jeudi 5 janvier 2017

6 Disturbing Bombshells From Leah Remini's Scientology Documentary Series


Image Source: Getty / Noam Galai

When you think of Scientology, a few people probably come to mind: Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and Leah Remini. While Cruise and Travolta are partly known for their unwavering devotion to the "church," Remini publicly split from Scientology in 2013. After having doubts about things the church was doing and questioning the church's leader, David Miscavige (which is apparently a big no-no) about the unknown whereabouts of his wife, the actress had had enough.

In addition to speaking out about her experiences with interviews and a book, Remini decided to dive even further into uncovering the church's corrupt reality with her A&E documentary series, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. On the show, she travels around the country with Mike Rinder, Scientology's former senior executive and one of David Miscavige's right-hand men, to talk to former church members about the horrors they allegedly endured over the years (the church denies all claims made in the show). See the biggest bombshells below, which include forced abortion and physical abuse.

  1. The church's leader, David Miscavige, reportedly beats his staff. Several former church members have spoken out on the show about the physical abuse they endured at the hands of Miscavige (he's 5'1", by the way). All of the situations they described include the church leader's attitude changing at the drop of a hat and him punching, shoving, and choking them in front of other Scientology staff members. Whenever someone even looked like they were about to fight back, a group of Miscavige's men would swoop in and immediately remove that person from the building. One former church member, Jeff Hawkins, recalled that Miscavige looked at him after physically assaulting him and said, "Do you know why I did that? To remind you who's boss."
  2. Women in the Sea Org are reportedly forced to have abortions if they get pregnant. In the show's fifth episode, Remini sits down with Marc Headley, a former event coordinator and video producer for Scientology, and his wife Claire, a former Sea Org member. While working in the Sea Org, a now-land-based organization of the church's most dedicated members that control management operations, and living at the church's international headquarters in Hemet, CA, Claire became pregnant with their first child. But since Claire alleges that Scientology thinks women in the Sea Org that get pregnant actively want to leave, she was forced to get an abortion. "If a woman got pregnant, she would instantly be scheduled to go and get an abortion," she said. "If she refused in any manner, she would be segregated, not allowed to speak with her husband, put under security watch, put on heavy manual labor, and interrogated for her crimes." Marc and Claire managed to narrowly escape the church (he says he was run off the road by church members in an SUV; she says she snuck out of Walmart and hopped on a bus), but that will never take away their pain. "I can go, 'Well, now I have three beautiful children who are my life,'" she continued. "But it doesn't make me feel better about not being strong enough to tell them to go f*ck themselves."


Image Source: Getty / Pierre-Philippe Marcou

  1. Despite escaping the church, some people are reportedly still tracked down and brought back. Claire and Marc also went into detail about the heavy security that Sea Org members are reportedly under when they live at the base in Hemet. In addition to security cameras being everywhere, their outgoing mail is always read before being sent, they are on strict meal schedules, and the fence that surrounds the property has large spikes on both sides, which prevents anyone from entering or leaving. Claire revealed that when her friend tried to escape, she fell in a ditch outside the property and was brought right back in by church members and put on heavy labor duty. She also said she knew one member who fled all the way to South Africa, where he was tracked down and brought back.
  2. Private investigators reportedly hired by Scientology followed Remini during the filming of the show. In the fifth episode of the show, Remini and Rinder are driving when they notice a suspicious-looking car close by. After signaling to the car several times that he can pass, he refuses. When they pull up next to him and ask him who he is, he says he works for TMZ, but suspiciously doesn't have a camera and quickly drives away. When they then pull into their hotel, two men are sitting in the lobby with their phones pointed at Remini's car. The hotel manager asks if they are guests, and they both quickly get up to leave. Rinder confronts them, they act like they don't know anything, and Remini later reveals that one of the men is a private investigator (oh, and the TMZ guy was driving the PI's wife's car).
  3. Church members will spend thousands of dollars trying to reach the highest level of spirituality in Scientology. Scientology was founded by a man named L. Ron Hubbard, who believed that you need to clear yourself of your "reactive mind" in order to advance up "the Bridge of Total Freedom." People do this through auditing sessions, where a Scientology auditor asks the person a series of questions while they hold two metal cans attached to a machine. The machine tells the auditor if the person is telling the truth, and in order to continue to grow spiritually, church members have to pay for expensive courses in order to improve. It also should be noted that L. Ron Hubbard holds the Guinness World Record for most published works by one author (and they're mostly science fiction) . . .
  4. If you leave the church, you will most likely lose your entire family. If a member of the church speaks out against Scientology or decides to leave, they will be labeled a "suppressive person" (watch Tom Cruise talk about it at the 4:29 mark). If the rest of that person's family is still in the church, they will be pressured to disconnect from that person, which means cutting off all communication and essentially never seeing them again.

The season finale of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath airs on A&E on Jan. 10.



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