I know the dark side of Scientology...I almost lost my friend to itby Jonny Jacobsen
Published on 8 Nov 2009
I knew Scientology was in trouble when the media moved on from the usual silly gossip about its celebrity members to much darker, disturbing issues at the heart of the movement.
After a Paris court last month convicted several Scientologists and two organisations associated with the movement in France of organised fraud, and amid other investigations in France looking at a suicide and an alleged abduction, Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis, a long-time member, quit Scientology.
Haggis, who wrote and directed Crash, denounced the practice of "disconnection", which sees members forced to cut off contact with anyone – even their loved ones – if they are deemed an enemy of Scientology.
In Edinburgh in the early 1990s, I found out just what the practice of disconnection could do to ordinary people when a close friend became involved in Scientology. It was an experience which marked me so profoundly that I have been tracking the movement ever since.
Let’s call my friend Hannah. I first got to know her when she moved into the house I was staying at in Edinburgh. An American in her early 20s, she was here to see a little of Europe between finishing college and starting up the career ladder.
She loved Scotland and spent the winter here, so we spent a lot of time together until spring when she packed her rucksack and took off to travel around the rest of Europe.
It was in Switzerland, I later learned, that she met some "really friendly people" who invited her to stay with them. They also introduced her to Scientology.
Read the rest:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/i-know-the-dark-side-of-scientology-i-almost-lost-my-friend-to-it-1.931049
