By Jerry Staton

The threat to our national security and danger to the American people posed by the Church of Scientology can no longer be overlooked. Everyday, countless numbers of people are introduced to the practice of Scientology either covertly through the Church’s many front groups--the outward appearances of which belie their true affiliation with the Church of Scientology—or directly via the free personality tests and introductory “auditing” sessions offered by the Church.

Scientology’s personality test, the Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA), also sometimes referred to as the American
Personality Analysis or APA, is offered for free as a “public service,” or so Scientology claims, but don’t let the cost fool
you. So far, this “free” personality test has cost my friend Michael at least $11000.00 that I know of, plus over 5 years of
his life.

For others the cost of this “free” test has been much higher. In March of 2008, Kaja Ballo, the beautiful 20 year old
daughter of a high ranking member of Norway’s parliament, was administered this test while studying in France. Two
hours later, she was dead, having jumped from her dorm window just a few blocks from where she had taken the “free” test. Her suicide note apologizing to her family for being such a failure was found next to her personality test results, and her friends told investigators that she had been in a good mood with no signs of depression prior to her having taken Scientology’s test. More than likely, the Scientologist “counselor” had told Kaja that she should kill herself just as my friend Michael’s Scientologist counselor had told him that he should kill himself. Matter-of-fact, I would bet money on it.

I don't condone suicide--the human potential that is lost and the emotional pain that is caused are immeasurable. I often wonder, however, how someone can continue living after they've learned the information that is contained in OT8 and realize that they have been living a lie for the past 20+ years of their life and that they have deceived others into living that same lie.

Whether an individual is lured into the practice of Scientology covertly or approaches the Church of Scientology directly, both have one thing in common—the eventual introduction to the Church’s main practice of “auditing.” The purpose of this initial—and usually free—auditing session is to literally make the unsuspecting individual “sick” so that they are then more than willing to buy the Church of Scientology’s brand of “cure.” There is no market for the Church of Scientology’s product other than that which they create. The free introductory "auditing" session induces an "attenuated" or "transient" psychosis in the unsuspecting person, which is then seized upon by the Church of Scientology staffer as an opportunity to “counsel” them into signing up and paying for classes to teach them how to overcome the problem that they did not have prior to their having been audited.

It should be noted here that none of the Scientology “auditors” are licensed or credentialed in pastoral counseling nor are they licensed or credentialed in clinical hypnotherapy, and the practice of “auditing” has been determined by experts to be in fact authoritarian hypnosis.

At the present time, Indiana is the only state that requires licensing and credentialing to practice clinical hypnotherapy, yet anyone can open up a very lucrative private “auditing” practice in Indiana and totally avoid these regulatory requirements. Something must be done to protect the American people from this menace. Tax exempt status or no tax exempt status, this practice is immoral, unethical, and should be illegal. This organization is literally poisoning people and then offering them the antidote--for a price. What the Church of Scientology is doing is no less serious then if a drug manufacturer was inviting people to take a tour of their manufacturing plant and then infecting them with a disease that only they had the treatment for in order to ensure a market for their product. This absolutely can not and should not be allowed to continue.