34 ICSA TODAY
God” that I was possessed by 36 demons. That is when the
Major Rite Exorcisms started in September 2010. T
he only role therapy played was to keep me physically
alive.’ While exorcisms and deliverances, where adult
men would restrain her physically in a chair or on the
floor while others would pray over her, telling her that her
screams were the demons manifesting were being done
in full view of some in the college community, it was in the
privacy of the Finnegan Fieldhouse basement where she
said she was ‘forced to endure (Morrier’s) hands violating
me because this is what God revealed to (him) in prayer.’
‘Then it escalated to reliving the details of the sexual
abuse’ she’d endured in her early years ‘because (he said)
that was how God revealed to him I would be healed,’ she
recalled. ...
“‘Instead of receiving God’s forgiveness in confession,
I was forced to relive the details of the very acts he
committed against me, confessing them as if I was the
one responsible for it all. Inside of the confessional,
a place where an intimate encounter with God takes
place, I was violated with his hands, his body and his
abuse of his priestly authority in refusing to absolve me.
The confessional became another place where my soul
entered to die, over and over again.’ She told Bruzzese
the friar violated the sanctity of the oratory and chapel ‘in
order to “purify me” and make me worthy to receive the
Eucharist. The problem was, God always told him I wasn’t
purified enough, God always told him I was not worthy, so
the process repeated. Each time all I did was beg God to
finally make me worthy so it would stop,’ she said.” (Herald-
Star, 03/12/22)
Dallas QAnon cult leader is using indoctrinated kids to
spread his ideas on live streams
“Dallas QAnon cult leader Michael Brian Protzman
is using children to build his following and spread
his QAnon-based beliefs through live-streams on
the messaging app Telegram. On Thursday evening,
Protzman led an hour-long conversation with a 12-year-
old girl on a Telegram livestream. Before the girl joined,
the conversation’s moderators said they aim to spread
Protzman’s teachings to children by featuring more
kid-teachers like the girl, who Protzman and other
adult participants referred to as ‘Tiny.’ Before about 500
subscribers, Protzman and the girl exchanged so-called
‘decodes’ using gematria, a simple alpha-numerical
system in which A =1, B =2, C =3 and so on. All of the
decodes trace nonsensical gematria-based connections
leading back to a few simple conclusions: Q has been
right all along, and Protzman, alongside Donald Trump
and the long-dead JFK and JFK Jr., are about to set
in motion the mass execution of a network of Satan-
worshiping child traffickers who control society. For
example, early in the conversation, the girl laid out a
series of convoluted associations between an alleged
U.S. government mind-control experiment called Project
Montauk, the time on the clock in background of Donald
Trump’s first appearance in the movie Home Alone 2 and
supposed subliminal messaging about a QAnon-like
revolution buried in the 2011 movie The Smurfs. All of
these connections, she claimed, lead back to an 111-acre
island in Australia called Elliott Island, where an Australian
university is leading a marine biology study that somehow
involves the brother of the late alligator wrangler Steve
Irwin.” (Dallas Observer, 03/14/22)
Thousands from Rainbow Family sect plan to descend
on Colorado this summer, making law enforcement
nervous
“The 50th anniversary of the Rainbow Family of Living
Light’s first gathering in Colorado comes this summer and
the group—a sect of hippies that say they stand for peace
and love—appears likely to return to its roots. Sheriff’s
departments in Grand and Jackson counties, alongside
U.S. Forest Service officials, confirmed that the Rainbow
Family appears poised for a month-long gathering in
Colorado this summer. Rainbow Family gatherings can
bring thousands of people together for what Vice reported
amounts to a ‘weird version of Burning Man,’ mixing ‘bikers,
Jesus freaks, computer programmers, naked yogis and
gutter punks,’ looking to escape the thralls of everyday life.
In Colorado, past gatherings led to an uptick in trespassing
and illegal camping charges after seven members told
police they took psychedelic drugs before climbing atop
Boulder Public Library’s roof, the Daily Camera reported.
The group gathers each year for about a week but this year,
marking their 50th anniversary, they’re expected to stick
around for longer. Fliers posted around Jackson County
said they’d gather from June 28 to July 28, said Sheriff
Jarrod Poley. Likely near the Granby area.” (The Denver Post,
04/03/22)
Once thriving Church of Scientology faces extinction,
says cult tracker
“Stephen Kent knew he’d become a threat when the
Church of Scientology sent no fewer than 16 letters to
University of Alberta administrators demanding he stop
disparaging the church. ‘They wrote letter after letter to
different levels of administration—from the president
on down—to curtail my activities, to silence me, to get
me somehow sanctioned,’ said the sociologist and cult
expert. It’s not surprising when you consider Kent has
been tracking the tactics of the church since the early
1980s. As a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University,
he began collecting stories of confinement, sexual assault
and coercion not widely known at the time. Since then
he’s amassed one of the world’s biggest collections of
testimonials and documents on Scientology, and last year

VOLUME 13 |ISSUE 3 |2022 35
co-edited a book with former student Susan Raine, now
a professor at MacEwan University, called Scientology in
Popular Culture. Kent has also become a top go-to expert
for media commentary. Just last month he was quoted in
the Irish Times when the newspaper discovered the church
had sent thousands of pamphlets to Irish schools under
the guise of a human rights organization-just one recent
attempt in a concerted campaign to infiltrate Irish society
and promote the doctrine of Scientology founder L. Ron
Hubbard. But in Kent’s view, the strategy may be just a
desperate ploy to stay alive. There has been significant
opposition to Scientology in Ireland, he said. The last
census revealed its membership at just 87, reflecting
a more global public relations crisis that has been
plaguing the church for years.” (University of Alberta Folio,
01/11/2018)
California supreme court denies Scientology’s petition
to review arbitration and restores lawsuit filed by
Danny Masterson’s accusers
“The California Supreme Court has denied the Church
of Scientology’s petition to review ‘religious arbitration,’
thereby restoring a lawsuit filed by Danny Masterson’s
accusers against the church. It was another loss for the
religious institution, which previously argued its case
to the California Court of Appeal, claiming the court
misstepped when allowing members the ‘sweeping and
unbounded’ right to leave the church. On January 20,
however, it was shut down and determined that church
members cannot be bound to a perpetual agreement to
resolve disputes before a religious arbitration panel after
the members have left the faith.” (Radar Online, 04/21/22)
3 former Scientology workers sue, saying they were
trafficked as children
“A federal lawsuit in Tampa accuses Scientology leader
David Miscavige and the church of forcing child staffers
to work in Clearwater. Gawain Baxter was 6 years old when
he signed a contract agreeing to work for the Church
of Scientology for 1 billion years. He said he spent his
childhood doing manual labor at Scientology’s Flag Land
Base in Clearwater, and getting no education beyond
basic reading, writing and math. At 15, Baxter attempted to
leave by writing a letter to a superior about constant abuse
and intolerable living conditions. Instead, he said, church
officials sent him to Scientology’s Freewinds ship in the
Caribbean, where he worked for little or no wages for 14
years. Through its highly regimented Sea Org workforce,
Scientology officials systematically trafficked Baxter, 39,
and others by indoctrinating them as children and making
it financially, physically and psychologically impossible
for them to leave as adults, according to a lawsuit filed
Thursday in Tampa federal court against Scientology
leader David Miscavige and five church entities. The 90-
page complaint was filed on behalf of Baxter, his wife,
Laura Baxter, and Valeska Paris, who all were raised in
Scientology and worked on the Freewinds, where they said
the church confiscated their passports and identification
documents. They allege six counts of forced labor and
peonage in violation of the Trafficking Victims Protection
Reauthorization Act.” (Tampa Bay Times, 04/30/22)
What is Teal Swan’s real name? All about the cult
leader ahead of Freeform’s the Deep End documentary
“Teal Swan is a self-declared spiritual leader who is
the subject of Freeform’s upcoming documentary The
Deep End. Born in Utah, the internet personality was
named Mary Teal Bosworth before taking up her cult
personality, Teal Swan. Going by various tags like personal
transformation, revolutionary and spiritual catalyst, Swan
runs retreats in the United States and Central America
for her followers called the Teal Tribe. She has a global
cult-like presence with many followers who swear by her
guidance.” (SKPop, July 23 2022)
Cult members let girl die because they thought God
would save her -police
“Twelve members of a religious cult known as ‘The Saints’
have been arrested in connection with the death of an
8-year-old girl who died after being refused life-saving
medication in the belief that God would heal her instead.
Elizabeth Struhs, who suffered from Type 1 diabetes, died
on January 7 at her family’s home in Rangeville, in the
Australian state of Queensland. Her mother and father,
who have since been charged with murder, did not give
her any insulin in the six days leading up to her death,
police said. The couple and other church members held
back on calling paramedics until 5:30 p.m. the day after
the child had died, it’s alleged, because they believed
she would be resurrected, according to the Courier-Mail
newspaper. Earlier this year, the parents, Kerrie and Jason
Struhs, were charged with a string of offenses including
murder, torture and failing to provide the necessities
of life for their daughter, The Guardian reported. The
couple has not yet revealed how they intend to plead.”
(Newsweek, 07/07/22)
David Lynch launches $500 million Transcendental
Meditation program
“The Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive director
announced the initiative on Thursday (April 14) to fund
Transcendental Meditation (TM) training for 30,000
international college students, hoping to inspire the next
generation to ‘become advanced peace-creating