A
Scientology 'electometer': Does this $7,000 device actually
identify
unwanted influences, emotions or painful traumas?
Le Parisien, France
'Damning Testimony'
from Former Scientology Leader
"I
was unaware of the risks I was running; I could have killed someone …"
-- Roger Gonnet, former
director of Scientology, Lyon, describing the reaction of one Scientology
adherent to the Church's 'vitamin treatment'
By Anne-Cécile Juillet
Translated By L. McKenzie Zeiss
June 8, 2009
France - Le Parisien - Original Article
(French)
It was a grueling morning for
representatives of the Church of Scientology, on trial for organized group
fraud since May 25. Monday morning before the 12th criminal court of Paris,
they faced two witnesses called by the plaintiffs. All told, only two witnesses,
but two witnesses that both inflicted historic destruction on the movement,
which they described bluntly as a "cult": Jean-Pierre Brard, former National
Assemblyman from the French Communist Party who represented Seine-Saint-Denis,
and above all, Roger Gonnet, director of the Scientology center in Lyon. They
didn't mince words, being accustomed to the judicial proceedings that
Scientology and other movements have become accustomed to.
BRARD: 'ONE OF THE MOST
DANGEROUS CULTS'
Called to the stand first,
Jean-Pierre Brard has been on every parliamentary commission of inquiry on the
subject since 1995. "Scientology is one of the most dangerous sects, the
most effective and the most out for financial gain," he attacked at the
outset. It has two goals, according to him: "Power and money. Money to gain
power and power to gain money." Presiding judge, Sophie-Hélène Château,
wanted details, especially when Brard claimed that Scientology makes the process
of its decision-making and finances opaque: "It is like a drainage system,"
he illustrated. "We don't see all the little underground channels, but it
functions very well, and the water always arrives safe and sound," meaning,
to the American parent organization.
GONNET: 'THE PERSONALITY
TEST IS RIGGED
The real details, however,
came from the second witness to appear before the tribunal, Roger Gonnet. For
eight years during the 1990s, Roger Gonnet directed the Scientology center in
Lyon, until a disagreement with his superiors led him to a complete break with
the organization. Since then, he has continued investigating and tracking the activity
of his former movement, of which he knows the precepts, has read all the rules,
and can decipher developments. On the witness stand, with an assortment of
supporting documents, he systematically decoded the terms of the Scientologist and
reviewed the central questions before the court. The most notable of these was
the "personality test," which is the first encounter with Scientology
for future recruits.
One of the plaintiffs,
Aude-Claire Malton [who spent €21 500 in two months], responded well to this "free
analysis" concocted by Scientology, who thus recruited her. "It's totally
rigged," explained the former adherent, "the results are calculated
in such a way that you have no chance of your test not being criticized." A
sales pitch follows: To improve, you must take their courses, and therefore
pay. "It’s an essential tool for bringing in people," assured Roger
Gonnet, smashing allegations from previous witnesses last week, who minimized
the test’s impact.
PURIFICATION TREAMENTS: 'I
COULD HAVE KILLED SOMEONE'
Next, the purification treatments.
This is one of the first stages to be crossed in the process of "clearing"
the future, that is to say the future as it is recognized by Scientologists. It
consists of an intensive mixture of saunas, physical activity and the taking of
vitamins - sold exclusively by the Scientology pharmacy. Recalling the case of
one follower who was allergic to the required products, the former Scientology
director, who has no training in medicine, conceded, "I was unaware of the
risks I was running; I could have killed someone …" The Judge closely sifted
through the prices that were charged, "which were labeled donations in
order to give it a religious air," according to Gonnet.
Posted by
WORLDMEETS.US
[Editor's Note: In Scientology,
'clearing' is a condition in which a person is free of the unwanted influences,
unwanted emotions or painful traumas that are not readily available to the person's
awareness].
THE ELECTROMETER: 'AN
INCOME FOR LIFE'
Next it was the turn of the
electrometer, that tool used to capture, by means of electrical variations, the
mental state of a follower, sold for about €5000, "which is worth twenty
times less, but which ensures a lifetime income, since every two years, each
scientologist, who must have one, has to send it in for €800 worth of
maintenance."
SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Le Monde , France:
Scientology May Have a Friend in Sarkozy
Liberation, France:
Court May 'Dissolve' Scientology in France
Bild am Sonntag, Germany:
Scientology Seeks to 'Gain Power' in Germany
The remuneration
of active members, finally: "Their pay is calculated based on their
results, which they must continually improve. Sometimes even some of the
directors that you see there [the witness referred to Alain Rosenberg, the
current director of the Celebrity Center - (leader of the Church of Scientology
in France)] don't declare to the home office all reimbursement requests they
receive - for one simple reason. For each reimbursement, the entire active
membership is deprived of wages for a given time …"
Seated alongside one another,
the seven defendants lifted their eyes to they sky from time to time, sighed or
looked indignant. The testimony of this "apostate" could have little value
in their eyes. The parade of witnesses, called by the defense this time, would
continue on Tuesday. There are nearly thirty.
CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US June 10, 6:09pm]
