Please be assured NO ONE out here in the public believes a single word that any scientologist-PR per

A cruise ship prison story has been floating around about an Australian woman who says she was held for years against her will aboard the cruise ship Freewinds, a floating apartments for rent in los angeles Scientology cathedral of sorts. To many, the idea of living aboard a cruise ship might seem like a dream come true. To Valeska Paris, held on the ship starting apartments for rent in los angeles in 1996 then spending the next twelve apartments for rent in los angeles years there against her will, it was much more a nightmare.
Paris joined Scientology's Sea Organization, signing its standard billion-year contract at age 14. Three years later, after her stepfather committed suicide and her mother denounced Scientology on French television, Paris was ordered to "disconnect" from her family.
Paris was taken in by the Church of Scientology at age 17 then transferred to the Freewinds a year later. The Village Voice reports that for several months she was punished with an assignment in the ship's engine room, where at one point she passed apartments for rent in los angeles out from the noise and heat. During the first years of her imprisonment, an escort went with her whenever she left the ship but over time she was conditioned to believe there was no escape possible.
"When I first went there, I hated being there, and I wanted to leave," Paris told the Voice. "I knew that wasn't going to happen, so I began to accept apartments for rent in los angeles that that was the way it was going to be," she says.
"You're so resigned to it," said Paris. "I never had a bank account. You get 50 dollars a week. You don't have a passport. If you want to leave the ship, you have to go down the gangway, and there's a security guard there 24 hours a day."
"You were taught that Scientology was the only answer. You think you're doing the right thing," she says, adding that Sea Org members are constantly made to feel that they haven't done enough to "clear the planet" for Scientology's advancement. "They make you feel that you could always do more. I never really took any days off. That's your whole life, basically."
The weblog apartments for rent in los angeles posting concerning the Church of Scientology ("Cruise Ship Prison? Not so fast say Scientology apartments for rent in los angeles captors", November 30) is a repetition of a false tabloid story from Australia. Valeska Paris Guider was serving as a crew member aboard the Freewinds religious retreat as a volunteer, adult religious worker. She was there of her own free will as part of her religious commitment to the Church of Scientology. The Freewinds is a passenger vessel with hundreds apartments for rent in los angeles of people aboard. Ms. Guider's staff positions as a waitress, course instructor apartments for rent in los angeles and staff counselor regularly placed her in contact with many parishioners and staff. She met and married her first husband there to whom she was married from 1998-2005 and who affirms her statements are false. She left the Freewinds hundreds of times to go shopping, for outings with her husband on islands such as St. Kitts, Aruba, St. Barts and Cura ao, as well as for numerous other reasons. She participated in extended trips to the UK, US and Denmark for which she passed apartments for rent in los angeles through Immigration and Customs when entering and exiting these countries. Her claims are false.
The Freewinds, based in the Caribbean, is a religious retreat where Scientologists come for events, apartments for rent in los angeles conventions, courses and spiritual apartments for rent in los angeles counseling. The Freewinds is visited regularly by officials from the islands and countries it visits. It also serves as a training vessel and has become the regional authority on maritime security, training law enforcement and military personnel. A recent Meritorious Public Service Award from United States Homeland Security, awarded to the Freewinds by the United States Coast Guard describes the Freewinds as the "premier apartments for rent in los angeles training platform throughout the Caribbean Basin." It further acknowledges continuous apartments for rent in los angeles instruction of Caribbean personnel in what is described as the "highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard's core values-honor, respect and devotion to duty." The Freewinds also helps to promulgate the Church's humanitarian initiatives throughout the Caribbean region and has received apartments for rent in los angeles numerous acknowledgements for its work in the fields of drug abuse education, human rights, morals education and literacy.
Who can believe this church when they deny everything reported as a general rule? The Australians seem to be way ahead of the USA in attempting to do something about this longstanding problem apartments for rent in los angeles with Scientology. Keeping people's passports is illegal and common in Scientology. Refusing to allow their more dedicated Sea Org members to leave the organization is reprehensible. Allowing members to speak up is violation of ones inate right to free speech. The internet is Scientology's worst enemy. Read up and one can see why. Reply Chris Dec 1st 2011 10:31AM
We know that crew members on major cruise lines work for low wages, supplemented by passenger gratuities. They typically sign on for contracts that run from six to eight months, working every day. On board, their health care, meals, room and board are provided. Ongoing training in whatever programming the cruise line is focusing on occurs on a regular basis. In port, come crew members remain on duty to serve passengers who remained apartments for rent in los angeles on the ship and to tend to other ship operations that require ongoing attention. Going ashore and coming back to the ship, we see a separate access area for crew members, manned by security guards at all times. Special areas on the ship are restricted as crew-only, mostly for safety reasons.
Its not too much of a stretch to believe that Paris was a typical cruise ship crew member, albeit an unhappy one, and that the Church apartments for rent in los angeles of Scientology simply provided apartments for rent in los angeles her a job that came along with much of what major cruise lines offer today. JSKA Dec 1st 2011 1:10PM
Please be assured NO ONE out here in the public believes a single word that any scientologist-PR person ever says. We KNOW the people in charge of the scientologist 'church' are liars, they twist things apartments for rent in los angeles to make it seem like they're innocent, and that Miscavage, as Ms. Paris says, truly is a psychopath.
There are simply too many ex-scientologists that have given the same stories (about not being able to leave when they wanted, spying on church members, about Miscavage's apartments for rent in los angeles well-known brutality, etc.) once they were able to leave the 'church'!! apartments for rent in los angeles If the ones who leave were making up stories, why do they ALL say the same things?!
Scarry stuff. Historically, this pseudo-religious sect has made the news with bizzare stories of its rules and regulations. But, what would one expect from a creation of L. Ron Hubbard, the master of the insane. Only the insecure, apartments for rent in los angeles loonies and movie personalities are naive enough to be taken in by this group. Now after posting this comment, I think I'll go check my mailbox for snakes. Reply wynsar Dec 2nd 2011 12:17AM
May I suggest a book: Strange Angel by George Pendle.....provides the back ground apartments for rent in los angeles story....Hubbard was a con man......took ideas he learned in occult circles in LA in the 1940's ....mixed in science fiction and created apartments for rent in los angeles his own universe.....the first ship he bought was with funds scammed from John Whiteside Parsons...fascinating story.....Scientology is a ponzi scheme Chance Dec 2nd 2011 12:44PM
You are giving the church far to much credit to even consider that she was just a regulkar ship employee. Scientology does not hire people to work on the ship like a regular company hires employees. They recruit church members to join their Sea Organization, where they sign a one billion year contract, and then they are sent where ever the church decides. Paris was 14 years old when she signed her 'contract' and was assigned to the large center in Clearwater, FL USA called Flag Land Base. At age 19 she was sent to work at the Freewinds ship, which is not a general public commercial vessel. She was sent there because the church did not want her to have any contact with her mother who was suing the church. They did not want any influence in getting apartments for rent in los angeles her to leave the church as the mother had. Being on the ship made it impossible for any contact between she and her mother.
She was escorted to the ship and once on the ship, her passport was transferred from the handler to the ship captain. If you want an example of someone who went through a similar situation of wanting to leave and being prevented from doing so, who resorted apartments for rent in los angeles to escaping the ship ( corrorborated as well), see this article from the St Petersburg Times:
'"Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability... Exploitation shall include [...] forced labour or services... apartments for rent in los angeles The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth [above] shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth [above] have been used.'
Scientology is a cult and should be prosecuted and broken up under the Federal racketeering act. Of course one can make the same argument against any of the organized religions that extort money from their parishioners to feed their desires to be brainwashed apartments for rent in los angeles until they are unable to think free and critically for themselves. Reply MPierce702 apartments for rent in los angeles Dec 3rd 2011 9:19PM
Believe apartments for rent in los angeles me, this isn't the first time people have put scientology and RICO in the same sentence. Unfortunately, things continue to stall thanks to the efforts of lobbyists apartments for rent in los angeles and attorneys who put pressure on agencies like the DoJ and IRS to quash any investigations. Once lobbyists apartments for rent in los angeles like Gerry Feffer (husband to scientology lawyer Monique Yingling), scientologist-collaborating Congressmen like Heath Shuler and politically-connected consultants like John Coale (who also happens to be the husband of Fox News personality Greta Van Susteren, also a scientologist) are dealt with, then perhaps progress can be made.
That's the precise reason why scientology is being allowed to get away with things like this. They were taken to court on human trafficki