Leisa Goodman is the public relations director of Scientology. Her Web page was the first "official" Scientology presence on the World Wide Web, though it has been made clear that the contents of the site are not the "official" opinions and statement of Scientology. In September of 1996, her page was aliased into the official Scientology domain. Also of note on this page is the Task Force for Freedom and Responsibility on the Internet, which attempts to dictate Scientology morals to its enemies (real and imagined) on the Internet.

Freedom magazine is Scientology's most often-promoted publication, though its title is rather ironic. Within the pages of Freedom, you will find unending attacks against the enemies of Scientology, namely the fields of psychiatry and psychology. (These are usually classified under the term "Psychiatric Genocide".") Freedom also warns against other "threats" from enemies of Scientology, including the Internet and various countries that have taken steps to counter Scientology's influence (notably Germany).

The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is a front group used by Scientology to attack psychiatric organizations around the world. This site doesn't pull any punches: it viciously attacks psychiatry as the source of every evil in the history of the world, while simultaneously congratulating itself for its courageous crusade against the evils of psychiatry.

Narconon is Scientology's controversial drug-treatment program. It presents itself as a treatment center for people who are suffering from drug abuse problems, and it claims to use L. Ron Hubbard's methods to treat these addictions. Scientology also promotes this method as a "life improvement" procedure called the Purification Rundown, claiming that it can "assist in releasing and flushing out of the body the accumulated toxic residues" accumulated over time. Both the Narconon method and the Purification Rundown stem from the same source: the book Clear Body, Clear Mind by L. Ron Hubbard. Narconon's methods have been criticized by medical professionals as dangerous and unworkable by government and medical studies, however...though you won't find any mention of that at this particular link. The most detailed examination of Narconon currently in existence can be found at the Narconon Exposed web site, hosted by Chris Owen. In addition, Jeff Lee provides a list of Frequently Asked Questions about Narconon on his Web page, while the Skeptic Tank Web site maintains a list of news articles about Narconon. The Operation Clambake Web site also has a special section with information about Narconon. All of these sites contain links to in-depth studies of the Purification Rundown.

As mentioned in the Time magazine article of 1991, Sterling Management promotes Scientology "ethics" within the business world. The Web site presents a front that takes pains to distance itself from any mention of Scientology, stating only that the organization will "only deliver the extremely successful Hubbard management system and tailor it to your practice needs." They offer such training courses as Improving Business Through Communication, How To Get Along With Others, Management By Statistics, How To Increase Efficiency In Your Company, and other similar-themed courses. The Web site is actually rather bare, providing no links to anyone at all; however, the literature mailed out by Sterling provides more obvious connections to Scientology. As Sterling states in its own promotional flyer: "It's been said that any one Sterling staff member could eat up any 1,800 psychs!" (However, Sterling Management is not the only attempt by Scientology to enter the business world. Mike Gormez maintains an extensive site entitled Scientology recruitment in the workplace, containing many newspaper articles and several court documents.

At one time, Scientology considered the Cult Awareness network one of its greatest enemies; rare was an issue of Freedom magazine published that did not contain blistering, hate-filled attacks against CAN (and especially Cynthia Kisser, the former chairwoman for the organization). During the 1990s, over fifty lawsuits were filed against CAN by various Scientologists; nearly all of them were dismissed as frivolous. But Scientology did gain one major victory in the case of Jason Scott. In this case, in which the plaintiff was represented by Kendrick Moxon (a Scientology lawyer), a judgement of $1 million was awarded against CAN. This bankrupted the organization, and they were forced to sell their assets and belongings. A representative of Scientology bought CAN's name and logo for $20,000, and promptly set to work re-organizing the group (as well as changing its message). Now, the "new" Cult Awareness Network's mission is, in their own words: "Educating the Public to Religious Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities." For a detailed look into the case surrounding the collapse and takeover of CAN, you can look at Marina Chong's Cult Awareness Network page.

Scientology has continually portrayed itself as a "persecuted religious minority," with much of its wrath aimed at Germany. There have been a number of media stories about Scientology and its feud with the German government. This site contains the side of the story as portrayed by Scientology. Of course, the citizens of Germany themselves have a different point of view, as evidenced at an opposing page called Scientology vs. Germany.

L. Ron Hubbard's career before founding Dianetics is well-known: he was a pulp magazine writer of science fiction. Over the years, Scientology has embarked on a campaign to advance Hubbard's image as one of the founding fathers and "masters" of scienc e fiction, though this claim is universally scoffed in literary circles outside of Scientology. But nonetheless, the organization has spent millions of dollars promoting Hubbard's fiction books -- especially two science fiction series written by him duri ng the early to middle 1980s, Battlefield Earth and the Mission Earth series. Scientology hosts a graphically impressive Web site dedicated to these books, and all of Hubbard's other fiction works as well. Battlefield Earth has long been advertised by Scientology as "Soon To Be A Major Motion Picture," and after twenty years this hype will soo n become reality. Actor John Travolta, a long-standing Scientologist and one of the most public supporters of Scientology, spent fifteen years throughout the 1980s and 1990s trying to convince Hollywood to produce a movie based on Hubbard's novel...and l o and behold, May of the year 2000 saw the release of the movie Battlefield Earth, from Warner Bros. Unfortunately for Travolta (and for Scientology), the movie died at the box office and received some of the worst media reviews for a major Hollyw ood summer motion picture in recent memory, rivalling other legendary bombs such as Showgirls and The Postman. Despite Scientology's heady praise of Hubbard as "one of the best-selling authors of all time," there is controversy surrounding t he "best-seller" status of his books. In the early 1990s, a number of newspaper articles reported that Scientology had apparently been engaging in a massive effort to buy enormous quantities of Hubbard's books, in order to propel them onto best-seller lists and foster the illusion of Hubbard as a best-selling author. One of those articles, from the April 15, 1990 edition of the San Diego Union, is available online. Additional rev iews of Battlefield Earth, and other Hubbard books, are also available at amazon.com. For additional commentary on the movie, take a look at the Battlefield Earth entry in the Internet Movie Database. A critical Web site that rips the movie apart (or at least the pre-release hype) can be found at the site Battlefield Earth: the true story.

One of the most frequently asked questions on the newsgroup alt.religion.scientology is this: "If Scientology has eight million members, then where are they?" There have only been a few Scientologists appearing on the newsgroup since the online war began in 1995, and the number of critical Web sites have outnumbered the official Scientology sites from the very beginning. On March 13, 1998, Scientology began a campaign to counter its lack of pro-Scientology pages when it announced the Scientologists Online project, a plan to send Internet website templates to 116,000 of its members. Officials hope that by creating many, many websites that link to Scientology's home page, Scientology can clog search engines and prevent information critical of the organization from reaching interested viewers. The template kits include a click-through to the official Scientology website, which offers members the chance to make the 10% commission on new members' "donations," a commission normally offered to its sales staff. However, online critic Deana Holmes discovered in 1998 that the Scientology web kit also comes with its own personal censorship software. Installing the Web kit onto a PC will activate a filtering program that prevents Scientologists from accessing many areas of the Internet that criticize Scientology -- including this very Web site, An Introduction to Scientology. A summary of these "personal" Scientologist home pages can be seen at Deana Holmes' Web site.

Other Scientology-related organizations can be found at the official Scientology page, though these links should give you an idea of what they offer. In addition to this listing, Tilman Hausherr also hosts a page of organizations operated by Scientology, using many different names.

Over the past few years, Scientology has founded several schools in the United States and other countries as a way of promoting its educational beliefs, which L. Ron Hubbard wrote and called "Study Tech." Strangely, these schools seem reluctant to admit their ties to Scientology: you often have to go a considerable distance into their Web sites before they make any mention of Hubbard. The word "Scientology" itself is never used; one only notices repeated reference sto Hubbard as a "philosopher," "teach er," and "scholar." When acknowledgement of Hubbard is made, these schools emphatically deny any so-called "religious" connections to Scientology, insisting that their curriculum are non-religious in nature. It's as if these schools are trying to hide t heir links to Scientology -- because if parents discover that these schools are actually part of the Church of Scientology, they may withdraw their children and send them somewhere else instead.

(It should be noted that first-hand experiences with Hubbard's "Study Tech" have produced results that are less than promising. Dr. David Touretzky of Carnegie-Mellon University has done extensive research into Study Tech, and his written essay on the subject can be found on the Web at this site: Scientology v. Education: A critical analysis of Scientology's "study technology".)

This is the Scientology organization that aims to promote Scientology teachings and materials in schools, including elementary schools. Although it promotes Hubbard's "Study Tech," it does not claim to be a Scientology organization (even though its "Related Sites" section only points to the Scientology Web site); rather, it was allegedly founded by "American educators from colleges, universities and both public and private schools."

Despite the name, this is in fact another outlet for Applied Scholastics and Scientology materials aimed at schools. The Web site points to nothing but Applied Scholastics promotions and various sections of the Scientology Web site, though they also have a "Special Feature" section that includes a "Global Locator" feature. This feature allows you to locate various schools and educational institutions that are part of ABLE and use Applied Scholastics materials.

The Delphian is a school for older and college-age students; it is also affiliated with several other Delphi Academy schools across America. Among its alumni is Sky Dayton, the president and founder of the Earthlink Internet service. Delphian makes a specific mention of Hubbard right here at this page.

Another school for children, located in England. As with Delphi, they use Hubbard's "study tech" with the students, and they state this on this page.

This group aims for inner-city kids and urban, lower-income neighborhood children. The Web site includes a listing of books for sale...though for some reason, all of the books listed were written by L. Ron Hubbard. The Web site for the World Literacy Crusade states, "The Study Technology that the World Literacy Crusade uses is secular and has no religious basis whatsoever;" though the examination of Study Technology by Dr. Touretzky does question this claim.

A Scientology-run school that encourages businesses to sign up for courses in Hubbard "Management Tech."

This school proudly promotes its use of "Study Technology of L. Ron Hubbard," states that it is licensed to use Applied Scholastics educational services, and apparently teaches courses from kindergarten through high school. One odd statement: "The school's computer network, which contains over twenty billion characters of information, is in constant use." This school is located in Riverside County, "just one and one half hours from Los Angeles."

This school promotes itself to the parents of teenagers who are having problems and causing trouble. The ranch, "located in the mountain wilderness of Southwestern New Mexico, provides an environment far from, and free of, suppressive external influences that are destroying the youth of today." As with the California Ranch School, this ranch uses Applied Scholastics courses, and promotes itself using an L. Ron Hubbard quote from Science of Survival: "When children become unimportant to a society, that society has forfeited its future." What's more, they state Hubbard's "four valid therapies:" "processing, education, change of environment, and control of the physical universe."

The Mace-Kingsley Ranch School (also called the "MK Ranch or M-K Ranch") used to have a Web site (www.mkranch.com), but the site appaears to have been taken down completely. This school has been at the focus of attention involving its treatment of children, and it has been the focus of several critical looks at Scientology. A Google search for "mace kingsley ranch school" will provide you with some interesting results.

Located in Mercer Island, in the state of Washington, this is another private school that promotes "The Way to Happiness" and credits L. Ron Hubbard as "the man who founded the wonderful technology of study" used there.

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