{"id":10030,"date":"2011-02-14T00:00:54","date_gmt":"2011-02-13T23:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=10030"},"modified":"2011-02-08T15:59:05","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T14:59:05","slug":"the-apostate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/02\/the-apostate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Apostate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology.<\/em><\/p>\n

On August 19, 2009, Tommy Davis, the chief spokesperson for the Church of Scientology International, received a letter from the film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis. \u201cFor ten months now I have been writing to ask you to make a public statement denouncing the actions of the Church of Scientology of San Diego,\u201d Haggis wrote. Before the 2008 elections, a staff member at Scientology\u2019s San Diego church had signed its name to an online petition supporting Proposition 8, which asserted that the State of California should sanction marriage only \u201cbetween a man and a woman.\u201d The proposition passed. As Haggis saw it, the San Diego church\u2019s \u201cpublic sponsorship of Proposition 8, which succeeded in taking away the civil rights of gay and lesbian citizens of California\u2014rights that were granted them by the Supreme Court of our state\u2014is a stain on the integrity of our organization and a stain on us personally. Our public association with that hate-filled legislation shames us.\u201d Haggis wrote, \u201cSilence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent.\u201d He concluded, \u201cI hereby resign my membership in the Church of Scientology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis was prominent in both Scientology and Hollywood, two communities that often converge. Although he is less famous than certain other Scientologists, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, he had been in the organization for nearly thirty-five years. Haggis wrote the screenplay for \u201cMillion Dollar Baby,\u201d which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004, and he wrote and directed \u201cCrash,\u201d which won Best Picture the next year\u2014the only time in Academy history that that has happened.<\/p>\n

Davis, too, is part of Hollywood society; his mother is Anne Archer, who starred in \u201cFatal Attraction\u201d and \u201cPatriot Games,\u201d among other films. Before becoming Scientology\u2019s spokesperson, Davis was a senior vice-president of the church\u2019s Celebrity Centre International network.<\/p>\n

In previous correspondence with Davis, Haggis had demanded that the church publicly renounce Proposition 8. \u201cI feel strongly about this for a number of reasons,\u201d he wrote. \u201cYou and I both know there has been a hidden anti-gay sentiment in the church for a long time. I have been shocked on too many occasions to hear Scientologists make derogatory remarks about gay people, and then quote L.R.H. in their defense.\u201d The initials stand for L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, whose extensive writings and lectures form the church\u2019s scripture. Haggis related a story about Katy, the youngest of three daughters from his first marriage, who lost the friendship of a fellow-Scientologist after revealing that she was gay. The friend began warning others, \u201cKaty is \u20181.1.\u2019 \u201d The number refers to a sliding Tone Scale of emotional states that Hubbard published in a 1951 book, \u201cThe Science of Survival.\u201d A person classified \u201c1.1\u201d was, Hubbard said, \u201cCovertly Hostile\u201d\u2014\u201cthe most dangerous and wicked level\u201d\u2014and he noted that people in this state engaged in such things as casual sex, sadism, and homosexual activity. Hubbard\u2019s Tone Scale, Haggis wrote, equated \u201chomosexuality with being a pervert.\u201d (Such remarks don\u2019t appear in recent editions of the book.)<\/p>\n

In his resignation letter, Haggis explained to Davis that, for the first time, he had explored outside perspectives on Scientology. He had read a recent expos\u00e9 in a Florida newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times,<\/em> which reported, among other things, that senior executives in the church had been subjecting other Scientologists to physical violence. Haggis said that he felt \u201cdumbstruck and horrified,\u201d adding, \u201cTommy, if only a fraction of these accusations are true, we are talking about serious, indefensible human and civil-rights violations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Online, Haggis came across an appearance that Davis had made on CNN, in May, 2008. The anchor John Roberts asked Davis about the church\u2019s policy of \u201cdisconnection,\u201d in which members are encouraged to separate themselves from friends or family members who criticize Scientology. Davis responded, \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as disconnection as you\u2019re characterizing it. And certainly we have to understand\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what is disconnection?\u201d Roberts interjected.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientology is a new religion,\u201d Davis continued. \u201cThe majority of Scientologists in the world, they\u2019re first generation. So their family members aren\u2019t going to be Scientologists. . . . So, certainly, someone who is a Scientologist is going to respect their family members\u2019 beliefs\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, what is disconnection?\u201d Roberts said again.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2014and we consider family to be a building block of any society, so anything that\u2019s characterized as disconnection or this kind of thing, it\u2019s just not true. There isn\u2019t any such policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his resignation letter, Haggis said, \u201cWe all know this policy exists. I didn\u2019t have to search for verification\u2014I didn\u2019t have to look any further than my own home.\u201d Haggis reminded Davis that, a few years earlier, his wife had been ordered to disconnect from her parents \u201cbecause of something absolutely trivial they supposedly did twenty-five years ago when they resigned from the church. . . . Although it caused her terrible personal pain, my wife broke off all contact with them.\u201d Haggis continued, \u201cTo see you lie so easily, I am afraid I had to ask myself: what else are you lying about?\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis forwarded his resignation to more than twenty Scientologist friends, including Anne Archer, John Travolta, and Sky Dayton, the founder of EarthLink. \u201cI felt if I sent it to my friends they\u2019d be as horrified as I was, and they\u2019d ask questions as well,\u201d he says. \u201cThat turned out to be largely not the case. They were horrified that I\u2019d send a letter like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tommy Davis told me, \u201cPeople started calling me, saying, \u2018What\u2019s this letter Paul sent you?\u2019 \u201d The resignation letter had not circulated widely, but if it became public it would likely cause problems for the church. The St. Petersburg Times<\/em> expos\u00e9 had inspired a fresh series of hostile reports on Scientology, which has long been portrayed in the media as a cult. And, given that some well-known Scientologist actors were rumored to be closeted homosexuals, Haggis\u2019s letter raised awkward questions about the church\u2019s attitude toward homosexuality. Most important, Haggis wasn\u2019t an obscure dissident; he was a celebrity, and the church, from its inception, has depended on celebrities to lend it prestige. In the past, Haggis had defended the religion; in 1997, he wrote a letter of protest after a French court ruled that a Scientology official was culpable in the suicide of a man who fell into debt after paying for church courses. \u201cIf this decision carries it sets a terrible precedent, in which no priest or minister will ever feel comfortable offering help and advice to those whose souls are tortured,\u201d Haggis wrote. To Haggis\u2019s friends, his resignation from the Church of Scientology felt like a very public act of betrayal. They were surprised, angry, and confused. \u201c \u2018Destroy the letter, resign quietly\u2019\u2014that\u2019s what they all wanted,\u201d Haggis says.<\/p>\n

Last March, I met Haggis in New York. He was in the editing phase of his latest movie, \u201cThe Next Three Days,\u201d a thriller starring Russell Crowe, in an office in SoHo. He sat next to a window with drawn shades, as his younger sister Jo Francis, the film\u2019s editor, showed him a round of cuts. Haggis wore jeans and a black T-shirt. He is bald, with a trim blond beard, pale-blue eyes, and a nose that was broken in a schoolyard fight. He always has several projects going at once, and there was a barely contained feeling of frenzy. He glanced repeatedly at his watch.<\/p>\n

Haggis, who is fifty-seven, was preparing for two events later that week: a preview screening in New York and a trip to Haiti. He began doing charitable work in Haiti well before the 2010 earthquake, and he has raised millions of dollars for that country. He told me that he was planning to buy ten acres of land in Port-au-Prince for a new school, which he hoped to have open in the fall. (In fact, the school\u2014the first to offer free secondary education to children from the city\u2019s slums\u2014opened in October.) In Hollywood, he is renowned for his ability to solicit money. The actor Ben Stiller, who has accompanied Haggis to Haiti, recalls that Haggis once raised four and a half million dollars in two hours.<\/p>\n

While watching the edits, Haggis fielded calls from a plastic surgeon who was planning to go on the trip, and from a priest in Haiti, Father Rick Frechette, whose organization is the main beneficiary of Haggis\u2019s charity. \u201cFather Rick is a lot like me\u2014a cynical optimist,\u201d Haggis told me. He also said of himself, \u201cI\u2019m a deeply broken person, and broken institutions fascinate me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis\u2019s producing partner, Michael Nozik, says, \u201cPaul likes to be contrarian. If everyone is moving left, he\u2019ll feel the need to move right.\u201d The actor Josh Brolin, who appeared in Haggis\u2019s film \u201cIn the Valley of Elah\u201d (2007), told me that Haggis \u201cdoes things in extremes.\u201d Haggis is an outspoken promoter of social justice, in the manner of Hollywood activists like Sean Penn and George Clooney. The actress Maria Bello describes him as self-deprecating and sarcastic, but also deeply compassionate. She recalls being with him in Haiti shortly after the earthquake; he was standing in the bed of a pickup truck, \u201cwith a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and a big smile on his face, and absolutely no fear.\u201d Though Haggis is passionate about his work, he can be cool toward those who are closest to him. Lauren Haggis, the second daughter from his first marriage, said that he never connected with his children. \u201cHe\u2019s emotionally not there,\u201d she says. \u201cThat\u2019s funny, because his scripts are full of emotion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the editing room, Haggis felt the need for a cigarette, so we walked outside. He is ashamed of this habit, especially given that, in 2003, while directing \u201cCrash,\u201d he had a heart attack. After Haggis had emergency surgery, his doctor told him that it would be four or five months before he could work again: \u201cIt would be too much strain on your heart.\u201d He replied, \u201cLet me ask you how much stress you think I might be under as I\u2019m sitting at home while another director is finishing my fucking film!<\/em>\u201d The doctor relented, but demanded that a nurse be on the set to monitor Haggis\u2019s vital signs. Since then, Haggis has tried repeatedly to quit smoking. He had stopped before shooting \u201cThe Next Three Days,\u201d but Russell Crowe was smoking, and that did him in. \u201cThere\u2019s always a good excuse,\u201d he admitted. Before his heart attack, he said, \u201cI thought I was invincible.\u201d He added, \u201cI still do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis had not spoken publicly about his resignation from Scientology. As we stood in a chill wind on Sixth Avenue, he was obviously uncomfortable discussing it, but he is a storyteller, and he eventually launched into a narrative.<\/p>\n

Haggis wasn\u2019t proud of his early years. \u201cI was a bad kid,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t kill anybody. Not that I didn\u2019t try.\u201d He was born in 1953, and grew up in London, Ontario, a manufacturing town midway between Toronto and Detroit. His father, Ted, had a construction company there, which specialized in pouring concrete. His mother, Mary, a Catholic, sent Paul and his two younger sisters, Kathy and Jo, to Mass on Sundays\u2014until she spotted their priest driving an expensive car. \u201cGod wants me to have a Cadillac,\u201d the priest explained. Mary responded, \u201cThen God doesn\u2019t want us in your church anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis decided at an early age to be a writer, and he made his own comic books. But he was such a poor student that his parents sent him to a strict boarding school, where the students were assigned cadet drills. He preferred to sit in his room reading Ramparts<\/em>, the radical magazine from America\u2014the place he longed to be. He committed repeated infractions, but he learned to pick locks so that he could sneak into the prefect\u2019s office and eliminate his demerits.<\/p>\n

After a year of this, his parents transferred him to a progressive boys\u2019 school in Bracebridge, Ontario, where there was very little system to subvert. Haggis grew his curly blond hair to his shoulders. He discovered a mentor in his art teacher, Max Allen, who was politically radical and gay. Flouting Ontario\u2019s strict censorship laws, Allen opened a theatre in Toronto that showed banned films; Haggis volunteered at the box office.<\/p>\n

Haggis got caught forging a check, and he soon left school. He was drifting, hanging out with hippies and drug dealers. Two friends died from overdoses. \u201cI had a gun pointed in my face a couple of times,\u201d he recalls. He attended art school briefly, then quit; after taking some film classes at a community college, he dropped out of that as well. He began working in construction full time for his father. He also was the manager of a hundred-seat theatre that his father had created in an abandoned church. On Saturday nights, he set up a movie screen onstage, introducing himself and other film buffs to the works of Bergman, Hitchcock, and the French New Wave. He was so affected by Michelangelo Antonioni\u2019s \u201cBlow-Up\u201d that in 1974 he decided to move to England, in order to become a fashion photographer, like the hero of the movie. That lasted less than a year.<\/p>\n

Back in London, Ontario, he fell in love with Diane Gettas, a nurse, and they began sharing a one-bedroom apartment. He was starting to get his life together, but he was haunted by something that his grandfather had said to him on his deathbed. \u201cHe was a janitor in a bowling alley,\u201d Haggis told me. \u201cHe had left England because of some scandal we don\u2019t know about. He died when I was twelve or thirteen. He looked terrible. He turned to me and said, \u2018I\u2019ve wasted my life. Don\u2019t waste yours.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

One day in 1975, when he was twenty-two, Haggis was walking to a record store. When he arrived at the corner of Dundas and Waterloo Streets, a young man pressed a book into his hands. \u201cYou have a mind,\u201d the man said. \u201cThis is the owner\u2019s manual.\u201d The man, whose name was Jim Logan, added, \u201cGive me two dollars.\u201d The book was \u201cDianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health,\u201d by L. Ron Hubbard, which was published in 1950. By the time Haggis began reading it, \u201cDianetics\u201d had sold about two and a half million copies. Today, according to the church, that figure has reached more than twenty-one million.<\/p>\n

Haggis opened the book and saw a page stamped with the words \u201cChurch of Scientology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake me there,\u201d Haggis said to Logan.<\/p>\n

Haggis had heard about Scientology a couple of months earlier, from a friend who had called it a cult. The thought that he might be entering a cult didn\u2019t bother him. In fact, he said, \u201cit drew my interest. I tend to run toward things I don\u2019t understand.\u201d When he arrived at the church\u2019s headquarters, he recalled, \u201cit didn\u2019t look like a cult. Two guys in a small office above Woolworth\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Haggis and Gettas were having arguments; the Scientologists told him that taking church courses would improve the relationship. \u201cIt was pitched to me as applied philosophy,\u201d Haggis says. He and Gettas took a course together and, shortly afterward, became Hubbard Qualified Scientologists, one of the first levels in what the church calls the Bridge to Total Freedom.<\/p>\n

The Church of Scientology says that its purpose is to transform individual lives and the world. \u201cA civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology,\u201d Hubbard wrote. Scientology postulates that every person is a Thetan\u2014an immortal spiritual being that lives through countless lifetimes. Scientologists believe that Hubbard discovered the fundamental truths of existence, and they revere him as \u201cthe source\u201d of the religion. Hubbard\u2019s writings offer a \u201ctechnology\u201d of spiritual advancement and self-betterment that provides \u201cthe means to attain true spiritual freedom and immortality.\u201d A church publication declares, \u201cScientology works 100 percent of the time when it is properly applied to a person who sincerely desires to improve his life.\u201d Proof of this efficacy, the church says, can be measured by the accomplishments of its adherents. \u201cAs Scientologists in all walks of life will attest, they have enjoyed greater success in their relationships, family life, jobs and professions. They take an active, vital role in life and leading roles in their communities. And participation in Scientology brings to many a broader social consciousness, manifested through meaningful contribution to charitable and social reform activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1955, a year after the church\u2019s founding, an affiliated publication urged Scientologists to cultivate celebrities: \u201cIt is obvious what would happen to Scientology if prime communicators benefitting from it would mention it.\u201d At the end of the sixties, the church established its first Celebrity Centre, in Hollywood. (There are now satellites in Paris, Vienna, D\u00fcsseldorf, Munich, Florence, London, New York, Las Vegas, and Nashville.) Over the next decade, Scientology became a potent force in Hollywood. In many respects, Haggis was typical of the recruits from that era, at least among those in the entertainment business. Many of them were young and had quit school in order to follow their dreams, but they were also smart and ambitious. The actress Kirstie Alley, for example, left the University of Kansas in 1970, during her sophomore year, to get married. Scientology, she says, helped her lose her craving for cocaine. \u201cWithout Scientology, I would be dead,\u201d she has said.<\/p>\n

In 1975, the year that Haggis became a Scientologist, John Travolta, a high-school dropout, was making his first movie, \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Rain,\u201d in Durango, Mexico, when an actress on the set gave him a copy of \u201cDianetics.\u201d \u201cMy career immediately took off,\u201d he told a church publication. \u201cScientology put me into the big time.\u201d The testimonials of such celebrities have attracted many curious seekers. In Variety<\/em>, Scientology has advertised courses promising to help aspiring actors \u201cmake it in the industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of those actors, Josh Brolin, told me that, in a \u201cmoment of real desperation,\u201d he visited the Celebrity Centre and received \u201cauditing\u201d\u2014spiritual counselling. He quickly decided that Scientology wasn\u2019t for him. But he still wonders what the religion does for celebrities like Cruise and Travolta: \u201cEach has a good head on his shoulders, they make great business decisions, they seem to have wonderful families. Is that because they were helped by Scientology?\u201d This is the question that makes celebrities so crucial to the religion. And, clearly, there must be something rewarding if such notable people lend their names to a belief system that is widely scorned.<\/p>\n

Brolin says that he once witnessed John Travolta practicing Scientology. Brolin was at a dinner party in Los Angeles with Travolta and Marlon Brando. Brando arrived with a cut on his leg, and explained that he had injured himself while helping a stranded motorist on the Pacific Coast Highway. He was in pain. Travolta offered to help, saying that he had just reached a new level in Scientology. Travolta touched Brando\u2019s leg and Brando closed his eyes. \u201cI watched this process going on\u2014it was very physical,\u201d Brolin recalls. \u201cI was thinking, This is really fucking bizarre! Then, after ten minutes, Brando opens his eyes and says, \u2018That really helped. I actually feel different!\u2019 \u201d (Travolta, through a lawyer, called this account \u201cpure fabrication.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Many Hollywood actors were drawn into the church by a friend or by reading \u201cDianetics\u201d; a surprising number of them, though, came through the Beverly Hills Playhouse. For decades, the resident acting coach there was Milton Katselas, and he taught hundreds of future stars, including Ted Danson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and George Clooney. \u201cMost of Hollywood went through that class,\u201d Anne Archer told me. In 1974, two years after her son Tommy Davis was born, she began studying with Katselas. She was a young mother in a dissolving marriage, coming off a television series (\u201cBob & Carol & Ted & Alice\u201d) that had been cancelled after one season. Katselas had a transformative effect. She recalled discussions \u201cabout life, people, and behavior,\u201d and said that Katselas \u201csaid some things in class that were really smart.\u201d Some of the other students told her that Katselas was a Scientologist, so she began the Life Repair program at the Celebrity Centre. \u201cI went two or three times a week, probably for a couple of weeks,\u201d she said. \u201cI remember walking out of the building and walking down the street toward my car and I felt like my feet were not touching the ground. And I said to myself, \u2018My God, this is the happiest I\u2019ve ever been in my entire life. I\u2019ve finally found something that works.\u2019 \u201d She added, \u201cLife didn\u2019t seem so hard anymore. I was back in the driver\u2019s seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Gordon, a veteran police officer in Los Angeles, and also an aspiring actor, spent ten years at the Playhouse, starting in 1990. He told me that Scientology \u201crecruited a ton of kids out of that school.\u201d Like Scientology, the Playhouse presented a strict hierarchy of study; under Katselas\u2019s tutelage, students graduated from one level to the next. As Gordon advanced within the Playhouse, he began recognizing many students from the roles they were getting in Hollywood. \u201cYou see a lot of people you know from TV,\u201d Gordon says. He began feeling the pull of the church. \u201cWhen you started off, they weren\u2019t really pushing it, but as you progressed through the Playhouse\u2019s levels Scientology became more of a focus,\u201d he told me. After a few years, he joined. Like the courses at the Playhouse, Scientology offered actors a method that they could apply to both their lives and their careers.<\/p>\n

Not long after Gordon became a Scientologist, he was asked to serve as an \u201cethics officer\u201d at the Playhouse, monitoring the progress of other students and counselling those who were having trouble. He was good at pinpointing students who were struggling. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like picking out the wounded chicks,\u201d he says. He sometimes urged a student to meet with the senior ethics officer at the Playhouse, a Scientologist who often recommended courses at the Celebrity Centre. \u201cMy job was to keep the students active and make sure they were not being suppressed,\u201d Gordon says. In the rhetoric of Scientology, \u201csuppressive persons\u201d\u2014or S.P.s\u2014block an individual\u2019s spiritual progress. Implicitly, the message to the students was that success awaited them if only they could sweep away the impediments to stardom, including S.P.s. Katselas received a ten-per-cent commission from the church on the money contributed by his students.<\/p>\n

Katselas died in 2008, and Scientology no longer has a connection with the Beverly Hills Playhouse. Anne Archer told me that the reputation of Katselas\u2019s class as, in Gordon\u2019s words, a \u201cScientology clearinghouse\u201d is overblown. \u201cHis classes averaged about fifty or sixty people, and there would be maybe seven to ten people in it who would be Scientologists,\u201d she says. But the list of Scientologists who have studied at the Playhouse is long\u2014it includes Jenna Elfman, Giovanni Ribisi, and Jason Lee\u2014and the many prot\u00e9g\u00e9s Katselas left behind helped cement the relationship between Hollywood and the church.<\/p>\n

Haggis and I travelled together to L.A., where he was presenting \u201cThe Next Three Days\u201d to the studio. During the flight, I asked him how high he had gone in Scientology. \u201cAll the way to the top,\u201d he said. Since the early eighties, he had been an Operating Thetan VII, which was the highest level available when he became affiliated with the church. (In 1988, a new level, O.T. VIII, was introduced to members; it required study at sea, and Haggis declined to pursue it.) He had made his ascent by buying \u201cintensives\u201d\u2014bundled hours of auditing, at a discount rate. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t so expensive back then,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

David S. Touretzky, a computer-science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has done extensive research on Scientology. (He is not a defector.) He estimates that the coursework alone now costs nearly three hundred thousand dollars, and, with the additional auditing and contributions expected of upper-level members, the cumulative cost of the coursework may exceed half a million dollars. (The church says that there are no fixed fees, adding, \u201cDonations requested for \u2018courses\u2019 at Church of Scientology begin at $50 and could never possibly reach the amount suggested.\u201d)<\/p>\n

I asked Haggis why he had aligned himself with a religion that so many have disparaged. \u201cI identify with the underdog,\u201d he said. \u201cI have a perverse pride in being a member of a group that people shun.\u201d For Haggis, who likes to see himself as a man of the people, his affiliation with Scientology felt like a way of standing with the marginalized and the oppressed. The church itself often hits this note, making frequent statements in support of human rights and religious freedom. Haggis\u2019s experience in Scientology, though, was hardly egalitarian: he accepted the privileges of the Celebrity Centre, which offers notables a private entrance, a V.I.P. lounge, separate facilities for auditing, and other perks. Indeed, much of the appeal of Scientology is the overt \u00e9litism that it promotes among its members, especially celebrities. Haggis was struck by another paradox: \u201cHere I was in this very structured organization, but I always thought of myself as a freethinker and an iconoclast.\u201d<\/p>\n

During our conversations, we spoke about some events that had stained the reputation of the church while he was a member. For example, there was the death of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist who died after a mental breakdown, in 1995. She had rear-ended a car in Clearwater, Florida\u2014where Scientology has its spiritual headquarters\u2014and then stripped off her clothes and wandered naked down the street. She was taken to a hospital, but, in the company of several other Scientologists, she checked out, against doctors\u2019 advice. (The church considers psychiatry an evil profession.) McPherson spent the next seventeen days being subjected to church remedies, such as doses of vitamins and attempts to feed her with a turkey baster. She became comatose, and she died of a pulmonary embolism before church members finally brought her to the hospital. The medical examiner in the case, Joan Wood, initially ruled that the cause of death was undetermined, but she told a reporter, \u201cThis is the most severe case of dehydration I\u2019ve ever seen.\u201d The State of Florida filed charges against the church. In February, 2000, under withering questioning from experts hired by the church, Wood declared that the death was \u201caccidental.\u201d The charges were dropped and Wood resigned.<\/p>\n

Haggis said that, at the time, he had chosen not to learn the details of McPherson\u2019s death. \u201cI had such a lack of curiosity when I was inside,\u201d Haggis said. \u201cIt\u2019s stunning to me, because I\u2019m such a curious person.\u201d He said that he had been \u201csomewhere between uninterested in looking and afraid of looking.\u201d His life was comfortable, he liked his circle of friends, and he didn\u2019t want to upset the balance. It was also easy to dismiss people who quit the church. As he put it, \u201cThere\u2019s always disgruntled folks who say all sorts of things.\u201d He was now ashamed of this willed myopia, which, he noted, clashed with what he understood to be the ethic of Scientology: \u201cHubbard says that there is a relationship between knowledge, responsibility, and control, and as soon as you know something you have a responsibility to act. And, if you don\u2019t, shame on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since resigning, Haggis had been wondering why it took him so long to leave. In an e-mail exchange, I noted that higher-level Scientologists are supposed to be free of neuroses and allergies, and resistant to the common cold. \u201cDianetics\u201d also promises heightened powers of intelligence and perception. Haggis had told me that he fell far short of this goal. \u201cDid you feel it was your fault?\u201d I asked. Haggis responded that, because the auditing took place over a number of years, it was easy to believe that he might actually be smarter and wiser because of it, just as that might be true after years of therapy. \u201cIt is all so subjective, how is one supposed to know?\u201d he wrote. \u201cHow does it feel to be smarter today than you were two months ago? . . . But yes, I always felt false.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that a Scientologist hearing this would feel, with some justification, that he had misled his auditors about his progress. But, after hundreds of hours of auditing sessions, he said, \u201cI remember feeling I just wanted it over. I felt it wasn\u2019t working, and figured that could be my fault, but did not want the hours of \u2018repair auditing\u2019 that they would tell me I needed to fix it. So I just went along, to my shame. I did what was easy . . . without asking them, or myself, any hard questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Haggis first turned to Scientology, he considered himself an atheist. Scientology seemed to him less a religion than a set of useful principles for living. He mentioned the ARC Triangle; \u201cARC\u201d stands for \u201cAffinity, Reality, and Communication.\u201d Affinity, in this formulation, means the emotional response that partners have toward each other; reality is the area of common agreement. Together, these contribute to the flow of communication. \u201cThe three parts together equal understanding,\u201d Haggis said. \u201cIf you\u2019re having a disagreement with someone, your affinity drops quickly. Your mutual reality is shattered. Your communication becomes more halted. You begin to talk over each other. There\u2019s less and less understanding. But all you need to do is to raise one part of the triangle and you increase the others as well. I still use that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some aspects of Scientology baffled him. He hadn\u2019t been able to get through \u201cDianetics\u201d: \u201cI read about thirty pages. I thought it was impenetrable.\u201d But much of the coursework gave him a feeling of accomplishment. He was soon commuting from London, Ontario, to Toronto to take more advanced courses, and, in 1976, he travelled to Los Angeles for the first time. He checked in at the old Chateau \u00c9lys\u00e9e, on Franklin Avenue. Clark Gable and Katharine Hepburn had once stayed there, but when Haggis arrived it was a run-down church retreat called the Manor Hotel. (It has since been spectacularly renovated and turned into the flagship Celebrity Centre.) \u201cI had a little apartment with a kitchen I could write in,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThere was a feeling of camaraderie that was something I\u2019d never experienced\u2014all these atheists looking for something to believe in, and all these loners looking for a club to join.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recruits had a sense of boundless possibility. Mystical powers were forecast; out-of-body experiences were to be expected; fundamental secrets were to be revealed. Hubbard had boasted that Scientology had raised some people\u2019s I.Q. one point for every hour of auditing. \u201cOur most spectacular feat was raising a boy from 83 I.Q. to 212,\u201d he told the Saturday Evening Post<\/em>, in 1964.<\/p>\n

At the Manor Hotel, Haggis went \u201cClear.\u201d The concept comes from \u201cDianetics\u201d; it is where you start if you want to ascend to the upper peaks of Scientology. A person who becomes Clear is \u201cadaptable to and able to change his environment,\u201d Hubbard writes. \u201cHis ethical and moral standards are high, his ability to seek and experience pleasure is great. His personality is heightened and he is creative and constructive.\u201d Someone who is Clear is less susceptible to disease and is free of neuroses, compulsions, repressions, and psychosomatic illnesses. \u201cThe dianetic Clear<\/em> is to a current normal individual as the current normal is to the severely insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going Clear \u201cwas not life-changing,\u201d Haggis says. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t, like, \u2018Oh, my God, I can fly!\u2019 \u201d At every level of advancement, he was encouraged to write a \u201csuccess story\u201d saying how effective his training had been. He had read many such stories by other Scientologists, and they felt \u201coverly effusive, done in part to convince yourself, but also slanted toward giving somebody upstairs approval for you to go on to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1977, Haggis returned to Canada to continue working for his father, who could see that his son was struggling. Ted Haggis asked him what he wanted to do with his life. Haggis said that he wanted to be a writer. His father recalls, \u201cI said, \u2018Well, there are only two places to do that, New York and Los Angeles. Pick one, and I\u2019ll keep you on the payroll for a year.\u2019 Paul said, \u2018I think I\u2019ll go to L.A., because it\u2019s warmer.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after this conversation, Haggis and Diane Gettas got married. Two months later, they loaded up his brown Camaro and drove to Los Angeles, where he got a job moving furniture. He and Diane lived in an apartment with her brother, Gregg, and three other people. In 1978, Diane gave birth to their first child, Alissa. Haggis was spending much of his time and money taking advanced courses and being audited, which involved the use of an electropsychometer, or E-Meter. The device, often compared in the press to a polygraph, measures the bodily changes in electrical resistance that occur when a person answers questions posed by an auditor. (\u201cThoughts have a small amount of mass,\u201d the church contends in a statement. \u201cThese are the changes measured.\u201d) In 1952, Hubbard said of the E-Meter, \u201cIt gives Man his first keen look into the heads and hearts of his fellows.\u201d The Food and Drug Administration has compelled the church to declare that the instrument has no curative powers and is ineffective in diagnosing or treating disease.<\/p>\n

During auditing, Haggis grasped a cylindrical electrode in each hand; when he first joined Scientology, the electrodes were empty soup cans. An imperceptible electrical charge ran from the meter through his body. The auditor asked systematic questions aimed at detecting sources of \u201cspiritual distress.\u201d Whenever Haggis gave an answer that prompted the E-Meter\u2019s needle to jump, that subject became an area of concentration until the auditor was satisfied that Haggis was free of the emotional consequences of the troubling experience.<\/p>\n

Haggis found the E-Meter surprisingly responsive. It seemed to gauge the kinds of thoughts he was having\u2014whether they were angry or happy, or if he was hiding something. The auditor often probed for what Scientologists call \u201cearlier similars.\u201d Haggis explained, \u201cIf you\u2019re having a fight with your girlfriend, the auditor will ask, \u2018Can you remember an earlier time when something like this happened?\u2019 And if you do then he\u2019ll ask, \u2018What about a time before that? And a time before that?\u2019 \u201d Often, the process leads participants to recall past lives. The goal is to uncover and neutralize the emotional memories that are plaguing one\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n

Although Haggis never believed in reincarnation, he says, \u201cI did experience gains. I would feel relief from arguments I\u2019d had with my dad, things I\u2019d done as a teen-ager that I didn\u2019t feel good about. I think I did, in some ways, become a better person. I did develop more empathy for others.\u201d Then again, he admitted, \u201cI tried to find ways to be a better husband, but I never really did. I was still the selfish bastard I always was.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis was moving furniture during the day and taking photographs for church yearbooks on the weekends. At night, he wrote scripts on spec. He met Skip Press, another young writer who was a Scientologist. Press had read one of Haggis\u2019s scripts\u2014an episode of \u201cWelcome Back, Kotter\u201d that he was trying to get to the show\u2019s star, John Travolta. Haggis and Press started hanging out with other aspiring writers and directors who were involved with Scientology. \u201cWe would meet at a restaurant across from the Celebrity Centre called Two Dollar Bill\u2019s,\u201d Press recalls. Chick Corea and other musicians associated with the church played there. Haggis and a friend from this circle eventually got a job writing for cartoons, including \u201cScooby-Doo\u201d and \u201cRichie Rich.\u201d<\/p>\n

By now, Haggis had begun advancing through the upper levels of Scientology. The church defines an Operating Thetan as \u201cone who can handle things without having to use a body or physical means.\u201d An editorial in a 1959 issue of the Scientology magazine Ability<\/em> notes that \u201cneither Lord Buddha nor Jesus Christ were O.T.s, according to the evidence. They were just a shade above Clear.\u201d According to several copies of church documents that have been leaked online, Hubbard\u2019s handwritten instructions for the first level list thirteen mental exercises that attune practitioners to their relationship with others, such as \u201cNote several large and several small male bodies until you have a cognition. Note it down.\u201d In the second level, Scientologists engage in exercises and visualizations that explore oppositional forces:
\nLaughter comes from the rear half and calm from the front half simultaneously. Then they reverse. It gives one a sensation of total disagreement. The trick is to conceive of both at the same time. This tends to knock one out.<\/p>\n

Haggis didn\u2019t have a strong reaction to the material, but then he wasn\u2019t expecting anything too profound. Everyone knew that the big revelations resided in level O.T. III.<\/p>\n

Hubbard called this level the Wall of Fire. He said, \u201cThe material involved in this sector is so vicious, that it is carefully arranged to kill anyone if he discovers the exact truth of it. . . . I am very sure that I was the first one that ever did live through any attempt to attain that material.\u201d The O.T. III candidate is expected to free himself from being overwhelmed by the disembodied, emotionally wounded spirits that have been implanted inside his body. Bruce Hines, a former high-level Scientology auditor who is now a research physicist at the University of Colorado, explained to me, \u201cMost of the upper levels are involved in exorcising these spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process of induction is so long and slow that you really do convince yourself of the truth of some of these things that don\u2019t make sense,\u201d Haggis told me. Although he refused to specify the contents of O.T. materials, on the ground that it offended Scientologists, he said, \u201cIf they\u2019d sprung this stuff on me when I first walked in the door, I just would have laughed and left right away.\u201d But by the time Haggis approached the O.T. III material he\u2019d already been through several years of auditing. His wife was deeply involved in the church, as was his sister Kathy. Moreover, his first writing jobs had come through Scientology connections. He was now entrenched in the community. Success stories in the Scientology magazine Advance! <\/em>added an aura of reality to the church\u2019s claims. Haggis admits, \u201cI was looking forward to enhanced abilities.\u201d Moreover, he had invested a lot of money in the program. The incentive to believe was high.<\/p>\n

In the late seventies, the O.T. material was still quite secret. There was no Google, and Scientology\u2019s confidential scriptures had not yet circulated, let alone been produced in court or parodied on \u201cSouth Park.\u201d \u201cYou were told that this information, if released, would cause serious damage to people,\u201d Haggis told me.<\/p>\n

Carrying an empty, locked briefcase, Haggis went to the Advanced Organization building in Los Angeles, where the material was held. A supervisor then handed him a folder, which Haggis put in the briefcase. He entered a study room, where he finally got to examine the secret document\u2014a couple of pages, in Hubbard\u2019s bold scrawl. After a few minutes, he returned to the supervisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand,\u201d Haggis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know the words?\u201d the supervisor asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the words, I just don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo back and read it again,\u201d the supervisor suggested.<\/p>\n

Haggis did so. In a moment, he returned. \u201cIs this a metaphor?\u201d he asked the supervisor.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d the supervisor responded. \u201cIt is what it is. Do the actions that are required.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s an insanity test, Haggis thought\u2014if you believe it, you\u2019re automatically kicked out. \u201cI sat with that for a while,\u201d he says. But when he read it again he decided, \u201cThis is madness.\u201d<\/p>\n

The many discrepancies between L. Ron Hubbard\u2019s legend and his life have overshadowed the fact that he was a fascinating man: an explorer, a best-selling author, and the founder of one of the few new religious movements of the twentieth century to have survived into the twenty-first. There are several unauthorized Hubbard biographies\u2014most notably, Russell Miller\u2019s \u201cBare-Faced Messiah,\u201d Jon Atack\u2019s \u201cA Piece of Blue Sky,\u201d and Bent Corydon\u2019s \u201cL. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?\u201d All rely on stolen materials and the accounts of defectors, and the church claims that they present a false and fabricated picture of Hubbard\u2019s life. For years, the church has had a contract with a biographer, Dan Sherman, to chronicle the founder\u2019s life, but there is still no authorized book, and the church refused to let me talk to Sherman. (\u201cHe\u2019s busy,\u201d Davis told me.) The tug-of-war between Scientologists and anti-Scientologists over Hubbard\u2019s legacy has created two swollen archetypes: the most important person who ever lived and the world\u2019s greatest con man. Hubbard was certainly grandiose, but to label him merely a fraud is to ignore the complexity of his character.<\/p>\n

Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska, in 1911. His father, a naval officer, was often away, and Hubbard spent part of his childhood on his grandparents\u2019 ranch, in Montana. When his father got posted to Guam, in 1927, Hubbard made two trips to see him. According to Hubbard, on the second trip he continued on to Asia, where he visited the Buddhist lamaseries in the Western Hills of China, \u201cwatching monks meditate for weeks on end.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1933, Hubbard married Margaret Grubb, whom he called Polly; their first child, Lafayette, was born the following year. He visited Hollywood, and began getting work as a screenwriter, very much as Paul Haggis did some forty years later. Hubbard worked on serials for Columbia Pictures, including one called \u201cThe Secret of Treasure Island.\u201d But much of his energy was devoted to publishing stories, often under pseudonyms, in pulp magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

During the Second World War, Hubbard served in the U.S. Navy, and he later wrote that he was gravely injured in battle: \u201cBlinded with injured optic nerves and lame with physical injuries to hip and back at the end of World War II, I faced an almost nonexistent future. I was abandoned by family and friends as a supposedly hopeless cripple.\u201d While languishing in a military hospital in Oakland, California, he said, he fully healed himself, using techniques that became the foundation of Scientology. \u201cI had no one to help me; what I had to know I had to find out,\u201d he wrote in an essay titled \u201cMy Philosophy.\u201d \u201cAnd it\u2019s quite a trick studying when you cannot see.\u201d In some editions of Hubbard\u2019s book \u201cThe Fundamentals of Thought,\u201d published in 1956, a note on the author says, \u201cIt is a matter of medical record that he has twice been pronounced dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the war, Hubbard\u2019s marriage dissolved, and he moved to Pasadena, where he became the housemate of Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist who belonged to an occult society called the Ordo Templi Orientis. An atmosphere of hedonism pervaded the house; Parsons hosted gatherings involving \u201csex magick\u201d rituals.<\/p>\n

In a 1946 letter, Parsons described Hubbard: \u201cHe is a gentleman, red hair, green eyes, honest and intelligent.\u201d Parsons then mentioned his wife\u2019s sister, Betty Northrup, with whom he had been having an affair. \u201cAlthough Betty and I are still friendly, she has transferred her sexual affections to Ron.\u201d One day, Hubbard and Northrup ran off together. In the official Scientology literature, it is claimed that Hubbard was assigned by naval intelligence to infiltrate Parsons\u2019s occult group. \u201cHubbard broke up black magic in America,\u201d the church said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hubbard and Northrup ended up in Los Angeles. He continued writing for the pulps, but he had larger ambitions. He began codifying a system of self-betterment, and set up an office near the corner of La Brea and Sunset, where he tested his techniques on the actors, directors, and writers he encountered. He named his system Dianetics.<\/p>\n

The book \u201cDianetics\u201d appeared in May, 1950, and spent twenty-eight weeks on the New York Times<\/em> best-seller list. Written in a bluff, quirky style and overrun with footnotes that do little to substantiate its findings, \u201cDianetics\u201d purports to identify the source of self-destructive behavior\u2014the \u201creactive mind,\u201d a kind of data bank that is filled with traumatic memories called \u201cengrams,\u201d and that is the source of nightmares, insecurities, irrational fears, and psychosomatic illnesses. The object of Dianetics is to drain the engrams of their painful, damaging qualities and eliminate the reactive mind, leaving a person \u201cClear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dianetics, Hubbard said, was a \u201cprecision science.\u201d He offered his findings to the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association but was spurned; he subsequently portrayed psychiatry and psychology as demonic competitors. He once wrote that if psychiatrists \u201chad the power to torture and kill everyone they would do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists dismissed Hubbard\u2019s book, but hundreds of Dianetics groups sprang up across the U.S. and abroad. The Church of Scientology was officially founded in Los Angeles in February, 1954, by several devoted followers of Hubbard\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

In 1966, Hubbard\u2014who by then had met and married another woman, Mary Sue Whipp\u2014set sail with a handful of Scientologists. The church says that being at sea provided a \u201cdistraction-free environment,\u201d allowing Hubbard \u201cto continue his research into the upper levels of spiritual awareness.\u201d Within a year, he had acquired several oceangoing vessels. He staffed the ships with volunteers, many of them teen-agers, who called themselves the Sea Organization. Hubbard and his followers cruised the Mediterranean searching for loot he had stored in previous lifetimes. (The church denies this.) The defector Janis Grady, a former Sea Org member, told me, \u201cI was on the bridge with him, sailing past Greek islands. There were crosses lining one island. He told me that under each cross is buried treasure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sea Org became the church\u2019s equivalent of a religious order. The group now has six thousand members. They perform tasks such as counselling, maintaining the church\u2019s vast property holdings, and publishing its official literature. Sea Org initiates\u2014some of whom are children\u2014sign contracts for up to a billion years of service. They get a small weekly stipend and receive free auditing and coursework. Sea Org members can marry, but they must agree not to raise children while in the organization.<\/p>\n

As Scientology grew, it was increasingly attacked. In 1963, the Los Angeles Times<\/em> called it a \u201cpseudo-scientific cult.\u201d The church attracted dozens of lawsuits, largely from ex-parishioners. In 1980, Hubbard disappeared from public view. Although there were rumors that he was dead, he was actually driving around the Pacific Northwest in a motor home. He returned to writing science fiction and produced a ten-volume work, \u201cMission Earth,\u201d each volume of which was a best-seller. In 1983, he settled quietly on a horse farm in Creston, California.<\/p>\n

Around that time, Paul Haggis received a message from the church about a film project. Hubbard had written a treatment for a script titled \u201cInfluencing the Planet\u201d and, apparently, intended to direct it. The film was supposed to demonstrate the range of Hubbard\u2019s efforts to improve civilization. With another Scientologist, Haggis completed a script, which he called \u201cquite dreadful.\u201d Hubbard sent him notes on the draft, but no film by that name was ever released.<\/p>\n

In 1985, with Hubbard in seclusion, the church faced two of its most difficult court challenges. In Los Angeles, a former Sea Org member, Lawrence Wollersheim, sought twenty-five million dollars for \u201cinfliction of emotional injury.\u201d He claimed that he had been kept for eighteen hours a day in the hold of a ship docked in Long Beach, and deprived of adequate sleep and food.<\/p>\n

That October, the litigants filed O.T. III materials in court. Fifteen hundred Scientologists crowded into the courthouse, trying to block access to the documents. The church, which considers it sacrilegious for the uninitiated to read its confidential scriptures, got a restraining order, but the Los Angeles Times<\/em> obtained a copy of the material and printed a summary. Suddenly, the secrets that had stunned Paul Haggis in a locked room were public knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cA major cause of mankind\u2019s problems began 75 million years ago,\u201d the Times<\/em> wrote, when the planet Earth, then called Teegeeack, was part of a confederation of ninety planets under the leadership of a despotic ruler named Xenu. \u201cThen, as now, the materials state, the chief problem was overpopulation.\u201d Xenu decided \u201cto take radical measures.\u201d The documents explained that surplus beings were transported to volcanoes on Earth. \u201cThe documents state that H-bombs far more powerful than any in existence today were dropped on these volcanoes, destroying the people but freeing their spirits\u2014called thetans\u2014which attached themselves to one another in clusters.\u201d Those spirits were \u201ctrapped in a compound of frozen alcohol and glycol,\u201d then \u201cimplanted\u201d with \u201cthe seed of aberrant behavior.\u201d The Times<\/em> account concluded, \u201cWhen people die, these clusters attach to other humans and keep perpetuating themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jury awarded Wollersheim thirty million dollars. (Eventually, an appellate court reduced the judgment to two and a half million.) The secret O.T. III documents remained sealed, but the Times<\/em>\u2019 report had already circulated widely, and the church was met with derision all over the world.<\/p>\n

The other court challenge in 1985 involved Julie Christofferson-Titchbourne, a defector who argued that the church had falsely claimed that Scientology would improve her intelligence, and even her eyesight. In a courtroom in Portland, she said that Hubbard had been portrayed to her as a nuclear physicist; in fact, he had failed to graduate from George Washington University. As for Hubbard\u2019s claim that he had cured himself of grave injuries in the Second World War, the plaintiff\u2019s evidence indicated that he had never been wounded in battle. Witnesses for the plaintiff testified that, in one six-month period in 1982, the church had transferred millions of dollars to Hubbard through a Liberian corporation. The church denied this, and said that Hubbard\u2019s income was generated by his book sales.<\/p>\n

The jury sided with Christofferson-Titchbourne, awarding her thirty-nine million dollars. Scientologists streamed into Portland to protest. They carried banners advocating religious freedom and sang \u201cWe Shall Overcome.\u201d Scientology celebrities, including John Travolta, showed up; Chick Corea played a concert in a public park. Haggis, who was writing for the NBC series \u201cThe Facts of Life\u201d at the time, came and was drafted to write speeches. \u201cI wasn\u2019t a celebrity\u2014I was a lowly sitcom writer,\u201d he says. He stayed for four days.<\/p>\n

The judge declared a mistrial, saying that Christofferson-Titchbourne\u2019s lawyers had presented prejudicial arguments. It was one of the greatest triumphs in Scientology\u2019s history, and the church members who had gone to Portland felt an enduring sense of kinship. (A year and a half later, the church settled with Christofferson-Titchbourne for an undisclosed sum.)<\/p>\n

In 1986, Hubbard died, of a stroke, in his motor home. He was seventy-four. Two weeks later, Scientologists gathered in the Hollywood Palladium for a special announcement. A young man, David Miscavige, stepped onto the stage. Short, trim, and muscular, with brown hair and sharp features, Miscavige announced to the assembled Scientologists that, for the past six years, Hubbard had been investigating new, higher O.T. levels. \u201cHe has now moved on to the next level,\u201d Miscavige said. \u201cIt\u2019s a level beyond anything any of us ever imagined. This level is, in fact, done in an exterior state. Meaning that it is done completely exterior from the body. Thus, at twenty-hundred hours, the twenty-fourth of January, A.D. 36\u201d\u2014that is, thirty-six years after the publication of \u201cDianetics\u201d\u2014\u201cL. Ron Hubbard discarded the body he had used in this lifetime.\u201d Miscavige began clapping, and led the crowd in an ovation, shouting, \u201cHip hip hooray!\u201d<\/p>\n

Miscavige was a Scientology prodigy from the Philadelphia area. He claimed that, growing up, he had been sickly, and struggled with bad asthma; Dianetics counselling had dramatically alleviated the symptoms. As he puts it, he \u201cexperienced a miracle.\u201d He decided to devote his life to the religion. He had gone Clear by the age of fifteen, and the next year he dropped out of high school to join the Sea Org. He became an executive assistant to Hubbard, who gave him special tutoring in photography and cinematography. When Hubbard went into seclusion, in 1980, Miscavige was one of the few people who maintained close contact with him. With Hubbard\u2019s death, the curtain rose on a man who was going to impose his personality on an organization facing its greatest test, the death of its charismatic founder. Miscavige was twenty-five years old.<\/p>\n

In 1986, Haggis appeared on the cover of the Scientology magazine Celebrity<\/em>. The accompanying article lauded his rising influence in Hollywood. He had escaped the cartoon ghetto after selling a script to \u201cThe Love Boat.\u201d He had climbed the ladder of network television, writing movies of the week and children\u2019s shows before settling into sitcoms. He worked on \u201cDiff\u2019rent Strokes\u201d and \u201cOne Day at a Time,\u201d then became the executive producer of \u201cThe Facts of Life.\u201d The magazine noted, \u201cHe is one of the few writers in Hollywood who has major credits in all genres: comedy, suspense, human drama, animation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the article, Haggis said of Scientology, \u201cWhat excited me about the technology was that you could actually handle life, and your problems, and not have them handle you.\u201d He added, \u201cI also liked the motto, \u2018Scientology makes the able more able.\u2019 \u201d He credited the church for improving his relationship with Gettas. \u201cInstead of fighting (we did a lot of that before Scientology philosophy) we now talk things out, listen to each other and apply Scientology technology to our problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis told Celebrity<\/em> that he had recently gone through the Purification Rundown, a program intended to eliminate body toxins that form a \u201cbiochemical barrier to spiritual well-being.\u201d For an average of three weeks, participants undergo a lengthy daily regimen combining sauna visits, exercise, and huge doses of vitamins, especially niacin. According to a forthcoming book, \u201cInside Scientology,\u201d by the journalist Janet Reitman, the sauna sessions can last up to five hours a day. In the interview, Haggis recalled being skeptical\u2014\u201cMy idea of doing good for my body was smoking low-tar cigarettes\u201d\u2014but said that the Purification Rundown \u201cwas WONDERFUL.\u201d He went on, \u201cI really did feel more alert and more aware and more at ease\u2014I wasn\u2019t running in six directions to get something done, or bouncing off the walls when something went wrong.\u201d Haggis mentioned that he had taken drugs when he was young. \u201cGetting rid of all those residual toxins and medicines and drugs really had an effect,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter completing the rundown I drank a diet cola and suddenly could really taste it: every single chemical!\u201d He recommended the Rundown to others, including his mother, who at the time was seriously ill. He also persuaded a young writer on his staff to take the course, in order to wean herself from various medications. \u201cShe could tell Scientology worked by the example I set,\u201d Haggis told the magazine. \u201cThat made me feel very good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privately, he told me, he remained troubled by the church\u2019s theology, which struck him as \u201cintergalactic spirituality.\u201d He was grateful, however, to have an auditor who was \u201creally smart, sweet, thoughtful. I could always go to talk to him.\u201d The confessionals were helpful. \u201cIt just felt better to get things off my chest.\u201d Even after his incredulous reaction to O.T. III, he continued to \u201cmove up\u201d the Bridge. He saw so many intelligent people on the path, and expected that his concerns would be addressed in future levels. He told himself, \u201cMaybe there is<\/em> something, and I\u2019m just missing it.\u201d He felt unsettled by the lack of irony among many fellow-Scientologists\u2014an inability to laugh at themselves, which seemed at odds with the character of Hubbard himself. When Haggis felt doubts about the religion, he recalled 16-mm. films he had seen of Hubbard\u2019s lectures from the fifties and sixties. \u201cHe had this amazing buoyancy,\u201d Haggis says. \u201cHe had a deadpan humor and this sense of himself that seemed to say, \u2018Yes, I am fully aware that I might be mad, but I also might be on to something.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis finally reached the top of the Operating Thetan pyramid. According to documents obtained by WikiLeaks, the activist group run by Julian Assange, the final exercise is: \u201cGo out to a park, train station or other busy area. Practice placing an intention into individuals until you can successfully and easily place an intention into or on a Being and\/or a body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis expected that, as an O.T. VII, he would feel a sense of accomplishment, but he remained confused and unsatisfied. He thought that Hubbard was \u201cbrilliant in so many ways,\u201d and that the failing must be his. At one point, he confided to a minister in the church that he didn\u2019t think he should be a Scientologist. She told him, \u201cThere are all sorts of Scientologists,\u201d just as there are all sorts of Jews and Christians, with varying levels of faith. The implication, Haggis said, was that he could \u201cpick and choose\u201d which tenets of Scientology to believe.<\/p>\n

Haggis was a workaholic, and as his career took off he spent less and less time with his family. \u201cHe never got home till late at night or early in the morning,\u201d his oldest daughter, Alissa, said. \u201cAll the time I ever spent with him was on the set.\u201d Haggis frequently brought his daughters to work and assigned them odd jobs; Alissa earned her Directors Guild card when she was fifteen.<\/p>\n

In 1987, Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the creators of the new series \u201cthirtysomething,\u201d hired Haggis to write scripts. When I talked to them recently, Herskovitz recalled, \u201cPaul walked in the door and said, \u2018I love the fact that you guys are doing a show all about emotions. I don\u2019t like talking about my emotions.\u2019 \u201d In the show\u2019s first season, one of Haggis\u2019s scripts won an Emmy. Since he rarely discussed his religion, his bosses were surprised to learn of his affiliation. Herskovitz told me, \u201cThe thing about Paul is his particular sense of humor, which is ironic, self-deprecating\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd raw!\u201d Zwick interjected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a sense of humor you often encounter among people who believe in Scientology,\u201d Herskovitz continued. \u201cHis way of looking at life didn\u2019t have that sort of straight-on, unambiguous, unambivalent view that so many Scientologists project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Observing Zwick and Herskovitz at work got Haggis interested in directing, and when the church asked him to make a thirty-second ad about Dianetics he seized the chance. He was determined to avoid the usual claim that Dianetics offered a triumphal march toward enlightenment. He shot a group of Scientologists talking about the practical ways that they had used Dianetics. \u201cIt was very naturalistic,\u201d he recalls. Church authorities hated it. \u201cThey thought it looked like an A.A. meeting.\u201d The spot never aired.<\/p>\n

In 1992, he helped out on the pilot for \u201cWalker, Texas Ranger,\u201d a new series starring Chuck Norris. It ran for eight seasons and was broadcast in a hundred countries. Haggis was credited as a co-creator. \u201cIt was the most successful thing I ever did,\u201d he says. \u201cTwo weeks of work. They never even used my script!\u201d<\/p>\n

With his growing accomplishments and wealth, Haggis became a bigger prize for the church. In 1988, Scientology sponsored a Dianetics car in the Indianapolis 500. David Miscavige was at the race. It was one of the few times that he and Haggis met. They sat near each other at a Scientology-sponsored dinner event before the race. \u201cPaul takes no shit from anybody,\u201d the organizer of the event recalled. Several times when Miscavige made some comment during the dinner, the organizer said, \u201cPaul challenged him in a lighthearted way.\u201d His tone was perceived as insufficiently deferential; afterward, Miscavige demanded to know why Haggis had been invited. (Miscavige declined requests to speak to me, and Tommy Davis says that Miscavige did not attend the event.) The organizer told me, \u201cYou have to understand: no one challenges David Miscavige.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis\u2019s marriage had long been troubled, and he and his wife were entering a final state of estrangement. One day, Haggis flew to New York with a casting director who was also a Scientologist. They shared a kiss. Haggis felt bad about it, and confessed to it during an \u201cethics\u201d session. He was given instruction on how to fix the problem. It didn\u2019t work. He had a series of liaisons, each of which he confessed. Yet, perhaps because of his fame, he was not made to atone for what Scientologists call \u201cout ethics\u201d behavior.<\/p>\n

Haggis and Gettas began a divorce battle that lasted nine years. Their three girls lived with Gettas, visiting Haggis occasionally. Gettas enrolled them in private schools that used Hubbard\u2019s educational system, which is called Study Tech. It is one of the more grounded systems that he developed. There are three central elements. One is the use of clay, or other materials, to help make difficult concepts less abstract. Alissa explains, \u201cIf I\u2019m learning the idea of how an atom looks, I\u2019d make an atom out of clay.\u201d A second concept is making sure that students don\u2019t face \u201ctoo steep a gradient,\u201d in Hubbard\u2019s words. \u201cThe schools are set up so that you don\u2019t go on to the next level until you completely<\/em> understand the material,\u201d Alissa says. The third element is the frequent use of a dictionary to eliminate misunderstandings. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to understand the words you\u2019re using.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren, the middle sister, initially struggled in school. \u201cI was illiterate until I was eleven,\u201d she told me. Somehow, that fact escaped her parents. \u201cI assume it was because of the divorce,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When the divorce became final, in 1997, Haggis and Gettas were ordered by the court to undergo psychological evaluations\u2014a procedure abhorred by Scientologists. The court then determined that Haggis should have full custody of the children.<\/p>\n

His daughters were resentful. They had lived their entire lives with their mother. \u201cI didn\u2019t even know why he wanted us,\u201d Lauren says. \u201cI didn\u2019t really know him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis put his daughters in an ordinary private school, but that lasted only six months. The girls weren\u2019t entirely comfortable talking to people who weren\u2019t Scientologists, and basic things like multiple-choice tests were unfamiliar. At a regular school, they felt like outsiders. \u201cThe first thing I noticed that I did, that others didn\u2019t, is the Contact,\u201d Alissa told me, referring to a procedure the church calls Contact Assist. \u201cIf you hurt yourself, the first thing I and other Scientology kids do is go quiet.\u201d Scientology preaches that, if you touch the wound to the object that caused the injury and silently concentrate, the pain lessens and a sense of trauma fades.<\/p>\n

The girls demanded to be sent to boarding school, so Haggis enrolled them at the Delphian School, in rural Oregon, which uses Hubbard\u2019s Study Tech methods. The school, Lauren says, is \u201con top of a hill in the middle of nowhere.\u201d She added, \u201cI lived in a giant bubble. Everyone I knew was a Scientologist.\u201d<\/p>\n

For one course, she decided to write a paper about discrimination against various religions, including Scientology. \u201cI wanted to see what the opposition was saying, so I went online,\u201d she says. Another student turned her in to the school\u2019s ethics committee. Information that doesn\u2019t correspond to Scientology teachings is termed \u201centheta\u201d\u2014meaning confused or destructive thinking. Lauren agreed to stop doing research. \u201cIt was really easy not to look,\u201d she says. By the time she graduated from high school, at the age of twenty, she had scarcely ever heard anyone speak ill of Scientology.<\/p>\n

Alissa was a top student at Delphian, but she found herself moving away from the church. She still believed in some ideas promoted by Scientology, such as reincarnation, and she liked Hubbard\u2019s educational techniques, but by the time she graduated she no longer defined herself as a Scientologist. Her reasoning was true to Hubbard\u2019s philosophy. \u201cA core concept in Scientology is: \u2018Something isn\u2019t true unless you find it true in your own life,\u2019 \u201d she told me.<\/p>\n

After starting boarding school, Alissa did not speak to her father for a number of years. She was angry about the divorce. Haggis mined the experience for the script of \u201cMillion Dollar Baby,\u201d in which the lead character, played by Clint Eastwood, is haunted by his estrangement from his daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of Alissa for not talking to me,\u201d Haggis told me, his eyes welling with tears. \u201cThink what that takes<\/em>.\u201d It was the only time, in our many conversations, that he displayed such emotion.<\/p>\n

Haggis and Alissa slowly resumed communication. When Alissa was in her early twenties, she accepted the fact that, like her sister Katy, she was gay. She recalls, \u201cWhen I finally got the courage to come out to my dad, he said, \u2018Oh, yeah, I knew that.\u2019 \u201d Now, Alissa says, she and Haggis have a \u201cworking relationship.\u201d As she puts it, \u201cWe do see each other for Thanksgiving and some meals.\u201d Recently, Alissa, who is also a writer, has been collaborating on screenplays with her father. Haggis also gave her the role of a murderous drug addict in \u201cThe Next Three Days.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1991, as his marriage to Gettas was crumbling, Haggis went to a Fourth of July party at the home of Scientologist friends. Deborah Rennard, who played J.R.\u2019s alluring secretary on \u201cDallas,\u201d was at the party. Rennard had grown up in a Scientology household and joined the church herself at the age of seventeen. In her early twenties, she studied acting at the Beverly Hills Playhouse and fell in love with Milton Katselas. They had recently broken up, after a six-year romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first met Paul, he said he was having a \u2018crisis of faith,\u2019 \u201d Rennard told me. \u201cHe said he\u2019d raced up to the top of the Bridge on faith, but he hadn\u2019t gotten what he expected.\u201d Haggis admitted to her, \u201cI don\u2019t believe I\u2019m a spiritual being. I actually am what you see.\u201d They became a couple, and married in June, 1997, immediately after Haggis\u2019s divorce from Gettas became final. A son, James, was born the following year.<\/p>\n

Rennard, concerned about her husband\u2019s spiritual doubts, suggested that he do some more study. She was having breakthroughs that sometimes led her to discover past lives. \u201cThere were images, feelings, and thoughts that I suddenly realized, That\u2019s not here. I\u2019m not in my body, I\u2019m in another place,\u201d she told me. For instance, she might be examining what the church calls a \u201ccontra-survival\u201d action\u2014\u201clike the time I clobbered Paul or threw something at him. And I\u2019d look for an earlier similar. Suddenly, I\u2019d realize I was doing something negative, and I\u2019d be in England in the eighteen-hundreds. I\u2019d see myself harming this person. It was a fleeting glimpse at what I was doing then.\u201d Examining these moments helped the emotional charge dissipate. \u201cPaul would say, \u2018Don\u2019t you think you\u2019re making this up?\u2019 \u201d She wondered if that mattered. \u201cIf it changed me for the better, who cares?\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you are working on a scene as an actor, something similar happens. You get connected to a feeling from who knows where.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis and Rennard shared a house in Santa Monica, which soon became a hub for progressive political fund-raisers. Haggis lent his name to nearly any cause that espoused peace and justice: the Earth Communications Office, the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project, the Center for the Advancement of Non-Violence. Despite his growing disillusionment with Scientology, he also raised a significant amount of money for it, and made sizable donations himself, appearing frequently on an honor roll of top contributors. The Church of Scientology had recently gained tax-exempt status as a religious institution, making donations, as well as the cost of auditing, tax-deductible. (Church members had lodged more than two thousand lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service, ensnaring the agency in litigation. As part of the settlement, the church agreed to drop its legal campaign.)<\/p>\n

Over the years, Haggis estimates, he spent more than a hundred thousand dollars on courses and auditing, and three hundred thousand dollars on various Scientology initiatives. Rennard says that she spent about a hundred and fifty thousand dollars on coursework. Haggis recalls that the demands for donations never seemed to stop. \u201cThey used friends and any kind of pressure they could apply,\u201d he says. \u201cI gave them money just to keep them from calling and hounding me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A decade ago, Haggis moved into feature films. He co-wrote the scripts for the two most recent James Bond films, \u201cCasino Royale\u201d and \u201cQuantum of Solace.\u201d He claims that Scientology has not influenced his work\u2014there are no evident references in his movies\u2014but his scripts often do have an autobiographical element. \u201cI\u2019m not good at something unless it disturbs me,\u201d he said. In \u201cMillion Dollar Baby,\u201d he wrote about a boxing coach who pulls the plug on a paralyzed fighter. Haggis made a similar choice in real life with his best friend, who was brain dead from a staph infection. \u201cThey don\u2019t die easily,\u201d he said. \u201cEven in a coma, he kicked and moaned for twelve hours.\u201d Haggis likes to explore contradictions, making heroes into villains and vice versa, as with the racist cop in \u201cCrash,\u201d played by Matt Dillon, who molests a woman in one scene and saves her life in another. In \u201cIn the Valley of Elah,\u201d Tommy Lee Jones plays a father trying to discover who murdered his son, a heroic soldier just returned from Iraq, only to learn that the sadism of the war had turned his son into a willing torturer.<\/p>\n

In 2004, Haggis was rewriting \u201cFlags of Our Fathers,\u201d a drama about Iwo Jima, for Clint Eastwood to direct. (Haggis shared credit with William Broyles, Jr.) One day, Haggis and Eastwood visited the set of \u201cWar of the Worlds,\u201d which Steven Spielberg was shooting with Tom Cruise. Haggis had met Cruise at a fund-raiser and, a second time, at the Celebrity Centre. Cruise says that he was introduced to the church in 1986 by his first wife, the actress Mimi Rogers. (Rogers denies this.) In 1992, he became the religion\u2019s most famous member, telling Barbara Walters that Hubbard\u2019s Study Tech methods had helped him overcome dyslexia. \u201cHe\u2019s a major symbol of the church, and I think he takes that very seriously,\u201d Haggis said.<\/p>\n

Tommy Davis, at Cruise\u2019s request, was allowed to erect a tent on the set of Spielberg\u2019s \u201cWar of the Worlds,\u201d where Scientology materials were distributed. That raised eyebrows in Hollywood. Haggis says that when he appeared on the set Spielberg pulled him aside. \u201cIt\u2019s really remarkable to me that I\u2019ve met all these Scientologists, and they seem like the nicest people,\u201d Spielberg said. Haggis replied, \u201cYeah, we keep all the evil ones in a closet.\u201d (Spielberg\u2019s publicist says that Spielberg doesn\u2019t recall the conversation.)<\/p>\n

A few days later, Haggis says, he was summoned to the Celebrity Centre, where officials told him that Cruise was very upset. \u201cIt was a joke,\u201d Haggis explained. Davis offers a different account. He says that Cruise mentioned the incident to him only \u201cin passing,\u201d but that he himself found the remark offensive. He confronted Haggis, who apologized profusely, asking that his contrition be relayed to \u201canyone who might have been offended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis has known Cruise since Davis was eighteen years old. They are close friends. The two men physically resemble each other, with long faces, strong jaws, and spiky haircuts. \u201cI saw him hanging out with Tom Cruise after the Oscars,\u201d Haggis recalls. \u201cAt the Vanity Fair<\/em> party, they were let in the back door. They arrived on motorcycles, really cool ones, like Ducatis.\u201d Cruise was also close to David Miscavige, and has said of him, \u201cI have never met a more competent, a more intelligent, a more tolerant, a more compassionate being outside of what I have experienced from L.R.H. And I\u2019ve met the leaders of leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2004, Cruise received a special Scientology award: the Freedom Medal of Valor. In a ceremony held in England, Miscavige called Cruise \u201cthe most dedicated Scientologist I know.\u201d The ceremony was accompanied by a video interview with the star. Wearing a black turtleneck, and with the theme music from \u201cMission: Impossible\u201d playing in the background, Cruise said, \u201cBeing a Scientologist, you look at someone and you know absolutely that you can help them. So, for me, it really is K.S.W.\u201d\u2014initials that stand for \u201cKeeping Scientology Working.\u201d He went on, \u201cThat policy to me has really gone\u2014phist!<\/em>\u201d He made a vigorous gesture with his hand. \u201cBoy! There\u2019s a time I went through and I said, \u2018You know what? When I read it, you know, I just went poo!<\/em> This is it!\u2019 \u201d Later, when the video was posted on YouTube and viewed by millions who had no idea what he was talking about, Cruise came across as unhinged. He did not dispel this notion when, in 2005, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he jumped up and down on a couch while declaring his love for the actress Katie Holmes. He and Holmes married in 2006, in Italy. David Miscavige was his best man.<\/p>\n

Proposition 8, the California initiative against gay marriage, passed in November, 2008. Haggis learned from his daughter Lauren of the San Diego chapter\u2019s endorsement of it. He immediately sent Davis several e-mails, demanding that the church take a public stand opposing the ban on gay marriage. \u201cI am going to an anti Prop 8 rally in a couple of hours,\u201d he wrote on November 11th, after the election. \u201cWhen can we expect the public statement?\u201d In a response, Davis proposed sending a letter to the San Diego press, saying that the church had been \u201cerroneously listed among the supporters of Proposition 8.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018Erroneous\u2019 doesn\u2019t cut it,\u201d Haggis responded. In another note, he remarked, \u201cThe church may have had the luxury of not taking a position on this issue before, but after taking a position, even erroneously, it can no longer stand neutral.\u201d He demanded that the church openly declare that it supports gay rights. \u201cAnything less won\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis explained to Haggis that the church avoids taking overt political stands. He also felt that Haggis was exaggerating the impact of the San Diego endorsement. \u201cIt was one<\/em> guy who somehow got it in his head it would be a neat idea and put Church of Scientology San Diego on the list,\u201d Davis told me. \u201cWhen I found out, I had it removed from the list.\u201d Davis said that the individual who made the mistake\u2014he didn\u2019t divulge the name\u2014had been \u201cdisciplined\u201d for it. I asked what that meant. \u201cHe was sat down by a staff member of the local organization,\u201d Davis explained. \u201cHe got sorted out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis told me that Haggis was mistaken about his daughter having been ostracized by Scientologists. Davis said that he had spoken to the friend who had allegedly abandoned Katy, and the friend had ended the relationship not because Katy was a lesbian but because Katy had lied about it. (Haggis, when informed of this account, laughed.)<\/p>\n

As far as Davis was concerned, reprimanding the San Diego staff member was the end of the matter: \u201cI said, \u2018Paul, I\u2019ve received no press inquiries. . . . If I were to make a statement on this, it would actually be more<\/em> attention to the subject than if we leave it be.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis refused to let the matter drop. \u201cThis is not a P.R. issue, it is a moral issue,\u201d he wrote, in February, 2009. In the final note of this exchange, he conceded, \u201cYou were right: nothing happened\u2014it didn\u2019t flap\u2014at least not very much. But I feel we shamed ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis sent this note six months before he resigned. Because he stopped complaining, Davis felt that the issue had been laid to rest. But, far from putting the matter behind him, Haggis began his investigation into the church. His inquiry, much of it conducted online, mirrored the actions of the lead character he was writing for \u201cThe Next Three Days\u201d; the character, played by Russell Crowe, goes on the Internet to find a way to break his wife out of jail.<\/p>\n

Haggis soon found on YouTube the video of Tommy Davis talking on CNN about disconnection. The practice of disconnection is not unique to Scientology. The Amish, for example, cut themselves off from apostates, including their own children; some Orthodox Jewish communities do the same. Rennard had disconnected from her parents twice. When she was a young child, her stepfather had got the family involved with Scientology. When she was in her twenties, and appearing on \u201cDallas,\u201d her parents broke away from the church. Like many active members of Scientology, they had kept money in an account (in their case, twenty-five hundred dollars) for future courses they intended to take. Rennard\u2019s mother took the money back. \u201cThat\u2019s a huge deal for the church,\u201d Rennard told me. She didn\u2019t speak to her parents for several years, assuming that they had been declared Suppressive Persons.<\/p>\n

In the early nineties, Rennard wrote to the International Justice Chief, the Scientology official in charge of such matters; she was informed that she could talk to her parents again. A decade later, however, she went to Clearwater, intending to take some upper-level courses, and was told that the previous ruling no longer applied. If she wanted to do more training, she had to confront her parents\u2019 mistakes. The church recommended that she take a course called P.T.S.\/S.P., which stands for \u201cPotential Trouble Source\/Suppressive Persons.\u201d \u201cThat course took a year,\u201d Rennard told me. She petitioned officials at the Celebrity Centre in Los Angeles for help. \u201cThey put me on a program that took two years to complete,\u201d she says. Still, nothing changed. If she failed to \u201chandle\u201d her parents, she would have to disconnect not only from them but also from everyone who spoke to them, including her siblings. \u201cIt was that, or else I had to give up being a Scientologist,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Rennard\u2019s parents were among four hundred claimants in a lawsuit brought against Scientology by disaffected members in 1987; the case was thrown out of court the following year, for lack of evidence. To make amends, Rennard\u2019s parents had to denounce the anti-Scientologist group and offer a \u201ctoken\u201d restitution. The church prescribes a seven-step course of rehabilitation, called A to E, for penitents seeking to get back into its good graces, which includes returning debts and making public declarations of error. Rennard told her parents that if they wanted to remain in contact with her they had to follow the church\u2019s procedures. Her parents, worried that they would also be cut off from their grandson, agreed to perform community service. \u201cThey really wanted to work it out with me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But the church wasn\u2019t satisfied. Rennard was told that if she maintained contact with her parents she would be labelled a \u201cPotential Trouble Source\u201d\u2014a designation that would alienate her from the Scientology community and render her ineligible for further training. \u201cIt was clearly laid out for me,\u201d she says. A senior official counselled her to agree to have her parents formally branded as S.P.s. \u201cUntil then, they won\u2019t turn around and recognize their responsibilities,\u201d he said. \u201cO.K., fine,\u201d Rennard said. \u201cGo ahead and declare them. Maybe it\u2019ll get better.\u201d She was granted permission to begin upper-level coursework in Clearwater.<\/p>\n

In August, 2006, a notice was posted at the Celebrity Centre declaring Rennard\u2019s parents Suppressive Persons, saying that they had associated with \u201csquirrels,\u201d which in Scientology refers to people who have dropped out of the church but continue to practice unauthorized auditing. A month later, Rennard\u2019s parents sent her a letter: \u201cWe tried to do what you asked, Deborah. We worked the whole months of July & Aug. on A-E.\u201d They explained that they had paid the church the twenty-five hundred dollars. After all that, they continued, a church adjudicator had told them to hand out three hundred copies of L. Ron Hubbard\u2019s pamphlet \u201cThe Way to Happiness\u201d to libraries; they had also been told to document the exchange with photographs. They had declined. \u201cIf this can\u2019t be resolved, we will have to say Good-Bye to you & James will lose his Grand-Parents,\u201d her mother wrote. \u201cThis is ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April, 2007, Rennard\u2019s parents sued for the right to visit their grandson. Rennard had to hire an attorney. Eventually, the church relented. She was summoned to a church mission in Santa Monica and shown a statement rescinding the ruling that her parents were S.P.s.<\/p>\n

Tommy Davis sent me some policy statements that Hubbard had made about disconnection in 1965. \u201cAnyone who rejects Scientology also rejects, knowingly or unknowingly, the protection and benefits of Scientology and the companionship of Scientologists,\u201d Hubbard writes. In \u201cIntroduction to Scientology Ethics,\u201d Hubbard defined disconnection as \u201ca self-determined decision made by an individual that he is not going to be connected to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientology defectors are full of tales of forcible family separations, which the church almost uniformly denies. Two former leaders in the church, Marty Rathbun and Mike Rinder, told me that families are sometimes broken apart. In their cases, their wives chose to stay in the church when they left. The wives, and the church, denounce Rathbun and Rinder as liars.<\/p>\n

A few days after sending the resignation letter to Tommy Davis, Haggis came home from work to find nine or ten of his Scientology friends standing in his front yard. He invited them in to talk. Anne Archer was there with Terry Jastrow, her husband, an actor turned producer and director. \u201cPaul had been such an ally,\u201d Archer told me. \u201cIt was pretty painful. Everyone wanted to see if there could be some kind of resolution.\u201d Mark Isham, an Emmy-winning composer who has scored films for Haggis, came with his wife, Donna. Sky Dayton, the EarthLink founder, was there, along with several other friends and a church representative Haggis didn\u2019t know. His friends could have served as an advertisement for Scientology\u2014they were wealthy high achievers with solid marriages, who embraced the idea that the church had given them a sense of well-being and the skills to excel.<\/p>\n

Scientologists are trained to believe in their persuasive powers and the need to keep a positive frame of mind. But the mood in the room was downbeat and his friends\u2019 questions were full of reproach.<\/p>\n

Jastrow asked Haggis, \u201cDo you have any idea that what you might do might damage a lot of pretty wonderful people and your fellow-Scientologists?\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis reminded the group that he had been with them at the 1985 \u201cfreedom march\u201d in Portland. They all knew about his financial support of the church and the occasions when he had spoken out in its defense. Jastrow remembers Haggis saying, \u201cI love Scientology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Archer had particular reason to feel aggrieved: Haggis\u2019s letter had called her son a liar. \u201cPaul was very sweet,\u201d she says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t talk about Tommy.\u201d She understood that Haggis was upset about the way Proposition 8 had affected his gay daughters, but she didn\u2019t think it was relevant to Scientology. \u201cThe church is not political,\u201d she told me. \u201cWe all have tons of friends and relatives who are gay. . . . It\u2019s not the church\u2019s issue. I\u2019ve introduced gay friends to Scientology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isham was frustrated. \u201cWe weren\u2019t breaking through to him,\u201d he told me. Of all the friends present, Isham was the closest to Haggis. \u201cWe share a common artistic sensibility,\u201d Isham said. When he visited Abbey Road Studios, in England, to record the score that he had written for \u201cIn the Valley of Elah,\u201d Haggis went along with him. Haggis wanted him to compose the score for \u201cThe Next Three Days.\u201d Now their friendship was at risk. Isham used Scientology to analyze the situation. In his view, Haggis\u2019s emotions at that moment ranked 1.1 on the Tone Scale\u2014the state that is sometimes called Covertly Hostile. By adopting a tone just above it\u2014Anger\u2014Isham hoped to blast Haggis out of the psychic place where he seemed to be lodged. \u201cThis was an intellectual decision,\u201d Isham said. \u201cI decided I would be angry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPaul, I\u2019m pissed off,\u201d Isham told Haggis. \u201cThere\u2019s better ways to do this. If you have a complaint, there\u2019s a complaint line.\u201d Anyone who genuinely wanted to change Scientology should stay within the organization, Isham argued, not quit; certainly, going public was not helpful.<\/p>\n

Haggis listened patiently. A fundamental tenet of Scientology is that differing points of view must be fully heard and acknowledged. When his friends finished, however, Haggis had his own set of grievances.<\/p>\n

He referred them to the expos\u00e9 in the St. Petersburg Times<\/em> that had so shaken him: \u201cThe Truth Rundown.\u201d The first installment had appeared in June, 2009. Haggis had learned from reading it that several of the church\u2019s top managers had defected in despair. Marty Rathbun had once been inspector general of the church\u2019s Religious Technology Center, which holds the trademarks of Scientology and Dianetics, and exists to \u201cprotect the public from misapplication of the technology.\u201d Rathbun had also overseen Scientology\u2019s legal-defense strategy, and reported directly to Miscavige. Amy Scobee had been an executive in the Celebrity Centre network. Mike Rinder had been the church\u2019s spokesperson, the job now held by Tommy Davis. One by one, they had disappeared from Scientology, and it had never occurred to Haggis to ask where they had gone.<\/p>\n

The defectors told the newspaper that Miscavige was a serial abuser of his staff. \u201cThe issue wasn\u2019t the physical pain of it,\u201d Rinder said. \u201cIt\u2019s the fact that the domination you\u2019re getting\u2014hit in the face, kicked\u2014and you can\u2019t do anything about it. If you did try, you\u2019d be attacking the C.O.B.\u201d\u2014the chairman of the board. Tom De Vocht, a defector who had been a manager at the Clearwater spiritual center, told the paper that he, too, had been beaten by Miscavige; he said that from 2003 to 2005 he had witnessed Miscavige striking other staff members as many as a hundred times. Rathbun, Rinder, and De Vocht all admitted that they had engaged in physical violence themselves. \u201cIt had become the accepted way of doing things,\u201d Rinder said. Amy Scobee said that nobody challenged the abuse because people were terrified of Miscavige. Their greatest fear was expulsion: \u201cYou don\u2019t have any money. You don\u2019t have job experience. You don\u2019t have anything. And he could put you on the streets and ruin you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assessing the truthfulness of such inflammatory statements\u2014made by people who deserted the church or were expelled\u2014was a challenge for the newspaper, which has maintained a special focus on Scientology. (Clearwater is twenty miles northwest of downtown St. Petersburg.) In 1998, six years before he defected, Rathbun told the paper that he had never seen Miscavige hit anyone. Now he said, \u201cThat was the biggest lie I ever told you.\u201d The reporters behind \u201cThe Truth Rundown,\u201d Joe Childs and Thomas Tobin, interviewed each defector separately and videotaped many of the sessions. \u201cIt added a measure of confidence,\u201d Childs told me. \u201cTheir stories just tracked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of the alleged abuse took place at the Gold Base, a Scientology outpost in the desert near Hemet, a town eighty miles southeast of Los Angeles. Miscavige has an office there, and the site features, among other things, movie studios and production facilities for the church\u2019s many publications. For decades, the base\u2019s location was unknown even to many church insiders. Haggis visited the Gold Base only once, in the early eighties, when he was about to direct his Scientology commercial. The landscape, he said, suggested a spa, \u201cbeautiful and restful,\u201d but he found the atmosphere sterile and scary. Surrounded by a security fence, the base houses about eight hundred Sea Org members, in quarters that the church likens to those \u201cin a convent or seminary, albeit much more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a court declaration filed by Rathbun in July, Miscavige expected Scientology leaders to instill aggressive, even violent, discipline. Rathbun said that he was resistant, and that Miscavige grew frustrated with him, assigning him in 2004 to the Hole\u2014a pair of double-wide trailers at the Gold Base. \u201cThere were between eighty and a hundred people sentenced to the Hole at that time,\u201d Rathbun said, in the declaration. \u201cWe were required to do group confessions all day and all night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church claims that such stories are false: \u201cThere is not, and never has been, any place of \u2018confinement\u2019 . . . nor is there anything in Church policy that would allow such confinement.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rathbun, Miscavige came to the Hole one evening and announced that everyone was going to play musical chairs. Only the last person standing would be allowed to stay on the base. He declared that people whose spouses \u201cwere not participants would have their marriages terminated.\u201d The St. Petersburg Times<\/em> noted that Miscavige played Queen\u2019s \u201cBohemian Rhapsody\u201d on a boom box as the church leaders fought over the chairs, punching each other and, in one case, ripping a chair apart.<\/p>\n

Tom De Vocht, one of the participants, says that the event lasted until four in the morning: \u201cIt got more and more physical as the number of chairs went down.\u201d Many of the participants had long been cut off from their families. They had no money, no credit cards, no telephones. According to De Vocht, many lacked a driver\u2019s license or a passport. Few had any savings or employment prospects. As people fell out of the game, Miscavige had airplane reservations made for them. He said that buses were going to be leaving at six in the morning. The powerlessness of everyone else in the room was nakedly clear.<\/p>\n

Tommy Davis told me that a musical-chairs episode did occur. He explained that Miscavige had been away from the Gold Base for some time, and when he returned he discovered that in his absence many jobs had been reassigned. The game was meant to demonstrate that even seemingly small changes can be disruptive to an organization\u2014underscoring an \u201cadministrative policy of the church.\u201d The rest of the defectors\u2019 accounts, Davis told me, was \u201choo-ha\u201d: \u201cChairs being ripped apart, and people being threatened that they\u2019re going to be sent to far-flung places in the world, plane tickets being purchased, and they\u2019re going to force their spouses\u2014and on and on and on. I mean, it\u2019s just nuts!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson Hawkins, a former Sea Org member and church executive who worked with Haggis on the rejected Dianetics ad campaign, told me that Miscavige had struck or beaten him on five occasions, the first time in 2002. \u201cI had just written an infomercial,\u201d he said. Miscavige summoned him to a meeting where a few dozen members were seated on one side of a table; Miscavige sat by himself on the other side. According to Hawkins, Miscavige began a tirade about the ad\u2019s shortcomings. Hawkins recalls, \u201cWithout any warning, he jumped up onto the conference-room table and he launches himself at me. He knocks me back against a cubicle wall and starts battering my face.\u201d The two men fell to the floor, Hawkins says, and their legs became entangled. \u201cLet go of my legs!\u201d Miscavige shouted. According to Hawkins, Miscavige then \u201cstomped out of the room,\u201d leaving Hawkins on the floor, shocked and bruised. The others did nothing to support him, he claims: \u201cThey were saying, \u2018Get up! Get up!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

I asked Hawkins why he hadn\u2019t called the police. He reminded me that church members believe that Scientology holds the key to salvation: \u201cOnly by going through Scientology will you reach spiritual immortality. You can go from life to life to life without being cognizant of what is going on. If you don\u2019t go through Scientology, you\u2019re condemned to dying over and over again in ignorance and darkness, never knowing your true nature as a spirit. Nobody who is a believer wants to lose that.\u201d Miscavige, Hawkins says, \u201cholds the power of eternal life and death over you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, Scientologists are taught to handle internal conflicts within the church\u2019s own justice system. Hawkins told me that if a Sea Org member sought outside help he would be punished, either by being declared a Suppressive Person or by being sent off to do manual labor, as Hawkins was made to do after Miscavige beat him. The church denies that Hawkins was mistreated, and notes that he has participated in protests organized by Anonymous, a \u201chacktivist\u201d collective that has targeted Scientology. The group pugnaciously opposes censorship, and became hostile toward Scientology after the church invoked copyright claims in order to remove from the Internet the video of Tom Cruise extolling \u201cK.S.W.\u201d The church describes Anonymous as a \u201ccyber-terrorist group\u201d; last month, the F.B.I. raided the homes of three dozen members after Anonymous attacked the Web sites of corporations critical of WikiLeaks. (Two members of Anonymous have pleaded guilty to participating in a 2008 attack on a Scientology Web site.)<\/p>\n

The church provided me with eleven statements from Scientologists, all of whom said that Miscavige had never been violent. One of them, Yael Lustgarten, said that she was present at the meeting with Hawkins and that the attack by Miscavige never happened. She claims that Hawkins made a mess of his presentation\u2014\u201cHe smelled of body odor, he was unshaven, his voice tone was very low, and he could hardly be heard\u201d\u2014and was admonished to shape up. She says that Hawkins \u201cwasn\u2019t hit by anyone.\u201d The defector Amy Scobee, however, says that she witnessed the attack\u2014the two men had fallen into her cubicle. After the altercation, she says, \u201cI gathered all the buttons from Jeff\u2019s shirt and the change from his pockets and gave them back to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church characterizes Scobee, Rinder, Rathbun, Hawkins, De Vocht, Hines, and other defectors I spoke with as \u201cdiscredited individuals,\u201d who were demoted for incompetence or expelled for corruption; the defectors\u2019 accounts are consistent only because they have \u201cbanded together to advance and support each other\u2019s false \u2018stories.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

After reading the St. Petersburg Times<\/em> series, Haggis tracked down Marty Rathbun, who was living on Corpus Christi Bay, in south Texas. Rathbun had been making ends meet by writing freelance articles for local newspapers and selling beer at a ballpark.<\/p>\n

Haggis complained that Davis hadn\u2019t been honest with him about Scientology\u2019s policies. \u201cI said, \u2018That\u2019s not Tommy, he has no say,\u2019 \u201d Rathbun told me. \u201cMiscavige is a total micromanager. I explained the whole culture.\u201d He says that Haggis was shocked by the conversation. \u201cThe thing that was most troubling to Paul was that I literally had to escape,\u201d Rathbun told me. (A few nights after the musical-chairs incident, he got on his motorcycle and waited until a gate was opened for someone else; he sped out and didn\u2019t stop for thirty miles.) Haggis called several other former Scientologists he knew well. One of them said that he had escaped from the Gold Base by driving his car\u2014an Alfa Romeo convertible that Haggis had sold him\u2014through a wooden fence. The defector said that he had scars on his forehead from the incident. Still others had been expelled or declared Suppressive Persons. Haggis asked himself, \u201cWhat kind of organization are we involved in where people just disappear?\u201d<\/p>\n

When Haggis began casting for \u201cThe Next Three Days,\u201d in the summer of 2009, he asked Jason Beghe to read for the part of a cop. Beghe was a gravel-voiced character actor who had played Demi Moore\u2019s love interest in \u201cG.I. Jane.\u201d In the late nineties, Haggis had worked with Beghe on a CBS series, \u201cFamily Law.\u201d Like so many others, Beghe had come to the church through the Beverly Hills Playhouse. In old promotional materials for the church, he is quoted as saying that Scientology is \u201ca rocket ride to spiritual freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beghe told Haggis, \u201cYou should know that I\u2019m no longer in Scientology. Actually, I\u2019m one of its most outspoken critics. The church would be very unhappy if you hire me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haggis responded, \u201cNobody tells me who I cast.\u201d He looked at a lengthy video that Beghe had posted on the Internet, in which he denounces the church as \u201cdestructive and a ripoff.\u201d Haggis thought that Beghe had \u201cgone over the edge.\u201d But he asked if they could talk.<\/p>\n

The two men met at Patrick\u2019s Roadhouse, a coffee shop on the beach in Pacific Palisades. Beghe was calmer than he had been in the video, which he called \u201ca snapshot of me having been out only three months.\u201d Even though Beghe had renounced the church, he continued to use Scientology methods when dealing with members and former members. \u201cIt\u2019s almost like: \u2018I can speak Chinese, I understand the culture,\u2019 \u201d he explained to me. In several meetings with Haggis, he employed techniques based on what Hubbard labelled \u201cEthics Conditions.\u201d These range from Confusion at the bottom and ascend through Treason, Enemy, Doubt, Liability, and Emergency, eventually leading to Power. \u201cEach one of the conditions has a specific set of steps in a formula, and, once that formula is applied correctly, you will move up to the next-highest condition,\u201d Beghe explained. \u201cI assumed that Paul was in a condition of Doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beghe joined Scientology in 1994. He told Haggis that, in the late nineties, he began having emotional problems, and the church recommended auditing and coursework. In retrospect, he felt that it had done no good. \u201cI was paying money for them to fuck me up,\u201d he said. \u201cI spent about five or six hundred thousand dollars trying to get better, and I continued to get worse.\u201d He says that when he finally decided to leave the church, in 2007, he told an official that the church was in a condition of Liability to him. Ordinarily, when a Scientologist does something wrong, especially something that might damage the image of the organization, he has to make amends, often in the form of a substantial contribution. But now the situation was reversed. Beghe recalls telling the official, \u201cYou guys don\u2019t have any policies to make up the damage.\u201d He eventually suggested to the official that the church buy property and lease it to him at a negligible rate; the church now characterizes this as an attempt at extortion.<\/p>\n

Beghe was reluctant to use the word \u201cbrainwashing\u201d\u2014\u201cwhatever the fuck that is\u201d\u2014but he did feel that his mind had been somehow taken over. \u201cYou have all these thoughts, all these ways of looking at things, that are L. Ron Hubbard\u2019s,\u201d he explained. \u201cYou think you\u2019re becoming more you, but within that is an implanted thing, which is You the Scientologist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps because Haggis had never been as much of a true believer as some members, he didn\u2019t feel as deeply betrayed as Beghe did. \u201cI didn\u2019t feel that some worm had buried itself in my ear, and if you plucked it out you would find L. Ron Hubbard and his thought,\u201d he told me. But, as he continued his investigation, he became increasingly disturbed. He read the church\u2019s official rebuttal to the St. Petersburg Times<\/em> series, in the Scientology magazine Freedom<\/em>. It included an annotated transcript of conversations that had taken place between the reporters and representatives of the church, including Tommy Davis and his wife, Jessica Feshbach. In Freedom\u2019s<\/em> rendition of those conversations, the reporters\u2019 sources were not named, perhaps to shield Scientologists from the shock of seeing familiar names publicly denouncing the organization. Rathbun was called \u201cKingpin\u201d and Scobee \u201cthe Adulteress.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point in the transcribed conversations, Davis reminded the reporters that Scobee had been expelled from the church leadership because of an affair. The reporters responded that she had denied having sexual contact outside her marriage. \u201cThat\u2019s a lie,\u201d Davis told them. Feshbach, who had a stack of documents, elaborated: \u201cShe has a written admission [of] each one of her instances of extramarital indiscretion. . . . I believe there were five.\u201d When Haggis read this in Freedom<\/em>, he presumed that the church had obtained its information from the declarations that members sometimes provide after auditing. Such confessions are supposed to be confidential. (Scientology denies that it obtained the information this way, and Davis produced an affidavit, signed by Scobee, in which she admits to having liaisons. Scobee denies committing adultery, and says that she did not write the affidavit; she says that she signed it in the hope of leaving the church on good terms, so that she could stay in touch with relatives.)<\/p>\n

In his letter to Davis, Haggis said that he was worried that the church might look through his files to smear him, too. \u201cLuckily, I have never held myself up to be anyone\u2019s role model,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

At his house, Haggis finished telling his friends what he had learned. He suggested that they should at least examine the evidence. \u201cI directed them to certain Web sites,\u201d he said, mentioning Exscientologykids.com, which was created by three young women who grew up in Scientology and subsequently left. Many stories on the site are from men and women who joined the Sea Org before turning eighteen. One of them was Jenna Miscavige Hill, David Miscavige\u2019s niece, who joined when she was twelve. For Hill and many others, formal education had stopped when they entered the Sea Org, leaving them especially ill-prepared, they say, for coping with life outside the church.<\/p>\n

The stories Haggis found on the Internet of children drafted into the Sea Org appalled him. \u201cThey were ten years old, twelve years old, signing billion-year contracts\u2014and their parents go along with this?\u201d Haggis told me. \u201cScrubbing pots, manual labor\u2014that so deeply touched me. My God, it horrified me!\u201d The stories of the Sea Org children reminded Haggis of child slaves he had seen in Haiti.<\/p>\n

Many Sea Org volunteers find themselves with no viable options for adulthood. If they try to leave, the church presents them with a \u201cfreeloader tab\u201d for all the coursework and counselling they have received; the bill can amount to more than a hundred thousand dollars. Payment is required in order to leave in good standing. \u201cMany of them actually pay it,\u201d Haggis said. \u201cThey leave, they\u2019re ashamed of what they\u2019ve done, they\u2019ve got no money, no job history, they\u2019re lost, they just disappear.\u201d In what seemed like a very unguarded comment, he said, \u201cI would gladly take down the church for that one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church says that it adheres to \u201call child labor laws,\u201d and that minors can\u2019t sign up without parental consent; the freeloader tabs are an \u201cecclesiastical matter\u201d and are not enforced through litigation.<\/p>\n

Haggis\u2019s friends came away from the meeting with mixed feelings. \u201cWe all left no clearer than when we went in,\u201d Archer said. Isham felt that there was still a possibility of getting Haggis \u201cto behave himself.\u201d He said that Haggis had agreed that \u201cit wasn\u2019t helping anyone\u201d to continue distributing the letter, and had promised not to circulate it further. Unmentioned was the fact that this would be the last time most of them ever spoke to Haggis.<\/p>\n

I asked Isham if he had taken Haggis\u2019s advice and looked at the Web sites or the articles in the St. Petersburg Times<\/em>. \u201cI started to,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it was like reading \u2018Mein Kampf\u2019 if you wanted to know something about the Jewish religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days after the friends visited Haggis\u2019s home, church officials and members came to his office, distracting his colleagues, particularly his producing partner, Michael Nozik, who is not a Scientologist. \u201cEvery day, for hours, he would have conversations with them,\u201d Nozik told me. It was August, 2009, and shooting for \u201cThe Next Three Days\u201d was set to start in Pittsburgh at the end of the month; the office desperately needed Haggis\u2019s attention. \u201cBut he felt a need to go through the process fully,\u201d Nozik says. \u201cHe wanted to give them a full hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI listened to their point of view, but I didn\u2019t change my mind,\u201d Haggis says, noting that the Scientology officials \u201cbecame more livid and irrational.\u201d He added, \u201cI applied more Scientology in those meetings than they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis and other church officials told Haggis that Miscavige had not beaten his employees; his accusers, they said, had committed the violence. Supposing that was true, Haggis said, why hadn\u2019t Miscavige stopped it? Haggis recalls that, at one meeting, he told Davis and five other officials, \u201cIf someone in my organization is beating people, I would sure know about it. You think I would put up with it? And I\u2019m not that good a person.\u201d Haggis noted that, if the rumors of Miscavige\u2019s violent temper were true, it proved that everyone is fallible. \u201cLook at Martin Luther King, Jr.,\u201d he said, alluding to King\u2019s sexual improprieties.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow dare you compare Dave Miscavige with Martin Luther King!\u201d one of the officials shouted. Haggis was shocked. \u201cThey thought that comparing Miscavige to Martin Luther King was debasing his character,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they were trying to convince me that Scientology was not a cult, they did a very poor job of it.\u201d (Davis says that King\u2019s name never came up.)<\/p>\n

In October, 2009, Marty Rathbun called Haggis and asked if he could publish the resignation letter on his blog. Rathbun had become an informal spokesperson for defectors who believed that the church had broken away from Hubbard\u2019s original teachings. Haggis was in Pittsburgh, shooting his picture. \u201cYou\u2019re a journalist, you don\u2019t need my permission,\u201d Haggis said, although he asked Rathbun to excise parts related to Katy\u2019s homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Haggis says that he didn\u2019t think about the consequences of his decision: \u201cI thought it would show up on a couple of Web sites. I\u2019m a writer, I\u2019m not Lindsay Lohan.\u201d Rathbun got fifty-five thousand hits on his blog that afternoon. The next morning, the story was in newspapers around the world.<\/p>\n

At the time Haggis was doing his research, the F.B.I. was conducting its own investigation. In December, 2009, Tricia Whitehill, a special agent from the Los Angeles office, flew to Florida to interview former members of the church in the F.B.I.\u2019s office in downtown Clearwater, which happens to be directly across the street from Scientology\u2019s spiritual headquarters. Tom De Vocht, who spoke with Whitehill, told me, \u201cI understood that the investigation had been going on for quite a while.\u201d He says Whitehill confided that she hadn\u2019t told the local agents what the investigation was about, in case the office had been infiltrated. Amy Scobee spoke to the F.B.I. for two days. \u201cThey wanted a full download about the abuse,\u201d she told me.<\/p>\n

Whitehill and Valerie Venegas, the lead agent on the case, also interviewed former Sea Org members in California. One of them was Gary Morehead, who had been the head of security at the Gold Base; he left the church in 1996. In February, 2010, he spoke to Whitehill and told her that he had developed a \u201cblow drill\u201d to track down Sea Org members who left Gold Base. \u201cWe got wickedly good at it,\u201d he says. In thirteen years, he estimates, he and his security team brought more than a hundred Sea Org members back to the base. When emotional, spiritual, or psychological pressure failed to work, Morehead says, physical force was sometimes used to bring escapees back. (The church says that blow drills do not exist.)<\/p>\n

Whitehill and Venegas worked on a special task force devoted to human trafficking. The laws regarding trafficking were built largely around forced prostitution, but they also pertain to slave labor. Under federal law, slavery is defined, in part, by the use of coercion, torture, starvation, imprisonment, threats, and psychological abuse. The California penal code lists several indicators that someone may be a victim of human trafficking: signs of trauma or fatigue; being afraid or unable to talk, because of censorship by others or security measures that prevent communication with others; working in one place without the freedom to move about; owing a debt to one\u2019s employer; and not having control over identification documents. Those conditions echo the testimony of many former Sea Org members who lived at the Gold Base.<\/p>\n

Sea Org members who have \u201cfailed to fulfill their ecclesiastical responsibilities\u201d may be sent to one of the church\u2019s several Rehabilitation Project Force locations. Defectors describe them as punitive re\u00ebducation camps. In California, there is one in Los Angeles; until 2005, there was one near the Gold Base, at a place called Happy Valley. Bruce Hines, the defector turned research physicist, says that he was confined to R.P.F. for six years, first in L.A., then in Happy Valley. He recalls that the properties were heavily guarded and that anyone who tried to flee would be tracked down and subjected to further punishment. \u201cIn 1995, when I was put in R.P.F., there were twelve of us,\u201d Hines said. \u201cAt the high point, in 2000, there were about a hundred and twenty of us.\u201d Some members have been in R.P.F. for more than a decade, doing manual labor and extensive spiritual work. (Davis says that Sea Org members enter R.P.F. by their own choosing and can leave at any time; the manual labor maintains church facilities and instills \u201cpride of accomplishment.\u201d)<\/p>\n

In 2009, two former Sea Org members, Claire and Marc Headley, filed lawsuits against the church. They had both joined as children. Claire became a member of the Sea Org at the age of sixteen, and was assigned to the Gold Base. She says she wasn\u2019t allowed to tell anyone where she was going, not even her mother, who was made to sign over guardianship. (Claire\u2019s mother, who is still in the church, has issued a sworn statement denying that she lost contact with her daughter.) The security apparatus at the Gold Base intimidated Claire. \u201cEven though I had been in Scientology pretty much all my life, this was a whole new world,\u201d she told me. She says she was rarely allowed even a telephone call to her mother. \u201cEvery last trace of my life, as I knew it, was thrown away,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was like living in George Orwell\u2019s \u20181984.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Claire met Marc Headley, also a teen-ager, soon after her arrival. \u201cWe had no ties to anyone not in Scientology,\u201d Claire said. \u201cIt was a very closeted and controlled existence.\u201d Marc says it was widely known around the base that he was one of the first people Tom Cruise audited. In Scientology, the auditor bears a significant responsibility for the progress of his subject. \u201cIf you audit somebody and that person leaves the organization, there\u2019s only one person whose fault that is\u2014the auditor,\u201d Headley told me. (Cruise\u2019s attorney says that Cruise doesn\u2019t recall meeting Marc.) Claire and Marc fell in love, and married in 1992. She says that she was pressured by the church to have two abortions, because of a stipulation that Sea Org members can\u2019t have children. The church denies that it pressures members to terminate pregnancies. Lucy James, a former Scientologist who had access to Sea Org personnel records, says that she knows of dozens of cases in which members were pressed to have abortions.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Marc Headley says, he was punched by Miscavige during an argument. He and his wife quit. (The church calls Marc Headley dishonest, claiming that he kept seven hundred dollars in profits after being authorized to sell Scientology camera equipment; Headley says that shipping costs and other expenses account for the discrepancy.) In 2009, the Headleys filed their suits, which maintained that the working conditions at the Gold Base violated labor and human-trafficking laws. The church responded that the Headleys were ministers who had voluntarily submitted to the rigors of their calling, and that the First Amendment protected Scientology\u2019s religious practices. The court agreed with this argument and dismissed the Headleys\u2019 complaints, awarding the church forty thousand dollars in litigation costs. The court also indicated that the Headleys were technically free to leave the Gold Base. The Headleys have appealed the rulings.<\/p>\n

Defectors also talked to the F.B.I. about Miscavige\u2019s luxurious life style. The law prohibits the head of a tax-exempt organization from enjoying unusual perks or compensation; it\u2019s called inurement. Tommy Davis refused to disclose how much money Miscavige earns, and the church isn\u2019t required to do so, but Headley and other defectors suggest that Miscavige lives more like a Hollywood star than like the head of a religious organization\u2014flying on chartered jets and wearing shoes custom-made in London. Claire Headley says that, when she was in Scientology, Miscavige had five stewards and two chefs at his disposal; he also had a large car collection, including a Saleen Mustang, similar to one owned by Cruise, and six motorcycles. (The church denies this characterization and \u201cvigorously objects to the suggestion that Church funds inure to the private benefit of Mr. Miscavige.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Former Sea Org members report that Miscavige receives elaborate birthday and Christmas gifts from Scientology groups around the world. One year, he was given a Vyrus 985 C3 4V, a motorcycle with a retail price of seventy thousand dollars. \u201cThese gifts are tokens of love and respect for Mr. Miscavige,\u201d Davis informed me.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Sea Org members typically receive fifty dollars a week. Often, this stipend is docked for small infractions, such as failing to meet production quotas or skipping scripture-study sessions. According to Janela Webster, who was in the Sea Org for nineteen years before defecting, in 2006, it wasn\u2019t unusual for a member to be paid as little as thirteen dollars a week.<\/p>\n

I recently spoke with two sources in the F.B.I. who are close to the investigation. They assured me that the case remains open.<\/p>\n

Last April, John Brousseau, who had been in the Sea Org for more than thirty years, left the Gold Base. He was unhappy with Miscavige, his former brother-in-law, whom he considered \u201cdetrimental to the goals of Scientology.\u201d He drove across the country, to south Texas, to meet Marty Rathbun. \u201cI was there a couple of nights,\u201d he says. At five-thirty one morning, he was leaving the motel room where he was staying, to get coffee, when he heard footsteps behind him. It was Tommy Davis; he and nineteen church members had tracked Brousseau down. Brousseau locked himself in his room and called Rathbun, who alerted the police; Davis went home without Brousseau.<\/p>\n

In a deposition given in July, Davis said no when asked if he had ever \u201cfollowed a Sea Organization member that has blown\u201d\u2014fled the church. Under further questioning, he admitted that he and an entourage had flown to Texas in a jet chartered by Scientology, and had shown up outside Brousseau\u2019s motel room at dawn. But he insisted that he was only trying \u201cto see a friend of mine.\u201d Davis now calls Brousseau \u201ca liar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brousseau says that his defection caused anxiety, in part because he had worked on a series of special projects for Tom Cruise. Brousseau maintained grounds and buildings at the Gold Base. He worked for fourteen months on the renovation of the Freewinds, the only ship left in Scientology\u2019s fleet; he also says that he installed bars over the doors of the Hole, at the Gold Base, shortly after Rathbun escaped. (The church denies this.)<\/p>\n

In 2005, Miscavige showed Cruise a Harley-Davidson motorcycle he owned. At Miscavige\u2019s request, Brousseau had had the vehicle\u2019s parts plated with brushed nickel and painted candy-apple red. Brousseau recalls, \u201cCruise asked me, \u2018God, could you paint my bike like that?\u2019 I looked at Miscavige, and Miscavige agreed.\u201d Cruise brought in two motorcycles to be painted, a Triumph and a Honda Rune; the Honda had been given to him by Spielberg after the filming of \u201cWar of the Worlds.\u201d \u201cThe Honda already had a custom paint job by the set designer,\u201d Brousseau recalls. Each motorcycle had to be taken apart completely, and all the parts nickel-plated, before it was painted. (The church denies Brousseau\u2019s account.)<\/p>\n

Brousseau also says that he helped customize a Ford Excursion S.U.V. that Cruise owned, installing features such as handmade eucalyptus panelling. The customization job was presented to Tom Cruise as a gift from David Miscavige, he said. \u201cI was getting paid fifty dollars a week,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd I\u2019m supposed to be working for the betterment of mankind.\u201d Several years ago, Brousseau says, he worked on the renovation of an airport hangar that Cruise maintains in Burbank. Sea Org members installed faux scaffolding, giant banners bearing the emblems of aircraft manufacturers, and a luxurious office that was fabricated at church facilities, then reassembled inside the hangar. Brousseau showed me dozens of photographs documenting his work for Cruise.<\/p>\n

Both Cruise\u2019s attorney and the church deny Brousseau\u2019s account. Cruise\u2019s attorney says that \u201cthe Church of Scientology has never expended any funds to the personal benefit of Mr. Cruise or provided him with free services.\u201d Tommy Davis says that these projects were done by contractors, and that Brousseau acted merely as an adviser. He also says, \u201cNone of the Church staff involved were coerced in any way to assist Mr. Cruise. Church staff, and indeed Church members, hold Mr. Cruise in very high regard and are honored to assist him. Whatever small economic benefit Mr. Cruise may have received from the assistance of Church staff pales in comparison to the benefits the Church has received from Mr. Cruise\u2019s many years of volunteer efforts for the Church.\u201d Yet this assistance may have involved many hours of unpaid labor on the part of Sea Org members.<\/p>\n

Miscavige\u2019s official title is chairman of the board of the Religious Technology Center, but he dominates the entire organization. His word is absolute, and he imposes his will even on some of the people closest to him. According to Rinder and Brousseau, in June, 2006, while Miscavige was away from the Gold Base, his wife, Shelly, filled several job vacancies without her husband\u2019s permission. Soon afterward, she disappeared. Her current status is unknown. Tommy Davis told me, \u201cI definitely know where she is,\u201d but he won\u2019t disclose where that is.<\/p>\n

The garden behind Anne Archer and Terry Jastrow\u2019s house, in Brentwood, is filled with olive trees and hummingbirds. A fountain gurgles beside the swimming pool. When I visited, last May, Jastrow told me about the first time he met Archer, in Milton Katselas\u2019s class. \u201cI saw this girl sitting next to Milton,\u201d Jastrow recalled. \u201cI said, \u2018Who is that<\/em>?\u2019 \u201d There was a cool wind blowing in from the Pacific, and Archer drew a shawl around her.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were friends for about a year and a half before we ever had our first date,\u201d Archer said. They were married in 1978. \u201cOur relationship really works,\u201d Jastrow said. \u201cWe attribute that essentially a hundred per cent to applying Scientology.\u201d The two spoke of the techniques that had helped them, such as never being critical of the other and never interrupting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t a creed,\u201d Archer said. \u201cThese are basic natural laws of life.\u201d She described Hubbard as \u201can engineer\u201d who had codified human emotional states, in order to guide people to \u201cfeel a zest and a love for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked them how the controversy surrounding Scientology had affected them. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t touched me,\u201d Archer said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that I\u2019m not aware of it.\u201d She went on, \u201cScientology is growing. It\u2019s in a hundred and sixty-five countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTranslated into fifty languages!\u201d Jastrow added. \u201cIt\u2019s the fastest-growing religion.\u201d He added, \u201cScientologists do more good things for more people in more places around the world than any other organization ever.\u201d He continued, \u201cWhen you study the historical perspective of new faiths, historically, they\u2019ve all been\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAttacked,\u201d Archer said. \u201cLook what happened to the\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Christians,\u201d Jastrow said, simultaneously. \u201cThink of the Mormons and the Christian Scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n

We talked about the church\u2019s focus on celebrities. \u201cHubbard recognized that if you really want to inspire a culture to have peace and greatness and harmony among men, you need to respect and help the artist to prosper and flourish,\u201d Archer said. \u201cAnd if he\u2019s particularly well known he needs a place where he can be comfortable. Celebrity Centres provide that.\u201d She blamed the press for concentrating too much on Scientology celebrities. Journalists, she said, \u201cdon\u2019t write about the hundreds of thousands of other Scientologists\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMillions<\/em> of other Scientologists. They only write about four friggin\u2019 people!\u201d<\/p>\n

The church won\u2019t release official membership figures, but it informally claims eight million members worldwide. Davis says that the figure comes from the number of people throughout the world who have donated to the church. \u201cThere is no process of conversion, there is no baptism,\u201d Davis told me. It was a simple decision: \u201cEither you are or you aren\u2019t.\u201d A survey of American religious affiliations, compiled in the Statistical Abstract of the United States<\/em>, estimates that only twenty-five thousand Americans actually call themselves Scientologists. That\u2019s less than half the number who identify themselves as Rastafarians.<\/p>\n

Jastrow suggested that Scientology\u2019s critics often had a vested interest. He pointed to psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, drugmakers, pharmacies\u2014\u201call those people who make a living and profit and pay their mortgages and pay their college educations and buy their cars, et cetera, et cetera, based on people not being well.\u201d He cited a recent article in USA Today<\/em> which noted that an alarmingly high number of soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan had been hospitalized for mental illness. Drugs merely mask mental distress, he said, whereas \u201cScientology will solve the source of the problem.\u201d The medical and pharmaceutical industries are \u201cprime funders and sponsors of the media,\u201d he said, and therefore might exert \u201cinfluence on people telling the whole and true story about Scientology just because of the profit motive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientology has perpetuated Hubbard\u2019s antagonism toward psychiatry. An organization that the church co-founded, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, maintains a permanent exhibit in Los Angeles called \u201cPsychiatry: An Industry of Death,\u201d which argues that psychiatry contributed to the rise of Nazism and apartheid. The group is behind an effort \u201cto help achieve legislative protections against abusive psychiatric treatment and drugging of children.\u201d (Paul Haggis has hosted an event for the organization at his home. His defection from Scientology has not changed his view that \u201cpsychotropic drugs are overprescribed for children.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Jastrow, in his back yard, told me, \u201cScientology is going to be huge, and it\u2019s going to help mankind right itself.\u201d He asked me, \u201cWhat else is there that we can hang our hopes on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s improving the civilization,\u201d Archer added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there some other religion on the horizon that\u2019s gonna help mankind?\u201d he said. \u201cJust tell me where. If not Scientology, where?\u201d<\/p>\n

Archer and Jastrow found their way into Scientology in the mid-seventies, but Tommy Davis was reared in Archer\u2019s original faith, Christian Science. He never met L. Ron Hubbard. He was thirteen years old on January 24, 1986, the day Hubbard died. Although Davis grew up amid money and celebrity, he impressed people with his modesty and his idealism. Like Paul Haggis, Davis was first drawn to the church because of romantic problems. In 1996, he told Details<\/em> that, when he was seventeen, he was having trouble with a girlfriend, and went to his mother for advice. Archer suggested that he go to the Celebrity Centre. After taking the Personal Values and Integrity course, Davis became a Scientologist.<\/p>\n

In 1990, Davis was accepted at Columbia University. But, according to the defector John Peeler\u2014who was then the secretary to Karen Hollander, the president of the Celebrity Centre\u2014pressure was put on Davis to join the Sea Org. Hollander, Peeler says, wanted Tommy to be her personal assistant. \u201cKaren felt that because of who his parents were, and the fact that he already had close friendships with other celebrities, he\u2019d be a good fit,\u201d Peeler said. \u201cWhenever celebrities came in, there would be Anne Archer\u2019s son.\u201d At first, Davis resisted. \u201cHe wanted to go to college,\u201d Peeler said.<\/p>\n

That fall, Davis entered Columbia. He attended for a semester, then dropped out and joined the Sea Org. \u201cI always wanted to do something that helped people,\u201d Davis explained to me. \u201cI didn\u2019t think the world needed another doctor or lawyer.\u201d Archer and Jastrow say that they were surprised by Tommy\u2019s decision. \u201cWe were hoping he\u2019d get his college education,\u201d Jastrow said.<\/p>\n

Davis became fiercely committed to the Sea Org. He got a tattoo on one arm of its logo\u2014two palm fronds embracing a star, supposedly the emblem of the Galactic Confederacy seventy-five million years ago. He began working at the Celebrity Centre, attending to young stars like Juliette Lewis, before taking on Tom Cruise. David Miscavige was impressed with Davis. Mike Rinder recalled, \u201cMiscavige liked the fact that he was young and looked trendy and wore Armani suits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Haggis remembers first meeting Davis at the Celebrity Centre in the early nineties. \u201cHe was a sweet and bright boy,\u201d Haggis said.<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019s rise within Scientology was not without difficulty. In 2005, Davis was sent to Clearwater to participate in something called the Estates Project Force. He was there at the same time as Donna Shannon, a veterinarian who had become an O.T. VII before joining the Sea Org. She had thought that she was attending a kind of boot camp for new Sea Org members, and was surprised to see veterans like Davis. She says that Davis, \u201ca pretty nice guy,\u201d was subjected to extensive hazing. \u201cHe complained about scrubbing a Dumpster with a toothbrush till late at night,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThen he\u2019d be up at six to do our laundry.\u201d Only later did Shannon learn that Davis was Anne Archer\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

Shannon and Davis worked together for a while in Clearwater, maintaining the grounds. \u201cI was supposedly supervising him,\u201d Shannon says. \u201cI was told to make him work really hard.\u201d At one point, Shannon says, Davis borrowed about a hundred dollars from her because he didn\u2019t have money for food.<\/p>\n

One day, according to Shannon, she and Davis were taking the bus to a work project. She asked why he was in the E.P.F.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got busted,\u201d Davis told her. Using Scientology jargon, he said, \u201cI fucked up on Tom Cruise\u2019s lines\u201d\u2014meaning that he had botched a project that Cruise was involved in. \u201cI just want to do my stuff and get back on post.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shannon recalled that, suddenly, \u201cit was like a veil went over his eyes, and he goes, \u2018I already said too much.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Several months later, Davis paid her back the money. (Davis says that he does not recall meeting Shannon, has never scrubbed a Dumpster, and has never had a need to borrow money.)<\/p>\n

Davis ascended to his role as spokesman in 2007. He has since become known for his aggressive defenses of the church. In 2007, the BBC began reporting an investigative story about Scientology. From the start, the BBC crew, led by John Sweeney, was shadowed by a Scientology film crew. Davis travelled across the U.S. to disrupt Sweeney\u2019s interviews with Scientology dissidents. The two men had a number of confrontations. In an incident captured on video in Florida, Sweeney suggests that Scientology is \u201ca sadistic cult.\u201d Davis responds, \u201cFor you to repeatedly refer to my faith in those terms is so derogatory, so offensive, and so bigoted. And the reason you kept repeating it is because you wanted to get a reaction like you\u2019re getting right now. Well, buddy, you got it! Right here, right now, I\u2019m angry! Real angry!<\/em>\u201d The two men had another encounter that left Sweeney screaming as Davis goaded him\u2014an incident so raw that Sweeney apologized to his viewers.<\/p>\n

Shortly afterward, in March, 2007, Davis mysteriously disappeared. He was under considerable stress. According to Mike Rinder, Davis had told Sweeney that he reported to Miscavige every day, and that angered Miscavige, who wanted to be seen as focussed on spiritual matters, not public relations. According to Rinder, Davis \u201cblew.\u201d A few days later, he surfaced in Las Vegas. Davis was sent to Clearwater, where he was \u201csecurity-checked\u201d by Jessica Feshbach, a church stalwart. A security check involves seeking to gain a confession with an E-Meter, in order to rout out subversion. It can function as a powerful form of thought control.<\/p>\n

Davis claims that he never fled the church and was not in Las Vegas. He did go to Clearwater. \u201cI went to Florida and worked there for a year and took some time off,\u201d he told me. \u201cI did a lot of study, a lot of auditing.\u201d He and Feshbach subsequently got married.<\/p>\n

When I first contacted Tommy Davis, last April, he expressed a reluctance to talk, saying that he had already spent a month responding to Paul Haggis. \u201cIt made little difference,\u201d he said. \u201cThe last thing I\u2019m interested in is dredging all this up again.\u201d He kept putting me off, saying that he was too busy to get together, but he promised that we would meet when he was more available. In an e-mail, he said, \u201cWe should plan on spending at least a full day together as there is a lot I would want to show you.\u201d We finally arranged to meet on Memorial Day weekend.<\/p>\n

I flew to Los Angeles and waited for him to call. On Sunday at three o\u2019clock, Davis appeared at my hotel, with Feshbach. We sat at a table on the patio. Davis has his mother\u2019s sleepy eyes. His thick black hair was combed forward, with a lock falling boyishly onto his forehead. He wore a wheat-colored suit with a blue shirt. Feshbach, a slender, attractive woman, anxiously twirled her hair.<\/p>\n

Davis now told me that he was \u201cnot willing to participate in, or contribute to, an article about Scientology through the lens of Paul Haggis.\u201d I had come to Los Angeles specifically to talk to him, at a time he had chosen. I asked if he had been told not to talk to me. He said no.<\/p>\n

Feshbach said that she had spoken to Mark Isham, whom I had interviewed the day before. \u201cHe talked to you about what are supposed to be our confidential scriptures.\u201d Any discussion of the church\u2019s secret doctrines was offensive, she said.<\/p>\n

In my meeting with Isham, he asserted that Scientology was not a \u201cfaith-based religion.\u201d I pointed out that, in Scientology\u2019s upper levels, there was a cosmology that would have to be accepted on faith. Isham said that he wasn\u2019t going to discuss the details of O.T. III. \u201cIn the wrong hands, it can hurt people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I have to say about Paul, I\u2019ve already said,\u201d Davis told me. He agreed, however, to respond to written questions about the church.<\/p>\n

In late September, Davis and Feshbach, along with four attorneys representing the church, travelled to Manhattan to meet with me and six staff members of The New Yorker<\/em>. In response to nearly a thousand queries, the Scientology delegation handed over forty-eight binders of supporting material, stretching nearly seven linear feet.<\/p>\n

Davis, early in his presentation, attacked the credibility of Scientology defectors, whom he calls \u201cbitter apostates.\u201d He said, \u201cThey make up stories.\u201d He cited Bryan Wilson, an Oxford sociologist, who has argued that testimony from the disaffected should be treated skeptically, noting, \u201cThe apostate is generally in need of self-justification. He seeks to reconstruct his own past to excuse his former affiliations and to blame those who were formerly his closest associates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis spoke about Gerry Armstrong, a former Scientology archivist who copied, without permission, many of the church\u2019s files on Hubbard, and who settled in a fraud suit against the church in 1986. Davis charged that Armstrong had forged many of the documents that he later disseminated in order to discredit the church\u2019s founder. He also alleged that Armstrong had spread rumors of a 1967 letter in which Hubbard told his wife that he was \u201cdrinking lots of rum and popping pinks and grays\u201d while researching the Operating Thetan material. Davis also noted that, in 1984, Armstrong had been captured on videotape telling a friend, \u201cI can create documents with relative ease. You know, I did for a living.\u201d Davis\u2019s decision to cite this evidence was curious\u2014though the quote cast doubt on Armstrong\u2019s ethics, it also suggested that forging documents had once been part of a Scientologist\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

Davis passed around a photograph of Armstrong, which, he said, showed Armstrong \u201csitting naked\u201d with a giant globe in his lap. \u201cThis was a photo that was in a newspaper article he did where he said that all people should give up money,\u201d Davis said. \u201cHe\u2019s not a very sane person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armstrong told me that, in the photo, he is actually wearing running shorts under the globe. The article is about his attempt to create a movement for people to \u201cabandon the use of currency.\u201d He said that he received eight hundred thousand dollars in the 1986 settlement and had given most of the money away. (The settlement prohibited Armstrong from talking about Scientology, a prohibition that he has ignored, and the church has won two breach-of-contract suits against him, including a five-hundred-thousand-dollar judgment in 2004.)<\/p>\n

Davis also displayed photographs of what he said were bruises sustained by Mike Rinder\u2019s former wife in 2010, after Rinder physically assaulted her in a Florida parking lot. (Rinder denies committing any violence. A sheriff\u2019s report supports this.) Davis also showed a mug shot of Marty Rathbun in a jailhouse jumpsuit, after being arrested in New Orleans last July for public drunkenness. \u201cGetting arrested for being drunk on the intersection of Bourbon and Toulouse?\u201d Davis cracked. \u201cThat\u2019s like getting arrested for being a leper in a leper colony.\u201d (Rathbun\u2019s arrest has been expunged.) Claire and Marc Headley were \u201cthe most despicable people in the world\u201d; Jeff Hawkins was \u201can inveterate liar.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked how, if these people were so reprehensible, they had all arrived at such elevated positions in the church. \u201cThey weren\u2019t like that when they were in those positions,\u201d Davis responded. The defectors we were discussing had not only risen to positions of responsibility within the church; they had also ascended Scientology\u2019s ladder of spiritual accomplishment. I suggested to Davis that Scientology didn\u2019t seem to work if people at the highest levels of spiritual attainment were actually liars, adulterers, wife beaters, and embezzlers.<\/p>\n

Scientology, Davis said, doesn\u2019t pretend to be perfect, and it shouldn\u2019t be judged on the misconduct of a few apostates. \u201cI<\/em> haven\u2019t done things like that,\u201d Davis said. \u201cI haven\u2019t suborned perjury, destroyed evidence, lied\u2014contrary to what Paul Haggis says.\u201d He spoke of his frustration with Haggis after his resignation: \u201cIf he was so troubled and shaken on the fundamentals of Scientology . . . then why the hell did he stick around for thirty-five years?\u201d He continued, \u201cDid he stay a closet Scientologist for some career-advancement purpose?\u201d Davis shook his head in disgust. \u201cI think he\u2019s the most hypocritical person in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

We discussed the allegations of abuse lodged against Miscavige. \u201cThe only people who will corroborate are their fellow-apostates,\u201d Davis said. He produced affidavits from other Scientologists refuting the accusations, and noted that the tales about Miscavige always hinged on \u201cinexplicable violent outbursts.\u201d Davis said, \u201cOne would think that if such a thing occurred\u2014which it most certainly did not\u2014there\u2019d have to be a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

I had wondered about these stories as well. While Rinder and Rathbun were in the church, they had repeatedly claimed that allegations of abuse were baseless. Then, after Rinder defected, he said that Miscavige had beaten him fifty times. Rathbun has confessed that, in 1997, he ordered incriminating documents destroyed in the case of Lisa McPherson, the Scientologist who died of an embolism. If these men were capable of lying to protect the church, might they not also be capable of lying to destroy it? Davis later claimed that Rathbun is in fact trying to overthrow Scientology\u2019s current leadership and take over the church. (Rathbun now makes his living by providing Hubbard-inspired counselling to other defectors, but he says that he has no desire to be part of a hierarchical organization. \u201cPower corrupts,\u201d he says.)<\/p>\n

Twelve other defectors told me that they had been beaten by Miscavige, or had witnessed Miscavige beating other church staff members. Most of them, like John Peeler, noted that Miscavige\u2019s demeanor changed \u201clike the snap of a finger.\u201d Others who never saw such violence spoke of their constant fear of the leader\u2019s anger.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, Davis brought up Jack Parsons\u2019s black-magic society, which Hubbard had supposedly infiltrated. Davis said, \u201cHe was sent in there by Robert Heinlein\u201d\u2014the science-fiction writer\u2014\u201cwho was running off-book intelligence operations for naval intelligence at the time.\u201d Davis said, \u201cA biography that just came out three weeks ago on Bob Heinlein actually confirmed it at a level that we\u2019d never been able to before.\u201d The book to which Davis was referring is the first volume of an authorized Heinlein biography, by William H. Patterson, Jr. There is no mention in the book of Heinlein\u2019s sending Hubbard to break up the Parsons ring, on the part of naval intelligence or any other organization. Patterson says that he looked into the matter, at the suggestion of Scientologists, but found nothing.<\/p>\n

Davis and I discussed an assertion that Marty Rathbun had made to me about the O.T. III creation story\u2014the galactic revelations that Haggis had deemed \u201cmadness.\u201d While Hubbard was in exile, Rathbun told me, he wrote a memo suggesting an experiment in which ascending Scientologists skipped the O.T. III level. Miscavige shelved the idea, Rathbun told me. Davis called Rathbun\u2019s story \u201clibellous.\u201d He explained that the cornerstone of Scientology was the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. \u201cMr. Hubbard\u2019s material must be and is applied precisely as written,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt\u2019s never altered. It\u2019s never changed. And there probably is no more heretical or more horrific transgression that you could have in the Scientology religion than to alter the technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

But hadn\u2019t certain derogatory references to homosexuality found in some editions of Hubbard\u2019s books been changed after his death?<\/p>\n

Davis admitted that that was so, but he maintained that \u201cthe current editions are one-hundred-per-cent, absolutely fully verified as being according to what Mr. Hubbard wrote.\u201d Davis said they were checked against Hubbard\u2019s original dictation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent to which the references to homosexuality have changed are because of mistaken dictation?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, because of the insertion, I guess, of somebody who was a bigot,\u201d Davis replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody put the material in those\u2014?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only imagine. . . . It wasn\u2019t Mr. Hubbard,\u201d Davis said, cutting me off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would\u2019ve done it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHmm.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it really matters,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThe point is that neither Mr. Hubbard nor the church has any opinion on the subject of anyone\u2019s sexual orientation. . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeone inserted words that were not his into literature that was propagated under his name, and that\u2019s been corrected now?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I can only assume that\u2019s what happened,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n

After this exchange, I looked at some recent editions that the church had provided me with. On page 125 of \u201cDianetics,\u201d a \u201csexual pervert\u201d is defined as someone engaging in \u201chomosexuality, lesbianism, sexual sadism, etc.\u201d Apparently, the bigot\u2019s handiwork was not fully excised.<\/p>\n

At the meeting, Davis and I also discussed Hubbard\u2019s war record. His voice filling with emotion, he said that, if it was true that Hubbard had not been injured, then \u201cthe injuries that he handled by the use of Dianetics procedures were never handled, because they were injuries that never existed; therefore, Dianetics is based on a lie; therefore, Scientology is based on a lie.\u201d He concluded, \u201cThe fact of the matter is that Mr. Hubbard was a war hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the binders that Davis provided, there was a letter from the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland, dated December 1, 1945. The letter states that Hubbard had been hospitalized that year for a duodenal ulcer, but was \u201ctechnically pronounced \u2018fit for duty.\u2019 \u201d This was the same period during which Hubbard claimed to have been blinded and lame. Davis had highlighted a passage: \u201cEyesight very poor, beginning with conjunctivitis actinic in 1942. Lame in right hip from service connected injury. Infection in bone. Not misconduct, all service connected.\u201d Davis added later that, according to Robert Heinlein, Hubbard\u2019s ankles had suffered a \u201cdrumhead-type injury\u201d; this can result, Davis explained, \u201cwhen the ship is torpedoed or bombed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis acknowledged that some of Hubbard\u2019s medical records did not appear to corroborate Hubbard\u2019s version of events. But Scientology had culled other records that did<\/em> confirm Hubbard\u2019s story, including documents from the National Archives in St. Louis. The man who did the research, Davis said, was \u201cMr. X.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis explained, \u201cAnyone who saw \u2018J.F.K.\u2019 remembers a scene on the Mall where Kevin Costner\u2019s character goes and meets with a man named Mr. X, who\u2019s played by Donald Sutherland.\u201d In the film, Mr. X is an embittered intelligence agent who explains that the Kennedy assassination was actually a coup staged by the military-industrial complex. In real life, Davis said, Mr. X was Colonel Leroy Fletcher Prouty, who had worked in the Office of Special Operations. (Oliver Stone, who directed \u201cJ.F.K.,\u201d says that Mr. X was a composite character, based in part on Prouty.) In the eighties, Prouty worked as a consultant for Scientology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe finally got so frustrated with this point of conflicting medical records that we took all of Mr. Hubbard\u2019s records to Fletcher Prouty,\u201d Davis told me. \u201cHe actually solved the conundrum for us.\u201d According to Davis, Prouty explained to the church representatives that, because Hubbard had an \u201cintelligence background,\u201d his records were subjected to a process known as \u201csheep-dipping.\u201d Davis explained that this was military parlance for \u201cwhat gets done to a set of records for an intelligence officer. And, essentially, they create two sets.\u201d He said, \u201cFletcher Prouty basically issued an affidavit saying L. Ron Hubbard\u2019s records were sheep-dipped.\u201d Prouty died in 2001.<\/p>\n

Davis later sent me a copy of what he said was a document that confirmed Hubbard\u2019s heroism: a \u201cNotice of Separation from the U.S. Naval Service,\u201d dated December 6, 1945. The document specifies medals won by Hubbard, including a Purple Heart with a Palm, implying that he was wounded in action twice. But John E. Bircher, the spokesman for the Military Order of the Purple Heart, wrote to me that the Navy uses gold and silver stars, \u201cNOT a palm,\u201d to indicate multiple wounds. Davis included a photograph of medals that Hubbard supposedly won. Two of the medals in the photograph weren\u2019t even created until after Hubbard left active service.<\/p>\n

After filing a request with the National Archives in St. Louis, The New Yorker<\/em> obtained what archivists assured us were Hubbard\u2019s complete military records\u2014more than nine hundred pages. Nowhere in the file is there mention of Hubbard\u2019s being wounded in battle or breaking his feet. X-rays taken of Hubbard\u2019s right shoulder and hip showed calcium deposits, but there was no evidence of any bone or joint disease in his ankle.<\/p>\n

There is a \u201cNotice of Separation\u201d in the records, but it is not the one that Davis sent me. The differences in the two documents are telling. The St. Louis document indicates that Hubbard earned four medals for service, but they reflect no distinction or valor. In the church document, his job preference after the service is listed as \u201cStudio (screen writing)\u201d; in the official record, it is \u201cuncertain.\u201d The church document indicates, falsely, that Hubbard completed four years of college, obtaining a degree in civil engineering. The official document correctly notes two years of college and no degree.<\/p>\n

On the church document, the commanding officer who signed off on Hubbard\u2019s separation was \u201cHoward D. Thompson, Lt. Cmdr.\u201d The file contains a letter, from 2000, to another researcher, who had written for more information about Thompson. An analyst with the National Archives responded that the records of commissioned naval officers at that time had been reviewed, and \u201cthere was no Howard D. Thompson listed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The church, after being informed of these discrepancies, said, \u201cOur expert on military records has advised us that, in his considered opinion, there is nothing<\/em> in the Thompson notice that would lead him to question its validity.\u201d Eric Voelz, an archivist who has worked at the St. Louis archive for three decades, looked at the document and pronounced it a forgery.<\/p>\n

Since leaving the church, Haggis has been in therapy, which he has found helpful. He\u2019s learned how much he blames others for his problems, especially those who are closest to him. \u201cI really wish I had found a good therapist when I was twenty-one,\u201d he said. In Scientology, he always felt a subtle pressure to impress his auditor and then write up a glowing success story. Now, he said, \u201cI\u2019m not fooling myself that I\u2019m a better man than I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, he and Rennard separated. They have moved to the same neighborhood in New York, so that they can share custody of their son. Rennard has also decided to leave the church. Both say that the divorce has nothing to do with their renunciation of Scientology.<\/p>\n

On November 9th, \u201cThe Next Three Days\u201d premi\u00e8red at the Ziegfeld Theatre, in Manhattan. Movie stars lined up on the red carpet as photographers fired away. Jason Beghe, who plays a detective in the film, was there. He told me that he had taken in a young man, Daniel Montalvo, who had recently blown. He was placed in the Cadet Org, a junior version of the Sea Org, at age five, and joined the Sea Org at eleven. \u201cHe\u2019s never seen television,\u201d Beghe said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t even know who Robert Redford is.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the screening, everyone drifted over to the Oak Room of the Plaza Hotel. Haggis was in a corner receiving accolades from his friends when I found him. I asked him if he felt that he had finally left Scientology. \u201cI feel much more myself, but there\u2019s a sadness,\u201d he admitted. \u201cIf you identify yourself with something for so long, and suddenly you think of yourself as not that thing, it leaves a bit of space.\u201d He went on, \u201cIt\u2019s not really the sense of a loss of community. Those people who walked away from me were never really my friends.\u201d He understood how they felt about him, and why. \u201cIn Scientology, in the Ethics Conditions, as you go down from Normal through Doubt, then you get to Enemy, and, finally, near the bottom, there is Treason. What I did was a treasonous act.\u201d<\/p>\n

I once asked Haggis about the future of his relationship with Scientology. \u201cThese people have long memories,\u201d he told me. \u201cMy bet is that, within two years, you\u2019re going to read something about me in a scandal that looks like it has nothing to do with the church.\u201d He thought for a moment, then said, \u201cI was in a cult for thirty-four years. Everyone else could see it. I don\u2019t know why I couldn\u2019t.\u201d \u2666<\/p>\n

The New Yorker, February 14, 2011, p. 84 <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 newyorker.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology. Haggis was prominent in both Scientology and Hollywood, two communities that often converge. Although he is less famous than certain other Scientologists, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, he had been in the organization for nearly thirty-five years. Haggis wrote the screenplay for \u201cMillion Dollar Baby,\u201d which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2004, and he wrote and directed \u201cCrash,\u201d which won Best Picture the next year\u2014the only time in Academy history that that has happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}