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WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Tom Cruise and the weird cult stripped bare
Daily Mirror, Wednesday, April 13, 1994 Page 19
Daily Mirror investigation by Greg Sinclair [Picture of Cruise & Kidman. Caption: "SPECIAL GUESTS: Tom Cruise and wife Nicole Kidman were welcome at the cult's Californian HQ"] [Picture of e-meter. Caption: "BOX OF TRICKS: Cult members' truth test" Large type: "LIE DETECTOR REVEALS RECRUITS' DEEP EMOTIONS AND SEXUAL LEANINGS"] They sell the dream of a tranquil life, safely insulated from the pressures of the 20th Century. But the truth about the Church of Scientology is very different- and a world away from the pampered luxury afforded to its celebrity members around the world. Recruits work from dawn to dusk under a regime which, say defectors, suppresses all individuality. They are coerced into conformity by a brainwashing process which has been undergone by some of the Hollywood stars drawn to Scientology. As we revealed yesterday, Tom Cruise, a keen follower of the cult, underwent sessions that had him confessing his innermost secrets. It's called "auditing"- a special technique used to soften up recruits and get them to do what they are told. An electronic lie detector called an E Meter is used to make them confess their deepest thoughts, emotions and sexual leanings. Subjects hold two tin cans attached to the mere and go into a hypnotic state at the command of an "auditor". Andre Tabayoyon, a former head of security for the Scientologists who has revealed the secrets of his 21 years with the cult in a deposition to American lawyers, said: "I personally observed how auditors and others identify a person's 'hot button'. Tabayoyon, a Vietnam veteran, described the regime as a brain-washing and penal operation like he had been trained to expect from the Vietcong. In sessions with movie star John Travolta, he was "reminded" of his past sexual behaviour when he considered quitting the church. Tabayoyon says he went through a series of courses aimed at spreading the sect's mind-bending techniques among the staff and public. He belonged to the Sea Organisation and went through a series of courses learning how to use thought reform and coercive persuasion on the staff and public. On one, bizarrely named Rehabilitation Project Force Qual in Charge Hat, he learned how to recognise "misapplication of thought" and how to coerce subjects into conforming. Tabayoyon says he was also taught "thought reform" procedures to change people's personality and get them to confess crimes and sins against Scientology. Then there is Roll Back Training. During this, Tabayoyon learned how to counter evil rumours being spread about the cult. Anyone found to have spread "negative information" became targets for the "Fair Game" tactics of general mental abuse. But despite his revelations about the Scientologists' shocking methods, some of Hollywood's biggest stars are reputed to have given the sect millions. Poster-size magazine covers of Cruise and Travolta adorn the front of some Scientology Celebtrity Centres. They carry the caption: "I'm a Scientologist. Come in and find out why." The church even calls its in-house magazine Celebrity, and its star members are happy to endorse the bizarre message. In return for their support, they are treated like minor deities Top Gun. [sic] An integral part of auditing is the E Meter, an electronic device like a lie detector. Subjects hold two tin cans attached to the meter and go into a hypnotic state at the command of the "auditor". Tabayoyon: "We used the Hubbard Tech including security checking on the E-Meter with well-used coercive techniques of sleep deprivation, starvation, dehydration and denial of decent accommodation." Top Gun star Cruise and hiw wife Nicole Kidman are devoted to the cause. Scientology advisers are said to have helped them choose the new-born baby they adopted recently, and reports last year suggested the couple had donated tens of millions of pounds to the church. Cruise told America's Premiere magazine: "I have gained a lot from Scientology. I know how I can help people from my own personal involvement and study of the subject." Scientologists have been star-hunting since 1955, when the sect's founder, L. Ron Hubbard, printed a "wish list". On it were such names as Orson Welles, Danny Kaye, James Stewart, Greta Garbo, Walt Disney, Darryl Zanuck and Cecil B DeMille. In Britain, hard sell rather than Hollywood names is used to woo the gullible. An internal report in 1993 revealed how the sales team at the church's "dianetics" centre in Poole, Dorset, sold 300 books, enrolled 50 people on new courses and distributed 200,000 pieces of literature in just one week. But once signed up, many recruits lead a life of drudgery. A 300-strong force in military-style uniforms at East Grinstead fervently upholds the Scientologists' strict code. Staff can end up having little or no life of their own. They work an average 15 hours a day, seven days a week, for only UKP15-30. Living conditions are cramped, and one former member at a hostel told of peeling walls, shabby furniture and three-tier iron bunk beds packed close together. The penalties for stepping out of line can be severe. Offenders may lose the right to sleep in a bed, be sentenced to physical labour or made to eat beans and rice for weeks. One woman was even ordered to clean out the sewer system. Her offence? She had spent "too much time preparing for her own wedding". [Box: "Hard truths or hocus-pocus?" Picture of John Travolta, caption: "SECRETS: Travolta". Picture of Kirstie Alley, caption: "BELIEVER: Kirstie Alley".] Hollywood actor John Travolta is one of Scientology's most famous "catches". The Look Who's Talking star flew to a news conference in Oregon to support the church after it lost a court case. He has long served as an unofficial Scientology spokesman, even though he once told a magazine he was opposed to the church's management. "It (Scientology) just contains the secrets of the universe," he has said. "That may be hard for people to handle sometimes, hearing that." His wife Kelly Preston, 30, gave birth to Travolta's son Jett in silence in 1992 - following church teachings that this helps to safeguard the sanity of mother and child. Travolta, 39, said of his reclusive lifestyle last year: "I go to bed about five in the morning because that's the way I've always been since I was five. When I get up I play with Jett, go off to appointments, and most nights I go to Scientology class." Travolta's co-star in Look Who's Talking, Kirstie Alley, is another devotee. She believes the cult can cleanse the mind of malign influences called "engrams". "It's not hocus-pocus," she insists. "If you can erase engrams, then you can get better." She fronts the Scientology drug rehabilitation programme Narconon -which is ideally placed to recruit vulnerable addicts.
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