The police are investigating suspected misconduct at the Hungarian Church of Scientology and a related public benefit foundation dealing with drug prevention and rehabilitation.
The Narconon Hungary Foundation is found to work with pseudo-scientific methods, namely drug withdrawal and drug rehabilitation services performed without the permission of competent authorities. Although there is no reference to Scientology on the foundation’s website, it was clear from the start that their program is based on research by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the church.
(The Society for Freedoms dedicated a special report to Narconon in 2015. It was determined that Narconon methods are not supported by any scientific research–rather, the methods pose significant health risks.) The claims of a drug prevention mission is probably just an excuse for contact-building and networking.
As early as the establishment of Scientology in Hungary in 1991, the question arose: what is the need for this confused, unscrupulous “denomination” whose operation is accompanied by scandals all over the world? Records are kept by the church of all its followers, and everything is recorded. Personal privacy is off the table.
You even have to list how many sexual or homosexual relationships you have had. Of course, Narconon administrators are most interested in the material background of the believer. (If someone confesses that he or she has evaded tax, it is obligatory to reimburse the Scientology denomination for the damage done, as only then can he or she atone for the sin.) Patients cannot know how fully exposed they are to the so-called church.
That’s what Scientology is all about: intimidation, blackmail, rip-offs – that’s their “Holy Trinity.”
In several European countries, the Church of Scientology does not have the status of a religious organization – in France, a 2006 parliamentary report classified Scientology not as a church, but rather as a dangerous cult.
Title image: Police raid the Hungarian headquarters of the Church of Scientology in Budapest on October 18, 2017. (Origo/Gábor Szabó)
