8/15/80 St petersburg Times

Tampa On Scientology

Editor: I was in Scientology for 12 years. Now I face being jailed because I am talking to the public about the real story of Scientology --- that it involves hypnosis, brainwashing, and satanism. All because I am trying to prevent what happened to me from happening to other people.

It may seem by my violations of the court order not to speak publicly about Scientology that I have no respect for the law. Such is not the case. In fact at one point I think I had more faith in the law than most.

I came to Florida in 1981 to sue the Scientologists because I knew that if the facts in my case were presented to a jury in a court of law, the total outrageousness of Scientology's conduct would become apparent. I trusted totally in that jury and in the legal system to judge my case. Instead, I never did get my jury trial, and in 1986 I made a settlement with the -Scientologists that I regret.

So, it is true that in speaking out against Scientology that I am violating a federal court order. I would like to make an analogy which explains why I am doing this:

If you were on a beach, and you saw out at sea a boat with hundreds of people on it, and the boat was sinking, you would naturally want to run for help. But suppose there was a law against running on the beach?

Any sane person would run for help, for the fact is that in some few cases morality can override the law.

I believe the Scientologists to be psychological hostages and under the influence of hypnosis, although they themselves do not perceive this to be so, any more than I did while I was in Scientology. I became aware of the fact only after I snapped outof the hypnosis a year and a half after I left Scientology and realized what had happened to me.

I believe that Scientology is an evil organization involving among other things satanism, brainwashing, slave labor, and physical and emotional abuse. I believe that the only moral thing for me to do is to try to expose this situation to the public.

What can you do about Scientology? Very simple. Become informed. Educate and protect your children. I urge you to learn the truth about this cult.

Margery Wakefield

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