I am doing a research project on Scientology, and I need some good, concrete information from both sides.?

Here's information from the "side" which asserts that it is a business and a cult.

Scientology is a cult created in the 1950's based on various self-help and pseudo-psychotherapy literary works by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard. Among its many outrageous claims are its supposed ability to rid people of emotional scarring from "past" lives, treat drug dependence through the use of saunas and vitamins, & improve communication skills through "Training Routines" which are really mind control processes. Continued membership and advancement within the official ranks of Scientology is exorbitantly expensive, costing approximately $380,000 to reach the highest "level". Secret doctrines at higher levels include belief in an evil space alien called "Xenu" and brainwashed souls attaching themselves to our bodies. Scientology considers psychiatry to be involved in a global conspiracy to harm humanity, and blames psychiatry for the Holocaust, school shootings and September 11th. Scientology does not recognize the existence of conditions like autism, epilepsy, bipolar disorder, etc, and has been known to forbid members from taking medication.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,8...

http://www.xenu.net/archive/prices.html

http://xenu.net/archive/leaflet/Xenu-Letter.pdf

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01...

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/Bare%20Faced%20Mes...

There are multitudes of people who have suffered tragic experiences during their involvement with Scientology. Read about them here:

http://www.lermanet.com/persecution/

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/krasel/

http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/cheryl_s

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/xenu/xenu...

Here are more "bad experiences" with the cult including an illegal plot to infiltrate the government, brainwashing techniques, mind control camps, attacks on critics, and DEATHS caused by Scientology doctrine and members:

● Operation Snow White – Under this official program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, & theft of documents in government offices. This program constituted the single largest infiltration of the United States government in history. Among the 11 prominent Scientologists convicted of this conspiracy was Mary Sue Hubbard, the wife of Scientology’s “prophet”.

http://lisatrust.freewinds.cx/scientology/snow-whi...

http://en.allexperts.com/e/o/op/operation_snow_whi...

http://www.lermanet.com/reference/77Granjurypart1....

● Operation Freakout - Their campaign of sabotage & violence against Paulette Cooper, the writer who published her research & findings on several cults, including Scientology. Scientology’s official plan: to frame Paulette, ruin her career & reputation & get her either incarcerated or locked up in psychiatric confinement.

The official plan: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Krasel/cooper/frk1.html

Her book: http://holysmoke.org/cos/books/scandal-of-scientol...

More info: http://www.holysmoke.org/pc/pc.htm

● Fair Game - the Scientology policy detailing how the organization may confront & handle critics & perceived enemies. Here is a direct quote: "Enemies may be deprived of property or injured by any means by any Scientologist without any discipline of the Scientologist. May be tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” Though they claim this policy is no longer in effect, Scientology still goes to great lengths to bully all known critics, opponents, “enemies”, etc, often through malicious litigation & character assassination, even going so far as to falsely accuse them of crimes.

http://www.xenu.net/archive/disk/fairgame.htm

http://www.planetkc.com/sloth/sci/Fair_game_ord.ht...

http://www.fairgamed.org/

http://www.solitarytrees.net/racism/harass.htm#sta...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocw90W44Boc

● Physical & psychological punishment - Scientologists who "break the rules" while members of the "Sea Org" must subject themselves to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), which includes regimes of harsh physical punishment, forced self-confessions, social isolation, hard labor and intensive ideological indoctrination.

http://www.xenu-directory.net/practices/rpf.html

http://www.lermanet2.com/scientology/gulags/Brainw...

http://www.scientology-lies.com/birgitta.html

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kspaink/cos/rpf/escape_2.htm

● Brainwashing & mind control - Scientology exerts control over its members by means of typical cult tactics, including but not limited to controlling information about internal doctrine & criticism of the organization, severely restricting social contact outside the cult (including the practice of “disconnecting” from family, friends & ex-members who question the credibility & trustworthiness of the cult & are therefore considered “suppressive persons” by Scientology), creating an “us against them” mentality by villainizing a specific out-group (for Scientology, it’s psychiatrists), & claiming all those outside the cult are dangerously unenlightened.

http://www.scientologydisconnection.com/

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/06/24/Tampabay/The_unp...

http://www.factnet.org/Books/SocialControl/scs.htm... http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups...

http://xenu.net/archive/personal_story/funkydonny....

● Tax Fraud - One of the only reasons they enjoy "tax exempt status" on religious ground in the United States is because they bullied the IRS into a "deal" through extremely aggressive barratry (which is the offense of persistently instigating groundless lawsuits) against said government agency and its officials, and arranged to drop all 2,500 frivolous lawsuits only when an "agreement" was reached. In addition, Scientology's lawyers hired private investigators to dig up any "dirt" on IRS agents which was then used to blackmail or publicly smear all "vulnerable" agents.

http://legalminds.lp.findlaw.com/list/fedtax-l/msg...

http://www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/nytimes/ny...

http://www.factnet.org/headlines/give-away.htm

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/irs.html

● Violent Kidnapping - Lisa McPherson was a Scientologist, was involved in a car accident & resultantly became mentally unstable. She was kidnapped from the hospital by agents of Scientology, held against her will, refused proper psychiatric treatment & allowed to STARVE TO DEATH.

Video: http://theunfunnytruth.ytmnd.com/

News Coverage: http://www.factnet.org/Scientology/Lisa_McPherson_...

Websites: http://www.lisamcpherson.org/

http://www.whyaretheydead.net/room174.html

http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/lisa.htm

● Tragic Murder - A CBS “48 Hours” special on Jeremy Perkins, the mentally disturbed son of Scientologist parents who, because of the Scientology doctrine of opposing psychiatry, refused to put him on the anti-psychotic drugs that would have stabilized him & prevented him from killing his own mother.

Video: http://www.scientomogy.com/jeremy_perkins.php

CBS article: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/25/48hours/...

Website: http://perkinstragedy.org/

On the dark side xenu.net is probably the best researched, and on the reverse would be scientology.org altho I hope you have a background in propaganda. Both sites are particualrly good at choosing their words to convey their side.

On the dark side enturbulation.org is the darkest Ive seen. Its actually quite humorous. Not sure how much good info you can get there. But you might get some giggles to lighten up your paper. They have some very catchy songs there about the evil scientology.

Wikipedia has many articles. Some good and some bad. But understand that what you get there is basically the "average" between the most extreme edits.

Some good neutral sites that I have found are:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/

http://www.beliefnet.com/

A good site to go for another view on many of the most common "facts" about scientology is:

http://www.scientologymyths.info/

which does not appear to be answering in scientology-approved wording. But it does have good responses.

Also, you said scientology and not Church of Scientology. If you want information on the actual teachings of scientology outside of the church then the best bet is the Free Zoners. I only have one link for them.

A chat group to learn about scientology independent of the church of scientology:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Freezone101/

Why don't you actually read a Scientology book and decide for yourself, rather than base this on rumor?

Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought would be a good place to start.

You can also see basic info here:

http://www.scientology.org/

If you want to see what religious scholars have to say - real EXPERTS in the field of religion - you can see that. They seem to all agree that Scientology is a valid religion:

http://www.neuereligion.de/ENG/Berglie/

www.clambake.org is the resource site for everyone that asserts it's a fraud. I know people on both sides of the fence. It's certainly a fraud, but every religion is. The fact that its precepts are nonsense does not mean the practitioners don't believe in and receive some benefit. A friend of mine was suicidal before she got involved. She's a level 7 now (hasn't gotten to the Evil Galactic Warlord Xenu part in level 8 yet) and she's doing great. Some are real conniving scamsters and some are highly ethical. Pretty much the same as everyone else.

Actually, you don't...

There is no reason on earth for you to get "pros and cons" on Scientology...

If you want to write an unbiased report that just gives facts, then there is no reason to interview anyone who is not a Scientologist.

It's crazy that Americans think there always has to be a debate in order to make things "fair and balanced"...

Don't we ever get tired of debating everything?

xenu.net is a good website for all your scary Scientology needs.

To get pro-Scientology info, you'll probably have to pay big bucks. Good luck.

Contact your local Church of Scientology and talk to them.

You'll get both sides all in one phone call. Just be aware that they'll keep calling you every day for the rest of your life, afterwards. (since it's crazy, btw... the "good" side will take 2 minutes. The rest will be them inadvertantly displaying why they're crazy)

My family and I went to their hotel in florida about 20 years ago and we took a written test and my mom, short and very overweight but a mensan, failed and we kids all passed. We decided we didn't want to live there and work for free and we all left.The guy who gave us the intro tour was kind of homophobic ( 'as long as they stay away from me' ) and told us L. Ron was hiding out from the government on his yacht.

Xenu.net

http://www.xenu.net/

That's the opposition side.

http://www.scientology.org/gloss.htm

that's the official site

Good luck