From braintree!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!nntp.crl.com!crl5.crl.com!not-for-mail Wed Oct 11 09:35:41 1995
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From: milne@crl.com (Andrew Milne)
Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology
Subject: The source of attacks
Date: 9 Oct 1995 15:44:21 -0700
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            It has been asked sometimes why the Church of
      Scientology was at odds with the U.S.  government in years
      past and whether this is still the case.

            The reason for the attacks against Scientology is
      basically very simple.  Its genesis was not wrongdoing by the
      Church, but the perceived encroachment on turf claimed by the
      American medical/psychiatric community.

            The conflict dates back to 1950, a time when psychiatry
      was entrenched among the US intelligence services and living
      off the fat of government grants.  In May of that year, L.
      Ron Hubbard published Dianetics: The Modern Science of
      Mental Health.  Not only did Dianetics contain the first
      workable technology of the mind that anyone could apply,
      but it also labelled their "state-of-the-art" psychiatric
      drugs as dangerous.  Moreover, it decried the inhuman use of
      electro-shock treatment and lobotomy -- then the mainstay of
      psychiatric "treatment".  One cannot overestimate the threat
      that Dianetics posed to that medical/psychiatric
      establishment, both in terms of its inherent message and its
      unprecedented popularity with the American public; for
      suddenly here was a work that effectively ripped away their
      pretense of authority.

            The response was immediate and considerable.  Less than
      a month after the publication of Dianetics, psychiatrists
      on government payrolls were denigrating the book as a hoax,
      while admitting in the same breath that they had never even
      read it.  A handful of influential psychiatrists used their
      government connections to spread lies and false reports
      through media and government files, escalating into an
      all-out attempt to close down the Dianetics foundations which
      had sprung up across the country and later, after its
      formation in 1954, the Church of Scientology.  The issue was
      clearly financial: how long could psychiatrists continue to
      convince the American taxpayer to foot the bill for
      multimillion dollar psychiatric appropriations when Dianetics
      provided a means to greater happiness and ability for only
      the price of a book?

            The attacks intensified after 1951, the year Mr.
      Hubbard published Science of Survival.  In that book, Mr.
      Hubbard publicly exposed, for the first time,
      government-funded mind-control experiments in which
      psychiatrists administered drugs and electric shock to
      unsuspecting human guinea pigs who were then implanted, while
      unconscious, with hypnotic commands.  Decades later, victims
      would receive government compensation for the injuries they
      suffered from such experiments.  But at the time these
      matters were among the best-kept secrets of the U.S.
      intelligence and psychiatric communities.

            Once again the response from the federal/psychiatric
      circles was considerable.  At least half a dozen federal
      agencies, including the FBI, IRS and FDA, were brought into
      the effort to suppress Dianetics and Scientology.

            The story of the attempts to wipe out Scientology would
      fill a book, but this war was effectively over in October
      1993, when, after its exhaustive scrutiny, the IRS issued a
      series of rulings expressly recognizing that the Church of
      Scientology and all its subordinate churches and related
      charitable and educational institutions in the United States
      are tax-exempt organizations.

            The IRS ruling which encompassed not only every
      Scientology church in the United States but also several
      important Scientology organizations outside the United States
      signified that the IRS -- and the U.S.  government -- had
      formally recognized that the Church of Scientology is a bona
      fide religious organization and that its activities are
      beneficial to society as a whole.










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