Editing Disconnection (Scientology) (section)

==Examples of application==

===The 1960s===
In 1966, UK newspaper the ''[[Daily Mail]]'' quoted a disconnection letter from Scientologist Karen Henslow to her mother:

{{quote|
Dear Mother, I am hereby disconnecting from you because you are suppressive to me. You evaluate for me, invalidate me, interrupt me and remove all my gains. And you are destroying me.

I [unreadable] from this time consider myself disconnected from you and I do not want to see you or hear from you again. From now you don't exist in my life.<ref>{{cite news |title = Minister is asked to investigate... The case of the processed woman |work = [[Daily Mail]] |date = 22 August 1966}}</ref>
}}

Henslow, a thirty-year-old sufferer from [[Bipolar disorder|manic depression]], had been a Scientology staff member for two weeks when she disconnected. The message was accompanied by a second letter apologising for the first and saying that it had been mailed without her permission.{{r|cooper|page=180}}

Raymond Buckingham, a singer who ran a voice school in [[Manhattan]], was recruited into Scientology by one of his pupils. He was asked to disconnect from a business associate who had been labelled suppressive. When he spoke out publicly against Scientology, his Scientologist pupils disconnected from him and refused to pay him. One of these was a famous singer for whom he had arranged a series of performances.{{r|cooper|pages=79–80}}

[[Roy Wallis]] reproduced a "Disconnection Order" from 1965 which orders a Scientologist to disconnect from the publications of the [[Food and Drug Administration (United States)|Food and Drug Administration]]. It states, "The FDA literature he comes in contact with is not to be read by him at all."{{r|wallis|page=147}}

Disconnection was the subject of a 1970 court case in which the Church of Scientology unsuccessfully attempted to sue the [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) [[Geoffrey Johnson-Smith]] over negative comments he had made on [[BBC television]]. To defend his claims that families were being alienated, he produced evidence of specific cases in court. The judge described it as "astonishing" that the Scientologists did not contest these allegations.<ref name="bmj1971">{{cite journal| journal=British Medical Journal | date=30 January 1971| pages=297–298| title=NEWS AND NOTES|issn=0007-1447|volume=1| pmid=5294085|issue=5743| pmc=1794922|doi=10.1136/bmj.1.5743.297}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Scientologists lose libel action against Tory MP and decide against an appeal|date=22 December 1970|work=The Times|location=London}}</ref>

In 1969, the New Zealand government set up an official inquiry into the Church of Scientology. The ensuing [[Dumbleton-Powles Report]] quoted from a number of disconnection letters and also reproduced some "Ethics Orders" which identified suppressive persons who were "not to be communicated with in any way".<ref name="powles">{{cite book |title = Hubbard Scientology Organisation in New Zealand and any associated scientology organisation or bodies in New Zealand; report of the Commission of Inquiry| first= Sir Guy Richardson |last=Powles |author2=E. V. Dumbleton |date = 30 June 1969|oclc= 147661 |location=Wellington|pages=30–37, 53–55}}</ref> Teenage Scientologist Erin O'Donnell had written to her non-Scientologist aunt, "If you try to ring me I will not answer, I will not read any mail you send, and I refuse to have anything to do with you in any way whatsoever. All communication is cut completely." The Commission concluded that Scientologists had been required to choose between family relationships and continued involvement in Scientology.<ref name="powles" />

The 1971 UK government investigation into Scientology and ensuing ''[[Foster Report]]'' reproduced a number of internal "Ethics Orders". One of these, dating from November 1967, concerns a member who had asked for a refund. It declares him to be a [[suppressive person]] and continues, "Any and all persons connected [to him] are declared Potential Trouble Sources and are not to be Trained or Processed before they have presented evidence in writing ... of handling or disconnecting".<ref>{{Cite book| first = Sir John G. | last = Foster | title = Enquiry into the Practice and Effects of Scientology, Chapter 7: Scientology and its Enemies |title-link=Foster Report | publisher = Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London | year = 1971|isbn=978-0-10-205272-5 | oclc=301564428}}</ref>

[[Joe Boyd]], the manager of the [[Incredible String Band]], was a Scientologist for a time in the early 1970s. He left when he was told that friends who were hostile to Scientology were interfering with his progress and he must disassociate from them.<ref>{{cite news|title=A mind-bending experience|last=Boyd|first=Joe|pages=Weekend 18–22|date=4 January 1997|work=The Guardian }}</ref>

[[Cyril Vosper]] received a "Declaration of Enemy" in response to his violations of [[Scientology ethics and justice]] codes. It is reproduced in his book ''[[The Mind Benders (Vosper book)|The Mind Benders]]'' and states, "Anyone connected to him is not to be processed or trained until he or she has disconnected from him in writing."<ref>{{cite book| last = Vosper| first = Cyril| title = The Mind Benders |title-link=The Mind Benders (Vosper book) | publisher = Mayflower| year = 1971| location = St Albans| isbn = 0-583-12249-3|page=Plate 1}}</ref>

===The 1980s and 1990s===
In 1982, [[David Mayo (Scientology)|David Mayo]] and other former Church of Scientology executives were subjected to an internal "Committee of Evidence" for alleged transgressions. The committee issued a permanent writ of Disconnection, forbidding all other Scientologists from having contact with the accused.{{r|atack|page=306}}

In ''[[A Piece of Blue Sky]]'', [[Jon Atack]] describes being ordered to disconnect from a friend in 1983, shortly after the policy was re-introduced.{{r|atack|page=35}}

In his 1984 High Court judgment, which considered many aspects of Scientology, English judge [[John Latey (judge)|Justice Latey]] wrote that "many examples [of disconnection] have been given and proved in evidence." As examples, he reproduced two disconnection letters. One is written by a Scientologist to his fiancée. In the other, a man writes to his business partner and former friend, "What you are now doing in setting yourself against the Church is not only very suppressive but also non-survival for you, your family and any group you are associated with."<ref>Judgement of Mr Justice Latey, Re: B & G (Minors) (Custody) Delivered in the High Court
(Family Division), London, 23 July 1984</ref><ref name="sinister"/>

That year, the ''Daily Mail'' brought up further examples of disconnection, including a 13-year-old boy who disconnected from his father and a woman who said her fiancé was forced to abandon her. The fiancé concerned said "it was a personal decision" and a [[Church of Scientology]] spokesman was quoted denying that there is a policy to split up relationships.<ref name="sheridan">{{cite news |title = We disconnect you | first= Peter|last=Sheridan |work = [[Daily Mail]] |date = 11 February 1984}}</ref>

Also in 1984, ''[[The Mail on Sunday]]'' interviewed Gulliver Smithers, a former Scientologist who had left the group's base at [[Saint Hill Manor]] when he was 14 years old. Smithers explained that disconnection was an everyday part of life in Saint Hill, "It goes round by word of mouth when someone is an outcast. He or she is just ignored and shunned. It was what we were brought up to do."<ref>{{cite news |title = Hubbard Youth: The teenage bullies who reign supreme over a sinister cult | newspaper = Mail on Sunday |date = 29 July 1984}}</ref>

In a lengthy court case in the 1980s, ex-member [[Lawrence Wollersheim]] successfully argued that he had been coerced into disconnecting from his wife, parents, and other family members. Since the disconnection was not voluntary, it did not count as protected religious practice.<ref name="wollersheim_case">California appellate court, 2nd district, 7th division, Wollersheim v. Church of Scientology of California, Civ. No. B023193 Cal. Super. (1986)</ref>

In 1995, the UK local paper ''Kent Today'' talked to Pauline Day, whose Scientologist daughter Helen had sent a disconnection letter and then dropped all contact, even changing her phone number. A spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology denied that this decision had anything to do with the Church.<ref>{{cite news |title = Talk To Me, Plea By Cult Girl's Mum | first= Clare|last= Jardine |work = Kent Today |date = 20 May 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title = Our Little Boy Lost: Grandparents in Legal Battle for the right to see two-year-old Sam | work = [[Daily Mail]] |date = 29 May 1995}}</ref>

===21st century===
A ''[[Buffalo News]]'' investigation in 2005 spoke to the sisters and brother of Fred Lennox, a Scientologist who, according to them, was being manipulated and exploited financially by the group. The paper also quoted an internal so-called "Ethics Order" instructing him to "handle or disconnect" from his sister Tanya because of anti-Scientology comments she had made online. Lennox himself and Church of Scientology spokesmen denied this.<ref name = "sommer2005"/>

Ex-Scientologist [[Tory Christman]] told ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' magazine that her Scientologist husband and friends refused to talk to her after she left the Church.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/inside-scientology-103288/ |title=Inside Scientology |date=February 8, 2011 |orig-date=February 23, 2006 |first=Janet |last=Reitman |author-link=Janet Reitman |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |url-status=<!--archived version is better--> |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502021124/https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/inside-scientology-20110208 |archive-date=May 2, 2018}}</ref>

In January 2008, [[Jenna Miscavige Hill]], niece of [[David Miscavige]], spoke out about the policy's effect on her family. She revealed that, once her parents left the Church while she remained, she had been forbidden to answer the telephone in case she spoke to them and that her parents only restored occasional access to her by threatening legal action.<ref name="yn200801">{{cite news|first = Jonny|last = Jacobsen|title = Niece of Scientology's leader backs Cruise biography | work = [[Agence France-Presse]] | date=28 January 2008 |url=http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5heELOXbk_8qWowwJGtd3RrEXdqgQ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307065203/http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5heELOXbk_8qWowwJGtd3RrEXdqgQ |archive-date=March 7, 2008}}</ref> Another second-generation Scientologist, [[Astra Woodcraft]], told [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]'s ''Nightline'' that she had been forbidden any contact with her father once he left the Church and she was still a member. She used her weekly laundry time to secretly meet up with him.<ref name=nightline>{{cite episode | title=Scientology Under Attack |series=Nightline | series-link = Nightline (US news program) | airdate=24 April 2008}}</ref>

To make the television documentary ''[[Scientology and Me]]'', the [[Panorama (TV series)|BBC ''Panorama'']] team spoke to two mothers whose daughters had disconnected, one for nearly seven years.<ref name="panorama" /> Mike Henderson, an ex-Scientologist, told ''Panorama'' how he had not spoken to his father during his time as a member. When Henderson left Scientology, he re-established communication with his father, but most of the rest of the family disconnected from Henderson as a result.<ref name="panorama"/>

Actor [[Jason Beghe]] has alleged that after he left the Church of Scientology in 2007, former friends who remained in the Church disconnected from him.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/22/scientology-cruise-haggis-us-australia|title=Celebrities lead charge against Scientology|last=Beaumont |first=Peter |author2=Toni O'Loughlin|author3=Paul Harris|date=22 November 2009 |work=The Observer|publisher=Guardian News & Media|access-date=30 November 2009}}</ref>

In 2009, a man named Shane Clark was about to be declared a [[suppressive person]] for being employed by Marc Headley, author of ''[[Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology]]''. Clark secretly recorded a meeting between himself and Scientology spokesman [[Tommy Davis (Scientology)|Tommy Davis]] and his wife [[Jessica Feshbach]]. In the tape, Davis is heard not only threatening Clark with suppressive person declaration, but telling him he will be the subject of disconnection. Clark was later declared, and his family disconnected from him.<ref>{{cite news|last=Ortega|first=Tony|title=Tommy Davis, Scientology Spokesman, Secretly Recorded Discussing 'Disconnection'|url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/08/tommy_davis_sci.php|newspaper=[[The Village Voice]]|access-date=18 July 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130707012356/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/08/tommy_davis_sci.php|archive-date=7 July 2013}}</ref> Despite the direct evidence to the contrary, Davis denied the existence of the disconnection policy in a television interview on [[CNN]].<ref name="grn_haggis"/> [[Paul Haggis]], a film director, disputed this in his 2009 resignation letter from Scientology. Haggis wrote, "We all know this policy exists", and said his wife had been ordered to disconnect from her ex-Scientologist parents, "although it caused her terrible personal pain. For a year-and-a-half, [she] didn't speak to her parents and they had limited access to their grandchild. It was a terrible time."<ref name="grn_haggis">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/26/paul-haggis-scientology-prop-8|title=Film-maker Paul Haggis quits Scientology over gay rights stance|last=Brooks|first=Xan|date=26 October 2009|work=The Guardian|publisher=Guardian News & Media|access-date=30 November 2009}}</ref><ref name="ind271009">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/oscarwinning-director-why-im-leaving-scientology-1809929.html|title=Oscar-winning director: why I'm leaving Scientology|last=Adams|first=Guy|date=27 October 2009|work=The Independent|publisher=Independent News and Media|access-date=30 November 2009}}</ref> In response, Davis reiterated that there is no Church policy of disconnection.<ref name="ind271009"/>

When actress [[Leah Remini]] publicly left the Church in 2013, Remini's sister, Nicole, revealed that she and the rest of Remini's family did as well to avoid being split up by the Church's disconnection policy.<ref>Traynor, Bradley (July 17, 2013). [http://www.mytalk1071.com/gossip/?var=EXCLUSIVE071713 " EXCLUSIVE: Leah Remini's Sister Nicole Talks!"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130717161227/http://www.mytalk1071.com/gossip/?var=EXCLUSIVE071713 |date=2013-07-17 }}. [[myTalk 107.1 FM]].</ref>