Talk:The Mind Benders (Vosper book)

"Released by the old CAN"? Um ... it was me, I think.
As far as I recall, it was released onto the Internet by Martin Hunt, who did a quick OCR text scan. Then I proofread and cleaned it up and put the HTML version on my site, with Cyril's permission.

I don't have a third-party source saying this, though I undoubtedly made an a.r.s post at the time saying I'd done this ...

Did CAN release a scan as well? - David Gerard 01:10, 10 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I must be going senile in my middle age. I just read what I wrote on my own page at the time, it being precisely what the article says. Excuse me. References! They help you not forget your own words! - David Gerard 01:14, 10 December 2006 (UTC)

Church of Scientology of Canada tried to ban the book
Found an article about the Church of Scientology of Canada trying to ban the book, by threathening to cite libraries as defendant in a libel suit against Vosper (along with Malko and Kaufman) if they were to offer Vosper's book (or Malko's and Kaufman's books.) This deserve to be integrated in the article, but I want to find information about the outcome of the libel suits first. Raymond Hill 22:12, 22 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Sounds great. Let us know when you have more sources - even though that first one is excellent on its own merits...  Smee 03:23, 23 February 2007 (UTC).

Two more sources on the topic:


 * Arnaldo Lerma has a scan of an article published Nov. 1974 in the Library Journal: "The Scientologists have conducted similar suits in England, Australia, and the U.S. The books in question are The Mind Benders by Cyril Vosper (reported once a high official at Scientology world headquarters): Scientology: The Now Religion by George Malko; Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman; and Scandal of Scientology by Paulette Cooper. Canadian libraries in Hamilton and Etobicoke have refused to remove the critical books from circulation, and now they are facing lawsuits. [...]"


 * The British Columbia Library Association has a passage on the topic, with further references to be looked-up.

But still have to find how this all ended. Raymond Hill 17:31, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Please do keep us posted. Of course all that info/references/citations would be useful to add to all the various articles on books where it was attempted to block them from libraries.  Suing to get books out of publication is one thing, but suing to stop book from being in libraries is most certainly another interesting (and some would say horrifying) new twist to it.  Smee 08:06, 28 February 2007 (UTC).
 * I have added a small subsection including the citations you provided, and also added it to the other three book articles that they tried to ban from libraries: Scientology: The Now Religion, Inside Scientology, The Scandal of Scientology.  Let me know what you think.  If you want to add more, perhaps we should refine it in one article first (maybe this one), and then copy to the other three...  Smee 08:43, 28 February 2007 (UTC).