When Tom was a fourteen year old he seriously considered becoming a priest. In later years it became clear that he desperately needed a church to attach himself to as a kind of security blanket after all the lonely years of his childhood. That seems to be how he became involved in the highly controversial Church of Scientology.
Tom--along with a handful of other Hollywood stars -- has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on training courses inside the church, invented by an eccentric one-time sexual swinger. He often spends days at the church's basecamp in the middle of the Californian desert.
For years, Tom would not admit he was a Scientologist . . . Some Hollywood observers believe that Tom's association with the Scientologists has helped him maintain his highly focused work ethics and greatly assisted him in dealing with stardom. Others find it more difficult to accept. The fact the members of the church apparently believe in inter-galactic travel, reincarnation and the possibility of a more fulfilled existence through mind control probably isn't a big deal. Who in California doesn't? Yet some reports have suggested that members of the church can end up deprived of their free will.
The Church of Scientology is a rich and vengeful religious cult, or as one critic puts it, "a cross between the Moonies and the Mafia." But it would be a mistake to dismiss its underlying technology as harmless or ineffective. Scientologists know a great deal about thought control, social control, rhetorical judo (defeat by misdirection, deft use of logical fallacies) and high pressure sales, though as victims of their own technology, they wouldn't characterize it that way.
Despite its extensive advertising campaign, including half-hour TV infomercials for Dianetics, the Church has been careful to maintain a veil of mystery about its teachings, in part by outlawing any meaningful discussion or analysis of them. To learn the inner secrets of the cult requires years of strict obedience and large monetary donations. In return, Scientology promises its adherents "total freedom". The Internet is going to make good on that promise.
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