Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism
The Foster Report
In 1971, the Sir John Foster on behalf of the UK government published an "Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology" - an official report into what Scientology was doing and whether it needed to be regulated in any way.
The enquiry did not take witnesses, but did use a large amount of internal documents from Scientology. Many revealing policy letters or directives, including "Ethics Orders" are quoted or even printed in full in the report.
The report is online in full here:
- Foster Report on Operation Clambake
- Foster Report on Dave Touretsky's site, Carnegie Mellon University
- Foster Report on WhyAreTheyDead.net
The most interesting sections are Chapter 7: Scientology and its Enemies which outline the way dissent is treated, both within and outside the organisation, and Chapter 5: The Practices of Scientology which exposes the "personality test".
Recommendations
"a) that psychotherapy (in the general sense of the treatment, for fee or reward, of illnesses, complaints or problems by psychological means) should be organised as a restricted profession open only to those who undergo an appropriate training and are willing to adhere to a proper code of ethics, and that the necessary legislation should be drafted and presented to Parliament as soon as possible
"b) that the fiscal privileges enjoyed by religious bodies should be reviewed with a view to at least restricting their availability to religions which not only satisfy the present criteria but also have a substantial following in the United Kingdom and engage in genuine and overt acts of worship."