Precarious New World

The ultimate influence on society’s outlook is its news media. Celebrity gossip, the trivial and bizarre, self-serving agendas, the depraved obsession with violence and salaciousness eclipse events and issues that really matter.

News Briefs

In late September, the longest running war in the Americas came to an end when Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) signed a peace agreement. Although narrowly rejected in a popular vote in October, both sides have pledged to maintain peace until a lasting agreement is accepted.

Investigation

Electroshock Nation

Of all the problems that Kenneth Fleischman suffers from—glandular disorder, fatigue, nightmares—none compares with what he refers to as his “identity crisis.”

Investigation

Conflicts of Interest

In 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a federal agency that provides auditing, evaluation and investigative services for Congress, set a key deadline for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Specifying an eight-month target date, the GAO instructed the FDA to ask U.S.-based manufacturers of high-risk medical devices to furnish proof of their safety and efficacy as well as information about their adverse effects.

Investigation

Blunder in the Brain

Every time Kellie Ellison gets her hair done she braces for the moment when hairdressers discover a big bulge on the right side of her head. As they feel the spot, “I tell them that it’s a horn,” jokes Ellison, who lives in the town of Warrior, Alabama. “It scares them to death.”

Media & Ethics

Is This Any Way to Vote?

Yes, it’s time for the quadrennial morality play called “Presidential Election.” Like the uplifting thespians of a half millennium ago, today’s actors, called “politicians,” symbolize abstract values—“competency,” “toughness,” “honesty,” “frugality” and more.

Investigation

Chemical Restraint

Latoya entered the foster care system in Brooklyn, New York, as a baby, because her parents were young and couldn’t take care of her. She was physically abused when she was 4 by her foster parents. She was put on Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug meant to treat bipolar disorder, “when I was like 13, when I went into the group home. … And it was a high dosage, as well,” Latoya, now 31, says. The drug “made my hair fall out around the edges, and it made me extremely sleepy and drowsy.

Profile

Diana Zuckerman

Among the many disquieting aspects of the 21st Century Cures Act, a major health reform bill that passed the House last year and is pending in the Senate, National Center for Health Research President Diana Zuckerman is most troubled by a provision that would allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve high-risk medical devices without clinical tests that prove their safety and effectiveness—the benchmark of scientific authority.

Scientology News

Moving, Shaking, Harlem

It didn’t take long. Within hours of Scientology opening a new Church in Harlem—along with a Community Center—humanitarian projects were being conceived, started up and thrown into high gear.

Scientology News

Freedom Fighters

Dates matter—especially when freedom has been in the balance. In the tumultuous history of Eastern and Central Europe, Hungarians have a chronology of freedom. 1848-49, the Hungarian Revolution against Austria. 1949, the takeover of Eastern Europe by Soviet communism. 1956, Hungary’s revolt against the Soviets. 1989, the fall of communist domination of Hungary.

Spiritual Path

It is dusk on the evening before the big event and within the massive new Church of Scientology Advanced Organization, last-minute touches are being addressed. The facility, home for advanced levels of spiritual counseling and training and the site of a new continental center for all Church operations and for Scientology’s humanitarian programs throughout Australasia and the Asia Pacific region, is almost ready.

Defining Religion

David Bennett’s bright yellow tie was sprinkled with small white lambs, and several times, as he prepared for his speech at the new Advanced Scientology Church for Australia and South Asia, someone commented about it.

Into the Field

Making a Difference

Drug abuse and criminality, intolerance and inhumanity, natural and man-made disasters pervade and degrade every segment of society.

‘Be Prepared’

Emblazoned as the centerpiece of Boy Scouts’ Second Class emblem is the legend: “Be Prepared.” In the 37 tasks a Scout must perform to achieve that rank, one has a special meaning in today’s society, and it’s all about being prepared. That requirement urges the Scouts to be informed about the “dangers of substance addictions,” drugs.

Bringing News of Human Rights to Papua New Guinea

Augustine Brian was working for an international Christian relief organization in Papua New Guinea in 2013 when a group of rogue policemen beat him, shattering his jaw so badly he couldn’t eat solid food for 10 weeks. The brutal officers were never brought to justice.

The Way to Happiness Delivers Morality to Amsterdam

Amsterdam’s works of art, colorful bridges and picturesque canals are not the only reason that tourists visit the city. Countless international travelers descend annually on a nearby section of Amsterdam to participate in activities that are illegal elsewhere, taking advantage of the city’s lax morals and values.

L. Ron Hubbard essay

Druidism and Psychiatry

Between the mid-1960s and early 1980s, and following from a greater geopolitical study of what most plagues this world, Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard authored an extraordinary series of essays on “cultural inadequacies” of the late twentieth century: tyranny of government, inadequate justice, oppressive economics and the pervasive terror of psychiatry.

Basic Principle

The Parts of Man

First there is the body itself. The body is the organized physical composition or substance of Man, whether living or dead. It is not the being himself. Next, there is the mind, which consists essentially of pictures. Finally, and most importantly, there is the thetan (spirit). The thetan is not a thing. It is the creator of things.

Contents

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News Briefsplusminus

Media & Ethicsplusminus

Front Pageplusminus

Profileplusminus

Investigationplusminus

Scientology Newsplusminus

Into the Fieldplusminus

Datelineplusminus

L. Ron Hubbard essayplusminus

Basic Principleplusminus

Freedom Exposé