Alice, this is a matter I have no personal stake in, one way or the other. I was simply noting that Scientology's theory of the 3-part human being (body, mind, spirit) is much the same as that in some of the Eastern religions. I found that interesting.

I have noticed that any controversial matter whatsoever...be it scientology, George Bush, the CIA, USA plans to attack Iran, Haliburton, magnetic therapy, chemotherapy, heart surgery, the AMA, the FDA, any alternative health prodecure, vaccination...anything at all like that has spawned libraries full of stuff on the Internet which either utterly damns it or utterly praises and exonerates it.

Pick the side you like. Look up the sites that support your view....pro or con...ignore the ones that don't...and you will be delighted with what you find, I'm sure.

This leaves me, frankly, with nowhere to go except to consult people I actually know who have had actual experience with scientology. I trust that more than a site with an ax to grind or an unknown person on the Internet with an ax to grind.

Like all people, though, if I already have a strong opinion on something I am much encouraged by the internet sites which bolster my established opinion, I sneer knowingly at those which don't, and I see that you already have a strong opinion on scientology. ;-D

I don't.

Your efforts to convince me to share your opinion are likely to get a shrug, because I've already heard 68 million divergent, totally contradictory opinions about just about everything imaginable on the Net and I know how far it all goes. As far as I can throw a refrigerator. People have their own personal reasons to form strong opinions, and those reasons are often rather arbitrary. They often do so merely on the basis of the FIRST thing they heard about something from someone else. That sets the pattern, which thereafter repeats itself endlessly. Most opinions are based on mere hearsay, not experience. If one was easily convinced by all the disembodied opinions one heard, one would be obliged to change one's mind about every five minutes or so, I imagine.

So why should I be unduly influenced by your hatred of scientology if I don't actually know you? Everything out there is hated by various people with strong opinions. I don't know where they got them or why. Were you ever in scientology? Was someone you know well on it? With what result? Why does it concern you this much?