scientology myths 2.0

CHURCHES OF SCIENTOLOGY

There are presently 7,731 churches, missions and groups in 164 countries worldwide. Membership has increased from 6.1 million in 2000 to approximately 10 million at the end of 2007.

Scientology operates freely all over the world and has hundreds of religious recognitions from courts and government administrative bodies.

Scientology has been formally recognized as a religion in each of the following countries: Albania, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Portugal, Scotland, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, the United States, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. The most recent notable decisions include the following:

On April 5, 2007, a decision rendered by the European Court of Human Rights, found that Scientology constitutes a religious community, enunciating a principle binding on all 47 member states that comprise the Council of Europe.

On 31 October 2007, the National Court in Madrid, Spain issued a landmark decision affirming the right to religious freedom by recognizing that the National Church of Scientology of Spain should be entered in the Registry of Religious Entities. The Ministry of Justice complied with the court’s order on 13 December 2007. Scientology first came to Spain in the late 1960s. In 2004, the Church opened a large new headquarters for the National Church of Scientology of Spain in the heart of Madrid.

On 5 November 2007, the Church of Scientology of Portugal was officially recognized as a religious organization under that country’s new religious registration law.

On 3 December 2007, the South African Revenue Service granted the Church of Scientology the status of a Public Benefit Organization as a religious entity with full tax exemption.

L. RON HUBBARD

Hubbard’s research on the spirit, the mind and life is recorded in the 35 million words that comprise Dianetics and Scientology. These are contained in 8,000 pages of text, 29,000 pages of individual issues organized into encyclopedic series, and more than 3000 recorded lectures.

In 1987, the annual distribution of L. Ron Hubbard’s books averaged 3 million copies annually. Such is the demand that in 2007, it is now over 10.95 million copies per year.

As of the end of 2007, the total number of L. Ron Hubbard’s books distributed reached 239,584,515.

SOCIAL REFORMS STATISTICS 2007

Volunteer Ministers
The Church’s biggest effort to provide help to the world at large is the Volunteer Minister Program. In all, the Volunteer Ministers have helped more than 10.8 million people in the past six years, and with more than 115,000 active members of the Volunteer Minister Corps, on call at any time for any situation.

Human Rights Campaigns
The Church sponsors an international human rights awareness campaign in coordination with Youth for Human Rights International.

The campaign features the children and adult guidebooks communicating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in simple, understandable terms. These guidebooks are published in 21 languages.

Utilizing school lessons, athletic events, contests and an annual worldwide educational tour, it is aimed at increasing worldwide awareness of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

30 Public Service Announcements, one for each of the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, flank the campaign and have aired on more than 3,200 TV stations.

It has been commended by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and other international human rights organizations for its work.

To date, the campaign has reached 600 million people in 81 countries.

Citizen Commision on Human Rights
In 1969, the Church of Scientology established the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights and to clean up the field of mental healing. First established in the United Kingdom, it is today a leading international watchdog on issues of mental health, with 250 chapters in 34 countries.

Since its establishment, CCHR has educated parents, teachers, legislators and policy makers on the lack of science in psychiatry, the often-fatal dangers of psychiatric treatments and the profession’s effect on society as a whole through 14 million booklets, informational pamphlets, investigatory white papers and public advocacy advertisements; two books; 14 documentary films; a museum documenting the abuses of psychiatry and 11 traveling exhibitions. These educational materials have reached over 1.8 billion people.

As a result, CCHR is responsible for more than 100 pieces of legislation protecting the human rights of mental patients.

Drug Rehabilitation
Scientologists support Narconon, a drug-free rehabilitation program utilizing L. Ron Hubbard’s techniques in handling drug addiction. Narconon was founded in 1966 when an inmate in the Arizona State Prison read one of L. Ron Hubbard’s books on Scientology and wrote to Mr. Hubbard asking his help to kick a life-long drug habit. Since then, tens of thousands of people have graduated the Narconon program.

Today, Narconon operates from its main drug rehabilitation facility at Arrowhead in Oklahoma, which also serves as a training center for drug rehabilitation professionals and volunteers from around the world. Narconon operates a network of 177 groups operating in 43 nations, including 47 residential facilities, and Narconon drug educators have lectured to 15 million students.

Literacy
For more than three decades, Scientologists have supported the Applied Scholastics network – using Hubbard’s technology of literacy and learning, known as study technology. In 2003, Applied Scholastics established a massive, 100-acre educator training campus in St. Louis (Applied Scholastics International).

Since opening their new campus, Applied Scholastics has already doubled the number of teachers they have trained in study technology, now numbering more than 98,000.

In 2007, Applied Scholastics has opened 65 new schools and study groups, including in Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Slovakia, now totaling more than 763 centers and schools in 67 countries.

Among the literacy centers in the Applied Scholastics network is the Hollywood Literacy and Education Project, (H.E.L.P.), a non-profit, community based program, developing literacy and related skills through one-on-one mentoring and study techniques and at no cost to the participants. It was established in Hollywood, California in 1997. H.E.L.P. has been supported by many prominent Scientologists including Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Anne Archer and others. H.E.L.P. has ongoing projects in the continental United States, Puerto Rico, England and Scotland. It has helped over 8,700 people, mainly youth, and trained over 500 community mentors and tutors.

The Way to Happiness
Scientologists are active in a program to promote morality and decency, using The Way to Happiness a non-religious common sense guide to living consisting of 21 precepts that represent the world’s first non-religious moral code. In the fall of 2003, a new International Headquarters for The Way to Happiness Foundation was established in Glendale, California, to coordinate the worldwide network. The Way to Happiness is now published in 94 languages, including Braille, with over 76 million copies distributed in 131 nations.

Criminon
From the need to remedy this glaringly destructive societal flaw—and using Hubbard’s research data —Criminon (which means “without crime”) was founded in New Zealand in 1970. It started off as a
branch of Narconon but is now an independent organization. It operates within the penal system to rehabilitate criminals and restore their sense of self-worth so that they can again become productive members of society.

Criminon is active in more than 2,035 prisons in 36 countries, with 70,000 inmates having done the program in the last six years alone.

New York Detox Program
In the aftermath of the World Trade Center attack, the collapse of the towers brought unprecedented toxic exposures. With that came long-term health and job fitness issues for those that risked their lives to save others. On 28 September 2002, Tom Cruise co-founded The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project. Since then 850 men and women have successfully completed the program and have restored their health, positive attitude and quality of life.

The detoxification regimen is a medically-supervised detoxification program based on the discoveries of
L. Ron Hubbard. The program is offered free of charge to any emergency worker affected by toxic exposure at the World Trade Center site. The cost of the program is supported by the generous donations of caring individuals like Tom Cruise.