Inside Scientology (63 page)

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the couple was on a new path:
Ironically, though Cruise and Kidman apparently distanced themselves from Scientology after making Kubrick's
Eyes Wide Shut,
Kubrick's daughter, Vivian, joined the Church of Scientology. According to Kubrick's widow, Christiane, Vivian had been set to compose the score for
Eyes Wide Shut
when she abruptly left for California when the film was in post-production. "They had a huge fight," Christiane Kubrick told
The Guardian
in August 2010. "He wrote her a forty-page letter trying to win her back. He begged her endlessly to come home from California." On the day of Kubrick's funeral, Christiane said Vivian arrived with a Scientologist handler, who stayed by her side. Vivian has since disconnected from her family. "It's her new religion," her mother told
The Guardian.
"It had absolutely nothing to do with Tom Cruise, by the way. Absolutely not." Jon Ranson, "After Stanley Kubrick,"
The Guardian,
August 18, 2010.

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members had completed 11,603:
Kristi Wachter, "Source Magazine Statistics—Analysis Summary," The Truth About Scientology, last modified February 17, 2005,
www.truthaboutscientology.com/stats/source/analysissummary.html
.
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the "largest and most comprehensive":
Thomas Tobin, "Scientology Launches Massive PR Campaign,"
St. Petersburg Times,
August 10, 1997.

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it was a point of doctrine:
Hubbard,
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,
p. 86.

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"improper or discreditable":
Janelle Brown, "A Web of Their Own," Salon.com
,
July 15, 1998,
www.salon.com/21st/feature/1998/07/15 feature2.html
.

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Cruise, according to a report:
Lloyd Grove, "The Reliable Source,"
Washington Post,
June 15, 2003.
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"functional illiterate":
Tom Cruise and Jess Cagle, "Tom Cruise: My Struggle to Read,"
People,
July 21, 2003.
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"Doctors do not know how":
Tom Cruise, interview by Larry King,
Larry King Live,
November 28, 2003.

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"Some people, well, if":
Neil Strauss, "The Passion of the Cruise,"
Rolling Stone,
September 2, 2004.

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"secret weapons":
Joe Neumaier, "Cruising to Stardom,"
Daily News,
January 29, 2004.
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"grew up in and around":
Neil Dunphy, "A Sort of Homecoming,"
Sunday Tribune,
June 12, 2005.
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"strengthen[ed]" his outlook:
Stephen Dalton, "Beck Is Back,"
Sunday Age,
March 27, 2005.
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"In Scientology, we have":
Interview, Tom Cruise and Stephen Spielberg,
Der Spiegel,
April 27, 2005.
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"You have no idea":
Ibid.
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Cruise spent so much time:
Rachel Abramowitz and Chris Lee, "Control Switch: On,"
Los Angeles Times,
June 6, 2005.
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The next step was a new wife:
According to numerous sources, Miscavige played an integral role in helping Cruise find a new mate after the actor's prior two girlfriends, Penelope Cruz and Sofía Vergara, both Catholics, rejected Scientology. Miscavige then reportedly ordered his deputies to find an appropriate mate for the newly single Cruise. The ever-faithful Greg Wilhere, Cruise's original handler, worked with Cruise's new handler, Tommy Davis, the son of the actress Anne Archer, to comb through a list of aspiring actresses already in the church. At one point, Marc Headley recalled, Wilhere's son, Darius, was charged with reviewing tapes of more than one hundred young women, all Scientologists, who'd been interviewed about their feelings toward Tom Cruise and their place on the Bridge. No one fit the bill, however. The duo then turned their attention to actresses Cruise might find more immediately appealing, among them Jessica Alba, Kate Bosworth, and Scarlett Johansson. As the story has been told, these three actresses, all starlets who, like Cruise, were promoting big summer movies, were among a number of women phoned by Cruise's office and asked to meet with the star about a possible role in
Mission Impossible III.
According to some accounts, Johansson's audition went so well that she met with Cruise at the Celebrity Centre but quickly left, sensing the ulterior motive.

Katie Holmes, who'd once confessed in a magazine interview that she'd fantasized as a girl about marrying Tom Cruise, was one of the actresses "auditioned," and according to the couple, when they finally met their mutual attraction was instant.

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"Do you know what Adderall?":
Interview with Tom Cruise, by Matt Lauer,
Today,
June 24, 2005.

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In February 2007, Travolta:
Jeannette Walls, "Travolta: Scientology Could Have Saved Smith," MSNBC.com, March 1, 2007,
today.msnbc.msn.com/id/17031909
.
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"Google Narconon for a minute":
Tucker Carlson and Willie Geist,
Tucker 1800,
March 1, 2007.

15. The Bubble

The experience of children in Scientology is unlike that of their parents, and to understand this, I spent several years interviewing second- and third-generation Scientologists. Though my main sources for this chapter were Natalie Walet, Kendra Wiseman, and Claire and Marc Headley, I benefited tremendously from the insight of numerous others, including Astra Woodcraft, Jenna Miscavige Hill, Jeffrey and Anthony Aylor, and a young man who appeared in my
Rolling Stone
story under the pseudonym "Paul James."

The website Ex-Scientology Kids proved a tremendous resource and go-to guide for information on Scientology schools. Additionally, my own trip to Delphi Academy in Los Angeles, and also to the Delphi Academy of Florida, located in Clearwater, shaped my ultimate impressions of this form of education. For information pertaining specifically to study technology and Applied Scholastics, Dr. David Touretsky of Carnegie Mellon University has provided a valuable resource in his website, Scientology v. Education (
studytech.org/home.php
).

For insight into how Scientology TRs are used as indoctrination for children, I talked extensively with Sandra Mercer and Stephen Kent, as well as with a number of Scientology kids, notably Kendra's friend "Erin," whose name was changed to protect her family.

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"By educating a child":
Impact,
issue 7, 1986, p. 49.

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Some twelve thousand Scientologists:
Robert Farley, "Scientology Expands Tampa Presence,"
St. Petersburg Times,
March 28, 2003.
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except Los Angeles:
Jesse Katz and Steve Oney, "The List: The Power Issue 2006,"
Los Angeles Magazine,
December 1, 2006. In 2006, the author stated, Scientology had "470,000 members in Los Angeles and owns 60 buildings here, making the city the church's Rome."
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the
St. Petersburg Times
had dubbed:
Robert Farley, "Scientology's Town," St. Petersburg Times, July 18, 2004.

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as "opinion leaders":
Hubbard, "Celebrities," HCO Policy Letter, May 23, 1976.

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what Hubbard called the "labyrinth":
Hubbard, "Keeping Scientology Working Series 4: Safeguarding Technology," HCO Policy Letter, February 14, 1965.

16. Int

The main sources for this chapter were Marc and Claire Headley, Tanja and Stefan Castle, Jeff Hawkins, Tom De Vocht, Steve Hall, Dan Koon, Amy Scobee, Jason Knapmeyer, Maureen Bolstad, Marty Rathbun, Chuck Beatty, and numerous other former Scientologists whom I interviewed personally, with the exception of Rathbun. Because of the contentiousness of many claims contained in this chapter, all of these sources were interviewed separately, in some cases numerous times, and their allegations were triple-checked against one another. Joe Childs and Thomas Tobin of the
St. Petersburg Times
further confirmed stories I'd long heard through their in-depth reporting on Scientology and the abuses within the upper echelon of the Sea Organization. Of specific note are "Ecclesiastical Justice" (
St. Petersburg Times,
June 23, 2009), "Chased by Their Church" (
St. Petersburg Times,
November 1, 2009), and "No Kids Allowed" (
St. Petersburg Times,
June 13, 2010).

Physical descriptions of the Int Base come from my own observations while touring the property in February 2006 and from accounts from others. Jeff Hawkins and Marc Headley supplied details about the appearance of the base during the 1990s and 2000s.

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they decided to get married:
Teen marriages were, for many years, widespread in the Sea Org, as were quickie divorces. Virtually all of the second-generation Sea Org members I interviewed told me they'd been married in their teens, if only so they could have sex. One of these former staffers, Jeffrey Aylor, who began work on the PAC Base when he was fourteen and left the Sea Org five years later, reported knowing at least a hundred people who married in their teens, half of whom were divorced and remarried by the age of twenty. Like the Headleys, many of these kids were married in Las Vegas. "It's common knowledge in the Sea Org," said Aylor, "that the fastest place to get married is Vegas and the quickest place to get divorced is Mexico."

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Electric fences ringed:
According to Marty Rathbun, from the mid-1990s forward, "The entire organization of RTC had taken on the first and foremost job of protecting and forwarding the image and power of David Miscavige." A top priority for the RTC was making sure there were no staff departures from the base, he said in a sworn statement in July 2010. Those who did succeed in "blowing" were to be immediately returned, by force if necessary. This policy was to be strictly enforced, Rathbun said, with regard to anyone who worked closely with Miscavige. "The Miscaviges made it very clear that if anyone posed a heightened security threat to Miscavige personally, by virtue of having close working contact with him over time, such persons were to be returned to the Int Base by any means necessary."

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"a distinctive SO attribute":
Hubbard, "Toughness," Flag Order 2802, April 9, 1971.

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On its website, the church:
"What Is the Rehabilitation Project Force?" The Church of Scientology International,
faq.scientology.org/rpf.htm
.

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Rinder began to berate her:
Since leaving Scientology, Tanja has reflected on what happened between her and Mike Rinder, and in 2009, agreed to speak with him on the phone. Rinder, having left Scientology by that time, apologized for his behavior and, according to Tanja, asked her forgiveness.

17. Exodus

Marc Headley first described the musical chairs game to me during several in-depth interviews I conducted with him and his wife in 2007; Amy Scobee also provided an account. Headley later sent me a written version, which he ultimately published in his memoir,
Blown for Good
. Tom De Vocht confirmed Headley's account in an interview with me, and Marty Rathbun further confirmed the events during his interview with Thomas Tobin and Joe Childs of the
St. Petersburg Times
in June 2009.

As with the prior chapter, the bulk of this chapter is based on interviews with key sources, notably the Headleys, the Castles, Jeff Hawkins, Tom De Vocht, Steve Hall, Dan Koon, Mike and Donna Henderson, and numerous others. Stefan Castle provided me with the text of his letter to Tanja, correspondence between himself and his lawyer, Ford Greene, and a copy of the missing person report he filed with the Hemet Police Department.

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"How many people are in the org?":
Jefferson Hawkins, "Statistics," Leaving Scientology, accessed September 13, 2010,
leavingscientology.wordpress.com/doubt-formulas/statistics
.

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"vulture culture":
Mike Rinder, "Survey: What Impinges—Results," Moving On Up a Little Higher, August 24, 2010,
markrathbun.word press.com/2010/08/24/survey-what-impinges-results
.

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the actress Nancy Cartwright:
David K. Lin, "The Church of $impsontology,"
New York Post,
January 31, 2008. According to Scientology's
Impact
magazine, Cartwright was awarded the status of IAS Patron Laureate for her donation. Kirstie Alley, who reportedly donated $5 million in 2007, was awarded a Diamond Meritorious medal.

Epilogue: What Is True for You

For the opening of the Scientology Ideal Org in Los Angeles, I relied upon the Church of Scientology's own report of the event, plus video footage provided on the church website; similarly, all information about past and future Ideal Orgs is from the Church of Scientology's own publicity materials. Mat Pesch, Tom De Vocht, and several former Scientologist finance and legal officers (who wished to remain anonymous) provided critical analysis of the Ideal Org program.

Though I had been aware of Scientology's interest in appealing to African Americans, Marty Rathbun was the first to draw my attention to Scientology's current friendship with the Nation of Islam, and Rathbun also provided the text and a PDF file of the Clear African Americans conference schedule on his blog.

Kendra Wiseman has been a source since the earliest days of this project, and the remainder of her story told in this chapter is derived from perhaps two dozen or so lengthy telephone calls and e-mail exchanges over the past five years. Similarly, Natalie Walet, the very first Scientologist I met, has been a constant source, and the quotes that end this chapter come from several long telephone interviews conducted in 2009 and 2010.

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"Today marks a milestone step":
"Los Angeles Cuts the Ribbon on a New Ideal Church of Scientology," Church of Scientology International, September 13, 2010,
www.scientology.org/david-miscavige/churchopenings/church-of-scientology-los-angeles.html
.