Scientology

Size

The organization has claimed millions. No audited worldwide figure is cited on this page, and census counts record self-identification, not active membership. Census counts are small: 1,854 in England and Wales (2021), about 1,700 in Australia (2016) and 1,655 in 2021 24, and 315 in New Zealand (2023). GOVERNMENT REPORT · national census data

Who's in charge

David Miscavige has been Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC) since 1987. RTC holds the trademarks and 'the tech' (the church's term for Hubbard's methods) itself, which makes its chairman the apex regardless of church presidencies.

Chosen by

He assumed control after L. Ron Hubbard's death.

Removable by

No public record identifies any person or body with the power to remove him. In a corporate structure this thoroughly lawyered, that absence is itself the finding.

Money in one line

Scientology is the most explicitly priced spiritual path in this codex. It sets fixed fees per level of auditing (the church's one-to-one counseling sessions), and former members estimate that the fees reach hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the upper levels. The International Association of Scientologists (IAS), the church's membership body, also raises funds beyond the price of services. FINANCIAL RECORD / FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY

Leaving in one line

According to the founder's policy letters as quoted by former members and in reporting 10, the disconnection policy (cutting contact with a declared person) requires members to cut contact with family declared 'suppressive' (labeled an enemy of the church); the church says disconnection is voluntary 27. Former Sea Org members (the church's full-time staff order) say they were billed 'freeloader debt' (an invoice for training received) on leaving 10. Litigation against critics is a matter of court record; surveillance and harassment of critics are described by former members and in reporting. COURT RECORD / INVESTIGATIVE REPORT / FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY

Evidence

None of the 30 techniques is sourced to a named document. The grades are Codified 20, Documented 1 and Contested 9.

The unanswered question

The church charges fixed prices for spiritual advancement and has had one chairman since 1987. Name the body and the procedure that could remove him.

Disclosure scorecard

• N
  Accounts publishedNo
• N
  Leaders' payNo
• N
  Safeguarding policyNo
• N
  Police firstNo
• N
  Removal procedureNo
• N
  Replies on recordNo

Y Yes — established from a public source · P Partial — true of some parts of the tradition, or true in some jurisdictions · N No — not established from any public source · ? Not assessable — no institutional apex exists to assess

Danny · A Tuesday, week eleven · Clearwater, Florida

He attends muster (the staff assembly) at eight. He is a member of the Sea Org (the church's full-time staff order). He signed a billion-year contract at seventeen, in a room with three adults, and his mother waited outside because she had signed her own at nineteen.

He is twenty-six. He earns a weekly stipend that does not cover a phone plan. He is extremely good at his job, which is estates and logistics, and he knows the building systems here better than anyone.

At eleven a public (a Scientologist who is not on staff), a woman in her fifties, signs for the next level, and Danny hears the registrar (the staff member who sells courses and auditing) say the figure and hears the woman say she'll take it out of the house. He carries her boxes to the car. She thanks him and calls him a blessing.

At two he is asked to write a knowledge report (a written report on another member's conduct) on a colleague who said something out of line about the targets of the org (the local church organization). He sits with the form. He has written eleven of these. He fills it in. He is aware that six people have written them about him.

His father is out. His father left in 2016 and was declared (formally labeled a suppressive person), and Danny has not spoken to him since, and the last thing his father said was I'll be here whenever. Danny thinks about this in the ninety seconds between the end of one task and the start of the next, which is where he does all his thinking.

At 11:50 in the berthing (the staff dormitory) he does the arithmetic he does not let himself do: nine years, and if he walked out tomorrow he has no savings, no qualifications, no rental history, an invoice waiting for the training he received, and one phone number he is not allowed to call. And then he stops, because the arithmetic is out-ethics (a breach of the church's ethics code), and because the tech works, and because he has watched it work on people, and both of those are true, and he goes to sleep.

The unanswered question

The widest gap between word and record

One cost of leaving, beside its denial

The strongest objection, answered

The objection. You are repeating decades of religious bigotry against a minority faith.

What is true in it. The organization did face genuine government hostility in its early decades, and members' beliefs are entitled to the same protection as anyone's.

The answer. Every central claim here is attributed, in its receipt, to a court record, a policy letter, a news report or former members' accounts. The practices at issue are fair game (Hubbard's term for a declared enemy of the church), suppressive person, disconnection and freeloader debt; the court record includes eleven federal convictions arising from the infiltration of government agencies 26. The doctrine is not what is being examined. The procedure is.

• Independent-field Scientologists (practitioners outside the church's corporate control) demonstrate that the technique can be separated from the institution. Whistleblowers, many of whom still value parts of their experience, model leaving with integrity.

Section 3 records that a course may have helped a member concentrate, handle a crisis or stop drinking, and that this can be true.

Scientology began in the United States in the 1950s, out of Dianetics, Hubbard's 1950 self-help system; the first church was founded in 1954 9. Decades of conflict with governments followed. The 1993 IRS agreement granted full tax exemption after a campaign that included thousands of lawsuits against the agency. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT · reported settlement terms; GOVERNMENT REPORT context

Timeline

1. 1950Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health publishedA self-help system sold before any church existed; critics argue the business model preceded the religion.
2. 1952–1954Hubbard reframes the practice as Scientology; first Church founded 1954The church was founded in 1954; its religious status carries the tax and legal protections that apply to churches 9.
3. 1960sSea Org founded; policies on 'suppressive persons' and 'fair game' writtenThe founder established an internal security apparatus in writing; in October 1968 he issued a letter ending the practice of declaring people 'fair game', and the church and critics differ on whether the policies behind it ended 19. OFFICIAL POLICY · Hubbard policy letters
4. 1967IRS revokes tax exemptionMore than two decades of litigation follow.
5. 1973–1979Operation Snow White: infiltration of federal agencies; 11 senior Scientologists convicted including Hubbard's wifeEleven senior members were convicted in 1979, and Hubbard was named an unindicted co-conspirator 26. COURT RECORD
6. 1986Hubbard dies; David Miscavige consolidates control of the Religious Technology CenterAuthority passes to trademark control — the 'tech' is intellectual property.
7. 1993IRS grants full tax exemption after a campaign including thousands of suits against the agency and its personnelThe exemption was granted in a 1993 closing agreement, after the church and its members had brought about 2,200 suits against the agency and its officials 2. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
8. 1995–2000sLisa McPherson case (a church member who died in Clearwater, Florida, in 1995) and litigation; internet critics targetedFormer members and critics describe a 'fair game' pattern; the church says Hubbard cancelled the label in 1968 19. A Texas appeals court held in 2015 that officials had no free-speech right to stalk Monique Rathbun, who had never been a member 20. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY / COURT RECORD
9. 2007–2015Mass defections of senior executives; investigative journalism and documentaries; Debbie Cook emailFormer executives publicly documented the internal disciplinary apparatus (the Hole, an office building at the church's international base where former executives say they were confined; forced abortions alleged; disconnection). INVESTIGATIVE REPORT / FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY
10. 2010s–presentMembership decline widely reported while real-estate acquisition continues; 'Ideal Org' campaigns (drives to renovate and expand local churches)The membership base is shrinking while the property portfolio expands. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Moments in the room

The branches are the corporate church under RTC; the 'independent field' or Free Zone, made up of practitioners operating outside corporate control; and Narconon (a drug-rehabilitation program), Applied Scholastics (an education program), Criminon (a criminal-rehabilitation program) and other front-facing programs.

Census counts are small: 1,854 in England and Wales (2021), about 1,700 in Australia (2016) and 1,655 in 2021 24 and 315 in New Zealand (2023) 78.

Size and shape

Authority

• Authority is absolutely centralized under the Religious Technology Center (David Miscavige). 'Standard tech' (Hubbard's methods, applied exactly as he wrote them) forbids interpretation. The Sea Org holds its members under billion-year contracts. An internal Ethics apparatus (the church's disciplinary system) has written policies on handling critics ('suppressive persons,' and 'fair game' historically). OFFICIAL POLICY · Hubbard policy letters; COURT RECORD

The top of the chain

Who holds what

Who can compel an answer

The IRS is the first body that can ask: it is the party to the 1993 closing agreement, which is final unless fraud, malfeasance or misrepresentation of a material fact is shown 18. So can consumer-protection authorities, the courts, and the foreign regulators and tribunals that have already ruled on status and conduct in their own jurisdictions.

Where it comes from

• Scientology is the most explicitly priced spiritual path in this codex. It sets fixed fees per auditing level, and former members estimate that the fees reach hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the upper levels. The IAS also raises funds beyond the price of services. FINANCIAL RECORD / FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY
• Real-estate 'Ideal Org' campaigns extract further capital from membership. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Follow the money

Pipelines this tradition shares

Money in numbers

• IRS settlement (1993): The church paid $12.5 million 2.
• France: The Celebrity Centre and its bookshop were fined €600,000 for "preying financially on followers" in the 1990s 12.
• Auditing and donations: Fees are fixed per level and fundraising campaigns run alongside them (see Money above), and former members describe "freeloader" debts for Sea Org members who leave 10.
• No public accounts on this page: Sources 2 and 9 do not address whether the church files a public return, and this page cites no published accounts.

Information

• 'Entheta' (the church's term for critical or negative material) and 'suppressive' classifications formally prohibit engaging with critical material, and internet filtering has been distributed to members. OFFICIAL POLICY / INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
• Knowledge reports require members to report each other's doubts and deviations in writing — peer surveillance as written procedure. OFFICIAL POLICY
• Confessional (auditing) folders contain members' most sensitive disclosures; former members allege their use for pressure. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY
• Litigation against critics is a matter of court record; former members and reporters describe private investigators and harassment of critics and journalists across decades, and a Texas appeals court held in 2015 that officials had no free-speech right to stalk a critic's wife who had never been a member 20. COURT RECORD / INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Children

• Cadet Org (the Sea Org's program for children) and Sea Org recruitment of minors, with billion-year contracts signed by teenagers, are described by former members and in reporting 10; child labor allegations have been raised, and this page records no finding on them. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY / INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
• Second-generation members raised inside report limited outside education and social contact. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY
• Former members report that disconnection has been applied to minors' relationships with parents deemed suppressive. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY

Bodies

• Former Sea Org members have alleged pressure to abort pregnancies to maintain service availability — allegations reported by multiple independent former members and denied by the organization. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY / INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
• Multiple former members say that reporting sexual assault to police rather than internal Ethics was discouraged, and the same is alleged in the civil suit Bixler et al.; these are allegations, and this page records no finding. FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY

Thirty named techniques from domestic-abuse and social-psychology research, applied to institutions, in the eight stages of the cycle. Each carries an evidence grade for this tradition.

All thirty at a glance

Stage 1 · Idealize

Stage 2 · Hook

Stage 3 · Devalue

Stage 4 · Confuse

Stage 5 · Isolate

Stage 6 · Extract

Stage 7 · Discard

Stage 8 · Replace

What they say, what the record shows

The first column paraphrases positions the church is reported to hold; apart from disconnection 27, this page cites no church statement for them.

Accountability or theatre?

Last time the chair ran. Senior executives defected and testified; the structure, the pricing, and the policy letters are unchanged.

Who holds the chair now. David Miscavige holds it, as Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center.

Prediction. No removal is likely while the governance stays unpublished. Total centralization means the chair and the sitter are the same, which may be why nothing recorded on this page has changed since 1987.

Words used here

What leaving costs

• According to the founder's policy letters as quoted by former members and in reporting 10, the disconnection policy requires members to cut contact with 'suppressive' family; the church says it is voluntary 27. Former Sea Org members say they were billed 'freeloader debt' on leaving 10. Litigation against critics is a matter of court record; surveillance and harassment are described by former members and in reporting. COURT RECORD / INVESTIGATIVE REPORT / FORMER MEMBER TESTIMONY

The ledger of exit

How the cost is denied

Who benefits

• The corporate center benefits through pricing power over salvation, tax exemption, an unpaid elite labor force, and a litigation machine funded by the exempted revenue. FINANCIAL RECORD / COURT RECORD

Money out, leverage back

• The church's full tax exemption was granted in 1993, after the church and its members had brought about 2,200 suits against the IRS 2. Like any church's exemption, it is a public tax benefit, and this page records no published accounts for the church. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT / FINANCIAL RECORD
• Programmes linked to the church (drug rehabilitation, education, criminal-justice programs) operate in schools, prisons, and public health settings; some have been alleged to do so without naming the link, though this page names no report. PATTERN OBSERVED
• 'Ideal Org' campaigns pressed members into loans and mortgages for buildings that remain organizational property. INVESTIGATIVE REPORT
• Eleven senior members were convicted in 1979 of crimes arising from the infiltration of U.S. federal agencies 26. COURT RECORD

Who pays

• Sea Org members pay, including those recruited as minors, who work decades at nominal pay.
• Second-generation members pay, having been raised without outside education or contacts.
• Women who allege coerced abortions to maintain service eligibility pay.
• Disconnected families pay when, former members say, they are severed by policy.
• Members who mortgaged homes for building campaigns and course levels pay.
• Critics, journalists and defectors pay when they are subjected to documented harassment campaigns.
• U.S. taxpayers bear the cost of the exemption only in the narrow sense that applies to every exempt organization: the tax is not collected. FINANCIAL RECORD

Where the weight lands

The costs recorded in sections 9, 11 and 15 do not fall evenly. They fall hardest on people who have the fewest credentials, contacts and savings outside the organization. The table names who carries the most, how, and what makes it worse.

The organization's rules are applied by people in the middle tiers, who see decisions without making them. Registrars, auditors, Ethics officers, Sea Org staff and front-group programme staff each carry part of the load, and each stands at a point where the next step could be declined. The table sets out what each role does, what it sees, what it is asked to do and where it could refuse.

It has been broken before

What would change this page

Publication of the Religious Technology Center's governance — any named body with actual removal power over its chairman — would revise the accountability finding that currently has no object.

• Mike Rinder. He was head of the church's Office of Special Affairs (its legal and public-affairs office) and its international spokesman. He left in 2007, co-hosted Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, and died in January 2025 13.
• Leah Remini. She is an actor and former member whose series documented former members' accounts 13.
• Debbie Cook. She is a former senior Sea Org executive, and her 2012 email to members criticized the church's fundraising 10.
• The women who testified against Danny Masterson. They are former members whose testimony led to his conviction; his appeal was set for oral argument in June 2026 21.

In closing

Independent-field practitioners (section 6) use the technique outside corporate control; this page cites no source on whether they practise disconnection, escalating prices or Ethics officers. Their existence answers the only question that matters: if the value is in the technique, it does not require the organization. If the organization insists it does, then what it is protecting is not your case.

You were told the outside world is aberrated and that critics have crimes. Consider instead the possibility that people who love you were declared suppressive because they asked you a question — and that your only barrier to answering it was a fee schedule and a policy letter.

Practical guidance, not legal advice.

1. Expect "disconnection": members may be told to cut contact with you 10.
2. Keep copies of anything you signed; arbitration clauses may affect later claims, and courts have split 34.
3. Sea Org members may be told they owe "freeloader" debt; it is not a court judgment 10.
4. If you were assaulted, go to the police; former members' testimony convicted a prominent member in 2023, whose appeal was set for oral argument in June 2026 21.
5. Find support from the organizations listed in section 25 14151617.

Checked 2026-10-03.

Courts and government

1. United States v. Mary Sue Hubbard et al. — Operation Snow White; eleven Church officials convicted (1979). Britannica, "Operation Snow White" (the page returned 404 when fetched on 3 Oct 2026; see source 26 for the convictions).
2. New York Times (D. Frantz), "Scientology Paid Government $12.5 Million Under Terms of Agreement" (31 Dec 1997 — the 1993 IRS closing agreement; the Church and members had brought about 2,200 suits against the agency). https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/ny311297.html
3. Bixler v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. App. 2022) — former members not bound to the Church's religious arbitration for post-departure claims; California Supreme Court denied review on 20 April 2022 — Horvitz & Levy summary. https://www.horvitzlevy.com/supreme-court-allows-scientology-lawsuit-to-proceed-in-civil-court-rather-than-religious-arbitration/
4. Garcia v. Church of Scientology Flag Service Org. (11th Cir. 2021) — arbitration enforced against former members — The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/167166/scientology-supreme-court-danny-masterson-religious-arbitration
5. NPR, "Actor Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape" (7 Sept 2023 — victims were former members). https://www.npr.org/2023/09/07/1198160934/actor-danny-masterson-sentenced-to-30-years-to-life-in-prison-for-rape
6. German Federal Labour Court (1995) and state Verfassungsschutz monitoring — Scientology status by country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_status_by_country

Census and demography

7. Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 — 1,854 Scientologists in England and Wales (down 23% on 2011); New Zealand 2023 census, 315 — Tony Ortega's summary of the census releases. https://tonyortega.substack.com/p/another-census-and-another-country
8. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census 2016 — 1,684 Scientologists. https://www.mikerindersblog.org/the-incredible-shrinking-world-of-scientology/

History and reporting

9. Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Scientology" — Dianetics (1950); first church 1954; Sea Org (1967); Hubbard's death (1986); Miscavige chairman of RTC since 1987; IRS revocation (1967) and exemption (1993); Lisa McPherson (1995). https://www.britannica.com/topic/Scientology
10. Lawrence Wright, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief (Knopf, 2013) — fair game, disconnection, freeloader debt, Ideal Org campaigns, Debbie Cook's 2012 email. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/212426/going-clear-by-lawrence-wright/

Further sources

11. JURIST, "France high court upholds Scientology fraud conviction" (16 Oct 2013). https://www.jurist.org/news/2013/10/france-high-court-upholds-scientology-fraud-conviction/
12. SBS News / AAP, "French court backs Scientology conviction" (17 Oct 2013) — €600,000 fines; "organised fraud". https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/french-court-backs-scientology-conviction/30vnl6v4j
13. Global News, "Mike Rinder, one of Scientology's loudest whistleblowers, dies at 69" (Jan 2025). https://globalnews.ca/news/10944000/mike-rinder-scientology-whistleblower-dead/
14. Recovering from Religion — (844) 368-2848. https://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/
15. Faith to Faithless (Humanists UK) — helpline 0800 448 0748 (freephone; Monday 10:00–13:00, Wednesday 10:00–13:00, Thursday 16:00–19:00 UK time). https://humanists.uk/faith-to-faithless/helpline/
16. International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). https://internationalculticstudies.org/
17. RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline — 1-800-656-4673. https://rainn.org/learn-about-rainn/contact-us/
18. 26 U.S.C. §7121, closing agreements — an approved agreement "shall be final and conclusive" and, except on a showing of fraud, malfeasance or misrepresentation of a material fact, the case may not be reopened as to the matters agreed (read 2026-10-03). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/7121
19. Wikipedia, "Fair game (Scientology)" — Hubbard's HCOPL of 21 October 1968, "Cancellation of Fair Game" ("The practice of declaring people FAIR GAME will cease"); the church's reading that only the label was rescinded; sociologist Roy Wallis's view that this reading is contradicted by the words on the page and by actions taken against opponents (read 2026-10-03). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_game_(Scientology)
20. ABA Journal, "Texas woman drops lawsuit against Church of Scientology" — the Texas Third Court of Appeals held in 2015 that officials had no free-speech right to stalk Monique Rathbun, who was never a member; she dropped the suit before the Texas Supreme Court, citing resources (read 2026-10-03). https://www.abajournal.com/news/article/texas_woman_drops_lawsuit_against_church_of_scientology_citing_lack_of_reso
21. Tony Ortega, "Oral arguments hearing in Danny Masterson's criminal appeal set for June 25" (17 May 2026) — the direct criminal appeal set for oral argument before the Second Appellate District (read 2026-10-03). https://tonyortega.org/2026/05/17/oral-arguments-hearing-in-danny-mastersons-criminal-appeal-set-for-june-25/
22. Handelsblatt, "Verfassungsschutz beendet bundesweite Beobachtung von Scientology" (15 May 2026) — the federal office ended its nationwide observation of Scientology, saying the organization had lost relevance at federal level (read 2026-10-03). https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/inlandsgeheimdienst-verfassungsschutz-beendet-bundesweite-beobachtung-von-scientology/100225282.html
23. evangelisch.de, "Bayerischer Verfassungsschutz behält Scientology weiter im Blick" (16 May 2026) — Bavaria continues observation (reached through the fact-check log; page not opened for this pass). https://www.evangelisch.de/inhalte/255535/16-05-2026/bayerischer-verfassungsschutz-behaelt-scientology-weiter-im-blick
24. Tony Ortega, "Australia gained 2 million people between 2016 and 2021 and lost 26 Scientologists" (1 July 2022) — 2021 census count of 1,655 (reached through the fact-check log; page not opened for this pass). https://tonyortega.org/2022/07/01/australia-gained-2-million-people-between-2016-and-2021-and-lost-26-scientologists/
25. Hernandez v. Commissioner, 490 U.S. 680 (1989) — the Church charges a "fixed donation," also known as a "price" or a "fixed contribution," for auditing and training, "set forth in schedules"; payments for them were held not deductible as charitable contributions (read 2026-10-03). https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/680.html
26. Wikipedia, "Operation Snow White" — eleven senior members, including Mary Sue Hubbard, convicted in 1979 of obstruction of justice, burglary of government offices and theft of documents and government property; Hubbard named an unindicted co-conspirator (read 2026-10-03, convictions only; the page's descriptions of scale are not relied on). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Snow_White
27. Mike Rinder's blog, "Personal choice vs Scientology policy" — a critic's blog summarising the church's position that disconnection is a personal choice (reached through a search summary; page not opened for this pass; no church statement is cited). https://www.mikerindersblog.org/personal-choice-vs-scientology-policy/

• 2026-10-03: Corrected the size figures and the dates of several items; replaced claims the sources did not support with what they do say, and marked where the page relies on former members' accounts rather than court records. Removed the ranking of Operation Snow White and the claims about published prices, front programmes and the effect of the 1993 tax agreement. Added the court ruling on the harassment of a critic, the church's 1968 position on "fair game", the 1989 Supreme Court description of its fixed donations, the current German position, the status of the Masterson appeal and the Australian 2021 census count. Regraded nine techniques to Contested where the evidence was former members' reports rather than written policy or court records, moved one from Documented to Codified, and removed the "sourced" mark from all twelve techniques that carried it, since none names a document.
• 2026-09-27: Added Branches, Law & state, Money in numbers, three more documented cases, Voices from inside, Leaving safely and Where to get help.