They published some of my letter - SCIENTOLOGY

I wrote to the Magazine editor of the Australian newspaper about the article they did on Scientology and which was the subject of an earlier blog-piece. Following is the letter I wrote and the bold parts are what they published.

Dear Sir

Thank you for creating a pathway for Julie-Anne Davies to submit to the basic introductory experience of Scientology. While it was illuminating, it confirmed some of my fears. In our pluralistic society we get used to people being able to believe whatever they like, but two things disturb me about Scientology (just two? you ask).

I have always been perplexed about why they have incorporated the Christian symbol of the Cross in their logo (what else can it be called?). Hubbard has never tried to suggest that Scientology was Christian. Perhaps it helped in their quest for recognition as a "Church" for tax purposes.

My second concern is far more profound. The process of Auditing as described by Julie-Anne borders on deep psychotherapy but we are given no reassurance that Scientologist Auditors have any deeper training that might give them some skills to deal with unexpected psychological trauma that might be aroused by the therapy. While a similar accusation might be laid at the feet of many Christian Ministers of Religion my experience as one demonstrates that most of the pastoral counselling they might do with members of their flocks does not deal with anything like the deep seated memories from the past that are deliberately sought for uncovering by the Scientoligist Auditor. When you go around lifting the metaphorical rocks in people's lives to see if there are any worms underneath, you have to be prepared and qualified to deal with the concequences resulting from the rrevelation of those worms.

Yours sincerely,

Not bad. They tried to balance the number of letters supportive and antogonistice to the article.