A passage from the recent Rolling Stone exposé on Scientology:
“Tom Cruise, who is near the top of Scientology's Bridge, at a level known as OT VII.
OTs are Scientology's elite -- enlightened beings who are said to have total "control" over themselves and their environment. OTs can allegedly move inanimate objects with their minds, leave their bodies at will and telepathically communicate with, and control the behavior of, both animals and human beings. At the highest levels, they are allegedly liberated from the physical universe, to the point where they can psychically control what Scientologists call MEST: Matter, Energy, Space and Time”.
And so it came to pass, that Li'l Tommy (who was great in ‘Collateral’ I thought) is now an Enlightened Being, can shape and re-shape the physical and non-physical world around him, and can commune with the Highest Power. The latter is an ability he apparently shares with Dr. Strange, Master Po, Tony Blair, Joan of Arc, and Dylan from The Magic Roundabout.
I knew a Scientologist once, Mad Dave from Burnley,(not his offical Scientology name).
As time went on, he became progressively more glassy-eyed and sort of...., pre-occupied somehow. Gave it all up in the end and went into a budget therapy-programme, courtesy of the NHS.
Last I heard he'd moved back in with his mum in Burnley. That was in about 1982, and I wouldn't mind betting that Mad ol' Dave is still there. Funny old game, that Scientology.