The Purification Rundown and Narconon: a sauna, exercise and vitamin “detox” — what Canadian sources report

First-hand: the Church's advertising in Waterloo Region

What the Church says it is

What Canadian sources report

1986: the Toronto Star on Narconon and a Toronto clinic

The Toronto Star (14 June 1986, p. A4, the continuation of a front-page story) reported on Narconon's Toronto centre and on a Toronto health clinic that offered the Rundown, both applying L. Ron Hubbard's regimen. The page held here does not show the front-page headline or byline.

• The regimen, as the Star described it: niacin from 50–100 mg a day up to about 5,000 mg daily, with vitamins and minerals, four to five hours a day in a dry sauna, and polyunsaturated oil. A Narconon staff member said the aim was to “get rid of chemicals stored in fatty tissues.” The $15 booklet sold at Narconon warned that large niacin doses can cause hot flushes, itchy skin, hives and aching bones.
• The booklet's own disclaimer: Hubbard's booklet said “no broad medical acceptance has been sought by the author” and that it made “no warranties or representations as to the effectiveness” of the regimen, according to the Star.
• An expert's response: Dr. Harding le Riche, a University of Toronto epidemiologist, said claims that the regimen can cleanse the body of drugs and chemicals “have no basis in scientific literature,” that there is “no experimental evidence to show that what they claim is actually possible,” that high niacin doses may cause liver damage, and that a claim about radiation was “absolute and complete nonsense.”
• Connection to Scientology: Narconon's executive director was quoted as saying that “the connection is L. Ron Hubbard,” and that Narconon uses Hubbard's methods but is not there to indoctrinate. The Star reported that Narconon staff paid the Church for training in the Rundown, and that Narconon received a commission from the Church if clients went on to buy Scientology courses.
• Cost: the Star reported that the Rundown at the clinic cost $2,500, and that Narconon programs could cost $6,000 or more. The clinic's medical director, who described himself as a Scientologist, said he recommended the Rundown to patients with allergies or “toxic residues.” The Star reported that he said he received a commission from the Church when patients bought Scientology materials, which he said he donated.
• A regulator's letter: the Star quoted a letter from a professional college (the page held here does not name it) saying the “Narconon situation has been one that has been of concern to the college for some time.” College officials would not confirm or deny any investigation.
• A former client (named in the Star by a pseudonym) said that after an interview using an E-meter he was told the needle registered “a lot of pain” and that $2,000 was needed up front. He left without taking the treatment. This is one person’s account, reported in 1986.

2006: “Experts challenge claims,” Edmonton Journal

The Edmonton Journal (23 May 2006) reported that ads for Narconon had run on Edmonton radio and in Alberta weekly papers, promising a 70 per cent success rate, “100-per-cent natural,” and prescribing “intensive saunas, exercise and high doses of vitamins to cleanse the body of ‘radiation, drugs and toxins.’” The newspaper reported:

• A Narconon spokesman said the 70 per cent figure is the share of graduates who stay drug- and alcohol-free for two years, that studies on Narconon's website back it, and that no attempt is made to recruit participants to Scientology. He said four or five per cent of graduates become Scientologists. He put the full program at about $20,000, with Albertans referred to Trois-Rivières, Quebec.
• John Weekes, a senior research analyst at the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse, said well-designed, evidence-based programs yield “around a 30-per-cent reduction in use,” and that researchers would “freak out with elation” at a verified 70 per cent.
• Tom Brown, a drug-rehab researcher at McGill, said the physiological claims “have to be corroborated by data” and rest on assumptions “not really borne out by the current state of scientific literature.” He also said the program, while not scientifically substantiated, may be no worse than many popular rehab programs that are also not backed by science, and that a client's belief in a program matters to outcomes.
• Steve Kent, a University of Alberta sociologist, said independent studies existed and showed a very low success rate, and that the program may also serve the Church as a socially beneficial program, an income source and “a possible recruitment vehicle.” The Narconon spokesman denied the recruitment point.
• The Journal quoted an Oklahoma state mental-health board report that most drugs leave the body through the liver, kidneys and lungs, and that “although minute quantities of some drugs may be found in sweat, the amount represents a small fraction of drug elimination.”

1994: the Oklahoma board, in the Calgary Herald

The Calgary Herald (29 March 1994, Bob Beaty) reported that Narconon had approached Alberta First Nations and that a U.S. state board had declined to certify it. According to the Herald, the Oklahoma board found the program required patients “to sweat up to five hours per day for 30 days and take high doses of vitamins and minerals,” concluded the doses “could be potentially dangerous,” and warned sauna therapy could pose “significant health risks to intravenous heroin addicts.” It also said the board objected to limits on when patients could see doctors, family and lawyers. Narconon's acting chief executive officer told the Herald that the board refused to hear experts supporting the program and so its findings were flawed. Health Canada's regional medical services director said nothing in Canada would stop a reserve funding such a program itself.

2012: Narconon Trois-Rivières, CBC

CBC's Go Public (Kathy Tomlinson, 9 April 2012) reported that a Toronto mother paid $10,000 to send her adult son to the Narconon facility in Trois-Rivières, Quebec; that after six days staff sent him home by bus; and that she could not get her money back. A Narconon spokesman said the man did not qualify because he arrived in a psychotic state, that the facility treats addiction, not mental illness, and that 1,200 people had graduated drug-free since 2002. He said the program uses Scientology teachings “because they are extremely effective.” CBC reported that after its inquiries the spokesman promised she would receive all or most of the money back. A former Narconon employee alleged the facility recruits vulnerable people into Scientology while charging up to $30,000, and that clients were not given prescribed medication; the spokesman said he knew of only three people who had converted.

A week later CBC reported (17 April 2012) that the head of the Mauricie regional health agency, Marc Latour, had shut the centre. CBC reported him as saying at least four clients had been taken to hospital in recent months because of methods used there; that the centre advertised an 80 per cent success rate and charged $25,000; that it broke many of the criteria for Quebec rehab centres; and that there was “no medical supervision and no scientific basis to the treatment.” He described patients going “cold turkey,” then long sauna sessions and “an unhealthy amount of vitamins.” About half of the 34 clients then at the centre were reportedly sent on to a Narconon centre in the U.S. The centre said people with drug problems “should have a right to choose the program that works for them,” and that it was willing to make needed corrections.

2013: Cambridge and Hockley Valley

The Waterloo Region Record (14 Feb 2013, Chris Herhalt) reported that the Church had opened a new centre at 1305 Bishop St. N., Cambridge, on 9 Feb 2013, on a property it bought for $3.75 million in cash in 2009. A spokesperson said the Church was moving its operations there from a downtown Kitchener office. The reporter described an e-meter on a table at the entrance, and saunas and exercise bikes “for detoxification.” A photo caption referred to a “purification centre” inside the building. The article does not use the words “Purification Rundown” and does not describe what is done there.

Later that year the Toronto Star (2 Sep 2013, Rachel Mendleson) reported that Narconon had made a conditional bid, through a Delaware holding company, for the Hockley Valley estate of the late MP Donald Blenkarn, near Orangeville, and had applied for a zoning change for a 24-bed residential addiction centre. It would have been Narconon's first in Ontario. Narconon International's president said the program was “substantiated by scientific evidence” and that “there is no evidence whatsoever to support the allegations in the media that vitamins or sauna played any role” in the Oklahoma deaths. The Star noted that Ontario does not license private addiction recovery centres, and that no charges had been laid in Oklahoma. A later local report, Guelph Politico (9 Oct 2017), says the bid was rejected in 2013, reportedly with public pressure playing a role; I have not seen a primary record of the decision.

Since 2013: what I found, and what I did not

• Oklahoma (Narconon Arrowhead): lawsuits followed the 2012 deaths. In July 2016 Tony Ortega reported that two Church-linked organizations, Narconon International and ABLE, had settled one family's wrongful-death suit on undisclosed terms, while Narconon of Oklahoma remained a defendant and a summary-judgment motion was pending. I did not find how that case, or the others, ended, so this page does not state an outcome.
• California, 2019: see the table below. A civil jury found negligence by a rehab operator in a death that was not described as being from the sauna or vitamin program.
• Canadian court or regulator findings on the Rundown itself: none found in the sources held.

The numbers do not agree

None of these is an independently verified outcome measure. The most that can be said from these sources is that the organization's own figures and the experts' expectations are far apart, and that no independent study was cited in the reports.

Deaths at a Narconon centre: what has and has not been tied to the program

An NBC News report from 2012 on Narconon Arrowhead, a residential centre in Oklahoma, said four students had died there in about three and a half years. It described three of the cases:

• A woman in her late twenties died in a Tulsa hospital after a respiratory infection that worsened over a week. Her mother alleged staff did not give her the right medication. The family sued, and Narconon settled for an undisclosed amount without admitting wrongdoing.
• A man of 32 was found dead in his bed. An autopsy found only trace amounts of morphine, and the report said the cause “remains a mystery.” His mother alleged drugs were available at the centre; Narconon strongly denied it.
• A woman of 20 died after, according to a sheriff's department report cited by NBC, she used drugs smuggled back from a day visit home and was left unsupervised for several hours in a withdrawal unit.

The report described the program as up to five hours a day in a sauna for 30 days and up to 5,000 mg of niacin a day. It did not attribute any of these deaths to the sauna or vitamin regimen. Narconon's chief executive said he could not comment because of privacy law and that the centre was cooperating with authorities. A Columbia University addiction researcher quoted in the report said she had seen no science supporting a “sweat it out” approach.

The same report noted the April 2012 closure of Narconon Trois-Rivières by Quebec's regional health authority, which said there was no medical supervision. In the Canadian sources above, CBC reported that at least four clients were taken to hospital; none of the Canadian articles held here reports a death.

Other reported deaths

What is not known

• Whether the Church's Purification Rundown and Narconon's “New Life Detoxification Program” are identical. The Journal describes the Narconon program as based on L. Ron Hubbard's writings and built from saunas, exercise and vitamins; the Church's page describes the Rundown as exercise, sauna and nutrition. The components are alike. This page does not claim they are the same.
• The outcome of any complaint to a regulator about Narconon Trois-Rivières. The 2012 closure is documented; what followed is not, in the sources held.
• Whether any Canadian program is operating today under these names. Not checked. The Cambridge centre was described in 2013 as having saunas and a “purification centre”; no source held says what is offered there now.
• Whether the 1986 regimen (niacin to about 5,000 mg a day) is the one offered by the Church or Narconon today. The 1986 figures are the Star’s report of a 1986 booklet and staff statements.
• The vitamin doses used. News reports here say “high doses” without figures. Figures that appear in a Wikipedia summary of Hubbard's book are unverified and are not used on this page.

If you are weighing a program like this

• Ask who supervises it and whether a physician is on site, particularly for withdrawal.
• Ask for the evidence behind any success rate: who measured it, how, and over what period.
• Ask for the refund terms in writing before paying.
• Your provincial health ministry or regional health authority can tell you whether a residential treatment centre is licensed or recognized. Questions about advertising claims can go to the Competition Bureau; see how to complain.

Sources

• Church of Scientology Canada, “What is the Purification Rundown?” scientology.ca (read 1 Nov 2026).
• “Experts challenge claims of Scientology's sweat-it-out treatment for addicts,” Edmonton Journal, 23 May 2006.
• Bob Beaty, “Scientology course potentially dangerous, says Oklahoma report,” Calgary Herald, 29 Mar 1994 (mirror copy).
• “Scientology system adapted to fight drug abuse,” Toronto Star, 14 Jun 1986, p. A4.
• Kathy Tomlinson, “Mom slams drug rehab centre run by Scientologists,” CBC News, 9 Apr 2012.
• Chris Herhalt, “Church of Scientology presents its new image in Cambridge,” Waterloo Region Record, 14 Feb 2013.
• Rachel Mendleson, “Controversial rehab centre rouses Hockley Valley fury,” Toronto Star, 2 Sep 2013.
• “The Bridge to Disharmony: Guelph’s Complex Reaction to Scientology’s Arrival,” Guelph Politico, 9 Oct 2017.
• Tony Ortega, The Underground Bunker, 28 July 2016 and 7 May 2019; Amy Zimmerman, The Daily Beast, 9 May 2019.
• “Scientologist-run rehab centre ordered closed in Quebec,” CBC News, 17 Apr 2012.

Related: the E-meter and Church-linked health claims are being documented separately on QuackeryWatch. The Church's links to chiropractic practice management are covered on ChiroWatch.