Ever since jumping on Oprah’s couch like a maniac in June of 2005, Tom Cruise has become the most vilified actor in the world. When you hear the name “Tom Cruise” these days, it is most likely the topic of a joke. Never has an actor fallen from the top so quickly without committing a crime. What babies did one of the greatest actors of the past three decades murder in order to earn such harsh treatment?
Many point to Cruise’s involvement in the Church of Scientology as the main reason for his so-called downfall. How ironic it is that many of the same people who criticize his religious beliefs belong to mainstream religions in which children are molested, wars are started, and crazy ideals are shoved down our throats.
In comparison, Cruise’s beliefs that aliens are popping negative thoughts into our heads seems harmless. As a supporter of drugs for people who have mental illnesses, I do find his argument that these drugs are useless somewhat offensive, but I am not about to boycott his films. I didn’t see the last Mission Impossible movie because I think the series is boring and a waste of Mr. Cruise’s talents.
The one other issue people have with Cruise is his sexuality. Let’s face it: I think he is as queer as a three dollar bill, but if he wants to use women such as Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, and Katie Holmes and throw them back to the prop department when he’s finished, that’s his business, not ours.
Unlike many other (I think) closeted famous people, he was never on television speaking out against gay issues. I think perhaps he is just not ready to deal with his sexuality yet, so leave him alone!
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Meena
Great article Daryl, frankly I have searched my cranium and am yet to find out what Cruise did wrong. If he is in a sham relationship, that is his business. I think people are waiting for the Cruise bashing to run its Course before they actively crusify Pitt.
2 - Gina
People these days just love to hate on celebrities. It is as though it is the only thing that makes them feel good about themselves. To feel greater than a cult like figure. Though I don't think Cruise is gay, I don't understand why his marriage or sexuality should be attacked as if they hurt any body. People act like celebrities owe them something.
3 - Liz
Great article, Daryl, but you seem to be a hypocrite. Your article on Angelina Jolie was one of the most nasty articles I've ever read on any celebrity. I'm just giving you constructive criticism because I do find your articles interesting and that's why I comment on them.
4 - Philippe Pedersen
Interesting views. I mostly agree with your conclusion paragraph. Tom Cruise undeniably has been a success, just count the international box office gross income from his films (over 5 billion). However, I would like to point out that it is ironic to say that Scientology is his weak point when he is the most popular and bankable celeb around. I'm sure that he would say the opposite, Scientology has helped him make it to the top, despite others' adversarial views. Additionally, he has also taken more media hits than anyone I know, yet he stands out as amazingly successful in his career and family.
5 - James Lightfield
Amazing. You wrote: "When you hear the name 'Tom Cruise' these days, it is most likely the topic of a joke." Tp whom is it a joke? Just the bloggers and those who slam Scientology, which has the cojones to accurately report on the corruption in the FDA and the drug companies payoffs.
A joke? To whom? Certainly not the 782 police and firemen whose treatment for toxic poisoning was almost entirely paid by Cruise for whose work New York City just issued him a City Proclamation.
A joke? Certainly not to the hundreds of children whose lives have been improved due to Tom Cruise’s charitable work for which he was honored by Mentor LA “for outstanding commitment to the welfare of LA’s youth.”
A joke? Certainly not to the owners of MGM who own United Artists movie studios. They wanted Cruise, and now he is co-owner of US and has green-light authority up to $100 million per film.
A joke? Certainly not to 800,000 children who are off of Ritalin (a Class 2 drug the same as cocaine) as a result of Cruise bringing to public awareness the dangers of psych drugs.
Since the Cruise Today Show (2005), there was so much pressure brought on the FDA that the head of the FDA quit (he was receiving money from drug companies) and more 67 health warnings against psych drugs have been issued by the FDA. See www.cchr.org for details.
A joke? Only your commentary.
6 - JeraldR
James Lightfield,
Would this be the same CCHR that put press releases out blaming mental healh meds for the VT shootings? A full day before we even knew who the shooter was?
Did you also leave out the fact that the treatment Cruise is paying for is toxic itself? That is is based on something a sci fi writer dreamed up fifty years ago and not one thing has been changed in all this time?
Do you really think Cruise has any pull over what med's are and are not used? All he does is spread fear and keep those who need help from reciving it.
He has about as little education as the man who founded scientology. Both him and Hubbard have no medical training at all. And it shows in Hubbard books and Cruise's rants.
7 - LMLF
Jerald,
What you wrote is perfect. It's exactly what I was thinking. They always try to make Scientology out to be better and more powerful than it really is.
8 - daryl d
Liz:
I admit that I am sometimes a part of the celebrity backlashing that takes place, but unlike Tom Cruise, Angelina is actually hurting kids by using them as photo ops to keep her name in the papers.
James:
I don't know if you fully read my article, but I am defending Tom Cruise, not insulting him. I do agree that the FDA can be corrupt and I know for a fact that they actually pay some doctors to prescribe drugs that their patients may not need. But I can think of a few people who told me that taking meds for their depression saved their lives.
9 - flash321
Daryl D I have one question to you, are you affiliated with Scientology in any way?
10 - James Ford
You believe that silly gay rumor Dave?
11 - Diamonddille
To those who thinks Drugs are the solution, I invite you to take a look at society,since Drugs became the solution.
Have you ever had an "OBE" (out of body experience)?
Well that is the real YOU. Till you have had one that experience will sound totally crazy.
Everyone will have one at some point, but it would be better to have that knowledge now, before you leave your body at Body death. That is real knowledge. Now to my point.
Get a picture in your mind of your car. Now point at it. Who is doing the looking? If you say it is the brain, then you don't know who you really are.
You are looking at your picture, You can look at it in the body or outside the body. You are the consciousness. Consciouness is not of this world. Neither is Intention. You are life, life or you are not from this dimension. There is another dimension or plane of existence. There are rules and laws there too, which are actually senior to the physical universe laws. One can actually become aware of them and use them to live a better life on this plane of existence.
That level is the level to know about. Knowing about that level, you will know why drugs are bad news. Tom is aware of that knowledge as he is a Scientologist, and the processes of Scientology will make them blatently obvious to one who does them. IF you don't want to know your self, then you will know NOTHING. To know your self, you will know Everything. It is your choice. Sure that is just an opinion to those who haven't observed who they really are. But if one is to know anything, then he has to LOOK. Looking gives you certainty. Certainty is Knowledge, it gives one abilities. Opinions are worthless and 95%lies.
Yes one may have to believe in order to look, but if your stuck at believe and never look, then you can't possibly know. Your brain is just a frequency modulator for the "BEING" (YOU) It is how you stay connected to your body. You are a Spirit, you don't have a spirit. It is not a possesion. You are not your name or body, (although that is all most of this degraded society sees, is bodies). You see your grandmother as a "BEING", not a Body right? It's time we can all see "BEINGS" for who they really are... Oh the problems that alone would solve.
Think Scientologists are lunies, like the press makes them out to be? JUST Wait, truth always comes out, in the end...
It is Mankinds only Hope as it gives one real KNOWLEDGE and ABILITIES. The future of this planet depends on man having the real truth, or he won't survive. REAL Knowledge gives you back your Spiritual Abilities and Powers. Science Fiction?
The real truth man can't have at his Current State That is why He has to Wake up. Our survival depends on it. Your "Native State" is "YOU" stabily exterior to the BODY and Physical Universe.YOU REALLY ARE A SPIRIT. To most that is just words, that is why they laugh. That takes real knowledge to get you, to that level again. It is now Attainable. If you MUST have to Believe, Believe that. KNOWING is a much higher level than BELIEF. Knowledge gives you back your Certainty and thus your ABILITIES...
If you the consciouness are put less conscious by drugs, then your pictures get fussy and you may not even see them.
To fix the Mind (YOUR PICTURES)you need to bring you the Being (OR SPIRIT) more into the present. By handling ones past you get the being focused in the Here and Now and his pictures will get clearer. He will become more focused, He will be able to duplicate more,He will be able to concentrate better, he will be able to think more clearly, he will be less Dispersed he will see the solutions to his problems, and he will have a higher IQ and less likely to get sick and have accidents. That is how you fix the mind, NOT with DRUGS. You do it with communication. Communication is the solvent of all Problems. LRH At lower levels communication is solid (Bullets) at higher level understanding resolves problems. But you have to have real knowledge to have real understanding. Man as Man remains at the level of man as his knowledge is nothing but opinion, which serves to keep him at the level of Man, which isn't who you really are. Real knowledge frees you from your Body and this trap called the Physical universe. Mans knowledge is only a grain of sand compared to the knowledge you will get outside the Physical universe.
There is no greater adventure than finding out who you really are, as real abilites and knowledge awaits you. The physical eyes cannot percieve truth.You have to get outside the body to know. You are a "Spiritual Being", what do you think GOD is? Its time for man to wake up, see through his fixed ideas and realize he doesn't know as he is still at the level of man. Man can't know the truth at his current "State of Being". There are levels attainable in Scientology where nothing can strike you down. Think it is Science fiction? Great YOU lose...
12 - daryl d
I am not affiliated with Scientology in anuy way. But if it helps make someome happy, then why villify them?
13 - Peter
"When somebody enrols, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe - never permit an ‘open-minded’ approach... If they enrolled, they’re aboard, and if they’re aboard they’re here on the same terms as the rest of us - win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half minded about being Scientologists... When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare… The proper instruction attitude is, ‘We'd rather have you dead than incapable.’"
- L. Ron Hubbard, KEEPING SCIENTOLOGY WORKING, 7 February 1965, reissued 27 August 1980
14 - Peter
"’Psychiatry’ and ‘psychiatrist’ are easily redefined to mean ‘an anti-social enemy of the people‘. This takes the kill crazy psychiatrist off the preferred list of professions...The redefinition of words is done by associating different emotions and symbols with the word than were intended...Scientologists are redefining ‘doctor‘, ‘Psychiatry’ and ‘psychology’ to mean ‘undesirable antisocial elements‘...The way to redefine a word is to get the new definition repeated as often as possible. Thus it is necessary to redefine medicine, psychiatry and psychology downward and define Dianetics and Scientology upwards. This, so far as words are concerned, is the public opinion battle for belief in your definitions, and not those of the opposition. A consistent, repeated effort is the key to any success with this technique of propaganda."
- L. Ron Hubbard, Hubbard Communications Office Policy Letter, 5 October 1971, PR Series 12, "Propaganda by Redefinition of Words"
15 - James Lightfield
Redefinition of words. Classic example. Pyshc drugs used to be called "drugs." Now they are called "medicine" and people take their "daily meds."
What used to be called "mental illness" is now "brain disease."
What used to be awareness of oneself as a spiritual being is now a person is simply a brain on two feet.
A person wants to take drugs to feel better, that's his decision, whether pot or coke or prozac.
That society pays people to become dependent on drugs and the media promotes the "drug solution" on a daily basis ... you cannot have a healthy society when its individual members are functionally illiterate and dependent on mood altering drugs.
Result: Look at this country. Compare it to how it was 30 years ago. Point the finger everywhere else but at ourselves, and then as a nail in the United States' coffin elect a failed businessman because he's a "good Christian."
And for good measure, make every American who is not Christian now start feeling like a second class citizen because this country is "Christian" when in fact this country's strength is in being once called a "melting pot." It's strength was in it diversity under a common banner, "I'm an American."
As regards those who beat the psych drum, that's you're right. Scientologists simply will continue to do what we have done for nearly 60 years, keep the public informed (www.cchr.org and www.FreedomMag.org) while getting Hubbard's effectives solutions known and used -- see, www.ScientologyHandbook.org.
Note: Being a Chrisitian does not mean "blind faith" it means knowing and understanding Jesus' words. His wisdom was perverted during two thousand years of political intrigue and outright barbarism and torture.
There's an immense difference between the wisdom of Jesus and what anyone who is not brain washed (the flock) sees happening. Jesus taught that a person is a spriritual being, the body is only a vessel. His message was a person IS the soul. He is immortal. He is created by God. His body dies, he continues. Not something he keeps in his hip pocket called a "soul." The person is the soul, he doesn't "have" one (like having a pair of socks).
Look what "blind faith" has gotten us? From an incredibly strong nation to a soon to be second-class nation despised by many and run by "good Christians" who can not even agree to take on the oil industry and prevent global warming. They could have done that decades ago.
16 - James Lightfield
"This is how you MUST believe and what you MUST do to be a good ..." (Catholic, Protestant, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Mormon, etc etc etc.) should awaken anyone who can still think for him/herself that maybe the core teachings of Jesus have been buried under two millenia of interpretation.
Each, in its own way, says the other Christian practice is wrong.
Jesus' message was one of immortality and the brotherhood of man. His message was at a time when many were considered objects to be owned ... nothing more than a lamb or donkey.
How can one be a good Christian and not really know he/she is immortal and lives more than one life?
There's no prayer or bible in any Church of Scientology. A person goes to his own place of worship for that.
17 - James Lightfield
Finally, I consider it obscene that Christians embrace the materialistic dogma of psychiatry.
The typical "Christian" is big on "belief" and short on any sense of the core wisdom of Jesus Christ.
18 - Chris Beaumont
LOL
19 - AchtungNight
Good words, Daryl. I appreciate you having the courage to speak your mind and be a calm reasonable realistic voice in this world where intentional misunderstanding, hatred, fear, and refusal to change are too often becoming the dominant attitudes. Thanks for sharing your viewpoint and I hope most of your readers will agree with it- in this case at least.
20 - JeraldR
Ok James Lightfield,
Lets talk about what scientology, CCHR and Freedom mag has done over the years. Or just the last few years. What kind of sick group blames World War 2 and 9/11 on doctors?
What kind of sick group puts out a video showing doctors being gunned down in groups?
What kind of sick people put their ugly yellow tents up at the VT shooting site saying the school, the Red Cross and the SA asked them to come help, when the truth is no such request was ever made?
Scientology is that group James. You can try to make it sound like a religious issue as hard as you can but no one really cares how you belive or think.
However we do care about the sick ACTIONS this group takes. Its not about religion James, its about takeing advanage of people who are hurting in order to promote your twisted views.
scientology and CCHR have no desire to make the mentall health field better. They want it gone. Scientology flat out says there is no such thing as mental health.
Yet they don't do crazy so whats to become of those who don't fit in?
Hubbard own words cover this. He wrote....
"Dispose of quiety and without sorrow"
21 - Darwin
Trashing Tom Cruise proves there is something really weong in the american media and their brainwashed drones: americans.
Funny, Gobson, Richards, Cosby, Imus, nobody hate them while they are dangerous racist homophobic and antisemitic assholes.
Cruise? fanatic of a cult after being one of the big one (Catho), but exploited by media since more than 20, pressured to talk about his faith.
When he refused to, they called him an hypocrite, and blasted everything on him.
They talk about his afro american son and why he adpoted one, about his sexuality, etc
Why? The media re a bunch of bully, hypocrite, dangerous and haters. A bunch of losers who want their minute of fame by insulting a talented, extremely famous artist.
Conclusion: Americans don't think for themselves, they are brainwashed by corporations, media, press, religions, pharma lobby...
Who's crazy?
At least, Cruise got his OWN mind.
22 - James Lightfield
Distorting data or taking things out of context is common amongst those who want to "save others from themselves." This has been done for centuries, if not millenia.
Anyone can read the exposes and the information the media does not report at the following sites: CCHR.org and FreedomMag.org
23 - James Lightfield
Freedom Magazine Wins Top Prize for Investigative Journalism
DENVER: It was an article that begged a burning question: "Was it North America's Crime of the Century?"
At the National Federation of Press Women's annual conference and awards presentation, Freedom Magazine was awarded as the 1st place winner in the category "Writing for the Web" for its feature article, an exposé on thousands of the Duplessis Orphans" who died or disappeared in Quebec's psychiatric institutions.
24 - James Lightfield
Dianetics: Modern Science of MENTAL Health
Can the mind cause unhappiness? Of course. Is the mind / brain the same. Nope.
What's the mind? Read the first book Hubbard wrote on the mind (before his book Dianetics).
More people learning and using Dianetics would cause a signicant drop in the annual $2 Trillion (worldwide) that the psych and drug industries put in their pockets each year.
Anyone can learn Dianetics. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.)
25 - JeraldR
Those are links everyone should see James, But they also should look at xenu.net and xenutv.com to see both sides.
As for taking things out of context, there's really only one way to take some things quoted.