What is Scientology?

[FONT=Arial Narrow]What is Scientology?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Don't know an SP from an OT? We've got you covered...[/FONT]





[FONT=Arial Narrow]From Wikipedia:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986), starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics.[4] Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in Camden, New Jersey.[5][6][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Scientology teaches that people are [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]immortal[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]beings[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] who have forgotten their true nature.[7] Its method of spiritual [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]rehabilitation[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] is a type of [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]counselling[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] known as auditing, in which practitioners aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events in their past in order to free themselves of their limiting effects.[8] Study materials and auditing courses are made available to members in return for specified donations.[9] Scientology is legally recognized as a tax-exempt religion in the United States and some other countries,[10][11][12][13] and the Church of Scientology emphasizes this as proof that it is a bona fide religion.[14] In other countries, notably France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Scientology does not have comparable religious status.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]A large number of organizations overseeing the application of Scientology have been established,[15] the most notable of these being the Church of Scientology. Scientology sponsors a variety of social service programs.[15][16] These include the [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Narconon[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] anti-drug program, the [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Criminon[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] prison rehabilitation program, the [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Study Tech[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] education methodology, a [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]volunteer organization[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow], [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]a business management method[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow], and a set of moral guidelines expressed in a booklet called The Way to Happiness.[17][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]The Church of Scientology is one of the most controversial [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]new religious movements[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] to have arisen in the 20th century. It has often been described as a [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]cult[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] that financially defrauds and abuses its members, charging exorbitant fees for its spiritual services.[9][18][19] The Church of Scientology has consistently used [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]litigation[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] against such critics, and its aggressiveness in pursuing its foes has been condemned as harassment.[20][21] Further controversy has focused on Scientology's belief that souls ("thetans") [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]reincarnate[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] and have lived on other planets before living on Earth.[22] Former members say that some of Hubbard's writings on this remote [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]extraterrestrial[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] past, included in confidential Upper Levels, are not revealed to practitioners until they have paid thousands of dollars to the Church of Scientology.[23][24] Another controversial belief held by Scientologists is that the practice of [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]psychiatry[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] is [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]destructive and abusive[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] and must be abolished.[25][26]”[/FONT]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology

[FONT=Arial Narrow]What is Dianetics?[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]From Wikipedia:[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]“Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices regarding the metaphysical relationship between the mind and body that was invented by the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard and is practiced by followers of Scientology. Hubbard coined Dianetics from the Greek stems dia, meaning through, and nous, meaning mind.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Dianetics explores the existence of a mind with three parts: the conscious "analytical mind," the subconscious "[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]reactive mind[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]", and the somatic mind.[1] The goal of Dianetics is to remove the so-called "reactive mind" that scientologists believe prevents people from becoming more ethical, more aware, happier and saner. The Dianetics procedure to achieve this is called "auditing".[2] Auditing is a process whereby a series of questions are asked by the Scientology auditor, in an attempt to rid the auditee of the painful experiences of the past which scientologists believe to be the cause of the "reactive mind".[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Dianetics grew out of Hubbard's personal experiences and experiments and has been described as a mix of "Western technology and Oriental philosophy".[3] Hubbard stated that Dianetics "forms a bridge between" [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]cybernetics[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] and [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]General Semantics[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow], a set of ideas about education originated by [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Alfred Korzybski[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] that was receiving much attention in the science fiction world in the 1940s.[4][5] Hubbard claimed that Dianetics can increase intelligence, eliminate unwanted emotions and alleviate a wide range of illnesses he believed to be [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]psychosomatic[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]. Among the conditions purportedly treated against are arthritis, allergies, asthma, some coronary difficulties, eye trouble, ulcers, migraine headaches, sex deviations and even death.[6][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Organizations related to Scientology provide training in auditing to assist people in learning the rudiments of Dianetics and Scientology. Techniques are taught by forming teams to audit one another using the techniques described in the Dianetics book.[original research?][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Dianetics predates Hubbard's classification of [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Scientology[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow] as "applied religious philosophy". Early in 1951, he expanded his writings to include teachings related to the soul, or "[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]thetan[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]".[citation needed][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]Dianetics is also practiced by independent groups, collectively called the [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Free Zone[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]. The Church of Scientology disapproves of Free Zone activities and has prosecuted them in court for misappropriation of Scientology/Dianetics copyrights and trademarks.[7]”[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianetics[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Scientology[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Decoded[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Scientologists' speech, like Scientology literature, can be maddeningly incomprehensible to the uninitiated. You are probably familiar with most of the words, however they are used in a manner that makes no sense according to the literal definition. Scientologists also are especially fond of acronyms, and abbreviations. (Ex: OT, SP, KSW, etc.) [/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]Here is a guide to essential terms in Scientology jargon, complete with definitions. [/FONT]


[FONT=Arial Narrow]For a complete lexicon see Martin Hunt's Scientology Acronyms/Terminology FAQ[/FONT]
http://www.xenu.net/archive/dictionary/
[FONT=Arial Narrow](Definitions adapted from Martin Hunt's FAQ.)[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Engram- a posited memory trace that remains after a moment of pain and unconsciousness. Hubbard didn't coin this word; it can be found in Webster's, and is part of the ISV, the International Scientific Vocabulary. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Operating Thetan or 'OT'- The exalted state that is the target of Scientology's weird "technology" of removing body thetans, said to be accompanied by strange powers like the ability to kill someone with a thought or fry a bug at a considerable distance. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Auditing- the action of running Scientology or Dianetic processes on a PC (a preclear; someone receiving Scientology processing). Auditing usually involves a Meter, with the PC holding onto the soup cans electrodes, and the Auditor taking down notes and asking questions. "Auditing in the HGC costs over $500 per hour." Auditing sessions are also recorded, and records or transcripts of these sessions are archived.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]E-Meter, or Meter- electrometer or electropsychometer. A crude battery-powered analog ohmmeter used to locate Overts (undisclosed acts), Body Thetans (evil spirits), and Engrams (moments of pain and unconsciousness). The PC or patient holds the soup-cans electrodes, while the Auditor or Scientology therapist watches the needle on the dial. Circuitry is based on the Wheatstone Bridge. The meter was designed by Volney Mathieson. Current "top of the line" models sell for about $4,000 US in a plastic case. Actual parts list is about $50-$100, making it a good money earner for Scientology, particularly since every auditor is required to own two in case one breaks down. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]SP, Suppressive Person- An evil person; someone who criticizes Scientology in any way. (the two are one and the same in the cult) SPs are the cult's _1984_ Goldsteins, and give definition to the group and a common enemy. Supposedly, some large fraction of the total population is composed of these "anti-social" characters, variously cited as 2% or 20%. Hubbard listed 12 traits of the SP, such as talking in generalities, criticism, and so forth. SPs are formally "declared" with a goldenrod issue, and lists are kept of these dangerous people. Ars has adopted its own SP levels as a badge of honour; in Scientology, there are no levels of SP. SPs create PTSes, people who are influenced by them.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Clear- A person audited enough to be free of the "bank," or reactive mind. (The sum of the memories of pain and unconsciousness the person has) A low-level superman-type person; a baby OT (Operating Thetan). "Samantha just had her Clear Certainty Rundown, and is now considered a clear!" [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Tech- Short for "technology", the quasi-scientific auditing "therapy" processes and actions of Scientology, as found in HCOBs, Hubbard Communication Office Technical Bulletins, collections of which are found in the Red Vols, qv. "You are hereby declared an SP, Sam, for committing Out-Tech." [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]M/U, Mis-U, or MU; 'a misunderstood'- Word meant to cause everything from blows (sudden departures) to overts and withholds, and actually being the root cause of SPs. Because of the centricity of "MUs" and their destructive potential it is a crime to go by them when studying, and subjects the student to the risk of getting a kangaroo "court of ethics". The cult is fanatical about not going by one, and insists that everyone look things up endlessly in dictionaries and go through every definition. This becomes quite tedious with words like "to", "set", and "be." Extensive pieces of the "tech" are devoted to "word clearing", qv, and so the hapless student ends up trapped in a arbitrary system which may punish or help, punish or help, alternately, with the word clearing or the ethics actions. The very definition of "MU" is mutable and arbitrary in that it is a word that makes one frown or blink or stumble on or slow down on reading, etc., as spotted by others - all of this adds to the coercive, conforming, and group- pressure nature of the beast. See M3, M4 for more on this topic. "Look up your M/Us and quit your nattering Mister, or I'll have you busted down to Ethics!" [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]Reactive Mind- The place where Engrams, memories of pain and unconsciousness, are stored. On a higher level, Engrams are revealed to be none other than Body Thetans or evil spirits infesting our bodies by the thousands. Also called the Bank. [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow][FONT=Arial Narrow]Fair Game[/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]- The notorious Scientology policy describing how to deal with critics, ex-members, and other undesirables dehumanized with the label "Suppressives"; they may be "Sued, tricked, lied to, or destroyed," as per policy. A more recent policy has banished the WORDS "Fair Game", but the policy of what to do to these "SPs" or "Suppressives" cannot ever be cancelled, as it is Hubbardian scripture, and his words cannot ever be altered in any way per Scientology's policy. "Dennis Erlich, being an SP, is subject to Fair Game." [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Arial Narrow]

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[FONT=Arial Narrow]History Of Scientology[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial Narrow]By ANONYMOUS[/FONT]
http://www.myspace.com/anonymousx666333/blog/366661962

[FONT=Arial Narrow][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow]L. Ron Hubbard established the Church of Scientology (CoS) in 1954 against the following backdrop: He had dropped out of college with failing grades. Although he would later claim a distinguished war time navel career, Hubbard in fact never saw combat and left the U.S. Navy petitioning the Veterans Administration for psychiatric care. Two bigamous marriages failed. He found success writing pulp/science fiction, but as he himself declared in the late 1940’s: "Writing for a penny a word is ridicules. If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start a religion."

Scientology is comprised exclusively of the teachings of one man. L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard’s theories, assumptions, techniques for practical applications that make up the rituals of Scientology, are sometimes called the "Spiritual Technology" or simply "the Tech".

Hubbard claimed to have discovered certain "natural laws" of the spiritual universe, which he claimed could be used to predict and control the behavior and phenomena in a way similar to the natural laws codified in the in the physical sciences can be used to predict and control phenomena in the physical universe.

Scientology proposes in its native state the thetan (spirit or soul) is immortal and god-like and possesses the potential of knowing everything, but in present time it’s true capabilities have been lost and forgotten.

For most Scientologists’ recovering these god-like abilities is the primary goal of participation in Scientology. The "levels" through which the participant progresses through are called "The Bridge to Total Freedom". Progress through all the levels of the "Bridge" often takes many years of study and practice, and the cost is estimated at approximately $300,000 -$500,000 in U.S. dollars.

Hubbard’s writings and lectures include many tantalizing details of the god-like abilities that may be gained through auditing. When one makes his way through the "levels" they can be returned to "native state". When one is free from the attachments of the body they can then control matter, energy, space, time, thought, and life.

The results of applying Scientology’s psychotherapy (called auditing) are to weaken the mind. The mind goes from a rational state to an irrational one as the delusional contents of the sub-conscious mind are brought to the surface and assumed to be valid. Another result is the subject becomes more susceptible to suggestion since it submerges the critical thinking faculties of the mind into a partial sub-conscious state. It results in a permanent light hypnotic state. So from henceforth the subject can be more easily controlled.

In the days before Scientology L. Ron Hubbard took up ritual magick, the occult, and hypnosis, giving demonstrations of hypnosis in 1948 and writing to his agent about a therapy system he was working on that had tremendous marketing and sales potential. Combining pieces of Freudian theory, Buddhism, hypnotic techniques, and elements of other practices and philosophies, Hubbard invented Dianetics. He published "Dianetics: A Modern Science of Mental Health" in 1950.

In Dianetic practice the "patient", working with a partner called an "auditor" recalls painful experiences of their past in reverse chronological order. The goal is to erase their negative effects and attain a state called "clear". The Church of Scientology (CoS) defines this state as free from all ills. The auditor records any intimate revelations, including sexual or criminal activities and marital or family troubles; these records are kept on file.

Although Hubbard represented Dianetics as a mental health therapy, he never produced copies of the research protocol. The American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association opposed Dianetics immediately; the latter recommended that its members use Dianetic techniques as an investigation only, until Hubbard’s claims could be corroborated.

With auditors repeatedly asking patients in a trance state to recall "earlier similar incidents", patients began recalling past lifetime experiences. Hubbard jumped on this and incorporated it into his ever-changing ideology, discussing it in his second book, "Science of Survival".

By 1952 Hubbard was penniless and had lost control of Dianetics. This was due in part to his new found emphasis on past life experience, which exacerbated tensions with the foundation’s financial partners. Hubbard later became interested in a device called the electropsychometer. He believed that this device would yield better results in auditing. He acquired a franchise for this device which he renamed the Hubbard Electrometer or E-meter. He began calling patients "pre-clears" and within six weeks created a new subject apparently out of thin air.

His new subject was Scientology. And with it he claimed to have discovered the human soul. In Dianetics you dealt with the body, but Scientology involved freeing souls, or what Hubbard called "thetans", from supposed entrapment in the physical or material world and restoring their alleged super powers.

In May of 1952 Hubbard incorporated the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International under the personal control of himself and his third wife, Mary Sue. He located himself in Phoenix Arizona and awarded himself the title degree of D. Scn. (Doctor of Scientology)

In 1953 Hubbard regained control of Dianetics after a protracted legal battle and incorporated the Church of Scientology, Church of American Science, and Church of Spiritual Engineering. In 1954 he established the CoS of California, which became the mother church. In 1956 the church was awarded tax-exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1957, posing as a nuclear physicist, Hubbard gave a series of lectures in London. In these lectures on "nuclear radiation and health" he promoted a vitamin compound, which he claimed cured both "radiation sickness and cancer." The CIA began keeping a file of Hubbard the same year. The FBI who repeatedly received complaints from Hubbard about Nazi and Communist persecution believed he was a "mental case". They would however keep a file on him and as his organization grew they would investigate him actively.

In 1959 Hubbard moved to England and bought Saint Hill Mansion in Sussex. From England he would direct international operations and CoS expansion until 1967. During the 1960’s Scientology saw the introduction of "ethics" procedures, which include harsh punishments even for children, and the "disconnection" policy, which requires members to severe ties with family and friends critical of the church.

Hubbard created a system of "security checks" in which members are interrogated to ensure loyalty and extract confessions. He produced many directives on subjects varying from Scientology tech to church management to approved cleaning solvents to his own recipe for baby formula. All these missives are considered sacred scripture by CoS members.

In the late 1960’s Hubbard released the "upper levels". Scientologists who had spent hundreds of thousands of hours pursuing often promised super natural abilities were being guaranteed that the procedures would deliver the results. The upper levels are kept secret until a member is ready to receive them.

In 1967 the IRS stripped Scientology’s mother church of tax-exempt status. With his organization coming under increased scrutiny from a variety of governments and tax woes abounding, Hubbard wrote his famous "fair game" law. This states that anyone named an enemy of Scientology "may be tricked, sued, lied to, or destroyed." A year later he would issue a directive discontinuing the use of the term "fair game" due to bad publicity. However, Hubbard made clear that the attacks on perceived enemies were to continue.

In mid 1967 Hubbard bought three ships and went to sea with a small cadre of followers. Calling himself "the Commodore", he spent the next several years wandering the Atlantic Ocean, pursued by imaginary Red’s and Nazi’s. He had frequent screaming tantrums and instituted brutal punishments such as the incarceration in the ships less than clean chain-locker room, and "over boarding", in which crew members were bound and blind folded and thrown over board, dropping 40 feet into the cold Atlantic and hoping not to hit the side of the ship with it’s razor sharp barnacles on the way down. This punishment was applied to children as well as adults.

Hubbard made unsuccessful attempts to take over Morocco and Rhodesia and was banned from further entry into Britain. He began the Sea Organization (SO), whose members wear pseudo-navel uniforms, adopt navel ranks, sign billion year contracts, and are pressured to have abortions when they become pregnant due to the perception that children interfere with SO obligations.



During the 1970’s the IRS proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Church employees stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agencies employees.

In 1971 a US Federal Court declared that Hubbard’s medical claims were bogus and his E-meter auditing could not be called scientific treatment. The response by the CoS was to go fully religious. They sought the first amendment protection. Counselors started wearing collars. Chapels were built, franchises became missions, fees became mixed donations, and Hubbard’s comic-book cosmology became sacred scriptures.

In 1972 as part of a four pronged plan to take control of Morocco, Scientology training was given to Moroccan secret police agents, showing them how to use the E-meter to detect political subversives. One of his followers defected and went back home to the US, where he contacted the CIA with information about Hubbard’s activities. The information was passed back to the Moroccan authorities through Interpol. The faction of the secret police Hubbard had control over realized their danger and launched an unsuccessful coup against King Hassan. On December 3 1972, Hubbard and every Scientologist in Morocco fled on the Lisbon bound ferry, shredding every piece of paper they couldn’t carry. Had the Moroccan authorities caught Hubbard, it is more than likely he would have been executed for high treason.

After years of operating the church from his flagship, the Apollo, in 1975 Hubbard bought the Fort Harrison Hotel and a former bank building in Clearwater Florida. The buildings were bought under the name United Churches of Florida to disguise the connection to Scientology.

While the church continued to grow, Hubbard had his private intelligence agency known as the Guardian’s Office (GO) run cloak and dagger operations against the mayor of Clearwater and anyone else perceived to be in their way. Hubbard had established the GO in 1966 for internal and external security purposes. The GO’s mission directive included attacking critics, keeping members in line, and silencing detractors. GO agents stole medical files, sent out anonymous smear letters, framed critics for criminal acts, blackmailed, bugged and burgled opponents, and infiltrated government offices stealing thousands of files. In the early 1980’s eleven GO agents were jailed following a massive bugging and burglary operation aimed at the US government that Hubbard had personally planned and named "Operation Snow White". Hubbard himself was named an un-minded co-conspirator but escaped trial because no one could find him.

At various times, Hubbard, and or the church, was investigated by the US Justice Department, the FBI, FDA, CIA, NSA, Bureau of Customs, DEA, DOD, the Secret Service, the US Post Office, INS, BATF, Department of Labor, police departments of various US cities, as well as Interpol, and a host of other government agencies world wide. Hubbard was convicted in absentia of fraud in France. The Church of Scientology was convicted of breach of public trust and infiltration of government offices in Canada. Scientology was banned by the state of Victoria, Australia. Hubbard blamed all these events on wide spread plotting by Russian communists, neo facists, bankers, the media, the IRS, Christian clergy, fiendish extraterrestrials, and the psychiatric profession, which he considered his arch enemy.

Following the "Operation Snow White" debacle, Hubbard went into hiding. David Miscavige, a second generation Scientologist, took the reigns at the age of 21. At the time high-level defectors were accusing Hubbard of having stolen $200 million from the church and the IRS was seeking an indictment of Hubbard for tax fraud. Scientology members worked day and night shredding documents the IRS sought. Hubbard died in 1986 before the criminal case could be prosecuted.

During the power struggles of the 1980’s many people left the church. Some established independent organizations based on Hubbard’s writings. The CoS quickly undertook massive copywriting of all of Hubbard materials and took legal action to shut down independents.

In 1991 the Internet news group alt.relgion.scientology (A.R.S.) appeared. Scientology immediately went on the attack, but the church’s heavy-handed attempts to shut down A.R.S. failed. The conflict attracted the attention of free speech advocates worldwide and sparked a proliferation of anti Scientology news groups and web sites.

Hubbard advocated the harassment of opponents and so following the CoS’s loss of tax-exempt status in 1967. Scientology declared war. For 26 years they attacked the IRS consistently on many fronts; suing and investigating individual agents, deliberately obscuring their records, constantly suing the IRS directly, taking out anti-IRS advertisements, funding anti-IRS groups, filling countless freedom of information act requests, creating a corporate maze, publishing anti-IRS articles in their own magazines, and other methods. The attacks worked.

In 1993 the beleaguered IRS and Church of Scientology International reached an agreement, the terms of which were kept secret but were leaked to the The Wall Street Journal four years later. Per the agreement, the church gained tax-exempt status for itself and its subsidiaries and settled its prior tax obligations with a payment of $12.5 million, a fraction of the estimated amount owed. For For this they would drop all lawsuits with the IRS.

Scientologists have sought to undermine anti-cult groups by infiltrating them or shutting them down. Multiple lawsuits were filed against the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), which was for twenty years the US ’s best known resource for information and advice on religious cults. CAN’s legal fees forced it into bankruptcy; the rights to CAN’s name, logo, and hot line number were bought by a Scientologist in bankruptcy court and the new CAN is staffed by Scientologist’s

Governments in France, Germany, Australia, Israel, Spain, Canada, Greece, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, England, and elsewhere have taken actions to protect their citizens from exploitation by religious cults, with Scientology frequently a focus for concern. In recent years, hundreds of longtime Scientologist’s have quit the church (many charging emotional and physical abuse) and are criticizing the church, despite the CoS’s well known reputation for ruthlessly harassing critics.

In 2003 Fox News and other media organizations began reporting that the Church of Scientology has begun to require its members to sign a release form agreeing to be held against their will for indefinite periods of time, isolated from friends and family and denied access to medical care (particularly psychiatric care) and absolving the church of any responsibility for any resultant harm. The family of Lisa McPherson, a 36-year-old Scientologist who died under the church’s care, apparently drew up this document as a response to a 1995 wrongful death suit brought against the church. [/FONT]