It’s something we’ve been asked many times, and we’ve never really had a good answer for: Do Scientologists die of cancer at higher rates than other people?
Certainly, we hear about Scientologists foregoing legitimate medical care for serious ailments because of founder L. Ron Hubbard’s skepticism of western medicine and doctors. Nearly every former Scientologist you talk to will describe friends or relatives trying to deal with serious medical problems with Hubbard’s “auditing” techniques or other alternative medical methods until it’s too late to go the conventional route.
But how big is this problem? A group of anonymous researchers tell us that they’d like to take on that question, and they’ve started a new website where users can anonymously provide information about Scientologists who died of cancer and other causes.
The site is just in its infancy, but we think some of you will be very interested in helping it grow, and so we agreed to give the site an early plug.
It’s called The Scientology Death List, and you can find it at scientologydeathlist.org.
The question of Scientologists and cancer deaths has been something we’ve seen discussed by ex-church members for many years, but we saw mainstream media outlets pondering it in recent years after the deaths of Kelly Preston in 2020 and Kirstie Alley last year. Public statements by their families insisted that they had received legitimate treatment at reputable cancer centers.
But did either of them delay that treatment in favor of Scientology handlings?
We’ll be interested to see if, given the cover of anonymity, those with knowledge of Scientology deaths may come forward to help us get some clarity on this issue.
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Source Code: Actual things founder L. Ron Hubbard said on this date in history
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Creepy to say. But if I’d stayed in the cult, I would’ve died of lung cancer 10 years ago
I have several first hand examples of incidents with people I knew. Stress is such a big factor in wellness. Every Scientologist I know are under 24/7 stress.