The Lisa McPherson Clause:

Lisa clause or Lisa McPherson clause: an adhesion clause to insulate one party from all damages, including personal injury or death, from known and unknown conduct of commission or omission of the party so released. An "adhesion clause" is a recognized legal term which means "take it or leave it", i.e., that the party signing the agreement has no bargaining power and therefore no alternative but to include the clause in the agreement.

• Scientology killed Lisa McPherson in Clearwater, Florida, on December 5, 1995. She was held against her will for 17 days, denied medical care, and forcibly sedated. When her guards tried to force her to undergo the Introspection Rundown and she refused, she was kept in an isolation lock-down until she died from severe dehydration. Forensic entomologists later identified 110 cockroach feeding sites on her body, and three nationally prominent forensic pathologists opined that the manner of death was "homicide". (The pathologists were Calvin Bandt, M.D. (affidavit), Werner Spitz, M.D. (affidavit), and John Coe, M.D.)

• In 1997, Lisa's estate filed a wrongful death suit against the Church of Scientology. That trial has been postponed six times by Scientology's legal maneuvering, but is now expected to take place in 2004.

• Before and after the wrongful death case was filed by Lisa's family, attorneys for Scientology insisted to state prosecutors -- and on national television -- that there was no religious service involved in Lisa's treatment; she was simply a guest at the Fort Harrison Hotel ("Flag") enjoying "rest and relaxation." Similar statements were made to the St. Petersburg Times. But after initially lying about it to police investigators, Flag Senior Case Supervisor Alain Kartuzinski later admitted that he had written a program for the Introspection Rundown for Lisa and placed it in its proper location in her confidential PC (preclear) folders (see below). It can't be found.

• From a 1998 interview with Michael Rinder (head of Scientology's intelligence and dirty tricks squad, the Office of Special Affairs) on the CBS television program Public Eye:

  JEANNETTE-MEYERS: Rest and relaxation sounds like a wonderful idea. But the records say that two days into her stay she was spitting out food and vomiting, four days into her stay she was ashen faced and feverish, and then she became violent, striking the attendants, hallucinating, thinking that she's L. Ron Hubbard, being too weak to stand, soiling herself, crying, babbling, breaking things. At that point, isn't it clear that it's not working?

  RINDER: What's not working?

• The state of Florida brought criminal charges against the Church of Scientology Flag Service Organization in 1998 for its treatment of Lisa McPherson. The case was eventually dropped after a sudden and suspicious change of opinion by the medical examiner, Joan Wood, as to the cause of Lisa's death. (This occurred after Scientology spent months harassing Wood.) Prior to the dropping of charges, Scientology filed a Motion to Dismiss the criminal charges in which it asserted that "The Introspection Rundown itself is an entirely religious process." And, in an amicus brief filed by Michael Rinder and an unnamed collection of "executives of the Churches of Scientology throughout the world", the organization complained that:

  "... this prosecution attempts to place us in fear of the consequences of the very practice of our religion. In the face of these charges, can we be sure that providing any of our religious services to the members of our faith will not result in prosecution because some zealot in a government agency disagrees with our beliefs? Can any of us be sure that if one of our parishioners in the future needs an Introspection Rundown, it will not result in our Church being charged? The answer is, of course, no. And that is an intolerable result."

• In 2000, Professor Stephen Kent of the University of Alberta, an expert on the sociology of religion, and Scientology in particular, submitted an affidavit in the wrongful death suit in which he stated that:

  "Seen in historical context, the Introspection Rundown is the culmination of pseudo-psychiatric and pseudo-medical therapies that dates back to the founding of Dianetics and runs through Scientology up to the present day. Nothing about the Introspection Rundown is religious. Hubbard's stated secular intention was to eliminate psychiatry, and Lisa McPherson fell victim to an organization, Scientology's Flag Service Org, whose members were following Scientology policy."

• In the summer of 2002, during an attempt to disqualify attorney Kennan G. Dandar as counsel for the estate, Scientology again argued that it had the legal right to hold Lisa McPherson against her will and deny her access to medical care and contact with her friends and family, because she was a parishioner, and Lisa's treatment was a "religious practice". Judge Susan Schaeffer was not convinced.

• Now this new document has surfaced: a release form for the Introspection Rundown. Parishioners seeking services at Flag -- the place Scientology advertises as the "Mecca of Technical Perfection" -- must sign a contract promising not to sue if they are harmed. And they are not given a copy to take home with them. A scanned copy of this new form is reproduced below; the HTML version is available here. Some choice quotes:

  If circumstances should ever arise in which government, medical or psychiatric officials or personnel or family members or friends attempt to compel or coerce or commit me for psychiatric evaluation, treatment or hospitalization, I fully desire and expect that the Church or Scientologists will intercede on my behalf to oppose such efforts and/or extricate me from that predicament...

  I understand that the Introspection Rundown ... includes being isolated from ... family members, friends or others with whom I might normally interact.... The Case Supervisor will determine the time period in which I will remain isolated, according to the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion. I further specifically acknowledge that the duration of any such isolation is uncertain, determined only by my spiritual condition, but that such duration will be completely at the discretion of the Case Supervisor.

  I accept and assume all known and unknown risks of injury, loss, or damage resulting from my decision to participate in the Introspection Rundown and specifically absolve all persons and entities from all liabilities of any kind, without limitation, associated with my participation or their participation in my Introspection Rundown.

  Tory Christman, who spent 30 years in Scientology before quitting in disgust, confirms that the first such waivers were instituted right after Lisa's death.

• Rather than assure its members that it would never repeat the horrors of what happened to Lisa McPherson, what Scientology is saying in this release form is: "We were not wrong to hold Lisa against her will and deprive her of medical attention and leave her to die. We were never wrong. And to assure you that we weren't, we're going to do the same thing again...exactly the same way... possibly to YOU! Here: sign this. And please note that after signing this, you cannot hold us accountable or sue us if we do decide to do this to you."

• Clearly, Scientology's private position is that their mistake wasn't in killing Lisa McPherson; it was in not having a signed release form saying it was okay to do so. This contrasts with the proposal Scientology leader David Miscavige tried to negotiate with the Florida State Attorney, Bernie McCabe, under which Scientology would take steps to ensure that its members receive appropriate medical treatment in the future if McCabe dropped the criminal charges in the McPherson case. McCabe's scathing rejection of this offer questioned why Scientology has not already taken these steps.

• To make it perfectly clear: Scientology is not against professional medical care, provided that the care is not of a psychiatric nature. In fact, its written policies mandate that a person seek medical care from licensed professionals. But with this form, Scientology is saying it has the right to kidnap and hold a mentally disturbed member at any time, because, in the words of one ex-member, "If THEY say you're crazy, then you are, and you have already agreed that they can kidnap you and hold you against your will if they deem you to be crazy." And although Scientology claims its treatment is purely spiritual, its staff have no qualms about dressing up in nurses uniforms (pic1, pic2, pic3) to lure the public into taking a "stress test" on the E-meter or purchasing copies of Dianetics. (Photos taken at the Florida Home Show at the Tampa Convention Center, Labor Day Weekend, 2003.)

• The main use for this release form may be for bullying doctors into relinquishing custody of patients who have been taken in for psychiatric evaluation, and are perhaps facing involuntary committment, just as Scientology bullied the staff at Morton Plant Hospital where Lisa was taken and coerced them into releasing her into their custody, despite the report from paramedics of her bizarre behavior and request for assistance.

• This release form may not be legally enforceable, because if it were, any mentally ill person could sign a similar contract and evade involuntary commitment under the Baker Act. The State of Florida has an interest in preventing such contracts from being considered.

• Even more chilling is the section at the bottom of the form where an adult or guardian can sign on behalf of a child. Members of various Christian sects who prevented their children from receiving medical care on "religious" grounds have been prosecuted for child abuse. A Scientologist who denied their child access to necessary mental health treatment should run a similar risk of prosecution.

• Among the evidence obtained during discovery in the McPherson case is a collection of Lisa's PC (preclear) folders, which detailed her treatment at the hands of Scientology. The church vehemently objected to producing these documents, but eventually was forced to disclose them, although many crucial folders are still missing. Scientology claims it can't find them.

• In order to frustrate similar discovery actions in the future, Scientology has issued another new release form, ostensibly concerned with preserving the confidentiality of parishioner files. Scientology's position is that not only does it have a religious right to abuse its members, but it also has the right to withhold the written evidence of that abuse, even if the member has been killed as a direct result of Scientology's actions. Thus, Scientology tries to perfect its ability to both commit and cover up future crimes.

• Lisa McPherson was not the first Scientologist to suffer false imprisonment and isolation as a result of a mental breakdown. Other cases include Gitte Mogensen (1996), Heidi Degro (1993), Cat Morrow (1980s), Marianne Coenan (1989), David Voorhies (1983), and a German national held at Scientology's U.K. headquarters in East Grinstead (1993). Investigation of future instances of abuse may be frustrated by the victims having signed these release forms.

• Scientology continues to make claims that it can cure mental illness. This 2001 promotional piece says: "A Flag Ship Class XII [auditor] could turn a severe mental case from raving lunacy to not only sane but bright and normal in about 8 or 9 hours..." Here is the second page, containing the date and copyright info.

Further Reading:

Media Coverage of this Page:

• Fox News, September 3, 2003 (Roger Friedman)
• New York Post: Page Six, September 4, 2003
• NBC-5 Chicago, September 11, 2003
  • letter from Scientologist Greg Churilov
• Globe Magazine, September 22, 2003 (Rod Gibson)
• The Oracle, September 23, 2003 (University of South Florida)
• Harpers Magazine, November 2003 issue, pages 22-24. (here's a scan of the intro)
  • Letters to the editor: one by William T. Drescher (Scientology's lead attorney in the McPherson case) with a response from the editors, plus a letter from me. Published in the February 2004 issue.
• Razor, December 2003 / January 2004 double issue, "The Curse of Scientology", pages 88-95.
  • New York Daily News article on Scientology's intimidation of Razor
  • New Yorker article on Scientologists buying up the Dec./Jan. issue of Razor
  • Selected letters to Razor in response to the Scientology article. (More letters appear in the print edition, February 2004 issue.)
• KDGE-FM (Dallas) morning show, December 4, 2003: interview with Peter Alexander. Transcript courtesy of Sue Mullaney.

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Confidentiality of Files

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