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10 People Who Turned Against Scientology and Revealed Its Bizarre Secrets

The Church of Scientology, which the late science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard founded in 1952, has experienced more than its share of criticism along the way. But criticism has escalated in recent years, from Alex Gibney’s documentary Going Clear (aired on HBO earlier this year, watch here) to books by ex-members such as Jenna Miscavige Hill’s Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape in 2013 and Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology in 2009. All of these works paint a disturbing picture of the organization, which has been accused of everything from forced child labour to coercive mind control to breaking up families.

Screenwriter/director Paul Haggis, who is known for his work in Million Dollar Baby, Crash and other Hollywood films, spent more than half his life in the Church of Scientology. But in 2009, Haggis (who is now 62), left the cult after 35 years because of its homophobic ways. That year, the cult’s San Diego branch came out in support of Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning same-sex marriage in California. Haggis, who has two lesbian daughters, refused to keep quiet. In an open letter to Scientologist official Tommy Davis explaining his reasons for leaving, Haggis asserted that he could not be a part of a group that would “support a bill that strips a group of its civil rights.” Haggis was also quite critical of “disconnection,” a practice in which Scientologists are encouraged to discontinue all contact with relatives and friends who are deemed hostile to the cult.

9 More People Who Turned Against Scientology and Revealed Its Bizarre Secrets at Alternet

Alien cathedral built by Scientology

Panorama investigator John Sweeney today reveals the sinister site where Tom Cruise’s Scientology church has carved a message to aliens that can be seen from outer space.

The BBC reporter — who erupted in fury at a member of the weird sect during a 2007 programme — tells how he travelled deep into the New Mexico desert to see the Scientologists’ “alien space cathedral”.

The site is home to the buried texts of Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard and was built to withstand a nuclear holocaust. IF you don’t have a flying saucer, Trementina Base is not an easy place to get to. But if you’re a visitor from outer space, it’s a doddle because the Church of Scientology has etched two vast interlinked circles on top of a mountain amid the desert scrub of New Mexico.

Each circle has a huge diamond shape inscribed inside as a sign to aliens. Just dial up Mesa Huerfanita on Google Earth and you’ll find a nearby mountain scarred by a long concrete strip with a short leg at the northern end pointing east. That’s the loony church’s private airport.

A zig-zag white line from the strip heads north. That’s the church’s private road. It leads to the two linked circles — invisible from the land below. The spot is north of Roswell — a town linked to UFO sightings.

More on The Sun

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The Secrets of Scientology

Reporter John Sweeney's last investigation into the Church of Scientology resulted in an explosive confrontation with church officials. This time, in a Panorama Special, one of those officials has turned whistleblower to help him reveal the dark secrets of the church, which boasts Hollywood A-listers Tom Cruise and John Travolta among its devotees.

See BBC Panorama website for follow ups

Former Scientologist youth decries Australian ‘forced labor camp’

An Australian man who spend much of his childhood in a facility run by the Church of Scientology told the Seven Network’s Today Tonight that conditions in the compound were inhumane and horrifying.

Shane Kelsey alleged that children kept at the facility — a Rehabilitation Project Force — were separated from their parents and forced to work up to 100 hours per week for no pay. Kids at the compound were forced to wear all black uniforms and required to run where ever they went. They were regularly subjected to forms of brainwashing and hard labor, according to Kelsey.

Independent Federal Senator Nick Xenophon has called for Scientology facilities in Australia to be investigated. “Shane’s story is one of shocking abuse, child abuse, it’s one of a child being enslaved,” he said. “What makes this worse is that this organisation is being subsidised by Australian taxpayers because it doesn’t pay any tax.”

Watch video, courtesy of the Seven Network, below:

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