I've been visiting Canaderek's site since I first saw this posting in June. His parodies were HILARIOUS but they stopped appearing about a month ago. Then his uncle made a posting under his name
here where he ominously said that Derek has gone missing and had been into reading L. Ron Hubbard lately. A few days later, Canaderek returns with an incredible tale to tell in a post called
"Scientology Critically (but NOT cynically) Examined". He said that he had been contacted by someone in the
Church of Scientology known only as "Ms. B" who offered him airfare to fly from Ontario to Toronto to speak personally. As a result of their meeting and materials she provided him, Derek now says he knows the "truth" about Scientology's critics (i.e. Jon Atack was paid by corrupt elements in the Guardian's Office to aid in a plot to take over the CoS) and while he also said that he was still skeptical of Scientology, he now seems to think that many of the allegations made against Hubbard and the church are "ridiculous rumors." In the comments you can
read for yourself Derek answers objectors with typical evasive rhetoric and directs them to a website called
www.scientologymyths.info that is nothing but pure pro-Scientology propaganda.
The big twist took place when Canaderek made another post Sunday morning called
"Religious Freedom Part One" that is headed by a picture of none other than L. Ron Hubbard himself. In it Derek denounces the parodies he has written as "stupid jokes", says that Scientology's critics are all slanderers who almost always loose in court, Hubbard's tech has helped lots of people, himself included, and that he is now a
pre-clear. He also appears to answer the concerns raised in the posting by his uncle where he says "no one from the Church has told me to stop talking to my family and friends."
Given this extraordinary story and his previous writings it is very possible that this is some kind of elaborate parody, and part of me is waiting for the punchline. But what he writes now sounds awfully serious and I am wondering if we are witnessing the process by which a cult converts a critic into a believer.