ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES Goes Inside Scientology

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES
Inside Scientology
Aired May 14, 2007 - 22:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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Up next on 360: our in-depth look at Scientology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): He started out investigating Scientologists. He says the Scientologists ended up investigating him.

TOMMY DAVIS, SPOKESMAN, CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY: I would just like to -- and -- and I hope somebody is shooting this. OK. Good.

JOHN SWEENEY, BBC REPORTER: Rather, there's actually -- to be fair, there's...

TOMMY DAVIS: There's...

(CROSSTALK) SWEENEY: ... there's one camera from the BBC and one camera from your...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: What this reporter says he found out about how Scientology operates and how it really got under his skin.

SWEENEY: You were not there at the beginning of that interview! You were not there!

COOPER: Ahead on 360.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: For you to repeatedly refer to my faith in those terms is so derogatory, so offensive and so bigoted. And the reason you keep repeating it is because you wanted to get a reaction like you're getting right now. Well, buddy, you got it, right here, right now. I'm angry, real angry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis during an interview with John Sweeney.

Davis may have been angry, but the real fireworks, a full-fledged meltdown, actually came later in the interview. And it was the reporter, not the Scientologist, who blew a fuse. Now he's become a big part of the story, something reporters are never supposed to do.

Here's how it all began with CNN's Randi Kaye.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN SWEENEY, BBC REPORTER: Don't (INAUDIBLE)

TOMMY DAVIS, SPOKESMAN, CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY: No, I'm not stopping here.

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: You listen to me for a second.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're about to see is a reporter crack. John Sweeney had been investigating the Church of Scientology for the BBC. He says he was chased by sinister strangers and spied on at his own wedding.

Just before he lost it, Sweeney attended an Industry of Death exhibition. Members of the church showed disturbing video and blamed the Holocaust on psychiatry. SWEENEY: No, Tommy, you...

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime!

SWEENEY: No. Listen to me! You were not there at the beginning of that interview!

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime! It's a crime!

KAYE: Sweeney's documentary "Scientology and Me" included the clips of his shouting match with Scientologist Tom Davis.

SWEENEY: Do you understand?

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime against humanity.

SWEENEY: Do you understand?

KAYE: Clips of Sweeney's meltdown were posted on YouTube. Sweeney did not want to be interviewed tonight, but released a statement on the BBC's Web site: "Scientology has prepared an attack video. Scientologists are expected to release 100,000 copies of it. Why?"

BRUCE HINES, FORMER SCIENTOLOGIST: To try to get him to back off and possibly to get the BBC to back off. And, secondly, it's just to discredit the individual John Sweeney. He's the one doing this documentary on Scientology. And, if they can show that he is not credible, they will do that.

KAYE: Former Scientologist Bruce Hines, who left the church after 30 years, says it's common practice for Scientologists to keep their on cameras rolling on reporters.

MIKE RINDER, DIRECTOR, CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL: John Sweeney would have denied that anything that he had done happened. That would have all ended up on the cutting room floor. Nobody would have ever seen it.

DAVIS: I would just like to -- and -- and I hope somebody is shooting this. OK. Good.

SWEENEY: Rather, there's actually -- to be fair, there's...

DAVIS: There's...

(CROSSTALK)

SWEENEY: ... there's one camera from the BBC and one camera from your...

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: No, you listen to me for a second. You have...

SWEENEY: Some people say it's a cult. DAVIS: ... no right whatsoever to say what and what isn't a religion. The Constitution of the United States of America guarantees one's right to practice and believe freely in this country. And the definition of religion is very clear. And it's not defined by John Sweeney.

KAYE: Here, Sweeney had just suggested to Davis, critics believe Scientology is a cult.

SWEENEY: Now, my friend, it is your turn to listen to...

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: Goodbye.

SWEENEY: No. It is your turn to listen to me.

I'm a British subject, not an American citizen. And, in my country, we have a freedom of speech.

KAYE (on camera): In his documentary, Sweeney apologizes for losing control. He says he was wrong, that he let him team down, lost his voice, but not his mind.

In a separate video being shown on YouTube, he apologized to Tom Davis and the Church of Scientology.

SWEENEY: You were interrupting me or preventing me from saying my points.

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: You interrupted me first. But that's immaterial.

SWEENEY: And I wanted to demonstrate to you that, actually, my voice is louder than yours. But I did it in a way which I -- I regret. And I apologize to the Church of Scientology.

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE (voice-over): None of this surprises former Scientologist Bruce Hines, who says specific steps are taken to respond to reporters.

HINES: These give quite a lot of information about what to do about what they call black propaganda. And black propaganda, in their view, is any sort of negative -- negative publicity.

KAYE: Negative publicity is nothing new for the Church of Scientology. But, this time, it may have successfully turned the tables, exposing a journalist, a critic, at his worst, faster than he could apologize.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, the BBC reporter, John Sweeney, says the church is doing what it always does, playing hardball with journalists who try to investigate the organization.

Mike Rinder is director of the Church of Scientology International. He sees it differently.

In a CNN exclusive interview, I talked with him earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Mike, I want to play a clip from this documentary, the reporter John Sweeney clearly losing his cool while talking with a Scientologist official. Let's take a look at that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: No, I'm not stopping here.

SWEENEY: No. No.

DAVIS: You listen to me for a second. You're accusing my members of my religion of engaging in brainwashing.

SWEENEY: No, Tommy, you...

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime!

SWEENEY: No. Listen to me!

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime! It's a crime!

SWEENEY: You were not there at the beginning of that interview!

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime.

SWEENEY: You were not there!

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime.

SWEENEY: You did not hear or record all of the interview! Do you understand?

(CROSSTALK)

DAVIS: Brainwashing is a crime against humanity.

SWEENEY: Do you understand? You are quoting the second half of the interview, not the first half!

DAVIS: You are accusing my organization of engaging in a crime.

(CROSSTALK)

SWEENEY: You cannot assert what you're saying. Now, you listen to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He's apologized. He said, clearly, that was not his finest moment. The clip was released on YouTube. Some say that the church was behind the release of it to try to discredit this reporter in advance of his critical report on Scientology.

To your knowledge, did the church release it?

RINDER: No, Anderson. I mean, I'm not sure how that got on to YouTube. There were copies of that clip that were around.

I had sent various copies to the BBC, in fact, when I came over here to see them about the -- the behavior of John Sweeney in putting together this program. So, I'm not really sure how it ended up...

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: You distributed 100,000 DVDs containing that clip, though. Why did you do that?

RINDER: We did it because we documented what happened in the whole series of events that had led up to John Sweeney doing this program.

When he first contacted us, Anderson, he asked us and said he would like to do an update program on Scientology, a 20-year update. In fact, Panorama had done a program 20 years ago that was based on a lawsuit at that time that was thrown out, with a judge who said that it was the most egregious violation of court orders he had ever seen. And that program got things totally wrong.

Panorama came back and said, we would like to do another program.

We said, sure.

We -- look, we understand that there's a lot of people that don't understand what Scientology is, and have misunderstandings. And we recognize we have a responsibility to make the information available. So, we told him, look, we will open our doors to you. You can have very, very broad access.

You can see anything you want. We will take you around to all our buildings. We will give you broad access. He refused that access. In fact, he went to Clearwater, where our spiritual headquarter is. And we have a huge facility there. And he didn't set foot inside the church, even though we were there to offer to take him in and open the doors for him and introduce him to people, et cetera.

At that point, we realized that we had a reporter on our hands who was not interested in really telling the story about what Scientology is, but he had a preconceived idea. He wanted to do a story that Scientology has closed doors. That wasn't the case at all.

We were there, waiting to let him in, waiting to make everything available to him. And he absolutely refused.

(CROSSTALK)

RINDER: So, at that point, we decided we will document what happens.

And we have now produced a DVD, which we are distributing, which shows what goes on behind the scenes in a program that's put together by someone like John Sweeney.

COOPER: What did end up in this program, though, is that this reporter clearly shows multiple people following him in cars and on foot.

He says those are members of the Church of Scientology or people affiliated with the church. It does seem kind of ominous and creepy.

Do you have people who follow reporters? I mean, were those people in -- in the documentary in the cars -- and there was a gentleman who repeatedly showed up every day while he was eating breakfast and at his hotel. Were they people following him?

RINDER: No, they weren't, Anderson. I mean, he's got a shot in that program that aired tonight...

COOPER: So, you don't have people following anybody?

RINDER: No, we don't.

COOPER: If a reporter is doing a story on you -- you -- you didn't send anybody out to follow this man?

RINDER: No. No, we did not, Anderson.

In fact, it was very -- we were very up front with him. We said, we're going to have our cameras here. We're going to take footage of you putting together this program.

COOPER: Who were...

RINDER: That was it.

COOPER: Who do you think those people were, though, who were following him? I mean, clearly, it seemed like -- I mean, if he's telling the truth, people were following him.

RINDER: I don't think he was telling the truth, Anderson.

I think that that was someone who was in a car in Los Angeles. I'm surprised that he and a cameraman could get out and pull up to a car in a stop sign or a stoplight in Los Angeles, and try and shoot inside a car.

He's lucky -- if he was -- it was in some areas of Los Angeles, he's lucky that he got away with his life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, coming up: another view from a former Scientologist who left the church after more than 20 years. Also, we will go in search of a sacred vault from the air -- when 360 continues.

And we will have more of our interview with Mr. Rinder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't me. You were not there at the beginning of the interview! You were not there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brain (ph), what's a crime?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We pick up now where we left off before the break, the latest controversy to hit the Church of Scientology. A BBC reporter -- you just saw him there -- losing his cool during an interview while the church's cameras were rolling.

The tape showing his melt-down ended up on YouTube. And now the reporter's accusing Scientology of playing hardball to try to discredit him to his investigation of the church will come under suspicion. The BBC reporter says he was followed as part of a church campaign against him.

That's where we pick up my interview with Mike Rinder, director of the Church of Scientology International.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: It is well known, though, that certainly, in the journalism community, that if you do a story on the Church of Scientology, you are going to be hearing from attorneys, that you -- the church has a reputation of being very aggressive in going after or in protecting their public relations. Is that fair? Is that true?

RINDER: I don't think that's a fair statement, Anderson. I think that what happens is that there are stories that get circulated or that there are people who are the bad eggs in the -- bad egg reporters like John Sweeney, and that, then, becomes blown up.

Certainly, when someone shows up and he refuses access, and he is abusive and offensive to the people that he interviews, we're not just going to stand around and take it.

We, that's why we took the footage of him, so that we would have it documented, because I know what would have happened, Anderson. If we had not taken that footage, John Sweeney would have denied that anything that he had done happened. That would have all ended up on the cutting room floor. Nobody would have ever seen it. COOPER: "The L.A. Times" cites the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard's, "Manual of Justice", as saying, and I quote, "The purpose of the lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win. If attacked on some vulnerable point by anyone or anything or any organization, always find or manufacture enough threat against them to cause them to sue for peace. Don't ever defend. Always attack."

A, is that an accurate quote? And if so, it does seem to imply a certain aggression and -- or willingness to litigate.

RINDER: Well, first of all, that is an accurate quote. It is taken out of context. It is not saying anything about you must litigate. It's talking about the subject of litigation as a subject.

But we're not suing the media. We're not -- we're not sitting here saying that we're going to be suing or doing anything of the sort. We documented what happened, so people can see for themselves and make up their own mind. That's the purpose of doing that video.

COOPER: According to a 1991 "TIME" magazine article, quote -- and I'm quoting from the article, "Eleven top scientologists including Hubbard's wife, were sent to prison in the early 1980s for infiltrating, burglarizing, wiretapping more than 100 private and government agencies in attempts to block their investigations."

A, is that true? And, B -- well, is that true? Because I mean, the critics of your organization say that you guys have a history of this, that whether this John Sweeney was a bad reporter or not, this is part of a pattern, that "TIME" magazine article certainly intimating that.

RINDER: Anderson, the history of the church is a long history of the church. And certainly, there are things that have happened. Those people that were involved in those activities back then, they were thrown out by the church. They were dismissed from the church. That's ancient history.

COOPER: That "TIME" magazine article, in 1991, which was a cover story, the writer of that article says, even in the course of his writing and his assignment, that he was -- he said illegally investigated by affiliates of the Church of Scientology. He was contacted numerous times by attorneys.

And, in fact, "TIME" magazine, Time Warner, the parent company, which also owns CNN, was sued. And the case was finally thrown out at multiple levels. I think it went up until 1997 or 1998.

So I just want to again ask you, isn't the church very aggressive in litigating, still, to this day?

RINDER: No, that's absolutely not the case, Anderson. You're talking about something in 1991. We're in 2007.

COOPER: But the lawsuit went up, I think, until 1998.

RINDER: That was the appeals. COOPER: All of which were thrown out.

RINDER: That's the appeals, Anderson. Yes. Ultimately -- ultimately, that's correct. But you're talking about something in 1991. We're in 2007. We are seeking to move forward.

COOPER: Mike, we appreciate your perspective and appreciate you coming on the program again. Thank you very much.

RINDER: OK, Anderson, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Coming up a former scientologist insider speaks out. We'll hear from him shortly.

Plus, a look at a scientology center that some says aerial markings for future alien contact. A mystery about what it really means. We'll try to find out.

Also tonight, a toddler, a gun and a gun license? How did that happen? What were they thinking, when 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tomorrow on 360, we're going to take you inside Africa. It's a continent often ignored and misunderstood, a place of hardship and hope. I sat down with CNN's Jeff Koinange, who covers Africa for us. It's an in-depth look at a continent we cover too infrequently.

This is information we think the world needs to know. Here's part of our talk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Even in South Africa, a very well-developed country, many government officials there claim HIV does not result in AIDS, that these deaths are not being caused by HIV infection.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And what it does, especially in the less educated areas of South Africa, what it does is people think, "Wow, the officials say we can't get AIDS. Or AIDS -- HIV doesn't cause AIDS." So they go about doing what it is they do, and the numbers blow up.

So, it starts at the top. If the top cannot address this issue or acknowledge, then it all filters down. And that's why you have that situation in South Africa, one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS on the continent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: We'll have more from CNN's Jeff Koinange tomorrow night. Don't miss "Africa: Dispatches from the Edge", a 360 special.

We're looking at scientology tonight. It isn't the first time the controversial church has been in the news on or on our broadcast.

In the fall of 2005, two gigantic circles etched into the desert in New Mexico made headlines. The markings looked like crop circles and led straight to the Church of Scientology.

CNN's Gary Tuchman investigated, but the church in this story didn't cooperate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The land is rugged on the south end of the Rocky Mountain range. A panoramic view of northeastern New Mexico under clear skies, which makes it easier to see an unusual sight.

(on camera) This is it.

(voice-over) Two huge interlocking circles, markings on the desert soil that cannot be seen from the ground but can be seen from the heavens.

MICHAEL PATTINSON, FORMER SCIENTOLOGY MEMBER: I think they're not designed to be seen by human beings but by alien beings.

TUCHMAN: Michael Pattinson says he was a member of the Church of Scientology for 23 years. Now he's a disgruntled ex-member who says the circles are sign posts for reincarnated scientologists who come from outer space.

PATTINSON: They are markings to show the location of one of the vaults which scientology has prepared to safeguard the technology of L. Ron Hubbard.

TUCHMAN: Hubbard, who died in 1986, was a science fiction writer who started the Church of Scientology.

And indeed, next to the circles on the private runway is a building with a vault built into the mountain. Current scientologists do say archives are held in the vaults, just as other religions safeguard their sacred texts. They say the vault is overseen by a scientology corporation called the Church of Spiritual Technology.

(on camera) Church of Scientology officials denied CNN's request for a tour of the compound. They say the markings are simply a logo for the Church of Spiritual Technology and that this is a non-story.

But from what we've experienced, church officials are extremely sensitive about this non-story.

(voice-over) A pilot we hired to fly us over the compound backed out, saying he got a call from scientologists asking him not to go with us. Other pilots would not fly us, because they didn't want to make the scientologists angry. But we did finally get a pilot.

(on camera) What do the circles look like to you from here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They look like a branding symbol a rancher might have put out there.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The closest town to the desert etchings is Las Vegas, New Mexico. The county sheriff there is one of few non- scientologists who have visited the compound. Chris Najar did so just last month for the first time.

SHERIFF CHRIS NAJAR, SAN MIGUEL COUNTY, NEW MEXICO: Every time an incident happened, for instance, Waco, or the World Trade Center incident, every time something like this happens, there seems to be rumblings that it's a training ground for militia or a terrorist training ground, that kind of thing. So they have been inviting me out there so we can go out and try to dispel those rumors.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Have you dispelled those rumors?

NAJAR: Well, we went out there. I didn't see anything of the sort.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): The sheriff says the scientologists told him this is where L. Ron Hubbard writings, saved on titanium plates, will be preserved for thousands of years. He says many people were there, lots of farm animals and a large cache of food supplies.

(on camera) Did it strike you as a place for survivalists?

NAJAR: Quite possibly. I definitely want to go there if it hits the fan.

TUCHMAN: If it hits the fan.

(voice-over) the sheriff says the notion of spacecraft returning was not discussed with him, but former members say that's part of scientology teachings.

PATTINSON: I know it sounds very, very bizarre, but this is where reality is stranger than fiction.

TUCHMAN: So are the circles a landing pad for extraterrestrial vehicles? The church is not commenting to us.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Las Vegas, New Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, up next, you heard from a scientologist spokesman. We'll hear from another former scientologist, who was a member for 30 years. What does he think of the new video of the BBC reporter yelling at a Church of Scientology representative? And about the church's methods in dealing with critics.

Plus, tonight, a bizarre story. A gun-toting 10-month-old, not exactly. He's been issued a permit. What were they thinking, when 360 continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I'm not stopping here. You listen to me for a second. You're accusing members of my religion of engaging in brainwashing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, shut up. No, listen to me!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: John Sweeney, reporter with the BBC, on the right, losing his cool with a scientology official.

The church is back in the news because of, well, really, this video showing a BBC reporter fighting with a scientologist, or arguing. The reporter, who was making a documentary about scientology, says the church is playing hardball.

Church officials say they are not.

Bruce Hines was a scientologist for more than 30 years. He reached the church's upper level before leaving. He joins me now.

Bruce, first of all, we just had on Mike Rinder, a spokesman for Scientology International, who said that the church is trying to become more open, trying to give more access to reporters, that maybe there was secrecy in the past, but increasingly, they're being open and honest. Do you think that's true?

BRUCE HINES, FORMER SCIENTOLOGIST: That may be. They still are going to try to control any negative publicity that they -- that some reporter might do. But it could be that they're trying to show certain aspects of the church.

COOPER: There are some who accuse the church of trying to intimidate and discredit people, in particular, reporters, famously this "TIME" magazine reporter back in 1991 said that, after he wrote an article, a cover story, there was various investigations done on him.

Sweeney say his was followed. The Church of Scientology says, pointblank, they didn't follow John Sweeney. Do you believe they follow people?

HINES: I definitely think they do. And with due respect to Mr. Rinder, I don't think he was being truthful about that. I know they do hire private investigators, and I know that they do follow people.

COOPER: You say you know that. How?

HINES: When I worked in the church, I had dealings with certain people within the Office of Special Affairs, and Mike Rinder was the head of that. I assume he still is. And they have a legal branch. They have a public relations branch, and they have an intelligence branch. And that's part of the activities that they would do.

COOPER: I mean, not many churches have intelligence branches. I can understand a legal branch, certainly. Why -- what did the intelligence branch do and why would they follow somebody?

HINES: It's all part of the long standing policy that anyone who is critical or attacks the Church of Scientology, they should be attacked back. And that is very clearly, you can read policies from the 1970s, from the 1960s. Anyone who is critical, they have to be discredited or stopped in some way.

COOPER: Why is there secrecy? I mean, I understand you know they have this mythology, I guess, the creation myth, which all religions have. And I guess it involves space aliens or Zenu, and I don't want to -- I don't really know, so I don't want to denigrate it by sort of inaccurately describing it.

But I can understand them wanting to keep that secret because some religions do that. But why is there this secrecy surrounding so much of scientology?

HINES: Well, on the one hand you say there are these upper level scriptures they want to keep secret.

But on the other hand, they do have a covert operations department, and this, the purpose of that is to get information and to plan activities against people who they perceive as enemies.

They feel that their religion, their practice, is the only thing that's going to save the world. And this is laid out in policy by L. Ron Hubbard, and the people like Mike Rinder and Tommy Davis, they feel they're doing the right thing by following these policies.

So anyone they see who could be -- they perceive that could stop their mission, they have to be gotten out of the way, intimidated, anything. There's one policy from about, I think it was the late '50s, I'm not sure, but it's -- referring to a critic or an attacker, Mr. Hubbard said, "If possible, ruin him utterly." And the "ruin him utterly" are Mr. Hubbard's words.

COOPER: You think that is still very much a practice or a belief in the organization?

HINES: Yes, I do, because...

COOPER: You...

HINES: Go ahead.

COOPER: Sorry. You were one of the top managers in the C organization, which I guess would be the upper reaches of scientology. Allegedly, you trained some celebrities like Kirstie Alley, Nicole Kidman.

What is the appeal of Scientology? What was the appeal to you when you were in it? I mean, what good did it do in your life? Because clearly, you stayed in it an awfully long time. It must have had positive benefits for you. And then why did you decide to leave?

HINES: Well, it's interesting. I've asked myself that question many times. When you first encounter scientology, you're presented with certain things. And there are some simple courses. And they make sense. For the most part.

And then, I found myself sort of getting more and more involved and, for some inexplicable reason, and I now consider it some form of mind control, I just took on their mind-set.

And I -- five years ago, I would have -- if I'd seen John Sweeney, I would have thought, you know, this man just is doing some horrible thing, and he has to be gotten out of the way. Now, I think he has every right to report on, you know, as he sees it. He's a journalist.

I left because originally I disagreed with some of the changes that had taken place. These were of a technical nature.

After I left -- because the whole time I was in, I was totally sheltered from the Internet, from television. I didn't get any of the stories, the sort of the negative stories about scientology. And so I've learned more and more as time has bond gone on. And it's been a process for me of kind of unraveling this sort of stuck thinking that I had.

COOPER: Bruce, it's an interesting thing. And I'd like to talk to you more about it at another time. Appreciate you being on the program. Bruce Hines, thank you very much.

HINES: My pleasure. Thank you.

[..] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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__________________________________________________

Many thanks to Cooper Anderson, Bruce Hines, Michael Pattinson & John Sweeney.

I hope the rumors are true, that Mike Rinder left Scientology. It's never too late for a man to redeem himself in the eyes of God. Scientology does not forgive but God does.

~ Mary McConnell

Out_Of_The_Dark & FormerlyFooled

Message to Kate Coe: How You Got the Theresa Duncan Story - Wrong, Again

Ok, I've been away from the Blog regarding Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake but I've not forgotten to update readers as promised. I'm still short on distraction-free time to post more extensively about the infomation I have come across, so this blog piece will have to suffice for the time being.

Just today I had a few minutes and just happened to be browsing some of the blogs when I saw that the infamous Kate Coe, of Mediabistro's Fishbowl LA and the unjournalistic LA Weekly pieces on Duncan and Blake, had actually replied to something I'd written a while back in reply to Anne Thompson's August 7, 2007 blurb: Suicide Watch: Blake and Duncan Undone by Paranoia blurb over at Thompson on Hollywood .

I seized the opportunity to give Coe a piece of my mind, thereby including some of the information I'd initially reserved for the update blog piece. I just could not help myself. I am a firm believer that, when opportunity knocks, one should answer the door. So I did.

Kate Coe replies to the comment left by me, Mary McConnell August 15, 2007 at 05:30 PM

"Mary-- I talked to Father Morales for several hours on more than one occasion. While Theresa and Jeremy were indeed very distressed, Father Morales saw no evidence of anyone following, stalking or harassing them. I quoted two people who went on the record about the accusatory emails and letters that Duncan and Blake had sent them--both got lawyers, neither had any affiliation with COS.I was stalked by members of a cult--Children of God--two years ago, and I'm extremely familiar with what it's like to find random photos of my license plates, my kid's school and my dog posted on a website, as well as threatening letters sent to my workplace.

Further investigation may indeed prove that some of your assertions are correct. But to accuse everyone who has a view of Theresa Duncan that differs from yours does not make them a tool of LRON. "
Posted by: Kate Coe August 17, 2007 at 09:06 PM

And I take her to task in reply to it ( I've corrected a typo or two here and edited missing information from the original in bold) :

"Kate, if you spent 2 hours speaking to Father Frank Morales, then where is the evidence of it in any of your articles? Nowhere. Nada. Perhaps the reverend did not give you enough meat to help you shore up your story.

There are many people you did not speak to or perhaps did speak to but you've dismissed as credible because you went into this story to malign the reputations of these two people. Good close friends are not necessary for trash articles like yours and Mr. Lee's. Carol "Christine" Nichols is no better than you for alluding to a professional friendship where none existed anymore. Her's ended years before because she was a lousy businesswoman and was pro-scientology. Interesting how she just happened to be the first mole to speak up badly about the two. You must have been frothing at the bit for the July 31st announcement of Jeremy being ID'd so you could get your trash piece up on August 1st. It's almost as if the thought that these 2 people had good loyal friends, and relatives, had never occurred to you.

Search the internet and you will find those who are calling you out on your coverage of these 2.

Here's one for starters: Raymond Doherty's August 09, 2007
A Letter to Kate Coe: How You Got the Theresa Duncan Story - Wrong

Instead of doing the decent thing and getting a balanced story, you with your envious grudge went seeking those they dismissed as unloyal, all the while implying that these bitter losers would make a better story to match you preconceived gossipy article intended to destroy the goodwill they'd created on the internet.

What a glorious moment I am having, being able to finally respond to you, the rabbit who posts trash on others blogs minimizing the largess of these 2 special and well loved people, then running for cover after you've heated things up with your rumormongering.

**Blake's stepfather knows full well about the intended lawsuit Blake and Duncan were set to begin against Scientology. He probably offered to help them, until he found out just who it was that was to be sued. It's bad enough that Blake's mother is a mental health counselor - a fav target of scientology and it's CCHR front group- but the truth is that Arthur C. Delibert works for the very law firm who provided pro bono representation and lost a major case for their client who was being sued relentlessly by The 'church' of scientology and related entities. And Mr & Mrs Delibert probably tried to talk them out of filing their case against such a hyper-litigious and evil organization. This would surely explain Theresa's last* blog quote.

But you never did your research on the possibility that there was truth to the couple being harassed. Perhaps your own fears from your own experience you mentioned made it easy for you to take the easy way out. Good journalism does not do what you did and failed to do. Shame on you for justifying your lousy articles and selfcentered & myopic blog comments.
If you go down in history for the biased and unprofessional work you did on the life and deaths of this couple, it will be of no more surprise to many. Shame on you.

Posted by: Mary McConnell August 27, 2007 at 09:04 AM

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

Duncan wrote: "Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips will be on Jay Leno tonight, children of the Staircase. Wayne was harassed by Scientologists after working with Beck Hansen just like Wit and Mr. Wit Of The Staircase were."

The Seattle, WA office of Arthur Delibert's firm, Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis,

**Paul Lawrence. CAN's attorney in the Scott case on appeal in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, of the Seattle firm of Preston, Gates and Ellis. Lawrence is also the President of the Washington State American Civil Liberties Union. Preston, Gates and Ellis is representing CAN pro bono. Did Scientology Strike Back? American Lawyer/June 1997by Susan Hansen

Yes. The church of Scientology now owns, uses, and operates as and under the tradmark name " Cult Awareness Network" .

So, when you call the hotline to get information about cults, you are talking to a scientologist but you are not made aware of that fact. Quite deceptive. Very Hubbardian.

If Jeremy Blake's parents tried to convince him NOT to sue the Church of Scientology, I can see why Theresa Duncan might have lost hope and sang this swang song of defeat:

* Wit of The Staircase July 10, 2007 Storytelling On The Staircase :

"A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species Homo sapiens--second in necessity apparently after nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions survive without love or home, almost none in silence; the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast incommunicable constructs of psychopaths." --Reynolds Price

WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH SCIENTOLOGY? Parts I & II

'What's the Matter with Scientology?', Ross Douthat of Atlantic dot com. asks. He then provides accurate answers in 2 separate articles in reply to Mark Oppenheimer's puff piece on Scientology and his response Douthat's 1 sentence wham of Part I. The more extensive Part II is a comment on Oppenheimer's response to Part I. Both are excellent and worth reading.

As I commented to Douthat's Part II :

"If Mr Oppenheimer were a Scientologist, he'd wear the label 'Theetie Weetie' , a meaning Hubbard gave to those who sugar coat the hard truth because they cannot handle it.

Mark Oppenheimer tried unsuccessfully to conclude his opinion of Scientology based upon the unique situation Milton Katselas has managed to keep himself in. Being able to control his own involvement in the cult to his own advantage.

Katselas is the exception to the rule other scientologists must follow because he's a 'celebrity' who they are afraid of. You see, the church forgot Katselas about back in the 80's when David Miscavige took reign. All he has to do is make a few phone calls announcing he's called it quits, and the cardboard church falls apart in Hollywood.

Katselas is a fringe member who has not really moved up the cult 'bridge to total freedom' in years, sitting comfortably right where he is, using the parts of scientology that he feels are helpful, gaining a steady flow of clientele as a 'celebrity' while keeping the church staff & management pitbulls at bey.

One day I hope Katselas sees the damage he's doing to the minds of others by creating this facade around the truth, flimsey as it may seem to us 'wogs'.

Mary
ps: Because of your public disapproval of scientology, your scientologist relative may well be forced to 'handle or disconnect' from you. I hope he comes to his senses before they make mincemeat out of him for the connection. "

Posted by Mary McConnell August 23, 2007 7:43 AM

Were Jeremy Blake and Theresa Duncan "Paranoid" or Did Scientology Stalk and Harass the Couple as They Claimed?

I just finished reading the blog Gothamist 'Duncan and Blake's Final Days' article of August 9, 2007 by Jen Carlson.

Despite ending the article with Glenn O'Brien's eloquent final words on Duncan's blog, The Wit of the Staircase, Carlson's article seems to me to be just more of the same propaganda being used recently to slander the late Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake as being "paranoid".

"Most agree, however, that the accusations, lawsuit and blame being placed on others - all came from a place of paranoia." says Carlson, followed by more quoted slander from The Observer. But is that true? Not really.

In the first and only report from the Washington Post about the Blake and Duncan matters, ' The Puzzling, Tragic End of A Golden Couple ' we read the first and only media comment made by the family:

"Obviously there was much more going on than any of us realized, but he never said anything that suggested there was a problem," said Anne Schwartz Delibert, Jeremy Blake's mother and Theresa Duncan's mother-in-law. "He was devoted to her. He was a loyal caretaker."

Anne Schwartz Delibert is a licensed professional mental health counselor specializing in marriage and family counseling, her office information available on the internet as practicing in the Silver Spring, MD & DC area.

How could Blake's own mother not see the symptoms of paranoia suggested by so many anonymous twits, supposid colleagues friends and in articles like this one. All this beginning the day Jeremy Blake was officially identified as deceased? At the top of the list we find the vengful Kate Coe, scrambling to wherever she can post a derogatory comment whilst no one can post a comment on her blog piece nor the Media Bistro plug and the LA Times piece she co-oped with the very misinformed writer, Chris Lee

As another commentor on the Washington Post article stated "Could it be that these "friends" claiming the couple were mentally unbalanced were not really friends at all and that this is just a seized opportunity for the expression of resentment in a profession known for the potential for displaced envy?"

It's worse than that. I think it's is an outright smear campaign. I am not alone in thinking this. The onslaught of rabid comments is so intense that I suspect many real friends are still shaking their heads trying to digest it and formulate some semblence of truth out of it all.

Interestingly, The Church of Scientology is renowned for treating their enemies to just that kind of smear campaign. But of course, "they were paranoid"... right?

Read the case of Robert W. Welkos, who was harassed shortly before the Los Angeles Times published a comprehensive series on the Church of Scientology he'd co-written with Times staff writer, Joel Sappell. http://www.rickross.com/reference/scientology/scien384.html

Or try comprehending the horrors writer Paul Brachi had to endure after his expose of Scientology was published in the UK DailyMail:
'Tom Cruise's Church of hate tried to destroy me'by PAUL BRACCHI -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=455886&in_page_id=1879

Paulette Cooper's story is true and verified, yet she was smeared as a terrorist and labeled as mentally unstable until she convinced a judge and jury by willingly being questioned while under 'truth serum'. Several years later an FBI raid of the church found documents that proved the church had set her up.
http://www.xenu-directory.net/critics/cooper1.html

Paulette Cooper spoke up recently in an article for the New York Press Club telling even more details than was contained in her a book written over 30 years ago. Slate Magazine did a review of it:
Writer: I Was Stalked by Scientologists
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2007/06/writer-i-was-stalked-by-scientologists.php#more

You can & should read the complete article from The New York Press Club's Byline:
Looking over my shoulder,The Inside Account of the Story That Almost Killed Me
The Scandal of the Scandal of Scientology
Saturday, June 23, 2007 By Paulette Cooper
http://www.lermanet.com/paulette-cooper/index.htm

When Time Magazine writer RICHARD BEHAR wrote ' Scientology, Thriving Cult of Greed and Power 1991 - (c) Time Magazine, he and others were sued and harassed. Hear his experience as a victim of Scientology's 'Fair Game' Tactics as he discusses it for the first time upon receiving the 1992 LEO J. RYAN award for Cult Awareness http://www.lermanet.com/scientologyscandals/behar.htm

There are many more ordinary and extraordinary people who were made to suffer personal and familial harassment that looking over their shoulder became a way of life for a time. Each one would not hesitate to suggest that it's quite possible Blake and Duncan were being stalked and harassed by the Church of Scientology. Besides, how can a mother NOT know her child is 'paranoid'? Especially one educated in mental illness?

The wolves are out in droves, devouring the reputations of two talented people who deserve better. They claimed the Scientologists were harassing them. They were not alone in claiming to be a target of what is known as Scientology's practice of Fair Game tactics. Let's hope truth reigns after the pack settles down.

"USA - Urgently need someone experienced in muzzled destim program" said the ad

"Urgently need someone experienced in muzzled destim program"???

What is this Scientology MUZZLED DESTIM PROGRAM ?

Well, it may possibly be a part of the infamous Introspection Rundown.

You see, Scientology not only tries hard to silence it's critics, it has a history of driving to suicide or killing it's members who become mentally unstable. So what is a cult to do? Create the Muzzled Destimulation Program" as a preliminary step to the of the original Interspection Rundown? It makes sense since they were sued for the use of the original in the sad and preventable death of McPherson.

Scientology kills particularly when the tactics used violate basic human rights to life and prevent proper medical help.

In this way, it killed Lisa McPherson, Dale Bogen and so many others.

I don't make this stuff up. The evidence is out there. Been going on for years. Google "scientology kills" or the above names names and see for yourself.

As a result of the criminal investigation of the church related to Lisa McPherson's death, the Church of Scientology created a binding contract with members and it is one of the stipulations within the contract that one can be held against their own will pay for and receive the cult's service called the Introspection Rundown:
Scientology's barbaric treatment of members in lieu of some proper medical attention - the kind scientology rejects.

Here's a quote from a stellar article about this 'contract'as published in Razor Magazine "Church's Lethal Contract written By Dr. David S. Touretzky and Peter Alexander:

"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."
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Scientology/ReleaseForms/archive/razor-article-2003.html

Well, the contract in question is apparently in active use by the cult. Take a look at the most condemning piece of evidence for it, an advertisement for a job opening over at the Razzline, a Scientologist run cyberspace place for scientologists (SCN's) only to post news, ads and such. The ad is asking for help to muzzle a troubled 21 year old. Because it concerns an unnamed young man in distress, I ask that you say a prayer that the proposed action against him is prevented. Here's the ad:

USA - Urgently need someone experienced in muzzled destim program

Published July 26th, 2007 in CLASSIFIED and JOB OPPORTUNITY.
From: Dan Dempster
USA - Urgently need someone experienced in muzzled destim program

I’m urgently looking for someone who is experienced to do a muzzled destimulation program with a 21-year-old male. May take a number of weeks. Large male preferred. $800 per week plus all expenses.
Beautiful location on a 25-acre waterfront property on a large lake.

Call me right away.
Dan xxx.xxx.xxxx

http://www.therazzline.net/2007/07/26/usa-urgently-need-someone-experienced-in-muzzled-destim-program/

One becomes a member of this RAZZLINE by following the rules in the Membership section. Here are some but not all of the rules:
"How to Sponsor a friend: To sponsor someone you need to inform me of the following things: - That you know the person you’re sponsoring personally - as in you’ve met them face-to-face.- You know them to be a SCN in good standing."

So it is clear that a scientologist named Dan Dempster is looking to provide this terrible violation of essential freedom right to a young man in distress in Los Angeles, CA as I write this. How many others have survived (or not survived) it?

Just Give 'em Access to All the Facts & They Can Figure it Out Themselves

Just Give 'em access to all the facts & They Can Figure it Out Themselves!

First, The amazing FAIR Law Suit Tape:


"This tape is as relevant today as it was in 1986 just after L. Ron Hubbard died. I saw this again recently over at Mark Bunker's WOGBLOG, which gives more details.
In the early 80’s, a group of Scientologists started a class-action lawsuit against Scientology. They called their group FAIR. Michael Flynn was brought in to talk to them through the years to share the progress on his various suits. In 1986, they invited him to handle the class action suit."

"For the first time on the net, here is the videotape of a meeting held on Feb. 15, 1986 in which Flynn addressed FAIR and invited Scientologists in attendance to join in the suit if they wished. Most were there to seek justice. As usual a fair number of people were there to disrupt the event. They get asked to leave."
http://xenutv.wordpress.com/2006/12/21/whats-fair-is-fair/

Here is another wonderful blog piece I read today. The hyperlinks are mine, added for reference.

moving in brilliant timing -- The Downside of Higher Education
berkeley314159 at Live Journal 03:51 pm July 1st, 2007

"Thanks to my religion class, I have spent approximately 16 of the last 36 hours reading about Scientology. To say that this has left me in a bit of a mental whirlpool would be an understatement. I now know more about Scientology, it's detractors, and it's splinter groups than ever before. Truth be told, I had no idea that Scientology has splinter groups, but they do. Some of them appear to be pure opportunists, figuring that if people will pay $44,500 for OTIII training materials (not a fake number) than they would happily pay half that amount. Others, believe it or not, feel that the church has strayed from L. Ron Hubbard's original vision and structure since his death in the mid-80s, and offer a 'pure' version of Scientology. The whole experience has been intriguing, bizarre, and at times disturbing, and even though I'm just supposed to give a 10-15 minute presentation, I think at this point I could easily take up the whole two hours and forty minutes. Sadly, I have no idea what this information will ever do for me past the end of the semester. I guess I could use it as a conversation starter at parties (if I ever went to any): "Hey, did you know that during a Scientology audit the E-meter they use runs as much electricity through your system as one session of electroshock therapy? No? Want some punch?" "
--------------------------------------
re: The Downside of Higher Education.

"I really enjoyed this blog post of yours! You may not think what you learned will be of value after school end but you have already made an impact by what you have written here. It's already being discussed on usenet and hopefully it will remain on the internet for others to read for years to come. You also have the added personal advantage of being prepared for the future in discerning religious wolves dressed in sheeps clothing.

Just in case readers ask for references on your comment about the Scientology E-Meter voltage to the person vs ECT, here are 2 that you probably read, which I found helpful in understanding what was being done to me over the many years as a member receiving their 'therapy' while giving up my freedoms one by one to do the will of L. Ron Hubbard.

Subliminal Shock Therapy? by Arnaldo Lerma http://www.lermanet.com/exit/shock.htm

The E-Meter Papers - How Does Scientology Auditing Work? The Hidden Influence... by Arnaldo Lerma "Just how long would I have to run a small electric current through your body, while telling you things that you wanted to hear, before you became convinced that I held the secrets of the universe? " http://www.lermanet.com/e-metershort.htm I just thank God I'm alive! Some never made it. :( www.whyaretheydead.net Best wishes for a bright and stable future ~ Mary McConnell "

Cruise and the "PR purposes of a dangerous and totalitarian brainwashing organization"

There are many articles out this week about the German military's stance against Scientology and it's PR pusher, Tom Cruise.

Here is an exerpt from Reuters via one of the more respected German media outlets:

"MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: Berlin Politicians Attack Cruise, Scientology -
International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News" June 26, 2007

Berlin Politicians Attack Cruise, Scientology
The German Defense Ministry has said it will not permit Tom Cruise to film scenes in a movie about a plot to kill Hitler at historical World War II sites in Berlin. The reason: Politicians don't want Germany to be seen as promoting the Scientology cult.

Germany's Defense Ministry has said it will ban the Hollywood makers of a film about a plot to kill Hitler from shooting scenes at military sites in Berlin because its heartthrob star, Tom Cruise, is a Scientologist. Filming is expected to start in July on "Valkyrie," a drama about a failed plot hatched by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg to kill Hitler using a briefcase bomb. [..]

During a session on Friday in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, the cult expert for the governing conservative Christian Democrats, Antje Blumenthal, said that Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung told her "there was no question" about whether filming could take place at German facilities. [..]

[..] A Nazi-Like Organization?

But Blumenthal has remained undeterred in her campaign against the actor and the cult, whose beliefs are based on the science fiction writings of L. Ron Hubbard. "We have to present a united front against Scientology," she said. Blumenthal accused the organization of spreading views in the tradition of National Socialism - "and I find it, to say the least, odd that someone who represents this organization would be able to film at the site of a memorial to resistance against National Socialism of all places."

Any filming at Bendlerblock, she told Der Tagesspiegel, "would be public relations work done for this organization, and that's not the sort of thing we need to support, especially since Mr. Cruise misses no opportunity to promote Scientology."

A party spokesman for the Christian Democrats in the city of Berlin took the statement even further, telling the paper: "Resistance against the National Socialist dictatorship must not be abused for the PR purposes of a dangerous and totalitarian brainwashing organization like Scientology."

dsl/Reuters
http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,490765,00.html
________________________________

The cult just cannot fool these people..... Thank God!

The Scandal of the Scandal of Scientology By Paulette Cooper

Paulette Cooper has made available her complete article written recently for the New York Press Club Byline Magazine. I am thrilled she's allowing the story to appear on the internet! In it, Cooper informs us of, for the very first time, the full story of her 17-year battle against the followers of L. Ron Hubbard.

This is a 'must read'! The photos are must-see, too. The complete article is hosted by Lermanet.com. Here is an exerpt:

Looking over my shoulder,
The Inside Account of the Story That Almost Killed Me
Saturday, June 23, 2007
By Paulette Cooper

She prefaces it by saying: "Today's issue of http://www.radaronline.com/ has a shortened version of my story HERE "

The Scandal of the Scandal of Scientology
By Paulette Cooper

"You may not believe this, but you can write something that someone doesn’t approve of and then—with the help of the government—be bankrupted and have a quarter of your life almost ruined. And you don’t have to live in China or Russia. It can happen right here in New York. I know because it happened to me. I haven’t previously written about this from beginning to end because it’s still painful, but here goes." [..]

Read on about what this cult put her through:
http://www.lermanet.com/paulette-cooper/

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard

THE SECRET LIFE of L. Ron Hubbard!

It's a 30 min 1997 TV show from UK Channel 4 broken down into 5 10 min videos.
A person under the ID named jihadlovestoyota over at YouTube uploaded it recently and I am really grateful.

In it you will see a number of former high level members of Scientology, along with some who were privy to Hubbard's personal life. Legendary Sci-Fi affictionado, one-time friend of Hubbard and early participant in Dianetics and Scientology Forrest J. Ackerman speaks with humor and accuracy about the real L. Ron Hubbard. This, alone, is worth watching!

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard (Part 1 of 5)



Now go and see the rest. Parts 1 through 5 are linked below.

I found this to be amazing stuff. L. Ron Hubbard was quite the con man. I and so many others were deceived by the man and his Scientology management continues on the traditions and tools of the trade because they are able to get away with it. This expose' being on the internet is a wonderful thing and I hope you share it with those you know who are still in or out the cult.

Watch all 5 parts in sequence to get all that was uncovered. Short & to the point!

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard (1-5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksDoVUTy1go

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard (2-5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj2iFFmqP4U

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard (3-5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RLteeyMlgk

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard (4-5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmziDR3f4PA

The Secret Life of L. Ron Hubbard (5-5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg0JaGc-ego

Thank you to all who participated and thank you to jihadlovestoyota

Hypnosis in Action: Scientology Training Routines

Another gem from XENU TV at Google Video!

Scientology: TR Demo

"This video demonstrates Scientology's basic training routines (TRs) and gives an insight into how Scientologists are indoctrinated into the group."

Watch the trance-like effect of these drills. Scientologists do various courses on the different 'levels' of these drills as well as many, many hours repeating them when told they are not applying them correctly in scientology. I consider the TR's a low level application of hypnoic submission. Enough of it and you'll agree to anything.

You can get a good idea of the hows and whys from reading
'On Scientology's Training Routines (TRs)' By Joe "Zinjifar" Lynn

In it he says:

"To really boil down 'hypnosis' to its simplest form; it's 'becoming comfortable with taking orders'.

Trust and 'authority' are essential elements for someone to be successfully 'hypnotized', and, most of us have ingrained resistance to 'taking direction'. Without the trust of the 'subject' in the 'authority' of the 'hypnotist' there will be no hypnosis.

This extends to such variants as 'autohypnosis', where the subject must trust himself and have respect for his own authority to give himself commands, and be comfortable to follow them, as in the use of 'affirmations', yet another hypnotic exercise.

If there is no trust, and no recognition of authority, there is no hypnosis.

If there is no trust, and no recognition of authority, there is no Scientology.

The 'TRs' are the training in that trust and the practice in accepting the directions to perform even ridiculous tasks and exercises.

Oh, I know, the 'TRs are good!' contingent are now over in the corner mumbling 'Scientology is not hypnotism' to the wall... but, at least they're not clucking or making lawn-mower noises... "

Both of the people in the video were harassed and intimidated by the cult for things including the making of this tape. This is Scientology's application of FAIR GAME. Scientologists believe they gain freedom but unless they do as the cult wants, there is no freedom. Particularly there is a suppression that is not in agreement with scientology policy. I admire these 2 for taking a stand and helping Mark Bunker at XenuTV make this visual demonstration possible. See for yourself what the TR's are:




Visit www.xenutv.com for more informative videos about the cult of scientology

"I WAS STALKED BY SCIENTOLOGISTS"

Fresh Intelligence: Radar Online

XENUPHOBIA

Writer: I Was Stalked by Scientologists

Scientology can seem more silly than scary, with its zany mythology, made-up lingo, and Tom Cruise. But it was no joke when the group's leaders set out to destroy investigative journalist Paulette Cooper's life.
In the new issue of Byline magazine, a publication of the New York Press Club , Cooper for the first time tells the full story of her 17-year battle against the followers of L. Ron Hubbard.

It began in 1968 when she wrote a story, "The Scandal of Scientology," for Queen, a British magazine. Despite receiving a death threat, Cooper decided to write a book on the topic. "I was naive and had no idea of the horrors that lay in store for me," she writes.

A series of lawsuits by the Church of Scientology convinced the publisher of Cooper's book to issue an apology and a recall, but the forces she had unleashed were not satisfied. First, Cooper discovered her phone was being tapped. Then, her cousin was assaulted by a man who, posing as a flower-deliveryman, gained entrance to her apartment and pulled a pistol on her. (The gun jammed.) When Cooper moved to a more secure building, someone sent 300 of her neighbors an anonymous letter claiming she was a prostitute and had molested a child.

It got worse.

Cooper was arrested and charged with mailing an anonymous bomb threat to a Scientology spokesman. In front of a grand jury, the prosecutor revealed that her fingerprints were on the letter. Certain she was going to prison for a crime she hadn't committed, Cooper contemplated suicide. Her fiancée left her. She hired a private investigator—none other than wiretapping suspect Anthony Pellicano—who proved useless. Her weight dwindled to 83 pounds.

Her luck finally turned after a Scottish professor who was writing a book on Scientology provided prosecutors with information about "fair game"—the Church doctrine that encourages Scientologists to attack their enemies by any means. Cooper also persuaded a neurologist to inject her with truth serum and interrogate her to prove she was telling the truth. The government dropped its case.

In 1977, an FBI raid on Scientology offices revealed the truth: Cooper was the target of something code-named "Operation Freakout," a scheme intended to land her in jail or in a mental ward. She concluded that a man who had stayed in her apartment prior to her arrest had been a Scientologist who had stolen paper with her fingerprints on it to forge the bomb threat.

"I sometimes get discouraged because Scientology gets so much assistance and publicist from people like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, she writes. "As for me, I often wish I had never even heard the word 'Scientology.' But given the same situation, I would still do it all over again. I would not have been capable of remaining quiet, because I learned too many scary things and talked to too many people who were being hurt."

By Jeff Bercovici 06/22/07 8:00 AM

Some Comments

who dis?
Posted by: crazy alice | June 22, 2007 07:54 AM

They do waaaaaay more harm than good. People, do your research! xenu.net www.lermanet.com
Posted by: Jade | June 22, 2007 09:35 AM

What they did to her was sick. It was also normal for them and they still do it now. Google "scientology and fair game" While James L. or Greg or Terry will be here soon to tell you its not going on and to list their many, many scientology links the facts are clear. This cult follows the writings of hubbard to the letter even to this day. They don't care who they destory. Google Keith Henson and see his story also. Then check out xenu.net and xenutv.com to see the very dark side of scientology.
Posted by: JeraldR | June 22, 2007 09:53 AM

Is there any way you can read the whole article? If you go to the Press Club website there is no link available. I would love to read the whole article.
Posted by: kcnewport | June 22, 2007 02:25 PM

longer version of this story I wrote the article about what the Scientologists did to me,(the first critic of them), for other writers and somehow it was picked up by Radaronline. The New York Press Club doesn't put their stories on line, but below is my (secondary) e-mail address and the person who posted here that they wanted to read the whole story can write me and I'll e-mail it to them. Paulette.Cooper@gmail.com
Posted by: PauletteCooper | June 22, 2007 09:25 PM

Thanks for speaking up, Paulette! :) For the general reader: Paulette Cooper is a real hero to many, myself included, so I really appreciate this article. She is a true survivor in many ways and her story about how Scientology stalked and harassed her is a must-read. I am very glad to see her speak out fully about what the 'church of scientology' did to her and others in her life. You can read about that and Paulette at wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulette_Cooper You can also read her book,The Scandal of Scientology, for free online. Just visit her website for the link: http://www.paulettecooper.com/

Paulette is a writer of other genres. Her 'pet secrets' books are very popular. There is much on the internet about her, including scientology's attack on her. Here's a google search link for more information. http://tinyurl.com/2kvv4z
Mary McConnell
Truth is such a rare thing, it is delightful to tell it. -Emily Dickinson
Posted by: JustCallMeMary | June 23, 2007 01:05 AM
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Later after the Scandal of Scientology was published, Paulette Cooper co-authored many of her books with her hubbie, Paul Noble. Here is they're other website http://www.277secrets.com/authors.html

SCIENTOLOGY PROPAGANDA AT WORK.

SCIENTOLOGY PROPAGANDA AT WORK. READ IT FOR YOURSELF AND THEN READ WHY:

Communication vital for family
Chico Enterprise-Record
Article Launched: 06/21/2007 12:07:08 AM PDT


I read the article by Mary Rose Kennedy and was saddened to hear that her son Thomas had been out of touch with his parents for so long. As president of the Church of Scientology in Sacramento and a long standing member of the church, it is certainly not in keeping with Scientology ideals for family not to be in touch with each other.
As L Ron Hubbard wrote: "A family is a group with the common goal of group survival and advancement" he also wrote "communication is the root of marital success."

Due to our popularity and rapid growth we have millions of members and thousands of church staff. Church staffs are involved in a myriad of activities, including missionary work throughout the world in helping establish churches, missions, human rights groups and community betterment programs to address problems with Illiteracy, drugs, criminal reform and immorality.

So I checked into this and am happy to say Thomas is now back in touch with his family and they were happy to hear from him. We appreciate this being brought to our attention so we could get this corrected and the family back into communication.

— Mike Klagenberg, Sacramento


The above propaganda was written by a staff member of the church of scientology to obscure the the following very real and moving article showing how scientology stole a family member not seen in over 16 years.

The original article was in the same newspaper 5 weeks before the cult's Letter to the Editor reply appeared but it was mysteriously missing from the papers archives today when I looked.

Fortunately, I just happened to find it posted over at Operation Clambake via google search. Here it is:

All About Us: Thomas: Past, present and is there a future?
By MARY ROSE KENNEDY
Chico Enterprise-Record
Article Launched:05/06/2007 12:41:00 PM PDT

Thomas was, er, is, our only son. I think of him in past tense. At Christmas one daughter laughingly said, "We need to have a memorial service for Thomas. I'm beginning to forget what he was like."

It has been two and a half years since we have seen him. There has been no communication. When we call his place of employment we get answers such as, "Thomas Kennedy? No, I don't know him. But I'm new here. I'll check." Elevator music fills the void ad infinitum until we hang up in frustration.

When we call his wife we get little better: "Thomas is on an important assignment and can't be reached. I don't know where he is right now."

When I asked her what he is doing she said, "Umm, I guess you could say he is an event planner."

I retorted, "An event planner? What does that mean? Is he standing on street corners passing out fliers?"

"Actually," she replied, "it means he could be doing anything. He might pick up a hammer and build a stage."

This is our Thomas: A beautiful baby with eyes so blue I felt like I was looking at the sky; a quiet child who responded to his two older sisters' teasing by ignoring them; an A student, twice student body president in high school. When his teacher wanted him tested for the gifted program in third grade I said, "Oh no, not Thomas, he doesn't even talk."

When he told me he wanted to go to MIT his junior year of high school I was startled. How could we afford that? Unsure, I told him to go ahead and try. If he got in, we'd find a way to keep him there.

At age 21 he graduated from MIT with bachelor and master's degrees in computer science and electrical engineering. By age 27, after a dizzying ascent in the computer industry and a failed marriage, he dropped out of society.

How does such a thing happen?

He was 21 when he married, too young emotionally, too inexperienced with life. The divorce was difficult but also an opportunity for a new start. He took a personality test. Then he took a communications course; next, a course in personal relations. It seemed a healthy start. But, it seems, he was looking for answers in the wrong place.

When I told my friend what he was doing she sounded the first alarm. "You better warn him," she advised. "That is a very dangerous cult."

When I shared her concern with my son he scoffed, "You're just buying the media hype."

Our concern grew as his involvement grew. He called one evening to chat and casually remarked, "I'm thinking of leaving my job and going into Scientology full time.

Knowing my son's passive nature, my spirits sank. "Oh, Thomas," I exhaled, "that means you've already done it."

"Yeah," he replied.

His life spiraled out of control. We went to San Jose to see him. We were shown through the organization where Thomas now worked. We were asked to watch a video explaining the background and guiding philosophy. We saw his cubical with the flow charts. He explained his duties as the ethics officer. Our trepidation became palpable. I was getting a migraine; my husband was laboring to control his temper.

Later we visited his apartment. He introduced his roommate. We learned this is a person who stayed with him all the time, a handler. Nothing of his former life remained in the apartment. Only scientology literature lined his bookcases.

A month later he went to a two-week "bull baiting"seminar. It is a psychological hammering and rebuilding process. He was never the same.

One of the few occasions he came home we were sitting at the kitchen table. I was crying hysterically and babbling, "Thomas, how can we get you out of this? I'll walk in front of a firing squad. I'll throw myself in front of a big truck. I'll do anything." He looked over my head with flat eyes and said nothing. He was gone.

It has now been 16 years. We miss him.

Mary Rose Kennedy, a retired teacher, lives in Orland with her husband. They have five children and 10 grandchildren.

Operation Clambake

http://tinyurl.com/29ttar
--------------------------------------
Here is the dead link to that original article: http://www.chicoer.com/lifestyle/ci_5833357

Why is it missing from the ChicoEr news archives?

Well, maybe someone needs to ask.

UPDATE: 6/23/07:

Subject: 6/21/07 Letter to the editor 'Communication vital for family'
To: dlittle@chicoer.com

Chico Enterprise Record

Dear David Little, Editor,

I don't understand why you accept a letter to the editor concerning a particular article when the article being discussed cannot be found in your archives.


Perhaps this was an error that can be quickly remedied but seeing that it involves Scientology, I cannot help but suspect there is more to why the article is missing.


Here is the letter to the editor, followed by the original article link , which is dead. The 6/21 letter is absolute propaganda but how can one tell without the original to compare?

Communication vital for family
Chico Enterprise-RecordArticle Launched: 06/21/2007 12:07:08 AM PDT
http://www.chicoer.com/letters/ci_6191657


All About Us: Thomas: Past, present and is there a future?
By MARY ROSE KENNEDY
Chico Enterprise-Record
Article Launched:05/06/2007 12:41:00 PM PDT
http://www.chicoer.com/lifestyle/ci_5833357


Only Church of Scientology would not want that article in your archives, Mr. Little. Unless Mrs Mary Rose Kennedy asked you to remove it, which is possible. Sometimes the cult pays people and media off to keep quiet. It's called a gag agreement. You can read about them here.


Scientology Gag Agreements - A Conspiracy for Silence Scientology Gag Agreements - A Conspiracy for Silence. The first principle of a free society is an untrammeled flow of words in an open forum. ...
www.lermanet.com/scientologyscandals/silence.htm

Can you please explain what happened on this and if the article will be uploaded and put in the archives where it really belong? That article was one of many written by real parants who have lost their children to scientology. You can read more about this 'disconnection' policy of scientology's and the effect it has on families here:

The unperson
Scientologists who cross their religion can be declared suppressive
persons, shunned by peers and ostracized by family.
By ROBERT FARLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published June 24, 2006
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unperson.shtml

Inside Scientology
Unlocking the complex code of America's most mysterious religion
JANET REITMAN Rolling Stone Magazine
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9363363/inside_scientology

Disconnection - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Disconnection is a
practice in Scientology, in which a Scientologist severs all
ties .... Scientology disconnect policy destroying families ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disconnection

I appreciate your help in addressing this situation as soon as
possible. Thank you.

INSIDE THE ORG

This is a good film about how Scientology works and why you should beware.

Inside the Org
1 hr 8 min 58 sec - Jan 6, 2007

Life inside Scientology.



http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2196573959887248236

Thanks to Bunker at www.xenutv.com

YouTube: Scientology & Me - NEWS ITEM - The One To Watch

quentinkrisp at YouTube posted the best video to date on the upcoming BBC Panorama show 'Scientology & Me' by investigative reporter John Sweeney.

quentinkrisp describes it as:
"BBC's report and Panorama's rebuttal of $cientology's latest shenanigans. "



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8hpHY9zDQ

BBC PANORAMA's JOHN SWEENEY IS ONTO SOMETHING BIG

John Sweeney got close and personal with the real cult called scientology and I
commend him for demonstrating that scientology is the only church that specializes in
manipulating minds to hate.

Sweeney was right. They were trying to brainwash him. Unlike scientologists who fear Xenu, John Sweeney reaction was only human. Here's his story:


Row over Scientology video
By John Sweeney
BBC News

Last Updated: Saturday, 12 May 2007, 22:51 GMT 23:51 UK

Scientologists want 'the global obliteration' of psychiatrists
The battleground is YouTube and Scientology's weapon is a clip of me losing it in the "Mind Control" section of a gruesome exhibition.

Scientology has fought many battles to keep its secrets off the web, now they are using it to attack my investigation into them. Scientology has prepared an attack video, and they have shown the Scientology v Sweeney shouting match to anyone who would watch it.

There is talk of 100,000 copies being released.

Family 'disconnects'

Scientology works. That is the message from celebs like John Travolta and Tom Cruise - who is, some say, keen on recruiting new Hollywood arrivals David and Victoria Beckham to what he calls his religion.

Others back the Church in various ways: Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley of the City of London police helped open a new £20 million Scientology centre in London, and the authorities in the City of London have granted it cut-price rates.

If you are interested in becoming a TV journalist, it is a fine example of how not to do it. I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a jet engine ... it makes me cringe

But start asking questions and you see a different face of Scientology.

While making our BBC Panorama film "Scientology and Me" I have been shouted at, spied on, had my hotel invaded at midnight, denounced as a "bigot" by star Scientologists, brain-washed - that is how it felt to me - in a mock up of a Nazi-style torture chamber and chased round the streets of Los Angeles by sinister strangers.

Back in Britain strangers have called on my neighbours, my mother-in-law's house and someone spied on my wedding and fled the moment he was challenged.

I have met mothers who say they have suffered Scientology "disconnects" - meaning that their children have cut them completely out of their life so that they can spend more time with an organisation which a judge in 1984 characterised as "corrupt, sinister and dangerous".

Psychiatry battle

Scientology has two faces - nice and smiley, and sinister and dark. If you do not believe me, go and see their exhibition in Los Angeles, Psychiatry: Industry of Death. You enter through a door that is a mock-up of a torture chamber.

Scientologists want "the global obliteration" of psychiatrists, who they say were to blame for the rise of Nazi Germany.

To prove their point, they showed me hideous images of people having needles stuffed in their eyeballs, of patients undergoing electric shocks and having their brains operated on.

Sickening, nasty and wholly unconvincing - modern psychiatry, for all its faults, is not Nazi and to press the point in the way that Scientology does devalues the horror of the Holocaust.

I felt as though I was being brain-washed - and that if I did not fight it, they would have taken over my mind.

Ironically or not, it was in the "Mind Control" section of the exhibition that I lost it.

'Exploding tomato'

As often in life, I snapped over something completely different and quite trivial.

Top Scientologist Tommy "Don't mention the word cult" Davis had been goading me all week, and on the seventh day I fell into his elephant trap. He shouted at me and I shouted back, louder.

If you are interested in becoming a TV journalist, it is a fine example of how not to do it. I look like an exploding tomato and shout like a jet engine and every time I see it makes me cringe.

I apologised almost immediately, Tommy carried on as if nothing had happened but meanwhile Scientology had rushed off copies of me losing it to my boss, my boss's boss and my boss's boss's boss, the Director-General of the BBC.

I lost my voice, but not my mind.

This is the context Scientology will not tell you about. I have met too many good people who say Scientology was founded by a liar, L Ron Hubbard; that it attacks its critics without mercy; and the celebrities who endorse it have not the foggiest idea what it is really like.

Take "Rosemary", who is an ordinary mum and lives in England. She had two children and one died. Her surviving daughter was also her best friend. Then her daughter joined Scientology and her mother saw less and less of her.

Almost two years ago she received a "disconnect" - a letter cutting her mother out of her life totally.

Rosemary received no Christmas cards, no birthday cards, no Mother's Day cards.

Rosemary said Scientology was a cult. It was one of the most moving and shocking interviews I have ever done.

Out of the blue, three hours after we left, her daughter came round for the first time in almost two years seeking a reconciliation. The next day she begged her mum not to use the interview. So we won't.

Pay as you go

In Florida I met Mike Henderson, who with his wife Donna Shannon, spent $1m over three decades on Scientology's path to superhuman powers. When the couple left, they were disconnected from 20-odd family members left inside Scientology.

Mike's father - also disconnected - is dying, but five out of his six children will not speak to him because they are still inside Scientology.

After a long day with Mike and Donna we went back to our hotel at midnight, only to find Tommy Davis waiting in the lobby with his own black-clad Scientology cameraman.

He harangued me for talking to the heretics. I told him that Scientology had been spying on the BBC and that was creepy.

In LA, the moment our hire car left the airport we realised we were being followed by two cars.

In our hotel a weird stranger spent every breakfast listening to us. In all, we count 13 strangers - private investigators? - who were following us. Scientology denied sending PIs after the BBC.

Scientology is a pay-as-you-go religion - which is one of the reasons why the Charity Commission in Britain does not class it as a religion.

When you have paid as much as £100,000, you get to Operating Thetan Level Three and learn about "The Incident".

L Ron wrote that 75 million years ago an intergalactic space alien lord called Xenu kidnapped Thetans to earth, dumped them in volcanoes and blew them up with atomic bombs.

Ex-Scientologists have insisted to me that Xenu is part of Scientology. If so, it is a religion that requires its followers not to tell others about its core belief, which is very odd.

Critics say that if we all knew about Xenu, then Scientology could not charge people as much as £100,000 to find out about him.

Despite all the pressure - the letters from lawyers, the letters from MPs, the strangers knocking up my family and neighbours - if people from "disconnected" families tell me that Scientology is a cult, that will be reported.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6650545.stm

How Scientology Hypnotizes

For some good reading on how L. Ron Hubbard used the basics oh hypnosis in the techniques of scientology do a Google search on the terms 'Lermanet scientology and hypnosis '. Click here to see is what you get .

For a wonderful visual example, here's a story in the news recently:

XENUTV's WOG BLOG author Mark Bunker explains how BBC's Panorama reporter John Sweeney is playing with the Scientologists and using their own drills to be “at cause” over them in a video clip the church is trying to use to defame Sweeney in advance of the May 14th show BBC is doing on the cult. Bunker says "His pause in the middle of the rant is a clear indication he is playing around. " I agree and anyone who has done these drills can tell, too, lol!

Here's a XENU TV video demo of this drill by Stacy Brooks and the late Robert Vaughn Young, a former high ranking PR man for Scientology and archivist for L. Ron Hubbard . "This demonstration of Scientology training routines includes a drill in which the Scientologists shout at an ashtray to stand up and sit down. It teaches them to forcefully command others (and to be commanded) and is used to intimidate people.".


Set your timers and schedules: Monday May 14th, John Sweeney's BBC Panorama show on Scientology. Panorama is on Mondays at 20:30 BST on BBC One and repeated on BBC News 24 Mondays at 00:30 BST and Tuesdays at 03:30 BST.