Post Author: Bill Pratt

Ever since I first read about Scientology in Time magazine back in the early 1990’s, I’ve been mystified about why anyone would join up.  The reports in the media about mind control, brainwashing, abuse, and intimidation are legion.  Ex-members and those publicly critical of Scientology are routinely harassed by armies of lawyers and private investigators, according to many sources.

Now there is a new book out by a former high level staffer who was a member of the group for 27 years, Amy Scobee.  Scobee did an interview recently and here are a few excerpts:

You were a member for 27 years. What was the spark plug for your departure?

I became less and less tolerant of the abuse that I witnessed as it got more and more harsh. People were very unhappy, family members were being separated, David Miscavige [the current “leader” of Scientology] committed assault and battery on my friends on numerous occasions.

What are some of the worst things [about Scientology]?

Family disconnection and their manipulation, blackmail and control through the threat of being cut off from family, which has devastating effects, and being denied your “only road to salvation as a spiritual being.”

The way Scientology goes after critics. It’s their policy to utterly annihilate the credibility of anyone speaking out against the “church.” They have done brutal things in the past along these lines and are still pulling these stunts currently.

Another key thing is INFORMATION CONTROL. This is a form of mind control. If one controls what you can and can not see or hear, one is unable to make a rational decision about that matter. Scientology specializes in information control — one is banned from upper levels of “spiritual enlightenment’ if it is discovered that you read anything negative about Scientology or talked to someone about it.

Germany recently declared Scientology a cult. Do you think that’s an accurate definition?

Yes — I believe Scientology is actually a dangerous cult. By definition, a “destructive cult” is a religion or other group which has caused or has a high probability of causing harm to its own members or to others. Some researchers define “harm” in this case with a narrow focus, specifically groups which have deliberately physically injured or killed other individuals, while others define the term more broadly and include emotional abuse among the types of harm inflicted. Both physical and spiritual/mental abuse has occurred, and from what I understand is continuing to occur, within Scientology — at its highest ranks. I observed quite a bit of such destructive action and this is detailed in my new book.

Read the full article for more on this dangerous organization.