7 The Underwoods' Letters

Carmel Underwood’s letter listed a number of abuses: but her experience of a series of devastatingly hostile interrogations recalls similar ...

6 Kevin Mackey's Letter

Scientology’s relentless hard sell has driven some members to the edge of bankruptcy, wrote one former member who had experienced such tacti...

Paul Schofield´s Letter

Paul David Schofield described how Scientology was complicit in the cover-up of child sexual abuse – and how he helped them hide the truth a...

16 John Lindstein's Lawsuit

-- UPDATE: SETTLED OUT OF COURT, DECEMBER 2010 -- Scientology leader David Miscavige has been targeted in a lawsuit by a former member who s...

4 The Detheridge letters

Dean and Ana Detheridge provided further evidence of the hard sell tactics used inside Scientology in their letter to Senator Xenophon, corr...

3 Saxton's letter II: in the US

While Scientology’s executives lived the good life, ordinary staff were over-worked, underfed and subject to arbitrary punishment, wrote Aar...

2 Aaron Saxton's letter I: Australia

Coerced abortions, chasing down runaways, disconnection orders: in his letter, Aaron Saxton described how, as well as suffering abuse, he de...

The Letters filed to Senate

As well as summarising former Scientologists' allegations against the movement in his Senate speech, Australian Senator Nick Xenophon ta...

1 Australian senator attacks 'criminal' Scientology

An Australian senator has called for a parliamentary inquiry into Scientology – and the allegations made by former members he cited could he...

1 Two new books... and a golden oldie

Two new books by ex-members and a golden oldie reissued by a veteran critic of the movement have added to Scientology’s worries in recent we...

The Court's Ruling

Here is a summary of the verdict and sentences in the Paris trial of Scientology. I have laid it out in the same style I used for What the P...

37 ...defending the Celebrity Centre

June 17: The Celebrity Centre should not be convicted on the basis of prejudice and preconceptions against Scientology, lawyer Patrick Maiso...

36 ...defending the bookshop

June 17: SEL, France's network of Scientology bookshops, is the victim of a modern witch hunt in which the trappings of the movement...

35 ...for the defendant Rosenberg

June 17: Alain Rosenberg, 40 years devoted to Scientology, should not be convicted because out of thousands of happy Scientologists, three p...

34 ...for the defendant Michaux

June 16: Dedicated Scientologist Didier Michaux has been tried in an atmosphere tainted by media hysteria and soured by a prosecution summin...

33 ...for the defendant Valli

June 16: Devoted Scientologist Jean-François Valli risks being convicted for his beliefs because the government has left the job of dealing ...

32 ...for the defendant Jacquart

June 16: Sabine Jacquart is a scapegoat in a symbolic trial against Scientology, said her lawyer, citing a host of distinguished legal autho...

31 ...for the defendant Fabre

June 16: Aline Fabre’s accusers decided she was guilty simply because she was a Scientologist: but they have not built a proper case against...

30 ...for the defendant Pasturel

June 16: Marie-Anne Pasturel, accused of the illegal practice of pharmacy, is a victim of France’s obsession with prosecuting ‘cults’ and it...

29 ...for the Prosecution II

June 15: The second half of the prosecution’s closing arguments focussed on the evidence of fraud – both on the part of the individual defen...

28 ...for the Prosecution I

June 15: The prosecutors’ closing arguments created a sensation at the trial: they called for the dissolution of the two organisations charg...

27 ...for the remaining Plaintiffs

June 15: Unscrupulous organisations can gain a psychological hold on people, argued the lawyer for the plaintiffs -- and Scientology is a pa...

26 ...for the Pharmacists

June 15: The medicinal claims made for Scientology’s Purification Rundown – and the high doses of vitamins used – amount to the illegal prac...

25 Confrontations

As the third week of the trial drew to a close the main plaintiff, Aude-Claire Malton, fended off a final challenge from the defence lawyers...

24 The Bookshop

Scientology’s network of bookshops in France, SEL, is entirely independent of the Paris Celebrity Centre, a representative insisted – a key ...

23 The Celebrity Centre II

The Purification Rundown is a religious purification rite that cures nothing, Scientologist Eric Roux told the court. When the subject of ...

38 The Great Escape?

Sept. 15: A hitherto unnoticed change in French law will prevent a court from dissolving the two Scientology organisations charged in the Pa...

22 The Celebrity Centre I

The personality test is not a major recruitment tool, 100 percent of refund requests are granted and “hard sell” means taking care of people...

21 Picard for UNADFI

Should UNADFI, the French anti-cult federation, be allowed the status of plaintiff in the case against Scientology? UNADFI president Catheri...

20 Irreconcilable Differences

As more Scientologists spoke up for the defendants and their own beliefs, the gulf between their vision of accused and that of the plaintiff...

19 The True Believers

More witnesses stepped forward to speak up for the defendants – and denounce what they said was French persecution of their religion.The fin...

18 The Maestro, the Scholar – and the Psychiatrist

A succession of defence witnesses lined up to defend Scientology: an internationally recognised concert pianist, a distinguished academic – ...

17 A Doctor backs the Rundown

A US doctor mounted a vigorous defence of Scientology’s Purification Rundown, the controversial treatment at the centre of the Paris trial. ...

16 The Apostate, Gonnet II

Scientology’s Purification Rundown is so dangerous it almost killed one of his clients, former Scientologist Roger Gonnet told the Paris cou...

15 The Apostate, Gonnet I

Day six, June 8: Scientology’s personality test is fixed to exaggerate people’s weaknesses and Scientologists themselves are trained to lie ...

14 Jean-Pierre Brard: Suppressive Person

Day Six, June 8: veteran politician Jean-Pierre Brard sketched a damning profile of Scientology in a presentation that ranged from its finan...

13 The E-Meter Experts

Day 5, June 3: Scientology called two expert witnesses to defend the effectiveness of the e-meter used in their counselling sessions – but d...

Note 5: Kirchner on the E-meter

Note Five to Section 13 The E-Meter Experts: “Curiously enough, when Kirchner drew up his 1994 report, it had been the defendant Alain Rosen...

12 The Defendant Jacquart II

The second half of Sabine Jacquart’s testimony proved to be as emotional as the first as the prosecution and lawyers for the plaintiffs took...

11 The Defendant Jacquart I

Day 5 (June 3): Between tears and anger, the former president of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre denounced what she called the persecut...

10 The Defendant Rosenberg II

“Our concern is ethics, honesty, respect”Now Judge asked Rosenberg about Aude-Claire Malton, who by quitting her job to come and work for th...

9 Rosenberg's testimony I

Day 4 (June 2): Alain Rosenberg, "managing director" of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre, presented a vigorous defence – to th...

15 Former lieutenants denounce Miscavige

Hats off to the St Petersburg Times: by getting two of David Miscavige’s key former lieutenants to go public on the violence and abuse at th...

Paris trial: what the prosecution wants

Just a brief update on the trial because I won't get to it in my coverage for a good while yet...Coverage will resume shortly. The prose...

8 Purification Rundown: defendants

Day 4 (June 2): The court trying six Scientologists and two Scientology associations heard from one of the defendants responsible for managi...

7 The Purification Rundown

Day 4 (June 2): an expert witness dismissed Scientology’s Purification Rundown as quackery as the Paris trial considered the high doses of v...

6 Pierre Auffret's Story

Day 3 (May 27): a Paris court heard how a company director's massive spending on Scientology put his business at risk. The court had bee...

5 The Psychiatrist's Testimony

(Day 3: May 27) Scientology’s techniques abuse the transference process familiar to all therapists, a psychiatrist told the Paris trial of t...

4 The Second Plaintiff

Day 3 (May 27): the second plaintiff in the Paris trial of Scientology told the court how her employer put her under ever-increasing pressur...

3 The Defendant Michaux

On the third day of the Paris trial of Scientology, the judge told a former plaintiff’s story – and questioned another of the defendants, on...

2 The Defendant Valli

After the first plaintiff, Aude-Claire Malton, had testified, defendant Jean-François Valli, who had dealt with Malton during her time in Sc...

1 The original Plaintiff

At the Paris trial of two Scientology associations and six of its members, the court heard first from the original plaintiff in the case.A s...

Scientology on trial in France

A Paris court is to try six Scientologists and two of the movement’s associations in a case that could lead to much of its operations there ...

5 A tougher regime

Life at Scientology’s International Base, at Hemet, California, got steadily more oppressive from the early 1990s, former Sea Org member Mau...

4 Int Base in the '80s

Former Sea Org member Maureen Bolstad’s move from Flag Base in Florida to the International Base at Hemet, California, was in some ways a re...

3 Messenger training

Maureen Bolstad was sent to California to be trained to work beside the movement’s founder: but she wasn’t told the whole story about L. Ron...

2 Life at Flag

Scientology describes its Flag Land Base in Florida as “The Friendliest Place in the Whole World”. New recruit Maureen Bolstad got a very di...

1 The early years

As a teenager, Maureen Bolstad hoped Scientology would help her treat her sick mother: very soon though, she witnessed the disturbing effect...

14 Laura DeCrescenzo's Lawsuit

Another former Sea Org member is suing Scientology: recruited at the age of 12, she eventually became so desperate to escape she swallowed b...

13 The Story So Far...

Increasing numbers of once highly placed Scientologists are speaking publicly against the movement: and their accounts corroborate the claim...

9 Abuse in the Sea Org

To be in Scientology’s Sea Organization is to be part of the movement’s self-styled elite: but some former insiders have bitter memories of ...

Introduction

With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over mat...

11 Claire Headley's lawsuit

A former Scientologist has filed a lawsuit alleging that members of the movement’s Sea Org were put under unreasonable pressure to have abor...

1 Marc Headley's lawsuit

Scientology leader David Miscavige has been targetted in a lawsuit from a former member who says he and fellow workers were subjected to “as...

5 Marc Headley's Story

Former Scientologist Marc Headley’s September 2008 speech in Germany marked a significant development in the campaign against the movement. ...