Lisa was severely dehydrated, had bruises all over her body, and according to the coroner, had bug bites as well.  She had been held against her will at the Church of Scientology’s Ft. Harrison Hotel for the last 17 days of her life.

Scientology never faced a criminal court for what they did to Lisa.  Her family’s wrongful death civil suit was settled out of court.  Her memory and story remain on many web sites on the internet.  She will not be forgotten, nor what was done to her.

http://www.lisamcpherson.org

There’s a great rare book called The False Messiahs, by Jack Gratus. In it he gives the history of some really strange cults throughout history.

One point he made has stuck with me that makes me wish I had the book. It’s the relationship between close followers and cult leaders. At times the followers’ faith may lag, but then the cult leader rises to the occasion and gives a great speech, or maybe performs a miracle to raise the faith of the followers.
At the same time, the cult leader’s faith in himself (or herself) may lag. Maybe he gave a bad interview, or a miraculous healing failed. This is where the toadies come in. THEY prop up the cult leader’s faith! Oh, dear leader, you are unique and wonderful! Think of all the people you have saved/cured/audited! etc. So the leader and the toadies keep the cult going by propping up each other.
Toadies also bring any doubters back into line. If some member’s faith is lagging, the toady rushes in to either shore up their faith or berate them into submission. If it weren’t for the toadies, many more people would leave a cult.

Merriam-Webster gives several synonyms for toady: apple-polisher, bootlicker, brownnoser, fawner, flunky (also flunkey or flunkie), lickspittle, suck-up, sycophant. Yes-man also works. Toadies are generally those close to the cult leader who have been given some degree of power in the group as a reward for their toadyism. They return the favor by actually seeing the emperor’s invisible clothes. They keep the scheme going. Without toadies, what would a cult leader do?

I bring this up merely to point out that toadies must share the blame for what a cult has done. They perpetuate the scam. Without them a cult would collapse.

Here is the US Embassy’s method of handling “walkins,” from wikileaks.  It may have some relevance in dealing with Scientology defectors.

Scientology decided to use manure to keep protesters away!

http://picasaweb.google.com/socalanonymous/AerialViewsOfGoldBase#

The protesters took photos from their helium balloon!

An intersting article on how to reach both Scientologists and the public.  Just a pile of facts, though they prove your point, won’t win out as much as a story that proves your point.

“There was a written order hanging up in the comm center that if Jeff’s face pops up anywhere near the Org that OSA (aka Richard Haworth) was to be notified immediately with the sighting details and Richard was to start snapping pics of him.”

Richard Haworth is a long-time operative within Scientology.  He got himself in trouble in Clearwater when he tried to order the local police around:

The next day, Haworth met with Lt. Frank Daly.

In a memo to Klein, Daly said he was surprised by Haworth’s conduct and described some testy exchanges after Haworth asserted that officers were not doing their jobs and should have made an arrest in the case.

“We can’t just arrest everyone we suspect of a crime,” Daly said he told Haworth.

“At that Mr. Haworth became very irate and slammed his fist onto the table stating ‘I don’t want to hear can’t,’ ” Daly’s memo says.

Haworth ended the meeting by standing up, pointing at Daly and yelling “that he would continue to fight for safe streets even though the Police Department would not,” the memo says.

Klein’s letter to Haworth says: “I will not allow any member of the Clearwater Police Department to be bullied, brow-beaten or threatened, particularly when such actions interfere with a lawful investigation. In the future, if you have doubts about the conduct of a Clearwater police officer and choose to meet with a supervisor, then you should learn to control yourself in a civil, lucid manner.”

http://www.scientology-lies.com/press/st-petersburg-times/1994-04-01/police-chief-warns-scientologist.html

Of course, you have to pick the proper phrases to research. Just remember all the Scientology corporate names, like:

Religious Technology Center

Church of Spiritual Technology

Building Management Services

Golden era Studios

etc.

There were a few presentations about online activism during the conference.  I learned a lot and met very nice people.  It made me wonder if I really want to get into the academic field, however.  The presentations were often, to me, of minutely useful topics, and it seems that the goal of academics is “what can we talk about next” rather than “what can we accomplish next.”  I guess it’s their role to be thinkers more than doers, so I shouldn’t complain.

http://www.aoir.org

This is a lot of money, and therefore a lot of fraud, if that’s what’s going on.  Investigate!