Scientology is a cult with an estimated 30,000 members worldwide and worth billions of dollars

Scientology was founded as a money-making cult by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer who started the cult with his book Dianetics in 1950 and later called the formal organization Scientology.  The cult rode on the coattails of the emerging self-help movement, and his hundreds of books and policies emerged from stolen philosophical and psychiatric therapeutic ideas.  In order to make these ideas look like his own, he denounced psychiatry, psychology and mental health services and gaslit that they were evil.  

In order to fraudulently apply for and receive tax exemption, he called his mostly for-profit cult a religion and named it the Church of Scientology, even creating a crucifix-like logo, although there is no deity and there is no worship.  The organization’s doctrine is based solely on Hubbard’s brand of self-help “technology” and a great deal of science fiction, including the idea that alien-like body thetans (spirits) create all of our distress and only can be removed (cleared) through paying for and taking many expensive auditing (about $500/hour) and Scientology courses and programs.  

Meeting none of the definition of a religion and all of the definition of a cult, there are no public free weekly religious services or resources.  Members pay for their participation, buying expensive books, expensive “courses”, and hours and hours of expensive auditing (interrogative confession) sessions they suggest are analogous to counseling.  Unless the family also is in the cult, members are forced to give up their family connections and access to outside information (e.g., internet, news, television, media). In addition, significant monetary donations are expected, with celebrities and other wealthy individuals donating hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars each.  Members are encouraged to join the Sea Organization (Sea Org), the cult’s pseudoclergy.  The Sea Org members (including children) are forced to sign a billion year contract (to account for their reincarnation), work 100+ hours per week keeping the machine (cult) running, and sometimes are paid a weekly $47 allowance since their work is considered volunteerism. All of these practices (e.g., services, books, merchandise) are tax exempt. For a look into how emotional terrorism is applied to Scientologists, see this video featuring Leah Remini: https://youtu.be/V0g1L7qfmE8?si=DMTN32p70vbrLwl7

People have a right to believe in what they want. Why should I care? Innocent people are conned (no informed consent) into joining Scientology by taking a free but fake personality test. The resulting profile suggests all of the person’s coping deficiencies and personal obstacles to success (essentially, the fact that they are human), and Scientology promises to make their life better. Once in, the organization forces them to go into debt to maintain their participation through extensive levels (the bridge to total freedom) and keeps them occupied with vast amounts of confusing self-help literature generously laced with L. Ron Hubbard’s gibberish designed to distract members from using their intuition and critical thinking skills. If the “technology” does not work, it is because the member is not using it correctly and they pay again to go through previous steps. They are NOT told that it will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, separation from their loved ones, acceptance of abuse, complicit abuse of others, and indentured slavery over decades in order to achieve fictional clear and gain superpowers. No one willingly would become a scientologist if they were informed of what it really is at the onset. Many scientologists are 2nd and 3rd generation, meaning they were born into it, separated from their trusting parents along the way and indoctrinated before they could consent to participate. But why should you really care? Read on…

WHY IT’S A PROBLEM: The CRIMES of Scientology

Tax Exempt Child Sexual Abuse:  Children as young as 10 years old have been trained to be auditors (interrogative counselors), sometimes locked in rooms for hours with an adult who they are required to ask about very graphic details of their private and, yes, sexual lives. While the cult is puritanical on the surface, child sexual assault is allowed and covered up by the cult.

Watch this video by Degraded Daughters of Dianetics interview with Serge Del Mar: https://youtu.be/vsPP5t-VdBE?si=79_r_hi9ZygjG-Qz. Also, see this video (with trigger warning and adult language: https://www.youtube.com/live/KnLoEQTqPq8?si=gKwQAZtnrKY_DwgW.

Tax Exempt Abuser Protection:  Cult members are not allowed to contact the police when a crime happens to them, especially by another Scientologist. Law enforcement involvement risks the discovery of the abuses of the cult. All crimes are addressed through the cult and are partly resolved through the auditing process, and, because Hubbard’s policy specifies that the victim pulled in the crime (caused it to happen to them), both the perpetrator and the victim may receive the same disciplinary action which may include at least months of labor camp (see below).  If former cult members later attempt to press charges or sue over sexual assault, the cult claims that they have a right to religious arbitration, and the victims are sent back to the cult for investigation rather than the suit being addressed by a real and objective court of law. For a recent example of abuser protection, search the Danny Masterson trial and life sentence conviction. For a discussion of how Scientology claims religious arbitration to prevent courts from trying abuse cases against them, watch this video by Aaron Smith Levin @growingupinscientology https://www.youtube.com/live/GVfSMZkKGu4?si=M9fXjvzFz81WrPdg

Tax Exempt Child Labor and Abuse:  Children are considered to be small adults and are treated as adults.  They work many hours of manual labor (landscaping, construction, management, etc.). Some may attend public school until early adolescence, but they are then groomed through Scientology teachings only (that is, exposed only to the Scientology literature and not exposed to science, math, arts, history, civics, social skills, foreign languages, biology, etc.) and are considered to be “home schooled.” When they eventually do escape, they have no real knowledge or skills; no financial, educational, or work history; scant awareness of pop culture; and no general life skills to apply for a job, lease an apartment, grocery shop, or set up a bank account.

For discussion and personal testimony about children in Scientology, view podcasts and youtube videos at @ChildrenOfScientology. Also, see this interview by Aaron Levin Smith with Jaimie Mustard about his birth and childhood in Scientology and the subsequent post trauma: https://www.youtube.com/live/H3W6XWqdy28?si=CN18jwhBmNSTEzYz. For a more general understanding of the abuses of being born and raised in Scientology, see this video from Peeling Back The Onion: https://youtu.be/50oQIR9T-08?si=ozEUrHBhNkCpuCtk and see this interview with Katherine Spallino at Cults to Consciousness: https://youtu.be/7MytZzXw7SM?si=2w8-rZ6G9iHugoLr or read Katherine Spallino’s book, The Bad Cadet: A Memoir about growing up in Scientology’s Sea Org.

Tax Exempt Elder Abuse:  Once members are too frail to work for the cult, they are placed in Scientology-owned subpar housing without proper medical care, staffed only with untrained members.  They are estranged from their families and live out their remaining days alone and neglected. Members are encouraged to use “natural” health approaches that include specific vitamins in high doses (with no evidence-based efficacy). While medical care is not fully taboo, there is no provision for any type of health insurance for any members who have devoted their life to the organization. And, since Sea Org members do not earn enough income, there is no work record and no social security income later in life. In order to avoid the discovery of abuse, members are strongly discouraged from seeking medical or outside care or contacting their families.

Check out this video about Mike Brown’s mother’s escape from Scientology and the abuse she experienced: https://www.youtube.com/live/btxgyDVea40?si=Dy8F5d_Rb29ekp8G

Tax Exempt Human Trafficking:  There are multiple ongoing lawsuits against the organization regarding transporting children and adults across state and international lines.  Cult members are recruited in other countries and coerced into agreeing to be sent to locations in the United States with a promise of a better life. The cult takes custody from Scientology parents, and their children then are used however the cult sees fit. The cult also traffics adults from one state to another as punishment, to hide them from the law, to separate them from their spouses, or for whatever use they have for them elsewhere. The long-time leader of the organization, David Miscavige, successfully avoids process servers and uses the cult’s financial assets to hide himself on any of the organization’s many secured compounds and hires teams of attorneys to delay legal processes.

Tax Exempt Forced Abortion:  Sea Org members, while allowed to get married to other Sea Org members, are not allowed to have children.  Thousands upon thousands of forced abortions have occurred as a result of this policy. Couples can request to leave the Sea Org if they would like to follow through with a pregnancy, but it is strongly discouraged, and couples often are lied to by separating them and telling each that the other is insisting on abortion. Weekly van trips to clinics have been scheduled in order to carry through with this policy.

Tax Exempt Family Disconnection:  As per Hubbard’s policy, members are forced to never again interact with family members who are not members of the cult or with former members of the cult who have escaped, particularly if any of these people have spoken out against scientology in any way (suppressive persons).  A tell-tale element of any cult is the necessity of separating its members from those who have a vested interest in their welfare. Cult members are not allowed to speak to each other about cult practices or question cult practices, and they certainly are not allowed to speak to anyone outside of the organization about matters of the cult. The undue influence that non-cult family and friends could exert on a cult member surely would result in considering leaving or escaping from the organization.

For a quick video about experiencing childhood in Scientology, watch https://youtu.be/uaqNpwJlyoI?si=2sr7o8NqMnk53Cgw. Learn about the progression of a how a family is destroyed in this conversation with Natalie Webster and Liz Gale: https://www.youtube.com/live/qB3nyNEtDbI?si=Kv5PajVPOfSDi7Yc.

Tax Exempt False Imprisonment and Labor Camps:  Members are not allowed to leave the Sea Org—ever, or at least not until they have gone through a lengthy appeal process in which they usually are coerced to stay.  Roll-call (muster) occurs throughout the day and night to ensure that everyone is accounted for and no one has escaped. Scientology bases sometimes are located in remote locations, surrounded by high security fence barriers and high-tech visual/audio security positioned tightly around the perimeter to prevent escape and to prevent outsiders from rescuing members. Because Sea Org have very little money, no outside resources, no knowledge of public life, and often no personal documentation, and because they are told that the non-Scientologist public citizens are evil and will hurt them (including the police), they are unable to simply walk out of the door. In Clearwater, Florida, the “spiritual headquarters” of Scientology in which the organization owns over 300 mostly contiguous properties, Sea Org members walk freely among the blocks of Scientology-owned properties without escaping, despite no barbed wire fencing (but hundreds of cameras). Bizarrely, they are held captive in the wide open walking amongst public citizens! This observation may be the most disturbing and damning evidence of Scientology’s identity as a high control group.

Learn about the extensive security measures taken at one of the scientology bases at https://www.youtube.com/live/8FZ00ZrvhHw?si=3oqi3Y6CW2D5MaWl. Scientology’s special word for escaping their cult is calling “blowing.” For a detailed account, read Marc Headley’s book, Blown for Good. Also, watch this video and many others from Marc and Claire Headley telling about their escape: https://youtu.be/jxWHJwLJXVU?si=ycNQTOox3-Dp57ln.

In this snitch-culture, members (including spouses and family members within the cult) are required to tell on each other (write up a Knowledge Report, KR) if anyone questions Scientology practices or steps out of policy in any way. Harsh punishments including hard labor camps and subpar meals and sleeping conditions in prison-like settings over months or even years have been regularly applied for cult infractions.

The hallmark of any cult is its high control coercion. Watch this video for an interview with a former scientologist Dylan Gill about typical high control tactics and his experience with abusive control within the organization: https://www.youtube.com/live/IDBtVBKUeUI?si=1P5xyekZPWKO3gj9

Tax Exempt Fair Game Harassment:  This policy includes that anyone escaping from and/or speaking out against the cult will be subject to noisy private investigator harassment including false reporting intended to result in the disruption of the lives of their victims. Scientology hires attorneys who hire private investigators to spy on defectors and other suppressive people (those who speak out against scientology, dubbed SPs). The hired hands go through trash, rent space near a person’s work or home, surveil the person’s neighborhood or tail them in cars, place trackers on personal media devices and cars, make false police reports, and, among other things, publicly make false accusations that could result in loss of income, jobs, relationships, and/or social status. They hire locals to intimidate SPs by keying their cars, nailing or slashing tires, engaging in other irksome vandalism, and instigating hostile and aggressive interactions with SPs that lead to law enforcement involvement.

Where does the money go?  

Real estate, mostly.  Across the U.S. and around the globe, Scientology purchases remote land for their secure bases or hijacks blocks of urban areas that shuts down the communities’ economic development.  In downtown Clearwater, Florida alone, Scientology and Scientology-tied LLCs own well over 300 parcels.  Some of these properties (those they deem are used solely for church business) are property tax exempt and are leeching millions of tax dollars from the city each year.  Many of these buildings sit empty and some with staged business/charitable fronts, preventing legitimate businesses from participating in what should be a flourishing economy in a beautiful Florida beachside town. Locals and tourists are put off by the presence of the cult members arriving by bus loads from dormitory style Scientology-owned living quarters, and they are deterred from strolling on the streets of what feels like a ghost town.

Tax exemption applies to federal, state, and local taxes. Florida does not have a state tax; but, at the federal level, no income tax is paid on the millions of dollars of charitable contributions or other church-related income (e.g., book sales, auditing, courses, donations). Florida law provides an exemption from sales tax for the sales or leases to organizations determined by the IRS to be currently exempt from federal income tax pursuant to s. 501(c)(3), I.R.C., when such leases or purchases are used in carrying on their customary nonprofit activities. See s. 212.08(7)(p), F.S. That is, as a “church” they may sell, lease, or rent items of tangible personal property to members tax exempt.

Income moves upward, so each location brings in money (e.g., books, courses, auditing), and it is sent to the top of the organization. If funds are needed for repairs or resources at a site, they are required to establish the funding themselves. Various duty posts are offered commissions on book sales, course sales, and whatever profit is made from luring in a new member. Yes, recruitment is similar to a multi-level marketing scheme. Money also goes to supporting David Miscavige’s lavish lifestyle and covering the extensive costs of litigation and avoiding litigation against Scientology and David Miscavige (out-of-court settlements). And, of course, a great deal of money goes to the “war chest” to cover the cost of Fair Gaming defectors and never-ins who speak out against the organization.