A review of the current experimental situation in low energy &pgr; elastic scattering is given. Emphasis is placed on the very large discrepancies between the data and the predictions of optical model theories which work well at energies near the (3,3) resonance. Guidance as to the type and size of corrections to the multiple scattering series for the low energy domain is sought from an examination of theories pertaining to pionic atoms. An examination is made of several recent attempts to improve the theoretical situation. Predictions for forthcoming low energy inelastic scattering experiments are reviewed briefly.