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A
Brief History of Scientology (continued)
By Jeff
Jacobsen
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| On
January 21, 1986, L. Ron Hubbard passed away.
Despite
his anti-psychiatric stand throughout his life, the prescription
drug Vistaril was found in his system.
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Heber
Jentzsch
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In 1988
Scientology president Heber Jentzsch and 68 other Scientologists
were arrested on fraud
charges in Spain.
Jentzsch
was released on a $1/2 million bond and returned to the United
States.
The case
is ongoing.
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In
1989 the US Supreme Court ruled that "fixed donations"
for auditing in Scientology are not tax-exempt.
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1991 Time magazine published a cover story about Scientology
entitled "The Cult of Greed."
Scientology sued and Time spent $7 million defending themselves
and getting the charges dismissed and retracting one sentence
from the article. |
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Also
in 1991 a Canadian courted granted the largest libel conviction
against Scientology wherein crown attorney Casey Hill won a $1.6
million judgment against Scientology's libel against him.
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In November
18, 1995 a healthy but disturbed Lisa McPherson, a 36 year
old Scientologist, was taken to Scientology's Ft. Harrison
Hotel.
On December
5, she was taken 45 minutes away by van to a Scientologist
doctor, where she was pronounced dead.
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After having been under constant care of Scientologists in a Scientology
hotel, she was severely dehydrated, had lost up to 40 pounds, had
bug bites, and had bruises all over her body.
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Dr. David
Minkoff eventually had his license
suspended for a year in his role of Lisa's treatment.
The state
filed suit against Scientology but later dropped charges when
the medical examiner, Joan Wood, suddenly changed her testimony.
Lisa's family continues with a wrongful death suit.
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Joan
Wood
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Scientology
today claims to have 8 million members in 129 countries. "Membership,"
though, appears to mean anyone who has taken a course sometime in
Scientology's 50 year history.
The
International Association of Scientologists, Scientology's official
membership organization, reportedly has less than 100,000 members.
The largest concentration of members is in the Los Angeles, California
and Clearwater, Florida areas.
Scientology
considers L. Ron Hubbard's writings to be "scripture"
and therefore follow all his policies.
Featured
Videos
"The
Big Story"
Two
stories from this British series. One takes hidden cameras
into an Org. The second show covers finacial scams.
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"The
Cult Business"
A good
British show dealing with Scientology and how membership
in the cult wreaks havoc upon the family lives of its members.
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