------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. (Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network, Incorporated) a non-profit computer bulletin board and electronic library 601 16th St. #C-217 Golden, Colorado 80401 USA BBS 303 530-1942 FAX 303 530-2950 Office 303 473-0111 This document is part of an electronic lending library and preservational electronic archive. F.A.C.T.Net does not sell documents, it only lends them according to the terms of your library cardholder agreement with F.A.C.T.Net, Inc. ===================================================================== THREE ARTICLES ABOUT SCIENTOLOGY TIME MA GA ZINE MAY 6, 1991 LOS ANGELES TIMES JUNE 24, 1990 PODIA TRY TODAY MARCH 1990 Prepared by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens P.O.Box 290402, Tampa, Florida 33687 For more information, see also these books: Atack, Jon. A Piece of Blue Sky. Carol Publishing Group, 1990. Corydon, Bent and Hubbard, L. Ron Jr. L. Ron Hubbard Messiah or Madman. Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart Inc., 1987. Hassan, Steven. Combatting CultMind Control. Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1988. Miller, Russell. Bare-Faced Messiah. Henry Holt and Company, 1987 (available in Canada). Special Report ú ~ *' .~ ~ .... ~! ú COVERSTORY ,' ~ ~ r: i! TheThriving Cult of ' I ,~ ~ ,. ,~,,~C, c ' Greed and Power ''':' .';/~ ,!~ ~ ~:i~;,~~ ~ ~ ~,', .~ , .' .,~,~, ,., ;. ~~ined, lives. Lostfortunes. Federal crimes. ScientoZo~ pojes as a religion bul ls really a ~thless gbbal scam and aiming for the mainstream. ~7 ~ '~ ' ~ ~ " ' -.~ByRICHARDBEHAR ace. Eleven top Scientologists, including "~'";: ~' >~,' '~. .~:f~Z~~~7~:~~ Hubbard*s wife, were sent to prison in the ~ y all appearances, Noah Lottick early 1980s for infiltrating, burglarizing . of ~ngston, Pa., had been a nor- and wiretapping more than 100 private and ;' * ~ '-~Z ~ mal, happy 24-year-old who was government agencies in attempts to block 'looking for. his place in the their investigations. In recent years hun- . ~etheday I~t June when his par- dreds of longtime Scientolob~ adherent~ (~)~nts ~ro to New York City to claim his many charging that they were mentally or ;~body, t hey were ncarlycatatonicwith grief. physically abuscd~have quit the church ~ young Russian-studies scholar hacl and crilicizcd it at their own risk. Some ~ijumped from a 10th-tloor window of the have sued the church and won; others have dl~vMilford Plaza Hotel and bounced off the settled for amounts in excess of $5~,000. I1'. hood of a stretch limousine. When the po- In various cases judges have labeled the his fingers were still clutching church "sch~ophrenic and paranoid" and '2~$171 in c~h,'virtually file only money he "corrupt, sinister and dangerous." hadn't yet turned over to the Church of Yet the outrage and litigation have Scientolo~, the self-help"'philosophy" hiled to squelch Scientolo~. The group, group he had disco~eredjustseven months which boasts 700 centers in 65 countries, ~ earlier.~ " threatens to become more insidious and His death inspired his hther Edward, a pe~asive than ever. Scientolo~ is t~g physician, to start his own investigation of to go mainstream, a strate~ that has the church.. "We thought Scientology was sparked a renewed law-enforcement cam~ something l~e Dale Carnegie," ~ttick paign against the church. Many of the says. "I now believe it's a school for psy- group's followers have been accused of r~ chopaths~ Thek so-called therapies are committing financial seams, while the manip~ations. They take the best and church is busy attracting the unwa~ brightist. people and destroy them." The through a wide array of front groups in ~tticks want to sue the church for contrib- such businesses as publishing, consulting, but the prospect health care and even remedial education. ~ frightened. For nearly 40 years, In Holl~ood, Scientology has assera- i .. ,,. the big business of Scientology has shield- bled a star-studded roster of followers by ed itself exquisitely behind the First aggressively recruiting and regally pare- Amendment as well as a batte~ of high- pering them at the church's "Celebrity priced criminal layers and shady private Centers," a chain of clubhouses that of- I detectives. fer expensive counseling and career guid- ;1 , The Church of Scientology, started by ance. Adherents include screen idols ~ science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard to Tom Cruise and John Travolta, actresses : "clear" people of unhappiness, portrays it- ~rstie Alley, Mimi Rogers and Anne ~- '. ' self as a religion. In reality the church is a cher, Palm Springs mayor and performer , hugely protitable global racket that sur- Sonny Bono, jazzman Chick Corea and '~ vives by intimidating members and critics even Nancy Cartwright, the voice of car- ,,~ in a Mafiadike manner. At times during toon star Bart Simpson. Rank-and-file ,, the past decade, prosecutions against members, however, are dealt a less glam- ~ Scientology seemed to be curbing its men- or{ms Scientology. Acc<~rding to the Cult Awareness Net- ' L RonBubbard, 1911-8B: the cult's work, wht~sc 23 chapters mt>nitor inorc founder and continuing inspiration than 21)0 "mind control" cults, no group ':[~ 50 'lIME, MAY 6. 1991 j~{~ ~~ prompts more telephone pleas fi~r hdp than does Scientology. Says Cynthia Kis- ser, the network's Chicago-based executive director: "Scicntology is quite likely the most ruthless, the most classically terroris- tic, the most litigious and the most lucra- tive cult the country has ever seen. No cult extracts more money from its members." Agrccs Vicki Aznaran, who was one of Sci- entology's six key leaders until she bofied from the church in i 987: "This is a crimh~al organizalitm, day in and day out. It makcs Jim and Tammy [Bakkcr] look like kindergarten." To explore Scicntology's reach, Tl~4n contluclcd more than 15(I inletviews anti reviewed hundreds of court records and in- ternal Scientology documents. Church of- ficials refused to be interviewed. The inves- tigation paints a picture of a depraved yet thriving enterprise. Most cults fail to outlast their h~under, but SCientology has prospered since Hubbard's death in 1986. In a court filing, one of the. cult's many entitles--the ,. Church of Spiritual Technol- ogy-listed $503 million in in- ;,. come just for 1987. High-level ~, defectors say the parent organi- zation bas squirttied away an ~: estimated $40{} million in bank accounts in Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Cyprus. Scien- tology probably has about 5(},01}0 active members, far few- er than the 8 million the group claims. But in one sense, that inflated figure rings true: mil- liotas of people have been af- fected jn one way or another by Hubbard's bizarre creation. Scicntology is now run by David Miscavige, 31, a high school dropout and second- generation church member. Defectors describe him as cun- ning, ruthless and so paranoid about perceived enemies that he kept plastic wrap over his glass of water. His obsession is to attain credibility for Scien- tology in the 1990s. Among other tactics, the group: ú Retains public relations pow- erhouse I iill and Knowlton to help shccl lhc chtn'cll's fringe- gronp image. ú Jointed such household names as Sony and Pepsi as a main sponsor of Ted Turner's Good- will Games. ú Buys massive quantities of its ›lWll bo›~ks from rclaiJ stores to propel thc titles ›mh~ best'sell- er lists. ú Runs full-page ads in such publications as Nc~wswt'ek anti Bttsint'ss II"cck Ihat call Scicn- toh~gy a "phibsophy," altmg with a plethora of 'I'V ads |oul- ing the group's books. ú Recruits wealthy and respectable profes- sionals lhrongh a web of consulting grot~ps that typically hide lhcir tics lo Scicntology. The fi~undcr of this cntcrprisc was part sto~tcller, part Ilimllam man. Born in braska in 1911, Hubbard served in the Navy during World War Ii and soon after- ward complained to the Veterans Admin- islratiou abc~nt his "suicidal inclinalicms" and Iris "seriously alfcctcd" mind. Never- thclcss, I lubbard was ;t moderately st$c- ccssful writer of pnlp science fiction. Years later, church brocl~ures described film falsely as an "extensively decorated" World War !1 hero who was crippled and blinded in action, twicc 13ronounccd dead and miraculously cured through Scientol- ogy. Hubbartl's "tloctoratc" from "Se- quoia University" was a fake mail-order degree. In a 1984 case in which tim church sued a Hubbard biographical researcher, a California jutlgc concluded that its formtier was "a patbological liar." THE LOTTICKS LOST THEIR SON, Noah, who jumped from a Manhattan hotel clutching $171, virtually the only money he had not yet turned over to Scientology. His parents blame the church and would like to stle but are frightened by tbe organization's reputation for ruthlessness. Hubbard wrote one of Scientology's sacred texts, Dianetics: The Modenz Sci- ence of Mental Health, in 195(}. In it he introduced a crude psychotherapeutic technique he called "auditing." He also created a simplified lie detector (called an "E-meter") that was designed to mea- sure electrical changes in the skin while subjects discussed intimate details of their past. Hubbard argued that unhappi- ness sprang from mental aberrations (or "cngrams") caused by early traumas. Counseling sessions with the E-meter, he claimed, could knock out the engrams, cure blindness and even improve a per- son's iutclligencc and appearance. Hubbard kept adding steps, each more costly, for his followers to climb. In the 1960s the guru decreed that humans are made of clusters of spirits (or "thetans") who were banished to earth some 75 mil- lion years ago by a cruel galactic ruler named Xenu. Naturally, those thetans had to be audited. An internal Revenue Ser- vice ru, ling in 1967 stripped Scientology's mother church of its tax-exempt status. A federal court ruled in 1971 that Hub- bard's medical claims were bo- ~ gus and that E-meter auditing could no longer be called a scientific treatment. Hubbard responded by going fully reli- gious, seeking First Amend- ment protection for Scie'n- tology's strange rites. His coun- selors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, franchises became "missions," fees became "fixed donations," and Hubbard's comic-book cosmology became "sacred scriptures." During the early 1970s, the ~RS conducted its own auditing sessions and proved that Hub- bard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laun- dering the money through dum- my corporations in l'anama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, lilcd false tax returns and ha- rassed the agcucy's employees. 11y late 1985, wilh high-level de- fectors accusing Hubbard of having stolen as much as $201) million from the church, the ~ns was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scien- l~flogy members "workcol clay and night" shredding docu- ments the ~RS sought, according to defector Aznaran, who took part in the scheme. Hubbard, who hacl bccn in hiding Ibr live years, tiled bcliu'c the criminal case could be prosecuted. Today the church invents 'I'IME, MAY 6. 1991 51 Personality Test Cost: Free Time required: an hour A true-false-ma ihe test to determine whether you need Scientology. Ever does. Communications Courses Cost: $250 each Time required: a few weeks Several courses entail repetitive exercises (sitting on a chair for hours without twitching, speaking to people without displaying emotion) that help pacify and indoctrinate the customer. Regular Auditing, Grades 0-4 Cost: $500 an hour Time required: indefinite At graduation, you should be able to communicate effectively, make problems vanish and attai freedom from lhe guilt of past misdeeds and many psychosomatic ills. New Era Dianetics Cost: $,500 an hour Time required: indefinite Auditing your life (and prior lives) to locate evil intentions and traunratic experiences that left you with psychos0matic ills. At graduation, you have attained the state of "clear." costly rrcw scrviccs willr all the zeal of its founder. Scicntology doctrine warns that even adherents who are "cleared" of en- grams face grave spiritual dangers unless they are pushed to higher and more expen- sive levels. According to the church's latest price list, recruits--"raw meat," as Hub- bard called them--take audit/rig sessions that cost as much as $1,000 an hour, or $12;500 for a 12Vz-hour "intensive." Psychiatrists say these sessions can pro- duce a druggeddike, mind-controlled eu- phoria that keeps custou~ers coming back for more. 'lb pay their fees, newcomers can earn commissions by recruiting new mem- bers, become auditors themselves (Misca- vige did so at age 121, or join the church staff and receive free counseling in ex- change for what their written contracts tic- scribe as a "billion years" of labor. "Make sure that lots of bodies move through the shop," implored Hubbard in one of his bul- letins to officials. "Make moucy. Make more money. Make others produce so as to make money... However you get them in or why, just do it." Harriet Baker learned the hard way about Scientology's business of selling re- ligion. When Baker, 73, lost her husband to cancer, a Scientologist turucd up at her Los Angeles home peddling a $1,300 auditing package to cure her grieL Somc $15,000 later, the Scientologists discov- ered that her house was debt free. They arranged a $45,{100 mortgage, which they pressured her to tap for more auditing until Baker's children helped their moth- er snap out of her daze. Last June, Baker demanded a $27,(10(1 refund for untrsed services, pronrptirrg tw<~ el;It metal>ors t<~ show up tit her door unannounced with an E-meter to interrogate tier. Baker never got the money and, financially strapped, was forced to sell her house in September. Before Noah Lottick killed himself, he had paid more tllan $5,00(} for church counseling. His behavior had also become strange. He once remarked to his parents that his Scicrltology mentors could actually read nljrlds. When Iljs father suffered a ma- jor ticart attack. Noah insisted that it was purely psychoso~atic. FiVe days before IIc jurllpcd. Noah btlrst iilto his parents' honlc and clclllalldcd to kllow wily tbcy were spreaclirrg "false rumors" about him~a delusion tllat fillally pronlpted his father to call a psyclIiatrist. It was too late. "From Noah's friends at Dianctics" read the card that acc{m~- panled a bouquet of flowers ltl l.oltick's ftrncral. Yet rio Scicntoh}gy staff' rlrcni- bets bottlered to show up. A week earli- er, h~cal church oflicials had given l.ot- tick's parents a red-carpet tour of their ccrlter. A cult leader told Noah's parents that their son tlad been at the church just hot~rs bc[<}re lie disappeared--but the chtirch clcnicd tliis story as soon as tire body was identified. True to form, the cult cvcrl Iiaggled with the Lotticks over $3,000 tlleir son had paid for se~iccs he never used, iirsisting that' Noall had in- tended it as a "donation." The church has invented bundrcds of goods and seaices for which members are urged to give "donations." Are you Iiaving trotrblc "moving swiftly trp the Bridge"-- tlral. is, advancing up tire stepladder