Tom Cruise Brought Me In. Charlie Kirk Got Me Kicked Out.
3 things I learned + bonus video
Amir Essalhi joined Scientology as a teenager after being inspired by Tom Cruise. He worked his way up to become a senior executive inside the organisation - and then got punished with unpaid manual labour for speaking to a former member on YouTube. He’s just left, and this is the first time he’s spoken publicly about what he saw from the inside.
3 things I learned:
Tom Cruise personally lobbied Tony Blair to get Scientology tax-exempt status in the UK. He would fly in and wine and dine senior politicians. It didn’t work — but he tried.
The punishment for breaking Scientology’s rules is physical labour. Amir spent a day carrying weights up and down a 1968 spiral staircase, unpaid, as punishment for watching a YouTube interview with a former member. Senior executives have been made to scrub floors.
Scientology auditioned women to be Tom Cruise’s girlfriend. Church members were put through a selection process to find him a partner. One of them — Nazanin Boniadi — had no idea what she was being recruited for until she was already in the relationship.
Watch the bonus video, where I ask your questions below. Sign up as a paid member to watch it and support the Heretics mission.
