Scientology reaches into schools through Narconon

Boston Herald/March 3, 1998
By Joseph Mallia

An organization with ties to the Church of Scientology is recruiting New England schoolchildren for what critics say is an unproven - and possibly dangerous - anti-drug program. And the group - Narconon Inc. of Everett - is being paid with taxpayer dollars without disclosing its Scientology connections. Narconon was paid at least $ 942,853 over an eight-year period for delivering anti-drug lectures at public and parochial schools throughout the region, according to federal income tax documents. The money came from fees paid by schools and from nearly 100 sponsoring businesses, including BankBoston, Nynex and Polaroid. The main Narconon lecturer, Scientologist Bobby Wiggins, has taught children as recently as the current school year at Southeast Elementary School in Leominster, under the sponsorship of BankBoston. He has also lectured at most of Everett's schools, at Dearborn Middle School in Roxbury, at Marshall Middle School in Lynn, at Maynard High School and dozens of other schools, a Narconon employee told the Herald. "We do a lot of Catholic schools. We've been doing Archbishop Williams for years," said Narconon employee Jeanne Mack, referring to a Catholic high school in Braintree. Narconon has also given anti-drug lectures at Arlington, Gloucester and Marshfield high schools and at Swampscott and Lancaster middle schools, according to a Narconon list. At a lecture at Chelmsford High School attended by the Herald, Wiggins praised the benefits of a detoxification program that involves sauna and vitamin treatments. But what the Scientologist did not disclose to the Chelmsford teachers, administrators or students is that the $ 1,200 detoxification regimen is actually a religious program the Church of Scientology calls the Purification Rundown. In fact, he never mentioned the word "Scientology," or L. Ron Hubbard's name during the lectures. "I took an IQ test before and after, and the score shot up 22 points," Wiggins said during the Chelmsford drug awareness lecture, referring to the benefits of the Purification Rundown. "My energy level quadrupled. I could think about 10 times faster," Wiggins boasted. But according to health experts, the Scientology detox program is untested and possibly health-threatening.

The Rundown

The method requires vigorous exercise, five hours of saunas, megadoses of up to 5,000 mg of niacin, and doses of cooking oil. This regimen is repeated daily for two or three weeks. Every Scientologist, including young children, must go through this detox procedure as an "introductory service" - a first step in the church's high-priced teachings, according to church documents and ex-members. "The idea of sweating out poisons is kind of an old wives' tale," said William Jarvis, a professor of public health at Loma Linda University in Southern California. "It's all pretty hokey." Salt and water are the only substances that the Purification Rundown removes from the body, according to a 1990 U.S. Food and Drug Administration report, Jarvis said. "Narconon's program is not safe," the Oklahoma Board of Mental Health said in a 1992 rejection of Chilocco New Life Center, a Scientology residential hospital on an Indian reservation in Newkirk, Okla. "No scientifically well-controlled studies were found that documented the safety of the Narconon program," the board said. Yet Scientology's founder claimed the sauna regimen can do much more than rid the body of drugs - it can cure radiation sickness. "Radiation is apparently enormously water-soluble as well as water removable," Hubbard wrote in an edition of "Clear Body, Clear Mind," obtained at the Boston Public Library. Agent Orange and cancer-causing PCBs can also be neutralized through the detox method, Scientologists claim. "WHAMO! Something miraculous happened! Damned if I didn't begin to feel better," wrote one Scientologist in Hubbard's book, who said he watched a nuclear explosion as a soldier. "There is new hope for radiation victims! I'm the living proof of it!" Even the Rev. Heber C. Jentzsch, president of the Church of Scientology International in Los Angeles, said in an interview with the Heraldthat the Purification Rundown saved his life by ridding his body of radiation sickness that he contracted from exposure to nuclear testing in Utah when he was a child. About 100,000 people have done the Purification program, Scientologists claim. And Kirstie Alley of "Cheers" fame - star of the sitcom "Veronica's Closet" - is Narconon's international spokeswoman. A longtime Scientologist, she says the anti-drug program's Purification Rundown saved her life by helping her kick a cocaine habit.

The connection

Top Scientology officials at the church's nerve center, the Religious Technology Center, deny any connection toNarconon. "The definitive answer is RTC doesn't have anything to do with them," RTC President Warren L. McShane said in a letter to the Herald. "I've checked my files, we have never had a licensing agreement with them or any secular group," McShane said. But the RTC clearly states on all Scientology literature that the Purification Rundown is a registered trademark used only with its permission. Also, L. Ron Hubbard's name is trademarked by the RTC, and all his books are copyrighted by another key Scientology organization called the L. Ron Hubbard Library. Hubbard's name and his writings may only be used with permission, according to numerous Scientology publications. Robert Vaughn Young, a former top Scientology official, said it is common knowledge among top Scientologists that the RTC strictly controls Narconon through licensing agreements. Also, church documents say the RTC is "protector of the religion" ensuring "purity of application" of Hubbard's teachings, with an "Inspector General Network" to enforce RTC rules. A Herald reporter, during a visit to Narconon's Everett office, saw stacks of L. Ron Hubbard's book, "Clear Body, Clear Mind," and many other materials carrying Hubbard's name. Also, the Everett office's top staff - including Wiggins and Narconon Treasurer Susan Birkenshaw, who live at the same Jamaica Plain address - is made up entirely of Scientologists, Mack said. Further, the church as a whole makes no secret that the Purification Rundown is a first step onto its "Bridge to Total Freedom." The Purification method is clearly marked on the "Bridge" in a 1994 edition of the church's introductory textbook "The Scientology Handbook" in the Boston Public Library's collection. The textbook chart makes it clear that church members must undergo the Purification Rundown to advance spiritually within Scientology - and the only places to get the Purification Rundown is at the church's Beacon Street headquarters, Narconon in Everett and at a Scientology-run company called Healthmed of California.

The costs

Wiggins teaches drug awareness at about 100 schools a year in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island, and he lectures for teachers' associations, Mack said. While Narconon has been active in other school districts - including the Idaho public schools, according to a 1990 article in the journal "The Southern California Psychiatrist" - the New England operation may be its most successful in the U.S., according to Scientology critics. Both Wiggins and Birkenshaw were paid $ 16,000 salaries in 1994, according to federal tax records. The Purification Rundown and the detox treatment costs about $ 1,200 at the Church of Scientology in Boston, which uses a sauna in the basement of its Beacon Street building near the Charles River. And a glossy brochure in Narconon's Everett office offers an intensive, in-patient purification program for $ 18,500 - including "withdrawal services" - at the Oklahoma hospital. In Scientology, salesmen like Wiggins are called "Field Service Members," (FSMs) and are paid a percentage of any courses bought from the church by people they recruit, said Dennis Erlich, a Scientology Church defector. FSMs are paid a commission of 10-35 percent of what their recruits spend on church training, according to a Dec. 29, 1997, memo written by Commander Sherry Murphy of the Church of Scientology's Fields Executive International division. "If he recruits, he gets a 10-15 percent straight sales commission," said Erlich, who was a top Scientology trainer for 15 years. "He gets the commission on everything that the person purchases from then on, of Scientology auditing and training," he said. And Wiggins has a very active history with Narconon - as of 1997 he had lectured before a total of 375,000 people, according to the Church of Scientology. Schools pay $ 200-$ 300 for short lectures by Wiggins, Mack said. And for full-day peer leadership programs, that include many hours of Scientology methods, schools pay $ 750-$ 1,200, with many of these payments coming from school budgets, Mack said. Peer leaders are taught Scientology methods of communication, study, personality development and "ethics technology." Wiggins is promoted as Narconon's top national speaker in a videotape recently released by Narconon International's headquarters in Los Angeles. A Narconon Internet site offers the Wiggins video for sale, and Narconon employees use the Internet to recruit new members. Federal income tax records show Narconon Inc. of Massachusetts earned $715,771 for school lectures from 1989-1994. More recent income tax information could not be obtained. About one-third of that income came directly from public and Catholic schools, and the rest from charitable donors, according to the tax records. Those donors making recent donations include NYNEX, the Polaroid Foundation and Danvers Savings Bank, Jeanne Mack said. The Thomas Anthony Pappas Charitable Foundation of Belmont gave $ 10,000 to Narconon in 1991, and $ 15,000 in 1992, tax records show. The Pappas Foundation declined to comment, and Polaroid said it could not find a record of corporate grants did not return calls. The Danvers Savings Bank has donated $ 100 to $ 250 to Narconon every year since the late 1980s, but had not been aware that the group was linked to the Church of Scientology, a bank official said. And Narconon did not disclose any Scientology links in its grant applications from Bell Atlantic, formerly Nynex, which gave Narconon a total of $ 15,000 in 1991, 1996 and 1997, said Bell Atlantic spokesman Jack Hoey. "There is no reference to the Church of Scientology" in Narconon's grant applications to Bell Atlantic, Hoey said. However, the church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, is mentioned several times, he said. "The fact that there is a religious affiliation doesn't mean the application wouldn't be approved," said Hoey, adding that future grant applications from Narconon will be screened closely.

The schools

Although Wiggins has lectured about Scientology's purification ideas in the Boston Public Schools and across New England, several school officials, including Boston schools Superintendent Thomas Payzant, told the Herald they were unaware that Narconon was connected to the Church of Scientology. "My standard is that there should be no misrepresentation," Payzant said. "I think it's inappropriate for any religious group, under the guise of some other purpose, to use the public schools as a setting to promote some particular religion," the superintendent said. Payzant said he will look into whether Narconon speakers violated school policy by not disclosing links to the Church of Scientology. Church critics were appalled to learn that Scientologists were being welcomed into New England schools. "If they're going into the schools, they're really messing with the children's minds," said Erlich. Young, the church defector, said he does not object to drug-awareness speakers like Wiggins going into the schools - as long as they tell parents and headmasters that Narconon is connected to the Church of Scientology. Steve Hassan, a Scientology critic and author of the book "Combatting Cult Mind Control," said, "I'm very worried that Scientology is infiltrating schools and I think they need to be exposed," And Jarvis, the public health professor, was astonished that Scientologists are invited into the classroom. "Any school administration that would allow a group as ideological as that to come into their schools is irresponsible and naive," he said. "They make a big deal about prayer in school, and then they let this religious group in?" said Jarvis. But Wiggins is a hit with the students. At Chelmsford High he told his own story - of using, abusing and selling drugs - punctuating his monologue with jokes and making amusing noises with the microphone. He said he first smoked marijuana at age 11. He did LSD and cocaine. He became a drug dealer. His life was a mess, he said, but he turned it around in 1977 when he turned to Narconon. "It was great," Chelmsford student Becky Friedman said after a Narconon lecture. "I liked it so much I stayed again," said another student, Valerie Perry. Scientology critics say 50-75 percent of those who undergo full Narconon training become Scientologists. But Rev. Jentzsch said only about 6 percent become members. In any case, he said, the church does not recruit children. "Children can't become a member of the Church of Scientology unless they have parental permission, and that's very rare," Jentzsch said. Most people who join Scientology are 25-35 years old, he said. But at least one Everett High School student was recruited into the Narconon program, Jeanne Mack said. She declined to name the student, a girl, citing confidentiality concerns, but said the student was expected to learn office skills and Narconon teachings. Narconon tries to hire and train students from many of the high schools it
visits, Mack said.  
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