Inside Scientology’s strict Sea Org which Suri Cruise faced joining

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2168225/Beatings-sniper-nests-punishment-block-called-The-Ho ^ | 7/3 | daniel bates

[RummyChick]

It is Scientology's higher order where members pledge their allegiance for one billion years - and may have cost Tom Cruise his marriage.

Sending six-year-old Suri to the Sea Organisation, or Sea Org as it is known, is what is said to have been the final straw for Katie Holmes before she filed for divorce.

The group is run like a military clique from the Scientology Gold Base in California which has sniper-style nest bunker that overlooks the entire property.

Members are paid just $50 a week and banned from leaving their base or they are tracked down by a special team who used emotional pressure or physical force.

Former Scientology security chief Gary Morehead has claimed that he tracked down more than 100 Sea Org members who left in his 13 years on the job using what he called a ‘blow drill’, referring to the techniques he employed to hunt people down.

If Sea Org members try to leave they are also given a ‘freeloader tab’ which is a bill for all the work they have received, and can run into six figures.

[dennisw]

“Nope. But it is not granted the status of a church/religion in Germany, and it is under observation by the BfV (constitutional watchdog authority against political extremism).”

So no tax exempt status the way Scientology is treated in USA and other countries. Scientology waged a long and bitter campaign here to get that tax exempt status of a church. As in Church of Scientology

[samtheman]

Your link in #54 is very good. Great understated sarcasm.

[reaganaut]

This outfit does not take well at all to defectors.

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Most cults don’t. As a cult survivor, I am not the only one who has been harassed and threatened for leaving the cult (a different one but just as controlling).

[Moltke]

Yes, the author of most of the little articles there has a distinct satirical touch. Doesn’t seem to be a raving lefty loon, either.

It’s not FR, but fun on a rainy afternoon with nothing else to do. (avoid the non-library part of the site...)