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By Root 1069 0

Services when it was the main financial organ of the church, and thus knew a great deal about financial irregularities concerning Hubbard, Miscavige, and the Church of Scientology overall. That she left was "a seven-alert fire," said Rathbun, which Miscavige dealt with by dispatching a team of officials, including Rathbun, to confront Gamboa while she was on a trip with her husband and simultaneously break into a briefcase kept in her car, which Miscavige feared contained documents pertaining to L. Ron Hubbard's estate. "As it turns out the briefcase had nothing of use in it and it was returned to Terri's car," said Rathbun. Gamboa never uttered a word publicly about church finances.

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* In 1998, the agency was ordered by a district court to release internal documents relating to the negotiations. At about the same time, the settlement document was leaked to the press.

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* Scientologists are allowed to deduct only 80 percent of the cost of auditing as charitable contributions.

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† Equating a religious education like that received at a yeshiva with Scientology auditing is in some ways a bad analogy. Far better would be to equate the education Scientologist children receive at Applied Scholastics–sponsored schools, which reinforce Hubbard's principles. These schools were given tax exemption under the 1993 agreement, and parents may deduct the cost of these schools from their income taxes—as well as deduct any donations they might make directly to ABLE, the Association for Better Living, a nonprofit organization set up by the Church of Scientology to administer its social betterment programs, including the Applied Scholastics program.

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* This comment, like many remarks Lisa made about her early life, were later recorded in various church-ordered confessionals, including the "life history" that Lisa was required to write as part of her indoctrination into Scientology.

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* Doctors have questioned the effectiveness of the Purification Rundown, which has never been scientifically proven as effective and might in fact be dangerous. Its central component, niacin, is administered in extremely high doses. The recommended daily allowance of niacin is fifteen milligrams; the Purification Rundown calls for it to be administered in cocktails containing one hundred to five thousand milligrams, gradually increasing in potency over time. Such high doses produce a flush on the skin, which Hubbard interpreted as a sign that the body was expelling impurities. Dosages of this size can also cause liver damage. Nonetheless, the Purification Rundown is required of every new member with a history of drug use, which Lisa McPherson had.

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* Though not in vogue when Hubbard first adopted it, the concept of "learning styles," meaning that different approaches to presenting material—visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and so on—suit different students, is now accepted and informs educational practice in many U.S. schools.

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* A pseudonym.

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* The pressure to sign up for these services can be intense. Owners of a small business in Florida, Mercer and her husband routinely found Scientology salespeople sitting outside their house. "They would call you maybe the day before to feel you out and see how much cash was available. Then the pressure would begin to build until they'd come sit at your doorstep. I had registrars circling my house, waiting for us to get home, and they would sit all around the house, knocking on the doors and windows to get money out of us."

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* Indeed, as the St. Petersburg Times later reported (in its issue of March 25, 1976), on December 1, 1975, the day the sale was finalized, the United Churches sold the Fort Harrison to the Church of Scientology for $10.

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* The first service Lisa did at Flag was an expensive auditing process called the L-11 Rundown, which is offered only in Clearwater. In 1995, the Flag Service Organization listed the price of the L-11 rundown as $10,000 per intensive. A minimum of two intensives,