DER SPIEGEL
28/1994
(reproduced with permission)

GERMANY
Sects 
FOUNDATION GONE 

An Ex-Scientologist is contesting the rights of the Sect to use a 
Psycho Test. Millions are at stake. 

In "scientologese" the story would sound like this: he is a 
"suppressive person" and has enjoyed the blessings of Dianetics for 
years through the enlightenments of the genius and founder of the sect, L. 
Ron Hubbard, and then he commits "treason".  

The traitor's name is Tom Voltz, 39, he lives in Zurich and according 
to his own statements he was a member of the sect for 23 years. As a business 
consultant, he "missioned" numerous companies with the simple insights of the 
self-proclaimed church, with the help of a Personality Test, which is an 
important tool of the Scientology ideology. 

Scientology has been using  the so-called Oxford Capacity Analysis test (OCA)  
in its modified form also known as U Test for many years: at street stalls, 
in so-called Missions and Orgs, but also during Recruitment Tests in companies 
which are close to Scientology, the persons to be tested have to answer 200 
intimate questions concerning the state of affairs of their own soul. For 
example: "Do you often ponder about your own inferiority?" This 
examination allegedly gives revealing information about important character 
traits of the person tested.  

There could soon be an end to all this. Voltz the renegade is contesting the 
rights of the sect to use the dubious test. Together with the Zurich lawyer 
Wolfgang Larese, who has specialized in Copyright, Voltz wants to force 
Scientology to cease their "commercial violation of Copyright".

The business sect would be hard hit, if Voltz and Larese were ruled to be right. 
Because the OCA Test, which is really free of charge, helps the Scientologists
to get new victims and therefore to expand their multi-million dollar  empire.  

"The OCA helps", it says in one sect publication, "to find hidden aberrations."

To improve their test results, members submit to so called auditing therapies 
for hours and days, with the assurance that the alleged character defects 
are going "to be addressed and erased". Total costs of the courses: up to
several tens of thousands of Deutsch Mark.   

Voltz and Larese are claiming to have the rights to the OCA Test 
producing a certificate, among other things, dating from the year 1956, which 
Voltz discovered in the US Bureau/office/department for Copyrights in 
Washington. The paper identifies the psychologist Julia Lewis as the author of
a test with the name "American Personality Analysis". 

Lawyer Larese explains that Julia Lewis, as a Scientologist, had been 
working together with L. Ron Hubbard on several occasions. Later Hubbard 
started to employ the test with insignificant modifications and under a
different name for his sect purposes.

Scientology followers up to now had imagined that their Psycho Guru 
Hubbard invented the test himself. But a glossary of the sect dating from the 
year 1957 names the Lewis Test as the original version of the subsequent OCA 
questionnaire of the Scientologists, says Larese.  

The psychologist had enforced her rights by writting to the sect pointing out her 
copyright. In a letter of 25th April 1978, which carries the signature of Julia
Lewis, she demanded compensation for the utilization of her questionnaire, 
without success.  

In March 1990 Voltz, still a member of the sect at that time, bought 
the Copyrights from the widower of Julia Lewis, who had died in 1979. But the 
Scientologists refused to pay him Licence fees for his copyright, says Voltz. 
Because of his monetary claims he was slandered as an extortionist, and in 
November 1993 he left the sect. Before doing so, he transferred the utilization

rights to a company managed by lawyer Larese, which has now brought a criminal 
charge against Scientology.  

Should Voltz and his lawyer be successful in Switzerland with the sentence
demanded by the public prosecutor, the sect will have to fear for its lucrative business 
in other countries, especially in the Federal Republic of Germany. With 
the loss of the Psycho Test, says expert on sects Ursula Caberta (who 
monitors the Scientologists by order of the Senate in Hamburg) "a crucial part of 
the Hubbard disciples' foundation would break off". Lawyer Larese is confident

"It will be no problem to succeed with a Swiss Legal Title in Germany".