Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
The True Story
[On page 8 appears a column entitled: WE SAY, its text given here:]
FOR THREE days now we have been featuring the activities of the Church of Scientology, whose national headquarters is at East Grinstead.
We showed that behind the image of the religious followers hovering on street corners with the ever-present clipboard is a regime run on quasi-military lines with a system of punishment that hardly befits its boast that it is a church, just like any other.
And-we have told the story of one former recruit who tells a vastly different story from those featured in the organisation's glossy literature.
Predictably, the Scientologists have got pretty hot under the collar about what we have had to say.
Their solicitors have accused us of defamation, misrepresentation, distortion and aiding and abetting theft.
And in a letter to the paper the cult's Director of Public Affairs attacks us for not explaining what Scientology actually means.
Fair enough. Here is a quotation from the founder himself, L. Ron Hubbard, in the pamphlet, Description of the Scientology Religion, October 1993:
"The basic tenet of Scientology is that man is an immortal spirit who has lived through a great many lifetimes and who has the potential of infinite survival. Although one has a mind and a body, he or she is a spritual being called a "thetan" in Scientology. A thetan is basically good but has become enmeshed with the material universe through the ages until he has lost his true spiritual beingness." Or, alternatively, how about this from the official Scientology Handbook, published this year:
"Every single physical illness stems from a failure of the being to communicate with the thing or area that is ill. Prolongation of a chronic injury occurs in the absence of physical communication with the affected area or with the location of the spot of injury in the physical universe."
So now you know . . . it's garbage.
(signature)
Chris Fowler
EDITOR
Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive