Featuring news about Scientologists from around the world.
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Meet a Scientologist - Barbara Schneider's Happy Ending
Scientologist Barbara Schneider is a model, TV personality, paramedic, Scientology counselor and mother of four who didn’t anticipate how well things would turn out 18 years ago when things went wrong. Born and working as a paramedic in Lugano, Switzerland, in the early 1990s a failed relationship left her desperate to get away.
“I went to a travel agent and told him I needed a change,” she says. “I wanted to be someplace far away and on the sea.”
The next thing she knew, she was flying to Majorca with her 3-year-old son. Once there, she was paying a friend a visit at a hotel when a man directed her ‘right this way for the audition.’ She tried to tell him that was not why she was there, but he insisted, and she ended up being cast as co-host of a TV show.
Despite the change in scenery and an exciting new job, a year and a half later, Schneider was still suffering.
“My twin sister Elena could tell I was unhappy,” says Schneider. “She had been a Scientologist since we were 16 and she was convinced Scientology would help me.”
Agreeing to give it a try, she received some Scientology spiritual counseling and was amazed—the upset vanished.
Schneider relocated to Clearwater, Florida—the spiritual headquarters of the Scientology religion. It was there that she met and married husband Roberto.
A Scientology auditor (religious counselor), she credits the skills she has gained from her training for her success as a mother and in so many other aspects of her life.
“I don’t know how I would raise a family in the world today without what I’ve learned in Scientology,” she says.
She is tremendously proud of how self-reliant and responsible her children are.
“My kids have a very good life but they work hard for it,” she says. “It’s not automatically—‘Oh, you’re 16 so here’s a car.’ They earn what they get by studying hard and doing well in school. Even with my little one who’s only four, she loves contributing to the family. She helps me around the house. We make it a game and she’s proud of what she does.”
Schneider’s commitment to helping others extends beyond the family. A Scientology Volunteer Minister, she traveled to Port-au-Prince in January 2012 with her three sisters and several close friends to help in the wake of the Haiti earthquake.
“We are all mothers and the children there really touched our hearts,” she says. “We took on helping more than 100 children who were living on the streets, orphaned or separated from their parents. We built tents, turned an old school bus into a cafeteria, cooked and served their meals, arranged medical care, and tutored them. Where possible, we helped them find their families. My sisters stayed on for months and made sure the children would be cared for when they left.”
Involved with helping others since she was a child, Schneider finds being a Scientology auditor (counselor) enormously gratifying.
“What I like most is to touch someone’s life with a bit of magic—that’s what I really love to do,” she says, “to inspire them, bring out the best in them, so they can see solutions on their own and go ahead and resolve their problems and be happy.”
To meet more than 200 Scientologists and hear their stories, watch the “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 official YouTube Video Channel, with videos now viewed more than 7 million times.
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.
Kim Payne volunteers at the annual St. Petersburg Human Rights Walkathon to raise awareness of human rights abuses. Her video isone 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 simplysaid, "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."
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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
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."
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."
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.