Cruise expected at opening of scientology’s London HQ
Scientology, the controversial church supported by Tom Cruise and John Travolta, will today open its biggest British centre yet.
Several thousand members are expected to witness the inauguration of a new London headquarters that scientology’s leaders say will “make history in one of the most important and vibrant cities on earth”.
Cruise is expected to attend, along with other celebrity adherents including Anne Archer, the actress.
The imposing six-storey Victorian office building in the City of London cost £23m to buy and refurbish, with some of the funds coming from the church’s 124,000 British members, who pay to take courses to attain what scientology, based in Los Angeles, calls “true spiritual release and freedom”.
The building will be the most visible symbol in Britain of the movement founded by L Ron Hubbard, the American science fiction writer, in the 1950s.
The group’s most controversial teachings include what it has said about modern medicine. Cruise and other adherents have claimed that psychiatry is “Nazi science” and that its medicines are all about mind control.
Cruise rebuked Brooke Shields, the actress, for taking medicine to help overcome postnatal depression, while crediting scientology for helping him overcome dyslexia.
Last year, Cruise announced a scientology programme to “purify” firefighters still suffering from smoke inhalation after September 11, 2001. The project advises them to dispose of their medication and inhalers and opt instead for exercise, saunas, and vitamin, mineral and oil supplements.
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