Scientologists in Action

2011-12-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

Human Rights Day 2011: Church of Scientology Spearheading Human Rights Education

On the 63rd anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Church of Scientology urges mandatory human rights education as the key to its full implementation of the Declaration.

Human rights are the rights that belong to everyone without exception--to people of any color, creed, age, ethnicity or gender. But as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon pointed out in his Human Rights Day message this year, "...unless we know them, unless we demand they be respected, and unless we defend our rights -- and the right of others -- to exercise them, they will be just words in a decades-old document."

To make the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights known to all, the Church of Scientology has undertaken a massive human rights education initiative, reaching more than 180 million people in 2011 with the information on human rights in 17 languages.

The United Nations estimates that 2.45 million people are trafficked each year, nearly a billion live in hunger, and almost half the world’s population subsists on less than $2.50 a day, making it clear any momentum generated this year must continue and that education and insistence on human rights has never been more vital.

In a global demonstration of support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its 30 rights, Scientology Churches and Missions marked Human Rights Day with seminars, rallies, concerts, round tables, forums and festivals, and helped organize more than 80 human rights walks in 26 countries to raise awareness of the Declaration and the need for its full implementation.

In 1969, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, "The United Nations came up with the answer. An absence of human rights stained the hands of governments and threatened their rules. Very few governments have implemented any part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These governments have not grasped that their very survival depends utterly upon adopting such reforms and thus giving their peoples a cause, a civilization worth supporting, worth their patriotism."

For more than four decades, the Church has worked to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights broadly known. The Declaration appeared in the first edition of Freedom Magazine, the Church’s human rights journal, in 1968. In 1998, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration, the Church carried out the first of five annual cross-European marathons, reaching an estimated 33 million with its message in support of human rights.

Ten years ago, the Church began publishing materials that present the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in terms anyone can understand. These booklets, award-winning public service announcements and human rights documentary videos are available free of charge to any individual or group.

"There are many examples in history of what individuals can accomplish by demanding their rights and insisting on the rights of others," says Rev. Robert Adams, Vice President of the Church of Scientology International. "But a knowledge of these rights comes first. The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, yet in many ways, despite advances, the violations of its articles are as abhorrent today as they were six decades ago. We work with many dedicated groups, organizations, agencies and government bodies to make human rights a reality. To achieve this goal, education in human rights must be mandatory, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be given the force of law."

Since Human Rights Day 2010, through direct action and sponsorship of activities and materials, the Church of Scientology has reached hundreds of millions of people with humans rights information, distributing more than 2 million publications and providing educational materials to more than 45,000 human rights organizations and 4,500 educators and educational institutions.

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The Scientology religion was founded by author and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in the United States in 1954 and has grown to more than 9,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups and millions of members in 165 countries.

2011-10-24T10:18:00.000-07:00

Church of Scientology Cuts Ribbon on Twin Cities Landmark Home in Minnesota’s Capital of St. Paul

Scientologists, guests, state and city officials assembled in downtown St. Paul, Saturday October 22, for the dedication of the new Church of Scientology Twin Cities.

Scientologists, guests, state and city officials assembled in downtown St. Paul, Saturday October 22, for the dedication of the new Church of Scientology Twin Cities. (Event Images: http://www.ScientologyNews.org ). The Church stands at 505 Wabasha Street and was formerly home to the Science Museum of Minnesota. The acquisition of the 82,000-square-foot facility in the heart of St. Paul was necessitated by the meteoric growth of the resident Scientology community. The Church of Scientology Twin Cities is now the largest Scientology facility in the American Midwest and will serve parishioners from Wisconsin to the Dakotas.

Located just blocks from the State Capitol and St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Church is additionally adjacent to the famed Fitzgerald Theater and so forms an “historic square” of buildings in downtown St. Paul. The premises were carefully renovated to preserve its most memorable features, including the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Wabasha Street and the three-story atrium. Also faithfully preserved was the original 300-seat IMAX Theater, now to serve as the Scientology Chapel and community meeting ground for citizens of all denominations. >>

Meet a Scientologist!

2011-09-28T22:39:00.001-07:00

Peter Dunn: All in the Name of Help

Australian Scientologist Peter Dunn has served as a Scientology Volunteer Minister in Haiti, Queensland, and Japan.

At 4 a.m. on March 11, 2011, the shock wave from the magnitude 9 earthquake that triggered a 30-foot tsunami off the northeast coast of Japan reached Australia—not as a physical blast but rather as a summons for Scientologist Peter Dunn to return to Japan and help in her time of need.

Dunn, a native of Adelaide who lives in Sydney, had spent the last few months volunteering in the December 2010 Queensland floods, helping residents of Grantham, the town hardest hit, clean up their homes and neighborhoods.

Having lived in Japan for several years when he served as a staff member at the Church of Scientology of Tokyo, Dunn’s strong affinity for the Japanese people and his sense of duty prompted his departure for Japan.

Described by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan as “the biggest crisis Japan has encountered in the 65 years since the end of World War II," the earthquake and tsunami left more than 20,000 dead or missing, causing an estimated 16.9 trillion yen ($220 billion) in damage and triggering the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl.

Dunn, who also served for several months in Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake, described the scene he encountered in Japan as very different from what he experienced in Port-au-Prince. Although the destruction was worse and more widespread than in Haiti, Japan rebounded, able to quickly leverage far more resources in the relief effort.

As is the custom of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, on arriving in Japan they asked what was needed and wanted and set about providing what was asked. They distributed food and water, worked on the search and rescue operation, and manned shelters. They even arranged bicycle donations so junior high school students could travel over roads still closed to cars and trucks to deliver food and supplies to ill, injured, and elderly residents in and around the city of Kesennuma.

While he was prepared to take on any task needed, Dunn is a Scientology spiritual counselor or auditor—“one who listens,” from the Latin audire, “to hear or listen.” So his main function in Japan was to provide Scientology assists. These are techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that relieve stress and emotional trauma and can speed physical recovery by addressing the spiritual factors in illness and injuries.

“At one shelter, a lady who couldn’t walk when we started rose after a five-minute assist feeling like she wanted to run,” says Dunn. “Another elderly woman was deeply disturbed and told me she expected to die soon. A week later, after daily assists, she had regained her will to live and her enthusiasm and she was bringing life and optimism back to the entire room of 30 survivors in the shelter where she was staying.”

Dunn is proud that in each disaster where he has served, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have addressed the task at hand with industry, willingness and persistence.

“It has been my honor to help hospital-bound amputees in Haiti, polite and gentle Japanese pensioners in homeless shelters, and rough, tough Aussie farmers,” says Dunn. “And each of them know by our actions that we have simply come to help.”

Introduced to Scientology in 1974 when a friend gave him a copy of Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard, Dunn, now 61, found answers he’d long sought about the meaning and purpose of life. What he appreciates most from what he has gained in four decades as a Scientologist is the ability and opportunity to help.

The Scientology Volunteer Minister program was initiated by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1976. There are now hundreds of thousands of people trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister across 185 nations.

News about the Scientology Volunteer Minister at Blog.VolunteerMinisters.Org!

Meet a Scientologist!

2011-08-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Tim Bowles: Idealism in Action

As you read this page, untold millions on five continents are attempting to scratch out a subsistence living, many unsuccessfully, deprived of their basic human rights.A trip to Africa in 2005 changed Tim Bowles’ life.

"When I arrived in Ghana, it was like coming home," he says. "I knew I had to do something to help."

Bowles, an attorney specializing in constitutional law, was in Africa to assist with the Youth for Human Rights International World Tour. Decades of gruesome civil wars have decimated wide regions of sub-Sahara Africa. Of the worst 20 countries in the 2004 Human Development Index, 19 are in Africa.

The wars dismantled the infrastructure, displaced entire villages, and destroyed livelihoods. The result: Widespread poverty and disease.

Bowles was so taken with the youth he met in Africa, and so moved by what they had been through, that he decided to take on the challenge personally.

Dedicated to making a real difference, Bowles returned to the continent the following year to launch a unique initiative. In coordination with a corps of young human rights activists he met there in 2005, each eager to bring about reform in his or her country, he developed the African Human Rights Leadership Campaign, under the banner of Youth for Human Rights. The Campaign has grown to provide young African men and women the training and experience they need to play key roles in creating and sustaining just and prosperous societies over the coming crucial decades.

In friendly competition with each other, teams of high school students generate and conduct public awareness campaigns on human rights abuses they select, based on the articles of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including human trafficking, access to justice and government corruption. They first learn leadership, organizational and communication skills-including public speaking and videography-to present their points of view effectively. In the course of conducting their campaigns through contact with media, a broad range of public and private sector leaders and the general public, the program enables students to become meaningful participants in their respective nation’s social, political and cultural advancement.

"The many remarkably bright young people with whom I have worked since 2005 are determined not to fall into the patterns of hatred to which many of their elders succumbed," says Bowles.

Over the past six years, Bowles and his team of Youth for Human Rights program directors in Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone-and more recently Togo and Ethiopia-have trained nearly 700 youth in more than 150 schools, formed over 300 local human rights groups, and educated some 15,000 high school and junior high school students on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their own responsibility in seeing that these rights are honored.

Bowles’ original decision to enter law followed a trip to India in 1973 where he first confronted the plight of the millions who live in poverty, deprived of human rights. He studied and practiced constitutional law to ensure the rights of others, including his church, were protected.

"I saw law as a helping profession," says Bowles, "one that would provide knowledge and skills to help improve social conditions and advance worthy causes."

The African Human Rights Leadership Campaign brings him full circle with this original purpose, as it is a means to improve the lives of millions. By empowering this and future generations with an understanding of their rights and responsibilities, the Campaign seeks to bring peace and prosperity in regions torn by hatred.

In the video From the Ruins: African Human Rights Leadership, Boersen Hinneh, Youth for Human Rights program director for Liberia, expresses the core concept of the program: "It’s about teaching young people about their basic human rights and responsibilities. And that is the key issue-responsibility. When young people have been exposed to so much violence I think there is a need that they learn their basic rights and responsibilities so that when they get older they will know how to treat their fellow citizens, their fellow man, equally."

A Scientologist since 1975, Bowles says Scientology has enabled him to envision and pursue this purpose.

"I have gained the ability and willingness to confront and deal effectively with enormous challenges," he says. "It has helped me conceive of doing seemingly impossible things and actually do them. Scientology, by its philosophical foundations, its tools, and the examples it sets through members’ actions, is an inspiration, a support and a means to my achieving my role in civilization’s advance."

To learn more about what Scientologists are doing to create a better world, watch "Meet a Scientologist" videos at www.Scientology.org.

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The popular "Meet a Scientologist" profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total more than 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own YouTube Video Channel. The Official Scientology YouTube Channel has now been viewed by millions of visitors.

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Meet a Scientologist!

2011-06-27T11:36:00.000-07:00

John Travolta Opens Scientology Mission in his town--Ocala, Florida

The new Scientology Mission in Ocala is gorgeous, and makes Scientology available to the people of John's home town (at least his hometown now--he's originally from Jersey).

How do you like that TV coverage?

Meet a Scientologist!

2011-06-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

Meet a Scientologist: What is the Value of a Single Life?

Melissa Wattman lives a life of miracles—those she experienced herself and those she creates in the lives of others. Her profile is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.Scientology.org.

Melissa Wattman was not expected to see her ninth birthday. Diagnosed with leukemia, she regained the will to live through Scientology, and recovered.
Having experienced such a miracle herself, it is not surprising that when Melissa turned 16 she decided to become a Scientology auditor. An auditor is a Scientology spiritual counselor, from Latin audire, “to hear or listen.”

Meet a Scientologist!

2011-04-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

Kim Payne, Standing Up for Human Rights

Kim Payne volunteers at the annual St. Petersburg Human Rights Walkathon to raise awareness of human rights abuses. Her video is one of 200 "Meet a Scientologist" videos available on the Scientology website at www.Scientology.org.

For the fifth consecutive year, the 2011 Human Rights Walkathon in St. Petersburg, Florida, came off without a hitch, and part of the team responsible for its success was Kim Payne, Scientologist, mother of five and human rights activist.

"The purpose of the Walkathon is to raise awareness of human rights issues," she says, "and encourage people to demand human rights education and the full implementation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the document endorsed by United Nations member nations in 1948 to provide a common understanding of the rights every individual inherently possesses. Groups throughout the Tampa Bay area participate and it’s a great way to coordinate and build cooperation."

Just minutes before the Walkathon began this year, Payne, 45, always on the solution side of any problem, was climbing trees, with characteristic energy and cheerfulness, to get the last of the signs in place before the crowds arrived.

"As the Walkathon site manager, I make sure it is all ready to go when people arrive to register at 9 am—whatever it takes," she says.

Payne has been a Scientologist since 1987 when her husband introduced her to the subject. Having spent her teen years using and abusing a wide variety of drugs, she had some issues to handle.

Raised on a farm near a small town in Michigan, Payne got involved in drugs at age 12 and partied her way through high school. "Don’t ask me how I graduated," she laughs. "I have no idea." She married at 19 and had her first child within a year.

Two years later, her husband read Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. On finishing the book, he simply said, "This is it," and packed the family into the car for the three-hour drive to the nearest Church of Scientology.

"I was really just going along with him because he was so enthusiastic about it, but I’m sure glad I did," she says. "I received Dianetics counseling. There were things I had been upset about for a long time but I’d never been able to communicate. After the counseling they were gone and the relief was incredible."

Payne, who completely overcame the effects of her teenage drug use, describes herself as "a real product of Scientology."

"I learned how to study," she says, "something I definitely did not learn to do in school. My IQ went up more than 50 points. Some of my behavior in the past was not exactly ‘good.’ Through Scientology, I have come way up the line as far as responsibility goes."

In addition to the personal gains from Scientology, Payne says she is very grateful to have had Scientology technology when it came to raising five children.

"All our kids are doing great. They all have a lot of friends, they think for themselves and they are creative and smart," she says. "I am very proud of them. But I am sure I would not have had the success I had as a parent without Scientology—it makes it so much easier to be a mom."

View the Kim Payne video at www.Scientology.org.

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The popular "Meet a Scientologist" profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

A digital pioneer and leader in the online religious community, in April 2008 the Church of Scientology became the first major religion to launch its own official YouTube Video Channel, which has now been viewed by millions of visitors.

2011-03-04T14:16:00.000-08:00

UMBERTO ORLANDINI
A CATALYST FOR A POSITIVE FUTURE

| MILAN, ITALY • MARCH 1, 2011 |

There is no doubt about Umberto Orlandini—not a doubt that he will continue to succeed. His profile is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.Scientology.org.

When Umberto Orlandini first learned of Scientology in 1974, it immediately clicked.

A draftsman with a good job and the drive to improve, Orlandini was doing fine. But “fine” was not enough for him. On the lookout for courses that would help him in his business, he came across an article in the paper about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard’s discoveries on the subject of communication—exactly the information he was looking for.

“The one area I had trouble with before completing the Scientology Communication Course was expressing myself,” says Orlandini. “I was uncomfortable and didn’t like looking people in the eye.”

The course dispensed with those difficulties and increased his ability to confront and solve problems. But best of all, he found Scientology aligned completely with his view of life.

“As soon as I understood what Scientology was about, I was a Scientologist,” he says.

The further Orlandini progressed in Scientology, the better he did.

“Through Scientology training and counseling you increase your certainty,” he says. “I know what I know and I know what I don’t know—the hesitancy and maybes are gone.”

Doing far better in his work as a result, he branched out—became an entrepreneur and now consults other companies so they too can expand.

“Getting people producing—that’s where my strength lies,” says Orlandini. “I’m decisive and I don’t worry about the future. If something unexpected comes up, that’s fine. I enjoy surprises—that’s what makes life exciting. But I know whatever happens, I have the technology and skill to handle it. That’s what makes it fun.”

Orlandini and wife Louise Vigorelli, 63, live in Milan, Italy, where she is a staff member at the Church of Scientology. All three of their children, ages 27, 36 and 39, hold trusted positions in Scientology Churches. Over the past 37 years, Orlandini himself has introduced thousands of people to Scientology, both personally and through TV interviews and lectures. And at 65, he is still going strong.

“I see myself as a catalyst to help create a positive future,” he says.

View the Umberto Orlandini video at Scientology.org.

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The popular “Meet a Scientologist” profiles on the Church of Scientology International Video Channel at Scientology.org now total 200 broadcast-quality documentary videos featuring Scientologists from diverse locations and walks of life. The personal stories are told by Scientologists who are educators, teenagers, skydivers, a golf instructor, a hip-hop dancer, IT manager, stunt pilot, mothers, fathers, dentists, photographers, actors, musicians, fashion designers, engineers, students, business owners and more.

Meet a Scientologist!

2011-02-07T14:10:00.000-08:00

Mr. David Miscavige Officiated at Grand Opening of New Scientology Church on Times Square in 2004

The Church of Scientology in New York City, located just off Times Square, was a gift from the International Association of Scientologists to the people of New York in recognition of their courage and spirit in the face of the 2001 World Trade Center disaster.

Mr. David Miscavige dedicated the building. He was joined by United States Congressman Charles Rangel, United Nations Undersecretary Maurice Strong, and Vice President of the Times Square Alliance, Mr. Bob Esposito.

In his address to the 10,000 Scientologists and guests assembled for the grand opening, Mr. Miscavige underscored the meaning of the new Church:

Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, officiated at the opening of the Church of Scientology New York.

“As we look out across the world, we can speak of international conflict, of economic instability, and yes, of terrorism. But if we do my friends, let us not speak in terms of those problems. Let us speak in terms of solutions, solutions that can solve every one of them.

“This Church represents the work and help all of us must continue to bring, in achieving the full measure of our aims. For here is the Ideal Organization from which to bring all of our programs, all of our tech, literally everywhere.

“So yes, this is just the start. And that is why I say today is when the real work begins.

“For this is more than just a home for you, the Scientologists of New York.

Meet a Scientologist!

2011-02-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

IN THE WINNER’S CIRCLE—EQUESTRIAN JOHN TWOMEY

Practically growing up on horseback, John Twomey, professional rider, trainer and coach, has his sights on Olympic gold. His profile is one of 200 “Meet a Scientologist” videos available on the Scientology website at www.Scientology.org.

John Twomey has been riding horses since he was four, when he helped his father muster cattle on their farm in Brisbane, Australia.

From there, he went on to breaking in young horses and working on cattle stations in northwest Queensland.

Then at 18 he discovered his true passion and turned it into a distinguished career—the Olympic equestrian disciplines of dressage, jumping, and his specialty, eventing: a three-day competition in dressage, cross-country and show jumping.

Twomey and wife Caroline share a passion as riders, trainers and coaches, and both are Scientologists. In his video at www.Scientology.org, he describes how Scientology has helped them achieve success in their field.

“One of the main areas is communication,” he says. “We have to be good communicators when we’re coaching, and we gained that skill through Scientology.”

Through his study of the religion, Twomey, 43, also gained an understanding of ethics and how this applies to his career and life.

“The old saying ‘you reap what you sow,’ is so true” says Twomey. “I work hard, do my best, and treat my clients and horses with respect. That’s why I continue to win.”

The Australian Twomeys lived in New Zealand for most of the past decade, winning a National Dressage title in 2004 and five of the past seven New Zealand National Titles. Now back in Australia, they are training and competing in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic selection trials.

“I never want to feel like I’ve reached the top,” says Twomey. “I never want to feel like I’ve achieved everything I can. Knowing there’s still more improvement, more learning—that’s what excites me.”

View the John Twomey video at www.Scientology.org.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-08-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

Meet a Scientologist

Mark Kosta, featured in the Meet a Scientologist videos, has save millions of lives with his invention of the auto-disabled syringe, and his dauntless work to get it into full use in developing countries, as covered in an article in Wired Magazine.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-08-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

I love the new Meet a Scientologist videos on the Scientology website. They are short and punchy and each one tells a unique story. For example, here's Nicanor.

I have not idea what language he's speaking, but I love the story:

“When I discovered Dianetics, I started thinking faster compared to before. My decision making became better. It helped me, Dianetics, because my reaction time got faster. I could handle my relationship with my wife better. I confronted things that I needed to confront to feel better.”

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-08-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Acknowledged for their Help After Mumbai Terror Attack

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers were featured in a recent edition of India’s UpperCrust Magazine for their work in the wake of last year’s Mumbai terror attacks. The article acknowledges the importance of their contribution, not only in helping victims of the attack but in training emergency response personnel and health care specialists to cope effectively with any future terrorism or disasters.

The article tells how the Scientology team worked with the staff at Sir JJ Hospital to help the victims of the terrorism. Once the majority of those admitted had been discharged from the hospital, the Scientologists, consisting of members of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers India Goodwill Tour and local volunteers whom they have trained, worked with colleges and Mumbai University to train students and faculty in Scientology techniques that increase effectiveness in the face of disaster. Among those they trained were the trainers of the Maharashtra Civil Defense team.

The article featured an interview with Marion Whitta, the leader of the Scientology Volunteers. Asked why Scientology is so popular in India, Marion stated, “It’s simply a case of workability. People in India are interested in personality improvement and are seeking solutions for the work-a-day world, whether how to do better at work or how to be a great mother or how to be able to graduate as a student…who knows and can effectively apply what he or she has learned.” She went on to say that “people want solutions to their problems or they just want to improve their condition in life and when they find technology that is simple, something they can apply for themselves, then they want exactly that.”

Pointing out that this is not the first time Scientology has been acknowledged for its work in India, the article states: “As to the founder of this movement, Mr. L. Ron Hubbard, here is a man already known to many Indians as he was awarded, in March 2006 in Delhi, with the prestigious Shristi award (the first time this national award has been bestowed on a man not of Indian heritage),” and that he was again honored last August by the Indian Lions Club in Delhi with the posthumous presentation of their Humanitarian Award.

The article points out that the India Scientology tour has been traveling throughout the country since its arrival in 2005. “Training seminars have been delivered to literally thousands of professionals as well as students” and to “hundreds of police officers in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Mysore,” including BSF (the Border Security Force) and CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) officers.

But the article also notes that the Scientology Volunteer Ministers provide help and training to anyone, as the article states, including “the ‘man in the street’ who just wants to be able to get along better in some aspect of his life.”

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site offers 19 extension courses which can be done over the net as a free service to anyone who wants to improve some aspect of his or her life.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers, visit their web site at www.volunteerministers.org.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-08-27T19:26:00.000-07:00

Petition Targets Human Rights Education

Churches of Scientology in 14 countries joined forces with Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI) last week conducting a global petition drive in support of human rights education. Based on the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the petition calls on governments to make human rights education mandatory and to conduct human rights education campaigns. The Declaration was ratified by the UN General Assembly in 1948 and defines the fundamental freedoms and human rights in the United Nations Charter. Since that time it has influenced national constitutions, treaties, laws, and human rights institutions the world over.

“The Universal Declaration does more than condemn discrimination, slavery and torture,” said Rev. Bob Adams, spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International. “Unfortunately, most people are unaware of the full scope of these rights and so have no way of knowing when these rights are violated. It’s not something only for governments to care for—we all have an interest in these rights.”

Scientologists, their families and friends took to busy street corners, festivals and shopping centers and city squares, where they presented booklets and videos, engaged in human rights discussions and gained support for the cause on giant petition boards. Active on many fronts of human rights initiatives and reform for five decades, the Church sponsors a worldwide human rights initiative to raise awareness and respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This includes distribution of millions of booklets and the airing of 30 public service messages, both based on the Declaration’s articles. In 2009, the Church sponsored the production of a new educational film, The Story of Human Rights, a 20-minute entertaining and historical account of the development of human rights, and a new human rights educators kit. To date, these materials have reached over 500 million people in 180 countries.

“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the inherent dignity and rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace,” said Rev. Adams. “The world needs a lot more people knowing it and supporting it.”

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-08-26T21:06:00.001-07:00

Breathtaking Scientology Church in Brussels

The grand staircase in the new Brussels branch of the Churches of Scientology for Europe rises from the lobby to the first floor.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-07-31T11:00:00.000-07:00

New Scientologist Videos

There are new videos on the Scientology web site. They are easy to browse and you can watch the ones that interest you most. I like the educators and arts categories best, but there are many to chose from.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-07-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Peoria Scientology Mission director has been around since Dianetics dawning

Photo: Submitted
George Seidler is the director of the Peoria Scientology Mission. He's been a Scientology advocate since the days of L. Rob Hubbard, and the longest acting service director of a mission.

Since the dawning of Dianetics, Peoria Scientology Mission director George Seidler has been a believer.

Mr. Seidler, describing himself as a 21-year-old in an 87-year-old body, is a bit of a celebrity in Scientology circles, although he admits members such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta have more recognizable names.

According to www.scientology.org, Scientology is a religion that ''offers a precise path leading to a complete and certain understanding of one's true spiritual nature and one's relationship to self, family, groups, Mankind, all life forms, the material universe, the spiritual universe and the Supreme Being.''

The book, 'Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,'' written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1950, details how to follow the "path."

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-07-07T09:02:00.000-07:00

Coast-to-coast runner makes a stop in San Bernardino

Wesley G. Hughes, Staff Writer

Posted: 07/06/2010 10:00:53 PM PDT

John Radich has harbored a wish to run across the United States since high school, and he's got a good start.

He reached San Bernardino on Tuesday with at least 75 miles behind him already, and he'll be headed up Cajon Pass this morning with a couple of runners from San Bernardino.

"It will take me two months to reach Chicago and then on to Atlantic City to dip my toes in the ocean as I did in the Pacific," the Monrovia man said.

Radich used to live in Muscoy and ran frequently in Lytle Creek.

The purpose of the run is to help kids and keep them out of gangs, Radich said. His run is under the auspices of The Way to Happiness Foundation, which is based on a book by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology.

Although he is a Scientologist, Radich said "the run has nothing to do with Scientology."

Radich began the run at the Santa Monica Pier and is following old Route 66 all the way to its end in the Windy City.

"From Atlantic City, it will be on to New York and then if I still have the horses I will end up in Washington at the Vietnam Memorial," Radich said.

"If everything goes well, it will take 3 1/2 to 4 months. I expect to average 35 to 40 miles a day - at least 30," the runner estimated.

Meet a Scientologist

2010-07-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

As part of their religious Code, Scientologists pledge “to expose and help abolish any and all physically damaging practices in the field of mental health,” and thereby bring about an atmosphere of safety and security to mental healing.

Accordingly, in 1969 Scientologists established the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a watchdog group that investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. Today, CCHR is a worldwide force actively working to eliminate brutal treatments, criminal practices and human rights abuses in the field of mental health. It has been responsible for helping to enact more than 150 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive practices in the field of mental health.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-06-29T22:06:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Minister helps Haiti Survivor

There's a great story in the New Haven Register on a Haitian amputee whose life was saved by a Scientology Volunteer Minister. :

Click to enlarge

NEW HAVEN — Five months ago, Ralph Gedeon was lying trapped beneath a pile of rubble when the engineering college he attended in Port-au-Prince toppled in the 7.0 earthquake that hit the island nation.

His leg was crushed and several organs were failing when his father, after digging for a day and a half, rescued Gedeon from the tumbled remnants.

Miraculously, on Sunday, the earthquake survivor stood on two legs — one of them a prosthetic — and packed his bags as he prepared to leave the Sister Ann Virginie Grimes Rehabilitation Center on Chapel Street.>>

David Miscavige once described the attitude of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers as giving indiscriminate help. The work of this volunteer was real heroism.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-06-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

Scientologists talking about Scientology

A number of Scientologists are interviewed about why they are Scientologists and what they get out of it personally, how the use it in life.

The video, along with hundreds more, is on the Scientology site.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-06-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

Watch those kicks!

I think these on-the-set videos of Tom Cruise and Carmen Diaz are so cute. Here's one with them playing soccer. They're GOOD!

Meet a Scientologist!

Scientology Volunteer Ministers at the Haiti Flag Day Parade 2010

2010-06-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

Video of the celebration in Haiti on Flag Day last month. There are more than 600 new Scientology Volunteer Ministers groups in the country now, and the members are giving trauma relief to thousands in the IDP camps every day. The Haitians are the most resilient and spiritual people.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers program was created by L. Ron Hubbard in 1976 and greatly expanded by Scientology leader David Miscavige after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to bring Scientology help everywhere and anywhere.
Meet a Scientologist!

2010-06-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Meet Scientology Volunteer Minister Ayal Lindeman

The video below was taken at a special presentation for Scientology Volunteer Ministers returned from Haiti in Feburary 2010. Many of them have gone back for a second or third round of service in Haiti. There is a lot of news on the Haiti VMs on the VM blog.

This whole program was developed in 1976 by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. In the wake of 9/11, David Miscavige greatly expanded the scope of the program, which now includes Goodwill Tours throughout the world.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-06-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Scientology Website explains the role of the Scientology Minister

The Scientology website has a new section where they describe the role of the Scientology minister in the community and society.

Scientology ministers act to ease suffering and provide counsel and support to those in need, whether a member of their congregation or simply someone in the community who may need help. In fact, one cannot function as a Scientology minister without a genuine and overriding desire to help others, whether to ease current suffering or to help people advance up The Bridge.>>

L. Ron Hubbard had the Scientology Handbook compiled to provide people of any faith or background with tools they can use to help their families, friends and community. Mr. David Miscavige, ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, regularly briefs Scientologists of the work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers at international briefings, held throughout the year.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-06-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today: Scientology Volunteer Ministers

Who are the Scientology Volunteer Ministers?

The Volunteer Minister (VM) program was launched more than thirty years ago, in response to an appeal by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Noting a tremendous downturn in the level of ethics and morality in society, and a consequent increase in drugs and crime, Mr. Hubbard wrote, "If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a VOLUNTEER MINISTER and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance."

Accordingly, in addition to traveling to wherever disaster strikes, Volunteer Ministers work with public servants in their own communities, helping to improve conditions right at home. Their information and training centers are bright yellow tents open to the public at weekend events and fairs, where anyone may enroll on a course or seminar that is delivered right in the tent.

Extensive information displays present the full array of tools for resolving any situation—from rescuing failing students or getting addicts off drugs, to alleviating emotional trauma of physical injuries, salvaging troubled relationships or solving human conflicts.

Volunteer Ministers also deliver seminars to police, firemen and disaster relief organizations with local community programs as well as through Goodwill Tours traveling from city to city with their tents.

So whether manning a tent at home or in a village 10,000 miles away, Scientology Volunteer Ministers all live by the same motto: "Something Can Be Done About It."

Because of their courage, compassion and training, they have become indispensable in times of greatest human need-traveling halfway around the world to help people who have lost everything in an earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, flood or the like.

This includes a corps hundreds strong at Ground Zero within hours of the 9/11 tragedy. It also includes more than 500 volunteers from 11 nations in Southeast Asia in the wake of the tsunami and over 900 Volunteer Ministers attending to victims in Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Likewise, during the Haiti earthquake disaster, the Church of Scientology and its parishioners flew in planeloads of much-needed medical and food supplies. In addition, they have brought in hundreds of medical professionals and Volunteer Ministers to help Haitians cope with their losses and rebuild their lives.

Volunteer Ministers have also trained and partnered with over 500 different groups, organizations and agencies around the world, including the Red Cross, FEMA, National Guard, Army Cadets, Salvation Army, Boy Scouts, Rotary Clubs, civil defense and disaster management agencies, YMCAs, police and fire departments of dozens of cities and towns and hundreds more national and regional groups and organizations.

More information about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers at www.volunteerministers.org

2010-05-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

Patience Freeman is a Scientology Volunteer Minister

Working on a Scientology Volunteer Minister Goodwill Tour i, Patience and her husband Bright are helping people throughout Western Africal

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-05-08T12:46:00.000-07:00

I copied this from my friend Grahame's blog because it's such a cool story:

Haitian amputee helped by Volunteer Ministers

My friend Denice just sent me some good news about Haiti. Here is the email she sent me and a picture that certainly paints a thousand words:

I haven't done an official debrief on my trip to Haiti with the Volunteer Ministers and Help for Orphans but I have had MANY one on one conversations. I have finally posted pictures on my website, many are different from my Facebook page. But today I couldn't help myself in emailing out this incredible news about a young amputee I had met in a hospital in Haiti working as a physical therapist. The two Volunteer Minister Physical Therapists got her papers to leave Haiti and get her feet. Today I received a photo of her walking!!!!. My eyes are still wet with joy. The two weeks I spent have continued to spread goodwill and inspiration to all who couldn't go and I am so grateful for all the support that I and the volunteer groups had to truly make a difference!!!
For all the help you give, walk a little more proud today!......... because Mana certainly is.
Much Love
Denice

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-05-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Many Scientologists volunteer to help in Criminon. Crime is one of the worst situations in our society today. All of us are affected by it. If we can rehabilitate the men and women in our jails, not only are we safeguarding our communities but we are also giving people back their self-respect, their families and own lives.

Scientology, Scientologist, criminal reform, Criminon

Here is more information about Criminon.
Meet a Scientologist!

2010-05-02T14:50:00.000-07:00

Old Town resident keeps traditional skill alive

I found this article about a Canadian Scientologist. Thought I'd share it here:

It is "kalos" to "graphien." Huh? In Greek, "kalos" means beautiful and "graphien," to write. Hence, "calligraphy" or "beautiful penmanship." You can look it up in your Funk and Wagnalls.

"Calligraphy by Diane" means beautiful writing by Diane Iannuzziello. "It seemed to be destined to become a dying skill," says the professional calligrapher, who works from her high rise at Richmond and Sherbourne. "They’re not teaching it in the colleges. Since computers, doing it by hand was considered archaic." The painstaking practice originating in China, India and Japan, with pigments from plants and rock and adventures recorded on stone, wood, bark and hand-made paper was in danger of disappearing.

Could an ancient art be angling for a comeback? It seems as though, since business people in the 1990s began using terms such as "carved in stone" and "cobble together," less and less carving and cobbling was actually occurring. It seems a subconscious attempt on the part of the Information Age to hold onto tangible, hand-made things, or at least the words that describe them, as life becomes increasingly and ephemerally digital.

Hand-lettered work is now in high demand among corporations, moving beyond the usual requests for calligraphic reproduction of poems, sayings and eulogies, and wedding and/or bar/bat mitzvah invitations, menus, place cards and guest books. The calm blonde with the perfectly manicured, almond-shaped nails has also serviced Club Monaco, CIBC, U of T, Rogers Communications, CBC and Magna Corp. She letters marketing awards, testimonials, proclamations, and scholarships, as well as the certification documents for the doctors of naturopathy and chiropractic. She counts country clubs, shops and charity ball organizers among her many clients. For movie production house CineNova she taught an actress enough quill-pen calligraphy to be believable in a documentary about the English governess portrayed in "The King and I." Club Monaco in New York hired her hand to letter invitations to Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Julia Roberts, among others.

A nice girl happily raised as Diane Foisy in Sault Ste. Marie, of a Montreal mother and a Franco-Ontarian father from North Bay, with her two brothers and one sister, she was a born artist. "I always had a love of lettering," she remembers. "All I wanted was a piece of paper and a pencil."

She knew she would go to art college, have children and work from home, and she made it happen. Starting out as a professional graphic artist in television and broadcast companies in the Soo and Red Deer, she learned lettering styles on the job, when illustrations were all hand-done.

"I never thought in a million years I would move to Toronto," says Iannuzziello, recalling the transition when her son and daughter were four and eight in July of 1990. "It was very hot and I had a black car with no air-conditioning."

Although her work in sales and marketing thrived, a year later, their lives took an unimaginably tragic turn. While visiting London, where they had lived, her 5-year-old son drowned in a man-made pool on the first day of their vacation.

"I’m a real survivor," says Diane, with no trace of understatement. "You get help spiritually to deal with upsets when you need it." She found it in Scientology, without which, she says, "I would have been drowning in grief. I was able to be strong for myself and even for others." Last year her sister died, and her granddaughter was born. Another of life’s ironies is that her husband’s daughter was born the same year as hers, and his son, now 19, was born the same year as her lost son. "Life will fill a vacuum for you in other ways," she notes philosophically.

Iannuzziello and Mario, her husband of 11 years, love their Downtown neighbourhood, shopping at St. Lawrence Market on weekends, biking to the Island, babysitting that granddaughter—the apple of her eye—in Bloor West Village, and driving up north to golf and enjoy nature.

Often from 9 a.m. until midnight, at a small drawing table looking south over the city, her many different-sized pens and nibs work away in silver, gold and coppers inks, lettering styles with such names as Copperplate Gothic, Bookhand, French Script and Chancery Italicized. Old English is slower going because of its ornateness, but the work involves more than simply learning and reproducing a style. Although Diane can letter in any style or language, much invisible work goes into it, with original flourishes or a new innately simple script. She works not only with the letters, but also with the spaces around them. "I redo and redo," she says. "I’m so picky with my work." She calls it "art in the written word." Many people have her art on their walls without knowing it because, as a calligrapher, she doesn’t get to sign her work.

Toronto turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to Diane and constitutes an ideal market for her work. "I’m almost 50 and I have not peaked yet with my calligraphy. I’m continuously improving."

Iannuzziello works hard to make her "graphien" "kalos." After all, practise makes perfect and, unlike life, calligraphy needs to be perfect.

See more of her work at www.calligraphybydiane.com.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-04-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

I love the new video on the home page of the Scientology site. It really speaks for itself, but it tells the story of what Scientologists are doing to make this a better place. I know, after 9/11 when I read the "Wake-up Call" -- a communication from David Miscavige to all Scientologists, I personally decided it's time to make an impact on the environment. And we are.

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-04-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Church of Scientology Recognizes Five Groups for National Volunteer Week at Historic Ft. Harrison

Tampa Bay, Florida - April 21, 2010 - In keeping with this year’s theme for National Volunteer Week of "Celebrating People in Action," on Friday, April 23rd at the historic Fort Harrison in downtown Clearwater, the Church of Scientology will recognize five groups in Florida who collectively have provided millions of hours in volunteer time since the beginning of 2010--a period of time which has seen major natural disaster as well as economic upheaval affecting the lives of millions of people just in this region of the world alone. The groups which will be recognized are: Project Medishare of the University of Miami Hospital, Feeding America Tampa Bay, Disaster Management of United Way Tampa Bay, the United Relief Work Foundation and the Willa Carson Health Resource Center. The Church of Scientology recognizes the dedicated actions of the volunteers from these groups who have committed themselves to senseless acts of kindness resulting in over 1,000,000 hours of donated time in the first 4 months of 2010 alone, millions of dollars in donations and hundreds of thousands of people helped in Haiti, Florida, Tampa Bay and Clearwater.

Full story online on Tampa Bay Informer

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-04-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Church of Scientology Los Angeles—a new era!

The grand opening of the Church of Scientology of Los Angeles is definitely the start of a new era for the Scientology religion, just as David Miscavige said in his speech at the grand opening of the new church on Saturday.

The amount of community outreach that will be available now is a totally new level.

Los Angeles can certainly use the help!

Meet a Scientologist!

2010-04-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

Scientology-sponsored Ship Brings More Than 100 Tons of Supplies to Haiti for the Relief Effort

HAITI—A Scientology-sponsored “Lifeboat to Haiti” arrived in Port-au-Prince April 8, carrying more than 100 tons of urgently needed supplies including medicine, medical equipment, an ambulance, food, cooking stoves and tents.

In the first weeks following the earthquake, the Church of Scientology sponsored five chartered flights, bringing more than 440 doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians and 280 Scientology Volunteer Ministers to the island, helping more than 200,000 people through their combined efforts in the first two and a half months.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers are in Haiti for the long haul, not only providing disaster relief but also working with local government and civic groups and community leaders who are determined to improve the quality of life for all Haitians.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers work in the IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camps providing food, water, and other supplies and training people in Scientology Assists—techniques developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help the individual overcome the emotional and spiritual aspects of trauma and stress.

The Volunteers Ministers are also establishing a base in Petionville to provide free training to individuals and groups including teachers, students, disaster relief groups and government agencies. This training addresses the underlying social issues and skills needed to bring about lasting improvement. Seminars and courses include subjects such as communication skills, the basics of organizing and study technology. So far, they have provided seminars and classes to over 8,000 local residents.

For more information on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Haiti Response Team, visit their web site at blog.volunteerministers.org.

2010-04-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Training the People of Haiti

With the immediate medical emergency over, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers have expanded their delivery of other services. They are concentrating on training the people of Haiti in simple tools to improve conditions in life.

Over the past few weeks Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Haiti have trained more than 8,000 Haitians.

In founding the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program, L. Ron Hubbard published an article called “Religious Influence in Society,” in which he wrote:

“Of course, if one is going to find fault with something, it implies that he wishes to do something about it and would if he could. If one does not like the crime, cruelty, injustice and violence of this society, he can do something about it. He can become a Volunteer Minister and help civilize it, bring it conscience and kindness and love and freedom from travail by instilling into it trust, decency, honesty and tolerance.”

Scientology Volunteer Ministers are providing training in communication skills to Haitian police, Scientology Assists--sometimes known as “spiritual first-aid”--to people in the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps and study technology in schools. While they continue their disaster relief, including bringing food and supplies to camps and orphanages, and with anything else that is needed, by training others in these skills they are giving them tools that will last and help the Haitian people rebuild their country and their lives.

Find out how to start your free training as Volunteer Minister:

http://www.volunteerministers.org/train/

A Volunteer Minister training a Haitian police officer in communication skills.

Volunteer Minister trains a Haitian nun in how to deliver Scientology Assists, sometimes known as "spiritual first aid."

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers have trained over 8,000 Haitians

2010-03-16T15:07:00.000-07:00

Scientology Commended by Haitian Ambassador to the United States

In a letter presented to the President of the Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, DC, on March 2, Haitian Ambassador Raymond A. Joseph expressed “deep appreciation” for the work of the Volunteer Ministers of the Churches of Scientology Disaster Response.

“You all have remained with us daily here at the Embassy, working with our staff and with the members and volunteers of the Greater Washington DC Haiti Relief Committee, giving us support in our time of great grief and confusion, using the Assists developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology religion,” the Ambassador wrote in his letter. “All that you have done and your plans for helping in the longer term will most certainly help us and our people to regain and improve our standing in the world.”

For two months, since the 7.0 earthquake devastated Haiti, the Church has continued to provide assistance to the Haitian community while more than 200 Scientologists from the United States, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, Russia, Japan and other countries have served as Volunteer Ministers in Port-au-Prince. Many Volunteer Ministers who served from one to three weeks in Haiti are returning for longer periods--several months or more--to help in longer-range programs vital to the full recovery of the country.

The first responders provided support in hospitals and clinics to medical teams and delivered food and water to IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps and orphanages. Now, with medical personnel having dealt with the most serious injuries, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers are concentrating on construction, setting up sanitation facilities and water purification systems, training disaster response specialists, and providing the local population with Scientology Assists, procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard that help the individual overcome stress and trauma.

Having sponsored four charter flights that brought medical personnel, Volunteer Ministers and medical supplies to Port-au-Prince, the Church is now sending a ship with more than 160 tons of supplies to Haiti. The Hornbeam, a 896-ton former US Coast Guard ship and icebreaker, with fuel and other costs provided by the Church of Scientology and its members, will carry four pallets of wood stoves and 60 tons of wood pellets donated by the Children and Families Global Development Fund, Inc., a charity founded by Ms. Lola Poisson Joseph, wife of Haitian Ambassador Joseph. It will also be carrying an ambulance for the Port-au-Prince General Hospital and 110 more tons medical and other supplies to go to non-profit aid groups in Haiti. The Hornbeam is scheduled to sail to Haiti in the next days.

Stay on top of VM News: http://blog.volunteerministers.org

2010-03-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

Georgia State Senator Honors Los Angeles-based Scientology Disaster Response Team for Haiti Service

Georgia State Senator Donzella James presented a resolution to the international director of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps in Los Angeles Saturday, acknowledging the group’s Haiti Disaster Response.

In Los Angeles Saturday, Georgia State Senator Donzella James presented Georgia State Resolution SR998 to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps for “selfless service to the nation of Haiti,” at a meeting of Haiti volunteers at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood.

Senator James acknowledged the Volunteer Ministers recently returned from disaster relief service in Haiti. “On January 12th the earth opened up and swallowed Port-au-Prince and other parts of Haiti. I have been to Haiti and I saw the poverty. I thought nothing could be worse. But you helped when it was even worse than I could ever imagine. You did what you could, unselfishly.”

Some 250 Volunteer Ministers have rotated through Haiti, with 100 currently on the ground, providing logistics support for medical teams in Port-au-Prince General Hospital and the University of Miami Hospital tent.

Scientology Volunteer Minister Ayal Lindeman, also a licensed practical nurse and emergency medical technician, was the backbone of the Haiti relief action. A veteran of 10 disasters, including Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks and Hurricanes Charley, Katrina and Rita, his work organizing the care of the patients at Port-au-Prince General Hospital saved countless lives. Speaking to the assembled Volunteer Ministers, he reminded the Haiti veterans that the job has only started.

Registered Nurse Kimberly Williams, co-owner of Hill Street Community Wellness Center in Los Angeles, wanted to go to Haiti, so when she heard the Church of Scientology was transporting medical personnel, she signed on and left January 21 on a Church-sponsored charter. In Haiti she worked in a clinic near the Presidential Palace, assisting in operations including amputations and other life-saving procedures, and provided urgently needed medical care to more than 400 patients each day.

The international director of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps, Ms. Maria Reyher, announced the next phase of Scientology Haiti Disaster Response—a new base in Port-au-Prince that will enable the volunteers to work throughout the rainy season and will include classrooms for seminars, workshops and courses to train first responders in police, military and humanitarian organizations in disaster preparedness.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps is an embracive program of the Church of Scientology that provides community service, disaster relief and emergency response. Created more than 30 years ago by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, the program has expanded to 203,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide who have served at 161 worst-case disaster sites.

For more information on Scientology Volunteer Ministers Corps disaster response, visit blog.volunteerminsters.org.

2010-02-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

Situation Report: Port-au-Prince General Hospital

The Haiti earthquake of January 12 killed over 200,000 and left an estimated 300,000 injured and needing treatment. Ayal, a licensed practical nurse, EMT and Scientology Volunteer Minister, arrived in Haiti on January 22. A veteran of disaster response, he served at Ground Zero after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, but other disasters paled beside what he saw when he first got to the Port-au-Prince General Hospital.

Doctors were battling to save lives in the Operating Room, performing operations under primitive conditions without anesthetic, sterilization or the most basic supplies or equipment.

After a long day's work, Ayal and Darell, a dentist and trained Volunteer Minister, took on the overnight care of four wards with 40 patients in critical condition. When they entered these wards, patients were lying in beds without sheets, bodies soiled with body waste and blood.

Learning that three patients had died there in the last hour alone, and realizing many of the patients wouldn't make it through the night without care, they worked through the night until the International Medical Corps arrived at 8:00 the next morning. Two patients nearly died that night. One patient pulled his IV out and almost bled to death, the other nearly drowned from a build-up of fluid in the lungs.

Night in the wards had other challenges. When the lights failed they were forced to care for patients care by flashlight until army medics gave them chem sticks--plastic tubes that provide light for five hours when broken open.

There were so many patients and so few professional resources, patients families were providing most of the patient care. But food was scarce and not only was there none for the families, there was none for the patients . So the Volunteer Ministers found food and water for the patients and their families.

One night, one of his patients was dying of a major cardiac and respiratory situation. They had no medications or oxygen. Fortunately, that night a Russian doctor and an Emergency Ward doctor who had been a US Army field surgeon were on duty. The two of them improvised, mixing the medications they did have to create the needed effect, and together they kept the patient alive long enough to get him to the US for the surgery he needed to save his life.

One young man on the ward was told if they didn't amputate his leg, he would die. He refused to have the operation-didn't want to live in that condition. Lindeman talked to him, helping him look at his options. In the end he decided he could face it, and he went through with the operation.

In one surgery where he was assisting they missing vital equipment and Ayal used a Leatherman as a clamp to stop a young woman's abdominal bleeding which kept her alive long enough to get her moved to the USS Comfort where she could get the help she needed.

For the past twelve days Ayal and his team have been caring for 50 and 300 patients a night, often pulling 20 hour shifts. The wards are now clean and well lit, and staffed day and night.

2010-01-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

Haitian Nationals Learn Volunteer Ministers Skills--Travel to Haiti to Help

I heard that the Church of Scientology of Miami contacted a Haitian Church in Miami after Tuesday's earthquake. They trained a corps of the parishioners of that church in basic Scientology Volunteer Ministers technology so they can help their countrymen, and then on Monday a dozen or so of these new VMs were flown into Haiti to join up with the team that landed on Sunday. So far the 12 Haitian VMs are still in Santa Domingo, making their way to Haiti. This is a photo of them boarding the airplane in Miami this morning, courtesy of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers blog.

2010-01-15T15:59:00.000-08:00

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator has put out a call for Volunteer Ministers to travel to Haiti, in response to the January 12, 2010, magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive estimates the death toll from the earthquake, which destroyed most of the Capital City of Port-au-Prince, could reach hundreds of thousands. Lack of resources and decimated infrastructure in Haiti, the least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world according to the US State Department, is severely hampering the search and rescue operation and care for the survivors.

For information on how to join the Volunteer Ministers team in Haiti or to sponsor a volunteer to go contact the Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator at vm@volunteerministers.org

2010-01-11T15:20:00.001-08:00

Pasadena Star News

Scientology starts renovation work on Braley Building, vacant since 2006

PASADENA - Renovation has finally started on the historic Braley Building in the heart of Old Pasadena, where it sat empty since being bought by the Church of Scientology in 2006.

Church officials say it will be ready to open this summer.

"They are taking out the insides, ready for renovation," church spokeswoman Linda Peters said. "We're just gearing up for the new year, ready to rock and roll, and it's going to go pretty fast."

Almost immediately after the church bought the imposing 50,800-square-foot building at 35 S. Raymond Ave. officials bought out or evicted 22 small business tenants, including an antiques mall and a popular restaurant.

Since then, city officials and preservationists have sounded the alarm over the building's vacant and deteriorating condition, tattered awnings and possible safety issues.

Now, although putting a church in the heart of the city's prime retail and dining district wasn't universally popular, Old Pasadena Management District President Steve Mulheim said everyone is "thrilled" to see progress on the building.

"We're happy to see it moving along," Mulheim said. "Certainly the activity will help generate some traffic for other businesses as well. For any sort of dining and retail destination, foot traffic is a big key, and we're happy to have more activity than less."

People in Pasadena "are going to be delighted" with the result, church spokeswoman Wendy Beccaccini said. "We have several other historic buildings opened, and we really work hard at preserving their integrity as buildings."

Photo Gallery

Scientlogists Convert Braley Building

(SGVN/Staff photos by Walt Mancini)

The church is expected to serve about 10,000 Scientologists from the entire San Gabriel Valley and from Sunland/Tujunga to the Inland Empire and San Bernardino.

And it it won't attract them only on Sundays, Beccaccini said.

"It's not like an ordinary Christian church. It's actually quite a lot different. It will be a seven-days-a-week place," Beccaccini said.

Plans for the main floor include an information center, to include displays on Scientology's religion and social programs, plus film and conference rooms, seminar spaces and a chapel/auditorium available to the community. There are also plans for a bookstore and cafe. The upper floors will have counselling rooms, offices and a sauna used in the Scientology "detoxification" program, Beccaccini said.

"Having a building like this, it will be marvellous to make spaces available to the community, share it with other nonprofits...and the community," she said. "We always have intended to make this a place where people want to come."

The Braley Building, built as a bicycle store in 1906, was bought with contributions from "1,400 or 1,500" local Scientologists, who have now given title to the church, officials said. The $6.5 million to $7 million needed for the interior conversion and exterior restoration also will be covered by member donations.

Pasadena's Planning Manager John Poindexter said all the permits were in place for the interior demolition and only permits for "minor" exterior changes remain to be issued.

The new church was difficult to classify for planning purposes but needed a "change of use" permit from office building, Poindexter said.

"It isn't only a Sunday church. It's more of a counselling center, in terms of how it functions," he said. "And the parking requirements had different impacts on neighbors."

Poindexter said at the moment the church is leasing off-site parking at Parsons.

The church plans to provide introductory and parishioner services at the new church daily, until 9:30 p.m. weekdays and weekends until 6 p.m.

"Our new beautiful church is a whole new expansion for us and it is going to be a wonderful community asset," said Eden Stein, president of the Pasadena Church of Scientology, established in 1980. "We are greatly looking forward to sharing it."

2010-01-01T10:43:00.000-08:00

New Issue of Freedom Magazine!

What happens when a newspaper fails to serve the community? After Freedom published its in-depth report on the St. Petersburg Times last summer, a number of journalists formerly associated with the Times came forward. They related incidents at the Times which revealed serious violations of journalism ethics.

Find out more about:
- Steal, Bribe and Spy, a background report about the St. Petersburg Times
- Scientology in Clearwater - What happens when an independent journalist takes an objective look at St. Petersburg Times coverage of the Church of Scientology?
- and more...at FreedomMag.org

2009-12-28T21:11:00.001-08:00

Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International Holds 17th annual fundraiser benefiting the Hollywood Police Activities League.

Jenna Elfman with PAL Marshal Arts students who gave a demonstration of their skills at the 17th annual “Christmas Stories” celebrity performance at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood.

HOLLYWOOD - Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International members Anne Archer, Erika Christensen, Jason Dohring, Jenna Elfman, MC Lyte, Priscilla Presley, Beth Riesgraf and Edgar Winter and film composer Mark Isham performed in the annual Christmas Stories show over the weekend to an audience of over 500. Created in the theme of a 1930s holiday variety radio show, guests were treated to traditional and original renditions of music, dance, skits and stories. Since 1993 the Christmas Stories performances have raised more than $245,000 for community youth programs.

This year’s production benefits the Hollywood Police Activities League annual Christmas party and at-risk youth programs and will provide meals, games and toys for children who would otherwise have no Christmas.

LAPD Hollywood Division Captain Bea Girmala presented a city of Los Angeles Certificate of Commendation to the Church for its 17 year-old charity event, which was accepted on behalf of the Church and its volunteer performers by the President of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre International, Maria Ferrara. "We are honored to support our police in their efforts to help children in need and give them a better future," said Ferrara.

The Police Activities League (PAL) is a nationwide youth development program operated by police officers who provide positive role models for youth. The program includes educational and recreational activities for at-risk youth as an alternative to gang violence, drug use and criminal activities. Hollywood PAL is staffed by full-time police officers dedicated to programs that serve Hollywood youth, including swimming, street hockey, basketball, martial arts, soccer, computer activities, arts, crafts and educational tutoring.

2009-11-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

Scientology is in the news

Scientology is in the news. Stories about the Church of Scientology and its members appear in newspapers, magazines and on radio and television around the world, today more than ever.

It is important, then, for media to have the most up-to-date and accurate information available on the Scientology religion. To make this readily available, this website is provided as a source for information about the Church and the religion.

Scientology is the only major new religion to emerge in the 20th century. Since its founding in 1954, it has grown to span the globe. Today there are more than 8,000 Scientology churches, missions and groups in 165 countries around the world .

The rapid emergence of Scientology within the world’s religious community has led many to ask what kind of religion it is, how it compares with other faiths and in what ways it is unique. What is its understanding of a Supreme Being and the spiritual aspects of life which transcend the temporal world? What are the fundamental practices of the religion? What social and community work do Scientologists do?

These and many other questions about the Scientology religion and its members are answered in this site.

Scientologists come from all walks of life. They are concerned about social problems and support numerous social betterment programs which provide successful drug-abuse rehabilitation, improve educational standards and help reduce crime and moral decay. There are more than 196,000 Scientologists who are Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

Scientologists have always been a relentless voice in search of social reform and justice. We have brought to light such issues as the enforced drugging of school children, the dangers of psychiatric brutalities such as electric shock treatment and lobotomy; and the chemical and biological warfare experiments secretly undertaken against unwitting American citizens. Churches of Scientology also have championed the principle of open government and pioneered the use of the Freedom of Information Act to eradicate abuses.

It is because churches of Scientology and their members are so active, and because Scientology is a large and growing international religion, that Scientology continues to be a subject of significant public and media interest.

More information: http://www.scientologynews.org

2009-11-04T11:20:00.000-08:00

Providing the Tools to Learn Anything

New Study Technology headquarters generates a world of learning &emdash; Applied Scholastics International

HELPING TO OPEN THE DOORS OF THE NEW APPLIED SCHOLASTICS INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS in Spanish Lake, Missouri (above), was actor-producer Tom Cruise (below, left), who told the audience that Applied Scholastics holds the key to understanding and applying what one reads and studies. His goal as international ambassador for L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Technology: make it available to all who reach for it.

When he was a young boy, Tom Cruise had a dream &emdash; he wanted to fly planes. "What better time to learn how to be a pilot than in preparation for ‘Top Gun,’ he told more than 2,500 educators and guests gathered at the opening of a new international teacher training facility. "So one day I went to have a lesson and after one day I gave it up &emdash; I couldn’t do it.

There was just one problem, he admitted: he could not understand what he was reading in his training manual &emdash; and to make matters worse, a decade earlier he had been convinced of a label he found impossible to shake at the time. "I had been diagnosed with a false label, dyslexia, he said. "With that I had been told I had a ‘learning disorder.’

Thus, his immediate reaction to failure as a pilot student was, "’I’m dyslexic &emdash; damn!’ I’ve got to figure this out.

He tried everything to unsnarl his study troubles &emdash; "different tutor groups, different speed reading courses, I hired people to come in and read with me.

Then, the breakthrough:

"Study Technology works. It can turn around anyone’s education difficulties and change one’s life. It’s applicable to people at every level of society, every nationality, every age.
&emdash; Tom Cruise

"Shortly after that I discovered ‘the Study Technology,’ he said, referring to discoveries by author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard that teach people, young or old, how to learn anything.

Today, the producer and star of The Last Samurai says he hasn’t seen his learning difficulties since he began using Mr. Hubbard’s revolutionary Study Technology.

"Now, I am a licensed pilot, twin engine, instrument rated, which means I can fly through any weather by flight instrument alone; commercial rated, which means I can carry passengers as a profession if I so desire; and just for fun, I’m a highly trained aerobatic pilot.

"I am a film producer, I have my own film company, I own and run three companies and I continue to act in movies in addition to all that. And I learn every single day, he stressed. "I use this technology each and every day in my life, at my work, with my children, in every area of life. Because of what Study Technology did for me, I started helping others.

Cruise has done so as a founding board member of the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project (H.E.L.P.), a highly effective community-based learning program utilizing the Study Technology to open the doors of learning to students of all ages. He has assisted in H.E.L.P.’s expansion to 26 chapters across the world. In 2003, he was recognized by the National Mentoring Partnership with their Excellence in Mentoring Award.

As ambassador for Applied Scholastics International, Cruise says that this highly practical brand of help is the missing step in education. It certainly enabled him to come to grips with the real reasons for any "learning disability he had, and it has also made successful learners of millions more around the world.

World Study Technology Headquarters

Expanding those numbers to millions more was what drew him and more than 2,500 educators, government officials, corporate executives and area residents to America’s heartland on July 26, 2003. There, they participated in the opening of the new Applied Scholastics International headquarters in Spanish Lake, near Saint Louis, Missouri.

Applied Scholastics is an educational organization that licenses private schools, community literacy centers and tutors utilizing Mr. Hubbard’s teaching and learning methods. The organization has trained more than 64,000 teachers and educators internationally since 1972.

And the need has never been greater. Today there are hundreds of millions globally who are functionally illiterate, unable to compete in the workplace and only partially capable of leading productive lives.

Under the direction of Chief Executive Officer Bennetta Slaughter, Applied Scholastics’ new facility will train teachers, corporate trainers, mentors, tutors and education consultants from around the world, supplementing their existing education with Mr. Hubbard’s precise system for learning any subject. The campus’ curriculum includes workshops and courses ranging from educational basics all the way to advanced teaching strategies and methodologies, as well as several continuing education courses and postgraduate credits.

"It is not that educators are unwilling or unable to teach, Slaughter told her grand opening audience. "It is a matter of a missing link between their teaching and the comprehension of their students. And it is not that students are unwilling or unable to learn. It is a matter of the gap in their education &emdash; the subject of study itself, their very ability to learn.

"And that is what we provide as a solution &emdash; the remedy of the crucial gap in learning....

"There has never been a central training center. It was all happening one-on-one &emdash; the technology being passed from one person to the next. So this center is a first, and it is exclusively dedicated to training educators at every level: tutors, mentors and teachers &emdash; those who deal with these problems on a day-to-day basis.

"Here, now, is a place where they can get the tools, not only to handle their students, but to go out and further teach others to apply the technology to their own students. That is why this campus represents a watershed and why we are so honored to open these doors, Slaughter said.

World Literacy: Born in Conflict, Bearing Peace

THE APPLIED SCHOLASTICS INTERNATIONAL CAMPUS AT SPANISH LAKE near St. Louis, Missouri (above) trains teachers, corporate trainers, mentors, tutors and education consultants; there they learn Study Technology that puts their students firmly on the road to learning.

Among honored guests at the grand opening event was Rev. Alfreddie Johnson, who in the wake of the 1992 LA riots, launched the World Literacy Crusade and has nurtured it into a network of 30 Study Technology centers from the U.S. and Canada to Central and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.

After joining educators and Applied Scholastics supporters from all over the world to cut the ribbon for the new Spanish Lake facility, Rev. Johnson told Freedom of his epiphany with Mr. L. Ron Hubbard Study Technology.

"In 1992, I found the technology of study, developed by L. Ron Hubbard. Very profound.

"I was at a meeting held in the city of Compton, where a gentleman from Applied Scholastics was giving a lecture on ‘the misunderstood word.’ He said that Mr. Hubbard had discovered in his studies that there were three barriers to learning and the most important barrier was the misunderstood word.

"A lot of times people don’t do anything because they don’t understand. And they’re not able to make happen in their lives what they want to make happen because they have not been able to understand or ‘duplicate’ the knowledge, the ideas, the concepts that the conveyor of the message &emdash; God, if you will, or the spirit of God within them, or some author &emdash; delivers. They’re not able to assimilate the technology or the technique of a message.

"So this was very profound to me: the misunderstood word. Immediately that was it for me. I raised my hand, and I said, ‘Give me this stuff.’

"This is what I was looking for because I knew I was called, if you will, and I had chosen to answer, but in the back of my head I felt totally unequipped because I didn’t have a technology or a technique in order to arm the people I was trying to help.

Unprecedented Results

In The Gambia, Study Technology has been implemented on a national level under the leadership of another honored guest at the Spanish Lake facilities’ opening, Dr. Ndong Jatta, Secretary of State for Education. So far, more than 6,000 Gambian schoolteachers have participated in Applied Scholastics’ four-week national training program on Study Technology.

Dr. Jatta emphasized what this means in a country once rife with education problems. "For most people, teaching is not an attractive field. In Africa in particular, where you have large class sizes of 40, 45 and up to 50, and are dealing also with some characteristics of the indifferent students, if you have a technique in reaching each student and helping the student to discover what the difficulties are, half of the work is done, and the teacher and student both enjoy it.

"I feel the technology is a godsend for teachers and for students alike....

"Every child has a goal. Every child has an aspiration, and in most cases, it is never tried out. But if you now know that anything and everything is possible, there is nothing that can stop you. You can reach out for the skies. And this is what education is about. Education is not about helping a child get a job. Education is about helping the child create a job.

Literacy to Millions the World Over

Today, an estimated 3.5 million students and thousands of teachers in universities and school systems use Mr. Hubbard’s advanced technology of study internationally.

The new Applied Scholastics International campus in Spanish Lake is there to make these methods broadly known to the hundreds of thousands of educators in schools and universities around the world who are so desperate for a solution to today’s educational crisis.

"Study Technology works, said Tom Cruise before helping to cut the ribbon on the new facility. "It can turn around anyone’s education difficulties and change one’s life. It’s applicable to people at every level of society, every nationality, every age.

2009-10-23T15:50:00.000-07:00

Tom Cruise a Hit

I thought this little spot was cute:

The guys at Fox5 in Detroit were so impressed by how nice Tom is. Naturally! ;-)

2009-10-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteers Help Victims of Sumatra Earthquake

Australian Scientology Volunteer Ministers bring spiritual first-aide to survivors of devastation in southern Sumatra.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers arrived in Indonesia the day after the September 30 earthquake left more than 1,000 dead and half a million homeless.

The Australian Scientology Volunteer Ministers who traveled to Padang, 28 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, are no strangers to disaster. They are veterans of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2007 Yogyakarta tornado and the 2007 Java quake. But even they were challenged by the enormity of the devastation they encountered.

Here is an account of their first day:

In Padang, 28 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, they started in Chinatown, left in shambles by the disaster. There, in a medical tent, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers showed the doctors and nurses how to provide Scientology Assists and gave them copies of an instruction booklet. Assists are procedures developed by L. Ron Hubbard that provide relief by addressing the emotional and spiritual factors in stress, trauma, illness and injuries.

A nurse said “So, you can give relief using no drugs and no medicine? This is really needed. We all need to know this!”

On to a Chinese temple serving as a shelter for those whose homes were destroyed. The volunteers met the head of the medical clinic who had relocated his operation to the temple’s basketball court when the earthquake destroyed his offices. He could not keep up with the flood of people who had come to the temple for help so the Volunteer Ministers went to work. They set up tables to provide Scientology Assists and chairs where others could sit while they waited their turns.

As lines of people received Assists and word of the physical and emotional relief spread, and the lines grew longer, the volunteers decided to train those waiting how to give Assists to each other. Their mission accomplished at that location, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers took their leave and moved on to a hospital where they could give assistance.

As they drove on through the city, they saw the eerie capriciousness of the earthquake. A three-story building leaned precariously over its neighbor’s home. Another building looked untouched until they saw that one wall was missing entirely. One house stood with every room exposed to view, a snapshot of a family no longer there.

The first hospital they found was completely destroyed. The next, a private hospital, was still operating despite damage. There, on the steps, a woman holding a baby was crying uncontrollably—her brother was inside dying because she didn’t have the 125,000 rupiah to buy what he needed from the blood bank. The Volunteer Ministers paid for the blood—$15 to save a life.

The volunteers moved into the wards and started giving Scientology Assists to injured patients while others explained the procedure to the nurses and taught them how to give Assists.

One man whose leg was completely numb received an Assist. When it was over, not only was the feeling in his leg restored, but his huge smile attested to the fact that the pain that had wracked the rest of his body was gone as well.

Concrete had crushed another man’s leg, breaking it in dozens of places from knee down to foot. The doctors had inserted metal rods into his leg. Blood was seeping out into the freshly bandaged wounds and he was writhing in pain. By the time his Assist was done he was calm and relaxed, and he smiled when he said, “I feel good… I feel good!”

Another man, whose entire body had been injured, was traumatized to the point of complete unresponsiveness—it appeared he could not hear or speak at all. The Scientology Volunteer Minister explained what she was doing with impromptu sign language and began the Assist. At first he didn’t appear to notice anything, but gradually he began to respond and in the end he was smiling.

As Day One in Padang drew to a close, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers met a team from the Indonesian Red Cross who had booked an extra hotel room where a bucket served as shower at the end of a long, hot and dirty day they will never forget.

2009-10-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Church of Scientology Decision Protecting Religious Freedom in European Court of Human Rights

Today, the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously in favor of two Scientology religious groups in Russia, finding that they have the right to be registered as religious organizations under Russian law. This decision determines that members of the Church of Scientology of Surgut and the Church of Scientology of Nizhnekamsk have the right to religious freedom and freedom of association pursuant to Articles 9 and 11 of the European Human Rights Convention.

The Church’s human rights counsel, Bill Walsh, stated: “The judgment of the European Court of Human Rights today is a great victory for religious freedom in Russia and in all 47 member countries of the Council of Europe. The case is given the highest rating of importance by the Court itself as it effectively kills the repressive 15 Year Rule, denying religious organizations rights until they have existed in the country for 15 years. Moreover, the ruling will have great impact on countries throughout the European Community that have passed similar restrictions to repress religious freedom. So it is not only a victory for religious freedom in Russia, but for religious freedom everywhere in the Council of Europe.”

In 1997, the Russian government passed laws preventing religious organizations from forming legally unless they could prove they had been in existence in their respective state(s) for 15 years. Such a law obviously discriminates against religions not established in a state for 15 years and has now been ruled as unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights.

In reaching this decision, the Court “established that the applicants were unable to obtain recognition and effective enjoyment of their rights to freedom of religion and association in any organisational form. The first applicant could not obtain registration of the Scientology group as a non-religious legal entity because it was considered to be a religious community by the Russian authorities. The applications for registration as a religious organisation submitted by the first and second applicants as founders of their respective groups… were denied by reference to the insufficient period of the groups’ existence. Finally, the restricted status of a religious group for which they qualified… conveyed no practical or effective benefits to them as such a group was deprived of legal personality, property rights and the legal capacity to protect the interests of its members and was also severely hampered in the fundamental aspects of its religious functions.¨ Accordingly, the Court finds that there has been an interference with the applicants’ rights under Article 9 interpreted in the light of Article 11.”

Along with the recent decision of the Court in favor of the right of the Moscow Church of Scientology to be registered as a religious organization under the Religion law, these cases represent precedent-setting rulings that guarantee the freedom of religion and right of association for Scientologists and people of all faiths throughout the 47 nations that comprise the Council of Europe.

The Court concluded that “In the light of the foregoing considerations, the Court finds that the interference with the applicants’ rights to freedom of religion and association cannot be said to have been “necessary in a democratic society.” There has therefore been a violation of Article 9 of the Convention, interpreted in the light of Article 11.”

The Russian Scientology Church in St. Petersburg also has cases pending in the European Court of Human Rights for similar discriminatory harassment concerning their registration.

The Scientology religion was founded by L. Ron Hubbard. The first church was established in the United States in 1954. It has grown to more than 8,000 churches, missions and groups and millions of members in 165 nations. The Russian Federation has more than 70 Scientology Churches and missions from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.

For more information about Scientology, see www.scientology-moscow.ru or www.scientology.org.

2009-09-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteers Helping with LA Fires

In the wake of 9/11 when David Miscavige challenged all Scientologists to raise their contribution to their communities and society and really take on their responsibility for putting to right what is wrong around us. Since that time, Scientology Disaster Relief teams have formed up in cities around the world, and these Scientology Volunteer Ministers are out in force helping firefighters and other civic and community groups cope with the task of putting out the fires that are consuming enormous tracts of land in Los Angeles and surrounding counties.

2009-08-31T18:47:00.000-07:00

David Miscavige Dedicates Newly Renovated Fort Harrison Hotel

These were the words David Miscavige spoke in March at the dedication of the newly renovated Fort Harrison Hotel:

"This Fort Harrison is and will always remain a landmark and home of all of Clearwater."
- Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board, Religious Technology Center

2009-08-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteers Help Cope with Record Flooding

The Scientology Disaster Relief Team is on site with emergency workers and flood victims helping bring order and relief in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot.

Southern Taiwan is experiencing its worst flooding in 25 years from Typhoon Morakot and Scientology Volunteer Ministers are helping with urgent services and care of flood victims.

The Volunteers relief efforts are concentrated on getting food to the victims, as well as providing support to emergency services personnel and trauma relief. When officials coordinating the relief effort requested food as the first priority, the Scientologists immediately arranged for 3,000 loaves of bread to be brought to emergency shelters.

In the regions of Bu-Dai and Dun-Shi, the Volunteer Team also provided and taught Scientology Assists—simple procedures developed by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, that help overcome the emotional and spiritual side of trauma that accompany injury, stress or shock.
Emergency workers also receive Assists to help them remain alert and effective through lack of sleep and extreme stress.

In Chai-Tung, one of the worst hit flood areas, Scientologists and other volunteer groups are serving 200 victims at an evacuation center and a vocation school, while anticipating the arrival of another thousand refugees.

For further information on the Volunteer Ministers and their work, go to VolunteerMinisters.org or the Scientology site.

2009-08-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

Clearwater, Florida. June 30, 2007—Mr. David Miscavige stood before Scientologists gathered from around the world for the much-heralded occasion. He announced that what he was about to describe was nothing less than "the recovery of Dianetics and Scientology" that would "change the world of Scientology forever." Over the next several hours, he unfolded the complete story to an audience of thousands gathered in Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Mr. Miscavige first described the five-year, 2-million-man-hour research project to ensure the purity of all Scientology Scriptures, found in the writings and recorded lectures of L. Ron Hubbard. The task had been to locate the original manuscripts and dictation tapes of Mr. Hubbard's books, verify existing texts against those originals, correct any errors or deviations and return them to their original unadulterated form.

Deviations from the original manuscripts were immediately discovered to be far more extensive than imagined: transcription and punctuation errors of every variety, chapters bound in wrong sequence or even in the middle of another chapter, and the handiwork of a publisher who removed paragraph breaks to reduce page count. "Now let's add the 'editor,'" Mr. Miscavige explained, "who, instead of now correcting it, decides to add his own 'clarifying' footnotes to explain what LRH really meant."

Mr. Miscavige recounted a notable instance of the project to recover the technology. When the page count of a book did not match up to the number of dictation recordings to hand, researchers again searched through the archives and found three long-ignored wax dictation disks marked "UNK" for "Unknown." Locating equally long-obsolete replay equipment, they found the recordings were nothing less than two additional chapters of Mr. Hubbard's 1948 manuscript for Dianetics: The Original Thesis. The dictation also showed that other chapters had been printed in the wrong sequence since first published. The entire manuscript was then corrected and completed, and today the first and most basic statement on the actual nature and function of the mind is accessible and available for all to read.

In the ensuing years, every word and line in every
L. Ron Hubbard book was researched, verified, removed or corrected to ensure absolute purity. The standard set by Mr. Miscavige was perfection, the only standard suitable for the works of Mr. Hubbard.

Following that prodigious editorial undertaking, each book was meticulously designed, typeset, printed and bound to achieve the highest level of readability, comprehension, quality and durability—not to mention sheer aesthetic beauty. Thus came into existence only the pure and perfect Scientology Scriptures as authored by Mr. Hubbard.

2009-08-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Goodwill Tour in Gujarat

Scientology Volunteer Ministers India Goodwill Tour has moved on to Ahmedabad in the State of Gujarat

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers India Goodwill Tour has moved on to the city of Ahmedabad in the State of Gujarat.

As in other cities in India where the volunteers have toured, their seminars have been very popular in colleges and universities.

One such seminar, in the technology of study, was held to great results at the Gujarat University Law School. Law students need to learn, retain and use a great deal of information, and the students at the law school found their seminar extremely useful.

Scientology volunteer ministers provide seminars and workshops on practical tools and skills developed by L. Ron Hubbard, as covered in the Scientology Handbook. These include communication skills, conflict resolution and the basics of organization. Any group wishing to arrange a seminar can request one online through the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site.

2009-07-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Blogging for Human Rights

Today is the day to Blog for Human Rights!

But what ARE human rights? Do you know all 30 of the rights covered in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

If not, check out the public service announcements on the Scientology web site. Simple but hard hitting and very easy to understand.

2009-07-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers

Trans-Siberian Goodwill Tour

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Trans-Siberian Tour members deliver workshops on the many subjects covered in the Scientology Handbook, including how to cope with problems at work, how to improve relationships, raise happy children and achieve one’s goals in life.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Trans-Siberian Goodwill Tour has completed it’s stay in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryat Republic in south-central Siberia. For several months the tour has been providing workshops, seminars and one-on-one help in the region as part of its work to widely restore purpose, truth and spiritual values to everyday living.

One workshop on Study Technology presented to secondary school teachers and was deemed of wide value to the community and not only for the classroom. Covering fundamental laws on learning researched and discovered by L. Ron Hubbard who also developed effective methods of study, one teacher remarked on how it applied to her students ability to perform music. Another teacher said the information would improve her students performance and that she was grateful it was being made broadly accessible through the work of the Goodwill Tour.

The Trans-Siberian Goodwill Tour is one of ten Volunteer Minister Goodwill Tours dedicated to helping people in remote areas spread trust, decency and tolerance in their communities. For more information visit the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site.

2009-07-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

Scientology Basics

I have to say I am so blown out from studying my Scientology Basics, I don't know where to start.

I'm on a course on the book Advanced Procedure and Axioms. The course includes the study of 21 lectures Ron recorded in 1951. I listened to just one of those lectures yesterday and it changed my perspective about 180 degrees on something I've been having so much trouble with. Gave me something simple I can do when the stress levels get high and I tried it out and not only did it work, I went from feeling yuck to feeling wow. Not bad!

David Miscavige released the Basics 2 years ago. I am NOT going to take another two years to complete them!

2009-06-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

Scientology Public Affairs Director receives international award

Scientologist recognized for outstanding contribution to the culture with the Silver Chimera Award for 2009

Scientology Public Affairs Director for the Church of Scientology of Catania, Italy, Ms. Itria Leone, was awarded the 2009 Silver Chimera Award for the impact she has made on the community through her work as coordinator of the Church’s social reform programs.

The 8th annual International Silver Chimera Awards ceremony was organized by dell’Arte Etrusca to raise awareness of social issues and recognize those who have distinguished themselves through contribution that improves the quality of life. With the theme, “Peace in the World,” the ceremony was held this year at the Museo Castello Ursino in Catania, in Sicily.

Ms. Leone, a native of Sicily, has been coordinating the social reform activities of the Church of Scientology of Catania since 2005. At a grassroots level, she has been working to educate children and teenagers on the effects of drugs, to help them make educated choices and avoid the tragedy of addiction. She also coordinates a chapter of Youth for Human Rights International, through which young people learn their rights and help educate their friends and community on the basic rights to which every individual is entitled.

In accepting her award, Ms. Leone acknowledged L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Scientology religion, for inspiring her to dedicate her life to helping others.

Other recipients of this year’s Silver Chimera Award were: in literature, Dr Sandro Distefano; in medicine, Dr. Ennio Roman; in civil service Dr. Domenico Pinzello, chief representative of the Minister of Interior for the province of Catania, for his many years of effectively combating organized crime, professor Giuseppe Adernò, who has distinguished himself an entrepreneur and cultural leader and Concetta Bufardeci, who has carried on a centuries-long family tradition of representing the country of Spain to Sicily.

2009-06-22T16:59:00.000-07:00

David Miscavige in Nashville

My friend Jim went to the opening of the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre of Nashville and saw the whole thing -- the church is absolutely incredible. Gorgeous, but that's not all. Hotels can be gorgeous, but they sure can't do what this church does. It is amazing when you think of the kinds of miracles Scientology creates on a daily basis. You kind of get used to it as a Scientologist. David Miscavige was the highlight of the even, Jim said. He said his speech just completely got him going. He's even looking at joining staff there no. Go Jim!

2009-04-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

It was great that Mr. David Miscavige spoke as a guest of honor at the recent opening of the spectacular new Church of Scientology of Malmo. His dedication in ensuring the expansion of the Scientology religion is clear

2008-09-03T14:27:00.000-07:00

A the Maiden Voyage events on the Freewinds, David Miscavige briefed everyone on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers program, including the work the volunteers do on disaster relief.

A real life example of what VMs do happened last month and is covered on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers web site. Here's what it says:

Recent floods in the Ukraine may be the worst disaster to hit that country since Chernobyl. Scientology Volunteer Ministers traveled to inaccessible areas in the Ivano-Frankovsky Region of the Ukraine to help those most affected. >>

2008-07-17T09:29:00.000-07:00

Scientology Volunteer Ministers helped out behind the scenes at the EU Cup, 2008.

Although more than a million fans converged on Austria for the EU Cup last month the entire event came off without incident. Behind the scenes of this and every huge international sports event are the men and women who see to the safety of those attending and handle any emergencies that arise--emergencies that could easily become catastrophes if not cared for quickly and competently.

Those attending the EU Cup could relax and keep their eyes on the ball and their favorite teams and players because the emergency response personnel were keeping their eyes on security. And in appreciation for their work, the Scientology Volunteer Ministers European Cavalcade team decided to make their work a little easier by providing food and drinks to the police, firemen and other emergency workers who were looking out for the welfare of those attending the event.

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers European Cavalcade arrived in Austria from the Slovak Republic in time for the EU Cup. There, they had spent several months providing one-on-one help and courses and seminars based on technology developed by Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

2007-12-21T16:50:00.000-08:00

These Scientology success videos of people winning with Scientology Basic books and lectures are great. I especially like the one from Roosevelt Harris, it's fantastic!

2007-12-19T15:50:00.000-08:00

This article is about a group of Scientologists in West Bengal bringing positive solutions to the Aids problem in that country is great. It exemplifies the fact that no matter what the situation is, something can be done about it with Scientology technology.

2007-12-19T15:33:00.000-08:00

I was interested in this article on the Drug-Free Marshalls in Seattle and what they are doing to educate children on what drugs really do to people. The Drug-Free Marshalls are tremendously popular and effective.

2007-12-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

I was glad to see Mary Shuttleworth receive the Freedom Medal at the last International Association of Scientologists event. She really deserves to be honored for her work with Youth for Human Rights International.

2007-12-17T14:54:00.000-08:00

I was very happy to hear about Tom Cruise winning the prestigious Bambi award in Germany for his courage in his recently made film, Valkyrie, portraying a German Nazi officer who attempted to assassinate Hitler in 1944.

Mr. Cruise is clearly a professional in everything he does. He exemplifies application of Scientology technology to his life to totally positive results.

2007-09-19T18:59:00.000-07:00

Mr. David Miscavige is a Scientologist who elicits great respect and admiration as the driving force behind unprecedented expansion of the Scientology religious movement. The recent release of the Basic Books and Lectures of Scientology exemplifies this, with Scientologists all over the world getting and using this technology of L. Ron Hubbard, exactly as he intended, with huge wins.

2007-09-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Scientologists who have studied the recently released Basic Books and Lectures of L. Ron Hubbard are moving through their courses and auditing at a greatly increased speed, which shows the power of the basic technology of Scientology. They have gained full conceptual understanding of the basic fundamental tech of life, dramatically increasing their ability.

This is major, there is nothing earlier to compare to it.

My thanks and admiration to Mr. David Miscavige, whose care and dedication brought this about.

2007-09-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

Mr. David Miscavige has accomplished a huge step forward for the Scientology religion with the release of the Basic Books and Lectures. These are the fundamentals of the technology which, when known and applied, handle life.

2007-08-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

Reading the basic books by L. Ron Hubbard is a pleasure, because the content is now as it was originally intended by LRH and laid out beautifully. The data is so much easier to assimilate. The glossaries at the back of each book are excellent. My grasp on the magnitude of the technology is so much higher now. Mr. David Miscavige has done a tremendous job in getting these vital works released.

2007-07-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

Mr. David Miscavige has accomplished unprecedented results in bringing effective help to all populations on earth, through use of Scientology technology. Examples include widespread drug rehabilitation, criminal reform and revitalization of entire societies. His recent release of the Basics, fundamental books and lectures 100% as the Founder of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard authored them, is a milestone which has created unprecedented gains for individuals who have studied the materials.

For those who speak Spanish, this link takes you to a page in Spanish about Mr. Miscavige, who he is and his accomplishments.

2007-03-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

This is a Spanish reference page on Mr. David Miscavige and Religious Technology center. spanish.rtc.org/david-miscavige.htm

2007-03-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

This page has news on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers bringing effective help and relief in disaster areas. www.scientologytoday.org/corp/rtc2.htm

2007-02-26T18:21:00.000-08:00

Something can be done about making human rights a reality throughout the world. Information on this is at www.humanrights-france.org/profile

2007-02-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Here is an excellent reference work on the Scientology religion and it's broad scope on a worldwide scale. It is continually expanding because it gets RESULTS. www.bonafidescientology.org

2007-02-21T12:52:00.000-08:00

The Church of Scientology International is a 2007 recipient of the Los Angeles Business Journal's Real Estate Award. The story on this is in the news in www.scientologytoday.org/bio.

2007-02-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

This page includes information on Mr. David Miscavige, Religious Technology Center and Scientology, including effective community outreach activities that Scientologists are engaged in. The technology of Scientology works consistently and continually and is the basis of the continued expansion of the Scientology religious movement. www.scientologytoday.org/corp/rtc2.htm

2007-02-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Scientology technology has numerous workable methods including dealing with life situations and helping people create strong interpersonal relationships, raise bright and able children and have happy and lasting marriages. Information on this is at www.chaplaincare.navy.mil/Scientology.htm.

2007-02-19T10:18:00.000-08:00

This page has a wide spectrum of information on Mr. David Miscavige including resources in 15 languages as well as English. Frequently asked questions are answered here as well as extensive information about the aims of Scientology, what Mr. Miscavige has accomplished through the use of Scientology technology and the future. www.scientologytoday.org/corp/rtc2.htm

2007-02-18T22:13:00.000-08:00

This page has information on the Golden Age of Knowledge announced by Mr. David Miscavige.
davidmiscavige.rtc.org

2007-02-18T22:09:00.000-08:00

The Aims of Scientology and how they are accomplished are outlined on this page. Scientology technology gets RESULTS. www.scientologyreligion.org

2007-02-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

The grand opening of the Church of Scientology of London was fantastic, with a large crowd gathered around in the street despite pouring rain, equipped with colorful umbrellas. Information on this momentous occasion is at miscavige.rtc.org/london/index.html.

2007-02-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

The Church of Scientology International European Office for Public Affairs and Human Rights in Brussels, Belgium created a web site to make effective solutions of the Churches of Scientology broadly available to governments, civic, community and religious groups and individuals. There are 12 booklets in 8 languages, each on a different application of Scientology solutions to improve society, which can be downloaded from the site, which is at www.scientologyreligion.org.

2007-02-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

This page gives a wealth of information on Mr. David Miscavige, a Scientologist in Action who gets things done on a major scale. www.scientologytoday.org/bio

2007-02-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

This page has information on social betterment activities in the United Kingdom. www.scientology.org.uk

2007-02-14T22:14:00.000-08:00

Mr. David Miscavige is an outstanding individual whose influence has caused tremendous expansion of the Scientology religious movement all over the world. His biographical information can be found at davidmiscavige.rtc.org/eng/bio/miscavige.htm

2007-02-11T22:27:00.000-08:00

There is exciting news on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers in India, bringing effective help to the people of India. This is covered in www.scientologytoday.org.

2007-02-11T22:19:00.000-08:00

This web page brings to light human rights violations in France and what is being done about it.
www.humanrights-france.org

2007-02-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

Effective solutions to any life situation can be found in Scientology technology. Scientologists use it to improve their lives and help others. This is a good page that provides information on this.
www.scientologyreligion.org

2007-02-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

This article on the interview of Mr. David Miscavige by the St. Petersburg Times shows what a man of action he really is. He gets things done.
www.sptimes.com/TampaBay/102598/scientologypart1.html

2007-02-06T22:21:00.000-08:00

Scientologists use the technology of Scientology in their lives and to help others. The Scientology Handbook has basic, simple technology that works. Information on this is at www.scientologyhandbook.org.

2007-02-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

Mr. David Miscavige gave a keynote address at the Grand Opening of the Church of Scientology of New York. His speech, along with great photos of the occasion, can be found at www.scientologytoday.org/bio.

2007-02-04T20:42:00.000-08:00

Mr. David Miscavige was a special speaker at the grand opening of the London Church of Scientology. This page gives his presentation. It was a fantastic event! miscavige.rtc.org/london/index.htm l

2007-02-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

Mr. David Miscavige was a special speaker at the grand opening of the London Church of Scientology. This page gives his presentation. It was a fantastic event! miscavige.rtc.org/london/index.html

2007-02-01T23:06:00.000-08:00

The latest news on the Scientology Volunteer Ministers help force is under "Scientology News" in the page www.scientology.org.au.

2007-01-31T21:54:00.000-08:00

This page has an index of references to or information regarding Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the board of Religious Technology Center. One of the references is a beautifully done presentation given by Mr. Miscavige at the Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre called This is Scientology. Everyone should see it. davidmiscavige.rtc.org

2007-01-30T21:22:00.000-08:00

Here is a web page on the Church of Scientology in Sydney, Australia. It is a great place - I've been there! www.scientology.org.au

2007-01-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

This page is a good source of information on speeches and presentations given by Mr. David Miscavige and articles on him. www.scientologytoday.org/bio

2007-01-28T21:25:00.000-08:00

Mr. David Miscavige is a unique individual who is the driving force behind unprecedented expansion of the Scientology movement. This page covers an interview done on him by the St. Petersburg Times. www.sptimes.com/TampaBay/102598/scientologypart1.html

2007-01-24T21:21:00.000-08:00

This is a page that has many resources on Mr. David Miscavige, including the many speeches he has given in various parts of the world. It is very informative. humanrights-france.org/profile