EVEN THE SPECTATOR IS REVIEWING 'THE CHURCH OF FEAR' + CONOR CRUISES'S SPOOKED OUT SCIENTOLOGY HANDLER

The cult that wants to be a religion From its sacred text to its absurd creation myth, Scientology is far closer to recognised religions than its critics allow. Just with a therapeutic twist. by Alexander Adams

Printer-friendly version Email-a-friend Respond I have faith. You are a member of a religion. He is part of a cult. Every participant in a discussion about the Church of Scientology reveals a position by using the nouns ‘religion’ and ‘cult’. The former is accorded a degree of respect and recognition (socially, morally and legally); the latter is regarded with suspicion and hostility. However, nominating a group as ‘religion’ or ‘cult’ does not – a priori – establish the veracity of its core beliefs. So what is Scientology? Scientology is a religion/cult/philosophy which offers an all-American blend of self-help, psychological counselling, health improvement and Masonic-style careerism (especially in the acting world), based on ‘scientific research’ by science-fiction writer L Ron Hubbard (1911-1986). Scientological methods have been claimed to reduce stress, reveal past lives, end drug addiction, cure mental illness and heal physical illness. Caught off-guard by the huge success of his self-help manual Dianetics(1950), Hubbard decided to start the Church of Scientology as an organisation to oversee the ‘auditing’ of subjects (a talking therapy utilising an ‘e-mete’ similar to a lie-detector) in order to control and monetise it. Scientology’s hostility to psychiatry, which Scientologists consider responsible for worldwide murder and degradation, is partly because Scientology was founded not in opposition to psychiatry but in competition with it, using concepts and techniques pioneered by psychiatry. Professional scientists were unimpressed by Dianetics. One of them described it not as science fiction but ‘fictional science’. Scientology meets many of the definitions of a cult and at the same time has all the attributes of a religion, albeit a god-free, prayerless one. Many of the points it is criticised for are common to established religions: it has edited sacred texts on the grounds of expediency (see Mormonism); it fosters a culture of homophobia (see Christianity and Islam); it has an absurd creation myth (see all religions). On the other hand, Scientology – unlike other religions – does not consider women subservient, encourage female genital mutilation and honour killings, or require death for the ‘crimes’ of adultery, apostasy, heresy and blasphemy. And it does maintain a hate campaign against psychiatry. Psychiatry is to Scientology what Zionism is to Islam: an invisible, unprovable conspiracy against which adherents must be zealously vigilant. “Scientology was founded not in opposition to psychiatry but in competition with it” Ultimately, the principles and beliefs of derided cults are no more improbable than those of respected religions. The beliefs of Scientology should be accorded exactly the same amount of credence and respect as those of any established religion: namely, none. The Church arouses suspicion because it reveals its full teachings only to those who pay for instruction (costing up to $400,000 for a full course to the upper levels) and who promise to keep the knowledge secret even from lower-level Church members. Practitioners at the highest levels are said to have powers of astral projection, levitation, telekinesis, telepathic control of others, even the ability to kill through thought power – surely worth half a million bucks of anyone’s money. These phenomena have not yet been demonstrated under experimental conditions, something of a drawback for a scientific system.  Since the 1950s, the Church has amassed a fortune worth billions of dollars and a large property empire. It pays batteries of lawyers to harry and intimidate critics. Not for nothing is Church leader David Miscavige internally referred to as ‘Chairman of the Board’. Yet the presence and influence of the Church is out of all proportion to its membership. Although it claims nine or 10 million followers and to be the world’s fastest growing religion, a former insider stated that the Church’s active membership totals only 30,000 to 40,000. The tax authorities in different countries disagree as to whether the Church is religion or business. The US authorities say Scientology is a religion and therefore a tax-exempt charity which does not have to pay staff the minimum wage; the British say it is a taxable not-for-profit organisation; the German government considers it a manipulative business and bars Scientologists from holding positions in the civil service. Interestingly, specifically religious trappings, such as clerical vestments and the adoption of a cross, were taken up only in the 1980s and 1990s when the Church was campaigning for religious status in America. In Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief, Lawrence Wright reveals that the Church effectively outmanoeuvred the mighty Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by withholding tax payments and engaging in extensive and prolonged litigation until the IRS and the Clinton administration caved in and agreed to change the Church’s status from corporation to tax-exempt religion. “Practitioners at the highest levels are said to have powers of astral projection, levitation and telekinesis” Wright provides an overview of the movement (with biographies of Hubbard and his successor Miscavige) and documents the Church’s influence in Hollywood. A more personal journey into the Church’s tactics of intimidation is John Sweeney’s The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology, which details his experience making two investigative reports for the BBC’s Panorama. Sweeney describes encounters with Church handlers and tells stories of members and ex-members. Both authors have based their accounts on a huge number of sources and witnesses, extensively documented in endnotes. This is a legally prudent move: Sweeney’s book is published only by a small British press and Wright’s book will not be published in the UK at all, due to the threat of ligation by the Church, it has been inferred. The most remarkable parts of both books are investigations into the Sea Org, the Church’s clergy. Once applicants have signed a billion-year contract, it is alleged, they are assigned to a Sea Org centre on low pay (subject to deductions for infractions). The Sea Org is reportedly under the direct command of Miscavige who, according to these accounts, is allegedly a vain, unpredictable man who bullies, humiliates and physically assaults staff. It is said that Sea Org members are imprisoned in isolated properties for months, even years, to discipline them. Persecution, separation from family members within the Church and blackmail (by publishing personal details in the Church’sFreedom Magazine) deter Sea Org members from leaving. Mistakenly, Sweeney identifies such objectionable and cruel discipline as being exclusively a cult-specific phenomenon, whereas in fact it is also commonplace in established religions. ‘Amy’s crime?’ asks Sweeney: ‘Having consensual sex with a man she was in love with and who she planned to marry. What kind of religion is it that places a 16-year-old on a punishment regime for slap and tickle?’ There are teenaged girls in jail cells in Sudan and in forced marriages in Pakistan who would be able to answer Sweeney’s question. Still, both books are compellingly readable and recount true stories that are by turns fascinating, ridiculous and shocking. What of the future? Despite the consequences, many high-level Scientologists have left or lapsed, claiming Miscavige’s control has distorted Hubbard’s teachings and damaged the Church. It remains to be seen how long a secretive organisation that depends on copyrighting its holy scripture and isolating its clergy can survive in the internet age. Alexander Adams is an artist and critic based in Berlin. He writes for Apollo, the Art Newspaper and the Jackdaw. Bookmark this page:  Delicious  Digg  reddit  Facebook  StumbleUpon Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright is published by Knopf. (Buy this book fromAmazon (UK).) I feel the need for speed! Tom Cruise' son Connor arrives at fashion party in new yellow Lamborghini By IONA KIRBY PUBLISHED: 19:38, 1 March 2013 | UPDATED: 20:42, 1 March 2013 Comments (149) Share Tom Cruise is famed for his love of fast cars and it seems the actor has passed this trait down to his son Connor. Connor was spotted arriving at a party in Los Angeles on Thursday in an extremely flashy yellow Lamborghini. There’s no doubt the DJ made the grandest entrance of the night in the striking sports car. He's a Top Gun too: Connor Cruise has developed a love of fast cars just like his father Tom He was in attendance at a launch party for Karl Lagerfeld’s new line of watches, arriving with a male friend. The 18-year-old may have made sure his arrival was extravagant but he kept things low-key when it came to his outfit. He was sporting a T-shirt with King Kong’s face on it under a black leather jacket along with jeans and black trainers. Making an entrance: The DJ arrived at a party in Los Angeles on Thursday in a yellow Lamborghini On your marks: The 18-year-old was arriving at a Karl Lagerfeld watch launch party The bespectacled teen also made sure he had a suitably ostentatious watch on his wrist to suit the theme of the evening. Connor, whose mother is Nicole Kidman, was clearly in a good mood as he flashed the ‘V’ sign to photographers before heading into the venue. Meanwhile Connor’s famous father recently launched a $50 million defamation suit against publisher Bauer Media. Dressed down: Connor's car was a lot more ostentatious than his very casual outfit It came following claims made in Life & Style and In Touch Weekly he had 'abandoned' six-year-old Suri, his daughter from his marriage to Katie Holmes. As the trial heats up Tom’s attorney Bert Fields has told E!: 'He talks to her every day, sometimes many times a day. 'It's just the opposite of what they said in the magazine. 'They are together all the time. He is a very caring father and that is at the heart of this lawsuit.' Centre of attention: All eyes were on Connor and his pal as they arrived at the Los Angeles bash Famous family: Connor is the adopted son of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2286704/Connor-Cruise-shows-love-flashy-cars-arrives-fashion-party-new-yellow-Lamborghini.html#ixzz2N5zjfXSm Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook