Imagine a religion that teaches that 75 million years ago, an evil alien ruler brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them inside volcanoes, and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their disembodied spirits floated free, were captured and brainwashed, and were forced to attach themselves to human bodies. And today, those alien souls influence many of your problems. Your anxiety? An alien ghost. Your depression? Same.
This sounds like the plot of a B-grade sci-fi movie. But for hundreds of thousands of people, this isn’t fiction. It’s presented as literal history in Scientology’s secret upper-level teachings. So what is Scientology really? It’s not just a religion with a strange origin story. It’s a multi-billion-dollar empire shrouded in secrecy, drowning in lawsuits, wired into Hollywood, and marked by a decades-long war with the U.S. government. Let’s peel back every layer.
The Founder: A Sci-Fi Writer Who Created a Religion
To understand Scientology, you have to start with its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. In the 1940s and 50s, Hubbard was a prolific pulp science fiction writer, producing space operas about alien civilizations and galactic empires.
Then in 1950, he published the book that changed everything: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. The book claimed humans are “thetans,” immortal spiritual beings trapped inside physical bodies, who accumulate “engrams,” painful memory recordings from past traumas that block our potential. Dianetics promised to clear these engrams through a counseling-like process called “auditing.” The book became a massive success.
Here’s the kicker, though. Critics have long pointed out the similarities between Hubbard’s science fiction themes and the ideas that later appeared in his religion. On their reading, he wasn’t discovering a spiritual breakthrough; he transformed material resembling his fiction into a religious system. By 1954, Hubbard had officially founded the Church of Scientology. One famous quote often attributed to him says, “If you want to get rich, you start a religion.” Whether he actually said those exact words remains disputed, but critics cite it because they believe it captures how the organization operates.
The Core Beliefs: Thetans, Xenu, and the Bridge
So what do Scientologists actually believe? At the heart of it all is the thetan, your true self, an immortal spiritual being. Scientology teaches that we aren’t humans who have souls; we are souls who have bodies, and these thetans have lived countless past lives over trillions of years.
But our current problems aren’t just our own. According to advanced teachings, they’re caused by “body thetans,” the trapped spirits of other beings clinging to us like spiritual parasites. And that leads to the most famous and most heavily guarded secret in Scientology: the story of Xenu.
According to the church’s classified “OT III” materials, Xenu was a tyrannical dictator of a Galactic Confederacy 75 million years ago. He brought billions of his subjects to Earth, then called “Teegeeack,” stacked them around volcanoes, and destroyed them with hydrogen bombs. Their scattered souls were captured, brainwashed, and forced into human bodies. Those are the body thetans we supposedly carry today.
Here’s the part that stuns people: to outsiders, the Xenu story sounds like a joke, but within the church’s upper levels, it’s treated as literal history. And learning this “ultimate truth” is expensive.
The Bridge to Total Freedom
The path upward is called the Bridge to Total Freedom, a series of graded courses and auditing sessions displayed as an enormous poster in every Scientology organization. Each step costs money. Beginner courses might run a few hundred dollars, while advanced auditing can run into the thousands per step.
Former Scientologist Leah Remini has estimated that spending roughly $500,000 to reach the top tiers wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. As she put it, no other religion she knows of requires two and a half hours of your day, a quarter of a million dollars minimum, and at least 40 years of your life.
And even then, the church updates course materials, meaning more courses and more spending. Advanced members who access confidential materials typically sign agreements with substantial financial penalties, often cited at $100,000, for unauthorized disclosure.
The Internal Machinery: Disconnection, Fair Game, and the Sea Org
The massive fees, extreme secrecy, and rigid internal control have kept Scientology at the center of controversy for decades. Four issues come up most.
Disconnection. Scientology has a policy requiring members to cut all ties with any “Suppressive Person,” meaning anyone who criticizes the church, including family members who leave. If this sounds familiar, it closely parallels the shunning practices I documented in my post on Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower control.
Fair Game. One version of this policy stated that enemies of the church “may be deprived of property or injured by any means… may be tricked, sued, or lied to or destroyed.”
Hubbard officially canceled use of the term in 1968 due to bad publicity, but critics and former members argue the practices continued under different names, describing harassment, surveillance, and smear campaigns after defection.
The Sea Org. This is the church’s elite workforce, its version of a monastic order, whose members sign a symbolic one-billion-year contract reflecting belief in reincarnation. Former members describe working 14 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, sometimes for less than $50 a week plus food and lodging. The church strongly disputes these characterizations, describing the Sea Org as a voluntary religious order dedicated to serving humanity.
The missing wife. “Where is Shelly Miscavige?” Shelly is the wife of current church leader David Miscavige, and she has not been seen publicly since around 2007. The church says she is carrying out church work away from the public eye. Critics and former members remain unconvinced.
War With the Government: Operation Snow White and the IRS
Scientology has also waged open war against the U.S. government, and won some shocking battles.
Operation Snow White was one of the largest infiltrations of the U.S. government ever conducted by a private organization. In the 1970s, Scientology mobilized thousands of operatives in a campaign targeting more than 130 government agencies, embassies, and consulates, including the IRS, the Department of Justice, and the CIA.
Operatives stole documents, planted bugs, and worked to scrub records of the church’s criminal investigations. The operation eventually unraveled, and in 1979 eleven senior Scientology officials, including Hubbard’s own wife Mary Sue Hubbard, were convicted of federal crimes and served prison time. This isn’t conspiracy theory. It’s documented U.S. court history.
The IRS battle ran for decades. The IRS denied Scientology tax-exempt status, arguing it operated as a commercial enterprise rather than a religion. The church responded with hundreds of lawsuits, and according to government officials, it also hired private investigators to dig into the personal lives of IRS agents.
Then in 1993, after a prolonged and controversial negotiation, the IRS abruptly granted Scientology full tax-exempt status. The settlement was sealed, and its details remain confidential. Many critics consider this the single most significant turning point in Scientology’s history, effectively legitimizing the organization in the eyes of the U.S. government.
The Legal Nightmares: Lawsuits, Deaths, and Denials
Beyond Snow White and the IRS, Scientology has faced some of the most controversial legal battles in modern religious history.
Lisa McPherson. In 1995, a 36-year-old Scientologist named Lisa McPherson checked into the Fort Harrison Hotel, the church’s headquarters in Clearwater, Florida, and died 17 days later. The original medical examiner attributed her death to dehydration and a pulmonary embolism.
That conclusion was later challenged, prosecutors dropped the criminal case, and the church settled the family’s civil lawsuit without admitting wrongdoing.
Danny Masterson. The former That ’70s Show actor, a prominent Scientologist, was convicted in 2023 of sexually assaulting two women and sentenced to 30 years to life. During the trial, the victims testified that Scientology officials discouraged them from reporting the assaults to police, citing the church’s internal justice system. The church’s handling of the case drew widespread criticism.
Leah Remini. The actress was a devout Scientologist for over 30 years before leaving and becoming the church’s most vocal critic. Her Emmy-winning A&E series Scientology and the Aftermath featured dozens of former members sharing their stories. In 2023, Remini filed a lawsuit alleging years of harassment, surveillance, and defamation. Scientology denies her allegations.
Trafficking and forced labor allegations. Several former members have filed lawsuits alleging forced labor, pressure to undergo abortions, and human trafficking. The church strongly denies the allegations, and some cases remain ongoing.
The Celebrities, the Money, and the Internet Speedrun
A huge reason Scientology survives is its celebrity division. Tom Cruise is its most famous member, joining in the 1980s and becoming its most visible ambassador, with former members claiming he receives exceptional treatment.
One persistent internet rumor, the “33 Theory,” notes that each of Cruise’s three ex-wives, Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes, was 33 when they divorced. That coincidence spawned a long-running theory, though it remains exactly that, a theory. Other high-profile members have included John Travolta and Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, who reportedly donated $21 million.
As for the money, critics call Scientology a money-making machine disguised as a religion. The church is estimated to control assets worth well over $10 billion, including prime real estate in Hollywood, Clearwater, London, and Sydney.
Then there’s one of the strangest internet phenomena of 2025: the Scientology Speedrun. People walk into Scientology buildings and try to get as far inside as possible before staff escort them out, all on camera.
The trend began with a Los Angeles video posted in March 2025 that reportedly reached more than 90 million views, spawning copycats worldwide. It has since escalated beyond pranks. In Sydney, around 100 young people gathered outside a Scientology building, riot police attended, and two women were arrested. In Clearwater, a 19-year-old was arrested after firing a BB gun at a church door.
Scientology by the Numbers
| The Claim or Practice | The Figure |
|---|---|
| Estimated cost to reach the top of the Bridge | ~$500,000 |
| Time commitment described by Leah Remini | Decades, 2.5 hours per day |
| Penalty cited for disclosing confidential materials | $100,000 |
| Government agencies targeted in Operation Snow White | 130+ |
| Officials convicted in 1979, including Hubbard’s wife | 11 |
| Year the IRS granted tax-exempt status | 1993 |
| Estimated church assets | $10+ billion |
| Sea Org contract length | One billion years |
Conclusion: What Is It Really?
So after all of this, what is Scientology? Supporters describe it as a genuine religion that helps people achieve spiritual freedom, pointing to its disaster relief donations and emphasis on personal growth. Critics argue it functions as a high-control group built on secrecy, financial pressure, and systematic control, pointing to former members’ accounts of family separation and alleged abuse.
One thing is certain. Scientology is a fascinating case study in how belief, money, and celebrity culture can merge into a global powerhouse. If you found this breakdown useful, I’ve applied the same lens to other controversial movements in my posts on Jehovah’s Witnesses and Watchtower control and Mormonism vs Christianity. Which part of this story surprised you most? Let me know in the comments below.
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