A 1970 French Government police agency investigation into Sclentology found;

"This sect, under the pretext of freeing humans' is nothing in reality it a vast enterprise to extract the maximum amount of money from its adepts by (use of) pseudo-scientific theories" and that Scientology used "a kind of blackmail against persons who do not wish to continue with this sect".

A Californian Superior Court memorandum of intended decision found that from evidence given to that court in 1984, similar conclusions to the french statement could be drawn in the US.

Ms Toby Plevin, a Los Angeles attorney involved in numerous actions against Scientology, argues that the bedrock of Scientology practice is to' create !n all believers a massive unity of mind when they have come to itt on the expectation that their individual lives will improve.

Psychiatrists, too, have exercised extreme defensiveness against Scientology.

In 1988, an article published In the Sydney Morning Herald' showed just how acute tensions remained between Scientology and Psychiatry. It reported that when a Sydney psychiatrist disturbed at the treatment of patients at Chelmsford wrote to one of the world's most eminent psychiatrists expressing his concerns in 1981, he was urged not to expose deep-sleep therapy at Chelmsford.

Sir Martin Roth, at that time the Professor of Psychiatry at Cambridge University, replied: "The inhumanity and cruelty to which patients (at Chelmsford) appear to have been subjected is quite unique in my experience and the Scientologists and other organisations will have obtained ammunition for years or decades to come." He went on to urge that the issue be kept, for the moment, confidential.

While Scientologists around the world have accused psychiatry of goss butchery, the church was itself accused of brainwashing.

MRS Hana Whitfield, an American can ex-Scientologist who worked in the church's higher echelons was a personal aid to Hubbard, and argues that Scientology is Hubbard's own brand of psychotherapy and continues to be practised in the hands of unlicensed people.

"They don't know they are using trance induction techniques. They don't know they are using de-sensitisation techniques (and they are) ignorant of what can go wrong," she said.

In 1989, the California Court of Appeal upheld the finding that a former Scientologist Larry Wollersheim had suffered psychological damage as a result of Scientology practices. A manic depressive, Mr Wollersheim had been physically restrained from leaving the church and threatened with attack if be did leave; forced to continue auditing when be wanted to stop; ordered to leave his family; financially ruined by the church and ordered not to seek professional help as his emotional state crumbled.

The court also found that auditing was conducted in a "coercive atmosphere (the church) created through threats of retribution against those who would leave the organisation". '

In a 1984 case in the Superior Court of California, a Court memorandum of Intended decision said that the record was replete with evidence of Scientology "enemies" being subjected to threats and abuse.

The judge wrote: "In addition to violating and abusing Its own members' civil rights, the organisation over the years with Its "Fair Game" doctrine has harassed and abused those persons not in the church whom it perceives as enemies. The organisation clearly is schizophrenic and paranoid, and this bizarre combination seems to be a reflection of its founder.

Of Hubbard, the court report said: "The evidence portrays a man who has been virtually a pathological liar when !t comes to his history background and achievements. The writings and documents in evidence additionally reflect his egoism, greed, avarice, lust for power, and vindictiveness and aggressiveness against persons perceived by him to be disloyal or hostile."

Church out to even the score

By JO CHANDLER and JACQUI MACD0NALD

A telex sent in Aril 1987 to Scientology's Melbourne Office of Special Affairs from its Australian-New Zealand headquarters tracks the church's defensive strategy in response to an investigation by the former television program 'Willesee'.

The program was looking at a woman's claim that her trip into the Russell Street headquarters had almost cost her $43,000.

The telex spelt out a seven step program for defusing the story. One course of action was to loudly brand the investigation a "set up".

"(The) Church has exposed CIA-style experimentation (sic) in Australia at Chelmsford. Could be they want to get revenge on us by sending in a plant. FBI has been proven to infiltrate the church dozens of times because we were opposed to their mind control activities," the telex says.

"Go on about the fantastic effectiveness of Scientology and the spiritual gains," It advises.

"Have somebody in ministerial garb."

It then suggests courses of action in the church's 'Manual of Justice', "Investigate the reporter, not the show," it says.

Insight bas obtained a copy of the 'Manual of Justice'. It is a disturbing document first issued by the church's late founder, L Ron hubbard, in 1959 and reissued in Australia in 1981.

Buried in the pages of jargon is advice from Hubbard:

"People attack Scientology, I never forget it, always even the score."

On dealing with the media, the manual uses the example of a "bad magazine article", and advises first a request for a retraction Second, hire a private detective of a national-type firm to investigate the writer".

"Get any criminal or communist background the man bas. (Because all subversive activities foolishly use criminals...)."

'It advises that the church threaten litigation , then "use the data yea data you got from the detective...to write the author of the article a very tantalising letter"

"... Just tell him we know something very interesting about him and wouldn't he like to come and talk about it ... He'll sure shudder into silence."

Although the manual is more than 30 years old, the telex indicates that in 1987, the formula it prescribes was still being recommended to deal with the media la Melbourne.

Last July, the British 'Sunday Times' revealed a Scientology "dirty tricks campaign" that also smacks also of the Hubbard formula for dealing with inquiries.

The paper reported that the church bad paid private detectives more than $100,000 to organise a worldwide campaign against one of its reporters, Russel Miller who wrote 'Bare Faced Messiah', an unauthorized biography of L Ron Hubbard.

It claimed that documents revealed that for three years, Miller bad been followed around the world by investigators, spying on him and trying to discredit him by giving false information to police.

-----------(A few paragraphs of the same text above repeats in another article in the same paper with a different headline )-------

Headline: Hubbard's Manual of Justice, or how to avoid dogged reporters

A telex sent to the Melbourne Office of Special Affairs (OSA) from Scientology's Australian/New Zealand headquarters in 1987 tracks the church's defensive strategy in response to an investigation by the former television program Willesee.

The program was investigating a woman's claim that her trip inside the Scientologists' Russell Street headquarters in melbourne almost cost her $43,000.

The telex spelt out a seven step program for defusing the story. One course of action was to loudly brand the investigation a "set up".

"(The) Church has exposed CIA-style experimentation (sic) in Australia at Chelmsford. Could be they want to get revenge on us by sending in a plant. FBI has been proven to infiltrate the church dozens of times because we were opposed to their mind control activities," the telex says.

"Go on about the fantastic effectiveness of Scientology and the spiritual gains," It advises.

"Have somebody in ministerial garb."

It then suggests courses of action in the church's 'Manual of Justice', "Investigate the reporter, not the show," it says.

Insight bas obtained a copy of the 'Manual of Justice'. It is a disturbing document first issued by the church's late founder, L Ron hubbard, in 1959 and reissued in Australia in 1981.

Buried in the pages of jargon is advice from Hubbard:

"People attack Scientology, I never forget it, always even the score."

On dealing with the media, the manual uses the example of a "bad magazine article", and advises first a request for a retraction Second, hire a private detective of a national-type firm to investigate the writer".

"Get any criminal or communist background the man bas. (Because all subversive activities foolishly use criminals...)."

'It advises that the church threaten litigation , then "use the data yea data you got from the detective...to write the author of the article a very tantalising letter"

"... Just tell him we know something very interesting about him and wouldn't he like to come and talk about it ... He'll sure shudder into silence."

Although the manual is more than 30 years old, the telex indicates that in 1987, the formula it prescribes was still being recommended to deal with the media la Melbourne.

Last July, the British 'Sunday Times' revealed a Scientology "dirty tricks campaign" that also smacks also of the Hubbard formula for dealing with inquiries.

The paper reported that the church bad paid private detectives more than $100,000 to organise a worldwide campaign against one of its reporters, Russel Miller who wrote 'Bare Faced Messiah', an unauthorized biography of L Ron Hubbard.

It claimed that documents revealed that for three years, Miller bad been followed around the world by investigators, spying on him and trying to discredit him by giving false information to police.

Go Back