E=SP

If you haven't already seen this, please set aside about 9 minutes and watch it. It is the Tom Cruise/Scientology video that the Church pulled down off YouTube. Holy Mother of Xenu, this is a window into both the Church of Scientology and the mind of Tom Cruise. A very, very scary window. I'd be interested in your impressions of it. Mine ranged from horrified to mystified to annoyed. Horrified that he really, really does think he's got all the answers for "billions of people." Mystified that someone who has spent years controlling his image would sit down and say these things. Annoyed that the man can't finish one single sentence before starting the next, laughs like a crazy person at seemingly inappropriate moments, and spends 9 minutes saying the same thing over and over.

It was supposed to be a CoS internal video, so there are lots of abbreviations, like KSW (Keep Scientology Working, the book of rules and guides for Scientologists, I think), SPs (Suppressive Persons, anyone who is anti-Scientology, particularly in your personal life. Nicole Kidman, for instance), and Criminon (the CoS program for recruiting/"rehabilitating" inmates). My favorite part is where he says that when you drive by an accident, you know that, as a Scientologist, "you are the only one who can help." What, are EMT skills part of the KSW? And then when he talks about how he won't hesitate to "put my ethics" in someone. I'm not too proud to admit that there was a time in my life (circa Top Gun and Cocktail) when I would have been only too happy for Tom Cruise to put his "ethics" in me, but I think we can all safely agree that that was then and *THIS* is now.

If you don't have 9 minutes, here's Defamer's 108 second highlight reel: defamer.com