Scientology’s love affair with Hollywood

That is why, he says, the church has 8 million members, and is one of the fastest growing religions on Earth.

Most detractors estimate membership to be much lower, say 100,000 to 200,000, but argue that Scientology has strategically courted and cultivated star power for the public relations and membership boost.

"It promotes the organization in much the same way as a celebrity endorsement would in the popular media, whether it's Tiger Woods promoting Nike or Tom Cruise promoting Scientology … It lends credibility," says Rick Ross, a veteran cult watcher.

With Cruise hitting the road as hard as he has for Scientology, says Ross, the group may have gained new ground against another controversial, up-and-coming competitor for the Hollywood elite — Kabbalah.

Clearing out the thetans
At first blush, Scientology resembles other New Age spiritual practices. The initiate starts with a process of "auditing," which is cross between an interview and confession employing a rudimentary lie detector. The idea is to learn about, target, and shed negative forces — the reactive mind — said to blunt potential. For a regular person, the first step might be a free stress test administered at a public booth in a shopping mall or Grand Central Station.

A Scientologist who is in the beginning stages of auditing — the stage Katie Holmes is reportedly in at this point — would be considered a "pre-clear." If she persists through these lower levels, which address career and other earthly struggles, she will reach the state of “clear.”

Www.scientology.org Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard

Once “clear,” Scientologists work on more otherworldly concerns through a series of levels starting with "Operating Thetan 1." It is only at this point that Scientologists can begin receiving knowledge of confidential teachings of Scientology. Cruise, said to be an OT6, and Travolta — reportedly OT7 — are well into this realm.

Among the secrets revealed to adherents who reach the OT3 level is the incident that led to the current evils of the Earth. In leaked documents now posted on the Internet, this incident  started with a galactic shake-up 75 million years ago, when an alien ruler sent billions of subjects to this planet to solve an overpopulation problem. These "thetan" souls dispersed and invaded humans. Scientology is the means through which one's Body Thetans (BTs) are purged.

Hubbard was a science-fiction writer and self-styled philosopher and scientist who died in 1986. Though he spent his later life lecturing and writing about what he called the "applied technology" of Scientology and Dianetics, he never won over the scientific community. Instead, in 1993, Scientology won status as a tax-exempt religious organization.

The means is troubling, not the end
But the controversy is not so much about the content as the means of teaching.

Among other things, Scientologists vehemently reject psychiatry and psychiatric drugs. Hence, Cruise's criticism of Brooke Shields — highly publicized in the celebrity press — for taking Paxil to cope with post-partum depression.

Another issue is the reported cost of enlightenment through Scientology, which has established a set of "suggested donations" for auditing sessions, drills and courses.

Experts say it can cost — in “suggested donations” — more than $100,000 to attain a level of OT3. While this is apparently not troubling for the Hollywood crowd, there are scores of tales of average people spending decades and bankrupting themselves in the pursuit.

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