Louis Theroux’s new documentary, My Scientology Movie, premieres this week, shining further light on many of the bizarre and sinister allegations about the religion that counts Tom Cruise as its second in command. Grazia’s Emily Maddick reports on her decade-long pursuit by the church.
I knew I was being stalked by Scientology when two strangers arrived on my parents’ doorstep at 10 o’clock on a Sunday night looking for me. It was about seven years ago and my father, aware of Scientology’s keen interest in me, informed them I had moved to Australia (I hadn’t, I was in the kitchen.) The middle-aged couple were adamant they needed contact details for me, but when Dad asked if they were Scientologists, they refused to answer him, admitting only that they were from East Grinstead, where Scientology’s global HQ is based.
While this is nothing compared to what other more high-profile journalists have endured – Louis Theroux is trailed, filmed, threatened and sent legal letters; BBC Panorama’s John Sweeney had his hotel room invaded at midnight and was notoriously driven to an on-camera meltdown - it was the most sinister incident in a decade of harassment.
In the film, Theroux collaborates with high-profile former Scientologists to investigate some of the most disturbing claims about the religion. Allegations of brainwashing, threatening behaviour and physical abuse have always been denied by the church, but in his movie Theroux stages recreations of the detractors' memories of events, with actors playing key members such as head of Scientology, David Misgavige and his best friend, Tom Cruise. It makes for uncomfortable viewing, but also reminded me of my own experience.
I never knowingly expressed an interest in joining the Church of Scientology. I unwittingly logged my personal details with them at a health and well-being fair in London in 2005. The stand – with no visible sign of Scientology - was offering free ‘stress-tests’ if you filled in a form.
I was arguing with my boyfriend at the time, so decided to take one. My fingers were attached to an ‘e-meter’, which I now know Scientologists use for ‘auditing’. They kept asking me if I was being physically abused because the meter was going so wild – I wasn’t, but I was given a free copy of Ron L Hubbard’s Dianetics and told to call them, which I didn’t. Thus began the weekly bombarding; weird Sci Fi-looking pamphlets sent to my home address; some would be disguised as holiday brochures or office furniture catalogues - all with Scientology in the small-print. Then came the letters and the phone calls, which I must have given them at the fair.
Whether coincidence or not, the frequency of the communication escalated around the time I first wrote about Tom Cruise for a newspaper. I interviewed biographer Andrew Morton about the expose he was writing on Tom Cruise, and afterwards seemed to receive more attention from the church. Similarly, while working for Grazia, whenever we published Tom Cruise stories it would spark a peak in harassment.
The most recent call that I believe to have come from a Scientologist was last week on Friday 23 September at 01.23am. Sometimes I engage with them (always fun after a few drinks) but most of the time I ignore them.
BBC journalist John Sweeney made the now infamous Panorama documentary Scientology and Me back in 2007. The church released footage of Sweeney, explosively losing his temper at the International Spokesperson for Scientology, Tommy Davis.
I spoke to Sweeney and he claims that while the documentary was being edited his family and neighbours received visits from creepy strangers, one of whom even turned up at his wedding.
‘I can’t prove they were Scientologists,’ he says, ‘But Tommy Davis had said to me, “I know where you live.”’ Sweeney agrees that they have targeted me because I am a journalist. ‘It’s almost like a club of journalists, of which you clearly belong, who they target. They are very protective of their own celebrities and they want to control all the coverage. I was wrong to lose my temper with them, but they goaded me. It tells you something about the nature of the organisition that they sought to do that to me. It’s a fighting church – it exists to fight.’
Watch the trailer for Louis Theroux's My Scientology Documentary below...