Editing Disconnection (Scientology) (section)

===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>