to stir up mischief”.

The cult apparently sees aligning itself with respected causes (e.g. human rights), celebrities or respected personalties (e.g Einstein as an effective recruitment tactic.

Another favorite ploy is the use of the impressive sounding — but basically useless — Oxford Capacity Analysis test.
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The St. Petersburg Times is continuing to expose the Church of Scientology to daylight — by reporting on the destructive cult’s unethical tactics.

Billed as The Truth Rundown, its series of special reports highlights the alleged abusive behavior of current Scientology leader David Miscavige, as well as other criticism leveled at Scientology by a number of high-level defectors. [video]
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French judges said they did not order the church offices closed because they did not want to drive Scientologists underground, where they could not be monitored.

At least five other cases involving complaints against the church are under investigation by courts around France, according to press reports. [video]
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A French court on Tuesday convicted the Church of Scientology and six of its members of organized fraud, but stopped short of banning the church.

As part of the penalties, the church was ordered to publish the results of the verdict in several national and international magazines to warn people, the judge said, about what Scientology offers and what was discovered at trial. [video]
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Paul Haggis, the Hollywood film director, has resigned from the Church of Scientology after 35 years as a member in protest against its apparent opposition to gay marriage.

In his letter Haggis also highlights a lie told by Scientology spokesperson Tommy Davis, who in an interview with CNN denied Scientology’s policy of disconnection — in which the destructive cult forces some of its members to sever relationships with friends and family members. [video]
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The Church of Scientology refused to provide records demanded by a coroner investigating the death of an Australian soldier who committed suicide two days after finishing one of the church’s intensive courses.

The Australian reports that the American headquarters of the church instructed its Australian branch to send the soldier’s “audit file” to the US – outside the coroner’s jurisdiction – before warrants were issued.
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Since its inception in the 1950s, the Church of Scientology has rarely been far from controversy.

And now some senior insiders who have left the church are leveling disturbing accusations against the current leader, David Miscavige. [video]
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A mistrial has been declared in the trial of two people accused of attempting to extort millions from actor John Travolta after the death of his 16-year-old son, Jett.

Judge Anita Allen thought someone in the jury had had inappropriate communications outside of the jury room, where jurors had been deliberating for eight hours.

The judge received information that an announcement had been made at a local political rally that one of the defendants had been found not guilty.
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The European Court for Human Rights has fined Russia for refusing to register Scientology churches in the cities of Surgut and Nizhnekamsk as religious groups.

The Strasbourg court’s statement says the country has broken Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and must pay €10,000 for punitive damages and another €10,000 in legal costs, RIA-Novosti news agency reports. [video]
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While giving testimony in an extortion trial, John Travolta acknowledged publicly for the first time that his late son had suffered from autism.

The admission puts Travolta at odds with the Church of Scientology in which he is a leading figure. The cult, which among other things practices quackery, does not acknowledge autism as a real affliction.
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John Travolta is believed to have flown to the Bahamas to take the stand against two people accused of trying to extort $US25 million from the movie star following his son Jett’s death in January.

Travolta is on a list of 14 witnesses against the defendants — a former Bahamas senator and an ambulance driver — who allegedly threatened to release a document related to the treatment of his chronically ill son Jett.

His testimony would mark a break from the low profile that Travolta and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, have kept since their 16-year-old son died from a seizure at a family vacation home on the Grand Bahama island on January 2.
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Scientology has a lot to hide — and a lot of it has been exposed to daylight by the cult’s many critics.

That must hurt in the pocketbook, and thus the ‘church’ — which among other things is behind an anti-psychiatry hate group — has launched yet another on free speech.
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A new French law means the Church of Scientology cannot be dissolved in France even if it is convicted of fraud, it has emerged during a trial of the organisation.

A prosecutor has recommended that a Paris court dissolve the church’s French branch, which has been charged with fraud after complaints by former members who say they gave huge sums to the church for spiritual classes and “purification packs.”
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Scientology ‘vultures’ have latched onto another tragedy. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights — a Scientology front group that runs on ongoing hate campaign against psychiatry and psychiatrists — free DVDs about anti-depressant drugs in the area where killer Shane Clancy lived.

Reports have indicated that gardai are investigating whether Shane, who murdered Seb Creane (22) before killing himself, may have misused anti-depressants that had been prescribed for him a week before the tragic night.

Here’s another look at Scientology’s ambulance chasers.
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11 more defectors from the Church of Scientology have provided accounts of physical or mental abuse by Scientology leader David Miscavige.

The cult — known for its hate- and harassment activities, including character assassination — has a hypocritical response. Yet it cannot get around the fact that its founder codified unethical behavior toward those who criticize Scientology.

More evidence that the cult’s glossy ads hide a stark truth: that of a destructive cult in decline.
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Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, the highest-ranking executives to leave the Church of Scientology, are speaking out for the first time.

Two other former executives who defected also agreed to interviews with the St. Petersburg Times: De Vocht, who for years oversaw the church’s spiritual headquarters in Clearwater, and Amy Scobee, who helped create Scientology’s celebrity network, which caters to the likes of John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

One by one, the four defectors walked away from the only life they knew. That Rathbun and Rinder are speaking out is a stunning reversal because they were among Miscavige’s closest associates, Haldeman and Ehrlichman to his Nixon.
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A French prosecutor on Monday recommended a Paris court should dissolve the Church of Scientology’s French branch when it rules on charges of fraud against the organization.

The cult claims the fraud case against it violates freedom of religion but in France, as in many other places, it is merely considered a for-profit cult.
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The Church of Scientology, which many view as a commercial enterprise masquerading as a religion, is in trouble again.

While the movement is considered a ‘religion’ in the USA, many others countries view it as a cult whose sole aim is to separate gullible people from their money by selling quackery and false promises.

In France, the cult is now on trial for fraud and practicing ‘medicine’ without a license.
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1. Travolta's attack on BBC man in Scientology expose
2. Tom Cruise is banned from second Berlin location
3. Woman denied psych treatment by Scientology parents: I just butchered my family
4. John Sweeney explains: Row over Scientology video
5. Cultic Studies Association receives donation on behalf of Tom Cruise
6. A church accounting: Joyce Meyer's $23,000 toilet, Scientology, and more...
7. Scientology's Ambulance Chasers, Gemstones from heaven, and Old Time Religion
8. A Legacy of Craziness
9. Scarlett Johansson escaped Cruise's plans
10. Scientology's love affair with Hollywood

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