Joe,

Yes, I wrote that. It did not come from anyone else's website or blog although I availed myself the use of several blogs written by ex-Scientologists for some of my info--Jon Atack, for example.

I don't believe I did a hatchet-job on Scientology. Once of the facts of it are known, being impartial is a practice in futility. You have to call it the way you see it. It is what it is.

If I were going to do a hatchet-job, I would have accused Scientology, for example, of fostering a denial of the Holocaust because one of its longtime members, Tom Marcellus, is also a longtime Holocaust-denier working for racist Willis Carto. I didn't mention that because that would be unfair. I'm sure most Scientologists are not Holocaust-deniers and I have no idea of what Hubbard believed about it.

Hatchet-job implies I butchered the religion when, in fact, I presented the facts as clearly as I could get them.

Don or someone claimed that I stated that Scientology became a church long after I said it did in 1952. But I just went to Wiki to see about that and here is what it says:

"The first Scientology church was incorporated in December 1953 in Camden, New Jersey, by American science fiction author[8][9] L. Ron Hubbard."

Unless we stretch things a bit and insist that 1953 occurred long after 1952, I was pretty close. The wiki may not be correct either. When I wrote this piece, there was no such thing as Wikipedia. I believe my info came from Jon Atack whom I found to be knowledgeable since he was once a member of the church but not likely to gloss over its more questionable practices as a current member would probably do.

Much of my info come straight out of "Dianetics" which I have read. The comparison of engrams to homeopathy was my own. While investigating homeopathy, I found the parallels to be suspicious--but I could be wrong. I doubt it though. Hubbard put a little of everything in his religion to sell it to as wide an audience of gullible rubes as possible.   

His church also gave birth to the Process Church of the Final Judgement which was started by two ex-Scientologists--Robert De Grimston Moore and his wife Maryanne. They too used e-meters on their members and even appropriated the name "Scientology" for a time but were made to stop. They, in turn, had an influence on Charles
Manson who also took Scientology courses while incarcerated. One of Manson's hardcore followers, Dennis Rice, was a Scientologist and so was his girlfriend who mysteriously turned up murdered. Maybe she didn't like Dennis hanging out with the Family.

After reading an account of what happened to Lisa MacPherson, I see no reason to be "impartial" to Scientology. It doesn't deserve it.