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Dear Matt, While I Understand Your Predicament, I Fully Understand The

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Dear Matt, While I Understand Your Predicament, I Fully Understand The Dear Matt, While I understand your predicament, I fully understand the situation you and your ASA colleagues find yourselves in. It is not often one has to deal with an organisation as deceptive as The Way To Happiness Foundation. To cut to the chase - while the ASA acknowledges the connection between The Way To Happiness Foundation and Scientology, the ASA believes that The Way To Happiness Foundation is a separate charity in its own right. I intend to present evidence establishing the following four points: 1) The Way To Happiness Foundation is under control of Scientology international management. 2) The Way To Happiness Foundation is run by Scientologists. 3) The Way To Happiness Foundation is being run for the purpose of Scientology. 4) A proportion of donations collected by The Way To Happiness Foundation go to Scientology. If the above four points are true, then the claim that The Way To Happiness Foundation is a separate charity in its own right must be rejected, and future advertisements on behalf of this group must clearly reflect this. 1. The IRS application and decision. I will begin by revisiting the IRS position. The 1023 IRS filing made in 1993 as part of The Way To Happiness Foundation’s application for tax-exemption is available from http://www.xenu-directory.net/documents/corporate/irs/1993-1023-twth.pdf . From page 10 that 1023 filing: Evidence piece 1 From page 9 of that same document: Evidence piece 2 Evidence piece 3 From the 1993 IRS closing agreement that gave The Way To Happiness Foundation and other Scientology entities their tax-exemption, Scientology-related entities qualifying for tax-exemption are defined thus (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Cowen/essays/agreemnt.html#Scientology- related%20entity ): “4. The social benefit and other public benefit entities discussed at pages 1-28 through 1-42 of the June submission along with all subsidiaries, subordinate chapters, subordinate organizations, or sublicensees thereof (e.g., organizations that are permitted to use particular names, copyrights, service marks, and/or technologies) are Scientology-related entities. Thus, for example, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, National Commission on Law Enforcement and Social Justice, Scientology Defense Fund Trust, Association for the Better Living and Education, Applied Scholastics Incorporated, Narconon International, The Way to Happiness Foundation, and the Foundation for Religious Freedom are Scientology-related entities. Pages 1- 28 through 1-42 are attached as Exhibit VIII-2 to this Agreement.” Evidence piece 4 From page 16 of the 1023 filing: Evidence piece 5 These four pieces of evidence (pieces 1-4) show that The Way To Happiness Foundation applied for tax-exemption as a Scientology-related entity, got tax- exemption solely on the basis of being a Scientology-related entity and had their application filed through the Church of Scientology International. The person listed as a contact for more information, Thomas C. Spring (piece 2), has been the lead tax exemption counsel for the Church of Scientology International since 1988 (he has since retired from this position to the best of my knowledge). For a reference Mr. Spring’s role I attach the following evidence from a legal declaration of his (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Declaration_Thomas_Spring_ 1994.pdf ): Evidence piece 6 The signatory given in piece 3 is a one Joseph Francis. From ( http://www.xenu- directory.net/documents/corporate/person.php?person_id=896 ) you can see he has involvement with Narconon, Applied Scholastics and the Association for Better Living and Education International – all Scientology related entities. From these pieces of evidence (pieces 1-6) it is clear that The Way To Happiness Foundation was granted tax exemption from the IRS solely for being a Scientology related entity, and is not considered by the IRS as a separate charity in its own right. The Way To Happiness was also funded by Scientology (piece 5). If the ASA has documentation from the IRS to show otherwise I would be interested in seeing such. The tax exemption application process was handled by Scientology lawyers and involved the appointment of Scientologist directors. Joseph Francis, Frank Zurn (http://www.xenu-directory.net/documents/corporate/people.php?n=z ), Sue Killeen (http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/s/sue-killeen.html )and Fred Oxaal ( http://www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/by-name/f/fred-oxaal.html ), four of the five original directors for The Way To Happiness Foundation, are scientologists. I have been unable to find further information on the fifth director Linda Oachu. 2. The Financial Connection. The purpose of the original advertisement from The Way To Happiness Foundation was to raise awareness of the organisation in order to solicit donations. Part of the reason I consider the ad to have been misleading was that, by not disclosing the connection to Scientology, the would-be donators would be unaware that a portion of their donations would be going to Scientology. I present supporting evidence for this below. From page 12 of the 1023 application: Evidence piece 7 The publisher of the UK version of this booklet is New Era Publications in Denmark, a Scientology related entity. The following two scans are taken from the postcard attachment in the UK version of this booklet: Evidence piece 8 Donations solicited by The Way To Happiness Foundation are used to purchase this booklet from Scientology. For booklets printed by the foundation itself, or under authorised sublicense granted by the foundation, the relevant royalty arrangements of the booklet are codified in on page 13 of the 1023 filing: Evidence piece 9 As you can see, 60% of royalties raised by the foundation went to the Hubbard testamentary trust. The relevant copyrights have since been transferred to the L.Ron Hubbard Library (also known as the Church of Spiritual Technology), the copyright holder of all Scientology materials. From The Way To Happiness Foundation’s ‘Instructions and Forms’ PDF on their website (http://www.twth.org/reprinting/files/reprint-instructions.pdf ): Evidence piece 10 To conclude this section, the above pieces of evidence show that a portion of monies donated to The Way To Happiness Foundation are going to Scientology – something facilitated by a failure to disclose the Scientology connection in the relevant advertising. 3. The role of The Way To Happiness within Scientology. The Way To Happiness booklet is part of ‘The Basics’. From the Bridge Publications website, another Scientology organisation, (http://www.bridgepub.com/materials/basics.html ), “ The Basics books and lectures form the foundation upon which The Bridge to Freedom is built .” The Bridge to (total) Freedom is the Church of Scientology's guide to its members of how to advance in the church through auditing and other services. As can be seen from the below screenshot this includes The Way To Happiness booklet: Evidence piece 11 The Way To Happiness booklet also forms the foundation of The Way to Happiness Course, The Way to Happiness Extension Course and The Happiness Rundown (an auditing level) as can be seen from ( http://www.smi.org/route/page21.htm ). From the first page of the booklet we can the influence of Scientology doctrine: Evidence piece 12 The reference to survival is from a concept in Scientology ethics. In Scientology and Dianetics there are eight dynamics (the self, reproduction, the group, mankind, plants and animals, the earth, the universe, supreme being), and Scientology ethics measure the morality of an action against those eight dynamics. Actions that increase survival across the greatest number of these dynamics are considered good, while actions that decrease total survival across these same dynamics are considered bad. The footnote zero is a reference to Scientology Study Technology. The basic premise is that an inability to understand a given text or concept arises solely from the presence of ‘misunderstood word’. The ritual of performing ‘word clearing’ is part of how a member studies the Scientology materials. I presented piece 12 to show the Scientology underpinning of The Way To Happiness booklet, and how it fits in with Scientology concepts. The general public, not being well versed in Scientology or its doctrinal concepts, would not recognise that these concepts stem from the Scientology scriptures. This is another reason why I think advertisements on behalf of The Way To Happiness Foundation, whose primary duty is to purchase and disseminate copies of The Way To Happiness booklet (piece 7), are misleading when the connection to Scientology is not referenced. 4. The role of The Way To Happiness Foundation within the Scientology organisation. According to ( http://www.freedominla.org/issue08i1/page03.htm ) the executive director of The Way To Happiness Foundation is Joni Ginsburg. From her personal website* ( http://www.our-home.org/drjoniginsberg/index.htm ) you can see she is a Scientologist. She has also served as a director of Narconon ( http://www.our- home.org/drjoniginsberg/index.htm ), a director of Criminon ( http://www.xenu- directory.net/documents/corporate/990s.php?ntt=24 ) and a director of Applied Scholastics ( http://www.xenu-directory.net/documents/corporate/990s.php?ntt=4 ). * This website was set up as part of Scientology campaign to increase their web presence. A lot of these websites were set up from the same template although most, if not all, of these sites have since been abandoned. It is interesting to note that all groups this person supports on her site are all connected to Scientology. The following scans are taken from pages 5 and 28 of the booklet ‘Command Channels of Scientology’ (http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Command_Channels_of_Scientology ): Evidence piece 13 Evidence piece 14 To summarise the contents of this section thus far, the Scientologist executive director of The Way To Happiness Foundation has held directorships within other Scientology organisations and have documentation showing that The Way To Happiness Foundation answers to Scientology international management (who, as can be seen from piece 14, consider The Way To Happiness to be a part of Scientology).
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