I find it interesting that the proprietors of the soon-to-open Narconon "rehab" center disavow connection to the Church of Scientology. This is a flat lie. Narconon is a well-known front group for the cult.

Further, the techniques used are dubious at best and dangerous quackery at worst. Their purported "detoxification" process is unproven medical nonsense. Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop had this to say:

"It's dangerous. I don't think L. Ron Hubbard has credibility in the scientific world. The author's suggestions about detoxification can be detrimental to your health. "

Here is an excerpt from a Detroit News article dated Feb. 11 1980 (source URL: http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/narconon/timeline.html):

'Michigan Corrections Dept. psychologist John Hand calls Narconon "so misleading as to be termed a 'con'. " Hand says, "They are phony, a front for the Church of Scientology. We found out in Michigan that most of the money that we were paying Narconon was laundered back into the Church of Scientology."

In the wake of the revelations, a 1980 prison study concludes that "graduates of the Narconon program do not do as well as our [prison] population in general."

Funding for the program is terminated.'

More reading can be had at www.xenu.net and www.crackpots.org. Michigan's prison system found early on they didn't need Narconon, and Battle Creek doesn't need it either. Reputable organizations exist that are more than adequate; why trust an addicted loved one's health and safety to the hands of a criminally-convicted cult?

Todd A. Phipps

Battle Creek

-- Todd A. Phipps and his silly dog Obie + Honey
http://www.afterburnerpro.com * http://theatreorgans.com/b3nut

From: jimdbb@aol.com (JimDBB)
Date: 20 Jul 2002 05:05:54 GMT
Subject: Letter to the Editor Battle Creek Enquirer
Message-ID: <20020720010554.07481.00001516@mb-bk.aol.com>

The Battle Creek Enquirer

To the editor:

I do not live in your community but I read your excellent paper via the internet. I was disturbed to learn that a Narconon Center is opening in your community. (July 19)

The director of the Center was quite brazen in denying that Narconon had anything to do with Scientology. I am a former Scientology member and I will tell you from personal experience that Narconon is Scientology. Narconon is a bogus drug rehab that is not based on any credible medical science but is based on the lunatic doctrines of L. Ron Hubbard. Two dentists in chicago recently suffered permanent liver damage from Narconon procedures and lost their health insurane coverage.

The Church of Scientology uses Narconon as a front group to recruit new memebers. The same hypnotic methodology that is used to indoctrinate members is used on Narconon clients.

The internet is a good source for truthful information on Scientology and Narconon. Go to www.lermanet.com

James Beebe

From: Michael Reuss <michaelreuss@attbi.com>
Subject: Letter J. Vander Meer of the Battle Creek Enquirer
Message-ID: <authju8j1g1nq7s7nlbgdd7o0f9ur5a3jh@4ax.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 2002 06:24:11 GMT

Here is a letter I wrote to the author of an article on a new Narconon facility currently setting up shop in Battle Creek, Michigan.

--------------

Dear Mr. Vander Meer,

I just read your article about the opening of a new Narconon facility in Battle Creek, found at:

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/news/stories/20020719/topstories/253344.html

In the text of your article, I read a statement from the new center's owner, Kate Wickstom, who said "We're a secular program," she said, emphasizing the program is not affiliated with the Church of Scientology."

In fact, that statement is a bald-faced lie.Narconon has long been known to be a "front" group for the Church of Scientology. The allegedly secular ritual which initiates a Narconon client's drug rehabilitation is the exact same ritual which many Scientologists undergo as their initiation into the Church of Scientology proper.The ritual is called the Purification Rundown, and it's a dangerous bit of medical quackery involving the infesting of dangerous doses of the B-vitamin Niacin, dangerously long hours of sweating in a sauna, and fasting.

People with diabetes and other health problems have been permanently blinded by doing this ritual. Others have suffered liver damage. And for all that risk, Narconon doesn't appear to be a very effective drug treatment program, anyway. But getting the honest story about that from the Narconon supporters is akin to asking a propagandist for some facts. And with Narconon, the few people who actually are helped off drugs, risk ending up addicted to a fairly nasty, high-control cult instead.

As you come to better understand the Church of Scientology, you'll start to understand how they direct the lives of their members, how they set themselves apart from the whole of society, and hypnotize themselves to believe in their elite status. You'll learn that they actually train in how to spin and lie about themselves and their goals to the general public, whom they learn to despise as inferior beings. Scientologists learn to call non-Scientologists "Wogs" and "raw meat." Scientologists like Ms. Wickstrom rarely speak honestly about these issues, or about Scientology's true intentions in the political arena, which are almost invariably concerned with expansion into new areas, and getting more people into Scientology.

Whatever Ms. Wickstrom might claim, the primary goal of Narconon, and likely Ms. Wickstrom herself, is to serve the interests of the Church of Scientology, and to get people started on Scientology's mental conditioning programs.

I hope you will help your readers to better understand this manipulative, unethical, and militaristic cult which is now setting up shop in your home town. I ask you to please be skeptical when dealing with the public statements of Scientologists. Don't take Scientology's self-serving, and often wonderful sounding claims at face value.

But I also hope you will be forewarned. Journalists who publish stories of which Scientology does not approve, often find themselves the victims of coercive harassment. For more information about this, search the Web for stories about Scientology's lawsuit against Time Magazine and one of it's writers, Mr. Richard Behar. For a truly horrifying glimpse at the very worst of Scientology, search the web for the name "Paulette Cooper" an author who wrote a book called "The Scandal of Scientology." For her troubles, she was treated criminally and dispicably by.the Church of Scientology for about 15 years.

Also, for a happier perspective from one journalist, for whom Narconon's attempts to start a new facility in Bowden, Georgia, became a professional interest, I would recommend you contact Mr.J. Pilkonis, who is with "The Carroll Star-News." The phone number of the Carroll Star-News is 770-214-9900.

Thanks for your attention. Feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss any of these matters in more depth. My E-mail address is ....

Respectfully,
Michael Reuss

Michael Reuss Honorary Kid