Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (2015) - full transcript

A devastating two hour documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book of the same name. Scientology is laid bare by a film that skilfully knits together archive footage, testimonials from former high ranking officials and public, and dramatic reconstructions.

We will begin the session now.

You will remain aware

of everything that goes on.

Okay.

We're going to find

an incident in your life

you have an exact record of.

Then by sending you through it

at the time it happened,

we're going to reduce it.

We will reduce the pain.

Go to the beginning

of that incident.

Tell me what's happening.

Well, these things get all so...

I joined in 198...

It was a bunch of young kids,

like I was young...

We were all very heated,

very excited about this.

Can you recall a time

when you were happy?

- I think the first time I saw

- Hubbard, and I was in awe...

We did, because you thought

we were doing good.

I mean, so you had

some gratification.

I felt a tremendous amount

of relief.

I got the answers for everything

within the religion.

What are you most afraid of?

- It was dark.

- 3:00 in the morning,

there's a knock

on the hotel-room door.

Stop! I'll say whatever

you want,

I'll write up anything

that you want.

I flipped out. I started

punching holes in the walls.

Things didn't seem quite right.

And you just feel

so foolish at that point.

Do you have a secret

you're afraid I'll find out?

Yes. Yes.

Go to the beginning

of that incident.

Okay, all right.

Tell me about it.

I was 21 years old,

living in London,

Ontario, Canada.

I wanted to be

a documentary filmmaker.

And someone had told me

about what they called...

They said, "There's this cult"

"in New York

called Scientology,"

which I'd never heard of.

"And if you give them

all your money,"

"they'll make anything

possible in your life."

And about six months later,

I was walking down the street.

This guy was there

selling books.

And I realized

they were all the same book...

"Dianetics,"

which again,

I had never heard of.

He handed me one

and asked me to look at it.

He was talking. I wasn't

really listening to him.

I opened the cover

and it said...

Stamped on the inside page,

it said "Church of Scientology."

And I said,

"Take me there."

- All right.

- All right, here we go.

I'm not a great multitasker.

You know, and if I feel like doing

something, that's what I do.

And, uh, I was into this shit,

and I was becoming an auditor.

Like, I was in Scientology

probably four months,

and I had done more

than John Travolta had done,

and he'd been there

for 85 years or some shit.

My agents called, you know,

"You got an audition."

"Eh, fuck it, I don't really..."

You know what I mean?

I was on...

I'm on a spiritual adventure,

and this was like, "Whoa,

this is an interesting road."

You know?

So, uh, what was the question?

So tell me, how was it you first

got involved in Scientology?

Well, I was introduced to it

by some friends.

I don't know if they said it

or if it was just talked about

by others that

they had super powers.

And I... I was, like,

really young,

but I thought, "I'd like

to have super powers!"

But also I had done so much...

political-social work.

So this really looked like...

That it was a solution

to handling a lot

of the world's problems.

Instead of trying

to handle things en masse,

you could deal with it

person by person,

make each person better, and thus the

world would get better and surer.

Well, thank you very much,

and welcome

to our Whole New World.

It's a world where

the operative phrase reads...

"Exceeding all expectations,"

"transcending all parameters,"

"extending the boundaries

beyond any boundary,"

"not to mention

Godspeed, lightning speed,"

"and a quantum leap in sheer

rapidity of progress up the Bridge."

We're out to make every life

extraordinary.

And if by chance it ever seems

laborious or a sacrifice,

then you are looking at the

offramps instead of the highway.

You are missing

the signpost up ahead,

the one that reads,

"Next stop, infinity."

Probably my favorite concept

of Scientology

is a world without criminality,

a world without war,

and a world without insanity.

And I know of no other group

that their goals are that clear.

Look, I don't...

You name me another philosophy,

religion, or technology

that one of its main goals... besides

the three I mentioned earlier...

Where joy

is the operative concept.

These are the times now, people.

Okay? These are the times

we will all remember.

Were you there?

What did you do?

So what do you say?

Can we clean this place up?

Yeah!

Okay.

Because we're counting on you.

Okay?

All right?

To LRH!

Hip-hip...

All: Hooray!

Hip-hip...

All: Hooray!

Hip-hip...

All: Hooray!

Scientology is such a subject

of fascination for people.

How did you get engaged

in the story?

Well, I've always

been interested in religions

and why people believe

one idea rather than another.

I've studied Jonestown,

radical Islam.

They're oftentimes

good-hearted people...

Idealistic, but full of

a kind of crushing certainty

that eliminates doubt.

You know, my goal

wasn't to write an exposé.

It was simply

to understand Scientology,

trying to understand

what people get out of it.

You know, why do they

go into it in the first place?

I was interested in intelligent

and skeptical people

who are drawn

into a belief system

and wind up acting

on those beliefs

in ways they never

thought they would.

The Church of Scientology

turned out to be

two offices

above a Woolworth's store.

He asked me,

"What's ruining your life?"

I said, "Oh, I'm in love."

"I'm in love with this woman.

It's impossible."

"I don't know what to do.

I need some help."

And he said,

"We can help you with that."

I said, "Really?"

"Yes."

And I ran home and got her, and I

said, "We have to sign up for this."

"It sounds really good. It

could save our relationship."

So we both signed up

the next day to do a course,

which I think cost $50.

The thing that absolutely got me

and stayed with me forever

was the very first thing I read

when you open the course pack,

and it said...

I'm paraphrasing...

"Don't believe any of this.

If it works for you, great."

"If it doesn't, discard it."

I was troubled by the fact

that they called it a religion,

but I figured, "Oh, it's some tax scam.

It's fine with me."

"I don't really care about that

as long as it works."

The first exercise, after you do all

this reading and stuff like that,

is this thing called

which is basically,

you stand... you sit

just like this, eyes closed,

three feet away from somebody

who's doing the same thing,

and you basically confront them.

You know?

And in Scientology lingo,

I went exterior.

Exteriorizing

is what they call it.

You know, you leave your body.

So it was a... transcendent

experience for me.,

and that made me go,

"Holy fucking shit,"

"this is... wow."

I was reading books, going to

lectures, and going to things...

Different events at the mission...

at the local Santa Clara Mission.

And then I knew

I wanted to join the Sea Org

and get really involved

as soon as I could,

which would

be right out of high school.

Sea Org is the most fraternal

order of the organization.

It's people who really,

really believe in the cause

and sign

a billion-year contract,

which I did when I was...

You know, as soon as I could.

I left skid marks getting

to that billion-year contract.

You thought

you were doing something good,

to have a positive effect

on all of mankind.

That's what Howard says.

Everything you do for endless

trillions of years

depends on what you do here

and now within Scientology.

I began to ask this question,

"What is man?"

And I found, oddly enough,

that nobody could tell me

what man was.

What did he consist of?

Where was he going?

What was he doing?

To really know life,

you've got to be part of life.

You must get down and look.

You must get into the nooks

and crannies of existence,

the... you have to rub elbows

with all kinds and types of men

before you can finally

establish what he is.

And you in fact did this?

Yes, I've slept

with bandits in Mongolia,

and I've hunted with, uh,

pygmies in the Philippines.

Matter of fact, I've studied

21 different primitive races,

including the white race.

And my conclusions were

that man is a spiritual being

that was pulled down

to the material,

the fleshly interests,

to an interplay in life

that was, in fact,

too great for him to confront.

And I concluded, finally,

that he needed a hand.

To understand Scientology,

you have to understand the

life and mind of its inventor,

L. Ron Hubbard.

Hubbard was a prolific writer.

He actually holds the "Guinness

Book of World Records"

for the number of books

published...

More than 1,000.

Hubbard got his start in the

Depression writing pulp fiction,

named for the cheap paper used.

Writers were paid

a penny a word,

so hey had to write a lot

to make money.

Hubbard hammered away so fast

on long rolls of butcher paper

that he used to drop sweat

on his typewriter.

Hubbard's career took off when

he began to write for a magazine

called "Astounding

Science Fiction."

Along with authors like Isaac

Asimov and Robert Heinlein,

Hubbard wrote stories

with a sense of mission...

To get man to the stars.

He found his true métier

in science fiction.

And a lot of what Scientology is

he had previously written about

in the form

of his science fiction.

He had the ability to fabricate

these amazing tales,

and he transported

those imaginary stories

into his theology.

After Pearl Harbor, Hubbard

took command of a sub chaser,

but he was still a man

prone to invention.

He would write that he sunk

two Japanese subs,

but, in fact,

just off the coast of Oregon,

he opened fire on what

turned out to be a log

and dropped most of

his depth chargers

on underwater magnetic rocks.

When he accidentally shelled

a Mexican island,

he was relieved of his command.

After the war,

Hubbard ended up in Los Angeles

where he settled in with a small

group of seekers and visionaries.

A guy named Jack Parsons,

a fascinating man,

was one of the founders of the

jet-propulsion laboratory.

And there's actually a crater

on the moon named after Jack.

He was a significant

scientific figure,

but he was also the head honcho

in this black magic cult.

It was called the O.T.O.,

or the Ordo Templi Orientis.

They followed the teachings

of Aleister Crowley,

a famous sexual magic figure

in England.

Parsons had a mansion

in Pasadena.

They would have ceremonies,

and they were seeking

some sort of goddess figure

that he could impregnate

in order to create

the Antichrist.

Hubbard moved in

and became Parsons' assistant.

One night,

this beautiful redhead

named Marjorie Cameron

showed up at the door.

She was perfectly willing to

engage in this sexual ritual

in order, supposedly,

to produce the Antichrist.

She and Jack

eventually got married.

That happened after Hubbard

ran off with Jack's girlfriend,

Sara Northrup.

Scientology and Hubbard

would later refuse

to acknowledge

his relationship with Sara.

But we uncovered

Sara's own recollections

of her time with Hubbard.

He was 13 years older

than I was.

I thought

he was a great war hero,

a captain of a ship that had

been downed in the Pacific.

And he was weeks on a raft,

and he'd been blinded

by the sun,

and his back had been broken.

All these things

were complete lies,

but I didn't know it

at the time.

I believed every word of it.

- If only Sara had seen

- Hubbard's military records.

In a 900-page file,

Hubbard's activities are laid

out in extraordinary detail.

Hubbard told people that he

had been blinded and crippled

during the war, and the

practices that would form

the basis of Scientology

had cured him.

But his records show

that his only wounds

were mild arthritis

and conjunctivitis.

We had this terrible fight,

and he told me he was going

to commit suicide

if I didn't marry him.

I really believed him,

so we got married.

We spent the winter in that lighthouse

on the lake in the Poconos.

I remember one awful night,

when I was asleep

and he was out typing...

and he hit me

across the side of the head

with a .45...

because I was smiling

in my sleep,

and he said I was thinking

about somebody else.

I got up, left the house,

and walked

on the ice of the lake.

I was terrified.

He always said

that he would kill me

rather than let me leave him.

The only good thing

I got from Ron

was my baby.

We moved

to Elizabeth, New Jersey,

and he started

writing "Dianetics."

The book was conceived

and he started

working on it in 1950.

He said many times that the

only way to make any real money

was to have a religion.

That's essentially what he was

trying to do with "Dianetics"...

Get a religion where

he could have an income

and the government wouldn't

take it away from him

in the form of taxes.

"Dianetics" was

an immense success.

From the moment

it was published in 1950,

it swept through America and other

countries around the world.

This book... that's the

background of all of this.

That's what started

all the trouble.

We expected this to sell

about 6,000 copies,

and it hit the top of the bestseller

list of "The New York Times"

and just stayed there,

month in, month out.

It was like

I started an avalanche.

"The Modern Science

of Mental Health"

is considered to be

the fundamental text,

which is the foundation

upon which all else is built.

One of the theories

of "Dianetics"

is to discover these things

that are very traumatic

or have been very upsetting

to you,

and if you can observe

exactly what happened,

the power of that incident

to influence you today

is removed.

The concept of "Dianetics"

is that you have

two sides of your mind.

There is the analytical side,

which is a perfect computer.

It remembers everything.

It's flawless.

It never makes a mistake.

And then there's

a reactive side.

And this is where

all your neuroses, anxieties,

and fears are stored.

And where do they come from?

They come from engrams.

An engram is like a memory.

A man has

an automobile accident.

He has a picture

of an automobile accident.

He has all the sensations

of having been hurt

in the automobile accident. It

takes him a long time to recover,

because he's still wearing

the automobile accident.

If you said,

"Hey, why don't you take"

"this automobile accident

and throw it away?"

Well, all of a sudden,

he recovers

from the automobile accident,

naturally,

because the thing that's

keeping it impressed upon him

and his body is his mind.

An auditor is a practitioner

in Scientology.

He listens and he computes.

We have a meter.

A meter simply shows

where an individual

is aberrated.

The E-meter is

a very powerful instrument.

It's one-third

of a lie detector.

A lie detector would also measure

your respiration and pulse.

There's two cans

and there's electrical wires

carrying an undetectable

amount of current

into a meter

with a needle on it.

According to the Church

of Scientology,

it actually detects

the mass of your thoughts,

although there's no evidence

that thoughts have mass.

The current

passes through your body,

and as your mental mass

increases,

so does the resistance

to the circuit.

So the auditor will

ask you a question,

"Tell me about

an upset with your mother."

"What's truly bothering you

about being with, you know,"

"with your wife's behavior?

What is it?"

"Why are you upset today?"

"Well, I had a fight

with my wife."

"Well, I can see."

"That there...

Was that the same thought?"

"Say that again."

And gradually, the needle

will have less response.

And in that manner,

you discharge the emotion.

Then you're asked to go back

to earlier incidents

that were like that.

And you might say,

"Well, my mother spoke to me"

"in the same

scolding tone of voice."

And you recount that story,

and eventually,

you discharge the emotion.

And that's very much

like Freudian therapy.

But with Scientology,

then they'll ask further.

"Well, that's as far back

as I go."

Well, maybe not.

"The auditor might say," Something

just registered on the meter.

"What was that?"

"I had an image

in my mind."

"Well, what was the image?"

"It was a barn."

"Are you inside the barn?

Go back to that image."

"Okay, open the door.

What do you see?"

"Well, it looks like

19th Century France."

You walk outside and you see

the people dressed

in their costumes,

and the E-meter is

saying this is real.

This is a real memory.

It's just as real as those

other memories that you had.

Beautiful little soft needle,

and everything's good.

Needle's rising, which means

he's getting, you know,

thinking a lot. The needle

just, like, goes "pfft,"

like a lot of shit blows away.

The theta bop, which is a very quick

little thing like, "doo doo doo,"

which means exteriorization.

When you come out

of an auditing session,

you feel euphoric.

That confessional nature

makes you feel better.

Somebody would say, "Oh, you're

going to have a session."

I would feel better

just hearing that.

Man is asleep.

He is hypnotized.

Now in Scientology,

reverse the process,

and you'll make him wake up.

Such a man becomes

un-brainwashed, you might say.

He becomes unhypnotized.

This sounds, Mr. Hubbard,

in a sense,

like an extension of

psychology or psychiatry.

Oh, no, psychiatry

has to do with the insane,

and we have nothing to do

with the insane whatsoever.

Is this is a form

of psychoanalysis?

No, psychoanalysis,

they lay back and...

Don't associate Scientology

with such people.

That's terrible.

That's bad manners, you know?

When L. Ron Hubbard

first wrote "Dianetics,"

he thought it was a tremendous

psychological breakthrough,

so much so

that he would be recognized.

He wrote letters to the American

Psychological Association.

They couldn't make heads

or tail of his ideas.

To them, it was like

psychological folk art.

For instance,

he would talk about "clear."

That means that the individual

has erased his reactive mind...

His unconscious mind is gone...

And he is totally alert

and totally capable.

Once you've taken away

all these traumatic memories,

from this life

and previous ones,

then you are clear.

Someone who had

a perfect memory,

who was never ill.

Your eyesight would be better.

We tested people

before Scientology processing

and after

Scientology processing,

and uniformly found

that their IQ had raised.

We are making such individuals,

we're making them regularly, and

we're making them routinely.

An overt act

is an effort to individuate.

It is a withhold of oneself...

Ron gave lectures everywhere

for large amounts of money, and

money just started pouring in.

I mean, these people were paying

$500 apiece in the 1950s

for training

in "Dianetics."

I felt that he was stealing

from people

and that he was

hoodwinking them.

All the business of sitting,

holding hands,

and putting all these false

memories into people's minds...

then they would finally

come along and say,

"Oh, yes,

I can remember it all."

We were surrounded

by sycophants.

He began to believe

that he was a savior and hero,

that he really was

this God figure.

He was absolutely convinced

that he had the cure for the

psychological ills of mankind,

and that the only reason that it

wasn't being propagated far and wide

was that the medical profession

had a vested interest

in keeping people sick.

I think he was afraid

that some psychiatrists

would pop him

into an institution.

He degenerated into

a really paranoid,

terrifying person.

Sara threatened to leave Hubbard

unless he got psychiatric help.

He responded

by kidnapping their baby

and taking her to Cuba.

He was incapable

of taking care of her,

so he put her in the charge

of a mother and daughter

who were both mentally retarded.

And they apparently kept her

in some kind of cage.

He called me and told me

that he had killed her.

He said he had cut her

into little pieces

and dropped the pieces

in a river,

and it was my fault.

Then he'd call me back and say

that she was still alive.

And this went on and on and on.

When Hubbard came back

to the U.S.,

Sara persuaded him

to agree to a divorce

and give her custody

of their daughter.

When I left him, he cleaned out

all the joint bank accounts

so that I wouldn't

have any money.

Hubbard soon lost

all his money, too.

"Dianetics" proved to be a

passing fad, like the hula hoop.

But Hubbard still had

his imagination.

So he repackaged the ideas

of "Dianetics"

into a religion

called Scientology.

Hubbard added more science

and more structure.

Along with the E-meters

came a payment plan.

Every step to "clear"

had a price tag.

How would you describe

your business model?

Rapacious.

It's all about making money.

Hubbard, from the beginning,

knew that

people would pay for this

counseling at a pretty good clip,

and so he continued to come out

with more and more levels.

The real money was in paying for

these higher and higher courses.

They were getting

into thousands of dollars.

Those prices

kept going up and up.

That's really

where Scientology begins

to create this indoctrination,

is, "It's Hubbard

that came up with that",

"only Hubbard, and you have

to be a part of our group"

"to get that spiritual satisfaction

you were looking for."

The Hubbard College

of Scientology,

Qualifications Division, Department

of Certifications and Awards

does hereby certify

that Anthony A. Phillips

has obtained the state of clear.

As more members paid for Hubbard's

Bridge to total freedom,

the church's coffers swelled with

hundreds of millions of dollars.

From the beginning, Hubbard

tried to shelter that revenue

from any government taxes.

The founding Church

of Scientology

attempted in 1967 to get

a court determination

that it was exempt

from federal taxation

on the basis that it was a

nonprofit religious organization.

A federal court denied the

founding church tax exemption,

saying that some of the church's

earnings from 1955 to 1959

were used for the personal

benefit of private individuals...

L. Ron Hubbard

and family.

"ABC News" has repeatedly requested

interviews with Mr. Hubbard.

We have been told

that he is unavailable.

It was very exciting.

It was that heady mix

of emotion and belief,

and it's...

You get stuck to it.

It's so strong

that it sticks you like glue,

and there's no way

you can get away from it.

I was deeply convinced

that we were going

to save the world.

I considered myself

tremendously fortunate

to be in that position.

Out of the blue one day,

I received this envelope

with an invitation

to join the Sea Project.

It was completely confidential.

I wasn't to tell anyone

about it,

and I was so ecstatic.

Here was a chance

to work with Hubbard.

And I signed, "Yes!"

I was on my way to the

greatest adventure in my life.

We had an overnight flight to Las

Palmas in the Canary Islands,

where we found,

at about 6:00 in the morning,

we were taxied down to a dock.

We had to climb up

this rickety ladder,

all the way up to the ship,

and we couldn't believe

this was where we were going.

This ship was a rusty hulk.

I was given a dirty

old jumpsuit to get into,

missing one arm and the other

one was almost half torn off,

and put to work. We had to scrub

the ship and clean out the ship,

which was arduous,

strenuous work,

in the heat.

Hubbard came

to the ship every day,

smoking cigarettes

and surveying his kingdom.

After dinner,

he'd come and join us

on the well deck.

There he was, you know,

right amongst us,

talking to us.

He would be

his most magnificent self

at those times.

He'd lean back,

he'd look up at the cosmos,

and he'd point out galaxies

and constellations,

"and he'd say," The Fifth

Invaders are up there,

"and this is how they dressed

and this is how they talk."

"And see that blip

across the sky over there?"

He'd point it out, and we were

all, "Yes, we see it, we see it."

He'd say, "And that's one

of their space vessels..."

- And there was... the Fourth

- Invader force was here.

The Fifth Invader Force came in.

And the name of this solar

system is Space Station 33.

The Fourth Invader force

had been there

for God knows how many

skillion years,

had been sitting down...

and we'd sit there, spellbound.

You could hear a pin drop

on that ship.

He had us emotionally

captured and held

right there in the palm of

his hand where he wanted us.

He had us right there.

In the early '60s,

Hubbard was under investigation

in various countries.

His solution was to take

to the high seas.

He made himself commodore

of a fleet of three ships,

a Scientology navy.

To crew the vessels,

he created the Sea Organization.

The members of

this so-called Sea Org

would become

the church's clergy.

They began going

from port to port

in the Mediterranean,

show up for a few days,

and then go off... sail off

in some other direction.

And a very enterprising reporter

for Grenada Television

in Britain

tracked him down...

Slate one, take one.

That's one

of the very few instances

where Hubbard has actually

appeared on camera.

What are you actually doing

on this ship now?

I am studying

ancient civilizations,

trying to find

what happened to them,

finding out why they went...

into a decline, why they died.

Hubbard believed that

he had lived various lives

in the Mediterranean area

as a Venetian prince,

as an Italian prince.

As a matter of fact,

it's quite interesting

that exercises can be conducted,

which demonstrate conclusively

that there are memories

which exist prior to this life.

He had buried treasure

all around the coastline,

and he wanted to go find

all these caches of treasure.

We were all very heated,

very excited about this.

Whatever was his whim, we did.

We would have died

for the old man.

Don't you wake up sometimes

in the middle of the night

and think to yourself,

"Well, I've been on this ship

with a whole lot"

"of Scientologists

who believe I'm fantastic..."

They don't believe

I'm fantastic.

If you saw the number of times

they don't follow my orders...

LRH started to devise

a system of penalties

or punishments

or what he called ethics.

And one of the penalties

for the auditors

making mistakes

in their auditing sessions

was to be tossed overboard.

"You have done such and such

and such and such,"

"and we commit your errors

to the deep."

And then just pushed overboard.

30 feet, 35 feet,

Do you ever think that

you might be quite mad?

Oh, yes!

The one man in the world

who never believes he's mad

is the madman.

So we got married a year

and a half after we joined

and moved to California.

I wanted to be a writer,

and my wife...

She was studying Scientology.

We had a baby right away,

and the only people

we knew there

were Scientologists.

I was working as a furniture

mover during the day

and writing spec scripts

at night.

Then on the weekends, I'd be,

you know, doing some auditing.

Can you recall a time

when you were happy?

There was

a social aspect to it too.

You got to hang out with people.

And there were some interesting

people, nice people.

These are all people who are

looking to improve their life.

♪ I tripped on a cloud

and fell eight miles high ♪

♪ I tore my mind

on a jagged sky ♪

♪ I just dropped in ♪

♪ To see what condition

my condition was in ♪

♪ Yeah, yeah, oh yeah ♪

♪ What condition

my condition was in. ♪

While Hubbard was hiding

from public view,

he was very active in directing

the operations of the church,

particularly in Hollywood.

This was just after

the Haight-Ashbury era.

And what Scientology

was selling itself is,

"Get high

without drugs."

It was a place where people

went and explored ideas,

and you would often see

famous people...

Leonard Cohen,

members of the Grateful Dead,

Rock Hudson.

So they built

the Celebrity Centre.

The idea was to draw in

these famous entertainers

and use them as pitchmen

for the religion.

In an industry like Hollywood,

where stardom is such...

Such an illusive quality,

Scientology would offer a route to

maybe feel a little bit more secure.

And when you're trying to break

in, you're also dealing with

relentless rejection.

And something

that helps you stay focused

and feel that

you're improving yourself

and becoming more clear,

you can see the appeal of that.

The beliefs and practices that

I have studied in Scientology

have been invaluable to me.

Have you ever met Ron Hubbard?

I'd love to. I'd be honored,

because I think he's so brilliant.

So when I worked

at the Celebrity Centre,

I would just, you know,

recruit various people.

Like Priscilla Presley

and of course John Travolta.

Johnny... he came,

he started on course,

and he was so fun

and outrageous.

And he just made a party

wherever he was.

John Travolta was a young actor

in his very first movie.

He was a troubled young man,

and he was looking for help.

A fellow actor gave him a little

bit of Scientology counseling.

She gave him a copy

of "Dianetics,"

and he was transported by this.

He would go out

on his auditions,

and no matter

what he went out for,

he would get it.

♪ I am stuck on Band-Aids... ♪

A Band-Aid commercial,

right away he booked that.

Now the Army starts you...

He was booking everything,

and then he went up

for a series.

Of course, he books it.

And it's a big series...

"Welcome Back, Kotter."

Up your nose with a rubber hose!

♪ Welcome back...♪

In the late '70s and early '80s,

John Travolta was

Scientology's biggest star.

Spanky was assigned to be Travolta's

key contact with the church,

and she helped out with

producers, fans, and the press.

They became close,

and when Spanky got married,

Travolta was there.

When Johnny first

got into Scientology,

he didn't even believe in

himself that much.

But he got injected

with a lot of confidence,

and then you get

this phobia inducement

that "If I leave, it's all

going to go down the tubes."

When you're in the organization,

all the good that happens to you

is because of Scientology,

and everything that doesn't,

that isn't good, is your fault.

They sell it all in the beginning

as something quite logical.

Everything makes sense.

And you're going up

what they call the Bridge,

you're dong this auditing,

and this is good.

And the next one,

well, it's not quite as good.

It didn't quite make sense

to you, but...

you know, you've already paid for the

next one, so you'll do that one.

The Bridge...

It's a metaphor.

You start here

at the bottom of the Bridge

and then you go to the top,

so where it is...

It's an awareness scale.

You start down here and

you're not aware of anything,

then you go up here

and you're a lot more aware

of who you are,

your spirituality,

your relationship to others.

A person is supposed to

become more able

as they go up the Bridge.

And then there are

the OT levels...

Operating Thetan.

And a thetan

is a spiritual being.

That's the soul of the person.

And what level, over time,

did you achieve?

OT eight.

That's the highest there is.

You can't get any higher

than OT eight.

From the beginning,

you hear these stories

people tell of these abilities

they've been able to gain.

It was always talked about, the people

who were OT could read your mind,

and they could

move objects at will,

and they could... they were cause over

matter, energy, space, and time,

so it sounded damn good to me.

I mean, I thought,

"Wow, this is great."

I finally get to OT three,

and they give me

the secret materials,

which I've been hearing about

all this time.

They're handwritten by Hubbard.

You have to keep them

in a locked briefcase,

be very cautious,

because they always said,

"If this gets out,

it's dangerous to people."

"It could actually do them harm if

they are not adequately prepared."

And I read it.

And...

it doesn't make any sense.

This gobbled story

that didn't make sense.

I remember for one fleeting second

thinking, "Maybe it's an insanity test."

"Maybe if you believe this,

they kick you out.

"You know, maybe that's it." That,

of course, is not the case.

They talk about, you know, the

fact that the earth was created

in such-and-such trillions

of years ago,

and this guy...

Space Guy...

Galactic Overlord...

This was a prison planet,

and people being

caught, captured,

and being brought

to planet Earth...

And put them in volcanoes and

blowing them up with A-bombs.

Whoa!

I studied geography in school.

Those volcanoes didn't exist

75 million years ago.

And we have these lost souls

all over us

and we have to get rid

of them, and I'm going,

"What... the fuck

are you talking about?"

"I mean, I'm down

for the self-help stuff."

"I'm down for...

Okay, I can be clear."

"I can get rid of

the negative emotions."

"But what the fuck is this?"

When you get to the upper

levels of Scientology,

the creation myth

is explained to you.

The story is that

75 million years ago,

people lived in a world

very much like the world

of America in the 1950s.

People, at that particular

time and space,

were walking around

in clothes which looked

very remarkably like the clothes

they wear in this very minute.

And the cars they drove

looked exactly the same,

and they walked down streets

that looked like these streets.

It was a very similar world

and similar problems,

one of which was overpopulation.

They had elected a fellow

by the name of Xenu

to the supreme ruler.

There was a tyrannical overlord

of the galactic confederacy

named Xenu.

In order to resolve this

problem of overpopulation,

he called people in,

ostensibly for tax audits,

and had them frozen

with injections

of glycol to their heart.

Boxed them up in boxes,

threw 'em into space planes...

DC-8 airplane

is the exact copy

of the space plane of that day.

They were flown to

the prison planet, Teegeeack...

It's actually

the planet Earth...

And these frozen bodies were

then dropped into volcanoes.

And then they set off

hydrogen bombs

on the top of each volcano.

And their disembodied spirits...

These are called thetans...

Floated out,

and they were captured

and forced to sit

in front of movie screens.

With a 3D, super colossal,

motion picture.

They were shown images...

Implants,

as Hubbard would have it.

Every man is shown crucified,

so is the psychiatrist

shown crucified.

And that's how he gets away

with what he gets away with.

He electric-shocks people.

And when a child is born,

a thetan will leap inside

the child's body

at that very instant, and it

becomes like the child's soul.

More than one thetan

might crowd into the body...

Hundreds, or thousands, might.

They're the source

of all of our neurosis,

fears, and anxieties.

Then you are

on the E-meter,

by yourself, now.

You're soloing.

You're supposed

to scan, mentally,

from your top of your head

to your toes,

to see if you can locate

any alien beings.

And when you do,

you tell them to go away.

I kept on trying to audit.

I could not figure out

how I could have

all these spirits of dead

people attached to me,

inside me, on me.

I was clear.

For God's sake, I was clear.

People actually have breakdowns,

you know, nervous breakdowns,

because they spend

so much time thinking

about being infested

by these creatures.

If you're really believing

that, it can drive you crazy.

Those years of introspection

eventually led me

to sincerely considering

that I was so bad,

that I couldn't confront

how bad I was.

I didn't know it at the time,

but a depression set in

that was with me for years,

and the worst thing was

that LRH kept ordering me

to more auditing.

I had to find swords

that were stuck in me...

Hypothetical swords,

imaginary swords that

were causing all this pain.

This auditing went on and on.

It wasn't doing any good.

I should have been left alone.

But everything

that I took offense with,

I rationalized

almost immediately.

I had to.

I could not continue

in this game of Scientology

without explaining away

what he was doing.

It got to be a way of believing,

and every one of us

got into that.

It was part of the mind control.

It was part of

the cultic manipulation.

He was the master

who did it to us,

and we took it on and then

we did it to ourselves.

And I learned from it,

that I would never ever again,

you know, go...

Do the bidding of a tyrant.

Hubbard questioned

his own sanity

and actually wrote a letter

to the Veteran's Administration

asking for psychiatric help

that he seems

never to have been given.

I think that his whole

creation of Scientology

really was a form

of self-therapy.

If he were just a fraud,

then at some point,

he would have

taken the money and run,

but he never did that.

He spent much of his day

on the E-meter,

trying to understand

what was going on

inside his own mind.

Hubbard became

increasingly paranoid

that a powerful thetan

had infected his body

and that regular auditing

wasn't strong enough

to make it leave.

When Larry Wright

was researching his book,

he videotaped an interview

with a Scientologist

who was asked to help

Hubbard expel the thetan.

He was having, uh, problems

getting rid of a BT...

Body thetan...

So he wanted me

to build a machine,

and basically

blow the thetan away,

just get him out of there.

Blow him out.

And also kill the body.

Basically, yeah.

Yeah.

But I didn't want to kill him.

I just wanted to scare him.

So I had read some books

about Nikola Tesla and stuff,

and I figured maybe

buildin' a Tesla coil

would probably be

the best route to go.

I had little electrodes

that you hook it up

to the E-meter,

so when he's on the cans,

then, uh, he would

just flip the button,

and it would do its thing.

As far as I know.

He blew up my E-meter.

Burned it up.

Scientology really is a journey

into the mind

of L. Ron Hubbard.

And the further you get into it,

the more like L. Ron

Hubbard you become.

Thank you.

In 1980, LRH moved off the lines

so that he could

continue his writings

and researches

without any distractions.

He has now moved on

to his next OT...

Level of OT research.

This level is beyond anything

any one of us ever imagined.

This level is in fact done

in an exterior state,

meaning that it is done

completely exterior

from the body.

At this level of OT,

the body is nothing more

than an impediment

and encumbrance

to any further gain as an OT.

Thus...

thus, at 2000 hours,

Friday, the 24th of January,

L. Ron Hubbard

discarded the body

he had used in this lifetime

for 74 years,

10 months, and 11 days.

Although you may feel grief,

understand that he did not,

and does not now.

Hubbard died

of a stroke in 1986,

but he left no plan

for succession.

The ambitious David Miscavige

stepped forward,

and by bending arms

and making deals,

took control of the church

and installed a new

generation of lieutenants.

We want to make sure

that all of us end cycle

on this completely,

so we can get on with the job

that is ahead of us.

- The first time I met

- Miscavige was in '83.

He was a guy

running back and forth

between Hubbard and the

property in Hemet in a van...

Back and forth,

delivering messages.

Worked my way

through the organization.

Miscavige would

come down to Florida,

where I was running the place,

and we slowly

but surely became friends.

By 2001, I was working

directly for Miscavige.

We'd sit and drink

a bottle of Scotch,

and I'd hear everything he

had to say about the church,

and about the people involved,

from his perspective.

And honestly, it was... it was,

uh, horrifying. It was scary.

In Scientology,

there was a concept

that 98% of the people

are good and 2% are evil.

Well, he worked very hard

to convince me

that it was

the other way around.

2.5% were okay and the rest

were very evil and bad.

And somehow, they'd all

been dumped on that base

so they could be around him.

He was...

He was extremely paranoid.

So, Marty, is Miscavige

a true believer?

Uh, yes.

He has to continue to believe,

because if he looks

at it rationally

and he sees that it is as I say,

it will destroy him.

You know,

he'll just realize that...

Because he's done

a lot worse than I've done.

He's abused people

on a personal level,

um, as a... as a...

That's how he got to the top,

and that's how

he stayed at the top.

At the age of 11,

David Miscavige joined the

church with his parents.

As a child, his ambition

caught Hubbard's eye.

So when Hubbard wanted

to become a filmmaker,

Miscavige was

his assistant cameraman.

An auditing prodigy,

he claimed Scientology

cured his asthma.

He became a sort of general

contractor for the church,

and was soon named

action chief...

The man who did whatever

needed doing for a church

that developed

a scary reputation

for attacking its critics.

Scientology has been

in the headlines

off and on for 25 years now,

almost since the time

it was founded as a religion.

Scientology's story

is one of a church

embittered by what

it perceives as harassment.

We're talking about attacks

from multi-billion dollar

media conglomerates,

world governments...

Real powers of the world.

They take enemies

very seriously.

This comes right out

of Hubbard's own policies

from the '60s, saying, "We never

defend, we always attack."

And they have followed it

ever since.

They call it "fair game,"

and anybody who criticizes

Scientology is fair game.

Whatever you're told,

whatever needs to be done,

if it's against the law,

it doesn't matter.

The best example is,

in the mid '70s,

Scientologists were walking in to

these Department of Justice offices

and IRS offices and taking

documents out by the yard.

The FBI raided

the Church of Scientology...

The largest raid in FBI

history at that time.

Oh my god. The building

is filled with FBI,

and they're...

They're taking things.

It was craziness.

Clearly, L. Ron Hubbard

was in charge of all of that,

but he was only named

an unindicted co-conspirator.

And Mary Sue Hubbard,

Hubbard's wife,

she went to prison,

10 others went to prison.

This was where I cut my teeth.

I was in my early 20s,

Miscavige was in his early 20s.

We were taking over

for this group

that had created the largest

domestic espionage operation

in the history

of the United States.

They were breaking into offices,

framing people. This is the

activities of a church?

There was a guy who,

uh, you know,

was a reporter

for "The LA Times,"

whose dog was poisoned

while he was working

on a Scientology story.

Again and again

while reporting the story,

we met many former members

who describe Scientology

as a dangerous and deeply

paranoid organization.

They hired private detectives

to harass people.

I have been sued twice.

Financial ruin.

Years of harassment.

Their homes broken into,

have them beaten.

We chased her around. We

followed her to the airport.

Gotten ahold of

personal phone records.

Slashed their tires,

break their car windows.

I was locked

in a chicken wire cage.

Dangerous, horrifying,

terrifying fraud.

A nightmare.

Many of their stories

are corroborated

in sworn court testimony

by up to a dozen other people.

Are they all lying?

They sat in a room,

they figured out

what they were going to say...

My position,

as the spokesperson,

was to evade the question,

or sleaze around some way,

or give what

was an acceptable answer,

or something

that I believed at the time.

Please welcome

Mr. Mike Rinder.

Because Scientology is perceived

and conceived by Scientologists

as being the salvation

for mankind,

you can have people that lie

with a very straight face

if they believe

that what they are doing

is protecting

the Church of Scientology.

L. Ron Hubbard says,

"We do not find critics

of Scientology"

"who do not

have criminal pasts."

Do you believe that?

Sure.

People who oppose you

are undoubtedly criminals?

I believe that, yeah.

You know, there isn't

and hasn't been

any effort

which has been taken to,

quote,

"silence critics."

"No, that doesn't happen."

"Oh, we would never do that."

But according to many insiders,

Hubbard was growing

more and more vindictive

toward those

who stood in his way.

He created what he called the

Rehabilitation Project Force.

The RPF was what we called it.

It was the prison camp,

where you'd go

for re-indoctrination.

It was on the 7th floor

of the Hollywood headquarters,

a confined space

to rehabilitate members

who might be harboring

subversive thoughts.

Spanky was sent to the RPF

when she objected

to the way the church

had denied medical treatment

to her boss.

I went thinking, of course,

this is a big mistake.

And then I got there, and

there were like 200 of us.

So much of the exec strata

of the organization there

hit the skids simultaneously.

- RPF stands for

- Rehabilitation Project Force.

It is a program

that is exclusively

for the benefit

of Sea Organization members.

If they are stressed out,

if they're not doing well

on their job,

have them do

menial-type work,

and five hours a day of auditing

and Scientology training.

It's a fabulous program.

We were working...

Cross my heart...

30 hours on, three hours off.

Doing, like, hard labor,

like having wire brushes

on windowsills,

and sanding

and sanding and sanding.

Breathing paint fumes.

The regular crew

would eat first,

and then we'd get what was left.

It was kinda like table scraps.

There was mattresses

out there on the roof,

and they were wet

and soggy and gross.

And if you got to sleep

for three hours,

sometimes you'd just have to

up there and crash out.

And I had a young child

at that time,

who was 10 months old

when I went to the RPF.

She got taken

and put in the Cadet Org,

the organization

for the children.

And then I...

I got pregnant

when I was in the RPF.

So now I'm sanding walls,

eating table scraps,

pregnant, and worrying

myself sick about my child.

In Spanky's time, the children

of Sea Org members

were separated

from their parents

and raised in the Cadet Org

to remove all distractions

from their parent's

ultimate responsibility,

to clear the planet.

Sea Org members were often

pressured to have abortions,

because the church

viewed "getting children"

as an unpractical burden.

- Initially, you're like,

- "This is absurd.

"This is nuts."

And then you kinda

settle in and go, "Well..."

"obviously, I need

to deal with something"

"that I'm not facing."

"So perhaps this is..."

"they're doing this

to make me better."

There are so many

bizarre stories that you...

Just hard to believe stuff.

They asked if I could

arrange a private screening

of "Saturday Night Fever."

And I was like, "What?"

"I had disappeared

from this man's life."

"I abandoned him,"

"and now you want me to

arrange a private screening?"

"What are you..."

I said, "Is there anything else?

Maybe a Beatles reunion?"

♪ Well, you can tell

by the way I use my walk... ♪

Travolta had been wondering

where Spanky was.

When she was sent to the RPF,

she was not allowed to

contact him or anyone else.

But now,

under the watch of a guard,

she was permitted

to call Travolta's assistant.

She said we could use John's

personal print of the film,

under one condition...

That you will see John.

I was so excited.

I hadn't had dialogue

with him for many months.

We had the screening

of the film,

and on the next night,

I was supposed

to have dinner with Johnny.

And after the screening,

I was abruptly told

I wasn't going to see him,

and I needed to call and cancel.

He was truly angry

at me for... for...

For having allowed this abuse

of myself, you know,

and for having that...

So little of myself...

that I would allow

this degree of degradation,

and, and um...

And...

And he was my good friend,

and I knew that he was

telling me the truth.

Those words were

such a wakeup call for me.

And I went over there,

to the Cadet Org.

There were so many

sick children in there,

and my daughter

was very, very ill...

Burning up with fever,

completely neglected,

in a urine-soaked crib.

Her eyes were

so filled with mucus,

they were welded shut.

She had fruit flies on her body.

And I just...

I couldn't bear it.

I just went,

"No, mmm-mmm, I'm done."

I mean, I just knew I could

make these choices for me.

I could decide

to give up my life

and do this to help the world,

but I couldn't make these

choices for my children.

I just had to get her out.

I told them that I was having

problems with my pregnancy,

and I needed to use the phone,

so they sent

a bodyguard with me.

I called one of the few

non-Scientologists I knew,

a wonderful woman who happened

to work for John Travolta.

I said,

"Meet me at this address."

I gave her a time and I hung up.

I go up to my daughter's room,

and I wrapped her up.

And there's

that bodyguard with me.

"I said," Oh, my sister-in-law

is in that car

"and she's gonna

take the baby to the doctor."

He said, "Well,

has this been approved?"

"Of course

it was approved!"

She's in my arms,

and I got in the car.

My friend,

she just nods her head.

Boom! With that, I pull my

leg in, shut that door.

She hits the locks,

and we drive.

And people are yelling my name,

saying, "Spanky, no! No!"

I mean, just freaked out.

"I'm thinkin'" I'm a dead person,

"something terrible

is gonna happen to me."

I was just so frightened

that they would come

to fetch me up.

One of the turning points

in Travolta's relationship

with the church

is when he understood

what was happening to Spanky,

he didn't do anything about it.

I know that

he certainly got exposed

to the fact that not everything

was on the up and up.

Why that wasn't sufficient

for him to leave,

I don't know.

I often wonder what... what

could possibly keep him there?

Can you recall an incident

which occurred when your

mother looked younger?

An auditor learns to

keep notes contemporaneously

as he is doing a session,

about every detail

of the person's life,

back to birth and beyond.

If you do the whole program,

you end up with

up to a file cabinet full

of pre-clear folders

on notations about your life,

your thoughts, and your

considerations about your life.

It's the most intimate detail.

You're always encouraged,

you're always threatened,

to disclose more and more and more.

And all of it's recorded.

All of this material,

which is represented to you

to be held sacrosanct...

In fact, any information

that might do some harm

to the organization,

gets unclassified automatically

and gets reported to another

branch of the church

that deals with "ethics."

Travolta was down in Clearwater.

We'd finished the renovations.

Every auditing room

had two cameras...

One on the meter, and one on

the guy getting auditing.

Miscavige would sit

in this 15x15 room,

cameras of every session.

You can flip in between 'em,

and he was watching

these things.

And it was

for "training purposes."

Well, Travolta saw that,

and he said,

"I will not be videoed."

So I was there when

they were setting it up,

and Miscavige was directing it.

"Get him into a hotel room,"

"hook up secret,

private videos."

There were rumors

that he was

threatening to leave,

and another Scientologist

told me that he was delegated

to create a black PR package...

All the damaging material

they could use against Travolta,

which came

from his auditing sessions.

I know this

because I used to do it

when I was the head of the

Office of Special Affairs.

We would put a team of people

onto going through

all of these PC folders

and finding things

that they believe.

By exposing them

or threatening to expose them,

they will cower the person

that they're worried about

into silence.

There is a particular writing

where Hubbard is training these

Office of Special Affairs people

on how, when you use

private information

to control somebody to do

what you want them to do,

and to silence them from speaking

out against Scientology,

it's really not blackmail, because

you're not asking for money.

But you're holding

this secret information

over the person's head

to silence them.

As far as Travolta is concerned,

people say, well, he... there's all

these things that we know about

that have been rumored

in the tabloids.

But in fact, it's more

of a two-way street.

You know, he's provided

with an auditor

whose shoulder he can cry on,

but he's also provided with

the muscle of the church,

in the form of myself

and Mike Rinder.

On many occasions,

we were sent out

to get with his publicist,

to get with his lawyer,

and to help squash

or intimidate these people

that are making accusations

against him.

Once that happened,

I think he was really

the church's captive.

Mr. John Travolta!

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday,

dear Ron ♪

♪ Happy birthday ♪

♪ To you. ♪

When they were facing lawsuits

and stuff like that,

he'd be brought forward,

and make his testimony about

how great Scientology is.

He had the opportunity

to affect the behavior of the

church, and he chose not to.

Now I've been a Scientologist

for 23 years.

I've felt like a pioneer

in many... in many ways,

and I've... I've seen my

efforts come to fruition...

in various ways.

I think very few people

can say that.

I've... I'm part of a...

Of a frontier in a way,

you know, that, that very few

people ever get to be part of.

Thank you.

Welcome to church!

It was the biggest event

in Scientology history,

and of course, Miscavige wanted

to milk it for everything he had.

It's this grand, produced thing,

where it's all a single

person on a gigantic stage,

all this sort of Nazi symbolism.

I clearly recall getting

prepared for the event

and Miscavige up in that office,

you know,

going 18-20 hours a day

writing this speech,

and thinking to myself,

"My God, you know?

This is not just"

"a victory celebration,"

"this is a...

This is a coup."

What we are going to talk about

is the war to end all wars.

When you are in Scientology,

you are in all the way.

There's no half in and half out.

- A decade into

- Miscavige's leadership,

a simmering crisis

finally came to a boil.

For years Hubbard had insisted

that Scientology was a religion

and should be tax-exempt,

so he had refused

to pay any taxes.

We were facing a tax bill

of over a billion dollars,

and the total assets,

liquid and material,

and property of the church

was about a quarter of that

at the time, in the '80s.

And so just from a real

simple accounting basis,

it was life and death.

If we don't

get exemption, we die.

If we get it, we survive.

As LRH said,

"One certainly

couldn't contest anyone

"as holy as the commissioner

of the IRS,

"whom I believe gives God

his orders." LRH.

Faced with this crisis,

David Miscavige

formulated a strategy.

Think of the nerve that it takes

to decide to take on a war

with the IRS.

The Church of Scientology

has been crucifying

the federal agency

for its sins on a regular basis,

both in and out of courts.

Thousands of Scientologists

all filed lawsuits,

not just against the IRS,

but against

individual IRS employees.

2400 total lawsuits,

all going at the IRS

at one time.

It was a litigation nightmare.

Being Miscavige's

right-hand man,

I was in charge

of all those efforts.

We were not only suing them in every

possible jurisdiction there was,

we were investigating

the IRS for crimes generally,

or things that would

offend the public.

These hearings

into IRS integrity...

In the late '80s,

there were hearings

about IRS abuses

that had nothing to do

with Scientology,

had nothing to do

with nonprofits,

had nothing to do with churches.

They had to do

with Joe Taxpayer.

And they we were publishing

these glossy,

expensive magazines.

In fact, the exposés

of IRS crimes

were so hated that possession

of "Freedom" magazine

was banned by IRS officials

in the IRS building.

There is going to be a IRS

conference in the Catskills.

Right?

And so we would send a PI,

find out which hotel

it's gonna be at,

get down there during

happy hour, socialize.

And this guy's tallying

who's drinkin' what.

And so we go through

Freedom of Information Act

to find out that the taxpayers

are paying the bar bill,

and it's so much money.

And of course, you know,

in the scheme of things,

it's nothing.

But from a PR perspective,

it's everything.

IRS officials told me to my face

they weren't interested

in hearing anything

I had to say

because, and I quote,

"You are a Scientologist."

"You are a mindless robot."

Well, those who know me

can imagine my response.

It was short,

but certainly made the point.

A negotiation

began to take place

between the IRS and the

Church of Scientology.

How do you define a religion?

It's not so easy.

Why is one body

of thinking a religion

and another body not?

The only organization entitled

to make those distinctions

is the IRS as an agency...

Very poorly equipped to do that.

I mean, they're mainly

accountants and lawyers,

they're not theologians.

But it's the only opinion

that matters.

Once the IRS has decided

that you are a religion,

then you are protected

by the vast protections

of the First Amendment.

And, as the saying goes,

the rest is history.

On October the first, 1993,

at 8:37 PM

Eastern Standard Time,

the IRS issued letters

recognizing Scientology

and every one

of its organizations

as fully tax-exempt!

The war is over!

The war ended

because the IRS surrendered.

It forgave

the billion-dollar tax bill

and granted Scientology

its tax exemption.

Even Hubbard's novels

were declared religious texts,

their sales exempt from taxes.

What happened

is that Fred Goldberg,

who was the IRS commissioner

at that time...

Miscavige let Goldberg know

that if we could find a way

to get tax-exempt status,

all those lawsuits

will go away overnight.

And as we were going

out the door,

Fred Goldberg goes,

"Is he serious?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And he sort of breathed

this sigh of relief,

kind of nodded, and smiled.

At the Church's victory party,

Miscavige projected photos

of the church's executives

celebrating with IRS officials.

It created

this tremendous juggernaut

of tight conspiracy of the

membership that then existed,

but what it really did

was enable Miscavige

to milk every last dime

out of that core membership.

I am proud to announce

the discrimination is over.

Your tax dona...

Deductions on donations

to Scientology

will no longer be disallowed

by the Internal Revenue Service.

In the '80s,

while Hubbard was in hiding,

Scientology was going through

some very severe litigation,

in particular,

a lawsuit in Oregon,

and one in Los Angeles.

One of them did produce

a $30 million judgment.

This scared Scientology.

They realized

they were vulnerable.

And so they

asked Scientologists,

"Okay, give us

a few thousand dollars.

"You'll get a nice ribbon

or something.

"You're not gonna get any courses

from it." And this was new,

the idea that you would

give them money

just to defend against lawsuits.

And that grew and grew.

Now Scientologists

are constantly

under intense pressure

just to hand money over.

They pitch themselves

as being the underdog,

as being the victim.

And you identify with that.

But then they start

hitting you up

for bigger donations, and bigger...

and I got a lot of pressure.

And I think I donated another

$250,000 to them under pressure.

They really know how to do it.

They really know how to do it, and

he just was after me and after me.

And they said,

"We're under attack, Paul."

This one guy who donated

$25 million,

for no... you know,

just straight donation,

to this...

To the Scientology war chest.

Churches are tax-exempt

because they're supposed

to provide a public good.

To prove that good to the IRS,

churches aren't supposed

to hoard their money.

They're supposed to spend it

on services for the faithful.

Under this pretense, the church

had made massive investments

in tax-free real estate

all over the world.

And when it comes

to labor costs,

they are almost free.

The max I got paid, you know,

on a weekly basis was 50 bucks,

um, for 28 years.

Sea Org workers

take home something

between six and 40 cents

an hour.

So if you've got

very low labor costs,

no taxes to pay, and wealthy

people giving you donations,

you can see why Scientology has

amassed huge piles of money.

How much are they worth?

This was a bit of a mystery,

but just recently,

I obtained tax records

that Scientology

does have to turn in.

Three of the main entities

of Scientology...

And there are 20

or 30 of them...

But the top three,

just on their own,

have a book value

of $1.5 billion.

It's stunning how much money

a nonprofit

has been able to amass.

It is a crime that we've given

them religious recognition

and that

they can hide behind it.

Meanwhile, you got

very good people in there,

and their lives

are being destroyed.

When I started this story,

I stumbled across an FBI

investigation of the church.

They were investigating

human trafficking.

It seemed that people were being

confined against their will.

There were lots of reports of

people being physically abused,

and the exploitation

of labor and child labor.

All of these things were

questions that the FBI had.

While that investigation

was going on,

a case was being heard

in Colorado...

The Headleys,

who were suing the church

for many

of these same violations.

And the court ruled in that case

that these are all

essentially practices

that are protected

by the religious clause

of the First Amendment.

Once that ruling came out,

the FBI dropped

its investigation.

I think it was an indication

that the church is protected.

Before ending cycle

completely on the IRS,

there is one thing

I do wish to do.

Sir. Done.

♪ Knowing the truth

will set us free ♪

♪ And take us from clear

to eternity ♪

♪ To a future we thought

would never be ♪

♪ We stand tall ♪

♪ Hey la di la,

hey la di ♪

♪ We stand tall ♪

♪ Oh, yes ♪

♪ Everybody,

hey la di la ♪

♪ Hey la di,

we stand tall... ♪

The "We Stand Tall" thing...

This again was part

of this whole IRS thing.

And Miscavige kind of

had this song composed

by the musician group

they had up at the studio.

He was trying

to turn this into...

This was a result of the power

of this movement...

♪ Hey la di la,

hey la di ♪

♪ Hey la di,

we stand tall ♪

♪ Oooh ♪

♪ Whoa oh... ♪

which was such bullshit,

because it was

all about control.

When he got absolute control,

he went absolutely bonkers.

♪ We ♪

♪ Stand ♪

♪ Tall. ♪

You know, most religions

are tax-exempt

and many have beliefs

and practices

that in the modern context

would be considered strange.

Is Scientology any different?

I mean, if you go to a Christian

or a Jew or a Muslim,

and ask them,

"What do you believe?",

they can basically describe

the most important parts

of their religion

in a minute or two.

Well, what does

a Scientologist believe?

You need to be in Scientology

for seven or eight years,

and in for a couple hundred

thousand dollars,

before you finally

learn this backstory

of Xenu the Galactic Overlord.

Now, if you were told that

on day one,

how many people would join?

But if they were

upfront about it,

I'd have more respect for them.

But it's that sort of

bait and switch

that people are told,

"Oh, it's an applied philosophy"

"to help you

with your communication."

Oh, yeah?

So why is Tom Cruise

paying 1,000 bucks

to have invisible aliens

pulled out of his body?

What happens when

your zone of influence

is the global stage?

How much must one do to call

themselves a Scientologist?

How much so that when their

head hits the pillow,

they can live with themselves,

knowing they did

all they could do?

That is our final story

this evening.

It's a story that affects

every Scientologist,

for all of us are the beneficiaries

of what he presents.

Tom Cruise was the guy.

Miscavige and Cruise

had been pretty buddy-buddy,

way back

to "Days of Thunder."

He was on the set with him,

he went skydiving with him,

was hangin' out with him

all the time.

And that was when

Tom first met Nicole.

He had really fallen for her.

They got married,

and this posed

a dilemma for the church,

because her father

is a well-known psychologist

in Australia.

From the church's perspective,

he's the enemy.

He's a suppressive person.

How could you ignore me

like this?

Because Nicole is still

in a relationship

with her father,

that makes her dangerous.

She's a Potential

Trouble Source, PTS.

And because Tom

is related to her,

this all causes trouble

from the church's perspective.

You have to break that dynamic.

Nicole... her biggest beef

was that Tom was becoming

increasingly like Dave.

She really got him

to drift away from the church,

and Tom was not really actively

involved in Scientology

between '92-ish

all the way up until 2001.

They were away

for more than a year

shooting "Eyes Wide Shut"

in the UK.

And Cruise was not in touch

with Miscavige,

and this drove Miscavige crazy.

I was assigned to, um,

get him back in.

And that was coincident with,

and... and I was to facilitate

the breakup with Nicole Kidman.

And how'd you do that?

Uh, well,

through a lot of auditing.

And every session

I ever gave to Tom Cruise...

And there was dozens upon dozens

of them over a three-year period...

I had to write detailed reports

and send them directly

to David Miscavige.

I would sit there every night

with our Scotch

and watch and listen

to Miscavige comment

about Cruise's sex life,

and what... yeah,

how perverted he was.

Why is he gettin'

daily reports on Cruise?

Miscavige really wanted

to get him back

into being somebody

that he could use

to lure people into Scientology

and increase his own status.

And I was also involved

in the legal team

and actually hiring investigators

to investigate Nicole.

Men have to stick it in

every place they can,

but for women...

Women, it is just about

security and commitment...

Tom wanted to know exactly

who she was talking to,

and so he wanted

to tap her phone.

If you men only knew.

When I reported that day

to Miscavige,

I reported it, like, "I mean,

he wants to tap her phone."

He said,

"God damn it, get it done."

And so I arranged, through the

Scientology's consigliere,

to get a private investigator

who physically installed

a wiretap on her home.

And those tapes would come in,

and I forwarded them

to Dave Miscavige.

The church then turned

its attention

to their adopted children, to

turn them against their mother

and make sure

that the custody went to Tom.

Tommy Davis, he was my liaison

who had to do all the things

that are required

to please Tom Cruise

while he was being put through

the Scientology hoops by me.

He also was part of this

whole reeducation program,

so that they would conclude

that their mother

was a suppressive person.

And that was successful.

It was all going

according to plan.

And of course,

Miscavige would really

pump the oxygen into that

little fire, you know.

Miscavige was brilliant

at flaming people's fears,

and building up their egos.

So you were

being audited by Marty

at the same time

he was auditing Cruise?

Oh, yeah, yeah, I was...

Yeah, Tom Cruise.

Tom would go in, and I would

go in, and Tom would go in,

and I would go in,

and so, you know...

And I had been audited by the

best auditors on the planet.

The best auditor, hands down,

I mean, like...

Like kinda Michael Jordan,

Wayne Gretsky,

kinda auditor is Marty.

They stole him, you know?

Tom thinks he's supposed

to be David Miscavige.

By 2004, Tom Cruise was the most

gung-ho Scientologist in the world,

and Miscavige wanted

to recognize him for it.

He called it

the Freedom Medal of Valor

and they put together

this 35-minute video.

IAS Freedom Medal

of Valor winner, Tom Cruise!

In it, they just

pump up this idea

that Tom Cruise is the ambassador

of Scientology to the world.

He's known as

the biggest movie star ever.

Tom Cruise travels this world,

meeting with ministers,

ambassadors,

and the American

State Department,

advancing LRH technology straight

into the corridors of power.

It's about improving conditions.

It allows you to find out

for yourself.

There's things

that we can do to help.

They even did a calculation,

where they figured

between his films

and all the "opinion leaders"

that he had met

and all the travel

he had done...

- Tom Cruise has introduced

- LRH technology

to over one billion people

of Earth.

No question, he has been

a huge asset to them.

Which is why the story

of Tom Cruise,

Scientologist,

has only just begun.

I think it's a privilege to

call yourself a Scientologist,

and it's something

that you have to earn.

Scientology loves to use

this word "end phenomena."

Every level

has an end phenomena,

you know, that you attain,

and Tom Cruise shows that.

That video with him in the

black turtleneck sweater?

A scientologist is someone

who can look at the world

and really see what it is.

Not only look at it and see

it, but be able to go,

poof, and be effective,

and do something about it.

And he's as arrogant

and as untouchable

as could possibly be.

At the same time, he looks

like an utter crazy paranoiac.

And, uh...

I know... you know, she...

They, said, "So, like

have you met an SP?"

And I looked at her,

and I thought, "Oh,

what a beautiful thing,"

because maybe one day,

it'll be like that.

You know what I'm saying?

Maybe one day,

it will be that...

"Wow. SP's?"

Like, they'll just

read about those

in the history books, you know?

That's where it takes you.

That's the end phenomena

of the Scientology Bridge.

All Scientologists

are full of shit.

You know, they lie.

"Aw, I'm doing great!"

"You gotta get on seven."

You know, and they're fucking...

"I've got a fucking migraine

right now,"

"and I've never

felt so shitty!"

You know,

that's the fucking life.

There's nothing

part of the way for me!

It's just... whoo!

He drank the Kool-Aid.

And in the eyes of Miscavige,

Tom Cruise is the perfect

Scientology celebrity.

And nobody's benefited more

from his membership.

I mean, the amount

of free Sea Org labor.

- Sea Org members make

- 40 cents an hour,

and I don't think

there's any way

Tom Cruise is not aware of that.

The church

has done so much for him.

They tricked out all his cars

and his motorcycles.

"Oh, I want a new limo."

"We'll build it for you."

Decked out Tom Cruise's hangar

in Santa Monica.

Installed all the audiovisual

stuff in Cruise's home.

Tom Cruise had expressed

this fantasy

of wanting to run through a

meadow with Nicole Kidman.

And so everybody had to work,

and till the soil.

And then David Miscavige

didn't like it,

and so the whole thing

had to be ripped up again.

This was at the Gold facility,

which is this desert facility,

where this is all kinds

of great stuff,

if you're Tom Cruise, you know?

Wonderful living quarters

and a gym.

When Cruise comes up,

everyone's told in advance,

"You better have

a fucking smile on your face."

Everyone had to

call Cruise "sir."

♪ Just take those old records

off the shelf! ♪

♪ I sit and listen to 'em

by myself ♪

♪ Today's music

ain't got the same soul ♪

♪ I like that old-time

rock and roll! ♪

Thank you.

It's this

side-by-side world.

There are celebrities

like Cruise and Travolta,

and then, you know,

there are people

who tell terrible tales of what

happened to them in the church...

Being imprisoned and really

horrible psychological games.

Tom was in Spain.

They were opening up a new

Scientology church in Madrid.

And he was overheard to complain

that he needed a new girlfriend.

Soon after that, a young

Scientologist premed student

named Nazanin Boniadi...

She was told

that she was going to get

a special assignment.

Number of transactions

increase...

Years later, Nazanin became

a successful TV actress

and she would have a small

part in a Paul Haggis film.

But at the time, she was a

dedicated young Scientologist

who believed

in the Church's claims

for its humanitarian mission.

In fact,

she set a monthly record

for selling books

for the church.

Nazanin may not speak publicly

about her experiences

because of an NDA the church

pressured her to sign,

but I discovered details

from FBI testimony

regarding her ordeal.

David Miscavige

assigned Nazanin's case

to a key church official,

Greg Wilhere.

He put her through

a one-month program

of on-camera interviews, intensive

auditing, and security checks.

She was moved

into the Celebrity Center,

separated from her family, and

certain problems were addressed

during this period of time.

One was, she had a boyfriend.

She is handed a transcript

of his auditing session,

in which he admitted

that he had an affair.

And so she broke up with him.

Then Wilhere took her

to an orthodontist

to have her braces removed.

At Burberry and other stores

in Beverly Hills,

he bought her $20,000

worth of clothes.

At the Celebrity Centre,

a man who worked

for Cruise's hair stylist

colored Nazanin's hair

to Cruise's liking.

Nazanin was told

that her makeover

was a part of the church's

humanitarian mission.

She had to look her best for

conferences with world leaders.

Only after she was flown

first class to New York

did she discover the actual role

that the church

wanted her to play.

She was to be the girlfriend

of Scientology's biggest star.

Within a month, Nazanin

was living with Cruise.

While at his house in Telluride,

Miscavige came to visit.

Overcome by a severe headache,

Nazanin had a hard time

understanding Miscavige,

which infuriated him.

The next day, Cruise,

inches from her face,

pounded his fist on the table

and screamed at her

for insulting the head

of the church.

Two weeks later,

church henchman Tommy Davis

delivered the news to Nazanin...

The relationship with Cruise

was over.

And they, according to her,

came to her apartment

with her mom

and found every photograph

of the two of them together,

and took them away. Every scrap,

every letter, everything,

they...

as if it never existed.

And she was really upset,

because she had been really

hurt by the whole thing.

And she made the mistake

of telling her friend,

who immediately went to tell

someone in the church.

She agreed to do punishments,

like cleaning out

the public bathrooms

on her hands and knees

with a toothbrush,

while other people she knew

were stepping over her.

She did nothing wrong,

other than tell her friend

that she was heartbroken, and

this is the way she was treated?

- The church claims that

- Miscavige has no involvement

in Cruise's personal life

and that the search for Cruise's

girlfriend never existed.

I wanna tell you something.

I have never met

a more competent,

a more intelligent,

a more tolerant,

a more compassionate being,

outside of what

I've experienced from LRH.

And I've met the leaders

of leaders.

Okay? I've met them all.

And so I say to you, sir, COB,

we are lucky to have you

and thank you very much.

While Miscavige

would do anything

for the Church's

most famous celebrity,

Miscavige began to turn against

the Sea Org's

highest-ranking executives.

He pretty much had international

management shut down.

He was into

this deep paranoia thing

about everybody is

out to get him.

He very definitely

wiped out

that organizational pattern

in order to be able

to have ultimate power.

In 2004,

Miscavige ordered the top

officers of the Sea Org

to the Scientology's Gold Base

in southern California.

He forced them to live in a

pair of double-wide trailers

that came to be called

"The Hole."

The doors had bars put on them,

the windows all had bars

put on them,

and there was one entrance door

that a security guard

sat at 24 hours a day.

They had to stay there,

sleep there.

It stunk and, you know, there

were ants crawling around.

You'd sleep about an hour

or two hours a night.

Um, you were

in such a mental state

that you're very controllable,

very suggestible.

We were told

we needed to come up

with what

each other's crimes were

against Miscavige and Hubbard,

so that we could eventually

get out of the Hole.

Scientology is really good

at making you think

that you are a scoundrel.

"Confess your crimes! Confess your crimes!

What have you done?"

Fights would break out.

Miscavige would get me

all riled up.

And I remember one time,

Mike had done something,

or not done something,

I don't remember,

and I was supposed to

go beat him up.

One executive was made to mop up

the bathroom floor

with his tongue.

Another was put into a bucket,

and pummeled by some of the

women, and called a lesbian.

There was a very powerful

air conditioner,

which blew straight down,

it was set on maximum cold,

and a guy was

made to sit in a chair,

and had water poured on his head

until he literally turned blue.

Miscavige slapped me

across the face,

knocked me on the ground,

kicked me a couple times.

Flailing fists,

kneeing him in the stomach,

getting him on the floor.

And you think, you want

to get up and retaliate,

but you also think,

"I got 75 other people

"who are all likely

to tackle me if I did"...

and then you got

the sheer shock of it.

Here's the equivalent

of the Pope

suddenly knocking you

on the ground,

and you're thinking,

"I must have

really screwed up."

It was a poisonous environment.

People were really frightened.

And this went on for years.

This isn't a couple of days.

The nominal president

of the church,

this man named Heber Jentszch,

he was in there for seven years.

What is the statement?

"God helps those

who help themselves."

Well, in Scientology,

we're engaged

in helping people

help themselves,

so they can fully comprehend

and understand God.

♪ Is this the real life? ♪

♪ Is this just fantasy? ♪

One night,

Miscavige comes

into the Hole with a boom box.

"He said," I'm gonna

teach you all a lesson.

"We're all gonna play

musical chairs."

And musical chairs

is a Scientology

administrative term

for when you move people

from different posts rapidly,

and you create instability.

They played the damned music.

♪ Mama ♪

♪ Just killed a man... ♪

"He said," We're gonna play it

to 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

by Queen."

And he emphasized the line...

♪ Nothing really matters... ♪

"nothing matters anymore."

And that's your whole attitude,

that's where you live,

that's who you are.

Playing that music, and stop it,

and everyone would

have to grab a chair.

And there's one person

left standing.

♪ Too late ♪

♪ My time has come... ♪

What Miscavige has warned them

is that the last person

who remains gets to stay.

"Everybody else,

you're expelled."

"You're going to be thrown out

of the Sea Org."

These people were fighting

to stay in the Hole.

Throwing people around,

scratching, kicking.

They're tearing chairs apart,

they're ripping clothing.

And whatever it took.

♪ So you think

you can stone me ♪

♪ And spit in my eye... ♪

But then nothing happens.

♪ Nothing really matters

to me. ♪

"Out of the goodness

of my heart, you can stay."

"But you better come clean.

You better..."

"I better have some good

confessions out of you."

I... I mean, you...

You know...

as much as they get into everything

that you ever think or do,

they never got into my think

on this score,

that I would never go to prison.

And so it was inevitable,

when I got... when I...

He literally created

this prison camp.

Um, it was inevitable that

I wasn't gonna last there.

It's embarrassing to have

ever been involved with,

to think about it.

"God, I can't even believe

I'm talkin' about it."

But it was bad.

- Let's say the FBI

- showed up at the Hole,

and said, "This is the FBI.

We're lettin' everyone out."

Do you think everyone would have said,

"Oh, thank God, the FBI's here"?

No. I think that everybody,

one for one,

would have gone,

"What do you mean?"

"We... we're doing this

voluntarily."

"We like living

in these conditions."

Over the past week,

we've been reporting on

allegations of physical abuse

inside

the Church of Scientology.

We spoke with the ex-wives

of some of the men

making the claims of abuse.

I read all of your affidavits.

Obviously, your ex-husbands

have made charges

against David Miscavige,

saying that they have seen

repeated acts of physical violence

perpetrated by Mr. Miscavige.

Is... Is any of that true?

No. No.

Not one ounce of it.

That's not the character

of Mr. David Miscavige.

My ex-wife,

Marty Rathbun's ex-wife,

Tom De Vocht's ex-wife,

that were on "Anderson Cooper,"

they all came out of the Hole!

They were all sent there

to do that.

They went back to the Hole!

It's just ridiculous.

This line

that my ex-wife said...

I lived with Mike Rinder

for over 35 years.

I know every square inch

of Mike Rinder's body.

She said it because she was

told to say it by Miscavige.

And the proof of that is,

when Tom De Vocht's ex-wife

then repeated the same thing

over again...

I know every inch of him.

You gotta be kidding me!

Everything that happens

from the Church of Scientology

is scripted.

Don't ever turn

the other cheek and acquiesce,

hit 'em back.

Marty Rathbun suddenly went and

leapt on top of Mike Rinder

and fought him to the ground

and started choking him

and beating him.

And nothing seems

to have been done about it.

Mr. Miscavige was not

at the property at the time.

Do you not have telephones?

Of course we have telephones.

I think you're being quite

rude and quite insulting.

Here's the bottom line.

Here's the bottom line...

There is no history

of violence in the church.

As somebody who ran PR

for the church for a long time,

do you have any regret for anything

that you did in that capacity?

Well, I think the biggest regret

is when John Sweeney at

"Panorama" was doing his program,

it was the culmination

of a lot...

I mean, I'd been

in the Hole for a year.

And I ended up

being sent to England.

Hi, Mike. He was

constantly going,

"Well, why do you have private

investigators following me?"

I'm like...

That never happened!

Ever, ever happened!

And of course there were.

I was following John Sweeney.

Oh, there it is.

Okay, there we are.

He's got his camera,

he's standing there

and he's saying,

"I want a response.

I have credible witnesses."

"Did David Miscavige

physically assault you?"

And I said...

Those allegations

are absolute, utter rubbish.

Absolute, utter rubbish.

You have been assaulted

by Miscavige?

Many times, many times.

Perhaps more than anybody else.

I was now sort of

at the end of my rope.

It was a real moment

of clarity for me...

"I don't want

to be doing this anymore."

"This is nuts!"

That was actually the last thing

that I did before I left.

So I'd been in Scientology

about two and a half years.

I am kickin' ass.

I felt like I had gotten out

of the fuckin' trap.

I didn't have to have a problem.

I said,

"I'm done with auditing."

But they insisted

on gettin' me back,

and said just, "Believe us,

believe us, believe us."

I got so fucked up.

I mean, they... they...

I went insane.

I was, like, stuck somewhere

in a tiny spot

behind my eyeballs,

looking this way.

I mean, I... I'd never

experienced anything like it.

10 fuckin' years!

I was worse than the day

that I walked in.

It was by design,

'cause they needed to...

To keep me in there.

So basically, they had to

put a whole new case on me,

so they could run it.

And they just kept tryin'

to fuckin' keep me stuck in.

It was crazy!

So I finally said, "I'm going my way.

You guys go yours."

I was pissed. I was sad.

I was disillusioned.

"And I thought," Maybe

somebody could interview me,

"ask me some questions

about Scientology."

How I got into Scientology,

and why I got out.

Post this two-hour thing,

and it was the ♪1 thing

on YouTube for two days

before

it "mysteriously" disappeared.

The best traps...

You get a guy to just

keep himself in jail.

Right? And that's

what Scientology does.

I started getting

all this communication

because of that video.

You know,

"You saved my family."

You know, "You've...

I finally had the courage"

"to leave

after I watched your thing."

You know? I mean, like,

there's blood and tears.

And then I started to find out,

you know, all the stuff

that was really happening.

You know, I lost money,

I got fucked,

but then I found out about

the abuse in the Sea Org.

And I felt like, "Fuck me,

I gotta do somethin' about it."

And I finally

tracked down Marty Rathbun.

Everybody thought he was dead.

He was in fuckin' Mexico.

And I went down there,

and I basically

convinced him to talk.

And, like,

"We gotta do somethin'."

And then he started his blog.

There was a beating every day.

And if it wasn't him doin' it,

it was from him inciting others

to do it to others.

I think that it's a cult.

I'm doin' my own thing,

I want to get on with my life.

I am telling the truth.

Suddenly I heard

senior members of the church

were speaking out,

so I started to look,

and I started to read.

And then I started

to reach out to people.

Two of my daughters are gay,

and told me

how they'd been treated within the church.

I didn't know.

Paul Haggis's daughters

were openly harassed

by church members for being gay.

Investigating further,

Haggis discovered

that church doctrine viewed

homosexuality as a disease

that only Hubbard's teachings

could cure.

And a California

chapter of Scientology

had supported a ban

on gay marriage.

I can't be part

of an organization

that doesn't support

human rights for everyone.

So I sent a letter

to 25 friends in the church

that I was resigning.

And I'd hoped

they'd read this letter

and be horrified

by the things I'd found out.

A few days later, I drive home.

There have to be 10 people

standing in my front yard.

I recognize them.

They're my friends.

They said, "Paul, we need you

to tear up this letter."

"And we need you to get all

the copies and tear them up,"

"and resign quietly."

I said, "I don't do that."

You know?

"I'm sorry.

I don't do that."

I sent a copy to Marty Rathbun.

He put it on his blog,

one page on a day,

and didn't reveal my name

until the Friday.

Monday morning, I woke up.

600 of the top newspapers

of the world had it.

You know, it was in Bulgaria.

I mean, it was reprinted

in seven languages.

I went, "Oh my God,

what have I done?"

I mean... it did garner

a lot of interest.

People will judge you,

one way or the other.

I figured people would

judge me as really stupid.

But then, I was really stupid.

I was a part of this for 30

years before I spoke out.

I felt deeply ashamed.

Why didn't I do it earlier?

Why didn't I look earlier?

People are so indoctrinated,

and have been in Scientology

a really long, long time.

Or they've grown up in it, and

they don't know anything else.

It's so scary to them

to have to start all over,

and it takes

a really strong person

to stand up to them and say no.

In 2009,

my son was on staff

at the church.

And "The Truth Rundown" came

out in the "St. Pete Times,"

exposing what was going on

with the beatings,

people in the Hole.

The church was very mad

at my son,

because he knew

it was going to happen,

and he didn't tell them.

And he didn't tell them

because he had a good friend

that became friends

with Mike Rinder

and Marty Rathbun,

and he believed what they were

saying in "The Truth Rundown."

The church was threatening,

that he was gonna get declared

a Suppressive Person

if he didn't disconnect

from his friend.

My son, he was raised

a Scientologist,

you know,

and he'd been on staff.

He made 30 bucks a week.

He headed up

their Boy Scout troop.

He was like this consummate

youth of Scientology.

The continental justice chief

called him on the phone.

And it was after that

the declare came down,

and he was just devastated.

The church told his friends

everything they could find

in his PC folder

to ruin his reputation.

I wrote this petition.

I tried to put in everything

good that my son had done.

"Dear Sarah,

Thank you for the letter"

"that you sent regarding the

situation with Nick Lister."

"I cannot approve that you continue

your connection with Nick."

No one's gonna tell me when I

can and can't speak to him.

No one, but me.

"Your committee of evidence

findings and recommendations"

"recommended you

be labeled suppressive,"

"engaging in malicious

rumor mongering"

"to destroy the authority

or repute of higher officers"

"or the leading names

of Scientology."

My husband

was charged with that one,

because he was telling me

what he read on the Internet

about David Miscavige.

They say, "Don't go on the

Internet, don't read."

"Don't go to these sites."

From the time that I got in,

for 30 years, I never read one

critical thing about Scientology.

When I finally decided

to open my eyes and look,

I was shocked, just shocked.

But if you're a member

of the Church of Scientology,

and someone in your family,

or a friend, or your spouse,

is skeptical or critical

of the Church of Scientology,

you are supposed to disconnect

yourself from that person...

Tommy Davis, who was the

spokesperson for the church,

he's being asked about

the policy of disconnection.

Anything that's characterized

as disconnection

or this kinda thing,

it's just... it's just not true.

There isn't... I

confronted him about this.

And I said, "Tommy, I don't need

to search outside to ask for..."

"to check research

and see if other..."

"this has happened to other people.

This happened to my wife."

"You asked her and me

to disconnect from her parents"

"because of something trivial

they did years ago."

My wife disconnected from me,

my daughter, my son, my brother,

my sister, my mother,

all of my nieces and nephews.

And that is the only family

that I have.

You know, you label

these people suppressive

so that, you know,

everybody automatically...

They're discredited, and they

must disconnect from them.

And that's how you keep

people in a bubble.

And that's what they do.

I mean, my son was declared

because he wouldn't disconnect

from his friend.

I was declared,

and my husband was declared

because we wouldn't

disconnect from my son.

And now guess what happened?

Everyone connected to us

just scatters to the wind.

Through all of this time,

I have a daughter who's

very much into the church.

I have a granddaughter

who's the love of my life,

and who loves her nana.

I was planning on talking

to my daughter,

and trying to tell her

what was really happening.

She hugged me,

she told me she loved me.

She said, "I have to

disconnect from you."

So, um...

I just was concentrating

on smelling her hair

and seeing the way she felt,

touching her skin on my face.

That's the last time I saw them.

It really is the crux

of how controlling

is any religion

over its adherents,

and Scientology has perfected

a lot of techniques of control.

There is no logical explanation

as to why, other than faith.

Your future, your eternity,

all depends on

you going up the Bridge.

It's scary. It's kinda like

Christianity with hell.

If they don't have the Bridge,

they can't go free.

They don't believe

they can get it anywhere else.

It's like brainwashing.

Really simple.

I mean, that's a scary word,

and it took me a long time

to come to that conclusion,

that that's what's occurred.

You take on

a kind of a...

A matrix of thought

that is not your own.

I think that's how I

and other people got involved

and stuck through it

for so long.

Because when you're out,

you look at it,

and you go, "What the crap

was I thinking," you know?

It's such a hard thing

when you do wake up.

You go, "Oh my God."

Because you have this wave

of regrets.

I just started to think

that maybe my entire life

has been a lie.

You just don't see it

happening to you.

You justify so much.

Cults, they prey on people,

suggesting that, you know,

you should be able

to think for yourself

and then tell you exactly how

you have to think, or get out.

And if you get out,

there will be consequences.

Come on, Marty.

Got anything to say?

What's your name? Why don't

you answer his question?

Beat it. I said get off

my property, boy.

The real sustained campaign

began in early 2009

when I spoke to

the "St. Petersburg Times."

And I'd been hounded

and hunted like wild prey.

It's a policy of

the Office of Special Affairs

authored by L. Ron Hubbard.

When somebody's speaking out

against Scientology,

investigate to find out

who the instigator is.

I started getting calls

from the church,

and they're... they're really,

uh, comin' after me.

They showed up

at my mother's house.

The feeling in the pit

of your stomach

knowing that Scientology's

chief dirty-tricks PI

was just

on my mother's front step.

They've tried to destroy me,

there's no question.

They create

anonymous websites about me,

and smear me

with a lot of garbage.

"Paul Haggis,

the hypocrite of Hollywood."

"This guy is a sex pervert,"

or "This guy's a drug dealer."

In the meantime,

survey carefully to find out what

he most values and protects.

Immediately draw up

a three-prong program

to threaten it effectively.

I don't value anything

more than Monique.

That's why this campaign

ended up on our doorstep.

Was she there?

I knew they had

their goons around.

And then the guy rolls down in

window and I saw the truck.

And he starts filming, and I go,

"Okay, this is not good."

What's goin' on?

Oh, we're just doing

a documentary.

A documentary?

Oh, a former Scientology deal.

But it would probably be a good

idea if y'all went ahead...

Now that you've gotten

what you need,

go ahead and leave the area.

Sure.

Okay?

I don't know

who these people are.

I don't know

what they're capable of.

And now that I have my son...

I have a little Louisville

Slugger I keep next to me.

It's been a nonstop onslaught,

for five years.

- I told you to leave.

- Get out of here.

Oh no, I'm leaving.

You can't even defend

yourself on this can you?

What's your name?

I gave you my name, Marty.

What's your name?

Marty, I gave you my name.

The people on Marty's doorstep

were sent by Scientology

because the church

had branded Marty a "Squirrel,"

a term invented by Hubbard

for former members

who threatened church teachings.

David Miscavige had you

come all the way from...

Marty.

San Jose.

- Marty!

- You can't do that.

- You can't do that, Marty!

- I just did it.

No, that's my

personal property, Marty.

Yeah, that's right.

I got arrested, man.

I got arrested for grabbing

this guy's glasses.

I said, "Don't look at her."

You understand that?

Yeah.

I heard her.

Of course, the guy had been

stalking Monique for two years.

He looks like a leering pervert,

like Norman Bates

from "Psycho."

I didn't break his glasses.

I just removed them

from his... from his face.

They got it all on videotape

from their surveillance house

that was filming 24/7, 365,

for five years,

across the street from us.

This lawsuit

with Monique Rathbun...

It's a brilliant legal strategy.

If Marty sues,

the church just says,

"This is

a First Amendment fight."

"This should not be

in a court of law."

But Monique

was never in Scientology.

She's suing David Miscavige

and asking to depose him.

And Scientology will do anything

to keep him out of that situation.

And the point is, Judge,

if you let me

make my presentation,

on First Amendment law

that comes from the United

States Supreme Court...

For every court date,

the church hires a bevy

of high-priced lawyers.

They are determined to use

every legal trick in the book

to keep Miscavige

from having to testify

about church abuses or whether

the religion of Scientology

is actually operated

like a business,

controlled by the whims

of a single individual.

In 2014, Miscavige celebrated

the ongoing expansion

of the church,

but he was hiding

a terrible secret.

Good evening!

The church's active

membership has dropped

to fewer than 50,000 people,

yet the financial value

of Scientology is soaring.

How about we just say,

2013 is the year

we went stratospheric?

The church is making investments

and buying valuable real

estate all over the world.

That financial clout gives

Scientology enormous power.

It's a kind of

tax-free shell company

growing past $3 billion

in assets.

The church now

no longer has a public face.

There's no spokespeople,

they don't do media interviews,

and that suits Miscavige.

There is nobody

that he is willing

to have be the face of

Scientology other than himself,

but he's afraid to

be interviewed by anybody

for fear that they're

gonna ask him questions

that he can't answer,

or doesn't want to answer.

Where are the checks

and balances on his power?

There is none.

So there are two things

that could happen.

One is, the IRS would

reconsider its tax exemption.

The only other thing is that some

of these celebrity megaphones

could turn against the church.

And Tom Cruise should

be leading that chorus.

Is there anything

that you look back on,

in terms of your own career

in the church,

and think, "Wow,

I wish I hadn't done that?"

You know, we talked

about karma earlier.

And, you know, it still happens

that it's like it's just this...

I constantly get presented

with who I was,

and, you know, and I constantly

don't like what I see,

and I sort of constantly

keep dying deaths.

Um, and...

I don't know how many

more deaths I have left,

but I... but I...

But I regret

and I'm ashamed of, uh...

the entire experience, you know?

What I take away from it

is that we...

We lock up a portion

of our own mind.

We... We willingly

put cuffs on.

We willingly avoid things

that will...

Could cause us pain,

if we just...

If we looked.

If we can just

believe something,

then we don't have to really

think for ourselves, do we?

And so I can't damn these

people who aren't coming out,

or who are hiding once they come

out because they're ashamed.

You know, I...

I... I feel the same shame.

And I just...

I'm fighting back

by communicating, you know?

It's a peaceful protest.

I want the truth to be known,

and...

Thank you.

You're welcome.