Since Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have split, speculation has been that Katie did not want their 6-year-old daughter, Suri, to be further indoctrinated into Scientology, as were the two children Cruise adopted with his former wife, Nicole Kidman. Those close to Katie and Tom have been quoted saying that Katie had been unhappy for some time. Though she converted to Scientology (she was raised Roman Catholic) she had decided that the rules of Scientology were not for her – and not for her child.
Marriage is taken seriously in the Church of Scientology (the IRS has blessed it with tax-exempt status). It is an element of what practitioners call 2-D, or the second of eight “dynamics,” the first being “self.” The 2-D refers to relationships, marriage, family, sex and creativity. This was established by Scientology’s founder, L. Ron Hubbard, who had been married multiple times and purportedly had numerous affairs, and is all laid out in his book, “Introduction to Scientology Ethics.”
Those who are in a relationship, whether married or not, undergo auditing, a form of therapy. Presumably Katie and Tom did so. In auditing, something called an electropsychometer, or e-meter, may be used more or less like a lie detector. It uses a current running through two can-like devices (originally they used Campbell’s soup cans, I’m told) to measure electromagnetic reactions in the body, which Scientologists claim represent a shift in the subject’s thinking. The devices are only administered through trained Scientologists and carry a disclaimer saying that they are a purely religious artifact to avoid government scrutiny.
If say, TomKat was having a dispute, one of the two could demand auditing. The idea is that once you have made a vow of marriage, even a stray thought must be confessed to an auditor. Let’s say, hypothetically, that either Tom or Katie had confessed to the other that he or she was having stray thoughts or did something wrong. Both would be compelled to tell the auditor and they could both be put on an e-meter where any inconsistencies supposedly would surface. The person found at fault could then be sent to an ethics officer who would decide on a penalty.
I recall reading where one former Scientologist, separated from his wife, kissed another scientologist. As the story was told, she reported the indiscretion to his auditor and he was sent to an ethics officer for a penalty. Penalties range from having to read Hubbard’s book “The Way To Happiness” again, to community service.
The core leaders of Scientology are part of what is called the Sea Organization or Sea Org, named for Hubbard’s own mini-navy, a fleet of ships including three vessels that sailed the high seas. Those on the ships became, in effect, the church’s clergy. Most of the “ships” are land-based now, and those in this inner circle live by strict rules that some have described as military-style and reportedly forbid sexual relations before marriage. Sea Org schools reportedly have accepted children as young as 5 to be taken from the homes for studies, though church spokesmen have disputed these reports.
All of these rules and obligations would surely be enough to scare off somebody like Katie Holmes after a while. But the thing that I imagine frightened her most was seeing what happened to Nicole Kidman’s adopted children, Connor and Bella. They went through Scientology training at Tom’s insistence and have, according to Kidman, turned their backs on her.
It is now understandable that Katie’s lawyer said, when the divorce was announced, “Katie’s primary concern remains, as it has always been, her daughter’s best interests.”
