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Regrettably, the church continues to be challenged with it - Scientology Perth opening. And the paradoxical thing is that the people being challenged with it are the people who cleaned it out. And to the church, that's an extremely aggravating thing. According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times article, in the 1980s the Los Angeles branch mainly switched from utilizing church members in harassment campaigns to utilizing private detectives, including previous and current Los Angeles law enforcement officer.


The Scientology company has continued to aggressively target individuals it considers suppressive. In 1998, concerning its announcement that it had actually hired a private detective to look into the background of an author who had written a series on the church, Robert W. Thornburg, dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, stated, "Nobody I know presumes as to employ outsiders to bug or try to get intimidating information on critics.


In 2007 when BBC reporter John Sweeney was making, an investigative report about the Church and was the subject of harassment: In LA, the minute our hire vehicle left the airport we understood we were being followed by 2 cars. In our hotel an odd stranger spent every breakfast listening to us.


Some key activities of the Church of Scientology carry dangers for members, and the deaths of some Scientologists have actually accentuated the Church both due to the circumstances of their demises and their relationship with Scientology perhaps being a factor (is scientology a religion). In 1995, Lisa McPherson was involved in a minor vehicle accident while driving on a Clearwater, Florida street.

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Health center staff decided that she had actually not been hurt in the accident, but advised keeping her over night for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the healthcare facility and examined herself out against medical guidance after a brief assessment. She was required to the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Scientology retreat, to get a Church approved treatment called Self-questioning Rundown.




She was locked in a room for 17 days, where she passed away. Her appearance after death was that of someone who had been rejected water and food for rather some time, being both underweight and severely dehydrated. Additionally, her skin was covered with over one hundred insect bites, probably from cockroaches.




The Church has actually repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and now makes members sign a waiver prior to Introspection Rundown specifically mentioning that they (or anyone on their behalf) will not bring any legal action against the company over injury or death. These charges drew in press protection and sparked lawsuits. Eight years later, Elli Perkins, another adherent to Scientology's beliefs concerning psychiatry, was stabbed to death by her psychologically disturbed child.


The death of Elli Perkins at the hands of a disrupted member of the family, one whose illness might have been dealt with by techniques and medications prohibited by Scientology, once again raised questions in the media about the Church's methods. In addition, the Church has been linked in kidnapping members who have actually recently left the church.

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She was found on January 22, 2008, dressed just in a t-shirt. The room she was locked up in consisted of refuse and an insect infested bed mattress. On Friday March 28, 2008, Kaja Bordevich Ballo, child of Olav Gunnar Ballo, Norwegian published here parliament member and vice president of the Norwegian Odelsting, took a Church of Scientology personality test while studying in Nice.


A few hours later she devoted suicide by leaping from her balcony at her dormitory leaving a note informing her household she was sorry for not "benefiting anything". The incident has advanced heavy criticism versus the Church of Scientology from friends, family and popular Norwegian political leaders.


Members of the public getting in a Scientology center or mission are used a "free personality test" called the Oxford Capability Analysis by Scientology literature. The test, in spite of its name and the claims of Scientology literature, has no connection to Oxford University or any other research study body. Scientific research study into 3 test results came to the conclusion that "we are forced to a position of hesitation about the test's status as a dependable psychometric device" and called its scientific value "negligible".


Current legal actions involving Scientology's relationship with its members (see Scientology controversy) have actually caused the company to release substantial legal files that cover the rights given to followers. It has actually become standard practice within the organization for members to sign prolonged legal contracts and waivers prior to participating in Scientology services, a practice that contrasts greatly with nearly every mainstream religious company.

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I do not believe in or subscribe to psychiatric labels for people. It is my strongly held religious belief that all mental issues are spiritual in nature and that there is no such thing as a psychologically unskilled persononly those struggling with spiritual upset of one kind or another dramatized by an individual.


Under no scenarios, at any time, do I want to be rejected my right to care from members of my religious beliefs to the exclusion of psychiatric care or psychiatric directed care, no matter what any psychiatrist, medical individual, designated member of the state or member of the family may assert apparently on my behalf.




The International Association of Scientologists (IAS), the main Church membership system given that 1984, has actually never launched figures. Church spokespersons either provide view numbers for their countries or an around the world figure. Some national censuses have a fantastic read actually just recently included concerns about spiritual affiliations, though the United States Census Bureau states that it is not the source for details on faith.


In 1993, a spokesperson of Scientology Frankfurt had pointed out somewhat more than 30,000 members across the country. The organization has stated that it has anywhere from eight million to fifteen million members worldwide. Derek Davis specified in 2004 that the Church company has around 15 million members worldwide. Spiritual scholar J. Gordon Melton has actually said that the church's price quotes of its membership numbers are exaggerated: "You're talking about anyone who ever purchased a Scientology book or took a standard course.