r/scientology

Does Tom Cruise believe Scientology has millions of members or whatever the Church claims?
Or is he aware it's barely 30 000, down significantly from the 1980s?

If he knows, then he must understand clearing the planet is an impossibility.
If he genuinely believes it's in the millions, I don't understand how you make an illusion like this for one of the biggest global movie stars, and I could only assume being David Miscavige is very stressful.

I am a foreign languages major. I studied Chinese and Russian and Arabic.

However I am only fluent in Russian.

Arabic and Chinese were too difficult languages to obtain true fluency.

Apparently Scientologists are very interested in Russia, and I casually mentioned my language skills being proficient in the Russian Language, and also my cousin who works in Moscow, and suddenly Scientologists offered me a job.

And then it snowballed from there.

Hello, I am from Canada, I am currently in a bad situation and I need guidance.

I need to leave Canada forever.

This is connected to Scientology but not in the way that you probably assume.

I ask because I've gone over it in my head and can't decide which is true.

If Hubbard was going out of his way just to con people, he would have done what all con men do and find a way to pull out. But Hubbard also spent hours upon hours in auditing, trying to find answers to questions that only he (probably) asked. It seemed in many ways that he believed his own hype.

But is there a consensus on what is the case? If he was a deliberate con artist or if he believed his "religion"?

Ex-Saff member of 12 months was the eye opener needed to leave.

Inside the Master Class of Manipulation: My Experience with Scientology

​Having experienced the inner workings and policies of Scientology firsthand, I can confidently say it is every bit as mentally abusive, money-grabbing, and destructive as the world suspects. Yet, as horrible as the individual horror stories sound, they don’t fully capture what it felt like just to exist as a Scientologist —the sheer exhaustion of endless hours sitting in a course room, and the heavy, sinking feeling of having wasted so much money on a corporate illusion.

​The tragic reality is that most Scientologists, as individuals, are fundamentally good people. Most of us were just looking to be part of something bigger and to be accepted into a group—a core human need that Scientology is incredibly skilled at exploiting. But the Church's policies are toxic at best, turning that genuine desire for connection into a mechanism for greed and control.

​The Illusion of "Therapy" and the Control Tactics ​At its core, lower-level auditing is nothing more than standard talk therapy with an E-meter attached—something a trained monkey could do at home. However, L. Ron Hubbard cleverly packaged this routine therapy into a strict, proprietary system. To keep people from waking up to this fact, the Church relies on a beautifully orchestrated system of mental abuse:

​The "Misunderstood Word" (MU) Trap: If you disagree with any policy or text, you are told it is solely because you have an MU. You are forced to sit in a room, clearing words and reading until you finally give in. Eventually, everyone smiles and says they understand just to escape the loop.

​The Forced End Phenomenon (EP): Whether it is an intense auditing session or a brutal training drill, the process is engineered never to end until you hit the "End Phenomenon." You are effectively groomed and conditioned to put on a smile, lie, and say how great you feel just so the mental or physical torture will finally stop. ​The Overts and Withholds (O/Ws) Confessionals: You are constantly forced to confess your O/Ws—your hidden sins or bad acts—under the guise of spiritual clearing. It is a master class in manipulation designed to keep you entirely off-balance and compliant.

​The Culture of Blame, Snitching, and Weaponized Files ​When things go wrong in Scientology, the system never takes the blame; instead, it aggressively targets the individual. If a Scientologist gets sick or develops cancer as an example, the culture immediately blames the victim. You are forced to confess your O/Ws or scrutinized for what SP (Suppressive Person) is nearby. Even "New OT8s"—the highest level there will ever be—get sick and die, exposing the ultimate lie of the tech. ​Worse still is the toxic culture of snitching. Under official policy, if you witness someone commit an O/W or voice a doubt and you don't report it, you are written up as equally guilty and culpable. This dynamic forces everyone to shut their mouths and never complain. People quickly learn never to point out systemic contradictions or abuse to one another, because they know it will instantly be reported. ​Once reported, it goes straight into your Ethics file. The Church meticulously hoards these files, waiting for the most convenient moment to weaponize your own vulnerabilities against you. While this creates a prison of fear for regular staff, the consequences are scaled up 100x for Sea Org members, who face total devastation if they step out of line.

​Firsthand Horrors: Bullbaiting and Sea Org Abuse ​My time in the Church, including being at an Advanced Org (ANZO SHAO), exposed me to the harrowing reality of how people are actually treated under this pressure. ​During my own training, I had to endure being "bullbaited" for two hours by a deeply disturbed Sea Org member who hurled graphic, creepy rants at me about pedophilia and being raped by a Catholic priest. While non-Sea Org members usually found a way to have fun with these drills, this supervisor was completely unhinged— drilling me on the creepiest un-true themes while she herself had tears in her eyes.

​Even worse was witnessing the systemic torture of others. I watched a vulnerable Sea Org member on Upper Indoctrinations being pushed around, verbally berated, and drilled for 14 hours a day. She was clearly not all there, crying and begging for it to end, but because she didn't know how to fake a smile to hit her EP, they kept going. To make it more dystopian, high-level executives would walk in, call her stupid to her face, and grill the supervisor on why her "retread" wasn't finished yet after two weeks on upper indocs with rotating twins, completely against policy.

​The Tax-Exempt PR Machine: Deceptive "Public Services" ​To look at the Church from the outside, you would think they run vast humanitarian networks. In reality, these front groups are brilliantly, cynically designed to masquerade as public services. They exist strictly as marketing tactics to buy good publicity and maintain the legal "church" status needed to avoid paying taxes, all while hiding a predatory reality:

​Narconon: Marketed as a revolutionary, drug-free rehab program, it relies entirely on Hubbard’s unscientific "Purification Rundown" (massive doses of niacin and exhausting, dangerous consecutive hours in saunas to "sweat out" toxins). To even get through the front door, patients must already be completely clean of substances, meaning Narconon actively avoids handling acute medical withdrawals or complex medical conditions, yet takes all the credit for the recovery.

​CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights): While it occasionally touches on real instances of psychiatric malpractice, its primary function is not patient advocacy. It is a weaponized scare campaign against mental health professionals, systematically designed to terrify people away from real medical psychiatry and steer them directly into the waiting arms of Scientology auditing.

​Foundation for a Drug-Free World: The Church plaster their logo all over this, but they contribute virtually nothing to it. All of the actual funding, material distribution, and local campaigns are driven entirely by well-meaning individuals who genuinely want to fix their communities. The Church simply swoops in, takes the glory, and uses it as a tax shield.

​VM (Volunteer Ministers): This is perhaps the most deceptive PR stunt of all. Clad in their bright yellow shirts at major global disasters, the Church itself pays for absolutely nothing—no supplies, no food, no medical gear. Instead, they distribute goods donated by other actual relief organizations, take strategic photographs for international press releases, and spend their time administering "assists"—pseudo-scientific placebo physical touching drills meant to convert traumatized people when they are at their most vulnerable.

​Paranoia, Politics, and the Power Grab ​Scientology could have been a healthy, positive thing if it weren't rooted in greed and control. It's easy to see why people liked it, and why some still do. But L. Ron Hubbard ultimately became a megalomaniac and a madman. When the IRS came after him, his intense paranoia trickled down into the policies, and that is where the extremist, weaponized side of Scientology came through full force. Hubbard heavily pulled his mind-control practices from occultists like Aleister Crowley—which is exactly why security checks (Sec Checks) aggressively question you about an occult background. They know exactly what tactics they are reusing. ​Things only grew darker when the power-hungry usurper David Miscavige pulled off his corporate power grab. You can't help but wonder if things might have been different, or if some positive changes could have been implemented, if he hadn't taken the reins. Instead, the political and financial greed was dialed up. The Church’s claim of being non-political is complete nonsense as well; every "Church" has people heavily embedded in the political sphere, and the staff are subjected to a brutal, stats-based pay system that guarantees they don't get paid during inevitable slumps.

​The Ultimate Dystopia ​Hubbard’s sci-fi novel Battlefield Earth is long-winded, excessively wordy drivel, but it serves as a perfect blueprint for what the world would look like if Scientology actually took over. It would be an absolute hell on earth—a fascist dystopia where "up-stat" (khans) executives can get away with literal murder because Hubbard's word is always taken litteral, "wogs" have zero rights, and "ethics" are applied only to keep the slave labor compliant.

​Ultimately, the damage Scientology does to individuals and the cruel separation of families makes it an overall greater evil to society than a good. The transparency of the scam is laid out on the table for everyone to see. Staying in means choosing to drink the "electric Kool-Aid."

As for me, looking back at the mental abuse, the lost time and money, and the systemic cruelty, my absolute biggest "Overt and Withhold" was finally choosing to see right through the bullshit, and yet somehow my words still feel hollow and inadequate to the true horror that is Scientology.

ai used to articulate my thoughts coherently, but is 100% what I experienced and observed first hand.

I also met a few people who admitted they play ball or they would lose thier family.

And a 4th stage cancer patient who out of her mind and conflicted about spend the last of her money on auditing even though she knows deep down she as good as dead. Truely heart breaking.

Obviously im not going to name names... i know i must be an anti social because I wont throw these people under the bus 🖕

another perfect little control tactic, Scientology is just so FUCKED!!!

I know that they are the best trained auditors. But how many actually exist now and are actually in the Church of Scientology? What sort of life do they live? Are they some sort of scientology royalty

I am currently looking into Scientology. I recently joined an Org and have been working toward joining staff. I have a lot of emotions about it, mostly good. So far, it all seems to be helping me in ways I didn’t expect.

I’m still learning and have a long way to go, but I’m excited to see where this journey takes me. I’d love to hear from others who have experience with Scientology or are on a similar path.

I want talk to an Ex- Scientologist. someone who was in the org for a long time. someone who went clear and up the bridge.

We all know that he's a manlet/napoleon complexer, yet what is his actual height, I heard that he's 1,68 m (5'6"), or 1,60 m (5'3¨), or 1,55 m (5'1¨), furthermore, the use of platforms to increase his height makes things even worse.

In the SeaOrg, sex is forbidden unless you’re married.

Why? Imagine the recruitment lines if the SeaOrg was not just the management wing but also was known as one big sex orgy.

Go on the Freewinds and it’s just one big sex party out at sea, with everyone forced to work out and eat a healthy diet and tan, so everyone is looking good.

Instead they embrace damn near celibacy? So not only can’t they be honest about the fact that Xenu is trapped in a mountain prison, but then they try to compel this strict puritanical view of sex.

What’s the fucking point?!

I wondered this, and I need the answer

just check AI and any other research. Emeters are killing you.

Long-term low-voltage electrical exposure—whether from a single "no-let-go" accident or repeated minor household or occupational shocks—can lead to chronic, debilitating physical and psychological conditions known as long-term sequelae.

Despite low voltage (<1,000V) often being dismissed due to minimal external burning, clinical data shows it frequently causes more persistent long-term neurological and psychological issues than high-voltage shocks.

Oggi stavo girando a Milano (zona Buenos Aires/Loreto) e a una certa spunta una signora che mi chiede le mie origini (sono italiana). Dopo che le rispondo mi prende il braccio e mi porta in un ufficio/monolocale, dicendomi che voleva farmi vedere un libro (io pensavo che fosse della Feltrinelli sinceramente). Arrivate in questo posto, mi fa indossare delle cuffie e mi fa vedere un filmato sulla salute mentale, e poi arriva un signore, dall'interno però. La parete di questa stanza era completamente ricoperta con questo libro, e c'era un poster con scritto che fosse il numero 1 bestseller della storia, qualcosa del genere (prima cavolata perchè io non ne avevo mai sentito parlare). A quel punto cerco il titolo del libro sul telefono, e scopro che ha che fare con la chiesa della scientology. In quel momento (un po' tardi direi) sono partiti i campanelli di allarme, quindi ho detto al tipo che avevo un appuntamento e che dovevo andarmene. Lui mi dice che secondo lui erano tutte scuse e di sedermi, ma a quel punto ero fuori dalla porta. Volevo sapere se una cosa simile fosse successa a qualcun altro. Sinceramente io pensavo che la scientology fosse una cosa prevalentemente americana...

i’m a 15 year old who grew up around scientology, and I’m trying to figure things out.
i lost my dad to cancer in 2025, and I’ve been doing this course SRD and other scientology practices, but I’ve realized they haven’t really helped my mental health the way i thought it would be. i’m still struggling with grief and with things that have happened in my life.
i’ve also dealt with bullying. one of my bullies pretended to be someone else online, called me names, posted about me without my permission, and I was worried about stalking. i reported it to my school, but I never went to the police because he’s also a scientologist, and I was afraid of what might happen if i did.
i’m looking for advice from people who have been through something similar. i’m also very scared that if i report that guy who bullied me to the police, i will maybe get in trouble and i do not want that because i love my people.