How Scientology controls it's celebrities

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HBO hired 160 lawyers when the network decided to air “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” the two-hour documentary based on Lawrence Wright’s book. This makes sense when you watch the film, directed by Alex Gibney, which aired Sunday night. Ex-Church of Scientology members and officials reveal secrets of the organization, and tell horror stories of psychological and physical abuse during their time in the controversial religion — and after they escaped. (For the record, the church unleashed a series of attack ads against the film and says that it’s “bigoted propaganda” and ” built on falsehoods invented by admitted liars.”)

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Former Scientology officials, including former spokesman Marty Rathbun, say that every “audit” (where a Scientology member is forced to reveal their deepest, most intimate secrets and fears on the way to attain spiritual and mental clarity) is recorded and filmed. Not to mention the “auditors” take pages of notes. So, when word had it that Travolta was threatening to leave, all the officials had do was go through all the notes from the auditing sessions to find secrets that Travolta had spilled and may not want getting out into the public.

“I know this because I used to do it when I was the head of the office of special affairs,” said former official Mike Rinder. “By exposing [these secrets] or threatening to expose them, they will cower the person into silence.”

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Cruise and Scientology leader David Miscavige, who took over when Hubbard died, were close friends, the film says. But their relationship hit a snag when Cruise fell for Nicole Kidman, and the pair got married. Because Kidman’s father was a psychologist (and the church does not like psychologists), she was identified as a “PTS”: Potential Trouble Source. They were married for a little more than 10 years, and after Cruise was seen as drifting too far away from Miscavige, Rathbun says he was tasked to break up the marriage and get Cruise back into the church.

How did he do that? Audits.

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