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Unfortunately, the church continues to be confronted with it. And the ironic thing is that 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 changed from using church members in harassment projects to using personal detectives, including previous and present Los Angeles policeman.


The Scientology company has continued to strongly target people it considers suppressive. In 1998, regarding its announcement that it had actually hired a personal 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, "Nobody I know goes so far regarding work with outsiders to bug or attempt to get intimidating data 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 minute our hire cars and truck left the airport we realised we were being followed by 2 automobiles. In our hotel a strange stranger invested every breakfast listening to us.


Some essential activities of the Church of Scientology bring risks for members, and the deaths of some Scientologists have actually accentuated the Church both due to the situations of their deaths and their relationship with Scientology potentially being a factor. In 1995, Lisa McPherson was involved in a small automobile mishap while driving on a Clearwater, Florida street.

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Medical facility staff chose that she had not been hurt in the mishap, however recommended keeping her over night for observation. Following intervention by fellow Scientologists, McPherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the health center and examined herself out against medical recommendations after a short assessment. She was required to the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Scientology retreat, to receive a Church sanctioned treatment called Self-questioning Rundown.


She was secured a room for 17 days, where she passed away. Her look after death was that of somebody who had actually been denied water and food for rather some time, being both underweight and severely dehydrated. In addition, her skin was covered with over one hundred insect bites, probably from cockroaches.


The Church has repeatedly rejected any misbehavior, and now makes members sign a waiver prior to Introspection Rundown specifically mentioning that they (or anybody on their behalf) will not bring any legal action against the organization over injury or death. These charges brought in press protection and sparked claims. 8 years later, Elli Perkins, another adherent to Scientology's beliefs concerning psychiatry, was stabbed to death by her mentally disturbed boy.


The death of Elli Perkins at the hands of a disrupted member of the family, one whose see here now disease might have been treated by approaches and medications prohibited by Scientology, again raised concerns in the media about the Church's techniques. In addition, the Church has actually been implicated in kidnapping members who have just recently left the church.

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She was discovered on January 22, 2008, outfitted only in a t-shirt. The room she was locked up in contained refuse and an insect plagued 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 few hours later she devoted suicide by leaping from her terrace at her dorm space leaving a note telling her household she was sorry for not "being great for anything". Church of Scientology Perth. The occurrence has brought forward heavy criticism against the Church of Scientology from friends, family and prominent Norwegian political leaders.


Members of the public getting in a Scientology center or mission are provided a "totally free character test" called the Oxford Capability Analysis by Scientology literature. The test, despite its name and the claims Scientology of Scientology literature, has no connection to Oxford University or any other research study body. Scientific research into three test results concerned the conclusion that "we are forced to a position of suspicion about the look at this site test's status as a reliable psychometric device" and called its scientific value "minimal".


Current legal actions involving Scientology's relationship with its members (see Scientology debate) have actually caused the company to publish comprehensive legal files that cover the rights approved to followers. It has ended up being basic practice within the company for members to sign lengthy legal contracts and waivers before taking part in Scientology services, a practice that contrasts greatly with nearly every mainstream religious company.

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I do not think in or register for psychiatric labels for people. It is my strongly held religious belief that all mental problems are spiritual in nature and that there is no such thing as a psychologically inept persononly those suffering from spiritual upset of one kind or another dramatized by a person.


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 member of the family might assert apparently on my behalf.


The International Association of Scientologists (IAS), the official Church membership system considering that 1984, has never launched figures. Church spokespersons either offer numbers for their countries or an around the world figure. Some national censuses have just recently consisted of questions about religious affiliations, though the United States Census Bureau states that it is not the source for information on faith. Scientology.


In 1993, a representative of Scientology Frankfurt had actually mentioned a little more than 30,000 members nationwide. The company has said that it has anywhere from 8 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 said that the church's price quotes of its membership numbers are exaggerated: "You're speaking about anyone who ever purchased a Scientology book or took a fundamental course.