Almost since its inception the Church of Scientology has recruited celebrities in order to widen its appeal and lend legitimacy to the organization. L. Ron Hubbard called it “Project Celebrity,” and stated that, as the world paid more attention to famous folks than anyone else, in order to succeed his Church needed some famous members. These days, newspapers are filled with stories about well-known Scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta. However, throughout the cult’s history a large number of celebrities have undergone its auditing procedures, used the E-meter, or signed up as fully-fledged members. Many of these are unknown to the public at large either due to their own embarrassment, or because the Church severed ties with them.
Charles Manson
The Church of Scientology likes to use its celebrity faces as an indication of its legitimacy as a religion, but one of America’s most famous serial killers is hardly the best face for any burgeoning religion. In the early 1960s Charles Manson became an adherent of Scientology while incarcerated in California. Manson stated that he became “pretty heavily into Dianetics and Scientology” whilst in prison, and documents recovered by the FBI show that he received around 150 hours of auditing. Manson never formally joined the Church but merely received auditing from the prison program that they ran. The prison noted that Scientology had helped him greatly in his rehabilitation. After being released from prison he reportedly told people he had attained the rank of “clear,” although the Church appear to have listed him as “Type III” – ie psychotic. It has been observed that many of the methods of control used by Manson and his Family were inspired by what he learned during his stint with Scientology.
Jerry Seinfeld
Back in the early 1990s or late 1980s, Jerry Seinfeld indicated that he had dabbled in Scientology, telling Playboy that "I took a couple courses a number of years ago that were fabulous. I learned a lot and I had a good experience with it." In 1998, he told the Washington Post, "I think the stuff I learned there really did help me a lot.” He went on to dispute the claim that Scientology was a “thriving cult of greed and power” as well as a “ruthless global scam” by calling the report (in Time magazine) “poor journalism.” He has, however, never publically admitted to having joined the religion, and his relationship with it was probably limited to a few courses and some auditing. In 2008, he said “I last really studied [Scientology], oh, it’s almost 30 years ago...In my early years of stand-up, it was very helpful,” and credited a communication course with developing his stand-up routines.
William S. Burroughs
In 1959, William S. Burroughs published his classic Naked Lunch and become one of the bad boys of twentieth century literature, gaining an immediate cult following. That same year he was encouraged by the painter, Brion Gysin, to experiment with Scientology. Burroughs studied Scientology for almost a decade, even enrolling at their Saint Hill school near London, and endless annoyed his friends with Scientology jargon and processing. He incorporated Scientology into many of his most famous novels, and openly encouraged his readers to investigate L. Ron Hubbard’s methods in numerous articles throughout the 1960s. In the end he was kicked out of the organization and turned into one of their most vicious critics. He openly debated Hubbard in a British porn magazine, but the two men never met despite, during his time as a member, attaining the rank of “clear” and being touted as a celebrity in Scientology magazines. He never did give it up, though, and kept using his E-meter until his death in 1997.
JD Salinger
The famously reclusive author, who wrote one of America’s most enduring novels – The Catcher in the Rye – was an early celebrity Scientologist. According to his daughter, “he dabbled in it for a brief period of time and then abandoned it." At the time (the early 1950s) Scientology was known as Dianetics. Salinger met with L. Ron Hubbard and let Dianetics quickly consume his life, as he picked on his family for not saying things that jived with Hubbard’s message. Salinger, like fellow author William S. Burroughs, was interested in other fringe religions and sciences, including Wilhelm Reich’s orgone box, and he quickly lost his interest in Dianetics as other pursuits came along.
Van Morrison
In the early 1980s Van Morrison, who was born into the Church of Ireland, dabbled in Scientology and went as far as to write a special thanks to Hubbard in the liner notes to his 1983 album, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart. According to a former Commanding Officer in the Church, Scientologists had pursued Van Morrison, as they had with many celebrities, with the goal of recruiting him as a member. He had displayed some interest (certainly enough to credit Hubbard on his next album) and paid for various training courses but declined the opportunity of becoming a full member. His participation was described by an auditor as a “basic involvement” with the religion.
Beck Beck was brought up around Scientology, as his father had been a member of the Church since before Beck was born, and married another second generation Scientologist. He admits to being a Scientologist in various interviews nowadays, although he used to shun questions related to the cult. Beck acknowledges it as a positive force in his father’s life, and in the world in general. He says of Scientology: “There's nothing fantastical ... just a real deep grassroots concerted effort for humanitarian causes...It's unbelievable the stuff they are doing. Education ... they have free centres all over the place for poor kids. They have the number one drug rehabilitation programme in the entire. It has a 90-something percent success rate.... When you look at the actual facts and not what's conjured in people's minds that's all bullshit to me because I've actually seen stuff first hand.”
Bart Simpson
Or rather, the voice behind Bart Simpson: Nancy Cartwright. Cartwright has been a member of the Church since 1989, the year the Simpsons first appeared on TV. In 2007 she donated $10 million to the organization (for which she received the Patron Laureate Award) and in 2009 she pissed off a number of people by using Bart’s voice in a Scientology promotional video. The matter was not pursued much further by the show’s producers. Cartwright claims that before joining Scientology she was suffering from depression and wanted to be married with kids, so she decided to join a church. At a friend’s barbecue party she noticed that most of the guests were Scientologists and felt as though they all had “thriving careers,” so she picked Scientology as the best option for a church.
Peaches Geldof
The late daughter of Bob Geldof, who was well-known for all the wrong reasons in the UK, claimed to be a Scientologist in 2009, in an interview with Fearne Cotton, and later that year attended the 25th anniversary of the International Association of Scientologists at the organization’s British headquarters. She was also photographed outside the Celebrity Center in Los Angeles, and reputedly ended a wild night of sex and heroin at the same Celebrity Center five months later. Like the many others who passed through, she seems to have gotten interested in other religions and lost interest in Scientology pretty quickly. The next cult/religion that took her fancy? That would be the OTO (Order of the Oriental Templars), founded by the “wickedest man in the world,” Aleister Crowley – an associate of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard. Hubbard was briefly involved in the sex magic cult before founding Scientology. One can only speculate as to whether Ms Geldof knew of this, but it seems that she was rather interested in wacky cults and bad choices.
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen’s song, “Famous Blue Raincoat” left a tantalizing clue for fans that he might once have been involved in Scientology. In it he wrote, “Did you ever go clear?” to which his fans asked, “Well, did you, Leonard?” He later stated: “It was a Scientology reference. I looked into a lot of things. Scientology was one of them. It did not last very long. But it is very interesting, as I continue my studies in these matters, to see how really good Scientology was from the point of view of their data, their information, their actual knowledge, their wisdom writings, so to speak. It wasn't bad at all. It is scorned, and I don't know what the organization is like today, but it seems to have all the political residue of any large and growing organization.” In Going Clear, he is listed has “passing through” one of Scientology’s Celebrity Centers.
Neil Gaiman The popular author of books such as American Gods grew up in a Scientologist household, not far from the East Grinstead location that served as the UK headquarters of Scientology. He admits to having been a Scientologist as a child, in that it was the family religion (his father was a spokesman for the organization), but states that he is not presently a Scientologist. He has refrained from criticizing the religion, most likely due to having several family members and friends who are still heavily involved, including his ex-wife. Church protocol would be to have those people “disconnect” from him if he spoke openly with contempt for Scientology. It is rumored that he is still involved with, and contributing financially to, the Church, however, he has denied these accusations.