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Defectors Describe Scientology’s Abuses

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Raised as Scientologists, Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were recruited as teenagers to work for the elite corps of staff members who keep the Church of Scientology running, known as the Sea Organization, or Sea Org.

They signed a contract for a billion years — in keeping with the church’s belief that Scientologists are immortal. They worked seven days a week, often on little sleep, for sporadic paychecks of $50 a week, at most.

But after 13 years and growing disillusionment, the Collbrans decided to leave the Sea Org, setting off on a Kafkaesque journey that they said required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them.

“Why did we work so hard for this organization,” Ms. Collbran said, “and why did it feel so wrong in the end? We just didn’t understand.”

They soon discovered others who felt the same. Searching for Web sites about Scientology that are not sponsored by the church (an activity prohibited when they were in the Sea Org), they discovered that hundreds of other Scientologists were also defecting — including high-ranking executives who had served for decades.

Fifty-six years after its founding by the science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who died in 1986, the church is fighting off calls by former members for a Reformation. The defectors say Sea Org members were repeatedly beaten by the church’s chairman, David Miscavige, often during planning meetings; pressured to have abortions; forced to work without sleep on little pay; and held incommunicado if they wanted to leave. The church says the defectors are lying. Click to continue »

‘Anonymous’ Pledge to Fight Scientologist Efforts in Haiti

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Anonymous, the internet-based group that has waged a war on Scientology over the last two years, has released a new communique. Prompted  by the ass kissing Today Show piece (below) on Scientologists in Haiti, they intend to act. The group, given to wearing V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes masks, and pictured above during widely publized protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008, released this message:

Hello.  We are Anonymous.   We wish it it were under more favorable circumstances that we have chosen to address the world.  However, after the demonstrably inaccurate interpretation handling of the victims of the Haiti earthquake as per the work of the Scientology ‘Volunteer’ Ministers, Anonymous could not remain silent.  The Volunteer Ministers are volunteers only in name.  Their self-proclaimed humanitarian efforts have been shown to be harmful and self-serving time and time again.  In the wake of the September Eleventh attacks at the World Trade Center, they impeded the work of the New York City Fire Department, and falsely claimed to have been given a reward for their efforts.  These efforts involved little more than handing out pamphlets for the works of L. Ron Hubbard, while intentionally hindering the work of mental health professionals aiding the victims.   This same pattern of self-promotion at the expense of victims of disasters does not end there.  Following the tsunami at Sri Lanka, the Volunteer Ministers attempted to convert the vulnerable and suffering victims into their cult, promising them aid and salvation at the expense of their livelihood***.  These actions were repeated following the terrorist attack at the Ramada Inn in India*** and the Subway bombings in London, England.   In short: Scientology does not see a disaster as a tragedy, but rather, as a business opportunity.   First-hand accounts, condemnations from legitimate aid groups, and even leaked documents from Scientology’s corporate (sic) heirarchy itself  all confirm the cowardly and parasitic nature of the self-proclaimed Volunteer Ministers.   The very same self-serving, opportunistic proselytizing has been taking place in Haiti.  Scientology has taken every opportunity to release their own manufactured press releases, taking credit for the work of legitimate relief groups.  They arrived completely unprepared, and were told to leave by the United States military.   An untrained Scientologist was alleged to be assisting a surgeon, using tools that had not been sterilized.  This is blatant medical malpractice.  John Travolta has also left several trained medical professionals behind at an airport, instead making it his priority to bring untrained Scientologists into the country with the sole intent of disseminating L. Ron Hubbard materials to an already vulnerable and suffering population.   Know this, Scientology: We are watching you.  With every move you make, every victim you exploit, and every piece of choreographed propaganda you release into the mainstream media, the public already knows the truth about your organization.  You are not fooling anyone, and no amount of proselytizing will change this. You have already been convicted in the court of public opinion.  It is now only a matter of time before you are convicted in a court of law.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

Today Show Scientology puff piece

Scientologists Use Bullshit to ‘Heal’ Haitian Quake Victims

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Amid the mass of aid agencies piling in to help Haiti quake victims is a batch of Church of Scientology “volunteer ministers”, claiming to use the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems.

Clad in yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of the controversial US-based group, smiling volunteers fan out among the injured lying under makeshift shelters in the courtyard of Port-au-Prince’s General Hospital.

“When you get a sudden shock to a part of your body the energy gets stuck, so we re-establish communication within the body by touching people through their clothes, and asking people to feel the touch.”

Some doctors at the hospital are skeptical. One US doctor, who asked not to be named, snorted: “I didn’t know touching could heal gangrene.”

When asked what the Scientologists are doing here, another doctor said: “I don’t know.”

Do you care? “Not really,” she said, wheeling an unconscious patient out of the operating room to join hundreds of others in the hospital’s sunny courtyard.

Scientologists ‘heal’ Haiti quake victims using touch (Yahoo News)
Scientologists in Haiti: A Firsthand Account (Gawker.com)