Scientology and Tom Cruise’s Questionable Marriage(II)

Cults Inside Out, written by American cult expert Rick Alan Ross, is recommended by many main-stream media, and also well received by other cult experts, scholars and professionals in press and legal circles. In 2005, Mr. Rick Alan Ross accepted the interview with Ms Mindy Bond, who was an editor, writer and journalist from Gothamist.com. In order to broaden our readers’ horizons and enrich their knowledge of the western counter-cult movement, Kaiwind.com (aka Facts.org.cn) has translated the interview record into Chinese. The interview record has been divided into seven parts, and Kaiwind.com added a subheading for every part in view of its relatively independent topic. In this Part Two, Mr. Rick Alan Ross expresses his opinions on Scientology and its leader Tom Cruises questionable marriage to Katie Holmes. We have to ask - Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Scientology… thoughts? Scientology seems to play a pivotal role in the supposed Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes pairing and romance. Mr. Cruise, like many people in groups often called "cults," cannot easily tolerate an outside frame of reference. He lives in a kind of traveling Scientology bubble with his entourage of sycophants and assistants. It's doubtful that he could have a serious personal relationship with an unbeliever. Cruise is Scientology's most important living asset and they wouldn't want it any other way. It would be a "mission impossible" for someone to become his spouse without accepting Scientology. Tom Cruise arguably lost his last link to the other side when he replaced his publicist Pat Kingsley with his Scientologist sister. If he doesn't want an unbeliever as a publicist, why would anyone think he wants one for a wife? Scientology appears to be popular with the celebrity set. What do you attribute this to?There may be around 100,000 members of the church worldwide and it's likely that less than 1% of the membership could be called "celebrities." But Scientology specifically and systematically targets celebrities, which is consistent with the teachings of its founder L. Ron Hubbard. That is why they have so-called "Celebrity Centers," to attract and cater to celebs. Tom Cruise often brings people to the LA Celebrity Center. There is something of a Hollywood network of Scientologists within the entertainment industry. Perhaps there is the perception that becoming involved with Scientology is potentially professionally advantageous. Other than that though the same things that hook most people in groups called "cults" works the same for celebrities. It's often like a game of "bait and switch." What you see at first is not necessarily what you get. Scientology actually sells its revelation through courses. So you don't know what it's completely about until you finish the training and reach the higher levels. You hear a lot of talk about OT in Scientology. What is OT?Scientology says that "Operating Thetan" (OT) is roughly its equivalent to the religious concept of a human soul. But there are other more cryptic meanings that connect the word to a belief in preexistence and alien beings from outer space. Scientology is after all the creation of L. Ron Hubbard who was first a Sci-fi writer before becoming a religious prophet. Scientology zealously guards its OT secrets and has used copyright and trade secret law to keep former members from posting this information on the Internet. However, a woman in Holland has successfully beaten them legally and anyone can read Scientology's secret OT teachings by simply going to a website called "Operation Clambake." Original text from: http://gothamist.com/2005/07/18/rick_ross_cult_expert.php