14 DAY TRIAL // Tom Cruise is arguably the Scientologist with the highest profile, which is why he’s also being used as an example for the entire community, that is, all the other members of the cult, a former Scientologist tells Radar Online. Marc Headley left the cult about five years ago and now, in a book called “Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology,” he plans to shed light on what’s going on behind the closed doors of the Church of Scientology.
Speaking with Radar ahead of the release of the book, Headley says smaller-ranked Scientologists were constantly summoned and gathered in conference halls, and then made to watch videos with Tom Cruise. Oppositely, they were not allowed to read newspapers or watch TV, so that the re-edited films they were shown were the only side of the “truth” they knew. And, according to Headley, it was propaganda of the most controlling and brain-washing type.
“Everyone there thought Tom Cruise was just brilliant. Absolutely all the employees looked up to him. At the International Headquarters they would record any appearances on TV shows or even mentions of Tom Cruise, or little stories they heard about him. Then they would re edit them and cut them together into a five or ten minute video of all the snippets of him on TV. But it was never the full interview or story. It was totally like ‘1984.’ It’s propaganda in there. You are told what is happening in the outside world and that’s what you believe. And what they are showing you is on TV so you trust that. I didn’t know it was edited like that.” Headley says.
He spent about 15 years with the cult and only decided to leave it when he accidentally stumbled upon the truth and thought he should further investigate it. Headley says he always believed the Tom Cruise videos were the real deal – until, one day, he saw a Conan O’Brien show and heard only some of the things that are usually being said or printed in the media about the actor and Scientology in general. He started asking questions and inevitably came to the conclusion that the best thing he could do was to get out.
The same doesn’t apply for Cruise’s now-wife, Katie Holmes, though, Headley believes. “If you leave and you say, ‘I don’t want to do this and I don’t want to be here then you are punished.’ You are threatened with physical and physiological harm. Katie has had to do stuff for Scientology too. Scientology will say, ‘you don’t have to be with a Scientologist.’ But you have to remember that their goal is to clear the planet. The underlying theme in Scientology is an effort to clear the planet and make a new civilization of all Scientologists. You aren’t going to find many couples where one is all the way at the top of Scientology and the other doesn’t even believe in it. Put it that way.” the former cult member further explains.