alt_religion_scientology/FACTNetARS20020513a

Reply-To: "FACTNet International" < XXX-Obsolete.email.Deleted-XXX >
From: "FACTNet International" < XXX-Obsolete.email.Deleted-XXX >
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: Waltzing Matilda
Message-ID: <7kZD8.69248$To6.22016199@e420r-atl1.usenetserver.com>
NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 20:59:47 EDT
Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 18:50:40 -0700

Some straight talking from Oz :
http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4312236%5E401,00.html

Church pays man for brainwashing
By Darrell Giles in Los Angeles
14may02

THE Church of Scientology has paid $US8.7 million ($16.1 million) to a man
who claims he was brain-washed.

Lawrence Wollersheim, 53, of Nevada, joined the Los Angeles-based Church of
Scientology in 1969.

He later became a recruiter and signed a "billion-year" contract to serve
the church, whose high-profile members include celebrities Tom Cruise, Lisa
Marie Presley and John Travolta.

But, he said, he was punished in a "thought reform gulag" and consigned to
the hold of a ship docked off California for 18 hours a day.

He sued the organisation in 1980 after "counselling" almost caused him to
take his own life. He claimed he paid $US150,000 to the church.

He said mind-control tactics, coupled with deprivation of sleep and food,
had caused him to develop bipolar disorder and consider suicide.

"The counselling techniques are designed to either break you or make you a
slave. I was on the edge of insanity," Mr Wollersheim said.

A jury in 1986 awarded him $US30 million, an amount reduced on appeal to
$US2.5 million and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1994.

The court award collected 10 per cent interest over the years and eventually
grew to $US8.6 million.

Scientology officials vowed they would pay "not one thin dime for
Wollersheim", and members were rallied to chant the slogan at court
hearings. But the Church of Scientology has now handed over a cheque for
that amount to Mr Wollersheim.

Scientology, founded by author L. Ron Hubbard more than 50 years ago, has
come under attack around the world for its methods of attracting members.

Major income earners such as Cruise and Travolta - who pick up $US20 million
per picture - hand over vast sums of their fortunes to the church.

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