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Sadly, the church continues to be confronted with it - is scientology a religion. And the ironic thing is that the individuals being challenged with it are the people who cleaned it out. And to the church, that's a really discouraging thing. According to a 1990 Los Angeles Times short article, in the 1980s the Los Angeles branch mainly switched from using church members in harassment campaigns to utilizing personal detectives, including former and current Los Angeles policeman.


The Scientology organization has continued to aggressively target people it considers suppressive. In 1998, concerning its statement that it had actually hired a private detective to look into the background of a writer who had composed a series on the church, Robert W. Thornburg, dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, said, "No one I know presumes as to work with outsiders to bother 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 moment our hire automobile left the airport we understood we were being followed by 2 vehicles. In our hotel an unusual stranger invested every breakfast listening to us.


Some essential activities of the Church of Scientology carry dangers for members, and the deaths of some Scientologists have brought attention to the Church both due to the situations of their deaths and their relationship with Scientology potentially being an aspect (is scientology a religion). In 1995, Lisa McPherson was associated with a small auto mishap while driving on a Clearwater, Florida street.

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Hospital personnel decided that she had actually not been injured in the accident, but recommended keeping her over night for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson declined psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and examined herself out versus medical advice after a short assessment. She was taken to the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Scientology retreat, to receive a Church sanctioned 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 somebody who had been rejected water and food for quite a long time, being both underweight and significantly dehydrated. In addition, her skin was covered with over one hundred insect bites, most likely from cockroaches.




The Church has repeatedly denied any misbehavior, and now makes members sign a waiver prior to Self-questioning Rundown specifically mentioning that they (or anyone on their behalf) will not bring any legal action versus the company over injury or death. These charges drew in press coverage and triggered claims. Eight years later on, Elli Perkins, another adherent to Scientology's beliefs concerning psychiatry, was stabbed to death by her psychologically disturbed boy.


The death of Elli Perkins at the hands of a disturbed member of the family, one whose illness might have been treated by approaches and medications banned by Scientology, again raised questions in the media about the Church's approaches. In addition, the Church has been linked in kidnapping members who have actually just recently left the church.

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She was found on January 22, 2008, outfitted just in a t-shirt. The room she was sent to prison in contained refuse and an insect infested mattress. On Friday March 28, 2008, Kaja Bordevich Ballo, daughter of Olav Gunnar Ballo, Norwegian parliament member and vice president of the Norwegian Odelsting, took a Church of Scientology character test while studying in Nice.


A couple of hours later she devoted suicide by leaping from her balcony at her dormitory room leaving a note telling her household she was sorry for not "being great for anything". The event has actually advanced heavy criticism versus the Church of Scientology from buddies, family and prominent Norwegian politicians.


Members of the public entering a Scientology center or mission are provided a "totally free character test" called the Oxford Capacity 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 body. Scientific research into 3 test news results came to the conclusion that "we are forced to a position of uncertainty about the test's status as a trustworthy psychometric gadget" and called its clinical worth "negligible".


Recent legal actions including Scientology's relationship with its members (see Scientology debate) have actually caused the company to publish extensive legal documents that cover the rights given to fans. It has actually ended up being basic practice within the organization for members to sign prolonged legal agreements and waivers before participating in Scientology services, a practice that contrasts greatly with nearly every mainstream spiritual company.

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I do not think in or sign up for psychiatric labels for individuals. It is my strongly held faith that all mental issues are spiritual in nature and that there is no such thing as a psychologically inexperienced my link persononly those experiencing spiritual upset of one kind or another dramatized by an individual.


Under no situations, at any time, do I wish to be rejected my right to care from members of my religious beliefs to the exclusion of psychiatric care or psychiatric directed care, regardless of what any psychiatrist, medical person, designated member of the state or relative may assert allegedly on my behalf.




The International Association of Scientologists (IAS), the main Church subscription system because 1984, has actually never launched figures. Church representatives either give numbers for their countries or a worldwide figure. Some national censuses have actually just recently included questions about religious associations, though the United States Census Bureau states that it is not the source for information on religious beliefs.


In 1993, a spokesperson of Scientology Frankfurt had discussed a little more than 30,000 members nationwide. The company has actually said that it has anywhere from eight million to fifteen million members worldwide. Derek Davis specified in 2004 that the Church organization has around 15 million members worldwide. Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton has stated that the church's quotes of its discover this info here membership numbers are exaggerated: "You're speaking about anybody who ever purchased a Scientology book or took a fundamental course.