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.

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