Dear all,

Many years ago when I was a young student in London, I had a rather disturbing encounter with a cult.

I was on my way to the bank on Tottenham Court Road when a pleasant looking young woman asked me to fill in a questionnaire, I declined but on my way back I saw she was still there so I thought I would quickly do the questionnaire.

Big mistake. Because it wasn’t something I could do quickly, on the pavement -- the young woman told me I had to come inside to do the questionnaire. So I went inside where a few people were sitting at a table and silently doing the ‘questionnaire’ and I was asked to do the same. On the walls of the premises were posters advertising something called ‘Dianetics’ and there were posters of a man named Ron L Hubbard. I whizzed through the questions on the various sheets of the questionnaire, slightly annoyed by how long this was taking. But there was more: when I handed in the questionnaire on my way out I was told I had to stay till it could be assessed.

After a while I was summoned in to a partitioned off area where a woman with grim expression informed me that she was extremely concerned because my questionnaire revealed that I was a truly dreadful person -- self-centred and horrible. I was somewhat taken aback. But this woman was very aggressive. "What are you going to do about it?" she kept asking me very unpleasantly, telling me I could remedy the situation, and that she could help me.

I was able to extricate myself from this interview and walk out -- but this was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. The encounter really shook me up, and I felt quite rattled for several days afterwards. At that time I was young and had no real problems in my life, no bereavements or health issues, no real financial or emotional problems, but if I had had any of these I would have been extremely vulnerable and would have probably broken down in the face of the woman’s verbal battering and reiteration that I was a horrible human being.

This is the story of my brief encounter with Scientology, a cult that has flourished and expanded all over the world despite initial concerns about its activities. The cult founded by a sci-fi writer named Ron L Hubbard has now been given the status of a religion and calls itself the Church of Scientology. It is extremely wealthy and its members include Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s it even made some inroads in Pakistan and claimed a few intelligent, educated followers.

Like so many other cults this one gets its followers to cut off all ties with family members (except for those who are followers too), a process they call "disconnection." A recent documentary by Alex Gibney (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, 2015) has many examples of families traumatised and broken up by this practice. The film includes interviews with several ex-scientologists which are both revealing and chilling. The extent of brainwashing and extreme control exerted by the group is extraordinarily disturbing. The harassment, mudslinging and intimidation dished out to critics and those who have left the fold and spoken about the organisation is frightening and very creepy. These are also evident in journalist Jon Sweeney’s earlier documentary (BBC Panorama, 2007), another very good investigation into this controversial group.

It is a truth stranger than fiction: a cult founded by an eccentric sci-fi writer, now controlled by a powerful leader (somebody called David Miscavige), with bizarre doctrines, outrageous props and militaristic uniforms continues to claim people all over the world. They are now a very wealthy organisation and we know what that buys: influence, power and the sharpest lawyers available.

Beware the invasion of the body snatchers…

Best wishes