What is so striking about Haggis’s investigation is that few prominent figures attached to the Church of Scientology have actually looked into the charges that have surrounded their institution for many years. The church discourages such examination, telling its members that negative articles are “entheta” and will only cause spiritual upset. In 1996, the church sent CDs to members to help them build their own websites, which would then link them to the Scientology site; included in the software was a filter that would block any sites containing material that vilified the church or revealed esoteric doctrines. Keywords that triggered the censorship were Xenu, OT III, and the names of prominent Scientology critics.
Although Haggis never used such a filter, one already existed in his mind. During his thirty-four years in the church he had purposely avoided asking too many questions or reading materials that he knew would disparage his faith. But now, frustrated by his exchange with Davis, he began “poking around.” He came upon an interview on YouTube with Tommy Davis that had been broadcast by CNN in May 2008. “The worldwide interest in Scientology has never been higher,” Davis boasts on the show. “Scientology has grown more in the last five years than the last five decades combined.” The anchor, John Roberts, asks Davis about the church’s policy of disconnection, in which followers are urged to separate themselves from friends or family members who might be critical of the organization. “This is a perfect example of how the Internet turns things and twists things,” Davis responds. “There’s no such thing as disconnection as you’re characterizing it. And certainly, we have to understand—”
“Well, what is disconnection?” Roberts tries to interject.
“Scientology is a new religion,” Davis continues, talking over the host. “The majority of Scientologists in the world, they’re first generation. So their family members aren’t going to be Scientologists.… So, certainly, someone who is a Scientologist is going to respect their family members’ beliefs—”
“Well, what is disconnection?” Roberts asks again.
“And we consider family to be a building block of any society, so anything that’s characterized as disconnection, or this kind of thing, it’s just not true. There isn’t any such policy.”
Haggis knew this was a lie. His wife, Deborah, had disconnected from her parents twice. When she was in her twenties and acting in Dallas, her mother and stepfather broke away from the church. They were close friends of Hana Eltringham, who had stood up for them at their wedding, so when they had doubts about their faith, they went to see her. Eltringham was then counseling people who were considering getting out of Scientology or other new religions. She helped Scientologists confront the contradictions that were implicit in their faith, such as Hubbard speaking of events that had taken place trillions or quadrillions of years in the past, although scientists estimate the age of the universe to be less than 14 billion years, or the fact that it has never been shown that anyone has ever obtained any enhanced OT abilities. Eltringham also talked about the abuses she observed and experienced. “Hana told us how Sea Org members were treated,” Mary Benjamin, Deborah’s mother, recalled, “how they were kept in a basement in Los Angeles and fed rice and beans if they didn’t keep their stats up. How, in the desert, in terrible heat, they would march in a circle for hours.”
Like many active members of the church, the Benjamins kept money on account—in their case, $2,500—for future courses they intended to take. Deborah’s mother insisted on getting the money back. Deborah knew what a big deal that was for the church. She didn’t speak to her parents for more than three years, automatically assuming that they must have been declared Suppressive Persons. But when her sister was about to get married, Deborah wrote to the International Justice Chief, the Scientology official in charge of such matters, who said that she was allowed to see her parents as long as they didn’t say anything against Scientology. The Benjamins readily agreed.
A decade later, however, Deborah went to Clearwater, intending to take some upper-level courses, and learned that the previous ruling no longer applied. If she wanted to do more training, she would have to confront her parents’ mistakes. The church recommended that she take the Potential Trouble Source/Suppressive Persons course.
Many Scientologists have taken the same course. Deborah’s friend Kelly Preston had taken it as well. “I was PTS, but I didn’t realize it, and so I was told, ‘You need to be on PTS/SP,’ ” Preston later recalled in her interview for Celebrity magazine. She discovered that her life was full of Suppressive Persons. “Being an artist and having a lot of theta, you really attract those type of people,” Preston said. (“Theta” is a Scientology term for life force.) “I ended up having to handle or disconnect from quite a few different people.”