alt_religion_scientology/FACTNetARS20020429

The Scientologists call it "baby-watching", but it has nothing to do with
looking after infants. --

The middle-aged German student started screaming. He seemed to have lost
control. He was a Scientologist, a member of the world's largest cult, on a
course of study that, he had been promised, would bring him closer to the
secrets of the universe and, eventually, give him the key to eternal life.--

For two weeks, the room was locked. The German had been placed on an
"isolation watch" - or what Scientologists more informally refer to as a
"baby watch". It is a treatment that was prescribed by the founder of the
cult, L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, for members showing signs of
psychosis or mental ill-health -- people who are, literally, plagued by evil
spirits. It is the last resort for dealing with difficult Scientologists. It
is a treatment that the organisation has so far kept secret.

The subject of the watch is observed at all times, and not allowed to talk
to anybody. He or she is, in the language of the cult, "muzzled". Our
witnesses, who have asked to remain anonymous, remember that the German was
sometimes incontinent and
that they had to wash him down at the sink in the otherwise bare room. The
five people who guarded him were only allowed to communicate with him in
writing. Eventually he was allowed to return to Germany.--

For the past few months, the "Independent" has been investigating claims
that the cult employs quasi-psychological techniques that are possibly
illegal and potentially dangerous to the long-term health of its more
vulnerable members. Disturbing new evidence, provided, at some risk to
themselves, by existing and former members of the cult may renew calls for
Scientology to again be banned from the UK. In the United States, the cult
was recently granted the tax exemption enjoyed by genuine churches, but this
may soon be overturned.

In November, in a landmark ruling, the Californian Court of Appeal agreed
that the the techniques of Scientology constitute "brain-washing" and
"thought-reform" similar to that practised by the Chinese and North Koreans
against American prisisoners of war.--

One former senior cult official who worked in the Californian section of the
organisation was involved in several baby watches. On one occasion, a woman
staff member was put in isolation after she started throwing furniture out
of the window of her flat, which overlooked Hollywood Boulevard. She was
then locked in her room. "We had to take all the furniture out of the room,
strip it completely and leave her in there on her own for more than a week,"
the official said. "She was just crazy, talking to herself and screaming."

This woman had been engaged in one of the most demanding of the Scientology
courses, during which students are taught that 75 million years ago the
earth was part of a galactic confederation ruled by an evil prince called
Xenu. He shipped the inhabitants of 76 planets to earth. The spirits (or
thetans) of these extra-terrestrials inhabit the souls of contemporary human
beings and have to be exorcised.

Dr Betty Tylden, a retired consultant psychiatrist who is regularly called
as an expert court witness on cults, has treated Scientologists recovering
from the effects of baby watches -- both the victims and the guards. She has
seen several in the past six months alone. "People are terribly frightened
of it," she said. "They come out of it suffering from something very similar
to Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, the "prisoner" syndrome. There is
hyper-arousal, flashbacks, fear and obsessions. It is very nasty, and even
if it doesn't break a law, it is a gross curtailment of an individual's
liberty."

It is not just baby-watching that is causing concern. One Zimbabwean man,
Noel Matarandirotya, who has now left the organisation and has been advised
by his legal counsel that he may have grounds to seek compensation from the
Scientologists for, among other things, false imprisonment, claims that he
collapsed as a result of intensive interrogation. He came to Saint Hill in
1991, on a ticket paid for by the cult, but the following year he was
suspected of subverting the interests of the organisation. He alleges that
he was interrtogated for two or three hours every day often with a lie
detector connected by electrodes to his hands.

His concerns about the cult started before this, while he participated in a
Scientology course called a "purification rundown" -- during which members
spend long periods in a sauna and take large quantities of vitamin pills.
According to Dr Tylden, the massive quantity of pills, combined with the
physical stress of spending long periods at high temperatures, could be
fatal. "I
found it very difficult," said Mr Matarandirotya. "There were some children
doing the course when I did it. I saw at least two, the youngest around 10,
and they were taking the vitamins, too."

He is prepared to speak out. Most are not. Scientology has a reputation
for hunting down its critics. One man has taken to wearing an armoured vest
because of alleged threats against his life. One American former cult
member claims that he was ordered to kill two opponents of the
organisation.--

Extract from - http://home.snafu.de/tilman/mystory/940131_1.txt
The Prisoners of Saint Hill
The Independent
Monday 31 January 1994
by Tim Kelsey and Mike Ricks

IOHO
FACTNet Staff
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