Cult News

Janet Reitman wrote a 13,000-word article for the February 23rd  issue of Rolling Stone magazine titled “Inside Scientology.” It may well be the most comprehensive and meticulous journalistic work about the controversial church written since 1991, when Rich Behar completed the cover story “Scientology: The Cult of Greed” for Time Magazine.

Though not as tough as the Time piece Reitman’s effort may pack enough punch, according to Fox News entertainment reporter Roger Friendman, to “drive a permanent wedge between Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner.”

However, there isn’t anything really that new in Rolling Stone. Essentially it’s a rehash of Scientology’s turbulent history and the often-troubled life of its founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Included are some compelling personal stories of kids that have suffered through and left Scientology, rejecting their family religion.

An obligatory paean if of course is included regarding Hubbard’s absurd “space opera” about an “evil galactic warlord named Xenu,” which Scientologists accept as religious truth.

Somewhat amusing was Mike Rinder, Scientology’s “Number Two,” getting red faced and going into a “tirade” over Reitman’s questions concerning the unusual belief. “I’m not explaining it to you, and I could not explain it to you…you don’t have a hope of understanding it,” he said. 

The comedy show South Park apparently did understand “Xenu,” as a joke.

Rolling Stone did clarify that though Scientology “claims 10 million members” and has holdings valued “in the billions of dollars” it may actually only have “a core practicing membership…between 100,000 and 200,000.”

Nothing new here, but worth including. Some “journalists” never bother to qualify the claims of Scientology.

In fact according to one set of figures Reitman cited “Scientology is shrinking.”

Maybe that’s why Tom Cruise is always frantically proselytizing and Scientology’s “volunteer ministers” keep showing up at disasters around the world in those bright yellow jackets?

Rolling Stone did the requisite debunking of L. Ron Hubbard’s grandiose official biography. Scientology’s “genius” flunked out of college and was no war hero. He also wasn’t a very loyal friend to his benefactor Whiteside Parsons. After moving in with the wealthy scientist and “helping him with a variety of black-magic and sex rituals” as his “apprentice” Hubbard took up with the man’s mistress, who later became one of his wives.

Perhaps the most interesting facts reported by Reitman were about Scientology’s savior’s death.

According to a coroner’s report Rolling Stone cited Hubbard expired “in a state of decrepitude: unshaven, with long, thinning whitish-red hair and unkempt fingernails and toenails.” And within his “system was the anti-anxiety drug hydroxyzine (Vistaril).”

Sounds a bit like the last days of strange reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. Now what would Tom Cruise say about that?

Scientology’s “Top Gun” criticized Brooke Shields for psychiatric drug use, would he criticize the savior of Scientology for the same supposed “sin”?

Hubbard didn’t like homosexuals, which may explain why some Scientologists are purportedly “trapped in the closet.” And if they ever “come out” he advised that “such people should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible” because “no social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst” quoted Rolling Stone.

The founder of Scientology would be an anachronism in today’s Hollywood given the Oscar nominations for a “gay cowboy movie” and another film based upon the work of the effete author Truman Capote.

Don’t expect Tom Cruise or John Travolta to hand out an Oscar to somone associated with one of those two films.

The only really startling thing about Janet Reitman’s piece for Rolling Stone is how commonplace Scientology revelations have now become.

Once it was daring for a reporter to expose the dark side of the controversial church, now it’s expected and everyone seems to know about “Xenu.”

Another interesting development is that Scientology doesn’t sue like it used to. South Park literally dared the formerly litigious church, but it demurred. And it probably won’t sue Rolling Stone either.

It seems that Scientology has learned that suing its critics only affords them more attention, engenders bad press and further criticism.

Maybe the cebrity handlers at the church could help Tom Cruise calm down, isn’t there a course they can sell him for that?

Before the release of his blockbuster album Thriller Michael Jackson used to walk the blocks going door-to-door as one of “Jehovah’s Witnesses.” He has since separated himself from his family religion and it seems most recently decided to embrace Islam.

Jackson is now hanging his hat and glove in Bahrain, courtesy of the ruler’s son, and the star reportedly plans to build a mosque to honor his newfound faith reports Web India.com.

The planned 98-foot edifice would be built on land adjoining the royal compound.

But could this be a mere stunt to please his generous hosts?

“Michael is looking to give something back to the country that has welcomed him so openly,” Jackson’s spokeswoman said. The singer has been in Bahrain since June, moving there shortly after he was acquitted of child molestation charges in California.  

Michael Jackson’s spiritual journey has included his childhood Witness faith, a stint exploring Scientology with ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley and then a turn with Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in the midst of his criminal prosecution as an alleged pedophile.

Arguably, religion for Jackson seems to spring forth more as a pragmatic response to his circumstances rather than through any personal revelation. 

Once the “King of Pop” Jackson is now the beggar of kings according to Roger Friedman of Fox News who says he is “Bahrain’s most famous celeb freeloader.”

“Neverland may no longer be insured, the zoo animals are looking for a new home and staff remains unpaid” reports Friedman. And Jackson’s ex-wife Deborah Rowe has been waging a legal battle against the singer along with a growing line of litigants trying to get at whatever is left of the star’s assets.

Even his lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. dumped Jackson amidst rumors that he is behind on his legal bills.

So it appears it’s a good time to get religion, which might buy the “Gloved One” more time as a special guest in Bahrain.

But the former “Peter Pan” of Neverland better be careful in the Arab emirate. Islamic law is harsh when it comes to pedophiles. And homosexual acts are a crime “punished by 10 years of imprisonment maximum. When the victim is under 14 years of age…punishable even with the consent of the victim” cites Sodomy Laws.org.  The same Web site reports that in 2002 Bahrain deported 2,000 gays.

Jackson has been spotted dressed in Arab drag shopping; one salesman thought he was a “wealthy Saudi woman” reports Associated Press. “I looked at the person’s shoes and found they were men’s shoes. That’s when I guessed it was Michael Jackson,” he said.

The former superstar may find things increasingly difficult in his newfound homeland.

“He should keep his concerts and his effeminate manners away from us,” said Bahrain lawmaker Adel al-Maawda, one of the country’s most conservative clerics.

So regardless of whatever religious epiphany Jackson claims to have experienced lately, he better watch his step.

San Francisco’s Mayor Gavin Newsom is dating actress Sofia Milos star of the TV series CSI Miami, there’s just one problem, she’s a Scientologist.

And per what seems to be something of a religious rite within the controversial church, if an outsider becomes romantically involved with one of its stars Scientology is along for the ride.

The beautiful Ms. Milos is quite a nice package, but dating her is a package deal, and partaking in romance with Scientology stars means going to church.

Just ask Katie Holmes who reportedly spends hours at a Scientology center every day.

The CSI star hasn’t even known the mayor a month and she has already gotten him to attend a Scientology-linked function.

With Mayor Newsom in tow Milos showed up at the annual dinner bash of the “Citizens Commission for Human Rights” in Los Angeles, a group co-founded by Scientology that essentially spends its time bashing psychiatrists and any drug they might prescribe.

Ms. Milos has “spoken out in support of legislation to stop the psychiatric drugging of children” reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

More troubling than any anti-Ritalin crusade though might be Scientology’s founder’s beliefs concerning homosexuality. After all San Francisco is pretty gay city.

Maybe the mayor should pick up a copy of this months Rolling Stone, which is at times can be quite revealing in an article titled “Inside Scientology.”

According to the magazine L. Ron Hubbard thought homosexuality “was a form of sexual ‘deviance'” and it allegedly “ranks low on Scientology’s ‘tone scale.'” a supposed register of human behavior.

Hubbard also wanted his followers to know that homosexuals “should be taken from the society as rapidly as possible . . . for here is the level of the contagion of immortality and the destruction of ethics.” He said, “No social order will survive which does not remove these people from its midst.”

Doesn’t sound like Scientology’s savior would have enjoyed a stroll through the gay Castro district of San Francisco, nor is it likely that the “Citizens Commission for Human Rights” will be lobbying any time soon for the right of gays to marry as the mayor did.

This may eventually quash the whole dating thing between Sophia Milos and Gavin Newsom, and it’s probably those little Hubbardisms that are giving what the Chronicle calls “political heartburn” to the mayor’s advisors.

One thing is for sure. If the mayor’s heart is really yearning or burning for Sophia Milos he better do two things quick.

First, make sure his divorce is final from Court TV commentator Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Second, get a copy of L. Ron Hubbard’s book Dianetics and start studying up.

Note: The mayor also might want to study up on why San Francisco schools dropped a Scientolog-linked program called Narconon.

A new database section devoted exclusively to Landmark Education’s litigation efforts is up and running. This includes Landmark’s humiliating defeat by lawyers representing CultNews and its sponsor the Ross Institute of New Jersey.

The new subsection contains interesting material obtained through various court files that sheds considerable light upon the legal wrangling, inner workings and business dealings of the controversial for-profit company that sells seminar training courses.

The mass maarathon training that Landmark promotes and markets to individuals and companies alike has been described as “cultish,” “cult-like” and compared to both “brainwashing” and “hypnosis.”

Landmark, which has a history of bad press, complaints and lawsuits filed against it by past participants claiming serious personal injuries linked to its programs, has historically sued its critics in an apparent effort to silence them.

This strategy relied upon defendants either unable or unwilling to pay substantial legal fees and costs. This type of litigation is often simply called a “harassment lawsuit.”

However, Landmark was thwarted in its effort to harass the Ross Institute through the kind assistance of pro bono legal counsel and so it instead suffered a humiliating public defeat.

Now everyone can read how that defeat was accomplished and take a guided tour through Landmark’s litigation written by the very attorneys that caused the company for the first time to file for the dismissal of its own lawsuit.

Peter L. Skolnik and Michael A. Norwick of the prestigious New Jersey law firm Lowenstein Sandler have written an excellent overview making it easy for the reader to follow the often twisted path of Landmark’s litigation, see the filings complete with attached exhibits.

Landmark, formerly known as EST, was initially concocted by Jack Rosenberg a former car and encyclopedia salesman, who later changed his name to “Werner Erhard.”

Erhard reportedly sold control of his company to a group of employees more in 1991, but it has been run by his brother Harry Rosenberg and legally represented by Erhard crony Art Schreiber ever since. Some have speculated that Erhard never really completely relinquished control of the company and still remains a power behind-the-scenes.

The papers formalizing the sale of EST are now accessible on-line through the Internet in the new subsection, complete with payment records. Erhard, who is now an old man, lives reclusively with his girlfriend in the Cayman Islands at Georgetown.

Confidential manual excerpts reflect the seemingly sinister side of Landmark’s inner workings. Its training manual states, “a Landmark Forum Supervisor’ needs to be an s.o.b. for impeccability. You need to give up a concern for being liked. . . . Be a destroyer. . . . ” and “Don’t ever let people move or stand up or talk before you have declared the start of the break. Don’t ever let stuff like that go by. Ever, ever, ever.”

Landmark’s various apparent harassment lawsuits are detailed within the new subsection. This includes documents and related exhibits from Landmark’s litigation against Erhard biographer Steven Pressman, Elle Magazine, Self Magazine, Now Magazine, the Cult Awareness Network and its director Cynthia Kisser, psychologist and author Margaret Singer, cult deprogrammer Kevin Garvey and author Janja Lalich.

Also included is material from lawsuits filed against Landmark Education, notably Been V. Weed regarding a wrongful death claim and the Neff case, which involved a woman beaten and raped by David Grill when he was the Executive Director of Landmark Education in Dallas, Texas.

Other lawsuits filed against Landmark that are also noted reflect a repeated of personal injury claims. Landmark appeared to address this by insisting potential participants in its programs sign away their right to a trial by jury if an injury occurred and instead submit to binding arbitration. 

All of this material has now been carefully organized into a virtual electronic library, which provides those interested with a historical inventory regarding Landmark’s legal history.

Hopefully, anyone legally threatened by Landmark in the future will use this resource for any needed research or due dilligence.

CultNews hopes that this information may reduce the unreasonable fear some journalists and critics may have regarding reporting about and/or criticizing Landmark Education and its course curriculum.

It should be apparent to anyone reviewing this material that Landmark has lost lawsuits repeatedly. And that any future lawsuit, which fits within this historical pattern of frivolous filings, should be viewed within that context by those concerned such as potential targets, concerned lawyers and the courts.

Perhaps as a result of its most recent defeat and the subsequent public revelations, Landmark’s operators will reconsider filing frivolous lawsuits in the future. If not because this type of activity lacks integrity and is an abuse of the legal system, then because with so much historical information readily available, those harassed may subsequently successfully seek costs, fees and sanctions.

Perhaps Lowenstein Sandler and its able attorneys Peter Skolnik and Michael Norwick have educated Landmark and caused the company to reconsider running what can be seen as a legal “racket.” And just maybe Landmark will learn a lesson from its recent defeat and take responsibility for its actions. Now that would really be a “breakthrough,” wouldn’t it?

It has been observed that Scientology’s most important celebrities seem to almost always have Scientologists nearby in what can be seen as constant surveillance or special handling.

The list of heavy hitters worthy of such an effort has included the very rich Lisa Marie Presley, John Travolta, Tom Cruise, billionaire heir James Packer and most recently Katie Holmes.

A reportedly “creepy” example of this surfaced recently “down under” while Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes visited to attend the funeral of the late Kerry Packer, Australia’s richest man. The couple were constantly shadowed by a “mystery” pair seen at every function that the two attended reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Scientology’s “Top Gun” has himself seemingly been stalking Australian billionaires lately, apparently hoping to land one for his controversial church. This has included heirs to both the Packer and Murdoch fortunes, the two richest families in the country.

But Cruise and Holmes appeared to be getting stalked themselves by another couple.

The female component of this probable Scientology surveillance team was likely Ms. Holmes apparent full-time handler Jessica Rodriquez, now supposedly Katie’s “best friend.” 

The former teen idol, whose career has gone from acting to becoming a suitable mate and child bearer for the “world’s biggest movie star,” may have become the Scientology version of the “Virgin Mary.”

The man shadowing Mr. Cruise remains a complete mystery, but the press described him as both “weird” and “creepy.”

“Every move Tom made, this guy did the same thing…When Tom stripped down to his shorts, so did he,” reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

And the “mystery couple” was busy reporting information to someone.

They “carried their Blackberries everywhere, watching Tom and Katie while incessantly tapping out messages to persons unknown” reported the press.

So it seems Scientology headquarters may never be more than a text tap away when you are as important an asset as Tom Cruise.

This foursome is indeed a bit “weird” and “creepy.”

Former teen idol now mother Britney Spears has called Madonna for advice and the one-time “Material Girl” supposedly is ready to help her when she returns to California reports the Ottawa Sun.

So far Madonna has told the young singing star “to get a first-rate trainer and dietician.”

The 47-year-old diva reportedly “thinks Britney needs major fashion advice and a completely new singing and dancing image — possibly with them performing together,” but she “stopped short” of telling Spears to dump her husband.

However, isn’t all this just a bit presumptious? Should Madonna to be dispensing advice to anyone given her own current problems?

After all she is reportedly coming to California largely because her own five-year marriage is in meltdown. And many have observed that the aging icon has become a bit too obsessed with both exercise and diet.

Rather than face the fact that no one can stop the clock Madonna who is pushing 50 exericises three hours daily and observes a diet that has left here looking more like a victim of malnutrition than an example for Britney to follow.

As for career advice Britney might be better off calling comeback queen Mariah Carey. The curvacious singer hasn’t suffered from her healthy intake of food, as the three Grammy awards she took home recently demonstrate.

Meanwhile all Madonna got out of the Grammys was a hernia. And her husband film director Guy Ritchie, formerly the boy wonder of British cinema, has been in a career slump ever since he teamed up with his wife for film flop Swept Away.  

“Last but not least, [Madonna’s] telling Britney to get back to the teachings of Kabbalah” reported the Ottawa Sun

Those “teachings” don’t seem to have done Madonna much good.

After almost a decade following the dictates of the controversial “Kabbalah Centre” its regimen apparently has failed Madonna. The star once known for reinventing herself, settled for a retro dance albumn with a generous gift from Abba for a hook. And the star’s personal life seems to be increasingly unraveling.

Ms. Spears may be in a bit of slump, but she is still after all on the sunny side of 30. And though Britney may like to hop from one religious group or trend to another she arguably hasn’t gotten stuck yet.

Maybe Britney Spears has something to teach Madonna, which is that there is a time to move on.

Note: Madonna fans have observed that the star could not have won a Grammy for 2005 because her latest disco disk was not elgible. It will be elgible for 2006. 

One of the most inane and perhaps insane films to come out since Battlefield Earth with John Travolta was “What the (bleep)? with J.Z. Knight.

This is a “cult film” that was actually produced by members of a group called a “cult.”

A few of the faithful from the “Ramtha School of Enlightenment” that believe a former housewife and cable saleswoman from Tacoma speaks for a 35,000 dead general named “Ramtha” from the “lost continent of Atlantis” made this stinker.

Now comes the so-called “director’s cut” titled “What the Bleep!?: Down the Rabbit Hole.”

But the producers of this long-winded “New Age” preach-a-thon should have tossed footage of the ridiculous Ramtha down some “hole.”

The not so well received original has reportedly been “bloated into a shameless infomercial for the Ramtha” who offers her boring philosophy in “a droning monotone” reports Phil Villarreal for Scripps Howard. 

Villarreal calls the film “condescending…one-dimensional…Pseudo-scientific and psychological mumbo jumbo.”

Frankly that’s charitable.

Anyone who believes J.Z. Knight speaks for the dead, from Atlantis or anywhere else, is really “Down the Rabbit Hole.”

Moving from one religion to another has become almost a daily event for Britney Spears.

Formerly Baptist Britney has gone from Kabbalah to Hindu and now it’s “yoga.”

Spears was spotted dropping in on “Singh Khalsa” reportedly a “yoga master” and “Sikh.”

The pop star is receiving some kind of “therapy” from the man in his LA home allegedly based upon “ancient Kundalini yoga practices” reports Ireland On-line.

However, it looks like the devotee of a group often called a “cult” has actually taken in the pop star.

Khalsa is associated with 3HO, which stands for the “Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization,” founded by the now deceased “Yogi Bhajan,” a notorious guru that built a following in the United States beginning in the 1970s.

Not exactly a mainstream Sikh, Bhajan was often derided by his more orthodox brethren as a bit of a heretic.

The man revered by his American devotees as “Sin Singh Sahib” was once sued  by his own secretary for fraud, deceit, assault and battery.

A leader immediately below Bhajan that largely ran his New Mexico ashram was indicted for drug running, racketeering and money laundering.

Not exactly the kind of people Ms. Spears should hanging around with now is it?

The star seems to be on an odd spiritual journey and two of the groups that she has wandered into, former galpal Madonna’s Kabbalah Centre and now 3HO have been called “cults.”

Is Britney Spears becoming a “cult hopper”?

It seems like Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is becoming one of Scientology’s special friends.

Not long ago Baca appointed Scientology’s apparent President for life Heber Jentzch to a slot on his “Executive Clergy Advisory Council.”

Then Baca “spearheaded” the “6th Annual Multi-Faith Prayer Breakfast,” which included Jentzch along with Scientologist and sitcom star Jenna Elfman. The former “Dharma” gave a speech pitching a Scientology-linked program called “Criminon.”

Now Baca has shown up at a special fundraiser for another Scinetology-linked project called “Youth for Human Rights International” run by Scientologist Mary Shuttleworth according to a recent press release.

The Sheriff brought his wife to the elegant “gourmet dinner for a select one hundred and twenty guests” at Scientologist and actress Anne Archer’s Brentwood mansion.

The event raised $50,000, more than $400.00 per plate.

Has the Sherif become Scientology’s latest “soup du jour”?

It appears that Tom Cruise continues to have significant influence over the heir to the largest fortune in Australia, which may eventually mean big bucks for Scientology.

“If there is one person whom media scion James Packer knows he can rely on in a crisis, it’s Hollywood star Tom Cruise” gushed the Sydney Morning Herald.

And Packer’s life has been one crisis after another in recent years including an emabarrassing business failure, divorce and now his father’s death, which may make him an easy mark for Scientology.

Cruise, who befriended Packer while filming The Last Samurai in New Zealand, flew down to attend the elder Packer’s funeral with pregnant girlfriend Katie Holmes aboard his private jet.

Reportedly “the friends were believed to have spent [time] in seclusion” after the funeral.

So what is Scientology’s “Top Gun” up to with the heir to Australia’s biggest fortune?

In the past Cruise apparently persuaded Packer to attend Scientology courses and not long therefter the tycoon’s son took on a Scientologist as his live-in personal assistant and tutor.

Sounds a bit like Katie Holmes and here newfound “best friend” who is also a Scientologist and probably the “mystery woman” that accompanied TomKat on their trip “down under.” 

“Mr. Packer has found the man who will help coach and support him through the next phase of his life” predicted the Sydney Morning Herald.

And almost any coaching Cruise provides typically includes Scientology.

Will Packer become prey for his proselytizing friend?

James Packer has previously denied press speculation that he has become a Scientologist, but with his old buddy Tom Cruise hanging around this may easily change.