John Travolta's 'Battlefield Earth' movie based on L. Ron Hubbard's book was a notorious flop. Photo / File
Make jokes about Thetans and Xenu and John Travolta's film Battlefield Earth if you have to. But don't expect to poke fun at L. Ron Hubbard's legacy without getting an almighty roasting from the Church of Scientology's PR department.
The church has accused an author who tried to lift the
lid on a US$42,000-a-year ($55,000) boarding school it runs in rural Oregon of making false claims about the institution and its teaching methods.
Benjamin Carlson's two-part series on the 250-student Delphian School, which was founded in the 1970s, made headlines last week when it described the school's curriculum designed around "Study Technology", a controversial teaching method designed by Hubbard in the 1960s.
The articles in the Daily alleged about half the students were Scientologists, and the school's structure, language and ethics all reflected the science fiction writer's religion.
Delphian markets itself as a real-life version of Harry Potter's Hogwarts. Former students interviewed by Carlson say the school has strict rules on alcohol, drugs and PDAs, or public displays of affection, between students and the rules are enforced by a brigade of prefects called "rovers".
