Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 58
The rebel Ronsorg group warns the many ex-members now seeking refunds of money spent
on Scientology courses that Scientology ―will try to make you change your mind by pushing
all of your buttons.‖ This allegedly includes the threat to use against them personal
information — about spousal infidelity or drug use, for example — gleaned in years of
Scientology counseling (auditing). (Sladjana Labovic and Bart Middleburg, Het Parool,
Internet, 10/25/03)
Michael Jackson Raising Money for Group
Michael Jackson has designated Scientology‘s HELP program as one of the recipients of
money he planned to raise in October through a worldwide download of his charity single,
―What More Can I Give?‖ HELP, which is connected to the Scientology offshoot Applied
Scholastics, uses techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. Many well
known performers were to have joined in the recording with Jackson, who was married
briefly to Scientologist Lisa Marie Presley in the late 1990s. (Roger Friedman, Fox News,
Internet, 10/27/03)
Anti-Psychiatry Exhibit Controversy
The City of Chicago ordered removed from the Loop‘s Thompson Center in early December
an anti-psychiatry exhibit when it learned it was mounted by Scientology’s Citizens
Commission on Human Rights. The exhibit, up for only a day, called psychiatry a wicked
profession with ties to Nazi Germany, a view rejected by a representative of the American
Psychiatric Association as a religious belief with no scientific basis. [Scientology, which
employs a unique form of counseling, has carried on a campaign against psychiatry and
therapeutic drug use for decades.] (John Chase, Chicago Tribune, Internet, 12/3/03)
However, less than a week later the Blagojevich administration reversed after conferring
with state lawyers about an appeal by the national headquarters of the Citizens
Commission. The administration said it no longer thought a controversial Scientology-linked
exhibit blasting psychiatry promoted a religious philosophy and would therefore allow the
exhibit to be displayed next month in the Thompson Center. The exhibit was entitled,
"Destroying Lives: Psychiatry Exposed."
State rules forbid religious groups from renting display space in state buildings to promote
their beliefs.
The exhibit is expected to return to the Thompson Center for a week, beginning Jan. 5,
Central Management spokeswoman Pam Davies said.
The same display has been located outside the state Capitol in New Hampshire, inside
Georgia's Capitol and in a state office building in New York, said Marla Filidei, international
vice president of the Citizens Commission.
Davies said the state plans to change procedures for future applicants who wish to rent
space in state buildings by asking them to disclose any connections to religious
organizations. Had that requirement been in place, she said, the Citizens Commission
exhibit would have been allowed but the state would have known about the group's ties to
Scientology and been able to study the display before it was erected. (John Chase, Chicago
Tribune, Internet, Dec. 9, 2003)
Loses Copyright Case
The Dutch Court of Appeal has rejected Scientology’s claim that writer Karen Spaink,
Internet service provider Xs4ALL, and ten other ISPs acted illegally in publishing the
church‘s copyrighted materials on the web. The material had actually become public in the
course of a court case against Scientology in 1994. The Court also denied the contention

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that linking to material that infringed a copyright was actionable. (Jan Libbenga, The
Register, UK, Internet, 9/6/03)
Former Member’s Suit Settled
Former member Mary Johnson has settled her suit for damages against Scientology,
ending a Dublin, Ireland, trial in which she characterized the organization as a ―cult.‖ It is
unclear why Scientology, ―probably the most litigious ‗religious philosophy‘ in the world‖
[according to this account] decided to settle (on terms the litigants agreed not to disclose).
Johnson, who says Scientology techniques ―are extremely coercive, manipulative, and
dangerous, and bind people,‖ graduated from Trinity College Dublin after majoring in
languages, played squash for the province of Leinster, and ran a sporting goods store in
Dublin. When she was 29, a friend suggested that she try Scientology ―auditing‖
[counseling], and she did, although she says she was not particularly ―angst‖ ridden at the
time.
In these intense sessions with trained Scientologists, Johnson examined repetitively her
past traumas, including deaths in her family, and two abortions which she was forced to
reveal in the trial. She says the Scientologists eventually knew more about her personal life
than anyone else. After she sued, anonymous letters circulated demeaning her character
and asserting the Catholic Church had excommunicated her. A man called her shop asking
questions about her, and another photographed her in a pub.
Auditing, Johnson says, ―created in me a feeling of euphoria, so it became like an escape
mechanism after a hard day.‖ She became so deeply involved that she signed up with
Scientology for ―a billion years‖ [sic], became alienated from friends and family —
―suppressive‖ persons to be avoided if they disapproved of her new associations — and
eventually lost her critical faculties. Only the continued persistence of her sister, which led
to an ―epiphany,‖ freed Johnson from her pathological attachment to Scientology.
In the midst of the trial, Johnson was diagnosed with breast cancer, but went forward
nonetheless, despite the ravages of chemotherapy, to achieve a settlement that seems to
her to justify the effort. (Maeve Sheehan, Sunday Times, Irish Edition, Internet, 7/27/03
and News Review 5, 7/28/03)
Transcendental Meditation
Sponsor Withdraws Support of TM-based Course
International accounting firm KPMG has withdrawn financial support for Transcendental
Meditation’s CIDA course in Johannesburg, South Africa, after some students, refusing to
attend compulsory morning TM classes, said the requirement violated their freedom of
religion. One student said they were told not to return the following year because they
refused to sign a form agreeing to accept TM teaching. CIDA has since made the TM
element voluntary, but KPMG has not renewed its support.
The CIDA course, widely supported by the business community, provides disadvantaged
individuals with the opportunity to earn business degrees and aims to promote the
development of black accounting professionals. Both KPMG and the students who have left
in protest believe that the course is otherwise worthwhile. (Financial Mail, Internet,
8/29/03)
Tvind
Clothing Sales Putting Africans Out of Business
Sales in Africa of donated used clothing collected in the industrialized countries by the
Tvind organization are driving textile companies in Malawi, Mozambique, and Kenya out of