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Mission Statement:

To carry out the final wishes of Lisa McPherson's mother, Fannie, which were to expose the abusive and deceptive practices of Scientology and to help those who have been victimized by it.

Statement of Objectives:

To accomplish our mission, we will demystify and thereby make transparent the coercive processes and practices of Scientology. In this way, informed consumers can make an educated decision about whether Scientology can meet their psychological or spiritual needs.

We will expose Scientology's abuses of the human, civil and privacy rights of its members and critics. We will reveal its deceptive advertising practices that border on consumer fraud. We will disclose its "religious practices" and conduct that violate civil and criminal law. However, we will of course respect the rights of all Scientologists to embrace any religious belief they may choose.

We will assist former Scientologists to recover from their unique personal experience with the abusive and deceptive practices of Scientology. We will offer counsel to current Scientologists who choose to learn the truth about how Scientology uses deceptive mind control techniques to capture their hearts and minds. Our dedicated staff of counselors will provide the information, compassion and support to current Scientologists that will enable them to release the bonds of cult mind control.

Finally, all of the people involved in the Lisa McPherson Trust will respect the dignity and innate human goodness of all current, former and recovering Scientologists.

Our Philosophy:

The Board of Directors, Advisory Committee and staff of the Lisa McPherson Trust includes a number of former Scientologists who have had first hand experience with Scientology's abuse, and they are all in some way still recovering from it. They are decent, caring and loving human beings who have freely chosen to help others who have made a similar uninformed decision about Scientology. Moreover, they are willing and able to share their innermost personal experiences in the Sea Organization or as Public Scientologists in order to counsel, educate and immunize others against the abuses and deceptions of Scientology.

Scientology draws its members from a broad cross-section of society, and, like other destructive cults, uses a sophisticated combination of deceptive recruiting methods, false promises, hypnosis, behavior modification, sleep deprivation, dietary manipulation, information control, phobia indoctrination and other mind control techniques to entice and control its members. There is no shame in having been seduced into a group like Scientology. Likewise, there need not be any reluctance to leave after discovering that the organization is not capable of delivering on its promise of a road to total freedom.

Real freedom begins and ends with the never-ending quest of the human spirit to be free. This perpetual quest is the single most important factor that keeps mind control from being irreversible. Organized Scientology claims eight million members, including anyone who has ever taken a course or bought a book. However, informed estimates indicate that there are at most no more than 200,000 active Scientologists in the world today. This apparent rejection of Scientology by 7.8 million people who have tried it is the single greatest testimonial to the fact that this organization does not deliver on its promises.

The Board of Directors, Advisory Committee and staff of the Lisa McPherson Trust will do our part in Clearwater, Florida, to see that the human spirit of all Scientologists will always have a pathway to real freedom.

Sincerely,

Bob Minton,
for and on behalf of
The Lisa McPherson Trust

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Bob Minton <bob@minton.org> wrote:

>We will assist former Scientologists to recover from their unique personal
>experience with the abusive and deceptive practices of Scientology. We will
>offer counsel to current Scientologists who choose to learn the truth about
>how Scientology uses deceptive mind control techniques to capture their
>hearts and minds. Our dedicated staff of counselors will provide the
>information, compassion and support to current Scientologists that will
>enable them to release the bonds of cult mind control.

What about the Scientologists who are still inside and need a place to sleep, food to eat, a safe place to hide from the cult while they regain their balance, and help finding and/or contacting their families? A place where they can simply lie down on a bed and close their eyes for five hours? Even if they go back to the cult that's still five hours of rest that'll help their minds make the right decision to get the hell out.

Some of the things that these crooks do to keep their victims from getting the hell out are:

    o Sleep depravation
    o Exhaustion
    o Repetitive mind-numbing nonsense
    o Poor diet
    o Isolation
    o No prospects for a job

Give cultists a place to flee to so they can rest, eat a couple of meals, talk with fellow human beings, and sit quietly for a few days or so such that they can regain their balance and rebuild their lives and regain their lives. Help them find work by working with the Clearwater City and the State of Florida employment offices. Help them write resumes. Provide postage for resumes, a telephone that prospective employeers can call, and drive them to interviews.

They'll have family members who have either given up on them or who have abandoned them. The LMT could -- should, I say -- help cultists trying to escape find their families and should stand between the cultist trying to escape and their family, help to re-introduce them to each other, and step back to allow them to re-find each other.

For that the LMT needs a qualified, well trained, and experienced psychologist on staff.

If you want to do the puppy up seriously, Mr. Minton, you've got to enumerate what it is that cultists need to be able to escape, and you've got to enumerate what your organization can and can't do to meet those needs. If your organization lacks qualified people or resources to meet a need, you need to network with other organizations that can meet those needs -- organizations that match your goals.

The LMT charter is a great start, but it's not specific enough, I think. Cultists contemplating getting the hell out of the Scientology cult are going to go straight for your charter's web page, and for your "about the LMT" web page -- or the flyer you hand them. They're going to want to know immediately whether the organization can or can not help them. The rhetoric is grand and promising, but they'll want specifics.

There's my unsolicited opinion. You probably already have good guys with good suggestions and advice working to make the LMT a good thing. But please prioritize what it is cultists need, if you haven't already.

Their brains are mush, having been fed TR0 and Hubbardism -- some times for decades. They'll be unable to track rationally along a train of thought, and all they'll know is that they want to get out but have qualms and, even if they could get out, they would have no place to go.

Speaking of unsolicited advice, at some point the LMT needs to solicit funds. Right now I'll guarentee a donation from The Skeptic Tank of $1,000 a year to start with.

--- "de omnibus dubitandum" All is to be doubted --- Descartes
24-hour file archive access: (626) 335-9601 (FidoNet 1:218/890.0) SP4
The Skeptic Tank: http://www.linkline.com/personal/frice/index.htm
Scientology Criminals: http://www.linkline.com/personal/frice/csindex.htm
What the Scientology cult doesn't want you to know: http://www.xenu.net/

From: tilman@berlin.snafu.de (Tilman Hausherr)
Subject: Re: The Lisa McPherson Trust: Mission, Objectives and Philosophy
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 1999 12:13:41 +0100
Message-ID: <4ua45s0fku5mlqd9bon6jr20vnh4mmv002@4ax.com>

On Fri, 10 Dec 1999 21:00:05 -0500, Bob Minton <bob@minton.org> wrote in <mvb35ss5kg9prpl5nof4jef8ibgj2ve6b1@4ax.com>:

>Statement of Objectives:
>
>To accomplish our mission, we will demystify and thereby make transparent
>the coercive processes and practices of Scientology. In this way, informed
>consumers can make an educated decision about whether Scientology can meet
>their psychological or spiritual needs.
>
>We will expose Scientology's abuses of the human, civil and privacy rights
>of its members and critics. We will reveal its deceptive advertising
>practices that border on consumer fraud. We will disclose its "religious
>practices" and conduct that violate civil and criminal law. However, we
>will of course respect the rights of all Scientologists to embrace any
>religious belief they may choose.
>
>We will assist former Scientologists to recover from their unique personal
>experience with the abusive and deceptive practices of Scientology. We will
>offer counsel to current Scientologists who choose to learn the truth about
>how Scientology uses deceptive mind control techniques to capture their
>hearts and minds. Our dedicated staff of counselors will provide the
>information, compassion and support to current Scientologists that will
>enable them to release the bonds of cult mind control.

What is missing here is assisting victims of Scientology / of Scientology fronts / Scientologist businesses. For example, the girl who approached us in the "ribs" restaurant who was defrauded of her life savings needs to be referred to a skilled attorney. There are usually many victims of such scams, and only those who sue first have the best chance to recover some of their money.

Scientologist scams are not only an important contribution to scientology, they are vital. A german court decision already held in 1995 that scientology receives money both from legal and illegal activities, tries to hide this fact, and that this practice may be called "money-laundering".

This "money-laundering" was even taken literally in the "laundry ball" scheme.

Therefore, huting or preventing scientologist scams does hurt scientology, not only financially but also by reputation.

Tilman
--
Tilman Hausherr [KoX, SP4] Entheta * Enturbulation * Entertainment
tilman@berlin.snafu.de http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/#cos

Resistance is futile. You will be enturbulated. Xenu always prevails.

Find broken links on your web site: http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/xenulink.html
The Xenu bookstore: http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/bookstore.html