Video: Tom Cruise on Scientology

A four year-old video featuring Tom Cruise giving a speech on Scientology has been posted first by several gossip websites, and later by news websites around the world while the Church of Scientology tried to get the video removed from YouTube and other sites.

The London Times noted that bloggers ranked the appearance as even more extreme than the actor’s infamous encounter with Oprah Winfrey’s sofa.

According the Gawker website, the video “was part of a package as Tom Cruise appeared before the International Association of Scientologists to accept its ‘Freedom Medal of Valor.'”

During Cruise’s eight-minute speech, the actor says that, as a Scientologist, he and his fellow believers are “the authorities of the mind”.

They “can bring peace and unite cultures”. They can “rehabilitate criminals”. As members of the controversial church, it is also apparently their responsibility “to educate and create the new reality”.

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Speaking over a soundtrack featuring the Mission Impossible theme tune, Cruise declares his dedication to his faith.

“Beng a scientologist, you look as someone, and you know absolutely that you can help them. When you drive past an accident, it’s not like anyone else; as you drive past, you know you have to do something about it, because you know you’re the only one that can really help.”

The 45-year-old actor peppers his speech with Scientological terms such as “SP” (a suppressive person) and “PTSPs” (a potential trouble source, influenced by SPs) when delivering his message.

“[It’s about] re-reading the KSW [the Keep Scientology Working policy, formed by it’s founder L.Ron Hubbard]…, saying OK, I’m going to do it, or I’m not going to do it. Period.”

At one point, the actor starts laughing, and clapping his hands, apparently amused by a religious in-joke. He recalls being asked whether he has ever met an “SP”.

He says: “I looked at them and I thought, what a beautiful thing. Maybe one day it will be like that. Wow. SPs. Maybe they will just read about them in the history books. [But] it’s not about how to run from an SP. It’s PTSP – how do you shatter or confront that oppression.”

Fellow Scientologists not surprised

Cruise’s speech has made new before now. In July, 2005, the St. Petersburg Times wrote:

Tom Cruise’s end-zone dance on the Oprah show and his scolding of Matt Lauer may have startled viewers, but it surely came as no surprise to his fellow Scientologists.

They had seen this side of Tom Cruise before.

Last October, in a recorded speech simulcast live to Scientology audiences around the world, Cruise passionately exhorted Scientologists to promote church programs and the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard.

To those not fully committed, he hotly said: Step it up or get out!

Don’t ask permission to help others, he said. Just do it. As Scientologists, he said, you have a special “tech” that works.

He blasted psychiatry and the use of psychiatric drugs in the same biting tone the world saw on the Today show.

The video was shown at the annual convention of the International Association of Scientologists in Britain before Cruise was awarded a Medal of Valor by the church’s worldwide leader, David Miscavige. It later was made part of an exhibit on Scientology in the church’s Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, where a St. Petersburg Times reporter viewed it weeks ago.

Now that Cruise has emerged as Scientology’s cheerleader, with his behavior sparking comment worldwide, church officials declined last week to release a copy to the Times or allow a reporter to re-view it.
– Source: Tom Cruise is so hot – that is, for Scientology, St. Petersburg Times, USA, July 10, 2005

Translating Cruise’s Scientology-speak

In a comment posted to Radar Online, former Scientologist Patty Pieniadz writes:

I was a Scientologist for almost 30 years and I can translate what Cruise is saying. He’s speaking “Scientologese” which is a bogus language that Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, made up in order to assist in the indoctrination of his followers.

Below you can find the definitions for some of the Scientology words used in this video

Definitions:

*KSW (short for Keeping Scientology Working): A policy written by Hubbard in the 1960’s that requires all Scientologists to follow his words and his rules exactly.

“Orgs: Orgs is an abbreviation for “organizations” and describes all churches of Scientology throughout the world.

*David Miscavige: He is the current leader of Scientology. He’s the equivalent of the Pope to the Catholics.

*Out-ethics: any behavior that violates any of Hubbard’s rules of conduct.

*Put ethics in on someone else: make others conform to Hubbard’s rules of behavior.

*Criminon: Scientology front group that tries to recruit through the prisons.

*SP: Suppressive Person. Anyone that doesn’t like Scientology and/or criticizes Scientology.

*PTS/SP: another bogus Hubbard term to define behavior that goes against Scientology rules.

*LRH technology or “tech”: all the Scientology policies, rules, mandates, procedures. Basically everything Hubbard wrote that controls the behavior of Scientologists.
– Source: Comments, Radar Online, January 14, 2008

Research resources on Scientology

At Apologetics Index, we consider the Church of Scientology to be a commercial enterprise masquerading as a religion. Marketing itself as a “religion’ has enabled the Scientology organization to dismiss criticism of its beliefs, practices and goals as “religious discrimination.’ However, in our opinion — and that of cult experts and counselors around the world — the organization is a destructive cult that, among other things, engages in quackery and pseudo-science. The Scientology organization has a history of taking advantage of vulnerable individuals — often under the guise of its humanitarian outreach efforts.

We encourage anyone interested in Scientology, for whichever reason, to carefully examine the large body of documented research available.