Fascinating piece at the LA Times this morning about Tom Cruise and Scientology. The group's most powerful leader, David Miscavige, went to great lengths to court Cruise, and Cruise is hitting the greatest heights of Scientology. Excerpts:
Founded in 1954, Scientology is a religion without a deity. It teaches that "spiritual release and freedom" from life's problems can be achieved through one-on-one counseling called auditing, during which members' responses are monitored on an "e-meter," similar to a polygraph. This process, along with a series of training courses, can cost Scientologists many tens of thousands of dollars.
As Scientology's highest-ranking figure, Miscavige, 45, has found in Cruise, 43, not just a fervent and famous believer but an effective messenger whose passion the church has harnessed to help fuel its worldwide growth.
"Across 90 nations, 5,000 people hear his word of Scientology – every hour," International Scientology News proclaimed last year. "Every minute of every hour someone reaches for LRH technology ”¦ simply because they know Tom Cruise is a Scientologist." . . .
In his own spiritual life, Cruise has continued to climb the "Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine, reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels of training, "OT VII" – for Operating Thetan VII.
At these higher levels – and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars – Scientologists learn Hubbard's secret theory of human suffering, which he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant named Xenu.
According to court documents made public by The Times in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls, or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects.
