Cult News

Larry King is arguably the king of the softball interview. And many celebrities prefer to appear on his show rather than face sterner questioners.

Scientologists really seem to like the CNN host, from the organization’s President Heber Jentzsch to John Travolta, both have sat in for interviews.

But when they sit down comfortably across from King, Scientologists often spill more than they would normally on another talk show. And in a recent interview Tom Cruise literally overflowed with information about the controversial church, which has been called a “cult.”

King lay back in the interview with his usual soft style and Cruise came off like an infomercial for Scientology, rattling off one related program after another.

Tom Cruise is supposedly doing the rounds to promote his latest film, The Last Samurai, but it often appears that the star is doing double duty as a Scientology spokesman.

See his Toronto Sun interview. Or note his defense of Scientology in a puff piece within USA Today.

King led into the topic of Scientology by asking about Cruise’s reported dyslexia. But the star corrected his host by flatly stating “I am not dyslexic.” Nor, Cruise claimed, was he ever really afflicted with the learning disability.

According to the actor, “When I became a Scientologist in ’86, ’87, later on discovered also L. Ron Hubbard [founder of Scientology] developed study technology that actually — to help me realize that that — you know, that the false labels that are out there.”

The actor is talking about “Applied Scholastics” and Scientology’s so-called “study tech.”

King then opened up another avenue for Cruise to promote his church, “You got involved in the toxic environment problem around Ground Zero, and you established the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project“?

This was an opening for Tom Terrific to take off on another long singsong rhapsodizing about Scientology.

“It’s great. It’s actually — it’s based on the research. It’s — Hubbard developed it. What happens is that Hubbard developed a thing that’s based on clear body, clear mind. He figured out how to eliminate toxins from the body. And it does just that. Doctors do not know how to diagnose chemical exposures, because it can actually have mental ramifications. You know, people feeling depressed, up and down. You know, we’ve had people go through — you know, there’s one woman who doctors were going to put a steel bar in her chest because she was having trouble breathing. And how the toxins, you know, because I’ve done — I’ve gone through the detox [Scientology religious ritual called the ‘Purification Rundown‘] myself, and it gets the toxins out of the body. So that these guys that have come on and they were on — I mean, that amount of drugs that some of these guys were on. They’re no longer on these drugs. And they get on this program.”

Cruise is largely ranting about any psychiatric medications Scientology deems destructive. However, medical doctors have not only questioned the efficacy of the “detox” he cites, but also its potential risks and specifically by abandoning prescribed medications.

Cruise then tacitly admits, “It’s also something that we also use in Narcanon that helps get the drugs out of their system.”

Narconon is another Scientology spin-off supposedly designed to help drug addicts. Kirstie Alley, another Scientologist celebrity, says it saved her life. But the organization has a history of controversy.

Cruise then seems to cast himself in the role of a medical expert.

“You go to a doctor and now he’s going to put you on more and more drugs, steroids and things that are ineffective…What happens is those toxins go in, and they reside in the fat tissue, OK? And they just sit there. There’s no way of getting that out. So long-term, you’re talking about various cancers. It’s horrific,” claims the actor.

But Tom Cruise is no MD and completely unqualified to offer medical advice.

The former Top Gun spins on about Scientology’s mission at Ground Zero, which many critics labeled as little more than publicity stunt.

He says, “Friends of mine went, who were volunteer ministers. And they went down and they — volunteer ministers were working down in — at, you know, helping set up lines and giving different things in Scientology that we have, assists…Scientologists want to help people.”

Then comes his testimony about deliverance from dyslexia, a cure Cruise recommends for others.

“Now we have…this technology that [L. Ron Hubbard] developed that actually helps people to learn how to learn and discover that — you know, these — I’ve actually helped people that have been diagnosed with ADD, ADHD. And it’s extraordinary, what happens with this technology. We have centers all over the world now that help people get this technology, and it’s also in various schools and educated millions and millions and millions of people in it.”

Cruise then offers Scientology’s version of salvation.

“You know, Scientology, the word means knowing how to know. And there are tools that I use every day as an artist, as a businessman — you know, you look at it just this way. I was diagnosed being dyslexic. I came in, learned these tools, and now I — you know, I mean, my literacy is — it is where it is, and it’ll go where I want it to go with these tools. It just kind of melts barriers, breaks them down. It helps you to recognize and understand the barriers and then overcome them.”

Amen.

But Cruise conveniently forgot to tell the CNN audience about Hubbard’s fantastic claim that we are all subject to the negative influence of space aliens murdered 75 million years ago, who were sent to earth by an evil galactic ruler named Xemu.

Tom has of course effectively dealt with these creatures from outer space through “auditing,” a Scientology process that can be quite expensive, but at $20 million dollars per picture Cruise can easily afford it.

King then asks his guest somewhat more critical questions.

“Why is [Scientology] so controversial?”

And then Larry uses the “F” word. Asking about a “FBI” investigation of the controversial church.

Cruise frantically starts spinning again. And he begins to sound more like a man on some Mission Impossible, than a film star promoting his latest picture.

“It’s not that controversial…[the FBI] wanted to raid their books…you’re talking decades ago…that’s all gone now.”

Actually a number of Scientologists, including the wife of L. Ron Hubbard (LRH), were indicted and served terms in federal prison.

Never mind. Tom Terrific spins on–

“It was a new religion. It’s also — there’s things that we do — you know, you have to look at — you look at the services and the things that we help. Narcanon is something that LRH developed that helps people get off drugs. And once you’re off the drugs, you don’t ever need those drugs again. And it’s the largest drug rehabilitation center in the world. You look at Crimanon that he developed and founded, which actually helps to rehabilitate criminals and used in you know — in some of the toughest prisons in South Africa, and those prisoners have never gone back to the prisons. You look at his — the moral — secular moral code that he wrote, called “The Way to Happiness,” that’s used by, you know, communities in the world all over. These things — you know, any time — where there’s ignorance about something or people don’t want to know about something, you know, it really gets back to gossip or, you know, just people don’t know something, there you have racism. There you have bigotry. And that’s where those things stem from. But when people come in and see what it is, people thank me for the things that I contribute to it and what we do. You look at our volunteer ministers and how they helped at the World Trade Center and…It’s an applied religious philosophy, is what it is. It’s a religion, but it’s something that you apply to yourself, you apply to life. There is — I mean, it’s such a wide range, from business technology to help someone run their business better, tools that you use in your life that help improve conditions. We improve conditions. And those are the things that we do. We educate people on — about the realities of drugs. And it’s — it’s an individual’s choice, you know, on things — on how you want you to live your life. What do you want from your life?

Careful Larry, as Katie Couric found out critical questions about Scientology make Mr. Cruise mad and you might be labeled a “bigot” for asking them.

King asks Cruise if he recruits for Scientology.

“Well, you know, I talk to people about it. I mean, if you know — if you know how to — I’ve actually personally educated people and helped them with the study technology, to help get them off, you know, these vicious drugs that psychiatrists so — you know, that they proselytize, you know, that they sell to people.”

Cruise recently has recruited his latest girlfriend and it’s rumored one of the richest men in Australia, during the filming of his latest movie “down under.”

Like any good Scientologist the actor denounces psychiatry. After all, Hubbard hated psychiatrists, maybe because people thought he was “crazy.”

Cruise lurches into preaching overdrive, “Psychiatry doesn’t work. You look at the things that psychiatry’s brought to society. We now are living in a time where we spend over $700 billion a year on education, psych- driven, and where are we? We have still a decline in illiteracy. We know that electroconvulsive shock therapy, you know, drugging people, OK, with these vicious drugs — when Prozac came out, it had the — you know, the biggest — I mean, in the first few months or a year, it had 14,000 complaints on that drug, yet it’s still out there. You look at Paxil, OK, that’s now banned in the United Kingdom for under 18 because of the vicious side effects of those drugs. So here we talk about things that we know — OK, if someone can’t read, we know that we can give them these tools and help them to read. And it doesn’t matter what religion you are, these things work. If you’re on drugs, we can help get you off drugs. If you’re a criminal, we can give you — there’s technology that he developed to help you not be a criminal.”

Yadah, yadah yadah and so on.

Maybe if his new movie doesn’t do so well Tom Cruise will consider launching a second career as a full-time Scientology preacher? This calling certainly seems to consume a great deal of star’s time.