||||| From: Reposter Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: UK: Kathleen Wilson Date: 19 Feb 2002 22:13:57 -0800 Organization: Newsguy News Service [http://newsguy.com] Lines: 691 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: p-239.newsdawg.com X-Newsreader: Direct Read News 2.91 Path: news2.lightlink.com!news.lightlink.com!newsfeeds.nerdc.ufl.edu!news.uidaho.edu!news.orst.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!arclight.uoregon.edu!newsfeed.cs.utexas.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!nntp.abs.net!pln-e!spln!dex!extra.newsguy.com!newsp.newsguy.com!drn Xref: news2.lightlink.com alt.religion.scientology:1435403 Reposted: From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: UK: Kathleen Wilson (30K) Date: 3 Sep 1995 20:00:15 +0200 Organization: RePLaY aND CoMPaNY UnLimited Lines: 678 Sender: replay@utopia.hacktic.nl NNTP-Posting-Host: utopia.hacktic.nl XComm: Replay may or may not approve of the content of this posting XComm: Report misuse of this automated service to Scientology woman signed contract with sect for a billion years Recruits made to undergo processing in which inner-most secrets are revealed, court told The Daily Telegraph March 10, 1995, Friday By John Steele Courts Correspondent Copyright 1995 The Daily Telegraph plc A YOUNG woman alleged to be the victim of an attempted abduction from the Church of Scientology yesterday admitted that some members of the sect signed a "contract for a billion years". Kathleen Wilson, 23, a former shoe shop worker who joined the sect, conceded at Lewes Crown Court that recruits went through sessions of "auditing" or "processing" in which they were asked to divulge their inner secrets and were subject to "ethic penalties" and internal discipline. Miss Wilson was giving evidence in the trial of a friend, Stephen Cooper, 27, from Saltburn, Cleveland, who is accused of trying to kidnap her. She denied she was a prisoner in the sect and told the jury that, though she did not want to leave, she would be free to leave at any time. Cooper admitted to police that he went to the sect's headquarters at Saint Hill Castle in East Grinstead, East Sussex, in November, 1992, with the intention of abducting Miss Wilson because, having been contacted by her mother, he believed she had been hypnotised and had "no mind of her own". He denies attempted kidnap and affray. Miss Wilson said she became a member of the sect after moving to the Chichester area from Cleveland and went to work at Saint Hill Castle, graduating from gardening to filing and clerical work. She worked from 9am to 10pm for an allowance of =A333 a week, "with everything else thrown in," and was allowed Saturday mornings and sometimes whole Saturdays off. Mr John Tanzer, for Cooper, asked her about the sessions of auditing or processing in what he termed "this cult". She said it was "a type of counselling" - with various levels of audit - and she had undergone it in the past. Miss Wilson agreed one level was called "Clear" and a higher one "Operating Thetan" - a "spirit" referred to in the writings of L Ron Hubbard, founder of the sect. Her level was "pre-Clear". She said auditing featured the use of a machine called an "E-Meter", with sect members holding two items like soup cans in their hands "to pick up any reactions you may have to things that are troubling or stressing you". Mr Tanzer said: "During that session, is what is being done to you to put you into what really amounts to a light trance?" She replied: "No, you are totally awake." He continued: "You are hypnotised during this session?" She denied that but agreed that one of the aims of the session was for sect members to divulge what were known as "withholds" - information about matters worrying the members which, she was told, would be kept "secret and confidential". Miss Wilson agreed that the sect regarded people who did or said anything against the Church as "suppressive persons" who had committed "suppressive acts" and had a policy of "disconnection" from such people. She agreed the sect had a system of "ethics penalties" for people committing "harmful acts" - such as drug-taking - and a "rehabilitation project force" dealing with internal discipline. Miss Wilson also said she was a member of an internal sect group known as "Sea-Org", whose members wore blue uniforms and signed the billion-year contracts. Mr Tanzer said: "A billion years? The whole teaching is that once you are in, you are in and that's it?" She replied: "No, lots of people leave." He added: "For that contract, you promise to obey?" She said this was not true. Mr Tanzer asked her about a meeting at East Grinstead on the evening of Nov 6, 1992, the night of the attempted kidnap, in which Cooper and Miss Lorna Bowden, a one-time close friend of Miss Wilson, visited her. He suggested Miss Wilson was quiet at the meeting, letting senior sect members do the talking, because she would have been in breach of the one billion year contract if she told her friends she wanted to leave. Miss Wilson again stressed that she had not wanted to leave. In questioning by Mr Richard Cherrill, for the Crown, Miss Wilson denied she was "a robot". The trial was adjourned until today. Cult member denies her mind was controlled; Court gets rare and detailed insight into world of Scientology The Independent March 10, 1995, Friday By TIM KELSEY Copyright 1995 Newspaper Publishing PLC A young cult member whose best friend and former flatmate allegedly tried to "rescue" her from the sect told a court yesterday that she had signed a "billion-year" contract to Scientology. Kathleen Wilson, a 23-year-old former shoe shop worker who left her job to live near the sect's headquarters, said that in the contract she agreed to decrease the "power of the enemy" and increase the religion's strength. She also gave a detailed and rare insight into the working of one of the world's largest and most controversial cult religions. Miss Wilson said she had undergone "auditing", a type of counselling in which members reveal their inner problems - called "withholds" - while holding on to tin cans which are connected to a machine called an E-meter. The court has heard how her former flatmate, Stephen Cooper, 27, feared she was being brainwashed. He told detectives after his arrest that her mother was worried she had been imprisoned. However, yesterday Miss Wilson denied being a "robot" who had been hypnotised and imprisoned by the sect, and said she was happy working at the Saint Hill Castle HQ, in East Grinstead, West Sussex. Mr Cooper is alleged to have tried to snatch her back just days before she was due to fly out to Los Angeles to undergo further training. Scientology was founded in 1959 by L Ron Hubbard, an American science fiction writer who believed that it was possible for individuals to reach a state of immortality by following a detailed system of mental examination and therapy which he called Dianetics. Miss Wilson told Lewes Crown Court, in East Sussex, that she joined the cult after being given a leaflet and then taking a number of courses. The jury heard that Scientologists wear a navy blue uniform and work at the cult's castle from 9am to 10pm for pounds 33 per week. Miss Wilson also disclosed that the castle grounds are patrolled by security guards who have walkie-talkies and high- powered torches. She said that new recruits undergo counselling until, after many years, they reach the state of spiritual ecstasy which is known within the cult as level 8. At this point, they become an "Operating Thetan". The cult has an internal disciplinary organisation called the Rehabilitation Progress Force. She disclosed that acts against the religion are called suppressive acts and people who commit them can be "disconnected" from the church - the equivalent of excommunication. Miss Wilson said that during auditing "you are asked questions. When you have problems it is to help you. There is an E-meter which is a device to pick up any reaction you have to a certain thing that is giving you trouble, like distress or something like that. The meter is round and has a dial on the front and a knob on the side". John Tanzer, for the defence, asked Miss Wilson: "Are you being put into a light trance in these sessions?" She replied: "No, nothing happened." Mr Tanzer said: "Were you ever hypnotised during these sessions?" "No," she said. "You go in as you are and come out as you are." She admitted signing the billion-year contract to the church but said she was free to go if she wanted, adding that although she agreed to "uphold the standards of the religion" it did not make her a robot. The prosecution alleges that Mr Cooper helped to try to snatch Miss Wilson back when he jumped out at her as she walked through the castle's gardens. But the attack was foiled when other Scientologists came to her rescue and bundled her on to a staff bus. The alleged kidnap attempt came just hours after Miss Wilson met her former best friend, Lorna Bowden, and Mr Cooper for a meeting in the castle's pavilion. Miss Bowden and Mr Cooper, her boyfriend, who had both shared a flat with Miss Wilson, in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, had gone to the church to talk to her about the training trip to America. Miss Wilson was accompanied at the meeting by two senior church members and the discussion was stopped when she said she had to attend a staff meeting. After his arrest, Mr Cooper said that Miss Wilson "no longer had a mind of her own" and was being hypnotised by the sect. Mr Cooper, a shop manager, of Saltburn-by-the-Sea in Cleveland, denies attempted kidnap and affray. The case continues. Dateline: 11 March 1995=20 Man Accused of Kidnap Attempt at Cult's Castle Mr. Stephen Cooper, a shop manager, tried to rescue a 21-year-old woman from the headquarters of a religious sect after fears that she was being brainwashed, a court was told yesterday. He said that he had been contacted by the woman's mother who feared that she had been=20 imprisoned. A member of the Church of Scientology, Ms. Kathleen Wilson, claimed that she was the victim of a kidnap attempt as she walked in the grounds of the= =20 cult's castle headquarters in East Grinstead, Sussex, England, in=20 November 1992. It had been feared that she had been hypnotised and no longer had a=20 mind of her own. Mr. Cooper and two other people tried to persuade Ms. Wilson to leave the=20 sect after arranging a meeting with her in the presense of two senior=20 members of the cult. The meeting was cut short when Ms. Wilson had to=20 attend a staff meeting. It was then that the kidnap attempt failed. A knife and a rottweiler=20 dog was apparently used as a deterent. The case continues this week. MAN CLEARED OF SCIENTOLOGY KIDNAP BID PA 14.03.1995 Copyright 1995 PA News. Copying, storing, redistribution, retransmission, publication, transfer or commerical exploitation of this information is expressly forbidden. A shop manager was cleared today of trying to kidnap his former flatmate from the Church of Scientology's castle HQ. Stephen Cooper, 27, of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Cleveland, was acquitted of the attempted kidnap of Kathleen Wilson, 23, and a separate charge of affray. He claimed the former shoe shop worker had been brainwashed by the controversial sect. His counsel argued that it had deprived her of her free will and that Mr Cooper sought to rescue her. The jury at Lewes Crown Court was told Cooper tried to snatch her back as she walked through the grounds of the sect's Saint Hill Manor castle, in East Grinstead, West Sussex. But his bid was foiled when other Scientologists came to her aid and bundled her on to a staff bus. After the verdicts, Mr Cooper said: "I am so relieved that this is all over. In my eyes British justice has won. "My advice to other people is, `Don't get involved in Scientology'." On the courtroom steps, Miss Wilson said: "Instead of judging Stephen, this trial judged me. I feel insulted by the verdict. "I know what I want to do and what I don't want to do. I told him I wanted to stay at Saint Hill and I meant it." Church of Scientology spokeswoman Margaret Reese said: "Kathleen and her religious beliefs were attacked as a `defence' with insulting and demeaning inferences that she was `brainwashed' or `hypnotised'. "This is an outrage." The Electronic Telegraph 15 March 1995 Friend cleared of Scientology kidnapping By John Steele, Courts Correspondent I feel insulted, says woman as jury decides that she was brainwashed=20 A MAN who tried to remove a woman from the Church of Scientology was cleared of attempted kidnap yesterday after arguing that "brainwashing" by the cult had turned her into a robot without the ability to decide whether she consented or not to leaving. Stephen Cooper's "victim", 23-year-old former shoe shop worker Miss Kathleen Wilson, told the jury that she was happy to be at the cult's headquarters at Saint Hill Castle in East Grinstead, East Sussex, and did not consent to being removed. The court also heard he had admitted to police he intended to "snatch her" against her will. But Cooper, 27, who runs a newsagent's shop, was cleared at Lewes Crown Court of the charge by a jury which retired at 12.53pm, began their lunch at 1pm and returned with unanimous verdicts at 2pm. His counsel, Mr John Tanzer, argued that, even though she claimed in court she did not consent to removal, it was possible her free will had been removed by the processes she had undergone in the cult and she did not have "sufficient intelligence and understanding" to decide if she consented. 'British justice has won today' After the verdict, a delighted Cooper said: "I wasn't confident. I thought the evidence was against me but the jury was fantastic. In my eyes, British justice has won today." Scientology officials took a different view, warning the verdict would act as a "green light" to those who wanted to remove members from sects. Miss Wilson, a former flatmate of Cooper, said: "I am outraged. I feel insulted by the verdict. Instead of judging Stephen, they judged me. I said I wanted to stay at Saint Hill and I meant it. I was not brainwashed." Mr Justice Hidden told the jury that Scientology was not on trial and that they did not have to decide if it was a cult or a religion. The issue was Stephen Cooper's acts and intentions when he went to Saint Hill with another man on the night of Nov 6, 1992. To prove attempted kidnap, the Crown had to establish four elements - an attempt to remove her, that it was by force, that it was without lawful excuse and that she did not consent. The first two elements were not challenged - Mr Cooper admitted to police he went to snatch her, "probably against her will", after being contacted by her mother - and the judge ruled he could not offer a defence of lawful excuse because that would require a belief that she faced physical danger. But the judge ruled that there could be a possible defence on the grounds of consent, even though Miss Wilson testified that she did not consent. This enabled Mr Tanzer to tell the jury some of the evidence suggested a regime in which she was effectively enslaved and robbed of her free will. 'She was deprived of her own free will'=20 "Kathleen Wilson was a victim. She was deprived of her own free will and Stephen Cooper sought to rescue her. She never said she wanted to be rescued but we say, simply, that is because she couldn't. If a member of our society is turned into a robot, turned into a slave, is that person consenting? A robot is programmed as to what to say. The person underneath has been suppressed and enslaved." Cooper, he said, was not a "malign kidnapper using unwarranted force to take away a damsel manifestly not in distress". Rather, he wanted to "put her in a position" to make her own free choice. Outside court, Cooper, from Saltburn, Cleveland, said the last two years had been a nightmare. He planned to marry Miss Lorna Bowden, 23, the one-time close friend of Miss Wilson. "I was only interested in the welfare of Kathleen. We felt she had changed after joining them. Lorna said she was always easily-led and that she had to look after her at school."=20 The Electronic Telegraph 15 March 1995 Cult's hopes of improving its image takes a knock By John Steele, Courts Correspondent THE acquittal of Stephen Cooper is a major setback for the Church of Scientology in its efforts to dispel its image as a sinister and manipulative cult. The decision will go down in the demonology of the cult - or, in its own terminology, on the ever-lengthening list of anti-scientology "suppressive acts" - alongside a bench-mark case in the family division of the High Court in 1984. In that hearing Mr Justice Latey decided a custody dispute between a father who was a committed scientologist and a mother who had left the cult by removing two children from the father and giving them to the mother. After a three-week trial in which he heard evidence about scientology and its late founder, the science fiction writer turned spiritual guru, L Ron Hubbard, he said: "Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious. In my opinion it is corrupt, sinister and dangerous. It is corrupt because it is based on lies and deceit and has as its real objective money and power for Mr Hubbard, his wife and those close to him at the top. 'Scientology is both immoral and socially obnoxious' "It is sinister because it indulges in infamous practices, both to its adherents who do not toe the line unquestioningly and to those outside who criticise or oppose it. It is dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others." The cult , which offers endless press releases and glossy brochures to the media, has denounced the Latey hearing as a "travesty of justice" in which it was not allowed to defend itself. Scientology was created by Hubbard more than 40 years ago. In essence, he suggested humans are reincarnated from the beginning of time and inside everyone there is a thetan - or spirit - trying to help the human improve. But the thetan is handicapped by engrams - bad thoughts or past misdeeds - which have to be cleared by the processes of scientology known as dianetics, to guide the individual human towards spiritual enlightenment. The central tool of dianetics is "auditing with an e-meter", a machine which is used when scientology members are quizzed by "auditors" about their innermost thoughts. Auditing, the theory goes, enables members to confront and overcome engrams. Hubbard, who died in 1986, was a 'charlatan and worse' Within the cult there is a cadre of dedicated members known as "Sea-Org" whose recruits sign a contract to work for a billion years and they audit their way "up the bridge" of spiritual improvement towards the levels of "clear and Operating Thetan". As evidence in the Cooper trial showed, cult members wear uniforms and the East Grinstead castle is patrolled by guards with handcuffs and heavy= torches. The jury heard of "ethics officers" and "ethics penalties" for those committing harmful acts. The "rehabilitation project force" was a euphemism for an internal disciplinary body. Cooper's lawyers were unable to adduce the Latey judgment in his case but the detailed evidence before the judge in 1984 convinced him that Hubbard, who died in 1986, was a "charlatan and worse" who had lied about his background and war record to promote himself and had created a quasi-religion to make money for himself and his cohorts.=20 The Electronic Telegraph 15 March 1995 Mother says sect has bewitched daughter By John Steele, Courts Correspondent A REUNION between scientologist Kathleen Wilson, 23, and her 63-year-old mother, who had not seen each other for more than two-and-a-half years, took place during the trial of Stephen Cooper. Last Friday, Mrs Margaret Wilson and her daughter met in the well of the court and hugged briefly. But rather than sharing an emotional moment, Mrs Wilson told her daughter she had been "brainwashed" by scientologists. Her daughter, in turn, accused "instigators and enemies of the church" of duping Mr Cooper into believing she needed to be rescued. The mother and daughter did not see each other over the weekend - despite, Mrs Wilson said, her attempts to contact her daughter at the cult's headquarters at East Grinstead. A saddened Mrs Wilson left court on Monday evening, planning to return to her Cleveland home early yesterday, not knowing if her daughter would keep her promise to visit her. The exchanges between them were witnessed by Cooper, who said: "At least, if I haven't done anything else, I've brought them back together." 'You've been brainwashed. You don't know what you've put me through' Mrs Wilson, who lives at Boosbeck, near Saltburn, told her daughter last Friday: "I haven't seen you for more than two years. You have been saying you will visit for two years. Why don't you come and see me?" Miss Wilson replied: "I will come home." As court officials, lawyers and reporters listened, Mrs Wilson said: "You have made me ill. "Why don't you visit your father [Ian, 75, who is separated from Mrs Wilson]. He is ill through not seeing you. You've been brainwashed. You don't know what you've put me through. "All the trouble. Don't you care?" Miss Wilson: "Of course I care." Mrs Wilson asked why she was accusing Mr Cooper of things he had not done. Miss Wilson said it was not Cooper, but "the people beind him, who put him up to it". This echoed the claim of cult officials at the court that "apostates", renegade former scientologists, had stirred up Cooper. But Mrs Wilson blamed the cult: "It is not good that they keep a daughter away from her mother. You were all I lived for and now I've got nothing. You've thrown your life away. Why?" Miss Wilson: "I have not." She insisted that she would visit her mother if she would not be kidnapped. Her mother retorted: "Who'd want to kidnap you? You're not a millionaire's daughter." Outside the courtroom, as Miss Wilson rejoined fellow cult members, her mother said: "I can't get through to her. She's been= brainwashed. "She was quite easy-going as a child, but was easily led and gullible. I had to get her out of trouble at home." After the acquittal of Cooper, Miss Wilson said the verdict could drive her and her mother further apart.=20 Why Kathy won't come home Independent Friday, March 31, 1995 By Tim Kelsey At the garage on the road into East Grinstead, the cashier smiles. "Scientologists?" he says. "You'll find them on the way into Turner's Hill. Just follow the road round. "It's a religious sect," he adds, politely. "Ah, yes," I say. "I'm afraid so," he replies. It isn't far. Past a nursing home and some palatial private homes screened from the road by banks of flourishing rhododendrons, to the castle. Saint Hill castle is the European headquarters of the Church of Scientology. The church or cult, or sect - depending on your point of view - is American but it has a large following both here and on the Continent. Among non- Scientologists, the group is routinely demonised. Ten years ago, a British judge described it as "immoral, socially obnoxious, corrupt, sinister, and dangerous". Two weeks ago, a jury at Lewes Crown Court acquitted a man of trying to abduct one of its members. The man said he was trying to rescue his friend, Kathleen Wilson, 23. He said she had been brainwashed and would have left if she had had any free will. The jury agreed: she had been brainwashed. The Scientologists have never suffered such a setback. The castle is in the traditional English style, turreted, with crenelated walls. It was finished only five years ago. Walking towards the reception, you pass a bronze statue of a man holding an eternal flame and a shield. On the pedestal, there is a short epigram: "The Price of Freedom. Constant Alertness. Constant Willingness to Fight Back. There is no other price." This is attributed to L. Ron Hubbard, the church's founder. The statue is dated 7 October, AD44. AD, in this context, stands for After Dianetics. Dianetics, the name coined when Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health in 1950, and which formed the basis of his homespun "religion". At reception, there is a young woman in uniform: blue blazer and trousers with navy-style trimmings. (Mr Hubbard was once in the American navy. Much of his church is navally themed.) The receptionist wears a badge on her chest: "What Are You Doing For the Next Billion Years?" Soon after my arrival, Peter Mansell, the public relations officer, takes me into a conference room. We sit drinking coffee, with his colleague Margaret. Seventeen years after coming across one of Mr Hubbard's books in a vegetable market, Mr Mansell is "clear" - which, in the language of the church, means that he is some way along the path to eternal life. But there is still a long way to go. The ultimate achievement in Mr Hubbard's church is to become an "operating thetan". Mr Mansell has not started that journey. Mr Mansell says he recalls some of his past lives - an important precursor to eternal self-knowledge for a Scientologist. "Yeah, I remembered a moment from the Spanish Inquisition," he says. "I was being tortured, basically. I thought I must have seen this on a movie. But by the time I had finished describing it, I knew that it was real. It was enjoyable. I was laughing all the time I was talking about it." "But who were you?" "I was the person accused of being heretic. You know," he says thoughtfully, "I don't remember the language they were speaking. I was describing it in English. He died in the end." "Who died? You died?" "I guess I was exhausted. I don't know what the autopsy was. Torture, being beaten, exhausted." Kathleen Wilson then enters. She is quite unlike the others, much less comfortable in her uniform. She speaks with a broad accent. She was brought up in Cleveland. Was she brainwashed? "The verdict?" she says. "I was outraged. I just listened to it, cringing. It was false information. I'm not brainwashed." Her main anger is reserved for her mother, who appeared at the trial, much to Kathleen's annoyance. She seems to have played a role in Kathleen's journey into the church. "I tried to get along with her - but everything I did she would criticise. We had this big piano. I tried to learn. All she said was: 'You're doing it all wrong.' " Her father, a bricklayer, had left home when she was 11. "She used to control everything - the clothes, everything. Even my money. But everybody has to have something. "I didn't want to argue. I told her I would move. I went when I was 19. I went with my friend, Lorna. I packed a suitcase and went to Bognor Regis. We rented a room in a house." It was Lorna's boyfriend, Stephen, who later tried to remove her. Briefly, the three of them had shared a house. The friends eventually went their different ways and Kathleen went to Chichester, where she found work as a sales assistant in a shoe shop. "In the shoe shop, I was doing the same thing - day in, day out," Kathleen says. "I wasn't happy with the job. I wanted to do more in life." She came across Scientology by accident. "There used to be somebody giving out leaflets on the street and I saw one of them and it said: 'We only use 10 per cent of our mental potential.' They were Scientologists. I sent it off and I got the book. I then went in to the office for a personality test. There's a graph and it tells you parts you need to improve. It said I was shy." A year later, she moved to Saint Hill to work full time for the cult. She had finally found a place in which she seemed to fit. "They were helping people. I wanted to take the challenge on and lots of opportunities. There were chances to travel and they told me I could study art and design - which is always what I wanted to do." She pauses. "I mean I haven't actually done art and design yet, and I haven't travelled but you could do it." Like the 250 others who work here, she receives pounds 33 per week. Food and uniforms are free. Kathleen is always smiling. She has shining eyes. She seems happy, if a little withdrawn when it comes to talking about herself. There is an unnerving breezy, cheery evenness about the way she talks, even about the visit from Stephen three years ago. That was the last time she saw anyone from her old life, until the trial. "It's horrible not having your family," she says, still smiling. "I just want them to accept what I'm doing." Her mother visited the castle one Christmas. The visit was not a success. "She said she thought it was all right but she was still acting strange and wanted me to go home," Kathleen recalls. This was the real surprise of the trial for Kathleen. After years of silence, her mother travelled unexpectedly to the courtroom to follow the proceedings. "I was shocked," Kathleen says. "I looked twice. I just wanted to talk to her. She said: 'Why haven't you come home?' I kept saying you'll put me in an institution. She kept denying it." Her mother says that when she arrived at the court, her daughter was surrounded by members of the sect. "They said she didn't dare come home because she was frightened she would be put in an institution - as if I would do such a thing to my only child. Besides, she is already in an institution, as far as I'm concerned - being brainwashed." I am taken on a tour of the site, to the Great Hall adorned with its life-size portrait of Mr Hubbard, in a tuxedo, standing with his palm spread on a waist-high globe of the world. On the other side of the castle are two long corridors which house the "audit" rooms - small cubicles in which Scientologists make their equivalent of confession. In each room is a small machine which looks like a video games console, except that it has a dial instead of a TV screen. This is the "e-meter". It is supposed to measure emotions. The subject holds a metal cylinder in each hand that is wired to the machine. Hubbard borrowed the idea from the old lie detectors. Science suggests that the machine measures moisture levels on the palms - the idea being that you sweat when you lie. They say it measures tiny electrical charges generated by thoughts themselves. After a trip around the nearby Hubbard Mansion, where the great founder lived, I ask Kathy if she will ever go home. "My mother won't accept what I'm doing," she replies. "She thinks I'm being kept prisoner. I miss her. I don't like not being able to speak to her or see her." Then I ask how she is getting on in Scientology. She says she is a slow learner. She has been here three years and should have been some way along the route to eternal life. But she is not. Margaret says she has not yet been allowed to take part in what they call the "Purification Rundown", during which the student eats vast quantities of vitamins and spends long periods in a sauna. Margaret says it cleanses the body so that the mind can study. "I take a little longer than the others," says Kathleen. "What does Scientology mean for you?" I ask. "It means knowing how to know, and you learn different things in life. There are courses for artists and business people and students. It improves different parts of your life." "Have you remembered any of your past lives?" I ask. "No," she says. "Not yet."