You have to watch this video. It shows Tom Cruise, with all the wide-eyed fervor that he brings to the promotion of a movie, making the argument for Scientology, the bizarre 20th-century religion. Making the argument is an understatement. The Hollywood actor, star of movies such as Mission Impossible, is a complete fanatic. "When you’re a Scientologist, and you drive by an accident, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one who can really help… We are the way to happiness. We can bring peace and unite cultures." There’s much much more. Let me put it this way: if Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch was an 8 on the scale of scary, this is a 10.
This video’s been passed around privately by reporters and writers investigating Cruise’s ties with Scientology. Most reporters have been wary of taking on the Scientologists, because they have a history of both litigation, and the harassment of critics. The publication of Andrew Morton’s biography of Tom Cruise, which claims he is the second most powerful person in the cult, has seems to have opened the floodgates. Several indoctrination videos were available on Google Video, on Sunday, and showcased on Gawker, before being removed by the person who had originally posted them. Yesterday, for a few hours, the clip of Tom Cruise discussing his beliefs as a Scientologist appeared on Youtube, and was republished by Radar and Defamer. That video is no longer available, most likely after the Church of Scientology sent in a copyright infringement notice. Gawker is now hosting a copy of the video; it’s newsworthy; and we will not be removing it.
Fred writes:
This video caused me to ask the following questions:
1. Is this an act or is it for real? (I assume it is
for real. Nobody would make himself look like that
much of a jerk otherwise.)2. Is the pathology behind this fanaticism the same
garden variety religious fanaticism? Or is there some
other kind of pathology involved?3. Wouldn’t it be creepy being married to this nut?
(Yeah, ladies, I know he’s good looking. But let’s
face it–after you’re done boning him, do you really
want to listen to this crap for the rest of your life?
Wouldn’t you be worried about screwing up your
brain?)I think there is an ego problem here. Cruise has a
huge psychological investment in scientology. His
sense of self is built on this stuff. He needs it to
bolster his sense of self-worth. Maybe he harbors
doubts about his own intelligence, and whether he
really deserves his movie success.In many ways, he reminds me of several friends who had
been sucked into "Lifespring" (sort of like EST). It
took over their psyches and turned them into jerks.
For some reason, it became very important to them to
try to drag their friends and acquaintances into
Lifespring. Proselytizing on behalf of Lifespring
became an almost frantic and urgent need. One woman I
knew became a Lifespring drone and desparately tried
to get one of her girlfriends interested. The
girlfriend replied, "If I had a child, I would rather
have him be a heroin addict than a Lifespring member."
That caused the woman to seriously lose all emotional
composure and start crying. It was amazing to watch.I went to an EST initiation lecture with a buddy of
mine who was a marketing prof at Cal State. My buddy
started taking notes on the presentation. It struck
him as a masterful symphony of high pressure marketing
to psychologically weak people–a perfect subject for
a marketing lecture.For all his success, Mr. Cruise has deep psychological
weaknesses.Luke, do you suppose you could take a normal human
being and turn him into someone like Cruise, or do you
need to work on someone with a psychological weakness
that you can exploit?
