The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
The Battle With The 'Squirrels'
When the Doctrine Leaves the Church
"We call them squirrels," Hubbard once wrote, "because they are so nutty."
Hubbard contended that only church members are qualified to administer his self-improvement-type courses.
Outsiders, he said, inevitably misapply the teachings, wreaking spiritual harm on their subjects.
But those who have launched "independent" Scientology-style centers say Hubbard concocted this as an excuse to eliminate competition so he could charge exorbitant prices for his courses.
As far back as 1965, Hubbard demonstrated his disdain for breakaway groups, ordering his followers to "tear up" the meetings of one such organization and "harass these persons in any possible way."
The intolerance still exists.
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
A Lawyer Learns What It's Like to Fight the Church
Yanny was frisked and the vehicle was searched. No drugs or firearms were found, and he was released.
Police later concluded that the tipster had given a false name, leading them to speculate that Yanny had been set up for harassment.
And Yanny, though he can't prove it, is certain he knows by whom: his former client, the Church of Scientology.
"I am," he said with some pride, "probably Public Enemy No. 1 as far as they are concerned."
Today, Yanny and Scientology are locked in bitter litigation. Their dispute illustrates how battles with the Church of Scientology often degenerate into nasty, costly wars of retribution and endurance.
Yanny worked for the church from 1983 to 1987, earning, by his estimate, $1.8 million in legal fees.
His chief job was to represent Scientology in a suit it brought against a former top church executive accused of conspiring to steal the church's secret teachings. In 1986, Yanny scored a major victory for the church during a pretrial hearing.
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
Neither Side Blinks in a Lengthy Feud
In 1984, the IRS's Los Angeles office launched a far-ranging criminal investigation into allegations by high-level Scientology defectors that the movement's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, had skimmed millions of dollars from the church.
The probe was dropped after Hubbard's death in 1986. A Justice Department source told The Times that, with the primary target gone, the point was moot. But church executives say the IRS had no case because the allegations were untrue.
Scientology, for its part, has brought numerous lawsuits against the IRS, accusing the agency of everything from harassment to illegally withholding public records. In the 1970s, overzealous Scientologists went so far as to bug an IRS office in Washington, D.C.--a crime that led to their imprisonment.
More recently, through a group called the National Coalition of IRS Whistleblowers, Scientologists have embarrassed the very branch within the agency that initiated the criminal investigation of Hubbard.
The coalition, founded in the mid-1980s by the Church of Scientology's Freedom magazine, helped fuel a 1989 congressional inquiry into alleged wrongdoing by the former chief of the IRS's Criminal Investigations Division in Los Angeles and other agency officials.
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
On the Offensive Against an Array of Suspected Foes
Consider the passage that a prominent Scientology minister selected from the religion's scriptures, authored by the late L. Ron Hubbard, to inspire the faithful during a gala church event.
"People attack Scientology," the minister quoted Hubbard as saying. "I never forget it; always even the score."
The crowd cheered.
As far back as 1959, Hubbard warned that illness and even death can befall those seeking to impede Scientology, known within the church as "suppressive persons."
"Literally, it kills them," Hubbard wrote, "and if you don't believe me I can show you the long death list."
He told the story of an electrician who bilked the organization. "Within a few weeks," Hubbard said, "he contracted TB."
Scientology seems committed not only to fighting back, but to chilling potential opposition. For years, the church has been accused of employing psychological warfare, dirty tricks and harassment-by-lawsuit to silence its adversaries.
The church has spent millions to investigate and sue writers, government officials, disaffected ex-members and others loosely defined as "enemies."
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
Suits, Protests Fuel a Campaign Against Psychiatry
The uproar over Ritalin was triggered almost single-handedly by the Scientology movement.
In its fight against Ritalin, Scientology was pursuing a broader agenda. For years, it has been attempting to discredit the psychiatric profession, which has long been critical of the self-help techniques developed by the late L. Ron Hubbard and practiced by the church.
The church has spelled out the strategy in its newspaper, "Scientology Today."
"While alerting parents and teachers to the dangers of Ritalin," the newspaper stated, "the real target of the campaign is the psychiatric profession itself. . . . And as public awareness continues to increase, we will no doubt begin to see the blame for all drug abuse and related crime move onto the correct target--psychiatry."
The contempt Scientologists hold for the psychiatric profession is rooted in Hubbard's writings, which constitute the church's doctrines. He once wrote, for example, that if psychiatrists "had the power to torture and kill everyone, they would do so. . . . Recognize them for what they are; psychotic criminals--and handle them accordingly."
Hubbard's hatred of psychiatry dated back to the 1950 publication of his best-selling book "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." It was immediately criticized by prominent mental health professionals as a worthless form of psychotherapy.
Hubbard used his church as a pulpit to attack psychiatrists as evil people, bent on enslaving mankind through drugs, electroshock therapy and lobotomies. He convinced his followers that psychiatrists were also intent on destroying their religion.
Shrinks fight back against Cruise missile
The Battle With The 'Squirrels'
When the Doctrine Leaves the Church
"We call them squirrels," Hubbard once wrote, "because they are so nutty."
Hubbard contended that only church members are qualified to administer his self-improvement-type courses.
Outsiders, he said, inevitably misapply the teachings, wreaking spiritual harm on their subjects.
But those who have launched "independent" Scientology-style centers say Hubbard concocted this as an excuse to eliminate competition so he could charge exorbitant prices for his courses.
As far back as 1965, Hubbard demonstrated his disdain for breakaway groups, ordering his followers to "tear up" the meetings of one such organization and "harass these persons in any possible way."
The intolerance still exists.
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
A Lawyer Learns What It's Like to Fight the Church
Yanny was frisked and the vehicle was searched. No drugs or firearms were found, and he was released.
Police later concluded that the tipster had given a false name, leading them to speculate that Yanny had been set up for harassment.
And Yanny, though he can't prove it, is certain he knows by whom: his former client, the Church of Scientology.
"I am," he said with some pride, "probably Public Enemy No. 1 as far as they are concerned."
Today, Yanny and Scientology are locked in bitter litigation. Their dispute illustrates how battles with the Church of Scientology often degenerate into nasty, costly wars of retribution and endurance.
Yanny worked for the church from 1983 to 1987, earning, by his estimate, $1.8 million in legal fees.
His chief job was to represent Scientology in a suit it brought against a former top church executive accused of conspiring to steal the church's secret teachings. In 1986, Yanny scored a major victory for the church during a pretrial hearing.
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
Neither Side Blinks in a Lengthy Feud
In 1984, the IRS's Los Angeles office launched a far-ranging criminal investigation into allegations by high-level Scientology defectors that the movement's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, had skimmed millions of dollars from the church.
The probe was dropped after Hubbard's death in 1986. A Justice Department source told The Times that, with the primary target gone, the point was moot. But church executives say the IRS had no case because the allegations were untrue.
Scientology, for its part, has brought numerous lawsuits against the IRS, accusing the agency of everything from harassment to illegally withholding public records. In the 1970s, overzealous Scientologists went so far as to bug an IRS office in Washington, D.C.--a crime that led to their imprisonment.
More recently, through a group called the National Coalition of IRS Whistleblowers, Scientologists have embarrassed the very branch within the agency that initiated the criminal investigation of Hubbard.
The coalition, founded in the mid-1980s by the Church of Scientology's Freedom magazine, helped fuel a 1989 congressional inquiry into alleged wrongdoing by the former chief of the IRS's Criminal Investigations Division in Los Angeles and other agency officials.
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
On the Offensive Against an Array of Suspected Foes
Consider the passage that a prominent Scientology minister selected from the religion's scriptures, authored by the late L. Ron Hubbard, to inspire the faithful during a gala church event.
"People attack Scientology," the minister quoted Hubbard as saying. "I never forget it; always even the score."
The crowd cheered.
As far back as 1959, Hubbard warned that illness and even death can befall those seeking to impede Scientology, known within the church as "suppressive persons."
"Literally, it kills them," Hubbard wrote, "and if you don't believe me I can show you the long death list."
He told the story of an electrician who bilked the organization. "Within a few weeks," Hubbard said, "he contracted TB."
Scientology seems committed not only to fighting back, but to chilling potential opposition. For years, the church has been accused of employing psychological warfare, dirty tricks and harassment-by-lawsuit to silence its adversaries.
The church has spent millions to investigate and sue writers, government officials, disaffected ex-members and others loosely defined as "enemies."
The Scientology Story: Attack the Attacker
Suits, Protests Fuel a Campaign Against Psychiatry
The uproar over Ritalin was triggered almost single-handedly by the Scientology movement.
In its fight against Ritalin, Scientology was pursuing a broader agenda. For years, it has been attempting to discredit the psychiatric profession, which has long been critical of the self-help techniques developed by the late L. Ron Hubbard and practiced by the church.
The church has spelled out the strategy in its newspaper, "Scientology Today."
"While alerting parents and teachers to the dangers of Ritalin," the newspaper stated, "the real target of the campaign is the psychiatric profession itself. . . . And as public awareness continues to increase, we will no doubt begin to see the blame for all drug abuse and related crime move onto the correct target--psychiatry."
The contempt Scientologists hold for the psychiatric profession is rooted in Hubbard's writings, which constitute the church's doctrines. He once wrote, for example, that if psychiatrists "had the power to torture and kill everyone, they would do so. . . . Recognize them for what they are; psychotic criminals--and handle them accordingly."
Hubbard's hatred of psychiatry dated back to the 1950 publication of his best-selling book "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health." It was immediately criticized by prominent mental health professionals as a worthless form of psychotherapy.
Hubbard used his church as a pulpit to attack psychiatrists as evil people, bent on enslaving mankind through drugs, electroshock therapy and lobotomies. He convinced his followers that psychiatrists were also intent on destroying their religion.
Shrinks fight back against Cruise missile
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