I recently read a book by Lawrence Wright entitled “Going Clear – Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief.” He has previously won a Pulitzer prize for a book called “The Looming Tower” and it is a wonderfully written book. The topic however is highly controversial and there also no doubt that the Church of Scientology has probably sued more people than any other Church or religious group. There will no doubt be some sort of legal action as a result of this book which deals extensively with the leader of the Church, David Miscavige as well as the Church’s star attraction, Tom Cruise. Other famous stars who are Scientologists include John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and the book has plenty of details about the stars, as well as the ordinary members of the Church.

The book alleges, amongst other things, that the Church looks amongst its members for actresses suitable to date Tom Cruise and for example recently set him up with a 19 year old, who he dated for a few months when he was of course was in his late 40’s. Apparently, once you achieve a certain level within the Church, you are allowed to read certain secrets so you understand more about the Church and the world and at OT level III, members allegedly discover that free floating thetans, which are the souls of people who have been dead for 75 million years from other planets, attach themselves to living people and there can be millions of them clustered in each person’s body. In short, as I understood the book to be explaining it, we are all made up of millions of aliens according to Scientology – from another planetary system and a long time ago. I will certainly be interesting, in light of this book, so see what court cases flow from this. The Church, while not necessarily having a huge membership, certainly is extremely wealthy. It is recognized as a religion on some countries while other countries such as Germany do not recognize it as a religion.