Cyril Vosper
Cyril Vosper | |
---|---|
Born | (1935-06-07)7 June 1935 Hounslow, Middlesex, UK |
Died | 4 May 2004(2004-05-04) (aged 68) Melbourne, Australia |
Occupation | Author, exit counselor |
Notable works | The Mind Benders |
Cyril Ronald Vosper (7 June 1935 – 4 May 2004) was an anti-cult leader,[1] former Scientologist and later a critic of Scientology, deprogrammer, and spokesperson on men's health. He wrote The Mind Benders, which was the first book on Scientology to be written by an ex-member, and the first critical book on Scientology to be published (narrowly beating Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman).
Biography
Vosper was born in 1935 in Hounslow, Middlesex (now part of Greater London) and lived his early life in Britain. He joined the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (the overseas arm of the Church of Scientology) in 1954 at 19. He soon became a Scientology auditor.[2] In 1956, he was personally cited by L. Ron Hubbard for his "test work and the wonderful results [he has] obtained on pcs [preclears] processed under various directives."[3] Vosper joined Hubbard's staff at Saint Hill Manor in the 1960s, working as the Dissemination Secretary, World Wide and Dissemination Secretary, Evening and Weekend Foundation. He was expelled in September 1968 for alleged disciplinary offences.[2]
In 1971, Vosper published The Mind Benders, a highly critical account of Scientology. The book contained a significant amount of inside information about Scientology including quotations from a number of Hubbard's works. The Church of Scientology sued for breach of copyright and breach of confidence, but its case was rejected by the courts. At one stage in the litigation, a High Court judge was reported as saying of applications by the Church that Vosper and a newspaper editor be committed to prison for contempt of court, that these actions were deliberately taken "to try to stifle any criticism or inquiry into their [the Church of Scientology's] affairs".[4] The Church was permitted to appeal the case but the Court of Appeal rejected the Church's appeal, finding "fair dealing in The Mind Benders in criticising scientology and that it was in the public interest to investigate and disclose."[5]
Following the outcome of the case, Vosper asserted that he had been subjected to "dirty tricks" carried out by the Church. According to him, a copy of his manuscript disappeared from his lodgings and, while on holiday in Spain, he was questioned by the police when they opened a parcel addressed to the place in which he was staying, containing obscene caricatures of the Spanish dictator General Franco.[6]
Vosper subsequently became a deprogrammer, working to extract individuals from groups he considered to be cults. In November 1987, while a committee member of the British anti-cult group Family, Action, Information, Rescue (FAIR), he was convicted in Munich on charges of false imprisonment and causing bodily harm to German Scientologist Barbara Schwarz in the course of a deprogramming attempt.[7][8][9] He received a five-month suspended sentence.[10]
References
- ^ Chryssides, G.D. 2012. Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements: Scarecrow Press. https://books.google.com/books?id=WA12nHRtmAwC
- ^ a b Vosper, Cyril. The Mind Benders. Neville Spearman, 1971
- ^ Hubbard, "Summary of Intensives since June". 21 August 1956
- ^ Daily Telegraph, 4 March 1972.
- ^ Hubbard v Vosper, [1972] 2 QB 84.
- ^ Wallis, Roy. The Road to Total Freedom, p. 219. Heineman, London, 1976.
- ^ Eileen Barker Watching for Violence, A Comparative Analysis of the Roles of Five Types of Cult-Watching Groups CESNUR. An unpublished draft paper presented at a 2001 CESNUR Conference in London.
- ^ Elisabeth Arweck, Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions, 2005, page 114 ISBN 0-415-27755-8
- ^ "Anti-Cult Groups Riven by Schism and Bitter Feuds", The Independent on Sunday, October 10, 1994
- ^ The Guardian (London), December 30, 1987. Title: "UK News In Brief: Britons convicted of kidnapping." Full text: "Two Britons were yesterday convicted by a Munich court on charges of false imprisonment and causing bodily harm. Cyril Vosper, aged 52, and John Mathewson, aged 25, were stated to have held 32 year old Barbara Schwarz against her will for 12 hours in an attempt to persuade her to abandon her religion. Vosper received a five month suspended sentence and Mathewson a three month suspended sentence."
Additional sources
- Cyril Vosper, The Mind-benders: Scientology, Mayflower (April 19, 1973), trade paperback, 176 pages, ISBN 0-583-12249-3; hardcover, Neville Spearman Ltd (September 9, 1971), 190 pages, ISBN 0-85435-061-6
- Warrior Against Sect And Prostate Cancer (obituary, The Age, 12 May 2004)
External links
- Researching New Religious Movements: Responses and Redefinitions by Elisabeth Arweck, p. 114 (required Google login)
- v
- t
- e
- APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control
- Center for Religious Studies in the name of Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons
- Cult Awareness Network
- Cult Information Centre
- Cultists Anonymous
- International Cultic Studies Association
- The Family Survival Trust
- Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network
- National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales
- People's Organised Workshop on Ersatz Religion
- Jean-Marie Abgrall
- John Gordon Clark
- Steve Eichel
- Martin Faiers
- Leon Festinger
- Carol Giambalvo
- Steven Hassan
- Ian Haworth
- Galen Kelly
- Stephen A. Kent
- Masaki Kito
- Janja Lalich
- Michael Langone
- Saul V. Levine
- Casey McCann
- Jesse S. Miller
- Sayuri Ogawa
- Ted Patrick
- Tsutsumi Sakamoto
- Rick Ross
- Chris Shelton
- Margaret Singer
- Eito Suzuki
- Alain Vivien
- Cyril Vosper
- Louis Jolyon West
- Lawrence Wollersheim
- Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry
- Christian Research Institute
- Dialog Center International
- Dialogue Ireland
- Evangelical Ministries to New Religions
- Institute for Religious Research
- Personal Freedom Outreach
- Midwest Christian Outreach
- New England Institute of Religious Research
- Reachout Trust
- Spiritual Counterfeits Project
- Watchman Fellowship
- Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center
- Nicolas About
- Serge Blisko
- Georges Fenech
- Ford Greene
- Stephen Mutch
- Catherine Picard
- Kenneth Robinson
- Paul Rose
- Tom Sackville
- Nick Xenophon
- About–Picard law
- Anti-Mormonism
- Assassination of Shinzo Abe
- Governmental lists of cults and sects
- Mass suicide of Heaven's Gate
- Jason Scott case
- Persecution of Baháʼís
- Persecution of Falun Gong
- Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses
- The Prohibited and Unlawful Societies and Associations Act
- Tokyo subway sarin attack
- Waco siege
- All Gods Children (book)
- Another Gospel
- Bounded Choice
- Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control
- Captive Hearts, Captive Minds
- The Challenge of the Cults and New Religions
- Churches That Abuse
- Combating Cult Mind Control
- Cults: Faith, Healing and Coercion
- Cults in Our Midst
- Cults of Unreason
- Deadly Cults
- The Incendiaries
- The Kingdom of the Cults
- The Making of a Moonie
- Misunderstanding Cults
- The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti-Cultists, and the New Religions
- On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left
- Recovery from Cults
- Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
- Strange Gods: The Great American Cult Scare
- Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism
- Twisted Scriptures
- When Prophecy Fails
- The Wrong Way Home
- Zealot: A Book About Cults