“The next generation on the Purification Rundown at Saint Hill! Come and join them at Ron’s home!” reads the Church of Scientology’s latest propaganda flier sent to its British parishioners. Accompanied by a picture of eleven children dressed in sports gear, it makes no mentions of the dangers related to the program or the multiple deaths linked to its delivery at Narconon centres in the United States.

For Scientology the Purification Rundown is the first step on the so-called ‘Bridge to Total Freedom’ but when delivered in the ‘drug rehabilitation’ setting of its Narconon centres it’s marketed as a secular program “based on the research of L. Ron Hubbard.” Regardless of location, the program doesn’t change and involves taking dangerously high doses of Niacin and other vitamins, exercising and extended sauna sessions. According to Hubbard, this allows toxins supposedly stored in the body’s fatty tissues to become loose, and by sitting in a sauna they can be excreted through sweat, freeing you from their ill-effects and bringing you more in to ‘present time’. There is, however, no evidence to support these claims.

“There is no credible support for claims that large doses of niacin clear toxins from the brain, fatty tissue or any other part of the body” James Kenney PhD, of the National Council Against Health Fraud wrote in a 1991 statement about the program. “To make matters worse, large doses of niacin are hepatotoxic and can cause serious liver damage. It may also trigger gout, raise blood sugar into the diabetic range, cause itching, flushing and a rash. Nausea and gastritis are other side effects of large doses of niacin. To subject people to these potentially serious side effects on the pretense that they are being “detoxified”, “cleared” or “purified” is quackery.”

In 1984, Mr. Justice Latey ruled in the High Court that Scientology is “dangerous because it is out to capture people, especially children and impressionable young people, and indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others.”

Despite shaky science and the High Court’s warning of their targeting of young people, Scientology continues to deliver the Purification Rundown at its centres across the UK. Its latest piece of propaganda, published at a time when children are off from school on extended summer holidays, is clearly aimed at recruiting the next generation.

The program is delivered without medical supervision, participants instead requiring a doctor’s sign-off prior to starting the program, and involves taking thousands of milligrams of Niacin and other vitamins daily. A critical analysis of the Purification Rundown by Canadian doctor David Hogg, M.D. suggested “a patient with unsuspected coronary artery disease who is subjected to the stresses demanded of him in this combination of exercise and sauna stands a significant chance of suffering a heart attack.”

The analysis, published in 1981, warned “high levels of vitamin D may lead to a sudden increase in blood calcium. This will lead to symptoms of decreased appetite, nausea and vomiting, memory loss, decreased level of consciousness progressing to coma, and in infants, mental retardation. Kidney damage may also occur which is often not reversible on discontinuing the vitamin. Bone disease, with weakening and fractures, also occurs concomitantly”

It concluded the Purification Rundown “not only fails to deliver what it promises, but may actually be detrimental to the health of those takin”

Earlier this year, the National Institutes of Health published the results of a clinical research study led by Dr. Stanley Hazen at the Cleveland Clinic which found high doses of Niacin increases risk of developing cardiovascular disease. It concluded that the body breaks down excess Niacin into a compound known as 4PY, which “activates inflammatory pathways that are known to promote plaque formation in arteries. This may increase the risk of major cardiac events.”

None of this has triggered the British authorities into launching an investigation or to assess the dangers associated with the Purification Rundown on children. We call on the government to step in to protect the young and vulnerable people who are currently undergoing the program at Saint Hill, from harm.

After receiving a copy of the promotional flier, Scientology Business founder Alexander Barnes-Ross (aka Apostate Alex) filed a report with West Sussex County Council, which oversees child protective services at Saint Hill.

“Scientology claim the rundown is secular when being delivered at Narconon, but say it is a ‘religious’ or ’spiritual’ program when delivered within the Church, despite the program being exactly the same. They believe that taking excessive quantities of Niacin, drinking oil and sitting in a sauna for 5+ hours a day, the body is able to sweat out toxins stored in one’s fatty tissues – but there is no evidence to prove this works and in fact often leads to dehydration and hallucinations.​ The program has led to several deaths in the United States.”

In 2017, Stephen A. Kent of the University of Alberta published an analysis of Scientology’s ‘Purification Rundown’ and its “lack of scientific validity” in a damning report, which you can read below.

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