Tom Cruise’s ‘religion’: Scientology has kept this family apart for a decade
[This guest post is by Phil Jones]
As of this week, it’s been 10 years since we’ve seen our kids, Emily and Mike.
Scientology made them disconnect from us once we were out and criticized the cult. There is always a sense of amazement to me that the kids would go along with this L. Ron Hubbard mandate about disconnection, but then I look at how insidious the conditioning is in Scientology and how I also fell into its thrall for so many years.
Both Michael and Emily are in the Scientology Sea Organization. They’ve committed their lives to it.
Emily works at Galaxy Press (Author Services, Hubbard’s fiction books publisher) in Los Angeles. She’s married to John Goodwin, who is president of Galaxy Press. John is her third husband.
Her first marriage was to a young Scientology security officer at Flag. Their ‘senior’ (Scientology boss) ordered them to get married after she saw the two of them sitting together on a step one day and perhaps flirting a bit.
The first marriage didn’t last long as Emily was whisked away to the Scientology Int Base where she met and married another nice man named Aylon (not sure of the spelling). Apparently, Scientology leader David Miscavige wouldn’t let them “be together” until he had also performed a marriage ceremony, which he never did. Eventually, they divorced.
Emily then worked for Author Services in Los Angeles and married Goodwin. I do sometimes wonder if this also was a marriage “ordered” by Miscavige to keep her in the fold. John is nearly my age. Maybe I’m just not seeing it right due to my own biases though.
Then there is our son Mike. Back when we lived in Clearwater, Michael studied and learned to play guitar. He was quite good at it. When he was old enough he packed up his car and went to California to pursue a music career. We always encouraged him with this and throughout his life we paid for guitar lessons with several different teachers.
It wasn’t too many months after Mike went to LA that he called me and told me that Pasadena Org wanted him to join staff. Sure, a young single Scientologist would be a prime target for a recruiter. I told Mike not to join and continue his music career. He moved on.
Again, a few months later Mike called. This time I think it was the Orange County Org. Again I told him not to join and to continue with music. He again moved on.
There were a few others but I was able to encourage Mike to keep on his path. It was his dream to be a guitar player ever since he was young, way back in our Toronto days.
Then one day he bumped into Celebrity Center. They promised him he could join the Sea Org and continue to be a musician. He could continue to play his guitar. Supposedly they had a band and he could be in it. Mike joined up, signing a billion-year contract, and was then in the Sea Org.
Over the years I would ask Mike if he’s still playing his guitar. Willie and I even bought a very expensive guitar for him and had it shipped out to him at Celebrity Center. For a while, he said he still played, but as the years went by it was less and less, until the times when I asked the question and there would just be silence on the other end of the line.
We love our kids. In no world would we ever disconnect from them. But I also know how deep Scientology conditioning can be and the lies they will tell to enforce their edicts. So, we don’t blame them. We aren’t angry with them. We just want Scientology disconnection to end so that we can have our family back.
— Phil Jones
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Thank you Phil. Destroying Love is what the Church of Scientology, and David Miscavige do best or try to do best. It can’t afford its members to feel something greater for someone else other than it/him.
I pray for your family’s unity. It’s love is clearly there.
In the real world, families have a falling out then they usually fix it. Scientology takes love out of the equation so it keeps the ties cut. I’m lucky in that I was the only one in my immediate family who had anything to do with scientology. I married a scientologist but we divorced and I left scientology when my children were very young. It’s rough hearing a person grieve a child who died before them, it’s even harder hearing a person grieve the loss of a living child. There’s just nothing fair about that.