Scientology case settled out of court
RTE news
March 13, 2003
http://www.rte.ie/news/2003/0313/scientology.html

A High Court action for damages by a Dublin sports shop owner against the Church of Scientology has ended after out of court talks.

The case taken by Mary Johnston was expected to last until May. However, Mr Justice Peart was told at lunchtime today that the case appeared to be settled.

No details of the settlement were disclosed but costs in the action are estimated to be around 2 million Euros.

Mary Johnston joined the Church of Scientology in 1992.

In her legal proceedings against the Church and three members of the Dublin Mission, she claimed she suffered a personality charge after being sucked into the grasp of the church and subjected to mind control techniques.

She claimed efforts were made to prevent her leaving the church and to silence, devalue and intimidate her and prevent her taking her legal proceedings.

She claimed she suffered psychological and psychiatric injuries.

Ms Johnson's [sic] legal action against the Church of Scientology and three of its members - John Keane, Tom Cunningham and Gerard Ryan - began three and a half months ago.

The court heard 31 days of evidence and submissions before today's surprise settlement.

From: janeebeslis@hotmail.com (Praxis)
Subject: Mary Johnson - Synopsis of claims against CoS
Date: 15 Mar 2003 07:11:13 -0800
Message-ID: <3e471c14.0303150711.8a709a8@posting.google.com>

The statements and claims made during the Mary Johnson trial (listed below) were all culled from:

http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/Mary_Johnson.html

*..claims she was controlled by a cult...

*It is claimed she suffered psychiatric and psychological injuries and post traumatic stress disorder.

*In court Sean Ryan described the language of the organisation as psycho-religious-mythical expressions that have no meaning other than that defined by scientology. 

*Woman was 'psychologically injured' 

*...claims she was brainwashed by the Church of Scientology

*Efforts were made to prevent her leaving the organisation, to silence her and to devalue her.

*The court was also told efforts had been made to intimidate her and to prevent her suing. 

*Ms Johnson had suffered psychological, psychiatric injuries, panic attacks and post traumatic stress disorder, together with loss of short term memory and that condition had been exacerbated by the subsequent illegitimate conduct of the defendants. 

*Ms Johnson was required to do a medical examination and was sent to a scientolgist described as a doctor. She spent long periods in saunas and was told this was purification. People such as this were described as "raw meat" by L Ron Hubbard

*She said she could not afford further payments and was told she should go to her friends or sell her business.

*She...signed a contract for one billion years to work for Scientology.

*...she had been encouraged to sell her business to pay for courses which would advance her within the organisation and which would cost about (pounds) 9,200 sterling. 

*As a result of her involvement with the church, she became withdrawn from her family and friends.

*Her short-term memory started to be affected. 

*There was an ashtray on a chair in front of her and she was told by a man to command it as loudly as she could to get it to stand up. She ended up screaming at the ashtray to stand. 

*...a friend died from a massive heart attack, but she did not go to the funeral because sympathy was "low tone" in the Church of Scientology.

*After leaving the Church, Ms Johnston said she had nightmares, sleeplessness and anxiety attacks, which she had not experienced before.

*From May 1994, having left Scientology, Ms Johnston said she lived in dread and fear because she knew what she had told the movement in confidence "risked being breached". She believed her private life in some way was going to become public. 

*Towards October, she began to have very bad and prolonged headaches and was dizzy. She went to a doctor. She linked the headaches to Scientology....

*Ms Johnston said she felt she had carried out things on a human being without having had the medical background to do so. She had done this through following the commands given by Ron L. Hubbard, the founder of the church. 

*Ms Johnston said she believed the church was coercive and destructive and altered people's perception of reality. 

*Ms Johnston agreed she had told people the church was evil. 

*Ms Mary Johnston said the church was engaged in a personal and vindictive campaign against her. 

*Ms Johnston said Hubbard had written that anyone who was antagonistic to Scientology could be tricked, sued, lied to, cheated or destroyed.

He had also written: "You are safe as long as you don't attack them." 

*Ms Johnston said that despite being a member of Mensa, her short term memory had been affected through involvement with the church.

*...claimed in the High Court yesterday that she had been subjected by the church to hypnosis techniques without her permission and had been upset by the procedures. 

*...the procedures involved a countdown and prolonged staring for hours to induce a trance. 

*...she was given no warning that aspects of mind control would be involved arising from her participation in the church. 

*...had her free will compromised because of dependency, intrusion and pressure...

*Prof Stephen Alan Kent said he was concerned about the nature of dependency which grew from the process of Dianetics which, he said, would focus on negative events in a person's life. 

*...a psychologist at University College Dublin, Dr Declan Fitzgerald, said he believed that what was called the Oxford Capacity Analysis, carried out by the church in its auditing process, impinged on people's self-esteem and was highly manipulative. 

*A "purification rundown" course operated by the Church of Scientology was neither medically safe nor scientifically verified, the High Court was told yesterday...Mr Michael Cush SC, for Ms Johnston, submitted that the claims made by the church in its documents concerning the purification course were false and the risks involved many and varied...Prof Ryan said the claims made in the church's documentation were not scientifically verified, and the programme was not medically safe...

*The science behind the Church of Scientology was "basically rubbish", a doctor told the High Court yesterday. 

*...the dianetics programme had been shown time and time again to be a sham. 

*Mr Cush read extracts from Dianetics - The Modern Science of Mental Health, by the founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, and also outlined extracts from Ms Johnston's evidence to the court. He said the extracts from Dianetics indicated that what was involved in auditing was hypnosis. It appeared hypnosis was being used as a vehicle and that material was being developed in an emotional context.

*She alleged conspiracy, misrepresentation and breach of constitutional rights. She also alleged deliberate infliction of emotional harm.

*...claimed she suffered a personality change after she was "sucked into the grasp" of the church and subjected to mind-control techniques.

*...there were efforts to silence and intimidate her and members of her family. It was alleged Ms Johnston suffered psychological and psychiatric injuries.

*Her issue was with the coercive and manipulative techniques devised by the founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and used in pursuit of the church's activities, she said.

*Mr Hubbard had written that anyone who was antagonistic to Scientology may be tricked, sued, lied to, cheated or destroyed.

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