Church Of Scientology Perth - An Overview

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Unfortunately, the church continues to be confronted with it - is scientology a religion. And the paradoxical thing is that the individuals being challenged with it are individuals who cleaned it out. And to the church, that's a very 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 using private detectives, including former and present Los Angeles law enforcement officer.


The Scientology company has actually continued to strongly target individuals it considers suppressive. In 1998, concerning its announcement that it had employed a private investigator to check out the background of an author who had actually composed a series on the church, Robert W. Thornburg, dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University, said, "Nobody I understand presumes regarding hire outsiders to bug or try to get intimidating data on critics.


In 2007 when BBC journalist John Sweeney was making, an investigative report about the Church and was the topic of harassment: In LA, the moment our hire vehicle left the airport we understood we were being followed by 2 cars. In our hotel a weird complete stranger invested every breakfast listening to us.


Some crucial activities of the Church of Scientology carry risks for members, and the deaths of some Scientologists have actually accentuated the Church both due to the circumstances of their demises and their relationship with Scientology potentially being a factor (Scientologists sign up). In 1995, Lisa McPherson was associated with a minor auto mishap while driving on a Clearwater, Florida street.

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Hospital personnel chose that she had actually not been hurt in the accident, but suggested keeping her overnight for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson declined psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and checked herself out versus medical advice after a brief examination. She was taken to the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Scientology retreat, to get a Church sanctioned treatment called Self-questioning Rundown.




She was locked in a room for 17 days, where she died. Her appearance after death was that of someone who had actually been denied water and food for quite a long time, being both underweight and badly dehydrated. Furthermore, her skin was covered with over one hundred insect bites, presumably from cockroaches.




The Church has actually consistently denied any misbehavior, and now makes members sign a waiver before Introspection Rundown specifically specifying that they (or anybody on their behalf) will not bring any legal action versus the company over injury or death. These charges brought in press coverage and triggered claims. 8 years later on, Elli Perkins, another adherent to Scientology's beliefs regarding psychiatry, was stabbed to death by her psychologically disturbed son.


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

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She was found on January 22, 2008, outfitted just in a shirt. The room she was put behind bars in contained refuse and an insect plagued bed 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 personality test while studying in Nice.


A couple of hours later she committed suicide by jumping from her terrace at her dormitory room leaving a note informing her family she was sorry for not "being great for anything". The event has brought these details forward heavy criticism useful link versus the Church of Scientology from good friends, family and popular Norwegian political leaders.


Members of the general public getting in a Scientology center or mission are offered a "totally free personality test" called the Oxford Capacity Analysis by Scientology literature. The test, despite its name and the claims of Scientology literature, has no connection to Oxford University or any other research body. Scientific research study into 3 test results concerned the conclusion that "we are forced to a position of suspicion about the test's status as a reputable psychometric device" and called its scientific worth "negligible".


Recent legal actions including Scientology's relationship with its members (see Scientology debate) have caused the company to publish substantial legal documents that cover the rights granted to followers. It has actually become basic practice within the organization for members to sign prolonged legal contracts and waivers before taking part in Scientology services, a practice that contrasts greatly with practically every mainstream religious organization.

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I do not think in or subscribe to psychiatric labels for individuals. It is my strongly held religion that all mental problems are spiritual in nature and that there is no look at this website such thing as a mentally incompetent persononly those struggling with spiritual upset of one kind or another dramatized by an individual.


Under no situations, at any time, do I want to be rejected my right to care from members of my faith to the exclusion of psychiatric care or psychiatric directed care, no matter what any psychiatrist, medical person, designated member of the state or household member might assert allegedly on my behalf.




The International Association of Scientologists (IAS), the main Church subscription system given that 1984, has never launched figures. Church representatives either offer numbers for their nations or an around the world figure. Some nationwide censuses have just recently consisted of concerns about religious associations, though the United States Census Bureau states that it is not the source for information on faith.


In 1993, a spokesperson of Scientology Frankfurt had actually mentioned a little more than 30,000 members nationwide. The organization has stated that it has anywhere from eight million to fifteen million members worldwide. Derek Davis stated in 2004 that the Church company has around 15 million members worldwide. Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton has actually stated that the church's estimates of its membership numbers are overemphasized: "You're discussing anybody who ever bought a Scientology book or took a fundamental course.