I have knows a couple of Christians who used to be Jewish - they had nothing really bad to say about their ex-'church' - but they couldn't hold onto that faith.
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I have known a couple of Buddhists who used to be Christian - they had nothing really bad to say about their ex-'church' - but they couldn't hold onto the faith.

I have knows a fair few Atheists who used to be all sorts - they had nothing really bad to say about their ex-'church' - but they couldn't hold on to any faith.

I had encountered a few ex-Scientologists. EVERY SINGLE ONE had LOTS of BAD STUFF to say about their ex-'church'; and that was even iognoring the whole question of FAITH.

Anyone reading this thread, the posts by scientologists are blindingly obvious - sometimes scientologists will say they are not so their 'support' sounds more authentic. Don't buy it. These people are victims of a kind of brain washing and mind control that is extremely effective.

You want to find out whether the dirty stories about an organisation are true or not, you listen to the EX-members, not the current ones - obvious really.

Good to see that this comment thread has brought out the Scitrolls.

Yes, I am sure he IS a nice man, as I am sure most rank and file scienos are, however no matter how the scientology drivels on or sues out of existence the stories and testimonies of this groups abuses just won't go away.

I particulary "liked" the interview on youtube with the ex OSA guy talking about slipping LSD to a pregnant woman. Explain that way scitrolls.

Ken, Reading your column reminds me of the book Siddhartha, one of my favorite books. In the end, the main character achieved happiness helping others. We live in a confused world. Many scientists believe the whole universe started from one lump of matter that exploded. I have yet to hear an explanation of where the lump came from. I find that explanation rather unsatisfying. It is nice to hear of people who are actually working to help others--that seems like a sign of true sanity. Congratulations.

Stewart, Could you give us a study in a peer-reviewed journal on the effectiveness of narcanon? I'm sure we'd all love to know about a program that is as effective as you claim.

Although, of course, you watch too many movies about 'brainwashing'. Passive brainwashing is all around us in any free market culture in the form of advertisements. The very simplest is the corporate logo. Larger brands make sure their logos are seen hundreds of times per day by consumers. This creates a passive positive association with the product and a measurable increase in sales.

Scientology uses a more direct form. The process of auditing involves sitting with a guiding speaker (the auditor) and holding an e-meter (functionally, a primitive lie detector). The subject is then lead through a series of questions and forced to repeat answers until a desired response is heard. While not nearly as mentally shocking as the techniques described above, this can also be a powerful method used to influence people. This is all the more-so since the subject is both emotionally and financially (up to $1000 an hour) invested in coming up with the "correct" responses.

(Note: if the above is factually inaccurate in your opinion, please give accurate information instead of merely stating I was wrong.)

I do provisionally agree with you in one area. I have suffered from psychiatric mis diagnosis and been incorrectly given drugs. However, as an actual victim of the crimes you so freely allege, at no time did I ever detect any malice from my doctor. I have far more standing then you to complain, yet I would say that your vitriol is both overstated and misguided.

Sadly, Mr. Eckersley has unwittingly demonstrated one of the saddest things about the Church of Scientology. He appears to be genuinely interested in helping to make the world a better place, and believes he has the tools and personal abilities to do this due to his belief in Scientology.

This is true of many Scientologists, the "public" Scientologists who are paying the "Church" large sums of money to "improve" themselves through the courses they are taking, the overworked and vastly underpaid "staff" and even those in the more obscure organisations such as the "Sea Org" who sign billion year contracts to demonstrate their determination to continue the work of the "Church" throughout their lifetime, and subsequent re-incarnations.

However, they are driven deep into a closed world whereby their information is deliberately controlled and distorted to make their good intentions tools of the "Church of Scientology".

Mr Eckersley himself is a strong proponent of an organisation called Narconon. This is a supposed "drug rehabilitation" programme which has absolutely no success in the normal peer-reviewed, scientific sense of the word "success". "Successes" claimed by the program are backed up entirely by other organisations from within the control of the "Church of Scientology" and mainly seem to be based on the "confessional" a participant in the program writes at the end of such a program - this is not an acceptable way of measuring the effectiveness of the program in any normal scientific scenario.

However, the claims for the program are echoed throughout the inner PR and outlets for the "Church" until they seem convincing. The fact that it is necessary to aggressively criticise the medical and psychological sciences and disbelieve all of their meticulous research and controlled testing in order to believe this explains the open hostility the "Church" has shown to these professions.

Narconon (and it's sister Criminon) have a reasonable success rate in one field, and one field alone. Recruiting new members to the "Church". The fact that the "Church" is deliberately targeting very vulnerable people as recruits, under the guise of helping them, and utilising the caring nature of it's members to provide the PR, work and finances in order to do this is nothing short of a disgrace.

It is worth taking the claims of humanitarianism from the "Church" and it's members with a pinch of salt. The "Church" of Scientology believes the world can be improved by it's own expansion - when we are *all* members, they will have created a world without war, drug addiction and crime. Ex-members often say that George Orwell's book 1984 is a very close description of what our world would be like when the planet is "Cleared" by the "Church".

Sadly this also means that the members honest "desire to help others" becomes twisted to a "desire to recruit more members" and all of the "Churches" so-called humanitarian efforts are to this purpose. All talk of "charitable work" - apart from a minimal spend on public relations exercises, most of which also contain a recruitment component anyway - are misleading. The charities the "Church" supports are, through a complex inter-twining of organisations and front groups, actually the "Church" itself.