Dave Touretzky wrote:

> VolunteerMatch.org helps volunteers make contact with charities
> looking for workers. They have several listings for Narconon:
>
> http://www.google.com/search?client=googlet&q=site%3Avolunteermatch.org%20Narconon
>
> In the past, VolunteerMarch.org has delisted certain groups who proved
> not to be legitimate charities.
>
> I don't know what their stance on Narconon is. Perhaps some
> information about Narconon's deceptive practices should be brought
> to their attention. For example: Narconon is run on Hubbard
> management tech; they have the green volumes and "Introduction to
> Scientology Ethics" in their offices, and they use them. Yet this
> religious practice is not disclosed to would-be volunteers. Such
> deceptive advertising would be one reason to de-list them. Another
> reason would be that they promote medically dangerous treatments, and
> charge substantial prices -- $20,000 cash up front.
>
> Any volunteers want to educate VolunteerMarch?
>
> -- Dave Touretzky: "It's a labor of love."
> http://Stop-Narconon.org http://Narconon-Exposed.org

Yeah, okay...

Hi,

I've looked at your matches here in San Diego, and you do list groups I have volunteered with in the past. I've participated with the Audubon Society, their beach clean up days and Least Tern habitat renewal. The entire list of opportunities here appears to be above board and legitimate.

But, there are groups which masquerade as legitimate, when they're real purpose is to covertly recruit new members. Narconon is one such group. I expect you need to take some responsibility for sending unwary, well-meaning people into the grip of the "church" of Scientology.

I will try to be brief here. Narconon is a front group for the Scientology organization. Yes, they will tell you there is no association, that Narconon's program is "based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard," but that is a flat out falsehood. You may be surprised to learn that this group indulges in blatant lies, but they depend upon people's trust that a seemingly professional "drug rehab" group and church would not lie!

For years, the Scientology organization put 'help wanted' ads in the newspaper, and had a help wanted sign in their window. This attracted, again, the unwary, the naive, people desperate for a job. Once "hired," they were subjected to low pay, long hours, and free mental processing, which often derails people's lives for years. I have a friend who was in Scientology for thirty years and, when she left, she lost everything. Scientology, as Germany and France rightly recognize, is a destructive, assimilative cult. One of the things such cults do is lie in order to recruit. After I complained to the California Equal Employment board, the 'help wanted' sign was changed to reflect specifically Scientology related job offerings, so that passersby would not be as likely to respond.

About Narconon, it is a fraudulent program with potentially dangerous practices. The sheer volume of self-promotional websites is staggering, and yet, people (like your organization, obviously) fail to look any further to determine if they're legitimate or not.

Had your people done any research, they would have found several websites which expose this deceptive group as another recruitment tentacle of the "church" of Scientology. http://stop-narconon.org http://narconon-exposed.org

These are well-documented sites which deconstruct the lies about Narconon being independent of Scientology. In fact, you will find the corporate chart outlining Narconon's relationship to Scientology. It falls under the Association for Better Living and Education (A.B.L.E.) umbrella, which position it shares with several other front groups.

Besides utilizing the Purification Rundown, a sauna and vitamin regimen which has been discarded as dangerous nonsense by more than one medical reviewer, including former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, Narconon also subjects clients to courses identical to those offered within Scientology's "religious" envelope.

For example, the following are Scientology courses, with the word 'Narconon' added;

Therapeutic TRs Course
The Narconon New Life Detoxification Procedure (purif)
Learning Improvement Course
The Narconon Communications and Perception Course
The Narconon Ups and Downs in Life Course
The Narconon Personal Values and Integrity Course
The Narconon Changing Conditions in Life Course

On the Narconon Exposed website, you can read the series of articles written by Nanette Asimov of the San Francisco Chronicle, outlining the expulsion of Narconon's educational outreach from California public schools. Thanks to this excellent series of articles, Hawaii and the city of Boston moved to expell the program from their schools as well.

The theories behind Narconon's program are junk science, misleading, and flat-out confabulation. You are supporting the application of these theories in practice. This is wrong.

It is wrong to send people to volunteer at a place where they will almost certainly be recruited into a cult. It's even worse to do this to unsuspecting, well-meaning people who want to help others. This is one way Scientology ropes people in, by convincing them they will be 'helping,' by spreading the word of L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer and college dropout.

Narconon's promotional materials are very convincing. There is a story behind that "70% success rate," however, and it's well documented in Narconon-Exposed. Long story short, a study of under 20 people going through the Narconon program was made. They found that, by including the people who failed to complete the program, they had only a 2% success rate. By eliminating them from the data, it boosted up to 70%.

They lie. It's what they do, and why they succeed in hornswoggling organizations like yours into treating them as if they're legitimate. Take a little time to look at the two websites I listed here. Then go over to Scientology's Narconon pages, and see what they're not telling you.

--
--Bar Baba
Chaplain,ARSCC
xenubarb@netscape.net

"Imagine a church so dangerous, you must sign a release form before you can receive its "spiritual assistance." This assistance might involve holding you against your will for an indefinite period, isolating you from friends and family, and denying you access to appropriate medical care. You will of course be billed for this treatment - assuming you survive it. If not, the release form absolves your caretakers of all responsibility for your suffering and death.

Welcome to the Church of Scientology."

--Dr. Dave Touretzky Peter Alexander