How Scientology ensnares celebrities

[David McCarthy]

Thank you Joe Sz

From: "Info-Secte" <infosecte@qc.aibn.com
To: <infosecte@qc.aibn.com
Subject: How Scientology ensnares celebrities
Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 09:34:30 -0500

WEDNESDAY, FEB 6, 2013
How Scientology ensnares celebrities
In an exclusive from her new book, the niece of the church's leader explains
the secrets of the Celebrity Centre
Salon
BY JENNA MISCAVIGE HILL

In comparison to other Scientology churches, things for all the celebrities
at the Los Angeles Celebrity Centre were over-the-top in terms of elegance
and privacy, starting with their own separate double-gated entrance on the
corner of Franklin and Bronson Avenues, and a special area in the
underground parking garage that was monitored by security. Celebrities
entered through the President's Office, which had its own lobby, Purif
delivery area, and private office space. Upstairs were two auditing rooms
and a private course room to be used solely by celebrities and other people
of importance, such as big donors to the Church.

Scientology defined celebrities as anyone influential, so it could be
well-recognized names like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, but it could also
be someone like Craig Jensen, CEO of Condusiv Technologies, and
Scientology's biggest donor, or Izzy Chait, a prominent Beverly Hills art
dealer. The security for the celebrities was very tight but deliberately
inconspicuous, so that a big celebrity could literally be on services and
most people at the Centre would never know he was there.

The Celebrity Centre also had guest rooms. They weren't special rooms
designed just for celebrities. Any of the paying public could reserve any
room as long as they were able to afford it; some rooms commanded a hefty
overnight rate. It all depended on the size and level of elegance of the
room, but the prices were in line with upscale hotels in the city. Back when
my mom had been working on the renovations of the Celebrity Centre, I'd even
stayed at the hotel a couple of times. The room we stayed in was a duplex,
and was super nice. I was told that Kirstie Alley had actually stayed in
that particular room. When my boyfriend Dallas was working there, Kirstie
was the only celebrity he knew who would stay overnight. The others would
just come for the day for their services, then go home.

As Dallas explained, the celebrities who would come to the center were very
human there. Some were quite nice and social; others were more reserved and
didn't want to be bothered. And, of course, some sucked up to other
celebrities and were rude to the staff who worked there. All in all, it was
a mixed bag of attitudes - as varied as the celebrities who frequented it.
According to Dallas, John Travolta, at least, was very appreciative of Sea
Org - the inner core and devoted order of the Scientology parish - staff
members at the center and their hard work. On one occasion, he met Travolta,
who praised him for his service.

Hearing all this, it was hard not to be curious about the most famous
celebrity Scientologist of them all, Tom Cruise. Dallas told me how, during
the time he worked at the Celebrity Centre, Tom was not coming there. Tom
was still a Scientologist; he just wasn't actively involved at that time.
Dallas was told by members of the CC staff that because of Tom's marriage to
Nicole Kidman, who was not as committed to the Church, Tom had been labeled
a "Potential Trouble Source," which had interfered with his progress in
Scientology.

Because Nicole's father was in the psychology field, this made perfect
sense. We were taught that those in the mental health field were bad and
evil. We believed what L. Ron Hubbard had written about them was true, that
they were the reason behind people like Adolf Hitler and everything else bad
that had ever happened on the "whole track," the whole record in our minds
of things that had happened to us over trillions of years.

When Dallas told me all this, it reminded me of something Aunt Shelly had
once said when I was at Flag. At the time, Tom Cruise had just been getting
back into the Church, and it was being mentioned in magazines. I said
something to Aunt Shelly about it, and she proceeded to go on about how
similar Tom Cruise and Uncle Dave - that is, Church of Scientology leader
David Miscavige - were, in that they were both very intense. Apparently,
people called them by the same nickname, which had something to do with the
word "laser." I told Aunt Shelly how it seemed to me that Nicole wasn't
really into Scientology, and she seemed surprised that I had figured that
out, saying I was exactly right and it was a problem they were trying to
solve.

No matter what level of star they were, one of the big draws for the
celebrities was the Communication Course offered at the center, which
claimed to get people comfortable for auditions and helped them to network
effectively. Another attraction was the fact that the auditing sessions had
a priest-penitent privilege stamp of secrecy, meaning that the contents of
each session were guarded, similar to the way that a priest would guard
secrets heard during confession. This level of security made celebrities
comfortable with relating their problems and the oddities that they wanted
fixed.

While the facilities and the hospitality that celebrities received at the
Celebrity Centre went far beyond that which regular public Scientologists
encountered, the differences weren't just superficial. There were also
numerous financial and course-related benefits that celebrities received.
Money and the art of selling Scientology were crucial differences that the
ordinary public Scientologist experienced compared to celebrities. For one
thing, celebrities didn't have to endure the constant "regging," the
harassment from the Church to give money for projects or further services.
They were still asked to give donations and pay for next services, but they
dealt with one designated person, instead of being solicited by various
staff members, like the normal public Scientologists were. In addition,
celebrities were allowed to do Scientology at their own pace, whereas
everyone else would begin that way but soon get pressured and pushed
constantly for the next level, which meant they'd also have to pay more
money.

For other Scientologists, these requests for money weren't limited to course
work. Dallas's parents, for example, were always pressured to give money and
sign up for more courses, even if they'd already paid for their next three
courses. This sort of thing was never allowed with celebrities. Similarly,
when Scientologists would travel to San Diego to fund-raise for the church
projects, they would often go to Dallas's parents' house late at night to
try to get his parents to donate. Not surprisingly, that kind of house call
would never happen to a celebrity.

The end result of all this was that the celebrity experience of Scientology
was vastly different from what most Scientologists experienced. It was never
entirely clear whether the celebrities knew the full extent of their special
treatment, or if they had any idea what life was actually like for the Sea
Org members who waited on them hand and foot.

In many ways, the Celebrity Centre was the perfect stage for the act that
Scientology put on for the celebrities. The accommodations were gorgeous,
and the beautiful grounds made the experience enjoyable. Everything was
tightly controlled and orchestrated, and if the celebrities themselves took
things at face value, they'd simply see the act and never witness what went
on behind the curtain. There was never a risk that they would get exposed to
child labor or something similar that the Church didn't want them to see.
Sea Org members at the Celebrity Centre appeared happy because it was their
job to do that, so celebrities wouldn't know from talking to them or
watching them whether they'd been paid their forty-five dollars that week,
or if they missed their families.

This act of the Celebrity Centre was crucial to how the Church reached out
to celebrities and encouraged them to join. Simply put, it operated almost
identically to any other Church where people take courses and get auditing,
but it focused on the famous. You didn't have to be famous to go there, but
they targeted up-and-coming artists or forgotten artists trying to rebuild
their careers. There were numerous policies about celebrities that explained
how celebrities are good PR for the Church since their wins will be in the
public eye.

In the end, all this amounts to one of the most powerful recruiting tools
that the Church has, offering celebrities a chance to mingle with other
like-minded Scientologists and enjoy their time in Scientology outside
public scrutiny. In that way, it plays to many celebrities' sense of
entitlement and selectivity. To that end, even non-Scientologists find
themselves there on occasion. When my mom was originally working on the
Celebrity Centre, she saw Brad Pitt there because he was dating Juliette
Lewis. On other occasions, I heard stories of people like Bono and Colin
Farrell attending galas there despite not being Scientologists themselves.

Excerpted from "Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My
Harrowing Escape" by Jenna Miscavige Hill with Lisa Pulitzer, published by
William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins. Copyright 2013. Reprinted with
permission of the publisher.



http://www.salon.com/2013/02/07/how_sci ... lebrities/