Camburn Involvement in Deprogramming

Ida Camburn actively supports deprogramming: the kidnapping of individuals who are then forced by the use of terrorist tactics to disavow their religious beliefs. In March 1978 Camburn even went so far as to give a deprogramming referral to Ted Patrick, a thrice convicted criminal known for his many forcible and violent deprogrammings. In October 1977 Camburn was in contact with another deprogrammer about the attempted assault of a new member of the Church of Scientology in Portland – that deprogramming failed. Camburn suggested in reference to the failed deprogramming that the parents continue to harass their daughter so she would be thrown out of the Church.

In January 1978, Camburn took several underhanded actions to attack the Palo Alto chapter of Narconon (a drug rehabilitation center that uses methods developed by Mr. Hubbard). Narconon has been widely praised for its unparalleled success in rehabilitating drug addicts and Camburn chose to try and stop that, thus she would rather have drug addicts dying than salvaged. She covertly obtained several promotional pieces on Narconon from her son, altered them, and mailed them to all the councilmen in the Palo Alto area under the pretense that these altered documents had been distributed to them by the Church. She then spread false and alarming information about Narconon to wealthy Palo Alto residents.